Dave-El's Spinner Rack: Batman#156 - "Robin Dies At Dawn"

Last time I was at Acme Comics, I picked up a copy of a new DC facsimile edition.  Facsimiles are not mere reprints of old stories but a full reproduction of a complete comic as it originally appeared back in the day.

There is a small indicia on page 1 to show the current management of DC Comics and of course the price on the cover. $3.99 for a comic book? Fuck me, that's a lot! 

OK, other than that, it looks like it looked back in the day.

This facsimile edition I picked up was of Batman#156 which includes the seminal classic tale "Robin Dies At Dawn".

It's not like I haven't read "Robin Dies At Dawn". It's been reprinted before.  Still, getting the facsimile edition gave me to chance to experience the entire comic as it was presented back in the day.  

One thing I was not aware of is that "Robin Dies At Dawn" is not the lead story in the issue.  

Batman#156 kicks off with "The Secret of the Ant-Man". ostensibly a Robin solo story.   

Batman tells Robin he is off on a special secret mission and will be out of touch for awhile. Robin is left with the the task of patrolling Gotham City. 

It bears remembering that Robin is still a Boy Wonder but hey, if Batman thinks it's OK to leave it up to his kid to fight crime alone in Gotham City, who am I to judge?

Well, not quite alone.

While taking on some criminal nogoodniks, Robin gets an assist from a diminuitive doo-gooder called Ant-Man.  

Robin momentarily entertains the notion that Ant-Man may really be Batman and his secret mission is helping some scientists working on a shrink ray or something. 

It is the very sort of thing that was happening in Gotham City during this era of Batman comics.

But no...

Robin discovers Ant-Man is not quite so murdered mobster Jumbo Carson. His assisting Robin was part of his revenge scheme against the crooks who done did him wrong.  

in case you're wondering who came first in the Ant-Man sweepstakes, Jumbo Carson at DC or Henry Pym at Marvel, Pym made it to the comic book spinner rack a full year before.

Meanwhile, where the heck did Batman get to?

That brings us to our main event in Batman#156.  

Batman on alien world? Well, why not?

Under editor Jack Schiff back in the 1950's and early 1960's, the Caped Crusader was far removed from his dark and gritty source material on which he was founded.

Batman and Robin were frequently dealing with otherworldly threats and menaces.  Aliens came to Gotham or summoned the Dynamic Duo to extraterrestrial worlds. 

Interest in the burgeoning space race and fear of atomic annihilation fueled a boom in science fiction in movies, TV shows and comic books.  Even Batman and Detective Comics.

In Batman#156, Batman and Robin find themselves on a desolate and dangerous alien world.  Various menaces arise to attack them, perpetually keeping the Dynamic Duo in danger.

Danger with a fatal outcome.  

Robin is dead and Batman is devastated. The Caped Crusader might be the most physically and mentally awesome person ever but even he has his limits.  

It turns out the alien encounter has an Earth bound source.  

Batman has volunteered to take part in a special military experiment to test the long-term effects of isolation on the human psyche. 

Batman walks away from the experiment seemingly none the worse for the wear.  But despite being "a hardy specimen with an above average mind", Batman still experiences relapses into his trauma inflicted by the hallucinatory alien world.

Watching Robin die hits him hard.

While on patrol with Robin and fighting crooks, Batman keeps seeing stuff from the Gotham landscape turn into threats from the alien world.

Unable to trust his own senses, Batman has to take himself out of action and leave the crime fighting to Robin going solo.

A gang of criminals dressed as gorillas are committing crimes because they, it's a DC Comic, of course you dress as gorillas. 

So they capture Robin and Batman has to suck it up and get out there and save his ass.

But....

Batman finds the Gorilla Gang and Robin tied to a giant balloon because...  you really need to stop asking so many questions and just accept what's going on.

Oh no! Is Batman going to have a relapse and think he's back on that alien world? 

No! With Robin in actual real danger (death by balloon? Noooo!), Batman gets the shock he needs to snap put of his traumatic reverie to save Robin and stop the gorilla goons.

Despite some inherently absurd elements, writer Bill Finger treats this story with some seriousness.  Often Batman writers indulge in the overused trope that the Caped Crusader is ready for anything.  Here we have a story that reminds us that Batman is still human and subject to the same levels of trauma we all can experience.   

This story also allows Bill Finger to indulge the era's sci-fi mandate but still tell a grounded story.

In this era, Bob Kane's ghost artist Sheldon Moldoff was employing a more cartoonish, blocky look.  With inker Charles Paris, Moldoff seems to tone down that approach, on occassion evoking hints of Batman's early shadowy self.   

The facsimile edition of Batman#156 includes all the ads from the era.

• A comic strip PSA urging kids to not be a high school drop-out.
• A DC house ad featuring new comics with the Atom, the Flash, Doom Patrol and Adam Strange.
• A "Letters to the Bat-Cave" with readers apparently delighted with the "Prisoners of Three Worlds" in Batman#153.
• An ad for your own collection of missiles for only $1.25!
• Or you can buy up to 104 knights for $1.49!
• Or 100 toy soldiers for a buck and a quarter! 
• Why take chances on missing your favorite DC comic at the spinner rack? Complete the handy-dandy subscription form! 

Here are some covers from Batman as the Dynamic Duo have to contend with alien shit.