Adventure #280

This story is symptomatic of one of the major problems with Superboy in the Silver Age. Characters that had been introduced in the Superman books often ended up appearing in Superboy, even though that appearance contradicted the Superman tales. Lex Luthor, who for years had bedeviled the Man of Tomorrow, turned out to have been the best friend (however briefly) of the Boy of Steel. Lois Lane and Mr Mxyptlk also appeared in the Superboy chronicles, so it was perhaps inevitable that Lori Lemaris would also pop up in Smallville eventually. Never mind that we had been assured in her first Superman story that she was a girlfriend of his during his college years at Metropolis U.

The story itself is a classically zany Silver Age tale. Superboy decides to help out a local "aquarium" (really an aquatic zoo) owner by bringing him terrific attractions like electric eels, sharks and a giant whale. Lori and her friends observe this from under the sea, and Lori lies a bit shamelessly:

It turns out that Lori is bored with Atlantis. BTW, those who think that there wasn't an explanation for the Lori Lemaris Atlanteans and the Aquaman contingent are wrong:

Lori decides to get Superboy to "rescue" her from a floating mine. When he does, she again indulges herself in a whopper:

But she trips herself up with a bit of "proof":

Of course, this was something of a cliche in the Silver Age; since BC means "Before Christ", nobody would have dated a coin 450 BC; that was the year applied after the birth of Jesus became considered a dividing point.

Lori explains that she wants to live outside the water, as a normal girl, and believes that Superboy will be able to accomplish this. He sets up the experiment, but Lana comes along:

The experiment will take 24 hours, during which time Superboy is away on a space mission. Lori is so confident the procedure will work, that she gets out of the water and drains it off. Bad move:

Say what? Smallville only a mile from the ocean? I guess we can rule out Kansas as the location of Superboy's hometown. Fortunately, Lana remembers that there's a pool inside the cave, and it turns out that the experiment was not to let her live on the land, but:

Still, how do we get to where Superboy and Lori have no memory of ever meeting before their college days? Lori's father goes to work:

Yep, he hypnotizes Superboy, Lori, and Lana into having no memory of the incident.

Comments: It's pretty obvious why this story has never been reprinted (as far as I know). The details are weird, the hypnotism bit makes little sense (except to get Weisinger out of the problem of explaining why the story contradicted Lori's first Superman appearance), and Lori's compulsive lying puts her in a bad light. On the other hand, there is a rare good bit of characterization for Lana Lang, as she saves Lori's life despite fearing that Superboy will prefer the mermaid.

The Congo Bill/Congorilla tale is a fairly pedestrian tale. Congo Bill is hit on the head, and when he changes into Congorilla, he does some oddball things, changing into characters from a nursery rhyme:

Rich man, poor man, beggarman, thief,
Doctor, lawyer, Indian chief.

The story was dusted off and reused a few years later in a Superman story in Action Comics.

The Aquaman story features Aquaman and Aqualad helping out with the TV show, Sea Chase. This is a reference to a popular syndicated TV show of the times called Sea Hunt, starring Lloyd Bridges and two of his sons, Jeff and Beau Bridges.

Update: Commenter Osgood Peabody points out that the story has just recently been reprinted in this volume:

Fantastic Four Fridays: Crossover Central

One of the keys to Marvel's success in the Silver Age was the relentless use of crossover stories to introduce the readers of one Marvel mag to characters in other titles. This story marks the very beginning of that trend.

Ben and Alicia are leaving a performance at the symphony, when Ben's appearance attracts the attention of some soldiers, who suspect he's the Hulk:

After the confusion is resolved, Ben learns that Thunderbolt Ross (the Hulk's nemesis) is requesting the aid of the FF to capture old Greenskin. There's a cute little sight gag:

After the boys brag about how they'd defeat the Hulk, we get another taste of Sue's inferiority complex:

The Hulk is suspected of destroying a secret project in the Southwest. But Bruce Banner believes that the actual culprit is the Wrecker. It turns out that the secret project was an early version of "Star Wars"; a plan to safeguard cities from nuclear attack:

Banner's assistant, Karl Kort, drops his wallet, which conveniently contains a membership card in a "subversive communist front organization". Thus the Wrecker's identity is revealed to Rick Jones. Before he can tell the others, Kort kidnaps him. He leaves a note for Banner telling him to get rid of the FF or he'll never see Rick alive again. So Bruce decides to turn himself into the Hulk again. Remember, this is during the era where Stan and Jack were still experimenting with the Hulk's transformations; at one point it was voluntary, at another it was brought on by nightfall. It was only later that they hit on the idea that stress caused Banner to change.

