BATMAN #1 - "The Joker"
The Joker got off to a strong start with not one but two stories in the very first issue of Batman. No clown, he, but a psychopathic thief and serial killer from the very beginning whose murders were nothing short of inventive. The "Joker" playing card is introduced as his symbol. I first read this in "treasury edition" format was I was ten years old.
1st murder: Henry Claridge for the Claridge diamond. The Joker announced on the radio that the murder would happen at midnight. Despite a cordon of police, Claridge dropped dead at the stroke of midnight, his face distorted into a ghastly grin. Actually, the diamond had been stolen the night before and Claridge injected with a dose of "Joker venom" which was timed to act in exactly 24 hours.
2nd murder: Jay Wilde for the Ronker's ruby. Also announced in advance over the radio, this time the Joker hid inside a suit of armor, knocked out the police guards with a non-lethal version of Joker venom in gas form, and killed Wilde with a blow dart.
3rd murder: Brute Nelson, a rival crime boss. Joker walked into an obvious trap and simply shot him, but Batman was stalking the place as well. The Joker defeats Batman in hand-to-hand combat and escapes.
4th murder: Judge Drake for revenge. This time the Joker disguises himself as the chief of police and kills the judge while playing cards. Batman and Robin have the judge's house staked out, Robin in front and Batman in back, but the Joker leaves from the front and Robin follows him to his hideout. Batman trails Robin, confronts the Joker and is again defeated.
5th murder (thwarted): Otto Drexel for the Cleopatra necklace. Batman is the to meet him when he attempts to break into Drexel's penthouse. Joker empties his gun into Batman's bullet-proof vest, then jumps to an adjoining construction site where Robin is waiting. Robin kicks Joker off the scaffolding, but Batman catches him, knocks him out and turns him over to the police. In his cell, the Joker already plots his escape.
Replies
BATMAN #16 - "The Joker Reforms!"
Joker is on the loose again, depite having been captured by Batman in Detective Comics #71. Batman and Robin confront the Joker and his men (Nitro, Kite and Sparky) while robbing a jewerly store. The criminals escape, but leave behind a clue leading to "Joe Kerswag" in Farr Corners. This robbery has "all the earmarks of a final job to top off [a] series of other crimes!"
"Morning finds a plane droning westward over a mountatinour wildreness." Joker is flying. Just before reaching their destination, the plane develops engine trouble. Joker holds the plane steady while his henchmen bail out. The Joker did not fake the emergency, but he does decide to take advantage of it. "Ha, ha! What fools they are! If I can keep this plane in the air, I won't have to split with them. They'll never find the hidden loot -- and they'll never see me again! Ha, ha!"
The plane crashes and the Joker is thrown free. He awakens with a case of amnesia and concludes he couldn't have been on the plane or he would have been killed. He finds the valise filled with jewels, also thrown clear, and follows the road to Farr Corners to turn it in. He gives his name as "Ed Smith" and is hailed a hero. (Twice during the story it is pointed out that no one in town recognizes the Joker because "no pictures of him have reached Farr Corners."
Aside: I wish I had been keeping track of all the clues we have been given to his identity. For example, we known that he is a chemist and a pilot. Could "Ed Smith" be his real name? Similarly, I with I had kept track of all the Joker's "colorful descriptors." In this story alone we have "Crafty Clown of Crime," "Grinning Gargoyle of Greed" and "Harlequin of Hate."
Batman and Robin arrive in town to find the Ed Smith being fêted. (By this time, Nitro, Kite and Sparky have also arrived.) when Batman is told that the Joker likely burned up in the plane crash, Batman saus, "That's too bad -- or is it? Anyway, if he's dead we'll miss the excitement of matching wits and punches with him!" When they are introduced to Ed Smith, they decide to play along and see what's going on. When Nitro, Kite and Sparky accost Batman, Robin and the Joker, the Joker saves Batman's life. The three criminals leap into a buckboard and make their escape because the Batman decides that there's "no use chasing them in the dark." Waitaminute... isn't "the dark" more or less Batman's "thing"?
