Week of Wonder: Bruce Wayne Loses the Guardianship of Dick Grayson

[alicemacher]

One of Bill Finger's most heartrending stories, and one of my favourites from the Golden Age.



From Batman Vol. 1, Issue 20 (Dec.-Jan. 1944). Four pages out of twelve.



Dick receives an unexpected visit from a couple who introduce themselves as his Uncle George and Aunt Clara. They tell him and his guardian that they'd been in Europe when his parents were murdered, but are home now and have come to take care of him from now on. Despite their profuse show of concern and affection, Dick doesn't want to go, and neither does Bruce intend to give him up. So George and Clara tell Bruce they'll see him in court.








That night, Alfred brings Bruce his costume and reminds him of his discovery that mobster Fatso Foley's henchmen are planning to steal a first-edition Shakespeare volume from the public library. Wayne agrees he can't let his grief distract him from his crimefighting, and suits up.





After Dick sneaks back to his new home and falls asleep, Uncle George shows his true colours. (So does "Aunt" Clara, in a more literal sense: she doffs her "elderly" wig and glasses, revealing a young blonde. We never learn whether they're really married.) He contacts Bruce with an offer to return Dick to him in exchange for a million dollars. Instead, Batman visits George and his partner-in-crime and orders them to sign a confession, then leave town. But George stalls for time and, having heard of Batman's war on Foley, contacts the mobster, who agrees to have his men ambush Batman chez George. They take the unconscious crimefighter to their boss, who puts him in a compressed-air death trap.

George calls Wayne Manor to announce Batman's capture and demand the million bucks "or else." However, he drunkenly lets slip that Foley's behind the capture. So Alfred, with the help of Robin and one of the Penguin's confiscated gas-spouting umbrellas, takes the gang out and rescues Batman.





And with that observation by the oh-so-very-British "old school" Alfred, our story ends.

Comments

[jkcarrier]

Too bad Aunt Harriet wasn't around to sort this all out. "George, you were a hoodlum at age 12, and you haven't changed a bit!" (or was Harriet on Dick's mother's side of the family? I forget.)

[bradygirl_12]

Dick's side, at least on the TV show. :)

Batman: grimdark 'til Robin shows up! :)

[cricharddavies]

That's interesting. My head canon has been that Harriet is the widow of Bruce's Uncle Philip, who was Thomas' older brother.

[icon_uk]

I could see it like the scene in the Addams Family musical when Morticia and Gomez are talking about Grandma.

"She's YOUR Aunt Dick..."

"What?, I thought she was YOUR Aunt, Bruce"

[mrwalker]

The court scene reminds me of No Man's Land, when Bruce's airhead playboy act bites him in the ass when he needs to be taken seriously.

[janegray]

Thanks for posting this :)

[scorntx]

Gotta love how Batman's word is apparently all that's needed to make a judge reconsider his opinion of Bruce's right to be Dick's guardian.
Only in Gotham.

And, maybe it's because of the remove of eighty years, but why did "Aunt Clara" disguise herself in the first place?
(I mean, fairly certain a custody hearing in Gotham has seen stranger things than a middle aged man having a much younger wife, even in the 40s...)

[alicemacher]

I recall Batman serving as a witness in court in at least one Golden Age story. Apparently Finger et al saw no problem with judges and defence attorneys accepting the testimony of a masked person who went by an alias. Contrast with the more realistic scenario in, for example, Andrew Helfer's "Eye of the Beholder" (Batman Annual 1990). Bruce laments that a serial killer, who gleefully admits to Batman what he'd done but feigns innocent outrage when Gordon and his officers show up, will be acquitted because there's no other direct evidence of his guilt and no court would ever permit Batman to testify without revealing his secret identity.

And yeah, I have no idea either why Clara disguised herself. The story just kind of tosses that in there without explanation. Were she and George both imposters, with no relation to Dick at all, I could see it. (In fact the first time I read this story I assumed that would be the twist, but no, it appears ol' George was the bad seed of the Grayson family.)

[lego_joker]

I posted it about five years ago, but there's a specific story (in Batman #7) where Gordon just straight-up deputizes Batman in front of an entire courtroom, rendering his testimony Good and Proper from thereon. That, as I understand it, remained the status quo for the next forty-odd years.

In-between, some stories (especially the '66 show's pilot) poked fun at this, but I don't think it was seriously deconstructed until Jim Starlin's Dumpster Killer storyline, where the killer instantly escapes justice because the knife Batman found under his floorboards was entirely useless as evidence.

[bradygirl_12]

And, maybe it's because of the remove of eighty years, but why did "Aunt Clara" disguise herself in the first place?
(I mean, fairly certain a custody hearing in Gotham has seen stranger things than a middle aged man having a much younger wife, even in the 40s...)

Heh, the courts must consider a prim older woman better mother material than a sassy blonde! :)