Wonder Woman #92

This August 1957 issue is still done in the GA style with Harry Peter's inimitable style. The first story concerns a missing train that aliens have kidnapped. Wonder Woman foils their plot. More amusing is this side bit with Diana and Steve:







The second story is a 6-page short but it's a pretty good story, featuring Wonder Woman's longtime nemesis, Angle-Man. He tapes Wonder Woman commanding her invisible plane, then uses the recordings to prevent the plane from helping WW.

Wonder Woman foils a criminal circus gang in the third story.

TrueVision by ACG

This is arguably outside the normal realm of this blog, as it was published by ACG in 1954. During a brief era of popularity for 3-D comics, ACG came up with an interesting process that didn't require glasses.



As you can see, the result was visually pleasing:



The effect used several tricks. First, the extension of the drawings outside the frame appears more obvious with the black pages. Second, people are drawn in bright colors while backgrounds are pastels or light greys. Not terribly difficult but it was a nice break from the glasses of the era.

Amazing Spiderman Annual #1

I skipped over the annuals in the discussion of the Ditko Spiderman, so I thought I'd take a quick rowback and rectify that situation. Annuals had appeared in comics going back to the Golden Age, but DC really got things going in the 1960s with Superman Annual #1. Despite the name, the comics were so successful that DC issued some of the annuals on both a Winter and Summer basis.

I suspect a good reason for the success of the annuals is that they were often whim purchases by parents looking for something to keep the kids busy during a long drive. I know in my own family that was often the case as Mom would hand me three quarters and tell me to get a couple of the big comics and some candy bars (weren't those the days) before we'd take the four hour drive to Aunt Bev's cottage on the lake.

But with Spiderman Annual #1, in 1964, there was a slight problem for Marvel. They had no old Spiderman stories to reprint, so they decided to create a new, extra-length story with Spidey facing a group of his old foes, banded together (yet separate) called the Sinister Six.

Overall the story would be pretty insignificant, but for one small detail. The leader of the Sinister Six was Dr. Octopus. In order to put his plan into operation, he kidnaps Betty Brant from a street corner. Worse, Aunt May happens to be talking to Betty at the time and thus must be abducted as well.

This chance meeting between Aunt May and Doc Ock would cause endless consequences for Peter down the road. The Sinister Six included Sandman, Kraven, Electro, Vulture, and Mysterio in additon to Dr Octopus. Interestingly, the Green Goblin is not included. The battles are miniatures, with some only taking a page or two. Doc Ock is clearly Spiderman's greatest enemy at this point.

Update: One redeeming feature of the story (as pointed out in the comments by the Fortress Keeper) was that each of Spidey's battles featured a full-page spread by Ditko:



And there's an interesting pop culture reference. At the end Aunt May gets upset when she realizes that while she was out she missed the Beverly Hillbillies. In 1964 the Beverly Hillbillies became the only TV show to be #1 in its first season, and was a genuine phenomenon, although I suspect that had more to do with Boomer kids than old ladies in Forest Hills.

The Coming of Nemesis

American Comics Group was a long-lived company, lasting from the Golden Age right up to the end of the Silver Age. At various times, they carried almost every comics genre--Funny Animal, Horror, Science Fiction, War, Western, Teen, Romance, etc. But oddly the one genre they'd stayed away from for almost 20 years was Superhero. That changed in the mid-60s with Adventures into the Unknown #152, February 1965, featuring the arrival of Nemesis.

Nemesis was Steve Flint, an ace private investigator. He had been fighting the Mafia, who were attempting to sabotage a moon rocket attempt. Killed by the mobsters, he convinces the Grim Reaper to send him back to Earth from "the Unknown" (which bears a striking resemblance to heaven). Being non-mortal, Nemesis can fly, has great strength, and is invulnerable to harm. Nemesis succeeds where Flint couldn't and eventually the leader of the Mafia, Goratti, dies in battle with him. However, interestingly enough, Goratti is not finished, since now he resides in "the Unknown" as well.

