Nothing But Batman

Batman's Weird Transformations: Detective

2011-11-11T10:00:00.000-08:00

This is another post that will take time to assemble, and any help my readers can offer will be greatly appreciated.

Batman has now been a character for some 72 years. During that time, he has gone through many phases, as different writers and editors have molded the character into something they felt would entertain their readers. Many times Batman has undergone weird transformations, especially during the period when Jack Schiff's name appeared as editor from about 1959. The purpose of this post is to identify and discuss all of Batman's transformations.

For starters, I will do the Detective issues, then follow with posts on the transformations taking place in World's Finest, and finally in Batman's own title.The first transformation I am aware of takes place in Detective #127:

Issue: Detective #127
Transformation: Batman and Robin are transformed into Pigmies (sic) by a mad scientist.
Affects: Both Batman and Robin
Status: Fake. The scientist created a giant room to make people think they had been shrunk, so they would pay him a fee to become normal-sized again.
Rating: Not rated; fake.Batman's next transformation takes place about a year later:

Issue: Detective #138
Transformation: Batman becomes invisible
Affects: Batman and the Joker
Status: Genuine transformation. Batman becomes invisible by drinking a serum to battle the Joker who has stolen an invisibility serum from a scientist and is using it to commit crimes.
Rating: Five giant Batmans. The concept of Batman changing to battle a crook who had undergone a similar transformation would become a staple of the Silver Age.

The concept of shrinking Batman and Robin apparently proved popular with readers and was dusted off for a return engagement:

Issue: Detective #148
Transformation: Batman and Robin shrunk.
Affects: Batman and Robin and several other characters
Status: Genuine transformation. Batman, Robin and several other characters are reduced greatly in size via a ray by Professor Zero who demands a ransom to restore them to their original size.
Rating: Three giant Batmans. While the story is entertaining, it has two major flaws. First, it is told via a flashback by Batman and Robin, revealing to the reader beforehand that they were returned to their normal size and had defeated Professor Zero. And second, the plot is a recycling of Detective #127.

One of the more obvious differences between Batman and the animals he's named after is that bats have wings. So a few issues later:

Issue: Detective #153.
Transformation: Batman gains wings.
Affects: Batman only
Status: Not a true transformation on two counts. First, the wings in question were mechanical, strapped onto Batman's back. And second, the bulk of the story turned out to be a dream sequence after Batman was knocked unconscious. In fact, Batman never used the wings, which turned out to be flimsy and not ready for primetime.
Rating: Not rated. The concept is cool, and I've always loved that splash page. The only negative is that it didn't actually happen.

The concept of role-reversal is always entertaining:

Issue: Detective #218
Transformation: Batman becomes ten years younger, while Robin becomes ten years older.
Affects: Batman and Robin
Status: True transformation. As indicated by the cover, the change is mental as well as physical, caused by two different canisters of gas which Batman and Robin recover at the end of the story so they can change back.
Rating: Five giant Batmans. I love this story and the transformation makes it cool.

Small Batman, how about an economy-sized Batman?

Issue: Detective #243.
Transformation: Batman becomes a giant.
Affects: Batman only
Status: Genuine transformation. A scientist creates maximizer and minimizer rays. Batman is accidentally hit with the former and grows to 30 feet tall, while a crook makes off with the latter.
Rating: Five giant Batmans. A classic story with art by Dick Sprang.

A couple of years later, Batman briefly gained super-strength:

Issue: Detective #268
Transformation: Batman glows and exhibits super-strength
Affects: Batman only
Status: Genuine transformation. Batman was test-piloting a new jet when he flew through the tail of a comet. Gases in the comet made him glow and caused him to have super-strength. However, doctors warned him that when he stopped glowing, he would die. Fortunately he located a scientist who was able to save him.
Rating: Two giant Batmans. Giving Batman super-powers is not an original idea as we shall see when we analyze his adventures in World's Finest.

At this point, the transformations come more frequently:

Issue: Detective #275
Transformation: Batman resembles a zebra and repels anything that comes near him.
Affects: Batman and the Zebra Man, a crook
Status: Genuine transformation. The Zebra Man invents a machine that grants him magnetic powers; with the aid of a belt, he can either attract things to him, or repel them. Batman is accidentally given the same powers by the machine, but he lacks the belt and can only repel things.
Rating: Two giant Batmans. Something of a dull story, but the ending is pretty good

Issue: Detective #284
Transformation: Batman takes on the appearance of a photographic negative and becomes sensitive to light.
Affects: Batman only
Status: True transformation. A crook has invented a camera that can capture anything photographed by it inside the machine. Batman is only partially affected, giving him the negative appearance.
Rating: Two giant Batmans. I like the look of the negative Batman, but the story is nothing special.

Issue: Detective #290
Transformation: Batman and Robin are given different electrical charges and turn different colors.
Affects: Both Batman and Robin.
Status: True transformation. Batman and Robin are separately hit by rays that give them a positive and negative charge, respectively.
Rating: Three giant Batmans. I like the contrast between the two.

Issue: Detective #292
Transformation: Batman becomes a giant again.
Affects: Batman only.
Status: Genuine transformation, this time caused by gas from the upper atmosphere.
Rating: Two stars, as this is something of a recycling of the much better story from Detective #243. One redeeming factor: The story features a cameo by Superman, helping Batman out by appearing at a dinner as Bruce Wayne, to keep Kathy Kane from being suspicious about Bruce's absence while Batman is a giant.

Issue: Detective #294
Transformation: Batman becomes an element man.
Affects: Batman and another man.Status: True transformation. A scientist is trying to draw the power from another element man, when the machine explodes, giving Batman elemental powers.
Rating: Three giant Batmans. As usual with these types of stories, there is some educational discussion about the different properties of the different elements.

Issue: Detective #301
Transformation: Batman becomes extremely hot and can only breathe methane gas.
Affects: Batman only
Status: True transformation. Batman is affected by high voltage equipment at a synthetic gem lab.
Rating: Two giant Batmans. It's a silly story, but the way Batman continues to fight crime in a flying plastic bubble is entertaining.

Issue: Detective #302
Transformation: Batman and Robin are turned into bronze statues.
Affects: Batman and Robin and several other men
Status: Genuine transformation. A famed sculptor has actually invented a device that turns men into bronze. He uses it to help mobsters hide temporarily while the heat is on, then turns them back into men.
Rating: One giant Batman. By this point, Batman has already been turned into various elements, and the transformation is very brief as Batwoman saves them.

Issue: Detective #308
Transformation: Batman gains the powers of Earth, Air, Fire and Water.
Affects: Batman and criminal Peter Dale
Status: Genuine transformation, caused by ancient Indian artifacts.
Rating: Five giant Batmans. This is the final Dick Sprang story in Detective, and it's also one of the few transformations that Batman undergoes voluntarily, in order to catch a crook.

Issue: Detective #312
Transformation: Batman gains Clayface's power to alter his body at will.
Affects: Batman and Clayface (Matt Hagen)
Status: Genuine transformation. Batman and Hagen fall into the clay pool that gives the latter his Clayface powers and battle it out as shapeshifters.
Rating: Four giant Batmans. Terrific entertainment. Clayface was one of the few villains in the Schiff era to have any staying power.

Issue: Detective #316
Transformation: Batman creates an energy duplicate of himself
Affects: Batman and Dr. X
Status: Not a true transformation, as Batman himself remains normal and observes the action as his energy duplicate battles Dr Double X.
Rating: Not rated; not a true transformation.

Issue: Detective #320
Transformation: Green skin color
Affects: Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson
Status: Genuine transformation. Bruce and Dick are turned green by an alien ray. They wear mummy bandages to prevent people from seeing their green skin.
Rating: Three giant Batmans. Because Bruce and Dick see doctors in their normal identities, the transformation becomes a secret identity story as well.

Issue: Detective #322
Transformation: Batman becomes a genie
Affects: Batman only
Status: Hard as it may seem to believe, this is a genuine transformation. He's sprinkled with a special magical dust, which makes him become a genie in a magic lamp, compelled to grant three wishes to the crooks controlling the lantern.
Rating: One giant Batman. This must be the most ridiculous transformation ever.

That's it for the Schiff era; effective with Detective #327, Julius Schwartz took over editing of the Batman titles. However, that is not the final transformation in Detective; to the best of my knowledge this is:

Issue: Detective #356
Transformation: Robin turns into a coffin
Affects: Robin only (Batman barely misses being transformed)
Status: Genuine transformation. The Outsider had a machine that did the actual transformation.
Rating: One giant Batman. I bought this issue during the height of Batmania and hated the idea of Robin somehow magically being transformed into a coffin.

Batman's Girlfriends, 1970s Edition

2011-11-02T08:07:00.000-07:00

As the Silver Age ended, Batman/Bruce Wayne found himself once again with a shortage of female companions. In Detective #411, a new woman was added to the cast:

Talia would prove an enduring love interest, and her father an endless nemesis for Batman. In that first story, she saves Batman's life by shooting Dr Daark. In Batman #232, both Robin and Talia are apparently kidnapped, but it turns out to be a test:

In Detective #444, Batman apparently kills Talia:

But it turns out to be a convoluted plot by Ras al Ghul to isolate Batman and force him to marry Talia. The saga of Batman and Talia has taken many twists and turns over the years, and I believe in current continuity they have had a son named Damian, although of course that may change on any given week.

In Batman #470, Bruce met Silver St. Cloud, a platinum-blonde convention planner:

They hit it off almost immediately, but the relationship grew strained because Silver was too smart to be fooled by Batman's mask; she quickly recognized her boyfriend under the cowl:But she cannot live with the uncertainty that he might be killed:

And so she walks out of his life essentially forever (she has returned a few times, but never as a serious love interest).That was it for the most part. In the next part of our series, the 1980s, Bruce Wayne found himself with a much more complicated love life.

Brave and Bold #84

2011-10-24T00:57:00.000-07:00

As you can see here, when DC advertised this issue in their other mags, they highlighted the impossible nature of this story. "How can this be possible? Batman and Sgt. Rock together!"The answer is that anything's possible in a Bob Haney story. Batman probably teamed up with Abe Lincoln in a non-time travel story by Haney at some point.

Our tale begins with the curator of a museum informing Bruce that a World War II artifact is being claimed by someone with a German accent. As Bruce and his friend inspect the piece, a German confronts them with a luger, pistol-whipping the curator:

The story then flashes back to war-time England. Bruce was in London tracking down saboteurs as Batman and using his Bruce Wayne identity and business interests as a cover. A former classmate of his is killed in a bombing raid shortly after meeting Bruce, and just before dying passes on the information that there's something odd about the wine at a particular chateau in France. So:

Okay, time out here. A little later we learn that it's a couple of days before D-Day, which took place on June 6, 1944. This comic is dated July 1969. So Bruce was an adult in London, 25 years earlier?

Let's be generous to Haney and say that he's 23 when he meets Churchill. That would make him 48 in 1969. Even as a teenager at the time, I knew that was ridiculous.And don't get me wrong; I don't have any problem with Golden Age stories that show Batman fighting Nazis. But surely we can all accept that if he were to fight them today it would either have to be modern Nazis or some sort of time travel story? It wasn't much more credible in 1969 than it is today.

Anyway, back to the story. Bruce catches a lift with Easy Company, which is assigned to blow up a bridge just prior to the invasion. En route they run into a Luftwaffe fighter, but Bruce acts quickly:

Bruce and Rock separate, with the former heading to the Chateau under the guise of being a wine merchant, where he encounters Von Stauffen:

He manages to get a look at the bottle and discovers it's empty of wine; instead there's nerve gas. Von Stauffen, concerned by reports that Americans are in the area, kicks Bruce out and announces that Operation Barbarian must go into action at once. Wagons full of hay (concealing the wine bottles of nerve gas) are pulled towards the front by horses. Bruce tries to convince Rock to blow the bridge now, but he refuses:

Rock sees that the wagons were indeed carrying the gas plus some German artillery. Still, he has to deck Bruce just to set an example for his men. About that time, artillery pieces start dropping from the sky; the invasion has begun and both Rock and Bruce have accomplished their mission.

Flash forward to 1969 again. Can you guess who saves Bruce from Von Stauffen?

Once you get past the obvious problem with Bruce being an adult in World War II, the story itself is not bad, and the artwork by Neal Adams is, as always, superb. Incidentally, the whole bit with something being in the wine bottles appears to have been lifted from the 1946 film Notorious, starring Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman. In that movie, the stuff in the bottles turns out to have been uranium.

Detective #1

2011-09-08T01:54:00.000-07:00

Picked up the new first issue today, which I suppose in a way is a validation of DC's relaunch, as I haven't picked up an issue of Tec in about 8 years. And much as I hate to say it, it doesn't look like I'll be picking up another real soon.As you can see, the cover promises plenty of gore, and at least appears to be ~~a rip-off of~~ an homage to the famous Beatles Yesterday and Today cover. Inside we quickly learn that this Joker is much more like the Heath Ledger version than he is the Crime Clown of the Silver and (most of) the Golden Age.

