I was always a sucker for a cover like this one whose background was made up of earlier covers. DC took this approach with some regularity on anniversary issues. Now, one really does have to ask whether a #150 is worth this manner of celebration. At the time, this wasn’t really a thing. However, since then, it’s become commonplace to commemorate even 25th issues, so this doesn’t seem out of whack today. Anniversary issues tended to sell better, I expect, so why not find a way to do more of them? This one came along with a challenge, to determine which character would be co-starring with Batman in the tale inside. The answer in this case was something of a disappointment.
The story was written by Bob Haney, whose individualistic approach to story, characterization and continuity had become the hallmark of the series. And no wonder–according to these credits, he’d written for 117 issues out of the run’s 150 at this point, a monstrous achievement. By contrast, the excellent illustrator Jim Aparo had only drawn 49 issues since coming onto the series, even though he is by far the artist most associated with it (and really was the main draw for many purchasing the book.) Young editor Paul Levitz attempted to curb the worst of Haney’s digressions from canon while still giving the respected writer space to work. I couldn’t tell you how difficult or easy this proved to be, nor really how successful. But some attention was being paid to it.
The story opens with Batman on the trail of the Battalion of Doom, a terrorist organization that has been abducting prominent Gotham citizens as hostages, though they’ve as yet issued no demands. In the opening, the Masked Manhunter fails to prevent the gang from getting away with businessman Edward Weeks. But when Commissioner Gordon lets him know that Bruce Wayne is the organization’s next declared target, Batman figures that he’s now got a way to locate the villains. And sure enough, Bruce’s phone is rewired to shock him into unconsciousness and he wakes up a prisoner of the Battalion. He’s guarded by Moses Karns, also known as the Keeper, who is strong enough to overpower even Batman.
Bruce is able to slip away from time to time and convene with Gordon as Batman, but Karns dogs his tracks and makes it almost impossible for him to operate. At a certain point, needing to illustrate the seriousness of their demands, the hooded Battalion leader has Edward Weeks executed right in front of Bruce’s eyes. But later, when Batman rendezvous with Gordon at the city morgue, Weeks suddenly sits up, alive and well, and the coroner indicates that there are no bullets in Weeks’ body and that his wounds were sutured by an expert hand. This is perplexing to Batman–even more so when Karns grabs him up in his Batman identity and reveals that he knows Batman is Bruce Wayne. Bruce figures that Karns must really be some super-villain with whom he’s tussled before–but who? Now, it doesn’t really make any sense that Karns doesn’t let Batman in on who he really is, but it’s a necessary step in order for the game of this story to play out, so we’ll let it slide.
Unfortunately, this has all forced the Battalion to accelerate their plans. They’ve planted an atomic bomb in Gotham and unless the Battlion’s demands are met, they’ll annihilate the city. Speaking of annihiliation, the hooded leader of the Battalion decides to execute Alfred in retaliation for Bruce Wayne having momentarily escaped. But Karns intercepts the bullets and saves Alfred, and his action here confirms his true identity for Batman: it’s his WORLD’S FINEST partner Superman in disguise! But why? Turns out the Battalion is also holding Jimmy Olsen as a way of preventing the Man of Steel’s involvement, so he instead had been operating undercover, having taken on the identity of a known criminal, Karns. Why the two heroes don’t just mop up the Battalion at this point is a very good question, but instead they escape with Alfred and convene in the Batcave.
Based on information provided by Alfred, the pair is able to locate the assorted spots where the various hostages are being held, and Gordon’s men perform a simultaneous rescue operation at all of them, recovering the captive citizens. But Jimmy Olsen isn’t among them, and that A-Bomb is still out there as well, so Superman and batman have no other choice but to search for it themselves, even though Superman’s visibility will endanger Jimmy’s life.
It turns out that both the bomb and Jimmy have been stashed in a lead-lined cave system adjacent to the Batcave of all places. Now, Wayne Manor is 14 miles away from Gotham City proper, but I guess with an A-Bomb that’s maybe close enough. Either way, having worked this out, Superman scours the network of tunnels surrounding the Batcave and locates both Jimmy and the bomb. He tosses the device into space, of course, where it explodes harmlessly. And that’s the story. As a special guest for the anniversary, Superman works well enough (even though the story needs to do backflips to explain why he doesn’t immediately come clean with Batman.) But given that the World’s Finest Team could be seen together every month in WORLD’S FINEST COMICS, this wasn’t as exciting a reveal as it otherwise might have been. Still, it was nice to see Jim Aparo’s rendition of the Man of Steel.
The Tom Brevoort Experience 
He could have gone with either the Martian Manhunter ( who mimics a number of Kryptonian abilities; plus he is a police detective and disguises is his thing ) or Supergirl.
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I’m not sure the Martian Manhunter was back on Earth regularly at this point (1977 or so?).
As for Supergirl, disguise was not her thing.
This worked well, given that Boltinoff had brought back Superman-Batman stories in World’s Finest when he took over the book from Schwartz in 1972, so it wasn’t that the two heroes weren’t appearing together regularly..
But Haney’s lack of continuity as so made teaming up with Superman (or, a few months, Hawkman) oddly special . . . .
