Month: June 2022

Batman #1 (Spring 1940)

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We’re finally here! Batman’s popularity has earned him his own dedicated magazine, a quarterly with its first issue released in Spring 1940. Rather than the standard single 12 page story in Detective Comics, the quarterly contains four 12 pagers. Holy page count! And #1 is a real, dare I say it, whizzbang. It contains the debuts of The Joker and “The Cat”, along with the return of Hugo Strange.

The first Batman is nonetheless very much a study in contradictions and reflects the still-forming identity and personality of the character. As much as I goof on them, the pre-Robin issues of Detective Comics really are something special to me. They have a fundamentally lonely quality to them and flashes of a deep nightside atmosphere, even a grimness to them that I find endlessly fascinating. Batman is himself quieter, more serious, more solitary. They are flush with fullmoons and eerie skies, moments of being transfixed in night.

Robin brings a welcome levity, but it would be wrong to say nothing is lost with his addition. And this early version, though extremely rough around the edges, is compelling to me for that deep in the night quality. It will be a long time before that Batman is fully revisited in the comics. Though of course, the solitary Batman is, post Frank Miller, by the far the most familiar to most people today, if we judge by Batman’s portrayals in film, at least, from which Robin has been absent for several decades.

Whatever this dark quality is, it is present almost more in the gestalt impression of the first dozen or so issues than any particular moment. It’s in Bruce’s abstract geometric designs still in black (not fully blue), the repeated images of him emerging from the corner of panels like a ghost, the woodcut like art with its dense hatching, the amateur quality of the art, its willingness to pause wordlessly on certain images.

Even the characteristic “grumpy kitty” version of Batman starts to fade after issue #38. Part of the appeal of grumpy kitty Batman is his communication by expression alone and in the stylization of his early design. This panel sums up this early version for me. When I think of Golden Age Batman, it is this specific image that jumps most readily to my mind. This is my most beloved Batman.

As we have seen, Batman has started quipping consistently and he talks aloud to himself more frequently. This necessarily decreases a bit of the mysterious opacity of early Batman and makes him feel more like a jolly prankster than a tortured vigilante. Charming cat-grumpiness has been replaced by a dad-like sass. By the end of The Cat story, the character is almost completely unrecognizable from what came before up to this point. That story is strangely light with bewildering fourth wall breaks and a sitcom style ending. But you will find it sat up against Batman’s most overtly brutal behavior so far in The Monster Men, and a post-Robin continuation of the darker side of Batman in The Joker stories. The Cat feels much more like 60s camp Batman, while The Joker stories retain aspects of the old school 30s pulp darkness.

On top of that, the art varies wildly throughout the issue. At times I felt like I was reading it in a gas leak with its strange figures and distorted and melting faces. (Admittedly, this could be related to the recolored versions I’m reading on DC Infinite.) I haven’t analyzed this statistically, but the visual density of many panels seems to have decreased as well. This issue feels much more visually sparse than ever before, with more backgroundless panels filled with just a single color. Compare the panels below, for example:

Panels from Detective Comics #30
Panels from Batman #1

This can feel dislocating, as if the action sometimes floats in no space, and also makes the overall visual brighter and less “gothic”. I have to imagine this was a consequence of the increased volume of art demanded, but the impact feels obvious. Coupled with the increased volume of text, Batman #1 feels somehow fuller and emptier, less likely to pause for atmospheric effect and less likely to let an image speak for itself. (You can also note the development of Batman’s costume in a single year: gone are the long pointed ears, tinier gloves, geometric pointed and all black cape.)

All this is to say nothing of some of the truly unhinged choices made in this issue, which must be experienced firsthand, which I’ll comment on in my notes to the individual stories as they’ll deserve their own highlight.

The issue begins with a reprint of Batman’s origin story from issue #33, but with this bright yellow header replacing the opening panels of “The Dirigible of Doom.”

Story 1: “THE JOKER”

The first appearance of The Joker in comics history and he’s a super upsetting looking dude! I think it’s possible he might be bad news!

Part of this story’s joy lies in reading the various descriptions of The Joker, written in prose as purple as The Joker’s iconic suit:

A criminal weaving a web of death about him leaving stricken victims behind wearing a ghastly clown’s grin – the sign of death from THE JOKER!

A toneless voice drones…

In this original incarnation, The Joker is obsessed both with murder and with fancy gems. His M.O. is to announce, over the radio somehow, that he will murder someone rich or famous and steal their coolest gem.

This pipe smoking dork dismisses his wife’s terror by suggesting this broadcast is just a ruse like the Orson Welles War of the Worlds broadcast from two years earlier in 1938.

With adequate warning, the police move to make it impossible for anyone to reach the doomed man. But then, as the hour is struck!

The man chokes to death and dies with this horrible grin on his face, which honestly is maybe the genuinely creepiest thing in any Bat-book up to this point. This is straight up like that early closet scene in the American remake of The Ring.

We then are shown The Joker in his lair which prominently features a tiger skin rug?

A man with a changeless, mask-like face… but for the eyes… burning, hate-filled eyes!

IMO, there’s a lot going on here. First of all and most importantly, in that second to last panel, The Joker looks exactly like a whiskerless Abraham Lincoln. Second, The Joker’s teeth don’t feel human and my intuition is that he has too many. Third, we never learn in this original issue how or why The Joker exists. He simply pops into the universe fully formed. And while there are decades of different takes on his character, OG Joker does feel brimming with a barely contained violence where many modern incarnations give him a kind of poised glee in the midst of chaos.

These panels also exemplify the subtle shift to a less visually dense style (after the establishing ‘shot,’ the backgrounds become single colors with mostly silhouetted decoration) that nonetheless contains a lot of text.