The blood doesn't start flying until the fourth page, but once it does, we see gallons of it. The Joker kills some man who appears to be wearing a mask made of human flesh; I'm already getting a Silence of the Lambs vibe from this.

The Batman swoops in, too late to save the man but in time to save a little girl who was also in the room. The cops break in as well and seem to be every bit as interested in ventilating Batman as they are capturing the Joker. It appears there's some sort of conflict on this point between Commissioner Gordon and the mayor.

Gordon's already using the Bat-Signal, which seems ridiculously low-tech in this era of disposable cellphones and holographic concealment of the Bat-Cave.We learn that the girl's name is Olivia Carr, and the victim of the Joker's frenzy was her uncle.

She overheard the Joker mention his hiding place, and Batman is off, but arrives after the cops have already burst in on a dummy. A bomb inside kills all the police and stuns Batman, but he recovers in time to catch the Joker on a subway train. The Joker is imprisoned at Arkham. End of story?

Not quite. The Joker has a visitor. It's the father of the man he killed, who is apparently called the Dollmaker. They appear to be in some plot together, and he cuts off the Joker's face.

To be continued....

Sorry, folks but that's quite enough for me.

Update: Re-reading this, one thing strikes me. When I am describing one of the Golden Age or Silver Age 8-page stories, I would have to spend more paragraphs describing the plot than I did for this tale. I would be very surprised if the word count per page here is more than 1/2 that of a typical Silver Age book.

Detective #31-32: The Monk

2011-06-28T01:56:00.000-07:00

Rather than do my typical analysis of the storyline of this, one of the most famous Batman stories of all time, I thought I'd focus instead on what goes wrong.

What goes right? First and foremost, the cover to Detective #31, which clearly belongs on any Bat-fan's top ten list:

What's new? The Batarang (here spelled Baterang) makes its first appearance, as does Batman's initial mode of aerial transportation: the Bat-Gyro. The story also features the first (two) death-traps for Batman.

What goes wrong? Lots; the story has more potholes than a New York street in late winter. The story starts out with Batman trailing Bruce Wayne's fiancee, Julie Madison as she (zombie-like) stalks a man:

What is she doing? Why is the man frightened of a young, attractive woman? Why is Batman following her? These stories are not really answered by the plot. Batman saves the man and then reacts in surprise when he realizes it's Julie, so apparently he was not trailing her, or at least not aware that it was his girlfriend. Julie comes out of her trance, and Batman takes her home, cautioning her to tell Bruce everything. She does so, and Bruce suggests that she see her doctor who tells her to take a cruise to Paris:

Okay, so the doctor is under the Monk's control as well? And despite obvious suspicions about his queeer behavior, Bruce sends Julie off on a luxury liner. He follows in the Bat-Gyro. briefly terrorizing the city:

That's one of the few times he smiles in the pre-Robin era; when he's panicked the citizenry. When he reaches the liner, he puts the Bat-gyro on autopilot and slips down to the ship, where he sees Julie. But before they can talk, the Monk makes his first appearance:

Batman manages to avoid being hypnotized by throwing the Baterang at the Monk, breaking the spell. But he then retreats back to the Bat-Gyro. Say what?

When the ship docks in Paris, Batman apparently misses Julie in the crowd of disembarking passengers, and thus must spend several nights trying to find her. When he does, he learns that she has a guard:

Are we to assume that she was able to sleep peacefully in a room with a giant ape? Batman ducks the monster, but falls into a net, which is then lowered by the Monk towards a snake pit. But his Baterang hits the lever to stop the downward motion of the net. It continues up and breaks a lightbulb, and Batman uses the broken glass to cut open the netting. Variations on that theme would prove to be a durable method of escaping death traps for Batman in the future.

The Monk escapes, but Batman rescues Julie and flies with her to Hungary, as the first part of the story ends.

In Detective #32, Batman is following a stagecoach. He overcomes the driver and throws a gas pellet into the passenger compartment. But the Monk isn't there; instead he finds a woman. Rather than apologize profusely for the mistake, he takes her back to his hotel and locks her in a room with Julie. Second blunder of the evening:

As you can probably guess, Dala is a vampire and has bitten Julie. Dala makes an offer:

But as they fly towards the Monk's castle, the Bat-Gyro is caught in a net. This time Batman is unable to overcome the vampire's hypnotic powers. The Monk summons Julie to join them; apparently she was within walking distance (never mind that Batman and Dala had to fly there).

The Monk informs Batman that Julie is destined to become a werewolf. Then he turns into a wolf himself and summons a pack, intending to have them kill Batman. Batman uses his gas pellets to kayo the wolves, but is unable to escape from the pit because his rope is too light to carry to a nearby post. Again and again he throws unsuccessfully, stopping every now and then to knock out the wolves with another pellet. Finally, after he runs out of gas, he hits on the bright idea of combining the Baterang with the rope and escapes the pit.

As it is dawn, the vampires are asleep and he does not hesitate:

He shoots the two vampires and flies back home with Julie.

Batman and the Terrorists

2011-05-07T13:37:00.000-07:00

With terrorism being atop the news again this week, I thought I'd take a look at Batman's encounter with Islamic radicals in Detective #590 (September 1988).

The story starts out in a Vietnam veterans club in Gotham City, where a couple of uninvited guests start shooting:

Batman learns from Commissioner Gordon that the killers got their guns from Abu Hassan. He tracks the gunmen to the London Embassy of the fictional country of Syraq. He fights with Hassan:

At first Batman responds with a sneer, refusing to take morality lessons from a murderer, but then he hesitates:

And that hesitation almost costs him his life, as one of Hassan's goons sneaks up behind with a garrotte. Batman foils the master plot (a project to blow up Parliament), but afterwards he muses:

There's a pretty easy response to that; our country did not bomb women and children intentionally. And the idea that women and children would be better off under the kind of radical Islamic regime that the terrorists would like to impose is unlikely at best.

But more important, it is inappropriate for Batman in particular to have this kind of morally relative reflection. He must see the world through a black and white prism, because otherwise he would become paralyzed. Can he battle crooks and hoods if he's busy wondering about how their deprived childhoods led them to a life of crime?

Some Favorite Covers

2011-04-27T23:00:00.000-07:00

Chess as a metaphor; it doesn't get much better than this one by Dick Sprang.

I purchased this issue at the NY con in 1971; IIRC it ran me $7. The art by Sprang itself is nothing special, but the effect of the Batman logo cascading down the page lends real drama. It's almost as if the reader is the crook being chased by the Dynamic Duo with the Batman, Batman, Batman resounding from behind.

The stark image of the cowl looming behind the sobbing young man makes this a classic.

Although I am not as enamored of this story as most Batman fans, I do think the cover is superb; easily one of the best in the early Silver Age.

I don't know whose decision it was to reprint this page as a photographic negative, but the effect is absolutely electrifying, especially that last panel.

This issue effectively announced the return of Batman as a creature of the night.

Around the Horn

2011-03-20T13:12:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the lack of new posts lately but I have been busy with work and at the same time, reading a lot of non-Batman comics. However, to fill in for a bit, here are a couple of items that I recently found interesting:

A complete issue of Batmania the famed fanzine of Biljo White, from about 46 years ago. I was particularly struck by the discussion of whether or not Bob Kane was drawing the comics back then (of course nowadays we know he was not, that most of the work signed by him was actually drawn by Sheldon Moldoff), and the revelation that there were numerous hidden signatures in the artwork by Batman artists like Jerry Robinson. For example:

And:

There is now a YouTube series on an Englishman's attempt to become Batman that is absolutely hilarious. Here's Part I:

Here's Part II, where he goes into training:

There's lots more here. Hat tip to Building Batman, the blog.

You Learn Something New Every Day

2011-01-24T23:13:00.001-08:00

I came across this panel in Detective #300:

So I did a little Googling, and sure enough:
In fact, ice skating was so popular in the 19th century that a tradition of "raising the red ball" on Brooklyn streetcars was created to indicate favorable skating conditions at Prospect Park.

The Silver Age Girlfriends: New Look

2011-01-07T10:56:00.000-08:00

Having banished all of the recurring female characters in Batman, New Look editor Julius Schwartz found it necessary to introduce some new ones. Oddly enough, the first woman introduced was not a romantic interest. It was Aunt Harriet, who appeared at the very end of Detective #328. Having heard of the death of Bruce Wayne's butler, Alfred, she decided that her nephew Dick Grayson needed another adult figure in his life, and she wasn't going to take no for an answer.

Busybody aunts are a stock character in fiction; consider the works of P.G. Wodehouse, for example. Or the Hardy Boys, whose Aunt Gertrude was a frequent foil for the youthful detectives. By the way, Aunt Harriet in the comics was nothing like the character on the TV show; she was a pretty sharp cookie and a definite threat to discover the secret activities of her nephew and his ward (as she did, briefly, before being convinced that Bruce and Batman were just friends).

In Batman #165, we first met Patrolwoman Patricia Powell. In yet another example of
DC's strong female leads in non-traditional occupations, she was the star graduate of the police academy when Batman gives out the awards one year. She consults him for a little advice on her romantic interest:

She goes on to explain that every time she's encountered Bruce, she's been wearing a mask for one reason or another. One time it was Halloween and another they both happened to be scuba diving in the same area.

In that issue and the next, we are given strong hints that a romance between Pat and Bruce is in the cards, but something always interferes with their meeting. At the end of the second story in Batman #166, there's this panel:

But that was actually it. For whatever reason, the storyline was never developed beyond that; my first guess is that France Herron, who wrote those stories and whose last Batman work came in Batman #169, was the only writer interested in the concept.

In January of 1966, as you may have heard, the Batman TV show debuted on the ABC network. One of the early episodes featured Julie Newmar as the Catwoman. She proved a popular villainess, with the same love/hate relationship with Batman that had been seen in the Golden Age.

And yet, despite that, and despite featuring her prominently in several reprints, Schwartz still did not reintroduce her into the New Look. Instead, in Batman #181, we got an obvious knockoff:

Poison Ivy has a goal to become the World's Public Enemy #1, knocking off the three current contenders, all of whom (improbably) happen to be gorgeous gals themselves. As a subsidiary goal:

The story apparently ends with Poison Ivy and her three rivals behind bars. But she warns Batman:

In the next regular issue (#182 was a reprint giant), Bruce finds himself unable to concentrate on work or crime-fighting as he moons over Poison Ivy. Meanwhile, she pretends to be on her deathbed due to her lovesickness over him. But when he visits her in the prison hospital, she tells him that she was just faking it and that she's got explosives hidden in a clump of hair:

She keeps him as a pet, but two can play that deathbed game:

Note in particular the pet jaguar; that clinches that Poison Ivy is just a knockoff for the Catwoman. At any rate, Batman puts her back in prison. That was it for her as a character in the Silver Age, although she reemerged as a much more deadly enemy of Batman later.

Catwoman herself returned a little later, in Batman #197:

Perceiving Batgirl as a rival for his affections, she decides to go into crime-fighting with the Dark Knight. But her idea of courtship apparently consists of blackmail:

He answers no, and she goes back to her life of crime. The trio of crimebusters escape eventually and capture her. In her next appearance (Batman #210), there is no hint of any romance between her and Batman.

In Detective #380, a young lady rings the doorbell at Wayne Mansion, and introduces herself to Dick and Alfred:

She turns out to be Ginny Jenkins, who several years earlier had been picked by the editors of her high school yearbook as the "girl most likely to marry Batman". But she hadn't really married Bruce; it turns out to be some convoluted bit about how she pretended to be married to him so her brother wouldn't murder him. Incidentally, that issue also featured the last Silver Age appearance of Aunt Harriet.

Ginny returned a year later in Detective #391. At the end of that story, it appeared that she was falling in love with a masseuse at Bruce Wayne's athletic club.

And that's basically it.

The Girlfriends, Silver Age Edition: Batwoman

2010-12-05T10:58:00.000-08:00

As the Silver Age dawned, with it came the Comics Code Authority. It appears likely that the CCA would not have approved of the Catwoman; she was far too glamorous and had a habit of escaping at the end of stories, both of which were at least nominally verboten under the new regime. And so Batman's writers and editors ignored her for well over a decade.

In her place arrived a character with only one letter different: Batwoman. Kathy Kane was a former circus daredevil who aspired to use her athletic talents for crime-fighting. When a rich uncle dies, she adopts a costume and patterns herself after Batman:

At first, however, there is little attraction expressed between Batman and Batwoman. The romance develops instead between Kathy and Bruce:

By the end of the story, Batman deduces Batwoman's real identity. Realizing she would be in jeopardy if the underworld made a similar discovery, Kathy reluctantly agrees to give up her crime-fighting duties.

