Posted in: Batman, Comics, Current News, DC Comics, Superman | Tagged: batman and superman, world's finest

Batman Meets Superman For First Time Apart From All The Other Times

The first time Batman and Superman meet in All Star Comics #7, published in 1941, it is implied they have known each other for ages.

The first time Batman and Superman meet, it was in All Star Comics #7 published by National Comics in 1941, it is implied they have known each other for ages however, and are helping raise money for war orphans in a story by Gardner Fox and Everett E. Hibbard.

Edmond Hamilton and Curt Swan choose to tell a flashback story of the first time the two met, in 1952, in Superman #76.

But that wouldn't be enough, as Edmond Hamilton and Curt Swan would then tell another story in 1956 and Worlds Finest Comics #84, that showed a secret meeting that neither realised at the time, when they were children, Superman was Superboy and Batman was Bruce Wayne, Junior Detective.

And I don't know what Edmond Hamilton was on but in 1968, he and Dick Sprang did it again in World's Finest #94, with suoperboy aware of himself and Batman in the future, though Bruce Wayne gets a mind wipe.

In 1960 on a different title and with a different creative team, Jerry Coleman and George Papp told the story of a new first meeting of Batman and Superman in Adventure Comics #275. As Tom King might say, decades later, they met on the boat.

In 1972, at least Leo Dorfman and Bob Brown remembered the Bruce Wayne mindwipe as we have another first teenage meeting between the two, with Bruce Wayne blaming Superboy for the death of his parents, which now seems to have happened when Waye was a teenager.

It took another fourteen years before DC Comics had another go, with John Byrne and Man of Steel #3 in 1986. With Superman meeting Batman for the first time and arresting him for being a street vigilante.

And while there were plenty of other Elseworlds and parallel universe first meetings, it took even longer until DC would revisit the idea, in 2003 when in Superman/Batman: Secret Files & Origins 2003, Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale gave us another youngster tale, where neither is properly aware of the other, just that Clark Kent watched a broken down Bruce Wayne from across a field.

Then, in 2011, we have the New 52 and a new Justice League origin from Geoff Johns and Jim Lee, the first issue of which concluded thus:

Picking up with a proper confrontation in the second issue.

And not even that would be allowed to pass as Batman/Superman #1 by Greg Pak and Jae Lee from 2013, allowing a pre-Justice League Clark Kent and Bruce Wayne to meet…

So why all this now? Well, Batman/Superman: World's Finest #18 by Mark Waid and Dan Mora is out tomorrow, and it turns out that Superman is in town, tracking down a mysterious use of Kryptonian language, now known as Kryptonese, and a link to The Riddler.

And Superman has heard rumours of a bat detective in these parts, and Commissioner Gordon gets the idea for the Bat Signal.

And Batman gets to show just what kind of a detective he can be without any need for X-Ray vision.

And so, a lifelong friendship was formed. Again. Again. Again. Until we get another look at their childhoods together…

BATMAN SUPERMAN WORLDS FINEST #18 CVR A DAN MORA
(W) Mark Waid (A) Travis Moore (CA) Dan Mora
THE UNTOLD TALE OF HOW THE DARK KNIGHT AND THE MAN OF STEEL FIRST MET! Think you know how Superman and Batman met and became friends? Think again! Read the untold tale of how their worlds first collided–and the stunning, secret loss that nearly destroyed their partnership before it even began! Retail: $3.99 In-Store Date: 08/15/2023

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