Robin – Page 4 – Now Read This!

August 25, 2024August 23, 2024

Batman: The Sunday Classics 1943-1946

By Don Cameron, Bill Finger, Joe Samachson, Alvin Schwartz, Bob Kane, Jack Burnley, Fred Ray & various (Barnes & Noble/DC Comics/Kitchen Sink Press)
ISBN: 978-1-1402-4718-2 (Album HB) 978-0-87816-148-1 (PB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

If the newspaper comic strip was the 20^th century’s Holy Grail, the Holiest of Holies was a full-colour Sunday page. These stunningly produced showcases for talent were delivered to families all across America and the wider world and inescapably formed part of the fabric of the mass entertainment society: demanding and generating the best of the best. Such was absolutely the case of the 1940s Batman and Robin strip: coming late to the party but developing into arguably the highest quality comics-to-strips offering of all.

Although a highpoint in strip cartooning, both iterations of the Batman feature were cursed by ill-timing. After years of dickering the daily debuted at a time when newspaper publishing was hampered by wartime rationing, and a changing marketplace meaning these strips never achieved the circulation they deserved. However, Sundays were given a new lease of life in the 1960s when DC began reprinting vintage stories in 80-Page Giants and Annuals.

The superior quality adventures were ideal action-mystery short stories, adding an extra cachet of exoticism for young readers already captivated by enjoying tales of their heroes that were positively ancient and redolent of History with a capital “H”.

The stories themselves are broken down into complete single page instalments building into short tales averaging between 4 to 6 pages per adventure. Mandatory esoteric foes include such regulars as The Penguin (twice), Joker, Catwoman and Two-Face and all-original themed villains like The Gopher, The Sparrow and Falstaff, but the bulk of the yarns offer more prosaic criminals, if indeed there is any antagonist at all. However, a policy of shorter individual story sequences means that there were 26 complete adventures for modern fans to enjoy now. especially if DC ever reprint and produce a digital edition of these classic romps…

A huge benefit of work produced for an audience deemed “more mature” is the freedom to explore human interest stories such as exonerating wrongly convicted men, fighting forest fires or discovering the identity of an amnesia victim. There are even jolly seasonal yarns…

The writers included comic book veterans Don Cameron, Bill Finger, Joe Samachson and Alvin Schwartz with art by Bob Kane, Jack Burnley and Fred Ray and inking by Win Mortimer and Charles Paris. The letterer was tireless, invisible calligraphic master Ira Schnapp and the strips were all coloured by Raymond Perry.

As with the companion Dailies collection this compendium is packed with info features and a wealth of extra features such as biographical notes, a history of the strip, promotional features and artefacts, behind-the-scenes artwork and sketches, and much more: offering history, context, appraisals, appreciations and a wealth of merchandising material courtesy of Joe Desris. These are divided into ‘Getting the Job Done’, ‘A History of the Batman and Robin Sundays’, ‘Biographies’, ‘Bubble Gum Similarities’, ‘Previous Reprintings’, ‘The McClure Syndicate’s Promotional Book’, ‘Jack Burnley’s Pencils’ plus contemporaneous article ‘Batman – Backward Looking and Forward Leaning’ by scripter Alvin Schwartz.

With far more emphasis on fun and thrills and less of murder and sinister extended-by-design skulduggery, the masked manhunters launch the Sunday sessions with Cameron – or possibly Samachson – Kane & Paris depicting ‘The Penguin’s Crime-Thunderstorms’ (weeks 1-6, November 7^th – December 12^th 1943). This brief introductory sally sees the Dynamic Duo thwarting the bird-based bandit’s cunning scheme to use bad weather and his patented uniquely weaponised bumbershoots to pluck penniless the most infamous miser in Gotham.

Weeks 7-10 (December 19^th 1943 – January 9^th 1944 by Finger, Kane & Paris) set a nautical themes as ‘The Secret of Cap’n Plankton’s Ghost’ finds our playboy heroes fishing in their civilian identities when the resort of Pirate’s Cove is raided by an ancient vessel packing very modern artillery. The robbed rich folk all believe it the last descendent of an infamous old buccaneer, but Batman and Robin find that’s not the case at all when they lower the boom on the true culprits…

Finger, Burnley & Paris produced the next dozen delights beginning with western teaser ‘Jesse James Rides Again!’ (weeks 11-15, January 16^th – February 13^th 1944) as a train robbery reenactment is hijacked by opportunistic modern bandits with a degree of panache after which ‘The Undersea Bank Bandits’ (16-20 February 20^th – March 19^th 1944) employ mining and diving techniques to plunder from below Gotham’s streets whilst ‘Liquid Gold!’ (21-26, March 26^th – April 30^th) finds our heroes out west helping prospector’s daughter Ruth Parker bring in her first oil well despite the machinations of a cunning property speculator…

Comedy loomed large in ‘Cap’n Alfred’ (weeks 27-31, May 7^th – June 4^th) as the faithful manservant dabbles in nautical lore and celebrates his family’s maritime heritage by taking a part-time job skippering the Gotham Ferry. His tenure begins in the middle of a major hijacking spree but – happily for all concerned – his usual employers had come aboard to see him shine… or not…

A truly crafty, twisty tale of cross and double-cross follows as the Dynamic Duo rush to prove the innocence of a man who claims to be ‘Death Row’s Innocent Resident’ (32-39, June 11^th – July 30^th) after which Jack Burnley joined Finger and Paris for a season of superb thrillers starting with ‘The Mardi Gras Mystery’ (40-46, August 6^th – September 17^th) as Bruce and Dick head to the Big Easy and stumble into a deadly con game turned lethal treasure hunt led by a genially murderous giant dubbed Falstaff…

Back home and enjoying the bucolic delights of an upstate County Fair, the off-duty Duo discover that ‘An Attic Full of Art’ (weeks 47-53, September 17^th – November 5^th) left to a couple of innocent hicks is plenty of reason for city slicker art dealer Maxwell to connive, cheat and even commit murder to corner the market. Time for the other suits, lads…

The year turned with a beguiling fantasy fable as ‘There Was a Crooked Man…’ (54-61, November 12^th– December 31^st 1944) saw our heroes drawn into a seemingly sinister chase across the seediest sectors of Gotham in pursuit of a villain out of a nursery rhyme. There was however, a solid sensible explanation for the rollercoaster rush & tumble…

Things turn deadly serious during a visit to timber country as ‘Holy Smoke!’ (62-68, January 7^th – February 18^th 1945) sees a recovering pyromaniac scapegoated for a series of deliberate fires, until Batman deduces the real reason and exposes the true culprit after which humour and pathos return in ‘An English Sassiety Skoit’, (69-72, February 25^th – March 18^th). When a pretty con-artist impersonates Alfred’s never-seen Australian niece and looks to cash in on the Wayne fortune, Batman and Robin must intervene with breaking the old soul’s heart, but severely underestimate their manservant’s detective skills, after which the heroes head out west again and find ‘Rustling on a Reservation’ (73-78, March 25^th – April 29^th) whilst helping “Pueblo Indians” stop a systematic plunder spree designed to starve them out and steal their ancestral lands…

Another spate of subsurface capers signal the debut of an engineering super-criminal as ‘The Gopher: King of the Underworld!’ (79-85, May 6^th – June 17^th) has bandits use tunnels and building works in their thefts, leading the Caped Crusaders a merry dance down below before good old detective digging unearths the mystery mastermind.

Bob Kane returned in 15^th tale ‘The Tale of the Tinker Diamond’ (weeks 86-90, June 24^th – July 22^nd) as a gem cutter’s son is kidnapped to force his collusion in a massive jewel heist – until Batman intervenes – after which Schwartz, Burnley & Paris open the first of eight consecutive adventures with ‘A Pretty Amnesiac’ (91-97 July 29^th – September 9^th). When the Gotham Gangbusters save a young woman from brutal abductors they discover she has no memory and no identifying property, marks or characteristics. With the victim still hunted by her kidnappers, the World’s Greatest Detectives must identify her and stop an unimaginable injustice from occurring…

‘Devil’s Reef’ (98-103, September 16^th– October 21^st) details how Batman’s cross-continental manhunt for modern-day pirates The Miller Gang coincides with and converges on Alfred’s new hobby of treasure hunting, leading to a deadly entombment and spectacular escape before The Joker breaks jail to clash with new rival The Sparrow who constantly proves herself to be ‘Gotham’s Cleverest Criminal’ (104-110, October 28^th – December 9^th)… until the Dynamic Duo capture them both.

A fortnight of festive fun and sugar-candy sentiment follows the faithful butler playing ‘Alfred Claus’ (weeks 111-112, December 16^th – 23^rd) to a group of dead-end kids before a new year beckons and begins the final newspaper cases in ‘Twelvetoes’ (113-118, December 30^th 1945-February 3^rd 1946). Here an underweight, under-paid beat cop is – somehow! – set to marry a millionairess, but only if an old bankrupt roué with eyes on her bank figures can be stopped from “removing” his rival in blue. Happily, Batman and Robin are on hand to aid and save the connubial underdog, before we enjoy the most influential strip story of all as ‘Oswald Who?’ (February 10^th – March 10^th) sees the Dynamic Duo enjoying themselves immensely escorting The Penguin around Gotham as the Wily Old Bird seeks to impress his dowager Aunt Miranda. Of course, his best efforts end with him hunted by other hoods for collaborating with the enemy and behind bars once the old lady is safely off home, but at least Batman and all of us now know the villain’s real identity… Oswald Chesterfield Cobblepot: a one-off gag that has become a confirmed snippet of Bat-Lore…

‘Hotel Grandeur’ (124-129, March 17^th – April 21^st) set a missing person mystery in a resort building housing the population and resources of a small city, with Bruce and Batman both hunting an abducted finance minister from Europe through its labyrinthine corridors and tunnels before ‘Catwoman’s Grasshopper Chase’ (130-137, April 28^th – June 16^th) sees Fred Ray (Superman, Tomahawk, Congo Bill) alternating pencilling with Burnley and Win Mortimer inking Schwartz’s tale of the hunted felon going on the offensive and trying to trash Batman’s reputation for infallibility by making him a laughing stock… yet another time the Dark Knight’s strategy demands Robin dress up as girl…

Finger, Burnley & Mortimer remodelled the story of Two-Face in ‘Half Man – Half Monster’ (138-146, June 23^rd – August 18^th) as actor Harvey Apollo is driven mad after an acid attack whilst on the witness stand. In the newspaper strip, his subsequent crime and killing spree has no cure or happy ending after Batman is forced to stop him…

When seer and mystic Jandor is murdered live on air by robbers ‘The Curse of the Four Fates!’ (147-154, August 25 – October 13^th by Finger, Burnley & Paris) that he gasps out inexorably punishes the perpetrators despite every effort of the Caped Crimebusters to catch and/or save them. The Sunday ventures conclude with Schwartz, Burnley & Paris’ brief bout of ‘Tire Tread Deathtrap’ (weeks 155-156, October 20^th & 27^th 1946) as a set of tracks lead to the heroes entering and escaping a cunning ambush and getting their man one last time…

This amazing compilation ends with tantalising lost treats beginning with some unattributed Batman strips from an abortive revival in ‘Later Newspaper Strips: 1953’, backed up by ‘Later Newspaper Strips: 1966’: offering Dailies from that successful venture which you can find fully collected in 3 volumes of Batman: Silver Age Dailies and Sundays.

Also on view are ‘Later Newspaper Strips: 1978’ by Martin Pasko, George Tuska & Vince Colletta featuring Superman and Wonder Woman from Justice League based feature The World’s Greatest Superheroes plus ‘The Superman Sunday Special’ activity page by José Luis García-López and examples of the Batman strip revival engendered by the first Tim Burton movie. ‘Later Newspaper Strips: 1989’ offers segments by Max Allan Collins, Bill Messner-Loebs, Carmine Infantino (as “Cinfa”) Marshal Rogers & John Nyberg with the entire celebration closing with a discussion of (Dick) ‘Tracy’s Influence’: comparing names, locales and especially the pioneering strip’s preponderance of grotesque villains…

This lovely oversized (241 x 318 mm) full colour hardback and softcover tome was originally published in conjunction by DC Comics & Kitchen Sink Press in 1991, and is filled with death traps, daring escapes, canny ratiocination, moving melodrama, stirring sentiment and lots and lots of astounding action: in fact a perfect Batman book. It’s long past time it was back in print – and eBooked too – as it’s a must for both Bat-fans and lovers of the artform.
© 1991, 2007 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

August 21, 2024August 20, 2024

Batman: The Black Casebook

By Bill Finger, France Herron, Edmond Hamilton, Dave Wood, Lew Sayre Schwartz, Sheldon Moldoff, Dick Sprang, Charles Paris, Stan Kaye & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-2264-2 (TPB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Despite having his name writ large on the cover the only thing Grant Morrison produced for this weird and wonderful compilation is the introduction, so if he’s the reason you buy Batman you’re in for a little disappointment. However if you feel like seeing the incredible stories that inspired him, then you’re in for a bizarre and baroque treat as this collection features a coterie of tales considered far too outlandish and fanciful to be canonical for the last few decades but now reintroduced to the mythology of the Dark Knight as a casebook of the “strangest cases ever told!”…

Tales from the overwhelmingly anodyne 1950s (and just a little overlap in the 1960s) always favoured plot over drama – indeed, a strong argument could be made that all DC’s post-war costumed crusaders actually shared the same character (and yes, I’m including Wonder Woman) – so narrative impetus focuses on comfortably familiar situations, outlandish themes and weird paraphernalia. As a kid they simply blew me away. They still do.

