Sometimes, a hero can’t go it alone.
THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO SILVER & BRONZE AGE TEAM-UP COMICS
THE TEAM-UP COMPANION
Go behind the scenes of your favorite teamup comic books with specially curated and all-new creator recollections from: ISBN-13: 978-1-60549-112-7 ISBN-10: 1-60549-112-8
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9 781605 491127
Neal Adams • Jim Aparo • Mike W. Barr Eliot R. Brown • Nick Cardy • Chris Claremont • Gerry Conway • Steve Englehart • Kerry Gammill • Steve Gerber • Steven Grant • Bob Haney Tony Isabella • Paul Kupperberg • Paul Levitz • Ralph Macchio • Dennis O’Neil Martin Pasko • Joe Rubinstein • Roy Thomas • Len Wein • Marv Wolfman and many other all-star writers and artists who produced the team-up tales that so captivated comics readers during the 1960s, 1970s, and early 1980s. TwoMorrows Publishing Raleigh, North Carolina 978-1-60549-112-7 $39.95 in the US
Printed in China
The Team-Up Companion examines team-up comic books of the Silver and Bronze Ages of Comics—DC’s The Brave and the Bold and DC Comics Presents, Marvel’s Marvel Team-Up and Marvel Twoin-One, plus other team-up titles, treasuries, and treats—in a lushly illustrated selection of informative essays, special features, and trivia-loaded issue-by-issue indexes.
TEAM-UP CREATORS
MICHAEL EURY
He needs a brave ally, a bold companion. Side-by-side, two-in-one, they become an unbeatable team.
TEAM-UP INDEXES
? TEAM-UP trivia
PLU
S
BOB HANEY, COMICS’ MOST OUTRAGEOUS WRITER! AND MEET THE FAN WHO TEAMED WITH THE MAN OF STEEL!
Written and Edited by Michael Eury Book Design by Rich J. Fowlks Cover and Logo Design by Michael Kronenberg Fact-Checking and Supplemental Information by John Wells Proofreading by David Baldy and Kevin Sharp Front Cover Art by Curt Swan and Josef Rubinstein Front Cover Colors by Glenn Whitmore
Dedicated to the memory of Neal Adams (1941–2022)
TwoMorrows Publishing 10407 Bedfordtown Drive Raleigh, NC 27614 919-449-0344 www.twomorrows.com ISBN 978-1-60549-112-7 First printing, June 2022 Printed in the China The Team-Up Companion: The Ultimate Guide to Silver & Bronze Age Team-Up Comics © 2022 Michael Eury and TwoMorrows Publishing. All rights reserved. No portion of this publication, except for limited review use, may be reproduced in any manner without express permission. All quotes and image reproductions are © the respective owners, and are used here for historical presentation, journalistic commentary, and scholarly analysis. Adam Strange, Ambush Bug, Anti-Monitor, Aqualad, The Atom, Atomic Skull, Batgirl, Batman, Batman Family, Big Barda, Black Canary, Black Spider, The Brave and the Bold, Captain Atom, Captain Comet, Captain Marvel/Shazam!, Catwoman, Challengers of the Unknown, Clark Kent, The Creeper, Darkseid, DC Comics Presents, DC Special Series, DC Super-Stars, Deadman, The Demon, Doctor Fate, Doctor Sivana, Doctor Thirteen, Doll Man, Doom Patrol, Female Furies, Firestorm, The Flash, Golden Gladiator, Gorilla Grodd, Green Arrow, Green Lantern, Guardian, Hawk and Dove, Hawkgirl, Hawkman, House of Mystery, Inferior Five, The Joker, Johnny Cloud, Justice League of America, Kid Flash, Killer Moth, Lady Quark, Legion of Substitute Heroes, Legion of Super-Heroes, Lex Luthor, Liberty Belle, Lord of Time, Madame Xanadu, Mademoiselle Marie, Man-Bat, Martian Manhunter/Manhunter from Mars, Mary Marvel, Metal Men, Metamorpho the Element Man, Mister America, Mongul, Nemesis, New Gods, Nightshade, OMAC One Man Army Corps, Our Army at War, Parasite, Phantom Stranger, Phantom Zone, Red Bee, Richard Dragon Kung-Fu Fighter, Robin the Boy/Teen Wonder, Robotman, Scarecrow, Secret Society of Super-Villains, Sgt. Rock, Shazam!, Shazam! Family, Shining Knight, Showcase, Silent Knight, Solomon Grundy, The Spectre, Starman, Jeb Stuart, Superboy, Superman, Superman Family, Super-Team Family, Superwoman, Teen Titans, Two-Face, Unknown Soldier, V for Vendetta,Vigilante,Viking Prince,Vixen, Weird Western Tales, The Whip, Wildcat, Wonder Woman, World’s Finest Comics, and Zatanna TM & © DC Comics.
