Batman Family Reunion Episode #3

Who invited the dinosaur to the picnic??  Paul Kien and Shawn M. Myers are running for their lives, but not too busy to discuss Batman Family #3!  This issue brings us a great new story with art by Jose Luis Garcia Lopez (PBHN)!  But there are 3 more stories as well, including a golden age classic starring "Batman of the Year 3000"! Join us for the stories, the extra features, and Shawn's homemade apple pie!

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21 responses to “Batman Family Reunion Episode #3

  1. Great show again fellas! That first story reminds me a lot of the classic Star Trek episode “Shore Leave”. There the crew inadvertantly decides to take some R&R on a lush green planet, unknowing that it is also essentially an amuseument park that reads your mind and makes your fantasies come true, sometimes with nearly deadly results!

    I will say I think Vince Colletta’s inks have overpowered JLGL (PBHN)’s punch somewhat. It’s still solid art, and you can see his brilliance peeking through. But Vinnie could (at least sometimes) drain the energy out of the best artists. It’s not BAD inking, but it’s not enhancing the art either.

    I first encountered an uncostumed Kathy Kane in Detective #485, where she was instantly killed! Fortunately I first met the costumed Batwoman (even if it was the older, Earth-Two version) in Alan Brennert’s and Jim Aparo’s stone-cold classic Brave and the Bold #182, my favorite comic of all time! I’ve always had a soft-spot for the original version of Kathy Kane because of this.

    Kite Man’s profile has certainly went up since being mentioned on the Peacemaker HBO Max series. Here’s hoping he shows up in Season 2. I have never read this story, so I had no idea Dick Sprang visually created Kite Man!

    Brane, Batman of the Year 3000 DOES return in Batman #67 in 1951. That’s quite a callback for the time, since reader turnover was said to be every 4 to 6 years or so!

    I had no idea Alvin Schwartz wrote under another pen name. As Schwartz he’s pretty prolific at DC, way up into the 60s! I believe he went on to write some pretty metaphysical musings in the last few years, if I’m recalling the Alter Ego spotlight article on him correctly.

    Chris

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  2. Anyone interested in learning more about Vince Colletta may want to check out the book “The Thin Black Line: Perspectives on Vince Colletta, Comics’ Most Controversial Inker ” (2010), Actually, I think it may be a good topic for a future FW episode. He is often discussed in rather negative terms and I would appreciate an in-depth look at his career highlights (or lowlights).

    I may be distantly related to Vince (the 2 L Collettas are a bit more rare than we 1 L types) .

    Another stand-out episode!

    https://www.amazon.com/Thin-Black-Line-Perspectives-Controversial/dp/1605490288

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    1. I have been meaning to pick up that book. There’s also a good episode of the YouTube series Comic Tropes on Vince that is fascinating. It references the book often.

      I think Colletta was a good artist. Maybe even a great one, but he valued monetary gain over artistic integrity, and it often showed. Despite solid work here and there over the years, he ruined his own reputation by being the “rush job” guy.

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      1. I tend to agree with you here. Sometimes we seem to forget that comic books are not only an art form but also a product with set production & distribution schedules. It’s kind of weird sharing a last name with someone largely reviled. I met Paul Levitz once & the first thing he asked was if I was related to Vince. I read the book on Vince Colletta years ago & probably should take another look.

  3. Fun show as usual, boys! You both still have the youthful podcaster joie de vivre of Shag and I, which stopped around episode 14 of The Fire and Water Podcast and has not been seen since. May the odds be ever in your favor.

    “Jose Luis Garcia Lopez inked by Vince Colletta” is like saying “Filet Mignon cooked in Gatorade with a side salad made of dirt and broken glass.”

    I used to LOVE Twinkies, ate them all the time. Then, on a whim, I bought them again a few years ago while in the supermarket. Either they changed the formula or my taste buds have changed. You can’t go home again.

    IIRC, “Gold Star Gay” was from BRAVE AND THE BOLD #73 by Bob Haney and Jack Sparling.