Starting things off is a ‘A Partner for Batman’ (Batman #65 June/July 1951) by Bill Finger, Lew Sayre Schwartz & Charles Paris, wherein the masked mentor’s training of a foreign hero is misconstrued as a way of retiring the current Boy Wonder, whereas a trip way out west introduces the Dynamic Duo to their Native American analogues in ‘Batman… Indian Chief!’ (#86 September 1954, by Ed “France” Herron, Sheldon Moldoff & Stan Kaye), before ‘The Batmen of All Nations!’ (Detective Comics #215, January 1955 by Edmond Hamilton, Moldoff & Paris) took the sincere flattery a step further by introducing nationally-themed imitations from Italy, France, England, South America and Australia: all attending a convention that’s doomed to disaster.

A key story of this period introduced a strong psychological component to Batman’s origins in ‘The First Batman’ (Detective Comics #235, September 1955) by Finger, Moldoff & Kaye, after which the international knock-offs reconvened to meet Superman and shocking new mystery-hero in ‘The Club of Heroes’ (World’s Finest Comics #89, July/August 1957 -Hamilton and magnificent Dick Sprang & Kaye).

Detective #247 (September 1957, by Finger, Moldoff & Paris) introduced malevolent Professor Milo who used psychological warfare and scientific mind-control to attack our heroes in ‘The Man who Ended Batman’s Career’ with the same creative team bringing him back for an encore in Batman #112’s ‘Am I Really Batman?’

Herron scripted one of Sprang & Paris’ most memorable art collaborations in incredible spectacular ‘Batman – Superman of Planet X!’ (Batman #113, February 1958) before Finger, Moldoff & Paris unleashed the Gotham Guardian’s most controversial “partner” in manic mirthquake ‘Batman Meets Bat-Mite’ (Detective Comics #267, May 1959). In comparison, ‘The Rainbow Creature’ (Batman #134, September 1960) is a rather tame monster-mash from Finger & Moldoff which only serves to make the next tale more impressive.

‘Robin Dies at Dawn’ by Finger, Moldoff & Paris is an eerie epic first seen in Batman #156, June 1963 (supplemented by, but not dependent upon, a Robin solo adventure sadly omitted from this collection). Here Batman experiences truly hideous travails on an alien world culminating in the death of his young partner. I’m stopping there as it’s a great story and plays a crucial part in latter day sagas Batman: R.I.P., The Black Glove and others. Buy this book and read it yourself…

But wait: There’s more! From the very end times of vintage-style tales comes inexplicably daft but brilliant ‘The Batman Creature!’ (Batman #162, March 1964) by an unknown writer (latterly identified as Dave Wood), Moldoff & Paris, wherein Robin and Batwoman must cope with a Caped Crusader horrifically transformed into a rampaging giant monster. Shades of King Kong, Bat-fans!

Even though clearly collected to cash in on the success of modern Morrison vehicles, these stories have intrinsic worth and power of their own, and such angst-free exploits from a bygone age still have the magic to captivate and enthral. Do not dismiss them and don’t miss out!
© 1951, 1954-1960, 1963, 1964, 2009 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

August 18, 2024August 16, 2024

Batman: The Daily Classics 1943-1946 AKA Batman: The Dailies 1943-1946

By Bob Kane, Bill Finger, Don Cameron, Alvin Schwartz, Jack Schiff, Jack Burnley, Dick Sprang, Charles Paris, Stan Kaye & various (Sterling/DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4027-4717-5 (HB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

For most of the 20^th century newspaper comic strips were the Holy Grail cartoonists and graphic narrative storytellers hungered for. Syndicated across the country and the planet with millions of readers; accepted (in most places) as a more mature and sophisticated form of literature than comic books, they also paid better. The Holiest of Holies was a full-colour Sunday page…

However, it was usually something of a poisoned chalice when original comic book stars became so popular that they swam against the tide to become syndicated strips. After all, weren’t funnybooks invented just to reprint newspaper stars in a cheap accessible form? Superman, Wonder Woman, Archie Andrews and a few others made the jump in the 1940s and many “four-color” features have done so since. One of the most highly regarded came late to the party, both in its daily and Sunday format. It was called Batman and Robin.

Although a highpoint in strip cartooning, both 1940s iterations of Batman seemed cursed – especially by bad timing. After years of negotiating, the Daily strip finally debuted during a period in newspaper publishing afflicted by war-time rationing, shortages and a volatile marketplace. Thus it never achieved the circulation it deserved, but at least some Sundays eventually won a new lease of life when DC began reprinting vintage stories in the 1960s in their 80-Page Giants and Annuals. The superior quality adult/family oriented adventures of were ideal action-mystery fare, and also added an extra cachet of exoticism for young readers already captivated by tales of their heroes that were positively ancient and redolent of History with a capital “H”.

The original printings comprising this epic hardback compilation tome were three volumes co-published by DC and Kitchen Sink Press in 1990. This 21^st century re-issue is a cheaply-bound hardback easily damaged by its own bulk and poor quality stitching, so if given the choice get the trade paperbacks. Ideally of course, multimedia giant DC would release this whole collection digitally…

Each landscape TPB offered a wealth of superb background information provided by Joe Desris in his ‘A History Of The 1940s Batman Newspaper strip’. It remains in three parts, scattered throughout the book and preceding each monochrome section. Perhaps that’s best as it’s a phenomenal, near-overwhelming feat of scholarship offering history, biographies, historical anecdotes, context, critique and comparisons, a description of what was happening in the comics at the time and a mouth-watering mountain of candid photos, print and movie serial promotional material, individual essays on the creators and their strips, contributions and even merchandise memorabilia: all combining to form a fantastically informative and extensive overview detailing the strip, its antecedents and the tantalising minutiae, how it came to be and even why it never found an readership…

Nevertheless what you want is the stories, so following all that schooling comes sheer entertainment and an Introduction Week of strips by Finger & Kane with Charles Paris applying inks and crafting shading in a sequence setting the scene and revealing the secrets of Bruce Wayne, Dick Grayson, Alfred and the rest of the cast. This was used as a compulsory starter for any and every paper picking up the strip and was initially seen between October 25^th to 30^th 1943.

From there it’s straight into action as ‘What a Sweet Racket!’ (Finger, Kane & Paris spanning 1^st November 1943 – 8^th January 1944) sees the Batsignal lit, summoning the Dynamic Duo to find missing Police Commissioner Gordon…

The doughty lawman disappeared soon after visiting convict Spike Durphy at State Prison, and the con is also now gone! Although quickly recovered by the masked manhunters, Gordon has uncovered a sinister scheme to spring prisoners from jail and get them out of town. After many near-death incidents Batman and Robin realise the gang are well imbedded in Gotham and are playing more than one game, but what no one knows is that there’s a spy on the task force and the mobsters have a second scheme in play to remove their greatest enemy.

Of course the World’s Greatest Detective has already spotted a major giveaway and is ready to swoop when the time is right…

Switching from crime thriller to melodrama, second sortie ‘The Phantom Terrorist’ (Finger, Kane & Paris from 10^th January to 18^th March 1944) traces the macabre manoeuvres of a seeming maniac targeting dancer Rita Rollins. However, a little digging by theatregoers Wayne and Grayson exposes plenty of grudges and simmering tensions fraying the nerves of management, cast and crew; any one of whom could be the phantom saboteur spoiling the production and nearly killing many performers and audience members…

Oddly, even after devious deduction and dynamic derring-do leads to the capture of “The Terrorist”, accidents keep happening and the sleuths must think again – with some insightful input from Alfred – to stop tragedy occurring…

In pursuing a “more mature” newspaper readership editor Jack Schiff and the creators were mindful to keep supervillain appearances to a minimum and play up themes and plots familiar to movie-trained audiences. That might explain why killer-clown The Joker made an early appearance: his look was reputedly based on Conrad Veidt as tragic antihero Gwynplaine in the 1928 expressionist movie masterpiece The Man Who Laughed (itself an adaptation of Victor Hugo’s classic novel).

Again crafted by Finger, Kane & Paris and running Mondays to Saturdays from 20^th March through 3^rd June 1944, ‘The Joker’s Symbol Crimes’ opens with the villain in jail and seemingly suffering a psychological breakdown. It’s hard to tell with the “Clown Prince of Crime” but the situation is simply a ploy to escape and – once again at liberty – he goes on another terrifying spree based on images of symbolic value to the victims in an attempt to categorically prove his superiority to Batman. The chase leads all over Gotham and includes a fantastic sequence dangling from a clock tower that informed Bat-iconology for decades after as well as the climactic scene in Tim Burton’s 1989 Batman movie…

It should also be noted that as a maturer feature, these Batman adventures casually included a lot more scantily clad ladies than the comic book iteration: generally actresses like Rita Rollins or, as here, svelte starlet Miss Gaylord…

Big changes began with the fourth sequence as new writers delivered shorter, snappier adventures. beginning with ‘The Secret of Triangle Farm’ (5^th June -12^th August) by crime novelist Don Cameron. His comic book credits included Superman, Liberty Belle, Boy Commandos, Superboy, Aquaman, Congo Bill and DC western stars Pow Wow Smith, Hopalong Cassidy and Nighthawk) and with Kane & Paris he revealed here how fur thieves used their isolated spread to launder a string of brutal robberies. Mastermind The Silver Fox even managed to shoot the Darknight Detective, generating harrowing weeks of tense melodrama as he hovered between life and death. The Boy Wonder briefly worked alone until forced to recruit a lookalike Batman from the police force, but the ploy ended in shocking tragedy and ultimately a bittersweet victory when the true masked manhunter returned…

‘The Missing Heir Dilemma’ saw more radical roster changes with Alvin Schwartz (as Vernon Woodrum and later scripter of many DC stars including Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern, Newsboy Legion, Aquaman, Vigilante, Slam Bradley, Tomahawk and the Superman newspaper strip), beginning the mystery with Kane pencilling the first 2 weeks before newspaper strip star/sports cartoonist Jack Burnley (Superman, Starman) replaced him. As ever Paris inked the tale which ran from 14^th August to October 28^th 1944.

It begins as super-slick sadistic Southern conman Percy Swann joins forces with local mobster “The Spaniel” to extend the scammer’s grift of choice by “finding” lost inheritors like Eggbert Dover. The Dynamic Duo find the petty criminal first but cannot see what benefit to major felons the job would afford… but that’s only until the real target is revealed and the long con exposed. Sadly, dying William Jenkin enjoys a miraculous recovery after Swann introduces him to the son he lost decades ago and when the located prodigal suffers pangs of conscience, steps need to be taken if the job is to succeed…

When those murderous efforts inadvertently involve Bruce Wayne’s girlfriend (nurse Linda Page) our heroes find the link they’ve been looking for and justice takes its harsh course…

The next five stories (preceded by another titanic tranche of information from Deris) originally comprised the second 1990s’ collection (covering 1944-1945) but here rolls straight on with Schwartz, Kane & Paris’ ‘The Two-Bit Dictator of Twin Mills’ (October 30^th 1944 – January 27^th 1945). This time dirty politics and graft are the topical topics as Bruce and Dick relocate to a nearby city and into a war between honest newspaper editor Ben Bellow and corrupt party boss Tweed Wickham. When Bellow won’t stop crusading his offices are blown up and friend/shareholder Wayne takes over the Twin Mills Sentinel and is soon finishing the job of dismantling Wickham’s all-powerful party machine. Despite the best efforts of corrupted cops, bought judges outlawing Batman & Robin, an army of cheap thugs and creepily “infallible” hired killer JoJo (based on actor Peter Lorre at his most sinister) the outcome is never in doubt. However, when JoJo feels he’s been betrayed by his employers a deadly wild card threatens to end everyone concerned on all sides…

Jack Schiff returned to his writing roots for next yarn ‘Bliss House Ain’t the Same’ (January 29^th – April 28^th) as Gotham suburb Midville Junction welcomes back prodigal son Martin Bliss. Sadly, his reunion at the old homestead reveals an unwanted and monstrous cuckoo in the nest and his fiery mother a virtual hostage. Fugitive poetic gangster Pomade is ruling the roost and soon “disappears” Martin’s girlfriend Corrine to further robberies involving shady gangster Skipper Keane… which is where Batman comes in as he’s just confirmed that gunman’s participation in a recent hold-up…

A classic caper of crooks, kidnaps, chases and sinister doings, the building tension culminates in an eerie subterranean pursuit and marine manhunt ending in the death of a tragic monster before Schiff, Burnley & Paris find true romance in ‘The Karen Drew Mystery’ (April 30^th – July 7^th). Here Bruce Wayne’s latest flighty fascination proves to be a real dark horse and his equal in ingenuity who initially frames him for murder before becoming a fellow fugitive from justice. Literally tied together Bruce and Karen hunt the real culprit with the Gotham cops dogging their heels until she brings him to the real enemy – blackmailing smuggler Mr. Wright – and a rightful if rough and (for Bruce) unsatisfactory conclusion…

A moment of rare tranquillity opens Schwartz, Kane & Paris’ ‘Their Toughest Assignment’ (July 9^th – September 1^st) as Commissioner Gordon is compelled to pay off a longstanding police debt of honour and calls in Batman and Robin despite the matter having “nothing to do with crime”…

Big Ed Parker helped out the force in times of trouble and now needs to find his daughter an apartment in the city already groaning under a housing crisis caused by returning military and demobbed civilian workers all freshly out of WWII. It’s a conundrum even vast personal wealth and all the skills of the World’s Greatest Detectives can’t readily solve, and is soon complicated by equally desperate seekers competing for the premises of murder victims, upward moving millionaires and recently arrested felons.

