A BIRTHDAY SALUTE: Columnist Jim Beard visits Earth-B…
I am in the thick of a Brave and the Bold re-read (I’m up to 1977) and it’s been, obviously, a Bob Haney tour de force. (And Jim Aparo too, natch!) Well, the late writer was born 96 years ago on March 15, 1926, so it’s time for a birthday tribute.
Now, I was tempted to write this myself, but I still have a number of years to go in my read, so 13th Dimension columnist Jim Beard — a big-time Haney fan — is going to take you on a tour of Earth-B. (Though I will chime in from the Bat-peanut gallery a few times.)
Oh, and if you dig Jim’s writing on Batman, don’t forget the trilogy of Batman ’66 episode guides that he’s edited (all on sale now): Zlonk! Zok! Zowie! The Subterranean Blue Grotto Essays on Batman ’66 – Season One, Biff! Bam! Ee-Yow! The Subterranean Blue Grotto Essays on Batman ’66 – Season Two and Oooff! Boff! Splatt! The Subterranean Blue Grotto Guide to Batman ’66 – Season Three.
You can click here, here and here, respectively, to order each.
Here’s Jim:
By JIM BEARD
Bob Haney… what can I possibly say about Bob Haney? How about this: Bob Haney is one of the prime architects of my love for comic books.
Pretty strong statement? You bet it is! Bob’s work—specifically on early 1970s issues of The Brave and the Bold—captured my imagination as a young comic reader and I’ve never escaped from it to this day. It’s been said many times before that his stories were a universe all their own, and when it comes right down to it, I’m pretty sure that’s one of the things I love about them the most.
Happy Birthday, Bob! The highest compliment I can give you is that I didn’t even have to re-read these 13 stories of yours for this article—they are forever seared into my brain:
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Brave and the Bold #54: Kid Flash, Aqualad and Robin. I read this as a reprint in 100-Page Super Spectacular #DC-21 in 1973, and while I read a lot of reprints in those days, this one has stayed with me more than most. I love Bob’s handling of the proto-Teen Titans, the “generation gap” between them and their mentors, and the super-creepy Mr. Twister.
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Brave and the Bold #59: Batman and Green Lantern. There’s something SO Silver Age about this story, another of my fave reprints. Bob created a really cool villain in the Time Commander, one that deserved to become a much bigger star than he did.
Dan adds: Batman’s first B&B team-up!
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Brave and the Bold #64: Batman vs. Eclipso. Ah, here’s where the Haneyverse begins for me… Batman falling in love and getting engaged—in continuity! And, wait for it, a super-creepy Eclipso and a villainess that should’ve had more life past this story, Queen Bee. At least she had a card in the Whitman 1966 Batman Card Game.
Dan adds: This story is off the hook, with some seriously groovy Win Mortimer art. Batman is written completely out of character — he even calls his gal pal “Baby” — but it doesn’t matter because this is one of the most entertaining Bat-stories of the Silver Age.
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Brave and the Bold #78: Batman and Wonder Woman, guest-starring Batgirl. Bob really liked stories about love and super-heroes, I guess. This was such a tour de force to me as a kid, with three heroes—how cool was it to have both Batgirl and Wonder Woman in an adventure with Batman?—and, yeah, super-super-creepy Copperhead.
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Brave and the Bold #92: Batman and the Bat-Squad. If you’ve never read this one, track a copy down and give it a go. The Bat-Squad was a solid idea, but maybe Bob was a little ahead of his time, a time when readers wanted colorful costumes and weird gimmicks, not a group of civilians helping Batman. Still, I dig it the most and would love to revive the Squad in the modern era.
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Brave and the Bold #110: Batman and Wildcat. This is where I came in. I got this one fresh and clean off the spinner rack and I have to tell you, it was a heckuva way to jump into this series and the then-new work of Bob Haney. And this is also one of the prime reasons I’m a Wildcat fan today. Thank goodness for Bob’s obsession with the character.
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Brave and the Bold #111: Batman and the Joker. It was brave. It was bold. It was brassy. If I remember the letter columns correctly, it was even a little controversial. Only Bob Haney could have done it. And he did.
