Detective Comics #601: "Tulpa Part One: Monster Maker"

Detective Comics #601
"Tulpa Part One: Monster Maker"
June, 1989

Alan Grant: Story
Norm Breyfogle: Pencils
Steve Mitchell: Inks
Todd Klein: Letters
Adrienne Roy: Colors
Daniel Raspler: Associate Editor
Denny O'Neil: Editor
Bob Kane: Creator

At a red light on a Gotham City street corner, the driver of a Ferrari Testarossa wants to know if the driver of the Batmobile wants to race! When the driver of the Batmobile questions the sanity of the driver in the Ferrari Testarossa, the impromptu drag race begins --

SKREEEEEEEEEE The Ferrari Testarossa burns rubber and almost runs down two startled pedestrians! SKEEE Seeing that the driver is obviously not in his right mind -- when the light turns green, the Batmobile SKREEEEEEs into action! The Ferrari Testarossa has a five liter engine, is capable of sixty miles in under six seconds, and its top speed is just over one hundred and eighty -- VVRR<<<<<< As the Batman engages the Batmobile's turbo jet, he admits wondering how his own vehicle would do in just such a competition! RROARR

Two Gotham City police officers are enjoying their break, when they see, and hear the Ferrari MMMMMing past their parked patrol car! They are forced to skid when the Batmobile ROARRs by, and they turn on the siren WREEOOOEEE By the time the patrol car reaches the speed limit, the two cars will be in Canada! What the heck -- the police officer always wanted to give a hero a speeding ticket! WREEOOOO RRRM As the Batmobile RROOAAAAAAAARRRs along, the Batman hopes that the two officers are aware he is doing this for a good reason.

The Ferrari is on a direct course with an oncoming bus! The Darknight Detective must time this just -- right! The Batmobile THUMPS into the side of the Ferrari, which causes the Testarossa to SKREE, and Batman deploys the air bags -- and chute! FWAMP FOOP The Batmobile SSKREEEEEEs into the back of the bus with nary a BUMP on the air bags.

The Ferrari Testarossa SKRENCHes and SKRUNGGs into a nary alleyway meant only for cycles. Its bodywork will never be the same again! As the Batman confronts the driver of the Ferrari, he gets a closer look at the man's face -- and the skull beneath the cracking skin!

The driver disintegrates in the Darknight Detective's own hands! When the two police officers arrive at the scene, they are also at a loss to explain what has just happened here.

The sacred realm of Tibet where the snow falls in the summer is what he has often dreamt of -- He imagines the Potala Palace -- where the sun is streaming from the gilded roofs -- and the holy men are bricked up alive in their tombs --where the master of chants calls up his poems to God from the roof of the world! One day, he would like to return -- back to where he was conceived, but which he never got to see. It is much easier now because the Chinese are no longer as hostile as when his father was a young man. Perhaps he will have his chance -- perhaps if everything goes well this evening -- RRNG He heads for the door, hoping that it has all worked out, and there will be an end to this once and --

He is not glad to see his visitors as they are to see him. Mr. Kellogg knows a way to get some color into his cheeks -- especially if he doesn't have their money! When he insists to them that the money is on the way, Cecil and Lumps are told to show him what happens to liars! Cecil and Lumps give him one to GROOH on!

Mr. Kellogg decides to give him the benefit of the doubt. They will have a pot of tea while they wait for his friend to return. The owner of the Ferrari was unaware it was stolen. He had been asleep at the time when the thief cracked open the safe and took the car keys. There was seven thousand dollars in the safe -- and the thief only took five. The antiques were untouched -- but the owner is distraught when he learns of the Ferrari's current condition in a downtown alley.

When the Batman assures him the Ferrari went out in style, and the owner will collect the insurance money, there is still a two-year waiting list to be considered! With no prints on the car, the trail ends here. The identity of the disintegrated Ferrari heister will remain a tabloid mystery! After being thanked by the Darknight Detective for their cooperation, the two police officers watch as the Batmobile SKREEEEEEEEs away, and only then does one of them realize that he forgot to give Batman his ticket! Randy reminds Mick that the costumed hero did save a bus, and Mick only regrets not having a story to tell his grandchildren!

Dawn at the Tibet Shop finds Mr. Kellogg not enjoying Tenzin's tea, and he is beginning to suspect that he has made fools of them. The tea is SPSHed in Tenzin's face, as Mr. Kellogg's boys do what they have to do, with extreme relish!

Dawn is the start of a new day for most -- but for the Batman, the dawn marks the end of another evening. This has not been a satisfactory night -- with the mystery of what happened to the Ferrari thief... to be solved on another evening. Mr. Kellogg and his boys exit the Tibet Shop, confident that Tenzin will be in touch with his friend, and they will be seeing him again this evening!

This evening -- tomorrow night -- every night! If Tenzin doesn't find the money, Kellogg and his boys will keep coming back... If his father only knew what he was letting his son in for. Five thousand dollars was not worth all this pain! Tenzin cannot rely on his... friend. He knew he should have insisted on him being less arrogant and less aggressive -- more agreeable. But Tenzin was in a hurry, and it was such an effort for Tenzin... He cannot rest if he is ever to be free of Kellogg and his goons. Tenzin will have to try again. He goes down... deep... down into his own mind. And he looks for his friend.

The sun has hardly set when Bruce Wayne has risen once more. He knows that a few minutes can sometimes make all the difference in the world. As Alfred asks if there is anything for the wash, Bruce recalls what he has checked on references to sudden disappearances -- the transportation of matter -- even alien abductions... but nothing remotely comes close to explaining what happened to the Ferrari thief. When Alfred asks if he expects to find anything, Bruce admits he does not expect anything... but as the Batman, he accepts what the evening brings! Tenzin asks his friend if he understands that he is not to take any unnecessary risks. Violence is to be used as a last resort. No matter how much money there is, he is steal only five thousand dollars.

The target has been selected -- it is a quiet place out of town. If he is discovered, he must flee immediately -- and let no one detain him! This quiet place is the home of wealthy socialite -- Bruce Wayne! After scaling the walls of Wayne Manor, he will take no unnecessary risks as he slips past the electric-eye beams on the grounds. He will alert no one to his presence as he forces the windows open, but he does not account for Alfred Pennyworth, who knows the manor's moods like the back of his own hand.

He will remove only five thousand dollars from the safe. He will return to... but his presence is discovered by the Wayne Manor butler! He leaps at Alfred Pennyworth with such force, that the hapless butler drops both his gun and flashlight from either hand! BLAM! There is a minimum use of violence POW! to the butler and another SPAK when Alfred attempts to prevent his exit!

As he flees from Wayne Manor, three muggers are trying their luck with the Batman in an alley! If he had a penny for every time some punk tried that -- he'd have enough to pay their dental bill! TOK BRINGG! BRINGG! The ringing from the Batmobile puts an end to this round, and their consciousness. KIKT After seeing that the mugging victim is okay, the Darknight Detective checks in with Alfred.

There's been a spot of bother at Wayne Manor and the perpetrator became rather physical with the butler when he remonstrated with him... Before calling for a doctor, Alfred thought he should check in first. He did get a good look at his attacker and also managed to place a batbug on him. It so happened that the homing locator came out in the wash, the pocket of the other tunic to be exact! The batbug is coming through crystal clear and Alfred's assailant is heading down Ryker's Park. When he suggests that Alfred call himself a doctor, the butler reminds Master Bruce that he is a doctor. SKREEEEEE Robbing the homes of the rich -- he can understand, even when it's his own. But beating up on Alfred -- that brings out the worst in him!

He has failed. He was interrupted and forced to use violence to flee. It is as if Yama himself conspired against Tenzin! Since he may have been seen and traced here, Tenzin does as he must! It does not want to die! Tenzin knows it has no desires because it is a Tulpa -- a shadow doppleganger given substance by the power of his own mind! The Tulpa cannot die -- for it was never alive! As Tenzin made it from naught... so is the Tulpa returned to naught. Tenzin feels like a murderer -- as if he has its blood on his hands! He finds it most odd that even the faintest bit of life is so reluctant to renounce its precious gift...

Amid the ashes, Tenzin finds the mark of the Batman! The batbug is squashed in one hand -- FRTZZZ The Batmobile closes in on Ryker's Park when the bug ceases transmission. Whether it has been found or has fallen off -- the result is the same. The Batman knows he is somewhere in the area.

After scaling up the side of a building, the Darknight Detective settles in with a pair of binoculars, and is prepared to demonstrate that batbugs are not the only trick in his repertoire -- Knowing Rafe Kellogg will be back again -- Tenzin can already hear his voice -- and feel the thugs' sharp blows... Tenzin also knows he can take no more. This evening, it must end -- one way or the other! He is sorry that he must do what his father warned him never to do.

Kellogg and his thugs will find no mere Tulpa waiting for them! Tenzin goes down... deep into his own mind. And he goes looking for a demon from hell!

On the cover of Detective Comics #601 by Norm Breyfogle, the Tulpa in a stolen Ferrari is being cut off by the Darknight Detective in his Batmobile!

Daring the Batman to a street race is something I'd never thought I'd see, but leave it to Alan Grant to show what would happen if such a thing ever came to pass.

Norm Breyfogle is great at capturing the moments, whether it be Batman's grim discovery of the Ferrari thief's unnatural mode of departure, the Gotham City police officer's regret that he didn't get to ticket the Batmobile, and the Tulpa disproving Tenzin's assessment of it lacking a life of its own.

Todd Klein shines with his lettering which captures the reader's eye and the sounds of the action.

Adrienne Roy's coloring captures the mood, whether it be reflected by the light of a police siren or taking place in the small confines of a Tibetan Shop.

