Actually, he was a Hulk villain and this is the only story that I ever read of him facing the Hulk and he's an interesting villain that has a curse to make dreams comes true. He uses these dreams to create villains for the Hulk and Batman to fight and that's the beauty of his ever changing reality that makes these dreams come true for both Hulk and Batman.

For the Hulk he selected Abomination, Leader, and Rhino.
For the Batman he selected Killer Moth, Scarecrow, and Two-Face.

Nowhere Man wrote a review back in 2016 and this is an excellent review that's found here in CCF that's best describe this story that's you've just read.

Here's the link ... Nowhere Man's Review

It's well written and it's will explain everything you need to know about this story.

Yes, I'm still reading Detective Comics from #390 to the present, but I'm reading them much slower than expected. The plan was to read one issue every night after going to bed, but a lot of the time I'm just too tired. And then I hit the 52-page issues for 25 cents and there's four stories per issue. So it takes me two or three days to read all the stories in every issue.

I'm up to #420.

Its kind of odd how often the Batgirl story is the highlight of the issue. The Batman stories are good, but they tend to be done-in-one short stories with Batman facing a dilemma or mystery and figuring out a solution in less than 20 pages. Bruce Wayne is only in it here and there. I haven't seen Alfred for quite a few issues. There are a couple of multi-part developing stories going on - the League of Assassins and the Man-Bat stories - but they are seldom in consecutive issues. Man-Bat, for example is in #400, #402, #407, and #416, and he'll be in #429 before disappearing from Detective for a while.

Batgirl is written by Frank Robbins and drawn by Don Heck. She has a small supporting cast - her father James Gordon and Jason Bard - and the stories are all two parts. Her father knows she is Batgirl, but she doesn't know that he knows. And within a few issues, Batgirl will run for Congress - and win! And she won't be in Detective any more.

Each issue is filled out with stories from the Golden Age, little four- to eight-page stories from DC's long history. Sometimes it's bizarre stuff like Mysto the Magician Detective, or Sierra Smith the desert private investigator.

#420 has a 1955 Captain Compass story (he's a detective who solves mysteries at sea; his stories are kind of dumb) and a 1957 story from a series called Gangbusters.

There's only a few more of these 52-page issues, and I'm hoping to get through faster when the page count goes down. It will probably go even slower once I get to the 100-Page Super-Spectaculars!

And in my long-term quest to read every issue of Detective Comics from #390 to the present-day, I'm up to #424. I had to mention this issue because it's the third part of a three-part story in which Barbara "Boots" Gordon runs for Congress ... and wins! She's going to be Congresswoman Gordon for several years. But not in the pages of Detective Comics. This is the last appearance of a Batgirl back-up feature in Detective for a few years.

Great Don Heck art on the Batgirl feature for so many of these issues.

I think I'll probably be getting through the next 12 issues a lot quicker because with the next issue, Detective Comics will no longer be giant-sized. It's just a Batman story and rotating back-up features for a while. No more ancient reprints ... until it goes to 100 pages per issue as of #438.

Today, we're going to talk about ... the Mirror Man!

He only appeared twice in the Golden Age and the Silver Age (though I wouldn't be surprised to find out that he's made a cameo here or there). He was in prison and he used a mirror to escape, so he decided to make mirrors his crime fetish. Because, you know ... GOTHAMITES!

So he commits a bunch of mirror-themed crimes, stealing telescope mirrors and an ancient looking-glass that belonged to Cleopatra (or whatever; I read it over a week ago and don't remember the exact crimes), and he also uses specialized mirrors during his crimes.

What's kind of neat about the Mirror Man is that he finds out Batman's secret identity. He has a special mirror that somehow reflects images but doesn't reflect the cloth. So he uses this to see Batman's face ... and he recognizes Bruce Wayne!

I love the way they resolve this. Batman finds out that his cover is about to be blown, so he writes an article for one of the Gotham dailies and he focuses on how everybody always thinks that he's Bruce Wayne. And it's ridiculous, right? Everybody who pursues this silly rumor ends up looking as dumb as ... Vicki Vale!

Having a character suspect that Batman was really Bruce Wayne seems to have been a worn-out trope as early as 1954 when this story was published.

And so when the Mirror Man (whose real name is Floyd Ventris) tries to tell his gang that Batman is really Bruce Wayne, they scoff and dismiss the very idea. "Aw c'mon, boss! Not that old chestnut! Do you want everybody in Gotham to think you're as dumb as Vicki Vale?"

And so Batman's secret is safe! Mirror Man is captured soon after.


And speaking of Vicki Vale, she shows up in Mirror Man's next appearance in Batman #157 in 1963, with the New Look just around the corner.

Floyd Ventris breaks out of jail and resumes the mirror-themed crimes, but he's determined to prove that Bruce Wayne is Batman so that all of Gotham will stop laughing at him! Knowing Bruce Wayne will be at an event, he has one member of the gang keep an eye on Wayne while the rest of the gang steals a first edition of Through the Looking Glass (or whatever). Wayne hears about the crime but he knows he's being watched so he falls in an open manhole so the crook following him thinks "He can't be Batman, he fell in a manhole!" and leaves. 

Batman shows up at the crime scene and Mirror Man says "A-ha! He's Bruce Wayne!" But the crook says "No. He fell in a manhole." The Mirror Man isn't convinced.

It turns into such a story! Batman gets Alfred to dress up as Wayne. And Vicki Vale, still with her suspicions, wants to protect Batman's secret identity, so she comes up with her own plan and hires a guy from an acting agency to pretend to be Bruce Wayne. So we have two Bruce Wayne's walking around and it almost turns into a Danny Kaye movie. 

Disaster is narrowly averted several times, and the Mirror Man is finally captured and sent to prison, ranting and raving because everybody finds it easier to believe there are two Bruce Waynes than to believe that one of them could be Batman. (Not really. Just joking about that last part.)

If I was writing Batman, I'd bring back the Mirror Man because I think it would be hilarious to have one villain with really bad luck who knows that Bruce Wayne is Batman but nobody believes him! He would be perfectly nutty after a while and a prime candidate for Arkham Asylum. He would escape from time to time for another mirror themed crime spree, ranting and raving the whole time that Batman is Bruce Wayne.

That run with Batman #400 (which is app. Detective #511 to #580 and app. Batman #340 to #410) is one of my favorite periods for Batman and I read it from start to finish every so often. But I had completely forgotten Mirror Man was in Batman #400. Or maybe I just never noticed him.

I was shocked at the ending this story and I agreed that Jack Schiff was doing a below average job as editor and missed the 50's Batman Stories when it was great.