In every installment of I Love Ya But You’re Strange I spotlight strange but ultimately endearing comic stories. Feel free to e-mail me at brianc@cbr.com if you have a suggestion for a future installment!

One of the most interesting aspects of the Batman mythos is the fact that the whole "naming all of his stuff after himself" idea was not from the original co-creator of Batman, Bill Finger, but by Gardner Fox! You see, when Bob Kane needed someone to work on the character pitch with him, he turned to Bill Finger, who Kane had already been hiring to write Kane's other features that he was doing for National Comics (now DC Comics). Once Bill Finger than co-created a hit character with him, Kane summarily DUMPED Finger as soon as he could to bring in a more established writer, Gardner Fox. Of course, in the context of the era, "more established" meant that Fox had been working for National Comics since 1937 while Kane had hired Finger himself in 1938. It is possible, actually, now that I think about it, that it was National Comics who pressured Kane to use their own writer on such a promising new strip. Whatever the reason, Fox took over soon after Batman launched in Detective Comics and it was Fox who introduced the batarang and the bat-gyro (the precursor to the Bat-copter). Finger then returned to the series and remained the main Batman writer for the next couple of decades.

In any event, once established, the idea of naming every item "Bat____" became a constant bit in the Batman feature. Of course, what's amusing is that there already IS a common term that begins with "bat" and that is batboy, the young men and women who help out baseball teams in a variety of menial (mostly ceremonial) purposes during games. Including, of course, bringing the batter his bat.

In late 1954, someone decided to play on the pun of "Batboy" and "Batman" by introducing in Batman #90 (art by Sheldon Moldoff and Stan Kaye) a new superhero named Batboy!

It all begins when a mysterious stranger sees Batman and Robin about to be killed by some criminals. The mysterious stranger recognizes them and realizes that they work for the mobster that the stranger wants to avenge himself against, so the stranger decides to use some bats to save Batman and Robin's life. This inspires him to become...Batboy!

He gets a baseball-themed costume and lots of bat-related weapons and really starts messing with crooks. You have to love the comics of the 1950s, where a seemingly random stranger can suddenly get weapons just as good, if not better, than Batman and Robin's weapons out of nowhere - and all baseball bat-themed! However, during one fight, he ends up needing some superhero assistance of his own...

Batman was out of town, so Robin had to fill in and during Robin's team-up with Batboy, Robin realized something weird. See if you can figure it out before you turn the page to the reveal!

Page 2: [valnet-url-page page=2 paginated=0 text='What is Batboy's secret?']

Yep, Batboy is not really a boy, but a little person. And he has a specific grudge against this gangster...

They learn the plan, which involves an explosion at a baseball game....

In the end, Batboy takes the place of the real batboy at the game and sneaks out the explosive device, which was a bat filled with nitro. That's a pretty psychotic way to rob a ticket stand, right? You can tell that this is before the Comics Code, as I don't think the Code would allow a villainous plot that involves exploding a baseball player (and likely a good chunk of the crowd) with an explosion.

After successfully taking down the crooks, Batboy decides that, hey, he's 40 years old now, it's time to retire....

I wish I knew who wrote this wonderfully bizarre story.

If anyone has a future suggestion for I Love Ya But You're Strange, drop me a line at brianc@cbr.com!