Detective 566 – Know Your Foes, and a mystery villain in Green Arrow

Doug Moench and Gene Colan provide a review of Batman’s major villains in this story, a lead-in to the big Batman 400.  The bulk of it reads much like a Who’s Who, but that series, and its variants, were in the future, and there really had not been anything like this.  It was much more appreciated at the time than such an issue would be now.

After receiving a mysterious letter saying “Know your foes,” Batman and Robin review them.  All the big names are covered: Joker, Penguin, Two-Face, Riddler, Scarecrow, Ra’s Al Ghul and Talia.  Killer Moth makes the cut into the big names, as does Black Mask, the newest addition to the line-up.

Curiously, this is the first time Poison Ivy makes it into a listing of Batman villains.  She’d been a foe of his since the 60s, but rarely in his own books.  Mad Hatter, Deadshot, Nocturna and the Night Slayer round out the ones who get full entries.

There is a curious mix on the “B-list” page.  Cavalier and Tweedledee and Tweedledum are golden age holdovers, but Black Spider and Clayface III are supposedly dead.  Mr. Freeze, Cat-Man and Croc could easily have made the cut to major villains at this time.  And they included Crazy Quilt.  Really?

Green Arrow and Black Canary’s series builds to its finale in this story by Joey Cavalieri and Jerome K Moore.

Onyx is giving a long, roundabout explanation to her wanna-be boyfriend about why she has come back to Star City, but it gets interrupted by a bad guy smashing right through the wall.

Who is the mystery attacker?  That gets saved for the finale.

Detective 532 – The Joker’s theme park

The middle chapter to a three-part Joker story, Detective 532 (Nov. 83) is still an enjoyable read, with Batman and Vicki Vale at the Joker’s mercy, by Doug Moench and Gene Colan.

The Joker has joined forces with Central American revolutionaries, although he treats them no better than any others he works with.

He has grand plans to turn the entire nation into a murderous theme park, but has already begun construction, on a smaller scale.

The story cuts back to Gotham for a scene, as Alfred brings dinner to Julia Remarque, who has finally been told that she is really Alfred’s daughter.  Their relationship had continued tense until now, but gets warmer and more familial.

Batman gets strapped to a Joker-rollercoaster of death.  This is an excellent example of a great Joker trap.  Crazy, scary, and with his face plastered on it.  Batman manages to survive, of course, but it makes it fun to watch.

And once Batman gets Vicki Vale untied from the tracks, she shows herself no mere hostage, grabbing one of the revolutionaries guns and going to town.

The story began int he previous Batman, and ends in the succeeding one.

Detective 526 – Jason Todd dons the costume

Celebrating Batman’s 500th appearance, Detective 526 (May 1983) is a forgotten, but worthy, anniversary issue.  Crisis on Infinite Earths would remove this story from continuity, and the origin of Jason Todd radically changed, but this work by Gerry Conway, Don Newton and Alfredo Alcala stands on its own merit.

The Joker calls together a mass assembly of Batman’s enemies.  Croc is out to kill Batman, but he’s a newbie, and not worthy of the honour, the Joker insists.  So he lays out a plan that will give them all chances of killing Batman that night.

The line-up includes the regulars: Penguin, Riddler, Two-Face, and Scarecrow.  Cat-Man, Killer Moth, Mr. Freeze, the Mad Hatter, and Matt Hagen as Clayface had all appeared within the last few years.  The Cavalier had not been seen since an issue of Batman Family in the late 70s.  Tweedledum and Tweedledee had not been seen since the 1940s!  Technically, this is the first appearance of the Earth-1 versions of the characters, but with Crisis looming that scarcely matters.

Some of the newer villains are included as well: Black Spider, Captain Stingaree and the Spook.  Talia is there, without her father being involved in the story, which is rare.

The Gentleman Ghost is a Hawkman villain, but had fought Batman twice in his own book.  This is the only time he appears in a line-up of Batman villains.

Catwoman watches, but takes no part in the meeting.  Talia also has no interest in killing Batman, but has to fight her way out.

