Such is the case with World's Finest. In a six issue run, I've noticed the same plot used four times - shamelessly paraded on the covers, no less.
Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you Exhibit "A":
Okay, here Batman has an inferiority complex (yes, Batman has an inferiority complex), and gets some sort of aggressive personality disorder. And Jimmy Olsen looks like an idiot.
And here, Batman is under alien control and develops an aggressive personality disorder. Note the Random Ray Usage!(tm!)
And now we see Robin and Jimmy Olsen (who should have been killed off back in the 1940's) under alien control and developing an aggressive personality disorder.
And then we have....
well, you get the idea. It's basically good guys acting against type, usually because of the alien influence. Granted in the last story, it's the rest of the world that changes into thinking Batman and Superman are villains, but it's still the same idea: Turn the good guys bad.
And I'm not saying that other comics haven't milked a plot device until it bled. I am saying that we now have a term for it. Rock on!
See you Monday!
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3 comments:
How often were World's Finest comics produced? I can see a turnover of plots every few years, or even every year, but practically every month is pushing it.
The problem with most of these is that there was some unforeseen twist that made things not what the cover was portraying.I always enjoyed the "heroes as rivals" issues. Especially the Superman/Flash race around the universe type of stories. But that's just me..I didn't demand too much from my comics.
An awful lot of silver age DC covers used similar themes of heroes acting unheroically - torturing or betraying each other (see Jimmy Olsen and Superman, especially), being the cause of tragedy, showing cowardice, begging, whimpering etc. They feel kind of neurotic when you see too many of them.
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