Blog set to return!

Folks, my long period of travel and unusual medical issues is finally over and I plan on getting back to the blog in the next day or so. Sorry that it all took so long - I knew the trip was coming up - not so much the other stuff.

In the meantime, check out this story: the biggest thing to hit fishing since....well, since ever!!

Friends, I must share this with you....

Due to events going on outside of Gotham City this week, I'm going to fall behind in my posting. I promise to get right back to it next week - and as I mentioned before, coming up next, from September 1971, is a classic O'Neil/Adams Two-Face story that you will not want to miss!

You know, even though I was a bit critical about August 1971's Giant Batman issue, I have been reading more golden age tales over the past few days. As I said in my post, I do like these old, sometimes silly books. I just feel that reprinting them during such an important creative period was a step backwards. But I guess that you don't always realize that you are making history as you are doing it, so I shouldn't be so harsh.

Anyway, while reading an old story from Batman #228, I came across "The Duplicate Batman", originally from Batman #83. While it isn't the best Dark Knight tale I have ever read, it may just contain the best single panel in the history of the Caped Crusader. To you, oh valued reader and friend, I submit this: proof positive that there is more to Batman than just dressing up and fighting crime.

August, 1971

Batman #233

Batman in Various Stories
Writers: Various
Artists: Various

What's it all about?

For some odd reason, at this point in Batman (the magazine) history, every five months, DC would release a "Giant" issue - 64 pages for only a quarter!

Sounds great when you put it that way; however, these giant issues never contained any new material by the current creative team. No, instead of another ground-breaking tale by O'Neil and Adams, you would get a bunch of Golden Age reprints, all connected by some sort of theme. The theme for this particular issue was "Stories featuring Batman's secret identity, Bruce Wayne!"

For one single quarter, the faithful fan could read (or re-read depending on your age):

The Death Cheaters of Gotham: Men who have been declared legally dead and then revived form a private club, because beyond that they have so much in common. Now someone is killing them off, permanently, one by one. Under the delusion that the only way to catch the killer is to actually join the club, Bruce Wayne swallows poison and dies, counting on Dick Grayson and a visiting physician to resuscitate him.

The Other Bruce Wayne: The man for whom Bruce Wayne was named, his cousin Bruce Wayne, visits Gotham and stays at Wayne Manor. As fate would have it, Bruce is a world-famous detective who begins to suspect that there is more to Bruce than meets the eye! Bruce must work the same case as Bruce without letting Bruce stumble upon proof that he, Bruce, is truly the Dark Knight Detective. What will Bruce do????

The Murder of Bruce Wayne: The members of the International Chemical Company Board of Trustees are being murdered by an insane ex-member. One-by-one, Batman fails to save them until only one last member remains: Bruce Wayne!

What's this? Commissioner Gordon threatening to suspend Batman?? Ah Commish - look how crestfallen the big lug looks as you are reprimanding him. Can't you give him just one more chance??

Bruce Wayne's Aunt Agatha: Bruce's elderly Aunt visits Wayne Manor and in almost no time does what the visiting world-famous detective Bruce Wayne couldn't do: discovers Bruce and Dick in their Batman and Robin costumes! Luckily, she is far too feeble-minded to truly understand the implications of what she is seeing, and through some of comicdom's most ridiculous twists and turns, she ends up disguised as the Joker, rescuing Batman and Robin from certain death at the hands of organized crime. At no point does she even suspect that Bruce truly is Batman! Ridiculous!

The Crime of Bruce Wayne: I can barely keep this up after suffering through that last one. In a nutshell, Commissioner Gordon asks private citizen Bruce Wayne to go undercover in Gotham prison for him and without hesitation, the millionaire accepts. He is convicted of being the masked criminal The Collector and sent to jail, where the other inmates frame him for murder. The wheels of justice spin quickly and in a few day's time, Bruce is on Death Row awaiting execution. He pleads with the Warden to check with the Commissioner to verify his story, but unfortunately Gordon has spent the last few days in a coma following a nasty car crash. Because of this, Robin teams up with Batwoman to prove Bruce's innocence. Everything is wrapped up neatly by the end, except for the fate of the poor Commish. No mention is ever made of his condition, but it doesn't matter because our hero is out of jail! Go Bruce!!

