The Groovy Grave of Solomon Grundy and The Final Form were the forty-first and forty-second overall stories published in DC Comics' Batman '66 title. The stories were initially published in Digital Issues #57 and #58, and reprinted in Print Issue #23, with a further reprint in Volume 5 of the Compiled Volume series.
Plot Summary[]
"The Groovy Grave of Solomon Grundy"[]
After seeing a broadcast announcement from Aunt Hilda, Batman and Robin head over to Gotham Cemetery, where they found Hilda creating a potion to bring Cyrus Gold back to life from the dead. As they confront her, Hilda traps Batman and Robin in vines while she pours the potion onto Cyrus' grave, bringing Cyrus, now calling himself "Solomon Grundy", back from the grave.
After Batman and Robin freed themselves, Hilda orders Grundy to attack and kill the Dynamic Duo. While Grundy deals with Batman and Robin, Hilda made her escape, but fell into a freshly dug grave. As Grundy tried to strangle Robin to death, Batman saved him by swing-kicking Grundy on his Batrope. Enraged, Grundy chases them to the Batmobile, and he overturns it on its side just as the Caped Crusaders were about to use the Bat-Beam on him.
Thinking of an alternative way to stop Grundy, Robin stuns him with the Bat-Fire Extinguisher and Batman electrocutes him with the Atomic Battery jumper cables, which jumpstarted his body into stasis, and leading him to be placed in a heavy confinement.
"The Final Form"[]
Tracking False Face to Gotham Swamp after he stole and drank a serum from Thorne Labs, Batman explains to Robin about his background as the criminal, Basil Karlo. After hearing the announcement about the False Flesh/Synthetic Cell Project, Karlo broke into the lab three years ago and stole the serum.
While searching the swamp, Batman and Robin find his mask submerged in mud and a security guard wandering around. When they confront him, the Dynamic Duo realize that the guard is really False Face in disguise. But when Batman and Robin tried to get him back to the Batcave for medical attention, False Face made his escape, but fell into a deep pool of mud, leaving one of his fake masks submerged.
As Batman and Robin leave, False Face, now calling himself "Clayface", emerges from the swamp in his clay form and attacks the Caped Crusaders with his new shapeshifting powers and abilities.
After a long brawl, Clayface pins Batman down and unmasks him. But when he saw Batman's face, Clayface was shocked to see Batman's face is the exact same copy of his old face of Basil Karlo, causing Clayface to fall into a catatonic state. After placing his cowl back into place, Batman explains to Robin that he wore a copy of Karlo's face to confuse Clayface when his mind was fragmented thoroughly, and he couldn't deal with a contradictory piece of information like Batman's true identity.
Trivia[]
- The names on the tombstones seen at Gotham Cemetery in "The Groovy Grave of Solomon Grundy" all reference different DC staff members. They include Chadwick, Kane, Moldoff, Aparo, Parker, Adams and Allred among others.