One of my favorite parts of this issue is Batman being like, “shut up, Dick. The time isn’t ripe” with absolutely no further explanation for why he isn’t doing anything. However, this is in the fine sub-tradition of Batman-going-“Hmmm”-ponderously-while-he-smokes. While Bruce enjoys his tobaccky….

Another man is marked for death!

The Joker was absolutely hiding in a suit of armor and dart-gunned this guy to death with (in its first mention) Joker Venom.

And then, arguably, the most iconic image of the original joker. The same one referenced, for example, in the character’s first big scene in Burton’s 1989 Batman:

After letting another murder happen, Bruce arbitrarily decides “the time is ripe” after he hears some news over the “grapevine,” which I’m assuming he patronizingly spoke with the indicated quotation marks.

The Joker has gotten in hot with the mob, angry that he’s horning in on their schtick. So, as he does, The Joker gets proactive and visits the boss gunning for him.

Suddenly a droning deadly voice – a funereal face… with eyes radiating hate

These descriptions are so cool, dang. The captions always mention the droning, monotone quality of his speech, which makes me imagine him less like Mark Hamill and more like Andrew Eldritch.

Batman is such a mess. He shows up, but he’s too loud and he alerts all the guards. The panel even includes Batman going, “Ah fuck.”

He then starts quipping again in a way that really makes me think he’s not taking any of this seriously.

But when The Joker guns down Brute and flees while making the exact same kind of snarky comment that Bruce is making, this juxtaposition becomes suddenly loaded. We’re seeing this Batman’s casual, almost joyful violence suddenly mirrored in a villain with the same attitude but much less compunction about killing.

So, right from his original appearance, The Joker functions as a kind of mirror image of Batman, giving the book its first, unexpected, mythic-psychological dimension and implicit interrogation of its hero. How different is Batman from The Joker (especially keeping in mind that this early Batman has killed someone or let someone die in most issues)? Is it merely a difference of degree? Where did he come from? His originlessness is actually one of his creepiest components. It’s like reflections of Batman congeal and take shape in Gotham’s shadows.

The Joker speeds away in his car and Batman pursues, delivering by far his best-worst quip so far. An absolute all-timer:

The best part is 1940 actually was a leap year!

We then get this panel, which is maybe the most overt example of how aesthetically stark the book can get. This could be a feature or a bug depending on your preferences though!

The Joker spends most of the second half of the issue in an increasingly murderous rage, frequently shouting, “I’LL KILL YOU!” And he bests Bruce in single combat, which may be the first time someone has just straight up beat the shit out of Batman without sneakily blackjacking him from behind.

Bruce crawls out of the river, expounding on the same theme, with some art that has a little of that old Bob Kane can’t really draw that well charm.

Cut to The Joker’s third murder. This time he is somehow posing as the police officer in charge of watching the doomed man. And we get this horrifying image.

I should not get you twisted in suggesting this issue’s aesthetic emptiness. We are still treated to gorgeous panels like this, as Robin follows The Joker to his little house, where is he promptly blackjacked.

Some traditions MUST BE KEPT.

GRUMPY KITTY BATMAN RETURNS!
These fews pages really deliver the 30s Batman goods: creepy house, head trauma, and…

CUTE CORNER GHOST BATMAN!

Debuting his new gizmo: an infrared flashlight that shows footprints from the chemicals he puts on his and Robin’s boots? Okay, sure!

Right from his first appearance, The Joker is seconds away from murdering a child. Or as the book calls it, “having his little joke.” Jesus. Batman drama queens his way into the room. Robin seriously just went in the front door, but okay, Batman. I guess to be fair to Batman, going in the front door did lead directly to a blackjacking.

Batman actually hits with a good quip this time as he punches out Mistah J. This sends The Joker flying into a table full of chemicals which end up gassing the room. The Joker is immune to his own poison because he injects himself with antidote.

Batman makes this amazing face.

The Batman Who Laughs started all the way back here! Pretty freaky to be quite honest with you!

How will Batman get out of it you wonder??? What incredible act of intellect, of will, or derring-do will save him?

I don’t know he just gets better.

Then we get this iconic running at the camera panel, famous from the opening of the 60s TV show.

The duo chase The Joker to some rooftops, as he opens fire on Batman while screaming again about killing him.

Also, no shade to Bill Finger, but a real: tell me you don’t know how a bullet-proof vest works without telling me you don’t know how a bullet-proof vest works. Or maybe Batman is just that FRICKING tough.

The Joker has a completely manic frenzied violence to him that seethes. It makes the laughter seem more like an affectation and leans into depicting what the captions have described: someone overflowing with rage and hatred.

Robin gets his own card-related quip in this one too. And honestly, maybe it’s because Bruce never shuts up, but I’m actually starting to like Robin more than Batman. I love this spunky little nerd. Plus, he gives the book Nancy Drew/Hardy Boys energy, which is close to my heart.

Then in a significant moment, Batman hauls The Joker back to safety. While he had let Hugo Strange live in an earlier issue, this goes the farthest towards his eventual “no killing” rule and reflects the man-encounters-his-shadow metaphysic that will deepen in years to come.

And that’s that. The Joker’s in prison! He will literally be back at the end of this issue, which is a bit of anti-climax TBH. I normally will not reproduce quite so much of a story, but this one felt not only iconic and significant, but indicative of Batman’s character caught in flux.

Next: The Return of Hugo Strange and his Monster Men!

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Detective Comics #39 (May 1940)

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“The Horde of the Green Dragon”

The promised Monster Men are still nowhere in evidence, and despite the previous issue referencing cover this issue already feels retrograde. TW for awful racism.