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The Team-Up Companion
Abomination, American Eagle, Angel, Ant-Man, Arnim Zola, Aunt May, The Avengers, Black Bolt, Black Panther, Black Widow, Brother Voodoo, Captain America, Captain Marvel, Colossus, Dakota Kid, Daredevil, Dark Phoenix, Deathlok the Demolisher, The Defenders, Devil-Slayer, Doc Samson, Doctor Doom, Doctor Strange, Falcon, Fantastic Four, Franklin Richards, Frog-Man, Galactus, Giant-Man, Giant-Size Kid Colt, Giant-Size Spider-Man, Grapplers, Guardians of the Galaxy, Hate-Monger, Hercules, Human Torch, Iceman, Incredible Hulk, Inhumans, Invisible Girl, Iron Fist, Iron Man, Karma, Kang, Kid Colt Outlaw, Leader, Machine Man, Magneto, Marvel Fanfare, Marvel Feature, Marvel Team-Up, Marvel Two-in-One, Master of Kung Fu, Mister Fantastic, Mockingbird, Moondragon, Moon Knight, Morbius, Nighthawk, Night Rider, Not Brand Echh, Nova, Outlaw Kid, Power Man, Rawhide Kid, Red Skull, Rhino, Sandman, Sasquatch, Shaper of Worlds, She-Hulk, The Shroud, Son of Satan, Spider-Man, Starhawk, Sub-Mariner, Super-Villain Team-Up, Thanos, Thing, Thor, Thundra, Tomb of Dracula, Warlock, Werewolf by Night, Western Team-Up, Wonder Man, Wundarr, and X-Men TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc. Magicman and Nemesis TM & © Roger Broughton. Black Cat, Casper the Friendly Ghost, Jackie Jokers, Little Dot, Nightmare, Professor Keenbean, Richie Rich, Timmy Time, and Wendy the Good Little Witch TM & © Classic Media LLC. The New Scooby-Doo Movies, Scooby-Doo and related characters, The Flintstones, Magilla Gorilla, and Yogi Bear TM & © Hanna-Barbera Productions, Inc. Life with Archie, Fly Man, and Josie and the Pussycats TM & © Archie Comics Publications, Inc. Captain Action TM & © Captain Action Enterprises. Lady Luck TM & © Will Eisner Studios, Inc. The Phantom and Popeye TM & © King Features Syndicate, Inc. Sherlock Holmes TM & © The Conan Doyle Estate Ltd. Hopalong Cassidy TM & © William Boyd Enterprises. National Lampoon’s Vacation and Bugs Bunny TM & © Warner Bros. Laurel and Hardy TM & © Larry Harmon Productions. The Shadow, Doc Savage, and The Avenger TM & © Condé Nast Publications, Inc. Carson of Venus, John Carter, Korak, and Tarzan TM & © Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc. HeMan, Masters of the Universe, and Skeletor TM & © Mattel. Godzilla TM & © Toho Co, Ltd. Red Sonja TM & © Red Sonja, LLC. King Kull TM & © Conan Properties International. Six Million Dollar Man and Bionic Woman TM & © NBCUniversal. Star Trek, Petticoat Junction, and I Love Lucy © CBS Studios, Inc. The Brady Kids and the Fonz © Paramount Television. ABC Saturday Morning Sneak Peak © ABC. Saturday Night Live/ Not-Ready-for-Prime-Time Players © NBC. Mickey Mouse, Roger Rabbit, and Super Goof TM & © Disney. The Wizard of Oz © MGM. Muhammad Ali © Muhammad Ali Enterprises LLC. Snake Eyes TM & © Hasbro. Spy vs. Spy TM & © EC Publications, Inc. Jon Sable Freelance TM & © Mike Grell. Zorro TM & © Zorro Productions, Inc. The Green Hornet and Kato TM & © The Green Hornet, Inc. Campbell Kids © Campbell Soup. Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders © Dallas Cowboys. E-Man © Joe Staton and Nick Cuti. S-329 and the Foozle © Steve Englehart and Marshall Rogers. The Bold and the Brave © 1956 RKO Pictures. The Andromeda Strain and Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein TM & © Universal Pictures.
Introduction by Michael Eury . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Chapter 1 The Brave and the Bold . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 B&B Creator Spotlight: Bob Haney . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 B&B Creator Spotlight: Jim Aparo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 B&B Creator Spotlight: Charlie Boatner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 Chapter 2 World’s Finest Comics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 Chapter 3 Marvel Team-Up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 MTU Creator Spotlight: Marvel Team-Up and Me (a brief affair) by Mike W. Barr . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94 MTU Creator Spotlight: Marvel Team-Up #128 Cover Memories by Eliot R. Brown . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95 Chapter 4 The New Scooby-Doo Movies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96 Chapter 5 Marvel Two-in-One . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100 Chapter 6 Western Team-Up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126 Chapter 7 Super-Villain Team-Up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132 Chapter 8 Super-Team Family . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140 Chapter 9 DC-Marvel Team-Ups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148 Chapter 10 Harvey Team-Ups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160 Chapter 11 DC Super-Stars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164 Chapter 12 DC Comics Presents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168 DCCP Fan Spotlight: DC Comics Presents #11 Guest-star Marc Teichman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194 Chapter 13 The ‘Superman vs.’ Team-Ups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196 End Notes and Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205 The Team-Up Companion Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206 Superman created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. By special arrangement with the Jerry Siegel Family. Batman created by Bob Kane with Bill Finger.
THE TEAM-UP COMPANION
TABLE OF CONTENTS
The first team-up comic book: The Brave and the Bold #50 (Oct.–Nov. 1963), co-starring Green Arrow and Manhunter from Mars. Cover art by George Roussos. TM & © DC Comics.
