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Post by johnreiter902 on Jul 30, 2023 1:01:53 GMT
I feel like I read somewhere that there is a Batman Museum in Gotham City, like the Superman Museum in Metropolis and the Flash Museum in Central City, but now I can't find the reference. Can anybody help?
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Post by redsycorax on Jul 30, 2023 2:45:43 GMT
There was a Batman Museum briefly in Gotham, but it was a front for villainous burglary of Wayne Manor. In September 1955, Batman and Robin moved the contents of their Bat Cave to the Batman Dime Museum and then back again after the burglars had been apprehended and the museum was then closed: dc.fandom.com/wiki/Detective_Comics_Vol_1_223 (September 1955): "The Batman Dime Museum"
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Post by DocQuantum on Jul 30, 2023 19:02:02 GMT
I feel like I read somewhere that there is a Batman Museum in Gotham City, like the Superman Museum in Metropolis and the Flash Museum in Central City, but now I can't find the reference. Can anybody help? Yes, the Batman Law-Enforcement Museum (formerly known as the House of Batman) was established by the estate of billionaire philanthropist Adam Penfield after his death. (There's more to it than that, of course, involving a gangster named Mallock using Penfield's name for his criminal schemes, but at the end of the story Batman donates the museum to the city, and it becomes the Batman Law-Enforcement Museum.) See "The House of Batman," Batman #102 (September, 1956)
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Post by DocQuantum on Jul 30, 2023 19:10:51 GMT
Here's the entry in the Batman Encyclopedia:
BATMAN MUSEUM, THE. A museum in GOTHAM CITY, open to the public, which houses an extensive collection of BATMAN memorabilia; the chronicles contain several references to a Batman Museum, but it is not possible to determine whether one museum or several museums, are intended.
In September 1956, following the apprehension of fugitive criminal MAYNE MALLOCK, Batman turns Mallock's House of Batman over to Gotham City so that it mav be converted into a Batman Law Enforcement Museum. The name of the proposed museum suggests that it will contain a wide range of law-enforcement exhibits, and not merely souvenirs of Batman's famous cases (BM No. 102/1: "The House of Batman').
A Batman text for October 1958 contains a specific reference to a Batman Museum in Gotham City (BM No. 119/2: "The Secret of Batman Island!"), but it is impossible to determine whether this is the same as the Batman Law Enforcement Museum mentioned above.
The Gotham City of the twenty-first century A.D. will also have a Batman Museum, filled with trophies commemorating the spectacular exploits of that "famous manhunter of [the] past" (WF No. 11, Fall '43: "A Thief in Time!").
In September 1955 traveling showman "Breezy" Lane and his young son Johnny open a Batman Dime Museum on a downtown Gotham Citv side street. but BRUCE WAYNE buys the museum from the Lanes and shuts it down soon afterward Det No. 223: "The Batman Dime-Museum').
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Post by DocQuantum on Jul 30, 2023 20:17:13 GMT
It's possible that the Batman Museum was dismantled by the late 1970s (Earth-1 time), however, along with several other Batman-themed landmarks in Gotham City (such as the Batman Lighthouse), since we don't really see any of those in the later Earth-1 Batman stories. It's almost as if there was an in-universe effort to make Batman more mysterious and fearsome to criminals (much like the real-life effort) and less of a pop star. My guess is Bruce Wayne probably spearheaded the efforts himself for that very reason, but the public (false) reason that it was more about beautifying or making Gotham City classier or something like that. (As a side note, perhaps Bat-Mite was given a good "scare" to discourage him from making any more pesky visits, which must've worked given that he only made one appearance after 1967 -- Batman likely had to play a mean trick on the poor little guy, but for his own good, a kind of "tough love.")
Given the above theory: If there is still a Batman Museum, it might have moved to another location, or possibly is just in a private collection now, or housed in a wing of a completely different museum. The Batman of the 1980s doesn't seem to have a conventional Batman Museum.
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Post by DocQuantum on Jul 30, 2023 20:31:21 GMT
Now I want to set a story in a huge junkyard filled with the ruins of the Gotham City from the Dick Sprang era. The huge Batman Lighthouse, its blue and gray paint peeling, lies on its side. Huge old advertising props like giant typewriters and the like adorn the landscape for as far as the eye can see. Small fires here and there give evidence of human habitation, the homeless having made their homes there. And the criminal element have made it a temporary hideout, drawing the attention of the Darknight Detective.
