So where do we stand here? The DC Cinnamon Mini-Buns comics are still two reviews short because I can’t find “Superman Vs. Metallo” or “Justice League Vs. Amazo”. Trying to find more Legions Of Power not only failed but one of the links just goes to BW Media Spotlight and the one comic I found while Google AI just found my list of wanted comic scans. I should do an updated version of that someday now that I’ve found websites with some of the ones off of that list.
However, I did accidentally find a NEW comic we can discuss, or rather series of comics so short that a compilation file on the Internet Archive went to about 34 pages, including a stand-in cover. All I can find out about Batman’s team-up with Kellogg’s Pop-Tarts is that isn’t Kellogg’s but Good Humor. If the research is accurate, this is a series of Good Humor bars licensing the Pop-Tarts name and using their flavors as ice cream flavors. Sounds interesting, but I think it’s only available in the United Kingdom, or was. I don’t know for sure.
In 1966 a promotional tie-in with National Comics (future DC Comics) did a series of minicomics recreating old issue of Batman and Detective Comics. They are not reprints in comic strip form. I used the internet to check. Half of them are actually original tales, while the other half are essentially abridge versions of already short Silver Age Batman stories. They’re new art and even some new character designs for guest characters. The DC Fandom wiki says they’re “Earth One” versions of the “Earth Two” stories, where the Golden and early Silver Age still happened. And DC wonders why they’re continuity is always a mess. You can read along with me. This is why I do this series, folks. To find the weird stuff.
Get used to it, Dick. It happens every decade or so.
“The Case Of Batman II!”
Our first remake, the original version from Batman #40 Bruce Wayne is dead. He does that sometimes. This time it’s an auto accident. Aunt Harriet is distraught (I didn’t even know she was in the comics. Shows how little I know.) Wait, I double checked and she wasn’t in the original comic. I guess the creators of the minicomic included her from the show so UK fans who didn’t read the comics wouldn’t be asking for her. The executor will read the will in a couple of days, but Batman and Robin are needed now. Robin goes alone, keeping Batman’s death a secret. It’s because he wants to keep the criminals scared, right? However, Gordon doesn’t think a kid can handle escaped cop killer “Beetle Boyles” on his own. You know, the kid whose gone up against THE JOKER, in the previous story in the original comic as a matter of fact. No, one putz with a gun is too much for Batman’s trainee, and apparently he won’t even give the message to Robin to give to Batman later. The hell, Jim? He just told you Batman was busy. Give him the details and he and Batman will go after him as soon as they get a moment with their current case.
So Dick and Alfred (who I should tell you also believes Batman dead in both versions) go to the gym to recruit a new Batman. I guess you could just do that in the Silver Age. At least Jean Paul Valley was a (poorly) chosen successor. They grab some guy named Bill Randall because he’s doing an athletic trick Bruce used to do and he has no family. He also has no martial arts or detective training you’re aware off, but apparently Alfred is just okay with all of this. I guess he’s just used to going along with the weirdness in his life. Explains how he became so snarky later on. Now Gordon is willing to help Batman find the guy who killed one of his cops. You’re so picky, Jim. The crook and his pals are practicing beating up a cop with a dummy just as Batman II: Ele…okay that joke’s old…and Robin come in and beat them up.
Later the executor claims Bruce gave $50,000 (In US money, not UK money interestingly) to a charity, but Bruce never donated money to fake companies…which he’s happy to tell the lawyer in person because he’s not dead. It was all a trick to see if the lawyer was crooked, cooked up by the police. In the original story Alfred faints when he walks in, but we have Aunt Harriet now to preserve his dignity. They had to keep Alfred in the dark for…some reason, so since Gordon doesn’t know Bruce is Batman, “Bill” was just Bruce in a disguise to fool Alfred. Seems like a lot of extra work. I can see not telling Harriet, but in both versions it doesn’t make sense to tell Alfred. They tell him everything else. I guess someone just wanted the surprise and the UK opted not to change it. It’s an okay story.
Oh come on, Bruce, this isn’t your first day.
“The Catwoman’s Catnapping Caper!”
DC wiki does not list an original comic and the Grand Comics Database didn’t list what any of these comics came from. This might actually be an original story. Batman is called in (I don’t know if he actually had the red phone in the comics, but this could just be adding another show feature, like Aunt Harriet) when two cats are stolen, a thick furred white cat named Whitey and a tailless alley cat named Tag. Whether the boy adopted the cat or just made friends with a cat in an alley I couldn’t tell you. The cat was given a fake tail so it could shoot sleeping gas at museum guards protecting a cat mummy. He didn’t guess the MO but Batman did guess the target. Because the story needs to continue, Catwoman’s goons get the mummy, but Catwoman whips the wrist of one of her goons before he can shoot Batman. She says she doesn’t want a murder rap but even she doesn’t really know why she did it. WE know, of course. Bruce and Selina sitting in a tree….
