“Yes!  And that somehow our other selves are elsewhere — on some strange world!”

Batman #146 featured Bat-Girl, Robin, and half of Batman and Batwoman sent to other planets.  It’s nice to see that, even split in half, they have spot-on instincts.

I believe this storyline was referenced in Neil Gaiman’s Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader? story.

An alien wanders around Gotham in an ‘anti-gravity sled’, I guess because ‘space ship’ or ‘plane’ sounded too old-fashioned, and hits the crimefighters with rays that do anything and everything the story might need.

Why the story needs them split in half, I still don’t know.

There’s not much Betty in here. Mostly she’s around long enough for Batwoman to tease her about her crush on Robin, and then she’s hit with the ray.

Batman and Batwoman’s other selves are sent to an alien world.  Being pure energy, they destroy everything around them, and deal with it by running away from things that are being destroyed, and then being surprised when the things they run to are also destroyed by their energy.  At last they meet a beast that sucks the energy out of them, killing them slowly.  Their earth bodies try to get their energy back, but it looks like they’re not able to.

Cue the speeches!

“If I must die I want it to be in your arms.  Oh Batman!  You know I love you.  Dying wouldn’t be so bad if I knew you loved me, too.”

I’m calling bullshit on that one, Kathy.

“I do love you!  I never wanted to admit it before!”

“Oh Batman!”

At this point using code names is just tacky.

Betty doesn’t really play a role until ‘Chapter 3’,  in which she and Robin are transported to the alien’s dimension.  The aliens are stealing supplies for a superweapon.  Bat-Girl asks if she can put on lipstick.

“Ha ha!  A female is  the same in any world!”

I’m beginning to think that these comics are like episodes of Mad Men; drawn up in modern times and deliberately sprinkled with outrageous sexism just so readers can see that times have changed.

Anyway, Bat-Girl’s lipstick is a weapon, and she uses it to let them escape.  They run through a forest, fighting monsters. and flirting.  There’s even a kiss.  I’m impressed, old comics.  In modern times we’d need a stack of dead bodies before any character touches the lips of any other character.

It turns out that Bat-Girl and Robin win by splashing the aliens with water, making the movie Signs a rip-off of both this comic and the Wizard of Oz. Batman and Batwoman overcome the machine by tipping it over.

And what about the declaration of love?   “I thought we were going to die.  And I wanted to make your last moments happy ones!”

Good to know some things never change. Bruce is always a jerk for no reason.

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Posted in reviews by Esther Inglis-Arkell |