Batman Did It First: You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)

Hey, I bet you remember this exciting action sequence from the worst James Bond movie, Octopussy Moonraker, in which 007 is trapped in one of NASA's high-speed G-force test centrifuges, in which the astronauts not only train but they also mix their delicious, cold refreshing Tang. How will James get out, how will he get out?


Oh. He used a gadget. Cheatypants. James Bond is a big cheatypants!

Well, that was pretty impressive, Mr. Simon Templar, but I think that you know what we say around here: Batman Did It First! And he did it in this story entitled "Batman Pounds a Beat!" Not to be confused with the tale of financial espionage and how Bruce Wayne supported the United Kingdom's move from cash sterling to the euro, entitled "Batman Beats the Pound!"



Panels from "Batman Pounds a Beat!" in Batman #77 (June-July 1953), Batman and Robin figure pencils by Bob Kane, other pencils by Lew Schwartz, inks by Charles Paris
Whoa, mama! Batman did that in 1953, and James Bond didn't do that until 1979. Later if you watched it on the ABC Sunday Night Movie! In fact, since Ian Fleming published the book of Moonraker in 1954, maybe he stole the idea from Batman! Huh? Huh? Did you ever think of that? Fleming, ya rotten bat-plagiarist! Except the novel Moonraker had nothing to do with the movie and is in fact the only James Bond novel which takes place entirely in England, without a single scene in any exotic locale such as Hong Kong, Jamaica, or Gotham City. So I guess we can't pin this crime on Ian Fleming. (Darnit!) And the novel has been reprinted many, many more times than the Batman story.


Why, you might even say that Batman is...too hot to handle!


NOW CUT THAT OUT MISTER FLEMING

Play us off, Dame Shirley!