Retro Comics are Awesome

A general discussion forum, plus hauls and silly games.
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andersonh1
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Re: Retro Comics are Awesome

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Detective Comics #163
September 1950

The Men Who Feared Metal!
Script: ? Pencils: Jim Mooney Inks: Charles Paris

Oh, one little thing I forgot to tell you, Batman. Robin's being held in an iron cage. Ha! Ha! Ha!

Batman and Robin have finally caught up with "Slippery Jim" Elgin, the man of a 1000 faces and are chasing him down the sidewalk. As they're passing the Baxter Experimental Laboratory, a scientist runs out warning that an experiment has gone out of control. Seconds later the whole front of the building explodes, hurling debris at Batman, Robin and the crooks. Batman is down and Elgin is badly wounded, but his men get him away before Batman recovers. It's bad news for Elgin, a sliver of metal has lodged itself close to his brain, too close to operate, and it's magnetic. Any metal that comes near it will cause it to move. Now if this crook was Tony Stark, he could build an Iron Man suit to keep the shrapnel away from vital organs, and in fact Elgin does attempt a solution not all that far off: he has protective headgear made, and the art even shows some kind of battery or power source attached to it.

Elgin being the die-hard crook that he is can't give up crime, so he tries to work his disguises around the headgear. But the power source interferes with the police radio and gives him away, so he abandons it. Batman finds it and after examination determines that it sets up an anti-magnetic field and they can't figure out why. Elgin meanwhile tries to go on with his life of crime by avoiding anything metal, but obviously it's a fools errand, because there is metal everywhere. The whole situation becomes a nightmare for Elgin since he can't use a car, and even a hobo offering him a can of beans drives him crazy. It's almost surreal, and Elgin blames Batman for his situation of course, not his own choices.

He and his men manage to trap Batman, but rather than just kill him as his men urge him to do, Elgin wants Batman to suffer. He explains the whole thing, that he's at the point where any more contact with metal will be fatal due to the metallic shrapnel in his head. He puts a collar on Batman's neck that contains explosive that will (somehow) detonate if Batman goes near metal, and to top it off, he's got Robin imprisoned on the other side of town, and Batman only has three hours to find him before Robin dies. Batman finds him with one minute left and as he approaches the cage the collar explodes... but Batman is alive and well, having returned to the Batcave and figured out a way to remove the bomb collar, substituting a fake one to catch the crooks by surprise. How he did all of this in three hours without getting near the metal-filled Batmobile and still worked out where Robin was being imprisoned is left unexplained. Elgin dies when he attempts to steal an opera hat to disguise himself for another getaway, not knowing that the hat had a metal spring inside that allowed it to collapse.

This is a story with a genuinely sadistic and unrepentant villain who causes his own death, and has a bit of an old school Batman macabre atmosphere to it at times, where a horrible crook suffers from a weird malady and takes it out on the world. The idea of being forced to avoid all metal is an interesting dilemma, because of course it just can't be done... metal is everywhere all around us in our daily lives. If Elgin wasn't such a nasty character we'd almost sympathize with the nightmare his life has become, but he's utterly unsympathetic. This was a good one.
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Re: Retro Comics are Awesome

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World's Finest Comics #48
October-November 1950

Song of Crime!
Writer: Bill Finger Pencils: Lew Sayre Schwartz and Bob Kane Inker: Sy Barry

Composer Joseph Macklas has written a march dedicated to Batman and Robin, and he invites Batman to be the guest conductor. But the Joker crashes the show and promises "a song of crime" in response. And so every crime involves some sort of musical tone. There's a strange scene change in the middle of the story where Batman and Robin are apparently crushed by a giant bust of Beethoven but turn up in the Batcave unharmed with no explanation. There are tons of giant props to base action scenes around, which seems to be a Bill Finger trademark. The plot mechanics aren't really worth summarizing, other than to say this is one of the weaker Joker stories. I found myself skimming some of the panels, as the events really just did not engage me.
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Re: Retro Comics are Awesome

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Batman #61
October-November 1950

The Birth of Batplane II!
Writer: David Vern Pencils: Dick Sprang Inker: Charles Paris

With a cover that copies the new Batmobile cover down to the red background, green chalkboards and even the position of Batman and Robin as they work, we get a repeat of the same concept we got in Detective 156, back in February 1950. It's time to upgrade another of the bat-vehicles, this time the Batplane, because crooks have stolen the original and created more of them, so a new and improved model is needed to combat Batman's tech in criminal hands.

