Batman Superband #9
Batman Superband #9 is the first German-language presentation of the Batman/Swamp Thing collision from Swamp Thing #7 (1974), the story in which Swamp Thing travels to Gotham City and engages in his first-ever physical confrontation with Batman — a Bronze Age crossover that tied off writer Len Wein's long-running Conclave storyline with Bernie Wrightson's atmospheric art. By packaging that encounter alongside the fondly remembered tale from Batman #250, Egmont Ehapa gave German-speaking readers their most concentrated dose yet of Bronze Age horror-inflected Batman storytelling. The volume stands as a snapshot of how DC's darker, more gothic 1970s sensibility reached continental European audiences through the Superband format, pairing two very different creative registers — gritty detective adventure and monster-horror crossover — in a single 84-page softcover.
In "Rotes Wasser, roter Tod," Bruce Wayne takes a voyage that leads him to rescue a boy from drowning—only to find himself drawn into a mysterious island adventure. Written by Denny O'Neil and illustrated with striking intensity by Neal Adams, this 1979 tale blends maritime intrigue with the supernatural, all wrapped in a cover by Ernie Chan and Bernie Wrightson, with inks by Vince Colletta and Bernie Wrightson.
In "Rotes Wasser, roter Tod," Bruce Wayne’s routine sea voyage takes a dark turn when he rescues a boy from drowning—only to follow him to a remote island where the line between myth and madness begins to blur. Written with a creeping dread and rendered in stark, atmospheric art, this tale from Batman Superband #9 unfolds as a haunting journey into the unknown, where every shadow seems to remember a name.
In "Ein Monster sieht rot!", Batman and the swamp-dwelling creature known as Sumpf-Ding track the elusive Mr. E through Gotham’s shadowed streets, each driven by their own reasons as a series of crimes unfolds. The hunt leads them through eerie alleys and hidden corners, where danger and mystery intertwine in this 1979 horror-suspense tale.
In "Killer mit dem Liebestick," Batman tracks a criminal through the shadows of Gotham, only to stumble upon a hidden circle of former circus performers—each with their own secrets. When a murder shakes their secluded enclave, Batman must rely on their uneasy cooperation to unravel the truth.
ComicBooks.com Value
Find on ebay
Sell my copy
Have this issue — or a whole collection? Get a fair offer from us, skip the marketplace fees and the hassle.
We Buy Collections ▸History
The Batman Superband series was launched by Egmont Ehapa (trading as Ehapa Verlag GmbH) in 1974 and ran through 1986, serving as West Germany's primary vehicle for DC Batman reprints in a squarebound softcover format aimed at a broad readership. Issue #9 was assembled under the editorial direction of Herausgeber Adolf Kabatek, with translation work shared by Uwe Anton, Lotte Messinger, D. Hesse, and U. Krieger, and editorial coordination by Hansjürgen Meyer, Kornelia Vethers, and Dorothee Hohl. The composite cover was built from elements of the Batman #282 cover combined with a Swamp Thing figure lifted directly from page 20 of the Swamp Thing story reprinted inside — a common production approach for the series when no single image captured the anthology's full contents. As was standard practice for the Superband line, at least one story was trimmed by two pages relative to its US original to fit the German page budget.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Published in 1979 by Egmont Ehapa (Ehapa Verlag GmbH) as issue #9 of the Batman Superband series, which ran from 1974 to 1986 in German.
- The 84-page softcover reprints the Batman/Swamp Thing crossover from Swamp Thing #7 (1974), written by Len Wein with art by Bernie Wrightson — the first story in which Swamp Thing (Alec Holland) travels to Gotham City and physically fights Batman.
- The Swamp Thing story concludes Wein's multi-issue Conclave arc, in which both Batman and Swamp Thing separately pursue the villainous Nathan Ellery (Mr. E), the man behind the organization responsible for Swamp Thing's transformation; key supporting characters Abigail Arcane, Matt Cable, Commissioner Gordon, and Doc Hammer appear.
- Art credits for the issue include pencils by Ernie Chan and Bernie Wrightson, inks by Vince Colletta and Bernie Wrightson, and colors by Tatjana Wood.
- Also reprints Batman #282 (December 1976), a story continuing directly into Batman #283, credited via Julius Schwartz's editorial records.
- Also reprints Batman #250, a tale that would later be selected for DC's The Greatest Batman Stories Ever Told (1988) — one of the editorially recognized highlights of 1970s Batman.
- Also reprints Batman #227, a Neal Adams-era story later collected in Showcase Presents: Batman Vol. 5.
- The cover is a composite image constructed from the Batman #282 cover art with Swamp Thing taken from page 20 of the Swamp Thing story — not an original commission, reflecting Ehapa's standard assembly method for anthology covers.
Full credits
Reprints
↩ Reprints Batman #227 (1970), The Brave and the Bold #93 (1970), Detective Comics #410 (1971), Batman #250 (1973), Swamp Thing #7 (1973), Batman #282 (1976)
Reviews
Reader reviews
No reader reviews yet.