December 20, 1940: Captain America Debuts

December 20, 1940: Captain America Comics #1, with a publication date of March 1941, is published. It will still be nearly a full year before America enters World War II, but the cover shows the titular superhero giving Chancellor Adolf Hitler of Nazi Germany a right cross. The publisher is Timely Comics, which will become Marvel Comics in 1961.

As created by writer Joe Simon (1913-2011) and artist Jack Kirby (1917-1994), both of them Jewish and with a vested interest in the defeat of the Nazis, Steve Rogers is a young man from Brooklyn, New York City, rejected for service in the U.S. armed forces because he's too skinny and weak. But his persistent patriotism gets him recommended for a new project, the U.S. Army's "super-soldier serum."

It's a success, and now, he is, ironically, the Aryan ideal: A tall, blond, blue-eyed man with great strength and superior reflexes. But the scientist who developed the serum is killed by a Nazi saboteur before he can use the serum, whose formula only he knows, on anyone else. There will be no army of American super-soldiers, just one, and Steve becomes "Captain America."

Under both his real name (with the mere rank of Private) and as Cap, Steve fights the Nazis all through World War II, along with his Army camp's teenage mascot, James Buchanan "Bucky" Barnes, acting, to use an analogy to DC Comics, as Robin to his Batman. They fight Nazi super-soldiers such as the Red Skull and Baron Zemo, and lesser threats. Steve's star-spangled shield, whose design was adjusted from the first issue, becomes an item of offense as well as defense, as he becomes an expert at throwing it.

Cap became Timely's most popular character, and in 1944, he became the 1st character from what would become Marvel to appear in the movies, in a serial where he was portrayed by Dick Purcell. But after World War II, superhero stories declined in popularity, and Cap's appeal faded with the Nazis no longer a threat. The series was discontinued in 1950.

Dick Purcell as Cap

In 1964, Marvel revived the character, making him part of their superhero team The Avengers. They explained his absence by saying that he and Bucky were believed to have died on a mission just before V-E Day, May 8, 1945. Cap ended up frozen in the North Atlantic Ocean, revived by the Avengers, and had to adjust to a modern world, knowing that someone like him was needed again. It would be decades before Marvel explained that Bucky had survived, leaving Cap thinking that he hadn't, thus saddling him with survivor's guilt.

In addition to the Avengers, Cap forms alliances with Rick Jones, formerly sidekick to the Hulk, and who bears a freaky resemblance to Bucky (the first thing Cap noticed about him); and with Sam Wilson, a flying superhero known as the Falcon, who in 1969 became the 1st black American superhero in mainstream comics. (Black Panther debuted in 1966, but, as the king of a fictional African nation, was not American.)

After experimenting with Spider-Man and the Hulk in the late 1970s, CBS aired 2 Captain America TV-movies in 1979, starring Reb Brown with a somewhat different take on the character, one who was not involved in World War II, although his father was, and was heroic enough to be nicknamed "Captain America."

Reb Brown as a motorcyclist Cap,

complete with helmet

In 1990, a feature film was made, with Matt Salinger, son of author J.D. Salinger, playing a Cap that's revived in the present day, stunned to see that the Germans are now America's allies, but that the Red Skull has survived and leads a criminal organization, much like the comics' Hydra but not named as such in the film.

Matt Salinger as Cap

In 2001, Marvel launched the Ultimate Marvel series, with the idea of starting their legendary characters over in the present day, but otherwise getting them back to their roots. The twist with Cap was that he and Bucky started out as the same age, and as friends in Brooklyn, but that Bucky survived the war, and when Cap is thawed out in the present day, Bucky is an old man.

In 2011, the Marvel Cinematic Universe got around to Cap, releasing Captain America: The First Avenger. Chris Evans, who had previously played the Human Torch in 2 Fantastic Four movies, plays a Steve who has Bucky (Sebastian Stan) as a contemporary, and sees Bucky apparently die well before his own apparent sacrifice, but is otherwise the character previously known.

Chris Evans, the definitive Cap

The retcon (introduced in the 1960s) of his romance with British secret agent Peggy Carter, played in the MCU by Hayley Atwell, is played up, to the point where, when The Infinity Saga was finished with Avengers: Endgame, after putting the swiped Infinity Stones back to where and when they belonged, Cap stayed in the past, and lived out his life with Peggy, and, as an old man, handed his shield over to Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie), who becomes the new Captain America.

There have been occasional DC and Marvel crossovers. One was Amalgam Comics, which imagined DC heroes combined with Marvel heroes. Batman and Wolverine became Darkclaw, Wonder Woman and Storm became Amazon, and so on. Superman and Captain America were merged to become Super-Soldier.

I'd like to believe that each company's stories exist in the other's universe -- so that Superman's hero is Captain America, and vice versa.

*

December 20, 1940 was a Friday. Baseball and football were out of season. The NBA hadn't been founded yet. And the NHL scheduled no games for this date. So there were no scores on this historic day.

December 15, 1978: "Superman: The Movie" Premieres

December 15, 1978: Superman: The Movie premieres. Although there had been a Broadway musical titled It's a Bird, It's a Plane, It's Superman! in 1966, and a TV version of it in 1975, neither was well-received or even well-watched. This was the 1st live-action Superman that most people had seen since George Reeves died in 1959.

The film makes a star out of Christopher Reeve. Note there's no S on the end: He was not related to George Reeves, whose real name was George Keefer Brewer.

There were some established stars in the film. Superman's Kryptonian parents, Jor-El and Lara, were played by Marlon Brando and Susannah York. His Earth parents, Jonathan and Martha Kent, were played by Glenn Ford and Phyllis Thaxter. Kirk Alyn and Noel Neill, who played Superman and Lois Lane in film serials in 1948 and 1950, played Lois' parents in this movie. (Neill also played Lois for most seasons of the 1952-58 series The Adventures of Superman, starring Reeves.)

Jackie Cooper, who had mostly directed since being a child star in the 1930s, played Daily Planet publisher Perry White. The villains were familiar faces. Superman's arch-nemesis, Lex Luthor, was played by Gene Hackman. His henchman, Otis (we never found out if this was his first name or his last name), was Ned Beatty. And his gun moll, Eve Teschmacher, was Valerie Perrine.

This film established some things about Superman that have become standard ever since: Krypton as a crystalline planet, his hometown of Smallville is in Kansas, Lois is a brilliant reporter but can't spell, Jimmy Olsen (played here by Marc McClure) is young but not a teenager, and, for all his evil, Luthor can be a bit charming.

I was just short of turning 9 when the movie came out. My father had been a Superman fan since the Alyn serials, had previously shown me the George Reeves show, and took me to see this film 3 times. He didn't fall for the tagline, "You'll believe a man can fly," but he loved it.

Having the Daily News Building on East 42nd Street, which had a big globe in the lobby (and still does, even though the newspaper has moved to new digs), stand in for the Daily Planet Building was a good idea.

But the various New York landmarks, including Grand Central Terminal, the Statue of Liberty, and even the original World Trade Center (the "Twin Towers" were still new structures at that point), made it obvious that Metropolis was a fictional stand-in for New York. And the mixture of the Art Deco buildings with the Disco Era signage and advertising is a little off-putting, especially when you consider that Superman Returns was set 5 years after Superman II -- and the year 2006 was shown in it, more than once.

And one thing that always bothered me is that Hackman, one of the great actors of the last 40 years of the 20th Century, played Luthor with a little too much charm. A little too jokey, even as he's planning the deaths of Superman and millions of other people.

There wasn't much to go on: Lyle Tablot in the 1950 serial Atom Man vs. Superman was the only previous live-action Lex. He seemed to be doing for Luthor what Cesar Romero did for the Joker on the 1966-68 Batman series.