That night, "a dream of startling clarity" disturbs the Joker's sleep, and he makes his way to the express office. "At that very moment, the Batman's mind solves a problem that has puzzled him all day." (I like puzzles the reader can figure out for himself, but this one was so easy I'll bet you're several steps ahead of the Batman already.) Batman, Robin, Joker, Nitro, Kite and Sparky all converge on the express office at roughly the same time looking for packages addressed to "Joe Kerswag." Sparky hits Joker on the head with the butt of his automatic, and you know what that means.
Once again it is up to Robin to save the day, as Robin knock the "Kerswag" boxes on top of Joker revealing the loot. The gunfire awakened the constable, who takes the Joker into custody. "They can't keep me in prison, Batman," swears the Joker, "and when I escape the joke'll be on you!"
Did the townsfolk not at least wonder why "Ed Smith" was dressed as a clown?
Once again it is up to Robin to save the day
"What If Batman had saved Dick Grayson's parents?"
Pa Grayson: "My wife and I can't thank you enough, Batman! God only knows what would have happened to our son if we'd been killed!"
Batman: "Think nothing of it, sir! I'm glad to help!"
(Several months later)
Joker: "And so dies the great Batman! Why, it's almost anticlimactic! I hate to admit it, but it's lucky for me that he was such a loner! If he'd had some kind of sidekick to help him out, he might even have beaten me!"
Or had a chalk-white face and green hair?
Oddly, they did not. No one even mentioned it. I guess they were too polite.
No one mentioned it, even though they know who Batman is and that he is after someone called the Joker. What might some guy who calls himself "the Joker" look like? And the Joker, who has amnesia, knows there's a missing crook called "the Joker." He never asks himself why he has a chalk-white face and green hair.
Also, at one point in the story, a little kid in Farr Corners is shown reading a Batman & Robin comic book... and he doesn't recognize the Joker, either!
(I guess he must have missed all of those 16 issues.)
DETECTIVE COMICS #76 - "Slay 'Em With Flowers"
"They can't keep me in prison, Batman... and when I escape the joke'll be on you!" - The Joker, Batman #16
The Joker makes good on his pledge and next turns up as the proprietor of a flower shop. (The former owner, Mr. Pettle, is said to have given it up "for his health.") His modus operandi is to prey on the shop's rich patrons. His disguise is a skin-head wig, flesh-colored make-up and a pair of glasses. His first victim is Jason Johnson, whose chauffer stops in the shop to pick up some flowers and other plants. An hour later, the Joker and his men, wearing gas masks, let themselves into Johnson mansion, where they find the millionaire and his staff all fast asleep. The Joker leaves his calling card.
The next day, millionaire Bruce Wayne and his young ward Dick Grayson attend a flower show. By the tuime they arrive, the Joker and his men are already robbing the unconscious attendees. They fight, but soon get dizzy and pass out.
Death trap #1: They awaken in an elevator car with their hands tied behind their backs. The Joker cuts the cable, but Batman is able to flip the "emergency stop" switch with is nose. (It is usually Robin I associate with quips and bad puns during fistfights, but I should mention Batman throws out an equal number in all of these stories.)
Comparing the two crime scenes, the Batman discovers that flowers from Pettle's shop were present at both, but all of the samples are perfectly normal. They stake out Pettle's shop and observe millionaire Percy Fillmore enter. Later, Batman and Robin trail the Joker and his men to the Venus Arms, where Fillmore lives. They are wearing gasmasks as they loot the place while Fillmore is asleep. The Joker blasts B&R with a gas gun.
Death trap #2: Joker turns the gas on and leaves it (the gas from the stove, not his knockout gas). It is Robin who revives first and awakens Batman. They save themselves and Fillmore by removing the hinges from the door. They note that there is spilled soil around all of the flower pots bought from the shop.
Batman suspects that the Joker has hidden his loot somewhere other than the flower shop, so instead of raiding it, they present themselves as bait as Bruce Wayne and dick Grayson. When they get back to stately Wayne Manor, they subject the potted plant to a fluoroscope and find a time-operated chloroform device planted in the soil. After the devices have done their work, the Joker and his men remove them, leaving no evidence. Bruce empties the chloroform out the window, and he, Dick and Alfred (Beagle at this point, not Pennyworth) pretend to be unconscious.
