"Destiny's Auction"
Writer: Don Cameron
Artist: Jerry Robinson
Synopsis: Judy O'Casson is an aspiring young actress who hopes to break into broadway. She visits a gypsy fortune teller named Madame Calagra who tells her that her name shall be written large for all to see and she will move from humble lodgings to a great palace. Judy thinks this means she's gonna get her big break, but actually it means she's behind on her rent and getting evicted. The landlady won't even let her into the room to get her trunk until she pays what's owed! That's cold.
Tremaine Wentworth is an over-the-hill character actor who visits Madame Calagra and is told that he will take on a new role in which his past will be overshadowed. So Tremaine walks home thinking he's gonna have a big comeback, glad he hung on to his trunk full of momentos of his stardom days, and gets hit by a car and wakes up in hospital without any memory of who he was. Truly, Madame Calagra is from the douchey ironic school of fortune telling.
Diamond Pete Ransome is a diamond thief (don't say?) who visits Calagra and is told that strong fighters will follow him and help him enter a heavily guarded place. Ransome figures this means his hoods will help him break into a jewelry shop and steal some diamonds. The goons are still shook up because they had to kill a night watchman on their last job and haven't even been able to fence the diamonds from it yet because they're too hot, so they're stored in Ransome's hidden trunk. But Ransome's confident because, after all, he got a fortune told by a gypsy
Anyways, turns out the strong fighters who follow him are actually Batman and Robin, and after they beat up him and his mean they help him enter a heavily guarded place, which is to say - jail! So now we've got three people, and three trunks. We can all see where this is going, yeah?
A whole year passes, and Ransome's getting released from prison. Bruce and Dick decide to check up on him and follow him from the prison to see if he leads them to the still missing diamonds from the earlier heist. Ransome drives back to his old digs, but of course his trunk is gone, after being unclaimed for a year it's been turned over to be offered up for public auction!
As it turns out, Judy has just returned to Gotham with the money to buy her trunk back from that landlady - but the landlady has also turned the unclaimed trunk over for auction!
And golly, what a coincedence, but Tremaine Wentworth has undergone an insulin shock treatment that's restored his memory! And he's also got a trunk he needs to get that's up for auction!
Well, I think we can see where this is going.
Judy shows up first and wins the auction on the first trunk, with Wentworth getting the second and Pete the third. Of course, they all get the wrong trunks. Batman and Robin have been following Pete and bust in for a quick fight before it turns out they have Wentworth's trunk full of old costumes and disguises.
Things get hilarious when the Dynamic Duo realizes they have no grounds for arresting or harassing Pete - technically, they're breaking and entering, and Pete purchased the trunk and its contents legally! So they have to leave him alone!
But they figure if Pete has Wentworth's trunk, maybe he has the one with the stolen diamonds. So they hightail it to his place, but all Wentworth got in his trunk was the typescript of a hitherto unknown play by a master playwright - which is cool, but not stolen blood diamonds, y'know? They realize the real trunk therefore MUST be with Judy, and head off to get her - but they've been unknowingly eavesdropped upon by Pete and his goons who've used Wentworth's old stuff to disguise themselves.
Pete makes it to Judy first, but just as he's about to straight up just throw her out a window to her death Batman spots her in time and swoops down on a bat-line and rescues her. Hot damn! Wentworth recognizes the disguises and Batman puts two and two together and we get our climatic fight scene.
Turns out the famous dead playwright wrote his greatest play just for Judy, but could never find anyone to produce it (maybe it's not so great then?) and then died. She carried the script around to everyone in town but no one would bite (maybe it's... not so great then?) So Batman offers to get BRUCE WAYNE to put up the dough!
The play opens with Judy starring and Wentworth in a supporting role! It's a hit, she becomes a star and Wentworth's career is reignited! And with Pete in jail, about to get the electric chair for murder, it looks like all those old gypsy prophecies came true after all!
Curious, Bruce and Dick visit the fortuneteller, who tells them all she sees is a swirling mist and a bony finger pointed in warning -- for they are the hand of fate!
They are understandably freaked out by this.
~~~~
Thoughts and Review: So this is another entry into what I've started thinking of as the "literary" genre of Golden Age Batman. These stories try to be about "real" people, try to present a cast of various characters all pulled into the "drama", try to talk about social issues or perhaps just be a bit more sophisticated in their storytelling. They try to be more complex and clever than the standard bank-robbers-with-a-gimmick plot. They're cool - sometimes they work, sometimes they don't. Sometimes thirteen pages is too little to try to write in a "novelistic" manner, sometimes they're too few to drag a weak plot across.
But they always seem like they're trying to hard. Like a writer trying to prove he's better than the series he's writing for.
I don't know where I stand on this one. I love the art, but the story's a big bag of meh.
The Art: It's all Jerry Robinson, so of course it's gorgeous. I mean, I love this guy's unique blend of cartooning, realism, light, shadow, detail, grit, grime and bravura. The thin line work isn't always very well reproduced in modern reprints, but it's still some really fantastic stuff. I've compared it to the work of George Freeman on Captain Canuck before, and that's still what it reminds me of, except of course that here's Robinson doing it forty years earlier. The art saves this story. It's great.
The Story: The story itself, thinks too highly of itself and is based entirely on one forced dramatic contrivance after another. It's all coincedences and happenstance masquerading as plot. Of course, it also suffers the number one problem of these "literary" stories. Without fail, they're always based around some new random characters we've never met, investing them with character development and pathos and all that, and we're never going to meet them again. Batman and Robin become observers and guest stars in their own feature. They can never get character development, they must remain static, two-dimensional, cardboard cutouts to facillitate more stories.
It's not that I don't like the writing or I don't appreciate these kinds of stories, but I've seen Bill Finger write better and I know better is possible - if maybe not on the kind of demanding schedule Batman demanded of approximately forty-five stories per year. Granted, I think Batman appears in just as many if not far more comics at once nowadays - but I also feel quantity over quality wins the day now, just as it did then.
Oooh, boy. Prepare for patriotism and propaganda!
"The Bond Wagon"
Writer: Joseph Greene
Pencils: Jack Burnley
Inks: George Roussos
Synopsis: Dick is reading book on American History, presumably for school, and the thought strikes him that World War II is a revolutionary war for freedom in the same way as the War of Independence! Bruce totally agrees, and Dick thinks that if only modern Americans could remember the heroes of the American Revolution then they'd be inspired to buy more war bonds!
Bruce agrees again, and decides to cast for doubles of American founding patriots for a "Bond Wagon" to sell war bonds by restaging famous moments from the Revolutionary War. For some reason, he decides to do this in his Batman identity, instead of just as millionaire Bruce Wayne.
Sure enough, a bunch of patriotic Americans show up to volunteer to play George Washington, Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson, Tom Paine, Sam Adams, and Betsy Ross and Molly Pitcher because after all "women served then just as today!" (I have to admit, as a Canadian I only recognize five of those names off hand...)
One of the applicants is a former merchant marine captain who's ship was destroyed by the German Navy. He can't get another command because he suffers from "gunshock" (PTSD to us modern folk). Batman understands and casts him as Captain John Paul Jones of the Bonhomme Richard.
Then there's Pete Arnold, a college football player accused of betraying his team and throwing the Rose Bowl Game to cover his gambling debts. Now everyone calls him "Benedict" Arnold. He tells Batman the reason the team lost was because he was sick. Batman believes him and casts him as Nathan Hale.
The Bond Wagon is a huge success and generates a great deal of sales for war bonds and war stamps. Naturally this means it attracts the attention of Nazi spies operating in America, who decide to sabotage the bond wagon to destroy American morale.
Apparently the best way to do this is take the place of the actors playing the Hessian soldiers in the reenactment of Washington crossing the Delaware. Batman was over on the Washington side of the river while Robin had been stationed with the Hessian actors in a cabin on the other side. When the Nazis burst in and replace the Hessians, they capture Robin. But the Boy Wonder puts some logs on the fireplace because it's "cold", and the Nazis inexplicably allow him to do this, making fun of how weak Americans are.
Naturally, Robin is sending smoke signals from the chimney. Batman sees them, and knows there is trouble. He crosses the river and throws gas pellets into the cabin so the Nazis can't fire on the American actors.