As horrible a person as Kevin Spacey turned out to be, he managed to do for Luthor in Superman Returns what Jack Nicholson did for the Joker in the 1989 Batman film: He reminded us that this guy is supposed to be scary. A man who would think nothing of killing an innocent person, or two, or a dozen, or a million, if he thought it would advance his own cause. Or, as Melissa Benoist said of Jon Cryer's Luthor on a 2020 episode of Supergirl, "Lex is a psychopathic lunatic!"

The Superman movies starring Reeve all made money, but each was less successful than the one before. Superman II, in 1981, was pretty good, but had a little too much silliness put in after Richard Donner, who directed the 1st film, was replaced by Richard Lester, best known for directing The Beatles' film A Hard Days' Night. Superman III, in 1983, was slapstick, and a Superman story shouldn't be slapstick. Superman IV: The Quest for Peace, in 1987, was unintentionally ridiculous, and Reeve said that's it.

Reeve was paralyzed in a horse-riding accident in 1994, and died in 2004 from complications of his condition. In 2006, Brandon Routh was cast in Superman Returns, a direct sequel to Superman II that acts as though III and IV never happened. It was the best one since II, its heart was in the right place, but it just missed the mark, and no further movies were made until the start of "The DC Extended Universe" in 2013, when Henry Cavill was cast in Man of Steel, and also played Superman in Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice in 2016 and Justice League in 2017.

Routh did get to play Superman once more, in The CW's "Arrowverse" series of superhero shows and their production of the 2019-20 crossover miniseries Crisis On Infinite Earths. A few years older, and noticeably more thoughtful, he made a better Superman this time around.

Routh became a true successor to Reeve, as Dean Cain sometimes seemed in the 1993-97 ABC series Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, as Tom Welling occasionally seemed in the 2001-11 WB Network series Smallville, as Tyler Hoechlin sometimes seems in the Arrowverse, and as Henry Cavill just can't be given the way his part is written.

But Chris Reeve is still the Superman for my generation, and Superman: The Movie set the standard for every superhero movie that followed.

*

December 15, 1978 was a Friday. This was also the day that the City of Cleveland went into economic default. I have a separate entry for that event.

Baseball was out of season. The NFL was in midweek, and there were no college football bowl games. There were 9 games played in the NBA that night. None of them were played in Metropolis:

* The New York Knicks beat the Chicago Bulls, 118-94 at the Chicago Stadium. Toby Knight scored 43 points for the Knicks. No, I don't remember him, either.

* The New Jersey Nets lost to the Atlanta Hawks, 121-104 at the Rutgers Athletic Center in Piscataway, New Jersey. (It was renamed the Louis Brown Athletic Center in 1986, after a generous University donor.)

* The Philadelphia 76ers beat the Houston Rockets, 91-84 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia.

* The Kansas City Kings beat the Boston Celtics, 105-101 at the Boston Garden.

* The Washington Bullets beat the Detroit Pistons, 116-114 at the Silverdome in the Detroit suburb of Pontiac, Michigan.

* The San Antonio Spurs beat the Indiana Pacers, 125-113 at the Market Square Arena in Indianapolis.

* The Cleveland Cavaliers beat the Milwaukee Bucks, 110-106 at the Milwaukee Exposition, Convention Center and Arena, or "The MECCA." Since 2014, it has been named the UW-Panther Arena.

* The Portland Trail Blazers beat the Denver Nuggets, 116-113 at the McNichols Arena in Denver. David Thompson scored 36 for the Nuggets, but for the Blazers, Maurice Lucas scored 32 with 23 rebounds.

* And the Los Angeles Lakers beat the Seattle SuperSonics, 100-98 at The Forum, outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California.

Only 1 game was played in the NHL: The Minnesota North Stars beat the Washington Capitals, 6-1 at the Capital Centre in the Washington suburb of Landover, Maryland. And in this season, which turned out to be the last for the World Hockey Association, a Soviet All-Stars team was a member. And on this night, they played in the only WHA game scheduled, losing 5-3 to the Edmonton Oilers at the Northlands Coliseum in Edmonton. 

December 10, 2019: "Crisis On Infinite Earths" Occurs On The CW

Left to right: David Harewood as J'onn J'onzz, the Martin Manhunter;

Ruby Rose as Kate Kane, Batwoman;

Caity Lotz as Sara Lance, the White Canary,

Melissa Benoist as Kara Zor-El/Kara Danvers, Supergirl;

Grant Gustin as Barry Allen, the Flash,

Cress Williams as Jefferson Pierce, Black Lightning;

and Tyler Hoechlin as Kal-El/Clark Kent, Superman.

December 10, 2019: Crisis On Infinite Earths occurs on television.

The CW Network, which had been airing the "Arrowverse" series of superhero TV shows since 2012, has its biggest event ever, an adaptation of the 1985 DC Comics series Crisis On Infinite Earths, which consolidated "Earth-One," "Earth-Two," and all the other Earths that had appeared in their stories onto a single Earth.

The TV version did the same. It was a "crossover" between 5 shows, bringing back many actors who had previously played DC superheroes in movies and on TV shows:

* Part 1: Supergirl, airing on December 8. Mar Novu, the Monitor, warns that the Anti-Monitor (both characters played by LaMonica Garrett), is using antimatter waves to destroy the Earth in "parallel universes." He warns that seven "Paragons" must be found, who can save the "Multiverse."

Guest stars include Burt Ward, the Dick Grayson/Robin of the 1966-68 ABC Batman series, said to live, naturally, on Earth-66; and Robert Wuhl, one of the stars of the 1989 Batman film, said to live on Earth-89. Both were shown only briefly. Neither of the Batmen then knew were: 1966's Adam West had died in 2017, and 1989's Michael Keaton was unavailable. He has since filmed a return to the role for the film The Flash, which has been delayed to 2023.

Supergirl (Melissa Benoist), known on her homeworld of Krypton as Kara Zor-El and on Earth-38 as journalist Kara Danvers, is found to be the Paragon of Hope. J'onn J'onzz (David Harewood), known as the Martian Manhunter, is the Paragon of Honor. Barry Allen (Grant Gustin), known as The Flash on Earth-1, is the Paragon of Love.

In this episode, Oliver Queen of Earth-1 (Stephen Amell), known as the Green Arrow, sacrifices his life to evacuate people from the doomed Earth-38. A former girlfriend of his, Sara Lance (Caity Lotz), known as the White Canary, and leader of the time-traveling team known as the Legends of Tomorrow, is found to be the Paragon of Destiny.

(For those of you familiar with the comic books but not the shows, Sarah is a character created for Arrow. There have been characters on the show called the Black Canary, who, in the comics, is Dinah Lance, and eventually marries Queen. On the show, his wife was Felicity Smoak; in the comics, Felicity is more identified with the hero Firestorm, who existed on the shows but had no connection to her.)

* Part 2: Batwoman, airing on December 9. It is believed that another Paragon is a version of Batman. For legal reasons, in DC-themed productions outside the DC Extended Universe, Batman can be mentioned, the Batsuit can be shown, and Bruce Wayne can be portrayed out of costume, but Bruce cannot be shown wearing the Batsuit.

Batwoman is Kate Kane (Ruby Rose), Bruce's cousin, who, on Earth-1, took up "the mantle of the Bat" after Bruce disappeared. The show didn't definitively say what happened to Batman, or any version of Robin, or Commissioner Jim Gordon, or his daughter, Barbara Gordon, a.k.a. Batgirl. It did mention that Alfred Pennyworth, Bruce's butler and closest ally in Bat-operating, is alive, but has moved back to London.

