King Carter (Early Golden Age)

There is not a lot to say about the remainder of King Carter’s series, which only runs four more stories.  The art is dreadful, and the writing no better.  It seem King and his boytoy, er, sidekick, Red work as newsreel cameramen.  Not that we ever see them take newsreel footage of anything, but they complain a lot about losing their cameras.

In their final story, Red refers to King quitting his job as a newsreel cameraman.  I suspect King lied to the boy, and he got fired for losing all his cameras.  But King can still afford to take Red to Africa on vacation, where King kills a very goofy looking python, and battles pirates who have kidnapped an American girl.  Red is the big hero in this last story, discovering that apes will follow him as their leader.

I was pleased that this last story avoided the racism prevalent in the series.  In More Fun 51 King refers to south sea islanders as “dizzy” for having their own religion.

With no job to go back to, I believe King and Red stay in Africa, where King starts making movies of Red and his ape “brothers”.  What kind of movies?  Disney or triple x?  I leave that up to you.

 

 

King Carter:  More Fun Comics 51-54  (Jan – Apr 1940)

Blue Beetle (Early Golden Age)

As I started to read the Blue Beetle stories from this period, I marvelled at the huge differences between the original character and the current one, but as I got to the tales from 42-44, I began to think lack of consistency may be the hallmark of the character.

Blue Beetle 1 gives an origin for the character.  We learn that Dan Garret was born December 6, 1916 (so very rare to have a specific birthdate for a superhero), to a poor family.  His mother died in a flu epidemic.  Dan earned a scholarship to university, and excelled there both in academics and athletics.  His father, a policeman, was killed in the line of duty shortly before Dan graduated, which lead him to join the force, hoping to catch his father’s killer.  We also learn that Mannigan was his father’s partner before becoming Dan’s.  There is no clear reason why Dan adopts the Blue Beetle guise.

The costume is inconsistently portrayed throughout the run.  Sometimes he has blue gloves and a blue belt, sometimes white, sometimes yellow.  The belt buckle has a symbol of a beetle on it, or a “BB”, or nothing at all.  There is a blue beetle on his cowl, just above his forehead, or a yellow one, or none at all.  The costume is sometimes textured, sometimes smooth.  Dan wears it under his police uniform, or he reverses his uniform to become the costume.

It is described a few times as armour, called “chain mail” in Blue Beetle 26, and in Blue Beetle 29 it is further stated that it was built out of a 400 year old suit of armour, and that on occasion it can emit death rays, though that never happens.

In Blue Beetle 3, with no set-up, we discover that Dan has been taking a Vitamin 2X potion made by Professor Franz.  Professor Franz is later shown working at a drugstore, which seems odd for a professor.  This potion does not give Dan actual powers – we never see Beetle lifting cars or jumping over buildings – but does seem to increase his endurance and stamina.  Still, when the expanded costume information is given in issue 29, and Beetle’s powers and abilities detailed, the Vitamin 2X potion, which had figured in so many early tales, is not mentioned at all.

In Mystery Men 10, a very early Jack Kirby story, Dan devises a flashlight that shines a beetle symbol on a wall.  Though we never again see this flashlight, the beetle symbol continues to appear throughout the run.  At first, always on walls, and when Dan is in a position to be shining the light on it, but eventually the beetle can be very small, and apparently floating between bad guys, and often appears in locations where Dan could not possibly be shining a light, but with no other explanation.

For the first two years, this series plods along.  I wondered how it became so successful that Blue Beetle got not only his own series spun out of his strip in Mystery Men, but also the lead spot in the Big 3 anthology.  I began to think that perhaps this series appealed to readers who dared to dream small.  Unlike the multi-powered Superman or multi-weaponed Batman, Blue Beetle’s stories are all fairly close to reality.  As a policeman on the beat, he learns about crimes, and then dons the costume to deal with the bad guys.  He faces killers and counterfeiters, smugglers and kidnappers, but no world conquerors or crazed madmen at this time.

Blue Beetle 17 introduces Joan Mason, a reporter for the Bulletin newspaper, who becomes his close friend, possibly girlfriend, although Blue Beetle 30 would have the only appearance of a woman named Tina, identified as Dan’s girlfriend.  Perhaps he is cheating on Joan.  I know I would have gotten tired of her yelling “Blue Beetle!  Look out!” in every story.  Issue 22 informs us that Joan works for a paper called The Clarion, but adds that it is the leading newspaper in the city, so I like to think she moved up in the world, rather than view this as a continuity error.

The villains begin to get more dramatic come 1942, Leo Sugar invents a drug that makes people combust into flames in Blue Beetle 10, Willie the Weasel finds a bottle with a giant blue genie that he sends to destroy the city in Blue Beetle 21. The Countess Belladonna makes two appearances, in Mystery Men 28 and 29, first as a thief, and then seeking to kill Beetle in revenge, while disguised as a man.  The Condor tries to sabotage the fleet, and then smuggles guns to foreign agents, in his two appearances, in Big 3 issues 5 and 6.

A text page in Blue Beetle 14, September 42, introduces Sparkington J. Northrup, an American orphan adopted by a British lord, who appears in the following issue, unmasking Blue Beetle, and then becoming his sidekick, Sparky.  As Sparky, he wears a matching costume, though with shorts and his blond hair flowing free.  Sparky spends his days hanging at the police station with Dan, and is always called Sparky, in costume or not, but somehow this does not help either Mannigan or Joan figure out Dan is the Blue Beetle.

As if Sparky was not a bad enough addition to the strip, an amateur magician whose tricks cause chaos in introduced in issue 16, Dascomb Dinsmore.  The story ends asking the readers to write in if they want to see more of him.  Not only did Dascomb never return, but Sparky vanished after another issue as well.  Maybe Dascomb’s magic made them both disappear.

