Well, I might as well face it, I'm addicted to DC's Showcase Presents Volumes!
They've released some groovalicious collections so far! Here's my rundown of what I've read thus far:
GREEN LANTERN: I started reviewing these in another thread, but overall I thought they were really good. It's nice to see the introduction of many concepts that would later become fundamental to the DCU, such as the Anti-Matter Universe/Qward/the Guardians/etc. There's a definite sense of a legend being built here.
JUSTICE LEAGUE: This was interesting. I liked seeing these early stories, but they left me kind of flat in a way. Again, it's nice to see the origins of various long-term DCU concepts, but the stories themselves seemed kind of boring. And the various heroes really don't seem better together than they do individually. Maybe they'd be better a second time through?
GREEN ARROW: This one was a struggle to get through. Almost all the stories are short back-up tales, and very gimmicky. I don't know. Somehow I just couldn't muster enough suspension of disbelief to get these to work for me.
HOUSE OF MYSTERY: Incredible! Easily the best volume I've read thus far! I absolutely love these stories! Some are certainly better than others, but there are some real gems.
SUPERMAN: When I first read these stories in the Man of Tomorrow Archives, I was a little let down. They're much better the second time through, though, and the second half are even better, as Superman fights clasic villains such as Luthor and Bizarro. The first Brainiac story still stands out as one of the best Superman stories I've ever read. I'm still not quite finished, but my overall impression is extremely positive.
METAMORPHO: Haven't read anything but the first story yet, but it looks promising.
JONAH HEX: Still haven't picked this one up yet, though I'm looking forward to it.
SUPERMAN FAMILY: Coming out this week, and I'm definitely looking forward to it! There better be lots of Jimmy Olsen in drag!
Posted by Cobalt Kid on :
Eryk, which issues are in the House of Mystery one? I've never read much of HoM, or House of Secrets for that matter (with Mark Merlin).
I demand this review thread be continuall updated!
The GL ones are some of the best DC had to offer in the Silver Age, and I really want to one day get around to reading all the Superman Silver Age stories.
I think the later JLA stories are much better, especially once the Atom & Hawkman join and the stories are more fluid. Their also more action packed which helps them move.
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
The House of Mystery is #174 through #196, which (I discover after a little research) is apparently when they returned to horror/suspense/mystery tales after briefly becoming a super-hero magazine in the mid-sixties.
Posted by MLLASH on :
Hmm. I was debatng the HoM one; you just sold me on it.
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
Definitely go for the HoM! I think you'll like it!
I'm currently reading the Metamorpho volume. For some reason, I keep thinking it would make a really good cartoon. Fairly simplisitic characters, everything dramatically overplayed, but lots of fun.
Posted by Tamper Lad on :
I feel the same way about the JLA stories. I have the first 3 volumes of archives. They're a bit blah.
I think it's the rigid format of the stories with heroes breaking off into pairs to face the threat. Sometimes teams chosen for no better reason than "Hey Wonder Woman, I haven't worked with you in a while."
I know they were trying to recapture the format of the JSA in All-Star but the golden age books had two or three times as many pages to tell the individual tales.
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
Part of it is that they all tend come off as very generic super-heroes, and you don't really get the feel of what makes them unique. Contrast that to the first GL/Flash teamup in the GL Showcase, where you really get much more feel for Hal and Barry as individuals. After reading that story, I feel like I've got a feel for how Barry was portrayed in that era, even though I've never read the early Flash stories. I don't get that feeling for who Barry is after reading an entire volume of JLA stories.
I think you actually get far more characterization in the early Legion stories, even though the Legionnaires hadn't been well-defined as characters at all.
[ March 10, 2006, 02:19 PM: Message edited by: Eryk Davis Ester ]
Posted by Tamper Lad on :
Very true, Adventure was silver agey, but I don't think Saturn Girl has been quite right since then.
I can't believe how much I love those Adventure Comics over 40 years old by the time I read them for the first time. I'm smacking myself at this moment b/c those were three archives volumes I should have bought at that going outta business sale back in 2000.
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
Metamorpho is chock-full a goofy late 60s camp! He actually fights a villain called "Achille le Heele" in "Gay Paree"!
[ March 11, 2006, 03:22 PM: Message edited by: Eryk Davis Ester ]
Posted by MLLASH on :
The METAMORPHO volume definitely gets more fun as it progresses!
Wait 'til you see BAT-HULK!
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
I'm really starting to feel sorry for poor Java. I mean, there's plenty of caveman digging girls in the sixties that would go for him, and yet he's got his heart set on someone he can't have!
Posted by Fat Cramer on :
Jimmy Olsen out this week - if you're brave enough to tackle that one.
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
Oh, I am *totally* excited about Jimmy Olsen! So much so that I think my Metamorpho reading may just get postponed once I pick this up!
I still need to get Jonah Hex, and then it's Teen Titans next month!
Posted by Lightning Lad on :
You gotta read Hex Eryk. It is the best one of the series. Of course, I still haven't gotten to HoM yet. Its sitting on my desk at work.
Posted by Pov on :
DC just announced an Elongated Man Showcase in their newest solicits. Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
SUPERMAN FAMILY SHOWCASE acquired!
Posted by MLLASH on :
Damn, that's another must-get. I'm just going to have to bite the bullet and take a wad of cash to the CBS.
I've still gotta get my Marvel Romance TPB plus all the other regular books backed up in my pull.
Maybe if I skip eating for a couple of weeks...
Posted by Quislet, Esq. on :
I thought it was a mis-nomer to call this one "Superman Family" as they are mostly Jimmy Olsen stories.
I did buy the Superman one based upon Eryk's review of it. And I am enjoying it.
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
I think future volumes will cover Jimmy and Lois about evenly, but since they're printing them chronologically, and Jimmy's series started first, he ends up dominating the first volume.
I really think the Superman gets better as it goes along, Quis.
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
Almost every Daily Planets headline is either about Superman, or about something great that one of their reporters did.
Posted by Quislet, Esq. on :
quote:Originally posted by Eryk Davis Ester: I think future volumes will cover Jimmy and Lois about evenly, but since they're printing them chronologically, and Jimmy's series started first, he ends up dominating the first volume.
I really think the Superman gets better as it goes along, Quis.
Well I only have 4 more stories to read. of them all I like the Bizarro story the best.
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
In JO #7, Superman helps his boy pal teach three teenagers who move to the badlands about the dangers of loco-weed, and the terrible delusions it can cause!
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
In JO #11, Jimmy becomes... "Superman's Seeing Eye-Dog!"
Seriously!
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
That issue also features, "Jimmy Olsen, Clark Kent's Pal!", featuring perhaps more gay subtext than even I thought possible during the Silver Age!
Sample dialogue:
"You know, I like you a lot Clark, even if you are the quiet type..."
"Jimmy will forget about me when he reads this note from Superman on his desk!"
"This is incredible... I've actually become my own rival for Jimmy's friendship!"
"Gee, these quiet evening with you are super, Clark! Maybe I'll move in permanently!"
Posted by MLLASH on :
Good Lord!
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
I can only imagine that one day the editors of DC just sat down in their offices and thought:
"You know... Superman's got a ton of powers. Think how many books we could fill up by writing stories in which Jimmy accidentally gains one of Superman's abilities!"
And thus was born many a Jimmy Olsen story.
Posted by MLLASH on :
Any signs of the super-speech impediment that afflicted the Super-family whenever the were-- errr-- trying to be vague about something?
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
Favorite speech impediment moment:
Jimmy Olsen, dressed as a clown, impersonating another clown's son: "Yes... er... dad!"
Posted by MLLASH on :
heh heh heh.
April 7, this will be MINE!!!!
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
Still about 200 pages left to go in it, but I believe this will tie with HoM as my favorite Showcase thus far.
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
JO #18 features both Superman dressed as a gorilla and reverted back to Superbaby!
*Not* in the same story, however.
Posted by Thriftshop Debutante on :
Five words.
"I'm Dick Hunter, Elevator Boy!"
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
"Jimmy Olsen's Super-Pet", in which he adopts a super fast-growing dinosaur, who apparently also reproduces asexually, is just wrong on so many levels.
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
Lois's first line from her first story:
"That hussy-- kissing Clark in public! Hasn't she any manners!"
Posted by Reboot on :
Actually, it was "I suppose I'll give you a break... for a change" Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
Jeepers, 'boot! That's Lois's first line in a Superman story, not her first line in one of her stories!
Though I suppose "After all, I do get some stories on my own!" might qualify.
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
But note that the line 'boot quoted is in response to what I believe to be the historic first instance of the super-speech impediment, when Clark says, "W-What do you say to a-- er-- date tonight, Lois?"
Posted by Reboot on :
Her first appearance = Her First Story Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
There's a difference between a story Lois appears in and a Lois story, just as there's a difference between a thread Reboot posts in and one of Reboot's threads. So quit trying to claim my thread, 'boot!
Anyway, I am all finished with the with the Superman Family Showcase! One of the reasons that I think it rocks so much is that you've got all the grooviness of the Silver Age Superman's world, but the focus is on Jimmy rather than Superman. This gives the stories a lot more dramatic potential, because Jimmy's far more human and fallible than Superman.
Next up, finish Metamorpho! Then Teen Titans comes out in a week and a half, and I've still got to buy the Jonah Hex volume (which I'm really looking forward to)!
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
Bah! I haven't been motivated to read the Metamorpho volume at all, until tonight!
Just read Metamorpho #10, featuring the debut of Urania Blackwell, not to mention Stingaree, that villain of the DC Ages!
Posted by MLLASH on :
oooh, oooh, it's going to get a lot more fun now!
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
I can't wait to read the debuts of more massively important DC villains like Stingaree!
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
Jillikers! The more I read, the more the Metamorpho series reminds me of an old 60s cartoon by Hanna-Barbara or something.
You got to love the fact that they asked reader to write in to determine whether or not Element Girl lived.
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
One of the greatest bits of dialogue in the history of comics:
Urania Blackwell: You'd better not, Metamorpho, or I'll tear her limb from dyed hair!
Sapphire Stagg: Dyed Hair? All of you came out of a bottle!
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
Great gravy! The Metamorpho series ends in mid-plotline, just as its starting to get really good!
Posted by Lance's realm on :
Yep...I hated that...good campy stories, and they were getting better, then...nothing. Blech.
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
For EDE's Titans Showcase reviews, head over to the Titans forum!
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
You know... I always thought that there was something missing in my life. Then I started reading the adventures of the crew of a tiny M-3 tank haunted by the ghost of confederate general Jeb Stuart during the Second World War, and life was good.
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
Okay, so the really weird thing about Haunted Tank is that, in most stories, the ghost really doesn't do much, other than show up and give his descendant some vague warning about the events of the coming day. These warnings are kind of like daily horoscopes, as they can be interpreted in numerous different ways, and most of the story will revolve around the younger Jeb Stuart thinking he'd figured out what the ghost meant three or four times before he actually does.
Sometimes, though, the General does something cool like drive the tank himself when all the crew are knocked out or fight with the ghost of Atilla the Hun.
[ June 24, 2006, 06:57 PM: Message edited by: Eryk Davis Ester ]
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
So, I've finished Haunted Tank. It really is amazing how some of the Showcase volumes I've enjoyed the most have been the non-super-hero volumes. I probably would never have read this series if it hadn't been printed in this format, but I'm really glad I discovered it.
I've started reading Superman, Volume II, as well. Thoughts on that coming soon!
Posted by Pov on :
I just preordered the Challengers Showcase for 50% off with this month's subscription order.
I haven't read any of the originals, and it's Kirby, so I'm looking forward to it.
Still need to get a slow month so I can pick up the Jonah Hex Showcase. Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
I still need to pick up the JONAH HEX as well.
