This story was reprinted in the first Batman Annual, so I’ve been reading it over and over for many years. It’s not a major favorite, but I love it for the villain, who I call The Ascot. We don’t get to see his crimes, but I imagine they mostly involve robbing charity polo matches and escaping on the polo ponies. Maybe high society scavenger hunts? Rowing matches? Yacht races?

The Untold History of The Ascot is ripe for a limited series!

Another thing I like about this story is how Sheldon Moldoff it is.

It’s very Moldoffy. A 9.5 on the Moldoff scale.

I finally had some free time to get out my replica of Batman Annual #1 to read “The Thrilling Escapes of Batman.” (The title was changed from its original appearance, possibly because the theme of the annual is “1001 Secrets of Batman and Robin” and they didn’t want to wear out the “1001” references. I think yet another one of the stories reprinted here had its title changed because of another use of “1001.”)

The main thing I love about this story is how ridiculous Paul King is. He is really full of himself! And the way he flaunts his eccentricities is enough to make the Joker vomit! I mean ... the atomizer is just too much, man!

I will probably keep calling him The Ascot because that’s been my private nickname for him for close to twenty years. But he could just as easily be called:

The Dressing Gown
The Dinner Jacket
The Cigarette Holder

And I also like ... Mr Ridiculous!

He should have a lady partner in crime called The Lorgnette.

Or maybe he should team up with Joe Coyne and they could call themselves the Fashion Disaster Gang!

Really, they should have shown just one of the Ascot’s theme crimes. Batman and Robin are keeping an eye on the Gotham Fashion Museum because that famous institution has recently opened a “Historical Jodhpurs Exhibit” and it’s worth a fortune! Of course, The Ascot and his gang show up.

That’s how they should have been captured! During the fight in the Hall of Jodhpurs!

I was also amused by the fancy monogrammed “K” on his handkerchiefs.

One of the generic fedora-wearing Gotham gangsters in the gang is called “Hippo.” There is next to no continuity for these interchangeable Gotham thugs, but a criminal called “Hippo” Barnes shows up in one of those stories written by Alfred, in Batman #163, where Betty Kane returns from Europe, all grown up and ready to take over the Batwoman identity from Aunt Kathy. So maybe Alfred WAS paying attention and used an older, chubbier version of The Ascot’s henchman in his story? Or maybe not.

When I got to the part where Robin was describing the escapes in detail, my first thought is ... he’s making this up. He’s just messing with The Ascot. The Boy Wonder has no respect for this guy at all!

I love it that they included Vicki Vale in one of the stories. And she’s not nearly as useless as usual!

Two of the stories mention the names of the bad guys they are pursuing. One is Death Valley Dan and the other is Captain Shark. So we have to keep these characters in mind the next time there’s a discussion of obscure members of the Batman Rogues Gallery.

I’m going to give it a B+.

I actually just posted on another forum that it's peculiar the way that these lists almost always contain Bruce Wayne's name but never any of the others you see whenever someone decides to print a list of 'Five Gothamites Most Likely to be Batman'.  And it's strange too considering that out of all these suspects, only Bruce Wayne is taking great pains to eliminate himself as a suspect and yet, he's the one constant on these lists.  How is it that Batman - who carries upon himself at all times photograph of himself shaking hands with Bruce Wayne - can easily convince people that he isn't Ted Stevens or Guy Wilford or whoever, but can't convince people that he isn't Bruce Wayne?  Bruce Wayne must have been photographed with Batman at least a dozen times now (albeit, Superman or Alfred or Robin or a dying actor or whoever in the costume) and yet Gothamites still aren't convinced they're not one and the same.  Meanwhile, all these other suspects who aren't being photographed with Batman, aren't seen having dinner with him, aren't being constantly assured by those closest to Batman that they can't be Batman the way Bruce Wayne is, are completely exonerated without even trying.   

