Yes, 2011's
Justice League #1 teased us
with a first meeting of the new DC Universe’s Superman and Batman, but,
they have met before...
Many times, actually.
In other worlds, and other places (and of course, in other comics as well!).
So, let’s explore a few
of those first meetings!
One of One
One of the longest lasting first encounters of Superman and Batman happened in
Superman #76 (May-June 1952, by
Edmond Hamilton and
Curt Swan).
Superman and Batman (these being the Superman and Batman of Earth-1,
and this story ends up being one of the earliest, definite Earth-1
stories…but it is also one of the first time Superman and Batman met in
one of their own titles), travel as Clark Kent and Bruce Wayne on board a
cruise ship. The two heroes battled a diamond thief and vied for the
affections of Lois Lane as well. Within this tale, they learned each
other’s identities for the first time as they changed from their normal
clothes to their super-selves in a darkened cabin suddenly lit by
fire…they were able to foil the criminal, but it was a third party who
ended up with the damsel in distress at the end! DC Comics had
reprinted this story as one of the most influential in its history as a
Millennium Edition, and it can rightfully take its place as one of the
most important comics, because it was in this very issue that one
character’s comic appearances were made valid in another’s individual
series (as, at least at DC, characters didn’t crossover into other
characters stories, except in team books, and while Fawcett Comics had a
whole family of Marvels meeting each other and other Fawcett
characters, Marvel Comics only existed as Timely Comics).
Adding More Earths
A more recent recovering of the first Superman/Batman meeting happened in
Superman/Batman Annual #1 (December 2006, by writer
Joe Kelly and a slew of artists including
Ed McGuinness,
Ryan Ottley,
Sean Murphy and
Carlo Barberi), and,
for fun, threw in Alfred Pennyworth, Mr. Mxyzptlk, Deathstroke, the
Terminator and the Superman/Batman of the Crime Syndicate of Amerika
(Ultraman and Owlman) into the mix (as well as the Crime Syndicate’s
Superwoman, and someone who couldn’t be Deadpool) along with Lois Lane
(yet took the Boy Wonder out of the story, more recent histories of
Batman have not had Robin as his partner in the early years, and this
tale reflects that reality). Not really sure that adding all of these
other characters to the mix really improved the story, but it did make
for an entertaining tale…more or less. And it did take the first
meeting of Superman and Batman back to the boat (even though it moved
the meeting into the Bermuda Triangle), something that had not been
followed previous changes to the tale, as the first meeting has been
touched on other times as well.
Byrning History
DC’s first major reboot of the Superman mythos happened with the Man of Steel mini-series by writer/artist
John Byrne, and one of the major events to have happened in
Man of Steel #3
(November 1986), with that DC Universe’s first meeting of the Man of
Steel and the Dark Knight. This first meeting was inspired by a new
villain, a lady by the name of Magpie, who had a fascination with shiny
diamonds, and Batman having to deal with the caped Kryptonian to stop
her. This established the idea of Batman being ready for anything, as
he had prepared himself for a confrontation with the Metropolis Marvel,
and had outwit him at the time. Superman and Batman did NOT learn each
others identities at this time, instead having that shared secret
between the two unfold over time (and, it ended up taking place in the
current DC Comics of the time, which, considering, that, as co-members
of the Justice League, they may have revealed their identities to each
other before, but Superman’s role in the early Justice League,
post-Crisis on Infinite Earths but pre-Infinite Crisis had been
reduced, and this story implied very heavily that Superman and Batman
were not best of friends after this meeting…and, this event was soon
followed by the gathering of the original Justice League of America in
Superman: The Man of Steel Annual #4 (1995), with Superman meeting all the new young heroes of the time).
Back In Time
One
tends to forget that even their heroes were young once, but (at least
on Earth-1), before Superman was SuperMAN, he was SuperBOY. Superboy
and a young Bruce Wayne (taking on the identity of the Flying Fox) first
met in
Adventure Comics #275 (August 1960, by
Jerry Coleman and
George Papp).
In this story, young Bruce Wayne moves to Smallville, learns Superboy’s
secret identity but does not reveal it to Lana Lang, and Superboy
erases the knowledge of his identity from young Bruce’s mind…or so he
thinks.
But, young Bruce Wayne met Superboy once before (as detailed in
World’s Finest Comics #84,
September-October 1956), but Superboy didn’t know it was Bruce Wayne
who prevented crook Thad Linnis (whom young Bruce was working with) from
learning Superboy was really Clark Kent! But, Bruce does know and
keeps the secret for years!
