World's Finest Silver Age Comics: Amazing Spiderman #18

Out of the thousands of comics published in the Silver Age (my guess is about 20,000 in total), there are not a handful that are finer than this one. I've talked about it before briefly, but I thought it was time for a longer look.

To set the stage, in ASM #17, Flash Thompson had held the inaugural meeting of the Spiderman Fan Club. Liz Allen's father provided the hall, and a strong turnout was rewarded by a genuine appearance of the friendly neighborhood webslinger. But he gets a nasty surprise when the Green Goblin also shows up and begins fighting him. At a crucial moment in the battle, Peter overhears that his aunt has had another heart attack and is in the hospital. He runs out on the Goblin, turning most of his fans against him, convinced that he'd turned coward.

We get a look at the reactions from some of Spidey's foes and several of the other heroes in the Marvel Universe:

Meanwhile, JJJ is in a celebratory mood:

Peter is having trouble paying the bills, and he's too worried about Aunt May to go into action. If something happens to him, there'll be nobody left to take care of her. To add to his woes, Betty Brant is mad at him for not taking her to the Spiderman Fan Club meeting the previous issue.

Spidey tries selling a local merchandising firm on Spiderman trading cards, but they're not interested in a has-been hero. And improbably, a chemical firm is not willing to purchase his web-fluid because of a designed-in weakness:


Steve shows a bunch of scenes from the first Amazing Spiderman Annual, featuring Spidey in action against six of his greatest foes. As it happens, Peter runs into one of those old foes, the Sandman as he's leaving the chemical company. And the result is further embarrassment:

The news gives JJJ further exposure on TV as the man who revealed Spiderman as a phony long before anyone else. The Human Torch appears to remind us that he had an adventure with Spidey in Strange Tales Annual #2 (discussed here). Meanwhile Flash Thompson gets the brilliant idea of dressing up as Spidey himself and trying to stop a couple of crooks:

Fortunately, the cops come along and save him from a worse beating. To cap off Peter's bad week, he comes across Betty Brant and a new young man (Ned Leeds) exiting a movie theater, obviously in the middle of a date. Fed up with the problems that being Spiderman have added to his life, Peter decides to chuck his costume (literally):

But the next morning he's startled to find Aunt May's wheelchair empty. She's up and about, testing her legs, despite his protests. She gives him a bit of spine-stiffening here:

Peter takes it to heart and so:

And:

As noted, this is one of the rare superhero issues that featured not a single fight (well, other than the one between Flash and the car thieves). And yet, the psychological battle that Peter undergoes is deep and dramatic. As I have discussed in the past, the real charm in the Spiderman series was this inner tension that Peter felt. On the one hand, his obligation to his dead uncle, and on the other, his need to take care of his live aunt. How does he balance those demands? Well, in the end Aunt May tips the scales, but in the opposite direction from what we are expecting. Terrific storytelling and even better characterization. Those are why I dub Amazing Spiderman #18 one of the Silver Age's

Superman #205

This issue combines almost all of the worst elements of the Silver Age in one horrific tale. Superman is summoned to Washington for a briefing on a new villain:

We learn that he has no fingerprints, purple eyes and a forked tongue. Obviously an alien, he has been encountered by one of our spies:

Agent Double-O Nine reports on the tape that Black Zero intends to wipe out everybody on Earth with some secret in his brain. Supes brings Chief Inspector Watkins of Scotland Yard (who was at the DC meeting) to his Fortress of Solitude. Why him? No particular reason is given, but it turns out to be fortunate because:

Superman summons help from Kandor, but Black Zero surprises him by countermanding his order--in Kryptonese! How did he know that dead language? The villain explains:

He quickly discovers Jor-El's prediction that Krypton is doomed. Maybe he doesn't have to destroy the planet? No:

Argggghhhh! How could Weisinger allow that to be published? Jor-El really was "God the Father" back in the DC Silver Age; the wise and benevolent leader of the Science Council. And now we were learning that his calculations were in error, and that in fact Krypton would have survived. Terrible characterization!

