NOTE: As most of you know, Batman is my favourite superhero. As a lifelong fan of the character, with an EXTENSIVE collection of his comic book adventures that dates right back to the very beginning, I was thrilled at the thought of helping Bats celebrate his 75th anniversary in some small way.
I'd missed Superman's 75th, largely because I was in no position to do anything for it except cover the event for a small entertainment news site (and then shudder, along with everyone else, throughout the risible 'Man of Steel' movie). So, I resolved not to miss out again.
To that end, I extensively planned out a long and elaborate series of articles that would coincide with DC's Batman celebrations (which occurred throughout last week and included, in my local comics store at least, Batman giveaways, free comic books and even delicious Batman cakes!). Interest in Batman is as hot (or hotter) than it has ever been at the moment and I felt assured that readers would visit the site I was pitching to in their millions. The backbone of my personal celebration would be a series of articles that would chart the character's progression throughout the 75 years that he has been around.
...Then, disaster struck. My editor (who is not a comic book fan at all), simply had no interest in the event whatsoever. He didn't think that people would want to read that articles that I was suggesting and, one by one, he systematically shot down every idea I pitched to him. Yeah, I was mad at first. I mean, a lot of people made a lot of money from the 75th anniversary of Batman and, by comparison, we appear to have made very little. I was annoyed and more than a little crestfallen. After all, I'd been planning the idea for months (and, when I'd mentioned it a few months earlier, he'd seemed eager to get on board with it). Then again, as I have learned from personal experience, you can't take these things to heart. He was just calling it like he saw it, I guess...
Then it hit me. I didn't need any other site to post at least some of my proposed Batman articles. I have my own site. I mean, it would be nice to get paid, don't get me wrong, but I'm not so leaky-shoes, empty-belly poor that I can't post original articles up here every now and then.
So, I decided to cobble together a more concise version of my planned article, for no other purpose than to celebrate The Batman's 75th birthday. Here is part one...I hope you enjoy this piece and take it for what it is; a labour of love.
The Golden Age
“It must be a creature of the night.”
Hard as it may be to believe, the character of Batman is now 75 years old.
All in all, that’s a pretty amazing feat, when you stop and think about it.
When Batman’s first appearance hit the stands, as the cover feature of 1939’s Detective Comics 27, Human feet had yet to walk on the moon, The Beatles weren’t even born yet and nobody had a television.
As a character, the Dark Knight Detective has ridden the roller coaster of the 20th (and early 21st) century with considerable success. He has survived The Great Depression, World War 2, McCarthyism, The Cold War, 9/11 and the advent of the Internet (amongst a whole lot else).
The interesting thing about Batman - and a select group of other costumed adventurers like him - is that, although his 75 year run is a mere drop in the ocean compared to legendary heroes of ancient myth like Hercules or Perseus - and even folk heroes like Robin Hood, the adventures of those other heroes have not been continually published and updated with new instalments on anything like a regular basis. Beowulf always meets his noble end as he battles the great dragon, Samson always loses his hair and King Arthur always retires until Great Britain needs him most. Then, the story just...ends. People create new versions of these stories, of course, but not every single month.
That’s part of the magic of these SUPER heroes. Barring a few exceptions, Batman’s adventures have been published on a regular basis for 75 years now. Such a complex and continually evolving mythology had never before been attempted. So, in that respect, as well as a great many others, superhero comics simply broke the mould.
Hard as it may be to believe, the character of Batman is now 75 years old.
All in all, that’s a pretty amazing feat, when you stop and think about it.
When Batman’s first appearance hit the stands, as the cover feature of 1939’s Detective Comics 27, Human feet had yet to walk on the moon, The Beatles weren’t even born yet and nobody had a television.
As a character, the Dark Knight Detective has ridden the roller coaster of the 20th (and early 21st) century with considerable success. He has survived The Great Depression, World War 2, McCarthyism, The Cold War, 9/11 and the advent of the Internet (amongst a whole lot else).
The interesting thing about Batman - and a select group of other costumed adventurers like him - is that, although his 75 year run is a mere drop in the ocean compared to legendary heroes of ancient myth like Hercules or Perseus - and even folk heroes like Robin Hood, the adventures of those other heroes have not been continually published and updated with new instalments on anything like a regular basis. Beowulf always meets his noble end as he battles the great dragon, Samson always loses his hair and King Arthur always retires until Great Britain needs him most. Then, the story just...ends. People create new versions of these stories, of course, but not every single month.
