Category: Batgirl

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Batman: Scarecrow Tales


By Bob Kane, Bill Finger, Jerry Robinson & George Roussos, Gardner F. Fox, Dennis O’Neil, Elliot S! Maggin, Gerry Conway, Mike W Barr, Peter Milligan, Devin Grayson, Sheldon Moldoff, Joe Giella, Ernie Chan & Dick Giordano, Irv Novick & Tex Blaisdell, Don Newton & Dan Adkins, Alan Davis & Paul Neary, Duncan Fegredo & Bjarne Hansen, Roger Robinson & John Floyd, with Paul Gulacy, Carmine Infantino, George Pratt, Mike Mignola, Arthur Adams, Dermot Power, Mark Stutzman, Jim Balent & Bill Sienkiewicz & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-0443-3 (TPB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

As is only sensible, when filmmakers unleash a comic book villain of any vintage, savvy publishers collate, curate and commercialise. Thus in 2007 when The Scarecrow was named a villain du jour on Batman Begins DC dashed out a fine volume of reprints featuring a few key and generally accessible comic book appearances. Although having a much shallower well to draw from, there are some wonderful tales on offer (and the occasional dog, it must be admitted) with various pin-up pages and a cover gallery closeted here in this out of print and begging for resurrection tome…

The obvious kick-off is the first appearance by Bill Finger, Bob Kane, Jerry Robinson & George Roussos. Alternatively entitled ‘The Riddle of the Human Scarecrow’ or simply ‘The Scarecrow’ from World’s Finest #3 (1941), it spookily introduced rather odd, painfully poor and book-obsessed college psychology professor Dr. Jonathan Crane (no relation to any comedy shrink). His ill-considered classroom antics forced him out of the teaching profession and started him pursuing his nefarious dreams by making his wealthy victims afraid… at least until Batman & Robin stepped in and stepped up…

Crane only appeared once more in the Golden Age and here is reintroduced in the Silver one, after patiently serving his time in jail, in ‘Fright of the Scarecrow’ (Batman #189, cover-dated February 1967) wherein scripter Gardner Fox – despite being rather handcuffed by the overwhelming popularity of the comedic TV show – introduced the Master of Terror’s abiding modern Modus Operandi of chemically or artificially inducing anxiety, fear and screaming heebie-jeebies. This has ever since stayed the way as Crane followed the twisting path of a deranged mad scientist rather the greedy crime bandit style which consisted mostly of shooting at you until you wet yourself and coughed up the valuables…

The spooky sage’s resumed rampage through Gotham was ultimately quashed here by the daredevil Dynamic Duo as fabulously finessed by illustrators Sheldon Moldoff & Joe Giella.

Then from a far less frightening but more carefully inclusive era come a brace of arguably lesser and decidedly off-kilter efforts. From Batman #262 (April 1975), Denny O’Neil, Ernie Chan & Dick Giordano ‘The Scarecrow’s Trail of Fear!’ finds the hero victim of a fear inducer machine whilst racing to uncover hidden loot squirreled away by a crook literally scared to his death. Then comes a frankly bizarre duel with Gotham’s other contender for Most Scary Villain (not counting Batman!). In The Joker #8 (August 1976). Gotham’s self-acclaimed Master of Terror instigates ‘The Scarecrow’s Fearsome Face-Off!’ by stealing from his rival and reaping the revolting results in a weird war tale crafted by Elliot S! Maggin, Irv Novick & Tex Blaisdell…

For Detective #503 (June 1981) Gerry Conway wrote ‘The 6 Days of the Scarecrow’, beautifully illustrated by sorely missed Don Newton, and inked by Dan Adkins, wherein The Deacon of Dread turns Batman into a being who can literally scare those around him to death. However, Crane foolishly discounts the fact that his foe has allies such as Robin & Batgirl willing to do anything to save him… not that the Gotham Gangbuster needs them to…

Then, in a revitalised new world stemming out of Crisis on Infinite Earths, a fresher Dynamic Duo (with young, callow Jason Todd as the second Robin), Mike W. Barr, Alan Davis & Paul Neary pursue lighter, more liberating tales but still convincingly convey the tragedy of ‘Fear For Sale’ in Detective #571 (February 1987), after Scarecrow charges desperate sports stars to remove their caution and ability to fear consequences and triggers a storm of callous carnage…

Next is ‘Mistress of Fear’ by Peter Milligan & Duncan Fegredo from one-shot New Year’s Evil: Scarecrow #1 (February, 1998): a truly exceptional low key, high-octane psychological thriller wherein Crane kidnaps law student Becky Albright. She had previously testified against him and still isn’t afraid, even after he begins the torturous process of converting her into his sidekick and accomplice…

Devin Grayson, Roger Robinson & John Floyd then display ‘Fear of Success’ (Gotham Knights #23, January 2002) to round out these scary stories with a swipe at corporate greed, as Dr. Crane is paroled from Arkham Asylum to lecture Gotham’s Movers & Shakers thanks to the sponsorship of business paragon Mulitigon. Thankfully, Bruce Wayne (and his new bodyguard Sasha Bordeaux) are invited as Scarecrow again unleashes his Fear Toxins just to see what happens. Although Batman quickly ends the threat, he is not quick enough to avoid a potentially deadly dose of the hallucinogenic horrors…

Also on show are a moody cover gallery and bonus material including pages from Who’s Who – The Definitive Directory of The DC Universe #20 (1986) & Who’s Who in the DC Universe #21 (1990) by Art Adams and George Pratt respectively; Mike Mignola’s Saga of the Dark Knight trading card (#51); Batman: Masterpieces (1998) by Dermot Power and an original pin-up by Mark Stutzman.

Some of these scurrilous scare-sagas made it into the 2015 compilation Batman: Arkham – Scarecrow but that book has enough different and darkly desirable material to warrant its own review… possibly even before the month is out…

As a trawl through the changing nature of the industry, Batman: Scarecrow Tales is quite illuminating although one glaring omission is the utter shunning of the numerous exploits featuring the creepy character that appeared in assorted issues of the TV cartoon based Batman Adventures comic book. Now those were thrilling…

Absolutely worth re-issuing with a few of the newer tales (especially those sublime all-ages versions Batman Animated franchise), perhaps DC could award the other, OTHER Dr Crane his own 85-year Celebration album, like all those other A-lister Bat-villains. Now that’s a scarily comforting thought…
© 2005 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Batman: A Celebration of 75 Years


By Bob Kane & Bill Finger, Gardner F. Fox, Don Cameron, Edmond Hamilton, John Broome, Bob Kanigher, Dennis J. O’Neil, Archie Goodwin, Steve Englehart, Mike W. Barr, Peter Milligan, Doug Moench, Chuck Dixon, Greg Rucka, Paul Dini, Scott Snyder, Brad Metzer, Jack Burnley, Sheldon Moldoff, Jerry Robinson, Dick Sprang, Lew Sayre Schwartz, Win Mortimer, Carmine Infantino, George Roussos, Charles Paris, Murphy Anderson, Joe Giella, Sid Greene, Neal Adams, Dick Giordano, Alex Toth, Marshall Rogers & Terry Austin, Frank Miller & Steve Mitchell, Michael Golden & Mike DeCarlo, Alan Davis & Paul Neary, Tom Mandrake, Jim Aparo, Graham Nolan & Cam Smith, Rick Burchett & Rodney Ramos, J.H. Williams III, Simone Bianchi, Greg Capullo & Jonathan Glapion, Chip Kidd & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-4758-4 (HB) 978-1-4012-5186-4 (Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Somehow, I never got around to covering many of the best anthologised DC “Celebration” collections, and with another (possibly last!) Christmas coming, what better time to explore the delights of genuinely guaranteed comic book good times? This one’s a cracker too…

Batman is a creature of the night. Batman is the world’s greatest detective, escapologist and master of disguise. Batman fights criminals, madmen and bad women, aliens and monsters. Batman is all that and more. He apparently sees in black-&-white in world of fabulous hues and constantly shifting blinding colour – mostly red.

Batman is in many ways the ideal superhero: uniquely adaptable and able to work in any type or genre of story, as is clearly evident from the dazzling plethora of vintage tales collected in so many captivating volumes over the years. These vie equally with immediately recent tales collected into albums scant moment after going off-sale as periodical comic books.

Launching a year after Superman, “The Bat-Man” (and latterly Robin, the Boy Wonder) cemented DC/National Comics as market frontrunner and conceptual leader of a burgeoning new publishing industry: comic books.

Having established the fantastic parameters of metahumans with their Man of Tomorrow, the strictly mortal physical perfection and dashing derring-do of DC’s Dynamic Duo became the swashbuckling benchmark by which all other four-colour crimebusters were measured. The epitome of swashbuckling, Batman bloomed at this time and the impetus enabled him to endure and survive the decline of superheroes at the end of the 1940s.

Although he’s frequently played second fiddle to his pioneering predecessor Superman (who debuted in Action Comics #1, June 1938), the Dark Knight has, over his 87 years, grown to become the planet’s most popular superhero. He does have some bragging rights to longevity, however, as he debuted in the company’s most prestigious – and arguably premiere – comics title.

Detective Comics #1 had a March 1937 cover-date and was the third and last anthology title devised by luckless pioneer Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson. In 1935, the entrepreneur had seen the potential in Max Gaines’ new invention (comic books) and quickly conceived and released packages of all-new material entitled New Fun: The Big Comic Magazine and follow-up New Fun/New Adventure (which ultimately became Adventure Comics) under the banner of National Allied Publications. March 30th 1939 saw Batman‘s debut in May cover-dated Detective Comics #27. About one year after that dynamic debut Batman’s resounding growth in popularity resulted in a bombastic bold boy sidekick and the launch of Batman #1 (cover-dated “Spring” 1940 and released on April 25th of that year). At that time, only precursor/stablemate Superman was more successful…

This book was compiled in 2014 to celebrate The Dark Knight’s 75th Anniversary and still only scratched the surface. Imagine the page count in 13 years’ time when it’s a centenary! Seen here are contents and extracts from Detective Comics #27, 33, 83, 211, 216, 327, 359, 395, 442, 474, 574, 633, 711, 757 & 821; Batman #1, 49, 181, 497, 608; Batman (vol. 2) #2; World’s Finest Comics #94, DC Series #21, Batman Special #1 plus Detective Comics #27 – an all-new vintage treat that we’ll get to in due course…

Divided into category-chapters preceded by a text overview, we begin Part I (1939-1954): The Dynamic Duo with originating escapade ‘The Case of the Chemical Syndicate’ by Bob Kane and as yet still anonymous close collaborator/co-originator Bill Finger. A spartan, understated yarn introduced dilettante playboy criminologist Bruce Wayne, drawn into a straightforward murder-mystery as a cabal of industrialists were successively murdered. The killings stop when an eerie figure dubbed “The Bat-Man” intrudes on Police Commissioner Gordon’s stalled investigation, ruthlessly exposing and dealing with the hidden killer.

Following on, Batman’s first ever origin moment. It came in Detective Comics #33 (November 1939, on sale from September 30th), scripted by Gardner F. Fox and Finger in lead story ‘The Batman Wars Against the Dirigible of Doom’ . This cunningly included 2-page prologue ‘The Legend of the Batman – Who He Is and How He Came to Be’ and revealed how a young boy witnessed his parents’ hold-up and murder by a petty thug, consequently dedicating his life to becoming a perfect human specimen to avenge them and punish all criminals. Those 12 panels were reprinted at the beginning of Batman #1 (Spring 1940 and included here) and, with occasional minor tweaking, stayed the official version for 50 years.

Next – and taking as read years of baroque villain debuts and the heroes’ war efforts – we jump to Detective Comics #83 (January 1944) when the team supreme are growing comfortable in their endeavours and the mysteries are often cosy and gently humorous. Here, courtesy of Don Cameron, Kane & George Roussos, Wayne’s portly British butler Alfred augments his diet regime with exercise and an abrupt disappearance, leading the Gotham Guardians to a murderous mesmerising medic and criminal insurance scam in ‘Accidentally on Purpose!’, after which we close-up on two debuts in one sitting as seen in Batman #49, (October 1948, by Finger, Kane & Lew Sayre Schwartz). When a madman called the Mad Hatter goes on a crime spree, newly arrived press photographer Vicki Vale is on scene to capture evidence that the mighty hero might also be socialite Bruce Wayne… and nothing our heroes can do will dissuade her from enjoying ‘The Scoop of the Century!’

The archest of archfoes briefly gains the upper hand in ‘The Jungle Cat-Queen!’ (Detective #211, September 1954 and written by Edmond Hamilton) when the Caped Crusaders are trapped on a wild atoll without their modern tools and must face wild beasts and furious feline felon Catwoman. Thanks to artists Dick Sprang & Charles Paris, she never looked better…

Dick Sprang (July 28th 1915 – May 10th 2000) began earning money from art and narrative as a designer and illustrator in Ohio whilst still in high school. He edited and contributed art to magazines and pulps from the early 1930s onwards. On graduation in 1934 Sprang joined the bullpen of Toledo, Ohio publishing chain Scripps-Howard delivering deadline-busting ads, editorial cartoons and illustrations. Working with the company engravers Sprang mastered every aspect of print technology before moving to New York City in 1936 to illustrate pulps; everything from westerns to detective to general adventure yarns. Regular clients included Popular Detective, Popular Western, Phantom Detective, G-Men, Detective Novels Magazine, Crack Detective & Black Hood Detective/Hooded Detective, for which he also wrote stories. In 1937, Sprang began ghosting/assisting on newspaper strips including Secret Agent X-9 and The Lone Ranger, which led to his writing episodes of the latter’s radio show.

As pulps declined and comic books proliferated, he capitalised on the trend, forming a studio shop with Ed Kressy (Fact Finders, The Lone Ranger, Power Nelson) & Norman Fallon (Speed Comics, Shock Gibson, World’s Finest Comics). In 1941 they were hired by DC supremo Whitney Ellsworth who anticipated with dread Bob Kane being drafted. The trio began crafting inventory material to offset that inevitable day, which gradually slipped out over the course of the conflict. His first newsstand appearance was on part of the cover for Batman #18 (August/September 1943) whilst his first full outing was the next issue.

For Batman #19, he pencilled all four stories and the cover, but only inked the first three (!) leaving Fallon to embellish the fourth yarn. By 1946, and although utterly uncredited, Sprang was the leading artist on Batman comic book material, which marrying and moving to Sedona, Arizona barely impacted. In fact, he taught commercial photographer/new bride Lora Ann Neusiis to letter and colour his pages and, as “Pat Gordon”, she took off some of the load until their divorce in 1951. Gordon carried on working for DC until around 1961…

In 1955, despite still being unknown to fans, Sprang took on the Superman/Batman team-up feature in World Finest Comics and soldiered on with it, as well as newspaper strips, countless covers and more. His astounding artistry enhanced DC titles for 20 years, including Real Fact Comics #1-3, 18, Strange Adventures #1, Superman, Superman’s Girl Friend, Lois Lane & Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen, and he fully recreated Batman’s look for the forward-facing 1950s, with a new Batplane, Batmobile and other paraphernalia. Sprang’s Joker was definitive and he co-created the Riddler and prototype of Supergirl.

