Unca Cheeks the Toy Wonder's Silver Age Comics Web Site!
SUPERMANand BATMAN: The World's Finest Super-Heroes
(This page is dedicated to fellow online
Silver Age enthusiast KROTH... even if he is jolly well wronger than
wrong when it comes to the Batman.) 
The day writer/artist John Byrne was granted permission by the DC Comics Powers-That-Be to give the (then) ailing SUPERMAN franchise a radical and thoroughgoing fashion makeover, "continuity"-wise... he really, truly, no foolin' did accomplish a whole heck of a lot of storytelling good, in the process.
He deep-sixed the lame and awful Lori Lemaris character (well... until
he inexplicably decided to resurrect her once again, I mean). The
overall amount of "last known survivors" of poor ol' Doomed Krypton was winnowed
down, at last, to a number appreciably less massive than that of, say,
the population entire of San Diego. Heck... he even managed to transform
the once-irretrievably lame Metallo into a credible and worthwhile super-menace
for the erstwhile Man of Steel. Now, that had to take some stone
serious doing, by golly!
Nonetheless: Byrne wandered well afield into the far, outermost reaches of Irreversible Error at one critical juncture.
He summarily declared that the single most enduring and sensible friendship in all of comics history was -- so far as any new "canon" might be concerned -- a "non-event."
Congenital insanity. That's the only conceivable explanation, really.
Thankfully,the writers and editors of the Silver Age were a cannier, more far-sighted lot. The grand, mythic pairing of Ultimate Brawn and Ultimate Intellect began allllllllll the way back in WORLD'S FINEST COMICS #71 (1954), and was given a proper "origin story" of sorts just a short time after the fact.
This penultimate pairing of The Two Most Iconic Super-Heroes Ever Conceived Of In the Mind Of Man, happily (for the comics readerships of countless successive generations, I mean), continued unimpeded for a gasp-inducing thirty year span, give or take.
There was (and remains) a staggeringly simple explanation for the near-epochal endurance of this particular storytelling "conceit," of course.
To wit: any other (mis)handling of the characters in question
would have been -- by definition -- patently absurd.
This is not to say, however, that the comics creator of theday didn't enjoy milking the baseline premise of said Fast Friendship for every last dram of oomph and then some, by cobbling up the occasional tale in which "The World's Finest Team" found themselves at one another's respective throats, via the time-honored mechanism of the "Imaginary Story." [See cover, accompanying]
This particular example ("The Saga of Superman Vs. Batman"; WORLD'S FINEST #153) provides a particularly enjoyable (to say nothing of illuminating) example of just how cunningly effective was said approach... and why, in especial, the storytelling "power" inherent in such infrequent, "what if...?"-style clashes lay in their very conceptual irrationality, overall.
Let's take a closer look... shall we?
In this variant fictive setting, a young Bruce Wayne has grown up believing that the heroic Superman was, in fact, the "invisible" assassin behind the brutal murders of his (Wayne's) cherished sire.
Steadfast throughout said childhood; adolescence; and early adulthood in his monomaniacal belief, Bruce Wayne grows up to assume the dread mantle of the Batman, in order that he might better visit ruination and (ultimately) death upon his most hated of nemeses.
Manifestly, whatever gut-level storytelling "muscle" the premise preceding provides us comes courtesy of the wholly abhorrent notion, characterization-wise, of a Batman and Superman locked in such bitter, internecine struggle in the first place. It is -- quite simply -- an affront to what we (as readers) know to be the "true" nature of their relationship with one another.
(To better test this assumption: merely substitute "Lex Luthor" everywhere
in the given premise you originally read the words "Bruce Wayne," or "the Batman."
See how long it takes before a deadly serious case of the "ho-humms"
settles in. I'm only sayin', here.)
A more light-hearted effort (although no less enjoyable astorytelling affair, for all of that) was WORLD'S FINEST #156's "The Federation of Bizarro Idiots." [See cover, accompanying]
In this topsy-turvy telling of the tale, the certifiably insane Joker
manages to dupe imperfect "Bizarro" duplicates of both Superman and the
Batman into believing that he, in fact, is a card-carrying good guy,
unjustly incarcerated by an envious World's Finest Team. (This actually
does make a fair amount of "sense," story-wise, given that these are
Bizarros we're dealing with, after all.)