I always take note when World War 2 comes up, and once again we have a guest character whose wartime service plays into the story."Flying Tiger" Haggerty is turned down for a piloting job by Gotham Airlines due to his age and health, despite his wartime record of shooting down 22 Japanese planes and the wide range of planes he has experience with. Robin remembers meeting him at a bond drive during the war. He and Batman are helping the military test a new weapon, a "vacuum blanket" that kills the motor on a plane, but it somehow interferes with the controls of the Batplane. Batman aims it for the ocean and bails out, but a high wind pushes it back inland where it crash lands, mostly intact, near an airfield run by the Boley brothers as a front for their smuggling ring. The are delighted to have it and plan to build two more just like it.

Meanwhile Bruce and Dick design and build a new plane, so add aircraft engineering and construction to their many talents. The Boleys find their pilot: Haggerty, who they deceive with a cover story, because he's no crook. But when they finally pull a hit and run diamond robbery using the Batplane, they threaten his family down in Mississippi if he doesn't cooperate. There's a great aerial dogfight with the three old model Batplanes against the new and improved version. Batman gets out of it by trickery, and the next time around uses the vacuum blanket to take on the other planes one by one. The new batplane also converts to a submarine and helicopter (the latter is something we saw the original do from time to time). We saw the "plane to submarine" idea once before in World's Finest Comics #25, November-December 1946, but it never turned up again. Batman captures the whole gang and Haggerty admits that his flying days are over, but Batman promises to find him a job somewhere in aviation.

400th Batman story.
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Re: Retro Comics are Awesome

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Justice League: Darkseid War volumes 1 and 2

It's New 52! But it's Darkseid vs. the Anti-Monitor! It must be good, right? Well, no, not really. I like Geoff Johns as a writer, but this book is full of his worst excesses, from the casual brutality to the way characters talk to taking familiar characters and objects and doing something new with them that seems obvious in retrospect. Some of it works, some of it doesn't, but on the whole it's just an unpleasant to read package of grimness and death. Yeah, it's a war, so-called, so some of that is to be expected, but the unpleasantness crops up in many aspects of the story that go beyond the fight.

The Anti-Monitor is diminished badly in this story and badly used. Turns out in this continuity he was originally named Mobius, and built or owned the Mobius chair used by Metron of the New Gods. He somehow found the anti-life equation that Darkseid has always been after, and that turned him into the Anti-Monitor. If he kills Darkseid, he can revert back to who he was... which is a humanoid villain controlling a shadow demon army who loves to kill things up close and personal. It all seems so ... beneath ... this massive cosmic villain who was behind what is arguably still DC's most successful and defining crossover event, one which they've never managed to quite equal since, despite trying numerous times.

The "children we never knew about" trope comes up multiple times. Darkseid had a daughter with an Amazon, a daughter named Grail who has much of his power. Wonder Woman has a twin brother we find out at the end of the story. Grail is one of the prime movers for all the events of the story. We also get a sequel to Forever Evil as the Crime Syndicate return and Superwoman has her baby, which in one of the more deeply unpleasant and tasteless parts of the book has the ability to absorb the powers of those around him, with Superwoman using him like a siphon to de-power those around him. There's some gratuitous nudity as Grail walks around naked at one point for no explained reason.

