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Post by DubipR on Sept 25, 2014 8:06:21 GMT -5
A little Thursday Batusi...
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Post by Hoosier X on Sept 27, 2014 19:02:12 GMT -5
I've read so much Batman in the last ten days or so that I decided go through and review some of them, make a few comments, see what other people think, etc.
Here's what you'll see over the next few days:
From the 1940s: "Rackety-Rax Racket," from Batman #32 (1945), though I saw it reprinted in Batman #257. Great Joker story.
I didn't read any stories from the 1950s, but I currently have Batman in the Sixties checked out from the library, and the early 1960s look an awful lot like the late 1950s when it comes to Batman. So I'll be looking at the one where Bat-Girl met Bat-Mite. Or maybe the first appearance of the second Clayface. There's also some very nice appearances by old favorites like the Joker and the Penguin. (I should add that I love the comics from this much-maligned era.)
From the 1960s: The same volume has mostly "New Look" stories. So I'll be talking about (probably) the first Poison Ivy story, which I love for a bunch of reasons, but I've never said too much about it because it's a favorite story of a lot of people and so a lot of people have already written it and I actually never read until fairly recently.
From the 1970s: "Hail Emperor Penguin!" from Batman #257.
From the 1980s: The Dark Knight Returns. I read it when it first came out, and I read it again in the 1990s. But I've never had my own copy. I thought it was way past time to give it another look, so I got it from the library and I'm reading 20 pages every night. I'm enjoying it immensely, but every so often, I come across one of those sections that reminds me why I think it's a little over-rated.
More recent: Batman and Son, trade paperback. Once again, I'm reading a Grant Morrison Batman comic that doesn't live up to the hype. Yeah, it's better than Final Crisis or Batman R.I.P. But that's nothing to brag about.
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Post by Hoosier X on Sept 27, 2014 19:47:14 GMT -5
"Rackety-Rax Racket!"
Batman #32, December-January 1945-1946
Writer: Don Cameron
Artist: Dick Sprang
Jeez Louise, I love this story! It's one of the first Golden Age Batman stories I ever saw. It's reprinted in Batman #257 (from August 1974), which is one of my favorite comic books. It's a giant-size issue, 100 PAGES FOR ONLY 60 CENTS! I got it in the mid-1970s at a used-book store that had a small room in the back lined with magazine racks, and the racks were stuffed with comics. They were priced at two for 25 cents (but Batman #257 cost a full quarter because it was giant-size).
"Rackety-Rax Racket!" is a gloriously insane Joker story wherein the Harlequin of Hate is looking for a new angle for his next set of crimes when he spies some college boys doing weird and humiliating things in public because they are trying to get accepted into a fraternity. (Hilarious stuff, like pulling a toy gun on a policeman and shooting a plastic snake into his face. Ha ha! The cop says "You an' your crazy college initiations!")
Various crazy things happen for a few pages, until Batman is captured during one of the Joker's "college initiation" crimes. The Joker forces Robin to do crazy, humiliating things in public. If he refuses, Joker will kill Batman!
It's stuff like telling Robin to be a shoeshine boy at a particular corner. It just happens to be the corner where representatives from the diamond exchange hang out. Later, at night, the diamond merchants' shoes glow in the dark from some luminescent ingredient in the shoe polish, and the Joker's gang follow them and beat them up and steal their diamonds!
The best one is where Robin has to go to the department store, walk up to the counter in the toy section and ask for a doll! Then he has to pay for it with pennies!
Salesgirl: Why, Robin - Is this a joke? Nearby children: Tee-hee! Robin: I -ulp - just love d-dolls!
Several boys (playing with toy guns and airplanes) taunt Robin, calling him a sissy and a mama's boy.
Mean boy: He's goin' home ta knit 'ittie booties for da baby! Ha ha!
Well, the pennies have been chemically treated to explode and cause a fire, to which the Joker and his gang respond dressed as firemen. You see, the jewelry department is directly above the toy section and the Joker's gang takes advantage of the confusion to steal the jewelry counter!
Well, Robin shows up. He suspected the Joker was up to something, so he didn't go very far. And who else shows, riding a bicycle and tearing through the thugs masquerading as firemen? It's Batman! He escaped from the Joker's lame (as usual) security and quickly puts and end to the Joker's shenanigans.