Posted by Pov on :
It's criminal that I haven't done so already... I've always liked DC's Western heroes, and Hex in particular, even if I wasn't a regular reader. I -am- collecting the hell out of the current series by GrayPal.
I'll just have to suck it up next month and squeeze the JH Showcase into my order.
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
So, you know how celebrities these days are constantly getting married for 48 hours and stuff? Well, Superman and his friends pioneered this kind of behavior decades ago! They're constantly getting married, only to have the marriage annulled or their spouse die the day after the marriage. Yet another way in which Silver Age comics are far more ahead of their time than most people acknowledge!
Posted by Pov on :
(Happy Birthday, btw! )
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
Finished reading the second volume of SUPERMAN the other day. Lots of goodness.
Picked up ELONGATED MAN today. Will probably work on finishing TEEN TITANS before I get to it.
Posted by Fat Cramer on :
I'm about half way through the House of Mystery Showcase (laggard!). Some of the stories are a bit hokey, but not many; all the art is great. All those Neal Adams covers - and a few Alex Toth gems. Favourite cat story: Mr. Shadow, the secret financial consultant. Favourite story overall (so far): Gil Kane, drawing his own demise, after denouncing hack writers and evil editors.
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
Okay, so I've actually been reading the ELONGATED MAN instead of getting back to the Titans. And all I can say is... what the HELL were DC thinking killing Sue Dibny? This would be such a cool series to revive in the new DCU, with Ralph and Sue travelling around solving mysteries and visiting different corners of the DCU.
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
Well, I picked up the new BATMAN Showcase, which I've started reading. I've also picked up the JONAH HEX volume, but haven't got to it.
And I'm still plodding through the last few issues of TEEN TITANS...
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
The Death of Alfred!
The classic first appearance of beloved Bat-character Aunt Harriet!
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
New favorite obscure Bat-character:
Policewoman Patricia Powell!
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
When was the last time the Joker rode around on a giant chicken? Especially with absolutely *no* explanation of where he got a giant chicken at?
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
"What's that, Commissioner? A caveman-- sheathed in ice-- flying over the city? We'll be over there right away!"
I wonder if anyone has taken the time to count up just how many unfrozen cavemen were running around in the Silver Age DCU?
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
So, I've finished the Batman Showcase!
It's pretty good, and not exactly what I expected. I guess I assumed there would be more of the rogue's gallery than there is. He spends almost as much time as the Silver Age Superman chasing down fairly ordinary thugs, however.
I'm also a little surprised at how many things there are that are introduced, and then kind of disappear. Patricia Powell is a good example of that, appearing in two issues as a possible love interest for Bruce Wayne, but apparently disappearing forever just as she's about to get to meet him face to face.
I'm a big fan of the Mystery Analysts Club, who appear from time to time, as well as Roy Reynolds, the Getaway Genius, a recurring villain. And the whole ongoing Outsider plot is pretty groovy as well.
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
I'm currently reading the CHALLENGERS OF THE UNKNOWN!
It's not really doing much for me, thus far, but I'm hoping it will get better!
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
Slight Legion Connection: In CHALLENGERS #4, they visit the year 3000, where they are arrested by the "United Earth Police".
Posted by Cobalt Kid on :
How is from the art viewpoint? Those old Kirby Challengers covers are some of the most dynamic ones he ever did IMO!
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
Hmm... I would say the art is definitely dynamic. Most of the stories are pretty much one big action scene after another, with plenty of crazy mythical monsters, aliens, and other elements.
However, I would say that, more than any other Showcase I've read, these issues suffer from the lack of color. The problem is that one of the main ways of telling the Challengers apart is their hair color. Even though they look quite a bit different straight on, from a lot of angles it's difficult to figure out which one is which.
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
It just occurred to me just how close these folks really are to a prototype Fantastic Four.
Reed Richards = Prof + Ace Johnny Storm = Red Ben Grimm = Rocky Sue Storm = Unofficial 5th Challenger June Winters
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
Hmm... only got about halfway through the Challengers volume.
Currently, I'm reading THE UNKNOWN SOLDIER. While not quite as groovy as HAUNTED TANK, it's pretty cool. I like the basic premise of a horribly scarred soldier becoming a super-spy and master of disguise headquarted in the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier quite a bit. I keep thinking there's something missing to the series that really keeps it from becoming great, however. Maybe if they imported more of the Cold War spy theme back into the World War II era or something?
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
THE UNKNOWN SOLDIER gets better as it goes along. While there's something a bit implausible in the basic premise of one guy being able to receive the training he needs to literally pose as anyone at a moment's notice, there are some really good stories in here.
It's definitely a title I'd be interested in seeing revived, however.
Posted by Cobalt Kid on :
I may be picking up some of the more off-beat Showcases this Christmas time per your reccomendations Eryk! Unknown Soldier, Haunted Tank and House of Mystery are tops on my list right now!
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
Yay! I can't wait to hear what you think about them, Cobes!
Unknown Soldier eventually gets into a lot of the moral ambiguities of warfare, as he has several occassions on which he has to decide whether to kill an innocent person to maintain a cover when he's behind the lines. It's pretty heavy stuff, actually.
Now that I've finished it, I'm moving on to the much more lighthearted SHAZAM!
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
This SHAZAM stuff is completely crazy! I don't think I ever realized just how tripped out the whole "Earth-S" universe was!
Case in point: Sunny Sparkle. A kid who is so liked by everyone that they just can't help but give him stuff. So at the end of every month he has a whole yard full of "gifts" from other people that he then donates to charity. And no one seems to think this is unusual.
Not to mention Dr. Thomas Kilowatt, "the Wizard of Phonograph Hill", who has spies from countless foreing countries constantly hanging around his home just waiting to steal whatever new invention he comes up with.
[ December 18, 2006, 03:18 PM: Message edited by: Eryk Davis Ester ]
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
Holy Moley! I've almost finished all of the Shazam Showcase!
I just read a story in which lesbians are given powers by Mr. Mind and then defeat Captain Marvel by kissing him!
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
So the SHAZAM volume started out really strong, but then it kind of petered out as it went along. I can definitely understand why a lot of Captain Marvel fans resent the attempt to incorporate him into the "DCU", as he really does seem to work best in his own little crazy corner of reality.
I've now started reading the fantastic JONAH HEX volume, which I've owned for ages but haven't got around to actually reading. What's really amazing is that it's made me realize how great a job Gray and Palmiotti have done with the current series in capturing the spirit of the character.
Posted by kid chaos on :
Just bought the SHAZAM! Showcase the other day.
This has been my favortie showcase so far by a long shot. Yes, I even liked it better than the Superman Family SC! I'm 2/3 through it already!
Dare I say that the SHAZAM! universe overshadowed even silver age Legion in terms of sheer crazines?
I can't decide who my new all time favorite comic character is. Sunny Sparkle, Mr Tawny, Georgia Sivana and the Electric Grandmother are all in the running...
Its ironic that Capt Marvel's no. 2 catchphrase (after Holey Moley, of course) seems to have been "that sounds logical". Seriously, he said that all the time, despite the fact that the universe he lived in was totally insane.
I may just have to go out and buy all the SHAZAM! archives now...
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
I'm really wondering if Golden Age SHAZAM is anywhere near as groovy as 70s SHAZAM! If so, I'm may be on a serious archive buying binge myself!
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
April is going to be fun! I don't think I knew this series even existed!
SHOWCASE PRESENTS: THE WAR THAT TIME FORGOT VOL. 1 TP Written by Robert Kanigher Art and cover by Ross Andru & Mike Esposito Over 500 pages of classic adventures are included in this value-priced volume collecting one of the most unusual series ever from DC Comics! On an unnamed, uncharted Pacific island, dinosaurs continued to thrive while World War II raged across the globe. It's there that members of the U.S. Military found themselves armed only with standard-issue weapons against the deadliest predators ever to roam the Earth! Advance-solicited; on sale May 2 o 560 pg, B&W, $16.99 US
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
Great gravy! It was apparently even made into a movie!
Posted by Tamper Lad on :
Whoa this is the inspiration for the opening sequence of DC:New Frontier, right? I assumed something like this existed. Never thought it'd be reprinted.
This so validates the GI Joe versus Giant Plastic T-Rex sessions of my youth.
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
I can't believe I discovered this and Space Western in the same week!
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
Back to current reading: while the JONAH HEX volume is fantastic, the last hundred pages are devoted to a few random short-lived Western series. I only find these slightly interesting.
Posted by Cobalt Kid on :
quote:Originally posted by Eryk Davis Ester: April is going to be fun! I don't think I knew this series even existed!
SHOWCASE PRESENTS: THE WAR THAT TIME FORGOT VOL. 1 TP Written by Robert Kanigher Art and cover by Ross Andru & Mike Esposito Over 500 pages of classic adventures are included in this value-priced volume collecting one of the most unusual series ever from DC Comics! On an unnamed, uncharted Pacific island, dinosaurs continued to thrive while World War II raged across the globe. It's there that members of the U.S. Military found themselves armed only with standard-issue weapons against the deadliest predators ever to roam the Earth! Advance-solicited; on sale May 2 o 560 pg, B&W, $16.99 US
Whoa!! You guys have totally missed out on one of the coolest series of the Silver Age! You're totally right Tamper, this is what inspired some of New Frontier.
Trust me, I've only read a handful of old issues and it is AWESOME. I'm so thrilled that this is being showcased that I just ran over here to post it. I think this will finally spur me on to pick up those Showcases I've been talking about, and get this as well.
Posted by Quislet, Esq. on :
I kind of want to pick up the SHazam showcase. What stops me is that I have the issues in my collection. It would just be a matter of digging them out.
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
I've started reading the CHALLENGERS volume again. I've started the post-Kirby stories, though, honestly, I can't tell a significant difference in his work and that of his successor, Bob Brown.
The series still isn't doing that much for me however. Neither the plots nor the characters seem particularly memorable to me.
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
The CHALLENGERS volume is finished. There's a kind of cool villain introduced near the end, called "Multi-Man", who gains immortality from an ancient formula. The way it works is that the formula gives him super-powers, but every time he dies, he's reincarnated with a new super-power. The Challengers also discover a formula to neutralize his powers, so the basic plot becomes he gets powers, they find some way to douse him with the anti-power formula, he finds a way to kill himself, and then is reborn with new powers. This was kind of interesting.
The vast majority of the plots are variants of one of a few basic formulas: 1) The Challengers are kidnapped/accidentally transported to an alien planet where they have to help the good aliens fight off the bad aliens; 2) Several strange monsters are on the loose, and the Challengers have to capture them and figure out where they came from; 3) Villain X has captured June or someone else, and forces the Challengers to perform three tasks or obtain three objects (usually one is conveniently at the bottom of the ocean, and another on top of a mountain, so Prof and Red can use their skills).
Anyway, I can actually see potential in the series if it were done right, but I can't say that it's one that I'm particularly enthusiastic about.
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
Oh, and I've got PHANTOM STRNGER, JLA 2, and BRAVE AND THE BOLD arriving in the mial next week, along with the SPIRIT ARCHIVES 3!
Posted by Quislet, Esq. on :
I am in the midst of reading Brave & Bold. One word - Whirlybat!
Posted by Outdoor Miner on :
quote:Originally posted by Eryk Davis Ester: There's a kind of cool villain introduced near the end, called "Multi-Man", who gains immortality from an ancient formula. The way it works is that the formula gives him super-powers, but every time he dies, he's reincarnated with a new super-power.
This is the guy who eventually ends up in the Giffen/Dematteis Injustice League, right?
The basic concept eventually got reused in the "Resurrection Man" series.
Posted by Lance's realm on :
Does anyone think DC will ever follow Marvel's example and put complete runs of comics on DVD? I keep hoping for this, but I doubt it will happen. I bet DC would lose too much money on the overpriced Archives if they put complete runs of Batman or Superman on disk. Any thoughts?
