The cover of this one was moderately doodled on, but we won't let that keep us from some Bob Haney craziness! From 1975,
World's Finest #234, "The Family That Fled Earth" Written by Bob Haney, pencils by Curt Swan, inks by John Calnan.
Both Clark Kent and Bruce Wayne had been on the scene, for the launch of the experimental "Star-Home." Wayne Industries had done some of the engineering contracts, while Clark was reporting for WGBS-TV. Star-Home was intended to be a test of self-sustaining life-support equipment, with a crew of androids called the "Robinsons," but instead the passengers were project head Dr. Lucas and his wife and son, getting off earth while the getting was good. The ground control chief wants to bring them back, but Bruce wonders if they aren't pioneers. Since Lucas had disabled any remote access, Superman is asked to bring them back, with Batman going along; and they agree with Lucas! After speaking with him, they didn't feel like they had the right to interfere with their pursuit of happiness. Batman wonders if they were making the right choice, but Superman assures him he could get them later if needed. But, after the heroes leave, the Lucas family finds a man, floating outside Star-Home, without a spacesuit but still alive...
Yeah, it's a Bob Haney joint; the rest of the issue reads like a fever dream, but keeps you interested: you can probably guess where it ends but not how it gets there! I thought DC had reprinted more of Haney's stuff, but not this story, anyway.
I actually went back & read this one and yeah, it’s pretty crazy, which is honestly on par with any Bob Haney story. Reminds me of that 80-page Elseworlds Annual I read from 1999 which features a Bob Haney story in it about the return of the Super-Sons. It’s exactly what you’d expect from Haney, ESPECIALLY the ending. Go read it if you can, of course it’s also available online for free.
ReplyDeleteCould be me, but Haney seems to be lowkey punishing the family for wanting to leave Earth to escape all the problems that exist there. Like “How dare you leave when the rest of us can’t.”