BATMAN’S HOT-LINE | 13th Dimension, Comics, Creators, Culture

Apr20

The Bronze Age Glory of SUPERHERO STICK-ONS

Posted by Dan Greenfield on Apr 20, 2026

The Bronze Age Glory of SUPERHERO STICK-ONS

Wouldn’t it be cool if these were brought back? — UPDATED 4/20/26: Diggin’ in the vault time — when we go deep into the recesses of the shadowy subterranean 13th Dimension headquarters for great columns that deserve another look. This one first ran in August 2021. Right on! — Dan — Over the last several years, reprints, re-releases and replicas have been all the rage, whether we’re talking comics, books, toys or other ephemera. Marvel, especially, has had a fun go of it, with reprints of ’60s and ’70s trading card-size stickers; vending machine mini-books; and — most notably — a portfolio of classic black-light posters, which is now slated for October. Every once in a while, we’ll run 13 CLASSIC TOYS WE WANT TO SEE RE-RELEASED and I certainly would love a full run of 1970s Slurpee cups, all fresh and new. Most of these fantasies are exactly that, though: a desire for what once was, even though it may be impractical. Nevertheless, you know what I would really love to see again? The DC and Marvel “stick-ons” produced by Our Way Studios that proliferated in the ’70s. I had one set: the giant sheet of DC heroes you could order through comics. I was probably 5 and this was how I learned that Mom really doesn’t want you to put stickers on the walls — even though that’s what the ad suggested. So almost as quickly as my heroes went up — Batman, Robin, Superman and so on — they went back down again. The only one that survived beyond the first few days was a Flash sticker I put on the box I kept my View-Master in. I also didn’t realize at the time that there were Marvel stick-ons too — and I certainly would have wanted any of Spider-Man. Anyway, it’s nearly impossible to land the stickers on those big, comprehensive sheets. But I was able to grab four complementary DC sets through eBay and man, they are the bee’s knees. I think every one of those DC designs you got on the big sheet — stock images of varying sizes by the likes of Neal Adams and Murphy Anderson — is represented in these four sets with the strange exception of Green Lantern. I scanned them and wanted to put them out in the world...

Apr19

These 13 POISON IVY Animated Appearances Made Her a DC Star

Posted by Dan Greenfield on Apr 19, 2026

These 13 POISON IVY Animated Appearances Made Her a DC Star

A 60th ANNIVERSARY SALUTE: The one-time second-rate Batman villain debuted in April 1966… By CHRIS FRANKLIN Poison Ivy first bloomed 60 years ago in Batman #181, on sale April 19, 1966, with a cover by Carmine Infantino and Murphy Anderson, a story by Robert Kanigher, and interior art by Sheldon Moldoff and Joe Giella. After first using her seductive, poison kiss on the Caped Crusader, she returned just two issues later in Issue #183, and then largely disappeared. She’d been created with the Batman TV show in mind — the producers wanted more female villains — but never made it on screen. (She was, however, written as Catwoman’s assistant in an early draft of the two-parter that guest-starred Lesley Gore. By the time the show aired, she’d evolved into “Pussycat.”) So while Ivy didn’t take root in Gotham right away, she did spread throughout the DC Universe — but not until the ’70s. Even then, she rarely made solo appearances, instead popping up on various teams of bad-guys: She appeared in Superman’s Girlfriend Lois Lane battling the Thorn, joined the Injustice Gang, the Super-Foes and the Secret Society of Super-Villains across issues of Justice League of America, Super Friends and the SSSOV’s own title. She even fought Wonder Woman in a pair of tales in World’s Finest Comics. But other than a few appearances together with other Bat-rogues and a one-off confrontation with Batgirl and the Huntress in Batman Family, she was more of a utility villain, rather than a true foe of the Masked Manhunter. In the 1980s, she returned to Gotham City, even with a fair amount of hype, matching wits with Batman in his own title and Detective Comics. But then Crisis on Infinite Earths came, and in its aftermath, Ivy got a new origin — but one tied to the Atom villain and Swamp Thing supporting character Jason Woodrue. She appeared in Swamp Thing, Secret Origins, the acclaimed Black Orchid mini-series, and joined the Suicide Squad. So, what made her one of the definitive Batman villains who spring to mind when you get past the eternal four of Joker, Catwoman, Penguin and Riddler? Batman: The Animated Series. Poison Ivy’s inclusion as one of the Dark Knight’s recurring foes firmly planted her in the upper echelon of his rogues gallery. As with many lesser-developed villains, the showrunners rethought...

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