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Post by Hoosier X on Dec 4, 2020 17:10:30 GMT -5
I read Batman #159 (November 1963) a few nights ago. "The Great Clayface-Joker Feud!" Sheesh! What memories! I first saw this in the first edition of The Greatest Joker Stories Ever Told, hardcover, with the Bill Sienkevicz art on the cover. 1988, I believe. It's got Batman, Robin, Batwoman, Bat-Girl, Clayface and the Joker! It's four-color crack for the Jack Schiff era! (It also has one of those "future Batman" stories, where Bruce has married Kathy Kane (Batwoman) and they have a son Bruce Wayne Jr.) I love this story so much! Basically the new villain Clayface is creating quite a bit of buzz and everybody is wondering who's the greatest crime genius now - Clayface or the Joker? So a little feud develops. And Clayface masquerades as the Joker to prove he can pull off a Joker theme crime. And the Joker uses a bunch of seriously dumb and unlikely costumes to imitate Clayface's power to pull off a Clayface-type crime caper. And what a jolly time is had by all! Batwoman and Bat-Girl play a pretty large role in the first half. In addition to fighting the Joker (or is it Clayface?), they also have a few of those "Bat-Girl has a crush on Robin and he blushes and is awkward" panels that I love so much. Dang! Bat-Girl is aggressive! She sees what she wants and she goes for it! She's always saying things like "Oh, Robin, I feel shivery from the excitement! Let me grab you and lean on you before I faint!" In this issue, Batwoman thinks it's a good idea to grab Batman and poke a little fun at Bat-Girl. The Dynamic Duo get all blushy and stuttery when the bat-ladies go for it! It makes me laugh. Betty Kane Bat-Girl is one of the greatest characters ever because all her 1960s appearances are so amusing. And then Batwoman and Bat-Girl pretty much disappear in the second half. For a good reason! The Joker (with his Clayface costumes) robs a museum. This takes several pages to show off all the costumes the Joker has (and he is very illogically wearing all of them, each one underneath the next; it's very silly) to duplicate Clayface's shape-changing powers. But the Joker manages to escape, flying away in a dragonfly costume. The next day, Clayface is pulling off another caper and he kidnaps both Joker and the Batman! It's quite a coup! However … it's not the Joker! It's the Batman! And the Batman is really a Batman robot! In a two-panel flashback, they show that when the Joker escaped in his dragonfly costume, Batwoman and Bat-Girl were waiting! They were riding the whirly-bats with a net and they were ready! They just glided up and tossed the net and captured the Joker, just like that! No muss no fuss! Easy as pie! (And they managed to keep the capture of the Joker a secret to set a trap for Clayface. Because Gotham City doesn't have any reporters as good as Lois Lane. Did you say Vicki Vale? Don't be absurd. (I know nobody really said Vicki Vale. Nobody is that absurd.)) Geez Louise! I love it that Batwoman and Bat-Girl just threw a net over the Joker and the shift was over! Clock out and go to the soda shop, girls! It's too bad this is the end of the Schiff era because the Schiff-era Joker would never have lived it down! In whichever universe the late Schiff-era comics took place, this is where the Joker started murdering people again … I wonder if that's who hired the League of Assassins to take out Kathy Kane in the early 1980s? It makes more sense than anything that was ever published in a Batman story. So yeah, I'd say this one holds up really well! It certainly continues to stir up deep thoughts about the DC universe! |
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Post by Hoosier X on Dec 21, 2020 18:56:27 GMT -5
I read a few Schiff era Batman stories but didn't have time to write about them until now.
Detective Comics #306 features Batman and Robin matching wits with … Professor Arnold Hugo!
You see, the Gotham Historical Society has invited various Gotham personalities to re-enact some of the great deeds of their ancestors. (This includes a lot of incidents that didn't happen in Gotham City.) Professor Arnold Hugo (who lives in a castle on an island in Gotham Harbor) is upset that he wasn't invited to join. So he gnashes his teeth, injects himself with a serum he invented that makes your brain bigger, and promptly vows REVENGE on the Gotham Historical Society.
For his first crime, he injects a growth serum into a tiger being used for one of the re-enactments, so Batman and Robin have to stop a fifty-foot long tiger while Professor Hugo chortles in a sinister manner.
And then for the next re-enactment, Bruce Wayne is going to imitate the greatest deed of his ancestor Lancelot Wayne. It seems that Lancelot was a friend of Leonardo da Vinci, and he wore a flying suit that da Vinci had designed and Lancelot tested it by jumping off a castle tower. So Bruce Wayne tests it by jumping off a bridge.
