Back in the 1960s, DC comics began publishing something called 80 Page Giants. What this meant is that instead of a normal issue of your favorite comic, you would get a nuts giant extra-large issue, twice the price, and filled with crazy reprints, usually with a theme. Take for example Batman issue 218, cover date Jan. – Feb. 1970. By 1970, the page count has been cut down to 60-something pages, and is now just known as a “Giant”. This Giant issue features “The Strangest Cases From Batman’s Crime-File”, and has 6 reprinted stories, all from the 50’s. These stories are all fun, and have a heavy emphasis on Batman being a Sherlock Holmes-esque detective who is all about noticing stuff. From “The Man Who Couldn’t Be Tried Twice” where Batman remembers that the letter Q isn’t on a telephone dial, to “The League Against Batman” where Batman deduces that the villain trying to kill him plays golf, this Batman is all about noticing and knowing about stuff. My favorite story is “The Hand From Nowhere”, which has Batman and Robin facing off against spooky looking scaly green aliens with cat-whiskers, and their ally, a giant green hand that comes out of a cloud and smacks Batman around, enabling the cat-whiskered aliens to steal important stuff, like zinc and copper ore. All joking aside, I love the imaginativeness of these old stories, where plot is important, and nothing is too weird. And from other 50s batman comics I’ve read, this ain't nothing! I like the one where Batman fights a caveman.
