Essential Iron Man volume 3

Essential Iron Man volume 3 contains issues #12 to #38 plus a crossover in Daredevil #73. Most of the writing is by Archie Goodwin with later runs by Allyn Brodsky and Gerry Conway, who also writes the Daredevil issue, and one issue by Mimi Gold. The art is by a mixture of George Tuska, Johnny Craig and Don Heck with the Daredevil issue drawn by Gene Colan.

As stretches go, this is a fairly straightforward run which sees the series enter the 1970s and make some attempts to move with the times. The most significant long-term development appears to be Tony's heart operation. By now heart transplant surgery was established in the real world, making Tony's reliance on his chest plate an anomaly, though the surgeon doesn't replace his damaged heart with another but instead uses "synthetically-developed tissue" to rebuild the damaged organ, thus retaining an element of advanced technology. However it's not all plain sailing for Tony as his new heart is at risk of rejection and weakness if he over strains it. This happens near the end of the volume and Tony is forced to once more rely on wearing a chest plate all the time in order to survive. Annoyingly the operation is partially tied in to a crossover with the Avengers but the issue isn't included here even though Iron Man #19 presents it as the answer to readers' confusion.

We get a brief replacement for Tony as Iron Man in the form of Eddie March, a boxer who wears an imitation set of armour in the ring. Tony fears he has been holding back because of his recent heart operation and so opts to retire from the role, little realising that Eddie has retired from boxing because of a blood clot that puts his life at risk. Eddie's stint as Iron Man is short lived and he is soon hospitalised, leading to Tony feeling he must resume the role and accept whatever fate his health brings, encouraged by Eddie's bravery. Eddie is black and at the time making such a replacement was a radical approach, predating the John Stewart Green Lantern by over a year.

The other sign of the times are some issues that try to match the contemporary trend for addressing real life social problems but they often fall back upon individual corruption rather than acknowledging that some problems can't simply be fixed by a hero's intervention. Pollution comes up more than once as Iron Man faces attacks of Tony's plants on islands, but it becomes clear that the problem is in staff, with one manager stirring up local hotheads to protest a plant and cover up embezzlement whilst another is cutting costs at the expense of minimum safety standards which leads to conflict with an angry Sub-Mariner. The tales touch upon the problems of pollution but don't really go to the nub of the conflict between technological advancement to sustain the human population versus the need to keep the planet healthy in the long run. Other tales look at issues such as the longstanding hostility between peoples of different countries, here in the form of Japan and the United States as young people in the former remain hostile to the latter a quarter of a century after the Second World War and one attacks uses a giant robotic lizard based on the legendary beast Zoga. Coming from a country where hostility to Germany still persists after seventy years it's an unfortunately all too familiar tale of old national hatreds.

Another tale has a twist on the standard Latin American dictatorship cliché as here the country in question is ruled by the Overseer, a giant computer. But what's more awkward is the way the story shows Tony telling fleeing revolutionaries that raising an army in the States will not be as easy as expected as "there are those who would not bear arms for any cause!", an implicit acknowledgement of the impact of the Vietnam War on popular attitudes to overseas intervention. Yet rather than admit that the world isn't so black and white, Iron Man instead takes at face value the claims of the revolutionaries and charges in to overthrow the dictator, rather than stopping to ask just what the facts of the situation actually are, and whether simply charging in and overthrowing the existing regime will bring enlightened progress to the country as opposed to opening up an era of turbulent chaos. The situation in the story could have made for a strong exploration of the conflict between the traditional black and white values whereby knights in shining armour could go on a simple rampage in response to the first damsel in distress they heard from, against a more nuanced society that had seen the impact of such an approach and was now demanding restraint in solving other countries' problems no matter the suffering. But instead Iron Man carries on in the old fashioned way and it's only after his attack has begun that we get what could have been the turning point in a nuanced exploration when a child is shot down by one of the Overseer's machines. This would not be the last time that Iron Man writers would try to follow the approach of DC's Green Lantern but implement it badly.