The Darkseid/Anti-Monitor fight is surprisingly short, with the Anti-Monitor killing Darkseid by using the Black Racer. With Darkseid's death, the cosmos is disrupted and various Justice League members gain the powers of the "gods" as a result, which affects them all in various ways before they return to normal by the end of the story. Batman spends much of the story in the Mobius chair, learning all sorts of useful things. Flash is merged with the Black Racer to become the god of death. "Shazam" loses the connection to his usual pantheon and gains one to other gods. Superman and Luthor end up on Apokolips where Luthor tosses him into one of the fire pits to try and recharge his fading powers, resulting in a reverse image, power-mad Superman (and as an aside, I really do not like New 52 Superman. What a jerk, and not in an entertaining way). Despite narrating most of the story, Wonder Woman plays only a very small role in moving the plot along, and so does Hal Jordan.

At the end of the story Owlman has obtained possession of the Mobius chair, only to be killed by what is implied to be an unseen Dr. Manhattan, because the end of this story runs right up to the beginning of Rebirth. Superman finds out he's dying thanks to what the fire pit energy did to his cells, leading to the death of New 52 Superman and his replacement by the post-Crisis version from Convergence. The art is generally good throughout, but I would have to say that this story is the epitome of the worst excesses of New 52 continuity and storytelling, and is not very good. At least I've learned why the Mobius chair is sitting unattended in Flash Forward #1, but I could have flipped to the last page and learned that. If you like really dark superhero comics, this one might be for you, but I can't honestly say I enjoyed much about it.
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Re: Retro Comics are Awesome

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Wow... I'd forgotten they went this route. Guess that goes to show how forgettable this story turned out to be.

Whatever happened to Wonder Woman's twin brother? I'm pretty sure they quickly killed him off (which seems like a waste to introduce a character just to killed them off immediately)... But I'm not really finding any confirmation on that.
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Re: Retro Comics are Awesome

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I remember reading something about Wonder Woman's brother, but it does sounds like one of those short-lived plotlines that's since been abandoned. I'm not sure what the status of the character is.

Batman #61 concluded:

The Mystery of the Winged People!
Writer: Bill Finger Pencils: Dick Sprang Inker: Charles Paris

A new Gotham prison is established for this story (and will probably never be seen again): Summit Penitentiary, a prison on top of a rocky mesa near the city. The height is meant to make it escape proof, but the Penguin imitates Icarus and builds a pair of wings in the workshop and glides to freedom, planning not to lie low, but to go right back to his criminal lifestyle. And naturally he has to taunt Batman with clues, sent to Gordon's office. The first crime fails, the second and third robberies succeed nicely for the Penguin, who then kidnaps Robin. The Penguin then has Batman picked up, forcing him to either unmask or watch Robin die at the hands of a caged lion in the next room behind a closed door. Batman removes his mask to reveal his true face, and the Penguin recognizes him as Bruce Wayne.But Batman has one last trick up his sleeve. Batman reveals that he realized the Penguin's plan, and the Penguin wonders why he would then walk into his trap, and notices make-up grease on Bruce's face. The Penguin decides that this means that Batman isn't Wayne after all, he's just disguised as him. And Batman, having (correctly) guessed that it's not actually a lion, proceeds to beat the tar out of the Penguin and his gang, rounding them all up. He had secretly applied grease to his face on the way to the hideout, having worked out what Penguin's final clue meant.

This is not the first time Bruce has let crooks see his real face, only to then trick them into believing he's just in disguise as Wayne. He pulled the same trick back in the underworld crime museum story in World's Finest Comics #37 from November-December 1948, though he used a rubber mask in that story. But the trick was the same. It's good to see the standard formula changed up a bit with this story, and it's amusing to see the Penguin complain that the only thing he's learned about Batman by the end of the story is that "he's not Bruce Wayne."

The Wheelchair Crimefighter!
Writer: Bill Finger? Pencils: Lew Sayre Schwartz and Bob Kane Inker: Charles Paris

A lucky shot by a crook severs Batman's rope and he falls three stories, injuring his legs. A visit to nearby Dr. Chubb and an x-ray confirms that both legs have fractures, and Batman will be in casts for three months. Chubb later calls Gordon and reveals that crooks think he saw Batman's real face and are after him, so Gordon puts his house under guard. Meanwhile Bruce notes to Dick that when he was shot in one shin, he was only out of action a month, and that this is much worse.

