Fantastic Four: The Inhumans

The first member of the Inhumans to appear was Madame Medusa (later mostly referred to simply as Medusa). In FF #36, three villains team up. Paste-Pot Pete and the Wizard, two Human Torch villains from his series in Strange Tales, align themselves with a former Spiderman nemesis, the Sandman. The Wizard suggests calling themselves the Frightful Four, but obviously they are one female member short of matching up with the Fantastic Four. He knows of a woman they can recruit, who has the amazing power of using her long, red hair as a weapon:



Sue and Reed wonder where she came from here:



But although the Evil FF are featured quite prominently over the next several issues, appearing in FF #38, 41, 42 and 43, we do not find out any more about the background of Madame Medusa until #44. At the end of FF #43, the three male members of the Frightful Four are captured and turned over to the police. But Johnny inexplicably lets MM escape here:



The next issue occurs following the marriage of Reed and Sue (which took place in FF Annual #3). Madame Medusa is being chased by a new character named Gorgon, who has immense power in his hoofed feet. Gorgon gives us a bit of an explanation here:



At the end of the story, Gorgon has apparently captured Medusa and vanished. The story picks up again in FF #45. Johnny, upset that his girlfriend, Dorrie Evans, has a date with another man, finds himself walking aimlessly through a deserted neighborhood of the city:



The girl turns out to be a member of the Inhumans. Believing Johnny to be one of them due to his superpowers, she confides in him:



But she quickly learns that Johnny is not among her race when they encounter Gorgon and Medusa. The Torch is briefly imprisoned, but he escapes and calls for his buddies.

The battle spills over into FF #46, where Black Bolt tangles with the Thing. At first we are unaware of BB's power. He's clearly a good fighter, as he's able to battle Ben to a standstill. Reed deduces that the tuning fork on Black Bolt's forehead converts energy into strength and speed. Oddly enough, the only member of the Inhumans who doesn't burst into fighting the Fantastic Four is Madame Medusa.

The next part of the background of the Inhumans is revealed here:



The Seeker? Hmmm, the Who had a song about this time (1966) called The Seeker:

They call me the Seeker,
I been searching low and high.
I won't get to get what I'm after
Till the day I die!

Anyway, we meet the Seeker here:



The FF eventually catch up to him, and he explains their history. They were an advanced race on Earth, with the ability to manipulate genes at will. As a result, they set up a super-powered society. However, the humans multiplied faster and battled against the Inhumans upon sight. So the Inhumans hid themselves away in the Great Refuge.

Black Bolt should rule the Inhumans, but his brother Maximus the Magnificent has usurped the throne. An aside: Ever notice that in the DC universe, other societies frequently are run by some sort of Science Council-e.g., Krypton, the future Earth of the Legion of Super Heroes, while in the Marvel universe they tend more towards dictatorships (benevolent or otherwise), like Asgard, the Inhumans, the Skrulls and Latveria?

Medusa is betrothed to Maximus, although she really loves Black Bolt. We also learn that Black Bolt is a mute due to some "accident". But Black Bolt seizes back the crown from his brother. Meanwhile, the FF has found the great refuge, hidden high in the Andes of South America. Maximus uses his Atmo Gun in an attempt to destroy the FF and all humanity, but it fails. This convinces Medusa that the Inhumans are not a separate race, but are related to humans. However, before we can absorb that, Maximus pulls the ultimate gambit. He seals off the Great Refuge from the rest of the world with a "Negative Zone". The FF, despite Johnny's attempt to remain with Crystal, escapes before the Zone can become hardened.

This takes us midway through Fantastic Four #48, but the story shifts abruptly to the Silver Surfer and Galactus' first appearance, followed by the introduction of the Black Panther in FF #52 and 53. There are abortive attempts to free the Inhumans in several issues that follows, but it is not until FF #59 that Black Bolt himself finally shatters the barrier.

Previous Posts on the Fantastic Four:

Another Embarrassing Mistake
The Fantastic Four

Another Embarrassing Mistake

Why would Ben ask the blind Alicia who somebody is, "over there"?

