Penny for your Bat-Thoughts?

January 8, 2009 10:56 PM

Why does Batman keep a giant penny and a huge replica of a Tyrannosaurus Rex in the Bat Cave?

Very often, when you see depictions of Batman's hideaway, it includes a giant penny (sculpture?) and a (possibly life size?) T Rex just sitting around. Why is this? I know he's a detective. I know he's got some astounding computer/information gathering equipment that helps his detective work but... what's with the penny? And the dinosaur?

posted by Spyder's Game to media & arts (6 comments total)

According to Wikipedia regarding the penny:

In the episode "Almost Got 'Im", Two-Face uses a giant penny in an attempt to either crush Batman or kill him from the impact, whichever side the giant coin landed on. Batman managed to free himself from the coin by slicing open the ropes. While telling the story of this to other Batman villains, Two-Face commented that Batman got to keep the giant coin. It is seen later in the series, in the Batcave. This story was later retconned as the official comic origin of the penny.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batcave
posted by mattdini at 11:03 PM on January 8 [1 favorite has favorites]

Oh.. also regarding the T-Rex:

The New Batman Adventures

In the 1998 episode "Mean Seasons" from The New Batman Adventures, Batman and Batgirl are forced to fight a giant mechanical T-Rex. The comic book tie-in to the Justice League Batman - Batman Adventures #12 - features a short called "The Hidden Display" which tells how a young Dick Grayson persuades Batman into keeping a robot T-Rex early on his career, which eventually leads to the Trophy Room of the Cave. Either one of these tales could be how the animated Batman obtained the dinosaur. An extensive training area allows Barbara Gordon to take on robots as part of her training.
posted by mattdini at 11:04 PM on January 8

Good Lord! Is there a wikipedia entry on everything?! Nice work mattdini!!
posted by Spyder's Game at 11:08 PM on January 8

Read that page more carefully! Those explanations are from the new animated series; there are Golden Age stories that explain why you've seen the T-Rex and penny in the Batcave for 60 years:

The T. Rex comes from an adventure on "Dinosaur Island" (Batman #35, 1946); the penny was originally a trophy from Batman's encounter with a penny-obsessed villain named the Penny Plunderer (World's Finest Comics #30, 1947).
posted by nicwolff at 12:13 AM on January 9 [2 favorites has favorites]

This reprint volume is about the Batcave, and, according to the customer reviews, answers these questions (with the original stories.)

A giant penny also features in "The Joker's Crime Costumes" from Batman #63, Feb/Mar 1951. When I read it in The Greatest Joker Stories Ever Told, I thought that was the origin of the penny.
posted by Zed at 8:03 AM on January 9

Just be aware that there may have been multiple "origin stories" for the penny or dinosaur. This doesn't just apply to the two movie series, which have now had three actors playing two versions of Two-Face, but the various animated and live adaptations, and crucially, multiple reboots of the comic books themselves. Sometimes a story will be re-told with new elements, then retconned in, or even retold again to conform to an earlier story but with some of the new stuff incorporated.

But I think you got the basic idea for these two items.
posted by dhartung at 9:25 AM on January 10