Thursday, November 12, 2009

The Trains Shall Run on Bat Time Thursday!

Every so often, you'll hear some fellow nerd discussing how lame Batman is because he can't match his super-powered compatriots. This was overcompensated (in the late 90's, in particular) by constantly resolving stories simply by giving Bats enough time to figure out the way to take enemies down. Perhaps it's because of my early childhood attachment to the character, but I always liked the fact that a mere mortal without super-speed or magic rings could succeed where sheer power could not.

I give you Exhibit "A", courtesy of World's Finest #127:



Despite having a bitchin' car, Bats has memorized every train schedule in Gotham to the point that he knows exactly where a train will be at any given time. Some might call that anal-retentive, and you might be right, but Bats got the job done.

And for no real reason in World's Finest #128, he turned into a human buzzsaw:



We've seen many oversized buzzsaws in comics, but that, my friends, is the stuff of legends.

Let's be more popular!


I found this at the back of an issue of All-Winners, and it slayed me. First, I don't think an 8 year-old boy in the 1940's was interesting in being more charming and popular. Second, even if I was interested in being more charming and popular, purchasing this product requires either crushingly low self-esteem or a remarkable level of self-awareness that I had kinks in my personality that needed intervention. In either case, I think I would have simply spent a few moments wondering what it would have been like to make out with the girl in the ad and moved on.

See you tomorrow!

3 comments:

Bob Lilly said...

Am I the only Bat Fan that loves the era of Bizarre Transformation Batman? This is the era in which I first read the books and I still love them. Robin's job was to react to the change. Robin was a great reactor. Little guy didn't even require a thought balloon for you to know that he was shocked by the Buzzsaw Batman. Thanks for the post. Please come visit me at boblillycomics.blogspot.com.

Aurora Moon said...

you're going by the assumption that girls simply did not read comics back then.

but then I guess that's no big surprise... many people today still assume that girls don't read comic books... that it's only for nerdy boys. :p they forget the part about how some nerdy girls actually like ogling muscular men who wear skintight costumes that leave nothing to the imagination...

But yes, you certainly do have a point there about the self-esteem thing. I'm now trying to picture the sort of girl in the 1940's who would buy that book....it isn't a pretty mental image, for sure. :P

Adam Barnett said...

Aurora, if I had known of any girl my age who read comics growing up, she would have been a queen among my friends. They either didn't exist, or they hid themselves from us (not that I blame them).