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| The Caped Crusader in the 1960s by Jack Seabrook & Peter Enfantino |
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| Moldoff |
"Batman's Psychic Twin"
Story by Dave Wood
Art by Sheldon Moldoff & Charles Paris
I have had it with Moldoff and Paris's art. It's just more of the same in every issue. Of all of the wacky things in Dave Wood's complicated script, the most astonishing to me is that Batman and Robin climb inside the Bat-Torpedoes, which then zip through the water and blow holes in Boss Bragg's boat. Why in the world would the Dynamic Duo do that? It's not like they're steering them. I wonder if Jo-Jo felt the impact when the torpedo Batman was riding inside of crashed through the hull of the boat.
Peter-I would buy a book called The Science of 1960s' Batman Comics in a heartbeat. I want to know (nay, I'm dying to know) how the explosion psychically and physically linked Bats and Jo-Jo. "Batman's Psychic Twin" includes what may be my favorite scene in any Batman strip this year: Jo-Jo purposely hurting his own foot and watching as Bruce Wayne agonizes on the dance floor with an obviously horrified Kathy Kane. Also, worst mustache of the year award goes to... Jo-Jo Gagan, who seems to be growing that baby right out of his nostrils!
Detective Comics #315
"The Return of the Penguin"
Story by Bill Finger
Art by Sheldon Moldoff & Charles Paris
Bruce Wayne sees wanted murderer Jo-Jo Gagan strolling along the sidewalk of downtown Gotham City and decides to follow him, but a sudden explosion at the Pioneer Chemical Products Company temporarily blinds the uncaped crusader and Gagan runs away. That night, the Dynamic Duo respond to a police call about an unidentified copter landing at Gotham heliport and race to the scene, where they find Boss Bragg's gang holding up a mail delivery. Jo-Jo is with the gang but, when Batman throws his Batarang at Jo-Jo and it hits his wrist, Batman also feels a sudden wrist pain. Robin leaps on Jo-Jo and, when the crook's head slams into the side of the copter, Batman's head hurts, too.
The gang escapes and Boss Bragg deduces that Batman is feeling any pain felt by Jo-Jo. Jo-Jo leaps out a window into the harbor and, at the Batcave, Batman feels like he's drowning. Batman realizes that the chemical explosion has made Jo-Jo Gagan into "Batman's Psychic Twin" and, worse yet, if Jo-Jo figures out their new connection and recalls that Bruce Wayne was injured in the explosion, he'll figure out Batman's secret identity. Batman and Robin take a cruise in their new patrol boat and see Boss Bragg gunning for Gagan, who's still in the water. Incredibly, Batman and Robin climb into Bat-Torpedoes and launch themselves at Bragg's boat, sinking it. Batman and Robin capture two gang members but the boss and Jo-Jo escape.
Jo-Jo sees a picture of Bruce Wayne in the paper, recognizes him, and decides that he is probably Batman. That night, Bruce attends a society ball and dances with Kathy Kane. Jo-Jo is skulking nearby and injures his own foot to test his theory. When he sees Bruce complain of foot pain, he's certain. Batman and Robin visit the now-jailed gang members and figure out the location of Boss Bragg's hideout: an abandoned firehouse. Outside the building they capture two more gang members, but Jo-Jo escapes yet again. The next morning, Boss Bragg reads a letter from Jo-Jo, who invites him to meet at the Gotham Granary at noon, where Batman's secret identity will be divulged. Realizing that Batman's death could mean the same for him, Jo-Jo intervenes and is fatally buried under tons of grain. Batman pretends to be choking and captures the unwary crooks; he came up with an antidote and no longer suffers Jo-Jo's fate.
A Chinese version of the Bat-Signal draws Batman and Robin to the Dragon Temple in Gotham City's Chinatown, where they encounter "The Return of the Penguin," newly released after a stretch in prison. The fowl fiend makes off with valuable rubies and subsequently escapes capture by riding on an ostrich. The boys at the pool hall aren't impressed with the Penguin's first crime, so he engineers another that involves a giant penguin-blimp and a robbery. The man of a thousand umbrellas manages to outwit Batman and escape again. Now the gang at the pool hall shows some respect!
The next day, mechanical penguins are delivered to Bruce Wayne and 23 other Gotham City worthies. Batman figures out that the Penguin will strike at a meeting of the Friends of Birds Society, which he does. Batman arrives and barely escapes with his life when a group of animated giant bird figures converge on him. He tricks the Penguin by using several fake Batman scarecrows to block every exit and, before you can squawk, the Penguin is back in jail.
