Welcome back to Word Balloon — the comic book conversation show. I’m John Siuntres, and this is Part 2 of my deep-dive with the late, great Martin Pasko. As the saying goes, you don’t know where you’re going if you don’t know where you’ve been. And nobody knew the road behind — or the road ahead — at DC Comics better than Marty.

In this episode, we go beyond his 1970s Superman Retroactive story and dig into his role as one of DC’s most trusted historians. Marty helped shape The DC Vault in 2007 and contributed key research to Taschen’s massive 75 Years of DC Comics anniversary book. We cover it all — the decades of change and innovation that redefined DC’s biggest icons. You’ll hear wild behind-the-scenes stories, from the editorial panic caused by William Moulton Marston’s risqué Wonder Woman tales, to how a young Pasko and Cary Bates were tasked with tutoring The Godfather’s own Mario Puzo in Superman lore while he worked on the screenplay for the 1978 Donner film.

Marty also shares the real story of how editor Julie Schwartz gave Batman a sharp new direction in 1966 — just in time to catch the eye of producer William Dozier and spark the campy but iconic Batman TV craze, and how it influenced the Joel Schumacher Batman films more than the gritty comic books.  This one’s a goldmine for comic book historians and longtime Super fans.