Superman Supacomic #114
Superman Supacomic #114 is a significant artifact of mid-Silver Age DC distribution history, bringing the landmark Batman #201 story 'Batman's Gangland Guardians!' to Australian readers roughly a year after its US debut. That source story marks the first time Gotham's classic rogues gallery — Joker, Catwoman, Mad Hatter, Penguin, Cluemaster, Getaway Genius, and Johnny Witts — were assembled as a coordinated group, a narrative device that would echo through decades of Batman storytelling. The issue also packages two additional DC Silver Age stories under one cover, making it a dense cross-title anthology that exposed Australian audiences to a breadth of the Superman-family universe unavailable in single-issue format locally. As part of K. G. Murray's long-running Supacomic line, it stands as evidence of how DC's Silver Age reached global audiences through licensed reprint partnerships well before the modern collected-editions era.
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K. G. Murray's Superman Supacomic series launched in 1959, continuing the numbering of the earlier Superman's Supacomic, and ran through roughly 200 issues into the mid-1970s under the Colour Comics and later Murray Comics imprints, all published from 142 Clarence Street, Sydney. Issues were printed by Kenmure Press Pty Ltd in North Lidcombe and distributed across Australia and New Zealand by Gordon & Gotch. Content was licensed from National Periodical Publications (DC Comics), and each issue bundled multiple stories from several DC titles simultaneously — a common format for Commonwealth-market reprints of this era. Because the GCD lists #114's date as 'Circa February 1969,' the precise publication month is uncertain; League of Comic Geeks dates it to April 1969.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Published circa early 1969 by K. G. Murray (Sydney, Australia); the exact on-sale date is approximate, with sources citing February or April 1969.
- Reprints Batman #201 (cover-dated May 1968), titled 'Batman's Gangland Guardians!' — scripted by Gardner Fox, with pencils by Chic Stone and Joe Certa, inks by Joe Giella, and a cover by Irv Novick.
- Batman #201 marks the first appearance of the Gangland Guardians as a collective: Penguin, Joker, Catwoman, Mad Hatter (Jervis Tetch), Cluemaster, Getaway Genius, and Johnny Witts unite to protect Batman from a West Coast crime syndicate that wants him eliminated — and would then turn on them next.
- Supporting cast in the Batman story includes Alfred Pennyworth, Commissioner James Gordon, Robin (Dick Grayson), and Bruce Wayne in his civilian identity.
- Also reprints Superman #211, bringing Clark Kent / Superman and Perry White into the issue alongside the Batman material.
- Also reprints Action Comics #367, featuring a Supergirl story in which she uses Gold Kryptonite and is involved in events at Stanhope College with Superman.
- The Batman #201 story was later collected in DC's Showcase Presents: Batman Vol. 3 (September 2008), confirming its standing as a notable Silver Age Batman tale.
- GCD records note a longstanding attribution dispute on Batman #201: Bob Kane was listed and paid for pencils in DC's records, but comics historians Gene Reed, Bob Hughes, and others attribute the actual pencil art to Chic Stone and Joe Certa.
Cast · 15 characters
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Full plot ⚠ may contain spoilers
▸ Reveal full plot — may contain spoilers
Morlo escapes the Legion team on Orando, while at the same time a second Morlo encounters and escapes the team on Daxam. The Legionnaires on Naltor encounter a third Morlo, but all three were decoys meant to distract the Legion from Morlo's real plot to blow up Earth.
Plot details indexed by the Grand Comics Database (CC BY-SA).