CSBG examines how Batman was the ORIGINAL Robin when he was a Boy Wonder in their spotlight on retroactive comic book connections.
Today, the stunning narrative that Batman recounts is that of Robin, well, Robin!
This is "Founded depth," where we examine some odd/strange/interesting cases of the retrospective connection of different comic book characters in which, for example, Wolverine has learned that Captain America and the Black Widow were known from World War II by Uncanny X-Men #268.
It was strange, because I saw that Dan Greenfield published only yesterday about Batman's time as Robin after agreeing to do it a few days earlier. Dan reacted to DCs recent requests to September where, in a forthcoming issue ofThe Batman and Scooby Doo Mystery, Sholly Fisch (who knows more about DC history than almost any other comics author) surely appears to be referring to this story with the art of usually superb Scott Jerald.
That's a coincidence, then. It certainly makes a lot more sense if I wrote it as an attachment to the Story of Sholly, and I think I can say it IS retroactively but it's a genuinely strange coincidence that I chose to write about it this weekend. For quite some time now it was in my "to-do list." Strange things.
ANYHOW, on the subject of the article!
One of the oddities about Batman and Superman's early days is how little the writers tended to be concerned with these characters. In Action Comics #1 and then a slightly enlarged (but very brief) Superman origin tale was accepted by Superman, although it was in comics for the most of the 1930's and 1940's.In Action Comics #1 and then a slightly enlarged (but very brief) Superman origin tale was accepted by Superman, although it was in comics for the most of the 1930's and 1940's. It was not until the adventures of Superman radio program deepened a little in Superman's kryptonian origined that the Comic books started to do that, as did Superman #53 from 1948, when he eventually had Superman filled up on the destiny of his home planet.But this is the other remarkable feature of this narrative, that Bill Finger penned it (Finger later also wrote the 1957 story that had Superman receive a "mind tape" from his father, Jor-El, that filled Superman in on Kryptonian life period, and from that point forward, Superman comic books began to have a lot of Kryptonian connections in them). Finger was, of course, the co-creator of Batman, and in the 1940s and 1950s he also authored several stories of Superman. This is intriguing since it talks about how this thing works.The initial authors of the characters often fail to fill up the heroes' backstory, so later writers come and look at a fresh story. In 1955, in Detective Comics #226, Finger did it with Superman and Edmond Hamilton with Bruce Wayne's origins as a lawyer (art by Dick Sprang and Charles Paris).
Hamilton was a well-known writer of science fiction, a prominent author of pulp magazine during his time as pulp fiction publisher, Mort Weisinger. When Weisinger moved into comic production in 1941, Hamilton quickly became a member of the Comics of Batman and Superman in 1942.
The titles of Weisinger World War II services soon replaced Jack Schiff (Schiff would remain on the Batman titles until the mid-1960s, while Weisinger took back the Superman books later in the 1940s and remained in charge of them until 1970). Naturally Hamilton noticed that we didn't have a really story to learn Batman (funnily Bill Finger did also have a story on Bruce Wayna's college days) after this comics book came out.
Batman is in Batcave with Robin when Alfred presents a parcel addressed to Bruce Wayne, a copy of the suit Robin was in it! Robin is, obviously, 'What the deuce?' and, when Batman points out that the costume could lead to the end of Batman and Robin's team, he makes things more crazy. He says he intended to follow Harvey Harris, legendary police detective, to study how to become a detective when he was Robin's age. But of course Harris may discover him, so he disguised himself as a colorful suit he fashioned himself.
All right, a lot of stuff. He was scared that Harris might be caught and so he would make himself a brilliant and bright outfit to mix in what? Second, why is he on his chest with a R? For what's R, man? He wasn't called Robin yet, so...what? What happens here? What happens? This is insane hilarious!
Bruce helps Harris get out of a jam and Harris agrees to train the young man as a detective, while, naturally, trying to find out his identity so that he can get the child off the street (by the way, you could have have noticed that Bruce is too older to live with his parents? Bruce is also named "Robin" by Harris
Their case includes a bad guy who messes with rich collections and Harris snakes the identity of Bruce on this page, because to a rarity of Sprang art (Sprang was brilliant and he was also often detailed, but subtle is not typically a word you would associate with him).
Did you figure out how it was done by Harris? Well, the case is resolved first of all in the story of the past, but Bruce understands he still has a lot to learn, and he decides to wait for a lawyer and sends the costume to Harris as a gift, but is also glad to have kept his identity secret at least. Of course, not so, as Harris has known it all the while.
He revealed this just now, because he had died, and could never be obliged to expose the identity of Bruce.
Smart things. Harvey Harris was later used to tie Wendy from the Super Friends to the DC continuity with a more modern writer, E. Nelson Bridwell (she was his niece).
Bruce Wayne worked for the FBI before he was Batman.
Bruce Wayne joined the FBI prior to his days as the Dark Knight, and while it was not permanent, he shaped Batman's ideas.
Batman's name is the World's Greatest Detective, yet his powers in deduction did not always centered on purifying Gotham's streets. Trust it, a teenage Bruce Wayne almost worked as an Agent of the FBI for the US Government before he ever donated the cowl.
The Secret Origins of the Greatest Super Heroes in the world was released in 1989 and takes an extensive look at the origins of several DC superheroes. Dennis O'Neil concentrates on the Caped Crusader himself in his first story, "The Man Who Falls." The novel not only describes Batman's parents' death, but also the years after that, during which the orphaned billionaire tried to understand the best way to spend time and money.
Academia didn't fit, so Bruce, at twenty, decides to concentrate on his efforts wherein he thinks it will make a bigger effect — the Federal Research Bureau. But, while Bruce appeared like the FBI's natural match, the FBI didn't fit him naturally.
On paper, Batman would appear to be the greatest effective FBI agent of all time, yet Bruce did not really fit. In fact, it was his stint with the FBI that "proved that he had a long-standing concern that he could not work on a system." In fact, the whole of Batman's life depends on his own rules. "There is a vast cry from there, as Jim Gordon states in The Dark Knight Rises, when the faults of the structures are no longer arms; they are shackles and let the evil man come forward." " Batman cannot afford to be inhibited by a body like the FBI to fight the kind of evil which plagues Gotham.
Often enough, Batman works along with other heroes to prove that he can function in a team. The distinction is that in the way an officer is for its superiors at FBI, Batman does not match other heroes. Batman must be his own boss at the end of the day.