Detective Comics #439 (Feb.-Mar., 1974)
As of November, 1973, it had been twenty-seven months since the last time I bought an issue of Detective Comics. (For the record, that issue was #416, featuring the fourth appearance of Man-Bat.) There hadn’t been any conscious “drop” decision involved in this long dry spell between purchases; like a lot of other titles, Detective was simply one of those books I made an individual buy-or-not-buy choice about every time I saw a new issue on the stands. I’d check out the cover, glance at the credits for the Batman story, note who Bats was fighting this go-around — maybe even see who was starring in the backup feature (there was always a backup feature back then) — and if one or more of those aspects grabbed me (or, if the spinner-rack pickings were really slim that week, even just mildly interested me), I bought the comic book. Read More