THE BATMAN & THE SHADOW "Night of the Shadow" Conclusion

When Last We Left Our Heroes...

Bruce Wayne is the kid on the right. Art by Nick Cardy.

25 years ago, Dr Thomas Wayne and his young son Bruce were caught in the crossfire between a gang of jewel thieves led by Willie Hank Stamper and the mysterious figure known as The Shadow.

Stamper was imprisoned.

The Shadow disappeared.

Bruce Wayne later became The Batman after another encounter with a criminal left his parents dead.

Willie Stamper served his time and was released.

Now Stamper seeks to recover his ill-gotten gains, restart his career as the "Genius of Crime" and avenge himself on those who he feels caused his imprisonment...including Bruce Wayne!

One of the basic tropes of pre-Crisis on Infinite Earths Batman (except for a couple of early Golden Age tales) was that The Batman never uses firearms (grapnel, flare, and water guns notwithstanding).

While it's always been a noble concept, and The Batman is equipped with enough non-lethal weaponry to deal with almost anything, it's never really been explained, except in a general "I hate guns" way.

Denny O'Neil found a way to both explain it, and justify the fact that The Batman, while idolizing The Shadow, didn't want to follow in his "the only good crook is a dead crook" methods.
The dedication at the end to writer Bill Finger was an unofficial way to acknowledge his co-creation of The Batman as well as the fact that The Shadow (both the magazine and radio versions) heavily-influenced the way Batman finally appeared from Detective Comics #27 onward...
Art by Irv Novick and Dick Giordano.

Support Small Business

Visit the

 Comics Collectibles Shop 

for goodies featuring other Silver Age heroes, besides The Batman and The Shadow!

THE BATMAN & THE SHADOW "Night of the Shadow" Part 1

Here's another classic crossover story that will never be reprinted...

...because after it was published in Batman #259 (1974), DC lost the rights to The Shadow!

We (and Bruce Wayne / Batman) will find out next week!

This was the second (and final) crossover between The Batman and The Shadow.

Shortly after this tale, DC Comics lost the rights to The Shadow, which they had licensed from Conde Nast.

DC would regain the rights in the 1980s, along with Doc Savage (whom Marvel licensed at the same time DC licensed The Shadow and The Avenger in the 1970s), resulting in the first Shadow/Doc Savage team-up. (The two had appeared together in a Supersnipe story in the 1940s, but not as a team.)

Like the previous Batman / Shadow tale, this story has never been reprinted in any hardcover or trade paperback, nor will it.

So, unless you already have a copy, or can scrounge one up from the back issue boxes, this is the only time you'll see it.

Support Small Business

Visit the

 Comics Collectibles Shop 

for goodies featuring other Silver Age heroes, besides The Batman and The Shadow!

THE BATMAN & THE SHADOW "Who Knows What Evil--?" Conclusion

When Last We Left Our Heroes...

Art by Mike Kaluta

While tracking a group of counterfeiters in Gotham City, The Batman is saved by an expert marksman who shoots a criminal (who was about to kill the Darknight Detective) in the hand!
The wounded criminal runs into a dead-end alley...and disappears...with only a mocking laugh to indicate anyone had been there!
The crook is later found tied to a lamppost near a police station, dazed and confused, as if...hypnotized.
A clue from the crime scene leads the Caped Crusader (as Bruce Wayne) to Tumbleweed Crossing, where he meets another visitor...Lamont Cranston, a scientist investigating the water supply, which is loaded with minerals and would be perfect for matching the government's formula for the ink used in printing...money!
Believing nearby long-abandoned native cliff-dwellings would be an ideal base of operations for the counterfeiters, The Batman is ambushed as he heads there, but an antique autogyro swoops down and distracts the gunmen long enough for the Cowled Crimebuster to capture them.
As he nears the ruins, The Batman speculates about the identity of the mysterious laughing marksman in the antique aircraft.
Could he be...?

Let's not tell The Shadow that The Batman thought his secret identity (Lamont Cranston) was the counterfeiter!  ;-)
This appearance in Batman #253 came between the first and second issues of The Shadow's bi-monthly Bronze Age run at DC, back when comics actually came out on schedule.
It was a nice tip-of-the-fedora to the long-believed idea that the pulp character was a primary influence on the creation of the Caped Crusader. (A fact confirmed by Shadow historian Anthony Tollin HERE.)
Denny O'Neil was also writing The Shadow comic, and this issue's cover artist Mike Kaluta, who had already done a number of wonderfully-moody Detective Comics and Batman covers, would come to be the definitive Shadow artist for all versions of He Who Knows What Evil Lurks... since. (much as James Bama's version of Doc Savage is the iconic one all others have been based upon.)

We'll be presenting the other Batman story featuring The Shadow in the near future!

Check out the

 Comics Collectibles Shop 

for goodies featuring other Silver Age heroes, besides The Batman and The Shadow!

THE BATMAN & THE SHADOW "Who Knows What Evil--?" Part 1

Less than half of legendary pulp / radio detective The Shadow's Bronze Age appearances have been reprinted in hardcover or trade paperbacks!
Two of those were appearances in Batman comics, which will never be reprinted due to licensing issues, so we'll re-present them here for your entertainment.

We'll find out what the Caped Crusader discovers, and toss in some other kernels of knowledge,
next week!

Same Blog Time!

Same Blog Feed!

Check out the

 Comics Collectibles Shop 

for goodies featuring other Silver Age heroes, besides The Shadow!

SHERLOCK HOLMES "Adventure of the Empty House"

When Last We Left Our Heroes...
Sherlock Holmes is DEAD!

And faithful Dr Watson soldiers on as best he can, assisting the police whenever possible...

Much more adventure and excitement awaited the duo!
From The Return of Sherlock Holmes to His Final Bow, the Greatest Detective of All and his best friend continued to solve crimes that baffled even Scotland Yard.
There are those who say his adventures continued even after that, 
but it's only speculation and half-hidden truths...

In the mid-1970s both Marvel and DC launched Sherlock Holmes titles in the hopes of doing ongoing series.

Though this was the only issue of this book from DC, this particular version of Sherlock has made several appearances throughout the DC Universe since...

The Joker #6 (1976)

Detective Comics #572 (1987)

The assembled comic book detectives meet the original! (Detective #572)

Join us next week for another tale of mystery..