The Silver Age Superman and Batman Were Bad Friends and It Was Amazing
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"I almost put down my entire zoo man" is probably the best out of context line I have heard in a while.
This line was the perfect ending to this video
Is there a metahuman named "Zoo Man"? I feel like there should be. Och possibly a Mega Man boss.
th-cam.com/video/6FU6v-vzKvQ/w-d-xo.html heres another classic from a Captain America Movie Serial.
@@krank23 You mean animal man? B'Wana Man?
I want to know were the comma lies in that sentence
No Batman, a mystery break-in is what _you'd_ want for your birthday. That doesn't mean Superman will also appreciate it.
"You got me a train whistle. That's more your thing than it is mine." ~ Ryan George, Wrapping Paper Sketch
Maybe Batman should have bought the things for Superman’s friends since Superman is too cheap to give them when he is alive.
That's what make it so beautiful. Batman is exactly the kind of person who gets you for you birthday something that he himself would want.
Batman should be more considerate for what others would want. Like mongol. He gives the best gifts.
In other words, a story that works for Batman may not work for Superman. LOL. But I've got to love the Silver Age, especially since that's the age I grew up in- which may explain my weirdness.
My favorite part of that story is when Batman goes shopping--as Batman--causing a crowd of people onlookers to form.
Me too, it's like he added it to his to do list
1. Defeat Joker
2. Fix bat mobile
3. Buy present for Superman
4. Pick up milk for Alfred
@@noodlebrains2689 that’s nice of him to get milk for his adoptive father.
I love how the point of most of these silver age stories is "but in the end, none of it mattered anyway." Good stuff.
The 60s Supergirl stories were even more gloriously bizarre. One had her get trapped on a remote planet inhabited by several tribes of aliens, one of them a tribe that looked like giant ants (and to her great pleasure, she discovered these insect people had their men do most of the work, and the ladies got free rides on the logs they seemed to tow around). Another time, Supergirl literally brings Lex Luthor back to life after he dies in an accident just so he can finish a long life sentence in prison (she says that any other end is too good for him). Luthor screams that he hates her even more than Superman.
@@thunderbird1921damn, comics used to be good
@@thunderbird1921 Damn, that last part is the most evil thing I can imagine. Lex is probably jealous he himself couldn't come up with such torture first.
Alot of these silver age stories really remind me Jojo's bizarre adventures.
@@thunderbird1921
Supergirl: "When LexCorp is ashes, you have my permission to die."
Lex (Anakin style): "I HATE YOU!"
Fun fact: Superman shooting miniature Supermen out his fingers was revisited in All-Star Superman, wherein the microscopic Supermen (actually citizens from the shrunken city of Kandor) flew into the bodies of children dying of cancer and CURED CANCER.
I'm trying to find one comic have atom and few justice league members turn into small miniature to enter kid cancer patients body...
Also in Centaurworld.
@@hjalfi that was a fun show
I like the idea of them straight up old school hood jumping cancer cells faster than the speed of sound, the idea that kandor was kryptons New Orleans or Detroit is a bit too funny to me.
@@RomanvonUngernSternbergnrmfvus “you came to the wrong neighbourhood”
*scared tumour noises*
What a wonderful story, I’m so proud of Batman for coming up with such a memorable anniversary gift like psychological torture.
It was much more successful than the gift he had made for "For The Man Who Has Everything" -- a unique breed of rose named the Krypton.
@@castironchaos I wonder if this story was Moore's inspiration.
@@castironchaosthink deadly premonitions got inspired by that story a little?
I'd like to imagine Batman does this to all his friends. Like "actually Commissioner Gordon, I'm the one who kidnapped your family. Happy birthday!"
I mean, kidnapping someone's family would be an effective way to lure them into a surprise party.
It's stories like this one that remind me that Superman is an alien and Batman is a reclusive billionaire with extreme PTSD.
The idea that the two of them have anything even slightly resembling a relatable 'human' friendship would actually be MUCH LESS believable than Batman pranking Superman to the point of nightmares just to keep him "sharp" re: home security.
Their work, and the essence of why they do what they do is what binds their friendship.