Like “The Case of the Ruby Idol” it relies on cheap racist ‘exoticism,’ while presenting Batman as the white savior who liberates Gotham’s Chinese citizenry from themselves and their ‘enslavement to opium’. That’s to say nothing of the art itself.

Which is a shame all the greater because elsewhere in the book Kane (and possibly Jerry Robinson) are starting to lean into a more confident stylization.

Panels like this almost feel like moments from the animated series.

We’ve gone back to a mundane crime plot with stock serial villain caricature and it feels as if the tonal shift from #38 is still setting in. Half the book Batman goes it alone and later scenes with Robin’s buoyant lightness clash with earlier brutal in-panel violence like this.

Even the worst Batman issues don’t completely let us down though!

For instance, in this issue we are gifted with this panel of Batman adorably dressed up to go visit a friend!

Will it be a slumber party? Will they talk about boys?

Alas, no. It is just more racism. The character of Wong makes his second appearance, having placed an ad in the paper to get Batman’s attention. He quickly enlists Bruce to fight the the Green Dragon opium trade.

Batman does do his cute little diagonal thing though.

And there’s neat little murder mystery flourishes like this.

Wong dies not a page later to the Green Dragon “hatchet men.” This issue actually appears to be drawing on the real life “Tong Wars,” which continued in New York until 1933. I am not well versed enough about this period or this history to offer great analysis, so…

…subsequent notes are offered as highly provisional. First, these issues completely ignore long histories of oppression of Chinese immigrants by the US through systematic anti-Chinese legislation, eg: The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882.

Widespread “yellow peril” xenophobia, exclusion from many forms of work, and the threat of white violence contributed to the development of so called “Chinatowns.” Responding to organized crime in this context is obviously much more complicated than depicted here.

Chinatowns are as much as anything a symbol of solidarity against racism, but were treated as places of “human degradation” to quote one government document. Tong gangs, for example, may actually extort local residents but also provide immigration support or other community care. Like any gang culture it is extremely humanly complicated. It is telling that the kidnapping “victims” of the Tong in this issue are in-fact two “millionaires,” exactly those who are likely complicit in institutional racism in service of capital.

Batman is not really depicted espousing racist ideas or views himself, say for instance as he is in the ’43 serial, in which he celebrates Japanese internment. And actually, aside from Gordon, Wong is the only character I remember Bruce calling a “friend” so far. But the comic also positions Batman as the white hero who saves the Chinese from themselves, and I think this is key to how the broader racist dynamic operates. This kind of propaganda directly deflects attention away from a systemic racism that engineers poverty, exclusion, and violence, and then uses the conditions it has created to justify its own racist policies.

I’m hoping Batman will move away from this kind of racist content, and I think he will. But I also know a longstanding criticism of Batman is his maintenance of the status quo specifically by not addressing the systematic/institutional conditions that create the phenomenon of “crime” in the first place. What is “crime” exactly? If Batman is limited to fighting “crime,” he is inevitably a tool of the state. For such a quest against crime to even be intelligible requires an acceptance of a worldview of domination ensconced in the status quo and its systems. I think this must be where the “Batman is just beating up the mentally ill” criticism comes from. And admittedly, it has roots!

Even the recent Matt Reeve’s movie makes this same criticism. Its answer seems to be: Batman must turn away from venting his own unmet needs onto others in rage and turn to offering others the care and protection he never received himself. It is a movie in which he comes to ask, what is a responsible use of power? If you’ve seen it, you probably agree The Riddler’s criticisms are fundamentally right! But his conclusion is wrong.

But unless Batman and his authors acknowledge that so called “crime” is often a response, honestly, to unmet needs for shelter, material security, connection, comfort, witness, and meaning, it cannot genuinely humanize anyone or offer them their fundamental and entire dignity, which is the only pathway to genuine transformation. And indeed, Batman’s eventual prohibition on killing is at root an acknowledgment of an irrevocable human dignity beyond himself and a refusal of a certain kind of power over other people.

At least Batman was out there with this 50s PSA designed to encourage the welcome of war refugees??

Okay, onto to the goofs!

Another blackjacking!

More silhouettes for the shadowheads. This one’s appeal will likely intersect with the Batman-emerging-like-a-human-blanket-from-the-corner-of-the-panel fandom.

Batman’s hit rate with quips is 50/50 at BEST.

A little hint of the ol’ bloodlust.

“Well doggone!”

One final panel at the end of the book to really drive home the racism. 😦 And also, the second issue to end with an utterly demonic facial illustration. Good lord.

God, this issue was exhausting. And honestly, I feel like there’s oceans more to say here. Batman #1 is up next, with some MAJOR firsts, including: The Joker, Cat-Woman, and the return of Hugo Strange. But as Batman becomes more outlandish he also becomes more psychological, less realistic and less obviously political. So there is a real sense that by avoiding the questions, Batman as a book forfeits serious potential for what it can accomplish.

But we do get a teaser for one of my FAVORITE early Batman stories though to close it out!

Originally tweeted by Weird Batman of the Golden Age (@GoldenAgeBats) on June 17, 2022.

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Detective Comics #38 (April 1940)

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“ROBIN THE BOY WONDER”

Actually the promised Monster Men will have to wait. It's time to introduce Robin! Robin is critical to the entire character of Batman and there is a major tonal shift in this issue away from sheer violence into a kind of justice rooted in care.

Robin's acrobat parents are murdered by a gang attempting to extort the circus they work for. They are made an example of when the circus boss refuses to pay the protection racket.

In this one Bruce takes the night off to go to the circus. Batman can have little a circus, as a treat.