Bruce Wayne could be walking down Gotham Sqaure in broad daylight with his arm around Batman's shoulder and people would still be going "Hey - who's that guy standing next to Batman?"  "Him?  Oh, that's Bruce Wayne!"   "Bruce Wayne nothing!  I'll bet that guy walking next to Batman IS Batman!"

World's Finest Comics #77 (July-August 1955)



"The Super-Bat Man!"

Script: Edmond Hamilton
Pencils: Curt Swan
Inks: Stan Kaye
Colors: ?
Letters: Pat Gordon

Grade: C-

Edmond Hamilton seems to be running a little low on imagination this time. No elaborate clubs for bored wealthy people, no crazy misdirections and heroes keeping secrets from each other until the final act. Instead, a not-particularly mad scientist has once again created some amazing investion on his own and in secret, decided to use it for crime instead of making fortunes off of patents, and (of course) created an opposite ray that can undo the effects of his machine:







"Wait a second...he isn't here to peer review these findings for the medical journal!"


It's staggering to consider just how many criminals in these comics invent amazing machines that can transform humanity itself, while the law-abiding scientists either fail to create anything useful or end up deciding their inventions are too dangerous to be allowed to exist. So many geniuses, and humanity remains at the exact same level of scientific progress as it does in the real world.


So, of course, Batman gets hit with the energizing ray, Superman gets hit with the de-energizing ray, and hijinks ensue, not that any of it is all that fun. Alfred gapes while Bruce accidentally hits or pulls things too hard over and over again, while Lois Lane repeatedly dogs Superman.

Seriously, Hamilton takes this bit waaaay far.









That's a lot of time spent across a twelve page story on being annoyed by the one female in the book. Is everything okay at home, Edmond?


Superman's powers come back with a lazy explanation that raises more questions than it answers:



1. Why would he prepare a fake gun? What does he gain by convincing people it exists?
2. Why would he assume Superman would be the one to come stop him?
3. Is Kryptonite THAT easy to come by on the black market?



Anyway, it's suddenly casually mentioned that Batman's new powers wear off after 24 hours, so everything is back to normal by the close.

Well, except Lois gets one more chance to be an a$$hole:







Minor Details:

1. Yet another villain that both Batman and Superman have faced countless times before, yet we've never seen him previously, and we'll never see him again:




2. A nice thing about Atom Age crimefighting is that, given a vehicle and a generous head-start, the villain could still only hide out in the city you patrol!




3. Legitimately Swan's finest moment in this issue:




4. Did Batman and Robin just fly down into The Batcave?

Batman #93 (August 1955)



A potential candidate for worst Batman cover of all time. Fortunately the stories within are mostly good!



"Journey to the Top of the World!"
Script: Bill Finger
Pencils: Dick Sprang (signed as Bob Kane)
Inks: Charles Paris
Colors: ?
Letters: Pat Gordon

Grade: B

In an era in which depicting gritty crimefighting was becoming more and more challenging thanks to the Comics Code, I'm starting to think that the measure of success for any given Batman story from this period is how well it can keep the dramatic action going without depicting death, gun violence, and more fighting than a punch to the face or three. In this case, Finger finds it by transplanting the dynamic duo to a mountain top, full of new hazards and obstacles that land safely outside of the Comics Code's purvue:



Add to this enticing action a mystery, because as soon as Finger bothers to name and show the faces of every member of the hiking party, you know someone's going to die and this will end up being a whodunnit:



And the mystery is executed well enough to have impressed an adolescent, Batman and Robin having strong reasons to suspect more than one member, while the only one seemingly beyond suspicion quickly dies off-panel at the very start and we never see the body. It's not easy to tell an engaging ensemble mystery in eight pages, but this one works well enough, and the mountain-top backdrop provides a lot of excitement to boot. This is the kind of story that lends itself best to comics, as no film of the era was going to convincingly portray a whodunnit at the summit of one of the world's tallest mountains.