Previous Posts on the Fantastic Four:
The Fantastic Four

Robin's Romance With Batgirl

The first Batgirl was the niece of Kathy Kane, who had become Batwoman in Detective #233. When Betty Kane comes to visit for a vacation, the young girl quickly realizes that her aunt is secretly Batwoman. She decides to emulate Kathy and quickly designs a uniform:



Kathy is of course worried for the youngster, and after consulting with Batman, decides to require that Betty receive significant training before she can start crime-fighting, with the idea that this will discourage the young lady. Inevitably, Betty decides that she's ready on her own and attempts to capture the criminal gang Batman, Robin and Batwoman are hunting at the time. She gets caught instead, but is able to signal her location, which results in the gang getting caught. In the end, she displays some rather obvious affection for Robin despite his obvious embarrassment:



Over the next couple of years, this relationship was always a part of the Batgirl appearances. The next time Batgirl popped up in a story was in Batman #141, and she started pushing forward the romance a bit, still despite Robin's obvious timidity:



Batwoman knows a good thing when she sees it.

Batgirl returns in Batman #144, and this time she's determined to let Robin know how she feels:



Batgirl is upset that there's another woman in Robin's life. Batmite appears and offers to help her win the Boy Wonder's heart. Through a series of incidents, we see that Robin really does care for her, and that the other "woman" is the statue in the background of the panels above: Lady Justice. He explains:



After that it was a full year before Batgirl appeared again, in Batman #153. But DC made up for the lapse by making this Batman's first ever book-length story, and one that featured prominently the continuing romance between Robin and Batgirl:



As usual, Batgirl makes the move, but this time Robin seems noticeably less resistant, especially considering this sequence later in the story:



And we can see that Robin is quite pleased to see Betty in this sequence:



Even Auntie Batwoman feels that Betty pours it on a little thick here:



The story ends with Robin expressing his appeciation for Batgirl here:



I'd love to say that DC developed this romance throughout the decade, but in fact Batgirl was basically through. She popped up in Batman #163 but this was one of Alfred's fantasy adventures of Batman II and Robin II. In Batman #164 DC inaugurated the "New Look" Batman, in which most of the characters who had become the Batman Family were killed off either literally (in the case of Alfred) or politically (like former Soviet heroes who disappeared from official photos).

Betty was disappeared, as was her aunt Kathy. This whole terrific little romance that DC had built up over time simply blew away like autumn leaves. It was a sweet little sequence that deserves to be remembered among the general mediocrity of the Silver Age Batman.

Previous Posts on Batman & Robin:
Worst Batman Story of the Silver Age
A Salute to Batman Annual #1
The Disappearance of the Catwoman
Gay Batman?
Favorite Covers of the Golden Age: Batman #23
The Horrifying Batman Era in Covers: Detective
Batman 1957
Batman and Guns
Batman 1956
Batman 1955
Classic DC Sagas of the 1960s
The New Look Batman

Worst Batman Story of the Silver Age

There’s a fair amount of competition for the dishonor of the worst Batman story of the Silver Age. Although this time period was when I formed my affection for Batman, it is clearly the worst era for the character. Many of the Golden Age Batman stories are classics, but the SA Batman was marked by poor art (mostly Moldoff) and mediocre stories.

But I’m confident that no other story featuring the Caped Crusader could be quite as bad as Batman #147’s Batman Becomes Bat-Baby.



A word of background on this. Superman and Action had recently published stories of Superbaby, Superman when he was a toddler. Obviously the comics sold well enough that it caught the eye of Batman editor Jack Schiff. Now it should be obvious that while Superbaby was still amazingly strong, could fly, and was invulnerable, Bat-Baby would have none of these advantages.

In the story, the renegade scientist Garth (no other name) has teamed up with gangster Nails Finney. When Batman tries to catch the latter, Garth beams Batman with a ray that turns him into a baby. Due to a “flaw” in the machine, Batman retains his adult mind and strength. Never mind that Garth would have to be a pretty goofy renegade scientist to miss the enormous commercial applications of his product—suppose he could turn everybody into a teenager physically again; who wouldn’t be lining up to pay thousands?

Batman does do some exercising to get the hang of his new body, but a day later he’s ready to tackle the world in his new garb.



Yep, that'll teach those gangsters!

However, Batman still supposedly weighs only as much as a toddler, which makes this scene highly unlikely.



Mercifully they track down Garth and manage to reverse the effect.

Previous Posts on Batman & Robin:
A Salute to Batman Annual #1
The Disappearance of the Catwoman
Gay Batman?
Favorite Covers of the Golden Age: Batman #23
The Horrifying Batman Era in Covers: Detective
Batman 1957
Batman and Guns
Batman 1956
Batman 1955
Classic DC Sagas of the 1960s
The New Look Batman

Spiderman--First Major Arc

Spiderman (no, I'm not going to use the hyphen) debuted in Amazing Fantasy #15. It was the final issue of that title. Reportedly sales of the comic were good enough that Marvel decided to grant Spidey his own magazine.