So many major events have happened to him by total freak coincidence.

This is the first real moment Bruce demonstrates a genuine compassion. He clearly sees himself in Dick Grayson, with whom he now shares a core trauma. Robin has so many functions…

He is a chance for Bruce to change his own past. A chance to heal by healing others. Conscience, humor, and a tether to humanity. Batman allowed to be the father he never had. Chosen family. Sometime who understands.

Batman on his own is fundamentally a broken person. Maybe this is why I find him so compelling? In some ways he is a real arrested development. His alter ego a self trapped in permanent dissociation. Still, is his risking Dick wildly irresponsible? Yes, of course.

Batman's violence is tempered here. Where before he seemed to enjoy the violence for its own sake, here he seems genuine in his desire for justice. Notably, the police are as much the enemy here as Zucco's gang, as we learn the whole force is paid off.

This goes a way towards narratively justifying Batman's methods as necessary to protect ordinary people from corrupt and exploitative institutions rather than a cop who doesn't have to play by the rules.

(Love Bruce discoursing midair with complete nonchalance also.)

This is Batman rooted more firmly in a desire to protect others from what he has suffered, rather than pass it on to others in rage.

Batman is bonking people's heads together in this one. The violence feels more, well, comic.

Batman is back on his quip game too.

This Batman crashes a high society gambling operation and begins redistributing Zucco's wealth.

Christ Driving the Money Changers From the Temple (El Greco, 1609)

This guy looks completely out of his mind relieved. So glad we pause for this lil nugget of side story.

Whoopie!

He's got an axe again!

And looks like Jared Leto was not the first to pull this gag. Batman did it first!

Biblical allusions continue with Robin as David. For the first time, Batman feels like he's here to protect the defenseless against the corrupt. Maybe his appeal IS rooted in the hope that we are not alone at the mercy of corrupt capital and its cronies. We won't be abandoned.

There is someone there for Robin. And maybe Batman doesn't want there to be any more Bruce Waynes. Batman is loss and the wounds we grow around but never close. The seeming paradox of the lonely Batman with an ever growing family makes perfect sense.

You can read his broader narrative as one of confronting a deep loneliness, deep isolation, deep grief.

Here is an example from years later in The Killing Joke. This is the truer spirit of Batman. And I think it may have been birthed in this issue.

Even this glee in violence is about comeuppance rather than bloodlust. I'm not trying to justify the violence, per se, but to note the shift in emphasis.

We wrap up really quickly. Well, Dick we avenged your parents, what's next?

Oh yeah, they fight Zucco on a rooftop construction site, unconstitutionally force a confession before Zucco kills one of his own men, which Robin catches on film.

But then it ends on this unholy nightmare of a panel. "I ought to whale you, you reckless squirt," says a completely possessed demon Bruce. This face will haunt my dreams.

Originally tweeted by Weird Batman of the Golden Age (@GoldenAgeBats) on June 16, 2022.

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Detective Comics #37 (Mar 1940)

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“THE SCREAMING HOUSE”

Batman is preventing world war again in this one.

But we start simply, as you would expect, with Batman lost in the countryside and stopping to ask for directions at a creepy house in the middle of nowhere. You know, like Batman often does.

But, there’s a scream from inside the house! (And genuinely, starting this issue with Batman alone in the dark and silent haunted countryside is very neat even if “Batman gets lost” is also hilarious.)

Batman using the phrase “someone is screaming his head off” is incredible to me in a way I cannot express.

Anyway, what does Batman do about it?

Trespass! But first he wraps himself all cozy in his cape.

He finds several hatted men torturing a hatless man and makes this insane quip as he crashes their interrogation party. As everyone knows the old adage: if titties out and truly bold, you my friend will catch a cold!

Then there’s this panel. First of all: “he’s dynamite!”

But it’s the way his off kilter shoulders make him seem like he’s sassily wiggling that really gets me. Batman’s commitment to campy theatrics reads to me as extremely gay. And the longer I stare at some of these panels…

…the more I realize that part of what makes Batman terrifying to the people around him is the sheer surreality of what he’s doing. He’s committing to this unhinged bit with 100% seriousness. And even if he looks absurd and ridiculous, on one hand, in his silly costume in a fully lit room, on the other hand, the fact that he is in this silly costume in a fully lit room at ALL kind of makes it go the other way back into totally freaky and terrifying. Some subconscious social contract with a normative reality has been broken.

Batman is totally nuts.

He beats the beans outta the torturer dudes and rescues the torturee.

ONLY TO BE BLACKJACKED *AGAIN* BY THE GUY HE JUST SAVED.

Batman is just not on his game this issue.

I need to keep a count of how many times this happens, but pretty sure this at least the third.

A. Batman’s also like “damn, I am fucking up today.”

B. Love that he says things like “If I’m not a PRIZE SAP, letting that guy CONK ME.”

Everything about this issue is wild.

First, three men are dead and Batman is semi-responsible. And he once again doesn’t seem especially perturbed?

Second, look at his little CLAW FINGER. What! He’s got lil talons!

Third, World’s Greatest Detective: looks people up in the phone book.

I am partial to this issue because it has TWO WHOLE PANELS of Bruce/Batman going to the grocery store. Granted, he’s casing the joint, but still.

This definitely looks like Batman’s going for his groceries, right?

Also, there are so many of these panels where Batman is just a diagonal *shape* emerging from the corner of the frame. And I genuinely love them. They’re somehow cool, creepy, elemental, and cute all at once.

A cool silhouette for the heads.

New Bat-Gizmo dropped!

