Who's Who Scans 85/02 (Part 2)

Who's Who: The Definitive Directory of the DC Universe (1985) 2

Apr 1985

07/11/21 - Page 11 / Batman I

This is the Batman of Earth-2 who eventually married Selina Kyle and is the father of the Huntress (Helena Wayne). He became Police Commissioner of Gotham City after he retired from his role as Batman. He was killed in the late 1970s.

There is no mention of Alfred in this entry but he is present in one of the images. Bruce Wayne was raised by his Uncle Philip Wayne after his parents were killed. The Earth-2 version of Uncle Philip made his one and only appearance in comic books more than a year after this issue of Who’s Who in Secret Origins 6 (Sep 1986). Very confusing.

07/12/21 - Page 12 / Batman II

This is the Batman of Earth-1. There are a number of differences between him and his Earth-2 counterpart. He was adopted by his Uncle Philip but he was raised by Mrs. Chilton, Philip Wayne’s housekeeper and the mother of Joe Chill, the man who murdered Bruce’s parents.

The first appearance of Batman II, according to Who’s Who, was in Detective Comics 327 (May 1964). This was the first issue of Detective Comics after Julius Schwartz took over as Executive Editor. This issue was supposed to be, according to the DC database, the first issue featuring Batman’s new look but that occurred in World’s Finest 141 (May 1964).

The first appearance of Batman II, according to the DC database, is Superman 76 (May 1952). According to DC Database this is considered to be the first appearance of the Earth-1 versions of Batman and Robin (Dick Grayson) because Batman and Robin are meeting Superman for the first time and the Earth-2 versions of the same characters had previously met the Man of Steel.

There are a couple other possible first appearances mentioned in the DC Database entry for the the Batman of Earth-1. One fact that pokes a hole in the argument for Detective Comics 327 being the first appearance is the fact that Batman’s first appearance as a member of the Justice League of America occurred in The Brave and the Bold 28 (Mar 1960), four years prior.

There is no mention of Bruce Wayne’s butler, Alfred Pennyworth, in this entry.

07/13/21 - Page 13 - Batman’s Utility Belt, Batmobile

Batman’s Utility Belt first appeared at the same time as Batman but in its first appearance it’s only purpose was to hold up his pants. The first couple gadgets (Batrope, glass pellets of choking gas) that were housed in the belt were introduced in the next couple issues of Detective Comics. There is no distinction made between the utility belts of the Batman of Earth-1 and the Batman of Earth-2.

The Batmobile has been upgraded and redesigned numerous times. I could not find a count as to how many different versions of the Batmobile there have been. Batman drove Bruce Wayne’s car, a red convertible, prior to the introduction of the Batmobile.

07/14/21 - Page 14 - Batplane, Batboat

There are 4 pictures of the Batplane on this page but just one of the Batboat. According to the DC database both the Batplane and the Batboat are able to transform into underwater submersible vehicles.

07/15/21 - Page 15 - Bat-Mite

My first and only exposure to Bat-Mite is the Batman and Robin cartoon from the 1970s.

07/16/21 - Page 16 - Batwoman

Most but not all of Batwoman’s appearances were in Batman, Batman Family, Detective Comics, and World’s Finest. Batwoman of Earth-1 was killed in Detective Comics 485 (Sep 1979) by Bronze Tiger. All appearances of Batwoman up to that point are considered to be the Batwoman of Earth-1. Batwoman of Earth-2 appeared in two comic books: Brave and the Bold 182 (Jan 1982) and 197 (Apr 1983).

The first appearance of the Batwoman of Earth-1 is yet another nail in the coffin of the theory that the Batman of Earth-1 first appeared in Detective Comics 327.

07/17/21 - Page 17 - Beautiful Dreamer

This is the first of four consecutive entries drawn by Jack Kirby and Greg Theakston.

07/18/21 - Page 18 - Ben Boxer

Ben Boxer first appeared in Kamandi. Almost all his appearances were in the pages of Kamandi. He has two companions who, like him, were from the scientific community known as Tracking Site: Steve and Renzi. They did not get entries in Who’s Who.

07/19/21 - Page 19 - Big Barda

Big Barda first appeared in Mister Miracle 4 (Oct 1971). Her first appearance outside of the pages of that series (according to my research) were in Brave and the Bold 112 (May 1974), Brave and the Bold 128 (Jul 1976), and DC Comics Presents 12 (Aug 1979). All of those comics feature Mister Miracle teaming up with either Batman or Superman. Barda appears on the cover to Brave and the Bold 128 (but not the other two comics), dressed in civilian attire.

07/20/21 - Page 20 - Big Bear

Big Bear is the pilot of the Forever People’s Super-Cycle. The Forever People showed up briefly on the Young Justice cartoon. I don’t think the Forever People left the Super-Cycle behind but Young Justice had a Super-Cycle of their own.

07/21/21 - Page 21 - Big Sir

I learned everything I know about Big Sir from reading Who’s Who. He is the first member of the Flash’s Rogues Gallery in alphabetical order but he was also a fairly recent addition at the time that this issue of Who’s Who was published. He had only appeared in 5 issues of the Flash prior to this entry in Who’s Who.

Thoughts

The printing of this issue seems much better than that of the previous one. There are considerably fewer words that are hard to read.

The artist with the most solo credits, so far, is Marshall Rogers. He drew three pages. There are 7 other artists who are tied in second place with two entries a piece: Eduardo Barreto, Ernie Colón, Dick Giordano, Dave Gibbons, Gil Kane, Jerry Ordway, George Perez. Dick Giordano leads all artists with work on 8 entries but he collaborated with other artists on 6 of them.

I finished rescanning all the pages that I had previously scanned which were not up to my current standards. I rescanned all of the first issue of the OHotMU and half of the first issue of Who’s Who.