Retro Comics are Awesome

[andersonh1]

Batman #44
December 1947 - January 1948

Gamble with Doom!
For the first time in a long time, a story does something different with the Joker, as he is bitten by the gambling bug. After enjoying himself at the casino, he decides he wants a different kind of gambling, with Batman as his opponent and real lives at stake. So he kidnaps some crooks who stole some radium, and when Batman and Robin come looking, captures them as well. Batman refuses to cooperate at first, because he (of course) never gambles! But with the lives of Robin and the two thieves at stake, he can't refuse. The Joker makes him play a giant game of pinball (with Robin and the thieves in the pinballs and electrocution as a real danger) a giant dice game (where the dice can crush Robin if they land wrong), and a game of cards. The final challenge is a giant roulette wheel, with the Joker's life against Batman's, as they try to avoid being crushed. The Joker has fixed the wheel so he won't be hurt, but Batman figures it out how it's done and cuts the wires, meaning the Joker is suddenly in danger of his life. He runs, Batman chases him, and the Joker gambles one last time, diving off a cliff into the ocean.

I thought this was a huge improvement over the standard formula crime spree stories we've been seeing so often with the Joker. He's crazy enough to do what the story shows him doing, and he certainly enjoys the competition with Batman, so it's all in character. We need more like this for Batman's rogues, and less formulaic runarounds.

Born for Adventure!
Bill Jordan always wanted to be an explorer when he grew up, and he worked all his life to get to that point, but a doctor's diagnosis of a "bad heart" means that he's stuck on the homefront, working in the natural history museum instead of going to African expeditions. But the Globetrotter, an international criminal and thief, comes to Gotham and attempts to rob the museum. With some help from Jordan and his vast knowledge of the museum, Batman captures the Globetrotter. With all the excitement, Batman's sure the initial diagnosis was wrong, and it turns out that Jordan's heart is just fine, and he's able to pursue his career of exploration.

And I forgot to note: this is the 300th Batman story, counting the Alfred shorts. "Batman vs. the Vampire" remains the only two-part story in the character's history to date.

The First American Detective!
Golly! It's not every day we get Ben Franklin for our lawyer!

It's back to Professor Carter Nichols for some time travel, this time to the early days of the United States in 1787, as Bruce Wayne decides to investigate one of his ancestors, Silas Wayne, who was reportedly a highwayman but was never hanged for his crimes. They arrive in Philadelphia where they run into some trouble and are rescued by Benjamin Franklin. They locate Silas Wayne, a silversmith, who claims he has been framed to make it appear he's the highwayman. There's some conflict between Silas and his fiance's father, Henry a former Tory during the Revolution. During the course of the investigation, it turns out that Silas was indeed framed, and Batman uses the then-unknown process of fingerprinting to catch the real criminal, who is of course, Henry. Rather than tell his ailing mother, Silas agrees the the lie that he accepted a pardon and left for New York after marrying his fiance, and Henry would return to England as he planned. The truth would come out when it was safe. Batman and Robin return to the present without learning that truth, but the full story turns out to have been hidden in the portrait of Silas all along.

I enjoy early American and Civil War history, so this era was right up my alley. What a fun storyline, and we learn a bit about Bruce's family history along the way.

[andersonh1]

Detective Comics #131
January 1948

The Underworld Surgeon!
Steve Travers has always idolized his big brother Joe, and when the two grew up, Steve decided to become a plastic surgeon. His brother offers to pay for college and gives him a car, and even helps Steve afford an engagement ring for his girlfriend, Ann. When she speculates that Joe is actually "Trigger Joe" the gangster, Steve laughs it off. But she's right, as Steve finds out when Batman and Robin go after a gang of silk thieves led by Joe, who takes a wounded gangster to his brother, now a doctor, and demands a new face and new fingerprints. Joe funded his brother's entire education with this in mind, and bullies the unwilling Steve into doing what he demands. Steve becomes the surgeon for Gotham's gangster underworld, runing his life, but he doesn't know how to fight back.

Trigger's gang breaks Scarface Nolan out of prison and he gets a new face and identity. But Batman does some detective work and figures out what happened, and the terrifed Scarface falls to his death when Batman goes to confront him. The new face tips Batman off that there's a talented plastic surgeon at work. He gets in to see him with a disguise, but is caught, and Robin has to rescue him. Trigger is just getting the bandages off of his new face, and to his horror, his brother has given him Scarface Nolan's features. Steve choses to save Batman's life when he's shot, but the fleeing Trigger Joe is gunned down by police, who believe he's Scarface. Batman testifies for Steve in court, and he is proclaimed not guilty, given that he was forced to do what he did.

