Retro Comics are Awesome

[andersonh1]

Detective Comics #227
January 1956
Cover art: Win Mortimer

The 50 Faces of Batman
Script: ?? Pencils: Sheldon Moldoff Inks: Charles Paris

Barrett Kean! I could never forget you -- the man who taught me all I know about disguise!

So once again we're delving into Bruce's past, this time to learn something about his skill at disguise. Barrett Kean, "the king of impersonators" once taught Batman all of his makeup secrets. Kean takes a suggestion to have Batman lecture at his school for young actors to help promote it and build it up, and of course, Batman agrees. In the meantime, Batman and Robin are after Big Hugo's smuggling ring, and gang member "Lens" Vorden thinks he can get Batman through his lectures at the school.

So Batman lectures and demonstrates the art of makeup and disguise, as well as telling how he used some of them, and Vorden is able to photograph him each time. Robin becomes suspicious and follows Vorden as he calls in to Big Hugo, so he now knows what is going on and warns Batman. Makeup skills become the key to dealing with more than one problem. Batman disugises himself as Big Hugo, which confuses the gang long enough for him and Robin to round them up, and Kean disguises himself as Batman to ruin Vorden's composite picture plan. Batman, as modest and generous as ever, credits his old teacher Kean with being the best impersonator alive.

We're definitely back to variations on a theme when it comes to stories, as the various writers explore bits of Bruce's past. I don't know how accurate the makeup tips that Batman lectured on really are, but it sounds good on the page and makes Batman look like he knows what he's talking about, and I can believe the Batman of this era would be more than willing to help an old mentor out. I suspect modern Batman might as well, but he wouldn't do it by lecturing at his school and he'd keep quiet about how he knew the man so there wouldn't be any public connection between the two. Robin gets to be very useful since he discovers the composite picture plot, and without his vigilence the plan may well have worked. Score one for the sidekick. Pretty good story, and the vignettes of past cases that involved disguises all worked fairly well.

[andersonh1]

Detective Comics #228
February 1956
Cover art: Win Mortimer

The Outlaw Batman
Script: ?? Pencils: Bob Kane Inks: Charles Paris

It's true -- Batman has become a Jekyll-Hyde! He's become good and evil like... Two-Face!

Batman and Robin are on patrol and spot four suspicious characters. They engage only to be distracted by a man who shouts for the police, causing Batman to get shoved into a brick wall and hit his head. The man who called for the police is a doctor, who examines Batman's head injury by cutting away part of the cowl so he won't unmask him. That night, Bruce has a nightmare that he had become a thief, stealing the Vandorf necklace that he and Robin had recovered. To his surprise, the news reports that the necklace had in fact been stolen in real life, and that the thief had impersonated Batman. The same thing happens the following night: another dream about another robbery, which the news broadcasts with the same details that Bruce remembered from his dream. He begins to think they aren't dreams at all, but memories.

The fact that Batman's boots are not muddy, a detail Bruce remembered from his nightmare, leads him to reassess, and public reassurance does even more to ease his mind. But Alfred offhandedly tells Dick that he cleaned mud off of Batman's boots, and Dick begins to investigate the Batcave and the trail of muddy footprints he finds there. They lead to a bust of Two-Face, and hidden inside a hollow are the stolen painting and the necklace, just as Bruce dreamed.

Dick doesn't know what to do, and ultimately rather than tell Bruce, he decides to watch him and see what happens. And sure enough, Bruce gets up, dresses as Batman and goes out, with Robin following. With no other option, Robin slugs him to stop him from robbing the safe on the Braddon estate. When Batman recovers, he sees the situation and is convinced that he's turned criminal and has to turn himself in. Robin convinces him to talk to the doctor first. The doctor checks and says that Batman's brain is permanently injured and he has to turn himself in... but Batman has at last seen through the deception, slugging the doctor and removing his disguise to reveal swindler Spade Stinson, who Batman had sent to jail. Slug wanted a slow, cruel revenge that broke Batman down and blackened his reputation, and he carried it out with his "diagnosis" and the drugs he "prescribed". Batman only realized he was a fake because the phony doctor hadn't cut his hair around his scalp injury. The crook is arrested and all the loot is returned, with Bruce finally having restful sleep again.

I had guessed what was going on early in the story, or at least I figured the doctor had something to do with Bruce's behavior. I never really bought the "behavior change brought on by head injury" that the story was trying to sell. This story reminded me of the Puppet Master story from Batman #3 where it was a scratch that administered the drug that made Batman seemingly turn criminal, though in that story he did hit Robin. In this tamer era, Batman's moral character is too strong for a drug to make him hit anyone, least of all Robin. I'd have expected Batman to figure out that something odd was going on rather than fall apart and need public approval to boost his spirits! What has happened to this character? And Bob Kane actually drew an issue... haven't seen him draw a full issue in a long time. I can tell it's not Sheldon Moldoff though, and certainly not Dick Sprang. And finally, it was nice to see a reference to Two-Face, who I think we won't see in person again for years, but he's not been forgotten.

