Hello my fair readers, and welcome to the next installment of my DC Bronze Age review feature. Today we encounter another debut, but a much more profitable one than that of the last post. Just as the Ten-Eyed Man is introduced in one Batman book, Denny O’Neil unleashes the League of Assassins in another. One of these concepts would go on to great success and lasting fame. I’ll let you figure out which one. (Hint: It isn’t the guy with eyes on his finger-tips!) Join me as we delve further into November, 1970!
If you’re new to this little journey, you can check out the first post to learn what it’s all about.
- Action Comics #394
- Adventure Comics #399
- Batman #226 (the debut of the awe-inspiring Ten-Eyed Man!)
- Brave and Bold #92
- Detective Comics #405
- The Flash #201
- G.I. Combat #144
- Justice League of America #84
- Superman’s Girlfriend, Lois Lane #106
- Superman #231
- World’s Finest #197 (reprints, won’t be covered)
- World’s Finest #198
Bolded entries are covered in this post, the others will be covered soon.
Detective Comics #405
“The First of the Assassins!”
Writer: Dennis O’Neil
Penciler: Bob Brown
Inker: Frank Giacoia
Letterer: Ben Oda
Editor: Julius Schwartz
“The Living Statue”
Writer: Frank Robbins
Penciler: Gil Kane
Inker: Frank Giacoia
Letterer: Ben Oda
“The Sleuth in the Iron Mask!”
Penciler: Bob Brown
Inker: Bob Brown
Letterer: Artie Simek
Editor: Whitney Ellsworth
Now we’re getting into some of the significant milestones of Denny O’Neil’s work on Batman. We’re not quite into the really legendary runs just yet, but we’re getting closer. Nonetheless, this issue features the first appearance of O’Neil’s League of Assassins, the deadly, shadowy organization that would feature prominently in many of his stories and prove to be of lasting significance to the Batman mythos. Of course, this organization would reach its zenith of fame when its members served as the primary antagonists in the Christian Bale Batman films. The League’s lasting potential isn’t necessarily completely obvious from this first story, but they do make an impression, and their returns will give us some of the best Bronze Age Batman stories.
This particular issue isn’t quite as good as some of those that follow, but it’s a good, solid adventure tale, pitting the Dark Knight against a challenge that seems a bit more worthy of him than some of those *cough*Ten-EyedMan*cough* he’s faced recently. I like the grim sense of adventure that the hero displays throughout the story. O’Neil is channeling a bit of Sherlock Holmes, who relished a challenging problem. This portrayal of the Caped Crusader seems to have a similar taste for danger and daring-do, which I enjoy. I like a grim avenger of the night quite a bit, but it’s also nice to have a character who has some sense of adventure as well.
Batman answers the summons of the Batsignal, and finds his old friend waiting for him. Commissioner Gordon tells him that fifteen leading shipping magnates have been murdered, and the sixteenth, apparently marked for death, is in Gotham. The man, K.C. Agonistes, is living on his heavily fortified yacht under tight security, but Batman agrees to look into the matter just in case.
The hero arrives on the ship in disguise, only to be instantly spotted as a phony. Agonistes’ security seems to be everything it is cracked up to be, but he is delighted to see the Masked Manhunter nonetheless and invites him onboard for the duration of their cruise. When they get out to sea, Batman, vigilantly keeping watch from the bow, spots a pod of dolphins behaving strangely, and then we get a rather odd moment, as he grabs a rifle from a cewman and starts blazing away at the sea-mammals. It’s weird to see Batman using a rifle, but I guess he isn’t firing at people. Why was he shooting at dolphins, you may ask? Does he just resent their smug, holier-than-thou clicking? No, he recognized that they were living bombs. These were trained dolphins were laden with plastic explosives, and despite the Dark Knight’s best efforts, they make destructive contact with the ship.
Batman manages to leap to safety, and he finds three other survivors in a lifeboat, Agonistes, his fiancee, and a sailor. They land on a nearby island, only to quickly discover that it is covered in booby-traps. The Masked Manhunter displays his skill and tradecraft as he protects the little group from multiple dangers. After dodging a thrown knife, he surmises from the unique blade that their antagonist is a silek master. This is actually a real martial art practiced in Southeast Asia, which is a neat bit of detail and realism. Not content to stay on the beach and be a target, the Caped Crusader takes to the jungle to turn the hunter into the hunted.
