That's him at the top of the ladder. More to the point is the chap at the bottom of the ladder. That's Little Archie, aka, Archie Andrews, the character who sold more comic books in the Silver Age than anybody. And what is he doing? Well, it looks like he's rather cleverly painted the ladder so that Little Ambrose can't come down.
From this you might assume that Little Ambrose was some hate-worthy villain like Reggie or Lex Luthor or even Gladstone Gander.
But no. Little Ambrose was the youngster in Archie Andrews' neighborhood that Little Archie bullied. And I am not kidding about that. Consider these scenes from that first issue:
And:
And:
And incredibly:
Little Archie made him an offer he couldn't refuse.
Horrific characterization for one of the most important comic book characters of all time. Little Archie and Archie himself were always good characters; when they joined the Superhero craze, Archie became Pureheart the Powerful, but in Little Ambrose, Archie should be Brutus the Bully.
Fortunately Little Ambrose did not survive past his inaugural issue; I assume that he had appeared in the Little Archie mags as well. I'm pretty sure he did not appear in any of the teenage Archie mags in the Silver Age. There is nothing particularly wrong with the character of Little Ambrose; he's the underdog who comes out on top. That's admirable.
I decided to try something different this week. I've combined bits and pieces from several different covers from the Superman family of comics. Can you identify all the covers. Some of the covers may give you a clue. For example, note the super tots frolicking in #1; is there something unusual about the Superman uniforms they're wearing?
The always-recommended Dial B for Blog has a terrific series on what would have happened if Bazooka Joe had joined up with the Justice League of America.
Both Beaucoup Kevin and Mark Engblom take on the recent announcement that the Superman movie series is going to be rebooted, with a darker take on the character, thanks to the success of Dark Knight.
Most comic fans probably agree that Superman Returns was a mess, but I agree with Kevin and Mark; Superman is not a dark character.
Booksteve has a post dedicated to Lost In Space, the other 1960s Trek through Space show.
The Fortress of Fortitude celebrates the return to continuity of a couple "Batman and the Aliens" stories. Although these stories were largely a plague on Batman prior to the New Look, it is hard to eliminate them completely; after all, the sci-fi elements may mostly have been jettisoned from Batman and Detective, but he still encountered them often in the pages of the Justice League.
Match these villains with the person who either created them, or augmented their powers in some way:
1. The Destroyer 2. The Absorbing Man 3. The Wrecker
A. Queen of the Narns B. Odin C. Loki
1. B. 2. C. 3. A.
Answered correctly by Joe Bloke, Thelonius Nick and Kryp44
4. Who was the comic relief character in the Tales of Asgard series? Upon which famous literary character was he based?
The Voluminous Volstagg was the comic relief character in Tales of Asgard. He was clearly based on the character of Falstaff, who appeared in several Shakespearean plays, including the Merry Wives of Windsor and Henry V.
5. What villain (villainess) appeared first in JIM/Thor and then subsequently appeared the most often in other Silver Age Marvel mags of any of Thor's opponents?
Among villains and villainesses appearing first in JIM/Thor, the Enchantress had by far the most appearances in other Marvel mags in the Silver Age. She made her initial appearance in Journey into Mystery #103, then appeared in a startling number of early Avengers issues, including Avengers #7, #9, #10, 15, 16, 21, 22, as well as Hulk #102 and several other issues. This is beyond her significant appearances in Journey into Mystery. She's on the short list for female villain of the 1960s; indeed she's the favorite.
One of the nice things about having a Sitemeter is that you can see where people are coming from. I saw a couple referrals from SupermanFan.net in my logs, surfed over thee and was very impressed with what I saw. It appears to be a group blog, with lots of Silver Age Superman posts, solid writing, and just the right wry detachment about the sillier aspects of that era while maintaining a solid affection for Supes. About the only criticism I have to offer is that there aren't more frequent posts. But what there is, is choice.
Match these villains with the person who either created them, or augmented their powers in some way:
1. The Destroyer 2. The Absorbing Man 3. The Wrecker
A. Queen of the Narns B. Odin C. Loki
4. Who was the comic relief character in the Tales of Asgard series? Upon which famous literary character was he based?
5. What villain (villainess) appeared first in JIM/Thor and then subsequently appeared the most often in other Silver Age Marvel mags of any of Thor's opponents?