A little later all three groups are in an underground cave. The first meeting of the FF and the Hulk:

Note as well that the Hulk's vocabulary is a little more extensive than the "Hulk smash!" character of the later 1960s.

There are several pages of the FF mixing it up with the Hulk, when suddenly a beam weapon incapacitates the behemoth. The Thing, angry that his battle was cut short, discovers the culprit: a giant robot controlled by the Wrecker. He makes short work of the robot and the team confronts Karl Kort, who has one last card to play:

But as you can probably guess from that panel, Sue proves useful for more than just morale-boosting. The Hulk gets away.

Comments: Obviously a hugely significant issue in terms of a preview of things to come in the Marvel line. One oddity; the crossover came too late to save the Hulk's own magazine, which saw its final issue come out that same month (March 1963). Incidentally, there was another FF crossover in Amazing Spiderman #1, which also had a 3/63 cover date.

Hawkman #13

I can tell this story tersely enough with just a few panels:






Comments: Overall an amusing story, obviously padded quite a bit to make a book-length tale. Murphy Anderson's art sizzles however, and Gardner Fox does redeem himself a bit with the ending. Hawkgirl had turned off a mind control machine that Queen Alvit had planned to use to force him to marry her, but Hawkman has a different explanation:

Very, very sweet!

Best Romances of the Silver Age?

Note the question mark at the end there. I'm asking for your help. As I see it, there are not really a lot of contenders, so here's a rundown:

Superman and Lois Lane: A rather tepid romance at best, and it was not, as Mort Weisinger put it, consummated during the Silver Age (although that changed eventually).

Batman and ???: 'Nuff said.

Barry Allen and Iris West. One of several marriages within the Silver Age of a long-dating couple. Lots of good interaction, although Iris could be a beeyatch when she wanted to as well.

Aquaman and Mera. One of the definitely consummated marriages in the Silver Age; they did, after all, have a son.

Green Lantern/Hal Jordan and Carol Ferris. It ended badly, and this was always an oddball romantic triangle with Hal competing against his secret identity as I have discussed previously.

Ray Palmer and Jean Loring. A solid contender; don't let the ridiculous Identity Crisis storyline distract you. A major reason why Ray fought crime as the Atom was to help Jean establish her practice so she'd marry him.

Hawkman and Hawkgirl: Unique situation as the Halls were married when we first met them. Worked well together both in their costumed identities and as civilians.

Ralph Dibney and Sue Dibney: Another early married couple, one of the charms of the Detective Comics series was the interaaction between the pair.

Reed Richards and Sue Storm. Another rare case of consummated love, as they bore a son as well in the Silver Age.

Peter Parker and Gwen Stacy. Ill-fated and frequently tested, their love was surprisingly strong during the late 1960s.

Hank Pym and Janet Van Dyne. Like the Dibney's they were not really major characters at the time, but they did marry.

Bruce Banner and Betty Ross. They came close to getting married in the Silver Age, but I never really felt a strong bond between the two.

Any others? The Marvel characters pretty much turned over all their girlfriends before the decade was over: Karen Page, Jane Foster, Pepper Potts, etc. Archie and Veronica/Betty and Richie Rich/Gloria are cute, but not really romance in my book.

Update: Some very good suggestions in the comments:

Adam Strange and Alanna. An excellent romance with lots of interaction, the involuntary separations and even an accepted proposal of marriage. A very strong contender.

Ben Grimm and Alicia. If we look at a romance as union of yin and yang, this would have to rate strongly. Alicia completes Ben, and softens his hard edges (although figuratively, not literally).

Green Arrow and Black Canary. I'd rate this as more of a Bronze Age Romance. Same with the Vision and the Scarlet Witch.

Catwoman and Batman. Terrific pick but more Golden Age than Silver; the Catwoman only made two real appearances in Batman during the Silver Age.

BTW, on the consummated part, I do think that marriage and children are an important manifestation of love, but I was also being a little puckish; see this post for more.

