I have to extend this team-up week by one day as I just realized that World's Finest should count not once but twice as a team up book. You see in late 1969 DC changed the format of the book to make it more of team up book for Superman alone. Gone were the monthly team ups with Batman and Robin. Now he was free to join others in their fights against crime. Usually he was teamed up with other members of the JLA but back then that was pretty much all DC had that were hits. Still they could have shown some light on recent flops to let readers know they had not forgotten them. It would have been interesting to see him team up with the Creeper, Hawk and Dove or the Inferior Five. That last one would have been very interesting in a strange sort of way. Perhaps they were thinking of heading in that direction towards the end as in the last issue he is teamed up with the Vigilante. I don't think anyone was that familiar with him at that time. I know I wasn't. With issue #215 the book focused on the super sons of Superman and Batman. I haven't read many of those but they were pretty good but should have been imaginary stories but we aren't here today to discuss those issues.
The new direction for the series actually started off with a bang as its first two issues was a two part story with the now classic race with the Flash. The second team up was with Robin. Why team him up with Robin or Batman so soon? It should have been another member of the DC Universe. However, it was the 200th issue so I suppose they wanted to make sure that for the sake of continuity they made sure it was a member of the old team.
This format only last a short 17 issues for Superman. Sales must have fallen as during that run he teamed with Batman 3 times and Robin once. While I have always love the regular World's Finest team this short run holds a special place in my heart. These were the first time I ever saw Superman team up with anyone other then Batman.
No comments:
Post a Comment