{"id":30470,"date":"2024-09-03T08:00:33","date_gmt":"2024-09-03T08:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=30470"},"modified":"2024-09-02T17:00:46","modified_gmt":"2024-09-02T17:00:46","slug":"showcase-presents-batman-volume-6-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2024\/09\/03\/showcase-presents-batman-volume-6-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Showcase Presents Batman volume 6"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"
\nBy Dennis O\u2019Neil<\/strong>, Frank Robbins<\/strong>, Robert Kanigher<\/strong>, Len Wein<\/strong>, Marv Wolfman<\/strong>, Neal Adams<\/strong>, Irv Novick<\/strong>, Bob Brown<\/strong>, Dick Giordano<\/strong> & various (DC Comics)
\nISBN: 978-1-4012-5153-6 (TPB)<\/p>\n

This book includes Discriminatory Content<\/strong> produced in less enlightened times.<\/em><\/p>\n

After three seasons the overwhelmingly successful Batman<\/strong> TV show ended in March, 1968. It had clocked up 120 episodes plus a theatrical-release movie since its premiere on January 12, 1966; triggering a global furore of \u201cBatmania\u201d and causing hysteria for all things costumed, zany and mystery-mannish.<\/p>\n

Once the series foundered and crashed, humanity\u2019s fascination with \u201ccamp\u201d superheroes burst as quickly as it had boomed, and the Caped Crusader was left to a hard core of dedicated fans and followers who hoped they might now have Their<\/em> hero back.<\/p>\n

For comic book 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 solution was simple: ditch the tired shtick, gimmicks and gaudy paraphernalia and get Batman back to basics; solving baffling mysteries and facing life-threatening perils.<\/p>\n

That also meant phasing out the boy sidekick…<\/p>\n

Although the college freshman Teen Wonder would still pop back for the occasional guest-shot yarn, this 6th<\/sup> astoundingly economical monochrome monument to comics ingenuity and narrative brilliance features him only sporadically. Robin<\/strong> had finally spread his wings and flown the nest: for a solo back-up slot in Detective Comics<\/strong>, alternating with Batgirl<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Chronologically collecting Batman\u2019s cases from cover-dates February 1971 to September 1972, in issues #229-244 of his own title and the front halves of Detective Comics<\/strong> #408-426, the 33 tales gathered here (some Batman<\/strong> issues were giant reprint editions, so only their covers are reproduced within these pages) were written and illustrated by forward-thinking creators determined make the hero relevant and interesting on his own terms once more.<\/p>\n

One huge factor aiding the transition was the fact that the publishers now finally acknowledged that a large proportion of their faithful readership were discerning teens or even adults, not just kids looking for a quick, cheap, disposable entertainment fix. Working through other contemporary tropes – most notably a renewed global fascination in all things supernatural and gothic – the creative staff reshaped Batman into a champion capable of working within the new \u201cbig things\u201d in comics: realism, organised crime, social issues, suspense and even supernatural horror…<\/p>\n

During this period the long road to our modern obsessive, scarily dark Knight gradually produced a harder-edged, grimly serious caped crimebuster whilst carefully expanding the milieu and scope of Batman\u2019s universe. That especially meant re-assessing his fearsome foes, who ceased to be harmless buffoons and inexorably metamorphosed back into the macabre Grand Guignol murder-fiends which typified the villains of the early 1940s.<\/p>\n

This mini-renaissance also resulted in a groundbreaking experiment now lauded as one of the first great extended Batman epics…<\/p>\n

The moody mayhem begins with \u2018Asylum of the Futurians\u2019<\/em> (Batman<\/strong> #229, by Robert Kanigher, Irv Novick & Frank Giacoia) pitting the astounded hero against a sect of self-proclaimed mutants who might simply have been the craziest, most self-deluding killers he had ever faced. Almost simultaneously, Detective Comics<\/strong> #408 offered a short sharp shocker by neophyte scripters Len Wein & Marv Wolfman. Limned by Neal Adams & Dick Giordano \u2018The House That Haunted Batman\u2019<\/em> showcased spectral apparitions, the apparent death of Robin and a devilish mystery callously perpetrated by one of the Gotham Guardian\u2019s most sinister enemies. Frank Robbins, Novick & Giordano then addressed the ongoing social revolution as our hero stopped a juvenile delinquent gang-war. When the now united kids occupied a palatial new building the \u2018Take-Over of Paradise\u2019<\/em> (Batman<\/strong> #230) provoked a vicious murder. Luckily the Caped Crimebuster was on hand to solve the case before a renewed bloodbath began…<\/p>\n

