Becoming an octogenarian has never looked so good. Or dark, depending on your point of view. Eighty years is a great accomplishment, especially when you’re not real.
That’s right, we’re talking about a fictional character who is turning 80 this year. In 1939, Bob Kane and Bill Finger debuted the Batman, a dark knight to fight crime in the underworld of Gotham City. Batman first appeared in Detective Comics #27 in May 1939. The story was entitled “The Case of the Chemical Syndicate” and the hero was actually called The Bat-Man, with a hyphen.
The cover price of that issue was 10 cents. One slim dime back then would have gained you not only the first-ever appearance of a hero who would endure for decades, but also stories about Speed Saunders, Buck Marshall, the Crimson Avenger, the mysterious Dr. Fu Manchu, the Phantom of Disguise, Plain Clothes Pete, and Slam Bradley. Wait, who?
I saw some copies of that issue for sale online for over $2000. That might sound like a lot, but wait, there’s more! That price was for ONE PAGE of the issue. Yep, one page of the first appearance of Batman sells for that much. The minimum value of a complete issue is around $20,000 and the record sale of a copy in nice condition is $2.1 million.
Not too shabby for a character who was thrown out there to see if people would enjoy him in a comic. Kane and Finger tinkered with the idea for a while before publication and helped Bruce Wayne, Batman’s alter ego, evolve over the years. DC Comics was trying out all kinds of heroes after the smashing success of Superman two years earlier. Batman was a huge success right away and even got a second comic a year later, allowing him to star in both Detective Comics and Batman. Some time after that, he also joined Superman in a title called World’s Finest.
Batman and Superman were the two most popular characters in comic books at the time. They helped the super hero boom virtually explode, including some characters across town at Timely Comics who would become important characters in the future of Marvel Comics: the Human Torch and the Sub-Mariner.
Most people know the origin of Batman. Bruce Wayne watched as his parents were gunned down in an alley after leaving a movie. He used that as motivation to develop his mind and body to fight crime and make Gotham City a better place to live. Wayne also used the millions of dollars his parents left behind to invest in the city and also his crime-fighting arsenal. Everyone would recognize a Batmobile if it raced down their street!
Batman’s utility belt is also well known. He has it full of weaponry and other items to help combat criminals as the Caped Crusader. The most popular weapon he carries is the Batarang, used to take someone by surprise from afar and maybe even pin that miscreant to a wall. There are a plethora of items in the utility belt, even Bat Shark Repellent as seen in the Batman movie based on the 1960s television show.
Why is Batman so popular? One of the reasons most often cited is that he’s just a normal man. He has no super powers; Bruce Wayne has done all the work to become a human at peak efficiency. Many people look at that in admiration and perhaps think, “Maybe I could do that too.” Batman is not an alien from the planet Krypton or a princess from an Amazonian island or someone who was given a powerful green ring or a man who was struck by lightning as he was splashed by chemicals. Batman is a man who uses his appearance to strike fear into the hearts of criminals, who, according to him, are a superstitious and cowardly lot.
And what a cast of criminals! Another reason Batman has remained popular is the insane list of recognizable characters who engage in tomfoolery and skulduggery! Start with the Joker, his arch-nemesis, and add other engaging villains like the Riddler, the Penguin, Catwoman, the Mad Hatter, Bane, and even Kite-Man. No other hero has a more eclectic group of nemeses.
Batman is one of the few super heroes who survived the waning interest of the public during the 1950s. The kids who grew up on those heroes were just that: grown up. They didn’t read comic books anymore. A new generation was more latched onto romance, western, and horror comics. However, Batman endured and was around for the revolution of super heroes in the 1960s.
From there, it was onward and upward. There was the television series in the 1960s which was really a spoof of comics, not to be taken too seriously. However, starting with the comic book The Dark Knight Returns in the 1980s, Batman really changed into the dark hero we know today. The movies in the 80s and 90s showed elements of darkness and light, but once Christian Bale donned the cowl in the new century, he was firmly entrenched as the Dark Knight Detective.
How will Batman evolve from here? I have no idea, but I hope I get to look back in 2039 and see that continued evolution on Batman’s 100th birthday.
Word of the Week: This week’s word is Croesus, which means a very wealthy person, as in, “Bruce Wayne, the Croesus of Gotham City, donated to many charities by day and cleaned up the criminal element by night.” Impress your friends and confuse your enemies!