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    1. Of course Rob, trying to pick a random obscure issue of B&B for a gag, picks an Aquaman issue — and the first appearance of Vulko, natch. You can take the boy out of Atlantis, but…

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  4. Cheers for another splendiferous episode. This is an issue I never had, and it seems to have been he best yet. From the cover with the newly minted side-heads to the fantastic future Batman fable, this is almost all win…

    This issue’s ‘cobbled together on a toilet break’ Batwoman logo shows I’m right about the reframing of reprints. Just look at that thing. Tatty, cheap, utterly unworthy of the circus goddess that is Kathy Kane. Just think of the ornate gorgeousness of mid-century travelling carnival posters, then look at that cack masthead. It’s an insult to Batwoman.

    And still on the subject of logos, it WAS the new Robin and Batgirl logos from down the line I was talking about. The blocky efforts with the hero heads looming over masks and capes. Peculiar.

    My bad as regards my issue 2 comment about Dick’s sex doll legs, it was the final panel of page 7 of the Alfred strip to which I should have referred you fine fellows. Perhaps you could include the image as a Gallery extra! And no fair to characterise my comments as if I was saying I enjoy sex dolls! I’ve never tried them.

    The new story was a lot of fun. The penultimate panel of the story with Babs pointing at Dick, and his reaction, is just brilliant. As for how did the dinosaur illusions work, it’s obvious to fans of that era – Mr Jupiter’s drug-filled balloons. And while you’re correct about how great it was to see up-to-date threads on the various players, I do think Babs was dressed a little inappropriately for her Congressperson meeting. I mean, a belly shirt?

    I don’t think I’d enjoy the Isle of 1000 thrills, personally, but then I’ve never fancied going to a Walt Disney fun park – people in giant animal costumes insisting on jollity? Horrifying.

    I have read the Batwoman story previously, Kathy Kane is just the best, she doesn’t need those stupid Bat-menfolk. I hope she gets a partner of her own, perhaps one with a good tennis elbow.

    Kite Man is not worthy of consideration.

    My big brother had the Steve Austin doll, and although I don’t recall the radio, he did have the rolled-up sleeve circuits – well plastic sticker – on his arm. And you could look through the eye. It was all a bit rubbish.

    I must be the anti-Sean – the Bigfoot episode of the Six Million Dollar Man is part of my favourite childhood memory. I was in the sitting room one Christmas Eve morning, with one of those episodes on the telly, wrapping presents, while my mother was in the kitchen cooking mince pies, and the cooking smells were wafting through. I can still smell it now. The feeling of happiness and security stays with me.

    The Batman of the future story is just brilliant, as you say. Of course, I guessed that Brane was a contracted Bruce Wayne, Paen and Shaers.

    I’ve never had a Hostess fruit pie. I expect they’re like something from the Garden of Eden… the Serpent.

    ‘Glory to Gray’. I like that, even if I do not deserve to be spoken of in the same breath as Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez (PBHN).

    It’s funny, that Bob Rozakis lettercol comment about Babs being 25 because that was the youngest someone could be a Congressperson – this can’t have been long before DC made up the bill that allowed them to de-age her. What was its name, the Knights’ Descendants Act or something…

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    1. Apologies Shawn, my fingers automatically went to an ordinary spelling of your name. Please don’t spank me, papa.

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  5. Great show guys! You are a wonderful addition to the Fire and Water Network.

    When you talked about Joseph Greene and his career as a science fiction writer I was surprised that you did not mention that Julie Schwartz was one of the early fans who published a SciFi fanzine and was the literary agent to some of the SciFi and Horror greats like Ray Bradbury, Robert Bloch, and H. P. Lovecraft. I wonder if that was Greene’s connection to writing comics?

    Keep up the good work!

    Travis Morgan

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  6. Another great episode! Great coverage!

    I think these days the first story would be explained by ‘hard light constructs’, a sort of tangible hologram. Not that that means anything anyways.

    Kite Man has seen a bit of a resurgence lately with Tom King bringing him back. I do love that his secret identity is Charles Brown.

    Anyways, I’m burying the lede.

