Batman: The Joker Goes to School & He Meets His Match, the Grisly Ghoul

The Joker Goes to School

“You... jailhouse lawyer!"

It's an unusual beginning this week, with Lorenzo Semple back on writing duties (yay!) as Batman takes an amusing look at the tropes of the American High School. The school, of which Dick Grayson is of course class president, is called "Woodrow Roosevelt". No doubt Theodore Wilson has a school named after him in Metropolis. Then we have Principal Schoolfield.

The Commissioner at first seems to be oddly jumping to conclusions that the Joker would necessarily be behind school vending machines to dispense money, but that progressive paragon Warden Crichton has just released him from prison. This is, naturally, a plan to introduce the young to the concept of easy money so they'll drop out and join crime gangs. Er, quite. I'm amused to see that, when Dick suggests this, he's reminded that he's the ward of a millionaire.

It's a fun episode featuring, among other things, a jukebox robbing a bar and a silly showoff stunt by the Joker to provide an alibi. And things get very interesting when Dick's fellow school council member Susie is revealed to be in league with the Joker's gang.

We have amusing scenes with Dick being at school- Batman first visits the Commissioner alone, so they can't quite begin the episode with the usual stock footage. And it's fun seeing Batman and Dick pretending, not very well, that they don't know each other.

What's this, though? Notorious do-gooder Batman telling Dick to fake a headache and skive off school? Tut tut. I for one am appalled.


He Meets His Match, the Grisly Ghoul

“This life at best is one long, impractical joke..."

It may seem a cheat to resolve the electrocution fruit machine cliffhanger with a power cut. But, to be fair, it was foreshadowed in dialogue in last episode. It's also a certain topical reference to the contemporary power outages in New York. So fair play.

Batman is less than entirely feminist when he discovers Susie's connection to the Joker, suggesting to a shocked Robin that "It's an old story, I'm afraid. As old as Eve and the apple". Yes, Susie is a woman, and therefore biddable with trinkets. Well then. Very slight feminism fail there, but even in 1966 I suspect a raised eyebrow would be prudent here.

There's more fun as Dick tries to come across as a ne'er-do-well by putting on a leather jacket- after all, only delinquents and ruffians ever wear those. And it's also highly amusing when his story is spoiled by his being an obvious non-smoker. Almost as amusing as the revelation that Woodrow Roosevelt's basket ball are to pay "Disco Tech".

Less amusing is the suggestion that the Joker may have callously poisoned poor Susie dead with fake perfume when it became clear she'd been rumbled. This is where we see beyond the chuckling but essentially harmless thief to a potential nihilistic killer behind the facade- the Joker's indifferent reaction to her "death" is positively chilling. This has elevated the Joker for me, in his second appearance. Cesar Romero (and his moustache) has never failed to impress, but here we begin to see dark depths. 

A splendid two parter, then, a cut above the Joker's debut. So, next week, False Face...