"Batman, Baby-Sitter!"
Script: Bill Finger
Pencils: Dick Sprang
Inks: Charles Paris
Colors: ?
Letters: Pat Gordon

Grade: A+

This may go down in history as my favorite lighthearted Batman story of all time. The setup is contrived and unbelievable, to be sure:



but the hilarity that ensues more than justifies our accepting a relative Bruce Wayne has never before mentioned deciding that he is the best candidate to watch her child for an extended period of time on absolutely zero notice, as well as the fact that it never occurs to any of them for Bruce to hire a babysitter. While some of the comedy is Finger's, Sprang is really the one who has me in stitches in almost every panel with his comicly expressive faces:





Of course, Finger does have his moments too:



and the highlight of this story has got to be when they run out of milk on a Sunday (when all the stores are closed) and decide that this is a job for the Dynamic Duo, following leads until they finally arrive at this moment of hilarious desperation:




That moment when Dick realized his comfortable stint as ward to a walking trustfund just might not be worth it after all:




And, of course, this was a lot of fun too:






In the end, the baby nearly gives away Bruce's secret identity, but the magic of unprompted emotional abuse saves the day:





"Oh, thank God you were just tormenting my child for no good reason. And here I thought you were Batman!"


Important Details:

1. 1st (and likely only) appearance of Bruce's cousin, Jane, and her infant son. For her sake, I hope Jane is from Bruce's mother's side of the family and was not born "Jane Wayne".



"The Caveman Batman"
Script: Edmond Hamilton
Pencils: Dick Sprang
Inks: Charles Paris
Colors: ?
Letters: Pat Gordon

Grade: C

A bit surprising to see this one credited to Hamilton, as both Professor Carter Nichols timetravel stories AND stories introducing a new costumed hero who is somehow connected to Batman have pretty much exclusively been the purvue of Bill Finger until now. We've had Ace the Bathound, Batboy, Batman and Robin from 1255 AD, and the Batman of the 31st Century. Rog, the Prehistoric Batman, would seem to have been right up Finger's alley (no pun intended).



So, what? they didn't have bats back then, or did Hamilton just decide that would be too coincidental?

For what it's worth, this marks the second time in four issues that protecting a crusty old professional's good name warrants a time-travel adventure that risks jeopardizing the entire space-time continuem.



Funny how they have time travel available to them whenever they need it, and yet Batman and Robin never use it to actually prevent crime...


Of course, I'm not sure anyone in this story is all that concerned with preserving the space-time continuem anyway:




Beyond the fact that this far lamer story got the cover when we could have instead seen Batman dangling off of a snowy cliff amidst an avalanche or attempting to change Junior's diaper, the most disappointing aspect of this story is the inconsistency in logic it uses. The very basis for this story is the smug reminder that, contrary to popular belief, dinosaurs and prehistoric man did not exist at the same time:



So how do you make popular misconceptions about science the focal point of your story and then have Batman and Robin meet prehistoric men who speak perfect English?



or have the climax centered on a Tyrannasaurus Rex who gets unfrozen and then immediately comes to life?



Yeah, I guess this would have to be the work of Hamilton. Somehow, I don't feel like Finger would have insulted our intelligence this much.



Important Details:

1. First appearance of Rog/Tigerman, the Prehistoric Batman.

2. First appearance of archeologist Dr. William Sayre, who I very much doubt we will ever see again.


Minor Details:

1. Why do Batman and Robin need to change into costume in the Paleolithic Era? Who's going to recognize them?



Sure, I get that the reader wants to see Batman and Robin having an adventure, not Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson, but then why not have them wear their costumes into the past? This moment was entirely unnecessary in a story that is already super compressed to work in just eight pages.


2. Robin, you literally didn't even know this man existed until one panel earlier:




Definitely the clunker of this issue. I do enjoy Hamilton sometimes, but Finger seems to be producing the higher quality scripts of this era.