BC: WORLD’S FINEST COMICS #200

Among the other comic books that I borrowed from my grade school friend Donald Sims in order to read them was WORLD’S FINEST COMICS #200. I was interested in it mostly due to my understanding of how centennial issues were managed: they always contained a seminal story for the series involved, and so they were always terrific. I’ll admit that I was underwhelmed by WORLD’S FINEST COMICS #200 on these grounds. It doesn’t do much of anything to commemorate the occasion at all, and it’s treated as just another in a string of disposable one-off stories, perfectly fine on its own but in no way legitimizing that #200 on the cover.

This issue was produced during the short period following the retirement of Superman editor Mort Weisinger in which his titles were split up among the other DC editors. WORLD’S FINEST COMICS (along with SUPERMAN) ended up in the hands of Julie Schwartz, and Schwartz immediately decided to change up the premise of the book. Where up to this point it had been a showcase for team-up stories co-starring Superman and Batman (and Robin the Boy Wonder, though he didn’t count as one of “your two favorite heroes”) Schwartz decided to turn it into a Superman team-up title in the vein of BRAVE AND THE BOLD. So while Batman would rotate back in a couple of times during this period, in most instances he was replaced by the Flash, Doctor Fate, Wonder Woman, the Teen Titans and a bevy of others. This approach lasted until Schwartz gave the series over to editor Murray Boltinoff, who reinstated the Superman/Batman pairing (and added his own wrinkle to the mix, the Super-Sons.)

This was 1970, a period in which Relevance was the hot new word in the DC offices that seemed to equate to sales, and so this particular story is steeped in the culture of its time. Young writer Mike Friedrich was of value to Schwartz during this period in that he was around the same age as the audience DC was trying to reach. The story opens at Hudson University, the College where Robin is now enrolled, and where he and Superman prevent a repeat of the then-recent Kent State massacre. At the center of it are two brothers, Marty and Davy, who have conflicting viewpoints: Davy is a hawk, Marty a dove. and the pair are caught up in events as Superman is targeted by a pair of aliens who teleport him, Robin and the kids to their world in order to siphon off the Man of Steel’s energy in order to extend their own lifespans.

The aliens, Migg and Kartal, zap Superman and cart him away to plug him into their machines. But they don’t at all care about the three regular humans that got caught up in their wake, and so they leave Robin, Davy and Marty to die in the jungles of their planet. Undaunted, Robin leads the arguing boys in pursuit of Superman’s captors, but they two brothers are at one anothers’ throats and their inability to agree and work together is compromising everybody’s chance for survival. Almost as though there was a moral waiting to happen there or something.

Superman, meanwhile, has been hooked up to Migg and Kartal’s energy-siphon, the Trans-Immortalizer. But it doesn’t hold him for long once he regains consciousness–he immediately breaks free and begins to level the place. But unexpectedly, the Man of Steel begins to weaken and he collapses, finding himself back in the harness from which he escaped moments before. That’s because the entire break-out was manufactured in his mind as a diversionary illusion to prevent him from doing the same thing in real life.

Around here is where the issue’s WORLD’S FINEST FANMAIL letters page runs, as well as this single page faux-interview with Superman and Batman which is the only outright commemoration of the fact that this is issue #200. It seems to obviously be the work of editor E. Nelson Bridwell, who functioned as Schwartz’s assistant during this time and who possessed an encyclopedic command of DC history.

Back at the story, Robin is able to get Davy and Marty to put aside their difference long enough for the trip to make their way to the aliens’ city and locate Superman. They’re able to clobber the aliens and rescue Superman, who is really trapped in a prison in his own mind. Once they liberate him from his illusory captivity, the Man of Steel does what he was going to do earlier, demolish the place–this time in a big double-page spread that’s impactful simply because it’s so unexpected in a book of this sort in this time period.

The aliens bring their force-of-will to bear on Superman, but this time the Man of tomorrow is ready for them, and he sends their mental blasts right back at them. And that’s it apart from the wrap-up. Davy and Mart y have each learned something about the value of each others’ outlooks, the aliens will soon die deprived of their longevity technology, and Clark Kent gets to moralize a bit on his final television broadcast with the two brothers and Robin (though how any of their adventure qualifies as Earth news I couldn’t say.)

This issue also includes a Superman calendar for the new year of 1971. But it uses a lot of very old clip art, enough so that it makes the page seem like a relic of a bygone era, even in 1970.