Comic Title: Detective Comics #586
Publisher: DC
Cover Date: May 1988
On Sale Date: February 2, 1988 Shipping Date February 2, 1988
Source: DC Releases, #48

Shipping Date February 2, 1988
Source: Amazing Heroes, #135

Newsstand Date February 25, 1988
Source: Amazing Heroes, #135

Copyright Date February 2, 1988
Source: Library of Congress, Copyright Office 1988

Cover Price: $0.75
Page Count: 32
Editor: Dennis J. O'Neil

Title: "Rat Trap"
Pages: 22

Feature(s):
Batman (Post-Crisis)

Writer: John Wagner
Writer: Alan Grant
Artist: Norm Breyfogle
Letterer: Todd Klein
Colorist: Adrienne Roy

Reprinted In:
Legends of the Dark Knight:Norm Breyfogle Vol. 1 HC (2015)
Batman:The Dark Knight Detective Vol. 2 TPB (2018)

Feature Character(s)

• Batman (last appearance in Detective Comics #585; next appearance in Justice League International #13)

Supporting Character(s)

• Commissioner Gordon (last appearance in Batman #420; next appearance in Batman #421)

Villain(s)

• Ratcatcher (last appearance in Detective Comics #585; no further appearances)

Other Character(s)

• Wyatt Hogan (as a corpse; last appearance in Detective Comics #585; no further appearances)
• Straub (a police officer; no further appearances)
• Nat Devino and Mr. Woller (a sanitation department employee and his boss; no further appearances)
• Cornelius Budd (a witness; dies in this story; last appearance in Detective Comics #585; no further appearances)
• Stanley Konik (a warden; last appearance in Detective Comics #585; no further appearances)
• Sam Bellow (a police sergeant; last appearance in Detective Comics #585; no further appearances)
• Several unnamed police officers (no further appearances)

Comments:
This story is continued from Detective Comics #585.

Synopsis:
Batman awakens in a sewer tunnel after the Ratcatcher flooded them in an attempt to kill him. The Caped Crusader is injured, but instead of heading to the surface for medical attention, he begins searching the sewers for his foe. When he is swarmed by rats he sets them on fire.

Meanwhile Commissioner Gordon has identified the body of Judge Wyatt Hogan. He and his detectives link Wyatt's disappearance five years earlier to Flannegan, a sanitation department rat catcher who was sent to prison by the judge. Three other men associated with the case also disappeared and are being held captive in the sewers. Gordon sends his men into the tunnels.

The Ratcatcher returns to his prisoners. He blames them for the judge's escape. He shoots Cornelius Budd, the key witness in the case against him. The echoing gunshot leads Batman to the prison cells before Flannegan can execute his next victim. Batman then apprehends the Ratcatcher and releases the other two men.