The Brave & The Bold #226 - Batman and Phantom Lady - homage to Daredevil #99

New Golden Age Team-Up Project commission - The Brave & The Bold issue #226, pairing Batman with Phantom Lady, adapted from the John Romita / Frank Giacoia cover of Daredevil #99, as reimagined by Bambos Georgiou.

1945 - and with the Nazis defeated, but the conflict with Japan still underway, Bruce Wayne and many of his fellow business leaders travel to Washington, to meet with President Truman's advisers to discuss how they can help with reconstruction efforts in Europe. Unlike his fellow businessmen, Wayne takes his Batman costume with him, hoping to find time to meet up with the Washington-based Freedom Fighters - but destiny has other plans!

At the same time, former big-game hunter Fenton Quigley - who, as The Archer, had clashed with Superman in 1941 (Superman #13) - is being considered for parole, but this is quickly rejected. Whilst in jail, Quigley has developed an obsession with the Phantom Lady, convincing himself that she is in love with him, and decides to break out of jail and seek her out. That night, using a bow constructed from his bed's slats, he fires a makeshift arrow over the prison walls, pins a guard who tries to stop him to the guard-tower with another arrow, and makes his escape, before heading to Washington...

Arriving in the nation's capital, The Archer starts to search for Phantom Lady - but when he spots her from a rooftop perch, he's shocked to see that she and Batman are working closely together to capture a Japanese agent aiming to sabotage a War Department meeting, and in his delusional state, assumes that Batman is trying to steal "his girl" from him!

The following day, The Archer kidnaps a group of senators - including Senator Henry Knight - and holds them hostage, seeking a million dollars and the surrender of both Batman and Phantom Lady as a ransom. Although the authorities don't wish to meet his demands, both heroes arrive and agree to meet with him - taking along a fake monetary ransom - in order to try and rescue the senators unharmed.

As the heroes meet the villain, Quigley declares his love for Phantom Lady and swears to kill the Gotham Guardian for stealing her away from him - but Phantom Lady uses her black-light ray to temporarily blind him, allowing Batman to free the hostages and usher them out to safety. The Archer, however, uses one of his arsenal of trick arrows (largely copied from those used by Green Arrow) to escape - and the two heroes give chase!

Catching up with the villain on a nearby rooftop, Batman leaps down to capture him, but The Archer fires a fusillade of arrows training unbreakable wires which wrap him up in mid-air and leave him apparently falling to his death! Phantom Lady jumps to attack the villain, overpowering him even as he professes his love for her again - and after she knocks him out, she races to see what has happened to Batman! Luckily his incredible acrobatic abilities allowed him to land safely, if uncomfortably, and a miniature oxy-acetylene torch severs the wires which had been binding him.

As the two heroes deliver the captured villain to the Washington police, they simultaneously tell the other that they already have someone special in their lives, before bursting out laughing - Quigley's obsession was so strong that it had half-convinced them that the two of them were an item!

More next time - when Batman pairs with one of his JSA team-mates!