It's a good thing that Bruce Wayne is a rich man because there's a lot of punks who could use help with their dental bills when the Batman gets through with them.

Gotham City dentists must love Batman!

It's a good thing Alfred is a doctor because Bruce Wayne doesn't believe in house calls.

Ashes to ashes, Tenzin does what he must!

To deal with demons from hell, Tenzin must conjure up one of his very own.

Steve Chung
"Tulpa Part One: Monster Review!"

Detective Comics 276, "The Return of Bat-Mite"

Detective 276, "The Return of Bat-Mite"

  February 1960
by Bill Finger, Sheldon Moldoff and Charles Paris
Batwoman riding the Bat-Cycle leads the way, followed by Batman and Robin in the Batmobile. Bat-Mite hovers over Batwoman's shoulder. He appears to be sitting on her cape as it flaps in the wind. She has one of those bright "Pepsodent" smiles that nobody in the House of Bat is allowed to wear any more. But stoic Batman warns Robin of ominous doings once Bat-Mite starts "helping" Batwoman.
On the splash Batwoman asks Robin "What's going on here?" and well she might, as Batman as just used a pair of giant tweezers as a springboard to launch himself into the air after three crooks who are riding a giant postage stamp like a magic carpet. Batman's giant penny looms in the background although they're not in the Bat Cave. And Bat-Mite does cartwheels in the air. "OBOYOBOYOBOY! What Fun!"
OK, the stamps and the coin are because Batman, Robin and Batwoman are chasing the Hobby Robbers. Batman figures they'll be attacking the Coliseum's rare stamps and coins exhibit. (And since I've never seen an eight foot tall penny, I would guess they would be pretty rare.) Batwoman goes to the Gotham Library to guard an exhibit of rare books. (Batman figures the books are worthless because they haven't been slabbed.)
"Flailing fists hammer their targets until..." Bill Finger often think hands move of their own volition. It would be a short fight but the giant coin suddenly cuts the Dynamic Duo off and a giant postage stamp scoops up the gangsters and carries them out of Batman's reach. Batman jumps to the immediate conclusion that Bat-Mite must be around, then jumps on the giant tweezers and launches himself into space. Amazed by the antics of the "Acro-Batman" (another unique Finger touch) the gang immediately surrenders. Then Batman attempts to convince the crooks they were hypnotized and hadn't really gone flying in the air at all.
After the police have carted the gang away, Batman summons Bat-Mite to show himself and proceeds to dress him down. "Crime Fighting is serious business!" he scowls. (See, Batman was always a grump. Nowadays he's a legendary grump.)
Rebuffed by Batman, Bat-Mite decides to play Batwoman a visit in her secret lair. (Does every home in Gotham City have a cave in the basement?) Bat-Mite lays on the soft soap and soon Batwoman is putty in his hands. Batman, the close mouthed loner that he is, has never bothered to warn Batwoman about the little imp.)
She soon finds out however. After she has quickly subdued the gang the Hobby Robber has sent to steal a famous musical instrument collection (it only takes her two panels) Bat-Mite decides to liven things up a little. He uses a bass fiddle as a crossbow and tangles Batwoman up, but Batwoman catches up to the gang when they climb a pipe organ to reach the skylight. A few well-placed notes and soon they're bouncing a beat on a giant bass drum trampoline! Batwoman too, now turns on Bat-Mite and the little scamp is beginning to feel extremely unappreciated. But back at the Bat Cave, the Mite of Mischief overhears a secret plan that the Bat boys don't plan to share with their lady friend. Quickly returning to Batwoman's Lair, he spills the beans and he and KK are bosom buddies again!
A good thing, too, because Batman's plan backfires and he and Robin are caught. The Hobby Robber trusses them up, dumps them in his swimming pool and attacks them with his model battleship collection. The radio controlled boats, unlike the ones at your local amusement park, fire real ammunition!
When Batwoman breaks up that piece de resistance, though, the Hobby Robber falls back on a real full-sized machine gun, only to have Bat-Mite launch an army of toy soldiers in response! For once Batman is grateful for the Imp of Imposition's help. Batwoman even plants a big kiss on him, which causes an embarrassed Bat-Mite to scamper off to his home dimension. (Where is that anyway?)
13 pages of dizzying wonderment, strange happenings, weird settings, and acro-batic action. Pretty satisfying read, I think.
So what did I think as an eight-year-old? Well, I had been reading Batman for about a year at this point, so I already knew who Batman, Robin, and Batwoman were. Bat-Mite was a new character. I wasn't to read his first appearance until it was reprinted in an Annual some time later. I had read about Mr. Mxyzptlk however, and even as an eight-year-old, I knew a rip off when I saw it. Bat-Mite never quite jelled for me. His on-again off-again sometime menace didn't really impress me. I don't think he really came into his own until he and Mxy "teamed up" in World's Finest sometime later on. The thing I like most about Batman at the time was the weird art, the strange looking villains (The Hobby Robber was a grossly over weight fellow with pig ears. I think he escaped from a Carl Barks story.), the giant props which appeared in almost every story, and the incredible collection of minutiae that Batman spouted at the drop of a clue. I have no idea how many of the facts the Caped Crusader whipped out were true and how many Finger and Company made up at the spur of the moment. But I believed all of them.
Next up was Roy Raymond in "The Great Space Hoax" by Jack Miller and Ruben Moreira (signed!- How come Moreira got to sign his stuff when nobody else did?) Roy Raymond is the host of the fabulous TV show, "Impossible, But True". Why it's called that, I don't know, because he spent the entire 10-year length of his series exposing every one of them as a hoax. He's so convinced every body is a liar he must be related to Terry Thirteen in some way.
So- he and his lovely assistant Karen are both being flown away in a space ship in the splash panel, and her knee jerk reaction is that it must be a rear screen projection. Roy wants to know what's the point of such "obvious" special effects. (I think I sat behind these two at the Spider-Man movie.)
The story starts when a bald headed man approaches Roy at the end of his show and challenges him to expose the hoax he's going to present him with. Roy thinks this is a refreshing switch and he and Karen accompany the man off into the deep woods where they find a space ship. Inside the three are immediately whisked into space and soon land on a alien planet. Karen is convinced it's a movie set but Roy suddenly whirls and rips the bald guy's mask off. Jinkies! He's a REAL alien!!!!!! He's really upset that Roy has seen through his trick, and thus an aerial space chase ensues that could be really exciting if the story had been more than 6 pages long. It all turns out that the people on this alien planet watch Roy's show every week and this guy had a bet he could fool Roy. It seems sore losers are universal though. The aliens apologize and send Roy back to Earth so that they can continue to watch his fabulous show.
I could never stand Roy. Usually I didn't bother to read him at all. Ruben Moreira's art never really moved me either. Not sure why, as I drooled over Leonard Starr's work in On Stage and the styles are almost identical. Perhaps it just worked better in black and white.
Rounding out the book was "The Crimes of John Jones," by Jack Miller and Joe Certa.
"The Martian Marvel amazingly reverses his manhunting role as he joins the underworld!"
When Detective John Jones spots "Big Boy" Benson and his bad boys breaking a bank he "undergoes a startling transformation" (meaning he turns green and bald and starts running around in his underwear. - Manhunter's and Hawkman's barechested approach to crime fighting never appealed to me. I had to wear a coat when reading their adventures.) The Sleuth from Space pursues the crooks at a speed that makes him invisible and quickly up ends their vehicle dumping them out on the street. ("Yipes!") Then he abruptly sits down in a daze. The criminals theorize a cosmic cloud passing between Earth and Mars has given the Manhunter amnesia, so they try to convince him he's part of their gang. Soon ol' JJ is moving train tracks for them, so they can commit train robberies in peace. He even reveals his "Earth identity" to them. (Why do they assume he has one I wonder?) To top everything, he steals an ocean liner for them! They can't think of anything else to do with it, so they bring it to Big Boy's secret hideout, where JJ promptly arrests the gang leader. The cosmic cloud has moved and his memory is restored. Or was it all a trap to catch the gang leader all along? The Sleuth from Space isn't spilling the beans.
Oh- and that picture they took of his "Earth Identity"? "Ridiculous", says the Manhunter, "If I had amnesia, how would I remember what my Earth guise looked like?"
6 pages over and out. This was probably the first Manhunter story I ever read. Not sure what I thought of him. I sort of liked his quirky weirdness, but his ability to just yank super powers out of nowhere irked me and I could tell even then that fire was a stupid weakness. I liked Certa's art though. He made J'Onzz float through the air as if he didn't care whether he was touching the ground or not. Ghostly and ethereal, nothing like him anywhere (until Marvel came up with the Vision- and the Spectre was revived years later). I never really thought of him as being a Superman clone. His main problem was that he never seemed to develop a supporting cast or a roster of villains- two things that are really necessary to make a strip successful.
So of the two books that I owned for a very short time in 1960, my impulse purchases with money that was supposed to go for a school insurance policy, the Detective was definitely the better selection. The Batman of that era suited me just fine. It never occurred to me that he needed a new look. He probably needed to pay more attention to that Batwoman though.

Detective Comics # 234, "Batman and Robin's Greatest Mystery!"

DETECTIVE COMICS # 234, "Batman and Robin's Greatest Mystery!"