By the way Eryk, I love your reviews!
Posted by Quislet, Esq. on :
There was a typo in the table of contents in the Brave & Bold Showcase. For the Flash team-up entitled "But Bork Can Hurt You" it is listed as "But Cork Can Hurt You".
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
quote:Originally posted by Lance's realm: Does anyone think DC will ever follow Marvel's example and put complete runs of comics on DVD? I keep hoping for this, but I doubt it will happen. I bet DC would lose too much money on the overpriced Archives if they put complete runs of Batman or Superman on disk. Any thoughts?
I'm guessing they'll wait until the Archives line is no longer making money to do so (they're already beginning to cut back on Archives to focus on Showcases). I have mixed feelings about this idea. In principle, I'd much rather read the stories in some kind of book form rather than on the computer. But the idea of having a single disk that has 70 years of Superman or Batman is appealing for its convenience.
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
quote:Originally posted by Outdoor Miner:
quote:Originally posted by Eryk Davis Ester: There's a kind of cool villain introduced near the end, called "Multi-Man", who gains immortality from an ancient formula. The way it works is that the formula gives him super-powers, but every time he dies, he's reincarnated with a new super-power.
This is the guy who eventually ends up in the Giffen/Dematteis Injustice League, right?
Wow! I had no idea! That's cool if true.
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
Okay, I just looked up "Multi-Man" on Wikipedia, and apparently he had the revival in the 1990s! He also apparently had a key appearance in the "Last Laugh" crossover!
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
Long-time readers of this thread will note that I was somewhat dissatisfied with the first JLA Showcase. Well, having begun reading the second one, it seems quite a bit more to my liking.
The fact that it begins with a story about a tornado creature with the worst case of MPD ever certainly helps! And perhaps the dumbest Aquaman dialogue ever: "I've summoned those flying fish to drop a Portuguese man-o-war on our tornado foe!" Uh, don't get me wrong, man-o-war's are scary and everything, but what use are they against a tornado? Well, at least they have Green Arrow on the team to make Aquaman seem useful by comparison.
Anyway, this book features more intergalactic and other-dimensional conquerors than you can shake a stick at, and tons of people trying to steal the JLAers "super-energies", whatever that means. I'm particularly enjoying the Atom as a character, though, so I'm really looking forward to his upcoming Showcase!
Posted by MLLASH on :
quote:Originally posted by Eryk Davis Ester: Holy Moley! I've almost finished all of the Shazam Showcase!
I just read a story in which lesbians are given powers by Mr. Mind and then defeat Captain Marvel by kissing him!
Heh! Is that the "Rainbow Squad" issue? I can vaguely recall a few of those old 70s SHAZAM issues! I think I'll make this my next Showcase purchase.
Posted by Tamper Lad on :
COMING THIS SUMMER. Looks to be a great line-up.
SHOWCASE PRESENTS: BATMAN VOL. 2 TP SHOWCASE PRESENTS: THE ATOM VOL. 1 TP
And also coming in glorious colour (because FC mentioned it in the Darwyn Cooke thread):
SUPERMAN: THE AMAZING TRANSFORMATIONS OF JIMMY OLSEN TP Writers: Otto Binder, Jerry Siegel and others Artists: Curt Swan, John Forte, Pete Costanza and others Collects stories from SUPERMAN ' S PAL JIMMY OLSEN #22, 28, 31-33, 41, 42, 44, 49, 53, 59, 65, 69, 72, 77, 80, 85 and 105 $14.99 US, 192 pages
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
quote:Originally posted by MLLASH:
quote:Originally posted by Eryk Davis Ester: Holy Moley! I've almost finished all of the Shazam Showcase!
I just read a story in which lesbians are given powers by Mr. Mind and then defeat Captain Marvel by kissing him!
Heh! Is that the "Rainbow Squad" issue? I can vaguely recall a few of those old 70s SHAZAM issues! I think I'll make this my next Showcase purchase.
I think you'll really enjoy them!
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
Well, I've finished reading JLA Volume 2. While I did like it better overall than the first volume, I'm still not a huge fan of the style of stories that take up a lot of these issues. There's just a few too many villains with really poorly defined powers who use those powers for incredibly implausible schemes. It's like they can do basically anything, but then they choose to attack the JLA in the most convoluted manner possible. Come to think of it, that's the same complaint that's often lodged against the Super Friends cartoon, but somehow I always assumed the comics weren't quite as bad.
Anyway, probably the coolest part about this volume is the first two JLA/JSA teamups. Well, the first one isn't really all that great, but the second one introduces the Crime Syndicate, who are pretty close to my all time favorite villains. It was nice finally getting to see their first appearance.
I was also surprised that Doctor Destiny was such a major villain in those early days, and I kind of enjoyed his appearances. I also found myself really liking the Atom as a character, so I'm really looking forward to his Showcase volume coming out.
Posted by Mystery Lad on :
Here's what EDE will be reviewing in the fall...
SHOWCASE PRESENTS: BATGIRL VOL. 1 TP Writers: Gardner Fox, Cary Bates, Bob Haney, Mike Friedrich, Robert Kanigher, Frank Robbins, Dennis O ' Neil and Elliot S. Maggin Artists: Carmine Infantino, Curt Swan, Frank Springer, Gil Kane, Bob Brown, Win Mortimer, Irv Novick, Don Heck, Mike Sekowsky, Neal Adams and others Collects stories from DETECTIVE COMICS #359, 363, 369, 371, 384, 385, 388, 389, 392, 393, 396, 397, 400, 401, 404, 405-424, BATMAN #197, ADVENTURE COMICS #381, WORLD ' S FINEST COMICS #169 and 176, THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD #78, JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #60 and SUPERMAN #268 and 279 $16.99 US, 520 pages
SHOWCASE PRESENTS: MARTIAN MANHUNTER VOL. 1 TP Writers: Jack Miller, Joe Samachson and Dave Wood Artists: Joe Certa Collects stories from DETECTIVE COMICS #225-305 $16.99 US, 522 pages
SHOWCASE PRESENTS: ADAM STRANGE VOL. 1 TP Writer: Gardner Fox Artists: Mike Sekowsky, Carmine Infantino, Gil Kane, Murphy Anderson and others Collects stories from SHOWCASE #17-19 and MYSTERY IN SPACE #53-84 $16.99 US, 512 pages
SHOWCASE PRESENTS: WONDER WOMAN VOL. 1 TP Writer: Robert Kanigher Artists: Ross Andru and Mike Esposito Collects stories from WONDER WOMAN #98-117 $16.99 US, 528 pages
I'm looking forward to Wondy and Adam Strange. Believe it or not, I haven't bought a SHOWCASE yet, but I'll definitely be picking those two up.
I don't think I've ever read an early MARTIAN MANHUNTER story, so that one has me curious.
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
From what I understand, the early MM stories have him undercover through a huge portion of the run. He doesn't actually develop a conventional "super-hero" identity until rather late in the game.
As I've never been a huge fan of the character, I'm already predicting that my response is going to be that he worked best before they tried to turn him into a super-hero.
Posted by Mystery Lad on :
I can't *wait* to read your reactions to 'Wonder Tot', whose debut will be chronicled in the pages of WW's SHOWCASE #1!
MM's status as detective, rather than superhero, arouses my curiosity. No costume till later, then, I take it?
Does he shape-change, I wonder? Guess we'll find out in the summer.
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
Phantom Stranger + Doctor Thirteen = Crazy Delicious!
Posted by Cobalt Kid on :
Cool!
When I finally follow-up and buy some of these, I might buy the Wonder Woman one too, as I don't think I've ever read a single WW comic pre-Perez.
I recently read all those JLA issues too Eryk and agree completely. Its almost more fun to just read the JLA/JSA team-ups during that era right there! I think the next few team-ups are some of the best overall (I love the one where Larry Lance makes the ultimate sacrifice in the end).
Posted by Lance's realm on :
Whatever happened to the MM's sidekick, Zook? Did he just disappear into comics limbo?
Posted by Outdoor Miner on :
I believe he recently showed up in an issue of Superman/Batman.
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
Okay, I'm really disliking this Tala chick that's been introduced as a villain. She's completely ruining the dynamic that existed in the first few issues of the series.
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
So now I'm getting close to halfway through the PHANTOM STRANGER volume, and all I can say is that I have never read a series that I liked so much in the first few issues, only to beging disliking it more and more as it goes on!
Posted by Outdoor Miner on :
Was there an overhaul of the creative team?
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
Actually, now that I check... yeah. Robert Kanigher takes over the writing from Mike Friedrich with #4 of the actual series, and takes the series in a much different dirrection.
Friedrich's issues have very much a kind of "X-Files" vibe to them. Typically there will be something weird going on (a haunting or something), and then Doctor Thriteen and the Phantom Stranger will both show up to the scene. Then both work to expose whatever is going on as a hoax, and then Doctor Thirteen is satisfied, except that it always seems like the Phantom Stranger himself must've done something supernatural over the course of the adventure. And they typically end with Doctor Thirteen saying something to the effect that he will one day expose the Stranger for the fraud he is.
Starting with Kanigher's run, the stories take a more blatantly supernatural tone, with the Phantom Stranger engaged in great mystical battles against the forces of evil, usually spurred on by the annoying Tala. There's also this group of four young hipsters who always happen to show up everywhere there's something weird going on. And Doctor Thirteen ends up being almost absurdly comical in virtue of his skepticism in the face of the great mystical fights going on all around him. If it weren't for the inclusion of flashback stories about past ghosts he'd busted, he'd come off as a complete doofus.
The Kanigher issues aren't bad, but I just find epic battles between massively powered magic users to be kind of boring, and I was really excited by Friedrich's takes on the characters, so it was disappointing that it didn't continue.
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
Interestingly, the book then starts getting better later on, as they basically split it up into one solo Phantom Stranger tale and one solo Doctor Thirteen tale per issue.
The Phantom Stranger starts encountering more diverse sorts of plots, from underground civilizations of evil children to robotic African gods, which is kind of groovy. And Doctor Thirteen battles evil hypnotic rock and roll bands and crazy scientists trying to create utopian societies in the swamp. These issues are generally pretty cool, though I still like the first few issues better.
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
FINAL VERDICT: Okay, so the Phantom Stranger volume actually ends up being pretty decent. I still like the first few issues the best, but the second half of it is actually pretty awesome as well.
And it's worth it because the last story has this guy who looks kind of like Dr. Mayavale working for the "Dark Circle", a crazy religious cult that uses supernatural assassins!
Next: To start reading BatB!
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
Yikes! I haven't finished the BatB stories yet, and I just received three new Showcases in the mail!
Anyway, the BatB are pretty much a mixed bag. It's amazing how contrived some of the team-ups are. One of the grooviest is actually Batman versus Eclipso, also featuring the Queen Bee and that international organization of evil, Cyclops, which I know from Metamorpho is led by that villain of the DC Ages, the Stingaree! Anyway, considering the fact that I've generally had basically zero interest in the Eclipso character, this story kind of intrigued me.
There's also a decently groovy story in which the Flash helps Bats catch some thieves that have sneakers that give them super-speed. The real interest of the story is this subplot that Flash's powers are killing him whenever he uses him, and so there's a whole heroic sacrifice kind of thing going on.
Anyway, I just got through the first Batman/Green Arrow team-up, which I'd already read in the Green Arrow volume. Basically, there's this Indian who went to college instead of learning the "old ways" of the tribe, and now Bats and G.A. have to teach him how to be an Indian so he can compete in the competition to become chief of the tribe so the heap big bad Indian (who's also an evil businessman) doesn't take over. But the real villain is J. Jay Jaye, alias the Promoter, who forces the heap bad Indian guy to summon the Thunderbird with Indian magic. Yeah, it's as bad as it sounds.
