I loved the era when Worlds' Finest became a dollar book with a bunch of rotating back up features to go with the regular Superman/Batman team ups. Probably my favorite was the Shazam back-ups that featured artwork by the great Don Newton. I've seen the Shazam characters depicted in a very cartoony style as well as realistic and gritty - but in these tales I think that Newton really struck the perfect balance. Captain Marvel and his supporting cast and villains all looked great.
Yep! World's Finest certainly lived up to its title. That is; till the concluding issue, #323 That was the world's worst ending. Superman breaking off his partnership with Batman with an uncharacteristically snarky remark!
ReplyDeleteAll because of the ultimately unnecessary "Crisis On Infinite Earths." More like a crisis of faith caused by a finite number of lazy monkeys.
P.S.---I am not a butcherbot. ;-)
ReplyDeleteCarycomic- If you can click on every image containing different cuts of meat, would that prove that you ARE or ARE NOT a butcherbot?
ReplyDeleteYou'll just have to wait and see, Threepio. ;-D
ReplyDeleteGreat combo. Could this be the start of another STF romantic pairing, perhaps with echoes of the one in the Big movie?
ReplyDeleteGreat idea and execution, Ross! And Cary, come on... Post-Crisis was cool, gave us lots of great things! One of those things was even the fact that Captain Marvel could properly exist within the greater DCU, and team up with anyone and everyone!
ReplyDeleteNot good enough compensation for killing off Barry Allen and Linda Danvers for the next two decades.
ReplyDeleteHere's yet another possible episode in the conspiracy-theory tale that I mentioned yesterday -- even the title suggests its inclusion! (And I still think it's a team-up of Brainiac and the High Evolutionary.)
ReplyDeleteEven so, given your recommendation here, I'd love to see how Mr. Newton drew the Sivana family.
Re: COIE... I happen to agree with both Cary and Ben. Though it was a rollicking adventure and a history-maker in comics, it really wasn't necessary. If nothing else, DC could easily have gotten by with just Earths One through Three, Earth-S becoming Earth-Five, and something else on Earth-Four. Then, when they started doing Elseworlds, they'd be free to just slowly expand the multiverse into a bunch of "different genre" and "What If" style worlds.
But, as Ben pointed out, there were some silver linings, the Marvel Family regularly interacting with the rest of DC's character stable being one of them. There were also some good moments (and missed opportunities) with Power Girl's "woman without a multiverse" situation.
And even though Barry Allen was (and remains) my all-time favorite DC character, his sacrifice during the event was a fitting end, and Wally West's time as The Flash was pretty great (another one of those "silver linings") -- both spoiled only by bringing Barry back. If Wally's time as the Flash was to end, he should've been replaced by Bart.
And now, a question for those keeping up with the "Shazam!" comics: Have the other kids ever figured out code-names for themselves?
An unrelated question: With all of the appearances of Batman and Iron Man in this, have we ever seen the animated Batman and Iron Man (as voiced by Kevin Conroy and Robert Hays, respectively) together?
I loved Newton's Phantom. I wonder if there is artwork which could be combined into Newton's Captain Marvel and the Phantom.
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ReplyDeleteBen and Bob: I will concede only this much. I would've accepted Barry Allen being brought back as a semi-retired advisor a la Max Mercury. Provided it was through the latter voluntarily taking Barry's place within the Speed Force a la Obi-wan Kenobi '77!
ReplyDeleteThe rest of my objections stand...irreversibly.
@Bob G.: No, AFAIK the other Shazam kids never did get codenames. But with the new series (by Mark Waid; check it out, it's not bad so far), they've all lost their powers except for Billy and Mary. And Billy is no longer called "Shazam." After an embarrassing but undetailed incident during a rescue ar sea, the kids teased Billy by calling him "Captain." It stuck, and "The Captain" now seems to be his official superhero name. (I like it.)
ReplyDelete@Other Bob: Thanks for the answer. "The Captain" is tolerable, to me; I'd rather he went back to his original, pre-publication name, Captain Thunder. (Or maybe the recent but immortal name "Captain Sparklefingers.")
ReplyDeleteBilly will always be Captain Marvel to me no matter what.
DeleteUnless DC just "Splits" the difference and renames him "Capt. Shazam."
ReplyDeleteWaid has reverted the magic word back to the pre-Geoff Johns days. Once again, Billy changes when he says "Shazam," whether he intends to or not. To me, that was always part of the charm... that Billy could be tricked into changing. Anyway, he can't use the name Shazam anymore or he wouldn't ever be able to introduce himself to anyone.
ReplyDeleteThen again, that was always a problem for Freddy...
Can't agree with Carycomic more than 200%. (before and after Crisis.) Linda was treated like dirt but so was Diana Prince after she lost her powers. (hope Diana Rigg knew how much she affected DC comics.
ReplyDeleteAs to Barry... on trial for killing Reverse Flash, losing Iris, getting her back and losing his own identity... DC really showed what they were made of....crap. And to think, it all started with Hal because they wanted to show what being a superhero could do to your normal life and day job so they took him away from Ferris.
Regarding the current 'bot..., maybe someone with too much time on their hands.Just how do these geniuses test their machines to withstand going against super strengths??
@Bob Buethe: maybe Freddy Freeman could solve it by joining the LA Dodgers. Similar to how Kit Walker's wife now writes highly popular romances novels.
ReplyDelete---A. Nonymous, author of "What's In A Namesake?"
The WF Shazam did a "Super-Team Family" thing and made Kid Eternity* the brother of Freddy Freeman, Captain Marvel Jr. They even tied their origins together! (Freddy was supposed to die the day he was attacked by Captain Nazi and his unexpected rescue is why there was a mix-up and Kid Eternity "died" before he was supposed to.
ReplyDeleteThey even fought Kid Eternity villains (including Her Highness and Silk who had their own feature in Hit Comics for a while).
> Then again, that was always a problem for Freddy..
ReplyDeleteOccasionally the funny books would screw that up. (In Captain Marvel Jr #33, some wackiness was due to mail being switched and he says "It must be the _Captain Marvel Fun Book_ I was expecting." and didn't change...)
Bob Buethe said...
ReplyDelete"After an embarrassing but undetailed incident during a rescue ar sea, the kids teased Billy by calling him "Captain." It stuck, and "The Captain" now seems to be his official superhero name. (I like it.)"
But 'The Captain' was also Steve Rogers' codename back when a committee working for the U.S. government took the 'Captain America' title & shield away from him (OOC, it was back in the 1980s) because those were technically government property and he refused to be a good little soldier for them... And then, when the president (Reagan) over-rules those bureaucrats, this designation was adopted by his former replacement in the 'Captaain America' role...
@Simreeve and B.B.---there was also the Captain who was always being harassed by his German landlady's spoiled brats in "The Katzenjammer Kids."
ReplyDeleteSo, potentially, we could team up Captain Marvel and Captain America, both having recently lost the latter half of their names (the masthead can have those parts X'd out by hand).
ReplyDeleteIt could be a TV movie starring Jackson Bostwick and Reb Brown, with music by Daryl Dragon.
PS: With a special cameo by Jim Backus and Alan Hale Jr.
ReplyDelete"Oh, Captain! My Captain! You've done it, again. Ah-ah!
ReplyDeleteBig fan of Don Newton's comics work. Interesting that you used his Cap to fight this villain. Looks very much like (but shorter than) the one called Arsenal that Don also drew in Avengers Annual #9.
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