Batman 1956

Issues Covered: Batman #97-#104 and Detective #227-238

Significant Stories: Many. Detective #227 continues where #226 left off, showing us this time Barrett Kean, the master makeup artist who taught Batman his amazing disguise tricks. Detective #235 presents The First Batman, a story in which Thomas Wayne dons a Batman uniform to fight crime decades before his son. It contains a brief retelling of Batman's origin, complete with the bat flying through the window.

But the most significant story has to be The Batwoman, from Detective #233. Kathy Kane (name chosen in homage to Bob Kane) became a major character in the DC universe for the next eight years. A former circus performer, she had inherited a large fortune from an uncle and decided to dedicate herself to crime-fighting alongside Batman. Unfortunately she was a little over confident and in the end, Batman succeeds in unmasking her. She agrees that if he could do it, so could the underworld, and thus she'd never be safe. At the end of the story she retires (but not for long).

The 1955 trend of having other Batmen appear continues. Barrett Dean poses as Batman in Detective #227 and Thomas Wayne is The First Batman in #235. Detective #232 brings us The Outlaw Who Played Batman. Robin gets the multiple treatment in "Batman Junior" from Detective #231, and Detective #237's The Search for a New Robin.

In Batman #99, the Penguin makes his only appearance between 1954 and 1963. In fact, I believe that the Joker (who appeared often) was the only pre-code villain to make appearances in new Batman stories during those years.

Other Trends: Batman continues to make use of the latest technology. In Detective #229's 10,000 Secrets of Batman, we see a good example of what I like to call "Pocket-Protector Batman":



The machine shown is a card sorter; together with the cards it makes a relational database. In the story they use it quite a bit:



Artwork by the inimitable Dick Sprang, IMHO the greatest Batman artist ever. This is a significant early example of computers in comic books.

Other great stories: Batman #98 has The Return of Mr Future. Jules Verne journeys with Batman into the future to save the world from his most dangerous invention. That same issue features Desert Island Batman, a classic of the "tontine" Batman stories. A tontine is an pooled investment where the last living member inherits the shares of the others; who will be the last one left? There are many examples of this type of story but this one is particularly ingenious, in that five millionaires (including Bruce Wayne) are shipwrecked on an island by crooks who demand a ransom of a million dollars apiece. Batman goes into action, revealing that he is one of the five men, and the balance of the story concerns the (logical) elimination of each man as a potential Batman, until only Bruce Wayne is left. Batman #101 includes a terrific story, The Great Bat-Cape Hunt Batman loses his cape, which contains the secret of his real identity. It is subsequently found by several people who go on to perform daring feats, inspired by the cowl. This is a plot swipe from the all-time classicThe Secret of Batman's Utility Belt, which appeared in Detective #185.

Batman's celebrity continues from 1955, with Batmantown, USA, in Batman #100. The small town of Plainville decides to spice up the local tourism trade by renaming itself after the caped crusader. In The House of Batman, from Batman #102, a mystery benefactor creates a downtown base for the Dynamic Duo, which ends up being converted into yet another Batman museum. Bathound gets a bit of the red-carpet treatment in Bathound, Movie Star from Batman #103. Batman #104 includes Robin's 50 Batman Partners which includes The Batman Exposition, a special fair dedicated to the Dark Knight. And in The Outlaw Who Played Batman from Detective #232, Batman appears in a major motion picture. Intriguingly, it's played like a modern reality show, with Batman supervising the choice of actors to portray him.

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Batman 1955

During 1955, Batman appeared in Batman #s 89-96, Detective #s 215-226, and World's Finest #s 74-79. The Superman/Batman teamups had started in World's Finest #71, and those are somewhat apart from the regular Batman stories, so I will deal with them in a separate post.

Number of stories: 36, with three each in the Batman issues and one per issue of Detective.

Significant stories: Detective #226 contains When Batman Was Robin the first story to attempt to tell of the days between the time Batman's parents were killed and when he actually became the Batman. As a teenager, Bruce Wayne idolized Detective Harvey Harris. There's a bit of a flub in that Bruce says "My parents were abroad that summer...." However Bruce is portrayed as a young man of maybe 17 years old, and in all of the versions of the origin I can remember, Bruce is a lad of 8-10 when his parents are killed.

Bruce hires Harris to teach him detective skills. However, concerned that the detective may try to warn him off his intended career, Bruce decides to protect his identity by wearing a Robin costume. Harris indeed teaches Bruce a great deal.

This story continues a trend that had started in Detective #205, of the stories beginning to fill in a little of the past, to focus on Batman's history, a trend that would continue in 1956. In Batman #94's The Sign of the Bat Batman's origin is told in an abbreviated form that includes the bat flying in the window.

