Back Issue #87

COMICS’ BRONZE AGE AND BEYOND!

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Batman, Superman, and related characters TM & © DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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THE RETRO COMICS EXPERIENCE!

Edited by MICHAEL EURY, BACK ISSUE magazine celebrates comic books of the 1970s, 1980s, and today through recurring (and rotating) departments like “Pro2Pro” (dialogue between professionals), “BackStage Pass” (behind-the-scenes of comicsbased media), “Greatest Stories Never Told” (spotlighting unrealized comics series or stories), and more!

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“‘80s Independents!” In-depth looks at PAUL CHADWICK’s Concrete, DAVE SIM’s Cerebus the Aardvark, and RICHARD AND WENDY PINI’s Elfquest! Plus see ‘80s independent comics go Hollywood, DAVID SCROGGY remembers Pacific Comics, TRINA ROBBINS’ California Girls, and DENIS KITCHEN’s star-studded horror/sci-fi anthology Death Rattle. Cover by PAUL CHADWICK!

“Let’s Get Small!” Marvel’s Micronauts, The Atom in the Bronze Age, JAN STRNAD and GIL KANE’s Sword of the Atom, the rocky relationship of Ant-Man the Wasp, Gold Key’s Microbots, Super Jrs., DC Digests, and Marvel Value Stamps. Featuring the work of PAT BRODERICK, JACKSON GUICE, ELLIOT S! MAGGIN, BILL MANTLO, AL MILGROM, ALEX SAVIUK, ROGER STERN, LEN WEIN, & more. Cover by PAT BRODERICK!

“When Comics Were Fun!” HEMBECK cover and gallery, Plastic Man, Blue Devil, Marvel’s Star Comics imprint, VALENTINO’s normalman, Bronze Age’s goofiest Superman stories, and the Batman/Dick Tracy team-up you didn’t see! Featuring MAX ALLAN COLLINS, PARIS CULLINS, RAMONA FRADON, ALAN KUPPERBERG, MISHKIN & COHN, STEVE SKEATES, JOE STATON, CURT SWAN, and more!

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“Weird Issue!” Batman’s Weirdest TeamUps, ORLANDO’s Weird Adventure Comics, Weird War Tales, Weird Mystery Tales, DITKO’s Shade the Changing Man and Stalker, CHAYKIN’s Iron Wolf, CRUMB’s Weirdo, and STARLIN and WRIGHTSON’s The Weird! Featuring JIM APARO, LUIS DOMINGUEZ, MICHAEL FLEISHER, BOB HANEY, PAUL LEVITZ, and more. Batman and Deadman cover by ALAN CRADDOCK.

“Charlton Action Heroes in the Bronze Age!” DAVE GIBBONS on Charlton’s WATCHMEN connection, LEN WEIN and PARIS CULLINS’ Blue Beetle, CARY BATES and PAT BRODERICK’s Captain Atom, Peacemaker, Peter Cannon: Thunderbolt, and a look at Blockbuster Weekly! Featuring MIKE COLLINS, GIORDANO, KUPPERBERG, ALAN MOORE, PAT MORISI, ALEX ROSS, and more. Cover by AL MILGROM.

“Flash and Green Lantern in the Bronze Age” (crossover with ALTER EGO #132)! In-depth spotlights of their 1970s and 1980s adventures, MARK WAID’s look at the Flash/GL team, and PAUL KUPPERBERG’s Lost GL Fillins. Bonus: DC’s New York Office Memories, and Green Lantern: Ganthet’s Tale by LARRY NIVEN and JOHN BYRNE. With BARR, BATES, GIBBONS, GRELL, INFANTINO, WEIN, and more. Cover by GEORGE PÉREZ.

“DC Bronze Age Giants and Reprints!” An indepth exploration of DC’s 100-PAGE SUPER SPECTACULARS, plus: a history of comics giants, DC indexes galore, and a salute to “human encyclopedia” E. NELSON BRIDWELL. Featuring the work of PAT BRODERICK, RICH BUCKLER, FRANK FRAZETTA, JOE KUBERT, BOB ROZAKIS, BERNIE WRIGHTSON, and more. Super Spec tribute cover featuring classic art by NICK CARDY.

“Bronze Age Events!” With extensive coverage of the Avengers/Defenders War, JLA/JSA crossovers, Secret Wars, Crisis’ 30th anniversary, Legends, Millennium, Invasion, Infinity Gauntlet, and more! Featuring the work of SAL BUSCEMA, DICK DILLIN, TODD McFARLANE, GEORGE PÉREZ, JOE STATON, LEN WEIN, MARV WOLFMAN, MIKE ZECK, and more. Plus an Avengers vs. Defenders cover by JOHN BYRNE.

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“International Heroes!” Alpha Flight, the New X-Men, Global Guardians, Captain Canuck, and Justice League International, plus SpiderMan in the UK and more. Also: exclusive interview with cover artists STEVE FASTNER and RICH LARSON. Featuring the work of JOHN BYRNE, CHRIS CLAREMONT, DAVE COCKRUM, RICHARD COMELY, KEITH GIFFEN, KEVIN MAGUIRE, and more! Alpha Flight vs. X-Men cover by FASTNER/LARSON.

“Supergirl in the Bronze Age!” Her 1970s and 1980s adventures, including her death in Crisis on Infinite Earths and her many rebirths.

Plus: an ALAN BRENNERT interview, behind the scenes of the Supergirl movie starring HELEN SLATER, Who is Superwoman?, and a look at the DC Superheroes Water Ski Show.

With PAUL KUPPERBERG, ELLIOT MAGGIN, MARV WOLFMAN, plus a jam cover recreation of ADVENTURE COMICS #397!

“Christmas in the Bronze Age!” Go behind the scenes of comics’ best holiday tales of the 1970s through the early 1990s! And we revisit Superhero Merchandise Catalogs of the late ‘70s! Featuring work by SIMON BISLEY, CHRIS CLAREMONT, JOSÉ LUIS GARCÍALÓPEZ, KEITH GIFFEN, the KUBERT STUDIO, DENNY O’NEIL, STEVE PURCELL, JOHN ROMITA, JR., and more. Cover by MARIE SEVERIN and MIKE ESPOSITO!

“Marvel Bronze Age Giants and Reprints!”

In-depth exploration of Marvel’s GIANT-SIZE series, plus indexes galore of Marvel reprint titles, Marvel digests and Fireside Books editions, and the last days of the “Old” X-Men! Featuring work by DAN ADKINS, ROSS ANDRU, RICH BUCKLER, DAVE COCKRUM, GERRY CONWAY, STEVE GERBER, STAN LEE, WERNER ROTH, ROY THOMAS, and more. Cover by JOHN ROMITA, SR.!

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Volume 1, Number 87 April 2016 EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Michael Eury PUBLISHER John Morrow

Comics’ Bronze Age and Beyond!

DESIGNER Rich Fowlks COVER ARTIST Dick Giordano (Artwork originally produced for a DC Comics puzzle. Courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions.)

TM

COVER COLORIST Glenn Whitmore COVER DESIGNER Michael Kronenberg PROOFREADER Rob Smentek SPECIAL THANKS Manny Alvear Jim Amash Terry Austin Mike W. Barr Cary Bates Howard Bender Brett Breeding Cary Burkett Dewey Cassell Gerry Conway Ray Cuthbert DC Comics Kieron Dwyer Mike Friedrich Grand Comics Database Karl Heitmueller, Jr. Fred Hembeck Heritage Comics Auctions Chris Khalaf Pual Kupperberg Dr. Travis Langley Paul Levitz

Martin Pasko Alfred Pennyworth Mike Pigott Bob Rozakis Jason Strangis Tandy Corporation Roy Thomas Steven Thompson John Trumbull Irene Vartanoff Len Wein John Wells

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BACK SEAT DRIVER: Editorial by Michael Eury . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 FLASHBACK: Your Two Favorite Heroes in Dozens of Bronze Age Adventures Together . . .3 The Superman/Batman team in World’s Finest Comics, 1968–1982 COVER GALLERY: Batman vs. Superman Fight Gallery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .22 The many disagreements between the World’s Finest Heroes WHAT THE--?!: The Strange Saga of the Super Sons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .25 Those confounding kids, Superman, Jr. and Batman, Jr. PRINCE STREET NEWS: Should Superman and Batman Be Friends? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .32 Karl Heitmueller, Jr. ponders the World’s Finest friendship BEYOND CAPES: The Last Days of Jimmy Olsen and Lois Lane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .35 The wild, weird final years of Superman’s Pal’s and Girl Friend’s own titles FLASHBACK: The Batman/Superman Swap . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .46 Batman vs. Luthor? Superman and Batgirl? Our heroes’ Bronze Age character trades BACKSTAGE PASS: It’s a Bird! It’s a Plane! No, It’s Radio Shack! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .61 Exploring the trio of Superman giveaways produced for the one-time tech giant FLASHBACK: A League Divided: Justice League of America #200 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .65 The bicentennial-issue brawl between Leaguers old and new INTERVIEW: Batman and Psychology Author Travis Langley . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .73 “Is Batman crazy?” Jason Strangis asks the expert BACK TALK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .77 Reader reactions BACK ISSUE™ is published 8 times a year by TwoMorrows Publishing, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614. Michael Eury, Editor-in-Chief. John Morrow, Publisher. Editorial Office: BACK ISSUE, c/o Michael Eury, Editor-in-Chief, 118 Edgewood Avenue NE, Concord, NC 28025. Email: euryman@gmail.com. Eight-issue subscriptions: $67 Standard US, $85 Canada, $104 Surface International. Please send subscription orders and funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial office.

Cover art by Dick Giordano. Batman, Superman, Super Sons, Hawkman, Metallo, and related characters TM & © DC Comics. All Rights Reserved. All characters are © their respective companies. All material © their creators unless otherwise noted. All editorial matter © 2016 Michael Eury and TwoMorrows Publishing, except Prince Street News, © Karl Heitmueller, Jr. BACK ISSUE is a TM of TwoMorrows Publishing. ISSN 1932-6904. Printed in China. FIRST PRINTING. Batman AND Superman Issue

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BACK ISSUE • 1

The big question everyone’s asking right now is, “Who would win in a fight between Batman and Superman?”

But the question we’ve been asking here in the Back(Issue)Cave, the top-secret base of operations for your Bronze Age-preserving purveyors of pop culture, is, “Who drew this issue’s cover?”

Its Superman and Batman vs. a dragon artwork was produced for a jigsaw puzzle circa 1973–1974, and a scan of its original art comes to us via the friendly folks at Heritage Comics Auctions (www.ha.com). Chances are, our cover art strikes a nostalgic chord for some of you who, as kids back in the 1970s, assembled this jigsaw on your dining room table or bedroom floor.

The embellishments of Dick Giordano, the illustrator/inker/editor/ editorial director/“Meanwhile” columnist/ teacher (whew!) who throughout his career changed comics, one day at time, are clearly identifiable in this image. Heritage credited Dick as the artist. As Dick Giordano’s biographer, I know that Dick produced art for a number of DC character puzzles manufactured in 1974 by APC (American Publishing Corp.), which were sold in decorative cans with plastic lids. In addition to this puzzle combining the two World’s Finest heroes, Dick provided illustrations for puzzles starring Batman (and Robin), Batgirl, Superman (fighting a shark), Wonder Woman, and “Super Foes” puzzles spotlighting the Joker, the Riddler, and the Penguin. APC’s line of DC puzzles in cans also featured repurposed comics art by other artists, including Neal Adams Superman and Batman puzzles, a Curt Swan/Murphy Anderson Superman puzzle, and a Batman and Robin puzzle featuring the classic Carmine Infantino/Murphy Anderson rooftop shot originally produced as a pinup during the Batmania craze.

But when I started looking closely at the artwork for our cover, two things gave me pause: Its rendition of a lithe Superman faintly suggested the pencil work of Dick Dillin (who Giordano inked a handful of times in the early ’70s, most notably on several issues of JLA). And its dragon looked awfully familiar. I wondered, was this puzzle’s art penciled by Dick Dillin and inked by Dick Giordano instead of soloillustrated by Giordano?

It’s not like I could turn to either of the artists to verify this. My friend Dick Giordano passed away in 2010, and the Bronze Age was still in full swing when Dick Dillin died while drawing an issue of Justice League in 1980. So I asked a few folks whose judgment I trust.

Some said our cover is Dillin/Giordano, others, all-Giordano.

TM & © DC Comics. Courtesy of Heritage.

2 • BACK ISSUE • Batman AND Superman Issue

Michael Eury

Cover colorist Glenn Whitmore was in the former camp, and after apparently watching some courtroom dramas sent me this scan, which he called “Exhibit A”: A-ha! That panel, drawn by Dillin and inker Joe Giella, was from the Steve Skeates-scripted Superman/Teen Titans team-up “The Computer That Captured a Town!”, published in World’s Finest Comics #205 (Sept. 1971). That Dillin-drawn dragon sure looks a lot like the dragon in the puzzle, and on our cover! So I wrote solicitation copy for the issue’s contents and sent it to publisher John Morrow. BACK ISSUE #87 was hyped in a TwoMorrows catalog as having a Dillin/Giordano cover.

Then John began to have the same doubts I had and asked me, “You sure Dillin did #87’s cover?”

I shrugged, “No, I’m not.”

Given John’s hesitation with this credit, I decided to heed the words of one of the people I had polled earlier, Terry Austin. Terry was an assistant, and later background inker, to Dick Giordano back in the day and had said the puzzle was Dick’s pencils and inks. Bolstering Terry’s belief was the fact that the original art was produced on Craft-Tint artboard, a special type of paper that allowed shading textures to appear after the application of chemicals. According to Terry, it’s unlikely that Dillin or any other artist would have penciled on Craft-Tint paper for someone else to ink.

Topping that off is the fact that Dick Giordano solo-illustrated the other APC puzzles listed above. Knowing how most licensing jobs go, it would make sense that one artist—in this case, Giordano—would be assigned to draw the project at hand rather than to have Dick do the majority and parcel out a single puzzle to someone else.

Also, Dick, like most artists, kept a “swipe file” of images—from photos to magazine ads to comic books—from which to draw reference.

I’m guessing that Dick’s assignment for this puzzle was to depict Superman and Batman fighting a dragon, and Dick remembered, “Hey, there was that World’s Finest issue not long ago where Superman fought a dragon…!”

So aside from that initial TwoMorrows catalog, we’ve credited this issue’s main cover art to the late, great Dick Giordano.

(If we’re wrong, we apologize to the fans of the late, great Dick Dillin.)

Re our contents: While we’re ostensibly riding the wave of publicity connected to Hollywood’s new Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, we’d like to think that this issue offers a brighter counterpoint to that dark film. But if you want to see good guys slugging it out, we’ve got you covered with our “Batman vs. Superman Fight Gallery” and our look at the JLA’s biggest squabble, Justice League of America #200. Enjoy!

TM & © DC Comics. Courtesy of Glenn Whitmore.

TM & © DC Comics. Courtesy of Al Bigley (bigglee.blogspot.com).

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The Superman/Batman team-ups in World’s Finest Comics had been born of necessity. When the page count of the title was halved from 64 to 32 in 1954, the publisher could no longer run separate stories featuring its marquee stars and—at the suggestion of editor Jack Schiff—it was decreed that the magazine would henceforth feature “your two favorite heroes together in one adventure.” If Robin, the Boy Wonder minded being excluded from that declaration, he held his tongue since he still got to appear alongside Batman in nearly every story from WFC #71 onward.

Having previously illustrated the landmark 1952 Superman/Batman crossover in Superman #76, Curt Swan was on hand to pencil the first seven episodes of the WFC team-ups before his increasing commitments to the new Jimmy Olsen title and the Superman line in general took precedence. Dick Sprang (from 1955–1961) and Jim Mooney (from 1961–1964) picked up the WFC pencil after that, but Swan was never far away from World’s Finest, quickly reinstated as cover artist and available to pinch-hit on an interior team-up when needed.

Swan’s presence on the interiors didn’t become a necessity until a shake-up that saw Jack Schiff succeeded by Mort Weisinger and the team-ups thrown into the deep end of the Superman pool. As the Man of Steel’s editor, Weisinger had spent several years building a rich mythology for the Kryptonian hero and he brought much of it with him to World’s Finest. Batman suddenly found himself dealing with things like a Jimmy Olsen/Robin team, a Composite Superman (inadvertently empowered by the Legion of Super-Heroes), the Bottle City of Kandor, and menaces like Brainiac and Bizarro … all rendered in Swan’s warm, accessible style and scripted by Weisinger veteran Edmond Hamilton.

by

John Wells

All covers TM & © DC Comics.

THE WANING DAYS OF THE SILVER AGE By 1968, though, Hamilton was retired and Swan was out, bumped as part of new company art director Carmine Infantino’s initiative to shake up the look of the Superman and Batman books and stop the sales erosion partly blamed on Marvel Comics’ growing popularity. For Infantino, no one exemplified the future of comic-book art like neo-realist Neal Adams, and the soon-to-be superstar was tapped to draw the Superman/Batman team-ups beginning with World’s Finest #175 (on sale March 12, 1968).

Scripted by college student Cary Bates, the story featured dueling bands of villains—the newly created Batman Revenge Squad and the wellestablished Superman Revenge Squad—amidst an annual battle of wits between the World’s Finest duo. Readers were delighted with the realistic look of the story—inked by Dick Giordano—but Adams was disappointed.

“I was not ready for it, psychologically,” he told Michael Eury in The Krypton Companion (2006). “First of all, it was a complicated story and had lots of stuff going on. But when you read a synopsis or read a script that has Batman, Superman, and a squad of guys dressed like them, so you go, ‘Oh, God. Every panel, I have to do like fifteen people.’

It’s a daunting thing, you just don’t want to do it.” Generally, Adams declared, “I wasn’t doing the characters well, and I really wasn’t enthusiastic about it, and I would have to say at that point, I was still in the throes of wanting to go off and become an illustrator, and I really wasn’t enjoying comic books that much.”

That said, “I wasn’t willing to give up certain ideas that I had while I was doing it. So within that story you will find different approaches to ideas scattered throughout the book and nothing really great, but it was fun.”

Issue #176’s follow-up spotlighted rare guest-stars Supergirl (paired with Batman) and newcomer Batgirl (matched with Superman) in a plot that had two apparent aliens pit the duos against each other. The issue’s cryptic cover—in which a blacked-out figure took responsibility as headshots of the combatants surrounded him—made it clear there was more to the situation, but kids had to read the story to find out what was going on. Conceding that the concept (conceived by Bates) had a great hook, Adams told Eury that he “hated” drawing it. “It was simple and essentially boring and it was sloppy, but it sold comic books.”

Adams bid farewell to the series at that point, but almost immediately regretted losing the opportunity to make more of a mark on Batman.

Rather than simply follow the sunlit, short-eared model that was now the norm, the artist immediately lobbied to become the regular penciler of The Brave and the Bold and took the first steps toward returning the Batman AND Superman Issue

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BACK ISSUE • 3

A New Look Cover of the first issue of Neal Adams’ brief stint on World’s Finest Comics, #175 (May 1968).

TM & © DC Comics.

been one reason he was willing to take on two fledgling writers like Jim Shooter and myself. Though we were teenagers at the time, both of us could offer plots and cover ideas that more often than not met his approval—and that would’ve meant less work for him. In those days, World’s Finest (or any of Mort’s books, for that matter) weren’t exclusive to one writer; you had to be prepared to write for whichever character or book he needed a story for that month.

“Also worth noting is the fact that the Batman and Robin who appeared in Mort’s World’s Finest stories often bore little resemblance to the Batman and Robin who appeared in Julie Schwartz’s Batman books, pretty much entirely ignoring the ‘New Look’ direction Julie and Carmine Infantino introduced into Batman several years earlier (except for the token inclusion of the yellow circle around the bat-emblem). If anything, an argument could be made that Mort’s Batman had more in common with the earlier Jack Schiff-edited Batman books.

Such discrepancies were just another indication of the total autonomy that editors had over their books back then, long before there was anything resembling company-wide continuity at DC.” Bates’ contributions also included the 1968 story of Superman and Batman’s visit to a planet in the far future that turned out to be an evolved Bizarro neal adams World (WFC #181), as well as a fanciful 1969 two-parter (WFC #189–190) wherein Superman’s supposed death resulted in organs being transplanted in the bodies of four criminals under the direction of Lex Luthor. The death was, of course, a hoax, as was the blacked-out panel in which the organs were harvested: “This scene censored by the Comics Code Authority.” When readers questioned whether the statement was for real, editorial assistant E. Nelson Bridwell assured them that it was a joke and the CCA had been in on it.

“Mort, like Julie, was a tough audience for a writer,” Bates recalls. “Both of them appreciated it when you could come in with a unique idea (even if they were outlandish or way out). One example was a story I pitched in which Superman supposedly died and his organs were harvested and distributed to four people.

Mort was so taken by this idea he chose to make it a twoparter. Though the story as executed doesn’t hold up that well by today’s standards, it fit right in with the ’60s-vintage gimmick-based stories Mort was so well known for.”

Bates also offers an anecdote about “Execution on Krypton” in issue #191: “I can distinctly remember writing the final pages of that story on July 20, 1969, the very same day the first Apollo moon walk was being broadcast on TV. I recall my cousins who I was visiting at the time were giving me grief because I wasn’t paying more attention to Neil Armstrong, but I had a deadline to meet.”

Primarily set in the past on Krypton, that story included a scene wherein Superman and Batman broke up a demonstration of seemingly non-violent Kryptonian student protestors. The kids, E. Nelson Bridwell declared in issue #194, wanted to destroy their robot teachers per history texts that Superman had read. “They did not just demonstrate,” he concludes. “They were out to wreck the robots. And they were completely wrong.”

A conspicuous amount of conflict in World’s Finest seemed to center on the headliners themselves, typified by issue #180’s cover image of Superman threatening to throw Batman to his death from scaffolding. It was a thematic device that would follow the series into 1970.

Superman vs. Batman scenarios had been a recognized story hook since 1958’s WFC #95, but they seemed to spike in the latter days of Weisinger’s editorial run.

Caped Crusader back into the Dark Knight. But that’s another story.

For World’s Finest, it was back to Curt Swan pencils for two issues. Following a Jim Shooter tale that represented the book’s third and last Joker/Luthor team-up (WFC #177), Cary Bates returned with a two-part Imaginary Tale in which a de-powered Superman adopted the new persona of Nova (WFC #178, 180). Ross Andru and Mike Esposito—who’d replaced Swan on the Superman solo series earlier in the year—moved over to World’s Finest with issue #180, becoming the regular series artists through issue #195. The lone disruption was a Curt Swan/Jack Abel job on another Bates Imaginary Tale (WFC #184), this one a darker piece in which Superman became mentor to Robin after Batman’s seeming death.

“By the late ’60s, Mort was nearing the end of his long tenure as editor of all Superman-related titles,” Cary Bates tells BACK ISSUE. “While I don’t agree with the people who have opined he had lost interest in comics and was ‘phoning it in’ by that point … expediency may have

4 • BACK ISSUE • Batman AND Superman Issue

During a flyover of Communist-ruled Lubania, Between 1968 and 1970, there were nearly as many seeming brawls between the World’s Finest heroes as there Superman was grounded by kryptonite and wound up a had been in the entire decade preceding them, capped powerless inmate in a prison camp … as did Batman, when he attempted to rescue him. In WFC #193’s conclusion, with issue #197’s reprint guide devoted to the theme.

Driven insane by an ancient spell in WFC #182, Lubania’s Colonel Koslov methodically tried to brainwash Batman seemed to be reliving a similar plot from issue his two captives while moving forward with a plan to enact “Operation Holocaust”—the detonation of a cobalt #109 (1960), but the sleight-of-hand in Cary Bates’ bomb—in Washington, D.C. Having thwarted 1968 account was that it was Superman that catastrophe, the World’s Finest heroes who was really enchanted. Next up, set their sights on infiltrating no less than Leo Dorfman wrote an account of the Mafia and bringing it down from Batman hauling Superman before a within (WFC #194–195). A head injury United Nations court to be tried for left Batman thinking he was a real alleged crimes against an alien race kingpin, but he recovered in time to help (WFC #183). And then it was Bob Superman take down the local operation, Kanigher’s turn, with the writer initially if not the entire Mafia organization. forcing the heroes to fight one another Haney’s melodrama and wild twists on behalf of “galactic gamblers” notwithstanding, the pair of two-parters (WFC #185) before putting them at displayed his penchant for writing about odds during the Revolutionary War as situations more grounded in the real readers questioned which member of world. It was a far cry from the years the team was possessed by a demon cary bates of science-fiction plots tailored to (WFC #186–187). © DC Comics.

Superman. “We’re trying to put in more With his traditional pool of writers diminished to only Bates and Dorfman following the of the Batman mystique,” E. Nelson Bridwell acknowledged 1969 departure of Jim Shooter, Weisinger found himself in WFC #193, referring to the darker, more realistic reaching out to veterans like Kanigher to fill the void. atmosphere that Bat-editor Julius Schwartz had initiated in Bob Haney also became an unexpected presence in the late 1969. Indeed, even WFC #196’s more Superman-centric Superman books during the same period and picked up tale (illustrated by Curt Swan and George Roussos) was light the World’s Finest assignment with issue #192 (on sale in on fantasy, focusing on a cross-country train trip meant to collect Green Kryptonite from a recent meteor shower.

January 1970).

Batman AND Superman Issue

Dynamic Duel-o Two of the many times the World’s Finest heroes went at it (for more, see the Batman vs.

Superman Fight Gallery following this article): (left) From WFC #176 (June 1968). By Cary Bates and Neal Adams. (right) From WFC #185 (June 1969). By Bob Kanigher, Ross Andru, and Mike Esposito.

TM & © DC Comics.

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BACK ISSUE • 5

A BRONZE AGE MAKEOVER Any further exploration of the new series dynamic was put on hold, though, once DC’s ambitious makeover of Superman caught fire in the fall of 1970.

With the retirement of Mort Weisinger, his books had been divided amongst several editors and Julius Schwartz picked up the seminal Superman and …

World’s Finest Comics. As quickly as that, Batman was out of the book and—with issue #198—the series became a companion of The Brave and the Bold, each issue now slated to feature Superman alongside a different DC hero. Indeed, when the book celebrated its bicentennial two issues later, it was Robin, the Teen Wonder who stood along the Man of Steel rather than their mutual friend in blue and gray. [Editor’s note: See BACK ISSUE #66 for more about this era of World’s Finest, as well as its successor, the Superman team-up series DC Comics Presents.]

Historically and commercially, the Superman/Batman team-ups were too important to disappear altogether, but they were scaled back to a twiceyearly schedule under the new format (not including the soon-to-end reprint annuals that concluded with WFC #197 and 206). When the partners did get back together in March 1971’s World’s Finest #202, though, the plots were once again tilted toward the Man from Krypton. The cover shot of Superman choking Batman to death left no doubt that another gimmick was back, too.

Despite the assurance that the image was neither imaginary, symbolic, “nor any other cop-out,” it kinda was.

The would-be killer was actually a Superman robot, part of an oft-seen fleet of artificial duplicates who’d made the real guy’s life easier in the Silver Age. Pollution and radiation had caused them to break down, as evidenced by the one in this story that got away—until the real Superman caught up with it.

Writer Denny O’Neil had been charged with streamlining the Man of Steel in his primary book and his script for WFC #202 (illustrated by artists-in-residence Dick Dillin and Joe Giella) gave him an opportunity to continue that agenda by dumping the robots that served as a deus ex machina.

Len Wein stepped in for WFC #207’s next reunion. Plagued with blackouts, Superman asked Batman to shadow him and deduce the cause.

The investigation revealed the bizarre detail that Clark Kent—ensorcelled by Dr. Light—had hired a small-time gang to kill Superman with a magically empowered wand called the Satanstaff. Light’s hopes notwithstanding, the idea of having a proxy kill Superman was no more successful than the direct approach.

O’Neil was back for March 1972’s WFC #211 and its story of a surly band of alien enforcers who were seeking a fugitive somewhere on Earth.

Batman ultimately found her in—of all places—the Bottle City of Kandor and discovered that she was a political dissident whose “crime” was free speech.

When the superpowered aliens threatened to retaliate against Earth for not giving her up, Batman casually cleaned their clocks and informed them that everyone on the planet was just as tough as he was. After they turned tail and headed back into space, Superman peeled off the gray-andblue costume while the real Batman watched. It was an old trick, but it always got the job done.

Sales-wise, World’s Finest wasn’t getting the job done, although, in fairness, that could be attributed as much to DC’s disastrous 1971–1972 price increase to 25 cents as any reaction to the non-Batman format. Whatever the reason, the book dropped from a frequency of nine issues a year to six effective with WFC #213 (the first at a lower 20-cent retail), and it wasn’t surprising to learn that change was in the air.

You’ve Got a Friend Even during World’s Finest’s “Superman’s Brave & Bold” phase, you couldn’t keep the Superman/Batman team apart for too long. (top) Batman lent the titular star a hand in Superman #236 (Apr. 1971). By Denny O’Neil and the Swanderson art team. (bottom and inset) Batman returned in World’s Finest #207 (Nov. 1971). By Len Wein, Dick Dillin, and Joe Giella.

TM & © DC Comics.

6 • BACK ISSUE • Batman AND Superman Issue

The promise to shake things up took place immediately Since the post-Weisinger era began, Superman’s solo in issues #215 and 216, where Haney brought the adventures had been jointly edited by Julius Schwartz generation gap to World’s Finest in the form of Superman (in Superman itself) and Murray Boltinoff (in Action and Batman’s hip, young adult offspring, the Super Sons.

Comics). In “a move to solidify the continuity of the The full story of the Clark, Jr. and Bruce, Jr. is detailed elseSuperman stories,” 1972’s The Comic Reader #86 reported, where in this issue but, suffice it to say, hardcore fans were Schwartz agreed to take over Action and handed World’s distressed by Haney’s flat statement that the tales were “not imaginary, nor fantasy, but real, the way it happened.”

Finest to Boltinoff in a swap.

There was more anxiety to come once Haney wrote The effect on World’s Finest was immediate. Boltinoff retained Dick Dillin as regular penciler but rejected his first “traditional” Superman/Batman adventure. everything else that had come before him. For starters, Thanks to a chemical bath in February 1973’s WFC #217, there’d be no more of the mixed bag of team-ups. Metamorpho wound up with the powers and deductive prowess of the World’s Finest team on top of his Superman and Batman had made the magazine a own formidable elemental abilities. Dressed in success and they were back together for good. a costume reflecting both heroes (not unlike Boltinoff had also overseen the revival of the 1960s’ Composite Superman), Bob Haney’s classic 1960s freak-hero Metamorpho declared himself “SuperMetamorpho in 1972’s The Brave and Freak” and showed up the book’s stars but the Bold #101 and a subsequent feature good. Neither was amused, particularly in Action Comics #413–418. Rather than Superman, who snapped at the braggart, lose that momentum, the new editor “Are you saying you’re superior to me, brought Metamorpho into World’s Finest freak?” The duo was so mad, in fact, for a guest-appearance (WFC #217) that they defected to the enemy nation and briefly resumed his backup series of Slavia with the promise of divulging in the next three issues. state secrets. It was, of course, a sham Creatively, along with replacing designed to expose the dictator’s Joe Giella’s inks on Dillin’s pencils hidden super-weapon, but Batman and with the slicker finishes of Murphy murray boltinoff Superman admitted that their earlier Anderson, Boltinoff brought in his © DC Comics. jealously was for real. reliable Brave and the Bold contributor An issue later, Haney vowed to reveal the team’s Bob Haney as the series’ regular writer. “We will try to make each issue, or series of issues, break new ground,” first failure. The plot followed a mysterious psychic Haney declared in WFC #215, “either in terms of plot, called Capricorn who blackmailed everyone from or background, or character, or all three. Yet, we will Commissioner Gordon to Gotham City’s mayor to Bruce also try to keep alive, or revive, the old comics virtues Wayne himself by threatening to expose secrets known of slambang action, breezy and pungent dialogue, only to themselves. The heroes’ mistaken identification and immediacy. Our heroes will be human, and even of one man as Capricorn inadvertently marked him for vulnerable, whether in body or in heart. And here and death when the real blackmailer murdered him to prove a point. The duo ultimately resorted to releasing a false there some laughs.” report of the villain’s death in the hope that it would

WFC ENTERS EARTH-B

Batman AND Superman Issue

He’s a Super-Freak Even Metamaniacs had to shrug off this wacky Bob Haneyscripted tale in WFC #217 (cover-dated Apr.–May 1973), guest-starring the Element Man. (left) Its Nick Cardy cover. (right) An out-ofcharacter Superman in a shouting match with Metamorpho.

Art by Dick Dillin and Murphy Anderson.

TM & © DC Comics.

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Abandoning Stereotypes?

That’s what Haney and Boltinoff claimed they were attempting with this era’s off-kilter characterizations of Batman and Superman. Nick Cardy’s covers for the two-parter in 1973’s WFC #218 and 219.

TM & © DC Comics.

draw out their prey. Instead, Capricorn sent them a recorded message FROM BATMAN’S BROTHER TO KANDORIAN CRAZINESS proclaiming that he lived: “Batman, really Bruce Wayne, and Superman In the course of investigating a murder spree by the mysterious are liars and failures!” And so the heroes waited in vain for the Boomerang Killer, Superman discovered that Batman was withholding blackmailer to make good on his threat of public exposure … unaware evidence about the madman’s true identity. Said evidence was the that the terminally ill villain had died. mind-blowing fact that Boomerang was secretly Bruce Wayne’s previously A subsequent two-parter involving a South American version of unknown older brother Thomas Wayne, Jr., who’d been confined to Swamp Thing called El Monstro (WFC #218–219) found the pair debating Willowood Asylum since suffering brain damage as an infant. A last-page about her desire to retaliate against those who’d brought her to that revelation added that Thomas had been manipulated by a disgraced state. Superman saw the situation as black and white, one that required businessman into committing his crimes, but there was still a major loose them to stop her rampage. Batman was more sympathetic to end left dangling. Ghostly guest-star Deadman had claimed Thomas’ her motivations, recalling his own origins. “It’s a human body as his own and intended to use it to start a new life as emotion—revenge,” he observed. “Trouble with you, friend, a mortal. Batman was properly horrified by that idea and is you’re not human.” Smashing a tree to splinters, confronted Deadman in issue #227’s sequel, which climaxed the Man of Steel snarled, “Who’s not human…!?” with Thomas perishing after saving his brother’s life.

When prominent fans like soon-to-be-pro Bob The addition of a long-lost brother was a detail Rozakis pointed to such behavior as out of character, too wild to be acknowledged in the official Batman Boltinoff took the complaint as a point of pride. mythology and it was effectively forgotten for decades.

“We’re trying to humanize our heroes by getting Writer Grant Morrison was the first to obliquely them out of their stereotyped super-figures,” he allude to it in when he introduced the villainous insisted in WFC #219. “We want to make them believable Owlman as the Thomas Wayne, Jr. of an alternate instead of comic book, one-dimensional stick figures.”

Earth in the graphic novel JLA: Earth 2 (2000). Later, Some countered that the characterization had the in 2010’s Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne #5, opposite effect, making Superman and Batman less Morrison cryptically referenced dark secrets in the realistic when their personalities shifted depending Wayne family history with a nod to Willowood paul levitz upon the editorial fiefdom.

Asylum. Few got the reference, though, but Scott Luigi Novi / Wikimedia Commons.

Paul Levitz tells BACK ISSUE that he was disappointed, Snyder revisited the subject with a vengeance in too. “I remember being excited about Julie taking over WFC, and the 2012’s Batman #10 when he wedged Thomas Wayne, Jr. into the varied Superman team-ups; [I] covered that era in The Comic Reader. I felt mainstream Batman canon as a recurring nemesis of his sibling. that Murray’s approach, restoring Batman and putting Bob Haney on Remarkably, WFC #225’s “Bow Before Satan’s Children” also the scripts, was a bit of a step backward. Murray was always effective spawned a 21st-Century follow-up. The tale of demonically possessed as a commercial editor, and I think WFC did fine in sales under his tenure, youngsters at an ancestral Wayne family castle in Scotland was tied to but I wasn’t a fan of the Super Sons or many of the other stories they a flock of sinister blackbirds and the last panel hinted that the threat did in that series. Hope I did better with the handful of Worlds’ Finest wasn’t over. In 2015’s Gotham Academy #7, writers Becky Cloonan and issues starring Superman and Batman I wrote years later...”