I love this story! Actually, Batman #257 is wall-to-wall great Batman stories, and I think it may have been one of the contributing factors to why I love old Batman stories so much. And "Rackety-Rax Racket!" is the best of the bunch, insane, energetic, non-stop chaos. Yet, I never hear anybody talk about this story. Other Golden Age Joker stories get mentioned now and again, like "The Joker's Utility Belt" or "The Joker's Millions" or - especially - "The Man Behind the Red Hood," but not "Rackety-Rax Racket."
Has anybody else at CCF ever read this?
According to the Batman Encyclopedia, this story was the last time that Batman girlfriend Linda Page was mentioned. Linda Page is no Vicki Vale, but she was a big deal for a time. Early in the story, Bruce mentions to Dick that he's going to buy Linda a present, but then her name is never spoken again!  |
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Post by chadwilliam on Sept 27, 2014 22:27:42 GMT -5
"Rackety-Rax Racket!"
Batman #32, December-January 1945-1946
Writer: Don Cameron
Artist: Dick Sprang
Jeez Louise, I love this story! It's one of the first Golden Age Batman stories I ever saw. It's reprinted in Batman #257 (from August 1974), which is one of my favorite comic books. It's a giant-size issue, 100 PAGES FOR ONLY 60 CENTS! I got it in the mid-1970s at a used-book store that had a small room in the back lined with magazine racks, and the racks were stuffed with comics. They were priced at two for 25 cents (but Batman #257 cost a full quarter because it was giant-size).
"Rackety-Rax Racket!" is a gloriously insane Joker story wherein the Harlequin of Hate is looking for a new angle for his next set of crimes when he spies some college boys doing weird and humiliating things in public because they are trying to get accepted into a fraternity. (Hilarious stuff, like pulling a toy gun on a policeman and shooting a plastic snake into his face. Ha ha! The cop says "You an' your crazy college initiations!")
Various crazy things happen for a few pages, until Batman is captured during one of the Joker's "college initiation" crimes. The Joker forces Robin to do crazy, humiliating things in public. If he refuses, Joker will kill Batman!
It's stuff like telling Robin to be a shoeshine boy at a particular corner. It just happens to be the corner where representatives from the diamond exchange hang out. Later, at night, the diamond merchants' shoes glow in the dark from some luminescent ingredient in the shoe polish, and the Joker's gang follow them and beat them up and steal their diamonds!
The best one is where Robin has to go to the department store, walk up to the counter in the toy section and ask for a doll! Then he has to pay for it with pennies!
Salesgirl: Why, Robin - Is this a joke? Nearby children: Tee-hee! Robin: I -ulp - just love d-dolls!
Several boys (playing with toy guns and airplanes) taunt Robin, calling him a sissy and a mama's boy.
Mean boy: He's goin' home ta knit 'ittie booties for da baby! Ha ha!
Well, the pennies have been chemically treated to explode and cause a fire, to which the Joker and his gang respond dressed as firemen. You see, the jewelry department is directly above the toy section and the Joker's gang takes advantage of the confusion to steal the jewelry counter!
Well, Robin shows up. He suspected the Joker was up to something, so he didn't go very far. And who else shows, riding a bicycle and tearing through the thugs masquerading as firemen? It's Batman! He escaped from the Joker's lame (as usual) security and quickly puts and end to the Joker's shenanigans.
I love this story! Actually, Batman #257 is wall-to-wall great Batman stories, and I think it may have been one of the contributing factors to why I love old Batman stories so much. And "Rackety-Rax Racket!" is the best of the bunch, insane, energetic, non-stop chaos. Yet, I never hear anybody talk about this story. Other Golden Age Joker stories get mentioned now and again, like "The Joker's Utility Belt" or "The Joker's Millions" or - especially - "The Man Behind the Red Hood," but not "Rackety-Rax Racket."
Has anybody else at CCF ever read this? Are you kidding?? I LOVE this story - which yes, is underrated enough that I had to discover it in the same issue as you as its never been otherwise reprinted. If it's any consolation, Mark Waid cites Rackety Rax Racket as a story which only "narrowly missed inclusion" in Stacked Deck: The Greatest Joker Stories Ever Told, so it certainly has its fans. I love the Joker's mentality here - his need for instant gratification to the point of changing his plans on a dime; his insistance that Batman and Robin not only serve as witnesses to his criminal masterpieces but partake as active participants as well; his need to goad Batman and Robin whenever he can as if he feels that they're not contributing as much as they can to an already great story - this is the Joker simply basking in the exuberance of being the Joker. It's that goading to force Batman and Robin into bringing their own game up a few notches that really makes you know you're in for a treat when reading a well written Joker tale - he's embarrassed you for most of an issue, time for you to do the same. You just know for instance, that it's not going to be a simple lecture and punch in the jaw when you get your comeupance, you're going to get everything you threw at Batman thrown right back at you. Somehow, I don't think the Joker would have it any other way and it's why we love him so much. |
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Post by Hoosier X on Sept 27, 2014 23:17:34 GMT -5
So happy to find another fan of "Rackety Rax Racket!"