Bill Finger's entertaining script brings back one of my favorite, eccentric villains, and the story is a roller-coaster ride of silly encounters until Batman finally comes out on top. Even Moldoff and Paris rise to the occasion; one panel reminded me of the atmospheric art from Batman: Year One.-Jack
"The Return of the Penguin" reminds us how sparingly the Rogues were used in the early 1960s; Riddler is nowhere to be found, Catwoman won't be back until '66, and this is the old bird's first appearance since Batman #99 in April 1956. I really enjoyed this goofy bit of nonsense, especially the fact that Penguin came out of a peaceful retirement because of the taunting of some pool hall flunkies! The psycho-Penguin of the '70s/'80s would have blown their heads off with his trick umbrella. It won't be long before Oswald makes a return visit.
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| Moldoff |
"The Jungle Man of Gotham City"
Story by Dave Wood
Story by Dave Wood
Art by Sheldon Moldoff & Charles Paris
Mattock approaches Jungle Man, helps him out of the netting, and explains that Batman (whom JM refers to as "Bad-Man") has caught a "silver bird" and made off for Gotham to tell everyone there what a sissy Jungle Man is. Enraged, JM agrees to hop aboard Mattock's Cessna and pay his new enemy a visit. What evil (and complicated) scheme does Mattock have up his well-tailored sleeve?
Exiting the Gardens, Robin remarks on Jungle Man's obvious hatred for the Caped Crusader and Bats, in one of his incredible, spontaneous brainstorms, exclaims that Mattock must have traveled to Africa and convinced Jungle Man that Gotham's favorite warrior is his enemy! "Quick, Robin, we have to peruse the list of Gotham children who have gone missing in Africa. I have a hunch!"
Mrs. Young hands over Tommy's most prized possession, his childhood Teddy Bear, and the boys get back to work, vowing they'll bring the man-child home safely despite the poor-man's Tarzan having laid waste to half of Gotham. With the help of the small stuffed animal ("Bwango! Bwango!"), Batman is able to convince Jungle Man that he is his friend and Mattock is a bad guy. JM has his animals surround the Mattock gang while Bats and Robin apply the cuffs. A happy ending arrives when Tommy is reunited with the parents who were careless enough to lose him in a dangerous part of Africa, and he complains about the stuffy shirt he has to wear to elementary school. Batman and Robin chuckle.
Mattock is another one of those of brilliant Gotham criminals who sits down and maps out an elaborate plan in order to knock off a luncheon with a bunch of old ladies. Why don't the hoods ask why they can't just head into the soiree with machine guns, rather than fly to Africa, help the boss impersonate Batman, and lay a trap for a wild and dangerous jungle guy? You'd think during one of these adventures, Batman would throw up his hands and ask the same question.
Batman #156
Peter-"The Secret of the Ant-Man" is the usual silly nonsense. The only interesting aspects are that it's the rare Robin solo story and that, by the time this strip ran, Marvel's Ant-Man had been featured in Tales to Astonish for nine months. A blatant rip-off or just a coincidence? Would DC have been okay if Marvel had "borrowed" one of their heroes? It was a much different time, to be sure.
Detective Comics #316
"The Man of 1,000 Disguises"
Story by Jack Miller (?)
Art by Joe Certa
Deep in the jungles of Africa, a bizarre tableau is displayed before our very faces: Batman teasing a low-IQ "Jungle Man" with firecrackers before trapping the poor lunk with a steel mesh net. But let out that sigh, Bat-fans, your eyes are not seeing the whole picture yet. Once Jungle Man is captured, "Batman" heads off into the bushes and pulls off his cape and cowl to reveal... dastardly criminal mastermind, Eli Mattock, recently paroled and placed on the Gotham Most Wanted Unknown Hoods list in the same day!
Several days later, in Gotham, Batman and Robin answer the Bat-signal and head for Gotham Zoo, where they are told about the theft of an elephant, a rhino, a lion, a python, and several pounds of bananas. Driving from the scene, they overhear a woman screaming and find themselves face to face with Jungle Man, Mattock, and his gang at the Botanical Gardens. Robin grabs a canister of conveniently-placed DDT and starts spraying the hoods, while Batman confronts this strange loincloth-clad man from Africa. Suddenly, Jungle Man shrieks: "Unga Unga Uga Uga" and a python envelops our shocked Dark Knight Avenger. JM and the hoods escape and only Robin's gas pellet saves Batman from a tight squeeze.
The next day, while on patrol, the Dynamic Duo come across Mattock and his Jungle Dope, who's riding his pet rhino. The beast has overturned an armored car and Mattock's henchmen are pilfering the vehicle. "The Jungle Man of Gotham City" orders Robbie the Rhino to smash the Batmobile and the monster does just that. Luckily, a nearby bed of tar stops the animal's rampage but, as usual, the bad guys get away. Back at Gordon's office, Batman and Robin are introduced to Jungle Man's mom and dad, the Youngs, a perfectly wonderful couple who quickly try to explain why they gave up the search for their little Tommy in the African jungle. A match of Tommy's childhood footprint with that of his grown-up self confirms that Jungle Man was born Tommy Young!
