my legs what happened to my legs they're gone in their place a tail where are my legs bat merman
it doesn't exactly roll off the tongue merman we're mad while researching superman's telepathic
mermaid ex-girlfriend lori lemaris i stumbled upon this panel of batman as a merman i was intrigued
and after some false starts where i found batman turning into a fish man which is not the same
thing i found it batman 53 1949 that's right it's golden age time it's always fun to go there and
highlight some of the differences between the golden and silver ages the golden age is off
forgotten in the shuffle and i'm not gonna turn down the gift that is mermaid batman he's real
not just for your mermaid au fanfix not just for memes and not just for lego greetings comic lovers
and welcome back to casually comics the channel where we chat all things comics reviews comics
new and old to history to anecdotes truly wherever our whims take us the tale that we're gonna look
at is the third in the issue called batman under the sea i'll try to keep the little mermaid jokes
to a minimum but i promise nothing the story was written by bill finger with art by jim mooney who
also did inks letters by irish knop the teaser page is amazing that mermaid in a fishbowl as
robin sits looking pretty nonchalant while a gangster branches a gun at batman and another
is literally trying to fish him out of this bowl is this a hoax or is it real now i want to read a
comic where batman pretends to be a merman just to mess with people bruce and dick are out for
dinner when they notice a man being wheeled in a wheelchair and they feel that he looks a little
bit like a fish in the face fish face they were right in the middle of playing that game where
you make up stories about the other patrons of wherever you're at no they really work their
minds trained to seek out clues bruce and dick amuse themselves by exploring the possibilities
of the odd customer superheroes they're just like you and me 1949 bringing that relatability the man
in question is ordering salt water to drink which is pretty sus and he has drawn how the shark would
be in the silver age can he live up to that level of villainy i was a shark then i was a man then i
was an even more evolved shark man and then i went to town and then i bought a suit then i bought a
steak rare maybe he's a merman he could be using that blanket to hide his fishtail who told you
lori's secrets the mystery man finds a pearl at dinner but uses it to tip the waiter saying he
has so many more already and as he's leaving that bruce realizes that this mr feigen which is his
name it's not him that's familiar but the person wheeling him around the well-known gangster who
sells weapons so their curiosity is aroused why is this gangster being a lackey for him
so they start snooping and they learn some juicy deets like how he takes his baths in salt water
this really ramps up robin's merman theory but it feels more plausible than him drinking the salt
water maybe he has read an article about how certain salts were really good for your skin
people will bathe in pretty much anything if someone tells them will be good for their skin
but all of this is enough for them to follow him and that night he gets onto a speedboat
they try to follow but they ain't slick so they get spotted and they shoot a shell at
batman robin's boat and there's only one intact life preserver a good bat always goes down with
the ship and then he's knocked unconscious which brings us to the underwater portion
he awakens under the sea and he can breathe that mermaid in the back looks like peyton but don't
be fooled like i was you you're a mermaid you're all fish people why is that mermaid wearing a belt
who am i to judge the underwater fashion trends i theta of the science council operate on you
and gave you gills she gave him life as he was dying huh turn him into a merman so kind of his
life as a man is done her name is theta i see you 1949. theta means death my legs what happened to
my legs they're gone in their place a tail where are my legs did she cut his legs off and then put
a fin there or was this a magical transformation type deal like they come from a land for magic and
science are one in the same give me back my legs he's taking it well i'm sorry but you can never
leave here the sea will be your home for the rest of your life you are merman now well at least he
can hang out with aquaman i'm alone now in an alien world well that's enough of that after a
good solid five minutes of moping batman decides that he needs to accept his situation and make the
best of it good i'm sarin ruler of the sea this is theta our leading scientist even though she is a
female so close almost made it through the whole issue without mentioning it and the
people of this city are already big fans this is our museum here are curios taken from sunken ships
so what you're saying is look at this stuff isn't it neat we know of your exploits batman because
of our library of books and newspapers collected from sunken ships we coat the paper with chemicals
impervious to water from now on you better call me bat merman who's tossing gotham's papers into the
sea they also have a lot of treasure but they say it's useless to them that's why fayton wants it
he's found a way to exist on land and is trying to seal the wealth and transfer it up there to live
an extravagant life as a landman batman proves to be a good asset in the fight but fighting will not
be deterred there's a cool panel where phaeton's men come at them with flamethrowers and the comic
