Adam Graham's Blog: Christians and Superheroes - Posts Tagged "golden-age-of-comics"

Here are reviews of three different Golden Age Batman Books I read:

The Batman Chronicles, Vol. 1 by Bill Finger

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


The Batman Chronicles Volume 1 marks the Batman's first appearances in Detective Comics in Issues 27-38 and the first big 64-page Batman Issue 1.

The character in the first eleven stories is barely recognizable as Batman with those huge ears on the costume. The original Batman is a character right out of the same pulp fiction tradition as characters like The Shadow and Doc Savage. He's a vigilante who often carries a gun. In these early issues, Bruce Wayne lives in Manhattan and has a fiancée.

The first two stories have very little of that Superhero feel to them However when Gardener Fox takes over in Detective Comics #29, the villains get more interesting. Batman battles Dr. Hugo Strange, Dr. Death, saboteurs, and even vampires. On the vampire plot, they got a little confused as Batman killed the vampires by shooting them with a silver bullet.

The amount of killings and the darkness of the early stories has been exaggerated somewhat by people who defend the dark turn of later issues of the comic book. The killings that happened were all in self-defense and bloodless portrayals. Anyone claiming they're taking Batman back to his root s by including a lot of bloody violence is full of it.

Of course, this comic also marks the first appearance of the Joker as Batman's prime villain in Batman #1. This Joke is pretty much the homicidal maniac we've all come to know. The Joker dies at the end of the issue, but of course there was no way he was going to stay dead.

The biggest change in this book as far as I'm concerned was the appearance of Robin in Detective Comics #38. Really, this changed the tone of the comic book and maybe . The original Robin, Dick Grayson, was trained by Batman after his parents were murdered at the order of a local mob boss named Boss Zucco. Robin was a real swashbuckling, wise-cracking hero that really brought fun to the comics and it did seem to make a positive change for Batman.

Robin was intended as a bit of model for youth living in tenements were crime dominated. In Batman #1, In one scene, Batman takes the guns from four criminals and Batman allows the four of them to take Robin on. Once Robin cleans the four with them, Batman speaks directly to readers, and delivers a special message. Kids were encouraged to be one of Robin's regulars by practicing Readiness, Obedience, Brotherhood, Industriousness, and Nationalism. It may have sounded cheesy today, but modern kids could do worse.

It's really hard to imagine that Batman would have endured as long as he had if Robin hadn't come along. While some of the stories are problematic and too short. The introduction of Robin, the Joker, and Catwoman make this a great read for Batfans everywhere.




Batman: The Sunday Classics 1943-1946 by Bob Kane

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


The Batman Sunday strips is a bit of a mixed bag. On one hand, they avoided the low points that the daily strips suffered where Batman and Robin would not be seen for months in costume. On the other hand, the stories were not nearly as complex and a few stories were disappointing particularly the first storyline and the last two.

However, this book does have some worthwhile features. It features early appearances by the Joker, Penguin, Catwoman, and an early version of Two Face. In addition, Batman has all kind of adventures away from Gotham City including at oil wells, at New Orleands during Mardi Gras as well as several other rural adventures.

In addition, this collection includes snippets of rare Batman comic strips from 1953, 1966, 1978, and 1989 which are sadly unavailable collected form, so this is a treat for Batman fans that's definitely worth reading.



Batman in the Forties by Bill Finger

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This book takes 192 pages to give readers view of the best Batman stories of eleven years of Batman stories from 1939-50. We get a pretty solid sampling. There's the first Batman story, Robin's first story and solo stories with Robin and Alfred.

Included are the introduction of Vicky Vale in Batman #49. There's a great Joker Story, "The Joker Follows Suit" in which the Clown Prince of Crime carries off an imitation of Batman intorducing the Jokermobile and the Joker signal for criminals in trouble. There's also a somewhat odd Catwoman story where she falls in love with Bruce Wayne and tries to reform only to reverse intentions when she finds out Bruce is leading her on (for some reason.)