Better handled is a tale of racial conflict in the inner cities as Tony finds a community centre project he is sponsoring is fiercely resisted locally, with many objecting to what they feel is just charity to ease white guilt and line the pockets of white owned businesses rather than real measures that would help economic development and enable the community to become self-sufficient. The situation is complication by corruption in local government, with the scheme having been pushed through by a councillor who heads both the estate and construction firms involved, and by the intervention of the aptly named Firebrand, a rabble rousing superpowered would be revolutionary. Though the tale is a little heavy handed it does well in challenging head on the assumption that outsiders can simply impose facilities on a community as a solution to its problems rather than engaging with them to find the best way forward.

In more traditional territory the series continues to add a few long lasting villains, ranging from yet another Crimson Dynamo to the rather more original the Controller, who has developed technology to control other human beings and an exo skeleton to overcome the weaknesses of his body caused by disease and accidents. He makes for a strong counterpart to Iron Man, the type of villain most heroes need. The Night Phantom is an early example of a villain empowered by Voodoo, a man embittered against technology after an accident crippled him. The Cold War also pops up in the form of the Spymaster and his Espionage Elite of five aides, who invade Stark Industries to steal industrial secrets. Elsewhere various aliens send agents to Earth with the most notable being the robot Ramrod. There's also a succession of crimelords who use the title Jonah. A more shocking foe comes in the form of a Life-Model Decoy that takes on a life of its own and ousts Tony not just from his company but from his entire life, armour and all, leading to the memorable cover image. This in turn leads to the oddity of Tony openly wearing the original Iron Man armour in order to take down the impostor but without those around him realising he is the true Iron Man. Another visual conflict between Iron Man and Tony comes as the Mercenary disguises himself as Tony in order to reach and kill his target, only to be shot by Vincent Sandhurst, Janice Cord's attorney now seeking vengeance on Stark. Foes from other series include the Red Ghost from the Fantastic Four, who is now accompanied by a new set of super apes, Lucifer from the X-Men, the Collector from the Avengers, and the Zodiac cartel, also from the Avengers. The latter appear in the crossover with Daredevil which may have been a try-out piece to see if the proposed merger of the two titles would work but it's all too clear that the two don't go together well with the resulting story a confused mess that doesn't really feel at home in either series.

Tony's romantic life has its ups and downs. When kidnapped by businessman Mordecai Midas he falls for Madame Masque whom he discovers is a disfigured Whitney Frost, but this causes tensions with Jasper Sitwell who had also fallen for Whitney. Tony tries to hide the news of her return after she disappears once more, but Jasper's detective skills discover what has happened and track her down to an island where a scientist is trying to turn her into a mate for her son who has been transformed into a modern day Minotaur. In the end she chooses Jasper over Tony but sets out on her own to prove herself first. Tony's main romantic interest is Janice Cord, owner of a rival firm, but he worries that both his heart and his life as Iron Man mean that nothing can ever come of it. Matters are complicated by her firm's inventor Alex Niven who turns out to be both protege and successor to the original Crimson Dynamo. Having a character be a rival to the hero both in and out of costume is a good move but it's short-lived as the Titanium Man shows up to deal with a defector. In the subsequent battle both Iron Man and the Crimson Dynamo misinterpret the other's actions towards Janice and she is killed by blasts from the Titanium Man, leaving Tony in mourning and Alex swearing vengeance on Iron Man. Meanwhile the end of the volume sees the introduction of Marianne Rodgers, an old flame whom Tony dates once more.

The supporting cast is also expanded with the introduction of scientist Kevin O'Brian, who has the dialogue of a dreadfully cliched Irishman but who nevertheless proves an effective and loyal employee to the point that Tony trusts him first with running the company during a leave of absence and then with his identity when he needs someone to reinstall the chestplate pace maker.

Overall this volume tries to update the series both in its approach to real world problems and also in updating Tony's heart condition, but in both cases it soon backs off and returns to the status quo ante of the series, as though the previous developments had been risks too far. Otherwise the main advances come in developing more of the supporting cast and villains and telling the usual mix of tales. There are few really bad stories apart from the awkward one-step-forward-two-steps-back approach to the Overseer tale but otherwise this volume is standard but not spectacular.

