"The Batman's Biographer"
Writer: Don Cameron
Pencils: Bob Kane
Inks: Jerry Robinson and George Roussos
Synopsis: B. Boswell Browne is a little old man who is nonetheless very popular with the children of Gotham City as he is a veritable font of knowledge about Batman and Robin!
Bruce and Dick overhear him entertaining some children in the park with tales of the Dynamic Duo, and Browne ends up inviting the two to his home where he has assembled a collection of facts and artifacts about Batman, in hopes of one day writing a definitive biography of the hero. However Browne feels he can never properly complete the book unless he actually meets and talks to Batman and Robin. Bruce and Dick feel like this could happen sooner than the old man thinks, *wink* *wink*!
Meanwhile, Batman and Robin have been tracking a criminal called "The Conjurer", who uses tricks and illusions to distract potential witnesses while he commits robberies. However Batman sees through their tricks and so the Conjurer and his gang are forced to abandon their loot.
The Conjurer realizes he must find a way to outsmart the Batman, and having heard of Browne he decides to press him into his service -- knowing so much about the Batman he must know of a way to defeat him.
Pretending to be a reporter for the "Evening News", the Conjurer milks Browne's knowledge of Batman's cases for ideas on how to outwit and capture the Dynamic Duo. At his next robbery, the Conjurer manages to outwit Batman into targeting the wrong building and then as they escape the crooks delay Batman and Robin with nets made of chicken wire!
However Batman recognizes this as an old tactic of the Penguin's and realizes the Conjurer has been doing some research. Our heroes decide to pay a visit to their "biographer", who realizes his has accidentally aided a criminal against his idols and falls into a deep attack of guilt.
After Batman and Robin leave, the Conjurer returns and now threatens to kill Browne unless he continues to help the criminals. Browne doesn't want to betray his heroes, but at the end of the day he's just a regular old man who doesn't want to die.
Browne helps the Conjurer develop an ingenious plot to steal a collection of art treasures from an auction (a plot so ingenious that it requires the comic to stop and post a diagram for the readers to understand it!) Browne's contribution to the plan is the idea to put an unlocked parked car with the engine running right by the villains' getaway that Batman and Robin will commandeer to chase after them, but rig the engine with a bomb.
However, when the crooks make their actual getaway, Browne himself gets in the rigged car, and uses it to run the crooks' getaway trucks off the road so that Batman and Robin can catch up and arrest them. Browne keeps driving the car until it's far enough away to not hurt anyone, intending to sacrifice his life heroically to make up for his past misdeeds, but Batman rescues him from the car just before it explodes.
Days later, Browne finishes his biography of Batman, which Batman himself writes the preface for -- and everyone lives happily ever after. (Except the Conjurer presumably)
~~~~
My Thoughts: A decent enough little story that is definitely in the "stories about other people featuring Batman" genre. It reminds me of the story about the druggist from Batman #14 in that it's also about crooks taking advantage of a kind hearted old man.
The Art: The full Kane Studio team of Kane/Robinson/Roussos is on this one and as such the art looks very polished. There are the usual bevy of swiped poses of course but nothing to complain about.
The Story: In a more modern context it may be interesting to compare the fictional character of "Batman's Biographer" with his real world biographers of Bill Finger and Bob Kane, but there really is no subtext or metaphor in the story to allow for any such metatextual analysis. What is fun is the number of accurate continuity references the Browne character makes to actual past Batman adventures. That kind of attention to detail is always appreciated, particularly in a Golden Age comic.
"The Penguin Goes A-Hunting!"
Writer: Don Cameron
Pencils: Jack Burnley
Inks: Ray Burnley
Synopsis: The last time we saw the Penguin, Batman had finally captured him and he had been sentenced to death for double homicide. As this story opens we suddenly learn that Penguin escaped from prison a month ago, in some awkward expositional dialogue as Bruce and Dick attend a lecture from prison Warden Keyes on criminology. As it so happens, the Penguin's immense ego and vanity persuades him to attend the same lecture!
Keyes describes Joker, Scarecrow, and Catwoman as topping the city's most wanted list, causing Penguin to become incensed and ask what the warden thinks of him, who replies that he feels the Penguin has no imagination and is a one-trick gimmick who relies too much on his umbrellas.
However the Penguin is recognized by some police officers in the audience who move to arrest him, but the crafty crook beats a hasty escape and manages to make it out alive, but with his dignity bruised. He decides to rob a sports equipment store and begin using some new techniques to replace his umbrellas to prove he's not a one-trick criminal.
And so the next day, almost a million dollars in bills and bonds are stolen out of various windows in the Gotham financial district by the Penguin using a fishing rod out the window of his penthouse hideout!
In the Penguin's next crime, he robs a mansion full of rich folk by shooting a gas pellet into the living room using a big game rifle! When the Dynamic Duo attempt to track the fiend down, his men overpower and capture them, and they awake tied up in the Penguin's penthouse.
The Penguin proceeds to unleash a pair of vicious trained hunting dogs on the two crimefighters and then leave to go rob a hunters convention rather than wait two minutes to make sure the dogs kill them.
Batman manages to stop the dogs' vicious behaviour by appealing to the innate bond between all dogs and men by using a gentle persuasive voice to break through the Penguin's abuse of the animals.
The Penguin arrives at the hunting convention riding trained show jumping horses allowing them to break in and out quickly despite obstacles and traffic jams. However Batman and Robin show up, take out two of Penguin's men (leaving them for the police) and follow Penguin himself down the streets of Gotham in a horse chase with the abused dogs now chasing Penguin and leading the Dynamic Duo!
They end up cornering Penguin at an outdoor cafe, where Batman knocks over all the open table umbrellas, trapping the fiendish criminal. Thus, after abandoning umbrellas, the Penguin is done in by them!
As the Penguin is arrested and sent back to prison, it is revealed that the Batman told the warden to badmouth the crook in his lectures, in order to goad the Penguin into overreaching himself, as the Dark Knight knows his enemy's greatest weakness is his vanity!
~~~~
My Thoughts: This is a fantastic Penguin story by Don Cameron, an amazing examination of the villain's character considering the age of this comic. Nowadays the Penguin is often reduced to being a joke Batman villains, mocked for his cheap and corny gimmicks, so it's incredible to see a comic addressing this mockery head on in 1943, in the character's sixth story!
And unlike a modern comic which might, upon deciding the Penguin is corny and needs reinventing, this issue doesn't completely throw the character under the bus or misunderstand him. Instead, it turns out to be a near-perfect analysis of his character and what makes him tick! Fantastic.
The Art: The Burnley bros really deliver here, with smooth clean linework, excellent blacks and shading, fluid action, and good expression. It's fun to see the Penguin in alternate costumes (fisherman, big game hunter, English gentleman, etc) but perhaps the coolest visual of all is Batman and Robin riding horses through Gotham traffic -- although maybe that's just because of my fanboy brain associating it with The Dark Knight Returns.
The Story: Really topnotch writing from Don Cameron, in managing to balance telling an action packed and typically wacky Golden Age superhero story with a simple premise -- Penguin trades his umbrella gimmick in for a sports equipment gimmick - and yet still have something new and unique to say about this character, keep things true to the established personalities and yet also comment on the Penguin and his place as a member of Batman's Rogues Gallery. (And hey, I'd be incensed too if I was ranked below the Scarecrow -- dude's only appeared in two stories!)