Brendan Fletcher and artist Mingjue Helen Chen continued the story Critics notwithstanding, this was Boltinoff and Haney’s realm, a world when a strain of the 1975 bird flu resurfaced. whose heroes often had feet of clay and weren’t shy about displaying Such immersion in DC continuity wasn’t at the forefront of Boltinoff their temper, where dark secrets and shortcomings were always just and Haney’s minds in 1974, but the two appearances by Deadman beneath the surface and ready to drive the plot of the next issue. Few were allowed them to keep a toe in the water of the greater DC Universe, as outrageous as the revelation in 1974’s World’s Finest #223. as did another Metamorpho team-up in WFC #226.

8 • BACK ISSUE • Batman AND Superman Issue

Over the course of the year, World’s Finest was also part of DC’s fondly remembered 100-Page Super Spectacular line [see BI #61 for more on Super Specs— ed.]. A typical episode opened with a new 20-page lead followed by reprints that put a light on the publisher’s rich history. The selection of the book’s vintage material, in all but the first issue, was the responsibility of a young Paul Levitz. Among the recurring reprint strips during the six issues of Super Specs (WFC #223–228) were Aquaman, Deadman, Eclipso, the Manhunter from Mars, Metamorpho, Rip Hunter, and the Vigilante.

All good things must come to an end, and the 100-page books were discontinued in December 1974 as DC braced to expand its market presence with more 32-page titles in the coming year. For World’s Finest, that meant an increased frequency from six to eight issues a year—including one issue meant to go on sale in January 1975 that Murray Boltinoff hadn’t planned for. Pulling together an unpublished Metamorpho short and a reprint of the Superman/Batman team’s 1958 origin beneath a new Ernie Chan cover, World’s Finest #229 (cover-dated Apr. 1975) was newsstand-ready.

Faced with more issues per year of both World’s Finest and the now-monthly Justice League of America, Dick Dillin wasn’t ready and other pencilers filled in on the months he wasn’t available. Curt Swan topped the list of pinchhitters (WFC #230, 234, 239), but Lee Elias (WFC #237), Pablo Marcos (WFC #241), and Ernie Chan (WFC #242) also stepped in. John Calnan, whom Boltinoff typically employed on other titles as a penciler, proved to be an agreeable inker on all of them from issues #232 to 242.

Appreciative of the unceasing reader requests for guest-stars, Boltinoff and Haney continued to oblige them, adding Robin (WFC #228), and the Flash and Green Arrow (WFC #231) to Super Sons tales, and including the Atom (WFC #236) and Gold of the Metal Men (WFC #239) down the road. The Atom story recalled a 1974 Haney effort from The Brave and the Bold #115 in which the Tiny Titan explored Batman’s brain. This time, the microscopic hero took a page from Fantastic Voyage and ventured into the body of a disease victim.

Haney also reprised another earlier plot in WFC #235 when he had his heroes investigate a mind-reading blackmailer with the astrological name of Sagittarius.

Where issue #218’s Capricorn had discovered Batman’s true identity, Sagittarius learned who Superman really was. Both villains died in the end, though.

Interspersed with Super Sons stories, the 1975 and 1976 adventures of the World’s Finest team took a perhaps inevitable turn back into Superman territory.

Tales of gangsters and quasi-Communist nations may have kept the series grounded but they made it increasingly tough for Boltinoff to conceive a good cover hook.

The Statue of Liberty that Superman destroyed on the cover of issue #227, for instance, was dismissed inside as a suspicious replica and only tangentially related to the plot. Likewise, WFC #235’s bizarre shot of a giant hand grabbing Superman and popping off his head was revealed inside as a closeup of Galaxy Broadcasting CEO Morgan Edge destroying a Superman action figure.

It was generally simpler to work from a more fantastic premise like WFC #232’s “The Dream Bomb,”

Batman AND Superman Issue

Seems Like Old Times One of Haney’s wildest concepts, Bruce Wayne’s previously unknown brother, Thomas, Jr., was resurrected in 2012 by writer Scott Snyder. (left) The World’s Finest revelation, with penciler Dillin inked by Vince Colletta, in #223 (May–June 1974). (right) The New 52 redux, from Batman #10 (Aug. 2012).

Art by Greg Capulo and Jonathan Glapion.

TM & © DC Comics.

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which blurred fantasy and reality around an ancient bridge that spiritually spanned life and death.

Two separate stories involved humans leaving Earth for new lives in space … and surviving only thanks to Superman and Batman (WFC #234, 241). Alien invaders converged on Earth more than once (WFC #237 and 239), with the earlier issue building to an attack by a swarm of space-locusts that could only be destroyed with a creature that had been nurtured by Superman’s father Jor-El. The covers of issues #237 and 239 also marked a resurgence of the Superman vs. Batman motif.

On the former, he opposed Superman’s efforts to harm his “insect friends”; on the latter, he was okay with Batman’s life support being pulled in a hospital. Neither compared to the unsettling WFC #240 (Sept. 1976), which asked “How Do You Kill a Superman?”

In a short period of time, Superman’s actions had shifted from excessive use of force to indifference to wanton acts of destruction. Those events coincided with his installment as king of the Bottle City of Kandor, ushering in an age of peace after a period of civil war. Like the Kandorians, Batman was at a loss to explain his friend’s Jekyll/Hyde behavior, but he agreed to follow the orders of world leaders, enter the miniaturized city, and execute King Superman with a poison ring. The regicide took place as planned, but Superman’s body reflexively began enlarging moments later, freeing him from the bottle and jolting him back to life as his powers reawakened. The culprit, by the way, was a mutated space cat in the Fortress of Solitude’s alien zoo.

The story represented Haney at his most absurd, starting with the out-of-the-blue depiction of Kandor as a monarchy and the notion that Superman would agree to be its king. Equally unlikely was the suggestion that Batman would kill anyone, let alone Superman. An issue later, readers were asked to believe that the team would put its commitments to Earth on hold while they took part—as Bruce and Clark—in a space expedition for three months. Included in the tale (WFC #241) was a scene in which Superman inhaled so much nitrogen and oxygen that he looked like a Thanksgiving Day balloon.

Crazier still was the climax to issue #239 wherein Batman held Gold’s legs while the Metal Man stretched himself into a wire that stretched from Earth to a distant galaxy in a manner of minutes!

Haney’s trademark plot twists weren’t about to change, but everything around him was.

Following World’s Finest #240, Dick Dillin had moved on to the now-double-sized JLA and Murray Boltinoff bid his own farewell after issue #242. Filling his editorial shoes was Denny O’Neil, whose first issue was a Haney-scripted alien visitation adventure. Nicely illustrated by Curt Swan and Al Milgrom, WFC #243 (on sale in November 1976) was notable for its reunion of Superman, Batman, and Robin, who even received his own logo on the splash page. The Super Sons story in issue #228 aside, the Teen Wonder hadn’t starred alongside the World’s Finest team since 1970’s WFC #196 and the tale was a nice reminder of days past.

I’LL BUY THAT FOR A DOLLAR! World’s Finest Comics #244 went even further back for its nostalgia fix, reintroducing a format that recalled the title’s first decade. In an age when most comics offered 64 pages for a dime, WFC had been the first 100-page spectacular—priced at 15 cents—with Superman and Batman solo adventures bookending tales featuring a mix of lesser lights. The page count gradually shrank and, as noted earlier, finally became a standard 32-page title in 1954. Looking at the anemic size of the mid-1970s comic book, new DC publisher Jenette Kahn initiated a limited new line of titles that returned to the concept of a thick all-new comic book. Fittingly, World’s Finest was part of that first quartet of “Dollar Comics,” titles that boasted 80 pages … less 15 or so pages for ads. [Editor’s note: See BI #57 for the Dollar Comics story.]

Wonder Woman, then at the peak of her popularity as a TV star, was selected to close each issue (typically the second most important position in the issue) while fan-favorites Green Arrow and Black Canary filled two more slots. The final position—rooted more deeply in the real world for contrast— went to a modern-day Western hero, the Vigilante. The combination of the lineup and strong writers and artists gave the expanded World’s Finest an immediate cool factor … but Superman and Batman never let anyone forget who the stars of the book were.

Bob Haney’s contribution to issue #244—dramatically rendered by José Luis García-López and Murphy Anderson—seemed to be a return to more earthly matters with a mystery involving several gangland slayings. By the end of the story, the plot had segued deeply back into science-fiction territory with the emergence of a time-traveling killer who aimed to exterminate the human race.

WFC #245’s Superman/Batman adventure was pure space opera, though, and a relative rarity in that it crossed over with another title. Denny O’Neil had spent three issues writing a Martian Manhunter backup feature in Adventure Comics #449–451 that was part murder mystery. Convinced that one of his former JLA comrades had slain a friend of his on Mars II, the Manhunter had returned to Earth seeking justice. The trilogy’s cliffhanger ending headed straight into World’s Finest, where the Man of Steel and the Dark Knight helped their old friend discover that he’d been played: The “victim”

Guest-Stars Galore Among the guests dropping in on Superman and Batman: (top) Metamorpho (again!), during the book’s Super Spectacular phase, in issue #226 (Nov.–Dec. 1974, cover by Cardy), (middle) Deadman in issue #223, and (bottom) the Atom, in WFC #236 (Mar. 1976, cover by Ernie Chua and Tex Blaisdell).

TM & © DC Comics.

10 • BACK ISSUE • Batman AND Superman Issue

had faked his death and was plotting a military coup.

Haney’s script (presumably co-plotted by O’Neil) was illustrated by Curt Swan and Murphy Anderson, a quiet milestone in that it represented the final WFC adventure Swan would ever draw.

Another Superman alumnus—Kurt Schaffenberger— became the feature’s penciler for the next four issues and opened with one of the wildest stories in Haney’s run on the title, one that had the over-the-top qualities of a 1960s Weisinger opus. A chain of events led to the revelation that Superman had a hunchbacked twin brother named Kor-El whom the hero had imprisoned in a kryptonite-shielded sphere during his boyhood.

Ignoring Superman’s rather significant body of heroism, the Justice League and the general public turned on the hero in a heartbeat and—despite having no recollection of his alleged crimes—the vilified Man of Steel was compelled to rescue his supposed sibling at the seeming cost of his own life. Given a hero’s welcome, Kor-El claimed control of the United States within hours, surrounded himself with armed sycophants, and erected Orwellian signs (“Big Brother is taking care of you”) as he pondered world domination.

It was a jam-packed plot, so much so that literally a quarter of WFC #247’s conclusion was devoted to recapping what happened in the previous issue. The wrap-up featured a massive battle in Washington, D.C. and a climax in the United Nations that exposed Kor-El as the sinister Parasite. The villain’s previous absorption of Superman’s powers had imparted a “racial memory” of the Kryptonian language and lore that enabled him to pull off the charade. Typical of a Silver Age story, Superman and Batman walked away from an adventure that wreaked havoc on the United States, secure in the knowledge that things would be back to normal in the next issue.

CONTINUITY PATCHWORK

O’ur F’avorite M’artian

That said, new editor Jack C. Harris (effective with WFC #246, Aug.–Sept. 1977) was determined that the Superman/Batman team-ups no longer read as isolated adventures unconnected to the rest of the DC line.

Footnotes referenced the new Batcave introduced in Detective Comics #469, details of the Parasite’s last appearance in Superman #304, and even reintroduced Bruce Wayne’s long-forgotten first girlfriend Julie Madison in WFC #248.

When last seen in 1941, Julie had moved on as movie actress “Portia Storme,” and Bob Haney was inspired to give her a career trajectory paralleling the famed Grace Kelly: She quit acting to marry the prince of a small European country. Unlike Kelly, though, Princess Portia was widowed and Haney wrote a passionate reunion between her and Bruce into the plot. The twist was that it wasn’t really her. She and others had been replaced by unstable clones that were meant to shift the balance of world power. Superman and Batman rescued the originals—with the duplicates deteriorating into ooze—but a proper reunion between Bruce and Batman AND Superman Issue

J’onn J’onzz, the Martian Manhunter, stops by in the Dollar Comic WFC #245 (June–July 1977). Cover by Neal Adams, interior art by Curt Swan and Murphy Anderson.

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Super-Sibling Rivalry Uh-oh, Haney’s done it again… At least you got an Adams cover on World’s Finest #246.

TM & © DC Comics.

the real Julie never took place. Haney rectified that in 1978.

In something of a horror bent, Haney moved from body-snatching to the undead in WFC #249, penning an adventure in which Superman became a vampire.

More properly, as elaborated on by guest-star the Phantom Stranger, he was a benevolent aquatic variation called a trillig and had been tasked with exposing a true nest of evil vampires.

After an unbroken five-year run dating back to issue #215, Haney sat out the milestone World’s Finest Comics #250 (Apr.–May 1978, on sale in January 1978) in deference to Gerry Conway. The goal was to unite five of the book’s six stars in a mammoth 56-page adventure. (The Creeper, who’d replaced the Vigilante in WFC #249, kept to himself and closed out the issue with a sequel to his origin by creator Steve Ditko.)

A team-up wasn’t as simple a matter as it might have seemed and there was one specific character who was

12 • BACK ISSUE • Batman AND Superman Issue

the sticking point: Wonder Woman. Unlike the rest of the cast that was situated on mainstream Earth-One, her comics adventures were then taking place on the parallel world of Earth-Two … and in the earlier time period of World War II as a tie-in with the Lynda Carter TV series. Those details effectively dictated the plot that Conway concocted.

Returning from a mission in deep space, Superman and Batman discovered an Earth where Nazi tanks plowed through the streets of Gotham and U-boats menaced Metropolis Harbor. There was no Justice League—or any other superhero—around to stop them, either. A visit to Barry Allen, for instance, revealed that he wasn’t the Flash and never had been.

Likewise, Princess Diana had never left Paradise Island to become Wonder Woman, but the World’s Finest heroes’ visit to her hidden Amazon sanctuary finally provided clues to the mystery. Employing her Magic Sphere, Diana’s mother Queen Hippolyta confirmed that “time has broken” and that its flashpoint was August 13, 1942.

That was the point when Conway moved the action to the WFC characters he wrote regularly: Green Arrow and Black Canary. Picking up where issue #249’s episode had left off, Black Canary was struggling with an emotional crisis and concluded that she needed time to recharge on her native Earth-Two. Green Arrow was eager to help his lover get through her issues, so much so that he ignored a warning that the Justice League’s dimensional transport unit was damaged and used it anyway. The fractures in time began at that moment and history was rewritten so that no one on Earth-One—save the out-of-range Superman and Batman—had ever possessed superpowers or costumed alter egos.

Meanwhile, Green Arrow and Black Canary made it to Earth-Two, but decades earlier than their destination … and just long enough to collide with the World War II version of that world’s Wonder Woman. Then, all three bounced back through a rupture in the sky to Earth-One … on August 13, 1942.

It was all downhill from there. Attempting to save the life of dying scientist Mark Ronson, Wonder Woman unwittingly activated a device that transformed him into a temporal entity called the Ravager and sent him swinging, pendulum-like, between 1942 and 1978.

Things only got worse when a Nazi spy named Agent Axis used a neutralizing belt to capture the Ravager and secure him in Germany. The time-traveling Superman and Batman had joined the trio of heroes by that point to effect a rescue, but it was GA—firing an arrow with the neutralizing tech into the Ravager— who ultimately fixed the mess that he’d set into motion. Once the dust settled, the timeline was restored and no one remembered anything except Green Arrow and Black Canary … wisely, since they’d have otherwise started the crisis over again.

The story was well received and a fine example of the long-form storytelling that was only rarely attempted in the Dollar Comics. But it was back to normal in WFC #251, the only continuity with the previous issue being artists George Tuska and Vince Colletta. As the latest regular art team on the lead feature, they stuck around through issue #254 (save for a Kurt Schaffenberger/ Frank Chiaramonte tale in WFC #253).

Bob Haney’s scripted return was a remarkably complicated affair, one that grew out of a 1952 tale in Batman #75 about a crime boss named George Dyke whose brain was transplanted into the body of a huge gorilla. Inspired by the story’s recent reprinting in 1976’s Super-Heroes vs. Super-Gorillas #1, Haney revealed that

Batman had—ulp!—preserved Dyke’s damaged brain in a jar and that aliens had facilitated its restoration and transferred it into a chlorophyll-gulping creature to facilitate their invasion of Earth. If that wasn’t crazy enough, Doc Willard—the criminal surgeon who’d created the Gorilla Boss—returned to put Dyke’s brain in Batman’s skull. Superman used his own surgical skills to restore Bruce Wayne’s gray matter, but Willard— with Dyke’s brain in tow—escaped in the confusion.

Willard became the subject of the Superman/ Batman feature’s first ongoing subplot, resurfacing behind the scenes in WFC #252 with confirmation that he intended to capitalize on his knowledge of Bruce Wayne’s secret identity. Secrets also informed that issue’s main story, as Haney returned to a blackmail theme for the third time in his tenure, albeit without psychics this time around.

Willard took a more active role in WFC #253, where Princess Portia of Moldachia (née Julie Madison) returned on the eve of her wedding to Prince Jon of Tybern. Jon was a lookalike for Portia’s old boyfriend, which made it convenient for Bruce Wayne to impersonate him when the real prince was snatched in a precursor to a military coup. With the bittersweet reunion of Bruce and his first love at its core, the story was more characterdriven than normal and one that overshadowed Superman (although the Man of Steel did rescue the real Prince Jon at the end).

Doc Willard’s part in the proceedings had been to identify the false prince as Bruce, but his attempts at mutilating Batman’s face didn’t pan out. When Willard returned in issue #254, he was all but incoherent and the Dark Knight spent much of the story trying to determine what left him in that state. Meanwhile, a parallel plot found Superman fighting Green Lantern’s arch-foe Sinestro, whose will-power-fueled energy had been magnified by forces unknown. The bizarre twist— deduced through Batman’s questioning of Willard—was that Sinestro had stolen George Dyke’s brain, expanded it to planet size, and used it to augment his will-power.

Apprised of the situation (in his only contact with Batman during the story), Superman located the brain and blasted it with his X-ray vision until it was destroyed.

If anyone objected to this violation of Superman’s strict code against killing, there’s no record of it.

The Dollar Comic Days (top left) This Schaffenberger/ Blaisdell spread opened the Phantom Strangerguest-starring tale in WFC #249. (top right) Kurt Schaffenberger also drew contents pages like this one in #246. (bottom) World’s Finest covers sometimes offered rare glimpse of Jim Aparo’s rendition of Superman.

Cover to anniversary issue #250.

TM & © DC Comics.

THE END OF THE ZANY HANEY ERA The next mystery to be solved was seemingly more earthbound, growing out of reporter Clark Kent’s discovery that a costumed Bat-Man had once operated in a small town called Dalton Corners. By the time the story was over, an ancient bat-god called Gitchka had risen from its grave and a descendant of that first Bat-Man donned the ceremonial costume and used it in a Native-American ritual to put down the beast.

As dramatically illustrated by José Luis García-López and Frank Chiaramonte, the story was surprisingly effective … and a good note for Bob Haney to go out on.

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World’s Finest Artists (left) Original cover art to WFC #248, by José Luis GarcíaLópez, and (right) #259 (Nov. 1979), by Rich Buckler. Both inked by Dick Giordano and courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions (www.ha.com).

TM & © DC Comics.

As explained by Jack C. Harris in that issue’s letters Comics format. Determined to put it to good use, Jack C. column, the promotion of The Brave and the Bold to a Harris worked with O’Neil to build a story around it.

Privately, the writer found the team-up assignment monthly schedule had added six more scripts a year to Haney’s schedule, and something had to give. Stepping in general to be a challenge. “It’s like the problem into the breach was Denny O’Neil, whose initial approach you have writing any Superman story compounded,” he explained to Mike W. Barr in 1984’s Amazing to the Superman/Batman feature was markedly Heroes #50. “If you were going to be totally different than his predecessor’s. Less intricately consistent with everything that’s been plotted and more character oriented than a established about Superman, dammit, Haney story, the first four O’Neil episodes there’s nothing he can’t solve in about didn’t even have traditional villains but two seconds. … [He’s] the smartest man rather tragic or misunderstood figures. in the world, as well as the everything The Dick Dillin/Frank McLaughlinelse-est man in the world. Well, I don’t illustrated WFC #257 (June–July 1977), believe that for a second.” for instance, dealt with an addled homeIn the name of equality, O’Neil less woman who befriended a creature approached the heroes as brawn that could make her every wish come true. and brain. “Superman is a right-brain An issue earlier, WFC #256 told character,” he detailed to Barr. “He the story of Lar-On, a kind-hearted would be the physical half of the team, Phantom Zone escapee who’d been and would be able to do that stuff exiled to the ghostly dimension denny o’neil without thinking about it, and would because of his incurable transformations Luigi Novi / Wikimedia Commons. need the equivalent of the left brain into a murderous werewolf. A sequel in issue #258 followed a woman who’d been scratched to handle the other half of the problem. … Logically, during that earlier adventure and transformed into a that’s the way a team-up between those guys would were-unicorn. That, in turn, built to a dramatic have to work. … In the framework, the dynamics of the moment wherein Batman became, well … a man-bat. stories about those characters—I thought it had to work García-López, in his last story for the title, brought the like that, for them to have any dramatic validity at all.”

Since its transition to the Dollar Comics format, WFC had adventure vividly to life (with inks by Dick Giordano), but the sequel had truly been inspired by a Neal continued to see roster changes. “Shazam!” replaced Adams cover that predated World’s Finest’s Dollar Wonder Woman with issue #253, Hawkman bumped the

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One Small Step (left) The new villainess Lady Lunar, seen in WFC #266 (Jan. 1981, cover by Aparo), evoked longtime readers’ memories of (right) 1958’s Moon-Man, from issue #98 (cover by Curt Swan and Ray Burnley).

TM & © DC Comics.

The ones in Detective and Batman are the real ones. When I was doing them Creeper in issue #256, and Black Canary gave way to Black Lightning in for Batman and Detective, I was a biographer. Here, I was a story-writer.” issue #257. Amidst all those shifts, preliminary reports showed that sales If anything enduring came out of Julius Schwartz’s brief return, it was on World’s Finest were declining and the prospect of replacing it with a different Dollar Comic was floated past the editorial team. The verdict the installation of Rich Buckler as the Superman/Batman feature’s more-or-less regular artist. Variously inked by Dick Giordano, Bob Smith, was that World’s Finest would return to a 32-page, 40-cent package under editor Julius Schwartz. Meanwhile, Ross Andru would edit a different Frank McLaughlin, Romeo Tanghal, Joe Giella, and Pablo Marcos, Dollar Comic—DC Super-Star Spectacular—housing Black Lightning, Buckler penciled most of the lead stories from July 1979 to March 1982 (WFC #259–261, 263, 264, 266, 267, 269–272, 275, 276, 278, Green Arrow, Hawkman, and Shazam!, among others.

280) with Joe Staton (WFC #262), Ric Estrada (WFC #265), At zero hour, though, DC editorial coordinator Paul Levitz Romeo Tanghal (WFC #268), Adrian Gonzales (WFC #273, noticed that sales on WFC were now going up. Rather than 274), Don Heck (WFC #277), and Keith Pollard (WFC mess with success, World’s Finest would stay as it was … #279) on hand when he wasn’t available. and Jack C. Harris was handed piles of Schwartz and Denny O’Neil was ready for something completely Andru pages with the expectation that he would different, though. After a dozen years with DC, he moved assemble them into a Dollar Comic with no disruption to Marvel in 1980 for several years as an editor and to the schedule. The reformatting required some cuts— writer. After revealing the “Final Secret of the Superincluding a page dropped from the Superman/ Sons” in WFC #263, he concluded his tenure in issue Batman lead—but Harris pulled it off and WFC #259 #264 with a sequel of sorts in which Lois Lane was went on sale with no disruption in the Giant format. kidnapped by Superman, Jr.’s supposed mother …

The editor wasn’t able to fit in an explanation of what actually Clayface. Perhaps best associated with a happened until issue #260, though. certain Dark Knight during the 1970s, O’Neil closed The next several issues were a mix of newly solicited the story with Lois asking where Batman went after content and inventory material from other editors. rich buckler capturing the villain. “Probably where he belongs,” Indeed, Julius Schwartz had four monthly Superman/ Superman replied as the scene switched to a shot of Batman stories in various stages of completion that ran through issue #262. The contrast between the Schwartz/O’Neil stories the hero swinging over the city, “somewhere out there in the night.” from the first part of the 1970s and the last were striking.

Unlike the Superman revamp that aggressively broke away from old LOOKING BACK, MOVING FORWARD plot devices, this 1979–1980 set had a more old-fashioned vibe to it. Arriving from Marvel about the same time that O’Neil went there, Marv Wolfman was tentatively announced as his successor on the feature, Recalling the Joker/Luthor and Clayface/Brainiac team-ups of the 1960s, the Penguin and Terra-Man joined forces in WFC #261. The radioactive but the nod went to Cary Burkett instead. “I got the WFC assignment Pi-Meson Man and his radioactive twin echoed Batman’s 1950s sci-fi by doing a few fill-in stories for the feature,” Burkett tells BACK ISSUE. foe Dr. Double X. And issue #260’s “Four Billion Supermen of Earth” “Other writers were also doing stories; there was no regular writer for was a classically 1950s plot in which Batman, Lois Lane, and Jimmy a time. But at some point I found myself doing the Superman/Batman Olsen used fakery to convince alien invaders that Earth’s people were feature pretty regularly. It was one I really liked doing, and I think the all Superman’s equals. Indeed, that very concept had been used in a editors I worked with liked what I was giving them. In all my comics work 1955 Superman mini-comic (reprinted in 1975’s Amazing World of DC I was always aware that a lot of the readers would be children, and I think I felt that was particularly true for the Superman/Batman team-ups.”

Comics #7) and O’Neil had employed it himself back in WFC #211.

Unlike O’Neil and Haney, the newcomer brought the perspective of “In my own personal dark of the night mythos,” O’Neil declared in Amazing Heroes #50, “these are apocryphal stories. These didn’t happen. a DC fan to the table and his stories drew on the characters and lore of Batman AND Superman Issue

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the past two decades with a passion. Burkett’s first contact with DC had been 1960’s Justice League of America #1 and he penned a sequel to that title’s second issue in World’s Finest #265 (Oct.–Nov. 1980, on sale in July 1980). Therein, Superman and Batman—alongside the legendary Merlin—once again faced the powerful magic of Simon Magus in the enchanted realm of Asgard.

That issue also featured Robin’s first guest-appearance in three years. When he’d been a series regular in the 1950s and 1960s, the Boy Wonder had been a non-entity in the book’s tagline: “Your two favorite heroes in one adventure together!” In a nice touch, the copy was amended in WFC #265 to read “your three favorite heroes.”

A sequel to those halcyon days appeared in issue #266 when Superman and Batman faced a moon-based villainess called Lady Lunar. In costume and power set, she was reminiscent of WFC #98’s Moon-Man (Dec. 1958), but former astronaut Brice Rogers—who’s been the Jekyll/Hyde-styled menace—had no idea who his successor might be. Circumstantial evidence pointed to S.T.A.R. Labs authority Jenette Klyburn, but the real culprit was an astronaut trainee named Stacy Macklin, who’d been affected by radiation from Rogers’ old space capsule.

Created by Jack C. Harris, Macklin had been a supporting cast member in Wonder Woman during Diana Prince’s short stint at NASA (1978–1979), and Lady Lunar provided a vehicle for her return, if only for one issue.

Unseen since the 1978 cancellation of their comic, the Challengers of the Unknown made a return of their own in WFC #267 to help Superman and Batman fight the Gravity Masters. An issue later, another vintage story was revisited when WFC #160’s Dr. Zodiac (Sept. 1966) got an upgrade thanks to an Atlantean idol and the 12 zodiac-themed coins that powered it.

“The feature was a short one, given not even the 17 pages that a full-length comic had in those days,” Burkett notes. “It was far easier to draw on the past for villains than to try to create new ones and include a villain origin tale. So I dipped into the old issues a good bit, many of which I remembered from my own childhood. And any villain had to be powerful enough to pose at least some sort of threat to Superman. That’s why I used magical characters like Simon Magus and Dr. Zodiac, since they had powers that could affect Supes. I updated the Moon-Man to Lady Lunar so that I could use his kryptonite powers. I hated the name ‘MoonMan,’ and thought DC could use more female villains, so I made the changes.

“The Challengers appearance was a special case,” Burkett continues. “Editor Jack C. Harris had promised in a letters column that the Challengers would appear in one of his books soon … and assigned me the task of doing a story teaming them with Superman and Batman.”

A performer with the Continental Theatre Company before he wound up at DC, Burkett took a brief sabbatical from World’s Finest to perform in summer stock and Gerry Conway stepped in to relieve him as scripter. His first outing left Batman buried alive while Superman and Robin tried in vain to find him (WFC #269). By the time the Man of Steel figured out his location, though, his friend had earned his escape-artist rep and gotten free by himself. In Conway’s other script, the heroes fought Metallo and watched as he got sucked into an artificial black hole (WFC #270). No one ever explained how the villain got out of that one.

The Conway issues coincided with World’s Finest Comics’ promotion to a monthly schedule for the first time in its history … as well as Len Wein’s succession of Jack C. Harris as editor. Before he left, though, Harris made arrangements for a blowout celebration of the 200th anniversary of the Superman/Batman team’s debut in the book. Over the years, DC had published multiple “first meetings” or origins of the duo and Harris’ idea was to weave them together in one story. Newly arrived at DC, former Marvel Comics superstar Roy Thomas accepted the pitch and ran with it.

If Thomas took offense at being typecast for his affinity at juggling multiple continuity threads, he didn’t let on. Rather, he broadened the scope of the concept to include the famed 1940s Superman radio show, too. It was there, in March 1945, that the first origin of the Superman/Batman/Robin team appeared, and Thomas declared that it was part of the history of the parallel world of Earth-Two. For good measure, he also made the radio show’s best-remembered villain— the kryptonite-radiating Atom Man—a central part of the plot, albeit spelled “Atoman” here. In this account, the energy within the mad Nazi was so powerful that his body shifted from Earth-Two to Earth-One as he incubated in a death-

One-Hit Wonder Returns (top) Recognize this turban-topped terror on Dick Giordano’s cover to WFC #268 (May 1981)? It’s (bottom) Dr. Zodiac, from issue #160 (Sept. 1966, cover by Swan and George Klein).

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like state. Awakening in mid-1981’s World’s Finest #271, Atoman launched a vengeful attack on Superman … who had no idea who he was. Batman was also puzzled by the fact that the stranger wore a costume that was identical to that of the robotic Powerman (from WFC #94). It turned out that the emanations from the villain had filtered into the younger Superman’s subconscious mind as he slowly crossed the dimensional divide. Ultimately deducing their foe’s place of origin, Superman and Batman managed to return him to Earth-Two, where its middleaged Robin and gray-templed Superman waited.

In between, Thomas interspersed flashbacks of the various first meetings—WFC #84 (Sept.–Oct. 1956), Adventure Comics #253 (Oct. 1958) and 275 (Aug. 1960), Superboy Spectacular #1 (1979), WFC #94 (May–June 1958), Superman #76 (June 1952), and WFC #71 (July–Aug. 1954)—with adaptations from the radio show and the present-day plot. As one might imagine, there was more going on than could fit into a standard 14-page installment, so the book’s other features—Green Arrow, Hawkman, Red Tornado, and Shazam!, at that point—were put on hold in favor of a 48-page spectacular.

The story wasn’t without its glitches, notably the fact that—unlike his radio counterpart—the Earth-Two Superman didn’t learn about kryptonite until well after World War II and couldn’t have encountered Atoman in 1945. Missing from the recounting of early meetings were stories such as All-Star Comics #7 (Oct.–Nov. 1941), Superboy #182 (Feb. 1972), and even—ironically— Thomas’ own All-Star Squadron preview in Justice League of America #193 (on sale a month before WFC #271).

Quibbles aside, the adventure was a series highlight, capped with a George Pérez cover.

Returning Rogue (top left) Fresh from his appearance in Brave & Bold #175, Metallo turned up in WFC #270 (Aug. 1981). Original cover art by Rich Buckler and Dick Giordano, courtesy of Heritage. (bottom) This classic 1958 tale from World’s Finest #94 inspired the lead tale in anniversary issue #271 (inset, cover by George Pérez). (top right) Original art of the story’s splash, penciled by Rich Buckler and inked by Frank McLaughlin.

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The Walking Dead Batman’s bothered by a zombie Superman and the Weapon-Master! Cover to WFC #273 (Nov. 1981)

by Andru and Giordano.

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an alien who employed and dealt in exotic and powerful weapons from around the universe. He would definitely be drawn to Superman’s Fortress (and incidentally, get Dr. Zodiac’s weapon back onto the scene so that villain could return). At the time, Q-energy was a type of weapon that could affect Superman, and so an alien weapon-master would have access to that. I also gave him weapons from Mon-El’s world of Daxam, which I reasoned might also affect Superman. In those days, I think the biggest challenge for a Superman writer was to find ways to challenge him.”

The story was also notable for its display of the softer side of the Superman/Batman team. Issue #272, for instance, found the Man of Steel forcing his partner to take a break at the Fortress after observing his escalating hostility toward criminals. As the three-parter progressed, both heroes were moved to tears over the possibility that the other might die. They also called each other “old friend” a lot, a tic that continued through the Paul Kupperberg-scripted Mr. Freeze story (WFC #275) and Mike W. Barr’s revival of Dr. Double-X (WFC #276).

Barr, who’d been Len Wein’s associate editor, was promoted to full editor of the book with that same issue. “I had pitched [‘Double X Means Double Death!’] to Len when he was still the editor, and he okayed it with no comments and no changes,” Barr tells BACK ISSUE. “And when penciller Rich Buckler needed a script, Len gave my story to him without editing it. I therefore felt justified in publishing the tale with no editorial credit. (This story was the first appearance of old Batman foe Dr. Double X since 1963. X is not a good solo Batman villain, but he’s a great team Batman villain. I used him once more, in Brave & Bold #194.) This story also contains the first of two references to Supes saving ‘Portland’ from a meteor shower; the next was in Brave & Bold #192.

This was an in-joke to those who had read both stories, it was never followed up on.

“My only subversive act during my tenure: When VILLAINS NEW AND OLD the original art to ‘Double X’ was returned to me by Cary Burkett was back for issues #272–274, a trilogy the production department to check the corrections, that introduced a gold-armored powerhouse called I saw they had added the credit ‘Created by Bob the Weapon-Master. A scavenger who traveled through Kane’ under the Batman logo. Since even in 1982 I space collecting the arsenals of various alien races, knew Bill Finger had at least co-created Batman, and the villain had a field day when he cleaned out the was already stumping for him to be credited thusly, devices that Superman had confiscated in his I simply removed Kane’s solo credit. I may have done Fortress of Solitude. His target had been an “ultimate the same thing for #277’s lead, though the Supes/ cary burkett weapon” so powerful that it had been split into Bats stories for #278–280 all contain Kane’s erroneous two harmless pieces to prevent its activation. The credit. Those stories may have gone through production Weapon-Master had already found one of them and the unwitting after I left staff. (Note to the litigious: The Statute of Limitations has Superman had the other in his Fortress. Uniting the pieces of the long since expired on my action.)

Dabalyan Will-Paralyzer, the villain transformed everyone on Earth into “I continued to write the Green Arrow feature until #278,” Barr adds, mindless slaves. It was exactly what Darkseid had always hoped to “finishing a continuity I had begun before assuming WFC’s editorial reins. achieve with his long-coveted Anti-Life Equation.

Previous WFC editor Len Wein continued to edit my GA scripts.

With Superman’s energy being leeched off by another of the “My tenure as editor of World’s Finest was brief (#276–280) and Weapon-Master’s devices, Batman endowed himself with superpowers came near the end of my career as a DC staff editor. I was told the book via an experimental unit in the Fortress. The downside of the process was doing okay when I took it over (though it was soon changed from was that it was essentially suicide: the body of a user would burn a 48-page Dollar Comic with no ads to a 32-page title with ads), so I out after four hours. Luckily, that was time enough for the Darknight had no particular mandate to change the lineup.