The battle is joined, and of course our heroes beat up all the Nazis and arrest them. But these were simply the small fry - we still don't know who's leading the spy ring.
Next up we have the re-enactment of the Bonhomme Richard, which ends up being attacked by a Nazi submarine! Captain PTSD gets all freaked out, but Batman shakes him out of it and cures his PTSD by yelling patriotic slogans at him, because THIS COMIC IS PROPAGANDA IN CASE YOU DIDN'T NOTICE.
Then despite the fact that it's a wooden schooner with 18th century cannons versus a modern Nazi submarine, the schooner wins -- largely because Batman and Robin sneak onboard the deck, take over the guns, and point them at the Nazis. Another victory, with the US Coast Guard NOWHERE TO BE SEEN. Gosh, they really do need those bonds!
Finally, the leader of the Nazi spy ring decides that if Pete Arnold was willing to betray his school in a football game, he'll be willing to betray his country in wartime!
So the Nazis meet up with Arnold, and take him to meet the head of the spy ring. Robin is following Arnold and sees what's going down. But he can't find a car to drive out and warn Batman because of gas rationing (seriously, was it normal for ten-thirteen year olds to drive in the 40s?), and so Robin hops on a horse (so much more common) and we get the Midnight Ride of Boy Robin (instead of Paul Revere, yeah?)
So the Dynamic Duo head back to Nazi Spy HQ and punch all the Nazis till they fall down. They find Arnold shot in a back room, and take him to hospital. When he recovers he reveals that he didn't betray Batman, he was playing along to find out the identity of the leader and they shot him when he asked too many questions.
After a re-enactment of the signing of the Declaration of Independance, Batman makes a speech about signing a new Declaration of Independance, independance from the slavery of "Schikelgruber" (Hitler's maternal grandmother's name), and asks "Fellow Americans - Which is it to be? Bondage, or War Bonds?"
HOORAY FOR AMERICA.
~~~~
My Thoughts: How do you even judge this? I mean, it's really just wartime propaganda. I was surprised there wasn't a "paid for by the War Department" message at the end of it!
We see so much of these "Buy War Bonds" propaganda pieces in old pieces of popular culture from this period, from comics covers to Bugs Bunny cartoons, that I'm often very curious as to how many people were buying bonds. These pieces always make it seem like the American public wasn't very invested in the war and needed to be woken up to the dangers of the Third Reich and really pressured into patriotic spending -- but from what I understand war bonds sold really well in the US in WWII and the campaigns were usually a huge success? Apparently over the course of the war $185 billion was raised by 85 million Americans, approximately two-thirds of the population.
For those who don't know, cuz I really didn't either, the way the bonds worked was you bought a bond at a rate of say, 0.75 of a dollar - so a $25 bond for $18.75, and then ten years after you bought it the government would pay you back for the whole amount. I think. Someone with a better knowledge of finances and/or US history can correct me.
The Art: It's Jack Burnley art, so it looks great. Makes me think that this was maybe considered a prestige story, a "pull out the stops" kind of effort. Or maybe it was just another assignment. Oddly he's paired with George Roussos instead of his brother, so the ink line is a little thicker than usual. It works in most places but in some panels with more figures and details Roussos's line overwhelms a little and obscures things - like in the "Washington Crossing the Delaware" panel.
The Story: How do you even judge a story like this? It's pure propaganda. Aside from that, it's the kind of plot that feels natural in Captain America or Wonder Woman but doesn't work for me in Batman - fighting Nazi spies with hidden submarines and sabotage plans. I mean, I know we're in the thick of the war, but it just feels alien to Batman. Granted, ignoring the war is even weirder - the comics still haven't explained why Bruce Wayne isn't fighting overseas lol - but it still feels strange for Batman and Robin to be fighting Nazis. And as a Canadian I have to say the overwhelming American patriotism here doesn't really do anything for me. Who's Nathan Hale? Who's John Paul Jones? Also -- World War II is a modern War of Independance? Maybe for France! For America? A bit of an exaggeration.
I dunno, it's hard to criticize this thing - it's a propaganda story to stir up patriotism and sell war bonds. Whether it's good or not depends on whether it succeeds at that goal -- is evoking the Founding Fathers something that effectively gets Americans stirred up to fund foreign wars? I guess it is.
"The Crime Clinic"
Writer: Bill Finger
Pencils: Bob Kane
Inks: George Roussos
Synopsis: Brilliant, fashionable, rich person's surgeon Matthew Thorne leads a double life - he secretly operates a "crime clinic" where instead of examining patients and prescribing medication he examines criminal plans and prescribes methods for carrying them out! Of course, "secretly" is a relative word, since he gets the word out about his services through advertising to the crooks - and also insists he take their fingerprints on file to ensure they aren't cops, which... just... I mean, that's where I'd just walk out if I was a Gotham gangster -- but no one thinks to ask "How do I know you're not a cop, Doc?"
Anyways, Thorne gets a 25% cut of the loot as a consulting fee, and a 50% operating fee if he has to come out on the job himself (where he wears full surgical gear for reasons that kinda make sense, but are mostly because he's a Classic Batman Theme Villain).
However, on one particular evening when the doctor is operating on a rubber warehouse (rubber being a valued commodity during wartime), the operation is spotted by the Batman and Robin! And so we get a standard pun and props filled fight scene in the rubber warehouse, which apparently contains only manufactured rubber toys instead of any kind of valuable base rubber. While the crooks get the drop on the heroes, Thorne refuses to allow them to kill the Dynamic Duo, because as a Doctor he is sworn to "do no harm" after all. The Doctor escapes, but not before Batman manages to place a "tiny, low power, short wave transmitter" that they can trace with the Batmobile's "direction finder" -- which I believe makes this the first use of a "Bat-tracer", unless I am mistaken.
They follow the Crime Doctor to Matthew Thorne's office and thus realize his true identity. Bursting into his office, we get a fight filled with medical props, including a cool panel where Batman grapples with Thorne behind an x-ray screen. Then Thorne pulls a gun on Batman, because he's decided now that he'll kill if he's forced to.
But it doesn't come to that, because one of Thorne's legitimate patients bursts into the room with acute appendicitis! He has to be operated on now! So Thorne enlists the help of Batman in an impromtu surgery, saving the man's life!
After the patient has left, Batman questions the exhausted Thorne -- why does a brilliant surgeon turn to crime? And, if a criminal, why bother to save a man's life instead of using the opportunity to escape? Thorne explains that while he is a doctor and dedicated to saving men, he can't help but enjoy acting criminally. It's a compulsion, he cannot help himself. In light of this admission of madness, Batman declares Thorne his strangest foe!
Then Thorne throws ether in Robin's face and ties up the heroes with rubber hoses. Thorne tells Batman he can't help how he acts, and gives the clue that he's off to look for the Philosopher's Stone. Batman uses the Doc's discarded cigarette and ether bottle to make a flame to heat up the rubber hoses and thus cause them to expand and allow him and Robin to escape.
Batman explains that the Philosopher's Stone was an old myth of a substance that could turn base metals into gold, and so Thorne must be going after a physics professor who has a formula with which Thorne believes he can use an atom smasher to change the atomic order of objects to make gold!
So Thorne steals the formula and heads off to the Great Eastington Atom Smasher, with Batman and Robin hot on his heels. Now, for translation from nineteen-fortiesese, an atom smasher is a particle accelerator, and Finger is probably referencing the cyclotrons and calutrons that were being built to produce materials for the Manhatten Project, not that Finger would know that or what they were for beyond a vague knowledge of the basics of popular understanding of atomic science.
Kane and Roussos also demonstrate that they have no idea what an atom smasher looks like, or else didn't care, drawing it as a comically large metal balloon-like structure protruding out the top of a small little box-like building, with some stairs and ladders nonsensically going up the side to the top (why would anyone need to go up there?)
Once inside the building, we can see that the visual inspiration is the Crockcroft-Walton generators used in nuclear disintegration, but we don't spend much time inside as soon the characters are chasing on those ladders going up the outside of the building to the top, and it's clear that the whole purpose of this was to enable the characters to battle dramatically in a high place.
Thorne announces his intention to commit his first murder and kill the Batman, but Batman punches him off the top of the atom smasher and Thorne falls into the convenient river just below the drop. Showing more foresight than he ever has before in this situation, Batman dives into the river to ensure Thorne's capture and so the Crime Doctor is arrested (but is promised a return in Batman #18!)
