[Comics]: Detective Comics #39, [untitled]

Publication date: May 1940
Author: Bob Kane

A change has taken place. Batman is now "The Sensational Adventures of Batman with Robin, the Boy Wonder".

But the stories are much the same. This one begins with the abduction of two millionaires off the street, and the incidental murder of a chauffeur via hatchet to the forehead. The next day, Dick shows Bruce the article in the paper.

Uh-oh. Looks like it's time for "Batman: Uncomfortably Racist Edition".

The ad in the paper Dick mentions is set in Chinese-looking type, and reads: "Batman. A friend needs your help. Come at once!" Bruce decides this is a message from Wong, unofficial mayor of Chinatown, who helped Batman a few cases back. He tells Dick to stay at home, and it is Batman who goes calling on his old friend.

Sigh.

"Mayor" Wong quickly briefs Batman on the existence of a new criminal gang known as the Green Dragon who have been selling opium to the residents of Chinatown. He tells Batman to come back tomorrow night for  information about the Green Dragon's residence and leadership--but unbeknownst to both Chinese caricature and racist superhero, somebody is watching. Specifically, this guy:

Sigh.

The next night, Batman prepares to go back to Wong, but first he has to put off Dick. (I swear, I'm not trying to do this.) He tells Dick to stay home unless he's not back in a few hours, and heads out. In Chinatown, however, things go quickly awry. Wong is dead, victim of a hatchet to the back of the skull, and Batman narrowly avoids the same fate. Finally the comic reveals what it calls "the dreaded Chinese hatchet men!"
Ugh.

Anyways, Batman fights the two villains, eventually grappling one out the window, down the roof, and finally off the ledge entirely. The two freefall through space, Batman's fall thankfully being stopped by... the body of the other guy. Ouch. Batman's alive, but unconscious.

Enter junior. Robin, curious to see what's up, goes to Wong's office. He sees the same clue Batman did earlier--before he died, Wong, managed to scratch "pier 3" on his desk--but unlike Batman, Robin isn't waylaid by slant-eyed yellow-faces (ugh) and so heads there immediately.

The surviving minion in the office regains consciousness after Robin leaves, and, also seeing no Batman, assumes he was captured, and heads to the headquarters of the Green Dragon gang. Which happens to be a schooner on Pier 3.

I'd like to point out a couple of things here about Robin's costume. Batman's costume is black, gray, and blue; his ears and cape evoke the shape of a bat, especially in the air. The mask covers most of his face. His identity is protected, his costume is strange and frightening, and his color scheme means he is often camouflaged at night, crucial to the way he detects and fights crime.

Robin's costume is green, red, and yellow, evoking Robin Hood and, well, a circus performer. His mask only covers his eyes, which is much less secure. (Especially when you consider that Robin often goes undercover, as he did in his origin story, sans makeup, whereas Batman usually wears a disguise.) The colors are bright, especially his giant flapping yellow cape, which leads directly to Chinese murderers easily spotting him in the middle of the night. Basically, I don't think you could design a worse vigilante costume without the addition of wearable neon signage.

Also, those short-shorts are way too short for a child to be wearing, especially at midnight on the docks. But that's neither here nor there. Anyways, back to our story.

Robin is taken to the lair of the Green Dragon, where he awakens to find the kidnapped millionaires and the leader of the gang, who sits on a giant ornate throne. The gang leader disses Robin's costume for being "peculiar" and "very different", which I assume is polite 1940s language for "You are disturbingly fashionable for a small boy", and then threatens to torture the kid for information about the Batman. Robin refuses bravely.

No crime lord is this amused by anything. Clearly he's getting high on his own supply.

First the leader suggests a sword fight. They give Robin a sword and set him an opponent...

"Robin woke up in cold sweats. As he rolled over and tried to go back to sleep, two questions haunted him. What could the dream have meant? And why was he so aroused?"

Dick's wood is quickly cut down to size by the real one (I swear, it's not my fault!), but he's able to defeat his opponent by pulling out his sling and firing a steel pellet at the dude's forehead.

At this point, showing up at a rare moment (before he is actually needed), Batman re-enters the fray, armed with one-liners ("Good evening, friend. But then again, IS IT?" ...okay, so maybe his brains are still rattled from the fall).

Can I just say that, racism aside, the idea of rendering the speech of the Chinese gang members as bubble-less floating single Chinese characters is really really cool?

Anyways, Batman uses that mighty swing to kick a Chinaman in the face. The leader of the Green Dragon shouts that he's only one man, they can take him!, thereby violating rule 46 of the Evil Overlord list. As his men rush to attack the Batman, he uses his great strength to topple the throne room's giant green idol, smashing it down on the gang members, resulting in a horrible pile of twisted broken bodies. Then he turns his attention back to the leader.

Fatty? Now that's just uncalled for.

Finally, after a full two pages of gleefully beating up foreigners, Batman remembers that there's a child somewhere around here, and wonders if he might be in trouble.

Turns out he's fine, though. Robin's having a grand old time punching dirty immigrants in their dirty immigrant faces. Batman's face shines with father-figurely pride.

Then he gets around to untying the millionaires, who explain the cleverness behind the Green Dragon's plan: "Yes, he said the police would probably hunt for white gangsters and never suspect a Chinese kidnapping, very smart." You might think that sounds silly, but remember where you are. This is a town whose police were foiled by fog because they're just so damned lazy. They probably got through the white suspects, got tired, took a donut break and then forgot what they were doing.

Batman explains that, unlike the police, he's racist enough to figure it all out:

Okay, Batman. We get it. They're from China. Calm down.

Dramatic irony aside... I don't think we've seen Bruce's fiance since he rescued her from werewolves, which begs a few questions:

1. Has she fully recovered from being hypnotized, kidnapped, and nearly eaten?
2. Is she aware that Bruce has "adopted" a ten year old boy?
3. What will this mean for their relationship?
4. Werewolves?!

Whatever. All's well that ends well: all of Chinatown reveres the Batman as the one who saved them from the grip of opium addiction, and Wong is... still dead. It's okay, though, at least a lot of Chinese gang members were successfully beaten or smooshed.

Thus ends this week's episode of "Batman: Uncomfortably Racist Edition". Next week: "Only an Italian could have committed this knife-murder!"

(Actually, our real next issue features the introduction of Clayface! Tune in! Same Bat-time, same Bat-blog.)

[Comics]: Detective Comics #38, "Robin the Boy Wonder and How He Became the Ally of the Batman"

Publication date: April 1940
Author: Bob Kane

Well, this is it. Batman has jumped the shark. It's all downhill from here, all 70 years of blog. Friggin' Robin.