I know, I know, it's NUTS!
Professor Hugo attacks again and SOMEHOW Bruce manages to turn to Batman and protect his secret identity and foils Professor Hugo's plan. (I've read this three or four times and I haven't really figured out a way to make this work in my head, so I can't really explain it and you'll just have to take my word for it.)
I doubt Lancelot Wayne is canon anymore but, believe me! If it was up to me, there would be a Lancelot Wayne story in the works as soon as possible! A story from the Wayne family past that doesn't involve Bruce Wayne's parents being murdered or having dark secrets? YES!
And then there's some invisible robots that are really cool. They fly because they have propellers in their heads. And then Professor Hugo gets Batman and Robin in a death trap! But they escape and somehow take over control of the robots and ride on their backs and Hugo is defeated! YAY!
Yeah. I love Detective Comics #306.
I also read Detective Comics #312, and it's another good one! Clayface breaks out of jail and goes on another crime spree and Batman finds the secret grotto where Matt Hagen gets his shape-changing powers … and Batman also becomes Clayface and they have an epic fight and Batman wins with a trick!
Yes. It's glorious.
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Post by Hoosier X on Dec 21, 2020 19:48:11 GMT -5
And I've also been reading Showcase Presents: The Martian Manhunter, Volume One, which reprints the Martian Manhunter backup stories from Detective Comics #225 to #306.
Since it's the Martian Manhunter, maybe I shouldn't be talking about it in the Batman thread. But there's two reasons why it's appropriate.
The first reason is that Martian Manhunter started out as one of the features in Detective Comics, and I have bunches and bunches of ancient issues of Detective Comics with both Batman and the Martian Manhunter, so they are very closely associated in my mind. Detective Comics is a Batman comic. Therefore, anybody who has a feature in Detective Comics is fair game for a Batman thread.
The second reason … The first story in the volume is a Batman story from 1953! Batman #78 featured a prototype Martian Manhunter!
There's a mysterious villain prowling Gotham, and Batman and Robin are having a hard time figuring out his powers and his motives. But who should appear but a detective spacemen, a policeman from Mars, a Martian Manhunter! (The story is titled "The Manhunter from Mars.") He's pursuing the Martian criminal who has been bedeviling Batman. Together Batman and Roh Kar (the Martian policeman) apprehend the Stranger (as he's called), and Roh Kar takes the culprit back to the Red Planet. And Batman wonders if the world is ready to hear the complete details of such a strange case.
(They'd better be ready! Because this kind of thing is going to start happening A LOT very shortly!)
It's an OK story. I was happy to read it. I had no idea such a story existed!
I haven't read very many of the Martian Manhunter stories in this volume yet. The early stories are only six pages, and there's very little room for character development or plot development or anything. I did skip ahead to read #246, the first appearance of Diane Meade! I love Diane Meade so much! She is hilarious! The title of her first story is "John Jones's Female Nemesis!" She is teamed up with Jones to learn police work, and she keeps fouling things up because she's a nut! (Also she hampers John's abilities as the Martian Manhunter because he's trying to protect his identity.)
I didn't realize that Diane didn't appear again for more than two years. Her next appearance is Detective #275, and since my collection start with #270, that means I've read all of Diane's Detective Comics appearances! (Now I'm wondering if she ever appeared outside of the Martian Manhunter's Detective Comics series in the Silver Age. Maybe she was in an issue of JLA? Was she in the House of Mystery series for maybe one issue? I'll have to look into it.)
Like House of Mystery, I'm not really compelled to read these every night. I like them. They're kind of fun and silly. But it's real easy to forget you're reading it if you get busy!
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Post by Hoosier X on Dec 26, 2020 11:52:00 GMT -5
I was browsing eBay, looking at Detective and Batman from 1958 to 1964, trying to decide between the first Double X, the return of the Mirror Man, the one where Bat-Mite gives Ace the Bat-Hound super-powers, the future story with the Son of the Joker, and other such ding dong stories, when I saw a low-grade but not too low-grade copy of Batman #163, with The Joker Jury on the cover. (I’ve read it and it’s never been a favorite Joker story.)
I read an online synopsis to see what else is in this issue ... one of the stories where Alfred is writing a “fictional” future history of the Bat-Family, and in this one, Betty Kane has grown up and she comes back to Gotham City to take over from her aunt as Batwoman II.