It’s at this point that the might hero makes some rather foolish mistakes. He is tricked by a decoy planted near a fire, despite being suspicious of it, and then, thinking that Agonistes and company were in danger because he had been lured away, he rushed into a snare. It does seem like maybe throwing a batarang at the mysteriously careless assassin sitting in front of his fire would have been a safer way to handle that, but ahh well. While hanging upside down, he is confronted by the small, unassuming assassin, who introduces himself as Tejja. The killer heads off to fulfill his contract, promising to come back and finish the hero afterwards.
With a supreme effort, the Dark Knight manages to free himself, and he arrives in camp just in time to confront the assassin, who, oddly enough wields a blade with both hand and foot. Once again, that’s a real thing, but how strange! It’s a great detail to make the whole conflict more exotic and exciting. The two masters square off, and Batman is wounded in the first exchange and has to employ a trick in order to turn the tide. He falls through the campfire, his cape catching fire, and he uses it as a distraction in order to get his licks in. He manages to put the assassin down, but he realizes that this was the work of more than just one killer, that there is an entire organization out there, efficient, secretive, and quite deadly.
This is a good story, and the shadowy League of Assassins certainly comes off as dangerous and capable, though we get only a taste of their menacing presence. Batman is well portrayed as well, given some solid characterization and a chance to display a range of abilities and skills. It’s nice to see the character developing into the hyper-capable, yet still reasonably grounded, crime-fighter that I know and love. The only real weakness of this issue is Bob Brown’s art. It’s serviceable, but his action just doesn’t really capture the fluidity and dynamism of a good martial arts duel. It has its moments, but there is some awkwardness to the figures that takes away from the excitement and drama of key moments. This is an exciting first step into something greater, but it is still only a first step. I’ll give it 4 Minutemen.
“The Living Statue”
BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING!
The finale of last month’s Batgirl story is pretty good, an action packed sprint that stands in contrast to the more sedate detective story of the previous issue. We pick up where we left off, with the captured heroine slowly being entombed in plaster. Her captor, the spurned actress Veda, accidentally triggers an image of the giant, Jor-El-like head of the murdered artist, Billy Warlock, who looms ominously over the proceedings. The maddened murderess acts with wild abandon, destroying the film evidence of the murder and starting a blazing conflagration. Gil Kane’s art is in rare form, and he really captures the scene in striking fashion, the blazing flames, the deranged dame’s dancing, and Batgirl’s helpless fear. It’s really quite good.
Just then, when all hope seems lost, ‘Infra Red,’ the other leading actress in Warlock’s films, arrives. She had suspected Veda, and she attacked the wild woman, accidentally freeing Batgirl in the process. Babs disables Veda and drags both women out of the flames to safety, though it seems the evidence has been reduced to ashes.
Fortunately for poor Jason, it seems that creepy voyeur Billy Warlock had one more card to play. He had another camera hidden in the eye of his giant image, and it captured Veda’s crazed confession. That evidence, plus, you know, the whole attempted murder thing, Veda is arrested and Jason is freed.
It’s a very brief but exciting story, and it nicely completes the tale begun last month. It’s interesting that the fictional version of Andy Warhol maintains the real artist’s strange voyeuristic tendencies. I wonder how much Robbins knew about the man in 1970 and how much of this portrayal was intentional and how much just lucky coincidence. Either way, art imitates life in fascinating ways! There’s really not much to this backup, which is understandable, as it is only seven pages, with one of those taken up with a re-cap. Nonetheless, it is fun, and I am very impressed with Kane’s work on it. I quite enjoy the mad abandon he manages to capture in Veda’s rampage. You really get a sense of character through her destructive dance. The one criticism I can really level at this story is that Batgirl really doesn’t get much to do. She is only saved by someone else’s intervention, which doesn’t leave her in the best light. I’ll give it 3.5 Minutemen, though it is too short to really rate higher.
Flash #201
“Million Dollar Dream”
Writer: Robert Kanigher
Penciler: Irv Novick
Inker: Murphy Anderson
Editor: Julius Schwartz
“Finale for a Fiddler”
Writer: Robert Kanigher
Penciler: Murphy Anderson
Inker: Murphy Anderson
Editor: Julius Schwartz
Another Kanigher story, but this one is better than I expected, like the last one. While it crosses into bathos a few times with its overly earnest, overly melodramatic tone in the beginning, it actually manages to pull of an effective ending. This issue also contains a new Golden Age Flash story which is goofy but rather charming. That tale actually gives us an honest to goodness supervillain, unlike the main Flash title, which remains steadfastly supervillain-free. Sadly, we’re in the middle of a huge supervillain drought, one that is due to last for a long while yet.
