Batman in the 1960s Issue 54: November/December 1968

 

The Caped Crusader in the 1960s
by Jack Seabrook
& Peter Enfantino

Novick

Batman #206

"Batman Walks the Last Mile!"

Story by Frank Robbins

Art by Irv Novick & Joe Giella

There's a new master crook in Gotham City and he calls himself the Planner! When Batman and Robin investigate a theft from the Orphans' Fund during a charity ball, they quickly determine that the culprits are Big Squat, Chief Sittin-In, and Li'l Moose, all members of the musical combo known as Custer's Last Stand. A few well-thrown punches are sufficient to defeat these guys and Batman theorizes that there must have been a brain behind the scenes.

The next night, the Dynamic Duo are being honored at a dinner when a claims investigator named E.G. Never leaps up and insists that he's the brains behind Batman's success, secretly solving all of their cases for them and never getting credit. Never challenges Batman to a duel in which they'll each race to solve the next case. At midnight, the Planner, whose headquarters are at an auto graveyard, instructs two goons known as Chomp and Stomp on the details of their next heist.

Another day goes by, and that night Chomp and Stomp rob a check-cashing service. E.G. Never solves the case in no time, leaving Batman and Robin to collect the crooks and avoid being squashed by a wrecking ball. It turns out that the Planner and E.G. Never are the same person, and he/they next instruct a villain, who goes by the name Cat-Crook and dresses just like Batman, on how to steal diamonds. After the heist, Never identifies the culprit and the Dynamic Duo bring him in. The Cat-Crook recognizes Never's voice as that of the Planner and, when he escapes from the police station, the Cat-Crook goes looking for Never, who is waiting to kill Batman.

Tony Hillerman it ain't...

In the moonlight shadows at the auto graveyard, Never mistakes the Cat-Crook for the Caped Crusader and fatally shoots him. Robin saves Batman from being crushed in a car-crusher and the Planner is apprehended. Everyone testifies against him and he's sentenced to die in the electric chair! Never goes off the deep end in prison, insisting that he's Batman and demanding to be executed in his Batman costume, so the last we see of the villain is him being led to the chair dressed as Batman!

I'm a glass-half-full kind of guy, so I'll accentuate the positive and say that Novick's art is a big step up from Moldoff's. I like that we're seeing full-length stories, since they allow for more plot development. There's a lot of corn in this one, however, from the Indian rock group to the incredible coincidence of the Cat-Crook dressing almost exactly like Batman and being mistakenly shot and killed. The end, where the Planner is led to the electric chair, is surprising--this would not have happened in the earlier '60s Batman comics. Instead, after being revealed as a visitor from Mars, he would have flown off into space.-Jack

Peter-Frank Robbins's dialogue has shifted into Phase Two; Phase One being annoying, Phase Two being indecipherable. In one panel, Robin exclaims to an adversary, "Like... Pow! You're all strung-out -- 'Git' happy!" What the hell does that even mean? Did this issue come with a special Frank Robbins decoder ring? Can anyone out there tell me they ever heard real human beings talk like the characters in the opening panel (below)? What are these two lunks droning on about? I have no idea. Un-PC dialogue of the issue goes to Batman, after clobbering the Indians: "Have no 'reservations' about you sittin' out this war dance!" No, wait, how about naming the Indian rock group "Custer's Last Stand"? After being transformed into a cool senior citizen by Neal Adams (in B&B), Gordo resumes his role of doddering old fool here. And how about the biggest cheat of them all: that cover?

Novick

Detective Comics #381

"One Drown--One More to Go!"

Story by Frank Robbins

Art by Bob Brown & Joe Giella

On a dark, murky night in Gotham Harbor, a trench-coated stranger drags a dazed Boy Wonder to a boat, rows out a bit, chains a couple of cinder blocks to the kid's legs, and dumps him overboard. As Robin sinks below the surface, we see the assailant is none other than... Batman! Holy cow! And we thought the team had gotten over their latest argument a couple issues ago! To learn the whole story, we have to go back an hour before Robin took a header into the drink.

