BATMAN #312 - 314

"A CAPER A DAY KEEPS THE BATMAN AT BAY!"
Writer: Len Wein | Artists: Walt Simonson & Dick Giordano
Colorist: Glynis Wein | Letterer: Ben Oda | Editor: Paul Levitz

Beginning this month, longtime editor Julius Schwartz is off BATMAN, replaced by Paul Levitz. I once read, years ago, that Levitz came in and upended Len Wein's plan for the series, demanding that every issue feature a costumed villain, and that the stories be mostly self-contained. I'm not certain of the truth of this rumor, though. Wein certainly will go on to use super-villains pretty much exclusively for the remainder of his run, but he had already been doing it from the moment he started! The only exception was his inaugural installment, issue 307, which featured a serial killer. But since then, it's been Mr. Freeze, Blockbuster, and Gentleman Ghost -- and prior to that, in his two-part DETECTIVE COMICS story, he introduced a new Clayface!

Plus, the storylines will not be self-contained going forward. We have a few two-parters on the way, and Marvel-style sub-plots will continue to be the norm throughout the entire run. So I really don't know where that rumor came from -- I honestly can't recall where I read it, since it was probably ten years ago at this point -- but I felt it was worth mentioning for posterity.

Now, on with the stories at hand. We begin with one that featured in THE GREATEST BATMAN STORIES EVER TOLD, though I've never quite been certain why. It follows a week in Batman's life as he battles the nefarious Calendar Man, failing to thwart him at every turn until Sunday rolls around, when the Caped Crusader finally gets his act together and brings the bad guy to justice. I feel like there are much stronger Wein-written stories that could've made their way into GREATEST STORIES, so the only reason I can imagine for its inclusion over anything else is that it features artwork from Walter Simonson -- back to form following those two horrid issues he contributed to Steve Englehart's DETECTIVE run a couple years earlier.

Notably, this issue features an appearance by Batman's personal physician, Doctor Dundee. It seems that in pre-CRISIS continuity, the doctor was Batman's main source of healthcare (as opposed to the tandem of Alfred and Leslie Tompkins post-CRISIS), and he actually knows the Caped Crusader's true identity, which I've always found fascinating. Batman is so paranoid about his secret ID in most interpretations that it's hard to imagine a time when it was considered normal for him to trust an outsider with it.

With that lackluster outing out of the way, we move along to a much more palatable two-parter pitting the Batman against Two-Face! There are actually a couple of sub-plot pages in issue 312 to set this storyline up, as we see a mystery man and his gang break into a government facility and steal a top-secret binary code, then on the issue's final page, we learn that the man responsible is Two-Face, and he plans to sell the code to the Americans or the "Glorious People's Democracy".

"TWO FOR THE MONEY!" | "ONCE BEATEN, TWICE SLY!"
Writer: Len Wein | Penciler: Irv Novick | Inker: Frank McLaughlin
Colorist: Glynis Wein | Letterers: Ben Oda (issue 313) & Todd Klein (issue 314)
Editor: Paul Levitz

The next installment begins with one of Two-Face's men, Specs, calling the police to report his boss's scheme -- it seems Specs is okay with selling the codes to the United States government, but he won't be party to treason if Two-Face sells to a foreign power. One flip of his coin later, Two-Face has Specs killed for turning on him. Meanwhile, Bruce Wayne is finally out on his date with Selina Kyle, but their evening is cut short when the Bat-Signal pulls him away to investigate Specs' murder. Batman quickly deduces that Two-Face is back, and in a bit that I found hilarious, he goes straight to 222 Second Street, Apartment 2-B, since that's the only possible place Two-Face could be holed up. (Which of course begs the question, does Two-Face always use this apartment as his hideout? Or does Batman just have a list of all the possible hideouts involving the number two, and this happens to be the one Two-Face occupied in this particular story?)

Two-Face escapes and Batman runs across federal agent King Faraday, who is also searching for the stolen code. Batman and Faraday eventually catch up with Two-Face, but when Farady attempts to exercise his license to kill, Batman spoils his aim and the villain gets away again. Batman and Faraday part ways in competition to find Faraday.

The next issue is set in New Orleans, where Batman and Faraday have tracked Two-Face. And since it's a story set in New Orleans, it's obligated to take place during Mardi Gras, which Two-Face uses as his cover for his dealings with the U.S. and the People's Democracy (which, by the way, is obviously Russia -- or a stand-in for same -- though Wein never identifies it as such). Two-Face sticks Batman and Faraday in a death trap and proceeds with his negotiations, but it turns out his ultimate plan was to pull a double-cross (because he's Two-Face, after all) on both governments and take all their money. Batman and Faraday, having escaped the trap, give chase as Two-Face escapes in a zeppelin, and in the end the villain plummets to his supposed death as the code is recovered.

This issue also gives us some sub-plots -- specifically, Selina Kyle drops by the Wayne Foundation to visit Bruce, but since he had to leave town unexpectedly, Lucius Fox meets with her instead... and promptly tells her about the dossier that Bruce asked him to prepare on her when their dealings started, causing her to storm out, angry. This feels like manufactured drama; why on Earth would Lucius mention that his boss had him dig up dirt on a prospective business partner?? He can't be that dense. The only real explanation is that Wein needed Selina to find out about the dossier to further his story, so he chose the laziest way possible to do it.

We also get a check-in with Lucius's family -- his daughter Tiffany and son Timothy, and we learn that Lucius and Timothy are constantly arguing about the company the young man keeps. Yes, it seems that Lucius's son is that ever-popular mainstay of 70s comics, the "angry negro". I'm not terribly excited to see where Wein takes this, but I guess I have no choice but to find out.

Also, in the scene with Tiffany, Lucius name-drops Gregorian Falstaff again, making this something like the third or fourth time he's been mentioned in the past half dozen-ish issues, but he remains nothing more than a shadowy business rival for Bruce Wayne.

I must say, six or so issues in now (more if you count the Clayface story in DETECTIVE), I'm not all that impressed with Len Wein's BATMAN. Aside from those Marvel-ish sub-plots, it sort of feels... phoned in, I guess? Like he had more important things on his mind and his main plots suffered for it. Some years back, I read Wein's run on AMAZING SPIDER-MAN, which predated this BATMAN run, and I liked it quite a bit. It seems odd to say, since he spent the vast majority of his career working for DC in various capacities, but maybe Wein was just more comfortable writing Marvel characters?

But we have several issues left, so I won't write the entire run off just yet. Perhaps Wein is simply off to a slow start!