BATMAN - #199 (1966 - VG)

When Batman and Robin attempt to stop a robbery of Southley's Art Gallery, Robin is seemingly knocked out in the fight, causing Batman to pause to check on the Boy Wonder while the crooks make their escape. Returning to the Batcave, Batman finds to his surprise that the boy he's taken home is not Robin at all, but a criminal midget named Eddie. Eddie then unmasks Batman, revealing that he is Bruce Wayne. Eddie explains that during the fight he knocked out Robin and took his place as part of a plot to try and blackmail money out of Batman in order to keep his secret identity under wraps. He then informs Batman that he's been wired with a transmitter and reports back to the crooks that Batman is really Bruce Wayne.

Batman then knocks out Eddie, drops his unconscious body back at the Southley's Art Gallery, and uses the tracking devices in the Batmobile to track the transmission from Eddie's radio back to the crook's hideout. There, Batman easily knocks out the crooks. Finding Robin unmasked and unharmed, he asks the Boy Wonder if the crooks had learned that he is really Dick Grayson. To Batman's relief, Robin explains that while he was in the trunk of the crooks car, he used a make-up kit in his utility belt to alter his appearance.

When Robin asks how Batman has managed to preserve his secret identity, he shows Robin by returning to Southley's. There Eddie has just came around, and Batman tells the midget that he was knocked out during the fight and must have hallucinated the whole experience of discovering that Bruce Wayne was Batman. Unconvinced, Eddie tries to confirm with the other captured crooks that they heard his radio transmission. Unfortunately for Eddie, his transmitter, although functioning properly, didn't transmit the information to the crooks. What Eddie doesn't know that Batman had since installed a jamming device in the Batcave following his last close call when crooks planted a bug on Batgirl in an attempt to learn his secret identity. With Eddie's claims discredited, Batman's secret identity is still safe.

 💥 CONDITION: VG (WRITING ON COVER / CORNER DAMAGE)

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