After all, in 1955, two of America’s top-billed TV stars were dogs.
That would be Lassie and Rin Tin Tin. And two other dogs, Bullet the Wonder Dog and Yukon King, were the sidekicks of popular TV heroes Roy Rogers and Sgt. Preston.
America was accustomed to seeing daring canine rescues every week, so it probably wasn’t that much of a stretch when a hound in a mask showed up to help Batman and Robin in 1955.
The Dynamic Duo earned Ace’s undying loyalty when they saved him from drowning in a river.
“The best thing about Ace the Bat-Hound (created by Bill Finger, Sheldon Moldoff and Charles Paris) is that originally he wasn’t even Batman and Robin’s DOG!” noted comics journalist Brian Cronin.
“When he debuted in 1955’s Batman 92, he was just a dog that they found with a distinctive mark on his forehead, and Bruce Wayne advertised in the local newspaper that he found the dog. The dog then jumped into the Batmobile, and since Batman and Robin couldn’t very well be seen hanging around with a dog that Bruce Wayne found, Robin made him a mask, and so Ace the Bathound made his debut!”
During his initial eight-year run, Bat-Hound also made significant appearances in Feb. 1956 (The Return of the Bat-Hound!); Oct. 1956 (Bat-Hound, Movie Star!); April 1958 (One Ounce of Doom!); April 1959 (The Fugitive Batman!); Aug. 1959 (The Secret Life of Bat-Hound); March 1960 (The Master of Weapons); April 1960 (The Dog That Betrayed Batman); Aug. 1960 (Batwoman’s Publicity Agent!); Jan. 1961 (The Raven and the Wasp!); Oct. 1961 (Bat-Hound and the Creature!); Dec. 1962 (Formula for Doom); Aug. 1963 (The Cat-Man Strikes Back!); Sept. 1963 (Ace — The Super Bat-Hound!); and March 1964 (The Batman Creature!).
Then came 1964, and Batman’s New Look.
“Batwoman, Bat-Girl, Bat-Mite and Bat-Hound vanished without explanation from Gotham City,” comics historian John Wells noted.
“While some attribute this decline in sales of the Batman titles to the additions of Batwoman, Bat-Hound, Bat-Mite and Bat-Girl, fan letters indicated that readers wanted to see more of these characters,” noted Back Issue magazine writer Fred Grandinetti. “In truth, too many Bat-characters did spoil the brew, in addition to the outlandish science fiction stories which were totally out of Batman’s element.”
Thirty years later, Ace was reintroduced in Batman 462 (June 1991) as an unmasked English Mastiff rather than a masked German Shepherd.
Krypto the Superdog had debuted a couple of months before Ace the Bat-Hound (in Adventure Comics 210, March 1955), but he wasn’t the first canine superhero sidekick. The Phantom was assisted by his wolf Devil as far back as 1936. Bulletman and Bulletgirl’s Bulletdog was able to fly, thanks to his anti-gravity collar (Bulletman 10, Dec. 1942). And Doll Man’s Great Dane Elmo the Wonder Dog provided him with transportation (beginning in Doll Man 31, Dec. 1950).
I love Ace the Bathound, just as I love Krypto the Superdog. The whimsy and innocence are built right into the concept, and that’s not such a bad thing. All nights — and all knights — don’t need to be so dark.
Perhaps Alan Moore put it best: “The superheroes of my youth had dogs that dressed in capes and masks! It’s obvious they stand for nothing other than the power of the imagination.”
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