Bizarre Batman Stories From Before Arkham City

Posted Ocotber 14 2011 by Keadin
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Batman: Arkham City is one of the most anticipated games of the year, and not just because it lets you roam a corrupted Gotham as the caped crusader. A lot of people are excited for the game based on 2009’s incredible Batman: Arkham Asylum, but the Dark Knight’s legacy goes back much farther than that.

Naturally with any series running since 1939, Batman’s had his fair share of bizarre storylines. With the new game featuring over a dozen of the best Batman villains, I thought it might be fun to dig up some of the strangest stories featuring the foes world’s greatest detective. You’ll be able to face off against all of these villains in their modern – and more serious – incarnations when Batman: Arkham City releases this month, but for now let’s enjoy some of their more bizarre cases.

The Joker
Detective Comics #149
After hearing an early-morning radio program use a bunch of annoying sound effects, The Joker records a whole bunch of his own annoying noises and plays them at such high volume the people of Gotham flee from their workplaces, leaving the banks free to rob. As the Joker’s air-raid siren effect is playing, Batman finds the device and tries to calm everyone by using it to broadcast a calming message but The Joker modifies the recording to make it sound like Batman is causing another panic, which somehow Batman predicted and waited for him at the radio station for the arrest.

The Riddler
Batman #171
After getting released from prison, The Riddler reads a newspaper and discovers that Batman is busy trying to catch a nefarious gang. Jealous that he’s not the focus of Batman’s attention, he tells Batman and Robin that he’s reformed and would like to help them. After helping them, he then sends mysterious riddles to the police department that when unraveled they just reveal that he’s behaving and conducting legal business. The police start to discredit Batman and Robin and don’t bother going after The Riddler when he starts to rob a safe. As the Dynamic Duo show up, The Riddler activates a device that makes him spin like a top and therefore (somehow) impossible to stop. Batman shuts off the machine, and arrests him.

Catwoman
Superman’s Girl Friend Lois Lane #70
After vanishing from Batman comics for a while, Catwoman’s first appearance after 12 years was in a bizarre issue of Superman’s Girl Friend Lois Lane where she turns Superman into a cat and it’s up to Lois Lane to defeat her. Using black magic (one of Superman’s few weaknesses) she locks the super powered kitty in a Kryptonite cage and puts him on display.

Two-Face
Batman #81
Two-Face has always been fond of leaving things to chance, often using his lucky coin as a way of deciding if someone lives or dies. This gets taken to the extreme when he reproduces it in massive scale, straps the Dynamic Duo to it and uses a truck-sized coin flipper to launch them off. Naturally the pair escape and send Two-Face to jail, but this is without a doubt one of his most bizarre schemes.

Penguin
Detective Comics #126
With a special gas that makes people lose their voices, The Penguin starts extorting money from all of Gotham City’s singers. When Batman and Robin discover the plot by finding a trigger inside a microphone at a local stage, they set after The Penguin and arrest him. There’s no explanation anywhere in the book as to why he’s getting electrocuted by power lines on the cover.