The series lasted for two years before finally giving up the ghost after #170. Adventures into the Unknown lasted until #174 before expiring itself along with American Comics Group.

Amazing Spiderman 43-45

By these issues, Peter was becoming so "hip" that the series seemed more like Archie at times:





Of course, based on what we know now, Rock would rather have been dating Peter.

And then again the comic would suddenly turn topical:



Perhaps an early omen of the "relevant" comics of the later 1960s?

But fortunately, Stan didn't let the soap opera aspects of his comics reduce the number of punches thrown between Spidey and his enemies.

ASM #43 features the return of the Rhino, once again after JJJ's son (apparently unaware that Spiderman has killed the space spores that made him valuable). But Spidey manages to destroy his hard skin with a special type of webbing that Dr Curt Connors (aka the Lizard) has helped devise.

In the next issue Peter is at Grand Central when he spots Dr Connors, who looks troubled. Sure, enough, the doc dashes off as he feels the transformation back into the Lizard coming on. Once again his dreams of conquering the world with lizards like him resumes.

Spidey's left arm is hurt in his first battle with the Lizard, and it's put in a sling. This causes him continuing trouble for the next few issues; just another example of throwing rocks at the hero.

Spiderman has a climactic battle in the railroad yards with the Lizard. In a moment of inspiration, he angers the reptile, who follows him into a refrigerated car. The cold-blooded creature soon is powerless, and Spiderman is able to take him back to New York and give him an antidote.

But it's on the personal side that some of the most interesting stuff happens. As noted above, Flash Thompson is drafted into the army, a jarring reminder of how old these comics are, since nobody's been drafted since 1972. Betty Brant and Ned Leeds get engaged. And Peter's budding interest in Gwen Stacy is thrown for a loop by the arrival of Mary Jane. Harry Osborn goes out of his way to be more friendly to Peter, setting the stage for the next big change in Peter's life.

Amazing Spiderman #41-42: Petey Gets Hip

With Romita taking over on the art chores two issues earlier, Amazing Spiderman began a new direction with #41. Peter begins to show increasing maturity. He purchases a small scooter to get around town. He also runs into Betty Brant and realizes he no longer has anything in common with her.

But of course, the supervillains keep coming. A new one is introduced in this issue: The Rhino. JJJ's son, the astronaut (last seen way back in ASM #1) was affected by some space spores during his last mission and the commies would love to get their hands on him. The Rhino is obviously working for them.

However, his battle with Spidey's rather dull; Peter just tires the Rhino out and wins by default. We don't learn his origin, or how he got that armor-plated skin and horn. Peter rescues John Jameson, but needless to say, his dad isn't satisfied that Spidey's not the real villain.

In ASM #42, we learn that the spores Jameson's son was exposed to have had a delayed effect, turning him to an ultra-strong and invincible superhero. In the meantime, Spiderman has apparently gone bad, robbing a bank in broad daylight. Hearing this JJJ decides that his son should be the one to bring in Spidey.

We also see Peter and Gwen starting to show sparks of interest for each other. Later, Spiderman has a short battle with JJJ's son before getting away. In a flashback, we learn that Peter had been in the bank when he realized that one of the money bags being carried by a gun was ticking. Hence his robbery was really just getting rid of a bomb.

When JJJ discovers this, he tries to call his son off the chase. But John Jameson is no longer rational; he's determined to defeat Spidey whether he robbed the bank or not. But Spidey defeats him by knocking him into an electrical dynamo which kills the spores and returns the astronaut to his normal self.

But the big shocker comes at the end of this story, as Mary Jane Watson, who has been hinted at for several years but never actually seen, finally makes her debut:

Another Great War Cover

Jerry Grandenetti at his finest.

Archie the Trendspotter

I haven't covered Archie Comics in this blog so far, but here's a terrific bit on Archie's slavish devotion to the latest fad.

