A Batman that I can't love

DC Showcase Presents: Batman, Volume One (DC Comics, 2007)
Writers: Ed Herron, Gardner Fox, John Broome, and Bill Finger
Artists: Carmine Infantino, Bob Kane, Murphy Anderson, and Various
Rating: Five of Ten Stars

Batman and the characters of the Fantastic Four are my favorite superheroes. But the FF left me behind some time in the early 1990s--the issue with the image of the Wizard snatching Franklin from a sleeping Ben Grimm is the last FF story I acknowledge--and Batman moved beyond me around the time "Batman Year Two" saw print.

With the FF, I LOVE everything from the first issue (where they were Kirby's recasting of DC's Challengers of the Unknown with superpowers) through the above-mentioned issue, which was #302 or something like that. I like the FF as porrtrayed in the "Spider-Girl" M2 universe, but mainline Marvel is dead to me. (Okay... I could do wihtout most of the Inhumans, but Crystal and her romance with Johnny I liked.)

With Batman, I LOVE just about everything from the late 1970s through the early 1990s... "Detective Comics", "Batman", "Batman Family", "The Brave & the Bold", "Worlds Finest's Comics"... I love 'em all. The Doug Moench scripted, Don Newton/Gene Colan/Alfredo Alcala illustrated tales in "Detective" and "Batman" are the high points of my Batman experience, along with the Bob Haney-written, Jim Aparo illustrated tales from "The Brave and the Bold".

So, I figured I'd enjoy "Showcase Presents: Batman"--a massive, 500+ page book reprinting stories from "Detective Comics" #327-342 and "Batman" #164-174--because I love the FF from the same period, and I greatly enjoy the 1960s Batman TV show.

I was, however, wrong. While I detest the psychotic, grim-and-gritty Batman that came into fashion in the 1990s, I found myself equally turned off by the frivolous stories in this volume. They were virtually all forgettable, too cutesy and self-consciously camp, and downright embarrassing whenever they attempted to get "hip." Even the great artwork of Carmine Infantino can't dress up these turkeys... and the always mediocre Bob Kane only manages to drag down a few of the better tales. (Yes, he created Batman... and yes, I enjoy the early tales he produced. But there were far more talented creators working at the same time he was.)

There were a few memorable highlights--such as when the killed off Alfred to the point where his dead body is even shown on panel--and a handful of borderline film-noir crime tales and a couple of stories featuring Patricia Powell, a clever police woman and potential romantic interest for both Bruce Wayne and Batman. (The only two things I'm curious about in this book is how Alfred came back to life, and whatever happened to Powell. Maybe I'll have to pick up Volume 2 and find out.)

It's interesting to me that Batman is such a huge character, given that comics from the same period featuring Hawkman, Elongated Man, and the Flash were so vastly superior. The power of marketing and branding at work, I suppose. I can, however, easily see why Marvel Comics caught on the way they did. The quality of those early Marvel tales are heads and shoulders above those featuring the DC headliners of Superman and Batman.

'The Elongated Man' is good in small doses

DC Showcase Presents: The Elongated Man (DC Comics, 2006)
Writers: Gardner Fox and John Broome
Artists: Carmine Infantino, Sid Green, Joe Giella, Murphy Anderson, Gil Kane, et. al.
Rating: Seven of Ten Stars

"DC Showcase Presents: The Elongated Man" is another huge (500+ pages) low-cost reprint book presenting classic DC Comics stories in black-and-white. This one features the early appearances of the Elongated Man, collection stories from issues of "The Flash" (where the character debuted as a curious superhero competitor to the Fastest Man Alive) and "Detective Comics" were he headlined his own back-up strip.

The Elongated Man is a chemist and amateur detective named Ralph Dibny who gains the power to stretch his body in impossible ways by drinking his own hyper-concentrated variant of a substance sideshow contortionists use to stay limber, Gingold juice. Always hungry for attention, Ralph swiftly gave up on the notion of keeping his identity secret, and one interesting point about the series is that this was the first superhero in the DC stable to dispense with the double-identity mainstay of the genre. He was also the first DC superhero to marry his love interest, Sue.

Aside from a few team-ups with Flash and Kid Flash, the book focuses on Ralph and Sue traveling around the world, enjoying the care-free status of the independently wealthy and solving bizarre mysteries where-ever they go. Not only does Ralph have a bizarre superpower which he uses in bizarre ways--such as elongating his kneecap to smack a thug in the face--but he appears to be a weirdness magnet. Sue, serving as a sort of reader surrogate at times, observes on more than one occasion on how they can't go anywhere without Ralph's mystery-sniffing nose starting to twitch (literally).

Aside from the Flash (and his associated supporting cast), the Elongated Man stories have no recurring characters aside from Ralph and Sue. While that's partly because these are stories that focus far more on gimmicks than character--more on that below--the relationship between the two is about as ideal a marriage that I think has been presented anywhere else in American comics, free of the usual soap operatic twists and turns that haunted Reed & Sue Richards and Barry & Iris Allen over the years. Discounting odd occurrences like Sue's mind being transplanted into the body of a French con-artist and visa-versa, the Dibny never marriage suffered any challenges or stresses more severe than the usual arguments any couple will get into now and then. It's an aspect I believe mature readers--as in adults--will find appealing.

