Batman (1940-2011) #2

Batman (1940-2011)

by Bill Finger, David Tree, Hal Sherman (Illustrator)

Containing the second appearance of The Joker as the Clown Prince of Crime meets Catwoman. Plus, the Dynamic Duo face a monstrous, hulking giant!

Genres: Comics, Batman, Dc Comics, Comic Book, Graphic Novels, Fiction

68 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 1, 1940

About the author

William "Bill" Finger was an American comic strip and comic book writer best known as the uncredited co-creator, with Bob Kane, of the DC Comics character Batman, as well as the co-architect of the series' development. In later years, Kane acknowledged Finger as "a contributing force" in the character's creation. Comics historian Ron Goulart, in Comic Book Encyclopedia, refers to Batman as the "creation of artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger", and a DC Comics press release in 2007 about colleague Jerry Robinson states that in 1939, "Kane, along with writer Bill Finger, had just created Batman for [DC predecessor] National Comics".

Film and television credits include scripting The Green Slime (1969), Track of the Moon Beast (1976), and three episodes of 77 Sunset Strip.

-Wikipedia

Reviews

[Tawfek · Rating 3 out of 5]

Most of the stories were surprisingly fun to read, at the same time so it feels like i have been reading this for a long long time.
I specially enjoy the joker story he really didn't change much everything you expect the joker to do he does.

[Mayi · Rating 4 out of 5]

La aparición del Joker me dejó con ganas de ver más. En definitiva siempre me he identificado con personajes oscuros, tétricos y misteriosos, y este encabeza el listado.

[Brian Garthoff · Rating 4 out of 5]

Batman 2, what a thing to behold. These early issues were quarterly and had a handful of stories. Here we have the return of the Joker, the return of Selina Kyle as The Cat, the crime master, a guy named CLUBFOOT, and the Goliath worshipped by African Pygmies. Needless to say Clubfoot steals the show. And Robin gets knocked out again, maybe three times this issue? I’ve lost count.

[Davidus1 · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are multiples "mini-stories" in the early Batman comics. 54 pages or so. It was fun to read. If you are evaluating this "current day" it would seem simple and uninteresting. I found it very entertaining and remember that I am reading something written "pre-World War 2" which is amazing. I enjoyed the simple stories and the early art is great. These are beautiful covers on all the Batman comics.

[cauldronofevil · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed Batman #1 a lot more than I thought I would. I hope this keeps up.

”Joker Lives!” starts with Bruce and Dick playing chess and chaffing from inaction. Due to a newspaper article (Wuxtry! Wuxtry!) they learn that the Joker is still alive.

Batman plans to kidnap Joker from the hospital and take him to a brain surgeon to be cured.

Batman used to be very proactive!

Meanwhile in a luxurious lair, the Crime Syndicate Inc. is meeting to discuss their future activities. They decide that since their Chief is dead, the Joker will make a great new boss! The go to the hospital and gain entrance by pretending to visit sick relatives. Then, lots of violence breaks out as they force the doctors to operate on the Joker.

Both the Commissioner Gordon and Batman show up at the hospital. Gordon orders the police outside to try to trap the Batman. The Batman fights back, killing at least one policeman.

”The Batman never attacked the police before!”

The Batman jumps into his car and the police chase him. But the Batman crashes into a tree and the car explodes into flames. Batman hides in an old barn. The police burst in to find burning bales of hay. Batman throws a pitchfork, spearing a policeman.

”You’ll never get me alive!”

Batman tries to flee on a horse, but the police gun him down. Dead as a mackerel!

Gordon determines that it is actually Circus Charlie dressed as Batman to lure them away from the hospital.

At the hospital, the Syndicate congratulate the acting boss on his plan!

”Your uncle Weasel sure knows his onions!”

They pack the Joker into a touring sedan to take him away.

A woman handing out chewing gum in front of the hospital takes off her makeup to reveal The Cat! Batman sneaks up behind her and carries her off, dropping her in the Batmobile and telling Robin to step on it.

Worried that he will take her to the police, the Cat Woman bargains with the Batman. She’ll tell everything she knows about the Crime Syndicate in exchange for her freedom.

