BRAVE AND THE BOLD #64: BATMAN’s Memorably Bizarre Showdown With ECLIPSO
Dig this ECLIPSE DAY excerpt from Jim Beard’s new B&B history guide… — Hey, you mighta heard that there’s a big ol’ eclipse Monday. Of course, that means it’s time to celebrate the greatest eclipse-based character in all of comicdom — ECLIPSO! Dig Jim Beard’s piece below, including an EXCLUSIVE EXCERPT from his new Brave and the Bold guidebook, Breaking Bold and Brave. Then click here to check out 13 ECLIPSO COVERS. Far out! — By JIM BEARD They say you never forget your first eclipse — for me, it’s that I’ve never forgotten my first Eclipso. I’m talking about DC’s “Hero and Villain In One Man,” of course, Bruce Gordon, the on-again-off-again baddie called Eclipso, one of the company’s underappreciated characters, in my opinion. All the eclipse fever we’ve been experiencing has sent me down Memory Lane, and recalling my first brushes with the dude and the impact he’d left on me… you might say it’s been a total Eclipso of my heart. Looking back, I see my first Eclipso viewing came in Justice League of America #109, coincidentally the very first JLA my dad ever bought me back in 1973. He seemed like the perfect villain for the League to battle and I knew right then and there he was something special — and creepy. I didn’t actually get to see an “old” Eclipso story until 1974’s World’s Finest #226 reprinted the third Bruce Gordon tale from House of Secrets #63. I had no idea the story was more than 10 years old at that point (older than me!), but I totally grooved on the Alex Toth art. Thankfully, I had only to wait until World’s Finest #228 for another dose of the black diamond’s totality on my young soul. The real kicker came in mid-1976’s Super-Team Family #5. That crazy little book gave me the stuff my dreams are made of: A reprint of the Batman-Eclipso “team-up” from The Brave and the Bold #64. There it was, my favorite hero in the same story with my new-favorite bad guy, all from the pen of Bob Haney, soon to become one of my favorite comic book scripters. B&B #64 is remarkable in many ways, but one of the most intriguing things about it to me is the fact that Haney was ahead of the curve in “camping...
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