#dc 27

[batbaffle]

since golden age actually follows the irl progression of time...

this issue (DC #65) is from july 1942, and batman's debut (DC #27) was march 1939, so bruce mustve been active for at least 2 years before DC #27. neat

this implies that bruce possibly met dick during his 3rd year as batman, which means....Batman: Year Three might actually be compliant with the golden age timeline! pretty cool

so in this post about dick's age i said:

but i guess i'll switch my HC to option A to match the golden age info

[alpha-liveblogs]

Actually, it’s going a little too fast.  We just saw Bruce Wayne leave the first crime scene, and already he’s changed and at the second one in time to catch the criminals.  I would have thought they’d save a little more time before having the Bat-Man come face to face with his enemies.

[alpha-liveblogs]

We see the first ever Batman vanish, 

The first ironic character saying something about Bruce Wayne that isn’t true,

And the first ever reveal that Bruce Wayne is THE “BAT-MAN”

A strong start to the character, but it suffers from having to share an issue with other titles, and a clunky plot.  I can’t help but feel like it tried to straddle the line between superhero comic and detective comic, and fell a little short because of it.

[alpha-liveblogs]

The “Bat-Man” saves Rogers and beats up the bad guy, pretty straight forward, and then Bat-Man hides while Stryker comes in.

Stryker is bad too.

Batman catches him, and then explains that he wanted to be the sole owner of the business, so he made a deal where he would give them all money every year, and then killed them to get out of paying.

Stryker pulls out of Batman’s grasp and draws a gun, and I can’t describe what happens next.

Okay maybe I could have.

[alpha-liveblogs]

I know that old comics are different, but every part of this is chaos.  He designed a bond style death trap that could fit a fully grown human being... to kill guinea pigs.

[alpha-liveblogs]

I’m not sure how I feel about this Bat-Man design.  Maybe it’s because of the animation, but in the show, Batman always feels a little more than human, but this Bat-Man feels very much like a person in a weird costume.

Compare the intro to the Animated Series, with its shadowy Batman with smooth and liquid movements to this:

[alpha-liveblogs]

We quickly get our suspects, and then Steven Crane, one of them, is murdered

What this does really well is establish the case quickly.  By the end second page we already are told that the first dead man’s last word was “contract” and that his safe was open, and that now one of his business partners suffered the same fate, so we know that someone is killing them and taking what I presume are copies of the contract they all signed, probably Paul Rogers or Alfred Stryker, meaning there’s at least one life that Bat-Man can save if he acts quickly, a classic move to add tension to a murder mystery.

[alpha-liveblogs]

We’re quickly introduced to Commissioner Gordon, Bruce Wayne, and This fellow they call the “Bat-Man”  With a hyphen.  It’s a bit of a non sequitur, but I guess they want to mention him quickly.

Imagine having a loved one murdered and the commissioner comes to investigate and brings a plus one.  “I thought it would be exciting, and Bruce had the evening free, so we figured, hey, might as well.”