Both Catwoman and Talia head to the Batcave to warn Batman of the plans against him, but get involved in a cat fight of their own.

Meanwhile, things aren’t going so well for Dick Grayson.  His great plan to use the Todds against Croc simply put them into his hands, and he has Jason driven to Wayne Manor to keep him safe.

Barbara accompanies her father as Commissioner Gordon checks out the abandoned theatre where the villains met, and finds evidence pointing to a gathering of their enemies.

Barbara goes to find Dick, and they suit up as Batgirl and Robin and head out to fight the villains, as Batman does the same, with Talia and Catwoman as back-up.  No one is at home, so Jason is left to explore Wayne Manor, and guess where he winds up?

The Spook manages to get the drop on Talia, if only for a moment.  But with so many fighting against them, the two women and Batman get taken.

Robin is the one to find the remains of the Todds, fed to his namesakes by Croc.

Jason, unawares, has found an alternate Robin costume in the cave, and suited up.  He heads out to join the rest of the heroes.

Batgirl and Robin fight well together. There is no hint of romance, as there had been in their Batman Family team-ups.  Robin is in a budding romance with Starfire in the pages of New Teen Titans, but their ease with each other reminds one of the bond between them, the best duo of Batman’s supporting cast.

Jason happens upon  a group of the villains, which gives him the information he needs to find out where everyone else is.

Finally the big climax, as the Joker gloats over his captured foes.

Croc had been working behind the scenes with the Joker, using all the other villains to wear Batman down.  He makes his move, but Batman manages to duck at the right time, and Croc takes down the Joker.

Jason Todd arrives just as Batman has beaten Croc into submission, and delivers the final blow.  Only afterwards does he discover his parents bodies.

The epilogue sees Bruce sending Catwoman and Talia off together in a car.  Where is he sending them?  Why did he stick these two women in the same car together?  How far did they get before their fight forced the car off the road and into a ditch?

The issue ends with Bruce and Jason Todd, who is looking relatively ok for a boy whose parents were horribly murdered the night before.  But he is to be the new Robin, and there is a sense of hope.

Which is all kind of weird now, because Jason Todd was given such a different origin, and made such a different character, in the post-Crisis reality.

But for a couple of years, this was the origin of Jason Todd, Robin.

Detective 504 – The Joker’s rumpus room, and Gordon finds a crooked cop

Jim Starlin’s cover is easily the best thing about Detective 504 (July 1981).

Gerry Conway and Don Newton are the creative team on this story, which sees the Joker commit some crimes and send some clues, all to lead the Batman to a rumpus room of death.

Olivia Ortega, a reporter, makes her first appearance in Detective.  Usually she reports on the Hamilton Hill/Arthur Reeves mayoral race, but in this one she interrupts that to broadcast some clues the Joker sent to her.  Very obliging.

The rumpus room does not live up to the way it appears on the cover, and it’s just not a big enough threat, not fun enough,to warrant being the payoff for the story.

Batman buries the Joker in ice cream. Ha ha.  Sigh.

Paul Kupperberg, Jose Delbo and Joe Giella give another starring role to Commissioner Gordon in this chapter of Tales of Gotham City.

After a drug bust at a known location turns out nothing, Gordon realizes there must be a cop on the take, and the evidence points to one he has known all his life, the son of a cop Gordon used to work with.

The boy tries to turn his back on the mob, but that just puts the two of them in deadly peril.  Gordon just keeps guilting him until he gets them out of it.

Commisioner Gordon, with the super-power of guilt.

Detective 484 – Batman vs Maxie Zeus, the Human Target has a mystery client, Batgirl tries to save her father, Robin returns to the circus, the Demon vs Baron Tyme, and an unsolved case of Batman

Batgirl’s story gets the cover spot for Detective 484 (June/July 1979), though it’s deceptive in implying that Batman and Robin are also part of that story.

Batman’s main story, by Denny O’Neil and Don Newton, is a follow up to last issue, as Batman penetrates Olympus, the penthouse retreat of Maxie Zeus.

