If It Sells, Keep Sellin' It!

To say that Batman and Robin were a huge commercial success would be a vast understatement. True, Batman sold well for the eleven months he existed prior to adding his now-famous sidekick, but nothing like the household name he would become simply by adding a spunky kid to the team.

The combo was so successful, that every comics company rushed to imitate it, adding junior partners to their established heroes (often just a miniature version of the adult hero, such as the Human Torch's buddy, Toro) even DC itself. Few of these duos were very dynamic. Still, it had worked once, it would work again.

Not only did DC slap sidekicks on many of their existing heroes ( and by the Silver Age there were enough of these scamps to form their own team-the Teen Titans) and create heroic duos from whole cloth (Green Arrow and Speedy, for example) they also gave us an endless string of Batman and Robin wanna-be's.

Let me elaborate on that. I don't mean just pale imitations of Batman and Robin, I mean that, within the context of the Batman and Robin comics, the Dynamic duo encounter myriad crime-fighters who have based their careers on those of Batman and Robin. The Knight and Squire may be the most famous.


My personal favorite are B&R's Native American counterparts from the Southwest- Chief Man-of the Bats and Little Raven!



But, as mentioned, this formula for success was not limited to the pages of Batman. DC felt that what was good for the goose was good for the gander. Therefore, what had been good for Batman would have to be super for Superman. Enter Nightwing and Flamebird:



Not content to simply go around fixing all of Earth's problems, Superman decides he needs to also fight crime in the bottled city of Kandor.

For those who don't know, Kandor is a city that was shrunken, placed in a bottle and stolen by Brainiac all before Krypton exploded. Kandor currently resides on a table in Superman's Fortress of Solitude, where it sits under a red sun lamp (can't have a whole city of Supermen running around, can we?). Whenever Superman uses his shrink ray and stops by for a visit, he has no superpowers.

So, how will Superman fight crime in Kandor if he's not... super? He'll do it Batman-style. And he takes that lovable doofus, Jimmy Olsen along with him to play Robin.

Superman names himself Nightwing and Jimmy Flamebird, after two Kryptonian birds. He fashions costumes based vaguely on the birds' plumage. Pretty soon, they have a Nightcave, Nightmobile and even a Nighthound. Of course, Nightwing and Flamebird are a little spoiled by being Superman and Superman's Pal, so they wear jetbelts that allow them to fly.


"Er- ahem, that's NightWING, Jimmy!"



What's really remarkable, is that this concept didn't just yield a couple of memorable stories and vanish. In fact, Nightwing and Flamebird were one of the back-up features in Superman Family well into the 1970's- although at that point, Nightwing was Superman's cousin Van-Zee and Flamebird was Van-Zee's lab assistant, Ak-Var. (if you'd like to read one of those nifty stories, check out Diversions of the Groovy Kind)

Nowadays, if you mention Nightwing, people think of Dick Grayson after he quit being Robin. And Flamebird was also used again in Teen Titans, this time as a new name for the original Batgirl, Bette Kane.

The names have since been recycled several times.

Still, even though it was a throw-away idea that really broke no new ground, Nightwing and Flamebird's adventures were tremendously fun.

Superman's new friend may be rude, but Batman and Robin are a little...clingy. World's Finest Comics #94

Oddly enough, around issue 94 of World's Finest, the writers felt the need to give us an origin of the Batman/Superman team-up. There are two things wrong with this. One, this does not retell the actual story of the first Superman/Batman team-up and two, the framing device is a much better story.

Batman and Robin get wind of a revenge plot by a recently escaped Lex Luthor, so they rush to Metropolis to help their buddy, Superman. Superman shows up, but surprise! he has a new partner, Powerman.



Batman and Robin get their feelings hurt by the brusque manner in which Superman and his new friend blow them off. They even take potshots at Powerman, as if they're so insecure they have to tear him down behind Superman's back. My favorite slight is "Whoever he is, Superman had to carry him, he can't fly, so he hasn't superpowers." First of all, you guys don't have superpowers either. Secondly, the lack of flying ability does not logically eliminate the presence of superpowers. Aquaman can't fly, the Flash can't fly. Clearly jealousy has impaired their logic. To be fair, Powerman's only obvious power is his superhuman obnoxiousness:

Just so all you gentle readers won't worry too much for the fragile egos of the Dynamic Duo, I'll let you in on a little secret: Powerman is one of Superman's robots in disguise. Superman dressed him up so he could help if Luthor used Kryptonite without Batman and Robin being endangered by the evil genius' death ray device. I would like to point out that Superman's robots, in every other appearance, can fly. Also, I have no idea why Superman makes Powerman speak with a "remote control tape recorder device" when he could have just used his Super Ventriloquism.

Even more puzzling is why Superman seems to have such a low opinion of Batman and Robin's abilities to defend themselves against Lex Luthor.

Catwoman- Running through the jungle in a gown and heels. Detective Comics #211

Even for 1954, this is a weird Batman story. Catwoman uses a live panther to rob a jewel shipment and then flies away in her cat-shaped plane. When Batman and Robin arrive at the airport, Batman finds some volcanic mud left by Catwoman's tire treads and deduces that she is using a volcanic island as her hideout. Somehow, the Dynamic Duo manages to find Catwoman and her plane before she can land. Catwoman uses her plane's claws to damage the Batplane and forces the Caped Crusaders to make an emergency landing on her island hideout.

Landing the Batplane near a mining operation they spotted from the air, Batman and Robin are told by the miners that they are afraid Catwoman is planning to rob their diamond mine. Batman offers to help set up some booby traps which the miners, who are really in cahoots with Catwoman, use to trap the Dynamic Duo.

The crooks are just about to off the Caped Crusaders when Catwoman stops them. She makes Batman and Robin trade their costumes for some homoerotic Tarzan get-ups (leaving them their masks) and then forces them to run through the jungle while she hunts them with the aid of her trained cat companions- a lion, a tiger, a panther and a leopard.

I won't give away the whole story, but of course the good guys win. Robin ponders at least three times how Catwoman could possibly be controlling these killer cats. Get over it! She just is! Also, there is a giant, killer gorilla involved.

Honestly, this story was kinda weak. It holds a certain weird fascination if only for the idea that Batman and Robin have to put on loincloths to play hide and seek with Catwoman. Also, the artwork by Dick Sprang is absolutely beautiful.