What does Brian think?

Here's the thing: I have nothing against the Golden Age. I love many of those old comics, in particular All-Star Comics and Plastic Man. These Batman stories, in and of themselves, contain a lot of charm and entertainment value, and I would never say that I dislike them.

However, to publish them in 1971, between the first Ra's al Ghul appearance and September's O'Neil/Adams Two-Face story (still a classic today), is just ridiculous. DC was on such a roll at the time modernizing the character that this book is woefully out of place. If these books came out simply because the regular team worked too slowly to provide material on a strict monthly basis, they would have been better served publishing a fill-in issue written by one of the newly hired young writers like Mike Friedrich.

There is a time and place for everything, and August 1971 was neither for this!

July, 1971

Detective Comics #413

Batman in "Freak-Out At Phantom Hollow!"
Writer: Frank Robbins
Artists: Bob Brown and Dick Giordano

What's it all about?

Batman is drafted to help the small country town of Phantom Hollow break a witch's curse. Generations ago, the citizens of the town put a woman named Ol' Nell to death for witchcraft. At the end of her life, she declared that the bell atop the local church would remain silent until the night of the town's destruction, and unfortunately it had rung just as Batman drove by on his way back to Gotham.

Over the years, the bell rusted until it could no longer function. However, two young men, who recently had their long hair cut by some of the anti-hippie townsfolk, decide to play a prank on Phantom Hollow. Using a tape machine and a large speaker, they cause the bell to ring out! The local citizens fear that the end is nigh - and it appears that they might be correct as various buildings begin to explode! This wasn't part of the boys' plan! What's going on?

As he investigates, Batman find many suspects. The "straights" in town immediately finger the two hippies, Shecky and Jamie, simply because they are different; however, their teacher, Miss Antrim, assures Batman that the boys wouldn't blow up buildings. The Dark Knight Detective takes an interest in Barney, the gossiping mailman who believes in the curse and is "yearning for a place in the sun." There is also an outspoken real estate dealer named Congreve who would benefit from the publicity of the curse coming true. So many possibilities!

After being pushed, almost to his death, from the top of the bell tower and exploring a maze of underground tunnels, Batman discovers the true culprit: an ancestor of Ol' Nell named Big Lanny. Lanny has spent years masquerading as a learning-disabled handyman so if an opportunity like this presented itself, he would never even be a suspect. As the muscular Lanny is actually stronger than Batman himself, Shecky and Jamie need to pitch in to help save the day.

The story wraps up as Batman and Miss Antrim lecture the town on how ignorance and superstition caused a tragedy both years ago with Ol' Nell and today when the stuffed-shirts lashed out at hippies just because they were "different."

What does Brian think?

This is one of the worst Batman stories that I can remember, as if you couldn't tell that from just the title. The one thing it has going for it though is that it is bad in a way that you can laugh at! Still, it was difficult to get through it.

In my "May, 1971" post, I said that I wasn't a fan of Frank Robbins as a writer. Issues like this one are the reason why.

From the heavy-handed "accept people as they are" message to the idea that someone would spend years acting mentally disabled just for a chance to avenge an ancestor he never met, this story is just...not good.

Brown and Giordano do a serviceable job with the art, but if you compare it to what Neal Adams was doing just a month earlier in Batman's "Daughter Of The Demon" story, you can see this is a step backwards from Swartz's "New Look" Batman. The sleek, modern sheen is nowhere to be found. Having said that, the book doesn't look terrible, just old-fashioned.

The assault on the hippies and the forced haircut should be a horrific ordeal, but the dialogue and the fact it all happens off-panel negates any impact it might have. Jamie's first comment after being clipped made me laugh. After a vicious attack, instead of crying out against his assailants or checking to see if his friend was all right, he name-checks the long-dead witch Ol' Nell and echos her opinion on the town, as if she is always on his mind.

Later, Batman survives a fall from the top of the town's bell-tower, not through any acrobatic skill or well-practiced use of his bat rope, but because EVERY TIME he is at the top of a tall structure, he subtly ties one end of a rope around his ankle and the other end around some sort of support. All I can say is that it was a good thing his rope wasn't even a foot longer or he would have broken his neck!

