Loved every minute of your recaps, MWGallaher! Frustrating, but fun! i've done similar self-challenges on the Cover Association game, but have never taken it to this level. A kudos to you!

Looking forward to the follow-up. I'm sure you'll be mentioning the only member of the original JLA never to team with Batman: the Martian Manhunter. Considering some of the more or less forgotten or fringe characters who did show up (Rose and the Thorn? Two straight issues?), it was a major oversight not to include him.

The Missing JSAers:
There were surprisingly many appearances from members of the Justice Society as Batman co-stars in B&B. We got Dr. Fate, Wildcat, Black Canary, and the Spectre, as well as some of the then-contemporary Earth-2 JSA next generation (Robin and Huntress). In the case of the Spectre and Wildcat it was never clear whether these were Earth-1 incarnations or the originals, and that didn’t matter to Bob Haney. It’s a familiar open question in comics fandom, and I don’t have any particular insights of value. They were apparently popular co-stars, and there must have been some value, at the very least, in using cover logos to maintain active trademarks. So let's look at the ones who never got called up:

Dr. Midnite: If I could have magically added one issue to the run, I think a Batman/Dr. Midnite story would have been it. Haney did a few stories in which Batman was physically incapacitated--losing the ability to walk in #100, becoming brain-dead with the Atom "driving" his body from within the Batman's brain--and maybe I've forgotten one, but I don't think he ever had the Caped Crusader temporarily blinded. That would have been a good opportunity to call on the only superhero he knows with experience in dealing with that condition. Even though Midnite's goggle inventions granted him vision, he would have been an appropriate coach in a story that teased the possibility that Bruce Wayne was now permanently "blind as a bat."

Hourman: Rex “Tick-Tock” Tyler would have been welcome in the pages of B&B, too. I could easily imagine an issue centered around a one-hour time limit that had Batman teaming with the Man of the Hour racing to prevent some critical calamity. I've been reading through Hourman's original appearances in Adventure Comics, and they were pretty awful, but the premise always seemed strong to me when I'd see him in the JLA/JSA annual events.

Sandman: Wesley Dodds seems to have appealed to many fans in the 70's, when a gas-masked, double-breasted suit-wearing superhero looked like an exotic novelty. He'd fit easily into a Batman team-up, maybe something revolving around haunting dreams plaguing Bruce Wayne, shaking his confidence and preventing him from collaring someone he's pursuing.

Starman: Ted Knight's the only one of these guys I remember making a substantial supporting appearance in an issue, but he never got the co-star status. I had the impression that DC, in the 40's, 60's, and 70's, had more confidence in his appeal (and in the trademark "Starman") than the previous three on the list, but that's probably just a reflection of the lesser appeal he had to me, personally. The green-and-red suit, in particular, turned me off a little, but I probably would have gotten a kick out of seeing him show up.

Did we miss out? In every instance, I'd say yes. All four would have been appealing co-stars whose premises lent themselves well to the kinds of stories Boltinoff, Haney, and Aparo created in B&B.

There were, of course, other characters of the Justice Society that could have appeared, but seem to me to have too limited appeal (Mr. Terrific, who seemed pretty corny in the 70's) or were tonally out of sync with the B&B vibe (Ma Hunkle, Johnny Thunder). The biggest stars of the JSA (Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, Flash, Hawkman, Atom) were represented by their Earth-1 doppelgangers, which was a sensible approach for a series that didn’t dwell on the dual Earth premise. Why specifically choose the Alan Scott GL unless you’re doing a story that specifically calls for Earth-2? What does the Earth-2 Wonder Woman bring that you can’t do with the current Wonder Woman?

The War Features:

We got several crossovers with DC's war comics in B&B. Sgt. Rock always teamed with the Earth-1 Batman (even, inexplicably, in their first team-up, placing the contemporary Batman in World War II! Oh, that Bob Haney and his disdain for continuity!). Most of Rock's appearances were set in current days, featuring an older WWII vet. The other WWII heroes teamed up with the Earth-2 Batman, who was active in the 40's. I assume the popularity of the Rock issues inspired them to try out the others (Blackhawk and Unknown Soldier); what if these had inspired other guests from the war comics? The most likely contenders for B&B appearances were:

The Haunted Tank: As I mentioned before, I think this was a missed opportunity to do a contemporary Earth-1 issue with the spirit-haunted tank in Gotham.

Did we miss out? Yes. As much as I loved seeing the contemporary Sgt. Rock show up, a Haunted Tank appearance would have been even more of a thrill, even though I wasn’t reading many of the war comics during the 70’s.



The War That Time Forgot and/or Creature Commandos: Most of the WWII-era team-ups in B&B played it straight, but I think these more fantastic war-time features would actually have been a better match.

Did we miss out? Yeah, I’d have taken these over Unknown Soldier and Blackhawk any day.



Enemy Ace: Well, we kind of got this one in Detective Comics #404, from Denny O’Neill, Neal Adams, and Dick Giordano. Probably a better story than we’d have gotten back when Haney and Adams were the creative team. I think of this as an honorary B&B issue, the last and only word on a Batman/Enemy Ace team-up. So we didn’t miss out, at all.



