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/ Catalog / Detective Comics

Catalog ID: 70512

Detective Comics #331 Museum of Mixed Up Men

Detective Comics (1937)

Issue Number: 331
Cover Date: September, 1964

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Issue Description

While touring the Gotham Wax Museum, Bruce Wayne pays for a souvenir photograph but gets more than he bargain for: the camera causes his face to change into somebody else and his memory is taken, as well as all his forms of identity. Tossed into the street, the amnesmatic Bruce Wayne wanders trying to make sense of his sitation.
Meanwhile, somebody posing as Bruce Wayne, withdraws half a million dollars from his bank.
That night as Aunt Harriette serves supper to Dick Grayson, both begin to wonder where Bruce is when there is a call from the Batphone. Making an excuse to leave the table and go down to the Batcave, Robin answers the phone to be informed that there is a jewel robbery in progress. Going by himself in the Batmobile, he passes by Bruce who remembers who he is and while Robin is overpowered by the robbers changes into his Batman costume (left in the Batmobile) and lends a helping hand. Afterwards, Batman explains the events, and that after 12 hours, the effects wore off. The next day, Ralph Dibny (aka the Elongated Man) and his wife Sue have arrived in Gotham City, Ralph wanting to investigate a mystery of men who go into the wax museum with one face and leave with another. Meanwhile, Bruce Wayne has returned to the bank to inform them that the person who withdrew money from his account was a fraud, and soon another wealthy man enters the bank complaining that his safety deposit box was emptied by somebody posing as him. Bruce Wayne makes the connection when the man states he went to the wax museum.
That night, Batman and Robin and the Elongated Man all go to investigate the museum and stumble upon each other. Being attacked by thugs, they learn that the whole situation was thought up by "Boss" Barron, using a camera that switches peoples faces with somebody else, they would change faces with a wealthy person and clean out their accounts. After breaking things up and (with the help of Elongated Man) prevented the crooks from using the device on Batman (and thereby discover his secret identity) the three heroes round up the crooks and turn them over to the police.
As reward for their help, Batman (As Bruce Wayne) invites Ralph and Sue over for dinner. Before they arrive he tells Robin that he told Ralph his secret identity, then tells the shocked Robin that he did it while Ralph was amnesiac due to being exposed to the face swapping camera, would forget when changed back to normal.

Detective Comics (1937)

Publisher: DC Comics

Volume Description

Detective Comics is a DC Comics monthly American Comic Book published since 1937, focusing on detective stories. One of DC's signature titles; the title featured early talents such as Jerry Siegel, Joe Shuster, Bob Kane, Sheldon Moldoff, Jerry Robinson and Bill Finger. Detective characters, such as Slam Bradley and the Crimson Avenger, were featured monthly in its early days. As of issue # 27, the title became best known for the introduction of the Superhero Detective, The Batman, who eventually became the main feature. The title has also featured the debuts of Dick Grayson, James Gordon and many of Batman's villains and supporting cast, as well as other DC characters.

For Post Flashpoint volume 2, refer to Detective Comics.Origin

Detective Comics was the brainchild of National Allied Publication's owner, Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson. His first two titles were called New Fun: The Big Comic Magazine #1 and New Comics #1. New Fun, often referred as New Fun Comics #1, was published in February 1935. It became the first comic to contain all-original material, instead of combining newspaper comic strips and the comic-strip style material. New Comics #1, also published in 1935, was retitled twice to become Adventure Comics. Adventure Comics was revived in 2009, by Geof Johns, using Conner Kent's Superboy incarnation as the main story, and the Legion of Superheroes as the back story.

Wheeler-Nicholson, published a third and final title, named Detective Comics. It was scheduled and advertised to be published on December 1936, however, it premiered on March 1937. During that year, he became indebted to Harry Donenfeld, who was a printing-plant and magazine publisher. This forced Wheeler-Nicholson to take Donenfeld on as a partner so that he could publish Detective Comics #1, through a new publishing company, called Detective Comics, Inc. The first owners of Detective Comics, Inc. were Wheeler-Nicholson and Harry Donenfeld's accountant, Larry Liebowitz. Liebowitz and Donenfeld would later force Wheeler-Nicholson out a year later.

Detective Comics #1 featured stories using the hard-boiled detective genre, which was popular around that time. Some of the better known characters in this publication were Slam Bradley, created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster before they created the Superman character, Ching Lung, an asian character who was a villain; and Speed Saunders along with other characters. The debut cover was created by Vin Sullivan, who was the publication's first editor.

Issue #27 of Detective Comics is historically famous because this was the first appearance of Batman, then known as "The Bat-Man", as a comic book character. This issue was published in May 1939. Batman (created by Bob Kane and Bill Finger), will later become the star of the publication. His sidekick, Robin (created by Jerry Robinson), was introduced in issue #38, published in 1940. The publication also had several back stories, including "The Strange Experiment of Dr. Erdell", featured in issue #225, which introduced Martian Manhunter as a character.

In the 1970s and the early part of the 1980s, the publication showed an expanded format which featured solo adventures of some members of the Batman Family like "Robin: The Teen Wonder" and "Batgirl". It also featured "Tales of Gotham City", which told stories of the ordinary citizens of the famous fictional city. Due to the declining sales of Detective Comics in this period, DC was heavily considering canceling its namesake franchise in place of the much more popular Batman Family in a wave of cancellations called the DC Implosion. However, over the protestations of the comic creators, this series was saved and the other was merged into this one, which resulted in a format change for the series from issue #481 onwards.

In Bruce Wayne's absence, Batwoman was featured in Detective comics between issues #854-863. Currently, the book stars Dick Grayson as Batman, as well as Commissioner James Gordon.

Collected EditionsClassic Batman and ArchivedBatman: A Celebration of 75 Years (#27, 83, 211, 216, 327, 359, 395, 442, 474, 574, 633, 711, 757 and 821)Issues #27-50 are collected in Batman Archives, Vol. 1.Issues #51-70 are collected in Batman Archives, Vol. 2.The Joker: A Celebration of 75 Years (#64, 168, 180, 475, 476, 726, 741, 826)Batman Arkham: Two-Face (#66, 68, 80 & 513)Issues #71-86 are collected in Batman Archives, Vol. 3.Boy Commandos by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby Volume Two (#74-83 & 85)Issues #87-102 are collected in Batman Archives, Vol. 4.Issues #103-119 are collected in Batman Archives, Vol. 5.Issues #120-135 are collected in Batman Archives, Vol. 6.Issues #136-154 are collected in Batman Archives, Vol. 7.Batman: The TV Stories (#140, 230, 341, 346, 359)Batman: Arkham - The Riddler (#140, 142, 377, 822 & 837)Batman: The Dynamic Duo Archives, Vol. 1 (#327-333)Batman: The Dynamic Duo Archives, Vol. 2 (#334-339)

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Detective Comics #331 Museum of Mixed Up Men

Issue Description

Detective Comics (1937)

Volume Description

Status: Not in Collection