Batman Begins
The Batman comics series starts off in May 1939, in Detective Comics issue #27 with Bob Kane as the artist. The first batman issue starts off with Bruce Wayne and Commissioner Gordon, discussing about who is The Batman. The first sort of super villain appears in the third issue, and the name is 'Doctor Death' and he was more or less lame. I have to say, The Batman had a very ordinary origin.
This Batman character is very different from the one portrayed in Nolan movies (2005-2012). He kills off two of the associates of Doctor Death. He also kill his next opponent 'The Monk' and his associate. Finally in the seventh issue they introduce the backstory of Bruce's parents being murdered in front of him and he deciding to fight crime the rest of his life. And, that's it, one page of a backstory. In this issue he comes across a mad scientist Carl Kruger who wants to be Napoleon and rule the world. This was written in 1939, so the character chosen as dictator is Napoleon, I wonder if this had been written a decade later, would it have been Napoleon or Hitler.
Robin is introduced in April 1940 as 'Robin, the Boy Wonder'. Till now all these Batman issues were part of Detective Comics. In Spring 1940, Batman gets the first dedicated issue. This has the same one page backstory again. Joker makes his first appearance. Professor Hugo Strange gets a reappearance in a story in this issue. The Cat makes her first appearance on the wrong side of the law as a thief, Batman catches her and then lets her go. Joker returns for the final story of this issue.
The 1940 fall issue of Batman (Batman #3) gets the first mention of atomic energy and its tremendous value in the war. The secret to atomic energy is just a formula, but again we are talking about comic books.
This Batman character is very different from the one portrayed in Nolan movies (2005-2012). He kills off two of the associates of Doctor Death. He also kill his next opponent 'The Monk' and his associate. Finally in the seventh issue they introduce the backstory of Bruce's parents being murdered in front of him and he deciding to fight crime the rest of his life. And, that's it, one page of a backstory. In this issue he comes across a mad scientist Carl Kruger who wants to be Napoleon and rule the world. This was written in 1939, so the character chosen as dictator is Napoleon, I wonder if this had been written a decade later, would it have been Napoleon or Hitler.
Robin is introduced in April 1940 as 'Robin, the Boy Wonder'. Till now all these Batman issues were part of Detective Comics. In Spring 1940, Batman gets the first dedicated issue. This has the same one page backstory again. Joker makes his first appearance. Professor Hugo Strange gets a reappearance in a story in this issue. The Cat makes her first appearance on the wrong side of the law as a thief, Batman catches her and then lets her go. Joker returns for the final story of this issue.
The 1940 fall issue of Batman (Batman #3) gets the first mention of atomic energy and its tremendous value in the war. The secret to atomic energy is just a formula, but again we are talking about comic books.
Overall reading the first Batman issues published from 1939 to 1940 has been enlightening. The stories have been very simple and not at all dark as I have come to associate with Batman. I say enlightening because of me getting to know what were the themes in that era. As expected, over around 30 issues (each issue being 10-12 pages), there is no mention of terrorism or national security, with the primary objective of the bad guy being looting banks in most cases. There are a few instances of Batman or Robin giving advice for kids. In my opinion, in that era comic books were targeted only for kids and youngsters and had not evolved into the medium they have now.
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