B&B 2-in-1 Round 5: Daredevil vs. Green Lantern

All tied up at 2-2... Stand by for Round 5!

In the orange corner... The Thing and Daredevil (and Wundarr and Mister Fantastic and Shanna the She-Devil and Black Widow... but Daredevil mainly), written by Steve Gerber and drawn by Sal Buscema and Joe Sinnott, Marvel Two-in-One #3, Inside Black Spectre!

And in the black corner... it's Batman and a rematch for Green Lantern Hal Jordan, written by Bob Haney and drawn by Win Mortimer, Brave and the Bold #69, War of the Cosmic Avenger!

DING DING DING!

The Stars
The Thing thankfully doesn't do too much babysitting in this issue, despite the previous one's promise. He doesn't needlessly fight his co-star for once - he and Daredevil are pretty much in sync - so this is a good comic for him. Except that he's easily hyp-MO-tized! And except for his taste in magazines:
+7 points

Brave and the Bold opens with a story about Batman being trapped in an iron gargoyle (see cover), which is weird and actually suspenseful, but he loses points when he claims he had spring fever and was out taking a ride in the countryside. Except... that's not really Batman. It's the villain in disguise (see below)! Well, then, that's fine. The real Batman has a fair outing too. He's got all the cool vehicles, for one thing: We see the Whirly-Bat, the Batcopter and the Batmobile, the latter so cool even Green Lantern takes a ride despite his ability to fly much faster:
It's Batman who finds the clues necessary to stop the threat, and his appearance is enough to shock an old man with Alzheimer's out of his "amnesia"! A bit of overkill on "capturing" said old man though:
Bats also gets to use his disguise skills to impersonate the old scientist and sock the Time Commander in the jaw in a classic switch. +8 bat-points

The Guests
Though Daredevil is the credited guest-star, there are cameos by Shanna the She-Devil (sadly not in her fur bikini), Black Widow (mind-controlled, but sad to be), Mister Fantastic (who acts a bit like a jerk) and the obsequious Wundarr (he gets a new and very gay costume). But DD starts with a headstart because he happens to be my favorite Marvel character, whether that's the sassy Spider-Man clone, or the classic Frank Miller version, or Nocenti's introspective drifter. It doesn't matter to me. I love his powers, I love his style and attitude, I love the concept. And he doesn't disappoint here. When the Baxter Building doorman says "hey aren't you Captain America?" (Gerber's seems to always include one civilian who can't tell who's who), Daredevil answers "Nope, I'm Doctor Doom. That's what the DD stands for." Great deadpan delivery. We also find out why he's the Man Without Fear. Turns out it's because he's blind: "If I could see the ground rushing up at me, I'd be scared silly!" I guess that's why we close our eyes when we're scared. Good thing he didn't call himself Ostrich-Man. DD is so fearless in fact, that he thinks nothing of kicking Ben in the face:
See, I would have been scared to do that, but that's cuz I know what the Thing looks like. Points off for trying to steal the Fantasticar without asking, but points back on for driving it blind. +9 points

Green Lantern's back for a rematch as the Time Commander tricks him once again into giving him a vibro-massage with his ring, thus fueling his temporal powers. He doesn't use his ring as imaginatively as last time, with lots of simple shapes like cones, walls and rings, but there is one good moment:
That's exactly the kind of thing I'd expect a test pilot to think of! +6 bat-points

The Villains
Ben and DD are up against Black Spectre, an organisation of jumpsuit wearing losers à la AIM or Hydra. It's not revealed here, but they're actually a cult of black women committed to overthrowing America. Which might explain their plot to put on a play where Captain America beats up a pre-civil war slave (the ACTUAL civil war, if you please). Or maybe it doesn't. Maybe they're just thralls of the Mandrill, a villain that looks like a monkey and can take over your mind. Their muscle is Nekra, an albino mutant who is fueled by hatred, so she screams "HATE! HATE! HATE!" a lot. And their HQ is an electrified metal blimp with a jungle inside.
Man, it's all so random, you gotta love it. +8 points

The Time Commander returns to plague Bats and GL, and his ingenious plan revolves around using the same exact strategy as last time because the heroes wouldn't think he would try that. He's right. He also uses the same hidden HQ even though the good guys know where it is. Once he has GL's power, he uses it to summon Cosmo, an artificial humanoid who was destroyed by his former mentor and who's particles have been sent into space. Thanks to 2 full pages of technobabble, he manages to bring back the monster, but he can't control it! Here, Cosmo pushes on the Commander's forcefield, threatening to squish him against a wall.
But TC escapes and is happy to hide between temporal planes while it destroys Gotham with, among other things, tiny pink novae. Yes, Cosmo is full of stellar power and empty of any knowledge about actual physics. +5 bat-points

Odds vs. Ends
From Marvel Two-in-One:
Marvel's interconnectivity can be a plus, allowing many characters to easily show up and create the sense that the plot is building up to something, but it can also be a flaw, rewarding only the reader who buys every title. In this case, the story is continued in Daredevil #110, a story NOT INCLUDED IN THIS COLLECTION. All very well and good to publish archives of this sort, but they should reasonably stand on their own. You'll note that Steve Gerber also wrote the Daredevil story that dovetails into this one, so again, it's about advancing his other characters' plots at the expense of the Thing's. A little research tells me the story ends in a fight on the White House's front lawn. Man, I'd have liked to see that. -3 points
Speaking of advancing Gerber's plots, there's the small matter of everyone calling Wundarr by that name. The thing is, there's no way anyone should know it! It was never spoken aloud by the aliens last issue. Hand out the no-prizes! -1 point
As you've read just about everywhere by now, Captain America was killed this week. Since he's probably the superhero who's "died" the most often in the history of comics, I'm not gonna hold my breath, but check out Black Spectre's play:
Telegraphed decades in advance: Cap is shot... by HITLER! His very first enemy comes back to put a cap in his ass. Well there you go. Mystery solved. +3 points
One of the things I like about the Spider-Man films is how New York City is a character, and a character squarely on the side of the hero. 2-in-1 #3 includes a good scene for NYC, as construction workers move a crane to catch DD!
+3 points

From Brave and the Bold:
Creepy suspenseful beginning modifier: +2 bat-points
I covered the rest, so move along now.

Farewells and Scoring
Ben and DD are pictured as good friends here, so it's hard to imagine them having an Unfriendly Farewell, but here we go...
"This is war! DAREDEVIL's war!" In other words, thanks for the help, but get outta here! +1 point

As for Batman and GL, the issue ends before they get to say goodbye:
After these panels, I'm hoping our heroes mindwiped the old man (some day the world may be ready for humanoids like Cosmo? Not on my watch!) and shook hands, but I hoping doesn't make it so. +0 bat-points

You know, I can't tell who won the round with Gerber's impressive penalties, but let me check here... DING! It's 27 for Daredevil, 21 for Green Lantern. Hal is twice a loser (well, more than twice, but this is long before Emerald Twilight), putting the Thing ahead 3-2. And dead or not, guess who's joining the fight next time? That's right, Captain America! Be there!