World’s Finest #148 (1965)
by Ed Hamilton & Curt Swan
If you just look at the cover, you would think this is one of the million times Superman had to fake being a criminal for some reason. The real story is a lot more complicate this time.
No wonder Robin eventually went to work on his own, Batman!
The reason why Superman and Batman have been called is that a dead scientist left them a very dangerous invention with the instruction to never use it.
LITERALLY NEXT PANEL:
The machine doesn’t seem to have any effect on them, but they soon have to face the police.
Nice work, guys.
Obviously a couple of normal cops are no threat to the heroes, but when Luthor and Clayface (shapeshifted into a cheetah) show up, it’s clear things are not as they seem.
In fact, this isn’t Earth-1 at all! Welcome to what will eventually be labeled Earth-148, not to be confused with the similarly themed Earth-3.
While the history of Earth-3 was utter nonsense, Earth-148 has some believable adjustments in order to turn heroes into villains: their parents were criminals too!!!
Superman gets both of his parents to be criminals, but Batman only has his father. Mostly because his mother was a non-entity for the vast majority of the character’s history.
Of course the villainous versions of the heroes show up to fight our versions.
They’re too evenly matched with their counterparts, so this results in a complete stalemate.
That’s kind of odd for Superman, since he HAS defeated other super-powered Kryptonians before, but I guess the evil Superman has a similar amount of experience.
Supervillainy 101: when you can’t defeat the hero, endanger some civilians and escape.
It works every time.
One one hand, it’s kind of embarrassing for Batman to be utterly outclassed the second he has to face the criminal Superman alone.
Oh the other hand, I’m so tired of the modern “Bat-God” that this is very refreshing to see.
The heroes have no intention to stay on Earth-148 for too long, so they head back to the invention they need to return to Earth-1…
…but then then Evil Supes has a great idea: why not dump the heroes on their reality’s Luthor and Clayface?
In another great idea, it’s Evil Robin that alerts Good Luthor in order to avoid suspicion.
He does so through… well he’s not Evil Jimmy and I can’t call him Good Jimmy…
Let’s just call him The Jimmy Who Doesn’t Suck.
Honestly this one’s on you, Superman… you already saw Good Luthor had Kryptonite at his disposal, so what did you expect would happen!?
To be specific, Good Luthor has a scientifically made Kryptonite that weakens Superman without killing him out right.
So… exactly how the regular Kryptonite is supposed to work? I mean the effects did fluctuate a bit in earlier stories, but by 1965 this should be exactly how it works!
Maybe Superman means that this kind of Kryptonite wouldn’t kill him even with prolonged exposure? That would make sense for a heroic Luthor, but how the heck would Superman be able to tell?
Okay so I get why Superman keeps a secret identity after this, but… why doesn’t anyone try to take off Batman’s mask!?
This is a rare opportunity to see a pre-Crisis version of the Kents meeting their adult son, because of course in the main continuity they’ve been dead for a while.
And it kind of made sense when you think that an evil version of Superboy probably wouldn’t send them on a Caribbean cruise for their anniversary, so they didn’t contract the diseased that killed them.
I certainly didn’t expect this to turn into a legal drama.
So far Earth-148 has been very straightforward, but there’s some odd changes… like the fact that here Perry White isn’t a journalist but an attorney.
Or that Lois Lane is in the jury, seemingly for no reason.
Nobody believes their story about being from another Earth… except Lex Luthor, ironically.
This Luthor has invented binoculars with “camera lenses” that record everything they see… so basically he’s invented a camera.
Yeah I get the story has to move on quickly, but maybe the trial should be a little more complex than “let’s trust the word of this one guy”.
So far Good Clayface hasn’t had the chance to do much.
His regular counterpart shows up many times on World’s Finest because he’s one of the few Batman villains with superpowers… but unless this version of the Fortress of Solitude has WAY way worse security, him being able to just smash the front door is too much.
As I said I can’t stand the modern Bat-God, but while the Silver Age showed much more restrain in his abilities… sometimes he’s able to do stuff he reasonably shouldn’t be able to do.
Like getting the drop on Evil Superman without even the slightest hint of the element of surprise.
Sooo… story over, right? Except there’s still one page left, so let’s get some brainwashing!
AND IT WORKS, raising so many questions… even letting aside the ethical ones:
1) why has Luthor never thought of this?
2) does crime even exist on Earth-148 after this point?
3) does Superman learn how to carry out this brainwashing? If so, why doesn’t HE do the same with HIS version of Luthor?
4) in the middle of this, we learn this version of Kandor is a miniature version of Krypton recreated by its survivors. HOW DID THEY DO THAT!?!?