Detective #218 contains Robin Senior and Batman Junior, arguably the first of the weird transformation tales that would plague the series in years to come. Robin is hit with an aging gas, while Batman suffers the effects of a youth gas. Effectively the two change roles with Robin the sensible and mature crimefighter while Batman is impulsive and mistake-prone.

Best Story: Without a doubt, The Mystery of the Second Batman and Robin Team from Detective #220. Roger Bacon, the preeminent scientist of 1255 has found ancient scrolls which reveal that Batman and Robin had visited ancient Greece and Rome. Reasoning that these unusually garbed men must be from the future, he decides that time travel must be possible, and has invented a means to do so. He sends into the future two of his brightest pupils. On the assumption that in 1955 all men must dress as Batman and Robin do, he clothes them as the Dynamic Duo.

Well, of course this duplicate Batman and Robin manage to cause some incredible mix-ups in Gotham City of 1955. But what really sets this story apart is the "Great Question" which Bacon has sent his students forward in time to learn the answer to. In classic comic fashion the Great Question is referred to several times in the narrative.



Now sometimes these "big secrets" which are revealed at the end are easily guessed, and sometimes they're something that was no big deal, and sometimes they're interesting. But they're seldom profound, like this:



Multiple Batmen and Robins seemed to be the order of the day. In addition to the two stories noted above, Detective #215 brought us The Batmen of All Nations, a kind of UN summit of men from around the globe who had been inspired by Batman to fight crime in their own countries. In Detective #216 the Batman of Tomorrow, Brane Taylor of the year 3054 made his second appearance. Bruce Wayne injures his arm, and to make sure that Vicki Vale doesn't see Batman favoring that arm, Brane takes his place. In Detective #222's The Great Batman Swindle, we learn that apparently Batman is secretly a rotating group of four men, who alternate, and/or retire when their injuries are too great or they die. Of course, it's all a con job to try to get wealthy men, supposedly invited to become one of the next Batmen, to part with some of their fortune for a "genuine Batmobile" and "Batplane" that the crooks never intend to deliver. Batman #94 featured Alfred the Butler as The New Batman. And Detective #224 saw yet another fake Batman--this time The Robot Batman.

Additions to the Batman Family: Ace, the Bat-hound makes his first appearance in Batman #92. A dog that was injured defending his master is found by Batman and Robin. They fashion a mask for him and he helps them find his master's kidnappers. At the end of the story, the dog is reunited with his master. Ace had a modest continuing role in Batman stories from then on until 1964 when he was jettisoned with almost all of the Batman family in the debut of the "New Look" Batman.

Oddities: Batman began to be treated by the public as something of a celebrity during this year. Batman's Publicity Agent, a Hollywood-style pitchman, appears in Batman #91, promoting Batman as the savior of Gotham. In Batman #92, the Caped Crusader is menaced by the Fan Mail of Danger, and in #96 he conducts tours of The Bat-Train, an exhibit of Batman-ology on wheels, which is of course modestly similar to Detective #223's The Batman Dime Museum. In Batman #96, a traveling troubador pens The Ballad of Batman.

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Ten Things I Like About Comics, Part V

(This has been Crossposted to Brainster's Blog, in a condensed version).

This is Cookie O'Toole. (You can click on the pictures to enlarge them).



He lives in a typical small town in America with Mom and Pop. Mom's pretty much the sole sane person in the comic. Dad, on the other hand, falls for every get rich quick scheme that comes down the pike.



Cookie's steady gal is Angelpuss. Va-va-voom!



Every story needs a villain. In the Cookie stories, it's usually this fellow:



Zoot is a sneaky ne'er do well compared to the good-hearted Cookie, although much the nattier dresser and clearly from a wealthier background.

Fortunately Cookie is aided by his best pal, Jitterbuck Jones. Jitterbuck is prone to coming up with great ideas, which frequently involve Cookie in drag.



The main thing I like about Cookie is the mayhem. Cookie stories all feature people doing absolutely crazy things. As one of my friends commented, it's amazing this comic didn't catch the eye of 1950s anti-comic crusader Fredric Werthmam, because it seems to be a rare issue that doesn't have cross-dressing, adult babies and mannequin fetishes; all in a perfectly harmless G-rated setting.







Cookie first appeared in Topsy-Turvy Comics #1, in April 1945. He next popped up exactly three years later (an eternity in comics time) in his own book. There were 55 issues published of Cookie, with the series finally coming to an end in August of 1955.

One of the charms of Cookie, much like the Simpsons, is the clever use of the (fairly large) cast. At Harelip High, where the younger members are enrolled, there's his teacher, Miss Bibblesnicker, and Principal Lockjaw. Cookie's scientifically-inclined friend is the Brain, although his inventions tend to be a little unpredictable.



Cookie's chubby buddy is Hep, who seems to take a particular enjoyment in beating up Zoot at appropriate moments. To add more dynamics to the situation, Angelpuss's father (Mr Witherspoon of the Witherspoon Tool Company) is Cookie's pop's employer, and Mom does have some social aspirations for the family at times.

