TF Views

Detective Comics #98
April 1945

The King of the Hobos!
Banker Casper Thurbridge is sick and tired of all the responsibilities of his job, and he storms out of the bank. A chance encounter with "Frisco" Fred, a hobo, leads to a long conversation between the two where the banker is tired of the responsibility of his job, while the hobo is tired of being homeless and poor. They laugh about neither rich nor poor man being happy with his lot in life. Nearby is gangster Silvers Silke who spots an opportunity here.

A week later, Thurbridge has disappeared, with Batman and Robin investigating his home. They catch Silke and his men breaking in and after busting up the robbery attempt, interrogate a captured thug for info. Thurbridge has gone to live at a hobo camp and has been talking too much about the money in his house. Bruce and Dick disguise themselves as "Boxcar Bill" and "Slugger Junior" and infiltrate the camp, not only finding Thurbridge but also Silke and his remaning thugs. Thurbridge has been helping the hobos and gaining their goodwill, while Silke has been trying to learn all about Thurbridge's money so he can steal it. Batman and Robin put an end to the scheme, and while Thurbridge ultimately goes back to his job, he gives Fred a job as VP and continues to use his wealth to help out the homeless he befriended. The story ends with Thurbridge buying some land from Bruce Wayne, still dressed in his shabby clothes, and everyone's feet on the desk as they conduct the more informal meeting. This is a fun story with a small-time threat, and I enjoy seeing Bruce and Dick out of costume and in disguise for half the story.

Detective Comics #99
May 1945

The Temporary Murders!
The Penguin has set up a hideout in a disused refrigeration plant, and while his men are freezing, he's happy with the location. He kidnaps three people and sends their frozen bodies to their family or associates with a ransom demand, stating that he can undo the freezing process, but only within 48 hours. One of the men happens to be a fellow board member of Bruce Wayne, who therefore learns what's going on and sets out to track down the Penguin. After the Penguin snares Batman and Robin in a fishhook lined net (ouch!), they track him to the plant and are trapped in a freezer by the Penguin, who gives them 10 minutes before they freeze to death. He goes off to collect the ransom money, but Batman is able to break a pipe and use it to smash the glass in the door and get him and Robin out. The returning Penguin and his gang are rounded up, and the supposedly freezing victims were actually dummies encased in ice, with the real victims locked downstairs in the plant. It was all a big scam by the Penguin.

Batman #29
June-July 1945

Enemy No. 1
Adam Frank always has to be first at everything. It's an obsession with him. When a collector refuses to sell him a first edition of Shakespeare's plays, he turns to crime, planning to steal it. He hires three accomplices, Second Story Sam, Three FIngers Tuttle and Four Eyes Fogerty (so they're 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th, geddit?) and they carry out his plan to steal the book. Frank plans well and manages to hold Batman off a few times, but in the end he goes down to defeat. At one point Frank tries to freeze Batman and Robin in an old ice rink, making this two stories in a row where they have to escape an icy death. As a "villain with a gimmick", Adam Frank is a decent one-shot crook, but that's about it.

The Butler's Apprentice!
Alfred responds to an ad looking for an expert butler to train others in the profession. It's actually a scam by a gang of crooks who want to rob a rich guy, but need a way to get on the inside first, and the gang leader plans to pose as a butler. Naturally Alfred accidentally figures this out and brings some passing policemen to arrest the gang. The police were in the neighborhood looking for someone else entirely. Alfred bumbles his way through another case, yay.

Heroes by Proxy!
Just imagine! Robin with a bald spot!

Bruce Wayne's house (not Wayne Manor yet, just his house in town) is robbed while he's on vacation with Dick and Alfred. While they're surveying the damage, who should come busting in through a window but Batman and Robin! It's actually down on their luck detectives Hawke and Wrenn, who figure if they can appropriate Batman and Robin's reputation, they'll be able to build up their detective agency. Hawke is a too tall, too thin Batman while Wrenn is a short, red-headed, balding Robin (which Dick finds hilarious). The detectives do track down the thieves and nearly get killed in the process, with the genuine Batman and Robin bailing them out, and letting them take the credit for the bust.