In her next appearance, Kathy decides to wear the old uniform for a costume party. We can see that she's interested in Bruce:

But at the end of the story, we see that she has the same old problem with him that all his prospective female partners have expressed:

Shortly after that, Batman decides that Batwoman has been careful enough and he lets her resume her night-time patrols. Meanwhile Vicki Vale has been making some irregular appearances in Batman stories, and inevitably, they meet:

Conveniently for plot purposes, the judges have decided to give the two women six more hours to prove who is more accomplished in her field. And to add to the rivalry:

As is perhaps inevitable, Batwoman and Vicki tie, and thus:

That's the first that Batwoman expresses any romantic interest in Batman. They have a whirlwind courtship and:

Just kidding. What actually happens is that Bruce and Kathy go out on a date, leaving Dick behind to study his schoolwork. Dick falls asleep and has a dream where Bruce and Kathy have eloped (in their real identities, not as Batman and Batwoman). In the dream, Bruce eventually reveals to Kathy his crime-busting role, and forbids her to join them on cases any more. However she disobeys him and because she is wearing one of Batman's spare costumes, her mask is blown off. The crooks recognize her and because of her prominent marriage to Bruce, they immediately realize Batman's real identity. Good thing it was all just a dream!

As I have indicated, for the most part the romance was between Bruce and Kathy. However, that began to change when Betty Kane appeared. She was Kathy's niece and took up crime-fighting as Bat-Girl (the original) in Batman #139. She was also very forward about her attraction to Robin, as I discussed in detail a few years ago. And Auntie Batwoman decides to take a few tips from her:

In Batman #153 it looks as if Batman and Batwoman are doomed and:

Well, there's only one possible response to a request like that:

Although you'll note that Batman seems somewhat less enthusiastic about the kiss than his partner. And at the end of the story:

Cold, Batman, cold.

Vicki Vale had disappeared for several years (apparently on a European assignment), but she popped back up again in Detective #309:

And at the end of that tale:

Alas, it was not to be. Vicki and Batwoman both disappeared in May 1964, as Julius Schwartz took over the editor's desk for Batman and Detective Comics. Schwartz set about trimming the Batman family substantially, getting rid of Kathy, Vicki, Betty, Ace the Bathound, Bat-Mite and (temporarily) Alfred.

Before moving on to the New Look, I should mention two other aspects to Batwoman's relationship with Batman. First, Alfred became a writer in the early 1960s, and typed out a few adventures of Batman II (Dick Grayson) and Robin II (Bruce Wayne, Jr.). In those stories Alfred had Bruce and Kathy married and retired from crime-fighting. Second, in Detective #311, #318, and #325, Batman faces the Cat-Man, who makes an effort to woo Batwoman over to his side, with an accurate, if cruel assessment of her chances with the Caped Crusader:

Coming Soon: The other Silver Age love interests!

Audio Dramatization Review: Batman: Inferno

2010-11-16T20:42:00.000-08:00

Batman: Inferno is an audio dramatization of the novel by Alex Irvine. It is not a reading of the book although it does contain narrative passages and appears to conform largely to the plot of the book. The story appears to fit in with the Batman Begins/Dark Knight films in that Jim Gordon is not yet the Commissioner and Dr Crane is in charge of Arkham Asylum.

Positives: There is a terrific story and solid voice-acting throughout this audio dramatization, which builds to a powerful and exciting climax.

Negatives: Minor sound effects annoyances but nothing significant.

Specific ratings:

Story: The story concerns a riveting three-way battle between Batman, the Joker and Enfer, a firebug with ambition. The plot develops well and the climax is very satisfying. I give the storyline a perfect 10.

Voice-acting: Almost note-perfect. The Joker, a difficult character to portray, is particularly well-done. 9.5 points out of 10.

Sound effects: I'll ding the CD a bit on this score. There's one scene between Captain Gordon and Dr Crane where the birds chirping in the background get quite annoying; it should be enough to hint at this in the beginning of the conversation and then taper it off. This is followed by a sequence of Gordon at the office where the background music gets overbearing. But aside from those two scenes the sound effects were generally pleasing and I particularly liked the background music for the last several scenes as the story builds to its climax. 8 out of 10.

Batman characterization: Very good job on this; the only thing that bothered me was Batman's occasional musing about whether to kill the Joker. This seems out of character. However, given the mayhem that the Clown Prince of Crime commits, perhaps it is not unrealistic. 9 out of 10.

Villain characterization: Excellent, with only a few quibbles. Enfer, the arsonist, is well-realized, with a solid back-story. The Joker is the Joker. My only real problem is the scene with the Joker saving a young woman from an apparent gang-rape. This appears to be intended to confuse the public as to whether he's really a villain. But then a few scenes later he nearly kills a 7-year-old boy by quite publicly throwing him off a building (Batman saves the lad); so what was the point of helping the girl? 9 out of 10.

Overall rating: 9.5 out of 10. I thoroughly enjoyed the dramatization; it provides excellent entertainment and is well-produced. I have no hesitation in recommending it highly for Bat-fans.

The Golden Age Girlfriends

2010-11-11T12:46:00.000-08:00

Bruce Wayne and Batman have had many girlfriends over the years, and this post will be an effort to catalog them all. It's going to be an enormous undertaking and I invite assistance from my fellow Bat-historians.

Julie Madison: Julie was the first love interest. She did not appear in the initial four issues, but in Detective #31, she was introduced as Bruce's fiancee:

In Detective #39, Julie becomes a movie actress. Batman saves her life from a crazed old actor named Basil Karlo. And we see at the end that perhaps she is not fated to marry Bruce:

In Detective #49, Julie's name is changed by a Hollywood publicity man to Portia Storme, and she becomes a major star. Disappointed in Bruce's apparent dissolute lifestyle, she breaks it off with him:

As far as I know, Julie did not appear again in a non-reprint until the late 1970s when she popped up in an issue of World's Finest.

The next significant woman to pop up was a Batman love interest. In Batman #1, he has his first encounter with the Catwoman (in that story, known only as the Cat). She makes him an offer here:

But at the end of the story, Batman lets her escape.

I could fill pages and pages with the on-again, off-again relationship of Batman and Catwoman, so here are just some highlights. In Batman #62, we learn that the Catwoman had been a stewardess, who lost her memory in a plane crash and became a criminal. For several years after that story, she became reformed, and worked to help Batman on a few cases. It is noteworthy though, that almost from the moment she ceased being a criminal, Batman stopped expressing any romantic desire for her.

In Detective #203, Catwoman resumes her life of crime in anger after a newspaper published a story about the many times Batman defeated her. Detective #211 contains The Jungle Cat-Queen, one of the greatest Batman stories of all-time, but after that tale, the Catwoman disappeared for many years. When the Batman TV show started, she was a frequent guest villainess, although she did not reappear in the Batman comics until Batman #197, as the show was ending its run.

In the 1980s Catwoman again teamed up with Batman on several occasions, fighting crime and romancing Batman. I believe that relationship continues to date. Incidentally, the Earth II Catwoman apparently never resumed her life of crime and eventually ended up marrying Batman.

The next significant love interest was Linda Page. She was a former socialite in Bruce's circle who has gotten serious and become a nurse. In the story, her neighbor's son has fallen in with a rough crowd. Batman lends a hand and convinces the youngster to go straight. In the end, as he takes her to a restaurant she raves about the dash of Batman and makes the usual unflattering comparisons to Bruce.

In Batman #6, Batman saves Linda's father's life and his oil business. When Bruce shows up, inevitably too late, she doesn't have much time for him:

This highlights one of the problems facing Bruce in the romance department. The gals he likes are unlikely to stick with him given his supposedly dissolute lifestyle. And he's unlikely to be attracted to the ones who would be happy to party all the time.

Linda made quite a few appearances in the next couple years, but her finale came in Detective #73. After that she simply disappeared. One presumes that Bruce got tired of her constant hectoring him to make something of his life.

The final love interest of the Golden Age was Vicki Vale. Vicki was a photographer for Picture Magazine who first appeared in Batman #49. Bruce is interested right away:

One thing Bruce definitely likes about Vicki is that the moment excitement happens, she dashes off and deserts him for a photo opportunity, giving him the chance to become Batman. However, she's also too smart not to notice things:

This sets the stage for much of Vicki's Golden and Silver Age appearances. She becomes something of a secret identity pest, like Lois Lane in the Superman series. However, unlike Lois, she doesn't work alongside the man she suspects of being a superhero, and thus her appearances in the comics are much less frequent.

In Batman #79, she becomes the Bride of Batman:

It's an incredibly convoluted tale. Vicki meets a foreign potentate who is so taken with her beauty that he proposes to her on the spot. Not wanting to cause an international incident, but also not wanting to marry "that funny little man", she desperately blurts out that she's already engaged to Batman. A rival photographer, suspecting that Vicki's lying, turns the heat up by announcing a date and sending out invitations. The Shah decides to be the host and it looks like Batman will be forced to the altar to avoid diplomatic embarrassments for the US. Vicki admits to her rival that yes, it was all a ruse but now that she's got Batman trapped she's the happiest girl on Earth. But the Shah insists that the wedding be canceled when he learns that Vicki would have to undergo plastic surgery to disguise her after the wedding so criminals could not get revenge on Batman. And fortunately his custom demands that he not marry anyone previously betrothed to another.

Vicki disappeared for about five years from 1958-1963, then returned for a few appearances in the Silver Age during the latter part of the Jack Schiff era. I'll talk about those stories in an upcoming post on the Silver Age girlfriends of the Caped Crusader.

Detective #29-30

2010-10-13T23:05:00.000-07:00

Although he's not commonly known today (and was unheard of in the Silver Age), the villain in these two issues is very significant in Batman's history, as he's the prototype for much of what would follow.

Dr Death:

1. Is the first villain to set a death trap for Batman. The death traps became something of a cliche, especially during the Batman TV show.

2. Is the first recurring villain.

3. Is the first villain to have a huge henchman, something that became common in the years to come.

4. Is the first villain to become horribly disfigured, something that would happen to major Batman antagonists like the Joker and Two-Face.

5. Is the first villain to recognize that he has to plan on Batman interfering with his operations.

Note that despite all those first, Dr Death is not the original villain with a monocle and Van Dyke beard; that honor went to Frenchy Blake in Tec #28. He is troubled by the possibility of Batman interfering with his schemes, so he puts a personal ad in the paper, telling Batman to check at the post office for a letter addressed to John Jones and:

This illustrates another difference between the early Batman stories and what would come later. Because Batman was wanted by the police, he could not simply go around investigating on his own, and Bruce often did some of the legwork. Indeed, this was the whole rationale for having Bruce be a friend of Commissioner Gordon.

The letter tells Batman that the writer plans to commit a murder on the 14th floor of an apartment building. Batman climbs up the outside of the building using suction cups on his hands and knees (an invention that would not appear again as far as I'm aware). When he gets to the top, he discovers that he is to be the murder victim:

As death traps go, it wasn't very elaborate, but every tradition has to start somewhere. Jabah shoots Batman and in an amusing scene, Bruce gets treatment for his wound from the family physician. Later, he spots Jabah about to kill a man with a deadly powder:

This is Dr Death's plot. He threatens to kill wealthy men with the powder, and if they do not pay his protection money, he sends Jabah out to slay them. Bruce saves the man's live by placing a handkerchief over his mouth, and trails Jabah back to Dr Death's hideout, where he changes into the Batman. He disposes of the henchman with a rope around the neck (possibly killing Jabah). Then he and Dr Death have their battle, during the course of which, the laboratory catches fire and:

Dr. Death apparently dies in the fire. However, he returns in the next issue, making him the first "resurrected" villain, although far from the last. Comic book writers often kill of the villain at the end of a story as it saves time in the denouement and also makes it ironically easier to have the villain return since there is no need for a parole, just an explanation of how he escaped death.

In the following issue, Bruce's attention is drawn to the story of a man who died suddenly. Sure enough, when he confers with the widow:

Bruce returns as Batman that night to temporarily steal the widow's diamond collection (for safekeeping). But Dr Death's backup henchman, Mikhail, is also after the diamonds, and Batman lets him take them so he can follow him back to his boss. After dropping the jewelry off at a fence, Mikhail returns to a flophouse. They have a fight, during the course of which, Batman escapes through the window to his waiting rope. And:

I'd take that as pretty strong evidence that Batman killed both Jabah and Mikhail. He goes back to the fence's residence, where he deduces the man is actually:

Dr Death would return many years later (1982) in a two-part series patterned on the prior adventure with him infecting millions of Gothamites and holding the city for a one-billion dollar ransom.

Audio Dramatization Review: Dead White

2010-09-30T23:58:00.000-07:00

This audio dramatization is based on the novel by John Shirley. The CDs run approximately 6 hours long. The story basically follows Batman's attempt to defeat a major terrorist attack by a gang of neo-Nazis.

Positives: Generally solid voice acting and a pretty interesting subplot involving a Gotham City detective and his son attempting to reconnect. Excellent climax and solid drama throughout.

Negatives: One-dimensional main villain. Some annoying parts where the neo-Nazis are referred to as neo-conservatives. Some of the voice-acting is spotty, particularly at the beginning. The narrative passages get tedious in places.

