As a kid, a favorite of mine was this DC Blue Ribbon Digest filled with strange stories set in the world of sports. I've forgotten the number of but the contents have never left me. In it, a boxer was forced to spar with cement gloves, a hockey match set by a waterfall became a death match, and a basketball team faced off against a group of athletes without faces.
But the story that interested me the most in that book was the cover story of this very issue. A baseball game between heroes and villains! Batman, Joker, Lex Luthor, Green Arrow, Amazo- all of your favorite heroes were there.
The game started as the result of a domestic dispute between Sportsmaster and his wife Huntress (not the superhero who later becomes a Bird of Prey, but the leopard-print wearing villainess.) Anyways, Huntress wants to go straight but her hubby won't have it. So the pair recruit teams of heroes and baddies to play a round of baseball to decide her fate.
This was a very odd story. There's been tales of good guys and their arch- enemies using athletics to decide the outcome of some skirmish, such as the Green Lantern reprint in the back of this issue. But usually one side or the other is reluctant to play or they cheat like crazy.
Here everybody is willing to participate in America's past time and the baddies seem to really be enjoying themselves. It's rather odd that nobody, even the Man of Steel, uses their powers or bag of tricks until the last inning. In the ninth, it's no holds barred! What's even odder is in the last inning, it's the heroes who win by cheating- not the bad guys!
This story is a classic example of the sort of stories editor Julius Schwartz was noted for. Unusual, off-the-wall but thrilling and fun as well as original! Above all, the story had to be original with Julie! I love it.
There's also a story that I've read somewhere before but have forgotten when and where I've done so. It's a Gil Kane story in which a human track and field coach meets a bunch of alien athletes. Unfamiliar with the gravity on earth, the aliens need the coach's help if they are to win their upcoming track meet. Another odd story but quite enjoyable and ORIGINAL!
That must mean it's another Schwartz helmed masterpiece.
Worth Consuming!
No comments:
Post a Comment