Returning to Gotham in his Bat-Copter after a tension-filled adventure with the Justice League, Batman makes sure to "black out" his vehicle in order to avoid detection by the underworld (why he doesn't do this in any other adventure is up to you to decide) and thereby must wear his infra-red goggles to read his instrument panel. That's how he notices the Gotham Harbor lighthouse is transmitting a Morse Code message reading "Kill Robin! The kid knows everything!" 

Immediately, Bats gets on his walkie-talkie and contacts Dick, who's out patrolling the streets. Batman orders his pre-teen partner to get back to Stately Wayne Manor, pronto! Neither knows how close Robin was to death as a man on the docks was about to ventilate our young hero. Seeing that Robin is heading home, Bats heads for the lighthouse for a discussion with old friend, lightkeeper Capt. Cyrus Spume. The old, salty sea dog seems to be doing fine (if, I mean, playing chess with a sea lion is fine) and sends Bats out into the night; the Dark Knight ain't buying it. His brilliant detective brain detects something evil at work.

Sure enough, when Bats climbs to the light at the top of the building, he overhears two ruffians plotting yet another assassination attempt on the Boy Wonder. Heading back to the Batcave, Bats asks the Teenage Tornado if he's stumbled onto anything lately that would lead to a target on his back. A pair of infra-red goggles Robin is playing with catch the Caped Crusader's attention and Robin explains that he acquired them at a recent fight at the waterfront. The kid had stumbled into a ring of thugs breaking into a safe on board a ship and monitoring the beam at the nearby lighthouse. "Ah-ha!!!," exclaims the World's Greatest Detective™, "I knew it had something to do with that lighthouse beam!" 

Out on patrol, the boys get an urgent call from Gordon, claiming he got a tip phoned in while he was on the 18th hole, from a guy claiming that Batman was in trouble down on the docks and that Robin should get there asap. "I smell a rat!" opines the three-time Gotham Aptitude Award winner and Batman hatches a remarkably disposable scheme to fool Robin's would-be killers. Rather than try to bust the scumbags the usual way, Bats takes out "Dead-Eye," the hitman waiting at the docks, dons the killer's purple (!) trench coat, and dumps the kid in the harbor. 

Of course, Bats has equipped Robin with a breathing device and two chlorine tablets to fight off the hepatitis bacteria from Gotham's sewage. The ruse is successful and the hidden "Mister X" takes the bait, believing "Dead-Eye" has put an end to the illustrious career of Batman's partner. Unbeknownst to the mysterious X, Robin is actually swimming to the (as far as I know) heretofore unrevealed "Seaside Auxiliary Underwater Batcave" (!!!).

Meanwhile, back at the docks, Batman has shed his Mike Hammer overcoat and is spying on yet another safecracking job on a nearby ship. Waiting to nab the crooks as they exit the boat, Batman is amazed to see the thieves load their booty into a "Scuba-Motor" (think torpedo) and launch the mini-sub. Bats dives in and grabs hold of the missile as it zooms towards its base, which happens to be Capt. Spume's lighthouse. Surfacing, our hero is greeted by gun-toting thugs who introduce him to the brains of the outfit... Captain Spume! With the help of Spume's sea lion, Batman makes a getaway, but a lone gunman takes aim and...

Suddenly, from out of nowhere, a giant suction cup hits the gunman square in the head and pulls him to the rail. Turns out, the sucker is attached to the end of Robin's bat-rope. The kid pulls himself up without breaking the gunman's neck and assists his mentor in putting the kibosh on Spume and his Spumesters. In a freak accident, the Captain takes a tumble off the lighthouse and falls to his assumed death. The boys shrug and blame the CCA for not paying attention.