Anyway, on with the issue at hand! It begins in an unusual way, with the Flash desperately urging a young man in a wheelchair to get up and walk, like some garishly clad physical therapist. The kid, named Pablo, gets up but collapses shortly thereafter, and we discover that he is physically healthy but has a mental block that makes him believe his legs don’t work. We also learn that he blames the Scarlet Speedster for this predicament and that the hero blames himself as well. Before we learn just what is going on, the hero, who is just casually strolling through the streets with Iris (secret identity, what secret identity?) is ambushed by the Generic Gang! Now, you have to admire both the courage and the unbelievable stupidity of these guys. They’re just a trio of regular gangsters, and they try to run the Flash down with a car, then try to shoot him. The Flash Who can dodge bullets. That displays a suicidal level of overconfidence.
Their attack isn’t immediately disastrous because the Fastest Man Alive is apparently lost in thought, so much so that he just stands there while people shoot at him and Iris screams for him to snap out of it, which is at least a bit too much. On the plus side, Iris takes it to one of the thugs with her purse, which is pretty entertaining. A shrinking violet she’s not, this Iris. When the hero snaps out of it, he quickly trounces the troublesome trio, ending the fight.
He and his lady love continue their walk after this rather pointless interruption, and they pay a visit to ‘Spanish Village,’ the Latino quarter of the city and home to Pablo. He’s a local hero, a basketball star that the whole community was pulling for, so Barry reflects on how he dashed, not just the kid’s hopes, but the hopes of all of his people as well. It’s then that we find out what actually happened.
The Flash visited Pablo when Iris told him she was going to write a story on the kid being called ‘the Spanish Flash.’ Being the friendly neighborhood hero that he is, Barry wants to do something for the kid, so he promises to zoom him over to Puerto Rico to visit his grandparents. Yet, on the way, they spot a ship afire at sea. The Scarlet Speedster leaves Pablo in what should be a safe spot and rushes to fight the flames, only to have the kid struck by falling debris while he’s busy. The hero rescues him, but the boy suffers from shock and develops a troublesome mental black about his legs.
So, yeah, it actually is pretty much the Flash’s fault. His endangering the kid would seem like a more reasonable choice if Kanigher didn’t have the speedster casually mention that, if he had thought about it, he could have zipped to Puerto Rico, dropped the boy off, and been back at the ship in no-time. Sheesh, the Silver Age Flash is ridiculous. Anyway, mired in guilt, the hero continues to do his job, taking on a set of criminals in a helicopter and getting his hair parted by a bullet for his troubles. And therein lies a problem with the character’s portrayal. He can run across the world before you can blink, but he can still be hit by a bullet. Ahh well, plot will out.
The bullet temporarily paralyzes the Flash, and he finds himself in the same doctor’s office as young Pablo. Talk about awkward encounters. Just then,there’s an explosion in the chem lab, because of course there is. A blaze begins, and the Fastest Man Alive can’t quite live up to his name. He encourages the kid to get out on his own, but with supreme effort, the boy picks the hero up and, together, they get to safety. It’s actually a pretty good scene and a solid ending to the issue.
The ending rescues the story, as it is weak in some of its other points, but it goes out well. The Flash’s selfless insistence that Pablo leave him behind is effective, and the boy’s uncertain heroism, panicked prayer, and sudden escape make for a nice combination. The end result is a solid issue, despite the idiotic bravery of the local branch of the Generic Gang. Once again, we’ve got a really interesting concept of which Kanigher doesn’t really take advantage, just like last issue. In this instance, we have the idea of what happens when a hero’s mistake costs an innocent something dear, which will be explored to better effect in the future. Still, this isn’t really a bad treatment of the concept, despite the heavy-handed portrayal of Barry’s grief.
One notable feature of the issue is the diversity of the cast. We’ve been seeing an increase in racial diversity in our books recently, and here is another example. Both Pablo and his neighborhood inject some different personality into the Flash’s world, which is a neat addition. We’re definitely seeing something different from the homogeneous DC Universe of the 60s, even if only slightly. That’s nice to see. I’ll give this issue, flaws and all, 3.5 Minutemen.
“Finale for a Fiddler”
This back up is actually a new story of Jay Garrick, the Golden Age Flash, which is a great treat. I was pleased to see that Jay was starring in this tale, as I’ve read very few of his stories, though I like the character. Unfortunately, this particular offering was written by Robert Kanigher, so its quality is in doubt. Dubious authorship aside, this is a fun, if silly, little adventure.