Superman initially "sentences" Black Zero to death. But he can't kill the villain because of his code of honor. Jax-Ur, one of the villains from the Phantom Zone offers to help, but Black Zero changes him into a series of snake-beings by projecting a Red Kryptonite bullet into his body. Black Zero sends a bomb towards Earth, which will explode even if Superman stops it. But instead Supes drilles a hole completely through the planet, letting the bomb come out the other side. Meanwhile Jax-Ur has caught up to BZ in a different form:

Ending the menace once and for all.

Comments: Ugh! Lousy characterization for Jor-El, revealed once and for all as a crackpot whose prediction of doom for Krypton would have been wrong, had Black Zero not "saved" it. And while I enjoyed Jax-Ur's role in the story, the fact that he avenges Krypton and not Superman is somewhat galling as well.

Super-Swipes #1

I've been reading some earlier Silver Age Superman lately and came across this rather obvious swipe. In Superman #95 the Daily Planet office has to contend with The Practical Joker. He's Poindexter Wells, a nephew of the publisher, and the title character as we see here:

Wells goes on to give Perry White an exploding cigar, and frightens Lois with a rubber snake. Later he gives Clark a hot-foot, which causes a bit of a secret identity crisis when Kent doesn't react at first.

In Action #289, the story was dusted off as The Super-Practical Joker. This time the young man is the nephew of a major stockholder, named Dexter Willis. He pulls the fake hand joke on Jimmy Olsen, the exploding cigar on Perry and when it comes to Lois:

A good deal of the dialog is word for word from the original as well, which accounts for Jimmy's mistake of referring to him as a nephew of a big-shot publisher. There is a slight change in the prank he tries on Kent; this time he attempts to snip off a bit of the reporter's hair and the electric razor he's using breaks on Clark's invulnerable follicles.

In the original there is a brief sideplot about an escaped gorilla (yep, it's a DC Silver Age story), which Superman quickly subdues. But Poindexter Wells dresses up in a gorilla outfit to scare Lois and Jimmy.

Later, someone calls Wells and lets him know that hitmen from the Avenue 10 mob are going to rub out Kent. He dresses up in Kent's outfit and lets them kidnap him instead, but Lois is caught up as well. Superman saves Lois but the crooks get away with Wells. Fortunately, they had handcuffed the practical joker's fake arm, and by grabbing his toy gun, he was able to turn the tables on the gang. But when he shows off the gun:

Clark shows Lois and Poindexter that he was wearing bullet-proof armor, even on his ankles, which accounts for him not feeling the hot-foot earlier, and the practical joker swears off his gags forever.

In the swipe? Yep, there's an escaped gorilla, which Dexter dresses up as to scare Jimmy:

The Avenue Ten mobsters kidnap Clark and the practical joker, but Dexter's got on his fake arm and slips the rope they used to tie him up. As they battle the mobsters, one of them conks Kent on the head, but it doesn't affect him. Clark explains:

So as you can see, the swipe is virtually complete. Oh, there are a few changes; in the original Jimmy convinces Poindexter that Perry has a heart condition and this causes him to repent his gags, while in the swipe Dexter falls victim to some Superman pranks, giving him empathy for his victims.

Weisinger reportedly believed that his readership turned over every seven years or so, and these stories fit that belief, as the first version was published in February 1955 and the swipe in June 1962.

Since we're on the topic of Action #289, let me mention that Silver Age Gold had a review of the rather creepy Supergirl story in that issue just the other day.

Great Moments In Comic Book Romance

Steve Trevor asks Diana Prince to engage in a little game:

Trivia Quiz #37: Answers

1. Why is this happening?

c. It's actually a Bizarro Supergirl.

