ACG Comics: Adventures Into the Unknown #124

This April-May 1961 offering from ACG cover features "The Green Flame".



The opening story concerns the trials of one Michael Terrence O'Toole, a blue-collar guy struggling to get by as a steam shovel operator in Salem, Massachusetts. (Aside: Steam shovels are archaic; they have since been replaced by the backhoe.) So he and his wife have to make do with wishing for nice things rather than having them, even for their daughter Rosie. But Rosie wants a baton so she can be a drum majorette in the local high school band. In the meantime, Mike is having trouble with the foreman over the amount of dirt he moves. So one evening he gets drunk (the men he was with claimed it was NA beer) and goes to the job site and starts digging. And he breaks into a chamber where he finds a giant chest. When he opens it a witch climbs out, released after centuries of imprisonment. She immediately starts doing horrible things, like crashing planes and trains and ruining Mike's steamshovel. He grabs the wand from the witch and angrily wishes she was back where she came from. Of course, she flies back into the chest. He wills everything to be normal, saving the plane and train that the witch had destroyed. He heads home, giving the wand to his wife as a baton for their daughter.

Then comes the twist. ACG's editor/writer, Richard Hughes, always liked a little twist in his stories. Not quite the O'Henry twist that EC was known for a decade earlier, but still entertaining.

It turns out that the daughter wants to be the drum majorette because she likes a boy in the band, and when momma catches them making out, she burns the wand/baton. And Michael and his wife are just a little more satisfied with their life together.

There's a one-page filler called "Mysteries of Nature". Archaeologist discovers a roadside attraction is really a dinosaur skeleton preserved in lava.

The Fan Fare series entry follows. These appear to be reprints of earlier ACG stories. This issue's adventure concerns a fighter pilot who has to abandon his aircraft in the Middle East when it catches fire. He finds a garden where life seems perfect--delicious food, wonderful climate, plenty of water, etc. Eventually he tears himself away from the place to try to get back to civilization. After a long journey he is saved by an Arab on a camel. He realizes afterwards that he had found the Garden of Eden.

Another Fan Fare entry with "Space Probe". An invasion fleet sends the usual one scout craft to earth; when it fails to return the invasion is cancelled.

In the cover story, "The Green Flame", a scientist invents a green flame that appears to hold promise as a military weapon, but it rapidly gets out of control. Worse still, it shows intelligence, apparently burning the scientist's notes to prevent the military from creating a weapon to use against it. Can anything stop The Green Flame?

Covers That Give Away the Ending

Maybe they thought that the Flash being turned into a block of ice wasn't dramatic enough, but how do you then decide to reveal the ending of the story?

And that is in fact how the Flash defeats Captain Cold. One of the worst covers of the Silver Age.

Great Stories of the Silver Age: Virus X

The Virus X story ran from Action #362-366 in early 1968. It starts when Ventor, a stage ventriloquist, tries to get revenge for his brother Bruno, who died in prison after being captured by Superman. Ventor kidnaps Clark Kent and hypnotizes him into hating Superman and being determined to kill him.

In the second story Luthor gives Ventor a test tube of Virus X, which is so powerful that it kills earth creatures almost instantly. It contains just enough Kryptonite to make it effective against Superman. Clark Kent starts to pour the virus on the bed where he knows Superman sleeps, and accidentally gets some on his own hands. As it works out, this restores his memory. Unfortunately it's too late as his hands have turned into green claws, showing he has been infected.

In the third instalment, the worlds best doctors and scientists are unable to cure Superman. Luthor claims to have an antidote, but he turns out to be lying. In the end, Superman places himself into a clear coffin and takes off for the heart of the hottest sun in the universe.

The fourth story is something of a retrospective. As Superman flies through space, the story of the entire Superman legend is retold in his memory. We learn of the death of Krypton and baby Kal-El's raising by the Kents, and his romances with Lana Lang, Lori Lemaris and Lois Lane. Even the Bizarros get into the act, strewing White Kryptonite in the path of his casket.

In the final story, it is revealed that the White K cured Superman by killing Virus X, which was a form of plant life. But when Superman returns to Earth, he discovers that somebody has taken his place. So the mystery becomes who has done it. Unfortunately DC gives it away in the splash page, which features the members of the Justice League of America. In the end, Superman is able to resume his role as Earth's mightiest hero. This leaves the loose end of Ventor, who has never been punished for his effort to kill Superman, as a letter writer points out in Action #369.

Favorite Covers of the Golden Age--Batman #23

Chess as a metaphor.

Who's Liz Allen's Dad?