The Brave and the Bold was DC Comics’ most influential series of the Silver and Bronze Ages. There. I said it. You can stop laughing now. It’s easy to dismiss The Brave and the Bold simply as “the Batman team-up” comic—that was its role for almost two-thirds of its 200-issue run (1955–1983). Granted, the words “brave and bold” have become synonymous with the team-up concept: DC has frequently revived the title, as miniseries and ongoing series, to unite some of its heroes, most frequently Batman; writer Dwayne McDuffie’s “The Brave and the Bold” Justice League Cartoon Network two-parter involved a Flash/Green Lantern pairing at its story core; The Brave and the Bold, a 2002 Star Trek novel by Keith R.A. DeCandido, was a generations-spanning epic involving characters from three different eras; and Batman: The Brave and the Bold was a popular Cartoon Network animated series, in the spirit of the Silver and Bronze Age version of the DC title, that produced 65 episodes from 2008–2011 and spawned two comic-book spinoffs as well as children’s books and a successful line of action figures. But The Brave and the Bold was much more than the DC Comics equivalent of a buddy movie. The title was the source of several phenomenally important comic-book milestones that make my audacious opening claim not so far-fetched after all: • It was the home of the original incarnation of the Suicide Squad, a concept that was reimagined in 1987 as a ragtag team of supervillains and errant antiheroes undertaking impossible missions, which has since enjoyed multiple revivals and two live-action major motion pictures; • It was the launch pad for the perennially popular Justice League of America, whose success spawned golf-course bragging rights from DC’s publisher to Marvel’s publisher and inspired the latter to mandate his editor to create a super-team comic, that series being Fantastic Four; • It was the original home of the Teen Titans, a team that has endured myriad incarnations, including dual versions of an extremely successful, widely merchandized TV cartoon as well as a live-action television series; • It was the title where Neal Adams, the extraordinary illustrator who, at the end of the Silver Age, almost single-handedly elevated comics art to a new level, first began to visually transform Batman from a wisecracking Caped Crusader to a fearsome creature of the night; • It was where Green Arrow first stepped out of the long-standing stigma of his “Batman with a bow” second-string status by appearing in his bearded, more dynamic look (which he still sports today); and • It was the first series where Jim Aparo, who would ultimately emerge as one of the great Bat-artists, got to try his hand at drawing the Dark Knight. The Brave and the Bold also unveiled the lauded Silver Age revival of Hawkman and introduced the oddball hero Metamorpho, the Element Man; and ended its impressive run of nearly three decades with the inaugural appearance of Batman and the Outsiders, a group that would spin off to star in one
CHAPTER 1
From Earth-B to TV, the Metamorph-ing Batman Team-Up Classic
B&B CREATOR SPOTLIGHT: BOB HANEY The Batman of Earth-B and Comics’ Most Outrageous Writer
Other Earths were created during the Silver and Bronze Ages to showcase topsy-turvy realities (such as Earth-Three, where supervillains ruled) or to house characters previously owned by other publishers and acquired by DC (like Earth-X, home of Quality Comics’ heroes including Uncle Sam and the Phantom Lady, or Earth-S, home “When all else has faded and been forgotten in the vast cave of of Fawcett Comics’ original Captain Marvel and family). time, one thing alone survives—brave men doing bold deeds! And then there was Earth-B, a world of stories written by Bob Haney. This alone endures!” There were no disclaimers in Earth-B comic books warning readers Caption by writer Bob Haney in “Hell Is for Heroes” that they were about to experience an imaginary story or witness The Brave and the Bold Special (DC Special Series) #8 (1978) events occurring on a parallel world. When you picked up, say, 1971’s The Brave and the Bold #98, co-starring Batman and the Phantom So, you’re a fan of the Bronze Age Batman, are you? Which one? Stranger, you were being sold a comic that looked and felt like DC’s If you read comic books edited by Julius Schwartz, your Batman was other Earth-One titles—heck, that one was even drawn by Jim Aparo, “The Batman”—a grim but often gabby detective, a shadowy outsider the former Aquaman and regular Phantom Stranger artist (who was who still managed to be one of DC soon to become the main B&B artist as well). Then, Comics’ most active team players. on page one, you realized that this wasn’t quite the If you watched Saturday same Gotham Guardian you knew from Batman, morning animated cartoons, Detective Comics, and Justice League of America: your Batman was reminiscent of This Batman paid a visit to a dying civilian friend the Caped Crusader popularized and was the godfather to his during the mid-1960s on TV’s friend’s son (Batman, family guy?). live-action Batman camp-fest In the next issue, a creepy Batman/ (which was still in wide Flash team-up drawn by Bob syndication during the 1970s)— Brown and Nick Cardy, the Darka tongue-in-cheek do-gooder and night Detective rummaged through surrogate father figure that was the “Wayne family summer home,” quick to administer public-service reminiscing about his childhood announcements at the drop of as Bruce Wayne… then, “stifling a a cowl. sob,” he surveyed an inscribed urn And if you read comics written containing his parents’ cremated by Bob Haney (1926–2004), the remains. But, wait a minute— father of the superhero team-up Thomas and Martha Wayne were