Every week, I will spotlight strange but ultimately endearing comic stories (basically, we're talking lots and lots of Silver Age comic books). Here is the archive of all the installments of this feature. Feel free to e-mail me at bcronin@comicbookresources.com if you have a suggestion for a future installment!

Today we look at a fun story by Bill Finger, Sheldon Moldoff and Charles Paris where we get to meet Batman's moron college friends...

First off, right off the bat in this tale from Batman #96, we get the great yearbook page for Bruce Wayne...

Most likely to succeed as a detective? Priceless.

Bruce's detective skills are not used particularly well in this story, though, as he shows up for the cruise with his friends while no one has figured out that the cruise was sponsored by Joe Danton, some jerk that they knew from college...

I just love that Batman figures that this will work. Batman will just show up and that will be that. "Oh, Batman's here. That makes sense."

Conveniently, of course, for the first time, like, ever, Batman's gloves come loose...

I love how freaked out that dude is. Good job by Moldoff and Paris.

This is pretty badass. Batman swimming ahead of the ship and exploding the mines. But, of course, no Batman comic is any good if there is not an exploding shark in it...

And finally, to cap off how dumb his friends are...

"Bruce was gone and then Batman showed up out of nowhere. Now Bruce is back and Batman disappeared...WHILE WE ARE OUT ON THE OPEN SEAS!!!!" No wonder they thought so highly of Bruce's detective skills, if you could figure out how to open a door, you would look like a genius to these guys.