That’s part of the magic of these SUPER heroes. Barring a few exceptions, Batman’s adventures have been published on a regular basis for 75 years now. Such a complex and continually evolving mythology had never before been attempted. So, in that respect, as well as a great many others, superhero comics simply broke the mould.
And no post-Superman character would shatter it more than The Batman...
Building on the successful formula pioneered by Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster’s Superman character, comics artist Bob Kane, together with his ghost-writer, Bill Finger, began an experiment in cleverly calculated lunacy that would continue up until the present day...
The 1930’s
Bob Kane is always credited as Batman’s sole creator (a deal that he negotiated with DC Comics many moons ago), but, in actuality, the character was a co-creation, helped along hugely by writer Bill Finger.
In comics today, almost all characters are understood by publishers and fans to be co-creations. However, because Kane had employed Finger as a ‘ghost’ – Bill was never able to see much in the way of recognition for his work.
Kane and Finger took elements from the 1920 silent movie ‘The Mark of Zorro’ (starring Douglas Fairbanks), as well as Lee Faulk’s popular newspaper strip ‘The Phantom’ and mixed them together with the crime capers of pulp heroes like Dick Tracy and The Shadow. Batman’s major literary influence was, of course, the great detective, Sherlock Holmes.
Bob Kane sourced the character’s cape from his childhood memories of seeing Leonardo Da Vinci’s famous flying machine design in a book. The character’s alter ego of Bruce Wayne was named for Scottish national hero Robert Bruce and US Revolutionary War hero ‘Mad’ Anthony Wayne (who has subsequently been absorbed into Bruce Wayne’s fictional family tree).
With a basic costume outline (largely improved upon by Finger, who may also have been responsible for the addition of a pair of incongruous purple gloves to the ensemble), an alter ego and the beginnings of a supporting cast (Police Commissioner Gordon was already in place), The Batman was ready to strike.
...And so, as Mahatma Gandhi fasted in India and a new movie called ‘Gone With The Wind’ played in cinemas across the Western world, The Batman was born into the pages of Detective Comics 27.
The first Batman adventure was ‘The Case of the Chemical Syndicate’, a pretty straightforward crime thriller, written by Finger and drawn by Kane. It was actually rather violent (the Golden Age Batman showed no compunctions about killing whatsoever).
In many respects, Batman’s earliest adventures were indistinguishable from other pulp thrillers. His world was murky, violent and corrupt and the character himself was completely uncompromising and deliciously unhinged. The only major difference, story-wise, was that Batman wore a costume and employed limited theatrics in order to solve his cases, whereas the other pulp detectives did not.
After a few equally violent (and surprisingly dark) stories by comics great Gardner Fox, during which time Batman encountered his first returning foe (the twisted chemical genius Doctor Death) and began to use his now-famed utility belt (‘Tec 29), as well as his Batarangs (‘Tec 31) and the first Bat-themed vehicle, the Batplane (also ‘Tec 31) an early Batcopter (Batgyro) and then a brush with the vampiric supervillain The Monk - a story which also introduced Wayne’s first major girlfriend Julie Madison (‘Tec 31), Batman’s own tragic origins were finally revealed.
In the vast majority of comic books, the hero’s origins are explored in the first issue. A typical ‘origin story’ includes an account of how the character received his/her fantastic powers, together with their motivations for fighting crime. Even today, the origin of a character is usually explored in the first story arc of a new series (or rebooted series).
However, Batman’s origins were first detailed in Detective Comics 33, a full six months after The Batman had debuted. Of course, Finger and Kane had always intended to imply that socialite Bruce Wayne was the man behind the cape and cowl (even going as far as to show us this fact at the end of the first story). However, in this monumental issue, they went one-step further and unmasked Wayne before his readership.
In this story, entitled ‘The Batman Wars Against The Dirigible of Doom’ (by Bill Finger and Bob Kane), readers were finally introduced to the Batman story that would become infamous as 20th century mythology.
It’s all here. The murderous gunman Joe Chill, the errant Bat flying into the study window, the immortal decision “I shall become a bat!” even the line about criminals being ‘a cowardly and superstitious lot’ and Bruce Wayne’s journey to become a perfect physical specimen in order to keep his childhood promise. All of it is contained within two glorious pages that outlined who The Batman was and how he came to be...
