Showcase Presents: Batman, Vol. 4

Showcase Presents: Batman #4

by Gardner Francis Fox, Frank Robbins, Robert Kanigher

Over 500 pages of classic super hero adventure are collected in this value-priced volume!

These tales of the Caped Crusader come from the 1960s, when Batman's popularity was at an all-time high thanks to his hit liveaction TV series. This fourth volume of Batman tales includes battles with The Joker, The Riddler, Catwoman and a league of strange assassins, as well as appearances by Robin and Batgirl.

Genres: Comics, Batman, Dc Comics, Graphic Novels

520 pages, Paperback

First published July 7, 2009

About the author

Gardner Francis Cooper Fox was an American writer known best for creating numerous comic book characters for DC Comics. Comic book historians estimate that he wrote more than 4,000 comics stories, including 1,500 for DC Comics.
Fox is known as the co-creator of DC Comics heroes the Flash, Hawkman, Doctor Fate and the original Sandman, and was the writer who first teamed those and other heroes as the Justice Society of America. Fox introduced the concept of the Multiverse to DC Comics in the 1961 story "Flash of Two Worlds!"

Pseudonyms: Gardner F. Fox, Jefferson Cooper, Bart Sommers, Paul Dean, Ray Gardner, Lynna Cooper, Rod Gray, Larry Dean, Robert Starr, Don Blake, Ed Blake, Warner Blake, Michael Blake, Tex Blane, Willis Blane, Ed Carlisle, Edgar Weston, Tex Slade, Eddie Duane, Simon Majors, James Kendricks, Troy Conway, Kevin Matthews, Glen Chase

Reviews

[Jason Luna · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book starts with the slow trickling end of Gardner Fox as the primary writer (his contemporary John Broome also sneaks in an issue of Detective Comics). It's a more refined version of a crappy methodology that both writers had worked on since like the 1950s, maybe earlier. A lot of villains who have broad MO's, like the Riddler telling you his crimes in advance, or the Joker's sense of whimsy, or the Scarecrow scaring, etc. It creates a safety net as we wait for these neurotic funny types fall apart, due to the detective skills of Batman and Robin.

Once Frank Robbins takes over, it definitely gets better, but not in an innovative way. Batman and Robin get picked on in more clever ways, often not by broad supervillains with key weaknesses. But Robbins seems to think that broad social things are somehow better, even if the ending is still Batman making some goofy claim of detective work and busting some hood.

Like "a convention of blind people is setting up blah blah" or "secret hypnosis of rich people blah blah" and Batman knows what to do because of the ink he sees on the desk, or a strange way of calling people, etc. It makes Batman closer to realistic police work, but it doesn't put pressure on the status quo of Bruce Wayne, Dick Grayson, or anyone else. Also, less involved use of Batgirl for some reason? WTF?

So many stories are like "what if we can distract Batman so we can rob that store?" The store has literally no importance in that context other than "money", and the bad guys are just thugs. If they get away with it, they have free money. If they don't, which uh ALWAYS and IN ONE SINGLE ISSUE, they go to jail, are never seen again not even coming back later. BORING.

The artwork wasn't much better. I think the worse writing of Gardner Fox actually had better art, because Frank Springer or Sheldon Moldoff (or whoever else pretending to be Bob Kane) at least had cartoonishness on their side. Irv Novick and Bob Brown have a workman-like skill, but it seems to sort of sit their in modest caricature, not helped by modest story design by Frank Robbins.

A solid book, kind of like throwback detective fiction. Too bad it's supposed to be a textual visual fun factory by a modern mainstream comic book publisher. Ugh.

A forgiving 4/5

[Marcus Latham · Rating 4 out of 5]

Series of stories from the 60’s era Batman comics…enjoyable to read

[Bob · Rating 4 out of 5]

1968-9 gems include “Riddler’s Prison Puzzle Problem!”, “Batman Walks the Last Mile!”, “Fortune Cookie Caper!”, “Case of the Purloned Pearl!”, “Public Lunatic #1!”, “Batman’s Evil Eye!”, “Batman’s Marriage Trap!”, & “If the Coffin Fits – Wear It!”

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

Though the Batman stories of the late 60s are hardly at the same level of the O'Neil/Adams run of the 70s, Volume 4 still works well for fans of Silver Age superheroics. Yes, there are some oddities of the time, like one story where Batman has to deal with a mob of women protesting him until he marries one of them, but you gotta take these things with a grain of salt anyway.

[Rich Meyer · Rating 1 out of 5]

Extremely dated stories that are really boring. Other than Irv Novick and Bob Brown's pencils, there's really nothing to recommend about this collection. This covers part of the period between the cancellation of the Batman TV show and the advent of more relevant tales by O'Neil and Adams.

[Tedi31]

Bought: June 19, 2013
Location: PowerBooks (Greenbelt)
Price: P300