Super-Swipes #2

This one took me a bit by surprise. About a year and a half ago, I wrote a post about Action #331 (December 1965), where the story concerned Lois Lane writing an article for the Daily Planet about how Clark Kent was really Superman. It was intended as a gag, but the pressman who ran off a few copies took ill, and his assistant accidentally ran off the full press run with the headlines. At first it appears that the Planet will suffer, and Lois will be fired, but then Clark suggests that if he pretends to really be the Man of Steel for a few days and then the Planet reveals the gag, readers will forgive them. Inevitably this causes big complications, but in the end it all comes off well.

It turns out that this story is virtually note-for-note swiped from Superman #20 (Jan-Feb 1943). Note:


For:


Note:


Oh, there are a few changes here and there; "Ironjaw" the villain becomes "Iron Ike" and some of the more humorous slapstick moments of the original like these are gone:


But overall this is one of the more blatant Super-Swipes that I can recall.

The Superman #20 story is contained in this archive edition:

Some Nice Moments

I thought I'd put up a post highlighting some of the nicer moments in the comics. In Superman #96 (March 1955), there was a story about the Girl Who Didn't Believe in Superman. The Daily Planet is holding their annual "Lovely Child" contest, and Alice Norton is the winner of $1,000 and an around the world tour with Superman. But there's a catch:

We learn that she became blind after a car accident. And it turns out little Miss Norton is quite the skeptic:

Superman is determined to prove that he does exist, but Alice has a rational explanation for every super power he demonstrates:

But then he discovers that Alice's blindness may be caused by a tiny sliver of glass behind her optic nerve. Paging Dr Superman:

And sure enough, the surgery is successful. Alice gets her sight-seeing tour:

And it gets even better. Superman spots some vagabond spying on the Norton residence, but it turns out to be Alice's father. He's been consumed with guilt ever since the accident. Mrs Norton tells him that the car's brakes were faulty and that it wasn't his fault. The family is reunited and in the end:

In Superman #97 (May 1955), we learned the story of Superboy's last day in Smallville. He did a lot of civic improvement for the town and the people turned out for a farewell:

Very sweet.

Update: As requested by longtime blog-buddy Bill Jourdain, I'm including reprint information on these two stories.

The Girl Who Didn't Believe in Superman has been reprinted several times, including Superman #242 (1971), the Best of DC #25 (1979), and in this volume:

Superboy's Last Day in Smallville was reprinted in 100-Page Super Spectacular #DC-18 (1973) and in a Pizza Hut Collector's Edition (1977) of Superman #97, as well as the Superman in the Fifties:


Update II: An anonymous commenter points out that the Superman in the Fifties book notes that the story of the blind girl saved by Superman also appeared on the Adventures of Superman TV show. I found mention of the episode here. It appeared on TV about a year before the comic book version.

Fantastic Four Fridays: To Dream the Impossible Man...

After awhile, I'm sure that comic fans winced whenever they saw the word "offbeat" on a Marvel cover, as it seemed to indicate, "We ran out of ideas this month so we decided to try being funny."

As the story begins, we see more of the fourth-wall breaking that first appeared in FF #10. The new Fantastic Four issue is coming out and there's a line out the door of the newsstand as folks clamor for the latest story featuring their heroes. Kids play at being the various members of the team:


When the FF get to the Baxter Building, they find tons of fan mail, including a jack-in-the-box punch for the Thing from the Yancy Street Gang (their second mention). Later, Reed comes up with another serum to try to turn him back into Ben Grimm:

Not to ruin the suspense or anything, but it wasn't permanent. Via a flashback, we learn that Reed and Ben had been roommates in college. And afterwards:

Of course, back then (1962) you could argue that this made Reed and Ben merely in their late-30s; nowadays they would have to be geezers to have fought in WWII. We also learn that Sue was Reed's girl next door, although of course that's getting into some pretty murky territory. If Sue's as old as Reed, how can she have a teen-aged brother? Anyway, they go on to reminisce about their origin as the Fantastic Four, and then mention the adventures they've had. But Sue wails a bit that the others have had adventures, while she's been something of a fifth wheel:

It's a reflection of a debate that had been going on in the FF letters page about how useless Sue's invisibility power was. Which is certainly true; hence the force-field ability that she began to develop not long afterwards. But it's rather amusing to Reed and Ben defending her as a valuable member of the team to the readers.