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
Don't you hate it when you concoct this brilliant scheme to lure a criminal into a trap by pretending you're distracted by the two beautiful super-heroines who pretend to fall in love with you, only to super-heroines fall in love with you for real and thus distract you for real? The difficult life of a bat-stud...
In other news... tons of appearances by Spiffany Jewelery in BatB!
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
Batman and Sgt. Rock team-up = One of the coolest things I've ever read! And I was totally caught off guard by its coolness!
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
So I finished BatB. The last story is all about Batman macking on Diana Prince in her "de-powered" phase. Which is funny considering that last time they teamed up, she was all ga-ga over him, and he seemed completely uninterested!
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
An EDE SHOWCASE REVIEW QUICK QUIZ:
Suppose your wife suddenly gets extremely sick and dies. On her deathbed, she tells you that she's a lost princess of Atlantis and your son has inherited her ability to live in the ocean and communicate with fish.
Do you:
a) Dismiss your wife's dying statements on the assumption her mind must have gone as she died. b) Take your kid to a hospital to find out if there's anything weird about him. c) Toss your kid in a large aquarium with a bunch of angry swordfish and see what happens.
Posted by kid chaos on :
I know! I know!
Its c), Right?
Its what I would do.
Did you get to "The Mermaid from Metropolis" yet?
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
Oh, I *just* read it!
Classic!
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
Another parenting-related quiz:
Which of the following is more important to make sure that your children know:
a) The fact that the heat of an electric torch can relax the muscles of a clam.
b) The fact that you adopted them after finding them floating in a basket in the middle of the ocean, especially when the question of their parentage comes up.
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
Ahhh! Aqualad's prepubescent crush on Aquaman is kind of endearing!
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
You know... I'm digging this Aquaman Showcase quite a bit. I'm actually a bit surprised, as I always considered the character to be dorky on the level of Green Arrow or something.
The thing is that he's actually pretty cool as long as he remains a water-based character. It's only when you see him in JLA or some other book where he spends his time on land that he starts to seem kind of goofy.
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
You know... every Showcase would really benefit from having random stories where Jimmy Olsen takes on the role of the protagonist for a day.
"The Monster who Loved Aqua-Jimmy!" is fantastic! Especially for the guest appearance by Lori Lemaris!
Posted by kid chaos on :
I hope there's a Jimmy story like that in the upcoming Wonder Woman Showcase!
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
Now I'll be disappointed if there isn't!
In other news, I've decided to become a seaman, and then retire. I figure that since every third story or something has Aquaman raising money for the "Retired Seaman's Fund", they must be pretty well off by now.
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
So, you know how everyone complains that contemporary comic stories are stretched out longer than necessary because the writers are writing for the TPBs? Well, interestingly enough, there's a kind of similar phenomena in Aquaman when he gets his own series in the early sixties. While it's probably fair to say that some of the eight-page Aquaman stories suffer a bit from an overly hasty resolution of the plot, once the writers are forced to fill up a whole "24-page novel", it starts to seem as though they're really padding in some cases to fill up twenty-four pages.
That said... Quisp rules.
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
So I've finished the Aquaman volume, and, again, I have to say it turned out to be a pleasant surprise! Not quite up in the top tier of fun super-hero comics, but pretty close. The only weakness is that the stories start to seem a bit repetitive after awhile.
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
I've now started reading Green Lantern, Volume 2.
Some cool things:
The villains. Hal has a pretty awesome Rogue's Gallery. Sonar has quickly risen to be one of my favorites.
I still find it fascinating that he keeps claiming that he wants to win Carol as Hal Jordan, but keeps dating her as Green Lantern. It's such a weird twist on the dynamic.
The Jordan family. I love the fact that Jim Jordan's fiancee suspects him of being Green Lantern. Are there any other cases of supporting cast members who are regularly suspected of being the secret identity of the protagonist in a super-hero series? I can't think of any.
Posted by Lightning Lad on :
Eryk, did you get the recently released Hawkman volume? Seems a bit thicker than the others (at least to me). Can't wait to start it.
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
Hawkman, LSH, and Supes Vol. 3 should be coming in the mail later this month.
I've still got HoM Vol. 2 to read after the GL vol.
It's a struggle to keep up with the rate they're releasing these things!
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
One would think that the lack of defined limits on what the Green Lantern's power ring can do would make the stories kind of annoying. Surprisingly, they don't. Oh, occassionally there's a scene where Hal has the power rings do something radically unexpected that kind of makes me roll my eyes, but there's not all that much of it.
The one thing that is kind of annoying is that there's a few too many times where both Hal and his villains do something along the lines of "Oh, I anticipated that you might defeat me, so I willed my power ring to kick your ass if I ever went down!"
But what I really love is that, despite the awesome power at his disposal, half the time Hal still ends up defeating the villain with a good right hook!
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
Okay, there's this kind of dorky villain called the Aerialist that completely irrationally blames the Ferris family for the death of his girlfriend and wants vengeance on him. Anyway, once Hal escape the mind control mask that the Aerialist puts on him to try to force him to destory the Ferris's, Hal kicks his ass. Now, he could easily have just disabled the guy with the ring, but, since the guy was threatening Carol, Hal decides that he really wants to just beat the guy up rather than just taking him down the easy way, so he fights him with just his fists. It's kind of like one of those Walker, Texas Ranger episodes where Chuck Norris throws his gun down and then beats up the villain.
Now, all of that would be kind of cool and interesting, except at the end, Hal delivers the guy to the police, and tells them that he really wasn't responsible for his actions, and that he'd probably be better put in a mental institution rather than a prison. So, basically, he just beat up the guy who wasn't responsible for his actions.
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
So I'm finished with Green Lantern!
It starts to get a bit far-fetched near the end, once GL start turning himself into a robot and stuff like that.
But there's this really groovy story where Hal's trying to hook up with this hot chick, just to prove that he's still got it after Carol keeps rejecting him, but she doesn't repsond to his advances. It turns out that she's actually a refugee from some planet that's ruled by large-crainiumed bald men who keep all of the people of the planet enslaved!
Posted by Blue Battler on :
So... got the Legion Showcase and the Brave and the Bold one from Amazon today.
Is it me, or does it look like on the cover of the B&B one that Cobra is putting the moves on Batman?
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
Yeah, Copperhead is definitely a very hand-sy villain.
I've started reading HoM, Vol. 2, and I'm loving it!
I'm starting to pay a lot more attention to which writers wrote which stories, and I'm finding that I especially like the ones written by Jack Oleck. I'd never heard of him, but apparently he regularly wrote for EC back in the day. Which give me even more reason why I should check out those Archives when I get the chance...
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
You know... House of Mystery II may be even better than Hourse of Mystery I!
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
"What exactly makes a guy become an exterminator? Some men become exterminators because they like the good money and convenient hours. But Frank Alban was a different breed of exterminator... Frank Alban became an exterminator because he hated bugs!"
So begins what is probably the worst story in the volume.
Basically, this dude is obsessed with killing bugs, and is so good at it, it brings him fortune and fame! He enjoys the life of world travel (to places like Africa where he battles the dreaded tse-tse fly!) and hot chicks, before settling down with this one girl. But his obsession with killing bugs ruins the marriage! So we get a flashback to when he was a kid, and how he developed this obsession! It turns out his parents used to lock him in a room full of bugs whenever he misbehaved, or they just wanted some alone time or something.
So flashback to the present day, and our intrepid hero, presumably post-divorce, is visited by this cute chick who wants him to come exterminate her house, and then "celebrate" with her after he's done. Eager to score with this hot chick, Frank goes to her house, but can't find her, and, after exploring, gets caught in a giant spiderweb. And the chick he was going to have sex with turns out to be a giant spider with a womans head who is planning on eating him, which apparently he should've been able to guess based on the fact that her name was Mrs. Lactrodectus, the scientific name for a black widow.
I mean... wtf?
Posted by Fat Cramer on :
They just don't train exterminators like they used to.
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
I'm still utterly puzzled over that story.
Have I somehow just missed the massive fortune and fame associated with the exterminator business? Do women really find being an exterminator extremely attractive, and I've just never realized that?
The thing is that it's radically out of place among the totally groovy stories that surround it. There's this cool Jack Oleck story in the same issue about this member of Marco Polo's party seeking the secret of immortality in China, with a really cool twist ending involving asbestos!
Anyway, now that I'm done with HoM, I'm probably going to read Hawkman next. Then there's this volume of weird sci fi stories featuring a bunch of kids from the future with weird names. I'm betting that one's just going to be completely lame. Posted by Quislet, Esq. on :
Maybe that writer had a crush on his exterminator.
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
Well, I've started reading Hawkman, and, well... I don't know.
I've read the first three issues or so and the stories haven't really grabbed me. And the whole premise seems kind of flimsy. I kind of like the idea of them as space-anthropologists, here to study the primitive culture of Earth, but the notion that they're primarily here to study our "police methods" seems kind of goofy. I mean, wouldn't it make more sense for them to take on the identities of, I don't know, police officers in order to do that? And while I buy the notion that they don't want to use Thangarian weaponry for fear of upsetting the balance of power on Earth (though why that doesn't prohibit them from using their anti-gravity belts isn't clear), why don't they carry guns and nightsticks and tasers and such, like Earth police officers do?
Anyway, they also have these super-computer, the Absorbacon, that basically uploads all of the knowledge on Earth and then downloads it into their brain. It seems kind of inconsistent what that actually entails, though. It gives them basic Earth people knowledge, including the knowledge of all languages, and lets them know some really obscure stuff that the average Earth person would never know, but other obscure stuff they don't seem to know. Like they suddenly remember this really obscure magic spell because it was downloaded by the Absorbacon, but have to look up one of the words in an unabridged dictionary.
Their ability to talk to birds is a little weird as well. And they have these random super-senses that occasionally manifest themselves, like using super-smell to track things.
It's kind of weird that the whole series is billed as "Hawkman" when it stars both Hawkman and Hawkgirl. I mean, even Robin got billing. I do like the fact that it features of husband and wife tandem, and the grooviest character in the series is Mavis Trent, a shameless hussy of an archeologist who seems determined to not let the fact that Carter Hall is married interfere with her romantic intentions towards him.
[ April 21, 2007, 01:13 PM: Message edited by: Eryk Davis Ester ]
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
Manhawks = One of the coolest comic book concepts ever.
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
So, the backstory is that crime was pretty much non-existent on Thanagar until a decade or so before the start of the Hawkman series, when the Manhawks invaded the planet. A bunch of bored Thanagarians began criminal sprees imitating the Manhawks after that. Given that fact, I suppose it kind of makes sense that they'd need to go to other planets to learn something about crimefighting!
You know... it makes me kind of proud that people from other planets come to our world to learn such advanced law enforcement techniques as stakeouts, fingerprinting, and lassoing crooks!
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
I'm starting to kind of dig the Shadow Thief as a villain.
And there were a lot of groovy covers during the Silver Age featuring gorillas. This has to be one of the best.
[ April 24, 2007, 07:59 PM: Message edited by: Eryk Davis Ester ]
Posted by Blacula on :
^^^ Hey I have that issue somewhere in my collection! Oh simpler times!
On a side-note - that's one of the covers that was re-done for the 'Julius Schwartz DC Comics Presents' event a few years ago.
I finished Hawkman. It's actually pretty cool. I thought it was better than the second volume of Green Lantern, and miles above the JLA volumes.
