You can find an MP3 download podcast of the panel on DC’s website. There were quite a few creators present, but the JLI and JLI books took up most of the discussion.

Justice League

Jim Lee introduced the Justice League:

It’s been a real delight working with Geoff [Johns], we’ve talked about working together for a long time. And it’s great to be on a team book again, honestly. I’ve been working on single character books for a long time. All those characters have side kicks and foils and things like that to interact with, but it’s predominantly a single flavour that you get out of Superman or Batman. Doing a team book gives you a completely different dynamic. It’s all about the interaction between all these iconic characters and Geoff is just a master at exploring the personalities behind the masks. The characters have different ideologies and personalities, it’s great having that interaction between characters like Batman and Green Lantern.

There is a lot of humour, I actually laugh a lot each time I read the script, probably in places I’m not supposed to be. I always learn something working with new writers for the first time, he’s [Geoff] really brought out the humanity in these characters. I hope you guys get a kick out of it.

Later in the Aquaman segment Geoff Johns touched on the humour element.

I’m really trying to inject some humour into all my books this time around from Justice League, to Aquaman, to Green Lantern get back to, instead of superheroes talking with other superheroes all the time, have superheroes interacting with real people.

Geoff on Hawkman:

He’s also a member of the Justice League. Everybody’s having a meeting and they’re all talking and a big mace falls on the table. They look up and Hawkman’s there. He sits down and goes “don’t worry, it’s not my blood!

How Cyborg can be a founding member of the Justice League given that he was originally a the Teen Titans character will be addressed in Justice League. Adding Cyborg to the team is about shaking things up, Geoff Johns said that:

I didn’t want to do the same seven that everybody predicts. The Martian Manhunter, well you’ll see where the Martian Manhunter is at, in the storyline, the origin, but, I like Cyborg, I think he’s a great character. I’ve written him for years and years in the Titans and Flash and I really think he’s a modern-day superhero. I don’t know if anybody in here doesn’t have an online identity, but he’s online and offline all the time.

Jim Lee was asked whether the Justice League costumes were “Paul Gambini originals?”

The design on Justice League. We wanted them to be obviously a team and we had a chance to design the costumes in a way that subtly suggests that they are team-like  so there are similarities between the costumes. The high collars, I just think they look more regal more majestic. If you look at a lot of the more open-collar costumes, like Superman and Aquaman, [they] harken back to the late 1930s and 40s strongman kind of appearance. So it was just giving it an update.

It was also noted that Ivan Reis had put that a high collar on Aquaman before Jim Lee came to do the JLA costume redesign.

Another questioner brought up the Manhunter issue and Johns reiterated that J’onzz’s status will be addressed somewhere in the first arc (“there is a story to be had there”), but from a larger perspective there is an in-universe reason in the New 52 as to why there is only one alien (to wit Superman) on the Justice League. Geoff jokes that “When everybody see him they’re like “its a Martian!” and Hal’s like “hey dude”. The Manhunter will be in Paul Cornell’s Stormwatch.

Other questions:

• Why isn’t Dick Grayson carried over in a team, even through he’s now Nightwing? Johns said that Nightwing was left out of the Justice League explicitly because he was such a good team player – an anti-social Batman makes for more interesting drama.
• A woman questioner commented that condensing the DC timeline into five years must make it “really traumatic five years” for those who had to live through it. Geoff Johns said that would be addressed.
• We’ll be getting new villains in JL. Something like the Legion of Doom, but not called the Legion of Doom, will show up Justice League next year.

Justice League International

Dan Jurgens introduced the new Justice League International:

The Justice League International is an officially United Nations sponsored group [that is] in part is a reaction to the JLA. Batman, Rocket Red, Fire, August General in Iron, Booster, Guy (kinda of in and out a little bit), Vixen, Ice, and its going to be a bit of a rotating membership. Because some of these guys think – and when I say “Guys” is that a clue – some of these guys might think that they deserve to be in a somewhat better group than JLI. So there is a little bit of coming and going as the roster changes and rotates, but it is a group that is put together in direct response to the JLA.

Aaron Lopresti is doing incredible artwork on this book, he’s knocked the ball out of the park page after page. It’s a lot of big open stuff as I think this page shows [the coloured page] and its one of those things that we’re really trying to bring back, I think a lot of action and movement into the DC Universe, lots of big visuals, lots of fun stuff. As you can see here too [surprised as second JLI page is shown], as we continue on JLI. Not yet coloured, but Aaron and inker Matt Ryan are really going fabulous work on this. There is just tremendous characterisation that is coming through in their artwork, all the figure work, and everything they do.

On the Batman’s inclusion in both teams:

With JLI – I’ve got to figure how to do without giving too much away – let’s put it this way: JLI is a sponsored United Nations organisation that it put together in response to the JLA right? Well the JLA kinda thinks that they have somebody attached to their team that the United Nations knows nothing about. So he’s [Batman] kind of the bridge between the two teams and it’s not like the Batman would ever do what the UN tells him to. So he’s there because he thinks that’s where he should be and building a bit of a conduit between the two groups.

Dan Jurgens later brought the JLI cover back up and pointed out that none of the characters, with the exception of Batman, were wearing masks:

One of the things we’re building in the new DC Universe, as it pertains to this group, is the idea that all these people are much more known than typical, and remember I said that Batman was there without the UN’s permission. They went though an exercise that said we don’t want people with masks and identities we don’t necessarily know, and we sure don’t want any aliens.

Diversity

Issues about of the new line’s diversity was raised several times. Mister Terrific’s Eric Wallace stressed that the drive to increase diversity wasn’t limited to the headline characters, but there was also effort put in to increase the diversity of the supporting casts and the background characters.

The questions about diversity also prompted responses that revealed details that various writers may otherwise have held off until their books would have appeared. Dan Jurgens said that August-General-In-Iron had become one of his favourite characters in the JLI book. Geoff teased that there was a “smaller” character in Justice League who rhymed with “batom” (pretty much telegraphing that the Ryan Choi version of the Atom was to make an appearance).

There was an interesting and slightly tense debate on the prominence of, or lack of, women in the new DCU. This led Geoff to claim that DC has “by far and away more iconic and stronger female superheroes than any other company out there.” The questioner countered that most of those were “Girl” representations of “Man” characters and not adult “Women”. She made several very good points and the panel struggled to convince her that things were being addressed.

Just from my own survey of the Justice League books – Justice League International and Dark are both 50% male/female. The flagship JL title isn’t so balanced as it looks like just Wonder Woman, but there are other characters like Mera and Element Woman, who we haven’t seen yet so we may have to wait to pass judgement on that one.

It was unfortunate that Bob Wayne had to silence the audience at one point.

The one things that differentiates the Dick Grayson Batman visually from the Bruce Wayne Batman is the addition of that little punk. The kid should be a massive negative (c.f. the second incarnation of the Jason Todd Robin),  but there is just something about his attitude that works so well. That’s why I liked this piece by Richard Cox. Damian with all his attitude is bearing down on some unseen criminal whilst Dick it standing-by with a Batline ready to either join in or haul Damian back as necessary.

When DC offered me the chance to do a story, they said they wanted weird team-ups. I’m Christmas shopping with my daughter and we’re actually stopping by the comic book store to pick up my books. My phone rings and they’re like, “It’s Jim Lee and Dan DiDio for you.” I was like, “What? Really? Jim Lee is on the phone?” I actually met Dan at Comic-Con [International] and we’ve stayed in touch, but I didn’t expect anything. I’d done all this stuff for Marvel, and I was obviously writing “Supernatural,” and then I just got a call from them and they said, “Would you be interested in doing a book with us?” I said, “Of course, I would be.” They put me in touch with Eddie Berganza and Eddie says to me, “We’re doing this huge 80-pager JLA like we do every year and we want to do weird team-ups. Teams that people wouldn’t expect together. We’d like you to come up with an idea for the book, the whole concept, and then we want you to write three of the chapters.” And I said, “Can I do Batman?” He said, “Of course, you can do Batman.” I was like, “I’m sold.” This was my chance to finally write Batman. So that’s really what got me juiced to do it.