With Blue Beetle 22 we learn that Dan has been walking his beat in Centre City, though in the next issue its Central City.  No matter, by issue 29 its New York City.  As well, in 22, he resigns from the force and joins Army Intelligence, undergoes training and is sent behind enemy lines as a spy, managing to beat up Hitler and rip his moustache off in his first adventure.

From 22 – 29 there are two Blue Beetle stories in each issue of his comic, and one has him behind enemy lines as a spy while the other has him back in Centre/Central/New York City with Mannigan and Joan, dealing with police matters.  Even though this makes for cringe-worthy continuity, I excuse these as a compromise, and assume that one set of stories are taking place before the other set.

But even that gets stretched in Blue Beetle 31, in which he is no longer a spy, but in one story is back walking a beat, and in the other is an FBI agent stationed in Washington DC.  Dan has also developed (on his own apparently, Professor Franz not having appeared in over a year) a black light device that makes him invisible.  His gloves are now red, matching the shorts he has taken to wearing over his tights.

As bewildering, and tedious, as the series became, I admit I am curious to read his stories in the Late Golden Age, if only see what other changes the character undergoes.

Blue Beetle:  Mystery Men 6 – 31 (Jan 40 – Feb 42)

Blue Beetle 1 – 32  (Winter 40 – July 44)

Big 3  1 – 7  (Fall 40 – Spring 42)

Invisible Justice (Early Golden Age)

The series Invisible Justice, starring Invisible Hood, serves as an excellent example of why heroes whose primary power is invisibility do better as members of teams than as solo characters.  Kent Thurston really needed a sidekick, at the very least.  As it stands, in virtually every story we are introduced to one of his old friends, who winds up in some sort of trouble.  As the Invisible Hood cannot actually be seen by any of the characters (and many times not by the reader either), we are left watching everyone except the hero.

Nor does it help that Thurston never gets any sort of background or characterization.  He has no job, apparently, no recurring friends, romantic interests or family.  The fact that this series consists exclusively of five-page one shot tales is no help, but even still the repetition is almost overwhelming.  In case after case Kent dons his costume, follows or tracks the bad guys without them seeing, and then beats the crap out of them.

In a number of the stories the reader is lead to believe Invisible Hood will be pitted against someone or something else invisible, but this rarely pans out.  The invisible ghosts on the tropical island in Smash 14 are just a legend promoted by enemy spies, based on the toxic fumes emitted from a volcano.  The Ghost Rider is simply the nickname of the racing car in issue 20, and the disappearing planes in issue 28 are just being captured by an enemy blimp.

But I don’t want to make it seem as if there is nothing redeeming about this feature.  The art is decent, and some of the stories are fun.  Invisible Hood pretends to be a ghost in a few of the stories, and in Smash 15 wraps himself in bandages while fighting thieves who pretend a mummy has come to life.  He confronts them as another mummy, and when they unwrap him they see nothing under the bandages, which makes them freak out.

Invisible Hood does get one recurring villain, the White Wizard.  He debuts in Smash 27, enslaving people to work mines in his underground city.  After Hood frees the men and destroys his base, the White Wizard vows revenge, and in issue 30 manages to steal his costume and replicate the invisibility formula, creating a band of invisible raiders.  Invisible Hood manages to retrieve his outfit and kill all the raiders, and the Wizard.

His series ends abruptly with issue 32, but in 80s All-Star Squadron we learn that Invisible Hood was part of the first Freedom Fighters line-up, who perished in the attack on Pearl Harbour.

 

Invisible Hood:  Smash Comics 6 – 32 (Jan 40 – Mar 42)

Clip Carson, American Adventurer (Early Golden Age)

The entire mood and tone of the Clip Carson series changes in 1940, as Bob Kane is replaced by Sheldon Moldoff.  Clip looks more like a romantic action hero, less like a cartoon, and the stories become more realistic as well, at least by the standards of the time.  Moldoff holds the reins for much of 1940, and the artists who replace him are of lesser abilities, though George Papp`s art would carry much of the series final year at a reputable level.

The subtitle “Soldier of Fortune” is used periodically in Action Comics, but in More Fun when there is a subtitle, it tends to be “American Adventurer.”

The story picks up with Wolf Lupo disrupting the ivory trade.  Clip is captured by him and the native tribe he is working with, but uses his harmonica to call the tribe he had befriended last issue, and they rescue him.

The next story takes him to Algiers, and this is when Moldoff takes over the art.  The tale itself is mediocre, many of them would be, but at least it is lovely to look at.  After accompanying another trade caravan from Algiers, Clip sails across to South America, dealing with a very confusingly written onboard theft before reaching shore.  Once there, Clip aids the government forces in Verdania against the rebels.  This story runs from Action 23 – 25, and the most interesting element is that the rebels are being funded by an evil American oil man.  The last panel, which sees rebel leader Calero hung for his crimes, is very darkly coloured, almost in silhouette, likely to decrease the intensity of the visual.

Clip heads to New York City in issue 26, and from there to Canada to help Miss Trent find her missing father.  The man had discovered a mine in “Hudson Bay country,” but been captured by evil metis claim jumper Jacques Frontenac.

From here he heads to Hollywood, where Clip begins work as a consultant on a movie called “Adventure Pictures,” which really sounds like a lame title for a movie.  Nonetheless, everyone seems to think it will be a massive success.  There is a rival film crew that sets up in hidden locales to film the same action, hoping to release their version first, and a foreign film company trying to delay the shooting so they can release theirs first.  Amidst this, actors keep getting murdered on set.  Clip solves no less than four different crimes between issues 27 and 31, when he quits his job to head to Mexico and help out an old friend.

Professor Quint disappeared after finding an Incan temple.  This really would be quite a remarkable find in Mexico.  Clip saves the man, and then is called by another old friend being menaced in Colombia, after discovering a vein of “minelite,” so off Clip heads to Colombia.  Moldoff had left the series by this point, and the art is no longer good enough to carry the weak stories.