Batman lets her go but the radioactive substance on the floor of the car will allow him to check on the Cat-woman’s whereabouts. Robin will follow her while Batman heads to the Crime Syndicate’s lair.

The Joker is put in the hospital plane the Syndicate owns and flown around the country to heal. As the new leader Joker is less successful and soon they try to kill him. Batman bursts in and while the crooks are fighting Batman he escapes.

The Cat arrives at the house of E.S. Arthur to view his priceless Pharaoh’s Gems, but finds him dead at the hands of the Joker. She tries to steal the jewels but the Joker tries to take them from her. Robin shows up to stop him. They fight. The Joker wins.

Joker prepares to inject Robin with lethal venom when the Cat offers to trade the jewels for Robin’s life. The Batman shows up to hit Joker a couple of times before giving him a sword and challenging him to a duel. They fight. Joker wins, forcing Batman out the window. Batman falls, but grabs a vine on the wall to survive.

The Cat has barricaded herself and the wounded Robin in the library. The Joker uses flaming arrows to try to burst in. Batman bursts in and punches Joker unconscious, opens the library and carries Robin up the rope ladder to the batplane suspended outside. The Cat follows but halfway up the ladder she jumps into the river below - with the jewel cask. But Batman has taken the jewels out (on the climb up the rope ladder).

”The end of the Cat-Woman?”

Okay, first I want to know who’s driving the plane? Second, there was lot going on in this issue. Robin took a mace to the head!

I’m not sure the story hangs together all that well and I was surprised that Joker’s tenure as Crime Syndicate boss was so short, but you definitely got your dime’s worth.

I know that some people don’t appreciate the golden age artwork, but I’m not one of them and the Cat was certainly enjoyable to see again. And apparently she is not all that adverse to water.

I just wish Batman would stop calling himself ‘Poppa’.

3 stars

”The Crime Master” starts with the owner of a private museum Cirus Craig and his trusted museum custodian Adam Lamb talking about mystery books. On his way home, Adam trips on the carpet and is unconscious for hours.

When he wakes up he leaves the museum to walk home. At the stroke of midnight he feels a change come over him and uses his cane to bludgeon a man to death.

When Lamb wakes in the morning he has no recollection of the crime. Merely a dream about it.

This is repeated every night at midnight - he becomes Wolf the Crime Master and soon the leader of a small criminal group.

Batman and Robin soon come across a warehouse robbery. They attack the men, but Lamb knocks out Robin with his cane and throws him in front of the gangs truck and orders them to run over Robin. Batman barely rescues him in time.

”Good thing you have a thick head of hair!”

Soon Batman finds the group committing another warehouse robbery at the pier. They shoot at Batman & Robin as they are running at them.

”A bullet misses the steel vest and bores into his unprotected shoulder.”

Batman falls into the water. The boy wonder goes berserk! He fights three men.

Then Batman comes out of the water. They come after him, seeing he is still hurt, but Batman throws a smoke pellet. Robin helps Batman get away in the smoke.

At home Dick pulls the bullet out of Bruce’s shoulder.

Later Dick scolds Bruce for staying up reading and smoking instead of resting his arm. Bruce is excited about the book - The Crime Master. He says that Wolf is committing all the crimes in the book. He remembers seeing Lamb reading this book and wonders if it could be the same person. They head to the museum.

At the museum at midnight, Lamb tries to kill his boss. Robin and Batman arrive in time to stop him. Batman punches him and he falls downstairs to his death.

As he is dying Lamb confesses and apologizes.

”This is the only time I was ever sorry to see a criminal die!”

That was a fun ‘Jekyll and Hyde’ story. 4 stars

”The Case of the Clubfoot Murderers” starts with Batman fighting a large club-footed man with a steel hook for a hand. One kick takes Batman out.

Something I’ve noticed in these books is that Batman & Robin take some real damage in them! I like that! I have no problem believing my heroes can heal quickly and fully, but I don’t like the idea that they never get hurt.

Batman barely recovers in time to escape when the police show up. The police don’t recognize Batman but find a note on the murdered body.

”Harley Storme is dead! Vengeance is mine. - Clubfoot”

The next day Bruce and his buddy Commissioner Gordon toddle over to the Storme mansion to do a little questioning and share some pipe smoking.

