The eighth appearance of The Batman took place in the December 1939 issue of Detective Comics. Batman, does not appear on the cover, instead a man in a red mask and a fedora who doesn’t appear in any story in the comic book graces the cover. However, Batman’s picture and name now appears directly above the Detective Comics logo. This issue is one of the most disjointed and simplistic stories so far in Batman’s eight appearances. It also appears to have been written to take place before his seventh appearance and directly after his two-part battle with The Monk and his vampires as that is referenced at the beginning of the story.
Batman again has the lead story in Detective Comics and the blurb at the beginning of the story says, “The Batman, having rescued his fiancée Julie from a sinister figure named The Monk, sees her safely on board a boat for America. He is to follow her later, when he becomes involved in a mystery…!” So, as you can see from that, this story is chronologically out of order and should have run before the previous issue but, as you will see, the reader in December 1939 didn’t miss much.
We are introduced to The Question… not so fast, actually The Question wouldn’t debut for over 25 more years, we are introduced to a faceless man named Charles Maire who tells Batman about the ridiculous manner in which he lost his face in the sewers of Paris, apparently protecting his sister from the advances of a man called Duc D’Orterre.
Duc D’Orterre is one of the wackiest villains so far. Not only is he erasing or melting people’s faces in the sewers of Paris, but he apparently has set up a giant wheel for the purpose of spinning people around until they either A) Go crazy, or B) Are thrown from the wheel and smash against the wall. I am not making any of this up. It is utterly ridiculous. Batman manages to get himself captured by Duc D’Orterre and strapped to the wheel where he manages to escape yet gets catapulted into an Alice in Wonderland inspired flower garden where he thinks he went crazy. I know that previous sentence makes no sense, but I swear that’s what happened.
See for yourself
Why Duc D’Orterre had this garden is anyone’s guess. Anyway, it gets even trippier, one of the flowers telepathically talks to Batman and tells him that the faceless Charles Maire is now strapped to the wheel and is spinning towards his doom and Batman needs to save him which, of course, he does.
We see the Batcopter/Batplane again and Batman chases down the fleeing Duc D’Orterre who is driving a red car with the captive sister. Batman climbs down a rope ladder into the car where he fights Duc D’Orterre and ultimately saves the sister before Duc wildly wrecks off a cliff, apparently killing him. Unlike in previous issues, Batman doesn’t seem directly responsible for killing Duc D’Orterre so we won’t chalk that death up to Batman.
Overall, probably the least quality Batman story yet in his eight appearances.
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The Batman Timeline and Chronology:
03-30-1939: 1st Appearance of The Batman & Commissioner Gordon. Detective Comics issue 27.
06-1939: Batman swings from building to building with a rope for the first time. Detective Comics issue 28.
07-1939: The Utility Belt is used for the first time.
09-1939: Fiancée Julie Madison is introduced. First Bat-Copter / Bat-Plane
10-1939: Batman uses a gun to kill The Monk.
11-1939: Batman kills Dr. Kruger by causing his plane to crash after knocking him out with gas. Origin of Batman.
Batman Kill Count: 5
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