Entry tags:

char: batman/bruce wayne, char: joker, char: robin/red hood/jason todd, char: vicki vale, creator: don newton, creator: doug moench, creator: gene colan, title: batman, title: detective comics

This is a longer than usual post as it's a three part story, and I'm never sure about posting three parters; do I do one chapter at a time and probably forget to go back and do at least one chapter... or do I post it all in one go and risk boring you all. Good news, I've gone for risking boring you rigid! :)

This also counts as another entry in my painfully sporadic "The Original Origin of the original non-original Robin" posts, detailing the introduction and career of Jason Todd 1.0!





I will warn you in advance that this is one of those stories from the era when batman and Detective Comics crossed over each other so we have one issue of Don Newton art, a middle issue of Gene Colan, then finish off with Don Newton (and what a finish it is!). Both are superlative artists in superb form, but the shift in styles can perhaps be a little disconcerting when reading it all in one go.

I start with an entire splash page which does little to advance the story, but which does have a wonderful sense of atmosphere to it. Look at the textures, the colours and holy crap but that's an awesome Batman face... this is why I sometimes feel the modern, more sensitive and varied palette can lack the sheer... vibrancy of the old approach



Vicki Vale is in Guatemala, trying to get a scoop. THIS Vicki Vale was a noted globetrotting journalist, perhaps not on a par with Lois Lane, but right up there. (If there are any natives of Guatemala reading this, I'd be interested in hearing your comments about how this story "plays"). She is investigating (disguised in local garb) a rebel movement against the authoritarian regime. She has been following a shipment of arms intended for the rebels, when it is hijacked... but there's something not right about the situation, because, as she note....



Now, at the same time, Bruce and Jason are returning from the circus, in a story I haven't posted, Jason got frustrated that Bruce wouldn't let him train to be his new partner (at this point, Dick was still Robin, Jason had no identity of his own yet) and so had, quyite literally, run away to REjoin the circus, where he got involved in solving a case about a disguise expert burglar called "The Chimera" using the circus as a cover for his robberies. It's a fun little story I might post sometime. In the end Bruce and Batman come to assist, and it ends with Jason returning to Gotham after Bruce promises to train him...



I like Bruce being uncertain about his own motivations, it humanises him.

Vicki arrives at an ancient jungle temple to find that someone has made some modifications...



But her arrival has been noted by someone inside the temple, and she is quickly found, and imprisoned in a handy cell. And someone in the temples command centre seems delighted by this for some reason. But Vicki is also resourceful...



When Vicki is escorted out of the temple at gunpoint there are tourists around, and so she takes her chance.



So, can you guess who is the one in charge (And no peeking at the tags!)

Shortly thereafter, word of Vicki's predicament gets back to the US, and thence to Gotham Police HQ and and thence to Wayne Manor (There si a long subplot about Gordon having a heart attack which I'm not including, not because it's not a decent plot, but it's not the focus of the issues)



Awww...... :)



Batman lands safely, but the landing site is quickly attacked by ground forces... and how does Batman deal with someone shooting at his plane when he's not sitting in it?



He throws his damn plane AT THEM!



So Batman tries to move "offroad" so to speak, only to find himself under attack from a local tribe.

(Sigh, I could go on and on about how lovely Newton's anatomy drawing is, but you know the score by now...)



Or at least people DRESSED as a local tribe..



And so he goes on his way, alert to human attackers, and also



(Love the Looney Tunes style battle effects in the last panel)

So Batman infiltrates the lair of the temple, only to find, as if you didn't already half expect....




Yup, it's the menacing mountebank, the prince of pranksters, the clown prince of crime (Back when he knew a crime other than mass murder) THE JOKER!!

I always love this cover....



Can't think why

Batman challenges the Joker to explain his latest mad game!



Sigh...guy should have learned, if henchmen aren't safe (and with the Joker they're REALLY not), then what chance does a lackey have?

And why is the Joker planning on taking over a country? For a VERY Jokerish reason!





Now that's a lackey who might live to hench!

So, counting on the Joker's main weakness being his vanity, Batman easily goads him into MORE soliloquising



For a large scale Joker plan, that makes a fair amount of sense....



Sadly I had to trim the page introducing the death-trap for the issue, where Batman is forced, with his hands tied behind his back, squatting on top of a train at the top of a vertiginous rollercoaster drop, and Vicki as the damsel tied to the train lines (She's no Robin, but it's a nice idea)



And yet Batman has a plan, of course, as even the Joker is aware...





..and crash into the Joker's control centre. Batman frees Vicki and sets off to deal with the amassed lackeys, henchmen and possibly any other non-union underlings. But Vicki has no intention of being the helpless victim for any longer than she has to.... Grabbing up a gun, which she notes Batman would never do himself



The power of the press folks! Suffice it to say that between the two of them they do enough damage to cause a large chunk of the HQ to collapse into rubble, and the Joker didn't make it out....

Or did he...



If I'm honest, I'm not a fan of the Joker image in the second last pane, but I have to say that the Joker laughing for so long (and such a precise description of the length) does make him seem even creepier than usual.

And now we enter into the last part, back to Don Newton art, and a terrific cover....



Oh, and what Jason has been up to...



I wonder where this is heading. (On a tiny little note, there was a suggestion that Jason had Dick's old room, which never made much sense to me in a place the size of Wayne Manor. I like that Jason got a place of his own)

Meanwhile back in Guatemala, the Joker is determined to not let his scheme go to waste. Sure, he's lost his base, but the plan remains...



And there we have this incarnation of the Joker in a nutshell, he's mad, he knows he's mad, but it's FUN!

Again, I regretfully have to trim a sequence where Batman encounters the REAL rebels in the jungle, and meets their leader, who at first assumes that batman is there to stop them and that he is, in fact there...



Nice summation there Bat's...

And back at the ruins, where obviously bits survived (and for those who enjoyed the Joker-Mobile in my last posting, hope you like these!)



General Diaz makes his speech in Mixtaya, disparaging the rebels...



When who should appear in the skies, but...



A strange alliance forms, the Generals troops and the rebels both attacking the Joker's assault.



So it continues, with the two opposing leaders actually coming face to face for the first time ever..



Fleeing in his Jokercopter, with Batman apparently left behind the Joker has a surprising reaction to defeat...



Of course, that goes about as well as you might expect, and the copter is forced down, to find that Batman also made it down intact.



Batman, scaring the bejabbers out of crooks no matter WHAT country he's in! And then of course the Joker runs into BOTH sides he tried to play against the other



Leaving the troops to fight it out, Batman pursues the Joker back to the temple. The Joker has a machine gun and the high ground, Batman has only a batarang or does he have a weapon even HE doesn't know he has yet...



Who else?



Words cannot express how much I love this next page...



Jason has rarely been more adorable than right there....

Meanwhile, Diaz and the rebel leaders troops have defeated the Joker's mercenaries. They face each other and each acknowledges the other's contribution. They may be enemies, but they are both, in their way, patriots, and can respect the other's courage against a common foe. They agree to part without further bloodshed, there has been enough of that already. There will be time enough to fight their fights, and so let peace reign...



Two things Jason, 1) it's never wise to use your real name when Batman is lugging someone around who may well be faking being uinconscious. and 2) It's dyed, not died (or is that foreshadowing)



"... stealing someone else's identity is quite another. And one I won't allow"

(Batman, frontrunner in the fight against identity theft!)

I'm sure there's a smutty comment to be made about Batman ordering Jason to take his clothes off, but... nah, I won't gp there...

And as for what happened next... well, that my dears, is another story for another day....

Hope you enjoyed this, probably my longest post ever!