Last Laugh For An Old Joker

While a lot of attention has been given to heroic doppelgangers, the bad guys haven't necessary gotten their equal due.


So, today, in fairness, a quick little look at the elder statesman of crime, the Golden Age Joker!

Beginnings

The Joker first appeared in Batman #1 (Spring, 1940 by Bill Finger and Bob Kane) with a pair of stories, returning multiple times (starting with Batman #2 of Summer, 1940, meeting with Catwoman), and continued to menace the Dynamic Duo for well over a decade.

To be fair, sources have picked different issues for the last Golden Age appearance of the Joker, but the most logical seems to be Batman #80 (December-January, 1953/1954), as the next issue has the first appearance of the Earth-1 Two-Face (as evidenced by the fact that Harvey was remade into Two-Face in this issue, and an appearance in Superman Family stated that the Earth-2 Harvey Dent had never had his surgery undone).

JLA/JSA Crossover

Be that as is may, the definite first appearance of an Earth-2 Joker (which is to say, an appearance of the original, Golden Age Joker after Earth-1 and Earth-2 where named and set) was in Justice League of America #136 (November, 1976)...


...where a semi-retired Batman and Robin, the ex-Boy Wonder worked with the JLA, JSA and Squadron of Justice (heroes of Earth-S which didn't belong to the Marvel Family like Ibis the Invincible, Spy Smasher, Bulletman and Bulletgirl) against villains united by Captain Marvel's old foe, King Kull, such as Dr. Light, the Shade and the Weeper.

The story, "Crisis On Earth-S" by E. Nelson Bridwell, Marty Pasko, Dick Dillin and Frank McLaughlin didn't really show much different in this Joker than his Earth-1 counterpart...

...other than that he was an age appropriate analog for the older Batman of the Justice Society of America (though he did have a little more of Dick Sprang look to him, at least on the inside of the book, than the current, more Jim Aparo, thin look which was on the cover by Ernie Chan and Frank Giacoia).


He barely even appeared in the issue...

....just a mild distraction for a couple of pages, as he was working with the Weeper.

Joker Vs. The Batman's Daughter

The Earth-2 Joker pretty much remained incarcerated during the 1980s, at least until after the death of Batman. 

The Joker did return, to face Batman's daughter, the Huntress (Helena Wayne), in a run of her back up stories from Wonder Woman #280 to #283 (June to September, 1981, in stories by Paul Levitz, Joe Staton and Steve Mitchell).

The first story, Wonder Woman #280 (June, 1981), didn't have much in it, as Huntress was concluding her battle against Lionmane (a foe that had forced Helena's mother, the Catwoman, out of the criminal business), but, the battle began in earnest in Wonder Woman #281, as Huntress investigated what Joker did to Harry Simms, and then, the Joker also got his toxin into Commissioner O'Hara as well!

Helena took some time to try to track down the Joker via the ingredients in his toxin in Wonder Woman #282, as well as taking a trip back to her childhood home, Wayne Manor.  There, she hope to come up with an idea to stop the Joker.  Meanwhile, back in Gotham, the Joker himself made an interesting discovery....that, his eternal foe, the Batman....may still be alive????

Yes, a showdown was about to happen....a battle royal between the original Batman and original Joker in Wonder Woman #283.....or was it?  Using the Bat-Signal on police headquarters, Joker hoped to lure Batman to him.  Huntress came because of the alarm in the Bat Cave under Wayne Manor, and was able to defeat the Joker (thus retrieving the anti-toxin to save Simms and O'Hara), with "Batman" watching.

But, who was that "Batman"?  Here's a hint (and he appeared in the next issue in his usual identity).

Last Laugh

The Earth-2 Joker had his last appearance, finally accepting the death of Batman, in Brave and the Bold #200 (July, 1983) by Mike W. Barr, Dave Gibbons and Gary Martin in "Smell Of Brimstone, Stench Of Death".



The Joker, ever the instigator, is the roommate of the mostly comatose since the 1950s Brimstone (Nicholas Lucien), a villain who faced the Earth-2 Batman and Robin in a cleverly made flashback tale (though he felt much more like a 1960s TV Batman villain, with a flame motif), but fell into a coma after his first battle after being battered around by Batman, only waking up in prison after the Earth-2 Batman was dead.

