If the likes of Endgame and Batman RIP seem a little out-there to modern tastes, the early days were surely beyond the pale. The Golden and Silver Age adventures of Batman were so bonkers it made Adam West's sixties TV series look Christian Bale-dark by comparison, with the Caped Crusader fighting suicide bomber gorillas and the like. Yes, that happened. Still, they found moments of grim fatalism in places, like the story where Robin kept dying in hilarious ways, like Kenny from South Park. Or the time that Batman finally met his maker, but it all turned out to be an elaborate ploy so that he could go undercover in an exclusive criminal organisation. Whaaaaaaa. Yeah, in The Death-Cheaters Of Gotham City had his heart artificially stopped and was technically dead for several minutes, before Robin had to revive him. Nothing like faking your death to freak out your already-orphaned surrogate son. The whole thing was a ruse so he could join the Death-Cheaters Club, with having been dead for a bit being the main entry criteria.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
