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.
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The timeline here bothered me when I was a kid, and read this story in a reprint. The same comic had a reprint of Robin's origin.
It's clear that Batman is still relatively new-- as he was-- in Robin's origin story, because Dick does not know who Batman is when he first meets him. It seems like Batman could not have been operating for long when he encountered the Red Hood. I doubt the Joker waited too long, once he became the Joker, before starting his crime career. His first spree, in fact, was ended by Batman and Robin.
The passage of time becomes a clue in the Red Hood story. There's a little Red Herring Hood, who gets dismissed because he would have been a child ten years ago.
But Robin's in this story, and he's a kid.
I liked the story, but it didn't quite add up.
You know, the way other comic books always maintain logical continuity and never introduce elements that make nonsense of past stories.
Loss of comic book innocence can be difficult, but we move on, wiser.
But Robin's in this story, and he's a kid.
Oh, good point. I hadn't even considered that. I guess I flunk Batman's "observation and deduction" seminar. :(
BATMAN #66 - "The Joker's Comedy of Errors"
The story opens with the Joker and his gang robbing the electric company by shutting off the electricity. He thought it would be funny... until he realized that with no electricity the elevators wouldn't work. Batman and robin prevent the cime, but the Joker gets away. In the next day's newspaper, the headline reads: "JOKER PULLS BONER OF THE YEAR!" Joker responds by saying: "So! They laugh at my boner, will they? I'll show them! I'll show them how many boners the Joker can make!" This story is unintentionally (?) distracting by the use the of the word "boner" 37 times, including: the Joker readying "a special boner just for the Batman," "How do you like my boner crimes, eh?" "Soon, Batman will make the boner of the year," "How can he force you into a boner?" ""I'm worried about the boner he's readying for you!" "It is well that I am ready to trick him into his boner" and "Batman's greatest boner!" The thing that leads me to believe that this wasn't unintentional (a "boner," if you will) is the phallic cover depicting a scene which does not occur anywhere in the issue.
BATMAN #67 - "The Man Who Wrote the Joker's Jokes!"
The Joker is in a bit of a slump so he decides to hire some gag writers like the comedians on television use. His one stipulation is that the cimes/gags must make a fool of the Batman. Three "crime gag writers" apply. Dooly, the first, contrives to pull a job at the gotham State fair and escape through a float made to look like a giant sack of potatoes. Thge joke is that Batman will be left "holding the bag." That is the headline the next day, but the crime itself is something less than successful. Even though the Joker got away, Dooly was caught and the money recovered.
Hibbs is up next, and he conspires to "make a jackass of the Batman" by trapping him in a fire, then tossing in asbestos donkey suits. Again, the crime was not a complete success as Hibbs was caught and the oney recovered. When the third gag writer learn what happened to the other two, he quit. The Joker realizes that the only one who can outsmart tha Batman is Batman himself, so he kidnaps Robin and forces Batman to come up with a crime for Joker to commit that will make a fool of Batman. Batman decides to have himself "gummed up" in a gum factory. But when it comes time for the job to be pulled, Batman turns the tables and "gums up" the Joker. (Robin was able to get word to Batman that he would be able to escape, but it would take him a certain ammount of time.) The story was a bit anticlimactic.
DETECTIVE COMICS #180 - "The Joker's Millions"
Racketeer William "King" Barlowe dies and bequeaths his entire estate, $1 million in cash plus an additional $4 million in jewels, to his rival the Joker, who goes on a spending spree. (A point is made that the Joker has been released from prison.) His henchment suggest robbning the payrol of "The Laugh House" as a crime befitting the Joker, but the Joker turns them down, having legitimatlely gone straight. But only the top bills on the stack of cash were real; the rest were counterfeit. All the jewels are paste. Barlowe wanted Joker to get used to a life of wealth and luxury before he was humiliated when the truth came out. then the IRS man comes to the door to collect $2 million inheritance tax. He doesn't have it, but nor does he want Barlowe to win, so he begins committing a series of "ordinary" crimes (safe-cracking, armed robbery, breaking and entering, burgaly, etc.) so that no one will suspect him of returning to a life of crime.
