The Masked Manhunter’s bizarre transformations hit the wall in March 1962, the month Batman 147 appeared on the newsstands.
A giant, a mummy, an alien, a genie, a negative man, an invisible man, whatever. I didn’t mind seeing Batman temporarily transformed into any of those.
But a baby?
No.
Children don’t like seeing their own rather comical impotence reflected back at them — at least the ones who read superhero comics don’t. So Bat-Baby was an ill-conceived concept.
“In a story by Bill Finger, Sheldon Moldoff and Charles Paris, Batman and Robin are recovering jewels from a heist by Nails Finney,” noted Dave Marchand. “The Dynamic Duo bust into the deserted warehouse that the hoods are using, to find renegade scientist Garth there as well... who bathes Batman in a strange energy beam, that reduce
s his age to that of a baby!’”
The chagrined Robin says, “I’d better carry you to the Batmobile! You can’t walk while your costume is sagging all about you!”
“Robin, I never thought there’d be a time when you’d have to carry me in your arms like a baby!” replies the infantilized Batman.
Tricked up in a sort of Bat-playsuit, the ever-resourceful superhero retrains himself to use his small size as an advantage, then subdues Garth’s gang and reverses the transformation.
“De-aging superheroes was an oddly popular trend at the time,” wrote Evan Mullicane. “Superman had the well-known Superboy and the more obscure Superbaby while Wonder Woman had Wonder Girl and Wonder Tot. These characters proved popular enough that DC even turned Superboy and Wonder Girl into their own characters with Connor Kent and Donna Troy. Despite this, younger versions of Bruce Wayne never caught on. To date, Batman 147 is the only appearance of Bat-Baby in DC comics.”
The Bat-Baby costume ended up in a Batcave display case.
“Just a reminder — of a brief childhood!” Batman remarked with a smile.
Ironic. Batman’s childhood was indeed brief, but not for that reason.
Mark Engblom wrote: Part of that annoyance for me stemmed from the broken-English "baby talk" so many DC babies (both actual and temporary) used. "Me sad and wanna cry". Yick. So at least Batman didn't have to suffer that ADDITIONAL indignity.
ReplyDeleteMark Engblom wrote: I supposed part of the appeal, at least to some kids, was seeing an adult "taken down a peg" and humbled down to their level (or, in most cases, even lower), but overall, I think the idea of an adult suddenly losing the strength and stability children count on them for was more disturbing to most kids than not.
ReplyDeleteBob Hughes wrote: Bat-Baby wasn't an actual baby, just a very small Batman. The plot was swiped from a late 40's Superman newspaper strip story. Also reused in Superman in the sixties. Three times around, somebody must have liked it. I think there might be a Lois Lane version too.
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