This is where it all started. This is the very first cover that I created. While the Martian Manhunter appeared in a few pre-Batman team-ups in the early days of B&B, he never guest starred with the caped crusader himself. That and Captain Marvel were the two team ups that I most hoped would one day happen. Sometimes you just have to take matters into your own hands and thus the Lost Issues were born!
I have always loved the Martian Manhunter, and was glad when he was finally taken out of limbo – even if it was for the Detroit era Justice League! I would have killed to see him as a member of the Super Friends (I think El Dorado was his stand in), but it is nice that through DC’s animation arm and Smallville, the character is finally getting some recognition in other media. If they ever get around to making a JLA film, he is the character I want to see the most. Hopefully he will look a little better than the David Ogden Stiers version from that bootleg Justice League flick!
One reason I think there never was a B&B Batman/Manhunter team-up was because the two characters had been linked for years as co-stars in Detective Comics. If there was to be a team-up of those two, that would have been the logical place for it (as indeed, Batman teamed with the Elongated Man there a few times). But it never happened in either book.
ReplyDeleteWhen B&B #100 was in the works, I was sure it was going to be a team-up of Batman, Green Arrow, and the Martian Manhunter, just as a tip of the hat to the very first team-up in B&B #50.
And for the record, the Manhunter only starred in two B&B stories: the aforementioned first with Green Arrow, and a second one a year later with the Flash, an uncredited Hawkgirl, and sort-of a lot of other JLAers in one of the odder tales to ever appear there.
C'mon, they even had Superman as a guest star despite World's Finest being published concurrently. They coulda gotten J'onn in there!
ReplyDelete