CGC Featured Comic of the Month: Batman #25

Posted on 1/2/2025

Celebrate ’25 with Batman #25, featuring the very first team-up of the Joker and Penguin.


Click images to enlarge.

Name: Batman #25

Comic publisher: DC Comics

Date: October/November 1944

Variants: None

What makes it special? This is a classic Golden Age story by Don Cameron and Jack Burnley, with a fantastic cover by Dick Sprang, featuring the first team-up of the Joker and Penguin. After Batman and Robin stop the Penguin from stealing the Van Landorpf Emerald, he and Joker unite to escape prison and wager that whoever steals the emerald can stay in Gotham. Batman and Robin set a trap at the Van Landorpf mansion, but the Joker and Penguin escape and begin a crime spree. They are eventually captured, and Batman assures them they won’t share a cell again.

Why is it interesting now? The number 25 takes center stage, honoring this milestone new year with a classic comic that’s as timeless as Batman himself.

Did you know? The image of the Joker was inspired by the 1928 film, “The Man Who Laughs,” starring Conrad Veidt.

Graded highlights: As of December 16, 2024, there were 317 examples of Batman #25 in the CGC Census, but only three in the highest grade of CGC 9.4.

Sales highlights: A CGC 9.4 copy pedigreed to the Promise Collection (shown above) realized $78,000 in a Heritage Auctions sale in November 2021.

CGC Comics Registry Champion: Member ALFRED PENNYWORTH has a Batman #25 graded CGC 9.2 in their collection, JOKER'S WILD, which helped earn it the Best in Set Type Award from 2014 to 2022 as well as the Best Golden Age Set Award in 2014 and 2016.

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