Essential Iron Man volume 2

Essential Iron Man volume 2 consists of the Iron Man strips from Tales of Suspense #73-99 and Iron Man and Sub-Mariner #1 (the one-shot that bridged the transition from shared anthologies to solo titles), then Iron Man #1-11 and also the Sub-Mariner story from Tales to Astonish #82 that forms part of one of the earliest Marvel crossovers if not the very first between separate titles. The first issue is atypical, being a rush job written by Stan Lee and Roy Thomas and using a lot of inkers and/or pencillers. Once back to normal Lee writes every issue until #98 and then Archie Goodwin writes the rest of the volume. The Tales to Astonish story is plotted by Lee and scripted by Roy Thomas. Most of the art is a run by Gene Colan, initially under his pseudonym of Adam Austin but soon under his own name, followed by turns by Johnny Craig and then George Tuska. The Tales to Astonish story is drawn by a combination of Colan and Jack Kirby.

The reproduction quality in this volume is generally good but there are some pages that make me wonder about how the material was sourced given how little original master material from the late 1960s survives. This volume was originally released in 2004, before the Masterworks had got to any of these issues, and the budget for the Essentials at the time generally didn't run to full-scale remastering of entire volumes. Some of the pages have panels of different quality and on occasion panels with colour burnt in as greyscale share a page with straightforward black and white panels. My best guess is that a lot of the material is drawn from later reprints that hacked about with the pages. As far as I can determine the last US reprints of most of these issues prior to this volume coming out had been the reprint titles Marvel Super-Heroes and Marvel Double Feature plus at least one fill-in reprint in Iron Man itself, all in the 1970s at a time when page counts were reduced and reprints sometimes cut pages. However between them those books don't seem to have covered every single issue included here and I don't know if it was the practice at the time to trim out individual panels. I'm also not sure if the holdings for reprint titles from 1970 are substantially better than for original issues from 1968. Details of foreign reprints are much harder to come by on the net but tales of pages being cut up and panels resized or removed would fit some of the results here. It's a mystery to ponder but it doesn't detract from the readability of these issues.

These issues show Iron Man at his best but also his most vulnerable. Several times his power supply runs low and he suffers heart attacks, showing just how close to death he is. Yet it raises the question about how a man who is both a great designer and the owner of a large technological corporation is unable to come up with a rather more effective set of long lasting batteries. Otherwise he continues to face a variety of foes and situations both in the armour and out of it with those around him. At one point he's taken to hospital with an attack and it's revealed he wears a chest plate, leading to public speculation that Tony Stark is Iron Man but he gets by with help from others.

The supporting cast has quite a bit of turnover here. Early on there's a continuation of the Tony-Pepper-Happy romantic triangle but eventually Pepper and Happy elope to get married and largely fade out of the series. However before then Happy is twice transformed into a monster dubbed "the Freak" whom Iron Man has to subdue. Happy has also now learnt Iron Man's secret identity and loyally protects it but unfortunately the moment when he tells Tony this takes place off panel. However Tony and Happy agree for the latter to make some token appearances in the Iron Man armour whilst the former is publicly in hospital, though it leads to Happy's capture by the Mandarin. Given all this and Pepper's dismay at Tony's absences when Happy is injured, it's not too surprising they largely drop away. Tony continues dating a large number of woman who on more than one occasion turn up in the crowds watching trouble at the factory in scenes that reminded me of the Chilean miners of a few years ago. However the women all seem to be aware of each other's existence and tolerate the situation. Later on Tony finds a mutual attraction with Janice Cord, the daughter of a rival inventor and owner who is driven by a jealousy of Tony. Janice is also considering selling her business to be integrated into Stark Industries, but there are hints her lawyer is up to something more. The series also features the first connections between Iron Man and S.H.I.E.L.D. when the spy organisation places agent Jasper Sitwell at Stark Industries to provide extra protection for the weapons given multiple attacks and Iron Man's frequent absences. At first it seems Sitwell is just a naive kid, spouting all the slogans but seemingly clueless. However he regularly shows a much greater skill and intelligence than anticipated. Even when dating Whitney Frost and seemingly oblivious to the fact the woman is using him to find the factory's weak points he is in fact setting a trap. Meanwhile Senator Byrd has now acquired the first name "Harrington", making obvious the connection to either the-then real life Senator for Virginia Harry Byrd or his predecessor, father and namesake, but I'm not familiar with either's career to say whether the portrayal's similarities go beyond the name. Throughout the early part of the volume Byrd continues his committee's investigations into Stark Industries, even when advisers it could cost him re-election, and his actions briefly lead to Stark Industries being shut down, but Byrd abandons his pursuit after Iron Man saves the day against the Titanium Man in Washington DC and only reluctantly resumes them when Tony is framed as a Communist collaborator.

