1970s "Batman's Bureau of Missing Villains" feature from Batman Family series

[MajorHoy]

Back in 1975, DC introduced the comic book Batman Family.



It started out as a "Giant" comic book with a new story or two and a few reprinted stories, sometimes spotlighting different past villains with a "Villain of the Issue" feature.


from Batman Family #5 (May-June 1976)

But starting With issue #11, they changed to a format with all-new material when it came to the stories. But it was also that issue that introduced the "Bureau of Missing Villains" feature.

From Batman Family #11 (May-June 1977):

[MajorHoy]

From Batman Family #12 (July-August 1977):

[MajorHoy]

Batman Family #13 (September 1977) took a slightly different approach to the "Missing Villains" concept:

[byrd156]

I originally thought when they announced Duke as the Signal he was a revamp of the Signalman.

[Lee Stone]

The original Clayface would've made a perfect GA Sandman villain.
As would the original Cheetah.

[Güicho]

I liked that they adopted Man-Bat into the "Family", I guess he was like the Uncle Fester of the Family.

[Restingvoice]

Yeah, I was surprised when I found out Man-Bat was actually one of the earlier family members. I think it's because the way Man-Bat was written in the 70s and modern version are different. Back then he's kinda goofy looking and retain his consciousness, though there are times he went feral, but the modern versions like BTAS and Arkham Knight are more like a horror monster. Eventually in the comics he gained control of himself, but it surprised me the first time I saw Man-Bat talked because I didn't expect it at all.

[MajorHoy]

Yeah, I was surprised when I found out Man-Bat was actually one of the earlier family members. I think it's because the way Man-Bat was written in the 70s and modern version are different. Back then he's kinda goofy looking and retain his consciousness, though there are times he went feral, but the modern versions like BTAS and Arkham Knight are more like a horror monster. Eventually in the comics he gained control of himself, but it surprised me the first time I saw Man-Bat talked because I didn't expect it at all.

The early Man-Bat was probably more like the Spider-Man foe The Lizard. Brilliant scientist creates formula to hopefully serve one purpose, but instead has the unintended result of turning the person who uses it into a human-sized man-creature. Langstrom seemed to have eventually been able to maintain control while in his creature-form, but then later writers played around with that.

[Güicho]

Instead of the endless parade of derivative Re-Robins and Batfems (which we only need one of each).
I'd take one unpredictable Man-Bat, back as a regular in the Family, over all of them.

I'd love to see an issue where Langstrom loses it , and inadvertently kills all of them, then is just standing covered in blood in the cave and is like- sorry Bruce, was all those your family?
And Batman is like, eh, .... welcome back!


LOL! Kidding!

[MajorHoy]

From Batman Family #14 (October 1977):

[Jim Kelly]

Langstrom and his wife were pretty unpredictable in many of their appearances. And it seems like Kirk was supposed to be an adversary at first--amd more like a Jekyll and Hyde type guy. But they wanted to spin him off with his own series, which only lasted two issues and then he got rolled into BATMAN FAMILY.

Given that DC staffers would have had to assemble the material for "Batman's Bureau of Missing Villains"--Bob Rozakis (former fan) being the assistant editor--I wonder if that research gave them the idea to revive some of these guys.

[MajorHoy]

Given that DC staffers would have had to assemble the material for "Batman's Bureau of Missing Villains"--Bob Rozakis (former fan) being the assistant editor--I wonder if that research gave them the idea to revive some of these guys.

Also don't forget, "researching" wouldn't have been quite as hard back in the mid-1970s since Batman hadn't been in published stories for forty years yet, so staffers may have read those stories when they were kids themselves (or at least read them in the reprints that were frequently done in the 1960s and 1970s)!

There was even a book published back in 1976 that might have been helpful:

[Jim Kelly]

Also don't forget, "researching" wouldn't have been quite as hard back in the mid-1970s since Batman hadn't been in published stories for forty years yet, so staffers may have read those stories when they were kids themselves (or at least read them in the reprints that were frequently done in the 1960s and 1970s)!

There was even a book published back in 1976 that might have been helpful:

Michael Fleisher was at DC, going through all their archives to read all those stories for the encyclopediae, while at the same time working as a staffer and writing comics--but most of his DC work was for Joe Orlando, not Julius Schwartz.

The encyclopediae started to come out in 1976, after BATMAN FAMILY had started publication. Fleisher probably did share what he learned with his fellow Junior Woodchucks, since he had pieces published in THE AMAZING WORLD OF DC COMICS. I'm just saying they probably all were learning more facts and that paid off in the end with comics stories.

The fact that it took Fleisher so long and that he had to use DC resources to read all the Batman stories is an indication that it wasn't that easy. Sure collectors may have had some of these--collectors who were scattered across the continent and all over the world--but even if they shared their comics with others, you would have to get to them to read those comics. The DC archives was one place where a researcher had a chance of reading all the stories--and my understanding is that even DC may not have had all the stories.

Still, most of the comics referenced in Bureau of Missing Villains are relatively recent, except Clayface I, and most of them had been reprinted by then--E. Nelson Bridwell being the reprint editor and working with Schwartz on BATMAN FAMILY. "The Zodiac Master" has never been reprinted, but I was fortunate enough to have that comic in my collection.

Fleisher's encyclopediae if he had finished them were supposed to include a number of Marvel characters. I wonder, if he had gone ahead with those, would he have settled into the Marvel archives, to do research there, as well? He did write for Marvel in the 1980s, so I wonder if he ever attempted to compile info on some of their iconic features.

[MajorHoy]

From Batman Family #15 (December 1977-January 1978):




By the way, he did show up again in places like Batman: GCPD #1 (August 1996):

[signalman112]

YUCK! To that last image of the Polka-Dot Man. Love the cover to DETECTIVE #300.

Polka Dot Man had a brief appearance on B:TB&TB in the crazy Bat-Mite story, "Legend of the Dark Mite".



PolkaDotMan.jpg