Batman #27 concluded

The Mails Go Through!
Mailman John Weaver, who is known and respected along the delivery route he's worked for years, is shot when he happens across Batman and Robin stopping a robbery. Batman volunteers to make sure the mail is delivered, and he runs across a plot by a transplanted west coast villain, the Scuttler, who plans to steal some registered mail detailing an invention worth millions. Bruce does some research on how the mail works (and how nice to see Batman always doing his research so he's armed with knowledge when taking on a problem), which involves pneumatic delivery tubes, and despite being too late to stop the registered mail being sent to the station where the Scuttler is waiting, Batman drops a cannister of sleeping gas in the tube and manages to disable the Scuttler long enough for he and Robin to arrive and take down the gang permanently. Weaver returns to the job, convinced the break has done him good.

Back to Green Arrow...

More Fun Comics #80
June 1942

The Script Calls for Murder
Green Arrow and Speedy fill in as stunt doubles in a movie about William Tell, and someone's trying to kill them. Naturally this doesn't slow GA down, he just dives right in and has to deal with all the usual Hollywood cliches: a rich, cigar smoking producer, a tempramental director who can't remember his name (it is amusing when she keeps calling him the "Blue Arrow" and Speedy is "Swifty"), vain stars and script issues. After near misses with falling lights and an avalance on location, the motivation behind trying to kill GA is uncovered: a ton of gold, and the culprit is Cole, the director's assistant.

There's an inside joke on one panel where the director has Cole take a letter to a "Mr. Jerry Siegel", where she rejects his story idea, telling him "you can do better." A swipe at Superman?

More Fun Comics #81
July 1942

The Adventure of the Bankrupt Heroes!
So it's goodbye to crime-busting for a while, eh?
I'm afraid so, Roy. I've got to raise that money somehow.... and the only honest way is to go to work! I'm going to get a job!

I figured we'd see Oliver lose his money at some point, but I didn't think it would happen so soon. And of course, it's only temporary, but it's still fun to watch the scenario play out. And it's nice to see Green Arrow fighting crime in more way than just using his archery as he gives money to a woman whose husband as shot, saying he's responsible to help her; he contributes money to the policeman's fund, and contributes a big stack of books to the city orphanage. It's impossible to read these old stories without having more modern versions of the character in mind, and though obviously the writers in the 40s had no way of knowing how the character would change, there are hints of the social justice attitude that GA will develop in the 70s in the ways he uses his wealth here to help the less fortunate.

But market conditions are bad, and not only has Ollie's broker been forced to use all his cash to protect his holdings, but unless he can raise some more quickly, it'll all be lost. Oliver Queen has to get a job, so off he goes to apply. He ends up in retail, working the toy department, and gets mixed up in the machinations of "Crime, Incorporated", murderers and extortioners for hire. Roy has obtained a job as a vacuum salesman, and when he brings Oliver the newspaper mentioning two murders, the two decide they have to solve the crime... but all they have is an hour, because they'll have to do it on their lunch hour. Ah, the perils of being a crimefighter while on the clock! And of course they pull it off and capture the crooks, after some difficulties. Oliver saves his wealth by not only accepting the cash reward for once, thus quickly earning more than the $2,000 he needed, but also because Crime Inc. were manipulating the stock market, and their capture sets things right. He puts his $2.00 check from his hours in the toy department in the trophy case.

More Fun Comics #82
August 1942

Robin Hood's Revenge
This is another storyline I figured we'd see sooner or later: Green Arrow meets Robin Hood, because that's who GA is clearly based on, and it's fun to see the two characters team up. Robin Hood is clearly based off of the Errol Flynn movie, released in 1938, so it was very recent. And the writer includes a welcome scene where Robin sets Speedy straight on the whole "rob from the rich, give to the poor" misunderstanding. Robin Hood always took from those who were taxing the poor to death and gave the people their own money back. "I force the real robbers of the poor to share their spoils with their victims!" Robin says.

The plot: GA and Speedy capture professor Wurm, an inventor who turned to crime to finance his work. One of his inventions (just go with it) are pills that let someone travel in time. Oliver puts them in the trophy case, but curiousity about whether they'll work or not is just eating at Speedy, who pops one of the pills and vanishes into the past, where he ends up fighting alongside Robin Hood. GA follows him, and they have a grand time fighting the Sheriff of Nottingham and Sir Guy of Gisborne. Robin ends up in jail temporarily thanks to GA falling for a lie, but he frees him and makes things right before the pills wear off, and GA and Speedy return to the present day. The only souvenir they have of their visit is a dagger that Robin Hood gave Speedy, and it's put in the trophy cabinet in a place of honor.