That all ended on his retirement in 1963. When he wasn’t beguiling sedentary adventure fans, Sprang had become a noted explorer and historian of Arizona, Utah and Colorado, and happily commenced a career that brought him the fame comics hadn’t. His many celebrated discoveries and contributions are on show at Northern Arizona Universities Cline Library Special Collections in Flagstaff and the Utah Historical Society in Salt Lake City.

More of his wonders adorn Part II (1955-1969): The Caped Crusader which assesses that evolution via further fascinating examples. Next comes Hamilton, Sprang & Paris’ sold gold sci fi crime masterwork. ‘The Batman of Tomorrow!’ (DC #216, February 1955) visits the 20th century from his home in 3054 to save injured Bruce Wayne from Vicki Vale’s latest exposé and catch a cunning crook in a fast paced and fantastical romp.

‘The Origin of the Superman-Batman Team’ was seen in original team up title World’s Finest Comics (#94 by Hamilton, Sprang & Stan Kaye, June 1958) showing how the Man of Tomorrow seemingly replaces the Caped Crusader with a new partner, thereby provoking a close review of facts and a startling revelation for all concerned…

The Silver Age of US comic books utterly revolutionised a flagging medium, bringing a modicum of sophistication to the returning sub-genre of masked mystery men. However, for quite some time, changes instigated by Julius Schwartz in Showcase #4, which rippled out to affect all National/DC Comics’ superhero characters, generally passed Batman & Robin by. Fans buying Batman, Detective Comics, World’s Finest Comics and even Justice League of America would read adventures that in look and tone were largely unchanged from the safely anodyne fantasies that had turned the grim Darknight Detective into a mystery-solving, alien-fighting costumed boy scout as the 1940s became the largely non-superhero 1950s.

Although individual yarns could still amaze, the Gotham Gangbusters were in a perilous rut and risked being forgotten, even as they were being readied for small screen stardom. Change was needed and stolid, stable Batman scripter-turned-editor Jack Schiff was moving on to more amenable pastures and editorial environs.

By the end of 1963 Schwartz had revived much of DC’s superhero line – and the entire industry – with his modernized masked champions and costumed characters. Now he was tasked to work his magic with the Caped Crusader.

Bringing his usual team of creators with him, he stripped down the trappings and returned to the core-concept, bringing a modern take to the capture of criminals, whilst downplaying all the aliens, outlandish villains and daft transformation tales. He even oversaw a streamlining and rationalisation of the art style itself. The most apparent change to us kids was a yellow circle around the Bat-symbol, but more fundamentally the stories themselves changed. Subtle menace re-entered the comfortable and abstract world of Gotham City. The revolution began with Detective Comics #327 (May 1964, by John Broome, Carmine Infantino & Joe Giella) as ‘The Mystery of the Menacing Mask!’ presented a baffling “Howdunnit?” steeped in action and suspense.

Tracking an underground pipeline of missing crooks and encountering a wise guy who was literally untouchable underlined the renewed intention to emphasise the “Detective” part of the title for the foreseeable future. This comic was to be a brain-teaser from now on, and the advent of the Batman TV show soon followed… and the world went Bat-manic. The series inevitably influenced the comics and, as well as a lightening of tone, threw up new characters. The next new villain was not one of them…

‘Beware of… Poison Ivy!’ in Batman #181 (June 1966) introduced a deadly damsel seeking to be top banana in the ladies criminal ranks and an addition to the Caped Crusader’s Rogues Gallery that owed much to her appearance in the Batman syndicated newspaper strip of the era. However, in this tale she’s only a criminal boss using sex appeal and hallucinogenic perfumes as her tools to split up the Dynamic Duo and defeat rival villainesses in a sly tale from Robert Kanigher, Moldoff & Joe Giella.

The TV show had premiered on January 12th 1966 and ran for 3 seasons (120 episodes in total), airing twice weekly for its first two seasons. It was a monumental worldwide hit sparking a wave of trendy imitation. Resultant media hysteria and fan frenzy generated an insane amount of Bat-awareness, no end of spin-offs and merchandise (including a still-fabulously watchable movie) while introducing us all to the phenomenon of overkill. Batmania exploded across the world and then as almost as quickly turned toxic and vanished. To this day, no matter how much we might squeal and foam about it, or what has occurred since in terms of comics, games or movies, to a huge portion of this planet’s population Batman is always going to be that “Zap! Biff! Pow!” costumed buffoon…

This next innovation was the biggest change in Bat-lore for decades. ‘The Million Dollar Debut of Batgirl!’ (Detective Comics, #359, cover-dated January 1967, by Fox, Infantino & Sid Greene) introduced Barbara Gordon, mousy librarian and daughter of the venerable Police Commissioner into the superhero limelight. By the time the third TV season began on September 14, 1967, she was well-established.

A previous different Batgirl (Betty Kane, niece of the 1950s Batwoman), was already a comics fixture, but for reasons far too complex and irrelevant to mention, was conveniently forgotten to make room for the new, empowered woman in the fresh tradition of Emma Peel, Honey West and the Girl from U.N.C.L.E. She was pretty hot too, which is always a plus for television…

Whereas she fought the Penguin on the small screen, Batgirl’s paper premiere features the no less ludicrous but at least visually forbidding Killer Moth in a clever yarn that still stands up today. The Lethal Lepidopteran was about to kidnap Bruce Wayne until Babs – dressed up for a fancy dress party – stumbles in and busts up his scheme…

Part III (1970-1986): Creature of the Night shows how – in purely comic book terms – after the TV show did terrible things to Batman’s reputation, the efforts to return respect, awe and majesty to the character begam almost as soon as the show stopped. The efforts were greatly aided by another phenomenon beyond editorial control.

When superheroes waned in the 1950s reader tastes turned to traditional genres like westerns, war, science fiction, romance and especially horror. That cycle repeated again as the 1960s closed, with supernatural themes primary piquing the interests of jaded readerships. It took very little effort to shift Batman back into the gothic shadows of his own early days…

Dennis O’Neil’s script for Detective #395’s ‘The Secret of the Waiting Graves’ (January 1970, limned by Neal Adams & Dick Giordano and recoloured for this edition by Cory Adams) instituted a far more mature – even sinister and almost gothic – take on the Caped Crusader here. In central Mexico the hero finally tracks down and barely survives confrontation with psychotic, nigh-immortal lovers Juan and Delores Muerto… whose passion for each other was fuelled by deadly drugs and sustained by a century of murder…

Adams’ captivating dynamic hyperrealism was a key cog in the reconstruction of the epic Batman edifice but it was also an irresistibly compelling one, and worked well against eerie backdrops of the resurgent horror boom, but all trends tail off. Now confirmed as a truly scary mortal manhunter, Batman’s scope widened and straight crime and adventure sagas also featured heavily. When Archie Goodwin became writer/editor of Detective Comics he generated a string of top tales (for the rest, check out Tales of the Batman: Archie Goodwin) of which the next item is indisputably the best. A stylistic masterpiece, Goodwin’s ‘Death Flies the Haunted Skies!’ (DC #442, September 1974) is a magnificent barnstorming thriller of aviators apparently picked off by a random assassin and a high point in an era of landmark tales. It is illumined by the unique Alex Toth (Zorro, Green Lantern, The Witching Hour, Space Ghost, Bravo for Adventure, Torpedo, Johnny Thunder, Eclipso, X-Men) and is as potent today as it ever was.

With the supernatural fading for fans, action-adventure and retro were the next big deal and ‘The Deadshot Ricochet!’ (DC #474, December 1977) was the penultimate exploit of dream team Steve Englehart, Marshall Rogers & Terry Austin, who had utterly revitalised the Batman mythos with a string of sharp thrillers reinventing the hero’s classic rogue’s gallery.

The single-issue saga updates an old loser for the second ever appearance of a murderous high society dilettante sniper (after his initial outing in Batman #59, 1950). The tale so reinvigorated third-rate trick-shooter Floyd Lawton that he’s seldom been missing from the DC Universe since, starring in series such as Suicide Squad and Secret Six: in a couple of eponymous miniseries and on both silver and small screens.

The tradition of Batman Christmas Miracle tales (maybe we should say “mystery plays”?) is seen next in a short punchy redemption yarn about a bad man who sees the light in ‘Wanted: Santa Claus – Dead or Alive’ by O’Neil, Frank Miller & Steve Mitchell from DC Special Series #2/Super-Star Holiday Special (April 1980) after which Mike W. Barr, Michael Golden & Mike DeCarlo deliver an epic stand-alone saga via Batman Special #1 (April 1984) by introducing the hero’s ultimate antithesis in ‘…The Player on the Other Side!’

The night Bruce Wayne’s parents died, elsewhere two career criminals were killed by police patrolman Jim Gordon. As young Bruce trained himself to be the enemy of all crime, so too did the son of those thieves, becoming over decades the exact equivalent and moral opposite of the hero who would one day safeguard Gotham. Now, as assassin and nemesis of decency and lawmen everywhere, the greatest criminal on Earth comes for Commissioner Gordon. The Wrath will let nothing and no-one get in the way of his vengeance and only Batman even knows he exists…

After fifty years, DC rewrote and reinvented itself with a company-wide reboot. Landmark maxi-series Crisis on Infinite Earths streamlined and retconned the entire ponderous continuity; rejecting the concept of a vast multiverse and re-knitting timelines so that there had only EVER been one Earth. For new readers, this solitary DC world provided a perfect place to jump on at a notional starting point: a planet literally festooned with iconic heroes and villains draped in a clear and cogent backstory that was now fresh and newly unfolding. Many of their greatest properties got a reboot, all enjoying the tacit conceit that the characters had been around for years and the readership were simply tuning in on just another working day.

As witnessed in Part IV (1986-2011): The Dark Knight with Batman’s popularity at an intoxicating peak, Crisis on Infinite Earths transformed the entire DC Universe and reinvented big guns like Superman and Wonder Woman, but left the Bat corners of it all largely untouched apart from some careful tweaking. Robin Dick Grayson had still been followed by new recruit Jason Todd, but this new kid was now a troubled runaway plucked off the streets and a true wild card. His exploits were seen as way to imbue verve and a bit of fun into the mythology as well as revive the classic villains, primarily in a strand from Detective Comics by Barr and “British Invaders” Alan Davis & Paul Neary.

From DC #574 (May 1987) the introspective ‘…My Beginning… and My Probable End.’ sees Batman on deathwatch and pondering so many bad decisions as his confidante Dr. Leslie Thomkins struggles to save Todd from his own bravado, prior to Peter Milligan & Tom Mandrake detailing a case of duplication, deception and impossible substitution in ‘Identity Crisis’ Detective #633 (August 1991).

The Nineties were filled with eye-catching publishing stunts and in 1992 DC began their epic Death of Superman story-arc, and its instant success led to a similar tradition-shaking, continuity-shattering epic for their other iconic household-name property. Groundwork had already been laid with the introduction of steroid-pumped archvillain Bane and Jean-Paul Valley, a mild-mannered student programmed since birth by an ancient warrior-cult to be their hereditary instrument of assassination, so all that was needed was to sort creative personnel and decide just how best to shake up the life of the Gotham Guardian. KnightFall and the subsequent arcs KnightQuest and KnightsEnd follow the brutal fall, replacement and inevitable return of Bruce Wayne as the indomitable, infallible Batman and was another spectacular success from the old guard which showed all the comic book upstarts and Young Turks the true value of proper storytelling. It also proved the unshakable power of established characters, as the world was gripped by the Dark Knight’s horrific defeat at the hands of a blatantly superior nemesis.

The crossover publishing event impacted many comics outside the usual Bat-book suspects, spawned a bunch of toys, three novelisations, many (necessarily incomplete) trade paperback collections and even jumped the pond to Britain’s staid BBC who turned it into a serialised audio-play on Radio One. You can find the saga in its own triptych of collections, but here we sample the shock and awe through 11th chapter ‘Broken Bat’ (Batman #497, July 1993, courtesy of Doug Moench, Jim Aparo & Giordano) wherein the brutal Bane utterly defeats and destroys the overmatched hero…

Returned reinvigorated, Batman blossomed in many directions thereafter and next Chuck Dixon, Graham Nolan & Cam Smith reveal a relatively peaceful party-going Bruce enjoying a clandestine ‘Knight Out’ (Detective #711 (July 1997), tackling opportunistic thieves without breaking out the batsuit, whilst DC #757 (2001, by Greg Rucka, Rick Burchett & Rodney Ramos) sees the hero under pressure to catch murdering bandits and rescue a family trapped at the bottom of the river in ‘Air Time’.

Paul Dini & J.H. Williams spectacularly expose ‘The Beautiful People’ (DC #821, September 2006) working for merciless, murderous identity-stealing maniac Facade as the High Society predator overreaches himself facing the Dark Knight…

Bringing us up nearly to date, Part V (2011 and Beyond): Rebirth focuses on 2011 and DC’s New 52: a second continuity-wide reboot revising the opposing forces into even grimmer, Darker Knight and sundry. The Batman of this hellish vision debuted in Detective Comics volume 2 #1 with what might then have been assumed to be the last Joker story, whilst here from Batman (vol. 2 #2 December 2011) ‘Trust Fall’ by Scott Snyder, Greg Capullo & Jonathan Glapion sees Bruce Wayne meeting Gotham’s Mayor (who will turn out to be hugely significant to his family life) and discovering his beloved city is actually ruled by a secret society dubbed “The Court of Owls”…

Adapted from 2014’s anniversary release Detective Comics (vol. 2 #27) this book concludes with a tasty treat as Brad Metzer adapts his own updated script for the tribute to the original Kane & Finger tale. Here, however, thanks to super-designer Chip Kidd, ‘The Case of the Chemical Syndicate’ weds the modern words to the original pictures for a truly stunning marriage of old and new: the spartan, understated yarn introducing again dilettante playboy criminologist Bruce Wayne, drawn into a crime-caper as a cabal of industrialists are successively murdered. The killings only stop when eerie figure “The Bat-Man” intrudes on Police Commissioner Gordon’s stalled investigation to ruthlessly expose and deal with the hidden killer.