Although the propaganda has declined from the first volume, there are still some quite overt moments. I was surprised to see Iron Man visiting Vietnam in issues #92-94, originally published in mid 1967. Although the primary focus is on a return appearance by the Titanium Man, the story also contains some rather unsubtle propaganda as we meet Half-Face, a Vietnamese inventor whose work rivals Tony Stark's and whose face was deformed whilst working on weapons. Half-Face's story comes with tragedy as we hear how the Communist authorities forced him to leave his wife and child to work for the state. Later on he and the Titanium Man are under orders to destroy a village, kill the inhabitants and make it look like the work of American bombers. Half-Face turns against his masters when he realises he would have caused the death of his own wife and child but for Iron Man saving them, and so deserts Communism pledging to work for "freedom". This story would have been published just at the point when opinion polls on the war found support dropping below 50% permanently. Whereas the flag wearing side of Tales of Suspense (Captain America) had largely avoided Vietnam altogether, the capitalist and arms manufacturing side was still pushing the message that North Vietnam was run by a bad regime that needed to be removed and the Americans were the ones to do it. And Iron Man has come to the country not out of connection to his origin (which isn't mentioned at this stage despite the obvious potential for comparison with Half-Face's) but apparently to test a new design of shell that Tony Stark has developed. Though this is a cover for the military really wanting him to deal with Half-Face, it does not disguise that Stark is an active player in the conflict. Was this Marvel making a bold political statement about where it stood on the most controversial question of the day? Or was it a victim of timing, with a story prepared months earlier now appearing to miss the prevailing mood? Another story sees a Communist dictator of a Caribbean island, who is all but named as Fidel Castro, have a scientist develop and consume a strength formula and the result is the beast known as the Crusher, but the focus of the story is very much on action rather than on justifying US foreign policy against Cuba.

The Mandarin pops up several times with a variety of schemes and weapons, including both Ultimo, a giant robot buried in a volcano, and later a robot of the Hulk. On more than one occasion the Mandarin finds out Iron Man's identity but is fooled by a variety of impostor methods such as having Happy in the armour or using Life Model Decoy robots to allow Iron Man and Tony Stark to be seen in two places at the same time, as well as a disguise under the helmet. One scheme involves faking photographs to make it look as if Tony is collaborating with the Communists, producing convincing shots decades before PhotoShop. It would have worked too if the Mandarin hadn't blurted out the truth in front of reporters. Other foes come back in an enhanced form such the Titanium Man, the Melter or the Unicorn, or drift in from other titles such as the Black Knight, the Mole Man, the Grey Gargoyle or the Gladiator. There's a trip to a dystopian future where the world is ruled by Cerberus, a super computer that Tony has yet to invent. With the help of an antique set of Iron Man armour he manages to defeat it, helped by the grandfather paradox, but this sort of time travel story always falls down when it doesn't make clear the rules on whether history can be changed or not. The crossover with the Sub-Mariner seems rather inconsequential, with Namor seeking revenge on Iron Man for a distraction at a critical moment with Warlord Krang. It shows Namor to be a hothead lashing out at the wrong target but doesn't really add anything to Iron Man's story. The one-shot Iron Man and Sub-Mariner doesn't actually combine the heroes beyond the cover and seems to just be a fill-in in the schedules, perhaps because of poor planning of the switchover to solo titles.

And there's a major long running storyline featuring the Maggia, now led by the mysterious "Big M" whose identity is hidden for several issues then casually revealed in a thought bubble as Whitney Frost, the woman dating Jasper Sitwell. She is given a back story as a socialite who was engaged to a politician only to discover she was actually the daughter of Count Nefaria, causing her fiancé to abandon her to be sucked into the Maggia's world. There is a strong sense that she doesn't want to be caught up in this but has no choice, adding depth to her character and setting up possibilities for the future. The storyline also makes use of the Gladiator and introduces Whiplash, on of the more physical of Iron Man's recurring foes. A foe of a different kind comes in the form of Morgan Stark, Tony's cousin and nearest relative, who sells out Iron Man to clear his gambling debts. And there's rivalry with A.I.M., with its would be leader the scientist Mordius rapidly coming unstuck.

In general this is a solid but not particularly spectacular volume. It pulls its punches more than once by not showing such a key moment such as Tony learning that Happy knows his secret identity and is willing to help protect it and by casually revealing a major mystery villain in a thought bubble. It also comes close to throwing out most of the supporting cast without adequately replacing them - it's not clear at the end if Jasper will stick around for the long haul leaving only Janice for the time being. And the anti-Communist propaganda is wearing thin at this point. But otherwise the adventures show strong imagination and manage to keep up the vulnerable side of the hero as he struggles to survive.

Showcase Presents The Brave and the Bold Batman Team-Ups volume 1

For a special Christmas post I have decided to take a look at things over at the Distinguished Competition.

DC was initially sceptical about the Essential format but eventually in 2005 they decided to launch their own series of black & white sequential reprints on cheap paper under the title "Showcase Presents", recalling one of their classic series. The volumes are much the same as the Essentials albeit with a different cover design which seems to have influenced Marvel for its third cover format. Also Showcase Presents volumes have page numbers. But most significantly they're willing to jump about a bit more and collect material related to characters in a way few Essentials do (Essential Punisher volume 1 is a rare Marvel exception). DC have rapidly produced a very diverse set of volumes covering material from the Silver Age to the Modern Age.

Showcase Presents The Brave and the Bold Batman Team-Ups volume 1 pretty much does what it says on the tin. The Brave and the Bold had been first an anthology series and then a try-out book, which launched many characters and series including the Suicide Squad, the Justice League of America, the Silver Age Hawkman, the Teen Titans and Metamorpho. From issue #50 it became a team-up book, and then Batman gradually dominated until he was a permanent fixture from issue #74 onwards. This volume contains the Batman team-ups from issues #59, #64, #67-71 & #74-87. Everything is credited as written by Bob Haney apart from #87 by Mike Sekowsky. The art is by a mixture of Sekowsky, Neal Adams, Ross Andru, Win Mortimer and single issues by Ramona Fradon, Carmine Infantino, Johnny Craig, George Papp and Bob Brown. At least that's what the contents page says - this was an era when DC did not routinely credit its creators and so for many issues the credits have had to be constructed from incomplete records and guesswork.

The book was bimonthly and this volume covers the years from 1965 through to 1970, matching the rise and fall of Batmania thanks to the Batman TV series. In turn the three Showcase Presents volumes of the series so far saw print in the two years leading up to the launch of the cartoon Batman: The Brave and the Bold which drew its concept from here.

Who are the actual guest stars? Here's the list. Where relevant the characters are the Silver Age/Earth 1 versions (ignoring continuity issues that I'll discuss later).

59. Green Lantern
64. Eclipso
67. Flash
68. Metamorpho
69. Green Lantern
70. Hawkman
71. Green Arrow
74. Metal Men
75. Spectre
76. Plastic Man
77. Atom
78. Wonder Woman plus Batgirl
79. Deadman
80. Creeper
81. Flash
82. Aquaman
83. Teen Titans (consisting of Robin, Kid Flash, Wonder Girl and Speedy)
84. Sgt. Rock
85. Green Arrow
86. Deadman
87. Wonder Woman

We have a broadly equal mix between the big name heroes of the day and the less well known. The biggest name missing is Superman, but that's because he and Batman had their own ongoing "buddy book" World's Finest. Otherwise amongst the Justice League's biggest names the only obvious absentee is the Martian Manhunter.

Note that although the concept of multiple Earths with different heroes of different origins had been established by this time, none of the stories invokes it. Consequently the Spectre and Plastic Man seen here must be either the best known versions from other Earths visiting Earth 1 without mentioning it or else they're little-known Earth 1 identical counterparts of those versions. (Or there's a more convoluted explanation to be found in later issues and/or guides.) The limited attention to continuity is on display in almost the first panel when Bruce Wayne thinks about how he's alone because Dick is on a school trip (later on there's regular reference to his being off with the Teen Titans as a way to keep him out of the stories) and Alfred is on vacation. Except that this issue came out at a time when Alfred had been seemingly killed off (he was subsequently revived, thanks to his inclusion in the television series) and also now living in the mansion was Dick's Aunt Harriet (who is quite famous from the television series but her somewhat different comic incarnation is one of the most forgotten of all Batman supporting characters). In itself this is a tiny thing but it shows a lax approach to continuity that would deliver some otherwise difficult to realise tales, but which would also cause no end of headscratching amongst fans. (On some other features it could be worse - the inclusion of Wonder Girl in the Teen Titans resulted in multiple retcons that tried to tidy up the problems this caused.) It's harder to spot continuity errors amongst the guest heroes, though the Metal Men's appearance in issue #74 has the oddity that Bob Haney's script only namechecks the traditional six members, and even gives that number in on panel, yet Ross Andru draws seven, including the little remembered "Nameless". Issue #84 makes perhaps the biggest assault on continuity through flashbacks to Bruce Wayne's work during the Second World War, showing him using the Batman identity twenty-five years earlier. Even in 1969 this made Batman much older than he is normally portrayed as (and I'm hard pressed to think of any actor who's played Batman in at least his mid forties bar Adam West returning to the role many years later in Legends of the Superheroes) and it I believe it had already been established he began his career much later, and it proves unnecessary as Sgt. Rock is shown alive and well in the present day, still serving in the US army, so there was no real need for a flashback to a wartime team-up. Especially as Rock and his Easy Company are rather incidental to the plot.

Covering a period of five years the series shows Batman in a period when he went from the height of the Campy Crusader of the mid-1960s to the re-emergence of the more serious Dark Knight at the end of the decade, though overall there's less variation in the character than one might expect. He may be the solid, serious know-it-all hero who can explain even the most obscure of information (such as what a hellgrammite is) similar to Adam West's portrayal but he doesn't veer off into self-parody or excessive silliness, with the exception of issue #68 when he's temporarily mutated into the "Bat-Hulk". Later on there are hints of the return towards the Dark Knight portrayal but the steps aren't too great. The arrival of Neal Adams on issue #79 sees the look of the series take a decisively darker edgier turn. By this point the Batman television series had been cancelled and Batman was now up for redefinition, though his main changes for the 1970s wouldn't come until Adams joined Denny O'Neil on the main series. In addition this volume also shows snapshots of other heroes going through major changes in this period. The first team-up with Deadman comes as the ghost hunts for his killer; the second comes after his killer has been found and killed and now the ghost continues his existence without clear purpose. Wonder Woman's first appearance is with her traditional appearance, powers and role, but the second is from the "New Wonder Woman" era when she had become a non-powered trouser-suited martial artist adventurer. Meanwhile Green Arrow's second appearance brings with it a revised look, toughened up for the hard edge adventures he would go on to have with Green Lantern.

Throughout these issues it's surprising just how often Batman's secret identity (and sometimes the guest hero's as well) is discovered, and the steps taken to undo this. In the very first adventure the Time Commander uses his powers to discover it and subsequently tells Green Lantern, but the latter then uses his ring to purge the information from both their minds, referencing an agreement amongst the Justice League. However later on Batman and Hawkman are completely familiar with each other's identities, and work together to fool the Collector, millionaire Balthazar T. Balthazar, who has used a computer to discover Batman is Bruce Wayne and reinforced the evidence with x-rays. But in the process of disabusing him of the notion, the Collector stumbles across Hawkman's own identity as Carter Hall. After double layers of confusion the Collector is left believing Hawkman is in fact an alien called Krog from the planet Mynos, whilst Batman is an ex-criminal who changed his name. Although not explicitly covered here, it would seem that at some stage the Justice League have agreed to share their identities since midway through the volume it becomes standard for Batman and his co-star to know who each other is. However this doesn't apply with some of the more detached characters such as the Creeper or for that matter Wonder Woman in her depowered days. In general Batman is already familiar with most of the characters he encounters, bar the really hard to interact with such as Deadman. An orphan boy living at stately Wayne Manor stumbles across the Batcave and immediately deduces its meaning. Orm the Ocean Master appears to know it when he sees Bruce Wayne apparently die and is subsequently surprised to see Batman is still alive. Later both Bruce Wayne and Oliver Queen calmly tell mutual friend Edmond Cathcart their identities, rationalising that as a psychiatrist his professional oath will keep their secrets safe, and not anticipating the prospect that he might get captured, which he soon is. Fortunately they rescue him and the end of the issue sees him embark upon self-hypnosis to wipe the knowledge from his mind. I've no idea how reliable that is or just what the contemporary ethical opinion was.