I looked at the Comic Book Database to find out who wrote it, and it says there that Batman #32 was finally reprinted, in Volume Eight of The Dark Knight Archives. But that's a heck of a lot more than the two bits I dropped on it in 1976!
Another one I love is "The Joker's Journal!" in Detective Comics #193, which I read online. The Joker starts an underworld newspaper! That was reprinted in the 1960s in a very rare black and white paperback and has not been reprinted since. Boooooooooooo! (I can probably find the link if anybody wants to read it.)
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Post by JKCarrier on Sept 28, 2014 10:50:37 GMT -5
I love this story! Actually, Batman #257 is wall-to-wall great Batman stories, and I think it may have been one of the contributing factors to why I love old Batman stories so much. And "Rackety-Rax Racket!" is the best of the bunch, insane, energetic, non-stop chaos.
Agreed on all counts! I love how eclectic those old 100-pagers were...you'd have these wildly diverse art styles (Novick, Sprang, Infantino, Adams, Moldoff, et. al.), it was like a mini history of comics under one cover. Being steeped in all that stuff at an impressionable age helped me appreciate different kinds of art, I think. And yes, "Rackety-Rax" is a classic -- one of the best of that sub-genre of "The Joker does seemingly crazy random stuff, but it's actually part of a clever plan" stories. |
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Post by Hoosier X on Sept 28, 2014 12:29:40 GMT -5
I'm nominating this little ditty to be the official cheer for the Batman Appreciation Thread:
Rackety-Rax!
Give 'em da ax!
Collitch has loined us ta grab dough in stacks!
Joker! Joker!
Rah-Rah-Rah! !! !!! |
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Post by Hoosier X on Sept 28, 2014 14:12:15 GMT -5
"Bat-Mite Meets Bat-Girl"
Batman #144, December 1961 Writer: Bill Finger Artists: Sheldon Moldoff and Charles Paris
I don't know what it is about Batman comics from 1957 to 1963 that makes me love them so. Maybe it's the mind-boggling variety of science fiction, crime narrative, secret-identity drama, bizarre transformations, random magic and genre confusion that runs through the whole period.
Maybe it's the awkward charm of Sheldon Moldoff's art as he ghosts for Bob Kane and fills the pages with characters who look like they were made from small pieces of wood tied together at the joints with string, fitted with spray-painted doll clothes, then thrown to the floor and drawn in whichever pose they ended up in.
Whatever it is, I sometimes think this is my favorite era of Batman, though that may change if I ever get the chance to read more than a small percentage of these stores.
I think the real secret success for this era is the supporting cast - Batwoman, Bat-Mite and Bat-Girl - and how they were carefully used, appearing as occasional guest stars thus breaking up the monotony of decades of "Batman and Robin beat up eccentric gangster" while also enriching the Bat-mythos with a mix of romance, humor and insanity.
I call it "The First Batman Family."
I recently read "Bat-Mite Meets Bat-Girl" in Batman in the Sixties and I really enjoyed it. These two characters, in particular, crack me up. If there's a bad Bat-Mite story or a bad Bat-Girl story, I've never seen them. (Part of the reason for this is that neither character lasted long enough to be done to death. They served their purpose, and the writers moved on. Even when they were in the series, they weren't used too much. Bat-Girl only appeared six times in her three-year heyday.)
Bat-Mite is an extra-dimensional imp with a man-crush on Batman. He likes to show up every once in a while and "help" Batman in his fight against crime, but he always makes things worse. He's like the Bizarro Mr. Mxyzptlk. Mxyzptlk wants to harass Superman and he's very efficient; Bat-Mite wants to help and he's very bad at it.
