Today we have the second of three parts looking back on DC Comics before the multiverse-ending Crisis On Infinite Earths, recalling Earth-Two heroes with identical Earth-One counterparts in the Silver and Bronze Ages. You can catch up with Part 1, and follow along now as we continue with some more heroes of two worlds.
AIR WAVE
In the '70s, DC billed itself as "The Line Of Super-Stars." Air Wave (alias Larry Jordan) was never a super-star, not in any incarnation. During the Golden Age, Air Wave was a backup strip in Detective Comics, and I doubt he ever appeared on a single comic book cover in the '40s.
Flash forward to 1981, when Wikipedia sez a backup story in DC Comics Presents # 40 told us that Air Wave had been killed in action, replaced briefly by his wife Helen, who avenged his death (and promptly retired from caped crusading).
Because shared surnames are never a coincidence in comic books--I think it's a law or something--we later learned that Larry Jordan was related to Hal Jordan, Earth-One's Green Lantern. Larry and Helen's son Harold Jordan became a new Air Wave, appearing in a new series of backups in Action Comics. Young Harold backed up Superman in Action, just as his father had backed up Batman in Detective.
The family connection to Hal Jordan/Green Lantern establishes Air Wave as an Earth-One character. Air Wave never had any contact with other characters during the Golden Age, so we wouldn't necessarily have to presume there ever was an Earth-Two Air Wave.
Or we wouldn't have had to make that presumption until the '80s, when the All-Star Squadron series--which was clearly and specifically set on Earth-Two--included the original Air Wave among its sprawling roster.
BATWOMAN AND BATGIRL
In a reversal of our usual understanding of which characters inhabited which Earth, the distaff Dynamic Duo of the original Batwoman and Batgirl would have been considered Earth-One characters. Kathy Kane and her niece Betty Kane were effectively banished from Batman's adventures when editor Julius Schwartz instituted Batman's New Look in 1964, but they were part of Gotham City continuity contemporary to the debut of the Justice League, and they eventually returned in Bronze Age stories in Detective Comics and Teen Titans.
(And I actively despised Detective Comics # 485, the issue where Batwoman was killed off. I still despise it.)
Batwoman and this original, pre-Barbara Gordon Batgirl could have been solely Earth-One characters, but they were eventually referenced in an Earth-Two context, in a couple of early '80s issues of The Brave And The Bold written by Alan Brennert. B&B isn't always a reliable resource for continuity, but that's mostly because editor Murray Boltinoff and regular writer Bob Haney thought the very idea of such continuity was too cumbersome and unnecessary. These two Brennert issues (# 182 and 197) are canon in my view.
THE BLACKHAWKS
With Blackhawk and his intrepid squad, we have a set of characters who--like Aquaman, Batman and Robin, Green Arrow, Superman, and Wonder Woman--remained in print from the Golden Age into the Silver Age. Blackhawk's exploits were originally published by Quality Comics in the '40s and '50s, and continued thereafter when Quality exited the comics biz and DC bought out a number of Quality properties.
The Blackhawks didn't interact much with the rest of the DC Universe in the '60s, but the few connections that did occur suggested they were inhabitants of Earth-One. The connection was made definite in Justice League Of America # 144 in 1977, which flashes back to a previously-untold adventure from the 1950s, and shows us the Blackhawks alongside the Earth-One heroes who would form the Justice League.
(We'll be coming back to that issue of JLA a few more times before we're done here.)
Given that Blackhawk wasn't published by DC in the '40s, there isn't necessarily any reason to tie that intrepid squadron to events on Earth-Two. In 1973, Justice League Of America # 107 revealed that there had been a (presumably identical) version of the Blackhawks on a newly-revealed Earth designated Earth-X. Earth-X was the home of other Quality characters--Black Condor, Doll Man, Human Bomb, Phantom Lady, the Ray, and Uncle Sam--as well as Blackhawk. 1980s issues of All-Star Squadron established that these Earth-X heroes had all originated on Earth-Two.
THE GUARDIAN AND THE NEWSBOY LEGION
A new version of Joe Simon and Jack Kirby's 1940s kid gang the Newsboy Legion was introduced when Kirby took over Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen in 1970. I absolutely loved Kirby's run on this book at the time, and I may love it even more now.
This new Newsboy Legion debuted in JO # 133--Kirby's first issue on the title--were the sons of the originals and went by the same names: Big Words, Gabby, Scrapper, and Tommy, plus new addition Flippa Dippa. The fathers also appeared in Kirby's run, as did a new version of the first group's costumed protector the Guardian, a clone of the slain original from the '40s.
