Writer: Dave Wood

Penciller: Gil Kane

Inker: Gil Kane

Synopsis: Ilda, on her way to work, fumes over the fact that ahe has to work on the day that her favorite band, the Martian Cosmoniks, are in town. When she arrives, though, she is pleasantly surprised when Star Hawkins, her boss, presents her with tickets to the Cosmoniks' local concert and a day off. After she leaves the office, Star looks at a map showing robberies that occurred in various cities five minutes after the beginning of a Cosmoniks concert in that city. He suspects a connection between the band and the robberies, and attempts to use Ilda, through her built-in television camera, to spy on them, which is why he had gotten tickets for her. At the local spaceport, Ilda tries to get close to her idols, but their bodyguard rudely pushes her away. She does, however, manage to get a souvenier...a piece of the ground that they had just stepped on. Star waits outside the concert hall bafore the concert and sees an ice cream truck with a globe of Saturn on top of it. As the Cosmoniks concert begins, Star notices the ice cream truck parked outside a jewelry store and sees the truck's occupant enter the store undiusturbed. Star follows, and finds the store's vault opened, but before Star can enter, he is hit with a blast of an adhesive substance, stopping him in his tracks as the "ice cream vendor" runs off. When Star escapes from the glue, he sees Ilda outside and decides to tell her what he is doing. She becomes indignant at the thought that her idols might possibly be involved in robberies and heads off to catch the second show. Star is upset about her being angry at him, but decides to think about the ice cream truck, and remembers that the globe of Saturn had a shaft extending from it, originally pointed straight up, but later, when it was at the jewelry store, pointed at the store. Star begins looking around the area of the concert hall again, and sees a delivery truck with a star on top, and a shaft extending from the star, parked in front of a bank. Star examines the star on top of the truck and realizes that it contains a device that the thief was using the sound waves from the Cosmoniks' theme song to open locks. Star enters the bank to investigate. Ilda, at the concert, feels guilty about getting upset at Star and leaves the concert to look for Star. When she passes by outside the bank, a man runs out, pushes her over, and jumps in the delivery truck and zooms off. To satisfy her curiosity, she enters the bank and hears Star tapping at her from inside the vault. Star explains that the criminal had locked him in there, and Ilda realizes that the criminal, who was the person who knocked her down outside, was the bodyguard who had acted rude to her. She captures the bodyguard, and after she turns him into the police who, in turn, release Star from the vault. She then tells Star that she recognized the bodyguard (who, while robbing the bank, was disguised) by his voice, and the two of them then enjoy the rest of the Cosmoniks concert.

Notes: The Martian Cosmoniks are obviously modeled after the (British) Beatles, and one of them is named Zingo (i.e., Ringo).

Detective rating: Strong detective work by both Star and Ilda. 10 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