As he dangles precariously up-side down from the Bat-copter, like an aerial tow-target, Batman hears the unmistakable chilling laughter of . . . "Ha-Ha-Ha -- isn't it nice of Batman to give us target practice!"
"We'll fill him so full of slugs, he'll be able to sell shares in himself like he was a lead mine!" cracks one of Death-Man's thugs.
Pow! Pow! Zing!
"That spine-freezer! It's Death-Man's laugh all right!" thinks Batman. "Like a buzzard at a banquet!"
The Masked Detective's daring toss explodes the smoke grenade right on the getaway car's hood! BAM! SSSSSHHH! "Can't see . . . !" yelps Death-Man.
"They'll be laughing with smoke in their eyes!" yells down Robin to his partner.
And then, by fate's grimmest irony . . . "The killers' getaway car . . . running blind . . . !" thinks Robin. "rammed Batman onto its hood!" THUD!
As Batman fights both the waves of darkness which roll over him as he clings desperately to the hood of the widely-careening death-car and the smoke-blinded killers . . . "Death-Man . . . why don't you go back where you came from . . . the cemetary!" shouts Batman.
Crack! Batman breaks the windshield with his fist as the hearse roars into the Gotham Junk Yard. Pow! The thugs continue to take pot-shots at Batman, but their aim is ruined by the wild course of the car and the remnants of Batman's smoke bomb.
"Very funny, Batman! Ha-Ha-HA!" answers Death-Man. "But you forget . . . there's always room for one more! . . . I've got a room reserved for you there, that's just your size!"
Pow! Pow! The Masked Detective's wild punches forces the gangster getaway car to zigzag crazily into . . . "We're in a graveyard of rusting machines!" notices Batman. Screeech!
As the car swerves around the jumble of machinery . . . Swoosh!! "This is the end of the ride for you, Batman!" gloats Death-Man, as Batman tumbles off after a sharp left turn. "And there are no transfers on this line!
As Batman lies momentarily dazed, the hearse backs up . . .Whroosh "I can guarantee you guys one thing! Unlike me, when they pronounce Batman dead, he won't be able to come back for a repeat performance!"
"Death-Man . . . you kill me! Ha, ha, ha!" proclaims one of the henchmen.
"That goon's got it wrong. Death-Man's aiming to kill me!" says Batman to himself.
At the last split-second, as the crushing wheels whirl down on him . . . Batman acts, "I'll roll in between the wheels where that giggling ghoul won't be able to see me."
"We didn't get Batman!" shouts Death-Man. "After him!" Whoosh!
"I don't like this ball game! thinks the Caped Crusader. "Not when Death-Man's using me for the ball!
"I've got to change places with that demolition ball . . . before Death-Man takes another swing at me!" Batman jumps onto a wrecking ball, attached by a cable to a crane.
Grimly, the master athlete hurls his entire weight against the massive iron ball as . . . "Here he comes, but, I haven't made the ball swing hard enough to put a dimple in a blonde's cheek!" Pow! Ping!"
As Batman desperately swings back on the huge ball . . . "Batman is putting on a good act," compliments Death-Man. "but let's make sure it's his farewell performance. Applaud him with lead!" Bam! Bam!
But, the ace athlete somersaults away from the crushing iron ball just as . . . Bong! CRASH! It collides with the hearse! "I hope the house-wreckers union won't be mad at me for working without a card, but I had to take this job in a hurry!" Batman puns.
Seven henchmen and Death-Man all scramble out of the wrecked vehicle. As the fearless crime-fighter faces the snarling gunmen, the icy-voiced Death-Man commands, "Batman's not like me! He's only human! Fill him full of holes! and we'll wrap him up like Swiss cheese!" Bam!
At that moment, Robin attaches his Bat-rope to the Bat-copter and dives towards the confrontation. "As far as I know, Batman can't swallow swords, goldfish or lead. I'd better go down to give him a hand!"
Like a human wrecking ball, the Boy Wonder catapults into the startled gang, knocking a henchman and Death-Man flying with his green wing-tipped boots. "What act are you auditioning, Robin?" asks Batman.
"As long as the ‘copter circles on automatic pilot . . . I'll be able to play Pop Goes the ‘Copter Weasels with these . . . what else?"
The daring Robin now lashes his feet together with the Bat-rope and, while hanging upside down, whirls and throws punch after punch at the startled gunmen . . . "Let's play merry-go-round . . ." Zok! Sok!
"I'll go round while you be merry . . ." Zok! Bam!
"What's the matter? Nobody want to play?" Zok! Zok! Zok!