Read the rest here.

Credits: Written by Judd Winick; art by Sami Basri; coloured by Jessica Kholinne; lettered by John J. Hill;  edited by Chris Conroy (associate) and Joey Cavalieri; cover by Sami Basri and Sunny Gho.

Synopsis “Old Friends”: Power Girl had been convinced by Maxwell Lord’s mind control that Captain Atom is Superman and that he has started to attack innocent civilians. The enraged Power Girl furiously attacked Atom until the JLI were able to break Lord’s conditioning (Justice League: Generation Lost #19).PG feels bad about the case of mistaken identity and wants to join the JLI’s fight against Max, but Booster asks her to find other people who also remember Lord’s existence. She goes to see Dick Grayson. Together they have managed to break Lord’s conditioning before, but its power always overwhelmed them again. Now PG’s mind is clear she tries to convince Dick by showing him that Ted Kord (the second Blue Beetle) was murdered by Max and did not commit suicide as the mind control makes people believe. Meanwhile at Starrware, the company’s creditors have sold off its assets to Day Work Industries. Simon Peters (Karen Starr’s executive assistant) and Nicco try to stall them, but Dr Ophelia Day sees through their charade. PG and Dick exhume Ted’s body and prepare to perform an autopsy. Dick still resists, but he’s over ruled by Bruce Wayne (the elder Batman and former member of the JLI). Together they show conclusively that Ted Kord could not have committed suicide. Batman (Bruce) then leaves Dick to contact Oracle and the JLA while he goes with Power Girl to aid the JLI.

Comments: The opening sequence of this issue takes place simultaneously with Justice League: Generation Lost #19. Last issue I questioned whether it was an art mistake that they showed the Bruce Wayne Batman and not the Dick Grayson Batman, but it obviously was deliberate. The conversation with the Blue Beetle is a flashback to Countdown to Infinite Crisis. I’m not really sure how this plays out, but in the Countdown to Infinite Crisis Max orders Ted’s body to be incinerated so I assumed that there was no real corpse to do an autopsy on.

Opinion: Another great issue from Winick and Basri. I love the way that this series dovetails with Justice League: Generation Lost, but also manages to tell a story that is completely its own. The stripping of Kord Omniversal is nicely paralleled with the falling apart of Starrware. The elephant in the room with regards to the Generation Lost storyline has always been those characters who weren’t around for the mind wipe or should have been able to resist it – specifically J’onn J’onzz and Bruce Wayne. As we’ve seen in the latest issue of Brightest Day that J’onn never had a chance to become involved. Bruce Wayne was lost in time until after this series started and I like the way that he doesn’t even need to struggle with the mind control. He shows that although Dick Grayson is a Batman, Bruce Wayne is still The Batman. Over the course of this series the colouring has transitioned between Sunny Gho and Jessica Kholinne. The overall result has been consistently of a really high standard and I’m impressed that there was no noticeable change between the two colourists.

Episode Credits

Quotes

Lois: How could you have lied to me like that?Bruce: Now I never actually said I wasn’t Batman.Lois: <slaps the wound she was dressing> Bruce: Ow!

as the Lexwing explodes with the Joker on boardHarley: Pudding!!Batman: At this moment he probably is.

Synopsis “World’s Finest Part Three”

Previously in Part One: The cash-strapped Joker has hired himself out to Lex Luthor with the promise that he’ll kill Superman using a stolen kryptonite statue. The Batman, as Bruce Wayne, has followed the Joker to Metropolis under the pretence of overseeing a business deal with Lex. Wayne’s romance with Lois Lane does not impressed Superman. In Part Two: The Joker’s first attempt to kill Superman fails when he is saved by the Batman, but the Joker manages to escape with half the kryptonite. Lex and Joker then realise that they’ll have to deal with both heroes. Superman is drawn away with a fake distress call while the Joker ambushes Batman with a Wayne-Lex T7 (a spider-like robot Bruce Wayne and Lex Luthor had been co-developing).

Batman uses his rocket pack to dodge the T7′s laser, but his bomblets don’t dent its armour. His luck eventually runs out and the laser destroys his rocket motor forcing him unceremoniously to the ground. He escapes on-top a bus, but the robot spies him and careers through the traffic after him. Batman means to reach the Daily Planet and Superman’s assumed help, but Lois Lane is the only person in the newsroom when he arrives. He grabs her and runs for the stairwell, but she tells him that Superman is still out at sea.

The T7 follows them into the room that houses the Planet’s massive printing presses. Batman’s cowl is ripped off when his cape becomes caught in one of the printing presses. Bruce Wayne retrieves his Batman cowl after disabling the T7, but it’s too late to stop Lois noticing his face. She asks him “So when were you going to tell me? The honeymoon?” The T7 suddenly revives and advances on them, but it is flattened by the newly arrived Superman who innocently asks “Did I miss anything?”

Later, Lois dresses Bruce’s wounds in his hotel suite. He tries to laugh off the revelation of his secret identity (“Now I never actually said I wasn’t Batman”), but Lois is angry. Not only did he deceive her, but she is sitting on the hottest story of the year and can’t report it. Bruce tells Superman that it’s ironic that Lois likes Bruce Wayne and Superman, but isn’t so keen on the Batman and Clark Kent. Being so exposed isn’t easy for Bruce, but he and Superman agree that they need to work more closely if they are to bring Luthor and the Joker to justice.

Luthor’s operators report the T7′s failure to him. He realises that the heroes will trace the robot back to his company so he arranges for the Joker to meet him at his robotics research facility. Once there the Joker realises that Luthor is setting him and Harley up to take the fall for their failed scheme. He double crosses them first and over powers Lex and Mercy. Harley Quinn paints Luthor’s Lexwing to look like a smile while the Joker ducktapes Luthor into the copilot’s seat. The Joker notices Superman and Batman’s approach on radar and orders Harley to join him at the Lexwing’s controls.

The Joker leaves a squad the T7′s larger brothers to deal with the heroes while he fires up the Lexwing for a rendezvous with Metropolis. Luthor has cost him dearly so he will deprive Luthor of everything he has ever built – which turns out to he half of Metropolis. The heroes take down the first two waves of oversized robots with superstrength, heat-vision, and electrified batarangs. They save Mercy (who had been ducktaped to one of the robots) and she tells them of the Joker’s plan. Superman stays behind to deal with the last super-sized robot while the Batman goes after the Joker. However, the Joker has taped the final piece of kryptonite to it. The kryptonite  allows the last robot to pummel Superman. It flattens Superman with a lead-lined door, but the lead creates a barrier between him and the kryptonite radiation. He then uses the door as a battering ram to squash the robot like a bug.

The Lexwing is circling over Metropolis as the insane clown strafes any buildings marked Lexcorp with its missiles. The Lexwing is rocked by an explosion as the Batplane’s own missiles hit it, but they do little to dent on the massive aircraft.  The Joker stabs randomly at the weapons panel trying to find air-to-air missiles to fire at the Batplane. He fires off dozens of poorly aimed missiles until one of them clips the Batplane. The Batman is forced to ejects, but manages to grabs onto the Lexwing with his razer sharp gloves as he falls. He then enters the Lexwing by blowing open an access panel.

The Batman surprises the Joker at the controls of the Lexwing and wrestles him away. The out of control Lexwing plummets towards Metropolis until Superman arrives to push it skyward. The Joker grabs a bag of exploding marbles, but Batman knocks them from his grasp and they are sent rolling across the Lexwing’s flight deck. They explode as Superman rips through the floor. He grabs Luthor (still ducktaped to the copilots chair) while Batman grabs Harley Quinn and they jump out of the hole Superman made on his way in. The Joker giggles insanely as the Lexwing explodes in as a massive fireball.

