Black Maria 9

The Black Maria 9 was a prison ship.

The ship was partly destroyed in a meteorite shower and crashed on an asteroid in hyperspace sometime prior to 2065, leaving a human gangster as the only survivor. The native Batmen cared for him during the day but returned at night to find that he had apparently turned into one of them. In reality, the man had used the time to make the skin and oxygen kit necessary to fool them. He eventually became the leader of the Batmen and used them as a way of continuing his gangster work.

In January 2065, the crew of Fireball XL5 searched the asteroid after following a space freighter which had been hijacked by the Batmen there. They found the freighter on the farside of the asteroid next to the Black Maria 9, though they were unaware of where this other ship had come from at the time. Venus dismounted her jetmobile to investigate a glint of metal buried in the dust she thought looked like a ship's nameplate but was captured by Batmen before she could confirm her suspicions. Later, after the Batmen's leader was exposed as an impostor, Valeen explained to Steve Zodiac how his people had been fooled. Steve revealed during this conversation that the Black Maria 9 had been a prison ship, shedding light on their former leader's criminal intent. (COMIC: The Batmen)