In Justice League of America 47, writer Gardner Fox was undoubtedly aware of the thematic similarities between Solomon Grundy and Blockbuster. He’d created one of them and scripted the other.
The swamp zombie Grundy and Blockbuster, DC’s version of the Hulk, were both super-strong, dim-witted brutes who had an idée fixe about a superhero — Green Lantern in Grundy’s case, Batman in Blockbuster’s.
Fox created Blockbuster for The Blockbuster Invasion of Gotham City! in Detective Comics 345 (Nov. 1965). And he’d previously scripted Solomon Grundy, a character created by Alfred Bester, in All-Star Comics 33 (March 1947) and Showcase 55 (March-April 1965).
The spotlighting of a Batman villain is a signpost of the era. When you’ve got a giant Batman on the cover of the JLA, that means the Batman TV show has already premiered (in January that year) and is a big hit in the ratings.
Once upon a time, the JLA tended to leave poor powerless Batman behind. No more.
Still, this situation is something more than a utility belt can handle. Even when supercharged by Dr. Fate’s magic, the Spectre can no longer hold the two Earths apart.
So who’s the only one who can help DC’s biggest superhero? DC’s smallest superhero, naturally.
Using his dwarf star technology, the Atom shrinks the Spectre down to an inch in size and then suddenly explodes him back into cosmic vastness, seemingly destroying the Ghostly Guardian in the process, but hurling the Earths back into their proper places.
Luckily, to the Atom’s surprise, the Spectre is able to reform himself.
“Though the psycho-matter of my spirit body was explosively flung to all corners of this warped universe, I still maintained control of its elements,” the ghost tells the Atom. “Just before I exploded the smithereens, I imbued my body with spiritual-magnetic attraction — so that no matter how far apart it was flung, it would be drawn back to normal after a while.”
Glad he straightened that out.
Paul Zuckerman wrote:
ReplyDeleteBeing able to imbue yourself with spiritual-magnetic attraction -- whatever that is -- is obviously a good thing. Not sure that the Spectre ever showed that ability again, but even once is a pretty good hat trick! 🙂
After the first few years of JLA wanting Batman and Superman show up more in the comic, I was not so excited when the book became just another Batman book. And I thought some of the humor was sort of campish -- including the resolution of Grundy's and Blockbuster's part of the story -- but overall I enjoyed this two-parter, as I did most of the early JSA team-ups. I always liked to see the JSA and Fox pulled out the stops on some of the lesser-known members. I believe this was the first appearance of the Sandman since the 40s and I really enjoyed the green-suited gas-masked version (remains my favorite over the yellow-suited version.) Wildcat had guest-appeared in one of those B&B Black Canary/Starman team-ups but this really gave him a chance to show his stuff. It was always nice to see Black Canary and Dr Mid-Nite was an unusual enough character as well who had appeared in the team-ups before but this gave him more to do-and I think was the first time in the 60s that his blindness was mentioned, with an aside to the reader about Daredevil--and, of course, there was Dr Fate and the Spectre.
Fox stories always seemed to come together early on but this one had a lot of diverse threads that only begin to coalesce as the first part ends. It seemed very unusual for a Schwartz-Fox tale! Sekowsky did a decent job on the inks though Greene's inks were at the height of his more cartoony-look, which wasn't totally out of place with some of the campish elements -- especially visible on the second part's cover!
Ellis Rose wrote:
ReplyDeleteI loved this story because of its mixing and matching throughout the story. The plot resolution really sucked, but I guess I can't have everything.
Bob Doncaster wrote:
ReplyDeleteThose JLA/JSA team ups were some of my favorites. Long live Earth 2!
Scott DeCosta wrote:
ReplyDeleteIs Batman in this book? Hard to tell by the cover .... 😜
Sam Kujava wrote:
ReplyDeleteAs an 11-year-old DC comics fan, I loved everything about this issue. 56 years later, I still do.
Brian Vorce wrote:
ReplyDeleteMy dad had this comic. I loved the all-hands-on-deck JLA/JSA attack on the Anti-Matter Man. Black Canary and Wildcat attacking like they can stop an indestructible giant - just great. I don't even recall Grundy's and Blockbuster's rolls in the affair, just that they were engaged in a lunkheaded fist fight and, I think, ended up pals.
