Retro Comics are Awesome

[andersonh1]

Batman #42
August-September 1947

Claws of the Catwoman!
Catwoman gets a book in jail that has three chemically treated pages she uses as a bomb to blow open the cell door and escape. I think sometimes it's probably just better to skip how these villains escape and just tell us that they did. And of course, she's off on another crime spree based around cats. As usual, she's not interested in killing Batman or Robin. She bricks them up in a sealed room, but leaves them an air vent in the ceiling, and plans to release them when her crime spree is done. Catwoman's own cat is their means of escape as they tie a message to its collar which attracts a passing policeman. Catwoman's final crime is at the Hepcat club, where the mighty and manly Batman panics at the thought of dancing with one of the cute girls in the club. As usual, third time's the charm and Batman captures Catwoman and turns her over to the police.

I think at this point, romance has been entirely written out of Bruce's life. Julie Madison is long gone and so is Linda Page. He doesn't even flirt with Catwoman any more. He's very much the awkward, chaste hero, fumbling and embarrassed around women, which demonstrates more than anything else in the strip the age range the writers were aiming for.

Blind Man's Bluff!
This story is entirely implausible (much like Batman himself), but if taken on its own terms, it really does showcase just how capable and utterly fearless the Batman of this era is. A fire in a home Bruce and Dick are passing leads Bruce to rescue a child trapped in an upper story window. The experience leaves him temporarily blinded. According to the doctor, the fire "seared the optic nerve, like snow blindness". Three days should be enough time for Bruce's eyes to return to normal. But Bruce doesn't have three days to stay out of action, because gangster Duds Neery had learned from policeman Dan Grady that after an intensive investigation, Grady believed the Batman was Bruce Wayne. Duds is determined to test the theory. Bruce Wayne's blindness made the papers, so if he really is Batman, well obviously Batman can't fight crime when he's blind, so Duds will know the truth if Batman doesn't respond to a letter Duds sent to Bruce, challenging him to stop a robbery.

Bruce decides to bluff Duds, and so he goes out in costume, completely blind, allowing Robin to guide him from nearby while he walks over wooden planks and steel beams high up on a construction site. Batman fights by listening to the men talk and listening to Robin's verbal cues, but he's finally captured. One of Duds' men suggests just removing Batman's mask, but Duds won't do it. He types up a note with the address of his next crime, holds it up in front of Batman to allow him to read it, if he's able, then destroys it. Unseen, Batman had turned on a dictaphone, recorded the sounds of the typewriter, and was able to use the recording to transcribe the address, foiling the robbery. But Duds is still not convinced. When Robin chases the fleeing crooks, leaving Batman behind, Duds is still there and wonders why Robin left him. He hands Batman his gun with one bullet, and challenges him to shoot the tip off his cigarette. Luckily for the still blind Bruce, an approaching policeman, investigating the robbery scene, overhears and shoots the tip himself, leaving Batman to bluff him by saying he'd have done it in another second or two. Having lasted this long, Batman and Robin track down the crooks to their final hideout and punch them into submission. All of this is enough to convince both Duds and Grady that Batman cannot possibly be Bruce Wayne, so his secret id is safe.

[andersonh1]

Golden Age Batman vol. 7 solicited: https://13thdimension.com/classic-batma ... llections/

Every Batman issue

Written by BILL FINGER, JOE SAMACHSON, EDMOND HAMILTON and others

Art by BOB KANE, DICK SPRANG, JIM MOONEY and others

Cover by EVAN “DOC” SHANER

In these tales from the start of the 1950s, the Penguin commits a series of crimes inspired by state birds and Catwoman becomes empress of the underworld! Plus, the debut appearances of Deadshot and Killer Moth, and the origin of the Red Hood. Collects Detective Comics #154-173, Batman #56-66 and stories from World’s Finest Comics #43-52.

ON SALE 06.12.19 | $125.00 US | 808 PAGES

I'm glad to see DC is pushing forward with these reprints. I checked the issues, and the final issues in this collection will hit August 1951. A lot of the stories have not been reprinted before at this point.

I'm wondering where DC will decide to draw the line between Golden and Silver Age books? The "new look" Batman didn't debut until 1964, but it's hard to call 1950s Batman "Golden Age" stories. All Star Comics ended in February 1951, so from then until the Barry Allen Flash appeared in 1956, Superman, Batman and Womder Woman were the only regularly published DC superheroes (with Green Arrow and Aquaman as backup features). There is no hard and fast break between Golden and Silver Ages, unlike all DC's other characters.

Still no Superman volume 6 solicited. Batman gets all the attention, typical.

[andersonh1]

Speaking of Batman, I like the finalized cover for GA Batman volume 6. It's due out in a few months I think.

[andersonh1]

Concluding Batman #42....