Augmented by covers by Kane, Burnley, Win Mortimer, Moldoff, Curt Swan, Stan Kaye, Infantino, Anderson, Giella, Adams, Aparo, Rogers & Austin, Davis & Neary, Golden, Jones, Nolan, Tom Palmer, Dave Johnson, Simone Bianchi, Capullo & Glapion, this crime compendium is a true wonder of wit and wild times and you should not be without it.
© 1939, 1940, 1944, 1942, 1948, 1945, 1954, 1955, 1858, 1964, 1966, 1967, 1970, 1974, 1977, 1980, 1984, 1987, 1991, 1993, 1997, 2001, 2002, 2006, 2011, 2014 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Timeless Ever-Evolving Wonderment… 9/10

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Batman’s Mystery Casebook


By Sholly Fisch, Christopher A. Uminga & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-7795-0586-6 (TPB), 978-1-7795-0878-2 (Digital edition)

In recent years DC opened up its shared superhero universe: generating Original Graphic Novels featuring its many stars in stand-alone adventures for the demographic so sadly misnamed Young Adult. To date, results have been rather hit or miss, but when they’re good, they are very good indeed…

One sublime example of the process at its best is this cheery practical class in crimefighting which picks the brains and capitalises on the experience of Gotham’s gaggle of gangbusters and delivers life-defining details in the form of a comics activity book for all ages…

Author Sholly Fisch is no stranger to comics, having splendidly scripted Scooby Doo in various print incarnations and almost every DC superhero in All-New Batman: The Brave and the Bold and other animation-based spin-offs, Superman, Star Wars and so much more. When not doing that, he’s a developmental psychologist consulting for companies making digital games and toys, with clients including Sesame Street, Cyberchase, The Magic School Bus Rides Again and The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That. If you love fun superheroics and vintage comics trivia, you should seek out his work.

Cartoonist/designer/visualiser Christopher A. Uminga has worked for numerous media giants including DC Comics/Warner Bros., Lucasfilm, Foot Locker, Disney’s WonderGround Gallery and more, and is assisted in making this complex and arresting tome work by colourist Silvana Brys and lettering entity Andword Design (Morgan Martinez, Justin Birch & Deron Bennett)…

A quick word to the wise: Although for years DC’s mainstream continuity has depicted the Dark Knight as a driven, tormented borderline(?!) sociopath doing good for what seems to be all the wrong reasons, Batman has always been a heroic archetype who works for all ages and on vastly differing levels of intensity. This version is far more Caped Crimecrusher than Bat out of Hell, and reaffirms his reputation as “the World’s Greatest Detective” in a series of “fair play mystery” vignettes with the reader invited to pay close attention and participate at every moment of each case. Kids can enjoy alone or with the grandparents who watched the 1966 Batman TV phenomenon unfold and parents who watched the 1990s movies and stunning Batman: The Animated Adventures series they spawned…

It begins in ‘Prologue: Whodunit?’ as Batman, Robin & Batgirl examine a crime scene and talk the readers through the clues left behind that lead to their deft deduction of the culprit…

With every reader fully briefed ‘Chapter 1: The Case of the Perilous Puzzles’ sees The Riddler running riot, obsessively dropping his verbal hints for us to solve, but don’t get so caught up that you miss the cunning visual clues scattered around, since the Dynamic Duo might be too busy escaping death traps to spot them…

Each adventure is augmented by a quick lesson in historical criminology, deduction and data gathering (just like the old Dick Tracy Crime Stoppers feature) beginning with a foundation in forensic science courtesy of ‘Batcave Crime Lab: Crime Scene Investigation’ with Clayface inadvertently assisting enquiries…

Of course Two-Face stars in piratically-positioned second chapter ‘The Case of the Dual Identity’ and the hunt offers many chances to study modus operandi before the boom is lowered, after which ‘Batcave Crime Lab: Fingerprints’ reveals the secrets of the ancient and hallowed system.

World-weary cop Harvey Bullock and Catwoman are involved in third chapter ‘The Case of the Art Attack’ but Batgirl – and the reader! – can’t be rushed to hasty conclusions if they think things through, before ‘Batcave Crime Lab: Tracks’ offers a quick refresher on Locard’s Exchange Principle (weren’t you paying attention last chapter?) as we learn to watch where we – and everybody else – steps…

Bruce Wayne & Alfred Pennyworth show off their sleuthing skills in civilian style for ‘The Case of the History Mystery’, taking us back to WWI and an encounter with Enemy Ace Hans von Hammer, augmented by some modern milestones in ‘Batcave Crime Lab: DNA’.

We’re back in supervillain territory for chapter 5 as ‘The Case of the Cold Cash’ seems to prove chilly Mister Freeze is the bad guy… until our heroes take a closer look; all complemented by the Terrific Trio taking stock of fraud in ‘Batcave Crime Lab: Fakes and Phonies’.

Batgirl and Robin have their wits truly tested in ‘The Case of the Digital Ghost’ before ‘Batcave Crime Lab: Eyewitness Testimony’ wonderfully tests every reader’s memory and visual acuity – with helpful hints from Commissioner Gordon – as we rush to the conclusion in Chapter 7 as The Joker & Harley Quinn threaten appalling consequences for all in ‘The Case of the Perilous Parade’: a thrilling manhunt that literally demands your full attention…

‘Epilogue’ then provides a summation wrap-up from Batman, plus a so-cool poster to declare “Case Closed!” on this vivid and vibrant anticrime primer… for now!

The caseload is done-in-one (hopefully only until we get a sequel and series puh-leeeze!) but this thrilling tome also offers a tantalising peek at Sara Farizan & Nicoletta Baldari’s Gotham-set tale of bullying and being the new kid My Buddy Killer Croc that’s also worth some of your time and attention.

Smart, compelling, brilliantly entertaining, astoundingly infectious and deliciously addictive, Batman’s Mystery Casebook is a superbly challenging activity and adventure romp packed with charm and wit to captivate fans and nervous neophytes alike: one introducing a new wondrous world with a rousing reminder that all is never as it seems…
© 2022 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Harley Quinn and the Gotham Girls


By Paul D. Storrie, Jennifer Graves & J. Bone, with Brad Rader, Rick Burchett, Patricia Mulvihill, Phil Felix & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-9971-2 (TPB) 978-1-4012-9972-9 (Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Harley Quinn wasn’t supposed to be a star – or even an actual comic book character. As soon became apparent, however, the manic minx always had her own astoundingly askew and off-kilter ideas on the matter… and any other topic you could name: ethics, friendship, ordnance, coffee…

Created by Paul Dini & Bruce Timm, Batman: The Animated Series aired in the US from September 5th 1992 to September 15th 1995. Ostensibly for kids, the breakthrough TV cartoon revolutionised everybody’s image of the Dark Knight and immediately began feeding back into the print iterations, leading to some of the absolute best comics tales in the hero’s many decades of existence.

Employing a timeless visual style dubbed “Dark Deco”, the show mixed elements from all eras and aspects of the character and, without diluting power, tone or mood of the premise, reshaped the grim avenger and his extended team into a wholly accessible, thematically memorable form that the youngest of readers could eagerly enjoy, whilst adding shades of exuberance, sophistication and sheer panache that only most devout and obsessive Batmaniac could possibly object to…

Harley was initially the Clown Prince of Crime’s slavishly adoring, abuse-enduring assistant in Joker’s Favor (airing on September 11th 1992) wherein she instantly captured the hearts and minds of millions of viewers. From there on she began popping up in the licensed comic book and – always stealing the show – soon graduated to mainstream DC continuity.

Along the circuitous way, Harley – AKA Dr. Harleen Quinzel – developed an outrageous support network of sorts including living bioweapon Poison Ivy and settled into a bizarre love/hate relationship with some of Gotham’s other female felons.

After a period bopping around the DCU she was re-imagined as part of the company’s vast post-Flashpoint, major makeover and appeared as part of a new iteration of The Suicide Squad. Now with numerous motion picture, TV animation and live action small screen presence all in play, let’s look back at one particularly fruitful and significant phase, At heart, Harley’s always been a cartoon glamour-puss, with big, bold, primal emotions and only the merest acknowledgement of how reality works…

Amongst the plethora of comic books generated by the original cartoon show was this smartly sassy romp featuring those aforementioned crime cuties as well some mismatched if not openly antithetical law enforcers. Crafted by Paul D. Storrie, Jennifer Graves & J. Bone, 5-issue miniseries Gotham Girls was released between October 2002 and February 2003: opening with ‘Cat’s Paw’ as super-thief Selena Kyle undertakes a commission to steal something very nasty from agricultural conglomerate Zehn Chemicals.

The Feline Felon’s still determined to open a lion sanctuary with her fee and doesn’t appreciate when the supposedly simple caper is interrupted by juvenile do-gooder Batgirl. However, as they trade kicks, punches and quips, overworked, under-appreciated and overlooked GCPD detective Renee Montoya is taking a closer look at the supposed victims and sees something dirty in the company…

Then, as Bat & Cat ferociously but inconclusively throw down all over town, the masterminds paying for the heist make their move, and it becomes clear that there’s a lot going on that needs to be properly unearthed…

‘Ivy League’ exposes murderous eco-terrorist Pamela Lillian Isley as bankrolling the caper, claiming justifiable and benevolent motives to reclaim her own property from unscrupulous, world-endangering corporate creeps. However, because her bestest pal Harley is as erratic and excitable as ever, a potential Bat/Cat/Plantgirl/Dingbat alliance is thwarted by mutual mistrust and excessive, utterly unnecessary violence. Montoya, meanwhile, is diligently following clues, interviewing greedy biologists and uncovering something at rival agri-company Kayle Corporation…

The fast-moving melee ends in leafy Robinson Park, with Batgirl holding the stolen chemical soup, until ‘Harlequinade’ sees manic, attention-starved Quinn pull a martial masterstroke, delivering the bio-booty to her disturbingly abusive gal-pal and a heavy defeat to Catwoman & Batgirl. Naturally, that’s just when solid police practice explosively brings Montoya to their secret lair for penultimate power struggle ‘I Carry a Badge!’…

Brilliant deduction and a standard-issue firearm aren’t much use against supervillains and giant carnivorous vines though, so it’s a good thing Batgirl & Catwoman have both independently tracked Harley & Ivy. With action amped to maximum, good girls and bad girls clash yet again, and sides are finally drawn for a climactic conclusion, with frustrated cop and masked vigilante hero united at last and resolved to end the chaos in ‘Bat Attitude’.

Of course, that means not just Catwoman, Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn are going to jail…

A superbly riotous rollercoaster ride for kids of all ages, each chapter also deftly explores the interior life, history and motivations of successive stars; offering canny character building and definition most mature-reading tales would be proud to deliver.

Coloured by Patricia Mulvihill, lettered by Phil Felix and with additional layouts by Rick Burchett and Brad Rader, this classy, classically cops ‘n’ robbers riot plays very much like a 1940s movie chapter-play – albeit with outrageous gags, biting dialogue and a blend of black humour and bombastic action. A frantic, frenetic hoot, this is an absolute delight, well worth the price of admission and an irresistible treasure to be enjoyed over and over again.
© 2002, 2020 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

Today in 1927, Charlton Comics editor and Popeye illustrator George Wildman was born, as  was letterer Cory Petit in 1976; both all-star creators Lee Bermejo (Batman: Noel, Lex Luthor: Man of Steel, Rorschach) and Leinil Francis Yu (Superman: Birthright, X-Men, Wolverine) in 1977 and Graphic Novelist Nate Powell (March, The Silence of Our Friends, Swallow Me Whole) in 1978.

In 1933 today Milt Caniff’s Dickie Dare strip launched, and Neal Adam’s Ben Casey folded, albeit in 1966. Ten years later Mickey Finn ended, having run continuously since Frank Leonard began it in 1936.

In 2000 we lost Lars Jansson, brother of Tove and continuer of the magnificent Moomin strip (1954 to 1975 in The Evening News and sundry other newspapers). In 2003 controversial Italian comics maestro Guido Crepax (Valentina, Emanuelle, Anita, The Man from Harlem) died, followed three years later by countryman Mario Faustinelli (Asso di Picche, The Adventures of Topo Gigio, Kolosso).

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Tiny Titans volume 4: The First Rule of Pet Club…


By Art Baltazar & Franco with Geoff Johns & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-2892-7 (TPB), 978-1-4012-4528-3 (Digital edition)

DC’s Cartoon Network imprint was a potent and fun-filled bastion of children’s comics in America and consolidated the link between TV and 2D jollies and thrills with stunning interpretations of television landmarks like Ben 10, Scooby Doo, Powerpuff Girls, Dexter’s Laboratory and others. The comics line also generated truly exceptional material based on screen iterations of their proprietary characters such as Teen Titans Go!, Legion of Super Heroes, Batman: Brave and the Bold and Krypto the Super Dog as well as original material like Billy Batson and the Magic of Shazam!, which were merely indistinguishable in tone and content.

Arguably the imprint’s finest release was a series ostensibly aimed at early readers but which quickly became a firm favourite of older fans – and a multi-award winner too. Superbly mirroring the magical wonderland inside a child’s head where everything is happily mixed up together, Tiny Titans became a sublime nostalgia-weaponised antidote to continuity cops and slavish fan-boy quibbling by reducing the vast cast of successive Teen Titans animated series, the greater boutique of mainstream comic books and, eventually, DC’s entire Universe to little kids and their parents/guardians in the wholesome kindergarten environment of Sidekick City Elementary School – a scenario spring-loaded with in-jokes, sight-gags and beloved yet gently mocked paraphernalia of generations of strip readers and telly-watchers…

Art Baltazar and co-creator Franco (Aureliani) mastered a witty, bemusingly charming style of storytelling that just happily rolls along, with assorted characters getting by, trying to make sense of the great big world and just coincidentally having “Adventures in Awesomeness”. The method generally involves stringing together smaller incidents and moments into an overall themed portmanteau tale and it works astoundingly well. Rounding up issues #19-25 and spanning cover-dates October 2009 – April 2010 of the magically madcap, infinitely addictive all-ages mini-masterpiece, this fourth volume begins on a romantic note by looking at the kids ‘Deep in Like’.

After a handy and as-standard identifying roll-call page, ‘Imagine Me and You…’ finds scary blob Plasmus and tiny winged Bumblebee brightening up each other’s drab day, before a similar cupid moment affects The Brain and best-est pal M’sieu Mallah, even as diligent overachiever Robin (accompanied by faithful Bat-hound Ace) finds his earnest attempts to finish his homework disturbed by a succession of pesky young ladies including Starfire, Batgirl & Duella all caught up in a ‘Like Triangle’. ‘Dates’ then sees Bumblebee & Plasmus inadvertently causing chaos during an afternoon movie monster mash – and even in the ‘Intermission’ – after which a sly sight gag for us oldies highlights the company’s many Wonder Girls in ‘Jump Rope’.