Kevin Conroy, who had long voiced Batman in the DC Animated Universe, finally portrays a live-action version of Bruce. But his Earth-99 Bruce is based on the 1986 comic miniseries The Dark Knight Returns, except he took it a step further: He used Kryptonite to not just defeat Superman in a fight, but kill him.

And when Kate and Kara find this out, they confront Bruce. Bruce uses the same Kryptonite in an attempt to kill Kara. (According to comic book canon, this should not work: It has been established that Kryptonite only affects Kryptonians from its own universe, not any other. This carries over into Marvel Comics: Each set of Infinity Stones can only work in its own universe.) Kate defends her, and Bruce, weakened from his decades of combat, loses the fight, and falls onto his Batcomputer, his exoskeleton combining with the computer circuits to electrocute him.

Upon returning to the orbiting Waverider, Kara repeats what she told Kate: "This guy's not a paragon of anything." The Monitor now understands his mistake: No version of Bruce is the Paragon of Courage: Kate is.

This episode also features the Earth-38 versions of Clark Kent (Tyler Hoechlin), known as Superman; and his wife, Lois Lane (Elizabeth "Bitsie" Tulloch), both reporters for the Metropolis Daily Planet; and the Earth-1 Flash's wife, Iris West Allen (Candice Patton), also a journalist, in the Allens' hometown of Central City. (Apparently, there were no Kryptonians on the Arrowverse's Earth-1.) Clark, Lois and Iris go off to search alternate Earths to find another version of Superman, who would be the Paragon of Truth.

But the Earth-38 Lex Luthor (Jon Cryer), Superman's arch-enemy, now has the means to kill not just the Superman he knows, but all Supermen on all Earths. And every time Clark, Lois and Iris get to a new Earth, they're too late to save that Earth's Superman. When they get to Earth-75, the Kents even see a TV screen showing Hoechlin and Tulloch copying the scene, complete with Superman's cape hanging like a flag from a steel pole, from the 1992 comic issue The Death of Superman. (Which turned out to be temporary.)

Finally, they get to another Clark Kent in time, on Earth-167. This one is played by Tom Welling, who played Clark in the 2001-11 WB/CW series Smallville. But they can't recruit him, because Luthor arrives and sends them away.

Turns out, Luthor can't kill this Superman: In this universe, unlike the one that is home to Hoechlin's and Tulloch's counterparts and their infant son Jon, this Superman had to give up his powers to have children with Lois (Erica Durance also reprising her role in Smallville), and Kryptonite has no effect on humans, which this Clark now is. (That's not quite true: In the comics, prolonged exposure to Kryptonite, which is radioactive, can cause cancer.) Clark is still stronger than Lex, though, and manages to deck him, before he escapes to another Earth.

On Earth-96, the main Clark and Lois, and Iris, find a Clark. This one is played by Brandon Routh, who played Clark/Superman in the 2006 film Superman Returns, and this episode makes canon what that movie had implied: He is the same Superman played by Christopher Reeve in 4 movies from 1978 to 1987.

(How the 2006 film, which definitively displays dates from that year, can take place only 5 years after Superman II, released in 1981, with the scenery definitely showing a late Disco Period aesthetic, is never explained. Nor is the fact that Superman III, released in 1983, definitively states that their Clark and Lana Lang graduated from Smallville High in 1965.)

But he's also based on the 1996 comic miniseries Kingdom Come, in which Superman lost all the people who mattered to him, including his Lois. There's also an element from the 2013 video game Injustice: Gods Amongst Us, in that the attack was launched by Batman's arch-nemesis, the Joker (who couldn't be named, again for legal reasons, but the reference was clear.) Unlike in Injustice, this Superman didn't take over the world to rid it of crime, but retained his humanity, proving himself to be a paragon (Upper- or lower-case). And he agrees to help.

Luthor intervenes, and turns him against Hoechlin's character, deciding that it would be more fun to watch Superman kill Superman. Iris knocks Luthor out, and Lois reminds the older Superman of all that he stood for, which snaps him out of it. It may be Lois Lane's finest moment, in any medium. He drops a reference to the Clark Kent vs. Superman fight in Superman III: "This is the second time I've gone nuts and fought myself."

* Part 3: The Flash, airing on December 10. Jefferson Pierce (Cress Williams), known as Black Lightning, is brought into the story, having been saved from the destruction of Earth-4. So is the title character from the 1990-91 CBS series The Flash (John Wesley Shipp). This version of Barry Allen, from Earth-90, much as the comics' Earth-One version did in 1985, sacrifices himself, telling the younger one of Earth-1, "The prophecy said the Flash had to die. It didn't say which one."

(Shipp has also played that Barry's father, Henry Allen; and Jay Garrick, another alternate-Earth Flash, reflective of the original DC Flash, the Earth-Two or "Golden Age" Flash.)

The 7th and last Paragon is identified: Dr. Ryan Choi, a scientist on Earth-1, is the Paragon of Humanity. In the comics, Choi takes over for Dr. Ray Palmer as The Atom. At this point in the Arrowverse, Palmer, of Earth-1, is still The Atom -- and is also played by Routh, causing some confusion within the show, when people who know Ray see the older Superman, especially when the two men are together. Supergirl even tells him he's "looking jacked," while Superman tells him, "That's your cousin, sort of."

But all is lost: The heroes can't stop the antimatter wave from destroying the last Earth, and the Waverider. Just before that can happen, Harrison Wells (Tom Cavanaugh), a member of the Earth-1 Flash's tech team, and temporarily granted powers, transports the Paragons to the Vanishing Point, which exists outside time and space, where the Anti-Monitor can't reach them, buying them time to come up with a last-ditch plan.

In Part 2, Conroy's Bruce Wayne said there was no hope. But in Part 3, Routh's Superman said, "Even in the darkest times, hope cuts through. Hope is the light that lifts us out of the darkness." Something that DCEU director Zack Snyder, based on the films he's made, cannot possibly understand. Hoechlin's Superman backs this up: Just as the antimatter wave hits the Waverider, he nods to everyone, giving them his quiet confidence that, somehow, in a way that even he cannot yet imagine, everything is going to be okay.

But for the Paragons, who now appear to be the only 7 living things in the entire Multiverse, it's not okay. And, just when you think things literally can't get any worse, Routh's Superman fades away -- replaced by Luthor and his Book of Destiny. Talk about a cliffhanger: Part 4 won't air for another month. Those of us watching it first-run had to go through the rest of the holiday season, including Christmas and New Year's Eve and Day, before finding out what happens.

* Part 4: Arrow, airing on January 14, 2020. There is hope. Oliver Queen comes back, as The Spectre. He shows the Paragons how to build their power. In the process, the Flash meets another Flash, the one played by Ezra Miller in the DCEU, the 1st indication that the Arrowverse acknowledges the DCEU's existence, and vice versa.

Oliver takes the Paragons to "the Dawn of Time" to battle the Anti-Monitor. He tells them, "I'll light the spark, you fan the flames." While they -- 6 heroes and Luthor, who wants to restart the universe so he can rule it -- fight the Anti-Monitor's "parademons," Oliver, as The Spectre, fights the Anti-Monitor himself.

He delivers a variation of his old line to use on criminals in Star City: "You have failed this city!" He tells the Anti-Monitor, "You have failed this universe!" He looks up into the sky, and beams shoot out of his eyes, breaking through the cloud cover. The Anti-Monitor and his parademons disappear, and a new universe is created, at the cost of Oliver's life. (One more episode of Arrow aired, closing the 1st Arrowverse show after 8 seasons, showing Oliver's funeral, and his place in the afterlife.)

