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Well when I go to Zia Records it all comes back to me. They have a store with vinyl records, music CD's, movies, books and comic books. There are mugs with the Beatles on them and incense lots of incense. The comic books are all over in boxes on shelves. You can buy new or used, movies 3 for $10. It is like a cornucopia of entertainment. It was one of my inspirations for the blog. It is like feeding the senses.
When I was there I was thumbing through the comic books and found this old comic book primer on The Batman. It was called, The Greatest Batman Stories Ever Told, created by Bob Kane. Now I grew up with The Batman in 2 forms, DC Comics, and Batman on TV with Adam West (Batman) and Burt Ward (Robin). I have included that famous and toe tapping theme song from the TV Batman on the end of the blog. Yeah! So in Zia they had this book that had the about the Batman. I would say that is The Batman before 1983. It was wonderful to read as it was recopied the original comic from 1939!! It is a confusing tale of werewolves and vampires.
The story is called Batman Vs. The Vampire. When you read it, the evil villian is the Monk. He walks around like a cross between Friar Tuck and little Red Riding Hood. When exposed he turns into a werewolf. Now Bruce Wayne(Batman sans costume) is engaged to Julie, and she is kidnapped in this story and taken far away across the sea. Batman introduces his Bat plane and batarang in this story. Now in what I am sure was Europe, Julie is asleep in a castle. Batman finds her with 2 teeth marks on her neck and thinks vampires! It seems in this early version that vampires and werewolves are linked. I think the story goes if a werewolf bites a human it becomes a vampire? Either that or Dala, who is Monks' attractive and yet evil minion, is just a vampire. But when Batman kills the Monk and Dala they are safely ensconced in their coffins. He kills them both with silver bullets. I guess in 1939 they had not worked out the whole difference between vampires and werewolves. I am just not sure. Anyway the art work was wonderful and since that was one of the first Batman stories, it was great.
DC Comics had a comic called Detective Comics, and that is where The Batman appeared, issue #27. Now before I write a single word more please know that I AM ONLY A FAN AND DO NOT PROFESS TO BE AN EXPERT. However, learning about early Batman is as good as finding out your mother had an affair with the towns richest man, and you are not really related to the gas station manager, sitting downstairs in the chair with a beer, watching football. Not that there is anything wrong with that, I am just saying, it is that good.
The anthology of Batman stories has in its center, the original story of Batman came to be. Now I am sure you have seen Batman Begins (2005) with Christian Bale and Michael Caine as Alfred the Butler. Interestingly I usually prefer the written version of things and this is no different. In comic form Bruce Wayne's rich and philanthropic parents are still killed, he still has to watch, and he still dedicates himself to avenging their deaths. In fact he is obsessed, driven to find his parents killers. In a story called The First Batman, it goes into how Batman picked his alter ego.
After years of mastering ways of scientific deduction, perfecting his body strength and training himself in criminal investigations Bruce Wayne is finally ready. He later finds Lew Moxon who ordered his parents death, only because of an accident Moxon can't remember a thing. When he finally does his guilt gets to him, he runs into traffic and is killed himself. During the story one of the most fascinating things was that the costume adopted by Batman is actually a replica of a Batman suit his father wore as a costume to a party. The same costume he wore when criminal Lew Moxon, came to have a bullet removed. His father foiled the process and Lew Moxon was arrested. So he blamed Bruce Wayne's father for his unfortunate incarceration. The costume was lurking somewhere in Bruce's unconscious mind.
I loved that Batman's journey was one that started in emotion. It was because of his emotions he was driven to do this work. It evolved over time, as most things do, and he became a superhero. Batman does not kill people, another aspect I did appreciate. Well guess what? He originally did, he threw them into vats of acid, carried a gun, strangled them, threw them off buildings. In the 1989 Batman movie he threatens the Joker and then ties his leg to a statue where he is pulled to his death. In Batman Begins he kills someone in Penguins army of freaks by burning them with his jet engine. So there are grey areas.
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