DC’s hallowed anthropoid obsession is highlighted in ‘New Recruits’ when Beast Boy chairs a meeting of the Titans Ape Club before regular feature The Kroc Files depicts ultimate butler Alfred, roguish reptilian star Kroc and Plasmus each demonstrating ‘How to Enjoy a Lollipop’ in their own signature manner. The issue closes with a word puzzle whilst the next promises to disclose The Hole Truth about Raven: beginning with a daybreak disaster at ‘Home with the Trigons’. Raven’s dad is an antlered, crimson transdimensional devil-lord as well as a teacher at Sidekick Elementary, so when he oversleeps, his sorceress scion gets him to work on time by simply opening a few wormholes. Of course, leaving those dimensional doors around is just asking for trouble…

Meanwhile, it’s washday at Wayne Manor, but Alfred won’t let Robin, Beast Boy or Aqualad go down ‘To the Batcave’. Sadly, even the dapper domestic can’t withstand united pester-power and eventually gives in… and learns to regret it. Following a perplexing maze game-page, the All Pet Club Issue! launches as Starfire and mean sister Blackfire write home for their beloved critters Silky & Poopu, so they can go to the oh-so-secret social event, whilst can-do kid Cyborg actually builds himself a brace of chrome companions in ‘Pet-Tronics’…

With ‘Club Hoppin’, the entire school gathers with their accommodatingly and uniquely compatible pets to interview potential new members – specifically tongue-tied-&-thunderstruck Captain Marvel Junior and his fuzzy pal Hoppy, the Marvel Bunny. With so many members, the club must find roomier quarters, leading to a painful tryst for Beast Boy and Terra in ‘Meanwhile, on the Moon…’

There’s a brilliant vacuum-packed bonus pin-up of the Tiny Titans in space by Franco before ‘Hot Dogs, Titans, & Stretchy Guys!’ presents the kids back on solid ground and wrapped up with the DCU’s many flexible fellows as ‘Offspring into Action’ introduces Plastic Man’s excitably boisterous bonny boy. Then, ‘Just Playing and Bouncing’ sees Bumblebee spend some time with the diminutive Atoms Family but lose control of their Teeny-Weeny, Super Duper Bouncy Ball and accidentally get Plastic Man, Offspring, Elongated Man and Elastic Lad all wound up, before helplessly watching it bowl over Principal Slade and Coach Lobo in ‘Coffee Dog Latte’.

Thankfully, Robin has exactly the right gimmick in his utility belt to set things straight, but can’t stay long as he’s en route to his Bird Scouts meeting where potential new members Hot Spot and Flamebird are trying out for Hawk, Dove, Raven & Talon. Distressingly, when shiny Golden Eagle turns up, the girls all want to make him the new leader…

The semi-regular ‘Epilogue’ page often supplies one more punch-line to cap each themed issue and this one leads directly into a convoluted and confounding Elastic Four pin-up/cover which in turn precedes a spookily uproarious tale of Bats, Bunnies, and Penguins in the Batcave! Oh My!...

It all begins in ‘Ice to Meet Ya!’ when Wayne Manor’s extraordinarily if not excessively large penguin population get into a turf war with the house rabbits, displacing the Batcave’s regular inhabitants in ‘Driving Me Batty’. The conflict escalates in ‘All in the Batman Family’ before Robin gets a rather stern admonition from his senior partner to put things right… or else.

Happily, ever-so-cute & capable Batgirl is willing to lend a hand. Unfortunately, so too are the kids she’s baby-sitting (Tim & Jason: you’ll either get that or you won’t, bat-fans) and impishly infuriating Batmite. With even Batcow helping out, things soon start calming down, but ‘Meanwhile, at the Titans’ Treehouse…’ not all of the fugitive Bat-bats have heard the good news…

Once your ribs have stopped hurting you can then enjoy a Tiny Titans Aw Yeah Pin-up from Franco before ‘The All Small Issue!’ opens with assorted big kids accidentally drinking ‘Milk! Milk!’ from the Atoms’ fridge and shrinking away to nearly nothing. Good thing the Atomic nippers think to call their dad, who’s with fellow professional dwindlers Ant, Molecule and substitute Atoms Adam & Ryan (another in-continuity howler targeting old fogey fans) for a Team Nucleus meeting…

That compressive cow-juice causes more trouble in the ‘Epilogue’ before a Blue Beetle puzzle clears the mind in advance of an outrageous ending as ‘Superboy Returns!’ in a fairly cosmic crossover – and requiring some additional scripting by Geoff Johns.

When Conner Kent shows up, all the girls are really impressed and distracted, whilst – across town – Speedy is trading a lot of junk he shouldn’t be touching to Mr. Johns’ Sidekick City Pawn Shop and Bubblegum Emporium in ‘Brightest Day in the Afternoon!’ When Starfire & Stargirl then buy the seven different coloured “mood rings” from the shop, they and BFFs Duella, Batgirl, Wonder Girl, Terra and Shelly, are turned into Green, Red, Yellow, Orange, Blue, Violet and Indigo Lanterns! Soon, the Tiny Titans are up in the air again and annoying The Guardians of the Universe and their super-serious Green Lantern Corps.

It all ends well, though, in an Emerald ‘Epilogue’ and a lavish pin-up of a posse of pistachio-painted interplanetary peacekeepers…

Despite being ostensibly aimed at super-juniors and TV kids, these wonderful, wacky yarns – which marvellously marry the heart and spirit of such classic strips as Peanuts, The Perishers or Calvin and Hobbes with something uniquely mired and marinated in pure comic-bookery – are deliciously hilarious tales no self-respecting or self-indulging joy-lover should miss: accessible, entertaining, and wickedly intoxicating. Go mellow out with some kids’ stuff, now, okay? Why should they have all the fun?
© 2009, 2010 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

Today in 1948 cartoon gadfly Garry Trudeau (Doonesbury) was born, followed in 1950 by scripter and gamed developer Bill Kunkel (Doorway to Nightmare, Vigilante, Marvel Team-Up, Richie Rich). In 1942, Italian artist Giove Toppi died. He was the first cartoonist to draw Mickey Mouse in comics.

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Harley Quinn’s Greatest Hits


By Scott Beatty, Kelly Puckett, Jeph Loeb, Paul Dini, Adam Glass, Scott Snyder, James Tynion IV, Amanda Conner, Jimmy Palmiotti, Rob Williams, Bruce Timm, Mike Parobeck, Jim Lee, David Lopez, Federico Dallocchio, Jock, John Timms, Sean “Cheeks” Galloway, Scott Williams, Sandra Hope, Richard Friend & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-7008-7 (TPB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Harley Quinn wasn’t supposed to be a star – or even an actual comic book character. As would soon become apparent however, the manic minx had her own off-kilter ideas on the matter. Created by Paul Dini & Bruce Timm, Batman: The Animated Series aired in the US from September 5th 1992 to September 15th 1995. Ostensibly for kids, the breakthrough TV cartoon revolutionised everybody’s image of the Dark Knight and immediately began feeding back into the print iterations, leading to some of the absolute best comics tales in the hero’s many decades of existence.

Employing a timeless visual style dubbed “Dark Deco”, the show mixed elements from all eras and aspects of the character and, without diluting power, tone or mood of the premise, reshaped the grim avenger and his extended team into a wholly accessible, thematically memorable form that the youngest of readers could eagerly enjoy, whilst adding shades of exuberance, sophistication and sheer panache that only most devout and obsessive Batmaniac could possibly object to…

Harley was first seen as the Clown Prince of Crime’s slavishly adoring, abuse-enduring assistant in Joker’s Favor (airing on September 11th 1992) wherein she instantly captured the hearts and minds of millions of viewers. From there on she began popping up in the licensed comic book and – always stealing the show – soon graduated to mainstream DC continuity.

After a period bopping around the DCU she was re-imagined as part of the company’s vast post-Flashpoint, major makeover and appeared as part of a new iteration of The Suicide Squad. Now, with numerous motion picture, TV animation and live action small screen presence in play, it’s absolutely time to take a look at her eccentric career path…

Collecting material from Countdown to Final Crisis #10; Batman Adventures #12; Batman #613; Gotham City Sirens #7; Suicide Squad #1; Batman vol 2#13, Harley Quinn vol. 2 #21, 2015 and Harley Quinn and the Suicide Squad April Fools Special #1, the madcap mayhem commences with a 2-page potted biography of the mad miss in comics form.

Crafted by Scott Beatty & Bruce Timm, ‘The Origin of Harley Quinn’ (Countdown #10, February 2008) economically reveals how troubled psychologist Dr. Harleen Frances Quinzel arrived at Arkham Asylum to analyse The Joker only to lose all distance and perspective. Fully falling under his malign spell during interviews, she became his adoring, pliable and utterly despised slave…

A classic and classy semi-solo yarn comes from Batman Adventures #12, (September 1993) where Kelly Puckett, Mike Parobeck & Rick Burchett revealed how Barbara Gordon became a masked adventurer. Student Babs makes a superhero costume for a party in ‘Batgirl: Day One!’ before stumbling into a larcenous ‘Ladies Night’ when that High Society bash is crashed by rapacious gal pals Harley Quinn & Poison Ivy. With no professional help on hand, Miss Gordon must act as ‘If the Suit Fits!’ and tackle the bad girls herself , only to see Catwoman show up for the frantic finale ‘Out of the Frying Pan!’…

A far darker if less comprehensible interpretation graced Batman #613, (May 2003 by Jeph Loeb, Jim Lee & Scott Williams) as an incessant parade of villains du jour in Bat mega-event Hush sees The Joker and Harley invade ‘The Opera’ attended by Bruce Wayne and hidden master villain Tommy Elliot. It’s visually resplendent and shockingly violent, but story content is virtually zero since the entire farrago is just an extracted episode from a far larger and more complex epic. Go read that instead or as well…

Far more satisfactory, ‘Holiday Story’ is by Dini, David Lopez & Alvaro Lopez (Gotham City Sirens #7, February 2010). Here, new housemates Harley, Ivy & Catwoman split up to celebrate Christmas in their own uniquely different ways. This tale is a candid peek into the home-life and history which turned dead-end kid Harleen into an overachieving doctor, athlete and, latterly, lunatic supervillain by introducing the inveterate slimeball who fathered her…

Hitting modern times hard, ‘Kicked in the Teeth’ comes from Suicide Squad #1 (vol. 4, November 2011), wherein Adam Glass, Federico Dallocchio, Ransom Getty & Scott Hanna put Harley, Deadshot, Black Spider, King Shark, El Diablo, Voltaic and Savant through hell and torture as mere preparation for their first mission for top spook Amanda Waller whilst ‘Tease’ (Batman vol. 2, #13, December 2012 by Scott Snyder, James Tynion IV & Jock) sees Harley reunited with her maniac main man, only to once again suffer from the pernicious, vindictive whimsy and twisted love of the Joker…

‘Tug A’ War’ (Harley Quinn vol. 2, #21, December 2015 by Amanda Conner, Jimmy Palmiotti, John Timms) finds Harley Quinn a bounty hunter battling former squad-mate Deadshot and setting Hollywood ablaze as she seeks top cash-cow Sparrow Adaro. Things quickly go south when she discovers her target is no crook, simply the wayward spouse of a Showbiz bigwig who only wants his little lady back. Their twisted relationship touches Harley’s heart and she resolves to help, but the former psychologist never expected so many collateral corpses to accrue as she “fixed” the not-so-happy family…

This rough & ready compilation concludes with collaborative effort ‘Evil Anonymous’ from Harley Quinn and the Suicide Squad April Fools Special #1, 2016. Courtesy of Rob Williams, Jim Lee, Sean “Cheeks” Galloway, Scott Williams, Sandra Hope & Richard Friend this is a light-hearted, self-referential journey of discovery wherein Harley – prompted by another brush with The Joker – attempts to “cure” a number of her fellow criminal killer loons, beginning with bestial winged predator Man-Bat…

Soon, she’s reverted to a childlike state to tackle Killer Moth, Enchantress, Rat Catcher, Toyman and Poison Ivy, although things get a little out of hand when she gets Scarecrow on her couch and goes crazy serious when the Justice League step in. Nobody involved is aware of the insidious mastermind actually pulling the strings to get Harley Quinn back to where she really belongs… and is most needed…

Fast, furiously funny, often unnecessarily dark and making precious little narrative sense, Harley Quinn’s Greatest Hits is nonetheless a potent primer of Fights ‘n’ Tights furore that will give newcomers a taste of what the motley minx can do and should whet appetites for a deeper exploration of her anarchic exploits.
© 1993, 2003, 2008, 2011, 2012, 2015, 2016 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

Today in 1920 Golden Age artist Al Avison (Captain America, The Whizzer, Joe Palooka, The Green Hornet, Little Dot) was born, followed by Al Wenzel (Adventure Comics, Superboy) in 1924, an Oh My Goddess creator Kosuke Fujishima in 1964. One year later the amazing Mike Parobeck (JSA, Batman Adventures) arrived, sharing the day with editor/cartoonist Jordan B. Gorfinkel (Batman: No Man’s Land, Everything’s Relative), with artists Juan Vlasco (Spider-Boy, Cable) coming in 1968 and Evan “Doc” Shaner (Strange Adventures, Flash, Aquaman) born in 1985.

In 1958 today Anthony Hern & John McLusky’s James Bond strip debuted in the UK’s Daily Express, whilst in 1978, The Walt Disney Company won its copyright infringement lawsuit against underground comix outfit the Air Pirates. In 1997 Jerry Scott & Jim Bergman’s strip Zits launched, and in 2002, the last episode of Modesty Blaise was published.

Today in 1977, legendary pioneering strip cartoonist Roy Crane (Wash Tubbs, Captain Easy, Buz Sawyer) died.

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DC Finest: Robin – The Origin of Robin


By Ed Hamilton, John Broome, Gardner F. Fox, Cary Bates, Mike Friedrich, E. Nelson Bridwell, Frank Robbins, Dennis O’Neil, Bob Haney, Elliot Maggin, Bob Rozakis, Ross Andru, Curt Swan, Sheldon Moldoff, Pete Costanza, Chic Stone, Gil Kane, Irv Novick, Murphy Anderson, Dick Dillin, Rich Buckler, Bob Brown, Mike Grell, A. Martinez, Al Milgrom, José Delbo, Bill Draut, George Klein, Joe Giella, Sid Greene, Murphy Mike Esposito, Anderson, Vince Colletta, Dick Giordano, Frank McLaughlin, José Mazzaroli, Terry Austin, José Luis García-López, Ernie Chan & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-79950-829-8 (TPB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Robin the Boy Wonder debuted in Detective Comics #38 (cover dated April 1940 and on sale from March 6th). Co-created by Bob Kane, Bill Finger & Jerry Robinson, he was a juvenile circus acrobat whose parents were murdered by a mob boss. The story of how Batman took the orphaned Dick Grayson under his scalloped wing and trained him to fight crime has been told, retold and revised many times over the decades and still regularly undergoes tweaking to this day. Grayson fought beside Batman until 1970 when, as an indicator of those turbulent times, he flew the nest, becoming a Teen Wonder college student. His creation as a junior hero for younger readers to identify with inspired countless costumed sidekicks and kid crusaders, and Grayson continued in similar innovative vein for the older, more worldly-wise readership of America’s increasingly rebellious youth culture.

The first Robin even had his own solo series in Star Spangled Comics from 1947 to 1952, a solo spot in the back of Detective Comics from the end of the 1960s as covered here (but a position he alternated and shared with Batgirl) and a starring feature in anthology comic Batman Family. In the 1980s he led the New Teen Titans, initially in his original costumed identity but eventually in the reinvigorated guise of Nightwing, all while re-establishing a (somewhat turbulent) working relationship with his masked mentor.

