The cover to this issue is pretty breathless: "Who is this man? How did he learn Batman is Bruce Wayne? What will he do with that knowledge?" From 1980, Detective Comics #494, "The Crime Doctor Calls at Midnight!" Written by Michael Fleisher, art by Dan Newton and Bob Smith. Said cover does make the Crime Doctor look like a bit of a thug or slasher, when in actuality he's pretty suave. Dr. Bradford Thorne makes a pretty penny planning criminal heists and treating banged-up crooks, which he funnels into medical services for the poor: he's not in it for the money, but the thrill.
When Batman is hurt beyond Alfred's medical skills, and his regular physician Dr. Dundee on vacation--this being pre-Crisis, so Alfred wasn't the accomplished combat medic we would see later, and Dundee knew Batman's identity--Bruce Wayne is forced to visit Dr. Thorne for treatment of a "fencing wound." Both are in attendance of a society party later, but as Bruce leaves after seeing the Bat-Signal, Thorne gets an emergency page on his beeper for the Crime Doctor! His "house call" is helping a gang rob a drug company of interferon; a crime he finds distasteful since patients needed the drug. When Batman shows up to fight the gang, Thorne blinds him with his headlamp, then slices him with a scalpel, exposing the dressing he had placed earlier! The gang flees with the interferon, leaving a bomb to take care of Batman and the Crime Doctor!
This was a 68-page issue, and only 16 pages were this story! Worse, I don't have the next issue!
But the Crime Doctor seems like an OK guy for a criminal mastermind there, whereas in the first issue I saw him he was a straight-up gangster baddie: from 1987, Detective Comics #579, "The Crime Doctor's Crimson Clinic" Written by Mike W. Barr, art by Norm Breyfogle. Batman and Robin (Jason!) know the Crime Doctor is back in down after they fight a gang trying to rob a bank...a blood bank! The Crime Doctor wanted a good stock for an upcoming heart surgery on a mob boss, while a low-level thug says good-bye to his family, since he's going to be the heart donor!
It's a fun, one-and-done issue, although I don't know how the Crime Doctor just plumb forgot Batman's secret identity...yet. We'll find it sooner or later...
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