Batman vs. gangsters never gets old, but this is one of those stories where the story isn't really about him so much as it's about a guest protagonist, in this case Steve Travers.

[andersonh1]

World's Finest Comics #32
January-February 1948

The Man Who Could Not Die!
Batman fights a costumed villain. Not a super-powered one, though the man believes himself to be. Joe Starr is a small time errand boy for Trigger Smith and his gang, but a visit to a Swami convinces him that something big is in his future. He finds a newspaper dated one year into the future that refers to him as "Public Enemy #1" and he decides that it's what the Swami predicted. Convinced that he cannot die until December 13, 1947, Starr kills Trigger and takes over the gang, promising them he has big ideas. Rather than a suit and tie, he dresses up in a purple costume with yellow stars and a hood and calls himself "Lucky Starr". He takes crazy chances while leading the gang, convinced that he can't be killed, and every one pays off. When Batman finally corners him, he produces the newspaper for Batman to read, only for Batman to be a bit more detail oriented than Lucky and point out that it was a "novelty paper", and a fake the whole time. The gang were in on it, but went along with Lucky because they were making money. Suddenly afraid to die, Lucky is captured, tried and sentenced to die for the murder of Trigger Smith. And the execution date? December 13, 1947.

I do wonder just when this story was written. As you can see above, the cover date was January-February 1948, but the initial scenes of the story were set in December 1946. This could have been an inventory story, or it could have taken some time to get it drawn and published. I find the choice to give Starr a costume interesting, generic though it is. Costumed villains have been pretty rare up to this point, and I can easily see Lucky having remained in his stereotypical gangster three piece suit in past issues.

[andersonh1]

Good to see this book finally solicited, even though it won't be out until July! But I believe everything in it, apart from the World's Finest issues (up to issue 32), are first time reprints, so it apparently took some time to find material and do the restoration work.

SUPERMAN: THE GOLDEN AGE OMNIBUS VOL. 6 HC
written by DON CAMERON, ALVIN SCHWARTZ, EDMOND HAMILTON and others
art by JOHN SIKELA, IRA YARBROUGH, AL PLASTINO and others
cover by EVAN “DOC” SHANER
Superman’s adventures continue into the late 1940s with these stories in which the Man of Tomorrow foils con man J. Wilbur Wolfingham, thwarts the latest scheme of the Prankster, unravels the “Mother Goose Crimes,” battles the magically powered imp from the fifth dimension, Mr. Mxyztplk, and even takes on the mythical Atlas! Includes tales from ACTION COMICS #106-125, SUPERMAN #44-54 and WORLD’S FINEST COMICS #26-36.
ON SALE 07.03.19
$125.00 US | 824 PAGES
FC | ISBN: 978-1-4012-9193-8

[andersonh1]

Batman #45
February-March 1948

The Lady Rogues!
Catwoman is back, and it almost feels like they retired the character for a year or two and then revamped her to be much more like the Joker and Penguin. She takes offense that she is not included in author Neil Weston's book "The Lady Rogues" about famous women "villains" in history. She uses the publicity appearances of an actress portraying the different women to try and build herself up as the greatest lady rogue of all. Ego has never been a trait for Catwoman, so this whole thing feels a bit out of character. In the end, Batman captures her and returns her to jail of course, where she's visited by Weston. When she asks why she wasn't included in her book, he says he was going to write one about just her, meaning she escaped and went on the rampage for nothing, much to her chagrin.

A Parole for Christmas!
Convict Ed Rogers gets a 24 hour pass to get out of prison for Christmas. Ed is going to see his kid brother and girlfriend, and even though he has an engagement ring for her, he thinks he can't propose now as a soon to be ex-con. He's never let on that he's been in prison, writing instead that he's been working on a top secret navy project. He's also a dead ringer for Bruce Wayne, so of course that will play into the plot. Ed is attacked on the ferry by a couple of men who intend to murder him, but Bruce and Dick just happen to be on the ferry and intervene, driving the men off. Bruce takes the injured Rogers to the Batcave, and learns enough about his situation that he decides to impersonate him and try to catch the killer. He goes to the home of Ed's girlfriend and spends time with her and his brother, only for the police to arrive and take him into custody because the gang of killers tried to stage a robbery and blame Ed. Bruce makes himself a target later while walking down the street, learns the truth, and "breaks parole" to get himself back into prison, where he uncovers the plot: an escape attempt by Scarface and his gang that are tunneling right under Rogers' cell. Rogers had refused to help in the escape attempt, so they were trying to kill him to keep him quiet. Bruce has taken a compressed version of his batsuit with him, and gets into costume and foils the escape attempt. He tells the warden the whole story, and the parole board makes Rogers' parole permanent.

