{"id":29598,"date":"2024-04-01T08:00:32","date_gmt":"2024-04-01T08:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=29598"},"modified":"2024-04-01T13:40:25","modified_gmt":"2024-04-01T13:40:25","slug":"showcase-presents-batman-volume-1-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2024\/04\/01\/showcase-presents-batman-volume-1-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Showcase Presents Batman volume 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"
\nBy John Broome<\/strong>, Gardner Fox<\/strong>, Ed Herron<\/strong>, Bill Finger<\/strong>, Carmine Infantino<\/strong>, Bob Kane<\/strong>, Sheldon<\/strong> Moldoff<\/strong>, Joe Giella<\/strong>, Sid Greene<\/strong> & various (DC Comics)
\nISBN: 978-1-4012-1086-1 (TPB)<\/p>\n

Although cover-dated May 1939, Detective Comics<\/strong> #27 was on sale from March 30th<\/sup>. Happy Anniversary, Dark Knight! Because we like being us, let\u2019s look at a perennial comics incarnation too long overdue for re-evaluation and re-inclusion in the greater Batty-verse\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

I\u2019m assuming everybody here loves comics and that we\u2019ve all had the same trying experience of attempting to justify that passion to somebody not genned up or tuned in. Excluding your partner (who is actually right – the living room floor is not the place to leave your D*&$\u00c2\u00a3!<\/strong><\/em> funnybooks), many people STILL have an entrenched and erroneous view of narrative strip art, resulting in a frustrating and futile time as you seek to dissuade them from that opinion.<\/p>\n

If so, this collection might be the book you want next time that confrontation occurs. Collected here in stark and stunning monochrome are tales which reshaped the Dynamic Duo and set them up for global Stardom – and subsequent fearful castigation from fans – as the template for the Batman<\/strong> TV show of the 1960s. It must be noted, however, that the canny producers and researchers of that landmark derived their creative impetus from stories and especially movie serials of the era preceding the \u201cNew Look Batman\u201d, <\/em>as well as the prevailing tone of those socially changeable times\u2026<\/p>\n

So what\u2019s going on here?<\/p>\n

By the end of 1963, editor Julius Schwartz had revived much of DC\u2019s science fiction and fantasy line – and the entire industry – with his deft reinterpretation and modernization of the Superhero. He was then asked to work his magic with the creatively stalled, nigh-moribund Caped Crusader franchise of titles. Bringing his usual team of top-notch creators with him, Schwartz stripped down the core-concept, downplaying aliens, outlandish villains and daft transformation tales, to bring a cool modern take to the pursuit and capture of criminals, and even overseeing a streamlining rationalisation of the art style itself.<\/p>\n

The most apparent change readers was a yellow circle around the Bat-symbol on his chest, but far more importantly, the stories also changed. A subtle aura of genuine menace re-entered the comfortable, absurdly abstract world of Gotham City\u2026.<\/p>\n

This initial Showcase Presents Batman<\/strong> compendium collects all the Bat-Sagas (STILL the only place to find them reprinted in full and in chronological order) as seen in Detective Comics<\/strong> #327-342 and Batman<\/strong> #164-174: 38 stunning stories that reshaped a legend and spanning cover-dates May 1964 to September 1965. The revolution began with the lead yarn in Detective<\/strong> #327, written by John Broome and illustrated by Carmine Infantino & Joe Giella at the very peak of their creative powers and collaborative partnership, before the Big Change was fully formalised with two tales from Batman<\/strong> #164.<\/p>\n

\u2018The Mystery of the Menacing Mask!<\/em> was a cunning \u201cHowdunnit?\u201d long on action and peril, as hints of a criminal \u201cunderground railroad\u201d led the Dynamic Duo to a common thug seemingly able to control the heroes with his thoughts. The venerable title was clearly refocusing on its descriptive, evocative title for the foreseeable future, and to ram the point home, a new back-up feature was introduced – \u201cStretchable Sleuth\u201d The <\/strong>Elongated Man<\/strong>.<\/em> This comic book was to be a suspenseful brain-teaser from now on\u2026<\/p>\n

