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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.)

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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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.

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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).

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.

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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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

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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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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.

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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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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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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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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. 60 • BACK ISSUE • Batman AND Superman Issue

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.

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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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.

dick giordano

joe kubert Luigi Novi / Wikimedia Commons.

gil kane Alan Light / Wikimedia Commons.

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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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. Your signal devices are in the mail!

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

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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Back Issue #87