Batman’s gadgets and weapons have gone through many changes over the years. As an inventor and engineer, Bruce Wayne is constantly striving to keep his gear on the cutting edge of technology – while also researching old school techniques that could take his enemies by surprise. But how many people knew that at one point, Batman chose to use actual bats as his calling card?
The story took place way back in Detective Comics #43 when Batman was still finding his footing – and employing more than a few unconventional tools in his war on crime. Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson start by taking an uncharacteristic vacation to a small town that hides rampant corruption. Upon learning that racketeers have infested the town after the mayor died, leaving a crooked city council president in charge, Batman and Robin decide to take down the crime ring. As with many of his strategies, Batman employs psychological warfare. He sends a package to the new mayor containing… a live bat.
Yes, apparently Bruce figures sending live animals to the mayor is the best way to scare the heck out of him. And it works – particularly because Batman also included a personalized note in the package advising the racketeers to leave town.
Still, the criminals won’t budge – so Batman employs some harder tactics by throwing a bat through their window. Whether this is another live bat (which would have most certainly died from the impact), a bat-dart, or a batarang isn’t clear, but the criminals are clearly spooked. They get even more terrified when Batman and Robin begin abducting several of their men and leave them tied and gagged in a cellar. From this point, Batman and Robin switch tactics by making public appearances and encourage the people to stand up for their own rights (a somewhat hypocritical stance considering all the human and animal rights they’ve already blatantly ignored). The strategy works, however, and the criminals are delivered to the law, giving everyone a happy ending (except for all the poor bats that Bruce Wayne abused).
What makes this story particularly bizarre is that by this point, Batman had already built his batarangs. The batarang made its first appearance in Detective Comics #31, a whole year before Bruce Wayne sent his bat-packages. These early batarangs didn’t have the exotic features fans know today and were designed to mimic Australian boomerangs (they were also spelled “baterangs”). Batman used them primarily as weapons, however, and not as calling cards. Even when he did start leaving batarangs to announce his presence, Batman has continued using live bats as his pawns well into the modern age.
Fans will remember the famous scene in Batman Begins where Christian Bale’s Batman employs a sonic device to call a colony of bats to his position. The bats function as both a distraction and a way to build up Batman’s frightening reputation as he directs them to attack police cars and swarm around his costumed form. An earlier movie, Batman Returns also had Michael Keaton’s Batman hide several bats in his Batskiboat (yes, really) which are later released when the Penguin unwittingly gets his flippers on Batman’s bat-call box and presses the activation switch. (How Batman knew the Penguin would steal the box, turn it on, and leave himself wide open to a bat-attack is a question that’s puzzled fans for years).
Overall, however, Batman does tend to use inanimate batarangs as his calling card these days. He might be a grim avenger of the night who isn’t afraid of facing down the Joker or Two-Face – but even Batman should think twice before incurring the wrath of PETA.