Joker inspired him, perhaps unintentionally, to switch Earths, and try to enact his vengeance on the Earth-1 Batman (as Joker made him so mad that Lucien was able to project his mind into his Earth-1 doppelganger), in what was the closest to a team-up of the Earth-1 and Earth-2 Batmen.


This also allowed the Joker a bit of a legacy, inspiring an evil which could even cross Earths, all before the Crisis On Infinite Earths!

Great Hera! It's Wonder Woman

Wonder Woman waves to her mother, Queen Hippolyta, on Paradise Island in this drawing by Dick Giordano for October for the 1976 Super DC Calendar.

A rather peaceful picture of the life of the amazing amazon, but she's faced worse foes in other calendars, such as the Quakemaster and the Cheetah!

Superman Goes Nova On Batman

Superman, losing his powers and adopting a new costumed identity?  Then, turning on Batman with a murderous rage?

Is this real?

No, even a little less than normal, as these two issues of World's Finest Comics contain an "imaginary story", a story with familiar casts, but willing to shake up the status quo....now, these are set on alternate Earths.

Let's take a look at how things change and progress here!

The Has-Been Superman!

This saga begins in World's Finest Comics #178 (September, 1968) by Cary Bates, Curt Swan and Jack Abel, all under the stunning cover by Neal Adams with Superman taking on a new identity!


But, why is Superman taking on this new identity and what happened to his powers?


Superman, piloting a space ship into a dimensional rip in space caused by a super cobalt bomb, goes searching for lost aircraft there.  Finding an odd cavern, Superman finds alien machinery which coats his craft in a eerie white goo that shuts his systems down.

Not needing the ship to get around, Superman heads out and is covered with the goo as well.  Not feeling well, he heads back through the dimensional aperture, landing unconscious at a military base.  The doctors, checking on Superman find out he is fine, but now powerless, with no hope of regaining his super abilities.  Thankfully, they had called Batman in, as the shock of his loss drove Superman a little crazy for a time, and Batman slowed his friend down. 

Superman tries just living life as Clark Kent, reporter, but then, after covering an archery exhibition by Green Arrow and Speedy, gets the idea to create his own non-powered costumed hero identity. 

Batman and Robin respond to a prowler in the warehouse district, and Batman fights the green and purple costumed creeper, eventually knocking him out.  Removing his mask, Batman finds....Superman!  Clark had created the heroic identity of Nova, and was practicing his moves on the Gotham waterfront, when mistaken by security for a prowler.  Superman, as Nova, works with a special cape that allows him to glide and has special gadgets.  But, in encountering some thugs outside the Daily Planet, Nova finds his old Superman safety precautions of pulling his punches allows the thugs to capture him....and take him to the crime boss, Mr. Socrates (and into the next issue!).
 

Superman's Perfect Crime!

Continuing the imaginary story from issue #178 (#179 was a Giant, filled with fascinating reprints), World's Finest Comics #180 (November, 1968) has an even bigger shocker of a cover by Neal Adams, to reflect the shocks within the story by Cary Bates, Ross Andru and Mike Esposito.


After a quick splash page and recap, the story gets down and dirty with Mr. Socrates revealing his plans for Superman's new heroic identity of Nova....to wipe out Batman!  Superman scoffs at Socrates' plans, but his thugs work Superman over again.  Batman, checking on Clark to find him not home, leaves him information on Horatio Socrates, and wonders where his now non-super friend could be. 

Nova, recovering from his surgery, is very happy to work with Socrates....as Mr. Socrates had a mind control device implanted in Nova's neck, allowing him to control the former Superman.  While Socrates' men take Nova back to Metropolis, the control breaks for a second while in a tunnel (with Nova fighting the henchman) until Socrates' computer takes back control. 

Batman and Robin are concerned about Socrates (a millionaire criminal computer expert, that had his eyesight damaged in a fight with Batman), when over the radio, the Dynamic Duo hear of a crime spree in Gotham by Nova!  

The pair head to a construction site where he was spotted, finding Nova in his Superman costume, planning to kill Batman until they take him down, and back to the Bat-Cave. 

