We must have read different Spectre comics, Ish, because the Giordano-edited issues (all two of them) stink. I agree, though, that his other titles rocked.

Cei-U!
I summon the divergent views!

The GCD has some, mostly garnered from contemporary issues of The Comic Reader.

"Footsteps of Disaster" is by Mike Friedrich.
"Hit and Run" is by Steve Skeates.
"How Much Can a Guy Take?" and "Will the Real Killer Please Rise?" are by Jack Miller.

www.comics.org/issue/22706/

The Brave & the Bold #84
June-July 1969 (April 22, 1969) $.12


Cover Art: Neal Adams, signed

“The Angel, the Rock and the Cowl” 24 pages

Murray Boltinoff (Editor), Bob Haney (Writer), Neal Adams (Artist), Joe Kubert (Inker, Sgt.Rock and Easy Company faces only), no lettering or coloring credits

FC: Batman (also uses the aliases Pierre Leduc and Jack Pimpernel)
SA: Winston Churchill
Intro: Sgt. Frank Rock (see Cosmology note below)
Intro: Cpl. Horace “Bulldozer” Canfield, Wildman (true name unknown) and other unidentified infantrymen of Easy Company (see Cosmology note below)
Intro: Colonel Von Stauffen (first name unknown)
Intro: Digby Palmer (dies in this story)

Synopsis

In the city of London on the night of June 5, 1944 — the night before D-Day — Bruce Wayne encounters his former teacher, Digby Palmer, now an Allied intelligence agent. A V-2 rocket explodes near them, fatally wounding Palmer. With his dying breath, he tells Bruce “there is something odd about the wine at Chateaurouge.” Volunteering to complete Palmer's mission, Wayne boards a military transport plane bound for France. En route, he meets Sgt. Frank Rock and the “combat-happy joes” of Easy Company, to whom he introduces himself as “Jack Pimpernel.” Parachuting into the village of Chateaurouge, Wayne and Easy part ways.

Posing as a Vichy wine merchant, Wayne visits the Chateaurouge winery, now being used as a Nazi command post by one Colonel Von Stauffen. Bruce sniffs out Von Stauffen's plan to smuggle nerve gas to the beaches of Normandy in Chateaurouge bottles. Sneaking away, Wayne contacts Sgt. Rock, whose mission is to destroy the bridge leading out of the village at dawn. Realizing he may have unintentionally led the Nazis to Easy's bivouac, Wayne becomes Batman and diverts their attention. Sneaking into the winery, Batman discovers the gas being removed in a hay wagon. Changing back to Jack Pimpernel, Wayne makes for the bridge. Though Rock tries to prevent it, Wayne detonates the charges prematurely, destroying the bridge, the hay wagon and the gas. The Allied invasion begins as planned.

Twenty-five years later, Bruce Wayne is called to the Gotham City Museum where a famous statue of the archangel Gabriel ― the same statue Wayne's parachute had once caught on in Chateaurouge ― has resided since the war. Someone from the French village has come to claim it, someone with a German accent. Bruce, aware the statue is a fake, urges the curator not to turn it over. Von Stauffen appears. Before he can shoot Wayne, he is disarmed by none other than Sgt. Rock, who had trailed the fugitive Nazi from Europe. The statue, made of plaster-covered gold looted from Chateaurouge by Von Stauffen, will be returned to France.

Cosmology

Although Robert Kanigher ― the editor of DC's war titles during the Silver Age and the co-creator of Sgt. Rock ― always insisted his war characters' exploits did not occur in any of the company's super-hero universes, that does not preclude Rock and his men from having Earth-Two doppelgängers. This is therefore the first appearance of the Earth-Two Sgt. Rock and Easy Company.

EDIT: A good ten years after writing the above paragraph, I can no longer recall where I read that quote from Kanigher, nor have I run across another such reference. It may be wisest, therefore, to take that particular factoid with the proverbial grain of salt. KM 11/4/14

Continuity

Although it is not identified as such, the story in this issue is part of the Earth-Two canon. Its events are referenced in the “Batman and Sgt. Rock” story in The Brave and the Bold #162, a comic explicitly set on Earth-Two.

This is the first of four stories of the Earth-Two Batman set during World War II to appear in The Brave and the Bold. The stories are not published in chronological order. The timeline for these issues is:
● May 23-30, 1942 – Brave & Bold #146
● June 5-7, 1944 – Brave & Bold #84
● September 19-21, 1944 – Brave & Bold #167
● Autumn 1944 – Brave & Bold #162
See the index entries for the individual issues for more information.

The Good Guys

Because “Batman” stories were published continuously throughout the 1930s, '40s, '50s and '60s, there is no point at which it can be authoritatively said that the character segues from his Golden Age incarnation to his Silver Age persona. It is therefore impossible to pinpoint the exact title and issue number of the Earth-Two version's last appearance.

