Batman V Superman!

Batman V Superman is an upcoming 2016 movie from DC Comics in which (spoiler alert) an armored Batman battles against Superman whom he considers a menace to mankind. But those two fighting each other is nothing new; Batman versus Superman is in fact an old theme that has been used many times before. For example World’s Finest #119 from 1961 answered the question, what is more awesome than Batman? Answer-Batman riding a T-Rex and warring with Superman in ”Battle of the Super-Heroes!”

In 1965 World’s Finest #153 documented “The Clash of Cape and Cowl!” They became bitter enemies and Batman tries to kill Superman with a Kryptonite Batarang.  Not an imaginary story! Plus it includes this wonderful panel inside. 

World’s Finest #209 from 1972 Batman once again attacks Superman, this time with Red Kryptonite; the unpredictable element has changed Superman into a giant Super-Ape. Bonus points for having a Gorilla cover!

Flash-forward to March 23, 2016, once again Batman is fighting Superman in the new movie Batman V Superman-Dawn of Justice. Bruce Wayne blames Superman for the destruction caused in Metropolis when Superman fought General Zod in the last movie. Plus Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Cyborg, and The Flash are also in BVSDOJ. This is a Justice League movie! Here at the Strangest Adventures, we hate the idea of Ben Affleck as Batman but this movie looks great and it will be required watching. See you at the movies!

The Squadron Supreme!

DC Comics had their premier super-hero team, the Justice League of America. They inspired Marvel Comics to create their own team, The Fantastic Four. Eventually though, that was not good enough for editor Stan Lee, so he created a more direct copy of the JLA, The Squadron Supreme.

The SS was a direct swipe of the JLA, person by person. Their leader Hyperion was the last Eternal of his reality, and was raised by normal humans. As an adult he worked as a reporter in a major metropolitan newspaper in Cosmopolis, New Troy and dated coworker Lonni Lattimer. Futhermore, Nighthawk was Batman, Power Princess was Wonder Woman, Dr. Spectrum was Green Lantern, and The Whizzer was the Flash, you get the schtick. 

I believe this crossed a line from homage straight into pure rip off! My theory is that Marvel was jealous of the popularity of DC Comics and wanted some of that for themselves.  Plus, often the personalities they gave them seemed to reflect how the bullpen at Marvel saw the JLA, which was not very flattering.  Hyperion, for instance, was arrogant and a bit of a bully. The Whizzer was  overly impulsive, and so on. They met a moderate level of success and even used characters Squadron characters throughout the Marvel Universe.  And how do you think DC Comics reacted? The Assembers! 

The DC Comic team The Assembers were analogs to the Avengers (Avengers Assemble, get it?) in a very similar vein, eventually the two teams even fought each other! The Assembers were much less successful but also developed a rich history. In any case, creating homage super hero teams is a time honored tradition, I just cited two, albeit two of the most interesting tributes ever.