* Part 5: DC's Legends of Tomorrow, also airing on January 14. If you've never seen LoT, let me put it this way: It was the silliest show on television, but that made it fun.

Kara wakes up, and the month they spent at Vanishing Point has, well, vanished. It's January 14, 2020, and Earth is back to normal, with no one acting as if anything had ever been wrong. It's as if the Crisis had never happened. At least they got to celebrate Christmas and New Year's.

But then Kara sees that Luthor has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Everybody, even her adoptive sister Alex Danvers (Chyler Leigh), thinks Luthor is a wonderful guy. Luthor had used his place as "the Paragon of Truth" to change people's perception of him.

And then the Flash shows up, and he and Supergirl each wonder, "What are you doing on my Earth?" Each had assumed that Oliver's act had restored all the Earths. But this is not the case. An old man walks up to them and asks them for their autographs, and he explains that they've always existed on the same Earth. He's played by Marv Wolfman, who, 35 years earlier, had written the original Crisis miniseries. (It was drawn by George Pérez, who was also, referenced, as the site of the final battle was said to be Perez Landing. He died on May 6, 2022, at which point Marv Wolfman was still alive.)

J'onn J'onzz uses his psionic abilities to show every superhero who wasn't a paragon what had happened, because they're still needed: The Anti-Monitor was returning for a rematch. At S.T.A.R. Labs in Central City, the home base for Team Flash, Harrison Wells, Ray Palmer and Ryan Choi design a "shrink bomb," based on Palmer's Atom technology, to send the Anti-Monitor to "the microverse," where he can do no harm to the larger multiverse. But the fight starts, and it looks like they won't have time to finish it.

Fortunately, The Flash is the fastest man alive, and a certified scientific genius in his own right. He runs to S.T.A.R. Labs, and is shown the blueprints and the parts for the bomb. He puts it together in 5 seconds. Ray puts on his Atom suit and flies back with him.

In the 1985 comic miniseries, Supergirl was one of the characters who sacrificed their lives to stop the Anti-Monitor. Just as it looks like Kara is in the process of doing it, Ray arrives, gives her the bomb, and says, "Throw it like a girl!" She does, and it hits the Anti-Monitor point-blank, and he and his parademons are now gone -- apparently forever.

The miniseries concludes with Barry using an old S.T.A.R. Labs building as the headquarters for a new team, the Justice League. There is a round table, as in King Arthur's Camelot (and in the DCEU's version of Wayne Manor at the end of the Justice League film). Oliver's costume is set up in a glass case, fronted by an eternal flame, as at President John F. Kennedy's grave, lit by Kara's heat vision. And a seat at the table is kept empty in Oliver's memory.

The 7 founding members are Superman, Supergirl, Batwoman, the Flash, the Martian Manhunter, Black Lightning and the White Canary. Clark, Kara, Kate, Barry, J'onn, Jefferson and Sara. Five of the seven Paragons, all but Ryan and the older Superman, with this Earth's Superman in his place.

A postscript showed that, contrary to what these heroes believe at this point, there are other Earths, including Earth-96, the one on which Routh's Superman lived. He's shown recreating the flying-over-Earth scene at the end of every Superman movie between 1978 and 2006, showing that he's still alive -- but also that the background of his S-crest, black in honor of those he lost, is now yellow again, suggesting that everyone he lost has been restored.

But no mention was made of Earth-66, on which Adam West's Batman and Burt Ward's Robin lived -- Ward wasn't shown in this sequence as he was in the earlier one, and, as I said, West was already dead. 

And nowhere in the miniseries was any mention made of the Earth on which Lynda Carter's Wonder Woman lived in her 1975-79 series (1975-77 on ABC, 1977-79 on CBS). Carter has appeared in the Arrowverse, but not as Princess Diana/Diana Prince/Wonder Woman. I'd like to believe that Ward's Dick Grayson and Carter's Diana Prince are alive and well. (A non-canon comic book series would combine the stories, titled Batman '66 Meets Wonder Woman '77, suggesting that, in her World War II adventures, Wonder Woman met Bruce as a boy, before his parents were killed.)

In the Arrowverse, hints have been dropped at the existence of Wonder Woman, Aquaman, and the Green Lantern Corps, but none of them have ever appeared. Hawkman and Hawkwoman have, but, unlike in the comics, were not shown with this Justice League.

But while this version of Crisis On Infinite Earths was far from perfect, it was a true gift to so many fans of the DC superheroes, myself included. Something that Snyder and the people working with him refuse to accept.

In hindsight, it is interesting that the greatest crisis in each brand's live-action history was set in 2019: For Marvel, "The Snap" by Thanos in the film Avengers: Infinity War, on May 31 in their continuity, though the film was released on April 27, 2018; and for DC, the titular event in their miniseries Crisis On Infinite Earths, on December 10, the day it aired on The CW Network. And, in both cases, the man who was then President in real life, Donald Trump, couldn't save anyone.

In "The Marvel Cinematic Universe," the heroes had to restore half the life in the universe, and they did. In the Arrowverse, the heroes had to restore all the life in all the universes, and they had to do it without a Superman, a Batman or a Wonder Woman. And they did.

DC > Marvel. All day. Any day.

One last note: Whatever the real reason was, Ruby Rose left Batwoman after one season. A new character, Ryan Wilder, played by Javicia Leslie, was given "the mantle of the Bat," and became the new Batwoman. The character of Kate Kane was recast with Wallis Day, and she appeared only briefly, letting Wilder continue as Batman until the show's cancellation.

*

December 10, 2019 was a Tuesday. On our Earth, where a three-game losing streak is considered a "crisis," there were 4 games played in the NBA:

* The New York Knicks lost to the Portland Trail Blazers, 115-87 at the Moda Center in Portland. Damian Lillard scored 31 points for the Blazers.

* The Philadelphia 76ers beat the Denver Nuggets, 97-92 at the Wells Fargo Center (now the Xfinity Mobile Arena) in Philadelphia.

* The Charlotte Hornets beat the Washington Wizards, 114-107 at the Spectrum Center in Charlotte. Dāvis Bertāns scored 32 for the Wizards, but Devonte' Graham scored 29 for the Hornets.

* And the Miami Heat beat the Atlanta Hawks, 135-121 in overtime at the American Airlines Arena (now the Kaseya Center) in Miami. Kendrick Nunn scored 36 for the Heat, Duncan Robinson 34, and Bam Adebayo 30.

There were 12 games played in the NHL:

* The New Jersey Devils lost to the Dallas Stars, 2-0 at the American Airlines Center in Dallas.

* The New York Rangers lost to the Los Angeles Kings, 3-1 at the Staples Center (now the Crypto.com Arena) in Los Angeles.

* The Tampa Bay Lightning beat their arch-rivals, the Florida Panthers, 2-1 at the BB&T Center (now the Amerant Bank Arena) in the Miami suburb of Sunrise, Florida.

* The Nashville Predators beat the San Jose Sharks, 3-1 at the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville.

* The Buffalo Sabres beat the St. Louis Blues, 5-2 at the KeyBank Center in Buffalo.

* The Montreal Canadiens beat the Pittsburgh Penguins, 4-1 at the PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh.

* The Anaheim Ducks beat the Minnesota Wild, 3-2 in a shootout at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul.

* The Winnipeg Jets beat the Detroit Red Wings, 5-1 at the Canada Life Centre in Winnipeg.

* The Calgary Flames beat the Arizona Coyotes, 5-2 at the Gila River Arena (now the Desert Diamond Arena) in the Phoenix suburb of Glendale, Arizona.