~~~~
My Thoughts: The Crime Doctor is a Batman villain who has lasted through to the modern day, but still never managed to become anything more than a footnote character. His lasting claim to notoriety happened when he was retconned into being the brother of the much newer but more popular gangster character Rupert Thorne.
In modern interpretations Matthew Thorne is usually depicted one of two ways - either as a psychotic mudererous surgeon, the medical serial killer gruesomely doing away with his patients; or as a "crime doctor" in the more common sense of the term, which is a corrupt doctor who works for criminals to patch them up from wounds since they obviously cannot go to hospitals. It is in this second sense that he is usually connected to his mobster brother Rupert.
However Finger chooses neither of these, and in terms of actions he makes the Crime Doctor fairly standard -- what makes the story special is the way Thorne is depicted in terms of characterization. The Crime Doctor feels like a true member of the Rogues Gallery not just because he's a "theme" villain, but because of the unique focus Finger gives on his psychology. This focus is what has defined, and continues to define, the best of Batman's villains.
The Art: So the way things normally work is Kane does some flat, undefined pencils and then Roussos or Robinson comes in and give definition and texture to Kane's characters with inks and copious shadows. In this case, I feel like Roussos almost goes overboard. There are some really great dramatic panels and great noir-esque "lighting" but it really does go too far in some panels where Roussos has just drown the characters in ink to the point where I feel like he's just covering up Kane's flat art more than trying on purpose to be dramatic. That being said, several of the panels are very dynamic and cool looking, even if the design of the atom smasher building for the climax does look patently ridiculous.
The Story: In all honesty, the story in this issue is perfunctory. The whole idea of the Crime Doctor as a consulting criminal devising plots for lesser gangsters for a fee is one that has already been used with The Joker and The Penguin in the past and even goes back to Professor Moriarty. The plot with the Atom Smasher comes out of nowhere and doesn't seem motivated at all with what Thorne had been doing. No, what makes this issue golden is that none of this matters -- the jewel of the story is the centre section where Thorne's psychology is examined. The idea that he is compelled, that he can't help himself, that he simply feels good committing crimes, that it excites him, but that otherwise he's a moral, brilliant surgeon. Only even that goes down the drain -- we actually see Thorne's psychological unravelling over the course of the story, the way that his criminal impulses corrupt him: At the start of the tale he refuses to kill, midway through he'll kill if he needs to, and by the end he's blatantly murderous. It's a great series of subtle character details that give Thorne an arc, and show that Finger really put some effort into the characterization and psychology of his villains above and beyond the norm for Golden Age storytelling. The last time he was this good, however, was probably the Two-Face two-parter.
Notes and Trivia: First appearance of Matthew Thorne, the Crime Doctor and first appearance of Bat-tracers.
"Slay 'Em With Flowers"
Writer: Horace L. Gold
Artist: Jerry Robinson
Synopsis: The Joker and his men have taken over an old florists' shop, using it as a front for buglarizing wealthy patrons. The flowers are delivered, release a gas which knocks out the guards and inhabitants of the building, and then Joker and his men bust in wearing gas masks and steal the loot.
The cops can't figure how it's being done, so the Bat-Signal calls the Dynamic Duo to police headquarters, and the next day Bruce Wayne is taking Dick to a "flower show" based on a hunch from the case.
Of course the Joker and his men are robbing the place and so Batman and Robin appear for the fight -- but the gas gets them, and once unconscious the Joker's men place them in an elevator car and cut the cables (rather than just, y'know, shooting them).
The masked manhunters manage to wake up and hit the emergency stop lever in time, and escape. Batman recognizes there must be a connection between the gas and the flowers and does some detective work. Batman and Robin stake out the Florist shop, and then follow millionaire Percy Fillmore from the shop to his penthouse apartment.
They arrive in time to find the Joker's men robbing the place, but Joker shoots them in the face with gas. The crooks stick our heroes in a closet and run gas from the kitchen into the room to suffocate them. Once again they wake up in time, and bust out. Robin suggests raiding the flower shop, but Batman feels the Joker is keeping the loot at a second location.
So Bruce Wayne goes to the flower shop to set himself up as bait. Upon delivery of the flowers to Wayne Manor Bruce notes that the soil is rigged to release a spray of chloroform on a timer.
Alfred suggests fighting the Joker's men when they arrive, but Bruce explains that they must pretend they've been drugged otherwise the Joker and his men would surely kill them. Alfred, an upper crust British guy in 1943, doesn't understand a policy of non-resistance. Oh-ho, contemporary events joke!
After the Joker's gang robs Wayne Manor, the Batmobile follows them to a greenhouse on the outskirts of town, where our climatic fight scene begins. Joker holds up in the greenhouse, but Batman instructs Robin to wet their capes and wear them as gas masks while the Dark Knight pumps chloroform into the greenhouse air intake!
And so with the villains heavily drugged, the police are called and everyone sent to jail.
~~~~
My Thoughts: This is a basic Batman tale. Boilerplate stuff. Joker has a scheme involving robbing folks. He does it once successfully, once again fighting Batman, then the third time is the bait and switch ending with a chase and a climatic fight. This is formula. But "Slay 'Em With Flowers" is still a good read for a few reasons, even if as a Joker story it is uninspired.
The Art: The absolute best thing about this story is the art. Jerry Robinson hits it out of the park here, drawing in a dark, rough style that really feels noirish and pulpy. People's suits and baggy and get wrinkled. Joker is thin and wiry and his hair get messed up. Batman has a chin so big and square that it makes the art of George Freeman looked restrained. It's really lovely to look at and it's a big element making the story feel better than it is. For a long time Robinson was an unsung hero of Golden Age Batman (just like most everyone else), and it was great that before his death he finally got some recognition, even if it was usually accompanied by an exaggerated "creator of the Joker" title. Still more than anything Bill Finger got when he was alive.
The Story: That the story is so formulaic is mildly disappointing considering who is writing it -- H.L. Gold, the classic Golden Age science fiction author who transformed the genre with his magazine Galaxy Science Fiction in 1949. However those days of innovation are a few years away and in 1943 Gold was simply another stuggling sci-fi author making ends meet by slumming it in comics. That being said, Gold slums it quite well, following the formula, constructing the tale in a coherent manner, and wrapping it up nicely. It does the job and does it expertly, even if there's no real innovation on display here.
"The Robber Baron!"
Writer: Don Cameron
Pencils: Bob Kane
Inks: George Roussos
Synopsis: The Robber Baron is the leader of a group of thieves dressed like a nineteenth century aristocrat (top hat, monocle, white tie tuxedo and cape). His gang is based in an abadoned factory that is also a tall skyscraper and sports a medieval style tower on top with a cannon that launches a grappling hook! Then they travel by zipline to the building they shot the hook at! And somehow the cannon is powerful enough, the hook strong enough and the line long enough that it can stretch across several city blocks to it's target (somehow not hitting other buildings along the way, implying this abandoned factory is very tall).
So they do the zipline, rob places, zip back and somehow the GCPD is completely "baffled" and can't discover how these guys are getting in and out despite the fact that a huge skyscraper topped with a stone tower shooting grappling lines across city blocks that dudes are zipping around on is totally something you'd think someone would notice!
Meanwhile, at Wayne Manor, new butler Alfred is bringing lunch to Batman and Robin as they work out the problem of the Robber Baron in their criminology lab. Batman has figured out that they're using grappling hooks from marks left on the edge of the rooftops of the buildings robbed, and then drawn straight lines from the sites of the robberies and found the intersecting point - an abandoned brass factory by the waterfront (and the crooks' footprints had brass filings in them at the crime scenes!) Detective work, folks! See, was that so hard, Gotham Police?
The Batplane brings our heroes to the factory, where they surprise the Robber Baron and his men. Using the grappling hook they zip over to a nearby suspension bridge. Robin recklessly zips over, despite Batman's warning, and the crooks cut the line! The Boy Wonder falls into the Gotham River, and presumably drowns. So, now Batman's pissed.
So he flies over the to bridge with the Batplane and just starts decking dudes off the bridge into the river, presumably intending to kill them. But the Robber Baron proves his intelligence by just shooting Batman, who then also falls into the river.
