If you read or watch old sci-fi, sometimes it's interesting what they thought was within the realm of possibility. The idea that everyone might eventually have a little filmless camera that they keep with them 24-7, never would've occurred to them; but special film that can shoot through solid objects? Sure, makes sense! As Batman, Robin, and the police raid the hideout of masked crime boss Mr. Incognito...OK, that's a terrible name. The 'Mr.' seems unnecessary. Anyway, a paparazzi reporter sneaks in, to get pictures of Mr. Incognito with a film of his invention that would penetrate his mask. He offers to sell the photo to the mayor, for the bargain price of a million bucks. Cue a lot of hemming and hawing from the mayor: while he seems convinced the picture could be legit, he doesn't have a million just lying around. The reporter gives him a day to come up with the money, and the mayor calls in Batman and Robin, who immediately realize if that film can shoot through Mr. Incognito's mask...
(Bit of water damage there; this copy isn't minty-fresh!) Sure enough, the reporter is on the phone with Mr. Incognito, offering a photo of Batman and Robin's unmasked faces for a million. Which seems like a deal, two for one! It's unclear if the reporter planned on collecting from both Incognito and the city; that seems risky. At his photo shop, the reporter explains the 'science' of his photo, and shows Incognito in a mirror the unmasked Dynamic Duo...dressed in their regular clothes?! Come on. Batman and Robin smash through the requisite skylight, and the reporter goes for a gun, intent on escaping with the cash. Both Incognito and the reporter are beaten, arrested, and given long terms: ten years for the reporter for assault with a deadly weapon. Batman destroys the photo, and figures the bad guys wouldn't have gotten more than a glimpse of them and probably wouldn't recognize them anyway. A more modern story, both those guys would have to be super-dead by the end of it!
Also this issue: a Trix ad! Not my favorite cereal, but give the Rabbit some goddamn Trix already! Ah, that's always bothered me. I don't know if the ads for that are still running, but I also think they used to, every so many years, have an election or other special event and let the Rabbit have a bowl of Trix. Maybe they established that he got too out of hand afterwards: Rabbit destroys a hotel room, crashes a car, burns down a forest while on a feverish Trix binge...
Also also this issue: "Walk, Batman--To Your Doom!" Nice opening image there, although if I hadda draw something that Bob Kane was gonna slap his signature onto, I don't know if I'd go that hard. An open-and-shut case against "Bunky Galliver" goes awry when the jury surprisingly--and inexplicably--finds him not guilty. The district attorney has put together some photos of other juries that also seemed to drop bum verdicts; and Batman notices the same guy, in disguise, was on all those juries! (Anyone willingly taking that much jury duty sounds like a nut, it's gonna be Arkham for them!) The D.A. had also discovered, under the name of Knott the mysterious juror was now running for "governor of Gotham State," and what? Are there extra states in the DC universe, or just didn't want to saddle a real one with Gotham City? Knott is noted as running as an independent so no real party gets thrown under the bus...
Batman and Robin go undercover, with Dick trailing Galliver and Bruce listening to Knott's campaign speeches. Bruce notes Knott didn't seem like a great candidate, yet still feels compelled to vote for him in the election; while Dick overhears Galliver mention a dead millionaire's house, ripe for the looting. They catch Galliver in the act, then look into Knott's work history, namely a year as a lab assistant. Visiting Knott's former place of work, they meet a somewhat doddering scientist who discovered "negative E-rays" that could reverse someone's normal behavior, but he didn't see a use for that and dropped that line of research: I'm kind of picturing Batman pinching the bridge of his nose here. But, Knott had suspected Batman might work it out, and gets the drop on them with his "positive E-ray" device, with which he can issue irresistible commands, like take a walk in the lake!
As they start walking up past their necks, Batman realizes Knott gave him another command earlier, to vote for him, which he wouldn't be able to do if he drowned. By focusing on the first command, Batman is able to last long enough to break the second, and pick up the struggling scientist and Robin to save them. Bats has to lock them up to keep them from walking into the lake again, then finds Knott at another campaign stop and just drops him, since he couldn't risk him issuing another command. Knott had just made a pitch to run for president, then immediately gets cold-cocked by Batman; you can see how that might look bad, but Batman had a good enough reputation that he's able to calm down the crowd, he had a good reason for it. The E-ray treatments are reversed, and Knott wasn't going to be on the ballot so Batman thought he was free of that command; although I wonder if he still wrote him in.
2 comments:
So Batman wears a suit and tie under his costume? Seems like that would be uncomfortable, especially in the summer. And you're right, "Incognito" sounds better than "Mr. Icognito," although the latter is bad.
Batman just hauling off and punching a presidential candidate in the face is pretty great.
It's kind of weird how different cereal mascots are portrayed. Trix Rabbit can't ever get any of his cereal, the Lucky Charms guy is always trying to keep his cereal away from kids, while Toucan Sam's out there like, "Heck yeah, kids, let's go eat some Fruit Loops! Follow your nose!"
@CalvinPitt: When put like that cereal sounds like code for drugs, like cocaine or something. Which makes sense since as a kid sugar really does get you high off the sugar rush.
Yeah Mr. Incognito doesn't exactly roll off the tongue, but it sounds better than just plain incognito. It does fit as a comic book name & probably a twitter handle or something like that.
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