During the Golden Age, the adventures of the Guardian and the Newsboy Legion were published in Star-Spangled Comics. They also appeared in a Boy Commando story in Detective Comics # 76, a story which also included Sandman from Earth-Two's Justice Society of America. All-Star Squadron subsequently reinforced the Newsboy Legion's status as residents of Earth-Two, with identical counterparts on Earth-One.
MANHUNTER
Simon and Kirby were also the principal auteurs of the Golden Age Manhunter, whose '40s adventures appeared in (of course) Adventure Comics. Simon and Kirby were also responsible for Sandman (and Sandy the Golden Boy) in Adventure; both strips predate Simon and Kirby's involvement, though the pre-S & K Manhunter was non-costumed and shared only a name with our more familiar Manhunter. After the initial S & K Manhunter strip in Adventure Comics # 73 introduced the character (secretly big game hunter Rick Nelson), the civilian name was changed to the pre-S & K Paul Kirk in all later appearances. Rick Nelson presumably abandoned crimefighting, and went to a garden party to reminisce with his old friends.
Manhunter appeared with Sandman and Sandy on the cover of Adventure Comics # 78. Maybe we shouldn't necessarily consider a comic book cover as an indication of canon, but once again the '80s All-Star Squadron definitively placed the Golden Age Manhunter on Earth-Two.
As for Manhunter's Earth-One bona fides, a brilliant 1970s Detective Comics backup strip by Archie Goodwin and Walt Simonson starred Manhunter, Paul Kirk, revived and enhanced but still the same guy who kicked ass back in the '40s. In his farewell in Detective Comics # 443, Manhunter teamed with the book's star character, the Earth-One Batman. A clone of Paul Kirk later appeared in The Secret Society Of Super-Villains.
PLASTIC MAN
Like Blackhawk, Plastic Man is a character that DC acquired from Quality Comics. Unlike Blackhawk, DC didn't get around to using Plas until 1966, and the Silver Age Plastic Man was eventually revealed to be the son of Eel O'Brien, the Golden Age Plastic Man. This Silver Age Son of Plas was never really mentioned outside of his book's ten-issue run. (This run was my introduction to Plastic Man, and I talk about that history here.)
The '60s Plastic Man pretty much lived in a pliable world of his own, though he did team with Batman in a 1968 issue of The Brave And The Bold (# 76). All of Plas' subsequent B & B guest spots used the Eel O'Brien original (or at least Bob Haney's interpretation of him).
Unlike Batwoman and the original Batgirl's appearances in The Brave And The Bold, we generally disregard (or at the very least regard with an asterisk) the continuity ramifications of whatever paces and paths Bob Haney and Murray Boltinoff ran for DC characters in B & B. These stories deliberately existed outside of continuity, indifferent to the larger DC Universe. Plastic Man's Brave And Bold c.v. does not establish Plas on Earth-One or Earth-Two, or anywhere other than the world of The Brave And The Bold. We call it Earth-B, for Boltinoff. B & B seeing you!
The only pre-Crisis evidence of Plastic Man on Earth-One is the same evidence we have for Blackhawk: Justice League Of America # 144. The Earth-Two Plastic Man is also proven the same way we prove the Earth-Two Blackhawk: a deceased Earth-X hero in JLA # 107, revealed to have originated on Earth-Two in All-Star Squadron.
(We should also mention Plastic Man's very first DC Comics appearance, albeit an appearance by proxy. In 1966's House Of Mystery # 160, Robby Reed used his Dial H For HERO device to turn into "Plastic Man--that famous crime-fighting hero of years ago!" Reed later appeared again in Plastic Man's Bronze Age series in the '70s. I don't know if Reed ever crossed over with any other Earth-One [or Earth-Two] heroes pre-Crisis.)
ROBOTMAN
The Golden Age Robotman was Robert Crane, a scientist mortally wounded but saved by having his brain placed in a new mechanical body. The Silver Age Robotman was Cliff Steele, a race car driver mortally wounded but saved by having his brain placed in a new mechanical body (and then becoming a founding member of the Doom Patrol). In each case, super-powered hijinks ensued. Similar origins notwithstanding, the two Robotmen were most definitely not the same character.
The Robert Crane Robotman survived as a back-up feature into the 1950s, and I recall reading the occasional Robotman reprint when I was a kid in the '60s and early '70s. Ol' Robotman kinda kept to himself in the '40s and '50s, so we only have (once again!) Justice League Of America # 144 to place him on Earth-One, and All-Star Squadron (again and again) to tie him to Earth-Two.
We still have five more heroes to address. We'll get to them in Part 3, along with three characters who moved from Earth-Two to Earth-One.
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