The Robber Baron then climbs down to a speedboat he had waiting there just in case this happened, which he uses to pick up his men who are all not dead, as well as the Batman who is also not dead. The Baron plans to kill Batman in a more dramatic fashion.
Meanwhile, Alfred's been reading his "How to Be a Detective" book and decides to seek out suspicious persons down at the riverfront. He happens upon the Robber Baron's boat just as it comes ashore, of course, and notices they have the Batman prisoner, so the crooks take him prisoner too.
Back at their tower hideout, the Baron's plan is to fire the grappling hook at police headquarters, then hang the Batman from the line and zip his corpse right to the Commissioner! Gruesome!
However, Robin didn't die when he fell into the river (gee, really?) and when he came out of the drink he found the abandoned Batplane and flies it over to the Tower. He freaks the crooks into thinking that the police have surrounded them by speaking over the two-way radio link to Batman and with them distracted he pounces on them.
Freeing Batman and Alfred, the three of them beat up the crooks, and then send them tied up to Gordon over the zip-line!
~~~~
My Thoughts: The second story to feature Alfred, it's clear that it's going to take a bit of work to get his inclusion to feel natural, although for now it's just fun to have a new regular character around -- even if his "written" British accent is a little overbearing to read. "Pardon me, Mawster Bruce, but it is pawst your luncheon" and so on.
The Art: Not Jack Burnley's best, perhaps because Roussos is inking instead of his brother? It's still very good, but Roussos keeps it looking more like Kane Studio standard than the high quality Burnley can reach when let loose.
The Story: It's all right. The Robber Baron is basically a generic gangster type in fancy clothes, but seeing Batman do some detective work is great, and even if the "death of Robin" moment is an obvious cheat it's still cool to see the Dark Knight go to town on the crooks in his rage. Alfred gets to have some part in the story, even if he gets involved entirely through contrived coincedence. Honestly my biggest problem is the whole "grappling hook launched across city blocks" thing. I mean, it's sorta awesome on one hand, but I really have a hard time believing that none of the GCPD detectives figured that shit out or noticed it. It kinda strains credulity.
"Tweedledum and Tweedledee!"
Writer: Don Cameron
Artist: Jerry Robinson
Synopsis: Late at night a truck pulls up at a fur warehouse and a gang of crooks begins raiding the expensive furs. Their leader? An extremely creepy looking rotund man in a bowler hat and suit. Batman and Robin spot the robbery and show up to foil it, but during the fight they are caught in wolf traps (ouch!) and so the crooks get away.
After freeing themselves, the Dynamic Duo are back in the Batmobile when the police dispatch reports another robbery lead by a fat man at a jewelry store fifteen minutes away. How could the guy have gotten there so fast?
Once again they confront a batch of crooks, and this time the fat man is wearing a top hat and suit, but otherwise is identical. He zaps them with an electrified walking stick, and by the time Batman and Robin are up they've gotten away with the diamonds.
The next day, Bruce and Dick look into the identity of the fat man by visiting the "Fat Man's Emporium", the only fat clothing store of its kind in Gotham City (how times have changed!) and questions them about whether they have any fat twins as customers. Well, there are the Meeker brothers, but they hate each other (one's a Republican, the other a Democrat) but that's about it -- oh, there is the Tweed brothers: cousins who look so alike they are often mistaken for twins. They always have plenty of money!
Bruce and Dick canvas the Tweed household and after seeing the cousins Dumfree and Deever decide these are indeed their crooks, deciding to raid the place after dark. However the cousins have figured that Batman and Robin will be playing a visit, and rigged their house with deathtraps!
The Dynamic Duo burst through the skylight, as is their custom, only to find themselves ensnared in a net and facing Tweedledum and Tweedledee, accompanied by henchmen in March Hare and Mad Hatter costumes (with the Hatter also portrayed as a rabbit for some reason, looking much more like the White Rabbit character).
The Tweeds are able to keep the heroes subdued by firing an "electron gun" at them which paralyzes them! The crooks head off to the "Grand March", leaving the heroes frozen and alone.
Luckily, through sheer strength of will, Batman breaks free of the paralysis enough to toss his utility belt at the electron gun, "short circuiting" it and allowing them to break free.
The Grand March is a high society masquerade ball which the Tweeds hope to rob. However Batman and Robin surprise them there and trap them, taking down the gang and the cousins -- who can't even fit in a regular paddy wagon!
~~~~
My Thoughts: Tweedledum and Tweedledee are a pair of B-list Batman villains whom I've been aware of, but never really read a story about. I've read stories where they've appeared as cameo characters at Arkham Asylum or as henchmen to other villains (usually Joker or Mad Hatter, sometimes Two-Face) but I've never actually read a comic featuring them as primary adversaries until now. Interesting that they're so obscure and yet they debuted in the same period as many of the A-list rogues gallery. They're fairly creepy and effective in this opening story, but as with other interesting characters like Professor Radium or Scarecrow, it's less important how you debut and more about whether anyone's interested in you after that.
The Art: Jerry Robinson's pencils here are half of this story's effectiveness. Tweedledum and Tweedledee's designs are of course based on Tenniel's Through the Looking Glass illustrations, but they are much much creepier here. They are often drawn underlit, with bulbous noses, gleaming smiles and wide eyes that just make them very unsettling characters to look at, desite all the jokes about their size. Unfortunately Robinson's art here is very, very rough -- it looks like he just quickly inked his own rough pencils and then sent it in without really cleaning things up all that much. DC Database and The Batman Chronicles trade paperbacks give Bob Kane credit for pencils on this issue, and I usually trust their credits to sort out who did what in an era when the only official credit on the issue is Kane's signature, but none of the art in this story looks anything like Kane's style -- whereas Robinson's is all over it.
The Story: Cameron writes a very effective script -- it's very moody and dark in tone despite the potential silliness of the two new villains. The Tweeds are depicted as being very smart, mastermind style villains, and Cameron gives them really unsettling and creepy dialogue to match Robinson's art. It's very clear Cameron wanted to create a pair of recurring villains, given the ending where they are sent to prison and Robin wonders if they've seen the last of them. And in a way, he did -- while the Tweeds have never achieved the prominence of The Joker or Two-Face, they've still managed to stick around for quite a while simply on the strength of their visual I think.
Notes and Trivia: First appearance of Tweedledum and Tweedledee.
"The Scarecrow Returns"
Writer: Don Cameron
Pencils: Bob Kane
Inks: Jerry Robinson
Synopsis: Linda Page is taking Bruce Wayne on a date to a "hat show" because Bruce is always making fun of her ridiculous hats (to be fair, 1940s women's hat styles are really silly and Linda is always drawn wearing particularly awful ones).
But then the Scarecrow shows up to rob the place of all the... valuable... hats... Yes, the Scarecrow has escaped from prison and decided to rob a hat show because he wants Gothamites to be terrified of... small... words...
Anyways Bruce can't change into Batman with Linda around (secret identity and all that) -- so he stumbles around bumping into the Scarecrow's men and accidentally knocking them out. Eventually the Scarecrow pistol whips him and makes off with the goods, leaving a clue of a blackboard slate with the words "HAT" and "MAT" written on it in chalk.
Obviously the "HAT" refers to the most recent crime, and Bruce thinks that the "MAT" refers to an upcoming charity wrestling bout for which the proceeds are going to (what else) war bonds.
So Batman and Robin show up to guard the bout, and it turns out that Scarecrow's goons are actually both the wrestlers in the bout, and pull guns on the audience while Scarecrow steals from the cashiers. Everyone's incensed that Scarecrow would "steal from Uncle Sam", and the Dynamic Duo fights the wrestling goons and even save the money, but Scarecrow himself gets away again.
Another slate is left behind, and this time the clue is "VAT" and somehow Batman immediately deduces that this refers to the vats that clothes dyers use and also considers this so obvious a clue that it must be a trap laid by the Scarecrow. Well, considering that he's intentionally leaving you these clues, Batman, yeah I think that's a good bet.
So because it's that point in the story, when the Dynamic Duo shows up they're captured by the Scarecrow's men, tied up, and thrown in the vats while they are slowly filled with water, but not before Scarecrow tells them the next clue is "YAT" -- why are you giving him the next clue if your intent is for him to die? (And why not wait to make sure he drowns, or just shoot him, or...)