I'm not going to say too much more because I'm a firm believer that if I could write these stories better, I'd be doing it, and obviously I'm not. Also, I'm sure part of the problem with this tale is the simple passing of time. Having said that, I'm sure that some of the kids' dialogue rang false the very month the book hit the stands. Allow me to share a few panels that made me chuckle aloud, and we'll leave it at that. Not every issue can be a classic!

(What does that even mean? "An official upstate mission." I guess not all of Batman's missions are "official." Or maybe for this one night he was working for the state government? Weird - to say nothing of the policeman's declaration of desire!)

(The world's greatest detective in action. That inspires confidence - he doesn't notice a body until he slips his foot into it.)

("These people stink, man - just like that old woman who we talk about all the time and who lived more than 300 years ago said!!")

June, 1971

Batman in "Daughter Of The Demon"
Writer: Denny O'Neil
Artists: Neal Adams & Dick Giordano

What's it all about?

At his downtown Gotham penthouse, Bruce Wayne receives a photo and a brief message informing him that his partner-in-crime-fighting, Robin, has been captured by person or persons unknown. Batman heads to the original Batcave deep underneath Wayne Manor to analyze the note, and is surprised to find a stranger waiting there for him - a stranger who knows his secret identity!

The mysterious intruder introduces himself as Ra's al Ghul. His daughter has also been taken, and he carries with him a similar note. The two concerned guardians decide to pool their resources and search for the missing youngsters together.

Their search takes them all around the globe, but finally al Ghul stands revealed as the mastermind behind the kidnappings! You see, his daughter Talia, who met Batman just a month earlier in Detective Comics #411, has fallen in love with the Dark Knight of Gotham, and before Ra's could bless any union between the two, he needed to see what kind of man Batman was. The truth stuns the Batman, and in his moment of surprise, Talia plants a kiss on his cheek.

What does Brian think?

Only two months after my birth, O'Neil and Adams strike with the first bona fide Batman classic of my lifetime!

I am only able to review the title Batman in uninterrupted order here because my Detective Comics collection doesn't go back quite as far. While I have every issue of Batman since April 1971, I only have MOST issues of Detective from the same time frame. Because of this, I couldn't cover the introduction of Talia al Ghul in May's Detective Comics, but this issue of Batman is a far more important landmark.

Ra's goes on to become one of Batman's most important villains, trying to save the world from destruction by ridding it of humanity. The highlight of his career undoubtedly was his appearance in the film Batman Begins, with the very talented Liam Neeson playing the role. Here in Batman #232, Neal Adams attempted to tell us a lot about the character through his illustrations, as he explains in TwoMorrow's excellent book, The Batcave Companion:

People draw Ra's al Ghul with eyebrows. Ra's al Ghul has no eyebrows. I like that because that meant that something happened in his life that removed his eyebrows. It doesn't bother him at all. It's part of him....Have his hair recede because he's been around and experienced life. He should be sort of Middle-Eastern...but not with a beard...give him something interesting as facial hair. And see what happens when all those pieces are put together. Does it become somebody original? Wow, it did.

Not only did Adams succeed in creating a visually-striking enemy for the Caped Crusader, he turned in one of his greatest issues ever in terms of iconic images. Paging through this issue, virtually every page has some sort of treat for your eyes. It is a tremendous illustration of why he was important to the development of the art form in the 1970s.

O'Neil sets up decades of storylines with the introduction of Ra's and Talia - not only in terms of adventure, but also romance. As I write this, DC Comics is kicking off a Batman storyline called "Batman Reborn" with Dick Grayson taking over the mantle of the bat. Serving as his Robin is the young Damian Wayne, the son of Bruce and Talia! This interesting turn of events came about in Mike W. Barr's 1987 graphic novel, Son of the Demon, another classic Batman story. And I don't want to paint the picture of Bruce Wayne as a dead-beat dad, so it must be said that for over a decade, Talia kept Damian's existence a secret.