comic book, your Batman was buried, as we’ve seen in countless a courageous crimebuster who flashbacks to Batman’s origin, sometimes flew off the handle; where a vengeful young Bruce, went camel-riding and scubafreshly orphaned, swears by their diving in pursuit of bad guys; graveside to dedicate his life to survived demon- and Atomeradicating crime! Are you sure Author Hannibal Kingsley, from the Batman/Wildcat possession; mutated into a Batthis is the same Batman from other team-up in B&B #127 (June 1976), was drawn by Jim Aparo Hulk and a Man-Bat; sustained DC titles?? to be the spitting image of Bob Haney, shown in the inset grave gunshot wounds (only to The Batman of Earth-B was in a passport photo. be miraculously healed by the deputized by the Gotham Police TM & © DC Comics. next issue); and had a serial-killer Department and carried a badge brother and a Super-Son! This (B&B #102), and was so chummy “Bat-guy” (as he was nicknamed with Gotham’s top cop that he by his brave-and-bold buddies Green Arrow, Deadman, and called his colleague Jim Gordon “Commish.” He started many a Metamorpho) flapped his scalloped batwings into the faces of the Brave and Bold adventure working alongside the police—as one of Darknight Detective’s other writers and editors, yet headlined some of the boys in blue (and in his case, gray)—instead of being Bat-signaled the hero’s bestselling adventures of the day. in for special cases. This Batman would brashly admonish street punks Holy continuity aversion! Who was this Batman of “Earth-B”?? and at times show emotional extremes: When trapped in a well in the Sgt. Rock team-up in #108, Batman “sold his soul” to the Devil (or What on Earth? (Or… On What Earth?) was it Adolf Hitler?) to escape after shrieking an impassioned “Batman During the 1970s, most of DC Comics’ heroes existed on what editor wants to live!!” plea, and in an uncharacteristic burst of blood-curdling Julie Schwartz called Earth-One, home of the Justice League of rage vowed to take the life of the Clown Prince of Crime in the oftAmerica. Their predecessors, DC’s Golden Age characters, resided reprinted Batman/Joker team-up in B&B #111: “By God, Joker— on Earth-Two, home of the Justice Society of America. The JSA you’ve done your last criminal act! I swear this time to hunt you down returned annually in a summer crossover with the JLA, and occasionally and destroy you like the mad dog you are!!” The Batman seen in other Earth-Two heroes received their own series, such as the Spectre in DC titles would never evoke such an oath, nor would he threaten to kill Adventure Comics and the “Super-Squad”—the rebranded Justice anyone, even his worst enemy. Society, augmented by young protégés—in All-Star Comics.
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The Team-Up Companion
A Contagion of Craziness
This Batman of The Brave and the Bold was not alone in turning a blind eye to DC’s norms—many B&B teammates followed suit, in sizzling tales churned from Haney’s smoking typewriter. Some examples: • Haney’s characterization of superheroines often ran counter to the emerging feminist culture of the 1960s and 1970s. In issue #63 Haney’s Supergirl and Wonder Woman were derelict in their super-duties by becoming obsessed by the fashion world. In #78 he portrayed Wonder Woman and Batgirl as cat-fighters totally ga-ga over Batman. In #100 he had Black Canary (a brunette, by the way, who wears a blonde wig when fighting crime) miss a call into action because she was nested under a noisy beauty-shop hairdryer! • Haney explained in the backstory of frequent B&B teammates Batman and Sgt. Rock that as a young man, Bruce Wayne met Easy Company’s grizzled top-kick shortly before D-Day (June 6, 1944), as shown in their initial pairing in 1969’s issue #84. But how could that be, since the Earth-One Batman was a mere 30-ish in the early-to-mid-1970s when “the Rock” continued to battle alongside “the Cowl”? Do the math with me: Were Wayne, let’s say, 22 years of age in 1944, by the time Rock showed up in “current” times (1971) for their second team-up in B&B #96, Batman should have been pushing 50! • Wildcat routinely stopped by the pages of B&B to pair off with the Caped Crusader. But fans knew that Wildcat lived on Earth-Two and was a member of the Justice Society, not on Earth-One with the JLA’s Batman! (The same confusion surrounded the JSA’s Ghostly Guardian, the Spectre, an occasional B&B Batman co-star.) • In two issues roughly one year apart, Haney twice misfired with Green Arrow continuity. In issue #100, the archer—with absolutely no compunction—twanged a shaft into the chest of a drug runner, ho-humming away the murder with a cavalier “One dead… one got away” remark; and when Green Arrow returned as a Bat-ally in B&B #106, his alter ego of Oliver Queen was portrayed as a millionaire. GA’s execution-with-an-arrow occurred at a time when no DC hero would dream of taking a life, and readers of JLA and GL/GA knew that Ollie had lost his fortune in recent years… but in Haney’s world, Queen was still a platinum card-carrying member of the 1%. • In #131, the non-lethal thief Catwoman committed homicide and renounced her U.S. citizenship. A few issues later, in #134, Green Lantern similarly turned his back on America and allied with a rogue nation. Bob Haney never let DC legend obstruct a good yarn. Silver Age Superman editor Mort Weisinger frequently published stories where the Man of Steel had a son, or a daughter, and occasionally did the same with the Caped Crusader in Superman/Batman adventures
Haney’s Batman of Earth-B kept his parents’ ashes (B&B #97), made a deal with the Devil (#108), and often teamed with Earth-Two’s Wildcat (#110 and other issues). TM & © DC Comics.