@@jrob4795 Well said. Creatively speaking, we're living in a time where people's attention span is so minimal creator's feel that the only way to keep our attention is to have characters who are normally united in interest (IE. Batman and Superman for example) at each others throats. Wrong, that's the reason why they're the "good guys" fighting the 'bad guys". Batman and Superman's origins may differ but they're mission statement is the same.
superman was still raised by well adjusted human parents and batman had a pretty good father figure in alfred so i could believe them having a normal human friendship
superman shpuld really have contingency plans for batman now.
Batman has narcissistic personality disorder bro
My favourite Silver Age DC convention is how the characters had to introduce themselves in the most awkward manner humanly possible through their dialogue: “Green Lantern, how will you - in your secret identity as test pilot Hal Jordan - get into the embassy?” “Not to worry, Flash! As an employee of Ferris Industries, I have access through our company’s lucrative military contracts with their government!” “That sounds fine! Then I, as police scientist Barry Allen, will meet you at the service entrance!” “Like, wow!” “Be quiet, ‘Snapper’ Carr, our annoying sidekick!”
And then there are the random annoying writers who decide that not only does every reader know a characters secret identity, other characters only ever refer to them as their secret identity.
I remember a random issue when I was a kid where Martian manhunter was being referred to as "John" while being off screen the entire time,
So for about an hour I wondered who the hell John was.
John wick?
John Wayne?
John Kennedy?
John Cena?
John John?
I remember seeing a old “Super friends” episode where Hal Jordon (while on a train filled with people) says something along the lines of “I, Hal Jordon am the Green Lantern”.
@@technounionrepresentative4274 John Jones.
@@technounionrepresentative4274 I hate it when writers make the superheroes call each other by their civil names. It is one of the things that annoys ne the most on the MCU.
@@oldmanlogan9616 I get that, but for me personally I feel like it humanizes the characters more and makes sense in-universe. When you work together with people for a long time and become friends, you're gonna refer to each other by first name unless circumstances prevent it (going by superhero names in front of the public), of course in the MCU not even that's a problem.
As for DC, them doing that in the animated universe, JLU especially, was great to me, it just seemed like another way the shows took their viewers seriously and treated them like adults.
I mean... to be fair this is the classic problem of giving someone a gift that you like, not necessarily one they would like.
I entirely believe Batman would LOVE one of his friends to prank him with a psychologically disturbing puzzle for his birthday. Especially if it almost results in a disaster.
Oh for sure. It’d keep him on his toes, something he values.
You mean the thing the Joker already gives him?
....or should. And still can.
@@HwoarangtheBoomerang more like the riddler
@@HwoarangtheBoomerang The joker does give him that but with the Joker people keep up turning dead during those mysteries, which kinds of ruins the fun of any mystery solving
and this kids is why form now on batman all ways gets clark cash for his brithday
The entire silver age was basically finding the most needlessly elaborate way to solve problems that were too easily solved.
Yup. For DC that was certainly true.
Wasn't that because some ban on violence in comics?
It's basically Loony Toons but the characters are more anatomically accurate.
Shit that's... Accurate.
Rube Goldberg approach to solving problems.
It may also be noted that Superman had this fixation on making giant versions of everything. His steel diary with finger-etched lettering isn't just a regular sized book, it's a super-sized book. He doesn't play chess against a super-electronic robot with a mere regular-sized chessboard -- they move giant super-sized chess pieces. And of course, he and Batman celebrate not just with a cake, but a giant-sized super-cake! (With candles shaped like Superman...*and* Clark Kent!)
I remember the same thing happening in other superhero comics from the time, I guess people were just into it. Plus, it’s a way of drawing something that seems impressive without actually having to draw something impressively, since it’s just an everyday item scaled up.
he can't see very well without his glasses...
Seems that supes probably likes hammers jeeps and has a little Dick lol
It's probably just the writers way of conveying the strength and other-worldly nature of superman. like they thought it would be more silly if Superman was using regular diary books and pens.
Superman sounds like Homelander, just less murderous
How hard did Gotham's villains run amok while Batman was "busy" surprising Superman?
The Penny Pincher must have taken so many coins
In 1958 Gotham City was only slightly more crime-ridden than Leave to Beaver's suburb.
Nah they were all either in hospital or in Arkham. Yes I know Arkham has a revolving door but the unspoken rule is you have to at least wait a week before "escaping" Barring any pre-planned events of course. ;)
well it was a slow week for problems on earth, maybe Batman had managed to stuff them all into arkham for a week or two so he could do a little trolling
Back then I don't think the villains did anything too awful bad.
