BATMAN #1

Publisher: Detective Comics, Inc. | Writer: Bill Finger | Artist: Bob Kane

COVER PRICE: $10 | CURRENT ESTIMATED VALUE: $1.6 MILLION (DEPENDENT ON CONDITION)

Retro Review

What’s not to love about the Dark Knight’s titular character debut? In one issue, we get great examples of why Robin is so important to the Bat-family and the introduction of several iconic villains including the Joker, Catwoman and Hugo Strange. Despite a declaration that, “…I hate to take human life, I’m afraid this time it’s necessary!” Batman’s one rule, no killing, was yet to be introduced into the Bat-mythology as Batman hangs a criminal to death from his Batplane moments later. The depiction of the Joker is damn near perfect. Sure, the Joker evolved since his debut like most of our favorite Golden Age characters, but he’s never strayed too far from his maniacal and homicidal roots.

It’s truly a shame that from start to finish the only credit goes to Bob Kane and the acknowledgment of Bill Finger’s contributions would take decades. Readers were given a one page spread dedicated to the work of Bob Kane but there was not a mention of Bill Finger.