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Post by Hoosier X on Jan 23, 2020 23:37:02 GMT -5
And then there's "Laboratory Loot!" in Detective Comics #89. This is the third Cavalier story. The Cavalier was secretly Mortimer Drake, and he was a member of Bruce Wayne's gentleman's club! So the Cavalier and Batman were friends in their secret identities but didn't know they were confronting each other at night. This story is the one where Batman figured out that the Cavalier had to be someone in his club and he narrowed it down to Drake. Well, I guess he had to figure it out eventually! But the revelation really tore the heart out of the Batman-Cavalier conflicts and he only appeared once more in the 1940s and disappeared from Batman comics for several decades. I wish there was an Adult Swim series where Batman and all the villains who are secretly wealthy friends of Bruce Wayne are all attending this gentleman's club at the same time. That would be Bruce Wayne (Batman), the Cavalier (Mortimer Drake), Catman (Thomas Blake), the werewolf (Anthony Lupus) and I think you could put probably include Hush (Thomas Elliott) and Black Mask (Roman Sionis). Everybody starts to suspect everybody else has a secret, and you have storylines where Thomas Elliot thinks Thomas Blake is Batman. Just a thought. Why wouldn't Gotham City have a whacky gentleman's club like that? |
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Post by Hoosier X on Jan 25, 2020 0:05:20 GMT -5
One thing you see from time to time on Golden Age Batman stories is occasional stories where Batman and Robin are operating outside of Gotham City. They're in Alaska for some reason, or the Rockies or the timber country upstate. These stories develop in one of several ways. Bruce and Dick might just be driving around aimlessly until they see something suspicious out West, prompting them to dress as Batman and Robin and investigate, say, a crooked dude ranch. Sometimes, they are investigating vague rumors, like "strange happening above the Arctic Circle. The story in Detective Comics #90 starts off with something very specific. There's a riverboat called the Mississippi Mermaid going up and down the Mississippi River, putting on an extravagant show at all the towns along the way. But here's always a series of crimes committed while the riverboat is docked … and the performers always have an alibi because they were performing at the time of the robberies. Bruce and Dick decide to abandon Gotham City to the mercies of the generic rat-faced, fedora-wearing, pencil-thin-moustached gangsters for a few days to go protect the people of the towns along the Mississippi. If there's an outbreak of city-threatening murdering lightning bolts or murdering psychopathic giants or a thunderstorm of pointy murdering umbrellas or an epidemic of cat-themed crimes, the police will have to handle it until the Dynamic Duo figure out the mystery of the Mississippi Mermaid. (Or maybe Green Lantern can handle Gotham while Batman is gone. Alan Scott operated in Gotham City throughout the 1940s, and this comic is cover-dated 1944, so he's still around.) And so Bruce and Dick go to the Mississippi and they see the show and they stop a crime and Batman gets a good luck at one of the robbers, but all the witnesses he was onstage when the crime was committed and eventually Batman figures out that showboat performers have a very clever (not really) trick to skew time so that nobody knows what time anything happened. It's OK, I guess. When you read a lot of Golden Age Batman, you must expect to be disappointed from time to time. What's most disappointing about this story is how little they do with the concept of a Riverboat of Crime! It should be like the Circus of Crime on water! Not a concept that would have much interest in today's market, but as a goofy-ass Golden (or Silver) Age idea, the Riverboat of Crime could be a lot of fun! The Mississippi River has so much history and folklore to use for ideas and characters! They dropped the ball on this one! |
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Post by Hoosier X on Jan 27, 2020 21:38:20 GMT -5
I read the Batman story in Detective Comics #91 a couple of nights ago. I've read it before. While browsing some comments on this thread from a few years ago, I came across some comments I made about "The Case of the Practical Joker" in March 2018. Yeah, that's about it! I don't have anything to add! |
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Post by Hoosier X on Jan 27, 2020 21:50:41 GMT -5
"Crime's Manhunt" from Detective Comics #92 is pretty interesting. Some Gotham crooks get out of jail after serving a year for armed robbery. They were clobbered by Batman, and they don't really want to face HIM again! So they decide to become bounty hunters! They use their Gotham Underworld street smarts to dig up some of their fellow bad guys, trick them, apprehend them, take them to the cops and get the reward. It's quite profitable and quite legal! Until they run out of Gotham bad guys and start busting them out of jail so they can nab them and turn them in for the reward! Batman and Robin get involved and quickly put an end to Brainy Bulow and his gang after they start drumming up business in this manner. I'd say these guys were lucky that they weren't hunted down and killed by the Joker or the Penguin or any number of generic ferret-faced, pencil-thin-moustached, fedora-wearing Gotham City gangsters. The Gotham City Underworld is a mean and unforgiving place. I don't think they'd look too kindly on snitches. Even in the Golden Age. ESPECIALLY in the Golden Age! |
