"Gotham Gang Line-Up!"
Writer: Bill Finger
Pencils: Sheldon Moldoff
Inks: Joe Giella
Synopsis: Commissioner Gordon phones the Batcave on the new Hotline phone (who wired that thing anyway? Did Bruce Wayne hafta kill a phone company employee?) but the Dynamic Duo is off having an adventure in World's Finest so his tape recorder answering machine gets the call! I think this is meant to seem pretty high end and modern, since while commercial answering machines first became available in 1949, they were hella expensive and didn't really find mass use until the mid 80s.
Anyways, Alfred listens to the message, which explains that the "Tri-State Gang" (literally just a combine of the biggest mobs in three adjoining states) is meeting somewhere in Gotham and Batman should investigate. Y'know, because the GCPD has other shit to do than look into a major organized crime meet.
Anyways, since the masters are away, Alfred figures he'll get some of the legwork done in advance by looking into their one lead on the Tri-State Gang, a guy named Paul Pardee. Alfred goes to Pardee's suburban home on a motorcycle and tails him as he leaves...
Batman and Robin get home and find a "left to follow a mobster, back soon" note from Alfred and get worried. They take the new Batmobile to Pardee's home, and then track Alfred's motorcycle using the infrared trail that it left behind which is illuminated by the Batmobile's headlights (an old-school Bat-Family trick dating back to the Golden Age!)
It leads to the "Old Gotham Prison" which has been "deserted for years". See, this is what happens when you leave old buildings like that lying around, they turn into criminal hideouts...
With the Dynamic Duo deducing that Alfred is a prisoner inside, they attempt to sneak inside, but the prison is wired with cameras being watched live by the members of the Tri-State Gang inside, who have indeed captured Alfred. Thanks to various traps set by the gangsters on the entrances, the Dynamic Duo are easily (perhaps too easily) captured, and then lined up in the prisoner line up in a panel which provides the inspiration for the Carmine Infantino cover of this issue. Which, in typical Silver Age DC fashion, has very little to do with the story at all and is mostly there for its "wtf" quality that intrigues you to buy the issue.
As is, it's merely a setting as the criminals argue which of them should have the privilege of killing Batman and Robin. Ultimately the "chairman" of their group solicits each of them to plead their case of why they deserve it most, and so each of the gangsters describe a past foiled crime in turn (including one that involves a foiled attempt to rob jewelry used in the filming of the 1963 Elizabeth Taylor Cleopatra movie, which is hilarious). Ultimately one guy wins because it was his brother who got the jailtime, so that makes it personal.
Amazingly, Batman gets to learn their ultimate scheme because he plays the "condemned man gets a last request" and the gangsters tell them they plan to steal secret buried pirate treasure that's on the outskirts of Colonial Gotham, that they learned about from an "authentic" map, but they have to do it tonight because a new building foundation is being started there tomorrow!
At which point if I was Batman I'd ask him which Nigerian prince sent the map, but since the World's Greatest Detective takes this seriously, I guess I should too. Meanwhile, Alfred's locked up in one of the cells, and hears that once the criminals will return, Batman and Robin will be executed -- while the Dynamic Duo overhear the same thing about Alfred.
The Caped Crusaders decide they need to escape, so Batman breaks out of their handcuffs because he's "mastered all of Houdini's famous handcuff escapes!" and its as simple as that. Then he unravels his wool socks to make a lasso, throws it across the hall and hooks it on a radiator, and trips the guard! They grab his keys and escape.
Meanwhile a guard comes to take Alfred to his end, but Alfred gets the drop on him and escape. Both parties reach the other's cells to see it empty and assume that they've arrived too late.
They both make it to their vehicles to head to Colonial City to stop the criminals, who are already using construction equipment to dig for the buried treasure. The Batmobile arrives first, as the Dynamic Duo races to the scene. Alfred pulls up in his motorcycle but spots the crooks about to drop a boulder on the heroes from a steam shovel -- he races over on his motorcycle to push them out of the way, and...
Alfred is crushed to death by the boulder.
The heroes go nuts, beat up the crooks, use a bulldozer to push them into the pit they were digging and wait for the cops to show up. Then Batman picks up Alfred's lifeless body and they go home. As Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson, they arrange his funeral. Bruce wishes for the world to never forget Alfred's sacrifice, so he starts The Alfred Foundation, a charitable organization housed in a skyscraper in downtown Gotham, that will "contribute to the betterment of all mankind".And then someone arrives at the door of Wayne Manor. Who could it be? Why it's Dick Grayson's completely unknown-to-this-point Aunt Harriet Cooper! Yes, when she heard Alfred was dead she rushed straight over to come take care of Bruce and Dick and watch over their health and pamper them and treat them as little boys! And she doesn't know their secret identities! This will cause some complications!! Woooaaaah!