The Match!
The Match is an arsonist, a tall thin man with a shock of red hair. To catch him, Batman and Robin join up with the fire department. Rookie fireman Tom Davis panics while fighting a fire, and Batman has to rescue him. Davis was nearly burned to death in a fire as a child, but was rescued, and then his father, also a fireman, died saving a child, but not before making Tom promise to carry on. The chief, sympathetic, transfers Tom to a fire boat, where he'll be away from the more dangerous work in the city.

In the meantime, Batman figures out that the fire was set to help the store owner collect insurance money, and he follows a series of clues to the hideout of the Match. He manages to catch Batman by surprise, and attempts to leave Batman and Robin to burn to death, but they get free and take down the gang. The now-burning tenement is near the river where Tom Davis is helping put out the fire from the safety of a boat. Tom has to overcome his fear to rescue a child in danger, and Batman has to throw the Match in the river and dive after him to escape the flames. The story ends with a one panel PSA about fire safety.

[andersonh1]

Detective Comics #132
February 1948

The Human Key!
The final story in the Batman Golden Age omnibus volume 5 features another costumed villain, so we're definitely starting to see more of that type of adversary for Batman. Escape artist Paul Bodin retires when his wife dies, determined to devote more time to raising their only child, a daughter. He also taught Batman some of his escape tricks and lockpicking skill, possibly the first time we've seen one of the experts who taught Bruce depicted on page. If there has been another example, I can't think of it right now.

Fast forward a few years, and "The Human Key", a man in a purple hood and robe adorned with padlocks and keys, is helping crooks crack safes and other obstacles around Gotham, and it's not hard to figure out that it's Bodin under the mask. So the question becomes, why has he turned into a criminal? And honestly that's not to hard to guess either: the crooks have his daughter hostage, and are forcing him to employ his skills in their favor. In the end, both Bodin and his daughter end up trapped in a safe, and it's up to Batman to crack the combination and free them before they suffocate. While some of the plot details are fairly obvious, the story is still enjoyable as it plays out, and bonus points for learning a bit more about how Batman learned his escape skills.

This is the 307th Batman story.

[andersonh1]

While waiting for Batman vol. 6, I've gone back to reading Superman, and one thing that stands out that these large volumes of consecutive stories allow the reader to follow is the characterization of Lois Lane, and her relationship with Clark Kent. In the very early stories, she loathes Kent and attacks him for his "cowardice", often being quite unreasonable in what she expects from him. She even drugs him at one point so she can steal his news story (of course it doesn't actually affect him, since he's Superman), and she genuinely despises him. Clark, for his part, seems to enjoy the game he's playing and takes some delight in using his dual identity to toy with her emotions. It's a little cruel, honestly.

But as time goes on, Lois mellows out, and while she and Clark are very competitive for stories, she actually grows to like him. She still complains about his cowardly attitude from time to time, but not with the venom of those early stories. The two bicker and tease and have clearly developed a friendship, and when Lois thinks Clark is dead in a few stories she's clearly saddened by it. In one story, the Daily Planet office staff think the two must be in love given how they fight, and Clark even hints about marriage occasionally, with Lois just laughing it off.

The caricature of Lois is that she's obsessed with Superman, and constantly trying to find out his secret identity, and that largely comes from the Silver Age. That's still in the future at the point these omnibus volumes have reached. She very rarely entertains the thought that Clark and Superman are the same guy in these old stories, and overall does not seem to care to figure out who Superman might be. She even gets her own series of four page stories (like Alfred over in Batman) where she is allowed to be independent and solve the problems she gets into without being rescued by Superman.

It's been fun watching the Clark/Lois relationship evolve, and I kind of hate to think that at some point down the road we'll get to the silliness of the Silver Age. Nice to know it wasn't always like that. I like their easy friendship as depicted in these late 1940s stories, with the idea of romance occasionally played with.

[andersonh1]

I last reviewed the previous Superman story back on page 50.

