DETECTIVE COMICS #407 & THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD #93

"MARRIAGE: IMPOSSIBLE"
Story by: Frank Robbins | Art by: Neal Adams & Dick Giordano
Edited by: Julie Schwartz

Batman's third go-round with Man-Bat -- and the final collaboration between the character's creators, Neal Adams and Frank Robbins -- begins with an impressive demonstration of "Bat-dickery" on the part of our Caped Crusader. Batman reads in the newspaper that Kirk Langstrom is to be married to his fiancee, Francie Lee, and immediately jumps into the Batmobile, drives to the church, and dramatically yanks off Langstrom's false face to reveal the Man-Bat beneath. Doesn't bother to spare the couple any indignity or try to keep Langstrom's mutation a secret. Nope, right there in front of family and friends, he reveals Man-Bat to the world.

What follows is a flashback to the previous Man-Bat tale five issues earlier, revealing the heretofore unseen conclusion -- Batman attempted to cure Langstrom, but he wanted to remain a bat-creature. The Darknight Detective tried to get Francine to talk some reason into Langstrom, but the Man-Bat escaped. Later, Man-Bat found Francine and learned she still loved him. He prepared a duplicate of the formula that had changed him and she took it, transforming into a Woman-Bat.

Batman then battles both bat-monsters, eventually injecting them with an antidote he's been carrying around since sometime after issue 402. They revert to human, regretful over their desire to become monsters and thankful to Batman for saving them, as our hero departs.

Overall, this may be the best of the Man-Bat trilogy. Robbins' writing is a bit more realistic here than in prior installments, and the revelation that Francine is a bat herself comes as a legitimate shock. It is telegraphed on the immediate preceding page, but that only adds to the horror of her unmasking as the reader realizes what she's done only a split-second before she unmasks.

Also, it appears the Batmobile is here to stay. I'm fairly certain Robbins really did intend to get rid of it as of "One Bullet Too Many", but at this point Adams has drawn it into every Man-Bat story, and Robbins will use it in some of his upcoming non-Adams stories (which we won't be reading) as well.

"RED WATER, CRIMSON DEATH"
Writer: Denny O'Neil | Artist: Neal Adams | Editor: Murray Boltinoff

Next, the dynamic duo of O'Neil and Adams take their Bat-show on the road, so to speak, leaving the editorial purview of Julie Schwartz to produce a story for the Batman "team-up" book, THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD. Only, rather than team the Masked Manhunter with another DC hero, they instead pair him up with another series, the anthology HOUSE OF MYSTERY. I've never read that title, but the premise seems simple -- there's a ghostly, sarcastic narrator who guides readers through a mystery story. So this runs basically along that track, with the only difference being that Batman, rather than a one-off character created for the story, is our protagonist.

Globetrotting Bruce is back in action, as this time O'Neil and Adams send him to Ireland for some rest and relaxation. But instead, he gets pulled into a scheme which portents the "social issues" of O'Neil and Adams' Green Lantern/Green Arrow series -- in this case, some sinister local businessman has been poisoning the water around a small island with byproducts from a chemical procedure. Batman stops the bad guys, saves a young man they've kidnapped, and there are a few ghostly apparitions involved to remind readers that this is a HOUSE OF MYSTERY story.

It's a fast read, and Adams draws the heck out of the soggy Irish island -- plus, O'Neil exercises that love mentioned last week, of setting Batman loose inside a dank old castle as he looks for clues. But overall, it's just not a very good story. Maybe it's because I don't love to see Batman mingling with the supernatural, but for whatever reason, this one does nothing for me.

It's also interesting that, as the Bronze Age dawns here with a darker Batman, we still have some of the more... questionable trappings of the Silver Age on display. In this case it's the start of this story, the setup for the entire premise: Batman feels like he's losing a step, so Commissioner Gordon tells him to leave town for a month on an enforced vacation -- and he even happens to have a cruise ticket right in his pocket, which he hands over to Batman! Can anyone imagine any iteration of the Caped Crusader, outside of the fifties/sixties version, ditching Gotham for a month-long cruise?? And even if he wants to take a vacation, why is he accepting Gordon's ticket? Gordon doesn't know it, but Bruce Wayne can easily go on a cruise far more luxurious than anything the commissioner could afford -- yet Batman allows his friend to part with his hard-earned cash anyway. (Hmm, Bat-dickery seems to be a running theme in both of this week's stories!)

It's ridiculous, but since the story is a non-starter in the first place, that's not a big deal. When reading the canon of Neal Adams Batman, it's probably best to skip over this one, or to peruse it merely for the artwork.