Undeniably the Holy Grail for DC Silver Age fanatics (no, I don't have it either), Showcase #4 is generally credited with kick-starting the superhero revival of the Silver Age. That it was the first comic to succeed in reintroducing a superhero from the 1940s is undeniable, although one thing that I have been surprised to note is that there were several other attempts by other publishers right around the same time.
For example, Marvel attempted to reintroduce the Human Torch, Submariner and Captain America in Young Men Comics #24 (December 1953). The effort lasted through #28 (June 1954). And Charlton attempted a relaunch of the Blue Beetle for four issues from February 1955 to August 1955. So Showcase #4's (Sept-Oct 1956) was actually at best the fifth attempt at a relaunch of a Golden Age character in the 1950s.
But unlike the others the Flash took hold, and so I thought I would take a look at some of the reasons why:
1. The Flash was not the old Flash, it was a new, modern version. This of course became the template for almost all relaunches afterwards, with only a few exceptions (notably the Silver Age Captain America). When Marvel came up with the Fantastic Four, they completely changed the Human Torch; made him a kid into fast cars and faster women.
2. The Flash specifically acknowledged the prior Flash and his comic book adventures in the 1940s. Indeed, the first time we see Barry Allen, he's reading an old issue of Flash Comics:
Now that is an interesting concept; a kind of breaking of the fourth wall if you will. It was the beginning of the idea that the comics of the Golden Age were what the characters of the Silver Age grew up reading, but that the heroes never existed in reality in their world. Of course, we would later learn that they did exist in reality on another Earth. (Incidentally, that cover is completely made up and looks like none of the actual 104 issues of Flash Comics, and certainly not #13, which actually featured Hawkman on the cover).
We learn that Barry is a police scientist. This aspect of the character almost never mattered in a story in the Silver Age, except of course for the origin sequence:
The lightning and the chemicals combine to turn Barry into the Flash. He discovers his tremendous speed when he sees the last taxi disappearing in the darkness and suddenly runs past it. Then, in a diner, the waitress drops a tray and:
If that looks familiar, think of the cafeteria scene in Spiderman. This ability to see things in slow-motion becomes important when Barry encounters his impatient fiancee, Iris West. He spots a bullet headed directly towards her and shoves her away at the last minute. Passing cops explain that it was a bullet from the Turtle, who bills himself as the Slowest Man On Earth.
This incident, combined with the comics that influenced him, results in Barry taking on the double identity of the Flash. At first, the Turtle uses his speed against him, but eventually Barry figures out how to capture the crook.
We see the Flash do several of the interesting stunts that defined him during the Silver Age, such as running down the sides of buildings, running across water, and the bit with the costume coming out of the ring.
Comments: Excellent origin story with many entertaining sequences. However, the villain is mediocre at best, and given that the Silver Age Flash would have one of the greatest Rogues' Galleries of all time, it's especially surprising.
The text story features the tale of two girls on their way to a dance who are upset that their parents have a curfew, until they learn that the boyfriend of one of them, who's two years older and named Muggsie (no kidding) also has a curfew. So it's no big deal, and they decide to enjoy the dance.
There are a couple of factoid pages entitled Fastest Creatures on Earth and Wonders of Speed. At some point I should do a post on the factoids in DC comics; most of the DC Silver Age Comics had one or two every issue, and they added up to a lot of information. Maybe call it the Encyclopedia DCicca?
The second Flash story is The Man Who Broke the Time Barrier. The Flash fights a villain from the future (as he would often do in his own mag, with the Reverse Flash and Abra Kadabra). Mazdan, the villain from sometime in the future, had been sentenced to the 50th century, when Earth is (was?) supposedly a "desolate place". But there was a malfunction (jeez, how many times did DC use that as a plot device), and he was sent back to the 20th century instead.
Mazdan is trying to get back to his own time, but he needs materials to propel the time capsule he arrived in back to the future. When the Flash finally apprehends him, he points out that since he can escape any jail, the Flash should simply help him get back to his own time. But Barry notices that the capsule would kill lots of people and so he decides to try breaking the time barrier himself, carrying the crimimal. He runs very fast and eventually breaks through into Mazdan's time, where he hands the crook over to the authorities.
