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| The Caped Crusader in the 1960s by Jack Seabrook & Peter Enfantino |
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| Kane/Anderson |
"Death Knocks Three Times!"
Story by Robert Kanigher
Art by Sheldon Moldoff & Joe Giella
Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson are at a showing of fine jewelry when the event is interrupted by a man dressed as a skeleton. He and his henchman make off with the jewels after threatening the crowd with guns. Batman and Robin give chase, fight with the gang, and capture the leader, whom Batman christens Death-Man,
but the villain boasts that he can escape with ease.
Death-Man is tried in court and sentenced to death, but he avoids the gallows by keeling over dead in the courtroom. Batman and Robin visit his grave to make sure he's buried, but that night Bruce Wayne is haunted by nightmares of the villain's mocking laughter. In need of a break, Bruce and Dick take a vacation in Jamaica but quickly rush back to Gotham after hearing news of another crime perpetrated by Death-Man.
Batman and Robin hop in the Bat-Copter and catch up with the gang as they drive away from their latest crime. They end up in a junkyard and, once again, Death-Man is captured and suddenly falls over, dead. Another visit to the graveyard and another burial can't prevent more nightmares for Bruce Wayne, who spends the following day at a party where he witnesses a yogi demonstrate how to slow his breathing and heartbeat in order to mimic death. Deductive genius that he is, Batman heads for the graveyard and finds an empty grave with a mocking note by Death-Man. The villain appears and fights Batman, but this time he is struck by lightning while aiming a gun at the Caped Crusader. He tumbles into an open grave, finally dead for real.
Bob Kanigher's story is terrible. Moldoff and Giella actually seem to put a bit more effort into the art than usual, with a couple of large panels that show multiple Batman and Robin figures engaging in fisticuffs with Death-Man's gang, but the initial shock of seeing the superb cover and then opening the comic to see the usual dull art style is something I was unable to recover from. There's no great reason to drag this story out for 24 pages and the endless fight scenes reminded me of the panels in Tom King's Mister Miracle that read "fight fight fight," with a bored MM standing there. It's just filler.-Jack
Peter- Yep, I agree the story is pretty lame but I like the villain design and, coming off reading a turd like (Spoiler Alert!) 'tec #352's "Batman's Crime Hunt a Go-Go" (which I actually read before this issue), this one is actually fun and inventive. Death-Man is a pretty cool character even given the lame exposition clarifying his mysterious power over death. We never even find out his real identity or what the master plan was, do we? And then there's that cover. Outside of "Robin Dies at Dawn" (Batman #156), I can't think of a more iconic early-to-mid 1960s DC cover. It prepares you for the suspense and chills that, alas, are never delivered.
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| Infantino/Anderson |
"The Cluemaster's Topsy-Turvy Crimes!"
Story by Gardner Fox
Art by Carmine Infantino & Sid Greene
While dusting around Wayne Manor, Aunt Harriet accidentally opens up the elevator shaft that leads to the Bat-Cave. Riding it down to the ground, she runs across the Dynamic Duo's capes hanging on a wall. "Hmmmm....," thinks the not-so-old biddy, "A game is afoot." Like a super-villain, she begins making plans to catch Bruce and Dick red-handed.
Speaking of villains, there's a new one in Gotham. His name, the Cluemaster, might be original but his schtick sure isn't. He leaves clues for the Caped Crusaders to guess what his next heist will be but his real purpose is to discover the boys' secret identities. In that way, the Cluemaster would become the most powerful man in Gotham.
When the man leaves, the boys follow, now dressed in their work clothes. The man leads them right to the hideout of the Cluemaster. After a small scuffle, the Cluemaster and his henchmen are rounded up and brought to Gotham Jail, where they will be charged and serve their maximum six-month sentence. Meanwhile, back at Wayne Manor, a little trickery has Aunt Harriet thinking twice about what Bruce and Dick do in their leisure hours.
Jack-The Cluemaster is similar to the Riddler and doesn't make much of an adversary for Batman, despite his self-confidence. What makes this story stand out is the artwork, which is outstanding, and the subplot with Aunt Harriet, whose discovery, actions, and final disappointment parallel those of the Cluemaster. It's interesting to compare Infantino's work on this story, where Sid Greene is the inker, with the cover, inked by Murphy Anderson, and the Elongated Man story, which Infantino inked. Anderson was a great inker and the cover is gorgeous, but Greene does a very nice job on the interior. Infantino inking his own pencils is much scratchier and reminded me of his work years later on Star Wars.
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| Infantino & Anderson |
"Beware of--Poison Ivy!"
Story by Robert Kanigher
Art by Sheldon Moldoff & Joe Giella
"The Perfect Crime--Slightly Imperfect!"
Story by Gardner Fox
Art by Chic Stone (?) & Sid Greene
A Pop Art show at the Gotham Museum is interrupted by the sudden appearance of Poison Ivy, who insists that she should be considered World Public Enemy No. 1. Reporters who try to take her photograph find their flashbulbs exploding; she makes her escape and Bruce Wayne changes into his Batman costume while everyone is blinded. Unfortunately, Batman is blinded, too, and falls down an elevator shaft, barely surviving at the last moment.
