DETECTIVE COMICS #324; DC Comics; Feb. 1964; Jack Schiff, editor; featuring
Batman and Robin versus the "Menace of the Robot Brain!" The cover is a
closeup of the metallic face of the "robot brain", whose eyes are windows behind
which Batman and Robin are choking and dying in clouds of deadly pinkish gas.
Review by Bill Henley
The only credit on this story is the "Bob Kane" signature.... I don't know
the writer, I suppose the real artist is probably Kane's regular ghost of the
period, Sheldon Moldoff, The splash page, which somewhat resembles an
old-fashioned headache remedy ad, shows a cross-section of the giant robot head
with Batman and Robin trapped inside it and about to be flipped by the robot's
mechanical "tongue" down its throat into a pit. "Robin-- we're about to be
swallowed by this mechanical monster!" As the story begins, we find Bruce
Wayne and Dick Grayson in night court, posting $10,000 bail for a friend of
theirs, Daniel Williams. It seems he is an employee of a jewelry store, the only
one possessing the combination of the store safe, and a fortune in diamonds
has disappeared from the safe. And Williams can't even swear to his own
innocence; "My mind....it's gone completely BLANK, Bruce! I can't remember a
thing that happened to me during those hours when the robbery must have
occurred!" "To show our faith in you," Bruce responds, "I'm going to ask my friend,
Batman, to help!" But plans to question Daniel further the next day are put
on hold when a strange armored car robbery occurs. One uniformed guard
punches out the other and drives away. Hearing a radio report, Batman and Robin
pursue the car down Route 46, where crooks have taken control of a drawbridge
and are raising it to halt pursuit. Batman attempts to jump the bridge in
the Batmobile, but "The Batmobile didn't quite make it! But we did-- he hard
way!" as the Dynamic Duo flip acobatically out of the car as it falls into the
river. (Must be nice to be rich enough to treat Batmobiles as disposable.)
Rolling down the other side of the bridge, Batman and Robin knock down the
crooks and take them into custody, but all they can report is that they were
hired to raise the bridge by a man with "a waxed mustache and horn-rimmed
glasses". Then our heroes get word of the armored car driver, who has been
spotted wandering around in a daze; like Daniel Williams, he has no memory of his
criminal actions. He does, however, recognize the descrption of the man with
the mustache and glasses; he was a sidewalk photographer who took the
guard's picture some time earlier. Checking with Daniel Williams, B and R find
that he too was snapped by the mustached shutterbug. "But what's he got to do
with my case?" "Perhaps everything, Dan! It's my hunch that 'camera' of his
is a device that makes it possible for him to CONTROL MEN'S MINDS!"
(This seems to be yet another example of a comic-book evil scientist who is
smart enough to come up with an amazing invention but too dumb to use it to
real advantage. If he wants money, why not use his "camera" on a tycoon or
two and get them to turn over wealth to him legally, rather than playing around
with small-time heists and attracting police and Bat-attention? And if he
wants real power, snap a few politicians...)
Obtaining a police artist sketch of the mustached man, Batman and Robin set
out to find him. But we readers catch up with him first, as we learn his
name, Ernst Larue, and see him in action snapping a photo of a clerk in charge
of a rare coin exhibit. The clerk is too cheap to pay a dollar for his
photo, but Larue doesn't mind, for he has what he really wants, "the brain-tape I
just recorded!" Driving to his lair in "secluded valley", a brick building
topped by a giant robotic head (it must be "secluded" if the neighbors don't
question his taste in architecture) Larue dons a "control helmet", inserts
the "brain-tape" into the robot bran, and prepares to take control of the coin
clerk. Meanwhile, Batman and Robin have traced the mystery photographer to
the area of the coin shop and noting the coin clerk leaving the shop with a
heavy briefcase and a "half-crazed" look, they deduce he is another victim of
the mind-control robberies and follow him. They pursue him to the building
with the giant robot head-- "Undoubtedly the criminal's bizarre lair, Robin!"
(Are you sure, Batman? Maybe it's just one of those funky theme
restaurants....) and observe the clerk entering through the opened mouth of the robot
head, then leaving again without his loot. Sneaking into the robot's mouth,
Batman and Robin seek a route into the interior of the mechanism. But
suddenly the robot mouth snaps shut and the robot's "tongue" lifts to pitch our
heroes down its "throat" to an unknown doom. Ever resourceful, however, Batman
manages to catch his cape between the tongue and the roof of the "mouth", and
hang on to it as Robin hangs on to his legs. When the tongue lowers, Batman
and Robin reach temporary safety; "We fooled whoever is behind this robot
brain!" but "If that character built one trap, he can build another!"