If I were a kid, I’d sure wonder what was so great about pipe smoking that all adults seem to enjoy it.

Storme’s niece, Portia tells them that Clubfoot thought Storme cheated him out of his share of a gold mine they once discovered. They show up just in time for the reading of the will.

The will disappoints everyone with all the millions going to charitable institutions and everyone else with a single piece of gold and the message “United We Stand - Divided We Fall”.

Once thing is it fair to say about these old comics is that lettering frequently sucked, leaving some words ineligible.

When Gordon asks Bruce what he thinks of the strange letters?

”I never think! It bores me! Thinking is too laborious!”

Later, another Storme is killed by Clubfoot. He left the same note.

When one of the inheritors tells a loan shark he can’t pay off his gambling debts because all he got in the will was a letter, the gangsters decide to go after the lawyer.

That night Batman & Robin pay a visit to the lawyer. Finding two gangsters there also looking for the lawyer (Ward), Batman crashes through a window. They fight, even as Batman tells ‘Dad’ jokes. Robin jumps in to tackle his partner.

”Where is Ward? Talk! Or I’ll shove my fist so far down your throat, they’ll need a derrick to pull it up again!

In an abandoned power house on the riverfront they have the lawyer tied to a chair and have taken off his shoes to tickle his feet until he tells them what is in the final envelope he is to read to all of the Storme’s at the end of the month.

Batman & Robin burst in and attack.

”What is it - a midget!!”

After rescuing the lawyer, they confirm that he doesn’t know what is in the final envelope.

Batman sends Robin to the Storme mansion to watch out for Clubfoot. He finds another Storme murdered. Clubfoot attacks Robin from behind.

”Where are your smart quips now, boy?”

Robin flips Clubfoot who then runs to his getaway car and escapes.

At the lawyer’s house, Batman finds a clubfooted man locked in the basement.

”You would make me a very happy man if you would explain your motive for killing the Stormes!”

Batman can be polite if you hold him at gunpoint.

A surprisingly complex mystery and a good combination of detective work and fisticuffs. 5 stars

”The Case of the Missing Link” starts with the Metropolis Limited train roaring through the night. Batman jumps on it from a bridge.

He is shot at with arrows by African pygmies on top of the train. They fight

”Two down, five to go!”

Then Batman tries an old trick which he may have invented here. Laying flat on the roof as it goes under a low bridge, knocking all the pygmies off.

Batman jumps into a baggage car where more pygmies await. They fight some more.

An older man is also in the car and wonders how Batman knew he needed help.

”Well, sir, when the Batman sees African pygmies walking on top of a railroad car, it means something queer is going on.”

Professor Drake opens a crate to show what the pygmies were looking for. It is a giant living prehistoric man, 15ft high. The ‘Missing Link’. A giant white savage. The pygmies worshiped this giant as some sort of god. Naturally they captured him and shot a lot of pygmies.

Yup. The pygmies are brown. The giant is white.

The pygmies were trying to rescue their god. Professor Drake got the giant to worship him with various psychological methods. He calls him Goliath. He plans to ’civilize’ him. Teach him to speak English.

Soon Professor Drake receives a visit from circus owners. Drake is insulted by the offer. They have the nerve to put Goliath on display so the public can gape at him?!

Drake has changed Goliath’s ‘Flintstones’ clothes for a tuxedo.

Talking with Batman he thinks those circus owners are bad news so Drake needs a guard. He volunteers Robin.

That night four men come to Drake’s house. Goliath is locked in the barn so he won’t go roaming. They break into Drake’s house and hold him at gunpoint. They shoot Drake and write a suicide note for him.

Robin arrives a little late. They fight. Goliath, hearing a gun shot busts out of the barn.

Now dressed in pajamas.

The giant sees his beloved master is dead. In the paper the next day, Bruce reads (over his morning pipe smoking) that Drake has bequeathed the Ape-Man to the circus.

I’m not sure why he’s an ‘ape-man’. Much less why his master is beloved.

Dick wants to go to the cops, but Bruce nixes that.

Now in a cage. Goliath is displayed next to an elephant.

And back in his leopard-skin tunic.

