Batman and Bill (Finger): The Search for Justice

by
Scott D. Parker

Justice. That’s the one word that comes to mind when I watched the recently documentary by Mark Tyler Nobleman about the life of Bill Finger.

Do you know that name? Well, if you don’t, perhaps you know the the character he co-created: Batman. If you are like me and you’ve read Batman comics for any length of time, you know the name of the man solely credited as the sole creator of the Dark Knight from 1939 onward. That man’s name is Bob Kane. In the heady days after Superman debuted in 1938, the company that eventually became DC Comics asked Kane to come up with a new hero. He came up with “The Bat-Man,” a red-garbed hero with a domino mask and a black, scalloped cape. Kane ran the drawing by his friend, Bill Finger, and Finger re-engineered the character into the hero we know today. He also created many of the ancillary characters: Robin, Joker, Catwoman, Scarecrow, Commissioner Gordon, and Gotham City itself.

And yet you probably don’t even know Finger’s name. Based on Nobelman’s documentary, the person single-handedly responsible for for marginalizing Finger was Kane himself. In 1965, Kane responded to what is likely the first public history of Finger’s contribution…and Kane flatly refuted Finger’s version of history. Finger died less than a decade later, alone, unknown, and all but penniless.

Nobleman is a writer who learned of Finger’s contribution to Bat-history and set out to do one simple thing: get Bill Finger credit as co-creator on comic books, movies, and TV shows. The documentary is a step-by-step story filled with photos, interviews with relatives and business associates, and audio clips of Finger himself. Most charmingly, however, are moving comic-book like illustrations to depict certain events like Finger’s life at the end, the meeting of Kane and Finger, and even Nobleman’s own research.

That research caused a groundswell among the fans that ultimately compelled Finger’s only living descendant—his granddaughter—to pursue the great cause. If you’ve seen the 2016 movie, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, you know the answer.

Mark Tyler Nobleman sought justice for Bill Finger. He passed the baton off to the Finger family and earned the justice Bill Finger deserved. It makes you want to have documentaries like this for all the Golden and Silver Age creators so that they’ll all have screen and print credit.

If you are interested to know all the details, carve out 90 minutes and watch this compelling documentary from Hulu.

Music and murder.

If you read my Friday spot here with anything resembling regularity, you know I love music. I've done roundups of songs with crime fiction stories in them, I've talked about how I listen to music while I write, perfecting playlists for larger projects, and using songs to inspire shorter ones. I've even talked about how being involved in the local music scene influenced my writing.

So, it's obvious that when I got asked to do a story for Just To Watch Them Die: Crime Fiction Inspired By The Songs of Johnny Cash I was thrilled. I love Johnny, and I got the killer combo because my song, Thirteen, was actually written by Glen Danzig. I could write about, around, and with music all day. If something I'm writing isn't directly inspired by music, the tone, the pace, and the feel of the whole thing is often inspired by a playlist - even if by accident.

Surprisingly, I'm not the kind of person who has a playlist for everything. I have a "party" playlist that I put on for gatherings, where I dumped a bunch of music that hits different genres and tastes without any blatant obscenity so I wouldn't have to just hit "shuffle" and then blush when "Fuck The Pain Away" comes on in front of the one mom-friend I have from the kid's school. I have a couple playlists of specific artists' music because they've done different projects and I want it all together. I have one I made because I downloaded a bunch of songs from different albums that act as the soundtrack to a movie I like.

But I have two different playlists for my work in progress. I have stand alone songs I bought just because they tickled the story-writing part of my brain. I listen with intent.

I got invited to do Murder-A-Go-Gos to benefit Planned Parenthood by our alum Holly West and was so excited. A chance to do another music anthology story, a chance to honor a killer female band? Hell yes. The song I chose (below) is "The Way You Dance" which may not sound criminal or threatening, but have you ever wondered why she's spending so much time watching someone dance, and analyzing it? Weird.

Arming Teachers: The Perspective of a Former Secret Service Agent

For several days, social media has been in the grips of a debate on how we can protect our children. One of the suggestions bandied about is to arm school teachers.  If you follow J.J. Hensley on Twitter, @JJHensleyauthor, then you've had a little bit of education on the problems with  arming teachers (or anyone) to take down the perpetrator with a gun in a school. J.J. is the author of several books, the most recent being Bolt Action Remedy, published by Down & Out Books, and a contributor to the new anthology The Night of the Flood.  He is also a former police officer and former Special Agent with the U.S. Secret Service. I asked JJ if he would write something around the idea of arming school teachers. Much thanks to J.J. for taking the time to write this guest post. - David Nemeth

