In 1946, the Batman comics saw a bunch of minor additions to the mythos. Some of these additions would stick around to the present.
First up, Batman updated his vehicle collection with the first official Batboat appearance in Detective Comics #110 written by Don Cameron. Batman and Robin were presented with the vehicle by Scotland Yard in England. The boat even included a Batarang gun. The boat was then seen the same year in a story called “The Marathon of Menace” by Bill Finger in the Batman #34. The story was about a racer named Marty Steele who issued an open challenge to everyone that he could beat them in a race. Batman and Robin follow along the race thwarting the attempts to sabotage Marty by George Kale. Batman and Robin of course finish the race first but since they weren’t officially entered in the contest, the victory went to Marty Steele. The story also featured the Gotham City Airport for the first time. While Detective Comics #110 released first, both issues featuring the Batboat were released in April.
Outside the main Bat-Books, the first appearance of Crazy Quilt occurred in Boy Commandos #15. The character was created by Jack Kirby and would become a major foe against the likes of Batman and Robin.
That issue was out in June and that same month saw Catwoman return in Batman #35. “Nine Lives has the Catwoman!” was written by Bill Finger, though it featured a blonde woman as Catwoman. The issue was also the first time that the character wore her iconic purple, cat-eared costum. The story starts with her escaping from the Gotham Women’s Prison. Batman and Robin track her to her hideout and she falls to her apparent death into a chasm. Does she truly have nine lives? That is the question that the Dynamic Duo is faced with at the end of the story.
In October, Batman #37 featured the story “The Joker Follows Suit” which sees Batman and Robin are facing off against their arch-nemesis, the Joker, who created his own version of Batman’s wonderful toys. He had his own Jokermobile and Jokercopter. The Crown Prince of Crime even had his own Jokersignal.
To wrap up the year, we saw a couple of other unique appearances as well. In Batman #32, Joker has a giant playing card in his hideout that later appears as the Joker playing card in the Batcave making its first appearance in the Batcave in Detective Comics #114. Another Batcave staple also appeared for the first time in 1946. The giant Tyrannosaurus Rex made its first appearance in Batman #35 in the “Dinosaur Island” story. There was also a new origin story shown for Dick Grayson. Not very different from the original story from Detective Comics #38, the story would have enough differences for DC to make a point that this was actually the origin story for Dick Grayson from Earth-32.
