In this feature I spotlight changes made to comic book characters that are based on outside media. I'm sure you can think of other examples, so feel free to e-mail me at bcronin@comicbookresources.com if you want to suggest some other examples for future installments.

Today we look at something I addressed in a Comic Book Legends Revealed years and years ago (man, I've been doing this a long time), the introduction of the Batcave, which debuted relatively late in Batman's history.

When first we meet Batman in the pages of Detective Comics #27, Bruce Wayne just changes into Batman in another room in his house...



This continues in later issues of the series, Bruce just changing in his mansion...



Heck, here, Dick does SURGERY on Bruce in the Wayne Mansion!!



Eventually we learn about a secret hangar...



and this leads eventually to talk about underground passages...



In Batman #12, we first see a special room in the mansion (although still clearly IN the mansion)...





but later in that issue we get the first reveal of an underground Batman hangar...



So that was the set-up for Batman around roughly 1941.

When the Batman serial debuted in 1943, though, a new set-up debuted.

Go to the next page to see how the serial changed things (and the rather amusing reason why they did so)!

Serials were meant to be done CHEAP, and they would re-use sets as often as possible. They did not have hangar sets and they did not have mansion sets (single rooms, yes, a full mansion, no). What they DID have access to regularly were CAVE sets (caves were very popular in serials).

So witness...the Bat's Cave, which debuted in the second chapter of the serial, where Batman and Robin take a bad guy to their cave to question him (they're not very visible, but there are supposed to be bats flying around - I can't tell if the effect was just done by lights or if there were actual sort-of-puppets involved).

Here, the bad guy reacts to the bats...



And here, Batman and Robin mess with his head...



This chapter of the serial is also the debut of the idea of entering the Bat's Cave through a grandfather clock!



Anyhow, watch as Bruce and Dick exit the clock...







So, a few months after the serial's debut, the Batman comic strip had started up, and Bill Finger and Bob Kane decided to work the Bat's Cave into the strip...



and soon after, in Detective Comics #83, it made its debut in the comic book...



Notice that when they adapted it into the strip and the comic book it is now just Bat Cave and not Bat's Cave. That's been the name ever since, well, except with the name being shortened to just Batcave.

I wonder if the comics would have eventually settled on a cave, as well. I mean, bats and caves DO mix well and they already had hit upon the idea of an underground headquarters. It's interesting to wonder what would have happened had it not been for the serial.

That's it for this installment! If you have an idea for a future installment, drop me a line at bcronin@comicbookresources.com. Let me know by e-mail and not in the comments below.