The first major story arc ran from Amazing Spiderman #1 to #19. In those issues we saw the beginnings of the themes that would dominate the decade and turn Spidey into one of the hottest characters in the comic book world.

First of all, Spidey had real world problems. For the most part, characters had been designed so as not to have real world problems. Why was Bruce Wayne a millionaire playboy? Answer: So he could go anywhere, do anything at the drop of a dime.

ASM #1 opens with a quick recap of Spiderman's origin, followed by Peter's first problem:



Money of course is a common problem. Peter briefly considers a life of crime, but can't live with the fear that he will be caught and break Aunt May's heart.

At school we encounter Peter's second problem:



Gee, lack of popularity? None of us have ever had to deal with that!

Parker meets with a booking agent and puts on a show as Spiderman. But because he is not willing to divulge his identity, he asks that the check be made payable to Spiderman. This leads to his third problem:



The fourth problem comes from a local newspaper editor. J. Jonah Jameson goes on a crusade against Spiderman, calling him a negative influence on youth.

None of his problems are resolved by the end of the first issue. In the second issue Peter realizes that he can make money by photographing himself fighting crooks. He attaches a camera to his belt, and goes into action against the Vulture, the first major villain in Spiderman's Rogues Gallery. The second issue also introduces Flash Thompson, Peter's high school nemesis.

The third issue introduces Spiderman's second most important villain: Dr Octopus. It also includes the first example of Spidey doubting himself, after being beaten in a fight by Doc Oc.

ASM #4 introduces the romance element into Peter Parker's life. Betty Brant is a perky brunette working for JJJ, while Liz Allan is a cute blonde who had actually agreed to go on a date with Peter. But with the Sandman causing problems and Peter broke, he can't keep that engagement.

The following issue has a crossover by Dr. Doom. Marvel, much more than DC, frequently had villains from one magazine crossover into another. It makes a lot of sense from a creative standpoint; why have to keep creating 10 villains for every hero, when you can just reuse a bunch that have been popular against another hero, especially when it gives you a different matchup. In the sixth issue, we meet Dr. Curt Connors, aka the Lizard. The seventh brought back the Vulture for a second battle with webhead.

The eight issue features two stories, including a Kirby short featuring a semi-serious battle between Spiderman and the Human Torch over the latter's girlfriend, Dorrie. The main story features Spiderman battling a robot.

All this time, Lee and Ditko were doing little things with the character. Peter and Betty Brant seem to be getting closer in this scene from #7:



We discover that there is some secret in her past in Amazing Spiderman #9:



This issue also introduces the handy plot device of Aunt May's fragile health, which adds to Peter's woes immeasurably over the years.

In the tenth issue, Betty gets involved with some minor crooks; apparently she borrowed money from a loan shark. By the end of the story she has disappeared, including leaving her job. Spidey finds out where she's gone in the following issue, in which, to his shock, she picks up Dr. Octopus when he is released from prison. We learn that she's doing it to protect her brother, a lawyer who made the mistake of gambling over his head and now must do the bidding of the crooks. Unfortunately, while Spiderman is battling the hoods, a stray bullet kills Betty's brother. Betty irrationally blames it on Spiderman, unknowingly driving a wedge between her and Peter Parker.

The next two issues featured solid battles with Doc Ock and Mysterio. Amazing Spiderman #14 introduced Spiderman's biggest enemy, the Green Goblin. And we pretty quickly see that the Goblin is unlike many of Spiderman's other foes. He starts out determined to destroy Spiderman, while the others have only gotten angry at him when he starts foiling their crooked schemes.

He plots to get Spiderman to agree to appear in a movie featuring himself and the Enforcers, a fighting trio that had battled Spidey in ASM #10. Of course, Spiderman thinks it will simply be fake fighting, but the Goblin and the Enforcers are planning on battling for real. But their plan goes awry when it turns out that the cave that they are fighting in also contains the Hulk, who battles both sides. The Goblin escapes.

ASM #15 and #16 were mostly one-offs featuring Kraven the Hunter, a new villain, and the Ringmaster and his Circus of Crime, who had previously battled the Hulk. The latter also featured an early crossover by Daredevil into ASM.

