Those Fabulous 50's

Detective Comics #146

Yes, apparently Batman welded the sensational brand-new Batmobile of 1950 himself! Gee, but he's a talented guy. In the 50's of course, new technology was THE stuff, and Batman got a redesigned Batplane too, which featured a television, radar, crime lab, a "vacuum blanket", and the Bat-Beam... not a Bat-Beam, mind you. The.

This issue also included stories about Robotman (A human brain in a robot's body) and, of course, Pow Wow Smith, a Sioux sheriff in a small Western town. His bios say that his real name is Ohiyesa, but that the white folks in his town always call him Pow Wow, and he gives up trying to correct them. So naturally that's what we call him.

Well, no. I'm betting that the Ohiyesa business was a retcon (AKA cover up) to make the character look less racist when he showed up in more sensitive decades. Though, of course, I could be wrong.

Most of the characters featured in Detective Comics were, of course, detectives. Some were superheroes, others

weren't -- Pow Wow Smith was meant to take advantage of the wild west genre that was becoming incredibly popular with kids. So popular, in fact, that in 1954 Pow Wow moved on to headlining Western Comics for five years before he was booted from the cover by Matt Savage, Trail Boss.

The Superhero was actually waning a bit in the 50's -- sci-fi stories, western comics, war comics, mystery comics were all popular. In the mid 50's concern about morality in comics and the possible effects on juvenile delinquency gave rise to the Comics Code Authority, which prohibited most violence and any supernatural phenomena in comic books. Psychologist Fredric Wertham claimed that, since reading comics was popular among delinquents, those comics must be the cause of the delinquency, and he started writing for Ladies' Home Journal in 1953, where mothers were presumably shocked by all the sex and horror that was in some comics. As a result, DC's books became more family oriented -- Superboy found Krypto, Batman found Ace, there were stories about firefighters and heroes less likely to throw punches, like the revamped Flash, Barry Allen, the fastest man alive. Showcase #9 featured "Superman's Girlfriend, Lois Lane in Mrs. Superman!", and Lois received her own series the next year, and it lasted 137 issues. In the 70's, the book, like many, began running stories that were a little more "aware"-- Lois Lane WAS a star reporter, after all. In one oft-cited issue, Lois uses a machine that turns her into an African American woman -- silver-age, meet social conscience!

Detective Comics no. 251

That's Vicki Vale exclaiming that Batman is, in fact, not an earth man at all! Vicki was not-quite Batman's Lois Lane. Legend says she was based on the model Norma Jean Mortensen, who later of course, changed her name to Marilyn Monroe, though I imagine that story came directly from Bob Kane, who seems a bit prone to exaggerate. She was a newspaper photographer and was forever becoming suspicious that Batman was Bruce Wayne,

and then

becoming convinced that he wasn't. What was it about this particular sort of plot that comic book writers found so fascinating? The women are nosy and work in news media, the men are secretly incredibly awesome. Don't let the woman find out who you really are! Protect your true self at all costs!

Vicki showed up a lot between #49 and #320 when a new editor decided to clean house -- Batwoman, Bat-Girl, Bat-Mite and Ace the Bat-Hound all disappeared too. When Vicki

showed up again she was usually a television reporter, and then started hosting a show called "The Scene", which is essentially a Gotham version of The View. There's an occasional writer who likes Vicki and wants

her to be Batman's full-time gal -- by last account she seems to have discovered his true identity, but is keeping it a secret because he saved her life. But she's always been sort of a low-rent Lois, if you know what I mean. Now, Catwoman -- SHE'S a love interest I can get behind.

Detective Comics #260

No, "the Mystery of The Olympic Games of Space" is NOT "Whaaaat? Batman? Why?". Batman is simply drafted as a contestant (no word on how, exactly, he got to "space"... I'm betting it was some sort of beam-like contraption), participates in the boxing match and then is accused by the Plutonians -- presumably represented by that goateed gentlemen -- of cheating. And he appears to be guilty! Oh no!

This book also includes a story about Roy Raymond (sadly a "TV Detective", not the guy who founded Victoria's Secret) and "John Jones' Super Secret", about Martian Manhunter, a man from ancient Mars brought to present-day earth by Dr. Saul Erdel via a matter transmitting beam, a silver-age tale if ever there was one. On Mars, of course, they had already abolished crime, and so as he waited for Martian technology to progress enough for him to return home, he used his shape-shifting, super strength and amazing mental abilities to urge Earth towards the same goal. He's basically as powerful as Superman, but green and dressed like a male stripper (underpants, cape, suspenders). Later we found that his entire planet had been wiped out by the psychic terrorism, and J'onn J'onzz (who went by John Jones on earth, imagine that!) became not just a man out of time and space, but a man without a home, the last of his kind. He spends much of his time living different lives (a little girl, and old man, a cat, etc.) and learning about the human experience and the people he now chooses to protect. His first appearance was in issue #225.

He's the best ever.

Next time! Those Spectacular Sixties...

Thanks to coverbrowser.com, dc.wikia.com, toonopedia.com and the fabulous "DC Comics Year By Year: A Visual Chronicle" by Alan Cowsill, Alex Irvine, Matther K. Manning, Michael McAvennie and Daniel Wallace with Alastair Dougall.