Anyways, turns out the "YAT" is Yat Sing, who runs a Chinese art store in Chinatown and is of course a big racial stereotype. Batman and Robin show up because OF COURSE they got out of the death-trap and OF COURSE they solved the clue (Yat Sing is the only Yat in the phonebook worth stealing from, you see).
So the Dynamic Duo beat up all Scarecrow's men and the Scarecrow himself and he's back to jail and THAT'S THAT. (Groan)
~~~~
My Thoughts: When I reviewed the first appearance of the Scarecrow, I remember being impressed by how unique the story was and the attention to detail and characterization that Bill Finger gave to developing and motivating this new villain in such a way that was psychologically convincing and felt new and fresh. I enjoyed that story, but I also knew intellectually that there was only one more appearance of the Scarecrow in the Golden Age before he'd disappear for two decades before resurfacing in the Silver Age. And I had wondered why that happened.
I don't, anymore.
The issue of creators' rights and corporate comics is a sticky one, and there are pros and cons to each side. On the one hand it's true that Batman would be a far weaker and far less known character today if the endless hordes of immensely talented writers and artists who worked on him hadn't have been able to. On the other hand, sometimes a writer picks up a character they did not create, and they clearly have no idea how to handle them.
And that can ruin a character.
The Art: Bob Kane and his studio handle things well enough. The Scarecrow looks like the Scarecrow, his unique appearance both in costume and out are retained as well as his gangly way of moving about. In many panels the characters are rendered very small in a large background space and Robinson's detailed inks become hard to discern. It's an overall trait of Kane's pencils and layouts.
The Story: The cover proclaims that the Scarecrow is back by "popular demand", and while I tend to believe that since it's been two years since he first showed up, I wonder why DC didn't wait for Finger to be ready to script Scarecrow's return himself, why they pawned it off on Don Cameron who clearly has no idea what to do with the character. In fact, Finger hasn't done a lot of scripts lately, last appearing in Detective two months ago, and another script of his won't appear in the book until July. My research hasn't turned up any explanation, but I conjecture that now that the Batman was a fairly established character and DC had a good number of other writers working on it, they didn't have to rely on Finger as much, who was notoriously bad at working to deadline.
But I wish they had. Cameron plops the Scarecrow into a dreadfully boring formula script. It reads like the formula from the Adam West TV show done straight. Nothing about it at all says Scarecrow, or retains anything about the character's methods and motivations. There are some token references to causing fear and terror in the character's dialogue, but it would just be the same fear and terror any criminal causes -- all he's doing is robbing stuff. And then leaving clues for Batman to find on purpose. Like the Joker does, like the Riddler will do, like every villain on that 60s TV show will do regardless of whether it's their MO or not.
Professor Jonathan Crane, Scarecrow's true identity, is not forgotten, but other than a few token lines referencing "psychological reactions" and "nervous breakdowns" his intellect seems to have dropped from college professor to grade school teacher. Chalkboard slates and crimes based around rhyming three letter words? Is this Batman or Blue's Clues?
This is a terrible story, nothing of note happens in it at all, and I'm convinced that it's complete misuse of the Scarecrow character, making him as boringly generic as any random gangster villain, was responsible for him falling by the wayside for twenty-four years.
Boy, I hated this story.
Notes and Trivia: Last appearance of the Scarecrow in the Golden Age of Comics.
"License for Larceny"
Writer: Joe Samachson
Pencils: Bob Kane
Inks: Jerry Robinson
Synopsis: J. Spencer Larson of Larson Inc. claims he can double your money in six months on a single investment. Bruce and Dick thinks this sounds fishy, so Bruce purchases shares with Larson to see what happens.
Unbeknownst to Bruce and Dick (but knownst to us), Larson is known in the criminal underworld as "Larry the Judge", notorious czar of crime!
He's been embezzling the money people have been investing for weeks, and using it to hire his own private army. Arriving at a popular gangster hideout, the Judge sics his men on the crooks and announces his position as the new crime kingpin. He points out to the crooks that they often commit robberies that net them very little gains because they don't know enough about who they're stealing from. From now on, all future robberies committed are going to be decided upon by the Judge, who will grant licences to rob to any who wish to pilfer - if crimes are committed without a licence, they answer to the judge and his stormtroopers.
And so this new form of crime takes hold of Gotham -- only licenced larceny takes place, and it's all very successful, with the Judge taking his cut of course. Those who step out of line are arrested by the Judge's goons, tried by the Judge himself and fined double the amount they looted!
Gas-Pipe Grogan wants a licence to rob a house, and the Judge sends him after Commissioner Gordon's place because "nobody'd imagine a crook would have the nerve to rob him!" Grogan's men arrive at Gordon's place and easily assault the old man, going after his wife's pearls. Luckily, Gordon had summoned Batman and Robin to his house to discuss the recent spat of robberies, and the Dynamic Duo shows up and thwarts Grogan's robbery in their usual violent fashion.
The three crimefighters discover one of the Judge's licences on Grogan, and Batman interrogates the men to try and discover what's going on, but none of them will talk. The next day, Bruce is called into Larson's office to collect his dividends -- Bruce is amazed he actually doubled his money in less than the allotted time! Bruce asks Larson how he does it, but the man is vague -- but in his identity as Larry the Judge he will now give a licence to his men to rob Bruce Wayne's house!
Arriving home late, Bruce and Dick are attacked by a crook named Iron-Jaw and his gang. To preserve their secret identities they allow themselves to be knocked out and the money stolen, but then soon are in hot pursuit in the Batplane. After catching up with the crooks and taking them down, they discover the licence to rob Bruce Wayne on Iron-Jaw's person, but still aren't sure how the crimes fit together.
Batman's interference has gone on long enough, so the Judge writes a licence out for murder... the murder of Batman! By committing a string of seemingly pointless break-ins where nothing is stolen, the Judge's men draw Batman out to investigate... it's a trap! Soon Batman and Robin are captured and tied up in the backseat of the Judge's car.
As they drive along the highway, however, they are stopped by the police! The crooks are arrested and the Dynamic Duo saved! Robin wonders how Batman alerted them, and it turns out during the earlier fight the Dark Knight tied his cloak over the back licence plate, obscuring it. And so the crook who handed out licences is stopped because he wasn't showing his.
As Larry is arrested, Batman recognizes him as J. Spencer Larson, and realizes that he raised his army with money from the investments, then gave crooks licences to steal the dividends, which is how he always knew which people to rob!
All of Larson Inc's ill-gotten gains are confiscated and given to charity.
~~~~
My Thoughts: A good one-off story with a unique gimmick and a structure that is fresh enough from the normal formula to be enjoyable. A good crime thriller that manages to be creative without going over-the-top.
The Art: Kane and Robinson deliver high-quality art here, with a very unique caricatured face for Larry the Judge. This story feels like an equal blend of their talents, with a dark shadowy mood that's perfect for the street crime based story.
The Story: This is Joe Samachson's first script for Batman. He'd been writing for DC for a year by this point, freelance, and before that had been a science fiction pulp magazine writer since 1938. Before that he was actually a professor of chemistry at the University of Illinois since 1929. In 1955 he'd cement himself in comic book history as the co-creator of the Martian Manhunter. So a highly educated man who became a writer of sci-fi and superheroes! Imagine that!
Either way, Samachson delivers a very good, very intelligent script here. Larry the Judge's scheme feels unique and original and also very clever, even if we've seen variations of it in other places. It actually seems like a great way to control the crime rate, although since the robberies are actually more successful you can see why it bothers the police so much. Seeing Batman and Robin work to uncover what's going on instead of easily figuring it out is a nice change of pace, as is Batman not being able to put all the pieces together until the very end, as opposed to the standard Bill Finger method of Batman having some clue up his ass that the reader never knew about. I enjoy his writing and hope we'll see more Samachson in the future.
Notes and Trivia: First mention of Commissioner Gordon having a wife, first time it's mentioned that Bruce Wayne donates considerable funds to charities.
"Crime a Day!"
Writer: Bill Finger
Pencils: Bob Kane
Inks: Jerry Robinson
Synopsis: Batman has agreed to give a daily series of lectures about crime fighting for the USO, and so come Monday crowds of Gothamites show up to watch Batman's lecture (can you imagine modern-day Batman doing something like this?).
