BAT INFLUENCE In 1954, psychiatrist Fredric Wertham published Seduction of the Innocent, a book that claimed there was a link between comic books and juvenile delinquency. Wertham singled out Batman and Robin for scorn, saying that the tights-clad bachelor and his young ward seemed to be a homosexual couple. (The Ambiguously Gay Duo!) The book led to Congressional hearings, which led in turn to the industry agreeing to police itself by creating its own censorship board, the Comics Code Authority. No comic could be published without the CCA stamp of approval (upper right) indicating the book's kid-friendly content. Under CCA rules, violence and sexuality were all but eliminated, respect for authority was enforced, horror and crime comic books vanished, and superheroes became little more than helpful boy scouts. This made for a blander Batman, though it did give the Dynamic Duo the opportunity to build up their arsenal of creative crime-fighting gadgets, as this 1957 cover makes clear. They didn't have much else to do.