Comics scribe Mike Friedrich was writing serious “relevant” stories pretty much from the get-go. As I said when I wrote about Teen Titans #19, it’s a surprise to find him writing fun fluff. He does it again with Flash #186, his only Flash story of the 1960s. His script for “Time Times Three Equals —?” is better than any of Frank Robbins’ work on the series, though we’re still stuck with Ross Andru on art.
In this story, Golden Age superhero Sargon the Sorcerer frees the Reverse Flash from his futuristic prison to secure his help mastering time travel. Reverse-Flash backstabs the sorcerer, then goes on a crime-spree, helped out by Flash having come down sick. Flash defeats the speedster of evil, of course, and winds up with the Ruby of Life that gives Sargon most of his power. The mage vows that he will settle scores with the speedster soon — though it took two years for their rematch.
Friedrich tries to make Reverse-Flash distinctive by having him stuck watching endless 20th century gangster movies in prison; he’s watched and rewatched them so often he’s begun talking like a 1930s movie mobster. While this does make Thawne stand out, it feels more odd than interesting (it worked better with Marvel’s Hammerhead a few years later). Plus I hate it when cultures centuries in the future are still obsessing over 20th century media. Apparently Professor Zoom overcome this verbal tic as he never spoke like that again.
After the second Flash vs. Sargon story, the mage appears in Justice League of America, apparently reformed (I’ll get to both tales down the road). The idea Sargon’s evil or at least amoral in his quest for greater knowledge and power, would nevertheless stick longer than Zoom’s gangster slang did.
It must have been a real surprise for readers to see Sargon. Although he’d appeared in one of DC’s Golden Age Fact Files, he was way on the obscure side and obscure heroes didn’t pop out of the blue like that. Was Friedrich a Sargon fan who wanted to reuse him? Did he simply pick him out of a hat (“Dr. Occult, Zatara … no, it’s Sargon.”)? I’ve no clue
Teen Titans #20, “Titans Fit The Battle of Jericho,” is notoriously controversial. Marv Wolfman and Len Wein, having introduced comics’ first Soviet superhero, now wanted to create DC’s first black superhero. Their story, with art by Nick Cardy, involved crooks manipulating a group of black kids into radicalism and violence which the gang would exploit for their own ends. The older brother of one of the kids becomes the masked hero Jericho to stop him.
As described on the old Titans Tower website (which appears to be defunct now), Carmine Infantino balked at this. Neal Adams thought Wolfman and Wein might be punching their theme too heavily and offered to rewrite it. When Infantino turned the rewrite down too, Adams concluded DC wasn’t willing to introduce a black superhero. Adams threw up his hands and redid the issue to eliminate the race aspect (Cardy inked). Brian Cronin covers some of the details here.
This may explain how weirdly convoluted the plot became (it continues over the next couple of issues). We have white wannabe radical teens, duped by slick manipulator Fat Cat into painting graffiti everywhere as a protest against the establishment. In reality the paint is plastic explosive that will create enough chaos for Fat Cat and his gang to loot the city.
Except in reality Fat Cat’s merely the front man for a vast international crime combine … which is working for the Dimension X aliens from Teen Titans #16. The paint isn’t explosive — it turns into a giant alien monster! Good thing the Titans are on the job.
The combine wants to settle scores with the Titans who thwarted their previous agents including Scorcher (a dirtbag dirt biker from #10) and Dr. Larner (#8), among others. This is, I believe, the first retcon where random, unrelated past events and characters were fitted together into a single plot thread post-hoc. Unfortunately it makes zero sense — Dr. Larner might have been part of an international conspiracy but Scorcher?
Last but not least Justice League of America #67 “Versus the Creeper” by Denny O’Neil and Dick Dillin came out the same month the O’Neil-scripted Beware the Creeper bit the dust. That makes it an early 
example of a creator taking a failed series character they’d worked on and showcasing them in a team book. Stan Lee and Jack Kirby did it with the Hulk in the Avengers; Steve Englehart did it with the Beast joining the Avengers; Grant Morrison brought his Aztek into the Justice League. Though unlike them, O’Neil didn’t try shoehorning the Creeper into the JLA, which was probably wise — he’d have been a terrible fit.
Instead one of the two plots this issue concerns Batman — who met the Creeper in Brave and the Bold #80 — recruiting his teammates to figure out if the Creeper is a good guy or a bad guy. Which is silly — he’s Batman, he can’t figure it out? — but did give O’Neil an excuse to give the Creeper wider exposure. Not that it led to a sudden rebirth of interest: Jack Ryder’s next appearances would be 1971, then 1975.
The other plot involves a teenager superhero, telekinetic Mind-Grabber Kid, resenting that the JLA gets better press than he does — isn’t he every bit as cool and awesome a hero? — so he cons some curious aliens into attacking them. It’s marginally better than O’Neil’s usual JLA script and the boy’s resentment and eventual maturing were handled well.
#SFWApro. Covers by Ross Andru (t), Nick Cardy, Cardy again and Neal Adams.
“he’s Batman, he can’t figure it out?”
I’ve recently been reading old Brave And The Bold issues, and it’s both refreshing and kind of confusing to see Batman portrayed as flawed, not über-prepared, and frankly, not the Batgod he became.
One thing that leaps out at me reading the Golden Age omnibuses is that Batman’s well-trained but not superhuman trained — even a couple of capable thugs can take him down in an ambush.
I agree the Bob Haney Batman is a very odd experience — at times closer to a tough cop than to the Darknight Detective.
I hate the Batgod too.