Specific ratings:

Story: I'd give this one an 8 out of 10. The main plot is a little silly and unrealistic, but the subplot involving the detective and his teen-aged son is well-realized and entertaining. There is some gratuitous swearing and a few scenes where sexual activity is at least initiated, although it doesn't get explicit.

Voice-acting: Again, an 8 out of 10. Most of the acting is solid, with only a few embarrassing moments. The character of Skeeve, who is important in the very beginning, comes off as a stereotypical inner-city black but we learn later that he's actually a white supremacist from the south. He does not carry that off. On the other hand most of the other characters manage their roles capably.

Sound effects: 6 out of 10. Nothing special here.

Batman characterization: 8 out of 10. He seems a bit too technology-dependent, with almost no detective work. On the other hand, we do get inside Batman's head thanks to the narration and it mostly works well. I particularly enjoyed the descriptions of Batman trying to get "in the pocket" (essentially what is usually termed "in the zone" in sports).

Villain characterization: 4 out of 10. The main villain, White Eyes or Big White, is a cardboard cutout with no redeeming features to illustrate how he became a leader. Shirley appears to have constructed a liberal's bogeyman, as not only is he a racist skinhead, but he also talks about defeating the anti-Christ and how he was raised to be a "neocon".

The audio dramatization did manage to entertain and hold my attention despite the significant negatives. Overall I'd give it a 7 out of 10; worth a listen but far from perfect.

A Modern Classic: Batman #347

2010-09-14T01:06:00.000-07:00

This May, 1982 issue starts out with two young men discussing business:

The more reluctant partner talks about the time Batman foiled a prison break, taking out the escaped cons one by one:

When that fails to dissuade his buddy, the young man talks about morality. Won't someone be hurt by the bank robbery?

Well, for instance, there was a series of arson attacks going on in that very neighborhood some years back. Since the buildings being burned down were abandoned and insured, nobody much cared, and since the arsonist used some stereotypical radical language, he even attracted converts to the cause:

Batman tries to track down those responsible, despite the general apathy. Because the firemen had used up too much water fighting the arson in the abandoned buildings, there was no water pressure when it came time to fight a small fire in an apartment where an elderly couple lived, resulting in the death of the husband. In a rage, Batman grabs the radical leader and drags him into a burning building. The building collapses, and the crowd is undecided as to what to do when the old woman speaks up:

So the crowd rescues the pair and Batman even ends up giving mouth-to-mouth to save the arsonist. And the final page is so good I'm posting it here complete:

Simply wonderful.

Detective #28

2010-09-03T15:27:00.000-07:00

Batman's second story was not featured on the cover, although there was a notice that he appeared "This Month and Every Month". As the story begins, the newspapers are full of headlines about the local jewel robberies. Bruce, imitating Commissioner Gordon's voice, calls a stool pigeon and puts pressure on him to give up the gang responsible for the thefts. Gimpy tells him that Frenchy Blake's mob's involved and gives him the location of that night's heist.

Batman fights it out with the crooks on a rooftop and casually propels one hood to his death:

The other criminal is captured by the police, who assume that Batman (who escapes) was behind the robberies.

Any thought that perhaps Batman's assailant survived the fall is dispelled a few pages later:

Note in particular the appearance of the mastermind; the monocle and the Van Dyke beard. Batman would face several criminals matching that description in the next year or so; Kane didn't put a lot of variety in his artwork.

Obviously a confession obtained this way wouldn't stand up in court:

After another bit of fisticuffs, Batman drops Frenchy off at the police station with the confession.

Comments: Last of the very short Batman stories; with the next issue Batman would be expanded to 10 pages. The character is still only roughly formed.

Detective #27

2010-08-17T10:29:00.001-07:00

Or, where it all began. As the story begins:

Two of the most enduring characters in the canon are introduced right in the opening panel. Note that Bruce smokes a pipe; this used to be a sign of sophistication and intelligence for men. Reed Richards was often shown smoking a pipe in early Fantastic Four issues.

Having Commissioner Gordon be a friend of Bruce's is an important (although mostly forgotten) part of the early series. It enables Bruce to get information that the police have but which has not been released to the press. In this case, it actually introduces Bruce to the crime, as the Commissioner soon learns that Lambert, the "chemical king", has been murdered. Bruce tags along to gather information, and meets the accused killer, Lambert's son, who insists he's innocent.

Bruce hangs around long enough to get the information he needs on Lambert's former partners (Crane, Rogers and Stryker). Crane calls to tell the commissioner that he's received a death threat, but before the police can arrive, he's shot dead by an intruder. Batman confronts the killer and an accomplice on the roof:

Incidentally, that panel appeared (redrawn) in Justice League of America #37 in the mid-1960s; see here.

He easily defeats the crooks. According to the text, he puts the shooter "in a deadly headlock" and throws him off the roof of a two-story home. He recovers a document that the criminals had taken from Crane. This page also features the first appearance of Batman's red car (precursor to the Batmobile):

Meanwhile, Rogers, the other member of the former partnership, has gone to Stryker's home in a panic. He is clubbed by Stryker's assistant, who it appears is behind the murders:

Batman rescues Rogers from death by gassing (first deathtrap in Batman), and kayos Jennings. But it turns out that Stryker himself was actually behind the killings, and to save himself from being shot, Batman punches the chemical magnate, who falls through a railing and into a vat of acid. He wastes no time on false compassion:

The story ends with Bruce Wayne listening with a rather bored attitude to Commissioner Gordon's recital of the facts. Stryker had killed his former partners because they had sold him the business and he wanted to avoid paying off the amount he owed them for their shares. Gordon remarks to himself afterwards that Bruce must lead a rather boring life as he is so disinterested in everything. But at Bruce's home, he is revealed to actually be the Batman himself. As Bill Jourdain noted in a Comic Geek Speak interview awhile ago, this of course comes as no surprise to us with the benefit of 70+ years of the character, but back in 1939, this probably came as a shock to the readers.

Origin of the Two-Face Bust

2010-06-16T17:59:00.000-07:00

I noticed a forum post which linked to an old Dick Sprang tribute post of mine, and in the same post, a link to this post about the Secrets of the Batcave poster by Sprang.

Chris Sims has done a great job over the filling in the origins for many of the items shown, but I noticed this:

I can't place the Penguin, the giant Joker and Two-Face Heads, or the 8-ball.

I can only cover the giant Two-Face head for now, although I suspect I will find the other items eventually. The Penguin (in this case a stuffed bird, not the villain), for example, was one of the first objects ever shown in Batman's trophy collection in Batman #12, so we know it's got to come from an earlier story than that one.

The giant Two-Face head comes from Batman #50's The Return of Two-Face! The climax of that story has Batman and Two-Face battling it out atop the giant bust:

Batman explains the origin of the bust to Robin:

This appears to refer to the initial appearance of Two-Face, in Detective #66:

Although you will note that the bust depicted in that story is much smaller than the one in Batman #50.

The bust made a significant appearance in the Silver Age. Batman #108 (June 1957) included Prisoners of the Batcave, where Batman and Robin are trapped in their hideaway, just as a package they received turns out to be a firebomb. Here's the action as seen in that story:

The air inside the hollow bust is quickly used up and the fire dies out, although not without damaging the bust significantly. The material of the bust is described in the text as glass, although there is little doubt that the Golden Age bust was intended to be of stone or plaster.

You've Got Bat-Mail

2010-06-07T23:39:00.000-07:00

A regular occurrence in the Golden Age was the arrival of a package at some mobster's office or hotel room:

It was always a signal to the crook that Batman was on his tail:

Batman sent it as a message to a judge:

It even popped up on a cover:

Any more modern examples out there?

Update: Here's one from Batman #121 ( February 1959):

As you can see, the crook tailed the bat back to the Batcave, which may explain why Batman gave up on using live bats as a warning.

Blame It On Duane

2010-05-08T12:15:00.000-07:00

I have talked in the past about how the New Look in 1964 got rid of many of the supporting characters in the Batman series: Alfred (temporarily), Ace, the Bat-Hound, Bat-Mite, Batwoman and Batgirl (Betty Kane version). Well, it turns out that we can identify the person responsible:

Batman's Secret Identity

2010-04-24T02:38:00.000-07:00

After awhile, even the slowest comic book fan begins to realize that there is no such thing as death for a major character. Oh, sure, the publisher may play games with a "Death of Superman" or "Batman, RIP" storyline. These days about the only characters who haven't been resurrected somehow are Thomas and Martha Wayne, and I'm not even sure about them.

So with death off the table, the secret identity becomes another way that the hero can lose, and so DC had many secret identity stories concerning Batman over the years. I'm going to try to catalog those stories as much as I can. I'll keep a running tally of the number of people who have discovered Batman was secretly Bruce Wayne. Of course, those people can be further subdivided into four main categories:

1. People who retained the knowledge.
2. People who learned that Bruce Wayne was Batman, but were later convinced otherwise.
3. People who learned that Bruce Wayne was Batman but suffered amnesia and forgot it.
4. People who learned that Bruce Wayne was Batman but died.

This will, of course, be an enormous undertaking, and I certainly invite your participation.

Robin, of course, becomes the first to learn Batman's real identity in Detective #38 (April 1940). Perhaps not surprisingly, this is implied rather than stated, as you can see from these two panels:

In the first panel, Batman is swearing him in while wearing his cowl, and in the second they are exercising together unmasked. Robin is the first of the Category 1 people to learn Batman's secret identity.

In Batman #5 a female accomplice of the Joker's named Queenie recognizes a shaving nick on Batman's face as being identical to one she'd seen on Bruce Wayne earlier. Queenie prevents another accomplice from killing Batman and takes a slug in the back for her trouble:

Queenie is the first to learn Batman's secret identity on her own, and the first of the unfortunate Category 4 people.

Dana Drye is referred to by Batman as "the Dean of detectives, greatest of them all," in Batman #14. He discovers Batman's secret identity and knows it for several years before committing suicide in a particularly ingenious manner so as to look like he was murdered:

Batman decides to keep Drye's secret since the master detective kept his and this becomes The Case Batman Failed to Solve! Drye becomes another category 4 decedent.

In Batman #16, Alfred the butler accidentally discovered the entrance to the Bat-Cave and became aware that his master, Bruce Wayne, was secretly the Batman:

Alfred becomes the third Category 1 secret identity learner, and the first to discover it and live.

Commenter Lee points out one of the more famous secret identity reveals in the Batman canon: Joe Chill from Batman #47 (June-July 1948):

But when he tells a few other crooks that he's the reason Batman took up the cowl, they murder him, only belatedly realizing that he could have told them Batman's real identity. So Joe Chill is a Category 4 secret identity discoverer.

Batman #48 (Aug-Sept 1948) features The 1000 Secrets of the Batcave, in which an escaped convict named Wolf Brando discovers the Batcave is attached to the Wayne Mansion and makes the correct deduction:

But some bats startle Brando and he falls into a whirlpool and drowns, becoming an early Category 4 person.

Batman #49 (Oct-Nov 1948) introduces Vicki Vale, a photographer who was apparently intended as Batman's equivalent of Lois Lane as a secret identity pest. She does a little photographic analysis here:

But in a very convoluted way, Bruce convinces her he's not the Caped Crusader, and Vicki becomes a Category 2 person. Vicki, like Lois, would often have her suspicions over the years.

In World's Finest #39 (Mar-Apr 1949), a mystery writer named J.J. Jason decides to test his own deductive abilities by learning Batman's real identity. He hits the mark:

But, in one of the more bizarre methods of secret identity-saving, Bruce has hired a deaf and blind man to impersonate Batman. Bruce uses his ventriloquist ability to speak for the Batman, and is able to convince Jason that he was wrong in his deduction. Thus J.J. falls into Category 2.

In Batman #64, Killer Moth correctly deduces Batman's real identity:

But he later becomes convinced he was wrong, and thus falls into Category 2.
In Detective #173, Killer Moth decides to have plastic surgery to make him look like Bruce Wayne. Once he takes over Bruce's life, he quickly discovers his secret:

But at the end of the story:

So Killer Moth also falls into Category 3.
In Superman #76 (May-June 1952), Clark Kent and Bruce Wayne, very improbably, find themselves cabin-mates on a cruise ship. And when an emergency arises, they discover each other's secret identity:

So Superman/Clark Kent becomes a rare Category 1 secret identity discoverer.

In Batman #71, Commissioner Gordon becomes obsessed with finding out Batman's secret ID:

But Bruce cottons to his plans and foils them. In the end, Commissioner Gordon realizes that he's better off not knowing.

In Detective #179, Deuce Chalmers believes he has deduced Batman's secret identity. To prove it, he impersonates Batman while Bruce Wayne is stuck performing as mayor for a week. However, Batman foils him by hypnotizing the mayor's secretary and disguising him as Bruce Wayne. Chalmers is a category 2 person.