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Brave and the Bold #112: Batman and Mister Miracle. Full disclosure: I met Bob Haney’s Scott Free before Jack Kirby’s Scott Free, and it was right here in this amazing adventure. From its explosive opening to its weird-ass ending with aliens, it’s one of my most favorite B&Bs of all.
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Brave and the Bold #115: Batman and the Atom. Another story that has no business working, but Bob makes it seem like a piece of cake. It should have had supreme ramifications in Bruce Wayne’s life, but as insane as it is, it’s just another day on the job for him and his pal the Atom.
Dan adds: My all-time fave B&B story. It was even adapted into an episode of the Batman: The Brave and the Bold TV show.
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Brave and the Bold #120: Batman and Kamandi. Full disclosure: I met Bob Haney’s Kamandi before Jack Kirby’s Kamandi, and it was right here in this terrific tale. Being a big Planet of the Apes fan, I took a leap of faith with Batman and the Last Boy on Earth and wound up loving this stand-out Haneyverse opus.
Dan adds: Totally agree with Jim. A memorable issue that allows you to completely buy-in on this bizarre team-up.
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Brave and the Bold #124: Batman and Sgt. Rock (featuring Bob Haney, Jim Aparo and editor Murray Boltinoff themselves.) Good Lord, how did that man come up with this stuff issue after issue? This was mind-blowing when I was 10 in 1975, though it’s probably old hat these days. Still, I love the way Bob doesn’t really preface this story with any sort of explanation, but simply co-mingles fiction and the real world as if it was a walk in the park… and for him, it was.
Dan adds: This issue is completely bonkers, with Haney, Aparo and Boltinoff all playing key roles in the story. There’s a fine line between clever and stupid and this ish definitely falls in the former category.
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Brave and the Bold #150: Batman and ?. I won’t spoil the surprise if you’ve never read this one but suffice to say it was a Big Deal for DC fans back in the day, and probably for Bob, too.
Dan adds: Good story, but personally I would have put B&B #85’s famous Green Arrow revamp, and Issue #79’s “The Track of the Hook,” starring Batman and Deadman, on my own list. Both also featured gorgeous Neal Adams art.
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Brave and the Bold #154: Batman and Metamorpho. Bob’s last B&B go-round with Metamorpho, another of his go-to co-stars for Bats. End of an era? You bet, but Bob does it with style and class, and I expected nothing less.
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MORE
— PAUL KUPPERBERG: My 13 Favorite JIM APARO BRAVE AND THE BOLD Covers. Click here.
— The TOP 13 BATMAN: THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD Episodes. Click here.
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Jim Beard has pounded out adventure fiction since he sold a story to DC Comics in 2002. He’s gone on to write official Star Wars and Ghostbusters comics stories and contributed articles and essays to several volumes of comic book history. His prose work includes his own creations, but also licensed properties such as Planet of the Apes, X-Files, Spider-Man, Kolchak the Night Stalker and Captain Action. In addition, Jim provided regular content for Marvel.com, the official Marvel Comics website, for 17 years.
Check out his latest releases, a Green Hornet novella How Sweet the Sting, his first epic fantasy novel The Nine Nations Book One: The Sliding World, and the most recent Batman ’66 books of essays he’s edited: Zlonk! Zok! Zowie! The Subterranean Blue Grotto Essays on Batman ’66 – Season One, Biff! Bam! Ee-Yow! The Subterranean Blue Grotto Essays on Batman ’66 – Season Two and Oooff! Boff! Splatt! The Subterranean Blue Grotto Guide to Batman ’66 – Season Three.
March 15, 2022
Wow. You guys are awesome capturing this. Yes indeed to these and more!
What is it that makes these so endearing to Silver/Bronze Age fans? The stories are bonkers and costumes flashy. So much would not make sense in a real world.
Do we care?
Heck no! Bring it on! I think it might be nice to retire to the Haneyverse. Now, where is my cosmic treadmill?
I started in ‘75 and Brave and the Bold was a must on my spinner rack search.