People always say that Hawkman has become overly convoluted since Crisis, but the Silver Age Hawkman was actaully pretty convoluted from the very beginning. I think part of it is that the basic idea of the Golden Age Hawkman was so incredibly cool, that they tried to keep as much of it as possible while adding in whole new levels via the new science fiction origin. So you've got the spaceman who's a police officer, you've got the archeologist stuff, you've got the "fights the crime of today with weapons of the past" stuff, you've got the husband and wife dynamic, you've got the absorbacon/spaceship and all the advanced Thanagarian technology, you've got the "master of the skies"/"talks to birds" element, etc. Most of the time all of that's pretty cool, but occasionally it feels like the title suffers from a lack of clear vision of what it's supposed to be, especially when they throw in random things like Hawkgirl joining the CIA to fight an internation criminal organization and such.
Anyway, the last story in the volume is one of the most interesting. It features the debut of a character called "The Shrike", who is basically a winged alien found as a baby and raised by Native Americans in Mexico. The Native Ameicans believe him to be a gift from one of their gods, and have him wreak vengeance on those who have oppressed them by stealing their native artifacts and stuff. Anyway, this brings him to the attention of Hawman and Hawkgirl, who figure out that he's really an alien, and the rest of the story comes to be about returning him to his homeworld and restoring him to his rightful place as ruler of the planet. The Native Americans are presented in a pretty bad light in the story, which kind of annoyed me. I think the character has a lot of potential to be re-imagined as a groovy Mexican hero.
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
Superman, Vol. 3 rocks!
Hercules and Samson!
Brainiac versus Congorilla!
Superman owes the U.S. Government back taxes!
Posted by Arachne on :
LOL Back taxes for what?
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
For all the treasures he's collected over the years and coal he's squeezed into diamonds and such!
Even though he always uses it to support charity, some bureaucrat decides that 85% of it is still taxable!
And, in a completely bizarre scene, he tries to pay them with a check from Krypton!
Posted by Arachne on :
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
Re: "The Death of Superman".
Wow.
Posted by The Daxamite Kid on :
quote:Originally posted by Mystery Lad: SHOWCASE PRESENTS: ADAM STRANGE VOL. 1 TP Writer: Gardner Fox Artists: Mike Sekowsky, Carmine Infantino, Gil Kane, Murphy Anderson and others Collects stories from SHOWCASE #17-19 and MYSTERY IN SPACE #53-84 $16.99 US, 512 pages
This is why I love the Showcase series. Can't wait for this one. But also, the first Flash volume should be released this month.
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
Okay, so after taking some time off from reading SHOWCASES, I picked up THE WAR THAT TIME FORGOT and THE FLASH today. Looking forward to getting into them this weekend!
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
What's even cooler than WW2 era soldiers stuck on a Pacific Island inhabited by dinosaurs?
A WW2 era soldier stuck on a Pacific Island inhabited by dinosaurs with a robot!
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
It's really amazing how appealing TWTTF is, considering every story has basically the same plot: soldiers crash on mysterious island inhabited by dinosaurs and have to fight their way off.
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
Okay, so after reading something like half of TWTTF Friday and Saturday Night, I decided I had my fill of dinosaurs, and decided to start reading the Flash.
It begins pretty awesome, with a spectacular Golden Age Flash story! Then... I don't know. The first few Barry Allen stories were okay, but somehow they didn't do all that much for me.
But Grodd, Grodd is awesome!
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
Some Flash thoughts:
1. Really enjoying stories where the Flash finds a hidden civilization and such; not enjoying rogue-of-the-week stories nearly as much.
2. Barry seems to have a freakish number of best or at least really good friends who make one appearance and then are never heard from again.
3. The Barry always showing up late thing get tiring after awhile, but his interaction with Iris is very 50s sitcomish (er... I mean that as a good thing ).
4. Wally rocks. He does lots of groovy stuff like prevent crooked construction companies from building new schools with inferior materials and saving kids from joining gangs and such!
5. Everything else pales before the grooviness of Grodd, however.
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
Okay, so there's this freaky story where it turns out that the people of Earth are actually descended from aliens from a planet called Olimpus, and their leader Zus send this guy Posiden, master of water, down to reclaim their "lost colony". Fortunately, they are defeated by Flash and by learning about American History!
The awesomeness of Grodd is proved once more, when he super-fatasses the Flash.
Apparently, not only do aliens, people from the future, and creepy little people in bottled cities entertain themselves by watching our daily activities, but now schoolkids in other dimensions actually have classes in which they "study" Earth culture by spying on us with "photo-synths".
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
Okay, so I finished up the Flash volume.
Most of the Rogues still don't do a lot for me, except Captain Cold and, of course, Grodd. I have to say that I enjoyed the volume quite a bit overall. Not the greatest of the Showcases, but a solid read. And it's of course important for the whole ushering in the Silver Age stuff.
Posted by He Who Wanders on :
quote:Originally posted by Eryk Davis Ester: 2. Barry seems to have a freakish number of best or at least really good friends who make one appearance and then are never heard from again.
That Barry was so fickle. He only liked to hang around "dangerous" friends like Hal Jordan and Al Desmond. Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
Apparently, dinosaurs must *really* like the taste of American soldiers. Just put one on Dinosaur Island, and huge herds of dinosaurs will come rushing at them, ignoring all other possible prey. I mean... if I were a dinosaur, rather than rushing after that little tiny human, I might stop and devour the big carcass that was just killed by a grenade or something. Or, you know, maybe I'd take a bite of that li'l dinosaur running along next to me.
Posted by kid chaos on :
Eryk, have you read the Wonder Woman Showcase yet?
Its even more wacky and insane than the Shazam! showcase!
Posted by Lance's realm on :
Wacky and insane? must...read...it....(walking like a drone to my CBS)
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
I haven't picked up a Showcase (or a comic at all, for that matter) since July!
More wacky and insane than Shazam!?
That may have to be my next purchase!
Posted by Cobalt Kid on :
I've read some Silver Age Wonder Woman and Metal Men stories and I can say without hesitation that they might be the wackiest DC comics series of them all!
Get 'em Eryk!
Posted by Nightcrawler on :
The Wonder Girl stories are my favorite. I've got several of the actual issues, so I enjoyed filling the gaps.
I can't wait for the next volume even though I have tons more of those comics.
I wish DC would do a Wonder Girl (with Wonder Tot mixed in) Archives. I enjoy them almost as much as I do the early Legion.
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
This has the potential to make me a Wonder Woman fan for the first time ever!
Posted by Cobalt Kid on :
I'm not sure if the Robin Hood/Wonder Woman issue is part of the archive (its in the mid-late 50's) but its the perfect mix of wacky/Silver Age/kewlness. That's the first Wonder Woman story I read where I thought "wow, I don't know what the hell is going on, but I like it!"
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
I was just checking out all the Showcases that have been released the past couple of months!
I think I'm going for Wonder Woman and Batgirl for my next purchase!
Posted by Lance's realm on :
Give us a review of the Batgirl one, ok? I am not sure if I wanna buy that one of not.
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
Well, I actually just bought WW this weekend, and it is indeed fantastic! It's kind of inspiring how kewl it is actually!
The groovy thing about it is that it really has a lot of the feel of classic myths/folk tales, but with obvious aspects of mid-twentieth century concerns thrown in. So, the "land of the giants" becomes "the planet/dimension of the giants", and the classic sea monster attacking ships becomes dinosaurs from space attacking atomic submarines and stuff!
And the Wonder Girl stories are especially awesome!
Posted by MLLASH on :
I was gonna get BATGIRL next, but all this WW talk has me reconsidering...
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
I'm sure BATGIRL is awesome, but I can't imagine it has anything as groovy as Wonder Girl being repeatedly thwarted in her attempts to blow out the candles on her Birthday cake!
Posted by Pov on :
HEY! The early Detective story where Babs gets a run in her tights and is too busy putting on lipstick to fight crime ROCKS! Posted by Lance's realm on :
How did they explain away all the Wonder Girl/Wonder Tot stories, anyway?
Posted by Nightcrawler on :
The editor brought all of the characters in his office and fired them.
I may have to scan some of this stuff in and post it. Truly great.
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
Just finished up the Showcase this morning!
I absolutely the Holiday Girls! They've got so much potential! I particularly like the fact that they represent a variety of female body shapes.
Posted by Lance's realm on :
Does anyone else here get the "collector's itch" occasionally? That is, for some reason, you absolutely have to buy back issues of some title you were never much interested in before? I had this happen a few years ago with Wonder Woman, and I bought several WW issues off ebay. I love my silver-age WW!
Posted by Mystery Lad on :
I've got one of these on hold, but haven't bought it yet. I 'visited' it the other day and leafed through it.
Does anybody know if the Holiday Girls that appear here are the same girls from the GA WW stories?
I wonder if Gail Simone'll reintroduce them?
There seemed to be lots of Wonder-doubles (I begin to see where Byrne got his idea for his version of Donna Troy's origin) and a *heap* of mer-boy(s?). I'm looking forward to reading the mer-stories and the young WW stuff.
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
Yeah, there's definitely a freakish number of robot/clone/magic duplicate Wonder Women.
Posted by Nightcrawler on :
Well, I debated yesterday between the WW and BATGIRL Showcases, but then noticed a large chunk of Mavel's ESSENTIALS for half price. $8.50 beat out $17.
Which ESSENTIAL I chose to buy surprised no one more than myself... TOMB OF DRACULA!
And so far, I'm really enjoying it!
Posted by Pov on :
Ah, that classic, moody Colan art... ESSENTIAL ToD is at the top of my list the next time I need to fill out an InStockTrades order to qualify for free shipping. Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
Hmm... TOMB OF DRACULA sounds particularly interesting, especially with Halloween coming up...
Anyway, I just ordered a bunch of Bat-Archives. I'll probably pick up the Batgirl Showcase tomorrow as well.
Posted by MLLASH on :
quote:Originally posted by Pov: Ah, that classic, moody Colan art...
The Colan art is amazing in B&W, too... part of the reasson I went with ToD is because on the other ESSENTIAL I own, Howard the Duck (another surprisingly awesome read-- Gerber had a flair for mixing the absurd with the serious). Colan's artwork there is outstanding! Maybe even better in B&W.
I should note the ToD ESSENTIAL I bought was vol. 2. There are 3 volumes so far (only vols. 2 and 3 were half-price at my CBS).
Posted by KidChaos on :
I bought the Batgirl Showcase the other day.
The B&W actually improved the Don Heck (not my favorite penciler)artwork that makes up a large chunk of the book.
As I was totatlly unfamilar with Batgirl's history, the book was quite different from what I expected. The cover showing Babs fixing her make-up while Batman and Robin fought crooks led me to believe the book would be full of the wonderful silver age misogyny we all love. But most of it was actually straight super-hero action stories.
Which is kinda fun in its own right, I guess.
But it *did* have a story where the villian killed old rich ladies with mechanical wigs that crushed their skulls!
Posted by MLLASH on :
re: Don Heck, he drew the ToD giant-size issues in Vol. 2, and I have been flabbergasted at how much better his work looked in B&W!
Skull-crushing wigs? Fun!!
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
I've always thought killing by remote control constricting ties would be pretty groovy, but skull-crushing wigs might even top that!
Posted by MLLASH on :
Well, I have really blazed through ToD v. 2... I'm nearing the end. DEFinitely my favorite Essential/Showcase purchase to date. I have to go by the CBS tomorrow and get v. 3 while it is still half price.
Dracula is certainly a magnificent bastard, but I also find myself drawn to the group of people who are his sworn enemies... there's Quincy Harker, an elderly man whom Drac has tortured for decades... Rachel Van Helsing... Blade... Frank Drake, Dracula's decendant... Taz, a mute Indian whose child has been vamped... and others they encounter along the way separately and together.
Highly recommended!
Posted by Nightcrawler on :
quote:Originally posted by Nightcrawler: I may have to scan some of this stuff in and post it. Truly great.
quote:Originally posted by MLLASH: Well, I have really blazed through ToD v. 2... I'm nearing the end. DEFinitely my favorite Essential/Showcase purchase to date. I have to go by the CBS tomorrow and get v. 3 while it is still half price.