Aso it doesn’t stay felony-free for long as even when they do find a home for Phyllis Parker it turns out to be an active crime scene and even Phyllis isn’t on the level…

Moving from wry topical humour to macabre murder mystery the same creative team detail ‘The Warning of the Lamp!’ (September 3^rd – November 24^th 1945) as a fishing trip lands Bruce & Dick in the heart of a mystery as fellow angler Finlay Gribbidge reels up a jacket with his name in that he’s never seen before…

Bitten by the mystery, Bruce pursues the odd coincidence and is soon wading through a complicated scam involving a cult of vegetarians led by a dubious prophet/spiritualist with his eye on a convoluted property scam. His multi-million dollar payout is almost assured and The Lamp is quite content to kill anyone in his way unless Bruce can find a way to foil him…

The third and final individual outing becomes the last section of this 40s Batman compilation, again enhanced by fascinating Bat-lore from Joe Desris (including a complete list of all the papers that carried the feature and a comparison of the comic book and strip interpretations of the Doctor Radium story).

From November 26^th 1945 to February 9^th 1946 Schwartz, Burnley Kane & Paris explored ‘An Affair of Death’ as a stolen car racket plagues Gotham and Bruce Wayne acts as an undercover agent of the DA’s office. Although the police arrest many lower down the chain, the endeavour prospers and Wayne agrees to buy a hot car from the enigmatic bosses. That trail seemingly leads to hulking, speech-impaired crime boss Lockjaw and his ubiquitous, obsequious major domo Echo, but something isn’t right…

In an effort to stop the interference, Lockjaw springs from jail young “gypsy” Eduardo (no such thing as Roma outside horror movies back then). The boy is already serving time for threatening the DA to protect his sister’s honour and Lockjaw tries to coerce the angry kid to get rid of his legal problems – but with no effect. Meanwhile said sister Juanita has already painfully interacted with Bruce, and when Batman follows her the truth slowly comes out, but not before the real leader captures the siblings and tries again to make them his patsies. As events spiral out of control a degree of disguise and identity trading leads to a vicious showdown and honour bloodily restored…

Jack Schiff clearly had fun great scripting ‘A Change of Costume’ (February 11^th – March 23^rd) for strip debutantes Dick Sprang & Stan Kaye as Gordon and Batman planned a big bust and the arrest of notorious gangster “Slugger” Kaye. The scheme involved tricking their quarry into attending a society ball he had never before missed but all the cheeky fun came as the Dynamic Duo attend dressed as Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette.

Robin was mad enough to be turning villainous heads as the glamorous Queen of France even before Slugger introduced his own “insurance policy”/escort – formidable female fighter Hammerlock Hilda. When she started laying out the attendees… all heck broke loose…

Reining in the delicious comedy Schwartz, Kane & Paris revealed how a ruthless, intrusive radio journalist Reed Parker broke all rules and abandoned ethics to trump his rivals with ‘The News That Makes the News’ (March 25^th – June 1^st). His scandalous scoops spoil police plans, endanger witnesses and allow the guiltiest scum in America to run free, but when he stepped over the line once too often, the government asked Batman and Robin to ferret out his sources and found a dark criminal secret at the heart of Parker’s crusade – one that could expose the Dark Knight’s other identity to the lethal glare of exposure…

Schwartz, Kane & Paris then revealed how a bridegroom on his wedding day only had ‘Ten Days to Live!’ (June 3^rd – August 3^rd). Cappy Wren’s shocking prognosis spurs his bride to marry him at once, but as the countdown ticks away Batman and Robin become involved when the living deadman tries to make his end meaningful by going after notorious criminals like Monty Flak…

When that results in hoods and hoodlums seeking to speed up that demise, counterattacks by the Gotham Guardians result in a bonanza of arrests and big surprise happy ever after…

The law process is severely scrutinised by the same creative team in penultimate thriller ‘Acquitted By Iceberg’ (August 5^th – September 21^st) when the most cunning, unscrupulous and infallible defense lawyer in America sets up his shingle in Gotham and starts allowing the worst of the worst back onto its bloodstained streets. After numerous confrontations produce nothing but stalemate, Batman’s dogged determination finally overwhelms the Iceberg’s patience and when he finally steps over his own legal line, the true victor is justice…

First told in Batman #8 (1941), the last strip escapade adapts ‘The Strange Case of Professor Radium’ which told of a scientist abused by money-grubbing financial backers who turned himself into a deadly radioactive marauder. Here original writer Bill Finger with Kane & Paris radically revises, recycles and expands the moody horror as arrogant nuclear physicist Professor Knell accidently overdoses on radiation and becomes a madly murderous menace dubbed ‘Deadly Professor Radium’ (September 23^rd – November 2^nd). After developing a “death touch” and going on a horrific rampage of mercy-killings bringing peace and final rest to the afflicted whether they seek it or not, he meets his own end after turning the city into an abandoned ghost town, with scenes presaging the atomic monster tropes of the following 15 years. In the end it’s not the heroes who end the threat but hubris and fate…

And that was that. The daily strip incarnation of Batman and Robin closed with no fanfare and little lamentation as post-war America turned to different kinds of two-fisted champions for their family Funny Page hits. The Sunday page had already ended (on October 27^th 1946) and world of regulation he-men in dire straits – but no tights and much military regalia – waited in the wings. However time and distance have showed us these are truly tales of golden vintage and inestimable value. It’s long past time this stuff was back in print, and available in digital formats too – as it’s a must for both Bat-fans and lovers of the artform.
© 1991, 2007 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

July 20, 2024July 18, 2024

Showcase Presents Batman volume 5

By Frank Robbins, Dennis O’Neil, Mike Friedrich, Irv Novick, Bob Brown, Neal Adams, Carmine Infantino, Joe Giella, Dick Giordano, Frank Giacoia & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-3236-8 (TPB)

This book includes some Discriminatory Content produced during less enlightened times.

After three seasons (perhaps two and a half would be closer) the overwhelmingly successful Batman TV show ended in March, 1968. It had clocked up 120 episodes and a movie since the US premiere on January 12, 1966 and triggered a global furore of “Batmania” – and indeed hysteria for all things zany and mystery-mannish. As the series foundered and crashed the global fascination with “camp” superheroes (and yes, the term had everything to do with lifestyle choices but absolutely nothing to do with sexual orientation, no matter what you and Mel Brooks might think about Men in Tights) burst as quickly as it had boomed, and the Caped Crusader was left with a hard core of dedicated fans and followers who now wanted their hero back.

For DC editor Julius Schwartz – who had tried to keep the most ludicrous excesses of the show out whilst still cashing in on his global popularity – the reasoning seemed simple: strip out the tired gimmicks and gaudy paraphernalia and get him back to solving mysteries and facing genuine perils as soon and as thrillingly as possible.

This also meant slowly phasing out the boy sidekick…

Many readers were now acknowledged as discerning, independent teens and the kid was no longer relevant to them or the changing times. Although the soon-to-be college-bound freshman Teen Wonder would still pop back for the occasional guest-shot yarn, this fifth astoundingly economical monochrome monument to comics ingenuity and narrative brilliance would see him finally spread his wings and fly the nest for an alternating back-up slot in Detective, shared with relative newcomer Batgirl in stirring hip and mod solo sallies.

Collecting the newly independent Batman’s cases from September 1969 to February 1971 (#216-228 of his own title as well as the front halves of Detective Comics #391-407), the 30 stories gathered here – some of the Batman issues were giant reprint editions so only the covers are reproduced on these pages – were written and illustrated by an evolving team of fresh-thinking creators as editor Schwartz lost many of his elite stable to age, attrition and corporate pressure.

However, the “new blood” was fresh only to the Gotham Guardian, not the industry, and their sterling efforts swiftly moulded the character into a hero capable of actually working within the new “big things” in comics: suspense, horror and the supernatural…

During this pivotal period the long slow road to today’s scarily crazed Dark Knight gradually revealed a harder-edged, grimly serious caped crusader, even whilst carefully expanding the milieu and scope of Batman’s universe… especially his fearsome foes, who slowly ceased to be harmless buffoons and inexorably metamorphosed into the macabre Grand Guignol murder fiends of the early 1940s.

The transformational process continues here with Frank Robbins-scripted Detective #391 as ‘The Gal Most Likely to Be – Batman’s Widow!’ (illustrated by Bob Brown & Joe Giella) sees the fleeting return of abortive modern love interest Ginny Jenkins who had inadvertently become the passing fancy of mobbed-up publisher and extortionist Arnie Arnold. By crushing the crooked editor’s scam to fleece Gotham’s society eateries, Batman paved the way for Ginny to settle down with the true man of her dreams…

Robbins (creator of newspaper strip Johnny Hazard) always had a deft grip on both light adventure and darker crime capers as seen in issue #392’s ‘I Died… A Thousand Deaths!’ as the Gotham Gangbuster’s plan to take down mobster Scap Scarpel goes dangerously awry after trusting a less than honest “confidential informant” whilst in Batman #216 (November), Robbins gifted faithful butler Alfred a surname (after 30 years of anonymous service) by introducing the retainer’s niece Daphne Pennyworth in ‘Angel – or Devil?’ (limned by Irv Novick & Dick Giordano).

The aspiring actress had become ensnared in the coils of a band of very crooked travelling players and was very nearly their patsy for murder…

In an era where teen angst and the counterculture played an increasingly strident part in the public consciousness, Robin’s role as spokesperson for a generation became increasingly important, with disputes and splits from his senior partner constantly recurring. A long overdue separation came in Detective #393’s ‘The Combo Caper!’ (Robbins, Brown & Giella) wherein Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson take a young delinquent with them on their last vacation together, embroiling Batman & Robin in a sinister string of high-end gem heists.

The partnership formally sundered in Batman #217’s ‘One Bullet Too Many!’ (Robbins, Novick & Giordano) as Dick ships out for Hudson University and Batman begins a radical rethink of his mission and goals.

Dapper Gentleman’s Gentleman Alfred became a far more hands-on emotionally involved part of the mythos – like Margery Allingham’s Magersfontein Lugg in her Albert Campion mysteries or ex-Sergeant/valet Mervyn Bunter in Dorothy L. Sayer’s Lord Peter Wimsey tales – from this point on: shutting up the stately Manor and moving the Batcave into the basement of the Wayne Foundation building in the heart of the city where most of the crime and injustice actually happened…

The first case – a superbly crafted classic whodunit of the streamlined setup – involved the unsolved murder of a paediatrician, but the real innovation was the creation of a new Wayne Foundation outreach project: the Victims Incorporated Program which saw philanthropy and superheroics combine to provide justice for those who couldn’t afford to buy it. The worthy scheme immediately hit a deadly snag in Detective #394’s ‘A Victim’s Victim!’ (Robbins, Brown & Giella) when a crippled racing car driver came seeking vengeance, claiming Wayne had personally sabotaged his career. It took all of the Dark Detective’s skills to uncover the deadly truth…

Batman #218 was an all-reprint Giant Annual represented here only by its glorious Murphy Anderson cover, whereas the next tale marked a landmark step forward in the history of the Caped Crusader.

