Number 1181: Robin Crusoe

How old is Batman's ward, Robin, anyway? I've seen stories where he seems very young and then stories like this, where he appears to be sixteen or seventeen. It wouldn't matter except that he's allowed to fly the Batplane on a high altitude test flight. "Hey, Bruce, can I have the keys to the Batplane today? I'd like to take it for a spin, you know, see what it can do."

"Okay, but remember to wear your seat belt and no texting on the Batphone while you're flying."

You think Batman would just let Robin take off in an expensive plane without him along? Robin must've sneaked it out of the hangar when Batman was busy with something else. Teenagers — always getting into trouble.

Robin took the Batplane quite a distance before it cracked up and he ended up on a tropical island. There probably aren't any tropical islands close to Gotham City. Robin used his survival skills to kill game and when he encountered an enemy, Nazis no less, from a submarine looking for a secret oil base, he was able to fight adult sailors using his Bat-training. Even I learned something when Robin demonstrated how to swim out of quicksand. Next time I find myself being sucked into a quicksand bog I'll know what to do.

Robin is on the island long enough to grow a mullet, and in that kind of time you know Batman was frantic with worry. Which brings me to the question, how close were Batman and Robin? This page of original art from Batman #13, the scan provided by Heritage Auctions, has Batman telling Robin he'd "rather lose both arms than you."

In the splash panel of "The Trial of Bruce Wayne" from Batman #57 (1950), they reach for each other when in danger of being separated. I'd say these examples show they were mighty close. So I imagine during the weeks Robin was missing Batman was anxious and upset.

"Robin Crusoe" is from Star Spangled Comics #72 (1948). According to the Grand Comics Database it was written by Bill Finger, and drawn by Curt Swan, ghosting for Bob Kane, and inked by John Fischetti. The cover is by Curt Swan and Stay Kaye.

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Detective #288

On the most obvious level, this issue is part and parcel of the horrific "monster of the month" era in Detective Comics that characterized a good part of Jack Schiff's tenure as editor of the Batman family of magazines. And make no mistake about it, that's the primary (and exceedingly silly) plot.

The story starts with a lightning bolt hitting a pool of chemicals causing a strange transformation:

The bit about life arising from chemical wastes is probably inspired by the movie, Godzilla. Batman and Robin encounter the creature and their initial attempt to defeat it reveals that it is more powerful than it looks:

So by this point in reading the story, I'm already yawning at the transparent absurdity. But then something interesting happens. The creature heads towards the house of an old actor who's become wheelchair-bound. Batman moves to help him, while sending Robin to the town to get help.

The actor is somewhat fatalistic, until he sees Batman in trouble:

And in town, Robin discovers that the only official around is a mere clerk, who doesn't think he can handle the crisis until:

There are quite a few Batman and Robin tales from the Golden Age that follow this pattern, and they are among the classics of that era. While the stale art and the monster focus prevent this story from reaching those heights, the subplots did make it quite a bit more entertaining than I expected.

The third subplot involves a bank robbery featuring an ingenious method of escape:

"Nothing can stop us now," is of course begging for trouble, and the creature flies into the blimp, grounding it. Batman and Robin capture the crooks, and help the clerk calm the local citizenry, then electrocute the creature. And in the end:

The Roy Raymond story (one of the last in that long-running series) sees Roy solve the case of an heiress who has been cursed with the gaze of Medusa, causing anyone she glances at to be turned to stone. Of course, it's all a plot by a guardian to steal her inheritance.
The Martian Manhunter story is rather bizarre. MM's good friend Larry Loder has fallen for a swindle. A bunch of crooks sold him some treasure-finding inventions, with which he hopes to pay back the investors who lost money with him earlier. And when you see the inventions, it's not hard to believe that he's a pretty poor financial advisor:

J'onn takes pity on him and makes the inventions seem to work. But it turns out that this was stage two of the crooks' con job:

So the Martian Manhunter makes sure that the final invention works in such a way that the crooks are caught by Larry. The reward money ensures that Loder will have enough funds to pay back all his investors, who presumably reinvested the funds with him in a bagful of magic beans.