In Detective #213, the Mirror Man learns Batman's real name via an x-ray mirror device that he stole from a scientist:

But Batman realizes that his secret is out and convinces the Gotham Gazette to run an article about the many times his secret identity has been falsely believed to be Bruce Wayne. Thus, although the Mirror Man remains a Category 1 person at the end of the story, he is unable to convince anybody else. The Mirror Man returned about a decade later in Batman #157 (Aug 1963):

This is a complicated story that ends with Alfred dressed up as Batman in the scene shown above and Bruce Wayne as himself. In an amusing bit, Alfie (as Batman) gives a kiss to Vicki Vale to prove how much he appreciates her intended help on the case, however mistaken she was about his real identity (she had indeed hired an actor to play the part of Bruce earlier), causing this crisis. Anyway Mirror Man was a long-time #1, apparently converted to a #2 in this issue.

In Detective #217, a janitor named Barney Barrows is accidentally exposed to rays that stimulate his brain powers enormously. With his new mental abilities, deducing that Batman is Bruce Wayne is a snap:

But Barrows forgets Batman is Bruce Wayne a few days later, when his brain returns to normal, so he becomes a Category 3 person.

In Detective #226 (December 1955), we learned that Batman had studied detecting with a private eye named Harvey Harris. To protect his (later) secret identity, he had dressed up as Robin, and not revealed his real name to the detective. However, Harris had deduced it on his own:

Harris had died by the end of the story, so he falls into Category 4.

Batman #96 included the story Batman's College Days. Joe Danton was a rival of Bruce's in college, and gets his revenge on the people who snubbed him back then by plotting to kill them all in a cruise on a doomed sailing ship. At a crucial moment he recognizes a scar on Batman's wrist as one he had caused to Bruce Wayne, and it appears that even if the cruise survives, he will reveal the secret to the other Gotham U grads on board. Improbably:

Joe Danton is another Category 4 secret identity discoverer.

In Batman #120 (Dec, 1958), we learned of Bruce's great-uncle, Silas Wayne's disappointment in Bruce, who he thought was a "rich idler". Bruce made some efforts to demonstrate that he was more than that, but in the end he seals the deal with his dying uncle by revealing that he is the Batman:

A Category 4 identity revelation.

In Batman #121, a crook named Alec Wyre tails a bat that Batman had sent as a warning to get out of town, back to the Batcave, and learns that Bruce was Batman. However:

Wyre joins the many crooks who learned Batman's secret identity but died soon thereafter.

A few issues later, in Batman #125 (August 1959) a secret identity crisis made the front cover:

In the story, Batman, Robin and a criminal named Gurney are transported to another dimension. Batman wins an athletic competition and is startled to learn that the prize is to be king of that world, although he must reveal his face in order to be crowned. Reasoning that his secret identity didn't matter in this other dimension, he agrees, but Gurney observes the scene and recognizes Bruce. They eventually find their way back through the dimensional portal, but have lost all memory of their time on the other planet. Thus Gurney becomes a fairly rare Category 3 person.

In Batman #134 (Sept 1960), Bruce receives a surprising letter:

Using clues they found in the letter and envelope, Batman and Robin manage to defeat two criminals, who turn out not to be Mr X. A third letter gives them the key clue; it's Tod Allen, a friend of Bruce's from the Sportsman's Club. However, when they visit his office:

Tod Allen falls into the unfortunate Category 4.

Batman's New Secret Identity is the cover story to Batman #151 (Nov 1962):

This is something of an unusual tale in that Batman's secret identity is learned by everyone, when Batman and Robin prevent a runaway car from hitting a bus full of schoolchildren. After the impact, Batman is kayoed and his mask falls off. He takes on a new identity:

But eventually those identities are discovered as well. Fortunately, it's Alfred writing another one of his stories:

The Joker story mentioned came a few months earlier, in Batman #148 (June 1962). Here's the cover:

But it's a fake-out, as the bright light shining in the Joker's eyes temporarily blinded him from seeing Bruce.

Batman revealed his secret identity to the Elongated Man in Detective #331 (September 1964):

But it's an Category 3 revelation. The Elongated Man has been hit with a ray that will give him amnesia about what he's done for the last 12 hours, so Bruce knows he won't remember the information.

In a very improbable moment, Batman reveals his secret identity to Jimmy Olsen in World's Finest #144 (September 1964):

Thus Jimmy becomes the only Category 1 person to learn Batman's real identity in the Silver Age.

In Detective #351 (May 1966), Aunt Harriet stumbles on the elevator that goes down to the Batcave, and despite some initial doubt comes to the obvious conclusion:

However, Bruce and Dick quickly realize the danger and convince her that they are just good friends with the Dynamic Duo. So Aunt Harriet falls into Category 2.

In Brave and Bold #83 (Apr-May 1969), Bruce adopts Lance Bruner, the orphaned son of a family friend. Lance is a bad seed, as we learn when he stumbles on the entrance to the Batcave:

At the end of the story, Lance repents his wicked ways, just in time to stop a bullet intended for Robin. Thus, he falls into Category 4.Batman #232 features the first appearance of longtime Batman nemesis Ras al Ghul, who introduces himself by announcing that he knows Bruce Wayne is Batman:

Obviously, Ras' servant Ubu knows as well, and his daughter Talia, all of whom fit into Category 1.

In Detective #475, we learn that Silver St. Cloud, a love interest of Bruce's, has learned his secret:

Silver retains the knowledge, marking her as Category 1.

In Detective #494, Doctor Bradford Thorne, the Crime Doctor, recognizes a bandage that he had put on Bruce Wayne:

But in the following issue, a criminal boss named Silversmith poisons the doctor in an effort to force him to reveal Batman's real name. Our hero gets him to a hospital in time to save his life, but:

Chalk Dr. Thorne up as a particularly unfortunate member of Category 3.

There are many more secret identity stories to come; this post will eventually be huge.

Running Totals:

Category 1 (Learned and retained the knowledge): Dick Grayson, Alfred, Superman, Mirror Man (from 1954-1963) Jimmy Olsen, Ras Al Ghul, Ubu, Talia, Silver St. Cloud,

Category 2 (Learned and were convinced otherwise): Vicki Vale (multiple times), J.J. Jason, Killer Moth, Mirror Man (1963-onwards) Aunt Harriet,

Category 3 (Learned but had amnesia): Killer Moth, Gurney, Elongated Man, Dr. Bradford Thorne, Barney Barrows,

Category 4 (Learned but died): Queenie, Dana Drye, Joe Chill, Wolf Brando, Joe Danton, Tod Allen, Harvey Harris, Silas Wayne, Alec Wyre, Lance Bruner.

Dick Giordano, RIP

2010-04-01T01:27:00.001-07:00

He did not have a terribly long run on Batman as a penciller, although he did quite a few covers, especially in the mid-1970s. I'm pretty sure he was more noted as an inker. But what he did do, was choice. For example, he illustrated the opening story in Detective #500, To Kill a Legend, which is an absolute classic. The Phantom Stranger offers Batman an odd opportunity. On a parallel world, time is lagging about 20 years behind. Thomas and Martha Wayne are about to be murdered. Does he want to prevent the murder?

But Robin tags along anyway. And it appears to be a good thing as he discovers something odd about this other world:

Gradually, he comes to realize that this may be the parallel world's one chance to develop a superhero tradition. Is Batman going to prevent that from happening?

But Robin notices something else:

In the end, though, Batman wins the argument:

He prevents the murder of the Waynes and his sudden appearance has a surprising effect on young Bruce:

Just a wonderful story, with a terrific ending.

Detective 219-224

2010-03-23T00:14:00.000-07:00

I thought I'd take a quick look at these issues. The first:

Batman and Robin become suspicious when they spot a couple of underworld characters driving vintage automobiles. They deduce that it must have something to do with an ancient auto society meeting taking place in the Gotham City suburb of Millville. Bruce purchases a 1909 Winton as well as another relic that he and Dick make into an old-style Batmobile. But when they travel to Millville, the Winton is stolen. It turns out that 40 years earlier, a crook who had stolen a bunch of platinum had made it into a gas tank for his automobile. While Bruce's purchase was not the car in question, another Winton that shows up at the race does turn out to be the one with the special gas tank. Batman and Robin foil the attempt to steal it.

Comments: An okay story with passable Moldoff art, but nothing special on either side.

Next up:

This is, without a doubt, one of the finest Batman stories of all time; I'd rate it right up there with the Jungle Cat-Queen and Birth of Batplane II. I wrote a long post at Silver Age Comics on this story, so I won't reiterate what I had to say there. Sadly, to my knowledge, this story has never been reprinted anywhere, although it will probably pop up in the Archives in a few years.

Batman and Robin are ambushed by some crooks, who intend to kill them. The ringleader demands that Robin tell him of four deathtraps that he and Batman have escaped from; if the boss can't figure out he method they used to get free in at least one, he promises to set them free. Of course, when Robin stumps him, he reveals that it was all a plot to learn more about how the Caped Crusader has escaped death traps in the past, so that he can design an escape-proof trap:

Comments: A very cool story, especially considering how important the death trap theme became during the Batman TV show. Interestingly, machine gun shooting over water theme became a key part of a much later Batman story:

Detective #222:

A criminal gang comes up with an interesting swindle. They reveal to a wealthy man that Batman is not actually one person, but a rotating group of four men who periodically must replenish their ranks when one of the Batmen is killed or otherwise incapacitated. Of course, the point is to swindle the man out of large sums of money for their Batmobile and Batplane, which never get delivered. Fortunately Batman and Robin learn of the plot and help the wealthy man break up the gang.

Comments: This is one of the best ideas for a story in the Batman canon. The swindle is credible and interesting, and the resolution of the story quite satisfying. I would not put this story in the "classic" category, but it's only a notch below that lofty perch.

The concept of Batman as a celebrity began to be explored in this issue, and there would be many more examples over the next few years. An entrepreneur gets the idea of creating a museum based on the Bat-Cave, but Commissioner Gordon threatens to shut it down. Meanwhile, a crook is trying to buy Wayne Manor because he knows that there's a big cavern underneath it that he can use as a base of operations. Bruce steps in and buys the museum so that he can move all his trophies there, as the crook now plans on tunneling into the Bat-Cave. Eventually Batman and Robin get the evidence to put the crook behind bars, and convince him simultaneously that the former cavern was flooded by the river that runs through it.

Comments: Batman as a celebrity was a natural outgrowth of the 1950s Batman, who operated openly and in the daylight. The story itself is interesting, although perhaps a little too conveniently for plot purposes, Batman and Robin do nothing to dissuade Commissioner Gordon from shutting down the museum.

In Detective #224, the underworld becomes convinced that Batman is secretly a robot, due to some metal protection he was wearing for plane testing. The Dynamic Duo take advantage of this belief to crack a gang, actually creating a robotic Batman controlled by Robin along the way. The crooks seize the opportunity to steal the Batman robot, but in the end Batman conceals himself inside the steel skeleton and defeats their plot.

Comments: Interesting story, of course inspired by the science fiction craze about robots in the 1950s.

Overall: Two terrific stories (#220 and #222), and no real clunkers in this batch. The Silver Age Batman was not his finest hour, but you would not guess that from these early SA tales.

Robin's Solo Stories

2010-03-01T17:44:00.000-08:00

It's a little known, but true, bit of trivia that the character who appeared on the most DC covers in the 1940s was not Batman or Superman, but Robin, the Boy Wonder Batman and Superman appeared on virtually the same number of covers because they both popped up on their eponymous mags, their original mags (Detective and Action) and on every cover of World's Finest. But Robin was on every cover of Detective, Batman and World's Finest, plus a slew of Star Spangled covers.

In the first two stories, the pattern was the same; Alfred observed some object in the Batcave's trophy room and upon inquiring about it, learned that it was a memento of one of Robin's solo cases:

Both those stories featured other youngsters in trouble, a common theme in the Robin adventures for obvious reasons. In the first one, Robin goes undercover into a reform school and learns that a building engineer (apparently a janitor) is tutoring the kids in the ways of adult crime. In the second, he helps out a boy movie star who's secretly a chicken despite apparent bravery in his films.

The third story is a very offbeat tale of three boy wonders: Robin, a child violinist, and a brilliant teen-aged scientist. They are given a test to escape a house that will blow up in 30 minutes, but getting out alive is not easy:

But it turns out it was all to settle an argument on what type of child prodigies to train at a new school for geniuses:

Robin also developed his own "Rogues' Gallery" during this run. Perhaps the most notable was The Clock:

The Clock made at least three appearances in the Robin solo stories, and a different version was later retconned as Batman's first foe (in Detective #265).

The Unaudacity of Mope

2010-02-03T14:47:00.000-08:00

DC had a habit of slightly changing the names of famous people when they wanted them to appear in their magazines. I assume this was some sort of legal mechanism to avoid a lawsuit. But here's a real oddity from Batman #57. To set the stage, the Joker is doing crimes in front of major TV and radio comedians. Like this:

The comedian in that bit is clearly intended to be Eddie Cantor.