Detective to free the planet and for the Man of Steel to use the energy“I actually remember very little about my contact with such leeching device to stabilize his friend. The Weapon-Master escaped to freelancers as artist Don Newton, who was penciling Shazam! It may fight another day (specifically, 1983’s DC Comics Presents #60). have been, in those more compartmentalized days, that most of this “The Weapon-Master was an original creation,” Burkett relates, contact was handled by editorial coordinator Karen Berger. Working with “but inspired by the name of the JLA villain, Xotar, the Weapons Master. the writers was overwhelmingly a pleasant experience. All of them were I didn’t use Xotar because I wanted to avoid the idea of a villain from solid pros who came in with ideas, yet were flexible enough to be able the future coming back to invade the past, a concept I never liked and to change them if requested.” which was pretty much identified with Marvel’s Kang. I wanted a villain For the Superman/Batman lead, Cary Burkett returned to write powerful enough to invade Superman’s Fortress and steal the super- WFC #277’s story where a madman tried to unleash a bacteriological weapons stored there. I designed a villain around that goal, really, super-weapon. Bob Rozakis stepped into the writer’s spot in issue #278, 18 • BACK ISSUE • Batman AND Superman Issue

dovetailing the events of the book’s Hawkman solo strip into the lead feature.

Joining forces with Superman and Batman, the Winged Wonder and his estranged wife Hawkwoman finally freed their home planet of Thanagar from the tyranny of Hyanthis, ending a five-year subplot that began in 1978’s Jack C. Harris-scripted Showcase #101–103.

It was back to Earth in issue #279, which began with a Burkett-scripted sequence in the Batcave where Superman declared that he wished Alfred was his butler. Flattered, Alfred returned the compliment while privately musing that the hero was “such a well-mannered gentleman … so unlike that Green Arrow individual who sometimes visits.”

Burkett observes, “Character-wise, that was a period when Superman and Batman were great buddies, partners who had faced the worst kinds of crisis-moments together and forged a mutual respect and friendship. I loved that, and tried to make it a core point of the stories. My idea of Superman was that he had a tremendous physical presence which drew people to him … and that he had a tremendous moral compass and humility which kept him from being corrupted by his own adulation. That was really his greatest power. I saw him as the kind of guy who liked people and saw the best in them. Superman wouldn’t be impressed by celebrity or power, but he would be impressed by the quiet faithful service of a humble man like Alfred. And even Alfred would not be immune to Superman’s magnetic presence. So I tried to express a bit of that in a short scene with Alfred.

“I saw Batman as a man who held inside a deep core of anger, but who had mastered and channeled it into fueling his crusade against injustice. He had his struggles and had to be something of a stoic control freak in order to keep that anger from ruling him. A man who could master that could master anything.

But Batman also had the wisdom to recognize Superman as the genuine article.

He saw Superman up close and knew he was a great selfless individual, willing to sacrifice his own life for his adopted planet. I think I felt that Batman knew he could never be what Superman was physically, but he also knew he could never be what Superman was morally.”

WFC #279’s cover sported a charming Ross Andru/Romeo Tanghal image that had Superman stopping a speeding car full of bank robbers in the foreground while Batman played crosswalk attendant in the back. “My favorite cover was #279,” Mike W. Barr declares, “which had a distinctly humorous and Golden Age slant to it. It confounded some staffers whose senses of humor had been removed with their tonsils (‘Where does it fit into continuity!?’), but editorial director Joe Orlando liked it fine. (Earlier I had edited a WFC digest for which I bought a cover reminiscent of Norman Rockwell. Joe said DC had tried for years to get Rockwell to paint Superman. What a coup that would have been!)

“The only aspect uncharacteristic of me in these issues is the cover to #280. The dialogue probably makes sense if you know the story, but the point of the cover is to get the reader to read the story. That dialogue doesn’t read at all like me; it may have been written—and possibly even commissioned— by the next editor.”

WFC #279 and 280 held two-thirds of a Burkett trilogy focusing on an eclectic quartet of villains who headed up an “Army of Crime.” Their leader was General Scarr, a ruthless tactician that Burkett had created two years earlier for Detective Comics #491–492, and his lieutenants were Colonel Sulphur (first seen in 1972’s Batman #241), Major Disaster (introduced in 1966’s Green Lantern #43), and the brand-new pirate-themed Captain Cutlass. A good army needed an arsenal, and the group set its sights on a criminal auction filled with the devices that the Weapon-Master left behind when he fled Earth. Even with those threats at their disposal, the Army of Crime was no match for the World’s Finest team.

“It was purposeful using those old villains to add a sense of continuity to the stories,” Burkett explains. “They always had to be pretty much selfcontained, and not interfere with the continuity in the hero’s regular books.

So I wanted to add continuity in other ways. Using villains with a history was one way. I also connected Lady Lunar to the Wonder Woman continuity of

Supermanservant (top) Supie gives Alfred props on this page from WFC #279 (May 1982). By Cary Burkett, Keith Pollard, and Mike DeCarlo. (bottom) That issue’s Golden Age-esque cover by Andru and Tanghal was a favorite of the book’s then-editor, Mike W. Barr. Holy Crosswalk, Batman!

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Double Trouble (left) Gil Kane’s split cover to WFC #282 (Aug. 1982), the last Dollar Comic issue. (right) The Rich Buckler/Frank Giacoia Composite Superman cover on the next issue, #283, posed a coloring challenge for Anthony Tollin.

TM & © DC Comics.

the time. I included a few things that tied stories together. For instance, the storyline for the General Scarr stories and later the Dr. Zodiac stories were both connected to the dangling plot-thread of the weapons that had been stolen from Superman’s Fortress by the Weapon-Master.”

Penciler Irv Novick joined Burkett on an epilogue of sorts in issue #282. While tracking down the handful of super-weapons still unaccounted for, Batman was blasted by one of them and went hurtling back to prehistoric times. Superman found him, of course, but the Darknight Detective had spent a month in the past before they were reunited. It was time well spent, though, as Batman was able to decompress in the company of peaceful alien visitors who professed a vague goal of “preparing” Earth for its “destiny.” Even here, there was a “villain,” but he was more homesick than anything.

The 20th-Century heroes soon returned home themselves, but a wistful Batman wondered if he’d ever experience contentment like that again.

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A FORMAT IN DECLINE Save for its 300th issue in 1983, World’s Finest itself would never experience another oversized issue. The Dollar Comic—like the anthology comic book in general— was on its way out. With 41 story pages in 1983 versus the 63 it had in 1977, the package no longer seemed as impressive. Consequently, World’s Finest reverted to a standard 32-page package with issue #283. Green Arrow stories intended for the Dollar Comic ran in that issue and the next while two Shazam! episodes were forwarded to the digest-sized Adventure Comics #491–492.

During the transition, an editorial swinging door saw Dave Manak take over the book (WFC #281), followed

by Len Wein (WFC #283), followed by Marv Wolfman (WFC #284). Even Julius Schwartz had a bit of input, as Mike W. Barr recalls: “I was in Julie Schwartz’s office with new WFC editor Marv Wolfman—we were discussing the two issues of Action (#537 and 538) I would be spelling Marv on— when colorist Anthony Tollin crashed the party, showing Marv the cover to WFC #283. But the cover, which showed the Composite Superman charging the reader while the shadows of Supes and Bats came in from off, just didn’t work. Julie suggested that it would be a better cover if the background was black and the shadows were white.

Marv agreed, then asked Tony if he would be paid for coloring the cover again. ‘No,’ said Tony. ‘Well, then,’ quipped Marv, ‘do it fast.’”

In WFC #285, Wolfman vowed to usher in “a bold new era in the lives of the World’s Finest team” and launched a supernatural-tinged four-parter that united Dr. Zodiac with Madame Zodiac and featured guest-appearances

by Robin and multiple Justice Leaguers. Three issues into the opus (penciled by Rich Buckler, Trevor von Eeden, and Adrian Gonzales), Mike W. Barr was told by editor Marv Wolfman that Cary Burkett had “vanished” and Wolfman was left with no one to script #288’s conclusion.

“I missed a deadline and was out of touch from the office for a few weeks (no cell phones or email in those days),” Burkett confirms. “I was doing a play in a theatre in New Hampshire, and got my deadline mixed up. Editor Marv Wolfman couldn’t contact me, and pretty much had to take me off the book. Totally my fault. I regret it, would like to have finished that story, but Marv had no choice.”

Mike W. Barr recalls, “Marv mentioned that he’d have to write it himself, over the weekend. Like most comic pros of my generation, I had read the tale, from Jim Steranko’s History of the Comics, of a bunch of Golden Age comics creators putting a 64-page comic together over a single weekend (though to my knowledge, this issue has never been specifically identified). This seemed incredibly romantic in those early days, and I volunteered to give Marv a hand with the script. Marv, Len, and I met at Marv’s house on a Sunday morning, plotted the story, and divided it into sections, with Marv writing pages 1–6 (I believe) and me writing pages 7–12. The next morning I wrote the rest of the script. (When it was published, Len asked, ‘Why wasn’t I given a writing credit?’ I replied: ‘Because all you did was play games on Marv’s Nintendo box the whole time.’

Len nodded and said, with good grace, ‘Fair enough.’)

“My last contribution to WFC was exactly one year later, in the 300th Anniversary issue,” Barr adds, “which I co-wrote with David Anthony Kraft.” That edition was the culmination of a seven-month subplot that had seen Superman and Batman’s friendship severed after the Dark Knight split with the Justice League to form a new team in Barr and Jim Aparo’s Batman and the Outsiders. With a push from Wonder Woman, the two heroes mended fences as issue #300 concluded and all was right with the World’s Finest once more. “Whether as editor or writer,

I was delighted to have been able to contribute to one of DC’s longest-running titles,” Barr concludes. [Editor’s note: See BI #69 for more info about WFC #300.]

Palm-Piloted Reprints

Regrettably, World’s Finest Comics’ long run was coming to an end. Its last two years saw a succession of writers and artists pass through its pages, none of whom generated sufficient excitement to revive the title’s slipping sales. Moreover, the Superman/Batman team also fell victim to the trendy conceit that the character’s respective light and darkness should have made them incompatible as friends. That was the tack that Frank Miller was taking in his forthcoming Dark Knight miniseries and John Byrne echoed in 1986’s The Man of Steel, ground zero for the new normal in Superman’s world.

The cancellation of World’s Finest with issue #323 (on sale in October 1985) was preceded by a remarkable quote from the book’s final editor Janice Race in The Comics Buyer’s Guide #618 (September 20, 1985).

“Batman and Superman have been teaming up since #71, cover-dated July–August 1954,” she noted, “and they really don’t work well together.”

For scores of fans, however, the compatibility and success of the Superman/Batman team had been proven repeatedly over the preceding three decades.

Even as the door closed on another era, the heroes would always be regarded as the World’s Finest.

World’s Finest Comics digest editions from the early ’80s: (left) DC Special Series #23 (Feb. 1981) and (right) Best of DC #20 (Jan. 1982).

Both covers by Andru and Giordano.

TM & © DC Comics.

[Editor’s note: The story of World’s Finest’s post-Dollar Comic era is explored in more detail in BACK ISSUE #73.]

JOHN WELLS is a comics historian specializing in DC Comics who has served as resource for numerous projects. He is the author of the TwoMorrows books American Comic Book Chronicles: 1960–1964 and 1964–1969.

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by

Michael Eury

As soon as Warner Bros. announced its Batman v. Superman movie, social media went nuts. Both “common folk” outside of fandom and loyal longtime comic fans collectively scratched their heads and moaned in bewilderment, “I thought they were friends. Why are they fighting?”

Why? To pique interest and sell tickets! And to those who believe that the enmity between the erstwhile World’s Finest Heroes is a product of the post-Dark Knight comics world—think again! DC Comics realized as early as 1958 that a good Batman/Superman tussle can spike sales, as this gallery of comic covers shows.

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CHRIS IRVING follows the Blue Beetle’s 60+ years of evolution—from 1940s Fox Comics to Charlton Comics, to today’s DC Comics, including infamous Golden Age publisher Victor Fox, the Blue Beetle radio show, and Jack “King” Kirby’s Blue Beetle comic strip. Reprints the 1939 debut of The Blue Beetle from Mystery Men Comics #1!

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When I was about 12, I discovered the Super Sons of Superman and Batman in a black-and-white Australian reprint comic. I had been reading Superman and Batman comics for years, and I didn’t remember either of them getting married. And I must have missed the issues in which they had sons! The story was entitled “The Town of Timeless Killers” (originally appearing in World’s Finest Comics #242), and was unfortunately—or perhaps fortunately—the last in the run of Super Sons tales.

Despite my trepidation to the concept of Super Sons [alternately Super-Sons], I really enjoyed the story; like many tales by Bob Haney, it was clever and well written despite completely ignoring established DC continuity. by

Mike Pigott

SO, WHO WERE THE SUPER SONS? For those who came in late, the Super Sons of Superman and Batman was an intermittent lead feature that ran in World’s Finest Comics between January 1973 and December 1976 (cover dates). Superman, Jr. (a.k.a. Clark Kent, Jr.) and Batman, Jr. (alias Bruce Wayne, Jr.) were the teenage sons of Superman and Batman and their unrevealed wives. The series seemed to be an attempt at introducing a younger, hipper version of Superman and Batman for a youthful audience. Of course, these were not the first comics to feature Superman and Batman with children. During the 1950s and ’60s, many of the Superman family of titles featured imaginary stories in which Superman was married with kids, particularly Superman’s Girl Friend, Lois Lane. There was also a run of Batman tales set in a future where Bruce Wayne and his wife Kathy Kane were retired from superheroics, leaving Dick Grayson to take over as Batman II, with a ginger-haired Bruce, Jr. becoming Robin II. The true forerunners to the Super Sons series were two previous issues of World’s Finest, followed nearly five years later by two unrelated issues of Action Comics. WF #154 (Dec. 1965) had the lead story “The Sons of Batman and Superman” by Edmond Hamilton, Curt Swan, and Sheldon Moldoff. The first part of the tale chronicled the double marriage and separate honeymoons of Clark Kent and Lois Lane, and Bruce Wayne with Kathy Kane.

The second part took place about four years later, when both couples have young boys; a playground fight between the two sons causes Lois and Kathy to fall out and lose contact. Part three is set about eight years later, when a young Kal-El, Jr. and Bruce Wayne, Jr. get back in touch and are captured by one of Batman’s enemies and used as bait in a revenge trap. Fortunately, the two lads use their initiative to escape and warn their dads of the impending trap.

Three issues later, WF #157 (May 1966) featured a sequel entitled “The Abominable Brats,” in which teenagers Superman, Jr. and Batman, Jr. change from responsible young men to nasty pranksters. First they start behaving like

Generation Gap The continuity-confounding offspring of Superman and Batman, as first seen on Nick Cardy’s cover for World’s Finest Comics #215 (Dec. 1972–Jan. 1973).

TM & © DC Comics.

Batman AND Superman Issue

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Prototypical Super Sons (left) WFC #154 (Dec. 1965) showed us these seesawing super-juniors, while (right) a new variation of the theme started in Action #391 (Aug. 1970).

TM & © DC Comics.

stood guard and a pair of weeping, veiled women cried, “Oh, Clark, delinquents, then they perform a number of cruel tricks, and finally begin sabotaging their fathers’ missions. Fortunately, they are later unmasked as my darling!” and “Bruce, my baby!”

Flash back to a few weeks ago, and Clark, Jr. is doing volunteer work Mr. Mxyzptlk and Bat-Mite, and the real sons are exonerated. Unlike WF at a youth crisis center that is in the midst of an attack by a biker gang. #154, this story is clearly set in the far future; the adult characters have all Clark defends himself and the center, but resorts to using super-strength. gone gray at the temples, and the streets are full of hover-cars and monorails.

When Superman, Sr. arrives on the scene, he is angry about his son risking While the covers of both issues gave the indication that the contents were his secret identity, as well as ongoing issues about his reluctance to study humorous, this was not really the case, although #157 had a fairly bizarre and get a proper job. Young Clark, who we learn is half-human/ scene where both families went on a camping trip in full costume! half-Kryptonian and has half his father’s powers, storms off in a huff.

Two years before the Bronze Age Super Sons saga began, Meanwhile, in a luxury penthouse in Gotham, young writer Robert Kanigher, with interior artists Ross Andru and Bruce Wayne is at loggerheads with his parents over him Mike Esposito and cover artists Curt Swan and Murphy wasting his college gap year socializing at nightclubs Anderson, crafted a two-part Imaginary Story that and sleeping until noon. Things are made worse when appeared in Silver Age Superman editor Mort Bruce, Sr. discovers that his son has been going out at Weisinger’s final two issues of Action Comics. Action night in a duplicate Bat-suit and jeopardizing the #391 (Aug. 1970) featured “The Punishment of senior Batman’s ongoing operations.

Superman’s Son!”, where the Man of Steel responds Young Bruce commiserates with his friend Clark, Jr., to his offspring’s superheroic blunders by erasing his who feels his own dad is also cramping his style. superpowers with Gold Kryptonite. Superman’s wife is Meanwhile, the older heroes get together to discuss unnamed in this story. “The Shame of the Super-Son!” giving the boys a simple mission to prove themselves: in the following issue chronicled Superman, Jr.’s problems shut down organized crime in Sparta City, a West Coast adjusting to life as a mortal, problems compounded town controlled by the elderly, ailing Rocco Krugge. on the comic’s cover that depicts Superman, Jr. bellyHowever, just to make extra certain the youngsters flopping while Batman brags about Batman, Jr.’s bob haney don’t mess up, Superman (using very dubious science Olympic-worthy diving! (Not only is he insensitive theories) flies through the San Andreas Fault and to Superman, Jr.’s awkwardness, Batman apparently creates a temporary, duplicate version of Sparta. Supes, Jr. and Bats, Jr. has little concern that his son is diving in his Batman, Jr. uniform!) head into town and begin tackling the gangs. Unknown to them, THE WAY IT HAPPENED the “duplicate” Rocco Krugge was reinvigorated by Superman’s stunt and Our Super Sons saga begins in World’s Finest Comics #215 (Dec. 1972– has returned to being a ruthless underworld leader. He has Superman, Jr. Jan. 1973) with a story written by Bob Haney, penciled by JLA artist Dick knocked unconscious by a missile, then buried in the concrete foundations Dillin, and inked by Henry Scarpelli, best known for teenage humor of a dam. He orders his son, Rocco, Jr., to execute Batman, Jr. comics. The dynamic cover by Nick Cardy showed the two young Krugge, Sr. feigns innocence and offers to pay for the boys’ funerals. heroes tearing down a poster of their Super Dads. Batman, Jr., partly He has Superman, Jr. dug out of the dam and organizes the service, attended changed into his Bat-suit and still wearing a pair of orange pinstripe by a heartbroken Superman, Batman, and their veiled wives. That night, trousers, shook his fist at the torn poster and shouted, “We’re going to Krugge is tormented by the spirits of the two young heroes. He drives to run our own lives—and you can’t stop us, Super Dads!” the cemetery to make sure they are dead. Instead, he finds their coffins open However, our first real glance at the Super Sons showed them as and the two heroes still alive. Superman, Jr., we learn, was dug up before dead! The splash page showed the youthful Superman and Batman laid the two-day limit he could survive without air. Krugge, Jr., who hated his out in coffins in their super-suits, while the adult Batman and Superman dad, only pretended to shoot Batman, Jr., who then used a drug to feign 26 • BACK ISSUE • Batman AND Superman Issue

death. Krugge attempts to flee, but is killed when he trips over the headstone of his late wife. In the real Sparta City, the ailing Rocco Krugge passes away at the same moment.

CONTINUITY? WHAT CONTINUITY? The general feeling after reading this issue would probably be that it was a fairly entertaining imaginary story, as were often featured in World’s Finest. However, in the issue’s letters column, writer Bob Haney claimed otherwise. In his pseudo-hip lingo, he explained: “In this present issue’s ‘Saga of the Super Sons,’ we have tried to show a different aspect of the two top world’s finest heroes, SUPERMAN and BATMAN; the story of their own offspring.

“As we said, it is not imaginary, not fantasy, but real, the way it happened. How so, you say? Despite all the issues published on the amazing careers of these two greatest of all super heroes, not every facet of their lives could possibly be covered. Both have lived a hundred lives in one, are bigger than ordinary reality, inimitable and immortal. Thus, this issue gives you just one other, previously undisclosed portion of their unique stories.

“And the sons, as you are seeing, though unique, yet are just like all other kids, fighting the generation gap, looking for their place in the sun, and trying to fulfil their own tremendous heritage.

“We sincerely hope their story grabs you the most, and that you’ll be with us in the very next issue when Clark, Jr. & Bruce, Jr. again star in a story very different from ye present saga. So hang in there, the best is yet to be!”

So, according to Haney, this was the same Superman and Batman appearing in other DC mags, but their marriages and families were a side of their lives that hadn’t previously been shown! Of course, this made no sense.

As Superman was aged around 30, he was too young to have a son in his late teens. The same went for Batman, who was still seen living a bachelor lifestyle in his own magazines.

Bob Haney was a writer who didn’t let things like consistency and continuity stand in the way of a good

story. His editor Murray Boltinoff was, by all accounts, an editor who was more concerned with entertaining stories and good grammar than continuity. As you’ll see, the Super Sons stories were full of plot holes and contradictions with other DC publications. These clearly were not the same Superman and Batman who appeared in Action or Detective Comics. They didn’t seem to care about their secret identities; there were several scenes of Superman and Batman in costume calling out things like, “Son, come back here!” to their boys in civilian clothes.

Their wives were never revealed; they were always shown from the back or else had a veil or hat brim over their faces. Mrs. Kent had black hair, and it was difficult to imagine her as anyone other than Lois Lane. Mrs. Wayne is less certain, and readers speculated about her being Kathy Kane, Vicki Vale, Selina Kyle, or Talia. However, her dialogue is not consistent with any of these dynamic women, and she seems to be more of a generic socialite.

Superman, Jr. is described as having half his father’s powers; given that the pre-Crisis Superman could move planets, that would appear to be pretty powerful. However, he can’t fly and can only leap long distances, while bullets and bombs can hurt him. In two stories, it is his Kryptonian Super-suit that saves him. However, having superpowers, it’s logical that he’d become a hero. Batman, Jr. makes less sense, as his father disapproves of him being a hero and doesn’t seem to have given him any training. Many of their actions don’t ring true, especially the “generation gap”

R.I.P. Super Sons (right) Readers of World’s Finest #215 opened the book to spy this heartstopping Dillin/ Scarpelli splash page. Note the mourning mothers…

Is that Lois laced?

Vicki veiled? Who were they? (left) From coffins to deep-freeze, in the Super Sons’ second appearance. Cardy cover to WFC #216.

TM & © DC Comics.

Batman AND Superman Issue

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arguments with their fathers, which seem very contrived. Also, given the problems they have with their fathers and being unable to fill those pretty big boots, you have to wonder why the sons would take on the same names and costumes. Why didn’t they use codenames like “Nightwing and Flamebird” that was the polar opposite of their dads’ identities? Why Superman, Jr. and not Superboy? Even their real names didn’t ring true; the sons of Clark Kent and Bruce Wayne might have more likely be called Jonathan Kent II and Thomas Wayne II.

FURTHER ADVENTURES As promised, a second installment of the Super Sons appeared in the following issue, World’s Finest #216 (Feb.–Mar. 1973). Dillin’s penciling was greatly enhanced by the superior inking of Murphy Anderson. A topnotch inker such as Anderson was important for this series, as mediocre inking could make it difficult to distinguish between the older and younger heroes when they were in costume. This issue’s weird, and quite complex, story was called “Little Town with a Big Secret.” When the young heroes motorcycle into the run-down, Western town of Barstow, they find themselves unwelcome and are soon imprisoned. Escaping the local jail, they stumble upon the town’s bizarre secret: the reason the place appears to be dying off is because its people are gradually being cryogenically frozen. Years earlier, the townsfolk had murdered a family of aliens living amongst them, and are now being put into suspended animation to await the return of the aliens’ ship (in the “distant” year of 1994), which they believe will bring them untold riches.

The Super Sons went on hiatus for nearly a year, but returned in WF #221 (Jan.–Feb. 1974) in a tale with the rather melodramatic title of “Cry Not for My Forsaken Son.” This somewhat more down-to-Earth adventure was again inked by Murphy Anderson. In Gotham, the Super Sons befriend a young car thief named Danny Orr, who has just been arrested by Commissioner Gordon. Danny acts irrationally after learning that the man who raised him, humble doorman Jack Orr, is not his real father. His real dad is Jack’s former business partner Mark King, a wealthy mining magnate.

Danny moves in with King and is groomed as heir to his empire. Supes, Jr. and Bats, Jr. discretely follow Danny when he visits King’s emerald mining operation in South America, only to discover that the workers are virtual

slaves, imprisoned in concentration camps with sadistic guards who shoot dead any miners who attempt escape. Danny is reunited with foster-father Jack Orr, who was imprisoned in the camp when he came looking for Danny, while the corrupt Mark King is arrested and discredited.

Issue #222 (Mar.–Apr. 1974) featured a story called “Evil in Paradise,” the first of two issues inked by Vince Colletta. This is possibly the most disturbing comic-book story I have ever read. While exploring Desolation Island, a rugged landmass of the coast of Antarctica, scientist Dr. Forbes discovers a primitive tribe of natives living in an area heated by thermal springs. On a TV chat show, he enthusiastically explains that as the gentle natives have everything they possibly need on their island oasis, there is no crime, violence, or hatred in their society. However, a rival scientist named Benson interrupts his lecture, claiming that given the right stimuli, the natives would revert to being violent and warlike like other men. In the audience, the Super Sons take different sides: Superman, Jr.—whose father taught him all men are basically good—sides with Dr. Forbes, while Batman, Jr.—who grew up hearing his father’s experiences of man’s evil— sides with Benson. The young men join up with rival expeditions.

Dr. Forbes and Superman, Jr. set up base camp on Desolation Island and plant video cameras around the native village, content to view the tribe in their natural habitat. However, Benson, abetted by Batman, Jr., plants ultra-sonic speakers around the island, intending to attack the natives by bombarding them with high-pitched sound waves. When Supes, Jr. destroys these, Benson releases fruit flies into the natives’ breadfruit trees.

With the help of a flock of seagulls, Superman, Jr. destroys the insects, but not before half the fruit is ruined. Benson expects the food shortage to cause riots among the natives, but instead the remaining crops are shared equally. Later, when Superman, Jr. is searching for a missing Dr. Forbes, Benson and Batman, Jr. kidnap tribal chief, Oonak. They imprison him in a tiny cage, bombard him with sound waves, and torment him. Hoping to see him turn violent, Benson releases him back into the tribal village, but instead the chief is overjoyed to see his people again. Enraged, Benson physically attacks Oonak, who in self-defense accidentally knocks the professor into a boiling mud-pool, killing him. Batman, Jr. demands that the tribe punish Oonak for the murder of Benson, but the natives have no concept of crime or punishment. Meanwhile, the remainder of Benson’s team set off dynamite in a cave near the thermal spring, causing an earthquake. Batman, Jr. almost falls into a crevice, but Oonak sacrifices his life to save him … leaving Bats, Jr. doubting his own beliefs.

THE GENERATION—AND CONTINUITY—GAP DEEPENS The boys next appeared two issues later, in “The Shocking Switch of the Super Sons.” After more “generation gap” conflicts with their fathers, the sons suggest that all four heroes go on a mountain retreat to an “encounter camp” run by Dr Zamm. Zamm—a long-haired, bearded guru in a kaftan—takes the group through a number of self-awareness exercises, including one (unintentionally funny) scene where the boys are made to dance with their fathers, as Zamm explains, “Greek mountain troops, some of the world’s most masculine men, dance together in joy and comradeship!”

The guru comes to the conclusion that each father and son pair is incompatible, and suggests that Clark, Jr. spend time with Bruce, Sr., and vice-versa. The new teams get on famously, until over-confidence causes the sons to mess up a mission to capture a rogue cyborg who escaped from a nearby military base.

The saga starts getting confusing in issue #228 (Mar. 1975), a story entitled “Crown for a New Batman.” Bruce Wayne is found dead with a whalebone dagger lodged between his shoulder blades. Later, as Bruce, Jr. is discussing becoming the new Batman, who should turn up but Dick Grayson … who feels that after being Batman’s partner for many years, he should be heir to the Batman role. After the funeral, Bruce Wayne’s will is read, leaving both heirs surprised that Batman didn’t name his successor.

They are also surprised that the bulk of Wayne’s estate is left to Simon Link, a partner in an Alaskan fur-trapping business, but on the proviso

Then Came Bat-Son And Super-Son, too. Bruce, Jr. and Clark, Jr. wheel into a town of trouble on the Dillin/Anderson splash to WFC #216.

TM & © DC Comics.

28 • BACK ISSUE • Batman AND Superman Issue

that Link takes Bruce, Jr. to the Arctic to learn the business.

When they arrive, accompanied by Dick Grayson, the group is attacked by a group of Eskimos led by a man called Malook. Robin and Batman, Jr. do a bit of investigating and discover the people who attacked them are really Link’s men in disguise trying to frame the Eskimos, who objected to the number of seals that Link was killing.

Link tries to escape disguised in a seal skin, but is taken by a killer whale. Batman, Sr. turns up with the two Supermen and explains that his death was faked in order to flush out the corrupt Link.

This story was riddled with plot and continuity holes.

The most bizarre point was that Bruce Wayne, Jr. and Dick Grayson were about the same age, but didn’t seem to know each other well, or even like each other. This would also indicate that Bruce Wayne was married with a son before he adopted Dick Grayson, meaning Dick and Junior would have grown up together as stepbrothers at Wayne Manor … which would pretty much contradict every Batman story written over the past three decades.

Other silly points were the unlikely logistics of a millionaire businessman temporarily faking his own death, and Robin fighting crime in the Arctic wearing short trousers!

WF #230 (June 1975) featured a tale called “The Girl Whom Time Forgot,” beautifully illustrated by guest-artist Curt Swan (with inks by Tex Blaisdell). The Sons are sent to accompany Professor Hanson and his son Lance to the lost city of Mayan-75, recently discovered in the Mexican jungle.

During the trek, the boys twice see a beautiful girl in Mayan clothing, carrying a magic staff and followed by a jaguar. On both occasions the girl waves her staff, causing their ship to sink and their helicopter to spin out of control. Lance is lost, but is found by the Mayan girl who, rather surprisingly, speaks English. She introduces herself as Mimaya, and takes him back to her pyramid home to meet her father, Hunab Ku. Father, however, hates outsiders, and plans to execute Lance along with the captured Professor Hanson. Meanwhile, the Super Sons survive a series of booby-traps in order to rescue Lance from the ceremonial dagger. It is revealed that Hunab Ku isn’t really an ancient Aztec, but Paul Somerset, a former colleague of Hanson’s who, along with his newborn daughter, survived a plane crash that left them stranded in the ancient city.

Issue #231 (July 1975) featured another bizarre story.

After Superman and Batman rescue the occupants of a crashed airliner, they are awarded the key to the city.

Bruce, Jr. and Clark, Jr. interrupt the ceremony to heckle their costumed fathers, accusing them of “grandstanding.”

Somehow, they manage to convince a court to put their dads on trial, where they are found guilty of being glory-hogs and sentenced to imprisonment in a remote concentration camp. The Super Sons then go on the hunt for a terrorist group called Tempo, which is trying to control the world by manipulating the weather. The Justice League is also on the trail of Tempo, and after guest-stars the Flash and Green Arrow get the Sons out of a few scrapes, they realize that adult heroes are not so bad and reconcile with their fathers. Aquaman also makes a brief appearance.

SUPER SONS LOCK-UP The Super Sons were travelling around in a camper van in WF #233 (Oct. 1975), in a tale called “World Without Men.” While exploring the Deep South, they visit the town of Belton, which is populated entirely by attractive women, many of whom are performing traditional male roles. Bruce, Jr. thinks it’s his lucky day, until he realizes that all the ladies hate men and will not let themselves be touched by a male, to the point where a woman falls to her death rather than be rescued by Clark, Jr. The boys are arrested over a minor parking offense and locked in the county jail, where they share a cramped cell

with other men who have been imprisoned indefinitely over minor misdemeanors.

Clark breaks them out of prison and they follow the dead woman’s funeral procession into the swamps, where the ceremony is presided over by Sister Sybil, a huge monolith with one giant eye. After the funeral, the boys discover that Sister Sybil is actually a hideous, one-eyed alien who intends to mutate all the women into revolting creatures like her. Superman, Jr. traps Sybil inside the monolith structure and launches it into space.

Later, Bruce, Jr. helps restore the women to normal by giving them each a passionate kiss!

After a seven-month break, the Super Sons returned in WF #238’s “Angel with a Dirty Name.” On their travels, the boys encounter an itinerant performer named Dora Redson, and agree to help with her touring puppet show.

Clark, Jr. and Dora seem instantly attracted to each other, much to Bruce’s chagrin. During a performance in a high-security prison, Dora vanishes, along with the most dangerous inmate, a certain Lex Luthor. The Sons track down Dora and Luthor, just as they are about to leave Earth in a massive rocket ship, and stow away on the craft before it takes off. To Luthor’s surprise, Dora reveals that she is actually his daughter Ardora from the Planet Lexor.

Luthor had visited Lexor on several occasions and was regarded as a hero there, similar to Adam Strange on Rann. He had helped the people rebuild their tattered, post-war civilization, and had married a local woman named Ardora. Ardora, Jr. had come to Earth to return Luthor to Lexor, hoping that his genius would find a cure for the gigantism plague sweeping the planet. However, Luthor was actually the cause of the disease; he had planted plague time-bombs so that if he was away from Lexor for an extended time, the Lexorians would come to Earth to fetch him so he could cure the malady with stores of pre-prepared antidote. His plan nearly worked, but unfortunately a meteor had destroyed his laboratory … and with it all the antidote. This angers his daughter, Batman AND Superman Issue

Commune-ity (counterclockwise from top left) Nick Cardy’s Bad-Dad cover for World’s Finest #224 (July–Aug. 1974).

Its lead story featured Dr. Zamm welcoming the Kents and Waynes to the commune Enoyreve (read it backwards), where the fathers (and readers) were humiliated with this awkward dance scene. (center background) Cardy cover to WFC #221.

TM & © DC Comics.

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BACK ISSUE • 29

particularly as Ardora, Sr. has now contracted the plague, but they are unable to create any more antidote as it needs the venom of the rare and dangerous terror-lizard. Ardora has no choice but to enlist the help of the Super Sons, who have been arrested for wearing the costume of Superman, regarded as an arch-villain on Lexor. And worse, young Clark has no powers due to Lexor’s red sun. Luthor gives Superman, Jr. a yellow-ray bath to temporarily restore his powers, and the boys are able to return with enough venom to inoculate the Lexorians. They return to Earth with Luthor, but Clark, Jr. and Ardora express an interest to see each other again.

World’s Finest #242 (Dec. 1976) featured the final regular appearance of the Super Sons, this time with fabulous art by Ernie Chua and John Calnan. While exploring the Wild West in a dune buggy, the boys pass through a time rift to a lost town called Dry Gulch, where time has been frozen for a century. Clark, Jr. is attacked by a knife-wielding frontiersman called Kid Bowie, but finds his superpowers gone. Clark, Jr.—who has never bled before—faints, and Bruce, Jr. is forced to retreat into hiding carrying his unconscious friend. That night, Bruce, Jr. sneaks out to explore the town and discovers that it exists in a bubble where nobody ages. Bowie, together with a pair of vicious gunslingers called Lever Monroe and Jack Slade, had massacred the town’s entire population for fun, and they continue to murder any unfortunate travelers who manage to slip through the time warp.

The following day, Bruce, Jr. rescues a young backpacker named Susie Wells, who explains that she has stumbled through the warp and is being pursued by three cowboys. Seeing no other way out, the Super Sons challenge the three outlaws to various duels, and manage to defeat them through a mix of trickery and martial arts. However, Susie reveals herself to be a confederate of the killers—she is actually sadistic Belle Dubois, a bullwhip queen. She corners the boys in the graveyard with her savage whip, but Superman, Jr.’s powers return when he stands on a certain grave—which contains soil imported from the occupant’s home town. The boys put the outlaws in a covered wagon and head out of Dry Gulch, but when they arrive in the next town they discover time has caught up and the four villains are now just skeletons.