Dracula is certainly a magnificent bastard, but I also find myself drawn to the group of people who are his sworn enemies... there's Quincy Harker, an elderly man whom Drac has tortured for decades... Rachel Van Helsing... Blade... Frank Drake, Dracula's decendant... Taz, a mute Indian whose child has been vamped... and others they encounter along the way separately and together.
Highly recommended!
I have all but the most recent ToD Lash. Love them! Especially the Lilith stories.
Posted by Mystery Lad on :
I'm about 4/5 through the WW Showcase.
Y'know DC oughta make one of the 52 possible future Legions one that's based on Wonder Girl being the hero the Legionnaires go back in time to visit.
It's obvious that that LSH's Brainy would've been spying on her for ages-- the transuits and the Anywhere Machine appear in all but name in the pages of this Showcase.
As does a planet/dimension that could be the home of this LSH's Colossal Boy... and we see the possible origin of telepathy on Titan!
Maybe the founders could be a purple-ray based Light Lass, Saturn Boy and CosMer-Boy.
Instead of an upside-down spaceship, the LSH would operate out of a dome under the sea, near Themyscira.
Besides that, the writers of WW obviously have a whopping fixation on the number three. A Triplicate Girl connection is one that should've appeared- now lost to the mists of should-have-been time.
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
So I picked up Aquaman, vol. 2 recently, and it's nearly as groovy as the first one! I particularly liked "The Fish in the Iron Mask", which is all about some ancient sorceror who was imprisoned by his enemies in an iron mask, but could take over whomever wore the mask! That seems like kind of goofy way to imprison your enemies, but they apparently also tossed the mask in the sea so nobody would wear it!
Unfortunately, who decides to try on the mask one day but Topo the Octopus!
[ February 02, 2008, 12:20 PM: Message edited by: Eryk Davis Ester ]
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
Then there's this story about the first Aquagirl, an Atlantean chick named Selena. Poor Aquala dis ill and has to take a break from being Aquaman's partner and hang out in Atlantis to recuperate, so Selena takes over as a partner. There's this guy she likes, but he'll never "give her a tumble"! Fortunately, Aquaman seems perfectly willing to "tumble" with her! Poor Aqualad gets so jealous! But it turns out that's all part of their plan!
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
I just want to say that I'm not a fan of the Aquaman/Mera marriage!
Particularly the fact that they de-powered her when she was married! What the heck?
Posted by Tamper Lad on :
Typical 60s thinking really. A married woman has the power to cook and clean and that's about it. Unmarried girls can be smart, spunky and ingenious.
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
It's particularly weird that she's pretty much showing up every other issue out of nowhere to save Aquaman's life, and then suddenly she's married and useless.
Oh, well, we do get giant seahorses once they move to Atlantis, so that nearly makes up for it!
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
The Fisherman = the most surprisingly creepy villain of all time, right down to the goofy Hitler moustache he sports when they unmask him!
Posted by Cobalt Kid on :
Aquaman's title is so interesting to me in terms of the character's history.
Here he is, having existed since 1940, appearing back-ups (notably in Adventure) for 20 years. Once the Silver Age hits (first in his Adventure stories and I believe World's Finest too, and then his solo title) there's just this tremendous build-up of his universe in a way very similar to the 'build-up' of the Silver Age Superman and Legion mythos. Aqua-Lad is the most obvious and notable in the beginning, but also his new origin and other minor things. Then Mera comes along, shows up every few issues and then BAM!
The wedding of Aquaman and Mera happens in the same issue the crown Aquaman king (I've only read about half of these issues, this one being one I did read). Really not that long after, Arthur Jr. (re: Aquababy) is born, and Aquagirl (Tula) joins the already very extended cast. This huge Aqua-family exists for just about less than a decade (late Silver to mid-Bronze) but struggles to maintain a title throughout it. To be fair, most non-Superman/Batman/Flash/horror titles did at this time as well.
Then Aquaman's deconstruction arrives almost ten years before the rest of the industry's deconstruction in the late 70's with the death of his son and dissolution of his marriage, further added to by Tula's death and distancing Aquaman from Garth and Atlantis in general. Oddly enough his "recovery" occurs equally as early in regards to the rest of the DCU, beginning in the early 90's when PAD comes on board to bring the character back to his former glory, albeit in a new way that encompasses the entire history of the character (while the rest of the DCU was being ripped apart in deconstructionist story-telling which is the opposite of the creative energy of the Silver Age). Of course, now he's floundered for years while having at best a minor blip on the radar with Busiek's OYL storyline that didn't even make it a year before floundering itself.
BTW, Mera is one of my childhood crushes. My "big three" DC comics female crushes when I was growing up were: Mera, Alanna and Phantom Girl. Mainly, I thought the very idea of Mera, as this beautiful red-headed queen that could help Aquaman in a fight when he needed her, was just too cool. Same basic jist with Alanna. (For Marvel, it was all Gwen Stacey, my #1 of all comics).
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
I just read the birth of Aquababy!
One of the coolest things is the vastness of his setting. There's always some weird pool of ancient power or underwater civilization or giant two-headed dragon monster in the next cave or grotto. There's this whole cool subplot about underwater "Armadillo Men" who are enslaved by Mera's twin sister's boyfriend in the issue before, which is really cool.
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
Just read the first story in Strange Adventures Showcase #1!
"The Electric Man" by John Broome is hip story about this guy searching for alternative energy sources. Sounds like it could be ripped from today's headlines, right? Anyway, while other people are wasting their time with atomic energy, solar energy, wind energy, and hydro-electric energy, this guy decides to "Drill, baby, drill!" His theory is that he can harnass the power of the Earth itself! But then his workers are attacked by mysterious electrical beings from deep inside the Earth!
This story is an interesting premise, but way too brief (something I suspect will be a ongoing problem with these Strange Adventures tales). It really deserves to be developed into a much longer tale. If there's one thing I love, however, it's mysterious underground civilizations! So this is definitely a promising start to the series!
Posted by Cobalt Kid on :
Yay! I can't wait to read more of EDE's reviews!
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
quote:Originally posted by Eryk Davis Ester: I just read the birth of Aquababy!
One of the coolest things is the vastness of his setting. There's always some weird pool of ancient power or underwater civilization or giant two-headed dragon monster in the next cave or grotto. There's this whole cool subplot about underwater "Armadillo Men" who are enslaved by Mera's twin sister's boyfriend in the issue before, which is really cool.
Jeepers! I think I need to re-read Aquaman. I don't remember the Armadillo Men at all, but they sound groovy!
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
Otto Binder and Carmine Infantino contribute "The World's Mightiest Weakling". It's all about this scrawny guy named Rodney Drake, who has a problem. Everytime he goes to the beach with his hot girlfriend, Wilma, this gay sailor dude picks him up by the ankles and holds him upside down in the air. Rather than call Charles Atlas, Rodney first tries to gain weight by eating five meals a day, apparently thinking that fat guys, while they may get picked on, at least aren't as likely to be picked on by gay sailor dudes. Anyway, he meets Professor Milton, who's developed a way to dramatically increase his weight without changing his body shape. So, after a daily treatment by the Prof, Rodney might weight 1000 lbs, while still looking like a scrawny guy. Rodney starts using his newfound weight to win all sorts of contests, but risks losing hot girlfriend Wilma in the process!
This one was probably a better story, if not as fascinating a premise as "The Electric Man"!
[ August 02, 2010, 05:27 PM: Message edited by: Eryk Davis Ester ]
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
Binder and Gil Kane give us "Interplanetary Camera", in which a photographer stumbles across a mysterious camera, which soon turns out to be a device for transmitting images from planet Mercury. With the help of a scientist friend, the photographer must decipher what message the Mercurians are trying to send him!
This is a pretty interesting story, raising a some cool issues about how we would communicate with an alien species if we actually encountered one. The scientist and photographer probably figure out some of the clues a little too eary to be realistic, but nonetheless it's nice to see this kind of issue addressed. Plus, I *love* these old science fiction stories from when they believed Mercury was tidal-locked with the sun, and thus had a sunny side and a dark side (which plays into the story). Probably the best story of the issue!
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
So, you might remember that Strange Adventures #53 had this story about a killer robot who murders his inventor. That is, you might remember that if that story was actually reprinted in this volume. Instead, we get the second part of that story, featuring the manhunt for the killer robot, without being able to read the first part, which is pretty annoying.
Anyway, in "The Robot Dragnet", by Otto Binder and Harry Sharp, the police first encounter the evil robot Tim Steele feeding pigeons in the park. They open up with a barrage of gunfire, which has no effect of Tim Steele, but I'm betting ends the life of a bunch of poor, innocent pigeons. Anyway, after outwitting the police, the military, and stealing money from a bank just so he can scatter it around and show his disdain for it, it's finally up to the son of the murdered inventor to come up with a completely implausible method of stopping the evil robot.
This was my least favorite story from Strange Adventures #54 (the first in the Showcase), but it may just be that my bitterness over only being given the second half of the story is coloring my judgment.
Posted by Cobalt Kid on :
quote:Originally posted by Eryk Davis Ester: Binder and Gil Kane give us "Interplanetary Camera", in which a photographer stumbles across a mysterious camera, which soon turns out to be a device for transmitting images from planet Mercury. With the help of a scientist friend, the photographer must decipher what message the Mercurians are trying to send him!
This is a pretty interesting story, raising a some cool issues about how we would communicate with an alien species if we actually encountered one. The scientist and photographer probably figure out some of the clues a little too eary to be realistic, but nonetheless it's nice to see this kind of issue addressed. Plus, I *love* these old science fiction stories from when they believed Mercury was tidal-locked with the sun, and thus had a sunny side and a dark side (which plays into the story). Probably the best story of the issue!
One of Binder's favorite themes was communication, or more specifically miscommunication between civilizations, planets and people. You'll probably see this a bunch during your reading.
You're totally making me want to go out and buy this!
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
Strange Adventures #55 opens up with Edmond Hamilton's first contribution to the volume, "The Gorilla Who Challenged the World!", with art by Sy Barry.
It's a pretty classic Hamilton scenario, where a scientist invents a formula to evolve people "millions of years", which apparently means just make them a whole lot smarter. Well, apparently it doesn't just make you smarter, but grants you tons of innate knowledge, stuff that normal smart people would have to actually study and stuff. Anyway, the scientists tests it out on a gorilla before trying it on himself, and when it works on the gorilla, he decides to use it on himself. Even though he manages to take the formula, he is outsmarted by the gorilla when he attempts to make the gorilla dumb again, and the gorilla tricks him into taking the devolving formula. So now we've got a super-smart gorilla running around stealing chemicals for some crazy plan. Anyway, this story is actually continued next issue.
Not bad, but nothing mind-blowing.
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
Hamilton also delivers, along with Harry Sharp, "Movie Men from Mars!", in which the Earth becomes the setting for a disaster movie filmed by Martians! Movie Director Mark Randall uncovers the fact that this is what is causing a series of inexplicable disasters striking Earth monuments and cities, and only by sharing advanced movie-making technology from Earth can continued trouble be averted!
This is kind of bizarre, but it really reminds me of something that might have been a Twilight Zone episode!
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
Joe Kubert both writes and draws the short tale, "A World Destroyed", which is the secret origin of the asteroid belt between Jupiter and Mars, as well as a warning about the dangers of atomic war on Earth!
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
John Broome and Gil Kane one-up Kubert with the next story, "The Day the Sun Exploded!"
Basically, it all about the sun becoming super-hot and mankind's attempts to survive the deadly warming of the Earth! There's a twist ending, so what they think is happening isn't quite what happens, but overall it serves as a decent if often implausible tale about the dangers of global warming and how we might respond to it.
