"BAD NIGHT IN BAJA"
Writer Gerry Conway | Artists: Don Newton & Dan Adkins
Colorist: Adrienne Roy | Letterer: Ben Oda | Editor: Paul Levitz
Writer Gerry Conway | Artists: Don Newton & Dan Adkins
Colorist: Adrienne Roy | Letterer: Ben Oda | Editor: Paul Levitz
Flashbacks explain how Bruce wound up in this situation: the Batman was called to Baja by the FBI for help in catching "The Squid", a mobster from Gotham who is in town to meet a buyer for some top-secret defense documents. Bruce and Alfred checked into their hotel, then Batman confronted the Squid and his men at their estate. Batman procured the documents, but was shot in the process. He escaped and changed to Bruce Wayne in order to travel anonymously.
Now, the hotel barkeep finds the documents in the briefcase and stashes them. Meanwhile, a newlywed couple arges in one of the small hotel's dingy rooms. The wife leaves and finds Bruce, helping him to safety outside just as the Squid and his men show up. Bruce changes back to Batman and, with help from the barkeep's can of gasoline hidden behind the bar, rigs an explosion to blow up the villains' car before they can escape. The police arrive and arrest the Squid and his men, and Batman and Alfred go on their way.
Continuity Notes: None to speak of. Though I will point out, for those curious, that the above cover illustrates the issue's "B" story (which we're not covering here since it isn't reprinted in TALES OF THE BATMAN: GERRY CONWAY), and has nothing to do with "Bad Night in Baja"!
So it's entirely possible that, as Wolfman had a limited run, essentially finishing off Wein's storylines in BATMAN, Conway was intended to do the same here, just writing a few issues of DETECTIVE until Wolfman was done and a new writer or writers could be found for both titles. I know that eventually, Conway will take over BATMAN and begin writing both series, threading an ongoing soap opera through them, and that's what I'm really here for. But in the meantime, we have some one-offs to get through first. And despite my opening line above, I really don't find this one inauspicious at all. Perhaps in terms of what I undersand Conway's run to become, it could be -- but on its own, it's a fine done-in-one in the vein of many other 1970s-era Batman tales. Indeed, I'd rank it fairly high in that regard; it's got a nice pulpy feel that fits Batman like a glove, and it's something that feels like it could've been produced by Denny O'Neil and Neal Adams a decade earlier -- which, as far as I'm concerned, is some of the highest praise that can be paid a Batman story.
ReplyDeleteYou left off the most salient words on the splash page: “Dedicated to Will Eisner”. The credits’ placement on the facade of the hotel, in fact, nod to Eisner’s Spirit work — as does the Batman logo sort-of being formed by a lightning bolt, if rather wanly. Plus, I mean… Hotel Dolan.
Dolan was the police commissioner in The Spirit’s Central City. Gordon hooking up the government agents with Batman is very much in those stories’ vein, and The Squid is likely a gloss on Spirit foe The Octopus. Unfortunately, Barbara doesn’t get to cameo in Gordon’s office to parallel Dolan’s own daughter Ellen.
Anyway, I have some quibbles about Batman not dredging up, say, Matches Malone instead of using his own face as far as we can tell, with nothing more than a green fedora and shades to disguise Alfred when Batman meets the feds — but then, I just recalled how The Spirit would pop sunglasses over his domino mask to go incognito, so maybe that’s another nod. While the art’s not very Eisneresque to my eyes save a couple of overt homages on the first and last pages, there’s still plenty of mood, and I will rarely complain about Newton/Adkins. The big surprise for me is the tale having been written by Conway and not Dennis O’Neil.
I don't know how I missed including the Eisner dedication! I usually try to transcribe such things whenever they're there.
DeleteI have to confess that while I've seen bits and pieces of Eisner's artwork here and there, I've never actually read a Spirit story. It's something I'd like to do, but I don't even know where to begin or what collected editions to use. Someday I'll figure it out, though.
It's a funny thing; as a kid I didn't understand Eisner. I remember seeing his name and his artwork here and there. I used to think his signature was a rip-off of Walt Disney's, and since he wasn't ever published by Marvel or DC, I figured he didn't count as a "real" comic book guy. Even when I learned about the Eisner awards in my teens, I was puzzled why they were named after him instead of Kirby or Ditko (and this from a teen who didn't yet "get" those two either, but simply automatically assumed they were superior to anybody who wasn't published by one of the Big Two).
So it was only in adulthood that I read about him and learned his significance to sequential art, and realized why he's held in such massive esteem! Probably around the same time I finally realized that guys like Alex Raymond, Milton Caniff, and Hal Foster were huge parts of the comic creator pantheon as well, and that once upon a time, comics published in newspapers carried way more cultural cache and respectability than actual comic books.
So, yeah -- someday I'll read the Spirit... after I find the time and figure out how!!
DeleteHa! You replied between my re-reading the post and the page refreshing after I submitted my second comment; I’ll try to write more later.
DeleteI have not, somewhat uncharacteristically, used the last several days to hunt down appropriate Spirit reading for you. There was a Best of … paperback released during the swirl-logo years by DC, I know, but I think a better bet if they don’t command exorbitant prices might be the earlier Kitchen Sink books (in the era’s 8-9" x 11-12” standard-ish “graphic novel” size) that I used to see at comics shops but never sprang for back in the days of just a few particle-board shelves’ worth of collected editions, or even isolated issues of the magazine.
Anyway, I can relate to a lot in your comment — down to finding it strange how similar those signatures were. My only Spirit exposure for a long time was Maggie Thompson’s chapter in The Comic-Book Book (which I checked out from the library so often my dad bought their copy for me) and the relatively unimpressive Spirit reprint in Jules Feiffer’s The Great Comic-Book Heroes. When I got ahold of Eisner’s Comics and Sequential Art in high school, I became far more interested in tracking down his work because of the really cool examples of it therein (on framing a panel using narrative elements rather than borders, visual continuity on a page, etc.). There’s a whole Spirit Archives set from DC, of course, but you may not want random volumes even of the most celebrated years.
I see the Spirit Jam one-shot (which reprints a multi-creator tribute from an issue of the Kitchen Sink Spirit mag) doesn’t go for much online, and that’s lots of fun.
ReplyDelete// it's got a nice pulpy feel that fits Batman like a glove, and it's something that feels like it could've been produced by Denny O'Neil and Neal Adams a decade earlier //
Somehow I forgot that you said this when typing up my original comment, or I’d have quoted it, although I cited O’Neil specifically re the Eisner nods. I do agree with your larger point; the story obviously works as a nice, atmospheric little done-in-one entirely apart from any homage.
What I actually came back to say is that I also got Bob Haney vibes from the story, due to how much of its own thing it is and how lackadaisical Batman is about his cover — q.v. the infamous Saga of the Super-Sons (which I love) in particular.