BC: WORLD’S FINEST COMICS #229

We covered Marvel’s propensity for replacing late-running stories in their meant-to-be-new magazines with emergency reprints in depth a while ago. Here’s that piece again for those who may have missed it:

A Guide To Marvel’s Unannounced 1970s Reprint Issues

For the most part, DC didn’t suffer from this same problem. Their editorial staff was both larger and much more well-organized and regimented than the institutional chaos that was Marvel in the 1970s. Still, occasionally there’d be a moment that required a series to unexpectedly go reprint. DC’s schedule was more forgiving in this regard, though, so when such moments cropped up, they almost always ran the reprint story behind an appropriate new cover, such as the one above. I wasn’t a huge fan of WORLD’S FINEST COMICS, but I borrowed this issue from my friend Donald Sims because I wanted to read the reprinted story contained therein.

That story shed light on the origin of the ongoing partnership between Superman and Batman, and showcased the first time they had worked as a team within the context of a then-new adventure. It had been produced a couple of years into WORLD’S FINEST having run stories of the pair as a duo (well, a trip with third-billed Robin) so clearly there was some sense that the readers of the time wanted some insight into just how this arrangement had been arrived at. And frankly, so did I when I found this comic among Don’s stack during some visit to his home. According to editor Murray Boltinoff’s message in this issue’s letters page, it was the increase in frequency to eight times a year from bimonthly that had caused he schedule to get dicey enough where this reprint was needed.

The story opens with a television alert that indicates that superman’s arch-foe Luthor has escaped from prison. Batman and Robin head down to the Batcave, intent on helping their friend recapture the escaped felon, but before they can head out, Superman arrives with another hero in tow–Powerman–and tells the Dynamic Dup that he won’t need their assistance in this instance. In order to keep from confusing any young readers, editor Boltinoff has a yellow oval added to Batman’s costume throughout this story, since it was originally published before that costume-change had taken place. Dejected to have been left on the sidelines by their old friend, Batman and Robin begin to reminisce about the first time they helped Superman out of a tight spot.

In that earlier instance, the Man of Steel was imperiled by criminals who possessed Kryptonite, his one weakness. Batman was able to catch Superman as he fell from the sky, and thereafter he used one of the team’s best-loved strategies: making himself up to look like Superman so that the crooks would think their Kryptonite was ineffective against him. In the present, though, Luthor similarly has a Kryptonite ray, one that can also blast regular human beings like Batman and Robin. So Superman insists that they stay out of it. Much of the story is spent with the Dynamic Duo trying to figure out the identity of Powerman, since Superman seems to have no problem endangering him. He doesn’t appear to have any super-powers, but he is strong and brave. Who could he be?

The answer doesn’t amount to much, as Batman and Robin insert themselves into Superman’s bout with Luthor despite the Man of Tomorrow’s warnings and once again prove their worth in helping to apprehend the homicidal scientist. Powerman, it turns out ,is a robot that Superman fashioned to help him deal with the Kryptonite. Why didn’t he just tell Batman this? Well, if he had, there would be no story–and that was the guiding principle of a lot of the adventures that were produced in those days, which were intended primarily for young children.

The back-up story in this issue was a random adventure of Metamorpho, probably one that was held over from when Murray had been editing ACTION COMICS and had used the Fabulous Freak as a back-up series with some regularity. Clearly he or somebody liked the character. This one wasn’t a reprint but an original tale, written by Bob Haney and illustrated by John Calnan, as most all of the other Boltinoff-edited Metamorpho stories had been. It kicks off with Rex mason’s employer Simon Stagg declaring that he’s invented a new element, which he called Staggium.

But when Stagg goes to present his discovers to the Science Congress, another scientist, Rene LaFarge, claims that he is the true inventor of Staggium–or as he calls it LaFargium. The two samples are put on display while carbon-dating is run on them to determine which was created first. But after Stagg is pronounced the winner, there are a series of murders in the Science Congress. Metamorpho investigates, suspecting LaFarge–but it turns out to actually be a discorporate creature who lives within LaFarge’s sample of Staggium (or LaFargium). Metamorpho shoots the LaFargium into space, thus getting rid of the attacking creature, and that’s pretty much the ballgame. A blurb at the end indicated that Metamorpho woudl be returning in his own series in the future, but that didn’t happen–though he did headline a single issue of DC’s strange 1970s tryout series 1ST ISSUE SPECIAL.

Boltinoff’s From The World’s Finest Fans letters page for this issue is worth taking a look at, in that Murray handled his letters pages differently from pretty much everybody else. Rather than running letters in their entirety, he instead chose to print excerpts. This meant that more readers were heard from in each issue, but also made it feel like the communication was all being heavily censored somehow–like the only opinions that were permitted to see print were ones that Boltinoff in some way blessed, shorn of their original context. Speaking just for myself as a fan, I didn’t like this approach. It was another thing that made Murray’s books feel “wrong” to my young sensibilities, which had been overwhelmingly honed by editor Julie Schwartz’s approach to the material.