"Rogue's Pageant"
Writer: Don Cameron
Pencils: Jack Burnley
Inks: Ray Burnley
Synopsis: Alfred has insisted that Bruce and Dick take a vacation, and forbids them from bringing their Batman and Robin outfits -- this has Bruce and Dick incensed, but they still promise Alfred.
After hopping in the car, Bruce and Dick both reveal to each other they've been wearing extra suits under their clothes, because after all the whole point of this "vacation" is actually to do some crimefighting in Santo Pablo, "one of the oldest cities in the Southwest."
Flashback time: On a previous night, the Dynamic Duo foiled a bank robbery by "Ducky" Mallard's gang. However, the gang managed to escape and it's only by interrogating a stool pigeon that Batman and Robin learn they are headed for Santo Pablo, hence the vacation!
Arriving in the town, they discover it is celebrating the occasion of its 300th birthday!
The townsfolk are all dressed up in period costumes and the museum is displaying gold nuggets from the finds that made the town's fortune in the early days. So of course the gold is stolen.
With all the commotion in town it would have been easy for the crooks to escape, but Bruce is convinced they are still in Santo Pablo, and so the two take a look around the next day. At the city bank, the festivities continue with a reinactment of an old fashioned bank robbery. However, when the "actors" playing the crooks show up, it turns out they're real crooks and they rob the bank, escaping easily because the cops think it's all part of the show!
By this point Batman has determined the crooks are indeed Ducky Mallard's crew and also decided that the natural egotism of the criminal means that they won't leave early with their swag but instead stick around until that evening - the height of the festivities! With this in mind, Batman hatches a plan with the Santo Pable Police Department.
That evening is the big parade (an evening parade?) with everyone dressed up as "Indians", Spanish conquistadors, pioneers, etc. and Batman and Robin hiding in a belltower observing everything.
At this moment Ducky's gang sets off a series of dynamite explosions in several buildings around the parade area, in order to cause a panic big enough to distract everyone from their robberies. Because as Die Hard movies have taught us, acts of terrorism are always the best cover to larceny.
What the crooks didn't count on, however, is that the police department is wise to their plan and surrounding them dressed in parade costumes! Using special flashlight Bat-signals Batman has given them, they signal for the heroes in the trouble spots, and a quick fight scene later the crooks are in jail and the town is giving Batman and Robin their own spot in the parade!
When they return to Wayne Manor, Bruce and Dick think they have Alfred fooled, but news travels fast and the butler has already read of their exploits in the newspaper (which isn't surprising considering that would be a two-day trip with no breaks by car). Alfred simply demands that they take him with them the next time they leave on a crime-fighting trip!
~~~~
My Thoughts: This is yet another "Batman and Robin go somewhere, not Gotham" type story, and like so many of them it focuses on a town with a "pioneer" theme. I don't really like these stories, I don't see the appeal of putting Batman in these small towns that are always drawn like Wild West movie backlot sets regardless of where they are supposed to be or how modern.
The most uncomfortable aspect of this story for a modern reader is the glorification and nostalgic view of America's genocidal past. The town's parades paints pioneers and conquistadors alike as romantic heroes, and while a lot of time is also given to the "Indians", they are equally painted with a romanticized view that ignores the crimes done to their people.
Granted, none of this comes across as malicious in the comic, it's very much "of the time", it's just a little cringe inducing from a modern standpoint.
The Art: Another Burnley Bros. story here, but the art's only just okay. Nothing stands out about it, indeed it's all very generic. The "Indians" of Santo Pablo are drawn like Iroquois warriors instead of a more Southwestern tribe like the Kumeyaay. The town itself looks exceptionally generic and blocky, instead of appearing with interesting local architecture like one might find in San Diego or Los Angeles. Honestly it all renders the story itself kind've forgettable and almost negates the point of taking Batman and Robin to a different locale.
The Story: It's a real yawner, too. There are crooks, they're stealing stuff. They dress up to fool us, we dress up to fool them. They're caught. The end. What should have made this generic plot special is the unique setting, but it really ends up adding nothing at all. You could plop anybody into this story and it'd have the same exact feel.
"The Adventure of the Vitamin Vandals!"
Writer: Joe Greene
Pencils: Bob Kane
Inks: Jerry Robinson
Synopsis: Jenny Jones is a fishing vessel off the California coast on the hunt for soupfin sharks, also known as school sharks, because their livers are rich in vitamin A and is thus in desperate need by the United States Army for supply to soldiers fighting overseas (and this is entirely true). The sharks bring in $1,500 a ton (about $19,600 today) so this is good fishing -- but there's a problem.
A gang of crooks called the Phantom Raiders have been attacking fishing boats. When the fog rises up they appear out of nowhere, not having boarded the ships or stowed aboard. But regardless of where they come from the result is the same - the sharks are stolen and the sailors left with nothing, and the Raiders gone as mysteriously as they arrived.
Luckily, Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson are in the area, vacationing at Malibu Beach! (Wait, weren't they just on vacation? In, like, the same area?)
Anyways, they hear about the mysteries Raiders and decide the best plan of action is to join the crew of the Jenny as seamen! Meanwhile, the fish brokers are now offering $2,000 a ton for soupfin sharks because of the shortage!
After some decent hard shark-catching labour for Bruce and Dick, the Raiders appear again - with Batman noticing that a crewman named Lefty seemed to signal something with his lantern before they did.
A customary fight with the crooks leads Batman to discover a rope ladder leading up into the clouds. Climbing it reveals -- a blimp! That's how the Raiders get in and out unseen! However a fight on the blimp results in the Dynamic Duo being thrown out of the blimp and falling a fatal distance into the water of the Pacific, where they of course survive because this is a comic book.
So having fallen into the Pacific there is only one possible outcome now, which if of course that Batman fights a shark. He stabs it with a knife until it's dead, as is his standard method for dealing with sharks.
Rescued by a passing patrol ship thanks to a portable Bat-signal, the Duo beat the Jenny to port, where they follow Lefty to the crooks' hideout - a large abandoned warehouse by the docks (y'know, like every other comic book hood).
Turns out the blimp docks in the warehouse and the roof opens up every night when the fog lifts. Batman and Robin stow away on the blimp and then spring into action when it attacks the Jenny... AGAIN (seriously, the same ship every time?) This time fish broker Gibbons is onboard to ensure a safe haul, but the Raiders attack anyway.
So of course Batman tackles Gibbons, who is of course behind the Raiders. The deal was to steal the fish and cause a crisis to drive prices up, then sell the fish to the government himself without having to pay back any of the fishermen. Pure fraud and war profiteering at its finest.
With the case closed, Bruce and Dick return to their lazy beach vacation.
~~~~
My Thoughts: "Adventure of the Vitamin Vandals" is kind've a lousy title for this story when something like "Case of the Phantom Raiders" would be so much more evocative. Other than that this is a much better example of "travelling Batman" than the previous story, and I am kinda perplexed that they put two stories of Batman going to the West Coast and fighting bad guys right next to each other in the same issue, especially when one is so lame and the other at least has cool blimp and shark stuff in it.
The Art: Decent work from Kane and Robinson. Nothing too special, but the shadows are really moody and the stuff with the blimp and the shark looks cool and the crooks are appropriately shady looking.
The Story: This story falls into the category of those inspired by the writer reading some odd fact somewhere. Bill Finger came up with a lot of his tales by basing them around little bits of trivia, but it's Joe Greene delivering this story. It is in fact true that soupfin sharks were harvasted for their vitamin A rich livers during WWII for supply to the US Army -- in fact the sharks were overhunted and today remain a vulnerable species.