We get a bit of background on the villain.  He comes from wealth and education, and is credited as being an organizational genius.  His pretense of being a Greek god is looked on with amusement by his gang, who stay with him despite this.

Although he knows Batman is coming for him, and in spite of the pleas of his men, throughout the tale, that he flee, Maxie Zeus remains secure that he will triumph.

Batman makes it past Zeus’ bodyguard, Odysseus, and winds up in his “Scylla or Charybdis” trap – between attack dogs and whirling blades.  The scene in which he survives by sending the dogs into the blades is pretty awful, but the only way out.

Even when he is captured, Maxie does not seem in any way put out. Instead, he is delighted when Batman tells him his pride was his undoing.  And Maxie is not out of the picture, returning in a couple of months.

The Human Target gets an unusual case in this issue, courtesy of Len Wein and Dick Giordano.  He is called on the phone and warned off of helping Floyd Fenderman, but no such person has contacted Christopher.

So rather than disguise himself as the potential victim, Chris has to try to find out who the victim is.  He does adopt a disguise for part of the tale.

But for the climax of the action it is simply Chris being himself.

The story ends on a cute note, as Christopher discovers that Fenderman has been trying to get into contact with him for days.

Jack C Harris, Bob Oskner and Vince Colletta are the creative team on this Batgirl story, in which she hunts down the men who tried to kill her father.

She meets with a fair bit of resistance when she insists that the case is hers.  The Gotham police feel it’s their duty to avenge their boss, and want to call Batman in as well.  Fortunately for Barbara, he is busy with Maxie Zeus.

Despite that conflict, and the cover, this is a fairly simple story.  When she goes to check on her father, she spots the bejewelled nurse, and her suspicions are aroused.  She prevents a second attempt on her father’s life, and rounds up the bad guys.

Not bad, but it could have been much better.

Robin returns to Haly’s Circus for the first time since his parents’ deaths in this story by Jack C Harris and Kurt Schaffenberger.  There are a number of stories in which Dick returns to Haly’s Circus for the first time since his parents’ deaths, but I believe this one genuinely is the first.

He is surprised to see posters for the Flying Graysons, but discovers that it’s merely a stage name for performers playing off the notoriety of the dead performers.  Oddly, Dick is neither repulsed nor offended by this.

The story recaps his origin – the candlelit vow is there.  It is always featured in his origin to this point.  It gets dropped eventually, and I’m going to keep an eye out for when that happens.

The rest of the story has him stopping some crimes at the circus.  Adequate, but not exceptional.

Baron Tyme and Jason Blood continue their confrontation before Merlin’s tomb in this story by Len Wein and Steve Ditko.

The Inspector leads the townsfolk into the remains of Castle Branek, but Tyme is powerful enough to hold them all off as he opens Merlin’s tomb. The distraction does allow Jason the opportunity to turn back into Etrigan.

Tyme discovers the tomb is empty, and Etrigan beings down the castle around him.  The Demon passes on the Eternity Book to the Inspector, and feels that all is done, but we see that Tyme survived the collapse.

The final story in the issue is one of the Unsolved Cases of the Batman.  As with the Public Life of Bruce Wayne, this was intended as a back-up story in Batman, but moved here as a result of the DC Implosion.

The story, by Denny O’Neil, John Calnan and Frank McLaughlin, has a scientist decipher notes by Galileo for the creation of a universal solvent, and a way to contain it.

He creates the solvent, but cannot contain it, and it dissolves everything, including the notes.  Batman manages to turn it into a non-destructive gas, but the secret is lost.

So the case is only “unsolved” in that Batman did not find out the secret of creating the destructive solvent.  That’s not really unsolved.  That basic problem was likely a factor in ending these “unsolved” tales.

The issue’s back cover features a pin-up of Batman’s major villains.  The Joker, Penguin, Riddler and Two-Face are joined by the Scarecrow, who hasn’t usually made the cut for such spreads before, as well as Ra’s Al Ghul, the new kid on the block.  Catwoman’s appearance is a bit out of date, as she had already started on her road to reform, but I’m not complaining.