  August 1956; DC Comics; Jack Schiff, editor (Whitney Ellsworth on the indicia); featuring "Batman and Robin's Greatest Mystery!"
What mystery is that? "In this issue Batman and Robin solve the mystery of their own secret identities!" On the cover, Batman and Robin are struck by a strange ray and babble, "Who-- who are we? What are we doing here in these strange costumes?" as the sinister figure firing the ray from a nearby window gloats, "It worked! My sonic projector gave Batman and Robin amnesia!"
I don't know the writer or artist of "Batman and Robin's Greatest Mystery!"... the "Bob Kane" art is a bit more crude than usual and doesn't really look like regular Bat-ghost Sheldon Moldoff, let alone Dick Sprang. On the splash page, Commissioner Gordon shows our heroes photos of their past exploits, but the snapshots fail to jog their memories; "A great danger threatens Gotham City, but we can't remember what it is-- or who we are!" As Alfred the butler prepares to serve dinner to Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson, the meal is interrupted by the Bat-Signal, sending the pair off as Batman and Robin to investigate a robbery of scientific equipment from the Gotham Research Foundation. "Only a robber with a scientific background could safely break into this dangerous electrical equipment!", Batman declares, guessing that the culprit is "Jay Caird, the scientist who was jailed for espionage". One of the stolen items is an "ultra-sonic projector which can STUN animals (and people) into unconsciousness", and as Batman and Robin track the crooks to their lair, they discover that the gang plans to use the beam to blanket crime scenes and knock out all potential witnesses. Our heroes crash through a window into the hideout to stop the crooks' plan, but Caird the criminal scientist targets Batman and Robin with the sonic projector and then the gang flees, taking the projector along. When Commissioner Gordon and his cops arrive on the scene, Batman not only cannot remember what the gang's criminal scheme was, he and Robin can't even remember who they are!
The suggestion is made to take Batman and Robin home so that they will recognize their surroundings, but nobody, including them, knows where their home is. Meeting with Commissioner Gordon, Batman and Robin ask him to tell them who they really are, but he explains that though they have helped him for years, even he does not know their true identities. Nor does it help when they take their masks off in private, for they don't recognize their own faces. The only hope to foil the criminal plot that threatens Gotham is for them to use their detective abilities to ferret out their own identities. Studying old newspaper files, they learn that they have performed some spectacular feats-- defeating a giant "crime-robot", rescuing people from a burning tower, and tracking down an undersea criminal hideout in the Batmarine-- but find no clues to their identities. Batman asks Gordon if he left any clue when he first offered to help the police as Batman, and the Commissioner describes their first meeting ...it seems that Gordon was working late in his office one night and "looked upward in amazement" as a cloaked figure appeared. "That queer costume-- that mask! Who are you?" "My real name, no one will ever know! But you can call me -- BATMAN!" And I want to help the police in their work! I've trained myself thoroughly, and want to help enforce the law!" Instead of calling for the men in the white coats with the butterfly nets, Gordon merely advised, "I appreciate your spirit-- but police work isn't for amateurs!" Batman proved his worth by solving a robbery at the "Museum of Time", deducing that the crook was hiding inside the only stopped clock in the place, and then swinging on a giant pendulum to capture him. Explaining his motivation, Batman told Commissioner Gordon, "I've suffered from crime and I WANT to fight it!"-- and so, in the present, Batman gets his first clue, that he is a man who was hurt by crime. (This would all be a lot simpler if Batman would just unmask for Gordon, who would recognize his friend Bruce Wayne, but even as an amnesiac he's apparently too paranoid about his identity to do that.)
Studying more of their past exploits, Batman and Robin read of an early case in which Batman skillfully piloted the Batplane to catch an out of control biplane-- leading our heroes to conclude that Batman must be a trained pilot with an aviator's license. They read of yet another case in which they fought crooks inside a machine shop, and the owner willingly wrecked his whole plant in order to save the crimefighters from danger. Batman and Robin seek out the owner Melden, thinking he may have helped them because he knew them, but he has no clue to their identity-- except that Batman paid for the whole $90,000 loss from his own personal fortune. This reveals that Batman is a rich man. Robin observes this is a surprise, since Batman has calluses on his hand, which suggest he is a "workingman of some kind". This gives Batman an idea, and he tries out various manual activities to find out which one would produce those kinds of calluses. Swinging a polo mallet, he realizes that it would create the right kind of callus, and deduces that he is a polo player. Robin, again, adds another seemingly obvious clue; "You must have a son or younger brother-- me!" Searching through sporting records of Gotham polo players, they find one name that fits all the clues; "His father was a victim of crime, he's rich, a flier, and a polo player!" That name, of course, belongs to Bruce Wayne, and Batman and Robin rush to stately Wayne Manor, the mere sight of which reawakens their memories not only of their true identities-- "You're not my son or brother, but my ward!"-- but of the criminal plot to knock a city block unconscious, which is just about to be carried out. Fearing massive casualties as drivers stunned by the sonic beam crash into each other, Batman and Robin hurry to the scene and deduce that the beam projector is hidden inside a large van on the street. Swooping down, they capture Caird and his gang before he can activate the beam projector; "You got OFF the beam and you'll be put back on it-- in prison!" The inventor of the sonic beam urges Batman himself to take it for safekeeping, and he and Robin install it among the trophies in the Batcave; "A trophy of our strangest mystery-- the mystery of our own identities!" "And we can thank our stars that WE are the only ones who ever solved that mystery!"
Also in the issue, Roy Raymond, TV Detective, solves the secret of "The Man Who Hid His Powers!", drawn by the series' regular artist Ruben Moreira. On the splash panel, the man in question is so annoyed by Roy's brand of ambush journalism that he takes off flying from an upper story window. After covering the launch of a new U.S. Army "bug-jet", Roy and assistant Karen are startled to observe a man whose body glows in the dark. But when they ask him what is the cause, he claims he was just smeared with some fluorescent paint-- which Roy doesn't believe, since the "paint' doesn't rub off when they shake hands. Then they spot the same man escape unharmed when a falling safe bounces off his head-- but again, the man claims nothing unusual, insisting that the safe missed his head and hit a nearby post ... a post which, however, is undamaged by the heavy safe. Roy is convinced that the man is hiding some kind of paranormal powers--a suspicion that is confirmed when they see him flying through the air. Confronting the mystery man, Roy declares, "I think I know what this is all about! WHAT PLANET ARE YOU FROM, MISTER?" Caught at last, the man confesses that he is a stranded traveler from the planet Mars, in need of radium to recharge the batteries of his downed spaceship. Roy offers to help obtain radium from the nearby army hospital. On the way, the Martian explains that "we have powers to change ourselves at will-- or speak the languages spoken on all the planets!" But on arriving at the "spaceship", the "Martian" boasts of how he has fooled the famous and brilliant Roy Raymond. On the contrary, Roy says, he has known for some time that the appearance of the "Martian" is a swindle to rob valuable radium from the army. The swindler knew that if he simply claimed to be a Martian, Roy would never believe him, but if he tried to "hide" his supposed extraterrestrial powers, it would make his story seem more convincing. And Roy believed him at first, but realized the truth when the "Martian" did his "flying" act, but left no footprints in the earth where he landed. The "flying man" was really an air-filled dummy. Roy then figured out how the fluorescent glowing and the falling safe were tricks perpetrated with the help of fellow gang members. But why did Roy help the gang steal radium? He didn't-- the box of "radium" actually contains a radio signal device which leads soldiers to the scene to arrest the gang.
If Roy wanted to meet a real, flying, shape-changing Martian, he would only have needed to hang around a few more pages for the last story in the issue, featuring John Jones, Manhunter from Mars-- "The Carnival of Doom!", drawn by Joe Certa. Though he was normally reticent in these early stories, J'onn J'onzz showed himself on the splash panel to a gang of crooks riding the "Tunnel of Thrills" ride, causing them to exclaim, "Help! Call the police! Call the army! It's a Martian invasion!" "No, it's only ONE Martian-- traveling so swiftly I look like a whole platoon!" Police Chief Harding's nephew Willy (who resembles Howdy Doody and is described as "quite a handful") is visiting for the week, and detective John Jones volunteers for one of his most harrowing missions-- taking Willy to the Wonderland amusement park. A gang of three hoods also visiting the park recognize Jones, crack detective of the Middletown police force, and resolve to get rid of him before he can expose their crime scheme at the carnival. One of the crooks sabotages the track of a "mechanical horse" ride Jones and Willy are riding, but Jones momentarily assumes his invisible Martian identity and spins at super-speed to generate heat and weld together the severed track. Next, Jones and Willy are sent on an "unscheduled flight" as the cable holding a whirling plane ride is cut ...Jones allows himself to plunge from the miniature plane only to change identities again and use his Martian super-breath to waft the plane with Willy in it safely to the ground. The credulous kid concludes that "a strong wind caught the plane and let me down easy", and also buys Jones' explanation that "I was lucky! Something slowed down my fall, too!" Then Jones hears a shout that the park safe has been looted, and realizes why someone is so eager to get him out of the way. He pursues the crooks who are making their getaway through the park's "Tunnel of Thrills" ride, but his chase is impeded when Willy insists on going on the ride with him. The crooks topple a giant cartoon statue to try to crush Jones, but he uses his hand as a "super-propeller" to speed the boat past the falling statue. Then the Martian Manhunter makes a rare personal appearance to the crooks, causing them to forget their escape plan and flee into the arms of the police babbling of a "Martian invasion". The cops assume they saw nothing but part of the ride's thrill show, and when Willy insists that he too saw "strange creatures", Jones reassures him, "You were probably a little confused by all the thrilling effects in there!"

Detective Comics #275, "The Zebra Batman!"

DETECTIVE COMICS #275; January 1960; DC Comics (National Comics Publications); Jack Schiff, editor (Murray Boltioff & George Kashdan, associate editors); cover-featuring "The Zebra Batman!"  On the cover, Batman stands on a Gotham City street with a black and white zebra-stripe pattern replacing his usual gray and blue-black look.  Radiation from his body is knocking over a car and a lamppost, bystanders are fleeing in terror, and a distraught Robin is warning, "G-get back, everybody!  Batman has become a MENACE!"