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
"The Invisible Spaceman" is a nice story about the first man to travel to the moon and back. When he comes back, he finds that he is invisible due to the fact that he is vibrating at a strange rate! Plus, anything he touches is shocked or destroyed! So he seeks out the world's leading expert on vibrations, a hot scientist chick, to get help! But first, he has to find a way to get her attention!
This was a pretty solid story, with a nice ending. Possibly the best of the issue.
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
Starting Strange Adventures #66:
"The Fish-Men of Earth", by John Broome and Carmine Infantino, tells the story of an alien invasion, which begins with the aliens making our atmosphere significantly denser than it is at the moment, such that people have to swim through it! The atmospheric change also has the effect of making most of our weapons useless, making us helpless prey for the conquering aliens. Our heroic scientists have to find a way to defeat the invading alien forces!
This was a fairly nice tale, which I could definitely see being used as the basis of a Green Lantern story six or seven years later!
[ August 03, 2010, 09:24 PM: Message edited by: Eryk Davis Ester ]
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
John Broome and Harry Sharp give us "Explorers of the Crystal Moon", in which Li'l Tommy is left at home all alone by his parents. He happens to be visited by two aliens who walk right through the wall, ignoring the locked door. After spending some time making fun of primitive Earth technology, which has barely advanced at all in the thousands of years since they last visited this primitive planet, they proceed to demonstrate some of their alien tech to Tommy. A few modifications to the primitive television first make display things in color, then full turns it into full hypnovision, which allows Tommy to experience exploring another planet like he's really there! I bet Tommy's parent will never believe him when he tells 'em this story!
This story was pretty good, though the idea that they could so easily modify an old 50s tv set into this advance piece of equipment so easily was a bit implausible. Oh, and it didn't seem as though they actually undid the modifications when they left, which seemed a bit odd. All in all, it accomplished the basic point goal pretty well, which was to extrapolate from a current technology (tv) to what a futuristic version of it might be like.
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
Last issue gave a movie director saving the Earth, and in this issue we have yet another tale by John Broome called "The Sculptor who Saved the Earth". It's all about a talentless, penniless sculptor who suddenly becomes successful when strange innovative abstract sculptures start appearing in his studio out of nowhere. Suddenly, he becomes famous as one of the most daring, innovative sculptors around, but trouble strikes when it turns out that these sculptures are actually devices from the future, which are vital to future civilization!
Another solid if not exactly mind-blowing Broome story. It reminded me a bit of Lewis Padgett's "Mimsy were the Borogroves".
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
Lastly, we have "The Jungle Emperor", the follow-up to last issues "The Gorilla Who Challenged the World". In this part of the story, Hamilton and Barry have the gorilla from last issue proclaim himself "The Gorilla Emperor", and demand that the governments of Earth surrendor to him and his gorilla army! It's up to that scientist dude who cause the gorilla to turn super-intelligent in the first place to find a way to stop him, since all of our weapons seem useless against his now uber-powerful gorilla technology!
This is a pretty awesome story. I kept wanting to call the "Gorilla Emperor" Grodd throughout the whole thing! There's also a pretty cool plothole in the story, which could easily be used if they wanted a return appearance of the Gorilla Emperor!
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
Ooh! I forgot to mention that Hamilton leaves us with a message about the dangers of trying to interfere with the course of evolution, suggesting that we should instead let it make its own slow progress or something like that.
Still a relevant point of view to consider in this day of genetic engineering!
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
Strange Adventures #57 delivers some really solid tales!
It opens with "The Spy from Saturn!", by John Broome and Sid Greene. Aliens kidnapping and replacing Earth people is pretty much a staple of the sci fi genre, but this is a pretty nice example of that kind of tale. It opens with Earth scientist Mark Dawson boarding a ship on an important mission to another planet. Only, it turns out it's not really Mark Dawson but an alien imposter sent to take Dawson's place. It seems the Saturnians are far more advanced than Earthling in most forms of technology, but their weapons are inferior, so they send their spy, Kban-Tiri, to replace a leading Earth scientist to gather info on our weapons. The spy quickly meets his counterpart, tries to overcome him, but seemingly fails.
The story trades then on the reader's uncertainty as to whether the character they are following is really the alien or the human he is meant to follow. If the human overpowered the alien, then why does he seem not to know basic facts about his life? There's basically enough ambiguity that actually makes the story work.
Anyway, I thought this was a solid effort.
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
Bill Finger and Sy Barry give us "The Moonman and the Meteor". Fred Cory and Judy Rogers are a romantic couple currently on the verge of breaking up because they can't agree on whether to have a large or small wedding, when suddenly a meteor crashes into the front of Fred's car. This near death experience brings the two back together, and they decide to have a medium-sized wedding, and to keep the meteor as a symbol of the fact that they should never argue again.
Anyway, they tie the knot (apparently incredibly quickly), but soon word gets out about their meteor, and everybody from scientists to loony meteor-collecting film directors are trying to buy the meteor from them. They won't sell, however. Then this man claiming to be from another world shows up, and tells them they must give him the meteor, or Earth is doomed! But they're too smart to fall for that trick, after all, he doesn't even look like a real alien... but could he be?
This was an okay tale, but nothing particularly special. The moonman's story is actually kind of interesting, and is probably the best part of it. I found it somewhat interesting that just being bald with a slightly over-sized cranium wasn't "alien" enough for the lead characters, so there's this cool sequence of the moonman trying to disguise himself as a more stereotypical Hollywood alien.
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
What was it Cobie said about Otto Binder's interest in communication/miscommunication among us and aliens? That plays an important role in Binder and Kane's "The Riddle of Animal X". Zoologist John Lloyd is surprised to return from a month long research expedition to find his son Tommy playing with a new pet, something which looks a bit like a kangaroo, but which, on closer inspection, is like no animal on Earth. Tommy has been trying to teach it to speak, but seems to be having more success in imitating its sounds. Anyway, they quickly discover that it comes from an alien ship, and it's humanoid master is unconsious onboard. Reviving him, they find that the alien seems to have suffered some brain damage, and is behaving quite irrationally, just repeating the same sounds over and over again. So they must try to find a way to help the alien and his pet.
This is a solid tale, though the "twist" is pretty obvious, it is nonetheless well done.
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
Lastly in #57 we have John Broome and Carmine Infantino's "Spaceship Under the Earth". This was a really great tale that I could easily see having been a Twilight Zone episode. William Manson, a uranium prospector, discovers a great source of underground radiation, and, searching further, discover it belong to a strange ship underneath the ground. After investigating for a few minutes, he accidentally triggers a self-destruct mechanism.
Wandering through the desert after the explosion, Manson comes across two scientists working on a top secret project, who agree to take him in while he recovers, and make him promise not to reveal their secret work. It turns out that they are building a space ship to travel to Mars. The ship turns out to look remarkably like the one Manson had previously stumbled across, which creates a mystery. Adding to the tension, there's a coule of escaped convicts on the loose, who, once they find out about the spaceship, figure it would be easy to muscle their way in to controlling Mars, see?
This story is really first-rate, with both the mystery of the identical spaceships and the tension of the criminals on the loose making for really entertaining reading!
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
#58 opens with "I Hunted the Radium Man", by Dave Wood and Carmine Infantino. It's the story of Police Captain Dillard and his attempts to apprehend "Mr. X" (not to be confused with the Gorilla Emperor, who also was labeled "Mr. X" by the police!). Mr. X is a mysterious criminal whose stealing the city's radium supply, but his fingerprints are blank, his face won't photograph, he walks through walls, can't be held by a jail cell or cuffs, has no pulse... etc. Could he be an alien? And can the police stop him? Well, the answer to the last question is "no"!
This was an okay story, but not anything special. The ending is not what you expect, so I suppose that's good, but it's far from the best story in this issue.
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
Bill Finger and Sy Barry's "Prisoner of Two Worlds!" is pretty awesome!
So, Darwin Jones is sitting at home one day, when this alien police officer contacts him through his TV. It seems there's this alien criminal, Kren, who's hiding out on Earth. Since Earth's atmosphere in inhospitable to their race, the Torgians, they can't come to Earth, since they lack whatever means Kren is using to survive on Earth.
So DJ and his Dept. of Scientific Investigation set about trying to apprehend Kren, but realize they can't arrest him, because he's broken none of our laws. Well, first they try to apprehend him as an illegal immigrant, but it turns out Kren was actually born on Earth in the U.S., and is therefore not an illegal at all! I'm sure if Lindsay Graham were around, this minor fact wouldn't stop him from throwing Kren in Guatanamo and water-boarding him a few times for the hell of it, but instead Darwin Jones decides to wait until he can catch Kren in some actual crime! Along the way, DJ also has to learn the secret of how Kren is able to survive on Earth!
This is a really solid story. It's nice watching DJ think he has reason to hold Kren repeatedly, and then it turns out not to work. The ending could've been weak if it didn't rely upon DJ cleverly figuring out some facts about the alien.
I don't know if there are any more Darwin Jones stories in this collection (I think this is his third appearance overall), but if they're all this good, I'm looking forward to them!
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
John Broome and Gil Kane bring us "Dream-Journey through Space" in which Hal Jord... er... Howard Wright keeps having dreams in which he is drawn to this alien planet to assist the natives in overthrowing the computers which they originally built to serve them, but which they have since become so dependent on that they can't do anything for themselves. They hope that Wright's Earthman ingenuity might be useful in helping them. So Wright has to figure out some way to liberate them from control of the machine overlord. Of course, it doesn't really matter if he succeeds, because this is all a dream, right?
This is another story that reminds me a lot of the kind of thing that would later be used in Green Lantern. In fact, it's kind of a prototype of all those GL stories where Hal is drawn into the future to help them solve their problems. Anyway, this is a solid tale, though it probably suffers from being too brief.
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
Lastly we have "The Invisible Masters of Earth", in which alien bug creatures invade, and it's up to Cal Higgins, who recently had to give up his ambition to break into show biz as a ventriloquist, to save the day. Can Cal find a way to stop the aliens? And get a job in the process? I bet the answer is "yes", in this Bill Finger/Sid Greene tale!
This story is kind of in the tradition of the movie-maker and the sculptor saving Earth in previous stories. I'm kind of liking this "person with an unlikely skill set" proves vital to saving us all motif.
Posted by Fat Cramer on :
"Movie Men from Mars" is my favourite for the concept, but hidden spaceships and criminals does sound like more of a story.
Are the two Tommys the same kid, or was that just the generic kid's name in sci fi comics?
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
I think it's just a generic name, but I noticed that too!
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
Strange Adventures #59 opens with “The Ark from Planet X”, by John Broome and Sid Greene, in which aliens land on Earth in their giant spaceship, and, after blowing up a mountain, demand that the humans bring them two of every animal on Earth. Given that these aliens seem to be going all Noah on us, a few people wonder if the Earth is doomed, and why the aliens aren’t saving any humans, but that’s just for the dramatic cover shot. Before they leave, the aliens do pick up a nice human couple for their li’l space zoo. Mechanic John Wheeler and his wife Alice soon discover the true intentions of the aliens: they trade strange lifeforms to other aliens in exchange for a metal their civilization depends upon. The Wheelers must find a way to convince the aliens to return them home, before they end up pets or lunch or sex slaves or something!
I thought this tale was pretty decent, especially the building of suspense as to what the aliens are really after. The ending was both predictable and far-fetched, however.
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
Otto Binder and Gil Kane give us “The Super-Athletes from Outer Space”, which is basically about a high school athletic coach who stumbles across aliens on Earth training for a “planetary track contest”, and how he helps coach them in case they have to compete in simulated Earth conditions. And, of course, seeing the super-athletes from outer space performs forever makes all Earth athletes seem pathetic by comparison, which one would think would really hurt the dude’s ability to successfully perform as a coach, but oh well…
This story is all right, but it’s kind of filler. I expected the coach to save the Earth with his Earth-coaching knowledge or something, but it didn’t happen.
