Consume All Media! Batman: "Chapter Fifteen: The Doom of the Rising Sun"

Joe Heath is a big fan of comic books and watching things in order. So they made this spreadsheet containing every serial, short, film, television episode, commercial, motion comic, and web series based on a comic book. Now they're watching them all. Previously, Joe watched the fourteenth chapter of Batman. This time, they conclude with the fifteenth.

Batman: “Chapter Fifteen: The Doom of the Rising Sun” - 20:05 (Available on Archive)

Release date: October 22nd, 1943

The serial rewinds the clock to when Batman was put in the box. Batman has a secret radio and he sends Robin a message in morse code. Robin frees Batman (for like the twelfth time) and they knock out a henchman and put him in the box instead. Batman and Robin then follow the henchmen as they deliver the box to the carnival of horrors.

The boxed henchman is eaten by alligators and we’re all caught back up.

Alfred pretends to be a belligerent customer to help Batman and Robin sneak into the carnival.

Once inside, Batman and Robin fight the ominous caveman. Then they hide and watch a henchman scan his hand to get into Daka’s hideout.

Batman places his hand on the scanner, but uh-oh...

Wait. What? Why is there a bat on his hand? How does that work?? WHAT DOES IT EVEN MEAN??? CAN THIS SCANNER SEE INTO YOUR SOUL????

Anyway, the henchmen rush out to fight, but Batman and Robin knock them all out. Robin ties them up while Batman goes to check out the hideout.

Batman is caught by zombies and taken to Daka. Batman immediately shouts racial slurs at him and is taken to the lab where he sees Zombie Martin and Linda.

Daka makes Linda slap Batman.

Batman calls Daka another slur for good measure. He’ll do this a couple of more times. Come on, Batman. YOU’RE BETTER THAN THIS.

Daka goes to zombify Batman (again without trying to find out who he actually is), but Robin stops him and ties him up. Then there’s a long sequence where Batman convinces Daka to talk him through reversing the zombification process on everyone.

While everyone’s celebrating not being zombies anymore, Daka breaks free and threatens Linda. Robin presses a button, hoping to close a door to block Daka’s exit. But it triggers the alligator trapdoor instead.

Daka is eaten by alligators.

Tempted to put this on the kill count, but it’s definitely an accident. Dick thought he was closing a door and none of them knew about the alligators. But that’s still gotta weigh heavy on Dick’s conscience, right?

Alfred brings the police and Captain Arnold. Batman gives Captain Arnold all of the credit for some reason. Captain Arnold tries to arrest and unmask him for some reason. Alfred presses some buttons to cause a distraction. Batman and Robin get away.

It’s a good thing Alfred didn’t just drop Batman and Robin into the alligator pit. It sounds like those buttons are not properly labeled.

Bruce and Dick show up looking for Linda after what must have been a truly impressive quick change. Captain Arnold brags about how great he is for using Batman. Linda agrees that Batman is great. Bruce is afraid he will never measure up.

The End.

Should you watch it, though? There are a couple of fun bits, mostly with Alfred and Captain Arnold, but it’s largely racist, slow, and boring.

The serial as a whole is largely racist, slow, and boring. There are a few highlights such as Batman’s Chuck White disguise, the over-the-top Colton, and the comedic stylings of Alfred the Butler, but it fails to be interesting in pretty much every other way. The fights are subpar and the script is poor. Batman and Robin should be exciting, but they’re mostly just… there. You could swap them out with pretty much anyone and it wouldn’t affect the story at all.

Come on, Batman and Robin. You’re better than this.

But the audiences at the time must have liked it, because a sequel came along 6 years later. But more on that later.

And that’s it for 1943! We saw the end of Superman’s first animated adventures and the debut of Batman’s live-action serial.

Tune in next time when we meet our first Marvel hero… Captain America!

A version of this article was previously published on The Dipp.

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