Batman Issue 277

The Riddle of the Man Who Walked Backwards!
Bruce Wayne, on vacation and romancing a lady named Susan, has his plans interrupted by the sight of a sea monster on the beach. He has a short fight with the beast, though the monster escapes.

Alfred informs Bruce that Susan is catching the next plane to Gotham, and Bruce decides to take it out on the monster. Batman observes the beach from in hiding, and notes a backwards-walking man with one peg leg. The man, a local fisherman named Sam Taggart, has a brief scuffle with Batman, who knocks him out and is kayoed in turn by an unseen assailant.

Batman awakens to find himself dressed as Bruce Wayne and being arrested by the local sheriff for the murder of Sam Taggart. Alfred is responsible for dressing Bruce in his civilian garb, after finding him unconscious, and, being unable to revive him and noticing Taggart dead, calling the police. But Bruce, left with his Batman boots, breaks out tools from a heel compartment and escapes his jail cell. Later, as Batman, he investigates a print in the cave of the sea monster, lined with oil.

Eventually he collars the "monster", who proves to be a man in a monster suit, and his gang of dope smugglers who operate from a local oil rig. Sam Taggart, who had discovered the operation, mistook Batman for one of the smugglers. After jailing the lot of them, Batman becomes Bruce Wayne and starts all over again with Susan, both of them back on their home turf in Gotham.

Individuals

 * Batman
 * James Gordon
 * Alfred Pennyworth
 * Susan
 * Sam Taggart

Locations

 * Gotham City