The Green Goblin appeared again in ASM #17. Flash Thompson has started a Spiderman Fan Club and everybody's going to show up to demonstrate their support for Spidey. But the Goblin arrives as an uninvited guest, and he battles the wall-crawler. The crowd at first enjoys the fight, assuming it's all an act. But at a crucial moment, Spiderman overhears somebody on the phone saying that his Aunt May has had another heart attack and is in the hospital. He runs away from the battle, but fortunately the Human Torch is there to convince the Goblin to leave.

This issue also introduces (on the telephone) Mary Jane Watson. In a long-running gag, Peter would often hear of this wonderful young lady that Aunt May wants to fix him up with, but they never quite seemed to meet.

In the next issue the town is buzzing with the news that Spiderman has turned yellow. It's apparently confirmed, when he ducks a fight with the Sandman in front of a crowd. The Bugle of course publishes the news prominently and worse still, he finds out that Betty is dating another young man. In a fit of anger, Peter resolves to give up web-slinging. But then he finds Aunt May out of her wheelchair and walking about. She gives him a little spine-stiffening here:



Of course, this little pep speech results in Peter resuming his career as Spiderman, and in the following issue he strikes back in convincing fashion.

The themes and plot devices explored during these issues would recur many times over the years. Betty Brant blamed Spiderman for her brother's death; Gwen would blame him for her dad's; Harry for his father's; and Ned Leeds for Gwen's. His romances would continually be threatened by his Spiderman identity. His Aunt would always get sick at inconvenient times. And he would often contemplate giving up crimefighting.

But Eddie Rolfe Stopped Supporting Them

(Welcome fellow Fred Hembeck fans!)

Here's an unfortunate pairing. From the letters column in Superboy #92:



And the cover of the very next issue:



So if Fred Hembeck's looking for somebody to blame the great price rise of 1961 on, Eddie's probably the culprit. Because we all know an editor would never lie to his readers!

Luthor's Evolution

Superman was not blessed with terrific enemies during the Golden Age. For various reasons (most likely Captain Marvel), Superman began to take on a more whimsical tone during the 1940s. Some of that may have been due to the limitations of story-telling for a character so overwhelming in his power that it became difficult to imagine him being seriously threatened. Remember, these were the days before Kryptonite.

He did have a few recurring villains, but all of them had something in common: They depended on guile and trickery: the Prankster, Toyman, and Wolfingham were all conmen at heart. Luthor was slightly different; he was a throwback to the mad scientist villains of the movie serials, but even he was usually behind the scenes until well into the story.

It was never quite explained why Luthor was so mad to destroy Superman; we were led to believe it was simply a mania. Then came Adventure #271. This was Luthor's second appearance in the 1960s in a comic mag, but at the time it was his first ever appearance chronologically going by Luthor's age, because he appeared in a Superboy story.

In the story, Superboy befriends the teenaged Lex (first time the given name is mentioned) and they become fast pals. But when Superboy rescues Luthor from a misguided science experiment, it is too late to save the young man's hair. Now we know why Lex Luthor is bald, and in an irrational outburst, he blames Superboy for the whole incident and vows revenge.

Luthor's character continued to evolve throughout the 1960s. In a memorable series, he became the hero of the planet Lexor. In Superman #164, Luthor decided to have a showdown with Superman, but smartly challenged the Man of Steel to a duel on a planet with a red sun. They started with a boxing match, which Superman won after a rope-a-dope strategy. Then they made their way into an alien city. Luthor was able to take advantage of his skill with machines and science to assist the aliens and was proclaimed a hero. When Superman comes along to continue their duel, Luthor initially wins, but then gives up. Why? Because he wants to help the people of the world who have adopted him to find water, but there is none on the planet. Only Superman can save them by sending a mountain of ice to the planet. In the end, Superman shows Luthor that the inhabitants of that planet have constructed a statue to him.

Luthor pays a brief visit to Lexor in Superman #167, in which he meets an attractive woman named Tharla. When he returns to Lexor the following issue, Tharla has changed her name to Ardora. He continues to experiment with the alien machines while wooing Ardora. Meanwhile Superman arrives and finds himself oddly compelled to steal rainbow crystals that the citizens of Lexor are presenting to their benefactor.

Lex discovers a super-power producing ray, and decides to take a secret identity as the Defender. In a hilarious bit, Ardora suspects Luthor of being the Defender; echoes of Lois Lane! But although Lex captures Superman, once again he is convinced he must free the Man of Steel in order to save Lexor. The rainbow crystals turn out to have an effect on people, lowering their intelligence level.

