Lois Lane's Romances

As I have written before, DC's comics were in some ways ahead of Marvel's when it came to girlfriends. DC had a lot of savvy, career-oriented women as love interests. But that's only half the story; DC's gals still tended to be comedic foils for the heroes. None more so than Lois Lane, who supposedly loved Superman passionately, but was willing to dump him at the drop of a hat.



Maybe it was just the blue suit?



Any superhero will do apparently.

Or all of them:



Or even a super-villain:



Apparently Lois doesn't have a long memory:



Or has she forgotten that she used almost those exact words to express her love for Astounding Man?



She also had some exotic boyfriends:





If Supes isn't available, maybe she could steal his dad?



Update: Mark Engblom posted yesterday on Superman's many girlfriends. In Action #370, we learn that Earth had not been Kal-El's second planet; that his rocket initially landed on another world, where he did not have super powers, and where he lived, married a woman named Lasil, and had a son named Vol. Eventually, of course, he was transformed back into a toddler and sent to Earth, where only a couple of hours had passed (since time in this alternative world passed much quicker than in ours).

Batman's Weird Transformations

Mark Engblom has a terrific post up on transformations in general, which inspired me to create this one.

As the character of Batman became more mature in the public image, the writers often had to go to great lengths to come up with something entertaining. Inevitably they hit on the idea of turning Batman into something quite different.

The obvious first step was to reduce Batman and Robin in size. This happened not once, but twice:



And:



Tiny Batman, what else can we do? In Detective #248, they hit on the obvious:



That's actually a pretty terrific little story and the third to last Detective Batman by Sprang, but it symbolized a flood of Batman transformation stories that plagued the Silver Age.

Consider these. Batman Old:


Batman Young:



And of course the Diapered Detective:



This particular story ranks as the worst Batman story of the Silver Age.

Batman the alien:



Flatman and Ribbon:



Good grief, more aliens:



Bat Kong:



Even in World's Finest, Batman could not maintain his normal body for long:

Now This Is a Silly Villain

It's off-topic here, because the comic is from 1948, but I couldn't resist writing about this one. There have been plenty of bizarre villains in the history of comic books, but you're going to have to work hard to beat this guy:



Meet Pinball. As has been traditional in comics for ages, his head resembles his namesake--see the Vulture, the Clock and the Shark for some other examples. His schtick consists of sending wealthy men pinball machines with some theme that will amuse them--cars for an auto racing magnate, jewels for a jeweler, etc. Of course, the machines are gimmicked to somehow incapacitate the recipient so Pinball and his minions can rob him at their leisure.

The Star Spangled Kid encounters him when his dad (a wealthy banker) receives a machine. As is also traditional in these stories, when the villain is captured the hero must close the tale with a pun on the theme:

Random Cover of the Day: Mystery In Space #31

The GCD is down right now, so I can't check the artist, but it's a beautiful cover with terrific inking and dynamic perspective. This is a classic DC "puzzle" cover, where the goal was to get the kid to pick up the comic and find out how exactly the earth managed to get sliced in half like an orange.

Update: As pointed out by my old buddy Snard in the comments, the cover is by Gil Kane, one of the more prolific artists of the Silver Age.

Random Cover of the Day: Phantom Stranger #6

Comments: Classic headless horseman by Neal Adams. Note the way the tree draws our attention up to the title after we first focus on the couple in the car and the man on the horse. Note the mysterious castle across the bridge; it's not hard to guess that the headless horseman will turn out to be their host.

Random Cover of the Day: House of Mystery #79

Comments: It's a "Great Scott!" cover; DC used that as its all-purpose expression of amazement. What can we deduce from this cover about the story inside? Note the title, "The Creature from Inner Space". Does this indicate that the creature came from inside the earth? Why is the protagonist driving a boat? Did he come across the creature inside a cave on an island?

If it's burning the water, it must be losing energy, right? What powers the creature?

Decent dramatic action by Jack Kirby according to the GCD, although the cover story was by Ruben Moreira.

Lessons in Bad Characterization: Brave & Bold #64

The Brave & Bold team-up stories of the 1960s pose a problem for Batman fans. They're bad, but that's not really the crux; there were many bad stories during the Batman Silver Age. The problem is that they were created by writers who weren't familiar with the characters enough, and edited by George Kashdan, who apparently didn't worry too much about little things like continuity or characterization.

The result can be ignored for some of the heroes involved; not many Supergirl or Wonder Woman fans obsess over the ridiculously girlish way they acted in B&B #63. But Batman has a tougher time, because there are so many Batman teamups from 1966 on that it constitutes a significant body of work.

