Did Batman really say that?!

And now, a moment with The Batman. The first appearance of Catwoman (as The Cat — sans costume) is in Batman #1 (1940). Just sayin’.

Forget the sophistication of the Batman character today. Back then, before he became cool, he was kind of goofy and his relationship with Robin was mighty uncomfortable. Yes, we know the target audience was mostly kids, so having a boy sidekick made the characters more accessible, but golly! Can you imagine that sort of thing today? Obviously not. Look at how “Bucky” was made into an adult in the Captain America film.

But we digress. This isn’t about the weird relationship between Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson. It’s about a line spoken by The Batman to the newly apprehended and de-disguised Cat. She gets a bit feisty as she tries to fend off her captor. Batman is having none of that, so he says something in a sexist, patronizing kind of way (probably since he doesn’t really see her as a threat being a woman without superpowers and what not). The  kinky line he throws out makes you do a double take a say “Whaa…?” Behold. And Batman spake and thus he said: “Quiet or Papa spank!”

This is going to be one of our new catchphrases.