But Lex cannot just let Superman go, so he creates some red Kryptonite that will steal Superman's powers temporarily and heads to Earth to capture his nemesis. By a fluke, Luthor is sent back into the past, to San Francisco 1906. He becomes the editor of the Daily Planet in that city. Superman finds out that Luthor's there via a "psycho-locater" built by the scientists of Kandor, but when he travels back in time, he somehow doesn't realize that his boss is Lex, under some muttonchop whiskers.

Lexor is barely mentioned in the second half of this story. Luthor is eventually caught, and Ardora is left wondering what happened to her boyfriend.

She finds out in Action 318-319. Luthor returns to Lexor after escaping prison. He is obsessed with the knowledge that Superman will eventually come after him. Sure enough, Superman finds him and during a fight, apparently accidentally kills Luthor. Superman is put on trial for his life. Fortunately, he is able to escape long enough to prove that Luthor had not died, that he'd just slipped into a temporary coma with the aid of a pill. Superman is set free, but Luthor remains behind on Lexor, still the hero of his world.

I was unable to locate the next adventure in the series, because the next time we see Lexor mentioned in Action #333, Luthor is in jail, further angered at Superman because he had revealed to Ardora that Lex was actually a famous criminal. Looking at the GCD for appearances of Luthor in the 1960s, we can see that Luthor appeared in Superman #173, #175 and #179 in between Action #319 and #333, as well as a couple appearances in Superboy and Adventure, and two in World's Finest, but none of these seem to be the story in question. Anybody know what I'm missing?

Update: Found it. In between the stories in Action #319 and #333, Luthor appears in Jimmy Olsen #87. He, Brainiac and the Legion of Super Villains get trapped on the Devil's Island of Space. Then, in Action #332, he escapes from that prison planet. Superman, realizing he may be hiding on Lexor, arranges with some scientists to be teleported to that planet for a five-minute period. While there, he accidently discovers a hiding place where Luthor has hidden mementos of his criminal exploits. Ardora discovers him and:



Interesting; shiny disks that contain lots of data. Of course, Ardora is horrified to learn that the man she loves is pure evil (although she seemed quite ready to murder Superman only a page before). But she still loves Lex despite his criminal past.

The rest of the story concern's Luthor's attempt to drive Superman crazy, by saving his life time after time. In the end, though, Superman figures out the diabolical plot. However Luthor escapes to Lexor with Brainiac, apparently just avoiding being hit by an object thrown by Superman. However, the object was not aimed at Luthor and Brainiac, but at Ardora:



This series does a good job of humanizing Luthor. The story of Ardora and Luthor was largely dropped after this, at least in the Silver Age, although it would appear again much later, as it turned out Ardora had borne Luthor a son.

Spin the Wheel of Justice

Lexorian "Justice"



Okay, day before the trial we spin the wheel of fortune and whoever gets picked defends the evil criminal Superman for murdering the wonderful Luthor. Lexor is not Krypton, but this is creepy DC scientofascism nevertheless.

Talking Inanimate Objects

This was something DC got into in the late 1950s and early 1960s, whereby some inanimate object or other would tell "its story". Here are just two examples from Wonder Woman #86 and #88 (1957).





These are not even the worst examples; far more execrable was a series called "Tales of Kryptonite", where a chunk of that metal would narrate a story complete with pleas for Superman to stay away before he gets hurt. Extreme silliness.

Early Relevant Comics Part II

This one's a little outside the Silver Age (1952), but I had to post it anyway:



Plastic Man as Minuteman?

Childhood Inflation

Fred Hembeck writes on the 1961 price increase in comics from 10 cents to 12 cents. I'm only a couple years younger than Fred, but I got into comics fairly late (age 13) and so my big case of sticker shock came in 1968, when comics went from 12 cents to 15 cents. My allowance back then was only 60 cents and as I was in between my paper boy years and my lawnmowing years, the realization that my comics budget had been sliced from five books to four was quite annoying.

The Silver Age actually was a time of pretty good stability for comics prices and the value you received for your money. When you consider that at the beginning of the Golden Age comics were 64 pages plus covers for a dime and by the end they were 32 pages plus covers for that same dime, it's not hard to see that prices effectively doubled. During the Silver Age, comics stayed remarkably the same in size and the price only increased by 50%.