The Losers: This consolidation of three failed war features into one has proven to be one of my favorites, but I almost never read it while it was being published. As one of DC’s top four war series in the 70’s (with Sgt. Rock, Haunted Tank, and Unknown Soldier), it would have been an option for a B&B installment.

Did we miss out? I really don’t think so. The Losers didn’t have a lot of unique qualities to bring to a Batman team-up; it would likely have been a routine war story.



Gravedigger: One of DC’s later efforts at a war series, this African American soldier had a decent run headlining Men of War. A B&B appearance wouldn’t be out of the question if the war crossovers had been as popular, in general, as the Sgt. Rock appearances evidently were.

Did we miss out? Probably not, but I wouldn’t have objected.



There were quite a few other war series, of course, but given the limited attention given to this variety of team-up in B&B, I doubt anyone ever dreamed of having Mlle. Marie, Viking Commando, O.S.S. Spies at War, Rosa, Code Name: Falcon, the Fighting Devil Dog, Lt. Hunter's Hellcats, Balloon Buster, or Dateline: Front Line on the cover of B&B.

Great observations, Hal! I believe Bob Haney made some comments on guest slot rationales but they were unconvincing; I don't know if anyone ever fessed up to "sausage factory" justifications such as trademark maintenance, which had to be the case in at least a few situations, like maybe Ragman. Haney surely played favorites fairly often, with characters like the otherwise inexplicable Wildcat. Or maybe he and Boltinoff thought (rightly, I believe) that Wildcat had the potential to be a breakout star. (One of the mostly-unrealized story-generation advantages that Wildcat had was that as a former heavyweight champion, he had accessibility over a broad spectrum of the culture. He'd be equally welcome at a billionaire's ball or a rural fish-fry or a crime-ridden ghetto or a political fundraiser.) I intend to take a closer look at the most popular guests a little later in the thread.

In the later years, when the book had a revolving slate of writers, the variety really increased a lot, and I think many writers were considering many of the same things I'm pondering here as they looked over the long list of characters who had never been given a shot.

The Supernatural

So now, let's move on to consider some of the creepier characters who might have been called up for duty in the co-star slot alongside Batman.

Spawn of Frankenstein: Digging a little deeper into the minor features of the 70’s, this failed Phantom Stranger backup feature still would have been a neat one to pop in for an issue. The monster hero crazed flamed out suddenly, as anyone who read the letter column for Man-Bat #2 will recall, but DC had a more intelligent take on the Monster that I wish they could have done more with, and Jim Aparo did a bang-up job on the character when he crossed over from back-up to sharing the lead story in Wein and Aparo’s final Phantom Stranger collaboration, so a return in B&B would have appealed to me.

Did we miss out? Heck yeah, Batman vs. Frankenstein? How could that not have stood out on the stands?

Mr. E: In the last few years of B&B, we got a lot of fresh faces, so why not Mr. E? Mr. E’s gimmick in the series he headlined in Secrets of Haunted House was that he was a blind monster hunter.

Did we miss out? Yeah, a little supernatural adventure was never unwelcome, and Mr. E had a good visual, strong logo, and interesting gimmick. I’d have been up for it! It might have been fun to see Mr. E’s regular artist, Dan Spiegle, step in for fill-in to handle the art. Spiegle doesn’t feel like a great match for a typical Batman, but he could do such beautifully moody “sets” that I’d be happy to gamble on him being able to handle the Caped Crusader in the right atmosphere. Come to think of it, I’d have nominated him to fill in with a Golden Age Sandman team-up, too. He did the character once, very effectively.

Johnny Peril: Around the same time as Mr. E was hunting monsters, we got a revival of Johnny Peril over in the Unexpected. With the spooky books faltering, most of them got ongoing features in an attempt to appeal to changing trends in comics fans. Johnny went way back to the 40’s, where he took over the lead in the “Just a Story” backup in Comics Cavalcade, moved over to augmenting the lead JSA stories in All-Star Comics, and came to Unexpected in the late 60’s, with a return to that stomping ground in the 80’s.

Did we miss out? No, while Johnny probably has his fans, his plain clothes adventuring didn’t have enough impact to make the promise of a B&B appearance have any appeal.

Dr. 13: A sentimental favorite of mine, but it’s easy to see why Terrence Thirteen wouldn’t have been considered, being more of cerebral operator than an action hero.Thirteen was the lead in Ghosts during the same era as Mr. E and Johnny Peril, although he had the benefit of co-starring with the Spectre for three installments.

Did we miss out? The general public, maybe not, but I’d have liked to have seen it. Aparo had history drawing the character when he was the supporting player in Phantom Stranger, and even if Thirteen wasn’t an especially action-oriented player, drawing the Batman into one of his ghost-breaking jobs would have compensated.

