By Bob Kane, Bill Finger & Jerry Robinson (DC Comics)
ISBN: 0-930289-60-9
The history of the American comicbook industry in almost every major aspect stems from the raw, vital and still powerfully compelling tales of twin icons published by DC/National Comics: Superman and Batman. It’s only fair and fitting that both those characters are still going strong and that their earliest adventures can be relived in chronological order in a variety of formats from relatively economical newsprint paperbacks to stunning, deluxe hardcover commemorative Archive editions.
This first bumper Batman edition, reprinting Detective Comics #27-50 (May 1939-April 1941) sees the grim solitary Darknight Detective begin his lifelong mission, picking up a youthful ally and far too many dedicated nemeses in a blistering collection of evocative and game-changing rollercoaster romps which utterly reshaped the burgeoning funnybook business and enthralled a generation of thrill-seeking kids of all ages.
After a stirring introduction from popular culture historian Rick Marschall the magic begins with “The Case of the Chemical Syndicate†by Bob Kane and collaborator Bill Finger from #27, wherein a cabal of sinister industrialists are progressively murdered until an eerie human bat intrudes on Police Commissioner Gordon’s stalled investigation and ruthlessly deals with the killer.
Issue #28 saw the fugitive vigilante crush the mob of jewel thief Frenchy Blake before encountering his very first psychopathic killer when ‘Batman Meets Doctor Death’ in #29. Confident of the innovation’s potential, Kane & Finger revived the mad medic for the very next instalment, before Gardner Fox scripted a two-part shocker which introduced the first bat-plane, Bruce Wayne’s girlfriend Julie Madison and vampiric horror ‘The Monk’: a saga which concluded in an epic chase across Eastern Europe and a spectacular climax in #32.
Detective Comics #33 featured ‘The Batman Wars Against the Dirigible of Doom’: a blockbusting disaster thriller which just casually slipped in the secret origin of the Gotham Guardian, as prelude to the air-pirate action, after which Euro-trash dastard Duc D’Orterre found his uncanny science and unsavoury appetites no match for the mighty Batman.
Issue #35 pitted the Cowled Crusader against crazed cultists murdering everyone who had seen their ruby idol, although the deaths were caused by a far more prosaic villainy, after which grotesque criminal genius Professor Hugo Strange debuted with his lethal man-made fog and lightning machine in #36, and an all-pervasive band of spies ultimately proved no match for the vengeful masked Manhunter in #37.
Detective Comics #38 (April 1940) changed the landscape of comicbooks forever with the introduction of ‘Robin, The Boy Wonder’: child trapeze artist Dick Grayson whose parents were murdered before his eyes and who joined Batman in a lifelong quest for justice, beginning, after the Flying Grayson’s killers were captured, with The Horde of the Green Dragon†– oriental Tong killers in Chinatown – from Detective #39 before the Dynamic Duo solved a string of murders on a movie set which almost saw Julie just another victim of the monstrous maniac ‘Clayface!’
Batman and Robin solved the baffling mystery of a kidnapped boy in #41 and ended another murder maniac’s rampage in ‘The Case of the Prophetic Pictures!’ before clashing with a corrupt mayor in #43’s ‘The Case of the City of Terror!’
An unparallelled hit, the stories perforce expanded their parameters in #44 with the dreamy fantasy of giants and goblins ‘The Land Behind the Light!’, and the Joker made his horrific Detective Comics debut in #45 with ‘The Case of the Laughing Death†whilst #46 features the return (and last appearance until 1977) of our hero’s most formidable scientific adversary in ‘Professor Strange’s Fear Dust’.
The drama was of a far more human scale in #47’s action-packed homily of parental expectation and the folly of greed ‘Money Can’t Buy Happiness’ whilst #48 found Batman and Robin defending America’s bullion reserves in ‘The Secret Cavern’ and they faced fresh horror in #49 from another old foe when ‘Clayface Walks Again’ as deranged actor Basil Karlo rekindled his passion for murder and resumed his attempts to kill Bruce Wayne’s girlfriend Julie …
The Batman yarn from Detective Comics #50 (April 1941) epically concludes this scintillating collection with a breathtaking rooftop and subterranean battle against acrobatic burglars in ‘The Case of the Three Devils’.
Bob Kane, Jerry Robinson and their compatriots created an iconography which carried the Batman feature well beyond its allotted life-span until later creators could re-invigorate it. They added a new dimension to children’s reading… and their work is still captivatingly accessible.
Moreover, these early stories set the standard for comic superheroes. Whatever you like now, you owe it to these stories. Superman gave us the idea, but writers like Bill Finger and Gardner Fox refined and defined the meta-structure of the costumed crime-fighter. Where the Man of Steel was as much Social Force and wish fulfilment as hero, Batman and Robin did what we ordinary mortals wanted to do. They taught bad people the lesson they deserved.
These are tales of elemental power and joyful exuberance, brimming with deep mood and addictive action. Comic book heroics simply don’t come any better.
© 1939, 1940, 1941, 1990 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.