Detective Comics #100
June 1945

The Crow's Nest Mystery!
This story reminds me of the Hardy Boys stories I used to read as a kid. There are jewel smugglers, a cliff with an old house atop it, hidden caves and passages for the smugglers to sneak through, and a mystery surrounding the head of the smuggling ring. For a while, the story tries to make it look like mystery writer Reginald Scofield, who lives in the clifftop house, is the head of the smugglers (and indeed, Robin reaches this conclusion and accuses him), but it turns out to be Scofield's butler... who is a crook posing as a butler to use the house and the hidden passage which he knew about but Scofield didn't.

There's no big deal made about 100 issues of Detective Comics, interestingly, or if there was, it's not in the Batman story. The book was still an anthology, so some note may have been made of the anniversary elsewhere.

Detective Comics #101
July 1945

The Tyrannical Twins!
Bruce is shopping for some new shirts, and Dick remains outside, uninterested. A lady with twins in a carriage asks if Dick will watch them for a moment while she enters the store. He agrees, and when Bruce arrives, they wait for the lady to return. She does not, and Bruce finds a note in the carriage, asking him to take care of the twins. Bruce and Dick take them home and dump them on Alfred when a busted rattle reveals jewels hidden inside. Dick connects them with the case he and Batman were investigating, in which Roger Ranier, ex con and jewel shop owner, has been arrested for robbing his own store. As Batman and Robin they investigate. The lady who left the twins turns out to be Stella Ranier, husband to Roger, and she insists he's innocent. An interview with Ranier, and the clues his story provides lead Batman to an old print shop next door to Ranier's shop, where the real thieves had captured Alfred after seeing him walking the twins down the street. They robbed Ranier's store, and knowing that he's an ex-con, pinned the theft on him, knowing he'd be more likely to be presumed guilty.

World's Finest Comics #18
Summer 1945

Specialists in Crime!
A group of high school kids attend a lecture at Gotham's "famed radium institute". After quizzing the guard about security, they attack him and steal a box of radium. Dick Grayson is walking down the street and figures out what's going on. He switches to costume and dives in, and figures out during the fight that the kids aren't kids at all... they're midgets. This leads to an investigation into the "specialists in crime", a group that hires specific men to carry out specific crimes. Blind men are hired to rob a bank when the power is cut and it's pitch black inside. Failing to catch the crooks, Dick decides to pose as a midget and infiltrate the gang, but while attempting to smoke a cigar and maintain his cover, he gets sick and the crooks figure out who he is. Dick escapes when he's left to suffocate in a grain silo by the gang leader, Professor Brane. Bruce catches the final attempt at crime: deaf men at a loud parade which he is officiating.

Batman #30
August-September 1945

Back To the Big House!
Why not dress up like human beings for a change? - Penguin to Batman and Robin

The Penguin is out of jail and working to rebuild his fortune, through crime of course (I love his dartboard in his office with Batman's face on it). Batman and Robin set a trap for the Penguin at the local zoo and attempt to catch him, but the Penguin has a great time fighting them off and then escaping with his trick umbrellas. Batman picks up a written note that fell from the Penguin's pocket during his escape and tracks him to his next target: a department store. Penguin sees them coming and traps them. His men pile a bunch of mattresses on top of Batman and Robin and set them on fire, leaving them to burn to death. I'm constantly surprised by just how ruthless this version of the Penguin is, and burning people to death is cruel by any standards. Batman escapes and this time is successful in capturing the Penguin and his men, sending them back to prison for the umpteenth time.

While the City Sleeps!
I first read this story in "The Greatest Golden Age Stories Ever Told", a great sampler of Golden Age DC that was published back in the early 90s. It's one of those human interest stories that this era of Batman does so well, combined with a bit of education as Batman takes Robin out into Gotham to teach him about the many people who are up all night working: doctors, hospital staff, firemen, switchboard operators, janitorial staff, etc. Despite not intending to do any crime-fighting, Batman catches sight of a man breaking into an apartment. The man is Joe Jones, and having met and fallen for a girl who will marry him if he goes straight, he's trying to return some money he stole. His former gang under "Hush hush" Bodin, a gangster who likes things nice and quiet, shoots him as revenge for Jones attempting to quit. What follows is Batman trying to get the money back and replace it while stopping Hush-Hush's gang. Their plan involves an overnight DJ and help from a cleaning-woman. In the end, the crooks are put away, Joe can marry Ann, and the story reminds us of two more individuals that work at night: Batman and Robin.

