Batman's Arch-Enemies "Golden" Beginnings...

                                                        By  Mark Seifert

 As most of us are aware, June 1938 saw the debut of Superman in Action Comics #1, but additionally, that same year, Detective Comics was working it's way towards what would become comic's second major character type. The Crimson Avenger became comic's masked vigilante in Detective Comics #20, but he was only a stepping stone on the way to the ultimate realization of that archetype-the Batman. As with all lasting characters, one important component of Batman's success was his colorful opponents. An area of interest that the young medium of comic creators was to exploit to its fullest by borrowing elements from both the comic strips and pulps of that day...

The earliest Batman villains were strictly from the pulp school. The aptly named Dr. Death developed a "Death Pollen" in order to extort money from the wealthy citizens of Gotham City, but Batman foiled his plans in Detective #29 (July 1939). Batman faced his first recurring nemesis, Hugo Strange, in Detective #36 (February 1940). In the outing, the evil scientist blanketed Gotham with an artificially generated fog which enabled his henchmen to plunder the city.  Though the evil Professor Strange appeared for a second time in Batman #1 (Spring 1940, which was his last appearance, incidentally, for more than 40 years), he was upstaged by another villain in that same issue.

In Batman #1, Bob Kane and Jerry Robinson brought together the best elements of pulps, comics, and the movies to create a true comic villain in the Joker. The Joker combined the horrifying visuals of the best Dick Tracy villains, the methods of a mad pulp magazine scientist, and the flair for the dramatic of movie gangsters, and he set the standard for every villain who has followed him. The clown prince of crime, the most prolific villain of the Golden Age, had an ever present bag of tricks which included the lethal Joker Venom, an electrified joy buzzer, and an acid-squirting flower, just to name a few.

During his first outing, the Joker exhibited that flair for the dramatic which became his trademark. He announced his crime on public radio before committing it, then proceeded to confound the mobs of police waiting to stop him. As he would demonstrate time and time again, the Joker couldn't just commit a crime; he had to make sure that everyone knew that he did it, and he had to challenge them to apprehend him. To remove any doubt about the perpetrator of any given deed, he often left a playing card - a joker, of course - at the scene of the crime.

The resilience which had quickly become a necessary quality even for the early villains of this year became a point of pride with the Joker he delighted in confounding the Batman by turning up alive and well after being presumed dead at the end of his previous exploit. In a typically bold adventure in Detective Comics #64 (June 1942), the Joker wiped his already extensive record clean by allowing himself to be caught, tried, and put to death in the electric chair! His henchmen brought him back to life with a specially prepared chemical, and he proceeded to strut about town without fear of capture - after all, he'd already paid for his crimes!

Besides the gimmicks and the wild stunts, an important factor in the Joker's early success was the air of mystery which surrounded him; his origin wasn't revealed until Detective #168 in 1951. Before he became the Joker, he pulled off a series of daring crimes under the identity of the Red Hood. While trying to get away from a heist at the Monarch Playing Card Company, he made the mistake of swimming through a pool of chemical wastes.  The experience left him with the permanently discolored skin and hair which are the visual trademark of the Joker. His skill in chemistry, demonstrated by the Joker Venom and the re-animation formula, was the result of years spent as a lab worker before he turned to crime.

The other Batman villains introduced in 1940 also managed to combine the bizarre motivations of the pulp villains with the interesting visual appearances of the Dick Tracy villain. Interestingly, these villains, like most from the early Golden Age, didn't have any physical advantages.  Clayface, for instance, joined Batman's rogues gallery in Detective Comics #40 (June 1940). He was an actor who went crazy after losing the lead role of a film to another actor. Donning an ugly clay mask, he began killing the movie's cast. Catwoman, who debuted along with the Joker and Hugo Strange in Batman #1, was a stewardess. The sole survivor of a plane crash, she was stricken by amnesia; her vague recollections of a pet shop full of cats (her father's) served as the foundation and inspiration for her life of crime.  Catwoman began her criminal career as an un-costumed jewel thief named the Cat. She donned her costume - that is, the first of many versions - for the first time in Batman #3.  Using cats as helpers and wielding a variety of cat-related weapons, including her cat-o'-nine-tails and Kitty-Car, she perpetrated crimes which often had a feline theme. As with the Joker, Catwoman's origin          wasn't revealed until 1951.  During the course of her origin story, in Batman #62, she recovered her memory and temporarily mended her wicked ways.

In 1941, The United States impending involvement in World War II radically altered comic book villains.  Comics had enjoyed explosive successes since the introduction of Superman: according to a 1941 Saturday Evening Post article, Superman had a monthly circulation of 1.5 million. Action Comics closely followed at 900,000 and Batman came in third at 800,000. But nevertheless, Batman's villains didn't change much because of the war-Batman didn't have the mobility of Superman or Capt. Marvel-but Bob Kane and Jerry Robinson were always open to the latest trends and the increasing diversity of comics evident during the war was reflected by Batman's opponents, who were all over the spectrum during these years.

The Penguin's light-hearted approach to crime made him a favorite shortly after he first appeared in Detective #58 (December 1941). He quickly got the best of the criminal underworld, who made fun of his fowl-like appearance, through the use of his arsenal of trick umbrellas.  World's Finest #3 (Fall 1941) introduced Batman to the Scarecrow, whose horrible appearance and fear gas stood in stark contrast to the Penguin.  The poor former psychology professor at Gotham University turned to crime to help finance his research and gain revenge on the people who mocked him for his appearance. Two-Face rounded out the gallery of Batman's greatest rouges from this era when he debuted in Detective #66 (August 1942). He was young district attorney Harvey Dent until gangster "Boss" Maroni threw acid in his face. Half of it was hideously scarred and discolored and the wound drove Dent crazy. He defaced one side of Boss Maroni's lucky charm - a two-headed coin - and flipped it to decide whether to stay on the side of the law or start a life of crime.  Crime won out, and Two-Face kept the coin for use in making future decisions.

In the period following World War II, Batman, and all superhero comics in general, began to lose more and more ground as other genres proliferated, especially crime and horror comics.  The late 1940's were marked by a distinct lack of memorable Bat-villains.  None of Gotham's evil doers  created during this time had a chance to develop and become popular before the Golden-Age came to an end except one.  Among all those  who first appeared during this time, only the Riddler, who appeared in Detective #140 (October 1948) succeeded in       maintaining his popularity to this day.

Note: In researching this article, it soon became very apparent that in the time since the 1950's, no Bat-villain except for possibly Dr. Zero aka Mr.Freeze, (February, 1959) has obtained the "sustaining power" of his/her predecessors. True, there have since been such re-occurring villains as Ras-A-Ghul, The Mad-Hatter, Man-Bat, Killer-Croc, and Poison Ivy, but none really match the ingenuity and "flare for the dramatic" that their Golden-Age counterparts had. I invite your thoughts concerning this opinion and would enjoy hearing from others as to why/why not you think this has occurred. Please send your responses through the newsletter.