Enter secret ID trouble as Vicki Vale is determined to prove that Bruce is Batman. He's in the steam cabinet in his gym when she arrives so his broken legs are hidden, but she sets up a date to go dancing, where there will be no hiding the truth. But in the meantime, Gordon needs Batman, who heads out in a wheelchair to meet with the commissioner, where he and Robin learn that the gangster they've been tracking had plastic surgery, and the doctor who did the surgery is blackmailing the gang. Long story short, Dr. Chubb is the blackmailing plastic surgeon, and Batman's legs were never broken, which Robin realized when thought about the fact that the shin injury Bruce mentioned was not visible in the x-rays. Chubb hid the incriminating film in Batman's cast, planning to retrieve it when the casts were removed. Everything ties together pretty well in the end, and Robin gets to use his deductive skills for once, and he forces Bruce to realize that he's still able to walk after he busts up the casts and tells him to get moving. It's rare that we see Dick out-think Bruce in these stories, but he does so here.
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Re: Retro Comics are Awesome

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Detective Comics #164
October 1950

Untold Tales of the Bat-Signal!
Script: ? Pencils: Lew Sayre Schwartz and Bob Kane Inker: Charles Paris

After stories about the Batmobile and Batplane, it's interesting that the writers would turn to the Bat-Signal as the next bit of Batman's crime-fighting technology to get the spotlight (pun intended) since it's usually immobile and sitting on top of the police station, and 99% of the time does nothing but summon Batman. But here we get some different uses for it as the editor of the Gotham City Gazette, looking for a new angle on Batman, sends reporter Dave Purdy out to find out how the bat-signal "changed people's destiny". Purdy interviews Gordon, Vicky Vale and Batman himself, getting stories about the bat-signal being used to find a policeman who had fallen into Gotham bay, save Vicki's life when she used it to signal Batman after some crooks stole it, lead some boy scouts trapped in a forest fire to safety due to how bright it is, and project an image of a wanted crook high into the sky for all to see. We even get a panel with a blueprint detailing all the technical specifications of the new and improved bat-signal, just as we did with the batmobile and batplane. In the end, Batman is able to use it to blind a crook trying to kill him. He's shot (that's #14) but is able to shine the signal in the guy's eyes, and Dave Purdy slugs him, taking him down.

This is a good "series of vignettes" type of story, and it's also one of a number that has appeared around the same time that fleshes out aspects of Batman's world. We'll see more stories coming up where not just tech, but supporting characters and villains have details revealed in a way that we have not seen in the series so far.
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Detective Comics #165
November 1950

The Strange Costumes of Batman!
Script: Edmond Hamilton Pencils: Dick Sprang Inker: Charles Paris

The cover of this book is a continuity-fest (that isn't 100% faithful) as we revist "The North Pole Crimes" (World's Finest Comics #7, Autumn 1942), "The Strange Case of Professor Radium" (Batman #8, December 1941-January 1942), "Crimes of the Future" (confirmed in story as "Batman in the Future from Batman #59 June-July 1950 since he wore a space-suit in that story) and "The Modern Midas" (apparently an unseen adventure invented for this story). I don't recall Batman wearing any sort of special suit for the Professor Radium story, and my guess is that Hamilton was just going off memory or else figuring that readers would not care for slight inaccuracies. Those aside, this is a good opportunity to remember that Batman as a character has built a long history at this point. Eleven years and over 400 stories and still going strong is no small feat at a time when most other DC superheroes had fallen by the wayside, or soon would. It's no surprise to see the writers looking back for inspiration.

Bruce and Dick make an inventory of their equipment and supplies, with a look at Batman's many costumes being the last stop, and this leads to some reminiscing about past cases, including the ones from the cover and a few others, before noting the "last and strangest of all", a costume they've never used and which Bruce hopes they never will. It has a black bird on the front rather than a bat, and it's not hard to guess where this might be going. Meanwhile a new gang is in town, led by Dr. Robert Darcy, who boasts that Batman is no match for his scientific skill. His crime wave begins, and interestingly whatever room of Bruce's house that he and Dick are in gives a clear view of Gotham City and the bat-signal, as well as the "Monarch State" building (a stand-in for the Empire State building of course) from which giant flames can be seen. I have to admit that talk of people trapped in the skyscraper "above the fire" made me think of the World Trade Center burning, because this would be comparable to that real life event. Thankfully in Batman's fictional world, he and Robin are able to scale the outside of the building and bypass jammed elevators, and rout the crooks who started the fires and who were robbing the building while wearing asbestos suits. The fire is put out and lives are saved, but the crooks get away.