The only aspect of the story that I question is the recap of Batman's origin on pages six and seven. It doesn't hurt the story, but the lead-in to it pulls you out of the book with its awkwardness. Having said that, it is a treat to see Adams' version of some of the artwork from Batman #1.

In The Batcave Companion, O'Neil mentions that the retelling of Batman's beginning wasn't originally in his script. Adams had simply wanted to draw it, so he did! It wasn't until he saw the penciled pages that O'Neil even knew what Adams had done. O'Neil says that it doesn't hurt the story at all, and I agree; I just find it a bit jarring. Another interesting tidbit revealed by O'Neil in TwoMorrow's interview is that it was editor Julie Swartz who came up with the name Ra's al Ghul. He suggested it to Denny and told him to run with it, having come up with nothing beyond the interesting sobriquet himself.

As Robin was part of the main story this time around, there was no back-up feature detailing his adventures at Hudson University.

Anything else to say?

Another famous name shows up in the letter column this month. The aforementioned Mike W. Barr, who would himself pen many memorable Ra's al Ghul tales, comments on Batman #229 and is shocked to find himself unable to complain about much. Barr wrote an underrated al Ghul story with underrated artist Trevor Von Eeden for 1982's Batman Annual and created the series Batman and the Outsiders.

May, 1971

Batman #231

Batman in "Blind Rage Of The Ten-Eyed Man"
Writer: Frank Robbins
Artists: Irv Novick & Dick Giordano

What's it all about?

Months earlier, Batman attempted to foil a warehouse robbery. As he worked to deactivate the explosives on the vault door, the night watchman mistook the Grim Avenger of the Night for a criminal and attacked him. Due to this interruption, the device exploded, throwing both Batman and the guard, an ex-special forces man named Reardon, for a loop.

The Gotham Goliath quickly recovered, but the Vietnam vet was not so lucky. He was permanently blinded by the explosion; however, a talented surgeon was able to “divert his optic nerves to the brain center controlling the sensor-cells in his fingers.”

Dealing with both bitterness and the reactivation of a head-trauma suffered in the war is too much for Reardon’s psyche, and he begins down the path of madness. After applying for the job of civilian air marshal, he hijacks a plane to the one place he feels he can defeat Batman in combat – the jungles of Vietnam! Batman arrives and allows himself to be hunted down – a la “The Most Dangerous Game.” In the end though, the Dark Knight is one step ahead of his hunter, and he emerges victorious.

What does Brian think?

This seems to be a period in DC history when they really depend upon your ability to suspend disbelief. Last month we met Flippy the seal boy; now this month we have a man who sees through his fingertips!

The entire segment with Reardon secretly using his ten eyes to get the job of air marshal was very entertaining. It displayed both fun and originality, which the rest of the tale lacked. Without this scene, the story becomes just another “man hunting his fellow man” adventure, which has been done over and over in literature and film. I’m not certain how safe the whole “gun battle in a plane” that earned Reardon his job was, but as a reader I accepted it.

The story’s visuals were excellent. While he never seemed to become a fan-favorite like some of his peers, I have always enjoyed the pencil work of Irv Novick. This most likely stems from my enjoyment of his early 1980’s run on Batman with writer Len Wein. As a youngster, I found their pairing to result in some of the most exciting stories on the newsstand, and I believe it was the first I became aware of Novick’s work. And while Frank Robbins is no Len Wein when it comes to Batman, this is still an enjoyable tale with a bit of excitement thrown in for good measure. Plus you finally get to see what the key to the Batplane looks like!! What more could you ask for for fifteen cents??


Robin in "Wiped Out!"
Writer: Mike Friedrich
Artists: Irv Novick & Dick Giordano

What's it all about?

College freshman Dick Grayson is depressed that with the large number of violent deaths on college campuses, an earlier attack by a group of orange-tennis-shoed assailants prevented him from saving Hank Osher from the explosion of the school’s ROTC building. A visit from fellow student Terri Bergstrom cheers him up as he discovers that he and Terri, both members of the Computer Chums club, were fixed up by the town’s new computer-dating service.

Dick and Terri arrive at her place, only to discover it has been robbed. Suspecting something is crooked with the computer hook-up, they return to his apartment, which has also been ransacked. Minutes later, Robin is on the way to computer club present Phil Real’s place to investigate the rash of burglaries.