Superboy met a young Bruce Wayne a few times later in Earth-1 continuity (in
Superboy #182 from February 1972, and in the
Superboy Spectacular #1
of 1980), but those meetings were erased from Superboy’s memory (not as
an evil plot, but by Superboy himself…
...preventing him from having too
much knowledge of the future, and thus accidentally making it not
happen).
Regular Meetings
World’s Finest Comics was the home of Superman/Batman team-ups from
#71 to
#323
(issues
#2-
70, while having Superman and Batman in action together on
the cover, did not feature any stories with them together on the
inside!). Issue
#71 (July-August 1954) simply had the
duo working together, as natural as can be (and, it was really a trio,
as Robin was frequently involved in these pairings as well!
Working
with Superman had quite the effect on Dick Grayson, as he had taken his
name for his future super-self, Nightwing, from Superman….as Superman
had become Nightwing, a non-powered crimefighter, when he fought crime
in the city of Kandor with Jimmy Olsen being the Kandorian Nightwing’s
partner as Flamebird).
The World’s Finest stories allowed some strange
team-ups as well, including regular Robin-Jimmy Olsen meetings, as well
as occasional meetings of Supergirl/Batgirl, Luthor/Joker,
Brainiac/Clayface, Mr. Mxyzptlk/Bat-Mite and even Penguin/Terra-Man.
Superman and Batman even faced foes that only the two of them could
handle, such as the Moon Man, the Composite Superman, Dr. Zodiac, the
Weapons Master, the Pantheon and Null and Void.
It is in
World’s Finest Comics #94 (May-June 1958 by
Edmond Hamilton and
Dick Sprang)
that we see “The Origin of the Superman-Batman Team!”.
To save Superman
from a kryptonite trap, Batman and Robin work against the Man of Steel,
yet on his side, by keeping him away from thugs who have the one
substance that could kill him...
...nice to see heroes caring about each others welfare.
This ends up being a reoccurring theme
in Superman/Batman meetings for many a year, and quite a lot of the
history of Superman/Batman gatherings was covered in
World’s Finest Comics #271 (September 1981, by
Roy Thomas and
Rich Buckler), where
more than a few of the Earth-1 meetings were covered in one story (and
the radio meeting of Superman and Batman was presented as the first
meeting of the original Superman and Batman of Earth-2…but, not unlike
many of the footnotes in this story – which were wrong -the radio play
first meeting of the caped Kryptonian and Metropolis Marvel just was not
a really good fit for the comics, but at least it was a novel attempt
to explain some of the contradictions of the first meetings of DC’s two
major stars).
New Meetings
The more recent
Superman/Batman
series (that lasted 87 issues and 5 Annuals), really didn’t deal with
first meetings between Superman and Batman (other than the first
annual), but a recent issue of Superman (#
710, June
2011) did once have young Clark Kent and Bruce Wayne meet up and face
Vandal Savage before establishing their super-identities, and an even
younger Bruce Wayne saw a younger Clark Kent playing in a field in
Smallville as he was driven through the town in a story in the
Superman/Batman Secret Files 2003 by
Jeph Loebs and
Tim Sale.
In the cartoons, Superman and Batman were just partners (along with Wonder Woman, Aquaman and Robin) in the
Super Friends without any first meetings ever being presented. But, in the
Superman: Animated Series,
on October 4, 1997, is when those characters first met as Batman came
to Metropolis to stop the Joker from selling Luthor a kryptonite statue
in the episode, “World’s Finest”, written by
Alan Burnett and
Paul Dini.
The Real First Time
But, if you want to know the first comic Superman and Batman were in together…it was
All-Star Comics #7 (October-November 1941 by
Gardner Fox and a team of artists including
Everett Hibbard,
Martin Nodell,
Bernard Baily,
Ben Flinton,
Stanley Asch,
Sheldon Moldoff and
Cliff Young,
both as honorary JSA members, and the first meeting of the originals –
read that more as Earth-2 versions – happened in a continuity implant
in
DC Special #29, from August-September 1977, with the origin of the Justice Society of America by
Paul Levitz and
Joe Staton).
With that, you are armed with some history on Superman and Batman’s first meetings, and all ready to take that history into
Justice League #2, when Superman and Batman meet for the first time…
....again!
Bye!
