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Detective Comics #44


September 3, 1940

"The Land Behind the Light"


Eh. I've been praising the last few issues as being stories worthy to be in a comic called Detective because of the high mystery element. This story goes way off the rails. If it had to happen at all, and it shouldn't, better it was in the pages of Batman. I'm not going into a blow by blow account of this story suffice to say that Dick waits up late one night for Batman to return.


When he does, he has Dick put on his costume as the two follow up a lead to a case Batman is working on. They arrive at spooky house where they are met by a Dr. Marko who has developed a machine that can take them into the Fourth Dimension. (Wonder if there will ever be a machine that can take us into the 13th Dimension - besides a web browser, that is.). And to prove himself, Marko disappears. The two follow in one of the few interesting point in this story, a split panel showing their journey.


From there, the story devolves into a silly farce right as the two are caught in a war between the "giants" and the "midgets". After escaping from the giants' captivity, Batman aids the little people in their war by giving them various tricks and fighting techniques that repel the giants, but not before one grabs Robin. It looks like it's over for the Boy Wonder when...


...he wakes up. It was a dream. The whole thing was a dream. And what a waste of a story. I swear, if I were a kid in 1940, I'd be griping about the "crummy luck" in picking up this dog. But instead, I'm a 50-something guy griping about it on a blog. Ands why didn't we get the continuing road trip we saw Bruce and Dick on in the last issue? That would have been more interesting.


The promo for next issue promises back to reality. I sure hope so. I know we have a slog of stories coming up as Batman has to be toned down thanks to people such as Frederick Wertham, but that's still a ways to go. Stay tuned, Citizens!

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