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 #136
June 1948

The Dead Man's Chest!
It's time for some time-traveling pirate adventures as Batman and Robin go back in time to cross swords with Henry Morgan, thanks to Bruce seeing his own handwriting on a centuries-old treasure map. A lot of standard pirate literary conventions are here, including Batman walking the plank, swordfights with cutlasses, buried treasure and old treasure maps. Batman has to write down directions to the treasure because he injures Morgan's hand in a sword fight. But he wrote down incorrect directions, so in the present day the treasure is recovered for the museum who purchased the map. Time travel for fun and profit! As always, I enjoy these time travel adventure stories. Who knew there were so many of them?
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Detective Comics #137
July 1948

The Rebus Crimes!
This is another typical Joker runaround. This time he's basing his crimes around rebuses, word picture puzzles. I enjoyed the last few Joker stories, but this one is pretty formulaic and lacks the humor of the "greeting card" crimes which livened that one up. It's not bad, but it's not all that good either. A small character moment when the story references the Joker's interest in the unusual is the only real high point. And did that store owner seriously not recognize the Joker until he actually robbed him? The Joker does have a fairly distinctive appearance...

World's Finest Comics #35
July-August 1948

Crime by the Book!
The Penguin escapes from prison because he pretends to be writing a book about birds, and he includes his crime plans for his gang in coded language, as well as his plan for getting out of jail. Without an extremely gullible warden, this plot would have gone nowhere. I do enjoy seeing the Penguin run his gang even from prison, and he escapes by letting all the inmates out of their cells so he can escape in the mass confusion. Again, the story is a bit formulaic, but enjoyable enough. They really do overuse Joker and Penguin though. At least the vast majority of crooks Batman and Robin catch stay in prison.
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Batman #48
August-September 1948

The Fowls of Fate!
Batman and Robin get to enter and exist the prison at will, apparently. And while there they run across the Penguin, who is depressed about being caged. Batman advises him to go straight and life will get better. But the Penguin decides that his problem is not being a criminal, it's all those bird themed crimes he pulls off. So he resolves to turn over a new leaf, and commit crimes not involving birds! Not only does this plan predictably fail, as we get the typical "three crimes" seen in a story like this, but each time birds are in part responsible for foiling the crime, leading the Penguin to bemoan that fate is against him. In the end he's captured and is back in jail, depressed because he has no appetite for the chicken they're serving for dinner.

The 1,000 Secrets of the Batcave!
Killer Wolf Brando escapes from prison and goes on the run, and ends up hiding out in Bruce Wayne's house. Dick is the only one home, and while slugging him on the head from behind, Brando accidentally opens the clock that conceals the staircase down to the Batcave. Yep, Bruce's secret has been discovered by Brando. Meanwhile Bruce is visiting his friend Commissioner Gordon when the commissioner gets the call that it's believed the escaped convict has taken refuge in Wayne's house. After some secret ID problems when Gordon has Bruce come up on the roof while he flashes the bat-signal, Bruce assumes his Batman identity and enters the Batcave through the old barn and confronts Brando, who attempts to blackmail him. He wants the Batman costume so he can escape, promising in return not to reveal Bruce's secret. No deal, and a running fight through the Batcave occurs, with Batman using the tropies to save Robin's life and his knowledge of the surrounding cave systems to trick Brando. In the end, Brando is startled by bats and falls into a whirlpool that's part of an underground river, and he turns up dead on Gotham's east side. Bruce's secret is safe, and he says the Batcave itself defended them, guarding their secret.