There are some stories that must be either ignored or palmed off as involving Batman from Earth II. How else can you explain Bruce Wayne appearing as an adult in WWII London? Answer: You can't. It was ludicrous in the 1960s; now of course it would make him an 80-year-old codger.

Let's look at Brave & Bold #64 for an example of the horrific characterization that typified these stories.

In the story Batman improbably rescues a gal about to be shot by a bowman using his rope:



She faints and they recognize each other:



"But why was that bow buzzard trying to ventilate your beautiful torso?" Timeless dialogue!

Okay, so we get the inevitable flashback. Seems Marcia was a beautiful but spoiled rich bitch, and Batman had both rescued and tamed her:



Batman assumes that's the end of it, but she has different ideas:



Why, yes, I'd be happy to have a crack shot on my team, never mind that my parents were gunned down by a crook. And before you know it, when they're not busting up crime gangs, they're steaming up the windows of the Batmobile. But then she dumps him, which brings us up to the point where they rediscover each other.

Now, that's pretty horrific characterization for Batman. Dumped by a society chick? We learn that she went on to become engaged to another man, named Nicky. Nicky was determined not to live off her inheritance, so he... became a thief. Say what? He's too noble by half!

Well, you can see the problem already, right? Here's Batman mooning over a gal who dumped him for a lowlife. But it gets even worse. She wants him to return a jewel that Nicky stole before he died (she's available again). Batman returns the emerald, but is surprised that the newspapers haven't remarked on its return. Then it turns out that the commissioner has received a photograph of Batman returning the gem, but it looks like he's taking it. He agrees to go to jail pending trial (huh?) but that doesn't prevent another teary-eyed scene:



With Batman in jail, we learn (sort of) the real plot. Marcia is actually a crook working for a syndicate known as Cyclops. She has managed to free Eclipso from the body he shares with Dr Bruce Gordon (hmmmm, Bruce Gordon?) so that he can join her on a criminal rampage throughout Gotham City. But it turns out that Marcia has been forced to work for Cyclops because they threatened to kill her dad. So it's okay that she dumped our hero, because she did it for family. Sheesh!

The Crack of Doom

What do you see when the Fantastic Four's worst enemy bends over?


Dr Doom was far from an original character. The name, Dr Doom, had commonly been used in comic books for villains. The concept of a man hiding his tragically disfigured face behind a mask goes back at least to the Phantom of the Opera.

But in other ways, Dr Doom was truly unique, one of the great villains of the Marvel Silver Age. He first appeared in Fantastic Four #5, and right from the start he showed his difference from most other villains. For starters, Doom was honorable, after a fashion, as Reed notes here:



In that same story, we get the first telling of Doom's oft-repeated and frequently embellished origin:



Lee and Kirby often ended stories with Dr Doom apparently dead; this was something of a nod to the Golden Age Batman tales with the Joker always dying at the end and yet returning again.







In Fantastic Four Annual #2, (Summer 1964), we learn the full history of Von Doom. His parents had been gypsies. His mother (a witch) died when he was young, and his father (a healer) was persecuted and blamed for the death of a princess he failed to save. We get a slightly revised version of the accident, with Reed the (almost) savior:



We also learn that Doom is the ruler of a distant European land called Latveria in that story; this will become a longtime plotpoint in the Marvel Universe.

More Doom to Come!

The Silver Age Superman

The Silver Age Superman was dramatically different from the Golden Age Superman. Aside from the very early stories, the Golden Age Superman tales tended to be more of a whimsical series. Perhaps sensing that Superman was too powerful to face ordinary crooks, the Golden Age Superman generally found himself up against conmen like J. Wilber Wolfingham, or other enemies who used guile and cunning like the Prankster or Luthor.

The other option was to weaken Superman, and this DC, especially under Weissinger's editorship, began pursuing with a vengeance. Although Green Kryptonite had been introduced in the comics as early as 1949, and in the Superman radio series years earlier than that, it had only featured in occasional stories prior to the Silver Age.

In Adventure Comics #255, Red Kryptonite made its first appearance in a Superboy story. Red K had an unpredictable effect on Kryptonians, and what's more, each piece affected them differently, conveniently for plot purposes a period of exactly 24 hours. It would be quite a task to list all the changes that Red K worked on Superman over the years, but a short listing includes making him only able to speak and write Kryptonese, turning him into a dragon, causes him to lose his powers temporarily, and even split him into two people--one Superboy, one Clark Kent.



DC expanded the Kryptonite line to three varieties in Superman #157. Quex-Ul, a Phantom Zone Prisoner, is released and vows to get revenge on Superman for his imprisonment. He has observed Gold K taking away the powers of a Krytonian beast permanently, and knows it will do the same to Superman.