The gag with the blimp is actually really clever because until that point it really is a total mystery as to how the Phantom Raiders operate, but once the blimp is introduced it seems so plausible. And of course there's the eternal cool factors of blimps. The ideal Golden Age Batman story for me features blimps, fights with sharks, an urban noir setting and shady crooks -- this story hits at least 3/4.
Number of Times Batman Has Fought a Shark: 2
"The Case Batman Failed to Solve!!!"
Writer: Don Cameron
Artist: Jerry Robinson
Synopsis: A gathering of the world's greatest detectives is to be held in New York City at the behest of the great Dana Drye. Invited are "Sir John" of Scotland Yard, America's greatest "country" detective Sheriff Ezra Plunkett (who seems to live in one of those Old West towns Bill Finger seems convinced still exist west of the Appalachians), Grace Seers (a *gasp* woman!), Dr. Tsu the great Chinese (racial stereotype) detective of San Francisco, and finally of course the Batman and Robin (invitation delivered by way of Commissioner Gordon).
Batman exposits to Robin that Dana Drye is the "dean of detectives", greatest of them all and so on, and so the Dynamic Duo is greatly honoured to attend and meet all the other stereotype detectives.
Dana Drye, a very old man, comes out to address the group to announce his retirement... and is promptly shot and killed. The detectives all rush to the window but find that the building there in is on the river, so no one could have fired the shot... it's a mystery! Rather than notify the authorities, Batman suggests they all compete to discover the murderer and meet back at midnight (rather confident of their abilities, aren't they?)
Right away they see someone running from the scene of the crime and chase after him -- they would've gotten him too, but Dr. Tsu trips them and lets the man get away so that Tsu can question him instead himself (because he's a treacherous Chinaman, you see).
Grace approaches the Dynamic Duo and lets them in on her theory that clothes are the essential clue to solving crimes (because she's a woman, you see), and tells Batman the clue that Drye's pockets were empty, which Batman is convinced is utterly essential to solving the mystery.
Finally, Sir John reveals he's taking Drye's body to the crime lab to be examined because science is the only way to solve a murder (thank you!), while Sheriff Anachronism explains that he believes all he has to sit and think on it because common sense is all you need for detective work (because he's a time traveler from 1888, you see).
Batman and Robin head to Drye's apartment (drawn as a house) to follow up the vital "HIS POCKETS WERE EMPTY" clue, but upon arrival end up fighting a bunch of crooks who were searching the apartment for... something. Batman tries to indicate to Robin to let them go so they can follow them back to their superiors but Robin can't take a hint because he's eight, so they all end up unconscious and Batman is left to pick up the pieces when he notices that a weapon is missing from a display shield that fell down from the wall. The crooks already got what they were looking for!
They head off to police headquarters but none of the detectives there can identify the missing weapon. Sir John rushes out of the crime lab to inform Batman that the bullet that killed Drye is perfectly smooth, with no rifling marks of any kind. Batman identifies it as an old musket ball -- but why would the killer use such an out of date weapon?
Then Ms Seers runs into them again, informing them that she discovered that Drye's suit was made by a tailor who specializes in making suits for magicians! At that moment, some gangsters show up and start a big fight!
They capture the heroes because it's that point in the story, bringing them to their boss, the notorious Red Rip. Rip explains that Drye had a lifetime of evidence on him that he never turned over to the cops, because Drye solved crimes just for the fun of it. Rip's men were searching Drye's place for where he kept the evidence, not the missing weapon, meaning they didn't take it!
Dr. Tsu rescues them from the crooks, and informs them that the missing weapon was Drye's antique flintlock pistol. There's a fight scene where the criminals are defeated, and then the Sheriff tells Batman that he found an odd mark on the windowsill of the window the shot was fired through.
Batman then goes to search the bottom of the river for the final piece of the puzzle, which he finds. Now he can explain everything to Robin:
"We all assumed it was murder... it was not! It was suicide! Drye knew he was to die shortly of an incurable malady, so he staged this mystery to baffle us all, hoping we'd never be able to solve it!"
Drye had set the flintlock on the windowsill, because the powder could be ignited by heat from the sun after being set long enough, then the recoil would knock the gun off the windowsill, leaving no murder weapon. The evidence of Rip's crimes was in a box attached the to gun, weighing it down. Drye used a magician's suit with secret pockets to smuggle the apparatus into the room.
Then Batman and Robin discovers Drye's diary amid his papers, which reveal that Drye had figured out that BATMAN IS REALLY BRUCE WAYNE way back in 1940 (presumably because it was obvious within a year of his first appearance!) and chosen not to reveal it to the world out of respect for Batman's wishes.
With this in mind, Batman decides not to reveal the truth of Drye's suicide either, and so when midnight comes the world's greatest detectives all just collectively give up on solving a murder because they failed to do so by an arbitrary and somewhat ridiculously short deadline.
~~~~
My Thoughts: "The Case Batman 'Failed' to Solve" is a good entry in the "Batman-as-a-detective" genre, stories which are always a good change of pace from "Batman-as-a-sentient-pair-of-fists" stories. But while I like Detective Batman, he's not very well serviced by the 13-page stories of the Golden Age, often resulting in resolutions that come out of nowhere. But at least this time the guys remembered to include clues.
The Art: Jerry Robinson's artwork in this story may, may, be the best art ever featured in a Batman comic up to this point. It's not the moodiest, it lacks the noir shadows of a Roussos inked story, and it also lacks the peculiar drama Kane brings to things, but on a purely technical level it is just gorgeous to behold compared to everything that's come before. Figures actually look somewhat three-dimensional, Batman and Robin's faces no longer appear to be cardboard cut-outs, individual faces are well defined and individualistically drawn. The draftsmanship here is just amazing, a real cut above everything we've seen so far, even the work of Jack Burnley (although it does admittedly lack Burnley's sense of drama).
The Story: Cameron's script is a step above Finger's usual efforts in that it's almost possible to figure out the mystery on your own with the clues given (although how did Batman deduce that Drye had an incurable illness?), however it's biggest problem is that it's too busy. There are a ton of characters and subplots and clues introduced over the course of the story and it makes the whole thing feel very fractured and haphazard. It doesn't help that all of the other detectives are rather hack stereotypes (and what was the point of the Old West Sheriff character?). The entire gangster subplot is very tacked on and obviously just there to give us some action because we couldn't possibly have a Batman story without at least two fight scenes, right?? That being said, I won't knock Cameron too hard because at the end of the day this is a good story that holds up and even competence of story structure is impressive sometimes in the Golden Age of Comics.
"Prescription for Happiness!"
Writer: Don Cameron
Pencils: Bob Kane
Inks: Jerry Robinson
Synopsis: Doc Chalmers is a pharmacist on Gotham's Lower East Side who is basically the nicest guy ever. He gives candy to children, free medication to poor people, offers kind words to the beat cop who comes in for foot powder, tries to keep the fat balding guy's self-esteem up, refuses to give steroids to the down-on-his-luck prize-fighter who just needs to believe in himself, gives advice to the young doctor trying to build his practice, etc. etc.
One day a woman comes to his shop wanting prussic acid (hydrogen cyanide) so she can kill herself. Chalmers takes her to his young doctor friend for help with her "hysteria". Meanwhile, across the street a gangster named "Pills" Mattson is conducting a robbery.