This error comes to us from Amazing Spiderman #17:



It's sure as heck not Mr Brant. Liz Allen (the blonde shown) is engaged in a romantic tug-of-war over Peter Parker with Betty Brant, which is why the writer thought of that name.

Dan Hastings

This is a little off-topic, as it's Golden or even Platinum Age. A few years ago I noticed some very old coverless comics on ebay. Star Comics #5 and #7 predated Superman, being published in 1937. One of the features in those issues was Dan Hastings. It was a science-fiction strip with a very evil villain named Eutopas:



Remember this is before Hitler's evil was widely known.

Some More Recycling

Supergirl--Action # 268

This is a pretty typical DC mystery story. Linda Lee accepts a week-long internship on the Daily Planet, when electrifying news breaks. There is a Supergirl on Earth, who came from the planet Krypton. At first Linda worries that perhaps her robot has performed the super-stunts. Then she fears that maybe she was affected by Red Kryptonite and is revealing herself during events that she later forgets. Eventually the new "Supergirl" shows up at the Daily Planet, but Linda is ready. She exposes the fake Supergirl to phony Green K, causing her to pretend to be affected. But when the Green K is exposed as bogus, so is the new Supergirl. She turns out to be an actress hired to hype a new movie.

Supergirl--Action # 267

This is one of those oddball cases where DC actually thought about the continuity problems raised by a story idea, came up with a solution, and then promptly forgot about it, causing continuity problems for years to come.

Linda Lee runs into several super-powered youths like herself who clearly know her secret identity. It turns out that they are members of the Legion of Super Heroes, who had by this point made a pair of guest appearances in Superboy stories. Apparently realizing that there might be continuity issues, the Legion introduced in this story was purported to be a new Legion, comprised of the children of the original Legion. However, in all future stories Supergirl is a member of the same Legion that Superboy belongs to. The continuity problem comes in that if Superboy has met Kara, then he will not be surprised when she pops out of the rocket when he is a man. It was later explained that Saturn Girl leaves a post-hypnotic suggestion erasing his memory of Supergirl whenever he returns to the Smallville era.

The story borrows quite often from the original Legion story in Adventure #247, as I have discussed in the past. In an amusing twist, Red Kryptonite affects Supergirl by turning her into a woman; according to the Legion by-laws this makes her ineligible for Legion membership.

Supergirl--Action # 266

Silly story here. A boy fantasizes about Streaky having superpowers, and it comes true when Streaky is exposed to the X-Kryptonite that Supergirl created again. Most of the humor in this piece revolves around the fact that the boy can't get his friends to believe that Streaky is pulling super stunts. Fortunately, in the end Supergirl convinces everybody that it was Krypto doing the stunts in a way that made it look like Streaky was super.

Supergirl--Action # 265

After a long build-up, Supergirl loses her memory due to exposure to red Kryptonite and accidentally finds herself in Smallville as its newest super-heroine. For awhile Smallville relives its former glory as the home of a mighty being, but when Superman discovers that Supergirl's been revealed to Smallville, he unleashes an amnesia gas on the town that even affects Supergirl. Quickly, he prints up revised copies of the town paper without mention of the girl of steel and puts Linda Lee back in the orphanage. His secret weapon remains unknown. Of course, today, the story of a Supergirl would be on Drudge and there would be no possibility of the story disappearing.

Supergirl--Action # 264

Something of a sad story here. Supergirl is adopted by a Mr and Mrs Wilkins quite unexpectedly. At first she thinks only of how to get out of the adoption. But as time goes by she finds the couple who adopted her loving and heroic, as the father is a policeman. So it becomes tougher for her. "Fortunately" some crooks try to kill her to get back at Dad, and he realizes that it's not fair to her to be his daughter. Ironically, of course, we know that his daughter is safe from assailants.

Supergirl--Action # 263

Supergirl saves a young man who is an orphan from drowning. He ends up at the Midvale Orphanage with her, and eventually figures out her secret identity, even helping her conceal it when an accident happens. Eventually she realizes that he is not from Earth at all, but from another planet, where he's a prince, wanted for the murder of his aunt and uncle. Supergirl defends him and proves the killer was the evil Prime Minister Zoxxo. Once again in this issue Supergirl wears a red skirt instead of the blue.

