Detective Comics #247
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeDetective Comics #247 marks the debut of Professor Achilles Milo, a criminal chemist who became one of Batman's more enduring Silver Age antagonists — notable precisely because his weapon was psychology and pharmacology rather than muscle or gadgetry. The lead story, 'The Man Who Ended Batman's Career,' introduced the concept of chemically stripping Batman of his core identity by engineering a bat-phobia in the hero, forcing Bruce Wayne to masquerade as a star-themed surrogate called 'Starman' to continue fighting crime at all. That premise — a villain targeting Batman's psychological foundation rather than his body — planted a storytelling seed that writer Grant Morrison would later harvest decades on, when he retroactively embedded Milo's fear-gas experiments into the origin of Batman's 'Zur-En-Arrh' backup personality in the 'Batman R.I.P.' arc, giving this otherwise modest Silver Age issue an unexpected canonical weight in 21st-century Batman mythology.
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The issue was produced under editor Jack Schiff, whose long tenure on the Batman titles throughout the 1950s into the early 1960s defined the Silver Age 'weird science' phase of the character. The lead story was scripted by Bill Finger — Batman's uncredited co-creator, who received no formal byline on DC's Batman material during this era — and drawn by Sheldon Moldoff, who was ghosting the artwork under the standing Bob Kane credit, with inks by Charles Paris. The cover was supplied by Curt Swan and Stan Kaye, while back-up features included a Martian Manhunter story scripted by Jack Miller with art by Joe Certa, a Roy Raymond TV Detective strip by Ruben Moreira, and a humor page by Henry Boltinoff — the standard anthology format for the title at the time.
Trivia · 8 facts
- First appearance and origin of Professor Achilles Milo (full name confirmed across multiple sources), created by Bill Finger and Sheldon Moldoff, cover-dated September 1957.
- Lead story title: 'The Man Who Ended Batman's Career' — Milo administers a chemical serum that induces an acute phobia of anything bat-shaped in Bruce Wayne, rendering his Batman identity untenable.
- Batman adopts the temporary alias and star-themed costume of 'Starman' to keep fighting crime while afflicted; Robin ultimately breaks the conditioning by forcing Batman to confront footage of his own heroic career.
- The interior Batman story was scripted by Bill Finger with pencils by Sheldon Moldoff (published under the standing Bob Kane credit) and inks by Charles Paris; the cover was pencilled by Curt Swan and inked by Stan Kaye.
- Editor on the Batman stories was Jack Schiff; the Martian Manhunter back-up ('The Impossible Messages') was scripted by Jack Miller with art by Joe Certa.
- The lead Batman story was reprinted in Batman Annual #4 (1962) and later collected in Batman: The Black Casebook; the Martian Manhunter story was reprinted in the Showcase Presents: Martian Manhunter Vol. 1 collection.
- Grant Morrison's 2008 'Batman R.I.P.' arc (Batman #679) retroactively established that an early encounter with Milo's hallucinogenic gas inspired Bruce Wayne to develop the 'Batman of Zur-En-Arrh' backup personality — a direct narrative callback to this issue.
- Professor Milo went on to appear in Batman: The Animated Series (voiced by Treat Williams) and Justice League Unlimited (voiced by Armin Shimerman), as well as in Batman: The Brave and the Bold, making him one of the few Silver Age Schiff-era villains to cross into animation.
Full credits
Reprints
Reprinted in The Hundred Comic Monthly #15 (1957), Big Boy #18 (1958), Big Boy #21 (1958), Batman #152 (1962), Batman Annual #4 (1963), Atom #1/1964 (1964), Lynvingen #4/1966 (1966), Rommets Helter #5/1966 (1966), Batman Annual #1968 (1968), Big Boss #6 (1971), Big Boss #8 (1972), Big Boss #57 (1982), The Greatest 1950s Stories Ever Told #[nn] (1992), Showcase Presents: Martian Manhunter #1 (2007), Batman: The Black Casebook #[nn] (2009), DC Comics Classics Library: The Batman Annuals #2 (2010)
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