Biography of Batman (Earth-Two), 1939

The following is a **biography of Batman for the year of 1939**.

## Biography

### Alfred Stryker and Frenchy Blake

By mid-1939, Batman's vigilantism was beginning to become a concern for the police of Gotham City, particularly Bruce Wayne's friend, Commissioner James Gordon. Wayne followed Gordon along to a murder scene, where Lambert, the owner of the Apex Chemical company, had been stabbed. His son offered up three of his business associates as people of interest: Steven Crane, Paul Rogers, and Alfred Stryker. Crane called the police and notified them that Lambert had told him yesterday of an anonymous death threat he had received, which Crane also got the next day. Wayne feigned boredom as an excuse to leave the scene and become Batman. He made his way to Crane's home, where he had already been killed, but Batman managed to intercept his killers, a pair of thugs carrying a contract. It seemed that Alfred Stryker had struck a deal with Lambert, Crane, and Rogers to buy out Apex with a series of long-term payments. Batman surmised that Stryker was now killing them in order to gain control of the company without paying, while also gathering the contracts to account for evidence. He made haste for Stryker's home, where Rogers had come to him hoping to discuss the situation. Batman caught Stryker in the act of trying to kill Rogers, and punched him into a large vat of acid, killing him. Batman left as quickly as he entered, leaving Rogers bewildered but grateful. Shortly afterward, Batman busted up Frenchy Blake's gang following a huge jewel heist, delivering him with a signed confession to the Gotham police.

### The extortions of Doctor Death

Batman received an anonymous note defying him to come to a listed address and stop the note's writer from committing a murder. Batman arrived at the location, highly alert, where he was attacked by several thugs. One of them, a large Indian man named Jabah, told Batman that "Doctor Death" sent his regards and shot him. Batman escaped with a bullet to the shoulder, and went to the doctor to have his wound patched up. The next day, Bruce spotted Jabah on the street blowing a strange mist into a man's face. As Jabah left, Bruce covered the man's face to prevent him from breathing in the mist, naturally suspecting that it was dangerous. Indeed, the mist was a deadly pollen formula developed by Doctor Death to kill wealthy people who would not pay him tribute—he had set up the trap on Batman knowing that he would try to stop his plans. Bruce trailed Jabah and saw him enter a mansion, revealing Doctor Death's hideout. He donned the Batman costume and entered, taking down Jabah and confronting the mad scientist himself. Doctor Death fled into his laboratory, where Batman caused a collision of various chemicals that created a large fire, trapping Death in the blaze and seemingly killing him.

However, Bruce couldn't shake the suspicion that Doctor Death had survived. Indeed, posing as a reporter, he learned of a wealthy man named Jones who had been poisoned after receiving a threatening extortion note from Doctor Death. As it turned out, the man and his widow were largely in debt, but she did have a stash of diamonds stored away that Doctor Death would surely come for. That night, Batman left Mrs. Jones's safe unlocked, open for any potential robbers. Another of Doctor Death's underlings arrived to take them, and Batman trailed him. The man dropped off the diamonds at a pawn shop, and Batman confronted the proprietor. The man turned out to be Doctor Death wearing a lifelike mask—underneath he was noticeably scarred from the fire. Batman bound him and notified the police of his location, leaving a note behind to ensure that they returned the jewels to Mrs. Jones.

### Adventures in Europe

While patrolling the streets of Gotham, Batman spotted his fiancé Julie Madison roaming like a zombie and attacking a man. Batman grabbed her and snapped her out of her apparent case of hypnosis, and told her to "tell Bruce" what had happened. The next day, Bruce took Julie to the doctor, who recommended that she travel to Paris to put her mind at rest—but Bruce noticed that he himself seemed hypnotized. When Julie boarded a ship to Paris, Batman followed in his Batgyro, and landed on the ship to find a man in a red hood and cloak, the Monk, assailing Julie. The Monk's hypnotic powers proved to be a dire threat, and Batman retreated. He continued to follow them to Paris, and eventually found the Monk in a castle, but fell into a series of traps. The Monk bragged that he would bring Julie to his castle in Hungary and feed her to his werewolves. Batman managed to escape and free Julie, taking her with him to Hungary to defeat the Monk once and for all. Batman and Julie stayed at a hotel in Hungary, where he came across a vampire woman named Dala who claimed to also want to stop the Monk. She led him to his castle there, but it was a trap—she and the Monk led Batman into his keep, where he revealed that they were both werewolves in addition to vampires, and he now planned on making Julie a werewolf herself. He used long-range hypnosis to bring Julie to the castle, and threw Batman in a pit of wolves. He escaped unscathed, and found that the other three were all sleeping. He loaded his gun with silver bullets and killed the Monk and Dala as they slept before spiriting away with Julie.

