Sat 20 Apr 2019
Comic Book Stories I’m Reading: BATMAN “The Jungle Cat-Queen.”
Posted by Steve under Comic Books I'm Reading[5] Comments
BATMAN “The Jungle Cat-Queen.” Story: Edmond Hamilton (uncredited). Artwork: Dick Sprang & Charles Paris. First published in Detective Comics #211, 1954. [Also in this issue: Roy Raymond: “Menace from Outer Space!” // Captain Compass: “The World’s Deadliest Cargo!” // Mysto: “The Forbidden Trick!”] Reprinted in The Greatest Batman Stories Ever Told, edited by Mike Gold (uncredited), DC Comics, trade paperback, 1988.
Batman and Robin’s adversary in this story is Catwoman, a/k/a Selina Kyle, a costumed burglar who has had a special quasi-romantic relationship with Batman for many years over many different identities, first appearing in Batman #1. As the “Jungle Cat-Queen,” she and her cat plane are followed soon after her latest robbery by Batman and Robin in their Batplane to her hideaway on an almost isolated jungle island somewhere in the tropics.
The island is not quite abandoned, however. A pair of thuggish men are operating what they call a jewel mine there, and they may (or may not) somehow be in cahoots with Catwoman.
In 1954 comic books were far more talkier than they are now, as I hope one of the images added to this review will show. You could, in fact, learn to read from comic books, and I speak from experience.
The ambivalent relationship between Batman and Catwoman is fully demonstrated in this story. When Batman is sent over a waterfall and presumably to his death, it is Catwoman who makes sure he has on him a silken cord and his emergency knife blade.
Unfortunately this was the final appearance of Catwoman for many years. Apparently the Comic Code came into effect soon after this issue came out, and portrayals of female criminals were somehow prohibited. Her next appearance didn’t happen until some twelve years later.
The story itself is kind of silly, but back in 1954, I wouldn’t have minded a bit. And to tell you the truth, I didn’t mind earlier today, either.
April 20th, 2019 at 4:30 am
Catwoman, fine. I grew up with kid of a “thing” for Catwoman. But whatever happened to Captain Compass?
April 20th, 2019 at 1:00 pm
In all their infinite wisdom, perhaps the folks running the Comic Code knew what they were doing. I imagine young schoolboys all across the country had a kind of a thing for Catwoman.
April 20th, 2019 at 1:08 pm
As for Captain Compass, there is no comic book character so obscure that you can’t find gobs of information about him or her on the Internet. He jumped around in several DC comics, starting in 1948 before sailing off to oblivion in 1955. It’s Mysto, Magician Detective who I don’t remember at all, and with a billing like that, you’d think I would.
April 20th, 2019 at 7:54 pm
The series deteriorated in the fifties to the point DC came close to cancelling BATMAN and DETECTIVE, luckily the “New Look” ushered in by artist Carmine Infantino helped save the books followed by a brief boom from the television series and finally the arrival of Denny O’Neil and artist Neal Adams which changed Batman to the Dark Knight we know today.
At its worst the comic was giving us silly things like multi colored Batmen for every occasion, aliens, lost worlds, dinosaurs, and a Bat-Family so extensive there was barely room for Batman in some stories. For several years the only decent Batman stories were the team ups with Superman in WORLD’S FINEST.
April 20th, 2019 at 11:29 pm
I don’t know when the Batman comics changed from pleasantly silly, as this one was, to outright stupid, which this one isn’t, but you’re right. There was a period of time during which the Batman stories were absolute drivel.
I’d stopped reading them by then, so I don’t have any memories of them, thank goodness.
As for the particular issue of DETECTIVE COMICS this Catwoman story was in, I may or may not have read it as a kid. Right around the time the Comics Code came in, the local supermarket nearest me stopped carrying DC comics.
Whether or not there was a connection, I don’t know, but I do remember going through severe withdrawal symptoms. When they started showing up again at the local Woolworth’s, I was ecstatic.
But in the meantime, circa 1954, there’s a whole year of the entire line of DC comics that I missed.