FW Team-Up: Batman and Wildcat

One of the comics that made Anj want to be Dr. Anj, The Brave and the Bold #118, a boxing spectacular starring Batman, Wildcat and the Joker is up next on FW Team-Up. Siskoid gets into the ring, but don't call it a comeback. He's been here for years.

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Relevant images and further credits at: FW Team-Up Supplemental

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12 responses to “FW Team-Up: Batman and Wildcat

  1. Always happy to hear Anj on the network, so this episode comes pre-delivered great.

    I imagine a lot of the B&B team-ups were based on sales. If so, Wildcat must have been pretty popular, because he appeared in this book A LOT, certainly more than you would expect from a character who, post-Golden Age, was never a lead feature.

    I don’t need to re-re-re-state my love for 70s Aparo, but as you talked about, boxing is a perfect sport for him to draw, since he excelled at making punches, kicks, and slams land with seemingly nuclear force.

  2. I agree this is the perfect story for Aparo and his atomic punches. Just imagine if he had drawn a Wildcat strip in say World’s Finest or something?

    Also, the visual hook of this story (or at least its cover) was homaged in Chuck Dixon and Beau Smith’s fun Batman/Wildcat mini-series from 1997. Smith was a guest at the comic shop I worked at shortly after this mini and around the the publication time of the follow-up Catwoman/Wildcat sequel, so I have fond memories of both.

    Batman/Wildcat

    Also, Is it somewhat ironic that the Joker held a gun to a dog’s head years before National Lampoon’s famous first issue?

    Fun episode! Always nice to hear more Anj on the network!

    Chris

  3. This was one of the 1st books I bought when I went to one of my earliest cons back in the 1980s. I was so struck by Aparo’s B&B covers that I grabbed them all up. Every once in awhile I was miffed when I bought the book and then found out he didn’t do that issue’s interior. I really wish there was a book like this on the stands today: non-continuity stories using Batman to introduce readers to the various corners of the DCU.

    Well done!

  4. I always liked Haney’s take on Sgt. Rock as a grizzled war vet. Apparently, Kanigher hated those stories but they were fun introduced me to Rock.

  5. This story had so much 1970s pop culture crammed into it! I think the only thing missing was a Bermuda triangle reference! As this went on sale in January 1975, let’s see what was happening in America in 1974.
    1. Boxing. Muhammad Ali was extremely popular. He had just fought George Foreman in Zaire a few months prior to this comic’s on-sale date.
    2. Motorcycle jump across the drawbridge. Evel Knievel attempted his Snake River Canyon jump in September, 1974, with tremendous publicity.
    3. Cute dog. The movie “Benji” was released in October 1974, and was one of the top ten grossing films of that year.
    4. Sparta Prison. Although the riots at Attica State Prison were in 1971, the event was still in the zeitgeist. (As evidenced later in 1975 when Al Pacino’s character in “Dog Day Afternoon” uses the repetition of the word to incite a crowd.) A film documentary about the event was released in 1974. Johnny Cash had two successful albums that had been recorded live at prisons, and B.B. King did one also.
    5. “Shoot this dog.” The infamous cover for National Lampoon was dated January 1973.

    I have no idea if the gladiator gloves were a deliberate contemporary cultural call-out or not.

    Jim Aparo, 1974, perfect.

  6. Lots to love in Haney stories, that’s for sure. But even moreso for the Aparo artwork. He’s my Batman artist all the way.

    It might be too obvious, but I’m thinking a Wildcat/Muhammad Ali Team-Up would be excellent. It could be shortly after his iconic bout with Superman, but also featuring the supporting cast from Ali’s cartoon. Oh, if only Haney could write it himself, he’d make it work.

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