Review by Bill Henley

On the splash page, Batman looks normal, driving the Batmobile, but he and Robin are facing a villain sporting the glowing zebra look.  The Zebra-Man boasts, "Now, Batman, I'll show you what I can REALLY do with my power!", and emits lightning-like bolts from his arm which send a water tank crashing down toward the Batmobile.  Robin helpfully warns, "Look out, Batman! The Zebra-Man has sent that water tank crashing down at us!"

One day, "socialite Bruce Wayne and his ward, Dick Grayson" don their costumes and set out to patrol Gotham City as Batman and Robin.  They come across a robbery in progress at the Gotham Art Museum, and one of the masked bandits has an unusual fashion sense; "he's) wearing some sort of costume with weird, glowing stripes!"  The "Zebra-Man" touches a button on his belt and "strange emanations from his fingers" tear the locked steel doors of the gallery asunder!  "Okay, boys-- now let's grab some of the priceless paintings inside!"  (Priceless maybe, but pretty traceable and hard to fence, no?  Maybe this elementary mistake in choice of loot is meant to mislead any misguided young readers who may be tempted to don a zebra-striped costume and go out robbing.  After all, the Comics Code says not to teach kids the unique methods of any crime.)  Despite being startled by the Zebra-Man's method of entry, Robin is confident of the outcome; "We caught 'em flatfooted, Batman!  They're as good as captured!"  Maybe not... Zebra-Man uses his forceful personality to push a life-size knight statue over on to Batman, knocking him down.  By the time our hero recovers, the gang is fleeing in a car, and our heroes pursue in the Batmobile.  It is then that Zebra-Man uses his power to topple a water tank.  Batman manages to swerve out of the way, but the Batmobile gets stuck in a ditch as the Zebra-Man and his henchmen make their escape.  "We'll never get that striped character now!  Who is he?  What do those stripes mean?" 

As Batman alerts the police department, and Gotham newspapers report the Zebra-Man's raid, back in his "secret laboratory" the Zebra-Man explains to one of his gang members the source of his power.  It seems that he is a scientist with criminal leanings who studied how all energy, such as magnetic energy, has "lines of force!"  He found a way to charge his body with energy so powerful that the glowing lines of force are visible on his costume in a zebra-like pattern!  But he has to be careful to keep the power under control by means of a special belt on his costume; "If I hadn't pressed THIS button first and put the force in NEUTRAL, everything in this room would have been sent flying back!... because without this belt, the powerful force cannot be controlled!" 

Meanwhile, at police headquarters, Batman and Robin are searching through the "rogues' gallery" records for a clue.  There are no zebra-striped faces in the mug shots, but Batman does recognize one of the masked henchmen by the grey streak in his black hair.  He is Jo-Jo Forbes, and frurther investigation reveals that Jo-Jo recently purchased a boat called the "Dolphin," presumably for use in one of the Zebra-Man's crime schemes.  Indeed,  out at sea the crew of a salvage ship, preparing to dive for gold bullion contained in a sunken vessel, spots the "Dolphin" with the Zebra-Man clearly visible on deck.  Using his magnetic powers, Zebra-Man raises the sunken gold ship from the sea bottom and tows it away! (Hmmm... couldn't Zebra-Man have skipped the art theft and grabbed the sunken gold without actually breaking any laws?  As far as I can figure, he would have as much salvage right as anyone else, even if he beat a rival salvage crew out by using his powers.  Another example of a comic book villain being at once very smart-- enough to create amazing scientific devices-- and very, very stupid-- using his powers to commit crimes and tangle with superheroes instead of finding legal and lucrative ways to exploit them.) 

The Batplane arrives above the scene and Batman leaps down upon the shoulders of Zebra-Man, hoping to subdue him before he can switch his powers from "attracting" force to "repelling".  But one of the henchmen pulls Batman off his boss; "Good work!  Stand clear-- I'LL take care of him now!"  He repels Batman overboard into the water, Our hero climbs a rope ladder to reach the Batplane piloted by Robin, but Zebra-Man creates a tidal wave which raises the formerly sunken ship into the air to strike the Batplane!  The broken-winged Batplane crashes into the water and stays afloat on its pontoons, so Batman and Robin survive to be picked up by a passing ship, but once again Zebra-Man has escaped with his loot!  Once again the Deductive Duo go looking for clues, and discover the "Dolphin" boat abandoned with signs the gang transferred the gold to a getaway truck.  A mud sample from one of the gang's footprints contains sulphur, which is only found in the soil of one area of Gotham City, and in that remote area our heroes find a cabin which they suspect to be the Zebra-Man's secret lair!

Finding Zebra-Man tinkering with his scientific equipment, Batman directs Robin to "get the Zebra-Man" while he handles the henchmen.  But Robin accidentally joggles a switch and Batman is himself "imbued with an eerie light" which infuse in him the same zebra-striped lines of force as his foe!  However, his zebra energy is uncontrolled, and it knocks everyone-- Robin, the gang, and Zebra-Man himself-- backwards!  (What, Bats, you forgot to install a Secret Bat-Lines-of-Force-Neutralizer compartment in your Utility Belt?  Shame on you.)  The uncontrolled force emanating from Batman also wrecks Zebra-Man's machine.  Zebra-Man adjusts his own lines of force to repel Batman's, and now Batman cannot get at his foe-- or at anything else!  As Zebra-Man flees, gloating that Batman will be "a prisoner of the force-lines" forever, Zebra-Batman warns Robin to stay clear of him lest he be shattered like a nearby tree.  Without a control belt, "I'm a menace to anyone who comes near me!"  And "in his mind's eye, Batman envisions a tragic future..."  He'll be unable to eat food, since his force field will repel any food brought near him. (A few years later, in an X-MEN story, Unus the Untouchable had a similar problem.)  If he resumes his Bruce Wayne identity, his secret will be exposed to all as the glowing zebra stripes shine through his Bruce clothes.  He'll be feared and shunned by all and will have to abandon Gotham City in order to avoid endangering the public.  (Actually, if he's going to be unable to eat or drink, he won't have to worry about any of this other stuff for very long...)  As he flees from Robin, Batman urges the Boy Wonder to try to track down and defeat Zebra-Man; "Finish the job I couldn't do!  I can never work with you again!"  "No, Batman... d-don't say that!"

"Like an outcast, Batman wanders off alone-- always careful to keep his terrible power away from anyone or anything near him!"  But he does wander near a junkyard, and notices that his super-charged body is attracted by an electromagnet attached to a crane.  This gives him an idea of how to escape his dilemma, and he rushes back toward Zebra-Man's hideout, where Robin is still searching for clues.  Robin has found a sketch of the next robbery target which Zebra-Man and his gang have "cased."  "Robin, here's what I want you to do-- and FAST-- before the Zebra-Man gets there!"  Just one hour later, the Zebra gang arrive at the Gotham Storage Co., where Zebra-Man tears down a steel door to give his henchmen access to a load of valuable furs.  But as they start to make their getaway, Zebra-Batman arrives on the scene to stop them!  Zebra-Man tells his gang to just stay clear of him and he'll use his repelling power to make sure Batman can't reach them.  But the unexpected happens; as Zebra-Man approaches Batman, instead of the Striped Crusader being pushed away, the two of them are pulled toward each other!  As Zebra-Man is yanked into his grasp, Batman is able to punch him on the chin and pull his control belt off him, causing the lines of force to vanish from the villain's body.  (I had the impression that the belt only kept the force lines on Zebra-Man under control, but didn't actually cause them.  But never mind...)  After using his own repulsion power to knock the gang into the hands of the police, Batman puts on the control belt and uses it to cancel out his own lines of force.  Batman explains to a puzzled ex-Zebra-Man that after realizing that an opposite charge would attract his body, "I charged that manhole cover so that it would reverse your force field, making it OPPOSITE to mine!"  Later, Batman and Robin visit Zebra-Man in prison and are amused to note that he's still wearing stripes!  No, he's not wearing an old-fashioned striped prison uniform, but shadows from the bars on the window fall across his body giving him a striped look.

I came across this issue and picked it out to review because I vaguely remember reading the story when it first came out, when I was about six years old.  As I recall, I thought the zebra look was kind of cool and almost wished Batman could keep it permanently.  Someone else must have remembered it also; there was a BATMAN: BRAVE & THE BOLD animated episode (I think it was just the short teaser to the episode) where Batman goes through a whole bunch of these strange changes from Silver Age stories, including Zebra Batman, Mummy Batman and others. 

Next in the issue is "The Best Present of All!", one of the public-service pages with uplifting mesages that often appeared in DC comics i the 50's and 60's (reportedly they were a pet project of editor Jack Schiff).  Some of these pages starred Superman, Superboy or other costumed heroes, but this one features Archie-wannabe Binky, who kept on appearing occasionally in the public-service pages long after his own comic book bit the dust.  Here, Binky helps convince the impoverished Allergy that the home-made gifts and generous deeds he did for others were just as good as the expensive store-bought gifts he couldn't afford.

Roy Raymond, TV Detective stars in "The Super Brain-Maker!", drawn by Ruben Moreira (the GCD doesn't identify a writer).  In this story, which I'm not going to cover in much detail, Roy Raymond uncovers a hoax perpetrated by an inventor named Craven (anybody with a name like that in a comic book is up to no good) who claims to have created a helmet that will transform anyone who wears it into a super-genius capable of solving any problem.  In reality, the helmet only contains a two-way radio by which the wearer can receive info from confederates to make him look smart. 