That cover with Starman and Black Canary so good.
I’m glad I got most of the b/w Essentials when they came out. I can enjoy them again. I’ll have to take them out.
I hope in 40 years, today’s comics are as memorable to their readers as these are to us.
Thanks for sharing the magic every day in different ways.
March 15, 2022
Glad you dug it! I personally would like to have a whole sub-line of DC Haneyverse titles!
March 15, 2022
Re: B&B 112–you get not only the Mister Miracle team up, but also a reprint of the Green Lantern team-up from issue 59 that you mentioned further above!
March 16, 2022
Another reason that book is one of my top fave comics.
March 15, 2022
Yes, B&B 79 and 85 are true classics, but probably missed the list because they actually were consistent with the continuity of the day! I like this list as it is: The best of the truly out-there Earth-B chronicles. And now that you mention it, I think Grant Morrison missed an opportunity by not bringing back the Bat-Squad when he was doing his “everything fits” Batman run.
March 16, 2022
OMG, yeah – Grant would have been PERFECT to bring back the Squad!
March 16, 2022
I loved B&B…loved it so much that I invested in the omnibus volumes. I loved Bob Haney – he thru lots of crazy stuff against the wall to see what stuck…and if it didn’t, so what? He would just try something different next time. Fun book.
March 16, 2022
As a kid, I enjoyed Haney’s stories in Brave and the Bold and World’s Finest, including the Super-Sons. I think a great thing about them is they were often inspired by things outside of comics. For example, there was a story in Brave and Bold about a fictional version of the Bermuda Triangle and a horror-type story for the Super-Sons.
March 16, 2022
Great list! I loved the Haney/Aparo team. Happy to see B&Bs 110 and 111 on your list. Both were great. B&B 111 was an excellent follow-up to the O’Neil/Adams classic Bat #251. It came out a few months later and also showcased a murderous, scarier Joker. Another of my Haney/Aparo favorites was B&B #125.
March 16, 2022
Thanks! And yeah, that Bats-Flash team-up was a good un’!
March 16, 2022
Boy, do we have things in common. B&B 110 with Wildcat was my first issue as well. I remember picking it up off that rack with my friend Cameron at the Bus Depot on the way to Cub Scouts. Cameron, the knowledgable one, informed me of the team-up concept. I was sold, baby! Snatched that sucker up, had no clue what the big deal was with this Wildcat, but sure as heck was not bored with the story.
My mind was racing for the next two months: Who would Batman be teamed up with in the next issue? I wanted someone cool and obscure that didn’t have their own series. Imagine my rage when instead, I got the freakin’ Joker. Come on! He wasn’t a hero, and I could find him in Batman or Detective any old time. I bought the issue grudgingly, read it grudgingly, and filed it away in my collection grudgingly. Over time, as the sting of betrayal faded away, I realized that was one of the best Batman stories I’d ever read in B&B or any other Batman book. If that’s not Bob Haney for ya, than what is?
March 18, 2022
I’ve another nomination for the gonzo B&B Bob Haney list: Issue #95, another Batman and “?” surprise story. The “?” in this case was a long-time comics character who had an entirely new personality grafted on by Haney to make that character fit into his plot. But what a plot! Batman as the globetrotting James-Bond-in-a-mask versus femme fatale Ruby Ryder, who could have given Talia a run for her money. And this was part of a mini-run of Haney’s B&B’s to feature beautiful Nick Cardy artwork (Cardy also drew the Bat-Squad issue in the original list above, as well as Haney’s scripts for Bat-team-ups with Black Canary, the Teen Titans and Sgt. Rock). We all remember Adams & Aparo on Haney’s B&B, but Nick Cardy did 5 stunning issues that, while they don’t really follow the standard 1970s creature of the night template mastered by Adams & Aparo, work quite well with the groove Haney is putting down.
June 16, 2023
The first Batman comic I ever read was B&B #102 (Teen Titans in front of the bulldozer). A rare case where I didn’t pick the comic, my mother picked it and brought it back to me. I was eight years old and had no idea what urban renewal or civil disobedience were, but I was hooked for life.