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Post by Hoosier X on Jan 29, 2020 0:38:05 GMT -5
I read the Batman story in Detective Comics #93 last night. It's a doozy! The best story in this volume (Batman Archives, Volume Four) so far! It's called "One Night of Crime!" It starts with a five-sixths splash page and one of those giant caption boxes that you get used to when you read a lot of Golden Age Batman. I don't always read them, but I've been reading all of them in this volume … to get my money's worth, I guess. Here's the caption box for the Batman story in Detective Comics #93: I read that caption box and I thought, "This is a Bill Finger story, isn't it?" It's true that Bill Finger wrote a lot of Batman stories, but none of the stories in this volume of the Archives has been written by Finger. I don't want to put down the Golden Age Batman writers. Most of them, maybe all of them, wrote some good stories here and there. I liked the Cavalier story in Detective #89 quite a bit. That was Don Cameron. And the Penguin story is pretty good, even if it's not one of my favorites. That one's Joseph Greene, who also wrote that story about Big-Hearted John that I can't stop thinking about. But Bill Finger wrote so many great Batman stories! He really understood the character, the villains, the supporting cast. Most of all, he understood Gotham City! And I think that's why he did such a great job on "One Night of Crime!" The caption already introduced Batman and Robin and the other main players. But how they get thrown together is genius! They are people who don't know each other (except for the runaways, who have come to Gotham City to become detectives) who decide to pay the fare for a Gotham City sight-seeing bus! Among the sights you will see: "The Port of Missing Men," "Little Bohemia" and "Chinatown"! (I'm assuming that Mount Batman hadn't been carved yet.) So our little cast assembles with a bunch of other people who want to see the sights in Gotham. At the same time, there's an armed robbery! Batman and Robin get most of the gang, but the one with the bag of loot disappears into an alley … and shuffles onto the sight-seeing bus just as it's leaving! No one will expect a fleeing criminal to hide on a sight-seeing bus! But a generic ferret-faced pencil-thin-moustached fedora-wearing Gotham gangster sees the robber hopping onto the bus and he assumes he's got that loot from the bank job he's just heard about, and he calls his mob together and they get organized and - when the bus is stopped and everybody is out looking at one of the attractions, the gang changes bus drivers and kidnaps everybody on the bus! Then the kill the guy with the loot form the robbery in front of several dozen witnesses … and suddenly they have to figure out how to murder everybody! Oh, their plan is pretty cold-blooded! And they capture Batman and Robin and throw them into the death trap! Geez Louise! This one is so good I can hardly stand it! In a way, it reminds me of one of those 1930s Warner Brothers movies that is basically just a group of New Yorkers going about their day, and then something dramatic happens! (Also, Batman and Robin are in it.) I'm thinking something like an early 1930s movie called "Central Park" with Joan Blondell and Wallace Ford. (Of course, "Central Park" doesn't need Batman and Robin because it has Guy Kibbee as a cop who's only two or three days from retirement.) It's really a great Golden Age Batman story. Bill Finger knew what he was doing. Highly recommended. |
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Post by Hoosier X on Jan 29, 2020 23:34:28 GMT -5
I read the Batman story in Detective Comics #94 last night. That Bill Finger classic in #93 was followed by another Bill Finger story that I like a lot! It's called "No One Must Know!" It starts off in a little town where everybody knows each other, and everybody is really nice, and they love their little town! It's called Meadowvale! The judge's daughter is going to marry the son of one of the town's respected citizens, George Barrow. But George Barrow has a secret! He is an escaped convict! He was in stir because he hocked some jewelry that wasn't his. And he overheard some hardened criminals planning an escape and they made him break out with them! And he's been a fugitive for 20 years or so. And if it's discovered that he's a convict, then the judge will never let an escaped criminal's son marry his daughter. The scene shifts to Gotham City, where a couple of con artists have been discovered and their scheme ruined by Batman and Robin. The bad guys manage to get away and they decide to go to the sticks and stay away from Gotham until the heat dies down. So they decide to work one of their cons at a carnival. Guess where? Meadowvale! And they see an old pal - Guess who? Yeah, George Barrow! And guess where they know him from? PRISON! They're the guys who forced Barrow to escape even though his term was almost up. So they start blackmailing him. Well, Batman decides to track down the con artists, and he thinks they might be working one of their cons at a carnival. (It's the old shell game! And if you ever see a generic ferret-faced pencil-thin-moustached fedora-wearing Gotham gangster playing the shell game at a carnival - DON'T PLAY! IT'S CROOKED!) So Batman and Robin start checking out the carnivals in the area and they end up at Meadowvale … with predictable but fun results! Not quite the classic that "One Night of Crime!" is, but I liked it a lot anyway! |