The Robot Robbers!
Three old men, all unrepentant crooks, languish in jail. Jawbone Bannon, Whitey Drebs and Four-Eyes Foley all wonder what life on the outside is like, and they get a chance to find out when they're broken out of jail by robots expert Dr. Hercules, who wants to use the combination of his robots and these three crooks to pull off crimes and strike it rich. Batman and Robin tangle with the first robot, and work out fairly quickly that the three escaped cons are somehow mixed up in the crime spree. By working out the methods of these three men they're ultimately able to put a stop to the crime spree and the robots.

This is a bit more down to earth sci-fi than the martian story, with Hercules even killing Foley because his robot was destroyed, and it would cost too much and take too long to build another. It's not magic tech or an endless supply of robots, and the inventor looks for experts to pull off his plan (as opposed to someone like Luthor, who would probably do it all himself), so all in all, I like the approach. Hugo Strange would have been a good fit for this story.

[andersonh1]

I can say with absolute certainty that Batman does not walk around naked in the Batcave in this story.

Detective Comics #126
August 1947

Case of the Silent Songbirds!
"Robin must have left that as a tip for me! A wren? A wren is a small bird - why, that's it! Milly Long, the famous pint-sized opera star is singing "Faust" tonight!" - Batman, demonstrating bat deduction at its finest, after seeing nothing more than a picture hanging crookedly on the wall.

We seem to be at a point where any story with "cat" in the title will feature Catwoman, and any story with "bird" in the title will involve the Penguin. So we know going in what to expect in terms of plot framework, with how the plot plays out giving us a good or a mediocre story. In this case, the Penguin and his accomplice Throstle are using Throstle's radio show to secretly direct the gang to extort money. People who donate to the "songbird society" are left alone, those who don't have something happen to them. After a few run-ins with Penguin's gang, and after Robin is captured and manages to escape, the scheme is of course foiled. The mystery of how the Penguin ruins singers voices if they don't pay up adds some interest to the plot, and I like the hidden directions via radio. It's a typical Penguin story, but it's entertaining enough.

[andersonh1]

Detective Comics #127
September 1947

Pigmies in Giantland!
The 100th issue of Detective Comics to feature Batman is just business as usual. There's no notice given to the milestone. The story turns out to be about a con job, as Dr. Agar claims to have invented a gas that can shrink living organisms, including people. He uses this to extort money from various millionaires, but it's all a hoax, as Batman figures out when he and Robin are "shrunk" and it's just a giant set that looks like an ordinary office. It's not the best story, and being a modern reader, I'd have preferred a "back to the basics" type of crime story.

World's Finest Comics #30
September-October 1947

The Penny Plunderers!
The giant penny so often seen in the Batcave originates here, as Batman and Robin take on Joe Coyne and his gangsters. Coyne is obsessed with pennies, and all his robberies involve pennies somehow. The giant penny is seen at a "coin and stamp exhibition" where Batman tries to capture Coyne, figuring he'd hit a target like that. He gets away, but Batman gets some information from a captured gang member, only for Coyne to later kill the guy in cold blood for talking. Batman is captured and left to asphixiate on Carbon Monoxide gas, only for Batman to use a regular and a zinc penny from WW2 to help create a battery and tap out an s.o.s. over the phone lines. Coyne is ultimately captured when he tells his gang to let him lure Batman and Robin into an old warehouse, where he'll call them so they can come hit them from behind. But Coyne has no nickels, only pennies, and cannot use the pay phone to call his gang. Pennies turned out to be his downfall.

"Criminals with a gimmick" could so easily have been another Joker or Penguin story, but thankfully we get an original villain here. The story is elevated by the fact that the giant penny Batcave trophy originates here, and I enjoy seeing the zinc penny make an appearance since I have one. I used to collect pennies, and my grandfather gave me a zinc coated penny. It looks like a nickel unless you look closely.

[andersonh1]

We're nearing the end of Batman vol. 5.

Batman #43
October-November 1947

The Blackbird of Banditry!
The Penguin's pride is once again wounded by the fact that Joker and Catwoman get all the headlines, so he stages a robbery and sends Batman a taunting clue through Commissioner Gordon (who still has brown hair instead of white, oddly... I still say he's dyeing it). Happy now that his name is in the papers, the Penguin next turns pirate, robbing a Treasure Island themed party, only for Batman to intervene. Penguin escapes, and at the next robbery, captures Batman and Robin, leaving them in a death trap, from which they of course escape. The final fight takes place on a Penguin shaped blimp, and the Penguin is caught and jailed. It's a very formulaic story.

Next Stop - Danger!
We haven't had a "group of random people put into a danger" storyline for a while. In this case, various individuals on the Gotham subway have various problems... one man is bored with his job, one has writer's block, an actress can't find work, a boy has run away from home, and two racketeers are trying to escape a police dragnet. Batman and Robin pursue the crooks on board the train, and each of the individuals plays a part in keeping them alive and helping round up the crooks. I like this type of plot much more than the umpteenth appearance of one of Batman's rogues, and this is a well-executed example.

