TITLE: Batman issue #274
YEAR: April 1976
COMPANY: DC Comics
Created by Bob Kane
Writer: David Vern Reed
Penciler: Ernie Chan
Inker: Ernie Chan
Letterer: Ben Oda
Edited by Julius Schwartz
When it comes to “Batman” stories, there is one thing that starry-eyed Batman fans should know and that not all “Batman” comics are well-written.
Sure, they may have awesome art, but when the story sucks, it is what it is.
And for issue #274, the focus is on the “Underworld Olympics ’76”. With the world preparing for the Summer Olympics in Montreal, in the “Batman” comic books, crime organizations were preparing for their own Olympics and the first competition is a treasure hunt.
With this issue, it features the Afro-Asian Team and their leader, the international criminal Amba Kapuri who must take part in a treasure hunt.
Batman hears on the police scanner that the Gotham Central Library has been broken in and he immediately goes there to investigate.
Needless to say, Batman confronts the Afro-Asian gang and their leader but then he must find out from what they were trying to find, what is going on and what is in the library?
And the teams of the Afro-Asians, Hartley of Rhodesia, Pagai of Sumatra and Taouz of Morocco are now gearing up for the final phase. Can Batman stop them?
Personally, the best thing about this issue was Ernie Chan’s artwork. But man, the story of an Underworld Olympics and how the treasure hunt was based off of Humphrey Bogart’s “Treasure of Sierra Madre” was a bit over-the-top. Yes, there is action but I wasn’t digging this story and it’s arc at all.