Detective Comics (1990) # 613

 By Mark Rodriguez

Here's another classic 90's comic I used to own as a kid, but now own it again thanks to Third Eye Comics. This is another one-shot as Batman deals with... trash? Let's see what happens.

"Trash" opens with a kid named Mike Dell, writing a paper on trash and where it comes from. As he's engrossed in his ecology project, he accidentally creates trash of his own when he inadvertently knocks over a bottle of milk. Her mom cleans it up and jokes that he'll get an 'A' on practical demonstration. His father comes in and is ready to take him with him on his garbage truck run. He asks his son if he's up for it, and Mike says it'll be the high point of his project. They head off on their route.

 

Meanwhile, Bruce Wayne is waiting for his date outside of Armana's Restaurant. It seems she's eleven minutes late. I guess now he knows how that feels since he's usually late for dates on account of his alter ego. The garbage truck drives past him as he checks his watch.

Some garbage men take out of the trash as one of the men complains about all the money the big-wigs make, while the essential workers barely get a couple of hundred bucks a week. The man cuts himself on a broken glass in one of the garbage bags and gets angrier.

The garbage men run off some homeless people picking through the trash. One of them found some beer bottles and another found a book. This happens just down the street where Bruce was waiting. He finally gives up and is about to head back until he runs into Vicki Vale, his date. 

Once in the restaurant, Vicki apologizes for being late since she was busy with contact sheets related to the Soviet trip. It seems Bruce and Vicki must have figured things out after they both returned from Gotham, because when we last saw Vicki in Batman # 447, she wasn't acting like she wouldn't be too happy to see him again. I love the nod to the story in the Batman comics though.

 

Anyways, Vicki tells Bruce she got some amazing photos and will show them to Bruce sometime. Bruce looks out the window and sees a garbage man take out what looks like a human head from the trash. Bruce was about to excuse himself when he noticed it was just a mannequin head. This seems to be happening across the block so he must have amazing eyesight. He tells Vicki he's alright and asks if she's ready to order.

While the garbage men deal with the mannequin head, another group of guys from a different trash company walk up to them and they don't seem happy. They tell the other garbage men to take a walk as they want a private word with their boss, Mr. Dell. Mr Dell tells his son Mike to stay in the truck and sends his guys off to grab lunch so he can handle this. 

Once alone, one of the rival garbagemen grabs Dell and says Mr. Kruden is giving his last warning. The man slams Dell up against the wall and says their company is handling this district and his 'two-bit little truck' is to stay out of it. Dell says he can't be bullied and isn't afraid. Bruce sees this from the restaurant window and is able to read their lips, not liking what he's seeing. 

The man punches Dell in the stomach and tells him that he'll clear out tonight or he'll be cleared out permanently. Just then a police officer walks by and asks if everything is alright. The men play nice in front of the officer and pretend to be Dell's friend. They get into their truck and head off. Mike asks his dad if he's alright. He says he's fine but they'll have to cut the day short. Mike is disappointed because they didn't get to the landfill yet. His father apologizes but says something's come up. With the crisis averted, Bruce asks Vicki if she wants dessert. Vicki declines since she has a photo shoot later that afternoon.

Vicki apologizes for having to leave just as Bruce was finally getting settled in but she will be late if she doesn't leave now. Bruce asks if she has time for coffee. She says he's never faced the wrath of an angry art director. She gives him a hug and a kiss on the cheek, and says they'll have to do lunch again soon. She walks off and tells him to call her.

Bruce feels the date was a disaster and he kept standing up like a yo-yo. Still, she did tell him to call her and she'd show him the art prints sometime. Bruce walks off as someone throws garbage out their car window. Bruce steps on some gum.

Bruce returns to the Batcave and Alfred asks how the date went. Bruce says it was mixed, but it seems he might see her again. Bruce suits up as Batman and drives off in the Batmobile. Batman swings through the night and monologues about when how the Dark Knight doesn't need friends, laughter or a kiss on the cheek. He can forget all about Vicki for now.

Back at the Dells, Harv's wife says Mike is very disappointed and seeing Freshfields was a big deal to him. Harv says he doesn't want his son around. She asks about the incident with Krudco's men. He says it's nothing he can't handle. As he drives off, we find out that Freshfields is a 2000 acre landfill a mile or so outside the city limits. He says by the turn of the century it will be completely full, so he doesn't know what the city intends to do then. As he drives, we see Mike has stowed away on top of the truck.

Elsewhere, a drunk wanders into an alley and some thugs armed with knives, pipes and crowbars are about to jump him. Batman swoops in and fights off the men. Batman ducks under a guy trying to bash him with his crowbar. He then shoves him into a dumpster where another guy is already defeated. Batman lands a rapid one-two punch with the same fist on another punk and waits. The guy is dazed and falls to the ground.

Come midnight, Batman sees the Dell's Disposal truck head towards Freshfields. He recognizes Tony Kruden's limo as well as the men that put their hands on Harv Dell earlier that day. The Batmobile is too far away so Batman needs something more immediate to follow them. He land in front of the Krudco garbage truck and takes it over, throwing the men out. The men yell and say Mr. Kruden isn't going to like this. Batman thinks if he's right, Kruden won't be in any position to do anything for a long time. If he's wrong, Kruden can sue him.