No, actually, Robin does a lot for Batman. I mean, Batman's job is very long and very hard, and Robin's always there to help him take care of--no! No, I swore I wouldn't succumb to this. I will review these comics without dwelling on possible homosexual subtexts. Which aren't there. Not. There.

Robin actually does do a lot for Batman comics. First of all, he provides a Watson to Batman's Holmes, taking some of the exposition onus off the narrator and thereby allowing stories to flow much easier. The strong, silent superhero might be appealing, but it makes it hard to show what he's thinking and planning without resorting to poor storytelling techniques. Although I did enjoy some earlier comics in which this silence helped make Batman much more mysterious, I recognize that that's a limited vein of storytelling.

Second, Robin helps to humanize Batman's character somewhat. By taking an orphan boy under his wing (creepy as that may be in some ways), Batman seems a little more normal. Human relationships and all. And with somebody who doesn't have a goatee! We'll later see that having a kid around leads to a bit more domesticity in his life. Up until now, Bruce Wayne is just kind of the mask that Batman wears in the daytime, but with Robin around, the two interact and have breakfast and make fun and basically act like two people, albeit two very odd immature people.

Third, Robin is even better than Batman at getting at the escapist fantasies of the children who originally read this comic. Batman is the child's idea of an adult: he can buy whatever he wants, fight without consequence, he's strong, he's Good (versus Evil), he stays up all hours of the night, and he even gets to dress up when it's not Halloween. The kid reader's relationship to Batman is: That's the guy I want to grow up to be.

Robin is one step closer. That's the guy any kid wants to be right now. Not only is Robin strong and skilled, but look at his situation: he gets most of the adult fantasy elements (dressing up, staying up all night, fighting crime) with the addition of an awesome, exceptionally permissive father/brother figure who lets him stay up night, fight crime, and so on. And as we'll see in later stories, not only does he hang out with Batman, he gets to rescue him all the time. What could beat that, for a kid?

--

Robin's origin story.

This story has always carried with it some absurdity: the Flying Grayson family, mother, father, and son all leaping from one trapeze to the next under the big tent, only to be the victims of a protection racket trying to extort money from the circus. The finest moment, tragic and bizarre, is probably this image:

You gotta love the weeping clowns.

But what make this origin poignant and mythic as well as strange are the clear parallels, acknowledged within the comic, between Dick Grayson and a young Bruce Wayne. Both boys lose their parents to a senseless, almost random crime committed for money. Batman is drawn to this case and this child explicitly because they remind him of his own tragedy, and implicitly because this is a chance for little boy Bruce, now all grown up, costumed and strong, to get his own revenge.

Dick Grayson, newly orphaned and impressionable as all hell, vows to kill the people who murdered his parents. It's only the timely intervention of Batman, with his demonstration of another way--a lifetime of vigilantism--that sways Grayson's course. The boy requests to follow Batman's example, and Batman, moved by the boy's troubles and obvious similarities to his own case, agrees to make Grayson his "aid". At least he warns him of the danger, first....

It's just like the boy scouts!

Cue the training montage.

It's as short as Batman's originally was, however. As I recall that one had Bruce learning science and then lifting weights. Here an unmasked Bruce Wayne teaches Grayson boxing and jujitsu, and establishes that the kid already knows more gymnastics than he does. Finally the process is complete, and a scared, orphaned kid has been transformed into Robin, the Boy Wonder!

But the story isn't done yet. Revenge still waits. Robin leaves the city for the town where his parents got killed, going undercover as a newsboy. Within a day, he's being pressed by the same protection racket that went after the circus. He pretends to be scared, pays up, and then trails them back to their employer, the underworld boss running his racket on the entire town:

I love this grotesque caricature of the greedy criminal Boss Zucco, worthy of Dick Tracy. He's not only smoking a cigar, he's also hot under the collar. And the repetition of the (heavily accented, in my imagination) "see" just sells his odious monologue. Here's a guy we'll have no problem seeing beaten to a pulp by a child in a costume.

Now that Robin's told Batman who's behind this mess, Batman does a beautiful thing: he turns the protection racket's methods back on themselves. Batman goes all over town, beating up anybody asking for protection money, and then telling them to carry the message back to the boss. This goes on, very entertainingly, for at least a page and a half, including a scene where Batman bursts into one of Zucco's illicit casinos and tosses a roulette table around, which leads to the patrons scrambling to pick up the chips. And just when Zucco is fuming, Batman mails him an actual bat in a box, with a note telling Zucco to get out of town, and specifically not to come near the under construction Canin Building.

Of course that's precisely where the enraged Zucco goes. Once the boss and his men are up in the half-completed building, Robin swings into action--literally. He uses a sling at one point--the author is very fond of telling us that Robin fighting adult crooks is like the Biblical story of David and Goliath--but for the most part it's the acrobatics his family taught him, coupled with Batman's fighting skills, which serve him here. He's swinging off ropes, flying around girders, and kicking several people right off the building. And when it looks bad--Zucco pulls a gun on the kid--Batman is there to save the day, swinging in feet first and kicking Zucco right in his ugly face.

Batman does another of his trademark, incredibly illegal, no way in hell will this stand up in court interrogations:

It's not like that guy didn't have it coming. But still. Come on, Batman.

Of course, they end up not really needing the confession--in a fit of rage, Zucco tosses Blade back off the building, an act that Robin catches with his camera. Zucco is left alive, but eventually found guilty of murder. (Batman's parting shot is "Your 'boss' will be the electric chair!") And now that Robin's parents have been more or less avenged, Bruce asks him if he wants to go back to circus life. Dick thinks his parents would have wanted him to carry on fighting crime--and anyway, who doesn't love a good adventure?

Clearly, Batman feels the same way. He pays lip service to the idea of caution, but look at the grin on his face.

"Now let's go have gay sex."

Dammit.

[Comics]: Detective Comics #37, [untitled]

Publication date: March, 1940
Author: Bob Kane

Batman is out for a drive one night (in his extremely stylish car), in full costume, when he hears a terrible scream coming from a lonely house in the woods. Going to investigate, he finds a torturing in progress--three men burning a fourth, claiming the victim has been "selling information" about their boss, somebody named "Turg".

That's right--the Batman is so awesome his thoughts are intruding.

Obviously a fistfight ensues. The high point is probably this altercation:
Crook: "You're not as smart as you might seem!"
Batman: "On the contrary!" *kick to the face*

Afterwards, Batman releases the tortured man, and goes to tie up the crooks. The freed victim, however, whacks Batman over the head. He murders the three men to cover up his treachery and escapes.

