I’d forgotten about that Viking one!

It’s hilarious the way Bruce and Dick would go back in time in civilian clothes, then change to Batman and Robin, and they would have to remember to change their clothes before returning to the present.

But ... you’re hypnotized, guys. You’re in a chair, sleeping. Professor Nichols is watching you the whole time. (Unless he slips to the kitchen for a Hot Pocket.)

I'm not sold on the "street level crime" moratorium you've detected in these stories and would suggest that the setting for "River Rogues" has more to do with Bill Finger's penchant for giving his artists something interesting to work with more than it does a "Crime in Gotham City?!  Not my watch!" attitude (or company imposed restriction) on his part.  Finger was reportedly quite generous with supplying his artists with all sorts of reference material for accuracy sake (and likely out of a desire to help his artists out wherever he could) and if you're going to have Dick Sprang handling the artwork, you don't give him old chestnuts set in Anytown U.S.A. - you give him scripts with giant props, swashbucklers, rockets, and, yes, 19th century steamships instead. I'll also point out that this installment opens with Batman telling Robin "Masked men at night mean crime in any century!" which does seem to be Batman's clear take on the matter (though isn't he a masked man at night, too?).

Still, I completely agree that the types of crimes and criminals available for use at this time are of a very narrow, specified set.  Two issues from now, Batman will sport a giant Comic's Code Authority stain on its cover and I think if anyone has any question as to how salacious crimes can get, how morally gray your average citizen can be, how profitable a life of crime could seem, there's your rulebook.  I will concede that it's quite possible that Finger thought "What if Commissioner Gordon's integrity is called into question?" but knew that such a set-up would be rejected due to the fact that even the suggestion that a policeman might be tempted to do something slightly morally ambiguous in 1955 was a pointless endeavor for anyone expecting to get a story printed (or for anyone wishing to avoid sitting around in a padded cell with electroshock treatments morning, noon, and night).  But his grandfather?  Just maybe...

Actually, though I hadn't read this tale before, it strikes me as very similar to one I have - "Batman - Frontier Marshall!" found in Batman #99.  Batman's reputation is called into question when an old newspaper headline from the Old West seems to incriminate him of having once used a gun to capture a criminal.  Prof. Carter Nichols is called in, Batman and Robin go back to 1880 hoping to exonerate the caped crusader's good name, and... well, you'll see for yourself.

As for Prof. Carter Nichols, I think the guy's great.  He'll show up as late as 1981's The Brave and the Bold #171 (and an Earth Two version will appear in America vs. The Justice Society just before Crisis) and in a call back to his earliest appearances, I believe that Batman makes his old "Did I really go back in time or did Nichols simply hypnotize me into thinking I did" declaration, but yeah, there's really no doubt in "River Rogues" and his future showings in World's Finest that Batman and Robin really are travelling through time.  The whole "ah, Nichols may just be a harmless, crackpot scientist, but... where did this ancient arrow come from then?" routine had its charm, but one has to wonder why Batman and Robin would even visit him.  I mean, if they wanted to pretend to visit Ancient Rome couldn't they just drink a bottle of bourbon after instructing Alfred to dress-up as Caesar-Batman and shouting "Forsooth!" at them?  Then when they "come back to the land of the living" could do their whole "Huh?  whuzzah?  Wuz that really my great-great-great-grandfather as Old Man Batman or wuz we passed out all dis time?  But if it wuzzent... den who threw up on Robin?" bit.

As for Batman and Robin having better things to do than clear Gordon's great-grandfather's name... I actually like that they don't.  As an every night occurrence, I'd certainly be raising an eyebrow to such activities, but the fact that here we have a Batman who doesn't have to spend every single night cleaning up after the Joker as he skins babies alive or whatever is testament to his competency as a crimefighter.  That he hasn't reduced Gotham to cesspool status should be reason enough for him to want to just spend the night solving a puzzling mystery than worrying about a three-digit death count if he blinks that night.  I mean, even Sherlock Holmes didn't spend all of his time fighting Moriarity atop The Reichenbach Falls.   

"Bruce Wayne's Aunt Agatha!"

I read this as a kid about thirty plus years ago in the same GIANT Hossier cited (Batman #233) earlier.  Exactly the kind of story which I would hold up to anyone wondering how I can love this era so much.  For all of his gadgets and wealth, Batman really is just a resourceful guy in a cape often forced to either cleverly make things up on the go - though he credits Aunt Agatha for his evading certain death via opening an umbrella escape, he's really taking a page from The Penguin - or just taking a Gordian knot approach to resolving a dilemma (slamming his proto-Whirly Bat into the propeller of his target and just hoping for the best).  And hey, a "Person So and So should know Batman is Bruce Wayne but doesn't" situation which is explained completely believably for a change.  Bruce's "How could a woman who knew me as a little boy see me as anything but a young child rather than the famous Batman" explanation does work.

I'd say more about this one, but I think your write-up puts it beautifully.