    Of all the Hostess products, I love fruit pies the best. And of them, blueberry is the superior pie. That doesn’t mean I don’t like Twinkies. But I’ll swap a Twinkie for a fruit pie every time. Alas, since the journey to #goalweight , Hostess indulgences are extremely rare, like maybe once a year. Damn you goal weight!

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  7. Cousin Paul really needs to watch some Flying Circus. I shouted at my podcatcher when he wasn’t cluing into one of the most famous Monty Python sketch (or pair of sketches) ever, probably only behind the Dead Parrot Sketch.

    I’ve been making Spanish Inquisition references on my podcasts for years, all of them flying over his head, I guess. It hurts like being prodded by soft cushions.

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    1. It’s funny, Month Python seems to be more liked abroad these days than here in dear old Blighty. I like the films, but found the episodes I saw… not for me. I don’t know anyone of my generation who likes it. I once had to sit through a dinner party with two visiting Americans who were continually quoting the show. Bless.

      And I love Spam and chips.

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  8. “What do you want to do tonight, Brane?”
    “Same thing we do every night, Ricky — fight to take back our world!”

    Props to the extra-foresighted assemblers of the time capsule. Not only did they apparently choose a medium for storing the newsreels that admirably outlasts film stocks made of nitrate or acetate (the most permanent film medium we know of now is polyester, which is supposed to last 1000 years), but also they managed to get films of the sensational character find of 1940. Not bad for 1939 curators.

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  9. Impressive podcast most impresses. Watching this you can see the start of the batgirl and Robin relationship. Which is why I try not to vomit whenever they try to put her with Bat man. I mean come on she dated his son that’s just weird. At least to make a much better couple. Unless they decide to put Nightwing with star fire. The story is decent enough. But, you are right it doesn’t make any sense that these would be projections. They would have to be hard like projections for all the interaction that batgirl and Robin have with them. Though I do like that she reveals she knows that he is Dick Grayson at the end of the issue. The Spanish Inquisition joke is kind of funny. The artwork is great. But that’s pretty much obvious considering who drew it.

    On to the next story. It’s a decent enough reprint. Though I’m not the biggest fan of this version of Bat woman. The best thing that came from her was the version of batgirl that was connected to her becoming Firebird. Though I did like her on the brave and the bold. When they did the tribute to turnabout intruder. Since that was pretty much the same episode with Batman as Capt. Kirk. Though it is interesting what William Shatner later says considering in a way the turnabout intruder could be considered a trans episode. As could be brave and the bold episode. This comic is well that happened. They’re not cheating bat woman very well here. Some dipstick gets sit on his face and she thinks he’s Batman. Robin plays along so that no one knows that Batman is hurt. But, this man could remember everything and now he knows bat woman’s cave is. He’s been trained by her so unless he is fighting against someone of Batman’s skill level or at least Robbins. He’s probably going to beat the slot out of them. This guy would easily take down the green arrow now. And other lesser combatants.

    Bat woman’s nowhere near Batman’s league, but she is still pretty high up there. Even with the ridiculously she’s treating these comics she is still treated as a physical threat. The bit at the end where Bruce says he hurts himself dancing. That’s a very silly say of its time joke. Also there when I had his legs strapped to the back of him once he’s broken it so we can. To be standing would probably hurt his leg worse. I’m not a doctor anything with that just doesn’t think a good idea.

    On to the last episode. Well issue. Well story. Springs artwork is very good for its time. Though I’m sure he had many unfortunate jokes because of his name when he was a kid. Or at least a teenager. Though that doesn’t diminish his talent is a very talented man. The story however shows us why kite men will never be a big threat in the DC universe. Other than kind of being a romance option for Ivy. In the Harley Quinn TV show or at least part of their buddy system. It is one of those characters that just seems very difficult to make work. I think his real name is actually Charles Brown. How DC got away with that I have no idea. I am surprised he never appeared in a Jimmy Olsen comic book. That way Jimmy’s girlfriend Lucy could steal his kite. Or perhaps defeat him by hitting them in the head with a football. Can’t wait to hear the next episode.

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