When Clark Met Babs

[jkcarrier]

This story got brought up in the comments to my "A Date With Batgirl" post: Batman tries to help his bro Superman hook-up, with disappointing results.
"Wild Week-End in Washington", Superman #268, 1973 (4 pages from a 14-page story).



Batman hopes that Babs will help Clark "loosen up". When BATMAN is telling you you're too uptight, you probably ought to listen.

(The comment about Batman not using the Batcave anymore refers to the fact that after Robin left for college, he and Alfred moved base from Wayne Manor to a penthouse apartment in the Wayne Foundation building.)



(Curt Swan draws a super-cute Babs. I really love that green stripey dress.)



The goons are actually agents of MAZE, a freelance spy organization that steals top secret information and sells it to the highest bidder. They overheard Clark's outburst and are very interested in this whole "Solar Disintegrator" stuff. Clark can't fight back without giving away his secret identity, so he lets himself be captured.

When Babs hears that Clark has disappeared, she digs out her old Batgirl costume and gets to work tracking him down. She finds the hidden MAZE base and breaks in, which distracts the guards long enough for Clark to slip out of sight and go into action as Superman. Supes and BG mop the place up, and Superman quickly grabs the unconscious MAZE boss (who happens to be wearing a similar blue suit) and pretends he's rushing "Clark" to the hospital, so Batgirl won't suspect anything.



So, not much in the way of romantic sparks, but at least they part on good terms.

Superman realizes that Batman accidentally activated the Golden Eye while he was handling it, causing his remark about Senator Cleary to become a post-hypnotic suggestion. So it's a big EPIC FAIL for Batman all around, I guess. Stick to posing dramatically on rooftops, Bats, and leave magic and matchmaking to the experts...

Comments

[shadowpsykie]

.... ican't ship these two... i can't..... but there they are... being all cute and shiz....

[gerardotejada]

Your Comment+Your Avater= too much epic awsome win

[shadowpsykie]

teehee thanks :D

[icon_uk]

Clark and Babs... I'm glad there weren't sparks because I really couldn't see that one lasting.

I admit I got confused as to who knew whose identity for a good chunk of the 1970's and 1980's, especially once you factored in that Jimmy Olsen knew the IDS of Batman and Robin but not Superman.

[citygod]

I rather like this chummy version of Batman - can we have him back?
And Babs green mini-dress and white collar and cuffs? Awesome. Curt Swan, fashionista ftw.

[lbd_nytetrayn]

The idea of moving the Bat-operations to Wayne Enterprises is a neat one, and sort of like what they did in The Dark Knight, isn't it?

Anything else of interest happen there?

And how did Barbara become a Senator, anyway?

[jkcarrier]

Yes, he even had a mini-Batcave in the basement, very much like the one in The Dark Knight -- that may have been where the movie people got the idea. Probably the most significant change was that Bruce Wayne went from being an idle playboy lounging around the mansion to more of a corporate CEO type...I guess reflecting the changing views of what people thought of as a "stereotypical rich guy". He stayed in the penthouse for the rest of the '70s, and finally moved back into the mansion sometime in the early '80s...around the time Jason came on the scene, I think.

Having Barbara run for Congress was originally a way to get rid of her. She was losing her regular spot in the back of Detective Comics, and the election story was billed as "Batgirl's Last Case". This Superman team-up was something of a comeback for her, and she was soon appearing regularly again in Batman Family.

[kenn_el]

Also, Babs wasn't in the Senate, but was rather a Representative. She lost her bid for re-election after the Bat Family/Detective run. I'm assuming we didn't get to read about her ethics violations, what with dating lobbyists and bedding pages!

[nyadnar17]

I really love the idea of Batman trying to do Commissioner Gordon a solid by setting up his daughter on a date with Superman. Would really like to see more of that.

[gerardotejada]

He also set up Superman to Batgirl (geez you think that him activating that device was a "fail"?)

Batman set up Clark for two diferent dates! (He still didnt know Babs was batgirl)

[lieut_kettch]

If these two ever ended up together, The Killing Joke would've been a really short book.