In every installment of I Love Ya But You’re Strange I spotlight strange but ultimately endearing comic stories. Feel free to e-mail me at brianc@cbr.com if you have a suggestion for a future installment!

I continue a month's worth of I Love Ya but You're Strange's (as a sort of "April Fool's" month) with a spotlight on the bizarre challenge of secret identities in Detective Comics #179 (by David Vern, Dick Sprang and Charles Paris), where Mayor Bruce Wayne has to prove that "Batman" is a phony while not revealing that HE is Batman!

The whole thing begins when Bruce Wayne becomes the yearly fill-in Mayor of Gotham City while the real Mayor is on his annual vacation. Criminal Deuce Chalmers has figured out that Batman is Bruce Wayne (how? I have no idea) and has decided that now (when Robin is also on a top secret mission to provide security for the U.S. Government during some atomic tests in the Pacific - yes, they sent Robin as security on an atomic test in the Pacific) and plans to use this Mayor deal to his advantage...

Bruce meets his Deputy Mayor, who is shockingly weak-willed. While Bruce is at Mayoral events, "Batman" keeps showing up and stopping crimes (that Deuce has, of course, staged).

In his most daring bit, Deuce actually invites Commissioner Gordon and Bruce Wayne to his "Bat-Cave," just to mess with Bruce...

I have to admit, I kind of dig Deuce's style. He then kidnaps six millionaires who are in town to bestow an honor upon Batman (something that was already going to be tricky for Batman) and sure enough, the fake Batman shows up and kidnaps them (with them willingly going along without their bodyguards). Bruce then decides to use his deputy's weak will to his advantage and hypnotize him into believe that it hs Bruce Wayne...

So they break into Deuce's base and insist that this "Bruce" is the REAL Bruce...

Then Batman moronically wakes the deputy up from his trance, so Batman has to knock Bruce Wayne out. It's hilarious...

Finally, Batman's absences are explained through his fake tan. One of the rich, connected guys knew about the atomic tests and guessed that Batman must have been along with Robin for security!

What a delightfully bonkers story.

If anyone else has a suggestion for a future I Love Ya But You're Strange, drop me a line at brianc@cbr.com! Again, we're going to have a whole month of these, so, well, more suggestions would be great!