in World’s Finest Comics—but these were billed as “imaginary stories,” exercises in make-believe that temporarily tossed aside the established rules, only to revert to status quo with the story that followed. When Bob Haney took over as World’s Finest scribe in 1972 with issue #215, he brought with him Superman, Jr. and Batman, Jr.—the teenage “Super-Sons” of Superman and Batman. And the writer insolently declared, “It is not imaginary, not fantasy, but the way it happened,” contending that these stories were “real,” merely an aspect of our heroes’ lives that was only now being revealed. Pretty ballsy, Bob! While charitable fans might forgive Haney for jettisoning DC lore to advance his wild plots, the writer cast the Waynes’ ashes to the wind in 1974’s World’s Finest #223, when Superman, Batman, and co-star Deadman met Thomas Wayne, Jr., Bruce Wayne’s older brother. Nowhere in hundreds of DC stories had this Wayne sibling been previously mentioned. Yet Haney barreled the plot past his editor, Murray Boltinoff (who most likely hid it from Batman editor Julie Schwartz), revealing that Bruce’s brother at a young age had sustained a personality-altering brain injury and was institutionalized. When readers were introduced to Thomas, Jr. in WFC #223, he was the prime suspect in a murder investigation conducted by the World’s Finest duo. In that tale’s sequel, in issue #227, he was a host for the body-jumping Deadman (who performed an aerial act in an Iowa circus as Red “Daredevil” Devlin, donning a crimson costume very similar to a certain Man without Fear’s), until sacrificing himself to save his Bat-brother. Now, if DC had published What If? and passed off Haney’s two-part tale as “What If Bruce Wayne Had a Brother?,” no one would’ve flinched. But Haney considered it as canonical as any of his other tales—or Denny O’Neil’s or Len Wein’s, for that matter. They’re just stories, right? Why sweat the small stuff?
The Batman of Earth-B
Readers reacted to these continuity detours in two ways. First, they complained. The “Brave and the Bold Mailbag” letters column often featured grievances about these goofs, with Boltinoff, Haney’s editor on both B&B and WFC, or sometimes Haney himself defending the stories, often glibly or defiantly. Mike W. Barr, who started at DC as a proofreader during Haney’s Brave and Bold tenure and would one day take over the title as writer, recalled, “One former fan, now a comics pro, told me he once wrote former
Chapter 1: The Brave and the Bold
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Batman bows out of World’s Finest Comics (sort of) to allow Superman to team up with other heroes, starting with the Fastest Man Alive. Cover to issue #198 (Nov. 1970) by Carmine Infantino and Murphy Anderson. TM & © DC Comics.
Historically, Superman usually had the jump on his World’s Finest pal, Batman—unsurprising for a hero who can leap tall buildings in a single bound. Superman premiered first, and was first out the gate to get his own radio show, newspaper comic strip, animated theatrical cartoons, merchandising deals, live-action television series, and Saturday morning cartoon show, with Batman’s scalloped cape flapping from the gusts kicked up by his super-friend’s successes. (The Caped Crusader did beat the Man of Steel to the punch as the star of a live-action movie serial, however, debuting on the Silver Screen in 1943, five years before Superman’s 1948 live-action serial.) As the Silver Age of Comics began in the late 1950s, Superman was the bestselling title at National Periodical Publications (DC Comics), partially due to the hero’s television presence in the George Reeves– starring Adventures of Superman. Yet it was the iron grip not of the Man of Tomorrow but instead his editor, Mort Weisinger, that made a hit out of any book featuring the Big Red “S”—even TV show–inspired titles starring Superman’s girlfriend and pal. From his my-way-or-the-highway editorial orchestration of a vast mythology that included faraway planets, super-science, monsters, robots, super-pets, doppelgangers, and a Superman family, Mort made Superman DC’s gold standard. Batman, whose original gothic tone had been softened by the addition of a boy sidekick and the implementation of a content-controlling Comics Code, could only slam the Batmobile’s pedal to the metal to try to keep up. By the 1960s, Batman’s editor, the erudite but line-toeing Jack Schiff, was following Weisinger’s blustery lead, adding faraway planets, super-science, monsters, robots, super-pets, doppelgangers, and a Batman family to the Bat-series. Whereas a teenage Supergirl, loyal Krypto the Superdog, mischievous pixie Mr. Mxyzptlk, and surrogate supermen were quite at home in Superman’s amazing world, their analogs Bat-Girl, Ace the Bat-Hound, Bat-Mite, and the Rainbow Batman (or Zebra Batman, or Robot Batman, or…) seemed out of place on the sinister streets of Gotham City, yet they populated the franchise’s pages for several years (although they have attracted a nostalgic appeal in more recent times). Sales of Batman and Detective Comics dropped. As comics legend has often told us, in 1963 DC editorial director Irwin Donenfeld assigned editor Julius “Julie” Schwartz and artist Carmine Infantino the task of giving Batman’s world a makeover (as revealed in detail in my 2009 TwoMorrows book, The Batcave Companion, co-produced by Michael Kronenberg). Gone were the imprudent inclusion of aliens and extended family members (except for Robin, the Boy Wonder), replaced by a sleek, dynamic “New Look” that revolutionized Batman and Detective. Before long, the Adam West–starring Batman followed, a campy, colorful, twice-weekly program that instantly became television’s hottest show. As a result, Batman’s DC comic-book sales nudged past Superman’s. Batman, the idol of millions, also took over as the star of the team-up book The Brave and the Bold—where Batman finally got the jump on Superman. The Weisinger-edited World’s Finest Comics, long the home of Superman/Batman adventures, shrunk its blocky WORLD’S FINEST logo to allow its co-stars’ personal logos to appear—with Batman getting top billing. Even though Superman was still holding his own during the Batmania of the 1960s due to Weisinger’s inflexible control of the character, the Man of Steel was off-limits for B&B team-ups (outside of a cameo in the Supergirl/Wonder Woman team-up in B&B #63). B&B scribe Bob Haney was able, but Weisinger was far from willing. One can only imagine the Silver Age Superman team-ups we might have seen had Mort allowed the Action Ace to appear in Brave and Bold: Superman and Green Lantern, drawn by Gil Kane and Murphy Anderson… Superman and Adam Strange, drawn by Carmine Infantino and Sid Greene… or Superman and Wonder Woman, drawn by Curt Swan and George Klein. (And if it had been a time-traveling Superman, instead of a continuity-bending young Bruce Wayne, that had the World War II meeting with Sgt. Rock in what became Brave and Bold #84, a lot of fan headaches would have been quelled.) Not only did the Action Ace miss out on team-ups during the pre-Batman, anything-goes B&B format, so did readers.