It seems impossible that the Joker could have escaped, but the Coast Guards never find his body. The D.A. questions Lex over the Joker’s rampage, but no charges are brought. WayneTech and Bruce Wayne then publicly sever all connections with Lexcorp. Alfred packs up the Batman’s gear as Bruce Wayne asks Lois to reconsider her decision to stay in Metropolis. She still loves him, but she doesn’t want to get drawn into Batman’s world. Bruce passes Clark on the way to his plane and jokes that Lois is now solely his problem.

Commentary

Lex Luthor and the Joker

If it seems unlikely that Batman and Superman would team-up then surely its even more unlikely that two inherently uncooperative arch-criminals like Lex Luthor and the Joker would team-up. However, once the heroes began to team-up in World’s Finest #71 (Jan-Feb 1955) it was only a  short leap to World’s Finest #88 (May-June 1957) which pitched Superman and Batman against their “Greatest Foes!” As the Superman Homepage says “The cover to World’s Finest #88 is rather lackluster, not even hinting at the wonderful art inside.” It’s the first page to that story (shown above) which is more famous – a splash of Lex Luthor and the Joker racing away from Superman, Batman, and Robin (always Batman AND Robin in the early World’s Finest).

The villain’s scheme involves the pretense of Lex Luthor apparently going into a legitimate business partnership with the Joker to create a batch of superstrong androids called “Mechano-Men”. It’s telling that in Superman TAS “World’s Finest” most of the last episode/act is a fight between Superman/Batman and Luthor’s robots, yet in that original World’s Finest #88 comic-book the fight between the Mechano-Men and Superman lasts one, maybe two-panels. The first Joker-Luthor story was written by science fiction author Edmond Hamilton, the husband of writer Leigh Brackett who is most famous for writing the screen play for The Empire Strikes Back. Hamilton is also the source of the name for the character, Professor Hamilton, who helps Superman with his science problems.

The second villain team-up in World’s Finest #129 (November 1962) is called “Joker-Luthor, Incorporated!” and features the Joker coming to Metropolis to help Luthor in a convoluted jewellery heist. A succession of Luthor and Joker team-ups followed over the years and they even become a fixture in the Super Friends Legion of Doom. However, there was always something special about the Joker and Luthor teaming-up. This became rarer after 1985 when continuity changes made Lex Luthor a corrupt businessman and the Joker a homicidal maniac. When Superman and Batman did team-up in the 199s for a three-part World’s Finest mini-series (by Dave Gibbons and Steve Rube) it was natural that they should face Lex Luthor and the Joker. The plot of mini-series forms the loose basis for parts of this three-part cartoon story with the Joker.

Notes

• The cruise ship that Superman saves is called the SS Atlantis.
• The Joker looping the Lexwing over the moon to create a smile is an homage of the scene from third-act of Tim Burton’s Batman movie where the Batwing passes the moon in an homage to the batsignal.
• The episode credits duplicate the voice credits for part 2 despite several of the characters not appearing outside of the recap in part 3. Lauren Tom (Angela Chen) is omitted from the credits – that’s if she did indeed voice Chen in this episode.

Opinion

Highlights

Superman’s timing. He’s getting better.

Oddities

Never ask how the Joker survives. He just does, okay.

My Thoughts

The Superman writers had held off on a Superman/Lois Lane romance until immediately prior to this movie. “Brave New Metropolis” started a sequence of stories that explored the issue from a number of different angles. In “Brave New Metropolis”  Lois finally realises how much Superman loves her when she sees what a parallel universe Superman did in her name after his Lois died. Then in “Ghost In The Machine” Mercy’s one-sided affection for Luthor is explored. The route that this move takes, of pushing Lois and Clark even further apart by putting Bruce Wayne between then, is interesting and makes Clark realise that Lois isn’t going to be single forever. For all the action in this episode I really think it’s Dana Delany’s acting as Lois Lane that stands out the most. Her worry as Bruce/Batman goes back into action is palpable. By contrast, the ever so smooth Bruce Wayne looks almost callow as he hands her over to Clark Kent.

As mentioned in the first two reviews, this Batman is drawn with a broader brush that in his own series. He has access to what Grant Morrison once referred in a story as his “sci-fi cupboard” – that strange stash of super-weaponry that he only ever seems to use outside of his own cartoon/comic-book. Examples here include the glove talons and the electrified batarangs. I do wonder, however, where upon his person he kept that massive explosive charge he used to break into the Lexwing. The fight sequence with the robots illustrates part of the problem of teaming these characters. The smaller version chases Batman all over Metropolis, but was no match for Superman. Yet the the larger versions that do give Superman pause are dropped instantly by the Batman’s wonder gadget (which he somehow forgot to use against the smaller robot). Despite that the unevenness of their abilities doesn’t stand-out too much.

I’m conflicted over what rating to give this third part of “World’s Finest”. It’s a great episode, but doesn’t really grab me as much as a single episode as the first two parts did. On its own I give it 3 stars, but I’d given the entire movie 3.5 stars.

Episode Credits

Quotes

Luthor: <chuckling> What makes you think you can kill Superman when you can’t even handle a mere mortal in a Halloween costume.Joker: <menacingly> There is nothing mere about “Bat-mortal”.

Batman: <menacingly> Where’s the Joker?Bingo: Who knows! Making Ha Ha with Harley Quinn! Urk. I don’t know. Honest! I never went back after he muscled in, I don’t want anything to do with that clown.Superman: That’s enough. I think you got your answer.

Synopsis “World’s Finest” Part One

It’s a dark and stormy night as an antiques shop owner closes up. A beautiful young-woman stops him from closing the door and tells him “Hang on their Clyde!” She’s Harley Quinn, the Joker’s girl, and this is Gotham City. Moments later the poor man is lying on the floor, convulsing with laughter from the Joker’s gas, and the Joker himself is prowling around the shop. He spies a very heavy carved statue, “the Laughing Dragon”, which he rips from its base and gives to Harley to carry.

The word on the streets is that the Joker is desperate for cash so the police are surprised that he only took the statue. However, the Batman reminds them that “things are never what they seem with the Joker.” Batman analyses a fragment of the statute in the Batcave and discovers that it is emitting a type of low-level of radiation. The Dragon’s owners have a history of dying mysteriously proving that continued exposure to the radiation is lethal. Batman then quips to Alfred that “Isn’t Bruce Wayne about due for a trip to Metropolis?”

Lois Lane is with the White House press corps on-board Air Force One when it is hijacked by a group of terrorists. Their leader panics when he recognises her as “the one Superman always saves!?” Right on que Superman spins the plane like a laundry machines leaving the strapped in passengers unharmed, but throwing the unstrapped-in terrorists around. Afterwards Lois sheepishly asks Superman if he’d like to meet her socially for once, but their conversation is interrupted by an emergency in the city.

The next day as Lex Luthor is heading to work he discovers that his normally efficient driver Mercy has been replaced by the less controlled, but more enthusiastic Harley Quinn. She takes him to a meeting with the Joker. Luthor blanks the Joker’s banter until the clown makes the connection that they both face an “over grown bully in long underwear”. The Joker’s offer to kill Superman for one billion dollars has amused Lex until he sees the Jade Dragon (Joker: “solid kryptonite!”). Lex agrees to the Joker’s request on the conduction that it can’t be traced to him.

Bruce Wayne’s first day in Metropolis is something of a whirlwind. He’s officially there to review the capabilities of a joint business venture with Lex Luthor (the Wayne-Lex T7, an autonomous six-legged robot that has the ability to crawl spider-like over almost any terrain). Wayne’s arrival at a private Lexcorp Airfield is met by the usual Press throng. Much to Clark Kent’s dismay Lois describes Wayne as “absolutely gorgeous” and becomes uncharacteristic coy around the billionaire playboy. Wayne then asks her to dinner before leaving for his meeting with Lex Luthor.