And the Colombia story is one of the weakest in the run.  It runs for three issues, and there is no surprise that neighbour Grasso is the one behind the threats – the dead body wearing a mask of Grasso’s face really only serves to make him more of a suspect, and Grasso turns out to be Mr. Z, as well as Mr. X, and even Agent X-11, a foreign spy.

The relative continuity of location ends at this point, and Clip’s further adventures jump from the Panama Canal to the Everglades, Alaska, Montana and Honduras before he heads back to South America, for stories in Buenos Aires and Montevideo.  With the exception of the Alaska story, all are one-shots, as Clip battles rebels and asian spies, rampaging seminoles, bank robbers, kidnappers and gamblers, but none of the stories have much spark to them.  The killer plants in More Fun 68 are the most interesting bit, but they are not particularly well-used in the tale, or even well-drawn.

During the Alaska story in More Fun 70 and 71, Clip works with yet another old friend, Bill Weston, who is identified both as a foreign correspondent, and a spy.  I find this of great significance, given the final Clip Carson adventure.

In More Fun 76 Clip is abruptly in China, almost single-handedly fighting off the Japanese invasion of a city.  He is now a foreign correspondent for an American newspaper.  Given that he has never had any experience reporting, that we have seen, I believe it is safe to say that this is another case where foreign correspondent means spy.

Clip is not seen again, and as his series ends in February of 1942, just after the attack on Pearl Harbour, I think his mission in China may have been less of a success than his last story would imply, and we can count Clip Carson among the Americans who died in China fighting the Japanese.

Clip Carson:  Action Comics 20 – 36 (Jan 40 – May 41)

More Fun Comics 68 – 76  (June 41 – Feb 42)

Socko Strong (Early Golden Age)

Socko Strong finally gets a shot at the heavyweight championship in the first story of 1940, and despite efforts by defending champion Spike Logan to get him out of town during the match, Socko makes it back in time and triumphs.  Though his series runs until December of 1940, he never again enters the ring to defend his title.

We also learn, in that story in Adventure 46, that the newspaper Jerry Indutch works for is the Daily Bulletin, but we never see its offices again.

Hollywood beckons the new champion, and for the next two issues he acts in a boxing movie with Monte Swift, a jealous actor who does not like that the script puts Socko in the more heroic role.  He tries to make Socko look bad, but each failure to do so ups his plans, and eventually Swift is plain out trying to kill him.  Socko outwits him at every step, and enjoys the battle of wits so much that he in content to leave the actor wallowing in a mud pile at the end, not bothering to lay charges for the murder attempts.

Adventure 50 has a story clearly derived from the Clifford Odets play Golden Boy, which was a massive success on Broadway at this time.  A young boy is both a boxer and a violinist, and his father worries boxing will ruin his hands and destroy his music career, calling on Socko to talk the boy out of fighting.  As the boy himself prefers the violin, it’s not that hard.

From issues 52 – 54, Socko deals with a mad scientist, Professor Rosencrantz, who has developed an invisibility serum, and calls himself The Great.  The invisibility does not work with cameras, or with mirrors, which is very odd.  I cannot think of another invisibility story that has used that notion.  The Great plans to blow up a power plant, but Socko and Jerry get jobs as painters, and when The Great tries to plant his bomb, Socko sprays him with paint.  Touching the door painted by Jerry makes the two paints react in such a way as to electrocute The Great.  I guess if invisibility doesn’t work against mirrors, blending paints can cause electrocution.

Adventure 56 sees Sock get hired as a bodyguard for customs inspector Joseph Meek, scared of being attacked by smugglers.  As things pan out, Sock gets captured by the bad guys, and Meek not only saves him, but beats up the smugglers as well.

Socko’s final tale, in Adventure 57, has him chatting with Jerry, relating a tale about how having bad friends can turn a good kid wrong, and the importance of education.

Thinking about what must have happened to Sock after this, I conclude that he next went to defend his title, and lost the match.  That lost him his series.  This is foreshadowed in the story in 56, as Socko is less of a successful fighter than the wimpy customs official.  The final story, and its talk about college, I extrapolate into Socko heading to university after losing his title.

 

Socko Strong:  Adventure Comics 46 – 57 (Jan – Dec 1940)

Bulldog Martin (Early Golden Age)

Bulldog Martin gains no more personality or background than he did in his earlier stories, but to my great surprise, he does gains powers, of a sort.  The series did not run very long, there are only five installments in this era, which is likely why he has been neglected by later writers.  Well, that and the embarrassingly racist portrayal of his sidekick, Jonah.

In More Fun Comics 52 Bulldog receives a package from a recently deceased friend, inventor Professor Livix, which contains pills that render one invisible.  Bulldog takes to carrying these around and popping them whenever he comes across a crime, enabling him to recover the stolen Romanof Ruby, bust up a protection scam and prevent an innocent man from being arrested for the murder of his uncle.

But, distressingly, the first thing he does, in issue 52, is bust up a union meeting.  In this tale, all the union bosses are corrupt, and unions exist only to rob both the worker and employer.  The writer must have been a Republican.

Bulldog invisibly walks out of a house at the end of issue 55, his final story, and is never seen again.  Perhaps taking too many of the pills had that effect.

 

Bulldog Martin: More Fun Comics 51 – 55 (Jan – May 40)

Batman (Early Golden Age)

Batman would acquire most of the trappings we now take for granted during this period.  Not the least is the first use of Gotham City, in Detective 53. The Batcave, Bat-Signal, even the word Batmobile all have their debuts in this era, along with many of the familiar Bat-villains, and, of course “the sensational character find of 1940” – Robin.