Historical significance: 0/10
The designation of “Earth-148” is not made in-story, but it’s been used in indexes as the origin of various evil version of other heroes (like Flash and Wonder Woman).
Silver Age-ness: 8/10
Every alternate Earth story inherently has a high score.
Does it stand the test of time? 9/10
Aww, I kind of wanted this to be a trainwreck, because there’s a FANTASTIC reaction shot I could’ve used!!! 
But it’s actually a pretty good story: once you adjust the writing style for the times, the vast majority of the plot holds well and the characters are acting in a believable way.
When compared to other “evil universes” and ESPECIALLY Earth-3, this feels like a somewhat realistic reality.
Did Robin actually do anything? Which one?
The Good Robin doesn’t show up after being dismissed in the very first panel, but Evil Robin shows he’s a great partner in crime.
Did Superman really need Batman? Not much
Batman handles the Kryptonite handcuffs, but basically anyone else could’ve done that. He does defeat Evil Superman, but in such an unbelievable way that I suspect Superman would’ve been able to do something similar.
The same is true for Evil Batman, because it seems Evil Superman already has his criminal career figured out without any sidekick.
Interesting letters: Peter has a point, but of course Superman and other superpowered heroes have tons of stories where they lose their powers but remain badasses.
DC comics of the period had some kind of twisted idea that criminals could be turned into good guys by MIND CONTROL without being sufficiently self-aware to realize that that, itself, is a heinous crime. The writer of such stories always has his characters utilize super-science to achieve their ends, as though that makes it better.
Compare with “The Amazing Story of Superman-Red and Superman-Blue” (1963, Leo Dorfman writing) in which Superman gets split into two people and they decide to create a utopia by wiping out crime. They do this by creating an orbital “Anti-evil ray” which prevents everyone from having criminal thoughts. You know what else does that? a lobotomy.
Let’s take this story. Here, we have an evil Superman who, if he got annoyed, could murder hundreds, if not thousands, of people with impunity. In fact, he could destroy his Earth, if he took a mind to do so.
I don’t see brainwashing him to do good as all that terrible. In fact, it’s quite sensible.
It echoes the classic situation: if you have the terrorist who planted the nuclear bomb somewhere in New York City and it’s set to explode in a half-hour, do you really worry about his civil rights in interrogating him?
Not gonna cry over this one.
Yeah I’m with the Commander on this one. While brainwashing villains has troubling ethical implications in many stories (my favorite to explore them is Gruenwald’s Squadron Supreme miniseries), I wouldn’t go so far as to compare it to a lobotomy since those affected by the brainwash seem to be perfectly capable of living a normal life.
To me the real questions here are A) why doesn’t Superman try this on the Luthor of his Earth, and more importantly B) why does nobody try to unmask Batman when he’s in jail and they think he’s the worst criminal ever?
[W]hy does nobody try to unmask Batman when he’s in jail and they think he’s the worst criminal ever?
The true reason is because neither Weisinger, nor Hamilton felt it was a necessary element to the story. Let’s face it: many real-world procedural details are ignored, even in modern comics.
But this one actually has a work-around, though you have to squint a little . . . Who says the authorities didn’t unmask the Batman?
We just didn’t see it. In an unshown scene, the Caped Crusader was unmasked and fingerprinted. He was likely recognised and/or identified as Bruce Wayne (or, rather, that world’s version). That’s more than sufficient probable cause for a search warrant, sending the police to the stately Wayne Manor of Earth-148. A police search would undoubtedly uncover the Batcave and loot from the Earth-148 Batman’s previous crimes. It’s also likely that Thomas Wayne was hooked up as an accomplice and/or for aiding and abetting.
We, the readers, weren’t shown any of that.
As for the Masked Manhunter’s appearance in court in costume, you’ll note that, in the courtroom, there is no-one else at the defence table other than Superman and Batman. Meaning: no defence attorney. Since the procedings couldn’t . . . er . . . proceed without legal representation for the defendants, one might assume that Superman and Batman were representing themselves. And, from that, we might conclude that the Batman, for whatever reason one might conject, felt it was preferable to appear in court while in bat-costume.
As I said, you have to look kind of sideways at it, but it could fit. Another point: with all the crimes the Earth-148 Superman and Batman would’ve been charged with, a trial would not have taken place until several months after Our Heroes’ arrests, probably even a year or more. Since the story doesn’t indicate or imply that much time has elapsed, it might be considered a preliminary hearing, held shortly after the arrests. And, as fans of Perry Mason saw every week, the defence has more latitude in a preliminary hearing.
Anyway, that’s how I’m going to look at it.
I miss the Matt Hagen version of Clayface.