Detective <\/strong>#409 saw Batman face a disfigured lunatic slashing portraits and killing their subjects in \u2018Man in the Eternal Mask\u2019<\/em> (Robbins, Bob Brown & Giacoia) whilst next issue proved to be another chillingly memorable murder-mystery from the most celebrated creative team of the decade. \u2018A Vow from the Grave!\u2019<\/em> by Denny O\u2019Neil, Adams & Giordano at their spectacular best featured an exhausted Batman hunting one ruthless killer and inadvertently stumbling into another murder amidst an enclave of retired circus freaks…<\/p>\n

Multi-talented Dick Giordano was inker of choice for the Darknight Detective at this time: his slick, lush line and brushwork lending a veneer of continuity to every penciller. Unless I say otherwise, please assume it\u2019s him on every cited story from now on…<\/p>\n

The Dark Knight was lured to Vietnam to save an airliner full of hostages in Batman<\/strong> #231 (Robbins with Novick pencils), barely surviving a vicious vengeance scheme triggered by the \u2018Blind Rage of the Ten-Eyed Man\u2019<\/em>. Then the first subtle plot-strands of a breathtakingly ambitious saga unlike anything seen in comics before were woven in Detective Comics<\/strong> #411. Still in the East, undercover and hunting Dr. Darrk<\/em> (leader of lethally clandestine League of Assassins<\/em> introduced in #405), Batman\u2019s pursuit led \u2018Into the Den of the Death-Dealers\u2019 <\/em>(O\u2019Neil & Brown) where a climactic struggle resulted in the death monger\u2019s demise and freedom for an exotic hostage he was holding. Her name was Talia<\/em>…<\/p>\n

We learned more of her in Batman<\/strong> #232 where O\u2019Neil & Adams introduced her father – immortal eco-terrorist Ra\u2019s Al Ghul<\/em> – in a whirlwind adventure which became a signature high-point of the entire Batman canon. \u2018Daughter of the Demon\u2019<\/em> is a timeless globe-girdling pulp mystery yarn drawing the increasingly dark detective from Gotham\u2019s concrete canyons to the Himalayas in search of Robin and Talia: hostages purportedly captured by forces inimical to both Batman and the mysterious figure who claims to working in secret to save the world…<\/p>\n

Ra\u2019s was a contemporary, hopefully more acceptable embodiment of the classic inscrutable ultimate foreign devil (typified in a less forgiving age as the \u201cYellow Peril\u201d or Dr. Fu Manchu<\/strong>). This kind of alien archetype permeates popular fiction and is still an astonishingly powerful villain-symbol, although the character\u2019s Arabic origins – neutral at that time – seem to uncomfortably embody a different kind of ethnic bogeyman in today\u2019s world.<\/p>\n

The concept of a villain who has the best interests of the planet at heart is also not new, but Ra\u2019s Al Ghul – whose avowed intent is to reduce teeming humanity to viable levels and save the world from our poison – hit a chord in the 1970s, a period where ecological issues first came to the attention of the young. It was a rare kid who didn\u2019t find a note of sense in what \u201cthe Demon\u2019s Head\u201d planned.<\/p>\n

The spectacular tale ended with a shocking pronouncement of what Ra\u2019s intended for Batman…<\/p>\n

A return to relative normality came in \u2018Legacy of Hate!\u2019<\/em> (Detective Comics<\/strong> #412 by Robbins, Brown) as Bruce Wayne<\/em> heads to Northern England for a convocation of kin gathered to settle the ownership and disposition of ancient Waynemoor Castle<\/em>. Sadly, even Batman couldn\u2019t separate the spate of attempted murders which followed into purely human perpetrators and the fault of the manor\u2019s vengeful ghost knight…<\/p>\n

DC<\/strong> #413 blended the spooky tone of the times with a healthy dose of social inclusion as \u2018Freak-Out at Phantom Hollow!\u2019<\/em> (Robbins & Brown) sees Batman saving two abused hippie kids being picked on by folk in a rural hamlet, only to become embroiled in a witch\u2019s curse and mad bomber\u2019s plot. Batman<\/strong> #233 was an all-reprint edition, after which #234 featured the stellar return of one of the hero\u2019s most tragic foes. As comics became increasingly more anodyne in the 1950s, psychologically warped actualised schizophrenic Two-Face<\/strong> slipped from Batman\u2019s roster of rogues, but with \u2018Half an Evil\u2019<\/em> (O\u2019Neil, Adams & Giordano) he resurfaced at the forefront of grimmer, grittier stories. When a string of bizarre and brutal robberies afflicts Gotham, the baffled Batman must use all his ingenuity to discern the reasoning and discover the identity of a ruthless hidden mastermind in time to thwart a diabolical scheme…<\/p>\n