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Post by Hoosier X on Feb 9, 2020 16:05:26 GMT -5
I'm still reading the Batman stories in Batman Archives, Volume 3, but I got kind of bogged down by the story in Detective Comics #95. I read it late at night and when I started to write about it the next day, I couldn't remember what happened. So I had to read it again. It's not very good. I hope it's the worst story in this volume. It's about a villain called the Blaze! He's not exactly a super-villain but he's also not a typical ferret-faced, fedora-wearing, pencil-thin-moustached Gotham gangster. He's a guy with crazy eyes and bright orange hair with a beard and a spiky moustache. His name should be "The Van Dyke"! "And beards will be my crime symbol! Ha ha ha ha!" No, they didn't go that route. His name is the Blaze! His orange hair all over his head face make him look like his head is afire, I guess. Also, he uses flames a lot. Also, numerous puns and clichés inspired by fire. In many ways, we have all the ingredients for a classic one-shot Batman villain. His plan for crime in Gotham is actually pretty cool! You see, Batman has been tearing up the town and, with the help of the police, they've actually made quite a dent in the rackets. Big-time generic, ferret-faced, fedora-wearing, pencil-thin-moustached Gotham gangsters have been scooped up by the hundreds, and are headed for incarceration on a prison train. And the Blaze, dressed as a railroad fireman, uses his fire gun to take over the prison train while his bully boys free hundreds of convicts! Oh my! And then the Blaze impersonates Baron von Peltz in order to trick the Gotham police into letting him get close to Batman so he can kill him. And then a bunch of other stuff happens … and for some reason, I am unimpressed. They skimmed over the prison train section too quickly. The Blaze does so little with his fire motif. (It will be a few years before Joe Coyne and his Penny Plunderers will set the template for a one-shot Batman villain who's really serious about his crime symbol.) The Blaze looks kind of like Doctor Faustus, the Captain America villain who uses psychology as his crime symbol. This story was written by Mort Weisinger, who has written a lot of good Superman stories (and also created Aquaman, Green Arrow and Johnny Quick), but he's not doing a thing for me with the Blaze. I read the next two or three Batman stories but I wanted to get the Blaze write-up out of the way before getting too far ahead. I got to thinking about the pattern of the way Batman villains appeared. The Joker, the Penguin and the Catwoman appeared pretty regularly through the early-1940s, but the other villains who appeared more than once would appear two to four times, working out a story arc in some cases, and then they would disappear to be replaced by another villain who would appear a few times. I'm thinking Scarecrow, Two-Face, the Cavalier, Killer Moth, the Riddler. Go back to the very early issues and this happens with Dr. Death and Professor Hugo Strange. I'm still working on the notes. (And I'm including Two-Face because the early 1950s appearances of Two-Face are not Harvey Dent! They are imposters! until the mid-1950s return of Harvey Dent to the role … for one issue before disappearing for more than 15 years.) I'm still doing research on this. Hopefully I'll have enough material for an essay (and time to write it) within a few weeks. |
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Post by dbutler69 on Feb 10, 2020 10:11:06 GMT -5
One thing you see from time to time on Golden Age Batman stories is occasional stories where Batman and Robin are operating outside of Gotham City. They're in Alaska for some reason, or the Rockies or the timber country upstate. These stories develop in one of several ways. Bruce and Dick might just be driving around aimlessly until they see something suspicious out West, prompting them to dress as Batman and Robin and investigate, say, a crooked dude ranch. Sometimes, they are investigating vague rumors, like "strange happening above the Arctic Circle. The story in Detective Comics #90 starts off with something very specific. There's a riverboat called the Mississippi Mermaid going up and down the Mississippi River, putting on an extravagant show at all the towns along the way. But here's always a series of crimes committed while the riverboat is docked … and the performers always have an alibi because they were performing