This broad-ranging full colour but strictly non-digital compilation covers the period from Julie Schwartz’s captivating reinvigoration of the Dynamic Duo in 1964 until 1975 with Robin-related stories and material from Batman #184, 192, 202, 213, 217, 227, 229-231, 234-236, 239-242, 244-246, 248-250, 252, 254 & 259; Detective Comics #342, 386, 390-391, 394-395, 398-403, 445, 447, 450-251; World’s Finest Comics #141, 147, 195, & 200; Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen #111, 130 and Batman Family #1 & 3-5, spanning cover-dates May 1964 to May/June 1976.

With covers by Curt Swan, George Klein, Carmine Infantino, Joe Giella, Bill Draut & Vince Colletta, Neal Adams, Murphy Anderson, Mike Grell, Ernie Chan & Tatiana Wood, the developmental wonderment and rocky road from boys to men begins with ‘The Olsen-Robin Team versus… the Superman-Batman Team!’ Taken from World’s Finest #141, May 1964, by Edmond Hamilton, Curt Swan & George Klein, it’s a stirring blend of sci fi thriller and crime caper, wherein the underappreciated sidekicks fake their own deaths to undertake a secret mission even their adult partners must remain unaware of… for the very best of reasons of course.

The sequel (WFC #147, February 1965) delivers an engaging drama of youth-in-revolt as ‘The Doomed Boy Heroes!’ quit their assistant roles to strike out on their disgruntled own. Naturally there’s a perfectly reasonable – if incredible – reason here, too. Then in Detective Comics #342 (August 1965) cover-featured ‘The Midnight Raid of the Robin Gang!’ (John Broome, Sheldon Moldoff & Joe Giella) sees the Boy Wonder defy his mentor’s orders to infiltrate a youthful gang of costumed criminals. Following that, ‘The Boy Wonder’s Boo-Boo Patrol!’ (originally a back-up in Batman #184; September 1966 by Gardner Fox, Chic Stone & Sid Greene), shows the daring lad’s star-potential in a clever tale of thespian skulduggery and classic conundrum solving, before ‘Dick Grayson’s Secret Guardian!’ (Batman #192, June 1967, Fox, Moldoff & Giella) showcases his physical prowess in one of comic books’ first instances of the exoskeletal augmentation gimmick.

Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen #111 (June 1968) brought ‘Jimmy Olsen, Boy Wonder!’ by Cary Bates & Pete Costanza, which finds the cub reporter trying to prove his covert skills by convincing the Gotham Guardian that he was actually Robin (!), whilst that same month in Batman #202 the genuine article tackles the ‘Menace of the Motorcycle Marauders!’ (Mike Friedrich, Stone & Giella), consequently learning a salutary lesson in the price of responsibility. Then April 1969’s Detective Comics #386 featured the Boy Wonder’s first solo back-up in what was to become his semi-regular spot for years.

‘The Teen-Age Gap!’ as described by Friedrich, Ross Andru & Mike Esposito depicts a High School Barn Dance which only narrowly escapes becoming a riot thanks to Grayson’s diligent intervention. Its followed by an all new story from reprint collection Batman #213 (July/August 1969 and a 30th Anniversary reprint Giant) which offers an updated retelling of ‘The Origin of Robin’ courtesy of E. Nelson Bridwell, Andru & Esposito, reinterpreting those epochal events for the Vietnam generation. Gil Kane & Murphy Anderson assume the art-chores with Detective #390’s ‘Countdown to Chaos!’ (August 1969), bringing the support-series stunningly alive for the unfolding “Relevancy era” with Friedrich concocting a canny tale of corruption and kidnapping, leading to a paralysing city ‘Strike!’ for the Caped kid to spectacularly expose and foil in the following issue.

Next up is a modern landmark in the character’s long history as Batman #217’s ‘One Bullet Too Many!’ (December 1969, by Frank Robbins, Irv Novick & Dick Giordano) sees Dick leaves home to attend Hudson University. With the boy gone, Alfred and Bruce move with the times, shuttering both Mansion and Batcave and relocating to the penthouse of the Wayne Foundation Building in the heart of Gotham. It too offers subterranean lair extras and acts as base as Bruce sets up his Victims Inc. Program to aid the suffering survivors of crime. He also formally rededicates Batman to terrifying evildoers whether they be thugs, masterminds, or the new breed of semi-respectable “legitimate” businessmen who are little more than bandits with lawyers. His first mission is to solve the seemingly senseless murder of paediatrician Jonah Feilding.  Although not really a Robin tale, it is included here, and is closely followed by all of Detective #394 from the same month, with lead Batman feature finding ‘A Victim’s Victim!’ (Robbins, Bob Brown & Giella) in the crime-infested race car scene. This neatly segues into back up yarn ‘Strike… Whilst the Campus is Hot!’ (Robbins, Kane & Anderson) as callow freshman Dick Grayson stumbles into a campus riot organised by criminals backing radical activists, forcing the Teen Wonder to ‘Drop Out… or Drop Dead!’ to stop the seditious scheme. DC #398-399 (April & May 1970) then ran a 2-part spy-thriller with Vince Colletta replacing Anderson as inker. ‘Moon-Struck’ has lunar rock samples borrowed from NASA apparently causing a plague among Hudson’s students until Robin exposes a Soviet scheme to sabotage the Space Program in ‘Panic by Moonglow’.

The 400th anniversary issue (June 1970) finally teamed the Teen Wonder with his alternating back-up star in ‘A Burial For Batgirl!’ (Denny O’Neil, Kane & Colletta): a college-based murder mystery which again heavily references political and social unrest then plaguing US campuses, but which still finds space to be smart and action-packed as well as topical, before chilling conclusion ‘Midnight is the Dying Hour!’ wraps up the saga. Never afraid to repeat a good idea, Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen #130 (July 1970, by Bob Haney & Anderson) details the exploits of ‘Olsen the Teen Wonder!’ with the junior reporter again aping Batman’s buddy to infiltrate an underworld newspaper.

World’s Finest #195 (August 1970) sees Jimmy & Robin targeted for murder by the Mafia in ‘Dig Now, Die Later!’ (Haney, Andru & Esposito, whilst simultaneously in DC #402 ‘My Place in the Sun’ (Friedrich, Kane & Colletta), embroils Grayson and fellow Teen Titan Roy Harper Speedy in a crisis of social conscience, before our scarce-bearded hero wraps up his Detective run with corking crimebusting caper ‘Break-Out’ in the September issue. From #227 (December 1970) Robin’s romps transferred to the back of Batman, beginning with ‘Help Me – I Think I’m Dead!’ (Friedrich, Novick & Esposito) as ecological awareness catastrophically collides with penny-pinching Big Business on campus, launching an extended epic tracking the Teen Thunderbolt’s exploration of communes, alternative cultures and the burgeoning spiritual New Age fads of the day.

Inked by Frank Giacoia ‘Temperature Boiling… and Rising!’ (#229, February 1971) continues the politically-charged drama, albeit uncomfortably interrupted by a trenchant fantasy team-up with Superman sparked when the Man of Steel attempts to halt a violent campus clash between students and National Guard. The tale shifts to WFC #200 (February 1971) – crafted by Friedrich, Dick Dillin & Giella – where ‘Prisoners of the Immortal World!’ has brothers on opposite sides of the teen scene abducted with Robin & Superman to a distant planet where undying vampiric aliens wage eternal war on each other. A return to more pedestrian perils follows in Batman #230 (March 1971) sees ‘Danger Comes A-Looking!’ for our young hero in the form of a gang of right-wing, anti-protester jocks and a deluded friend who prefers bombs to brotherhood, courtesy of Friedrich, Novick & Giordano. ‘Wiped Out!’ (#231, May 1971) then offers an eye-popping end to the jock squad whilst #234 sees a clever road-trip tale in ‘Vengeance for a Cop!’, when a campus guard is gunned down forcing Robin to track the only suspect to a commune. ‘The Outcast Society’ has its own unique system of justice, but eventually the shooter is apprehended in cataclysmic closing ‘Rain Fire!’ (#235 & 236 respectively).

The Collective experience blooms into psychedelic and psionic strangeness in #239 as ‘Soul-Pit’ (illustrated by new penciller Rich Buckler) finds Grayson’s would-be girlfriend, “Jesus-freaks” and runaway kids all sucked into a telepathic duel between a father and son, played out in the ‘Theatre of the Mind!’ before exposing the ‘Secret of the Psychic Siren!’ and culminating in a lethal clash with a clandestine cult in ‘Death-Point!’ (Batman#242, June 1972). Elliot Maggin, Novick & Giordano then open an age of cosy-mystery capers by setting ‘The Teen-Age Trap!’ (Batman #244, September 1972), with Grayson mentoring troubled kids and finding plenty of troublemakers his own age, before ‘Who Stole the Gift from Nowhere!’ is a delightful old-fashioned change-of-pace yarn where our hero seeks out a hidden wealthy benefactor. Batman #248 offers ‘The Immortals of Usen Castle’ (Maggin, Novick & Frank McLaughlin) wherein another deprived-kids day trip turns into an episode of Scooby-Doo, Where are You?

Pencilled by Brown, the ‘Case of the Kidnapped Crusader!’ then puts the Student Centurion on the trail of an abducted consumer advocate prior to ‘Return of the Flying Grayson!’ (Maggin, Novick & McLaughlin from #250) painfully reminding the hero of his Circus past after tracking down pop-art thieves. Batman #252 (October 1973) sees Maggin, Dillin & Giordano’s light-hearted pairing of Robin with a Danny Kaye pastiche/avatar for charming romp ‘The King from Canarsie!’, before ‘The Phenomenal Memory of Luke Graham!’ (#254 January/February 1974 and inked by Anderson) causes nothing but trouble for the hero, his college professors and a gang of robbers. Issue #259 provides a fashion spread of new costumes suggested by readers in ‘A New Look for Robin’ before the next tale as year-long adventure drought ends with ‘The Touchdown Trap’ in Detective #445 (February/March 1975) as new scripter Bob Rozakis and artist Mike Grell catapult our hero into a 50-year-old college football feud that refused to die, after which ‘The Puzzle of the Pyramids’ (#447, illustrated by A. Martinez & José Mazzaroli) offers another cunning crime conundrum. Action-packed, chase-heavy human drama ‘The Parking Lot Bandit!’ & ‘The Parking Lot Bandit Strikes Again!’ (DC #450-451, August & September 1975, by Al Milgrom & Terry Austin) gives the titanic teen one last chance to strike a bit of terror into the hearts of evil-doers in his titular home before the next big change comes.

In the midst of another expansion, DC launched a line of double-length titles with Batman Family as possibly its strongest contender. A supersized anthology of new and vintage Bat-fare highlighting a vast themed cast, it paired Robin & Batgirl as a semi-official crimebusting duo. On sale from June 5th 1975, the first issue led with Maggin & Grell’s ‘The Invader from Hell!’ as the ghost of Benedict Arnold attacks Washington DC in a Satan-sponsored sortie to clear his name and rehabilitate his reputation.

With #2 all-reprint, we return for #3 as Maggin, José Luis García-López & Colletta bring the pair to Princetown and a fantastic clash with dinosaurs, future-men and the Spanish Inquisition in thrilling but deceptively peril-free lark ‘Isle of a Thousand Thrills!’ before seasonal shocker ‘Robin’s (Very) White Christmas!’ ( #4, Rozakis, José Delbo & & Colletta) sees Batgirl, Robin and Gotham Police Commissioner Jim Gordon unite to keep Syndicate snitch Tad Wolfe alive and out of the hands of infallible assassin Diamond Lilly.

The eccentrically eclectic collected collation of Teen Wonderments concludes with BF #5’s ‘The Princess and the Vagabond!’ by Maggin, Cary Bates, Swan & Colletta, wherein whilst babysitting foreign dignitary Princess Evalina, Congresswoman Barbara Gordon, her alter ego Batgirl, student guide Dick Grayson and Robin collectively inspire a mismatched romance by foiling the murder plot of sinister agency MAZE…

These stories span a turbulent and chaotic period for comic books: perfectly encapsulating and describing the vicissitudes of the superhero genre’s premier juvenile lead: complex yet uncomplicated adventures drenched in charm and wit, moody tales of rebellion and self-discovery, and rollercoaster, all-fun romps. Action is always paramount, and angst-free satisfaction is pretty much guaranteed. These cracking yarns are something no fan of old-fashioned Fights ‘n’ Tights fiction should miss.
© 1964, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1976, 2026 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

Today in 1926 saw the birth of American cartoonist George Booth (Spot, Local Item), with artist/inker Mike Royer (Magnus, Robot Fighter, Silver Star, Jack Kirby’s Fourth World, Kamandi) arriving in 1941 and iconic groundbreaking French fantasist Philippe Druillet (Lone Sloane saga, Yragaël, La Nuit, Salammbô, Nosferatu) in 1944. Romanian artist Sandu Florea (Batman: Battle for the Cowl, Justice Society of America, X-Men, Dou? palo?e) came along in 1946 and abstract expressionist/Underground Commix pioneer David Geiser (Demented Pervert, Uncle Sham, Edge City) one year later; colourist Adrienne Roy in 1953 and Belgian stylist Benoît Sokal (Inspector Canardo, Syberia) in 1954.

In 2007 we lost American cartoonist, sculptor, author and illustrator Howie Schneider (Eek & Meek, Chewy Louie).

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Showcase Presents Robin The Boy Wonder


By E. Nelson Bridwell, Ed Hamilton, John Broome, Leo Dorfman, Gardner F. Fox, Cary Bates, Mike Friedrich, Frank Robbins, Denny O’Neil, Bob Haney, Elliot Maggin, Bob Rozakis, Ross Andru, Curt Swan, Sheldon Moldoff, Pete Costanza, Chic Stone, Gil Kane, Irv Novick, Murphy Anderson, Dick Dillin, Rich Buckler, Bob Brown, Mike Grell, A. Martinez Al Milgrom & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-1676-4 (TPB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

As previously mentioned, there are a lot of comics anniversaries occurring in this otherwise dreadful year. The ultimate and original sidekick is probably the most significant of DC’s representatives, and indeed there have been a few intriguing collections released to celebrate the occasion. This one, however, is probably the best but remains criminally out of print, if not utterly unavailable…

Robin the Boy Wonder debuted in Detective Comics #38 (cover dated April 1940 and on sale from March 6th). Co-created by Bob Kane, Bill Finger & Jerry Robinson, he was a juvenile circus acrobat whose parents were murdered by a mob boss. The story of how Batman took the orphaned Dick Grayson under his scalloped wing and trained him to fight crime has been told, retold and revised many times over the decades and still regularly undergoes tweaking to this day.

Grayson fought beside Batman until 1970 when, as an indicator of those turbulent times, he flew the nest, becoming a Teen Wonder college student. His creation as a junior hero for younger readers to identify with has inspired an incomprehensible number of costumed sidekicks and kid crusaders, and Grayson continued in similar innovative vein for the older, more worldly-wise readership of America’s increasingly rebellious youth culture.

