Today, learn when Batman first used his costume to actively strike fear in some superstitious criminals.
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.
As we all know, Batman's origin (by Bill Finger, Bob Kane and Sheldon Moldoff) was first revealed in Detective Comics #33 (I am always going to share Batman #1's version, because they change the first panel so that it is not a teaser for the main story from Detective Comics #33. It always kind of weirds me out that Batman's first origin has a big panel for an unrelated story at the start of the page)...
And part of this iconic origin (I think it is the best superhero origin in comic book history), Bruce Wayne is deciding what to do as a crimefighter when he notes, "Criminals are a superstitious cowardly lot, so my disguise must be able to strike terror into their hearts. I must be a creature of the night, black, terrible, a… a…" and then a bat flies into his study (I like the versions where the bat breaks through the window best)...
Well, that's all well and good, but when did Batman actually USE the fact that he was dressed as a bat to actually SCARE these supposedly cowardly and superstitious criminals? That's what reader Alex C. wanted to know when he wrote in to ask, "I'm working my way through the Batman newspaper strips, and as I read the strip from March 2, 1945 I was struck with a "When We First Met' question. In the third panel of that strip, a fence is startled by Batman's shadow. This made me wonder when was this motif first used to show that criminals are a superstitious and cowardly lot?"
Let's take a look!
HOW DID PEOPLE ORIGINALLY REACT TO BATMAN'S COSTUME?
Batman definitely scares some criminals in his first appearance in Detective Comics #27 (by Bill Finger and Bob Kane), but it seems pretty evident that it is just him, you know, being right there out of nowhere is what scared them and not his purple-gloved costume...
"GAH! Why are your gloves purple?!? You are freaking my cowardly and superstitious brain out, man!!!"
In his second appearance, we pick up the story mid-fight and there was no chance to scare anyone.
Batman's fight with Doctor Death in Detective Comics #29 (the first of a series of Batman stories written by Gardner Fox instead of Bill Finger) was notable for the first time that Batman used his costume to make a shadow of a bat appear on a bad guy ahead of him...
But while Doctor Death was certainly surprised, it sure doesn't seem like he's SCARED, ya know? I mean, he's Doctor freakin' Death! So I don't think that that's the answer. There is no opportunity to scare anyone in Doctor Death's second appearance in the next issue.
The following issues had Batman fight a freaking VAMPIRE, so trust me when I say that the vampire was not scared of the Batman's costume.
Besides the origin of Batman, Detective Comics #33 also had some lunatic blasting people to death from a freakin' dirigible. He was not being scared by Batman's shadow. Fox's final issue before Finger returned was some surrealist nonsense that definitely did not involve Batman scaring anyone. I think Batman MIGHT have been on LSD in this story.
Batman definitely scared some bad guys in Finger's first issue back, but it sure seems like it's more that they didn't know he was in the room period than his costume, right?
I mean, when my wife doesn't know I'm behind here, I can scare the heck out of her and I don't look like a bat...I don't think, at least.
WHEN DID BATMAN'S COSTUME FIRST CLEARLY SCARE A CRIMINAL?
The next issue saw the introduction of Hugo Strange, and little opportunity to scare anyone. The following issue sees Batman literally stumble into a whole dramatic scene after getting lost in the Batmobile. He surprises the bad guys, but more in a, "Why is he out here?" sort of way...
After saving the guy from the bad guys, he shocks Batman by knocking him out! Later, Batman tracks him down. You can see that Kane is really leaning into the shadow effect, but I don't think it really scares anyone and the guy is more just scared because Batman tracked him down...
We know right away that Dick Grayson is no criminal, as he was not scared of Batman at all when he snuck up on him in Detective Comics #38...
You don't need me to tell you that no one in Batman #1 (by this time, the art is by Kane with Jerry Robinson and George Roussos) was scared of Batman, as the villains of the four stories are Joker twice, Hugo Strange and Catwoman once apiece, and none of those three villains are ones to be scared of Batman's costume.
Detective Comics #39 was a fairly racist story about Asians and Batman scared no one in it. The next issue introduced the future Clayface, Basil Karlo, and no one was scared by the Dynamic Duo in that story. Nothing was doing in Detective Comics #41 or Batman #2.
World's Fair Comics #1 had an interesting bit where Batman's BatPLANE scared criminals...
That's PRETTY close, but it's not Batman's costume, so it doesn't count.
Nothing doing in Detective Comics #42, but finally, in Detective Comics #43, we see the costume work to freak out some criminals into thinking that they are hounded by a giant bat, because they're dumb.
And cowardly ad superstitious, of course.
There ya go, Alex! Thanks for the suggestion! If anyone else wants to know about an interesting comic book first, just drop me a line at brianc@cbr.com!