Action Comics #25
June 1940

Amnesiac Robbers
A bank messenger loses his important loan delivery and claims to remember nothing. Armored car drivers lose a shipment and claim to not even remember who they are. Clark Kent is not allowed to see the mayor to investigate the story, and it turns out that these two incidents are only the latest in a long string of similar amnesia cases. But Clark's super hearing allows him to pick up the details and get the story into print, much to editor Taylor's delight. Clark is not so successful when he tries for a date with Lois, who is going to see the hypnotist Medini to try and determine who Superman really is. I don't know how that's supposed to help her, but in any case, you can see where this is going, and so can Superman. After he spends a few pages having fun by messing up Medini's scam, he takes on Medini himself, only to be held immobile by Medini's hypnotic power. It takes Superman a few pages to shake himself free of the effects, and in the meantime, Medini has escaped with Lois as a prisoner and commandeered a plane. He forces the pilot to crash it after he's left via parachute, but Superman not only catches the plane, he tosses it at Medini, killing him.

The setup for this story isn't bad, and I appreciatei the attempt to up the ante a bit and create a villain that can challenge Superman, if only temporarily. But the discovery of the villain, found only because Lois goes to see him for a reason completely unrelated to the plot, doesn't work as well.

Superman #5
Summer 1940

The Slot Machine Racket
On the way to work, Clark and Lois spot a store owner convincing kids to come in and play his slot machine. The owner kicks them out when they protest. One boy rushes to head for school before he's late for class, and runs out in front of a truck. Clark dives on top of him and saves his life, keeping the two of them between the truck wheels. When Lois starts to praise his bravery, Clark decides he can't risk his secret ID and faints dead away, whereupon Lois resumes her customary scorn of him. A visit to a nearby store reveals another slot machine, but Clark learns that "Slug" Kelly is forcing them into the local shops by threatening owners.

Lois happens to know where Slug and his gang hang out, and in typical Lois fashion, she marches straight there and confronts Kelly, who laughs, tries to bribe Lois and Clark, and then decides to lock them up for now. He forces Lois to sign a "confession" that editor George Taylor is in on the slot machine racket by threatening Clark's life. But of course, by this point Clark has changed into Superman, and starts wrecking all the slot machines in the hideout. The gang's guns don't affect him, but when they hit him with gas, he decides to play unconcious "just for laughs". The men think they have him and attack him with axes, which all break. The men set the building on fire and run, but Superman rescues not only evidence from Kelly's vault, but Lois as well. The records will clear Taylor's good name, and Clark quickly memorizes all the information in the records to clear out the slot machines from all the stores and force Kelly to confess, ending the racket.

Campaign against the Planet
Alex Evell, shady Metropolis politician (if you couldn't tell by the last name), purchases the "Morning Pictorial" newspaper by threatening the publisher's wife and wids. Clark and Lois can't believe it. Evell uses the paper to push news that supports himi and his criminal cohorts (I'm amused by the writers, Peter Fib and I.M. Lyon). Clark goes after Evell in the paper, and Evell threatens Daily Planet publisher Burt Mason. Evell's men begin intimidation tactics against the Planet, including burning one of their news trucks, so it's up to Superman to defend the newspaper. The first half of the story is setup and plot, while most of the second half is taken up with scenes of Superman in action. Ultimately Evell resorts to kidnapping Lois so his men can gun down Superman when he arrives to rescue her. While his men are fighting Superman, he attempts to burn down the building and kill everyone inside. Superman of course is immune to all of this, and Evell's men turn on him and confess since he tried to kill them to get Superman.

[andersonh1]

Luthor's Incense Menace
Clark is sent to interview financial experts in Metropolis for their opinion on the current depression. He notices the smell of incense in many offices, and after leaving one expert's office, overhears him call someone and warn him about a nosy reporter. In respone, a plane attempts to bomb the Daily Planet building, but of course Superman stops that. After this we get a few pages of Clark in investigative reporter mode, trying to put the pieces together. He's caught but discovers a bust of Luthor. Thugs try to kill him by pushing him down an elevator shaft, but of course that just means it's time for Superman to make an appearance. He tracks one of the men named Mosely to a contact point with Luthor and captures him after dodging several death trops. He renders him unconcious, contorts his features to mimic his appearance (a power probably unique to this early version of Superman), and goes to meet Luthor in Mosely's stead. Superman ends Luthor's scheme, releasing the men from the hypnotic hold that the incense had on them and restoring the economy.

Luthor has a full head of gray hair in this story. And in trying to write up this brief summary, it strikes me just how much plot they cram into 12 pages.

[andersonh1]

Found the cover to Golden Age Batman vol. 7 on Amazon:



Nice cover (though Robin's R logo should be reversed since it's a reflection). I guess we get the original Red Hood story some time in this era? Interesting how that concept has stuck around in one form or another ever since that time. Covers the stories from Detective #154 to #173 (July 1951), Batman #56 to #66 (August 1951), and World's Finest #43 to #53 (August 1951).