Detective Comics #29

Who do you think the first villain for Batman who wasn't just some gang leader? Joker? Catwoman? Penguin? Riddler? Two-Face? If you thought any of those you were wrong! The first super villain that Batman fought was a odd fellow named Dr. Death who has made appearances (though very few) outside of this comic.

So the story begins with Death reading about this hero named, The Batman. Wanting to kill Batman he sends a message to the personal message column to the Daily Paper (the name of the Gotham Gazette back then) demanding for Batman to come and receive a letter addressed to John Jones (bet Martian Manhunter wasn't too happy about his name being used). Of course, the letter tells of the doctor's plans and Batman goes off to stop him. That night the Batman goes to Death's penthouse and gets into a fight which was ended with a shot to arm on Batman. Batman then escapes, goes to his doctor as Bruce Wayne which contained my favorite line in any comic! So Bruce's reasoning was that he shot himself and when the doctor asks him why his response is..... I do funny thing sometimes.

Anyway moving on, Dr. Death then orders his servant to go kill someone for him. Bruce Wayne sees this happens and saves the victim. Bruce then follows the servant to Death's mansion, changes into Batman, and breaks in. As he enters he takes down the servant and then chases the professor. The story ends with a fire starting around Dr. Death in which Batman just stands there and watches. Of course back then Batman wasn't as nice and didn't really care for the lives of the criminals he fought. This story overall was a good one and a nice attempt of creating a villain for Batman. The pencils by Bob Kane were good though a bit crude which was probably because Bob was still getting used to drawing the Batman. Bob Kane also did the inking of the story. Overall it was a great story and was entertaining.