Have we had our fill of "This team is through!" frauds? Though "One Drown..." is no less stupid than any other Bat-Adventure we've endured in the 1960s, it's also got a lot of goofy charm and I have to admit to smiling quite a bit during its length. Sure, I'm smiling at the absurdities (let's start and finish with the hat-wearing, chess-playing sea lion, Albatross) but the point is, I'm smiling. Once again, the Duo go to incredible (and dangerous) extremes to present an elaborate ruse when just putting knuckle sandwiches into teeth might have sufficed. Extra star for having the kindly old codger revealed to be Mister X.-Peter

Jack-Frank Robbins likes playing with silly names, doesn't he? E.G. Never in Batman and Captain Cyrus Spume in Detective! I'm beginning to wonder if the covers came first and then Robbins had to come up with a story to explain them. He certainly goes to some plotting extremes to justify the seemingly-impossible situations depicted on the covers, which I presume were dreamed up to lure readers into plunking down twelve cents. Batman's grey tights and blue boots are conspicuous sticking out from under the purple trench coat and I don't think any crooks would've been fooled for long by the disguise. Finally, this is the second comic this month to have the bad guy die (or be on his way) at the end. Is this a new era for the Dark Knight, one with more violence and grit?

Adams

The Brave and the Bold #80

"And Hellgrammite is His Name!"

Story by Bob Haney

Art by Neal Adams

As Batman confronts an arsonist on the roof of a building, he is distracted by a helicopter that passes by overheard and blasts out a loud announcement for Jack Ryder on WHAM-TV. The arsonist falls off the building but lands in a fire department net; Batman confronts Ryder, who insists that Batman watch his TV show tonight for important news. On the show, Ryder warns of a dangerous new criminal in Gotham: "And Hellgrammite Is His Name!" He looks like a man-sized grasshopper and Batman isn't impressed.

Commissioner Gordon asks Batman to look into the disappearance of gangster Ace Branigan, but Batman heads back to the TV studio, where Ryder wants him to help capture Hellgrammite. When the Caped Crusader defers, Ryder presses a button and transforms into the Creeper, who is wanted by the law. Batman ignores his warnings about Hellgrammite and the two trade blows until the Creeper lures Batman to a giant cocoon, where Hellgrammite, a former entomologist, must return to recharge his insect powers every 24 hours. Just then, Hellgrammite slithers up, fights Batman to a draw, and disappears.

Commissioner Gordon shows up and tells Batman that his new top priority is to capture the Creeper! Instead, Batman and the Creeper agree to team up temporarily to go after Hellgrammite. The fickle Commissioner Gordon asks Batman to protect Big Al Dalko from Ace Branigan in order to prevent a gang war, so Batman enlists the Creeper to help. They visit Dalko's "pad" and discover that Dalko was nabbed by Hellgrammite! They find the super bug has wrapped himself in an impervious cocoon and wait for him to emerge. Out he comes at full power and easily escapes.

Another mobster named Turk Trask thinks that the Creeper snatched both Branigan and Dalko and wants to avoid the same fate. He and his goons attack the Creeper and capture him, but Batman comes to the rescue. In the confusion, Hellgrammite snatches Trask. As Jack Ryder, the Creeper broadcasts a warning to Hellgrammite and the Creeper and Batman track the villain to a closed subway station, where they find the three missing mobsters wrapped in cocoons. Batman takes the cocoons to a nearby hospital, where a dose of radiation frees the crooks, who are allowed to go on their way. Batman and the Creeper locate Hellgrammite, who is none too pleased that his cocoons are gone; after a big fight, the Creeper zaps the bug with electric current and defeats him before disappearing.

There's not a lot of substance to this story, despite the fantastic artwork. Jack Ryder and the Creeper appear for no particular reason and I could never figure out Hellgrammite's goal. Adams and Giordano's Creeper is not as impressive as Ditko's and at one point Batman notes the character's resemblance to the Joker. Although Hellgrammite's outfit is ridiculous, Adams draws the heck out of him and his appearances are the artistic highlights of the story, though nothing on the inside lives up to the cover. It's safe to say that anything Adams drew at this point in his career was worth reading.-Jack

Peter- Ludicrous villain (former bug analyst), hilarious bad guy monikers (Bronk Boyle and Turk Trask, anyone?), and silly script (Bob Haney continues to write dialogue for Batman that makes him sound like a dimwitted hippie), but.... oh, that art. Good gracious, this Adams guy was a force to be reckoned with. I love how Gordo changes his "Number One Priority" every four pages. "Yeah, Batman, I know that I said the Creeper was your top assignment ten minutes ago, but Big Al Darko sounds like the real deal... wait, this just in, Gotham Golf and Country Club will be auctioning off a rare diamond tonight, so get over there, pronto!" Hellgrammite wears the typical villain costume that would be impractical in "real life."