Fashion Watch

Batman's costume is depicted with detailing consistent with the 1970s version of the character rather than with the detailing it had in 1944. Only the omission of the yellow oval around his chest emblem differentiates this Batman visually from his Earth-One doppelgänger.

Right. And the next four or five Batman/Rock B&Bs are definitely set on Earth-One (or, I suppose, Earth-B). They won't explicity use the E2 bats until #146, after Boltinoff has left the editor's chair.

Cei-U!
I summon the confusion!

Although they tried like hell to explain it away in the letter collumns - I think Neal Adams even said he was drawing his Batman a little older for that issue.

Justice League of America #73
August 1969 (June 12, 1969) $.15


Cover Art: Joe Kubert, signed

“Star Light, Star Bright ― Death Star I See Tonight!” 23 pages

Julius Schwartz (Editor), Denny O'Neil (Writer), Dick Dillin (Penciller), Sid Greene (Inker), no lettering or coloring credits

FC: The Atom, Batman, Green Lantern, Hawkman, Superman, teamed as the Justice League of America
GS: Black Canary, Doctor Fate, Dr. Mid-Nite, Green Lantern, The Red Tornado, Starman, Wonder Woman, teamed with Superman as the Justice Society of America
SC: Larry Lance
Reintro: Superman (Clark Kent nee Kal-L)
Intro: Aquarius
Intro: The Council of Living Stars, all but Aquarius in flashback only

Synopsis

In a “time beyond time,” a “space beyond space,” the Council of Living Stars — a species of intelligent energy beings with vast mystical abilities — sits in judgement on one of their own. Found guilty, the rogue named Aquarius is stripped of his powers and left to drift, barely alive, through the universe.

On Earth-One, The Red Tornado relates the events of two weeks ago to the Justice League: While working at his observatory, Ted Knight sights the ghostly mist that was once Aquarius entering Earth-Two's atmosphere. Setting out to investigate as Starman, he is astonished when the mist siphons energy from his cosmic rod and assumes humanoid form. Deprived of his rod, Starman hurtles back to earth, crashing through the observatory's skylight just as Black Canary and her husband, Larry Lance, arrive. The Canary immediately sends out a JSA emergency signal.

En route, several Society members encounter strange but temporary phenomena. These prove to be the work of Aquarius. After untold millennia in exile, the Living Star is now quite insane and, with the cosmic rod feeding him a constant stream of stellar energy, has enough power to carry out his plan to annihilate Earth-Two. None of the Justice Society members prove mighty enough to prevent the alien from casting a catastrophically powerful spell that sends Earth-Two and its inhabitants into a “spirit dimension.” Only the JSA itself, shielded by Doctor Fate's magic, remains behind. Fate reveals to the others that it is only their own memories of Earth-Two that keep the planet from being destroyed.

But there is hope. In the instant before the blast, Fate sent Red Tornado to Earth-One to fetch the JLA. If he returns with them before the temporarily exhausted Aquarius regains his power, Earth-Two may yet be saved.

The Justice League is horrified to learn their delay in hearing the Tornado's plea may have caused the death of a planet.

Cosmology

It is not clear from this story if the Living Stars are native to the Earth-Two universe or exist outside of it.

Black Canary and Larry Lance casually drop in on Starman — even bringing him a burger — in this story, the implication being that they live in the same city. Although this contradicts the “Starman and Black Canary” stories in The Brave and the Bold #61 and 62, which depict the Lances living in Park City and Ted Knight in Federal City, the two cities may be close together geographically or even share a “twin city” relationship like Minneapolis and St. Paul.

Meeting Minutes

A window display of Dr. Mid-Nite action figures similar in size to the original G. I. Joe toy is seen in this issue. Could this mean the Justice Society funds its operations with licensing fees?

The Good Guys

Because “Superman” stories were published continuously throughout the 1930s, '40s, '50s and '60s, there is no point at which it can be authoritatively said that the character segues from his Golden Age incarnation to his Silver Age persona. It is therefore impossible to pinpoint the exact title and issue number of the Earth-Two version's last appearance.

Fashion Watch

The Earth-Two Green Lantern is depicted on the cover of this and the following issue wearing the dark violet-blue cape last seen in Green Lantern #61 but wears the light purple version he wore in the previous JLA/JSA crossover in the interior pages. The cape's lining is colored a darker shade of green than usual in many panels of these two issues.

The Earth-Two Green Lantern wears the horizontally-striped boots last seen in Justice League of America #22.

There are no discernible visual differences between the two Supermen as depicted in this issue.

Earth-Two's Wonder Woman wears Roman sandles instead of her red-and-white boots in this story, possibly because her Earth-One counterpart wore no costume during this period, eliminating the need to differentiate between the two visually.