I bought that. I never knew it existed. Gotta have that.
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Post by Hoosier X on Dec 26, 2020 20:02:12 GMT -5
I got Batman #161 in the mail last week. The cover features another wild romp with the rascally imp Bat-Mite as he decides to create his own super-hero since Batman won't play ball. It's NUTS! Some of the Bat-Mite stories leave me cold but I really liked this one,
What I really wanted to talk about was the Mad Hatter story!
This might sound familiar. The Mad Hatter episodes of the 1960s Batman TV show seem to have been based on this.
The Mad Hatter is back, and he's committing crimes based on occupations that wear hats. His first crime is a bank robbery as the Hatter and his gang dress as firemen and evacuate the bank under pretext of a gas leak or something … and then they try to get away with the money! Batman and Robin show up and stop the crime but the Hatter and his gang get away.
Then the Hatter tries to steal the golden arrows from an archery competition.
Batman remembers that at the Mad Hatter's trial, one of the the jurors was a fire chief and another was an archer! So … he must be planning crimes based on the occupations of these average Gothamites!
After a crime based on a chef's hat and another based on a bowler (because one of the jurors owned a bowling alley), the Hatter is thwarted before we find out what the other occupations are.
They should have had a flashback to the trial! We could have seen the foreman wearing his fire chief hat and the guy with his archer's hat (Oliver Queen?), and the chef …
and an archaeologist in a pith helmet, and a witch doctor in a headdress, and a guy from a barbershop quartet with a straw hat, and a Turk wearing a fez, and a Civil War soldier wearing a kepi, and a fortune teller wearing a turban. And a beekeeper.
A typical Gotham City jury. And the Hatter was seething in his chair, memorizing their hats and silently vowing revenge … by using their occupational headwear as a crime theme.
No wonder nobody batted an eye when the other Mad Hatter killed this dude and disposed of his body. THIS Mad Hatter is too extreme for Gotham City and should immediately move to Townville or Quahog.
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Post by Hoosier X on Jan 2, 2021 19:33:35 GMT -5
I’ve got every issue of Detective from #271 on, and I’m looking at Jack Schiff-edited issues of Batman in the 1959 to 1964 era, and I’m thinking I should get a few of the more interesting looking issues of Batman before I go back to Detective. I ordered #163 with the Joker Jury already. And there’s also #160’s Alien Mob Boss, and the Clayface-Joker feud in #159 and then in #158 Bat-Mite gives Ace the Bat-Hound super-powers. Not to mention the return of the Mirror Man (that nut!) in #157.
And also Robin Dies at Dawn in 156 (I have more than one reprint of this, but I’d like my own copy at some point).
I’m weighing my options.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 2, 2021 20:06:12 GMT -5
I love this thread so much.
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Post by Hoosier X on Jan 5, 2021 13:29:59 GMT -5
Batman #163 came in the mail last night! “The Joker Jury!” It’s not one of my favorite Joker stories, but the cover is HILARIOUS! And the basic idea is much
better than the presentation.
But the lead story was great! It was one of those stories where Alfred is writing about Batman in the near future, and Bruce Wayne has married Kathy Kane and they retire from crime-fighting and Robin becomes Batman II and Bruce Wayne Jr becomes Robin II. In this one, Betty Kane (the early 1970s Bat-Girl) comes back after a long sojourn in Europe ... and becomes Batwoman II!
It’s glorious!
How can Batwoman II cope with the villainy of Professor Milo and Hippo Barnes!
It’s the last Silver Age hurrah for Betty Kane as the New Look Batman starts immediately after this, and the idea of Batgirl was just too dumb for Batman fans.
One thing that gets me about these “future Batman” stories is how the age difference changes between the older generation of crime-fighters and the younger. Batman is only ten, maybe fifteen, years older than Robin (and the same for Batwoman and Bat-Girl). But in the “future Batman” stories, the age difference seems to jump to thirty or forty years. And Alfred looks like the Ancient One!