Look at how fuckin’ JAZZED he is about his new toy. This is mischievous little kitty culture.

The quips are utterly bewildering this issue.

“LIKE A KISS IN THE DARK!”

Am I wrong that Batman is being extra gay in this issue??? This is textbook disaster bi.

And you cannot tell me that people being like “He’s just like a REAL bat,” “Now I get it!” is EXACTLY what Bruce fantasizes about while falling asleep at night.

Cool goodbye pose also! YES. Style points to make up for his many blunders this time.

This issue makes me want to scream. It turns out the guy Bruce “rescued” who killed three people in cold blood is actually a patriotic U.S. agent preventing foreign spies from creating pretense for an international conflict.

Things escalate SO QUICKLY.

It’s pretty lucky that Batman got lost driving his little car and stopped to ask for directions. If he had GPS, we would be in World War 2 a year early.

Panels where Batman does this are my precious old lady cat figurines. I collect them and enjoy them. They are my little treasures.

Bruce is taking L after L, god. He goes on to get tied up and thrown into the sea.

All the dialogue is begging to be read in a snappy transatlantic accent.

I think this panel speaks for itself.

Batman talking out loud to his own feet. Is there finer art than this?

Style > success.

This happens.

And then fucking this!!! Batman!!! Goddamn it!

“It is better that he should die!”

WHAT. THE. FUCK.

This was in some ways not an especially weird issue on the macro scale, but on the micro? Completely unhinged.

And it ends with this incredibly cool teaser.

Mr. X vibes!

See u next time, same Bat twitter, same Bat blog.

Originally tweeted by Weird Batman of the Golden Age (@GoldenAgeBats) on June 16, 2022.

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Detective Comics #36 (Feb 1940)

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“Professor Hugo Strange”

Another racist cover, thankfully unrelated to this issue’s contents. And a few firsts: Batman doesn’t kill anyone! And Hugo Strange, one of Batman’s recurring foes in his first appearance.

(Batman Wiki also suggests Jerry Robinson may have participated in the art, which is the first mention of this I’ve seen yet.)

This one starts with Batman witnessing a drive-by.

I don’t know why, but Batman’s design, expression, and poses continually radiate cuteness to me. Lego Batman was onto something with its portrayal.

If I leave no other legacy, please let it be this:

Batman is a grumpy kitty.

More pink backgrounds (which rules), and a rare look of genuine empathy on Batman’s face as he hears the dying G-Man’s cryptic last words.

GRUMPY KITTY.

Also, Batman: framed for murder!

The police decide to shoot first and ask questions later. How unrealistic *cough cough* ahem. Does kinda look like Bruce is stealing this guy’s wallet.

Our villain! Hugo Strange.

Who I am having trouble seeing as anyone but Dr. Venture.

A lot of this issue involves Bruce kitted in his immaculate suit while smoking in his armchair going, “Hmmmmm.”

While Dr. Strange gets pissy elsewhere in town.

Hugo Strange has blanketed the city in a “queer fog.”

Hugo Strange said happy pride.

Also, living for these pinks!

Batman’s recurring weird hunchy meatman creep pose really freaks me out.

The only time he smiles is when he’s beating the shit out of people. And he’s doing quips this whole issue!

Honestly, this “panther”-like dude hitting these goons like a “cyclone” while totally making light of the situation is pretty scary. Idk? Actually, this is the first moment I’ve felt like, oh, he’s a genuine boogey-man. He WILL hurt you. And so far he has no real code of conduct, though we will see him spare the villain at issue’s end – one of the first moves towards Bruce’s famous prohibition on killing his foes. He does turn Doctor Death over to the police in an earlier issue as well, I guess. But he’s killed someone or let someone die in most issues so far?

This panel gets in on a technicality, since he only uses it to summon the police, but he’s got a gun AGAIN.

There are some really lovely atmospheric panels in this issue too that transcend the rest of the book, imo.

The mysterious silhouettes are iconic to me. Kind of haunting. They capture the as yet un-sublimated essence of the character to be and start to give him mythological proportions.

But also, GRUMPY KITTY. There are weird recurring segments in these issues, including: Batman looking like you took his mousey away when he suddenly gets the lights shone on him.

“GRRR!” – The Batman

And how he gets blackjacked AGAIN! Batman has suffered so much head trauma in such a short amount of time. It seems the greatest threat to Batman is being bludgeoned from behind.

Then, as usual, he gets tied up and something dastardly and evil is going to happen to h-

Ummm!!!

Apparently, the “B” in BDSM stands for Batman.

Hugo Strange is a total freak! Also, he’s way larger than he looks in his first panel. He’s spent the whole issue smashing things, whipping Batman, and choking people out while laughing maniacally.

Through the combination of his “steel” muscles, gas pellets, and jiu jitsu moves, Batman makes short work of Strange and his crew. And this time, he doesn’t kill him! He hogties him and throws him in prison, where Strange vows vengeance.

And that’s an oath he will keep a dozen times over. He will come back soon in Batman #1, and as mentioned above, he’s the first real member of Batman’s “Rogues Gallery,” his recurring stable of villains.

This starts the precedent of Batman locking up his enemies only for them to escape time and time again. It’s this rhythm that starts to move Batman, in my mind, from strict realism into some kind of exteriorized and mythic psychodrama, with Batman’s enemies springing into existence as weird reflections of his own psyche (a la ‘A Serious House on Serious Earth’ or Synder’s ‘Black Mirror’).

I don’t find myself focusing much on the actual plot of some of the early issues because they are so often mundane, rote and stock. Here we do get a neat ‘weird science’ element, as Hugo Strange has captured a scientist who is capable of creating a fog to blanket the whole city. But the fog’s purpose is to make it harder for the police to stop bank robberies.

