Dec 3rd 2020 Advent Calendar
Has there ever been a more shocking cover than this? Batman behind bars wailing insanely and confined by a straightjacket!
Meanwhile Superman looks on regretfully from the other side of the cage. He could easily set his friend free, but no! He regretfully reveals that he is the one who has had Batman locked up in the first place.
And Gotham's crime fighter is not the only one confined in this way-- Black Widow, Hawkman and Flash are being restrained in the same way. Even the tiny Atom, kneeling amongst them, is wearing a miniature straightjacket.
"I had to put them away! They-- They're hopelessly INSANE!" admits Superman to a uniformed guard on the front of JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #81 dated June 1970. It's a wonderfully shocking image and stands out as one of those covers that makes a potential reader cough up his 15 cents to find out just what is happening (or possibly a downright ridiculous cover irresponsibly sensationalising mental illness in a crass attempt to hook in readers with its lurid imagery). The man responsible for the artwork is Gil Kane, his pencilling inked by Neal Adams. And while the various members of the superhero team do in fact become temporarily affected by an alien villain making them behave erratically this issue, sadly the events take place far from Earth, and at no point is Superman compelled to have them locked away in straightjackets.
So, the image of a person in a straightjacket is something we are accustomed to seeing in our fictions to such an extent that it is an easily recognisable shorthand signifier that a person is dangerous or amoral. Let's face it you wouldn't be surprised to see someone in a straightjacket in a Horror film--
Or a Comedy--
Or even a Superhero movie--
<The above examples are from THE CABINET OF DR CALIGARI (Yaaay!),
RETURN OF THE PINK PANTHER (Whoopee!) and SUICIDE SQUAD (Ouch!)>
I couldn't help noticing though that the expression on the faces of Batman and Hawkman reminded me of another straightjacketed figure from popular culture--
The story itself, written by Denny O'Neil, uses the idea of madness for dramatic effect in much the same way storytellers have been using the condition for centuries-- with no great degree of sensitivity. It starts with Hawkman's lady-love Jean still in a state of delusional grandiosity ("I am your Killer-Queen Jean!") from events that took place some little while previously in ATOM AND HAWKMAN. Artists Dick Dillin and Joe Giella compound the sense of Jean's vulnerability by clearly portraying her bound at the ankles and wrists.
Once Hawkman himself is driven to bizarre thoughts and actions by the villainous Jest-Master, his consideration of what he might do with the unconscious Atom ("Should I squash the little twerp?") is either concerningly chilling or laugh-out-loud hilarious, depending really on your view of the tiny superhero.
Besides Batman being a bit overaggressive, there's nothing else really to suggest anything like the level of insanity depicted on the cover. Unless of course you count Black Canary's sudden attraction to a certain other League member ("He seemed to be a nuisance... but now, darn it, I MISS him!")--
Nevertheless, it's a cover which does its job-- to sell copies. And, to be fair, since the story itself isn't so bad, I guess not many readers at the time of original publication felt short-changed.
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