NOTE: I made an attempt on April 29 2020 at reconstructing this post due to broken image links. There were originally 23 covers displayed; however, my memory for what originally ran has failed me. I've resolved to post only images mentioned in the comments section, and maybe another few that I thought of. My apologies... -Doug
Doug: See, I told you I'd get back to the guest-star covers! It just took a little while. And why, you might ask?
If you'll recall, the Groovy Agent himself took a shine to our little drill that day. Offline, we got together and started plotting a follow-up. Today's the fruit of that planning and labor. So, if you're landing here from Ol' Groove's blog, then we say "Welcome!" If, however, we happen to be your first stop on this Friday, then please exit these premises once finished and get yourself over to
Diversions of the Groovy Kind for our companion piece.
Doug: Groove suggested that we split up all of the suggestions that our readers on the BAB had made back on February 25th, and then add to them. We drew lots, and your hosts landed on DC. No sweat -- we're going to look at some classic characters. You'll get your Marvel fix once you visit our partner's production.
Doug: I'll be honest -- I really thought there'd be a line, a definite demarcation between the sorts of covers we'd get featuring guest-stars in Marvel mags versus what we'll see today from the Distinguished Competition. But you know what? Those kids from National can't get along any better than the upstarts from the House of Ideas! So to tip this thing off, let's go ahead and examine some very Marvel-centric covers:
Doug: Next up we have covers where the superheroes actually seem to be collaborating. This is what I thought I'd find in abundance. Obviously I didn't do any sort of comprehensive search, but I did spend an hour or so looking through the files at
Cover Browser. The main problem with DCs in the Silver and Bronze Ages is that so many of their big name heroes were relegated to the anthology books, or to back-up status in their main titles (like
Detective Comics and
Adventure Comics). It was tough to find anything in today's genre with Green Lantern, Hawkman, and so on. But again -- this isn't any sort of exhaustive display today.
Doug: Lastly, we have two covers that were nominated the first time we featured this genre. I guess I'd say that the affected characters are just together -- not really collaborating or really even interacting. But they're occupying the same space for sales purposes (one might assume).
Doug: So there you have it -- 23 covers that show the gamut of guest-starring at DC Comics in the Silver and Bronze Ages. While I don't know that any of these covers are as dynamic as what you'll find on Groove's blog today, there's no doubt that any youngster pulling one of these babies from the spinner racks would have felt like he or she was definitely going to get a bit more bang for the buck. Or quarter...