And so, the story began in earnest.
The 1940’s
Batman kicked the 1940’s off in style.
In Detective Comics Issue 36, Batman’s own Professor Moriarty debuted.
No, not The Joker, but Professor Hugo Strange, the man created by Kane and Finger to become the Batman’s arch-foe. True to form, Strange would war with the Bat for the next few months, before ultimately meeting his end in a Holmes/Moriarty style showdown in Detective Comics 46. He would also be the first villain to use ‘fear powder’, an early form of toxin that would later be used by another of Batman’s famous foes...
In Detective Comics 38, Batman made ‘The Sensational Character Find of 1940!’ by introducing Robin, The Boy Wonder. Unlike Bruce Wayne’s origins, Dick Grayson’s were available from his first ever appearance. A circus acrobat who’s parents had been murdered by the mobster ‘Boss’ Zucco, Dick reminded Bruce of his own tragic past and so, in a solemn, candlelit ceremony, Grayson swore to ‘never swerve from the path of righteousness’ and Robin was born.
More cool shit was on the way in 1940, however, as Batman’s success resulted in the first issue of his own solo title ‘Batman’. Issue 1 was an absolute doozy, which saw not only the wonderful story ‘The Monster Men of Hugo Strange’, but also the debut appearance of both The Joker and Catwoman (then known as ‘The Cat’).
The ‘Monster Men’ story was decreed to be so barbaric by editor Whitney Ellsworth, that he decided there and then that The Batman should never, ever be allowed to kill again (a rule that the character still abides by to this day). Up until that time, Golden Age Batman had been a bit like The Old Testament God, a vengeful, violent badass.
The Joker, for his part, had no such misgivings about murder and was a gleeful ghoul from the outset. With no known origins and no apparent motives, The Joker simply committed robberies and murders for the 'fun' of it all.
Principally designed by artist Jerry Robinson, working in tandem with Kane and Finger, the character of The Joker had been inspired by the 1928 silent movie ‘The Man Who Laughs’ (in which a man’s face is deformed into a perpetual grin), as well as an image seen on a playing card that Robinson had found and been inspired by. His first story mirrored Hugo Strange's early appearances exactly, clearly setting him up as another arch-foe for Batman, but The Joker caught on with readers in a way that Strange never quite did and he would soon become the most feared villain in the strip, a position he occupies to this day...
The Cat, on the other hand, was every bit as attractive as The Joker was repellent and an infatuated Batman appeared to even let her escape at the end of their first encounter. She would be a recurring foe for the next three issues of the fledgling title and, along with The Joker, help to lay a valuable foundation stone to the creation of Batman’s now-iconic ‘rogues’ gallery’.
It was all coming together.
The rest of the decade proved just as important as Batman’s formative years continued and he developed as a character. The ‘no killing’ rule, together with the introduction of Robin as his plucky kid sidekick, saw the character soften a little. Even in the artwork, he began to look a little different, his mask was now a little less demonic and his wiry, athletic frame became more barrel chested and bullish. Before the decade was out, this scrappy, scowling vigilante would even crack the occasional smile.
Of course, America entered World War Two in 1941, following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour. This would have a huge effect on all comic book characters in general, as many were shipped to US soldiers and thus contained strong patriotic themes. DC also used its characters to promote various military and civilian initiatives aimed at aiding the war effort. This re-made Batman, who was essentially an outlaw until this point, into something resembling a trusted establishment figure.
But the villains were still crawling out of the woodwork in order to test their mettle against this new crimefighter. Detective Comics 40 saw the introduction of the villain Clayface (who, in this early incarnation, was simply an actor with a talent for applying makeup in order to disguise his appearance), whilst Detective Comics 58 in 1941 saw the first appearance of classic foe The Penguin (inspired by a cigarette advert, of all things).
1942 saw the debut of the horrifically scarred Two Face (by all accounts a Bob Kane solo design). Formerly known as District Attorney Harvey Kent (that was his original name, it isn’t a misprint), Two Face had to flip his coin in order to decide whether he did good deeds or bad. This benevolent side to the Two Face character has been largely forgotten ever since, but does rear its, um, face occasionally.
