A New Cover Posted Every Day! Join the Facebook Fan Page at: www.facebook.com/SuperTeamFamilyTheLostIssues
Bob Haney was clearly a Wildcat fan, which explains why he made multiple appearances in the pages of The Brave and The Bold. I always liked when he would show up, and didn't realize until years later that Haney was breaking DC continuity by featuring Ted Grant in Earth One stories. Eventually, DC just considered his stories to be taking place on Earth-B and let him have his own little corner of DC Comics all to himself. An elegant solution, I must say!
Welcome to Super-Team Family: The Lost Issues! The greatest team-ups that never happened... but should have! A new cover is posted every single day! Thank you very much for stopping by! If you like what you see here, please consider helping it continue by becoming a Patron at: www.patreon.com/STFtheLostIssues A big thank you goes out to this month's patrons: Chuck Small, Tony Isabella, Tom Brennan, Mike Shirley, Bob Greenwade, Bob Sanders, Brian C., Robert Stutts, Allan Heinberg, David Welsh, Christopher Cavett, Robert E. Jackson, Ivan Schablotski, Scott Cavin, Sheryl Knowles, Leonard Rosenthol, Alfred Day, Greg Matiasevich, Scott Nesmith, Russell Burbage, Stephen Towler, Shagg Matthews, Damian Whiter, Jeff O'Hare, Justin Metzger, Greg Morrow, Darrell Frazier, Marc Tyler Nobleman, Benjamin Woods, Christian N, Greg, Thomas G. Hentoff, Andy Saavedra, Alexander Johnson, Tom Zilla, Jonothan Woodward, RJ, Colin Fredericks, Jim Smith, Juan Calle, Bo Ring, Michael Gelman, Robert Banning, Ken Roskos, and Alex Krislov
http://www.patreon.com/STFtheLostIssues
Support STF: The Lost Issues!
14 comments:
Earth B&B, maybe. Not only Ted, but The Spectre as well should not have been on Earth 1. As long as Batman sold, Wally Wood was right and they didn't pay much attention to Brave & Bold. Or, " They Came From Earth 2 For an Extended vacation. "📵
On the other hand, Shang-Chi, Iron Fist, Power Man, Wildcat, Richard Dragon, and Lady Shiva could make one hell of a circus act.
Going after Taskmaster (annnnndddd Ringmaster!!)
If Taskmaster saw one hero start to do one maneuver but his line of sight was suddenly blocked by a different hero doing the end of a different maneuver would Taskmaster have anything new for his learned talents?
The "came to Earth-1 for an extended period" explanation probably would've been more sensible. Just talk to the editor, and the editor and writer for Justice League of America, and you have a good way to stay in continuity.
That, or just write this as an Earth-1 Wildcat whose exploits were never public.
I wonder, though, if anybody ever called them out on it. I don't recall ever seeing any of those B&B issues.
On a related topic, the cartoon Batman: The Brave and the Bold featured the late R. Lee Ermey in a brilliant, often hilarious turn as Wildcat.
I've heard the existence of an "Earth 1.5" postulated to explain some of these kinds of stories.
The "official" explanation of these stories was indeed Earth-B (for Bob Haney and editor Murrray Boltinoff.) For some reason, people who damned well understood the concept worried that average buyers, i.e., idiots, couldn't understand how the JLA and JSA could appear together. That's right; supposedly stories with a woman who could lift and throw automobiles and with a man who had a ring that could do practically anything were puzzling.
These same people with the Star Trek episode "Mirror, Mirror." But anyhow...
The multiple earths (created in the SECOND JLA/JSA crossover) was so mystifying that they had to cram them all together in 1985 - puzzling the writers and editors, let alone the readers.
It was easier to either posit an Earth-1 Wildcat (like other Earth-2 heroes who had counterparts on Earth-1) or JUST IGNORE IT, READ THE DAMN STORY,, AND ENJOY IT.