At Lexcorp’s test facility Bruce Wayen and Lex Luthor watch the T7 clamber up a canyon wall and locate a test object. Both men are impressed with the tests, but they disagree on the T7′s potential applications. Lex had been canvassing the Pentagon’s opinion on a weaponised version, but Wayne flatly refused to allow its development. He tells Lex that “I don’t like guns.” That evening, Bruce Wayne meets Lois Lane at an expensive roof top restaurant. He grills her on how she contacts Superman, but she asks to change the subject. Bruce then sweeps her onto the dance floor.

Even later that night Superman (as Clark Kent) and Batman (in costume) are separately searching for the Joker’s whereabouts. The Joker gased a mafiso called Cesaer Carlini, dumped him in the trash, and then took over his gang. The police find Carlini and it’s clear to Dan Turpin and Superman that the Joker has announced his arrival in town. Batman follows his own leads by tracking down one of Carlini’s employees, an old face from Gotham City called Bingo, to the Rockers Nightclub. Batman throws his weight around panicing the clubbers. Bingo doesn’t know anything, but the ruckus is loud enough to attract Superman’s attention.

The two costumed alpha-males instantly dislike each other. Batman shows off by judo throwing Superman, but get body slammed into the wall as Superman makes his own point. Superman’s opinion of the Batman doesn’t improve after he uses his x-ray vision to find out that he’s really Bruce Wayne (the man currently romancing Lois). Superman tell’s Batman “I won’t have vigilantism in my town”, but the Batman pulls a trump card by showing Superman the sliver kryptonite he found at the antiques shop. Even that small amount is enough to cause Superman to stagger. The Batman warns him that the Joker has twenty-pounds of it and then vanishes while Superman is distracted.

Superman returns to Clark Kent’s apartment. He’s just about to go to bed when Lois Lane calls him to say that she’ll be in late to work tomorrow morning as she’s having breakfast with Bruce Wayne. Clark doesn’t approve, but as they talk he notices a tracking device that the Batman had attached to his cape. After Lois hangs up Clark uses his telescopic vision to find the Batman watching him from a distant rooftop. He smiles and waves to Clark acknowledging that they now know each other’s secret identities. A visibly-annoyed Clark mutters “touché” as he crushes the tracking device.

Commentary

World’s Finest

The title “World’s Finest” refers to the name of a classic comic which started in the 1940s. Back then comic books were anthologies that contained many different stories often pulled from many different genres. At the time DC Comics was loosely split into two companies – DC Comics which published Superman and Batman and All-American Comics which published Wonder Woman, the Flash, and Green Lantern. All-American had created an anthology called All-Star Comics which it used to highlight its most popular features. However, that anthology rapidly developed into a full blown team-up book with the All-American characters coming together as a team called the Justice Society (which was later revised as the Justice League).

World’s Finest Comics, called World’s Best Comics for its first issue, was an equivalent title to All-Star which was launched by the other half of the company to highlight their own characters. Those 1940s issues included characters like Zatara (the father of Zatanna), the Star-Spangled Kid, and Green Arrow, but the biggest draw were the adventures of Superman and Batman. However, unlike the JSA their adventures remained as unconnected stories. The only place they actually appeared together was on the cover of the comic-book. Readers were treated to vast array of outlandish and strange covers featuring Superman and Batman (with Robin, always with Robin at this time) goofing around.

It was not until World’s Finest #71 in 1954 that there was actually a story co-starring Superman AND Batman. That started an unlikely partnership that lasted for hundreds of issues and well into the 1980s. It was perhaps only during the 1950s that a partnership like this could have started. Batman’s non-superpowered crime comics had become so outlandish that they weren’t entirely dissimilar to Superman’s science fiction comics. You could imagine Adam West’s Batman and George Reeve’s Superman teaming up in an amicable and friendly manner, but you’d have a hard time imaging anything other than animosity between Christian Bale’s Batman and Christopher Reeves’ Superman.

The later drive to make Batman more realistic (“grim and gritty”) really undercut the logic of the Superman/Batman team-ups to the extent that they were all but eliminated in the 1980s. Post-1985 both Batman and Superman’s comics were rebooted and given a make over. In the new altered continuity they were never been friends and were actually quite antagonistic towards each other. Things changed slowly and the characters’ relationship was redefined. In the old World’s Finest days they were best-friends and no questions were asked. The modern take on that relationship was that they were two professionals who shared the common and often lonely experience of being the absolute-best in their own field.

As odd as the pairing of Superman and Batman is the long publishing history of World’s Finest means that it is an idea that is deeply ingrained in the consciousness of the comic fans. There was a three-part World’s Finest mini-series in the 1990s by Dave Gibbons and Steve Rube which influenced the story and feel of this crossover (Bruce Timm mentions it in Modern Masters). That mini-series went for a very classic interpretation and look of Superman and Batman. A lot of its story was based around Lex Luthor moving into Gotham City and the Joker moving into Metropolis. The two heroes prove ineffective against their new, unfamiliar opponents so they switch cities to focus on the enemies they each known best.

The concept of an ongoing World’s Finest title was revived in 2003 as simply Superman/Batman. Its first two story arcs were spectacularly popular and have been adapted for the DC Universe direct-to-DVD features as Superman/Batman: Public Enemies and Superman/Batman: Apocalypse. Both of which were voiced by Tim Daly and Kevin Conroy who first played opposite each other as Superman and Batman in this three-part story.

Producers Commentary

On the DVD boxed set there is a commentary to part one of his story by Bruce Timm (Producer), Glen Murakami (Art Director), Paul Dini (writer), Dan Riba (Series Director), and Alan Burnett (Producer/Writer).

• Bruce Timm’s outfit at WB Animation had switched over from making the Batman: The Animated Series to making the Superman cartoon when Kid WB came to them about the possibility of making more Batman episodes. The result of that was a slightly tweaked format and re-design that sometimes gets called Batman: The New Adventures. It was decided to introduce the new look Batman in a team-up with Superman.
• They relied on TMS to do the bulk of the pre-production design on incidental characters and backgrounds leaving Bruce Timm and his team free to work on the new character designs for the Batman cast. This was the first time they’d seen the new Bruce Wayne and Joker models animated. Wayne looks slicker -  they lost the baggy-Bruce Wayne suit as it never animated very well and went with a “crisper” more “tailored” look. Bruce Timm gave Bruce Wayne bat-shaped eye-brows to differentiate his face from Clark Kent’s face. It was Glen Murakami’s idea not to give the Joker red-lips. Paul Dini complained, but was overruled.
• Alan Burnett and Paul Dini worked hard on this story, it took them three months to just get the outline down. The difficulties arose from getting two very different characters to mesh believably. However, once the detailed outline was done the scripts came pretty quickly. This three-parter may be Alan Burnett’s favourite.
• They picked-up the antagonism between Batman and Superman that had been introduced in the comics. They later did two other Superman/Batman team-ups before Justice League – “Night Time” and the one with Ra’s Al Ghul.
• Dramatic license trumps Physics. Often it comes down to what looks right and not what is scientifically accurate. In the third-part they accentuated Batman’s athleticism far more than they’d ever have done on his own series. Partially it was TMS’s anime stylings, but it was also to balance him against Superman and not make him look too helpless.
• There was a bit in part-two where the TMS storyboards showed Batman flying. This puzzled the Americans. Upon querying it they were told that TMS had just assumed that Batman could fly “because he has a cape.” Apparently a anime trope is that any character with a cape can fly.
• The gangsters are in a Mexican restaurant which explains the animals hanging from the roof. One of the oddities of working with an overseas studio is having to explains concepts like a pogo-stick or a pinyata.
• On the commentary the producers rave about the Nightclub sequence, the use of different gels to colour the scene and the muted pallete for Batman’s interrogation. The idea for Batman throwing the cage with the dancing girl still in it was added to the storyboards at the last-minute. TMS brought the storyboards to show to the Americans and Bruce Timm and co. thought it would be a good idea to use one of the caged girls as a projectile.

