Apology, Spider-Man vs. Batman, Batman 86, 112, 113, and 156 and why I'm skipping up to #204

Hey, I kinda fell off with this huh. It's because those old issues of Batman are tough to read man! But! They taught me a lesson about comics by being so.

If I had started a project to read every issue Amazing Spider-Man, I'd probably never have missed a day, and the reason why is that the Merry Marvel Method of storytelling was a MASSIVE game changer! The difference between Marvel Comics (especially Spider-Man) and everything else at the time was that ol' Stan knew how to develop a supporting cast! Spider-Man almost out of the gate has Aunt May, Flash Thompson, J. Jonah Jameson, Betty Brant, Harry Osborn, and the whole Fantastic Four as associates and they all have their own stories that happen along with Spidey's adventures. Batman on the other hand is almost completely static because he doesn't really have a personal life or a continuous narrative until DC takes notice of how well the Marvel formula works (and a certain giant of comic bookery named Denny O'Neil takes the bat-reigns.)

Now, with all that, I'm going to straight up skip ahead to Batman #204, the first issue where Batman left the nutso sci-fi stories of the 50s and early to mid 60s behind. But before I do that, I'll give you sort of a greatest hits of said stories, and these are mostly ones that Grant Morrison brought back during Batman RIP.



First up, Batman #86


Yes, Batman, Indian Chief. This issue is about a Sioux chief named Chief Man-of-Bats who has taken after Batman to stop...Native American crime. Anyway, in order to protect his own secret identity, Man-Of-Bats convinces Batman and Robin to don redface (they really do this) and stop a rival tribe from robbing an armored car. They do. That's not really the important part. The important part is that 581 issues of Batman later, Grant Morrison brought Chief Man-Of-Bats into the DC Universe as a member of the Club of Heroes, who are essentially a bunch of international derivations of Batman including Morrison favorite The Knight (the English Batman) and The Musketeer (The Fr... you know what that's obvious.) Anyway, Chief Man-Of-Bats is a total asskicker who rips a bomb out of The Knight's stomach with his bare hands and punches the Musketeer out. I'm very interested to see if Morrison uses the character or some derivation of him in Return of Bruce Wayne number 4, which looks to be Old West Batman.

Batman #112

This story was legitimately awesome. Batman wakes up in an insane asylum (though not yet Arkham, which doesn't exist yet), in a world where there is another Bruce Wayne, Robin and Alfred don't know him at all, Wayne Manor doesn't have a Batcave under it, and the police are after him for being Batman. In a world where Batman doesn't even know if he exists, he does the only thing he knows and wails on some crooks. This causes other Batman and Robin to show up, who he tails back to the Batcave which actually does exist.

Batman then deduces that if someone impersonated Bruce Wayne when Batman said he was Bruce Wayne, that must mean whoever did it was trying to protect Batman's identity. Alfred and Robin give up the game and explain what happened. A villain named Professor Milo (who had previously used a gas to make Batman afraid of bats) used a gas (this is a theme in his activities) to make Batman lose his will to live and eventually die. Robin did his research and found out that if you can give the afflicted the will to live, they'll survive, so he designs the intense mystery that set up this issue.

This issue is important because, on top of being awesome, Professor Milo figures into the events of Batman RIP when one of his gases is shown to be the reason Batman implanted the Zur-En-Arrh trigger into his mind, which hey here it comes

Batman 113:


This issue also contains a short story where a circus clown who does an act as Fatman helps Batman stop a bank robbery. He also uses a gigantic Fatarang. Awesome.

At the beginning of this issue, Batman has his mind controlled or something and he gets into the Batplane and flies to the Planet Zur-En-Arrh where a space-Batman named Tlano lives. Yeah totally normal for 50s Batman. Anyway, Tlano needs Batman's help to turn away some invading aliens, and lucky for Batman, he's essentially Superman on Planet Zur-En-Arrh. He can fly and punch holes through walls. Eventually, Batman has to fight off some invisible alien giant robots, but since he can't see them, he cannot defeat them. UNTIL! Tlano had given Batman a device called the Bat-Radia, which "issues electronic molecules that cause disturbances in the atmosphere." What is an electronic molecule? Anyway, this screws up the invisibility on the robots and Zur-En-Arrh is saved. Batman then returns to the Batplane, but THE BAT RADIA IS STILL IN HIS HAND, setting in motion a story that would be told over 550 issues of Batman later.

Batman #156

Batman wakes up on an alien planet being attacked by a 4 armed giant stone idol and then gets grabbed by a tentacle monster that kills Robin. Hell of a start! Batman is then found to be in a chamber by himself where Robin runs in and tells him to wake up. He's volunteering to test what isolation in space would be like.



Those who've read Batman RIP will recognize this scene as it was re-done word for word as the origin of currently baddest mama-jama in Batman, Dr. Simon Hurt. Dude is so bad, that SPOILERS FOR BATMAN AND ROBIN #12 The Goddamn Joker is helping Dick Grayson Batman against him. Look at that devilishly handsome bastard. Anyway, the rest of the story is Bats fighting a gang of dudes in gorilla suits while being crippled by the fear of Robin dying, so Robin has to take out the gorilla guys.

OK! So that's some of the great 50s-60s stories (sadly this being limited to the Batman series means that I don't get the wonderful Detective Comics issue where Batman has to wear a suit that's a different color ever night, The Batman Of Many Colors.)

Tomorrow I'll be starting off at Batman #204, which pretty much represents DC's moving Batman into the more modern style of comic book storytelling. There's some really great stuff coming up here, including a story arc where a gang of blind men try to take down Batman, and one where all the women of Gotham City go on strike because Bruce Wayne won't marry any of them. It's coming. Get ready.