The sixth appearance of The Batman took place in the October 1939 issue of Detective Comics. This issue did not feature Batman on the cover, instead a police officer putting a criminal in a chokehold. How times change. Detective Comics issue 32 followed up on the story of the mysterious Monk who is hypnotizing people, including Bruce Wayne’s fiancé Julie Madison. Since this is the October issue of Detective Comics, I suppose it is appropriate that this has a vampire theme to it.
The ending of the last issue promised us Batman chasing the Monk to Hungary where he would battle werewolves, however, the henchmen of The Monk end up being vampires instead which made far more sense for this story.
In Detective Comics issue 31 we first saw Batman’s combination plane and helicopter. In this issue Batman flies his craft to “Hungaria” and to the “Carlathan” mountains which are obviously stand-ins for Dracula’s Transylvania and Carpathian Mountains. It’s to believe but at this point “Dracula”, the Bram Stoker novel, was only 34 years old and Dracula, the movie starring Bela Lugosi came out this same year.
Batman encounters one of The Monk’s slaves, a female vampire who promises to tell him the location of The Monk if Batman promises to kill him. As we have been saying, Batman’s no killing rule is not yet in effect and, so far, Batman has killed three people in the pages of Detective Comics.
The Batman finally tracks The Monk down to his castle but ends up being subdued by The Monk who leads him to a den of wolves which he plans to push Batman into. The Monk we discover, much like Dracula, can shape shift, and becomes a wolf himself.
Batman, however, escapes the wolves and The Monk. He later tracks The Monk to his coffin sleeping spot and straight up murders him WITH A GUN that fires a silver bullet (which I guess was a left over from the originally promised battle with werewolves). Killing The Monk again frees Bruce Wayne’s fiancé Julie from the trance of The Monk and our second ever two-part Batman story concludes with the Batman and Julie flying back to America in Batman’s airplane / helicopter. We are promised a new Batman story in the next issue of Detective Comics.
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The Batman Timeline and Chronology:
03-30-1939: 1st Appearance of The Batman & Commissioner Gordon. Detective Comics issue 27.
06-1939: Batman swings from building to building with a rope for the first time. Detective Comics issue 28.
07-1939: The Utility Belt is used for the first time.
09-1939: Fiancée Julie Madison is introduced. First Bat-Copter / Bat-Plane
10-1939: Batman uses a gun to kill The Monk.
Batman Kill Count: 4
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