One Panel #195-196: Batman Gets a Book and an Archenemy

From "The Joker" by Bill Finger, Bob Kane and Sheldon Moldoff, Batman #1 (June 1940)

Batman gets his name up in lights and who crashes his first issue? The Joker. He would go on to become Batman's most notorious and best known villain, and one of the few to effectively plague other heroes and even headline his own crossover event, not to mention have his own short-lived book. It all began here, and even though he gets punched out at the end of his first story, he returns in another IN THIS VERY ISSUE. Joker almost premiered earlier, slated for Detective #38, but since it is a Batman solo story, and Robin was being introduced in that ish, they chose to push the Clown Prince of Crime's debut to the second title. The Joker was always one to steal Batman's thunder.

From Batman and Robin: "The Horde of the Green Dragon" by Bill Finger, Bob Kane and Jerry Robinson, Detective Comics #39 (May 1940)

Just more pithy violence while Robin is in the other room. Batman is obviously more conscientious about the possibility of seducing the innocent than Mr. Wertham concluded. And angry as hell that he's been upstaged by a boy acrobat here, and a circus clown in his eponymous book. Gotta take it out on someone!