Finally, John Jones, Manhunter from Mars, meets "John Jones' Pesky Partner!"  Actually, he meets her again, as this is the second appearance for policewoman Diane Meade, who debuted back in 'TEC #246 (Aug. 1957) as "John Jones' Female Nemesis!"  That was before J'onn J'onzz began functioning publicly as a superhero, and John Jones' problem was to satisfy Miss Meade's curiosity about his highly successful detecting methods without revealing that those methods were based on use of his secret Martian powers.  He put up with the nuisance partly because "she IS kind of pretty.. as, er, Earth girls go!"  and at the end of the story, having reverted to his true Martian form, he wondered, "Would her eyes sparkle if she saw me in my NATURAL state-- like this? *Sigh* A Martian on Earth can lead an awfully lonely existence!"

Here, we may find out how Diane reacts to John Jones' true form, for in the meantime, the existence of the "Manhunter from Mars" has been revealed to the world.  John Jones, who has been supplanted as the crime-fighting sensation of Middletown by his green alter ego, is chagrined when Diane, now an official uniformed policewoman, is assigned to work alongside him.  "OW!  With her around, how can I use my Martian powers as J'onn J'onzz?"  Their first assignment is to find a way to rescue a woman whose car is stuck atop a partially opened drawbridge.  Seems like more of a job for the fire department or rescue squad than a plainclothes detective, but anyway, John orders Diane to "help keep the crowd back" while he sneaks off to become J'onn J'onzz.  He rescues the girl by "rearranging his molecular structure" to stretch across the gap in the drawbridge, so that the girl can drive her car right across him to the other side!  (So J'onn demonstrates a similar ability to the character who would eventually replace him in DETECTIVE, the Elongated Man.)

When Detective John Jones rejoins Diane, she greets him, "Well done, Mr. Martian Manhunter!"  Based on the rather thin evidence that Jones disappeared when the Manhunter appeared, and that the Manhunter displayed shape-changing abilities, she has deduced that the Manhunter has "(chosen) an Earth detective to disguise himself!"  Jones is highly upset; though Diane promises secrecy, he fears she will inadvertently reveal his secret and herself become a target for criminals.  Quickly, he lays plans to divert Diane's suspicions.  As Jones and Diane are patrolling the street, a parked truck explodes in a fiery blast, threatening a famous statue standing nearby.  Diane urges Jones to switch to Martian Manhunter and save the statue, but he tells her, "i--I wish I could do what you say, Diane, but I can't!"  And he's not just pretending helplessness; (thought) "Fire saps my Martian strength!  Fortunately, I took other measures!"  Diane is amazed as, with John Jones standing on the sidelines, the Martian Manhunter appears to save the day!  It is actually a robot that the real J'onn J'onzz has built.  Not apparently as sophisticated a robot as the ones Superman builds for similar purposes, as he has to manipulate the robot with his super-breath in order for it to carry the iron statue out of danger.

Diane admits she must have been wrong, but then her suspicions are rekindled when a crook named Willy Horan fires a gun point-blank at John Jones and he is unharmed!  As bystanders wonder at Jones' survival, Diane thinks, "I think I know the reason-- but I daren't breathe a word of it to anyone!"  (Actually, the John Jones stories weren't very consistent on whether or not Jones retained his Martian powers, including invulnerability, when he was in his human disguise.  Sometimes he did, sometimes not, depending on what the plot called for.)  But once again Jones deflects Diane's suspicions by claiming the bullet was deflected by a metal good luck charm he was carrying in his pocket.  "You must think I'm an awfully silly goose for suspecting you of being the Martian Manhunter!"  (Jones' thought) "In fact, I think you're a very clever girl-- and I'll have to be especially careful in the future to fool you!"

Diane Meade remained as a supporting character in the J'onn J'onzz strip for the remainder of its DETECTIVE run.  She and Jones had a mild, low-key romantic relationship going, but it ended sadly for her as she mourned John Jones' apparent death in DETECTIVE #326.  He wasn't really dead-- he faked his death in order to be free to pursue the Idol-Head of Diabolu as the Manhunter-- but he left a tearful Diane behind with hardly a thought.  At least he didn't have to end up telling her, "Sorry, Diane, but it would never work out!  My old parents back on Mars would be mortified if I married outside my species!" 

Detective #319, "Fantastic Dr. No-Face!"

DETECTIVE COMICS #319;  Sept. 1963; DC Comics; Jack Schiff, editor; 
featuring Batman and Robin vs. "The Fantastic Dr. No-Face!"  (Writer  unknown to me;
art probably by Sheldon Moldoff, pencils, ghosting for Bob Kane,  and Charles
Paris, inks.)  On the cover, a faceless and bald figure in a  trenchcoat is
stitting on a scaffold hanging down from the top of a mountain and  attacking a
giant Mount-Rushmore-like bust of Batman's cowled face (which  appears to be
wincing as No-Face's jackhammer destroys its eye).  The real  Batman swings down
on a rope as Robin declares, "Dr. No-Face is destroying  another 'face' in
revenge-- YOURS, BATMAN!"

Review by Bill Henley (by  special request of Hoy Murphy)

On the splash page, Batman and Robin burst  through the doors of an art
gallery to find their faceless foe already on hand  and destroying paintings with a
flamethrower.  "DR. NO-FACE has destroyed  the FACES of those masterpieces--
and now he's out to destroy ours!"  As  the story begins, "world-renowned
medical authorities" prepare to observe a new  advance in plastic surgery as Dr.
Paul Dent demonstrates his "skin rejuvenation  ray" on a chimpanzee. 
Supposedly, the ray will make the chimp's "rough,  wrinkled face smooth as a child" and
then go on to instantly heal "fleshy scars"  on human faces.  But as Dr. Dent
manipulates the controls, something  short-circuits, the machine explodes,
and Dr. Dent receives a "super-dose" of  his own ray right in his own face.  The
result is that his face is  completely blanked out, leaving only a smooth
expanse of skin and bald  head.  Screaming, :"My eyes, ears, nose...GONE!  I have
NO FACE!   YAAAA!:"   Dr. Dent flees in a fit of madness.  (You'd think he'd 
have more than just cosmetic and psychological effects to worry about.  
Without eyes, nose and mouth, how is he going to eat and drink, see, or even 
breathe?  The answer is unclear.)

Some time later, the Bat-Signal  alerts Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson to don
their "crime-fighting togs" and  Commissioner Gordon alerts them to Dr. Dent's
tragedy and asks them to be on the  lookout for him.  The doctor makes himself
easy to spot, as he is standing  on Gotham City's version of Broadway firing
a rifle at the giant faces on  lighted billboards.  "*Ha, ha*  I'm destroying
his face-- then he'll  look as I do-- DR. NO-FACE!"  Arriving on the scene,
Batman and Robin try  to urge No-Face to calm down and seek help from plastic
surgery, but the  doctor's shots sever an electric cable which falls to the
ground, threatening to  electrocute bystanders.  Batman hurls a "cutlass Batarang"
which cuts the  power line high up where it cannot threate anyone, but in the
meantime, Dr.  No-Face escapes.  "I'm afraid we'll meet him again!  Dent is
like a  man possessed-- he'll strike agan!"  Sure enough, he shows up at the
art  exhibition room of the Gotham Museum and starts destroying the faces of
famous  portraits with a flamethrower.  Robin uses a fire extinguisher, not
against  the flames but against Dr. No-Face's blank face, momentarily 'dousing his 
enthusiasm".  But the doctor pulls a giant Chinese plaque off the wall  which
blocks the exit to Batman and Robin as he makes his getaway.

Going  on further rampages, Dr. No-Face destroys the faces on clocks,
statues, and  ceremonial masks.  As Batman and Robin search for him at Dr. Dent's
known  past haunts, Robin suggests he might have a hideout in the mountans, but 
Batman  points out, "Hardly, Robin!  The doctor suffers from  acrophobia-- an
intense fear of heights-- remember?"  No-Face's next target  is the "Bonaparte
Emerald", seemingly an odd choice for him, but he intends to  destroy the
gem's "face" in a rock-pulverizing machine.   Batman and  Robin reach the machine
too late to save the gem, and as No-Face flees he  boasts, "YOU WON'T STOP
ME, BATMAN!  And YOUR face is the next one I'm  going to destroy!"  "Of course!"
Batman realizes.  "There's ONE place  he could have a field day with MY
facial features!  C'mon!"  Arriving  at the "Batman Face Monument" carved into the
side of Mount Gotham, our heroes  find Dr. No-Face already hard at work
defacing the stone Batman with  "high-powered sand-blasting equipment".  "We've got
him this time!"  declares Batman, but as he and Robin swing towards the mad
villain on ropes,  Batman's rope is severed by the sandblaster, and as Batman
clings precariously  to his likenss's face, No-Face prepares to use his
sandblaster on the Cowled  Crusader's real face.  Batman urges No-Face to remember
that he is a  doctor, not a murderer, but it is Robin who saves face for Batman
by cutting the  hose of the sandblaster.  Batman seizes Dr. No-Face's scaffold
and twirls  its hanging lines until the doctor is hopelessly and helplessly
tangled.   Once caught, No-Face seems to recover his senses; "What have I done,
destroying  all those things?  I must have been out of my mind!"  Batman
asures  him that the law will go easy on him and plastic surgery plus psychotherapy
should be able to restore him to his normal self.