Comments: Interesting story over all. It's not the first time-travel story, by any means, but it's an important one. DC's use of time travel became much more common in the Silver Age of Comics than it had been in the Golden Age.
Text Story: 100-Yard Dash. Considering the current Olympics, in which a (Thunder)Bolt became the fastest man alive, it's worth posting this text page in its entirety. Like most kids I read few of the text stories, and I don't read a lot more of them now. But this is terrific:
Overall evaluation: This is as good as it gets. My only criticism, that it lacks one of the classic Flash villains, is really just a comment from the benefit of hindsight. Viewed in isolation, and for its time, this comic must have come like a bolt (sorry) from the blue.
I once read a book by PG Wodehouse on writing, where he mentioned that as he plotted a new story, he would always track his characters with little notations; +Psmith means that Psmith would enter the scene, while -Jeeves indicates that worthy has exited stage left.
One of the things that always confused me about Thor when I started reading him around 1969 was the difference between the old Thor of the reprints and the new Thor issues on the stands, particularly with regard to the love interest. In the old stories, Thor was enamored of nurse Jane Foster, while in the modern books it was the senses-shattering Sif who held his affections. What had happened to Jane? It was especially puzzling since Stan loved to talk about what happened in issue soandso, and yet here was a change that had occurred quite suddenly that never seemed to get mentioned again. I didn't realize quite how suddenly back then.
As I have discussed in the past, Jane mostly functioned in the series as a convenient hostage. Starting around #130, she became something of a catalyst for stories. She gets a roommate named Tana Nile, who turns out to be the vanguard of an alien colonizing force. That story lasted from Thor #130 to #134.
Then, when Nile hypnotizes her and sends her away, she takes a job with a man she meets on the bus, who turns out to work for the High Evolutionary, creating human-animal hybrids, which becomes the plotline for Thor #134-135.
And then in Thor #136, Jane gets a rare appearance on the cover (she had previously appeared on the covers of Journey into Mystery #99, #100 and #112). This is, of course, the story that I looked for many years ago. Jane is to be turned into an immortal, by order of Odin so that she may be wed to Thor. She gets her transformation:
But she finds it all a little frightening, and Odin, who isn't exactly the kindly father-in-law type decides to really test her mettle, against a horrifying beast called the Unknown:
Well, by this point they've pretty well telegraphed that Jane's not exactly the superheroine type, so she does the "Help me, Thor!" bit. Odin, ticked off, sends her back to Earth, stripped of her powers. This happens on page 11 of the story. By page 14 she's got a new doctor boyfriend. And Thor, who has previously pledged undying love to Jane? He makes it to the bottom of page 16 before he's madly in love again:
That's pretty cold. Although considering what Marvel did to some other inconvenient girlfriends (like Karen Page and Gwen Stacy), perhaps Jane got off rather well.
Go check out Diversions of the Groovy Kind, a new blog covering what is called "The Groovy Age of Comics" (defined as 1967-1980). The Groovy Agent, your host over there, has a solid writing style, an amusing shtick (the Groovy bit), and similar tastes to mine in terms of pulp fiction characters like Conan, John Carter of Mars, Tarzan, Doc Savage, etc. Well-worth reading!
1. Who was the first villain to return for a second battle against Spidey?
The Vulture, who first appeared in Amazing Spiderman #2, returned in Amazing Spiderman #7. Michael Rebain, Kyle, Thelonius Nick and Kryp44 all got this one correct.
2. Name the first villain(s) to appear in three different stories (not issues) in Spiderman.
The first villains to appear in three different stories in Spiderman were The Enforcers: Fancy Dan, Montana, and The Ox. They were henchmen for the Big Man (Fredrick Foswell) in ASM #10, assisted the Green Goblin in ASM #14, and collaborated with the Sandman in ASM #19. For the first time, my commenters were stumped by this question. (Note: You can make an argument for several characters appearing in ASM #18--Goblin, Doc Ock, Vulture, etc., but these were cameos, one-panel appearances). Ironically, ASM 19 was also the last appearance of the three Enforcers with the exception of a cameo flashback in ASM #40.