Matthew Grossman wrote:
ReplyDeleteSpiritual-magnetic attraction? Sounds like a New Age pick-up line.
Mark Engblom wrote:
ReplyDeleteArguably the most cosmic/metaphysical DC Comics story to date, I found the faux-beatnik narration distracting and intensely irritating. Obviously influenced by the Batman TV show and late 60’s pop culture in general, it made an otherwise cosmic premise and genuinely spooky villain just another campy lark.
Here’s a direct quote:
“But wait! This Contra-Cat is a claw-happy fighter who relishes a bang-up rock’em sock’em rhubarb! He hits out, and - - tuck in your eyeballs, readers - - this is a moment of truth! The Justice League and Justice Society boys are really catching it!”
On one hand, I can enjoy this as just another example of a square and clueless DC pandering to its (largely misunderstood) young audience. On the other hand, it’s a little sad seeing DC so enthusiastically embrace Camp, which, at its core, represented a mocking *hatred* of comic books and, frankly, those that enjoyed them.
I replied:
Camp is self-mockery, and that show closes quickly out of town. Batman started with stratospheric ratings, and yet was off the air in just a couple of years.
I'm interested to see that because this story defies all logic — it's just too bizarre — Fox neverthess found a way to approach it. Fox uses SYMMETRY in place of story logic — the biggest superhero will be saved by the smallest, parallel Hulk-like figures, etc.
ReplyDeleteVincent Mariani wrote:
ReplyDeleteGrundy and Blockbuster don't mix other than superficially.
The macabre swamp creature has infinitely greater range in story possibilities that have only rarely been realized. Blockbuster is more of a one-note character.
In JLA, Gardner Fox and Mike Sekowsky gave equal weight to the two giants.
Didn't work for me.
Other than the Showcase and Brave and Bold issues featuring Golden Age characters, plus a few other stories, the 1940s characters did not mix well stylistically with 1960s sensibilities.
I didn't even like the Neal Adams and Jerry Grandenetti versions of The Spectre.
Later writers and artists, with the added burden of continuity and chronology dilemmas, have also had mixed results.
Brian Telford wrote:
ReplyDeletethat cover with Batman facing off the Big Bad of the JLA/JSA team up of '66, was motivated clearly due to the influence of the TV show was running at the time. (It would be hard to accept that a mere mortal could fist-fight an entity that outclassed him in every way!) 😮
Bill Scott wrote:
ReplyDelete"To touch the Anti Matter Man was to risk instant destruction." So Batman showing his deductive genius hauled off and thumped him!
Ellis Rose wrote:
ReplyDeleteBrian Vorce, it is the MOST memorable JLA-JSA crossover story for me! The color, the involuntary crossovers (the wedding where the bride is told she can kiss the groom and exclaims, "you're not my husband!"), Grundy on Earth-1 and Blockbuster on Earth-2, the triple-decker attack upon the Anti-Matter Man at his feet and ankles, his waist, and his head, the Spectre keeping the two earths separated by his giant ethereal body, the heroes being hampered by individual characteristics being insanely exxaggerated, the heroic determination! It was somewhere between a wild dream and a hallucinogenic trip. Memorable indeed!
Lou Henken wrote:
ReplyDeleteThe Man from UNCLE might have lasted for five or more seasons had NBC and the producers of that series didn't embrace the camp craze. UNCLE reached the height of its popularity during its 1965-66 season but NBC wanted to attain higher Nielsen ratings by imitating those elements which provided the initial popularity of ABC's Batman show.
Johnny Williams wrote:
ReplyDeleteDan, the height of Batmania started making JLA covers look more and more ludicrous. They were trying Way too hard with The Dark Knight Detective. This one is an excellent case in point.
Michael Fraley wrote:
ReplyDeleteAs the creator (and designer) of Dr. Fate, Gardner Fox knew his way around characters like the Spectre ... even laden down with the pseudo-scientific mumbo jumbo of the silver age. I'm always happy that the invisible poltergeist version of the Spectre from his later golden age appearances was dropped and forgotten about