My personal headcanon for this story is that Batman got infected with some kind of Riddler Gas before this story.
Like the Riddler got jealous of Scarecrow and the Joker for having their own chemical compound, so he invented one that makes you just as compulsive for elaborate riddles as him and Batman is still suffering from it in this story.
Also I always liked how Silver Age Superman used to tinker and invent in his spare time, like I wish they brought that aspect of his character back.
You, too, could be a Silver Age writer!
Penguin Gas: Makes anyone who inhales it crave raw fish
Bane Gas: Makes you instantly swole as fuuuuuuuuck
Joe Chill Gas: Only kills rich parents
Red Hood Gas: Magnetically attracts crowbars
Batman Who Laughs Gas: it’s just his farts
So riddler gas makes you have OCD?
@@Dave175 I think I've seen Shaggy inhale some of that
"Bane gas" in the 2nd live action movie.
I have found my people
Hilarious video.
One thing that strikes me about this story is how morbid it is for Superman to be making presents for Lois, Jimmy, & Batman to receive after his death. Clearly he does not have a lot of confidence that he'll die of old age.
Also, the real clue that the intruder was Batman was the fact that the intruder knew the Kryptonian language. Batman was always the only non-Kryptonian fluent in that tongue.
Well it's the same for the wax-puddle. It was a prank (or at least what 1960 people though of as a prank) and not the traumatic event Steve makes it out to be (for comedic purposes no less). Superman probably knew who it was some time earlier but had no proof up to a point, and I think why both can laugh about it, is also that if the "criminal mastermind" would mean true harm to Superman, he would've made demands or tried to truly harm Superman, which he did not.
@@QuintarFarenor We do see Superman having nightmares and making mistakes because he is distracted, so comedy or not it had an effect on him.
@@malcomchase9777 Wait so you saying good friends are not suppose to give you nightmares? :o
@@MouseGoat ehhh depends, best friends can give you nightmares but not intentional.
14:05 "He even looked at all the stores!" Batman in FULL COSTUME shopping in the Macy's mens department during the middle of the day! Writer Jerry Coleman sure gave Otto Binder a run for the crazy this issue. This stuff = pure GOLD.
It's silver at best...
I mean he can't go inside as Bruce Wayne, sking the clerk if they have any reccomendations for a gift Superman would enjoy
@@paulharries9558 he payed them with a ride in the batmobile
@@paulharries9558 you mean his batcredit-card right?
You know, this prank would be pretty wholesome if the notes weren't quite so threatening. Some sort of acknowledgement that the only intention of the break-ins is to test Superman and mess with him. Without the threats to reveal his secret identity, I feel like this is something where Superman would immediately burst out laughing if Batman actually remembered to hide the melted wax and managed to do the jump scare.
I'm surprised he didn't think of him hearing his heartbeat
honestly, as weird as both guys were, I can help but to think this whole story was very cute. Superman takes time out of his day to craft gifts for his best friends (even though he doesn't necessarily intends to give them) and Batman tries his best to think of a way to surprise Superman (even if it entails a bit of psychological torture). really, it's a nice contrast to the more recent depictions of the characters
Yeah after covid i just got tired of "realism" and now i just really need some weird but wholesome superheroes.
The agonized look on Batman’s face on the panel at 14:04 really shows you how good of a friend he is. He is in absolute misery that he can’t seem to find a good gift for Superman.
Also, I love the idea of Batman going shopping in full costume and talking to employees at stores like “yeah I’m just looking for a gift for my buddy Superman”
You know, given the fact that he's an alien, I think Superman's various people-rooms in the fortress is a quaintly charming notion. It would be creepy if it were just some random guy, but it's the most powerful being on earth, a being who doesn't even belong there, and it's clear he just wants to understand and embrace humanity as an outsider. Of course, it works better in the modern age, where the consensus is that Superman is "the goodest guy". Back in the silver age I hear he was, well, kind of a dick, so maybe there's some merit to worrying about these rooms, or at least the real dolls.
I'd agree with you about everything except for the fact that he was raised on Earth, by human parents Further more these two particular humans were farmers, people who worked everyday all year long. It's kinda like being born in Australia but being raised in Canada then saying that you don't understand winter because you were born in Australia. :)
@@loka7783 in the silver age superman identified a lot more with his alien heritage that his human upbringing, he mostly saw himself as kal-l, and Clark Kent was just a disguise to hear about crimes and stuff
It makes more sense with modern stories that show that Superman lives longer than humans. In this case he could have those rooms to remember those who were important to him.
@@caaltaes732 that, and there's a lot of stories of villains that make you forget things or brainwash you, could be one of those classic 'who are you? Oh, I have a wax replica of you and a gallery of our memories.' situations.
I actually find it cute. I mean the idea of a batcave in the fortress does make sense to have incase the one in gotham gets destroyed.
I hope no planes needed to use that giant yellow key disguised as guiding arrow to find their way. Conversely, if the arrow wasn't point at anything useful to a pilot, then I hope no poor planes got lost in the Arctic because of Supe's comically large key.
It's a good job Superman took a gentle pace when he set off with the key toward the fortress, and didn't accelerate at 5000g like he usually does. Otherwise he might have discovered this delighful surprise early when the flesh smoothie that was Batman's body began to drip out of the bottom of the key.
Thanks, I will never get that image out of my mind
Batman really took a break from the several crimes occurring everyday in Gotham to giggle to himself around the Fortress and prank his buddy over the course of 3 days
Now that's a good friend
You've just made me imagine Batman running up and down the halls of the fortress while superman is away, sliding across the floors and giggling like an idiot.
I knew the Silver Age was weird, but "tour of Superman's Real Doll collection" was not something I was prepared for.
Oh god, do you think they had... holes?
@@kenjutsukata1o1 He definitely practiced kissing on the Lois one, _at_ _least_
I think that the Rainbow Batman story is extremely wholesome.
Bruce attracting attention and potentially facing ridicule from his enemies just to protect an injured Robin shows his love for the boy, with him trying show fatherly affection which he himself stopped receiving too soon.
The skits at the end were hilarious. Hell the whole video is one of the funniest you have done. Silver age comics are such a... silver mine.
So, it somehow doesn't occur to Superman that 1) He's likely to outlive his friends, and 2) Even if he doesn't, none of them have the means to retrieve his gifts from the arctic.
Maybe he got the green lanterns to agree to deliver the presents in the event of his death, they could probably get in.
@@breakfaith3031 But this was before the Lantern corps appeared.
I was sure the whole "Miniaturising the White House to hold the USA to ransom" would turn out to be a real story - can't believe the Silver Age never came up with that one.
But what really bothers me is that Supes hang the key from a single pin. If the key weighs several tonnes (which it's implied to do) then the force on any one point would be massive and liable to break under the pressure - he really should have spread the weight over several points of contact. Or just returned it to its usual resting place, which would presumably only take a couple of seconds. It's almost like they just put it in to allow Batman to break in and not for the legions of pedants that might have been reading it...
Supes already had the Bottled City of Kandor. Mini-versions of landmarks on Earth should be the next logical step for Brainiac. Or Luthor, if he's unavailable.
I'm worried about planes crashing in the Arctic while he's got that guide arrow hanging on a peg in his fortress.
Plot twist:
What if Supes has a vacation retreat in the South Pacific, and Amelia Earheart and Fred Noonan disappeared because Noonan couldn't find that arrow -- because Supes had it hanging on the wall.
There's also the concern that since it's a disguise it doesn't actually point to anything useful, and thus when it IS out in the open it's sent planes off-route deeper into the arctic wastes.
Superman: "Hmm... I don't remember putting a human skeleton inside my wax batman... That's really strange. Oh well."
"I don't remember hearing it breathing, or having a heartbeat, either. I should look into that, after I figure out who is breaking in to the Fortress."
I love that scene with the action figures. Especially Robin’s silence after Batman explains his “gift idea” for Superman. That expression on the figures just says it plainly: “Bruce. What the hell?”
Judging by the two stories I've now seen on the subject, the answer to the question "what do you get for the man who has everything?" is apparently severe emotional trauma
What we have to remember is, if you were 30 and you were reading comics in the 50s and 60s, even EC comics, you were looked at with some mild disdain. Comics were not for adu;ts and even the creators knew it. To 8-10 year-olds back then everything in this comic is perfectly fine. This is why I love that DC TV shows embrace the goofy. The Golden and Silver ages of comics were well defined eras, no shades of gray, and the creators could get away with anything.
If you want examples of seeing that old disdain of comics, watch and read film critics who complain about too many superhero movies. They have this idea that if you're above 13 years old and love super heros, they think that you have emotional and mental development issues. They often complain that society is going to collapse because they think the popularity of superheroes is dumbing down society.
Back in the 50s, many men and women read pulp fiction magazines like Ranch Romances (apparently from the cover art, cowgirls capturing or literally shooting thugs dead was "romantic", LOL).
They could not get away with anything- they used to, implying the real horrors of the world, like sex outside of marriage and "sexual perversion" which is why the Comic Code Authority was invented. To put a stop to all that evil! Obviously those things arent actually bad, but it was to conservative adults in the 40s who were worrying about all these darn comics their kids were reading, "why, even this expert said that Batman and Robin were gay, oh no, my children!"
@@thunderbird1921 I mean the world did just go through another catastrophic loss of life and suffering so I can get why they'd try to find the humor and positivity in anything, even dark.
Part of it was the movement that resulted in the comics code they sold the idea that comics are only for children. And thus all graphic media must be child friendly
Superman's true super power in the silver age was the ability to do anything that furthered the plot.
Batman dressing in a different color every night to distract villains from noticing Robin had an injured arm made me laugh so hard.
The image of Batman looking through a department store for a gift for Superman can never exit my mind now.
One of the best covers in history has Robin pedaling Superman and Batman on a three-person bike. Batman and Superman have their feet up making Robin do all the work, LOL.
WB should make an animated based on the madness of the Silver Age.
Have you ever watched Batman: The Brave and the Bold? That's basically an animated version of the Silver Age Batman, and it's delightful.
@@SteveShives I didn't know about that one, I'll check it out.
7:00
Jimmy: What the hell is this?!
*Superman rests his hand on Jimmy's shoulder as his eyes glow red*
Superman: You weren't supposed to see this Jimmy
That fortress gives me serious Bizaro vibes, my head canon is silver age Superman is what Bizaro thinks his world looks like.
Brilliant!
1:33
Wammawink: „I can shoot tiny versions of myself from my hooves!!!“
Honestly kind of wholesome in a weird way.
Bruce doesn’t do days off from his crime crusade. But he takes 3 just to prank a friend. Sure it’s traumatizing but it kinda makes sense in a werid way.
I f****** love the idea of Batman breaking into Superman's domain just to prank him 12:17
More of this, please. and by this I mostly mean Steve re-enacting ridiculous silver age DC comics plots with his dolls.
Honestly, giving Superman is a challenge is probably a really nice gift. He never struggles with anything at all, so giving him such a challenge would probably make him happy once he realizes the jest. Just, you know, cut back on the psychological torture.
I remember as a little kid anxiously waiting for the next months Curt Swan drawn comic book. No matter how idiotic the story was, Curt's art gave it a certain dignity. I drew for hours trying to duplicate his artwork. I still remember buying 8 comics (12¢ a comic) for a dollar. Ah, great memories.
I hope u kept one of them
That exchange between Batman and Robin was perfect. “Shut the hell up.”
Only in silver age, Superman know how to read minds and shapeshift (both powers are dropped away in any later versions of Superman)
Silver Age Batman was Adam West Batman with superhuman stats of shounen manga character
In his memoirs, Adam West marvelled at how people could call his TV show silly, while the comics presented all these wild concepts, including Bat-Mite, Bat-Hound, and so on. He also noted how his show boosted sales of the comic book, which was on the verge of closing down! (Bob Kane had actually started looking for other work!)
How were his friends supposed to access their gifts in the impenetrable fortress once he kicked the bucket ? He didn't think it through...
I'm just imagining either of these 2 describing this to wonder woman and Diana either wonders why Superman doesn't have a wax statue of her or questioning why she's friends with either of them
The things silver age Superman does are even creepier than I remembered.
Wait till see the time Lois and Lana raised him as a baby.
Didn’t he emotionally traumatize Jimmy Olsen like. Nearly every week.
@@emryscaster7332 there was one where he forced Jimmy Olsen to marry a gorilla for no reason
could you imagine the dark knight batman doing some pranking people..jumping out on someone saying GOTCHA
I actually find that so sweet that Superman has a room dedicated to each of his friends. When I saw the life size replica I got slightly weirded out until I realized he had one for each. Its kinda understandable that he would give them to his friends if he ever died. Its probably obvious it would be hard to hand over anything as superman himself.
100% believed tiny whitehouse subplot. I can even see a side story where some kid buys the real whitehouse from the book shop and the related shenanigan's the villain has to do to get it back.
They really are best friends. I break into my friends home all the time and rearrange his things when he's gone, it's hilarious
The Silver Age Superman and Batman comic books from the 1950's and 1960's was truly a HOOT! for want of a better word LOL!
I love that one of the signs at the store Batman's browsing (in costume no less) says "Good Gift"!
Anyway, yes. Any Silver Age story from DC will be bonkers but a lot of fun. They're not my favorite era of superheroes (that would be the Bronze Age), but I know I can almost always improve my mood by reading one of them.
Cool; Silver Age content. This is like a bonus episode of Casually Comics hosted by Steve. Steve's wig and make-up game isn't as well-developed as Casually's, but the content is tip-top.
I'd not made the connection between the shape of the key and the guide arrows; that's a neat detail. Superman's Zoo is a hideous idea. Animals trapped in tiny enclosures; abandoned for days on end. What a monster.
You can criticise Batman's gift-making, but Superman holds back presents for his friends until after he's dead - which will likely be never.
Batman goes shopping in costume, I don’t know why but that’s what got me. Imagine walking In to a department store and you see the Dark Knight; and just a couple weeks after his strange flamboyant faze.
You totally got me with the miniature White House snow globe gift shop. I totally believe that was a real silver age comic. It was so good, I'm still not convinced that they didn't actually write that story at some point.
What a missed opportunity in the death of Superman that these gifts didn't make an appearance.
I really love Silver Age DC. It is just SO wacky, creative, and insane. Your Batman impression actually sounds a bit like the Brave and the Bold's Batman.
This was one weird and wonderful video! Silver Age stories were off the wall insane! xD Thanks for the laughs, Steve!
Hahaha! I loved the miniature White House storyline! I thought for sure that was a real Silver Age thing!
You've obviously never had a best friend if you don't think this is something best friends would do, one time I went to get my balls checked so I figured I might as well tell my best friend I had cancer and it was on metastasis so I was gonna die soon, then I burst out laughing when he seemed he was about to cry, good times.
This highlights something that's overlooked about Superman these days, that he's a scientific and mechanical genius. (Similar to how Batman is a brilliant detective and scientist, but now tends to be portrayed as an angry brawler who drives tanks.)
That's why All Star Superman was so great. It recalled the wonder and fantastic sci-fi of those Silver Age books.
See kids, superheroes don’t need to be traumatised to the point of insanity to have good dynamics. And no, whatever you might think silver age Batman did not have PTSD from witnessing his parents’ murder. Yes, it left a mark on the boy in the form of a sworn oath to track down their killer, but not resulting him going into depression, addiction, self-harm, etc, etc, etc.
And if you think Batman pulling this puzzle prank on Superman is terrible, it’s nothing to what the two normally deal with on a daily basis. For instance, the Justice League were sent to alternate dimensions by three immortal sorcerers where they would be trapped for the rest of lives, or to die slowly and painfully as possible. For Batman it was a dimension where his gadgets would not function, and for Superman he would be trapped on a world with a red sun. However, Batman and Superman switched costumes, and thus Superman who was sent to Batman’s dimension could easily escape and free all the others before going after and capturing the sorcerers. And that is but one example out of many of the two throughout the silver age. It still begger’s belief that DC made Batman such a brood lord, since it was unnecessary, personally speaking.
As a kid , I enjoyed the Silver Age of Superman and Jimmy Olsen . I used to get hand me down comics from my older brother. The stories were light and fun .
How bizzare, I read this comic when I was a kid. I barely remembered it at first but that painting instantly brought it back because.. well ..it was so weird. I am sure that it was one I actually read because I remembered what Superman said about it before I read the screen.
I like that he's tinkering in his free time, I mean he was raised by farmers after all
Trying to figure out how to put this into words-
Steve, I have not seen your name in my feed for a _long_ time. So, finding you now, with a massive body of nerd culture content, that has no doubt got to be enjoyable for you, is a really awesome feeling.
Glad to see you again
So Superman basically creates the modern day Bat-computer using, I'm presuming, superior Kryptonian tech, and he's not going to give it to Batman unless he snuffs it?
I'm no comic expert but wouldn't that piss Batman off to no end? Superman withholding vital crime fighting equipment from Batman that he could have used to save more lives.
Batman was really planning on jumping over the shoulder of a being who could cave his skull in with a light punch and scream "SURPRISE!"?
8:12 Robot Chicken actually kinda did this with a Dexter's Lab parody but instead he shrank a college into a bottle and smashed it
Shoot a miniature version of himself out of his hand? So that's where that Centaurworld got that joke from
i wish my writing of my characters was as nearly as nonsensical and endearing as whatever the fuck these two had going on
If I ever decide to run another Superhero tabletop thing again, I'm totally stealing that shrunken White House in the gift shop thing.
"Original and a helluva lot of fun" is something no DC or Marvel book can boast in the last few years.
It's not one of my favorite stories--when it comes to truly bizarre Bats/Supes, go to Lois Lane--but it did inspire two of the greats: Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow, and All-Star Superman. And I'm old enough where I've seen the arrows. Hotel downtown Buffalo, had two arrows, one saying LAKE and the other AIRPORT. I saw it first time in a plane.
Thanks for the Sherlock Holmes shoutout/reference. The Speckled Band is one of my favorite stories.
Wait wait wait wait wait
Superman can shoot tiny versions of himself from his hooves?
Lol, centaur world
He was also able to change his facial structure to anyone he wanted using the "Super Muscular Control" technique lol
That final convo between Superman and Batman has me dying 😂
The gift certificate thing is funny because in "For the Man Who has Everything" the JLA episode Batman does get a gift certificate and catches flack for it.
in the original comic though he gets Superman a special flower to remind him of Krypton but Mogul takes that idea up to 11 and makes Batman look bad. So I can see why Batman would want to do something extra special!
And Geez I thought all the times fictional characters pretend to not care about their friend's birthdays to throw them a surprise party was cruel
It was so fun to be a kid and read these kinds of stories. We never thought they were stupid: we thought they were totally cool! I guess being innocent and imaginative is more valuable than we realize.
If I saw someone obsessive made a exact wax replica of me, I'd probably burn it down as well
Im gonna take some notes on that white house bit. Seems like a really fun concept for a story.
I love the silver age. I really enjoy the bronze age too. I agree with you, it's by far the most fun era. It's just so wacky.
Also that story is a lot of fun, i've got it in a compilation book, always thought the painting of a martian landscape was weird, with the Grinch arms growing out of the ground and all.
Loved this video! Both the topic and way you reviewed it. The Silver Age of DC is without a doubt my favorite era of comics. As big a fan of the era, my appreciation of it grew thanks to Roy Thomas' All-Star Squadron since it showed the Golden Age heroes' Earth, which showed me the differences and made start to look into the "when" of iconic DC things having happened 1st. Their showing Earth-Two's mountain top original Fortress of Solitude got me to investigate what I had always just assumed had been there, the Silver Age Fortress. Hope you cover more Silver Age milestones (or any from the era) like this. Thanks for the video. Gave me a much-needed smile.
My first thought with the hand-crafted car is _Good luck getting that serviced._
I wish that the brave and the bold cartoon was still around so I could see this adapted
If a 911 operator actually responded that way I'd be terrified
Now I'm just sad the "villain shrank the White House" story wasn't written.
With how many comicbook characters have the ability to shrink things, you'd think it would've happened
I remember that story. My brother has or used to have a ton of these old comics (both Marvel and DC) and I spent many an hour reading them as a kid. Fun times.
Mr. Mxypitlik maybe?? Solomon Grundy, the Blockbuster? Negative Superman? Ooooooh Baaaat-Maaaan!! Ooooookaaaayyy!! Lol 🤣🤣 LoL 😂😂 LoL 🤣🤣. The Batman figure looks like Stretch Armstrong cosplaying as Batman, that grimacing face,wow! Love the figures, fun story acting. Lol 😆🤣.
To be fair, Superman plays these kinds of pranks on Jimmy "Turtle Boy" Olsen all the time.
On a related note, the Supergirl TV show missed a huge opportunity to turn their kinda grim and gritty James Olsen into Turtle Boy.
@Will N he will always be Turtle Boy to me…
This has become my favorite video from you thank you so much
wonderful episode steve...thanks for your take on a classic comic book story...made me smile.
"Has a giant photo of him and Lois"
Well, I don't know why it needs to be so big but eh.
"Has a mannequin of lois"
Eeeeeeyeah this is weird.