Tobias' Rowdy Reviews



Today, I reckon I'll look at an old comic from February 1980 with some sentimental family value: World's Finest#261.


The story was called "Showdown At Gotham City" and, along with my awesome ancestor, it guest-starred Tobias' ol' buddy Oswald Cobblepot aka The Penguin, along with that long-eared varmint Batman and (arrgh!) Superman, and it was told to me by a couple of jaspers named Denny O'Neil, Rich Buckler and Dick Giordano.

Our story starts off with ol' Pengy on a Gotham morning show telling the host how he's found the legendary Butch Cassidy and intro'ing Butch on the show. Butch claims he fell asleep in a cave with some weird gas that threw him into some kind of suspendium animation, which is a fancy name for a big long sleep. But Bats ain't havin' it, and he interrupts the show to expose Ozzy. Luckily, my ancestor Terra-Man shows up to show Ol' Pointy Ears who's boss and traps him in his lasso. Meantime, that dag-blasted Kryptonian shows up to try to stop T.M. and Pengy as they're making a getaway on T.M.'s trusty steed Nova. Ol' Tobias uses Nova to create a super-speed twister to distract Supes long enough to get away. (Heh!)


Turns out that "Butch Cassidy" IS a fraud. He's an actor named Victor Spord who Ozzy coached on Cassidy's history and then brainwashed with his trusty umbrella into thinking he's the real Butch. However, the Bat's interference ruined "Butch's" credibility, so my ancestor decides to tell Pengy that if you can't get rich, get even. This means lurin' Supes to Gotham so Tobias can shoot him with a load of atomic-powered explodin' bullets, softenin' up the big "S" enough so that Penguin can brainwash him into thinkin' that he's the Sundance Kid and that Bats, who's been lured to the same part of Gotham, is a Pinkerton. Supes challenges Bats to a gunfight and is about to ventilate the Caped Crusader when "Butch" suspects Supes isn't really Sundance on account of Supes' fancy-schmancy costume (Really - heh!). "Butch" distracts Ozzy and Tobias long enough for Supie's brainwashin' to wear off, and he takes out my ancestor with (sigh!) one punch.


The Good:

Buckler and Giordano's illoes are real purty, and O'Neil's reporting is real' interestin'. There's a lot of fun in the first half of the book with Toby and Ozzy makin' those caped fools look like the idiots they are.


The Bad:

The ending. (One punch!)


Review:
3 spurs (out of 4)