Len Wein’s Batman: Batman 308

Writer Len Wein’s second issue of Batman, ‘There’ll Be a Cold Time in the Old Town Tonight,” brings back an old foe: Mr. Freeze. But this isn’t your TV’s Freeze. No, this is an odd hybrid of what came before and what Paul Dini did so masterfully with Freeze in Batman: The Animated Series.

But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Based on the splash page, Jacob Riker sees Batman swinging near his balcony window and pines for the Dark Knight Detective’s help. Because Mr. Freeze is at Riker’s door. The criminal is very unhappy and decides to make an example of Riker. As Wein writes, “And Jacob Riker’s final scream is mercifully brief!”

The Bat and the Cat

The next day, Bruce Wayne is working in his office when he receives an interesting visitor: Selina Kyle, AKA The Catwoman. She doesn’t know Bruce and Batman are one in the same. She’s done her time and now wants to invest some money in Wayne Enterprises. Bruce initially balks, but then relents. Not before pissing off the former criminal and allowing her a cagey smile.

No sooner does Bruce lament his predicament—even ordering Lucius Fox to check out Selina’s story—than the Bat Signal graces the Gotham sky. Batman’s on the case. When he meets up with Commissioner Gordon, the Caped Crusader sees Jacob Riker frozen to death in a block of ice.

Meanwhile…on the 13th Floor

An older man named McVee enters another office building across town. A young woman--who turns out to be his girlfriend, Hildy--greets him and hands him a parka. Inside his special lair, Mr. Freeze awaits. Unlike Riker who refused Freeze’s request, McVee is all in. In a bid to make himself immortal, McVee lays down in a clear coffin. Cryogenic gases fill the chamber. When the doors open, McVee is no longer himself. He is now an ice zombie.

Hey. It’s 1978.

That's yet another failure. Freeze wants to find a way to convert Hildy into something like himself so they can live happily ever after. She, however, isn't buying it. She's already planning on double-crossing the criminal.

Interlude 

In S.T.A.R. Labs, there's a figure on an operating room, shrouded with a sheet. The scientists chat about how the Wayne Foundation made it possible for the body to be delivered. One scientist utters the words "Yea, this new radiation treatment will either cure him--or kill him."

No sooner are the words out of his mouth than the figure rises up, breaks the bonds holding him on the table, and proceeds to lay waste to the lab.

Until he falls dead.

What? Fear not. All will be explained.

Tracking Down Freeze

Through a contact--in the 1970s, it seemed every issue had Batman talk to some street man to get information; this time, it's "Benny the Buzz"--Batman sneaks into a building owned by Mr. Freeze. Benny was right. Batman walks into a trap. It seemed Benny telephoned Freeze before Bats even arrived.

The Caped Crusader leaps into action against the ice zombies which Mr. Freeze calls...wait for it...his ice pack. Yup. If you've ever fallen while ice skating, you'll know ice is hard. Batman finds out the hard way after socking one of the zombies in the jaw...and nearly shattering his knuckles.

The fight is short and Bats is thrown in the same cryo-tank as the unfortunate Mr. McVee. (Think he was named after the husband-and-wife team in Fleetwood Mac?) Freeze doesn't want to make the same mistake he did with McVee on his lady love. Despite our hero's attempts to get out, he nonetheless is rendered into an ice zombie!

The Twist

Now, we know Batman has something up his sleeve. He's already revealed to the reader he applied insulating salve to protect him against the cold air of Freeze's hideout. That's the answer, right? Well, partially.

In a small soliloquy, Hildy talks about her plans. She also marvels at how handsome Batman is. She goes so far as to kiss him.

And knows the truth at the exact moment Freeze confronts her for her double-dealing. But she can't get a word in edgewise because Freeze won't let her. Batman comes to her rescue. Freeze is dumbfounded. How could Batman not be a zombie. Well, our hero disabled muct of the cryogenic hoses before he even stepped foot in the hideout!

A fight quickly ensues. Batman can't beat the zombies so he turns his attention to Freeze. As you can see from the cover image, this version of Freeze has a costume and a glass helmet. Batman shatters the glass, the only means of communication Freeze has to his ice pack. They stop moving. Batman leaps to action. Hildy picks up the damaged Freeze Gun and aims it at both men. She pulls the trigger.