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Post by jonclark on Jul 31, 2023 4:32:23 GMT
It's possible that the Batman Museum was dismantled by the late 1970s (Earth-1 time), however, along with several other Batman-themed landmarks in Gotham City (such as the Batman Lighthouse), since we don't really see any of those in the later Earth-1 Batman stories. It's almost as if there was an in-universe effort to make Batman more mysterious and fearsome to criminals (much like the real-life effort) and less of a pop star. My guess is Bruce Wayne probably spearheaded the efforts himself for that very reason, but the public (false) reason that it was more about beautifying or making Gotham City classier or something like that. (As a side note, perhaps Bat-Mite was given a good "scare" to discourage him from making any more pesky visits, which must've worked given that he only made one appearance after 1967 -- Batman likely had to play a mean trick on the poor little guy, but for his own good, a kind of "tough love."). Maybe tie the two together and Bat-mite in his last appearance makes a lot of the Batman themed things vanish. Bruce convinces Bat-Mite that Batman is losing an important edge or that his identity is more imperiled by Batman as a public figure. As a result Bat-Mite erases all the overly-public Batman stuff and 'Mite himslef limits his fanboy actions to only observing for the most part.
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Post by starskyhutch76 on Jul 31, 2023 15:41:17 GMT
(As a side note, perhaps Bat-Mite was given a good "scare" to discourage him from making any more pesky visits, which must've worked given that he only made one appearance after 1967 -- Batman likely had to play a mean trick on the poor little guy, but for his own good, a kind of "tough love.") Given Baat-mite's power level, I think Batman would have to trick him in some way that makes it so that he is no longer his 'Favorite'. The question is, what could he do to disillusion the poor little guy? Who would become his new favorite? Nightwing perhaps?
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Post by lawrenceliberty on Jul 31, 2023 17:07:32 GMT
I could see Bat-Mite taking the bat themed items home as memorabilia. He can't let Quisp's Aquaman collection look more impressive than his Batman stuff.
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Post by lawrenceliberty on Jul 31, 2023 17:08:10 GMT
Nite-Mite?
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Post by starskyhutch76 on Jul 31, 2023 17:31:32 GMT
It would definitely differentiate the e-1 and e-2 versions. Nightwing's more optimistic approach might appeal more to Bat-mite.
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Post by jonclark on Jul 31, 2023 19:38:06 GMT
It would definitely differentiate the e-1 and e-2 versions. Nightwing's more optimistic approach might appeal more to Bat-mite. Could Bat-Mite have come in on something on the level of The Killing Joke or Knightfall. Not the exact events but the sort of dark themes that overran the Post-Crisis Bat-verse. A single isolated event that simply made him see Batman as more Dark Knight and less Caped Crusader? Sort of a metaphorfor how the kid-friendly Silver Age went over the Bronze Age darker (leading to Crisis, Dark Knight Returns, and Watchmen
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Post by starskyhutch76 on Jul 31, 2023 22:31:20 GMT
It would definitely differentiate the e-1 and e-2 versions. Nightwing's more optimistic approach might appeal more to Bat-mite. Could Bat-Mite have come in on something on the level of The Killing Joke or Knightfall. Not the exact events but the sort of dark themes that overran the Post-Crisis Bat-verse. A single isolated event that simply made him see Batman as more Dark Knight and less Caped Crusader? Sort of a metaphorfor how the kid-friendly Silver Age went over the Bronze Age darker (leading to Crisis, Dark Knight Returns, and WatchmenI was thinking the same thing. He might have witnessed one of the times Joker killed people with Joker venom. Or Ras al Ghul's league of assassins. Incidents of actual killing would hardly be the sort of wacky fun adventures he was used to with Batman.
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Post by DocQuantum on Jul 31, 2023 23:07:05 GMT
Speaking of Bat-Mite, Paul Reubens (Pee-Wee Herman, also the voice of Bat-Mite on Batman: The Brave and the Bold) has died. RIP. His version of Bat-Mite really played up the other-dimensional fanboy aspect of the character.
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Post by starskyhutch76 on Aug 1, 2023 0:07:16 GMT
Speaking of Bat-Mite, Paul Reubens (Pee-Wee Herman, also the voice of Bat-Mite on Batman: The Brave and the Bold) has died. RIP. His version of Bat-Mite really played up the other-dimensional fanboy aspect of the character. Aw man. Pee Wee Herman and Sinead O'Connor in the same week? This is a bad week for icons from my youth.
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