Retro Comics are Awesome

[andersonh1]

Detective Comics #56
October 1941

The Stone Idol!
Once again we have what I would call a Scooby-Doo plot, where people fake a local monster in order to scare away the gullible townspeople for nefarious purposes. In this case, old prospector Mad Mack discovers silver in a supposedly worked out mine, and resurrects the legend of the old stone idol that sits nearby to scare away the inhabitants of the town so he doesn't have to share the riches. A passing shady carnival act, including a strongman, gives him the help he needs to fake the statue coming to life. Only the mayor of the town refuses to fall for the scam, and of course, the vacationing Bruce and Dick arrive in town just as this is all going on, so Batman and Robin bust up the case. Again, I appreciate the variety of storylines, since gangsters every month would get old real quick, but I'm not a fan of this type of plot.

World's Finest Comics #3
Fall 1941

Riddle of the Human Scarecrow
"And I look like a scarecrow... a scarecrow! They judge human values by money... if I had money they'd respect me - and I could buy more books! Yes... if I only had money... lots of money..." - Professor Jonathan Crane

For every poor story like the stone idol caper there is a good one, and here we have a good one with the first appearance of classic Batman villain the Scarecrow. College professor Jonathan Crane teaches psychology, and is particularly fascinated by the psychology of fear. His unorthodox teaching methods, such as firing a gun in class, and his shabby appearance have alienated him from the other professors. He hears them discussing the way he dresses and the fact that he's more interested in old books than in looking professional, and decides that he needs more money. His studies of fear convince him that the psychology of fear would make a good tactic, so he begins by approaching a businessman and offering to scare off his rival. He's hired, and he proceeds first to warn the rival, and then kills him the next night. Batman and Robin get involved, but the Scarecrow is a fierce hand to hand fighter and is able to fight them off. Batman is able to figure out his identity as he investigates the case and learns of Crane's interest in old books. The final fight with the Scarecrow is just as difficult as the first, and it's all Batman and Robin can do to work together and subdue him. Crane is put in jail but vows to escape.

I find it interesting that there's no sign of the Scarecrow's fear gas here... his methods are all threats and intimidation, and of course the scarecrow costume. He's the third major Batman villain to be introduced to the series, predating the Penguin and Two-Face, something I hadn't realized. The omnibus prints a page from this story out of order, which is annoying.

[andersonh1]

The first Batman omnibus wraps up with the stories from Batman #7.

Batman #7
October-November 1941

Wanted: Practical Jokers!
Dick, don't ever wonder if the Joker survived his apparent death the last time you saw him, because he did. The Joker, once again in disguise and using the name "Rekoj", gathers a collection of practical jokers, and then blackmails the worst of the bunch into working for him as he not only commits crimes, but does so by playing fairly brutal practical jokes on citizens and on the police. There's a visually bizzare fight scene where the Joker's gang all dress up like the Joker, so Batman and Robin are fighting a bunch of Jokers (kind of like the gang all wearing Joker masks at the beginning of The Dark Knight... those guys writing that movie had to have read these old stories). I'll admit, this story works better for me than the last few Joker appearances, because I can see him putting his twisted sense of humor into his crimes this way. And it's consistent with his character that he doesn't just try to commit crimes and not get noticed, he has to let it be known to all that the Joker is going to do something, and no one can stop him.

The Trouble Trap!
A swami and his gang hypnotize rich men and get them to confess secrets, which the gang make recordings of for use in blackmailing the men. Evil Swamis must have been a thing at one point. At any rate, Batman figures out the blackmail part of the scheme fairly quickly and tips off the police, but it goes nowhere until he figures out that the blackmail information is on records, not written down.

[andersonh1]

Time to wrap up Batman #7 and the first Batman Golden Age omnibus.

The North Woods Mystery
Bruce Wayne's society acquaintance, Nora Powell, inherits part of a lumber operation from her late father, who has also left half to Jack Clayton, Nora's adopted brother. She goes up to see the operation and evaluate the situation, and of course "accidents" are happening in an attempt to shut the business down so competitor Asher can buy the business for a greatly reduced price. Bruce has gone along with Nora and naturally finds that Batman and Robin are needed to put an end to the criminal activity.

