Retro Comics are Awesome

[andersonh1]

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.

[andersonh1]

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!

[andersonh1]

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.

[andersonh1]

Detective Comics #231
May 1956

Batman, Junior
Script: Edmond Hamilton Pencils: Sheldon Moldoff Inks: Charles Paris

I wonder if we need another subset of stories for all the times that Robin thinks he's being replaced as Batman's sidekick? I don't know how many there are, though I know this isn't the first one. Looking back through my reviews, there are at least three stories written around this theme: "The Batman Plays a Lone Hand!" from Batman #13, October-November 1942, "The Second Boy Wonder" from Batman #50, December 1948 - January 1949, and "A Partner For Batman" featuring "Wingman" from Batman #65, June-July 1951. It feels like there should be more, but I didn't see any more during my quick browsing of old reviews. At any rate, every so often Batman works with someone else without confiding the whole situation to Robin, and Robin is just sure he's being replaced and his crime fighting days at Batman's side are over.

This tale begins with news of a crook, Birrel Binter, escaping from prison. Bruce reveals that he helped send Binter to prison before me met Dick, so this is a pre-Robin case retconned into Batman's past, which I have no problem with. Batman checks a locked file and then tells Robin that he's going out on his own this time. Robin finds a photo after he leaves which shocks him. It's Batman standing beside a teenager in a smaller Batman costume. "To Batman from his partner, Batman Junior. John Vance" Robin can't believe he wasn't Batman's first crime-fighting partner, and he goes to check on John Vance. "I'm not jealous..." he thinks. Right....

Robin's thoughts throughout the story:
"It looks as though Batman would rather have his first partner with him than me."
"Old times that Batman always kept secret from me!"
"He gave Vance -- Batman Jr. -- the important post!"
"That's just a nice way of saying he doesn't need me any more!"
"Now that he's with his old partner again, I won't be needed in the future. Three's a crowd!"
"I'll never be as good a partner to you as Batman Junior was!"

Edmund Hamilton lays it on really thick! Good grief.

Robin spots Binter heading for Vance's apartment. Turns out Binter saw him as well, and he runs for it. Batman and Vance appear, and Batman reveals that Robin ruined a trap that he and Vance had set. The three of them pursue Binter, and Robin could not be more disgruntled at Vance's presence if he tried! Binter is hiding out in an old theatrical warehouse, and he tells his men that he thinks he's learned Batman's identity. When Batman and Robin move in to capture him and his men, Binter's use of a prop dragon allows him to escape. Batman sends Robin home, but Robin isn't done yet, even though he thinks he's being replaced. He finds Vance's place of employment, where he's a ship building engineer, and goes there, only to be caught by Binter, who had the same idea and has captured Vance. Binter locks Robin and Vance in a mostly complete submarine and plans to launch it, trapping them underwater.

Robin tells Vance not to worry, that Batman will show up soon. But Vance is Batman in disguise, so he's trapped with Robin, who messed things up again! Now of course at this point I'm think that if Batman would simply communicate with Robin and tell him the plan, none of this would have happened. But the story does account for that, as Batman says he could not have told Robin about Batman junior without "breaking a promise". Batman and Robin are able to cut their way out of the sub before it's launched, and with some teamwork capture Binter at last. Robin thinks he's done and is prepared to resign, but Batman reveals the truth about "Batman junior", John Vance, a kid who witnessed Binter commit a robbery. His parents were away so Batman put the kid in a Batman costume to hide his identity. Seems a little elaborate to me, he could have just hid him somewhere safe until Binter was captured. But then all the drama of Robin feeling replaced would be gone, I guess. Batman Junior was never really Batman's partner, just a help in one case and then he was done.

Poor Dick Grayson, the kid is apparently insecure. Or it could be that with his parents murdered in front of his eyes, the thought of losing his parental figure just gets him where it hurts the most. Of course any reader is going to know that Robin won't be replaced, but it's hard not to feel sorry for Robin as he's jumping to conclusions, particularly since Batman never told him about Vance. I did enjoy seeing a story with Robin as the focal character, and even if he does mess things up, he's got good intentions each time. And he comes through in the end of course.