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Thoughts and Analysis: Wow. It's a bit hard for modern comics readers I think to really appreciate how utterly shocking this issue must have been for readers in 1964. For one thing, comics will still firmly under the grip of the Comics Code Authority, and were still firmly aimed at an age range of about 8-12 year olds. So for a major character like Alfred, who'd been around for 21 years at this point, which considering Batman had been around for 25 basically means forever, to be killed off, firmly and definitively with no goofy Silver Age workaround in the last two panels, well, it must have been a huge shock. I mean it's just there, Alfred is dead. And the other part of "characters didn't die all the time back then" was the collolary that characters didn't come back to life if they'd been killed. For anyone reading this book in 1964, Alfred was dead. It's not even a ploy to boost sales -- they don't even mention or tease or hype it on the cover at all! And trust me, hyping teases on the cover was the Silver Age's whole deal. So why did this happen? Well the scuttlebutt I always heard was that Julie Schwartz had Alfred killed because here in 1964, ten years after the accusations were first made, DC was still worried about the insinuations that Batman and Robin were in a pedophilac gay relationship. Now, back in 1956 DC had introduced Batwoman and Bat-Girl as chaste romantic interests for the boys to combat these rumours, but Schwartz had ditched them alongside Bat-Mite, Bat-Hound and all the other silly stuff with the New Look relaunch.
So the idea was that if Bruce and Dick were being looked after by a maternal caretaker instead of a male servant, then y'know, clearly they can't be gay because they've got Dick's Aunt living with them and cleaning up after them!
Personally, I don't buy it. I have a different theory about why Aunt Harriet was introduced. Let's see, she doesn't know their secret identities, meaning they have to sneak around getting in and out of the house, and she overmothers them to a comedic extent. Hmmm, what other comic book character, perhaps someone in a really popular series from a competitor, does that sound like??
The Art: I get that the division between Carmine Infantino and Sheldon Moldoff on these comics was a contractual arrangement (Sheldon Moldoffn working for Bob Kane gets Batman and every second Detective Comics issue) but it does feel odd that with Infantino being the leading artistic force on the New Look and this being such a significant issue, that it's Moldoff on art duties. That said, Moldoff continues to improve his game, developing more and more as he stretches his muscles beyond the awful carboard Bob Kane impersonation he's been doing for years. There are some really effective and dramatic close-ups in the issue, which helps with the emotional nature of the story.
The Story: So, while it's a significant story, I can't really say it was a good one? In an age where Marvel Comics is starting to do full issue stories that really give plots and characters room to develop and breath, maybe Schwartz should have considered nixing the Elongated Man story in this issue for once, because 15 pages makes this story rushed and run on coincedence and happenstance. I mean, I could talk about the fact that the criminal plotline is complete nonsense, and how Alfred's death is a super sudden left turn. That in itself could be argued as a plus or minus, shock value versus significance, but then we spend like four panels on our heroes' reaction to it before BAM Aunt Harriet shows up and things get wacky! Somewhere in there Bruce establishes a charitable foundation, which is actually the third major status quo change in this comic, and actually the longest lasting -- Bruce Wayne becomes a philanthropist and has something to actually do in his life. He runs a charity hoping to help society in his civillian life as much as he helps it as Batman. Puts his money where his mouth is. It's a big shift in how his character is portrayed and it's a sidenote in the whirlwind ending of this book, which is structured as just a standard adventure for a long time and then BAM! twist ending. It kind of works, kind of doesn't -- but overall I just feel like maybe it could have had more impact if DC was copying things like story structure from Marvel rather than character types. Oh, and one last thing...
IF DICK HAS HAD A MATERNAL AUNT THIS ENTIRE TIME, WHY THE HELL DID HE BECOME BRUCE WAYNE'S WARD AFTER HIS PARENTS DIED?? Wouldn't that have only happened if there was no one to take care of him? His parents were travelling circus acrobats and he's had an Aunt this whole time? Who we've never seen, but knows he lives with a millionaire in Gotham City?? Wouldn't she have gotten custody of him then?? It makes NO SENSE and makes me UPSET.
Notes and Trivia: Death of Alfred, establishment of the Alfred Foundation charity organization, first appearance of Aunt Harriet Cooper
The "New Look" Batman and Robin began in the 300th appearance of Batman in Detective Comics, with a cover that featured a brand new masthead for the first time in the series history. (Y'know, because maybe after 36 years it's time to modernize a little?)