Bat-Girl is Betty Kane, the teenage niece of Batwoman. She shows up on weekends and Christmas holidays, visiting her aunt and then putting on a red and black costume and fighting crime. Instead of a utility belt, she has a crime-compact that she stocks with feminine-related items that she uses to fight crime. (Batwoman, her aunt, has a purse that serves the same function.) Bat-Girl has quite a crush on Robin, and almost every Bat-Girl appearance seems to revolve around Bat-Girl thinking to herself about how cute Robin is at the same time that Robin is ignoring her and looking for clues and strategizing the next fight with the Joker or the Condor Gang.
Bat-Girl is hilarious!
In "Bat-Mite Meets Bat-Girl," Batman and Batwoman are called away for a high-level meeting in Washington (or something), so the kids are left to themselves to keep an eye on crime in Gotham City. By the third panel, Bat-Girl is lunging at Robin and kissing his cheek as she says:
>Sigh< Working with you is what I've always dreamed of! Oh, Robin -- I think you're just adorable!
Well, Robin isn't having ANY of this and he SHUTS IT DOWN as soon as possible.
Well, as poor Bat-Girl is pining away in Batwoman's underground lair, Bat-Mite shows up, eager to help, eager to play Cupid.
It writes itself from here. The next few pages are HILAROUS! These two are not a great crime-fighting team, but as a comedy duo, they beat the heck out of Blue Beetle and Booster Gold. Unfortunately, this is the only time Bat-Mite and Bat-Girl appeared together, and the Silver Age was deprived of a number of great stories when these two weren't allowed to put their heads together for more shenanigans.
Well, the first thing Bat-Mite wants to do is make Robin respect Bat-Girl's fighting ability (which, from what I've seen, is already pretty impressive or she probably wouldn't be running around helping her aunt fight crime), so Bat-Mite helps her take out some thugs at a playground equipment company. Robin is impressed, but he doesn't say anything because he thinks it will encourage her to be even more reckless.
The next step is to make Robin jealous. So they go to a circus and a tiger gets loose! (There's a great panel where Bat-Mite is riding the tiger, but he's invisible, though you can see the dotted lines used to signify invisibility.) Bat-Girl calms the tiger with some perfume in her crime-compact and mobilizes him with a net and SAVES THE DAY. Movie idol Chip Danton, who was making a special appearance at the circus, kisses Bat-Girl out of gratitude.
This prompts a "hmphhh!" from Robin. Maybe Bat-Mite's plan is working!
Well, next up in Bat-Mite's plan is a little scheme to make Robin worried about Bat-Girl's safety. Bat-Girl is supposed to be abducted by some magic toys enlarged and animated by Bat-Mite's magic, and Robin will see this and be worried about her. But Bat-Girl is a little early to the rendezvous site, and she is abducted by real gangsters! Oops!
Bat-Mite shows up soon after and thinks Bat-Girl is late:
Isn't that just like a woman -- to be late for an appointment!
(Oh, dear. Bat-Mite, I am so disappointed.)
Robin shows up and finds a bottle of luminous ink that Bat-Girl had in her crime-compact. Bat-Mite reveals himself to Robin, confesses the plot to Robin (who is getting used to Bat-Mite's nonsense and doesn't look at all surprised) and they leap into action to rescue Bat-Girl! (And you should see it! Bat-Mite enlarges a nearby sea gull and they both take a seat as it rises into the sky!)
Well, Bat-Girl is quickly saved. She kisses Robin, who blushes, and Bat-Mite goes back to his home dimension, to the relief of everyone.
As much as I love Barbara Gordon and Stephanie Brown, there will always be a place in my soul where Betty Kane is the best Bat-Girl.
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Post by Hoosier X on Sept 29, 2014 15:42:33 GMT -5
Two more from Batman in the Sixties:
"The Challenge of Clayface" Detective Comics #298, December 1961 Writer: Bill Finger Artists: Sheldon Moldoff, Charles Paris
One of the things I like about the 1957 to 1964 era of Batman is the fact that two of the villains - Clayface (Matt Hagen) and Catman - belong to this time period almost exclusively. They first appeared in either 1961 or 1963, they enjoyed interesting story arcs, they interacted with the cast beyond Batman and Robin and then they disappeared from comics for many years. Both eventually came back and Catman especially has enjoyed some very good portrayals, particularly in The Secret Six. But their early 1960s adventures are complete adventure for both of them, and I like the unity of the 1957 to 1963 period, a unity that is enriched by the story arcs of Clayface and Catman.