In the end, Batman never thinks to tell Gordo how the Creeper helped save Gotham, never nay-saying Gordo's firm stance. Put in a good word for the felon? Nope, the Dark Knight (and he does look like a Dark Knight) accepts the accolades, collects the "Hero of the Month" Award, and keeps mum. The best thing about The Brave and the Bold, I'm finding, is that it gives me a taste of some of these lower-tier DC heroes who might have had a short run series or back-up in Adventure Comics but have interesting and quirky qualities. I was a Marvel Zombie and wouldn't have been caught dead with anything carrying the DC logo, so I had little knowledge of the Creeper or Deadman prior to this voyage. 

Novick

Batman #207

"The Doomsday Ball!"

Story by Frank Robbins

Art by Irv Novick & Joe Giella

A mysterious man in a fancy car gives a new bouncing ball to a street kid named Skinnay just as police in Gotham City are alerted that the Mad Bomber has delivered a midnight ultimatum! Batman and Robin are summoned to City Hall, where they learn that an H-bomb has gone missing. The Mad Bomber demands to be paid $10M by 11:30 p.m. or he'll blow up Gotham at midnight!

Batman decides that the only clue is the Mad Bomber's voice on the tape and who better to identify it than another crook? He and Robin head to syndicate HQ, where they barely survive attacks by crooks for several pages before they finally talk to Brill, the boss. He can't ID the voice so he calls in his associates, one of whom hears background noise on the tape that allows him to identify the location where it was recorded.

Batman and Robin head to the neighborhood and overlook Skinnay playing with his ball; they make their way to the city lot where cars that are towed are stored and find the H-bomb in the fancy car's trunk. Unfortunately, a note warns that any attempt to defuse it will be met with instant retaliation. Commissioner Gordon dispatches an armored trunk with the $10M ransom, since time is getting short, and the Dynamic Duo ride along to the airport, where they fight with the Mad Bomber until he's killed by a taxiing airplane.

Thank goodness Batman remembers Skinnay and his new ball! He and Robin head back to the neighborhood and find the ball, which turns out to contain the detonator. They clip a wire and Gotham is saved from destruction!

First of all, take a good look at that cover and tell me that the faces and the awkward body positions don't suggest that Frank Robbins had a hand in the drawing. I know the GCD credits Novick and says that the squiggled signature reads "IN," but it sure looks like Robbins was involved. The story could've been a lot shorter, especially if they had cut the unnecessary pages where Batman and Robin have to fight their way into the big boss's home just to ask him to listen to the tape. You know it's bad when the cover scene is taken from a pointless part of the story.-Jack

Peter-I thought it odd that the Mad Bomber's identity was kept in the shadows even after he died. I like to imagine that he's the Kingpin's younger and shorter brother, Myron Fisk. The whole plot this time out, bomb and the bouncing ball, is unnecessarily complicated, but then I complain when Frank Robbins's scripts are stupid and simple, so that just goes to show that I cannot be satisfied. I love how Batman questions whether the bomb scare might be a hoax until he sees that ultra-secret government tag (that, no way no how, could be replicated) and then jumps in with both feet. Why are Brill's district captains wearing Robin-esque eye coverings? To protect their secret identities?! I so wanted one of the disguised thugs to point to Robin and say, "Hey, aren't you Dick Grayson?"

Infantino & Novick

Detective Comics #382

"Riddle of the Robbin' Robin!"

Story by Frank Robbins

Art by Bob Brown & Joe Giella

The Smokescreen Gang and the Blowtorch Mob both have a big problem: after every heist, their booty disappears. Each gang suspects the other of foul play but both sets of morons never think to turn their attention to the one point in the middle: the "Armorer!" That would be Mr. Armory, the kindly old funeral home director who moonlights as a criminal mastermind, repairing damaged weapons and supplying important information to the crooks.

