Batman #19 - Story 2
August 11, 1943
"Atlantis Goes to War"
Well, there had to be a story that would eventually just bore me and this was it. It's a science fiction story and I don't care for Batman being involved in those (mind you, I did really enjoy the recent story of Dan Callendar, the man from the future) as it takes away from the more noir aspect of the character and just makes him a typical comic book character of the time.
The basic premise is that Batman learns that Atlantis exists and is being used by the Nazis as a secret base to hide their submarines. Basically, Batman and Robin rescue a sea captain after his ship is sunk by a submarine. They take him on board the Batplane and follow the sub through a whirlpool that drags them to Atlantis where they are sentenced to death by the rulers of Atlantis, a brother and sister around Robin's age, who have been fooled by the Nazis into believing America is the evil empire.
But the young girl sees the good in Robin and when he gets a chance to escape, she helps him to free Batman to turn the tables on the Nazis, even after Robin is forced to knocked out the boy. Sadly, the sea captain is killed by the Nazis in the chaos.
Batman and Robin return to the surface once the Nazis are ejected from the kingdom, promising to keep Atlantis a secret. Honestly, I glossed through this story. The one thing I kept expecting to see was Aquaman, but my understanding of how DC Comics worked back then (which is limited) is that there were actually two companies running concurrently, which is why you seldom see Batman or Superman in the Justice Society stories.
