Today, we look at the time that Batman killed Superman for real and Superman somehow got better. An alien cat was heavily involved, but not in the resurrection part, oddly enough!

This is "And Of Course," where I spotlight particularly outlandish/convoluted comic book plot resolutions.

This all went down in 1976's World's Finest Comics #240, in a story called, appropriately enough, "How Do You Kill a Superman?" with art by Dick Dillin and John Calnan and a story by Bob Haney. The Bob Haney part is, naturally, quite important to understand why this story is so outlandish.

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WHO IS BOB HANEY AND WHY DID HE LOVE TEAM-UP COMICS SO MUCH?

As I've written about a few times in the past, Bob Haney has a special reputation in comics for the continuity of his team-up comic books (primarily his long run as the main writer on the Batman team-up series, The Brave and the Bold). As I've also noted a number of times, the old newsstand format lent itself to the popularization of team-up comic books, as most (not all, of course, but most) comic book purchases back in the day were impulse purchases. In other words, you grabbed a comic book when you were at the newsstand or the drugstore and you grabbed whatever comic book looked the coolest to you. And if you liked Batman and, say, Green Lantern, if you saw a comic book starring Batman AND Green Lantern, then you just got two heroes for the price of one. As we got to the direct market model, comic book customers were coming to the comic book store mostly for comic books that they wanted before they got there. And then, comic book readers wanted comic books that "mattered." One-off stories between Batman and another superhero weren't really going to affect the continuity of either character, so team-up books were slowly phased out.

However, while they were still popular, the whole idea of continuity was basically negligible, which is right where Bob Haney lived. He didn't need to know what the deal was in your own comic book, once you go into the pages of Brave and the Bold, you were a Bob Haney character. People would often joke that Haney's Earth was a whole other world in the Multiverse (Earth-B?), because characters acted totally unlike themselves while appearing in Brave and the Bold or other comic books that he wrote. So yeah, if you want consistent characterization, then Bob Haney team-up comic books aren't for you, but if you're up for totally bizarre but awesome comic books that do anything they can to pull your eye to them on the spinner rack, then these stories are very much for you! Haney had a true "throw everything at the wall" approach that is a true delight to read and that's definitely the case in this Superman/Batman team-up (well, "team-up" might be a stretch, as Batman is tying to KILL Superman in this comic!). Speaking of getting people to pick the comic book off of the shelf, check out this awesome Ernie Chan and John Calnan cover!

WHY IS BATMAN TRYING TO KILL SUPERMAN?

It all starts when Superman stops a deadly sniper, but by knocking over an antenna on to him, almost killing him...

Superman's actions get more and more dangerous, to the point where he intentionally starts a war by throwing a jet into a neutral zone and the also sits there while a Metropolis high rise burns as Superman notes that Metrpopolis is too overcrowded as it is.

Batman notes that Superman's Kandorian double, Van-Zee, has traveled to Earth. Van-Zee, like all other Kandorians, is shrunken to miniature size, but when he's outside the city (which is kept in a special bottle in Superman's Fortress of Solitude), he has Superman's powers...just tiny. Batman figures that Van-Zee is investigating this problem and they each go to the Fortress of Solitude, but Van-Zee tries to stop Batman from getting in. Batman comes up with a key trick that makes no sense, but it DOES look cool! Next time you lose a key, just spray some instant ice into your lock, that will...help?!

Once inside, Batman discovers the shocking truth. Kandor had fallen on hard times and their only solution was to ask Superman to come into Kandor and become their king. He's been doing an amazing job, but at night, he flies back to Earth and causes horrible things to happen while being a nice guy in Kandor and not even knowing what he has been doing.

Batman convinces the Kandorians to keep Superman captive at night (which they can because he has no powers in Kandor). Batman then leaves and is annoyed to once again find an alien cat that Superman had in his fortress out of its cage.

Superman, though, somehow disappears and reappears on Earth, messing stuff up again. He causes so much damage that the President of the United States orders Batman to kill Superman! Some Dark Knight Falls reversal stuff right here, huh?

Batman agrees and enters Kandor, but he is instantly captured. Superman understands why Batman feels the need to kill him but Superman doesn't want to die. Batman, though, has one trick left up his sleeve...or in his glove, as it were, and he poisons Superman, killing him pretty much instantly...

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HOW DID SUPERMAN COME BACK TO LIFE? AND HOW IS THIS ALIEN CAT INVOLVED?

During the funeral, Superman's body suddenly starts to grow and it breaks through the bottled wall of Kandor! A still-shrunken Batman and Van-Zee investigate and are shocked to learn that this is all a plot by that alien cat, who is super evil!

However, luckily, Superman is back alive again and he takes care of the cat, who reveals that it was the one who brainwashed Superman into becoming a Jekyll/Hyde personality. Okay, but how did he come back to life? Oooh boy, get ready for this.

Okay, so once he was dead, his dead cells couldn't maintain the shrink ray effects (huh?), so he grew back to normal size and once he was normal size and outside of Kandor, his body regained his superpowers and one of his superpowers is invulnerability and nothing that is invulnerable can die, so Superman instantly had to come back to life!

How amazingly insane is that? Bob Haney was a mad genius!

I like that he didn't even bother to try to resolve the whole "But what about Kandor? Didn't they need a king Superman?"

That's it for this installment. Please send in ideas for other comics with convoluted or bizarre plot resolutions to brianc@cbr.com!

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