Biography
Born David Levine[1] in New York City in 1914,[2][3] David Vern Reed grew up to become a writer, with his work appearing under several Anglicized pseudonyms, amongst them David Vern,[4] Coram Nobis,[5] Alexander Blade, Craig Ellis, Clyde Woodruff, and Peter Horn.[6] In the 1940s, he wrote such science fiction stories as the novella "The Metal Monster Murders" in Mammoth Detective (vol. 3) #4 (Nov. 1944).
He was hired to write comic book scripts by his friend, Julius Schwartz, an editor at DC Comics. It was at DC where Levine — who like all Batman writers and artists of this time ghosted under Bob Kane's label — would eventually become best known to Batman fans as "David V. Reed". Reed's first story published by DC, "Ride, Bat-Hombre, Ride" in Batman #56 (Dec. 1949–Jan. 1950) was the start of his first tenure chronicling Batman's adventures.[7][8] He and artist Lew Schwartz created the villain Deadshot in Batman #59 (July 1950).[4][9] Reed wrote such key stories as "The Birth of Batplane II" in Batman #61 (Nov. 1950),[10][11] "The Joker's Millions" and "Two-Face Strikes Again", the latter two featuring the return of the original villains introduced by Kane and writer Bill Finger. Another story from this period, "The Joker's Utility Belt", once mistakenly believed to have been written by Finger,[12] was eventually adapted[13][14] for Cesar Romero's first appearance as the Joker on the 1960s Batman television series, broadcast as the episodes "The Joker Is Wild"[15] and "Batman Gets Riled".[16] Besides Batman, Vern Reed wrote for Superman in Action Comics, World's Finest Comics and several of DC's non-superhero series.[7]
He later left comics to return to prose fiction, writing such science fiction novels as Murder in Space (Green Dragon Books / Ideal Publishing, 1945), and stories for such magazines as Amazing Stories, Fantastic Adventures, and Astounding Science Fiction. He also wrote for glossy magazines including Argosy, Collier's, Cosmopolitan, Good Housekeeping, and Mademoiselle.[17]
Reed returned to comic books in the 1970s and to Batman in 1975. Initially ignoring the character's large rogues gallery, he engaged the superhero in a series of bizarre mysteries such as "The Daily Death of Terry Tremayne"[18] and "The Underworld Olympics '76!"[19] Supervillains would later appear in tales such as "Where Were You On The Night Batman Was Killed?",[20][21] a four-issue storyline drawn by artist John Calnan.[22] Critic Chris Sims of ComicsAlliance praised that story in 2012, noting "The price of Batman’s heroism, the guilt that he feels for being personally responsible for the victim showing up at the scene of one of his exploits, the lengths to which he’s willing to go to make sure that this person isn’t just another (literally) faceless victim, the desire to make sure he has the right killer — they’re all very modern ideas. This story may not be as well-known as anything by Englehart and Rogers or O’Neil and Adams, but it’s just as much of a turning point in how Batman was presented."[23] Batman #300 (June 1978) featured a story by Reed and artist Walt Simonson[24][25]
After writing various Batman stories for three years, Reed left comics again in 1978 with his final Batman story "Hang the Batman" appearing in DC Special Series #15.[7] He died in New York in 1994[2][3] (1989 in some sources[26]).
