Writer: John Broome

Penciller: Mike Sekowsky

Inker: Bernard Sachs

Synopsis: In conversation with Star Hawkins, Ilda mentions that her dream spool, which allows her to do something resembling human dreaming, is malfunctioning, and that instead of fantasizing for her, it shows her actual events. Star realizes that if he could see her "dreams," which Ilda shows him how to do, he would be likely to see something that he could make money from. Sure enough, he sees the wealthy playboy Ferris Norton having his pocket picked, and figures that he could get a reward for returning the man's billfold. When Star goes to Norton and tells him of the crime he witnessed, Norton reacts with disbelief, and Star proves his point by bringing Norton to the pickpocket's hotel room, where Star eventually finds the billfold. Suddenly, Norton and the pickpocket speak to one another familiarly and Norton pulls a gun on Star. Star fights back, but is knocked out by the pickpocket. Ilda, who witnesses this in her "dreams," wakes herself up and goes to rescue Star. She breaks into the hotel room, and the pickpocket fires a heat-ray at her, but she is equipped to endure its level of heat and disarms him. She then goes to rescue Star, who seems threatened by Norton, but who had actually been pretending to be knocked out, and saves himself quite capably. Later, as Ilda sits in a vat of ice at the office in order to cool her body down, Star explains that the two had turned out to be Uranian spies, and the apparent pocket-picking was their means of transmitting information, and that he received a reward for catching them.

Notes: This is the first issue on which the Star Hawkins story is mentioned on the cover of the issue.

Detective rating: Well, he didn't really use skill to catch the pickpocket...just observation...but since he was actively looking for something, it can't really be considered pure luck. Of course, he had no idea they were really spies, so that was pure luck. 4 on a scale of 1 to 10.

All characters and images are copyright DC Comics.

This page hosted by Get your own Free Home Page