But once locked up in a  prison hospital ward, Dr. No-Face in his private
thoughts is less repentant than  triumphant; "My plan worked!  I've fooled
Batman....the  police....everyone!  Ha, ha!"  It seems that the man called Dr. 
No-Face is not Dr. Paul Dent at all, but a gangster named Paul Magan who,  hearing
of Dr. Dent's skin rejuvenatio ray, approached Dent before his scheduled 
demonstration and demanded that Dent use the ray to erase a telltale scar on his 
features.  Dent claimed the ray didn't work properly and that he was about 
to cancel his demonstration but Magan insisted on going forward, operating the 
ray himself.  And it was he, not Dent, who found himself faceless.   But
instead of being driven to madness, Magan came up with a scheme to use his 
condition for criminal gain.  Having his gang hide the real Dent at their  hideout,
Magan the gangster disguises himself as Dent and goes through the 
"demonstration", removing he disguise to reveal his faceless face.  He then  goes through
No-Face's rampage of face-destroying crimes.  His ultimate  plan, it seems,
is to have plastic surgeons give him Dent's face-- and  identity-- permanently
so that he can live out his life as the respected doctor  rather than the
wanted criminal.  But as he prepares to go in for surgery,  he is shocked when
Batman shows him a picture of the face the plastic surgeons  will be working to
restore-- and it is his own, Magan's, face, not Dent's.   When he protests,
Batman says, "Come off it, Magan! We became suspicious of you  last night when
you put on that phony show at the Batman Face Monumnt!" because  the real Dent
was known to suffer from fear of heights and wouldn't have been  able to hang
from a high perch to sabotage the Batman face.  Becoming  suspicious, Batman
checks the fingerprints taken of "Dr. No-Face" and finds they  match those of
the wanted gangster Magan, not Dr. Dent.  And so, Batman and  Robin track down
Magan's gang hideout and find there not only the kidnapped Dr.  Dent but the
valuable paintings and Bonaparte Emerald, which "No-Face" actually  stole while
destroying fakes.  And now, the foiled faceless man faces a  long prison term
in his true identity rather than a brief institutionalization  followed by
freedom and wealth as "Dr. Dent". 

Speaking of whom,  it's curious to note that Dr. No-Face's supposed civilian
name was the same as  that of a better-known Batman villain with a facial
fixation-- Two-Face, aka  Harvey Dent.  (If No-Face and Two-Face had somehow met
and merged  identities, would they have wound up with a normal number of
faces?)  It's  also interesting that Two-Face made no appearances in Batman comics
between  1954, around the time the Comics Code started, and 1971, when the Code
was  liberalized.  Did the original stringent Comics Code frown on Two-Face 
because of his grotesqueness, or maybe because in his origin he was a law 
officer, a district attorney, who went bad?  And is it possible that Dr.  No-Face
was a conscious attempt to create a replacement in Batman's rogue's  gallery
for Two-Face, a similarly conceived but more Code-acceptable  variation?  (But
if so, I guess it didnt work out, since Dr. No-Face made  no further
appearances that I know of.)

It's also worth noting that a few  years after this story appeared, a good
guy adopted the faceless look-- Charlton  Comics' the Question.  And of course,
the Question was later taken over by  DC and has met Batman on occasion. 
(Though I doubt if Question creator  Steve Ditko was inspired by this No-Face
Batman story.)

Also in this  issue of DETECTIVE is John Jones, Manhunter from Mars, playing
the role of  "J'onn J'onzz, Wizard of 1463".  (Why do Silver age time travel
stories  usually have to take place in a year an exactly even number of
years/centuries  from the "present" year the story is published?)  Story probably by
Jack  Miller, art by Joe Certa.  As J'onn J'onzz upends a bridge to halt the 
advance of a medieval army, the opposing army's soldiers marvel that "Prince 
Charles' wizard body is defeating the Black Duke's soldiers!"  J'onn  thinks,
"They'd really be shocked if they knew  was secretly a Martian  living on
Earth 500 years in the future!"  Hardworking police detective  John Jones takes
some vacation time off to visit an unspecified European country  (and, receiving
plane tickets, reflects he could travel a lot faster if he  didn't have to
"keep up appearances").  Hearing as a tourist about the  "Dolmain Caverns" which
have never been fully explored, John Jones decides to  "duck the crowd" and
explore them himself, figuring if he gets lost he can  always just become the
Martian Manhunter and escape right through the cave  walls.  But Jones
encounters a strange hazy mist inside the caverns, and  when he finds his way back to
an entrace, he is confronted by what he first  thinks is "a gigantic movie
set" of a castle and a realistic-looking chase on  horseback.  More realistic
than he knows, as the man being chased is thrown  from his horse and would fall
to his death down a chasm-- if not for John Jones  becoming J'onn J'onzz and
flying to his rescue.  The man is understandably  puzzled by the appearance of
this flying green-skinned fgure, but explains that  he himself is the cpatain
of guards for Prince Charles of Auvergne Province (in  France?)  who has been
captured by the evil Black Duke,  Coming to  suspect that we're not in the 20th
century anymore, Toto, Manhunter asks the  year and learns that it is 1463. 

After leaving the guard captain  with farmers loyal to Prince Charles,
Manhunter enters the castle and spies  invisibly on the Black Duke plotting with his
henchmen.  The rightful  prince is safely locked away, it seems, but
adamantly refuses to abdicate in the  Black Duke's favor, and the Duke fears to simply
kill him lest this cause a mass  rebellion among the populace loyal to the
prince.  The Duke sends his agent  with guards to the Prince's hiding place to
try to again persuade the prince to  quit, but the Manhunter joins the mission,
knocking out one of the guards and  shape-changing into his form.  The
henchman boasts as they travel, "Soon I  will show you how tough I can get with
Prince Charles!"  but our hero's  silent response is, "You wouldn't talk so big if
you knew how tough I can  get!"   When the Duke's agent threatens Prince
Charles with death if  he refuses to abdicate, his "guard" turns on him and helps
the Prince escape to  rejoin his guard captain.  As the "guard" reveals his
true Martian form,  the captain marvels at the amazing powers of the prince's
new ally, but the  prince himself fears that the Black Duke will just take over
again once the  Manhunter returns where he belongs.  Manhunter explains that
he will take  the prince's own form and use his powers to rally the people and
defeat the Duke  once and for all, before departing 1463.  "Prince Charles"
appears to his  people and reveals that he now has supernatural powers which he
can manifest in  his green-skinned "wizard form".  (Hmmmm.... given religious
attitudes of  the time, it's possible that if anything like this had actually
happened, the  people would have rallied to the Black Duke, fearing to support
a prince who had  obviously sold his soul to Satan to obtain witchly powers.)
In his "wzard  form", the "prince" defeats a detachment of the duke's army
and twists their  weapons into a giant pretzel.  But then the Black Duke
decides to test the  prince's new powers in person, and sneaking up behind the
"prince" as he  addresses his people, the Duke knocks him unconscious with a pike. 
(It  wasn't portrayed completely consistently, but usually, in SA John Jones
stories,  when the shapechanging Manhunter was in his John Jones form or any
other normal  human form, he didn't have his other Martian powers including 
invulnerability.  It was also somewhat inconsistent whether or not he was 
vulnerable to fire in human form, but in this story, as we'll see, he  isn't.)

The "Prince" awakens in one of the Black Duke's cells and  prepares to burst
free as the Manhunter, but then has second thoughts when he  notes that the
cell is lighted by torches, whose flames will weaken and destroy  him if he
becomes the Manhunter.  When the Duke demands once more that the  "Prince"
abdicate,J'onn stalls for time by asking to be given till dawn to make  a decision. 
But in the meantime, learning that his doppleganger has been  captured and
seemingly lost his "magic" powers, the real Prince (who up to now  seems like a
rather passive, ineffectual sort) resolves to take matters into his  own hands
by rallying his people himself.  While the Prince leads his loyal  followers
in arms, he sends the guard captain to free J'onn J'onzz from the  Duke's
dungeon.  The Duke is baffled that the Prince is out leading his  people though he
should be locked up in the dungeon, but he leads his troops  against the
roused populace, and the people might face defeat by the better  armed troops were
it not for the now-freed Manhunter, who wrecks the bridge over  which the
Duke's troops are charging.  With his army beaten, the Duke  surrenders publicly
to the Prince, and the Manhunter takes his leave of the  restored prince,
saying, "You have proven yourself to be a brave leader, Prince  Charles!"  After
finding his way back to the future through the cave mists  and "sealing the
time-warp with tons of rock", our hero returns to America and  to his Detective
Jones job, where he smirks behind his hand as Diane comments  that he's "had a
good rest" during his  vacation.

Detective #324, "Menace of the Robot Brain!"

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?)

Detective Comics #471: "The Dead Yet Live"

Detective Comics #471
"The Dead Yet Live"
August, 1977

Steve Englehart: Author
Marshall Rogers and Terry Austin: Artists
Jerry Serpe: Colorist
John Workman: Letterer

The members of the council have reached an agreement.  With the
disappearance of Dr. Phosphorus, they have decided that the Masked
Manhunter must leave Gotham, as well.  As the members continue their
smoke-filled meeting, little do they suspect that the Darknight Detective
will soon realize that... "The Dead Yet Live"

Boss Rupert Thorne fills in the council members on the current
situation...  Alex Sartorius, one of their fellow members, was involved
in an accident at the offshore nuclear plant.  As Dr. Phosphorus, he
planned his revenge on Gotham City, and convinced the council to take out
the Batman.  If they hadn't aided Phosphorus, it would have meant their
lives.  With Sartorius gone, and times less than prosperous for city
government, Thorne plans to make things difficult for the Commissioner --
and get rid of the costumed vigilante.

One member sees the Batman as a tourist attraction who brings money to
the city, while another points out that the Caped Crusader has never
managed to gather evidence on them, and a third recalls how the
Demon's-Head failed in his attempt to frame the Darknight Detective for
murder.  Boss Thorne slams his fist upon the table, and watches as the
other members shift uncomfortably in their seats.  He is convinced that
with such a plan, the Batman can be beaten -- CHAKA CHIK.  All eyes shift
towards the direction of the fireplace.