* The Vegas Golden Knights beat the Chicago Blackhawks, 5-1 at the T-Mobile Arena outside Las Vegas in Paradise, Nevada.

* The Carolina Hurricanes beat the Edmonton Oilers, 6-3 at Rogers Place in Edmonton.

* And the Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Vancouver Canucks, 4-1 at Rogers Arena in Vancouver.

December 1, 1986: "The Dark Knight Returns" is Published

December 1, 1986: Batman: The Dark Knight Returns #4 is released by DC Comics, written by Frank Miller, drawn by Klaus Janson, and colored by Lynn Varley. It concludes Miller's story of Bruce Wayne coming out of retirement, as his hometown of Gotham City has fallen apart without him to watch over it as the Caped Crusader. As far as I know, this is the first publication to call Batman "the Dark Knight."

DKR (for short) #1, titled "The Dark Knight Returns," tells of Bruce realizing that he has to get back out there, despite being 55 years old and having no Robin: He and his original Dynamic Duo partner, Dick Grayson, are estranged; and Dick's replacement, Jason Todd, had been killed in action some time before, implied to be the reason Bruce hung up the cowl. (Note: This story was published 2 years before DC showed Jason being killed by the Joker in the storyline Batman: A Death in the Family.)

Batman manages to foil a terrorist plot by Harvey Dent, the former District Attorney known as Two-Face: Although his disfigurement has been cured and his face restored, Harvey has totally given in to the bad side of his personality.

DKR #2, "The Dark Knight Triumphant," shows Batman taking on the Mutants, the gang that has taken control of the streets of Gotham, but he's too old, and their gigantic leader kicks his ass. (Note: This story was published 7 years before DC introduced the huge villain Bane, who wore Batman down physically and psychologically, before breaking his back in the storyline Batman: Knightfall.)

He is saved by Carrie Kelley, a 13-year-old girl who idolizes him, and has taken to fighting crime wearing a copy of a Robin costume. Avoiding the Mutants' notice, she drags him back to the Batmobile, and, with a now-elderly butler Alfred Pennyworth guiding her over the phone, gets Bruce back to the Batcave. Bruce recovers, goes out, and wins a rematch. (Batman fans like to say, "Batman always wins." He loses occasionally, but always seems to win the rematches.) Now, predictably, "The Mutants" are "The Sons of the Batman."

DKR #3, "Hunt the Dark Knight," shows that it's now the world that's falling apart. In a story that resembles the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Caribbean island of Corto Maltese is a flashpoint in the Cold War. (Remember: Despite Batman being old, the story is set in what was then the present day, so the Soviet Union is still a threat.) And the President, a thinly-veiled caricature of the real-life President at the time, Ronald Reagan (he keeps a jar of mints on his desk instead of jelly beans), is in over his head.

Fortunately, the U.S. government has an ace in the hole, to protect their interests. At some point in the past, something like the later Marvel Comics' "Superhero Registration Act" had been passed, ordering all costumed crimefighters to either work for the government, retire, or be considered outlaws. Most retired. Only one chose to work for the government: Superman. Batman doesn't like this.

But Batman has a bigger problem: The Joker has broken out of Arkham Asylum, and the final battle he had long feared -- and the Joker seemed to want -- has come: Kill or be killed. Batman breaks the Joker's neck, leaving him paralyzed, but alive. The Joker expresses his disappointment, and twists his head to finish the job, making it look like Batman actually did it. And now, he's on the run.

DKR #4 is titled "The Dark Knight Falls." Miller had said that every hero's journey has an ending, using the examples of medieval figures King Arthur and Beowulf sacrificing themselves in a final battle, and wrote this chapter as a "last Batman story." The police, no longer under the command of the retired Commissioner Jim Gordon, and the federal government both want Batman in custody, and the feds are ready to send Superman after him.

But the Cold War turns hot, and a nuclear missile heads toward America. Superman stops it, but is seriously weakened. Still, the electromagnetic pulse set off by the explosion knocks out America's electricity, and Batman takes Carrie/Robin and the Sons of the Batman to the Wayne Manor stables, and the horses become the new Batmobiles as Bruce leads them in settling things down in Gotham.

The final showdown takes place in Crime Alley, where Batman's parents had been gunned down 46 years earlier. (Bruce's age when Thomas and Martha had been killed had been hinted at before, but, while this story is not canon in the main DC storyline, his age at the time is given in this story as 9.) Bruce has decided to die where "Batman was born." He stands in an armored version of his Batsuit, and attacks Superman with high-voltage electricity. Even against a weakened Superman, this doesn't work, and Superman smashes his helmet, and another punch breaks 3 of his ribs.

Correctly guessing this, Batman is properly prepared. He cheats. He has Green Arrow fire an arrow at Superman. It explodes, spraying him with Kryptonite dust. And Batman beats Superman to a pulp. And he says, "I want you to remember, Clark. In all the years to come, in your most private moments, I want you to remember, my hand, at your throat. I want you to remember the one man who beat you."

And then Batman has a heart attack and drops dead. This follows the destruction of Wayne Manor, meant to cover up all his secrets (which doesn't work, as Bruce is exposed as Batman anyway), and the death of Alfred from a stroke, as his boss dies. Alfred's last thought: "Of course, how utterly proper."

Batman wins. Some victory, huh?

As Clark Kent, still with a bruised face, Superman attends the funeral of Bruce Wayne. The body had been claimed by "his one living relative, a cousin." Selina Kyle, the former Catwoman, accuses Clark of killing Bruce, and has to be restrained by Gordon. (Apparently, both Jim and Selina already knew Clark's secret identity, as well as Bruce's.)

Clark starts to walk away, but then, his super-hearing picks up a heartbeat. He turns, and comes face-to-face with the cousin. No, not Kate Kane, a.k.a. Batwoman. (That character wouldn't debut for another 20 years.) But it is a young woman with red hair, wrapped in black. It's no cousin: It's Carrie. He winks at her, to let her know that he knows, and that he's okay with it. We can't tell, but maybe Carrie is smiling under her veil. 

(The wink may also be a nod to a story that had been published earlier in the year: Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?, the farewell to the pre-Crisis On Infinite Earths Earth-1 Superman, set 10 years after Superman's alleged death, with him having a new identity, married to Lois Lane, and having a son who shows a sign of having superpowers.)

And the last scene is in the Batcave, or what's left of it: Bruce, very much alive, with Carrie by his side, discussing strategy for rebuilding and protecting Gotham with the Sons of the Batman. After a few mentions throughout the story of "This would be a good death... ," he says, "This will be a good life. Good enough."

In other words, after making a big deal of wanting Batman to have a final battle and die, Miller copped out, and kept Batman alive.

And the story has since been ruined by sequels, each installment more ridiculous than the last, betraying the sensibility of this story.

*

DKR is an "Elseworlds" story, taking place outside the official DC Comics canon, although the Elseworlds imprint wouldn't debut until 1989, with Batman: Gotham By Gaslight, showing Batman in 1889, taking on, while being accused of being, Jack the Ripper.

DKR was the story that Batman fans had waited their whole lives for: The story that made Batman, not Superman, the Number 1 superhero. The story that showed that "Batman always wins." The story that proved that Batman could even beat Superman. That Batman was better than Superman, because Superman is a "boy scout" (to use the old insult against him). That Superman, as Batman puts it in this story, "always said yes to anybody with a badge or a flag." That Batman was the ultimate badass.

Let's get something straight: Batman can't beat Superman. There is no way in hell that it could ever happen.

Batfans who want their guy to beat Superman always cite the fight scene at the end of DKR. And, I have to admit, the Superman in that story (not the one we know, as things have changed tremendously from canon) is a bit of a jerk, who deserved to be taught a lesson.