An aura of Film Noir redemption colours O\u2019Neil & Novick\u2019s \u2018Legend of the Key Hook Lighthouse!\u2019<\/em> (Detective <\/strong>#414), as Batman tracks gunrunners to a haunted coastal bastion in Florida. However, only supernatural intervention enables him to save bystanders who, whilst not exactly innocent, certainly don\u2019t deserve the fate psychotic banana republic despot General Ruizo<\/em> planned for them…<\/p>\n

In Batman<\/strong> #235\u2019s \u2018Swamp Sinister!\u2019 <\/em>(O\u2019Neil & Novick) early insights into the true character of Talia and her ruthless sire manifest when the Dark Knight races to recover a stolen bio-weapon, whilst in Detective <\/strong>#415 Robbins & Brown\u2019s \u2018Challenge of the Consumer Crusader\u2019<\/em> sees the Gotham Gangbuster uncover an extortion ring inside the nation\u2019s most respected product-testing organisation.<\/p>\n

Detective Comics<\/strong> #400 had introduced a dark twisted doppelganger to Gotham\u2019s Guardian when driven scientist Kirk Langstrom<\/em> created a serum to make him superior to Batman… and paid a heavy price. Over two further tales Langstrom and his fianc\u00e9e Francine<\/em> endured his monstrous transformations until Batman found a cure. Now that trilogy expanded in DC<\/strong> #416 as Robbins illustrated his own script in \u2018Man-Bat Madness!\u2019<\/em> Here Kirk seemingly slips back into his mutative madness. Luckily, Batman has the faith to look beyond appearances and discerns a hidden factor in the scientist\u2019s inexplicable recidivism…<\/p>\n

In Batman<\/strong> #236, Robbins & Novick blend mysticism with a solid murder-plot, cover-up and blistering action in \u2018Wail of the Ghost-Bride!\u2019<\/em> after which a journalist tries to become \u2018Batman for a Night\u2019<\/em> (Detective <\/strong>#417, Robbins, Brown & Giordano) but only succeeds after experiencing a similar crime-created loss…<\/p>\n

\u2018Night of the Reaper!\u2019<\/em> – by O\u2019Neil, Adams & Giordano from Batman<\/strong> #237 – is another of the era\u2019s most revered tales: a harrowing Halloween epic finding Robin working with his former mentor to solve a string of barbarous killings, only to uncover a pitifully deranged perpetrator as much sinned-against as sinner…<\/p>\n

Following the cover of reprint giant Batman<\/strong> #238, Detective Comics<\/strong> #418 delivers a (temporary) finish to the short-lived career of The Creeper<\/strong> as \u2018…And Be a Villain!\u2019<\/em> (O\u2019Neil & Novick) pits the Gotham Guardian against a former hero being simultaneously killed and driven crazy by his own powers. At the heart of the problem is a criminal scientist forcing The Creeper to steal in return for a promised cure, but that\u2019s no help as Batman battles a foe faster, stronger, more agile and far scarier than he…<\/p>\n

A corpse weighed down with Batman figurines leads our hero into an underworld imbroglio packed with shameful family freaks, a ruthless master smuggler and the pitiful \u2018Secret of the Slaying Statues!\u2019<\/em> (Detective <\/strong>#419 by O\u2019Neil & Novick) before Christmas classic \u2018Silent Night, Deadly Night!\u2019<\/em> (O\u2019Neil & Novick in Batman<\/strong> #239) sees the masked manhunter striving to save a desperate, poverty-struck single parent from making the worst decision of his life – with a little seasonal help from a Jolly higher power…<\/p>\n

Robbins again solos for Detective Comics<\/strong> #420\u2019s \u2018Forecast for Tonight… Murder!\u2019<\/em> as a radioactive dead man stalks one of Gotham\u2019s greatest philanthropists, easily outwitting Batman\u2019s every preventative measure. It only gets tougher when the hero discovers he might be safeguarding the wrong injured party…<\/p>\n

The long-brewing war between Batman and Ra\u2019s Al Ghul goes to Def Con 3 in Batman<\/strong> #240 when O\u2019Neil, Novick & Giordano set the scene for a groundbreaking \u201cseries-within-a-series\u201d soon to follow. After Batman uncovers one of his opponent\u2019s less worthy and far more grisly projects, he is forced to compromise his principles and deliver \u2018Vengeance for a Dead Man!\u2019<\/em> The end result will be open war between Batman and the Demon\u2019s Head…<\/p>\n