I'll add that if you were exploring the Weisinger era of Superman as opposed to Schiff, you'd likely be taking note of how much was being done to expand the mythos - Superman's cousin, his dog, his world as represented through Kandor, etc, etc - interesting that Schiff is doing the same here by presenting us with perhaps the first relative we've ever seen of Batman outside of his parents.   Agatha never reappears sadly, but I wouldn't fault Schiff for that.  It's a pretty big milestone assuming that Aunt Agatha is, in fact, the first living relative we see in the chronicles.  I know we'll get his namesake Bruce N. Wayne eventually (a bit of info I learned from that same Batman GIANT which introduced me to Aunt Agatha) and from memory I know we'll meet his Uncle Silas in Batman #120 (where we'll also learn about Bruce's ancestors) but I can't think of any family member who has appeared before now (other than Thomas and Martha, of course and not including descendants such as Brane Taylor).  Schiff will be building a nice little heritage for Bruce Wayne here and, as Shaxper has noted, isn't going for something silly or over-the-top - these are just regular, normal relatives any of us might have (no mentally disturbed brother forced into a sanitarium revelations here).  In fact, Batman is so down to Earth himself that "There's an old lady sitting in front of the grandfather clock leading to the Bat-Cave?" leads not to "I have seventeen ways to diffuse this situation already mapped out" but "Looks like we'll be cutting through the kitchen tonight" instead.  And his line about having to eat out of cans while Alfred is away doesn't sound quite right given the fact that he got along fine before Alfred showed up at his doorstep, lo, those many years before just as Agatha does today, but I kind of wonder if it's true.  I'm not a fan of the whole "Batman is mentally deficient when it comes to anything which doesn't involve fighting" modern interpretation, but, I don't know, I like it here.  Him and Dick Grayson just breaking open sardine tins with bricks and "Now Dick, you know this is only until our butler gets back".

"Grade: A"?  You better believe it.

Funny you should mention the CCA. I was just looking at the comics that were on the stands in late 1954/early 1955 and I noticed that books like Crime Does Not Pay and Justice Traps the Guilty were still being published.

Also EC’s Crime SuspenStories!

The CCA stamp is still a few months away.

Here’s a list of some of the titles that surprised me a little:

Cover date: January 1955

Boy Comics #107 - Crime-Buster is still busting crime!
Crime Does Not Pay #141
Daredevil #117
Justice Traps the Guilty #70
Mad #19
Marvel Tales #130
Plastic Man #51
Weird Science Fantasy #27

Cover date: February 1955

Boy Comics #108
Crime and Punishment #71
Crime Does Not Pay #142
Crime SuspenStories #27
Daredevil #118
Fighting American #6
Justice Traps the Guilty #71
Mad #20
Marvel Tales #131
Panic #7
Piracy #3
Plastic Man #52 - it’s still monthly
Sub-Mariner #38
Tales from the Crypt #46
Two-Fisted Tales #41

EC is dwindling fast, post-Wertham, but it isn't quite gone yet. Many of its titles are ending right around now.

Batman vs. Detective Comics in The Atom Age

When I first started reading comics in 1989, there was no doubt that "Batman" was the primary home for the Batman character and franchise. Detective Comics featured his adventures as well, but seldom the high-profile multi-part story arcs, and seldom anything memorable that would get referenced again later on.

And, of course, in the 1940s, Batman had begun in Detective Comics, and "Batman" was only a quarterly publication.

However, by 1955, Batman is published eight times a year, and it contains three (count 'em!) new Batman adventures compared to one in Detective Comics. Of course, the 'Tec stories were 10-12 pagers, while the Batman stories were only eight pages.

And yet, short as those page counts sound, it's important to consider how much denser Atom-Age stories were. The panels were small and crammed, the dialogue often eclipsing the artwork, and the plots were almost abbreviated summaries, as there wasn't room to dwell too much on a single exchange or development. An eight page story in 1955 could easily be expanded out to be a five-issue story arc in 2021. Heck, what a difference in demand placed on the writers in 1955, who had to generate three stories per issue of Batman (24 stories per year), whereas the Batman title of today might cover only 3-5 decompressed multi-part stories per year. Sure, writing and drawing it is still a challenge, but the idea of generating so many more plots and conflicts each issue, never once repeating yourself...it becomes clear to me in writing this how much more of a treat the Batman title of 1955 must have been. Sure, the stories were often rushed and forgettable, but they were new each issue, and that was certainly something, especially in an age before trade paperbacks and back issue markets made additional material more accessible to the average reader.

So perhaps I've answered my own question, here. I'm guessing more=better to readers of 1955 and that Batman was the title most clearly associated with the character. And yet National/DC felt 'Tec could support a monthly publishing schedule while Batman could not. Maybe it's precisely because 'Tec featured other characters who weren't outdated costumed crime fighters?

I'd love some more thoughts on this!

I can hardly tell you how much I love Murder in Skyland in Detective three zero three.

I wonder if there was a concern of shooting themselves in the foot by limiting Detective to eight issues a month and bringing Batman up to twelve should the character lose popularity.  Detective could slide someone else into that lead slot, but 'Batman Comics Starring Tomahawk' doesn't sound quite right.  Batman you could get rid of if you have to, but Detective Comics can be reworked.