Batman would graduate into his own book, the second comic book character to do so, in early 1940, and then gain a spot in World’s Finest Comics in 1941.  Bringing more artists onto the series was a necessity, and two would arguably add as much to the feel of the series as Bob Kane did.  Jerry Robinson gave a more realistic feel to the characters, though perversely was also the one to create the Joker.  Dick Sprang went in the opposite direction, in a way, stylizing things even further, introducing the giant props that would become in a hallmark of the strip in later periods.

Batman’s origin is re-told, virtually just reprinted, in Batman 1, but aside from this never mentioned or referred to again.  His arsenal expands, mostly things that he can carry in his utility belt- an acetylene torch, gas pellets, smoke pellets and such, though he would also use a “Bat-poon” in Batman 23, a rope with two spiked metal spheres on the end.  His car is first called the Batmobile in Detective 48, and takes on its classic appearance a couple of months later in Batman 5, a big dark 1940s roadster with a large wing on the roof and rear, and a bat-mask on the front.  In some stories it would also have two red racing stripes along its sides.  The Bat-Signal debuts in Detective 60, and quickly becomes a standard feature.

The first of  Batman`s special uniforms appears in World`s Finest 7, `The North Pole Crimes,`completely white suits that he and Robin use to blend into the background.

The Batcave was slow to develop.  In Detective 47 we get to see a tunnel that leads from Bruce Wayne`s home to an abandoned barn, which he uses to store his car and plane.  The trophy room is first seen in `Brothers in Crime,`in Batman 12, but in this story it is located in the house itself.  The trophy room has souveniers of cases, but lacks the giant penny and robotic dinosaur that would become so iconic – even though the story the robot dinosaur comes from, `The Isle that Time Forgot`, took place in Batman 10.  In Batman 16 his lab is located in a brick-walled room under the house, and the tunnel to the barn comes from this room.  Only with Detective 83, in 1944, would the phrase Batcave debut, and now it was indeed a cave under the house, which has sections for the lab, gym, trophy room and storage of the Batmobile and Batplane.

Commissioner Gordon appeared infrequently at first, he is barely in any of the stories in 1940, but this was the period when the police were still chasing Batman.  That changed in Batman 7, `The People Vs. Batman,`which sees Gordon give a long speech defending him and explaining why Batman is needed, culminating in appointing him an honourary member of the Gotham police department.  Gordon appears more often after this, though we learn nothing about him, except, apparently, that he is somewhat vain.  In `The Loneliest Man in the World,`in Batman 15, we see that the Commissioner has a giant painting of himself behind his desk.

Bruce`s finacee Julie Madison makes only three more appearances, two in stories that feature the villain Clayface.  Her acting career takes off after filming Death Castle in Detective 40, and in Detective 49 the studio changes her name to Portia Storme, and she heads off to Hollywood, calling off the engagement.  Julie Madison would not return until the Bronze Age.

Robin is introduced in Detective Comics 38, a young boy who performs with his parents John and Mary Grayson as trapeze artists with Halys Circus.  The parents are murdered while doing their act, as the circus owner refused to pay protection money to Boss Zucco.  Bruce takes the boy in, trains him and has him vow to fight crime, and then outfits him with a bright red, green and gold costume and gives him the name Robin, after Robin Hood.  Dick takes to the life eagerly, after taking a photo of Zucco killing one of his own men, sending the mob boss to prison.  Robin`s main weapon in this era is a slingshot, and often he is pitted against much larger foes, lending a David vs Goliath element to his fights.

Robin would get his own series in the Late Golden Age, but even in this period he had a number of stories where he got the lead role.  The first of these is in Detective 41, only three months after he first appears, as he is sent undercover to a boys school that has a counterfeiting ring operating out of it.  He does much the same thing in Batman 5`s `Crime School for Boys.` A mixed-up report card gets him grounded in Batman 18`s `Robin Studies His Lessons,`, and Dick takes on a job to earn money for a birthday present for Bruce in `Dick Grayson, Telegraph Boy,`in Batman 22, but his most important story is Batman 20`s `Bruce Wayne Loses the Guardianship of Dick Grayson.` Dick`s Uncle George, and his wife Aunt Clara, arrive and take Bruce to court for custody of the boy.  They win, but turn out to have no interest in him, and offer to sell him back to Bruce.  Infuriated, Bruce dons his Batman gear to expose the charlatans, and regains custody of Dick at story`s end.

Batman 5 introduces socialite Linda Page, an old friend of Bruce`s who has become a nurse.  They strike up a relationship, even though Linda is more smitten with Batman than with Bruce.  We learn that her family is from Texas, where they own a number of oil wells, in Batman 6`s `The Iron Jungle.`  Linda appears in ten stories between 1941 and 43, but never manages to make much of an impression.  Her final appearance is in a Catwoman story, `Your Face is Your Fortune,`in which she suspects Bruce is more interested in the former criminal than in her.  Bruce is actually playing both women, and gets caught at it.  It seems clear that Linda does not forgive Bruce for his games, as we never see or hear from her again.

