Batman and Superman spend the night together.

[xdoop.insanejournal.com]

This is from World's Finest Comics #289. It's written by Doug Moench and illustrated by Adrian Gonzales. The cover is by Gil Kane.


Batman is upset when he is unable to save a mugging victim.


Meanwhile, Superman saves some rock climbers from getting flattened by a giant boulder. He overhears the climbers react in wonder, and feels depressed at how his world is destroyed and that he's alone.

Later in the batcave, a depressed Batman asks Alfred to leave him alone.










Then they deal with these weird tentacle aliens.

Comments

[404glitch.insanejournal.com]

...and suddenly I'm reminded of "The Hiketeia".

[volksjager.insanejournal.com]

"just hold me..."

[nagaoka.insanejournal.com]

Daww...on the cover they're both blushing!

[cygna_hime.insanejournal.com]

...There is really nothing I could say that could possibly make this better. It's purest not-from-concentrate hurt/comfort, now in conveniently canon form!

Oh god no.

[fungo_squiggly.insanejournal.com]

Last time I saw this posted (on the old SD?), I couldn't even read the whole thing. I still can't.

The tender hand holding. The extensive emo-ing. The touch of Clark's hand lending comfort to Bruce's aching heart. The "physical linkage!" Gah!

It's like reading some young teenager's bad slash fic and realizing they ship Clark/Bruce so seriously that it's actually a little bit creepy for me.

[foxhack.insanejournal.com]

From the front cover:
Can Superman defeat BATZILLA?

Alternate punchline:
Batman enjoys his toy model of Metropolis -- with flying Superman figurine included!

[superfan1.insanejournal.com]

I get a warm happy feeling,always reading this. :)

[masterofmidgets.insanejournal.com]

Aw, it's so nice to see two young men find love.

[(Anonymous)]

Is...is that the song from Zenon in your icon? With Supernova? That's awesome that someone remembers that!

[sistermagpie.insanejournal.com]

This is like...it is exactly what it is. Unbelievable. Especially when the tentacles show up.

[zordboy.insanejournal.com]

Yeah, it was touch-and-go until the tentacle monsters showed up. But the fact the story ends with them embracing each other in the warmth of the fortress, you can't believe this take on their relationship wasn't meant any other way. It's only subtext if it's subtle, right?

[liarashadowsong.insanejournal.com]

Yeah. It's only subtext if it's subtle. I think the only way this would be less subtle without actual porn is if it ended with a tasteful shot of them snuggling in bed together.

[batgirl11.insanejournal.com]

Oh, Bruce/Clark.

I love this issue. <3

Hmm, DC-Where the action is indeed..

[steverodgers5.insanejournal.com]

Man I haven't seen such blatent sub-text, (that was so obvious that it shouldn't even call itself that) since I read The Portrait of Dorian Grey. And Oscar Wilde was really laying it on thick in that novel..

But this..Jeez I was always thought people around here were reading too much into Supes/Bats, but after this..Can't say I have any doubts there anymore..

[magnetic_regina.insanejournal.com]

YUCK! The tentacle aliens are freaking me out so bad.

Just keep staring at Duck and Fakir until I feel better.

[strangething.insanejournal.com]

What's the matter? It's just a big pink worm cramming itself into the eager orifice of another big pink worm.

Nothing freaky there.

[silver_paired.insanejournal.com]

I really wanted to comment on this without addressing the massive amounts of subtext- maybe talk about the pretty art or something, because it is lovely- but I can't. I just keep scrolling up and reading it over again and gawking. Except even in the face of the handholding, the crying, the phallic imagery, (Oh, the phallic imagery) the off-panel embrace and the purple-prose grade narrative ("World of profound empathy?" Really?) and the cathartic bonding, I keep coming back to "Yes... Somehow I knew."

Pull at my heartstrings more, why don't you, Clark. God.

