Batman #99
April 1956
Cover art: Win Mortimer, Stan Kaye
The Golden Eggs!
Script: Bill Finger Pencils: Sheldon Moldoff Inks: Charles Paris
It is nice to see the Penguin again. I believe the last time we saw him was in Batman #76, "The Penguin's Fabulous Fowls" from April-May 1953, drawn by Lew Sayre Schwarz, so there's been a three year gap between appearances. This is his only appearance in this final Golden Age omnibus. Like Batman's other familiar costumed villains, the series seems to be largely leaving them behind at this point.
Batman and Robin are on the trail of the penguin, but when they reach his hideout he's already escaped, taking with him just a few eggs. The Penguin decides that he will base his next series of crimes off of whatever bird hatches from these eggs. He of course has to challenge Batman, who figures his many encounters with the Penguin have made him a "bird expert." And he is indeed far too good at figuring out the Penguin's clues, figuring out several of them in plenty of time to either stop him before he commits the crime, or before he can carry out the whole scheme. The Penguin's third scheme works, but Batman had tagged a cash box they figured the Penguin would steal and tracked him to his lair. The "mystery egg" the Penguin has wondered about all story saves them as an alligator hatches and bites him on the ankle. Some egg puns from Robin wrap things up, much to Penguin's dismay.
There was a time when I was tired of how often the Joker and the Penguin showed up and ran through the familiar formulas, but it's been long enough since the last Penguin story that I don't mind the familiarity, and this one was a fun runaround regardless. I liked the idea of the Penguin not even knowing what crimes he would commit until a bird hatched to inspire him, and I like how easily Batman figured each clue out, because he has indeed tangled with the Penguin often enough to know how he thinks.
Retro Comics are Awesome
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andersonh1
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andersonh1
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Re: Retro Comics are Awesome
Batman - Frontier Marshal
Script: Edmond Hamilton Pencils: Sheldon Moldoff Inks: Charles Paris
We don't get a lot of Westerns in the Batman comics, and there's a reason for that. The character is just so out of place in a western setting with all the familiar trappings of the genre. But here we are for the first time in a long time, putting Batman and Robin out west. But I have to say, unless Batman's time traveling is public knowledge, and there's never been any indication that it is, why would reporter Jack Farr see an old paper supposedly putting Batman in the old West as a marshal who shot outlaw Gila Bill, and think it was genuine? Surely he would reject such a thing as impossible. And even more oddly, it's not "Batman! You traveled in time! Give us the scoop!" that Farr sees as a great story. It's "Batman, you liar and hypocrite! You used a gun!" that he wants to publish. And of course Batman's claim that he's never used a gun is demonstrably false. He's "rarely" used a gun, but he has fired a gun on several occasions, most recently two issues ago when he used a rifle to shoot down a hot air balloon the Joker was using to escape!
This is an indication that this is Earth-1 Batman, isn't it? His history with firearms is different. He never shot those vampires or took a shot at Commissioner Gordon to fool some crooks. Or maybe it's just a continuity gaffe.
Batman, who normally could care less what the public think of him, decides he has to disprove his use of a gun or else people will always believe that he did. And so it's off to visit professor Carter Nichols, who has been updating his formerly-used time travel via hypnosis methods, judging by the high tech lab and equipment he uses. He's now "the brilliant scientist who has mastered the secret of the time-space barrier". I will admit, I do like the last image on page 2 as Bruce and Dick tumble through what looks like a whirlpool as the years go by.
Bruce and Dick find themselves in Plain City in 1880. The town has no Marshal, and when Batman stops Pecos Pete from sabotaging a train, the town elects the masked man in the cape town Marshal. Marshal Batman refuses the proffered guns, but takes the badge. We get a nice bit of time travelers dilemma here... is what they saw in the newspaper inevitable, or can history be changed? "Trapped by destiny" is how the story puts it, and Batman wonders if he'll have any say in the matter. Marshal Batman has to help stop a prairie fire and a cattle stampede, started in order to get Pecos Pete out of jail. Batman disguises himself as Pete to learn who his associates are, and thanks to the Robin-created "Bat-coach", races out and stops another attempt to sabotage the railroad by blowing up the trestle. During the pursuit of the crooks, the new town Marshal arrives and shoots the gun out of Gila Bill's hand. No, it's not the Lone Ranger. The new Marshal's name? Bat Masterson... and therein lies the solution to the headline, with the typesetter running Masterson's first and last names together, with part of the paper torn away on the copy that survived to the present day. Batman breathes a sigh of relief as the truth is made known back in the present.