This is the first time in years that anyone has remembered that Bruce and Gordon are friends, something that goes all the way back to the very first Batman story. I wonder if revisiting the origin is what reminded Bill Finger about that? It's way past time that the series gave us an extended view of the Batcave, and despite the odds against this convict stumbling upon the right location in the right house by accident, the story still works and gives Bruce a real dilemma to solve, though I figured Brando wouldn't make it out alive and was of course right.
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Batman #48 concluded

Crime From Tomorrow!
"Men from the future" start committing crimes in Gotham. Dressed in odd clothes, driving advanced vehicles and using advanced weapons, and the police think it's time traveling robbers. Of course Dick and Bruce are skeptical, but Bruce notes the robberies are real enough, so it's time to investigate. The advanced vehicle of the crooks gives them an advantage, but Batman tracks them down through the motor they had to have to make such a vehicle operational, then locates the inventor, James Lewes, and learns that he has in fact invented the very vehicles used in the crimes, but they're at the "World of the Future" fair. At the end of the day, the culprit is Morton, who is involved with running the fair, and Batman stops his crimes by jamming the remote control vehicles and pinning the crimes to him because his "future" goggles have the same corrective lenses he has in his eyeglasses.

Detective Comics #138
August 1948

The Invisible Crimes!
Dr. Walter Timmins "rediscovers" an invisibility elixir, and this being comics, it works as advertised. Professor J. O. Kerr (guess who) of the Science Club investigates, and steals the formula once it's proven to him to be true. The Joker turns himself invisible and goes on a crime spree. When theft doesn't work (since whatever he steals can be seen even if he can't) he turns to blackmail, using invisibility to ruin various sports matches for men who won't pay up. Batman sets a trap that douses the invisible Joker with ink, but he dives into the ocean and washes it off. In the end, Batman foils Joker's third crime, disrupting a parade, by turning invisible himself and taking the Joker down. We're back on form here, with the Joker enjoying himself immensely and keeping the story fun rather than feeling like another typical Joker runaround, even though it is fairly formulaic. Sometimes the formula works, sometimes it doesn't, but this one worked for me.
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Detective Comics #139
September 1948

The Crimes of Jade!
We haven't seen Chinatown in some time, probably since "The Secret of the Jade Box" in June 1941. There were three stories set there, and that was it, but the series returns to that location with this story about stolen jade and an attempt to mix domestic with imported jade by some criminals. Batman and Robin team up with Detective Ling Ho to solve the crime and arrest the murderers of Ling Ho's father. There is some mild stereotyping, but as in the earlier stories, the Chinese characters are largely treated well, and the villains turn out to be white men masquerading as Chinese. Robin gets a fun bit of action as he intercepts a knife thrown at Ling Ho with a wooden bat, saving the detective's life. Batman springs a trap when he catches two thugs because they don't understand Chinese names. A solid story, and it's nice to revisit this area of Gotham again.

World's Finest Comics #36
September-October 1948

Ship of Destiny!
Batman is shot in the shoulder (I really should have kept track of how many times he's taken a bullet) and needs recovery time. When he tries to go back into action sooner than Dick thinks he should, Dick books a cruise for Bruce and sends him out with orders to relax and recover. But of course we all know there will be trouble for Batman to deal with, and three individuals boarding the ship all have problems which lead to drama. There's a theft attempted, so Bruce goes into action as Batman and fakes being parachuted on board so he can investigate. Someone must have been reading up on the Titanic, because the cruise ship hits an iceberg and goes down, though everyone escapes on life rafts. There's a great shot of Batman and some fellow passengers on a raft, with icebergs all around and the stern of the ship sticking up as it goes down. In the end the crooks are captured, and the problems of the three people are solved so they can go on with their lives. I guess Bruce was right, he was recovered and ready to go back into action.
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Batman #49
October-November 1948