And in another scene:

Obviously intended to be Bob Hope. Now here's the oddball part. Elsewhere in that very same issue appeared this ad:

It's even stranger when you consider that at least two comedians, Milton Berle and Jack Benny, are mentioned by name with no changes However, neither of those stars actually appeared in the story, which may account for the different treatment.

Secrets of the Bat-Cave Part I

2010-01-17T19:29:00.000-08:00

Originally, there was no "cave" as such; in Detective #33, Bruce slips into his "secret laboratory":

The concept of hidden rooms and sliding panels was a staple of boys' fiction from Edgar Rice Burroughs through the Hardy Boys and beyond.

In Detective #63 we learn that Batman parks the Batmobile in the barn located on his property and then enters Wayne Manor through an underground tunnel.

The next time around, the only thing we saw was the Trophy Room, and it certainly appeared to be located above ground:

That's from Batman #12 (August-September 1942). Later, in that same issue, we got the very first view of the cutaway of Wayne Manor, showing the underground "hangars":

As you can see, it's just a glorified basement, with no indication of stalactites or bats.

In Batman #16, Alfred stumbles upon the sliding panel that leads to this:

In the Batman serial from 1943, the second episode was entitled The Bat's Cave. Batman and Robin bring a crook back there and interrogate him, with the bats flying about so unnerving the criminal that he tells everything that he knows.

Finally, in Detective #83, we got our first real look at the Bat-Cave in the comics:

The intruder in the Bat-Cave turns out to be their butler, who's exercising. Yep, this issue also saw the debut of the slender Alfred.

Much more Bat-Cave secrets to come!

Jerry Robinson

2010-01-12T09:07:00.000-08:00

Jerry Robinson (along with Dick Sprang) was one of the two major Batman artists of the early 1940s. As I mentioned in a recent post, Robinson was the master of light and shadows. Here are some examples from Detective #76:

Characters outside the light portrayed in purple? That's Robinson's signature; there are probably a dozen examples of it in this issue alone. Check out this night-time street scene:

Notice the nice little details there; the storm sewer, the manhole cover, the car or truck coming into the picture from the left, the small blotches of light in the inky (literally in this case) darkness.
Like a movie director, Robinson knew where to place the camera:

More terrific shadow work here:

Notice how the coloring on this panel conveys the three-dimensionality of the city:

The lighter, pastel blue in the background makes it clear it's behind the more solid blue which is behind the purple building. It's the same concept that ACG would exploit years later in its "TrueVision" 3-D comics.

Even The Silliest Stories...

2010-01-09T09:49:00.000-08:00

Can tell us something. Consider this tale:

Now of course the notion of anybody living in a glass house is rather absurd; there is the obvious problem of privacy. In the story, a crooked developer of steel houses is trying to drive his glass-house competitor out of business with thugs. Eventually the steel house is revealed as unsuitable as it attracts a lightning bolt, which causes devastation to the structure.

Crazy story, it's true. But it's reflective of its era, the immediate post-WWII period. After the war ended, there was a tremendous pent-up demand for housing. Very few new homes had been constructed during the Depression or the war years. Now all those servicemen had returned home from Europe and the Pacific, and they were getting married and having kids, sparking the great postwar baby boom. They needed housing, and developers rushed to fill that need. Levittown, and many more suburbs like it, sprang up all over the landscape.

You can say similar things about this story:

Most people snort at the idea of Ace, the Bathound, although as I mentioned here he was valuable enough that he appeared on many Batman and Detective covers of that era; surely more than any character other than Batman and Robin themselves. Why did Bathound arrive in June 1955?

Again, it reflected what was happening in society. During the depression, many people had moved to the big cities, where the few jobs that were available could be found. Now that suburbia had sprung up (and America experienced an era of greater prosperity), people began buying dogs for their kids. You can see signs of it all over pop culture, if you look hard enough. Not only did Superboy get his own dog a few months earlier (Krypto), but the long-running TV show Lassie began in 1954. Remember Old Yeller, the Disney tear-jerker? DC had a long-running comic entitled Rex, the Wonder Dog that lasted from for 46 issues from 1952-1959.

What about the plague of aliens that arrived during the Jack Schiff era? The 1950s were filled with reports of flying saucers, of alien invasions, with movies like The Day the Earth Stood Still, or The Blob, or Invasion of the Body-Snatchers. To a certain extent, I think this was caused by the expanding field of rocketry; as we began to look outward, we realized that other worlds might be doing the same thing.

A lot of these things look crazy or zany from our lofty perch in the 21st century. But they reflect their times.

The Fill In the Legend Era

2010-01-03T05:00:00.000-08:00

In the beginning, there was no need to fill in the legend, because there was no reason to suppose that Batman would become an enduring part of the landscape. Comic heroes came and went. Captain America, the Human Torch, the (Alan Scott) Green Lantern, the (Jay Garrick) Flash, the Black Terror... all those characters were gone from the scene after about 1949.

But when Batman did not join them in limbo, the writers and editors began filling in the legend for us. Obviously the first salvo in this effort was the expansion of Batman's origin tale in Batman #47. Over the next decade there were many stories that contributed to rounding out our understanding of the Caped Crusader, and for some reason, most of these tales were published in Detective Comics.

In Detective Comics #205, Robin asks Batman about how he initially found the Bat-Cave and:

And although elements of the story have changed significantly (for example, Bruce did not buy Wayne Manor but grew up it), the idea that he discovered the Bat-Cave by falling into it has endured, being depicted in Dark Knight Returns and in the Batman Begins movie.

The next bit of legend filling came in Detective #226's When Batman Was Robin. We learn how Batman first trained to become a detective:

As with several other stories in this era, this one contains some parts that contradict the legend. For example, Bruce explains that his parents were abroad that summer, but in the story he appears to be 15-16 or so, much older than most origins show him when Thomas and Martha Wayne were murdered.

Realizing that he needs to keep his identity secret, Bruce decides to wear a colorful costume (very much like Robin's down to the "R" monogram on his chest, so that Harris won't find out his real name. As Bruce learns detection, he must also be careful to avoid giving Harvey clues to his real name:

Of course, avoiding one clue means giving another; Harris learns from that exchange that Bruce's parents must be fairly wealthy. Over the course of the story, Harris teaches him many lessons, and in the end discovers his real identity. Harris explains in a letter (sent upon his death):

Simply wonderful.

The concept of various experts training Bruce in the skills he would need as Batman was continued in Detective #227. Barret Kean is getting too old to play a leading role on stage or screen, so his agent suggests setting up a school to teach young actors about makeup. And fortunately, he has an old pupil who can vouch for his abilities:

And after an interesting case involving an attempt by the underworld to discover Batman's true features, there's a very similar ending to the prior issue:

Another one of Batman's experts is Lee Collins. Collins threw the boomerang as part of a sideshow act. He impressed Batman by helping him catch a crook, and:

So not only did Collins teach Batman how to throw, but he also created the very first Batarang!

I believe there is a story out there about the guy who taught Batman lock-picking as well, but I can't quite put my hands on it at the moment. It's possible that it's a more recent story. Anybody?

Another aspect of the legend was filled in with Detective #235. This issue includes the famous story, The First Batman. We learn that Thomas Wayne had worn a bat costume and fought crime himself, while Bruce was still a youngster. It happened that some crooks showed up at a masquerade ball which Thomas attended. This story also revealed that Bruce's parents were not killed by a happenstance robber, but that it was a planned revenge murder by one of the crooks Wayne pere had apprehended.

Detective #265 contains what appears to be the final story of the "Fill In the Legend" era, with Batman's First Case.

We see the troubles Batman had capturing his first crook, and the lessons that he learned from his experience. Incidentally, Bill Jourdain pointed out last summer, that particular story is a swipe from a Golden Age Robin story in Star Spangled. It was also the first issue published with the editor credit of Jack Schiff, which may (or may not) explain why it was effectively the end of the Fill In the Legend Era of Batman. By all accounts, Schiff was the de facto editor for years before that. And yet, from almost the moment he took over the Batman family officially, the stories changed dramatically.

Alfred--Part I

2009-12-30T10:55:00.000-08:00

Alfred the butler first appeared in Batman #16. Here he is:

Yep, Alfred was not always the slender figure of a man that we have grown to know and love over the years; for the first eight months of his existence in the Batman family he was portly and rather tall as well. But this was only one of the many changes made to the character over the years, as we shall see.

Batman and Robin first encounter him at the docks as he's entering America. Some criminals they are trailing attempt to steal Alfred's valise. The three of them chase the crooks off, and Alfred advises Batman that they have something in common:

Well, of course Batman and Robin think that's a pretty good joke, since Alfred won't know where to call on them. Imagine their surprise, therefore, when an hour or two later he shows up at Wayne Mansion. Not to worry, though; he hasn't discovered their secret identities yet. He explains:

Jarvis has passed on, explains Alfred, and extracted from the latter a promise that he will serve Bruce and Dick. They decide to let him stay for the night.

But the crooks who tried to steal his valise have trailed him as well. Bruce and Dick, hearing the burglar alarm, quickly change into their fighting outfits and chase after the crooks, leaving Alfred alone with the third criminal. They battle it out and Alfred gets lucky, having a shield conk the crook when he missed with a punch. And as it happens:

Alfred heads down the secret stairway, discovers the crime laboratory and the Batplane and quickly reaches the appropriate deduction that his "mawsters" are the Dynamic Duo. Meanwhile, Batman and Robin have tracked down the crooks to an abandoned theatre, but they are ambushed and tied up. Fortunately, Alfred allows the crook he subdued to escape, so that he can follow him to the hideout. He saves Batman and Robin, and the three of them combine forces to stop the crooks, whose plan was to steal the crown jewels from one of Alfred's fellow passengers on the ship.

At first, they're impressed with his detective work, but when they discover that it was mostly luck, they decide that perhaps they can risk having him around. After all, he's not all that smart and won't discover their secret identities. However:

This characterization of Alfred, as a bumbling amateur detective with a great deal of luck, applied for the first several years. However, there were signs early on that Alfred's character might develop into something different.

In Batman #18, Alfred saves Batman and Robin with some quick thinking. They have been overcome with gas by Tweedledum and Tweedledee. Alfred rescues them, lowers them out the window, then leaves the hotel that the Deevers are using as their hideout in a huff:

The next big moment in Alfred's life came in Detective #83. Sensing that he needed to slim down a bit, Alfred decided to take a vacation at a fat farm. The results were quite startling:

Reportedly, the change was instituted to make Alfred look more like the butler in the Batman movie serial that was issued right around the same time. You can see the movie Alfred about 4:05 into this video:

And in Batman #22, the newly slender Alfred got his first real cover appearance and his own backup feature:

This actually made Alfred the first DC supporting character to graduate to his own feature; Lois Lane, Girl Reporter commenced the following month in Superman.

Both features were played (at the time) for laughs. Alfred's stories followed a simple pattern. While pursuing his detective hobby, Alfred would encounter a pair of situations, one of which would arouse his suspicions. He would follow up on that one, and inevitably discover that it had a simple and innocuous explanation. But by amazing coincidence when he followed up the second situation, it would turn out to be criminal activity, and Alfred would, in some bumbling manner, capture the villains.

For example, in the debut story, Alfred is taking notes on criminal detection at the Gotham City library. He meets a practicing professor of criminology, then overhears a very suspicious conversation at the next table:

But when he follows the two men, he discovers that they are simply writers for a radio drama series coming up with a new plot idea. Chagrined, he heads off to meet his professor friend (or is it fiend):

But in his bumbling manner, Alfred manages to get hold of the nitro that the professor uses to blow up safes, and threatening the crooks with it he manages to get them to accompany him to the nearest police station.

The Alfred stories lasted until Batman #32, when they were abruptly dropped (the Lois Lane shorts also disappeared not long after). For the most part, this also was pretty much the end of the concept of Alfred as a detective, although there were a few other tales where this aspect of the character were featured. Alfred more or less faded into the background until the Silver Age, when further big changes occurred.

Much more Alfred to come!

Anarky in the USA?

2009-12-26T10:55:00.000-08:00

One of the weirder characters in the Batman saga was introduced in Detective #608. Anarky is played as something of an anti-hero. On the one hand, he opposes injustice; on the other, his methods are extreme:

The character getting zapped there is rock star and drug pusher "Johnny Vomit". Of course, the template for JV is Johnny Rotten, the Sex Pistols' lead singer; the Sex Pistols first big hit was Anarchy in the UK.

Anarky gets his inspiration from letters to the editor of the Gotham Gazette. A woman writes about the pollution in the Gotham River, and Anarky takes things (including a chemical magnate's head) into his own hands:

The chemical magnate was found "dying" (we're not told if he actually died) along with the tape of Anarky addressing the citizens of Gotham. In the story, we are introduced to the Marcin family: Mike, his son Lonnie and "Mom". From the context it is clear that one of them will turn out to be Anarky. But get Alfred's reaction to Anarky:

A "kindred spirit"? "Someone who will find a lot of support"? Yeesh, the Alan Grant run was suffused with a lot of this moral relativism, which just plain doesn't work with Batman.