Dave Wood seems to be filling in nicely for Bill Finger, whipping up ridiculous plots, leaps of the imagination, and smile-inducing dialogue. Who would have guessed that, after losing their kid, the Youngs would move to Gotham? I really wanted Mrs. Young to go into the particulars of the picnic they had on the veldt where little Tommy was playing hide and seek and never returned. It's understandable that the kid would speak English, since he wasn't a toddler when he got lost (or dumped), but how did he learn how to speak to the animals? And another thing, why does Jungle Man use different exclamations to tell his pets to attack? Tell me he's actually saying "Please upend the armored car!" when he yells "Pango M'Bango!"
In "The Man of 1,000 Disguises," J'onn J'onzz faces the most dangerous villain of his career: a two-bit magician named Porto, who's been pulling off heists undercover in disguise. To catch Porto's henchmen, the Martian Manhunter impersonates Porto and puts the real McCoy under lock and key with little Zook as a sentry. But, as often happens with the so-cute-you-want-to-cuddle-with-him alien Zook, something goes wrong and Porto escapes. MM and Porto have a showdown, with J'onn J'onzz narrowly escaping cuts and bruises. The usual dopiness, but this adventure reveals something new (unless I was napping during an earlier adventure, which is perfectly understandable), and that's that J'onzz takes on the abilities and powers of whoever he impersonates. In this case, MM transforms into a Plutonian Bird-Man when Porto changes into his own Bird-Man costume and threatens our hero with fiery rocket exhaust. Everyone knows that Plutonian Bird-Men are not weakened by flames, so J'onn is able to nab the bad guy with no ill effects. This should effectively eliminate fire from future Martian Manhunter installments, no?-Peter
Jack-In the Batman story, how did Mattock learn of the Jungle Man? Did he read about him in the National Enquirer? If he had no trouble finding him, why wouldn't the Youngs have been able to locate their missing son in the course of fifteen years? The J'onn J'onzz story was better than the Batman story. Zook is unappealing but he does give the Martian Manhunter someone to talk to. The narrative was exciting, with punchy art. I agree with you about the problem with the Manhunter avoiding his weakness by transforming into another character. Let's see how this plays out.
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| Moldoff/Paris |
"The Secret of the Ant-Man"
Story by Bill Finger
Art by Sheldon Moldoff & Charles Paris
"Robin Dies at Dawn"
Story by Bill Finger
Art by Sheldon Moldoff & Charles Paris
Batman goes off on a top-secret mission so, of course, when Dick Grayson is at a school dance, crooks show up and try to rob a $20K cash donation meant to be used to purchase new gym equipment. Robin swings into action and receives unexpected help from a tiny, costumed figure who calls himself Ant-Man.
Robin and Ace, the Bat-Hound, end up at the research lab of Dr. Hanson, who has been working on a formula to shrink human tissue, but find it closed to visitors. Following a tip in a letter from Ant-Man, Robin interrupts a pair of crooks that night as they try to rob a safe at the Gotham Jewelry Co. After the tiny fellow helps the Boy Wonder defeat the bad guys, he makes off with a satchel of jewels!
A newspaper headline stating that Dr. Hanson has discovered a formula to shrink humans, along with an antidote, leads Ant-Man to show up at the lab, looking for a cure. He is met by a shrunken Robin, who turns out to be a puppet, and by the full-sized Robin, who unmasks Ant-Man and discovers that he's Jumbo Carson, a gangster who was thought to have been killed. Carson fell into the river next to Hanson's lab, where he was exposed to waste chemicals that shrunk him. To his dismay, Hanson has not yet come up with an antidote; the newspaper story was planted to lure him to the lab.
Meanwhile, Batman is swept up on a swirling beam of light to another planet, where he is attacked by a giant plant and freed by Robin. The next morning, the Dynamic Duo face a giant stone statute that comes to life! Robin taunts the statue and is crushed to death when the figure drops a huge boulder. Batman buries his chum under a pile of stones. A big, red, alien beast with giant fangs and glowing eyes menaces Batman...who turns out to have dreamt the whole thing during a controlled experiment to duplicate conditions that an astronaut might face.
Batman walks off with Robin, but the doctor who conducted the test wonders if he'll have any after-effects. That night, Batman and Robin encounter three men in gorilla suits robbing the Acme Loan Co. The Dark Knight begins to hallucinate, reliving part of his dream when a crane seems to become the stone monster. The next night, the Gorilla Gang's getaway car seems to transform into the red, alien beast. Batman thinks he may have to hang up his cape and cowl, but when the Gorilla Gang capture Robin and send a message that "Robin Dies At Dawn," Batman springs into action.