Neal Adams had been producing a stunning succession of mesmerising covers on both Batman and Detective Comics, as well as illustrating a phenomenal run of team-up tales in World’s Finest Comics and The Brave and the Bold, so his inevitable bump up to the premier league was hotly anticipated. However Dennis O’Neil’s script for Detective Comics #395’s ‘The Secret of the Waiting Graves’ (January 1970, inked by Giordano) also instituted a far more mature and sinister – almost gothic – take on the hero as he confronted psychotic nigh-immortal lovers named Muerto whose passion for each other was fuelled by deadly drugs and sustained by a century of murder…

Adams’ captivating dynamic hyperrealism was just the final cog in the reconstruction of the epic Batman edifice, but it was also an irresistibly attractive one, especially as the growing public taste for supernatural stories overtook costumed crimebusting….

Nevertheless, Batman #219 led with a cracking political thriller in Robbins, Novick & Giordano’s ‘Death Casts the Deciding Vote’, wherein Bruce brings his V.I.P. scheme to Washington DC and stumbles into a plot to assassinate an anti-crime Senator, before astounding Christmas vignette ‘The Silent Night of the Batman’ (Mike Friedrich, Adams & Giordano) completely steals the show – and became a revered classic – with its eerily gentle, moving modern take on the Season of Miracles…

Adams couldn’t do it all and he didn’t have to. Detective #396 saw artists Brown & Giella up their game in Robbins’ clever contemporary yarn ‘The Brain-Pickers!’ as teen finance wizard Rory Bell corners the stock market from the back of his freewheeling motorbike, only to be kidnapped by a gang with an eye to a big killing – corporate and otherwise – until the Caped Crimebuster gets on their trail. Novick & Giordano similarly adapted their styles for Batman #220 with ‘This Murder has been… Pre-Recorded!’ (scripted by Robbins) finding Bruce finally meeting journalist Marla Manning (whose writing inspired the V.I.P. initiative) when an exposé of corrupt practises makes her the target of a murder-for-hire veteran.

O’Neil, Adams & Giordano reunited in Detective #397 for another otherworldly mystery when obsessive millionaire art collector Orson Payne resorts to theft and worse in his quest for an unobtainable love in ‘Paint a Picture of Peril!’, whilst #398 sees Robbins, Brown & Giella pose ‘The Poison Pen Puzzle!’ after muckraking gossip columnist Maxine Melanie’s latest book inspires her murder with an overabundance of perpetrators queuing up to take the credit…

Robbins, Novick & Giordano’s ‘A Bat-Death for Batman!’ leads in #221 as the Dark Knight heads for Germany in search of Nazi war criminals and their bio-agent which turns domestic animals and livestock into rabid killers, whilst the Friedrich-scripted ‘A Hot Time in Gotham Town Tonight!’ sees the Masked Manhunter eradicate the threat of a mystic idol capable of turning the city into smouldering ashes. Then Detective #399 (O’Neil, Brown & Giella) debuts anti-Batman campaigner/political opportunist Arthur Reeves and reveals how ‘Death Comes to a Small, Locked Room!’: a clever mystery centred on the apparent assassination of a martial arts teacher, after which Batman #222 offers two tales illustrated by Novick & Giordano.

Robbins’ ‘Dead… Till Proven Alive!’ features a guest shot from Robin as British band The Oliver Twists hit Gotham, reviving speculation that one of that Fabulous Foursome had been killed and secretly replaced (a contemporary conspiracy theory had it that Beatle Paul McCartney had been similarly dealt with), after which Friedrich contributed another superb human interest yarn as an exhausted hero pushes himself beyond his limits to help a deaf mugging victim in ‘The Case of No Consequence!’ Then anniversary Detective Comics #400 introduces a dark counterpoint to the Gotham Gangbuster as driven scientist Kirk Langstrom pays a heavy price for devising a serum making him superior to Batman in ‘Challenge of the Man-Bat!’ (Robbins, Adams & Giordano).

Batman #223 was another Annual, this time sporting a captivating Curt Swan/Murphy Anderson cover, before Detective #401 spotlights Robbins, Brown & Giella’s ‘Target for Tonight!’ as insane playboy hunter Carleton Yager stalks Gotham’s most dangerous game, armed only with his wits, weapons and knowledge of the Dark Knight’s true identity…

Batman #224 opens an era of eerie psychodramas and manic murder as our hero travels to New Orleans to solve the mysterious demise of a Jazz legend and battles monstrous Moloch in ‘Carnival of the Cursed’ (O’Neil, Novick & Giordano), after which Detective #402 sees the Dark Knight capture the out-of-control thing that was Kirk Langstrom and ponder if he had the right to kill or cure the beast in Robbins, Adams & Giordano’s ‘Man or Bat?’.

Batman #225 (O’Neil, Novick & Giordano) details the murder of divisive talk show host Jonah Jory with witnesses swearing the city’s great hero is the killer in ‘Wanted for Murder-One, the Batman’ and Detective #403 delivers gothic thriller ‘You Die by Mourning!’ (Robbins, Brown & Frank Giacoia, with a splash page by Carmine Infantino), in which the V.I.P. project turns up grieving widow Angie Randall who needs justice for her murdered husband. This cunning conundrum revolves around the fact that dear dead Laird wasn’t dead yet – but will be tomorrow; and is followed by Detective Comics #404’s offering by O’Neil, Adams & Giordano’s utterly exceptional and magnificent ‘Ghost of the Killer Skies!’ As the Masked Manhunter seek to solve a series of impossible murders on the set of a film about German WWI fighter ace Hans von Hammer, all evidence seeming to prove the slayer can only be a vengeful phantom…

Batman #226 skews science to introduce a new mad menace in ‘The Man with Ten Eyes!’ by Robbins, Novick & Giordano. A cruel misunderstanding during a robbery pits security guard Reardon against Batman just as the real thieves detonate a huge explosion. Traumatised, shell-shocked and blinded, Reardon is subjected to an experimental procedure which allows him to see through his fingertips but the Vietnam vet blames the Caped Crimebuster for his freakish fate and resolves to extract his vengeance in kind…

Detective #405 was an inauspicious start to a fresh world of intrigue and adventure as ‘The First of the Assassins!’ (O’Neil, Brown & Frank Giacoia) finds the Gotham Guardian seconded to Interpol to solve the killing of 15 shipping magnates. Whilst struggling to keep the 16^th healthy against a fusillade of esoteric threats from oriental fiend Tejja, the hero first learns of a vast global League of killers…

Another groundbreaking narrative strand debuted in Batman #227 in O’Neil, Novick & Giordano’s ‘The Demon of Gothos Mansion’ as Daphne Pennyworth encores, begging help to escape her latest employment as a governess. Batman investigates the remote household and uncovers a cult of madmen, demonic possession and what less-rational men might consider a captive ghost…

The epic, slow-boiling battle against the League of Assassins expands in Detective Comics #406 as Your Servant of Death – Dr. Darrk!’ (by O’Neil, Brown & Giacoia) another tycoon almost dies and Batman at last clashes with the deadly mastermind behind a global campaign of terror. Or does he?

This staggering compendium of wonderment concludes with Detective #407: final chapter in a triptych introducing tragic Kirk Langstrom. In ‘Marriage: Impossible!’ (Robbins, Adams & Giordano), the ambitious scientist’s fall from grace is completed when he infects his fiancée Francine Lee with his mutational curse and forces the Dark Knight into an horrific decision.

One last treat here is the cover to Giant Batman #228: another spectacular visual feast from Swan & Anderson closing this marvellous meander down memory lane in classic style. With the game-changing gems in this volume, Batman finally shed his alien-bashing Boy Scout silliness and was restored to his original defining concept as a grim relentless avenger of injustice. The next few years would see the hero rise to unparalleled heights of quality so stay tuned: the very best is just around the corner… that dark, dark corner…
© 1969, 1970, 1971, 2011 DC Comics. All rights reserved.

July 7, 2024July 4, 2024

Batman: Silver Age Dailies and Sundays volume 1: 1966-1967

By Whitney Ellsworth, Joe Giella, Sheldon Moldoff, Carmine Infantino, Bob Powell, Werner Roth, Curt Swan & various (Library of American Comics)
ISBN: 987-1-61377-845-6 (HB)

Last century in America the newspaper comic strip was the Holy Grail all cartoonists and graphic narrative storytellers aspired to and hungered for; syndicated across the country and the planet. Always a prime tool of circulation-building, strips won millions of readers and were regarded (in most places) as a more mature and sophisticated form of literature than comic books.

They also paid better, and the Holiest of Holies was a full-colour Sunday page, so it was always something of a poisoned chalice if comic book characters became so popular that they swam against the tide and became a syndicated serial strip. After all, weren’t funnybooks invented just to reprint the strips in cheap accessible form?

Both Superman and Wonder Woman made the jump soon after their debuts and many features have done so since. Due to numerous war-time complications, the Batman and Robin newspaper strip was slow getting its shot, but when the Dynamic Duo finally hit the comics section of papers, the feature proved to be one of the best-regarded, highest quality examples of the trend, both in Daily and Sunday formats (and we’ll be covering what collections there are of those landmarks quite soon in this Dark Knight anniversary year).

The 1940s strips never achieved the circulation they deserved, but the Sundays were latterly given a new lease of life when DC began including selected episodes in the 1960s Batman 80-Page Giants and Annuals. Those exceedingly high-quality adventures were ideal short stories, adding an extra cachet of exoticism for youngsters captivated by simply seeing their heroes in tales that were positively ancient and redolent of History with a capital “H”.

Such was not the case as the decade proceeded when, for a relatively brief moment, humanity went bananas for superheroes in general but most especially went “Bat-Mad”…

Comic books’ Silver Age utterly revolutionised a creatively moribund medium cosily snoozing in unchallenging complacency, bringing a modicum of sophistication to the returning genre of masked mystery men. For quite some time the changes instigated by Julius Schwartz in Showcase #4 (October 1956) had rippled out to affect all National/DC Comics’ superhero characters but generally passed by Batman and Robin. Fans buying Detective Comics, Batman, World’s Finest Comics and latterly Justice League of America read exploits that – in look and tone – were largely unchanged from safely anodyne fantasies that had turned the Dark Knight into a mystery-solving, alien-fighting costumed Boy Scout after the 1940s turned into the 1950s.

By the end of 1963, however, Schwartz having – either personally or by example – revived and revitalised the majority of DC’s line (and, by extension and imitation, the entire industry) with his reinvention of the Superhero, was asked to work his magic with the creatively stalled nigh-moribund Caped Crusaders.

Shepherding his usual team of top-notch creators, the Editor stripped down the core-concept, downplaying the ETs, outlandish villains and daft transformations, bringing cool modernity to the capture of criminals and overseeing a streamlining rationalisation of the art style itself. The most apparent change to us kids was a yellow circle around the Bat-symbol but, far more importantly, the stories similarly changed as a subtle aura of genuine menace had crept back in. At the same time Hollywood was in production of a television series based on Batman and, through the sheer karmic insanity that permeates the universe, the studio executives were basing their interpretation upon the addictively daft material DC was emphatically turning its editorial back on rather than the “New Look Batman” currently enthralling readers.

The Batman TV show premiered on January 12^th 1966 and ran for three seasons of 120 episodes, airing twice weekly for the first two. It was a monumental, world-wide hit and sparked a wave of imitation. Resulting media hysteria and fan frenzy generated an insane degree of Bat-awareness, no end of spin-offs and merchandise – including a movie – and introduced us all to the phenomenon of overkill. No matter how much we might squeal and foam about it, even 60 years later, to a huge portion of this planet’s population Batman is always going to be that “Zap! Biff! Pow!” buffoonish Boy Scout in a mask…

“Batmania” exploded across the world and almost as quickly became toxic and vanished, but at its height sparked a fresh newspaper strip incarnation. The strip was a huge syndication success and even reached fuddy-duddy Britain, not in our papers and journals but as the cover feature of weekly comic Smash! (with the 20^th issue onwards).

Overwhelmingly successful, Batman’s TV show ended in March 1968. As it foundered and faded away, the global fascination with “camp” superheroes – and no, the term had nothing to do with sexual orientation no matter what you and Mel Brooks might suspect about Men in Tights – burst as quickly as it had boomed and the Caped Crusader was left with a hard core of dedicated fans and followers who now wanted their hero back…

From the time when the Gotham Guardians could do no wrong comes this superb collection re-presenting the bright and breezy, intentionally zany cartoon classics, augmented by a wealth of background material, topped up with oodles of unseen scenes and detail to delight the most ardent Baby-boomer nostalgia-freaks.

It opens with an astonishingly informative and astoundingly picture-packed, candidly cool introduction from comics historian Joe Desris entitled ‘A History of the Batman and Robin Newspaper Strip’, stuffed with a wealth of newspaper promotional materials, premiums and giveaways, sketches, comic book covers and the lowdown on how the strip was coordinated to work in conjunction with the regular comic books. The Dailies and Sundays were all scripted by former DC writer/editor – and the company’s Hollywood liaison/producer – Whitney Ellsworth (Tillie the Toiler, Congo Bill) and initially illustrated by Bob Kane’s long-term secret art collaborator Sheldon Moldoff, before inker Joe Giella was tapped by the TV studio to provide a slick, streamlined modern look in the visuals – frequently as penciller but ALWAYS as embellisher.