But what the dopey crooks don't realize is that Mr. Armory is planting listening devices on the weapons and then listening in as the villains plan their next robbery. Once the deed is done, Armory swoops in and cracks the safe the booty resides in. Both mobs are getting understandably upset and, after a confrontation where both sides almost eliminate the competition, decide to join forces to root out the mysterious looter.

Together, the boys will steal the Kimberly Star, a priceless diamond which is set to be delivered to the Cranston Jewelry Shop the following week and stash the rock in the mob safe. The safe will be rigged with a high-powered rifle that will put really big holes in anyone who opens the door. Hearing this new plan, the Armorer realizes he's got a big problem. If no one takes the bait, the gangs might start narrowing down the list of suspects and realize their mutual arms supplier is the guilty party; if he skips town, they'll know it fersure.

Armory decides the best patsies would be Batman and Robin, who have been experiencing a down cycle of violent crime in Gotham. Rather than nabbing Penguin while he's busting into the Gotham Toiletry Arcade, the boys are busting the homeless and hungry for stealing apples and public urination. Armory impersonates a hobbled old man who stumbles in the street before a patrolling Batmobile; when the Duo race to assist the old geezer, he tips them that the Kimberly Star is going to be stolen at Cranston's when it's delivered in ten minutes and then runs like a rat down the avenue.

Suspicious of the tip, Batman orders the Boy Wonder to head to the airport where the diamond is set to be delivered to its courier at any minute and he motors over to Cranston's. It's not long before Bats realizes they've been screwed with. The mobsters grab the courier and the diamond and Robin gives chase. But his walkie-talkie gets damaged and he can't properly communicate with his boss so Batman has to use the World's Greatest Detective Mind™ to track his little buddy to the Blowtorch Mob hideout (he overhears a conversation with Armory and Robin and realizes the mortician has the same voice as the old man in the street), where he arrives just in time. Good thing too, since the gun inside the safe would have necessitated a new three-eyehole mask for the Boy Blunder. The boys safely recover the diamond and slap the cuffs on Armory. 

The most fun I had with this snoozer was the splash, where we see the Dynamic Duo running down petty criminals during their break from high-profile adventure. Robin breaks the wrist of a kid stealing some fruit while his mentor shakes down a human department store, with toaster, alarm clock, and transistor radio emerging from the hardened criminal's pockets. A toaster? The art's okay (certainly better than Moldy Moldoff) but the script by suddenly omnipresent Frank Robbins is dull and unengaging. His "hip" dialogue probably came off as dated when the comic was on the newsstand and it doesn't help that he populates his scenario with the world's stupidest criminals ("Hmmm. What could be the focal point of our problem? We all shop at Raley's, our wives get their hair done at Jeannie's, the kids all go to Gotham Elementary... Nope, not seeing it!"). 

None of the villains are named Joe or Ralph; they're "Fingers" or "Stick." Do you think more than one mobster carried the same moniker? It's a big town; perhaps there's a "Mumbles I" and "Mumbles II"? Don't mind me, I'm rambling. One other thing before I go: did I miss the panel where Robbins explains how the Armorer opened the mob safes? Did he have the combos or was his listening device able to transmit the sound of the tumblers falling?-Peter

Jack-"Riddle of the Robbin' Robin!" is utterly forgettable. The first page doesn't seem to have anything to do with the rest of the story, but after pages and pages of fighting and wisecracks I found it hard to care. It's awkward to have a two-way radio in your belt buckle, since it would be likely to get damaged in just about any scrap. Robin's walkie-talkie is messed up when it knocks into the steering wheel of the Batmobile! At least the art in Batman and Detective is consistent, probably due to the fact that Joe Giella inks both comics. As is so often the case, the cover is the best thing about this issue--the GCD says Infantino laid it out and Novick drew it.

Next Week...
Yeah, It Might Only Be Four Pages But...
It's Williamson and Krenkel, Dudes!