[andersonh1]

Anyone here been buying any of the DC Finest collections? A lot of them repackage material that's already been collected elsewhere, while some of them are new. It's basically a line that can have any character from any point in DC's publication history between 1938 and 2011. It's a lot like Marvel's Epic line, in that it doesn't necessarily reprint series in order. The first Green Lantern volume they published started around issue #17 of the Silver Age series I think. I've been buying them from InStockTrades for the discount, so books that have a cover price of $40 are around half price there. $20 for 500-600 pages is a good deal.

Aquaman: King of Atlantis - misnamed, because he barely even goes to Atlantis, but this volume has all the Aquaman stories from 1955-1962. I hadn't read most of these before, though some of them in the middle of the book were in the Archive. Fun stuff, though in this period Aquaman's gloves alternated between green and yellow in the original comics, and this book has them colored green all the way through. Aquaman gets the familiar origin story for the first time and meets Aqualad in some of the stories in this book. No Mera though, she appears later.

Batman: Red Skies - The last pre-Crisis Batman stories, with the book alternating between Batman and Detective Comics. I was hoping for interesting material, but it feels like most of the book is about Batman's love life. Disappointing. Interesting to see the version of Jason Todd that was around before his origin was rewritten to trying to steal the tires off the Batmobile.

Batman: Year One and Two - Post-Crisis Batman starts here, though interestingly the first few stories in this book are essentially still the pre-Crisis version. Year One starting with Batman 404 seems to be the line of demarcation, after which we get a new version of why Dick Grayson was essentially fired by Batman, and Jason Todd was taken on as the new Robin. Year One remains a great story, despite the bizarre choice to make Selina Kyle a prostitute. I've never liked Year Two as much, though it has some interesting elements to it.

Batman: The Killing Joke and Other Stories - I loathe "The Killing Joke" though it has beautiful art. It's the final story in the volume, and the rest of the book alternates between Batman and Detective Comics, as well as including the "Son of the Demon" graphic novel where Bruce and Talia al Ghul are briefly married and have a child together, which is where Grant Morrison got the idea for Damien Wayne. This book includes "Ten Nights of the Beast" which I always wanted to read but never got around to, and the earliest Detective Comics issues by John Wagner, Alan Grant and the great Norm Breyfogle. This book just about reaches the era where I started reading Batman comics back in the day, so it's very familiar to me.

Blue Beetle: Blue Beetle Challenges the Red Knight - Mostly 1960s Charlton Comics with the Dan Garrett Blue Bettle and the early Ted Kord stories by Steve Ditko. I got it for the latter. It's not stellar writing or art for most of the book, but it's enjoyable enough. And it's interesting to read superhero comics that are clearly neither DC nor Marvel in style or tone.

Green Lantern: The Defeat of Green Lantern - got this one at a deep discount book warehouse. I already had most of what's in this book in the omnibuses, but it had a couple of extra issues so for the price it was worth it. Silver Age Green Lantern.

Hawkman: Wings Across Time - Silver Age Hawkman, really good stuff. Starts out with some great Joe Kubert art and the Brave and the Bold tryout issues before printing the early issues of the ongoing series.

Justice League: The Return - the second half of the Justice League Detroit era, ending with the last issues of the original Justice League of America series before it becomes the "bwah ha ha" Justice League. This book has a bad reputation, but it's not deserved. I thought it never quite felt like the Justice League with all the second-stringers, but it's a perfectly readable team book with a few good stories and one or two really strong ones. The story featuring Despero gets a sequel in JLI which I remember quite well.

