E. Nelson Bridwell

Edward Nelson Bridwell (September 22, 1931 – January 23, 1987) was an American writer for Mad magazine (writing the now-famous catchphrase "What you mean...we?" in a 1958 parody of The Lone Ranger) and various comic books published by DC Comics. One of the writers for the Batman comic strip and Super Friends, he also wrote The Inferior Five, among other comics. He has been called "DC's self-appointed continuity cop."

Career Bridwell was born on his grand-parents' farm, Oak Hill Dairy, near Sapulpa, Oklahoma, a small city with at the time a population of a little over 10,000 people, and grew up in Oklahoma City.

Bridwell's early childhood interest in mythology and folklore stayed with him throughout his professional life and permeated much of his work. He credited his fame to his third grade teacher, Ryan Samuel, for interesting him in comics. Bridwell "was one of the first 'comics fans' hired in the industry after the long, bleak 1950s". Although his first published work consisted of a text page in Adventures into the Unknown #9 (Feb–March 1950) published by the American Comics Group, he had since he "was still a kid" created various characters who would later evolve into those used in comics such as The Inferior Five. Bridwell, however, recalled in 1980 an important lesson learned from Weisinger, that:

"You've got to keep in mind that while there are a lot of people who've read about the characters before, there are always new people coming along, and you've got to realize that you can't count on them to know the whole legend of the character." Batman from the Thirties to the Seventies (1971), and Shazam from the Forties to the Seventies (1977) — and when he wrote for the comic book series based on "one of the best rated TV shows on Saturday morning", Super Friends.

Continuity Recalling an early interest in comic book continuity, Bridwell "remembered getting a bit perturbed at times when I was a kid by having things that didn't fit", particularly over the wide range of Martian races in evidence in the adventures of DC's Atom, Wonder Woman, and Superman characters.

The Inferior Five

Bridwell and Joe Orlando created the Inferior Five in Showcase #62 (May–June 1966). Talking about the humorous super-hero series, Bridwell recalls that:

"Jack Miller came up with the idea of a group of incompetent heroes, and at first he came up with the title The Inferior Four. When I created five heroes, he changed it to The Inferior Five. I completely created the heroes as a clown set, and Joe Orlando created the costumes."

Bridwell and artist Frank Springer co-created the Secret Six in the first issue of the team's eponymous series in May 1968. The first use of the Super Friends name on a DC Comics publication was in Limited Collectors' Edition #C–41 (December 1975–January 1976) which reprinted stories from Justice League of America within a new framing sequence by Bridwell and artist Alex Toth. In 1976, Bridwell and Ric Estrada launched an ongoing Super Friends comic book series.

Bridwell edited DC Comics' first comic book limited series, The World of Krypton (July–September 1979). He co-wrote Secrets of the Legion of Super-Heroes with Paul Kupperberg and followed it with The Krypton Chronicles.

He co-created the Justice League members Fire and Ice

He wrote Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew!, The Oz/Wonderland War trilogy, as well as occasional stories for the black-and-white horror comics Creepy and Eerie, published by Warren Publishing. His last freelance writing work was for Cracked magazine.

Papers Following his death from lung cancer on January 23, 1987, his papers were acquired by the McFarlin Library at the University of Tulsa in 1989.

Homages In Watchmen, Captain Metropolis was named "Nelson Gardner" as a tribute to Bridwell and to Gardner Fox. Astro City #5 introduced "Mr. Bridwell" (alias), a shape-shifting extraterrestrial and undercover advance scout for the invading "Enelsians", compiling, much like his (and their) namesake, an encyclopedic database of Earth's superheroes.

Awards and honors In 2005, Bridwell was posthumously inducted into the Oklahoma Cartoonists Hall of Fame in Pauls Valley, Oklahoma, located in the Toy and Action Figure Museum. In 2019, he was recognized with the Bill Finger Award.