Batman's opening lecture addresses the concept of clues, and he points out that the Joker is often undone by his egotism where he intentionally leaves clues daring Batman to stop him and these are often his undoing.
Batman's remarks hit the newspapers which are soon calling Joker an egotistical fool -- there's even an editorial cartoon lampooning him!
Well, of course, openly mocking the psychopathic muderous clown in your city is a good way to get a response, and so Joker crashes Batman's next lecture with some of those clues he's going on about: "Take a Bow - Sow the Seeds - Shed a Tear - Reap the Harvest". Joker plans to commit crimes based on clues Batman can't possibly figure in order to shame him into quitting. He'll commit a crime a day to match Batman's lecture a day.
Batman realizes that the "Harvest" refers to a painting of that name by a famous artist that's being displayed at a new art exhibit. The Dynamic Duo race over there, but Joker and his men are already there -- spraying the crowds with pepper spray while they make off with the goods (oh, and Joker takes a bow before doing so, so that all the clues work).
Joker and his men make off with the painting in an oil truck and while the Batmobile is in hot pursuit they easily shake it by pouring oil all over it and then lighting it on fire! Joker escapes whlie Batman has to ram the Batmobile into a fire hydrant to save Robin and himself (the car is wrecked, though).
Joker's daily crimes continue and he continues to make a fool out of Batman, until it is the Dark Knight who finds himself the subject of an editorial cartoon. At his lecture, he is hammered with questions about his inability to catch the Joker. The pressure is such that Batman actually does consider quitting crime fighting, until Robin sets him straight and restores his self-confidence.
Joker airdrops his newest clues on the Dynamic Duo: "Kill the Motor - Hang the Jury - Take the Rap". Batman and Robin think it must refer to a court or a trial at first until they realize that "rap" could also mean "wrap" (what) meaning a woman's wrap garment, meaning the beauty contest being judged tonight for which the prize is a fur wrap worth $15,000! (Almost $200,000 today!) This month's apophenia concluded, they race to the contest, where Joker has trapped the contest's jury in the elevator for which he has cut the power (hence the first two clues).
Our heroes save the jury, and Batman manages to catch up to Joker and capture him this time -- at his next lecture he displays Joker live in a cage and mocks him on stage (which seems like a questionable decision) and our story ends with a final editorial cartoon mocking the Joker.
~~~~
My Thoughts: We've really moved quickly from "Batman, Dark Avenger of the Night" into stories that would feel totally at home on the Adam West TV show, haven't we? Once again we have a Joker story that emphasizes that the Clown Prince of Crime is more into testing Batman than any kind of actual gain from his criminal exploits. The interesting thing about this issue is the way it frames their battles not as a private feud but as something that the whole city is an audience for, which makes sense. We only get rare hints occasionally in these Golden Age stories of how the average citizen reacts to Batman or his rogues, so this kind of story is fun for the new perspective it gives on our characters -- even if the idea of a publicly famous Batman who gives lectures for USO benefits is pretty unthinkable in a modern context.
The Art: Jerry Robinson is clearly doing a majority of the work here, contributing a lot of detail and dimension in his inks over Kane's rough pencils -- it appears to me that Kane is mostly doing figures, faces, and layouts while Robinson is fleshing them out. However the story also has a lot of really great black shadows and somehow the art all pulls together to give the story, ridiculous on the surface, an effective urban thriller feel that gives it the grandiosity of a classic Batman/Joker tale from this era. The mock editorial cartoons are also really well done and in a convincing imitation of the common style.
The Story: Bill Finger's scripts often meander, introducing an initial gimmick before quickly forgetting it in favour of big setpieces, but this story stays on track by keeping anchored to the crime/lecture a day, clues and editorial cartoons. Joker's clues are actually pretty clever this time around and the crimes and chases interesting and new -- by coming up with this exciting variations Finger avoids the feeling of repetition one sometimes gets when reading these stories one after another. The sight of the flaming Batmobile crashing into a fire hydrant is pretty amazing.
Notes and Trivia: Another Batmobile destroyed.
An absolutely spectacular cover from Jerry Robinson -- dynamic, pulpy, and it actually depicts a scene in the story! Fantastic!
"The Man Who Could Read Minds!"
Writer: Don Cameron
Pencils: Bob Kane
Inks: Jerry Robinson
Synopsis: Bruce and Dick attend a performance of Carlos, the Man who Can Read Minds! However, after the show Bruce explains to Dick that Carlos is a fake, and that his "mind-reading" is just a trick.
Late that evening, as he is driving home, Carlos gets into a terrible car accident. Rushed to hospital, only delicate brain surgery can save his life. But there is a power outage at the hospital! By the time the emergency lights are back on, the neurosurgeon can't be sure if his scalpel slipped somehow.
However, Carlos lives -- but through some strange comic book bullshit has been actually given the ability to read minds! He very quickly realizes that he could become a totally awesome criminal with this ability. Soon he's out robbing people's safes using combinations he's telepathized out of them, and when Batman and Robin try to stop him he's able to easily evade their attacks. He even threatens to reveal their secret identities if they try to stop him -- yes, he knows they are Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson!
Stymied, Bruce and Dick sit at home, when a bat flies through the window with a message! It's Carlos, taunting them with the knowledge that he's going to Miser's Isle to steal Old Pete Jorgen's buried treasure (wait, what?) and if they try to stop him he'll reveal their secret. But, since they are heroes, Bruce and Dick decide to go anyway, even if it means... the end of Batman and Robin!
They fly to the island in the Batplane and try to fight Carlos -- but, y'know, dude can read minds, so it's totally fruitless. He manages to knock out both Batman and Robin. He throws Robin in a bathysphere and drops him to the bottom of the ocean with the oxygen valve turned off, while Batman gets the standard trap-door-into-a-room-with-the-walls-closing-in dilemma (Carlos apparently had time to booby trap Old Pete's house before coming here?) Batman's able to get out of the trap because, y'know, this isn't his first time or anything, and when he gets out he finds Carlos questioning Old Pete behind bullet-proof glass. He's able to make it through the glass using his diamond studded platinum Bat-logo shaped police badge that we've never seen before and save Old Pete. He also knows where and how to save Robin too -- is it possible Batman is also a mind reader?
He dives into the sea to save Robin by cutting him out of the bathysphere with an acetylene torch (hence the cover image) but as they swim up to shore they are again confronted by Carlos -- but they are saved when Old Pete just straight up SHOOTS HIM. Guess that was one mind Carlos couldn't read? Or else bullets travel faster than thoughts.
Batman rigs a lighthouse to project a Bat-Signal to call the coast guard, but while that's happening a dying Carlos scrawls Batman is really Bruce Wayne into the sand of the beach. However by the time the coast guard gets there Carlos has died and the waves have luckily washed away the message.
Robin asks Batman how he knew where to rescue him, and Batman explains that he saw Carlos taunting Old Pete with the information through the glass, and while Carlos could read minds, he forgot Batman can read lips!
~~~~
My Thoughts: Don Cameron delivers a standard, but well told, entry in the "oh no, the secret identity!" genre, although I'm not sure how I feel about telepaths in the Batman world, but at least there's an attempt to make it plausible in medical science, however vague and ridiculous it is. It's no worse than alternate worlds and witches and so forth. Also -- diamond studded police badge?? Where did this come from?
The Art: Bob Kane's artwork isn't as good as Jerry Robinson's, but he's still got a talent for character design -- Carlos resembles Hugo Strange only with bushy eyebrows instead of the goatee and queer bottle-cap glasses. The climax at Miser's Isle takes up most of the issue and it's action and environs gives the artists a lot of fun elements to play with.
The Story: It's straightforward and gets from point A to B. There's nothing overly special about it, and it has a ton of old pulp clichés, and Carlos has no reason for turning evil other than "he can" (which is sometimes enough anyway) -- but all that being said there are no burgeoning plot holes, it's coherent and consistent, it's competent and there are few cheats (diamond Bat-badge, aside). So all in all I'm calling this a win for veteran writer Don Cameron.
Notes and Trivia: First appearance of Batman's diamond-studded platinum Bat-logo shapped police badge.
"The Harlequin's Hoax!"
