Am I going to put every Neal Adams Batman cover on this site? Well, sure... if I can come up with the slightest excuse. Check this one out:
It's eye-catching, of course. It's not entirely accurate, though. I've seen this cover over the years and assumed it was one of those 1960's social awareness-raising issues. And... well, kinda, but not really. First and foremost, I didn't see the gang wearing leather and riding motorcycles at all. And in the story, these guys are juveniles:
What were these kids fighting over? Who wore the baggiest shirt?
Anyway, Batman has a solution for everything that led these young men into their life of gang violence:
All they needed to do was decide to do good things!
Yup. Nancy Reagan wasn't the first person who said that the cure for everything that ails you is simply ignoring it. Just say no, kids!
Hey, I have a question:
Wait. What? Does Batman have a photographic memory? I don't think he does. Eidetic memory involves remembering everything that you've ever been allowed to remember over the course of your entire life. Bruce may be able to commit everything he reads and learns to memory, but that ain't the same thing. Your thoughts?
Hey! Here's a good one from contributor Robert Gillis, from Jimmy Olsen #15!
Hmmmm... I want to know why it's legal for this kid to be "picking up" cigarettes at all. I could see that sort of thing happening in Gotham, but Metropolis always reminds me of Singapore.
Oh, well. Good find, Robert! Thanks again!
See you tomorrow!
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4 comments:
Well, he does say that he's acting as an "errand boy"...I think it was once acceptable for minors to purchase cigarettes for adults, crazy as that sounds. I'm pretty sure I've seen more than one old movie/TV show/story where a parent instructs their kids to pick up some smokes while they're at the store. Of course, the point was that these were BAD parents, but the fact remains that kids could still buy cigarettes...
Maybe Batman does have a photographic memory? It would explain a lot, including how he's so fixed on the image of the murder of his parents.
I know Batgirl had eidetic memory. I think Batman just decided that he had to have it, as well. Out of spite.
In the 60s and 70s, I could walk to the corner of 85th to pick up things at Gas City. (Torn down in 1990, I've gone back to the old neighborhood and it still a fenced in empty lot. Why fence it in after a quarter of a century?) Anyhow. I would be picking up a gallon of milk and a pack of Virginia Slims for my mother, I can remember back to being in grade school. And if my Auntie Irene was in town, I'd pick up an entire carton of Lucky Strike Greens. I'm sure the owner knew my dad or simply saw me (and other kids) playing across the street.
And when our parents got drunk and bought the new Vivitar cameras, they shoved cigarettes into all the littler kids mouths and took photos.
Yeah, I remember that Barbara Gordon was referenced as having eidetic memory. But apparently it rarely makes it into adulthood. "Photographic memory" as referenced here is apparently not even universally accepted as a thing:
http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2006/04/kaavya_syndrome.single.html
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