[jlroberson.insanejournal.com]

Who needs subtext? All I need is that image of Batman screaming "NOOOOOOO!"

By the way, in real life, have you ever, EVER heard someone exclaim "No" that way?

[sistermagpie.insanejournal.com]

in real life, have you ever, EVER heard someone exclaim "No" that way?

NOOOOOO!

[ladymirth.insanejournal.com]

Yeah, me. After my sister accidentally deleted 2/3rds of my end of term thesis from my hard drive, after I'd been up for two nights straight finishing it, ON THE MORNING IT WAS DUE.

MY THESIS IS DEEAAD!!

[abbadie.insanejournal.com]

I just might have, about 20 years ago, when I found my cat with her head deep into the ribs of her dead kitten. I think it may have come out as a mere GAAAH!, though.

[drsevarius.insanejournal.com]

wat

[abbadie.insanejournal.com]

That cat was demented, what can I say? :-( but yeah, I seem to remember that the mixture of shock, disbelief, disgust, whatever elicited such an insane response from me.

[drsevarius.insanejournal.com]

I mean, what happened? Did the cat kill the kitten, or was it already dead? What did you?

[abbadie.insanejournal.com]

I don't really know, I arrived home and was received by the cat meowing for me to folow her, she obviously wanted to ahow me what happened. She went into her makeshift mouse -a box with cloth in the bedroom- and when I looked in, she'd just put her head into the remaining half of the kitten and then looked around licking herself and meowing. I fell on my knees, pulled her away, and pulled the box up as she strove to get back in. :-S

I prefered to think the kitten died for whatever reason and she just saw it as a kind of means of disposing of the remains, but why lead me like that and then start to chew?? If you are open to a maybe unlikelier explanation, there was supposedly a nasty spirit infestation going on at the time but I'm not going into that here. Anyway, whatever happened that day, that cat took a liking to cannibalism - a few months later she stalked another cat as she was giving birth and my mother literally had to pull one out of her jaws. After that, I gave the cat away to somebody with a fruit warehopuse where there were no other cats.

[drsevarius.insanejournal.com]

Wow, sorry. How long did you have her?

a few months later she stalked another cat as she was giving birth and my mother literally had to pull one out of her jaws.

Were all the kittens okay?

[abbadie.insanejournal.com]

I'd had her for five or six years by then, after rescuing her as a kitten from a large street downtown. And, no, I'm afraid they weren't all okay. :-(

[drsevarius.insanejournal.com]

I found this on the net.
http://www.messybeast.com/kill_kit.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Savaging

[abbadie.insanejournal.com]

Thanks for the links, this is quite interesting. My best guess is the kitten just died for some reason, or maybe was indeed sick -it was a couple of months old already, not so little. And she may have gone after the other cat's children out of rivalry, or maybe some smell, or whatever.

On a lighter note, that article reminded me of another couple of female cats who gave birth around the same time and usually mixed up the kittens, they kept stealing them from the other and fetching all of them into their own bed a couple of times a day for weeks!

Since this stuff will probably make the day for cat haters, I'd rather mention that I've also seen cats disprove the idea of them having no loyalty or attachment. Once, when I gave a tomcat a weenie, instead of eating it, it went up two flights of stairs in order to give it to the female who was caring for their babies! The most amazing thing was probably when my old dog who had cataracts and could not see befriended a cat (the son of the ones I just mentioned) who actually led him up and down the stairs! He would go right in front of the dog, climb up or down a step and meow, the dog would advance that step, then the cat repeated the procedure. I remembered that when somebody mentioned that cats could not be trained to lead the blind a few days ago when commenting Streaky's doings.

[jlroberson.insanejournal.com]

Page 9, panel 6. Superman touches Batman's ass. "The sheer, shrieking emotion" indeed!

[mysteryfan.insanejournal.com]

Hey!

It goes straight to Batman's heart.

The comic tells us so.

[jlroberson.insanejournal.com]

Sheerly and shriekingly!

