Siskoid and Bass start their coverage of DC Comics Presents with issues 1 and 2 (July-October 1978), featuring the Superman and the Flash, discuss the proud tradition of Superman-Flash races, and uncover the origin stories of both Earth and Krypton. This is the epic no one really remembers, so get yourself this handy reminder!
Listen to the Team-Up below, or subscribe to FW Team-Up on iTunes!
Relevant images and further credits at: FW Team-Up Supplemental
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I’m glad to see Siskoid and Bass’s team-up survives into the new podcast era.
The ads for DC Comics Present made this a must-by for me. I loved The Brave and the Bold after all as it gave me a chance to explore the DC Universe. Unfortunately, this was 1978 — and it would be a few years before I discovered Comic Book Speciality shops. And I couldn’t find issue 1 at any of the variety stores. But I did buy issue 2.
And it set me on a Flash kick. (With his last name, Barry could have been a relative on my mother’s side.) The only issue I recognize having as a child before this one was Flash #255 (cover date Nov. 1977) but the month after issue 2 of DC Comics Presents came out, I bought Flash #266 and I also bought most of the Flash issues for the next few years.
I figure DC Comics Presents did its job pretty well.
The thing I remember from this issue was the gimmick of time being a circle and reaching the past by going into the future. I worked that concept into a few sci-fi stories I wrote as a kid.
Oh, and I gather that both maps in the 1970s comics and also the Answer Man columns established Central City as being in Ohio. (There appears to be ghost town Central City in Ohio in the real world too.) Ohio is the midwest. So your calculations fit 1978. But I know they moved it to Missouri after Crisis. (It’s relationship with Keystone being like Kansas City, Missouri and Kansas City, Kansas.)
Despite buying comics (or, having them bought for me) at the time, I missed the first several DCCP issues. When I first encountered part of this story, it was a few panels used in a “You Decide” feature in the one and only issue of the Super Powers Fan Club newsletter you could get for sending in Proofs of Purchases from Super Powers action figures, around 1984.
When I finally read the entire story in the Superman by JLGL (PBHN) hardcover…yeah, it’s pretty bonkers! But man it looks pretty! Superman’s cape got a LOT of play in the 70s and early 80s for some reason. Not really sure why. I seem to recall Supes stretching it for several miles at the very least in at least one story! Did Jor-El create Unstable Kryptonian Molecules?
Great start to your DCCP coverage! Bring on Adam Strange!
Barry Allen goes to another universe and participates in a race with other speedsters? That sounds familiar … https://marvel.fandom.com/wiki/Buried_Alien_(Earth-TRN242) 😉
I’ve always been fond of these two and several more of the earliest issues of DCCP, ever since I bought them in 3-pack bags with the Whitman logo on them.
I recently re-read them – in the handy and quite lovely Adventures of Superman by Jose Luis Garcia Lopez (PBHN) book – and they held up pretty well for me. Yes, the story has a Silver Age level of silliness, but it’s still quite enjoyable. And man, the art is lovely – even with the inks by Dan Adkins (although I would agree that the later stories in which JLGL does the complete art look much better).
It’s night and day!!!
This series is my jam. I started collecting DCCP early, somewhere I the single digits, but also picked up just the second part here in a Whitman sampler, and don’t think I read part one until the showcase black and white collection a few years back.
Not covering the backups is going to make the forgotten heroes/villains story confusing, but that’s a problem for 2030 Siskoid and Bass I guess. Well before that you’ll have to contend with Pete Ross and a mess of bronze age backstory that I don’t think has ever been collected…
It’s as simple as going back and reading those for the proper episode.
Thanks for covering DCCP!
I was a big fan of this title when it was on the stands and I’ll be happy to listen to each episode as they come out.
This podcast has made me very happy – for you see, as much as I DO love DCCP, I have never been able to like this story and I thought it was just me who found it needlessly complicated and not a fun read.
Not only have you guys eliminated that thought from my head, but nearly every one of the comments above make me feel the same way!
You’ve made a less-than-stellar story into an incredibly enjoyable time spent with the two of you.
I’m so looking forward to hearing every future show!
I said it on the show and I’ll say it again: There’s nothing wrong with going “negative” so long as you make it fun.
I was in on this title from the very beginning! It was my personal “Golden Age” then! I bought DCCP for many years, but there were only a couple of stories that stuck with me. As gorgeous as the art is on this initial Team-Up, and the intriguing (to a 14-year-old) notion of time being circular, I don;t think I ever bothered to re-read it! Yes, Central City is in Ohio. Metropolis is across the bay from Gotham. A bridge connected them. Which bay? Mind your own business!
What a great pair of super stories . These days if that race happened my bro and I would in the front stands on our flash gear . While my brother cheered for super man . Little brothers go figure .