Batman and Robin could corral not only costumed crooks, but also super-powered foes – and just about as easily.
The continued popularity of Superman probably had something to do with the proliferation of super-powered criminals and beasts who plagued Gotham City in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
In Detective Comics 294 (Aug. 1961), an energy leak from a Gotham City scientist’s experimental device drove John Dolan insane while giving him the ability to change his own molecular structure by using a control belt.
Dolan appears to be writer Bill Finger’s revamping of the concept of the earlier Atomic-Man. Engineer Paul Strobe had altered the molecular structure of objects by staring at them through special googles, while Dolan altered his own molecular structure.
Three years later, those same elemental transformation powers were reborn in a superhero, Metamorpho.
But Batman got ’em first. When a device designed to trap Dolan accidently explodes, Batman gains the same powers, and employs them in a plan to defeat the Elemental Man.
This became a typical pattern for these stories. When he encountered super-powered foes, the Masked Manhunter sometimes helpfully gained the same powers himself. That also happened with Zebra-Man and the Flame-Master.
This house ad from the first Batman Annual shows that in same month, in World’s Finest 119, Superman, Batman and Robin were seemingly under the thumb of a new superhero called Tigerman. However, the character turns out to be a hoax the heroes have dreamed up to outfox the criminal Purple Legion.
Meanwhile, in Batman 141, a humiliated super-criminal called the Moth vows revenge against Bat-Girl (Betty Kane). Oddly enough, another lepidopteran-inspired villain, the Killer Moth, would become the first opponent of the next Batgirl, Barbara Gordon, in Detective Comics 359 (Jan. 1967).
Vincent Mariani:
ReplyDeleteAs usual, Swan's WF cover is vastly superior to the hack work on the other two poorly conceived and rendered drawings.
ReplyDeleteBob Bailey:
Thanks Dan. This was a great and uniquely designed ad specially for Batman Annual #1. I remember liking the story in Detective Comics #294.
C.J. Marshall:
ReplyDeleteOne of the things which always jumped out at me from that period is how young Robin was portrayed. At the age implied, Batman should have been arrested for putting a juvenile at risk.
I replied:
He was a boy. Only in the first Batman movie serial was Robin played by an actor of comic-book age.
Johnny Williams:
ReplyDeleteDan, “The continued popularity of Superman probably had something to do with the proliferation of super-powered criminals and beasts who plagued Gotham City in the late 1950s and early 1960s.”
Yeah, Gotham City and Smallville were pretty crazy places to live during that period. Lol.
Batman has acquired so many super powers during those years that he’s just about been a one man Justice League or Legion. Btw, these stories took place Before Element Lad was introduced in Adventure Comics #307.
I don’t think it’s a coincidence that both young Bat-Girl and Batgirl have moth inspired foes. As you stated DC was good for reusing concepts from earlier times.
Paul Zuckerman:
ReplyDeleteInteresting that there was a Moth that was not connected to the old Killer Moth -- maybe they thought that you couldn't use the word killer. Though it never stopped them from using Killer Shark, so maybe that wasn't the issue. Who knows!