Early Computer Reference in Batman?This panel comes to us from "Batman Goes to Washington", in Batman #28, April-May 1945. In the (excellent) story, Batman takes up the cause of former crooks who want to go straight but can't get jobs. He supports a bill by the government to employ these ex-cons in a factory that will show that they can be productive workers. Yes, it's a very liberal storyline, but quite in keeping with the zeitgeist of the postwar era.
Anyway, Batman leads a small group of former crooks anxious to become members of the proletariat to Washington. In an amusing sequence, they tour the FBI building. Get this panel:
Art on this story by the superb Jerry Robinson, who believe it or not is still in the land of the living. A
friend of mine interviewed him at a comic convention earlier this year; I'll put up the link as soon as I find it.
Obviously the cards are part of a database, and the "machine" referred to is a card sorter, something of an early computer. Batman was always well ahead of the technology curve in the comics due to his lack of superpowers. But a 1945 computer reference is really quite early. I can't think of one in the comics before then; most of the ones I've read are from the 1950s.
