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“Semi-Imaginary” Stories (Part 2) |
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Written by Commander Benson
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Thursday, 14 February 2008 |
 As I mentioned last time out, the unbroken popularity of DC’s “Big Three” -- Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman -- had put the company solidly at the top of the comics-publishing industry. Not wanting to tamper with success, the powers that be insisted that the basic set-ups for those characters not be changed -- at least for not longer than the length of a single story. By page twenty-six, everything had to be the way it always was. This meant no character development, no dramatic revelations, no new directions. And it resulted in stodgy adventures with predicable endings.
In an effort to break out of the inertia, Superman editor Mort Weisinger came up with the idea of “Imaginary Stories” -- tales that deliberately broke the mould, capable of going in any direction. Superman would marry Lois Lane or Lana Lang or Lori Lemaris. He would wind up with Lex Luthor as his brother. He would even die. The possibilities were endless. And to keep the suits in charge happy, these tales were advertised up front as Imaginary Stories, with cover blurbs and interior text informing the reader that none of this was happening to the “real” characters.
 But before Weisinger took that drastic step -- in Lois Lane # 19 (Aug., 1960) -- he tested the readers’ acceptance of them by framing out-of-continuity adventures with an in-continuity premise -- or what I’ve come to call “Semi-Imaginary Stories”. To this end, Superman # 132 (Oct., 1959) introduced the Super-Univac, a sophisticated probability computer which projected the outcome of a hypothetical question.
Jack Schiff, the editor of Batman and Detective Comics, was wrestling with the same problem. To make matters worse, publisher Irwin Donenfeld’s insistence on placing the Masked Manhunter in science-fiction-based adventures resulted in a format that clearly wasn’t suitable to the character’s roots. Batman fans were growing weary of the constant flow of space aliens, bug-eyed monsters, and bizarre transformations that had no place in the casework of the World’s Greatest Detective.
Schiff also came up with the notion of writing stories “out of the box”, putting the Batman and his supporting cast through changes that would never be allowed in the normal continuity. Not as bold as Mort Weisinger, Schiff never went the route of issuing outright Imaginary Stories. He was more comfortable going with Semi-Imaginary tales. The trick was coming up with an intriguing device to present them.
The first couple of Semi-Imaginary tales put out under Schiff’s auspice went a well-trodden route. “Rip Van Batman”, from Batman # 119 (Oct., 1958), showed a greybearded Caped Crusader fifteen years in the future, adjusting to being a has-been while Robin, now an adult, has taken over the mantle of the Batman. It turns out to be an hallucination caused by the peculiar odour of a rare Amazonian plant. “The Marriage of Batman and Batwoman”, from Batman # 122 (Mar., 1959), wasn’t even that marginally clever. The marriage of Bruce Wayne and Kathy Kane, and the disastrous results when Batman tries to keep Kathy from continuing her Batwoman career, was revealed as a dream to both the readers and a very relieved Dick Grayson.
The thing was, “It was only a dream!” was a worn-out trick, and Schiff knew he couldn’t pull that one very often. His next method for presenting a Semi-Imaginary Story offers us an interesting hint into the communicability of ideas between shops.
Batman # 127 presented the Semi-Imaginary tale, “The Second Life of Batman”. In the “real” part of the story, Professor Carter Nichols has invited Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson to his home for the unveiling of the historian’s latest invention -- a helmet-like mechanism designed to show what would have happened if a past event in a person’s life had gone differently. When the subject dons the complicated headgear and then recalls an event in his life that he wishes had gone otherwise, the machine will reveal to his mind’s eye the life he might have had.
Wayne
tests the device, and once it is activated, he wonders what would have happened if his parents had not been murdered by Joe Chill. As it turns out, the end result wouldn’t have been all that different. Nichols’ device projects that, when Bruce is a young man, Doctor and Mrs. Wayne are killed in an automobile accident. Bruce becomes an indolent roué whose only solid interest is in athletics. He is attending a masquerade party when gunmen, led by a criminal calling himself “the Blue Bat”, and dressed in a costume identical to Batman’s, burst in and rob the guests. Shamed out of his idleness by the scorn of his friends,
Wayne
tracks down the crooks and by disguising himself as the Blue Bat, captures them. Returning home, he resolves to wear the bat costume for the cause of justice and names himself “the Batman”.
Back in the real continuity,
Wayne
removes the helmet and tells Nichols simply, without detail, that his destiny would have been the same.
Nichols’ invention sounds an awful lot like the Super-Univac, doesn’t it? Another thing to consider is that the cover-date of Batman # 127 -- October, 1959 -- is the same as that of Superman # 132, the issue in which the Super-Univac debuted.