Bruce Timm commented on watching Tim Daly and Kevin Conroy working together:

I remember it was very interesting having Tim Daly [Superman] and Kevin Conroy [Batman] in the same room together because I do remember that there was… Tim’s a great guy, a great actor, but his voice doesn’t have a lot of bottom end in it and there were certain times we just wanted him to get really TOUGH and MACHO with Superman. And when he was standing in the room with Kevin Conroy and the first time he heard the Batman voice coming out of Kevin’s mouth his eyes got really big and suddenly Tim’s voice started dropping an octive. It’s like, “okay now I’m MANLY Superman because I’m standing next to REALLY MANLY Batman.” It was cool. So he really bought a good performance out of Tim.

Notes

• The music that the Jack In the Box plays is the Joker’s theme.
• The Joker uses what appears to be an old Bugs Bunny trick to stop Luthor’s car.
• The Joker’s comment about the upholstery in Lex’s car “Oooo… Rich Corinthian Leather!” is a reference to a Chrysler advertising campaign from the 1970s. And just to prove that everything eventually ends up on Youtube here is an example.
• If you recognise the female terrorist who speaks to the President it’s because she’s played by Shannon Kenny who voiced Inque in Batman Beyond.
• When Mercy picks up Wayne from the airport she has a bandage under her hat from where Harley knocked her out.
• The gangster called Caesar Carlini is possibly named after the comic-book editor Mark Carlin. He’s voiced by John Capodice who often plays larger than life Italian American characters. Carlini’s lieutenant Binko is played by Corey Burton who usually provides the voice of Brainiac.
• This three-parter was originally broadcast on October 4, 1997 during as a single block movie. It was released on DVD/VHS back in August 1998 as “The Batman Superman Movie”. The first episode of Batman: The New Adventures / Gotham Knights was shown on September 13.
• Shirley Williams was nominated for a Daytime Emmy, “Outstanding Achievement in Music Direction and Composition”, for her work on this show.
• Gordon’s rank is misspelled “Comissioner” rather than “Commissioner” in the titles. The characters – other than the leads – are listed in alternating blocks between the Superman and Batman casts,  e.g. Gotham villain, Metropolis villain, Gotham sidekick, Metropolis sidekick, Gotham police, Metropolis police, etc.

Opinion

I saw this story first when it was released on VHS as the Superman-Batman Movie – I distinctly remember the banter and interplay between the characters. This first part has so much to do. Not only does it have to introduce the guest-stars from another series, but it also has to introduce the an entirely new look for those guest-stars. For the most part this happens effortlessly. Maybe it’s because I’ve gotten use to the New Adventures Batman from the Justice League, but his presence seems very natural alongside Superman. I’m not so keen on the Bruce Wayne re-design (maybe because he was rarely used in the Justice League).

Luckily all this shinny-new Batness doesn’t displace Superman’s world from his own cartoon. If Clark does takes a back seat to anybody it’s Lois Lane. On the commentary the producers talked about amping up Batman’s physicality compared to his own show, but I think the entire story has found a tone that allows most situations to play broader than they would in a standalone episode of either series. At lot of that is necessary to accommodate a characters like the Joker and Harley Quinn, but it also plays out in the genre awareness shown by the terrorist leader when he figures out who Lois Lane is.

The Age of TV Heroes By Jason Hofius and George Khoury – Published by TwoMorrows Publishing – ISBN 978-1-60549-010-6

The first thing to say about The Age of TV Heroes is damn!, that’s a nice cover. Alex Ross renders DC’s four iconic TV heroes – George Reeves (The Adventures of Superman), Adam West (Batman), Jackson Bostwick (SHAZAM), and Lynda Carter (Wonder Woman) – so brilliantly that I suspect it’ll be one of the major selling points for this book.

The remit of the book is very tightly focused – this is a book about live action television superheroes, specifically adaptations of comic book superheroes although a few other series get a mention in the extensive time-line that opens the book. Each subsequent chapter focuses on a particular significant character or property so Adam West’s Batman get’s his own chapter, but George Reeves and Dean Cain’s Supermen share a chapter. Interesting Superboy (The Adventures of Superboy and Smallville) is handled separately from Superman.

For reference the chapters are:

1. A Comic Book-To-TV Hero Timeline
2. Superman/Lois & Clark
3. Batman
4. Shazam!
5. Wonder Woman
6. Spider-Man
7. Legends of the Superheroes
8. Captain America
9. Doctor Strange
10. The Incredible Hulk
11. Swamp Thing
12. Superboy/Smallville
13. The Flash
14. Vampirella
15. The Tick

Yes, you did read that right, there is a chapter on Legends of the Superheroes. There are also three “commercial breaks” focusing on the “TV Hero Movie Show Hosts”, “Salute to the Super Heroes” (the water ski show), and The Greatest American Hero. Some of these chapters are more interesting than others depending on your tastes.

The Age of TV Heroes is full-colour throughout and makes excellent use of contemporary photographs (publicity and candid) and occasionally comic-book artwork. Most of the chapters include quotes from interviews with one or more producers/actors from each show. The writers have also tried to shape the development and decline of each show into a narrative. Together this lifts the book above the usual bargain basement TV history books which are usually too cheap to get the creators’ help/input. That said the over all design of the book isn’t terribly consistent and bounces around from style-to-style each time you turn the page. Yet somehow this style does seem to strangely suit the TV superheroes.

Some of these shows have received more press that others. The pathos and tragedy surrounding The Adventures of Superman means that it’s hard to being much new to the topic. Nevertheless, that chapter does benefit with plenty of quotes from a Jack Larson (Jimmy Olsen) interview. The sections on the Legends of the Superheroes and the Salute to the Super Heroes are probably unique in covering these properties in-depth.

Jerry Whitworth a sometime contributor and commenter to this site sent me a link to a Batman and Robin parody by Channel Flip (a UK based internet tv/video station for the 18-30 guy market) called The Very Real Adventures of Batman and Robin. In this version of reality Robin is the competent one and Batman, well let’s just say it’s the closest you’re ever going to see to Ricky Gervais playing the Caped Crusader. A very British Batman and Robin.

I’ve heard the Channelflip name before as their head co-founder Wil Harris is a sometime contributor to the This Week in Tech podcast, but I had no idea they were producing stuff like this. This is a series and there are over a dozen short episodes.

Ulises Farinas is an artist and cartoonist who has become something of a web phenomena with his panoramas of Lego mini-figures showing events like Blackest Night. He’s just put out a new piece showing Batman surrounded by the detritus of the Batcave’s trophy collection. It’s caption is:

After losing his parents, he’s unable to let go of any material possessions, forever staying a emotionally stunted man-child playboy as Bruce Wayne, and a seething obsessive compulsive angry monster as Batman.

Go to Farinas’ site to see the full image.

Quotes

Superman (about Batman): In all our time working together it was the first time I saw Bruce scared. It wasn’t the aliens. Or the diamonds. Or even the Mach 6. It was just the simple and unavoidable realization that there were bigger things on the planet than him. And that’s what terrified Batman. [...] But as he’s done every day since he was eight years old, instead of being ruined by his darkest and most ruthless fears he embraces them.

Wonder Woman: So we’re on again? Once every year?Batman: That’s fine, Diana. But I think we can do better than that. And maybe even invite a few friends along in the process.Wonder Woman: Did you just say friends?Batman: I meant teammates.Superman: We know what you meant, Bruce.

