Today's Back Issue:
Superman #76
"The Mightiest Team in the World"
Written by Edmond Hamilton
Art by Curt Swan
The latest trailer for 2016's Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice has taken
the geek community by storm since it dropped a few days ago, and with good
reason. There's a new Bruce Wayne in Ben Affleck and a new Lex Luthor in Jesse
Eisenberg joining Cavill's Superman, with both portrayals sparking the usual
debate on how "true to the character" they are. At the time of
writing this, I can't come down too heavy on either side; I'd rather wait and
see the finished product. However, just the idea that we're finally going to
see a live action Superman and Batman come to blows (and eventually team up
alongside Wonder Woman against a new version Doomsday) on the big screen has me
giddy.
For me, Superman and Batman have always represented the alpha and omega of
superhero characters, at least within the DC Universe. Superman is a sun god architype,
while Bats is the dweller in darkness, both tied to a New Deal era philosophy
of progress and justice for all. When I got back into the comic book hobby in the
early 2000's, DC had just launched a Batman/Superman team-up title that quickly
became my favorite monthly on the stands. Jeph Loeb and Ed McGuiness picked up
where they left off just a year or so prior on the main Superman series,
detailing the adventures of two fugitive heroes making their way in a world
where Lex Luthor had become President (!) and filled his cabinet with other
superheroes, some of whom were former allies of the World's Finest Duo. Fun
times.
I would come to learn that the Batman/Superman series I was reading was a
modern take on what used to be an old standby in the DC canon: a series called
World's Finest Comics. This series began in the 50's and would hand around for
several hundred issues. For most of its run it was an anthology type of book,
each issue containing Bat-stories and Super-stories, but rarely did the heroes
actually cross over into one another's adventures. Today, it's astonishing to
think that the powers-that-be at DC never imagined pairing two of their
top-selling characters together for nearly twelve years after their debut, but
I guess it was just a different time. I've even heard tell that some executives
and editors back then felt the audiences for the two characters were too
different and wouldn't "mesh".
But even this team-up title wasn't the first time the Dark Knight and the
Man of Steel crossed paths. To get to the source, to find out when Harry really
met Sally so to speak, we need to dive a little deeper, to the summer of 1952
and a random issue of Superman that would go down in infamy. That issue is
Superman #76, entitled "The Mightiest Team in the World".
In this story, Batman seeks a little rest and relaxation after a tough
stint of crime-busting, while mild-mannered reporter Clark Kent tracks a lead to
a cruise liner. What follows is a brief comedy of errors involving a costume
change in the dark where an arsonist illuminates the cabin (they got
double-booked) and both strapping bachelors catch each other in the act of
changing into their alter egos. With that cat out of the bag, Bruce and Clark
forge an alliance, save some folks, and put an asbestos-wearing madman behind
bars.
It's a pretty quaint first meeting. Both characters by this point had begun
to shift from their Golden Age incarnations to their Silver Age personas.
Superman's barrel chest would soon contain the power to move planetoids, and
the originally grim and murderous Batman was smiling a lot more. He isn't quite
Adam West yet, but he isn't exactly The Shadow either. Call it an "awkward
phase".
Of course Lois Lane is involved. And if there's one things impressionable
young boys like me have learned from comics, it’s that women are trouble. She
tries to make Supes jealous by fawning over Batman, but both heroes do their
patriarchal duty and put Lois back in her place. Silly female characters. They
should know better than to do anything other than die to instill righteous fury
in the male protagonist. I kid, I kid . . . .
I'd love to maintain the illusion that I simply plucked this little gem from
my collection, but in truth, the only reason I had the um . . . privilege of
reading this issue is thanks to a handy trade paperback called "Superman
& Batman: The Greatest Stories Ever Told", where it's reprinted. There
are some other great World's Finest stories that are worth mentioning, but I'll
save them for later. We're still half a year away from Dawn of Justice, so as
the movie grows closer and my anticipation builds, I'll come back to this fun
little tome a few times. Count on it.
I mean it, just wait till we get to Composite Superman.
Anyhoo, the first meeting between these characters is as fun and unassuming
as any comic from that era. The use of bombast and hyperbole (even before Stan
Lee's heyday) made every issue as equally exciting or unappealing than the
last, depending on the age and maturity of the reader. I wonder if seeing these
two interact in the story at the time was everything fans back then had hoped
for, or if was a novelty encouraged by DC, hoping to gain a new monthly money-making
title out of the union?
That's all the back issue diving for this time around, folks. Next, we'll
be jumping back to Marvel for something a little more recent. There was another
big superhero movie trailer released not too long ago that's inspired another
post like this. It rhymes with 'swivel bore' . . .
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