Robin interrupts a robbery-in-progress and makes short work of the crooks who finger fellow student Mark Brunner as the brains behind the crimes. The Teen Thunderbolt finds Mark at the school gym with a group of muscle-bound fraternity friends – all wearing orange tennis shoes! There is a second skirmish, this time with a different ending. Robin emerges victorious and arranges for the arrest of the entire computer-assisted crime gang. As the sun goes down on this adventure, Dick and the beautiful Terri head out to make up for their interrupted initial date.

What does Brian think?

Is it odd that Dick Grayson has a poster of Batman hanging up in his apartment?

This Robin adventure was scripted by Mike Friedrich, who I believe was about Dick Grayson’s age when DC hired him to write the Robin back-up feature. He does a relatively good job making the dialogue ring true to the reader. I think the problem with the story is the triteness of the plot. Robin isn’t the most fantastic hero in DC’s stable, but readers would like to see him tackle more than a handful of frat boys. I understand the atmosphere of realism that Friedrich is going for with Dick’s angst and the campus robberies; it’s just a bit boring compared to Robin’s past run-ins with Gotham’s colorful rogues.

I was brought out of the story for a minute when I read the part about the computer dating service. With commercials on television and the radio for websites like match.com and e-harmony.com, one would think the idea is a relatively recent one, but evidently, in the early 1970s, mainframes the size of rooms were clocking away trying to hook up lonely Americans. I was shocked!

Art-wise the Novick/Giordano team shines again, providing both an exciting fight scene at the end and the introduction of the pretty Terri Bergstrom. When I first saw her, I immediately thought of Roy Thomas and Dick Giordano’s 1980s DC mini-series Jonni Thunder – Terri looks a lot like Jonni. Now as I post the picture, I’m not as convinced, but what the heck! Giordano knew a good look when he saw it!

Overall, I would say that Batman’s back-up, Robin, was far more worthwhile than last month’s Detective Comics back-up with Batgirl. While I don’t find myself curious to know what Dick Grayson’s next college- adventure will be, at least I’m not mad at myself for taking the time to read the story. That doesn’t sound like high praise, but I think that May 1971 was a pretty solid month for Batman.

Anything else to say?

Yes, one last thing. I almost forgot to mention the presence of one David Sim from Ontario, Canada in the letters page. David Sim, of course, went on to create the ground-breaking comic Cerebus and is currently working on the bi-monthly Glamourpuss.

April 1971

Detective Comics #410

Batman in "A Vow From The Grave"
Writer: Denny O'Neil
Artists: Neal Adams & Dick Giordano

What's it all about?

While chasing an escaped murderer through the woods, Batman encounters a group of sideshow performers living in an abandoned house in the middle of nowhere.

As he searches the area for the convict, he also works to solve a surprising murder among the band of performers. The motive for the crime turns out to be jealousy - a case of a spurned lover lashing out against the man who has the woman he himself desires.

Batman avenges the murder, rescues a hostage, and brings two criminals to justice in only fifteen pages. And thanks to the efforts of Neil Adams, he looks fantastic doing it.

What does Brian think?

This issue's main story was written and drawn by the men who made Batman what he is today. Denny O'Neil and Neil Adams, under the guidance of Julie Swartz, rescued The Dark Knight from the campy excesses of the 1960's TV show and again made him an effective creature of the night. Much of what is still great about Batman can be traced back to these three talented creators.

This is a memorable issue, not because the story is so unique (it's not), but because O'Neil creates such an odd group of characters to populate its pages.

Flippy, the young boy whose curse is to be half-human, half-seal, is a striking figure. The condition seems too fantastic to have ever been true, yet the character works so well in the story that you never question it.

And it must not be only me that thinks that way. With over a thousand stories at their disposal, the writers of the popular Batman: The Animated Series chose to adapt this tale as one of their second season episodes.