Of course, there were subtle ways that the publishers sometimes reduced the value. For example DC comics generally had 24-26 pages of story and art inside the magazine at the beginning of the Silver Age, and only 22-23 pages when it was over. Marvel early in the 1960s was fairly comparable but by 1964 or so they were pretty much down to 20 pages; IIRC before the end of the decade they would sneakily be making 19 pages look like 20 by putting half story/half ad pages in the centerfold.

Of course, this was nothing compared to what would happen before the 1970s were through. Story page counts would continue to drop, and prices would skyrocket. Batman #219, the first non-giant of the 1970s in that title, was 15 cents. Batman #318, the last issue of the decade, was 40 cents. Unfortunately prices had not nearly stopped rising.

Green Lantern #45

One of my favorite issues of the Silver Age, it featured a team-up of Hal Jordan, the Silver Age GL and his Golden Age counterpart, Alan Ladd (Correction per comment by redmans: the GA GL was Alan Scott. Supposedly the character was going to be named Alan Ladd to evoke Alladin, but the movie star came along and DC renamed the character). Also featured prominently is Doiby Dickles, the GA GL sidekick, and his taxi, Gertrude. In the story, Doiby encounters the lovely Princess Ramia. She is fleeing the evil Prince Peril, who is determined to marry her unless she can find another husband within a short period of time. Doiby recommends first Alan and the Hal to the Princess, but predictably she marries Doiby himself.

One negative of the story was the "stepping outside of the comic" moment shown here:



DC tried many of these bits and I can't think of a single one that brought anything to the plot.

Your Favorite Silver Age Covers?

Let's see if we can get a little audience participation going here. I'd like to put a strip of covers at the top of the blog. I know how to do it; I just need some suggestions for the best Silver Age covers. One of my all-time favorites is this one:

Don't Let Dr Wertham See This!

The Human Torch and Toro get a little too personal:

An Unfortunate Error

From Amazing Spiderman #6:



Uh, "arms"? He's only got one, remember?

Scooter

Scooter was DC's attempt to cash in on the teen humor success of Archie, and Beatlemania. He was a British lad with a Vespa (hence Scooter), imported to America. Like Archie he had two gorgeous girlfriends fighting over him, a blonde (Cookie) and a brunette (Penny). He was supposed to have a nemesis named Malibu, but by this issue it looks like they were friends.

BTW, this is an unfortunate title for a story:



GCD says that the stories in Scooter #1 were supposed to appear in a Showcase issue, and it was even advertised as such, but DC decided to go ahead and give Scooter his own title on the basis of the Beatles phenomenon.

Those Brilliant Kryptonians

Here's a hilarious bit from Superman #170:



Um, that's quite a clock; each hour represents a billion years? And there are no smaller hands? If we accept that the clock is broken down into tenths or so, that still means 100 million years between each tick. In other words, there is no sense building any kind of mechanism to count the time; the clock might as well be a painted hand on a cave wall.

I had always remembered this particular story as imaginary, but reading it now, I realize that the only "imaginary" sequences are when Luthor fantasizes about his future as Superman's father. Luthor came within a moment or two of marrying Lara, but once he was gone, she quickly fell into the arms of Jor-El. Pretty lousy characterization!

Love Is In the Air

Today, for obvious reasons, I thought I'd talk a little bit about romance comics of the Silver Age. Now romance comics don't get a lot of respect among comic collectors, but they represented a significant amount of comics in the Silver Age. For example, DC published 243 romance comics in the 1950s and upped that considerably to 460 comics in the 1960s; approximately 1 in eight books DC published that decade were romances, significantly more than their adventure and science fiction books combined.

The romance comics represented a pretty good bargain for girls. While DC's superhero titles generally featured about 25 pages of story and art and maybe 5 pages of ads (ignoring covers), their romance mags often carried no advertising other than house ads and so could have 30-32 pages of story and art, depending on whether the mag contained an advice column.

The romance comics often featured relatively mature fare. Part of this may have been that romance comics were read by older readers than the superheros. Like many other comics genres, romances were often grippingly realistic in the early 1950s, then changed to more bland fare in the latter part of that decade with the onset of the comics code.

Interestingly, the storylines changed again by the end of the 1960s, becoming much more soap-opera oriented. While the usual romance formula of girl meets boy, girl loses boy, girl wins back boy did not generally permit continuing characters, DC experimented a bit with long-running sagas. For example, Heart Throbs had a series about "3 Girls--Their Lives, Their Loves" that ran from issue #102-123. Each episode ran about 15 pages, which means that this saga comprised over 300 pages, which would easily be DC's longest story to date, had not Secret Hearts had a similar series called "Reach for Happiness" which stretched out over an incredible 29 issues. And the themes were often surprisingly modern; consider this cover:

Maybe It Was the 30th Century "Special" Science Fair?