Batman and Robin show up to fight him and his gang but during the brawl "Pills" is banged on the head and an explosion knocks dust into Batman's eyes, allowing the crooks to get away (no, really).
"Pills" is something of a hypochondriac and demands they stop at a pharmacy so he can get some aspirin for his head, and of course they end up at Doc Chalmer's. They end up taking Chalmers, the young doctor, and the girl hostage and decide to use the place as their new base. But then BATMAN shows up there as well, to get his eyes cleaned out! In a tense moment, Chalmers helps the Batman while he cannot dare reveal that he's got gangsters and a hostage situation going on in the back! The Dynamic Duo leaves, Robin eating some liquorice and making the odd remark that he hasn't had candy like this since he was a kid -- Dick, you're eight years old!
Anyways, the crooks use the druggist's as a base of operations, getting their messages out to their men in pill bottles, which the men have to steal from the people they are normally prescribed to in a uselessly convoluted scheme. This series of bizarre crimes in the Lower East Side make Batman realize they are operating out of Chalmer's shop, and he goes in to investigate alone -- and is promptly chloroformed and tied up for his troubles.
Dick realizes Bruce has been gone too long, and decides to investigate by getting a job at the store as a soda fountain boy. He manages to smuggle some tubes of toothpaste to Batman in the back, and the Dark Knight manages to cut through his bonds with the jagged edge of the toothpaste tube!
A fight breaks out, but the whole neighbourhood hears it and soon enough Batman and Robin are being assisted by the prize-fighter, the beat cop, etc. and all the crooks are defeated. The beat cop gets a promotion to a car so no more foot pain, the prize-fighter gets his self-confidence back, the doctor gets a new nurse and girlfriend in the person of the troubled young girl, and the crooks go to jail.
Unfortunately Doc Chalmer's shop was smashed up good in the fight and he doesn't have enough money to cover the damages. But with the encouragement of the Batman, the neighbourhood bands together to help not only cover the damages but actually improve the shop so it's better than ever (even though Bruce Wayne could probably have paid for it all himself without much trouble).
~~~~
My Thoughts: Another street-level, man-of-the-people, average-joe morality play type story of the kind that Bill Finger is a big fan of telling. It comes off well even if Chalmers is a little too saintly to be believeable and most of the story relies on a whole ton of coincedences. I find it amusing how revered the local druggist is here, with a pill or a tonic for every problem, since I've been playing Red Dead Redemption lately, where medical science is not nearly as well thought of.
The Art: Robinson's inks do a lot of good here, but you can tell this is Kane's work. Batman and Robin are back to their 2D selves, Chalmers looks like every old man Kane has ever drawn, etc. None of this is bad, and Robinson's inks keep the quality pretty high, with good detailing in the panels, but it's a noticeable step down from the previous story.
The Story: Another Don Cameron script! It's a pretty standard story, the most notable thing being the bizarre choice of focus for a comic book (what ten year old cares about his local pharmacist?) and the story's rather coincedence driven nature. That being said, Cameron keeps things admirably focused and on track, with the story developing fairly naturally and moving from A to B in a way that, while predictable, at least makes sense.
"Swastika Over the White House!"
Writer: Don Cameron
Pencils: Jack Burnley
Inks: Ray Burnley
Synopsis: Young Fred Hopper is trying to get a job as a newsreel cameraman at the Gotham City newsreel company. The chief, Mr. McCoy, will only give him a job if he can get footage of the reclusive millionaire J. Peerless Morton. The other cameramen at the company take a liking to Fred and help him get the footage, and so he gets the job. The successful company's next assignment is taking footage of war production factories, footage which of course will be properly censored by the war department before appearing in newsreels.
But what the others don't know is that young Fred Hopper is in actuality young Fritz Hoffner, a Nazi spy taking his orders from a spy ring led by Count Felix (of course the German nobility had been abolished in 1919) and operating out of an antique store (they have a swastika shaped chandelier!) Anyways, this whole thing was a set-up so that Fritz could take photos of the US war production unhampered -- he will have a secret spy camera within his main camera and the footage it takes won't be censored.
However Count Felix is no fool -- he also realizes that Batman and Robin must be dealt with, and so when the Dynamic Duo happens to arrive the next day at the newsreel company to do some footage for the war bond campaign the Count springs a drive-by shooting on them! It is, of course, unsuccessful, but even though our heroes capture the Nazi would-be assassins, they refuse to talk.
Suspicious, Batman decides to begin shadowing the newsreel men, while Fritz begins to bring the first of his espionage footage to his superiors. They decide to attack the factory, but Batman decides to patrol it the same night, and so the Nazis engage in battle with the Dynamic Duo who realize that "Fred" is a spy.
The Nazis bind the Duo and stick them in a car loaded with explosives and send them to crash into the gasoline tanks, but in typical serial cliff-hanger fashion even though it appears that the car does explode, Batman and Robin in fact get out just in the nick of time by using the cigarette lighter to cut their bonds.
They follow Hoffner to the antique shop, and beat up all the Nazis (even using the swastika chandelier for the old "spin and kick" routine). Using maps and records found in the hideout tey are also able to arrest scores of other spies throughout the country.
~~~~
My Thoughts: We're almost a year into full-fledged involvement in WWII for the US, but aside from some patriotic covers we've seen very little war-related storytelling in Batman. This is in fact the first story to involve Nazis as villains since the US entered the war. In some ways this is a good thing -- Batman fights crime in Gotham City, not ideological socio-political conflicts on a global scale, but given how easily the Nazis become comic book villains (see contemporary issues of Wonder Woman for example) it's still somewhat surprising that the book has been as restrained as it has been to this point. Although I still wonder why Bruce isn't serving overseas (other than the fact that it would be difficult to fight crime in Gotham otherwise, but why hasn't he been drafted?).
The Art: Jack Burnley delivers some really great stuff here, almost attempting photorealism, or as close to it as you can get while still having to be consistent to the cartooning style of Bob Kane. The inks by his brother Ray are absolute fantastic, lending great noiresque shadowy blacks to everyone's faces. Just about everything in the story looks dynamite except Batman and Robin themselves, oddly enough, who retain their Bob Kane style two-dimensionality. That being said, the Burnley art is good enough on the whole that it's always a treat.
The Story: It's a pretty standard "heroes defeat Nazi spy ring" story from Cameron, but the newsreel cameraman angle feels new and adds interest. Most of the schemes make sense and the action setpieces are fairly exciting. The title is a little misleading though -- I mean yes "swastikas over the White House" is the eventual Nazi game plan but it's not a good indication of what's actually going on in this story.
"Bargains in Banditry!"
Writer: Don Cameron
Pencils: Jack Burnley
Inks: Ray Burnley
Synopsis: It's a Penguin story, and this time the old buzzard has a doozy of a plan. He's offering "bargains in crime" -- he's selling criminal plots. Come to him, pay him a fee upfront and he develops a fool-proof plan for bankrobbing, kidnapping, etc. and gives it to you, collecting a percentage of profits after the fact as well. It's a brilliant scheme, in fact it's the smartest thing Penguin has done so far and one of the smartest things any Batman villain has done to this point. Penguin sells a bankrobbing plan to Hairless Harry and Torchy Blaze, and soon his business is picking up quite well.
The bank robbery goes just as planned, but when Harry and Torchy arrive at their hideout they find Penguin waiting for them -- he wants his cut. And this is when Penguin's brilliant scheme goes stupid because he shoots both men with an umbrella gun and takes the entire loot. Penguin thinks this is smart but how is he gonna keep this scam going once it gets out he's murdering his customers and stealing from them?
