A friend on FB posted this panel and wonders where it original came from.
Obviously, the lettering has been altered, but does anyone recognise it? Can you point us in the right direction?
What was going down in the original comic? Was Robin drugged, halucinating, or showing cowardice? Or was it Batman who was acting out of character? Or was this one of those set-ups, where Robin was about to reveal Batman's ID in front of the Penguin and it was the only thing Bruce could think of doing to stop him from saying it?
Inquiring minds want to know!
Replies
Don't know the source myself Kirk, but besides suspecting Curt Swan on pencils, which would presumably make it from a 1960s issue of World's Finest, that image has been making plenty of rounds on Facebook with more relettered captions than you can throw a batarang at.
I found it. Using Google Images I found the original comic panels with the original dialog, courtesy of 9gag.com. Once I knew the plot of the source I started looking at GCD for World's Finest after the New Look bat symbol debuted. It was an imaginary story in World's Finest #153 where Bruce Wayne becomes Batman because he believes Superboy killed his parents. The panel we've been seeing everywhere is a mirror-image. Sounds like a cool story.
Excellent work! THanks so much, especially the clues with the new batman symbol, the artist (who I recognise but could not name) and the time-period.
According to GCD, the art was by Curt Swan, inked by George Klein. The script was by Edmund Hamilton.
I looked it up and learned that WF #153 has never been reprinted in another form. And that this is the first imaginary story to appear in this title. Publication date: November/December 1965... so there's a chance that I had seen this on a spinner rack as a kid in a "drug store" as we used to call Pharmacies back in the day..
Richard Willis said:
Actually, Kirk, it was reprinted in Showcase Presents: World's Finest Volume 3. It was indeed the first imaginary story in WF. It didn't show Batman in a very positive light (obviously). Perhaps that's why it was never reprinted as many from that period were.
I recognised it as being by Curt Swan straight away, and probably from the mid-1960s World's Finest, but the other Lee (and others) beat me to it!
You all beat me to it, but it's not difficult to track down when you have the knowledge that the people around here have. As Richard says, Google "Batman slaps Robin World's Finest" in Images and you'll get an entire page of options. Like this one here, which I can't even read. There's a pretty good chance that someone here will know most things, or at least enough to track it down from there.
There are entire websites devoted to showing the covers in which Superman inflicted cruelties on Jimmy and Lois in particular. Most of them were either hoaxes, dreams, mind control or Imaginary Stories, as this one was.
When you needed to jumpstart up to three stories per issue in a panel or two, that kind of image worked pretty well. Not to mention that Lois in particular often was getting what she deserved.
I agree that it's possible this one wasn't reprinted until the SP reprinting because it makes Batman seem so bad. He was supposed to be obsessed, but slapping Robin may have seemed a bit over the top in retrospect. Nowadays, that would pass for a happy day in the Batcave -- MSA
Alfred: "How was your day, Master Dick?"
Robin: "Great! Bruce only slapped me! Once! Without his rings on! He must be in a really good mood!"
Does Bruce Wayne even wear any rings? I would think that would be a dead giveaway if he did...how do you hide rings under skin tight gloves anyway?
And, of course, that would spell problems for the ol' 1966 Batman TV series auto-costume change batpole, wouldn't it?
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