[mysteryfan.insanejournal.com]

This comic is not familiar with the concept of subtlety.

I'd so love to hear the writer reasoning on this one. Neither character is in any kind of character and the story almost seems to have an agenda of its own.

[jlroberson.insanejournal.com]

I'm a little surprised this is Doug Moench, really. The overuse of melodramatic emotional modifiers is something I expect more of a MIGHTY CRUSADERS page.

[ashtoreth.insanejournal.com]

I have a whole website dedicated to old Spectre subtext slash. Doug Moench put a LOT of it in. I've read something else of his that screamed subtext slash, but I can't remember what that one is. Just saying. He has an issue.

On the other hand, he also wrote The Forensic Files of Batman novel that so beautifully portrayed Batman as a CSI type detective.

[zordboy.insanejournal.com]

And you notice how, in the immediate next panel, an unknown amount of time has passed with the "Later..." tag?

Bruce and Clark were totally doing it.

[jlroberson.insanejournal.com]

"They hold the GRIP for a long time..." it says.

Either that's what it is, or it's that scene with Rorschach if Dan hadn't gotten creeped out and let go.

[ladymirth.insanejournal.com]

"Awkward groping...intimate questing...tentative undulations...bizzare mating ritual...resulting in a psychic synergy."

What? WE'RE TALKING ABOUT THE GIANT PENISES, OKAY?

No, not those giant penises either. Honestly, what do you think the World's Finest are - GAY?

brb, lolling forever.

[jlroberson.insanejournal.com]

This is so pre-Crisis. The way he speaks of "the Kents," like he was a guest or foster child. Alien, godlike Superman is something I don't miss.

[darklorelei.insanejournal.com]

Oh my god.

[(Anonymous)]

This ... is this real? Was this a real comic book, or has someone (very artfully) spoofed this?

Because if it's real, my childhood has just run away shrieking, and I'm so grossed out I may have to bleach my brain... :-s
Cheers ~

Erin, aka erinrua on LJ, who can't seem to log in via open ID, grrr!

[ashtoreth.insanejournal.com]

Yeah, this is real. It's been written up often before across the blogosphere. It's mostly the penis aliens that push it over the top, really.

[sir_razorback.insanejournal.com]

The only sub in this text is Bruce.

[jlroberson.insanejournal.com]

Penises! Penises! Waving everywhere!

This is like a Mr. Garrison romance novel.

[kingrockwell]

Had me at Clark's I-just-don't-wanna-be-alone-tonight, and I will never let go.

[khamelea.insanejournal.com]

I just realized that, underneath the Silver Age esthetic veneer, the concept of the key to the Fortress of Solitude makes a lot of sense.

[jlroberson.insanejournal.com]

Morrison's idea, of a small key but of a material so heavy you couldn't lift it, was better. For one thing, you can't walk through the lock. I know, there are lasers. And if those are disabled?

And it is very much in keeping with the rest of the story's Freud-on-acid motif.

[khamelea.insanejournal.com]

"For one thing, you can't walk through the lock."

Wait, the lock's tumblers weren't in the way?

[bluefall.insanejournal.com]

My issue would be less the size of the keyhole and more the issue of the really, really obvious landmark it provides. I mean, presumably, Clark doesn't mind if Peej or Hal or Diana or one of the Marvels happens to be in the neighborhood and wants to stop in and pet the alien dinosaurs or whatever, and generally you don't expect white hats to mess with your stuff when you're gone anyway. But he's going to regret not hiding the place a little better when Black Adam decides to knock a hole in the bottle city of Kandor and all he's gotta do is look for the GIANT YELLOW ARROW pointing him right at it.

[retro_nouveau.insanejournal.com]

Still love the goofy giant gold key.

The cave, the fortress, and ... oops! Not going there. M-m-must ... not say it!

[kirke_novak.insanejournal.com]

O_o That's almost porn.