The Prison Doctor!
Dr. Paul Taber, Gotham prison physician, faces a board of inquiry for helping a prisoner escape. So he tells his story. He always wanted to be a doctor growing up. He enlisted during WW2 and after the war ended up being placed at Gotham Prison by the VA. Some inmates try to take advantage of the new doctor, while some genuinely appreciate him. One of his duties is to pronounce men dead after executions, and herein lies the story. Four crooks rob a bank, kill three policemen, and though they're caught by the police and Batman, the $480,000 they stole cannot be found. The crooks decide to use a "back door parole" to get out, which is a prison death certificate. Three of the men kill the fourth, get the death penalty, and then bribe the prison electrician to fix the electric chair. Nitro bribes Dr. Taber with $100,000 to pronounce him and the others dead and he agrees. When Nitro's "body" is taken out of the prison, he double crosses Dr. Taber, but the whole thing was a plan by Batman to let Nitro lead him to the stolen money, and Dr. Taber, the warden, and the prison electrician were in on the plan. Good story, and they don't sugarcoat the violence with police shot and killed on panel, and three seen dead under sheets, with execution by electric chair clearly in store for the three killers.

The Scoop of the Century!
Why is it everytime Bruce disappears, Batman appears?

Red-headed news photographer Vicki Vale makes her first appearance in the series when she arrives to photograph the members of Bruce Wayne's yacht club. Bruce hits on her and she shoots him down. He persists, but no luck. Enter the Mad Hatter, also making his debut, and he robs the club of a valuable gold trophy. Bruce waits his chance and then switches to Batman, chasing down the Hatter on a yacht, with Vicki inviting herself along to take pictures. The Hatter escapes, with Batman getting a cut on his chin during the fight. Of course that's going to be significant. Vicki's pictures are great, and she's assigned to photograph Batman and Robin in action. To get into the horse show to pursue a lead, Vicki accepts the date with Bruce after all, and notices a cut on his chin, which he blames on shaving. The Mad Hatter makes an appearance, Bruce again goes into action while Vicki isn't looking and the Hatter is foiled. But Vicki starts to put two and two together, and a pair of photos of Batman and Bruce confirm her suspicion that Bruce is Batman. She takes the occasion of a visit to the Batcave to get some powder that glows under blacklight on Batman's glove. When the final confrontation with the Hatter occurs, Vicki distracts him and Batman lands the final punch, capturing him. Bruce figured out Vicki's ploy and foils it, and she figures she must have been mistaken. But in the final panel Vicki thinks Bruce may have fooled her somehow, so he'll be seeing more of her in future.

Vicki gets a great debut story as a strong, independent career woman, though she's clearly inspired by Lois Lane, down to secret ID shenanigans, though she doesn't moon over Batman the way Lois does over Superman. Of course, Linda Page had a strong debut, and she disappeared after just a few stories. The writers can't seem to give Bruce a steady love life. We'll see how Vicki fares in future. The Mad Hatter doesn't make a big impression, apart from his appearance and gimmick of keeping various weapons in his hat. Batman and Robin even accuse him of trying to be like the Joker and Penguin by telegraphing his moves ahead of time. But it's nice to see another classic villain debut.
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Batman #49 concluded

There was an article in Direct Currents where the archivist mentioned they were having a hard time tracking down a good copy of this issue to scan and restore, so thankfully it appears they found one somewhere in time for it to be included in this volume.

Batman's Arabian Nights!
Bruce and Dick run across an old Persian rug from centuries ago with what appears to be the top half of the Joker's face on it. Naturally they can't resist solving this mystery, so it's off to see Professor Carter Nichols, who sends them back in time to ancient Bagdad. The image is not of the Joker, but the Crier, a Joker lookalike who cries all the time instead of laughing. We get what is essentially a standard Joker plot transplanted to ancient Bagdad as the Crier (who constantly says "boo hoo" and has tears streaming down his cheeks) has his gang run various crazy crime schemes. Oh, and lest I forget, Batman and Robin are responsible for creating the legends of a flying carpet when they build a silk glider and put a carpet over it to keep from ripping the silk.