CHAPTER 2
The Bronze Age Makeover into ‘Superman’s Brave & Bold’
The team-up title that started as a buddy book: Spidey and the Torch headline Marvel Team-Up #1 (Mar. 1972). Cover by Gil Kane and Frank Giacoia. TM & © Marvel.
In this era of franchises, it’s easy to forget that during the 1960s, when Spider-Man was a new character, Marvel’s nascent superheroes—even the more popular ones—had only one title each. Some of them didn’t have even that. A few of Marvel’s former mystery/monster anthologies evolved into “split books,” with half of the title’s pages devoted to one character and half to another: Iron Man and Captain America in Tales of Suspense, Sub-Mariner and the Incredible Hulk in Tales to Astonish, and Doctor Strange and Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. in Strange Tales. To the uninitiated reader, split books resembled team-up books since their covers featured two characters’ logos. Except upon the occasion when the stars would cross over into one story—always trumpeted with great Marvel fanfare by hyperbolic cover blurbs, carnival barker Stan Lee’s megaphone to warm up his audience—the split books were two solo comics in one. Independent News, the company that distributed Marvel’s comic books into the network of newsstands, drug stores, and a handful of supermarkets, limited the size of Marvel’s 1960s line to a small number of releases each month. Independent News was a subsidiary of National Periodical Publications, the corporation that owned DC Comics, so in essence Mighty Marvel’s Distinguished Competition yanked a tight leash around the neck of this mongrel of a comics company that was enjoying a creative renaissance. Yet no distribution chokehold could restrict the Marvelmania that was mushrooming among the college crowd and comics-reading thrillseekers who had outgrown the regimented, gimmick-based yarns that DC peddled. Marvel fans demanded more of these vigorous new characters, and crossovers became common. King-size Annuals popped up, as did reprint anthologies, allowing popular new heroes like the Fantastic Four and Spider-Man to appear in more than one book without creating an undue burden upon Marvel’s relatively small pool of creative talent. Still, one Marvel hero—and an unlikely one at that—managed to graduate into a second monthly comic with all-new stories. Nick Fury, who headlined the World War II– based battle book Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos, was turned into Mighty Marvel’s own James Bond in the 1960s-set “Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.” attraction that Lee and Kirby introduced in 1965 in the pages of Strange Tales, creating the company’s first franchise of the burgeoning Marvel Age. (Before Fantastic Four and the superhero titles that followed, in the early Silver Age Marvel franchised its popular series marketed to girls, as Millie the Model was accompanied by other Millie titles and Patsy Walker alternated months with Patsy and Hedy. Similarly, Marvel Western heroes were prone to appear in more than one series, such as Kid Colt Outlaw, whose star also appeared in Gunsmoke Western.)
The Spider’s Web
The shared universe was one of the hallmarks of the developing Marvel Age. Character crossovers actually gave The Incredible Hulk, an early Marvel casualty that was canned after only six issues, a new lease on life as the Green Goliath plodded his way through different Marvel books not necessarily as a villain but as an annoyance that required the entire X-Men or Avengers or FF to corral… the latter creating the popular Hulk vs. Thing trope, a premise that ultimately launched the Thing’s own team-up title, Marvel Two-in-One (originally Marvel Feature). But it was the sociable, sassy Web-Slinger who was in demand as a guest-star. He was popping into other heroes’ mags—or they guest-starred in his—with increasing frequency, crossing paths with the Fantastic Four, Daredevil, Doctor Strange, the Hulk, the Avengers, the Human Torch, the X-Men, and Giant-Man and the Wasp early in his wall-crawling career. Once the Grantray-Lawrence cartoon Spider-Man became a hit on ABC-TV on Saturday mornings beginning in the fall of 1967, Spider-Man dominated the covers of the anthology book Marvel Tales, and his goofy counterpart, Spidey-Man, was frequently seen in Marvel’s hilarious self-parody, Not Brand Echh. It was only a matter of time
CHAPTER 3
Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends
Marvel Two-in-One #1 (Jan. 1974) was actually the third issue of the new Thing team-up series. Cover by Gil Kane and John Romita, Sr. TM & © Marvel.