Writer: Joseph Greene
Pencils: Bob Kane
Inks: Jerry Robinson
Synopsis: Four men in Gotham City receive some very strange packages from the Joker. Charles Saunders receives a radio with no loudspeaker, Mr. Fordney an automobile with only three wheels, Richard Morse gets a telescope with no lens, and finally Jim Brown gets a clock with no hour hand. Despite the seeming nonsensical uselessness of these "gifts", the men are all shocked and horrified -- there is some meaning behind the Joker's seemingly random "generosity".
Meanwhile Bruce Wayne is on a date with Linda Page at an amusement park -- but when they go on the "parachute drop" the ride gets stuck with them hanging in the air! An hour goes by and it still hasn't been fixed, and then the Bat-Signal blares into the night sky! What's a guy to do? Well, Bruce releases his safety belt, and pretends to "fall" and then catch a cable and slide down it. Playing "shaken" he hurriedly leaves the amusement park, and Linda still stuck in the air. Responding to the call of duty? 1. Not being a dick to your date? 0.
At HQ, Gordon fills him in on the Joker's latest mad antics, and Batman (reasonably by this point) assumes there must be a pattern and a larger scheme at work here. But what??
That night, Joker easily robs a department store -- the alarms were all turned off, leading Batman to think it must have been an inside job. And what a coincedence -- Saunders works at the same department store! With that in mind, when Joker attempts to rob a camera store where Fordney is a superintendant - Batman and Robin are there to meet him! A quick fight later and they've actually caught him! Tied up in the back of the car, ready to be taken to the police! What the heck? There's still six pages left in this comic!
Well, Joker ignites a flashbulb making Batman think they've popped a tire (really, Batman?) and when the Dark Knight stops to take a look at it Joker manages to get away. It may be the most down-to-earth and yet somehow ridiculous Joker escape yet.
Anyways, Batman decides to check on his hunch of what connects the men with the gifts and quickly finds himself proven right. Saunders is deaf in one ear, Fordney has a wooden leg, Morse a glass eye, and Brown an artificial hand -- just like the radio with no speaker, the car missing a wheel, the telescope with no lens and the clock with no hand. Turns out the four men had been in an accidental explosion in another city which caused their injuries and lead to the death of two other men. They had been implicated in the deaths and acquitted, but the scandal had forced them to leave and set up shop in Gotham. Joker somehow found out and has been blackmailing them.
A flash on the radio reveals Morse has given into the Joker's demands, but Brown promises Batman he will go to the police. At that moment, Joker and his men burst into Brown's home. They overpower the heroes and handcuff them to the radiator, leaving them to die with a time bomb about to go off (of all the hackneyed things!)
Brown manages to get out of the handcuffs since, ya know, one of his hands is fake (weird that Joker would forget about that) and throws the bomb out the window. He lets Batman know that Joker is headed to an aircraft manufacturing plant.
There, Joker is going to steal the diamonds the plant uses for it's precision drilling and cutting. Batman and Robin show up to stop the theft, culminating in a dramatic battle in and around the assembly line of the plant! But at the end of the line are the finished planes and surprise surprise Joker uses one to escape! The End.
Wait, what?
~~~~
My Thoughts: Another formulaic Joker story, although quite competently handled by Greene. The most interesting element is the wartime references -- Joker stealing cameras because they aren't being made anymore and thus valuable, Batman won't drive on a popped tire because it would ruin rubber that's in short supply, Joker raiding an fighter plane manufacturing plant, etc.
The Art: Absolutely nothing special at all here, in fact a little subpar, until we get to the chase through the factory, an unfortunately truncated two-page sequence that is awesome in its scope and superbly drawn (perhaps traced or otherwise based heavily on photoreference).
The Story: Greene handles the Joker formula better than in his last few appearances -- the random acts of mischief at the top are actually important throughout the whole story, the bigger crimes are consistent and build on each other, the clues actually progress and make sense, etc. It's nothing special really, just competent writing, but unfortunately competent writing reads like a breath of fresh air sometimes in Golden Age comics. What Greene gets right here is that Joker's scheme only seems crazy at the start, but is completely reasonable once we have all the facts.
Here we have Two-Face's first cover appearance and it is just an awesome cover from Jerry Robinson (and Bob Kane). It doesn't actually depict an event in the story, but it's pretty damn cool regardless.
"The Man Who Led a Double Life"
Writer: Bill Finger
Pencils: Bob Kane
Inks: Jerry Robinson
Synopsis: We begin where we left off in August's issue,with Two-Face's coin standing on edge in a crack in the floor after Batman asked him to flip between turning himself in and continuing his life of crime. As we return, Two-Face puts the coin back in his pocket and leaves the matter undecided, because he never flips twice on the same decision, so now fate must decide.
And at that moment an overeager policeman bursts in trying to save the Batman and shoots Two-Face in the chest. Batman admonishes the rookiee for his hastiness as Two-Face dives out a window to freedom. The bullet stuck the coin in his pocket and so he wasn't injured (I am almost sure that wouldn't work in real life) and because it struck the scarred side Two-Face takes that as his decision -- to continue his life of crime!
He gets another gang together and resumes his coin-flipping crimes. The coin comes up clean, they rob a doubles tennis match in the daytime and give the loot away to charity. The coin comes up scarred, and under the cover of night Henry Logan, the "match king", is kidnapped!
The Bat-signal blazes in the sky and soon the Dynamic Duo are accompanying Commissioner Gordon to Logan's home, which is filled with match-stick models of the Eiffel Tower, great ocean liners, etc. Turns out Logan was not kidnapped, but rather his double was, who he hires to attend social functions so that he can remain with his hobby.
Soon, Two-Face calls with the ransom instructions, Logan must meet him at an abandoned barn to receive the double, no tricks. That night at the barn, Two-Face turns the double over, who is embraced by his wife. Except the double has no wife! Logan and the wife remove their disguises to reveal Batman and Robin, and BAM fight scene!
Two-Face makes off on a motorcycle (a two-wheeled vehicle aha, aha, aha), with Batman in pursuit. Two Face manages to knock Batman out by throwing his coin at his face (jeez, really, Batman?) -- but he cannot bring himself to murder a man who was once his friend, and so lets him leave. Two-Face begins to feel regret over his life of crime.
Batman and Robin return the double safely to Logan.
The next night, Two-Face finds himself wishing he could return to his fiancée, Gilda, and live an ordinary life as a couple. And so the next day a car drives up to Gilda's house carrying Harvey Kent, his faced completely normal and handsome once more! Harvey and Gilda have a tearful reunion, with Harvey explaining that a miracle of plastic surgery healed his face but that she mustn't touch as the flesh is still raw. That night, they share a candlelight dinner, but sometime goes horribly wrong -- the heat from the candles melts the wax make-up over the left side of Harvey's face, revealing that he is indeed still the hideous Two-Face! Desperate, vulnerable and afraid, Harvey tries to explain his deception to Gilda when The Batman bursts in the door!
Harvey is convinced that Gilda was merely lying about loving him, and this had all been a trap set by Batman, and he escapes before Gilda can explain she had nothing to do with it! Turns out Batman had figured Harvey would return to Gilda sooner or later and had been watching the house. Now Harvey thinks Gilda betrayed him and will never trust her again.
Harvey returns to the mask and make-up shop that supplied him with the wax mask, and blames them for its failure under heat. Two-Face and his men therefore set the shop aflame. After it has burned down, the mask-maker laments that he has lost his livelihood, while his young son vows revenge.
Two-Face's gang takes on a new member, "Getaway" George, a driver from Chicago, but Two-Face is afraid it may be the Batman in disguise. He flips on it and decides to give George a chance. Their next job is robbing the policemen vs. firemen charity baseball game, which of course Batman and Robin are playing in as honorary policemen (which seems really unfair and bizarre and I'd be pissed if I was a regular cop, but whatever).
Two-Face shows up to steal the $50,000 receipts, but Robin is ready for him and attacks his men. Cornered, Two-Face takes the mayor hostage until he can make it to the getaway car. George gets him back to the hideout but Two-Face is convinced that someone must have tipped off the Batman, and that George must be the Batman under make-up. However, some face smearing later it is revealed that George is actually the mask-maker's son (duh), who then used his inside position to tip off the Dynamic Duo! Batman bursts in and knocks out Two-Face!