Batman Issue 16 featured the debut of Alfred, a bumbling butler and amateur detective from England. Far from being the refined, witty and intelligent Alfred of today, the 1943 version (drawn by Bob Kane and written by Don Cameron) was somewhat portly and more than a little buffoonish. However, he was sharp enough to deduce the Dynamic Duo’s secret identities in his first outing and they thus allowed him to join them as their butler. By the time the year was out, Alfred had been given the surname ‘Pennyworth’ and had been redesigned in the image of William Austin, the actor who portrayed the character in the earliest Batman movies.
In 1943, The Batcave became a part of the comics continuity (well, sort of). Although a Bill Finger script had mentioned Batman’s ‘underground hangars’ the previous year, it was the Batcave, as featured in the Batman movie serial, that prompted Bob Kane to introduce the exotic location into the Batman newspaper strip where it was, slowly but surely, absorbed into the world of the Batman comic book stories.
By 1945, of course, WW2 was officially over and, whilst the superheroes celebrated, they had more to worry about in peace time than just the lack of Japanese or Nazi spies to beat up each month...However, at the time, all seemed well and America, like everywhere else, set about the process of recovery.
Batman, for his part, ended the decade even stronger than he had started it. Detective Comics 140 saw the debut of The Riddler, who was created by Bill Finger and artist Dick Sprang, a man who would go on to become an extremely important architect of the character’s long and storied history over the following ten years (more on him in the next chapter).
By the end of the decade, Bob Kane had left the Batman comics in order to work on the accompanying newspaper strip and had, from there, pursued other interests. In his stead, his ‘ghosts’ (none of whom were credited, but were as good a stable of creators as had ever been assembled at that point), spent several years crafting inventive and exciting stories for this dark and complex character.
Creators like Gardner Fox, Sheldon Moldoff, Dick Sprang and Bill Finger were regularly turning out new stories and, in this impossibly innovative time period, new elements were being added to the Batman mythos literally every month.
These artists and writers reasoned that it was easier to bring back old villains with new motivations than it was to create new ones every month and, since The Batman never killed any of his foes, they could freely re-introduce costumed criminals like The Joker, The Penguin, The Riddler, Catwoman, Clayface, Two-Face and others still. This approach had the effect of making the villains deeper and more satisfying with each new appearance.
The 1950’s would see many huge changes for the character and his world, but that, as they say, is a story for another time...
Stay Tuned For The Next Chapter, where I’ll be taking a look at ‘The 1950’s & 60’s’
SAME BAT-TIME, SAME BAT-CHANNEL!
Building on the successful formula pioneered by Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster’s Superman character, comics artist Bob Kane, together with his ghost-writer, Bill Finger, began an experiment in cleverly calculated lunacy that would continue up until the present day...
The 1930’s
Bob Kane is always credited as Batman’s sole creator (a deal that he negotiated with DC Comics many moons ago), but, in actuality, the character was a co-creation, helped along hugely by writer Bill Finger.
In comics today, almost all characters are understood by publishers and fans to be co-creations. However, because Kane had employed Finger as a ‘ghost’ – Bill was never able to see much in the way of recognition for his work.
Kane and Finger took elements from the 1920 silent movie ‘The Mark of Zorro’ (starring Douglas Fairbanks), as well as Lee Faulk’s popular newspaper strip ‘The Phantom’ and mixed them together with the crime capers of pulp heroes like Dick Tracy and The Shadow. Batman’s major literary influence was, of course, the great detective, Sherlock Holmes.
Bob Kane sourced the character’s cape from his childhood memories of seeing Leonardo Da Vinci’s famous flying machine design in a book. The character’s alter ego of Bruce Wayne was named for Scottish national hero Robert Bruce and US Revolutionary War hero ‘Mad’ Anthony Wayne (who has subsequently been absorbed into Bruce Wayne’s fictional family tree).
With a basic costume outline (largely improved upon by Finger, who may also have been responsible for the addition of a pair of incongruous purple gloves to the ensemble), an alter ego and the beginnings of a supporting cast (Police Commissioner Gordon was already in place), The Batman was ready to strike.
...And so, as Mahatma Gandhi fasted in India and a new movie called ‘Gone With The Wind’ played in cinemas across the Western world, The Batman was born into the pages of Detective Comics 27.
The first Batman adventure was ‘The Case of the Chemical Syndicate’, a pretty straightforward crime thriller, written by Finger and drawn by Kane. It was actually rather violent (the Golden Age Batman showed no compunctions about killing whatsoever).