But here's how that scene would have played out, if Frank Miller understood Superman:

* Batman fires a laser cannon at Superman. Superman is knocked back, but gets up, and says, "Bruce, is that the best you can do?"

* Batman zaps Superman with millions of volts of electricity. (Ripped off from an early Fantastic Four story where The Thing did it to The Hulk, after The Hulk shoved him down a manhole.) Superman is surprised, but says, "Seriously? I just survived a nuke, Bruce."

* Green Arrow launches his arrow. Superman's super-hearing picks up the sound. His telescopic vision sees the arrow, and his X-ray vision sees what's inside. He can do this faster than a speeding bullet, let alone a speeding arrow, because his senses have the same super-speed as the rest of him. He gets out of the way, the arrow lands harmlessly, and he blows the Kryptonite dust out of the way.

* Batman is screwed. His ace in the hole is completely wasted, and he has no weapons left except his mind and his hand-to-hand combat abilities. Both of which are completely wasted on a Kryptonian.

Batfans believe "Batman always wins." Why? Because he's smarter, and "Because he's the goddamn Batman, that's why."

Except Batman isn't smarter than Superman. The yellow Sun of the Earth, compared with the red sun of Krypton, makes Superman's brain a supercomputer, the likes of which no Batman or Batcomputer can match.

You want to know what would happen if they tried to solve the same crime? Batman would sit on a rooftop, waiting for the bad guys to show up. Except they wouldn't, because Superman has used his super-senses to track them down, and has already taken them to jail.

You want to know what would happen if they played each other in chess? I asked my father this question, not long before he died. He was a comic book fan going back to his youth in the 1950s, had 2 science degrees from the school now known as the New Jersey Institute of Technology, and (unlike myself, to whom he never seemed to be able to pass on this part of his knowledge) was a decent chess player.

Dad reminded me of Superman's Sun-aided brain, and his super-speed. He said that Batman would be ready to pull all kinds of maneuvers, except that, in the time it took Batman to set up the board, Superman could have read a dozen books on chess strategy, and would know every move that Batman could make.

It's no contest. And even if Batman were smarter than Superman, which he isn't, he still wouldn't win a fight. A big part of Batman's schtick is sneaking up on his opponents. You can't sneak up on someone with super-speed. Or super-hearing, for that matter. And Batman's martial arts expertise is useless against Superman's quickness, and his invulnerability.

Trying to attack Superman from a distance wouldn't help. What's Batman going to do, throw a Batarang at Superman? His speed would allow him to see it, and, whether laced with Kryptonite or anything else, he'd use his heat vision to melt it, or his super breath to freeze it.

And let's be very clear about this: Kryptonite is not an ace in the hole. Superman sometimes faces a guy named Kryptonite Man, and another guy named Metallo, who has a human brain but a robot body powered by Kryptonite. Superman fights these guys, and he still finds a way to win.

And Kryptonite doesn't kill a Kryptonian instantly. It hurts him. It weakens him. But even if Superman had just 1 percent of his strength left, in spite of the pain he would be in, he would still be far stronger than an average human, and Batman would still be pathetically overmatched.

So any Kryptonite that Batman might have only has the power that the writers give it, so it's not a guaranteed knockout. The "ace" can be a higher card than a king, but it could be no better than a one, like every other attack Batman could use.

DKR has been adapted for an animated film. Elements of it were used for the 2012 film The Dark Knight Rises (although no other superhero appeared in it), the 2016 film Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, and The CW's TV adaptation of Crisis On Infinite Earths, showing an alternate Earth where Batman took it one step further, and killed Superman, using the "badge or a flag" line to explain it to Supergirl and Batwoman.

*

December 1, 1986 was a Monday. Baseball was out of season. There were no NBA games played that day. Two games were played in the NHL, both in Quebec. The Washington Capitals beat the Montreal Canadiens, 2-1 at the Montreal Forum. Alan Haworth scored the winning goal, 1:48 into overtime. And the Quebec Nordiques beat the Hartford Whalers, 4-1 at the Colisée de Québec.

And on ABC Monday Night Football, the New York Giants beat the San Francisco 49ers, 21-17 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. Also in football, DeSean Jackson was born on this day.

November 27, 1920: "The Mark of Zorro" Premieres

November 27, 1920: The film The Mark of Zorro premieres, introducing a legend. Douglas Fairbanks, the leading film star of the time, starred, and wrote the script with Eugene Miller. Fred Niblo directed.

Zorro had first appeared the year before, in the novel The Curse of Capistrano by Johnston McCulley. He wasn't the 1st costumed superhero with a secret identity: Baroness Emma Orczy had created Sir Percy Blakeney, the Scarlet Pimpernel, in 1903. But many of the tropes of later superhero stories began with Zorro, the word being Spanish for "fox":

* The civilian identity being that of a rich man, motivated by the unfairness of his peers toward the poor: Don Diego de la Vega is a ranchero in California, in the early 19th Century, while it was still part of Mexico, and Mexico part of the Spanish Empire. (The Scarlet Pimpernel was trying to save his fellow aristocrats in the French Revolution. It was the Revolutionaries who were fighting for the poor, and got grossly carried away.)

* The masked, costumed identity being that of a dashing crusader in dark clothing, the better to pull off his activities at night; but, in his civilian life, appearing to be a mild-mannered playboy, inspiring Batman, the Green Hornet, the Green Arrow, Iron Man, and a few others. While Clark Kent was not similarly rich (although paid well enough as a reporter to afford an apartment in Metropolis without a roommate), he, too, took on "mild-mannered" status, often seeming to run from danger, so he could hide and change into his Superman costume.

* The older butler, Bernardo, aiding him in his activities, inspiring Batman's Alfred Pennyworth. (The Green Hornet's Kato doesn't quite fit, as he was about the same age as his boss, and an action hero in his own right.) Bernardo was played by Native American actor Tote Du Crow.

* The base of operations being underneath the mansion, inspiring Batman's Batcave and a few others.

* The sweet ride, a black horse named Tornado, inspiring the Batmobile, the Green Hornet's Black Beauty, and the Pontiac Trans Ams that featured in Smokey and the Bandit and Knight Rider.

* The "love triangle" between the female lead and the two personalities, the superhero and the secret identity, inspiring many examples, most notably Lois Lane, Clark Kent and Superman. Here, the female lead is Lolita Pulido, played by Marguerite De La Motte.

* The man in power who should be on the side of justice, but uses his position for his own evil ends, in this case Governor Alvarado, played by George Periolat.

* The rotten henchman to the man in power, in this case, Captain Juan Ramon -- who has designs on both his boss' job and the hero's intended -- played by Robert McKim. Here, the rotten henchman has his own rotten henchman, Sergeant Pedro Gonzales, played by Noah Beery Sr. His son, Noah Beery Jr., made his film debut, as a boy watching Zorro fight.

* And although his main weapon is a sword, Zorro also uses a whip, inspiring Western film star Lash LaRue and Indiana Jones.

But what Zorro became best known for was his swordfighting skill, which would end in victory, and then, he would use the tip of his sword to carve the letter Z on the shirt -- and, in one case, the seat of the pants -- of his cornered foe. In the original novel, it was done on the face, but this was deemed too gruesome for the film-viewing public. Doing it on the rear end was considered funny.

Fairbanks became known for his "swashbuckling" roles, such as Zorro, d'Artagnan (in The Three Musketeers in 1921 and The Iron Mask in 1928), Robin Hood (on whom Zorro was partly based, in the film of that title in 1922), The Thief of Baghdad (in the film of that title in 1924), The Black Pirate (in the film of that title in 1926, note that his costume was black, not that he was playing an African or an African-American), and Don Juan (in The Private Life of Don Juan, 1934).