Sure enough, jet blasts of air from giant fans blow Batman and Robin into
separate chambers, one behind each "eye" of the robot, which are filled with a
choking pink gas. Closing steel "eyelids" prevent them from smashing through
the windows, and though Batman is able to avoid the effects of the gas with
nose-plugs from his utility belt, Robin, it seems, has forgotten to replace
his own nose-plugs. (Good thing for Robin he's not dealing with the more
harsh and prickly Batman of today, or even if he survived he'd get fired on the
spot for such a screwup.) Advising Robin to lie flat on the floor and remain
quiet, Batman desperately cuts through the chamber wall with an oxyacetylene
torch, and reaches Robin just in time to save his life and revive him with a
dose of oxygen. Hearing Larue gloat, "Ha, ha! That's the end of Batman and
Robin!", our heroes smash in to burst his bubble. "This is your finish in
crime-- you can count on it!" But the criminal mastermind has one more trap
in store, as he leaps through an escape chute and locks Batman and Robin in
the robot brain's central chamber, activating a device designed to set off a
cacophony of loud, discordant sounds designed to drive our heroes insane. "We
have....just one....faint chance!" gasps Robin. Sitting outside his robot
brain, Larue waits eagerly for his trap to do its work and leave the Dynamic
Duo "completely out of their minds". But suddenly he gets a "wild expression
on his face" and climbs up the robot head to deactivate the noise-trap control
located in its nose. Then he returns to the control room where an entirely
sane Batman and Robin are waiting for him, unable to remember what he has
done or why. Robin, it seems, has redeemed himself for his earlier goof by a
brilliant stroke. Just before Larue made his escape, the Boy Wonder spotted
his "camera", grabbed it and snapped a 'picture" of the mind-control
criminal. Now possessing Larue's own "brain-tape", Robin and Batman are able to
figure out how the device works and take control of Larue himself.
"Yes....thanks for rescuing us and capturing YOURSELF!"
Following house ads for BATMAN ("The Bat-Mite Hero!"), WORLD'S FINEST ("The
Ghost of Batman!") and BRAVE & BOLD #52 (no, not a Batman teamup-- rather, "3
Battle Stars," Sgt. Rock, airman Johnny Cloud and tankman Jeb Stuart teaming
up for a "Suicide Mission") -- the second feature is John Jones, Manhunter
from Mars in "The Beast Who Was J'onn J'onzz!" Art is by regular JJ artist
Joe Certa and the script, I'm guessing, is by regular writer Jack Miller. On
the splash, police in squad cars and helicopters are firing pistols and
machine guns at a fleeing blue-furred creature. Don't you know this is an
endangered species, guys? More than that, "How can I make them understand that I'm
the Manhunter and that I can't change back to my Martian form?" A crew of
archaeologists, accompanied by a vacationing Diane Meade (John Jones' police
colleague and quasi-romantic interest) discovers a petrified creature resembling
a purple stegosaurus (hi there, Barney) along with rock carvings of other
prehistoric monsters. Suddenly a bolt of lightning strikes the creature,
bringing it to life and panicking the archaeologists. "Gracious! What a
vacation this is turning out to be! I'd better contact Manhunter at once!" Diane's
message is relayed to Police Chief Harding and then to Detective John Jones,
who allows as how he might be able to get in touch with the mighty Martian;
"He's as good as alerted this instant, Chief!" (thought) And I'm not
kidding!" Stopping by his cave headquarters to pick up his extradimensional sidekick
Zook ("A creature? I not afraid if YOU there, Manhunter!") J'onn J'onzz
arrives on the scene to find that Barney has trapped the archaeologists and
Diane in a blind canyon. Taking on the creature with a flurry of punches,
Manhunter finds that the creature can't hurt him but he can't do it much damage
either. Shooing the archaeologists to safety, JJ carves out giant slabs of
stone to form into a wall trapping the creature harmlessly in the canyon.
