Cover date: October 1976
DC Comics
Bob Haney, writer
Pablo Marcos, artist
This is not the most well-crafted story; there are quite a number of failures in logic and failures to simply use their abilities on the parts of both Superman and Batman in this team-up tale. But it is one I remember reading and enjoying as a kid.
The cover first drew my attention, as so many cool comics covers did in those days before advanced solicitation releases made it harder and harder to NOT know what was on the inside of the comic before you could hold it in your hands. That brutish cyclops figure threatening a small group of people while Superman and Batman fly off, indifferent -- how could one resist asking, "What is going on here?!?"
The story opens moments before the launch of Aquarius I, humanity's first attempt to journey into space beyond the moon. Such a major undertaking has led to the assembly of a crew of nine with some unusual backgrounds. The commander of the mission is ex-Air Force Major "Iron Mike" Jordan, who is looking for new challenges in his life. The others are P.K. Osborn, one of the world's richest industrialists bored with how easily he can make money, yet still consumed by the need to have more of it; Kitty Carstairs, a bitter stuntwoman looking for another avenue to prove she is better than any man; Spider Hart, a prize fighter who never got his chance at the title; Midge Dexter, a young widow looking for meaning in her lonely life; Holly Bishop, a fading rock star hoping to cash in on the rocket by relaunching his career; Bud Williams, a former convict looking for redemption; Bruce Wayne, the "playboy businessman whose company built the rocket;" and finally, Clark Kent, WGBS television news anchor covering the project for his viewers. That's quite a crew, many of whom have very large chips on their shoulders, but my favorite is Wayne, who thinks to himself, "Gotham City will have to do without Batman while I go along to see how my ship works!" The modern incarnation of the Darkknight Detective would shudder at this Batman's lack of dedication to his mission!
As one might expect, conflict breaks out among the crew before the rocket has even left the ground. Jordan and Hart butt heads over who's in charge, Dexter and Bishop quarrel over music, and Carstairs puts Wayne in his place when he offers to help her with her luggage. Even Osborn and Williams clash over the need to turn over all money to the mission's finance officer. It seems Osborn has brought a large box of cash with him, which Williams confiscates because it is against the rules to have cash in space "to upset things." At first, this might seem a silly rule -- although no less silly than why Osborn would bring the cash on a space mission anyway -- but it is actually a clue of sorts to later events.
The rocket blasts off and nine days quickly pass without incident, at least not any that we are shown. But on that ninth day, Jordan is unable to raise anyone from Earth on the radio. Wayne checks the rocket's other instruments only to find no evidence of Earth's existence. When the other startled members of the crew look out the rocket's viewing ports, they see only debris where Earth should be. Kent secretly slips out of the rocket and changes to Superman and confirms that Earth is no longer there! Kent comes back to the rocket, quickly confers with Wayne, and then the pair fake their own deaths, reappearing outside the rocket as Superman and a space-suited Batman. The heroes explain their sudden appearance by saying they were on the Justice League satellite when Earth was destroyed and came looking for the only survivors, the crew of Aquarius I.
Superman begins creating a new planet by first smashing together a number of asteroids, carving out continents with his strength, melting a comet for ocean water, and finally sucking up bits of atmosphere from other planets and bringing them to New Earth. The Aquarius I crew begins building a life for themselves, but their old prejudices taint their efforts; again they fight over wealth, personal space and breeding rights. Things only get worse when a sole alien visitor stops by. The reptilian visitor, named Alarik, claims his own planet is over-populated and that he is a scout looking for suitable expansion locations. Superman tells Alarik that there is plenty of room for more on the planet he has built since it is roughly the size of Earth but sustains only nine people at present. But the Aquaris crew refuses to share with an outsider and instead attacks Alarik. Superman and Batman, clearly disgusted by the Aquarius crew's behavior, vow to abandon them to their own selfish devices and fly off.
While the rest subdue Alarik, Bishop makes a discovery onboard Aquarius I -- a secret compartment -- but before he can tell anyone, the monstrous cyclops from the cover (remember him?) emerges from a nearby cave and threatens the humans. As the crew race to the safety of their ship, they theorize that the cyclops must have been trapped inside one of the asteroids Superman used to create New Earth. The humans make it to the Aquarius and see that Alarik has freed himself. The alien chastises the humans for not being willing to defend their new home. Alarik challenges the cyclops, and is killed for his efforts. Belatedly, the shamed humans decide to fight the cyclops, but don't fare too well until Superman and Batman return. The heroes were feeling guilty about abandoning the last humans, and arrive in the nick of time.
Once the cyclops creature is dispatched, the Aquarius crew notices that Alarik was not an alien after all, but a human in disguise. This discovery is interrupted by an announcement over the ship's radio -- an announcement from Earth! Superman flies off to investigate and confirms that Earth is, in fact, right where it should be. When he returns, Superman learns that the Aquarius crew has made more discoveries. "Alarik" was really Dr. John Travis, the scientist behind their project. The destruction of Earth and all that followed was a test to see how the crew would react to the news. They all resolve to be better people in the future as a result of all they've been through, and the crew blasts off for Earth. Once they touch down, Kent and Wayne emerge from the secret compartment, and Kent explains that they were part of the test to make it more believable. They'd only faked their own deaths earlier, a ruse that protects the heroes' secret identities.
Except, Superman and Batman couldn't have been "in" on the test idea. After Kent's explanation to the rest of the Aquarius crew, Wayne thinks to himself, "That Supes is no dummy! He bent the truth to cover our secret identities!" But then, if Superman and Batman weren't in on the test, why couldn't they figure out Dr. Travis was aboard the Aquarius I with them from the start? Superman should have noticed an extra heartbeat with his super-hearing. For that matter, Superman shouldn't have been fooled by the phony destruction of Earth. Once the ruse is revealed, he guesses that some nearby crystalline asteroids refracted the light from Earth, rendering it invisible, but he flew to where Earth should have been. Even invisible, he should have "bumped" into the planet.
Like many of Haney's stories, this one has some super-sized holes for an adult reader to puzzle over. But the kid in me still likes the fantastic nature of this story and gets too caught up in the action to wonder about silly questions that don't really matter.
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