Was Bob Kane's original Batman dark and brooding like today's?

[Batman 80]

Anyone know?

[Maxie Zeus]

Well, pretty close. It certainly wasn't light or campy. But the stories were also a lot simpler than today's, and there wasn't any real "psychological" exploration of the character.

Basically, it was series of adventures carried out in dark corners by a hero in a Bat costume who did not smile or talk a lot.

[The Guard]

Bob Kane's original Batman wore red. He had a set of wing thingies. The one you're talking about, the one who had a Bat-Gyro and all, was NOT brooding. He had a fiancee, and was pals with Commissioner Gordon.

[Mattashell]

Are there any affordable reprints of the originals that don't leave anything out? Can I study the complete history of the character (by history I mean evolution, not necessarily continuity) without being a gazillionare? What about the daily strip?

[CadaverousEyes]

There are the Batman Archives volumes 1-4 which collect Detective Comics issues 27-102 and Batman: The Dark Knight Archives volumes 1-2 which collect Batman issues 1-8. The price ranges from $30-$50 per volume, so yes, you have to be a gazillionaire . If you want to go the cheaper but less complete route there's Batman in the 60s, Batman in the 70s, the Greatest Batman Stories Ever Told, and the Greatest Joker Stories Ever Told. And yes, there's a book which collects the dailies from 43-44.

[Ed Liu]

Howdy all,

I'd say Bob Kane's Batman was closer to Frank Miller's than to Adam West's, although I think most people would find the dialogue and plots to be far simpler than today's. I think the closest modern equivalent to Bob Kane's Batman stories would probably be the Batman Adventures comics, since they're actually willing to show someone getting killed (vs. the animated show), but don't go in for much of the angsting or complexity of the regular series.

I thought I saw that there was a special chromium edition reprint of Batman #1 recently, which would be a good way to get more BK Batman stories. I didn't see it, but I wasn't really looking that hard (I managed to completely miss Batman #600). The Greatest Joker Stories Ever Told has the first and last stories from Batman #1; if you can't find it, PM me because I have a copy to sell that was going on eBay. Lastly, my copy of Batman #1 was a Giant-Size reprint from the '70's which I've seen for sale in numerous comic shops, although to be honest I didn't ever look at the price.

-- Ed/Ace

[Gpoliceman]

The original Batman was darker than the Batman of today in certain respects.

He actually killed people and used guns.

He regularly dispatched of criminals by shooting them

Since the the 1940s Batman hasn't killed anybody i believe since they wanted a more moral Batman, thus when we started getting the wise cracking jokester Batman

Today, he's as dark as ever, minus the killing and the gun issue.

That's one of the reasons why the Batman live action movie suck. They showed Batman killing left and right.

[Joker85]

Originally posted by Gpoliceman
He actually killed people and used guns.

He regularly dispatched of criminals by shooting them

That's one of the reasons why the Batman live action movie suck. They showed Batman killing left and right.
Which, was closer to the original concept. Now, I know the movies weren't fantastic and Batman did kill, but then again, so did the ORIGINAL Batman. Just a thought...

[JusticeLeagueLegion]

I've read Detective Comics #27, and it's very interesting, you didn't learn Batman was Bruce Wayne untill the end.

[The Game]

Originally posted by Gpoliceman

He actually killed people and used guns.

He regularly dispatched of criminals by shooting them



He used guns? Wow, I don't like this Batman...

-The Game

[Mattashell]

Originally posted by Ace the Bathound
Howdy all,

I thought I saw that there was a special chromium edition reprint of Batman #1 recently, which would be a good way to get more BK Batman stories. I didn't see it, but I wasn't really looking that hard (I managed to completely miss Batman #600). The Greatest Joker Stories Ever Told has the first and last stories from Batman #1; if you can't find it, PM me because I have a copy to sell that was going on eBay. Lastly, my copy of Batman #1 was a Giant-Size reprint from the '70's which I've seen for sale in numerous comic shops, although to be honest I didn't ever look at the price.

-- Ed/Ace

Are these reprints expensive? I'm really interested in learning how this character was when he started out, and what the different periods over the years were like.

[Ed Liu]

Howdy,


Originally posted by Gpoliceman
The original Batman was darker than the Batman of today in certain respects.

He actually killed people and used guns.

He regularly dispatched of criminals by shooting them


Do you have references to the shooting and killing stuff? Most of the deaths I remember from the Bob Kane days were of the accidental sort (or the callous indifference to a bad guy sort) where Batman accidentally punches someone over a catwalk railing or they fall into big pits of acid and Batman doesn't go to a whole lot of trouble to save them. In a lot of ways, it's not very different from today.

As for guns, the only time I can remember Batman using them was in Batman #1, when

the Batplane has a mounted machine gun, which is used to kill some King Kong-sized creations of Hugo Strange.

I also thought I remembered reading in some Batman book that they didn't give Batman guns after that issue due to popular outcry. I could be mis-remembering that, though.

In fact, now that I think about it, there's a sequence in Batman #1 where Batman goes out of his way to show that "Crooks are YELLOW without their guns." Batman gives a half-dozen thugs the chance at freedom, but only if they can beat Robin without their guns. Of course, they lose, and Batman even breaks the "fourth wall" to explain the lesson for the really stupid kids in the audience.

-- Ed/Ace

[Barb Gordon]

:D Someone used the "fourth wall" term!! Awesome!! Yeah, I know that was random anyhoo...that's just so awesome that he actually did that...though I would feel reall dumb myself if I actually needed that because I hadn't gotten the message the first time around. This was quite an informative thread, because I realized that I know jack squat about the original Batman when he first began. I know there was stuff about killing and guns, but I didn't really know much beyond that. Glad to know I wasn't alone though. Was the only reason, or at least one of the reason's they made Batman so campy during a period was because of the actual decade it came out and that's what people went for? Or was it more that they were trying to appeal to a wider audience?

Barb^-^