Batman and robin pursue, and this time the Joker foregoes the death traps and simply whips out a gun, but Robin disarms him before he can use it. Then the Joker his men flee into the flowershop's bulletproof greenhouse. Before you ask, no, it's not explained why the flowershop even has a bulletproof greenhouse in the first place (other than writers fiat), or who put it in, Joker or Pettle. Joker is also holding Pettle hostage, further tying Batman's hands. Batman uses the Joker's own chloroform against him by pumping it through the hothouses heating system. When the Joker awaken in the back of a paddy wagon, on his lap is a bouquet of flowers along with a card reading...
Roses are red
Violets are Blue
Your friends are going to jail
And so are you!
(signed) Batman & Robin
(Personally, I think the meter's a bit off. Batman should stick to crime-fighting.)
NOTE: War-time shortages and/or U.S. Savings Bonds are mentioned four times throughout the course of this story.
Alliterative descriptors: Malevolent Mountebank of the Underworld (a bit wordy), Gardner of Gangsterism (story-specific), Harlequin of Hate, Killer Clown, Cunning Crime Clown. Other alliteration: deadly danger, togs transform the twain, mantled menace (Batman, to the Joker), cloaked crime-busters and tornado team.
Finally, this doesn't have anything to do with the Joker, but the cover of Detective Comics #77 (1943) reminds me thematically of Weird Science #1 (1950).
BATMAN #19 - "The Case of the Timid Lion!"
First off, this story may be signed "Bob Kane" but it's definitely drawn by Dick Sprang.
Alliterative descriptors: Arch Buffoon of Banditry; Master Mummer (Master Mummer's mockery); also Master of Mockery and Mocking Mummer; Mirthful Menace.
Non-alliterative descriptors: Evil King of Jesters; Cunning Knave; Evil Jester
Other alliteration: Loot-laden criminals; bewildering battle; faltering foes; frightening fate; crooked clown king (in reference to King Richard III); steel-strong silken strands; roars in rage; quick cast. (Going forward, I think I'll forego "other alliteration" and the "non-alliterative descriptors.")
Puns: I could list as many puns as alliteration, believe me.
Unintended consequences: It's not that Batman is ineffective, he keeps catching the Joker again and again; it's that the police keep letting him get away.
The Chase: At one point escapes riding polo ponies; later, Batman uses a leopard (!) to track him.
Gimmick: The Joker pulls pranks based on men's last names: Mr. Fish, Mr. Fox, Mr. Lyon. The twist is, it's not the Joker doing it. Fish was dumped in an aquarium and Fox put in a cage with no advance notice, but Mr. Lyon was threatened in advance, causing him to hire four bodyguards. Batman decides to follow Lyon, but so does Joker (who's none too pleased that someone is using his name). Lyon goes to the exclusive Dividend Club. Normally, his bodyguards would not be allowed in, but an exception is made under the circumstances. Lyon excuses himself at one point, all of the lights go out, and Lyon and his men begin looting the place.
But Batman and Robin as well as the Joker have followed him and enter just after the lights have gone out. In the confusion, not only does the Joker escape, but so does Lyon. The next day's headline reads: "Joker Robs Dividend Club and Escapes," and the sidebar: "Mr. Lyon Disapperas, Feared Kidnapped!" But Batman and the Joker have both figured out that Lyon set the whole thing up. One of Lyon's men (wisely) suggests that Lyon continue to lie low, but Lyon is emboldened. "Nobody suspects me!" he crows. "I can show myself again, say I ran away to escape the Joker... and pull off another job!"
His next job is to rob the wealthy patrons at the polo grounds. But Batman and the Joker followed him once, and do so again. The Joker ends up getting the better of Batman, Robin and Lyon, and they soon find themselves in a cage with a ferocious, man-eating lion (the Joker borrowing Lyon's own gimmick). They escape, track the Joker down using a cheetah (once again, "!"), and lock the Joker in a cage.
BATMAN #19 - "The Case of the Timid Lion!"
First off, this story may be signed "Bob Kane" but it's definitely drawn by Dick Sprang.
Because Kane had a stronger contract than Siegel and Shuster, (only) his signature appeared on all Batman stories until well into the Silver Age regardless of who wrote or drew them.
-
5
-
6
-
7
-
8
-
9
of 26 Next