Wednesday, July 16, 2014

Batman Refuses to Fight You Unless You Have a Current Photo on File

Batman makes a rather rare appearance in Action Comics #344.  Remember, the two were appearing together all the time in World's Finest Comics, not to mention the Silver Age Justice League of America, so they tended to stay out of one another's solo books.  Anyway, they were working on a technology to transfer brains between bodies, which I was going to make fun of but then thought there were really a lot of upsides to it.




Of course, this was decades before you kids had your iPhones and whatnot, but that seems like a pretty lame system for "the World's Greatest Detective."  Is it really necessary or helpful to carry around trading cards of one's adversaries?  I mean, I can understand perhaps toting notes around on everyone, but the picture seems a bit unnecessary and wasteful.  And how did Batman get the bad guys to pose for those pictures, anyway?  And did he really need reminders of their trademarks?  It's pretty straightforward.  If a cat runs off with a bag of money, you probably don't need your little trading card to tell you that maybe you should have a few words with the Catwoman.

I'm over-thinking it again, aren't I?


Moving on.  I love this panel:


That  was sexist as heck, but it's also awesome because that's the first thing I've ever read from Supergirl's parents that made me laugh.  Oh, Supergirl's dad, your chauvinism amused me.  Huzzah, sir!  Huzzah!

I've spent a fair amount of time on the planet, and I've never seen a girl just faint on me.  But apparently up until the last 30 years or so, it was quite a widespread phenomenon.  It's like all these people nowadays who won't eat gluten even though they have no diagnosis of celiac disease.  I guess fainting spells were just the "cool" medical condition to have at the time.

See you tomorrow!

2 comments:

James Robert Smith said...

Quick, Danvers. You're supposed to loosen their clothing when this happens!

D.B. Echo said...

Hmmm...I was wondering if those cards were just a cheesy marketing gimmick for real-world cards. "Hey, kids, carry the same cards Batman carries so he can instantly recognize his enemies!"