He and Bat-Hound trace the gang to their hideout, where they have Robin tied to a hot air balloon that they are about to set loose. Batman defeats the gang, punctures the balloon, and saves the day. He tells Robin that the shock of thinking the Boy Wonder might be killed cured him of his hallucinations.
"The Secret of the Ant-Man!" stars Robin, though the reader is encouraged to join Robin in thinking, for a while, that the Ant-Man is really Batman in tiny disguise. This first story leads into the second, a two-parter that really doesn't live up to this issue's terrific cover. I think we've had other stories where someone or other seems to be killed, only to have it turn out to be a dream or something like that. Unfortunately, I was never able to work up much concern about Robin's fate.-Jack
"Robin Dies at Dawn" could very well be the first Batman story I ever read as a kid. It would be reprinted in Batman #185 (by 1966, the 80-page Giant "Annuals" would be folded into the regular title numbering) and I can remember being very affected by the tale. Ah, youth! Reading it now, Bill Finger's script reads as if Batman is on an acid trip and the reveal is not that far off. The Moldoff/Paris cover is a classic, striking and dramatic even if it's a cheat.
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| Moldoff |
"Double Batman vs. Double X"
Story by Dave Wood
Art by Sheldon Moldoff & Charles Paris
The trio head out to search for the deadly Xs and find them at a Gotham military station. The pair are trying to heist a tank and a bulldozer. Despite the added strength of Double Batman, the XX team prove to be formidable foes. In a last ditch effort, Batman uses deception and the gorgeous Vicki Vale to defeat the most powerful adversary he's ever faced! Catastrophe averted, Double Batman says so long to his new friends and disappears. Bats admits he feels he's lost a bit of his soul.
In the cleverly-titled "The Bandits with Super Powers," the Martian Manhunter must do battle with bandits who acquire super powers from a fallen meteorite. Unfortunately, the red rock proves to be J'onn J'onzz's Kryptonite and he loses his powers. As the bandits are about to kill MM, gorgeous cop Diane Meade happens upon the scene and is exposed to the mutating rays of the red rock. She becomes Super-Cop! Diane saves MM and the hero races to the cave of Zook, where he gets a brainstorm: the rock proves damaging to a Martian Manhunter, but what will it do to earthman John Jones?
"The Bandits with Super Powers"
Story by Jack Miller (?)
Art by Joe Certa
Dr. Simon Ecks (a/k/a Dr. X) escapes his swanky room at Arkham Asylum and heads right for the duplication machine he'd hidden away years ago in a mansion on the outskirts of Gotham. With a flip of the switch, Double X materializes on the bed beside X. The pair head out into the night to secure an energy source for the blurry bad guy.
Answering a Bat-Signal call, Batman and Robin arrive at Gotham Harbor just as the two Xs are making off with a cruise liner's generator. Dr. X and Double X prove to be too strong for the Dynamic Duo and they easily escape capture. Batman knows there's only one thing to do: create a Double-Batman! Once the boys locate the duplicating machine, Bats turns the dials and watches in awe as his energy twin takes form. The birth of Double-Batman!
"Double Batman vs. Double X" is a bit too full of science fiction concepts for my taste. It's also chock full of exposition, as you would need to explain Dr. X's goofy powers. He's a pretty smart cat for being insane. This was not X's first appearance; that would be back in 'tec #261, which just missed our 1960s coverage by fourteen months. Though I didn't care for the story at all, I thought the Moldy/Paris art was pretty good; very reminiscent of 1940s/1950s Batman. The only character who didn't fare well was Vicki Vale, who seems to have aged about thirty years or so.
Sure enough, it grants MM's earthly alter ego the same powers as the bandits. But three prove to be greater than one and the bandits kick Jones's butt and then head into town to (what else?) rob a bank. Super-Diane arrives in time to rip the case of loot from their hands and then zip away. Later, Super-Jones, Super-Diane, and Zook team up to defeat the terror of "The Bandits with Super Powers!" More inanity and bad art, but at least we get to see Diane fly around in her little skirt and cap.-Peter
Jack-I enjoyed the Batman story and looked up other appearances of Double X, who would return in World's Finest #276 in 1982. I love the lab where Batman creates Double Batman--it looks just like the one in the Universal Frankenstein movies, with two tables and caps with wires. They could've switched Batman's brain with that of the Wolf Man! I was confused by the Martian Manhunter story. The rock gives Diane super powers and takes away the Martian Manhunter's, but he can still transform to John Jones. And then he can get super powers from the rock! At least Zook finally comes in handy and distracts the bad guys at the end.
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| Next Week... Bill Benulis introduces us to... The Man Who Had No Fear! |
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