Atom #1-3

In Atom #1, we meet the first recurring villain in the Atom saga; The Plant-Man, aka Jason Woodrue. Although human-appearing he's secretly from another dimension, and has powers over some extraordinarily destructive plants. He attempts to take over the country, but the Atom foils his plot with the help of a pixie-like flower spirit named Maya. The story follows the plot outline that was established in the Showcase issues, with the Atom getting involved to help one of Jean Loring's clients. Woodrue would appear again in the Atom and had a significant role in some Swamp Thing stories much later.

The second story featured something of a surprise; it was the return of the villain from Showcase #34, the first Atom story. The surprise in this case was because the villain (Carl Ballard) was non-costumed and non-superpowered. I can't think of an earlier Silver Age case of a return DC villain having neither of those characteristics, with the obvious exception of Lex Luthor, who's clearly a special case.

In the third issue things really got rolling. The Atom's most durable opponent, Chronos, makes his first appearance, as does the Time Pool, his method of time travel. As I have remarked in the past, DC generally found time travel an irresistabile topic, and each of the DC heroes had his own method.

In the Atom's case, it was Professor Alpheus V. Hyatt's Time Pool, which was basically a magnet at the end of a fishing pole. The Atom goes back to the time of Aladdin, where he plays the part of the genie in the lamp.

Chronos was only one of many clock-related DC villains, but he outlasted most of the others. He commits clock-related crimes with clock-related equipment.

Return of the Hulk

Actually the Hulk never really went away. Although his own comic was cancelled, the Hulk popped up in the first couple issues of the Avengers and in Amazing Spiderman #14. Then, in Tales to Astonish #59, Giant Man decides to try to find the Hulk and get him to rejoin the Avengers. Unfortunately, the Hulk mistakes his interest for a threat and so they have a battle before General Ross, believing the Hulk to be alone due to a trick by the evil Human Top, fires an atomic shell at them. Fortunately the Hulk catches the shell and hurls it to where the Top is hiding.

About 3/4 of the way through this story, Marvel announces that effective with the very next issue, the Hulk will be taking over the backup spot in Tales to Astonish.

Steve Ditko, who'd stepped into Jack Kirby's role as artist and plotter with The Incredible Hulk #6, resumed those chores in TTA #60. In the first story back, Bruce Banner realizes that it is stress which turns him into the Hulk. Unfortunately, he cannot avoid stress because of his work for the military.

He has been designing a powerful robot that is virtually indestructible. Unfortunately a spy steals it and only the Hulk can hope to defeat it. During the heat of battle, the Hulk's emotions overload with anger and he converts back to Banner (getting away before the spy in the robot can see him).

TTA #61 continues the story. Major Glenn Talbot arrives at the base; he will be Banner's chief rival for Betty Ross' attentions for years. Talbot is convinced that Banner is a spy, and he enlists Betty to try to help him find Bruce, who is out in the desert looking for the robot with an electronic scanner.

Talbot shows himself to be a hero when the robot tries to kill them with a boulder, pushing Betty out of the way while risking his own life (fortunately the Hulk saves them both). She sees the major in a new way. Meanwhile the Hulk is battling the robot. He knocks the robot into a bottomless pit, then saves the base from a rocket the spy had sent its way. However, the blast from the rocket leaves him kayoed, and helpless as Talbot and Ross bind him up in an outfit ironically designed by Bruce Banner himself.

The third part of the story is in TTA #62. The Chameleon, last seen in Amazing Spiderman #1, comes to the army base, working for a mysterious figure called The Leader. He impersonates both Ross and Banner, escaping with a Gamma-Ray bomb and Betty. But the Hulk chases him down and in fear for his life, the Chameleon tries throwing the bomb at the Green Giant. Of course, it just turns him back into Banner.

Comments: One of the obvious flaws in the series is that Banner is constantly being found out in the desert, with raggedy, torn purple pants. What, nobody notices those are the same pants the Hulk was wearing?