The cover art is by Carmine Infantino and is essentially a blow-up of some panels from within the issue - although with one key difference that makes the cover kind of a cheat.
It's most interesting feature is that the big visual change of the "New Look" (Batman's yellow oval) is coyly avoided on this cover. It's hard to imagine these days, when superheroes have new costume and relaunches every couple of years, but the New Look was a huge change and a big gamble, and so it seems DC was trying to ease readers into the changes a bit.
The other big thing on the cover is the announcement that the back-up feature starring Martian Manhunter has been replaced with one starring Elongated Man -- aka the stretchy-powers superhero you care about even less than Plastic Man or Mr. Fantastic.
"The Mystery of the Menacing Mask!"
Writer: John Broome
Pencils: Carmine Infantino
Inks: Joe Giella
Synopsis: We start with a splash page elaborating a later scene in the story in which Batman and Robin helpless to make a move against a smug criminal. Our story proper takes us to Gotham Village, an uncreatively named analog for Greenwich Village. Imagined as an electic place filled with bohemians, cafés, and apparently lots of CRIME, it is currently the centre of a controversy to tear it down in order to lower crime in Gotham City (aka gentrification) or to be preserved for it's historic value.
Bruce Wayne is Vice Chairman of the committee to preserve the village, and so he takes his youthful ward Dick Grayson down to take a look at the place. There they meet a young woman named Linda Greene. Her fianceé, James Packer, wants them to live in the Village after they are married, but Linda wants to move Uptown because CRIME. Apparently Jimmy's been disappearing a lot lately and recently Linda found a map of the Village among his stuff with a certain area marked with an X, so what if Jimmy's a criminal?!
The circled X on the map causes Bruce and Dick to go into a mututal flashback to when they were pursuing a gem thief as Batman and Robin. The thief hid in a penthouse apartment and Batman rushed in to get him and was greeted with a blast of Crazy Purple Knock-Out Gas.
Robin runs up to the knocked-out Batman, and we get a replay of the cover. Only this time Batman's hands cover his whole face, and so when he turns to Robin who demands the Caped Crusader take off his mask, he does so and reveals a big pink circled X on the forehead - in a spot that should've been perfectly visible in the cover page's version of events.
Batman then looks up to see that the same mark has appeared on Robin's forehead as well! However after a few minutes the marks fade away... while the gem thief is long gone.
Meanwhile, the escaping gem thief inner monologues to himself that the explosion knocked out Batman long enough for the crook to brand him, "as well as Robin who entered the room moments later" -- which makes no sense, because Robin was never knocked out... so when was he branded?? How did the mark mysteriously appear on his forehead?
Anyways, at the Batcave, Batman does a chemical analysis on his mask and finds a trace amount of phosphorous isotope - which can only be bought at the Rare Chemical Company store! (Seriously?)
An inquiry with the store's owner reveals the only person to have purchased the isotope recently is a man named Frank Fenton, and the owner gives Batman his address. Turns out it's real, and a dude named Fenton lives there! This is the easiest mystery ever!
They show up at Fenton's place and we get the scene from the splash page - the Dynamic Duo find themselves unable to move. Fenton mocks them for a bit, take his loot of jewels and leaves.
After the paralysis wears off, our heroes regroup at the Batcave. Dick thinks the paralysis has something to do with the X marks, and Bruce agrees. They formulate a plan to undermine Fenton's control on their next meeting, and decide to search for him in Gotham Village, since it's a notorious hideout for crooks.
And that brings us back to the present, with Bruce's visit to the Village revealed as a cover for Batman and Robin to do some sleuthing. At that moment, Jimmy Packer walks by, and Bruce and Dick offer to tail him for Linda, who agrees.
And so Batman and Robin follow Jimmy to an abandoned house at the location Jimmy had marked with an X. Jimmy goes through a secret door in the back of a room, and our heroes follow him, revealing a staircase down into an underground cavern.
This is Sub-Gotham Village, a haven for criminals where they hide out until the heat dies down, paying a percentage of their loot to a crime boss named Smiler. Fenton is striking a bargain with Smiler, saying that he should get a discount rate because he can provide insurance against Batman and Robin as long as he's down there.
The Dynamic Duo springs into action, but once again are paralysed by Fenton. However when the crooks approach to gang up on them, they suddenly spring into action! Quickly they have all the crooks beaten up, and Batman stops them from trying to escape BY PULLING A GUN ON THEM?!!