Check out that ultra modern digital computer.

Horrorscope

This advice gem comes from Debbi's Dates #9 (1970):

Early Backlash Against Feminism

Worst. Swipe. Ever.

Adventure #244 (Jan 1958) is not a famous issue, but it does have some historical significance. One of the backup features in Adventure at the time was Green Arrow, and the story in that issue was “A Medal for Roy”. It’s kind of a puzzle story; how can Green Arrow and Speedy overcome an obstacle?

Speedy is chased by some crooks into Oliver Queen’s apartment. Quickly changing into Roy Harper, he diverts and then subdues them. Because he had “rescued” Speedy from those crooks, the President (Eisenhower at the time) wanted to bestow a medal on him. Unfortunately Roy also has to be present as Speedy at the same time for a police lineup. How can he possibly skip either event?

In the end, Speedy hits on an ingenious solution. He tells the President of the United States about his predicament and the President’s grandson (David) agrees to impersonate Speedy while Roy accepts the award. Roy explains it to Ollie here:



Cute little idea for a story, and six years later DC decided to dust off the plot for another story, with disastrous results.

Setting: Action #309, February 1964. Superman is faced with the same dilemma as Roy Harper was; he must appear as both Supes and Clark at the same time. His robots are kayoed by solar flares, Batman has to appear himself at the function. So, after casting about for a solution, he comes up with the answer:



But there was one horrific problem for DC: the comic came out a little over a month after the assassination of President Kennedy. Of course, it had been written and drawn and sent to the printer well before the events of November 22, 1963, but inevitably DC took some flack:



Incidentally, the story that was canceled was later uncancelled and printed as a tribute to JFK in Superman #170:



Update: Note that Roy gets it grammatically correct, while Superman errs; it's "Whom can you trust?" As an aside to make this story even a little more bizarre, back around 1970 my parents went down to Mexico for a business trip. When they returned they brought us kids small gifts; mine were two Mexican comic books. One was labeled SuperComic, and apparently consisted of reprints of older DC comics. As it happened, this particular issue reprinted Action #309, which gave me quite a start, as they had not redrawn the face of the president. I couldn't help but ponder the thought of Mexican kids coming to those last few panels, seven years after the events in Dallas and what they must have thought. Caramba!

Herbie

Of all the Silver Age characters, Herbie Popnecker is undoubtedly one of the most unusual. The 1960s, when Herbie became a surprise hit, were all about cool, with James Bond and Joe Namath setting the style. Herbie was the anti-cool; homely, fat, and none too athletic (apparently). His long-suffering father despaired that Herbie would ever be a useful member of society; as he put it, his son was a "little, fat nothing!"

But what Mr Popnecker didn't know was that Herbie was secretly one of the most famous young men in the world, a confidant of Lyndon Johnson and Nikita Kruschev (and adored by Ladybird Johnson as well). Herbie's secret weapon was his apparently infinite assortment of lollipops, which contained amazing powers. There were time travel lollipops, anti-gravity lollipops, invisibility lollipops, super-hole digging lollipops ...you get the idea.

And Herbie himself could do lots of amazing things. For example, he could fly, he could talk to animals, he could perform an endless variety of magic tricks. He could make himself invisible, or turn himself into a wraith. He could catch bullets with his teeth, or just let them bounce off him like Superman.

One interesting aspect of Herbie was that he lived in the real world. In most comics of the time, characters might face famous real world characters, but usually their names were slightly altered to avoid lawsuits. Herbie met lots of real people who had their real names. In Herbie #1, for example, he encounters Fidel Castro:



Every woman he met found him irresistable, including some rather famous married gals:



There are some obvious reasons why Herbie was so popular. While every boy hoped they'd grow up into another James Bond, it was nice to see Herbie around to say that there was a wide range of men that women found attractive. You could argue it was the beginning of geek chic. It made no sense that Herbie would be the most famous person on Earth and yet a schlub to his dad, but of course that was part of the charm. We all thought we were superstars that our family didn't recognize yet as such.

Herbie's favorite saying was "You want I should bop you with this here lollipop?" And that was pretty loquacious for Herbie, most of the time he confined himself to terse commands and observations.

