Batman (1940) 300

Batman (1940) 300

Jun 1978

The Last Batman Story--?

by David V. Reed, Walt Simonson, Dick Giordano, Shelly Leferman, Jerry Serpe, Julius Schwartz

Batman and Robin team up to solve a mystery. This story is set in the future of whatever current continuity was in 1978. Batman travels to the Columbia Space Hospital but that’s just part of the story. Most of it takes place on Earth.

This was my first time reading this issue but I’ve had it in my collection for over 30 years, I think. I thought this was a story about the Batman and Robin of Earth-2. I don’t know where I got that notion from. Maybe it was because of Robin’s costume on the cover. It looks similar to the one that Robin of Earth-2 was wearing about this time in the pages of All-Star Comics.

I discovered that there were pieces of the comic missing when I took it out of the bag. I have no recollection of this fact. Most of the first page was cut out. The bottom half of the last story page was also removed. I searched on line and found scans of the missing pages. There are two pages of letters from fans but half of one of those pages is missing in my copy.

This is an underwhelming story. The cover blurb is mostly an afterthought. It isn’t addressed until the Epilogue. The villains are very much forgettable, villains of the month. The story is told very much through the narration and dialogue.

Alfred and Commissioner Gordon make brief appearances. Gordon is retired and balding. Alfred doesn’t look too much different than he usually did in this era. Dick Grayson is married and has twin sons but they aren’t shown nor is his wife who remains nameless. Bruce Wayne is still single but he’s thinking about proposing to a woman who also is unnamed.

This issue came out about the same time as Action Comics 484. I wonder if they were considering doing something parallel to the Mr. and Mrs. Superman stories that were kicked off by the story in Action 484? I could see this story being the beginning of something like that but I don’t think it was.

I like the way my copy of this comic book smells but that’s about as good as it gets.