DETECTIVE COMICS #408 & #410

"THE HOUSE THAT HAUNTED BATMAN"
Story by: Len Wein & Marv Wolfman | Art by: Neal Adams & Dick Giordano

Note: Screenshots below come from BATMAN ILLUSTRATED BY NEAL ADAMS VOLUME 2 and are not representative of these stories' original colors (the covers are presented as published, however).

Len Wein was twenty years old in early 1971. Marv Wolfman was twenty-four. And somehow they were paired with one of the hottest artists in comics at the time, Neal Adams, to draw one of their very first published stories. (for comparison's sake, Denny O'Neil was thirty-one at this point and Frank Robbins was fifty-three -- while Adams was twenty-nine). But what, you ask, do anyone's ages have to do with the story? Nothing; I just thought it was interesting that these two young whippersnappers worked with Neal Adams just as they were starting their careers.

"The House That Haunted Batman" features our first guest appearance from Robin since he departed the series in the initial issue we examined, BATMAN 217's "One Bullet Too Many" -- which was published over a year prior to DETECTIVE 408. Of course, this isn't the first time the readers of the era had seen the Teen Wonder since then -- he was a regular feature in backup stories in BATMAN, and he had popped by to team up with his mentor in a few stories we didn't look at. But for us, here and now, we haven't seen Dick Grayson in several issues, and we haven't seen Robin at all.

Funnily, the setup for this story will be reused by Denny O'Neil in just a few more months for the start of his Ra's al Ghul saga. Specifically, both this tale and O'Neil's begin with Robin kidnapped from Hudson University and Batman searching for him. But the similarities end with that single sentence. "The House that Haunted Batman" picks up en media res, with Robin already missing and Batman having located the place where he's being held -- while the upcoming "Daughter of the Demon" will show both the kidnapping and Batman's search for his ward.

But -- on the subject of "The House..." It's okay. I think we've seen better so far in our looks at the stories that preceded it. It begins with Batman charging into an old decrepit mansion, where he finds himself confronted by hallucinations working to make him doubt himself. Eventually he's captured by the mastermind of the piece, Doctor Tzin-Tzin -- a "Yellow Peril" type of villain who had first appeared a few years earlier, in 1966. Batman gets free, Robin gets free, and Tzin-Tzin is captured.

Like I said, it's not exactly bad; it's just not great. But then, I've never loved stories about Batman's journeys through his own psyche, so that may have something to do with my lack of interest. I will, however, credit Wein and Wolfman for a doozy of a chilling finale, if nothing else: as Batman and Robin escort Tzin-Tzin out to the Batmobile, they hear laughter from the house they've just left. They turn around to find Tzin-Tzin in a second story window, mocking them. The house explodes, and the Dynamic Duo realize there's no one else outside with them -- the Tzin-Tzin they captured is gone (if he was ever truly there)! That's how you give a villain a mysterious escape!

A couple last notes on this issue: One, Tzin Tzin mentions that he's spent some time with the League of Assassins, furthering that plot a bit and giving us what I believe is our first look at writers borrowing from each other in these stories. And two, check out the title page at right, and compare it with the cover. It looks like, for whatever reason, DC repurposed a page of Adams' interior artwork for the cover. As far as I can tell, they're pretty much identical. I'm not sure I've ever come across anything like this before in a comic. Certainly, scenes from issues are redrawn for covers, but you don't usually (or ever) see the exact same artwork from a page used for the cover.

"A VOW FROM THE GRAVE!"
Story by: Denny O'Neil | Art by: Neal Adams & Dick Giordano

And now Dennis O'Neil returns to Adams' side for the first issue we've examined to later be adapted into an episode of BATMAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES. (But it won't be the last!) In this case, "A Vow From the Grave" eventually became "Sideshow". In this original version, Batman is pursuing an escaped death row convict named Kano Wiggins through the wilderness. They're separated when Batman meets up with a group of circus sideshow freaks. Soon after, one of the "freaks" is murdered. Batman captures Wiggins, but realizes he's not the killer. The Masked Manhunter then brings the true murderer to justice and heads home with both his prisoners.

In general, I think the ANIMATED SERIES episode, written by Michael Reaves, is stronger, but there are places where I like the original story better. However, it should be noted that aside from the loose premise of Batman chasing a criminal into the home of some circus freaks, the two versions are basically telling different stories. "Sideshow" replaces Wiggins with Killer Croc, and thus, through his monstrous appearance, makes him a kindred soul for the sideshow freaks. He takes advantage of their sympathy, stealing their small stash of money and trying to escape before Batman catches him. Croc is clearly the only bad guy and the freaks are presented as a united family.

"A Vow...", meanwhile, uses the escaped con as a red herring, and reveals that there's discord among the "family" of freaks when one of them kills another out of jealousy, using Wiggins' arrival to cover for his crime. It's the sort of thing that would never have made it through the network censors for a variety of reasons, so it make sense that Reaves would have needed to modify the plot for his adaptation.

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"Hear the wind screeching through the canyons... feel the sting of chill rain and sniff the sulfurous odor rising from the sodden earth... see the twists of pale lightning split the sky...

This is a place abandoned by anything that is holy... this is a place for dark deeds!

His name is Kano Wiggins... a murderer newly escaped from the death row of a large eastern prison... and his pursuer is the dread Batman--!

Follow them into a destiny of terror... tragedy...and... a vow from the grave!"

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I like O'Neil's story; it's a decent murder mystery to be sure. But the softy in me will always prefer Reaves' version for making the freaks a genuine family rather than a dysfunctional mess. That said, I do like that O'Neil goes the route of a random convict rather than a "named" villain here. Obviously that wouldn't have worked for Reaves' story, but as I've noted before, I really gravitate to Batman stories where he fights common crooks, gangsters, and so forth. Though "Sideshow" was really only Croc's second full appearance in THE ANIMATED SERIES, so I can't get too upset at anybody for thinking he needed more exposure. I also love the moody atmosphere of O'Neil's script, setting the entire story at night, leading off with a thunderstorm, and having the freaks live in an old deserted town. Contrasted with "Sideshow", which spends a great deal of time on a sunny, bird-chirpy green hillside, and I think "A Vow..." wins that contest (even if it's basically what readers have been trained to expect from Batman).

Lastly, the stories open in different ways, and both are totally valid. "Sideshow" needs to tell a complete story for weekday cartoon viewing, so it begins with Croc en route to trial, and features an exciting sequence in which he escapes from the train that's transporting him. It's great. But I also love O'Neil's economical approach to his fifteen-page story. He needs to set up and resolve a murder mystery, and include some action sequences, so he begins with Wiggins already on the lam. We don't know how he escaped -- heck, we don't even know what he did to get on death row! -- we just know he's a bad guy and Batman is on the verge of catching him. And we don't need to know anything more. I can't help feeling (yes, I'm about to bash modern comic writers; I'm nothing if not predictable) that if this story was written today, we'd have flashbacks to Wiggins' troubled childhood, plus gory depictions of whatever he did to land on death row, interspersed into the story, as well as an entire issue dedicated to his escape.

But I could be wrong. (I'm not.)

Next week, O'Neil and Bob Brown introduce us to the "Daughter of the Demon", and then O'Neil and Adams bring us the Demon himself, Ra's al Ghul!