Real Names

General goings on in the 1966 Batman World

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mattman
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Re: Real Names

Post by mattman »

"Cato you fool!"
Lol
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mattman
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Re: Real Names

Post by mattman »

I based one story on the character of Little Napoleon from the 68 Sunday strip comic.
The villain's real name was Napoleon Petit!
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bat-rss
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Re: Real Names

Post by bat-rss »

Jim Akin wrote: Thu Sep 20, 2018 7:01 am
BATWINGED HORNET wrote: Wed Sep 19, 2018 12:07 pm The Green Hornet's true identity--Britt Reid--was named a few times during the crossover. Kato was mentioned as well, though the episode's writer (Charles Hoffman) mistakenly had Batman use it as if it was his name while in costume.
Maybe Batman remembered the introduction GH made ("my aide, Kato") in the Spell of Tut widow cameo. :)
Always bugged me how Kato is his name both in and out of costume. And yet, nobody figures it out.
"I'm half-demented with whimsical outrage!"
-- The Joker, in a line cut from "The Joker's Epitaph"
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Jim Akin
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Re: Real Names

Post by Jim Akin »

bat-rss wrote: Sun Sep 30, 2018 3:33 am Always bugged me how Kato is his name both in and out of costume. And yet, nobody figures it out.
I only worked this out earlier this year, while watching a few Green Hornet episodes during a crossover event that featured GH in the Dick Tracy comic strip: The convention when Green Hornet and Kato suit up is that Kato is never publicly named. GH addresses Kato by name when they're by themselves (cruising in Black Beauty, e.g.), but never among others in the field. So no one in the Hornet's world (except D.A. Scanlon and Lenore Case) knows crimefighter-Kato by name.

You'll see evidence of this in the Batman crossover episodes: Except for the goof Batwinged Hornet mentions, characters including Commissioner Gordon, Pinky Pinkston and Col. Gumm refer to "Green Hornet and his masked companion," "...masked accomplice", etc., but they never use Kato's name.

Like all window cameos, the one in "The Spell of Tut" obviously takes place in its own wacky continuity: GH greets Batman as a fellow crimefighter and introduces Kato by name, and Batman and Robin accept it all without any thought for the Hornet's reputation as a master criminal.

The impracticality of not being able to call Kato *something* in the heat of battle (or in news copy) makes this an awkward solution at best. But at least it acknowledges that some sharp mind could work out that a crimefighter named Kato and a manservant named Kato might be connected to one another (as might their employers).
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