Part of what will effect the shift from realism to myth, maybe paradoxically, is a greater emphasis on character and relationship. The Rogues Gallery is, after all, predicated on persistent relationship, in which individual storylines are cumulative and accrete to form histories between Batman and his adversaries that overflow any particular issues or events.

So, the most interesting part here is not the fog or the robberies but Strange’s vow of revenge, which will have its return in future issues, and Batman’s complicity in creating and maintaining cycles, even/especially when this is predicated on a commitment to a kind of mercy, which is nonetheless carceral and not rehabilitative. It is his inability to kill his foes and thus end cycles of their return that most implies a dependent interrelation between Batman and his rogues: that they are part of the same entity, reflections of one another. Batman’s existence causes their own. Neither can be destroyed. And maybe this is the central moral crisis at the heart of the character, a more existential issue than social or political ones, which are folded into the former. Is Batman himself The Shadow of Gotham (and not in the sense that Bob Kane ripped off The Shadow for issue #27, side eyes emoji) who in turn creates a funhouse parade of further shadows? Can Batman himself be healed?

I don’t know! I’m dumb and baby. Certainly this will all coalesce years down the line as I read hundreds of new issues.

In the meantime, let us savor the simpler pleasures, such as whatever this is.

Originally tweeted by Weird Batman of the Golden Age (@GoldenAgeBats) on June 14, 2022.

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Detective Comics #35 (Jan 1940)

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“THE CASE OF THE RUBY IDOL”

Definitely Batman's most racist issue so far, with a cover that bears no relation to what occurs in the strip itself. It looks like Batman is surprise attacking a doctor. Batman please don't be an anti-vaxxer!

For the love of god, he's got a gun again.

So this whole issue is about an explorer stealing a "ruby idol" from a cave in India and subsequently getting death threats from a group of "Kila" worshipping "Hindus." It goes one step further by involving "Orientals" who also want the ruby.

So, yeah. Woof.

I feel like this is like if you fictionalized a mock-Christianity and called him Chesus Jist. Early Batman has so much anti-Asian racism. If you've heard about or seen the 1943 serial you'll know it is explicitly anti-Japanese wartime propaganda. And we see it pre-figured here.

Detective Comics was doing this sort of anti-Asian fearmongering before Batman and it unfortunately continues unabated here.

The museum curator who buys the idol gets this note and honestly I am on their side! Duh, you stole their shit. They want it back. This is not a complicated moral calculus, WELDON.

There's a lot of really racist stuff going on, with Wong being "one of the good ones." Cartoon turbaned thugs and Asian caricatures wielding massive scimitars as dehumanizing stock thugs.

It's awful!

The twist though is that the supposed Chinese villain, Sin Fang, is actually the explorer who originally stole the idol in the first place, Sheldon Lennox, in yellowface. It's like some kind of super racist Scooby Doo.

And he dies by the idol, after Batman throws him from a window. I'm not *really* sure what the moral message of this issue is. But the colonizer-imperialist does get a poetic comeuppance. But it's all rooted in exoticization and unchallenged racist caricature.

I hate it!

What this issue does have to offer, aside from a portal into the racist American psyche of the 40s, is a bunch of stuff like this. I don't think I've shown off Gordon yet. But apparently he just lets Bruce Wayne hang out with him and accompany him to investigate ongoing crimes.

Bruce is characteristically smug and dismissive and Batman is once again riotously horny for vigilante violence.

Look at him. You can practically HEAR him heavy breathing like a real creep. I actually find this panel kinda freaky. He was just standing there in the dark until they turned the flashlight on him.

Or, here's Batman being a total drama queen.

This issue does contain one of the best out of context panels in all of Batman though. It's best enjoyed on its own.

(But actually he was blackjacked again.)

And there is this gem of Batman punching out a cop.

The standard criticism of Batman is that he is an enforcer of the status quo, that his anti-crime lens completely lacks any structural analysis and so he ends up targeting the oppressed and marginalized.

By my count his villains so far fall into the following categories:

Corporate crime: 1
Big ticket thievery: 3
Extortion: 2
Vampirism: 2
World Domination: 1

Later versions of Batman, say in the animated series, are much more compassionate characters. That these issues lack much psychological depth tends towards dehumanizing all of the characters by necessity. Broadly speaking there's room for Batman to identify with the down and out.

But so far Earth-2 Batman seems pretty transparently to want to vent his anger and rage on those he deems deserving. There are few glimmers of genuine pathos. Here he doesn't really seem to care who it is. He just wants an excuse. He is not a likeable dude!

He also kills someone in like every issue. I'll do a death count someday, but we see a character die impaled on a sword in this issue. And Sheldon himself bleeds out on the street before our eyes. So far the spirit of this Batman is "A fitting end for their kind."

It was the compassionate Batman of books like Batman: Black & White, that helped me love the character originally. But OG Batman is a lot more like late Frank Miller or Clint Eastwood than I would have imagined.

While Batman will have dozens of inflections over the years, it seems that the "accepted idea" as Grant Morrison calls it of Batman being "a semi-unhinged, essentially humorless loner struggling with rage and guilt" does have some roots in his original iteration after all.

Originally tweeted by Weird Batman of the Golden Age (@GoldenAgeBats) on June 11, 2022.

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Detective Comics #34 (Dec 1939)

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“PERIL IN PARIS”

This issue is mind melting. It makes absolutely no sense. It’s incredible. It starts with this.

I’m sure you also have questions. Bruce, however, does not.

Cut to.

