Posted in: Comics, Heritage Sponsored, Vintage Paper | Tagged: dc comics, robin

The Bat Hound before Ace in Star Spangled Comics 100, at Auction

Years before Ace the Bat-Hound was introduced in Batman #92, another dog hero was introduced in a Robin solo story in Star Spangled Comics.

As many people reading this will know, Ace the Bat-Hound debuted in Batman #92, cover-dated June 1955, three months after Krypto's first appearance in Adventure Comics #210.  But the era of the dog heroes at DC Comics had been underway for years by that time.  Streak the Wonder Dog had been introduced in Green Lantern #30 (cover-dated Feb-Mar 1948) and survived the end of both Green Lantern and All-American Comics, briefly continuing on in his own solo adventures in Sensation Comics #91-93.  Three months after that, a dog named Duke was introduced and given an origin in the Robin story in Star Spangled Comics #100, drawn by Jim Mooney. A brief but memorable entry into DC Comics' pantheon of animal heroes, there's a Star Spangled Comics #100 (DC, 1949) Condition: VG+ up for auction in the 2024 May 30 Adventures in the Golden Age Comics Showcase Auction #40261 at Heritage Auctions.

The era of the superhero was firmly in decline at every publisher by this time. With Star Spangled Comics #96, Robin lost the cover feature that the character had maintained on the title since his solo debut in Star Spangled Comics #65.  In the Star Spangled Comics #100 story titled The Killer-Dog of Gotham City, Robin encounters a dog trained by a criminal gang to attack police.  When Commissioner Gordon shockingly and repeatedly states his intention to have the aggressive dog put down, Robin intervenes and takes the dog back to the Batcave for training — and kindness.  Robin's efforts are ultimately successful, and Duke helps him solve the case at hand.  There's a lot of setup for Duke in this story, with the crime-solving almost an afterthought, and the ending makes one wonder if this was a trial balloon for an earlier version of Bat-Hound as a regular part of the Robin feature.

But this was not to be.  Robin continued to be a feature in the title until its end with Star Spangled Comics #130 (cover-dated July 1952), with no further Duke appearances.  By that time, the dog hero tradition at DC had begun again with the launch of Adventures of Rex the Wonder Dog in late 1951.  But before then, Robin briefly had a Bat-Hound of his own named Duke in Star Spangled Comics #100 (DC, 1949).

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