[andersonh1]

Continuing through Batman Golden Age Omnibus vol. 10...


Batman #97
February 1956
Cover art: Win Mortimer

The Joker Announces Danger
Script: Bill Finger Pencils: Sheldon Moldoff Inks: Charles Paris

I'm not exactly reading these at a rapid pace, but it seems like appearances by Batman's major enemies have become a lot rarer than they were. Looking back through my reviews, it seems like Catwoman last appeared in Detective Comics #211 in "the Jungle Cat Queen" from September 1954, the first story in this volume. The Penguin's last story was in Batman #76, "The Penguin's Fabulous Fowls" from April-May 1953. The Joker's last appearance was in "Batman's Greatest Thrills" from Batman #87 in October 1954. I'm not going to check every villain, but as much as I got tired of so many appearances and formulaic stories, I have to admit that the series is not the same without Batman's costumed villains showing up regularly.

So for once I was actually glad to see the Joker turn up again. He's watching television (black and white of course), and Batman is the guest announcer on a "law enforcement program". The Joker is annoyed by this and decides to become an announcer himself, and show the world that Batman is overrated. The Joker uses the guise of an old fashioned town cryer to challenge Batman to a "contest of wits" where he will leave clues to his crimes, all of which will have to do with announcing. So it's the old formula of the Joker leaving odd clues that mean more than they might appear on the surface, but since we haven't seen this type of story for a while, I'm in. We get the old "pattern of three" where the Joker gets away with the first two crimes (involving racing and a train robbery) but is captured during the third. Interesting to see Batman pick up a rifle and fire it in another rare example of Batman using a gun, but while we see him in mid-shot holding the rifle, the panel where he actually fires it to bring down the weather balloon the Joker uses to try and escape is a close-up of Batman's face and hands and just part of the rifle, with the barrel not visible as it fires. Gotta be careful depicting the use of guns, kids! The Joker is back in prison in the final panel.

There's not much to say given how often we've seen this formula play out in past issues of Batman. But at this point it feels like a throwback to an earlier era that the series seems to have largely left behind, so for that reason alone I did get some enjoyment out of the Joker's appearance. And the addition of another rare example of Batman using a gun is notable, though they were very careful in how it was depicted.

[andersonh1]

Batman #97 concluded...

Doom on Channel 14
Script: ? Pencils: Sheldon Moldoff Inks: Charles Paris

Sigh... Batman and Robin are on television, dramatizing the capture of criminal Marty Kirk. So now they're actors as well as celebrity crime fighters? They note that they're recreating the incident on the eve of Kirk's execution, and I'm honestly a bit surprised that in this much tamer era, they're still talking about executing criminals. The capture is dramatized, but it's revealed that the money Kirk stole was never recovered. While Batman takes a few minutes to think about what could have happened to the loot, Marty Kirk's men take over the tv studio and hold the cast hostage, threatening them if Kirk is not released before midnight. Batman knows he only has two hours to rescue the hostages.

However he completely blunders the capture of two of the gang and is captured himself. Batman is put on camera by the crooks to show that he's a hostage as well, and to Robin's astonishment, Batman starts to beg. "Listen to Batman crawl!" laughs Burns, Kirk's lieutenant. Kirk is released, and people cannot believe that Batman turned coward like that... and of course, he didn't. He pretended so that Kirk would be released and then lead him to the stolen cash, and after he and Robin turn the tables on the crooks and capture them, they return to where Kirk was captured and find that he has indeed gone there to retrieve the money. Kirk had switched bags with a doctor who had gone to Europe, and the bag full of money was on a storage truck in a warehouse. Robin has to have it all explained to him on the last page, and in the end, all is well. Not only is Kirk recaptured and the stolen money recovered, but Kirk's gang is locked up as well.

Not a bad story, other than the fact that I hate Batman and Robin on television where these two people trying to keep their true identities secret can be seem by millions of viewers for minutes at a time. Argh. Why couldn't they at least have had actors playing the roles with Batman and Robin staying on the sidelines? And I really need a break from Sheldon Moldoff's artwork... which is a shame, because I know the amount he draws will only increase as we move forward.

The Return of the Bat-Hound!
Script: ? Pencils: Sheldon Moldoff Inks: Charles Paris

Crooks are robbing the Gotham Phonograph Record and Needle Co. of its industrial diamonds, used for phonograph needles. That sounded suspect to me, but it turns out to be true, sometimes diamond is used for record player needles. I had no idea. At any rate, the crooks force a dog-trainer named Millen to send his dog over the fence around the company and open the door, something the dog had been trained to do. The crooks try to turn off the alarm, but Millen secretly turns on the test phonographs, making tons of noise and attracting the attention of Batman and Robin. The crooks escape and take Millen and his dog with them. Batman finds the dog tracks, and decides that the Bat-hound is their best bet to track him.