2. Why is this happening?

b. It's an effect caused by a comet

3. Why is this happening?

b. It's a plot to increase the Daily Planet's circulation
d. It's an effort to save Superman's secret identity

Yep, this is a trick question. Lois had printed up a gag copy of the Daily Planet with the news that Clark was Superman, but through an accident the entire press run got printed that way. Clark decided this would be a good way to scotch the rumors that he was Superman and convinced Perry this was an opportunity to increase circulation.

4. Why is this happening?

c. It's an effect of Red Kryptonite
d. It's a scheme by a saboteur

Another trick question. The Red K was planted by a saboteur, who knew that Superman would become susceptible to suggestions under its influence, and so he had Supes pretend to dance uncontrollably, so he could enter a naval installation to destroy a new ship.

5. Why is this happening?

c. It's a plot to fool some crooks

Jim got #1 and #3 correct, and was the only one to realize that some questions had more than one answer. Tom O got #1, #2 and #5 correct and gets half credit for #3. Daniel scores with #5 and gets half a point for #4. Ed O'Toole gets full marks for #5, and half credit for #3 and #4. Great job, everybody!

That's Awfully White of You, Perry

Trivia Quiz #37: Solve the Puzzle Cover

I've talked a bit in the past about Mort Weisinger's fondness for what I call puzzle covers. These covers show something bizarre and unexpected, which he hoped would compel the kid to at least take the magazine off the rack and flip through it to find out why the event depicted on the front was taking place. Here's your opportunity to match wits with Mort:

1. Why is this happening?

a. It's a plot to fool some aliens
b. It's the result of Red Kryptonite
c. It's actually a Bizarro Supergirl
d. It's a plot to fool some crooks

2. Why is this happening?

a. It's a plot to fool some aliens
b. It's an effect caused by a comet
c. It's an effect of Red Kryptonite
d. It's actually Bizarro Superman

3. Why is this happening?

a. It's a plot to fool some aliens
b. It's a plot to increase the Daily Planet's circulation
c. It's a plot to fool some crooks
d. It's an effort to save Superman's secret identity

4. Why is this happening?

a. It's a plot by Mr Mxyzptlk
b. Superman really likes Jimmy's guitar licks
c. It's an effect of Red Kryptonite
d. It's a scheme by a saboteur

5. Why is this happening?

a. It's a plot by Mr Mxyzptlk
b. Jimmy really has a secret super-punch
c. It's a plot to fool some crooks
d. It's an effect of Red Kryptonite

Welcome to the End of My Life

Or, I started another blog. This one's called Nothing But Batman, and you can probably guess the topic. I wanted to talk about all eras of Batman and with the Silver Age focus of this blog I thought it was only fair to my readers to put the discussion of the Caped Crusader and his buddies over there. Hope you enjoy it!

The Unknown Spiderman Story

Ross Andru pencilled a bunch of Spiderman stories in the 1970s, starting with ASM #125 (October 1975). But did you know that he also drew one Spiderman story in 1968? Well, to be honest with you, neither did I until I stumbled across this issue in a used bookstore around 1976. Stan explains the circumstances here:

That Stan didn't want to burden Andru with the plot threads of the Spiderman series is pretty obvious. Nothing in the story places it tightly in any continuity of the time; this is a story that could be slotted in anywhere from about ASM 60-120 and nobody would notice that it was out of place. Harry and Peter are roomies, and Gwen is his girlfriend; that's about all we know.

We get the usual megalomaniac introduction:

Hey, I'll test my powers against Spidey and see if I'm as great as I think. He has some sort of mental ability to give Peter major-league headaches, and I mean that literally, not figuratively:

Fortunately, the crooks that Spidey has been following decide that discretion is the better part of valor, after a few efforts at killing off the wall-crawler, so he's able to survive the experience.