The first Robin even had his own solo series in Star Spangled Comics from 1947 to 1952, a solo spot in the back of Detective Comics from the end of the 1960s – a position he alternated and shared with Batgirl – and a starring feature in anthology comic Batman Family. During the 1980s he led the New Teen Titans, initially in his original costumed identity but eventually in the reinvented guise of Nightwing, all while re-establishing a (somewhat turbulent) working relationship with his masked mentor.

This broad ranging easy on the eye monochrome compilation covers the period from Julie Schwartz’s captivating reinvigoration of the Dynamic Duo in 1964 until 1975 with Robin-related stories and material from Batman #184, 192, 202, 213, 227, 229-231, 234-236, 239-242, 244-246, 248-250, 252, 254 and portions of 217; Detective Comics #342, 386, 390-391, 394-395, 398-403, 445, 447, 450-251; World’s Finest Comics #141, 147, 195, 200; Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen #91, 111, 130 and Justice League of America #91-92.

The wonderment begins with the lead story from Batman #213 (July-August 1969) – a 30th Anniversary reprint Giant – which featured an all-new retelling of ‘The Origin of Robin’ courtesy of E. Nelson Bridwell, Ross Andru & Mike Esposito, perfectly reinterpreting that epochal event for the Vietnam generation. After that, the tales proceed in (more or less) chronological order, covering episodes where Robin took centre-stage.

First up is ‘The Olsen-Robin Team versus… the Superman-Batman Team!’ (from World’s Finest #141, May 1964, by Edmond Hamilton, Curt Swan & George Klein). In a stirring blend of science fiction thriller and crime caper, the underappreciated sidekicks fake their own deaths to undertake a secret mission even their adult partners must remain unaware of – for the very best of reasons of course. A sequel from WF #147 (February 1965) delivers an engaging drama of youth-in-revolt as ‘The New Terrific Team!’ quit their assistant roles to strike out on their disgruntled own. Naturally there’s a perfectly reasonable – if incredible – reason here, too…

Detective Comics #342 (August 1965) featured ‘The Midnight Raid of the Robin Gang!’ by John Broome, Sheldon Moldoff & Joe Giella, wherein the Boy Wonder joins a youthful gang of costumed criminals, after which Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen #91 (March 1966) delivers ‘The Dragon Delinquent!’ (Leo Dorfman & Pete Costanza) as Robin and the cub reporter, unknown to each other, both infiltrate the same biker gang with potentially fatal consequences.

‘The Boy Wonder’s Boo-Boo Patrol!’ – originally a back-up in Batman #184 (September 1966, Gardner Fox, Chic Stone & Sid Greene), shows the daring lad’s star-potential in a clever tale of thespian skulduggery and classic conundrum solving, before ‘Dick Grayson’s Secret Guardian!’ (Batman #192, June 1967, Fox, Moldoff & Giella) depicts his physical prowess in one of comic books’ first instances of the exo-skeletal augmentation gimmick.

‘Jimmy Olsen, Boy Wonder!’ (SPJO #111, June 1968, by Cary Bates & Costanza) finds the reporter trying to prove his covert skills by convincing the Gotham Guardian that he was actually Robin, whilst that same month in Batman #203 the genuine article tackles the ‘Menace of the Motorcycle Marauders!’ (Mike Friedrich, Stone & Giella) consequently learning a salutary lesson in the price of responsibility…

Cover-dated April 1969, Detective Comics #386 featured the Boy Wonder’s first solo back-up in what was to become his semi-regular spot for years. ‘The Teen-Age Gap!’ (as described by Friedrich, Andru & Esposito) depicts a High School Barn Dance which only narrowly escapes becoming a riot thanks to his diligent intervention, after which Gil Kane & Murphy Anderson assume the art-chores with #390’s ‘Countdown to Chaos!’ (August 1969), bringing the series stunningly alive. Friedrich concocted a canny tale of corruption and kidnapping leading to a paralysing city ‘Strike!’ for the Caped kid to spectacularly expose and foil in the following issue.

Batman #217 (December 1969) was a landmark in the character’s long history as Dick leaves home to attend Hudson University. Only the pertinent portion from ‘One Bullet Too Many!’ by Frank Robbins, Irv Novick & Dick Giordano is included here, closely followed by ‘Strike… Whilst the Campus is Hot’ (Detective #394 from the same month, by Robbins, Kane & Anderson) as the callow freshman stumbles into a campus riot organised by criminals and radical activists, forcing the now Teen Wonder to ‘Drop Out… or Drop Dead!‘ to stop the seditious scheme…

Detective #398-399 (April & May 1970) ran a 2-part spy-thriller with Vince Colletta replacing Anderson as inker. ‘Moon-Struck’ has lunar rock samples borrowed from NASA apparently causing a plague among Hudson’s students until Robin exposes a Soviet scheme to sabotage the Space Program in ‘Panic by Moonglow’. The 400th anniversary issue (June 1970) finally teamed the Teen Wonder with his alternating back-up star in ‘A Burial For Batgirl!’ (Denny O’Neil, Kane & Colletta): a college-based murder mystery which again heavily references the political and social unrest then plaguing US campuses, but which still finds space to be smart and action-packed as well as topical, before chilling conclusion ‘Midnight is the Dying Hour!’ wraps up the saga.

Never afraid to repeat a good idea, Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen #130 (July 1970) sees Bob Haney & Murphy Anderson detail the exploits of ‘Olsen the Teen Wonder!’ as the boy reporter again apes Batman’s buddy – this time to infiltrate an underworld newspaper – whilst World’s Finest #195 (August 1970) finds Jimmy & Robin targeted for murder by the Mafia in ‘Dig Now, Die Later!’ by Haney, Andru & Esposito. Simultaneously in DC #402 ‘My Place in the Sun’ (Friedrich, Kane & Colletta), embroils Grayson and fellow Teen Titan Roy Speedy Harper in a crisis of social conscience, before our scarce-bearded hero wraps up his Detective run with corking crime-busting caper ‘Break-Out’ in the September issue.

Robin’s romps transferred to the back of Batman, beginning with #227 (December 1970) and ‘Help Me – I Think I’m Dead!’ (Friedrich, Novick & Esposito) as ecological awareness and penny-pinching Big Business catastrophically collide on the campus, beginning an extended epic seeing the Teen Thunderbolt explore communes, alternative cultures and the burgeoning spiritual New Age fads of the day. Inked by Frank Giacoia ‘Temperature Boiling… and Rising!’ (#229, February 1971) continues the politically-charged drama, albeit uncomfortably interrupted by a trenchant fantasy team-up with Superman sparked when the Man of Steel attempts to halt a violent campus clash between students and National Guard.

Crafted by Friedrich, Dick Dillin & Giella, ‘Prisoners of the Immortal World!’ (WFC #200, February 1971), has brothers on opposite sides of the teen scene abducted with Robin & Superman to a distant planet where undying vampiric aliens wage eternal war on each other. A return to more pedestrian perils in Batman #230 (March 1971) sees ‘Danger Comes A-Looking!’ for our young hero in the form of a gang of right-wing, anti-protester jocks and a deluded friend who prefers bombs to brotherhood, courtesy of Friedrich, Novick & Dick Giordano. ‘Wiped Out!’ (#231, May 1971) then offers an eye-popping end to the jock gang whilst #234 sees a clever road-trip tale in ‘Vengeance for a Cop!’, when a campus guard is gunned down forcing Robin to track the only suspect to a commune. ‘The Outcast Society’ has its own unique system of justice, but eventually the shooter is apprehended in the cataclysmic ‘Rain Fire!’ (#235 & 236 respectively).

The Collective experience blooms into psychedelic and psionic strangeness in #239 as ‘Soul-Pit’ (illustrated by new penciller Rich Buckler) finds Grayson’s would-be girlfriend, “Jesus-freaks” and runaway kids all sucked into a telepathic duel between a father and son, played out in the ‘Theatre of the Mind!’ before exposing the ‘Secret of the Psychic Siren!’ and culminating in a lethal clash with a clandestine cult in ‘Death-Point!’ (Batman#242, June 1972). After that eerie epic we slip back a year to peruse the Teen Wonder’s participation in one of the hallowed JLA/JSA summer team-ups, beginning in Justice League of America #91 (August 1971) and ‘Earth… the Monster-Maker!’, as Supermen, Flashes, Green Lanterns, Atoms and a brace of Hawkmen from two separate Realities simultaneously and ineffectually battle an alien boy and his symbiotically-linked dog (sort of) on almost identical planets a universe apart. There’s still time to painfully patronise the Robins of both until ‘Solomon Grundy… the One and Only!’ gives everyone a brutal but ultimately life-saving lesson on acceptance, togetherness, youthful optimism and lateral thinking…

Elliot Maggin, Novick & Giordano then set ‘The Teen-Age Trap!’ (Batman#244, September 1972), with Grayson mentoring troubled kids – and finding plenty of troublemakers his own age – whilst ‘Who Stole the Gift from Nowhere!’ is a delightful old-fashioned change-of-pace mystery yarn. However, ‘How Many Ways Can a Robin Die?’ by Robbins, Novick, Dillin & Giordano (Batman #246, December 1972) is actually a Dark Knight story with Teen Wonder helpless hostage throughout, whereas #248 opens another run of solo stories with ‘The Immortals of Usen Castle’ (Maggin, Novick & Frank McLaughlin) wherein another deprived-kids day trip turns into an episode of Scooby-Doo, Where are You? The ‘Case of the Kidnapped Crusader!’ (pencilled by Bob Brown) then puts the Student Centurion on the trail of an abducted consumer advocate and ‘Return of the Flying Grayson!’ (Maggin, Novick & McLaughlin from #250) painfully reminds the hero of his Circus past after tracking down pop-art thieves.

Batman #252 (October 1973) sees Maggin, Dillin & Giordano’s light-hearted pairing of Robin with a Danny Kaye pastiche for charming romp ‘The King from Canarsie!’, before ‘The Phenomenal Memory of Luke Graham!’ (#254 January/February 1974 and inked by Anderson) causes nothing but trouble for the hero, his college professors and a gang of robbers…

It was a year before the Teen Wonder’s solo sallies resumed with ‘The Touchdown Trap’ in Detective Comics #445 as new scripter Bob Rozakis and artist Mike Grell catapulted our hero into a 50-year-old college football feud that refused to die, whilst ‘The Puzzle of the Pyramids’ (#447 and illustrated by A. Martinez & Mazzaroli) offers another clever crime conundrum. This eccentrically eclectic monochrome compendium concludes with an action-packed, chase-heavy human drama by Al Milgrom & Terry Austin as ‘The Parking Lot Bandit!’ & ‘The Parking Lot Bandit Strikes Again!’ (DC #450-451, August & September 1975), giving the titanic teen one last chance to strike a bit of terror into the hearts of evil-doers…

These stories span a turbulent and chaotic period for comic books: perfectly encapsulating and describing the vicissitudes of the superhero genre’s premier juvenile lead: complex yet uncomplicated adventures drenched in charm and wit, moody tales of rebellion and self-discovery, and rollercoaster, all-fun romps. Action is always paramount, and angst-free satisfaction is pretty much guaranteed. These cracking yarns are something no fan of old-fashioned Fights ‘n’ Tights fiction should miss.
© 1964-1975, 2008 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

Today in 1922, Belgian auteur Marc Sleen was born. We still haven’t seen English versions of his Nero yet, but have slavishly and repeatedly begged you all to tune in to the oeuvre of Ronald Searle, who left us all far less today in 2011.

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DC Finest: Super Friends – The Fury of the Super Foes


By E. Nelson Bridwell, Denny O’Neil, Ramona Fradon, Kurt Schaffenberger, Ric Estrada, Alex Toth, Joe Orlando, Bob Smith, Vince Colletta with Dick Giordano, Curt Swan & Geoge Klein & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-79950-316-3 (TPB)

This book contains Discriminatory Content produced during less enlightened times.

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Evergreen Superhero Sagas For All… 9/10

Once upon a time comics were primarily created with kids in mind. Whilst I’d never advocate exclusively going back to those days, the modern industry has for the longest time sinned by not fully addressing the needs and tastes of younger fans these days. By that I mean less tie-ns and more accessible standard stoires like Marvel Adventures material or this stuff here.

Happily, DC has latterly been rectifying the situation with new and – most importantly for old geeks like me – remastered, repackaged age-appropriate gems from their vast back catalogue.

A superb case in point of all-ages comics done right is this tome celebrating the joys of childhood when comics and TV shows were interchangeable in kids’ head. It was all one great big dangerous fun world to save or conquer…

DC Finest: Super Friends:- The Fury of the Super Foes gathers comic book tales spun off from a hugely popular Saturday Morning TV Cartoon show: one that, thanks to the canny craftsmanship and loving invention of lead scripter E. Nelson Bridwell, became an integral and unmissable component of the greater pre Crisis on Infinite Earths DC Universe.

It was also one of the most universally thrilling and satisfying superhero titles of the period: featuring the smart, witty, straightforward adventures people my age grew up with, produced during a period when the entire industry was increasingly losing itself in colossal continued storylines and bombastic, convoluted, soap opera melodrama.It’s something all creators should have tattooed on their foreheads: sometimes all you really want is a smart plot well illustrated, sinister villains well-smacked, a solid resolution and early bed…

TV show Super Friends ran (under various iterations) from 1973 to 1986; starring primarily Superman, Batman and Robin, Wonder Woman, Aquaman and a brace of studio-originated kids as student crimebusters. The cast was supplemented by guest stars from the DCU on a case by case basis. The animated series made the transition to print as part of the publisher’s 1976 foray into “boutiqued” comics which saw titles with a television connection cross-marketed as DC TV Comics.

Child-friendly Golden Age comic book revival Shazam!- the Original Captain Marvel had been adapted into a successful live action series and its Saturday Morning silver screen stablemate The Secrets of Isis consequently reversed the process to become a comic book. With the additions of hit comedy show Welcome Back Kotter and animated blockbuster Super Friends four-colour format, DC had a neat outreach imprimatur tailor-made to draw viewers into the magic word of funnybooks.

At least that was the plan: with the exception of Super Friends none of the titles lasted more than ten issues beyond their launch…

This massive mega-extravaganza collects Super Friends #1-26 (spanning November 1976 to November 1979), includes promo comic Aquateers Meet the Super Friends and reprints material from Limited Collectors’ Edition #C-41 and C-46.