Batman wakes up later next to a pile of corpses. He's fairly unfazed, managing to put two and two together and come up with Turg. He goes home to figure out the case. The master detective's first step? Look up Turg in the phone book. Oddly enough, there are three of them.

Bruce investigates, finding one oddity--a grocery store in a non-residential neighborhood. Inside, the hood who Batman rescued the previous night sells Wayne a pound of sugar, and nods as Mr. Turg heads out. Mighty suspicious.

Batman returns the next night, and follows his usual pattern of breaking and entering. He interrupts a criminal conspiracy--or at least some shady dudes sitting around a table--and when they rise to shoot him, cleverly turns the lights out. There follows a terribly cool sequence in which Batman, able to see ("just like a bat!" the narration crows triumphantly) using special glasses, walks around the darkened room punching confused criminals in their blind, blind faces.

Ha ha, stupid crooks, believing in the supernatural.

I really like the way they portray this darkened room. It's an excellent compromise between realism (pitch black panels) which would be boring, and what the comic tends to do, which is present images that look like broad daylight and call them night. The silhouettes, the blue tones, the greater detail on Batman... it's a welcome bit of stylization.

Anyways, in the aftermath of Batman's visit, Turg (a white-haired gentleman) stabs the man Batman originally heard being tortured (named Joey), having sussed out his treachery. The group, panicked, assumes Joey told Batman about their plan to blow up a ship, and decide to move forward immediately. They exit... and Batman reveals himself! He'd hidden in the dark and merely pretended to leave, so that he could hear their plans. He gets the details from Joey, who dies after telling Batman that Turg and his men are spies intending to start an international crisis.

We're not sure of their target, but it's possible they were trying to goad the US and Germany into war with one another. This might actually have been a good thing; with America in the conflict sooner, the Axis might have been defeated sooner, with less loss of life. Luckily Batman saved the day?

Not yet he hasn't, anyway. He makes for the pier, confronting Turg and his men, who have loaded a motorboat full of TNT and set it on a collision course with the target ship. Batman is subdued in the most hilarious way possible--

"It was a good thing Carl was up there" is better than any joke I could have written. Rest assured it probably would have involved a "sack" pun.

They suit deed to word and soon Batman is sinking to the bottom of the bay. Luckily the water revives him, and he's able to cut his way free. He swims to the surface, and starts beating the living crap out of the entire gang. They're all unconscious or in the water in a matter of moments, but the motorboat is still headed out. Batman runs, leaps off the pier, lands in the boat, cuts the ropes holding it to its course, and pulls hard, missing the steamer by inches. Crisis (or fortuitously early US entry into WWII) averted!

And so, another Batman story concludes with--wait, what? It's not over? Batman may have defeated the foreign spies' plans, but the head of the organization is still out there!

Batman traces a clue Joey gave him to the home of one Count Grutt. If there's one thing this comic has taught us, it's that no good can come of a vaguely-European sounding aristocrat. And indeed, one unconscious armed butler later, Batman is face to face with the Count--aka, Turg! Batman gets to revel in his victory like a true detective:

"Yes, it is I! The Batman, alias Bruce--er, I mean... shut up!"

Turg throws one of those swords from above the mantle piece at Batman, who dodges. The blade goes right through the wooden door behind him, and when the two grapple a moment later, Turg is accidentally impaled on that same sword. Batman is unperturbed--it's okay, he says, because Turg was trying to start a war. You and I know it's okay because Grutt was a dirty foreigner. That'll teach 'em to have titles. Over here we're all Mister, buddy! USA! USA!

*cough* Oh, I 'm sorry, I got some jingoism stuck in my throat. Anyways, the next issue will have Man-Monsters in it. I am soooo looking forward to the Man-Monsters.

[Comics]: Detective Comics #36, [untitled]

Publication date: February, 1940
Author: Bob Kane

On his nightly prowl, the Batman is witness to a crime: a man leaps from a speeding car, which slows down just long enough to shoot him before fleeing the scene. Batman tries to question the man, but the only information he gets are ravings about a "strange fog". The man dies in his arms. Batman is searching the body for clues when he is seen by the laziest cops ever.

"What about arresting, trying, convicting, and lawfully executing him?"

"There's no time!"

"Besides, Idol is on tonight."

Note that in that last panel, they've been foiled by the ingenious combination of night and dark clothing. It's a good thing Batman really didn't kill that guy, because justice in this town isn't just blind, it's also nearsighted.

Anyways, back at the manor, Bruce is mulling over the man's death. He comes to the conclusion that the man wasn't talking about a "strange fog", he talking about a fog and strange--as in, Professor Hugo Strange, the "most dangerous man in the world", according to Bruce. Strange is described basically like Professor Moriarty, the nemesis of Sherlock Holmes. It's interesting that we haven't seen him before in the comic, but Batman knows about him.

The other clue is that the dead man's notebook reveals him to be an FBI agent. The plot thickens, and Bruce vows to bring Strange to justice, clearing Batman's name in the process.

Meanwhile, the Professor receives the news of the G-man's death from his underling. There are a couple of interesting things going on here. Take a look at this panel:

First, this is the result of a trick played with perspective in the earlier panels--given the Professor's moniker, reputation as criminal genius, and glasses, and given the way the previous panels showed him, we assumed Strange was a shrimp. Yet when confronting his henchman, Strange towers over him, as formidable in size as he is in intellect. Nice going.

No props, however, for the confusing dialogue layout. Comics (western ones at least) should always be read left to right and top to bottom. It's the artist's job to ensure that the two directions are not confused--that the audience reads left to right on top, then left to right on the bottom, and so on. In this case, however, we're meant to read left to right regardless of where the dialogue is on the vertical axis--"I pulled away fast" is meant to come before "You cowardly fool!" even though it's below the latter bubble. This tends to happen on a semi-regular basis, and I'm honestly not sure if it's bad comic-ing or just an issue which existed before the aforementioned convention was in place. Either way, it's terribly annoying.

Anyways, Strange decides to go ahead with plan anyways and hope for the best. Cheery gent, that Professor.

It turns out that Strange has also noticed that this city has the laziest police force ever, and knowing that they'll take any excuse to go home and watch television instead of catching crooks, he blankets the town with a thick fog. The Commissioner yells and bangs his fist on his desk, but the cops protest they "aren't used to the fog" and night after night, Strange's henchmen rob banks with impunity.

Batman, however, has a plan. He realizes that the FBI agent's notebook contains a list of Strange's targets, and lies in wait at the next one. When the crooks arrive, well, see for yourself:

Awesome.