You can guess who debuts in Batman 16`s `Here Comes Alfred.` A former actor and wanna-be detective, Alfred Beagle is short, fat and balding, with no real desire to be a butler, but his father served Bruce`s father, and Alfred comes over from England to fulfill his dying father`s last wish of having his son work as a servant.  An odd last request, I tend to think it had more to do with getting Alfred out of blitzkrieg’ed England than of wanting him to be a butler.  Neither Bruce nor Dick is keen to have him around, but Alfred proves his worth, rescuing both of them in his first story, as well as literally stumbling on the entrance to the Batcave.  Alfred never lets them know he discovered their identities by accident, preferring to make them think his detective skills allowed him to deduce it.  Alfred is largely played for comic relief at first, though he does get to track down the bad guys in World’s Finest 12’s “Alfred Gets His Man.”  Detective 83’s “Accidentally on Purpose” sees Alfred head off to a spa, and by the end of the story he has lost all his excess weight, gained about a foot in height, and his balding pattern has changed as well.  The tall, skinny Alfred who saves the day at the end of this story is the one we recognize today.  His importance increases dramatically after this story.  In Detective 86’s “Danger Strikes Three”, he, Batman and Robin each operate solo for part of the story.  All get captured, and work together to escape and capture the criminals, and Alfred is put on equal par with the other two heroes.  He impersonates Batman in “The Duped Domesitcs,” in Batman 22, in an attempt to impress the maid Belinda, not realizing she is really Catwoman.  Bruce is in the story, but allows Alfred to stay in Batman costume, and its Alfred who captures Catwoman and turns her over to the police, after apparently spanking her.

Hugo Strange appears in three more stories in this era.  He has a fog machine and concentrated lightning weapon in Detective 36, creates giant monster men in Batman 1, and develops a fear gas in Detective 46.  The story in Batman 1 is notable for Batman machine-gunning a truckload of monster men from his Batplane, then snagging another around the neck with a noose, strangling him to death as he hangs from the plane.  Hugo Strange appears to die in this last tale, but would return in the Bronze Age

The Joker makes two appearances in Batman 1, murdering people and leaving a huge smile on their faces as he robs their jewelry.  In the second of the stories he gets stabbed, and was meant to die, but the final panel was altered to have him survive.  The editors knew they were onto a good thing.

But perhaps they milked it too much.  In the four years between Batman 1 and the end of this period the Joker appears in 20 different stories.  This means there was a Joker story about every two months.  It is hardly surprising that the quality of these tales would suffer.  In Batman 8’s “The Cross Country Crimes,” the Joker’s murder spree takes him to New Jersey, Ohio, Kansas and Delaware, and he leaves behind his Joker playing card at the site of each crime, with the states name on it.  The New is scratched off of the New Jersaey card, and the D from the Delaware card, and Batman realizes the Joker is spelling his name, and that the next crime will occur in Rhode Island.  A number of later Joker tales would use this name spelling gimmick, but Batman never twigs on before the fourth letter.  In “The Joker Walks the Last Mile,” in Detective 64, he is executed, but revived by his men.  From this point the Joker is far less likely to commit murders, his crimes taking on more of a joke element, as he uses classic pranks, puns, or upside down clues, and such as the motifs for his crimes.  He does, however, get his classic looking hideout with Batman 11, with playing card symbols scattered around the room, a Joker carpet and large smiley mask over his throne.  The only other notable Joker story in this era is ‘The Joker’s Double” in Detective 86, in which a different person dresses as the Joker to commit murders and decoy the police from his actual motive.  Batman suspects that the Joker is not the actual killer, but when confronted by both Jokers cannot tell which is the real one.  The Joker’s protestations of innocence in this case, while true, are of no help to him, and both men are taken to jail.

Catwoman also debuted in Batman 1, though she was known just as the Cat for her first two stories.  In Batman 1 she is in disguise as an elderly woman until the last page, only then do we discover the mysterious jewel thief is a beautiful young woman.  Batman allows her to escape, and even stops Robin from following her.  She returns in Batman 2, competing with the Joker to rob a precious case of jewels.  She and the Joker only share one page in the story, but she offers the jewel case to him if he will spare Robin’s life.  Batman bursts in before the Joker can decide, and once again the Cat escapes.

In Batman 3 she is called Catwoman, and wears his first costume, a brown cat-head mask and a tawny dress.  She would switch to a black cat-head mask and matching dress for her next appearance, “The Princess of Plunder,” in Batman 10.  In this story she is socialite Marguerite Tone, who hosts scavenger hunt parties as a cover for her men to commit robberies.  I had mentioned Batman 15’s “You Face is Your Fortune,” when discussing Linda Page.  Here, Catwoman is working in a salon under the name Elva Barr, while making masks of women while giving them facials, then using the masks to impersonate them and commit crimes.  She meets and falls for Bruce Wayne in the story, and they begin seeing each other.  Catwoman disguises herself as Linda to see if Bruce is seriously interested in her, but Bruce’s lies to cover his Batman identity backfire on him, and she returns to her life of crime.  Her last story in this era was also already mentioned, Batman 22’s “The Duped Domestics,” in which she adopts the name Belinda and works as a maid to gain access to wealthy peoples homes and rob them.

The original Clayface, actor Basil Karlo, makes a great first appearance in Detective 40, a film-set based whodunnit as the actors in the movie Death Castle are killed off according to their deaths in the movie.  He returns for revenge in Detective 49, in a more prosaic tale.  Basil Karlo would not appear again until 1980, by which point there were already two other Clayfaces that had appeared.

The Three Devils appear in Detective 50, former circus acrobats who turned to crime.  I mention them only because Azrael would deal with an updated version of the Three Devils in his series, far in the future, but I will reach it one day!

The Scarecrow debuts in World’s Finest 3, a great story that sees poor, reclusive bookish Professor Johnathan Crane turn to crime so he can afford to collect rare books.  The scene where he pulls out a gun in class and fires it near the students so they will experience fear is such a great moment. It’s a shame that his second story, “The Scarecrow Returns,” in Detective 73, is all about rhyming words and run of the mill thefts.  The Scarecrow would not appear again until the late 1960s.