And then, thirty-five years later, the very talented writer Bill Willingham brought back Flippy, now older and named Eddie Deacon, in the pages of DC's Shadowpact comic. Eddie grew up to become the owner of the Oblivion Bar and Inn, a drinking establishment that exists in another dimension and serves as the headquarters of the magic-based super-group, Shadowpact. It was a complete surprise to the see the character again, and Willingham’s plan to turn Eddie into a likable, yet capable businessman worked wonderfully. Flippy was a great addition to a book already full of unusual characters.

While the story doesn't contain any examples of Adams at his iconic best, it's still a shining example of what makes him such a great artist. He is so effective at establishing atmosphere and depicting action through his pencils. Few were working on his level at this time.

O'Neil continues the trend of the narrator directly addressing the reader, something I think Swartz encouraged in Detective Comics. The fifth panel on page nine reads: "Some time in the past ten minutes, the Batman made an important observation -- two, in fact! Have you?"

All I can say is that had Batman simply looked at the cover to this issue, he would have been able to pick out the murderer in no time! And that would be my only complaint about this story - the fact that the killer's identity is revealed immediately, even before the first page. It's still a fun read though.

Batgirl in "Battle Of The Three M's"
Writer: Frank Robbins
Artists: Don Heck & Dick Giordano

What's it all about?

A model named Mamie Achson suffers a skiing mishap while vacationing in the French Alps, throwing the world press and every single fashion designer into a state of absolute panic. You see, with Mamie in plaster casts and out of the spotlight, no one is capable of predicting the next trend in womens' fashion! Will it be mini-skirts, midi-skirts, or maxi-skirts?

Barbara "Batgirl" Gordon is caught up in the intrigue when Mamies personal couturier comes to the Gotham library to research Medieval costumes. As fate would have it, Ms. Gordon works as the head librarian when she's not out fighting crime, so Batgirl, unlike the rest of the curious population, can cross "mini-skirts" off the list as they didn't exist in Medieval times. This is information that a curious (and pushy) representative of the mini-manufacturers tries to get from Barbara, offering her one hundred dollars just for a glimpse of the book's title, but she refuses, citing the rule that all books must be checked back in to the library before they can be loaned out again.

We soon learn that a well-known mini-skirt designer named Rigby will stop at nothing to find out what where Mamie's interests lie - not only because he produces the sexy seventies garments, but also because he has borrowed money from the mob and needs the increase in sales to pay off his debt. If Mamie doesn't speak up in favor of minis, he is a dead man!

Batgirl ends up at his factory, spies him being threatened by the mob, and swoops in to save him, ignoring his high sleaze factor. Along the way, she makes an attempt to chastise the business men for taking advantage of the fairer sex; however, even with this vicious tongue-lashing, Batgirl is overpowered. As the story ends, the Caped Crusader is strapped to a table as the criminals discuss killing her with something that looks like a price-gun.

What does Brian think?

Reading this story was more than a bit of a chore. I have always enjoyed Frank Robbins's artwork, probably for the same reason many dislike it - it's just so weird! Most of the work he did for DC was as a writer though, and I never really thought he had a strong grasp on the world of the Batman. The art by Don Heck was quite serviceable, which surprised me because I was introduced to him in the 1980's and I never really liked him. There was always something about the way he drew faces - the features were so angular - and it bugged me. I didn't really see that here so mayhaps he changed his style as he aged.

The story is just so insipid. I'm not convinced that the average Batman reader would be sucked in to a story about which is the most popular skirt. And I'm not sure if it was because I was tired, but I had to read this panel three times before it even began to make sense to me. I understand that people used different slang in the 1970's, but I have to think that even back then this was forced and way over the top.

Anyway, I haven't managed to find the next issue yet, so I can't tell you how Batgirl escapes from the death-trap. I hope you won't be too upset by that and that you will return in a few days to see how things went for Batman in May of 1971 as he faces off against "The Man Who Saw With His Fingers."

Anything else to say?

One of the great joys in collecting old comics is that sometimes you will find a familiar name on the Letters To The Editor page. This particular issue of Detective Comics featured a letter from Martin Pasko, who, of course, went on to write numerous DC comics in the 1980's and who worked on Batman: The Animated Series.

Please note that in early 1971, the actual book called Batman was published bi-monthly, and there was no issue published in April, the month of my birth. Luckily I had this issue of Detective to kick off the blog.