The Masked Manhunter is on a perilous chase as . . . "Death-Man is escaping . . . covered by three of his gunsels! If I don't catch him, I'll never find out how he escaped from his last rest home after he was pronounced dead!"
Batman sneaks around in front of the killers until . . . "I'll roost up here in the bucket of this steam shovel until they pass under me. Hope they don't spot me first . . . or I'll be a dead rooster!"
Moments later, the shadowy Death-Man and his ruthless killers race towards Batman's hiding place. "Looks like our slugs scared the cape off Batman!" cracks one of the henchmen.
"That's a pretty good joke for a high-class moron like you!" compliments Death-Man. "Ha-Ha-HA!"
"Gosh, wish Death-Man would praise me like that!" whines another goon.
Suddenly, Batman dives upon the four evil doers. Pow! Zing! "How sporting of you, Batman . . . giving my men a better shot at you! He's easy game now, men!" says the Man of Death. Pow!
Batman puts down the three hired guns, with one punch each! "Didn't I tell you, Death-Man?" Sok!
"I'm not playing games anymore . . ." Sok!
"Period!" Sok!
Relentlessly, the man-hunter closes in on the eerie killer . . . "Fool!" Pow! "Do you really think you've cornered me? Ha-ha-Ha-HA!"
Batman begins to doubt again, "How can he laugh when he knows I've really got him boxed in? What does he know, that I don't?"
Even as Batman's hands close in on his foe like a steel vice . . . "So you think you've captured me? Why . . . you've got nothing but the Black Shadow of Death in your hands! I can drift right between your fingers like smoke - - - anytime I wish! Ha-ha-HA-HA!"
"You've had your three wishes, Death-Man!" retorts Batman, unconfidently.
"What are you going to do with me, Batman? How are you going to punish a man declared dead? I could murder you . . . and no law could touch me! Because . . . how can you prosecute a dead man? Be honest. Admit it!"
"Be patient, I'll think of something," says Batman. Death-Man begins to slump. "If you're too tired to walk to jail, I'll carry you!"
"Fool! I and I alone possess the power of death! You can no more jail a shadow . . . than . . . than m--Uhhh . . . " Death-Man collapses on the ground!
Batman puts his ear to Death-Man's chest. "No heatbeat! This is a dream . . . I'm going to wake up any minute!"
He feels the villain's wrist. "No pulse! It . . . it can't be happening again!
"He's still grinning . . . like a vulture that had the last laugh!"
Three days later, once again Batman and Robin keep a chilling vigil. In a pouring rain, they watch as a coffin, with Death-Man's body inside, is lowered into a grave. "He really did it," says Batman admiringly. "Death-Man pulled off the greatest escape from justice in history. Not once, but twice."
"Well, there won't be a third time for him," Robin replies, trying to sound reassuring. "Seeing is believing and you're seeing him . . . for the last time."
"Curtain going down for good this time," says Batman, trying to convince himself. "His act is over."
"And nobody's applauding for encores," adds Robin.
That same night, the masked pursuer finds himself once again the pursued . . . in a nightmare . . .
"Fool! Do you really think you've captured me?
"You caught nothing but the Black Shadow of Death. I can drift right between your fingers like smoke . . . anytime I wish!"
"Ha-HA-HA!"
The next day, the millionaire sportsman seeks to forget the chilling spectre at a party given by another wealthy member of his set . . . "And now . . . for your entertainment!" announces the host. "A man being buried alive! It's just the trick to learn, Bruce . . . if you want to be alone with one of your cuties!"
A man in a red robe, wearing a turban, is seated on a short stool, inside a glass cube, just large enough to hold him and his chair. Using a block and tackle, three assistants lower the cube into the ground and bury the man. Moments lapse into minutes . . . and minutes into hours. The party continues.
"Dig him up, please," one of the female guests finally begs. "Nobody could have been buried for so long . . . and still be alive!"
"We shall see," replies the host.
Eventually, the dirt is removed and the glass cube is raised. "Look at him! Motionless as a wax flower!" exclaims another guest.
"You've got a corpse on your hands", declares the first guest.
Slowly, the front of the glass cube is lowered. Nothing happens for several seconds. Then, the man inside opens his eyes! The man begins to speak,
"No, sahibs. I only appeared dead. I have mastered the ultimate yogi exercise which slows up breathing, pulse and heartbeat until life itself can no longer be detected. I can remain in this state of suspended animation, apparently dead . . . until I am dug up again. I have heard of Westerners who have mastered the art of appearing dead . . . in my country."
Bruce excitedly turns to leave, "Excuse me ladies . . . it's time for my exercise. I've got a little digging to do!"
