Unca Cheeks the Toy Wonder's Silver Age Comics Web Site!
... the Batman!
("... hmmmmm... looks like the Bat-Hound hasn't been getting enough roughage
in his diet, I see...")
Part 4
Just a few additional notes on the classic BATMAN covers (and
tales; and the creators thereof) of the Silver Age.
One of the nicer aspects of the DETECTIVE COMICS (Batman's "home away from home," when not otherwise occupied over in his own eponymously-titled mag) was the regular berth it afforded to the engaging series of ELONGATED MAN back-up mystery stories.
The Elongated Man (a.k.a. "Ralph Dibny") was a freelance amateur sleuth who, as a child, had always been fascinated by carnival sideshows, in general... and by the "India rubber" men/contortionists with same, in particular. (If you were to confide in me that this seems -- in retrospect -- somewhat of an odd idee fixee for a young lad of any age, I'd be forced to grant you that much.)
In any event the fascinated child grew into equally-obsessed adulthood, and eventually deduced that the one common element to all carnival contortionists was that they regularly imbibed of "the distilled juice of a rare tropical fruit" known as Gingold. [FLASH #112, 4/60; 1st series] Deciding that the quick-and-easy chemical route probably beat a decade or two of painfully dislocating one limbs a joint at a time in order to attain the requisite flexibility... he quaffed a carafe of the elixir, and -- voila! One stretchable-as-a-rubber-band super-hero!
Ralph Dibny was an oddity in the DC spandexed fraternity in more ways than
simply the obvious one [see accompanying cover, above]. He globe-trotted
from adventure to adventure in the company of his beautiful heiress wife, "Sue
Dibny" (nee "Dearborn"); eschewed the notion of keeping the traditional
"secret identity," being something of a self-confessed "glory hound" and publicity
junkie; and -- whenever confronted by the inital clue(s) to a brand new mystery
-- his nose would (swear to God) s-t-r-e-t-c-h out and begin to... well... "twitch,"
really. Which certainly was a helpful visual cue, you must admit, in aiding
the younger readers of the day from confusing the gent with, say, Aquaman.
Or Wonder Woman. 
The Batman was, if anything (as the covers above and below will attest) a
regular let's-team-up-and-have-us-an-adventure party hero, back then.
In addition to the occasional guest-star wandering through the pages of BATMAN
and/or DETECTIVE, he still regularly fought menaces of a less-earthbound nature
alongside best friend Superman, over in WORLD'S
FINEST COMICS; was a regular, dues-paying member of the JUSTICE
LEAGUE OF AMERICA; andcrossed paths with yet an additional
hero, each and every month, within the pages of THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD.
For the putative "loner" of the DC Universe... the guy entertained
more regularly than Martha Stewart.
Aside from being billed regularly as "The World's Greatest Detective," the Batman was also regularly referenced as "The World's Greatest Super-Escape Artist" (at least, until the advent -- years later -- of Jack Kirby's MISTER MIRACLE. But that's another story, for another time.)
Here, we see Our Hero attempting to employ precisely that
talent, while trapped in Durance Vile (to say nothing of lethal).
Note, if you will, the helpful identifying labels on the cover. It was an article of faith on the parts of the DC editors of the day, apparently, that the average child had precious little "hands-on" experience with deadly gasses or electrified gratings, and might therefore profit from their being carefully identified as such. And people say that comics aren't educational, darn it...!
While most of the Batman covers of the period (as the two
issues of DETECTIVE shown above, for example) were the handiwork of meticulous
craftsman Carmine Infantino... occasionally, we'd be presented with a nice little
something by one of the other Silver Age DC greats, as well. The offering
below, for example a lovely bit of business from the pen of DC "war comics"
mainstay, Joe Kubert.
(Note, too, the banner for the Elongated Man "back-up" story,
across the top of the cover. Either this issue's EM mystery involved an
element of the supernatural... or else the Dibny's were headed for divorce proceedings.)
Finally one of the most exciting (and fondly remembered) Batman "team-up" tales of the 70's the 100th "anniversary" issue of THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD.
The story opens with a (quite literal) bang, as the Batman is struck down from a distance by the single, well-placed shot of a mysterious rooftop sniper.
With said bullet lodged perilously close to his heart -- and immobilized in
a wheelchair, pending life-saving surgery -- the Darknight Detective is forced
to call upon the aid of (at the time) estranged "junior partner," Robin... and
the assistance of three fellow Justice Leaguers, as well (the stolid and dependable
Green Lantern; the Lantern's irascible best
buddy, Green Arrow; and the Arrow's girlfriend
and martial artist extraordinaire, the Black
Canary).
With the Batman attempting to co-ordinate the efforts of these
four -- from his pain-wracked hospital isolation -- to track down his unknown
assailant, before the bullet can work its way any closer to his damaged heart...
the reader is led on a breathless and exhilarating chase throughout Gotham City,
from its poshest townhouses to its grimiest alleyways.
And then: said trail of clues leads the assemblage of heroes -- horrifyingly -- to the very hospital operating room where the Batman is undergoing surgery, right at that very moment -- !
One of the keystone "Bat"-stories of the 70's, and an absolutely essential addition to the collection of anyone seriously interested in same. Written by journeyman comics scribe Bob Haney, and gorgeously penciled by longtime Bat-"great" Jim Aparo.
He got better, of course.
As the early 60's fell further and further away, in fact -- through the initial, revelatory offerings of the John Broome/Carmine Infantino "New Look" BATMAN tales (in which much -- if not, unfortunately, all -- of the "camp" accoutrements with which the character had been saddled for so long were finally hacksawed, for good and for all); the later, definitive interpretations of Dennis O'Neil and Neal Adams (wrenching the character, with authorial and editorial finality, back to his "grim Gotham gargoyle" roots, from which he never should have far strayed to begin with); and right up to the present day, where "Bat"-writer supremo deluxe Chuck Dixon keeps the franchise on a sure and steady keel (currently best displayed, monthly, in the pages of the venerable DETECTIVE COMICS... as well as ROBIN, NIGHTWING, and various other offerings in the "Bat"- universe)
... he got much, much better.
Bad luck, of course, for Gotham City's various (and seemingly inexhaustible supply of) resident super-baddies.
Great good luck, however, for we readers and devotees.
The Silver Age BATMAN
PAGE ONE
PAGE TWO
PAGE THREE
"MORE COMIC BOOKS," YOU SAY...?
The DC Comics Sub-Directory
The Marvel Comics Sub-Directory
The Miscellaneous Comics Sub-Directory
The "Gotta Find That DC Character" Menu
The "Gotta Find That Marvel/Miscellaneous
Character" Menu