In the crowd Goliath sees the murderer of Drake and goes berserk, breaking out of his cage. He grabs the killer and dashes him against a pole. Goliath reverts back to the beast he is. Throwing cages and freeing the lion and the elephant. The lion goes to eat some guy.

Batman and Robin capture the lion and calm the elephant. Goliath picks up Robin and throws him. Luckily Robin grabs a trapeze and lands on a steel girder.

Goliath climbs after him. Batman joins in. They all fight.

Well, this story - a mild retelling of King Kong - has many problematic issues. But honestly as a kid I probably wouldn’t have noticed any and found it a very exciting tale.

Sure I would have felt sorry for Goliath - how can you not? 5 stars

When did Robin stop using a sling?!

With four very good stories, this is a 4 star magazine and I’m glad I read it. I’d recommend these to any Batman & Robin fan.

[Lser · Rating 3 out of 5]

Out of respect and my love to Batman, Robin, Joker and Catwoman I will give it 3 stars.
Problem no.1:
The writing, literally, even I in the fifth class knew to write better than this, I can barely understand what it says and there are too many boxes where it tells us what they are doing, I have eyes already.
Problem no.2
Their illustrations are very bad and honestly it is sometimes hard to believe they could publish this type of drawing.
Problem no.3
Just stop killing every single villain.
Other than that I want to say that the Crime master was a super cool story but... they just *spoil*killed him*spoil*.
All stories were acceptable, decent or actually good(not the art or the texts).

[TrashKat · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is another pretty good issue. I loved the first two stories. The Joker is such a classic, it's hard not to like any stories he's in. His character design is still just as terrifying as we're used to seeing today. Even Batman's interactions with the Cat are great. Even though this was written in the 40s, we still see her as a fun foe.
The third story makes me feel a little off. The portrayal of the pygmies is uncomfortable. I'm not giving it a slide because it was the 40s, but it's not surprising.
The quality of these Batman issues is phenomenally different in comparison to the Detective Comics stories. I hope they continue to impress!

[Etienne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reading those old Batman comic is for me a way to see how the comic and characters evolve through the year. So it's part fun part research. Like the first one, this one is a collection of short stories. The first one was good with well known characters like The Joker and Catwoman, the others are more or less just crime comic, a bad guy, a crime, Batman come and save it all which is a bit thin. I did like to see some references of the time it was written in. It was interesting but I can't say I enjoy it much!

[Craig Schorling · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a lot of fun. The story with the man that becomes hypnotized at midnight was a tragic tale and would make a good story today. The Joker is doing Joker things. These older books are fun to come back to and see how it all started.

[LyricTrotter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Its mostly didactic-for-kids like, but there is a subtle development of character we will later see.Can't wait to get this series down.

[Derek Kaellner · Rating 2 out of 5]

Batman begins the issue by sword-fighting the Joker in a castle, which is amusing, but the final segment about a King-Kong-sized caveman worshiped by "African Pygmies" is very rough to read through.

[DOUGLAS J BERRY · Rating 5 out of 5]

Several old fashioned stories.

Good color artwork, well displayed with modern zoom panels. The early joker and catwoman stories were interesting. Batman vs the pygmies was funny.

[John Nelson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was so good! Funny as hell!! Even though the art is primitive the stories are just so good, albeit a bit goofy and campy. Which I love. My favorite bit was Batman fighting pigmies on top of a train. Like that would actually happen ever! Anyway, the whole notion of a dark morbid batman is slowly eroding away from my memory as I see his origins was this rebellious trouble maker with some serious pimpin attitude

[Denim Datta · Rating 3 out of 5]

Issue #002 of Batman Volume 1. It contains 4 stories :

"The Joker Meets the Cat-Woman"
"Wolf, the Crime Master"
"The Case of the Clubfoot Murders"
"The Case of the Missing Link"

[james craddock jr. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good

It is an excellent book. It had the Joker my favorite villain. It's a good read for anyone who is a Batman fan.

[Hamad · Rating 2 out of 5]

Liked the joker case!

Apart from that, the other cases were weird. Strange imagination Bob had.. why does he like Giants so much ?

[Dannuel Delizo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Clubfoot and the missing link. Wow. Just look at how genius Batman's issues are.