Polite Dissent

It’s always nice finding a little Monty Python in my comic books. Chris Claremont did it a bunch when he was writing Excalibur (the original series, the fun one) — how many times did someone mutter, “He’s a fair cop”?

Claremont wasn’t the first, though. These panels are from the lead story in Batman Family #3, “Isle of a Thousand Chills!“, with script by Elliot S! Maggin and pencils by Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez.

The first line in the next panel is: “…Because our chief weapon is surprise!”

Then it veers into standard comic book fight format, with Batgirl and Robin taking on a bunch of hooded inquistioners. It all kind of makes sense by the end of the story, which is basically a comic book retelling of the classic Star Trek episode “Shore Leave,” where it ends up being a giant amusement park that can make anything appear (and now that I’ve reminded you of Shore Leave, can’t you just hear that jaunty little Irish tune that played whenever Kirk’s nemesis Finnegan showed up?)

• Script to The Spanish Inquisition skit