While there, Superman is free from the control, but escapes in the Batmobile.  Batman and Robin follow, now knowing of the device in Superman's neck (while Mr. Socrates and his men use the tracker in the device to go to the Bat Cave).  Superman heads out to a rocket testing facility, while Socrates and his men break into the Bat Cave, preparing a bomb under their elevator to finish the Dynamic Duo, but, a now immune Superman, with Batman and Robin, show up, stop Socrates thugs, and Socrates, in trying to escape, kills himself in the bomb blast meant for Batman and Robin.  The radio signals at the rocket range messed up the control device, and with Batman's help, Superman made a lead collar to continually block the signal.  Planning on wiping the memory of the Bat Cave from the thugs memories with Green Lantern's help, the Dynamic Duo wonder if Superman can indeed make it as the non-powered Nova.

This wasn't quite the end for Nova, popping up in the Human Target feature in an issue of Action Comics Weekly (#641) as a movie hero (and person Christopher Chance had to save in the story), then being a mystery figure in the 52 series (with a slightly different costume, and new identity), a year long weekly series (in 2006/2007) dealing with the DC Universe (including a non-powered Clark Kent and Booster Gold).

 

Look Out For Scarecrows

As fall slowly settles in, hay fields grow, apple orchards fill.....and scarecrows get set up.


But, are they moving?


Yes, the scarecrows are really subterranean invaders, coming for you in "The Living Scarecrows" from Strange Adventures #192 (September, 1966) with cover and art by Bernard Baily.

Batman Busy On TV

Holy couch potato, Batman!

The Caped Crusader, too busy to fight crime....

...all because of a TV show?

What is going on here, on this cover by Carmine Infantino and Murphy Anderson for Batman #183 from August, 1966?

Well, after a brief interlude, the facts will be revealed!

A Touch Of Poison Ivy

The first story in this issue by Robert Kanigher, Sheldon Moldoff (signed as Bob Kane) and Joe Giella, is a return battle against a femme fatale introduced just two issues before, Poison Ivy!

Poison Ivy has got Batman under her control.

However will Batman free himself from this dastardly dame?

Well, with a bit of luck, his incredible detective skills, and help from Robin, Batman turns the tables on the green goddess, throwing off her chemical control, and finding a way to put her back in behind bars.

Poison Ivy has been pruned.  But, what about the cover mystery?

Batman's Baffling Turnabout

Now, to the heart of the mystery, in a story by Gardner Fox, Sheldon Moldoff (signed as Bob Kane) and Sid Greene.

Batman and Robin were catching some criminals on a pier warehouse, when Batman fell prey to a deadly trap....with an imposter all ready to take his place!

Robin was too smart to fall for the phony's scheme, but played along, taking him to a back-up Batcave, where, when left alone, the imposter revealed his plan to blow up the Batcave.  Faking that, Robin then followed the phony, as he was checking to see if Batman was dead, but Batman had escaped the sticky trap, battling the bogus Batman, and winning. 

The caped criminal was a foe Batman had put in prison 5 years previously, thus he didn't know about Batman's logo change, the clue that tipped off Robin, and stopped this perilous plan from becoming fatally final.

Of course, the writing style might have tipped you off to the real mystery....taking the tone of the 1966 Batman TV series to remember the late Adam West, star of that show, who was the first Batman for so many of us, and was born on September 19th, 1928!

Flash Facts: Meet Your Maker

Imagine, if you will, a world where super heroes were only fictional, appearing in comic books!

You don't have to imagine it, it is the Earth known as Earth-Prime, and Flash took a run there!

Here's some of the story of Earth-Prime!

The Flash -- Fact Or Fiction?

This issue of Flash, Flash #179 (May, 1968), by Cary Bates, Ross Andru and Mike Esposito (with a cover by Andru/Esposito), is special....as it really happened!


Backtracking a bit, it seemed like a normal day for Barry Allen...

...facing off against an alien creature who seemed to appear wherever he was, meeting the alien hunter who had trapped the creature, finding out the creature was the Nok, given a time limit in which to catch the creature, then facing some ordinary museum thieves...

...at least until the Nok showed up there, too!

In trying to save the thieves, Flash had to vibrate at unusual frequencies, which caused him to end up on a parallel world.  No problem, Barry had ended up on the world of an alternate Flash (Jay Garrick) and could just head home.  Except....it didn't work this time.

Plus, the people of this world recognized him, as Barry Allen, the Flash!  Seems this world only had super-heroes as comic book characters, and proven, as a kid showed him a comic written by Gardner Fox!  Not having a lot of space to carry more than spare change, Barry went to the offices of DC Comics, where he met with editor Julie Schwartz.