The freeze ray backfires. She's frozen solid. "Your Hildy wanted to stay young and beautiful forever," Batman says to Mr. Freeze as they leave. "And it looks like she's finally gotten her way!"

The Tag Ending

Remember that sheet-shrouded figure? Well, the same pair of scientists now stand over a freshly dug grave. They name the dead man: Mark Desmond. They lament not being able to help poor Desmond, but now he at least has peace. They depart.

Then, the earth begins to rumble. Dirt shakes. And a thick pair of hands emerges from the ground. Mark Desmond is alive!

Thoughts

I don't know about you, but having what is basically a prelude to the next issue buried (natch) in this issue is pretty nifty. It's good storytelling, but it's also good marketing. What kid in December 1978 is not going to search for that next issue?

Wein's writing really shines in the sidebars. With the comic medium, you've got pictures. The writer doesn't need to say a lot, at least as it appears on the page. But Wein does more. He adds depth to these panels, whether it be descriptions of the city or the inner thinking of Bruce Wayne and Batman. When Wein came over to DC from Marvel, Batman was the character for which he wanted to write. He adds more than simply a comic adventure. He helps to reveal the man behind the hero.

The art is by the combo team of John Calnan and Dick Giordano. They make a good pair. Their illustrations of both women are very good and, oddly, quite sensual. How they stage certain sequences is also well done, almost like a movie. All in all, Wein, Calnan, and Giordano produced a good issue.

See Also

Batman 307

Len Wein's Batman: Batman 307

As a kid in the late 1970s, comics were one of my go-to things (Star Wars, KISS, and early Star Trek fandom were the other main loves of my life) and Batman was my favorite. Still being a young kid in late elementary, I didn’t pay attention to the names of the writers or artists. I just bought the books and read them, ingesting the stories over and over again.

When I review the covers of my issues of Batman, it turns out some of my favorites were all scripted by the same guy: Len Wein. Unknown to me at the time, Wein had already co-created Swamp Thing for DC and rebooted the X-Men over at Marvel, including the co-creation of Wolverine, Storm, Nightcrawler, and Colossus. Nope, all I cared about was good Batman stories, and for a stretch there in late 1978 and all through 1979, Len Wein was the monthly writer (mostly) for Batman.
With the cover date for Wein’s first issue being January 1979 (although it hit the spinner racks a month or so earlier), I thought it would be fun to re-read Wein’s Batman run forty years later and see how it holds up. Spoiler: his run is among my favorites of all-time. In fact, Wein wrote one of my favorite all-time comic stories, Batman vs. The Incredible Hulk. But that’s for a later post.

Speaking of holding up, Batman and Bruce Wayne in the 1970s is my favorite version of the character. Dick Grayson is off to college, leaving Bruce to move out of Wayne Manor and into Gotham City proper. He takes up residence at the Wayne Foundation building, and operates there for most of the decade. It is one of the neatest buildings in comicdom, what with the giant tree in the middle of the building, which secretly houses an elevator to the basement where the Batmobile is kept. For a young boy like me, this was the coolest thing ever.

The building shows up in Batman issue 307, but not before in intriguing two-page prologue. A beggar woman is asking for spare change. A man in a trench coat, fedora, and scarf approaches and gives her two gold pieces. The next page, she falls dead, right under the title, “Dark Messenger of Mercy!” The artist in this issue is John Calnan and Dick Giordano.

The first time we see Bruce Wayne, he is in his office, staring out the window. Next to him is Lucius Fox in his debut. I’m not sure the thought process Wein went through to create Fox, but the character has been around for these last forty years. Morgan Freeman played him in the Christopher Nolan Batman movies. From the chit-chat between Fox and Wayne, however, it’s clear Wayne has not shared his secret identity. The two men talk about business and name drop a man named Gregorian Falstaff (love the name) who, according to Wayne, “He’s rumored to have have a fortune which makes mine look like so much lunch money.”

Darkness literally falls over Gotham in one short panel, and Wayne excuses himself. He tags up with Alfred who has the Batman costume at the ready. As he swings off the top of the Foundation building, Batman makes a comment to Alfred: “When I start making value judgements—deciding who’s important enough to avenge—it’ll be time to hang up my mask forever.” Here in 2019, with the recent passing of Stan Lee, many folks mentioned Lee’s strong streak of social justice running through his words. Here, in 1979, Len Wein does the same thing for Batman.