In the eponymous Batman<\/strong> title, action and adventure became paramount. \u2018<\/em>Two-Way Gem Caper!<\/em>\u2019 pitted Batman & Robin against slick criminal Dabblo<\/em>, but the thief wasn\u2019t the true star of this tale. Almost as an aside, a new Batcave and refashioned Wayne Manor were introduced, plus a sleek, compact new Batmobile – more sports-car than super-tank. This story was written by Ed \u201cFrance\u201d Herron and drawn by \u201cBob Kane\u201d. Veteran inker Giella was tasked with finishing the contents of both Bat-books in a bid to generate uniformity in all stories. The inker would ultimately perform the same role when the Batman syndicated newspaper strip was revived, beginning on May 29th<\/sup> 1966\u2026<\/p>\n

A new semi-regular feature debuted in that issue. \u201cThe Mystery Analysts of Gotham City\u201d<\/em> was a private club of detectives, criminologists and crime-writers who met to discuss their cases. Somehow the meetings always resulted in an adventure such as \u2018Batman\u2019s Great Face-Saving Feat!\u2019<\/em> (Herron & Kane), wherein eager applicant Hugh Rankin applied his Private Eye talents to discovering the Gotham Gangbuster\u2019s true identity in an effort to win a seat at the sleuths\u2019 table. Suffice it to say, he had to reapply\u2026<\/p>\n

\u2018Gotham Gang Line-Up!\u2019<\/em> completed the transformation of Batman. Written by original co-creator Bill Finger and pencilled by Kane, this rather mediocre crime-caper from Detective<\/strong> #328 is most remarkable for the plot-twist wherein long-serving butler Alfred<\/em> sacrificed his life to save the heroes, prompting Dick Grayson<\/em>\u2019s Aunt Harriet<\/em> to move into Wayne Manor.<\/p>\n

From this point, the process fell into a pattern of top-of-the-line tales punctuated by utterly exceptional occasional epics of drama, mystery and action. These would continue until the infamous TV show\u2019s success became so great it actually began to inform – or taint – the style of story in the comics. And while I\u2019m into editorial asides: whenever the credits read \u201cBob Kane\u201d the artist usually doing the drawing was unsung hero Sheldon Moldoff.<\/p>\n

Written by Broome and pencilled by Infantino, Detective<\/strong> #329\u2019s \u2018Castle with Wall-To-Wall Danger!\u2019<\/em> was a captivating international thriller seeing the heroes braving deadly death-traps in Swinging England whilst pursuing a dastardly thief, before eerie science fiction saga \u2018Man Who Quit the Human Race!\u2019 <\/em>(Gardner Fox, Kane & Giella) led in Batman<\/strong> #165 finding fantastic fantasy still had a place in the Gotham Guardian\u2019s new world. A potential new love-interest debuted in back-up tale \u2018The Dilemma of the Detective\u2019s Daughter!\u2019<\/em>, courtesy of Herron & Kane, as student policewoman Patricia Powell<\/em> left cop-college for the mean streets of the city.<\/p>\n

Over in Detective<\/strong> #330, Broome & Kane detailed a new kind of crime in \u2018The Fallen Idol of Gotham City!\u2019<\/em>, wherein a mysterious phenomenon turned ordinary citizens into blood-hungry mobs on command. In Batman<\/strong> #166, \u2018Two-Way Deathtrap!\u2019<\/em> sees a pair of petty thugs set up the perfect ambush after finding a pipeline into the Batcave whilst, \u2018A Rendezvous with Robbery!\u2019<\/em> pictured a return engagement for Pat Powell during a frantic crime caper with both tales by Herron & Kane. A rare full-length story in Detective<\/strong> #331 guest-starred Elongated Man as the \u2018Museum of Mixed-Up Men\u2019 <\/em>(Broome & Infantino) united costumed sleuths against a super-scientific felon, after which a Rogues Gallery super-villain finally appeared in #332\u2019s \u2018The Joker\u2019s Last Laugh\u2019<\/em> (Broome & Kane), set on switching places with the Caped Crimebusters in his own manic manner\u2026<\/p>\n

