In the 1960s, readers loved the Justice League’s annual “Crisis” team-ups with the Justice Society, but wondered where the 1940s Superman and Batman were.
But Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman had been published continuously, and were in some sense the “same character” all along. That seemed to make them problematic to DC, though in Wonder Woman’s case the problem was simply ignored.
In 1967’s Justice League of America 55-56, though, the adult Earth-Two Robin appeared as the newest JSA member, with Batman “semi-retired.” Robin’s costume was an eye-catching amalgam of his Boy Wonder duds and Batman’s outfit.
“Why the Batman look in the ’60s?” asked Tim O’Keefe. “Easy. All connected to sales. The Batman TV series was at its height of popularity and DC was cashing in. Batman trading cards, Batman plastic models, Batman clothing. It was everywhere. If you notice, most Justice League of America covers of the era overemphasized Batman. It was pure marketing. That said, JLA 55 was the first comic I had as a kid and it hooked me on the JSA. After that, I felt that the Earth-2 Robin was the most underutilized hero of the group.”
The Man Wonder joined JSA and JLA members in thwarting the menace of black alien “energy spheres” that conferred super powers while causing moral derangement.
“(P)erhaps either (writer Gardner Fox) or (editor Julius) Schwartz (or both) just thought a grown-up Robin was a cool idea,” suggested comics historian Alan Stewart. “Which, actually, it was; although the costume could have used more work (and would, thankfully, be overhauled for the Earth-Two Robin’s later appearances.)”
Bruce Kanin:
ReplyDeleteEventually, JLA would feature even the Earth-2 Superman. Plus, the Earth Two Wonder Woman came in handy when the Earth One version had temporarily given up her costume.
Jim Beard:
ReplyDeleteOne of my most-favorite costumes of the Silver Age, if not THE most-favorite.
Patrick Scott Preston:
ReplyDeleteThis was the E-2 Robin I grew up with, and you're right...It was a play to sell more comics, but I LOVED this costume! Much better than green panties and pixie boots, let me tell ya! 😉 😆😁
Abbas Al-Bayaty:
ReplyDeleteNice article.
Jonathan Lampley:
ReplyDeleteI loved this costume when I was a kid, and while the later Neal Adams-designed one is much better, I still have affection for this version. In a way, it is kind of iconic and certainly emblematic of the times in which it was created.
Timothy Davis:
ReplyDeleteDig those jazzy Go-Go checks! Just despise Mike Sekowsky’s art. He made everyone look like they needed to be on a very strict diet and be doing serious cardio training. Julie Schwartz made a bonehead decision selecting him as artist for the great Gardner Fox’s stories.
Vincent Mariani:
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, the JLA had "jumped the shark" quite a bit earlier than the appearance of this particular issue.
In comparison with the exquisite JSA member stories in Showcase and Brave & Bold drawn by Murphy Anderson, the Sekowsky version of the characters was just awful. And the introduction of "camp" elements was one more detrimental part of the further erosion of the series.
The attempt to differentiate the JSA from the JLA has been a perennial problem at DC. Not surprising, considering the WWII historical context of the earlier group. Fortunately, Roy Thomas had the good sense to set All-Star Squadron in the 1940s to recreate the glory days. All else related to the JSA has been mixed in effect at best.
Hoy Murphy:
ReplyDeleteMy recollection is that Schwartz and Fox reintroduced one JSA member each year. By this time they had run out and reintroduced Robin, who had been called an honorary member but never appeared in a Golden Age adventure. Later came a real stretch, Red Tornado.
Bruce Kanin:
ReplyDeleteVincent Mariani, Totally agree. To me, the only good JLA-JSA team-ups in the Silver Age were the first two, i.e., the two-parter where they first meet, and the two-parter with the Earth-3 super-villains.
My suspicion is that "camp" arrived at around the time of the BATMAN TV series when, in parallel, the Caped Crusader figured prominently on JLA covers. The one above, though Batman doesn't appear, is a part of that, because Robin is made to look a lot like his retired partner.
Bob Doncaster:
ReplyDeleteAs much as I enjoyed the different versions of Flash, Green Lantern etc it was Hourman, Dr. Fate and others that really drew my attention. These were “ new” heroes to me.