I enjoyed this story as a boy, and several decades later I still found it a good read.

It was the only Super Sons story that was a good standalone tale without any plot holes or continuity glitches.

THE END OF THE SUPER SONS

The Original Knightfall (top) Original art to the splash from WFC #228 (Mar. 1975), courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions (www.ha.com). Note from the missing logo paste-ups that Dick Dillin had originally penciled logos for the World’s Finest heroes. (bottom) Another splash page with the World’s Finest Dads symbolically concerned about their Super Sons. From issue #233 (Oct. 1975).

TM & © DC Comics.

Issue #242 was the last adventure of the Super Sons, and it was also the last issue of World’s Finest Comics edited by Murray Boltinoff. The following issue, Denny O’Neil took over as editor, and not long after World’s Finest was converted to a Dollar Comic, as discussed on page 10.

I suspect that Denny was not a fan of the Super Sons, as in World’s Finest #263 (July 1980) he wrote the story which addressed their conflicts with DC continuity. “Final Secret of the Super-Sons,” illustrated by Rich Buckler and Dick Giordano, revealed that the Sons were merely a simulation on the super-computer in Superman’s Fortress of Solitude. However, on this occasion Superman and Batman leave the computer program running, which overloads the system and causes 3-D replicas of the sons to be formed by gases from the disintegration pit. The newly formed Super Sons fly into Metropolis and after performing several rescues, proudly announce they are the sons of Superman and Batman, causing a great deal of confusion, not least to Lois Lane. Unfortunately, due to their artificial composition, any structure the boys touch soon crumbles to dust. Superman and Batman take them back to the Fortress and explain the situation. When the boys can’t recall who their mothers are (as that was not programmed into the computer simulation) they realize the truth and jump back into disintegration pit, leaving Superman and Batman wondering what might have been.

While not a great story, it served a purpose in dealing with this huge continuity gaffe once and for all. Bob Rozakis, DC Comics’ legendary Answer Man, explains, “Denny’s story was a nod to the continuity fanatics who wanted everything to tie together, but it really didn’t matter in the grand scheme of things.” Which was true, of course, as 1985’s Crisis on Infinite Earths relegated this and all other Superman/Batman stories to the dustbin of continuity.

REVIVAL In the late 1990s, Bob Haney briefly came out of retirement and wrote a few nostalgic stories for DC. On of these was “Superman, Jr. is No More!”, which appeared in the extremely rare Elseworlds 80-Page Giant #1 in 1999. By this bob rozakis time, DC had introduced the concept of “Elseworlds,” which encompassed non-continuity stories, a perfect setting Luigi Novi / Wikimedia Commons. for the Super Sons.

In the story, Superman, Jr. had decided to quit the superhero game, due to being constantly overshadowed by his more powerful father. However, when Superman is killed while removing a cache of nuclear weapons from Earth, Clark, Jr. accepts his fate and returns to being a hero. After helping Batman, Jr. rescue a polar expedition party from an Arctic earthquake, Superman returns and announces that he faked his own death to help get his son’s confidence back.

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teenage daughter named Lyta Trevor. This was expanded upon a year later, when Infinity, Inc., by Roy Thomas and Jerry Ordway, introduced teenage offspring of Justice Society members Hawkman and Green Lantern. Hourman and Starman were also later shown to have teenage sons.

In retrospect, it’s hard to understand how a flawed concept like the Super Sons actually made it into publication.

According to Bob Rozakis, who was an assistant editor at DC in the 1970s, “Murray’s books sold well, so no one was going to tell him to stop doing the stories.” None of the other writers took the Super Sons characters seriously, and despite Haney’s insistence that they were on Earth-One, at DC LEGACY, OR LACK THEREOF… the general consensus was that they With a bit more thought, the Super were from the amorphous Earth-B, Sons could have gone on to become where most non-continuity stories major players in the DC Universe, from the typewriter of Bob Haney and instead of being embarrassing footnotes editorial desk of Murray Boltinoff were to it. Had they been made the sons of said to take place. the Earth-Two Batman and Superman, In 2007, DC released the trade they could easily have fit into continuity, paperback Superman/Batman: Saga with fathers who were the right age to kieron dwyer of the Super Sons, which collected have teenage sons. The generationall the Super Kieron Dwyer / Facebook. gap conflicts would have made more Sons stories. sense as the original Superman and Batman would be in Taken with a pinch of salt, their 50s and in semi-retirement. they read as Haney intended Unfortunately, Haney and Boltinoff didn’t seem to them—fun, entertaining “get” the concept of Earth-One and Earth-Two, which stories that may or may not was evident when Earth-Two characters like Wildcat and have happened. the Spectre teamed up with the Earth-One Batman in MIKE PIGOTT is a London-based the companion magazine The Brave and the Bold.

In 1977, Paul Levitz and Joe Staton introduced the freelance writer who specializes in Huntress, the daughter of the Earth-Two Batman and diecast toys and model vehicles.

Catwoman, who had obviously been born and raised His articles appear in every issue of off-panel. In Wonder Woman #300 (Feb. 1983), it was Diecast Collector Magazine and Diecast Model World. revealed that the Golden Age Wonder Woman had a The artist on this story was Kieron Dwyer, who had previously illustrated both Batman and Superman. I asked Kieron how it felt to draw one of the last-ever Bob Haney stories. “As a major fan of Haney’s work, especially having grown up on The Brave and the Bold with Jim Aparo, I was thrilled beyond belief to get to work on Haney’s script,” Dwyer explains. “It was fun story to do and I loved being able to draw the Super Sons. I have a sentimental place for all of the fun/goofy comics of the ’60s and early ’70s, and the Super Sons fall squarely in that category. Comics were fun back then, which is frequently lacking in the mainstream stories told today.”

Batman AND Superman Issue

Super Sons No More (left) WFC #263 (July 1980) explained away the Super Sons’ existence. (right) Detail from a page of the Bob Haneyscripted, Kieron Dwyer-illustrated Super Sons tale in 1999’s Elseworlds 80-Page Giant #1.

TM & © DC Comics.

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Great Caesar’s Ghost!

Some of the shenanigans the Daily Planet’s one-time cub reporter and intrepid go-getter got into toward the end of their series’ runs: a high-flying Ultra-Olsen in Jimmy Olsen #158 (cover by Nick Cardy) and a whopping marriage inducer in Lois Lane #131 (cover by Bob Oksner). Both issues are cover-dated June 1973.

TM & © DC Comics.

Jimmy’s came first. Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen debuted in late 1954 and Superman’s Girl Friend, Lois Lane eventually followed in early 1958. Both titles would last well into the 1970s! For this article, cartoonist Fred Hembeck comments, “The idea of Superman’s girlfriend and young pal having their own books seemed natural to me back in 1961, but as the years wore on, it became more and more obvious what a peculiar notion it really was!”

Love him or hate him, Weisinger was a hard act to AS SEEN ON TV follow. When “Uncle Mort” left DC in 1970, Superman While other superheroes retired en masse even at DC, kept flying right along, of course, but, by then, the longthe Man of Steel’s popularity (and sales) was no doubt time companion comics featuring his “pal” and his bolstered by his hit television series, The Adventures of “girlfriend” found the going a little bit tougher. The ante Superman. The meteoric rise of television had been yet had been upped in recent years and the comic-book another reason why many children had lost interest in fan was no longer content to settle for the status quo. comics, thus National’s attempts to cash in throughout For more than a decade, Jimmy’s stories consisted of the the decade with TV tie-ins such as Big Town, The egotistical, bowtied cub reporter turning into everything Adventures of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, Jackie Gleason from a werewolf to a Giant Turtle Man, getting in and the Honeymooners, and The New Adventures of trouble, and being rescued by Superman, who often Charlie Chan. Superman’s TV series was in the middle of tried to teach his pal a lesson. Similarly, Lois’ adventures mort weisinger its syndicated run in the mid-1950s when DC editor Mort had long since become less about her being an awardWeisinger came up with a perfectly logical suggestion. © DC Comics. winning reporter and more just romance stories of her The Jimmy Olsen and Lois Lane characters were very popular on the show. attempts to win Superman over her perpetual rival, Lana Lang. There were Why not his and her Superman tie-in series? In a 1975 interview with Guy variations, but it was a formula that worked, so why mess with success?

H. Lillian (quoted in Comic Book Creator and used here by permission), Weisinger himself later remembered, “The management protested that KIRBY IS COMING! the characters weren’t strong enough and the books would never go but But mess with it they did when sales slumped. Eager to leave the camp days I had a gut feeling … and I talked to kids.” Mort was right, of course. of the Batman TV series behind, DC swung almost too far to the opposite In the 1950s, with the comic-book industry crashing and burning all around them in the wake of the unprecedented public backlash against crime and horror comics, National Periodical Publications (now DC) just kept chugging blissfully along with a slate that included space opera, humor, Westerns, licensed television properties, and some of the very few superheroes left—Aquaman, Green Arrow, Wonder Woman, Batman, Robin … and, of course, Superman.

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Weisinger Winds Down Curt Swan/Murphy Anderson covers on early Bronze Age issues starring Superman’s pal and gal: Jimmy Olsen #127 (Mar. 1970) and Lois Lane #100 (Apr. 1970).

TM & © DC Comics.aa

direction, embracing “relevance,” the new buzzword in comics. Pollution, corrupt politicians, starving children, Women’s Liberation, and the plights of various minority groups had begun to pop up regularly in many DC titles from Metal Men to Wonder Woman, but our Daily Planet friends had just continued along on their merry way.

Weisinger’s last year of Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen found longtime artist Pete Costanza doing mainly the same types of zany stories that he’d been drawing for years by that point: Jimmy goes back in time to the American Revolution; Jimmy becomes an astronaut in the Apollo program; Jimmy tries to outsmart an evil Superman robot. Exceptions to this included a couple of issues of lovely Murphy Anderson art—including one story where Jimmy tries to replace Robin, the Boy Wonder (“Olsen, the Teen-Wonder,” in JO #130).

One issue that was very much a different thing for this title was Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen #127 (Mar. 1970). The era of relevance at DC is often marked by the debut of the Green Lantern/Green Arrow team in Green Lantern #76 (Apr. 1970), but this issue of Jimmy’s title featuring veteran DC writer Leo Dorfman’s indictment of slum conditions and slumlords was one of several DC “relevant” titles to predate GL/GA. In the story, Jimmy meets a young woman named Terry Dean, who gives him a guided tour of the run-down tenement house where she lives. Although simplistic, it was probably a little too close to reality for some young urban fans with its rats, cockroaches, and generally unlivable conditions.

Unlike other DC titles, though, relevance wouldn’t have a chance to take hold in Jimmy’s title. “The Great One” was coming.

The facts regarding Jack “King” Kirby’s switch from Marvel to DC in 1970 have been gone over endlessly in dozens of venues, but we’ll bypass them here because, if you were a kid then, all you likely knew was that the artist whose imagination shaped the Marvel Universe was now at DC and the sky looked to be the limit.

KIRBY IS HERE! With no up-to-the-minute comics news outlets available with spoilers, Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen #133 (Oct. 1970) (or “Superman’s Ex-Pal...” as the cover logo indicated) was a surprise package all around. The first surprise found observant longtime fans asking, “Why is there an Al Plastino Superman on a cover trumpeting, ‘Kirby is here!’ right up at the top?” Fans anxious to see the King’s version of the Man of Steel would soon learn to deal with disappointment.

Inside, we seem to start mid-story with our red-headed hero showing up out of uniform (no bowtie) at “an old slum garage,” where he meets the sons of the original 1940s Newsboy Legion co-created by Kirby with Joe Simon and a new and yet curiously outdated African-American caricature named Flipper Dipper (later Flippa Dippa). On the next couple of pages, we catch our first look at the Whiz Wagon, which will figure prominently in the Kirby run. Page four has the first mention of Morgan Edge, Jimmy’s “new boss.” Huh? What the heck happened to Perry White? Page five explains that Edge’s Galaxy Broadcasting has purchased The Daily Planet. Edge is presented right off the bat as a slimy character, and it’s on the very next page that we discover his ties with Intergang, another new addition to the mythos, as he attempts to have a nosy Clark Kent killed. We also find out that Edge funded the Whiz Wagon so Jimmy could investigate the Wild Area, said to be a “sanctuary for weird motorcycle groups.” The kids are soon attacked by one of those groups and rescued by another, called the Outsiders, which tags Jimmy as its new leader. Meanwhile, Plastino’s Superman, suspecting trouble, goes in search of the crew, running afoul of hippies and hunters on his way to the discovery of a tree city called Habitat. Once he finds Jimmy, the Newsboy Legion, and the Outsiders, they’re about to head off to discover the secret of the Mountain of Judgment, but Supes is bound and determined to stop them for their own good.

Wow! That’s a heck of a lot of brand-new stuff for one comic book and, like a Marvel, too much for just one, so it was continued the following issue, and then pretty much every issue after that to one extent or another.

Kirby’s Jimmy Olsen run was more than enough to make your head spin.

Vince Colletta’s inking was often very sketchy and the Clark, Superman, and even Jimmy Olsen faces (and sometimes figures) were redrawn by Plastino, and later Murphy Anderson, in order to keep the characters more on model. A later Lois Lane letters page tells us that this was at the request of Colletta himself. All well and good, but they were billing it as Kirby. And the writing! Say what you will 36 • BACK ISSUE • Batman AND Superman Issue

about the eternal Lee/Kirby debate, but when Kirby was let loose with his own dialogue here, it was … unusually and, at times, surreally unrealistic.

Although I’m not sure how Jimmy managed to keep his job at the Planet during this period, he certainly kept himself busy with the introduction of the alien demigod Darkseid, the Project, the Evil Factory, the DNAliens, the Golden jack kirby Guardian, Dubbilex, the adult Newsboys, a not-so-jolly green giant version of Jimmy himself, and a bunch of Jack’s patented photo collages. In fact, we’re all the way up to issue #138 (June 1971) before we even see the Daily Planet offices again. And when we do, Perry turns out to be noticeably redrawn by Anderson, too!

Fred Hembeck is on record as probably the biggest fan of the early, goofy Jimmy Olsen issues.

Fred tells BACK ISSUE, “Mort Weisinger’s Superman family titles are what eased me over from a strict diet of Harvey and Dell kiddie comics back in 1961 when I was eight. Naturally, Lois’ and Jimmy’s titles were included in that group. But by 1967, having grown a bit older and discovered Marvel Comics in the interim, the Weisinger books seemed silly and stale, so I bailed on ’em all.

Naturally, I followed Jack Kirby over to DC and started buying Jimmy Olsen again once he took it over. But, c’mon—all the redrawn faces by Murphy Anderson couldn’t disguise the fact that, aside from the logo, this new series of adventures featuring Superman’s red-headed pal had absolutely nothing in common with the stories I’d eagerly read just a few short years earlier.

No Lucy Lane, no Professor Potter, no disguise truck, no Elastic Lad. But, as Kirby said, ‘Don’t ask— just buy it!’ And I did! It was fun, but to me, it was a Kirby comic, not a Jimmy Olsen one. Not really.”

In the meantime, Kirby also debuted his New Gods trilogy, which showed how the alien dictator, Darkseid—by that point already tied to Morgan Edge—was behind a lot of things in his somewhat-vague quest for something called the Anti-Life Equation. All of this seemingly major continuity was completely and totally ignored by every other DC editor … for a while.

Even Olsen’s title took a short break from all the techno-cosmic self-importance, with its legendarily uncalled-for Don Rickles two-parter (bisected by a reprint Giant of much older cub-reporter stories of Jimmy).

Hippy, Trippy (left) Original cover art to Jack Kirby’s first issue of Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen, #133 (Oct. 1970). Inks by Vince Colletta, with Superman’s face redrawn, per house style, by Al Plastino. (right) From JO #134, in living color as the King produced it, one of Kirby’s photomontage pages featuring the Whiz Wagon’s wild and wooly ride. DC published this and subsequent photomontage pages in black and white, and they’ve been reprinted in B&W in trade paperbacks.

This page was first published in color

by TwoMorrows’ own The Jack Kirby Collector #59—a mag you should be reading if you aren’t. Both images are courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions (www.ha.com).

TM & © DC Comics.

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A Kirby Cover Denied From the Heritage archives, Kirby’s intended but unused cover for his SuperTown tale in JO #147.

Inks by Mike Royer. (inset) The published cover, by Neal Adams and Murphy Anderson.

TM & © DC Comics.

After that, beginning in issue #142 (Oct. 1971), Murphy Anderson’s Olsen and Clark/Superman encounter oldfashioned monsters of the type only then–recently allowed again under the revised Comics Code. In a typical Kirby twist, though, the vampires, werewolves, and such actually turn out to be miniature aliens. It’s with these issues that the title adds more pages and goes up to a quarter for a while, filling the back with reprints of the original Newsboy Legion and Guardian series from Star Spangled Comics.

KIRBY IS GOING! A couple of stories with Jimmy and the Newsboys fighting monsters in Scotland are up after that but, more importantly, West Coast inker Mike Royer replaces Vince Colletta, immediately giving the art a more modern look much closer to what Kirby was actually drawing than the latter’s typically softening inks. The high command at DC allowed Royer—a former assistant to Tarzan artist Russ Manning—to make any and all adjustments to Jack’s Jimmy and Superman faces at that point. When Colletta returned for Jack’s final issue, though, so did Murphy. The fans were divided on whether or not Mike

Royer was a good choice to ink Kirby, but he was Kirby’s choice and he would stay with him from then on at DC and rejoin him later when he returned to Marvel.

Jack’s swansong on the title was yet another two-parter starting in Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen #147 (Mar. 1972) with a story entitled “A Superman in Supertown.” It’s actually two stories in one as Jimmy and the Newsboys (with Gabby looking more and more like a pint-sized Richard Nixon) meet Angry Charlie and the Jules Verne-inspired Victor Volcanum, while the Man of Steel rides through one of Jack’s patented Boom Tubes for his first visit to New Genesis, the home planet of the New Gods.

The next issue, #148 (Apr. 1972), brings Superman back into Jimmy’s story for a rousing, action-filled finale that ends with the Whiz Wagon whizzing off to new adventures. With no Internet, the only hint the casual fan would have had that something would be different the following month was E. Nelson Bridwell’s initialed answer to the final letter in that month’s letters column which indicates that, “Jack feels he’s extended himself a bit too far, too. He’s fallen a bit behind in his schedule, so he’s turning this mag over to Joe Orlando with the next issue.”

And just like that, the King was gone, and with him nearly all traces of more than a year of bizarre, inventive, and exciting issues. The cover of Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen #149 (May 1972) has a snazzy new logo, but it makes no sense whatsoever. It shows an angry Jimmy—a turtleneck now replacing his traditional bowtie— stripping off Clark’s jacket and shirt and shouting, “This proves you’re the killer—Superman!”

What killer? Who’s been killed?

How does the stripping prove anything? And where are Clark’s glasses? It’s all explained inside, but I doubt that cover intrigued anyone enough to buy it. The most enticing thing on the cover, in fact, is the bottom right-hand corner image, indicating that we’ll now get Plastic Man reprints rather than the Newsboy Legion.

The other notable point is that the title logo no longer indicated “The New” Jimmy Olsen, as it had ever since Jack Kirby had arrived. Ironically, now that Kirby was gone, this was once again a new Jimmy Olsen.

And surprisingly, “The New” would return to the title logo for a couple of random issues further down the line.

Jose Delbo, a prolific but often uncredited artist for Dell and Gold Key, makes his Olsen debut, aided and abetted by the great Bob Oksner, for some solid if unspectacular inside art. Morgan Edge still owns Galaxy and Galaxy still owns the Planet, but there are no longer any secret phone calls to Intergang or Skypes from Apokolips.

We meet a cute, plucky, young reporter named Meg who turns up here and there throughout the remainder of the book’s run, although she never again gets as fleshed out as she is here in her first appearance. Meg’s scheming keeps this story interesting, but with reporters trying to one-up each other, Superman rescuing an airplane, and a generic mad scientist with a creepy assistant, one thing is quickly obvious—the old tropes are back.

I LOVE LUCY One thing we never see is Olsen’s reaction to the recent death in Lois’ title of Jimmy’s longtime girlfriend, Lucy.

It’s mentioned in passing on this issue’s letters page, but that’s it. It would be well over a year before Jimmy himself addressed it.

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After Kirby Editor Joe Orlando’s Jimmy Olsen debuted a new logo and Bob Oksner covers, but despite their fresher artistic interpretation the stories seemed familiar. Covers to issues #149 (May 1972) and 151 (July 1972).

TM & © DC Comics.

Although he appears prominently on the cover, Superman only shows up for three panels and the splash in issue #150 (June 1972).

Meg’s back, but without her personality from the previous issue. She has few lines and is just kind of … there. An unheralded seven-page Newsboy Legion story drawn by Win Mortimer and Henry Scarpelli shows up after the Jack Cole Plastic Man reprint as the very last appearance of those characters in the title. In fact, this was the last Plastic Man reprint as well, since this was the final 52-page issue.

After another old-fashioned plot with Meg captured by giant bug people who want her to be their queen, we unexpectedly get an issue that appears designed to clear up the dangling loose ends from the Kirby days.

Some particularly messy, rushed-looking art from the odd pairing of veterans Mike Sekowsky and Bob Oksner on a script credited to Steve Skeates and Bridwell brings back many of the Kirby concepts all at once including Darkseid, the Outsiders, and Morgan Edge’s villainy. Only here—in a story continued without attribution from plotlines in Superman’s Girl Friend, Lois Lane—we see that that Edge is not the real Edge at all but rather his clone. The clone doesn’t last the issue, leaving the real Morgan Edge now in charge of Galaxy and the Daily Planet from that point on so they wouldn’t ever have to worry about Kirby’s subplots again. In fact, Superman tells the real Edge to keep quiet about all the “mysterious forces that are still at large” so as not to upset the populace. In spite of these seeming efforts to bury Kirby’s Fourth World, in time its concepts would not only return to the DCU but would slowly become all-pervasive.

One disturbing but never to be mentioned again fact about this particular story’s ending is that when the final bad guy points a neutron gun at Jimmy, Superman intervenes and points it directly at the villain himself, allowing him to blast himself literally into a steaming pile of dust.

For all intents and purposes, Superman kills that guy, but no one seems to care. On the last page, the once-plucky Meg appears as a ditzy blonde (“tee hee”) being hit on by Percy Bratten, a mercifully short-lived Olsen rival who was said to be the son of the Planet’s biggest stockholder.

The same art team is back in the next issue with a gang war story between this comic’s Intergang and Lois Lane’s 100. The story runs only 15 pages and is backed up for some reason with what appears to be a couple of leftover tales from editor Joe Orlando’s mystery titles that are completely unrelated to the DC Universe. Orlando’s heart clearly just wasn’t in it. Speaking of Joe, after this issue, he, too, was gone, replaced by Murray Boltinoff for the remainder of the title’s run.

THE EARTH-B OLSEN Taking another step backward, Boltinoff’s first issue gives us two short stories—one in which Jimmy believes he’s become the ancient Viking, Olsen the Red, and another in which Jimmy is wooed by a self-absorbed lady billionaire. The script is by longtime Superman writer Leo Dorfman.

The smooth Kurt Schaffenberger art is quite a change from the last couple of issues and easily reminds longtime readers of the classic Silver Age Superman era since the artist was for many years the definitive illustrator of Lois Lane stories. Vince Colletta even returns from the early Kirby issues.

All the same creators are back for the following issue, which introduces Jimmy’s new nickname, Mr. Action! As Morgan Edge describes Jimmy’s new role, he’s to be “a hard-hitting reporter who speaks up for the public, exposing neglect and wrongdoing, and gets things done.” Terry Dean returns from the slum issue and the Kirby issues, still wearing the same outfit.

“A Coffin for Mr. Action” is the issue’s second story, showing that Jimmy will continue in that role, described here as “…the newshawk who will take any risk, dare any danger, to get the story behind the story!”

But Mr. Action is nowhere to be seen in the main story of issue #157 (Mar. 1973), where Jimmy is zapped by a special jewel and seemingly hallucinates being explorer Marco Polo. Bizarrely, in the end, the story leaves Jimmy and the reader hanging as to whether that or his modern-day reporter role was reality. The last panel asks, “Were all Jimmy’s years of exciting adventures just a dream?

Was his long friendship with Superman an illusion? For more of this weird psycho-drama, watch our upcoming issues!” Yikes! Needless and pointless.

It was followed up on, though, in issue #159 (Aug. 1973), in which our red-headed hero becomes a Roman gladiator due to the same jewel from before, and then yet again in issue #163 (Feb.–Mar. 1974), where the original Marco Polo tale is finally revisited and continued.

The legally required Statement of Ownership, Management, and Circulation in this issue indicates that out of nearly 500,000 copies printed, the title was currently actually selling less than half of that. Astute fans noting that could guess the reason for the floundering on concepts—trying to see if anything would bring sales back up.

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The End for Jimmy Courtesy of Heritage, original Nick Cardy art to Jimmy Olsen’s last issue, #163 (Feb.–Mar. 1974). (Can someone tell us why Nick drew Clark Kent’s glasses on Jimmy’s table?) Following this, the magazine’s numbering continued with The Superman Family, the 100-Page Super Spectacular home of Jimmy, Lois, and Supergirl.

TM & © DC Comics.

who had appeared briefly by name a few times in the post-Kirby issues.

Interesting to note that neither Clark, Superman, nor any of the other regulars appear, even in cameo. At story’s end, Corrigan is made a plainclothes detective and Mr. Action an honorary member of the department.

Two months later, when the next issue should have appeared, instead readers saw the debut of The Superman Family, a 60-cent, 100-page title consolidating new and reprinted stories of Jimmy, Lois, and Supergirl as well as the rest of the supporting cast of the Superman mythos [see BI #62 and 81 for more Superman Family info—ed.].

The cover even says “Jimmy Olsen Presents” and the numbering continued on from Jimmy’s title with #164 (May–June 1974). Jimmy’s new stories were more of the same, with Leo Dorfman and Kurt Schaffenberger continuing with fairly lackluster tales of Mr. Action, most likely left over from what appears to have been a fairly sudden cancellation of Jimmy’s own comic book.

Lois Lane’s stories in The Superman Family were nothing to write home about, either, continuing, also, the less-than-thrilling run that preceded them.

LOIS IN TRANSITION

JIMMY’S LAST DAYS In the remaining issues, Jimmy starts letting his hair creep over his ears to a slightly more fashionable length and he begins wearing distinctly ’70s outfits, possibly traced from fashion ads or catalogs of the day.

Along with the return of his explorer father and Mr. Action going undercover in full female drag, we also meet one Lena Lawrence, a sweet, lonely, little old lady with a collection of formerly stray dogs … and a secret shrine to a certain reporter in her home. Lena becomes the focal point of four stories, with Superman guessing long before his pal that she is actually the “late” Lucy Lane. Apparently having reconsidered killing her off, the powers-that-be at DC brought her back and eventually had her rejuvenated (but for lingering silver hair), only to have her break up with our always-somewhat-shallow young hero by the end of the story.

Killing Lucy in the first place had been the idea of superfan Irene Vartanoff, whose letters had dominated ’60s letters pages at DC. Irene tells BI, “I think it was more that DC was trying to shake up and reinvigorate every old line of comics it could.” She adds that she felt in retrospect that it had been “…shortsighted of me to want to kill a longtime character, of course.”

Issue #162 (Dec. 1973–Jan. 1974) sees the return of arch-villain Lex Luthor to Jimmy’s book for the first time in quite a number of years, shown here in his mad scientist mode, ignoring all that occurred in the Kirby continuity regarding cloning. His new Olsen clones for some reason seem to mean much more to Jimmy than all those previous clones had.

The last issue of Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen, #163 (Feb.–Mar. 1974), gives no indication that it’s the last issue, with the first story— the Marco Polo follow-up—telling readers to watch future issues of the title for more.

The final story, “The Rip-Off on Pier 13,” is a short, six-page team-up between Jimmy and Officer Corrigan, an African-American policeman 40 • BACK ISSUE • Batman AND Superman Issue

Back in Mort Weisinger’s final issues of Superman’s Girl Friend, Lois Lane in early 1970, Lois was still dreaming and scheming to marry Superman, but apparently willing to marry just about any hot guy such as a devil-like alien from the planet Nferino. She also accidentally seemingly kills her rival, Lana Lang, and she, herself, is accidentally seemingly killed by Superman.

Issue #100 (Apr. 1970), a milestone usually celebrated in comics, is left to pass with no special celebration story other than a 1957 reprint and not even a mention of the event on its cover. Inside, at least, there is a fun two-page text feature offering highlights from the title. The late E. Nelson Bridwell, known as a walking encyclopedia of comics knowledge, was most likely its author.

In fact, with Mort Weisinger’s sudden “retirement,” it was his longtime assistant, Bridwell, the former fan-turned-pro, who replaced him as editor on the title. Bridwell made an effort to bring Superman’s Girl Friend, Lois Lane in line with the rest of the DC Universe, too, by making some immediate changes, going for the “real,” and attempting to de-emphasize Superman, at least a little bit. We hit the ground running when we meet the Thorn on the splash page of Superman’s Girl Friend, Lois Lane #105 (Oct. 1970), and by the time we get to the end of that story, we see that the letters page, long titled “Letters to Lois and Lana,” is now newly christened “Letters to Lois and Rose.” After that is the first of Robert Kanigher’s gritty crime shorts featuring the schizophrenic Rose/Thorn, a character who would inhabit the book’s back pages (as well as occasionally crossing over into the main feature) for over two years. Despite some good art from Gray Morrow, Dick Giordano, Don Heck, and the Ross Andru/Mike Esposito team, the often “heavier” Rose and Thorn series just never seemed to be a good fit for the title.

The Thorn meanders in and out of the issue’s main story where Lois is at long last wed—only it’s to convicted Death Row murderer Johnny Adonis. It’s a hastily arranged affair that our heroine goes through with because Adonis—who, lying, protests his innocence—once saved her from drowning. Probably not the best of reasons. Soon enough, though, he participates in an escape from the Big House and is shot and killed for his trouble, dying in Lois’ arms and yet, in the way of comics continuity, never mentioned again.

Is Love Color Blind?

Lois became an African American in Bob Kanigher’s gutsy “I Am Curious (Black)!” in Lois Lane #106 (Nov. 1970). (top left) Its Swanderson cover. (top center) Kanigher pushes the envelope even further on the splash page; art by Werner Roth and Vinnie Colletta. (top right) Wonder if anyone told the suits at DC that Kanigher’s title was borrowed from an X-rated film? (bottom) Another “relevant” story, with the intrepid reporter caring for a Native-American infant. Lois Lane #110 (May 1971) cover by Dick Giordano.

TM & © DC Comics. I Am Curious (Yellow) © Sandrews.

A CURIOUS TALE With the rise of the Internet, even many a casual observer knows the issue that followed. Superman’s Girl Friend, Lois Lane #106 (Nov. 1970) features the infamous “I Am Curious (Black)!”

The title oddly spoofs a Swedish adult film of that era, I Am Curious (Yellow), but the storyline throws in a sci-fi touch to parallel that of the controversial Black Like Me, a 1961 book in which author John Howard Griffin went undercover in blackface to experience racial inequality on a firsthand basis.

Although often ridiculed, the story of Lois’ excursions into Metropolis’ “Little Africa” is a well-intentioned attempt to showcase what was—and is—very much a real-world issue that was then being hammered daily at youthful readers from television, movies, and newspapers. Robert Kanigher had long since proven a master at this type of emotional button-pushing story in his collaborations with Joe Kubert on DC’s war titles. Veteran artists Werner Roth and Vince Colletta here become the new regular team on the book, and they make quite a good match for each other.

The following two issues are more of a return to the old style, with Lois romanced by a hippie-type sculptor and the ghost of Jack the Ripper. Kanigher handled the first and featured a character named after his editor, Bridwell, along with Batman AND Superman Issue

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Fourth World Friends and Fiends Kirby’s Fourth World characters such as (left) the Black Racer and (right) Darkseid, Desaad, and Morgan Edge were occasionally seen in Lois Lane.

From (left) issue #115 and (right) 116.

TM & © DC Comics.

a half-hearted attempt at tying in with the mysterious new Superman weakness that Julie Schwartz was instituting in his Super-titles. Cary Bates, another fan-turned-pro, wrote the ghost story.

With the issue after that, a few things start to change, perhaps most recognizably the fact that with Colletta’s arrival as inker, the Superman and Clark Kent faces throughout are now being redrawn by Murphy Anderson, just as in the Jimmy Olsen issues he did.

More significantly, this issue sees the series’ status quo change when our gal’s best friend and perpetual rival, Lana Lang, is written out at the end, her TV reporter character being sent off to Europe by Galaxy Broadcasting boss Morgan Edge.

Another of Kanigher’s simplistic and heavy-handed morality tales is up next in issue #110 (May 1971), as Lois gets deeply involved in the plight of the American Indian and ends up becoming foster mother to a Native-American baby called Little Moon. The villains are construction workers—then a cliché representing intolerant right-wing conservatism—and at the story’s climax, Lois drives off a bridge into a river, something that actually happened fairly frequently in her comic.

Looking back, one can see that this story, too, was all very well meaning, and I’m sure it did help to raise young readers’ awareness of at least some of these very complex real-world issues.

42 • BACK ISSUE • Batman AND Superman Issue

RECALLING THE FOURTH WORLD Superman’s Girl Friend, Lois Lane #111 (July 1971), with Lois attacked by tiny, belligerent versions of Justice League members (with Hawkman—like Superman—redrawn by Murphy Anderson), is the first of several issues of the run from this period that attempt to integrate parts of Jack Kirby’s Fourth World concepts. In this case, it’s the mysterious Project, creator of the DNAliens, which acts here as deus ex machina to save the day with tiny Lois clones and doctored lipstick.

The following issue, #112 (Aug. 1971), features Murphy Anderson’s Superman prominently in a story that seems to be a combination of Day of the Triffids, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, and Little Shop of Horrors, as sentient plants try to take over the world. It’s also the first larger-sized 25-cent issue and so features not only the Thorn backup (with striking Gray Morrow art) but also a classic Lois reprint from the ’60s.

Nothing but reprints made up the following issue, one of the annual Giant collections of same, now 35 cents since the regular books were themselves 25 cents.

With the advent of the Internet, everyone knows about “I Am Curious (Black),” but few recall the sequel story published a year later in issue #114 of Lois’ book (Sept. 1971). Lois, the Thorn, the 100, more hardhats, and black activists all figure in this story with Morgan Edge (here still the evil clone) manipulating things to avoid getting his Intergang involved. It’s a well-done piece by Kanigher with some actual black history thrown in, some good scenes with Murphyman, and Dave Stevens, the male protagonist of both stories, getting hired on as a reporter by Perry White at the end.

Kirby’s Black Racer character from New Gods— a disabled man whose spirit dons a colorful suit of armor and then flies around on skis as the personification of death—is one of his most outlandish creations.

As Bridwell continued to be the only person at DC who seemed to recognize the staying power of what Jack was doing, the Black Racer appeared in issue #115 (Oct. 1971), where he collects several “victims” before seemingly coming for Lois.

Darkseid himself cameos the next month in issue #116 (Nov. 1971), as his sadistic minion, Desaad, kidnaps Lois, and we see the first indications that there are two Morgan Edges. More foreshadowing would follow.

Dave Stevens appears again, too, following up on his war with the 100. Some particularly good Roth/Colletta (and Anderson) art on this one.

When one letter writer blamed Kanigher for excessive use of the Kirby characters, he begged off, placing the blame squarely on Bridwell. Nelson responded, “The fact is that, as I proofread the Kirby books and prepare them for publication, I was the only editor who was up on the latest from Jarring Jack. So if you want to blame anyone for trying to emulate Kirby, I plead guilty.”

Issue #117 (Dec. 1971) was a one-off time-travel story in which Lois and Superman travel to the future to answer an SOS. But, ah, issue #118 (Jan. 1972)! Even though not

by Jack Kirby, it is an integral piece of his Fourth World puzzle whether Jack intended it to go that way or not … and I have my doubts that he did. I think Kirby meant for there to be only one Morgan Edge, a ruthless Trump-like businessman who took over the Daily Planet, split up the reporters, and was secretly controlling Intergang whilst actually in the service of Darkseid.