Catman appeared three times in Detective Comics in 1962 and 1963. He's a bored big-game hunter/playboy who is inspired by Batman to put on a suit and roam about the city. But he doesn't fight crime, because Batman is already doing that. He decides to challenge Batman with a series of cat-based crimes! (And he has a giant cat robot!) He has a magic cat-suit that gives him nine lives! He carries on a dangerous flirtation with Batwoman! And he dies at the end of every episode! (I've only read the second story, the one in Detective Comics #318, because I'm lucky enough to own a copy of the original comics. I don't think any of Catman's 1960s appearances have ever been reprinted. THIS IS A CRIME!) He didn't return until the late 1970s when he showed up in The Freedom Fighters series.
"The Challenge of Clayface" is the first appearance of Matt Hagen, who was skin-diving and looking for sunken treasure when he stumbled on a magic grotto that gave him shape-changing powers! He uses his new abilities to terrorize Gotham City with a one-man crime spree, and he turns into a giant python, a giant hawk, a buzzsaw, a unicorn-lion-dinosaur and whatever else he can think of in his battles with Batman and Robin.
This is a little more challenging than the usual eccentric gangster that Batman faces. And Batman doesn't really beat Clayface in his appearance! Hagen is kind of new to the whole super-villain thing, and he isn't really sure what the time limit is on his powers! Batman and Robin corner him when he hasn't been to the secret grotto for 48 hours, and his powers run out! They basically beat him by shutting the door so he can't leave to restore himself!
He would show up a few more times in the early 1960s, usually with a new trick of some kind. One of my favorite stories from this era is "The Great Clayface-Joker Feud" from Batman #159, which is "great" not just for the clash between two great Batman foes, but also for guest-starring Batwoman and Bat-Girl!
Clayface appeared twice in World's Finest in 1964 but he has only made a few inconsequential appearances since. The current Clayface has Matt Hagen's powers, but he is called Basil Karlo (after the 1940s Clayface) and he doesn't have a time limit to keep on eye on before his powers disappear.
"Beware of -- Poison Ivy!" Batman #181, June 1966
Writer: Bob Kanigher
Artists: Sheldon Moldoff, Joe Giella
This is a great story, and I can't believe I had never read it before last year. I knew the plot because there was an article about this issue in the fanzine "Comic Effect!" but I didn't read the actual story until I got the right "Showcase Presents: Batman" volume from the library. And I didn't read it in color until last week when I got Batman in the Sixties from the library!
This comic book is kind of crowded! In addition to Batman, Robin and Poison Ivy, there are three female villains - designated as World Public Enemy Nos. 1, 2 and 3 at a "pop" art exhibit at the Gotham City Museum - Dragon Fly, Silken Spider and Tiger Moth. (None of these three characters had ever been mentioned in the comics before.)
Poison Ivy shows up at the exhibit and brags that she's the most dangerous of all, but she's so good at what she does that no one knows that she's behind any of her exploits! But now she craves attention and she challenges the three female super-villains to fight her for supremacy and she dares Batman to stop her!
She takes care of her female rivals with an electrified crown IN ONE PANEL!!! Then she distracts Batman with her feminine wiles and she almost chloroforms him. But Robin, taking a breather from whomping some of Poison Ivy's thugs, warns him about what's important.
And it's not pretty redheads with exposed shoulders!
Pretty soon, Ivy is in jail and vowing that she will be free soon.
I love Dragon Fly, Silken Spider and Tiger Moth! Such great character design! But they had almost no chance to do anything and they were tricked pretty easily by Poison Ivy. No wonder she's always been so confident!
One of the stories I'd most like to see is a mini-series about Dragon Fly, Silken Spider and Tiger Moth. Their early exploits, run-ins with Batman and Robin, guest stars like Batgirl, Black Canary or Catwoman. And the big finale - revenge on Poison Ivy!
These ladies need to be unleashed and pointed at the DCU. I want to see what they are capable of.
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Post by gothos on Sept 29, 2014 16:07:56 GMT -5
The three buggy ladies did make a comeback in a Grant Morrison continuity involving Damian Wayne-- I can't recall the name of the storyline. Unfortunately, all they did was to have a very short, unimpressive fight with Nightwing, and they didn't wear those smoking-hot costumes Moldoff designed for them; they just wore generic spandex. Morrison has scored more often than not for me in his revivals of Silver Age characters, but this was a "not."
In BATMAN #181 Dick Grayson is chided by Bruce for "drooling" over pictures of the femme felons; pictures on display in a Gotham museum like a misconceived cross between wanted posters and "pop art." Then, in a nice reversal, author Kanigher puts Batman in the position of being ruled by his hormones re: Ivy, and Robin has to be "the adult" who sets him straight.