Firearms instructors at the James J. Rowley Training Center. (USSS Instagram)

By J.J. Hensley

About seven months. That's how long one has to train to be a Special Agent in the U.S. Secret Service. The first step is to complete a basic criminal investigator training program at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center. Next up is the Special Agent Training Course at the Secret Service Academy in Maryland. Throughout the training, agent candidates are instructed in relevant topics such as investigative techniques, the appropriate use of force, defensive tactics, legal procedures, physical fitness, and the proper use of firearms. The firearms training consists of shooting tens of thousands of rounds in a controlled environment as well as going through a myriad of scenarios in which the trainee must exercise the proper judgment. The drills are repeated over and over again so as to create what is called muscle memory; where one reacts automatically – and correctly – in a stressful situation. The reason for this is because people will often react inappropriately when potentially dangerous circumstances present themselves or they will not react at all.

Of course many of the trainees have had previous training either through prior law enforcement or military experience. So before a new agent hits the street, it's likely he or she has been exposed to not only countless hours of classroom lecture reinforced by practical exercises that simulate actual hostile situations, but also real-life experiences. Additionally, law enforcement agents and officers are vetted through mechanisms such as background checks, drug tests, polygraphs, and psychological evaluations.

For agencies like the Secret Service, the scenarios trained on include those in which an individual or individuals must be protected from an assailant. It's difficult to express the importance of these exercises because it is difficult to train the students to act contrary to their natural inclination toward self-preservation. Additionally, those with previous law enforcement or military experience were trained to take cover when the bullets start flying, not to become the cover. As anyone who has been through similar training can attest, unlearning a set of movements is nearly always harder than learning them in the first place.

As someone who underwent the training and worked countless protective assignments during my time in the Secret Service, I recall being involved in plenty of events in which there were multiple people in one place, all designated as "protectees" of the Secret Service. For example, every Presidential Inauguration, Christmas tree lighting at the White House, or United Nations General Assembly will involve multiple protectees in close proximity to one another. So, how does an agent respond when an active threat appears?

There are a few basic rules to remember when working protection. One important one is that the minimum number of agents will address the problem (threat) and the maximum number will move to the protectee. This is Protection 101 and is a philosophy used by government and private sector security details all over the world. If you have every agent trying to take out an attacker, then your protectee could be left out in the open and vulnerable to another attacker. Another rule is to "sound out" the threat. This is done by yelling "gun" or some other word that the rest of your security force will recognize as the code word identifying an imminent threat. Then, if you are the security professional closest to the attacker, you address the threat. But what does this mean? You might be surprised that an agent drawing his or her weapon is likely a last resort. Why is that?

Remember how I gave examples of multiple protectees being present at an event. Well, events like campaign rallies and awards presentations can involve large crowds. So try to imagine you are an agent working an inauguration event and you spot an armed man who is twenty yards away from you. Imagine the man begins firing into the crowd. Imagine addressing a threat by pulling a gun and, through the crowd, taking aim on the attacker. Keep in mind that law enforcement hit rates in a shooting are somewhere between 18 to 30 percent.

Imagine the unpredictable nature of a gun battle around a panicked crowd.

Imagine not only having to worry about trying to hit your target center mass, but also having to account for what is behind the shooter, should your bullet miss or pass through the assailant.

Imagine not knowing if he is a lone gunman or if there may be another gunman who is maneuvering into a position to shoot you.

Imagine not knowing if an innocent person will run in front of your gun sights just as you pull the trigger.

Imagine you aren't at an inauguration event.

Imagine the venue is a school.

Imagine the members of the crowd are young school children.

Imagine you never had seven months of training.

Imagine you did not spend hour after grueling hour going through shoot or don't-shoot scenarios.

Imagine you don't have the muscle memory developed through training and experience.

Imagine not knowing if you should try to cover and evacuate your young protectees, or to go after the threat.

Now imagine you aren't there. Imagine your child is at the school and the person attempting to respond appropriately to a shooter is Mr. Stanley the third grade teacher who may or may not have taken a week-long firearms training course. He's raising a gun as screaming children rush by in front of him and he thinks the shooter is aiming at him.

Imagine.

For my last few years with the Secret Service, I worked on the Protective Intelligence side. The agency wisely dedicates massive resources to intelligence and advance work. This is because the best way to take care of your protectees is to prevent weapons from being present in the first place. As one former Secret Service Director liked to say, "If the guns come out, we've already lost."

Right now, in our schools, we are losing and the nation is divided on how to address this crisis. I don't have all the answers, but I know one thing:  If someone sneaks a weapon into a Secret Service venue tomorrow, the response the next day won't be, "Well, we should add more guns."