Why wern't Superman and Batman on the early JLA covers?

[ericc123]

This is probably something that would be easy for some of you more learned collectors to answer but why? Was it a copyright thing? That wouldn't make sense because DC owned all of the characters right? All of the covers at least until #16 only have Aquaman, Martian Man-Hunter, Green Arrow, Wonderwoman, Green Lantern, Flash, and the Atom but never Bat-Man and Superman. #11 has them sort of but they've already been turned into mist in the bottles. Hope someone can help because I've wondered about this for a while now.

 

Thanks in advance,

Eric

[adamstrange]

Same reason they were rarely featured in All Star. They would dilute the brand without adding circulation to JLA. JLA was cool as it was the first time you had mutliple heros in the same book since All Star died. The concept alone was good enough to guarantee a level of sales for a while.

[Zonker]

Yep, not only were they de-emphasized on the covers, they had fairly minor roles in the stories themselves. In those days, the publisher was worried about over-exposure of Superman and Batman. Alas, times change.

[Mister_Comics]

I tend to believe DC wanted to keep them kind a low key. Give the other characters the lime light.

 

Batman & Superman actually were on some of those early covers. Were they were on the fingertips of a villain and chess pieces on another cover. Batman's gloved hand shows rolling ATOM on the cover of one of the issues. When Gravity Went Wild you can see Bats & Supes in the background. So its not like they were forgotten. Its just they didn't get the spotlight like they do in thier other comics.

 

Probably like someone mention above. They didn't want to flood too many issues with BATMAN & SUPERMAN.

[Point Five]

I've been reading Gerard Jones' "Men of Tomorrow" book, which has an interesting angle on this. From page 290, discussing "hell-on-earth" editor Mort Weisinger and his reign over DC in the early 1960s:

 

"Later Weisinger claimed to have been a tortured man. He became obsessed with Superman, he said. He'd have nightmares about him. [...] Weisinger said his psychiatrist told him he was identifying with his Man of Steel. If Superman lagged in quality or sales, he'd feel his own sense of invulnerability unraveling. Superman always had to lead the company in sales and fan mail, and he always had to be Mort's. When Julie Schwartz scored a success with a new comic called Justice League of America, a team-up of all National's heroes, Mort cursed and threw tantrums and person_without_enough_empathyed to Irwin Donenfield to keep Superman out of it. "It'll overexpose the character!" he yelled. Liebowitz finally intervened personally to talk Mort down."

 

So you have the overexposure issue, but also (even leaving aside the personal stuff about Weisinger) downplaying Superman & Batman on the covers may have been a way of sidestepping turf issues within DC.

[BillyBatson4360]

Actually, As a kid, I liked the fact that Superman's role was downplayed in the early JLA. I always thought, "Why does Superman needs these other guys? He's powerful enough on his own." It was more fun to see the "B-Team" heroes use their powers in combination to defeat a bad guy.

 

In fact, that's also one of the reasons why I bought all the Superman titles EXCEPT World's Finest. I could never figure out what the advantage was for Superman hanging around with Batman (let alone Robin - who I have always detested).

 

The second reason I didn't mind a reduced role for Superman in JLA is that I never cared for the way he was drawn in that book. He didn't look like the real Man of Steel.