Issue Credits

Writer

Brad Meltzer

Artist

Eric Wight (pgs 1-4), Dick Giordano (pg 5), Tony Harris (pg 6), George Perez (pg 7), J.H. Williams III (pg 8.), Gene Ha (pg 10), Rags Morales (pg 11), Ethan Van Sciver (pg 12), Kevin Maguire (pg 13), Adam Kubert (pg 14), Jim Lee (pg 16)

Penciller

Luke McDonnell (pg 9), Dan Jurgens (pg 15), Howard Porter (pg 17), Andy Kubert (pg 18), Phil Jimenez (pg 19), Ed Benes (pgs 20-24)

Inker

Paul Neary (pg 9), Kevin Nowlan (pg 15), Dexter Vines (pg 17), Jesse Delperdang (pg 18), Andy Lanning (pg 19), Sandra Hope (pg 20-24)

Colourist

Alex Sinclair

Letterer

Rob Leigh

Cover Artist

Michael Turner, Peter Steigerwald

Variant Cover Penciller

J. Scott Campbell

Variant Cover Inker

Sandra Hope

Variant Cover Colourist

Edgar Delgado

Assistant Editor

Jeanine Schaefer

Editor

Eddie Berganza

Synopsis “Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow”

The trinity of Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman, like other groups of Leaguers, have always met independently of the monthly Justice League meetings. Since their first loss (the Red Tornado against the Nebula Man) they’ve met annually to discuss the state of the Justice League.

Together they’ve seen the highs and lows of each other’s lives, including the wedding of Wonder Girl, the formation of the Detroit League, Batman’s excitement at recruiting the second Robin and punching out Guy Gardner, the pain of Superman’s death and Batman’s betrayal by the other Leaguers and the lengths it eventually drove him to. A year ago Alexander Luthor and Superboy-Prime’s machinations led to a fracturing of the Justice League and a loss of trust between the its members. Now after a year-long sabbatical the trinity come together to begin its reformation.

The yearly meetings continue into the near future. Together they’ll see Hal Jordan’s wedding, Luthor’s vengeance, the death of Jonathan Kent, the marriage of Diana, the discovery of a second Earth, another loss of trust between them, and the ultimate death of the Batman.

Continuity

• Wonder Woman. Batman, and Superman were all founders of the Justice League.
• Superman’s wedding gift to Donna Troy was making sure nobody threatened her wedding.
• Batman was excited about training Jason Todd.

Commentary

Variants

A variant of this issue was given away as part of DC’s package for Free Comic Book Day 2007.

Press Clippings

At the time I quoted Wizard‘s coverage of this issue… According to Wizard #175 the new series of Justice League will be getting an issue #0 issue.

“A year has gone by with these three not together,” said the writer [Brad Meltzer] of the jump after Infinite Crisis. “This is where we get to see them [Superman, Batman, and Woner Woman] re-emerge. This issue allows us to center the universe of the JLA before moving on to the first true adventure of the new team in issue #1.”

The art will be supplied by League alumni Dick Giordano, Luke McDonnell, Kevin Maguire, Dan Jurgens and Howard Porter as well as Phil Jiminez, Adam & Andy Kubert and Rags Morales.

“You have each artist doing their League,” enthused Meltzer. “When you do a jam issue, usually it’s just a bunch of good artists, but this one actually matters and has a reason behind it.”

Meltzer also revealed that the covers for the new series will be supplied by Michael Turner.

Additionally, on the flash forwards Brad Meltzer told Wizard that:

The true reason is because some of those moments are happening. Obviously I can’t say which ones in the future are happening, but there are ones that are absolutely, 100-percent happening. Some of those I stumbled upon and said, “This is what I want to do,” and Dan (DiDio) told me we were actually doing that. And one of them I said, “Can we do this?! And he said, “That’s a good idea, we should do that.”

The only artist DC wouldn’t let Brad Meltzer approach about drawing a sequence was Simone Bianchi.

League History and the Big Three

The first flashback is to immediately after the events in Justice League of America (vol. 1) #9 (Feb 1962), just after the foundation of the Justice League – February 1959 in the pre-Crisis timeline. As originally told Flash (Barry Allen), Green Lantern (Hal Jordan), the Martian Manhunter (J’onn J’onzz), Aquaman (Arthur Curry), and Wonder Woman (Diana) individually fought alien invaders from the planet Appellax. They then came together to fight a sixth invader (the famous wood alien) and tracked a seventh down just in time to see it defeated by Batman (Bruce Wayne) and Superman (Clark Kent).

Over the years there have been a few adventures retroactively added prior to that invasion attempt, notably the White Martian invasion revealed in Justice League of America (vol. 1) #114 (Dec 1974) and the disappearance of Triumph in Justice League America #92 (Sept 1994), but the Appellaxian Invasion is still regarded as the definitive origin of the Justice League. However, Superman and Batman’s role in the formation of the League was not that great. Their original involvement with the League was played down as their respective editors feared that they would be overexposed. Even in the comic book origin their involvement is separate from the other five heroes – they don’t fight the wood alien.

We now jump forward twenty-five years to immediately after the Crisis on Infinite Earths and DC Comics’s decision to reboot the origins of Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman. It was retroactively decided that these three had never been members of the Justice League. Superman and Batman were removed because they weren’t considered team players and Wonder Woman because she didn’t appear until long after the League debued. She was replaced by Black Canary for a retelling of the origin in Secret Origins #32 (Nov 1988) (by Keith Giffen and Peter David) and for JLA: Year One #1-12 (Jan — Dec 1998) (by Mark Waid and Brian Augustyn) a twelve-part mini-series focusing of the League’s early days.

While the replacement of one Diana with another Dinah worked well within the fictional history it didn’t stop the feeling that many people had that the big three should really have been part of the early League. Over the years the timing of Wonder Woman’s debut has slowly slipped backwards in time and flashbacks show her participating in events she wouldn’t have otherwise been around for. Superman and Batman were eventually reintroduced to the League in John Ostrander’s JLA: Incarnations #2 (Aug 2001). The weight of history was slowly reintegrating the trinity back into League history. This was finally acknowledged in Infinite Crisis #7 (June 2006) when the realignment of the New Earth allowed DC to state (as shown below) that the big-three had been part of the League all along.

The flashbacks in this issue are really about re-establishing the big three’s place within the Justice League and adding Wonder Woman to the popular Superman/Batman dynamic – the rekindling of the World’s Finest. However, the split between Superman/Batman and the other Leaguers goes all the way back to the DCs Golden Age. In the 1940s Batman and Superman were run by one half of the company while the other heroes were predominately run by the other half of the company (at one point they were actually two separate companies). That’s why the World Finest were only ever bit part players in the Justice Society, Earth-Two Superman’s involvement with the Justice Society is as much a retcon as Black Canary’s addition to the early Justice League.

It’s interesting to compare the last JLA series by Mark Waid, Grank Morrison, and Joe Kelly with the original series by Gardner Fox and his successors. The modern series really focused on the big-three, particularly with Superman as the permanent chairman and Batman as the Morrison-esque Bat-god. While in the classic series the big-three were just normal members who served their month as the rotating chairman. Of the three it’s Batman who has the biggest League involvement as it’s Bruce Wayne who bankrolls the team and he even quits to form the Outsiders when he disagrees with the direction the League is taking. By comparison Superman’s involvement with the League is almost passive.

Opinion

The pressure on Brad Meltzer to deliver with this new series was immense. As Wonderfly put it on the Toonzone Forums:

Two years ago, Brad Meltzer tore the Justice League apart in the now infamous Identity Crisis miniseries, and now he begins the process of putting them back together.