Apparently, “apaches” here refers to a European criminal subculture, so called because of similar brutal violence attributed to the Native American Apache tribe by Europeans. Which is obviously deeply racist and rich in a sad and depressing irony. (Read David Graeber’s Dawn of Everything!)

Anyway, moments later, after accidentally getting into Bruce’s taxi, someone is throwing knives at her.

They flee and run into the faceless man who terrifies her into fainting. It took my brain like four tries to understand what the second dialogue bubble was saying.

He truly has no face at all. Also, the Duc is a cringey incel dork.

And this is why. “ON A HIDDEN ALTAR HE BURNED AWAY MY FACE AND FEATURES WITH A TERRIBLE RAY.”

OH. OKAY.

Here is the Duc himself who is very well dressed for someone who lives in a sewer. He swiftly knocks Batman out with his secret laser cane.

He puts Batman on his “Wheel of Chance” torture device with plans to watch from another room.

You know. Like a little freak.

Of course, Batman breaks free just by flexing his muscles of steel and attempts to leap to safety. The Duc however opens a secret door in the ceiling through which Batman goes flying. I have no idea what Batman’s original plan was? Hit the ceiling?

Anyway, he ends up here.

Is this the single best panel in Batman so far? YES, OBVIOUSLY.

This is literally never explained.

Batman escapes, rescues everyone and chokes out the Duc in an out of control speeding car before letting him die in the fiery wreck. Which is pretty normal comparatively.

Early Batman is the best because “secret underground garden full of flowers with human faces” is a throwaway idea that we never come back to. Also, as far as I am aware Charles never gets his face back.

Why did the Duc have a face burning-off laser? Why did he have so many flowers WITH faces? Are they connected? I hope you aren’t curious, because we’ll never know!

Originally tweeted by Weird Batman of the Golden Age (@GoldenAgeBats) on June 10, 2022.

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Detective Comics #33 (Nov 1939)

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“BATMAN WARS AGAINST THE DIRIGIBLE OF DOOM”

Back on the cover for an issue that brings an apocalyptic threat to Manhattan and which seems to comment both on German aggression and recall the Hindenburg disaster!

But this issue is most well-known for giving us Batman’s now famous backstory. The part that most interests me is its perspective on Batman’s ‘powers’: science, strength, and wealth. In other words, he is healthy, wealthy, and wise.

This issues goes nuts immediately with a giant dirigible beaming New York with a blinding red, building-destroying death light. Is it the end of the world?!

Batman figures out who’s behind it pretty quick by spending time reading old newspaper clippings in his secret laboratory, which rules, duh. And then the action pauses once again so we can watch Batman park his car.

Then Batman goes running down the street towards the presumed villain’s house, but my favorite part is he’s doing his cool Bat-pose/Naruto run. There is no one else out there. He’s doing this for himself and I love that for him.

After we learn of Bruce’s original trauma, we start to see flickers of his care and compassion for others, which up to this point has been quite hard to find. Here he is helping an old man get out from under some rubble.

Oh, and the villain in this issue?

Dr. Kruger aka NAPOLEON giving hardcore Peter Lorre.

There are certainly no resonances here with any real life maniacal dictators bent on world domination through brutal military invasions.

And he has goons that look like this. I have no idea what’s going on with these uniforms. They DO look Ku Klux Nazis though. Maybe that’s the point?

Based on their proximity, I’m 99% sure these two are an item though.

There’s also this panel. I like to think the newscaster here actually said “etc..etc..”

Thousands are dead, blah blah blah. Bruce’s expression looks like he’s definitely taking issue with this commentary.

Side note, I’m not sure if we saw it before, but the Bat Gyro definitely has the head of a vampire bat. Which is the CUTEST bat.

Tell me I’m wrong!

Anyways, Batman confronts Napoleon, gets blackjacked and tied up. He frees himself by cutting his bonds with his BOOT KNIFE, which is a thing he has apparently. He narrowly escapes before the house blows up.

Batman’s got even more grit this issue. Look at him BLEEDING FROM THE MOUTH in that panel. He then crashes in from the sky into Napoleon’s hideout and pulls out a gun to blow up the death ray machine. Batman didn’t even take this gun from anyone, he just had it?

He says this as if he wasn’t already almost blown up like the day before. And I love that he doesn’t even care. He’s bananas reckless in this issue. With this accomplished, time to destroy the dirigible itself. How will he do it???

By smashing it to pieces with an axe of course!

Look at the look on his face as he is shot AGAIN.

Dr. Kruger then shoots him with a death ray. Don’t worry, Bruce somehow swapped costumes with someone else in between these panels and escapes just fine. Guessing some hapless goon died in his place. Batman DOES. NOT. CARE.

Another flicker of Bat-psychology and the source of his unhinged rage.

How will Batman take down the dirigible you wonder?

By flying his gyro directly into it of course.

Did he cause a second Hindenburg? Technically yes.

He then parachutes and ropes onto Napoleon’s getaway plane.

Did you think crashing a plane and blowing up a zeppelin were enough for him? YOU WOULD BE WRONG. He crashes this one too.

He is off the rails.

And that’s how Batman prevented World War 2. He earned this smoke, which is something that Batman does.

Honestly, he’s had a lot going on lately. I think he’s coping pretty well all told.

Originally tweeted by Weird Batman of the Golden Age (@GoldenAgeBats) on June 10, 2022.

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Detective Comics #32 (Oct 1939)

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“BATMAN VS. THE VAMPIRE, PART 2”

Batman is off the cover but the gothic horror continues unabated. Here he follows The Monk to the “Carlathan” mountains of Hungary, waylaying a stagecoach under the light of a full moon, once again recalling Universal’s 1931 Dracula.