As the Manhunter studies the cavern where the monster was found, "Martian
mental-power deciphers to ancient script" and he learns that Barney was created
by "the sorcerer Marlon to create havoc among the people!" On the other
hand, one of the other creatures carved on the cave wall has the power to defeat
the purple menace. But the inscription indicating which one is no longer
legible. Manhunter concludes he must use his shape-changing power to adopt the
form of the different creatures until he finds out which one is Barney's
nemesis. As Barney smashes out of his rocky prison, Manhunter takes the shape of
a green cross between a dinosaur and a praying mantis. It has the power to
cast "a ray-beam from its single eye", but the ray doesn't faze Barney, who
grabs the creature and nearly wrings its long neck before Manhunter can resume
his normal Martian form. The next form tried by Manhunter is a blue
creature with a funnel-shaped mouth that breathes fire. "How ironic it would be for
my single weakness on Earth to be the only thing that can conquer this
menace! Luckily it doesn't hurt me in this form!" Trouble is, the flames don't
hurt Barney either. And worse, the Manhunter-beast finds he is unable to
change forms again. "Is it because of the FIRE that burns within this beast's
body?" And naturally, just at that moment the local police arrive in force and
open fire, thinking the Manhunter is just another rampaging monster. And of
course, unlike Barney, this creature is vulnerable to bullets. It is Diane
Meade who is about to draw a bead on the Martian Monster (""N-not you, Diane!
Not YOU!") when Zook's antennae "scent" the creature's true identity and he
leaps at Diane to stop her shooting. But the other cops on the scene are
unconvinced-- "That little creature must have taken leave of its senses!"--
until the Manhunter gets an idea. Feigning shivering, he gets across to Zook
what he must do-- use his temperature--control power to freeze the blue
monster. Once the creature's internal fires are snuffed out by the cold,
Manhunter is able to change back to normal.
But meanwhile, Barney has broken loose again, and the Manhunter has no
choice but to adopt the form of the third and last of the cave-wall creatures, a
blobby violet monster, hoping as advertised it will be the one at last that
can stop Barney (and that he won't be trapped in its form too). Charging at
the purple creature, Manhunter's new form "spreads itself around the juggernaut
like a blanket" and "enfolds it tighter and tighter" until Barney flops
over unconscious. Returning to normal again, Manhunter prepares to "bury the
beast in deep ocean where no lightning can ever again reach it", when Zook runs
up to tell him, "I very glad you back to yourself again! I think you much
better looking now!" "Thanks, Zook! I love YOU, too!" (Uh oh.....is Dr.
Wertham paying attention?)
Batman and Robin versus the "Menace of the Robot Brain!" The cover is a
closeup of the metallic face of the "robot brain", whose eyes are windows behind
which Batman and Robin are choking and dying in clouds of deadly pinkish gas.
Review by Bill Henley
The only credit on this story is the "Bob Kane" signature.... I don't know
the writer, I suppose the real artist is probably Kane's regular ghost of the
period, Sheldon Moldoff, The splash page, which somewhat resembles an
old-fashioned headache remedy ad, shows a cross-section of the giant robot head
with Batman and Robin trapped inside it and about to be flipped by the robot's
mechanical "tongue" down its throat into a pit. "Robin-- we're about to be
swallowed by this mechanical monster!" As the story begins, we find Bruce
Wayne and Dick Grayson in night court, posting $10,000 bail for a friend of
theirs, Daniel Williams. It seems he is an employee of a jewelry store, the only
one possessing the combination of the store safe, and a fortune in diamonds
has disappeared from the safe. And Williams can't even swear to his own
innocence; "My mind....it's gone completely BLANK, Bruce! I can't remember a
thing that happened to me during those hours when the robbery must have
occurred!" "To show our faith in you," Bruce responds, "I'm going to ask my friend,
Batman, to help!" But plans to question Daniel further the next day are put
on hold when a strange armored car robbery occurs. One uniformed guard
punches out the other and drives away. Hearing a radio report, Batman and Robin
pursue the car down Route 46, where crooks have taken control of a drawbridge
and are raising it to halt pursuit. Batman attempts to jump the bridge in
the Batmobile, but "The Batmobile didn't quite make it! But we did-- he hard
way!" as the Dynamic Duo flip acobatically out of the car as it falls into the
river. (Must be nice to be rich enough to treat Batmobiles as disposable.)
Rolling down the other side of the bridge, Batman and Robin knock down the
crooks and take them into custody, but all they can report is that they were
hired to raise the bridge by a man with "a waxed mustache and horn-rimmed
glasses". Then our heroes get word of the armored car driver, who has been
spotted wandering around in a daze; like Daniel Williams, he has no memory of his
criminal actions. He does, however, recognize the descrption of the man with
the mustache and glasses; he was a sidewalk photographer who took the
guard's picture some time earlier. Checking with Daniel Williams, B and R find
that he too was snapped by the mustached shutterbug. "But what's he got to do
with my case?" "Perhaps everything, Dan! It's my hunch that 'camera' of his
is a device that makes it possible for him to CONTROL MEN'S MINDS!"