I’m sure DC editorial folks thought that it made sense to turn that around and create a kinder, gentler, or at least less-evil Morgan Edge since that character was already too rooted in the whole Superman line to easily lose. So here, we have the real Edge escape from the captivity where recent issues have shown him. In flashback, we learn the whole backstory of the clone and where the real Edge has been. However, Lois and Superman are tricked into not believing his explanation. At the end of the issue, though, he escapes again.

Next up is another important issue in which we meet Lois’ sister Lucy’s new suitor, an Argentine playboy named Miguel Delbroma. Kanigher describes Lucy Lane thusly: “Lois Lane’s reckless sister, Lucy, is a human time bomb. Lois never knows what madcap escapade will shatter her life.” Prior to this, Lucy has had actually little personality at all, despite her many, mostly minor, appearances as a stewardess in both the Lois and Jimmy titles over the years. There’s also more about the real Morgan Edge and how he hooks up with the motorcycle gang, the Outsiders, to be finally revealed months later—as we’ve already seen—in Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen #152 (Aug.–Sept. 1972). Superman apologizes to him in that issue for not having believed his story in the first place. No word on Lois’ reaction to the news.

The issue ends with Lois wondering that even after all her years around when she will see her sister again. The Superman via Jimmy and Lois, she most important thing about this issue, really was working for the bad guys, though, is that it contains a letter … irene vartanoff just for the thrills! That’s all glossed ahem … from 13-year-old ME! over in passing, however, and never The following issue, #120 (Mar. mentioned again.

1972), begins abruptly with Lois in South America, where Lucy Lane has been reported as dead. Young ENTER: DOROTHY WOOLFOLK writer Cary Bates has taken over as scripter. As noted Bates stayed on as scripter after that but Bridwell was earlier, Irene Vartanoff is credited with the plot. Irene says now gone, replaced by Dorothy Woolfolk, an industry today, “The story was my idea, and I wrote a complete veteran and most recently then an editor for DC’s script. When some changes were needed to be made— romance comics. But don’t let that fool you. She had a and I do not recall now what they were—I simply couldn’t reputation for being tough. Artist Alan Kupperberg had do them. I was still a beginning writer and it’s often described her over the years as “the Auntie Mame of difficult for beginners to change a major element of comics.” In an online article he wrote about her, the concept when an editor wants it. So they went Kupperberg wrote, “In the face of the same smugness ahead and used my idea, and maybe some of my script that allowed Marvel to overtake DC in a romp in those (I do not remember), and Cary rewrote the rest and days, Dorothy Woolfolk more than held her own and got script credit.” The playboy from the previous issue had fun while she did it.” turned out to be a sleaze, but the issue leaves us wondering Woolfolk’s first take on Lois wasn’t much fun, if Lucy was, in fact, an espionage agent for the 100. though, continuing as it did from the previous issue When we do meet her again in Jimmy’s book, aged which had ended with Lois moping around in South beyond her years as already discussed, we find out America. In a multi-page recap, we learn that she’s Batman AND Superman Issue

South of the Border Fan-turned-pro Irene Vartanoff’s story became the basis of Cary Bates’ script for the Lois adventure in Lois Lane #120 (Mar. 1972). Cover

by Bob Oksner.

TM & © DC Comics.

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Lois Undercover Ms. Lane as a little old lady. Original art page (courtesy of Heritage) from Lois Lane #121’s (Apr. 1972) “Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Lois Lane (But Were Afraid to Ask).”

Script by Bates, art by Roth and Colletta.

TM & © DC Comics.

cover appearance with Lois belies the fact that she literally only cameos in the Lois story.

Ms. Woolfolk had custody of Superman’s Girl Friend, Lois Lane for seven issues, during which time, technically, Lois wasn’t his girlfriend, although he continued to appear since the character sold books. Going straight for the feminism angle, the new editor has her sexist ex tell her not once but twice that going after the 100 is “a man’s job.” But she and the Thorn do so anyway, with the help of Julie, and appear to eliminate them by the end … err … with Superman’s help.

Woolfolk’s other big addition to the mag came in the form of smooth new artist John Rosenberger, who’s even allowed to not have Superman’s faces re-inked, at least for a few issues. Best known for his work on been missing ever since, then we see romance comics and the early ’60s her back home, befriended by a black Radio (Archie) Comics, Adventures of woman named Julie who gets the the Jaguar and Adventures of the Fly, reporter’s nose for a mystery going.

Rosenberger’s art would be the best Lois finally shows up at the Planet thing about Lois’ series from that dorothy woolfork (in cool, thigh-high boots) just long point on, illustrating Cary Bates’ enough to resign, then breaks up Caricature by Alan Kupperberg. throwback stories of Lois as a jungle R.I.P., Alan. We miss you! with Superman (who actually has queen, an astronaut, but most of all, more Murphy faces here than usual) before going a reporter again—and a beautiful one, at that! The artist undercover as a sweet, little old lady to solve a mystery always worked as a team with his wife, the uncredited of disappearing seniors. Even though she still depends Peggy Rosenberger, doing layouts, backgrounds, on Superman to save the day in the end, all is not details, and filling in blacks. returned to status quo. Lois has a new apartment, she’s working freelance for the Planet, Julie moves in LAST LEGS with her, and they take in two other roommates as It’s clear that Dorothy really made an effort to give the well—Kristen, a mysterious young woman who keeps title a specific identity, what with adding the feminist to herself, and Marsha Mallow (yes, seriously), a chubby, slant and a strong attempt at maintaining continuity— red-haired reincarnation of Wonder Woman’s Etta Candy. something long lacking from the DC Super-titles.

“Three groovy roommates,” as a contemporary house The roomies were played up and given regular bits ad described the trio. We also see that Lois has moved and the plots were all entertaining. Nevertheless, by near Rose Forrest—the Thorn. The Thorn’s prominent year’s end, Dorothy Woolfolk was gone, replaced by

44 • BACK ISSUE • Batman AND Superman Issue

the book’s former writer—and the Thorn’s creator—Robert Kanigher. Not a fan of Woolfolk, Kanigher infamously “killed off” Dorothy by proxy in Wonder Woman #204 (Jan. 1973).

Right off the bat in Superman’s Girl Friend, Lois Lane #128 (Dec. 1972) we get a Kanigher story showing that Superman and Lois are back together and, in fact, getting married. Only Lois is a robot and the real Lois is invisible to all. We still have the roomies and we still have Rosenberger, but Lois herself spends the story being protected by Superman rather than taking an active part.

Things have changed. The letters page indicates that Kanigher would be returning the Thorn to her vendetta against the 100, even though they were supposedly defeated, and that he wanted to know if the roommates should stay or go.

Maxine Fabe, a book author, shows up to script the next one, in which Lois, Marsha, Julie, and Kristen get involved with a cult leader. A later letters page response from Kanigher seems to show him washing his hands of it as he writes, “Both the writer of, and the editor who bought, ‘Serpent in Paradise,’ are no longer in Eden.”

Writer Cary Bates returns after that (along with a new Lois Lane logo) with a so-so suspense story where Superman once again saves the day. Issue #131 (June 1973) has a cover that wrongly depicts the interior story of an invisible boy from the future as being about a giant but visible boy. We also meet WGBS reporter Melba Manton, yet another prominent African-American character. She’ll be in the background for a while and even get a couple of backup stories all her own, one in the following issue, and one in Supergirl.

Overall, though, Kanigher’s run seemed to be coasting. In spite of some entertaining tales with Wonder Woman, a story set in Superman’s Fortress of Solitude, and Superman himself acting as a computer-dating service for Lois, we’re back to every issue ending up where we started and no actual continuity at all. The roommates are gone, with no closure—they’re simply never mentioned again— and even RK’s pet Thorn just sort of stopped with no warning.

There’s even a stray solo story of Zatanna the Magician by Bates, Art Saaf, and Colletta in one issue, possibly placed there simply because she’s another female character.

Lois’ title outlasted Jimmy’s, but the final issue of Superman’s Girl Friend, Lois Lane, #137 (Sept.–Oct. 1974), offered up a beautifully drawn but preachy tale of a runaway train and alien dinosaurs and a second story of seniors in slums dealing with urban terrorists.

New writer J. David Warner has lines like, “So long, chick!” and “You’re a groovy gaucho.” To end the series in a traditional manner, Superman shows up in the final two pages to not only capture the bad guys but to rebuild the old couple’s tenement into “beautiful garden apartments” so they could live happily ever after.

Lois Lane, like Jimmy Olsen before her, would continue having new adventures mixed with reprints in Superman Family. Her finest hour was still to come in a very adult two-issue miniseries by Mindy Newell and Gray Morrow in 1986. And her dreams would finally come true when she actually married Superman in post-Crisis continuity, but that is most definitely another story.

The End of the Line (top) This 3-pack of DC titles included LL #127 (Oct. 1972), with Bob Oksner’s suggestive Jaws cover. (bottom) Oksner also drew the title’s last cover, for issue #137 (Sept.–Oct. 1974).

Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen—two characters that by all rights should never have been able to carry their own comic books. But with a little help from you-know-who, they did so quite successfully for about two decades, with both titles being fondly remembered, nostalgically fun, and, even into the Bronze Age, good—if wildly inconsistent—reads.

STEVEN THOMPSON is Booksteve of Booksteve’s Library (http://booksteveslibrary.blogspot.com) and a dozen other blogs. He has written for Fantagraphics, TwoMorrows, Yoe Books, Bear Manor Media, and Time Capsule Productions. In 2015, he published Lost Girl in collaboration with Land of the Lost star Kathy Coleman.

TM & © DC Comics.

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TM & © DC Comics.

In the Silver Age of Comics, when Superman and Batman were “Your Two Favorite Heroes” co-headlining World’s Finest Comics, their respective supporting casts would frequently cross over in that magazine.

You never knew when their villains would pop up (Lex Luthor, Clayface, Brainiac), team up (Luthor and the Joker, Brainiac and Clayface), or crack us up (the Joker becoming an honorary Bizarro, or Mr. Mxyzptlk and Bat-Mite turning Superman and Batman into has-beens). Robin, the Boy Wonder and Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen would occasionally join forces (Jimmy even knew the Dynamic Duo’s secret identities).

And on one occasion, Commissioner Gordon and Perry White were allowed joint access to Superman’s Fortress of Solitude! This shared Bat/Super-universe wasn’t limited to World’s Finest: Robin traveled into the past to meet Superboy in Adventure Comics (in a tale that has been frequently reprinted), Batman was seen in issues of Action Comics and Jimmy Olsen, and Catwoman and Superman’s Girl Friend went at it in the pages of Lois Lane. While such shenanigans were generally relegated to the titles in the stable of Superman editor Mort Weisinger, Luthor (see inset) was the secret menace behind “The Hand from Nowhere!” in editor Jack Schiff’s Batman #130 (Mar. 1960).

Once the Bronze Age began in 1970, Superman editor Weisinger retired and the blended Batman/ Superman universe began to splinter. In the pages of Batman, which had been edited by Julius Schwartz since 1964, Robin—now the Teen Wonder—had recently left Gotham City for Hudson University, also vacating his hanger-on role in World’s Finest. Batman temporarily detoured from World’s Finest to allow Superman to pair off with other heroes. Superman’s pals and gals (Jimmy Olsen, Lois Lane, and Supergirl) were blended into a single title (Superman Family), rotating the lead spot, and with fewer solo stories being produced they rarely interfaced with members of Batman’s family. The worlds of Batman and Superman slowly grew apart, and, by extension, so did their supporting casts.

Yet upon several occasions throughout the Bronze Age, members of Batman’s and Superman’s families managed to meet.

Man of Tomorrow and Teen Wonder It was Robin, not Batman, who teamed with Superman in the anniversary issue World’s Finest Comics #200 (Feb. 1971).

TM & © DC Comics.

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by

Michael Eury

Relevance Meets Sci-Fi WFC #200’s Superman/Robin pairing, written by Mike Friedrich, shifted settings from a college campus protest to an otherworldly environment. Art by Dillin and Giella.

TM & © DC Comics.

SUPERMAN AND ROBIN Theirs was a relationship forged for decades in World’s Finest Comics stories, where readers felt reassured that—Heaven forbid!—should anything ever happen to Batman, Superman would always keep an eye on young Robin as a watchful “uncle.” And so, during World’s Finest’s short-lived stint as “Superman’s Brave and Bold,” where longtime WFC co-star Batman stepped aside to allow the Metropolis Marvel the chance to join forces with other DC heroes, regular readers weren’t surprised to see Superman’s erstwhile junior co-star team with the Man of Tomorrow—sans Batman—in WFC #200 (Feb. 1971). (Batman’s “voice” was heard in this bicentennial issue, however, via the “200 Issues of the World’s Finest Comics!” text feature, scripted by E. Nelson Bridwell, where the Caped Crusader, Superman, and Robin reminisced about the title’s history.)

At the onset, “Prisoners of the Immortal World!”, written by Mike Friedrich and illustrated by WFC’s then-resident art team of Dick Dillin and Joe Giella, is a “relevance” story so in vogue at DC during the early 1970s. WGBS-TV newsman Clark Kent is reporting live from Hudson University (where Dick Grayson is attending college), “the scene of many flare-ups, as students reflect the boiling temper of a war-torn nation…” Robin, the Teen Wonder is there as a peacekeeper, but by the opening page’s last panel there’s nothing peaceful about this tale as the campus’ ROTC building is fire-bombed. Clark switches to Superman to hold off an angry exchange between National Guard troops and rioting students—a scene inspired by the infamous Kent State University massacre of May 1970—while Robin intercedes between two brothers bucking heads in a hawk-and-dove argument about America’s involvement in the Vietnam War. Friedrich shifts gears from relevance to science fiction on page 4, as Superman, Robin, and the quarreling siblings are inexplicably teleported to Superman and Robin teamed up again ten years another world by cantaloupe-hued aliens who trap later in DC Comics Presents #31 (Mar. 1981) in a circusSuperman and siphon his super-energy to revitalize based story titled “The Deadliest Show on Earth!”, by their race, a premise advertised on the comic’s dynamic scribe Gerry Conway, penciler José Luis García-López, Neal Adams-drawn cover. Meanwhile, Robin and the and inker Dick Giordano. Despite its publication brothers are left alone to fend for themselves on in the Superman team-up title, this is essentially a a world fraught with unknown dangers, with an Robin story guest-starring Superman—not surprising annoyed Robin mediating their arguments while mike friedrich given its big-top location and Dick (Robin) Grayson’s trying to keep everyone alive. Was this abrupt shift backstory as a circus aerialist. The Sterling Circus has from relevance to sci-fi the writer’s idea or the Photo credit: Alan Light. suggestion of editor Julius Schwartz, who was known for his affinity pitched its tents outside of Gotham City, and Grayson, visiting the for science fiction and for playing a sometimes-dominant role in the show with a date, gets suspicious when an old acquaintance, Waldo the plotting of his writers’ stories? “I’m afraid you’ve hit a dry well in the Clown, fails to recognize him. He later investigates as Robin and memory aquifer,” Mike Friedrich tells BACK ISSUE. “Even after re-reading discovers a “circus of mind-slaves” manipulated by a “disembodied World’s Finest #200 I’m afraid I remember nothing about it. I suspect voice”—and finds Superman himself under the thrall of this mystery that the abrupt plot changes were probably my responsibility, but also ringmaster, forced to play the role of strongman! Ultimately, by a story it’s possible that editor Julie Schwartz made a suggestion or two that I device I won’t reveal here, the two break free of the mind control (as you’d expect) and join forces to apprehend the controller and liberate incorporated, but what they might have been I don’t recall.”

The issue’s co-stars are separated for most of the story, so there’s his minions. While this type of menace may seem beneath the Man of little interaction between Superman and Robin, although the Teen Tomorrow’s powers, the story is briskly paced and beautifully rendered, Wonder manages to provide the Man of Steel with a much-needed and Superman and Robin smoothly perform together as a team, helping hand. “The relationship between Superman and Robin in with neither upstaging the other.

The circus once again provides the opening stage for the next the story appears to be distant and professional, not really taking into account the difference in their ages,” notes writer Friedrich. Superman/Robin encounter—this time with the Elongated Man added for “Today I’d say the obvious opportunity would have been to play a good stretch—in the form of “The Deadly Touch of the Intangibles!” by them as kinda professional uncle and nephew (as distinct from Mike W. Barr, Curt Swan, and Dave Hunt, which appeared in DC Comics Batman’s role as mentor and stepfather), but since I didn’t have an Presents #58 (June 1983). WGBS reporter Clark Kent is covering a big-top fundraiser featuring the athletic showmanship of Robin, the Teen Wonder uncle like that, it didn’t occur to me.”

Nonetheless, WFC #200 should be appreciated as a tightly plotted and the Ductile Detective, the Elongated Man. Once the performance is sci-fi thriller and as an early spotlight for Robin outside of the shadow disrupted by a trio of phantom troublemakers, the Intangibles, Kent joins the action as Superman—and when the Intangibles shimmer away, this of Batman (or the Teen Titans, for that matter).

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Together Again … and Again (left) Excerpt from the Conway/ García-López Superman/Robin chiller in DC Comics Presents #35 (June 1983). (right) Gil Kane’s cover to the three-way team-up in DCCP #58 (June 1983).

TM & © DC Comics.

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In concluding this article’s Superman/Robin section, mention must be made of a trio of tales that occurred in the mid-1980s, just prior to the landmark maxiseries Crisis on Infinite Earths. By the time of the publication of Tales of the Teen Titans #44 (July 1984), Dick Grayson had matured into a young adult and had forsaken his Robin role—and his status as the Batman’s junior partner. Mulling over his new identity as he is about to don his new, blue-and-yellow George Pérez-designed uniform for the first time, Dick reflects, in a wonderfully written passage

by Marv Wolfman, how not only his mentor Batman but also Superman positively imprinted his life. Of Superman he thinks, “I grew up in your shadow, too. You taught me honor, selflessness, and the true meaning of the word ‘hero’!”—then furthers his salute to his Kryptonian “uncle” by adopting the crimefighting name used by Superman on his adventures inside the Bottle City of Kandor—Nightwing.

By that point Grayson’s successor as Robin, Jason Todd, had already been working by Batman’s side. The new Robin, the Boy Wonder had his first encounter with Superman during a cameo appearance in Action Comics #556 (June 1984), at which time Jason is utterly starstruck by the “Big Enchilada” (below), scoring bragging rights that Superman actually spoke to him. Another significant pre-Crisis Superman/ Robin meeting was within the celebrated “For the Man Who Has Everything…”, the Alan Moore/Dave Gibbons classic from 1985’s Superman Annual #9. In the unlikely case that you’ve never read this epic, I won’t reveal the details but will emphasize that Robin’s intervention in this tale is crucial to Superman’s wellbeing.

TM & © DC Comics.

terrific trio has a mystery to solve! The Intangibles’ use of special-effects tech leads the heroes to Hollywood, the villains’ home, where the fade-away fiends are on a crime wave stealing movie memorabilia and valuables.

So, how did this “triple-threat” team-up originate? “I’m a little uncertain as to how this one came about,” Mike W. Barr reflects. “I seem to remember Julie [Schwartz] asking for a Superman/Robin team-up, and my talking him into adding the Elongated Man, since both E.M. and Robin have circus backgrounds. And the Elongated Man is like chocolate, he makes everything better.”

Barr’s villains certainly were inspired from an outside source: “I had originally christened the villains—who could not be touched— the Untouchables; they were, of course, 1930s gangster-themed,” Barr reveals. “Julie, for reasons never explained, hated this, so we gave them sci-fi costumes and named them the Intangibles. When I later used them in the ‘Looker’ backup in The Outsiders #2 and 3 (Dec. 1985 and Jan. 1986), I restored the name and theme (though the Grand Comics Database mistakenly claims the story in Outsiders #2 is their introduction, their entry on DC Comics Presents #58 confirms they are ‘later the Untouchables’). They also appeared in Hawk & Dove #4 (Sept. 1989), written there by my pals Barbara and Karl Kesel, and in the ‘Geo-Force’ solo stories in Showcase ’93 #4 and 5.”

One of the thrills of this issue of DCCP was its artwork by THE Superman artist, Curt Swan, who also so ably illustrated numerous Superman/Batman/Robin tales in World’s Finest. “When Curt Swan’s pencils came in, I was oohing and ahhing over them in Julie’s office,” Barr recalls. “In those days you weren’t a real comic-book writer until you’d written Superman for Curt Swan. Julie asked me if I would please give Curt a call to tell him how much I liked the job. Curt had, incredibly, on seeing the work of some of the younger hotshots, become uncertain of his talents and place in the business. To my praise, Curt responded: ‘Them’s sweet words, Mike!’

“I got paid, too!”

Regarding the long-standing relationship between Superman and Robin, “In retrospect I didn’t exploit this factor as thoroughly as I could have (if at all),” Barr says. “It would have been funny to have Superman and Robin grinning in agreement as one of them made an affectionate but true joke about Batman’s intensity. Otherwise I saw them as colleagues, with Superman regarding the college-age Robin as a full equal, and Dick Grayson thinking of Superman as a surrogate uncle.”

SUPERMAN AND BATGIRL In the late Silver Age, Superman and Batgirl were far from strangers: They appeared together in a couple of World’s Finests (along with Batman and Supergirl), and Batgirl also In addition to the Batman/Lois Lane tale discussed in this article, other issues encountered Superman (and other superheroes) when she of The Brave and the Bold featured team-ups between the Gotham Guardian guest-starred in Justice League of America #60 (Feb. 1968). and marvels from Metropolis: But the first actual team-up between the Man of B&B #150 (May 1979) teamed Batman and ? (a mystery co-star) in a Steel and Dominoed Daredoll—sans Batman and Bob Haney/Jim Aparo thriller titled “Today Gotham … Tomorrow, the World!”

Supergirl—occurred in Superman #268 (Oct. 1973). It was As reported in BACK ISSUE #69 (“Anniversary Issues”), the secret guest-star in a revival, of sorts, of the Batgirl character, as she had this sesquicentennial edition of B&B was revealed to be (SPOILER ALERT) none been in limbo for over a year, her backup series having other than Superman! Jimmy Olsen and Morgan Edge were seen in cameos. concluded with “Batgirl’s Last Case” in Detective Comics Brave and Bold #163 (June 1980), by Paul Kupperberg and Dick Giordano, #424 (June 1972), where her alter ego, Barbara Gordon, combined Batman and Black Lightning in “Oil, Oil … Nowhere!”, a timely was elected to the US House of Representatives. tale inspired by the national energy crisis of the day. And B&B #188 and 189 Superman #268’s “Wild Week-end in Washington!”, (July and Aug. 1982) teamed Batman and Rose and the Thorn in a two-part written by Elliot S. Maggin, with art by Curt Swan story written by Robert Kanigher, who originated the “Rose and the Thorn” and Bob Oksner, begins with the World’s Finest heroes— backup feature in Superman’s Girl Friend, Lois Lane during the early Bronze Superman and Batman—concluding a case in the Age, with art by the always-amazing Jim Aparo.

Metropolis Marvel’s Fortress of Solitude. When Superman mentions that his alter ego, TV newsman Clark Kent, is headed to the nation’s capital on business, matchmaker Batman (!) bugs his Super-buddy to call his old friend from Gotham City, the “lonely” Barbara Gordon, now in Washington as a congresswoman. (Here, neither Batman nor Superman know Barbara’s identity of Batgirl.) And that Clark does, saying he’s a friend of Bruce Wayne’s and making a date with Barbara Gordon to attend a White House reception for a dignitary. Babs finds Clark a drip, Metropolis and Clark realizes the vivacious redhead is far from the wallflower described by Batman.

Marvel and The story accelerates post-reception, as Kent is Dominoed abducted by a crime syndicate that attempts to discover information Clark presumably knows about a top-secret Daredoll weapon. His absence leads Congresswoman Gordon to don her mothballed Batgirl garb and hit the streets of (top) Nick Cardy’s Washington, D.C. Naturally, she crosses paths with cover to the actionSuperman once Clark has had a chance to slip away to change. In Maggin’s hands, packed Superman Superman and Batgirl make an effective #268 (Oct. 1973), team, with Superman shielding Batgirl during the deployment of heavy artillery, guest-starring allowing her to wage her own battles Batgirl. (bottom) when the scuffle gets more street-level.

Why Batgirl as a teammate for From inside, Superman? “I can’t really remember Clark makes a date much of the circumstances other than that I was going through a phase of with Babs. gawking at every redhead I saw,” writer TM & © DC Comics.

Elliot Maggin confides to BACK ISSUE. Whatever the impetus for bringing elliot s. maggin Barbara Gordon and Clark Kent together, fans applauded this new Dynamic Duo, and Batgirl made another guest-appearance in Superman #279 (Sept. 1974), with a cover blurb touting, “Together again—by popular demand!” Also together again were writer Elliot Maggin and penciler Curt Swan. Swan was inked this time around by Phil Zupa, an embellisher whose heavier linework unfortunately lacked the grace of Bob Oksner’s playful inks.

In “Menace of the Energy-Blackmailers!”, Maggin again employs a Batman cameo to set up our story, with Bruce Wayne asking Superman to masquerade as Batman at a Gotham City charity event. Barbara Gordon is in the audience, witnessing “Batman’s” acts of athleticism, and her attempt to greet “Batman” in his dressing room after the show leads to her discovery that Clark Kent was his stand-in. She uses a Metropolis political shindig as license to investigate Kent’s caped doings, and after a funny, Schwartz-era-obligatory encounter between beautiful Babs and boorish Steve Lombard, Batgirl is drawn into a plot about an “energy-blackmailer” called the Controller

GUEST-STARS FROM METROPOLIS

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Quite a Trip (left) The heartstopping Cardy cover to Superman #279 (Sept. 1974), the Superman/Batgirl sequel. (right) That tale’s Gordon/ Lombard encounter.

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(a J. Paul Getty analog, Maggin tells BI) who wields soundwaves to threaten Metropolis’ skyscrapers, demanding that the city “surrender your month’s supply of fuel oil or face destruction!” For a menace of this magnitude, Superman does the heavy lifting in this adventure, with Batgirl along for good measure—but still, it’s fun to see “The Greatest Hero of Them All” and “The Flame-Haired Woman of Shadows” (as they’re described on the splash page) reunited.

Maggin flopped the respective heroes’ milieus in these two tales: In Superman #268, he thrusts Clark Kent into a mob mystery, which is more Batgirl’s environment, but in Superman #279, he inserts Batgirl into a sci-fibased story that would have easily worked as a Superman solo tale. “As far as terrain-swapping goes, this was well into Julie and Denny’s [O’Neil] ‘dark Batman’ evolution period,” Maggin remarks. “It makes me crazy when people tell me Batman and his ancillary characters are somehow more ‘realistic’ than the superpowered characters. I don’t see anything more intrinsically realistic about a billionaire stalking through the night beating up bad guys and playing with gadgets that belong on the Pentagon’s wish list, than I do with an alien in funny clothes melting steel with his eyes. In fact, given what we’re learning every day about the Infinite, a flying Kryptonian seems somehow the more realistic notion.

So when Denny wrote a Batman story that involved ghosts or spaceships, it would take people by surprise— and what was more surprising was that it fit perfectly well into the peculiar context the guys were building. Same with Superman and Batgirl. The whole idea that started in the ’40s with the JSA, that all these people fit together into one vast continuum, means anything can happen to anyone. I always did my best to see to it that it did.”

The final Superman/Batgirl team-up during the Bronze Age was “Who Haunts This House?” by Denny O’Neil, Joe Staton, and Frank Chiaramonte, published in DC Comics Presents #19 (Mar. 1980). The lives of Clark Kent and Barbara Gordon intersect once again at a celebrity party at the mansion of Caleb Gurk, a prospector

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who happened across the estate when it literally materialized in front of him. But it’s a house of mystery, and people in its proximity soon become homicidal.

Once the crisis boils, Batgirl thinks, “They’re impassive … inhuman! Like zombies!” Superman’s investigation uncovers the story’s supernatural menace, Dr. Horus.

Eventually, the Superman/Batgirl team restores order.

O’Neil’s story was a vast departure from the urbanbased Batgirl guest-appearances a few years earlier in Superman, and Superman and Batgirl don’t necessarily “team up,” they instead just happen to be at the same bizarre place at the same time. Dr. Horus’ outlandish feathered headgear nearly derailed the story’s slowly brooding atmosphere, but overall DCCP #19 offered an effective use of both characters and gave Batgirl an appearance that wasn’t tethered to her Batman Family/Detective Comics domain.

SUPERMAN VS. THE SCARECROW In Justice League of America #111 (May–June 1974), writer Len Wein introduces the Injustice Gang, a cadre of established criminals from JLA members’ rogues’ galleries (the Atom’s Chronos, the Flash’s Mirror Master, Hawkman’s Shadow-Thief, Green Lantern’s Tattooed Man, and two Bat-baddies, Poison Ivy and Scarecrow), pawns of the villainous Libra, who would be resurrected decades later.

While Poison Ivy and Mirror Master battle Aquaman and Green Lantern, an interesting three-page chapter pits Superman against “the Master of Fear,” the Scarecrow, who is able to make Kryptonian Crusader quiver by exposing him to an illusion of a dreaded Octosaur, a beast from Supie’s home world. We discover that a red-sun beam made the Man of Steel vulnerable to Scarecrow’s scare tactics, but although this encounter is brief, it’s a noteworthy Batman/Superman swap—and it’s deliciously delineated by Dick Dillin and Dick Giordano.

(Note: The Injustice Gang, with Scarecrow and Poison Ivy, returned to plague the JLA in Justice League of America #143, June 1977. Prior to that, in Justice League of America #125–126, Dec. 1975–Jan. 1976,

writer Gerry Conway brought in an unlikely ally for the JLA: Two-Face. While Superman was one of the JLAers in this adventure, since it was not an actual Superman/Two-Face team-up, this two-parter is not included in this survey. And this is a good place to note that Batman rogue Dr. Tzin-Tzin fought not Superman, but Supergirl, in a Len Wein-scripted tale in Adventure Comics #418, Apr. 1972.)

BATMAN VS. LUTHOR Superman’s archenemy took on the Caped Crusader in Batman #293 (Nov. 1977)—and claimed to kill him! This occurred in the third installment of the four-part mystery “Where Were You on the Night Batman Was Killed?”, appearing in Batman #291–294, written by David V. Reed and drawn by John Calnan and Tex Blaisdell. The premise of this serial: “The Batman is Dead!” This message “sweeps through the dark dominions of the underworld like a firestorm,” with criminals across the country claiming to have offed the Darknight Detective. To discover the truth behind Batman’s apparent demise, an

Spooky Stuff and Body Swaps (top left) The Andru/Giordano cover to the Superman/Batgirl team-up in DCCP #19 (Mar. 1980). (top right) Supie quakes in his red boots when facing off against the Scarecrow in JLA #111 (May–June 1974). (bottom) Batman #293 (Nov. 1977) featured this scene with Lex Luthor stomping “Batman” (who was actually Superman).

TM & © DC Comics.

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Dark Knight and Maid of Might Stop begging—here it is! Cover and sample panel from the fan-requested first Batman/Supergirl team-up in The Brave and the Bold #147 (Feb. 1979), by Cary Burkett and Jim Aparo.

TM & © DC Comics.

rays—that’s “M(icrowave) A(mplification by) S(timulated) E(mission of) R(adiation),” according to an oh, so helpful footnote—that were “designed to perform an astonishing surgical transference—rays directed to the brain through the pupils of the eyes!” Luthor then describes how he beat to death the body of the Batman, inside which Superman was trapped. Of course, this turns out to be false, as do the testimonies of the other villains. I’ll leave the story’s twist ending as a surprise for those of you who have yet to discover it (which you can do in DC’s 2009 trade paperback, The Strange Deaths of Batman, if you can’t find a back issue of the original), but overall, this encounter between Batman and Lex Luthor is a cheat since it still features Superman—but it makes one wonder what an actual Bronze Age meeting of the minds between Batman and Luthor would’ve been like. (Mike W. Barr wondered that, too, as you’ll read shortly…)

BATMAN AND SUPERGIRL

underworld gathering occurs at a mobster’s estate and a hearing is held, overseen by “Judge” Ra’s al Ghul, with Two-Face harkening back to his days as crusading district attorney Harvey Dent by serving as the prosecutor. A sinister six sits as the jury: the Mad Hatter, the Spook, Poison Ivy, the Scarecrow, Signalman, and Mr. Freeze. And thus the four-parter gets underway, each chapter featuring a “testimony” by a supervillain who maintains they executed Batman: Catwoman (in Batman #291), the Riddler (#292), the Joker (#294), and… …Luthor, in the penultimate chapter, issue #293. As the comic’s attention-grabbing cover by Jim Aparo reveals, super-scientist Luthor managed to trap his mighty foe, Superman, inside the human (and breakable) body of Batman. In a wild explanation that only could have occurred in a Bronze Age comic, Luthor credits his body-swap to his satellite-positioned device that emitted MASER

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“At last! The team you’ve been begging to see!” proclaimed a burst on the cover of The Brave and the Bold #147 (Feb. 1979). As the comic’s house ads reveal, a Superman promotional blitz was underway in conjunction with the December 1978 premiere of Superman: The Movie, and this Batman/Supergirl pairing basked in its glow.

“Death-Scream from the Sky!” involves the Children of Light, a group of terrorists (a recurring threat in Bronze Age B&Bs, for those of you who may regard this a more contemporary occurrence in the real world), who threaten destruction from above via a “laser-cannon” mounted onto a satellite. Once Batman gets involved, he tells Commissioner Gordon, “They couldn’t have picked a better time to act … the other members of the Justice League are on a mission in space!

I’m the only one left to stop them!” Batman conveniently forgets Earth’s non-JLAers as possible helpers, but soon runs into one of them, teaming with Supergirl—whose superpowers are mysteriously fading, off and on—and together they stop the terrorists and reveal the supervillain behind their malevolence.

While this Batman/Supergirl team-up was drawn by the amazing Jim Aparo, who handles the Maid of Might as deftly as any of the other guest-stars who ventured through the series over the years, B&B #147 was not written by the series’ normal scribe Bob Haney, but instead by DC newcomer Cary Burkett. “I was an assistant editor at DC and I had worked on Brave and the Bold with Denny O’Neil when he was editor and later when Paul Levitz took over the title,” Burkett tells BACK ISSUE. “This was just after Murray Boltinoff had relinquished the book after many years as editor. All the Batman titles were being brought together under one editor. (JLA and World’s Finest were not considered specifically Batman titles, though he appeared in both of those books.)

“Bob Haney was working with new editors on the book for the first time, and there was some friction as Denny and later Paul tried to bring the Haney Batman more in line with the character as he appeared in other books,” Burkett continues. “With Paul, I was given the ‘first edit’ of the Haney scripts, looking to find and fix any glaring continuity errors. I’d pass them on to Paul with some rewrite suggestions. Paul would often then pass the scripts back to me to implement my rewrites, and I did my best to match the Haney style. There are a lot of Brave and Bold scripts from that period that were heavily rewritten.”

Editor Levitz was fundamental in bringing in Supergirl as a teammate— and in bringing in Burkett as the team-up’s scribe. “As I recall, Paul wanted to expand the co-stars in the book, bring in some who had never appeared before,” Burkett says. “Haney was cool to the idea—he preferred the characters he was familiar with, like the Metal Men, Sgt. Rock, and Wildcat.

“In a letters column, Paul had asked for readers to vote on who they would like to see Batman team up with. The result was Supergirl. I don’t know all the details, but Paul gave me the assignment. I don’t know if Haney wasn’t interested or if Paul just thought it wasn’t a good fit for him. Maybe he was trying to send Haney a message.”

Paul Levitz tells BACK ISSUE, “I don’t have any specific memory of the Supergirl story, but Cary’s description sounds plausible. Bob wasn’t a fan of doing research, and by that time we were arguing about the necessity of it, so I imagine he’d avoid a new character like the plague.”

Just over a year after that Batman/Supergirl pairing, The Brave and the Bold #160 (Mar. 1980) reunited them, branded with another fan-acknowledging cover blurb: “Together again—the team you demanded!” Also reunited were the Burkett/Aparo creative team, this time offering the murder/crime mystery “The Brimstone Connection.”

