Comic Book Questions Answered - where I answer whatever questions you folks might have about comic books (feel free to e-mail questions to me at brianc@cbr.com). Here is a link to an archive of all the past questions that have been answered so far.

Reader Toby A. wrote in to ask:

How was Batman able to build the Batcave in secret? Wouldn't that be a huge excavation project? And if it was already there, wouldn't geographic surveys show a giant cave underneath Wayne Manor? And how would you secretly get in giant computers, a Batmobile, a Batplane, etc?

Well, I can answer most of your question, Toby, but there was an unwritten aspect of your question that I really can't exactly explain at this point in time...

First off - how does no one know that there is a giant cavern underneath Wayne Manor? Well, the first origin of the Batcave came in 1954's Detective Comics #205 by Bill Finger, Sheldon Moldoff and Charles Paris, which showed how Batman began to build the Batcave...







But also showed how he went back in time to discover that the cave was there in 1754, being used by a settler who was using the cave to carry out spying missions against local Native American tribes...



At the end of the story, the man's home is burned down, so the entrance to the cave was forgotten.



The whole "Bruce Wayne didn't buy Wayne Manor until he was an adult" part of the story was quickly retconned out, even way back in the old days. Currently, the Waynes have owned the Manor since the 1850s...



That reference mentions the Waynes actually TELLING a bat expert about the cave under their manor, but let's presume that they didn't go around sharing that info with surveyors. So the Waynes kept the Manor in the family since then, so it was not known that there's this giant cave system under the mansion.

Go to the next page for the answer to that and also to learn the one thing there really isn't an answer for right now...

In Batman: Secret Files and Origins #1, Chuck Dixon and Jim Aparo explain how Batman supplies the Batcave with stuff...they just steal it from Bruce Wayne's companies!





So that explains all of Toby's STATED questions, but one he didn't exactly write out is a major problem. In all of these stories, the work on the Batcave is shown as being done by Batman, Alfred, Robin(s) and Harold, Batman's tech guy. However, while those people are very capable, they obviously couldn't have done ALL of the modification work on the Batcave. We're talking some elaborate construction work. These are things that take hundreds and hundreds of people working hundreds and hundreds of hours in real life. And there's never been an explanation given in the comics as to how Batman got stuff done.

So there, we just have to guess. Blindfolded workers? Batman hires construction workers and then kills them later (okay, probably not that one)? Justice League teammates helping him out? Magic? I really don't have an answer for that. How about you folks?

EDITED TO ADD: Our own Greg Hatcher explained that while it was never explained in the comics, it WAS once explained in a Batman NOVEL!

It is actually answered, in Simon Hawke’s novel TO STALK A SPECTER. I’m too lazy to dig out the book with the actual passage, but Hawke worked it all out. Bruce and Alfred, in disguise, flew in non-English-speaking workers from other countries, blindfolded, on an anonymous transport plane. They put them up in the cave itself, only let them go outside at night, paid them hugely in cash, never spoke English in front of them, flew them back home when the job was done. They were only there for the major stuff and were never sure they were even in America.

Hawke’s book remains my favorite piece of Batman prose fiction, even over Denny O’Neil’s. I’m sorry he only did the one book.

Thanks, Greg!

Thanks for the question, Toby! If anyone else has a question, drop me a line at brianc@cbr.com or bcronin@comicbookresources.com!