Single Issue Review: Batman #217

Or, farewell to all that. Most of the time, these covers turned out to be just teases, and you knew by the end of the story that all will be back to normal. Just two issues earlier the cover had depicted Batman blowing Wayne Manor to smithereens; needless to say, that didn't actually happen. But this really was the end of the Batcave for all intents and purposes, and thus this is a significant story.

And that's not the most important ending in this issue. Dick (Robin) Grayson had been around as Bruce (Batman) Wayne's crime-fighting partner since 1940, when he appeared to be a lad of about 10. But if the clock ticks a little slower in the comic universe than in our world, it ticks remorselessly:



His fashion sense leaves a little to be desired, but obviously he loves his new university (Hudson U, to be specific), and is thrilled at the thought of beginning this new phase of his life (which would include solo adventures as Robin in Detective Comics), while Bruce and Alfred contemplate life without him. This was effectively the end of the Bruce/Dick partnership; although they have worked together on many occasions since, it was always on an ad hoc basis. As I presume most of you know, Dick grew into adulthood and became Nightwing, and there have been two (or more) new Robins since, and at this point Dick is the most likely candidate to become Batman in the Battle for the Cowl while Bruce is thought dead although he's really alive back in the caveman era.

But all that was in the unknown future at the time. One rather jarring note that the story is indeed set in 1969:



I don't even know if they have draft cards these days; you still have to register even though the last draft was held in 1972. Dick tears up a bit as the cab drives him away, and suddenly Batman is on his own again as he was in 1939. Bruce decides that it's time to close up old Wayne Manor, and move into new digs:



The first time that building was shown, I believe. Quick trivia: What was the original name of the Wayne Foundation? Answer at end. By the way, the building was remodeled later to house an atrium with an enormous tree, which featured in innumerable "establishing shots" later. It looked neat, but the commercial real estate analyst in me has to question the amount of rentable area lost.

Bruce decides to become a victims' rights advocate:



This is not what the Wayne Foundation became, but it's an interesting start as it gives Bruce Wayne an excuse to look into crime from his real identity. Bruce starts, not terribly coincidentally, with the shooting death of a doctor (like his own father's murder). Jonah Fielding was killed after treating a hoodlum who had been shot. Unfortunately, his wife did not see the crook, but she knows that he had been wounded in an extremity, and yet he wasn't limping so they know to look for a man with his arm in a sling.

So Batman baits a trap for the killer, letting it be known in his "Matches Malone" identity that the doctor's wife was going to tell all to the police. Unfortunately, his deductions turn out to be wrong, as the real killer was the man who originally shot the victim the doctor was treating. Batman manages to save the wife of the doctor by taking a bullet intended for her. Oddly, the story ends with Batman deducing who the real killer was, but the police end up picking him up.

Comments: Some poignant moments at the beginning, with excellent characterization for Bruce, Alfred and Dick. It was cool to see more of the personal side of their lives for a change. Bruce muses about how messy Dick is (apparently messy means leaving a shoe visible underneath a well-made bed). It was very cool to read this back then as I was approaching college age myself. The story is good, although even as I read it I wondered if Batman wasn't assuming too quickly that the killer was the guy the doctor treated. Excellent art by Irv Novick.

Quick Trivia answer: The Wayne Foundation was originally named the Alfred Foundation. As I discussed last year, Alfred was apparently killed in Detective #328, giving Bruce the inspiration to create a foundation in his honor. After Alfred returned from the dead in the Outsider series, Bruce renamed the charity for his parents.

BTW, sorry for the lack of posts in the last week or so. I have been battling a back injury that made it uncomfortable to sit at my desk, although things seem to be returning to normal.

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The Inside Scoop on the Outsider

In the early 1960s, sales of the Batman magazines started to falter. It's not surprising; Batman was at an all-time low in terms of quality of stories and art. DC decided to restaff the editor's desk, putting Julius Schwartz in charge effective with the May 1964 issues of Batman and Detective.

The announced move is here:



It's that little yellow circle around the bat on Batman's chest. This was intended to mark a turning point.

Most of Schwartz's other changes were unannounced, but became apparent over time. Many characters who had been around for years, like Batwoman, Batgirl (Betty Kane), Bat-Mite and Ace the Bathound disappeared suddenly. The three aspects of the early 1960s Batman that sucked the most, the aliens, weird transformations, and monsters, also disappeared.