The crooks are apprehended. Strange is furious and vows to set a trap for Batman at the next target on the list. When the Batman arrives, over a dozen men are waiting for him. Despite a valiant fight, he succumbs to a whack on the head with a blackjack, as usual. He wakes up in Strange's lair. The furious Professor actually hangs Batman from his wrists and lashes him with a whip, until Batman breaks the ropes with pure strength of awesome (or muscle, if you believe the narration), gasses the room, and tackles Strange. He kicks Strange's ass handily with the well-timed application of some jujitsu, ties Strange up, and goes looking for the fog machine. And boy, does he find it.

I just think that looks really cool. Crazy mad scientist lairs with giant doomsday machines and electricity zapping around for the win.

With the help of a scientist Strange had kidnapped, Batman shuts off the fog machine, thereby saving the city from lazy, lazy cops. The last three panels offer a lovely triptych of story beats. A radio reports that Batman has saved the city, while a kid talks to his dad:

"Who is the Batman, daddy?"
"A great man, son, a great man!"

Then Bruce Wayne relaxes at home listening to the same broadcast declare that Professor Strange will be locked up for a long time... but Wayne wonders...

And finally, we see Strange in the state pen, declaring that no jail can hold him, and that when he escapes, he'll spend the rest of his life avenging himself on the Batman.

Classic.

[Comics]: Detective Comics #35, [untitled]

Publication date: January 1940.
Author: Bob Kane

Just another day in Gotham. Bruce Wayne, indolent playboy, is whiling away the hours in the police commissioner's office when a man bursts into the room, claiming to have been sold a ruby statue by famous explorer and 2-time Indiana Jones Look-Alike Contest winner Sheldon Lenox, going on about a mysterious letter threatening his demise if the statue was not returned to the cultists who worship the god the statue depicts... you know, same old, same old.

Bruce is just as blase as I am. "Oh, it all sounds so very melodramatic. Yes, terribly thrilling. I'll be with you in a moment, Commissioner, as soon as I finish yawning."

So then there's a car chase, which is kind of breathless, I suppose, and after a while they catch up with the Kali cultists, who've kidnapped Lenox. They stab him to death by the waterfront and throw him into the drink, so I guess that bit's kind of lively. (No pun intended.)

The commissioner declares that he's going to make sure the statue and its owner (Weldon) are safe. Bruce is bored by the whole affair, though.

"Really, I just want to go home and smoke this pipe some more. I find it very relaxing."

While Wayne hangs out at home, the newspapers get wind of the story so far, summed up neatly as: "NOTED EXPLORER IS MURDERED BY HINDUS", "POLICE DRAG RIVER FOR BODY OF LENOX, BODY NOT YET FOUND", "LENOX SOLD MILLIONAIRE WELDON PRECIOUS STATUE CARVED OF VALUABLE RUBY". The report, while clearly about very prosaic and humdrum events, manages to interest more than a few criminals around the city, including the villainous Asian caricature Sin Fang.

Everybody involved, however, is smart enough to wait until Weldon thinks he's safe and asks for the police guard to be removed. Including Batman, who breaks into Weldon's house the first night the police are gone.

Batman interrupts some thieves, there's like a fistfight and stuff, pretty standard. Then some Hindus arrive, they knock Batman out, who didn't see that one coming? Anyone? When he comes to, the statue's been stolen, and he has to punch some guards on his way out.

Batman ends up trailing the Hindus to Sin Fang's place in Chinatown. After consulting with "Wong, the unofficial mayor of Chinatown", Batman walks right into Sin Fang's pawn shop and asks to see the idol--see, if Sin Fang had known it was stolen, he never would have taken delivery... is the polite fiction both SF and Batman are maintaining. So Sin Fang leads him deep into his shop, which is now a castle or something, with lots of deathtraps interrupting them. Batman just kind of takes it all in stride.

"Happens all the time. You wouldn't believe."

Batman next gets trapped in a small room which fills with mustard gas (which he neutralizes with a pellet off his utility belt). Sin Fang apologizes for the plumbing issues and promises to get them fixed as soon as possible. This game of uber-polite one-upmanship continues for a while until Sin Fang finally gives up on the fancy stuff and just pulls the ol' trapdoor lever.

Batman climbs out, though (I mean, come on, Sin Fang, originality much?) and observes SF gloating in the next room over the idol.

"I could say the same to you!"

Oh, thank goodness. It wasn't the COMIC being racist, it was Lenox. He's the one who thought bright yellow greasepaint made an effective Chinese disguise. That's a relief.

Anyways, Batman has this dramatic monologue wrapping up the whole evil plot, in which Lenox sold the statue, faked his death, stole it back. Lenox contributes that he killed the real Sin Fang so he didn't have to split the profits, and he would have gotten away with it, too, if it weren't for you meddling bat--

Lenox draws a gun, and the altercation predictably involves Batman throwing the idol at his face, Lenox falling out the window to his death, ironies, crime doesn't pay, etc., etc. And we end up back where we began, another boring afternoon in this boring city.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to find something exciting to do. Like a nap.

[METAPOST] The List: 1940

One year down, 69 to go.

--

Detective Comics (issues 35-46)

Batman (issues 1-4)

[Comics]: Detective Comics #34, [untitled]

Publication date: December 1939
Author: Bob Kane

After the events of the previous storyline (DC #31-32) involving the Monk, Bruce Wayne is hanging out in Europe, getting some R&R before heading back to America. While leaving his hotel one night, he sees somebody he thinks is an old friend, but upon closer inspection:

At least he's polite.

Bruce considers this to be "mighty queer."

Meanwhile, a beautiful woman flees her hotel--she's just received "the mark of Duc Dorterre, master of the Apaches", which represents a threat against her life. On her way out, she just happens to choose Bruce Wayne's cab. A moment later a thrown dagger has narrowly missed the both of them, and Bruce decides to protect her if he can. They leave the cab and go on foot, running into the man with no face again. He takes them to a private room.

The faceless man--Charles, the woman calls him--is her brother. They met the Duc at a party; he became enamored of the woman, Karel; Charles interfered, and for his troubles got his face burned off by a ray. After hearing their tale of woe, Bruce steps out, and Batman steps in.

That night, the Batman roams the Paris sewers, looking for the Duc, and finds him all too soon.

I like this character design. The pointed mustache, the sharp, angular features, the upthrust cane, the fancy dress; this is pretty much the epitome of the whole "evil duke" concept.

The Duc zaps Batman with his cane, and then, being a sadistic bastard, ties the Batman to a giant wheel, which he sets to spinning fast enough to kill. Luckily, Batman is able to break his bonds with pure muscle power and, leaping from the spinning wheel, winds up in the Duc's garden. Where the flowers have faces. What? Batman questions his own sanity.