(One of the choicest of the gag "bits" on display in this marvelous and inventive
story is the "Bizarro" Batman's confiding in the real Robin, re: the contents of his deranged "useless belt." Old cigarette butts; nasty
little globs of (already chewed) bubblegum; bent bottle caps; etc., etc.
Thankfully, we never are informed of what usage, precisely, the
pre-masticated gum might conceivably prove. I dunno... and: I don't
wanna know. DON'T. SEND. LETTERS -- !!)
However: my
own personal favorite examination of the mechanics and interpersonal
intricacies of the Superman/Batman friendship (lunatic and off-beat an example
though it indisputably is) is to be found one issue earlier, within the
pages of WORLD'S FINEST #155, and the chronicling of "The 1,001st Case of the
Superman/Batman Team." ("Catchy" title, huh...?)
[See cover, accompanying]
During an awards ceremony sponsored by law enforcement agents and officers worldwide, commemorating the successful completion of one thousand "cases" by the Supes/Bats duo... a tense and miserable Batman informs the astonished assembly that he is wholly undeserving of their honors and accolades, Superman having been working in tandem (these past few months) with another masked manhunter: the smug and self-congratulatory Nightman (!!).
A glum Superman confesses that the Batman's strained confession is, sadly, a factual one. Apparently, the Darknight Detective can no longer "cut" it in the detection department, and -- rather than run the risk of jeopardizing innocent lives, due to the Batman's newly-revealed incompetence -- the Man of Steel has taken to galavanting about with the aforementioned Nightman, on the sly.
All right... admit it: it's a killer premise, and you're just
dying to find out where the holy heck the writers ended up taking
this baby. 'Fess up, now.
The Batman -- whose self-image, at this juncture, is so low he can "limbo" his way underneath an eathworm's belly... while wearing a top hat, no less -- sets about the unpleasant task of "proving" himself once more, by uncovering the secret of Nightman's true identity.
This is a chore more easily stated than done, given that the boastful (and maddeningly elusive) Nightman seems to remain an easy eight or ten "steps" ahead of the Batman, no matter how devious the ploys and mechanizations of the latter. While the ever-present, ever-faithful Robin watches and frets... his mentor-slash-"father figure" grows ever more hag-ridden and obsessed by the awful riddle: "Who Is Nightman"...?
Finally -- in full view of the same congress of lawmen asbefore; and with Superman and Robin also in stupefied attendance -- a newly-confident and assertive Batman reveals that he has (finally) divined the truth of the matter: HE is the Nightman!
A grinning Superman owns up to his having masterminded this pluperfect charade. As he so adroitly phrased it, in summation: "If Batman had to solve a mystery man's identity, and didn't know that mystery man was himself, it'd be a supreme challenge to his genius!"
What better testimonial to the cognitive prowess of his closest friend, than
that of Superman's supplying him with that one thing which he most dearly loved: an "impossible" mystery to crack...?
Such positive and optimistic explicatory fare, of course, is (sadly) misread as "corny" and "unrealistic" by the bulk of today's more studiedly cynical and deconstructionist-minded comics readership. Such a gloomy "take" on the nature of friendship, however -- with the modern-day preference for faux "characterization" by way of continual chest-thumping and empty don't-mess-with-me-mister histrionics -- serves more readily as condemnation of their own mindsets, rather than those of their artistic forebearers.
The loss of the ongoing Superman/Batman friendship -- one of the bedrock and eternal verities of the DC universe for far longer, overall, than the vast majority of its detractors have been alive to gainsay it -- is a signal and telling one, really. It's glaring absence renders the DCU that much more glum and cheerless, overall.
That may well be precisely what today's (in)breed of fanboy wants, of course: a fictive universe wherein the sour, sidelong glance has all but replaced the open hand; the silent, knowing nod of community with one's fellow adventurers.
Maybe that is just as "hokey" and "childish" as the nay-sayers would have us believe it to be.
Such a charming sentiment.
Maybe next year, we can have a story detailing how Superman occasionally pimp-slaps Lois Lane around, a little. Just to... you know... keep her decently "in check," or what-have-you.
I'm given to understand that this, too, passes for "realism," in some quarters.
I'm just sayin', is all.
The Silver Age BATMAN
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