Alias the Baron!
A group of thugs are waiting at a railroad station to pick up "the Baron", a notorious crook with a British accent who had double crossed them. Meanwhile Alfred, also at the station, accidentally picks a man's pocket while attempting to pull out his own handkerchief. He has grabbed the Baron's wallet without realizing it, and the crooks, hearing his accent, kidnap him and take him out to shoot him. But the real Baron, recognizing the crooks and believing they robbed him, rides the bumper of their car and gets into a gunfight with them when they stop to bump off Alfred. The police arrive in response to gunfire and arrest the lot. When Bruce and Dick congratulate Alfred, he thinks to himself that he still doesn't know what happened, and won't until he reads the paper, but he's not going to admit that.

Ally Babble and the Fourteen Peeves!
As a comic supporting character, I still like Alfred, despite being annoyed by many of his attempts to become a detective. But I cannot for the life of me figure out who came up with Ally Babble, an annoying talker who with his huge mouth and grin looks a lot like the Joker if the Joker had normal skin and hair color. This guy never shuts up, and his speech bubbles often follow any dialogue he has with "etc., etc." and his face is surrounded by "blah blah". He never stops talking. The plot of this story involves Babble coming across an old man who offers Babble $5000 if he will take the old man's list of 14 pet peeves and do something about the people who perpetrate them. Batman and Robin assume he's an escaped lunatic and chase him around town trying to stop him. Eventually they learn the truth and put a stop to what even the old man who hired Babble admits has gotten out of hand. The story promises a return by Babble, but if I never see the character again, it would be fine with me. I'm not opposed to some humor and eccentricity in Batman's world, but I think this goes a bit too far.

Detective Comics #102
August 1945

The House that was Held for Ransom!
The Joker steals a house while the owner is away and holds it for ransom. I don't know that there's a lot more to say than this. It's the kind of crazy plot only the Joker could dream up. I thought at first it was going to be something like the Tweedledum and Tweedledee story with the inn where an identical inn was nearby, and maybe the Joker had just duplicated the homeowner's yard and grounds, but no... they actually took the house. Batman and Robin naturally get it back.

Detective Comics #103
September 1945

Trouble, Incorporated!
Dean Gray is forced to retired from Gotham University due to his age, and his students will all miss him due to how well he understood their problems. Grey isn't ready to quit, and opens up a business in Gotham called "Trouble, Incorporated" where he gives advice and solves problems. Among his clients is a small time crook who works for gangster Sam Slick. Sam decides to make this work for him, and rents the office next door so he can listen in and either learn secrets to steal or blackmail Gray's clients. Batman and Robin unravel the mystery and put an end to Slick's scheming.

Batman #31
October-November 1945

Punch and Judy!
We didn't know we were poking our noses into a private war between a man and wife!

Punch and Judy are a married couple who resemble the Punch and Judy characters, if you couldn't guess, and in fact play them at the carnival. They're also small time thieves and swindlers, who run a crooked carnival. On top of that, this is the most squabbling married couple you've ever seen. Bruce and Dick hear the fight and think someone's being murdered, but once they see it's a domestic squabble, they want no part of it! Batman figures out that the carnival is rigged and basically spoils all the tricks. In the end, one of Punch and Judy's hired men tries to kill Batman, which is a bridge too far for them. They're fine with swindling, but not murder. He ties them up and heads out with the money, with Batman in pursuit, only to crash his car and die. Punch and Judy go to jail, still fighting with each other. I have to admit, this was a fun story with some better than average villains. I hope they turn up again.

Batman #31 concluded

Alfred, Armchair Detective!
Alfred is reading a story about a detective who solves his cases without ever leaving his home. He dismisses the idea as ridiculous, and thinks the only way to catch criminals is to go out and find them. He disguises himself in some old clothes and goes to hang out in some seedy dives to see if he can do just that. Being as unsubtle as always, he's caught listening to some crooks and kidnapped. He hears them discuss the very penthouse robberies he was reading about in the paper while being driven in the back of a truck, tied to a chair. When he tries to stand up to better head, he falls into the front of the truck, hits the driver, and the truck runs off the road. When the police arrive to investigate the wreck, Alfred tells all that he heard, thus ending another crime spree. Hey, I'll give Alfred some credit for deliberately setting out to look for crime this time, even if he does stop the crooks by his clumsiness yet again. And by being tied to a chair, Alfred was himself an "armchair detective".... sort of.