The Penguin gets his nickname from Robin in Detective 58, as he and Bruce visit an art gallery and see a short, overweight man with an elongated nose, wearing a tuxedo and carrying an umbrella.  The thief overhears the comment, and adopts the name himself.  The umbrellas are his main gimmick in this era, and they can contain blades, guns, sleeping gas or spikes that shoot out.  He uses them to conceal stolen art, a radio, or a mirror.  He glides to freedom using them, and even has a helicopter one, though Batman prevents him from escaping using that one.  The Penguin’s best stories have him playing con jobs, and my favourite is his second appearance, “King of the Jungle,” in Detective 59, as he turns in wanted men to collect the rewards, then frees them from prison and splits the money with them.  He sets up his first nightclub/casino in Florida, in Batman 11’s “Four Birds of a Feather,” and runs a bird store in Detective 67’s “Crime’s Early Bird.” Altogether the Penguin appeared in seven stories in this era, a distant second to the Joker, but enough that the umbrella gimmicks would get a bit stale.

Two-Face appears in three stories that form a nice, completed saga in this period, in Detectives 66, 68 and 80.  He is District Attorney Harvey Kent (the last name later changed to avoid confusion with Superman, apparently, though anyone dumb enough to confuse Superman and Two-Face likely shouldn’t be reading comics), prosecuting mobster “Boss” Maroni, who throws acid into his face while on the witness stand (not the best possible defense). With half his face horribly scarred, Harvey steals Maroni’s two-headed coin and scars one side of it, and takes to wearing a suit split down the centre into two patterns. Based on the flip of the coin, Two-Face either commits crimes, or acts philanthropically.  His robberies are based on the number two, robbing a double feature, a baseball doubel-header, a symphony’s double concerto, or kidnapping a rich man’s double.  His wife Gilda hopes for Harvey to turn himself and in follows him around, getting shot for her efforts in the third story.  This shocks Harvey enough that he allows Batman to take him in, and he undergoes plastic surgery, which returns his face to normal.  A surprisingly upbeat ending for the character, but he was too popular to get a happy ending, and Two-Face would return in the 1950s.

Tweedledee and Tweedledum were cousins who looked so much alike people thought they were twins.  Short, fat and bald, Deever and Dumfree Tweed do dress as their Alice in Wonderland namesakes in their first story, in Detective 74, to rob a costume ball, but their second tale, “The Secret of Hunter’s Inn,” in Batman 18 is much better, as they build a duplicate of a resort, and control the road access to lure wealthy guests and rob them.  When the victims try to bring the police to the resort, they wind up at the real one, which has no record of the guests ever arriving.

The Crime Doctor appears in Detective 78, and the following month in Batman 18.  Matthew Thorne is a respected surgeon lured by the excitement of a criminal life.  He wears surgical garb and travels in an ambulance, helping out other thieves with “house calls,” then charging them for his help.  He attempts to maintain a code of ethics, stopping to operate on Robin when he gets shot, but gets killed by his own men for failing to back them up.  An interesting character, an “Earth-One” version would appear in the Bronze Age.

The Cavalier was the last notable villain to debut in this era, and a serious effort was put in to make him a worthy opponent for Batman.  In Detective 81 he leads his gang in a series of seemingly pointless robberies, intending to ultimately acquire a collection of sports miniatures.  His primary weapon is his electrified sword, though he also uses a lace handkerchief with a lead ball attached, and has a metal spiked plume in his hat feather.  In Batman 22 we learn that he is Mortimer Drake, a wealthy Gothamite, member of the same social club as Bruce Wayne, which allows for delightful scenes with the two of them, neither aware of the others identity.  Drake has no need of money, his thefts are of miniature collectibles.  In his third outing, “Laboratory Loot,” in Detective 89, his ego has prompted him to write an entry on the Cavalier for the club’s Who’s Who, and knowing that the Cavalier must be a club member, Batman quickly spots some acid stains on Drake’s hands, which match injuries the Cavalier sustained in attempting to rob a scientist, and exposes him.  The Cavalier escapes yet again, but now he cannot return to his home or former life.

When not facing his ever-increasing gallery of villains, Batman usually is dealing with mobsters or solving whodunnits.  World War 2 is ignored almost completely.  There are only three stories that touch on it, and the memorable cover of Batman 15 that has a smiling Robin feeding bullets into a machine gun that Batman is firing.  The first of these, “Swastika Over the White House,” is the best, as a German spy gets a job as a newsreel cameraman.  In his secret nazi meeting room they have a big swastika chandelier, and you cannot help but notice how non-threatening a swastika is when you cover it with little light bulbs and suspend it from the ceiling.  Batman 15’s “The Two Futures” shows a nazi occupied USA, and contrasts it with an allied victory.  Batman 19’s “Atlantis Goes to War,” has the Germans using Atlantis a secret base for the submarines until Batman and Robin convince the Atlanteans to aid the allies instead.

Three stories are billed as “Police Division” stories, and have Batman and Robin aiding different, umm, police divisions (ok, you craft that sentence better).  “The Good Samaritan Cops” in Batman 18 deals with an emergency squad that drive green trucks.  I have no doubt this squad existed in the 40s, but it does not seem anything special now – and why did they drive green trucks?  “The Lawmen on the Sea,” in Batman 20 is a decent story about the harbour patrol, but the genuine information on the division is overwhelmed by the very science-fictiony “sub-sea water lock” the villains use to conceal their underwater hideout.  I was very impressed with Batman 23’s “The Pelt Plunderers,” which deals with the RCMP.  As well as being accurate with geography and the use of the Hudson’s Bay Company, the story features a seaplane refitted to land on ice, and an old “aerocar,” a kind of hovercraft on skis.  I have seen one of these old vehicles, and the illustration of it is completely accurate.

Another type of story common to this era is what I call the “Grand Hotel” story.  These will have a number of different characters, all with their own plots and concerns, usually only one of them a criminal one.  Batman is the central character in these tales, but the reader gets far more involved in the smaller stories being tied together.  The first of these is `Destination Unknown,`a train-based tale in Batman 13.  `Prescription for Happiness,`in Batman 13 centres it on a drugstore, but the best of this type is “Destiny`s Auction,” in Detective 79.  A young aspiring starlet, an aging actor and thief each consult a fortune teller at the start of the story, and get readings that seem to be positive, but in fact turn out badly.  Each has a an identical trunk, which gets taken by the police for one reason or another.  The story then jumps forward a couple of years.  The trunks are being auctioned off, and though each buys one, none get their own trunk.  After all is said and done the performers make a hit on Broadway, and the bad guys go to jail, once again fulfilling the fortunes told at the start of the story, but in yet a third way.