The Four Horsemen of Crime!
Out of the pages of history come four master "villains"... Jesse James, Captain Kidd, John Dillinger and Genghis Khan, to rob and plunder Gotham City. This being comics, it's entirely possible that these guys are legit (I'm thinking of the Seven Soldiers of Victory issue where Dr. Doome uses time travel to bring conquerors from the past into the present), particularly when Carter Nichols, who normally sends Bruce and Dick into the past, claims his new time ray machine has been stolen. But it all turns out to be a con in the end. Nichols has been kidnapped, and the historical figures are all modern crooks in disguise, with their leader taking Nichols place. Batman figures it out and uses his own set of historical disguises to freak out the crooks and catch them, freeing Nichols in the process. It's a fun little story that only works because of comic book "anything goes" logic, but bonus points for bringing Carter Nichols along for a different type of time travel plot.

[andersonh1]

A preview of what kind of material can be expected in the forthcoming Detective Comics omnis:

http://www.westfieldcomics.com/blog/int ... re-batman/

I believe these are scanned rather than having the fully restored artwork of the other omnibus volumes, but given the obscurity of the characters, it probably makes economic sense not to put as much money into the books up front. I have no problems with scans, as long as the quality is good, and today's scanners combined with some tweaking in Photoshop should produce a good result.

[andersonh1]

Detective Comics #128
October 1947

Crime in Reverse!
Ha ha! I'm even escaping in reverse! First the alarm and search, and now the escape!

Another Joker story and another crazy scheme... the Joker seemingly escapes from prison the very same day that Batman captures him and brings him in. The alarm is sounded and search groups sent out, but the Joker is hiding in the prison kitchen and escapes while they're out looking for him. He begins his "crimes in reverse" (and calls himself "Rekoj" for the first time in years) by warning people of crimes he's going to commit, then robbing them. The story makes all this just barely seem plausible as the Joker's antics throw everyone off-guard long enough for him to pull off the crime. But of course, Batman outsmarts him in the end. Again, it's a well-worn formula and a typical Joker story at this point, but more entertaining than some.

Detective Comics #129
November 1947

The Isle of Yesterday!
Batman and Robin visit the "gay 90s" (the 1890s) thanks to eccentric millionaire Judge James Goodwin who owns an island off the coast, where he's rejected the modern life of the 1940s and has kept things as they were in the 1890s. They pursue a gang of jewel theives to the island, puzzled by their old fashioned methods, and discover the island. Goodwin's daughter was killed in an auto accident years before, and he's convinced that progress is not worth it, and that crime comes from progress, so he's stifled it. Batman has his suspicions, and in the course of investigating Diamond Dan, the prime suspect, he has to disguise himself as a waiter (and we find out yet again that he has no voice for singing), before being captured by the gang and left to die in a burning warehouse. When Batman tells the police, Dan and his gang drop the whole "stuck in the 1890s" routine and resort to machine guns and tear gas to take over the town. Batman converts the steam powered fire engine to an armored vehicle, and he and Robin assist the police in taking out Dan and his gang. Judge Goodwin relents and decides to allow the people on his island to enter the modern world. As the story ends, Robin remarks that it was like going back to their grandfather's time.

I found the story's hook interesting, since as often as Batman and Robin travel in time, it's a change of pace to have them visit a 'past era" while still being in the present day. Jewel thieves aren't all that interesting as opponents, but jewel thieves who are from an island stuck in the 1890s isn't something you see every day. There's probably a message about too much nostalgia in the story somewhere that could be better developed.

[andersonh1]

World's Finest Comics #31
November-December 1947

The Man with the X-Ray Eyes!
Former WW2 pilot Eddie Brand tests a new airplane, but the plane fails and he crashes. His eyesight is damaged, but rather than blindness, somehow he ends up with x-ray vision. Eddie goes to work on the stage, and while Dick Grayson is astonished, Bruce worries that he could be a dangerous criminal if he went bad. And that's what happens, as people with secrets they're hiding begin to avoid him. Before the war Eddie was an artist, and he uses that and his x-ray vision to case banks and commit other crimes. When Batman and Robin catch up with Eddie and his partner, Eddie takes a look under Batman's mask. He then paints a picture of Bruce's face and mails it to Gordon, with a note warning Batman to keep away, or else have his likeness circulated among the Gotham underworld. But Batman sets a trap and uses a batch of red and violet lights to cancel out Eddie's x-ray vision. Batman is too late to stop his picture being distributed, but he captures Eddie, who is diagnosed with "battle fatigue" (i.e. PTSD) and is not prosecuted for his crime spree. And Batman's identity is safe, because fearing that exactly what happened would happen, Bruce wore extra makeup under his mask to disguise his features.

Okay, so the "science" behind the story is nonsense of course, but that aside, I appreciate once again seeing a veteran of WW2 having problems reintegrating into society, and the "peril to the hero's secret identity" angle is well played.