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Post by Hoosier X on Sept 29, 2014 17:39:40 GMT -5
The three buggy ladies did make a comeback in a Grant Morrison continuity involving Damian Wayne-- I can't recall the name of the storyline. Unfortunately, all they did was to have a very short, unimpressive fight with Nightwing, and they didn't wear those smoking-hot costumes Moldoff designed for them; they just wore generic spandex. Morrison has scored more often than not for me in his revivals of Silver Age characters, but this was a "not." Grant Morrison has written some very disappointing character revivals. For most of his Batman material, I try hard to like it because there's usually a good idea buried in there somewhere, but by the time I'm done, I'm either not interested or I'm rolling my eyes or I'm wishing Grant Morrison had never heard of the Silver Age.
He needs somebody to tell his ideas to, somebody who can say "'All-Star Superman' sounds great, but your 'Batman RIP' idea needs work. There's too many characters and some of the interesting ones from the early 1960s won't be nearly as interesting if they only get two or three panels. So let's narrow this down a little."
I would like to have told him, "If you're determined to compare Stan Lee to Mussolini, I hope you have some sort of explanation you could put in here. As it is, this makes no sense. I think you should edit this out, not because of 'political correctness,' but because it makes you look like an idiot" when he was writing Supergods.
If anybody had the clout to make something interesting out of Dragon Fly, Silken Spider and Tiger Moth, it was Grant Morrison. But he squandered it in favor of "Final Crisis" or some other navel-gazing gibberish.
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Crimebuster
CCF Podcast Guru
Making comics!
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Post by Crimebuster on Sept 29, 2014 21:56:13 GMT -5
I just got back from my trip to Peru, and one thing that struck me was that the people of Peru seem to really dig Batman. Here's a picture of a tuk-tuk in Ollantaytambo:  There were several others like this. And in Cusco, I saw a collectivo - which is a mini-van that acts as an unofficial bus for locals - that had the word "BATMAN" painted across the front, along with Batman logos on the doors. Who knew? |
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Post by Hoosier X on Sept 29, 2014 21:59:52 GMT -5
I just got back from my trip to Peru, and one thing that struck me was that the people of Peru seem to really dig Batman. Here's a picture of a tuk-tuk in Ollantaytambo: There were several others like this. And in Cusco, I saw a collectivo - which is a mini-van that acts as an unofficial bus for locals - that had the word "BATMAN" painted across the front, along with Batman logos on the doors. Who knew? That is awesome! |
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Post by Hoosier X on Sept 29, 2014 23:54:33 GMT -5
"Hail Emperor Penguin!"
Batman #257, July-August 1974
Writer: Denny O'Neil
Artists: Irv Novick, Dick Giordano
This is goofy as heck, but I love it!
We start at Hudson U., where Dick Grayson is greeting the king of Swawak, a real-sounding but fictional country that I'm guessing is in the vicinity of Brunei. His Highness is only 12, and he's a little punk who wants to see where "the cats and chicks hang out." Fortunately, he is kidnapped by page 2 and Dick changes into Robin and nabs one of the thugs, who provides enough clues that Robin and Batman quickly deduce that the perpetrator is ... the Penguin!
And so they go to Swawak to rescue the king, whose name is Peeble IV. The Penguin is holding him hostage in his own castle! And guess who's among the servants? It's Talia!
(This is the first time I ever saw Talia, and Ra's al Ghul's name is mentioned, so it's the first time I ever heard of him. She had been planning to steal from the king's treasury to get her father out of jail and start rebuilding his criminal empire. I wouldn't actually see Ra's al Ghul in a story until the "Where Were You the Night Batman Was Killed?" storyline, where Ra's was the "judge.")
Well, silly super-hero hijinks ensue. The Penguin has a pet emperor penguin that puts Batman and robin to sleep because his beak has some kind of drug on it. Batman, Robin and Talia are tied up and suspended from a cliff where they will be executed by eagles. The Penguin waddles into the concluding battle wielding an umbrella with a sword sticking out the top.
You know. The usual.
