BATMAN #340

"A MAN CALLED MOLE!"
Writers: Gerry Conway & Roy Thomas | Inker: Adrian Gonzales
Letterer: Ben Oda | Colorist: Adrienne Roy | Editor: Dick Giordano
take great pleasure in introducing Gene Colan, Penciler

The Plot: At night in Gotham, a stockbroker named William Elder is killed by a creature from underground. The next morning, Batman investigates the body with Commissioner Gordon. The next night, a psychiatrist, Doctor Kurtzman, is killed in the same way. But this time, Batman is on patrol and reaches the doctor's office. He enters a hole left by Kurtzman's assailant, and battles a monster calling himself the Mole underground. But the Mole, who seems to know Batman, escapes. Later, Batman recalls fighting a tunnel-digging hoodlum called the Mole, and calls Gotham State Prison to check on him. The warden says that the Mole's parole was recently denied by a board consisting of Elder, Kurtzman, and chemical mogul Sandra Clarke.

Bruce Wayne brings Sandra to Wayne Manor to keep her safe from the Mole, but he also plants a story in the newspaper indicating that she will be staying there to recuperate from an illness. That night, the Mole tunnels into the Batcave and makes his way to the manor, where he attacks Sandra and brings her underground. There, he tells her that after his parole was denied, he tunneled out of prison, but was soaked by tainted sewage and mutated into a monster. Batman arrives and defeats the Mole, who falls into an underground river, seemingly killed. Batman takes Sandra to safety and then goes to bed.

Continuity Notes: Gene Colan joins BATMAN as the new regular penciler, a role he will maintain for a number of years -- though he will hop titles to do so, becoming the DETECTIVE COMICS penciler after a few issues. But on that series, he will outlast Gerry Conway's tenure on the title and continue to draw it under the next writer, Doug Moench, right up until the CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS reboot in 1986! What I repeat now is hearsay, but I believe I recall that Colan, a longtime Marvel stalwart and favorite of Stan Lee's, was dismissed from the House of Ideas in the early eighties by editor-in-chief Jim Shooter, for "cutting corners" on his assignments.

The Mole's victims, Elder and Kurtzman, seem to be named for Will Elder and Harvey Kurtzman, cartoonists likely best known for their association with MAD magazine (which Kurtzman created) and on PLAYBOY's "Little Annie Fanny" feature.

A campaign poster on the first page reminds us to vote Arthur Reeves in the upcoming election, which Gordon also mentions a couple pages later.

Alfred informs Bruce that Dick Grayson called and plans to return to Gotham City. Bruce hopes this means his ward plans to return to college. He also suggests that perhaps Dick is tired of the circus life. And while there's nothing wrong with any of this on its face -- the circus is where we most recently saw Dick -- it nonetheless seems a little odd that his recent adventures with the Teen Titans aren't brought up at all here. I mean, it's not required, and the story loses nothing by not mentioning it, but still -- Dick is the leader of the Titans and has been spending a ton of time with them in New York lately, after all! It's not like the circus is the only place he's been hanging out.

Batman recalls that he, Robin, and Superman originally caught the Mole twenty-five years earlier, in 1956's WORLD'S FINEST #80 (in case you missed Roy Thomas's co-writer credit up top). Which means Batman is drawn incorrectly in the flashback image below; he should have shorter ears on his cowl and no oval around his bat emblem!

A page later, in a really weird aside that almost feels like it was added after the fact, Bruce thnks about how distracted he's been lately over Poison Ivy's "threat to steal the Wayne Foundation's assets." Which... didn't really read as a threat last issue, but as something she fully and immediately intended to do.

My Thoughts: It's not advertised on the cover or any of the story pages, but this is an extra-length installment, clocking in at twenty-seven pages. I assume there was just no Robin backup story this month. Instead, it's Batman versus the Mole in a story given a very nice amount of space to breathe. Yet it never feels padded; Conway and Thomas turn in a nicely paced and solidly plotted adventure all the way through, in what I believe is the first collaboration by the two with which I can find no fault worth discussing!

You'll note above that the cover hypes this issue as a reunion for Thomas and Gene Colan, though I must admit I had no idea they'd worked together previously to any extent that would make this a selling point! I'm sure they must have crossed paths here and there at Marvel over the years, where Colan drew the likes of DAREDEVIL, IRON MAN, and others, but unless I'm mistaken, there's no big, definitive "Thomas/Colan run" on anything. Nonetheless, it's exciting to have Colan aboard. The sensibilities he had used at Marvel to illustrate the adventures of Daredevil and Dracula fit perfectly with the likes of Batman. This story is dark and moody, and you can really feel the grime of Gotham City or the old gothic mystery vibe during the climax at Wayne Manor. Colan is a welcome addition to the series.

If I have but one complaint regarding this issue, it's about something that really isn't part of it -- but that's the problem! I'm talking about the weirdness of this whole Poison Ivy thing. I went on about it last week, regarding just how her "transfer of assets" document is supposed to work, but the fact that she's completely vanished for this next installment makes it even stranger. This isn't really the sort of thing you can do as a sub-plot that pops up now and then, unless Conway's idea is that Ivy plans to hold the document over Bruce Wayne and his board for blackmail purposes or something. But that's not what it sounded like she planned to do last issue, so it's just bizarre to me that she got (what is apparently supposed to be) essentially a blank check from the Wayne Foundation and then wandered off and out of the story to the point that Batman isn't even searching for her! This whole plotline just feels like huge misfire in the making, but I'll reserve further judgment until it's done.

Next week, we'll stick with BATMAN for another issue, featuring more fun at Wayne Manor!