Mark Merlin: B&B revived a forgotten character a time or two, so it’s feasible to imagine that it might have been the place to undo Merlin’s transformation into the embarrassing and widely-ignored Prince Ra-Man, Mind-Master.

Did we miss out? Nope. I’m amazed that Mark Merlin ran for as long as it did in House of Secrets. I haven’t read much of it, but what I’ve read was tame, and it’s impossible to conceive of a character less visually interesting.

The House of Secrets: And speaking of House of Secrets, could Able’s House have made an appearance after his brother Cain’s?

Did we miss out? I find it hard to imagine how this would have been any different than the House of Mystery “team-up”, and that was one they didn’t try to repeat. Why bother?

This doesn’t exhaust the possibilities, but going further enters territory that I doubt would ever cross the minds of B&B’s creative crew: The Enchantress? Green Glob? Patchwork Man? I don’t think so...

I think that covers the most feasible B&B guest stars we didn't see, so now let's take another look at the ones who did get their chances to team up with Batman, from the perspective of number of appearances.

One and Done:
Twenty-seven co-stars appeared as co-stars only once, most of those happening after Bob Haney left the series as regular scripter after #152.
In the Haney era, there were (only) seven co-stars he didn’t get around to repeating:

• Eclipso
• Bat-Squad
• House of Mystery
• Richard Dragon
• Sherlock Holmes
• Unknown Soldier
• Superman

Eclipso and Unknown Soldier were familiar to Haney, as he’d scripted their solo features. Eclipso’s solo feature home base, House of Secrets, was cancelled shortly after his very early B&B appearance in Batman’s second lead team-up position (following the first with Green Lantern, five issues prior). Unknown Soldier’s guest appearance was probably weakly received, as there was decreasing crossover between the war comics fans and the superhero comics fans in the mid-to-late 70’s, but in any case, Haney was gone from B&B by the time a second appearance would have been feasible.

Superman’s appearance was a special event in #150; a repeat wouldn’t have made sense since the team was appearing routinely over in World’s Finest, often under the scripting of Haney.
Sherlock Holmes was, like Superman, a surprise guest-star in the B&B Special, so a repeat appearance would not have been expected.

Bat-Squad was Haney’s own creation, and I will always wonder how these nobodies were deemed worthy of the co-star slot in the first place. Clearly, the concept of a British plain-clothes Batman support team didn’t take off enough to encourage a repeat.

House of Mystery seems like something they’d have tried again, but it’s a challenge to make this feel like a B&B team-up rather than the mildly-spooky Batman solo story that the one HOM issue came across as.

Richard Dragon probably appeared only in an attempt to garner some attention for his flagging solo title, which was gone by the time he might have come in for a second appearance.

Post-Haney, 20 of the remaining 48 issues introduced new characters to the roster of B&B co-stars. In order of appearance:

• Red Tornado
• Doctor Fate
• Ra’s Al Ghul
• Black Lightning
• Blackhawk
• Zatanna
• Scalphunter
• Guardians of the Universe
• Lois Lane
• Elongated Man
• Legion of Super-Heroes
• Hawk and Dove
• Robin of Earth-Two
• Riddler
• Huntress
• Superboy
• I...Vampire!
• Ragman
• Catwoman
• Karate Kid

That's a pretty high percentage, reflecting a pretty significant editorial change toward more variety, experimentalism, promotion, and fan/writer service. We've got some "very special issues" here, with Alan Brennart's Earth-II farewell to Hawk & Dove, the stories of the Earth-II Batman's marriage to Catwoman, and an encounter with Robin of Earth-II (followed by Mike W. Barr's Huntress). There's the curious case of cover-billing the Guardians in part one of what would typically have been billed as a Green Lantern team-up, which suggests an intent to establish trademark. Denny O'Neill spotlights his creation and favorite villain Ra's Al Ghul, the neglected active satellite era JLAers get their turns. There' some apparent trademark maintenance with moribund characters Karate Kid and Ragman. 

Over all, I recall appreciating the new variety, although most of the fill-in issues with random writers and average artists didn't appeal to me, even with interesting co-stars like Doctor Fate. The Legion showed up often in fan requests on the letters page; I doubt that many of them were pleased with what we got. Most of these co-stars were at least worth a try, and some were among the best issues B&B had to offer. I'm sure some readers would have been happy if the last 50 issues hadn't had any returning co-stars; as we've seen previously, there were certainly enough potential guests to make that a possibility. 

Earth-1’s Robin and the Earth-2 Batman are special cases; though each of them were specifically cover-billed as a co-star with the Earth-1 Batman only once, Robin’s cover credit came only as part of an informal team of “4 Famous Co-Stars” in the 100th issue, and he also appeared in each of the Teen Titans’ co-starring installments. The original Batman was not only a co-star, but was the “lead Batman” in a few stories set on Earth-2 and/or in World War II.

I should also acknowledge three of the series' best-remembered co-stars, although they didn't receive their own logos: Jim Aparo, Bob Haney, and Murray Boltinoff themselves, who assisted Batman and Rock in the bonkers issue #124.