He set the bar so high in Identity Crisis that I was afraid he’d have been hard pressed to match it. However, match it he does. This zero issue is arguably the best of his run (baring the Eisner winning Vixen/Red Arrow issue). In Comic Bulletin’s review jam Kevin Brown described the issue succinctly,

Meltzer has written a near masterpiece here. He’s done what damn few writers are capable of doing: keeping all of the continuity relevant and not trying to over explain it. It’s essentially one page of “1960,” one page “sometime in the future,” then one page “1973,” and so on and so forth. At first it’s a little disconcerting, but that has more to do with the wide disparity of artwork presented in this issue. Though once you’re able to fully see what Meltzer is doing, you’re totally sucked into the story.

It’s a marvellous trick using the style of each area. Many liked it, but there were dissenting voices like Adam White who argued that

In each era represented Meltzer portrays each of the Big Three with their various personalities from the histories of their individual books; while he does so accurately, all this does is serve to confuse any new readers and frustrate existing ones because the story lacks any real point.

I would agree that its hard to judge this zeroth issue as it’s a bridging piece between the dissolution of the League during the Infinite Crisis and its reformation next issue. In this context the alternating flash-backs and flash-forwards work well and the different artists are a good match to their eras. I particularly like George Perez’s Wedding of Donna Troy and Kevin Maguire’s One Punch. In general the flashbacks work better than the flash forwards, but the second Earth has certainly got by curiosity peaked.

While the story is essentially about the trio, the real focus of the flash-backs and the flash-forwards are Batman and his relationship with the League. Meltzer gives an interesting spin to the evolution of Batman’s character. His excitement and commitment to the League really makes the Identity Crisis mind wipe much more hurtful. The same sense comes through with his excitement about the new Robin. This is a side of Batman that we rarely see, but the fragility of his feelings sets up his reactions to the deaths of Jason Todd and Superman. Handling loss so badly starts to explain why he pushed everybody away from himself and slowly succumbs to the paranoia that plagued his later pre-Infinite Crisis appearances.

The Verdict

Characters

I’ve been a bit fast and loose with the way I list characters. Murray Ward’s original JLA Index series listed seven categories:

The seven character categories are: Feature Characters, characters to whom the title of the features refers; Guest Stars, characters from other comics who have a major role in the story; Supporting Characters, characters who appear frequently in stories with the feature characters; Villains, the antagonists of the feature characters, Guest Appearances, characters from other comics who have a minor role in the story; Other Characters, characters who do not fall into any one of the five previous categories; and Cameo Appearances, characters who do not actually appear in a story but whose images are seen, for example, in photographs, flashbacks, or reminiscences.

I’ve always tried to follow the spirit of that, but the lines behind what is a Guest Star, Guest Appearance and Other Characters have become blurred. This quote appears above as a reminder to me of what I should be working towards.

Feature Characters

Justice League of America (technically still disbanded)

• Batman (Bruce Wayne)
• Superman (Clark Kent)
• Wonder Woman (Diana Prince)

Villains

• Lex Luthor (splash page flash forward)

Guest Appearances

• Donna Troy (flash back to her wedding to Terry Long)
• Green Arrow I (Oliver Queen, flash forward to Hal Jordan’s wedding)
• Green Lantern Hal Jordan (single-panel flashback & flash forward to his wedding)
• Robin I (Dick Grayson, flashback to Donna Troy’s wedding)
• Robin II (Jason Todd, behind-the-scenes, Batman talks about recruiting him)

Other Characters

• Martha Kent (Superman’s adopted mother, flash forward to just after Jonathan Kent’s funeral)
• Terry Long (flashback at his wedding to Donna Troy)

Cameos

• Aquaman, Atom I, Atom II, Black Canary, Captain Marvel I, Cyborg, Doctor Mid-Nite I, Elongated Man, Firestorm I, Flash I, Flash II, Green Lantern (Alan Scott) Green Lantern Guy Gardner, Hawkman I, Hawkgirl I, Hourman I, Martian Manhunter, Power Girl, Red Tornado II, Sandman I, Spectre I, Starfire, Supergirl II, Vibe, Vixen, Zatanna (single-panel photos or flash forward/back cameos, where not otherwise mentioned above)

Annotations

Pages 1-4: Art: Eric Wight. Flash back 1. Wight began his career in animation, but was enlisted by O.C. writer Allan Heinberg to produce art for a subplot that involved one of the OC’s characters becoming a comic book artist. It was also Heinberg who suggested Wight’s name to Brad Metlzer when he heard he was looking for somebody to duplicate Mike Sekowsky’s style for the opening segment of this issue. It’s implied that the old World Finest adventures are still canon – Superman and Batman know each other’s secret identities and Robin is mentioned despite Batman not recruiting Robin until later in the fictional timeline. These could all be retcons, but it’s just as likely that the flashbacks are being told using the canon that was established when they were set.

Page 5: Art: Dick Giordano. Flash back 2. Dick Giordano was JLA inker during the early 1970s, his professional line lifted many pencillers work and he was the inker of choice for many League covers. His first issue was Justice League of America (vol. 1) #102 (Oct 1972) where the Red Tornado “died” and the issue just before this flashback. It was the League’s biggest story to date and spun out of the League’s one hundredth issue. The Seven Soldiers of Victory were DC’s second superhero team after the Justice Society. In Justice League of America (vol. 1) #100 (Aug 1972) it was revealed that they’d been lost throughout time during an encounter with the Nebula Man. A joint team of the JSA/JLA combined their might to find the missing heroes and to finally defeat the Nebula Man, but the Red Tornado was killed in the conflict. At the time the he was a member of the Justice Society and was not yet a member of the Justice League. The Seven Soldiers team was revived as a connected wave of mini-series by Grant Morrison.

A side effect of adding Wonder Woman back to the start of the League is that it shifts her modern origin back by about five years on the fictional DC timeline. We don’t know what Wonder Woman’s adventures were during that time, but her appearance in the second flashback would imply that some of her pre-Crisis adventures – notably her depowerment as Diana Prince – have been reintroduced to the canon.

Page 6: Art: Tony Harris. Flash forward 1. The Wedding of Hal Jordan. We are not given that many clues about the timing of the flash forwards. The implication is that Hal’s the last one to get married of the old Leaguers. Oliver Queen’s the best man. The bride is blond, but her face isn’t shown. Her skin colour would rule out the Green Lantern Arisia. The caption seems to imply that Clark is left out of the trio for some reason, could a deeper connection been Bruce and Diana be in the works. Joe Kelly and the JLU cartoon played with the idea of attraction between Batman and Wonder Woman, but nothing ever came of it.

Diana mentions Donna’s weddings plural (see below). She also mentions “What Dick did with Harvey” which could mean that Dick Grayson has reformed Two-Face – an allusion to Dick’s recent time with Batman. It matches a similar quip by the Batman of the 851st century during the DC One Million cross-over who says that Batman II reformed Two-Face II.

Page 7: Art: George Perez. Flash back 3. The marriage of Donna Troy (the first Wonder Girl, Diana’s sister) to Terry Long from Tales of the Teen Titans #50 (Feb 1985) recreated here by George Perez, its original artist. This is Donna’s first marriage, her “second marriage” was to the Titan of Myth Coeus. Diana’s mention of Dick not yet surpassing Bruce is a back reference to the first flashback where its implied that Dick has actually surpassed Bruce by managing to reform Harvey Dent, something Bruce recently failed to do at the start of the One Year Later continuity.

Page 8: Art: J.H.Williams. Flash forward 2. Luthor has the kryptonite signet ring. Luthor has two “sons” that we know about. The first was Jerry White, the result of an affair with Perry White’s wife, the second is Connor Kent, the recently deceased Superboy. Superboy was a clone of Superman, but Cadmus scientists couldn’t completely decipher Kryptonian DNA so they used human DNA as a template – Luthor made sure it was his DNA that was used as a template meaning that Superman and Luthor are both Connor’s “fathers.” This confrontation would presumably be Luthor’s revenge against the League for the death of Connor during Infinite Crisis #6 (May 2006) in an alternative future where Conner didn’t come back to life (Final Crisis Legion of Three-Worlds).

