"MONSTER, MY SWEET!"
Writer Gerry Conway | Artists: Gene Colan & Klaus Janson
Letterer: Ben Oda | Colorist: Adrienne Roy | Editor: Dick Giordano
The Plot: At Dawn the day before Gotham's mayoral election, Batman arrives in the Batcave and discusses with Alfred Arthur Reeves' plan to expose his identity. Meanwhile, Poison Ivy meets with mob boss "Big Jack" Johnson and tells him that she's now in charge of his gang. Later that morning, Reeves announced that he will reveal Batman's identity at a press conference that night. And later still, Poison Ivy meets the Wayne Foundation board of directors at Gotham National Bank, and collects her check for the full sum of the Foundation's assets. Subsequently, Batman begins stalking Posion Ivy, appearing everywhere she goes throughout the afternoon until she returns to her hideout.
That night, Batman meets Commissioner Gordon at City Hall for Reeves' press conference. The city councilman reveals photos which appear to show that Batman is actually "Big Jack" Johnson. Meanwhile, Dick Grayson returns to the Wayne penthouse. Later, Batman arrives at Poison Ivy's rooftop greenhouse and smashes in, to find Ivy waiting for him. She reveals that she has mutated her valet, Ivor, into a plant-man, and orders the creature to kill Batman. Their fight carries them outside and Batman is injured during the battle. Meanwhile, ace TV reporter Olivia Ortega receives an envelope from a mystery source and opens it in shock. Back at the greenhouse, Robin arrives and takes out Poison Ivy, while Batman defeats Ivor. In the aftermath, Ivor reveals Ivy's plan to loot the Wayne Foundation, as Commissioner Gordon listens.
Later, the Dynamic Duo return to the Batcave in time to view a special news report with Alfred, in which Olivia Ortega reveals that Reeve's photos were doctored fakes, thus sealing the councilman's fate the night before the election.
Continuity Notes: In the opening scene, Batman tells Alfred he was up all night helping Commissioner Gordon book the Mad Hatter, following from DETECTIVE #110, which seems... odd? Why does Batman, a vigilante (duly-deuptized though he may have been at this point in continuity), need to spend the entire night booking a criminal for kidnapping? Unless he was just acting as security in case the Hatter had any more tricks up his sleeve.
Councilman Reeves reminds Commissioner Gordon that Hamilton Hill has made ousting Gordon the central component of his own campaign, and promises loyalty to Gordon if the commissioner will endorse him. Gordon brushes Reeves off and walks away. Later, Hill pops up to tell Batman that he believes Reeves' tactics are disgraceful, and he intends to say as much to the press.
The mysterious redheaded photographer from issue 509 reappears, taking photos of Bruce as he enters the bank. She later appears in full to reacquaint herself with Bruce in the Wayne Foundation lobby, with a footnote telling us she was last seen in 1963's DETECTIVE #320.
Bruce reveals a new "gadget" here, driving into a tunnel in his Rolls Royce and driving out in the Batmobile... which is both cool and goofy at the same time. I mean, it's a neat idea, but I feel like it raises way more potential problems for Batman that it could possibly solve!
My Thoughts: The cover blurb announces this as "the story you've been waiting for!" And while that's framed, at least in unison with the artwork, as the final resolution of the Poison Ivy plot, I feel like it's also meant in reference to the reunion of Batman and Robin that Conway has been building over the past few months. And while it is indeed nice to see Ivy's storyline brought to a resolution -- a much better resolution than I ever would've imagined, based on my issues with the initial setup -- I think the return of the Dynamic Duo truly is the main draw here, and is the hook upon which Conway intended to build the story. Indeed, early on, Batman explicitly states that he misses Robin; he misses having someone he can trust by his side as he fights crime. Then, when Robin finally makes his dramatic appearance, Batman is positively giddy (or at least as giddy as he's capable of being) at the sight of his partner joining the fray.
In terms of this story, I think the reunion is executed quite nicely and feels suitably dramatic. But in terms of the entire storyline of the duo's separation? Well, that could've been handled much better. My main issue is that I'm not sure Conway has even earned a "dramatic/heartfelt reunion" at this point! We last saw Robin at Batman's side in DETECTIVE 503, the story where the Teen Wonder teamed up with Batgirl to find a cure for Scarecrow's feat gas, which was published only seven months earlier. And in that one, everything seemed copasetic between Batman and Robin. Indeed, going back even further to their prior team-up in Marv Wolfman's "Lazarus Affair" epic, the duo had some tension brought on by Batman's feelings for Talia, but they had seemingly made up by the story's conclusion.
