BATMAN FAMILY #1

A Bicentennial Story

BATMAN FAMILY #1
Sept-October 1975
Script: Elliot. S! Maggin
Art: Mike Grell

"...can this Dynamic Duo guard the very soul of America against "The Invader from Hell!"

The United States Bicentennial happened in 1976, but the promotional aspects of the coming celebration had been brewing for years before, and this Batgirl-Robin story is a good example of DC cashing in on the raising fervor that was starting to seep out of every pop culture pore in America.

In the tale scripted by Elliott Maggin, a satanic figure raises Benedict Arnold, the famous traitor General from the Revolutionary War, from the grave and equips him with a magical fiery sword to terrorize Washington DC while leading an army of phantom "red coat" soldiers. Babs Gordon, aka Batgirl, is in town because she is a congresswoman at the House of Representatives, in fact the story itself is mainly told in flashback as she describes it from a lectern inside the Capitol building, saying the tale has been related to her by Batgirl, who we know of course is her hero alter-ego.

Dick Grayson is in town because he is Bab's Congressional aide, drives her car for her and general helps around the office. When Benedict Arnold appears suddenly and attacks her while she is recording a one-minute video presentation on the historical crimes of the infamous general, Grayson tries to intervene, with the General reacting:

No one will ever see the despicable display this snip of a a girl has put on! For 200 years the name Benedict Arnold has lived in infamy, today that will end!...You are a brazen young man ! Do not let it be your undoing!"

Arnold knocks both Babs and Grayson onto their tuchases and then is satisfied merely to ram his sword through the video camera where the recording was being made, then using the fire that emits from his sword he sets the video tape on the floor on fire, saying:

This is what I think of your "Bicentennial" celebration, Dogs!"

By this time both Babs and Dick had escaped the recording studio and changed separately into their Batgirl and Robin suits. Robin returns first to the studio and attacks Arnold, only to be sent back onto his tuchas, then Batgirl appears and lassos him with her batrope, which is of no effect because Arnold transforms into a mass of sparkling star shapes (art by Mike Grell), and then he simply vanishes, leaving behind a flaming message suspended in the air: "Do not interfere with my plans -- Arnold."

The next day as the pair go about their business as public servants at the Capitol, they learn Arnold has taken control of the central chamber of Congress and announces he is bringing his phantom army over from the Pentagon to seize control of the city. Batgirl and Robin soon appear after swift costume changes, and attempt to cross the bridge over the Potomac to stop the advancing army, only to be fired upon by muskets and cannonballs, Robin exclaiming:

How do you fight an army right out of a history book?"

They battle the soldiers with kicks and punches, noting the entranced look in the eyes of the men, but they are quickly captured then dragged through the streets of DC by horses pulling them, tied up to logs which the helpful narrator informs us was a "colonial form of transport for cutthroats, thieves and scoundrels."

Arnold has each of the heroes hung upside down from tall poles where they are told he has constructed a trap by which they can use a free hand to set the other free, but it will send the one doing so to their doom from the great height they are at. Within a micro-second, both react by freeing the other so that they fall together, astounding Arnold who had planned a different outcome, "No, no, no! You both can't have decided to sacrifice yourselves! One of you get back up there now!"

The great height turns out to be not lethal as we expected since both are able to land safely on their feet. At this point, though, a red-suited man in a black shirt and red tie and wearing sunglasses appears, telling Arnold "I'm closing down the show! You blew it, fella."

Arnold begs the mysterious figure for more time, then Arnold angrily grabs his sword and attacks Batgirl and Robin, saying "you must give me one final chance! I'll take both of them alone!"

But as he swings his sword, he isn't able to strike the fleet-footed heroes who dodge his blows, and so he demands a second sword for his other hand, which the red-suited figure provides by simply snapping his fingers. Now armed with a sword in each hand, Arnold continues his effort to slay the pair, but now swords have also appeared magically in the hands of both Batgirl and Robin.

The duel by swords goes on into stalemate until in a rage of frustration Arnold blasts the pair with a "hellish energy" that emits from his weapons which seizes the two into extreme pain as if they're being electrocuted. But then the ttwo realize that if they cross their individual swords together it creates a feedback field that returns the energy at Arnold, which then knocks him onto his tuchas.

Outraged at Arnold's failure, the red suited man who been calmly watching the combat suddenly transforms into a cloven-hoofed, winged red demon who announces that "time is up" for the resurrected Benedict Arnold.

The screaming Arnold is taken back to the infernal regions by the exiting red demon who declares that instead of defeating the American spirit, by losing to Batgirl and Robin, Arnold had unintentionally made that spirit even stronger.

Left alone at the site of the battle, Batgirl and Robin digest what had just transpired, with Robin using "Batman's routine" (or so Batgirl calls it) of trying to convince Batgirl this sort of crime-fighting is too dangerous and why doesn't she exit and go do whatever it is she does when she's not in costume. To shut him up, Batgirl says "I will" and then suddenly embraces and kisses him full on the mouth, which immediately sends "the boy wonder" into full retreat, swinging away on his batrope.

The final page shows Babs Gordon back at Congress, telling the packed House the story of how Benedict Arnold tried to conquer America once again, but...

Whatever we call this immortal evil, we will never fully understand it...anymore than we will understand the true nature of courage, justice or truth itself... but we must always understand the American Ideal and guard that dream bravely... this is the debt we owe the past... and our responsibility to the children of the future!"

Shouts of "bravo!" and "hear, hear!" fill the next to last panel showing us the capitol dome in Washington DC.

What is the American Ideal that can be understood by Congresswoman Gordon, but can't understand evil or truth? This isn't really explained but the underlying moral message is that by not betraying one another, Batgirl and Robin got the upper hand on not just a zombie Benedict Arnold but against a satanic power itself. How the demon had the god-like powers to resurrect a person or muster a phantom army of redcoats isn't explained either.

Mike Grell's artwork wasn't at his peak embellishment style yet, his first professional work had only appeared for the first time the year before in Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes #202, June 1974, but he was already making waves with a look that came out of the photo-realistic stylings of Neal Adams, with Grell making sharp angular renderings that separated his style from the more rounded and less defined superhero "look" of the 50s-60's.

Batman Family #1 is available online in digital form from DC Universe Infinite.

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Original Page October 2020 | Updated November 14, 2022