Like they did last year before Action Comics hit its historic 1000 issue milestone, DC have produced a massive celebratory edition for Detective Comics (the company is named after this very title) ahead of its 1000th issue next week and also its 80th anniversary this year. The book showcases comics from the 1930s through the decades right up to the New 52 days in the 2010s.
Unlike Action which introduced Superman in its first issue, Detective didn’t introduce Batman (or “The Bat-Man” as he was initially called) until its 27th issue. We know it today as another Batman title but originally it was an anthology of stories featuring long-forgotten characters like Slam Bradley, The Crimson Avenger, Air Wave, The Boy Commandos (by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, fresh from their success at Timely Comics - later renamed Marvel - creating the character of Captain America) and Pow-Wow Smith, Indian Lawman. The latter is a reminder of the casual racism of ye olden days, along with the amusing cover of the first issue of Detective Comics of a caricature of a Chinese man!
Strips featuring all of those characters are reprinted here and… yeah they’re not good! In fact none of the comics printed here are actually any good, which is ironic given that this book is a celebration of comics! The Golden Age stuff is especially hard to read - the writing and art are both so crude and the stories are utterly corny, overwritten and predictable. And it doesn’t really get better as the years progress either though you can see the title becomes consumed with Batman stories until it’s the Detective Comics of today - 100% Batman (or Bat-family, as it is in its current incarnation). Though it does retain its original focus (for the most part) on crime-solving stories with this title being the place to read the less superhero-y Batman stories.
The accompanying essays interspersing the various comics though were largely interesting to read. Paul Levitz’s essay reveals that “DC” unofficially stood for Donenfeld’s Comics, Donenfeld being the early owner of the publisher. Anthony Tollin’s essay reveals just how much creators in the ‘30s were ripping each other off with Batman owing much to the more popular characters of the day, Doc Savage and The Shadow, and how the Joker was inspired by a villain who first appeared in The Shadow, the Grim Joker.
And, while I knew Batman, Robin, and a great many Batman characters like Two-Face and The Riddler made their debut in this title, I didn’t realise J’onn J’onzz the Martian Manhunter also first appeared in Detective!
I’ll also say that this book made me genuinely appreciate and understand the impact Neal Adams’ art had on Batman as, prior to his comics, the art on Batman was sooooo bad! Adams’ art at least looks modern compared to the stodgy stylings of the art from the 1930s, 40s and 50s! I still don’t like Denny O’Neil’s writing though - even his essay was annoying to read!
Glen David Gold’s essay was good, I liked Kirby’s art on Boy Commandos and it’s still fascinating to read the very first Batman story, The Case of the Chemical Syndicate (also included is the revamped version that appeared in the New 52 Detective Comics #27 by Brad Meltzer and Bryan Hitch).
There were too many Batman strips focusing on his origins though. One was enough - I would’ve liked to have seen one of the early comics where Batman still wielded a .45 automatic! There’s also a cringey poem by Neil Gaiman at the end.
Rather than being this wonderful collection for anyone interested in Batman, Detective Comics: 80 Years of Batman is really only going to appeal as a curio to readers who are very forgiving of the cheesy old comics of yesteryear.
But I’ll also say that some of the best Batman stories ever published first appeared in this title. Ed Brubaker/Doug Mahnke’s The Man Who Laughs, Scott Snyder/Jock/Francesco Francavilla’s The Black Mirror and Paul Dini/Dustin Nguyen/Derek Fridolfs’ Private Casebook are all must-reads for any Batman fans (the less said about Batman: Year Two: Fear the Reaper, the better!). And I think if you wanted to celebrate Detective Comics, those are the books I’d pick up over this one.
Happy 80th, Detective Comics, and hearty congrats to Donenfeld’s Comics for publishing 1000 (mostly unreadable) issues of the title - here’s to 1000 more with hopefully more good than bad this time!
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