Of course, the problem with Gold K is that being permanent, DC could never use it on Superman, only threaten its use.

In addition to Kryptonite, we learned that Superman had another vulnerability: Magic. This required the return of a Golden Age villain, Mr Mxyzptlk (although in the GA he was known as Mxyztplk), who proceeded to appear with alarming regularity. Several other characters used magic to cause trouble for Superman as well:



We also learned that Superman lost his powers under the influence of a sun that was not yellow, like Earth's:


The funny thing is that whenever the plot called for Superman to pick up the nearest mountain, they'd have him do it without blinking an eye, which just kept up the pressure to weaken him.

I've Got Something to Tell You, Honey...

In Flash #165 (Nov 1966), Barry Allen and Iris West finally get married. This was not DC's first wedding; Aquaman and Mera had finally tied the knot in Aquaman #18 (Nov-Dec 1964), Hawkman and Hawkgirl had been married when they arrived on Earth, and Ralph and Sue Dibney were wed immediately before the Elongated Man story in Detective #327 (May 1964). Reed Richards and Sue Storm over at Marvel had also married in Fantastic Four Annual #3 (1965).

But this wedding was different because it was the first time a superhero had gotten married without his wife knowing his double identity. This created some additional tension for the Scarlet Speedster:



So for the next year we would periodically see Barry musing his dilemma.

Ironically, this point had supposedly been settled before in Flash #156. An alien had arrived on Earth, letting everybody know that Barry Allen was the Flash. But at the end Barry has a chance to go backwards in time and change that memory. But he asks Iris for permission:



Despite that pledge, he finally decides to do the big reveal on their first anniversary. Of course there are only two real ways to go with this kind of moment from a plotting perspective, and DC chose the more amusing one:



The story (as it happens) was also Carmine Infantino's swan song on the Flash, so this is an especially poignant moment.

Our Army At War #92

A buddy of mine scanned in this issue and I thought I'd do a solo issue review. Here's the cover:

(Cover art by Jerry Grandinetti)

This was the March, 1960 issue. The cover story features Sgt. Rock. Rock is a no-nonsense soldier presiding over a group of men known (ironically) as Easy Company. In this story, he's not only battling the Germans, but his own men who have become superstitious that a rabbit's foot owned by the squad's flame-thrower operator is responsible for their good fortune:

(Art by Joe Kubert, who created Sgt. Rock)

In the end, of course, the soldiers learn their lesson, that their trinkets and charms were not responsible for the luck of Easy Company. Unfortunately, they transfer their superstition:


Comments: Excellent Bob Kanigher story with terrific art as usual by Kubert. More than anything else, it's Kubert's inks that give his characters faces so much emotion.

There is a short feature on the Fighting 41st infantry division, known as the Jungleers for their fighting in the South Pacific, followed by "Bait for a Desert Hawk". A German pilot and an American pilot find their fates tied to a battle between a falcon and a sparrow hawk. The German and the falcon win the first battle, but the American copies a trick used by the sparrow hawk in a rematch and is successful as well.

Comments: Nice compact (6 pages) story with art by Russ Heath.

"D-Day Commandos" is the tale of a pre-invasion commando who is supposed to be guided to his target by three men of the Maquis. However, when he arrives at his first waypoint, he is startled to discover his guide is a boy. The lad turns out to be both brave and intelligent, saving the commando for the next waypoint. This time the person awaiting him is an old man, who again proves resourceful and courageous. Now it is up to the last guide, who is young and manly. And a Nazi intent on sabotaging the mission. The commando realizes that the young boy and the old man did their jobs, so he must do his by defeating the Nazi and blowing up the bridge to help the invasion forces.

Comments: Terrific story, in the compact style of the Silver Age; all the action described above (and more) comes in six pages and only 33 panels.

The Marvel Girlfriends

This is not the first time I have remarked on this, but when you look at the Silver Age DC they were miles ahead of Marvel in terms of their treatment of women.

Look at the Silver Age DC girlfriends/love interests and their occupations:

Flash: Iris West, newspaper reporter
Green Lantern: Carol Ferris, aircraft plant executive
The Atom: Jean Loring, defense attorney
Hawkman: Hawkgirl (Shayera Hol), policewoman

Now let's try the comparison with Marvel:

Hulk: Betty Ross, daughter of a general
Spiderman: Betty Brant, secretary
Thor: Jane Foster, nurse
Iron Man: Pepper Potts, secretary
Daredevil: Karen Page, secretary

Are we seeing a trend here? I don't even know if Betty Ross had a job in the old Hulk stories; wasn't she more or less a housekeeper for her father? I left Aquaman out of the mix because for some odd reason his Silver Age adventures did not start with a romantic interest; it was not until Aquaman #11 that Mera appeared on the scene. And you can make a case for talking about Sue Storm being a scientist, although it might help if Stan and Jack had shown her mixing up some chemicals in her spare time instead of trying on new clothes and hairstyles.