Clay points out AMS Annual #1 features third appearances of Doc Ock and the Vulture. It is clear that ASM Annual #1 is intended to take place sometime before ASM #18 from a panel in the latter mag. This would also put the Sandman's third appearance in Spiderman ASM #18, or is it in ASM Annual #1, because there was a Sandman appearance in Strange Tales where Spidey helped out.
But I specified in Spiderman, and I meant ASM, not the Annuals. But yeah, this question is pretty slippery.
3. It is well-known that Dr Doom was the first crossover villain in Spiderman. What team was the second?
The Ringmaster and his Circus of Crime originally appeared in the Incredible Hulk #3, and crossed over into ASM #16. Michael Rebain, Kyle, Thelonius Nick and Kryp 44 all got this one correct.
4. Uncle Ben Parker was the first character to die in a Spiderman story. Who was the second?
Bennett Brant, Betty's older brother, bites it in this scene from ASM #11:
Kyle and Kryp44 got this one correct.
5. What guest character appeared the most often in the first 20 issues of Spiderman?
Michael Rebain, Kyle, Thelonius Nick and Kryp 44 all correctly guessed the Human Torch, who appeared in ASM #1, 8, 17, 18 and 19.
Mark Engblom has a terrific post on Action #304's The Interplanetary Olympics. Comic publishers were always looking for ways to tie-in with other pop culture pursuits that their readers were experiencing, and the Olympics, then as now, were high-profile events happening on specified dates, so they could plan stories ahead of time.
As I pointed out in the comments, the story in Action #304 is a wholesale swipe of an identically-named story that had appeared in Action #220, seven years earlier. Both stories start with Clark being pulled upward in a stairwell by a mysterious ray, then almost getting caught by Lois floating in his office. Both stories feature Superman competing on an alien world for an energy crystal trophy, and failing miserably. The ending in Action #220 is different; it turns out that Superman had been affected by a piece of Kryptonite in the stadium, and that the winner of the contests, Brunno, had actually been a robot controlled by crooks who wanted the energy crystal.
In Detective #260 (October 1958), Batman is summoned by aliens to solve The Mystery of the Space Olympics. He competes in events such as rocket-racing, skeet-shooting (artificial meteors are the target), and anti-gravity boxing. He wins all the contests, actually surprising himself at how easy it was (kind of the reverse of the Superman story). But the Plutonians discover that he has been given assistance by the host Venusians:
However, it turns out to be a plot by the Plutonians to provoke a war with Venus, which Batman exposes in the nick of time.
In Jimmy Olsen #5, The Boy Olympics takes place. Jimmy learns that a competitor of the Daily Planet is about to go under, costing the jobs of a bunch of young paperboys. He gets the brilliant idea of having the kids put on a show. It's not an Olympics per se, just a bunch of thrilling stunts which Superman helps to arrange. The humor in the story arises from Jimmy's attempts to prevent Perry White from figuring out he's helping a competitor to his own paper. But in the end it turns out that Perry himself had helped out as well.
The Olympics theme also pops up in Teen Titans #4:
Wonder Girl lets us know a little bit of Olympic Trivia:
Considering that women weren't even allowed to be spectators at the original Olympics (possibly because the men were competing naked), that seems highly unlikely.
In the story, the Teen Titans are being asked to locate an Olympic hopeful named Davey Bradley. It turns out that Davey has the sports parent from hell: his dad had also qualified for the Olympics, but an auto accident ruined his chance of winning a gold medal. Meanwhile, a mysterious group called Diablo is trying to cause trouble at the games by provoking incidents.
In the story's climactic scene, the Teen Titans are stuck to the Olympic rings as shown on the cover, with Speedy about to light the rings on fire. Davey, who's been practicing his running in secret at the stadium that night sees the problem. He outruns Kravik, his likely chief competition for a medal, to prevent Speedy from shooting any more arrows at the Titans.
In the actual Olympic competition the next day, something of a surprise happens:
It's a nice little story. As an aside, Speedy was supposed to light the Olympic rings at the opening ceremony, but as Wonder Girl had largely destroyed them, his participation was canceled. Oddly enough, in 1992, an archer did start the Olympic Games at Barcelona:
One of my favorite Olympic moments ever.