Captured, Two-Face is brought to jail, remarking on the irony of being double-crossed by one of his own men. Batman believes his double life is over, now he is merely Harvey Kent, Prisoner, but Two-Face declares there are two sides to every story, and that Batman can bet he'll escape, double or nothing!
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My Thoughts: The second half of the Two-Face story continues the high quality of storytelling of part one by and large. Some of the actual crimes and incidents are a little repetitive but Finger clearly loves doing the double/two gimmick crimes and coming up with him, and the scenes between Two-Face and Gilda really break things up and add way more depth to the story than we almost ever get in a Batman comic. Two-Face has only two appearances thus far but already he's a way more developed character than Joker, Penguin, or Catwoman (or heck, even Gordon, really). There's just a lot of great subtle moments like the villain's regret for his lifestyle and his unwillingness to kill his former friend and so on and so forth that make it clear how unique and interesting Two-Face is as a character even in the Golden Age. These are good comics, people.
The Art: Good work from Kane and Robinson here. I just love the way Kane draws Two-Face, it's fantastic, and the art really helps sell the drama in a lot of places. Two-Face was more or less Kane's invention and you can tell he really enjoyed drawing the character. He's definitely the most Chester Gould-esque villain so far in a Rogues Gallery that is very much inspired by Gould's Dick Tracy. (Eventually a Two-Face rip-off character named Haf-and-Haf would appear in that comic strip in 1966, so you know you've made it when the guy you're most inspired by starts ripping you off!) Probably the best moment in the story is when Harvey's make-up melts off. Great horror.
The Story: Once again I'm amazed by how much Finger fits into thirteen pages without feeling rushed at all. We wrap up the cliffhanger, establish Two-Face's new schemes, kidnapping the double, the interlude with Gilda, the mask-maker and son, the final heist and the come-uppance. These could all be their own issues today, yet they all feel like they have their space to breath and the variety makes a short story feel longer. Finger clearly is inspired writing Two-Face, just as Kane is drawing him. My only caveat is that Finger begins to lose sight a bit of Harvey doing good when the coin comes up clean (although we still see him giving to charity) and we also lose some of the cool playing off Harvey's status as former D.A. that we got last issue (for example now that Harvey's in jail I'd love to see what his trial is like!). But that's okay, because the tortured, two-faced nature of the character is definitely still intact. This original take on Two-Face and how he works is still, after all these years, among the best, most complex, and most satisfying. Here's to Finger and Kane!
Notes and Trivia: Two-Face captured and placed in jail,
Here we have the first cover appearance of The Penguin, advertising this issue's featured story, which is in no way a follow-up to last month's nail-biting Two-Face cliffhanger.
And yes, it is perfectly reasonable to be upset about a bizarre publishing decision from seventy years ago.
"Crime's Early Bird"
Writer: Bill Finger
Pencils: Bob Kane
Inks: Jerry Robinson
Synopsis: Chinese showman Sing Hi Lo (oh, Jesus) has a troupe of "educated" performing birds. The parrot can do sums, the jackdaws can manipulate fine objects, etc. So of course the Penguin attacks the theatre, steals the birds, and despite an attempt by Batman and Robin the crooks make off with the... birds. Sing complains that the Dynamic Duo let the "lobbers" escape, because what's the 1940s without offensive ethnic caricatures?
The Penguin, in the hilarious obvious guise of "Mr. Waddle", opens up a pet shop in a fashionable neighbourhood. He sells the parrot to a jewel collector named Mr. Gemly (c'mon, seriously?) along with some special parrot food and when Gemly is opening his safe at home the parrot overhears the combination and begins repeating it (as parrots do). The food ends up getting the parrot sick and "Mr. Waddle" is called in to look at the bird. The parrot squawks out the combination, and once he's heard it Penguin gasses the whole room, killing Gemly and the bird! Then he uses a homing pigeon to take the bag of swag back to the lair. Because the gas was designed to imitate the effects of psittacosis (parrot fever), the deaths of Gemly and the bird aren't even pinned on him!
Bruce reads about the murder/robbery in the paper and instantly suspects Penguin. The next day he and Dick follow the crook around town (seriously, he's a wanted criminal, how is he not being arrested on sight? He's pretty damn distinctive looking). They follow him into a jewelry shop, but he doesn't steal anything. Turns out he released some jackdaws surreptiously into the store, which steal all the gems, returning them to the Penguin!
Batman and Robin burst in on Penguin's lair and beat up the crooks, but the main bird makes off riding an ostrich! Batman and Robin recover the goods from a pelican's beak (this is seriously getting to some Flintstones level insanity) and Batman very loudly drops clues about Bruce Wayne's jewel collection as the crooks run off. Because it's a trap, see.
When Penguin steals Wayne's jewels (we don't actually see this happen), Batman and Robin follow his homing pigeons in the Batplane back to his penthouse apartment! The box of loot is full of bats when Penguin opens it, but when the heroes try to take advantage of the situation the Penguin gasses them with sneeze powder and ties them up, leaving an actual penguin to stand guard (!!) while he "finishes up" an "experiment in the laboratory". And Batman manages to escape by getting the penguin to fetch him The Penguin's cigarette lighter to burn through the ropes!!
To avoid iminent capture, Penguin flings himself out of a window, and of course Batman and Robin chase after, surviving even when Penguin cuts their line! They end up fighting in a belltower, with the flying bats Batman brought disorienting the Penguin. However, with a whistle he calls in his trained fighting eagles, and while the Dynamic Duo are battling them, he escapes and runs off. The End. Because I guess we ran out of pages?
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My Thoughts: This is, more or less, THE Penguin story. I mean, it absolutely establishes the formula for all future lazy Penguin stories. It's the character's fourth appearance, but this is the default. Pet shop lair, crazy collection of trained crime birds, jewel thievery, this is classic Penguin here.
On the other hand, it's also classic Batman. I mean, this thing reads like the Adam West show done straight. The goofy names and aliases, the goofier crimes, traps and escapes. I mean this is, absolutely, a "default Batman comic" -- it's what you imagine when you think of an "average Batman adventure". With seventy years of hindsight that ends up making it kind've an average, almost dull, and kind've ridiculous comic to read. But that hindsight also means that this thing should be regarded as brilliant in the way it totally sets the mold for basically every Penguin/Batman story to come until the character finally lost his way in the Post-Crisis world where aside from a few good turns here and there it seems no one knows what to do with him.
It also represents an unfortunate turning point in Batman villains that the Joker is also going through in stories from this time -- now that these villains are established and constantly recurring, the focus has fallen far more on their gimmicks and patterns rather than anything interesting about their characters and how they relate to Batman and his world. It's gonna get pretty repetitive from here on out, until the Bronze Age renaissance way off in 1969.
The Art: I have mentioned this before, but I love the way Bob Kane draws Penguin. I think it's best design for the character, because it merges Penguin caricature and deformity with the idea and notion that he considers himself a dapper gentleman criminal. The way the nose is always held up high, etc. Most of the fights and action here are well done too, but in large part also suffer from Kane's stiff cardboard layouts and his tendency to cram too many figures into way too small panels.
The Story: As stated earlier, Finger has hit upon a gimmick for the Penguin that will last a long time -- using crazy birds to commit crazier crimes. That image of Penguin riding an ostrich, for example, we'll be seeing iterations of that for years to come. I like the notion of Penguin being a clever crook, however, interested in heists and interested in jewels. It's not a personal battle like with the Joker -- Penguin sees Batman and Robin as nuisances. He's just not clever enough to shoot them with he has a chance (like many comic book villains). Some of the incidents and escapes are a little bit contrived and ridiculous and the character names had me rolling my eyes, but it's a comic book for kids from 1942. I don't expect sophistication, and I'll take this over the stupidity of stories like "The North Pole Crimes" any day. My only complaint is really the ending, where Batman chases Penguin, then he gets away, he chases him again, he gets away again, and then it ends. Why not continue the chase? Oh, cuz we're on page 13. While it makes Penguin a neat villain in a way because so far Batman's never caught him, it's also starting to get repetitive and undermine Batman as a hero, similar to the repetitive "is he dead this time?" endings of many Joker stories.
Notes and Trivia: First time Penguin uses trained birds to commit crimes, first Penguin cover appearance
Penguin Body Count: 3
