Batman Secrets Of The Batcave TPB
Publish date: August 2007

Writers: Various
Pencillers: Various
Inkers: Various
Cover: Alex Ross

When I was a kid, the Batcave seemed like a really cool place. Even though Superman was my favorite character, his Fortress of Solitude in the Arctic Circle and accessible only by use of a GIANT key was pretty much out of reach for an 8 year old. But an underground cave beneath a millionaire’s  mansion? Ahhh, THAT was closer to home!

Batman Secrets Of The Batcave TPB collects stories that center around exploits in the Batcave or about items in the Batcave ranging from Batman #12 published in 1942 to Bizarro Comics published in 2001. In between, we learn a lot (but not all) about the Dark Knight’s subterranean headquarters.

We open with “Brothers in Crime” which finds Batman and Robin strolling through the Hall of Trophies. Interestingly enough, the setting of this story (large window showing light steaming through it and casting shadows) and Batman’s own words (“…we’ll have to add a new wing to the place.”) seem to indicate that the trophy room is actually in Wayne Manor and not the Batcave.

“The Penny Plunders” tells the story behind the giant penny in the trophy room and the following story “Dinosaur Island” explains the presence of the giant T-Rex.

“The Thousand and One Trophies of Batman” clearly shows that the trophy room (now called the “Hall of Trophies”) has been moved to the Batcave, behind a huge wooden double door that looks like it would be more at home as an entrance to Wayne Manor. It also apparently records the first death in the trophy room when a villain is able to sneak in by hiding in a mummy’s sarcophagus, and then is killed by the sarcophagus while trying to murder Batman and Robin.

The next story, “The Man Behind the Red Hood” is an all-time favorite of most fans because it explains how the Joker became the Crown Prince of Crime. And the following story, “The Flying Batcave” from the early 1950′s shows Batman using modern science (and that Giant Penny) to monitor and fight crime after making a deal not to step foot in Gotham City for one week in order to get Robin back from kidnappers.

“The First Batman” details how Bruce Wayne’s father, Dr. Thomas Wayne, was the first Batman and  how that tied into the murder of Bruce’s parents by Joe Chill. This was a particularly enjoyable “behind the scenes” story that fleshes out the origin of Batman, much as the earlier “The Man Behind the Red Hood” does for the Joker.

In the same “origin” vein, “The 100 Batarangs of Batman” reveals how the Gotham Guardian came to use a batarang to fight crime and details many of the special-use batarangs that Batman has used over the years, including some we had never heard of previous and would never see again. And “The Origin of the Batcave” takes us (and the Dynamic Duo) back 300 years in time to show how the Batcave was used for good back in the days of Native Americans.

“The Man Who Falls” from Denny O’Neil and Dick Giordano in 1989 updates the origin of Batman for a new generation of readers, adding details that today are still part of the legend, both in comics and the movie versions.

We go back to the late 1940′s with “The 1,000 Secrets of the Batcave” which finds Public Enemy Number One, Wolf Brando, escaping prison and finding his way to Stately Wayne Manor, where he discovers the secret entrance to the Batcave. Figuring out that Bruce Wayne is Batman, Brando leads the Dynamic Duo on a chase through the Batcave before finally meeting his end, taking Batman’s secret with him. In the words of Batman in the last panel of the story, “It was the Batcave that defeated Wolf Brando…the real hero of this case is The Batcave.”

“The Batman Dime-Museum” is an amusing 1955 story about the time Batman and Robin had to move everything out of the Batcave, and how a recently opened “Batman Dime-Museum” in Gotham City helps them store everything in plain sight. “Prisoners of the Batcave” finds Batman and Robin trapped in the Batcave when a generator fails and causes a door with a time-lock to lock them inside. Adding to the problem is that they were in the Batcave trying to prove a condemned man innocent, and time is running out to stop his execution.

In 1982, Gerry Conway and Gene Colan delivered “Shadow Play”, a story that finds Batman moving back into the Batcave after operating out of his high-rise corporate headquarters in downtown Gotham for a few years. Turns out Man-Bat, the former Kirk Langstrom, is inhabiting the Batcave and Batman must find a way to administer a serum that will either cure or kill the tortured creature.

“Interlude on Earth-Two” finds Batman on Earth-Two interacting with that world’s Robin and Batwoman (the Bruce Wayne of this world is dead) in the Batcave that has been commandeered by Dr. Hugo Strange. And the good doctor’s surname is about the best way to describe this story.

The collection is rounded out by “Inside the Batcave” an amusing little story that appeared in the 2001 Bizarro Comics (yes, the same one where a babysitter puts Superbaby in a microwave, which resulted in the story being pulled from its original place in an Elseworld’s book because of DC’s fear that the microwave scene would spur babysitters all over the world to “nuke” their charges) in which a little boy who runs away from home find himself seeking shelter in the Batcave. He falls asleep before laying eyes on Batman, but the Dark Knight taxi driver returns him safely to his bed in his home before he wakes.

Scattered throughout the book are cutaway views of the Batcave from the 40′s to the present.

“Batman Secrets of the Batcave” is an entertaining collection of stories. Though most of these are from the 40′s, 50′s and 60′s, there is a nice mixture of later stories. Still, it would be nice to see a collection of more recent stories centering around the Dark Knight Detective’s underground den.

Filed under: Trade Collection Review
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