Supergirl--Action # 262

In this story, Supergirl continues her efforts to find a solution for the problem of Kryptonite. She places a green K meteor in a cave and tries to approach it and marks where she first feels pain. The second day she goes a little closer, and then closer still, till it seems that she must have become immune to the stuff. However, when she attempts to save Superman from Kryptonite she also falls victim to the poisonous radiation. They save themselves by focusing their x-ray vision on some gold above the green K. The gold is transmuted into lead by the effect of their vision, covering the meteor. Later they discover the reason why the other Kryptonite meteor was becoming less painful to Supergirl was that a metal-eating beast was eating the meteor from the inside.

Supergirl--Action # 261

This is a significant issue for the introduction of Streaky, the Supercat. Supergirl attempts to find a substance that will neutralize Kryptonite, but is unsuccessful. She throws the Kryptonite away, but Streaky, a stray cat that Supergirl (as Linda Lee) adopted, finds and plays with it. For some unexplained (in this story) reason, the Kryptonite gives the cat super-powers and he decides to use those powers for the good of downtrodden cats everywhere. But at the end of the story, Streaky loses his powers. Note: In this story the colorist screwed up and Supergirl is shown with a red skirt on her uniform, instead of blue.

Supergirl--Action # 260

The Superman story qualifies as a fairly idiotic story in the Action Comics catalogue. Superman meets a super-powered woman and they apparently fall in love, much to the dismay of Lois Lane. But in the end it was all a trick to fool the invading aliens (like that never happened ten million times in the Silver Age).

Of course, in the end, the super-powered woman turns out to be Supergirl, which is rather embarrassing since the cover and one panel show Superman kissing her rather passionately:



The Supergirl feature itself is a rather pedestrian "turn into a baby" story that DC was fond of back in the 1960s. There are numerous ridiculous examples of this plot device. In this one, Supergirl (still operating secretly) saves an old man from drowning in an pool by pushing him out of the water and onto land. Of course, it turns out that the pool contains the legendary Fountain of Youth, and the old man becomes a young man, while Supergirl becomes a baby, in which guise she manages to get some crooks arrested.

The Horrifying Batman Era in Covers--Detective

Creatures:









Weird Transformations:





Aliens

Wonder Woman #17

Got the chance to read this Golden Ager today. Here are my observations:

The story is a long one, a three-parter concerning a woman too willing to trust her villainous fiancee. Dr Lana Curee has invented a cure for cancer, but unknown to her, it was given to a man who died. To save her from being prosecuted, her boyfriend, Carl Ambishun suggests that she sign over the right to her formula to him. Fortunately Wonder Woman intercedes by spilling ink on the contract. While Carl goes to get another copy, Etta and the Holliday Girls take Dr Curee to Mount Fate, where the Winds of Time will help her think more clearly.

The winds take them back to their previous lives (Shirley McLaine would love this) ancient Rome, and later to the Wild West. In each time period Dr Curee trusts an evil suitor and is betrayed, so when she makes it back to the present she realizes that Carl is trying to steal her formula and use it to make money.

Supergirl--1959

Appearances: Action #252-259, Superman #130, Jimmy Olsen #40

Supergirl arrived on Earth in Action Comics #252 (May 1959), apparently following a successful tryout in Superman #123 (August 1958), although the concept of a Supergirl or Superwoman had appeared quite often in the Superman chronicles.

The new Supergirl was Kara Zor-El, Superman's young cousin on his father's side. Her family had been flung into space with the rest of Argo City when Krypton exploded and had survived for years thanks to Zor-El's lining the Kryptonite core of the planetoid with lead to protect the inhabitants. Unfortunately a meteor shower pierced the shields. Before dying (apparently) Zor-El had sent his only daughter, by then a teenager, into space much as his brother had done the same for his only son.

Superman is happy to welcome his only kin to survive Krypton's explosion, but because his identity as Clark Kent must not be divulged, he can't allow her to live with him. So he drops her off at the Midvale Orphanage, where he tells her to keep her super powers secret. She assumes the identity of Linda Lee, a young survivor of a catastrophe that wiped out her town.

At first Supergirl uses her powers in secret to try to help people, sometimes with bad results. For instance, in Action #253 after a farm couple are refused to be allowed to adopt a young farmboy due to poverty, she creates a tourist attraction on the farm which makes them wealthy. Unfortunately, they then decide to move to the city and reason that a farm lad might not suit them, so Supergirl has to go to further extremes to try to make the adoption work.

Supergirl's first major love interest arrives in Action #255 in the person of Dick Wilson (later Malverne). In this story he's mostly played as a secret identity pest a la Lois Lane.

Supergirl's appearance changed a bit over the years. Here's how she looked in the first few issues:



She looked a little different in her appearance in Jimmy Olsen #40.