In many respects, Batman’s earliest adventures were indistinguishable from other pulp thrillers. His world was murky, violent and corrupt and the character himself was completely uncompromising and deliciously unhinged. The only major difference, story-wise, was that Batman wore a costume and employed limited theatrics in order to solve his cases, whereas the other pulp detectives did not.
After a few equally violent (and surprisingly dark) stories by comics great Gardner Fox, during which time Batman encountered his first returning foe (the twisted chemical genius Doctor Death) and began to use his now-famed utility belt (‘Tec 29), as well as his Batarangs (‘Tec 31) and the first Bat-themed vehicle, the Batplane (also ‘Tec 31) an early Batcopter (Batgyro) and then a brush with the vampiric supervillain The Monk - a story which also introduced Wayne’s first major girlfriend Julie Madison (‘Tec 31), Batman’s own tragic origins were finally revealed.
In the vast majority of comic books, the hero’s origins are explored in the first issue. A typical ‘origin story’ includes an account of how the character received his/her fantastic powers, together with their motivations for fighting crime. Even today, the origin of a character is usually explored in the first story arc of a new series (or rebooted series).
However, Batman’s origins were first detailed in Detective Comics 33, a full six months after The Batman had debuted. Of course, Finger and Kane had always intended to imply that socialite Bruce Wayne was the man behind the cape and cowl (even going as far as to show us this fact at the end of the first story). However, in this monumental issue, they went one-step further and unmasked Wayne before his readership.
In this story, entitled ‘The Batman Wars Against The Dirigible of Doom’ (by Bill Finger and Bob Kane), readers were finally introduced to the Batman story that would become infamous as 20th century mythology.
It’s all here. The murderous gunman Joe Chill, the errant Bat flying into the study window, the immortal decision “I shall become a bat!” even the line about criminals being ‘a cowardly and superstitious lot’ and Bruce Wayne’s journey to become a perfect physical specimen in order to keep his childhood promise. All of it is contained within two glorious pages that outlined who The Batman was and how he came to be...
And so, the story began in earnest.
The 1940’s
Batman kicked the 1940’s off in style.
In Detective Comics Issue 36, Batman’s own Professor Moriarty debuted.
No, not The Joker, but Professor Hugo Strange, the man created by Kane and Finger to become the Batman’s arch-foe. True to form, Strange would war with the Bat for the next few months, before ultimately meeting his end in a Holmes/Moriarty style showdown in Detective Comics 46. He would also be the first villain to use ‘fear powder’, an early form of toxin that would later be used by another of Batman’s famous foes...
In Detective Comics 38, Batman made ‘The Sensational Character Find of 1940!’ by introducing Robin, The Boy Wonder. Unlike Bruce Wayne’s origins, Dick Grayson’s were available from his first ever appearance. A circus acrobat who’s parents had been murdered by the mobster ‘Boss’ Zucco, Dick reminded Bruce of his own tragic past and so, in a solemn, candlelit ceremony, Grayson swore to ‘never swerve from the path of righteousness’ and Robin was born.
More cool shit was on the way in 1940, however, as Batman’s success resulted in the first issue of his own solo title ‘Batman’. Issue 1 was an absolute doozy, which saw not only the wonderful story ‘The Monster Men of Hugo Strange’, but also the debut appearance of both The Joker and Catwoman (then known as ‘The Cat’).
The ‘Monster Men’ story was decreed to be so barbaric by editor Whitney Ellsworth, that he decided there and then that The Batman should never, ever be allowed to kill again (a rule that the character still abides by to this day). Up until that time, Golden Age Batman had been a bit like The Old Testament God, a vengeful, violent badass.
The Joker, for his part, had no such misgivings about murder and was a gleeful ghoul from the outset. With no known origins and no apparent motives, The Joker simply committed robberies and murders for the 'fun' of it all.
Principally designed by artist Jerry Robinson, working in tandem with Kane and Finger, the character of The Joker had been inspired by the 1928 silent movie ‘The Man Who Laughs’ (in which a man’s face is deformed into a perpetual grin), as well as an image seen on a playing card that Robinson had found and been inspired by. His first story mirrored Hugo Strange's early appearances exactly, clearly setting him up as another arch-foe for Batman, but The Joker caught on with readers in a way that Strange never quite did and he would soon become the most feared villain in the strip, a position he occupies to this day...
