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He definitely did it a few times in the 60′s TV series, so it’s not recent. I think they did it the few times he had to show up as Bruce Wayne.

I distinctly remember it being used in the O’Neil/Adams Batman, at least with the silent appearances in thne room. These do post-date the West/Ward TV show, but that is the earliest I can recall it appearing in the comics, so that would be the early 70s.

Did it really happen in the 60s TV series? Because somehow that doesn’t seem right?

Yes, it was. I think it was more to show Gordon and O’Hara as clueless than anything else. Also, Batgirl did it to Batman and Robin all the time. Robin would then want to try to follow her, but Batman admonished him to respect her secret ID.

I seem to remember this sort of thing happening a lot in (Lee Falk’s) The Phantom (which apparently isn’t a very big comic in the States, but is HUGE in Australia and apparently Europe) but I don’t know if this was copied from Batman or not.

In 1997 Batman appeared in thousand of movie theaters. The very next week, he was…GONE!

I don’t like when it happens. I mean, it would be awesome if disappearance was plausible, but I guess that since Batman is essentially smarter than the writers, writers tend to take the cheap way out and just write as if Batman knows how he did it, but none of the rest of us do.

Which is a terrible cheat.

I don’t see it as a cheat. More an acknowledgment that Gordon can never, no matter how often he may think differently, understand Batman. (Same goes for Bulloch, Montoya, or any other character he’s pulled the trick on.) The character’s also trained in at least some aspects of ninjutsu, so it’s not too much a stretch. It’s not as if he disappears when Gordon is looking at him, always when his back is turned.

And I think its also part of Gordon’s intentional ignorance to Batman. Gordon turns his back on Batman just so he can disappear.

My favorite moment from Knightfall is the when Jean Paul first goes to meet with Gordon at the Bat Signal, Gordon downloads him on the Bane situation and upon finishing turns around and smells a rat because Batman is still there.

I’m also remembering Kingdom Come #3. Superman is warning Batman about the riot at the super-gulag. Batman turns his head to remark about Captain Marvel heading there, or somesuch. Turns around and Superman is gone.

“So that’s what that feels like….” he says.

“I’m also remembering Kingdom Come #3. Superman is warning Batman about the riot at the super-gulag. Batman turns his head to remark about Captain Marvel heading there, or somesuch. Turns around and Superman is gone.”

That means it’s gotta be way old, otherwise Alex Ross wouldn’t've referenced it.

I don’t recall Batman and Robin ever doing the ‘disappearing from a room’ thing with Gordon and O’Hara in the Batman TV series. If anything it was the opposite– they were the most conspicuous people leaving or entering a room ever.

I’m going with O’Neal and Adams but the first time I remember it happening is in the issue of Swamp Thing that Batman appeared in ’73 or so.

My earliest recollection is from the Batman animated series, where it was a very frequently used device. I’ve never read anything from the O’Neil/Adams run, my very first Batman comic was part 3 of “A Lonely Place of Dying.”

Okay, I recall when it happened on the old Adam West series, but i recall it being somewhat different. Gordon and O’Hara would be occupied with the wrap-up of the big fight or whatever and then would notice Batman and Robin slipped away while they were distracted.

I think what Brian is referencing is the mid-conversation slip-away, where Batman and Gordon are in the middle of a conversation and suddenly Gordon is left talking to himself. THAT I’m pretty sure never happened in the Adam West series.

Frank Miller had Daredevil do it to Ben Urich. With Urich muttering some Gordon-esque statements afterward.

Adam wrote:
I’m also remembering Kingdom Come #3. Superman is warning Batman about the riot at the super-gulag. Batman turns his head to remark about Captain Marvel heading there, or somesuch. Turns around and Superman is gone.
“So that’s what that feels like….” he says.
Benjamin Moore comments:
That means it’s gotta be way old, otherwise Alex Ross wouldn’t’ve referenced it.

Yeah, an earlier version was by Mike Barr and Jim Aparo in #8 of the first series of Batman and the Outsiders in 1984.

The Phantom Stranger pulls it on Bats, who ponders, “I wonder if my appearances and disappearances shake people up like that?”

“I hope so!”, he thinks to himself with big, rare, bat-smile…

http://namtab.com/phantomstranger/bato08pg13.gif

“I hope so!”, he thinks to himself with big, rare, bat-smile…

From 1939 to 1986 bat-smiles really weren’t all that rare.

“Reader Graham asked a great question that I don’t know the answer to”

WHAT? I don’t believe it! Someone has stumped Brian on a piece of comics trivia? It is a sad, sad day.

Though I’m sure everyone will remember the answer henceforth once it is definitively determined in which issue/episode the event first took place. My brain does not work in such a way that I could even hazard a guess at the answer. I think conversation-disappearing Batman was established convention by the time I started reading Batman comics during the Ten Nights of the Beast storyline. But O’Neil/Adams would seem like a good period for it to start to me.

Conversation-disappearing Batman is probably an overused convention at this point. But the only time I ever really hated seeing it without an explanation was in The Dark Knight when Batman is in a well lit bank vault with Gordon. Blech.

I vaguely recall Batman caught in the act of disappearing in his very first appearance (or would it be “disappearance”?) in Detective Comics #27. Maybe somebody could check it out to see if I’m wrong?

Batman did disappear while a man named Rogers was talking to him in Detective Comics #27.

However the question above mentions pulling the disappearance on Gordon.

It’s unlikely to have happened before Batman #7 because that’s the issue where Gordon makes Batman a legal crime fighter. I didn’t see any such scene when I flipped through The Batman Chronicles 5 so I would guess Batman first disappearing on Gordon came sometime after Batman #9, Detective Comics #61, & World’s Finest #4.

Actually disappearance isn’t exactly correct in Detective 27. Batman left while Rogers tried to thank him & the reader, & probably Rogers, could see Batman through an open skylight while Rogers comments that he’s left.

I just looked over my Neal Adams Batman books, and the Batman disappearing when Gordan’s back was turned never happened. Many abrupt exits, but always with Gordan knowing he’s going. In fact, in some scenes Gordan acknowledges the xit with a wave.

This may be a more recent developement than originally thought.

Okay, then if it is fairly contemporary, there has to be some writer or editor out there (and on the internet) who can claim something along the lines of “I remember writing Batman doing that for the first time!” or “When _____ handed me the script, and Batman disappeared like a ninja, I thought that was a very cool innovation at the time.”

This needs to go into the comic book legend column.

I just looked over my Neal Adams Batman books, and the Batman disappearing when Gordan’s back was turned never happened. Many abrupt exits, but always with Gordan knowing he’s going. In fact, in some scenes Gordan acknowledges the xit with a wave.

Then I need to re-read that issue of Swamp Thing because I’m fairly sure it happened then and victory would be Len Wein’s!

Graeme

Then I need to re-read that issue of Swamp Thing because I’m fairly sure it happened then and victory would be Len Wein’s!

Swamp Thing 7. November 1973. I have verified it and sent it to Brian.