Detective Comics #490

Bought at the September Brimfield Antique Fair, 2026.

Title: Detective Comics
Issue: 490
Date: May,1980
Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: Denny O'Neil, Mike W. Barr, Bob Rozakis, Jack C. Harris, Martin Pasko
Artist: Don Newton, Dan Adkins, John Calnan, Joe Giella, George Tuska, Bob Smith, Alex Saviuk, Pat Broderick, Frank McLaughlin
Colorist: Adrienne Roy, Gene D'Angelo, Tatjana Wood, Bob LeRose
Letterer: Ben Oda, Todd Klein, Milt Snapinn
Editor: Paul Levitz

The main story here has the Batman caught in the middle of a battle between Ras Al Ghul and the Sensei for the control and the purpose of the League of Assassins. The Batman races to stop a manmade natural disaster set up by the Sensei from taking out a gathering of world religious leaders, and he has more problems dealing with Commissioner Gordon's security forces than he does with the actual assassins. The Batman is having a pretty bad day by the time this one is over, although he does get a bit of reprieve by the end in the arms of Talia Al Ghul.

There are also four backup stories. A ballet-themed Batgirl story is a pretty straightforward mystery as Barbara tries to unravel the grudges in a family dance troupe that have led to attempted murder.

Robin, in college-student mode, takes on a crime that feels significantly below his paygrade as he tracks down the (obvious) suspect in a scheme to sell exam answers to cheating students. The fun part of this is his interactions with current girlfriend (and honest nursing student) Jennifer.

There's a short "Tale of Gotham City" piece that turns out to be rather cozy after opening with a voiceover that feels a bit victim-blamey. It redeemed itself reasonably well in the end.

And finally, a Black Lightning story with the hero saving a teenaged boy from some Voodoo practitioners, complete with the expected stereotypes for that sort of thing, and a cliffhanger ending that teases a possible new beginning for Black Lightning.

The opening story did a good job of keeping the tension high, while the Robin and Batgirl stories were both decent short-form adventures. Black Lightning seemed to be going for a reboot, and did a reasonable job of setting that up.

Rating: 5.5/10

World's Finest Comics #217

Another in a small batch of comics gifted to me by my brother-in-law.

Title: World's Finest Comics
Issue: 217
Date: May, 1973
Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: Bob Haney
Artist: Dick Dillin, Murphy Anderson

After a sequence of mishaps, Metamorpho ends up with all of the abilities of Superman and Batman, in addition to his own powers. Eager to used his newfound powers for good, Metamorpho ends up upstaging both Superman and Batman, who become jealous of all of the attention that Metamorpho is getting, and decide to defect to one of America's enemy nations where they pledge loyalty to a military dictator. Metamorpho is sent to bring Superman and Batman back to America... by any means necessary.

There is a plot twist, as one might expect, that reveals that Superman and Batman were actually working for the cause of good, but they end up admitting that they really were jealous of Metamorpho, so not all of their obnoxious behavior is quite explained away. The villain, the dictator of the imaginary enemy nation, is basically a walking set of cliches, but really, so are Batman and Superman in this story. Metamorpho, meanwhile comes off as reasonably sympathetic. His actual battles against Batman and Superman are generally goofy, but he does manage to drop a couple of good chemistry facts here and there as he uses his elemental powers.

This was harmless fun, although it relied pretty heavily on Superman and Batman acting in ways that most fans would consider out-of-character for the sake of the plot.

Rating: 4.5/10