Meanwhile, Charles and Karel are taken by the Duc's men. The Duc threatens Charles with torture on the wheel (he appears to be after money as well as Karel). Things are going better back in the garden, however, where the flowers are talking to Batman. They tell him the way back to the wheel room and implore him to set them free. Batman decides to just roll with it.

When he gets to the wheel room, he frees Charles, who tells him that the Duc has taken Karel and is driving her to his palace in Champagne. Batman takes his bat-plane, and finds the Duc's car. Leaving the plane on autopilot, he drops down from his rope ladder onto the roof of the car. The Duc is all "I will zap you again" and Batman is all "uh-uh, bitch". See for yourself:

Clearly Batman wins because his cape is larger.

In fact, take a look at this whole page.

I really like the experimentation here. The first panel--in which Batman is not only larger than everything else on the page, but too big to be contained by the panel edges. This is your hero shot. Batman looms over the rest of the page, so that even during the fight, it's clear who the victor will be. He's just too awesome to be reckoned with. Especially by the Duc, who if you notice in the last panel, is getting kicked hilariously by a tied-up Karel in the back-seat.

Subsequently, the struggle causes the car to careen off a cliff and explode, the Batman jumping to safety at the last second (with Karel). The Duc killed, Karel and Charles offer their thanks, and ask the Batman his true identity. "That, my dear, must be kept a secret. And now--au revoir!" says Batman, bidding goodbye to the two siblings, presumably to France, and along with me, to 1939. The first year of his job is now under his utility belt.

[Comics]: Detective Comics #33, "The Batman Wars Against the Dirigible of Doom"

Publication date: November 1939
Author: Bob Kane

Batman's origin story.

Is there really a need to summarize this? Is there a person on earth who recognizes Batman but doesn't know how he came to be? The only real interest here lies in the original details. Bruce's parents are taking him home from a movie, not the opera; they're shot by a random criminal, nobody important; etc., etc. Even then, the particulars don't really matter. What matters is the mythic origins. As I wrote in my introduction to this blog, Batman is only so because he chooses to be. Unlike every other hero*, he wasn't given anything--something was taken from him. Because of his loss, he vows vengeance not on one criminal but on all of them. The weeping little boy promising this becomes the strange, dedicated, resilient man who will spend his entire adult life trying to accomplish it. In a way it's every twelve-year-old boy's fantasy: a solemn duty, an early assumption to manhood... but a fantasy manhood, not of adult responsiblity, but of play. Fighting, staying up all night... and all for a noble cause.

Not to mention the costume. Batman's the only superhero I know of who decides he needs a disguise, not because his identity needs to be hidden to protect the people he loves--his parents dead, he doesn't appear to have anybody important in his life--but because it will help his task if he is able to strike fear into the hearts of criminals.

It's the fact that Batman is in many ways as screwed up as the criminally insane villains he fights that helps to make the story so compelling. No normal individual could dedicate themselves so thoroughly to science and athleticism and nightly patrols; there's a sick drive at the heart of Batman, a never-fulfilled need to bring order out of chaos, good out of evil. Behind every punch is a little kid who wants his mom and dad. It's strange and sad and profoundly fucked up, and it's what drives Batman stories toward the bizarre.

For instance, this issue features a blimp attacking the city with lazer beams.

Our story proper opens as Wayne and other people out on the streets of Manhattan notice an odd red ship floating above the city. Red beams of light pour out of it, blinding people in the street. Buildings begin to crumble and fall. Panic engulfs the crowd. Before leaving, the craft emits a voice: "We come to rule the world," it says. "Do not resist us or the rays strike again. We, the Scarlet Horde, warn you..."

After helping with the rescue effort ("thousands dead," says the radio), Wayne returns home. Here we see the first Bat-cave like area in his house: a secret lab, hidden behind a panel in the wall. He checks his filing cabinet (this was before the Bat-computer was invented), and finds a clipping about Prof. Carl Kruger, who had spent in an asylum for a Napoleon complex, and who was working on a new death ray... Bruce changes and Batman speeds towards Kruger's home, where I assume he'll find the dirigible parked in the driveway.

The Batman observes through a window the meeting of the "Secret Horde", Kruger and three scientists, discussing their plans for world domination. Apparently they have an army two thousand strong, which they plan to use to rob banks during the next dirigible attack, in order to pay for more engines of war like it. Kruger, of course, has a picture of Napoleon on his wall, and dresses similar to the great French conqueror. See what I said about mental illness?

Batman attacks, only to find that Kruger has sealed himself behind a pane of thick glass. Meanwhile, a hand with a gun sneaks out from behind the Napoleon painting. Batman is captured! As is already becoming the usual thing, they tie him up with rope and leave him to die via timed death trap, in this case a bomb set to blow up the house in five minutes. Kruger gloats and leaves. Thankfully, Batman has gotten a lot smarter, and simply keeps a knife in his boot, which he uses to cut himself free.

His next step is to threaten one of the other members of the Secret Horde. Predictably, the man drives out to the secret hangar of the dirigible, with Batman following in his plane.

Thanks to a smoky gas pellet, the stormtroopers notice nothing.

Batman busts inside, gasses the soldiers, and shoots the ray gun machines, destroying them all. Next he goes to attack the dirigible with an ax, but Krugman shoots him in the back! Krugman goes to get the one remaining ray gun, and uses it to disintegrate Batman's body!

This marks the end of my blog. It's been a fantastic journey and we all learned a lot. I'm sure there's no more of this comic so I'll just be on my way.

No, wait! Batman's still alive! His bullet-proof vest saved his life, and then he switched outfits with a guard and escaped to his Bat-plane. (This does mean that he left an unconscious guard to be vaporized... Oh well.)

Batman works all night in his lab, concocting a new formula, which he then sprays all over the Bat-plane. The next day, when the dirigible strikes, Batman is ready! His new paint-job nullifies the effects of the death ray. Kruger, seeing that things are going badly, ejects in his own prop plane. The Batman swings onto it with his silk rope and gasses the villain. With the pilot unconscious, the plane crashes into the harbor. Kruger is killed, the army is rounded up, and Bruce Wayne gets to smoke his pipe by the radio and feel smug.

This is probably the least interesting story so far. We never really get into Kruger's head, Batman never runs into much trouble. The origin story is much more compelling. It's clear that just because you have a great concept doesn't mean that any old execution will work. You have to play to your character's strengths, and this one just doesn't.

Tune in next time for the conclusion of 1939!

*Superman may be an exception to this, but although some authors have played with it, Superman is more about protecting his new planet than grieving for his old one. In any case the emotional reaction is not a primary element of his myth the way that Batman's parents are.

