October 1963: Red Planet, Green Arrow

The Brave and the Bold 50 (Oct.-Nov. 1963) began the team-up tradition that would culminate in turning the title into a long-running “Batman and Friends” book.

The art by George Roussos exploited little of the visual appeal that we might have expected in a teaming of the Martian Manhunter and Green Arrow, and Roussos seemed intent on undermining the action at every turn. I’d say either of the characters’ regular artists — Joe Certa or Lee Elias — might have done a better job with the story.

But the idea of teaming and spotlighting two superheroes was a good one, and a logical extension of successful Silver Age team titles like Justice League of America, World’s Finest and Fantastic Four.

In fact, this first team-up was a sort of low-rent version of World’s Finest. Instead of Superman and Batman, we got two back-of-the-book characters who were often compared to them.

The resemblance to the successful World’s Finest formula was probably deliberate, according to Michael Uslan and Robert Klein, writing in the Brave and the Bold Team-Up Archive Edition.

“With his red-clad sidekick, Arrow Car and Arrow Cave, wealthy playboy Oliver (Green Arrow) Queen was certainly at the time being presented as an imitation Batman,” Uslan and Klein observed, “And what superhero was most akin to Superman? But for the fact that his weakness was fire and not kryptonite, the Manhunter from Mars best qualifies. More likely, this was a way to promote the Martian Manhunter, who would soon gain his very own cover-featured series beginning in House of Mystery 143.”

In the Brave and Bold story, the Manhunter and Green Arrow defeat their enemy, Vulkor, with a trick used more than once by Superman and Batman — switching their identities to gain an element of surprise.

Bob Haney’s plot featured an attack on Earth by J’onn J’onzz’ fellow Martians — the same story idea that Bruce Timm used as the springboard for the excellent Justice League animated series in 2001.

June 1961: The Comic That Made Me Cry

I never wanted a comic book more than the 25-cent DC giant Secret Origins, which was on newsstands in June 1961, the month I turned 7.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t alone. The comic sold out instantly at my newsstand in Effingham, IL. I was so disappointed I burst into tears on the spot. Then I was ashamed at having cried.

But we almost never got to read characters’ origins in those halcyon days, and to acquire a bunch of those in one comic would’ve been a thrill.

I wouldn’t learn until years later than DC’s apparent discomfort with reprinting 1940s material would lead them to cheat a bit on the Secret Origins title, meaning that the real origins of the Superman-Batman team, Wonder Woman and Green Arrow would remain secret.

In fact, the only “Golden Age material” to be found in all 80 pages was an old copy of Flash being chuckled over by police scientist Barry Allen while he ate lunch in one panel.

Instead of Wonder Woman’s real 1941 origin, we got a retconned version by Robert Kanigher, Ross Andru and Mike Esposito reprinted from Wonder Woman 105 (April 1959).

Green Arrow and Speedy got even shorter shrift, merely a text page that summarized their origins.

So that dark, sunny June day I had to content myself with the origin of a new superhero in Archie Comics’ Adventures of the Jaguar 1, the second issue of Charlton’s Gorgo, the battle between Batman and the super-powered Villain of 1,000 Elements in Detective Comics 294, learning The Secret of Tigerman in World’s Finest 119, seeing the debut of The Legion of Super-Villains in Superman 147 and the exciting third Superman Annual, featuring The Strange Lives of Superman.

That one was almost as good as Secret Origins.

Almost.

Despite its deficiencies, Secret Origins remained The One That Got Away. I hadn’t learned, at 7, that desire often makes the unattainable seem more wonderful than reality can ever be.

The witty Bruce Kanin weighs in...

April 1961: How the JLA Grew

Arrowcar, Arrowplane, Arrowcave, Arrow Signal. For every “Bat-This,” Green Arrow had an “Arrow-That.”

Copybat though he was, Green Arrow could introduce some improvements. For example, the Arrowcar launched Green Arrow and Speedy into the air spectacularly with its ejector seats. I used to wonder why the Batmobile wasn’t similarly equipped with Batapults.

“Green Arrow is certainly in the tradition of Batman, a costumed crime fighter with no super-powers, but with a lot of technological gimmicks,” observed comics historian Michael E. Grost.  “Unlike Batman, Green Arrow’s world is not grotesque or bizarre, and Green Arrow is not an alienated figure.”

Green Arrow and Batman were, however, similar enough that they could easily trade enemies. Take the Clock King, for example — a Green Arrow opponent in World’s Finest 111 (Aug. 1960) and a Batman villain a little later on TV, played with gleeful scenery-chewing gusto by Viennese character actor Walter Slezak, decked out in a showy black cape and a top hat with a clock on it.

In both his incarnations, the Clock King trapped the superheroes inside giant hourglasses.

But even though I wasn’t clamoring for Green Arrow to join the JLA when that event happened in Justice League of America 4 (April 1961), the prospect did excite me for another reason — it proved that the membership of such superhero groups could change. That opened up all kinds of possibilities for the imagination.

That was almost as exciting as what we’d learn later in Flash of Two Worlds (Flash 123, Sept. 1961) — that there existed another, earlier version of this superhero group, with some parallel characters and others we’d never heard of.

The mind reeled — or at least this child’s mind did.

The JLA adventure began trillions of miles out in space.

June 1942: Batman with a Bow

I wonder if Batman ever thought of installing a people-catapult in the Batmobile?

Borrowing an idea from the Green Arrow would only have been fair, since the Emerald Archer lifted so many from him.

“Except for the archery motif, the ‘Green Arrow and Speedy’ series sounds like a direct swipe of Batman and Robin,” noted comics historian Don Markstein.

The Green Archer — a 1923 Edgar Wallace novel that became a movie serial in 1925 and again in 1940 — was also an obvious influence. 

“In that Columbia Pictures chapter play, the title character ‘mysteriously appears with his deadly bows and arrows whenever needed,’” noted author Ron Goulart.

“Green Arrow was created, if that’s not too strong a word, by Mort Weisinger, editor of DC’s More Fun Comics, who introduced the crime-fighting archer in the 73rd issue of that title (Nov. 1941) — the same one that first featured Aquaman. George Papp illustrated that initial outing, and remained the character’s principal artist for many years,” Markstein said.

“Green Arrow was never as strong a character as the one he was modeled after. Whereas Batman appears intensely motivated — driven, even — Oliver Queen, the man who masqueraded as Green Arrow (Roy Harper, his ward, was Speedy), seemed merely to dabble in crimefighting. Still, Green Arrow was a modest success. Six months after his introduction, he ousted Dr. Fate from the cover of More Fun, and held it, with a few exceptions, until 1946, when he lost that spot to a humorous pair of identical twin detectives, Henry Boltinoff's Dover & Clover.”

Instead of a Batmobile, this then-brown-haired Green Arrow got about in an “Arrowplane” (which, despite the name, functioned as a car).

“Although Weisinger was on record as having said he ‘wasn’t remotely influenced by Batman’ when thinking up the Green Arrow and his boy sidekick Speedy, the feature itself actually looked and sounded like Batman and Robin in Robin Hood costumes, right down to the archery team’s car,” Goulart wrote.