Batman has to break a blackmailer who knows all Gotham\u2019s dirty secrets out of prison during a full-scale riot in \u2018Blind Justice… Blind Fear!\u2019<\/em> (another all-Robbins affair from DC<\/strong> #421) whilst in the following issue O\u2019Neil, Brown & Giordano have the Dark Knight expose a cunning hijacking ring using radical methodology for corporate reasons in \u2018Highway to Nowhere!\u2019 <\/em>Another sociopathic killer then debuts in Batman<\/strong> #241 as the hero hunts freelance spy Colonel Sulphur<\/em>, whose extortion scheme revolves around his threat to kill a Pentagon officer\u2019s wife.<\/p>\n

\u2018At Dawn Dies Mary McGuffin!\u2019<\/em> by O\u2019Neil & Novick sees Batman scouring Gotham in a tense race against the clock in direct counterpoint to Detective <\/strong>#423\u2019s \u2018The Most Dangerous Twenty Miles in Gotham City\u2019<\/em> (Robbins, Brown) wherein the masked manhunter\u2019s cognitive skills are tested trying to slip a Russian agent past a gang of ultra-patriots. The killers don\u2019t care that he\u2019s being exchanged for a captive American, they just want to kill a commie and send a message…<\/p>\n

Batman <\/strong>#242-244 (and an epilogue from #245 not included in this volume) formed a single extended saga taken out of normal DC continuity. It promised the final confrontation between two opposing ideals. O\u2019Neil, Novick & Giordano opened the campaign in Batman<\/strong> #242 with \u2018Bruce Wayne – Rest in Peace!\u2019<\/em> as – his civilian identity taken off the board – Batman gathers a small team of specialist allies. These comprise criminal alternate-identity Matches Malone<\/em>, scientific advisor Dr. Harris Blaine<\/em> and Ra\u2019s\u2019 top assassin Ling<\/em> all coerced and sworn to destroy the Demon forever.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile it was business as usual in Detective <\/strong>#424 where \u2018<\/em>Double-Cross-Fire!\u2019<\/em> by Robbins & Brown played out an astoundingly cunning murder plot with Batman challenging Commissioner Gordon<\/em> (and us readers) to spot a telltale clue giving the game away. O\u2019Neil & Novick then get all Shakespearean in #425 where \u2018The Stage is Set… for Murder!\u2019<\/em> and Batman carefully seeks to glean which thespian is plotting a big, bloody finish before the curtain comes down forever…<\/p>\n

O\u2019Neil, Adams & Giordano returned with the second chapter of their landmark epic in Batman<\/strong> #243 as the team – plus latecomer Molly Post<\/em> – bombastically invade Ra\u2019s\u2019 Swiss citadel moments after their intended target passes away. Nobody suspects the ageless villain\u2019s resources include \u2018The Lazarus Pit\u2019<\/em> which can revive the dead…<\/p>\n

In Detective <\/strong>#426, a spate of inexplicable suicides amongst the wealthy leads Batman to suave gambler Conway Treach<\/em>: a man who just can\u2019t lose. Soon, however, the huckster learns his grim opponent has his own system for winning \u2018Killer\u2019s Roulette!\u2019<\/em> in another suspenseful all-Robbins gem leading chronologically and conclusively to Batman<\/strong> #244 and the fateful finale wherein \u2018The Demon Lives Again!<\/em>\u2019 Sadly, despite all his supernal gifts and forces, Ra\u2019s cannot escape the climactic vengeance of his implacable foe in dream-team O\u2019Neil, Adams & Giordano\u2019s compulsive climax.<\/p>\n

With the game-changing classics in this volume, Batman finally and fully returned to the commercial and critical top flight he had enjoyed in the 1940s, reviving and expanding upon his original conception as a remorseless, 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…
\n\u00a9 1971, 1972, 2015 DC Comics. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Dennis O\u2019Neil, Frank Robbins, Robert Kanigher, Len Wein, Marv Wolfman, Neal Adams, Irv Novick, Bob Brown, Dick Giordano & various (DC Comics) ISBN: 978-1-4012-5153-6 (TPB) This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times. After three seasons the overwhelmingly successful Batman TV show ended in March, 1968. It had clocked up 120 episodes … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Showcase Presents Batman volume 6”<\/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":[191,10,75,305,76,225,272,172,107,325],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30470","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adventure","category-batman","category-crime-comics","category-dc-horror","category-dc-superhero","category-mystery","category-neal-adams","category-robin","category-science-fiction","category-the-joker"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4AFj-7Vs","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30470","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=30470"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30470\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30473,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30470\/revisions\/30473"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30470"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30470"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}