One good story with the Batman and Superman was when they meet a good-Brainiac, who has shrunk several cities into jars containing bad-guys. One of the jars contains some criminals from Krypton and when Superman and Batman go into the jar, they are on more-or-less equal pegging.
[At the end of the story, Batman and Superman suggest that perhaps one day the good-Brainiac would meet up with the bad-Brianiac. Did this ever happen?]
You mean the Brainiac A story? Well, from what I understand, the reason that Brainiac A never showed up again is because he was an Ed Hamilton creation, and this was around the time ('66-'67 I believe) that the Planet-Smasher left the Super-Books. Brainiac A was one of his last stories, and he never got a chance to do a sequel where "good" and "evil" Brainiac meet as the tale's end promised...so the whole thing was quietly forgotten as time went on.
Because the Brainiac A story was never mentioned again, many people think of it as a "Mopee."
I for one can see the strengths and weaknesses of Brainiac A. If Ed wanted to keep him around as a regular part of the Superman world, B-A would have been a fun little wrinkle in the Brainiac story. Then again, it might be an unwarranted insertion and un-needed complication. Not everybody needs an evil twin, female equivalent, or magical imp (in fact, I'd argue nobody does).
In some ways, though, the Brainiac A story is very typical of why the Batman/Superman team-ups seldom work. Here you had to have a really oddball, unusual, and somewhat contrived situation where Superman and Batman were on equal footing. This is sort of like those issues of JLA where there's always some underwater crisis, so Aquaman has something to justify his existence.
They did this all the time: for instance, the invention of Slow Kryptonite to take out Batman, which affected ordinary people (and may be the same as Argo City's Anti-Kryptonite).
Prior to Busiek, Superman/Batman really was the best Superman title out there, so I disagree about the artificiality of Superman and Batman's relationship
What, the Jeph Loeb book? It sold a bajillion issues, but I didn't care for that one.
I will say this: BATMAN/SUPERMAN had some clever solutions to some of the problems of the Batman/Superman relationship. They borrowed a page from Power Man and Iron Fist's playbook, and had a division of labor: Superman takes on the superstrong powerhouse types, and Batman would duke it out with the Kung Fu guys. Another example of this in the series was the Superman Family would make a big, obvious attack on the white house, while the Batman Family would use the attack as cover to sneak in. This, actually, was pretty clever.
The Superman farm-boy talk was really boring. Loeb's blabbermouth text boxes always went on about "Pa" and "the corn." As interesting as Smallville is as a part of his life's story, Superman is ultimately cosmic and cosmopolitan and international instead of provincial, and the farm-boy stuff is ultimately just another part of his backstory.
Anyway, I thought there was a general, overall kind of dumbness about BATMAN/SUPERMAN. A Kryptonite meteor is headed for Earth. Kryptonite, a metal that kills Superman! How is that possibly be spun as being Superman's fault? And mountain nomads in Tibet know Superman is a hero. It's unbelievable he can be made an outlaw so easily.
Also, the big plot point towards the end is someone had to do Ferro Lad-style sacrifice play, and drive the Composite Superman/Batman robot into the planet-killing K-Asteroid. QUESTION: why not just rig that big Voltron-looking thing on a programmed course so you don't need a pilot? Also...the Kryptonite radiation "killed" Captain Atom? Captain Atom...who is MADE of radiation?
Also...why would they use Katana to track Batman? Katana, known to be Batman's friend and ex-team-mate in the Outsiders? And Power Girl, who once claimed to be related to Superman. Surprise! In the end both of them turn out to be working with Batman. WHOA, DIDN'T SEE THAT COMING.
President Lex must have been channelling Homer Simpson after that:
"Why do things that happen to stupid people always happen to ME?"I'm not an expert in Superman's post-Crisis continuity by any means, but isn't it true that Lex Luthor "died" from Kryptonite poisoning and revived himself as a clone? If that's true, wouldn't he know better than to use Kryptonite as a drug on himself?
In the very first issue, Metallo shoots a Kryptonite bullet at the S-Man.
1) Why would Metallo chip away from his heart, his power source that his life is dependent on? Especially when there are other options available. It's made of Kryptonite which has something of a finite supply?
2) You know, I always had a feeling that whole "faster than a speeding bullet" thing was B.S.!
I officially owe Todd Welling an apology. I thought he was a pretty-boy himbo, at least
his Superman could think to dodge a bullet!
Another moment that I thought was goofy was Hawkman "hitting Superman with the planet."
Granted, I will freely admit I wasn't reading Hawkman at the time so maybe there's more there that I don't know...but where the heck did that gadget come from, anyway? It isn't a part of Hawkman's regular inventory. If Katar has something like that, why doesn't he use it all the time?
And do I really need to mention that
that's cheating? Giving Hawkman this super-gizmo so he can fight Superman, that's like saying "Me and Wayne Gretzky combined have over 900 career NHL goals."
Even Geoff Johns, DC's best writer at that time, didn't really produce anything interesting when put on BATMAN/SUPERMAN, with the Kamandi story and the return of the Legion of Super-Villains.
First, they complement each other. Gotham and Metropolis, after all, are euphemisms for different aspects of New York City.
True, but they're both very different kinds of New Yorks that are not thematically not very compatible. Gotham was always New York with a sort of old-world, pulpy, European flavor. It felt more like Montreal than NYC at times. Superman's Metropolis was always a picaresque, funny, place. Swan's art was important here: he drew locations in Metropolis like a real place. The Daily Planet felt like a real office, for example. And one of Elliot S! Maggin's biggest contributions to Superman was he gave the work a sense of humor. He's the first guy to have Superman team up with Mel Brooks!
P.S.- Since we've recently been discussing Byrne artwork, I need to point out that he drew the ugliest Wonder Woman I've ever seen:
Really. What is that line on her leg for? Why does she have two rows of...tooth? She doesn't look like Diana at all. Did John Byrne trace one of the men from American Gladiators?!?
Ouch, that's physically painful to look at.
It's sad to see this sort of thing. It's like when Elizabeth Taylor gained all that weight. You remember that she used to be something else.
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