Caught in such cramped quarters, the Dark Detective curses himself for
having his hand slip.  Boss Thorne tells Bruno to check out the chimney,
and after a quick inspection, he yells out the all-clear.  On the
rooftop, the Batman knows that he is functioning at less than his full
strength.  His wounds from the battle with Dr. Phosphorus have not
healed, and are still radioactive.

He can either stay like this -- or get back in fighting shape.  Soon, the
Batmobile makes its way through the deserted streets of Gotham -- for the
Wayne Foundation Building, and enters through the Finger Alley
cul-de-sac.  In the Bat-Cave, Alfred is made aware of the council's
plans, and is feeling better from his recent illness.  Since his own
doctoring has done no good, Bruce Wayne will have to seek out a new
doctor.

The faithful butler knows that Master Bruce has had little luck with Drs.
Phosphorus and Bell, but the millionaire philanthropist already has
someone in mind.  A friend of his had spent some time at the Graytowers
Clinic near Gotham Canal, and described it as being discreet.  With Bruce
Wayne as a patient, there shouldn't be any questions about his wounds.
He places a call to Silver St. Cloud and cancels their dinner date, and
tells her about his going to Graytowers for some tests.  As he listens to
his master's voice on the phone, Alfred Pennyworth notices something
different in his tone, and wonders if Ms. St. Cloud will be the one...

Noon finds Bruce Wayne being greeted at Graytowers by Dr. Todhunter, the
Chief of Staff.  Mr. Wayne is grateful to be accepted on such short
notice, and even more grateful when it is Magda who leads him to his
room.  As they walk through the hallway, Bruce tells her about how his
friend, Jerry Robinson was impressed by his stay.  As he enters his room,
the nurse tells him to go to sleep, but Bruce isn't feeling tired at all.
The door closes, and darkness falls upon the new patient.

The nightmare consists of the Darknight Detective struggling from keeping
a giant snake's fangs from closing upon him, the concerned faces of Dr.
Todhunter and Magda, the death of his parents at the hands of a grotesque
Joe Chill, skeletal fingers reaching out towards a cowled throat, and a
giant bat flapping its wings towards the Batman.

Not one to suffer nightmares, but to give them, instead... Bruce now
knows that Magda's perfume was drugged, and the attractive nurse must
have been wearing nose-filters.  A locked door prevents him from leaving
his room, and the face of a burly guard is soon seen in the open
partition.  He learns from the guard that Graytowers is an asylum -- and
he'd better keep himself under control.  In the confines of the room,
Bruce Wayne clenches his fists, and makes some plans.

Silver St. Cloud walks along the Canal Zone, and feasts her eyes upon the
building known as Graytowers.  At the door, a nurse looks at her
strangely when she mentions Bruce's name, and the doctor tells her that
his patient is suffering from radiation poisoning.  He takes the gift
from her hands and promises to give it to the patient when he's out of
intensive care.

BAM BAM BAM BAM  Two hours later, it is now nighttime, and Bruce Wayne is
ready.  He spills the drugged soup onto the guard's shirt through the
partition, then opens a secret panel within his suitcase.  Not having
seen any cameras, and unable to wear the costume during an examination,
it is always with him nonetheless.  He is the Darknight Detective -- The
Batman.

SSSSSSSSSS  The cell bars begin to sizzle from the acid poured from two
vials... CHUNK  He notices the outer wall surrounding Graytowers, which
allows the air in, but keeps the patients hidden from view.  After an
easy climb, the Batman is after Todhunter, the one behind all of this.
Things are too elaborate for this to be a simple case of ransom, and he
wonders what could cause Jerry Robinson to recommend a stay for him here.
GGGRRRRR  From behind two twin spires come two misshapen giants from out
of a nightmare.

As they draw closer to him, the Batman leaps for one of them, and
delivers a right hook.  Although he is grabbed by the neck, it is only
for a moment, and a fierce kick to the giant's face ensures his release.
Now clutching both of their heads in each of his hands, he slams them
together, and wishes them unpleasant dreams.

Magda has heard something on the roof, but Todhunter believes it to be a
prowler -- one who has just met his security system.  The nurse sees
what's coming.  KRASH  The Masked Manhunter swings down and crashes
through the window.  When he hears the Batman claim that he's been on his
trail, "Todhunter" knows that this cannot be, and dons his glasses --
those worn by the true author of this particular plot --

Professor Hugo Strange stands revealed, and the Darknight Detective had
thought him dead.  Only Strange has returned from the dead -- as well as
turned mortal men into mindless monsters.  The doctor is impressed by
Batman's ability to remain calm in his presence, but Magda is the
uncomfortable party in this trio.  After spending years in Europe, Hugo
Strange returned to Gotham City, for only the Dark Detective could offer
him a worthy opponent.  Thanks to his genius, each of Doctor Todhunter's
patients have been turned into monstrous slaves.  Dependent upon his
temporary antidote for their affliction, the rich and the powerful have
no choice, but to each induct one of their friends to the process.

There is one who would stand in the way of power, and one need not be a
genius to figure who that would be.  The plans of Hugo Strange and a
throw food cart both appear to come crashing down at once, but even after
a left cross from Batman... looks can be deceiving.  There are no signs
of surrender in the eyes of the doctor, and the Darknight Detective's
eyes fail to warn him from the danger which is slithering down behind
him.

AARGGGHHH  A bite from the green mamba brings a coma to its victims in
seconds, but fortunately for Batman, there is some anti-venom available.
After some time in darkness, the Masked Manhunter regains his senses...
and with it, some pain as well.  He sees both the doctor and Magda
staring down at him, but what he sees is not what one would see through a
cowl's slits.  Bruce Wayne has been unmasked, with his secrets no longer
his own -- but now shared by Hugo Strange.

On the cover of Detective Comics #471, Batman sees -- "The Dead Yet
Live!" as the face of Hugo Strange has much appeal.

In August, 1977, Boss Thorne and his cronies could enjoy their smokes
without fear of the Comics Code Authority.

Rupert Thorne refers to Dr. Phosphorus as "Alex Sartorius" and not "Anton
Sartorius" as disclosed by the character in his origin from Tec &469.

Only in Gotham City could one expect to see Batman, and not Santa Claus
climbing down the chimney on any other day, but Christmas.

Bill Finger is given his own alley, while Jerry Robinson is the name of
one of Bruce's friends.

Dr. Todhunter resembles another character written by Steve Englehart and
drawn by Marshall Rogers & Terry Austin... Doctor Stephen Strange.

In this decade, Charlie was a popular perfume, but its effects were as
subtle as Hi-Karate on the millionaire playboy.

Another millionaire who carries his uniform in his briefcase is Tony
Stark, the Invincible Iron Man.

At the time of this story, I wonder how many readers recognized Hugo
Strange from Detective #46 and Batman #1?

Thanks to the Famous First Edition, the beginning reader could refresh
their memory about the character's origin.

In the case of this particular villain, the Dark Detective doesn't seem
to have a problem in hitting a man with glasses on.

Finally, a case where the villain seizes the chance to unmask his foe's
secret identity.

Unfortunately for Hugo Strange, the knowledge is power, and there are
those who would covet such information.

In the "Batman's Hot-Line" letters page, Kevin J. Dooley of Glendale, CA
writes:

"Dear Bat-People,

I don't think I've ever read or seen a better Batman story in Detective
since the Goodwin/Simonson team-up back in #443!  I've refrained from
making any comments on your Calculator back-ups before this because I was
waiting for the clincher... and it was a beaut!

The team of Rogers/Austin is a winner!  The movement. The angles.  The
shadows. Everything poetry in panels.  You seem to mix detail and
simplicity in the backgrounds utilizing just enough to make it look real
but not too much to make it look crowded.  Your perspective is fantastic.
Double kudos.

As for Bob Rozakis, all I have to say is... all right!  You've got the
character of the Caped Crusader down pat - the way the fans like to see
him: constantly thinking, confident, brave.  The Calculator punned his
way into my heart, but didn't lay it on too heavy.  Way to go.  I also
liked the way you wove Morgan Edge into the subplot.  It was done with
real style.  One criticism, though - I don't think you had enough
cage-linked phrases to really make an impression on the Calculator's
twisted criminal mind, but that is just my opinion.  The using of Calc's
own weapon against him, while a theme used quite often, was well done.

Everyone keep up the good work!"

Steve Chung
"The Dead Yet Review!"

Detective Comics #470: "The Master Plan Of Doctor Phosphorus!"

Detective Comics #470
"The Master Plan of Doctor Phosphorus!"
June, 1977

Steve Englehart: Writer
Walt Simonson: Artist
Al Milgrom: Inker
Jerry Serpe: Colorist

Being a safecracker is a solitary occupation, one which never pays to be
practiced in Gotham City.  Many such crooks have felt the fear when the
Darknight Detective makes his presence known to them.  As the light
shines on the face of the Batman, that of the criminal begins to grow
pale by comparison.

A desperate leap through a window, then a quick run through the concrete
maze of alleyways on this night.  Could even such a creature as the
Masked Manhunter possibly find his prey?  The frantic hood soon has his
answer, as the footsteps begin closing in on his hiding place.

Smiley Royal flinches from the shadow of the Batman.  In Gotham, the Dark
Detective has vowed to keep the city safe.  As he grabs onto the
frightened safecracker, the Cowled Crusader turns, and sees someone
entering the alley.  The bespectacled man is only doing his duty when he
presents the Batman with a subpoena.  He is to appear before the Gotham
grand jury next week.  The messenger has left the alley, with the
Darknight Detective keeping vigil on Royal until the police arrive.