In the next day's paper, there's a letter complaining about a bank building being constructed on city-owned land, "when what's needed are houses for the homeless living there." A couple of homeless Vietnam vets are there to protest, and Bruce comments:

You know, it's a shame there wasn't some millionaire philanthropist handy to buy the land and construct the low-rent housing. Later that evening, Anarky breaks into the construction site and begins destroying property, aided by the homeless vets:

"Legs" popped up in several stories around this time. Anarky escapes but Batman is hot on his tail as he enters the Gotham Insurance Company building. It appears that Mike Marcin (the father) is Anarky, but:

And later, we get some moral relativism from Batman and Commissioner Gordon:

It goes on for another couple more panels like that. BTW, this was in the era after Jason Todd's death and before Tim Drake became the third Robin, which explains the musing about whether Lonnie could be another Robin.

Anarky returned in Detective #620. Tim has started his training, and is trying to find out who's stealing millions with a computer. He gets a big clue here:

Tim tracks the activity down to Gotham's Juvenile Hall, where he confronts Lonnie. Once again, we get the sob sister routine:

And here:

Despite the name, Anarky sounds significantly more like a cardboard communist:

Anarky has reappeared a dozen or more times in the 20 years since his debut. He had a pair of miniseries in 1997 and 1999; I read one of them but found it boring and overly philosophical. According to the DC Comics Encyclopedia, in a later story it was revealed that Lonnie was adopted by the Marcins and is actually the illegitimate son of the Joker.

Some Golden Age Continuity Examples

2009-12-22T11:20:00.000-08:00

Over at the always awesome Comic Treadmill, H has another one of his terrific posts on the Prop Stars, the giant props that featured in many Batman stories. But note this part:

Finally, today’s entry closes with two more circles, a Giant Prop Roulette Wheel and Ball, making 8 circular Giant Props this entry. I had already uncovered a flashback panel to this story in Batman 76 (May 1953). Who knew it was referencing an actual story from six years earlier? That kind of continuity just wasn’t done in the Golden Age. Color me impressed.

Actually, I've discovered that the Golden Age frequently had bits of continuity in flashback sequences. Maybe, back in the 1960s and 1970s we didn't know it because there were no resources like the Grand Comics Database, and so we assumed that it was made up by the writers. But that does not appear to be generally the case.

For starters, let's consider the famed story, The Secret Life of the Catwoman, from Batman #62. In that tale, Catwoman is knocked unconscious by a blow to the head. When she regains her senses, she has lost all memory of her years as the Catwoman, but recovered her memory of what came before, when she was an airline stewardess known as Selena Kyle. Batman and Robin confront her with evidence of her criminal past here:

Nine Lives Has the Catwoman comes from Batman #35. Oddly, though, the action shown is not duplicated in the original; in fact, it's Batman who uses the whip to prevent Catwoman from shooting him:

The Duped Domestics is from Batman #22, while The Claws of the Catwoman first saw publication in Batman #42, and The Lady Rogues in Batman #45.

My personal favorite example of continuity comes from Detective #220's The Second Batman and Robin Team. Medieval scientist Roger Bacon makes a startling discovery:

Reading from left to right, Peril in Greece from Batman #38, It Happened in Rome from Batman #24, and Batman and the Vikings from Batman #52.

In Detective #145, Robin/Dick Grayson loses his memory. Hoping to trigger his recovery, Bruce takes him to a movie showing some of Batman's greatest adventures:

The Fowls of Fate popped up in Batman #48 and features a similar sequence to that shown above:

The Underworld Surgeon appeared in Detective #131 and did indeed feature Robin rescuing Batman from a similar predicament.

Those are all the ones I can think of off the top of my head, but here's the one that H mentioned in his post. In Batman #76, the Caped Crusader wants to join the Danger Club, and has to tell of three occasions in the past when he faced danger. Here's the first:

As noted by H, that peril first occurred in Batman #44:

Here's the second danger that Batman mentioned having faced:

This refers to The 1001 Trophies of Batman, from Detective #158.

And the third danger:

Batman first encountered The White Whale in Batman #9.

Any others that you can remember? I suspect that these types of flashbacks would be most common in stories featuring returning criminals and (as in Detective #145 above) amnesia stories.

Harvey Bullock

2009-12-18T10:20:00.000-08:00

One of the long-lasting characters in the modern Batman era deserves his own post.

"Lt." (later Sgt.) Bullock first appeared in Detective #441:

But after that July 1974 appearance, Bullock appears to have laid low, not popping up in a Batman story again until nine years later, in Batman #361 (July 1983). What happened? Well, there was a brief period in there where Archie Goodwin was editing Detective (issues 437-443, exactly corresponding to the Goodwin-Simonsen Manhunter run as the backup feature). I suspect that Schwartz consigned Bullock to the dustbin when he resumed editing Tec with #444.

In Batman #361, Commissioner Gordon mentions to Batman that he's been pressured to add an "assistant" by Mayor Hill. But he's stunned when his new aide walks through the door:

As you can probably gather from that opening "belch", Bullock is portrayed as something of a slob, a definitely uncouth character. In many ways, he seems patterned on Oscar Madison from the Odd Couple, although that would change. Another inspiration would be Fat Ollie Weeks, a recurring character in Ed McBain's 87th Precinct novels, who also was clearly the template for Detective Bunz in the Hill Street Blues TV series.

Initially, it is safe to say that Bullock and the Batman did not have a friendly relationship. At this point in the Batman series, Gordon and Batman had become pretty good friends, with Batman often referring to the Commish as "Jim". Since Bullock was portrayed in an adversarial relationship with Gordon, it's not surprising that Batman would be dismissive:

And yes, he was portrayed as a bumbling idiot:

Bullock had initially planned to testify in a case against Gordon, but after receiving an apparent threat from Batman, he admits that he might have been wrong about the Commissioner not making enough of an effort to capture a criminal who was also an old friend.

In Batman #364, Bullock pulls a little prank that nearly has disastrous consequences:

But he repents:

In his next appearance, we learn that Harvey may be a pig, but he's not a rat:

And that pretty much sets the stage for the character. Bullock has mostly been seen as a slob, a klutz, and a good cop, in roughly that order, although he's also been willing to bend the rules a little bit:

Which may be why Batman and Harvey eventually became friendlier over the years.

In later years we learned Bullock's big secret; he's a old-time film buff.

Batman's Travels Through Time

2009-12-13T08:43:00.000-08:00

This is one of those topics that I'll have to complete in stages, as the topic is so vast. According to the Grand Comics Database, Professor Carter Nichols, who came up with the concept of time travel in the Batman canon, appeared in 31 stories prior to 1964 (when he disappeared like much of the Batman family).

When he first appeared it was apparent that his "method" of sending someone through time involved nothing more than hypnosis. From Batman #24's It Happened in Rome:

And a few panels later, alarmed that Bruce has not returned, Dick asks to be sent back to rescue him. We see the technique for the first time:

Now the concept of people being hypnotized into the past is a bit silly, but let's remember that John Carter of Edgar Rice Burroughs' Mars novels used to travel to Mars by doing little more than wishing himself across space. However, it certainly appears that the editors, writers and artists recognized this weakness, and while the hypnotism was never quite discarded, they did surround Professor Nichols with scientific-looking equipment that we could imagine was really doing the heavy lifting.

That initial story featured Ancient Rome and included a sequence with Batman in a chariot race (probably inspired by Ben-Hur; the book came out in 1880 and was one of the best-selling books of all time). The next appearance was in Batman #27's All for One, One for All and clearly was an homage to The Three Musketeers by Dumas. The Dynamic Duo went back to King Arthur's Court in Batman #36.

Heh, looks like he's got time-travel rays shooting out of his eyes there.

One interesting aspect of the early time travel stories are all the "doubles" for characters from Batman's then present-day adventures. For example, in It Happened in Rome, Batman meets the Jester, who strongly resembles the Joker, although in a twist the Jester befriends Batman and saves his life on one occasion. While in Batman's King Arthur story:

In fact, that tale continues the long-running motif of Batman "accidentally" letting the Catwoman get away.

Another common theme had Bruce and Dick traveling to the past to solve some mystery clouding the reputation of someone in the present. For example, in Batman #52's Batman and the Vikings, Bruce is startled to find a stone carving of a man bearing a distinct resemblance to him. Even more surprising is the inscription:

Although the man in the carving is no ancestor of Bruce's, he feels compelled to learn the full story. In the end, he finds that the part of the inscription that was cut off tells a different story:

This theme was used over and over again in the Carter Nichols stories. In Batman #93, an archaeologist finds his reputation ruined when he locates a stone carving showing a T-Rex chasing some cavemen. Since dinosaurs died out well before the first caveman it appears that he's been taken in by a fraud. But Bruce and Dick go back in time and discover that the T-Rex had been frozen in some ice, and only came to life briefly when a fire melted the block. They found the rest of the carving which showed the dino in the cube. I talked about that story over at Silver Age Comics.
In Batman #89 the Dynamic Duo travel back in time and clear Commissioner Gordon's great-grandfather:

And in Batman #99 Batman is confronted by a reporter with an old newspaper that alleges he used guns one time in the old West, but it turns out to be a gent with a similar name:

In a twist, Batman and Robin brought sci-fi writer Jules Verne forward into the present in the Return of Mr Future from Batman #98. A crook has stolen Verne's greatest invention, a sonic gun. Verne has thought of a way to defeat the weapon and must help Batman design and create it, defeating the criminals. Afterwards, they show him some of his predictions that came true:

Cute story. One of my favorite Batman stories of all time is the Second and Batman and Robin Team from Detective #220. In that story, medieval scientist Roger Bacon discovers Professor Nichols secret and sends two young men who look remarkably like Bruce and Dick forward in time:

In Batman #67, Robin travels forward in time to help the Batman of 3051, whose junior partner has broken a leg:

Although this is not a Carter Nichols story, that panorama is so beautiful that I couldn't resist including it in this post.

Much more Batman time travel to come!

Update: Also, check out Bill Jourdain's column on Professor Nichols from last year.

The Super-Batman

2009-12-08T17:40:00.000-08:00

There are several of these stories in the Batman canon, including World's Finest #87 and #95. The temptation to give Batman the powers of his buddy Superman was obviously hard to resist. I will say that although this is a terrific story (drawn by Sprang), Moldoff's cover leaves something to be desired. The background is dull and uninspired, and Batman looks like he's about to do a face-plant in front of his enemies instead of swooping in on them.

In the story, Batman feels an odd compulsion to go out without the assistance of Robin one evening. As he flies in the Batplane, he is suddenly transported into another dimension, where he meets his alien counterpart:

Who explains that he was inspired to become the Batman of his world by viewing the Caped Crusader's adventures on Earth. Of course, this is very familiar territory, with at least two future Batman-inspired fighters (Bron Wayne and Brane Taylor), not to mention the foreign clones like the Knight and the Squire from England, the Legionary from Italy, and the Gaucho from Argentina.

We learn that the science on Zur-en-Arrh is far advanced over that of Earth:

The alien Batman uses this device to stall the engines of his quarry. However, he now faces a problem beyond his abilities and science: An invasion force. Fortunately Earth's Batman has super-powers on Zur-en-Arrh:

At first Batman's super powers are enough to handle the aliens, but then:

Eventually the Batman of Zur-en-Arrh realizes that his Bat-radia will prevent the aliens from turning invisible, and his Terran counterpart is able to wipe up the invasion force:

Batman returns to Earth. Was it all a dream? Nope, because in his hand is the Bat-radia, which his buddy from Zur-en-Arrh gave him before sending him homeward.

Comments: Definitely a fun and entertaining story, livened a bit by Sprang's gorgeous artwork. This story was referenced in the recent Grant Morrison run in Batman, although as far as I can figure out, the words "Zur-en-Arrh" were used as a trigger phrase.

The King of Clubs

2009-12-04T15:23:00.000-08:00

One thing that becomes noticeable when you read Batman is that he (both in his costumed identity and as Bruce Wayne) was an inveterate joiner. I am going to try to chronicle all the various clubs that he participated in; it's going to be quite a list.

Batman #40 showed our hero becoming the 13th member of the 13 Club, a group dedicated to wiping out superstition:

Bruce belonged to the the $1,000,000 Star Club, which, if I recall correctly, was made up of people who had been insured for $1 million or more.

In World's Finest #50, it was revealed that Batman was not just a member of the Bullet-Hole Club, he was its president. It was a dubious honor, considering the requirements:

Batman joined the Danger Club in Batman #76:

He appeared numerous times in the Justice League of America (and once in the Justice Society of America).
He was a charter member of the Mystery Analysts of Gotham City:

The Dynamic Duo were made honorary members of the Safari Club in Batman #111:

We learned that Batman belonged to the Voyagers Club in Detective #147:

It should come as no surprise to learn that millionaire playboy Bruce Wayne belonged to the Yacht Club (Batman #49):

Bruce was also a member of the Hobby Horse club, for collectors:

Any others you can think of?