Anyways Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson are going to the bank to buy a few more thousands of dollars worth of war bonds but when they arrive they find it's the bank that was robbed. The next day the murder of the two gangsters is in the paper and Bruce pieces together what happened. They head to Grand Boulevard in the Batplane, "where the big jewelry stores are located", and where Batman is sure some of Penguin's dupes are sure to strike.
Sure enough, Slippery Elmer and his gang are looting a jewelry store and while they immediately surrender, Batman and Robin beat them up anyways -- confirming my longheld belief that Batman is in crime-fighting more for the physical violence than the values of justice. Elmer gets away, but the Dynamic Duo follow him in the Batplane to his hideout -- where Penguin is waiting to kill him!! Batman and Robin show up but Penguin catches them all in a chickenwire net and escapes!
The next day, Bruce and Dick have freed themselves and delivered Elmer to the police off-panel, when Bruce decides that the best way to draw Penguin out is to start a rival crime planning company. And so, dressed in his best "Nick-Fury-on-an-off-day" cosplay, Bruce sets up shop as "Bad News" Brewster and begins selling plans to crooks. Dick thinks he's gone nuts until it's obvious that all the plans lead the crooks straight into police traps -- which, again, how do you keep the business going once word of that gets out?
Anyways, Penguin challenges Brewster and gives an address to meet him at. Batman and Robin show up... and are instantly trapped in a giant umbrella that realizes crazy knock-out gas (it's seriously like something right out of the 60s TV show, amazing). Turns out Penguin figured things out because "Bad News" sounds like "Batman"... wait, what?
Penguin ties the two up seperately and starts throwing darts at Batman's head but Robin manages to break loose and take penguin down with one of his own umbrellas. FINALLY the Dynamic Duo capture the Penguin and bring him to jail, where he is promptly sentenced to death for the murders of those two crooks earlier in the story. The End. Wait... what?
~~~~
My Thoughts: I really enjoyed this story because for once the plot of the criminal was something pretty intelligent and made sense and wasn't just about gimmicks. Batman's counterplot was pretty clever too. Of course Penguin gets too greedy and this is his undoing, but that element of the tale actually seemed like a lost opportunity, for reasons I'll get to in a minute. Also, this is the first Penguin tale to end with Batman actually capturing the crook, as he's always escaped at the end of previous stories, but the sudden announcement of his death sentence seemed very extreme -- granted, all it really means is that if no one uses the Penguin after this then at least Batman finally caught the guy and brought him to justice, while if they want to use him again then it's easy to just right him as escaping (Spoiler alert: Penguin totally appears agan!)
The Art: Not quite up to the usual Burnley standard, but still really good. It basically just looks like A-game Bob Kane, which is what it's supposed to look like anyway, but I must admit I don't think Burnley draws the characters created by Kane as well as everyone else. Which is to say that his "normal" people look fantastic but his Penguin lacks something (Kane draws a really good Penguin) and his Dynamic Duo always come off as cheap copies. I can't put my finger on it. It's not bad, in fact technically speaking it's probably much better than Kane, but it lacks something somehow.
The Story: Cheers to Don Cameron for coming up with something unique for Penguin to do that still feels totally in keeping with his character -- in fact this kind of "brains over brawn, third party crime" stuff feels very much like the Modern Age version of the character, or at least it would if the Modern Age version was ever done right. However I wish Cameron would have realized that crooks would have turned against Penguin themselves once they realized what he was up to -- a story where Batman and Robin actually teamed up with disenfranchised crooks to take down the cheating Penguin would have been really cool. Alas, instead we got a tale whose climax is essentially right on the money for the kind of thing Adam West and co. would parody twenty years later -- ridiculous, but kind've awesome at the same time.
Notes and Trivia: Penguin jailed for the first time, sentenced to death.
Penguin Body Count: 5
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?
~~~~
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
Another classic cover from artist Fred Ray.
"The Joker's Advertising Campaign"
Writer: Bill Finger
Pencils: Bob Kane
Inks: Jerry Robinson
Synopsis: The Joker is once again free from prison, and to advertise his return to Batman, he appears as himself at an amateur comedy night doing an impression of himself. Bruce and Dick hear the news on the radio while doing some practice sparring, while Joker decides to base his entire crime spree this time around on the idea of advertising his crimes (doesn't he always do that?)
And so the Joker pays for an ad in the Gotham Gazette (hey, it's publicity! - the editor) informing Batman to check the Want Ads section every day for clues to his upcoming crimes.
Bruce can spot nothing suspicious in the section, but Batman and Robin go on patrol anyway hoping to stumble across something, which they do of course. An entire street clogged with hansom cabs, horse-drawn carriages, old automobiles and other slow-moving vehicles of the early part of the century! Nearby, the Joker robs a jewelry store, the police can't make chase because of the traffic jam of ancient, slow vehicles! As the Joker takes off in a horse-drawn carriage, Batman and Robin commandeer a tandem bicycle and make chase, but after a clever pursuit the Joker escapes in a subway car.
Examining the Want Ads in retrospect, Batman discovers a fake ad the Joker had planted for owners of antique vehicles to show up at that address to audition for a "gay 90s" motion picture. Again, they don't notice anything strange in the next day's ads, but a want ad for extra police to protect a show of Presto the Magician is actually a plant of the Joker's! Bruce goes to the show, invites Linda Page, and instructs Dick to come and relay any message to him if Linda phones (yeesh, I know they didn't have cell phones, but there isn't a telephone in the lobby or something? Dick has to go all the way from Wayne Manor into downtown Gotham to relay a message?)
When Dick arrives at the theatre, he overhears that Presto's publicity agent wasn't the one to place the ad, and begins to suspect the Joker. While Bruce, watching the show, hears Presto's laugh when he's about the perform a trick and decides that Presto is the Joker himself and jumps on stage in costume as Batman! Following Presto/Joker into the Magician's cabinet, Batman falls down a trapdoor and is captured along with the rea magician while Joker makes off with... jewelry... from... someone? Why not kill the Batman? Joker finds the game of wits between them too amusing to end it.
However Robin manages to follow the Joker and his goons into the hidden system of catacombs and aqueducts under the theatre, because Bill Finger thinks every theatrehouse is built like the Opéra de Paris. While Joker and his men take a gondola because that's what Lon Chaney did, while Robin swims behind using an old pipe to breath. However, despite his best efforts, Robin is captured as well, with the Joker announcing that he has always considered the Boy Wonder an annoyance and is now going to kill him.
However he chooses a remarkably roundabout way of doing so -- tying Robin up in a room with some piles of sulphur, setting the sulphur aflame, and leaving Robin to suffocate. It's so roundabout in fact that the Boy Wonder manages to contact Batman via radio, explain his situation, and be successfully rescued.
However sulphur inhalation, even if it isn't fatal, doesn't do wonders for you, and do Dick is laid up in bed and Bruce is right pissed at the Joker's assault. He figures out the Joker's next Want Ad clue (asking for two painters to work on a billboard by another jewelry store), and shows up at the right location to just beat the crap out of the Joker.
Later, a police report on the radio explains that the badly beatened Joker was found lying unconscious on the court steps and taken to a prison hospital, while Bruce and Dick laugh about the awesomeness of unnecessary force.
