Is that the first time we have Supes and Bats on the same cover?

The fourth, actually, but the first where the two are notably interacting.

EDITED TO ADD: I thought you were asking about the list of covers, so far. If you’re asking if that’s the first time they appeared together on a cover period, no, they had been appearing on World’s Finest covers for awhile at this point (just never teaming up in the actual comics).

If I remember correctly, it’s the first issue where two heroes from different books met each other… and thus the first time shared universes existed. If nothing else the novelty of the concept makes it a landmark cover!

It’s not THAT significant, Michael, as heroes had met each other before, but it’s the first time Superman and Batman had a team-up, so it’s still pretty darn significant.

I have never seen that wonderwoman cover before but damn that looks awesome. if anyone has any background on this cover, do share.

hey here’s an idea in the future. top 10 artists who’ve created iconic covers. maybe just dc, maybe just marvel. maybe both. not sure if this has been done before.

The Wonder Woman cover is from WW #1, Vol. 2 by George Perez, the reboot after Crisis on Infinite Earths in the 80′s. And it’s a wrap-around cover – the back features a montage of Hippolyta scenes. You can find it in the galleries at Amazon Archives (along with a synopsis of just about every issue). Is this the first wrap-around on the list?

Is this the first wrap-around on the list?

Second. The Superman/Ali cover was the first one.

So what was the first time two characters had a “team up”? I don’t have my All-Star Archives anymore, but those early stories were usually anthology tales about individual heroes, with a framing device about them having dinner or selling war bonds together. I do remember an issue where the heroes are trying to find Johnny Thunder, but Johnny’s bumbling throughout each story hardly makes it a “team up.”

Good question, Adam.

MLJ’s Wizard and Shield crossed over with each other very early in the Golden Age. That was a pretty brief meeting, but I guess that still counts.

Re Adam’s question — I recall a note in the Greatest Team-Up Stories TPB that mentioned a very early meeting between Batman and Robin and Stripesy and the Star-Spangled Kid (not a full team-up, they literally crossed paths.) Might have predated the Wizard/Shield meeting, though I can’t say for sure.

Stripesy was not introduced until a year after the Wizard/Shield meet-up.

I’m torn between that Batman and Wonder Woman cover.

Really torn.

not really caring for any of the covers but i pick the wonder woman cover for it was the start of George Perezs crisis reboot and also wrapped around something that has not been touched yet on the list

This is more like it: #4 is as classic as it is awesome, #1 is as iconic as you can get. #2 however , defines classic, awesome, AND iconic. Goddamn Mr. Adams IS THE MAN. Still eagerly awaiting Limited Collectors Editions C-27 and C-51.

I recognize the Neal Adams image, but was that cover the first time it appeared? Wasn’t it originally an interior panel?

My top 5 that haven’t been featured yet:

Action #1
All-Star Superman #1 (One of a handful of modern covers to deserve to be on this list)
All-Star Comics #3
Either Batman #404 OR the classic trade cover for Year One
Green Lantern #49

There’s one theme day that I’m waiting on that will have a few covers that people are waiting for.

It just seemed way too amusing to me that I could actually get four covers sharing this theme for me to save them all for this theme day.

I think that’ll be one of the very last days, though.

Is Batman trying to save Lois, or feel her up?

@Sam. I think it’s from Batman #251 – The Joker’s Five-Way Revenge toward the end when Batman is chasing the Joker on the beach (not as romantic as it sounds, it was, after all, approved by the Comics Code Authority)

“All-Star Superman #1 (One of a handful of modern covers to deserve to be on this list)”

Agreed.

Also, about Wonder Woman covers — I know some people have been waiting for more; me too — specifically, I am waiting for a couple Brian Bolland covers. Particularly this amazing piece of Wonder Woman art (I don’t know if it’s been homaged as a cover, but it became a poster and then a statue; it’s damn iconic, in my book):

http://www.comics.org/issue/52672/cover/4/?style=default

The other Bolland cover I can’t wait to see? Animal Man #5:

/www.comics.org/issue/45566/cover/4/?style=default

I have to say that Wonder Woman cover is probably the most iconic of the four presented today. That’s really the cover image I think of when I think of WW.

D’oh! Here’s that Animal Link, so you can click on it:

http://www.comics.org/issue/45566/cover/4/?style=default

(And, just in case anyone’s curious, here’s the full wrap-around version of WW#1:)

http://www.comics.org/issue/42477/cover/4/?style=default

I like that the WW cover is the first wrap-around on the list, although I doubt it’s here for that “gimmick.”

Will we get any gimmick covers, though? A few thoughts:

- Superman #75 (first polybagged issue?)
- Superman #81 (first chrome issue?)
- Superman: Man of Steel #30 (first book with colorforms on the cover)
- Eclipso #1 (first book with a honkin’ huge plastic diamond in the cover which caused it to fall off retailers’ shelves)

It is not the first wrap-around cover on the list.

kalebhammer is correct Sam. Thank goodness there are some who read comics from before 1986. Have to say I friggin hated the cover for All-Star Superman #1 though, not disagreeing that it should be on the list, just can’t stand it.
@Michael: he’s trying to save her BY feeling her up.

http://www.fivestarcomics.com/knightwolf/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/shazam.jpg

http://www.comics.org/issue/68962/cover/4/?style=default

two covers I’m rooting for

Though #5 is certainly one of the best Animal Man covers, if you want raw iconicness (and I do think an Animal Man cover deserves to sneak on the list), it is, to my mind, #1 all the way.

To my mind, there’s a fairly simple rule of thumb to be used here – has the cover had an homage cover down the road? If so, it is by definition an iconic cover.

Another treasury wraparound cover that I dearly love was from All-New Collectors’ Edition C55 –Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes. It’s the one where Lightning Lad and Saturn Girl marry. It was a Mike Grell cover, inked by Grell (unlike the interior art, which was inked by Vince Colletta) and done beautifully. I don’t know if it’s that iconic, but it’s brilliant.

I’d also like to add that the Batman cover was very iconic to me when I was in 4th grade and saw it at a grocery store. You could see that red background from aisles away.

I don’t know if the Batman cover should really be on the list. It’s just homaging a splash panel from “The Joker’s Five-Way Revenge”, after all.

I was convinced it was actually the panel, but I’ve just compared it and you’re right it’s a rip-off – I mean homage.

It’s an iconic panel, but I think it misses it as a cover for me for being a copy.

Hey Brian, I forgot to ask: All-Star #4 obviously won in yesterday’s polling. What were the numbers?

How come someone can “hate” the All-Star Superman #1 cover? Not liking it it´s ok, but hate??

Heck, the iconic cover of the two IS the one from “Five-Way Revenge!” That story re-launched the Joker as the homicidal maniac he originally was — and the cover of him towering over Gotham, with Batman strapped to the ace of spades, is at least as memorable as The Killing Joke.

Happy to see more Wonder Woman. This is probably her most iconic cover (I’m pretty sure it’s been turned into a statue). Good to get a Wonder Woman option from the modern era where she is in her classic costume.

Also, I prefer this JSA cover to the other one in the poll so I’m happy it won. But I’m still waiting for the cover of them sitting around the table.

I don’t get what is so special about the superman and batman ones

I’m following this series… quite excellent!

However… I’m reading this on my Treo cellphone, and, at best, only two covers load.

Could you please:
1) identify each cover with text
2) link that text to the Grand Comics Database
3) allow each cover to load separately to a new page by clicking on it.

Will you add Mad #1 to the list?