[Comics]: Detective Comics #32, [untitled]

Publication Date: October, 1939
Author: Bob Kane

We open in darkest Hungary, land of werewolves and Universal horror pictures. The Batman lies in wait for his prey, the Monk who just last issue kidnapped Bruce Wayne's fiancee, Julie, via hypnosis. Batman got her back, but now he wants revenge, and here comes the Monk in a rustic horse-drawn carriage.

Batman springs into action! Actually, the action is remarkably like the last issue's climax, only without the plane--Batman subdues a moving vehicle by leaping on top of it, throwing a pellet of knock-out gas inside, and jumping off again. After getting rid of the driver, he pulls the occupant out of the carriage... only to find that it's a mysterious woman, not the Monk. Oops. He takes her into the bat-plane and back to his hotel, a castle in the "Carlathan Mountains" (a reference to the Carpathian Mountains, no doubt).

What's interesting about this opening is its inversion of a very traditional gothic set-up. We're deep in the woods in Eastern Europe; the moon is full; a woman in a cloak rides in a horse-drawn carriage down a winding dirt road. Suddenly, she's attacked by a giant bat-like creature, her driver killed or driven off, and she's abducted by the monster and taken back to his lair. The only difference here is that our perspective (and identification) is the giant bat's, not the helpless woman's. This isn't coincidence, nor is it merely the result of inserting Batman into classic Gothic literary tropes--the fact is that Batman fits best in the part of the (seeming) villain. This is the same concept we saw applied in his first few crime stories. Criminals are scary, violent people who break the law; so is Batman. The only difference is that Batman is ultimately a force for (perhaps not unqualified) Good, a fact which is often the point but occasionally an excuse to make the interesting spectacle of a ruthless, rule-breaking sociopath into socially acceptable entertainment (something we'll see way way down the line, possibly beginning in the 80s with Frank Miller's influence). The point being that what worked for crime works for Gothic fiction: Batman's enemy is scary and bizarre and abducts women; the same goes for Batman.

The woman, we learn, is named Dala. Batman sits up that night outside the hotel room, watching over Julie and Dala... until Dala leaves, in a hypnotist victim walk--you know, eyes closed, arms held out in front, lips covered in blood... Wait, what? He goes to stop her, she bashes him on the head with a convenient statue, and then she runs off. Batman enters the hotel room to find Julie with vampiric bite marks on her neck!

Batman flies out after Dala on his rope and confronts her, pretty incoherently.

Whoah, slow down there, Glenn Beck.

Dala confesses that she's afraid of the Monk, and offers to show Batman the way to him if Batman agrees to kill him. "I'll be the judge of that," says Batman. They take the bat-plane... until it gets caught in a giant net(!) that drags it to the ground, where the sinister Monk greets them.

I'd like to point out here that the Monk has absolutely no reason to believe Batman would be dead. He expected Dala to survive the plane-meets-net scenario, expected her to bring Batman alive, and the last time he saw him, Batman was pulling Julie out of the Monk's car. So I'm going to assume "So you are still alive" is simply a local Hungarian saying which expresses joy upon meeting. "Hey, Dave, long time no see!" "John, so you're still alive! Awesome!"

The Monk proceeds to hypnotize Batman. They walk him docilely up to the castle. Dala tells the Monk that the perfect revenge would be to recapture Julia and hurt her with Batman watching (man, what a witch). He extends his hypnotic power to her, and calls her forth; shortly she arrives, to find Batman paralyzed, watching her in anguish. The Monk reveals his intentions: Julie will be turned into a werewolf ("like us") and Batman will be killed by wolves. The Monk then transforms...

...that is a ferret. You are a were-ferret.

The Monk howls, summoning the other wolves of the forest, and then shoves Batman into the pit. The fall revives Batman's senses, and he holds off the ravenous beasts with his diminishing supply of gas pellets. Finally he gets the bright idea to tie his rope to his batarang, thereby inventing a primitive form of the grappling hook he'll start using eventually. The device manages to hook around a pillar and the Batman climbs out of the wolf pit.

He checks on Julie first to make sure she's safe. Then:

Seriously, make up your mind! Are they werewolves or vampires?! It's a confusing mess (and a pet peeve of mine). Sure, vampires can classically turn into wolves (Stoker's Dracula being the standard arbiter of "classic vampire rules"), sleep during the daytime (as the Monk and Dala are doing now), hypnotize people (as the Monk does), and suck blood from the neck (as Dala did from Julie). But they can't be killed with silver bullets. Werewolves, of course, are the ones associated with silver bullets, but they don't have any of the other powers or restrictions I just outlined as being associated with vampires.

Ah, well. These mythical conundrums don't interest Batman; he finds the sleeping evildoers and ends them, along with their plotline.

In many ways this is the most bizarre image in the comic. It's weird to shoot a vampire with a gun like that; it's also weird to see Batman firing a gun at anything. Batman fits moderately well with Gothic literature, and also well within crime fiction, but crime and Gothicism don't mix. Anyways, it's a happy ending all around, except of course for the monsters who got shot.

The cut from lovers embracing to their method of transportation reminds me of the famous ending of "North by Northwest". It's precisely for these moments that the Bat-Plane has autopilot.

I would like to point out that we still have no goddamn clue what the Monk's master plan was or how all the events fit into it or why he attacked Julie or what the giant apes have to do with anything. You lied to me, Next Time on Batman Narration Box! How can I trust you anymore? I'll believe next month's story is intriguing when I see it, liar!

[Comics]: Detective Comics #31, [untitled]

Publication date: September, 1939.
Author: Bob Kane

Can I just say this is a really cool-looking cover?

This could be the front of any classic of Gothic literature or penny dreadful (although this is a 10-Cent Adventure), except of course for The Bat-Man looming dramatically over it all.

As the cover announces, this issue marks the appearance of another creative villain, The Monk! One of the best and most interesting aspects of Batman throughout his appearances has always been the bad guys, most of whom are introduced in these first few years. It's a tribute to their basic appeal that they can continue to grow in interesting directions for decades.

Of course, like Doctor Death, the Monk isn't really a major villain, so maybe they hadn't gotten the formula right yet. They characterize him as: "A strange creature, cowled like a monk, but possessing the powers of a Satan! A man whose powers are uncanny, whose brain is the product of years of intense study and seclusion!" So apparently the secret to his evil really is the monastery lifestyle.

We open with Batman on the prowl, searching for an unnamed "quarry". Incidentally, this comic also tells us Batman is patrolling New York City. Eventually that'll change to Gotham City, an exaggerated version of the Big Apple. Anyways, Batman finally spots the man he's looking for--currently being approached by a strange woman who tells the man, "I have been sent to you by the Master Monk!"