~~~~
My Thoughts: Continuing the evolution of the Joker from Detective #64, although not meshing well with continuity, we see the Joker's schemes focusing more and more on the battle of wits with Batman. The actual goals here, stealing some jewels, are pretty petty and low-grade and the Harlequin of Hate doesn't cause much mayhem either -- no the real point is now testing his criminal mind against the Bat's. This is further emphasized by the fact that he lets Batman live when he has him cornered, but decides to kill Robin -- because two's company, three's a crowd after all. The idea that Joker sees the battle as between him and the Dark Knight alone, with the sidekicks as simply interference, is one that has continued until the present day in Scott Snyder's recent Death of the Family storyline.
The Art: Good stuff, particularly the Joker character art and the catacombs sequences. Excellent and clever chases and action scenes as well. At this point Kane/Robinson have settled into a comfortable professionalism that only bears remarking upon in unusual cases.
The Story: While Joker's scheme is pretty low-key, what makes Finger's script interesting is the character interaction. We open with Bruce and Dick boxing, practicing their skills, always a good way to show that being the Dynamic Duo takes work and effort. We get a sense of their relationship and friendship, especially Bruce's anger over Dick's near death experience (although if you don't want Robin to die, perhaps don't take a ten-year-old crimefighting?). We also get a new sense of how Joker regards his foes.Learning how the characters feel about each other makes a fairly standard "set of three crimes, chases in between, nab him at the end" structure feel like it has something newer and more interesting to offer.
Joker Body Count: 45
"Payment in Full"
Writer: Bill Finger
Pencils: Bob Kane
Inks: Jerry Robinson
Synopsis: Batman and Robin drop in on the hideout of wanted gangster, Joe Dolan. After a two-page fight scene he's nabbed and the heroes take him to the police. But Dolan keeps rambling that he'll be fine because he has an in with the District Attorney. Turns out he's right - DA Benson knew Dolan when they were kids and Dolan saved Benson's life! Benson feels in debted to Dolan and says he'd rather resign than prosecute! But Batman strongarms him into staying on as DA and gives him the night to think over prosecuting Dolan -- but the Dark Knight is confident Benson will do the right thing and send his friend up river.
In a flashback, we learn that Benson was a bookworm as a kid and Dolan the tough athletic type and that one day Dolan saved Benson from being run over by a truck. Bneson swore to pay him back and from that day on they were friends, with Dolan standing up to the bullies who would pick on Benson. However as they grew up they grew apart -- Dolan becoming a thug and a bank robber and Benson studying hard and becoming a sucessful lawyer.
In the present day, Dolan breaks out from jail and goes on the lam. Batman confronts Bneson, who promises to prosecute if Batman brings Dolan in. Benson believes Dolan may be hiding out in their old neighbourhood and offers to lead the Dynamic Duo to him. Thanks to Benson, they find Dolan's hideout, but Dolan is in full Paul-Muni-at-the-end-of-Scarface mode and shoots his way out with dual pistols. Benson is shot, but insists on chasing after Dolan with Batman and Robin.
The hunters and their prey both commandeer cars and begin a chase through the streets of Gotham. Desperate and cornered, Dolan jumps off a bridge into the river, but he can't swim. Benson still feels in debted to Dolan from when they were kids and jumps in to rescue him. But even then Dolan, who is just red hot crazy now, tries to kill Benson only to be stopped by Batman.
Dolan goes to state prison, while Benson is nominated to run for governor! After some platitudes about two people and the road not taken, we get our moral about how crime rots good people from within.
~~~~
My Thoughts: Another entry in Finger's Urban Crime Gangster Morality Play genre, with similarities to Scarface and Public Enemy and all those other great Pre-Code gangster movies that Finger loves to rip-off. These stories also fel a lot like the 1940s Warner Bros urban crime dramas that inspired a lot of the tone of the1992 Batman animated series. Speaking of which, this story reminded me a lot of the episode "It's Never Too Late" which explored a mobster and his brother, a priest. It's a good story, well, told, despite it's derivative nature.
The Art: Kane and Robinson do really good character work here. Benson and Dolan are both distinct characters, not just generic figures. The best work is when Dolan goes mad with paranoia, his lips and eyes going red with hate. It really successfully evokes the charged madness of Paul Muni in Scarface. Good stuff.
The Story: By this point, I must admit, the Finger Crime Morality Play is getting pretty rote. But it's important to remember that comic book readership, for a long time, was considered to have a five-year turnover rate, meaning that after five years you had a completely different audience than the one you started with. Granted, the Batman stories have only been at this for three years. Anyways, Finger still does a good job with this one, with the two men nicely contrasted and the theme of what can make a decent kid turn out bad nicely explored. Even if Finger has told this story before, he still tells it well. It's also worth nothing that this is another one of those stories where Batman and Robin are more or less deuterotagonists, witnesses to someone else's story.
"Bandits in Toyland"
Writer: Edmond Hamilton
Pencils: Bob Kane
Inks: Jerry Robinson
Synopsis: Bruce and Dick are reading news headlines about a rash of crimes in which toys have been stolen from children, possibly by big time gangster "Muscles" Malone. But why? No time for that, because Bruce Wayne gets a jury duty summons! Dick volunteers to check out the toy robberies, but Bruce tells him not to because he has to study for an exam (Dick still goes to school? Cripes!). Hey, who wants to bet the two unrelated stories become the same story by the end?
In court, the case Bruce is serving on is of one Tom Willard who is accused of stealing $200,000 of jewels from his employers, Thompson's Luxury Shop. However Bruce is convinced Tom didn't do it because he's handsome and has a nice wife, and besides it would take a crack team of jewel thieves to pull off something like that! And then Bruce spots some members f Muscle Malone's crew in the audience, so that cinches for Bruce that Willard has been framed.
So now Bruce is playing the Henry Fonda role in 12 Angry Men, hanging the jury and trapping them in a hotel over night. But of course Bruce isn't one for proper procedure and sneaks out as Batman to investigate the crime.
Meanwhile Robin has been tailing Malone's men himself, and bursts in on them stealing another toy from another rich kid. He's quickly Boy Hostage'd, but before Malone's men can do much with him Batman bursts in, as he was also following Malone's men. Batman frees Robin but the crooks get the toy and get away.
They follow them to the next target, which is the house of an old woman who collects a ton of toys, and while they get away, Batman confirms a hunch when the old woman tells him she bought the toy at Thompson's. Next house is the toy collection of a really aggravating spoiled rich kid with a huge toy collection. Finger has some fun with a two page fight scene using all the toys as props.
Finally Batman cracks the case -- Henry Burton, store manager, stole the gems and then hid them in toys that Malone's men were to buy off him. But they bought the wrong ones and so had to go around restealing the gems in the toys. Willard was framed of course. Which only kinda makes sense by whatever.
Anyways, Willard is cleared of all charges and reunited with his pretty wife, leaving Bruce to remark that Justice may be blindfolded, but she isn't blind! Which is a terrible moral.
~~~~
My Thoughts: This story was written by Edmond Hamilton, one of the great early pulp sci-fi writers. He was a regular contributor to Weird Tales in the 1920's and 30's, and one of the primary developers of the space opera genre. But by the 1940s he had fallen on hard times financially, and so here we find him slumming for DC. And frankly from a guy with his resume, this is some pretty weak stuff.
The Art: Decent stuff from the team, you can tell they're having fun with all the props the story is giving them. But nothing particularly special going on here. Not bad, but standard.
