Batman: In Color

Tales of the Batman: Carmine Infantino (2014)
DC Comics
Gardner Fox, John Broome, Cary Bates, Gerry Conway, Don Kraar, Mike Barr and Geoff Johns, writers
Carmine Infantino, Joe Giella, Murphy Anderson, Sid Greene, Bob Smith, Steve Mitchell, Mike DeCarlo, Sal Trapani, Mike Esposito and Neal Adams, artists

I tend to run hot and cold on my opinions of Carmine Infantino as a comic book artist. At the height of his career, he was an incredible penciler, as evidenced by many of the stories in this very volume. He is most known for adding the yellow oval to Batman's chest emblem, defining the "new look" of the character in the 1960s, and for his well-known and lengthy run as the artist on The Flash. But to my eye, a great deal of his later work lacks the definition I prefer to see. Often his later comic pages could look sketchy, rushed and unfinished.

So why spend money on a tome like this, celebrating an artist whose work I don't always appreciate? The vast majority of this book comes from the aforementioned height of Infantino's career, when he worked on Batman and refined the Darknight Detective's "new look."

There are a number of covers from both Batman and Detective Comics from the mid-1960s era, but another plus of this book is that most of the interior work presented here, Infantino did for Detective. Those stories have a history of focusing more on Batman's deductive prowess and less on super-heroics. In fact, many of these stories eschew the more colorful members of Batman's rogue's gallery for costume-less street thugs and gangs. There's a later Riddler tale, as well as appearances by the Joker, Cluemaster and Blockbuster, but more often than not, the Gotham Guardian is matching wits with characters like Frank Fenton, General Von Dort, Eivol Ekdal, Frank Pragnel, Doc Hastings and Mr. Brains.

The biggest draw for me, however, are the covers of this era and the stories they inspired. Often the cover idea came first, presenting some horrific or startling scene, and then it was up to the writer and/or artist assigned to the book to build the story around that cover image. Julius Schwartz was very well-known for this technique as an editor at DC Comics, and it led to some very eye-catching covers that made young readers want to pick up the book and learn how such a thing could happen. Many of them still make me want to read the issue in question if I haven't already.

Often what was depicted on the cover might end up being a red herring for the story presented within or hint at the solution to some mystery the hero has to figure out, but often, the comics stories behind these covers were well worth a reader's time, otherwise the cover trick wouldn't have worked for very long. But one such Infantino cover presented in this book, along with the story behind it, handles things in a rather unique way. I can't say I've read every issue of DC Comics from this era — far from it — but I know I've never come across a story quite like the one associated with the cover above.

This tale pits the Caped Crusaders against a foe named the Bouncer, who has fashioned an outfit out of an experimental substance that allows him to safely rebound off any surface. The Bouncer escapes Batman and Robin in their first encounter because the unique properties of his suit catch them off-guard. After their first defeat at the hands of the criminal, the Dynamic Duo use their ingenuity to figure out how the Bouncer was able to achieve his stunning feats and devise a way to counteract his abilities. Despite Batman and Robin's resourcefulness, the Bouncer escapes from a few more encounters with the pair. But they use each new defeat to learn more about their foe until they successfully apprehend the Bouncer on Page 8 of this 14-page story. Nowhere in the span of that eight pages is Batman dead or even believed dead. Not even for a moment.

But then Page 9 is taken up entirely by images of Gardner Fox, the writer of this particular Bat-tale, in his home. Fox explains that after finishing such a story, he often retires to his "What If" room to reflect on a story before polishing and sending it to his editor. In this scenario, Fox wonders "what if" the Bouncer was prepared for Batman and Robin's latest attempt to foil his crimes. Naturally, in that case, the Dynamic Duo's plan does not work, Batman is gunned down, and the scene from the cover plays out, complete with cameos by several members of the Justice League and a surprise twist that leaves Robin still working with a partner at the end of the "what if" version.

I won't spoil all of the details of the story — the cover image is practically ordering me not to — but this was definitely one of my favorites from a thick 500-plus page hardcover that I very much enjoyed and highly recommend. Who knows what surprises you might find inside?