Batman gets the man out of the way, and confronts the woman, whom he recognizes as his fiancee (!), Julie Madison. She's pretty zombified, but when he talks to her, she snaps out of it, not knowing where she is or what's going on. He takes her home:

Somehow I sense this panel is a metaphor for 1930s gender politics.

Batman tells her to talk to Bruce, and leaves; the next day she tells Bruce what happened, and he suggests they go see the doctor.

Take a look at these two panels here. I like the symmetry, the placement of figures such that Bruce/Batman is facing left, and Julie is facing right. It highlights both the two alter-ego's similarities and their differences. Bruce has bright colors on, Batman dark; Batman's shirt is plain, Bruce's is patterned (Bruce being the more complicated human figure compared to the mythic crimefighter)... And yet the darkness of Bruce's hair matches Batman's cowl, and they've both got blue on, and there's even a visual echo of Batman's logo in Bruce's tie. And of course, they both have their accessories--Batman's pointed ears and Bruce's pointed pipe.  I want to stress that this comparison isn't just narrative, but set up visually. Bruce Wayne and Batman may have changed places during the gutter between the panels, the hidden one coming forward and the forward one hiding, but these two compositions make it clear that they're two sides of the same coin (who interact in similar fashion towards Julie, as well).

So they go to the doctor (a new doctor; presumably the other one got sick of taking bullets out of Bruce and getting cock and bull stories in return), who tells them Julie has clearly been the victim of a hypnotist (suggesting that Julie take an ocean voyage to relax). I was about to call bullshit on that, and then I turned the page:

No, that's not ominous at all.

Despite his suspicions, Batman sees her off on a voyage. Then he goes home, and contemplates how strange it is that his fiancee isn't privy to his secret life. For about a minute. Then he goes and plays with some new toys--a batarang (modeled on the boomerang--as I recall from my childhood, these are made of magic, because they either go straight or swoop around like a boomerang, depending on what Batman needs them to do at any particular moment)... and a bat-gyro, which is actually a bat-shaped plane, lifted by helicopter rotors. He takes off, his craft silhouetted against the moon...

The townspeople below, by the way, go nuts. Some seem to think it's a giant bat, one crazy old man is screaming about a Martian attack (after all, Orson Welles' infamous War of the Worlds broadcast was only a year ago). Batman just gives them a look.

"Seriously? Come on, people."

Batman flies out to sea to visit Julie, and climbs down from his hovering bat-gyro on a rope ladder. No sooner has Julie explained to him why she's here than the Monk attacks! A "gaunt figure" with burning eyes, dressed in a striking red hood and robe, tries to hypnotize Batman. He manages to break the Monk's concentration by throwing a batarang at the figure. Then he escapes via rope ladder, and leaving Julie to the Monk's power (?) and follows the ship safely in his plane until it reaches Paris.

Batman searches the city (whose denizens are quite disturbed to see a costumed "devil" flying around at night) until he finds Julie. But it's a trap! A giant ape (and I mean easily twice as tall as Batman, probably a good 10 feet) attacks. I can't help but wonder if this is a reference to Poe's classic detective story (to which Batman owes a debt, as do all literary detectives), "The Murders in the Rue Morgue".

Anyways, while diving away from the great beast, Batman falls right into a net and is caught. The Monk wastes little time on conversation, only delivering two maniacal "heh!"s before pulling a lever, activating a dramatically slow death-trap in which Batman is to be lowered into a snake pit. Batman tosses his batarang out, which not only flips up the level but shatters a chandelier, allowing him to catch a few pieces of glass with which to cut the rope. Nice shot.

(This, by the way, is the first instance of what is to become a hallmark of the series' early years: Batman is tied up, and must find a clever way to cut the rope. It's ingenious how many variations they spin on that.)

The monk flees before the caped crusader, but Batman is stopped by a wall of bars. "Die here, you fool," hisses the Monk, "while I send the girl Julie on to my castle in Hungary to feed my werewolves!"

Okay, time out here. None of this makes any goddamn sense. What precisely is this villain's master plan? He hypnotized Julie in NYC to get her to kill some guy, why? And then when she went to the doctor, he hypnotized the doc to get her onto a boat to Paris. Then he hypnotized her again and brought her to his castle-y stronghold (I suppose they have castles in Paris, I'll grant that one)... And now he's trying to kill Batman, but just because Batman happened to blunder into his house. He went to vast amounts of trouble to get Julie... and now he's just going to feed her to the werewolves?

...werewolves.

And where did that giant gorilla come from? I should just stop questioning these things, Batman certainly doesn't seem to as the gorilla is lowered into the barred room. I should just shut off my brain and CAGE MATCH!

In this corner, a giant gorilla! In this corner... Hey, where'd he go? Oh, right, instead of trying to fight the monster, Batman just jumped for the rope it came down on, climbed up to the roof of the building, and got back in his plane. Finally, something that makes sense.

Back in his plane, Batman has control of the situation. He flies directly over the Monk's car, on its way to Hungary and presumably Castle Dracula, where the Mad Monk has a timeshare. There's a nice shot of Batman's plane's shadow on the car, like a hawk's over a running mouse. Sure enough, Batman makes short work of things, tossing a gas pellet into the car, and collecting Julie from the wreckage.

Now that he's got her, Batman vows vengeance, and turns his plane towards Hungary. The last panel promises that next month, the story will continue. And it also says that the monk's plans for Julie will be revealed. I'll believe it when I see it. But mostly I'm in it for the punching. Oh, yes. It is on. It is on like Bat...mon.

[Comics]: Detective Comics #30, [untitled]

Date of Publication: August 1939
Author: Bob Kane

Well, I was wrong. It appears that Doctor Death was not dead at all! And Bruce Wayne is one step ahead of me, probably because he's read the script:

Real quick, I just want to point out the helpful "6" in the corner; this is the panel number. If you're going to make confusing panel layouts (and they will certainly get confusing soon enough), at least offer your audience a helpful guide. Modern comics just don't do this anymore, which is a shame--it's better of course if you arrange things such that the eye is naturally drawn precisely through the narrative in the way you want, but there are plenty of writers/artists who fail at that, it's hard to do.

Anyways, Batman's suspicions are confirmed a few panels later. See, Doctor Death has apparently poisoned a man (turning the victim purple, and also dead), and left a ransom note signed Doctor Death. His education apparently did not feature the importance of using one's assumed demise as a cover for one's later criminal enterprises. The ransom, by the way, is half a million dollars. This is over 7.5 million dollars in today's numbers. The dead man's widow reveals that they lost all their money in the Great Depression, but they still had some diamonds. Bruce Wayne leaves, changes into his costume (and grabs some gas pills) and heads back to her place, breaking in to check the safe and, presumably, sell the diamonds and spend the proceeds on hookers and blow. Or, you know, keep them safe? I dunno. Hey, he even knows the safe combination! That's... really weird. And not explained.