Batman does not belong in a western. In addition to that, so many things in this story are problematic, most of which I addressed during the body of the review. There are a few interesting elements, mainly Carter Nichols's evolving time travel methods and the "can I fight fate?" musings of Batman. And I don't mind on some level having one more entry in Batman's time travel sub-series, which goes all the way back to his trip to Rome in Batman #24. But again, why would Batman care about some old headline that most people are just going to dismiss as fake anyway, because how can Batman have been a town marshal in the old west?
Who was that masked man? Hi-yo Bat-coach, away!
Script: Edmond Hamilton Pencils: Sheldon Moldoff Inks: Charles Paris
We don't get a lot of Westerns in the Batman comics, and there's a reason for that. The character is just so out of place in a western setting with all the familiar trappings of the genre. But here we are for the first time in a long time, putting Batman and Robin out west. But I have to say, unless Batman's time traveling is public knowledge, and there's never been any indication that it is, why would reporter Jack Farr see an old paper supposedly putting Batman in the old West as a marshal who shot outlaw Gila Bill, and think it was genuine? Surely he would reject such a thing as impossible. And even more oddly, it's not "Batman! You traveled in time! Give us the scoop!" that Farr sees as a great story. It's "Batman, you liar and hypocrite! You used a gun!" that he wants to publish. And of course Batman's claim that he's never used a gun is demonstrably false. He's "rarely" used a gun, but he has fired a gun on several occasions, most recently two issues ago when he used a rifle to shoot down a hot air balloon the Joker was using to escape!
This is an indication that this is Earth-1 Batman, isn't it? His history with firearms is different. He never shot those vampires or took a shot at Commissioner Gordon to fool some crooks. Or maybe it's just a continuity gaffe.
Batman, who normally could care less what the public think of him, decides he has to disprove his use of a gun or else people will always believe that he did. And so it's off to visit professor Carter Nichols, who has been updating his formerly-used time travel via hypnosis methods, judging by the high tech lab and equipment he uses. He's now "the brilliant scientist who has mastered the secret of the time-space barrier". I will admit, I do like the last image on page 2 as Bruce and Dick tumble through what looks like a whirlpool as the years go by.
Bruce and Dick find themselves in Plain City in 1880. The town has no Marshal, and when Batman stops Pecos Pete from sabotaging a train, the town elects the masked man in the cape town Marshal. Marshal Batman refuses the proffered guns, but takes the badge. We get a nice bit of time travelers dilemma here... is what they saw in the newspaper inevitable, or can history be changed? "Trapped by destiny" is how the story puts it, and Batman wonders if he'll have any say in the matter. Marshal Batman has to help stop a prairie fire and a cattle stampede, started in order to get Pecos Pete out of jail. Batman disguises himself as Pete to learn who his associates are, and thanks to the Robin-created "Bat-coach", races out and stops another attempt to sabotage the railroad by blowing up the trestle. During the pursuit of the crooks, the new town Marshal arrives and shoots the gun out of Gila Bill's hand. No, it's not the Lone Ranger. The new Marshal's name? Bat Masterson... and therein lies the solution to the headline, with the typesetter running Masterson's first and last names together, with part of the paper torn away on the copy that survived to the present day. Batman breathes a sigh of relief as the truth is made known back in the present.
Batman does not belong in a western. In addition to that, so many things in this story are problematic, most of which I addressed during the body of the review. There are a few interesting elements, mainly Carter Nichols's evolving time travel methods and the "can I fight fate?" musings of Batman. And I don't mind on some level having one more entry in Batman's time travel sub-series, which goes all the way back to his trip to Rome in Batman #24. But again, why would Batman care about some old headline that most people are just going to dismiss as fake anyway, because how can Batman have been a town marshal in the old west?
Who was that masked man? Hi-yo Bat-coach, away!
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andersonh1
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Re: Retro Comics are Awesome
The Phantom of the Bat-Cave!
Script: Edmond Hamilton Pencils: Sheldon Moldoff Inks: Charles Paris
It's interesting that this story is told in first person by Bruce, and cast as one from "Batman's Casebook". I'm not sure why this approach was taken, but it's a bit novel to get inside Bruce's thoughts. We have the secret entrance to the Batcave behind the grandfather clock, and for the first time in a long time, confirmation that the secret exit is still in the old barn well out behind Bruce's home. Batman and Robin head out on patrol and end up investigating masked men at the Acme Architects building. As an aside, the panel of Batman behind the chimney on the top of page 2 looks like Moldoff swiped the cover of Detective Comics 44. Batman and Robin enter the building and capture the crooks in the act of robbing the safe, but as they leave a third masked man in a purple tux, top hat and cape blows trick powder in their faces to keep them occupied whiel the crooks get away. Batman takes the box that the crook left behind back to the Batcave to examine for clues, but there's nothing, so he puts it in the trophy room. The next morning the box is gone, and in it's place, a tiny plastic top hat.
