Detective Comics #37 (Mar 1940)

“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.