In "When We First Met", we spotlight the various characters, phrases, objects or events that eventually became notable parts of comic lore, like the first time someone said, "Avengers Assemble!" or the first appearance of Batman's giant penny or the first appearance of Alfred Pennyworth or the first time Spider-Man's face was shown half-Spidey/half-Peter. Stuff like that.

Today, based on a suggestion by Jaz J., we look at the first time the Batmobile's rocket engine fired up.

First off, let me give a shout out to one of my all-time favorite Batmobiles that Batman has driven in the comics. I'm talking about the futuristic design that Norm Breyfogle came up with for the car during his legendary run on Detective Comics and Batman with writer Alan Grant.

In Detective Comics #601, Batman is challenged to a race. He turns the offer down, but decides that he needs to get the other driver off of the street, so he puts the pedal to the metal and uses his turbo jet boosters to really turn on the speed...

That's a typical sight for the Batmobile in recent years, but when did it first show up?

You might think that the TV show Batmobile was the start of it all...

However, the answer was actually almost two decades before the Batman TV series debuted, in 1949's Detective Comics #156 (by Joe Samachson, Dick Sprang and Charles Paris).

Sprang was the developer of the classic Batmobile and now, after a few years, he decided to upgrade the vehicle.

In the story, the Batmobile crashes and Batman is almost killed...

While recuperating, he develops plans for a new, improved Batmobile...

He and Robin work on it together and debut the new, improved speed machine...

Later in the story, when he needs some speed, he kicks in the rocket engines and they blast fire as the Batmobile speeds over a big jump...

Thanks for the suggestion, Jaz!

If anyone has a suggestion for a notable comic book first that they'd like to learn, please drop me a line at brianc@cbr.com!