13 HIGHLIGHTS From WORLD’S BEST COMICS #1: An 85th Anniversary Salute
The precursor to World’s Finest… By PETER BOSCH For fans of DC’s superheroes at the time, February 1941 was turning out to be a great month: On the 7th, All-Star Comics #4 came out — featuring the Justice Society’s first real adventure — and then three days later, on February 10, 1941 (85 years ago), there was… World’s Best Comics #1, a 100-page issue (including covers) was another gathering of heroes in individual tales — this time with Superman, Batman, and Robin added to the mix. (Not since New York World’s Fair 1940 had this happened. Regrettably, the Man of Steel and the Dynamic Duo would not appear together inside World’s Best Comics or World’s Finest Comics (the new name of the series starting with the second issue) until #71 (July-Aug. 1954). The contents of World’s Best Comics #1 are a smorgasbord of heroes and a showcase for the some of the best comic-book talent of era, including Gardner Fox, Harry Lampert, Bob Kane, Bill Finger, and Henry Boltinoff. Here are 13 highlights: — 1. The issue’s introductory page features many of the characters found within, drawn by the artists associated with them. — 2. Superman. The Metropolis Marvel led off the issue with a 13-page tale of a mad scientist (weren’t they all?) who has learned how to control rain and uses that to blackmail a private business owner by causing floods at his projects. Superman steps in to battle the madman, including stopping a smashed dam’s flood waters in a manner very similar to the many-decades-later Superman: The Movie. — 3. Red, White and Blue. The next heroes up are military buddies U.S. Marine Sgt. Red Dugan, the Army’s Whitey Smith, and the Navy’s Blooey J. Blue, together a special unit of G2. Red, White and Blue, co-created by Jerry Siegel and William Smith, first appeared in All-American Comics #1 (Apr. 1939) and could be found in that title until issue #71 (Mar. 1946), as well as in World’s Finest Comics #2 (Summer 1941) to #7 (Fall 1942). The story in World’s Best Comics #1 has them testing an incredible new tank. Afterwards, the trio is out on the town, where Blooey overstuffs himself with two Welsh rarebits. Before you can say “Dreams of the Rarebit Fiend,” Blooey fantasizes he single-handedly recaptures the tank after nefarious types steal...
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