Detective Comics #298
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeDetective Comics #298 (December 1961) is the origin and first appearance of Matt Hagen, the Silver Age Clayface — the shapeshifting incarnation of the character who would come to define the Clayface identity for decades, effectively eclipsing the powerless Golden Age Basil Karlo version in reader recognition and cultural staying power. While Batman's Silver Age rogues gallery largely recycled Golden Age holdovers, Clayface (Matt Hagen) stands as one of only a small number of major new villains introduced to Batman's world during the 1960s, making this issue a genuine creative milestone for the Batman mythos rather than a simple retread. The character's malleable, shapeshifting powerset — wholly new for a Batman adversary — opened a vein of body-horror storytelling that later writers mined deeply, and Hagen's name and concept directly seeded the celebrated 'Feat of Clay' two-parter in Batman: The Animated Series, which in turn influenced the 2026 Clayface theatrical film. The issue also marks a structural transition point for Detective Comics itself, being the first issue to carry the 12-cent cover price.
In "The Challenge of Clay-Face," Aquaman and Aqualad stand guard on a yacht where diplomats from two warring nations are negotiating peace, unaware that a shape-shifting criminal with a clay-like form is plotting to disrupt the fragile truce. With Nick Cardy handling both pencils and inks, the issue delivers a tense, visually striking tale of deception and danger beneath the surface. The cover, by Sheldon Moldoff, captures the moment of confrontation with dramatic flair.
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The lead Batman story, 'The Challenge of Clay-Face,' was written by Bill Finger — the uncredited co-creator of Batman himself — and penciled and inked by Sheldon Moldoff, who at the time was working as a ghost artist under Bob Kane's name, a secret arrangement Moldoff himself later described in interviews. The book was edited by Jack Schiff, whose tenure on the Batman titles in the late 1950s and early 1960s was marked by a strong push toward science-fiction and fantastical gimmick villains rather than grounded crime stories — a context that made a protoplasm-empowered shapeshifter a perfectly typical, if creatively durable, addition to the line. The issue also carried backup anthology stories by Jack Miller and Nick Cardy (Aquaman/Aqualad) and Joe Certa (Martian Manhunter), following the multi-feature format standard for DC anthology books of the era.
Trivia · 9 facts
- First appearance and origin of Matt Hagen as Clayface (the Silver Age, or second, Clayface) — in-story, his name is hyphenated as 'Clay-Face' throughout the issue.
- Written by Bill Finger (Batman lead story) with art by Sheldon Moldoff (pencils) and Charles Paris (inks); edited by Jack Schiff, with executive editor Whitney Ellsworth.
- Hagen's origin: a diver/treasure hunter who falls into a subterranean pool of radioactive protoplasm, which gives his body temporary clay-like shapeshifting abilities he must periodically recharge.
- The issue is a three-feature anthology: the Batman/Clayface lead story; a Martian Manhunter backup ('The Man Who Impersonated J'onn J'onzz') written by Jack Miller with art by Joe Certa; and an Aquaman backup ('The Secret Sentry of the Sea') drawn by Nick Cardy, featuring Aquaman and Aqualad guarding a peace-treaty yacht.
- This is the first issue of Detective Comics to carry a 12-cent cover price, up from 10 cents.
- DC Database records this as Robin's 600th comic book appearance.
- The Batman lead story was reprinted in Batman #213 (July–August 1969), and the issue has since been collected in Batman in the Sixties (1999), Batman Arkham: Clayface (2017), and Detective Comics: 80 Years of Batman (2019).
- Matt Hagen's name and shapeshifting concept were adapted for Batman: The Animated Series in the 'Feat of Clay' two-parter (1992), where Hagen was voiced by Ron Perlman; that animated interpretation, which blended Hagen's powers with the actor background of Golden Age Clayface Basil Karlo, became the primary pop-culture template for the character and is cited as the direct influence on the 2026 Clayface theatrical film.
- The issue also features a cameo appearance of Aqualad (Garth) in the Aquaman backup story; the Grand Comics Database notes the dissidents in that story as first appearances.
Full credits
Reprints
Reprinted in Century Comic #72 (1962), Flash #38 (1962), Batman #213 (1969), Политикин Забавник [Politikin zabavnik] #1004 (1971), Batman in the Sixties #[nn] (1999), Showcase Presents: Aquaman #1 (2007), Showcase Presents: Martian Manhunter #1 (2007), Batman Arkham: Clayface #[nn] (2017), Detective Comics: 80 Years of Batman #[nn] (2019), Super DC #9
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