There are no apparent ties. Schiff edited and Bill Finger wrote “The Second Life of Batman”; Mort Weisinger edited and Otto Binder wrote “Superman’s Other Life”. Is the similarity of stories and devices used to present them merely coïncidence, or a common idea birthed by a bull session between DC editors? Or did one swipe the idea from the other? Many would be quick to point toward reliable accounts of Weisinger stealing story ideas and presenting them as his own.
I’ll leave that to speculation. What is known is that, while the Super-Univac made recurring appearances in the Superman titles, there was never another Batman story using Nichols’ alternate-future predictor. Whatever the reason for that, Jack Schiff and Bill Finger didn’t take long to come up with another device for presenting Semi-Imaginary Stories -- and this one would have legs.
 Some day, Batman will be old -- some day, Batman will have to retire! When that day comes, Robin, a boy no longer, will become his successor -- Batman the Second! But then, who will become Robin the Second? You will soon see for yourself, as you take a glimpse into the future at . . . the Second Batman and Robin Team!
This was the lead-in to the next Batman Semi-Imaginary Story, appearing in Batman # 131 (Apr., 1960). The tale proper opens with fingers pounding furiously on the keys of a typewriter. The copy announces the retirement of the Batman! The Masked Manhunter makes a television broadcast to that effect, declaring the now-grown Robin as his replacement, Batman II. Back at the Batcave, we learn that Bruce Wayne, now wrinkled and grey, has been married to Kathy Kane for over a decade, and they have a young son, the red-haired Bruce Wayne, Junior.
Young Bruce persuades his parents to let him become the next Boy Wonder, and after a suitable amount of training, joins his “Uncle” Dick in crime-fighting as Robin II. During their first case as a team, both are preoccupied by personal concerns. Until now, Dick never realised the heavy responsibility the original Batman carried in taking a young boy into danger. Meanwhile, Bruce, Jr. frets over being as good as the first Robin. Junior is right to worry, since in the second team’s debut action, he makes a bonehead goof that lets the crooks get away.
The next day, in his job as a newspaper reporter, Dick Grayson gets a lead on the whereabouts of the Babyface Jordan gang and heads off on his own to capture them. He leaves a coded message for Bruce, Jr., which the boy decyphers in the Batcave. Alfred the butler sees him depart as Robin II and reports it to Bruce and Kathy Wayne. When
Wayne
realises that his son and Dick are going after the
Jordan
gang, he fears that they may be too much for the pair, given Robin II’s inexperience. Despite their creaking joints, Bruce and Kathy suit up as Batman and Batwoman and head for
Jordan
’s hideout.
Meanwhile, things haven’t been going so well for the second Batman. He has been captured by the gangsters posted to guard the gang’s hideout, but the arriving Robin II rescues him handily. The scuffle alerts the rest of the gang, and suddenly the new Dynamic Duo find themselves surrounded and outnumbered. They fight it out, but things aren’t looking good for our heroes -- until the original Batman and his wife crash the scene by driving a locomotive along a near-by spur and slamming it into the throng of gangsters.
 With the
Jordan
gang in tow, it’s smiles all around for the three generations of crime-fighters. The scene is abruptly broken by a still youthful Bruce Wayne discovering Alfred at his writing desk.
We are back in the real continuity, now. The loyal retainer explains, “Well, you see, sir -- I just wanted to try out this new typewriter, and before I realized it, I was writing a story of what possibly might happen to us all in the future!”
“Too bad it can’t be published because it would give away my secret identity,” replies Wayne, master of the obvious.
“True -- nobody will ever read it,” says Alfred, “but I had so much fun writing this imaginary story of the future that I think I’ll write another one sometime . . . .”
Alfred’s hunch was pretty good. The initial fan response was positive and Bill Finger had a sequel already in the works. Again under the premise that Alfred was writing another fictional episode of their lives in the near future, “The Return of the Second Batman and Robin Team” saw print in Batman # 135 (Oct., 1960). In this one, John Crandall, a criminal caught by the original Caped Crusader, is released from prison. Discovering that the first Batman has hung up his cape, Crandall seeks to draw him out of retirement by destroying anything that is a monument to the Batman.
The second Batman and Robin team attempt to stop Crandall’s wave of destruction, but they wind up getting captured, and Bruce Wayne, Senior, has to go back in harness to rescue them.
The readers liked this one, too; they asked for more. Jack Schiff had found a format for presenting Semi-Imaginary Stories that clicked. There would be four more stories about the second Dynamic Duo, all attributed to Alfred the butler’s literary muse. By increments, each of the stories expanded upon the premise of looking at the next generation of Batman.
“The Son of the Joker”, from Batman # 145 (Feb., 1962), examined the notion that not only the heroes would have heirs, as Gotham City is plagued by a criminal claiming to be the Joker’s son. And so far, the white-faced crook has managed to outwit the second Batman and Robin team at every turn. There is a quaint scene in which Bruce Wayne, recalling that the Joker retired after serving a long prison term, visits his old foe as Batman. He finds the former mountebank stiff with age, tending flowers in his cottage garden. Though the art and dialogue are simplistic by to-day’s standards, there is something wistful in seeing the two aged enemies, drinking lemonade and reminiscing about their younger days. (And, of course, it wouldn’t wash to-day, given their modern characterisations.)
