Haney seemed to have a thing for superheroes "defecting." In Brave and Bold 134, Green Lantern supposedly defected to the USSR, due to the inability of Hal Jordon to find civilian employ (a fact mentioned by the Soviet colonel in charge of testing Hal, which would seem to imply they knew his secret ID).

And what did the Reds want with Green Lantern? Their own commie superhero/defender? No! U.S. Aeronautical secrets! Which would seem, again, to imply they knew his secret ID (though Haney never made that explicit).

This time, Batman was the one the feds sent to bring back the defector. With instructions (which Batman willingly agreed to) to capture or kill GL (see, they didn't like each other very much pre-spacebug either).

Unfortunately, for Bats, however, the Ruskies subjected him to some sort of brainwashing/torture called "the demolishment," which would reduce him to a "wimpering pup."

First they tried drugging Batman, but that didn't work. Why? Because "Batman has long been immune to drugs...he had special nerve treatments to guard against criminals using drugs on him..."

(Yeah, we all knew that. That's why he wasn't being regularly drugged or gassed by the Penguin's Umbrella, Joker nerve toxin, Poison Ivy's lips, etc., in all the other bat-titles of the previous forty years )

Then, they tried putting him in an isolation tank, but Batman kept his sanity by repeating the phrase "Joe Chill" over and over (arguably one of the cooler moments in the story).

(Meanwhile, the commies had taken Hal's ring and beaten him up. But, for some reason, they didn't "demolish" him, even though it would supposedly would have been a good way to get the "aeronautical secrets" out of him)

Ultimately, Batman was "demolished," leading to the scene on the cover:



And how did Batman get out of this one? What did he do to avoid his vow against using firearms and shooting GL point blank?

Nothing. He fired three times directly at Hal. (Again, proving Batman never really liked GL)

Fortunately, however, the gun...had blanks in it!

With Batman broken, GL decided to confess that he had never really intended to defect and that it was all an elaborate ruse to learn about "the demolishment" techniques.

So, the Russians, rather than say "great...so let's do it to YOU too," took GL and Batman back to the Colonel's office to make a confession.

Oops! Guess where GL's ring was! That's right!! The tea kettle in the colonel's office!!!

So...now that GL was close enough to activate his ring (and apparently this was all part of the master plan), he whispered the oath, grabbed the ring and flew himself and Batman out of the country (in a glowing green hot air balloon because he was "too groggy from the beating" [which had, according to the story, occurred at least two days' prior] to use his normal powers of flight).

Once safely past the Iron Curtain, GL revived Batman, who explained that, even though he was "close" to being "demolished," had assumed the gun had blanks in it (sure, Batman, surrreeee.....why do you hate Hal so much?).

W....T....F?