Who could threaten a duo of animal-costumed heroes more than a trio of animal-costumed villains?
The vivid criminal gang of the Fox, the Shark, and the Vulture debuted in Detective Comics 253 (March 1958). And the more colorful costumed figures packed into a story, the better I liked it.
Another set of “mirror image” foes for Dynamic Duo, the Terrible Trio were criminal inventors who operated on land, sea, and air, employing fantastic machines that paralleled the various Bat-vehicles and gadgets. Those included a missile machine, a pilot fish machine, a swordfish machine, a burrow machine, and an eel machine (which could swallow the burrow machine and escape with it). Dave Wood scripted the adventure, which was drawn by Sheldon Moldoff.
“The Batman stories during the fifties were aimed fully at kids and this story fits the bill perfectly,” noted Batman blogger Chris. “You’ve got giant machines, Bat gadgets, Batman and Robin disguised as mummies, hideout traps… it’s the kind of story a kid would have an absolute blast reading.”
The villains returned in Detective Comics 321 (Nov. 1963) to face a Dynamic Trio — Batman, Robin, and Batwoman.
In 1958, the 36 pages of a DC anthology title gave you three features for a single dime. The elegant art of Ruben Moreira in The Fossil Man pitted TV detective Roy Raymond against villainous Thor Dakar. In The Super Reporter, the Martian Manhunter goes into journalism to thwart the criminal publisher Harry Moran. J’onn J’onzz, still keeping his superheroic activities secret at this point, is presumably unaware that another super reporter is at work over in Metropolis.
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