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Post by dbutler69 on Jan 31, 2021 11:59:21 GMT -5
I am getting ready to write the review of Batman #293 and I am wondering if there's a common slang term among Superman fans for Lex Luthor's 1970s look: This is Lex Luthor to me. I'm not as big a Superman fan as I am a fan of Batman or Hulk or Spider-Man, but I like the character. I just haven't read hundreds and hundreds of Superman stories. So I haven't really read that many 1970s Lex Luthor stories. But I love every 1970s Lex Luthor story I've ever read. So I know I've heard slang terms for other versions of Lex. 1960s Lex is sometimes called "prison duds Lex Luthor" because he would escape from prison and wouldn't take time to change clothes before attacking Superman again. (I find this hilarious.) In the late Bronze Age, Lex kept the purple and green color scheme but started wearing an elaborate battle-suit, so I think I've heard him called "battle-suit Lex Luthor." And of course, he was "businessman Lex Luthor" post-Crisis. (BORING! I thought "businessman Lex Luthor" got real old real fast, yet the Superman writers thought it was such an innovative concept. As if you can't read the newspaper - any issue of any newspaper - and read about corrupt, egotistical, untouchable businessmen. It wouldn't have been so bad if they hadn't used him so often for such a long time.) So does anybody know of a slang term for 1970s Lex? I call him "purple and green Lex Luthor."  I like the way he modified the purple and green suit so he would look nice traveling to Gotham City to appear before the villains court. I call him "Pimp Lex Luthor." 1970s Lex Luthor is HILARIOUS! I don't know if there's a commonly accepted term for the 70's Luthor look, but I just call it his supervillain look. He went from mad scientist, to supervillain, to armored supervillain, to evil businessman. EDIT: I think you could also call it his Legion of Doom look. And the purple and green caped Luthor is hilariously bad! It's so bad that I love it! I guess even the "world's smartest human" can make a fashion mistake. |
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Post by dbutler69 on Jan 31, 2021 12:02:28 GMT -5
BATMAN #299 and down (reviews by Hoosier X) BATMAN #293I enjoy "The Testimony of Lex Luthor" a little more every time I read it. In the 1980s and 1990s, when I re-read my late-1970s Batman collection, I always read #291 and #292 again, but I usually skipped #293 and I usually skimmed #294. So I haven’t read it nearly as often as the first two chapters. It's quite a departure from those earlier chapters! And once a Batman fan gets over his initial (and completely justifiable!) distaste for Lex's dismissive attitude towards Batman, he or she can enjoy the Schadenfreude when Lex is TOTALLY PWNED at the conclusion! I noticed just a few days ago that this story is an excellent example of super-dickery! Perhaps one of the greatest examples of super-dickery! (It would be my favored candidate in a contest for Best Super-Dickery Ever!) Superman and Batman don't really need to drag Super-Pimp Lex Luthor into this tribunal at all! As we will find out in the conclusion, Batman knows what he is looking for in these trials, and – along with Superman – he knows that Lex Luthor’s plot to kill Superman through beating up Batman's body in no way resembles the circumstances of the grisly murder of the Batman look-alike revealed in the conclusion. But I'm sure Superman talked Batman into including Lex Luthor among the suspects. Just to see the look on Lex's face. Just to see Lex humiliated in front of all the Batman villains after being such an obnoxious know-it-all jerk for 13 pages. Just to see Lex get all mad and pissy and tantrummy before storming out. I bet Superman was impossible to live with for weeks afterward! (Green Arrow probably liked not being the most hated JLA member for a month or so.) Next: The Testimony of the Joker! Frankly, I can't stand Luthor, and I loved seeing him be made a fool of! |
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Post by dbutler69 on Jan 31, 2021 12:05:49 GMT -5
BATMAN #299 and down (reviews by Hoosier X) BATMAN #294Here’s why I didn't like this conclusion when I was a kid: Jerry Randall's fate is just too gruesome! And pathetic! He's sincerely trying to do a good deed for Gotham City and he runs into the Joker and he is murdered and gets his face burned off! That’s cold, Clown Prince of Crime! Jerry Randall never did anything to you! Yes, Jerry Randall was not the sharpest knife in the drawer and he was as dumb as sack of Ben Carsons. Yes, Gotham City is frequently an awful awful place where things like this happen pretty regularly. But it was a bit much for me as a teen. Not so much the gruesome nature of Jerry Randall's actual demise (I have had a strong stomach for this stuff from a young age) but because of the hopeless and sad nature of his short and tragic and pathetic life. It didn't sit well with me as a kid. The world is a hard and cruel place and that is doubly true for Gotham City. But this seemed a bit much for me. Poor Jerry Randall was just a blip in the Gotham firmament, a dead bug on the window that's washed away by the windshield wiper before the driver even notices. There's a part of me that still feels that way, but mostly I like this story. I think it was a good idea to include a real fight scene with the Joker to contrast with the rest of the mini-series, which was actually just a bunch of people (interesting people, to be sure) sitting around and talking. I liked this conclusion. So often, a big, hyped, multi-part story has a conclusion that's a let-down (Kree-Skrull War comes to mind) but I thought this one was pretty good. Yes, it's sad, but we're dealing with a major psychopath here in the Joker, and I thought that story gave this faked Batman death and faked trial a pretty good motivation for happening, as far as comic books go. |
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Post by Hoosier X on May 22, 2021 20:52:14 GMT -5
Hey! Batman Family 7 just came in the mail!
