Writers must have found it tricky to keep Batman and Robin relevant in stories in which they teamed up with Superman.
After all, as screenwriter Jackson Gillis observed, the nearly omnipotent Superman could “corral any criminal” all by himself.
One writer who could handle the job of giving the Dynamic Duo equal weight in those team-up stories was Bill Finger, Batman’s co-creator.
In World’s Finest 107 (Feb. 1960), Finger came up with a two-step solution to the problem: one, confront Superman with a monster so mighty his powers cannot overcome it and two, give the Dynamic Duo an autonomous mission that’s crucial to stopping the creature.
The fact that their mission is separate gives Batman and Robin a chance to shine out from under Superman’s shadow.
When a red-eyed, blazing yellow giant emerges on a Mediterranean island, Superman, Batman and Robin rush to intercept it. But this Time Creature’s force field proves as effective as Brainiac’s in stopping Superman.
Meanwhile, a whistling signal draws the Dynamic Duo to a cave where they discover an ancient telepathic device informing them that such Time Creatures had previously laid waste to other worlds.
Anticipating the monster’s emergence on Earth, our alien benefactors buried the one weapon that can stop the creature during the beginning of the reign of Alexander the Great. Finding it missing, Batman and Robin use Professor Carter Nichols’ time travel device to go after it in 336 BC (Nichols’ friendship with Bruce Wayne stretched all the way back to Batman 24 in 1944).
Finger bounces the action of this lively story back and forth between Superman’s efforts to stall the Time Creature and Batman and Robin’s adventures in the colorful era of Alexander III of Macedonia.
Artist Dick Sprang once confessed that he enjoyed drawing the Superman-Batman stories more than the solo Batman stories for which he became famous. The science fictional possibilities inherent in the World’s Finest stories provided more visual scope for Sprang’s creativity.
Bruce Kanin wrote:
ReplyDeleteGreat topic, Dan. Often they would de-power Superman; give him an adversary more powerful than him; power-up Batman; or transform one of them - all in the name of balancing out Superman vs. B&R. It was often hokey but always enjoyable - even today.
Vincent Mariani wrote:
ReplyDeleteSuperman could solve mysteries in his own stories, but in the team-ups, it was always Batman who came up with the answer.
An inherent contradiction in the world of superheroes was that the individual hero starring in his or her own stories was capable of defeating even the most powerful menace, but in the team books, the individual's abilities had to be mitigated in order for the entire team to shine.
Bruce Kanin wrote:
That's why in the early JLAs, Superman was often elsewhere for all or most of the tale, lest he be able to mop things up singlehandedly, lol.
Dan Hagen wrote:
The first JLA story I saw, Brave and the Bold 29, seemed perfect to me. Superman appeared right at the end to slap the villain silly. That seemed right and proper.
Bill Field wrote:
ReplyDeleteI loved WF as a youngun. Until Marvel came along, anything Batman was highly anticipated with WF at top of the list.
Mark Staff Brandl wrote:
ReplyDeleteIndeed. I am quite pleased with and intrigued by how the writers of the Supergirl TV show handled this.
Paul Zuckerman wrote:
ReplyDeleteThe Schiff-edited stories are more Batman-centric. Rarely did they ever have anything Superman-related other than the basics: Lois, Jimmy, Perry. Luthor showed up when the Joker did. One story was pretty up-to-date: Kandor (called the Krypton city) did pop up soon after it was introduced, albeit looking somewhat different.
On the other hand, the Weisinger-edited issues flipped that and definitely had more Superman concepts in them. The book was fully integrated into the Superman mythos. Ironically, it wasn't totally up on the Batman changes: the first issue did not have the moon on Batman's chest, but even a couple of years later, Bat-Mite shows up!