Detective Comics #25
Detective Comics #25 sits just two issues before Batman's world-changing debut in #27, making it one of the last snapshots of National/DC's anthology before the superhero genre permanently reshaped the title. The issue captures the Crimson Avenger — DC's first masked, costumed crimefighter, who predated Batman by several months — mid-run, carrying the full conceptual weight of what a 'DC hero' looked like before capes replaced trenchcoats. As an oversized 68-page anthology, it also showcases the remarkable creative range the early title sustained: spy fiction co-scripted by Jerry Siegel (of Superman fame), licensed pulp material from Sax Rohmer, a humor page by a pre-Batman Bob Kane, and western, adventure, and mystery strips all in a single issue, demonstrating how ambitious and genre-diverse National's output was in the months before its superhero pivot.
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The issue carries a cover date of March 1939 and was published in January 1939, under editor Vincent Sullivan, who oversaw Detective Comics during the period that would culminate in Batman's creation. The cover art was provided by Fred Guardineer, who also scripted and drew the lead Speed Saunders story. The creative roster for the issue reads as a who's-who of early National talent: Gardner Fox contributed the Speed Saunders script and a prose text story (credited under his pseudonym 'Paul Dean'); Jerry Siegel and the Shuster Shop handled both the Bart Regan spy feature and the Slam Bradley strip; Jim Chambers drew the Crimson Avenger chapter; and the Dr. Fu Manchu segment was adapted from Sax Rohmer's licensed property, drawn by Leo O'Mealia — a telling example of how early DC blended original characters with borrowed pulp IP.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Cover date: March 1939; published January 1939 — two issues before Detective Comics #27 introduced Batman.
- The Crimson Avenger (Lee Travis) and his sidekick Wing How appear; the character, created by Jim Chambers, is DC's first masked, costumed crimefighter, debuting in Detective Comics #20 (October 1938) and predating Batman by several months.
- The Bart Regan spy story features a personal assignment from President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who appears as a guest character — an unusually topical cameo that grounded the strip's espionage themes in the anxious pre-WWII political moment.
- Jerry Siegel — co-creator of Superman — scripted both the Bart Regan feature (art by the Shuster Shop) and the Slam Bradley story (also by the Shuster Shop), making him the issue's single most prolific writer.
- Bob Kane, less than two months before co-creating Batman in Detective Comics #27, contributed the humor page 'Oscar the Gumshoe' to this issue.
- The 68-page issue runs a full anthology roster including Speed Saunders (script: Gardner Fox, art: Fred Guardineer), Larry Steele (Will Ely), Buck Marshall (Homer Fleming), Cosmo (Sven Elven), Bruce Nelson (Tom Hickey), and a Dr. Fu Manchu strip adapted from Sax Rohmer's licensed property with art by Leo O'Mealia.
- Gardner Fox's text story is credited to his pseudonym 'Paul Dean,' a byline he used regularly for prose features in early Detective Comics.
- The Crimson Avenger's story in this issue features villain H.A. Powers, who is rendered unconscious by the Avenger's signature gas gun and maneuvered onto a South American flight — a plot typical of the four-to-ten-page adventure formula Jim Chambers used throughout the character's early run.
Cast · 12 characters
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