Paul Zuckerman:
ReplyDeleteVincent -- I disagree about tying the JSA forever more to World War II, because it has made the time-frame with the JLA less realistic over the years. Originally, there was only a 12-year gap and the JSA would remain slightly older than the JLA. Once tied to WW II -- and only a handful of JSA stories had a war background -- the age differential grew greater and greater, resulting in stories where Black Canary was revealed to be her own daughter, and the aging of the characters became confused and haphazard.
ReplyDeleteKevin McDougall:
At least in this outfit it looked like he'd graduated into adulthood as Batman's heir apparent. The later costume made him look like he was backsliding into juvenility.
Paul Zuckerman:
ReplyDeleteAt the height of Batmania, it was inevitable that Batman and or Robin would make an appearance in a JSA story. Julie was slowly bringing back all of the original members, but had focused on the main members initially, though for some reason, Wildcat, who had only appeared in one or two original stories, quickly became a favorite, possibly because he was looked at as a Batman stand-in but there was more flexibility with the character, including using him humorously (in the Starman/Black Canary team-up) or as a past-prime character (as in the Spectre story.)
Superman and Batman had been honorary members of the JSA from the beginning, but they appeared in story only twice, and only one of those stories actually had them take part in the action, so not using them in the beginning was not a difficult decision, especially since they were visually the same. With Hawkman, he used Carter's later mask; Flash, Green Lantern and the Atom looked different than their 1960s versions and the Atom's powers were drastically different as well. Wonder Woman looked much like her 1940s self except for her footwear and some minor alterations in the costume, but nothing much significant.
When he revived the JSA, Superman, Batman and WW were all being handled by different editors and there seemed to be some sort of house edict for a while not to use Sups and Bats, but Wonder Woman was a principal member of the team from the beginning. DC probably thought she needed all the exposure she could get (of course, she was pretty exposed in that swim suit costume... :)) and Kanigher, her editor, apparently didn't have any concern about how she was used outside of her book, so Julie and Fox had a mostly free-hand with her. (Later on, when Wonder Girl was introduced, she had even less connection to her comic book self, who was supposed to be Wonder Woman as a teenager).
When Julie acquired control over Batman in 1964, he had free rein over using the character, and had already been allowed to start using Sups and Bats as early as the year before. Still, he didn't bring Batman's world into the JSA stories until this story in 1967. But he had acknowledged Batman's existence two years earlier in Detective 347's the Strange Death of Batman, which was a What If story (years before Marvel took that concept), an imaginary-like alternative story where Batman of Earth 1 dies and is replaced by his older Earth 2 self, to take care of Earth 1's Robin since his own had already grown up.
Julie recognized that it was somewhat unrealistic for non-super-powered people to be running around in costume, so Batman was semi-retired. This was a concept also used in the aforementioned Spectre story with Wildcat. Black Canary was realistically much younger than the rest of the JSA--introduced at the tail end of the Golden Age, she was probably in her early 20s when the JSA ceased publication and these stories were only 10-15 years later (hard to imagine how short their break had actually been!)
Superman remained unused in the JSA stories until 1969 in issue 73. Maybe by then, editor Mort Weisinger no longer cared or was not consulted in having another version of the character that effectively altered the accepted continuity of his character; or maybe he realized that it gave him a lot of latitude to continue ignoring Superman’s earliest stories, which he had mostly done anyway. Either way, the solution seemed to work, even though it has always been kind of messy figuring out where the Earth 1 version began and the Earth 2 ended!
Tim Pendergast:
ReplyDeleteJust finished reading JLA from B&B #28 to JLA #60 via the Showcase collections and I have to admit it was bit of a slough. Formulaic stories and uninspired art. I'm surprised the book survived. The sole highlight was the JSA crossovers. Had the rest of the stories had been as dynamic as these the book would have remained monthly.
I see the adult Robin costume as real low point, but I also sense editorial interference in its creation. That would certainly explain its inconsistent appearance.
Walt Grogan:
ReplyDeleteWhat an awesome costume! It brings a smile to my face every single time I see it!
Will Stark:
ReplyDeleteEven though I had no idea who the Justice Society were, this might be the first comic I ever bought. The cover concept hooked me.