All the Marvel heroines performed one valuable function; they made excellent hostages. Let's consider Jane Foster, for example:







Now it is not entirely fair to criticize this as sexist; it's also provides strong motivation for the hero. Hostages help balance out the power differences between superheroes and the (often non-super) villains. And it's not as if only women were used in this way; Jimmy Olsen and Robin often found themselves kidnapped as well.

You Can Learn A Lot From Comics

Sometimes even I'm surprised at what turns out to be well-grounded. I was reading Atom #10 (Dec 1963-Jan 1964). The second story in that issue is called The Mysterious Swan-Maiden, in which Jean Loring is required to act as defense counsel for a swan.



Now looking at it, I thought that citation looked ridiculous, but when I typed it into Google (and Google corrected a minor error by asking if I wanted "fitzh abr barre pl 290"), I was taken to this page from a book on Privacy and the Constitution, where indeed the topic of animals being guilty of crimes is discussed:

The reader will see in this passage, as has been remarked already of the Roman law, that a distinction is taken between things which are capable of guilt and those which are not--between living and dead things; but he will also see that no difficulty was felt in treating animals as guilty.

Gardner Fox (who wrote the story) obviously knew his legal precedents! I should add that this discussion comes in a section on liability (i.e., torts), and that animals can not really be brought to criminal trial; that's a little bit of literary license.

Yet More DC Scientofascism

I've talked a number of times in the past about the weird scientific fascism that many DC comics of the Silver Age appeared to endorse, as well as the odd conflict between DC's apparent reverence for science and its decidedly ambivalent attitude towards the products of that science. Here's another classic and bizarre example, from Adventure Comics #267 (Dec 1959).

The Legion of Super-Heroes (making their second appearance) have apparently taken up residence in Smallville. They perform a few heroic maneuvers, but treat Superboy coldly. Eventually the mayor of Smallville decides there's no need for the Boy of Steel, and Superboy tearfully leaves Earth. While in space, he comes across a horde of super-beings, all headed for one planet, which turns out to be a planet devoted to a tribute to Superboy himself. However, when he arrives:



Sentence first, trial afterwards, eh? A page or so later, they explain the reason for imprisoning him:



Just imagine the uproar if an administration tried to institute preventive detention, based on the fact that you're going to commit a crime five years hence. But, you know, it's just scientifically logical. Provided, of course, that the "futuroscope" works, which, of course it doesn't.

The Second Origin of the Second Two-Face

Two-Face was one of Batman's better villains. Harvey Kent (later changed to Dent) was a handsome District Attorney in Gotham City, with a penchant for prosecuting mobsters. When he prosecuted Boss Maroni, the mobster scarred the left side of the DA's face with a vial of acid. Driven mad by his sudden bizarre appearance, Kent became a lawbreaker, using the "two" theme in his crimes. In keeping with his dual nature, Two-Face had a silver dollar with two heads on it, one of which he disfigured. He would flip the coin and if the good side came up, he would donate the proceeds to a charity, blending in a little Robin Hood with the obvious Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde characterization.

But Kent eventually repented his evil ways and with the help of his fiancee and a plastic surgeon was able to resume his prior life. The saga was told over a series of stories appearing in Detective Comics #66, 68 and 80. Two-Face was clearly a popular character, and yet the editors seemed reluctant to disturb the happiness of the Kents. There was one story after those with Two-Face, but it turned out to be the Kents' butler, wearing a mask.

In Batman #68, a new, real, Two-Face was introduced. As it happened my introduction to this story came when it was reprinted in Batman Annual #3, which is effectively the only appearance for either of the Two-Faces in the Silver Age (yes, I know about the World's Finest issue, but that was Batman dressing up as Two-Face). In the story, Paul Sloane is a handsome actor, portraying Harvey Kent on a Hollywood TV set, when something goes terribly wrong:



It's a memorable moment, and so when a friend of mine showed me his copy of Batman #68, I was looking forward to rereading it in the original. I was startled to discover that the above scene does not appear there. Instead there's this:



Note also the black and white image as viewed from the TV in the original versus the color image in the latter; another difference between 1963 and 1950. I remember the first time I saw a color TV at about 1962 being completely blown away by the idea that they could improve on black and white.

It turns out that the prop man had put acid in the bottle as revenge for Sloane stealing his girlfriend. I suspect that the Comics Code Authority, while allowing the disfigurement to be presented, demanded that the love triangle be edited out of the scene when it was reprinted in Batman Annual #3.