Did you ever notice that the superheroes that Julius Schwartz resurrected in the Silver Age were the All-American heroes? DC actually was two separate companies for awhile in the 1940s: National, which published Batman and Superman (among others), and All-American, which published the Flash, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, Atom and Hawkman (among others). It was not until the Spectre returned in 1966 that Julie brought back a National superhero.
I've talked in the past about the reverence that DC showed for scientists in the Silver Age, with Jor-El as the high priest. Barry Allen and Ray Palmer were also known to wear lab coats on the job. But what about Marvel? Reed Richards, Hank Pym, Bruce Banner and Tony Stark all had slide rules strapped to their belts, and Peter Parker originally went to Empire State U on a science scholarship.
If I remember correctly, Julie started comics editing on the AA side just before it was fully integrated with DC, so it's possible that they were just the characters he was most familiar with. (Of course, I might very well not be remembering correctly...)
ReplyDeleteThis would be a good question to ask that golden-age guru, Roy Thomas.
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