Page 9: Art: Luke McDonnell and Paul Neary. Flash back 4. McDonnell was the last penciller of the original Justice League of America series during the end of the Detriot era League and Neary was the inker during Brian Hitch’s short time as JLA penciller. The Detroit League was created by Gerry Conway as an early 1980s relaunch of the Justice League. The satellite was destroyed by an alien invasion (that’s why the trio are meeting in Challengers Mountain) that the League barely defeated because members weren’t able to respond. Rotating chairman Aquaman disbanded the League and reformed it with a handful of old Leaguers and four new heroes – Vibe, Vixen, Gypsy, and Steel II (not John Henry).

At the time of the invasion Superman and Wonder Woman were visiting Earth-Two and confronted Aquaman about the change in Justice League of America (vol. 1) #239 (June 1985). This flash back presumably happens shortly after than confrontation. Batman is referring to Vixen when he mentions “only one of them has has training” as she’s the only one of the four to have appeared before joining the JLA. Diana suggests that Batman helps train them. He turns her down here, but changes his mind in Justice League of America (vol. 1) #250 (May 1986).

Page 10: Art: Gene Ha. Flash forward 3. Shortly after the funeral of Jonathan Kent. This scene is based on a mix of old school Superboy and Superman the Movie. In the original comics both Jonathan and Martha Kent were dead. John Byrne’s reboot kept them both alive whilst the movie series only kept Martha Kent alive. The death of Jonathan Kent would move the comics continuity even closer to the movies. The tunnel was built by Clark as Superboy so that he could exit the Kent Farm without being spotted. This is the first sign that it exists post-Crisis on Infinite Earths. The Jonathan Kent character was still alive when this appeared in 2006, but he died of a heart attack in Action Comics #870 (December 2008).

Page 11: Art: Rags Morales. Flash back 5. The Batcave just after the first appearance of the second Robin, Jason Todd. Diana mentions Donna’s reaction if she ever took on another apprentice, but she’d do that herself years later with Cassie Sandsmark. This scene seems to back up the idea that we’re seeing scenes set in the old continuity as that’s Jason Todd’s pre-Crisis circus costume in the glass case. Pre-Crisis Todd’s origin was a duplicate of Dick Grayson’s circus origin (Detective Comics #526 (May 1983)), post-Crisis he was a just street punk. Todd was killed by the Joker and Batman kept his Robin costume in that case as a memorial. Todd was returned to life as a side effect of Superboy-Prime’s actions in Infinite Crisis.

Page 12: Art: Ethan Van Sciver. Flash forward 4. Paradise Island shortly before the marriage of Diana to an unnamed male. Clark and Bruce are both married. Note the Batman Begins style ribs on Batman’s cape. Diana loosing her immortality by marrying a man is a very pre-Crisis idea, not sure if this has been established post-Crisis. If this really was following pre-Crisis continuity then the only man she could be marrying is Steve Trevor.

Page 13: Art: Kevin Maguire. Flash back 6. The punch that they’re discussing occurred in Justice League #5 (Sept 1987). Batman was leader of the League and Green Lantern Guy Gardner had been constantly undermining his authority. Gardner finally tried to pick a fight, but Batman knocking him unconscious with a single punch.

Maguire was the regular artist on Justice League and illustrates this flashback. If Batman’s pose in the last panel is familiar it’s because its identical to Gardner’s stance moments before Batman punches him. This scene would have had to happen a little while after the real incident as the JLI Embassy(s) weren’t established until Justice League International (vol. 1) #8 (Dec 1987).

Page 14: Art: Adam Kubert. Flash forward 5. Probably the toughest flash forward to decipher. Its a new incarnation of the JLA Satellite, Superman’s alone as Batman and Wonder Woman haven’t turned up. Something has driven a wedge between them again, possibly something Batman’s done. I think the main point of this scene is to tease us with a “New Satellite”. I’m not sure if we’re meant to read something from the Trophy Room, but the items on display are (left-to-right) Aztek’s helmet, a globe (origin unknown), Green Arrow’s arrows, a box of something (wooden splinters from the wood alien?), a Starro fish, an Amazo, Despero’s infamous chessboard, and that looks like Bizarro’s head.

Page 15: Art: Dan Jurgens & Kevin Nowlan. Flash back 7. The Death of Superman. Dan Jurgens was writing and drawing JLA at the time, he brought Superman back into the League after a long absence and tied the title into “The Death of Superman” (which he was also co-writing and drawing). In terms of League history the Death of Superman is important because, in my opinion, it started the slow rot that finally resulted in the franchise being culled and relaunched with the third series. Superman’s tattered cape on the pole is Jimmy Olsen’s iconic photograph and the cover of Superman (vol. 2) #75 (Jan 1993).

Page 16: Art: Jim Lee. Flash forward 6. The discovery of a new Earth. As they note this isn’t the first time they’ve encountered a parallel Earth. The note about the Flash finding the new world is a nod to the first appearance of Earth-Two in The Flash (vol. 1) #123 (Sept 1961). This seems a very generic flash forward, but the League did have their own crossover with the Tangent Universe a couple of years later. It was set-up in issue #16 (Feb 2008) and then followed up by Tangent: Superman’s Reign (2008).

Page 17: Art: Howard Porter & Dexter Vines. Flash back 8. This is a flash back to just after the epilogue to “Tower of Babel” (JLA #43-46 (July — Oct 2000)). Howard Porter was the main artist during Grant Morrison’s JLA and this story (Mark Waid’s first) was the last one he illustrated. Wonder Woman mentions the death of Jason, the second Robin who Batman was so excited about in Flash Back 5. It was his death that prompted the change in Batman’s characterisation to the increasing brutal loner who pushed all of his friends away. His increasing paranoia made him keep secret files on his JLA team-mates. “Tower of Babel” was about those files falling into the wrong hands and the League’s reaction to they’re existence. It many ways it was the first shot in the disintegration of the trio’s relationship that eventually led to the events of Infinite Crisis.

Page 18: Art: Andy Kubert and Jesse Delperdang. Flash forward 7. This flash forward is an homage to Frank Millar’s The Dark Knight Returns setting – a bleak and dark future where Batman went under ground and was forced to fight Superman. Clark mentions he’s glad Diana came back which could be a reference to the split implied in Flash forward 5. Crime Alley, the setting for their meeting, is where Bruce Wayne’s parents were murdered.

Page 19: Art Phil Jimenez and Andy Lanning. Flash back 9. The first panel is from Infinite Crisis #1 (Dec 2005) when the trio met in the wreckage of the JLA Watchtower. Panels 3 and 5 are from the end of Infinite Crisis #7 (June 2006) when they decided to each take some time off, Clark had lost his powers, Bruce needed to reconnect with Dick and Tim, Diana went elsewhere, and then meet up again one year later. That skipped year is played out in 52. Jimenez and Lanning illustrated Infinite Crisis. The other two panels are a flash back to the Batcave meeting at the start of this issue.

Pages 20-24: Art Ed Benes and Sandra Hope. The Present. The meeting one year after the last flash back so this is the first meeting after the three “One Year Later” stories by James Robinson in Detective Comics/Batman, Kurt Busiek and Geoff Johns in Action Comics/Superman (vol. 3), and Allen Heinberg in Wonder Woman (vol. 3). The photographs scattered on the table are Supergirl, Captain Marvel, Green Arrow, Vixen, Hawkman, Green Lantern Hal Jordan, Red Tornado, Black Canary, Flash, Aquaman, Power Girl, Zatanna, Cyborg. I think the one on the edge next to Zatanna may be the Huntress.