Posted By Dan Greenfield on Jan 27, 2025 | 5 comments

MORRISON MONDAYS!

By BILL MORRISON

In honor of John Romita’s birthday this past Friday, I offer another in my series of “What if – – ?” cover tributes. In this case, my inspiration came from an interview that John did with Roy Thomas, published in the TwoMorrows book, John Romita… And All That Jazz.

The two discuss Romita’s stint on romance books at DC Comics in the late ’50s and early ’60s, prior to his move to Marvel to work on Daredevil and, soon after, The Amazing Spider-Man. Although John had done plenty of Westerns, adventure, and even superhero work for various publishers, he was typecast at DC as a romance artist. John shared the following with Roy: “In my daydreams, one of those (DC) editors would say to me, ‘How would you like to do Batman’ or something, ‘as a filler?’ I was itching for it, but I didn’t have the confidence to go in and ask anybody.”

So, this piece is my answer to the intriguing question, “What if John Romita had found the confidence to ask editor Julie Schwartz for a job on Batman and had never gone to Marvel?”

Of course, the possibilities are endless, and given Romita’s talents, he would have drawn covers that were more action-packed, probably working from dynamic layouts by art director Carmine Infantino, and not anything like my melodramatic super hero/romance mash-up. But since I’m not a great Romita imitator I decided to swipe this Young Love cover by John that was published from inventoried art in 1966, the year following his departure from DC.

Also, in case anyone is wondering, I felt that Batwoman would make a more suitable member of this love triangle than Batgirl. She and Batman had an established romantic relationship, even though she disappeared from comics pages in 1964. Plus, the new Barbara Gordon Batgirl would not have her debut until the January 1967 issue of Detective Comics. So here, Batwoman returns after a two-year absence!

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