The Bat Cave is invaded in a "1,000 Secrets of the Batcave" in which a fleeing criminal finds his way into Wayne Manor and eventually the Batcave and the Dynamic duo and the tough battle it out in the midst of all Batman's props and trophies.

My favorite story in the book had to be "Bruce Wayne Loses Guardianship of Dicky Grayson." Bruce Wayne/Batman is clearly emotional about the loss of the person he "loves most." Batman also is more quietly emotional in Batman #47 when he comes face to face with his parents' killers.

This early Batman is far more emotive, and the stories are even open to the occasional happy ending as happened to the original Two Face story in Detective Comics #80.

There are a few weaker entries in this book such as the "Clayface" story and Batman was not nearly as fun a character as Superman in the same era, but it's still a worthwhile read for any superhero fan.



View all my reviews

The Greatest Golden Age Stories Ever Told by Mike Gold

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This was a very ambitious project. DC sought to identify the best stories from the Golden Age of Comics told by their original companies (Detective Comics and All American Comics) as well as Quality Comics which was bought out by DC. Unfortunately, at the time of publication, they had some writes issues with republishing stories from Fawcett, so Captain Marvel makes no appearance.

The task was not enviable but overall they acquitted themselves well. Most of the usual suspects are here: Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Plastic Man, and the Golden Age Green Lantern and Flash along with some lesser known characters such as Kid Eternity, the Sandman, and the Spectre. The Spirit doesn't appear, but there may have been other rights issue in 1990 that the editors didn't address with their introductory material. Also Superboy and Green Arrow are limited to 1-page PSA ads.

Among the highlights for me:

The origin of Wildcat (from Sensation Comics #1): I'd seen this character on a couple Justice League and Batman: Brave and the Bold cartoons, but his origin story is something else. They generally didn't do origin stories but this one had some real pathos.

The Rise and Fall of the Norman Empire (from All Flash Comics #14): I wasn't really impressed with the first Flash comics in the Golden Age Flash Archives, but this collection is something else. It has the Flash battles a mathematical criminal genius who plays cards for the life of the DA. Both Joan Williams and Jay Garrick are pretty well developed as characters in a very fun story.

Slam Bradley (from Detective Comics #1);Batman appeared in Detective Comics #27. This helps to answered what appeared before that. Bradley is tough as nails and moves like a steamroller. The story was written by Jerry Siegel and drawn by Joe Shuster as could be told by the art. The story may be un-pc but its actually pretty good.

The Black Condor: The President's Been Kidnapped (from Cracked Comics #19): One of the Quality entries, this one is an action packed 9 page thriller that has FDR kidnapped and a puppet whose getting the US to back away from the allies in his place. This really works. There's some great tension and really just an incredible story.

Johnny Quick: The Day that Was Five Days Long (from Adventure Comics #144): Johnny gives a bitter man who was sent to jail for five years for a crime he didn't commit his powers, so that he can try all the things he'd wanted to try during the five stolen years. Actually some thought provoking and profound how it plays out.

Among my least favorite are: a stupid humor strip called Scribbly the Midget Cartoonist (All American Comics #6), a boring Starman story (Adventure Comics #67), a hard to follow and unengaging story featuring the Vigilante down under (Action Comics #128). The Wonder Woman story wasn't among the greatest and was also hard to get into.

The book included a 37-page Justice Society story at the end that was solid for having a team of supervillains in it (the Injustice Society), but also seemed to be struggling with adjusting to 37 page stories rather than 64 pages earlier in the decade as some parts were glossed over with the worst part being Wonder Woman and Johnny Thunder captured off screen.

While I disagree with some of the choices, I have to be really impressed with the scholarship shown, there's some introductory and explanatory material with guys who know comics like Roy Thomas, Mark Waid, and Mike Gold taking a hand.

With limited items available for reprints, and space limitations, no one could get this perfect. Still, this is a great book for fans of the golden age of comics and a series effort, particularly for its time.





View all my reviews