This is one of the more bizarre time travel stories, and it's the second time Batman has run across a Joker look-alike in the past, with the first being the Jester back in Batman #24, in "It Happened in Rome", the original time travel story. There is some ambiguity about whether Bruce and Dick actually travel into the past, or whether it's all in their minds... it generally seems as though these things are actually happening to them, but then the way past individuals look like Joker or Catwoman leaves the reader to wonder. Probably best not to think about it too much. :)
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I meant to keep up with how many times Batman has been shot, so a word search of my story summaries gave me the following results:

- Detective Comics #29 - shot by Dr. Death's henchman
- Batman #2 - shot in the shoulder
- Batman #5 - shot multiple times (and Robin is beaten nearly to death)
- Batman #13 - shot while on a train
- Detective Comics #75 - shot in the arm
- Detective Comics #88 - shot in the arm, leaving him unable to stop Big Hearted John from falling to his death
- Batman #37 - Batman is shot in the knee and spends some time in the hospital
- World's Finest #27 - Batman is shot in the shoulder again
- Detective Comics #131 - Batman is shot again, requiring surgery to save his life.
- World's Finest #36 - Shot in the shoulder again!

Assuming I noted them all in my reviews, that's ten times that Bruce has taken a bullet.
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Detective Comics #140
October 1948

The Riddler!
Edward Nigma makes his debut in this issue. Nigma is a big fan of puzzles and passes himself off as an expert, but it's not necessarily because he's genuinely smarter than everyone else. He always cheats to win. He fixes the puzzles so he always solves them. At first he's happy with working in a carnival and making a living, but soon he decides he's smart enough to fool the police, and even Batman. It's clear from the start that he's in this for the thrills as much as the money, so he creates a costume and calls himself the Riddler, and starts immediately with leaving clues and riddles for Batman. Some of the riddles and reasoning needed to solve them could have been lifted directly from the Adam West version of Batman if it existed yet. And we get more giant props to set some of the action around, such as a giant jigsaw puzzle and a giant replica ear of corn. The Riddler comes out on top in every confrontation, and only loses in the end because Batman figures out a way out of a trap in a glass maze with a bomb that the Riddler had not anticipated him finding. "I've lost the game!" the Riddler shouts as his bomb goes off, another indication that he's in it because he enjoys the battle of wits. In the end, he appears to have drowned, but Batman thinks he may have survived, which of course he has, and we'll see him again soon.
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Detective Comics #141
November 1948

The Gallery of Public Heroes!
Gangster Blackie Nason is captured but breaks prison. His face is all over the wanted posters, so he gets a crooked plastic surgeon to give him a new face, then kills the surgeon and goes into the business of unearthing the visual identities of undercover cops, creating a "rogues gallery" for criminals, which he sells access to. When Batman is hot on his trail, Blackie decides he needs to make a big haul and get out of town, so he sells Batman's secret ID. Trouble is, he doesn't know it, but he randomly chooses Bruce Wayne for his scam, unwittingly picking the right guy. Batman manages to bluff the gangsters who come to kill Wayne (using the life sized dummy we've seen in the past) and then captures Blackie, ending his scheme.

World's Findest Comics #37
November-December 1948

The Underworld's Museum of Crime!
In an plot with some oddly similar elements to "The Gallery of Public Heroes", gangster T-Gun Jones is competed over by rival mobs, who take him to the "underworld museum" where they keep trophies from all their greatest crimes (otherwise known as a DA's dream haul of evidence!). T-Gun suggests the two gangs compete for his services by filling a waiting trophy case, reserved for Batman. Ultimately after an attempted trap and the capture of Robin, Batman is captured and imprisoned in the box, and then unmasked. And there's Bruce Wayne's face for all the underworld to see... but it's a mask, with another face underneath. After letting the crooks see the false face, Batman breaks out and he and Robin go to town on the collection of crooks, taking them down and capturing T-gun. Afterwards Bruce reveals that he knew they were trying to use Robin to trap him, so he walked into the trap prepared to deal with it. It's amusing to think that Bruce has both a life-sized dummy of himself and rubber masks of his face. Surely associating Bruce with Batman is a dangerous thing to do, though it makes for a good unmasking scene when all the crooks can't believe Batman is the foppish playboy Bruce Wayne... only to "learn" he isn't. Plot and logic holes aside, this was a fun one.
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