Julie returned home, while Batman remained in Paris for a short time. He met wealthy siblings Karel and Charles Maire, who had been accosted by the Duc D'Orterre over their money and his desire for Karel. The Duc had burned off Charles's face, leaving it a blank expressionless space. Batman found a number of oddities in the Duc's stronghold, including a "garden" with flowers bearing human faces who pleaded for escape. Batman eventually chased the Duc into his car, sending him off of a cliff to his death.

### The Scarlet Horde

One day, Gotham was attacked by a large red zeppelin that devastated a portion of the city with a powerful "death-ray." A voice through a speaker on the craft demanded no resistance or it would attack again, and declared its allegiance to the Scarlet Horde. Later, looking to stop whoever was responsible before they could strike again, Bruce found a newspaper clipping on a mad scientist named Carl Kruger who had been released from an asylum and had apparently started work on a new death-ray. He also believed himself to be a reincarnation of Napoleon Bonaparte. Batman paid a visit to Kruger's home and eavesdropped on him speaking with his underlings long enough to confirm that he was behind the dirigible attack. Batman attacked him, but the paranoid Kruger was well protected and managed to escape with his henchmen. The next day, Batman trailed one of Kruger's lieutenants to the dirigible's secret hangar, where he attempted to destroy it, but Kruger again proved to be one step ahead of him and shot him, and forcing Batman to retreat. He treated his wounds and instead synthesized a chemical solution that would counteract the dirigible's death-ray, and coated the Batplane with it. The next day, the dirigible attempted to attack the city once more, but Batman flew his Batplane to it and confronted it. It fired upon him to no effect thanks to his creation. Kruger himself flew a biplane out of the dirigible as Batman steered his plane directly into the balloon, jumping out as the two collided and dramatically exploded in the sky. Batman landed on Kruger's plane, forcing it to crash into the river while he dove safely into the water. Kruger was confirmed dead later that day, and his associates were arrested.

## Notes

1. ↑ Batman's city is erroneously listed as New York.
2. ↑ Despite the release order, *Detective Comics* #34 clearly takes place between issues 32 and 33 based on contextual information.

## References

1. ↑ *Detective Comics* #27a: "The Case of the Chemical Syndicate." (May 1939) Finger, Bill (w), Kane, Bob (art).
2. ↑ *Detective Comics* #28a: "Frenchy Blake's Jewel Gang." (June 1939) Finger, Bill (w), Kane, Bob (art).
3. ↑ *Detective Comics* #29a: "The Batman Meets Doctor Death." (July 1939) Fox, Gardner (w), Kane, Bob (art).
4. ↑ *Detective Comics* #30a: "The Return of Doctor Death." (August 1939) Fox, Gardner (w), Kane, Bob (p), Kane, Bob and Sheldon Moldoff (i).
5. ↑ *Detective Comics* #31a: "Batman Versus the Vampire, Part One." (September 1939) Fox, Gardner and Bill Finger (w), Kane, Bob (p), Kane, Bob and Sheldon Moldoff (i).
6. ↑ *Detective Comics* #32a: "Batman Versus the Vampire, Part Two." (October 1939) Fox, Gardner (w), Kane, Bob (p), Kane, Bob and Sheldon Moldoff (i).
7. ↑ *Detective Comics* #34a: "Peril in Paris." (December 1939) Fox, Gardner (w), Kane, Bob (p), Kane, Bob and Sheldon Moldoff (i).
8. ↑ *Detective Comics* #33a: "The Batman Wars Against the Dirigible of Doom." (November 1939) Fox, Gardner (w), Kane, Bob (p), Kane, Bob and Sheldon Moldoff (i).