Robin takes the lead and solves a murder and a kidnapping in just one week!
This issue, cover date July 1940, features the same creative team as the last several issues, and is perhaps the most middle of the road Batman tale yet. Let’s start with the cover. It’s fine. It’s got a decent action scene, with an actual background and some great inks by Robinson. At the same time, Batman’s diving pose is just odd, with his head and legs at weird angles. It’s not enough to ruin the effect, it’s just enough to make this cover nothing more than “fine.”
The same can be said for the interior art. I think this issue suffers from some bad restoration. Either that or Kane’s inks are really that bad compared to Robinson’s. There’s a noticeable difference in art quality from page to page, with it being incredibly sketchy at worse, but incredibly solid at best. There’s one particularly beautiful panel of the ramshackle old house, cloaked in shadow, that the villains are using as their hideout. But, other than that, the art never gets better than just solid.
And again, the same can be said for the script. This issue is a whodunnit that follows just about precisely the same formula as the previous issue’s. The difference is that that issue introduced one of Batman’s longest running villains/supporting characters whereas this issue does not. The villain even dresses similarly, with a dark purple brimmed hat and a trench coat, instead of a cape. There are two interesting bits, though. First is a small interactive section where the comic asks the reader who they think is the killer, based on all the suspects introduced earlier in the text. The second is the ending, where Bruce makes an offhanded comment about how good Dick will be as a crimefighting adult. It’s not the focus, of course, but it’s an interesting bit of Batman’s psyche, that to him it’s a foregone conclusion that Dick will continue to fight crime forever. It’s interesting, and decidedly timeless. Beyond that, though, this issue is absolutely skippable.
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