Wednesday, February 4, 2015

It Even a GIANT Armadillo That Much of a Threat?

And now, let's take a look at some CMNS Sound Effect Theater (tm!), courtesy of Batman #158:


Zoosh, indeed!  The Bat-Hound and Bat-Mite were the highlights of the Silver Age for me.  I'd buy the heck out of a Bat-Hound and Bat-Mite book.

And then there was that time Batman and Robin fought a gigantic crimson armadillo...


Yay!  On to the next issue!  Clayface was another good Silver Age villain, because he could become stuff like this:


And if you're wondering why all of this was taking place in a small model city, you haven't read enough Silver Age Batman.

But this kind of confused me:


I understand changing the shape, but how did that constitute the ability to actually emit a trail of flame behind him.  Forget about "keeping the form for seconds"... I'm wondering how he pulled that one off at all.

But then he turns into a gorilla, and I remember that I love him, no matter what:


Because.... gorillas.

See you tomorrow!

6 comments:

BatmanisBw said...

God I loved Bat-Hound. I'd buy that Bat-Hound book collection even if were $100.00!

Bat-Hound just has a certain... appealing character trait. I relate to him.

Adam Barnett said...

I agree... Bat-Hound is super-cool. He's a true German Shepherd. They're all about loyalty and getting the job done. I hope to always have a Shepherd in my house.

Gene Phillips said...

FWIW, Clayface's magic potion even allowed him to become Superman in an old WORLD'S FINEST, complete with the full range of super-powers. I forget what happened in the story that discouraged old clay-puss from ever trying that again, though the true reason was probably editorial: "don't bite the style of the Big S" more than once in a blue moon.

Adam Barnett said...

Wow, Gene! I didn't remember that. It sounds like Claymation is one of those characters with powers that no one really understands... including his writers.

Gene Phillips said...

I'll say one thing for Clayface's shapechanging powers: if he changes into something, he has all the something's attendant abilities-- which is the way good magic and/or super-science should work.

Consider in contrast the Legion-member Chameleon Boy, who could turn into entities who were physically bigger than he was, yet somehow, they weren't any stronger. So even though he changes into a bull, he supposedly doesn't have the mass and strength of a bull. All of which was I guess the editorial strategy to keep CB from outshining Superboy,

dcsez said...

Clayface gorilla carrying batman and joker, that right there is a cmns moment!