But there are many more aspects of the book that adults will have a far harder time appreciating, as the stories within its pages are definitely written for children,or those very young at heart. The mysteries that the Elongated Man investigates usually have solutions so bizarre that they're the sort of thing I believe only a kid can fully appreciate; if you've ever listened to kids make up stories while playing with their Legos or action figures or dolls, you know exactly what I mean. In fact, the most impressive thing about this collection of stories is the ability that writers Fox and Broome have to get in touch with their inner children. Most writers--including myself, I fear--would say "Nah, that's too silly... I can't possibly write that."

The silliness Elongated Man's adventures were of course part-and-parcel with many of the Julie Schwartz-helmed titles from the 1960s--be they ones featuring Batman or the Flash--but it is extra-concentrated here. So much so that it becomes too much if you read more than two or three of them in a row, or so it was for the 40+ year-old me. I think adults can better appreciate the material here in small doses, even if I am certain that a kid could probably devour the entire book in one or two sittings.

What I never got enough of, however, was the fantastic Carmine Infantino art that graces the first 450 pages of the book without interruption. Infantino's highly stylized artwork is perfect for showcasing the odd nature of Ralph Dibny's powers, as well as for capturing the lighthearted feel of the adventures he has with wife Sue. In fact, the 100 or so pages where readers get the rare treat of seeing Infantino ink his own pencils should be counted among the best work he did during the 1960s.

By way of contrast, stories illustrated in a more naturalistic fashion late in the book, by Neal Adams and Irv Novick fall flat, because they lack that surrealistic feel that Infantino brings to the tales; it's an interesting dichotomy that an artist noted for a knack for giving even round objects sharp edges would be the absolutely right person to illustrate a series about a man who is infinitely fluid.



Trivia: Editor Julie Schwartz, co-creator of the Elongated Man, stated that if he had been aware that DC Comics acquired the rights to Golden Age character Plastic Man in the mid-1950s, he never would have bothered with inventing a new character.

Witness the Rebirth of Superheroes

Showcase Presents: The Flash, Vol. 1
Writers: John Broome and Robert Kanigher
Artists: Carmine Infantino, Joe Giella, Joe Giaccioa, and Joe Kubert
Steve's Rating: Eight of Ten Stars

Comic book historians mark the publication of "Showcase #4", an issue that took a superhero whose series ("Flash Comics") had been cancelled in 1954 as the beginning of the 'Silver Age." It's a perfect demarcation line, and the stories collected in "Showcase Presents: The Flash, Vol 1" show why this was the source of revitalization for the superhero genre:

The 500+ pages of comics in this book are not only superior to anything that was being published in the superhero genre at the time (the "Superman" and "Batman" tales from the 1950s and 1960s are awful when compared to the "Flash" tales in this book), but most of them remain fun reading to this day.

It's a book that any lover of comics needs to own, and this goes double if you fancy yourself a student of the genre.

"Showcase Presents: The Flash" starts with the very last Golden Age story, and then moves onto introduce Barry Allen, a police scientist who gains super-speed as a result of a freak accident. These first few stories are written by master-scribe Robert Kanigher, but the bulk of the book is by John Broome, and he laid down a foundation that would carry the Flash for three decades until the title was cancelled during DC's big 1984 "universe revamp" "Crisis on Infinite Earth."


While a minority of the stories seem overly goofy when viewed with jaded 21st century eyes--like the one where Flash gets turned into a 600-pound fat guy, for example--the vast majority of the stories remain highly entertaining flights of pseudo-scientific fancy. The effective use of time-travel and alternative dimensions also add a flavor to these Flash adventures that can't be found anywhere else in comics of the time.

These early stories also introduce some of the greatest comic villains to ever grace four-colored newsprint, and their "wonderful toys". Like Barry Allen himself, these villains stood as some of the greatest characters in DC's stable... like Captain Boomerrang, Mirror Master, Weather Wizard, Trickster, professional criminals all who had great gadgets, quirky personalities, and who were great foils for the fastest man alive. Lesser villains like Gorilla Grodd and Mister Alchemy also have their first appearances here. (In fact, the only major Flash villains who don't make their first appearance in this book are Heatwave, Golden Glider, the Top, and Reverse Flash... although the foundation for the latter is set here with the various time travel stories.

In addition to the introduction of the Flash and the villains that will soon become known as the Rogues Gallery, the book also presents the first appearance and origin of Ralph Dibney, the Elongated Man, and Wally West, the Kid Flash (and future inheritor of the Flash mantle).

Another joy to be had from reading this book is that the art is 100% Carmine Infantino pencils. Infantino was THE Flash artist--only Irv Novick came close to matching is greatness where this character and his world and supporting cast is concerned--and this book shows that he hit the ground running along side the Scarlet Speedester. (Infantino is one of the most underappreciated American comic book creators. It's a shame he doesn't get more praise and recognition.)

The only real weak point of the book can be found in the first 40 or so pages, and it's one that surprised me. For the first few tales, Infantino's pencils are inked by Joe Kubert, an artist as great as Infantino, but with a very different style. I love Kubert's art as much as I love Infantino's work, but when the two are combined, the result is less than stellar. In fact, I doubt I would have enjoyed this book as much as I did if the teaming had lasted for longer than the material that originally appeared in "Showcase" #4.

It just goes to show that sometimes two great flavors DON'T go great together.

Once that shakey start is behind us, however, we're treated to 500 pages of true, timeless comic book classics. If you love superhero comics, you can't help but love "Showcase Presents: The Flash, Vol. 1".