How Batman Celebrated the Bicentennial (Part 1)

The Bicentennial crept its way into several Batman comics in 1976, the earliest of which (as far as I can tell so far) appears to have been Batman # 273. Cover-dated March 1976, it probably shipped in January or so.

Of course, you'd never know it has any Bicentennial elements based on the cover art:

Ouch. He's going to feel that in the morning.

 

 

Okay, the cover may not show it, but look inside and the Bicentennial gets prominent mention in the very first panel.

Yup, Gotham is preparing to celebrate the Bicentennial with a Revolutionary War reenactment. Of course, this being Gotham, things go awry. In this case, an evil organization called the Underworld Olympics shows up on the scene. Here's the rather inspired logo of these criminal masterminds:

Skull and Ring-bones

These no-gooders quickly (and secretly) disrupt the rehearsal. In the process, several of the actors playing "rebels" are wounded, causing the British to win the war!

Nobody likes you, overzealous Redcoat actor.

After this shocking turn of events, the Underworld Olympics use the furor over the British victory as a smokescreen to commit a much bigger crime. The Bicentennial theme fades pretty quickly after this initial setup, but the rest of the plot contains some nice action and effective one-liners. The story itself isn't quite satisfying, but that's really just because this was the second part of a longer story that ran in the Batman comic for several months, so this issue doesn't contain much of a resolution.

Still, I just love this issue. Not only does it have a Bicentennial but it also combines the 1976 Olympics into a neat, timely story that took advantage of current events to craft a pretty good Batman tale.

The art's great -- of course it is, it's by Ernie Chan -- and David Vern Reed scripted the issue. Reed was an interesting guy, although I hadn't heard of him before reading this issue. A former pulp writer, he played a pretty major role in the Batman creative team for decades and co-created the character Deadshot. I'll have to track down more of his work. I wonder if his name will show up in the credits of any other Bicentennial issues? Probably not, this appears to be one of the last comic books that he scripted.

Other than the main story, there's only one other Bicentennial element in this issue, an ad for one of the era's ubiquitous sets of plastic soldiers, this time with a timely twist:

Play war!

Well, that's it for another look at the Bicentennial comics of 1976. Next up, something else from the checklist. I haven't decided what it will be yet, so come back next Wednesday for another slice of comic-book history!

How Aquaman Spent the Bicentennial

It was July 1976 and everything in America was extra was patriotic -- even Aquaman. Here we see the Marine Marvel riding a giant seahorse while hoisting a beautiful American flag that unfurls beneath the classic Adventure Comics logo.

It's a pretty good image -- aside from the fact that giant seahorses don't exist and the weirdness that the flag would be way, way, way too long if it was stretched out straight.

Still, this is one of the better Bicentennial covers put out by DC in 1976. It embodies the season while still giving Aquaman a fight scene against Black Manta. And poor Aqualad looks like he's in a bit of a pickle in that giant aquarium.

Unfortunately, that's the only Bicentennial content in the comic. The inside pages contain two stories -- one staring the King of the Seven Seas, another starring the Creeper. Neither feature a mention of the Bicentennial.

What we do get is this banner ad on the top of the page, something similar to what ran on all DC comics for a couple of months that year:

That ties to this full-page ad, which asks kids to cut up 25 DC comics to send away for a free Superman belt buckle. (I love that everything had to be postmarked by July 4, 1976. That's a great touch.)

I don't think too many people took DC up on this offer because their Bicentennial comics still seem pretty easy to find. I got this issue at Excalibur Comics here in Portland for about a buck fifty. (It's in pretty bad shape, but not "somebody cut the banner off the top of the cover" bad shape.)

Still, I may need to start haunting eBay to see if any of these Superman belt buckles exist out there. I think that will be a fun addition to my ongoing quest to track down all of these Bicentennial issues.

Although this comic doesn't have any real Bicentennial content, it's still pretty fun. Martin Pasko wrote both stories (Paul Levitz plotted the Aquaman story). The great Jim Aparo drew the lead story (and the cover). Here's my favorite moment from the entire issue, which may not have much to do with 1976 but it sure rings true for the period:

That's it for our first dip into the Bicentennial comics pool. Come back next week for a look at another issue. Who shall it be that time. Maybe...Batman?

Four-Color Patriotism

Hi everyone, my name is John Platt and I am obsessed with comic books about the Bicentennial.

I was seven years old in July 1976, when the entire country colorfully celebrated the American Bicentennial. I remember school art projects, fireworks, parties, parades, all kinds of pins and other mementos, TV specials, and magazine covers.

But more than any of that, I remember the comic books.

I honestly can't recall ever reading a Captain America comic book before Jack Kirby's Captain America's Bicentennial Battles, but that massive ("treasury"-sized) book quickly burned its way into my brain. I became a life-long fan of Steve Rogers, Jack Kirby, and, of course, history.

I still have my battered copy of Bicentennial Battles. I re-read it every few years. Of course in many ways it doesn't hold up, but in others it remains a high point of comics from that era.

But Bicentennial Battles was far from the only Bicentennial comic book. The regular Captain America comic book celebrated the Bicentennial for the better part of a year, while many other comics touched on the holiday in one form or another. Sometimes it was just cover art. Sometimes it was a story. Some of them were awful. A few were actually pretty good.

My goal now is to identify every Bicentennial comic, track them down and write about them here.

Here are the covers for most of the titles that I have identified so far. Some of them should be easy to find. Others may take a while. No worries, I'm not in a rush. I'll just try to finish my collection before the tricentennial.

This Adventure Comics issue is only Bicentennial-themed on its cover, but I still like it. (Similarly, almost every DC Comics title for July 1976 featured a cover banner proclaiming "DC Celebrates the Bicentennial!" As far as I'm concerned, those don't count as Bicentennial comics.)

The first of several underground comix on this list.

This was the only Batman comic to show it on the cover, but all of the above issues had Bicentennial-themed stories.

Not exactly patriotic, but I think my collection would be lacking if I didn't include this.

A restaurant freebie? I'm not sure if this will be worth tracking down, but I'll give it a shot.

This was the final issue in an 8-part storyline, starting in issue 193, all building up to the Bicentennial. Collect 'em all!

Okay, this one is a stretch. The only Bicentennial theme is a pun in the story title. But as a product of the time, it counts.

I don't think this issue contains any Bicentennial content aside from the cover, but apparently issue 15 does.

Who knew Dennis the Menace was so patriotic?

Does this contain much in comics format? Stay tuned to find out!

I had this one as a kid. Vague memories of it are what sent me down this trail.

Another restaurant freebie.

Okay, so it's a calendar, not a comic book. Close enough.

A book, but it's about comics, so it counts. 

I don't think the date on this one is quite correct, but the story is set in 1776.

You can't tell from the cover art, but the text tells us there's a Bicentennial story inside.

Another restaurant freebie. Hmm.

Shazam issue 25 also seems to have had a Bicentennial story.

I had this one, too. A classic.

Probably more in the comic strip column than comic books, but I'm intrigued.

Did I miss any? Let me know. I'll add 'em to the list! And stay tuned for a closer look inside each issue!