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Batman #162

The penultimate issue of the Jack Schiff era, this comic symbolizes many of the problems that plagued the Batman series for most of the Silver Age. Obviously the cover is a tribute to (or swipe of) the finale of King Kong.

As the story begins, Batman encounters two robbers who seem more like animals than humans:

The pair escape when the ape-looking one grabs a lamppost out of the ground and wraps it around Batman and Robin.

We learn the secret of the animal-like humans here:

When this second pair of monsters attacks, Batman follows them in the Whirly-Bat. He tracks them down to the canyon where the crooks have their hideout, but:

As you can probably guess, it transforms him into the creature shown on the cover. Robin tries to protect him here:

Of course the real likelihood of fighter jet pilots actually hearing him (with their canopies closed, no less) is nil.

Batwoman tames him with tears and fruit, and he helps her and Robin catch the next set of monsters. They let one of the beasts go free, with Ace, the Bat-Hound tailing it back to the canyon. At first things look grim there, with the crooks freeing a rhino and a tiger, which look likely to make short work out of Batwoman and Robin. But Batman arrives as well, and kayos the other two beasts, after which Robin turns Batman back to normal with the ray.

Comments: Although the weird transformation bit is one of my least favorite plot devices, I have to admit I enjoyed this story more than expected. Part of it was seeing the devotion that both Robin and Batwoman have towards Batman, and their horror at seeing him turned into a monster:

That's very nice characterization.

The backup story features Robin's New Secret Identity. We learn in the opening that Robin shaves points, not to make money from gamblers, but to keep from looking too good:

We can see that Dick chafes a bit at being unable to show his true abilities. Later, he realizes that there is a way. He disguises himself as someone different and gets into a pickup game where he performs like Michael Jordan's more athletic brother. But late in the game, he's stunned and loses his memory. As he walks around trying to remember who he is, he comes upon Batman saving a woman from a fire. But her baby's still in the house, so Dick (disguised) chips in with a spectacular rescue:

Later, when Batman returns home and discovers that Dick has still not returned, he realizes the red-headed youth he had encountered earlier is his ward. As he hurries back to Gotham City, he spies some gangsters and the Boy Wonder, so he kills two birds with one stone:

Comments: A nice, little story with terrific characterization for Robin.

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Welcome to the End of My Life

Or, I started another blog. This one's called Nothing But Batman, and you can probably guess the topic. I wanted to talk about all eras of Batman and with the Silver Age focus of this blog I thought it was only fair to my readers to put the discussion of the Caped Crusader and his buddies over there. Hope you enjoy it!

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More Gay Batman

Dreemo, a villain from World's Finest #17 makes the accusation:

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Batman #147

I have previously cited this story as perhaps the worst Batman story of the Silver Age. To give you an idea, back when I was really trying hard to push my run of Batman issues backwards, I stopped at #148 because I could not see paying $1.00 or so (at the time) for a comic with such a ridiculous cover.

The opening story is the Plants of Plunder. Batman and Robin encounter some crooks who use seeds from alien plants to commit crimes:

As Batman and Robin chase them, the crooks use another fantastic plant:

It turns out that they have stolen them from an alien who temporarily lost his memory, but regains it here:

It turns out that he was an alien farming scientist who came to Earth to try out his seeds here and got knocked out when the plants grew too quickly.

Comments: Dull and predictable, with a gaping plot hole. The alien initially shows up disguised as a human at Commissioner Gordon's office. He's already got amnesia. So how does he wind up back at the crooks' hideout at the end of the story, where he hits his head and regains his memory?

The Secret of Mystery Island is a pretty straightforward Treasure Hunt. There were a fair number of these stories in Batman over the years. The basic plot is that a dying rich man leaves a clue to the secret location of his fortune, with that clue leading to another clue. In this case, the dying man is an architect (and criminal mastermind) named Briggs, and his henchman Catlin is seeking the treasure, which Batman and Robin manage to recover.