Adventure #277 (October 1960) featured The Underwater Olympics. Aquaman and Aqualad get the idea after seeing two whales racing, and decide to assemble competing teams of fish from the Atlantic and Pacific, respectively. They do not have a torch-lighting ceremony, but they do have the entry parade:
At first, Aquaman's Atlantic team seems to be winning all the medals, but then something surprising happens. Aqualad's fish start catching up. And in the finale, Aquaman makes an astonishing mistake by not racing through a patch of seaweed, so:
Of course, because they have told us throughout the story that this would be a big upset and that it couldn't possibly be happening, we know that there's a surprise ending in the works. It turns out that Aquaman's team had sandbagged on purpose. Aquaman had spotted a Kryptonite meteor hidden in the seaweed and knew that Horval, an unscrupulous salvage man, would retrieve it if he saw it. So Aquaman had intentionally avoided the Kryptonite rather than have Horval, who was observing the contest intently, discover the meteor and sell it to criminals. A-man gets a little self-congratulatory here:
But overall it's an excellent story.
In Wonder Woman #90 (July 1957), we get yet another story entitled, The Interplanetary Olympics. Wondie receives the obligatory invitation, and finds herself competing against the Wonder Woman of Mercury, Venus and Jupiter, each better equipped to handle their home planets than she is, and yet she defeats them all.
Mystery In Space #39 (Aug-Sept 1957) featured The Solar Olympics of 3000 AD. A young Olympic hopeful is shocked to discover that his hero, an Olympic decathlete, is assisting an alien invasion of Earth. But fortunately the former champ is just trying to fool the aliens, and together they escape, getting good training for the tryouts coming up:
1. What famed superhero was the first to be declined entry to the Legion?
Superboy was declined admission in the very first Legion story. However, it turned out to be his final test to see whether he was worth of induction, and he passed with flying colors. George C, Michael Grabois and Kryp44 all answered correctly.
2. What famed superhero was the first to really be declined entry to the Legion (temporarily)?
Supergirl was declined admission into the Legion the first time she joined, ironically because red kryptonite had changed her into an adult, and the Legion (at the time) only allowed teenagers to join. George C, Michael Grabois and Kryp44 all answered correctly.
3. What superhero was the first to decline an offer by the Legion to join them?
In Adventure Comics #315 (December 1963) Stone Boy was selected by the Legion as the most worthy member of the Legion of Substitute Heroes (a Legion backup) to graduate to the big club. But in a classic display of loyalty, he decided to remain with the Substitutes. George C, and Michael Grabois got this correct. Kryp44 did mention the third member not to join the Legion.
4. What later superhero was thought by Mon-El (who had a senior moment) to be the first to decline an offer by the Legion to join them?
In Adventure Comics #320 (May 1964) Dev-Em, a former Kryptonian juvenile delinquent who has reformed, declines membership in the Legion:
In fairness to Mon-El, he was not present in the issue where Stone Boy had declined entry. But one would expect that he would have heard about it later. Michael Grabois and Kryp44 both answered correctly.
5. Who was the first Legion member to "die"? Who was the first Legion member to really "die" (for good)?
I put "die" in quotation marks there to give a little hint that there was something of a trick in the answer. Lightning Lad "died" in Adventure #304:
But he was brought back to life by the sacrifice of the original Proty. This was a surprising story, because although villains had often "died" at the end of one story only to be resurrected at the beginning of their next appearance (the Joker and Dr Doom quite noticeably), this was the first time that a hero had "died" for several issues and then been brought back. It would not be the last. George C, Michael Grabois and Kryp44 all had the right answer.
The first Legion of Superheroes member to really "die" was one of the three bodies of Triplicate Girl, as shown on this memorable cover of Adventure Comics #340:
Fortunately, she had already split into three persons before this execution, and so she became renamed Duo Damsel.
Kudos to Michael Rebain for coming up with the trick answer here. Of course, Ferro Lad is the first Legion member to die, die, die, with no resurrection and two other bodies left over
I haven't given enough attention to Harvey Comics so far, so I thought I might try a couple posts on their features. Harvey's product was aimed at a slightly younger demographic than the superhero books of the Silver Age. Tuff Ghosts appears to be something of a tweener book--for kids who may have outgrown the often saccharine Casper the Friendly Ghost and are looking for a ghost with a little more edge to him.