Face it—the first time you discovered The Fantastic Four, right off the bat you knew the Thing was the main attraction. Part monster, part Muppet, the anything-but-bashful Benjamin J. Grimm has always been the series’ can’t-take-your-eyes-off-him star. The first time anyone saw the FF—issue #1 (Nov. 1961) of their title, Marvel Comics’ attempt to parrot the recent success of DC Comics’ hot, new Justice League of America by introducing a superteam all its own—the lumbering, lumpy Thing appeared on the lower left corner of the cover, where the Western eye starts its left-to-right scan when reading. Sure, the big orange walking pile of rocks’ mile-wide shoulders demanded more real estate than his teammates’, but it was as if when laying out this cover the FF’s co-creator, the prickly but lovable, cigar-chomping Jack Kirby, instinctively recognized that this prickly but lovable, cigar-chomping monster-hero was the character readers really wanted to see, no matter how flashy the airborne Human Torch’s plume of fire looked. The FF’s other co-creator, Stan “The Man” Lee, said it himself in a Fantastic Four Roundtable conducted by Peter Sanderson in Back Issue #7 (Dec. 2004): “To me, they were all equally important. But I always felt the Thing was the most colorful and the most appealing.”
The Rocky Road to Stardom
But it was Johnny Storm, the Human Torch, who was the first member of the FF to become a solo act. The eyes of Mighty Marvel’s publisher, Martin Goodman, were distracted by the Torch’s flickering flame. Goodman’s long tenure at Marvel dated back to the Golden Age, when a different Human Torch, a combustible android with a blazing sidekick named Toro, was a Marvel headliner. The Human Torch was published throughout the 1940s, with a short-lived 1954 revival following. In an attempt to reignite that past success, it was decreed that the solo adventures of the new Human Torch oust Strange Tales’ monster-of-the-month formula, beginning with issue #101 (Oct. 1962). Fantastic Four’s creative team of Lee and Kirby were on hand for the Torch’s earliest solo stories, with Lee’s brother Larry Lieber dialoguing Stan’s plots. The series borrowed FF bad guys like the Wizard while creating new, rather lame villains for the Torch, including Asbestos Man (insert your own mesothelioma TV lawsuit gag here). Later issues would feature the contributions of artist Dick Ayers and scripter Jerry Siegel (the latter escaping the vengeful eye of his bullying boss, Superman editor Mort Weisinger, by moonlighting under the pseudonym Joe Carter). There was no shortage of gueststars in the Torch’s tales, including Sub-Mariner (a “rematch” of sorts of the classic original Torch vs. Subby scuffles from the Golden Age), Captain America (another Golden Age oldie revisited), and an inevitable elemental pairing with Iceman. For fans of Millie the Model and Archie comic books, the Torch’s solo series included no end of teenage romance and lightheartedness, with Johnny’s pert and pretty gal-pal Dorrie Evans involved in subplots. But the Human Torch’s solo series seemed to, excuse the pun, misfire. The frequent drop-ins by guest-stars and Johnny’s FF family showed that the Torch really couldn’t fly on his own. It was like comedian Bud Abbott doing the “Who’s on First?” routine as a solo act. The Torch needed a Lou Costello. And he had one, each and every month in the pages of The Fantastic Four… the Thing. The Thing was one of those guest heroes parading through the Torch tales, clobbering his way into Strange Tales #116 (Nov. 1963), and with issue #123 the magazine’s Torch feature now co-starred the Thing. Yet the damage from those earlier lackluster Torch adventures had been done. Even a cover-clamored cameo by the Beatles in issue #130 (Mar. 1965)—showing the Torch and the Thing
CHAPTER 5
The Thing Goes ‘Solo’… with a Little Help from His Friends
And they said it could never be done… The iconic cover of Superman vs. the Amazing Spider-Man. Art by Ross Andru and Dick Giordano (and friends). Superman TM & © DC Comics. Spider-Man TM & © Marvel.
From ‘The Battle of the Century’ to ‘Apokolips… Now’ You had to be there to fully “get” it. No matter the depth of your empathy, or the hyperactivity of your fan gland, unless you were a comics reader in January 1976, at ground zero to personally witness the detonation of what forever shall remain comicdom’s biggest bombshell, your appreciation of just how exciting the release of Superman vs. the Amazing Spider-Man truly was will merely be your VR simulation, your sip of decaf coffee or near beer… You had to be there, pure and simple. I’m old enough to have been, and was in my late teens at the time, and trust me, recalling that feeling as I type these words tingles not my Spider-sense but my arm hairs. I’m as giddy as I was as an adolescent just thinking about this. Before Superman vs. the Amazing Spider-Man, a meeting of a DC superhero and a Marvel superhero was merely a fan’s dream, some kid’s pencil sketch on a ruled sheet of notebook paper. It simply couldn’t happen.