The fun begins a crafty 2-part caper by the wondrous E. Nelson Bridwell and illustrators Ric Estrada, Vince Colletta & Joe Orlando. ‘The Fury of the Super Foes’ finds heroes-in-training Wendy & Marvin – and their incredibly astute mutt Wonderdog – studying at the palatial Hall of Justice, even as elsewhere, a confederation of villains prove imitation is the sincerest form of flattery… if not outright intellectual theft. Having auditioned a host of young criminals, The Penguin, Cheetah, Flying Fish, Poison Ivy and Toyman are creating a squad of sidekicks and protégés to follow in their felonious footsteps. Now Chick, Kitten, Sardine, Honeysuckle and Toyboy are all ready and willing to carry out their first caper…

When the giant “Troubalert” screen informs our heroes of a 3-pronged attack on S.T.A.R. Labs’ latest inventions, the team split up to tackle the crises, but are thoroughly trounced until Wendy & Marvin break curfew to help them. As a result of the clash, Chick and Kitten are brought back to the Hall of Justice, but their talk of repentance is a rascally ruse and they secretly sabotage vital equipment. Thankfully, Wonderdog has seen everything and quickly finds a way to inform the still-oblivious good guys in issue #2, but too late to prevent the Super Friends being briefly ‘Trapped by the Super Foes’…

Aided and abetted by inker Bob Smith, the incomparable Ramona Fradon (Aquaman; Metamorpho the Element Man; Brenda Starr, Reporter) became penciller with #3, as ‘The Cosmic Hit Man?’ sees 50 intergalactic super-villains murdered by infernal Dr. Ihdrom, who then blends their harvested essences to create an apparently unbeatable hyper-horror to utterly overwhelm Earth’s heroic defenders. However, he falls victim to his own arrogance and Wendy & Marvin’s logical deductions…

‘Riddles and Rockets!’ sees the Super Friends overmatched by new ne’er-do-well Skyrocket whilst simultaneously seeking to cope with a rash of crimes contrived by King of Conundra The Riddler. Soon a pattern emerges and a criminal connection is confirmed…

Author Bridwell (Secret Six; Inferior Five; Batman; Superman; The Flash; Legion of Super-Heroes; Captain Marvel/Shazam!) was justly famed as DC’s Keeper of Lore and top Continuity Cop thanks to his astoundingly encyclopaedic knowledge of its publishing minutiae and ability to instantly recall every damn thing! ‘Telethon Treachery!’ gave him plenty of scope to display it with a horde of near-forgotten guest-stars joining the heroes as they host a televised charity event. Sadly, money-mad menace Greenback lurks in the wings, awaiting his moment to grab the loot and kidnap the wealthiest donors. Then The Atom (Ray Palmer) plays a crucial role in stopping the depredations of an animal trainer using beasts as bandits in ‘The Menace of the Menagerie Man!’ before a huge cast change is unveiled in #7 (October 1977) with ‘The Warning of the Wondertwins’…

You all know TV is very different from comics. When the next season of Super Friends aired, Wendy, Marvin & Wonderdog were abruptly gone, replaced without explanation by alien kids Zan & Jayna and their elastic-tailed space monkey Gleek. With room to extrapolate and in consideration of fans, Bridwell explained the sudden change via a battle to save Earth from annihilation whilst introducing the newest student heroes in memorable style. At the Hall of Justice Wendy & Marvin spot a spaceship hurtling to Earth on the Troubalert monitor and dash off to intercept it. Aboard are two siblings from distant planet Exor: a girl able to transform into animals and a boy who can become any form of water, from steam to ice. They have come carrying an urgent warning…

Superman’s alien enemy Grax has resolved to eradicate humanity and devised a dozen different superbombs and attendant weird-science traps to ensure his victory. These are scattered all over Earth and even the entire Justice League cannot stretch its resources to cover every angle and threat. To Wendy & Marvin the answer is obvious: call upon the help and knowledge of hyper-powered local heroes…

Soon Superman and Israel’s champion The Seraph are dismantling a black hole bomb whilst Elongated Man and titan-tressed Godiva perform similar service on a life-eradicator in England. Flash (Barry Allen) and mighty-leaping Impala dismantle uncatchable ordnance in South Africa before Hawkman & Hawkwoman join Native American avenger Owlwoman to crush darkness-breeding monsters in Oklahoma, whilst from the Hall of Justice Wendy, Marvin and the Wonder Twins monitor the crisis with a modicum of mounting hope…

The cataclysmic epic continues in #8 with ‘The Mind Killers!’ as Atom and Rising Son tackle a device designed to decimate Japan, and in Ireland Green Lantern Hal Jordan and Jack O’Lantern battle multi-hued monstrosities before switching off their technological terror.

In New Zealand, time-scanning Tuatara tips off Red Tornado to the position of a bomb cached in the distant past whilst Venezuela’s doom is diverted through a team-up of Batman, Robin and reptile-themed champion Bushmaster. And in Taiwan a melding of sonic superpowers possessed by Black Canary and the astounding Thunderlord harmoniously saves the day…

The saga soars to a classic climax with ‘Three Ways to Kill a World!’ in which the final phases of Grax’s scheme fail thanks to Green Arrow & Tasmanian Devil in Australia, with Aquaman & Little Mermaid sorting out the embattled seas off Denmark and Wonder Woman & The Olympian preserving modern Greece.

Or at least, they would have if the Hellenic heroes had found the right foe. Sadly, their triumph against Wrong-Place, Right-Time terrorist Colonel Conquest almost upsets everything. Thankfully, the quick thinking hero-students send an army of defenders to Antarctica where Norwegian novice Icemaiden dismantles the ultimate booby-trap bomb.  However, whilst the adult champions are engaged, Grax invades the Hall of Justice seeking revenge on the pesky whistleblowing Exorian kids. He’s completely unprepared for and overwhelmed by Wendy, Marvin & Wonderdog, who categorically prove they’re ready to graduate to the big leagues…

Thus with Zan & Jayna enrolled as latest heroes-in-training, Super Friends #10 details their adoption by Batman’s old associate – and eccentric time travel theoretician – Professor Carter Nichols, just before a legion of alien horrors arrive on Earth to teach the kids that appearances can be lethally deceiving in ‘The Monster Menace!’ In #11, ‘Kingslayer’ pits the heroes against criminal mastermind Overlord who has contracted the world’s greatest hitman to murder more than one hundred leaders at one sitting…

Another deep dive into DC’s past resurrected Golden Age titans T.N.T and Dan, the Dyna-Mite in ‘The Atomic Twosome!’ These 1940s mystery men had been under government wraps ever since their radioactive powers began to melt down, but when an underground catastrophe ruptures their individual lead-lined vaults, the Super Friends are called in to prevent potential nuclear nightmare. Then the subterranean reason for the near tragedy is tracked to a monstrous mole creature, and leads to the introduction of eternal mystic Doctor Mist, who reveals the secret history of civilisation and begs help to halt ‘The Mindless Immortal!’ before its random burrowing shatters mankind’s cities. From here, Bridwell would build a fascinating new team concept that would support decades of future continuity…

Super Friends #14 opens with ‘Elementary!’; introducing four ordinary mortals forever changed when possessed by ancient sprits. Tasked by Overlord with plundering the world, Undine, Salamander, Sylph & Gnome are defeated by our heroes yet retain their powers and so become crimefighting team The Elementals. Also on view is a short back-up illustrated by Kurt Schaffenberger & Bob Smith. ‘The Origin of the Wondertwins’ at last reveals they are Exorian genetic throwbacks (despised outcasts on their homeworld) who fled from a circus of freaks and uncovered Grax’s plot before taking that fateful voyage to Earth.

Big surprises come in ‘The Overlord Goes Under!’ (Fradon & Smith) as the Elementals begin battling evil by joining the Super Friends in crushing the crook. All those superheroes are blithely unaware that they are merely clearing the way for a far more cunning and subtle mastermind to take Overlord’s place…

‘The People Who Stole the Sky!’ in SF #16 is a grand, old-fashioned alien invasion yarn, foiled by the team and the increasingly adept Wonder Twins whilst ‘Trapped in Two Times!’ has Zan & Jayna used by the insidious Time Trapper to lure their adult mentors into deadly peril on Krypton in the days before it detonated, and future water world Neryla in the hours before it’s swallowed by its critically expanding red sun. After rescuing the kids – thanks largely to Superman’s legendary lost love Lyla Ler-Rol – the Super Friends employ Tuatara’s temporal insight and Professor Nichol’s obscure chronal methodologies to hunt the Trapper in a riotous yet educational ‘Manhunt in Time!’ (art by Schaffenberger & Smith), by way of Atlantis before it sank, medieval Spain and Michigan in 1860CE: all to thwart a triple-strength scheme to derail history and end Earth civilisation…

SF #19 sees an encore for Menagerie Man in ‘The Mystery of the Missing Monkey!’ (Fradon & Smith) as the animal exploiter appropriates Gleek: intent on turning his elastic-tailed talents into a perfect pickpocketing tool, before Denny O’Neil (as Sergius O’Shaugnessy) teams with Schaffenberger & Smith for a more jocular turn. Here, chaos and comedy ensue when the team tackles vegetable monsters unleashed after self-obsessed shlock-movie director Frownin’ Fritz Frazzle uses Merlin’s actually magical Magic Lantern to make a “masterpiece” on the cheap in ‘Revenge of the Leafy Monsters!’…

Bridwell & Fradon bounce back in #21 where ‘Battle Against the Super Fiends!’ has the heroes travelling to Exor to combat super-criminals who can duplicate their power-sets, after which ‘It’s Never Too Late!’ (#22, O’Shaugnessy, Fradon & Smith) reveals how time bandit Chronos subjects the Super Friends to a chronal-delay treatment rendering them perennially too late to stop him… but only until Batman and the Wonder Twins out-think him.

The Mirror Master divides and banishes teachers from students in #23 but is ultimately unable to prevent an ‘SOS from Nowhere!’ (Bridwell, Fradon & Smith) to the Flash. This episode also spends time fleshing out the Wonder Twins’ earthly alter egos as Gotham Central highschoolers John & Joanna Fleming…

With O’Shaugnessy scripting, ‘Past, Present and Danger!’ sees Zan & Jayna’s faces found engraved on a recently-unearthed Egyptian pyramid. Upon investigation inside the edifice, the heroes awaken two ancient exiles who resemble the kids, but who are in truth criminals who fled Exorian justice thousands of years previously. How lucky, then, that the kids are perfect doubles that the villains can send back with the robot cops surrounding the pyramid – once they’ve got rid of all those busybody Earthling heroes…

Enjoying promotion through treachery, habitually harassed Underling has seized power at last in Bridwell’s ‘Puppets of the Overlord’, and then employs forbidden technology to mind-control adult and junior heroes. Happily, international champions Green Fury (later Fire), Wonder Woman’s sister Nubia, Tasmanian Devil and Seraph can join Green Lantern and Queen Mera of Atlantis in delivering a liberating solution, after which this splendid selection of super thrills pauses with SF #26 as Bridwell, Fradon & Smith bring back some old friends and enemies for ‘The Wondertwins’ Battle of Wits!’ when a scheming former Bat-foe enacts an infallibly murderous plot…

Rounding out the frenetic fun is a features section that includes the Alex Toth cover from Limited Collectors’ Edition #C-41  and new material from sequel C-46. These include a comic strip collaboration with Bridwell on introductory tale ‘Super Friends’ which was a star-studded framing sequence for a big reprint issue of Justice League classics. The wonders are further augmented by Toth’s comprehensive pictorial essay on creating ‘TV Cartoons’ (with contributions from Bob Foster), plus his ‘The JLA on TV’ model sheets, and designs of ‘The Hall of Justice’ by Terry Austin. As you of course know, comics legend Toth was lead designer on the characters’ transition to TV animation…

The extras include mini-comic Aquateers Meet the Super Friends – a 1979 promotional giveaway included with every purchase of Super Friends Swim Goggles. An uncredited framing sequence (which looks like a Continuity Associates project that Dick Giordano & Frank McLoughlin had a hand in) segues into ‘The Greatest Show on Water’ – an Aquaman short by Fradon originally published in Adventure Comics #219, (December 1955).

The bumper fun wraps with Alex Ross’ painted cover from 2001 book collection Super Friends!

With covers by Fradon, Smith, Schaffenberger, Colletta, Ernie Chan and more, this hopefully initial compendium is superbly entertaining, masterfully crafted and utterly engaging. It offers stories of pure comics gold to delight children and adults in equal proportion. Truly generational in appeal, they are probably the closest thing to an American answer to the magic of Tintin or Asterix and no family home should be without this tome.

Sadly, this masterful mystery megamix is not yet available digitally, but we live in hope. In the meantime, if you prefer your cartoon crimebustng computer collated you could access 2020’s Super-Friends: Saturday Morning Comics volume 1.
© 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, 2001, 2025 DC Comics, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Today in 1697, Willam Hogarth was born. Notionally adding to the comics lustre and significance, in 1918, Howard Purcell was also added to the planet’s roster, as was Neil Gaiman in 1960. In the exit column for today, in 1993 we lost astounding illustrator Alberto Breccia, and in 2006 immortal sci fi writer Jack Williamson. All those other guys you can find in old posts here, but I particularly recommend Beyond Mars – The Complete Series 1952-1955.

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DC Finest: Team-Ups: Chase to the End of Time


By Bob Haney, Cary Burkett, Martin Pasko, Dave Michelinie, Len Wein, Cary Bates, Steve Englehart, Paul Levitz, Jim Aparo, José Luis García-López, Murphy Anderson, Curt Swan, Dick Dillin, Joe Staton, Rich Buckler, Don Newton, Romeo Tanghal, Frank McLaughlin, Frank Chiaramonte, Dick Giordano, Jack Abel, Bob Smith & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-79950-082-7 (TPB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times

Here’s another stunning and timely compilation comprising the best of vintage comics; one more astounding and epic DC Finest edition. These weighty, full colour treasure troves are chronologically curated themed tomes highlighting past glories from the company that invented superheroes and so much more. Sadly, they’re not yet available digitally, as were the last decade’s Bronze, Silver and Golden Age collections, but we live in hope…

As you’ve probably noticed, a big part of superhero fiction involves interacting – if not always uniting – with other costumed stars. Every producer, purveyor and publisher of Fights ‘n’ Tights fare employs and exploits the concept of allied action and chums in conflict, with apparently every consumer insatiably coveting them and more of the same. With The Man of Steel and a whole bunch of super-suited & booted associates happily and profitably cavorting across big screens everywhere now, let’s look at a few of his past collaborations… and while we’re at it, peek at some of his best pal’s other playmates at the same time…

From the moment a kid first sees his second superhero the only thing he/she wants is to observe how the new gaudy gladiator stacks up against the first. From the earliest days of the comics industry – and according to DC Comics Presents first editor Julie Schwartz, it was the same with the pulps and dime novels that preceded it – we’ve wanted our idols to meet, associate, battle together (and if you follow the Timely/Marvel model, that means against each other) far more than we want to see them trounce their archenemies in a united front…

The concept of team-up comic books – an established star pairing or battling (usually both) with less well-selling company characters – was far from new when DC awarded their then-biggest gun (it was the publicity-drenched weeks before the release of Superman: The Movie and Tim Burton’s Batman was over a decade away) a regular arena to share adventures with other stars of their firmament, just as Batman had been doing since the middle of the 1960s.

The Brave and the Bold began in 1955 as an anthology adventure comic featuring short tales of period heroes: a format mirroring contemporary movie fascination with historical dramas. Written by Bob Kanigher, issue #1 led with Golden Gladiator, the Silent Knight and Joe Kubert’s now legendary Viking Prince. From #5 the Gladiator was increasingly alternated with Robin Hood, and manly, mainly mainstream romps carried the title until the end of the decade when the burgeoning costumed character revival saw B&B transform into a try-out vehicle like sister publication Showcase.