And then it turns out that it's Sue's birthday, and Reed, Ben and Johnny have baked her a cake. Ben turns into the Thing again, and Sue realizes that her problems with the FF's readers are trivial compared to him turning into a pile of orange rocks. And the story ends on that note.

Comments: Certainly an oddball tale, but it does show that Stan and Jack were paying attention to the readers and trying to promote Sue as a more valuable member of the team than we might otherwise assume. IIRC, this is the only FF issue that features two different self-contained stories.

The second story is the cover one, and it's quite "offbeat". The Impossible Man comes from the planet Poppup in the Tenth Galaxy. He possesses amazing powers, including flight, teleportation, the ability to turn his body into steel, etc. He shows up at a hobo jungle and asks for some food. They tell him he has to get some money, so:

After robbing the bank, he grabs a meal at a restaurant where the FF encounter him. They discover his extraordinary powers. After some battling:

So he's sort of the Marvel equivalent of Mr Mxyzptlk or Bat-Mite. But Reed figures out how to get rid of him:

And that turns out to be the solution; the one thing the Impossible Man can't handle is being ignored.

Comments: Not Marvel's finest hour, by any means. The Impossible Man did not return for many years.

X-Men #14-16: The Sentinels

The long-running antagonists for the X-Men debuted in X-Men #14. An anthropologist named Dr Trask warns mankind that the mutants are among us and that they are a severe danger to mankind:



For starters, it seems unlikely that an anthropologist would be issuing this warning; anthropologists study other cultures and attempt to do so without making judgments about right and wrong (not always successfully, mind you). And later events in the story make the idea that Trask is an anthropologist very unlikely. For example, after Professor X demands a TV debate with Trask, the latter brings out his sentinels:



Okay, so now we've got an anthropologist who's skilled at making robots? Then again, maybe he's not all that skilled, for the Sentinels quickly turn against him:



This is possibly the biggest cliche of the Silver Age: robots and computers were constantly rebelling against their masters. Indeed, the series Magnus, Robot Fighter which I have discussed several times recently, is based on that premise. But there are many, many other examples, like Computo rebelling against Brainiac 5, or Wonder Man (one of Superman's robots) who briefly replaced Superman.

It also ties into one of the odder conundrums of the Silver Age. While there was enormous respect for "science", the writers were considerably more suspicious of technology (i.e., applied science). To a certain extent, this may be due to the shoddy workmanship of electronic devices of the time.

The X-Men race to the TV studio in response to a mental summons from Professor X. Most of the Sentinels leave with Trask, but one remains behind. The X-Men have a minor battle with it, when it inexplicably keels over:



Professor X hears the robot say something about a "Master Mold" before it collapses. He is also able to get an impression of the HQ of the Sentinels. The team heads there, but they get split up and the Sentinels start catching them:

Trask, now a prisoner of the Sentinels himself, learns of the real mission of the X-Men:

This story also tells us the origin of the Beast, aka Hank McCoy. His father worked at an "atomic project", as an ordinary laborer, which of course raises the question where Hank got his prodigious loquacity (of course, in the real world, he got it from Kirby's earlier "Big Words" character, who got it from "Johnny" in the Doc Savage series, who probably picked it up from somewhere else). Hank discovered that he had extraordinary agility, which he put to good use on the gridiron:

His extraordinary feats brought him to the attention of Professor X, who invited him to join the X-Men.

In the finale (X-Men #16), the team escapes from the prison where the Sentinels were holding them, and using teamwork are able to hold them off briefly. Meanwhile, Professor X has determined what stopped the original Sentinel in the TV studio; it was a crystal which interfered with the transmission signals from the Master Mold to the Sentinels. Professor X has the crystal flown to the Sentinel's headquarters. At the same time, the Master Mold is forcing Trask to create more Sentinels:

But at the last moment, Trask rebels:

Trask destroys the Master Mold and is killed in the process. The X-Men manage to escape the Sentinel's HQ via some solid teamwork.

Comments: A terrific and exciting tale with lots of excellent characterization. If the entire X-Men run had been as solid as this one, it would not have been canceled before the end of the Silver Age.

The stories described in this post have been reprinted here: