When DC Comics was publishing The Shadow in the 1970s, they also published a couple of stories teaming up The Shadow with Batman in his title, most likely to help sales of the title. Which makes sense.
Until recently I hadn’t gotten the issues, and when Dynamite and DC teamed up to do a new Batman and The Shadow teamup, I was hoping they’d reprint these two when they published this in book form. In fact, I thought I had read the two stories were going to be included. But it didn’t happen. So I had to track down the two issues to read and review.
First up is Batman #253 (November 1973), which came out around the same time as the first issue of The Shadow (October-November 1973). The issue has a cover by Mike Kaluta, with a story by Dennis O’Neil (who was writing The Shadow comic) and interior art by Irv Novick and Dick Giordano.
In this one, Batman is dealing with a case that leads to a counterfeiting ring located in Arizona. But he seems to be shadowed by a mysterious figure, a crime fighter from the past. Is he back? Along the way, Bruce Wayne meets a Lamont Cranston with graying hair. After wrapping up the case, The Shadow reveals himself and basically reveals that he was checking out Batman to see if he was a worthy successor. Will The Shadow come out of retirement? This will remain to be seen.
Next is Batman #259 (November-December 1974), with a cover by Nick Cardy, and story and art by the same team. This story, which would do a call back to the previous one, is first set 25 years prior (so 1949) with The Shadow thwarting a bank robbery. Also pulled in is a young Bruce Wayne and his father before his death. But The Shadow made an impact on Bruce. Then we shift to the present with the sale of a tiara that the thieves were after. At the same time, the main thief is released from jail. So Batman is around to stop it from being stolen, with The Shadow there to make sure it happens. It’s kind of interesting, and trying to tie The Shadow into Batman’s origin was original.
I do have to wonder why this wasn’t done in The Brave and The Bold, which was all teamups with Batman. But maybe that series didn’t sell as well as the main title. And with DC putting out their omnibus volumes reprints, when they start doing the Batman Bronze age comic reprints, will these stories get reprinted? They’ve never been reprinted in the U.S. I think having them reprinted in the Dynamite Batman/The Shadow collection would have been the best option, and that was missed for some reason. Frankly, these two stories did a better job at tying in The Shadow and Batman than that storyline.
So if you want to read these, tracking the actual issues may be your only option at this time.