Since the feature was a 7-day-a-week job, Giella often called in few comicbook buddies to help lay-out and draw the strip; luminaries such as Carmine Infantino, Bob Powell, Werner Roth, Curt Swan and more…

Back then, black-&-white Dailies and full-colour Sundays were usually offered as separate packages with continuity strips often generating different storylines for each. With Batman the strip started out that way, but switched to unified 7-day continuities in December 1966.

For convenience, this collection begins with the Sunday-only yarns. As on TV, the first villain du jour was a certain top-hatted raucous raptor…

‘Penguin Perpetrated a Prank’ (May 29^th – July 10^th 1966) saw the Fowl Felon and masked moll Beulah go on a rather uninspired crime spree, after which ‘The Nasty Napoleon’ (July 17^th– October 16^th) introduced a pint-sized plunderer with larcenous intent and delusions of military grandeur. Moldoff was replaced by Giella &Infantino at the end of August, if you were wondering…

Contemporarily “Swinging England” was almost as big a craze as Batman so it was no surprise the Dynamic Duo would hop across The Pond to meet well-meaning but bumbling imitators ‘Batchap and Bobbin’, fighting crime in the sleepy hamlet of Lemon Regis (October 23^rd – December 18^th) after which the Sundays were incorporated into the working week storylines.

Monochrome Dailies launched on May 30^th: Ellsworth & Moldoff kicking off with a healthy dose of sex & violence as ‘Catwoman is a Wily Wench’ (running to July 9^th 1966) saw the sultry bandit easily captured only to break out of jail and go on a vengeance-fuelled spree intended to end Batman’s career and life. Next came ‘Two Jokers and a Laughing Girl’ (July 11^th – September 24^th) wherein the Clown Prince of Crime is paroled into the custody of Bruce Wayne, whilst covertly robbing Gotham blind by employing a body-double. As Giella took over the art chores, it took a guest shot from Superman to iron out that macabre miscreant’s merry muddle.

Claiming to have been robbed of his rightfully stolen loot, the Wily Bird brigand became ‘Penguin the Complainant’ (September 26^th – October 8^th), demanding his greatest enemies and the Gotham police catch a modern-day pirate plaguing him. That led in turn to a flotilla of fists and foolishness as Batman & Robin began ‘Flying the Jolly Roger’ (October 10^th – December 9^th), after which Daily and Sunday segments unified as our courteous but severely outmatched Chivalrous Crusaders faced their greatest challenge from a trio of college girls: The Ivy League Dropouts. The co-ed crooks and their floral field commander seen in ‘The Sizzling Saga of Poison Ivy’ (December 10^th 1966 – March 17^th 1967) were unrelated to the psychotic poisoner created by Robert Kanigher in Batman #181 (June 1966) in all but name…

Like its TV counterpart, the strip began increasingly featuring real-world guest stars and the bad girls’ scheme to plunder hospitality magnate Conrad Hilton‘s latest enterprise – The Batman Hilton – led to comedic cross-dressing hijinks, a doomed affair for Bruce and plenty of publicity for all concerned…

The guest policy was expanded in ‘Jack Benny’s Stolen Stradivarius’ (March 18^th – April 30^th) as the infamously penny-pinching comedian promised Gotham’s Gangbusters a $1000-an-hour stipend (for charity, of course) to recover his fiddle and insisted on accompanying them everywhere to ensure they worked at top speed…

A major character debuted in ‘Batgirl Ain’t your Sister’ (May 1^st – July 9^th) with a masked mystery woman prowling the night streets. She was beating up plenty of baddies but their loot never seemed to be recovered…

With no clues and nothing to go on, all Batman & Robin could do was masquerade as crooks and rob places in hopes of being caught by the “Dominoed Daredoll”, but by the time they found each other The Riddler had involved himself, planning to kill everybody and keep all that accumulated loot for himself…

Riding a wave and feeling ambitious, Ellsworth & Giella began their longest saga yet as ‘Shivering Blue Max, “Pretty Boy” Floy and Flo’ (July 10^th 1967 – March 18^th 1968 and ending in the next book) saw a perpetually hypothermic criminal pilot accidentally down the Batcopter and erroneously claim the underworld’s million dollar bounty on Batman & Robin. The heroes were not dead, but the crash had caused the Caped Crusader to lose his memory. As Robin and faithful manservant Alfred sought to remedy his affliction, Max collected his prize and jetted off for sunnier climes. With Batman missing, neophyte crimebuster Batgirl tracked down the heroes – incidentally learning their secret identities – and was instrumental in restoring him to action… if not quite his full functioning faculties.

When underworld paymaster BG (Big) Trubble heard the heroes had returned he quite understandably instituted procedures to get his money back, forcing Max to return to Gotham where he stupidly fell foul of Pretty Boy before that hip young gunsel and his sister Flo kicked off a murderous scheme to fleece a horoscope-addicted millionaire…

To Be Continued and concluded, Bat-Fans…

Supplementing the parade of guilty pleasures is a copious, comprehensive and fabulously educational section on ‘Notes on Stories in this Volume’ – also generously illustrated with covers, photos and show-&-strip arcana – as well as a fascinating behind-the-scenes display highlighting editorial corrections and alterations to the strips required by those ever-so-fussy TV studio people. Everything then ends for now with a schematic key to ‘The Batman Cast’ as depicted on the back cover.

The stories in this compendium reflect gentler times and an editorial policy focusing as much on broad humour as Batman’s reputation as a manhunter, so the colourful, psychotic costumed super-villains are in a minority here, but if you’re of a certain age or open to fun-over-thrills this a collection well worth your attention.

Batman: Silver Age Dailies and Sundays 1966-1967 was the first of huge (305 x 236 mm) lavish, high-end hardback collections starring the Gotham Gangbusters, and another crucial addition to the superb commemorative series of Library of American Comics which has preserved and re-presented in luxurious splendour such landmark strips as Li’l Abner, Tarzan, Little Orphan Annie, Terry and the Pirates, Bringing Up Father, Rip Kirby, Polly and her Pals and many other cartoon icons. Hopefully one day they will all be available digitally too…

If you love the era, or simply the medium of serial graphic narratives, these stories are great comics reading, and this is a book you must have.
© 2014 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved. Batman and all related characters and elements ™ & © DC Comics.

June 24, 2024

Teen Titans: The Silver Age volume One

By Bob Haney, Bruno Premiani, Nick Cardy, Irv Novick, Bill Molno, Sal Trapani, Jack Abel & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-7508-2 (TPB/Digital edition)

Although primarily concerned with celebrating Pride Month and simultaneously prepping for a really big blowout/hunkering down for the new dystopia following our imminent election, I couldn’t let the month end without shouting out to an anniversary celebrating a publishing landmark that truly changed the comics landscape. Here you go, Groovers and True Believers…

The concept of kid hero teams was not a new one when the 1960s Batman TV show prompted DC to entrust their big stars’ assorted sidekicks with their own regular venue in a fab, hip and groovy ensemble as dedicated to helping kids as they were to stamping out insidious evil. The biggest difference between the creation of the Teen Titans and earlier wartime youth teams like The Young Allies, Newsboy Legion, Boy Champions and Boy Commandos or even 1950s holdovers such as The Little Wise Guys or Boys Ranch was quite simply the burgeoning phenomena of “The Teenager” as a discrete commercial and social force. These newcomers were kids who could – and should – be allowed to do things themselves without constant adult help or supervision.

This quirkily eclectic compilation re-presents the landmark try-out appearances from The Brave and the Bold #54 & 60 and Showcase #59 – collectively debuting in 1964 and1965 – as well as the first 11 issues of the Teen Titans solo title, spanning January/February 1966 to September/October 1967.

As early as April 30^th – albeit cover-dated June/July – 1964, The Brave and the Bold #54 saw DC’s Powers-That-Be test the waters in a gripping tale by writer Bob Haney superbly illustrated by unsung genius Bruno Premiani. ‘The Thousand-and-One Dooms of Mr. Twister’ initially united Kid Flash, Aqualad and Robin the Boy Wonder in desperate battle with a modern wizard-cum-Pied Piper who sought to abduct every teen of scenic Hatton Corners. The young heroes accidentally meet in the town by chance after involved students individually invite them to mediate in a long-running dispute with the town’s adults…

This element of a teen “court of appeal” was the motivating principle in many of the group’s subsequent cases. One year later the team reformed for a second adventure (B&B #60, by the same creative team) and introduced two new elements. ‘The Astounding Separated Man’ features more misunderstood kids (weren’t we all?): this time in coastal hamlet Midville and threatened by an outlandish monster whose giant body parts detach and move independently. Wonder Girl was added to the roster (not actually a sidekick, or even a person at that juncture, but rather an SFX incarnation of Wonder Woman as a child – a fact the writer and editor of the series seemed blissfully unaware of (or simply ignored) but most importantly the kids finally had a team name: ‘Teen Titans’.

Their final try-out appearance was in Showcase (#59, November/December 1965) and the birthplace of so many hit comic concepts. It was also the first drawn by the brilliant Nick Cardy (who became synonymous with the 1960s series). ‘The Return of the Teen Titans’ pits the neophyte team against teen pop trio ‘The Flips’ who are apparently also a gang of super-crooks. As was so often the case, the grown-ups had got it all wrong again…

One month later Teen Titans #1 debuted (cover-dated January/February 1966 and released mere weeks before the Batman TV show aired on January 12^th), with Robin very much the point of focus on the cover… and most succeeding ones. Haney & Cardy crafted an exotic thriller entitled ‘The Beast-God of Xochatan!’ which sees the team acting as Peace Corps representatives in a South American drama of sabotage, giant robots and magical monsters. The next issue held a fantastic mystery of revenge and young love involving ‘The Million-Year-Old Teen-Ager’ who was preserved by accidental entombment and revived in the 20^th century. He might have survived modern intolerance, bullying and culture shock on his own, but when his ancient blood enemy also turned up, the Titans were ready to lend a hand…

‘The Revolt at Harrison High’ in #3 cashed in on a contemporary craze for drag-racing in a tale of bizarre criminality. Produced during a historically iconic era, many readers now can’t help but cringe when reminded of such daft foes as Ding-Dong Daddy and his evil biker gang, and of course the hip, trendy dialogue (it wasn’t that accurate then, let alone now) is pitifully dated, but the plot is strong and the art magnificent.

‘The Secret Olympic Heroes’ guest-starred Green Arrow’s cocky teen partner Speedy in a very human tale of parental pressure at the Olympics, although there’s also skulduggery aplenty from a terrorist organisation intent on disrupting the games. Next TT #5’s ‘The Perilous Capers of the Terrible Teen’ finds the Titans facing the dual task of aiding a troubled young man and capturing elusive super-villain The Ant, despite all evidence indicating that they’re the same person, after which another DC sidekick made his Titans debut.

Illustrated by Bill Molno & Sal Trapani ‘The Fifth Titan’ then brings aboard Beast Boy (the obnoxious juvenile know-it-all from the Doom Patrol). Feeling unappreciated by his adult mentors, the young hero wrongly assumes he’ll be welcomed by his peers. Rejected again, he falls under the spell of an unscrupulous circus owner and the kids need to set things right…

Slow and overly convoluted, it’s possibly the low-point of a stylish run, but many fans disagree, citing #7’s ‘The Mad Mod, Merchant of Menace’ as the biggest stinker. However, beneath painfully dated dialogue there’s a witty, tongue-in-cheek tale of swinging London, cool capers and novel criminality, plus the return of magnificent Nick Cardy to the art chores.

It was back to America for ‘A Killer called Honey Bun’ (illustrated by Irv Novick & Jack Abel): another tale of intolerance and misunderstood kids, played against a backdrop of espionage in Middle America, and featuring a deadly prototype robotic superweapon in the menacing title role…

TT #9’s ‘Big Beach Rumble’ finds the Titans refereeing a swiftly-escalating vendetta between rival colleges on holiday when modern day pirates led by the barbarous Captain Tiger crash the scene. Novick pencilled it and Cardy’s inking made it all very palatable in a light and uncomplicated way. Editor George Kashdan clearly concurred as the art teem continued for the next few issues, beginning with ‘Scramble at Wildcat’: a rowdy crime caper featuring dirt-bikes and desert ghost-towns, with skeevy biker The Scorcher profiting from a pernicious robbery spree…

Wrapping up this first outing, Speedy returned in #11’s spy-thriller ‘Monster Bait’, with the young heroes going undercover to save a boy being blackmailed into betraying his father and his country…

Although dated in delivery now, these tales were an incomprehensibly liberating experience for kids when first released. They betokened a new empathy with increasingly independent youth and sought to address problems that were more relevant to and generated by that specific audience. That they are so captivating in execution is a wonderful bonus. This is absolute escapism and absolutely delightful and you absolutely should get this book.
© 1964, 1965, 1966, 1967, 2017 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

June 22, 2024June 21, 2024

Showcase Presents Batman volume 4

By Gardner F. Fox, Frank Robbins, Bob Kanigher, Mike Friedrich, John Broome, E. Nelson Bridwell, Chic Stone, Frank Springer, Irv Novick, Bob Brown, Gil Kane, Ross Andru & Mike Esposito, Sid Greene, Joe Giella, Dick Giordano & various (DC Comics)
ISBN13: 978-1-84856-357-5 (TPB)

After three seasons (perhaps two and a half would be closer) the overwhelmingly successful Batman TV show ended in March, 1968. It had clocked up 120 episodes since the US premiere on January 12, 1966. As the show foundered and crashed, global fascination with “camp” superheroes – and no, the term had nothing to do with sexual proclivities no matter what you and Mel Brooks might think about Men in Tights – burst as quickly as it had boomed and the Caped Crusader was left with a hard core of dedicated fans and followers who now wanted their hero back.