In Batman<\/strong> #167 Finger & Kane declared \u2018Zero Hour for Earth!\u2019<\/em> as international espionage pulled the Titanic Team from Gotham into a global manhunt for secret society Hydra prior to Detective<\/strong> #333 pitting the heroes against a faux goddess and real telepaths in the \u2018Hunters of the Elephants\u2019 Graveyard!\u2019<\/em>, courtesy of Fox & Infantino. Then \u2018The Fight That Jolted Gotham City!<\/em>\u2019 opened Batman<\/strong> #168 with a blockbusting battle between the Masked Manhunter and temporarily deranged circus strongman Mr. Muscles<\/em> after which the Mystery Analysts resurfaced to close the book, explaining \u2018How to Solve the Perfect Crime\u2026 in Reverse!\u2019 <\/em>(both tales by Herron & Moldoff).<\/p>\n

The opening shot in an extended war against an incredible new foe dubbed The Outsider<\/em> came with Detective<\/strong> #334 and the introduction of Grasshopper<\/em> – \u2018The Man Who Stole from Batman!\u2019<\/em> (Fox & Moldoff), whilst Fox & Infantino\u2019s \u2018Trail of the Talking Mask!\u2019<\/em> in #335 gave the Caped Crimebusters opportunity to reinforce their sci-fi credentials in a classy high-tech thriller guest starring PI Hugh Rankin.<\/p>\n

Wily, bird-themed badman The Penguin<\/em> popped up in Batman<\/strong>#169 (Herron & Moldoff), making the heroes his unwilling \u2018Partners in Plunder!\u2019<\/em>, after which inker Sid Greene made his debut delineating \u2018A Bad Day for Batman!\u2019<\/em>, wherein he overcomes many vicissitudes of cruel coincidence to nab a determined thief. Detective<\/strong> #336 (Fox, Moldoff & Giella) featured \u2018Batman\u2019s Bewitched Nightmare\u2019<\/em> as a broom-riding crone attacks the Dynamic Duo at the Outsider\u2019s behest. In later months the witch was revealed to be sultry sorceress Zatanna<\/strong>, but most comics cognoscenti agree this was not the original plan, but rather cannily back-written during the frantic months of \u201cBatmania\u201d that followed the debut of the TV show (for a fuller explanation see JLA: Zatanna\u2019s Search<\/a><\/strong>).<\/p>\n

An intriguing new foe made his modest mark in Batman<\/strong> #170 with highly professional thief Roy Reynolds<\/em> running rings around the Gotham Gangbusters – at least initially – as the \u2018Genius of the Getaway Gimmicks!\u2019<\/em> (Fox & Moldoff) with Finger providing a captivating, human-scaled drama in \u2018The Puzzle of the Perilous Prizes!\u2019<\/em> enabling Giella to show off his pencilling as well as inking skills. \u2018The Deep-Freeze Menace!\u2019<\/em> (Detective<\/strong> #337, Fox & Infantino) focuses on captivating fantasy, pitting Batman against a super-powered caveman encased in ice for 50,000 years, before the caped crimebuster gains his own uncanny advantage in #338 as a chemical accident renders \u2018Batman\u2019s Power-Packed Punch!\u2019<\/em> too dangerous to be near\u2026<\/p>\n