Prior Entries on the Hulk:

Incredible Hulk 1-3
Incredible Hulk 4-6

Birth of the Silver Age Atom

After the relaunches of the Flash, Green Lantern and Aquaman in Showcase and Hawkman in Brave and Bold, the next Golden Age character to get a face lift for the Silver Age was the Atom. In the 1940s, the Atom had no super powers, but was simply Al Pratt, a short man who was an excellent fighter. For the Silver Age, DC decided to make him a shrinkable superhero.

Ray Palmer is introduced in Showcase #34 (September-October 1961) as a graduate student in physics at Ivy University. He's studying ways to shrink matter using a piece of a white dwarf star, but his experiments explode, limiting the utility of his process. He's got a girlfriend (Jean Loring), who refuses his offers of marriage because she wants to prove herself as a lawyer before settling down.

While hiking in a cave with some youngsters, Ray and Jean are trapped by a cave-in. Ray discovers a tiny hole to the outside, and using a crystal from the white dwarf, manages to shrink himself down in size (fortunately his clothes also shrink) and enlarge the hole so he can help Jean and the children escape.

In the second story, Ray puts his newly discovered power to work fighting crime. He designs a costume for himself:



We learn that he has the capability of changing his weight in addition to his size, but retains his full strength. He helps Jean win her first case, proving innocent a young woman named Alma Wilson. Along the way we learn one of the Atom's patented tricks: He can dial a number on the phone, then hop on the sound waves and travel to the other end of the line.

Ray has an interesting reason for fighting crime. Since Jean won't marry him until she's succesful, the Atom's help by solving the crimes for which her defendants have been accused may end up getting her to become Mrs. Palmer.

In the third tryout issue, we meet Doctor Loring, Jean's dad, who's another scientist. Alma Wilson, Jean Loring's client, returns as well.

The tryout seems to have succeeded, as the Atom was awarded his own magazine during the summer of 1962.

The Giant Screen TV Thing

DC's heroes had them decades before the rest of us:



Batman and Batwoman had a nice plasma TV:



Some of the villains even had them:



One astronomer hooked one up to his telescope:

Amazing Spiderman 39-40

I'm probably not the first to notice this, but when Johnny Romita took over for Steve Ditko on Amazing Spiderman Stan Lee made it an important issue featuring Green Goblin, then when Gil Kane took over for Romita Stan Lee made it an important issue featuring the Green Goblin.

At any rate the key event in these two stories is that the Green Goblin learns Spiderman's secret identity. This is not unprecedented, by any means, especially when you consider the way the story is resolved.

As the story begins we learn that the Goblin is ready to strike. Peter is not in the best of health; he's battling a cold and while the family physician is treating him, the doc warns him that any shock could kill his aunt. The Goblin employs a gang which manages to hit Spidey with a gimmick that wipes out his spider-sense. Without his warning signal, Spiderman changes back into Peter Parker without realizing that he's being observed by his most deadly enemy.

The Goblin tails Peter back to his aunt's house, then attacks. He quickly subdues Parker and takes him back to a hideout by the wharfs. There he reveals himself as the father of Harry Osborn, a new classmate at Empire State who's already scrapped with Peter.

There follow several flashback sequences as we learn how Osborn, determined to be a success in business, and later crime, neglected his son along the way. We also get a recap of the prior Green Goblin-Spiderman battles. Finally they battle one last time. Spiderman manages to kayo the Goblin, and when Osborn regains consciousness, he has amnesia about the last several years.

Of course, in this sense, Stan Lee was just doing what comic writers had done since the 1940s. There was a tradition that if anybody discovered the hero's identity in the course of a story, he or she must either die or suffer amnesia before the story ends.

Unfortunately, a predictable by-product of this outcome was that the Green Goblin's appearances would become less frequent. Indeed, in the next five years, Gobby appeared only once, and that in the oversized Spectacular Spiderman; more frequent appearances would have made the amnesia result increasingly hard to believe.