 

 

Detective 476 – The Laughing Fish concludes

Steve Englehart, Marshall Rogers and Terry Austin bring their Joker story to a rousing conclusion in Detective 476 (March/April 1978).

The Joker continues to murder those who he feels are denying him copyright on his fish, despite the best efforts of Batman and Commissioner Gordon.

Near one of the murder sites, Batman’s attention is drawn by the ghost of Hugo Strange, and Batman discovers a gas meter.  He does not understand it’s significance, but uses it later, and it points out the Joker.  This was Strange’s device to make sure that only the bidders from the first night of his auction would be re-admitted.

But that’s towards the end of the story.  Before that, we are treated to the Joker in his insane glory.  The writing and art combine perfectly to create an entertaining, blood thirsty madness.

The story catches up with Boss Thorne and Silver St. Cloud, whose car ride goes from silent introspection, to a heated argument about Batman and corruption in Gotham.  Thorne kicks Silver out of the car, and she searches for a way back to Gotham.

Not a good move on Thorne’s part, as it turns out Silver’s presence was the only thing delaying Hugo Strange’s ghost.

So as I said before, Batman uses that gas meter and finds the Joker and they have a big fight.  Silver returns during it, watching the electrifying climax of the battle.

She explains to Batman that she knows who he is, and loves him, but could never live with the day to day reality of the danger he faces.  She tells him she has to leave him, before she cares so much that she couldn’t leave him.  And she goes.

A beautifully played out scene, the news that Thorne has talked and that Batman is no longer banned is left as a hollow victory.

It’s many, many years before Silver St. Cloud returns.  First in a Legends of the Dark Knight storyline, and then in a Batman mini-series.  Neither were really satisfying.

Detective 475 – The Laughing Fish

And the hits just keep coming on Englehart, Rogers and Austin’s run on Detective, as issue 475 begins the classic Laughing Fish storyline.

The story begins with a superb scene, so tense and awkward, as Batman goes to see Silver St. Cloud after taking Deadhot in.  They both know that they both know, but neither is confident enough to speak, and where this could have been the moment they came together, in reality, it drives them further apart.

The Joker’s entrance is a masterful piece of drawing.  This one panel is how I always envision the character.  His plan, in this 2-parter, is to copyright fish.  He has infected the water with his smile toxin, so all the fish being caught have Joker faces.  When the patent office guy explains that one cannot copyright fish, the Joker simply explains that he has until tonight to change his mind, or he will die.

Despite the Batman’s precautions, the Joker succeeds.  The death scene is chilling, and more like his murders from the 1940s.

This issue has also had more of Boss Thorne’s descent, including a scene between him and the Joker, in which the Joker expresses the same high regard for Batman that Hugo Strange had.  At issue’s end, Thorne is fleeing Gotham, and picks up Silver St. Cloud, also on the run.

Detective 473 – The Penguin goes after the silver bird

The Penguin toys with Batman and Robin in Detective 473 (Nov. 77), another Englehart/Rogers/Austin collaboration.

The Penguin returns to the theatre for the next round of bidding on Batman’s identity, only to discover that none of the other bidders showed, nor did Strange.  He hears the Joker’s laugh, and, unsure of what is happening, decides to write this off.

Bruce is on the mend, and goes to see Silver St. Cloud in the hospital, along with Dick.  Although the scene is G rated, it’s still by far the more intense physical relationship that we have ever seen Bruce in at this point.

Boss Thorne, meanwhile, is deriving no pleasure from Hugo Strange’s death, as his ghost begins haunting Thorne.

But the meat of the story is the Penguin.  Batman and Robin believe he has plans to steal a silver sculpture, the Malay Penguin. Someone has started backing a musical next door, the sounds of which keep setting off the sensitive alarm system.  The Penguin is seem lurking nearby, and though he flees the heroes, he leaves odd clues – such as “never pitch rolls at a bank.”

Dick can’t make head not tail out of the odd clues, but does piece together a viable solution to the Penguin’s plans to steal the statue.  And he is completely wrong.