Meanwhile...at police headquarters, a man named Quentin Conroy is livid. He wants Gotham’s finest to help him find stolen property, gold coins to be exact. Unbeknownst to both men, Batman is sitting in the same room, legs casually crossed, fingers steepled. The Caped Crusader in convinced he can find Conroy’s missing money, especially since two of the coins turned up on that dead woman’s corpse.

Street level, Batman approaches a sleep bum and there is a funny couple of panels. In the boxed panels, Wein writes “Without question, the Batman is an impressive figure. His unexpected visage, looming large out of the darkness, is often viewed with admiration...or hostility...or outright fear…” “But rarely indifference.” This as the bum goes back to sleep. See? You can have humor in a Batman story. Anyway, an Irishman named Shamrock (natch) approaches and asks the hero if he needs helps. When Batman says he’s investigating the murder of the woman, Shamrock knew her. He volunteers to escort Batman down into the sewers to meet some folks who might have seen something.

What Batman sees is a group of people living in an underground tunnel, the area kept warm by the steam pipes. Here, Batman meets Slugger (from the ‘48 Gotham Giants baseball team), Poet (Shakespeare of the sewers), and Good Queen Bess. Through dialogue alone, Wein gives these characters their accents and particular ways of speaking. Shamrock always says, “Laddie,” while Slugger talks like a New Yorker: “Pleased to meet ‘cha!” Batman learns there have been other deaths...and Queen Bess actually has two of the coins with her. The Dark Knight Detective ascertains the gold coins are laced with a contact poison, absorbed through the skin.

No sooner does Batman make this discovery than a piercing scream fills the bowels of Gotham. Another woman is being attacked! It’s the man with the fedora and red scarf. Batman leaps to action. A fight ensues, and Batman gets himself whacked by Scarfman’s cane. In the melee, two things happen. One, Scarfman’s hat and scarf fall away, revealing a face the citizens of the underworld know. Two, Scarfman’s cane cracked a steam pipe. It’s about to blow. So Batman gets between the pipe and the people. It explodes, hurling Batman across the room.

Later, Batman’s “new tattered friends” say Scarfman looks just like one of their own: “Limehouse” John Francis Conroy, a man who used to sleep with them before just disappearing. Being the detective, Batman soon finds his way to Quentin Conroy’s house (because Batman can get into any room in Gotham, right?). Heated words are exchanged and Quentin confesses John Francis was his father. He kept the gold coins as a remembrance of his father, a man who ran out on his family while Quentin was a kid. The modern pressures of the world drove John Francis to the streets, supposedly dying in a gutter.

But Batman isn’t so sure.

The next night, we see Scarfman prowling about. He gives coins to a man who extends his hand...the gloved hand of The Batman! Oddly, Batman is wearing a sling, proof not only did the steam explosion hurt him worse than we saw three pages ago, but reminding readers the Caped Crusader is really just a man, a man who can get injured. A second battle commences, but Batman’s shoulder hampers him. Scarfman swings the cane too wide, allowing Batman to come in underneath him. A powerful punch to the mid-section topples Scarfman. The odd cast of characters are also there, cheering on Batman. Scarfman questions their motives. All he wants is to give these street people some mercy and peace. But “the peace of the grave” is something they shun. Just as they shun him.
Scarfman’s mind snaps. He accuses Batman of turning these “friends of his” away from him. His face is misshapen, resembling John Francis Conroy, but a few panels later, it is revealed to be Quentin all along. Quentin, looking almost like a young boy.

Wein wraps up the entire story in three thin panels. We see Quentin being led away and Commissioner Gordon asking Batman about the clue. It was the heels of Quentin’s shoes, something we saw a few pages before. Many of the 1970s stories had clues the reader could follow, and it’ fun to go back and notice certain things you might have missed the first go-round.

Wein wrote a pretty decent script. I enjoy the non-super-villain aspect of these kinds of stories. Kind of like a breather before we get to the next issue featuring Mr. Freeze. Wein brings Batman’s humanity to the fore, both in how he protects the homeless but also, at the end, when he hopes young Quentin will receive the help he needs. He’s a true hero to all, discriminating toward none.

What did y’all think about this story?