With a quick super speed change, convinced him that he was the real thing.  Barry stayed and read comics while Julie went out to get the parts needed to build a Cosmic Treadmill, which would allow Barry to speed back to his own Earth, which he did.

Then, back home, Barry realized why the Nok was following him....it was feeding on his super-speed aura.  So, Barry whipped up a gun to produce that aura, attracted the Nok with it, then turned him over to the alien hunter (with Julie Schwartz having an idea for a new story for the Flash back on his Earth). 

The Day I Saved The Life Of The Flash

Cary Bates wrote Flash #228 (July-August, 1974), and starred in it as well, but Irv Novick and Tex Blaisdell provided the interior art, with Nick Cardy giving readers the cover of the issue.


This time around, Cary Bates (who wrote the previous tale as his first outing as a Flash writer, soon after, becoming the regular writer for the Flash) was driving around Ohio (with just a little problem of driving too fast) when he found his way into a mysterious fog...


...which transported him all the way to another Earth, and to Central City, instead of his original destination of Athens, Ohio.

Cary quickly recognized the skyline as one drawn many times by Carmine Infantino and Irv Novick, and realized he was in Flash's Central City, just as the Trickster burst out of a bank he was robbing!   Realizing that Trickster was starting a plot that Cary had had,

Cary went to the home of the Allens, and, with a little work, convinced Barry that he was who he said he was, putting the Flash on the trail of the Trickster.

Flash confronted Trickster, but was stopped by the new gimmick the Trickster had, that of a hypnotic yo-yo, which caused Flash to forget who he was facing.

Cary had dreamed up that menace for the Flash, but had yet to think of a way to stop it.

So, Cary thought of a new robbery for Trickster, which the Trickster performed, then Flash showed up, and found a way to prevent James Jesse from making a clean getaway.


Thanking Cary for his help beating the Trickster, Cary used his "plotting power" to create the fog again, and drove home, knowing he'd have a new story for the Flash (not unlike how Julie Schwartz did).

Now, the saga of Earth-Prime didn't end there.

Earth-Prime came back for a JLA/JSA team-up (where that Earth was named, and Cary returned there), as well as introducing two super-heroes of its own, Ultraa and Superboy!

But, Earth-Prime didn't fair so well during the Crisis On Infinite Earths....

Lady Cop First Issue Special

Looking to fill an issue of First Issue Special, DC found a story that had been sitting around for a while.


Originally called Police Woman (which may have factored into this being released, as there as a show by that title on TV at the time), DC filled First Issue Special #4 (July, 1975) with....Lady Cop!


The cover was by Dick Giordano, and the two interior stories were by Robert Kanigher, John Rosenberger and Vince Coletta.

Lady Cop

The story starts with young Liza Warner watching her college roommates being killed by a man wearing stylized boots with a black skull and crossbones, feeling he could kill women like tossing out an Ace of Spades from a deck of cards.  While reporting the crime to the police, a female officer praised Liza for her attention to detail, and convinced her to enroll in the police academy. 

Liza trained well, and graduated top of her class....stopping a student who had scrubbed out from tossing a grenade at the graduating class.

Poisoned Love

Now on the beat, Liza had to deal with all the problems a police officer faces, as well as her own female problems.  First, she had to stop two thugs from roughing up a young girl, but they turned on her (not accounting for her training, where she stopped them and had them arrested).  Liza still searched for the young girl (as she was in trouble), and, after a day off (having problems with her own boyfriend, Hal, who didn't get her desire for her job), kept searching for the young girl (who she overheard on a phone call, finding out she had VD). 

Liza confronted a robber (getting stabbed in the arm in the process), and saved the shop owner's life.  Then, came around to find the girl on the docks, who was waiting for her father.  The girl was worried about her problem, compounded by how her dad would react (having lost his wife a decade ago, and was overprotective of his daughter).  Liza stayed to help the two of them come to terms with the problem, and get the girl some help.

Still, Liza was searching for the "Killer In Boots".


Not the greatest comic story ever told, but likely something destined for a romance comic, that happened to end up here.  Simple by today's standards, a nice look back at the problems that women faced when they joined the police force (and that next issue was one of Jack Kirby's Manhunter!).

Liza wasn't totally forgotten either, having been revived for a few issues as the chief of police in Ivy Town in the All-New Atom, and being totally revamped as a bad cop for a few episodes of the CW's Arrow over the years.  Not bad for someone who premiered with folks like Atlas, the Dingbats and the Warlord.