explains that they're the torches navy divers used to repair their ships just trying to get as many
little details in there as possible for the reader oh the concussion merman and theta team up to stop
fate and who now has the gold and there's even an underwater bat signal made up of luminous fish
they were ready for bat merman but it's a trap and theta gets hit with poison batman is able to save
her by using a sea star as a leech batman didn't skip marine biology ah in your surface world were
you ever in love did did you have a sweetheart batman can get it no but there was a girl
vicki vale i used to like her why never mind are woosh but then batman is knocked out by phaeton
himself and taken to a sunken ship where he's placed in the air pockets that he will suffocate
on the air dirk while batman frees himself with a shark parasite and a turtle faten shoots his shot
look theta gold pearls on the surface they are a measure of wealth they buy servants luxuries
you can share a lot with me as my wife you're proposing to me why uh is that what a proper
proposal is meant to sound like he says he wants her because she's beautiful and she knows
science so she can work the converter controls since batman took out his assistant with a mighty
fin he says he needs to hold the treasure and go up but then she can follow him after
sounds legit why not a king and queen what's your answer i'll answer for theta um excuse me she was
thinking about it that merman's a fool faden i've decided i'm going with you but after she throws
the switch faden shoots her oh wow he was a creep what a shock and it's a mortal wound the caption
box said so believe me i wouldn't have gone with peyton i only pretended that so i could learn the
converter's secret so i could send you back to your own world theta i'll never forget you the
lie detector determined that was a lie goodbye batman you were the only man i ever loved well
yeah it's because he was the only man you ever met all the others were merman don't think i
don't see you theta bet it's not even a mortal wound batman then wakes up but it's left on a
was it a dream or did it happen because when they confront fate and rip the blanket off his legs big
lebowski style there is no fin but because he used the converter even if it did happen there
wouldn't be he says he drinks salt water because he has a salt deficiency not buying it merman and
it's explained that he held those pearls because he was a jewelry smuggler and that's the reason
the other guy was there the arms dealer they were trying to work something out but batman isn't sure
was it a dream or not does it matter well only if you're theta this story is not the finest the
golden age has to offer but it's good silly fun batman is a merman it delivers upon the promise
it's a last not as tight with the narrative as some of these stories could be for example
the penny plunderer origin which actually is very concise and ironic and funny but there are little
things that work the pearl setup is a good one it's when batman gets down to the mermaid realm
that things start to fall apart why are the mer people trying so hard to stop fainting from taking
the treasure if it was of no value to them yes feighton shouldn't take it and he's gonna do bad
things on land but he was willing to kill them for it the connection there was a bit tenuous maybe
this really cared about justice the theta death feels incredibly superfluous and it's just odd the
comic goes out of its way to say she's the head of the science council but then has her trick faden
so that she can learn how to use the converter this even after batman already had him on the
ropes reverse engineering and deciphering takes time so just have bat merman time up and get the
info out of him sing little mermaid songs but how much you love batman adam that'll make him crack
you gotta kiss the bat the romance paint by numbers and entirely unnecessary it feels
there because it's a trope of the time and she's a female character and batman's there so you know
get your dolls together but there were some nice details throughout this details about the
sea creatures and some actual info about them and some of the science being utilized yes it
was outlandish but it was founded in fact those types of details would be a bit less frequent in
the silver age this because the commons code has specific laws in it that said that one couldn't
detail how exactly a crime was being committed so depending upon how hard knows one was being
when examining certain texts some things had to be a bit more vague what if someone goes and gets
a navy towards and robs a bank this is very much a filler story there's probably a reason why it's
the last one in the issue the standout quality and what to take from it is that batman was a merman
maybe faten should have sustained himself on the salt aquaman must have felt the batman didn't even
consider hanging out with him if you're a fan of heroes turning into things which i am this
may have tickled your fancy or not do you have a favorite superhero transformation story or is
it just jimmy olsen turning into things favorite mermaid comic? What do you think of this little
outing? Tell me things down below while you're down there please do all the youtube things
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much for taking some time out of your day today to spend it discussing comics with me comics
with me. I always appreciate it and i will see you again soon bye
you