Spooky, shown above, was easily distinguished from Casper, due to the hat, his freckles and his much more aggressive demeanor. The opening story is a pretty simple one-pager. Spooky spots a skunk who seems already frightened. He's being chased by a fox. Spooky scares the fox away and the skunk and all his family thank him, but they're stinking up the joint, so he boos them away.
The next story is the main story in the comic and it is here that we realize that it is indeed January 1968, as the title is "The Case of the Top Secret Spy". Spooky is forced by a spy to steal secret blueprints, because the spy has a special ray that makes the ghost obey his commands. But while photographing the plans, the spy is careless and Spooky seizes the ray and takes over. It's probably an entertaining story for little kids and well-timed to take advantage of the spy craze of the 1960s. The story has a very oddball ending:
As nice as peace on earth sounds, I'm just a little uncomfortable with the concept of peaceful rays.
There are two oddball stories that deal with what were called bums then and would today be called homeless. In the first story, a king of the road approaches Casper's house. Casper is glad the Ghostly Trio aren't there to frighten the man, but of course Casper himself is enough to scare the wits out of him. There is a happy ending:
In the other, the Ghostly Trio (the Three Stooges of the ethereal set) encounter a hobo skunk who has taken up residence in the house they are haunting, and so they have to try to drive him out. This story resolves itself exactly like the first one, with the ghosts enduring the odor of a whole bunch of skunks. Seems a bit odd that they would throw two such similar stories in the same issue, and why would ghosts have a sense of smell, anyway?
The final story features Nightmare, the Galloping Ghost, who enters a cave and finds a land of shadows. Two of the shadows attach themselves to her, but they bicker so much that she eventually tires of them and boos them away.
Comments: Not much there for an adult to grab hold of aside from the spies cultural marker. I don't think I'll be reading a lot of Tuff Ghosts or Spooky again. Not terrible by any means (and the art isn't half bad), but clearly strictly for the kiddies.
Mark Engblom did a terrific series of posts back in March on the Fortress of Solitude, pointing out that there had been twelve different versions of the Fortress. I have to admit, I was amazed at how much information he was able to compile on the Fortress.
But I discovered tonight that he did miss one little fortress. In Action #271, Supergirl longs for a home of her own, but as Superman's secret weapon she could not run the risk of being adopted. So she hits on the idea of creating her own Fortress, hidden beneath the sands of the Arabian Desert (infidel!).
Like Superman, she has this bizarre need to have statues around of herself, with labels that make it transparent who she really is, just in case any archaeologists should happen upon the site:
The leader of the expedition turns out to be one of those ruthless archaeologists. He hypnotizes the rest of the team into forgetting about Supergirl and her real identity. Then he and his wife arrange to adopt Linda Lee. He starts moaning about the lack of money, so Supergirl creates a bunch of diamonds out of coal and leaves them on the doorstep anonymously. But eventually his greed becomes too great and he admits that he's blackmailing her:
Fortunately Streaky the Supercat accidentally causes convenient amnesia in her new foster parents, so Linda is able to get out of the adoption. But she decides not to take another chance:
1. Name the pair of letterers for Marvel who were frequently the butt of Stan Lee's jokes in the credits section.
And:
Thelonius Nick and Kyle were the first to come up with the pair of names. Let me add here that although Stan only did this for a couple years, reading the Marvel credits during this period was one of the signal delights of the Silver Age of comics. Not only were they funny, they were about the only credits for real creators (as compared to the ubiquitous and phony credits for "Bob Kane" in Batman).
2. Name these Marvel creators by their commonly used adjectival sobriquets: Jazzy, King, Rascally, Smilin', Dazzling.
Reading from left to right, Jazzy Johnny Romita, King Kirby, Rascally Roy Thomas, Smilin' Stan Lee, and Dazzling Don Heck.
TN and Kyle combined to get all five.
3. What sesquipedelian term did Stan frequently use instead of "Inked"?
Stan frequently used more than one ten-dollar word for Inked: Delineated was the one I was thinking of (Scott answered), but Embellished fits as well (TN)
4. What non-creator frequently turned up in Marvel's credits for something unusual?
Irving Forbush (TN). Kryp44 got them all right, but showed up a little late.
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