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| The Caped Crusader in the 1960s by Jack Seabrook & Peter Enfantino |
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| Adams |
"The Gal Most Likely to Be--Batman's Widow!"
Story by Frank Robbins
Art by Bob Brown & Joe Giella
"Strike!"
Story by Mike Friedrich
Art by Gil Kane & Murphy Anderson
Tim's a great guy, but he's stuck in a low-paying job as a trainer and his girlfriend, Ginny Jenkins, "The Gal Most Likely to Marry Batman" ('tec #380's "Marital-Bliss Miss"), just got a job as food reviewer at an ultra-ritzy magazine owned by the dodgy, shady Arnie Arnold. Coincidentally, Arnold is in for a massage and steam and lets Tim know his place, bragging that he's going out with a real piece of cheesecake for dinner. At that moment, in walks Bruce Wayne.
Bruce excuses himself while Tim takes some refreshments out to the swimming pool, where Arnold is waiting with his new squeeze. To Tim's horror, the "cheesecake" turns out to be Ginny, who gives him the cold shoulder and dives into the pool hand-in-hand with "Arnie." Tim is bereft and later goes after Arnold in the locker room, only to have a gun stuck up his nose.
That sets the gears moving inside Tim's head, so he goes to the local K-Mart and buys a Batman Halloween costume (which looks just like the real thing!). The next day, he records Arnold and his thugs discussing another restauranteur refusing to see the light and off Tim goes to play make-believe. Ominously, a Bat-gloved hand reaches around a corner to grab the recorder. That night at the Seventh Heaven, Arnold's goons try to make a mockery of the chef's hamburger et frites but Batman and Bat-Tim put the kayo on the goons. Ginny falls madly in love with Faux-Bats (even though, when he's unmasked, she screams in disbelief, "No--It can't be!--Not him!) and the real deal is left pondering whether the altar-bound couple will ask him to be the best man!
In the back-up, Robin gives a middle finger and upper right cross to the underworld figures forcing a teachers' strike. Turns out the mobster behind all the violence and football game riots owned juicy real estate that would become devalued if the school's newspaper ran an editorial or something like that... just enjoy the Kane/Anderson work, which is sublime. Who knew a Robin strip could be so well-choreographed and exciting? Not me, that's fer sure.-Peter
Jack-Once again, it seems like Infantino laid out a cover, Adams drew it, and then poor Frank Robbins had to come up with a script to match. I think any reader by now knows that if the cover suggests Batman will die or be unmasked in this issue, it'll be some poor slob in a lookalike costume taking the hit. Ginny does seem like a real prize, doesn't she? At least we get more Kane and Anderson art to savor in the second story, even though Mike Friedrich's script is awfully thin and peppered with dopey wisecracks.
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| Novick & Giordano (?) |
"Call Me Master!"
Story by Frank Robbins
Art by Irv Novick & Dick Giordano
Three of Gotham City's leading citizens receive strange telephone calls in which they are given instructions and agree to carry them out as if they're in a trance. That night, the Dynamic Duo intercept what appears to be a warehouse robbery in progress, only to discover that it's been authorized by the man in charge, who happens to be one of the recipients of the phone calls. A similar series of events plays out twice later that night, as a robbery of a safe at a mansion turns out to be approved, as does a big jewel theft!
Batman discovers that the phone calls went to members of Gotham's Civic Conscience Council, of which Bruce Wayne is also a member. Bruce receives a phone call and agrees to carry out orders; that evening, Robin follows and sees Bruce handing over boxes of scarce antibiotics to shady characters. After the Boy Wonder breaks up the gang, he develops a theory that Bruce must follow orders and proves it by having his partner sock him in the face! Robin and Bruce understand that he and the other council members have somehow been the victims of mind control, probably when they were all together at a dinner last week.
Bruce calls an emergency council meeting and hands out pendants for each man to wear that will let Batman and Robin listen in on their every word. That night, they hear Myron Mycroft agree to deliver securities to an unknown caller. The Duo interrupt the delivery, unaware that Mycroft is behind the whole scheme. He realizes that Batman is under post-hypnotic suggestion and orders him to blow up Stately Wayne Manor, but fortunately Robin and Alfred intervene, saving the day and catching the crook.
Dick Giordano's inks spiff up Irv Novick's pencils in the tale and the splash page is laid out like a panel from one of Gil Kane's back-up stories in Detective, with Batman knocking Robin for a loop and Robin flying backwards through the air toward the reader. For once, no one is trying to unmask the Caped Crusader, though when Mycroft realizes that Batman is under his control you'd think he might put two and two together and conclude that Batman must be one of the council members.-Jack
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| Adams |
"I Died... a Thousand Deaths!"
Story by Frank Robbins
Art by Bob Brown & Joe Giella
"A Clue... Seven-Foot Tall!"
Story by Frank Robbins
Art by Gil Kane & Murphy Anderson
Batman has received a call from Angles, the number one goon in the underworld organization of Scap Scarpel. Though the Dynamic Duo are skeptical, Batman knows he must give it a shot. He meets with Angles out on Gotham Beach and the hood hands an attache case to Batman, assuring the hero that there's enough evidence to put Angles away for ten lifetimes. Just as Bats grasps the bag, Angles pulls a gun and shoots Batman to death. Well...
Scap brings all his men together to raise a glass to the man who killed the Caped Crusader, but Angles tells his boss it might be best to keep mum. That way, the other organizations won't try to muscle in on their territory. Scap agrees. But, after his primo victory, nothing seems to go right for Angles and, in the end, he stares down the barrel of a gun held by his boss. Angles tries to warn his boss that Batman is right behind him but Scap isn't buying it. Finally, he turns and faces... Batman!