Our stars are in their civilian identities when we first see them together, as Linda Danvers visits Bruce Wayne at his Wayne Enterprises office, privately asking for the help of “the World’s Greatest Detective” in finding her kidnapped father, Fred Danvers. Danvers was working on an experimental rocket fuel for S.T.A.R. Labs when he was abducted, connecting Supergirl’s case with an unsolved one Batman experienced in the story’s preceding scene.

The interplay between Batman and Supergirl in both stories is considerably different from the traditional Batman/Superman relationship, as Burkett explains: “I did

a lot of Superman/Batman team-ups in World’s Finest, and the obvious difference with Supergirl was that she was still young and somewhat in awe of Batman. With Supes/Bats at the time, the two had the strongest partnership and friendship in the DC Universe. They often knew what the other would do without having to spell it out. But with Supergirl, Batman had to direct her a bit more, as he does with most heroes anyway. Still, I felt that in most team-up stories, both characters should make a contribution without which the objective could not be obtained.

So Supergirl had to be given a vital role as well.”

Of the two Batman/Supergirl team-ups, does Cary Burkett have a favorite? “I don’t remember much about the stories—can’t say I have a favorite,” the writer notes.

“But doing the first one was really exciting for me, just to be working on the title under my own name.”

Alongside his “own name” was that of artist Jim Aparo’s, of whom Burkett recalls, “I only met Jim Aparo once—he rarely came to the New York City offices.” [Editor’s note: Aparo worked from his Connecticut art studio.] “Still, he was generous enough to give me the splash page of that first Supergirl story from the original art.”

Burkett also wishes to set the record straight about Aparo’s contributions to B&Bs (and the artist’s stories in other series) from that era. “I did notice once in a database of comics that credit for the lettering in those Brave and Bold stories was filled in with a question mark.

So maybe it’s not well known that Jim Aparo did all the lettering for stories he drew and inked as well … at least for those Brave and Bold stories.”

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Aparo Original Art Double-Shot (left) Supergirl makes Batman a true caped crusader on this art page from B&B #147. Courtesy of Chris Khalaf. (right) Aparo’s original cover art to the follow-up team-up in issue #160 (Mar. 1980).

Courtesy of Heritage. (center, background) Aparo’s Batman #293 cover.

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Batman on the rooftop of Gotham City’s S.T.A.R. Labs.

“This may be your city, but Metallo is taking over!” boasts the Man with the Kryptonite Heart—and he almost does, emitting from his chest plate a beam of modified Green Kryptonite that inexplicably paralyzes the Earthborn Batman just as real Green K would bring Superman to his knees. In the next scene, intrepid reporter Lois Lane, in Gotham on the trail of the crime cartel SKULL, drops in on Bruce Wayne in hopes that he can contact the Batman for her. A rogue SKULL scientist connects Lois’ story with Metallo’s mission, and Batman finds himself out of his element when he tangles not only with Metallo but also a commandeered S.T.A.R. “War Machine” (giant robot).

Lois Lane serves more as a supportpaul kupperberg ing-cast member than a teammate in this Batman story, but her involvement provides life-saving assists to the incapacitated Caped Crusader. Overall, it’s an interesting tale featuring Lois Lane, in character, divorced from the Superman cast (save an appreciated one-panel cameo

by Perry White).

In this mixing of the Batman and Superman universes, one wonders, who came first (in the writer’s mind)— Lois Lane as the Bat-teammate or Metallo as the Bat-villain?

Let’s turn to the story’s scribe, Paul Kupperberg, for answers. “I think it started with Lois Lane as the guest-star, although 30-plus years after the fact I don’t recall if the team-up was my idea or suggested by the editor, Paul Levitz,” Kupperberg says. “But once I had Lois in the mix I thought it would be fun to pit Batman against a Superman villain. Not only would it give Lois a reason to be in Gotham City, but it also took Batman out of his ‘comfort zone,’ more superhero than Darknight Detective.” Levitz, as the editor of Brave and Bold, made strides to consolidate that title within the framework of the broader DC Universe— something that earlier B&B editor Murray Boltinoff and its longtime writer Bob Haney notoriously eschewed.

Kupperberg’s inclusion of Metallo’s backstory from his recent appearances in editor Julius Schwartz’s Superman book placed the Batman/Lois Lane team-up squarely on Earth-One instead of Boltinoff and Haney’s “Earth-B.” Kupperberg adds, “I can’t imagine Paul wouldn’t have stuck his head in Julie’s office to ask about using Metallo.”

The writer beams as he recalls that his Batman/ Superman swap left an impression upon its artist.

“About 15 years after B&B #175 was published, I met and spoke with the artist, Jim Aparo—who drew my all-time favorite rendition of Batman during his 1970s run on B&B—for the first time in my career at a Chicago Comic-Con,” Kupperberg recalls. “I introduced myself and said that I had long ago written an issue of B&B and without missing a beat, Jim said, ‘Right, the Lois Lane story. I had a lot of fun with that one.’ The fanboy inside of me did a little happy dance.

“As anyone who ever met him knows, on top of being a great artist, Jim Aparo was also a mensch.”

BATMAN AND LOIS LANE VS. METALLO

The Brave and the Bold #175 (June 1981) teamed the Darknight Detective and “the Daily Planet’s ace newslady” in “The Heart of the Monster,” written by Paul Kupperberg and drawn by the reliable, remarkable Jim Aparo.

It starts with an action sequence featuring Metallo—Superman’s enemy who had been retooled a few years earlier—encountering

Superman’s BF and GF (top) Metallo was the catalyst for this teaming of Batman and Lois Lane in B&B #175 (June 1981). (bottom). Lois calls on Bruce Wayne for assistance.

TM & © DC Comics.

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Gerry Conway [editor of the short-lived Man-Bat series] Batman’s sometimes-friend/sometimes-foe Man-Bat, when it had its own title, picking up from Gerry’s first, a.k.a. Kirk Langstrom, joined forces with the Man of ‘pilot’ issue. The game plan was to take this heroSteel in “The Metamorphosis Machine!” in DC Comics wannabe—who’d become ‘villainous’ due to the insanity Presents #35 (July 1981), by Martin Pasko, Curt Swan, that attended his drinking the serum that triggered and Vince Colletta. This odd couple unites at Metropolis’ the transformation—and, incrementally, over several S.T.A.R. Labs, through which Man-Bat is snooping. issues, have him conquer his demons and ‘get his head Langstrom is attempting to find the tech to help his straight,’ as they used to say. And, not coincidentally, he would have, by that point, defeated and led young daughter Rebecca, who suffers from to the incarceration of enough supervillains highly acute hearing due to her parents’ who were even bigger menaces than he exposure to Langstrom’s Man-Bat serum. that the public would fear him less and Sympathetic Superman believes he can grudgingly accept him as a force for help and whisks the Man-Bat family good. But [DC publisher] Carmine to his Fortress of Solitude, where the Infantino canceled that title after only Man of Tomorrow attempts to use two issues (!), so Gerry and I never got an otherworldly device to help the a chance to play that out.” Man-Bat Langstrom child. They are unaware next appeared as a backup feature that the Atomic Skull, abetted by in Detective Comics and Batman Family. his female counterpart, a cat-fighting “I continued the series in backups for femme with a wild secret I won’t spoil Julie Schwartz, but Julie was stuck on here, has been eavesdropping on [Man-Bat co-creators] Frank Robbins’ them. It seems that the lime-andand Neal Adams’ original conception martin pasko lemon-clad Skulls need the same alien of the character, and Julie and I couldn’t apparatus that Man-Bat desires, so they agree on the tweaks necessary to make follow our heroes to the Arctic site of Superman’s home away from home. And thus the it a protagonist you could root for,” Pasko says. “I mean, Superman/Man-Bat team goes up against not one but we agreed that that was the goal, but not on how to two Atomic Skulls, with the fate of little Rebecca achieve it. So rather than argue with my editor, I moved on to other assignments.”

Langstrom hanging in the balance.

Bob Rozakis took over as the Man-Bat scribe, and by “My history with the [Man-Bat] character was what made Julie [Schwartz] think of me for the assignment,” the time Pasko was assigned the Superman/Man-Bat explains writer Martin Pasko, “and, for all I know, team-up, new story developments had fluttered into the he got the idea to put Man-Bat in DCCP from the B&B Man-Bat mythos. “Bob had given the Langstroms a story I did—maybe he heard from management that baby girl, and I had to find a way to make work what there was some sort of sales bump on B&B #165…? struck me as an ill-conceived idea,” says Pasko. “I told Who knows?” What history? you may ask, if you weren’t Julie that I thought allowing those two to bring a child a ’70s DC reader. “I’d started writing the character for into the world characterized them as socially irresponsible,

SUPERMAN AND MAN-BAT

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Twice as Not-Nice (left) His-and-her Atomic Skulls plague Superman and Man-Bat in DCCP #35 (July 1981).

Cover by Andru and Giordano. (right) A glimpse inside.

Story by Pasko, art by Swan and Colletta.

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SUPERMAN AND THE JOKER

A Prankster Page We’ll always grab a chance to show off José Luis García-López original art! A signed page from DCCP #41, courtesy of Heritage. Inks by Frank McLaughlin.

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without at least pausing to consider whether Francine might give birth to a horribly genetically damaged child. On the phone, Julie just verbally shrugged and said something about acquired characteristics not being hereditary, totally missing my point about having the Langstroms question, after-the-fact, whether the serum might not have damaged their own chromosomes.

So I decided to try to retrofit this dramatic element into the new developments in the continuity, in the form of making the Langstroms’ parenthood tragic and tense with foreboding.

“In the Batman/Man-Bat story [B&B #165], I had a subplot about the child, Rebecca, showing symptoms of a mysterious illness. The DCCP story continued that ongoing concern,” Pasko says. “From there, it wasn’t hard to bring Superman into Man-Bat’s ambit. It was simply a matter of having a Superman villain—in this case, the Atomic Skull—come to believe Langstrom had something he wanted or needed, and having the Skull go after Langstrom. So the team-up took the form of Superman needing to capture the Skull, and Man-Bat helping Superman to get the Skull off Man-Bat’s back.”

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In late 1973, readers were shocked when the Batman formed an unholy alliance with his arch-enemy, the Joker, in the so-called “Strangest Team-Up in History,” in The Brave and the Bold #111 (Feb.–Mar. 1974). As both Batman and readers suspected, the Joker does not make a trustworthy teammate. Apparently this message didn’t trickle down to Batman’s World’s Finest friend, as Superman and the Joker joined forces in DC Comics Presents #41 (Jan. 1982). “The Terrible Tinseltown Treasure-Trap Treachery!”, a story by scribe Martin Pasko and artists José Luis García-López and Frank McLaughlin, used the Kryptonian Crusader’s portly pest, the Prankster, as the catalyst for its Superman/ Joker union, with the Clown Prince of Crime springing the Prankster from Metropolis State Prison and then heading for Hollywood for a heist, with the Daily Planet’s Perry White, Lois Lane, and Clark Kent also converging upon the sunny California city for a newsjournalists’ convention.

How did editor Schwartz tap Martin Pasko for this writing assignment? “The way Julie approached DCCP was to decide what team-up he wanted to do, and then offer it as an assignment to whichever available writer in his stable he thought was the best fit,” Pasko offers.

“Since I’d kicked off DCCP by writing the first three scripts (though not published in that order), Julie had it in his mind that I was one of the guys he could trust with the team-ups, and whenever he had a pairing he associated with me, he’d call—which could sometimes be frustrating; I was assigned a Superman/Swamp Thing team-up that I had a story for that I really liked, but he assigned it to Alex Toth (don’t ask why; I never understood that choice, either), but I’d’ve wanted to work with Alex if it had been ‘Superman Meets Sugar and Spike.’ Unfortunately, Alex disappeared with the script and never delivered, and that one never saw the light of day. Damn!

“Anyway, I’d written the Joker in his own title, and Julie liked the way I had handled the character as an ‘anti-hero,’ for lack of a better term, so he turned to me for this admittedly odd team-up.”

DCCP #41 was published shortly after Pasko began working in television animation, and much of its action takes place in L.A., so I asked the writer how his living and working in Hollywood imprinted his story. “The Joker had to be a relatively benign figure to work in a ‘daylight’ story,” Martin contends. “That’s always been one of the key differences between Batman and Superman: Bats was nocturnal and Supes was a daytime character, which led guys like John Byrne and Denny O’Neil to argue for a long time that World’s Finest never really worked. So I started casting about for some ‘less dark’ facet of the character— something lighter than the rictus-inducing nerve toxin or the Joker card left at the scene of a murder—as a linchpin for the story. I remembered that in the beginning of his tenure on Batman, Julie had done stories in which the Joker committed comedy-themed crimes (which seemed fun enough to the TV show’s producers to have used that idea in the series). [Editor’s note: The story was John Broome’s “The Joker’s Comedy Capers” in Detective Comics #341, July 1965, which was adapted to the Batman TV series as a Season One, two-part episode starring not the Joker, but the Riddler.] I then thought it

would be fun to do something tangentially involving famous movie comedies or comedians, and set the story in Hollywood, to leverage my familiarity with L.A. showbiz, as you correctly surmise.”

The next phase of Pasko’s development of this Superman/Joker tale involved a fellow animation writer and comics scribe most famously known as the creator of Howard the Duck. “I had decided that Superman would clash with the Joker over a search for a dead, notoriously eccentric movie comedian’s buried ‘treasure,’ ” Pasko continues. “I was having dinner with my old buddy Steve Gerber one night while I was plotting this out, and, as was our habit, we told each other what we were working on and whether we were stuck on anything, and we’d help each other out. It was Steve, who’d just been on Hollywood Boulevard that afternoon, who suggested that the McGuffin be buried under the comedian’s star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and from there, the rest of it fell into place. Julie promised me that he’d honor my request for a ‘shout-out’ to Steve in the text page for that issue (Steve didn’t want a credit on the story itself), but Julie forgot and it never happened.”

[Better late than never!—ed.]

For those scratching their heads over how Big Blue would ever join forces with Gotham’s Grinning Gargoyle in the first place, Pasko explains, “First of all, the Joker in that story was a somewhat different character than the one DC exploits today. Steve Englehart and Marshall Rogers, in their fan-favorite run on Detective back in the ’70s, tried to return the character to Jerry Robinson’s original, darker conception as a serial killer (e.g., ‘The Laughing Fish’ arc), but Carmine Infantino and Sol Harrison, who were running the company at the time, thought it was too scary and kid-unfriendly, because the Joker was a money-maker in licensing and merchandising and they didn’t want to kill that golden goose. To the end of repositioning it as a lighter, more ‘fun’ character, they mandated that the Joker be the star of his own title. That was the version I was writing; you have to remember, this was a few years before The Killing Joke, in which the reset button was really set on the Joker, and, indeed, he’s only gotten scarier and more vicious since. In terms of plot, it was a ‘Bacon connection’ kind of ‘team-up,’ in that Superman had his own practicaljoker villain, the Prankster. Since the story was set in neutral territory—the California Southland rather than Gotham or Metropolis—it was easy to justify the premise that the two jokesters would be competing for the same prize—itself a twist, after the Joker breaks the Prankster out of jail, ostensibly to enlist his help. Now, in order to defeat Prankster (in order to save his friends, whom Prankster has imperiled), Superman has to strong-arm the Joker into co-operating with him. So it was a ‘You’re on my team whether you like it or not’ kind of team-up.”

The writer admits that he had a blast pairing Superman with the Joker: “The script was great fun to do once Julie bought my pitch that the dialogue, as well as a lot of the action, would be balls-out comedy. We were greatly served by José Luis García-López’s pencils, which were dynamic and funny at the same time—since most of the action set pieces were essentially and deliberately slapstick comedy, like the sequence in which a temporarily de-powered Superman uses the tip of a giant palm tree as a slingshot that propels him back into the air.”

Another example of the Clown Prince of Crime being editor Schwartz’s “teacher’s pet” villain was DC Comics Presents #72 (Aug. 1984), an offbeat tale teaming Superman, the Phantom Stranger, and the Joker, in “Madness in a Dark Dimension!” by Paul Kupperberg, Alex Saviuk, and Dennis Jensen. “I know for sure that DCCP #72 […] was instigated by Julie,” Kupperberg told BACK ISSUE in 2013 for our “Team-Ups” edition, #66.

Kupperberg continued, “The addition of the Joker was definitely a Schwartzian touch, and the combination of those characters seemed to give me an excuse for a third appearance by Maaldor,” the Darklord villain created by Kupperberg and used in two earlier Superman DCCP team-ups, with Power Girl and Madame Xanadu, respectively. In issue #72, a dimensional rift looming over Metropolis is actually a violent manifestation of Maaldor’s consciousness, and as the villain’s insanity threatens to upend reality, the intervening Phantom Stranger implores the Man of Steel to enlist as an ally the one figure who is no stranger to madness: you got it, the Joker! The incarcerated Joker finds Superman’s

Things Get Weird Alex Saviuk’s artwork made Paul Kupperberg’s offbeat Superman/Phantom Stranger/Joker tale in DCCP #72 (Aug. 1984) a standout.

TM & © DC Comics.

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It’s No Joke Superman asks for help from the Clown Prince of Crime.

From DCCP #72.

TM & © DC Comics.

summons to action a laughing matter, but is induced to participate by the Stranger. And thus begins one of the most unusual team-ups in DCCP history.

In this quirky tale, Kupperberg deftly guides his three mismatched teammates through a surreal journey rendered with Ditko/Dr. Strange panache by Saviuk and Jensen. The Joker gets a taste of omnipotence after bonding with Maaldor’s madness, obtaining supernatural abilities that send even the Man of Tomorrow reeling. While Superman is generally out of his element amid these bizarre happenings, he maintains his patented heroism throughout the adventure, and the Batmaninduced enmity between Superman and the Joker is clearly evidenced during each of their exchanges.

A lesser-known Superman/Joker encounter took place not in the comic books, but in the comic strips. Capitalizing on the multimedia attention given Superman beginning with the release of 1978’s Superman: The Movie, in the late 1970s through the early 1980s, DC’s heroes appeared in a newspaper syndicated strip initially scripted by Martin Pasko titled The World’s Greatest Superheroes—and later, The World’s Greatest Superheroes Present Superman. “I also wrote a continuity of [the] comic strip from October 26, 1981 to January 10, 1982,” Mike W. Barr tells BACK ISSUE. “My story, called ‘The Joke is On Superman,’ was another take on a much-used concept— Superman is kidnapped (this time by the Joker), causing Batman to impersonate both Superman and Clark Kent to prevent, as Sherlock Holmes would say, ‘an unhealthy excitement among the criminal classes,’ while he hunts for his missing friend.

I thought this venerable idea had one last story in it, but though the story was as good as I could write at that time, editor Joe Orlando and I simply didn’t mesh, our plotting styles being far too different. Though I loved comic strips and loved the protagonists, when the assignment was ended, I was glad.”

BATMAN AND SUPERBOY “You Can Take the Boy Out of Smallville…”, written by Mike W. Barr and illustrated by Jim Aparo, in The Brave and the Bold #192 (Nov. 1982), offers a fresh twist on a familiar concept.

Barr starts the tale with Batman zeroing in on crooks who robbed “Superman’s charity fund”; Batman uses his JLA signal to summon the Man of Steel to join in on the nab. The signal is received by Clark Kent in Metropolis, who switches to Superman in a fantastically drawn sequence by Aparo. As Superman joins Batman, he’s bathed in an eerie glow, and—“Good Lord!” exclaims the Darknight Detective—is inexplicably replaced by Superboy! The pair grab the thieves, and they surmise that Superboy’s and Superman’s respective places in time have been swapped, with the Man of Steel sent back to his Smallville roots, 15 years earlier (to 1967). We cut to the past, then present, to see that neither Superman nor Superboy can penetrate the time barrier—“Barriers are erected by people, Superboy!” replies Batman. “…So we find the person who put that barrier there, and we’ll find who brought you here—and why!”

Thus begins their team-up, with Batman taking the dominant, mentor’s role as this dynamic duo seek out the villain behind this time-tussle, I.Q. (no, I didn’t spoil the ending—I.Q’s pictured on the Aparo cover).

You Might Have Missed This (top) Courtesy of writer Mike W. Barr, the World’s Greatest Superheroes newspaper strip from November 4, 1981, co-featuring Superman and the Joker. Art by George Tuska and Vince Colletta. (bottom) Batman lends a helping hand in the Sunday strip from November 29th.

TM & © DC Comics.

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The Brave, the Bold, and the Bearded (top) Mike W. Barr, BI editor (and then-DC editor) Michael Eury, and Len Wein at the L.A.-located DC Comics West Coast Christmas party of December 1990.

Photo by Rose Rummel-Eury. (center and bottom) An impulsive (and time-displaced) Teen of Steel teamed with Batman in Barr and Aparo’s B&B #192 (Nov. 1982).

TM & © DC Comics.

Barr’s Superboy isn’t merely a teenage Superman—he truly acts his age, prone to hyperactive displays of power (“There are ways to disable crooks without demolishing the neighborhood!” admonishes Batman in response to Superboy smashing through a brick wall, to which the sheepish Teen of Steel mutters, “Yessir…”), self-doubt, and emotional outbursts. Today many longtime readers remember Barr’s flair for writing believable younger characters—Halo in Batman and the Outsiders and Jason Todd/Robin during his Detective Comics collaboration with Alan Davis—but it’s interesting to note that his handling of Superboy in this B&B predates those stories. “To some writers, this would be no different than a team-up with Superman,” Barr says, “but I immediately saw the possibilities of Superboy—here maybe 14 or 15—as a well-meaning but cocksure young juggernaut, not yet secure in the use of his powers and often with no proper idea how to use his subtler abilities, thinking brute force can solve everything.”

Barr attributes his confidence in writing young characters to “maybe just the fact that I once was a kid and I remember what it was like seeking the approval of your elders, yet trying not to be dominated by it. It’s a mark of how cool Batman is, that even the most powerful human on Earth seeks his approval.”

As reported way back in BACK ISSUE #7, the unorthodox combo of Batman and Superboy was chosen by Brave and Bold editor Len Wein and writer Mike W. Barr as one of several out-of-the-ordinary team-ups in the waning days of the B&B title. “One of us came up with the idea of using Superboy,” says Barr. This team-up was apparently produced without the involvement of editor Julius Schwartz, who had charted the continuities of most of the Superman family characters since late 1970, more or less (although Superboy was at times in others’ hands, most notably editor Murray Boltinoff’s). Barr remembers, “Len said we didn’t need to get Julie’s approval to use Superboy, since he was such an important DC character.

(This parallels the famous story of whether or not former Superman editor Mort Weisinger could keep Julie from using Superman in the then-new Justice League.)” While Schwartz offered no resistance to the Boy of Steel’s use, he did block Barr’s intended antagonist for the issue: “He did forbid us from using Luthor as the villain, claiming he was using Luthor in the same month. (Perhaps he meant The New Adventures of Superboy #38, the only use of Luthor I can find in that time period.) I was sorry about this, since I would have liked to have handled all the major heroes and villains at least once, but it worked out all right.”

One of the hallmarks of this tale is the downplaying of Superman, as he—and the adult Clark Kent—appear in shadow throughout the story. “That was my idea,” Barr adds, “and Jim [Aparo], as he always did, caught on immediately and ran with it brilliantly.”

SUPERMAN VS. THE OUTSIDER DC Comics Presents #83 (July 1985) teamed Superman with Batman and the Outsiders in a tale by BATO scribe Mike W. Barr and drawn

by Irv Novick and Dave Hunt (all under an Aparo cover). For the issue’s villain, Barr dusted off an oldie, resurrecting the Silver Age Bat-foe, the Outsider—who is actually Alfred Pennyworth, a.k.a. Alfred the Butler. (Those with long memories—or readers of TwoMorrows’ book The Batcave Companion, which I co-wrote with Michael Kronenberg—know that as part of editor Julie Schwartz’s 1964 “New Look” revamp of Batman and Detective Comics, Alfred was killed and replaced by Dick Grayson’s Aunt Harriet … but once TV’s Batman

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Outsiders vs. the Outsider (inset) The Silver Age Bat-foe’s identity is hidden on Aparo’s Superman/BATO cover for DCCP #83 (July 1985). (below) A bumpy road for Alfred, from the Barr-scripted story inside. Art by Irv Novick and Dave Hunt.

TM & © DC Comics.a

FUTURE SHOCKS In the early 1980s, the ever-evolving mythos of the Legion of Super-Heroes had wrested the 30th-Century super-team far from its roots as part of editor Mort Weisinger’s Superman franchise—Legion was now DC’s second-bestselling title, after The New Teen Titans, and had become a franchise unto itself.

But in the waning years of The Brave and the Bold, Batman managed two team-ups with Legionnaires (the frequently suggested Batman/Mon-El team-up not among them): B&B #179 (Oct. 1981) paired Batman with the Legion of Super-Heroes in “Time-Bomb with the Thousand-Year Fuse!”, a time-travel tale by Martin Pasko, Ernie Colón, and Mike DeCarlo.

Its character-packed cover by Ross Andru and Dick Giordano is certainly serviceable, but long-time B&B readers would have preferred a cover by the series’ venerable artist, Jim Aparo, who rarely had the opportunity to illustrate Legionnaires.

B&B #198 (May 1983) teamed Batman with Karate Kid in “Terrorists of the Heart!” by writer Mike W. Barr, penciler Chuck Patton, and inker Rick Hoberg, under a kickin’ cover

by Aparo. A coda to the 1970s Karate Kid solo series, this story was explored in BACK ISSUE #67’s KK article, with insights from the story’s writer.

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series debuted in January 1966, with Alfred as part of the cast, Schwartz was pressured to return Alfred to the comics’ pages, using the butler’s surprise alter ego of the Outsider—a psionic villain who knew the secrets of Batman and Robin—as the vehicle of his resurrection.)

Barr’s DCCP tale opens with Batman leading an Outsiders’ training session, where Alfred, serving refreshments, sustains a bonk on the noggin, triggering his dormant Outsider persona. Superman is drawn into the fray after encountering the Outsider while trying to contain a tornado apparently created by the villain, with the Outsider’s telekinesis countering Superman’s powers. Here we see a rarity: Superman stalemated by a Batman villain (although the Outsider is no run-of-themill Bat-foe). Superman’s and Batman and the Outsiders’ paths converge in the Batcave for a great tangle with the Outsider, where the villain’s powers animate the Batcave’s dinosaur statue (among other things) for a Jurassic joust.

Barr shares a funny anecdote about how this issue came to be: “Julie approached me about a DCCP with Superman and Batman and the Outsiders. I immediately asked him which [Outsiders] characters were his favorites. His reply: ‘I don’t know anything about them, I just know a team-up will sell.’ As the Batman TV show would put it, ‘OW!’ That taught me to never again fish for compliments.”

Schwartz at first didn’t “get” the team that was joining forces with Superman.

“We had some trouble coming up with a plot we both liked,” Barr comments. “I kept waiting for Julie’s famed plotting powers to kick in, but they never did—perhaps because he was unfamiliar with the Outsiders. Then the light bulb clicked on and I told Julie the villain was Alfred.

‘Alfred’? asked Julie, quizzically, ‘the butler’? I explained that it wasn’t just Alfred, but Alfred in his villain role as the Outsider: ‘It’s the Outsider versus the Outsiders’! He loved this, and we were off.”

The Outsider wasn’t the only supervillain from Schwartz’s editorial stable to appear in DCCP #83: (SPOILER) I.Q. is revealed to be the behind-the-scenes manipulator. “When Julie forbade the use of Luthor in B&B #192, I easily fell back on I.Q., knowing Len [Wein] also liked him, and had previously written I.Q. in DCCP #4,” Barr says. “I.Q. was created by Gardner Fox, so as a Silver Age baby, any day I can rub shoulders with Gardner Fox is a good day.”

DCCP #83’s “Shadow of the Outsider!” was drawn not by regular BATO artist Jim Aparo, but by one-time Batman artist Irv Novick— although “as editor of BATO I freed up Jim Aparo to do the cover, to give the issue the full imprimatur of the BATO team.”

Regarding his collaboration with the veteran illustrator, Barr recalls, “The first panel of the story—which was done from a ‘Marvel-style’ plot—called for a shot past what later turned out to be a plot device to the Wayne Penthouse. Irv claimed this could not be drawn, so I simply told him to reverse the angle and he had, oddly, no problem. His refusal to draw the original panel blew a setup, but I wasn’t the editor, so I played nice. Nonetheless, Irv did a great job on the Outsiders— I particularly liked his version of Katana—and since he was also one of the classic ’60–’70s Batman artists, another item on my bucket list was checked off. Dave Hunt did a good job of inking Irv’s pencils.”

Post-Crisis, once the Joker strutted into Metropolis in writer/artist John Byrne’s Superman #9 (Sept. 1987), the line of demarcation once segregating the Batman and Superman casts began to blur. Today, it’s considered routine when Bat- or Super-characters meet, greet, and beat each other. Yet for those of us who enjoy viewing the DC Universe through Bronze-colored glasses, the stories surveyed in this article harken back to a time when a Batman/Superman character swap was a special event.

Special thanks to Mike W. Barr, Cary Burkett, Mike Friedrich, Paul Kupperberg, Paul Levitz, Elliot S. Maggin, and Martin Pasko for their participation, and to Gerry Conway for his support.

by

If you are old enough to remember a time before cell phones and DVDs and I were to mention Radio Shack, the image that comes to mind is likely the pegboard racks of capacitors, resistors, and phonograph needles that dominated every store. Or maybe it was the Free Battery of the Month Club. Or the remote-control toys. But odds are, it was not comic books. And yet for two decades, Radio Shack was a major distributor of comic books, including an educational partnership with the Man of Steel.

Radio Shack was started in Boston in 1921 as a supplier for ham-radio operators. The company was acquired in 1963 by the Tandy Corporation, which refined and focused the product line in electronics and implemented the approach of opening smaller stores in more locations.

Headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, Radio Shack had over 4,000 stores prior to declaring bankruptcy in early 2015.

One of the things for which Radio Shack was famous was its catalogs, which began production in 1939. The catalogs served as a great marketing tool, with customers perusing the pages at home and then returning to the store with a want list in hand. The experience gained in producing the catalogs also served them well when they decided to produce another kind of publication.

One of the things the Tandy Corporation brought to its acquisition of Radio Shack was a sense of corporate responsibility to support education. It was manifested in the product line, which included project kits to teach kids how to make things like a crystal radio, motorized helicopter, or solar-science experiment. It was also demonstrated in comic books. In 1971, Radio Shack began publishing a comic book called The Science Fair Story of Electronics, produced under the Science Fair brand as a giveaway. The first issue was 24 pages in length, full color, and printed on heavy newsprint. The story is told in the context of a party, where a boy has received a radio kit for his birthday and

Dewey Cassell

his father and a family friend are explaining the history of electronics. The final page includes a coupon for $1.00 off a Radio Shack Science Fair kit and the back cover encourages teachers to send for additional free copies. The comic book is well illustrated, in a style resembling that of Classics Illustrated. In the years that followed, The Science Fair Story of Electronics was updated and reprinted numerous times, with the setting of the story changing to a school classroom and the quality of the artwork generally declining. It is uncertain who wrote and drew the early stories, but the indicia in later editions say, “Narrative by William W. Palmer, illustrations by J&R Weathers, Designers.”

[It is worth noting that this was not an entirely original idea. Westinghouse published an illustrated Story of Electronics in 1945 and distributed it free to schools.]

In 1977, Radio Shack entered the budding personal computer market with the TRS-80. The TRS-80 was one of the earliest personal computers available to the mass market and became successful thanks to a proliferation of software available. Until 1982, the TRS-80 was the most popular personal computer, outselling Apple and Commodore.

It was a competitive business, as noted in the March 12, 1984, issue of Time magazine. The article, titled “Computers: Slugging It Out in the Schoolyard,” noted that “Tandy, one of Apple’s chief competitors, supported federal legislation tailored to promote its Radio Shack line of computers. Tandy gave books, slides, even special Superman computer comics to schools and made available free instruction to each of America’s 2.4 million schoolteachers. ‘It’s good business for us,’ says Bill Gattis, director of Tandy’s education division.”

Radio Shack’s advertising strategy included the comic books, but The Science Fair Story of Electronics didn’t do much to promote the TRS-80, so Tandy Corporation turned to DC Comics and their flagship character for a more highBatman AND Superman Issue

Whiz Kids Comics The trio of Superman/Radio Shack giveaway comics—each featuring the then-cutting-edge TSR-80 Computer Whiz Kids.

Superman and related characters TM & © DC Comics.

Radio Shack® TM & © Tandy Corp.

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Early Radio Shack Comic (left) Page 1 from 1971’s The Science Fair Story of Electronics, by an unknown writer and artist. Scan courtesy of Dewey Cassell. (right) The Man of Steel and the Whiz Kids, from the prologue of Superman in “The Computers That Saved Metropolis.”

Art by Jim Starlin and Dick Giordano.

Superman TM & © DC Comics.

Whiz Kids © Tandy Corp.

profile campaign. For three years, beginning in 1980, DC Comics produced a Superman comic book for Radio Shack.

The first edition of the comic book featured Superman in a story titled “The Computers That Saved Metropolis,” written by Cary Bates and illustrated by Jim Starlin and Dick Giordano. The villain of the tale is Major Disaster, originally introduced in the pages of Green Lantern.

Major Disaster tricks Superman into inhaling kryptonite crystals, which cause his powers to go awry. So Metropolis students Alec and Shanna aid Superman in averting three catastrophes using Radio Shack computers, earning them the title of “TRS-80 Computer Whiz Kids.”

The comic book was packaged and published by DC Comics and distributed to schools and Radio Shack stores. The story also appeared as a bonus insert in several July 1980 issues of DC comic books, including Action Comics, House of Mystery, The Legion of Super-Heroes, and The New Adventures of Superboy.

The second edition, published in 1981, depicted the team-up of Superman and Supergirl in the story “Victory

by Computer,” which was written by Bates, penciled by veteran Superman artist Curt Swan, and inked by Vince Colletta. Superman and his cousin visit the elementary school to introduce the TRS-80 pocket computer, but they are each called away and Supergirl is captured. Once again, Alec and Shanna with their TRS-80 computers and modems come to the rescue to help thwart the villain, Superman’s nemesis Lex Luthor.

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DC Comics was actually given a fair amount of leeway in developing the stories for Radio Shack, as noted by Cary Bates: “On the ones I did, Julie [Schwartz, editor] and I came up with the plots, though I’m sure Radio Shack had approval. Radio Shack wanted Superman to star in their promotional comic, and I guess Julie went to me because I was one of the main Superman writers at the time.”

Of course, Radio Shack did have at least one requirement—the stories should feature the TRS-80 computers prominently and frequently. As Bates recalls, “As far as Radio Shack was concerned, promoting the TRS-80 was the sole reason for the Radio Shack comic’s existence.

Trying to conceive a Superman story with any internal logic or integrity was always an uphill battle when doing what was in essence a comic-book format commercial. What seems unbelievable now is how difficult it was back in the pre-Internet, pre-Windows late 1970s to come up with things to do on a computer that would in any way appeal to kids.”

Naturally, the comic book also included advertisements for Radio Shack products. One other thing that distinguished the Radio Shack editions from other Superman comics, in addition to the lack of a price tag, was the presence of a Radio Shack catalog number, 68-2030.

The final edition of the Superman Radio Shack comics was published in 1982. It featured Wonder Woman alongside the Man of Steel in a battle against Lex Luthor, titled “The Computer Masters of Metropolis.” In the story written by Paul Kupperberg and illustrated by Swan and

Frank Chiaramonte, Luthor threatens to destroy the Metropolis World’s Fair, but is stymied

by Superman, Wonder Woman, and the TRS-80 Computer Whiz Kids. Like the 1981 edition, this issue also included a “Student’s Guide to Computer Terms” following the story.

With regard to Radio Shack approval of the Superman storyline, Paul Kupperberg’s experience mirrored that of Cary Bates: “I don’t have any specific memories of any Radio Shack interference on that DC one. But Julie would have run interference between the client—who was, for all intents and purposes the Radio Shack Director of In-House Publications, Bill Palmer—and the creators, so any comments on the plot to me would have come directly from Julie.”

