This week, Jud looks back at a much happier Golden Age Batman…
Tag Archives | Super-Families
The Bat-Family Expands: Bat-Mite, Superman and Batgirl
Bat-Hound and Batwoman were apparently hits with the readers, because the Bat-family kept on expanding. Next to appear in May 1959 was Bat-Mite, in DETECTIVE COMICS #267, “Batman Meets Bat-Mite!” Bat-Mite appeared unexpectedly in the Batcave one day, described by Robin as “an elf dressed in a crazy-looking Batman costume!” As Bat-Mite explains, he comes […]
Power Struggle, Part II
Previously, in COMICS 101: We tracked the beginnings of DC’s Earth-2 version of Supergirl, the Justice Society of America’s Power Girl. But how could she exist in a comics continuity without an Earth-2 Superman? Therein hangs a tale… The question of Power Girl’s now-befuddling origins was addressed in 1987, in issue #11 of DC’s anthology […]
The Landing Pad – WORLD’S FINEST COMICS
This week, Harley talks about World’s Finest Comics, from the Golden Age heyday of Superman and Batman!
Legacy
When comic books began, they were for children at home and soldiers at the front. For the first group they were aspirational, for the second group they were escape. As such the center of the stories was a young man free to act. Family was restricted to wards who were partners to the hero (Robin, […]
Enter Batwoman and Bat-Girl
Batman found himself with a new member of the family 1956, with the introduction of Batwoman. Introduced in DETECTIVE COMICS #233 (July 1956), Batwoman is Kathy Kane (note the reference to Batman creator Bob), a former stunt motorcyclist, trapeze artist and circus daredevil who inherits a vast sum of money and uses it to fund […]
Jimmy Olsen … Boy Wonder!
Jimmy Olsen is not your average hero. He’s a dorky, bowtie-wearing, camera-toting, “super-duper”-saying, down-on-his-luck ginger. (It’s cool, I can say it – Jimbo and I are pals in our gingerness.) He’s most often referred to as a step below a sidekick – he’s not Superman’s crime fighting second-in-command. He’s the guy’s pal. Superman’s Pal, Jimmy […]
Supergirl, Batgirl and Comics
That. Right there. That is one of my favorite comics of all time. It’s written and drawn and colored (and maybe even lettered?) by the legendary Adam Hughes. It showed up in the landmark seventy-fifty issue of SUPERMAN/BATMAN back in ye olde pre-New 52 days of August 2010. But we’ll get to all that. First, […]
The Bat-Family, Continued – Meet Ace the Bat-Hound
For someone who’s supposed to be a dark, brooding avenger of the night, Batman is actually rather sociable. This wasn’t always the case. Even after the 1940 introduction of Robin, the Dynamic Duo tended to be something of a solo act. Batman made a cameo appearance (along with Superman) in ALL-STAR COMICS #7 as an […]
Power Struggle
Not every decision DC made following the rebooting of their universe in CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS was a complete success. Some were just out-and-out bad decisions (like the excising of Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman from JLA history), some were editorial miscalculations that degenerated into a continuity nightmare (say, for example, Hawkman), and some were […]
The Endless: Not Your Average Family
Family is a fluid term. The most obvious way to define who is a family member is determining whether you have blood and genes in common. But, your partners count as family and so can your friends. Some families have two parents, some families have children, some don’t. The Endless don’t fit into the average […]
Oliver Queen, Family Man?
We have all seen the discomfort comic book editors have with family. Spider-Man never was married after Joe Quesada did a deal with Mephisto and blamed Peter Parker for it. He said it was difficult to write good stories with a married Spider-Man. So having to beat the villain in time to do something for […]
Cousin Kara from Krypton, Part III: Hello, Goodbye and Hello Again
For Those Who Came in Late: We’ve spent the last two weeks here at COMICS 101 looking at the original Silver Age Supergirl, Kara Zor-El. When we left off, following her heroic sacrifice in the pages of CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS, Kara was not only dead, but once all was said and done, she’d been […]