Batman saw Darcy's face through the visor of his asbestos suit and is able to identify him. They work out where he'll be next and stop a skyjacking, but while Batman is apparently sent falling to his death, another costume saves him, one with glider-wings built in. Despite surviving, Darcy's gang are successful in several robberies causing public fear, with Gordon asking Batman to reassure the public because "they believe in you!". Batman is a trusted public figure now, and clearly the vigilante who keeps to the shadows is long gone. Yet another specialty bat-costume, one built for underwater use, is employed to get near a waterfront estate they suspect is the gang's hideout. But Batman pushes his luck too far when he hides in the trunk of the gang's car, Darcy figures it out because Batman left a trail of water behind from his swim in the bay (an uncharacteristically careless move on Batman's part) and shoots Batman through the trunk (that makes 15). They dump him on the dock, and when Robin finds him he's afraid he's dead, but the doctor assures him Batman will pull through.

It's time to use the never-before used costume set up at the beginning of the story, and when Batman appears at the latest crime scene, the crooks are shocked that Batman is not badly wounded after all. They're equally shocked that the poison gas they've released to keep the police away while they attempt their latest crime while wearing gas masks does not affect him. Driven toward police lines and out of the gas by Batman who is steering their getaway truck, they surrender. Back at the Batcave, the secret is revealed: a suit molded in foam rubber to fit Robin, equipped with a respirator, allowing him to appear as a full-grown adult and impersonate Batman if the need should ever arise.

I had more to say about this story than I anticipated. It's essentially based around a gimmick that reminds me of the way the same Batman action figure is given a new paint scheme and sold again as a "specialty costume", but it's not half bad despite that.There are more of these "looking inward" stories in this volume than we've seen in the past as the writers start to examine Batman and his world more closely. I think after a decade it became harder to find new things to write about and new enemies for Batman to face, so the ways in which he fights crime become fodder for stories. Last but not least, this is the first time we see Dick Grayson take Bruce Wayne's place as Batman, an idea that will be revisited again and again in future. I found a lot more to enjoy in this story than I expected.
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World's Finest Comics #49
December 1950-January 1951

A White Feather for Batman!
Writer: David Vern Art: Dick Sprang

A white feather given for cowardice is not a practice I was familiar with. Turns out it apparently originated in England during World War 1. According to wikipedia, "In the United Kingdom and the countries of the British Empire since the eighteenth century it has been used a symbol of cowardice, used by patriotic groups, including prominent members of the Suffragette movement and early feminists, in order to shame men into enlisting." The story makes it clear what the phrase means so my unfamiliarity was not a barrier to following the plot by any means, but it's nice to know the history behind it.

The Penguin has escaped from jail, but is having trouble recruiting hired help. One of the gangsters reads an editorial promising that Batman will quickly recapture the Penguin. "Batman has never shown the white feather to any criminal and never will!" Penguin is not impressed, but the phrase gives him an idea about how he can humiliate Batman. He sends a letter to Batman, care of Commissioner Gordon, and the letter contains a white feather and a note which accuses Batman of just pretending to be fearless. He intends to prove that Batman is a coward. The contents of the note make it into the press. What follows are a series of notes (with little drawings!) from the Penguin to Batman warning him about what could happen. His rope could break and cause him to fall to his death, or he could get shot, or Robin could die. And sure enough Batman begins to second guess himself. He's bothered by heights. He tires easily. In trying and failing to stop Penguin's various crimes, Batman is finally humiliated in front of a crowd at an archery tournament and faints, with the Penguin tossing him the promised white feather.