The Men Behind the Curtain
In the 1960s, even though their Manhattan offices were just across town from each other, National Comics, or National Periodical Publications, what DC was called back then, and Marvel Comics existed in two different, and segregated, publishing universes. Sure, an artist from one company might moonlight at the other, but would do so under a pseudonym like “George Bell,” “Adam Austin,” or “Mickey Demeo.” Then there was Roy Thomas, who started his storied career toiling oh, so briefly as the assistant of authoritarian Superman editor Mort Weisinger before high-tailing it to Marvel on his lunch hour to take the writer’s test and apply for a job. If you crane your ear toward midtown you may still hear Mort’s livid shrieks reverberating between high-rises, lo these many decades hence. DC and Marvel were fierce rivals. Legend tells us that in the early 1960s, Marvel’s Fantastic Four was a direct response to DC’s Justice League of America after DC’s publisher boasted to Marvel’s head honcho about the nascent JLA’s success. What immediately followed was a period where the Marvel Age was tethered by DC’s distribution chokehold, and where DC’s stuffy, professorial purveyors of kids’ lit blindly underestimated the appeal of the wild and unsophisticated “House of Ideas.” By the 1970s, Mighty Marvel had been unfettered from those distribution shackles and had overtaken the marketplace to make National, which had formerly emblazoned a “World’s Best-Selling Comics Magazine!” boast on its Superman covers, instead the Number Two with a (DC) Bullet publisher. Sure, in the ’60s the publishers traded impish barbs about “the Distinguished Competition” and “Brand Echh,” and there were occasional spoofs like DC’s green-skinned “Man-Mountain” (Showcase #63’s Inferior Five story) and Marvel’s “Stuporman” (Not Brand Echh #7). In the ’70s, there were creative people at both companies who conspired on “secret” crossovers, the most famous of which was Roy Thomas’ DC analogs the Squadron Sinister in The Avengers, which ultimately blossomed into Mark Gruenwald’s JLA homage the Squadron Supreme. But there was no way, say, that Clark Kent could ever run into Peter Parker, even though they were both in the newspaper biz. Professionally and culturally, DC and Marvel were as divided as North and South Korea. That was my childhood as a comics fan; maybe it was yours, too. “Before Stan [Lee] became Marvel’s publisher, you had people like Martin Goodman and his son Chip who were the ultimate business people there, and who would tend to hold a grudge,” Gerry Conway, the miracle worker who eventually penned the Greatest Superhero Team-Up of All Time, told Glenn Greenberg in Back Issue
CHAPTER 9
TEAM-UPS
The first of the Super Slugfests of ’78, Superman vs. Wonder Woman, published as All-New Collectors’ Edition #C-54. Cover by José Luis García-López and Dan Adkins. TM & © DC Comics.
TEAM-UPS
The Super-Slugfests of 1978 Most people would not think of the 1970s Superman as a brawler—after all, he was one of the Super Friends that were enthralling kids each Saturday morning in that popular television cartoon, and in Superman: The Movie, Christopher Reeve in the role identified himself as “a friend” after his first rescue of Margot Kidder’s Lois Lane. Yet during 1978, the year that publisher DC Comics was celebrating Superman’s 40th anniversary, it seemed as if the “friendly” Superman was constantly looking for a fight. Punch-drunk from the knockout that was January 1976’s Superman vs. the Amazing Spider-Man, its tabloid-sized format becoming the comic-book equivalent of a widescreen movie, DC wasted no time booking sparring partners for their Kid from Krypton for more super-sized one-shots with the same heroes-fight-then-team-up formula. But who could possibly last a nanosecond in the ring with a man who could push planets? Three contenders bawled up their fists to brave a bout with the Metropolis Marvel: a princess with a magic lasso, a champ with a magic tongue, and a boy with a magic word.
Superman vs. Wonder Woman
The opening bout in this triple feature of fisticuffs was a big surprise. Superman rarely got down-and-dirty with his male adversaries, preferring a flick of his finger to knock out a mortal foe. You had to be a mad scientist in high-tech armor or a thing from another world to warrant a super-punch. And thus the Gentleman of Steel would never mix it up with a lady, even a super-strong one from Paradise Island… right? Think again! First things first: After the wild success of Superman vs. the Amazing Spider-Man, its writer, Gerry Conway, “was offered the editor-in-chief role at Marvel, and because it was what I thought I wanted at that point in my life, I left DC and grabbed it,” Conway told Wonder Woman historian Andy Mangels in Back Issue #61. That position wasn’t a good fit for Conway, and after a little over a tumultuous month in the role he resigned and returned to DC. Encouraged by his pal from Marvel, Roy Thomas, Conway conceived another Superman slugfest in the super-sized tabloid format: Superman vs. Shazam! The original Captain Marvel had not only returned to print in DC’s Shazam! title but was also a television star on the live-action Shazam! show seen on CBS-TV on Saturday mornings. But a different DC character had also made a TV debut, when the statuesque beauty Lynda Carter rocketed to stardom in the New Original Wonder Woman live-action series, a show that was, in its earliest episodes, set during World War II. DC wanted a Superman vs. Wonder Woman tabloid out pronto, and wanted it to take place during World War II to mirror the Wonder Woman currently in the public eye. Who better to pen such a mega-event than Gerry Conway? So DC’s managing editor, Joe Orlando, assigned Superman vs. Wonder Woman to Gerry, who temporarily backburnered Superman vs. Shazam! to script the 72-page mash-up/team-up. Conway relished the 1940s environment for the story. “Even before the TV series was set in WWII,” Conway said, “I thought Wonder Woman—and Captain America—was a more successful character in that milieu.” Of course, thanks to its multiverse, DC Comics had a Superman who was active during the 1940s— the original Man of Steel, who then-current readers would know as the Earth-Two Superman. The Superman known to the general public, however, was the Earth-One Superman, who starred in DC’s comics of the day and who, more or less, inspired the interpretations of the hero seen on television and to be seen in the upcoming Superman: The Movie. Since Superman vs. Wonder Woman was designed to attract the general reader as well as the comics fan, it was decided to simplify matters and avoid mentioning the parallel worlds
CHAPTER 13
THE