InsaneJournal

World's Finest #153, Imaginary Story: Bats vs. Supes

So I was drafting up my second post when the comm got suspended. Fortunately it was already under the new "one-third of the comic" limit. [Mods: How's the balance between the commentary/the scans? I'm still vague on where the balance is supposed to fall.]

"The SAGA of Superman vs. Batman!"

Published November, 1963, complete with those awesome old-timey ads and one-pagers.

This one's split in two parts. Bruce Wayne's dad is apparently a scientist, Martha Wayne never gets mentioned at all.

Even Imaginary!Bruce can already tell that Superboy is a dick.

They actually showed Wayne's body here. They don't usually do that under the code, do they? It's creepy leaving the fracture to the imagination like that.

So presumably a couple years pass somewhere between those panels. Not sure why Batman wouldn't go after Superman first thing; he must like it served extra icy cold.

I can only guess that the crime doctor's a real rogues gallery villain and that regular-Batman has that hypnosis machine too, only for less batdickish purposes. "Back to the acid mines orphanage with you! No non-sidekick wards in this house!"

So this issue Batman proves that, while still a dick, he really is the world's best detective, and not the "Someone Russian will slip on a banana peel and break their neck!" kind. He stakes out Metropolis, shoots a tracer onto Superman's cape without him noticing, and foils a Lex Luthor robbery. Which proves surprisingly helpful to the plan for REVENGE:

Part 2, Batman does that proving I mentioned: he uses that tracer he put on Supes to track his movements all over the globe, and figures that one of the three trips he took that aren't reported in the newspapers must lead to his Fortress of Solitude. There he anticipates Superman's silent alarm, so he uses his super-spectrum ray detector to detect the super-electric-eye beam, trips it on purpose, sneaks in when Superman comes to investigate, and frames the innocent eroding fallen chunks of rock. It's badass.

Then comes the inevitable Lex Luthor team-up...

Lex's "missile robot" looks a whole lot like a Superboy robot. Did he steal that? We'll never know.

Bu the best part comes right after the story in the "Cape and Cowl Comments" page. Presenting the greatest letter to the editor in the history of time:

The issue finishes off with more ads, more shorts, and "The Boy Who Changed The Future!", wherein one of those omniscient 1960's computers that talks to you in punchcard binary predicts the imminent destruction of life on earth (6am, June 1, 1952--mark your calendars). But since the kid used the computer without permission, he has to keep THE END OF THE WORLD a secret lest he get into trouble, so he sets to save it himself. It takes about two pages, naturally.