Monsters? They were all in a night’s work for the Dynamic Duo.
Very early in his career, Batman destroyed a hooded vampire. Then he and Robin ran into the Frankenstein monster. And in Batman 57 (Feb.-March 1950), they found themselves fighting the Mummy.
Or so it seemed.
This lively story by writer Bill Finger and artist Dick Sprang saw Batman and Robin wrapped in mummy wrappings while trapped in a room with an angry lion. Only quick thinking and strong teeth got the Dynamic Duo out of danger.
It turned out the crimes weren’t committed by the ancient mummy Kiron, but by Andrews, the crooked assistant curator at the Gotham Museum. Batman saw through the hoax when he noticed that the mummy’s unwrapped arm bore a vaccination scar.
Batman explained that Andrews had disguised himself as the undead creature “…because the mummy costume frightened his victims so thoroughly that robbery was easy! Also, because a regular mask wouldn’t cover his oversized hearing aid! Otherwise, it would be simple for the police to track down a crook with a hearing aid and a knowledge of Egyptology!”
The story was no doubt fueled by memories of the Universal Pictures Mummy series, the last films of which — The Mummy’s Tomb and The Mummy’s Ghost — had been released in 1944. The series would be revived in 1955 with Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy.
Over at Archie Comics, the Fly and the Shield would initially be perplexed by robots disguised as classic monsters, including a mummy (The Monster Gang, Adventures of the Fly 8, Sept. 1960).
At Charlton Comics, the new, magically powered Blue Beetle would kick off his career fighting a giant supernatural mummy (The Giant Mummy Who Was Not Dead, Blue Beetle 1, June 1964). And at Fox Comics, the original 1940s Blue Beetle also battled a revived mummy (The Mummy Who Never Died, Phantom Lady 13, Aug. 1947).
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