But circumstances conspire to make every crime he commits look as if it might have been pulled by the Joker. Meanwhile, Joker continues to live high on the hog with the last of the real cash. On night, while dining at the swanky Panda Club at a table near Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson, Joker drops a roll of cash. He had just given his waiter a $100 tip, which was real, but all the other bills in the roll were fake. Bruce realizes the bills are counterfeit, suspect Joker is pulling a series of ordinary crimes, and sets about trying to draw the Joker into the light. One morning, Batman is found locked in a cage a the zoo with a white-faced monkey whose hair was painted green. Batman did it himself, but the Joker takes credit for it in the believe that it "would make [him] world famous."
Actually, the Joker had been at the zoo, breaking and entering into the administration office to steal a $50,000 endowment. He brags to one of his men, who happens to be Batman in disguise. Bstman recorded his confession and the Joker is arrest on a charge of attempted robbery.
WORLD'S FINEST #59 - 'The Joker's Aces"
The Joker decides to recruit specialists, including millionaire Bruce Wayne, for his next series of crimes. First up is Brice, a man so skinny "a stiff wind would blow him over." But he's the perfect choice to infiltrate millionaire radio comic Danny Farrow's security-laden home by crawling through an unused sewer pitp. Next up is Hopkins, whose thick glasses reveal he is nearly blind. The Joker's next target is the Trump Playing Card Company (no relation). The chemicals used in the manufacture of the cards are so flammable that all employees are searched for matches, lighters, etc. Hopkins gets a job in the factory, and uses his thick glasses to use the sun's rays to start a fire. The Joker and his men rob the payroll in the confusion.
A man named Baker is Joker's next "ace." A jewelled knife on display at the Knapp Jewel exhibit is the Joker's next target. As his men cause a distraction, Baker, a sword swallower, slips the knife down his throat and just walks out. The Joker leaves a note with the single word "First" written on it, which obviously refers to the first letter of each word of the display sign: Jewelled Knife - Opals, Emeralds, Rubies."
Joker's next "ace" is Hop Dooley, a famous female impersonator (I guess today we'd call him a "drag queen"). His job is to impersonate the wife of P.W. Raleigh who has a famous "clown collection" (don't ask). Batman almost stops him this time, but the Joker gets away. Next up is Bruce Wayne, who was a "sligshot expert" in college. (Who knew?) Joker kidnaps Dick Grayson on his way home from school in order to ensure Wayne's cooperation. Joker has chartered a small boat, which he plans to moor next to the Bermuda Sand, which is carrying a fortune in diamonds. Wayne's job will be to fire the diamonds one at a time through the porthole of one ship into the porthole of the other.
The first thing Wayne does while boarding is to stumble against a table, shattering a crystal lamp (and I'll bet you already see where this is going, don't you?). Later, when it comes time to fire the diamonds, Wayne "misses" his first shot, but makes all the rest. Soon the harbor police come aboard. Not to keep you in suspense any longer, Wayne palmed the diamonds, and it was the pieces of broken crystal he fired to the other ship. (The "missed" shot had a concealed message to the police.) The story ends with a thrilling Batman/Joker chase atop the ship's smokestack. In order to tack on an "ironic" ending, the Batman reveals a quite unbelievable way the Joker could have escaped.
BATMAN #73 - "The Joker's Utility Belt!"
This story was reprinted in The Greatest Joker Stories Every Told, Batman: The TV Stories, and was adapted for television as "The Joker is Wild / Batman is Riled," the fifth and sixth episodes of the series, so chances are you're already familiar with it.
It was a real corker!
Oh yeah!
Those episodes of the TV show, along with the debut episodes featuring the Riddler, are the best the show ever offered.
Love that Dick Sprang cover by the way. I think I first read this story in one of the many Signet paperbacks published in 1966.
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