at the time of the robberies. Bruce and Dick decide to abandon Gotham City to the mercies of the generic rat-faced, fedora-wearing, pencil-thin-moustached gangsters for a few days to go protect the people of the towns along the Mississippi. If there's an outbreak of city-threatening murdering lightning bolts or murdering psychopathic giants or a thunderstorm of pointy murdering umbrellas or an epidemic of cat-themed crimes, the police will have to handle it until the Dynamic Duo figure out the mystery of the Mississippi Mermaid. (Or maybe Green Lantern can handle Gotham while Batman is gone. Alan Scott operated in Gotham City throughout the 1940s, and this comic is cover-dated 1944, so he's still around.) And so Bruce and Dick go to the Mississippi and they see the show and they stop a crime and Batman gets a good luck at one of the robbers, but all the witnesses he was onstage when the crime was committed and eventually Batman figures out that showboat performers have a very clever (not really) trick to skew time so that nobody knows what time anything happened. It's OK, I guess. When you read a lot of Golden Age Batman, you must expect to be disappointed from time to time. What's most disappointing about this story is how little they do with the concept of a Riverboat of Crime! It should be like the Circus of Crime on water! Not a concept that would have much interest in today's market, but as a goofy-ass Golden (or Silver) Age idea, the Riverboat of Crime could be a lot of fun! The Mississippi River has so much history and folklore to use for ideas and characters! They dropped the ball on this one! And the ringleader should look just like Mark Twain! |
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Post by Hoosier X on Feb 11, 2020 15:32:32 GMT -5
One thing you see from time to time on Golden Age Batman stories is occasional stories where Batman and Robin are operating outside of Gotham City. They're in Alaska for some reason, or the Rockies or the timber country upstate. These stories develop in one of several ways. Bruce and Dick might just be driving around aimlessly until they see something suspicious out West, prompting them to dress as Batman and Robin and investigate, say, a crooked dude ranch. Sometimes, they are investigating vague rumors, like "strange happening above the Arctic Circle. The story in Detective Comics #90 starts off with something very specific. There's a riverboat called the Mississippi Mermaid going up and down the Mississippi River, putting on an extravagant show at all the towns along the way. But here's always a series of crimes committed while the riverboat is docked … and the performers always have an alibi because they were performing at the time of the robberies. Bruce and Dick decide to abandon Gotham City to the mercies of the generic rat-faced, fedora-wearing, pencil-thin-moustached gangsters for a few days to go protect the people of the towns along the Mississippi. If there's an outbreak of city-threatening murdering lightning bolts or murdering psychopathic giants or a thunderstorm of pointy murdering umbrellas or an epidemic of cat-themed crimes, the police will have to handle it until the Dynamic Duo figure out the mystery of the Mississippi Mermaid. (Or maybe Green Lantern can handle Gotham while Batman is gone. Alan Scott operated in Gotham City throughout the 1940s, and this comic is cover-dated 1944, so he's still around.) And so Bruce and Dick go to the Mississippi and they see the show and they stop a crime and Batman gets a good luck at one of the robbers, but all the witnesses he was onstage when the crime was committed and eventually Batman figures out that showboat performers have a very clever (not really) trick to skew time so that nobody knows what time anything happened. It's OK, I guess. When you read a lot of Golden Age Batman, you must expect to be disappointed from time to time. What's most disappointing about this story is how little they do with the concept of a Riverboat of Crime! It should be like the Circus of Crime on water! Not a concept that would have much interest in today's market, but as a goofy-ass Golden (or Silver) Age idea, the Riverboat of Crime could be a lot of fun! The Mississippi River has so much history and folklore to use for ideas and characters! They dropped the ball on this one! And the ringleader should look just like Mark Twain! A Mark Twain based villain should have been a natural idea for Golden Age Batman! Or at least a series of Mark Twain based crimes by the Joker. I have some notes for a Joker crime rampage based on the works of Oscar Wilde. It's called "The Joker's Wilde" because of course it is. |
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Post by dbutler69 on Feb 11, 2020 15:47:13 GMT -5
And the ringleader should look just like Mark Twain! A Mark Twain based villain should have been a natural idea for Golden Age Batman! Or at least a series of Mark Twain based crimes by the Joker. I have some notes for a Joker crime rampage based on the works of Oscar Wilde. It's called "The Joker's Wilde" because of course it is. Sounds good, let's publish it! |
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Post by Hoosier X on Feb 16, 2020 21:14:08 GMT -5