The lead story (Batgirl and Robin vs. The Huntress and Sports-Master) looks great. But the main event is the reprint of the first appearance of Dr Double X from Detective 261!
I’ll read it in a bit.
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shaxper
CCF Site Custodian
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Post by shaxper on May 23, 2021 8:41:25 GMT -5
Hey! Batman Family 7 just came in the mail! The lead story (Batgirl and Robin vs. The Huntress and Sports-Master) looks great. But the main event is the reprint of the first appearance of Dr Double X from Detective 261! I’ll read it in a bit. I definitely enjoyed that one when I reviewed it. Not enough solid Batgirl/Robin team-ups in a title that was built upon the Batgirl/Robin team-up. |
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Post by Hoosier X on Jun 22, 2021 23:41:34 GMT -5
I’m reading Batman #59, the first appearance of Deadshot. He’s using his superb marksmanship to help the police and he wants to take Batman’s place. I haven’t finished the story. I suspect he’s insincere and just wanting to get rid of Batman so he can take over leadership of the criminal underworld.
Batman is suspicious, but when he raises any objections, Gordon tells him to stop being such a baby. (I’m paraphrasing a bit.)
Batman and Robin figure out who he is. Deadshot is really Floyd Lawton! He’s just moved to Gotham City and Bruce knows him because he’s recently joined Bruce’s gentlemen’s club.
Which is the real purpose of this comment! I can’t pass up a chance to talk about Bruce’s club! It is a seriously nutty place!
It has spawned more villains than the Phantom Zone!
Here’s a list of villains that Bruce Wayne knows in their civilian identities at the club ...
The Cavalier is Mortimer Drake
Catman is Thomas Blake
The Werewolf (from Batman #255) is Anthony Lupus
And now ... Deadshot is Floyd Lawton
And it’s not crazy to think that Hush (Tommy Elliot) and Black Mask (Roman Sionis) belonged to the same club at some point.
I’m not sure if the club’s name has ever been mentioned, but I think of it as The Gotham Club. I might have seen that in a story or I might just be assuming it because it’s so obvious!
DC should have a limited series, Tales of the Gotham Club.
It’s too bad that DC never noticed this in DC continuity ... some of these guys knew each other before they were villains! I can see The Cavalier asking Catman to put in a good word for him so he can be in The Secret Six. (I also see Catman refusing. Ha ha!)
I guess I’d better finish the story. I’m on the edge of my seat wondering how Batman can convince Gordon that he isn’t just being a drama queen!
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Post by Hoosier X on Jun 23, 2021 16:26:01 GMT -5
I was browsing on Comixology and I decided to stock up on old Batman stories and I ended up getting these ...
BATMAN #43 (Oct/Nov 1947)
“The Blackbird of Banditry” - (One of my favorite Penguin stories)
“Next Stop - Danger!”
“The Four Horsemen of Crime”
BATMAN #59 (June/July 1950)
“The Man Who Replaced Batman” (First Deadshot)
“The Forbidden Cellar”
“Batman in the Future”
BATMAN #139 (April 1961)
“The Blue Bowman”
“The Island of 10,000 Traps”
“Bat-Girl”
BATMAN #233 (July/August 1971)
“The Death-Cheaters of Gotham City” (from Batman #72 (1952))
“The Other Bruce Wayne” (Batman #111 (1957))
The Murder of Bruce Wayne (World’s Finest #58 (1952))
“Bruce Wayne’s Aunt Agatha” (Batman #89 (1955))
The Crime of Bruce Wayne” (Detective Comics #249 (1957))
BATMAN FAMILY #3 (Jan/Feb 1976)
“The Challenge of Batwoman” (Batman #105 (1957))
“Crimes of the Kite-Man” (Batman #133 (1960))
“The Year 3000” (Batman #26 (1944))
BATMAN FAMILY #5 (May/June 1976)
“Ace the Bat-Hound” (Batman #92 (1955))
“The Signs of the Signalman” (Batman #124 (1959))
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