One of my all-time favorite Batman covers.
Ah, yes, remember the good old days, when you could have a fun and goofy Batman comic and the fans wouldn’t act like some form of horrifying sacrilege had been committed? I mean, just look at that cover…Bat-Mite, riding Ace the Bat-Hound, while carrying a Batwoman sign. It’s downright beautiful.
I particularly like it as it focuses on three supporting characters from Batman history that are more or less forgotten now, what with being incompatible the whole “dark avenger of the night” thing. Well, Evan Dorkin did have the highly entertaining World’s Funnest which featured Bat-Mite, and there were a couple issues of Legends of the Dark Knight that had a “dark ‘n’ gritty” (but still funny) take on Bat-Mite drawn by Kevin O’Neill.
Ace the Bat-hound was put down…well, okay, not really, but he did just sorta up and vanish. I seem to recall Bruce Wayne having a dog named Ace in some of the Batman comics from a few years back, but it was just a fannish in-joke…this Ace didn’t fight crime and wear a cowl to protect his identity. I think.
And Batwoman? Well, gone forever, most likely, until someone gets the bright idea to revive her, put her in your standard super-heroine “cleavage ahoy!” costume, and build some kind of 12-part mini-series around the character. Or maybe they did revive her and I just missed it…it’s not like there haven’t been a couple dozen Bat-titles published each month — those pages have to be filled with something.
Anyway, here’s to you Bat-Mite, Ace, Batwoman, the original Bat-Girl (Betty Kane), a swashbuckling Batman that smiled, “Batman’s Time Travel Crimes on Venus” stories…to all the silly Batman stories that, I guess, are no longer in favor.