The Justice League connection is the most common link that brings the guest stars into the story. Most adventures start off in Gotham City and on several occasions Batman calls in one of his fellow team members to provide specialised help. In general these are partnerships of equals with perhaps a little extra weight given to Batman as he's on his home turf, but there's no elevation of him to superstar status amongst the superhero community or grand clashes of egos. Rather the adventures take place on a more reasonable level.

The bulk of the foes seen in these adventures are unfamiliar to me. Most have been specifically created for these tales, and only a few would go on to appear elsewhere, though there are a handful who are drawn from the heroes' adventures. New foes include the likes of the Time Commander, Cosmo, the Queen Bee, the criminal organisation Cyclops, the Speed Boys, Balthazar T. Balthazar aka the Collector, ruthless businessman Tom Tallwolf, Dr. Daedalus, Shahn-Zi, the Molder and his Plastoids, the Cannoneer, Copperhead, the crimelord known as the King, the Hellgrammite, Carl Bork, oil thief Grantland Stark, Nazi war criminal Colonel Von Stauffen, businessman and crimelord  Miklos Minotaur and ruthless racing driver Willi Van Dort. There's also Lance Bruner, an orphan who Bruce Wayne's father agreed would be taken in at the manor in such circumstances but who turns out to have a criminal past. However when he sees Robin risk his life to save Batman, Lance has a change of heart and sacrifices his life to do the same. We're not shown how Bruce Wayne explained all this to the social worker. We get a few pre-existing foes such as Aquaman's enemy and brother, the Ocean Master, or Deadman's foes the Society of Assassins including their leader "Sensei". And we get a team of three of the best known of Batman's foes, the Riddler, the Penguin and the Joker.

In some places these tales do show their age. Issue #64 has an incredibly dated moment when Batman rescues a playgirl from risking her life needlessly and gives her a spanking for her actions. Despite this they become a brief item - yet another sign of a fast and loose approach to continuity, though this depiction of Batman is a far cry from the grim loner. Later on issue #78 sees Wonder Woman and Batgirl competing for Batman's affections and although it's only a ruse at first, the fact that such a contest could fool others says a lot about the way even two of DC's premiere female heroes are presented. And this only gets confirmed later in the story when they each briefly fall for Batman for real. However the portrayal of Native Americans in issue #71 is surprisingly more sophisticated than the norm, with little of the traditional broken English and a focus on a contest for the leadership of the tribe between two claimants who have both let the reservation and gone into white collar work. Elsewhere there are little nods to DC's main rivals - "Here's one I did before anybody, including a certain web-spinning Peter-come-lately!" declares Batman in issue #74 as he swings around a flagpole to hurl himself forward, taking a swipe at his rival in the process. It's a nice little aside that keeps the rivalry between companies playful.

Despite the apparent age of some of these stories, even more so than many contemporary Marvels, this is a petty good volume. Team-up titles are rarely the place to look for extensive character development but they offer a good chance to see two heroes working together on fairly equal terms and give an extensive tour of the many heroes of the DC universe. Batman may be reasonably restrained but he's nowhere near the grim brooding loner of later years and so it feels perfectly natural for him to be working with so many other heroes. This is the earliest team-up series featuring one regular character and a rotating second that I'm aware of, so here is the beginning of the path later followed by the likes of Marvel Team-Up, Marvel Two-in-One and DC Comics Presents, let alone the fun animated series Batman: The Brave and the Bold.

As for the Showcase Presents series in general, it's good to see the DC adopted the format and have run with it. Since Marvel began the Essentials nine years earlier it's unsurprising that by the time DC came along the basics had already been thrashed out such as using covers from the original comics, getting all the material in order, including annuals, and using a stirdy paper stock. The main areas where I think DC have done things sooner or better than Marvel is in using a cover design that leaves more space for the original artwork (although the yellow flash "Over 500 pages of comics" is annoying; fortunately that was later dropped) and in having individual page numbers which makes it easier to find a particular story; this is especially helpful when a volume is focused more on a character than on presenting a single series in sequential order. The Essentials have since adopted a similar cover design that shows more of the original artwork but not yet page numbers. We can only hope they one day do that as well.