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jeffmauch's review
4.0
After reading the full history of the Batman character last month, I felt I at least had to read a selection of the very early comics to truly get a feel for where Batman started. This collection was some of the very early issues from 1940-1941, which is right at the beginning considering Batman debuted in 1939. I pretty much got exactly what I expected here, Batman and Robin as the ultimate do-gooders. I can now truly see that the Batman TV show with Adam West that appears bizarrely campy is almost an exact representation of the 1940s Batman. He spouts cheesy quips at the bad guys, always has the perfect solution hidden in his boot or up his sleeve, and always tries to prevent killing others at all costs. The art here is the real gem, not the story lines, especially in the comics that include the Joker. I actually find the early Joker to be by far the most interesting thing enclosed in these pages because of just how different he was from the Jokers that I grew up with in film and television. Overall this is a good read, but it gets repetitive after reading a number of adventures as you can usually see the ending coming one way or another and these are incredibly predictable. That said, it's definitely worth a flip through just to see the 1940s comic art.
renatasnacks's review
2.0
UHH maybe only worth reading if you have mad nostalgia for Golden Age Batman. Or have to read Golden Age Batman for your comics class. Basically, kitschy and moderately entertaining but if it hadn't been for class I probably would have stopped after 30 pages or so. The storytelling just doesn't really hold up.
Please don't murder me, Batman fans.
Please don't murder me, Batman fans.
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