 More details of the new crime-fighting team’s set-up are revealed, as well. Dick Grayson now lives in a city brownstone. Its basement lies directly over an abandoned subway spur. Through a constructed tunnel, the spur was extended to beneath Wayne Manor, and Batman II uses an electric cart to travel from his home to the Batcave.
The Joker’s son manages to lure the second Batman and Robin team into a trap, and are rescued by the original Batman. That happened in most of the second-team stories; Schiff seemed reluctant to completely divorce the Semi-Imaginary series from its root character. And as for the son of the Joker, all was not as it seemed.
The next Batman Semi-Imaginary tale was a break in the Second Batman-Robin Team series. Still using the conceit of being written by Alfred, this time, “Batman’s New Secret Identity”, from Batman # 151 (Apr., 1962), explores the possible future of the current Dynamic Duo if it were revealed that Batman was Bruce Wayne. It’s a well-developed book-length tale, written strongly along the lines of Mort Weisinger’s pure Imaginary Stories, complete with a twist at the end.
Alfred is back to writing about the second team in “Danger Strikes Four”, from Batman # 154 (Mar., 1963). The imaginary portion of this tale is more closely entwined with the real continuity of Batman and Robin than any of the others in the series, extending to more than just book-ends showing the butler at his typewriter. In this case, Batman II and Robin II find themselves in a death-trap that they cannot escape -- until the real Dynamic Duo manages to defeat a similar trap, thus providing Alfred with an ending for his story.
“The Boyhood of Bruce Wayne, Junior”, from Batman # 159 (Nov., 1963), is a Semi-Imaginary tale of the usual Batman II-Robin II storyline, but set in a time before the first Batman retired. It explores the early boyhood of Bruce, Jr. and how he helped his father on a case long before becoming the second Boy Wonder.
 The final Second Batman and Robin team tale makes one last addition to its Semi-Imaginary mythos. Batman # 163 (May, 1964) introduced “Bat-Girl -- Batwoman II”. Kathy Wayne’s niece, Betty Kane, now grown and nicely filled out, returns to Gotham City, after living in Europe for a time. She re-acquaints herself with her aunt and the rest of the
Wayne
family. It’s also obvious that her cap is still set for Dick Grayson. For his part, Grayson feels a revival of a few stirrings, as well. Though Kathy, naturally, is now aware that her husband was Batman and Dick, the old Robin, now Batman II, Betty knows only that her aunt was Batwoman (mirroring the real continuity).
Unbeknownst to Kathy, Betty has decided to become the new Batwoman, and returning to her aunt’s old mansion, dons a Batwoman costume and, using the Bat-Cycle, goes out on her first patrol. At the same time, the original Batman, filling in for an out-of-town Batman II and Robin II, answers the bat-signal. Commissioner Gordon puts him on the trail of Milo, a criminal scientist who has escaped from prison.
Batman finds
Milo
, but slowed by age, finds himself in trouble. Betty, as the new Batwoman, happens upon the scene and rescues the crime-fighter, but his identity is accidentally revealed to her. There is a quick moment when identity secrets are exchanged, but then the pair get back to work, only to fall into a Milo-laid trap. For once, it is the Second Batman and Robin team who get to make the rescue. During the wrap-up back at the Batcave, there is a strong indication that there are wedding bells in Dick and Betty’s future.
Alfred yanks this last page out of the typewriter; there is the usual “Too bad nobody will ever be able to read it” blah-blah-blah from Bruce and Dick. And with that, the book was closed on the Second Batman and Robin Team.
That issue was Jack Schiff’s last as editor of the Batman titles. With sales nose-diving, he had been replaced by Julius Schwartz, who had already kicked off his “New Look” Batman that same month, over in Detective Comics # 327. As part of his house-cleaning, Schwartz had jettisoned all of the fringe “bat-characters”, real and Semi-Imaginary. The June, 1964 issue of Batman would modernise the Caped Crusader further, dispensing with the stuffy paterfamilias of the “Bat-family” he had become under Schiff’s reign, and returning him to the sleek, dynamic figure of a crime-fighter.
As a series-within-a-series, the Second Batman and Robin Team had enjoyed a pretty good run. None of Mort Weisinger’s out-of-continuity tales would continue a single Imaginary premise over that many issues. In that way, Schiff had found a way to make Imaginary tales work in a way the Superman editor never would.
As we shall see in my next instalment, Julius Schwartz wasn’t completely adverse to the idea of Semi-Imaginary Stories, either.
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