We learn a little about the villain of the piece. He had shown great ESP ability, and became a researcher on the topic. He considers contacting Dr Strange and the Ancient One, but decides they would be too difficult to locate (never mind that many people went to Dr Strange's Greenwich Village pad with their problems). He traveled to Africa, to learn juju, the art of taking control of an enemy's mind. Now he's determined to make the entire world fear the power of the Sorcerer (as he dubs himself). In an odd bit, he sends off a voodoo doll addressed to Spiderman, with this comment:

Meanwhile, Peter's headaches are so bad, that he sends for Dr Bromwell, who can find nothing medically wrong with him. So Pete skips out on a double date with Gwen and Harry and MJ. But later he feels an odd compulsion:

He arrives as Mardi Gras is getting into full swing, but finds himself entering a warehouse, where his destiny awaits:

Say what? What was the point of sending Spidey down to New Orleans to face an android locked in a crate? He turns out to be something like the Sandman, able to turn himself soft or hard at will. So we get pages of them fighting, with Peter having to deal with his headaches at the same time.

In the meantime, the Post Office has sent back the package as undeliverable, and the postman rings once:

Causing a deadly feedback which kills the Sorcerer and renders his android harmless.

Comments: Yechhhh! The story makes little sense. We can understand how the Sorcerer is able to affect Spiderman with his mental powers, but where did he come up with the android? Did he just buy it at Androids 'R' Us? The idea of sending a package to Spiderman seems weird, as well, and if the object was to let the police know that he had killed Spidey, wouldn't leaving a return address on the object be a little too good a clue as to where to find him?

Fantastic Four Fridays: Let The Supervillain Team-Ups Begin!

Supervillain team-ups had been rare in the DC Golden Age. Batman had two that I'm aware of; in Batman #2, The Joker Meets the Catwoman was published. However, it was not really a team-up as such, just a story with two different villains. Then, in Batman #25, came Knights of Knavery, featuring the Joker and the Penguin. This was a real supervillain team-up; oddly it was not repeated. Superman #77 had a story featuring Luthor, the Toyman and the Prankster, and of course there were several supervillain team-up stories in All-Star Comics tales of the Justice Society of America. The famed Flash of Two Worlds (published exactly one year before FF #6) had featured the talents of the Fiddler, the Shade, and the Thinker.

So team-ups were not unheard of, but they were uncommon. Of course, Marvel changed all that. As the story begins, the FF is reading their fan mail. Reed discovers that a young fan is recuperating in a hospital nearby, and stretches over to meet him. This gives Stan the opportunity to explain how Mr Fantastic's uniform elongates with him (some mumbo-jumbo about unstable molecules).

The fan mail segment also features the first mention of the Yancy Street Gang, a long-running gag in the series. As you can see, they specialized in tormenting the Thing:

This gives Ben the opportunity to muse that he longs for a villain worthy of his great strength, like Dr Doom or the Sub-Mariner. And speaking of that duo, Dr Doom is, at the same time, encountering Subby:

Doom is determined to goad the Sub-Mariner into resuming his campaign against the surface world:

We also learn that the Sub-Mariner is still sweet on Sue, and that his feelings for her are returned:

But almost at that moment, Namor enters their quarters, having flown through an open window. We know from an earlier scene that Namor is carrying a device that Dr Doom will be able to use to pull virtually anything on Earth to him, and that anything in this case is the entire Baxter Building:

But this is a double-cross on the Sub-Mariner, too, as we learn here:

Dr Doom tugs them out into space, apparently intending to suffocate them. The FF put on a bunch of fishbowls (although there are no apparent oxygen tanks attached to them), as does Subby. The Torch is unable to fly, and Mr Fantastic finds that the cold of space reduces his stretching power. Ben's strength and Sue's invisibility are useless. So what can be done?

Well, not to spoil the drama, but the Sub-Mariner swims around in a pool of water for a bit, then makes a leap through a meteor shower to Doom's ship. Doom tries to electrocute him, but:

In his haste to escape, Doom hitches a ride on a passing meteor, to his (apparent) death in the vastness of space. The Sub-Mariner returns the Baxter Building to its original position. Namor flies off in Doom's craft, leaving the FF in something of an awkward position:

Comments: Something of an offbeat story; the FF only survives because one of the "villains" prevents the other villain from winning. This became a common theme in the Marvel team-ups.