Tales of the Bizarro World Part 1

Following his return in Action #254 and #255, Bizarro made several more appearances. Apparently the character was popular enough that DC gave him a continuing feature in Adventure starting with #285, the June 1961 issue. This had a cascading effect. Congorilla was dropped after a long history as Congo Bill that stretched through More Fun to Action (for over 200 consecutive issues) to Adventure. Congo Bill was at the time the third-longest running feature in DC Comics, after Superman and Batman.

Aquaman was bumped from the backup spot in Adventure that he had held down for almost 15 years. He was briefly sent over to Detective, causing the cancellation of Roy Raymond, who exposed frauds on his tv show in that slot for about 12 years. After eight issues there, he was sent to World's Finest, resulting in the cancellation of yet another long-running series, Tommy Tomorrow (although DC would soon give the series several tryout issues).

Just another example of how Bizarro tended to bump things around, I guess. Now, when Bizarro appears on Earth, he's trouble for Superman and a somewhat tragic figure. But on his own world he's an everyman, with a wife and children.

Yes, children. Never mind that we had been assured from the beginning that Bizarros weren't alive, somehow they could reproduce sexually because Bizarro #1 and Bizarro Lois Lane #1 had both a son and a daughter, and there were many other children.

The Bizarro stories often focused on the oddities of that world:



The writers, egged on by readers' suggestions, came up with more and more examples of just how bizarre the Bizarros were. The Bizarro washing machine takes clean clothes and makes them dirty. The Bizarro children go off to school, where they try hard to learn the wrong answers. This causes some ironic problems:



In the second story we learn the Bizarro Code:



We also discover the name of the Bizarro planet: Htrae (Earth spelled backwards).

Bizarro, Take II

Bizarro returned in Action Comics #254, July 1959. Lex Luthor happened to discover an old newspaper story about Superboy's initial encounter with Bizarro during a visit to Smallville. He steals the plans to Professor Dalton's duplicator machine, and recreates it. Then he lures Superman to his laboratory and beams the Man of Steel. Sure enough, Bizarro appears. However, much to Luthor's dismay, the creature is not controllable and indeed, brings him promptly to jail.

Bizarro also tries to do good deeds, but because he's imperfect, he makes mistakes which are misinterpreted. He soon finds himself under an all-out assault. Then in a surprising move he tells the generals to stop trying to kill him; he will do it himself. He tries flying into a mountain but of course with Superman's powers and invulnerability he just bores a tunnel through it. Jimmy gets a photo of the action, and Bizarro overhears Lois exclaiming what a great photo it is. He assumes that she's fallen in love with him, and of course falls for her.

He brings her to a shack he has constructed on an island and proposes, but she admits that she loves only Superman. Bizarro has an idea; perhaps if he focuses the duplicator ray on himself, it will create another Superman. It does, but this one talks as poorly as Bizarro himself (although Lois doesn't notice this at first). But when she realizes it, the New Bizarro reveals himself as conceited, unlike the humble Bizarro on whom he's based. Briefly Superman and Bizarro team up to fight the New Bizarro, who is eventually killed by Kryptonite.

But Superman and Bizarro continue to battle over Lois until she has a brilliant idea. She creates an imperfect duplicate of herself for Bizarro to love. He and Bizarro Lois Lane go off together to live on their own planet.

Bizarro's popularity is not hard to understand. Gee, tries to do good, but sometimes screws up because of not thinking things through? That wouldn't describe most adolescent boys, would it? Especially since it's understood that Bizarro's not evil, he's just misguided. In addition, he lets the reader feel a little superior: we may screw up but at least we recognize it. Bizarro never regrets anything.

Prior entry in the Bizarro series.

Apes Playing Baseball? It Must Be the Silver Age!

The Fortress Keeper has a terrific post (his 100th) on Wonder Woman playing baseball with simians. Hilarious stuff; be sure to check out WW's unorthodox batting style!