Justice Society of America: For America and Democracy and The Plunder of the Psycho Pirate - These two books reprint All-Star Comics #3 through #24 between the two of them. I already had the Archives, but wanted to support Golden Age material in this line of books. Turns out the coloring has been upgraded for All-Star #3, and the paper is whiter and brighter, so there is some improvement in art quality over the early Archives. I'd like to see some of the individual characters from the 1940s get DCF volumes.

Plastic Man: The Origin of Plastic Man - tried it on the recommendation of some fans of Jack Cole's work, and they were right. This isn't a character I've ever been particularly interested in, but this 1940s material is creative and a lot of fun. I'm glad I took a chance on it.

The Spectre: The Wrath of the Spectre - Reprints various appearances by the Spectre from the mid 1960s up through the mid-80s. Seems to have been successful enough to keep bringing back, but not successful enough to hold his own series for long at this point. There's a definite tonal shift partway through the book as the character goes from essentially the 1940s version to the more modern version who kills criminals in horrible ways.

Superman Family: The Giant Turtle Man - reprints issues of Jimmy Olsen's series and Lois Lane's series from the late 50s. Superman books from this era feel like a sitcom to me, and that's definitely true of this book. It's fun, but a little bit goes a long way, so I find that I only read a few stories at a time. The cover is the well-known image of Jimmy as the giant turtle man destroying a bridge, which is what made me decide to try the book out.

Superman: Kryptonite Nevermore - the start of Bronze Age Superman, with the story where all the Kryptonite on Earth is destroyed. Alternates between Action Comics and Superman with every issue for a little over a year. Enjoyed this quite a bit, more than I expected to if I'm honest. And amazingly, every single issue was drawn by Curt Swan. Modern artists could learn something from him.

[Ursus mellifera]

Anyone here been buying any of the DC Finest collections? A lot of them repackage material that's already been collected elsewhere, while some of them are new. It's basically a line that can have any character from any point in DC's publication history between 1938 and 2011. It's a lot like Marvel's Epic line, in that it doesn't necessarily reprint series in order.

I don't think I could. I think having a random collection of stories would drive me mad.

[andersonh1]

Anyone here been buying any of the DC Finest collections? A lot of them repackage material that's already been collected elsewhere, while some of them are new. It's basically a line that can have any character from any point in DC's publication history between 1938 and 2011. It's a lot like Marvel's Epic line, in that it doesn't necessarily reprint series in order.

I don't think I could. I think having a random collection of stories would drive me mad.

I think it's a good idea, particularly for characters like Batman and Superman that have been continually published for over 80s years. Print a year's worth of comics from some point along that character's history and see how people like it. I'm still hoping the omnibuses will continue, it's been a few years since any of the big three got a new Golden or Silver Age omnibus, other than Wonder Woman.

I think most of the volumes are not internally random (though a few "sampler" volumes like the Crisis book are), just taken from some point along the character's published history. The mapping has been quite good so far. In the Superman "Kryptonite Nevermore" volume for example, there's a two part Action Comics story and the book keeps those issues together rather than putting a Superman issue in between. Several of the Batman volumes do the same thing, keeping consecutive issues that are parts of the same story together. So some thought has clearly gone into these books in terms of presentation. But otherwise any given volume is fairly sequential in terms of stories reprinted.

I just appreciate the amount of material for the price. I'll try out a lot of characters and eras at the lower price than I would at a higher price point.

[Sparky Prime]

I have a Very Best of Spider-Man collection from 1994 which included Amazing Fantasy #15, ASM #33, ASM #50, ASM #248, ASM #271, ASM #317, ASM #365, and SSP #189. This is actually one of my favorite TPBs because it has such a variety of different stories over several decades. Some of these issues were self contained stories, while others were part of a larger arc. I think these stories part of an arc do a decent enough job conveying everything they need to so I don't feel like I'm missing anything, which I think is part of why this collection works so well for me.

[Ursus mellifera]

Oh, okay, yeah. I can see the appeal of those. I even have a few of those myself. I especially like the idea of a trade with different stories from different eras to really give you an idea of how the characters has changed over the decades.