Batman vs. Magic

 

cover art by Carmen Infantino

We're continuing to look at the reprints that appeared in Detective Comics #439 (1974). So far, we've gone back to the Golden Age for a Hawkman story and a tale of Dr. Fate. We've visited the Silver Age to time travel with the Atom. This week, we stay with the Silver Age to look at "Batman's Bewitched Nightmare," reprinted from Detective Comics #336 (Feb. 1965). 

This one was written by Gardner Fox, who would actually be the writer for 4 of the 6 reprints we'll eventually talk about. That's not surprising. The super-prolific Fox was a creative driving force behind much of what made both the Golden Age and the Silver Age of comics so much fun.

The art is by Sheldon Moldoff, ghosting for Bob Kane. 

A witch is helping crooks rob a bank, disguising their car as a pumpkin being pulled by mice (because apparently no one in Gotham City would notice this) and transforming the vehicle and the crooks back into their normal forms outside the bank, which she's already broken open for them.

It's interesting that Batman automatically assumes the magic must be fake (which, in fact, turns out to be the case) because magic isn't real. But Batman lives in a universe where magic DOES exist. Heck, it's only been a year since Zatanna was introduced into the DC Universe. And Batman has met Dr. Fate and Spectre. To be fair, of course, those latter two live in another universe where the physical laws might be a little different. But still, Batman has no reason to doubt the existance of magic. This isn't really a big deal in terms of this individual story, but it shows that the DC editors weren't that concerned about the overall continuity of their universe. To put it crudely, while Marvel was building a universe that intertwined upon itself, DC was concerned with telling individual stories---individual legends about legendary characters--without a worry about cleanly fitting it all together. Both attitudes produce entertaining stories, so both have their strengths.

Anyway, the crooks go down pretty easily when Batman and Robin arrive, joking about it as they are captured. Then, all of a sudden, Batman and Robin are unable to touch them. The witch has taken away their sense of touch.

The crooks take off in their car. With their sense of touch back, the Dynamic Duo pursue them in the Batmobile. 

But the witch then takes away their sense of sight--or at least limits it so they can't see the getaway car. Instea, the pursue the witch on her broomstick into a large cave.

Over the next few pages, the witch deprives the good guys of first their hearing and then their sense of smell, luring them into traps designed to take them out based on the sense they are currently missing. But Batman foils the first trap and Robin, through an on-the-fly Sherlockian deduction, saves them from the second trap. In fact, Robin really shines during the story's climax, figuring out that the broomstick works as a magic wand. Without it, she's powerless.

Robin takes the broomstick. He himself can't make it do magic, but that doesn't matter. The witch and the bank robbers are easily subdued.

But back at the Bat Cave, the two heroes get one last surprise. Communicating through the broomstick, a villain they've encountered before talks to them. This is the mysterious Outsider, who explains the broom is made from a rare piece of wood that allows someone with ESP (which the witch had) to seem to perform "magic." The Outsider set all this up to destroy Batman and Robin. It's not his first attempt and won't be his last. (Spoiler: The Outsider turns out to be an evil alternate personality of Alfred's. He's eventually cured of this.)

I like the story. The "eliminate one sense at a time" trick is fun and I especially enjoy Gardner Fox allowing Robin to take the lead and save the day at the end. The one-panel explanation of how the broom worked is convoluted even by Silver Age Comic Book Logic. But what the hey, it's the Silver Age. It exists according to its own logic and I wouldn't have it any other way.

Next week, we return again to the Lonely War of Capt. Willy Schultz.