With no known family members to object, Batman and Robin are granted permission by the authorities to exhume Death-Man's recently buried coffin.The Dynamic Duo hurry to the brooding graveyard as sinister darkness falls. A wild storm arises as Batman and Robin dig into the gravesite with shovels. Lightning flashes. Crash! Rumble! goes the thunder.
Batman explains, ". . . and that's how Death-Man made his escapes. He must have mastered that yogi exercise. No wonder he had instructed his lawyer, if anything happened to him, not to allow an autopsy or embalming for religious reasons.
"We probably got here ahead of his gang. So, when we dig him up, the only exercise he'll get from now on, is that short walk to the electric chair, for the killings he did! Robin - - do you hear me?"
"How can I?" replies the Boy Wonder. "When my heart's doing the watusi? I feel like I'm in a horror movie . . . and I'm the victim!"
Soon the pair's shovels strike the coffin. Batman jumps into the grave, bends down and raises the lid. A lightning bolt makes the scene glow with a baleful light.
"Empty!" exclaims Batman. "Death-Man vacated his lease even sooner than I expected."
On bended knees, Robin points into the coffin, "Look! He left a Valentine note behind!"
Icy laughter shrieks even above the wild wind and the lash of lightning. On a hillside about forty yards away and ten feet above the Dynamic Duo, in the driving rain, stand Death-Man and three of his armed thugs. "Ha-HA-HA! I knew you'd come around to haunt me again, Batman. Now, look at my headstone."
Death-Man pushes a button on a small, hand-held control. The face of what previously appeared to be a blank grave marker melts away to reveal:
"So now," announces Death-Man, "I'm going to make you a genuine ghost!" Pow! Bwee! Pow! Zinng!
As flaming lead sizzles by, Batman scrambles out of the grave and shoves Robin behind him, "Robin, step to the rear of the car, please!" Beeoow! Zinng!
"Batman," objects the Boy Wonder, "You can't use yourself as a human shield to stop those bullets from reaching me! Who do you think you are, Superman?" ZING!
ZING! Thud! A bullet smashes into Batman's shoulder! "Uhhhh . . . No, Robin . . . I just found out . . . I'm not!"
Suddenly, Batman makes a crazed charge up the hill. Lightning flashes in the background. Fighting to forget the searing bullet pain blazing inside him, the Gotham Gangbuster barrels into Death-Man's henchmen, "I've got to pull the carpet out from under these hoods . . ." thinks Batman. SOCK!
"Before they find out . . ." SOK!
"I'm shot!" POW! BOP!
A bolt of lightning strikes nearby. BARROOM! Desperately, the wounded Batman grabs Death-Man, pulls the villain on top of himself and sends his relentless adversary hurtling down the embankment with him. Death-Man rides Batman like a sled, as the two struggle face to face, sliding downhill on the mud. "I know you've been shot, Batman!" crows Death-Man. "Your strength is pouring out of you like sand from an hour glass! You've chosen a good place for your finish! Ha-HA-HA!"
The frenzied opponents cannonball into Robin! THUD - "Uhhhph," groans the Boy Wonder, as he loses his balance and topples into the open grave!
"I'll be the Death of you yet, Batman and Robin!" pronounces the skull-faced villain.
After the collision, Death-Man is able to free himself from Batman's grasp. Death-Man retrieves his gun. Robin is stunned, lying at the bottom of what was Death-Man's grave. Vainly, Batman calls upon his bleeding will. The Dark Knight crawls on his hands and knees towards Death-Man, "I . . . I . . .can't . . . make . . . it . . ."
"You were beaten from the start, Batman . . . when you dared to match wits with me! Now . . . you'll live only until it takes me to lower this gun on a line with your head!!
"And no yogi trick can save you from death!!! Ha-ha-HA-HA! HA-HA!"
KRACKK!!!!! The chilling laughter is torn in two by a white-hot flash!
"The gun . . . attracted the lightning!" Batman explains.
Death-Man's burned-out corpse falls into the open grave, just as Robin scrambles out!
"He was electrocuted . . . just as surely . . . as if he were . . . in the electric chair! His sentence was carried out!" Batman observes.
Batman puts his arm around Robin's shoulder, as the Boy Wonder supports his partner's weight. The battered crime fighters limp away . . .
"Death-Man was wrong . . . no criminal . . . is ever beyond the reach . . . of justice," proclaims Batman.
"Even if it has to reach for him . . . from the sky!" concludes Robin.
Thus ends Batman's electrifying battle against the criminal who "came back" from the grave twice to fight him . . .only to discover that . . . "Death Knocks Three Times!"