The cops show up and arrest everybody, and in a Scooby-Doovian twist, Smiler's revealed to be wearing a mask and to be Roland Meacham, the chairman of the committee to preserve Gotham Village!
Yep, turns out the conservative reactionary anti-crime dudes who wanted to tear down the bohemian paradise were right all along - it was a haven for criminals!
Meanwhile, Fenton is revealed to have been using an energy signal from an electronic box directed at the radioactive phosphorous marks on Batman and Robin's heads to affect the motor areas of their brains, which the Caped Crusaders were able to block by wearing lead-lined masks. Which, is.... ugh. Okay.
And it turns out that Jimmy was just trying to find out where the criminal element was in Gotham Village so he could alert the police, figuring that if crime was gone then no one would want to tear it down and he and Linda could live there in peace!
And he was right! Even though the chairman was a crook, Bruce as Vice Chairman convinces the city to let the Village stay. Happy endings all around!
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My Thoughts: It's really hard to give an accurate picture of how amazingly huge this issue was when it dropped. I mean, it's basically just a regular average story about Batman and Robin fighting some regular crooks, with some vague topical allegory and a slightly weird gimmick for one of the criminals. But that's WHY it's such a big deal! Because Batman comics for the past seven or eight years had been about the Dynamic Duo fighting invading aliens from Dimension X and so on! Heck, the very issue of Detective before this one was called "Captives of the Alien Zoo", and featured a plot that is exactly what that title sounds like.
So this lowkey, quasi-realistic tale is a huge breath of fresh air in comparison to what came before. Which, ultimately, was the whole idea behind the "New Look".
The Art: And what a look! Again, in comparison to the issue just before this one, and indeed any Batman comic since Dick Sprang stopped drawing it (around 1954, I think), this thing is GORGEOUS! Ten years of Sheldon Moldoff ghosting for Bob Kane had meant flat, dimensionless, boring art! From a modern perspective Carmine Infantino might not look like much but in 1964 for Batman fans it was a huge leap forward. Infantino rendered his characters in a much, much more "realistic" style, delivering a Batman and Robin who looked like real people. Robin finally has a normal looking hairstyle instead of Bob Kane's weird double spitcurls, and Bruce finally has a normal looking chin instead of the perfectly square jaw he'd been sporting for decades. The art is dynamic as well - their capes move like fabric instead of cardboard, everything just looks and feels amazing. It's the art, and more importantly the contrast between this art and the art that came before, that makes this issue memorable, far moreso than the story.
The Story: As much as it's nice to have a down-to-earth Batman back, Broome's story is not very good, from an objective standpoint. It's got too many strands - there's Gotham Village, Jimmy Packer, Fenton and his gimmick, it's all over the place. The science of the gimmick makes no sense at all, but at least it's lowkey I guess. I know Schwartz felt that while Batman should go back to fighting regular crooks, they should still have some sort of gimmick that puts them beyond regular police, so I guess this is an iteration of that notion.
The weirdest thing about the story is that Gotham Village is like a version of Greenwich Village, and all the bohemian artist types living there made me think this was a kind of attempt to get at the folk movement teenager types, the burgeoning beginnings of the counter-culture movement as it stood in 1964. By having Bruce on the committee to preserve the village, it seems like the story is siding left here, natural since the youth audience of the comic probably would too. But then it turns out the hardliner "tear it all down" conservatives are right all along! Weird. It makes the comic come off very "square" in its sensibilities.
Although it is cool to see a story in which Bruce Wayne actually has some part to play. Putting him on a committee transforms him from a bored playboy/non-character to someone who's actually doing some social work in his civillian identity in addition to punching people as Batman. It's a cool beginning to a trend that will eventually culminate in Wayne Enterprises being introduced in the Bronze Age.
Okay, so the actual weirdest thing is Batman pulling a gun on those crooks - but Julie Schwartz has long since fessed up to that being because he was still a little unfamilar with the specifics of Batman's M.O., and soon promised it would never happen again.
Notes and Trivia: First "New Look" Batman and Robin, first appearance of the "Yellow Oval" bat-symbol, Batman pulls a gun on some dudes, first appearance of Gotham Village, first Batman issue drawn by Carmine Infantino.
Personally, I don't buy it. I have a different theory about why Aunt Harriet was introduced. Let's see, she doesn't know their secret identities, meaning they have to sneak around getting in and out of the house, and she overmothers them to a comedic extent. Hmmm, what other comic book character, perhaps someone in a really popular series from a competitor, does that sound like?? 