Since they dropped ski wax and Whitey was owned by the owner of a cold storage plant, Batman figures out the next target is a ski resort dog sled competition. The cat’s thicker fur allows it to survive the ski slope, but good luck getting away from all the ski dogs. So much for training when you have stereotype logic to go with. Batman and Robin chase the baddies to a room meant to help people suffering from snow glare eye trouble but when Catwoman strokes the hotel cat to get it purring, the static electricity leads them right to her. I question the science, but the prize money and mummy are returned, and it turns out Tag is actually a manx cat from the Island Of Man, so it wins a cat show. Sure, why not? Not even close to the dumbest thing I’ve heard lately.
We all have our hobbies, I guess.
“The Joker’s Happy Victims!”
Another original story, but it did get reprinted in a couple of compilations by DC proper. The Joker steals a stamp using a chauffeur driven pogo stick and later Batman and Robin stop a steer being used as a distraction to steal from the Dude Ranch nightclub that doesn’t look the least bit like a country themed nightclub. I’ve been to one, but I’m betting there aren’t that many in the UK. In both cases no charges are pressed because the comedy was worth losing a $10,000 stamp and $5000 respectively. Again, US money. At least they know where Batman operates from.
Joker’s next target is Bruce Wayne, who has a new very expensive painting. This time it’s Bruce laughing as the Joker runs off with the painting after pulling a practical joke involving splashing him with paint. After Joker leaves, Bruce tells the confused Dick and Alfred that the painting was a fake, planted using one of his aliases to learn the Joker’s game. The alias tells some of his goons that the painting was stolen and Bruce knew it. The whole thing was a blackmail scheme: laugh and let him steal the stuff and they’ll get a richer award. Except Joker double crosses them with practical jokes, but Batman is ready when Joker tries to get revenge on Bruce and defeats him with his own gag. How did Bruce know to tell Joker’s goons that the painting was stolen? Because he’s Batman, I guess. Joker wanted to be seen as a top comic and top thief. Now he’s just bottom of the barrel.
It must be heavy to wear with all of that junk in there.
“The Mad Hatter’s Hat Crimes”
The last of our original stories. Again, we’re going with the 1960s TV version of the Mad Hatter, though it’s the comic version of Commissioner Gordon and Alfred they’re drawing. This is a quick one to go over. The Mad Hatter, in typical 60s Bat-fashion, sends a clue to his latest crime, a yacht club contest trophy. Thanks to a gas gun hiding in his hat, he gets away. His next caper is robbing a horse race but this time the Dynamic Duo manage to chase him off without the loot and his hat. Straw on the hat somehow leads Batman to the Mad Hatter’s barn hideout…despite just being at a horse race where there would also be hay, break up the villains’ tea party with Alice In Wonderland puns, and beat the bad guys.
“Hurry, Robin, Tony Stark’s gone crazy!”
The original for this one was a year earlier than our first tale, appearing in Batman #39. Iron-Hat Ferris is a druggist forced to wear an iron mask by criminals…so he becomes one. This should have been the first clue something was up but in Gotham City you never know. Ferris’ crime spree is used by the district attorney’s political rival in the election because we all know how important a district attorney is in finding the criminals. Maybe if you’re The Mouthpiece but he never made it to DC Comics. You can’t prosecute a guy the cops keep missing.
Batman and Robin manage to catch one of his iron themed crimes (again, Gotham City), but Batman slips a tracking device on the mask. Following him to his base of operations they find the real Harris maskless and tied up. It was the DA’s rival trying to make his opponent look bad. He tries to escape but the mask is struck by the lightening storm that started as the Dynamic Duo was driving up, killing him. Yes, in the minicomic meant for kids as a sweet bonus (pun totally intended) for buying their pop-tart flavored ice cream a dude is electrified due to his iron mask, and this is from the original comic’s ending. Good thing we can’t see his face. Yeesh.
Okay, smart guy. How are you going to carry the loot?
The Penguin’s Fowl Play
Originally presented as “Fowl Play” in Detective Comics #120. The Penguin hears that a bird expert is being promoted as being more of an expert than him, and he doesn’t like that. Going to his mansion, the expert has apparently never heard of him, mishearing his name as “Ben Guinn”. (It fits the Gotham pattern better than Oswald Cobblepot, I’ll grant you.) So he takes advantage of the ignorance by using his birds to commit crimes and give Batman and Robin the slip. His next crime is to steal silver nitrate, used in a photo company’s new color film, by pretending he’s getting pictures of the birds. Instead he releases them as distraction, but Batman and Robin manage to run him off. Penguin confronts the unwitting comrade and, long story short, gets caught in a pitch of sublime as part of a trap our heroes set for the Penguin…with an umbrella bird.
So despite the splash page cover having Penguin showing off his usual umbrella gadgets we don’t see them in the story. Instead the Penguin uses birds to trick our heroes, escapes from the photo company on an ostrich, and the only umbrella in play is the bird used to trap him. That’s false promotion, but not a bad story.
In fact, all of the stories, including the abridged ones, are rather good for the short page count, about six pages in the edited format used for this compilation. For a freebie with ice cream pop(tart)sicles they’re good reads that can be done before your ice cream melts. That works for me.
Next time I’ll wait for the other DC comics and Legions Of Power to hopefully show up by the next rotation. So unless I get another break like this we’re going right back to Eternia to see the original origin of Trap Jaw. I wonder if he likes pastry flavored popsicles?
BW Media Spotlight 