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Title: BATMAN No. 21
Publisher:DC [Indicia: Detective Comics, Inc.]
Date Published: February-March, 1944
Description: CGC certified: G/VG (3.0). Purple label: Restored (C-1). White pages. Grader notes: "Dried glue on cover; staple detached top of cover; tape back cover; tape stain cover; creasing to cover; moderate staining to cover; small amount of color touch on front cover; small paper lift left bottom of front cover; spine roll; spine stress lines to cover." Provenance: The DC UNIVERSE COLLECTION.
 
CGC Census: 187 graded copies (167 Universal, 3 Qualified, 17 Restored).
 
GPAnalysis: No reported sales in this grade in 8 years. A restored 2.0 (C-1) sold for $329 in 3/22.
 
For comparison purposes, here are recent Universal sales: A 3.0 sold for $720 in 11/22; a 1.5 sold for $795 in 8/22.
 
Credits: Cover: Dick Sprang. Scripts: Jack Schiff, Don C. Cameron, Paul Fung, Al Schwartz, Joseph Greene. Art: Dick Sprang (signed as Bob Kane), Paul Fung, Ed Kressy (layouts). Overstreet: "1st skinny Alfred in Batman; Penguin app."Bat-cyclopedia: "In February-March 1944 Batman and Robin apprehend a gang of cattle rustlers led by the evil BRULE; battle the CHOPPER GANT mob; unravel a complex mystery with the aid of ALFRED; and match wits with the PENGUIN." — Michael L. Fleisher, The Encyclopedia of Comic Book Heroes Vol. 1: Batman. Macmillan: 1976, p. 118.
 
Details: The Dynamic Duo duke it out with Brule, a cattle rustler who tries to murder Robin and gets gunned down by the local sheriff. * Gang leader Chopper Gant hoodwinks a naive but brilliant military strategist named Hannibal Bonaparte Brown into planning a complex series of crimes, before Batman wises Brown up and tosses Chopper in the clink. * The Penguin, that felonious fowl, attempts to kidnap a rich dowager's pet pekingese, but Batman and Robin squash his scheme and return the pup to its proper owner.
 
Alfred Sweeps Away Seedy Subtexts: "Lest Bruce Wayne's intimate relationship with his young ward Dick Grayson raise any eyebrows, Alfred the butler took up residence in Wayne Manor in the spring of 1943, a kind of bumbling British twenty-four-hour chaperone. And speaking of totally 100 percent heterosexual, red-blooded straight maleness, Bruce began dating Linda Page (a debutante turned nurse) from 1941 to 1945." — Glen Weldon, The Caped Crusade: Batman and the Rise of Nerd Culture. Simon & Schuster: 2016, pp. 40-41.