Detective Comics #96 features "Alfred, Private Detective." It's easy to forget that Alfred was frequently a bumbling though still brave and resourceful character in his early years as Bruce Wayne's butler and Batman's confidant. W've gotten very used to a very capable Alfred, adept at strategy, planning, surveillance, security and any number of disciplines as an aide to the Dark Knight Detective. (He also makes cucumber sandwiches.) But for a while in the Golden Age, he was more like Batman's Doiby Dickles. (He even had a series of comical four-page solo adventures in the Batman comic book for a time in the 1940s.) In Detective #96, Alfred is a bit perturbed when the Dynamic Duo won't take him on patrol right after he's finished a correspondence course in how to be a detective! They're downright dismissive! (Though they are rather good-natured about it.) Alfred asks if he can take a leave of absence … and goes to another city and starts a detective agency! And of course he gets involved in a scheme that's been hatched by a dude who turns out to be a typical, ferret-faced, fedora-wearing Gotham gangster who is taking a break from Gotham when the heat is on, to be one step ahead of the Batman. But he's only one step ahead, as Batman and Robin are soon involved. It's very amusing at times. I rather like these Golden Age stories where the focus is on Alfred. |
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Post by Prince Hal on Feb 17, 2020 15:13:21 GMT -5
"Crime's Manhunt" from Detective Comics #92 is pretty interesting. Some Gotham crooks get out of jail after serving a year for armed robbery. They were clobbered by Batman, and they don't really want to face HIM again! So they decide to become bounty hunters! They use their Gotham Underworld street smarts to dig up some of their fellow bad guys, trick them, apprehend them, take them to the cops and get the reward. It's quite profitable and quite legal! Until they run out of Gotham bad guys and start busting them out of jail so they can nab them and turn them in for the reward! Batman and Robin get involved and quickly put an end to Brainy Bulow and his gang after they start drumming up business in this manner. I'd say these guys were lucky that they weren't hunted down and killed by the Joker or the Penguin or any number of generic ferret-faced, pencil-thin-moustached, fedora-wearing Gotham City gangsters. The Gotham City Underworld is a mean and unforgiving place. I don't think they'd look too kindly on snitches. Even in the Golden Age. ESPECIALLY in the Golden Age! That cover! It looks like Batman's a bit in-between Robin and Bat-Baby in size and proportion. Love it! |
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Post by The Cheat on Feb 17, 2020 15:46:29 GMT -5
It's easy to forget that Alfred was frequently a bumbling though still brave and resourceful character in his early years as Bruce Wayne's butler and Batman's confidant. W've gotten very used to a very capable Alfred, adept at strategy, planning, surveillance, security and any number of disciplines as an aide to the Dark Knight Detective. (He also makes cucumber sandwiches.) But for a while in the Golden Age, he was more like Batman's Doiby Dickles. (He even had a series of comical four-page solo adventures in the Batman comic book for a time in the 1940s.) In Detective #96, Alfred is a bit perturbed when the Dynamic Duo won't take him on patrol right after he's finished a correspondence course in how to be a detective! They're downright dismissive! (Though they are rather good-natured about it.) Alfred asks if he can take a leave of absence … and goes to another city and starts a detective agency! And of course he gets involved in a scheme that's been hatched by a dude who turns out to be a typical, ferret-faced, fedora-wearing Gotham gangster who is taking a break from Gotham when the heat is on, to be one step ahead of the Batman. But he's only one step ahead, as Batman and Robin are soon involved. It's very amusing at times. I rather like these Golden Age stories where the focus is on Alfred. I do miss Alfred as just a regular (although very competent) guy. He's pretty much a super-hero in and of himself these days. |
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Post by foxley on Feb 17, 2020 16:54:36 GMT -5
It's very amusing at times. I rather like these Golden Age stories where the focus is on Alfred. Ditto. I am especially fond of the one where he falls in love with Catwoman who is disguised as a maid at a neighbouring mansion. (And Alfred gets to spank Catwoman at the end of that one.  ) |
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Post by Hoosier X on Feb 25, 2020 20:31:53 GMT -5
I got my own copy of Detective Comics #284 last week! It's so silly. Even for the last few years of the Schiff era, this one was silly. At least it wasn't ALIENS! Roy Raymond has nice art, as usual. And in the Manhunter from Mars story, pretty patrolwoman Diane Meade is up to her usual Diananigans! There' a comment about how Diane is the commissioner's daughter! So she's like Barbara Gordon without the bat suit or the caution. |
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