Vanishing Village!
A Florida village has completely disappeared. Without going through every plot mechanic, the literally stolen village has been moved into a thickly forested/swampy area of Florida, and crooks can go there to hide from the law. Bruce disguises himself as Knuckles Donegan, the crook he and Robin are chasing, gets to Florida before him, infiltrates the village and attempts to shut the place down. For once, the story acknowledges that the overwhelming odds are too much, but Robin has called in the state police, and all the crooks are rounded up.

Trademarks of Crime!
Leggo 'o me, you big flatfoot! You ain't gonna put no bracelets on me! You #!!*@x!!
"Sweet old lady!"

Batman does a lot of forensic work in this story, and the spotlight on the detective side of the character is always welcome. He and Robin are tracking down a series of criminals by following the trademark type of crimes that each man commits. One man drugged a dog and then turned on the radio in an apartment that he was robbing, just to give one example, and both Batman and the Gotham police have files with records of each crook's methods. It turns out to be a bit of misdirection, where the specific methods of the crooks are used to hide the actual criminal. The whole racket is being run by a "sweet old lady" who cleans the police station at night, who stole the files from the police records and came up with the whole scheme.

Back to Green Arrow... so much for just sticking with one book at a time, but I'm enjoying Green Arrow more than I thought I would. He's moved away from being the Batman clone rather quickly, even though some of the parallels are still there.

More Fun Comics #83
September 1942

The Five Arrows
Green Arrow does "The Most Dangerous Game" as big game hunter John Hunt, stuck for a final chapter for his book, lures Green Arrow and Speedy to his home. He captures them and then turns them loose in his private zoo with only five arrows between the two of them. They have to survive until the end of the day, when Hunt himself will come after them. Green Arrow and Speedy survive a tiger, a boa constrictor and an octopus as they try to conserve and retrieve their arrows. They rig an arrowline and escape over the electrified fence surrounding the zoo, and GA saves Speedy from using the final arrow, which had poison barbs among the feathers at the end of the shaft to kill whoever used it. There is a fight with Hunt and his manservant, and when Hunt tries to run for it in the Arrowplane, he is killed when he hits the catapault control and is thrown into the electric fence. I thought this story was easily the best so far of what is turning out to be one of the better Golden Age DC series.

More Fun Comics #84
October 1942

Hunting Headlines
Millionaire Lamont Morgan thinks Green Arrow is a fake, and offers a $10,000 challenge to prove it. Green Arrow must make the newspaper headlines without using his arrows. GA agrees, though the money will go to the USO if he wins. What follows is a story in two parts. The first involves a stagecoach robbery in a western town that is promoting its "old west" roots by doing things the way they'd have been done 80 years earlier. The second involves a Japanese incursion on the California coast, since in October 1942 the US is still in the midst of World War 2. Green Arrow thwarts a planned Japanese night bombing raid, and avenges the attack on Pearl Harbor. Morgan is convinced and awards the money to the USO, as GA requested.

Action Comics #24
May 1940

Carnahan's Heir
Carnahan was right! His son is a stupid weakling! - Superman

An ad in the paper solicits Superman's help, and Clark Kent is sent to see what news he can dig up. The ad was placed by the wealthy Mr. Carnahan, but when Clark arrives, he's booted out by the butler. He returns as Superman, and oddly neither the butler nor Carnahan recognize him. Once Superman convinces Carnahan of his identity, Carnahan explains that his son Peter is pretty worthless, and he wants Superman to straighten him out. He's a coward and has a lot of gambling debt. Superman agrees to help, but before he's even begun to work, Carnahan dies. The will complicates matters, because it stipulates that if Peter has been involved in gambling, he gets no inheritance.

Things get even more complicated when it looks like Peter has murdered the man to whom he owes a huge gambling debt. He tries suicide but Superman prevents that. A trial is held, and Peter is found guilty of murder and sentenced to the electric chair, but Clark isn't convinced that he's guilty. Superman uncovers the truth, that one of the gamblers killed the man, and he's able to save Peter's life by smashing the power station just as the executioner is reaching for the switch. He forces the man to confess, and Peter is freed, going on to set up a home for wayward boys to keep them from ending up like him. There's a lot of plot stuffed into this 12 page story, and it's a real mash-up of ideas, but overall it works fairly well.