Bruce has figured out that the statue is not the goal at all, that the Penguin intends to hijack an airplane, and stops him.

It’s an entertaining tale of wits and diversions, with the added touch that the Penguin had stolen the Malay Penguin before the story even started.  And a pleasant change to see Batman and Robin working together again.

Detective 472 – Hugo Strange becomes Batman

Such a great cover for Detective 472 (Sept. 77), as Englehart, Rogers and Austin conclude the Hugo Strange story.

The first page, with Hugo Strange in double disguise, as Batman and Bruce Wayne, is the first time we see Hugo Strange in the Batman outfit – though this will be a common visual for the character in his future appearances.

Although he dresses as Batman for the opening, he only impersonates Bruce Wayne for the rest of the tale.

Alfred gets captured, both to tend to the heavily drugged Bruce, and to keep him from exposing Strange’s impersonation.

As he liquidates various holdings of Wayne Enterprises, Silver St. Cloud bursts into his office.  Strange has no idea who she is, and brushes her off, but Silver gets very suspicious of his actions.  She returns to the clinic to try to find out more, but Strange’s sidekick, Magda, rebuffs her as well.

Desperate, she telephones Dick Grayson for help.  Although he acts as if he, too, is giving her the cold shoulder, Dick immediately gets into his Robin gear and heads for Gotham. Too late for Silver, as Magda has two of her monster men grab the woman.

Hugo Strange decides to auction off the secret of Batman’s identity.  It’s a shame the copy I have of this page is faded, as the original looked very good, with the three bidders in blackness. Still, it’s not hard to spot the ring of Boss Thorne, the Penguin’s umbrella and cigarette holder, and the Joker’s glove.

Though his role in this is small, it’s a decent outing for Robin, who looks more like a college student than a teenager, for once, and who gets to show off his fighting abilities against Strange’s men.

Even Alfred gets some action, as Magda attempts to turn Bruce into a monster.  Alfred fights with her, and injects her with the serum instead.

And it’s not Bruce to defeats Hugo Strange at all.  Instead, Boss Thorne has his men grab Hugo after the first bid at the auction, and beat him for the secret.  Hugo refuses to speak, and regrets ever having thought of selling Batman’s identity.  Thorne is emotionless as his men beat Hugo Strange to death.

Detective 388 – The Joker sends Batman to the moon, and Batgirl is hired to impersonate herself

The Joker story in Detective 388 (June 1969) is just lame.  No tow ways about it.  But I imagine it didn’t feel that way at the time, with the moon landing a current event when John Broome, Bob Brown and Joe Giella crafted this tale.

It begins with Batman and Robin chasing the Joker as he robs a planetarium, and later a laboratory in which a scientist has created an anti-gravity machine.

The Joker and his man manage to capture Batman and Robin, who get knocked out, and wake up in space suits on the moon.

And how did the Joker get them there?  The story never even tries to answer that.  It’s sad that Batman and Robin actually believe they are on the moon for a page, despite the theft of the anti-gravity machine, which should have wised them up immediately that the Joker is just trying to make them think that’s where they are.

Incidentally, this story attributes the Joker with a phosphorescent glow to his face, the result of the chemicals that dyed his skin.  It’s not a bad idea, but does not appear in any other stories.

Great Gil Kane/Murphy Anderson splash page to start off Frank Robbins Batgirl 2-parter.

Barbara Gordon is apartment hunting, and answers an ad for a free apartment for a red-headed girl (shades of the Sherlock Holmes tale, “The Red Headed League.”   Barbara gets a big complex story from her new roomie, who needs her to dress as Batgirl for an awards ceremony while she goes to visit an ailing relative.

The story is so convoluted it should raise Barbara’s suspicions, but doesn’t.  She is a bit surprised when Batman comes to the door, even moreso when he attacks her.

It’s not the real Batman, of course, and Barbara manages to elude him.  She follows him to the awards ceremony, and finds a number of other goons dressed as heroes there.  They all believe her to be the woman she is impersonating, who is really part of their gang, but who betrayed them.

The story concludes next issue.