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Actually Supergirl was disguised as an elderly fortune teller in Action Comics#395 ( December 1970 ) The Credit Card of Catastrophe — Superman & Supergirl ]. Don’t know if she did other disguises. I only suggested the Martian Manhunter & Supergirl because Tom was disappointed back then, not because I agreed or disagreed with him. I do agree that Superman should have told Batman what was happening before he showed up in Gotham in disguise. I guess Bob Haney took wanting the mystery guest to be one for Batman too.
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You’re correct about J’Onn, who was still on new Mars.
Supergirl did disguises a lot. My brother was just squicked out by her adopting the identity of Mighty Maid, a girlfriend for Superman in one Silver Age story (“He’s making out with his fifteen-year-old cousin?”). There were others.
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Good point about Supergirl. But unlike Green Martians, it was not part of her Kryptonian power-set.
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“Now, it doesn’t really make any sense that Karns doesn’t let Batman in on who he really is…”
Well, if you go by the Silver Age Superman, concocting elaborate schemes just to mess with his friends’ minds is perfectly in-character!
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Whenever I read the Haney B&B, which I mostly did when there was some other reason to pull me in, like Human Target backups, or wanting to get all back issues drawn by Neal Adams, I would get through the story and then realize I barely remembered it. It just seemed like rambling nonsense.
Even when I used B&B history, like when I wrote Bork into POWER COMPANY, and did an origin story that braised through and around his debut in B&B, I would have to reread the story over and over, since by the time I got to the next needed reference it had all slipped out of my head again.
It really just felt like filler, and I didn’t read B&B regularly until Haney was gone.
Admittedly, it wasn’t all that memorable even then, with occasional exceptions (like the Alan Brennert issues), but it was unmemorable in a different way…
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There should be an alternate based on Haney’s odd little world…
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Ugh. I need a proofreader. Alternate earth!
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Didn’t Bob Rozakis or somebody coin “Earth-B” as the place where all the “don’t quite fit into canon” stories took place, including Haney’s oeuvre?
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You’re assuming there isn’t? Even after “Flashpoint”?😎
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There is https://thebatmanuniverse.net/batman-111/
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What I find appealing about Haney’s B&B scripts (such as #144, which I see Tom reviewed as well) is that he comes up with the most far-fetched reasons for the team-ups– and yet, some of those reasons are fun. I read a bunch of Marvel Team-Ups and Two-in-Ones recently, and though a lot of the reasons for the team-ups are more logical, most were no fun at all. Chris Claremont’s nearly the only writer who did any good ones.
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I was a new reader to Comic Books when this issue hit the stands. Picked mine up at a 7-11 a few towns away that I never visited again as they closed less than a year later.
Being a new reader, and even more new to DC, I had never encountered a World’s Finest Comic, therefore the reveal of Superman to me was very exciting. BTW at the time Superman The Movie was still playing is few theaters..
Bob Haney stories, regardless of title, IMHO take place on Earth-Haney 🙂 Many were fun reads even if as Kurt mentioned they were instantly forgettable.
This story and the next few B&B’s and I quickly became an Aparo fan. Even as child when I saw he drew a book it was an instant sale.
Love the cover, pretty much exact same great layout as Superboy and the Legion #250, World’s Finest 250,271, and Action Comics 500.
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Bob Haney’s stories were indeed crazy, and not always in a good way. Jim Aparo’s artwork was uniformly great, however.
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I’d argue that sometimes — a very few times, but…— they were genius. “The Brave and the Bold “124 ( “Small War of the Super Rifles”) was metafictional in a way that put Donald Barthelme to shame. And Haney was dealing with domestic terrorism well before people in “the real world” were even truly aware of it.
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I liked that he unapologetically had an Earth 1 Wildcat. Wildcat’s origin featured a Green Lantern comic so you can argue Haney’s version was canon. Flash of Two Worlds did establish Earth 2 heroes were comic book characters on Earth 1 after all. The first time he met up with the JSA would have been the first appearance of the Earth 2 Wildcat.
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1979 Jim Aparo’s Superman rocks. He drew Supes on some “World’s Finest” covers back then, or earlier. But looking back, I’d have given Jim the WF monthly gig. Drawing both main characters’s teaming up. Except for a very few lead supes & Bats stories drawn by Buckler or Garcia-Lopez, the art for the Big 2 heroes in WF’s was lacking.
Then in “BatO”, he drew Supes guest starring in a Christmas-themed story, “Who’s Afraid of the ‘Big Red S’?”. By then, some of the edge in his drawing that we definitely see in “B&B” # 150 had faded a bit.
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The only other mystery guest Batman team-up story in this series was in The Brave and the Bold#95 ( April-May 1971 ) “C.O.D. Corpse on Delivery” – Plastic Man, Ruby Ryder & Jake Angel. Unrelated to either story, but does anyone know why DC never wanted the Golden Age Batman & Silver Age Batman to meet? In Brave and the Bold#182 ( January 1982 ) the Earth-1 Batman teams up with the Earth-2 Robin against the Earth-2 Hugo Strange ( who was in a catatonic state for decades ) with the Earth-2 Batman only in flashback. In The Brave and the Bold#200 ( July 1983 ) Batman & Batman, where we see decades ago Earth-2 Batman villain Brimstone ( Nicholas Lucien ) is defeated and fell into a coma for decades ( possessed his Earth-1 counterpart and started a plot to kill the Earth-1 Batman ) — but no real team-up with the 2 Batmen.
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