For the editor who had tried to keep the most ludicrous excesses of the show out whilst still cashing in on his global popularity, the reasoning seemed simple: get him back to solving baffling mysteries and facing genuine perils as soon and as thrillingly as possible.

No problem. This fourth monochrome compendium gathers Batman & Robin yarns from the eponymous star title #202-215 and the front halves of Detective Comics #376-390. The back-up slot was delightfully filled until #383 by whimsically stretchable sleuth The Elongated Man, before his unceremonious ejection to make room for Batgirl’s solo sallies.

The 27 stories here (some Batman issues were giant reprint editions, so only their covers are reproduced within these pages) were crafted by an ever-evolving team of creators as editor Julie Schwartz lost some of his elite stable to age, attrition and corporate pressure, but the “new blood” was only fresh to the Gotham Guardian not the industry, and their sterling efforts deftly moulded the 30 year veteran star into a hero capable of actually working within the new “big thing” in comics: suspense, horror and the supernatural…

The book leads off with ‘Gateway to Death!’ from Batman #202, cover-dated June 1968, as delivered by Gardner Fox, and un-attributed artist (it’s Chic Stone inked by Sid Greene). The tale is a spooky graveyard chiller finding the Dynamic Duo chasing a psychic plunderer towards their own prognosticated doom, after which Detective #376 (by the same creative team) ask ‘Hunted or …Haunted?’ as a time-traveller inadvertently puts the fear of death and worse into the Gotham Gangbuster.

Batman #203 was an 80-Page Giant with a Neal Adams cover, before an old foe returns in Detective #377. ‘The Riddler’s Prison-Puzzle Problem!’ by Fox, Frank Springer & Greene precedes Frank Robbins (creator of newspaper strip icon Johnny Hazard) joining the writing team for ‘Operation: Blindfold!’ as limned by Irv Novick & Joe Giella – a 2-part criminal conspiracy saga wherein a legion of thugs and sightless beggars almost take over Gotham.

With veteran penciller Bob Brown on Detective and Novick on Batman, artistic quality was high and consistent, but sadly strictly chronological reprinting works against the reader as the concluding episode is postponed and derailed here by Detective #378 – first half of Robbins, Brown & Giella’s generation gap murder-mystery ‘Batman! Drop Dead… Twice!’ which itself climaxes after ‘Blind as a… Bat?’ from Batman #204, with a rollicking rollercoaster ride of spills & chills in ‘Two Killings For the Price of One!’ in Detective #379…

Issue #380 follows, introducing new love-interest Ginny Jenkins, Robbins, Brown & Giella’s ‘Marital-Bliss Miss!’ who only pretends to be the new Mrs. Bruce Wayne for the very best of motives – saving his life – before Batman #206 sees Novick & Giella illustrate canny thriller ‘Batman Walks the Last Mile!’, pitting Caped Crusader against a conman claiming to be the brains behind the Dynamic Duo’s success.

In an era when teen angst and the counter-culture played an ever more evident and strident part, Robin’s role as spokesperson for a generation was becoming increasingly important, with disputes and splits from his senior partner constantly recurring. Detective #381 featured one of the best as Batman literally dumped the Boy Wonder in ‘One Drown… One More to Go!’ – another clever crime conundrum by Robbins, Brown & Giella. Batman #207 carried a classy countdown-to-catastrophe drama as all Gotham hunted the atomic nightmare of ‘The Doomsday Ball!’ whilst DC #382 continued a theme of youth in revolt with ‘Riddle of the Robbin’ Robin!’ The disagreements were never serious or genuine, although that would soon change.

Batman #208 was another reprint Giant highlighting the women in his life. However, even though Schwartz varied the usual format by having Gil Kane draw interlocking framing sequences, turning the issue into one big single story, all that has all omitted here so you just get the rather nifty Nicky Cardy cover. Detective #383 was a straightforward (and painfully dated!) thriller set in Gotham’s Chinatown – ‘The Fortune-Cookie Caper!’ before outlandish mind-bending mystery became the order of the day in Batman #209’s ‘Jungle Jeopardy!’ whilst DC #384 asked ‘Whatever Will Happen to Heiress Heloise?’: a crafty final tale of cross and double-cross from Fox, illustrated by Brown & Giella.

Catwoman returned mob-handed – or is that murder-mittened? – in Batman #210 with eight other “cat chicks” in tow, leaving the Caped Crimebuster hard-pressed to solve ‘The Case of the Purr-Loined Pearl!’ after which Bob Kanigher wrote one of the best tales of his long and illustrious career for Detective #385 as a nameless nonentity became the most important man Batman never met in the deeply moving ‘Die Small… Die Big!’

Issue #386 found Wayne a ‘Stand-In for Murder’ (Robbins, Brown & Giella) and the heroes had secret identity woes in ‘Batman’s Big Blow-Off!’ (#211, (Robbins, Novick & Giella) whilst Young Turk Mike Friedrich scripted a reworking of Batman’s very first appearance for the 30^th Anniversary issue of Detective Comics. ‘The Cry of Night is… Sudden Death!’ was a contemporary reworking of #27’s ‘The Case of the Chemical Syndicate’ that launched the Dark Knight on the road to immortality (for the original check out any of many “Best of” or “Golden Age” collections to feature the landmark tale). However here the relationship between Batman and Boy Wonder came under probing scrutiny…

‘Baffling Deaths of the Crime-Czar!’ (Batman #212, Robbins, Novick & Giella) pitted a trio of exuberant hitmen against our heroes, after which John Broome returned to make one last scripting contribution, sagely moving The Joker away from campy Clown crimes and back towards the insane killer MO we all cherish. That all came about in Detective #388’s ‘Public Luna-tic Number One!’: a classy sci-fi thriller totally reinventing the Lethal Laughing Loon, in no small part thanks to the artistic efforts of Brown & Giella.

Batman #213 is another reprint Giant, celebrating other landmarks of the 30^th Anniversary and leading with a new retelling of ‘The Origin of Robin’, courtesy of E. Nelson Bridwell, Ross Andru & Mike Esposito, which is included here after the spiffy cover from Bill Draut & Vince Colletta. The rocky road to a scary superhero continued into Detective #389 and Robbins’ ‘Batman’s Evil Eye’ wherein The Scarecrow afflicts Gotham’s Guardian with the involuntary power to terrify at a glance – and obviously somebody saw the long-term story potential in that stunt…

There was still potential to be daft too though, as seen in ‘Batman’s Marriage Trap!’ (#214, Robbins, Novick & Giella) wherein a wicked Femme Fatale sets the unhappy spinsters of America on the trail of Gotham’s Most Eligible Bat-chelor (See what I did there? Wishing I hadn’t?) Not even a guest-shot by positive role-model Batgirl could redeem this peculiar throwback – although the art just might…

The last Detective tale is from #390 and pits the Dynamic Duo against lacklustre costumed assassin The Masquerader in ‘If the Coffin Fits… Wear It!’ before the end of an era is presaged in Batman #215 and ‘Call Me Master!’ by Robbins, Novick and soon to become legendary inker Dick Giordano. Although a clever tale of mind-control skullduggery, this tale trailled the loss of Wayne Manor and an all-out split between Darknight Detective and Boy Wonder: events which would come to pass within months, ushering in a bold new direction for the Bat-Universe.

This volume brings three decades of Batman to a solid satisfactory conclusion. All too soon safe boy-scout Caped Crusader would become a terrifying creature of passion, intellect and shadowy suspense.

June 8, 2024June 7, 2024

Showcase Presents World’s Finest volume 4

By Cary Bates, Bob Haney, Robert Kanigher, Denny O’Neil, Mike Friedrich, Curt Swan, Ross Andru, Dick Dillin, Mike Esposito & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-3736-3 (TPB)

For decades Superman and Batman were quintessential superhero partners: the “World’s Finest team”. The affable champions were best buddies as well as mutually respectful colleagues, and their pairing made sound financial sense since DC’s top heroes could happily cross-pollinate and cross-sell their combined readerships.

This fourth monochrome compendium re-presents cataclysmic collaborations from the dog days of the 1960’s into the turbulent decade beyond (World’s Finest Comics #174-202, spanning March 1968 to May 1971), as shifts in America’s tastes and cultural landscape created such a hunger for more mature and socially relevant stories that even the Cape & Cowl Crusaders were affected – so much so in fact, that the partnership was temporarily suspended: sidelined so that Superman could guest-star with other icons of the DC universe.

However, after a couple of years, the relationship was revitalised and renewed with the “World’s Finest Heroes” fully restored to their bizarrely apt pre-eminence for another lengthy run until the title was cancelled in the build-up to Crisis on Infinite Earths in 1986.

The increasingly grim escapades begin with ‘Secret of the Double Death-Wish!’ by Cary Bates, Pete Costanza & Jack Abel from #174 (cover-dated March 1968, so actually the last issue of 1967) wherein mysterious voyeurs seemingly kidnap the indomitable heroes and psychologically crush their spirits such that they beg for death.

Smart and devious, this conundrum was definitely old-school, but a New Year saw subtle changes as, post-Batman TV show, the industry experienced superheroes waning in favour of war, western and especially supernatural themes and genres. Thus 1968 saw radical editorial makeovers at National/DC. Edgier stories of the costumed Boy Scouts began as iconoclastic penciller Neal Adams started turning heads and making waves with his stunning covers and two spectacularly gripping Cape & Cowl capers. It began in WFC #175 with ‘The Superman-Batman Revenge Squads!’, scripted by Leo Dorfman and inked by Dick Giordano. The story details how an annual contest of wits between the crimebusting pals is infiltrated by alien and Terran criminal alliances intent on killing their foes whilst they are off guard.

Issue #176 featured beguiling thriller ‘The Superman-Batman Split!’ (Bates, Adams & Giordano). Ostensibly just another alien mystery, this twisty little gem has a surprise ending for all and guest stars Robin, Jimmy Olsen, Supergirl and Batgirl, with the artist’s hyper-dynamic realism lending an aura of credibility to the most fanciful situations, and ushering in an era of gritty veracity to replace the anodyne and frequently frivolous Costumed Dramas.

Jim Shooter, Curt Swan & Mike Esposito also edged closer towards constructive realism with #177’s ‘Duel of the Crime Kings!’ as Lex Luthor again joins forces with The Joker. This go-round the dastardly duo used time-busting technology to recruit Benedict Arnold, Baron Hieronymus Carl Friedrich von Munchausen and Leonardo Da Vinci to plan crimes for them, only to then fall foul of the temporally displaced persons’ own unique agendas…

WFC #178 began a 2-part Imaginary Tale with ‘The Has-Been Superman!’ (Bates, Swan & Abel) which has the Action Ace lose his Kryptonian powers and subsequently struggle to continue his career as Batman-style masked crimebuster Nova. More determined than competent, he soon falls under the influence of criminal mastermind Mr. Socrates – a brainwashed stooge programmed to assassinate Batman…

The moody suspense saga was interrupted by #179 – a regularly scheduled, all-reprint 80-Page Giant featuring bright-&-shiny early tales from the team’s formative years – represented in this collection by its striking Adams cover – before the alternate Earth epic concludes in #180 with ‘Superman’s Perfect Crime!’ courtesy of Bates and new regular art team Ross Andru & Mike Esposito.

During the late 1950s when the company’s editors cautiously expanded the characters’ continuities, they learned that each new tale was an event which added to a nigh-sacred canon, and that what was printed was deeply important to the readers – but no “ideas man” would let all that aggregated “history” stifle a good plot situation or sales generating cover.