The Story: Yeesh, it's just so rote. From the innocent man framed unjustly, to the smuggling plot. The toys are kinda interesting, but that smacks of a writer saying "I'm writing for kids... what do kids care about? Toys!" It's just not very well put together. Very disappointing.
"Four Birds of a Feather"
Writer: Bill Finger
Pencils: Bob Kane
Inks: Jerry Robinson
Synopsis: So it's Winter in Gotham city (isn't this a summer issue??), and the Penguin is still on the run from his last appearance in Detective #59, and he bumps into three other crooks who are also on the run from the law and headed down south to Florida to get in on the gambling racket. They are all bird themed as well, with the inexplicably green skinned Crow, the Buzzard and a femme fatale called Canary. So Penguin joins them and they head south to stay out of the range of Batman. An oh man, this is really contrived already isn't it?
So of course Bruce and Dick decide to take a vacation to Hawaii. On their yacht, Bruce spots a young woman being attacked by an octopus. Which... okay... sure. So he changes into Batman and then dives off the yacht into the water to save her. I'm sorry, but you know you don't need to be in costume to help people, right Bruce? Would probably have been better for your secret identity to dive off Bruce Wayne's yacht as Bruce, not Batman.
Anyways, the girl he saves turns out to be Canary, who alerts Buzzard and Penguin to the danger. Penguin decides to press ahead anyways and so their gambling establishment The Bird House opens! The catch is that it's a totally honest establishment, no crookery and or cheating -- except that big winners tend to get robbed. Which... how does that make sense as a scheme? Anyways, of course Bruce ends up there and wins big, and Buzzard asks him for his address fo their "records" but Bruce recognizes all four crooks and phones Dick at the hotel to warn himt hat they probably plan to rob them.
So Batman and Robin ambush the crooks, they fight, they escapse, and the Dynamic Duo follow them back to the Bird House and listen in to Penguin's new scheme (??) to fix a speedboat race. So Batman does his usual thing and chokes out Penguin's racer and replaces him, wearing full Batman outfit, and wins the race, which... I don't think...
Anyways, Batman and Robin chase after Penguin's car with Batman still driving the speedboat (!) and Robin riding a surfboard being pulled behind, and then... somehow... Robin... falls off or something and Penguin... captures him between panels?? Or something?
Batman starts beating up Buzzard at the Bird House to reveal where Penguin has taken Robin, and he squeals but then Canary tells Batman it's a trap, so Buzzard shoots Batman twice, but he shrugs it off and runs off to rescue Robin.
And now it's like the finale of Key Largo because hurricanes are the one Florida stereotype we haven't done yet and Batman has to brave the winds to make it to the hideout, where he beats up Crow and rescues Robin but the Penguin beats feet again. The hurricane winds pick up and so to survive Batman ties himself and Robin to a tree all night and did I mention the guy has two bullets in him?
Canary picks them up and since all the hospitals are busy with hurricane casualties (not to mention Batman being a vigilante with no legal identity), Canary performs the surgery to get the bullets out herself! Robin breaks in on Penguin at the Bird House, where he's gathering his money to fly the coop. Robin beats him up and takes him to Batman, who has made a full recovery thanks to Canary, who is gonna quit the rackets and become a nurse just like Florence (groan) Nightingale!
Then Penguin manages to slip away and escape the heroes AGAIN, and we end with a pun about how Robin is a bird too.
~~~~
My Thoughts: Ugh. This thing is a mess. It's basically the Joker's story from Batman #5, with the Penguin instead. Same deal with the group of crooks all named on a theme, the gambling scheme, and the girl who starts a crook but falls for Batman and reforms. But that story was really good, where as this is just a mess. And while it's nice to see Penguin quickly joining the small ranks of recurring Batman villains (Joker every damn month is starting to get tiresome, variety is nice), copying a Joker story for the Penguin just isn't the way to do it.
The Art: Oh man, it's OK, but jeez it's lazy. Joe Crow looks like Jonathan Crane with green skin -- and WHY DOES HE HAVE GREEN SKIN??? It's totally never addressed. No one even remarks on it. Some sequences are okay, but then the entire Boy Hostage even in this one is lost in the cracks between panels. It's totally confusing and not well done at all. I mean the quality of the art is standard Kane/Robinson, but their storytelling with the art just plain sucks here.
The Story: Finger is really lazy here too. What elements aren't outright stolen from the previous story are haphazard, nonsensical, and just plain don't work. It's winter, yet it's hurricane season. The octopus scene and the speedboating scene are here just for action scenes and stick out like sore thumbs from the "story". Penguin's scheme is completely lame. And then there are the other three crooks who come into the story as if we should recognize them from past appearances, but other than Penguin they're all new. The entire plot is built on conveniences and happenstance. And why set it in Florida at all? Other than to use all these cliches, it really doesn't add anything to the story. I mean, it's not like Batman even manages to track the crooks down there, he just ahppens to be there too at the same time. It's all just very... contrived.
For those wondering, this cover is a good indication of what Bob Kane's artwork looks like when no one else is inking him -- flat like cardboard.
"The King of the Jungle!"
Writer: Joseph Greene
Pencils: Bob Kane
Inks: Jerry Robinson
Synopsis: We pick up directly from last month's story, with Penguin hopping railway cars like the world's classiest hobo. Speaking of hobos, he meets up with some, and quickly recognizes that many of them are wanted criminals, on the run. He proposes a scheme where he brings them in for the bounty, then springs them and splits the money. This is fairly successful, largely thanks to Penguin's upper-class appearance, intelligence, and umbrella gadgets.
Bruce and Dick, meanwhile, are travelling by train on vacation (picking up from the Winter issue of World's Finest), and Dick spots the Penguin at a station. They disembark from the train and vow to foil the Penguin's plan. After some questioning they find Penguin and his band of bums in a hobo's jungle, and there's a fight. A chase leads to the trains, wherein Penguin and his men manage to overpower the Dynamic Duo and place them in a primitive death-trap (hanging upside-down on meathooks so the blood rushes to their heads and they die a slow, lingering death).
Penguin and his men escape to continue their scheme, but Batman manages to get out of the deathtrap by cutting through the bonds with another meathook (convenient). Heading back to Wayne Manor, Batman examines his criminal files in his hidden laboratory (maybe the first time we've ever seen these items) and confirms his hunch that the hobos are wanted men and thereby guesses the Penguin's scheme. Because they know who Penguin just sprang from prison they guess that the next man will be the one geographically closest and off they fly in the Batplane to Arkansas.
They corner Penguin at the jail in the middle of the escape attempt. A fight turns into a running battle, and Penguin stows onto a riverboat on the Mississippi river. There's a fight on the boat which ends up with Penguin deciding he's no match in a duel with Batman (despite having a sword/umbrella!) and diving off the boat. The authorities aren't able to find him in the river, but flying back to Gotham Batman asserts that this is not the last they've heard of the Penguin.
My Thoughts: I think this is the first direct sequel from one month to another in Detective Comics since the Monk story in #31/32, but more significantly it's also the first Batman tale not written by Bill Finger since Detective #34. Joeseph Greene was a sci-fi short story author who's greatest creation was "Tom Corbett, Space Cadet", but at this point he was just a gun-for-hire writer probably being given a few bucks to fill in for Finger on a month he was late getting a story in. It's interesting he decided to follow up with Penguin right away -- by immediately giving the character a second story I think it really cements Penguin as a major new rogues gallery member on par with Joker and Catwoman. Greene sticks to Penguin's character as established and doesn't try to mess around with the formula, although he does give Batman a hidden crime laboratory (which, to be fair, has been hinted at before now), complete with case files and rogues gallery -- which also begins a slow transformation of Batman from "Shadow fan fiction" to "Sherlock Holmes in a cape and cowl".