The People vs. The Batman
The final story of this Batman omnibus sees Bruce Wayne framed for murder by a Gotham gangster and put in jail, even though his friend Commissioner Gordon doesn't for a moment believe he did it. Robin works hard to prove Bruce's innocence, even going so far as to break him out of jail so Batman can be involved. The final scene sees Batman bring the gangster into the courtroom to force him to confess, and when the defense lawyer objects to the masked man introducing evidence, Gordon goes on a passionate defence of Batman and all he's done for Gotham. Gordon deputizes Batman then and there, saying that from now on he's working with the police. Bruce Wayne's name is cleared, and Batman is no longer a vigilante, working outside the law.


I'm thinking about going back and re-reading Superman from the beginning, now that I have four volumes that cover about seven years. I had actually started going through those and reviewing them back on page 17: viewtopic.php?f=2&t=1140&start=160

[andersonh1]

Sparky, Amazon has listed the Silver Age Green Lantern volume 2: https://www.amazon.com/Green-Lantern-Si ... 1401278027

The early adventures of the greatest Green Lantern of all time, Hal Jordan, are now collected in their entirety in the GREEN LANTERN: THE SILVER AGE OMNIBUS series.

These are the tales that established Hal Jordan as the greatest member of the Green Lantern Corps. These 1960s tales feature appearances by Hal Jordan's fellow Green Lanterns, plus the Golden Age Green Lantern and villains including Sinestro, Evil Star, Black Hand, Dr. Polaris, Star Sapphire and more.

Collects GREEN LANTERN #1 36-75.

I have the original Green Lantern omnibus volumes 1 and 2 from 2010 and 2011, which together only collected GL through issue 45. DC went back and started over, presumably to address complaints about the paper and binding in the original collections and to make the books align with the other omnibus reprints they've been producing. I didn't bother with the new volume 1 since I already had all that material, but I'll be buying this one. Looks like it ends right before the first Green Lantern/Green Arrow issue, so I'm guessing we'll see those collected in a future Bronze Age Green Lantern omnibus.

I'll be curious to see if the Guardians remain written as wise and benevolent all the way to the end of the Silver Age, which would confirm my theory that Denny O'Neill turned them into the "bad bosses" that we've seen ever since.

[Sparky Prime]

Sparky, Amazon has listed the Silver Age Green Lantern volume 2:

Cool, I might have to look into getting that.

[andersonh1]

I'll get back to Superman down the line, but I'm still in a Batman-reading mood, so I'm moving on to the second omnibus. In the meantime, I forgot to keep an eye on Bruce's smoking habit, so I went back through the end of the previous book, and Detective Comics #51 is the last time I saw Bruce smoking his pipe. I'll try to remember to see if it appears again, but that may indeed be the final appearance.

Onwards to Batman omnibus #2, where we get a ton of Joker stories and the Penguin makes his debut, and we start to get artists other than Bob Kane drawing some stories.

The Golden Age Batman Omnibus vol. 2

Detective Comics #57
November 1941

Twenty-Four Hours to Live!
Bitter old man Jasper Sneed has been given a slow-acting poison that will kill him in 24 hours. Rather than make things right with his family, he decides to take all his money and get his revenge on them for perceived slights while he can. He succeeds with a few, but then Batman and Robin get involved when one of his intended victims is a friend of Linda Page, Bruce Wayne's sort-of girlfriend. In the end, Sneed dies and it's Sneed's twin brother that turns out to have poisoned him, but he will not face justice, because he too took the same poison.

[andersonh1]

Detective Comics #58
December 1941

One of the Most Perfect Frame-Ups
This is the first Penguin story, and he makes an immediate impession as a mannered, polite, but ultimately ruthless enemy for Batman, one who reads Shakespeare and quotes fine literature while filling his trick umbrellas with bullets or acid. He steals some paintings from under the nose of the police, and uses this to gain entry into the Gotham underworld, eventually killing the gangster's boss and taking over himself, something the other crooks are more than willing to allow. The Penguin knows he's going to run into Batman sooner or later and he's planned ahead. He manages to frame Batman for theft and get him arrested. Of course, Batman is able to clear his name with Robin's help, and while they break up the gang, Penguin escapes, starting a trend that will last for several appearances. Good story, but the linework is fairly poor in this restoration. On some of the smaller images, details disappear entirely due to the think lines. Still, a poor copy is better than no copy at all.