Ahab and the White Submarine

DC typically did not launch new comic books without some sort of trial run first in Showcase or Brave & Bold. But in May 1964, DC broke with that tradition for Captain Storm, allowing him to debut in his own book. Captain Bill Storm skippered a PT boat in the South Pacific during World War II. During a battle with a Japanese sub, his boat was cut in two and he lost his left leg below the knee. The enemy sub commander guns down all of his crew, then leaves Captain Storm alive.

He is determined to return to active duty, but his commanding officer is skeptical he can handle the job with a wooden leg. With the help of a no-nonsense nurse, Storm begins his rehabilitation, eventually proving to his superiors that he is worthy of another command.

Now it is the men under him who question his ability. He's already lost one crew; will his second tour be another disaster? This suspicion is highlighted in the first issue in the men being unwilling to call him "Skipper"; it's always "Sir" or "Lieutenant".

Eventually he proves his worth by showing his ability to use his wits, and his fearless fighting when wits won't get the job done.

There are some obvious parallels with Captain Storm and the real world at the time. First, obviously, the incident with the ship cut in half by an enemy vessel is inspired by PT-109 with Storm as John F. Kennedy. In addition, there were many popular movies and TV shows with World War II themes at the time, including McHale's Navy, which also featured a PT boat captain.

The comic itself makes reference to Ahab and Moby Dick; of course the equivalent for Captain Storm is the Japanese submarine which killed his first crew. In issue #1, it appears that PT-47 has destroyed that sub, but this appears to have been conveniently forgotten in later issues to keep Storm's revenge motive alive.

Also apparently forgotten was the name of the nurse who helped Storm get back on his feet again. In #1:



But in the second issue:

Super Hippie

I confess I had forgotten about this guy:



The smoking banana peel is a gag that runs throughout the story. According to a popular myth of the times, invented by an underground newspaper as a spoof, you could get high by smoking a banana peel.

Lady Blackhawk Update!

The always-alert Laura Gjovaag pointed out in the comments that Lady Blackhawk is currently appearing in Birds of Prey as Oracle's pilot.

I'd also like to update some information from that post. I had not read Blackhawk #140 at that point and didn't have access to scans of that issue. I noted:

She returned many times over the years, and appears to have been inducted as a full-fledged member of the team in Blackhawk #140 (don't have the story to check, but her next appearance opens with this line):

It is a great day for Lady Blackhawk when she joins the famed team on her first flight patrol.

This is unusual compared with the other female characters that DC added to their line: Batwoman was initially forbidden by Batman to operate, while Supergirl had to act as Superman's "secret weapon".

Perhaps I was a little optimistic there. Luckily for me, a friend managed to scan Blackhawk #140 and I've now read the story in question.

Lady Blackhawk performs magnificently in this adventure. When the Blackhawks are captured by The Scavenger, she deduces their location, then flies to rescue them. She isn't above using her feminine wiles here:



Later she uses a boomerang to kayo The Scavenger himself. But alas, my hope that Blackhawk would prove more willing to adapt to changing times than most of the DC heroes was dashed:



Maybe someday, we'll hold a vote on whether to give you honorary membership? I mean, what the heck is that? Give me a break! This is not like Blackhawk #133, where Lady Blackhawk's many positive qualities are balanced by some negatives. She's behaved like a superstar, saving the rest of the team twice.

How Many Comics Make Up the Silver Age?

I dunno is the short answer. I'd like to is the longer one. Mike at DC Indexes, which is a terrific site, has a master list of DC Comics. If we just say 1955-1970 is the Silver Age, DC published 5,863 comics. From a friend's list of Marvel Comics I got 1,672 for the 1960s alone.

While there weren't as many publishers as in the Golden Age, there were some substantial publishers--Archie, Dell, ACG, Quality before they sold their titles to DC, Charlton, Harvey, Fawcett. I have a master list of all Harvey Comics which shows 6,753 issues but I don't know how many of them are Silver Age. If we estimate that it's 1/4 of their total, that's another 1,690 comics which would put us over 9,100. Archie would seem likely to have had at least another 1800 or so, which would put us near 11,000. So I'm pretty sure the answer's somewhere north of 12,000.