Brave and the Bold #25 (August/September 1959) debuted Task Force X: Suicide Squad, followed by Justice League of America (#28), Cave Carson (#31) and Hawkman (#34). Since only the JLA hit first time out, there were return engagements for the Squad, Carson and Hawkman. Something truly different appeared in #45-49 with science fictional Strange Sports Stories before B&B #50 triggered a new concept that once again truly caught reader imaginations.

It paired superheroes Green Arrow and Martian Manhunter in a one-off team-up, as did succeeding issues: Aquaman and Hawkman in #51, WWII wonders Sgt. Rock, Captain Cloud, Mme. Marie and the Haunted Tank in #52 and Atom with Flash in #53. The next team-up – Robin, Aqualad & Kid Flash – swiftly evolved into the Teen Titans. After Metal Men/the Atom and Flash/Martian Manhunter, new hero Metamorpho, the Element Man debuted in #57-58. Then it was back to superhero pairings with #59, and although no one realised it at the time this particular conjunction (Batman & Green Lantern) would be particularly significant. Soon the book would become a vehicle for Batman team-ups…

With the 1978 release of Superman The Movie it was time to reward the Man of Tomorrow with a similar dedicated publication, although in truth, the Action Ace had already enjoyed the sharing experience once before, when World’s Finest Comics briefly ejected the Caped Crusader and Superman paired with a coterie of heroes including Flash, Robin, Aquaman, Teen Titans, Vigilante, Dr. Fate and others (i#198-214; cover-dated November 1970 to October/November 1972) before the traditional status quo was re-established.

This superb all action collection intriguingly re-presents the first 14 star-studded monthly DC Comics Presents releases and the equivalent contemporary issues of The Brave and the Bold – #141-155). These together collectively span May/June 1978 through October 1979. We open with B&B and resident creators Bob Haney & Jim Aparo, so before the off here’s some background.

Robert Gilbert Haney, Jr. was born on 15th March 1926, growing up in Philadelphia listening to radio dramas and serials, and reading newspaper strips like Prince Valiant and Flash Gordon. Higher education at Swathmore College led to service in the US Navy. He was one of the lucky ones to survive The Battle of Okinawa relatively unscathed.

Follow up studies at Columbia University led to a Master’s degree, after which Haney began a prolific storytelling career by writing a slew of popular novels under a number of noms de plume. In 1947, he moved sideways into comic books, beginning with racy tale ‘College for Murder’ in Harvey Comics’ Black Cat #9 (cover-dated January 1948). From then until 1955 he freelanced for various publishers like Fawcett, Hillman, Standard and St. John on genre tales packed with action, grit and wit.

When anti-comics witch-hunts in the 1950s led to a bowdlerising, self-inflicted Comics Code, Haney shifted gears and began an almost exclusive position as a scripter at DC/National Comics, initially for the war comic division. His first sale was ‘Frogmen’s Secret’ in All American Men of War #17 (January 1955), and he scripted the very first Sgt Rock story in 1959, and countless more for all the combat titles.

Immensely versatile, he wrote for every genre division from licensed to humour, western to superhero and for titles including Blackhawk, Adventures of Rex the Wonder Dog, Sea Devils, Tomahawk, Challengers of the Unknown, Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen, My Greatest Adventure, Doom Patrol, Aquaman, Hawkman, Space Ranger, Green Arrow, Deadman, The Unknown Soldier, and the very first Batman team-up in The Brave and the Bold #59. For decades the book would be his personal playground and where he delivered his take on most of the company’s vast pantheon…

Haney co-created the Teen Titans, Metamorpho, Eclipso, Enchantress (in Strange Adventures), Aquagirl, Cain of The House of Mystery and the Super-Sons, but ultimately his style began to clash with DC’s changing teen demographic. Happily, he had also been working in animation since the mid-1960s, scripting episodes of The New Adventures of Superman and The Superman/Aquaman Hour of Adventure TV shows; and in the 1980s, DC’s loss was cartoon kids’ gain. Haney worked extensively on new shows including Karate Kat, Silverhawks and ThunderCats, as well as producing books of general fiction and consumer journalism. Ultimately, rapprochement with a new DC management saw Haney return to comics for nostalgia-tinged titles including Elseworlds 80-Page Giant #1 (August 1999); Silver Age: The Brave and the Bold #1 (July 2000); and – posthumously published –Teen Titans Lost Annual #1 (March 2008).

Haney died on November 25th 2004, in La Mesa, California.

Taking his cues from news headlines, popular films and proven genre-sources, Haney continually produced gripping yarns that thrilled and enticed, with no need for more than a cursory nod to an ever-more-onerous continuity. Anybody could pick up an issue of B&B and be sucked into a world of wonder. Consequently, these tales are just as fresh and welcoming today, their themes and premises just as immediate now as then. Moreover, Jim Aparo’s magnificent art is still as compelling and engrossing as it always was.

James N. Aparo (August 24th 1932 – July 19th 2005) was a true but quiet giant of comic books. Self-taught, he grew up in New Britain Connecticut, and, after failing to join EC Comics whilst in his 20s, slipped easily into advertising, newspaper and fashion illustration. Even after finally becoming a comics artist he assiduously maintained his links with his first career. For most of his career he was a triple-threat, pencilling, inking and lettering his pages. In 1963 he began drawing Ralph Kanna’s newspaper strip Stern Wheeler, and three years later was working on a wide range of features for go-getting visionary editor Dick Giordano at Charlton Comics. Aparo especially shone on the minor company’s licensed top gun The Phantom. In 1968 when Giordano was lured away to National/DC he brought his top performers (primarily Steve Ditko, Steve Skeates and Aparo) with him. Aparo began a life-long association with the company where legends live illustrating and reinvigorating moribund title Aquaman – although he also continued with The Phantom until his duties grew with the addition of numerous short stories for the monolith’s burgeoning horror anthologies and revived 1950s supernatural champion The Phantom Stranger.

Aparo went on to become a multi award-winning mainstay of DC’s artistic arsenal, with stellar runs on The Spectre, The Outsiders and Green Arrow, but his star was always and forever linked to Batman’s.

In B&B #141’s ‘Pay – Or Die!’ that relationship and the artist’s versatility shines as Black Canary helps Batman quash The Joker’s byzantine extortion scheme.

Fast-paced, straightforward, done-in-one dramas almost by definition, these quick treats were perfect introducer tales and seldom carried over, but in #142, ‘Enigma of the Death-Ship!’ sees Aquaman and wife Mera battle the Dark Knight to suppress a family secret, before the sordid trail of a covert Gotham drug lord leads to the most respected man in America in the next issue, with Cary Burkett collaborating with Haney for conclusion ‘Cast the First Stone’ as manic crime-crusher The Creeper confronts his mentor and finds even the most esteemed hero can have feet of clay…

The brave, bold portion of our entertainment pauses here to allow the Metropolis Marvel his moment to shine with a debut 2-part thriller from DC Comics Presents #1 & 2 (July/August & September/October 1978), featuring Silver Age Flash Barry Allen, who had also been Superman’s first co-star in that aforementioned World’s Finest Comics run. ‘Chase to the End of Time!’ and ‘Race to the End of Time!’ by scripter Marty Pasko & utterly astounding José Luis García-López inked by Dan Adkins, rather reprises that selfsame WF tale. Here warring alien races trick both heroes into speeding relentlessly through the time-stream to prevent Earth’s history from being corrupted and destroyed. As if that isn’t dangerous enough, nobody could predict the deadly intervention of the Scarlet Speedster’s most dangerous foe, Professor Zoom, the Reverse-Flash, but the heroes sort it all out in the end…

In B&B #144 Haney& Aparo deliver a magical mystery tale of ‘The Arrow of Eternity’ as Caped Crusader and Emerald Archer head back in time to Agincourt and foil a wicked plot by time-tamperer the Gargoyle, whilst in DCCP #3, David Michelinie’s tantalising pastiche of classic Adam Strange/Mystery in Space thrillers results in a modern masterpiece for García-López to draw and ink in ‘The Riddle of Little Earth Lost’. Here Man of Two Worlds and Man of Steel foil the diabolical cosmic catastrophe scheme of deranged ex-tyrant Kaskor to transpose, subjugate and/or destroy Earth and light-years distant planet Rann.

Courtesy of Haney & Aparo, The Phantom Stranger and Batman face ‘A Choice of Dooms!’ pursuing voodoo crime lord Kaluu in B&B #145 whilst DCCP #4 welcomed Len Wein to script the superb ‘Sun-Stroke!’ for García-López, as Man of Steel and madly-malleable Metal Men join forces to thwart solar-fuelled genius I.Q. and toxic elemental menace Chemo after an ill-considered plan to enhance Earth’s solar radiation exposure provokes a cataclysmic solar-flare…

Haney and guest artists Romeo Tanghal & Frank McLaughlin switch worlds and times in B&B #146 as the Batman of World War II assists faceless superspy the Unknown Soldier in stopping Nazi assassin Count von Stauffen from murdering America’s top brass and greatest scientists to sabotage the nation’s most secret weapon project, whereas modern day Sea King Aquaman is embroiled in ‘The War of the Undersea Cities’ (by Wein, Paul Levitz & Murphy Anderson) in DCCP #5.

This time, Superman must step in after Aquaman’s subjects in Poseidonis re-open ancient hostilities with the mer-folk of undersea neighbour Tritonis, home of the caped Kryptonian’s college girlfriend Lori Lemaris. Fortunately, cooler heads prevail when the deadly Ocean Master is revealed to be meddling in their sub-sea politics…

Supergirl enjoyed her first ever B&B Bat team-up. She had previously paired with Wonder Woman in #63, in the outrageously-dated and utterly indefensible ‘Revolt of the Super-Chicks!’ but here in #147 however, Burkett & Aparo’s ‘Death-Scream from the Sky!’ sees her and the Gotham Guardian save the world from extermination by satellite and shady surprise super villain Dr. Light…

A DCCP two-parter opens with ‘The Fantastic Fall of Green Lantern’ (Levitz, Curt Swan & Francisco Chiaramonte) in #6 which sees the Man of Steel briefly inherit the awesome power ring after Hal Jordan falls in battle against his female antithesis Star Sapphire. Although triumphant against her, “Green Superman” is subsequently ambushed by warriors from antimatter universe Qward leading to ‘The Paralyzed Planet Peril!’ (#7 by Levitz, Dick Dillin & Chiaramonte) wherein those bellicose aliens seek to colonise Earth… until robotic AI hero Red Tornado swirls in to the rescue.

Back in B&B, Good Cheer mingles with Drama as ‘The Night the Mob Stole X-Mas!’ delivers seasonal fluff by Haney pencilled by Joe Staton, with Aparo applying his overpowering inks to a tale of cigarette smugglers and aging mafioso, with Plastic Man helping to provide a mandatory Christmas miracle. The disbanded Teen Titans briefly reform in #149 for Haney & Aparo’s ‘Look Homeward, Runaway!’ to help Batman hunt and redeem a kid gang moving from petty crime to the big leagues after which in DCCP #8, ‘The Sixty Deaths of Solomon Grundy’ (Steve Englehart & Murphy Anderson) teams Swamp Thing with Action Ace. At this time the bog-beast still believed he was a transformed human and not an enhanced plant, and Alec Holland searches the sewers of Metropolis for a cure to his condition, only to stumble onto a battle between the Man of Steel and the mystic zombie who was “born on a Monday”…

Anniversary event The Brave and the Bold #150 was celebrated with a pairing that was both old hat and never seen before. Haney & Aparo’s ‘Today Gotham… Tomorrow the World!’ commemorates the landmark anniversary with an extended tale of Bruce Wayne’s abduction by terrorists and the undercover superhero who secretly shadows him. No hints here from me…

In that other caped crimebuster’s book, Pasko returns to script Staton & Jack Abel’s ‘Invasion of the Ice People!’ in #9, wherein Wonder Woman assists in repelling an arctic assault by malign disembodied intellects whist in B&B #151, The Flash becomes prey and appetiser for a predatory haunt feeding off patrons at Gotham’s hippest nightspot… and Batman barely breaks the spell at the ‘Disco of Death’ (Haney & Aparo). Another 2-part tale commences with DCCP #10’s ‘The Miracle Man of Easy Company’ (Cary Bates, Staton & Abel), as a super-bomb blasts Superman back to WWII and a momentous if amnesia-tainted meeting with indomitable everyman soldier Sgt. Rock. However before the Caped Kryptonian returns home to battle a brainwashed and power-amplified Hawkman in #11’s ‘Murder by Starlight!’ (Bates, Staton & Chiaramonte) there’s an intriguing interruption. B&B #152 splits the saga as Haney & Aparo reveal ‘Death Has a Golden Grab!’. Here mighty mite The Atom helping the Gotham Gangbuster stop a deadly bullion theft.  Chronologically #153 – courtesy of Burkett, Don Newton & Bob Smith – then sees Red Tornado help Batman survive old school greed and the hi-tech ‘Menace of the Murder Machines’ before DCCP #12 arranged a duel between the Man of Steel and New God Mister Miracle in ‘Winner Take Metropolis’ by Englehart, Richard Buckler & Dick Giordano.


B&B #154 finds Element Man Metamorpho treading ‘The Pathway of Doom…’ to save former girlfriend Sapphire Stagg and help Batman disconnect a middle eastern smuggling pipeline, prior to the brave, bold portion of our entertainment coming to a close with #155’s ‘Fugitive from Two Worlds!’ as Haney & Aparo detail Green Lantern Hal Jordan clashing with the Dark Knight over jurisdiction rights regarding an earthshaking alien criminal.

Closing this perfectly curated portion of comics history is another two-part tale spanning centuries as Levitz scripts an ambitious epic limned by Dillin & Giordano that begins with ‘To Live in Peace… Nevermore!’ When the Legion of Super-Heroes visit the 20th century they must prevent Superman saving a little boy from alien abduction to preserve the integrity of the time-line. It doesn’t help that the lad is Jon Ross, son of Clark Kent’s oldest friend and most trusted confidante. Furious and deranged by loss, Pete Ross risks the destruction of reality itself by enlisting the aid of Superboy to battle his older self in ‘Judge, Jury… and No Justice!’, but achieves only stalemate and a promise from the Man of Tomorrow to somehow make things right…

This titanic tome offers a tantalising snapshot of combined A-lister capers and demonstrates the breadth of DC’s roster of lesser stars in punchy, pithy adventures acting as a perfect shop window and catalogue of legendary fascinating characters – and creators. It also delivers a delightful variety of self-contained, satisfying entertainments ranging from the merely excellent all the way to utterly unmissable. DC Finest: Team-Ups is an ideal introduction to the DC Universe for every kid of any age and passport to Costumed Dramas of a simpler, more inviting time.
© 1978, 1979, 2025 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.