Batman

The story opens by telling Batman's origin story: fifteen years ago, Bruce and parents are returning from a movie, when they're shot by a mugger. A few days later, young Bruce swears to make war on all criminals, trains himself, and becomes Batman.

As Bruce walks the streets of Manhattan, one night, a red dirigible appears in the sky. It shoots red beams of light that destroy buildings, "hurling their wreckage upon the crowded streets below" (thousands die, we later learn). A voice comes from the dirigible, identifying itself as belonging to "the scarlet horde", and warning people not to resist, lest they strike again.

Batman deduces that Prof. Carl Kruger, who was recently released from an insane asylum, is responsible for this. The man apparently suffered from a Napoleon complex, and is "now working on new type death ray". As opposed to the usual kind, I guess. Batman resolves to stop the madman, and eventually succeeds. The mad professor crashes into the water and is killed, and his cohorts are captured.

Slam Bradley

Slam and Shorty encounter a car being fired upon. I contains a girl and her guardian. S&S are invited to dinner. The guardian is to give the girl a diamond--which, after an X-ray, he claims Shorty ate. Long story short: the guardian is a villain and was lying, hoping to kill the girl and keep the diamond for himself.

Predictable.