A bedridden Commissioner Gordon is being tended to by fellow patient,
Alfred Pennyworth.  Both men have been affected by the mysterious plague,
and now they are visited by the Batman.  The faithful butler of Bruce
Wayne has recovered from his ordeal, and is now watching over James
Gordon.  The Masked Manhunter smiles, and wonders when the Commissioner
may deduce his true identity.  He asks Gordon about the subpoena, and
learns from the lawman that it could only have come from Boss Thorne.
The city councilmen and his crooked cronies have always left the
Darknight Detective alone, but the Commissioner knows that this was only
because they were afraid of him.  Many were the times that Thorne asked
Gordon to come down on the Batman.

Alfred sees that there are bulges beneath the cowl, and the Masked
Manhunter tells them that he has bandaged the burns received from his
battle with Doctor Phosphorus.  Doctor Bell enters the room, aware that
the burning horror has escaped, and eager to attend to the wounds.  The
Caped Crusader is confident in his skills, then recalls that Bell is also
on the city council.  As the doctor begins to deny any wrongdoing, the
faithful butler reproaches Bell for eavesdropping on a private
conversation.  The Batman is interested in the doctor and his involvement
with the council's subpoena.  It was Bell who requested it, and the
council was all too eager to agree.  In their eyes, there's no room for
vigilantes in Gotham City.  Having learned what he wanted to know, the
Masked Manhunter leaves through the open window, leaving Bell's threats
hanging in the air.

At the Sprang Memorial Arena, there are screams to be heard, as the band
concludes their concert for a faithful audience.  The boys rilly had a
gas this evening, but as the lead singer begins coughing into the
microphone, tonight's main entertainment is about to begin.  The voice
coming from the loudspeakers tell the concertgoers about the poisonous
effects of phosphorus.  After putting two and two together, the audience
rilly begin to lose their collective cool.

Dr. Phosphorus has used the arena's laser technology to project his
burning visage above them, and his poison has begun to spread throughout
the air-conditioning system. With the arena sealed off, they only have
about three minutes left to live.  At the Wayne Foundation, the Dark
Detective has made his way through the outer office, and onto the hidden
elevator.  The elevator car heads for its chosen destination: the
Batcave.

In order to be more accessible, he had moved his headquarters to the
Wayne Foundation Building, with Alfred and the Teen Wonder aiding in the
moving of various trophies during Dick Grayson's school vacation.  A
subway was started in 1938, but was only partially completed when World
War II broke out.  After 1945, the tunnel waited until the day that Bruce
Wayne discovered a use for it.  Now that he's established himself in
Gotham, the city council wants him out.  A blinking Geiger counter
registers radioactivity coming from his burns.

He had thought Phosphorus to be a flaming threat, but had not known of
his true nature.  The hot-line rings, with Chief O'Hara whispering into
the receiver.  With Commissioner Gordon out of action, the city council
has ordered the police department to keep away from Batman.  After
telling the Caped Crusader about the attack at Sprang Arena, O'Hara
reluctantly answers his friend's questions about possible sources of
radioactivity in Gotham City.  Now armed with some vital information, the
Darknight Detective goes off on his Bat-Boat in search of Dr. Phosphorus.

He is aware that Boss Thorne had played a part in the building of the new
nuclear power plant.  As he seeks to tie off the Bat-Boat, Batman
discovers that the facility is under heavy guard.  The city council has
ordered them to keep him away, and after saying goodbye to the armed men,
he vows to return again later.

Millionaire Bruce Wayne is holding a party on his ship, with Rupert
Thorne and Doctor Bell in attendance.  The millionaire philanthropist is
confident that this will be a Saturday night they won't forget.  The host
eyes one particular guest, who introduces herself as Silver St. Cloud.
Her date is down below, playing some pool with the mayor's speech-writer.
With most of Gotham's elite on board, she hopes that the mysterious Mr.
Wayne is not up to any mischief.  Bruce is a hometown boy, and for the
first time this evening, he seems to be relaxing with some pleasant
company for a change.

Silver sees that he is not at all how she had pictured him to be, with
the host regretting that they must part for now, and he must continue to
make the rounds.  After passing through the crowd of guests, Bruce Wayne
disappears from sight.  Within the stateroom, the millionaire
philanthropist disappears, and the Batman is now on the clock. With an
hour until dinnertime, he dons his scuba gear, and swims two miles for
the power plant.

As he makes his way past the guards, they can sense the presence of
another, but attribute this to nerves.  Now within the reactor room, the
Darknight Detective calls out to his prey, with his challenge echoing
throughout the chamber.  A bright glow from above catches his attention,
as Dr. Phosphorus swings down from above, and knocks him off his perch.

Regaining his balance, the Batman promises that things will be settled
between them.  With the radioactivity emanating from the bizarre villain,
this was the logical place to find him.  Now it is the Masked Manhunter
who leaps from the girders, and delivers his kick to Phosphorus.  The
Doctor is eager to get his hands on the costumed fool, but the Darknight
Detective is no fool, and is thankful for the special radioactive
resistant costume he's wearing this evening.

It is no longer a one-sided affair, but man-to-man, and it's been a week
worth waiting for.  Dr. Phosphorus regrets not killing his foe the first
time they met, and leaps for the reactor in hopes of acquiring more
power.  The Batman leaps after him, but his bizarre opponent's move was
only a sham, and now he kicks him in the jaw.  Now it is Phosphorus who
is in for a shock, when his own grip melts the beam he's holding onto.

A perfectly-pitched Batarang-line grabs hold, and pulls its owner to
safety, with a harsh halt in midair.  When his vision clears, the sight
of Dr. Phosphorus falling into the reactor greets him, and he judges this
as a most fitting end.  The citizens of Gotham will be breathing easier
tomorrow morning, but will it continue to turn against him?

After swimming back to the boat, Bruce Wayne is ready for the buffet, and
hears the siren coming from passing police boats.  They are heading for
the power plant, just as Silver St. Cloud finds the host once more, and
runs her fingers through his hair.  She believes them to be just two
ships that pass in the night, but Bruce would be happy to pass her way
anytime.  As he heads off for some food, Silver notices that his hair is
wet, but why?

On the cover of Detective Comics #470 by Jim Aparo, the Batman swings
down to punch Dr. Phosphorus, but learns that his eerie enemy is
radioactive.

The art team of Walt Simonson and Al Milgrom continues to mesh so much
that the artwork is unrecognizable as the work of either artist.

If Smiley Royal had kept his mouth shut and kept running, maybe he might
have gotten away from the Batman.

If the Dark Detective receives a subpoena, would he have to show up in
court?

How would they know it was him, and not a robot, Alfred, or even
Superman?  (Holy Bob Ingersoll, Batman!)

Doctor Bell has shaved off his mustache since last issue, but he still
has the same haircut as the Osborns and Flint Marko.

The band's lyrics at Sprang Arena are "WOP BOP A LU BOP A LOP BAM BOOM!"


Unfortunately for them, Dr. Phosphorus chooses this moment to light up
their lives with his own laser light show.

Thanks to a moving van and the combined efforts of Bruce, Dick, and
Alfred, various trophies were moved to the new Bat-Cave beneath the Wayne
Foundation Building.

Did Chief O'Hara first appear in the comic books or on the 1960s TV
series?

Bruce Wayne finds the silver lining within Ms. St. Cloud.

It's nice to see that the Masked Manhunter still has various different
costumes for special occasions.

In the Batman's Hot Line letters page, Bob Rodi of Dayton,.Ohio writes:

"Dear Bob,

What an enviable position you are in, Mr. Rozakis, as the sole scripter
of Detective #467 and also keeper of the magazine's letter col.  Does
this mean that only rave reviews of your stories will get into the column
in 'Tec #471?

At any rate, this isn't a rave review, but it is a good one.  Detective
&467 was very enjoyable, especially in view of the fact that it was an
all-Rozakis issue. (I haven't quite formed an opinion on your writing
yet.)

"Pick-Up On Gotham 2-4-6" was nicely plotted and well-paced and I enjoyed
it tremendously.  It reminded me of those short stories you always find
in detective anthologies... you know, the kind you read in a huge
upholstered chair on a rainy day.  Of course, the real beauty of it was
that I didn't read it in a huge, upholstered chair and, as a matter of
fact, it was quite a nice day... but the story gave me that
arm-chair/stormy weather feeling.  Which means it passed the test in my
book.

Tying the two stories in the issue together was an nice gimmick that
makes me lean in your favor, Mr. Rozakis.  I know if I suddenly had a
whole book to do, I'd certainly not let the opportunity go by without
showing it off, just as you did, and I congratulate you on pulling it
off.  I do, however, think it was totally unnecessary to spell out the
clues to Hawkman's identity in the letter column.  Most of the clues
could have been found out easily by re-reading the tale.

I didn't really enjoy "The Man Who Skyjacked Hawkman", mainly because the
story wrote itself.  It was basically a reworked version of the Atom,
Black Canary, Elongated Man, and Green Arrow stories.  Still, all five
Calculator tales do have their own good points... this one had the
Marshall Rogers/Terry Austin art, which was sensational.

I thought I had the Calculator's pattern figured out.  It seems that he
was pitting himself against only those JLAers who joined after the
group's inception, and that he was taking them on in alphabetical order.
See, it fits.  but now, Hawkman tells Batman that he's "calculated" that
the Calculator's next victim will be the Caped Crusader!  It doesn't fit.
Batman was an original JLA member and he's out of alphabetical order.
The Phantom Stranger v. Calc should be next!  Obviously, Hawkman knows
something I don't!

Oh, I also loved Rich Buckler's cover. The only thing about it I didn't
like was the little box around "Feb."  Which means that Detective is back
to bimonthly again... (sigh)..."

Bob Rozakis replies:

"You'll note that the box is gone again and that we're back up to
8-times-a-year status!  Not monthly, but a step in the right direction!
As for Calc's motive, peruse the pronouncements below. - BR)"

Steve Chung
"The Master Review Of Doctor Phosphorus!"