But one person could not pass from the Batman scene without comment. And in the letters column of Detective #327 Schwartz tried to head off the complaints at the pass:



Detective #328 was indeed controversial. Alfred the butler (nobody back then knew he'd been given the last name Beagle) had been around since Batman #16 (Apr-May 1943). Originally conceived as a comedic foil for Batman and Robin, he very quickly became another serious member of the Batman cast. In the early stories he aspired to be a detective himself, but that aspect of his character had been gone for almost 20 years when he appeared in Detective #328's Gotham Gang Line-Up! With Batman and Robin out of town, Alfred is forced into action:



Batman and Robin return to find Alfred gone. Chasing the same leads he had, they fall into a trap. They learn that Alfred has also been captured by the gang, as criminals vie for the right to kill them. But Batman and Robin manage to escape quite cunningly, as does their faithful butler:



They meet up next at a construction site:



Tragically, the boulder goes on to crush Alfred. This was a stunning moment in DC history. True, they had already killed off Lightning Lad, but he was a relatively recent addition to the DC universe. This was a well-established backup character, who had appeared in many stories over the years. It was a stunning move, and I'm sure had to be approved by top DC brass.

The same issue featured the introduction of a new character to the Batman family:



Aunt Harriet is reported to have been added to the series to quell the persistent rumors that Bruce and Dick were gay by providing them with an added opposite sex chaperone, related to the youngster. And of course it added plot possibilities with the pair suddenly unable to burst into action at the drop of a hat. Aunt Harriet became (to a lesser degree of course) kind of like the Lois Lane to Superman or Lana Lang to Superboy, a pest about his secret identity. This was unlike the Aunt Harriet of the TV show who was too dimwitted to ever guess that Bruce and Dick were the Dynamic Duo.

A couple of issues passed before the letters reacting to Alfred's death appeared.



Well, not to spoil the story or anything, but Dan Kirk got his wish.

In Detective #334, the first story featuring the Outsider appeared. Batman discovers his possessions being ripped off by The Man Who Stole from Batman:



The thief is apparently the Grasshopper, shown in the panel above. But at the end of the story, after Batman captures him, it is revealed that he worked for another:



In Detective #336, Batman must face a witch with extraordinary magical powers. But once again she turns out not to be the real villain:



In Detective #340, we got our first look at the Outsider, albeit reflected poorly:



As we learned more about his abilities, they seemed clearly "magical". I mean, how else do you explain:



He turned the Batmobile into a bucking bronco? I rest my case. But what are we to make of this?



If he's tampering with the Batcave elevator, doesn't that indicate he knows Bruce Wayne is Batman?

The next clue came in the Letters Page of Detective 344:



I don't know how long DC intended to keep up this serial, but events quickly forced their hand. In January 1966, the Batman TV series debuted. The show was a colossal hit, instantly sending sales of Detective and Batman through the roof. But there was one major problem. The TV show included both Aunt Harriet and Alfred the Butler.

The irony is incredible. When Alfred was first introduced in 1943, he was portly. However, in the Batman movie serial, a thin man portrayed him, and so Alfred was slimmed down (the explanation in the comics was that he decided he couldn't be a detective if he was that fat). Now another media adaptation was forcing the return of Alfred, although I have no doubt (given the clues that had been left in the earlier stories) that the intent was there all along to make him the Outsider.

In Detective #349 we see him again as a behind-the-scenes string-puller:



And in the letters page of that issue, Henry Goldman of Philadelphia guesses the answer to the riddle:



Note that he's working it out on the meta-level, not analyzing it inside the story but as "Why would an editor and writer do this?"

Finally, in Detective #356, we get the big reveal:



Bruce and Dick receive a delivery of two large and long crates. Inside they find two coffins. Dick's has a mannequin of Robin, while Bruce's has one of Batman. The mannequins stand up and tell them they have one hour to live, courtesy of the Outsider. They quickly deduce what they've suspected all along:



But there's still a surprise for us:



Following this we get a flashback to Alfred's death, and an explanation of what happened "Three days later" (no kidding). After Bruce and Dick leave Alfred that night, a nutty scientist (out looking for a rare insect) detects life. And fortunately he's a "bring 'em back from the dead" nutty scientist:



"Muahahahaha! They called me mad, but I'll show them!"

Well, you can probably see the fly heading rapidly towards that ointment, right? Yes, he's got a machine, but it's experimental and just a tad unreliable:



Well, you guessed it. The machine turned Alfred into the Outsider, with the kind of inside-out golfball image we saw on the cover. Oh, and the Mad Scientist? He turned into the spitting image of Alfred. But because Alfred's last thought was to save Batman and Robin, the Outsider's first aim is to kill them.

At the last moment Batman encounters the Outsider and hits the perfect punch:



I don't need to tell the rest, do I? Aunt Harriet volunteers to leave at the end of the story, but Bruce, Dick and Alfie all insist that she stay. She did manage to survive to the end of the 1960s, but I can't recall her ever returning after that, except in reprints.

It was a long story arc, featuring the death and resurrection of a major character in the Batman series. Nowadays it seems trite, but it was something of a milestone back then.

Oh, and yes, Schwartz was wrong about the Outsider not knowing who he really was; he knew enough to put that mad scientist into Alfred's crypt.

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