Batman and Robin in Future-Space!

 

cover art by Lew Sayre Schwartz;

(Batman and Robin figures drawn by Bob Kane)

One can argue that during the Silver Age, Batman comics walked a little too far out of the shadows, with the silly stories featuring a Dark Knight who was no longer dark. (Mirroring the 1990s, when Batman walked way too far into the shadows.) But therre is no denying that many Silver Age Batman stories were lots of fun.  

Batman #59 (June-July 1950) includes a story that gives us a perfect example of Silver Age silly fun. "Batman in the Future," written by Bill Finger and drawn by Lew Sayre Schwartz (with Bob Kane drawing the Dynamtic Duo), is a joy to read.

The story begins with Batman and Robin catching the Joker and tossing him in the slammer. When the Joker mentions that he commits crime in part because his ancestors were famous clowns, Batman decides the thing to do is to travel 100 years into the past to study these influences. He and Robin go to Professor Nichols, who has a method of sending people into the past via hypnotism. 

But Nichols inadvertantly sends them 100 years into the future, where they see a future version of the Joker chasing someone. They stop the arch-criminal--only to discover this Joker is not an arch-criminal,

 

He is a decendent of Joker, but he fights on the sides of good as Police Chief Rokej. 

So at first it appears that Batman and Robin are going to be tossed in the Future Slammer. But Batman has Rokej compare his skin pores to a 20th Century picture of himself to prove he's the real thing. Before you can say "Holy Plot Device!" the two time travelers are recruited to help with a case.

Someone is sabotaging a particular brand of new space ship, leaving them easy prey for space pirates. It's suspected to be an inside job, so Bruce and Dick get jobs in the factory that makes the ships.

Soon, they've saved the owner of the factory and get permission to build a Space Batplane. That allows them to take their adventure into space, where they foil and capture the pirates.

But a Bat Signal projected on the moon brings them back to Earth, where they learn the space ship factory has been badly damaged by sabotage. One wonders how large a budget Chief Rokej has available to him if he can whip up a Bat Signal that projects an image half-a-million miles away. 

Anyway, the only way the space ship company can survive is to win a major upcoming space race and the only way for this to happen is for the Space Batplane to compete. But things go awry early in the race when the Batplane's fuel supply is sabotaged and it drifts into a Sargosso Sea of lost spaceships.

At first, things seem hopeless. But Batman realizes they can salvage fuel from the wrecked ships, which allows them to get back into the race.

They win the race by cutting a close orbit around the sun. All through the story, they've also been stumbling across clues that eliminate suspects as to who the saboteur is and now one last clue lets them finger the guy. Justice is served just as the hypnotism wears off and kicks Batman and Robin back to 1950.

It is indeed a silly story, but it is internally logical (sort of), visually eye-catching and--as I've said--a joy to read. The best Batman stories are from the 1970s, when he was the Dark Knight without being too dark and his skills as a detective and escape artist were properly appreciated. But the world would be a poorer place indeed without Silver Age Batman's goofy adventures.

Next week, a modern Marvel hero teams up with a 1930s pulp hero.