In honor of the release of The Dark Knight -- which broke all kinds of records this weekend -- I wanted to share with you My First Batman Comic.I first became a Batman fan not because of the comic books or the TV show (which was off the air before I was a year old), but rather because of the Super Friends cartoon, which premiered on ABC when I was six years old. It may have featured a somewhat emasculated version of the Dark Knight Detective (Hey criminals! Wanna make Batman cower? Take away his utility belt!), but, hey, it was still Batman. He was super cool, and I was completely smitten. My life as a fanboy had begun.
But I didn't actually have any Batman comics until this one -- with the clunky official title of Limited Collector's Edition, Vol. 4, No. C-37 -- which my mom ordered through the mail for my brother and me in 1975. Back in the early- and mid-1970s, DC was publishing collections of Golden Age comics in oversize editions, including reprints of the first appearances of Batman and the Flash, which still confound some rookie collectors to this day. This particular issue -- under a terrific Jim Aparo cover -- was touted as the Batman Special All-Villain Issue!
Needless to say, I read this thing until the cover fell off of it.
The first story, "The Cross Country Crimes!" (a reprint of Batman #8 from 1941) pits Batman and Robin against the Joker, who leads the Dynamic Duo on a murderous chase across the United States. It contained a great hook (the Joker is actually using the first letter of each state he visits to spell out his name), some scary Joker moments (Joker forces a jeweler's bus off a cliff), and a thrilling fight in a swaying cable car. And check out this great splash of the Clown Price of Crime (complete with that iconic 1940s Batmobile at the bottom):
Next, the Penguin gets his shot at the Dynamic Duo in "The Blackbird of Banditry," a 1947 story from Batman #43 in which Penguin declares he will "use fictional birds you've read about in books ... and commit real crimes!" Penguin manages to stay one step ahead of Batman, and at one point even gets the drop on the Dynamic Duo by puffing on a pipe full of popcorn, which explodes into Batman's unsuspecting face. Then, displaying a mentality that could only belong to a comic book villain, he chains the captured Robin to a wall (with a tightly drawn bow-and-arrow pointed directly at the Boy Wonder's heart), locks Batman in a nearby cage, and (wait for it) . . . leaves to allow Batman watch Robin face an almost certain Death by Clever Trap.
Naturally, Batman uses a discarded umbrella to make a bow and arrow of his own, and as the Penguin's arrow screams toward Robin, Batman intercepts it by firing an umbrella handle-arrow into its path -- a drawing that always baffled my eight-year-old brain, as it looked to me like Batman had fired a pickle to block the Penguin's arrow:
But maybe that was just me.
Anyway, Batman eventually nabs the Penguin, and can't resist taunting him in his jail cell by reminding him of another famous fictional bird. "Quoth the Raven, 'Nevermore!" Batman guffaws. Hilarity ensues.
The last three stories in the issue featured Two-Face (who meets his demise via accidental hanging at a drive-in movie theater, an image that horrified me), the Scarecrow (captured by an old vaudeville trick in which he's smacked on the fanny by a see-saw), and Catwoman (who models her crimes on famous women criminals like . . . er, well, the wicked queen from Snow White). And if all that weren't enough, there was even a four-page spread featuring a map of the Batcave (circa 1968) and diagrams of Batman's equipment, including this sneak-peek at the contents of his and Robin's utility belts:
I stared at those pages forever, trying to figure out how Batman could get those smoke capsules out of his belt so quickly, or how that laser torch really worked. When you're eight years old, it doesn't get much cooler than that.
Come to think of it, it still doesn't.
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