It begins with our favorite veteran Flash taking on the Turtle and his goons. Remember when I asked for supervillains? I had hoped for something better than the Turtle. This guy’s gimmick? He’s slow. That’s it. He’s slow moving, slow talking, and somehow that makes him good at fighting a super-speedster rather than, you know, making him worse than literally anyone else. Look out Ten-Eye, you’ve got competition at the bottom of the heap!
The goofiness of the concept aside, the scene where Jay takes this loser out is actually fairly entertaining, though the hero reveals that perhaps senility is setting in, as he tries to block bullets with a trashcan lid! He comments that “they don’t make things as good as they used to,” though I’m pretty sure that tin tops never stopped bullets. The complication of the fight is that the hero is starting to feel his age, and he’s running out of steam rounding up the crooks. When he finally finishes them off, he’s done in, and we get a charming little scene of Jay and Joan, with his wife taking care of her exhausted husband.
However, the hero can’t rest on his laurels for long, as he’s promised his lovely lady that he would take her to a concert. On the way to this outdoor rock festival, we encounter the Fiddler, casually driving down the road in a car mad in the shape of a giant fiddle! It’s delightfully silly. I actually like things like this as, in the setting of the DCU, they more or less work. This is a wonderfully whimsical world where the fantastic is the commonplace. This is a world where men can fly and where the ability to shrink is enough to make you a superhero. In this setting, criminals regularly dress up in bright costumes, and heroes are just as fashionable. Why wouldn’t these types of folks have ridiculously customized modes of transportation?
Well, as you can probably guess, the Fiddler, who, despite being a bit goofy, is a more legitimate villain the the opening act, has planned to rob the concert that the Garricks are attending. As he’s getting into position, Jay himself is also looking for some prime real-estate, and he changes into the Flash to bag a spot close to the stage for Joan. Apparently Kanigher thinks that secret identities are overrated, as both of his heroes just parade around with their partners in public. Nobody could ever crack that code! Anyway, this is apparently a hilariously 60s concert, complete with love beads and hippies galore. The panel where the couple are greeted by the concert-goers is just odd, but entertaining.
When the Fiddler begins his act, things get psychedelic in a way the concert-goers weren’t anticipating, and even the Flash has a hard time of it. The waves of sound send him reeling, and then the villain reveals that he’s too dumb to succeed, as he stops playing in order to gloat, with his foe on the ropes. Of course, the fastest man on Earth 2 takes advantage of the pause to capture the crook, ending the show.
This is a silly little story, but it’s fun, with lots of color and even some characterization. Kanigher gives each moment of the book something interesting to fill it out, whether it’s the hero’s creeping awareness of age or the ‘groovy’ tone of the concert crowd, there’s a ton of personality packed into a few pages. I enjoy the subplot, if it could be called that, about Jay’s increasing age. I’m getting to the point in my life where I am starting to identify more with the aging veterans than with the brash young pups, and it’s neat to see even a hero wrestle with the march of time. There’s plenty here that is goofy, but the overall effect is so much fun, and the setting seems to fit some goofiness, so I really don’t mind too much. I’ll give it 3.5 Minutemen. It’s fun but brief.
That will do it for this set of comics. It was overall a fun batch of books, with a very interesting first and a few nice surprises. Next up, we’ve got more JLA, which I’m looking forward to! We’ve also got an issue of Lois Lane that, judging by the cover, is going to be nuts. Don’t miss the next edition of Into the Bronze Age! Before I bid you adieu, however, I’ve got a question for you, my good readers. What do y’all think of the current format of this feature? I’m aiming to do 2-3 comics each post. Does that seem like a good fit to y’all? I figure that is a bit more bite-sized than the massive posts I had started out doing, but I’m happy to adjust my practice if the is a consensus about what style y’all would like best. Please let me know in the comments if you have a preference. Well, until next time, keep the heroic ideal alive!
The Greylands 
[…] jumped by another suicidally overconfident gang of plain-vanilla street-punks, just like those that attacked the Flash last month. Sheesh! Is there something in the water in the DCU that gives generic gunsels delusions of […]
[…] rigged to blow, and the resulting explosion nearly kills the wealthy industrialist. If we recall, last issue we discovered the League of Assassins was out to get shipping magnates. Batman remembers this as well, so he travels to Europe in his secret identity. Conveniently, […]