The Cat, on the other hand, was every bit as attractive as The Joker was repellent and an infatuated Batman appeared to even let her escape at the end of their first encounter. She would be a recurring foe for the next three issues of the fledgling title and, along with The Joker, help to lay a valuable foundation stone to the creation of Batman’s now-iconic ‘rogues’ gallery’.
It was all coming together.
The rest of the decade proved just as important as Batman’s formative years continued and he developed as a character. The ‘no killing’ rule, together with the introduction of Robin as his plucky kid sidekick, saw the character soften a little. Even in the artwork, he began to look a little different, his mask was now a little less demonic and his wiry, athletic frame became more barrel chested and bullish. Before the decade was out, this scrappy, scowling vigilante would even crack the occasional smile.
Of course, America entered World War Two in 1941, following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour. This would have a huge effect on all comic book characters in general, as many were shipped to US soldiers and thus contained strong patriotic themes. DC also used its characters to promote various military and civilian initiatives aimed at aiding the war effort. This re-made Batman, who was essentially an outlaw until this point, into something resembling a trusted establishment figure.
But the villains were still crawling out of the woodwork in order to test their mettle against this new crimefighter. Detective Comics 40 saw the introduction of the villain Clayface (who, in this early incarnation, was simply an actor with a talent for applying makeup in order to disguise his appearance), whilst Detective Comics 58 in 1941 saw the first appearance of classic foe The Penguin (inspired by a cigarette advert, of all things).
1942 saw the debut of the horrifically scarred Two Face (by all accounts a Bob Kane solo design). Formerly known as District Attorney Harvey Kent (that was his original name, it isn’t a misprint), Two Face had to flip his coin in order to decide whether he did good deeds or bad. This benevolent side to the Two Face character has been largely forgotten ever since, but does rear its, um, face occasionally.
Batman Issue 16 featured the debut of Alfred, a bumbling butler and amateur detective from England. Far from being the refined, witty and intelligent Alfred of today, the 1943 version (drawn by Bob Kane and written by Don Cameron) was somewhat portly and more than a little buffoonish. However, he was sharp enough to deduce the Dynamic Duo’s secret identities in his first outing and they thus allowed him to join them as their butler. By the time the year was out, Alfred had been given the surname ‘Pennyworth’ and had been redesigned in the image of William Austin, the actor who portrayed the character in the earliest Batman movies.
In 1943, The Batcave became a part of the comics continuity (well, sort of). Although a Bill Finger script had mentioned Batman’s ‘underground hangars’ the previous year, it was the Batcave, as featured in the Batman movie serial, that prompted Bob Kane to introduce the exotic location into the Batman newspaper strip where it was, slowly but surely, absorbed into the world of the Batman comic book stories.
By 1945, of course, WW2 was officially over and, whilst the superheroes celebrated, they had more to worry about in peace time than just the lack of Japanese or Nazi spies to beat up each month...However, at the time, all seemed well and America, like everywhere else, set about the process of recovery.
Batman, for his part, ended the decade even stronger than he had started it. Detective Comics 140 saw the debut of The Riddler, who was created by Bill Finger and artist Dick Sprang, a man who would go on to become an extremely important architect of the character’s long and storied history over the following ten years (more on him in the next chapter).
By the end of the decade, Bob Kane had left the Batman comics in order to work on the accompanying newspaper strip and had, from there, pursued other interests. In his stead, his ‘ghosts’ (none of whom were credited, but were as good a stable of creators as had ever been assembled at that point), spent several years crafting inventive and exciting stories for this dark and complex character.
Creators like Gardner Fox, Sheldon Moldoff, Dick Sprang and Bill Finger were regularly turning out new stories and, in this impossibly innovative time period, new elements were being added to the Batman mythos literally every month.
These artists and writers reasoned that it was easier to bring back old villains with new motivations than it was to create new ones every month and, since The Batman never killed any of his foes, they could freely re-introduce costumed criminals like The Joker, The Penguin, The Riddler, Catwoman, Clayface, Two-Face and others still. This approach had the effect of making the villains deeper and more satisfying with each new appearance.
The 1950’s would see many huge changes for the character and his world, but that, as they say, is a story for another time...
Stay Tuned For The Next Chapter, where I’ll be taking a look at ‘The 1950’s & 60’s’
SAME BAT-TIME, SAME BAT-CHANNEL!