Thus “Imaginary Stories” were conceived as a way of exploring non-continuity plots and scenarios, devised at a time when editors knew that entertainment trumped consistency and fervently believed that every comic read was somebody’s first and – unless they were very careful – potentially their last…

Bates, also scripted #181’s ‘The Hunter and the Hunted’ wherein an impossibly powerful being from far away in space and time relentlessly pursues and then whisks away the heroes to a world where they were revered as the fathers of the race, whilst in the next issue ‘The Mad Manhunter!’ depicted a suspenseful shocker which found Batman routinely rampaging like a madman due to a curse. Naturally, what seemed was far from what actually was…

Another massive con-trick underscored #183’s Dorfman-scripted drama as apes from the future accused the Man of Steel of committing ‘Superman’s Crime of the Ages!’ and Batman and Robin had to arrest their greatest ally. In WFC #184 Bates, Swan & Abel concocted another bombastic Imaginary Tale which revealed ‘Robin’s Revenge!’, tracing the troubled teen sidekick’s progress after Batman is murdered, with Superman powerless to assuage the Boy Wonder’s growing hunger for revenge…

Robert Kanigher joined old collaborators Andru & Esposito from #185 onwards, detailing the bizarre story of the ‘The Galactic Gamblers!’ who press-ganged Superman, Batman, Robin and Jimmy to their distant world to act as living stakes and game-pieces in their gladiatorial games of chance, before taking the heroes on a time-tossed 2-part supernatural thriller.

In #186, anecdotal stories of Batman’s Colonial ancestor “Mad Anthony Wayne” prompt the heroes to travel back to the War of Independence where the Dark Knight is accused of infernal deviltry as ‘The Bat Witch!’ and sentenced to death. Of course, it’s actually the Action Ace who is possessed to become ‘The Demon Superman!’ in the follow-up before all logic and sanity are restored by exorcism and judicious force of arms…

After the cover to World’s Finest #188 – another reprint Giant – Bates returns in #189 with a (still) shocking 2-parter opening in ‘The Man with Superman’s Heart!’ wherein the Caped Kryptonian crashes from space to Earth and is pronounced Dead On Arrival. As per his wishes, many of his organs are harvested (this was 1969 and still purely speculative fiction at that time) and bequeathed to worthy recipients. When Batman refuses to accept any organic bequests, Superman’s eyes, ears, lungs, heart and hands (yes, I know… just go with it) are simply stored …until Luthor steals them to auction off to gangland’s highest bidders…

Concluding episode ‘The Final Revenge of Luthor!’ sees a quartet of crooks running wild as the transplants bestow mighty powers Batman and Robin cannot combat, but the tragedy has a logical – if rather callous – explanation as the real Man of Steel appears to save the day…

Bates, Andru & Esposito then explore ‘Execution on Krypton!’ in WFC #191, as incredible events on Earth lead Superman and Batman back to Krypton before Kal-El was born. Here he learns how his revered parents Jor-El and Lara became radicalised college lecturers, and why they were teaching their students all the subversive tricks revolutionaries needed to know…

Bob Haney joined Andru & Esposito from #192 for a dark, Cold War suspense thriller as Superman is captured by the Communist rulers of Lubania and held in ‘The Prison of No Escape!’ When Batman tries to bust him out, he too is arrested and charged with spying by sadistic Colonel Koslov, utilising brainwashing techniques to achieve ‘The Breaking of Superman and Batman!’ in the next issue. However, the vile totalitarian’s torturous treatment disguises an insidious master-plan which the World’s Finest almost fail to foil…

Popular public response to Mario Puzo’s phenomenal novel The Godfather most likely influenced Haney, Andru & Esposito’s next convoluted 2-parter. WFC #194 sees Superman and Batman undercover ‘Inside the Mafia Gang!’ and hoping to dismantle the organisation of “Big Uncle” Alonzo Scarns from within. Sadly, a head wound muddles the Gotham Gangbuster’s memory and Batman begins to believe he is actually the “Capo di Capo Tutti”, condemning Robin and Jimmy to ‘Dig Now, Die Later!’ Helplessly watching, Superman is almost relieved when the real Scarns shows up…

An era ended with #196 as ‘The Kryptonite Express!’ (Haney, Swan & George Roussos) details how a massive meteor shower bombards the US with tons of the deadly green mineral. After countless decent citizens gather up the Green K, a special train is laid on to collect it all and ship it to somewhere it can be safely disposed of. Superman is ordered to stay well away whilst Batman takes charge of the FBI operation, but they have no idea master racketeer and railway fanatic K.C. Jones has plans for the shipment and a guy on the inside…

After #197 – another all-reprint Superman/Batman Giant – a new era launches (for the entire experiment you should see World’s Finest: Guardians of Earth please link to 2021, June 3^rd) as the Fastest Man Alive teams with the Man of Tomorrow. DC Editors of the 1960s generally avoided questions like who’s best/strongest/fastest for fear of upsetting a portion of their tenuous and assuredly temporary fanbase, but as the tide turned against superheroes in general and upstart Marvel began making serious inroads into their market, the notion of a definitive race between the almighty Man of Steel and Scarlet Speedster became increasingly enticing and sales-worthy.

They had raced twice before (Superman #199 and Flash #175 – August & December 1967) with the result deliberately fudged each time, but when they met for a third round a definitive conclusion was promised – but please remember it’s not about the winning, but only the taking part. As World’s Finest became a team-up vehicle for Superman, Flash again found himself in contrived competition. ‘Race to Save the Universe!’ and conclusion ‘Race to Save Time!’ (#198-199, November and December 1970, by Denny O’Neil, Dick Dillin & Joe Giella) up the stakes as the high-speed heroes are conscripted by the Guardians of the Universe to circumnavigate the cosmos at their greatest velocities thereby undoing the rampage of mysterious Anachronids: faster-than-light creatures whose pell-mell course throughout creation is unwinding time itself. Little does anybody suspect Superman’s oldest enemies are behind the entire appalling scheme…

In anniversary issue #200, Mike Friedrich, Dillin & Giella focus on brawling brothers on opposite sides of the teen college scene, abducted with unruly youth icon Robin and “Mr. Establishment” Superman to a distant planet. Here undying vampiric aliens wage eternal war on each other in ‘Prisoners of the Immortal World!’ Green Lantern then pops in for #201, contesting ‘A Prize of Peril!’ (O’Neil, Dillin & Giella) which will give either Emerald Gladiator or Man of Steel sole jurisdiction of Earth’s skies.

Batman returns for a limited engagement in #202. The final tale in this compilation, O’Neil, Dillin & Giella’s ‘Vengeance of the Tomb-Thing!’ sees archaeologists unearth something horrific in Egypt as Superman seemingly goes mad: attacking his greatest friends and allies. A superb ecological scare-story, this tale changed the Man of Tomorrow’s life forever…

These are gloriously smart, increasingly mature comic book yarns whose dazzling, timeless style informed the evolution of two media megastars, which still have the power and punch to enthral even today’s jaded seen it-all audiences. The contents of this titanic team-up tome are a veritable feast of witty, gritty, pretty thrillers packing as much punch and wonder now as they always have. Utterly entrancing adventure for fans of all ages!
© 1968, 1969, 1970, 1971, 2012 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

May 22, 2024May 21, 2024

Showcase Presents Batman volume 3

By Gardner F. Fox, John Broome, Mike Friedrich, Carmine Infantino, Sheldon Moldoff, Gil Kane, Frank Springer, Chic Stone, Sid Greene, Joe Giella & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-1719-8 (TPB)

After 3 seasons (perhaps 2½ would be closer) the Batman TV show ended in March, 1968. It had clocked up 120 episodes since its US premiere on January 12^th 1966. The era ended but the series had left undeniable effect on the world, the comics industry and most importantly on the characters and history of its four-colour inspiration. Most notable was a whole new superstar who became an integral part of the DC universe.

This astoundingly economical black & white compendium (another collection long in need of modern revival …and some colour too, please) gathers all the Batman and Robin yarns from #189-201 of the eponymous title as well as the Gotham stuff from Detective Comics #359-375 (the back-up slot therein being delightfully filled at this time by the globetrotting, whimsically wonderful Elongated Man feature). The 33 stories here – written and illustrated by the cream of editor Julie Schwartz’s elite stable of creators – gradually evolved over the 17 months covered from an even mix of crime, science fiction, mystery, human interest and supervillain vehicles to a much narrower concentration of plot engines. As with TV’s version, costumes became king, and then became unwelcome….

It all begins with the comic book premiere of that aforementioned new character. In ‘The Million Dollar Debut of Batgirl’ (Detective Comics #359, cover-dated January 1967) writer Gardner Fox and art team supreme Carmine Infantino & Sid Greene introduced Barbara Gordon: “mousy librarian” and daughter of the Police Commissioner into the superhero limelight. So by the time TV’s third season began on September 14^th 1967, she was fully established.

A different Batgirl, Betty Kane, niece of the 1950s Batwoman, was already a comics fixture but for reasons far too complex and irrelevant to mention here was conveniently forgotten to make room for a new, empowered woman in the fresh tradition of Emma Peel, Honey West and The Girl From U.N.C.L.E. She was marketed as being pretty hot too, which was always a big consideration for television…

Whereas Babs fought The Penguin on the small screen, her paper origin features no less ludicrous but at least visually forbidding Killer Moth in a clever yarn that still stands up today. An old foe unseen since the 1940s was revived for Batman #189 (February 1967). Demented psychology lecturer Jonathan Crane was obsessed by the emotion of fear and turned his expertise to criminal endeavours (initially in World’s Finest Comics #3 and Detective #73) before fading into obscurity. With ‘Fright of the Scarecrow’ he was back for (no) good, courtesy of Fox, Sheldon Moldoff & Joe Giella, as this tense psychodrama elevated him to the top rank of Bat-rogues. ‘The Case of the Abbreviated Batman’ (Detective #360) by the same team follows: an old-fashioned crime-caper with mobster Gunshy Barton pitting wits against Gotham’s Guardians whilst the March Batman’s full-length ‘The Penguin Takes a Flyer… Into the Future!’ – scripted by John Broome – mixed super-villainy and faux science fiction motifs for an enjoyable if predictable fist-fest.

Editor Schwartz preferred to stick with mysteries and conundrums in Detective Comics and #361’s ‘The Dynamic Duo’s Double-Deathtrap!’ was one of Fox’s best examples, especially as drawn by the incredibly over-stretched Infantino & Greene. The plot involves Cold War spies and a maker of theatrical paraphernalia. I shall reveal no more to keep you guessing when you read it. The next issue, by Fox, Moldoff & Giella, featured another eccentric scheme by The Riddler on ‘The Night Batman Destroyed Gotham City!’ Batman #191 featured two tales by Broome, Moldoff & Giella starting on ‘The Day Batman Sold Out!’: a “Hero Quits” teaser with a Babs Gordon cameo, whilst the faithful retainer took centre stage in charming parable ‘Alfred’s Mystery Menu’.

‘The True-False Face of Batman’ (Detective #363, by Fox Infantino &Greene) was a full co-starring vehicle as the new girl is challenged to deduce Batman’s secret identity whilst tracking down the enigmatic Mr. Brains. Fox scripted both ‘The Crystal Ball that Betrayed Batman!’ – which featured an old enemy in a new guise – and Robin solo-story ‘Dick Grayson’s Secret Guardian!’ in Batman #192, for Moldoff & Giella. They also handled his mystery-yarn ‘The Curious Case of the Crime-less Clues!’ in Detective #364, wherein Riddler and a host of Bat-baddies again test the brains and patience of the Dynamic Duo – or do they?

Issue #365 featured Broome, Moldoff & Giella’s ‘The House The Joker Built!’ which was nobody’s finest hour, whereas Fox-scripted ‘The Blockbuster goes Bat-Mad!’ in Batman #196 is compensatory sheer delight, especially since it’s accompanied by a “fair-play” whodunnit starring The Mystery Analysts of Gotham City. ‘The Problem of the Proxy Paintings!’ is the kind of Batman tale I miss most these days: witty and urbane, a genuinely engaging puzzle without benefit of angst or histrionics.

There’s plenty of the latter in ‘The Round Robin Death Threats’ (Fox, Infantino & Greene): a tense thriller spanning two issues of Detective (#366 – 367 and an almost unheard of event in those reader-friendly days). The diabolical murder-plot threatens to systematically eradicate Gotham’s worthiest citizens with the drama ending in high style in ‘Where There’s a Will… There’s a Slay!’: a chilling conclusion almost ruined by that awful title.