A couple of the stories from this period would be re-written and re-used over the years, both as Batman stories, and with other heroes.  Detective 61’s “The Three Racketeers,” has three criminals sitting around playing cards as they discuss their recent crimes, all of which were foiled by Batman.  At the end of the story we see that all three are sharing a prison cell.  “The Case Batman Failed to Solve,” in Batman 14, has Batman and a number of other “famous” detectives invited to a dinner where their host is murdered.  It is easy to see that one of the detectives is based on Charlie Chan, and another on Sherlock Holmes, but if the other two are meant to be detectives from this era they are not ones I am familiar with.  Batman discovers that the killer was the victim himself, who was dying anyway and wanted his death to be a great unsolved mystery.  Batman pretends to have not been able to solve the case, to give the man his wish.

Batman continues in the Late Golden Age

Batman:  Detective Comics 35 – 89 (Jan 40 – July 44)

Batman 1 – 23  (Spring 40 – June/July 44)

New York World’s Fair 1940

World’s Best Comics 1  (Spring 1941)

World’s Finest Comics 2 – 14 (Summer 41 – Summer 44)

Biff Bronson (Early Golden Age)

Biff Bronson‘s series plays out much the way it had begun.  Decent art on passable stories, but virtually no characterization of the lead.  In his final appearance Biff defines himself as a “freelancer,” but if this means he is a private detective it’s the only indication of that.  He is just a guy, quick with his fists, who winds up in the midst of a lot of criminal activity.

Dan Druff fares no better in the sidekick position.  We see in More Fun 57 that they share a home, though whether it’s a house or apartment is not clear.  Dan’s mother appears briefly in issue 55, and Biff’s Uncle  Jim is in 64.  Uncle Jim lives in Connecticut, and that’s about his only distinguishing trait.

Most of the stories only run one issue, but there is a three-part story, running from More Fun 53 – 55 that pits Biff and Dan against The Wizard, a little old mad scientist who has built an army of “thousands” of robots (we don’t actually see that many) with which he intends to conquer the US.  Biff figures out how to disable the robots, knocking their brain batteries out, and guts one to wear its “body” and infiltrate the Wizard’s base to blow up their power supply.  He succeeds, but the Wizard uses a paralysis gun on him, and Biff is paralyzed from the waist down, trapped near the bomb he has rigged.  Dan saves the day, coming to rescue Biff in another hollowed out robot body.

There is also a two-part story, in More Fun 60 and 61, with Dr. Zabkin, who has developed serums that turn ordinary people into sideshow freaks, who he then sells through his associate Kapek.  Biff almost gets turned into one himself before turning the tables on Zabkin, who gets thoroughly trounced by his victims after their normal bodies are restored.

There is not much else to say about the character or the series.  Biff exposes the chief of police as the mastermind behind a protection scam in issue 66, and stops the assassination of a government minister from Bulovia in 67, his final story.  The FBI offer him a place in their organization, but Biff insists he wants to stay freelance.

But then we see no more of him.  Odd, isn’t it?  Did the FBI not take kindly to being rebuffed?  Was their offer not actually a choice?  Will we ever know the ultimate fate of freelance freelancer Biff Bronson?

Since I am going to close it on that note, probably not.

Biff Bronson:  More Fun Comics 51 – 67 (Jan 40 – May 41)

All-Star Comics 1  (Summer 40)

Sandman (Early Golden Age)

The Sandman series would undergo huge changes in this period, and it’s an oddity of comics history that the fondly remembered costume, and the fondly remembered stories, do not correspond at all.

Wesley Dodds continues to fight crime in his suit, cape and gasmask, most often dealing with kidnappings and jewel robberies as he moves through his high society life.  In Adventure Comics 47 he encounters a female safe cracker, The Lady in Evening Clothes, who winds up helping him take down her gang.  Although she gives her name as Diana Ware, by the end of the story she learns that she is really Dian Belmont, the long-missing daughter of District Attorney Belmont.

With no hesitation, Wesley reveals his identity to her, and they become a couple both in romantic terms and crime fighting ones, though most often Dian is relegated to driving the car and getting information.  Adventure Comics 56 gives her her best story, as Wesley gets kidnapped and she disguises herself as the Sandman to free him.

The gas gun is used less frequently as the series progresses, and Wes invents a new weapon in issue 61, the wire-poon gun, which he uses to scale buildings and get from rooftop to rooftop.

Although he gets no recurring villains, Sandman does fight an impressive array of foes in this period, who easily could have returned.  Borloff has a metal dissolving ray and a flying cylindricraft, one thief uses invisibility paint, another a hypnotic ruby.  Professor Doobie commits crimes using a shrinking serum in issue 67, then shrinks Sandman and Dian when they try to apprehend him.

The big change in the series comes with Adventure Comics 69, as Wes gets a new costume and sidekick, but these changes are not reflected at first in his stories in World’s Finest Comics, meaning Dian has her final appearance in World’s Finest 5.  There is no explanation for her disappearance or the costume change, though Roy Thomas would provide answers for both in All-Star Squadron in the 80s.  He has Dian die in a car accident at this time, but as she is later shown to have become an elderly woman, the car accident must not have been fatal.