Last issue introduced the “Bat-Gyro” and “Baterang,” giving Bruce’s kit of powers a more definite shape: tools, preparedness, and ingenuity. In addition to his silken cord and gas pellets from prev issues.

Here we are treated to gorgeous aerial views of various gothic locales.

It turns out The Monk wasn’t in the Stagecoach at all! It was a woman named Dala. After Bruce, Julie, and Dala go back to their hotel, Batman awakes to find Dala with blood on her lips. She leads Batman to The Monk in exchange for his promise to kill him.

Also, werewolves again!

Except it’s all a ploy! And as soon as The Monk sees Batman, he hypnotizes him, rendering him powerless to intervene as he uses his ghastly powers to compel Julie to his castle.

Also, apparently and by his own admission, The Monk is not only a vampire, he’s a werewolf too!

AND FINALLY WE GET THE GOODS.

Fox wasn’t gonna front werewolfs and not deliver.

Batman magically snaps out of his trance and escapes. He then melts this object that is totally a statue and not obscene in order to make SILVER BULLETS. DIY MacGuvyer grit & gumption Batman is way more charming than I’m rich and paid millions to have this R&Ded Batman.

Earth-2 Batman is absolutely wild. This is only the sixth issue and he is literally hunting vampires and fighting werewolves.

And for arguably the single character who most famously abhors guns, he uses them or threatens to use them in like every issue. Here he is casually shooting The Monk to death in his coffin.

END OF ISSUE.

Overt gothic seems like an underexplored element of Batman’s potential, despite occasional revisits, as in Grant Morrison’s ‘Batman: Gothic,’ Doug Moench’s ‘Batman & Dracula’ trilogy, or direct callbacks like Matt Wagner’s ‘Batman and the Mad Monk.’

It’s hard to express just how WEIRD these issues are, but I genuinely love gothic Batman and I crave more. I could read him flying over werewolf infested cemeteries, prowling around ancient castles and hunting vampires all day.

I, for one, am pro-Castlevania Batman.

Golden Age Batman already feels like a distinct character already from later versions. He has a real intense don’t-give-a-fuck attitude. He’s brutal as hell. He might actually kinda LIKE hurting people. His bullet making actually really fascinates me…

He has a real ‘do it live’ attitude. He’s prepared with all his gizmos, but he’s also prepared to do whatever the hell he needs to do. He’s a violent vigilante and he seems to WANT you to fuck with him so he has an excuse to fuck with you?

But what tempers Batman’s terrifying brutality and Terminator-like nature is his grumpy kitty energy. Here is a collection (FOR THE FANS) of Batman’s facial expressions in this issue:

I’m bringing you the hard hitting critical analysis you crave, I know. And lastly, for the heads, some good ol’ fashioned ‘Batman flying his little plane’ content:

It is the work of a lifetime to truly encapsulate the unique jouissance of 30s Batman’s many contradictions and I am not yet a Batman sommelier up to the task, but I hope this gives you the taste.

Happy Halloween Batman – 4 months early and 83 years late!

(Interesting to note that Batman’s excursion to a haunted old Europe comes immediately on the heels of Hitler’s invasion of Poland in September. I don’t know what to do with that really, I’m an idiot. Insert something about the old world gothic new world noir collision.)

Originally tweeted by Weird Batman of the Golden Age (@GoldenAgeBats) on June 9, 2022.

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Detective Comics #31 (Sept 1939)

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“BATMAN VS. THE VAMPIRE, PART 1”

LOOK AT THIS COVER!

My absolute favorite 30s Batman issue. Things have escalated so quickly from stolen contracts, jewel thievery, and extortion schemes in previous issues to literally everything going on here:

HYPNOSIS! (AND THE BAT-FIANCEE!)

Also fantastic: the gloriously delirious yellows of the cityscape.

WEREWOLVES???

THE MONK WITH HIS FREAKY BURNING EYES!

GIANT APES!

DEADLY TORTURE CHAMBERS!

(spoilers: it’s a pit full of snakes!)

CREEPY CASTLES!

THE MONK WITH HIS FREAKY GREEN HANDS!

(Like Doctor Death, The Monk would be revived on Earth-1 in 1982 by Gerry Conway.)

WEREWOLVES??? At very least, werewolf-baiting!

Really, what DOESN’T this issue have?

In four issues, Batman is already threatening to jump into the full-on supernatural. It is important to note that the title of this story is BATMAN VS. THE VAMPIRE!

However, aside from his hypnotism, the only thing implying the Monk’s vampirism in this issue is his attacking Batman on a a sea voyage, like his cinematic counterparts did in 1922 and 1931.

I’m not a Dracula EXPERT but some vampires seem to either keep or turn into weird giant animals. Maybe The Monk’s thing is killer apes. Okay, that’s cool – he’s got a Murders in the Rue Morgue. They can’t all be Dracula’s Mantis.

Maybe there are other famous killer monks in film history, but this guy mostly reminds me of the monk-related subset of German krimis like The Black Abbott and The Sinister Monk…

or The College Girl Murders.

Also, Batman lives in New York in this one.

And there is some TRULY fine fan service for the ‘Batman driving his little car’ enthusiasts among us (aka ME).

There’s lots of other weird little details, like how Bruce hangs his cape and cowl on one of the posters of his bed in his nearly empty bedroom. Men really live like this, etc!

Also, this issue is a two-parter and things get even weirder in the next one! Just in time for Halloween! This would have permanently melted my mind if I was a morbid little child in 1939.

Best issue so far!!!

Originally tweeted by Weird Batman of the Golden Age (@GoldenAgeBats) on June 8, 2022.

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