Batman #195 introduced radioactive villain Bag o’Bones in ‘The Spark-Spangled See-Through Man!’ – a desperate attempt to return to story-driven tales, though the ‘7 Wonder Crimes of Gotham City!’ (Detective #368 by Fox, Moldoff & Giella) was a far more enjoyable taste of bygone times. The next issue led with clever puzzler ‘The Psychic Super-Sleuth!’ and finished well with another challenging mystery in ‘The Purloined Parchment Puzzle!’ (both by Fox, Moldoff & Giella) before Detective #369, illustrated by Infantino & Greene, rather reinforced boyhood prejudices about icky girls in classy thriller ‘Batgirl Breaks Up the Dynamic Duo’ before segueing into a classic confrontation as Batman #197 reveals how ‘Catwoman Sets Her Claws for Batman!’ (Fox, Frank Springer & Greene). This frankly daft tale is most fondly remembered for the classic cover of Batgirl and Catwoman (with her Whip!!!) squaring off over Batman’s prone body – comic fans have a unique psychopathology absolutely all their very own…

Detective Comics #370 was by Broome, Moldoff & Giella, relating a superb thriller with roots in Bruce Wayne’s troubled youth. ‘The Nemesis from Batman’s Boyhood!’ is in many ways a precursor of later tales with an excellent psychologically potent premise and a soundly satisfying conclusion proving the demands of the TV shows were not exclusive or paramount. Gil Kane made his debut on the “Dominoed Daredoll” (did they really call her that? Yes. Yes they did, from page 2 onwards) in #371’s ‘Batgirl’s Costumed Cut-ups’, a masterpiece of comic dynamism that Sid Greene could be proud of but which Gardner Fox probably preferred to forget.

Batman #199’s ‘Peril of the Poison Rings’ and ‘Seven Steps to Save Face’ are far better examples of the clever plotting, memorable maguffins and rapid pace Fox was capable of, ably interpreted here by Moldoff & Giella, whilst Broome’s ‘The Fearsome Foot-Fighters!’ weak title masks a classy burglary-yarn and the regular art team’s beginning to amplify mood via heavy shadow in all their endeavours. This issue (Detective #370) was the first Bat-cover legend-in-waiting Neal Adams pencilled and inked – an awesome taste of things to come…

Batman #200 (cover-dated March 1968 and on ale mid-January) was written by wunderkind Mike Friedrich for Moldoff & Giella. ‘The Man Who Radiated Fear!’ featured a revitalised Scarecrow, and with the TV influence fading, a pre-emptive rehabilitation of the Caped Crusader began right here in a solid thriller with few laughs and plenty of guest-stars. Fox returned to top form in Detective #373, with Chic Stone & Greene illustrating ‘Mr. Freeze’s Chilling Deathtrap!’, a tale favouring drama over showbiz shtick, after which Gil Kane returned to ramp up tension in brutal vengeance fable ‘Hunt for a Robin-Killer!’ (Detective #374) whilst Stone & Giella coped well with the extended cast of villains in Batman #201’s ‘Batman’s Gangland Guardians!’: a cunning action-packed enigma wherein his greatest foes become bodyguards to a hero…

This volume ends with Detective #374 and Fox, Stone & Greene’s ‘The Frigid Finger of Fate’ and a chilling race to catch a precognitive sniper, which – more than any other story – signalled the end of the Camp-Craze Caped Crimebuster and heralded the imminent return of a Darker Knight. With this third collection from “the TV years” of Batman – all done with by Spring of 1968 – the global Bat-craze and larger popular fascination with super-heroes – and indeed the whole “Camp” trend – was dying. In comics, that resulted in a resurgence of other genres, particularly Westerns and supernatural tales. For Batman it signalled a renaissance of passion, terror and a life of shadows. Stay tuned: the best is yet to come…
© 1967, 1968, 2008 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

May 11, 2024May 9, 2024

Showcase Presents World’s Finest volume 3

By Edmond Hamilton, Cary Bates, Jim Shooter, Leo Dorfman, Bill Finger, Curt Swan, George Klein, Sheldon Moldoff, Al Plastino & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-84856-585-2 (TPB)

For decades Superman and Batman were quintessential superhero partners: the “World’s Finest” team. Friends as well as colleagues, their pairing made sound financial sense since DC’s top heroes could cross-pollinate and cross-sell their combined readerships. This third magnificent monochrome compendium gathers their cataclysmic collaborations from the glory days of the mid-1960’s: specifically World’s Finest Comics #146-173 – with the exception of reprint 80-Page Giant issues #161 &170 – and cumulatively covering cover-dates December 1964 through February 1968). This was a time when the entire Free World went superhero gaga in response to Batman’s live action and Superman’s animated TV shows…

A new era had begun in World’s Finest Comics #141 when author Edmond Hamilton and artists Curt Swan & George Klein (who illustrate the bulk of tales in this collection) ushered in a more dramatic, realistic and far less whimsical tone. That titanic creative trio continue their rationalist run in this volume starting with #146’s ‘Batman, Son of Krypton!’ wherein uncovered evidence from the Bottle City of Kandor and bizarre recovered memories seemed to indicate the Caped Crusader is in fact an amnesiac, de-powered, Kryptonian. Moreover, as our heroes dig deeper, Superman thinks he’s found the Earthman responsible for Krypton’s destruction and becomes crazed with a hunger for vengeance…

WFC #147’s saw the sidekicks step up in a stirring blend of science fiction thriller and crime caper, all masquerading as an engaging drama of youth-in-revolt when ‘The New Terrific Team!’ (February 1965 Hamilton, Swan & Klein) saw Jimmy Olsen and Robin quit their underappreciated assistant roles to strike out on their disgruntled own. Naturally there was a perfectly rational, if incredible, reason. In #148 ‘Superman and Batman – Outlaws!’ (with Sheldon Moldoff temporarily replacing Klein) saw the Cape & Cowl Crimebusters sent to another dimension where arch-villains Lex Luthor and Clayface were heroes and the Dark Knight and Action Ace ruthless hunted criminals, after which World’s Finest Comics #149 (May 1965 and also inked by Moldoff) dealt out ‘The Game of Secret Identities!’ with Superman locked into an increasingly obsessive battle of wits with Batman that seemed likely to break up the partnership and even lead to violent disaster…

‘The Super-Gamble with Doom!’ (#150) introduced manipulative aliens Rokk and Sorban, whose addictive and staggeringly spectacular wagering almost gets Batman killed and Earth destroyed, before ‘The Infinite Evolutions of Batman and Superman!’ in #151 introduces junior writer Cary Bates, pairing with Hamilton to produce a beguiling sci fi thriller as the Gotham Guardian transforms into a callous future-man and the Metropolis Marvel is reduced to a brutish Neanderthal…

Hamilton solo-scripted #152’s ‘The Colossal Kids!’ wherein a brace of incomprehensibly super-powered brats outmatch, outdo but never outwit Batman or Superman (and of course there are old antagonists behind the challenging campaign of humiliation) after which Bates rejoins his writing mentor for a taut and dramatic “Imaginary Story” in #153.

When Editor Mort Weisinger was expanding Superman continuity and building the legend, he knew that each new tale was an event adding to a nigh-sacred canon and that what was written and drawn mattered to readers. But as an ideas man he wasn’t going to let that aggregated “consensus history” stifle a good idea, nor would he allow his eager yet sophisticated audience to endure clichéd deus ex machina cop-outs to mar the sheer enjoyment of a captivating concept. The mantra known to every baby-boomer fan was “Not a Dream! Not a Hoax! Not a Robot!” boldly emblazoned covers depicting scenes that couldn’t possibly be true… even if it was only a comic book.

Imaginary Stories were conceived as a way of exploring non-continuity plots and scenarios devised at a time when editors believed entertainment trumped consistency and knew that every comic read was somebody’s first – or potentially last. Illustrated by as ever by Swan & Klein, ‘The Clash of Cape and Cowl!’ posited a situation where brilliant young Bruce Wayne grew up believing Superboy had murdered his father, thereafter dedicating his life to crushing all criminals as a Bat Man awaiting the day when he could expose Superman as a killer and sanctimonious fraud…

WFC #154’s ‘The Sons of Superman and Batman’ (by Hamilton) opened doors to a far less tragic Imaginary world: one where the crime fighters finally found time to marry Lois Lane and Kathy Kane and have kids. Unfortunately, their lads proved to be both a trial and initially a huge disappointment…

‘Exit Batman – Enter Nightman!’ is a canny psychological thriller with the World’s Finest Team on the cusp of their 1,000^th successful shared case when a new costumed crusader threatens to break up the partnership and replace burned out Batman, after which ‘The Federation of Bizarro Idiots!’ in #156 sees well-meaning but imbecilic imperfect duplicates of Superman and Batman set up shop on Earth. They end up as pawns of the duplicitous Joker, and it does not end well…

In #157’s ‘The Abominable Brats’ – drawn with inevitable brilliance by Swan and inked by both Klein & Moldoff – featured an Imaginary Story sequel as the wayward sons of heroes return to cause even more mischief, although once more there are other insidious influences in play…

‘The Invulnerable Super-Enemy!’ (#158 by Hamilton, Swan & Klein), has the Olsen-Robin Team stumble upon three Bottled Cities and inadvertently draw their mentors into a terrifying odyssey of evil. At first it appears to be the work of Brainiac but is in fact far from it, and is followed by ‘The Cape and Cowl Crooks!’ (WFC #159), dealing with foes possessing far mightier powers than our heroes – apparently a major concern for readers of those times.

To this day whenever fans gather a cry soon echoes out, “Who’s the strongest/fastest/better dressed…?” but this canny conundrum took the theme to superbly suspenseful heights as Anti-Superman and Anti-Batman continually outwit and outmanoeuvre the heroes, seemingly possessed of impossible knowledge of their antagonists…

Leo Dorfman debuted as scripter in#160 as the heroes struggled to discredit ‘The Fatal Forecasts of Dr. Zodiac’, a scurrilous Swami who appears to control fate itself. World’s Finest Comics #161 was an 80-Page Giant reprinting past tales and not included in this collection, so we jump to #162’s ‘Pawns of the Jousting Master!’: by another fresh scripting face. Teenager Jim Shooter produced an engaging time travel romp wherein Superman and Batman are defeated in combat and compelled to travel back to Camelot in a beguiling tale of King Arthur, super-powered knights and invading aliens…

‘The Duel of the Super-Duo!’ (#163, by Shooter, Swan & Klein) pits Superman against a brainwashed Batman on a world where his mighty powers are negated and other heroes of the galaxy are imprisoned by a master manipulator, after which Dorfman delivers an engaging thriller wherein a girl who is more powerful than Superman and smarter than Batman proves to be ‘Brainiac’s Super Brain-Child!’ Bill Finger & Al Plastino step in to craft WFC #165’s ‘The Crown of Crime’ (March 1967), depicting the last days of dying mega-gangster King Wolff. His plan to go out with a bang sets the underworld ablaze and almost stymies both heroes, after which Shooter, Swan & Klein depict ‘The Danger of the Deadly Duo!’ in which the 20^th generation of Batman and Superman unite to battle The Joker of 2967 and his uncanny ally Muto: a superb flight of fantasy that was sequel to a brief series of stories starring Superman’s heroic descendent in a fantastic far future world.

WFC #167 saw Bates solo script ‘The New Superman and Batman Team!’: an Imaginary Story wherein boy scientist Lex Luthor gives himself super-powers and a Kal-El who had landed on Earth without Kryptonian abilities trains himself to become an avenging Batman after his foster-father Jonathan Kent was murdered. The Smallville Stalwarts briefly united in a crime-fighting partnership, but destiny has other plans for the fore-doomed friends…

In World’s Finest #142 a lowly, embittered janitor suddenly gained all the powers of the Legion of Super-Heroes and attacked Caped Crusader and Action Ace out of frustration and jealousy. Revived by Bates for #168’s ‘The Return of the Composite Superman!’ he is actually the pawn of a truly evil villain but gloriously triumphs over his own venal nature, after which #169 hosts ‘The Supergirl-Batgirl Plot’: a whimsical fantasy feast from Bates, Swan & Klein wherein the uppity lasses apparently toil tirelessly to supplant and replace Batman and Superman before it’s revealed that the Dynamic Damsels are mere pawns of an extremely duplicitous team of female felons and a brace of old WF antagonists are actually behind the Byzantine scheme…

Issue #170 is another unincluded mammoth reprint edition, after which #171 reveals ‘The Executioner’s List!’ (script by Dorfman): an intriguing, tense murder-mystery with a mysterious sniper seemingly targeting friends of Superman and Batman, before stirring, hard-hitting Imaginary Story ‘Superman and Batman… Brothers!’ (#172, December 1967) posits a grim scenario wherein orphaned Bruce Wayne is adopted by the Kents, but cannot escape a destiny of tragedy and darkness. Written by Shooter and brilliantly interpreted by Swan & Klein, this moody thriller in many ways signalled the end of angst-free days and beginning of a darker, edgier and more cohesive DC universe for a less casual readership, thereby surrendering the mythology to an increasingly devout fan-based audience.

This stunning compendium closes with World’s Finest Comics #173 and ‘The Jekyll-Hyde Heroes!’ (Shooter, Swan & Klein) as a criminal scientist devises a way to literally transform the Cape & Cowl Crusaders into their own worst enemies…

These are gloriously clever yet uncomplicated tales whose timeless style has returned to inform if not dictate the form for much of DC’s modern television animation. The stories here are a veritable feast of witty, gritty thrillers packing as much punch and wonder now as they always have: unmissable adventure for fans of all ages!
© 1964-1968, 2010 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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