Comments: Although I usually like these types of stories, this one is poorly executed, with clues that seem forced. Catlin looks into one eye of the Buddha, and assumes when he doesn't find anything that Briggs had lied about a treasure. But he doesn't look into the other one, which does hold the clue, which Batman promptly solves. In addition, the story lacks a needed element, which is that there should be some animosity between the dying man and his treasure seeker; otherwise, why put the latter through the wringer of the treasure hunt? But there is no indication of that here:

The cover story is the grand finale. Now, as background, Mort Weisinger had been having some success at the time with stories featuring "Superbaby", that is, Superman as a toddler. It's important to remember that in the Silver Age (as compared to present continuity) Clark Kent always had his super-powers, even as an infant, so that Superbaby could fly, was invulnerable, could lift incredible weights, etc., so his main limitation was that he thought like a baby.

Well, this was not going to work for Batman, clearly, who had no superpowers aside from his brilliant brain. And so the story flows fairly obviously, if ridiculously from the simple idea of regressing him physically but not mentally. Batman and Robin raid the hideout of Nails Finney, where they discover also the "renegade scientist" Garth, who has a surprise for Batman:

No, not the dreaded "eerie ray of light"! Well, before you know it, Batman has shrunk down to Oshkosh Bgosh size:

Due to a "flaw" in the machine, despite being turned into the Diapered Detective, Batman retains his adult mind and strength. He quickly trains to adjust to his new body, makes a few revisions to his costume and:

Later, he captures some crooks on a rooftop by using a large balloon to float him up there, since he doesn't weigh as much as he used to. But of course that makes this scene highly unlikely:

But now it's time for a secret identity crisis, as Kathy (Batwoman) Kane comes calling to see if Bruce Wayne is wearing short pants these days. But she leaves in a huff when she sees his silhouette kissing another woman. Quick thinking, Batman!

Batman and Robin find Garth's hideout, but when some henchmen come running up to help prevent Bat-Baby from reaching the machine:

And eventually Batman regains his normal size by reversing the ray.

Comments: You can argue that this one is played for grins, but it delivers more groans instead. Overall, this issue is the epitome of the worst of the Jack Schiff era.

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#258. TV Tornado 88

Are you interested in YOGA?

A very good news for yoga fans:

Dr. Krisha Raman has started a YOGA blog: mediyoga-krishna.blogspot.com.

He is a renowned medicine & yoga professional (see his profile HERE), and author of several articles & two bestsellers:

1. A Matter of Health - Integration of Yoga and Western medicine for Prevention and Cure;

2. Yoga & Medical Science : FAQ.

One can ask directly questions through his blog.

His official site: www.krishnaraman.com

P.S. Dr. Raman is the regular & most active visitor since early stage of this blog, now we are VERY VERY GOOD friends.

And now Last softcover TV Tornado #88.


TV Tornado 88 City Magazines (UK)


All credits to unknown Scanner & original Uploader only.

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#257. TV Tornado 64

According to Deepwoods, 88 TV Tornado softcover & 2 hardcover annuals were published only.

This time #64 from e-collection.

TV Tornado 64 City Magazines (UK)



All credits to unknown Scanner & original Uploader only.


While you are downloading comics, may be like to watch this clip.

I was searching some videos, this one forced me to watch several times. It's a short video about special effects' evolution from beginning.

Enjoy!

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#253. TV Tornado 59

Hello Friends!

Today I got this template, it's very special for me. Generally developers don't share their current template, however ANSHUL agreed to share with me. I'm pleasantly shocked. Many many thanks Anshul! I'm in debt.

Anshul is software engineer, currently doing MBA. His site doesn't needs promotion, lot of fans already know him. In very short period he has published lot of tips about blog template development & posted some new generation templates. He is planning to release many more. Please visit www.anshuldudeja.com.



TV Tornado 59 City Magazines (UK)



All credits to unknown Scanner & original Uploader only.

P.S. What you think about this new look? Please share your opinion. If you found any function is not working properly. Don't hesitate to tell.

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#252. TV Tornado 37

TV Tornado 37 City Magazines (UK)



All credits to unknown Scanner & original Uploader only.

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#251. TV Tornado 23

A unique book & comics which contains lot of famous comics' heroes like Phantom, Flash Gordon, Tarzan etc in one issue.


TV Tornado 23 City Magazines (UK)



All credits to unknown Scanner & original Uploader only.

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