So they start on the trail after Ace has the scent. They have no luck finding the right dog until a dog trainer mentions that Ross Millen and his dog Whitey never showed up for a competition. When they check Millen's home, Ace scents the "thief" dog, and after consulting with Gordon, Batman and Robin send Ace out to track his quarry after putting a tiny radio in his collar. He finds the dog along with Millen and the crooks, but Whitey's barking alerts the crooks that Ace is there, and Batman is forced to call him back. Because they overheard the crooks plans via the radio in the Bat-Hound's collar, they're able to intercept them at their next target. Batman and Ace impersonate Millen and Whitey and are able to get close enough to the crooks to get the jump on them, with Robin diving in to help. The story ends with Ace returned to his owner and Millen cleared of any wrongdoing.

Everything about this one was an improvement over the previous story. Moldoff's art was better, the plot was much better, and it was good to see Ace again. And he was appropriately used in the story. It's good to see Batman and Robin out at night, as they should be, tracking down crooks and solving a mystery using stealth. This was far more to my liking.

[andersonh1]

Detective Comics #229
March 1956
Cover art: Win Mortimer

Cover note: I missed it back on the cover of Detective 225, but the Martian Manhunter is now a backup feature in Detective Comics. We're five years past the end of All-Star Comics back in Feb-March 1951, and the future DC cast of characters is starting to appear. Barry Allen will be along in October of this year, just a few months down the road.

The 10,000 Secrets of Batman!
Script: ? Pencils: Dick Sprang Inks: Charles Paris

Great Scott! All the secrets of Gotham City... past hideouts -- weak points of guarded places -- police methods... can now be turned against us!

What we see on the splash page of this issue is essentially the first bat-computer, 1950s-style. Batman and Robin are using punch cards and microfilm for their "electronic data analyzer", and it's an example of Batman adopting technology to keep ahead of the curve in fighting crime, just as he still does today. I like it quite a bit.

Unfortunately the story starts with Batman doing something incredibly dumb: inviting television cameras into the Batcave. Bruce says it's because such a broadcast would be a "deterrent to crime", but it also gives away so much information about who Batman is and his methods that it is just a disaster of a decision. Now the fake cave walls are a good idea, but Batman really should not have been surprised to see his microfilm crime files have been stolen. Because of course they have, you let people into the Batcave who should never have been there, Batman!!! I know this is a different era and Batman operates differently, but even at this point in his history Batman really should have known better.

So he and Robin attempt to retrieve the stolen information. The trail leads from the others to Varnor, but it turns out someone attacked Varnor and then impersonated him to gain access to the Batcave. Using Varnor's vital statistics and the need to impersonate him well, Batman and Robin use their crime file to determine a suspect. Gordon is shocked that so much secret information is in criminal hands, and when Batman confronts the chief suspect, Mathers, there's no sign of the file. But there is $10,000, and Batman is sure someone paid Mathers. He imitates the voice of one of Mathers's friends, Viney Hail, and successfully tricks Mathers into thinking he should have been paid more, so Mathers goes to confront his employer at the old pipe organ factory. The employer is John Creedan, big time crook. Batman distracts the crooks using one of the organs and attempts to steal his files back, but ends up trapped while Creedan reveals that he already removed the microfilm from the box. This guy's a lot smarter than Batman at this point, who has made some pretty major blunders in this story. I'll give this story one thing however, it goes from scene to scene at a rapid pace, and as usual Dick Sprang does it all justice. The final confrontation takes place in an abandoned underground reservoir, where Batman traps the gang and recovers his stolen information at last.

So there's some good stuff in this story, such as the way Batman gathers a list of suspects and how he figures out where the crime will be attempted. The art is great and the action sequences are well depicted. But the whole plot requires that monumental act of stupidity on Batman's part of letting strangers into the Batcave, not to mention letting them broadcast. Even 1950s Batman should know better than that. Gordon was right to be dismayed, and at this point he ought to wonder just how safe all of that sensitive information is in Batman's hands. It is not the caped crusader's finest hour, though he looks better when tracking down the stolen information. But he should never have been in the position of having to do that in the first place.

[Ursus mellifera]

Detective Comics #229
March 1956
Cover art: Win Mortimer

Cover note: I missed it back on the cover of Detective 225, but the Martian Manhunter is now a backup feature in Detective Comics. We're five years past the end of All-Star Comics back in Feb-March 1951, and the future DC cast of characters is starting to appear. Barry Allen will be along in October of this year, just a few months down the road.

It's always fun to see how these things start, and how such popular main-stay characters are originally introduced.