You know what I love about the Penguin? His durability! The Penguin was exactly the same for over 50 years! From his first appearance in the early 1940s to an eventual makeover in the 1990s (when he was finally remodeled a little bit into a crooked nightclub owner), the Penguin was the same character. During that time, everybody else changed. The Joker went from being an eccentric gangster to being a psychotic thrill killer. The Batman went from a murdering vigilante to a big boy scout to the Dark Knight Detective. Catwoman started as a jewel thief, became a Gotham crime lord, reformed as an ally of Batman and turned crooked again - but not too crooked.
But not the Penguin. Even the changes inherent in the transformation to another medium didn't bother him when the Batman TV show came around. Burgess Meredith was as much like his comic book counterpart as it is possible to be.
I guess it was time for a change by the late 1990s. But there were great Penguin stories under the old paradigm as late as the Norm Breyfogle era. Maybe they were a little premature? |
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Post by Hoosier X on Oct 1, 2014 0:30:17 GMT -5
The Dark Knight Returns
by Frank Miller
I read this when it first came out, issue by issue, and I have a confession to make. Even back then I thought it was over-rated.
Oh, yeah, it's a fun read with great art and a lot of the material is praiseworthy. The layouts are innovative, and I love the characterization of the Joker, and there's very nice little story arcs for Gordon, Alfred and Harvey. (I'm not too keen on the way Superman is portrayed, but I just shrug my shoulders and treat it like an Elseworlds story.) And Oliver's guest shot is pretty cool.
The best thing about TDKR is Carrie Kelly. I've never owned a copy of TDKR, but if I were ever to buy my own copy, it would be for Carrie Kelly. The main reason I checked it out of the library recently was because I read The Dark Knight Strikes Again a few months ago and it reminded how much I like Carrie Kelly and how long it's been since I read TDKR (I borrowed the trade paperback from a friend in the 1990s for a second perusal and haven't read it since), and I thought it was time to read TDKR again.
Carry Kelly has several things going for her that cause her to stand out in TDKR. Number one is character design. And she always looks GREAT! I think you could do a version of TDKR with only the panels with Carrie Kelly and it would be an awesome comic.
The other big plus for Carrie Kelly is how under-written she is! While Miller is filling the air with words! Words! WORDS! for most other characters, Carrie just kind of glides across the pages and does her thing without much in the way of word balloons or thought bubbles or even narrative boxes of Batman talking about her. Her motives are something we can guess at, but that's the beauty of it. We have to guess!
She's a bit of an enigma.
Now let me say a few words about the biggest weakness in TDKR.
I took about ten days to read about it this time. When I started reading it, I found myself skimming some of the "media commentary" pages, where Miller has twenty or more panels of tiny heads and lots of words. I realize that Miller is satirizing the media, but I find it to be a bit much. I stopped skimming these pages. I decided to read only 15 to 20 pages a day, and to very carefully read every word. I don't think I've ever done that. Every time previously that I read TDKR, I skimmed a lot. But not this time. I wanted to give all this prose a chance.
Frank Miller is not really anywhere near good enough as a commentator on the media to fill the pages like this. I realize that he is attempting some broad social satire, and I think that if there were a lot fewer pages like this, it would work. But his media personalities are caricatures and stereotypes, and they get tiresome when they just go on and on like this.
It was handled so much better in Alan Moore's Watchmen. Douglas Roth is a bit of a smarmy liberal journalist, but his scenes never goes on and on like some of the scenes in TDKR. The media scenes in Watchmen are shorter and a lot more realistic.
My least favorite is the Joker's psychiatrist. He's some kind of liberal bleeding-heart stereotype and he's made to look ridiculous and pathetic and blinded by his liberal philosophy, so that he ignores the true evil of the Joker and puts the blame on Batman. I realize that this is an exaggerated character, just like some of the other exaggerated characters, like the Reagan stereotype and the Dr. Westheimer caricature, but Miller just hits us over the head with this guy!
That's my biggest gripe, and Miller relies so much on his social commentary that I find it to be a major weakness in TDKR. (Another gripe I have is Selina Kyle's portrayal as a fat, pathetic owner of an escort service. I really don't know why Miller even uses Catwoman if he dislikes the character so much. To Miller, she can only be a hooker or a hag. He can do what he wants, I guess, but it shows such a lack of imagination when it comes to utilizing a great character like Selina.)
I still like TDKR a lot. (And I seem to be one of the few who enjoyed The Dark Knight Strikes Again. I'm thinking of getting it out of the library again now that I've just finished TDKR.) I may keep TDKR for a few days and read it again, but this time I'll skip the "talking media head" pages and I betcha it will look a lot better. |
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