Meanwhile, Doctor Death still lives!, a narration box informs us breathlessly. Apparently he escaped the fire via a secret door, but he must have been burnt, his face is swathed in bandages and his goatee is gone. He calls his giant henchman "Mikhail" here, who was "Jabah" last week. Perhaps his full name is Mikhail Jabah? Anyway, the point here is that Doctor Death is sending MJ to steal the very same diamonds that Batman is right now retrieving oh no look out Batman!

On the next page, the joke is on me; Batman says Mikhail is a Cossack, like Jabah, but a different guy. So I guess that makes me the racist. Well played, Batman.

So Mikhail interrupts Batman, who hides instead of punching, planning to follow Mikhail back to Doctor Death. Mikhail is interrupted in turn by the widow, heading downstairs for a glass of hot milk. In a situation deliberately reminiscent of Dostoevsky, Mikhail shoots the old woman, goes home with the jewels, and then agonizes over his guilt for several hundred pages of dense prose.

Well, that's what would have happened if Batman hadn't tackled him. Our hero throws Mikhail out the window, tosses the jewels out, and then follows him (after putting the old lady back to bed. Awwww).

Batman tracks him hilariously closely through the empty streets:

Look out! He's right behind you!

To the fence, where Mikhail gets rid of the jewels... And finally to the tenement apartment where the impoverished Doctor Death now lives... or does he? It's just Mikhail's place. Sad. Batman drugs Mikhail with a gas pill, searches the place, finds nothing, and then Mikhail wakes up, and there is fighting. Batman ends up swinging through the air and breaking his neck with a solid kick. Ouch. Batman's not afraid to get his hands dirty. Or in this case, feet.

Batman returns to the fence to get the diamonds back. The fence is a sweet old man with white hair and whiskers (sweet old man mustache). Batman questions him; the man tries to run away, but Batman tosses a lasso around his neck and pulls. But it's okay, Batman's not being a huge dick, because luckily the old man's hair falls off. Then his face. What's beneath is the truly hideous new visage of Doctor Death:

Actually, Doctor, I'm pretty sure you wanted money.

 There'll be no plastic surgery where you're going! JAIL!

Amusingly, the comic has now run out of pages, so they elide the entire ensuing fight. Or they just recognize that, educated or not, Death is an aged burn victim and Batman is, you know, Batman. I'm sure the Caped Crusader broke him in half like a dry twig before leaving him tied up with the jewels for the police to find. Will we see Doctor Death again? Almost certainly. We'll soon find that Gotham City has the most easily-escapable jails ever.

[Comics]: Detective Comics #29, "The Batman Meets Doctor Death"

Date of Publication: July 1939
Author: Bob Kane


This issue marks the first appearance of Doctor Death: Batman's arch-nemesis, an enduring portrait of evil, and ultimately his most famous...


Er.


Okay, so Doctor Death is long forgotten, and might not ever return (although the ending is clearly a "The end... OR IS IT?! duhn duhn DUHN" thing). Still, DC29 has a lot of firsts in it for Batman.


This issue starts with the villain, and for once he actually has something a personality, or at least a persona. To go with his colorful nom de crime, the Doc sports a goatee, a monocle, and either a white lab coat (while he mixes chemicals in a sinister fashion) or a fancy suit (for scheming). Not only is Dr. Death the first real Batman villain (ie., not just a common criminal), but he's also the first one to deliberately set out to kill Batman first so that his real plan will see no interference. Clearly in just a short period of time, Batman's reputation has spread quite well.


Also, the evil Doctor (of what, I wonder--he appears to be into both chemistry and biology, although I suppose could just have a masters in Murderonomy or something) has several henchmen, including a massive Indian named Jabah. Luckily we haven't yet gotten to the racism; this is more of your garden-variety exoticism, so far.


Anyway, this first page concludes with probably the funniest thing I've seen yet--Dr. Death is like, "How will I get in touch with Batman in order to trap and kill him? Hm... perhaps a personals ad." The punchline is that in the next panel, Wayne is indeed reading the personals and sees the ad. Bruce is lonely. In fact, both these guys must be lonely. Jabah doesn't seem like a great conversationalist. And Wayne is knocking around that giant mansion all by himself. Perhaps in some strange way, they need each other. There is a love sometimes between vigilante and criminal which dare not speak its name...


I kid.


The plot thickens as the personals ad leads to a letter, which tells Batman that at a particular time and place, Dr. Death will kill somebody, unless Batman stops him. Wayne responds to this obvious trap by... taking it at face value. Good work, master detective. He goes to suit up. (See panel.)

Remember this.

Batman's costume is just in a chest in his room. Not very safe. You're gonna get robbed, Batman!


I also find it funny that, a little later, Batman makes sure that his car is in a safe place before he walks into the Doc's trap. In later issues he will simply abandon it wherever he feels like and it is assumed that nobody messes with it, that it doesn't block traffic or get tickets, or whatever.


The Batman eventually finds his way into the penthouse where the trap has been set. This issue makes a big deal of Batman's toys, including suction cups to help him climb the outsides of buildings. And he needs another gadget to deal with this fight. Not with the two normal henchmen--they're easily defeated. But Jabah manages to shoot Batman (just as Bats was once again trying to interrogate somebody by threatening to kill them), and he only escapes by using a pellet of "deadly gas" from off of his utility belt (also new in this issue). Luckily no henchmen were actually hurt by the poison. Not that Batman would have given a crap, at this point in his career.


Later, Bruce Wayne goes to his family doctor to get the bullet wound taken care of. There's a (intentionally) hilarious exchange here:

Just how dumb does he think this doctor is?


Clearly not as dumb as Doctor Death, who has concocted an elaborate poisonous pollen which he will use to murder somebody--instead of, you know, his hired gunmen. Anyway, Batman foils the attempt murder, and follows the assassin back to Doctor Death's lab. Batman literally chases Death in a circle:

Until Doctor Death breathes his last (apparently) when he succumbs to a lab fire with which he tried to kill Batman. Like all the best villains, he dies laughing maniacally and calling Batman a fool. Let's have a moment of silence for this ridiculous, ridiculous man.


...


Anyways, Batman gets the last laugh. "Death... to Doctor Death!" ahaha, it's funny, see, because now the killer has been killed. That's like ra-i-ain on your wedding day, that is.