At first Batman thinks Robin is playing a joke, but he denies it. Alfred has no idea how it got there either (and I love the shot of Alfred dusting the Tyrannosaur in the background... gotta keep that Batcave clean!) leading to the conclusion that someone has found the Batcave and gotten into it. A thorough search reveals no one. Back on patrol, there's a similar call to the day before with two masked men breaking into the Liberty Silver Company, a cool building made to look like a replica of the Statue of Liberty. So we get some fun scenes of Batman and Robin scaling the statue, where the same man in the mask and top hat arrives via helicopter and holds them at bay with a gun until his men escape. He then reveals that it was a bluff and that the guy was plastic. He leaves it for Batman to keep as a souvenir... but only temporarily!
So it's clear now that the masked bandit is behind the break-in. Batman, Robin and Alfred keep watch all night, but no sign of him. And yet, the plastic gun is gone and a little top hat has replaced it. As Batman, public figure with a public schedule (sigh) heads to a luncheon at the society of magicians where he's the guest of honor, who else should participate in the performance of tricks but the very same dapper masked bandit, a magician named Pardu. He later admits everything to Batman and blackmails him (for a measly $10,000 dollars... come on Pardu, think bigger!) and Batman agrees. But Batman has figured everything out, and when he meets Pardu to pay him the blackmail, the police are hiding nearby to hear everything. Batman figured out that Pardu had never been in the Batcave, and that the trophies were compressed plastic that simply resumed their original state. The whole thing was never about the crimes themselves, but it was a plan to get the items into the Batcave, convince Batman that his secret was known, and collect blackmail money.
Pretty clever scheme by Pardu, who is not a bad one-shot villain. I really liked this one. I had an inkling of where things might have been going with regard to the supposedly stolen trophies, but you never quite know what the twist will be, so I wasn't sure until it was all explained. This was a nice little mystery and easily my favorite story of the issue.
Script: Edmond Hamilton Pencils: Sheldon Moldoff Inks: Charles Paris
It's interesting that this story is told in first person by Bruce, and cast as one from "Batman's Casebook". I'm not sure why this approach was taken, but it's a bit novel to get inside Bruce's thoughts. We have the secret entrance to the Batcave behind the grandfather clock, and for the first time in a long time, confirmation that the secret exit is still in the old barn well out behind Bruce's home. Batman and Robin head out on patrol and end up investigating masked men at the Acme Architects building. As an aside, the panel of Batman behind the chimney on the top of page 2 looks like Moldoff swiped the cover of Detective Comics 44. Batman and Robin enter the building and capture the crooks in the act of robbing the safe, but as they leave a third masked man in a purple tux, top hat and cape blows trick powder in their faces to keep them occupied whiel the crooks get away. Batman takes the box that the crook left behind back to the Batcave to examine for clues, but there's nothing, so he puts it in the trophy room. The next morning the box is gone, and in it's place, a tiny plastic top hat.
At first Batman thinks Robin is playing a joke, but he denies it. Alfred has no idea how it got there either (and I love the shot of Alfred dusting the Tyrannosaur in the background... gotta keep that Batcave clean!) leading to the conclusion that someone has found the Batcave and gotten into it. A thorough search reveals no one. Back on patrol, there's a similar call to the day before with two masked men breaking into the Liberty Silver Company, a cool building made to look like a replica of the Statue of Liberty. So we get some fun scenes of Batman and Robin scaling the statue, where the same man in the mask and top hat arrives via helicopter and holds them at bay with a gun until his men escape. He then reveals that it was a bluff and that the guy was plastic. He leaves it for Batman to keep as a souvenir... but only temporarily!
So it's clear now that the masked bandit is behind the break-in. Batman, Robin and Alfred keep watch all night, but no sign of him. And yet, the plastic gun is gone and a little top hat has replaced it. As Batman, public figure with a public schedule (sigh) heads to a luncheon at the society of magicians where he's the guest of honor, who else should participate in the performance of tricks but the very same dapper masked bandit, a magician named Pardu. He later admits everything to Batman and blackmails him (for a measly $10,000 dollars... come on Pardu, think bigger!) and Batman agrees. But Batman has figured everything out, and when he meets Pardu to pay him the blackmail, the police are hiding nearby to hear everything. Batman figured out that Pardu had never been in the Batcave, and that the trophies were compressed plastic that simply resumed their original state. The whole thing was never about the crimes themselves, but it was a plan to get the items into the Batcave, convince Batman that his secret was known, and collect blackmail money.
Pretty clever scheme by Pardu, who is not a bad one-shot villain. I really liked this one. I had an inkling of where things might have been going with regard to the supposedly stolen trophies, but you never quite know what the twist will be, so I wasn't sure until it was all explained. This was a nice little mystery and easily my favorite story of the issue.