He knocks out some goons outside the building and Ivy observes that he's a real he-man. Back at her office, Ivy writes fake letters to three gorgeous female villains, named Dragon Fly, Silken Spider, and Tiger Moth, leading each of them to believe that one of the others wants to meet them to battle for the title of Public Enemy No. 1. She also invites Bruce Wayne and Batman to meet and duke it out for the love of Ivy. The Dynamic Duo take the Bat-Copter to Ivy's house, where they find the three female villains and a ton of generic hoodlums. While Batman and Robin get their daily punches in, Ivy hands an electrified crown to the three women, who are all shocked when they try to tug it away from each other.
The fighting over, Ivy embraces Batman and plants a big kiss on his lips, but her chloroform-laced lipstick fails to knock him out because he's wearing nose filters. Ivy scampers up the wall of her house but Batman knocks her off with one throw of his Batarang and she lands in jail.
DC reprinted this issue in 2019 as a facsimile edition (and I bought it!) for a $3.99 cover price, surely because Poison Ivy has become a major figure in the DC Universe. "Beware of--Poison Ivy!" is absurd. The three women whose pictures adorn the wall of the museum are said to be World Public Enemies No. 1, 2, and 3, but we've never heard of them before. It looks like their main assets are their beauty and skimpy costumes; even Dick Grayson drools over their likenesses! Ivy is a typical female comic book character of 1966, whose main interest is whether she can nab Bruce Wayne or Batman, both of whom she considers hot stuff. Infantino later said in an interview that Poison Ivy was created because Catwoman was so popular on the TV show and they wanted more female villains. At least Moldoff's layouts are getting more interesting; the large panel on page 7 includes a villain whose arms and legs extend into other panels, something Moldoff probably would not have done a few years before.
The Mystery Analysts of Gotham City must solve "The Perfect Crime--Slightly Imperfect!" Mystery writer Kaye Daye is to receive the Sherlock Award for best mystery novel of the year, but she tells her fellow Analysts that she did not write the book that bears her name! A year ago, while she was vacationing in Europe, someone submitted the manuscript to her publisher and it was published. She says she has decided not to accept the award, but a voice erupts from the pin on her dress and says that she will die at 10 p.m., just as she receives the award.
The Mystery Analysts promise to get to the bottom of the mystery and to keep her safe. Batman visits her apartment for clues and determines that she was kidnapped earlier that day, taken to the apartment next door, and replaced with a false Kaye Daye. He enters the apartment, beats up several crooks, and rescues Kaye just in the nick of time. At the awards dinner, the fake Kaye accepts the award and Batman arrives to reveal that she's actually Kaye's cousin, Fern Hunter, who wanted Faye dead so she could inherit their grandfather's estate.
I always groan inwardly when I see another Mystery Analysts story, since they're invariably dull. The GCD suggests that Chic Stone penciled this one, which appears to be heavily inked by Sid Greene. Inks can only do so much, though, and the art is, if anything, worse than what we're used to from Moldoff. Despite the dynamite cover, this issue is no landmark.-Jack
Peter-The scene that opens the Poison Ivy story is one of the most ludicrous we've been subject to. The idea that Bruce Wayne would be joking with this loony girl about being number one villainess in the world makes no sense to me at all. The image of the three top villainesses must have stuck with writer Grant Morrison since he factored the trio into his "Batman: The Resurrection of Ra's Al Ghul" storyline in 2008. It's always a plus when a new "rogue" is introduced but, unless my memory is faulty, Poison Ivy didn't really become one of the top-tier villains until her appearance in the dreadful Batman and Robin in 1997. But, regardless, she'll be back very soon. "The Perfect Crime" has some decent art but its script, dependent on a cliched mystery plot, is lazy and pert near put me to sleep. Gordon's loud exclamation, that "no publisher would bring out a book under (Kaye Daye's) name if you hadn't written it..." would elicit guffaws from the ghouls who pump out novels carrying Tom Clancy's name years after the author died.
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| Infantino/Anderson |
"Batman's Crime Hunt A Go-Go!"
Story by John Broome
Art by Sheldon Moldoff & Joe Giella
Robin is awed by Batman's sudden powers of perception; the Dark Knight seems to be getting subliminal messages that warn him of crimes being committed across town. In both cases, the Dynamic Duo arrive just in time to capture the thieves as they are running away from their targets. Thank goodness, because as everyone knows, the safes located at the Gotham Laundromat and Gotham Commode Company are loaded with cash. Massive hauls, those.
But it's the third message from beyond which perplexes and bothers our heroes since it contains directions to a heist that never happens. As the boys sit in the deserted Bridge Plaza, they hear a different kind of message--one over the police band. First Trust Bank at Broad Street has been robbed! The boys arrive too late and learn that the robbers made off with over one million in cash! Searching the premises, Batman comes across a clue--a match from the popular Black Cat nightclub. Time to go undercover!
Esper pulls a gun but he's not fast enough for Batman, who makes good use of a nearby deck of cards. Esper is rounded up and taken to jail and, later, Batman explains to Robin and the sometimes-active Commissioner Gordon how Esper managed to use the Caped Crusader and the Teenage Twister in his scheme. The fake mind reader utilized a "super-sonic amplifier" to project subconscious messages into the brain of the Dark Knight, sending him to two legitimate heists to lull him into a false sense of ESP, setting him up for the big fall. Gordon pats his patsy on the back, tells him "Well done!" and goes back to his nap.
Jack-More and more, I suspect someone was helping Moldoff with his layouts, possibly Carmine Infantino. There are numerous panels and pages in this story that are more dynamic than anything we've seen from Shelly in years. My favorite thing about this issue, as is often the case, is the cover. I love those little hands Infantino uses.
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| Next Week... The Return of Reed Crandall! |
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