"How did you do it? How did you come back from the dead? How did you get into my super-exclusive bachelor pad?" Bats smiles and shows him his Angles costume, explaining that when they went into the drink, Robin was waiting below the surface in the Bat-submarine and nabbed Scap's main guy. Now Scap will finally face the inside of a cell, thanks to the man with a thousand lives.
Babs Gordon helps amateur criminologist Jason Bard investigate a brutal murder in the park. The clues lead them to the star of the Gotham basketball team. When Jason heads back into the locker-room he's attacked from behind. To the rescue comes... Batgirl! After the furious battle, Jason explains he has to get back to his date and Batgirl tells him she's staying behind to look for clues. But Jason makes it back to his seat first and wonders how he'll dump Babs to return to Batgirl for the hunt! Welcome future Batgirl heartthrob Jason Bard, who will co-star in several of Babs's back-up strips in the 1970s. Another thoroughly enjoyable Batgirl adventure, smartly scripted and gorgeously rendered. Was there a better back-up in DC comics in the late 1960s? I need to know.-Peter
Jack-I can't tell you, but I agree that this strip is fun! It's neat to see the first appearance of Jason Bard, someone we saw in our trek through the '70s. I wonder if he was the first comic hero to be injured in Vietnam? In the lead story, there are some nice panels depicting Batman's face in shadow as just black with white eye slits. Otherwise, it's a complex set-up with a limited payoff. Why do so many of Robbins's crooks have corny names like Chips and Topper, who turn up in the Batgirl story? At least the Robbins era marks a more adult tone to the series; Batman seems to die in every other issue, which is a big change from the days of Bat-Mite.
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| Adams |
"The Senator's Been Shot!"
Story by Bob Haney
Art by Neal Adams
As he is celebrating winning the election, a new senator named Paul Cathcart is shot by a bullet fired from a passing van. Bruce Wayne was next to the senator on the podium, so he runs inside, quickly changes into his Batman costume, and pursues the fleeing van, leaping on top and trying to break in until he is knocked off when the van drives under a low hanging beam. Cathcart is hospitalized and in a coma, so the governor telephones Bruce and asks him to take the senator's place and finish out his term. Wayne reluctantly agrees, aware that Cathcart's new crime bill will be voted on in 24 hours and will help stop crime boss Mr. Minotaur.
Meanwhile, another millionaire, Oliver Queen, is in his penthouse office, looking at the plans for New Island, a landfill reclamation project that will help save the state from bankruptcy. Miklos Minotaur's construction company, Argonaut Unlimited, is competing to bid on the project and Queen worries that, if Minotaur succeeds, he'll not only control crime in the state but also wield great influence over the government. Oliver's assistant locks away the plans and, when Queen is alone, he dons his refashioned Green Arrow costume, wondering if his civic and social responsibilities have become more important than his crime fighting. Suddenly, a man posing as a window washer hurls a grenade into the penthouse, but a quickly-aimed arrow prevents it from going off inside.
At the gym, Bruce Wayne works out with Edmond Cathcart, the senator's son, as they discuss the request that Bruce take over as senator. Wayne explains his dilemma to Edmond and confesses that he's Batman, aware that Edmond's oath as a psychiatrist will prevent him from revealing the secret. They discuss which identity is more important before Edmond heads off to join Oliver Queen to survey the landfill project by helicopter. Queen shocks Edmond by revealing that he's Green Arrow and that he's facing a dilemma similar to that of Bruce Wayne: where can he do the most good, as a socially-conscious millionaire or a costumed super hero?
That evening, Edmond is trying to process it all when a couple of Minotaur's goons enter his office and take him to see their boss. Batman and Green Arrow arrive at Edmond's office later and discover he's gone; Batman tells Green Arrow to start looking for the missing shrink while he takes care of some other business. The next morning, Bruce Wayne is sworn in as senator while Green Arrow parachutes down to an island in the Mediterranean, where Minotaur is grilling Edmond about Wayne and Queen. Arrow avoids being killed by wild beasts and is joined by Batman, who made it across the ocean mighty fast. Both men think of their duties as private citizens--Queen has to submit his bid in 48 hours and Wayne has to be back in Washington to vote on the anti-crime bill.
Batman and Green Arrow smash through a window to join Minotaur, who has a gun pointed at Edmond's temple. A superb arrow shot by the archer jams Minotaur's gun and the heroes make short work of his goons, but Minotaur escapes by motorboat. Later, at Minotaur's office, Queen has the criminal arrested, while Bruce makes it back to D.C. just in time to cast the deciding vote. That evening, Queen tells Edmond that he realizes he can be useful in both identities, and Bruce tells the senator's son that his father is on the mend and can resume his senatorial duties. Alone at last, Edmond begins self-hypnosis to wipe the two men's secrets from his mind.
Peter-"The Senator's Been Shot" hinges on a few whopping coincidences and yet I was riveted from start to finish. If more Bat-adventures were this well-written, this would have been a more memorable decade. I kept waiting for Mr. Minotaur to lug out his ridiculous costume but, nope, he was just a mobster after all. Just a few months after this story, Neal would take over Green Lantern and essentially create "the superhero with super-contemporary problems" (y'know, not just keeping Aunt May from marrying Dock Ock but stuff like drug addiction).
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| Next Week... Jack Wonders if Peter is Still Sane! |
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