(This seems to be yet another example of a comic-book evil scientist who is
smart enough to come up with an amazing invention but too dumb to use it to
real advantage. If he wants money, why not use his "camera" on a tycoon or
two and get them to turn over wealth to him legally, rather than playing around
with small-time heists and attracting police and Bat-attention? And if he
wants real power, snap a few politicians...)
Obtaining a police artist sketch of the mustached man, Batman and Robin set
out to find him. But we readers catch up with him first, as we learn his
name, Ernst Larue, and see him in action snapping a photo of a clerk in charge
of a rare coin exhibit. The clerk is too cheap to pay a dollar for his
photo, but Larue doesn't mind, for he has what he really wants, "the brain-tape I
just recorded!" Driving to his lair in "secluded valley", a brick building
topped by a giant robotic head (it must be "secluded" if the neighbors don't
question his taste in architecture) Larue dons a "control helmet", inserts
the "brain-tape" into the robot bran, and prepares to take control of the coin
clerk. Meanwhile, Batman and Robin have traced the mystery photographer to
the area of the coin shop and noting the coin clerk leaving the shop with a
heavy briefcase and a "half-crazed" look, they deduce he is another victim of
the mind-control robberies and follow him. They pursue him to the building
with the giant robot head-- "Undoubtedly the criminal's bizarre lair, Robin!"
(Are you sure, Batman? Maybe it's just one of those funky theme
restaurants....) and observe the clerk entering through the opened mouth of the robot
head, then leaving again without his loot. Sneaking into the robot's mouth,
Batman and Robin seek a route into the interior of the mechanism. But
suddenly the robot mouth snaps shut and the robot's "tongue" lifts to pitch our
heroes down its "throat" to an unknown doom. Ever resourceful, however, Batman
manages to catch his cape between the tongue and the roof of the "mouth", and
hang on to it as Robin hangs on to his legs. When the tongue lowers, Batman
and Robin reach temporary safety; "We fooled whoever is behind this robot
brain!" but "If that character built one trap, he can build another!"
Sure enough, jet blasts of air from giant fans blow Batman and Robin into
separate chambers, one behind each "eye" of the robot, which are filled with a
choking pink gas. Closing steel "eyelids" prevent them from smashing through
the windows, and though Batman is able to avoid the effects of the gas with
nose-plugs from his utility belt, Robin, it seems, has forgotten to replace
his own nose-plugs. (Good thing for Robin he's not dealing with the more
harsh and prickly Batman of today, or even if he survived he'd get fired on the
spot for such a screwup.) Advising Robin to lie flat on the floor and remain
quiet, Batman desperately cuts through the chamber wall with an oxyacetylene
torch, and reaches Robin just in time to save his life and revive him with a
dose of oxygen. Hearing Larue gloat, "Ha, ha! That's the end of Batman and
Robin!", our heroes smash in to burst his bubble. "This is your finish in
crime-- you can count on it!" But the criminal mastermind has one more trap
in store, as he leaps through an escape chute and locks Batman and Robin in
the robot brain's central chamber, activating a device designed to set off a
cacophony of loud, discordant sounds designed to drive our heroes insane. "We
have....just one....faint chance!" gasps Robin. Sitting outside his robot
brain, Larue waits eagerly for his trap to do its work and leave the Dynamic
Duo "completely out of their minds". But suddenly he gets a "wild expression
on his face" and climbs up the robot head to deactivate the noise-trap control
located in its nose. Then he returns to the control room where an entirely
sane Batman and Robin are waiting for him, unable to remember what he has
done or why. Robin, it seems, has redeemed himself for his earlier goof by a
brilliant stroke. Just before Larue made his escape, the Boy Wonder spotted
his "camera", grabbed it and snapped a 'picture" of the mind-control
criminal. Now possessing Larue's own "brain-tape", Robin and Batman are able to
figure out how the device works and take control of Larue himself.
"Yes....thanks for rescuing us and capturing YOURSELF!"