The Radio Shack Superman comics were not the first (or last) experience DC had with “custom comics.” Other custom comics involving DC characters included everything from a 1948 A.C. Gilbert catalog featuring Superman to Supergirl comic books about seat-belt safety produced for Honda in the mid-1980s.

It is difficult to say for certain if the Superman comic books had any direct impact on sales of Radio Shack personal computers, but when the license with DC Comics ran its course, Tandy turned to Archie Comics to produce a new line of comic books for Radio Shack.

Archie published a series of comic books called Whiz Kids, which featured the same characters, Alec and Shanna, who had appeared with Superman in the DC comics. Like the Superman comics, each issue of Whiz Kids contained a new adventure story, ranging from saying no to drugs to safeguarding the environment, and featuring Radio Shack computers. There were a total of eight Whiz Kids comics produced between 1984 and 1992, roughly one a year. Writers for the Whiz Kids stories included Bill Palmer, Paul Kupperberg, and Mike Pellowski, a former professional football player. Carmine Infantino, Stan Goldberg, Dick Ayers, Chic Stone, Mike Esposito, and Howard Bender were the artists that illustrated Whiz Kids.

The May 1984 edition of Intercom Magazine, an in-house Radio Shack publication, reported, “Radio Shack’s new comic book about computers, TRS-80 Computer Whiz Kids, is now available through the warehouse serving your region. The new edition of the educational comic book is designed to help young students become computer literate by blending the entertainment features of a comic book with facts and useful information about computers.

It stimulates interest in reading and a motivation to learn more about computers and the challenges of the computer age. A special packet was mailed to US teachers recently, including a sample copy of the comic book, a promotional letter and order form to request the initial quantity of the books for classroom distribution. The letter also advised teachers that additional copies of the comic book may be obtained without cost from participating stores and dealers in the US. So, have some books on hand for local requests. It’s an excellent way to make additional contacts with teachers and schools that could lead to sales of our computers and software.” In addition to the regular Whiz Kids comics, Archie Comics produced one issue of Archie and the History of Electronics in 1990 that featured Archie and the gang from Riverdale, which was also packaged with the last Whiz Kids story.

Kupperberg notes that Radio Shack took a more active role in the new comic-book series. “A couple of years later, when Archie Comics picked up the Radio Shack license, and Victor Gorelick hired me to write them, since I already had experience working on the license at DC, I got to see what Julie was keeping me from,” Kupperberg says.

“Palmer was this big LBJ Texas type—Tandy, the parent company of Radio Shack, was based in Fort Worth—in a brown polyester suit and cowboy boots. I went into Archie’s offices to pitch the plot Victor and I had worked out to Palmer. Michael Silberkleit and Richard Goldwater, the Archie co-publishers, were also there. So I launch into the pitch, keeping an eye on Palmer, who’s slouched in his seat, listening and nodding.

“About halfway through, he asked me a story question that had nothing to do with the story I was pitching,” Kupperberg continues. “I tried to bring it back around to my story, but Palmer had more questions, each one further from what I’m talking about than the last. Victor and I kept looking at each other and trying to help the other answer these ridiculous questions. But we finally got the hint and just started taking notes.

Obviously, Palmer had walked into the room with his story in mind and since he was the client, that’s the story he got, by gum!”

Artist Howard Bender remembers the Whiz Kids comics fondly: “I was already familiar with the Radio Shack comics from the times I’d shop in the store and they’d hand them out for free. I got the assignment for the Radio Shack Whiz Kids comics from Victor Gorelick when I first started working for Archie. I just assumed that all the other artists Victor had working were busy drawing their own regular assignments. Plus, I did have some experience drawing young teens similar to Alec and Shanna with DC’s [Adventure Comics starring] Dial ‘H’ for Hero, Vicki and Chris. I was given reference for Alec and Shanna and all the electronics Radio Shack wanted to showcase in the books (which was pretty much the very same stuff each issue). The first book I drew, ‘A Deadly Choice!’ (Feb. 1990), was inked by my old pal Mike Esposito, who helped me get the job at Archie in the first place. Mike was like an uncle to me up at Marvel, or probably from his point a view, ‘the kid who got him coffee.’ Then Victor, probably wanting to see how I’d handle the Archie characters, assigned me Archie and the History of Electronics (May 1990), another Radio Shack comic which had all the Archie characters in it. The last Tandy comic I drew was “Safeguarding the Environment” (1991), which introduced Jack to the Whiz Kids cast and had to do with recycling.”

Coupon No Longer Valid (top) Teacher advertisement from the back cover of “The Computers That Saved Metropolis.” (bottom) Splash page to the second giveaway, “Victory by Computer,”

by Bates/Swan/Colletta. © Tandy Corp. Superman and Supergirl TM & © DC Comics.

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More Whiz Kids Courtesy of the artist, Howard Bender’s preliminary cover art for Whiz Kids in “Safeguarding the Environment.”

TM & © Tandy Corp.

Color Computer …in Black and White Original art of Superman, Wonder Woman, the Whiz Kids, and TRS-80 on the last page from “The Computer Masters of Metropolis.” Special thanks to Ray Cuthbert for the art.

Superman and Wonder Woman TM & © DC Comics.

Whiz Kids TM & © Tandy Corp.

Science Fair: Ticket to Your Future. By the early 1990s, Radio Shack likely found the comics losing their relevance for young people, much as they did in the mainstream comic-book market.

For a significant period of time, though, comics served as a forum to help educate our youth (and sell a few computers), thanks to Radio Shack.

And in some cases, the Radio Shack comics also led to a bit of notoriety, as Bender recalls: “I did get some letters and requests at shows to sign copies and kids asking how they too could become Whiz Kids like Alec, Shanna, and Jack. I just told them to howard bender keep reading the books.”

While the process of producing custom comics could be a challenging one, there is one thing about which the creators involved all agree—it was profitable. Kupperberg recalls, “I’ve done dozens of special projects, or what we usually call custom comics, either as a writer or an editor, and they’ve each had their own unique creative challenges, ranging from finding an Howard Bender/Facebook.

Sincere thanks to Cary Bates, Paul Kupperberg, and Howard elegant way to integrate the product into the story to Bender for their insight, as well as dealing with a client who hires you for your expertise and Manny Alvear from Radio Shack then proceeds to micromanage every step of the process media relations and the website of which he has no knowledge or creative ability. But, on www.radioshackcatalogs.com, the upside, I don’t know how it works at DC these days, which is not affiliated with the but back then, you got paid one-and-a-half times your company. standard page rate for special projects and custom DEWEY CASSELL, who worked at comics. They knew what a pain in the ass clients were, Radio Shack during summers and so they paid the extra dough to cover your aggravation breaks from college in the early 1980s, and all the capricious rewrites and redraws they’re going is the Eisner Award-nominated to have to put you through.” author of over 35 articles and three In later years, The Science Fair Story of Electronics books, including The Incredible became The History of Electronics. The issue featuring Herb Trimpe, available from Archie was the last, not including a one-shot called TwoMorrows Publishing.

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pat broderick

carmine infantino Luigi Novi / Wikimedia Commons.

jim aparo

brian bolland Luigi Novi / Wikimedia Commons.

TM

dick giordano

joe kubert Luigi Novi / Wikimedia Commons.

gil kane Alan Light / Wikimedia Commons.

by

J o h n Tr u m b u l l

george pérez Luigi Novi / Wikimedia Commons.

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Divided We Fall George Pérez’s astounding, amazing, awesome (feel free to add more superlatives) wraparound cover to Justice League of America #200 (Mar. 1982).

TM & © DC Comics.

hold in your hands. Through one of those happy publishing decisions that make a writer’s life so full, that original 48-page book was expanded to 72 pages. At first, Len Wein suggested that two stories be done for the book; one complete story by George Pérez, and a second story featuring five or six chapters drawn by five or six different artists.

The Justice League of America debuted in The Brave and the Bold “It was Roy Thomas, of All-Star Squadron fame, who suggested #28 (Feb.–Mar. 1960). A new version of the Golden Age’s Justice that the two stories be combined into one single story 72 pages Society of America, the Justice League brought together DC long. George Pérez and I had already agreed on what kind Comics’ greatest superheroes into one unstoppable team. of story we wanted to do for JLA #200 (a tribute to the After a three-issue tryout in B&B, the League graduated earliest Fox-Sekowsky tales, with members fighting to its own book before the end of 1960. The early each other, old against new); the logical next step JLA stories of writer Gardner Fox, penciler Mike was simply to integrate the idea of individual chapters Sekowsky, and editor Julius Schwartz followed the into the already-determined framework. And that’s same formula as the JSA: a menace would arise to when the fun began.” challenge the team; the League would split up to Expanding the story to 72 pages, Gerry combat various aspects of the menace, coming Conway tells BACK ISSUE, “made it much more together for the villain’s final defeat. complex, but it actually worked very well with the The team’s origin was revealed in Justice League original structure. It just gave us the opportunity to of America #9 (Feb. 1962), where seven claimants to develop each sequence a little more fully and make the throne of the planet Appellax choose Earth as the wraparound a larger story, a little more elaborate. their battlefield, rocketing to Earth in kryptonite In one sense it made less work, because I didn’t gerry conway meteors. The Martian Manhunter, Aquaman, have to come up with two stories, but it made Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, and the Flash each more work in that I had to develop the story more vanquish an alien in individual battles across the globe. fully to encompass 72 pages.”

The five unite to defeat the sixth alien on the Carolina coast, while For his part, Roy Thomas tells BI, “The only thing I recall is suggesting Superman and Batman beat the seventh in Greenland. Working together that [Gerry] get different artists to draw the interim chapters, like in the inspires the seven heroes to form a permanent team, the Justice old All-Star Comics. But, hey, anything else he credits me with, I’ll take it.

League of America. Together, they bury the Appellaxian meteors at After all, he helped me plenty of times, too.” the original landing sites.

Scripting a triple-sized book didn’t adversely affect Conway’s workload. “We actually planned it out over a period of time, so it FROM 48 TO 72 In 1981, the JLA creative team of writer Gerry Conway, penciler didn’t all hit in one month,” he recalls. “We knew this was going to be George Pérez, and editor Len Wein wanted to make the JLA’s 22nd taking place, and I think the biggest impact was on George, because anniversary issue as special as possible. As Conway explained in he was doing a regular monthly book and to do this on top of that did his text piece The First Two Hundred in JLA #200 (Mar. 1982): “Our take him more work.”

George Pérez was happy to take on the challenge. The artist original notion was to produce a 48-page comic book story, a little larger than most, but by no means as unusual as what you now was nearing the end of his run on the Justice League, but as he “Just Imagine! The mightiest heroes of our time—Superman, Batman, Flash, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, and J’onn J’onzz, the Manhunter from Mars—have banded together as the Justice League of America to stamp out the forces of evil wherever and whenever they appear!”

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wrote in his introduction to DC Comics Classics Library: Justice League of America by George Pérez, vol. 2 (2010), “I had one last JLA dream I wanted to fulfill. Having already drawn the 200th issue of Marvel’s The Avengers, I so wanted to do the same for JLA’s 200th—and to do that I was going to need some help.”

THE WORLD’S GREATEST COMIC-BOOK ARTISTS When it came to guest artists for the individual chapters, editor Len Wein assembled a murderers’ row of talent: Pat Broderick and Terry Austin, Jim Aparo, Dick Giordano, Gil Kane, Carmine Infantino and Frank Giacoia, Brian Bolland, and Joe Kubert. “There were several people that we absolutely, desperately wanted to have in it,” Gerry Conway recalls. “And we got them. We got Aparo, we got Carmine, we got Gil Kane. We got the best of the bunch that were available to us at the time. It sure made me look good!”

As Conway wrote in 1981, “Suffice it to say that the coordination of eight different pencilers and ten chapters and one writer and one editor gave us all some pretty hairy moments. Several chapters had to be plotted and drawn out of sequence, because of the artists’ scheduling problems; two chapters were scripted before the plot for the entire issue was finished. And yet, and yet … somehow … it all came together.”

Conway remembers that artist availability was “one of the reasons we kept it to a fairly simple storyline regarding what was going on in those chapters, so I didn’t have to worry about an event from one chapter necessarily affecting an event in another chapter.” As editor Len Wein recalls, “Coordination was a bitch. The only more difficult assignment I ever had was trying to coordinate 32 artists and writers every month when I was doing Who’s Who.”

CH. 1: FIRESTORM THE NUCLEAR MAN VS. MANHUNTER FROM MARS After a three-page recap of the JLA’s origin, the story opens with a stunning George Pérez/Brett Breeding double-page spread of the JLA Satellite, in orbit 22,300 miles above the Earth.

The League’s newest member, Firestorm, is bored out of his mind on monitor duty. He is soon startled by a mysterious green man bursting through the bulkhead, demanding to see his fellow Justice Leaguers. A confused Nuclear Man tracks the intruder to the League’s trophy room, where the Martian Manhunter defeats the young hero and makes off with a green meteor.

Theorizing that his opponent was a former member of the League, Firestorm sends out a triple-priority signal, len wein summoning all JLA members past and present. Responding to the call are Green Arrow, the Atom, Hawkman, Black Canary, © Scoop.

Elongated Man, Red Tornado, and Zatanna. Original members Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Aquaman, and Green Lantern are all conspicuously absent. Deducing that Firestorm’s assailant was founding member J’onn J’onzz, the JLAers quickly realize the connection to the League’s very first case.

Despite quitting the League some time before, Green Arrow swiftly takes charge: “I figure something about those meteors has grabbed hold of the original members’ minds. J’onzz obviously thinks it’s years ago. The others might be the same way. We’ll split up—head for the six burial sites. Stop our pals from getting those meteors!” Honorary member Snapper Carr (last seen in JLA #181, Aug. 1980), arriving in response to the signal, stays on the Satellite with Firestorm to monitor the missions.

CH. 2: AQUAMAN VS. RED TORNADO JLA ally the Phantom Stranger introduces this chapter, as Aquaman surfaces on a volcanic isle in the Indian Ocean in search of his meteor. The Red Tornado tries to talk his teammate down, only to find himself attacked as an unknown foe. Just as the Tornado goes on the offensive, the Phantom Stranger strikes him down with a bolt of lightning, allowing the Sea King to complete his mission.

Battles One and Two (top) Firestorm vs. Martian Manhunter. Art by Pat Broderick and Terry Austin. (bottom) Aquaman vs. Red Tornado. Art by Jim Aparo.

TM & © DC Comics.

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Battles Three and Four (left) Zatanna vs.

Wonder Woman.

Art by Dick Giordano. (right) Green Lantern vs. the Atom.

Art by Gil Kane.

TM & © DC Comics.

After Aquaman departs, the Phantom Stranger explains, “Forces are at work here which must not be denied. Defeat for one of the original Justice Leaguers— might lead to defeat for all! Thus, by an ironic twist, in order to help them overcome this threat—I had to side with one against another.” The Stranger then envelops the unconscious android in his cloak, transporting him back to the JLA Satellite for repair.

Gerry Conway explains that many of JLA #200’s character matchups were affected by the artists. “With the Firestorm team-up, obviously Pat Broderick was available to do that, so I wanted him to do it, because he was the regular [Fury of] Firestorm artist. But then, who would we put against Firestorm? Naturally, it would be Martian Manhunter, because Martian Manhunter’s weakness is fire. [laughter] You have to go there!

“In the Aquaman team-up with Red Tornado and Phantom Stranger, that was because I was working with Jim Aparo, and Jim Aparo had drawn both Phantom Stranger and Aquaman. So again, that sort of naturally lent itself. I think in one case it was, ‘Well, we have these two characters left, let’s just give it to this artist.’

But for the most part, we tried to match it up to someone whose skill set and familiarity with the character would make it special.”

CH. 3: ZATANNA VS. WONDER WOMAN In this Dick Giordano-drawn chapter, Zatanna arrives on Paradise Island, home of the Amazons. But the Mistress of Magic is too late, as Wonder Woman is

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already unearthing her meteor from beneath the Temple of Athena. Zatanna conjures up a water spout to stop the Amazing Amazon, but Wonder Woman’s magic lasso deflects it to overcome Zatanna instead. The nearly drowned Zatanna is healed by the Amazons’ purple ray, but Diana’s failure to aid her wounded friend confirms that the original Leaguers are all under the control of some unknown force.

As highlighted on the interstitial page by George Pérez following this chapter, JLA #200 doesn’t suffer from the usual inconsistencies seen in artistic jam issues; it flows as a single story throughout. Even Queen Hippolyta, a character without a regular costume, is dressed exactly the same on the Pérez page as she was on the previous Giordano pages. Gerry Conway attributes this consistency to Len Wein’s tight editorial control: “You can credit Len a great deal on making sure that everybody was working from the same references. And we did have the advantage of having George being able to come in and fit his interstitials to the work that was around him. So it was a very carefully produced book. I’m really amazed that we did it as well as we did!”

CH. 4: GREEN LANTERN VS. THE ATOM In Zimbabwe, the Atom commandeers a fighter jet to catch up to Green Lantern in the desert. Despite getting the initial drop on GL (in a trademark Gil Kane punch), the Atom is overcome, winding up encased in a ring construct. The Mighty Mite escapes the power-ring

trap by shrinking to microscopic size, slipping through the ground molecules underneath.

A discouraged Atom beams back to the Satellite, where the recovered Red Tornado observes that the original Leaguers have more than just experience on their side: “We are battling fellow League-members, but they are operating without memory. To them, we are simply unknown enemies! That gives them an advantage we may be unable to overcome…”

The battles between the old and new Leaguers were made especially memorable by the fullpage splashes highlighting each matchup. It was the Bronze Age equivalent to a Silver Age book that Wein, Conway, and Pérez had all grown up on: 1964’s Amazing Spider-Man Annual #1, where SpiderMan’s fights with the Sinister Six each had fullpage splashes. Conway confirms the influence, stating, “Oh, absolutely.

The Spider-Man Annual was actually structured a lot like a JLA story, if you go back to it. Because the JLA was always about Superman and Batman are going to stay back and not get involved, but Flash and Martian Manhunter are going to go off and do something, and Wonder Woman and Green Lantern are going to go off and do something, and some other team-up of two characters will go off and do something, and Snapper Carr will stay back and be amusing. And the SpiderMan Annual was that writ large. I loved, as a kid, the idea of these poster images of the hero in battle with a particular villain, or in the case of our story, a hero versus a hero. The idea that we could create these little mini-posters that maybe that kids would cut out and put on their wall, like I did with my Spider-Man posters, that was a fun idea.”

CH. 5: THE FLASH VS. THE ELONGATED MAN This Carmine Infantino-drawn chapter opens with the Flash scouring Northern Italy for his Appellaxian meteor. A disguised Elongated Man catches his teammate by surprise, but the Flash counters by playing possum and creating an earthquake with his super-speed. The Stretchable Sleuth is ultimately fooled by after-images of the Scarlet Speedster, enabling the Fastest Man Alive to get away.

As the original JLAers gather the meteors together at their Secret Sanctuary outside Metropolis, they begin to question their circumstances. The Martian Manhunter awoke on an unknown

Battle Five The Flash vs. the Elongated Man. Art by Carmine Infantino and Frank Giacoia.

TM & © DC Comics.

planet instead of Mars, Wonder Woman’s chest emblem is a double W instead of an eagle, and their headquarters is in ruins, as if abandoned years before.

According to early press releases seen in Amazing Heroes and The Comics Journal, another Carmine Infantino character, Adam Strange, was originally intended to appear in the Flash/ Elongated Man chapter.

Gerry Conway explains, “It was something we intended to do, but when you get down to it in writing a five-page chapter, you realize that’s a bridge potentially too far. Adam Strange was one of my favorite characters from the Julie Schwartz era in the ’60s. But it didn’t seem like there was much way of shoehorning that in. I barely managed to shoehorn the Phantom Stranger into the Aquaman/ Red Tornado chapter.”

Thankfully, Conway found another place to fit Adam Strange in more organically.

CH. 6: GREEN ARROW AND BLACK CANARY VS. BATMAN In the swamplands of the Carolina coast, a bellyaching Green Arrow tags along with Black Canary to track down Batman. The Caped Crusader makes quick work of the pair, leaving the Emerald Archer handcuffed and Black Canary knocked out by one of GA’s trick arrows.

The duo quickly recover and track Batman to the beach, only to discover that the Darknight Detective has already disappeared.

Back on the Satellite, the JLAers commiserate their losses, while in the Secret Sanctuary, the original team notices their six Appellaxian meteors starting to glow…

As most chapters in JLA #200 were drawn by artists associated with the heroes, it’s somewhat surprising to see the Batman/Green Arrow/Black Canary chapter drawn by the then-new-to-DC Brian Bolland, rather than Neal Adams, a fan-favorite who had history with all three characters. When asked if Adams was ever considered for this segment, editor Len Wein tells BACK ISSUE, “I honestly no longer remember, though asking Neal to do that chapter makes a

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Battle Six Green Arrow and Black Canary vs.

Batman. Art by Brian Bolland.

TM & © DC Comics.

lot of sense.” Gerry Conway theorizes, “I think he was just too busy with his commercial work to be available for that. But he would have been ideal, obviously. I don’t know specifically that there was a discussion, but I think we all knew that would not be a practical choice.”

While the meticulous Bolland was the very last artist added into the mix, Conway was not concerned about his speed. “Whether he was slow or not, he was also very reliable, so if he took it on, you knew that you would get it. And we planned this out. This took place over a period of several months, so I’m pretty sure that he was given sufficient time to do the work.”

CH. 7: HAWKMAN VS. SUPERMAN Joe Kubert illustrates the last guest chapter as Hawkman journeys to Greenland, the burial site of the seventh and final meteor. The Winged Wonder defeats two Superman robots with his trademark medieval

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weaponry, but the real Man of Steel, arriving in a plasta-lead alloy to protect him from kryptonite, knocks Hawkman into orbit and leaves with his prize.

As the unconscious Thanagarian drifts in the upper edges of Earth’s atmosphere, he is enveloped in a strange light, and vanishes.

Conway admits that the mismatch of a Hawkman/Superman fight was largely unavoidable.

“Those are because you’re sort of left over at that point. Atom and Green Lantern you have to do because of the artist [Gil Kane]. It’s a mismatch, but it’s also thematically tied to the artist. The same way with Carmine, and with Flash and Elongated Man. It wouldn’t have really made any sense from a practical point of view. If this had been one artist doing this book, the matchups may have been different. Firestorm versus Superman, for example, would’ve made much more sense. Hawkman versus Green Lantern would’ve made more sense. But you’re dealing with the iconic artists, so it creates a different dynamic.”

We soon discover that Hawkman was caught in a Zeta Beam and transported to Rann, the adopted planet of Adam Strange. Strange contacts his allies in the JLA and drains the Zeta Beam radiation from Hawkman’s body. When the Thanagarian rematerializes outside the JLA Satellite, the Elongated Man stretches beyond his limits to bring him to safety. Green Arrow is the first to reach Hawkman’s side, their longtime feud a thing of the past.

Back at the Secret Sanctuary, the original JLAers shake off their mind control as the kryptonite meteors hatch like eggs, returning the seven Appellaxians to life. It is revealed that the aliens planted soul-clones into each of their meteors, complete with timed hypnotic suggestions, compelling the JLAers to gather them together years later. Quickly defeating the heroes, the resurrected Appellaxians decide to finally settle their claim to their homeworld’s throne by group combat.

The new JLAers arrive soon after. With the original Leaguers back in their right minds, the entire team goes after the aliens. In a gorgeous panoramic shot of the reunited JLA charging forward, the captions state, “They have no battle cry—nor do they need one! They are fifteen of the greatest heroes this weary world has ever seen—and their strength resides not in simple slogans, but in their very identity: for they are the Justice League!”

Thirty-five years later, Gerry Conway confirms that this narration was “a little wink to the ‘Avengers Assemble!’ ” battle cry of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.

“But it’s all in good fun, too. We’re not seriously saying, ‘We’re better than you guys.’ We’re just saying we don’t need to shout any, ‘It’s clobbering time!’ or ‘Avengers Assemble!’ ” When asked if he was ever tempted to give the JLA an official battle cry, Conway wonders, “What could it be? ‘Leaguers Unite’? Whatever you say, it sounds a little silly.”

CH. 8: BATMAN, BLACK CANARY, GREEN ARROW, HAWKMAN, SUPERMAN, WONDER WOMAN, ZATANNA In the forests of Vermont, a JLA team tracks down the first three of the Appellaxians: the Wood-King, the Crystal Creature, and the Mercury Monster. Operating as a full team once more, the JLAers quickly defeat their foes. Superman shatters the Wood-King into splinters; Zatanna boils the Mercury Monster into nothingness while Batman shatters the Crystal Creature with a well-placed batarang.

CH. 9: AQUAMAN, ELONGATED MAN, THE FLASH, THE RED TORNADO Aquaman, the Flash, the Elongated Man, and Red Tornado track the next two aliens to an island off the Ireland coast. Once again, the Leaguers use teamwork to defeat the villains. In a standout moment, Aquaman drags the Glass-Man into the ocean depths, the pressure fracturing his foe into pieces. As the Elongated Man provides a necessary distraction, the Red Tornado traps the Fire-Lord into a gigantic vortex, snuffing him out like a candle.

CH. 10: THE ATOM, FIRESTORM, GREEN LANTERN, MARTIAN MANHUNTER The final two Appellaxians, the Golden Roc and the Stone-God, are found rampaging through New York City like Godzilla and Mothra, much to the consternation of Firestorm. While the Nuclear Man protects bystanders from debris, GL jackhammers the rock monster into rubble. The Atom, shot out of a miniature cannon by Green Lantern, throws the Golden Roc off-balance long enough for J’onn J’onzz to deliver the killing blow.

The battle at last over, the Martian Manhunter declares, “We acted as a team—and as a team, we prevailed!”

Green Lantern agrees, saying, “A team… It’s good to hear that word, and really understand what it means.”

In an epilogue on the JLA Satellite, the remnants of the Appellaxian seed-clones are hurled into Earth’s sun.

The Martian Manhunter and Snapper Carr both depart on friendly terms, leaving only Green Arrow, who’d quit the League in anger 19 issues before. “Arrow, don’t leave. Come back to us,” Hawkman pleads. “You must know that we need you.” Obstinate to the last, the Battling Bowman prepares to go, finally reconsidering on the steps of the teleporter. “Aw, nuts… Maybe I’m not such a loner after all…” Green Arrow is welcomed back into the JLA with open arms, and the World’s Greatest SuperHeroes are whole once more.

NOTABLY ABSENT Did Conway always plan for the erstwhile archer to return in issue #200? The writer replies, “I don’t think it was specifically that clear of a plan. [But] I knew that I’d like to have him back at some point, because I thought he created a nice dynamic in the group.”

One Leaguer didn’t make it into #200, even in a passing mention—Hawkgirl. At the time, she was embroiled in a subplot in World’s Finest placing her off-planet. “To the extent that other characters had ongoing storylines that required them to be away from the scene, we felt the kind of pressure to acknowledge that,” Conway says. “If somebody was actively involved in something else where other creators were trying to create suspense around their story, you don’t want to undercut that by using them in your team-up book that says, ‘Yeah, everybody’s fine.’ Which is, by the way, one of the reasons we ultimately tried to switch out the group three or four years later.”

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Battle Seven (right) Original art to the Hawkman vs.

Superman opening page, courtesy of Heritage. (left) The smackdown. Art by Joe Kubert.

TM & © DC Comics.

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United We Stand All together now!

The League rallies at the climax of issue #200. By Conway, Pérez, and Breeding.

TM & © DC Comics.

FANS AT HEART For his part, George Pérez regards JLA #200 as an important step in his own artistic development. In a 2003 interview with Eric Nolan-Weathington for Modern Masters, Pérez reminisced, “When I saw it in print, I was like, ‘Oh, my God, look how great Brian Bolland’s Black Canary and Batman are. I wish mine were that good. Look how great Green Lantern looks when he’s drawn by Gil Kane.’ But no matter what I did with the characters, these guys are doing the iconic versions. They are the ones who made them famous. They’re the ones who, if it weren’t for them, I wouldn’t be doing them. So it was an honor, and I didn’t feel intimidated until after it was printed, and by that point I didn’t have to worry about it because, hey, it’s done. [laughter] I did okay and the fans like my stuff on it a lot, but I saw the fact that I was a good artist. There are the great artists who are showing me that I always have to keep improving in order to earn the status that they have. It was a good lesson in humility. I was proud of my work there, but those guys showed me how much I still needed to learn.”

Pérez’s inker Brett Breeding had a different reaction when he first saw JLA #200 in print: confusion. “I had no idea at the time, or it just went past me somehow, that these were pieces that were going to be filling in other stories. I didn’t know that Justice League #200 was going to be anybody other than George and me until I saw the actual book in print. And I went, ‘Wow! What’s THIS?’ because up until that point, you’d see books that would do framing sequences new, but it would always be reprint material.

So I thought, ‘Wow, this is a bunch of reprints in here!’ And then I went back, and I went through it, and I realized, ‘No, it’s all tied together as a story.’

And then I realized, ‘No, this is the way it was meant to be.’ And then I eventually talked to somebody. [laughter]” But still, Breeding says, “Justice League was a favorite of mine. I always liked the team books. So here I am doing my favorite DC book, characters, with a favorite artist. It was kind of a kid’s wet dream. It was a great all-around experience for me.

I was happy to be a part of it.”

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Inker Terry Austin relates, “I LOVED the Justice League of America comic book growing up! For many years the Gardner Fox/Mike Sekowsky/[inker]Bernie Sachs team was my favorite combination of creators in comics (even though I didn’t learn their names until later). The first page of original artwork that I ever bought at the first convention that I went to was a Sekowsky and Sachs page from the JLA (purchased from Jerry Bails, along with a Joe Kubert Hawkman page).

All these years later, it’s a kick to realize that I shared those pages with the likes of Infantino, Kubert, and Kane, who were responsible for the art on so many of the DC stories that made my childhood so enjoyable around the time of those early JLA extravaganzas!”

It’s clear that JLA #200 was special for its creators and readers alike as a celebration of fandom. “It’s one of those books that I’m just enormously pleased that I was able to participate in it,” Gerry Conway says today.

“For me as a fanboy, it plays to my fanboy-isms. I think what’s fun about this book is it exists only because it’s fan service. And if you’re doing fan-service, you do things like bring in Snapper Carr; you do things like reference the first story of the comic book. You do things like bring it back to the old format; bring in artists who are associated with characters. All that stuff is fan-service, and we were fans, so we wanted to do it.”

When asked if there was anything they’d change about JLA #200 today, Wein and Conway are in complete agreement. Len Wein replies, “Not a single thing. Looking back on the book, it came out pretty close to perfectly.”

Gerry Conway concurs, saying, “Oh, no. It’s pretty much a perfect experience for me.”

JOHN TRUMBULL thought that JLA #200 was the coolest comic ever at age 9. At age 43, he hasn’t changed his opinion. Thanks to Terry Austin, Brett Breeding, Gerry Conway, Roy Thomas, and Len Wein for sharing their memories with BACK ISSUE. Special thanks to Michael Eury, Rob Kelly, and John Wells for research assistance.

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Dr. Travis Langley is the author of the highly acclaimed book Batman and Psychology: A Dark and Stormy Knight.

A professor of psychology at Henderson State University in Arkansas, Langley has delved into the psyche of the Dark Knight and speaks regularly at comic-book conventions across the country. He also has very strong views about another iconic hero—Superman—as readers are soon to find out. This interview was conducted via email in March of 2015.

– Jason Strangis

by

Jason Strangis

JASON STRANGIS: You said in your book that Adam West once asked if you thought Batman was crazy. So, is Batman crazy?

TRAVIS LANGLEY: Man, I spent a whole book answering that question. For one thing, “crazy” is not a technical term, obviously. To the point, though: He knows what he’s doing and he knows there’s something crazy about it. He’s choosing to do this crazy thing to shake things up in his environment. He carries this emotional burden but does not let it cripple him, not at the things that matter most to him in life. For his priorities, no one functions better. Who’s going to fall apart first in a crisis, him or any of us? Not him.

Batman has some post-traumatic stress symptoms, to be sure, but not the whole range of them, and he channels his own symptoms into a constructive purpose.

He shows what we call post-traumatic growth by making meaning out of his great tragedy and using that to find a purpose in life. Candace Lightner and John Walsh each suffered great tragedies in their own lives, and out of those tragedies they found purpose. She founded Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) to get drunk drivers of the road, and he went on to advocate for missing children and help catch criminals, even hosting the program America’s Most Wanted as part of his mission to do so. Most people don’t do these things. Missions like the ones they have carry a great cost. They’re not wearing masks, of course, but there have been times in history and locations in the world where the only way to stand up to a corrupt regime was to do so anonymously.

Is Batman crazy? The answer I gave Adam when he asked me that is still my answer today: Not for the world in which he lives… He lives in one crazy world.

STRANGIS: There are those comic-book fans who believe that Batman—and not Bruce Wayne—is the true identity?

How do you feel about the subject?

LANGLEY: To me, it’s a false dichotomy. Batman is Bruce Wayne. Yes, he puts on this bored playboy act that isn’t who he is at heart, but he also puts on the extra-scary Batman act, the symbol who has to be more than a man and can’t show that he hurts. Clearly Batman’s mission is what’s closest to his heart. Both those acts serve that same mission. He always knows who he is: He’s Batman.

But he does hurt, he is human, and it was not a bat’s parents who died in that alley that night.

STRANGIS: Batman is obviously a character that you find intriguing. Did you read comic books as a kid, and was Batman always your favorite?

LANGLEY: I always loved comic books. My mom read them to me when I was tiny. Art by Neal Adams motivated

Meet the Author Dr. Travis Langley (left) and a fan. The fellow at right called Dr. Langley’s book a page turner, but wishes that the pages were more flipper-friendly.

Photo courtesy of Travis Langley. Penguin TM & © DC Comics.

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me to learn to read them for myself because I wanted to understand better why the comic-book stories looked so much more eerie than the Adam West TV show and cartoons had led me to expect. During early adolescence, there were a few years when Spider-Man was the one whose stories excited me the most. But otherwise, Batman has always been my favorite.

STRANGIS: Why do you think Batman has become one of the most famous and popular fictional characters and has lasted more than 75 years?

LANGLEY: He’s the superhero without superpowers. Where Superman is bright and impossible, powered by the sun, Batman is dark and possible-feeling, strengthened by the night. And his origin taps into the most primal human fears. We learn we will never get superpowers, we learn that out parents can and will die, and we learn bad things really happen in our world.

When we find ourselves in the dark and see no light in sight, we want someone, something, in the dark to stand up and do right.

Batman works on so many levels in ways that reach across generations and time. He can be dark, he can be bright. He can be grim, he can be fun. We always need heroes.

STRANGIS: The 1960s TV series starring Adam West, while campy, seemed to catapult the Caped Crusader to new heights of popularity. What did you think of the 1960s show?

LANGLEY: When I was a kid I had no idea it was a joke. It thrilled me. Even when I was a little kid I thought Robin’s “Holy” this and “Holy” that seemed kind of stupid, but I didn’t see the joke.

The show worked as intended—superhero adventure for the kids and campy comedy for the adults. I can still watch most episodes through a lens of nostalgia, so I’m still not seeing it the way adults of the time saw it.

STRANGIS: In 1986, Frank Miller came out with his seminal and groundbreaking The Dark Knight Returns. Do you think Miller was trying to emphasize that Bruce Wayne’s life is empty and devoid of real meaning unless he puts on the cape and cowl and fights crime?

LANGLEY: Miller certainly wrote him that way.

Bruce Wayne can’t really give up being Batman unless he finds some other way to fight the good fight without cape and cowl.

The Golden Age Batman from the original Earth-Two managed to do it. He doesn’t necessarily have to wear a mask, but does have to stay in the fight or his life is as empty as it was at the start of The Dark Knight Rises or Batman Beyond, and it’s easiest for him to stay in the fight when he’s wearing the mask.

STRANGIS: There’s the famous moment in Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns when Batman and Superman battle it out. How would you compare and contrast Batman and Superman as comic-book characters, and would Batman really stand a chance in a fight with the Man of Steel?

“Is Batman crazy?”

