Cover Date: June 1939
Plot Overview: Bruce Wayne disguises his voice as Commissioner Gordon's to get information on a recent string of jewel robberies. Later that night Batman arrives on the scene. He takes out one of the criminals and then throws the other one off the side of the building. Batman stops and reaches for the jewels just as police arrive on the scene. Batman makes his escape to the surprise of the police.
Batman reveals that this was part of his plan. He wants to make the criminals more careless and easier to spy on. Frenchy Blake is the head of the gang and Batman spies on them as they plan the next robbery.
This time Batman easily foils the robbery and catches both criminals. He calls in Gordon to pick them up and then heads after Frenchy. He ties Frenchy to a rope and hangs him out of a window until he agrees to confess. Frenchy writes his confession and then tries to attack Batman. Batman hits him a few times and Frenchy surrenders. Batman drops Frenchy off at the police station and the issue ends with Commissioner Gordon reading a letter from Batman.
My Take: This was an okay read despite the glaring flaws with it. The grammar is really clunky and the art isn't the greatest thing in the world. I think that's a product of the time. They had 6 pages to tell a story and the artistic ability was limited. So the clunky grammar seems to show up as they have to describe the situation.
The original Batman is interesting though. He kills without question and he's in a weird spot. He's this horrible creature of the night but he seems to also be a little sarcastic and willing to smile. Again, the amount of violence in this issue is pretty jarring. For as primitive as the art is, they really seem to capture the devastating consequences to the violence that Batman uses. It's very gritty in that sense.
With all that said. I actually enjoyed the story. It was a quick read and I enjoy seeing early stories of iconic characters like this. It wasn't groundbreaking and it wasn't even really good. It was just a fun little piece of nonsense to start my Saturday off with.
I'd give this issue a D+.
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