A Salute to Batman Annual #1

In the summer of 1960, DC released Superman Annual #1. The significance of this issue cannot be overstated. I don't believe that DC had ever reprinted an entire story exactly as it had been previously published (with the arguable exception of the Superman story in Action Comics #1, which had appeared in Superman #1 with panels that had been cut from the original story to make it fit).

It must have been successful enough because in the summer of 1961, DC followed up with Batman Annual #1. This is one of the greatest comics ever assembled, a selection of stories brilliantly chosen to introduce the reader to the Batman saga.

First things first, how about explaining the origin of the Batman? But rather than explain the origin in a boring, straightforward fashion, the story How To Be the Batman from Detective #190 was used. In this story, Batman is hit by a ray that causes amnesia, and Robin must explain the origin:

(Scan from Detective #190)

It's a superb retelling of the origin as a flashback sequence. The rest of the story has Robin teaching Batman (and the reader) about his crimefighting techniques.

The second story is The Strange Costumes of Batman reprinted from Detective #165. This excellent Dick Sprang story features Batman wearing suits that are made of asbestos, that contain glider wings, and even one with a scuba outfit. As became cliche in these stories, there is one mystery item that we are told must never be used, and which must therefore be used before the end of the story (you think the Batman writers read Chekov?):



The next story was Untold Tales of the Bat-Signal from Detective 164, which continues the discussion of Batman's arsenal of crime-fighting equipment, followed by The Origin of the Bat-Cave, a time-traveling tale from Detective #205 where Batman and Robin help out a colonial-era frontiersman who spies on the "savages" in order to learn their plans to attack the settlements.

This was followed by Batman's Electronic Crime-File (original title The 10,000 Secrets of Batman), an early example of a simple computer database in action (actually a card sorter). Because he has no super powers, Batman has always been at the forefront of innovation in crime-fighting tools.

Rounding out the book are two more tales showing off different aspects of Batman and Robin. Thrilling Escapes of Batman and Robin and The Amazing Inventions of Batman show the dynamic duo in action.

Launch Pad

Showcase was probably the most important DC magazine of the late 1950s and early 1960s. It was intended to showcase new comic characters to see if teenage boys would buy them before launching a new book.

The first three issues featured Firefighters, Kings of the Wild, and Frogmen. Apparently none of them struck a chord with the public but the fourth issue hit the jackpot:



The Flash had been a Golden Age character, but this was the new Flash. Where Jay Garrick had been a research scientist with his own laboratory, Barry Allen was a police scientist. Barry wore a face-covering mask, while Jay had simply worn a helmet and vibrated a bit so his features were blurred.

After Showcase #5, featuring Manhunters, Showcase went on a remarkable run. Starting with #6's Challengers of the Unknown, every feature published in Showcase up until #40 graduated to either its own magazine or (in the cases of Adam Strange and Space Ranger), became cover features in other DC magazines. In rapid order, the DC cover stars of the 1960s appeared: Flash, Challengers of the Unknown, Lois Lane, Space Ranger, Adam Strange, Rip Hunter Time Master, Green Lantern, Sea Devils, Aquaman, Atom and Metal Men. Flash lasted for 246 issues, Challengers for about 80, Lois Lane for about 130, Rip Hunter for 30, Green Lantern for 90, Sea Devils 35, Aquaman 56, Atom 45 and Metal Men 45.

After that, either DC's ideas began to run out, or Marvel began cutting into the sales, or (my opinion), DC stopped trying to create new superhero titles. From 41-54, none of the features were deemed worthy of continuing. Tommy Tomorrow (a DC sci-fi hero since the 1940s) was given the big treatment in 41, 42, 44, 46 and 47. Issue #43 was a one-shot Dr No (had DC gotten rights to the movie without real rights to James Bond?). #45 featured Sergeant Rock, who of course was already a cover feature in Our Army at War. Issues #48, 49 and 52 featured Cave Carson, a spelunker who mostly battled weird monsters inside earth and who had already a pair of tryout trilogies in Brave & Bold.

And even when it went back to featuring superhero debuts, Showcase did not get its mojo back. Aside from the Teen Titans (who had effectively debuted in Brave & Bold although they were not called that), and the Phantom Stranger, none of the characters featured in the rest of the run of Showcase lasted for more than ten issues of their own mag, and most didn't even manage to get off the launchpad. Consider these features: B'wana Beast, the Maniaks, Johnny Double, The Creeper, Anthro, Hawk & Dove, Bat Lash, Angel & Ape, Dolphin, Firehair, Jason's Quest, Manhunter 2070