[andersonh1]

Batman #8
December 1941-January 1942

"Stone Walls Do Not a Prison Make"
The Batman brings down Big Mike Russo, Gotham crime boss, and sends him to prison. However Mike has arranged with some of his gang members who are still free to kidnap the warden and replace him with an impostor, so that Big Mike can start running his crimes from inside the prison. Batman figures out what's going on and infiltrates the prison as "Killer Sykes". When he and Robin try to bust up the gang they're captured and Batman is put in the gas chamber. He manages to avoid being killed and the second attempt to collar the prison gang is successful.

[andersonh1]

Batman #8 continued

"The Strange Case of Professor Radium!"
Professor Ross uses radium to develop a formula that will bring the dead back to life. He tests it on dead dogs and it works, but no one believes him, with his university dismissing him. Rather unwisely, he decides that a real scientist is one who is willing to test things out on himself, so he kills himself with instructions for his assistant on how to use the formula to revive him. It works, but at a cost. Ross becomes radioactive, and everything he touches dies instantly. He develops an antidote using the drug Volitell, but the effects are temporary, and his attempt to steal more and more of the drug attracts the attention of Batman and Robin, who work out who the mysterious Professor Radium really is and track him down. During the final confrontation, Radium apparently falls to his death in Gotham Bay.

This macabre story fits perfectly into Batman's world, and Professor Radium is something of a tragic villain, having started out with good intentions, only to make a prideful and foolish mistake that turns him into a monster. Interestingly, the Batman daily comic had a completely different version of this same story, with a different plot and Radium being shot to death in a carnival. The newspaper comic stories can usually fit in with comic book contiunity fairly easily, but the Professor Radium stories are an exception.

The Superstition Murders!
A play about superstitions is about to open in Gotham, and the cast and director decide to have a "breaking superstitions" party where they walk under ladders, open umbrellas indoors, break mirrors, etc. Soon afterwards, the cast begin to die one by one, with Batman and Robin investigating the murders. We see them in Gordon's office, consulting with him on a case, for the first time, and Batman even participates on the interrogation of the main suspect. In the end, the killer is the author of the play, who hoped to kill the opening with bad publicity, have the rights revert to him, and sell them to a movie studio.

[andersonh1]

On another board, I asked the old-timers there about Bruce Wayne and his pipe, and here's the theory I got:

Me: Speaking of trends in these stories, I keep meaning to watch for when Bruce Wayne stops being a smoker. I know he usually smokes a pipe, and sometimes smokes cigarettes, which always seems so strange for an athletic character like the Batman to do. I know, it was the 1940s.... Anyone know the last issue where he's seen to smoke?

edit: I went back and flipped through the end of the omnibus, and Detective Comics 51 is the last time I noticed Bruce Wayne smoking his pipe. I'll have to see if it turns up again down the road.

answer: Got got out the Chronicles I borrowed and flipped through stories myself, all the way through Vol. 4, and didn't find any more tobacco usage on Bruce's part. In one panel he was talking with a friend who was smoking a cigarette, but even then he wasn't joining in.

I looked at Det. #51 and noticed something:

On page two, Bruce and Dick are strolling through the carnival. In Panel 5, Bruce is holding his left hand up to his face, as if holding a pipe -- but there's no pipe. In Panel 5, Bruce is holding both hands up to his face, almost in a boxing gesture -- or else as if to light a pipe with a match.

Then in the first panel of the following page, there's a pipe in Bruce's mouth, which is what I assume was what you referenced as the last time you found Bruce smoking.

I have a theory, based on very flimsy evidence, that a "No Smoking For Batman" edict was suddenly and unexpectedly placed on the books. I think someone hastily went through the Detective story and whited out the pipe in those first two panels, but overlooked the third. And from then on, Bruce and tobacco parted ways.

I looked to see if the story had ever been reprinted, in a 1960s annual perhaps, when the editing might have occurred, but according to Mike's Amazing World, the Archives was its first resurrection.

So, after 75 years, who knows for sure?

So at this point, I'm going with Detective Comics #51 as the end of Bruce's smoking habit.