Following house ads for BATMAN ("The Bat-Mite Hero!"), WORLD'S FINEST ("The
Ghost of Batman!") and BRAVE & BOLD #52 (no, not a Batman teamup-- rather, "3
Battle Stars," Sgt. Rock, airman Johnny Cloud and tankman Jeb Stuart teaming
up for a "Suicide Mission") -- the second feature is John Jones, Manhunter
from Mars in "The Beast Who Was J'onn J'onzz!" Art is by regular JJ artist
Joe Certa and the script, I'm guessing, is by regular writer Jack Miller. On
the splash, police in squad cars and helicopters are firing pistols and
machine guns at a fleeing blue-furred creature. Don't you know this is an
endangered species, guys? More than that, "How can I make them understand that I'm
the Manhunter and that I can't change back to my Martian form?" A crew of
archaeologists, accompanied by a vacationing Diane Meade (John Jones' police
colleague and quasi-romantic interest) discovers a petrified creature resembling
a purple stegosaurus (hi there, Barney) along with rock carvings of other
prehistoric monsters. Suddenly a bolt of lightning strikes the creature,
bringing it to life and panicking the archaeologists. "Gracious! What a
vacation this is turning out to be! I'd better contact Manhunter at once!" Diane's
message is relayed to Police Chief Harding and then to Detective John Jones,
who allows as how he might be able to get in touch with the mighty Martian;
"He's as good as alerted this instant, Chief!" (thought) And I'm not
kidding!" Stopping by his cave headquarters to pick up his extradimensional sidekick
Zook ("A creature? I not afraid if YOU there, Manhunter!") J'onn J'onzz
arrives on the scene to find that Barney has trapped the archaeologists and
Diane in a blind canyon. Taking on the creature with a flurry of punches,
Manhunter finds that the creature can't hurt him but he can't do it much damage
either. Shooing the archaeologists to safety, JJ carves out giant slabs of
stone to form into a wall trapping the creature harmlessly in the canyon.
As the Manhunter studies the cavern where the monster was found, "Martian
mental-power deciphers to ancient script" and he learns that Barney was created
by "the sorcerer Marlon to create havoc among the people!" On the other
hand, one of the other creatures carved on the cave wall has the power to defeat
the purple menace. But the inscription indicating which one is no longer
legible. Manhunter concludes he must use his shape-changing power to adopt the
form of the different creatures until he finds out which one is Barney's
nemesis. As Barney smashes out of his rocky prison, Manhunter takes the shape of
a green cross between a dinosaur and a praying mantis. It has the power to
cast "a ray-beam from its single eye", but the ray doesn't faze Barney, who
grabs the creature and nearly wrings its long neck before Manhunter can resume
his normal Martian form. The next form tried by Manhunter is a blue
creature with a funnel-shaped mouth that breathes fire. "How ironic it would be for
my single weakness on Earth to be the only thing that can conquer this
menace! Luckily it doesn't hurt me in this form!" Trouble is, the flames don't
hurt Barney either. And worse, the Manhunter-beast finds he is unable to
change forms again. "Is it because of the FIRE that burns within this beast's
body?" And naturally, just at that moment the local police arrive in force and
open fire, thinking the Manhunter is just another rampaging monster. And of
course, unlike Barney, this creature is vulnerable to bullets. It is Diane
Meade who is about to draw a bead on the Martian Monster (""N-not you, Diane!
Not YOU!") when Zook's antennae "scent" the creature's true identity and he
leaps at Diane to stop her shooting. But the other cops on the scene are
unconvinced-- "That little creature must have taken leave of its senses!"--
until the Manhunter gets an idea. Feigning shivering, he gets across to Zook
what he must do-- use his temperature--control power to freeze the blue
monster. Once the creature's internal fires are snuffed out by the cold,
Manhunter is able to change back to normal.
But meanwhile, Barney has broken loose again, and the Manhunter has no
choice but to adopt the form of the third and last of the cave-wall creatures, a
blobby violet monster, hoping as advertised it will be the one at last that
can stop Barney (and that he won't be trapped in its form too). Charging at
the purple creature, Manhunter's new form "spreads itself around the juggernaut
like a blanket" and "enfolds it tighter and tighter" until Barney flops
over unconscious. Returning to normal again, Manhunter prepares to "bury the
beast in deep ocean where no lightning can ever again reach it", when Zook runs
up to tell him, "I very glad you back to yourself again! I think you much
better looking now!" "Thanks, Zook! I love YOU, too!" (Uh oh.....is Dr.
Wertham paying attention?)
