Batman Goes Ape

Well, for truth in advertising, it isn't Batman who goes ape in Batman #114 (March, 1958 with art by Sheldon Moldoff, but no listed writer....though Bill Finger is given a credit), instead it is a circus gorilla named Mogo.

Mogo's owner, Arthur Harris, gets blamed for a theft after Mogo creates a distraction at the circus...

...but Harris wasn't responsible!

Batman and Robin go to clear Harris' name and Mogo tags along.

Mogo helps, and ends up in the Batcave, where he takes one of Batman's spare cape and cowl's (much against Alfred's wishes) and follows the dynamic duo...and helps capture the criminals!

As Harris is cleared, he takes Mogo back to Africa and sets him free (and later appears on an episode of the animated Batman: Brave & the Bold series).

Sounds almost like an episode of the 1960s Batman TV show produced by 20th Century Fox...no?

Planet of the Apes on Batman

Well, a few of the Planet of the Apes (also made by 20th Century Fox) stars were on the Batman TV show!

Maurice Evans played the Puzzler (a Riddler-knock off when Frank Gorshin wasn't available) in two episodes of Batman, ("The Duo Is Slumming" and "The Puzzles Are Coming") in Season 2 in December, 1966...and was Dr. Zaius in Planet of the Apes (1968) and Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970).

Linda Harrison made it into a pair of Batman episodes as a cheerleader at Dick Grayson's school in 1966 with "He Meets His Match, the Grisly Ghoul" and "The Joker Goes To School"...and was Nova in Planet of the Apes (1968) and Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970), and even made a brief cameo in the Planet of the Apes (2001) as a woman in the cart!

Don't blink or you'll miss her in the 2001 Planet of the Apes....or in the Batman episodes!

Victor Buono was the Egyptian master of menace, King Tut, in 10 original Batman episodes, "The Curse of Tut", "The Pharaoh's In A Rut", "The Spell of Tut", "Tut's Case Is Shut", "King Tut's Coup", Batman's Waterloo", "A Horse of Another Color", "The Unkindest Tut of All", "The Great Train Robbery" and "I'll Be A Mummy's Uncle"...and played the mutant Fat Man in Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970).

"Fat Man" was a reference to the bomb, as the mutants worshiped the atomic bomb...and maybe to his other qualities as well.

H.M. Wynant was Frosty in two Batman episodes ("Ice Spy" and "The Duo Defy") in 1967 with Eli Wallach's Mr. Freeze, and was Inspector Hoskyns (the henchman of Chief Inspector Kolp, who interrogated poor Armando) in Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (1972).

Wynant is likely best remembered from his time in the Twilight Zone, in the episode "The Howling Man" from 1960!

Last, but certainly not least, Roddy McDowall was the Bookworm in two episodes of Batman in 1966, "The Bookworm Turns" and "While Gotham City Burns"...a villain obsessed with books and reading...and was the scientist chimp Cornelius in Planet of the Apes (1968) and Escape From the Planet of the Apes (1971), then playing Cornelius' son, Caesar, in Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (1972) and Battle For the Planet of the Apes (1973), and even returning to the TV show, Planet of the Apes, for its one and only 1974 season as Galen, the chimp confidant of the two human astronauts and to the Batman world in the Batman: Animated Series in 1992-1994 as the voice of the Mad Hatter!

Holy ape connection, Batman!

Baseball's Silver Age

No, not talking about Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, Lou Gehrig, Al Kaline, Pete Rose, Kirk Gibson, Reggie Jackson, or even A-Rod, but instead, a little bit on how comic books used some of their tried and true storylines with baseball players instead of super-heroes!



A great way to kick off the All-Star game and get a little of some the stranger parts of the Silver Age, where anything could happen….and often did!

Baseball Uniforms

First up, a story from Brave & the Bold #45 (January 1963), wherein the baseball uniforms were animated to battle against a team of regular players in “The Challenge of the Headless Baseball Team” in a cover by Carmine Infantino and Murphy Anderson (and interior story written by Gardner Fox, with art by Infantino...).


This kicked off a run of Strange Sports Stories...and boy were these sports stories strange!

This theme of either the hero becoming a bodiless uniform, or fighting a bodiless uniform was used a few times, once in Action Comics #383-384 (Dec-Jan 1969, 1970) with Superman (and a little later in issue #299 of his own title when one of Superman‘s foes made him only his uniform!), Green Lantern foe - the Invisible Destroyer from Showcase #23 (November-December, 1959), a little bit in Flash (there was slight of hand involved with Abra Kadabra in his first appearance in #128 in May, 1962), and later on wherein the Justice League of America (in #35, May 1965) where the team faced off against the animated uniforms of a few of their fiercest foes like Pied Piper, Killer Moth and Dr. Polaris in the “Battle of the Bodiless Uniforms”!

Monkeying Around On The Field

Then, another Strange Sports Story happened in Brave & the Bold #49 (September 1963, with another cover by Carmine Infantino and Murphy Anderson), wherein the baseball team faced off against simians, monkeying around on the infield in the “Gorilla Wonders of the Diamond!”, written by Gardner Fox!


This was also the last of the strange sports stories for Brave and the Bold, as they switched to super-hero team-ups with the next issue (starring Green Arrow and the Manhunter from Mars to start!)

For those that don’t know, back in the Silver Age, it had been “proven” that putting an ape on a cover would increase sales of comics.  Superman had Titano (a monkey enlarged to King Kong size, with Kryptonite vision, first appearance Superman #127, February 1959), Flash had Gorilla Grodd (a super-intelligent beast with mental powers who first faced the speedster in Flash #106, April-May 1959, but he didn't make a cover until Flash #127), the Doom Patrol had Monseiur Mallah (an experiment and more with the Brain of the Brotherhood of Evil starting with Doom Patrol #86, March 1964), Congo Bill added Congorilla (a golden ape whom the great white hunter switched minds with thanks to a mystic ring) in Action Comics #248, January 1959, and even Rex the Wonder Dog had the Detective Chimp (a monkey who solved crimes starting with Rex, the Wonder Dog #4, July-August  1952)!

The simian fascination in comics is explained a little more in Secret Origins #40, featuring 3 of these characters (but still missing a few, like the Gorilla Boss of Gotham City (first appeared Batman #75, February-March 1953), the Mod Gorilla Boss foe of Animal Man from Strange Adventures #201, June 1967, Mogo the Bat-Ape from Batman #114, March 1958, even Sam Simeon of Angel & the Ape who started in Showcase #77, September 1968).

So, not only did your favorite costumed heroes fight some odd things back in the day, but so did the boys of summer!  Baseball sure was interesting back then.


You have to wonder who would have won, the empty uniforms or the gorillas?


Grodd thinks he has the answer....