Cover Date: February 1940
Plot Overview: Batman sees a man shot and when questioned mentions something about a strange fog. The police arrive and chase Batman thinking that he killed the man. Later, Bruce Wayne ponders what he heard earlier and realizes the man meant Hugo Strange. He also finds a list of Banks in a book he took off of the man.
The scene shifts to Hugo Strange as he begins his plan. The city becomes covered in a thick fog and Strange's men use it as cover to commit a series of bank robberies. Batman uses the black book and ambushes them at one of the banks. He easily subdues the men and leaves them for the police.
Strange realizes that Batman must know where he'll strike next so he plans a trap. Batman arrives at the next place and Strange has left a whole gang of men to take him out. Batman valiantly fights the men off until one catches him with a black jack. They take him to Strange and they tie Batman up. Batman easily breaks his bonds and uses a tear gas on Strange and his men. Batman chases Strange down and after a brief fight he captures Strange and leaves him for the police.
My Take: This is of course the first appearance for Hugo Strange. He comes and goes in the Batman lore but he does have the honor of being the first recurring Batman villain. This issue is also interesting because Batman has stopped using lethal force. A few issues ago and the amount of brutality to these fights would've been much greater. It seems with the new character model that they've lightened Batman up just a little bit.
I enjoyed this issue quite a bit. The writing was a lot better than usual and the grammar didn't seem to be as clunky as it usually is. The story was pretty simple and to the point and I think that is why it was so readable. They didn't try to get clever with it and they didn't use situations that were going to be hard to show with the art or the writing. Simple seems to equal better at this point. I would say this is the first of the golden age stories that I really enjoyed on it's own merits.
The art was pretty solid. The new Batman is a nice change of pace and the characters in general aren't as ugly as they were. The action sequences were also very good looking and I could actually tell what was going on.
I'd give this a solid C.
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