Man, I miss Jason Bard! Great character, in the right hands.

Fond memories of the Batman Family comic! The first one I recall reading was Batman Family 16 which had a cameo from Betty Kane as Batgirl. I had all the issues from there until the cancellation and have most of the run today. Back then the series was such a big deal to me with all the stories in one issue. I recall Michael Golden providing art for some of the Batman and Man-Bat stories and thought the look he gave them was so cool. He did the final few covers too, I believe. I enjoyed the Batgirl and Robin team ups. One that stands out features them along with Red Tornado and Elongated Man. Another I remember is when Huntress shows up and meets the Earth 1 Catwoman.

Batman Family #1 (October 1975)



Our first action-packed issue of...well...mostly reprints. Batgirl and Robin get a decent lead story together, but the rest of the book seems entirely unsure of who constitutes "The Batman Family". Do readers actually want stories of Commissioner Gordon, Alfred, and Man-Bat? Let's throw some reprints at them and find out.



Batgirl and Robin: "The Invader from Hell!"
Script: Elliot S! Maggin
Pencils: Mike Grell
Inks: Mike Grell
Colors: ?
Letters: ?

grade: B-

Benedict Arnold is back from the dead, infused with strange super powers, and attempting to take over Washington with a ghostly revolutionary army. If that doesn't sound ridiculous enough, just wait 'til you find out he's working for The Devil in a quest to corrupt the American ideal.

Look, I get it. The Bicentennial was around the corner, and folks were getting a little carried away with patriotism, but this is just ridiculous:




Fortunately, there's a lot more to the story than its absurd plot. Elliot Maggin does a great job with the writing and, most importantly, we get the beginning of a Batgirl and Robin partnership, as we learn that Dick is working as Babs' aid while on break from Hudson University, and (at the same time) watch them negotiate the terms of their relationship:



Dick (along with the reader) is going to have to get comfortable with the idea of the woman calling all the shots in this friendship/partnership/potential romantic relationship. And Maggin and Grell drive this message home beautifully on the final page:



Both the comic book and TV series had suggested, on several occasions, that Batgirl was a potential romantic interest for Bruce Wayne, and that always felt...creepy to me. It was more the norm back then for women to date and marry men twice their ages, but the pairing of Batgirl and Robin makes a lot more sense to me.

Wide eyed boy superhero working as undignified underling for a powerful and fearless woman who enjoys playing hard to get -- this feels prototypical of the 1990's Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman television series. Man, I loved that show.

Of course, whereas the fun with that show (and, really, with the Superman mythos in general) was that Lois didn't know Clark was really Superman, we're in for double the fun here, as neither Babs nor Dick know the other's identity at this point, as they keep tiptoing around one another whenever trouble stirs and even go to change in the same supply closet, only moments apart:



I suppose, in a sense, this is the feminist answer to Superman -- two equally empowered crime fighters both working to protect their identities from the other. Well it's definitely fun this time around!


Important Details:

- Dick Grayson is a temporary aid working in Congresswoman Barbara Gordon's office

- Neither knows the other's secret identity

- Batgirl and Robin begin teaming up to fight crime.


Minor Details:

- Why is no one questioning why either Gotham-based crimefighter is now active in Washington DC? Why aren't they asking each other that question? In fact, if Robin moved from Gotham, to Hudson University, to Washington DC at exactly the same times as Dick Grayson did, isn't someone going to piece that together? You'd think one of Batman's craftier villains would be taking note of all the changes in locale.

- Absolutely no mention of Robin's time nor affiliation with the Teen Titans, who may or may not still be active since their title ended without warning a year earlier.

- It always takes some suspension of disbelief to watch Batman and Robin fire off cable guns that cling to rooftops on the first try, swing themselves around town, and then remove those cables just as easily, but I find it particularly hard to accept here, where Robin appears to throw a loop around the Washington Monument, swing on it, and then just leave it dangling there after:



Clearly, Grell didn't give a f***.



Alfred: "The Great Handcuff King!" (reprinted from Batman #28)

Script: Don C. Cameron ?; Joe Samachson ?
Pencils: Jerry Robinson
Inks: Jerry Robinson
Colors: ?
Letters: George Roussos

grade: B

A surprisingly fun little tale in which Alfred unwittingly takes down a gang of safe-crackers with two pairs of handcuffs he bought in an effort to learn to be a real detective:



We're used to a more dignified and all-knowing Alfred in the Post-Crisis Era, but this Golden Age romp is positively delightful in contrast.



"Comedy Cover Capers"
grade: A

An incredibly fun little feature in which new joke captions are added to classic Batman covers.



I sincerely hope they'll continue this into subsequent issues.



Commissioner Gordon: "Commissioner Gordon's Death-Threat!" (reprinted from Batman #186)

Script: Gardner Fox
Pencils: Sheldon Moldoff [as Bob Kane]
Inks: Joe Giella
Colors: ?
Letters: Gaspar Saladino

grade: D

A Pre-Crisis Commissioner Gordon story is as terrible an idea as it sounds, as no one prior to Frank Miller seemed to know how to write the guy as anything other than old and slightly helpless. It doesn't help that this story is full of hokey implausibilities. And yet, the real problem with including this story here is its depiction of Robin as still being Batman's permanent sidekick, with no life of his own beyond the Batcave:





This is NOT the Robin that teens and college students were buying this issue to read.


It would have seemed more logical to have given us a solo Batman story here, as a means of selling new readers checking out this comic on all the good stuff that O'Neil, Adams, Englehart, and Rogers were turning out in the other bat books that weren't selling too hot at the moment.



Man-Bat: "Challenge of the Man-Bat" (reprinted from Detective Comics #400)

Script: Frank Robbins
Pencils: Neal Adams
Inks: Dick Giordano
Colors: ?
Letters: John Costanza

grade: C

A reprinting of Man-Bat's origin and first appearance as a means of plugging his upcoming solo title. I'd never read this story before and was a little surprised by how lackluster it was:



I suppose Man-Bat came into his own more because of the horror craze sweeping comicdom in the mid 1970s than because of anything particularly worthwhile in his original outings.




Alfred: "The Alfred Story"

grade: n/a

A one-page retelling of key moments in Alfred's career, including his first appearance, his serving as a double for Batman, his near death, and his briefly becoming a villain known as The Outsider, with accompanying reprinted panels from each story.



All in all, a mess of a first issue. At this point, Batgirl and Robin are clearly the only real draw this title has, and even that initial offering had its weaknesses. Curious to see what will become of the B-stories in future issues.

That is pretty fun.

Ya know, someone should start a thread like that here.

I know, that's the joke.

I can't tell if you're messing with me or not.