BATMAN & TARZAN: CLAWS OF THE CATWOMAN

The two genre heroes team up for this 1940s serial-inspired crossover.

By Jason Henderson     September 13, 2000

Tarzan: 'Why does a millionaire dress in a costume and hurl himself from rooftops?'
Batman: 'Why does a noblemen live in the jungle and hurl himself from the treetops?'

The one thing Batman & Tarzan: Claws of the Catwoman makes abundantly clear to me is this: Given the choice between being orphaned and raised by apes and being orphaned and raised by an English butler, take the apes. At least in the universe presented in Ron Marz and Igor Kordey's story, Bruce Wayne/Batman is a charming and highly competent crime-fighter whose emotional growth is so arrested he seems stuck at about the age of 11. Whereas Lord Greystoke, such a genius that he could master both English and French as an adult after having spoken no man's tongue his whole life, is a fairly ruthless but realistic, complete man. He has a wife and a place in life, and a talent for recognizing the difference between ideals and necessity. In this story, unlike in Miller's The Dark Knight Returns, it's Tarzan who possesses a sense of irony.

Of course in Batman & Tarzan: Claws of the Catwoman we're dealing with two discreet versions of each character. The Tarzan we have here is the one most favored by creator Burroughs--a sort of suave continental who favors dressing way up or in a loincloth, you choose. He has shoulder-length hair and the build of an Olympic runner--not even the bulk of a swimmer. Burroughs himself was so irritated by the monosyllabic Johnny Weissmuller Tarzan that he commissioned a serial featuring a Tarzan exactly like the one in Batman & Tarzan. The resemblance, I think, is no accident. I find the Weissmuller Tarzan's delightful, but it does sort of refresh me to know that even in the 30s, Hollywood was capable of marring a good myth by attempting to make it more realistic, surely the reasoning behind Weissmuller's 'Me Tarzan/You Jane' shtick. We've had other Tarzans along the way, most of them forgettable or ridiculously earnest. (Although I still have a fondness for earnest-beyond-Adam-West Tarzan, Ron Ely.)

Batman is also a Rorschach blot, interpreted and re-interpreted at will. The changes used to move glacially. The Golden Age Batman began as a mildly sadistic gun-toting Shadow rip-off before slowly morphing into a cheery, barrel-chested gray-and-blue Superman. The Silver Age gave us a campy Batman, but never as much as the TV show. Then camp slid into irony as the 1970s took hold, and Batman dumped Wayne Manor and the Batcave for the steely corridors of a skyscraper. This was the period, if you recall, when Batman grew an article before his name and became sad, sad, sad. Oh, what a weepy, brooding hero he was then. Then came the hip, peculiarly literary, reactionary Batman of the 1980s (we'll ignore for a moment the leg-breaking New Batman of the early 90s, who was about as cool and long-lived as New Coke.) Depending upon how we feel about our darkness, we adjust Batman.

A curious side effect is that, with all the adjustments being made to Batman, the character long-ago brazenly stepped right out of DC continuity. Frankly, any Batman story could be an Elseworlds Tale. (Now we have the alternate reality-hopping concept of Hypertime, I know. The rest of DC finally caught up to Batman.)

Pleasantly, though, Marz and Korbey settle on the two versions of Batman and Tarzan that would be most likely to meet one another: the Burroughs serial Tarzan and the early serial Batman. This means the two characters live resolutely in the 1940s. The plot is pure old-fashioned serial nonsense, but you might not even notice that because the presentation is mature enough to involve the reader. Batman and Tarzan meet first in their day garb, as it were, at a gala opening of a Wayne-funded wing of the Gotham Museum. It seems Finnegan Dent, famous archaeologist, has brought back a number of artifacts from 'deepest, darkest Africa.' Lord Greystoke takes an interest because none of these artifacts seem very old.

Soon a Catwoman tries to steal the artifacts back, and when Batman and Tarzan stop her on a rooftop, she is revealed as Princess Khefretari of the Lost City of Memnon. (I can't repeat that epithet without smiling.) Tarzan, to his credit, immediately recognizes Batman as Bruce Wayne, observing, 'You can't disguise your scent.' Much is made of how similar the two characters are. Both are wealthy, educated men. Both defend their home with a religious sense of duty. Their differences are accidental, formed by the laws of place: Tarzan kills freely because it's the law of the jungle, whereas Batman saves even the bad guys because it's the law of the city.

Except it's no accident. Throughout the story, Marz and Kordey hit this note about the difference between Tarzan and Batman, especially regarding the desire to kill. There's even a wonderful scene in which, as if this is what the fans have been waiting for, Batman and Tarzan wrestle crocodiles--and note that Batman won't even kill a crocodile. In the end we realize: Batman is an idealist. Tarzan is not. Tarzan has seen pain, but now has a wife he comes home to who makes him sane. Batman is alone. When the Princess asks him if he has 'people,' Batman says, 'The people in my life are dead.' I can't help thinking, you've gotta be at least thirty, pal. Those aren't 'the people in your life' anymore. I don't think killing's a good idea, but Batman here, polite and non-violent as he is, strikes me more than ever as a little insane.

The presentation of Batman & Tarzan: Claws of the Catwoman is wonderful, with art from Igor Kordey that looks both antiquated and yet highly modern. We're treated to several sequences of brilliant graphic storytelling with no dialogue, and the information is always both exciting and clear. One such sequence occurs early on, as Batman chases the Catwoman over rooftops, and we follow their every footfall. Another happens during the crocodile fight. Kordey gives us some wonderful details--note the stitching on Batman's gloves. To be honest I'd never thought about how the 1940s Batman made his gloves, and when I look at this sequence, I now find myself wondering what he would have had to make the outfit from. Leather strikes me as the best bet.

Batman & Tarzan: Claws of the Catwoman is an exercise in pop schizophrenia, both old-fashioned and winkingly modern. Batman has never looked more silly, nor more real. There's a shot Kordey gives us at one point that just lights up the eye of the 8-year-old within. It's a walking shot of the team: Batman, Tarzan, Queen Khefretari and Jad-bal-ja, the lion. That's an image the children on the 40s would have traded their best marbles for.

Trade Paperback from DC Comics and Dark Horse Comics. Written by Ron Marz. Art by Igor Kordey. Colors by Chris Chuckry. Letters by Clem Robins.