Rather flat-chested in both, but that would change. The Jimmy Olsen story is played for laughs. Because Superman is busy, Supergirl takes it upon herself to rescue Olsen when he sounds the alarm on his signal watch. She divulges her indentity as Superman's cousin, but temporarily blinded by tear gas, he refuses to believe a Supergirl really exists.

Her appearance in Superman #130 is simply a cameo.

Batman 1957

Issues Covered: Batman #105-112, Detective 239-250.

Significant Stories: In Detective #244, we are introduced to the man who gave Batman his first Batarang and taught him how to throw it. Lee Collins was an Australian with a sideshow act throwing boomerangs. This makes the third story in as many years about the people who trained Batman in the skills he uses.

Detective #243 continues the weird transformation trend that started with #218, this time featuring The Giant Batman. Robin changes into a man again briefly in Batman #107's The Grown-Up Boy Wonder. It was still only a trickle at the time, but that was about to change.

Another trend that would prove irresistible to Batman writers began with a vengeance in Detective #250: Aliens. Batman had occasionally bumped into extraterrestials (e.g., The Manhunter from Mars, a J'onn J'onzz prototype, in Batman #78), but he was about to be inundated with them.

Batwoman returns in Batman #105. Kathy Kane had worn her old costume to a masquerade ball, but ended up helping Robin. Batman has apparently suffered amnesia, so she comes out of retirement to help the Boy Wonder. She retires again after this story, but in World's Finest #90's The Super Batwoman, Batman relents and decides to allow her to fight crime. She returns for the third time that year in Detective #249, The Execution of Bruce Wayne.

In The Secret of Batman's Butler, from Batman an early attempt at retconning is made. Alfred simply applied for the job of butler to Wayne Manor; there was no discussion about his father having worked for Thomas Wayne. In addition, he learns about Bruce's double life when Batman is injured and Robin calls him down to the Batcave. This is all wildly inconsisted with the original Alfred story in Batman #16, and most subsequent retellings (the most recent ones have him working for the Waynes before the murders).

There is also a similar obvious mistake in in Batman #111. At the beginning of the story, Alfred interrupts Batman about to leave on his nightly patrol, to announce that Commissioner Gordon is calling for Bruce Wayne. Oddly Bruce acts shocked that Commissioner Gordon would call him:



Of course, the very first Batman story of all time begins with this stage setting:

The home of Commissioner Gordon, who at the moment is entertaining his young, socialite friend, Bruce Wayne.

In many stories Bruce and Commissioner Gordon were shown as friends. In Batman #71, Commissioner Gordon's Greatest Case, Gordon invites his inner circle of friends to dinner in the suspicion that one of them is Batman; among the guests are Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson.

That same story, though, does apparently contribute the idea that Bruce Wayne was named after his father's cousin, Bruce N. Wayne, a detective "from out on the coast." The story is played somewhat as farce, as Bruce N. Wayne tries to make a real man (i.e., a detective) out of Bruce.

Another Batman of the future appears in Batman #105, "The Mysterious Bat-Missile", although this one goes unnamed. And a famous Batman foe from the past returns as a helper this time: Dr Thorne, who was known as the Crime Surgeon when he appeared in Batman #18 and Detective #77 (in which latter issue he died), pops up suddenly in Batman #106's Batman's Secret Helper as the surgeon who saved Batman's life, with no mention of his prior criminal career. Dr. Thorne would also appear in the late 1970s and again in the 1980s.

The celebrity angle continues to be played up. In Detective #244, The 100 Batarangs of Batman, thieves steal films from a Batman collector. In Batman #107, a contestant on The Big Batman Quiz goes for $125,000. In that same issue, The Career of Batman Jones tells the adventures of a crimebusting youth named after Batman. This story was foreshadowed in The Fan Mail of Danger from Batman #92, when a temporary secretary hired by Batman informs him of his namesake.

Best Stories: Detective #247 features The Man Who Ended Batman's Career. Professor Milo has come up with a way to make Batman afraid of bats, which means he can't use his equipment, such as the Batplane, Batmobile and Batarangs. He switches his double identity to become Starman, but of course that's not going to fool the Professor for long, so Robin decides to take desperate measures:



That's just a superb sequence displaying the loyalty and devotion Batman and Robin have for each other. Professor Milo would reappear a few years later and again in a classic Denny O'Neill/Neal Adams early 1970s' thriller.

Detective #248 features the terrific Around the World in 8 Days Batman must find a stolen serum in order to save a man's life. This is the third to last Dick Sprang story in Detective, and he's in fine form here with exotic locales and thrilling fight scenes.