The Art: No complaints. On-par quality for Kane and Robinson, capably produced all around. Good shadowy inks, dynamic action scenes.
The Story: My synopsis was much simpler and shorter than it usually is because in all honesty not a lot happens in this story compared to Finger's plots. Maybe it's a case of different pacing -- this story seems plotted a lot closer to how a 13-page story would be plotted today, as opposed to Finger fitting an entire six-issue arc into 13-pages. That being said, Greene is also using a lot of padding. Most of the story is seeing different variations of Penguin "arresting" one of his accomplices, bringing him to jail, then breaking him out using some umbrella based gadget. They're all pretty clever, but not worth really repeating in synopsis. Same with the several fight scenes. That's not to say it's a bad story -- it's good, it's enjoyable to read, and it's a good follow-up to the previous Penguin story that keeps the character relevant. But it's not up to Finger's level or standard -- which is perhaps understandable. Greene's playing it safe for his first script, delivering something workable, if neither original nor ambitious. He's playing with pre-established pieces, leaving things more or less where Finger left them when he's done. (Although continuity wise this story does a good job of picking up from where both Detective #58 and World's Finest #4 left off) That being said, the title annoys me -- Penguin becomes king of a gang of hobos, and in one scene they are in a hobo "jungle", but that's not the primary setting nor primary theme of the story.
Notes and Trivia: Batman's crime laboratory is explicitly noted as a secret, hidden room in Wayne Manor, complete with case files and rogues gallery
"One of the Most Perfect Frame-Ups"
Writer: Bill Finger
Pencils: Bob Kane
Inks: Jerry Robinson
Synopsis: Bruce has taken Dick to an art gallery to give him an appreciation of culture. While there they bump into a short, fat man wearing a tuxedo and top hat, complete with monocle, umbrella and smoking a cigarette in a long holder. Dick makes fun of the man's appearance, calling him a penguin, and Bruce chastises him, despite privately agreeing.
But then! The staff inform the visitors that two paintings, worth half a million between them, have been stolen, and that no one can leave until everyone has been searched. However, no one is found to have the paintings on them.
But that night, the fat man in the evening clothes meets with one of the biggest racketeers in town, offering to sell the stolen paintings. He announces himself as The Penguin, and shows the crooks that he smuggled the paintings rolled up in the hollow handle of his umbrella. The boss gives the Penguin a position in the gang planning their robberies, and soon a brilliant crime spree overtakes the city.
At the Stahl Auctioneering House, Bruce Wayne once again bumps into the Penguin. There's a power outage, and when the lights come back on the fabulous Columbia Diamond is stolen. When the Penguin returns to the Boss, he is squeezed out of his usual cut, and responds by shooting the Boss with his trick umbrella -- actually a concealed rifle. The Penguin takes over the gang by force.
In his disguise as a dock worker, Bruce overhears some of Penguin's men at a waterfront bar discuss the theft of a jade idol from the Stahl auction house. When the attempt is made, Batman shows up to stop the burglars. But he didn't know the Penguin would be there personally, who gasses him with a trick umbrella. As he leaves with the idol, Penguin hits the alarm, so that when the police show up all they find is the gassed Batman.
Batman is confused, the police only want to know what happened (remember, Batman is an honourary police now), as a gentleman named Mr. Boniface has reported a jade idol stolen. Just then, Mr. Boniface bursts in accusing Batman of stealing the idol, only Mr. Boniface is... The Penguin! Batman is confused from the gas, and doesn't have time to respond to the charges that Batman was using his status with the police to threaten Boniface for protection money. The police take Batman away.
Then a car, driven by the Penguin's men, rams the police truck, and Batman finds himself tied up in the Penguin's home. The Penguin has already called the police, putting out an alarm that the Batman has escaped, and now has the Batman trapped in an impossible scenario -- if he stays put, he's guilty and Penguin will kill him "in self-defence", if he escapes the police will shoot him down as a fugitive. Penguin wonders which trick umbrella to kill him with, finding one with a knife concealed in the handle...
But Batman has been tapping the heel of his foot while tied up, using the radio transmitter concealed within to communicate a Morse Code signal to Robin's belt radio receiver, and soon enough the Boy Wonder is crashing through the windows and rescuing the Batman. The Dynamic Duo retreats, and Penguin in his guise as Boniface sends the police after them. Commissioner Gordon is wracked with dramatic guilt -- was he wrong to trust the Batman?
By following the Penguin's gang around disguised as a blind man and an urchin, Batman and Robin are able to burst in on their attempt to rob a diamond exchange by tunneling through a joined wall with another building. The police arrive soon after, and the Penguin covers his escape by firing a jet of acid at the Dynamic Duo from his umbrella and running off with the jewels.
Batman makes chase, but the Penguin manages to catch an express train passing through and escape. However, the Dark Knight recovered the jewels, which the fleeing bird dropped. In the Commissioner's office with the recovered gems, Gordon apologizes for doubting Batman, while the Dark Knight is merely upset that he failed to nab the Penguin.
My Thoughts: What a great little story for introducing the Penguin, one of Batman's most lasting rogues. In recent years the character has kind of fallen on the wayside as many writers and artists are unsure what to do with him, but I think going back to this conception of the character would be best. The Penguin is a criminal genius who cloaks himself in respectability. He wears the trappings of the aristocratic gentleman but in fact is a thief. It's unclear in the story if Finger intended "Boniface" to be Penguin's real name, but he states within the story that he has many aliases, so I am inclined to think that Boniface is merely his current "respectable" identity. Penguin talks of Shakespeare and quoting Keats, but then has an array of lethal trick umbrellas. He's all about the ugliness under the surface. He's a great character, and he's really fun here. He's also the first villain Batman's ever face whom the hero was unable to defeat at the end of the story. Penguin escapes!
The Art: First things first, I have to compliment Bob Kane's character design of the Penguin. Kane stated he was inspired by Willie the Penguin, the mascot of Kool cigarettes, and the great thing about Kane's Penguin is that he actually looks like a penguin! He's fat, but it's all down at the bottom, and he's got short stubby legs, and his coattails stick out and his nose is held proud in the air and it really does give the appearance of a penguin, moreso than some of the modern redesigns. The line work is pretty good throughout, but the characters are often too small in the frame and the inking is thick and smudges their features together often.
The Story: Finger said he intended the Penguin to be a parody of the two-faced aristocrat, presenting one face to society but concealing another, and so like many of Finger's characters the Penguin is a great study in duality. He's also, like many Batman villains, a great mirror to Bruce Wayne, as they both imploy a high-society shield for their nightly activities. The notion of challenging Batman's status with the police, attempting to frame him, is really interesting this early into Batman's relationship with Gordon, as its actually realistic to think that Gordon could believe he was wrong about Batman the whole time, and one can imagine the strain this experience would put on their trust. So while most of the a-to-b plot elements of the theft, chases, and fights are pretty standard, they are given great new life by the new villain and the new status quo of the strip. Also, Finger remembered to keep Penguin alive, hell, not even in prison, to easily return in a sequel!
Notes and Trivia: First appearance of the Penguin, first time Batman is framed following his deputization
Penguin Body Count: 2
