Final Crisis Preview--Free Bruce Wayne!!

I started this post just to mock a silly story, but doing so made me realize something very important: I miss Bruce Wayne. Even when he is being silly.

We all have an awful lot of fun around here laughing at Silver Age silliness, but sometimes we neglect giving the Bronze Age it's proper due.

Case in point: Gotham's Great Kangaroo Race:

Now, this story wasn't published in the '50s. It wasn't published in the '60s. And it was barely published in the '70s: April/May 1979, to be specific.

This was a period of great flux for DC. Reeling from having followed "DC Explosion" almost immediately with the fabled DC Implosion, DC was still trying to find formats that would work artistically and financially. After cancelling 30 books, DC had a lot of material to use and a lot of creators to find work for. So, in one experiment, they opted to go "big" with Detective Comics. They made it bi-monthly; they made it 68 pages, with no ads; they made it a $1 cover price (versus the 40¢ smaller DC's and Marvel were charging); and the repurposed it as "Detective Comics starring the Batman Family." With 6 stories per issue, this allowed them to showcase some of the characters who had lost the series in the Implosion. Of course, one might ask why The Demon was seen as part of the Batman Family, but hey, let's not be picky.

But since this was a Batman book, and particularly since this issue was Detective Comics 40th anniversary issue, we had to have a second Batman story. And that story, by Denny O'Neil no less, involved kangaroo racing. Observe:

You know, this story made me realize one thing: I miss Bruce Wayne. Seriously, when was the last time we saw Bruce, even in a Batman book? I honestly can't remember, can you? I don't mean Bruce in costume with his hood off sitting in front of the computer in the Batcave. I mean an actual Bruce Wayne sighting. Maybe in the current grim and gritty DC universe, we don't have room for a frivolous playboy billionaire. But I say that's 100% wrong. Even if frivolous, this story (while silly), shows there's some usefulness in having Bruce Wayne around.

So anyway, Bruce is being eccentric and running kangaroo races in Gotham, with a $125,000 prize. Woo hoo!! Why? Well, in Batcave II (beneath the Wayne Foundation Building!!), Alfred tells Bruce that a big illegal firearm purchase is going down tomorrow night, for a price of $125,000!! Quite a coincidence--OR IS IT??

So let's get to the racing:

So, Harcourt Bane breaks the back of the competition (sorry), and collects the money. Is this part of Bruce's master plan?

Ahhhh...huh?

Ahhhh....wha?!?

So let's see if I understand this. Bruce knows an Australian dude is coming to Gotham to buy weapons. (Aside--given that Batman is the scourge of crime, why oh why do idiot criminals insist on continuing to do deals in Gotham City? Why not Boston, or Miami, or some city without crime-fighters running around? Just asking.) So Bruce, knowing Ginty/Bane had experience working with kangaroos, staged kangaroo races to entice him. And he makes the prize money EXACTLY the amount Ginty needed to buy the weapons.

Which means that Ginty came to Gotham WITHOUT THE MONEY to buy the weapons. He was relying on being able to find it, or steal it, or win it in a kangaroo race. Smart criminal, that Ginty.

Of course, Bruce's plan was 100% dependent on Ginty a) knowing about the kangaroo race b) deciding to enter it, and 3) winning it. What, he slipped a flier under his hotel room door? And if Ginty happened to lose, Bruce would have to give the money away to someone else, and we're back at square one, with Ginty needing to obtain it "with violence."

Anyhoo, Bruce's plan works, there's a tracer in the briefcase, and Batman finally appears on page 7 of an 8-page story to bust the bad guys. After punching out the supplier, Batman turns to Ginty:

Hmmm, it seems he wasn't all that likely to turn to violence now, was he? This does damage to Australia's tough self-image, methinks...

So, yeah, late Bronze Age stories could be really silly, too. But more important, look at what the story does give us:

• Bruce Wayne as a Gotham citizen, and how other Gothamites perceive him.


• Bruce Wayne using his $ to help fight crime, in a way besides buying lots of bat-toys


• Showing us Bruce Wayne as an actual character, not just a cipher wearing the cowl.

We don't need to give Bruce his own title (but would it hurt?). And the stories can be of better quality than, well, kangaroo races.

But think about it: we've seen more of Dick Grayson's personal life in recent years than Bruce Wayne. We've seen more of Tim Drake's personal life than Bruce Wayne's. And this is after Bruce ditched Gotham City for a year to "find himself." The saddest statement of all: in the past few years we've seen more of Matches Malone than of Bruce Wayne.

So please, DC, whatever the result of your Final Crisis, please free Bruce Wayne. I miss him.

SPECIAL BONUS PANEL: Steve Ditko drawing The Demon


Long lost Bruce Wayne is temporarily found in Detective Comics #483. Or, rather, Detective Comics Starring the Batman Family #483. With a title that long, it must be a Countdown tie-in!!