Unca Cheeks the Toy Wonder's Silver Age Comics Web Site!
... the Batman! (Part Seven) (...scaring the holy living bejeezus out of innocent li'l kids for well over 60 years, now. This man is in dire need of a hobby.)
Okay... okay! I get the hint, already!
Next to the JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA (due, in no small regard -- I'm certain -- to the exemplary job being done by one Grant Morrison. on that title)... the Batman is the single most often-requested character for additional "pages," on this site.
I'm not going to pretend this doesn't please me, no end; as I've stated previously,
on numerous occasions... the character is my all-time, no "ifs," "ands" or "buts"
favorite comics hero. I could do nothing but Bat-related pages
here, and kvell in the warm, rosy afterglow of satisfaction such an inherently
pleasurable pursuit would proffer.
Herewith, then -- something a wee bit different, this time out some
of my personal picks for Great Batman Scenes and Sequences -- Pre-CRISIS, Pre-DARK
KNIGHT RETURNS. Enjoy -- !!!
Let's start
out with this classic panel (from the pages of JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA
#107 [1st series]), as rendered by the late (and sorely missed) Dick Dillin.
[see accompanying panel, below]
Now, by golly... that's what a well-rendered
Batman looks like -- !!!
Incidentally for those of you not fluent in the Germanic tongue --
that one Nazi soldier just called the Bat-guy "Mighty Mouse." He's going
to be the first to get both shoulders dislocated, in the next few seconds.
War is hell.
...
or how about this little beauty of a "reaction shot," as stunningly
interpreted by none other than that immortal pensman, Neal Adams...?
(Thought that's scampering through Ra's al Ghul's mind
right about now, like some panic-stricken rodent prodded by a judiciously-placed
taser on its little mousy rump "... ooooohhhhhhh... jinkies!
I am just five measly seconds away from the grandaddy of all non-stop
butt-whippings...!")
However it should not be inferred, from examples such as the foregoing,
that the Batman isn't fully and fruitfully philosophical as he is every inch
the costumed psychopath.
Here, for instance, we see him waxing shamelessly sentimental in the very
selfsame fashion that made a young, bright-eyed Bruce Wayne the fastest-rising
young writer for Hallmark's "greeting card" division, a decade or two earlier.
One of the neatest things about being a grim, obsessed,
violence- prone costumed comic book vigilante is all the really neat people
you get to meet on the job.
Here, that fun-lovin' li'l scamp -- the Joker -- demonstrates for both the
Batman and the readers just what it is, precisely, that's made his name
synonymous with such funfunfun concepts as puppies; baby ducks;
DisneyWorld; and loose vials of anthrax bacillus in the careless, unthinking
hands of small schoolchildren.
Every kid
-- ultimately -- needs a hero off some sort; someone to whom they
can look up, in mute admiration, and pattern the rest of their lives after.
For me that hero was... welllllll... you know. (This serves
as partial explanation why -- to this very day -- I long ago hired a toothless
and spastic old wino from the local Bowery to wander throughout the family demanse
at all hours and refer to me obsequiously as "Master Bruce." At least...
that's my story, and I'm sticking to it. Leave my private life
out of this, you devils -- !!!)
For Our
Hero said lifelong idol was (as seen in the above panel sequence)
a ruthless and amoral sociopath.
Siiiiiiiighhh. Kids these days. Whaddya gonna do
with 'em...?
This next
bit o'business (as explicated by the matchless comics impressario
Walt Simonson) is nothing short of full-bore classic.
The Batman
has just conned a murdering assassin-for-hire (one "Wormwood," by name)
into believing that he [Batman] is a chillingly placid "collector" of gruesome
relics and whatnot by having said slug bring him the fabled cape and cowl
as proof positive of a successful "hit" upon the Gotham Guardian.
The Batman's last line on this page -- along with the fierce, feral expression
of savage satisfaction accompanying it, as he pounces upon his newfound
prey -- practically defines, for me, everything that this marvelous
character is All About, pure bedrock level.
A highly
controversial (at the time) scene from THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD #134, courtesy
of Bob Haney (writer) and top-flight Bat-interpreter Jim Aparo (artist).
The Batman has been kidnapped and imprisoned within a sensory deprivation
tank by foreign agents (nation unnamed) for the express purpose of "re-programming"
Our Guy into becoming a premiere Master Assassin. As horrified teammate
(and fellow involuntary detainee) Green Lantern
watches from nearby, the following exchange takes place between the despotic
colonel in charge of the operation, and one of the project's scientists [see
panels, accompanying].
Is it just, like, me... or does the fact that the Batman's attempt to maintain his standard torn-and-bleeding-fingernail's grasp upon sanity (or whatever passes for it, in his case) by making a mantra or koan out of the name of the murderer of his own parents kindasorta... ohhhhhh, I dunno...
... cah-RAAAAAAZEEEEEE, mebbe...?
All of you "the Batman ain't no freakin' psycho" proponents out there go ahead and explain this one away, whydon'tcha...?
The Greatest Hero of All Time and Space, to be sure... but several
Ringos shy of a complete Beatles reunion, also fer shure. )
Somewhere prominent upon the private "Top Ten" of any true Bat-fanatic's list of Great Batman Stories will always, always be found the powerful and affecting Dennis O'Neil-scripted "There Is No Hope In Crime Alley."
It is here
we first learned of the Batman's yearly pilgrimage to the precise spot
where his parents were slain, right before his terrified and uncomprehending
eyes, decades agone.
As one may
readily ascertain, from the page accompanying the hegira
in question seldom leaves him in the mood for ther normal conversational
pleasantries.
I'm not at all certain but that a firmly-worded letter from the able Miss
Manners wouldn't be the altogether appropriate response, in this particular.
The Batman, however -- contrary to popular rumor -- is also, on occasion,
a playful beastie.
As evidence,
I present the following panel sequence from my own personal nomination
for Coolest Tale In All of the Bat-Canon "Night of the Stalker"
(DETECTIVE COMICS #439), in which the Dark Knight utters not one single,
solitary word throughout the tale entire.
Here, he's
offering a trio of frightened gunsels the opportunity to reclaim their
errant car keys and make good their devoutly wish'd escape...
... if, that is, they want 'em badly enough...
BIIIIIIIIIIIIIIG "if," that.
Finally we end this particular exhibition with an excerpt from the popular and
influential best (bat-)seller "How To Score With the Gotham-Type
Babe-olas... Like, Every Time, Even."
When slinking
your pseudo-vampiric way through a terrified and cringing maiden's bedroom
window, in the middle of a rain-swept night...
... always -- always -- remember to say "pllease."
... and for God's sake remember why you decided to wear gloves and a mask in the first place.
If they can't pick you out of a police line-up... then -- ultimately -- it's
just their word against yours. And you're a member of the Justice
League, for cryin' out loud. )))
The Silver Age BATMAN
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