Fire & Water #185 – Bob Haney Showcase V

Shag and Rob are back with a fan favorite, #ZanyHaney! They take a look at two stories written by the legendary Bob Haney: First up is "Cry Not For My Forsaken Son", from WORLD'S FINEST #221 (Feb. 1974) starring the Super Sons by Haney, Dick Dillin, and Murphy Anderson, followed by "What Lurks Below Buoy 13" by Haney and Jim Aparo from BRAVE AND THE BOLD #126 (April 1976) starring Batman and Aquaman!

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22 responses to “Fire & Water #185 – Bob Haney Showcase V

  1. With the use of the word “satellite” and “orbiting” in this comic Inigo Montoya’s phrase “You Keep Using That Word, I Do Not Think It Means What You Think It Means” kept popping into my head.

  2. Absolutely love these episodes. They are insane.

    My favorite part was Shag saying ‘That was my favorite part’ about 6 times over the episode. I keep wondering if the hair color of the unseen wives tip off who the moms are. Clark’s mom is raven-haired – so it has to be Lois. Right?

    But a brunette for Bruce? I guess that eliminates Silver St. Cloud.

    Keep coming back with more. I hope one day B&B 118 will be covered. Or any of the Wildcat issues since that puts Ted Grant on Earth-B!

  3. Great episode guys! really a lot of fun. For those interested, Comic Reflections covered World’s Finest #221 back on episode 198. We revisited the Super Sons on episode 201 with World’s Finest #242.

  4. This was a fun episode, emphasis on the fun. I love when Shag and Rob are obviously having a good time with the comics they are talking about. These sound like good examples of #zaneyhaney.

    I know you have covered Brave and the Bold in the past and want other examples of Haney’s work but I suggest that you keep going back to that well. So many fun stories that sometimes don’t a licking of f***ing sense.

  5. Loads of fun fellas. That World’s Finest was one of my earliest “older comics”, bought for me from a local flea market before I went to elementary school! You can imagine my confusion by the sudden appearance of the Super Sons and Super Wives! It took me a while to realize that this WASN’T the status quo in the comics. I eventually assumed this was a one-off “imaginary story”. I wasn’t until years later I stumbled across even more Super Sons tales.

    It always puzzled me why no one thought to give the Sons unique costumes. It’s almost impossible to tell one Batman from another, minus the crazy dialog Shag pointed out.

    Dick Dillin is VASTLY underrated. The man could handle character crowds at a near Perez-like level, and he adapted his style to changing times, picking up some Neal Adams influences in the 70s to keep the JLA “on model” with their other appearances. Plus, I loved the way he drew women. Add in another comics master, Murphy Anderson, and you have a beautiful book.

    The B&B issue is a headscratcher to me. Haney normally stuck to his own strange continuity, but as you mentioned, he wrote Aquaman for years, so why the sudden recasting of him as a fair-haired Namor? Did Haney take the editorial comment about his loss of the throne to heart and recast Aquaman as dejected royalty? It would appear so.

    Haney always packs TPB-length tales into 22 pages, or often less. Each one-off issue would be an ominibus-worthy arc nowadays!

    John Calnan did a lot of Batmn work from the mid to late 70s. His Batman was one of the first I encountered in the Batman title. He drew the infamous “Where Were You The NIght Batman was Killed” storyline in Batman #291-294, written by Haney’s brother-from-another-mother, David V. Reed.

    Chris

          1. I never heard the “died at the drawing board” story, but Dillin did pass away while drawing JLA #184. There are pages from that issue that he did that went unused once Perez was tapped to replace him. I’ve seen a couple of them.

  6. Fun episode but when aren’t they? The Super Sons were so fabulously silly – two superheroes per household and they couldn’t sort out the lighting so the wives weren’t always in a pool of shadow? And Haney not tagging the stories as imaginary or future tales, claiming theyre happening TODAY made it seem as if our heroes were cheating on Lois and Selina with actual wives.

    And I liked John Calnan, possibly because his lack of a strong style reminded me of the work of pre-2000AD British comic artists, the type you see in the Commando war digests (hmmm). Achtung Britisher, 4986 issues and counting!

  7. Love the Bob Haney Showcase. I have all of the Showcase Presents The Brave and the Bold and love these stories. Whenever people start talking about the BatGod that Grant Morrisson portrayed in the JLA, I think “But Bob Haney already provided us with the BatGod way before that!” The way Batman can make even heroes like Aquaman do what Batman wants must make the other heroes wish they were Batman!

    For some suggestions on other Bob Haney stories to cover, I love his stories on the Unknown Soldier. Star Spangled War Stories 156 has the Unknown Soldier trying to assassinate Hitler and the art is by Joe Kubert. Also, in 2000, Bob Haney wrote one of the tie-ins to the Silver Age Crossover in Silver Age: Brave and the Bold where the Metal Men team up with Batman (who is in fact the Penguin) to take down Catwoman and Felix Faust (who are in fact Black Canary and Green Arrow). And the art is by Kevin Maguire!!!!

  8. Blazes! A Haney-fest! I’ll have to track down the earlier podcasts you did about Haney, as this was such fun. I love hearing folks emphasize the fun in comics! One of my earliest comics purchases was World’s Finest #23-something with the Super Sons. That little phrase made me buy that book. Superman and Batman have sons? Really? Sure, it was confusing, but I enjoyed the ride. One thing that I’d like to mention in regards to Haney’s stories is the role of the editor. I believe that both of these books were edited by Murray Bolitnoff, and he was the one who sort of had his own little universe within DC. Did Haney work for any other editor? When credit or blame is assigned for these stories, share it with Murray!

  9. Great podcast! I missed the Bob Haney podcasts they are so much fun. Haney writing was so ambitious one of his issues equates to a graphic novel today. I wish there was a Bob Haney writer today.

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