Harv's truck arrives at Freshfields and Mike continues to write his paper, now seeing the landfill with his own eyes. Kruden's limo arrives and he steps out with his men. Kruden says he already sent Harv a message so he's hoping he's just taking a trip for one last sentimental run. Harv says he's dumping the trash, which is his job and they can't change his mind.

Kruden's men pull out guns. Harv tells them to go ahead, since even Kruden wouldn't want a murder rap over a trash run. One of the men ask Kruden if they should fire. Kruden has a better idea. He says the police won't find enough of Dell after they feed him to his own grinders. Harv is horrified.

Mike yells out for them to leave his father alone. His sudden scream makes the gunmen jumpy, thinking this was a set up and they shoot Mike on instinct. Batman arrives but is too late. As Mike falls off the garbage truck, the Dark Knight leaps in to punch out the gunmen.

As Batman continues to punch the man, the other one pulls out his gun. He shoot, but Batman dodges, but falls as the mound of garbage he landed on gives away under him. The man takes aim ad Kruden takes out his own gun. Batman knocks the second gunman's gun out of his hand with a Batarang as Kruden tries to get a clear shot. The man grabs a nearby trash from the trash and tries to swing it at Batman. Kruden tells his guy to get out of the way. Batman kicks the gunman back and he bumps into Kruden. Kruden falls into the garbage truck grinders. Kruden screams as the grinders do their thing.

Batman is horrified and shuts off the garbage truck. Harv holds his fallen son in his arms. He says Mike was only thirteen and had his whole life in front of him. He cries and asks Batman why this happened. Batman sadly watches on, knowing there's nothing he can say to ease his grief. This was a tragic and bloody mess. As Harv cries for his son, his papers scatter through the wind. One of the pages say we can't continue to go like his, and eventually the whole world will become one huge garbage dump. We have to do something before it's too late. Sadly, it's too late for Mike Dell.

 

My Thoughts- 

Man, what a tragic tale. It's a somber moment where all Batman can do is stand and watch a father grieve his fallen son. We know Batman has 'seen some things' that affected his current personality after years of crime fighting... I think seeing a guy mangled in a garbage truck counts as one of those things.

 

Since both the last issue and this one were one-shots that take place over a single night, these issues feel we're joining Batman on his daily shifts. Not week or month long city or world ending threats, but just the day to day life of fighting crime in Gotham. He's not always trying to prevent the Joker from tearing the city apart. Sometimes he's just looking for an escaped tiger, or taking down corrupt garbagemen, and those situations get wrapped up in one night.

I'm not sure how garbagemen working on each other's districts work. Doesn't the city decide that? Did Harv just inadvertently move into Kruden's district and refuse to leave? Is Kruden just greedy and wants to claim Harv's district as his own? Couldn't he just go to the city for that? I'm guessing Harv couldn't just report Kruden to the city since Kruden's pockets are fuller and he's not afraid to resort to hired thugs to get his way. I'm just surprised Kruden went so far for just a garbage run. They weren't smuggling drugs or anything. The greedy idiot lost his life and ended up getting an innocent kid killed over a stupid garbage run.

Vicki Vale makes an appearance and it was cool to see her reference the trip to Russia, which took place between Batman # 445-447. Again, I am amused by how chill she seemed compared to when she last saw Bruce (he did just run off mid-conversation), so she either cooled down during the flight or they talked it out off-panel, most likely when they set up this date. It was funny seeing Bruce continue to get up whenever he saw something shady going on outside the restaurant.

 

On the flip side, we see a bit Bruce's split personality here. We see him, as Bruce, actually care about the date and wanting to keep Vicki at the restaurant longer, rather than being relieved she's heading off. He actually cared enough about the date to be worried about it being 'a disaster'. But as Batman, he can fully detach himself from his 'real-world' problems and focus on being the night, and his never-ending mission. We see Batman trying to convince the reader, as well as himself that as the Dark Knight, Vicki becomes a 'Vicki who?'.

 

As for the action, I have to say I enjoyed the panel by panel sequence of the fight against Kruden's thugs. The earlier fight against some hoodlums also had that unexpected sight gag of Batman knocking a guy dizzy and then just waiting for him to fall. 

Of course the underlying message of the issue was the subject of garbage and how eventually we'll run out of space to put it once all the landfills are full. It is interesting to look back at the environmental concerns of the 90's and compare to what happened so many decades later. I wouldn't say we're out of the woods just yet but things have slightly improved due to the heavier focus on recycling and compost and other methods to deal with the landfill problem.

This time the letters column is broken up by one page in the middle of the comic, and the second being the more traditional last page. Everyone had nothing but praise over Detective # 608-609. They go into everything from the character of Anarky himself to the artwork and even the paneling. While some of the classic villains go as far back as 1940's, it's nice to have 'been there' when a new villain like Anarky gets introduced and how the readers reacted to him.

There weren't too many ads to show this time that I haven't already shown. Here's an Atari 7800 ad since it seems it was still going strong in 1990. 

I was also curious is this East Coast Comics shop was still active as I've seen it advertised a lot in these 90's Batman and Detective comics. I'm glad to see that it's still active, though it seems nowadays it's more of an online shop with their exclusive variant covers and they also open stands at comic cons.