He married 3 times, the 2nd time to actress Mary Pickford, the leading female film star of the 1910s. Together, along with actor Charlie Chaplin and director D.W. Griffith, they founded the film studio United Artists. He died of a heart attack in 1939, only 56 years old. His last words were, "I've never felt better." His son from his 1st marriage, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., also became a legendary actor.

Robert McKim died in 1927, of a stroke, only 40 years old. Tote Du Crow also died in 1927, albeit considerably older, 69. George Periolat died in 1940. Noah Beery Sr. died in 1946. Marguerite De La Motte died in 1950, also too young and from a stroke, at 47.

In 1919, Fairbanks and Pickford built one of the most famous houses in America, at 1143 Summit Drive in Beverly Hills, naming it Pickfair. A magazine of the era called it "a gathering place only slightly less important than the White House... and much more fun."

After their 1936 divorce, she married actor Buddy Rogers (they adopted 2 children, the only ones she would have), and they lived there until her death in 1979. Rogers moved out of Pickfair and sold it to Los Angeles Lakers owner Jerry Buss. In 1988, Buss sold it to actress Pia Zadora. She demolished it in 1990, claiming termites had rendered it uninhabitable, but in 2012, she claimed the real reason was that she was spooked by a ghost living there, and that she now regrets it.

*

In 1940, The Mark of Zorro was remade as a talkie, with Tyrone Power. Zorro creator Johnston McCulley lived until 1958, and had been able to consult with the Walt Disney Company on their 1957-59 ABC TV series starring Guy Williams. The film was remade again in 1974, in color, with Frank Langella.

Guy Williams

In 1981, Zorro, the Gay Blade featured George Hamilton as twin sons of the original Zorro, one of them, as the title suggests, gay, and he has to fill in for his brother after an injury. This was followed in 1983, by the CBS series Zorro and Son, with Henry Darrow as an aging Zorro who trains his son, played by Paul Regina, to take his place. It was a sitcom, and lasted only 5 episodes. Duncan Regehr starred in a syndicated TV series from 1990 to 1993.

In 1998, The Mask of Zorro was released. Welsh actor Anthony Hopkins plays an already-aging original Zorro, whose dream of Mexico's independence from Spain is achieved in 1821, but at a painful price: The outgoing Spanish governor burns his villa to the ground, killing his wife, arrests him, imprisons him for 20 years, and raises his infant daughter as his own.

When Don Diego is released in 1841, he meets a bandit, Alejandro Murrieta -- a character named for a real-life California bandit of that period, who partly inspired the character of Zorro. This is less a Batman and Robin situation than a "Batman Beyond" situation, as Hopkins trains Alejandro, played by Spanish actor Antonio Banderas, to be the new Zorro.

Eventually, the two men lead Don Diego's daughter Elena, played by Welsh actress Catherine Zeta-Jones -- the Spanish-accented role leading many to pronounce her name "ZAY-tah" instead of the correct "ZEE-tah" -- see who her real father is, and what her adoptive father is. Fortunately, her swordfighting skills are also excellent -- taught to her by her adoptive father. Don Diego dies in the final battle, but, with Alejandro and Elena fighting together, good triumphs over evil.

A sequel was made in 2005, The Legend of Zorro, set at the dawn of California's Statehood in 1850, with Alejandro and Elena married with a young son, and Alejandro finding it harder to keep his secret as Zorro. The franchise ended there, after only 2 films. NBC, CBS, ABC and Amazon Prime have all announced attempts at a new TV series -- the character is now in the public domain -- with such names as Robert Rodriguez, Sofia Vergara and Wilmer Valderrama as executive producers. But, as of November 27, 2022, none have made it to filming.

The homages to Zorro have been many. Cartoon character Quick Draw McGraw, a horse who usually dressed as a cowboy, sometimes assumed the identity of El Kabong, his weapon being a guitar which, when used to club someone over the head, made the sound that led to his identity.

V in the 1982 graphic novel V for Vendetta wore black, including a cape like Zorro's, the Guy Fawkes mask gave him a mustache similar to Zorro's, and while he used daggers instead of swords, he did tend to carve the letter V when he had the chance. The 2005 film version shows him wearing a lower, flatter hat than the Puritan-era hat supposedly worn by Fawkes, making it look similar to Zorro's.

There have even been female versions. Linda Stirling starred in the 1944 serial The Black Whip. And in 2000, the syndicated series Queen of Swords starred Tessie Santiago as Maria Teresa Alvarado, whose father, a California Don, was murdered by the evil Spanish governor's American henchman, and comes back from Spain to avenge him.

While the villains remained male in Queen of Swords, everything else was a gender-bend: Bernardo became Marta (a gypsy with fortune-telling powers, hence the tarot-themed titles of the series and the character), and the would-be romantic lead a man, Robert Helm, a British doctor. I say, "would-be," because the series proved too expensive to renew for a 2nd season, and so nothing happened between Tessa and Robert.

Comic book writer Bob Kane made no bones about the fact that his most famous creation, Batman, was based on Zorro. He even had it included in the character's origin story: The movie that Bruce Wayne's parents took him to see before they were killed was a Zorro film.

Which one depends on who's telling the story. Usually, it's the 1940 Tyrone Power Mark of Zorro, as part of a nostalgia film festival. The 2016 film Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice and the 2019 film Joker both set the Waynes' murder in 1981, so it's Zorro: The Gay Blade. I suppose that, if the Robert Pattinson Batman films ever show a flashback to the murder, it'll have to be the 1998 Mask of Zorro.

*

November 27, 1920 was a Saturday. Baseball season was over. The NHL season didn't begin for another 25 days. And professional basketball was in its early stages. But there were 5 college football games played that day:

* The Army-Navy Game was played at the Polo Grounds in New York, and Navy won, 7-0.

* The University of Alabama beat Case School of Applied Science, 40-0 at Van Horn Field in Cleveland. This might have been the first time a school from a former Confederate State beat a school from a Union State on "Yankee soil." (If you know of an earlier one, let me know. That event, whenever it actually happened, is worthy of its own entry.) In 1947, CSAS became the Case Institute of Technology. In 1967, it merged with Western Reserve University, becoming Case Western Reserve. It now competes in NCAA Division III.

* Baylor University and Southern Methodist University (SMU) played to a tie, 0-0 at Armstrong Field in Dallas.

* Dartmouth went all the way across the country, and beat the University of Washington, 28-7. This was the 1st game ever played at the original version of Husky Stadium in Seattle. All but the north stand was demolished in 2012 and replaced with a new structure for the 2013 season.

* And Oregon Agricultural College beat the Multnomah Athletic Club, 10-7 at Multnomah Field in Portland, Oregon. In 1926, Multnomah Field was replaced with Multnomah Stadium, now named Providence Park, home of soccer's Portland Timbers and Portland Thorns. OAC became Oregon State Agricultural College in 1927, Oregon State College in 1937, and Oregon State University in 1961. The Multnomah Athletic Club is still in operation, but no longer sponsors a football team.

Actually, this was Thanksgiving weekend, and so the bulk of the collegiate gridiron action happened 2 days earlier. This included intra-State rivalries like Penn State and Pittsburgh playing to a 0-0 tie, Texas beating Texas A&M, Colorado Agricultural (now Colorado State) beating the University of Denver, Maryland beating Johns Hopkins, South Carolina beating The Citadel, Utah State beating Utah, and Virginia Military Institute (VMI) beating Virginia Tech. It also included Missouri beating arch-rival Kansas, Tennessee beating Kentucky, Notre Dame beating Michigan State, and Rutgers losing away to the University of Detroit, 27-0.

