Cover: Dick Sprang

Detective Comics #97

Mar 1945 · DC · 0.10 USD

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“The Secret of the Switch!”

In "The Secret of the Switch!", Batman faces a deadly puzzle from the past: a safe buried beneath the city, guarded by seven switches—one opens it, the others trigger a bomb. With the Slasher long gone, the note left behind is the only clue, and the stakes couldn’t be higher. Written by Joe Greene and brought to life by Dick Sprang’s dynamic art—pencils and inks by Sprang, with Jerry Robinson on inks and Dick Sprang handling the lettering—this 1945 issue delivers a tense, clever mystery that puts the Dark Knight’s wits to the ultimate test. The cover, also by Dick Sprang, captures the suspense with a striking, shadowed image of the safe and its ominous switches.

writer Joe Greene · artist, inker, letterer Dick Sprang · inker Jerry Robinson · cover Dick Sprang

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Full credits

writer Joe Greene

artist, inker, letterer Dick Sprang

inker Jerry Robinson

cover pencils, inks Dick Sprang

Full plot ⚠ may contain spoilers

▸ Reveal full plot — may contain spoilers

The Batman tracks down the unusual safe that holds the loot taken years before by the Slasher's mob. With the Slasher supposedly dead, the villain has left behind a note leading the Caped Crusaders to that safe: a safe having 7 switches, only one of which opens the safe; the rest are connected to a bomb!

Plot details indexed by the Grand Comics Database (CC BY-SA).