But Robin is able to punch out the crooks and stop the Penguin from escaping. He's been baffled this whole time by Batman's behavior, but Batman himself finally worked it out. The feather had been infected with a disease that produced symptoms of headache, fever, weakness, fainting... all the apparent signs that Batman was losing his nerve. The Penguin timed his whole crime spree around the length of time it would take for the disease to really take hold, all in an attempt to make Batman look bad in front of Gotham City.

This was a fun story. It broke with the usual formula and did something new with the Penguin, so that was welcome. And his taunting notes to Batman along with similar dialogue are great fun. It's obvious that Batman is not really losing his nerve and cracking up, so half the fun is trying to figure out just how the Penguin did what he did to make Batman act that way. And just like in "The Wheelchair Crimefighter" and "The Strange Costumes of Batman", when he's not at his best, Robin is able to step up and take the lead. This was one of the better Penguin stories in a long time.
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Batman #62
December 1950-January 1951

The Secret Life of the Catwoman
Writer: Bill Finger Pencils: Lew Sayre Schwartz and Bob Kane Inker: Charles Paris

Catwoman Returns! Batman's feline foe in a Daring New Role!

I think this time the cover hype is justified. Over a decade after the character first appeared, Catwoman finally gets an origin story. But the story doesn't start out about her, it begins with a new gang boss in Gotham, Mr. X. A large man in a suit and hat who wears a mask draped over his entire face to conceal his identity, Mr. X is pleased with how things are going so far, but for future robberies he wants to enlist the Catwoman. He breaks her out of jail and explains that he doesn't want a murder rap pinned on him or his men, and since she's skilled in theft while avoiding killing, if she'll pull the crimes, he'll split the loot 50-50. Catwoman agrees. While discussing the plans with Mr. X's second in command, Dipper, they have to run off Mousey, a pest of a crook who has a reputation for cowardice, when he begs to join Mr. X's gang.

Catwoman later heads out to scope out the location of the first robbery, only to be seen almost immediately by Batman and Robin, who had an idea where her hideout might be. Catwoman was prepared and sics a bad tempered cat on Robin while Batman chases her down. As they pass a condemned building, a section of wall collapses, and while Catwoman, who saw it start to fall, briefly considers that she'll be free if it kills Batman, instead pushes him out of the way, saving his life but taking a blow to the head from a falling brick. Seeing that she needs medical treatment, Batman and Robin take her to the Batcave (instead of a hospital?). And here's where the origin story comes in.

Catwoman wakes up, unsure where she is, or why the calendar says 1950 when that should be years away. She's Selina Kyle, a flight stewardess for Speed Airlines, and the last thing she remembers is hitting her head during a plane crash. Now if it was me, I'd be suspicious of the story, but Batman accepts it. He shows her various slides of her in action as Catwoman taken from newsreel footage, and Selina is horrified. The cat obsession came from memories of her father's pet shop and learning all about cats from him. They take her to Commissioner Gordon who also accepts the story. And more to the point, they enlist her help to trap Mister X, making Catwoman an undercover agent for the Gotham Police. She agrees, but she's done once Mr. X is captured.

The remainder of the story deals with her undercover operations to help catch Mr. X, the complications when Mousey finds out that she's switched sides, and concerns over whether he change of heart is genuine. In the end, it turns out to be entirely genuine, and Mousey is Mr. X in disguise. At the end of the story, Selina declares that the Catwoman has retired, but Batman thinks the services of Catwoman, police operative, may be needed again.

Whatever the problems with the easy acceptance of the amnesia explanation, I quite liked this story. Catwoman has generally been shown to be far less ruthless than Joker or Penguin, the other primary recurring Batman villains, and having her genuinely decide to end a life of crime and reform is believable in a way it wouldn't be for the others, as well as something new for one of Batman's major villains. She's clearly being set up here as a costumed hero rather than a villain, with future appearances in this new role hinted at. And we finally get Selina Kyle as her name... it's amazing to me that we could go for a decade not knowing just who "Catwoman" actually is, but I guess it just wan't important at the time. It was a different kind of storytelling.
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