November 18, 1992: The (Temporary) Death of Superman

November 18, 1992: DC Comics publishes Superman #75, titled "The Death of Superman." It was a desperate measure to sell more comic books, and it worked: It remains the biggest-selling single issue in comics history.

For the story, a new character was created. This was a creature from ancient times on Superman's home planet of Krypton, who had somehow come to Earth, and had begun wrecking towns across the Midwest, and moves east toward Metropolis. The Justice League -- without Superman -- collectively takes him on, and he knocks them all out.

That catches Superman's attention, and he tries to stop the creature, whom the media had dubbed "Doomsday." There was a final battle between them at the foot of the Daily Planet Building, where Superman, in his civilian identity of Clark Kent, worked. They beat each other senseless and bloody, their respective Kryptonian strengths overwhelming their respective Kryptonian invulnerabilities, until, at last, each lands a blow to the other's head, and they drop dead. Superman dies in the arms of Lois Lane.

Within the DC Universe, everyone mourns. Dignitaries from all over Earth attend his funeral. So do the Green Lantern Corps. So do representatives of many planets whose people Superman had saved. Apparently, despite the release date, his death took place after the Inauguration of President Bill Clinton on January 20, 1993, because he and First Lady Hillary Clinton were both depicted as speaking at the funeral, rather than the lame-duck President George H.W. Bush and his wife Barbara. But it must still have been in Winter, because snow was falling.

Of course, no one in the real world believed that DC would let Superman stay dead. After all, there had been Jesus and resurrection metaphors for the character before. And plenty of comic book characters, good and evil alike, had been presumed dead, only to return in one form or another.

Sure enough, after a Reign of the Supermen storyline featuring 4 imposters -- one of which became the superhero Steel and another the Teen Titans member Superboy -- Clark's Earth father, Jonathan Kent, had a heart attack, and met Clark in the afterlife, and they convinced each other to come back.

In The Adventures of Superman #505, published in October 1993 -- coinciding with the premiere of the ABC series Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman -- it was confirmed that Superman was alive and back.

Of course, Doomsday didn't stay dead, either. And the story has been adapted, in animated form, in the 2016 film Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, and alluded to in the 2019 CW Arrowverse production of Crisis On Infinite Earths. (UPDATE: In 2024, it was adapted in the 2024 CW Arrowverse show Superman and Lois.)

*

November 18, 1992 was a Wednesday. This was also the day that the NBC sitcom Seinfeld aired its most famous (or infamous) episode, "The Contest." I have a separate entry for this event. The fact that Jerry Seinfeld is a major Superman fan, with a Superman magnet visible on his refrigerator and other memorabilia in his apartment, makes it even weirder.

Baseball season was over. Football was in midweek. But there were 3 games played in the NBA. The Orlando Magic beat the Philadelphia 76ers, 120-110 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia. The Utah Jazz beat the Boston Celtics, 92-91 at the Boston Garden. The Phoenix Suns beat the Sacramento Kings, 127-111 at the new AmericaWest Arena. (It's now named the Mortgage Matchup Center.)

There were 4 games played in the NHL. The New Jersey Devils beat the Buffalo Sabres, 3-2 at the Brendan Byrne Arena at the Meadowlands. Valeri Zelepukin, Tom Chorske and Alexander Semak scored the goals for New Jersey.

The Minnesota North Stars beat the Washington Capitals, 5-4 at the Capital Centre in the Washington suburb of Landover, Maryland. The Hartford Whalers beat the St. Louis Blues, 5-2 at the Hartford Civic Center. (It's now named the PeoplesBank Arena.) The Edmonton Oilers beat the Vancouver Canucks, 4-2 at the Northlands Coliseum in Edmonton.

None of these games held a moment of silence in memory of Superman before they started.

November 8, 1939: Shazam! Captain Marvel Debuts

November 8, 1939: Whiz Comics #2, dated February 1940, debuts on this date. Inside, 12-year-old Fawcett City orphan Billy Batson first says, "Shazam!", and "magic lightning" strikes him and turns him into Captain Marvel, a super-powered adult.

"Shazam" was the name of the ancient wizard who gave Billy his powers, his name spelled out by the initials of the gods and heroes who contributed those powers:

* S for the wisdom of Solomon.

* H for the strength of Hercules.

* A for the stamina of Atlas.

* Z for the power of Zeus.

* A for the courage of Achilles. And...

* M for the speed of Mercury.

Some of these traits overlap: Clearly, Atlas had to have significant strength; and The Iliad calls Achilles "swift-footed."

To change back into Billy, Captain Marvel says, "Shazam!" again.

Originally, Billy was said to live in New York. When DC Comics bought the rights to the characters from Fawcett Comics in 1951, it definitively wrote that Billy/Cap lived in Fawcett City. As with most DC cities, it is a fictional city whose exact location is left ambiguous. Most of the time, it's said to be in the Midwest, but this has varied from Indiana to Wisconsin to Minnesota.

The 1986 post-Crisis On Infinite Earths reboot moved Cap's adventures to San Francisco -- forcing a change in the radio station for which Billy becomes a teenage reporter from WHIZ to KWHZ, or "K-Whiz." This did not last, and by 1991, his adventures were again based in Fawcett City.

Due to copyright issues, Marvel Comics holds the trademark on the name "Captain Marvel," and has used it for a succession of superheroes. So, for legal reasons, DC can use the name Captain Marvel for its character, but can't use that name as the title of any publication or video production based on him.

As a result, their comics, cartoons, and a 1974-77 live-action Saturday-morning CBS show have had to use the title Shazam! This has led to confusion, with some people thinking that the caped hero in the red costume with the yellow lightning bolt on his chest is, in fact, named Shazam. 

Jackson Bostwick, 1974. That's 1970s hair,

but he otherwise nailed the look.

In 2012, DC just gave up, and made "Shazam" his official name. In 2022, DC renamed him again, calling him "The Captain," so that he can once again be called "Cap" for short (as is the Marvel hero Captain America), but also allowing him to say his name without calling down the lightning that will change him back into a kid without powers.

John Davey, 1975. A little too chunky for the role.

This was not the case in 1941, when The Adventures of Captain Marvel made him the 1st superhero ever to appear in a movie. (Superman appeared in a cartoon later in the year, but not in a live-action film until 1948, with Batman debuting onscreen in 1943.) Frank Coughlan Jr. (1916-2009), a former child actor already too old to play the part, played Billy Batson, and Tom Tyler (1903-1954) played Captain Marvel.

Tom Tyler, 1941

For the 1970s series, Michael Gray, also too old to play a teenager, played Billy, while Jackson Bostwick played Cap. He hurt his back a year later, and had to leave the show, replaced by John Davey. In the 1979 NBC special Legends of the Superheroes, Cap was played by Garrett Craig.

Garrett Craig, 1979

In 2019, Warner Brothers released the film Shazam! Asher Angel, 16 at the time of filming, played a 14-year-old Billy living in the real city of Philadelphia; while Zachary Levi, then 38, played Cap, having already played a Marvel Comics character, the Asgardian warrior Fandral, in the Thor films. The joke was that the character was more mature as Billy than he was as the adult superhero.

Zachary Levi, 2019

UPDATE: In 2023, DC released a sequel film, Shazam! Fury of the Gods. Michael Gray made a cameo appearance, wearing the same red shirt he wore on CBS nearly 50 years earlier.

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November 8, 1939 was a Wednesday. Baseball season was over. Football was in midweek. No games were scheduled in the NHL. And the NBA hadn't been founded yet. Therefore, there were no scores on this historic day.