World's Finest Comics #75 (March-April 1955)
"Superman and Robin!"
Script: Bill Finger
Pencils: Curt Swan
Inks: Stan Kaye
Colors: ?
Letters: Pat Gordon
Grade: B
Only six stories into the Superman-Batman team-ups that began in Superman #76 (May-June 1952) and then spun into World's Finest, the premise of this story was sort of an inevitability, in which Robin teams up with Superman, and Batman begins to worry that Robin might prefer his new partner. With a cast of three characters, there are only so many combinations of interpersonal conflict an Atom-Aged story can weave among these heroes. Batman being jealous of Superman is certainly the most obvious. And yet, it's powerful:
It' a fascinating contradiction that, in today's world, we worry more about realism and about deconstructing our heroes into flawed everymen, and yet the Batman of today would
never be portrayed as this vulnerable. It may seem immature and silly, but show me one parent who has never felt exactly this way at some point, and brooded and self-sacrificed in exactly as absurd a manner as Batman does here. Wouldn't we all be jealous of Superman in his shoes (and cowl)?
And so, even while Batman proves to be a son of a ****, cracking the case behind their backs,
his feelings of jealousy and insecurity were never part of the ruse.
If I have a complaint about this story, in which Batman is out of action while Superman and Robin grow close together as a team, its how stories like this one always rely far too heavily on characters unnecessarily lying to and tricking one another. It makes for cheap drama and always feels like a betrayal (both to the reader and to the other characters).
And I have oh so many problems with this solution:
1. This feature has already repeatedly emphasized that, in this era, Batman is the brains and Superman is the brawn. So how does Superman recognize the poison just by seeing it AND know what to do about it?
2. Why wasn't the solution to get Batman to a doctor?
3. Seriously, the world's greatest detective (whose intellect is emphasized in these stories more than at any other point in his career) couldn't figure out on his own that his leg wasn't broken? If Robin's logic for lying to him was that he would keep fighting crime even if the poison would kill him, why didn't he try to walk on that leg even once?
But wow, the sheer warmth of this story. Characters growing closer and being vulnerable with their emotions.
Hard to believe this was more commonplace in 1955 than in 2022.
Meanwhile, what gets a pass from the newly formed Comics Code and what doesn't continues to surprise me. Apparently, Finger and Swan can still depict truly violent crime, just so long as it gets thwarted. I mean, these guys are TRYING to gun down a minor just to distract Superman:
Swan's work on this story surprises me a few times. I'm impressed by the level of physical closeness he is comfortable depicting amongst these heroes:
...especially after Wertham was so concerned about their sexuality.
and I can't help but wonder if Swan had been exposed to manga recently in drawing this panel:
Maybe he'd recently discovered Astro Boy? Robin's exaggerated expression just doesn't seem to fit the American style of the time, and Superman's stoic look in contrast feels very Japanese as well.
Minor Details:1. Why does every damn DC story from this era feel the need to tease the readers THREE times before starting the damn thing?
We already know the damn answer from both the cover and the title page. Get on with the story!
2. Considering that Finger has been writing Batman for sixteen years by this point, I'm truly curious whether this is a reference to an actual Batman story he wrote in 1951:
Of course, this moment raises some significant questions that I'm sure no one of the time took too seriously: how long has Batman been fighting crime? If he and Robin were fighting crime four years ago, why doesn't Robin look four years older now? At what point will Batman get too old if he is aging in real-time? But really, no one's thinking about this but me, so why do I bother?
3. I love these old crazy contraptions used by villains. Feels like something straight out of a Floyd Gottfredson Mickey Mouse adventure:
And yet, you've got to wonder if the amount of money this Purple Mask Gang is spending on way out gadgets and gizmos is costing more than they are actually making from these heists. I mean, they use a zeppelin in their very next crime!
4. Speaking of that next crime...
Ummmm, no.
How many kids were terrified of balloons after reading this?
5. Such an unnecessarily cool detail:
Finger first mentioned The Gotham Gazette in Batman #4, fifteen years earlier, and apparently still hasn't forgotten about it.
6. Who knew Batman was an anti-masker?
