LEGENDARY HEROES #34

BATMAN

The success of Superman had the comic book industry scrambling to create more superheroes and Detective Comics (DC), publishers of Superman, was no exception.  In response to DC's request Bob Kane created Batman in early 1939 and almost from the start there was controversy.  Kane's collaborator and Batman's co-creator Bill Finger recalled that Kane showed him, Finger, an early conceptual drawing, and Finger said that it looked a lot like Superman.  Kane's Batman wore a red suit and boots, swung on a rope, and wore a domino mask with two stiff wings sticking out of his suit like bat wings.  Finger suggested losing the red union suit and changing the color scheme to something more ominous like grey and black, adding a cape and cowl to replace the mask and wings, and giving the character gauntlets to wear.  Batman debuted in Detective Comics #27, the May 1939 issue that hit the stands on March 30 of that year.

A short time later Black Book Detective, a new pulp magazine, appeared on the newsstands with a front cover character called the Black Bat.  The Black Bat first appeared in another pulp called Black Bat Detective Mysteries, a short-lived magazine that only lasted for six issues in 1933-1934.  Then in 1939 Thrilling Publications, another publisher of pulps, introduced Black Book Detective with the Black Bat in July.  Norman A. Daniels wrote the origin story of a crime fighting District Attorney named Anthony Quinn who is blinded and disfigured by acid hurled at him in court while presenting evidence in a case.  Quinn then becomes the Black Bat, a costumed vigilante who fights crime.  DC and Thrilling Publications both cried foul and the threat of lawsuits followed.  DC editor Whitney Ellsworth intervened.  Ellsworth used to work at Thrilling so he knew all of the interested parties and brokered a deal that allowed both characters to peacefully co-exist.  DC promised to stay out of the pulp industry, and Thrilling agreed to not produce a comic version of the Black Bat.  The pulp adventures of the Black Bat ran from July 1939 to the Summer of 1953.  Like many pulp publishers Thrilling decided to branch out into this new medium called comic books and Nedor Comics was created as a subsidiary.  Since they agreed not to use the Black Bat as a comic character, they simply changed his name in the comic books to The Mask and The Mask appeared in the first 20 issues of their Exciting Comics title.

It has been well documented that in the early comic stories of Batman that artist Bob Kane swiped a lot of his images from other cartoonists, borrowing from Tarzan, Flash Gordon and Dick Tracy.  The villain Penguin resembled a Dick Tracy character, the Joker was clearly based on the silent film "The Man Who Laughs", and the pulp origin of the Black Bat was used to create the villain Two-Face.  Batman was originally written in a pulp style that reflected the violence of The Shadow and Doc Savage, with touches of Zorro and his "secret identity" and cave.  In the early stories Batman wasn't opposed to using a gun and showed no remorse in killing or maiming criminals.  This was altered in 1940 after Batman got his own title book and adopted a no-kill policy toward evil doers.  By this time DC was the top publisher in the industry and Superman and Batman were the cornerstones.  Like Siegel and Shuster, creators of Superman, Bob Kane signed away ownership of Batman to Detective Comics in exchange for a mandatory byline on all Batman comics.  A byline for Bob Kane and Kane alone, with no mention of Bill Finger.  Finger died in 1974 without receiving any recognition from DC or Bob Kane.  In fact, Kane stated in a 1965 open-letter that "it seemed to me that Bill Finger has given the impression that he and not myself created Batman.  This statement is fraudulent and entirely untrue".  Jerry Robinson, an artist who drew Batman and was around during the creation, knew better and criticized Kane for not sharing the credit.  Said Robinson, "that was one thing I would never forgive Bob for, was not to take care of Bill or recognize his vital role in the creation of Batman".  Kane's ego stood in the way of recognizing Bill Finger for his contribution and DC wouldn't rectify the situation until 2015, forty years after Bill Finger's death.

Batman's origin story didn't come until Detective Comics #33 in November 1939.  Batman is revealed to be wealthy playboy Bruce Wayne who, as a child, witnesses the murder of his parents Dr. Thomas Wayne and wife Martha by a mugger named Joe Chill.  Kane and Finger decided that "there's nothing more traumatic than having your parents murdered before your eyes".  This led to Bruce Wayne vowing vengeance and crafting the Batman persona, a vigilante who seeks justice against criminals and sometimes breaks the law to do it.  Wayne studies science, trains his body to physical perfection, and hones his deductive abilities.  Then he decided to cultivate a frightening persona, as in his own words he explained, "Criminals are a superstitious cowardly lot, so my disguise must be able to strike terror into their hearts.  I must be a creature of the night, black, terrible..." and just then a bat flies through an open window.  And Batman was born.  Batman's most implacable foe was the Joker, a homicidal maniac with a clown-like appearance.  Other recurring enemies were Catwoman (who was an occasional romantic interest), The Penguin, Two-Face, and the Riddler.  The iconic bat utility belt was introduced in Detective Comics #29, followed by the Batarang and Batplane in #31.  In April 1940 Robin was introduced in Detective Comics #38 as Dick Grayson who is orphaned when his acrobat parents are killed in an accident and Dick becomes the ward of Bruce Wayne.  When Dick discovers that Bruce is Batman he is initiated into the fold as Robin, his sidekick.  The introduction and success of Robin sparked juvenile sidekicks throughout the comics industry.  Batman was also assisted by Alfred, the butler, and police commissioner James Gordon, as Bruce and his young ward resided in Wayne Manor on the outskirts of Gotham City.