LANGLEY: Yes. Every classic superhero story, (this page) Well, America went whether it stars Batman, Superman, Spider-Man, Wonder Woman, or even the undefeatable mad for him in 1966! Detail Squirrel Girl, puts that hero in a situation where from the cover of the March he or she is at a disadvantage. In the best stories it looks like the hero might lose, and then the 11, 1966 edition of Life, with hero figures out a way to win anyhow. Superman Adam West. (center) Detail usually did not win by simply overpowering his foes.

He won by figuring out a solution to a problem. from Joe Kubert’s cover for Batman figures out solutions better than anybody Batman #327 (Sept. 1980). else. Superman has a lot of weaknesses, and Batman knows them all. (opposite) Frank Miller original There’s a wonderful line in the Hush story arc art for his Absolute Dark Knight when Batman reflects on the fact that Superman has the power to destroy him from outer space but edition, courtesy of Heritage. won’t do it. He knows how Superman thinks, what Batman TM & © DC Comics. motivates him, and what he will and will not do.

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STRANGIS: (SPOILER ALERT) A controversial moment in director Zack Snyder’s 2013 Man of Steel movie showed Superman killing the main villain, Zod. Did you feel that went against Superman’s true character?

LANGLEY: That whole movie went against Superman’s true character. It’s a very cynical take on an un-cynical character. It’s a bleak look at a character that is not bleak. You can’t just tell the audience, “It means hope.” You have to show it. Superman does the right thing not because of tragedy.

He’s not Batman! The destruction of Krypton is like a history lesson to him. He didn’t knowingly go through that. He learned it after the fact, after the Kents had already raised him to be a good person and to do the right thing because it is the right thing, not “maybe” let a busload of kids die. Some people really are too jaded to understand that. Smallville lasted ten years because there really is an audience for Superman the Boy Scout.

So many of Superman’s defining qualities are missing in Man of Steel. There is no dual identity in this movie. There is no Clark/Superman distinction.

He’s one guy with a secret. Lois always knows who he is. The whole original point of Superman is the dual identity! He’s the meek guy who can’t get the girl but gets to reassure himself that he’s secretly super.

STRANGIS: One of the criticisms of Man of Steel seems to be a lack of chemistry between Henry Cavill’s Superman and Amy Adams’ Lois Lane. Do you agree?

LANGLEY: That movie suffered from a lot of things. The classic Superman/Lois Lane relationship does not exist. Superman was dreamed up by a young man [Jerry Siegel] who had trouble appealing to girls, a guy who wished he had something secretly terrific about himself so he could feel better about himself when he got rejected. In Man of Steel, Lois knows his identity before she even knows him.

Superman tells her the symbol stands for hope, but she doesn’t feel it and neither do we. Show, don’t tell.

Show their relationship, show the hope, and show Superman being heroic. Tragedy does not drive most real heroes. Heroes often do the right thing simply because it’s the right thing. But some people are too cynical to see that Superman’s story is about light, not darkness.

STRANGIS: Switching back to the Dark Knight, what about Batman’s code when it comes to not taking a life?

LANGLEY: It’s necessary for Batman to function both personally and practically. Self-control built Bruce Wayne into Batman. He can’t give that up. It’s a defining quality for him as a human being. And no matter how pragmatic it might be for Batman to kill the Joker, that’s not his job. Gotham police have something of a wink-wink relationship with Batman. They tolerate the vigilante and even work with him because he doesn’t cross that line. Police can’t tolerate the Punisher. They can’t work with a killer. They can shoot criminals in the line of duty, but they can’t put up with a guy in a mask doing it. Batman’s out to inspire people, to instill fear in the wicked and hope in everyone else. A murderer is not that inspiration.

A murderer effectively inspired him by killing his parents, and that’s not what he wants to be to others.

STRANGIS: Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight movie trilogy was

applauded by fans for showing a dark, gritty, real-world approach and exploring the psychological side of heroes and villains. Overall, how did you feel about Nolan’s trilogy?

LANGLEY: It’s the closest we’ve come to seeing a live-action Batman that really lets us imagine what Batman would be like in the real world.

Not exactly our world, but very close. My one big reservation is that Batman wasn’t smart enough in those movies. We still haven’t seen much of Batman as detective.

STRANGIS: Heath Ledger gave a powerful and memorable performance as the Joker. What did you think of Ledger’s take on the Joker?

LANGLEY: It was the perfect performance for the story they were telling. People ask me, “Who’s your favorite Joker?” I don’t have one.

You don’t have to have a favorite and don’t let people push you into choosing to have feelings you don’t have. Cesar Romero, Jack Batman AND Superman Issue

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Analyzing the Hollywood Heroes (top) Dr. Langley shares his impressions of the Man of Steel movie Superman in this interview.

Wonder what he’ll think about Batman v.

Superman? (bottom) No matter your age, you become eight years old when you sit in the TV Batmobile!

Batman v. Superman TM & © Warner Bros./DC Comics. Batmobile photo courtesy of Travis Langley.

Nicholson, Heath Ledger, and Mark Hamill are not interchangeable. Each of those actors did an incredible job playing his version of the Joker in each respective versions of Batman’s story, and you can’t switch those actors around. Heath Ledger’s Joker does not fight Adam West’s Batman, and Cesar Romero’s Joker does not take on Keaton or Bale. They don’t even belong in the same world.

STRANGIS: In Nolan’s The Dark Knight, the Joker says: “Do I look like a guy with a plan?” But actually, the Joker often seems to be a few steps ahead of everyone else.

So the Joker knows what he’s doing, right?

LANGLEY: He certainly seems to in that film, yes.

When he says that, we in the audience know that, yes, he is putting a very complicated plan in motion at that very moment. Honestly, it’s a bit too complicated.

It requires him to anticipate too many people’s actions correctly through long sequences of “if this, then that and then that, that, and that.” The movie plays out so wonderfully that we don’t mind that it doesn’t withstand the heavy scrutiny. One thing that motivates the Joker is that he doesn’t understand people. He doesn’t get why other people won’t see the world the way he does and that frustrates him, so he goes to great

lengths sometimes to try to make his points to everyone, and he fails in the end because he’s wrong about human nature in the first place.

STRANGIS: While the Joker is considered the best Batman villain, there are a number of other great foes in the rogues’ gallery. What makes Batman’s villains so appealing?

LANGLEY: Batman is the superhero without superpowers.

He is defined by his psychology, so his enemies are also defined by their psychology, too. When writers create a new enemy for Superman, they have to start by considering what will challenge his powers and then work from there. With Batman, they start by considering what will challenge his character.

STRANGIS: Batman’s world has several strong female characters like Catwoman, Poison Ivy, Harley Quinn, and Talia. Why do you think femme fatales have such a strong presence in Gotham City?

LANGLEY: Three women in a city of eight million isn’t that many. I say three because Talia isn’t a Gotham native. Batman attracted her to Gotham. Nevertheless, Gotham has its dark and dangerous side, and those women are dark and dangerous. In some ways, Gotham City itself is a femme fatale.

STRANGIS: The Gotham television series received mixed reviews for its first season. What were your thoughts about Season One? [Editor’s note: Season Two had not yet begun at the time of this interview.]

LANGLEY: Most of the actors on Gotham are doing great jobs with the materiel they were given, especially Robin Lord Taylor as that version of the Penguin. David Mazouz makes young Bruce Wayne very believable.

I have trouble seeing where the show is going.

They’re making Gotham so strange that it’s going to be no big deal when some guy shows up dressed like a bat to run around punching all the criminals, who will be middle-aged and older by then.

I was afraid the show would build an assassination mystery around the Waynes’ death, and they have.

It detracts from the critical universality of that origin.

We can all fear random street crime. Most of us do not worry about our parents getting assassinated as part of some elaborate conspiracy.

JASON STRANGIS is comic-book columnist who has reviewed many superhero movies and TV shows over the years. He particularly enjoys attending comic cons and meeting writers, artists, and creators, and buying lots of cool stuff. He can be reached at jwstrangis@gmail.com.

76 • BACK ISSUE • Batman AND Superman Issue

Fawcett comics, repackaged with a new cardboard stock cover and enticing holiday shoppers with its 50-cent price tag. (Contents of each issue often varied.) There was also a one-shot, Holiday Comics (1942), and late-’40s issues of Xmas, which had “only” 196 pages, the latter with festive green and red felt added to its covers.

– P.C. Hamerlinck

Email: euryman@gmail.com (subject: BACK ISSUE) Postal mail: Michael Eury, Editor-in-Chief • BACK ISSUE 118 Edgewood Ave. NE • Concord, NC 28025

Find BACK ISSUE on

FAWCETT’S FATTEST COMICS Michael, I enjoyed your uniquely themed Giants and Reprints issue (BI #81). The Golden and Silver Age stories found in these comics and book collections opened up a floodgate of discovery and enjoyment for many young comics buyers back then—and were influential to those of us who would later delve into the world of comics history.

A tip of the fedora to you and your authors for their diligent research, and for wisely and fittingly including two comics historian greats— E. Nelson Bridwell and Michael Uslan—in the issue.

In your article, “A Look At DC’s Super Specs,” where you briefly looked at some early “Giant” comics that were akin to the modern-day trade paperback, I thought Fawcett’s massive, phonebook-thick comic-book collections should have been given honorable mention: several issues of Xmas Comics (1941) and Gift Comics (1942) contained a staggering 324 pages each of, not reprints, but remainder copies of

You’re right about the Fawcett books deserving honorable mention, P.C., and they should’ve penetrated my DC myopia. Thanks for giving them a shout-out here.

BI BOOSTERS I want to write and tell you how much I enjoy BACK ISSUE! I subscribed to the CBG [Comic Buyer’s Guide] for many years and was very sad when it ceased publication. I often carried it with me to read during my lunch hour and it kept me company on long business trips. I searched for a replacement and happily found BACK ISSUE. What I enjoy most about your magazine is the great amount of material relating to the Bronze Age of Comics. I loved Craig Shutt’s CBG articles about the Silver Age, however, that period of comics predates my entry into comic fandom by a few years. I began buying and reading comics in 1972. I found a Price Guide at a bookstore in 1974 and from that day forward I have considered myself a collector of comics (it was a survival tactic, on my part, as I had to somehow justify my expenditures for comics to my mom).

I just want you to know that BACK ISSUE is the best magazine about comics that is on the market today. I read several different magazines about comics every month and I enjoy yours the best.

I had the pleasure of meeting you at HeroesCon about two years ago and again at the Charlotte Comicon later that same year.

We spoke about the British Invasion issue [BI #63]. I told you about how much I liked the Ron Wilson cover and my love of the Fantastic Four. I enjoyed meeting you as I found you very open and easy to talk to. I left thinking about how nice it was to speak with you about comics, especially when I compare some conversations about comics that I have had with different fans over the years.

Keep up the good work and be proud of your magazine! Your work and efforts are not going unnoticed!

– Danny Walker

Characters TM & © DC Comics.

I’m getting caught up on BACK ISSUE, and I just had to thank you for your charming editorial on the Hulk in issue #70.

The reason this struck such a chord with me was because I was also eight years old in the summer of ’66 (b. 3/25/58), and my first Marvel was Tales to Astonish #85, on sale that August. I thought I was buying a monster comic, with the Hulk on a roof being attacked by a jet fighter!

Not understanding perspective, I also thought he was a giant!

I was already a DC fan, receiving my folded-in-half subscription to Batman; also in love with the TV show, like you!

Thanks again for all you do in preserving our memories! You are a cherished and important person to more people than you know!

– Ross Sprout

TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

Send your comments to:

Wow, Danny and Ross, you’ve made my day! Thanks for the positive feedback.

I’m very proud of BACK ISSUE. And, of course, it’s not just my work going into the magazine—luckily, there’s a talented pool of writers who consistently deliver the goods, and folks like designer Rich Fowlks, cover designer Michael Kronenberg, and proofreader Rob Smentek who make us all look good. But on behalf of everyone who works with me in creating each issue of BI, we’re bolstered by your enthusiasm!

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LOVED THE ARMCHAIR OFFICE TOUR I greatly enjoyed the anecdotal history of various locations of DC Comics in issue #80. It truly conveyed a genuine sense of “where the magic happens.” Many thanks.

– Gary Poirier

TROUBLE IN TOY TOWN Extremely disappointed by the quality of the Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars article in BI #82. Was there even a scrap of research done by the author? Everything is phrased as “it seems,” “apparently,” “possibly,” and the like. The entire article is mere speculation on why Mattel’s toy line didn't match up more closely with the content of the comic books. If the author can't reach anyone at Mattel who can explain, maybe the article isn’t ready for primetime. I learned nothing I hadn’t already read on Jim Shooter’s blog several years ago. Maybe Jim should have gotten a co-author credit.

– Matt Celis Sorry that article wasn’t to your liking, Matt. As a rule, Jim Shooter no longer agrees to TwoMorrows interviews (making Dec. 2015’s Alter Ego #137 a rare treat), and since Secret Wars has also been covered elsewhere at such great length, writer John Kirk went for a different perspective, hence our placing his article in BI’s “Toy Box” department.

WE DON’T NEED NO STINKIN’ REALISTIC SUPERHEROES I enjoyed the “Bronze Age Events” issue [BI #82]. These events were of special significance to me. As a young adult, I stopped buying comics; there was a time, way back when, when comic books were seen as childish diversions. An adult buying comic books was frowned on, and I bowed to the social pressure.

Years later, while shopping I happened to look at a rack of comics and noticed Secret Wars #4. I picked it up under the guise of nostalgia, but it was really more out of curiosity. I enjoyed it enough to scout out the first three issues, and have been back in the hobby ever since.

I liked the retrospective on the Avengers/Defenders War. As the article said, this sort of thing is pretty commonplace now but was unheard of back then, so it was a lot of fun. The look at the JSA/JLA team-ups was also interesting, and I liked seeing the cover shot of JLA #102. It’s one of those fabulous Nick Cardy covers, where Superman is surrounded by grim-faced heroes as he makes a somber announcement. What always intrigued me was that, while everyone else was looking at him, Wonder Woman seemed only to have eyes for Batman. I speculated about the possibility of a Batman/WW romance; another one of those Greatest Stories Never Told (Except in My Head).

It’s hard to believe Crisis is 30 years old. And even harder to believe how many times it has been reworked, redone, erased, and ignored. The phrase you used in your editorial, “event fatigue,” accurately describes much of my disillusionment with comics today. Crisis wasn’t the first time a major overhaul like this happened; the first “Crisis on Earth-One,” in a very broad sense, began with the upgraded versions of Golden Age heroes, approximately 20–25 years after their first appearances in the ’40s. About 25 years later, along came Crisis on Infinite Earths.

While it told a story of awesome scope and complexity, it basically achieved the same thing, gave us upgrades of everyone. And that would have been great if DC had waited another 25 or 30 years to reboot everything instead of doing it every five years, then every three years, then every two years. It’s hard to take a universealtering event seriously when it happened every time you pick up a comic book.

Finally, I really enjoyed Brian Martin’s letter; he eloquently put down in words what many people are feeling. It’s all well and good to fit superheroes into a “real world” situation, but the fact is, it simply doesn’t work because they’re fantasy figures. In the real world, if you get bitten by a radioactive spider you don’t gain spider-powers, you go on antibiotics. Keep them in their own world, not ours; it doesn’t work. And the age of fallible heroes is 78 • BACK ISSUE • Batman AND Superman Issue

getting tiresome. A hero is someone I want to look up to, someone I want to strive to be like, whether it’s a real person or an imagined creation. I’ve always said that Superman isn’t cool because he has all those awesome powers; he’s cool because he has all those awesome powers and does the right thing with them. He’s a hero before he’s a superhero. I want to see superheroes who act like heroes, in a mythical universe where superheroes are the norm.

Nobody tries to wedge Star Wars or Lord of the Rings into the real world to make them more “realistic,” so why should they do the same to comics?

Enough ranting. I enjoy each and every BACK ISSUE. Keep fighting the good fight.

– Michal Jacot

IN CONSTANT CRISIS Well, once again the customs people have thrown in their monkey wrench and I have received two issues of BACK ISSUE within two weeks. Good thing I’m a fast reader. Helps to have such interesting material, too!

I have only read the ’80s Events issue so far, but there are a few things on my mind, so here we go.

The coverage of the JLA/JSA crossovers was probably my favorite article. No surprise there since reading JLA is how I began my comic-reading career. As usual, the behind-the-scenes comments from the creators involved offered me the most enjoyment. Finding out Martin Pasko’s feelings about his involvement in a couple of stories (excluding his frustrations, of course, never happy to hear that a creator had less than a positive experience, but it would be extremely naïve to think otherwise) certainly gives us fans insight in to why some stories turn out the way they do. Gerry Conway’s feelings about trying to do something different with a certain year’s tale serves the same purpose.

Ah, for the days when comic companies felt they only had to give us a guest appearance to make our summer.

The Avengers/Defenders clash came out just a bit before my time, but I remember reading it when I began collecting back issues and thinking how well it held together as a complete story. A rereading in the last few years did nothing to change my opinion.

(Repeat the last line from the previous paragraph here.)

I remember reading Crisis on Infinite Earths when it came out and enjoying it, but I always had an issue with the ending.

Nothing against the execution, certainly, but the idea I believe has almost directly led to the situation we have now. Originally, I believe the series was only meant to eliminate the multipleEarth concept. Retroactively making it apply to the DC Universe from the beginning began what we now know as the “reboot.” You can certainly understand the rationale. If the purpose of the series was to make the DC Universe more friendly to new readers, then having characters constantly refer to previous events that are no longer in continuity would only serve to confuse people even further. The problem I have is that listening to anyone speaking about that time now, no one seems to have had any problem with the concept of multiple Earths. It could be argued that all of these people are older now and much more likely to understand a complex concept. The truth is, though, that most of these people encountered the idea when they were much younger.

Like myself, most of them were in their early teens and had no trouble with the idea at all. Since DC has reintroduced the concept a couple of times, Hypertime, Multiversity, etc.

As for the rest of the “event” series, my enjoyment really depended on the quality of the series. Seeing the increasing complexities that the creators were subject to was a great look behind the curtain.

This does lead to my last thought. Secret Wars II, Millennium, and surely War of the Gods ushered in the era of crossover issues that were integral to understanding the core series. This probably helped sell some copies in the short term, but in the longer term I think a lot of people became frustrated with having to buy comics they normally wouldn’t just to understand a story. Or, to have to buy a series because “the DC/Marvel/Image/whatever Universe will be changed forever.”

One issue with War of the Gods seems to be the one that applies to current event series, though, the fact that if everything is not coordinated properly, it spoils any chance that any fan will enjoy the series. Final Crisis, Forever Evil, and now Secret Wars are/were plagued by delays in the core series coming out. If they existed in and of themselves, fine, no problem. But these series have crossover issues that relate to the current issue of the “event.” Plus, and this is maybe a larger issue, the companies comic universe or parts of it are altered in some way by the event. So any of these issues that reflect the changes have to be postponed until the series is complete. Now, I am not involved in publishing, but my thinking would be, have the “event” series complete and ready to go before you schedule the darn thing. But that’s just me. Having worked in that capacity you might have a deeper insight into that sort of thing. My feeling right now with those sort of series is, I probably enjoy them when they are done and I have read the whole thing, but for the most part I just want to see them over with.

See how much an issue of BACK ISSUE makes me think?

Thanks again for an enjoyable and thought-provoking issue.

– Brian Martin

TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

they certainly have changed their tune. Maybe they feel the target audience has aged, but I still think they were underestimating their audience at the time. All the while trying to take steps to reduce a shrinking market share.

Now we seem to be subjected to the major companies rebooting their universes every few years. They may be trying to gauge the attention span of younger generations now, but it never seemed to be a problem for us when we started collecting to have to understand stuff as we went along. Learning the backstory and collecting back issues was a huge part of the fun. I don’t even want to admit what I thought the names of the Vision and the Thing were when I read my first few comics, but I learned. With reprint collections so plentiful now, it should be easier for people to find an entry point or fill in the blanks.

I guess they just feel that they can snag newer readers with a jumping-on point, and all of us old fogies will just keep on keeping on. For the most part they are right about the second half, but I have heard from some people with some of the more recent deluge of number-one issues, that they use it as a jumping-OFF point.

It was certainly amusing how thoroughly Mattel botched the Secret Wars opportunity. Not the first time that sort of cross merchandizing has ended up being a windfall for one party and a nonevent for another.

Brian, from my limited experience in editing and coordinating event comics (I started, but did not finish, DC’s 1992 Eclipso: The Darkness Within crossover), they are difficult to coordinate; all is takes is one tardy issue to trigger a trickle-down deadline nightmare. It’s rarely financially feasible to get all issues of an event in the can before releasing it, as they have to generate revenue along the way to keep everyone paid.

Next issue: Comic Magazines of the ’70s & ’80s! Marvel’s mags – from Savage Tales to Epic Illustrated, JACK KIRBY’s “Speak-Out Series,” WILL EISNER’s The Spirit magazine, The Unpublished PAUL GULACY, MICHAEL USLAN discusses the Shadow magazine you didn’t see, BOB GREENBERGER remembers Comics Scene, The Rook returns, plus B&Ws from Charlton, Seaboard, Skywald, and Warren. Featuring the work of NEAL ADAMS, JOHN BOLTON, CHRIS CLAREMONT, JO DUFFY, ARCHIE GOODWIN, TONY ISABELLA, DOUG MOENCH, EARL NOREM, GEORGE PÉREZ, JIM STARLIN, ROY THOMAS, and more. Re-presenting a dynamite Marvel Preview/Punisher cover by GRAY MORROW! 80 pages, full color, $8.95. Don’t ask—just BI it! See you in thirty!

Your friendly neighborhood Euryman, Michael Eury, editor-in-chief

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GET THE FEVER THIS JUNE: COMIC BOOK FEVER

GEORGE KHOURY (author of The Extraordinary Works of Alan Moore and Kimota: The Miracleman Companion) presents a “love letter” to his personal golden age of comics, 1976-1986, covering all the things that made those comics great—the top artists, the coolest stories, and even the best ads! Remember the days when every comic book captured your imagination, and took you to new and exciting places? When you didn’t apologize for loving the comic books and creators that gave you bliss?

COMIC BOOK FEVER captures that timeless era, when comics offered all different genres to any kid with a pocketful of coins, at local establishments from 7-Elevens to your local drug store. Inside this full-color hardcover are new articles, interviews, and images about the people, places, characters, titles, moments, and good times that inspired and thrilled us in the Bronze Age: NEAL ADAMS, JOHN ROMITA, GEORGE PÉREZ, MARV WOLFMAN, ALAN MOORE, DENNY O’NEIL, JIM STARLIN, JOSÉ LUIS GARCÍA-LÓPEZ, THE HERNANDEZ BROTHERS, THE BUSCEMA BROTHERS, STAN LEE, JACK DAVIS, JACK KIRBY, KEVIN EASTMAN, CHRIS CLAREMONT, GERRY CONWAY, FRANK MILLER—and that’s just for starters. It covers the phenoms that delighted Baby Boomers, Generation X, and beyond: UNCANNY X-MEN, NEW TEEN TITANS, TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES, LOVE AND ROCKETS, CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS, SUPERMAN VS. SPIDER-MAN, ARCHIE COMICS, HARVEY COMICS, KISS, STAR WARS, ROM, HOSTESS CAKE ADS, GRIT(!), and other milestones! So take a trip back in time to re-experience those epic stories, and feel the heat of COMIC BOOK FEVER once again! With cover art and introduction by ALEX ROSS. (240-page FULL-COLOR HARDCOVER) $39.95 • (Digital Edition) $12.95 • ISBN: 9781605490632 • SHIPS JUNE 2016!

GO TO www.twomorrows.com FOR A FREE PREVIEW!

(112-page trade paperback) $17.95 (Digital Edition) $5.95 ISBN: 978-1-60549-066-3

AL PLASTINO: LAST SUPERMAN STANDING

With a comics career dating back to 1941, including inking early issues of Captain America, AL PLASTINO was one of the last surviving penciler/inkers of his era. Laboring uncredited on SUPERMAN for two decades (1948-1968), he co-created SUPERGIRL, BRAINIAC, and the LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES, drawing those characters’ first appearances, and illustrating the initial comics story to feature KRYPTONITE. He was called upon to help maintain the DC Comics house-style by redrawing other artists’ Superman heads, most notoriously on JACK KIRBY’S JIMMY OLSEN series, much to his chagrin. His career even included working on classic daily and Sunday newspaper strips like NANCY, JOE PALOOKA, BATMAN, and others.

With a Foreword by PAUL LEVITZ, this book (by EDDY ZENO, author of CURT SWAN: A LIFE IN COMICS) was completed just weeks before Al’s recent passing. In these pages, the artist remembers both his struggles and triumphs in the world of comics, cartooning and beyond. A near-century of insights shared

by Al, his family, and contemporaries ALLEN BELLMAN, NICK CARDY, JOE GIELLA, AND CARMINE INFANTINO—along with successors JON BOGDANOVE, JERRY ORDWAY, AND MARK WAID—paint a layered portrait of Plastino’s life and career. And a wealth of illustrations show just how influential a figure he is in the history of comics.

TwoMorrows. A New Day For Comics Fans!

TwoMorrows Publishing • 10407 Bedfordtown Drive • Raleigh, NC 27614 USA • 919-449-0344 • FAX: 919-449-0327 E-mail: store@twomorrows.com • Visit us on the Web at www.twomorrows.com

All characters TM & © their respective owners.

THIS APRIL

CELEBRATE COMICS HISTORY!

AMERICAN COMIC BOOK CHRONICLES

THE

Acclaimed new series documenting each decade of comic book history!

TwoMorrows Publishing presents its ambitious series of FULL-COLOR HARDCOVERS, documenting every decade of comic book history from the 1930s to today!

Each volume presents a year-by-year account of the comic book industry’s most significant publications, most notable creators, and most impactful trends, with exhaustively researched details on all the major events along the comics history timeline! Taken together, the American Comic Book Chronicles series forms a cohesive, linear overview of the entire landscape of comics history, sure to be an invaluable resource for ANY comic book enthusiast!

1940-44 and 1945-49 volumes by Roy Thomas and 1930s and 1990s volumes coming soon!

The 1950s-1980s Volumes Are All Now Shipping:

The 1950s

1960-64

1965-69

The 1970s

The 1980s

BILL SCHELLY tackles comics of the Atomic Era of Marilyn Monroe and Elvis: EC’s TALES FROM THE CRYPT, MAD, CARL BARKS’ Donald Duck and Uncle Scrooge, the FLASH in Showcase #4, return of Timely’s CAPTAIN AMERICA, HUMAN TORCH AND SUBMARINER, FREDRIC WERTHAM, and more!

JOHN WELLS covers comics in the 1960-64 JFK and Beatles era: DC’s new GREEN LANTERN, JUSTICE LEAGUE and multiple earths! LEE and KIRBY at Marvel on FF, SPIDER-MAN, HULK, and X-MEN! BATMAN’s “new look”, Charlton’s BLUE BEETLE, CREEPY #1 and more!

JOHN WELLS spotlights comics during the stormy cultural upheaval of 1965-1969: MARVEL COMICS transforms into a pop phenom, WALLY WOOD’s T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents, CHARLTON’s Action Heroes, BATMANIA, GOLD KEY’s digests, ARCHIES and JOSIE & THE PUSSYCATS, and more!

JASON SACKS examines comics during the ’70s relevant and disco years: O’NEIL and ADAMS’ run of relevance with Green Lantern, KIRBY’s Fourth World saga at DC, monsters and the supernatural, the DC Explosion and Implosion, the coming of JIM SHOOTER and the Direct Market, & more!

KEITH DALLAS documents comics’ 1980s Reagan years: Rise and fall of JIM SHOOTER, FRANK MILLER as comic book superstar, DC’s CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS, MOORE and GAIMAN’s British invasion, ECLIPSE, PACIFIC, FIRST, COMICO, DARK HORSE and more!

(240-page FULL-COLOR HARDCOVER) $40.95 (Digital Edition) $12.95 ISBN: 9781605490540 Diamond Order Code: MAY131285

(224-page FULL-COLOR HARDCOVER) $39.95 (Digital Edition) $11.95 ISBN: 9781605490458 Diamond Order Code: AUG121321

(288-page FULL-COLOR HARDCOVER) $41.95 (Digital Edition) $13.95 ISBN: 9781605490557 Diamond Order Code: DEC131299

(288-page FULL-COLOR HARDCOVER) $41.95 (Digital Edition) $13.95 ISBN: 9781605490564 Diamond Order Code: MAY141628

(288-page FULL-COLOR HARDCOVER) $41.95 (Digital Edition) $13.95 ISBN: 9781605490465 Diamond Order Code: NOV121322

Urgent Message For TwoMorrows Fans!

DON’T MISS YOUR FAVORITE MAGS!

Starting this month, all our new magazines will be listed in the COMICS section (ie. front half) of Diamond Comic Distributors’ PREVIEWS catalog with our books (instead of in the “Magazine” section as in the past). Look for the TWOMORROWS PUBLISHING section, alphabetically under the letter “T”—now with everything in one place, for easy ordering through your local comics shop.

BACK ISSUE #88

ALTER EGO #138

ALTER EGO #139

ALTER EGO #140

ALTER EGO #141

Science-fiction great (and erstwhile comics writer) HARLAN ELLISON talks about Captain Marvel and The Monster Society of Evil! Also, Captain Marvel artist/ co-creator C.C. BECK writes about the infamous Superman-Captain Marvel lawsuit of the 1940s and ‘50s in a double-size FCA section! Plus two titanic tributes to Golden Age artist FRED KIDA, MR. MONSTER, BILL SCHELLY, and more!

JIM AMASH interviews ROY THOMAS about his 1990s work on Conan, the stillborn Marvel/Excelsior line launched by STAN LEE, writing for Cross Plains, Topps, DC, and others! Art by KAYANAN, BUSCEMA, MAROTO, GIORDANO, ST. AUBIN, DITKO, SIMONSON, MIGNOLA, LARK, secrets of Dr. Strange’s sorcerous “177A Bleecker Street” address, and more! Cover

by RAFAEL KAYANAN!

Golden Age great IRWIN HASEN spotlight, adapted from DAN MAKARA’s film documentary on Hasen, the 1940s artist of the Justice Society, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, Wildcat, Holyoke’s Cat-Man, and numerous other classic heroes—and, for 30 years, the artist of the famous DONDI newspaper strip! Bonus art by his buddies JOE KUBERT, ALEX TOTH, CARMINE INFANTINO, and SHELLY MAYER!

From Detroit to Deathlok, we cover the career of artist RICH BUCKLER: Fantastic Four, The Avengers, Black Panther, Ka-Zar, Dracula, Morbius, a zillion Marvel covers— Batman, Hawkman, and other DC stars— Creepy and Eerie horror—and that’s just in the first half of the 1970s! Plus Mr. Monster, BILL SCHELLY, FCA, and comics expert HAMES WARE on fabulous Golden Age artist RAFAEL ASTARITA!

(84 FULL-COLOR pages) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $3.95 • Now shipping!

(100 FULL-COLOR pages) $9.95 (Digital Edition) $4.95 • Now shipping!

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $3.95 • Ships May 2016

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $3.95 • Ships July 2016

BACK ISSUE #89

BRICKJOURNAL #39

KIRBY COLLECTOR #66

KIRBY COLLECTOR #67

“Bronze Age Adaptations!” The Shadow, Korak: Son of Tarzan, Battlestar Galactica, The Black Hole, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Worlds Unknown, and Marvel’s 1980s movie adaptations. Plus: PAUL KUPPERBERG surveys prose adaptations of comics! With work by JACK KIRBY, DENNY O’NEIL, FRANK ROBBINS, MICHAEL W. KALUTA, FRANK THORNE, MICHAEL USLAN, and sporting an alternate Kaluta cover produced for DC’s Shadow series!

LEGO DINOSAURS! Builder WILLIAM PUGH discusses building prehistoric creatures, a LEGO Jurassic World by DIEGO MAXIMINO PRIETO ALVAREZ, and dino bones by MATT SAILORS! Plus: Minifigure Customization by JARED K. BURKS, stepby-step "You Can Build It" instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, DIY Fan Art by BrickNerd TOMMY WILLIAMSON, MINDSTORMS robotics lessons, and more!

DOUBLE-TAKES ISSUE! Features oddities, coincidences, and reworkings by both Jack and Stan Lee: the Galactus Origin you didn’t see, Ditko’s vs. Kirby’s Spider-Man, how Lee and Kirby viewed “writing” differently, plus a rare KIRBY radio interview with Stan, MARK EVANIER and our other regular columnists, unseen and unused pencil art from FANTASTIC FOUR, 2001, CAPTAIN VICTORY, BRUCE LEE, & more!

UP-CLOSE & PERSONAL! Kirby interviews you weren’t aware of, photos and recollections from fans who saw him in person, personal anecdotes from Jack’s fellow pros, LEE and KIRBY cameos in comics, MARK EVANIER and other regular columnists, and more! Don’t let the photo cover fool you; this issue is chockfull of rare Kirby pencil art, from Roz Kirby’s private sketchbook, and Jack’s most personal comics stories!

(84 FULL-COLOR pages) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $3.95 • Ships April 2016

(84 FULL-COLOR pages) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $3.95 • Ships June 2016

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $3.95 • Ships April 2016

(100 FULL-COLOR pages) $10.95 (Digital Edition) $4.95 • Now shipping!

(100-page FULL-COLOR mag) $10.95 (Digital Edition) $4.95 • Ships Spring 2016 PRINTED IN CHINA

“Comics Magazines of the ’70s and ’80s!”

From Savage Tales to Epic Illustrated, KIRBY’s “Speak-Out Series,” EISNER’s Spirit magazine, Unpublished PAUL GULACY, MICHAEL USLAN on the Shadow magazine you didn’t see, plus B&Ws from Atlas/Seaboard, Charlton, Skywald, and Warren. Featuring work by NEAL ADAMS, JOHN BOLTON, ARCHIE GOODWIN, DOUG MOENCH, EARL NOREM, ROY THOMAS, and more. Cover by GRAY MORROW!

TwoMorrows.

A New Day For Comics Fans!

COMIC BOOK CREATOR #10 COMIC BOOK CREATOR #11

DRAW! #31

DRAW! #32

The Broadway sci-fi epic WARP examined!

Interviews with art director NEAL ADAMS, director STUART (Reanimator) GORDON, playwright LENNY KLEINFELD, stage manager DAVID GORDON, and a look at Warp’s 1980s FIRST COMICS series! Plus: an interview with PETER (Hate!) BAGGE, our RICH BUCKLER interview Part One, GIANT WHAM-O COMICS, and the conclusion of our STAN GOLDBERG interview!

Retrospective on GIL KANE, co-creator of the modern Green Lantern and Atom, and early progenitor of the graphic novel. Kane cover newly-inked by KLAUS JANSON, plus remembrances from friends, fans, and collaborators, and a Kane art gallery. Also, our RICH BUCKLER interview conclusion, a look at the “greatest zine in the history of mankind,” MINESHAFT, and Part One of our ARNOLD DRAKE interview!

How-to demos & interviews with Philadelphia artists JG JONES (52, Final Crisis, Wanted, Batman and Robin) and KHOI PHAM (The Mighty Avengers, The Astonishing SpiderMan, The Mighty World of Marvel), JAMAR NICHOLAS reviews of art supplies, JERRY ORDWAY demos the “ORD-way” or drawing, and Comic Art Bootcamp by MIKE MANLEY and BRET BLEVINS! JG Jones cover! Mature readers only.

Super-star DC penciler HOWARD PORTER demos his creative process, and JAMAL IGLE discusses everything from storyboarding to penciling as he gives a breakdown of his working methods. Plus there’s Crusty Critic JAMAR NICHOLAS reviewing art supplies, JERRY ORDWAY showing the Ord-Way of doing comics, and Comic Art Bootcamp lessons with BRET BLEVINS and Draw! editor MIKE MANLEY! Mature readers only.

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $3.95 • Now shipping!

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $3.95 • Ships March 2016

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $3.95 • Now shipping!

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $3.95 • Ships Spring 2016

TwoMorrows Publishing 10407 Bedfordtown Drive Raleigh, NC 27614 USA 919-449-0344 E-mail:

store@twomorrows.com

Order at twomorrows.com