Batman #1 - Story 2

April 25, 1940

(Professor Hugo Strange and the Monsters)

This is it, Citizens - the moment we've been waiting for! Way back in Detective Comics 37 (two months previous), the end panel did more than just urge readers to pick up the next Detective Comics to read about Batman's latest exploits. It teased what the next story was going to be - Man-monsters.

It didn't happen in issue 38 or 39.

But now, here we are in the introductory issue of Batman's own comic series. Was it worth the wait?

One thing you can say about the Man-monsters - they certainly are impressive in appearance. Standing at almost twice the height of Batman, they have a facial look that could be a precursor to Solomon Grundy.

Hugo Strange escapes from prison and his first criminal act is to free five inmates of the "Metropolis" Insane Asylum. Now, this doesn't mean Batman is set in Metropolis. In fact, the next page shows one of the Man-monsters terrorizing people in lower Manhattan. One thing I've forgotten to mention in reading these early issues is how odd it is to see Bruce smoking the pipe. I know it was a different time, but I wonder how long it was before Bruce stopped smoking.

The story is pretty straightforward as Batman follows a truck transporting the Man-monsters back to Hugo's hideout after they wreck the "El" train. He is quickly captured and given the serum that made the five escapees from the asylum into Man-monsters. It's a slow process for the serum to work, a change from what we usually see, so Batman is knocked out and time is allowed to pass.

Batman comes around and escapes from the room he is held in by blowing the door open with a chemical compound he keeps in his boot. He quickly takes out Strange, knocking him out a window and into the ocean below. Is this the end of Hugo Strange?

No time to think about that as two of the Man-Monsters advance on Batman. He maneuvers the two into turning on each other and they fight to the death. With a minute to spare before Strange's serum fully kicks in, Batman comes up with an antidote, halting the transformation into Man-Monster.

He takes to the sky in the Batplane and finds the truck transporting the remaining two Man-Monsters to a new crime spree. Feeling he has no other choice, Batman shoots the truck, sending it off the road. He uses a lasso to grab the emerging Man-monster by the neck, snapping it. He then tracks down the last monster and in a scene right out of King Kong, shoots it off the Empire State Building.

Overall, this is a fun story, but it clearly was meant to run in Detective Comics as originally planned because there's no sign of Robin in it. And the story ends with Batman musing about the end of Strange - was it really the end?

Stay tuned, Citizens!