By the start of WWII the artists and writers of Batman had established the basic elements of the Batman mythos.  After the war superhero comics had fallen out of favor with readers but Batman, like Superman, maintained his popularity.  Then Dr. Frederic Wertham came along in the 1950s to ruin everything.  Wertham's 1954 book "Seduction of the Innocent" claimed that comic books corrupted the morals of youth, and that there were homosexual overtones to the relationship between Batman and Robin.  To combat this perception DC launched a "sunnier" approach to Batman, with lighthearted juvenile tales that no one could take exception to.  And by 1964 sales had fallen so drastically that DC was actually considering killing Batman off.  In a last ditch effort DC tried to make Batman more contemporary and detective-oriented.  But it was the debut of the 1966 TV series that turned things around and they saw comic book sales climb to 900,000 copies a month.  On the downside, the campy nature of the show was introduced into the comic books and both of them were successful for a time, but the camp eventually wore thin and the show was cancelled and the comic franchise lost popularity once again.  In 1969 writer Denny O'Neil and artist Neal Adams made a deliberate effort to distance the comic Batman from the failed TV series and return him to his roots.  This approach was popular with fans but the acclaim did little to improve sales.  The trend was not reversed until the Frank Miller limited series "The Dark Knight Returns" was published (February-June 1986) which really returned Batman to his darker roots.  The series reinvigorated interest in the character which sparked a major resurgence in popularity and financial success.

The McClure Syndicate launched a Batman comic strip in newspapers on October 25, 1943 that ran until November 2, 1946.  The success of the TV series resulted in another newspaper strip that ran 1966-1973.  In this version the Sunday page ended in 1969 but the daily continued until 1973.  The Chicago Tribune syndicated a strip titled "The World's Greatest Superheroes" in which Batman appeared from 1978-1985, and yet another comic strip was syndicated 1989-1991 to coincide with the release of the Warner Brothers film of 1989.  The first Batman movie to hit theaters was a 1943 serial produced by Columbia with Lewis Wilson as Batman, Douglas Croft as Robin, and William Austin as Alfred the butler.  The 15-chapter serial introduced story elements that became permanent parts of the comic books, such as the Bat Cave below Wayne Manor and its' secret entrance through a grandfather's clock.  And the appearance of Alfred was changed from portly to slim with a thin moustache to resemble that of William Austin from the movie.  Columbia did a second 15-chapter serial in 1949 with Robert Lowery as Batman, Johnny Duncan as Robin, Lyle Talbot as Commissioner Gordon, and Jane Adams as Vicki Vale.  Efforts were made in 1943 and in 1950 to launch a Batman radio series but neither attempt came to fruition.  But beginning in March 1945 Batman and Robin made regular appearances on the radio show "The Adventures of Superman" on the Mutual Broadcasting System.

Then in 1966 the wildly popular TV series began on ABC with Adam West as Batman and Burt Ward as Robin.  The show ran for three seasons from January 12, 1966 until March 14, 1968.  The show was high camp with simplistic morality - wear your seatbelts, do your homework, eat your vegetables - and was intentionally funny without a laugh track.  120 episodes were produced and gave new life to old actors like Alan Napier as Alfred, Neil Hamilton as Commissioner Gordon, Cesar Romero as the Joker, Burgess Meredith as the Penguin, and Frank Gorshin as the Riddler.  The show was so popular that a movie was rushed into theaters with all the principals, and with former Miss America Lee Meriweather as Catwoman (Julie Newmar played her in the TV series).  Near the end of the third season the ratings were dropping significantly and ABC tried to salvage the show by introducing Yvonne Craig as Batgirl, but to no avail.  The show was cancelled.  NBC agreed to take over the production until it was discovered that hundreds of thousands of dollars of sets had been destroyed.  Rather than rebuild, NBC dropped the project completely.

In 1989 Tim Burton directed a new theatrical film starring Michael Keaton as Batman and Jack Nicholson as the Joker.  It became the 5th highest grossing of all-time (as of then).  Burton followed the success of that film with "Batman Returns" in 1992 with Keaton recreating the role of Batman and Danny DeVito as the Penguin and Michelle Pfeiffer as Catwoman.  Director Joel Schumacher took over the series with Val Kilmer in 1995 and George Clooney in 1997.  The Clooney film was so bad that plans for a fifth film in the series were cancelled.  Then Christopher Nolan resurrected the Batman film franchise with his Dark Knight Trilogy that starred Christian Bale as Batman.  When "The Dark Knight" was released in 2008 the film earned $158 million on its' opening weekend and went on to make $533 million worldwide.  Heath Ledger won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of the Joker.  Bruce Timm produced a much-heralded animated series from 1992-1995, and in fact Batman has been appearing in animated films from 1993 until the present day.  "Gotham", a new TV series, ran from September 22, 2014 until April 25, 2019 and showed a young Bruce Wayne after the death of his parents and leading up to his becoming the caped crusader.

The popularity of Batman over the years has resulted in tons of toys, action figures, bubble gum cards, Lego collections, models, video games, postage stamps, and a rollercoaster ride at Six Flags.  In 2013 the Batmobile from the 1966 TV series was sold at auction for $4.2 million.  And Burt Ward who played Robin in the 1966 series recorded a song called "Boy Wonder, I Love You" that was written and arranged by Frank Zappa.  Really.  Throughout his 80+ year career, despite the ups and downs of comic book popularity, Batman has become a pop culture icon recognized around the world and second only to Superman.