Building a Better Criminal

2009-11-30T20:58:00.000-08:00

One of the frequent plot themes in the Golden Age Batman was the concept of improving the common crook. There are at least a half-dozen stories that fit this pattern. Here's one from World's Finest #51.

Boston Burns is about to be released from prison for the second time. Deciding that perhaps he will be reformed by seeing the latest criminology methods, Batman takes Boston on a tour:

But, as we can see from the splash, he is inspired in the opposite direction:

But word gets out about the school, and Commissioner Gordon assigns Batman to the case. Wearing a disguise as a hoodlum, he gets accepted to the school. Unfortunately, an explosion caused by a careless instructor results in his disguise being revealed, and so a manhunt begins on the island where the crime school is located, with the crooks tracking the Caped Crusader. But he manages to keep on the run, tricking the criminals with various shenanigans:

Eventually he manages to signal a passing plane, and the Coast Guard arrives to mop up the villains. We get the inevitable gag ending:

Similar "Building a Better Criminal" stories include The Masterminds of Crime, from Batman #70, Crime School for Boys from Batman #3, and the Olympic Games of Crime from Batman #82.

Why did these stories largely disappear from Batman in the Silver Age? I suspect the obvious culprit: the Comics Code Authority. One of the requirements of the CCA was that crime never be portrayed as glamorous or deserving of emulation.

Detective #177

2009-11-28T12:49:00.000-08:00

I mentioned in discussing the Robin story from Star Spangled #88 that there were other tales where Robin obsessed a little bit over Batman having sent an innocent man to the electric chair. Detective #177's The Robberies in the Batcave is another good example.

As Batman works to solve another case, he sends Robin to find the Batcave's centrifuge, but it's missing from its place. Robin remembers:

At first they assume that it's simply been misplaced, but then Robin notices that the electron microscope used in that same case is also missing. Later, they face some crooks who get away using Batman and Robin's Pontoon Boots which enable them to walk across water. Realizing that somebody has stolen items from the Batcave, they do an inventory of their equipment:

They decide to monitor the entrance to the Batcave. We get another one of those panels where Bruce and Dick are sharing a bedroom:

LOL! Yeah, I don't think they'll be sleeping right through that alarm! But the next day, they discover more missing items from the Batcave:

Batman tries shadowing Peel. But aside from visiting a cold storage facility, he does nothing suspicious and comes nowhere near the Batcave. Meanwhile Robin patrols the home front, until he gets tired and takes a nap. Sure enough, the thief chooses that moment to steal another item.

The next night, Bruce awakens to discover Dick missing. He goes down to the Batcave, where he discovers:

He realizes that Robin's sleep-walking and doing this under the control of his subconscious mind. The memory of Robin's fear that their detective work may have led to the execution of innocent men provides the reason. But then Batman notices something:

Batman confronts Peel, who confesses:

Wanting to break the news to Robin gently, Batman decides that they should review all their old death-penalty cases. Sure enough, after going carefully through them all, the Boy Wonder is convinced that each man was guilty of the crime for which he was executed. Only then does Batman let Robin know who was really behind the robberies in the Batcave.

Comments: I love psychological stories like this, and of course it also has the terrific Sprang/Paris combination on the art. GCD tentatively credits the script to Bill Finger. There were a lot of stories in the '40s and '50s where Batman expressed satisfaction at sending crooks to their ultimate execution.

Riddler and Cluemaster

2009-11-25T21:31:00.000-08:00

This series, running from Detective Comics #705-707, is a lot of fun. Two of the Riddler's molls are holding hostages at the courthouse. Is the Riddler about to appear in court? No, it appears they are after someone else:

Meanwhile, the Riddler himself makes an escape from the hospital. But what does he want with the Cluemaster, who is described by virtually everybody in the story as a low-budget Riddler? Well, we find out at the end of the first issue:

So the Riddler sends Batman off on a chase around the city after his clues. Brown thinks that this means he'll get to ride shotgun in the Batmobile, but:

When they get to the first location, the Cluemaster tries a little bluff, refusing to get back into the trunk. But Batman calls him and:

Heheh, the Cluemaster definitely comes off quite the worse in this adventure. However, before feeling too sorry for him, remember that while he's riding in the trunk he talks to the Riddler, offering to help him out.

Predictably, at one of the locations, Batman and the Cluemaster come upon some hoodlums burying a body. Batman fights them while Brown runs and hides, much to the annoyance of the Riddler, who insists that he go back. And when he does, Batman is unconscious and the hoods are about to shoot him:

But the hoods realize they can shoot Brown in the head and not set off the explosives, so he wades into them, fighting for his life. One of the thugs smacks him over the head with a shovel, but at that moment Robin arrives and Batman regains consciousness and they quickly subdue the crooks. They decide to pull a switch, with Robin transporting the Cluemaster to the locations the Riddler insists on (there's a GPS in the explosive vest, so he can check). They put a vocal modulator on Robin so his voice deepens a bit and sounds more like Batman. But the next clue stumps the Boy Wonder and Oracle (who's assisting from her computers):

Fortunately the Cluemaster is able to assist once they've narrowed it down to a hotel suite (putting on the Ritz). This results in a significant promotion for Brown:

Eventually they work out the clues and discover that the Riddler is planning to steal a scorecard from a 1919 game between the Chicago "Black Sox" (i.e., the famed team that threw the World Series) and the Gotham Knights. The part that makes the scorecard valuable is that it was kept by Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis, who was appointed Major League Baseball's Commissioner in the wake of the scandal. However, I confess to being a little disappointed when Oracle reveals that the scorecard is expected to sell for $50,000. Say what? This is a 1997 story; 50 grand is peanuts for a master criminal like the Riddler. Batman warns Robin not to be too close to Brown if things get tight on time:

Sure enough, the Cluemaster senses he's in trouble and tries to grab the wheel, resulting in the car flipping over. Fortunately Batman hits the Riddler's cellphone with a Batarang before he can dial the number that will explode the vest, and in the end the Riddler and the Cluemaster are headed back to prison.

Comments: I enjoyed this tale with the obvious exception of the value of the item in question. The story had a light, humorous touch which worked perfectly and the art (Nolan and Roach) complemented that well.

Star Spangled #88

2009-11-24T04:12:00.000-08:00

This is one of several psychological dramas involving Robin and the death penalty. Dick Grayson learns that one of his schoolmates is angry at Batman because his father is about to be executed based on work by the Caped Crusader. But the boy knows his dad couldn't have committed murder:

But when Dick confronts Batman about this, he gets rebuffed oddly enough to raise his suspicions:

Dick goes down to the Batcave and reviews the case, where he learns that Brent (the father of his classmate), Denton (the murder victim) and another man named Walsh were partners in an air freight business. Brent and Denton often quarreled about finances and one day Denton was found dead in the office, with Brent standing over him in a daze with a golf club (the murder weapon) in his hand.

Robin naturally suspects the remaining member of the partnership, Walsh. But it appears that he did not gain financially by the death of one partner and the pending execution of another:

However, it's obvious from the company Walsh is keeping that he's got some sort of racket going on. Robin pokes around and discovers that he's smuggling wanted gangsters out of the area. He's captured by some of the crooks and brought in to face Walsh again, who admits that's why he killed one partner and framed the other. He wanted to make sure that they didn't catch on to his other activities. Meanwhile, Robin is shocked to learn the time:

Robin gets free and basically disables the crooks, including Walsh, although Batman and the cops also arrive just in time to apply the finishing touches. Batman had realized all along that Brent didn't really commit the murder, and so the whole conviction and execution was staged. Brent's son, Jimmy, and Dick weren't told because they had to act naturally or Walsh would realize it was all a plot to make him reveal the motive behind the murder/frame-up.

The ending is pretty typical of these tales:

Incidentally, that rather gripping scene on the cover (which is reproduced on the splash page as well) never occurs in the book; it's apparently a bit of artistic license. My guess is that it's an homage/swipe of this famous Airboy cover from about a year and a half earlier:

Detective #79: Destiny's Auction

2009-11-22T17:04:00.000-08:00

One of my favorite Batman stories of all time comes from Detective #79. Three separate people see Madame Calagra, a fortune teller, who correctly predicts all of their immediate futures. She sees Judy O'Casson, an aspiring actress, moving from her current humble lodgings to a great palace. But when Judy returns to her shabby boarding house, she finds that she's been locked out, and the landlady won't let her have the trunk of belongings unless she pays the back rent.

Madame Calagra's next customer is Tremaine Wentworth, a former actor whom she predicts will be cast in a new role.

But as Wentworth heads home, he's hit by a car, and thus his new role is that of an amnesiac.

The third person seeking her advice is mobster Diamond Pete Ransome, who is pleased to learn that strong men will follow him on his next job. But of course, the strong men are Batman and Robin, who put Pete in jail. Will the cops find Pete's trunk, which contains evidence that would convict him of murder?

The common thread that ties all three together is that they have each lost a trunk which contains something valuable to them. A year later, Judy returns to the big city, Tremaine recovers his memory and Diamond Pete gets out of jail. They each try to recover their trunk, but find it has been placed up for auction.

Judy gets to the auction house first and bids on a trunk that looks like hers. Tremaine arrives shortly after and bids on the second trunk, while Diamond Pete arrives late and gets the last trunk. But, as you can probably guess, none of them end up purchasing his or her own trunk, but one of the others.

Pete discovers that his trunk contains the belongings of Tremaine Wentworth (as do Batman and Robin). The Dynamic Duo dash over to Wentworth's and help him open his trunk. It's a bunch of dresses and a manuscript for a play. It's an undiscovered work by a famous playwright named Claude Renner, and will surely be worth a fortune to Judy, whose name is found inside the trunk.

But this time the crooks, who wear disguises they found in Wentworth's trunk, beat Batman and Robin to the girl's hotel:

Batman saves the young lady, and when Diamond Pete tries to slip by, Wentworth recognizes his old disguises and Batman and Robin are able to capture the crooks. Judy explains that she was given the play by the famous writer shortly before he died, with instructions to only sell it to a producer who promises to cast her in the leading role. As it happens, Batman knows a possible "angel":

So Judy and Wentworth star in the play, which is a smash hit. And Diamond Pete gets the chair, as he deserves. At the end, Bruce and Dick decide to pay a visit themselves to the fortune teller:

A very tight little story by Don Cameron (according to the GCD) and gorgeous art by Jerry Robinson, who really gets the mood right. While Dick Sprang is my favorite Batman artist overall, I must confess that I prefer Robinson's image of the Caped Crusader as a lithe, gymnast-type.

Great Unknown Batman Stories #1: Marathon of Menace

2009-11-18T16:45:00.000-08:00

Batman #34 opened with Marathon of Menace, one of my favorite Batman stories of all time. The story begins in the past, when Marty Steele was a young man with a thirst for speed. He set records on land, air and sea, but now time has passed him by, and his doctors inform him that his heart will not take the strain. But Steele is still obsessed by racing and so he decides to sponsor a cross-country race.

The story features the experiences of three particular racers: Roy Damon, a blind scientist who hopes to test out his radar devices that can make it possible for him to race despite his handicap; "John Doe", a mystery man; and Glenda West, the spoiled heiress and niece of a major manufacturer of motors. Her uncle sees the promotional possibilities of having Glenda win the race, and contracts with some criminals to sabotage the other entrants.

Batman and Robin have decided to race along, but not for the purse or the glory, but to test out their abilities and equipment. We learn that there are three main legs of the race: From Gotham City to the Black Hills of South Dakota, then to the Grand Canyon and then to San Francisco, and contestants may use each form of transportation (car, boat, plane) only for one leg.

We get a little useful geography lesson here from Batman:

Both Damon and Doe have had boat problems due to the sabotage, and Glenda makes it to the first checkpoint:

But as she arrives, she spots the men monkeying with the other planes, and so they decide they have to eliminate her. Fortunately Batman and Robin arrive in the nick of time and save Glenda. But in the battle, John Doe's plane is shot and starts to leak fuel.

As Doe is flying through the Grand Canyon, Batman and Robin are riding in the Batboat below. Doe radios them for help due to his empty tank, and Robin makes a terrific rope-climb with a stunning backdrop:

Meanwhile Glenda and Roy are driving towards the finish line. A crook shoots out Roy's tire and Glenda stops to help:

And we learn how admirable Glenda is a bit later as Roy heads off with enthusiastic thanks. In fact, she did not have a spare tire, and is sacrificing her chance at victory.

John Doe wins the race, although he finishes slightly behind Batman (who was not officially an entrant). And Doe reveals himself to be Marty Steele, the man who sponsored the race:

Steele awards the prize to Roy Damon, who will use it to help other blind people. Glenda has learned to help others, and so everybody's happy, except possibly for Uncle George.

Comments: A wonderful story by Bill Finger with terrific art by Dick Sprang. Finger loved these types of stories where Batman and Robin are not necessarily the focus of the story, but characters who push the story along in parts. One of my other favorites is a very similar story from Detective #79 called Destiny's Auction. I should probably cover that story next.