So it's great to see the two back together, but I feel like Conway could've milked their separation more. The two should have had some sort of more overt falling out early on, and they should not have seen each other for at least a year (and if it weren't for that random Scarecrow story they wouldn't have) before reuniting here. But regardless, it is what is (and what it is is ancient history -- stories published more than forty years ago at this point), and I look forward to seeing a reunited Dynamic Duo through the remainder of Conway's run! (And I also wonder whether Conway will, at any point, so much as acknowledge the existence of the Teen Titans and Robin's adventures with them! Reading that series, one would be forgiven for thinking Batman and Robin had permanently dissolved their partnership by now, rather than having re-forged it! I'm curious if Conway will take the same tack and pretend Robin isn't even a member of the Titans.)
This is an odd story in that it's not entirely clear what Batman's plan was beyond "Wind Poison Ivy up until she makes a mistake" as though that would somehow expose her plans in time. He couldn't have foreseen what she would do to Ivor or that the chauffeur would feel betrayed and confess.
ReplyDeleteAlso feeling a little odd is the depiction of Gotham's mayoral election. (I should note up front that London has just had its elections for City Hall at the start of this month and I was involved in the campaign for one of the leading mayoral candidates & the local assembly candidate.) It's been surprising how one of the candidates waits until the night before polling day to drop a big bombshell announcement or for that matter that he can make such a bold claim and the media reports it so blindly without checks or fear of legal repercussions. Or indeed how a television programme can decide to declare the evidence fake within just half an hour of receiving an anonymous tip-off. (Also weird on a smaller scale is using City Hall for a campaign press conference or for that matter the other main candidate just hanging around upstairs the night before polling day rather than doing their own campaigning.)
Vicki Vale's return created a minor error that contemporary readers pointed out in letters. She'd actually made two appearances since Detective #320 though significantly neither was a main title. One was a tiny appearance in World's Finest #156 (March 1966, the introduction of Bizarro Batman) as for a while Mort Weisinger continued to use some of the characters dropped from the Batman titles when Julius Schwartz took over. More notable was a story in Batman Family #11 (June 1977) where she briefly appeared at Bruce's surprise birthday party, actually luring him to Wayne Manor for it, and it was established she was now married with her husband Tom Powers also appearing. Conway and Giordano had been unaware of this and they soon had to establish Vicki had divorced to avoid having Bruce involved with a married woman.
I agree with your thoughts on the election, Tim. It feels as if Conway decided to take a shortcut and cram a lot of things that should've occurred over weeks in-universe into one single night. I take the photos as a version of what is known, at least here in the U.S., as an "October Surprise" -- where one candidate will release something they hope will torpedo their opponent's campaign just a few weeks before election day (which is November 5th here). But Conway decided to do it all the night before the election here for some reason.
DeleteThank you for filling me in on Vicki! Just like Gerry Conway, I had no idea she's appeared since the 1960s.
ReplyDeleteI guess Bruce Wayne’s car transforms into the Batmobile — and his civilian togs into his Batman duds — under that bridge via the same magic behind the costume-change Batpoles on TV…?
The ways this issue wrapped up both the running subplot of Ivy’s machinations and the shorter-lived one about Batman’s secret identity just struck me as weirdly abrupt, but at least that makes them something of a piece with the apparently surprising and triumphant return of Robin.
I agree, Blam; it feels as if Conway has suddenly decided he's ready for "Act 2" of his run*, and he wants to get there as quickly as possible -- so he uses one issue to tie up all the loose ends before moving along. I think he could've done some better long-term planning for some of this stuff.
Delete*It's interesting that this run really does feel like it's composed of three distinct sections -- the first part with the build-up to the election, the second part with Batman up against the new corrupt administration (and the man pulling its strings), and the third part, which is the Killer Croc show.
I’ve only read isolated bits of the Conway run ere now, perhaps due to not caring much for Gene Colan’s Batman and not realizing Don Newton had drawn as much of it as he did, although when it was new a big part of selecting any given issue off the spinner rack of a series that hadn’t absolutely hooked me on making sure I bought it monthly was just whether the cover even prompted a quick flip-through. 60¢? That wasn’t cheap for a pre-teen kid in my shoes, which for the record I think at the time would’ve been Jox by Thom McAn.
DeleteI remember those days (though I don't recall what shoes I had on, but I'd imagine they were Nikes) -- just picking up whatever looked interesting and not worrying about the "run" or, often, even who was writing it! Just as long as the pictures were pretty, I was happy.
Delete