After an absence of decades, \u2018Remarkable Ruse of The Riddler!\u2019<\/em> reintroduced the Prince of Puzzlers in Batman<\/strong> # 171: a clever book-length mystery from Fox & Moldoff which did much to catapult the previously forgotten villain to the first rank of Bat-Baddies, after which DC\u2019s inexplicable (but deeply cool) long-running love-affair with gorillas resulted in a cracking doom-fable as \u2018Batman Battles the Living Beast-Bomb!\u2019<\/em> (Fox & Infantino in Detective<\/strong> #339) highlighting the hero\u2019s physical prowess in a duel of wits and muscles against a sinister super-intelligent simian. Broome came back to script the eerie conundrum drawn by Moldoff which opened Batman<\/strong> #172. \u2018Attack of the Invisible Knights!\u2019<\/em> proved to be wicked science not ancient magic, whilst Batman\u2019s own technological advances played a major role part in backup \u2018Robin\u2019s Unassisted Triple Play!\u2019<\/em> (Fox, Moldoff & Greene), giving the Boy Wonder plenty of scope to show his own skills against a gang of murderous bandits.<\/p>\n

Detective<\/strong> #340 saw the war against Batman escalate when \u2018The Outsider Strikes Again!\u2019<\/em> (Fox & Moldoff), offering further clues to the hidden foe\u2019s incredible abilities by animating everyday objects – and the Batmobile – to attack the Caped Champions, before Broome & Infantino detailed a cinema-inspired catastrophic campaign in #341\u2019s \u2018The Joker\u2019s Comedy Capers!\u2019<\/em> Criminal mastermind\/blackmailer Mr. Incognito<\/em> then offered \u2018Secret Identities For Sale\u2019<\/em> in Batman<\/strong> #173\u2019s lead tale and Broome, Moldoff and inker Sid Greene depicted \u2018Walk Batman – To Your Doom!\u2019<\/em>: a sinister psychological murder-plot years ahead of its time.<\/p>\n

Broome & Moldoff\u2019s \u2018The Midnight Raid of the Robin Gang!\u2019<\/em> (Detective<\/strong> #342) hinted at the burgeoning generational unrest of the 1960s as the faithful Boy Wonder seemingly sabotaged his mentor before signing up with costumed juvenile delinquents, before this collection of Caped Crusader Chronicles concludes with Fox & Moldoff\u2019s Batman<\/strong> #174: a brace of blockbusters comprising a brutal story of street-fighting as the Gotham Guardian is ambushed and becomes \u2018<\/em>The Human Punching Bag!\u2019<\/em> before the Mystery Analysts find themselves the intended victims of a \u201cTen Little Indians\u201d murder-scheme in \u2018The Off-Again, On-Again Lightbulbs!\u2019<\/em> (inked by Greene).<\/p>\n

No matter how much we might squeal and foam about it, to a large portion of the world Batman will always be the \u201cZap! Biff! Pow!\u201d, affably lovable, caped buffoon of that 1960s television show. It really was that popular. Whether you tend towards the anodyne light-heartedness of then, commercially acceptable psychopathy of the current day or actually just like the comic book character in all eras, if you sit down, shut up and actually read these wonderful adventures for all (reasonable) ages, you will find the old adage \u201cQuality will out\u201d still holds true. And if you\u2019re actually a fan who hasn\u2019t read this classic stuff, you have an absolute treat in store\u2026
\n\u00a9 1964, 1965, 2006 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By John Broome, Gardner Fox, Ed Herron, Bill Finger, Carmine Infantino, Bob Kane, Sheldon Moldoff, Joe Giella, Sid Greene & various (DC Comics) ISBN: 978-1-4012-1086-1 (TPB) Although cover-dated May 1939, Detective Comics #27 was on sale from March 30th. Happy Anniversary, Dark Knight! Because we like being us, let\u2019s look at a perennial comics incarnation … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Showcase Presents Batman volume 1”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[10,75,76,225,127,172,107,123,268],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29598","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-batman","category-crime-comics","category-dc-superhero","category-mystery","category-nostalgia","category-robin","category-science-fiction","category-tv-adaptations","category-zatanna"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4AFj-7Ho","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29598","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29598"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29598\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29603,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29598\/revisions\/29603"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}