Batman #62
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeBatman #62 is one of the most consequential single issues of DC's Golden Age because it delivers two landmark debuts in one anthology package. The lead story, 'The Secret Life of the Catwoman!', gave readers the first-ever name for Batman's feline adversary — after a full decade of anonymous criminal escapades, she was revealed to be Selina Kyle — and simultaneously provided her with a complete (if later retconned) origin as an amnesiac former flight attendant. The issue also planted the seed of Catwoman's defining duality: within its pages she reforms, teams up with Batman and Commissioner Gordon as an undercover operative, and publicly retires from crime, establishing the ally-versus-antagonist tension that has driven her character ever since. The backup story, 'The Batman of England!', introduced the Knight and his son the Squire, DC's British Batman-and-Robin counterparts, who would go on to become cornerstones of the publisher's international superhero mythology — most visibly in Grant Morrison's Club of Heroes storylines and Paul Cornell's 2010 miniseries.
In "The Secret Life of the Catwoman," a 1950 DC comic written by Bill Finger and illustrated by Bob Kane, Lew Sayre Schwartz, and Charles Paris, Selina Kyle awakens with no memory of her past as Catwoman after a dangerous encounter with the mystery crime boss Mister X. With her identity erased and her instincts unclear, she teams up with Batman and Robin to bring down the elusive villain—though her true loyalties remain uncertain. The cover by Win Mortimer captures the tension of this pivotal moment in a 10-cent comic from a bygone era.
In this 1950 tale from Batman #62, Catwoman—known here as Selina Kyle—awakens with no memory of her past as a criminal, leaving her to team up with Batman and Robin in a mission to bring down the enigmatic Mister X. As she navigates a world she no longer recognizes, her new alliance with the Dark Knight forces her to confront the mystery of who she truly is.
In "The Batman of England!", Batman and Robin travel to England to stop a criminal gang, only to find an unexpected ally in the Knight and the Squire—two local heroes who’ve modeled their crime-fighting act after the Dynamic Duo. The story unfolds as the two teams, one from Gotham and one from the British countryside, navigate a mystery that blurs the line between imitation and inspiration.
In "The Mystery of Millionaire Island!" from Batman #62 (1950), Bruce Wayne finds himself trapped on a secluded island with other wealthy men, all held hostage by a shadowy figure demanding they expose their most lucrative secrets—or face death. With no way out and no clue who’s behind the scheme, the billionaire detective must use his wits to survive the deadly game.
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The issue went on sale October 9, 1950 and carried a cover date of December 1950, published by National Comics Publications (DC's corporate identity at the time) under editor Whitney Ellsworth. The Catwoman lead story was scripted by Batman co-creator Bill Finger — the same writer who had created the character without credit a decade earlier — with pencils shared between Bob Kane (who contributed Batman and Robin figures only) and Lew Sayre Schwartz handling the bulk of the interior art, inked by Charles Paris; the cover was painted by Win Mortimer. The Knight-and-Squire backup, 'The Batman of England!', was pencilled by the prolific Golden Age artist Dick Sprang, with Paris again on inks; Wikipedia's Squire article credits the story's creation to Bill Finger and Dick Sprang, though one fan-wiki attributes the Knight's scripting to Edmond Hamilton — a discrepancy flagged below. The 52-page bi-monthly issue also contained a third adventure, 'The Mystery of Millionaire Island!', and several one-page humor fillers.
Trivia · 8 facts
- First time Catwoman is identified by name: 'Selina Kyle' — a revelation that had been withheld across ten full years and dozens of appearances since her debut in Batman #1 (Spring 1940).
- Provides Catwoman's first-ever origin story: she is revealed to have been a stewardess who suffered amnesia after surviving a plane crash, and whose subconscious love of cats — instilled by a pet-store-owning father — drove her criminal alter ego.
- The amnesia origin was retroactively revised in The Brave and the Bold #197 (April 1983), where Selina admits she invented the story as a way out of her criminal past; her true backstory was reframed as an escape from an abusive marriage.
- First appearance of the Knight (Percy Sheldrake, Earl of Wordenshire) and the Squire (his son Cyril Sheldrake), British crime-fighters modelled on Batman and Robin, in the backup story 'The Batman of England!' — the seed of DC's later Batmen of All Nations / Club of Heroes concept.
- The issue closes with Selina Kyle formally retiring from crime, a story beat that presaged her actual disappearance from comics: she made her last Golden Age appearance in Detective Comics #211 (1954), vanishing for over twelve years largely due to Comics Code Authority restrictions on female characters.
- Creative team: lead story scripted by Bill Finger, pencils by Bob Kane (figures) and Lew Sayre Schwartz, inks by Charles Paris, letters by Ira Schnapp; cover by Win Mortimer; Knight/Squire backup pencilled by Dick Sprang.
- Editor: Whitney Ellsworth (credited on the published issue).
- The Catwoman story from this issue has been reprinted at least three times in modern collected editions: Batman: The Golden Age Omnibus Vol. 7 (August 2019), Batman in the Fifties (November 2021), and the Eaglemoss DC Comics Graphic Novel Collection #36 (October 2015).
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Reprints
Reprinted in Lynvingen #12/1953 (1953), Batman #208 (1969), Limited Collectors' Edition #C-45 (1976), The Greatest Batman Stories Ever Told #2 (1992), The Greatest Batman Stories Ever Told #2 (1992), Batman in the Fifties #[nn] (2002), Batman: The Greatest Stories Ever Told #1 (2005), Batman - Die besten Storys aller Zeiten #1 (2009), DC Comics Graphic Novel Collection #36 (2015), Batman: The Golden Age Omnibus #7 (2019), Batman in the Fifties #[nn] (2021)
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