Sandy debuts in issue 69, in a costume he claims he patterned after Sandman’s.  This is curious, as his costume does match that of Sandman, but it matches the costume he has just started wearing, a skin-tight gold and purple outfit, with a purple cape.  Sandy is in gold and red, with a red cape.  He is an orphan, staying at a farmhouse where the owner has experimented with creating giant bees, not thinking about the deadly giant stingers that would come with them.  Wes apparently adopts Sandy at the end of the story, as they live together from this point on.  Sandy’s last name is given as McGann in issue 71, but Hawkins in issue 73, and from then on.

Incidentally, Sandy’s full superhero name is Sandy the Golden Boy.  I believe this would win not only gayest superhero name, but also least likely to make a villain scared of you.

They wear the caped version of the costume until issue 71, but when Jack Kirby takes over the art the capes are abandoned.  It takes a few more issues for Sandy to get a red collar, and Sandman to get the purple scallopy thing that goes down to his shoulders.

Simon and Kirby take the reins of this series with Adventure Comics 72, and the series quickly excels virtually everything else coming from DC at this time.  The trademark of leaving sand behind had pretty much fallen by the wayside when Simon and Kirby replace it with the “calling card” that reads

There is no place beyond the law

Where tyrants rule with unshakable power

It’s a dream from which the evil wake

To face their fate…their terrifying hour

The Sandman

But more importantly, they begin playing with the concept of dreams, right from the get-go.  In their first story, a human slaver has a nightmare about being caught by the Sandman.  It turns out he is already in jail, the dream reflects events that have occurred, but it quickly becomes a theme in the series that the bad guys have nightmares about the Sandman before actually encountering him.

And though the costumes are somewhat tired and generic, even for this early era, the overall art is astounding.  Kirby gives an art deco feel to everything, and the action is far more dynamic than in other artists works.

Two of the villains the Sandman faces at this time would be resurrected in the pages of All-Star Squadron.  Nightshade, who has a great mask and a bunch of fake plants and traps in his “magic forest” debuts in World’s Finest 6, while Adventure Comics 75 introduces Fairytales Fenton, “The Villain from Valhalla,” who pretends to be the Norse god Thor.  This is, I believe, the first time Kirby would render a Thor character, but obviously not the last!  This story also has a beautiful full-page panel of Sandman and the police fighting “Thor” and his viking henchmen.

Sandman deals with an insomniac who turns to crime in issue 80’s “The Man Who Couldn’t Sleep,” and a narcoleptic framed for murder in 87’s “I Hate the Sandman.”  The idea of wedding cake dreams foretelling the person you will marry is tidily worked into issue 83’s “The Lady and the Champ.”

I am restraining myself from detailing every single Simon and Kirby issue, though it is tempting to do so.  Even their weaker stories are so above the mass of other tales being released at this time, but I will limit myself to only talking about three more.

Sandy gets a starring role in issue 81’s “A Drama in Dreams.”  He is surprised to discover Wes having a nightmare about the Sandman, and realizes Wes has been kidnapped and impersonated.  Sandy tracks him down and once Wes gets free he takes out his impersonator, and pretends to be him to get to the guy behind it all.

“Santa Fronts for the Mob,” in issue 82, begins with a hilarious nightmare of department store owner P.P. Miller, who imagines that without a good store Santa people will picket and boycott his establishment.  The man he hires has mob ties, but grows to love the job and the kids so much, when the time comes to rob the store he helps the Sandman take down the bad guys.  Somehow this story manages to capture much the same feeling as movies like “Miracle on 34th Street” and “Holiday Affair,” both also 1940s department store-based Christmas tales.

In my eyes, the crowning glory of this run is Adventure Comics 85, “The Unholy Dreams of Gentleman Jack.”  This opens with a prisoner dreaming of being waited on hand and foot by the guards, and Sandman bursting into his cell.  Once he is released from prison, he has his apartment made up to resemble a jail, and his servants dressed as guards.  He lures Sandman to his place, so we get the visual from the dream a second time, but just shows him around and gets him off his guard, so his men can capture him.  Gentleman Jack has Sandman put into a gas chamber to kill him, and goes to bed, unaware that Sandy has been following him.  Sandy frees Sandman as Jack dreams that his servants are now acting like actual prison guards, and just as Sandman appears in his nightmare (the third time for the same visual) he wakes, discovering Sandman in his room, as well as police, playing that same visual for the fourth time in 10 pages!  Each time we see Jack, the Sandman, the cell and the guards it is from a different perspective, and it is shown from another angle on the cover as well.  This story could easily be muddled or repetitive, but instead is a thorough delight.

Simon and Kirby were drafted before the end of the war.  A few stories were kept aside, but other artists and writers were put onto the series with issue 91.  The art is not terrible, but has none of Kirby’s inspiration or skill, and the stories drop Simon’s dream motif entirely.

Sandman continues in the Late Golden Age

Sandman:  Adventure Comics 46 – 92  (Jan 40 – July 44)

New York World’s Fair 1940

All-Star Comics 1 – 2  (Summer – Fall 40)

World’s Finest Comics  3 – 7  (Fall 41 – Fall 42)

Wiley of West Point (Early Golden Age)

Wiley of West Point concludes after only three more chapters.  Wiley’s court-martial is overturned after he is exonerated by the Lubanians, and he faces off against Baxter in the boxing championship.  Betty arrives to see him victorious, but at the party afterwards she runs into Sylvia King, who Wiley has been seeing since his arrival at West Point.

At the conclusion, Betty has been dancing and flirting with another cadet, Sneed, while Wiley makes a super lame explanation to Sylvia about his past relationship with Betty.  I kind of hope that Sylvia took his explanation at face value and went back to dating Baxter, while Betty found true love with Sneed and two-timing Wiley was left on his own.

But then, a few months down the road, Wiley would have been shipped out to battle in World War 2, so maybe I don’t wish him all bad luck.

Wiley of West Point:  All-American 10 – 12 (Jan – Mar 40)