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The Millennium Chronicles
The Millennium Chronicles is a regular column that
explores the Millennium Edition reprint series that DC
Comics released throughout 2000.
This time we look at:
Detective Comics #27
(Originally Published May, 1939)
Writers: Bob Kane. Fred Guardineer, H. Fleming,
Jerry Siegel, Jim Chambers,
Paul Dean, Tom Hickey, Paul
Gustavson, and Sven Elven, (The Mysterious Dr. Fu
Manchu adapted by an unknown writer from the novel
by Sax Rohmer.)
Artists:
Bill Finger, Fred Guardineer, H. Fleming, Joe Shuster,
Jim Chambers, Tom Hickey, Paul Gustavson, Sven Elven,
and unknown.
Price: $3.95 US/$6.25 CAN, (Back-issue. May be
sold for higher price.)
By 1939, Superman had become a national sensation.
Sales of Action Comics were exceeding 500,000
copies per month. The summer would see the launching
of a Superman comic book, the first book to be
dedicated to a single character.
Naturally, DC wanted to duplicate its success.
Editor Vin Sullivan asked a young cartoonist, Bob
Kane, to design his own costumed hero. Kane was eager
for his own character. If it caught on, it would mean
steady work. Kane worked with artist Bill Finger on
creating a non-powered hero.
He would be a dark, vengeful hero, someone who used
fear and terror in a war on crime. His origins lay in
a stolen childhood, as he saw his parents gunned down
by a cowardly mugger. That young boy spent the rest of
his life training his mind and body to perfection. His
every waking minute was spent learning the skills of
deduction, science, and unarmed combat. Since his
initial conception, he has become an icon of
obsession, vengeance, and determination.
For the costume, finger took inspiration from the
Shadow’s billowing cape, and the designs of Leonardo
Da Vinci. The hero would look like a bat, a nighttime
predator, a beast. In time, criminals would come to
think he was not human, but the monster he appeared to
be.
Armed only with fear, the Batman began his war on
crime.
Many of the now-familiar elements of the character
came later. Robin was introduced in Detective #38,
to help relieve the Batman’s isolation and discuss
plot points. The famous utility belt is not seen in
this first appearance. In fact, Batman has no tools of
his own; he uses whatever is lying around.
The overall mood of the character has not changed.
In his earliest stories, Batman faces criminals with a
cold, quiet violence. He doesn’t deliver witty
remarks, nor scolds his attackers after he’s subdued
them. Batman does what he needs to do: Fight the
crime. Punish the wicked. Expose the evil.
Batman was an instant hit with readers. Right away,
people could tell he was the opposite of Superman.
Where one was a bright, fantastically powered champion
of the right, the other was a dark, brooding, mortal
fighter of the wrong. Superman stands for positive
values. Batman stands against negative values.
This fundamental difference remains the core of
characters today.
Of course, a hero wouldn’t have much to do
without some decent villains. Batman’s rogues
gallery is one of the most famous in all of comicdom.
While I’ll go into more detail about it in my review
of Batman #1, I will say the success of the
villains lay in their relationship to Batman. Think
about it: Every great Batman villain is, in some way,
an extension of Batman’s own psychology or
personality. Batman is obsessed with order, the Joker
is obsessed with chaos. Catwoman uses her double
identity as a form of escape and rebellion. While
Batman may have these feelings about his own costumed
life, he resists them in favor of his “mission”.
Batman has a double life as Bruce Wayne. Two-Face also
has two identities, but in constant conflict. A great
villain, like a great hero, survives when he/she is
representative of a larger idea. The truly great
characters all speak to some universal emotion or
feeling in people.
Since his creation over 60 years ago, Batman has
remained, relatively, the same person. He’s always
been an ordinary man rising up to face extraordinary
challenges. He’s earned the respect and fear of
beings mightier than mortals. The fact that he is
considered not only one of the greatest characters
ever conceived, but one of the most powerful, is a
testament to the writers and artists who have made him
what he is today: A legend. The equal of Superman,
Sherlock Holmes, and Robin Hood.
I’d like to point out how this comic contains a
great deal of anti-Chinese racism. Two stories, “Cosmo,
the Phantom of Disguise”, and “The Mysterious Dr.
Fu Manchu”, depict Chinese people as yellow,
sub-human creatures. It’s downright insulting,
although it does provide an unintentional joke. In “Cosmo”,
our hero goes undercover to expose a Chinese immigrant
smuggling ring. He spends a month intensely learning
to speak Chinese. Then, disguised as a Chinaman, HE
PROCEEDS TO SPEAK IN A BAD ASIAN ACCENT! And every
other Chinese person speaks the same way! Why bother
learning the language if everyone knows broken
English?
Sometimes I’m embarrassed to be a white man.
History:
The first appearance of one the most famous and
enduring characters in comics. Not to mention, one of
only three to be published continuously since his
first appearance.
5/5 Slushies.
Quality:
The quality of work here is more balanced and
consistent than Action #1. The stories are
tight, exciting, and suspenseful.
4.5/5 Slushies.
Total:
4.75/5. Definitely, one comic every fan should
read.
Related Works:
Batman became the star of his own comic book in
1940. It made history by being the first solo book
with all-new material.
The 1950’s saw Batman with an increasing number
of Bat-named helpers, such as Batwoman and Ace, the
Bat hound. Then-editor Jack Schiff was trying to
reverse dwindling sales with Superman-style story
elements. Editor Julie Schwartz was placed in charge
of Batman and Detective Comics in 1964.
He returned the character to his crime fighting roots
with Detective Comics #327. That issue also saw
the famous yellow oval symbol on Batman’s costume
for the first time.
After the campy elements of the late 60’s ‘Batman’
TV show had taken over the book, Denny O’Neil and
Neal Adams brought Batman back to his darker roots
again with Detective Comics #395.
Frank Miller’s famous Batman: The Dark Knight
Returns gave us the darkest, most obsessed version
of the character since his origin. Those character
elements would be used when Miller re-introduced the
character in the “Year One” story arc. (Since
then, any story that revamps a character’s origin,
no matter what company publishes it, is referred to as
a “Year One” story.)
From 1992 through 1994, a broken back forced Bruce
Wayne to abandon his role as Batman. A young man named
Jean-Paul Valley, formerly a religious assassin called
Azreal, took his place. Jean-Paul’s violent nature
and mental instability soon proved him unfit for the
job. After he healed, Bruce Wayne reclaimed the role.
Jean-Paul now works as an “Agent of the Bat”.
There are currently more Batman-related monthly
series that any other DC book:
Batman, Detective Comics, Batman: Legends of the
Dark Knight, Batman: Gotham Knights, Robin, Nightwing,
Catwoman, Batgirl, and Harley Quinn series.
Additionally, Batman appears in JLA almost
every month, and there is at least one mini-series or
special featuring Batman every month.
Detective Comics is the oldest continuously
published comic book in history, and the third highest
numbered, (Dell’s Four Color Comics and
Action are higher). It has also been named the
best comic book of the century.
Batman has been voted the best character of the 20th
Century. He has appeared in films, cartoons, movie
serials, video games, action figures, radio, and a
syndicated comic strip. An upcoming Batman film is
being written by Frank Miller and directed by Darren (Pi)
Aronofsky.
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Collects Detective Comics #27, among others
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