13 Fabulous BATMAN Tales: An EDMOND HAMILTON Birthday Celebration
A BIRTHDAY SALUTE bounty from the Golden and Silver Ages… By PETER BOSCH Edmond Hamilton was one of last century’s greatest science-fiction novel writers. He was also one of the best comic book scribes that ever worked for DC (for 25 years, from 1941 to 1966). In past years, I’ve written of his work on the Superman titles, as well as his Superman/Batman/Robin team-up stories for World’s Finest Comics. So, it is about time I do the same for the decade and a half he came up with some very fun, and some very serious, scripts for the Gotham Guardian in Batman, Detective Comics, and World’s Finest (before Batman and Superman teamed up). Of course, probably the most famous of his Batman stories was the introduction of Batwoman 70 years ago, in Detective Comics #233 (July 1956): However, I sincerely believe there were many others, just as entertaining, so here are 13 of my favorites in celebration of his birthday (born October 21, 1904). In chronological order, by cover date. Enjoy! WARNING: SPOILERS FOR DECADES-OLD COMIC BOOKS AHEAD! — 1. “Killer for Hire!” World’s Finest Comics #34 (May-June 1948) contains one of Hamilton’s earliest and most powerful Batman stories. The tale opens with the ending, a corpse on a slab, a toe tag saying he is “Unidentified” and “Shot by Police, resisting arrest.” The story then looks back at the life of Jim Durfee, a psychotic youth who loves using guns and dreams of killing so he can see people scream and fall over dead. It is not long after that he starts his life of crime, stealing and then cold bloodedly murdering the victims so they can’t talk. As an adult, he becomes a hired assassin at $1,000 per assignment. After Gotham’s district attorney is killed, Batman learns the assassinations were arranged by leaving the money at a specific location with a note saying the name of the person to be killed. In disguise, Batman drops off the cash with the name of the victim — Bruce Wayne. Bruce arranges it so Durfee fails, shaking the killer’s confidence. He plants an item in the newspaper that he will be opening the county fair, which the assassin reads. Durfee sets himself up in a tower — but Batman and Robin are ready for him. Realizing it’s a trap, he...
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