As for the Spectre... are YOU gonna tell him he couldn't travel between universes? :)
@Bob Greenwade - More than once, Wildcat had a failure of confidence and a crisis of faith. When your friends include Green Lantern, Starman, Superman, Dr. Fate, Johnny Thunder - and the Spectre, yes - I'm sure they'd think that a little time off on Earth-1 would be most helpful. Good idea on your part, sir.
@Emsley and Ross: I remember hearing the same thing. All the late Fifties and early Sixties stories of Batman and Superman (particularly their World's Finest appearances) were supposed to take place there. At least, prior to the formation of the JLA and the adoption of the yellow Bat-signal logo for the Dark Knight's chest.
@ELS: Ah, yes! The original "Crisis On Infinite Earths."
The trend-setting story arc without which we would never have had the increasingly misnamed "Final Crisis!"
@ELS "The multiple earths (created in the SECOND JLA/JSA crossover) was so mystifying"
What happened to multi Earths *introduced from Flash 123- Flash of Two Earths?
*Actually, Superman traveled into the past & SAVED Lincoln. He found no change when he returned to the present. On investigating, he found he traveled by accident into the past of a parallel Earth. This was in Superman BEFORE Flash #123.
Back then, parallel Earths were a rare situation to enjoy in superhero stories.
And, ELS, regarding Star Trek - before Mirror, Mirror was the year 1 episode of The Alternative Factor. An earlier parallel universe story.
@ELS @ Tobor: an implied anti-matter universe, at that.
@ELS: The "extended vacation" idea was Tobor's, not mine. I suggested positing Earth-1 counterparts for Wildcat, Spectre, etc.
@General: Sorry; "Crisis" soapbox time for me.
Personally I would've preferred that the original Crisis on Infinite Earths had ended with a handful of Earths instead of just one. That decision gave us re-imagined origins for characters such as Power Girl and Huntress, with mixed results. Leaving Earths One, Two, and Three in place with a few others (old Quality characters on Earth-4, Fawcett on Earth-5, Charlton on Earth-6, Amethyst on Earth-7, etc.) would've preserved a lot of fan-favorite Silver/Bronze Age stories and arcs, and also allowed for further additions (like Tangent on Earth-8, Just Imagine on Earth-9, etc.).
Confused about what Earth a comic takes place on? Well, just put "Earth-Two" or "Earth-Five" or whatever across the top of the cover. We can still have a Power Girl who's Superman's cousin and a Huntress who's Batman's daughter, as well as Jade and Obsidian who are the adopted-out children of Alan Scott.
We could even have occasional editions of World's Finest, , and other team-up titles that took place with Earth-Two versions of characters. (There you go, Mr. Haney.)
And if DC's brass wanted to renew the main characters into new origins (such as John Byrne's lower-powered take on Superman), they could've made that Earth-Prime, or even Earth-1 while moving the old Earth-One to another number.
And doing it that way would likely have saved us from most of the subsequent "crises" (Zero Hour and Flashpoint being the likely exceptions) that tried to reestablish or adjust the DC Multiverse.
Equally bad ideas have included limiting the number of parallel universes to 52, and trying to cram huge amounts of superhero history into "the last 5 years."
Of course, all that's now water under the bridge, so all of my complaining about it is useless, especially since it's unlikely that my words would be heard by DC's leadership even if I was writing them on the DC Universe forums. Hopefully they'll start to be more careful about its reboots... but I wouldn't count on it.
Thank you. You may now go back to your more useful discussions.
You took the words right out of my mouth, Bob. I wouldn't call your editorial remarks useless, though. They helped you achieve a beneficial emotional state that most psychologists call catharsis.*
*Gesundheit! ;-)
Gesundheit! Ur lucky that 1 flu over the cuckoo's nest. Where's the Night Nurse?
She's serving as chief medical officer to Happy Hogan's Heroes.
Post a Comment