A typical Cookie story might start out with our hero in search of money for the dance. Where it goes from there is anybody's guess. When Cookie does get a job, it usually turns out to be something frustrating and demeaning, from which he is inevitably fired. Then Jit comes up with a hare-brained scheme, which goes off track due to nefarious activities of Zoot, and results in Cookie's dad losing his job as well. Then somehow Cookie comes through in the end as a hero, and Mr Witherspoon always hires Dad back. Although it sounds formulaic, it's really well-done with always a genuine affection for the characters (except for the odious Zoot).

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The Scientofascism of Silver Age DC Comics Part I

One of my all-time favorite Superman stories is the three-parter from Superman #132, where we learn what would have happened to Kal-El had Krypton survived. Some of the technology obviously sounds good:



But this part is positively creepy:



But it turns out that Kal's slated for dispatcher duty, not a space-jockey. And there is no appeal:



Well, you know it's kind of the scientific way of doing things--figure out what the aptitudes of the various students are and point them towards a career. Except for the obvious problem--what if the computer screws up?



Hilariously the machine gets fixed by the Kryptonian Superman, and of course everybody's still willing to abide by the results:

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Adam Strange Cliches

DC introduced Adam Strange in Showcase #17, (Nov-Dec 1958). He was an archaeologist, who, in an attempt to escape bloodthirsty natives, jumped a 20-foot chasm and suddenly found himself trasported across millions of light years of space to Rann, an alien world remarkably populated by humans, including the lovely Alanna and her scientist father Sardath.

It turned out that Adam had been picked up by chance by the zeta beam, a ray that Sardath had been sending towards Earth periodically. He arrived on Rann just in time to save it from some disaster or other, and after a few weeks the zeta beam would wear off, sending him back to earth. Fortunately, he always seemed to know the locations where the next few zeta beams would hit.

Although the series was excellent, I'm going to focus today on the ways it was a little cliched. For example, in every episode it was required that Adam deal with some problem catching the zeta beam:











And inevitably it seemed that whenever Adam arrived, some crisis would hit Rann either just before or shortly after:











Indeed it was this latter cliche that led to one of the major problems with the series. More on that in a later post.

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The Early Legion of Superheroes

The first appearance of the Legion was in Adventure #247, April 1958. Superboy is startled when several young people reveal that they know his secret identity. It turns out that they are superheroes from the future who have traveled back to Smallville to visit history's greatest hero.




They offer to induct him into their club, but insist that he pass a test first. The test is to defeat any of the three members of the Legion in a contest of heroic deeds. Unfortunately, every time Superboy gets ready to compete, his abilities are needed elsewhere, so he loses every contest. The Legion members regretfully inform him that he has been rejected. Despite being devastated, Superboy says, "No hard feelings", and turns to leave. Fortunately for him this was the last test. It turns out that the Legion members had caused the incidents requiring Superboy's attention to see if he would do his duty first before pursuing the honor of being inducted into the club. Very similar ending to #240, where Jor-El sends a robot to Earth to test Superboy's abilities. At the end of that story, the robot tells Superboy he has failed and must agree never to use his powers again. Superboy agrees at which point the robot reveals that was the final test. In this first story, there are only three named members of the Legion (Cosmic Boy, Saturn Girl, and Lightning Boy, whose name would later be changed to Lightning Lad), although Brainiac 5 obviously appears on pages 5 and 11 of the story.

In Adventure #267 the Legion returns. This time they interrupt Superboy's efforts to do good deeds and quickly turn Smallville against him. He leaves for space, but finds himself trapped by the Legion on a word devoted to Superboy's heroism. It turns out the Legion has seen pictures of the "future" which indicate he will go bad and destroy US military installations in five years. Interestingly, there is no real discussion of the propriety of "preventive detention". In the end, it turns out that the reason for the destruction was at the orders of the US President.

In Action #267, Saturn Girl, Lightning Lad and Cosmic Boy appear again, this time meeting Supergirl (whose very existence was unknown at the time). This is the first time they appear in the costumes that they will wear for the rest of the Silver Age. Saturn Girl had worn a green and yellow outfit in Adventure #247 and had brown hair in Adventure #267, while Cosmic Boy had a purple outfit in the latter issue instead of the pink duds he wore later. Oddly, the Legion members claim to be the children of the Legion members who had appeared in the earlier stories, although this notion quickly went by the wayside. In several places this story is a rehash of the Adventure #247 story, with Supergirl expressing delight and surprise at the exact same things that her cousin had a few years earlier.




This is the first official appearance for Legion members Colossal Boy, Chameleon Boy and Invisible Kid. Unfortunately for Supergirl, when she performs her initiation feat, she passes too close to a chunk of red Kryptonite, which turns her temporarily into an adult and thus makes her ineligible for the teen-aged Legion.

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