| December 2044 | xEdition nº61 |
Detective Comics #64: The Return of Joker
What is Detective Comics #64’s About?
Released in June 1942, Detective Comics #64 told us the story of Batman, Robin, and their everlasting nemesis within the DC Universe: Joker. Even though the comic itself is more than 80 years old, Batman and Joker are still fighting, no? Watch out for the twists of this main story because I gotta tell you: it is WILD.List of Stories in Detective Comics #64
As usual, there are several stories in Detective Comics #64. The titles are: - Batman: The Joker Walks The Last Mile- Boy Commandos: The Commandos Are Coming
- Crimson Avenger: The Adventure of The Wild Men
- Bart Regan, Spy: Murder in The Monument
- Air Wave: The Mystery of His Master’s Voice
- Slam Bradley: The Mystery of The Unfortunate Teddy Bear
Synopsis of Detective Comics #64
The story of this DC Comic started with The Joker who surprisingly gave himself up to the Gotham City Police Department or GCPD. He said his crime life was over. Well, not to anyone’s surprise, the list of his crimes was very long, so it was decided that The Joker would be executed. Joker just followed through the entire procedure and soon enough, he was declared dead. How did it end so fast, you said? No, not yet.
Apparently, of course, this was all just a plot to “delete” Joker’s crimes. Soon after his death, someone took the Joker’s body from the morgue, and then injected some serum into the body. With that serum, the Joker was back alive. What’s worse, since the Joker was technically punished for his crimes, he was now a free man within the DC World. He could roam around the city without being arrested. But… was it really just to be a free man?
One day, Batman and Robin saw Joker on the street, and they knew that he was up to something. Ever since then, they kept an eye on Joker, but oddly enough, he never seemed to leave his hotel room. Assuming that nothing bad was going to happen, Batman and Robin decided to take a break and go to an ice skating area. Not to their knowledge, Joker had been communicating with his henchmen through the hotel’s light signal. Apparently, they were planning a chaos at the ice skating area. What a perfect coincidence for our heroes, don’t you think?
All hell suddenly started to break loose. Joker’s henchmen started to rob people. Batman and Robin, of course, tried to save the day. They started to take down the henchmen and stop them from robbing even more goods. Unfortunately, at the end, a henchman managed to turn off the lights. The entire chaos stopped, but all the henchmen managed to escape with the goods that they managed to steal.
After the lights came back, people started to place their claims for the stolen goods to the ice skating area manager. There was apparently the Joker among these people! Our quick-witted Batman suspected that Joker was somehow involved in this chaos, so he and Robin followed Joker back to his hotel. Finally, they figured out Joker’s method of communication.
Batman and Robin tried sneaking into Joker’s hotel room, but to their surprise, instead of just Joker, police officers were there! The duo was about to be accused of breaking in! However, they managed to get out of it and Batman disclosed Joker’s entire chaotic plan. Joker jumped out of the room and used a vehicle to run away. Batman and Robin, of course, followed through by using the Batmobile. They switched to the Batplane soon enough, but when they tried to pull Joker out of the road, he fell off a cliff into the ocean.
Do you think this is the end of Joker? No, no. A week later, this criminal was back to his hideout, planning his next crime…
Detective Comics #64 Characters
Of course, we have Batman, Robin, and Joker. Aside from Joker, there is also this antagonist called Charlie, but there’s no detailed information about him. We also have the Gotham City Police Department officers, for sure. There doesn’t seem to be a lot of important characters in the story because it focuses on how Joker managed to trick everyone into believing that he was executed, and later on, tricking Batman to believe that he was dead for the second time.Detective Comics #64 Locations
As usual, when it comes to Batman, the story is always set in Gotham City. There are the Gotham City Police Headquarters and Wayne Manor, the ones with names. We also have some places without names, which are the ice skating area and the hotel where Joker stayed.
Other Stories in Detective Comics #64
There are no detailed explanations about the other stories, but we know that in Boy Commandos, we have Andre Chavard, Alfred Twidgett, Brooklyn, and Jan Haasan. The antagonists in this story would be Major Von Karp, and the Nazi soldiers, and the story was set in France. In Crimson Avenger, we have our hero, Crimson Avenger, fighting an escaped killer! Bart Regan is apparently up against Herr Schmidt in Washington, D.C. In Bigg City, we have Air Wave with Reginald as the antagonist. Lastly, Slam Bradley was fighting Mr Ames in New York City.Detective Comics #64 Artists and Writers
The people who brought this series to us are: - Executive Editor: Whitney Ellsworth- Editor: Whitney Ellsworth
- Cover Artist: Jerry Robinson
- Writers: Bill Finger, Jack Kirby, Joe Simon, Jack Lehti, Murray Boltinoff
- Pencilers: Bob Kane, Jack Kirby, Joe Simon, Jack Lehti, Pierce Rice, Harris Levy, Howard Sherman
- Inkers: Jerry Robinson, George Roussos, Joe Simon, Charles Paris, Arturo Cazeneuve, Howard Sherman
- Letterers: Ira Schnapp, Charles Paris, Howard Sherman
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