"When Shelley Mayer (...) needed someone to crank out superheroes in a hurry, Vin put him on to his old friend. Gardner discovered that gimmicky heroes and breakneck action stories flowed out of him like water. Too many words, not enough plot, but always something going on." (Jones, 2004)

When Detective Comics #29 and with it the third appearance of the new and successful Batman was looming, Bill Finger (who had scripted the first two Batman stories) found himself behind most of his deadlines. So Vin Sullivan turned to his old friend Fox (who had been writing for Detective Comics since issue 4) and asked him to come up with a Batman script on the double.

This was an instant departure from thieves and gangsters who were out to steal documents or jewellery and who went by names such as Alfred Stryker or Frenchy Blake - here was a much more refined criminal (a doctor, after all) whose name signalled both a mystery and a terrible threat at the same time... clearly, this was an evil mastermind, not just some street level criminal.

It set a decisively new tone - and changed the gameplay for Batman forever as Gardner Fox plotted the vigilante against his first true villain with a masterplan: Doctor Death. The story itself has its fair share of contrived coincidences and lapses of logic (as indeed many of Fox's comic book stories do) but the plot induces an astonishing number of defining elements for the first time - pillars of the Batman mythos which subsequent writers would revisit time and time again.

Over the course of a mere two consecutive issues of Detective Comics Gardner Fox set up and used plot elements which would become pivotal and defining for the Batman and his world - and the superhero mythos in general.

Literally first off - in panel one of the story - readers sense that this time around the Batman will have to face not just a criminal but a foe, one who is as much outside of the regular and the ordinary as indeed the Batman himself.

Being an unscrupulous scientist with a narrow field of specialization rather than the "most agile and learned brain on Earth" (as Siegel described the Ultra-Humanite) gave him that tinge of actually being possible in the real world - a trait which has come to set apart Batman from virtually all superheroes. Rather than going for superlatives Fox instinctively knew where to hold back and where to go all out: Shakespeare may have been right that a rose by any other name would smell just as sweet, but when it comes down to villainous threats, Doctor Death is just the ticket. It is almost a shame that the distinction of being the first ever comic book supervillain goes to the ultra-lame Ultra-Humanite and not Doctor Death.

Another important point was Doctor Hellfern being acutely aware of the fact that the Batman poses a real threat to his plans and therefore needs to be taken care of first. As simple as this plot device may be, it is in fact a fundamental cornerstone of the superhero comic book genre which has driven countless storylines. Its importance lies in the effect of creating a relationship between the hero and the villain and taking the conflict to a meta level where the villain is not just a common criminal, but rather a supervillain challenging the superhero who is the one and only standing between him and the success of his nefarious plans. Gardner Fox could hardly have foreseen it, but ultimately this would even turn into the confrontation being the actual purpose of the villain, so that he might prove himself superior to the hero - and even further down the road it would lead to a complex and existential interaction between the antagonists: what, after all, is the Joker without a Batman, and possibly vice versa too?

Amother important trait of the supervillain introduced into the world of Batman with Doctor Death is the diabolical scheme, the evil masterplan. In the case of Dr Hellfern the ultimate goal is unclear, but his blackmailing scheme takes on a sinister quality by way of the means applied if his threats are ignored. Later updates of Doctor Death would illustrate fully the gruesome potential Hellfern's chemical threats can take on - ultimately making him a dabbler in chemical warfare and mass destruction. But even in the somewhat sketchy narrative style of Gardner Fox Doctor Death clearly is the first real "Batman villain" (as he, typically, also sets out to do away with the Caped Crusader) - the first in what would become a long line of characters.

The story per se is neither consistent nor truly gripping, but the details which Fox worked into it make it fly all the same as he also underlines the importance of Batman's special equipment and readers learn for the first time what the Batman actually puts away in his utility be.

"Gardner Fox was (...) not the greatest writer, but very capable and reliable, a good plot man." (long-time DC editor Julius Schwartz, in Schwartz & Thomsen, 2000)

GARDNER FOX

Gardner Francis Cooper Fox (May 20th 1911 - December 24th 1986) was a prolific comic book writer and creator who is estimated to have written over 4,000 stories for the medium - plus an average of three books per year between 1944 and 1982. He received a law degree from St. John's College (New York) and was admitted to the New York bar in 1935, but as the ill economic effects of the Great Depression continued to be felt he began writing for DC Comics under editor Vin Sullivan (an old school friend) as of mid-1937. His first story featured Speed Saunders in Detective Comics #4 (September 1937) and throughout the following years Fox would contribute stories to nearly every book in the DC Golden Age lineup. He was a master when it came to defining the specifics of a certain character and providing that persona with a unique aura, and his ingenuity was virtually second to none. On the storytelling level, the quality of his output was less consistent. Fox created or co-created several well-known Golden Age comic book characters, such as The Sandman (1939), The Flash (1940) and Hawkman (1940), and came up with the concept of the Justice Society of America - the first comic book superhero team - in late 1940. From 1947 to 1950 Fox also wrote stories for EC Comics and their famous line of horror comics such as Crypt of Terror and Vault of Horror. Following the crackdown on the comic book industry in the wake of Fredric Wertham's Seduction of the Innocent in the mid-1950s, Julius Schwartz called in Gardner Fox to assist with the revival of DC's Golden Age heroes. The two men revamped the characters, giving them new costumes and backgrounds, and Fox introduced the concept that the Golden Age heroes existed on a parallel Earth in The Flash #123 in September 1961 - setting up the DC multiverse.

In a clever and brilliantly executed bow to the history of the Batman universe and mythology, Gerry Conway took the underlying potential of Doctor Death and turned him and his evil plot of mass destruction into a well paced, well rounded and well told Batman story which worked on every level - and the mysterious figure of Dr Karl Hellfern was well suited to Gene Colan's shadowy and horroresque style.

Conway had Hellfern bound to a wheelchair, and Colan's rendition of the wheelchair's deadly gadgets was every bit as intriguing and menacing as his previous rendition of Harker's famous wheelchair in Marvel's Tomb of Dracula.

Interesting as Conway's revival of Doctor Death was, it was only a very brief return to the limelights of the Batman Universe for Dr Karl Hellfern - after Batman #345 and Detective Comics #512 he once again returned to his previous state of limbo.