crm/ow pgs
Lew Schwartz cvr/art; classic cover, origin of the Joker; 1st app Red Hood; COMIC BOOK IMPACT rating of 8 (CBI)
This historic issue is among the rarest of Batman keys, and a perennial favorite with legions of Joker collectors. Despite dozens of iterations of the character (from comic to tragic and psychotic to absurd), the Joker's origin still wasn't revealed until in these pages — over a decade after his debut in
Batman #1.
"The Man Behind the Red Hood!" is also a uniquely ambitious tale, taking a strange path to one of the most important reveals of the Golden Age. The plot begins with Batman recruiting college students in a Criminology course to solve the disappearance of the Red Hood — a criminal mastermind who escaped by diving into a vat of toxic chemicals as Batman thwarted his million-dollar heist at the Monarch Playing Card Company. The investigation sparks the Red Hood's return, only for a plot twist to expose how the original Red Hood became the Joker after being grotesquely transformed by his chemical bath.
The tale of the Red Hood has become an important part of several modern tales of the Harlequin of Hate — marking this book as a true artistic achievement in the annals of superhero mythology. Tim Burton's
Batman adapted the story for the Joker's first big-screen origin in 1989, and the fateful robbery would become part of classic comics such as
The Killing Joke and
Zero Year. This epic tale is the original revisiting that would make the devilish killer clown seem more mysterious and haunting than ever before.
Click here to view the interior page of Joker's origin story!
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Overstreet Guide 2019 FN+ (6.5) value = $11,825
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Artists InformationGeorge Roussos also known under the pseudonym George Bell, was an American comic book artist best known as one of Jack Kirby's Silver Age inkers, including on landmark early issues of Marvel Comics' Fantastic Four. Over five decades, he created artwork for numerous publishers, including EC Comics, and he was a staff colorist for Marvel Comics.
Win Mortimer is a Canadian comic strip/ book artist who worked for the big publishing houses during both the golden and silver age era of comics. Win mostly worked with DC but later freelanced for Marvel comics, where his most notable works include Action comics and Spidey Super Stories.