Batman: The War Years 1939-1945 HC

The poor little rich boy orphaned in a late-night robbery. The lad training for years so that one day he could avenge his parents' deaths. The bat that flies through the window at a crucial moment, inspiring Bruce Wayne with a name and a motif. All of these are wonderful elements in a timeless tale. By early 1940, both Batman and Robin were up and running in no less than two hit comic books. Bob Kane hired a teenager that he happened to meet -- Jerry Robinson -- to help him churn out what looked like a nice long run of Batman stories.

They didn't know the half of it.

For, as the Second World War loomed ever larger on the horizon, Batman was about to become big business, comic-book style.