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
“Legacy from the Future”, by France Herron and Carmine Infantino, is about this crazy old coot named “Andru 4-S” who dies in the year 2256, and leaves a million dollars to each of his relatives in the year 1956. Fortunately, the people of the year 2256 have just perfected the means to send objects back in time, so they locate the old coots sole living relative in that year, and send him them money. Which is a good thing, because that guy needs the money, as he just sent a rocket to the moon that threatens to destroy us all!
Okay, so I’m not sure how it’s possible that the guy has only one living relative in the year 1956, but overall this is a fairly clever story, if not especially well-executed.
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
“The World that Vanished” is a pretty nice John Broome/Sy Barry tale in which a strange object is sent to the Where On Earth television show, which apparently is based around archeologists identifying strange objects sent in by viewers. Anyway, this object proves especially puzzling, and so Professor Donley takes it home with him for further study! Donley manages to decode the writing on the object, and discovers a message from survivors of the planet that used to exist between Mars and Jupiter, warning the inhabitants of the “fourth planet” that any attempt to develop a cosmic ray weapon would result in the planet’s destruction, just as it did theirs! But, of course, as every school kid knows, the “fourth planet” is Mars, so this message was clearly intended for them! Or was it? The Martians who actually sent the message are annoyed to discover the humans misinterpreting its meaning, as those idiot humans hadn’t yet discovered the planet that lies between the Earth and the Sun, Appolo! And those humans are so stupid, if they had discovered it, I bet they would’ve spelled it “Apollo”! Hmph! Anyway, what the heck is going on? Will the brilliant archeologist figure it all out?
This is probably the best story of #59, if a little convoluted with all its twists and turns!
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
#60 opens up with “Across the Ages”, by John Broome and Jerry Grandenetti. The premise of this story is that the people of the twenty-second century have developed a means to bring historical figures to their time, quiz them about stuff so that they can get the historical facts right, and then return them home with no memory of their trip. Unfortunately, when this time-conductor dude is bringing back Cleopatra, Columbus, and Napoleon, the machine accidentally breaks down in the 20th century, and while the time-conductor tries to get his three clients to stay put, things get complicated when Columbus and Napoleon run wild in the modern era!
This story has a decent premise, but what it’s really missing are two 20th century aspiring rock-n-roller high school students who seriously need help to pass their history presentations. I mean… this story’s version of Napoleon running wild in the 20th century has him going to the library! Not a water slide in sight!
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
Otto Binder and Gil Kane give us “The Man Who Remembered 100,000 Years Ago!”, about this high school science teacher who starts having weird seizures in which he teaches his students goofy facts like that there’s only fifteen hours in the day or that the magnetic pole is a the equator or the earth is more land than water. Well, after taking a leave of absence, the teacher discovers that he is actually having flashbacks of information from that part of our brain that stores our “racial memory”, and the info was actually true 100,000 years ago when those memories were stored! And, it’s a good thing, too, because by complete coincidence that info is going to come in handy in saving the Earth in the near future!
Even though I’m tempted to complain about the pseudo-scientific concept of “racial memory”, this is actually a pretty good story, if you ignore the implausible coincidence of his racial memory being activated at exactly the time it was needed to save us all.
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
John Broome and Sid Greene’s “Orphan of the Stars” is a really solid story about a teenager who is suddenly informed by a visiting alien that he himself is an alien orphan whose parents were killed when they crash landed on Earth. The visitor warns the kid, Fred Fletcher, that he will soon start developing remarkable abilities far beyond those of Earthlings, and that because of these abilities, he won’t be able to fit in on Earth. The visitor wants Fred to come with him back to his homeworld. Fred shrugs off this whole encounter as silly, but then actually starts developing powers, such as precognition, telepathy, photographic memory, and telekinesis, and these abilities start causing him problems, just as the visitor said they would! Fred must decide whether he wants to take the visitor up on his offer and leave the only home he’s ever known, the Earth!
I liked this story a lot. I’m tempted to suggest that Fred Fletcher would be a nice character for someone to revive in the contemporary DCU, if they haven’t already, but he’d probably just get killed off in the next massive mega-crossover bloodbath or something, so he’s probably better just left in limbo.
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
Otto Binder and Sy Barry’s “World at the End of the Universe!” is another fantastic tale! It takes place in the 21st century, when the Earth has become part of the United Worlds, a peaceful union of all civilized planets, organized in the year 1999! In it, Earthling Ted Carter is selected as the brightest student at Solar System University, and thus selected to go on a grand tour of the galaxy with other prize-winning students from all over the Milky Way! But after being all “gosh shucks gee wow” at even the most basic sights in the galaxy, like Pyramid Worlds and twin planets joined by a natural land bridge, Ted starts to feel inferior to his fellow student travelers. This will all change, however, when the spaceship is trapped on a strange world at the outermost rim of the galaxy…
Okay, when I first started reading this story, I thought that Ted looked remarkably like Rokk Krinn, right down to the space-helmet he eventually dons, and was planning on posting something about that. However, as the story went on, and the travelers became trapped on a magnetic world, and it is Ted’s knowledge of magnetism that allows him to save the day… wow! I was really hoping this could be twisted into a “Secret Origin of Braal” story, but, alas, it wasn’t to be so. No giant metal monsters on this planet, and the giant ants that are the monsters of the story are almost certainly dead by the end of it! Good riddance! If there’s one giant creature I don’t like, it’s giant ants!
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
To start off Strange Adventures #61, Binder and Kane deliver “The Mirages from Space”, about an astronomer who discovers a strange, glassy asteroid that has appeared between Earth and Saturn. Even weirder is when he starts seeing visions of things happening on Saturn as mirages in the desert! Fortunately, though, these mirages clue him into the Saturnians imminent invasion plans for Earth, which he must now figure out how to stop!
This was a pretty decent, if somewhat predictable tale. The astronomer’s movie-director friend plays an important role in the story, which makes the second time Earth has been saved by Hollywood in this volume!
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
A bit better is Binder and Greene’s “The Thermometer Man”, in which an alien from a super-cold world visits Earth. Unfortunately, his body melts at room temperature! He is, however, able to survive in both liquid and gaseous forms, as he eventually discovers as he helps out with various emergencies on Earth! Unfortunately, he begins to prove as much of a menace as a help...
This is a pretty classic “alien with powers visits Earth” goodness. If he had been introduced five years later, I bet “Thermometer Man” would’ve ended up as a recurring Silver Age character.
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
“The Strange Thinking Cap of Willie Jones” is a really nice story by France Herron and Sy Barry, about this lighthouse keeper, Willie Jones, who is incredibly indecisive. He can’t decide which move to make when playing checkers, and hasn’t been able to resolve to ask his gorgeous girlfriend Annie Scott to marry him and stuff like that. So his friend, Professor Travis give him this new invention, a “thinking cap”, that he can ask questions and will flash the correct answer in his mind. With this new cap, Willie is suddenly decisive, and, good thing, too, because he has to foil an alien invasion!
I liked this story quite a bit. It's a very "human" tale amongst all the interstellar invaasion stories. One might complain that it might have worked better without the obligatory “alien invasion”, but nonetheless it was probably my favorite story of this issue.
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
Another Binder and Greene story closes out this issue. “The Amazing Two-Time Inventions” concerns this inventor who accidentally rewires his vacuum into a time machine! Well, at least one that can pull objects from the future. He is excited when he starts pulling objects from the late thirtieth century, thinking that maybe he can bring back some advanced futuristic technology! Unfortunately, all he seems to be able to get are stuff like an old-timey telephone, a typewriter, a phonograph, and other stuff which was all apparently invented in the 2950s! What the heck is going on?
This is a pretty nice little tale as well, with a nice premise. It also has some brief, but nice character scenes between the inventor and his frustrated wife. It’s a nice comparison with the other Binder and Greene story this issue, “The Thermometer Man”, in that these are two very different style stories, with this one being a much more straightforward sci fi tale, and the other venturing more into Silver Age style super-heroics.
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
Opening up Strange Adventures #62, Broome and Infantino give us the rather convoluted tale of “The Fireproof Man!”, in which a scientist and his dog stumble across some aliens planning on igniting the Earth into a small sun and living on the Moon. When the aliens see our hero, they fire their vibrator gun at our hero, unsure exactly what effect it will have in our atmosphere. It appears to the aliens to damage his mind, making him act like a lower creature, but, unbeknownst to them, it actually switches his mind with that of his dog! So, trapped now in canine form, our hero must seek help from his scientist partner to deal with the aliens!
I kind of liked this story, which was a little more complex than usual, having both the man/dog mind-switch plot and the dealing with aliens planning on burning the Earth plot. The scientist in dog form’s attempts to communicate with his partner are a nice bit as well!
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
Broome and Sid Greene deliver “The Emperor of Planet X!”, in which John Abbot, handyman at a top secret scientific facility, finds himself suddenly transported to another dimension. The primitive people of this dimension are at first frightened by his appearance, but, when he startles them with the “magic” of a few basic high school chemistry experiments, they decide to make him their emperor! Will Abbot be able to retain his spot as Emperor, or will he be forced to resume his sad sack existence as a nobody back in our dimension?
This story is really fantastic, with a great lesson at the end about underestimating/overestimating our actual importance in the grand scheme of things!
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
Otto Binder and Gil Kane give us “The Invaders from Inner Space!”, in which two zoologists come across this weird cliff side that apparently “echoes” with voices from the past! That would be a pretty cool premise for a story, but quickly they discover that underground people are planning on invading the surface world, and have been scouting this area in the recent past! The zoologists must find a way to thwart the invasion!
I would really have like to seen more about the cool sound-storing rocks, but, hey, it’s a story about invasion by a mysterious underground civilization, so of course I’m going to love it! There’s a great couple of pages of the subterraneans speculating about the existence of a world beyond their stone sky, and discovering the new world! It’s got a fairly typical “invaders defeated by a common object they don’t have where they come from” ending, but it’s still pretty cool!
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
Lastly in this issue we have “The Watchdogs of the Universe!”, by Binder and Greene. Little Danny’s dad regularly tells him bedtimes stories before he goes to sleep, and he’s especially fond of the science fiction stories his father makes up! Well, one night his father tells him an adventure he himself had when he accidentally stumbled across a group of aliens preventing a volcano from erupting. The aliens had been invisible, but he is able to see them because of the volcanic ash, and after confronting them, he discovers that they are the “Watchdogs of Space!”, who travel around from planet to planet helping prevent disasters, while keeping their existence a secret. Unfortunately, since he has discovered their existence, he must be taken with them, in order to preserve the secret! But why are the watchdogs so intent on hiding their existence, when they could be honored as heroes on hundreds of worlds? And how does dad ever make it home so that he can tell this story to Danny?
This is another solid tale in a really nice issue! The Watchdogs are kind of a proto-GLC. I wish we’d gotten to see more of their origins, since all we know is that they have been around for ages, and is made up of “brave men of any world”. Anyway, good stuff!
Posted by Cobalt Kid on :
Eryk, keep these up! I was reading through them the other day from my phone (which is why I didn't post).
Posted by Nightcrawler on :
“World at the End of the Universe!” & “The Watchdogs of the Universe!” can be read here.
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
Hmm... I thought the Watchdogs of the Universe seemed familiar, but I didn't remember World at the End of the Universe at all!
For the record, there's a solid Legion connection coming up in (I believe) #72!
[ August 12, 2010, 10:03 AM: Message edited by: Eryk Davis Ester ]
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
On to #63:
Joe Samachson and Jerry Grandenetti collaborate on “I was the Man in the Moon”, about an auto mechanic whose face suddenly appears on the moon! Turns out this is all a plot by the moonmen to discredit and make people fear him, as it has been predicted by the moonmen’s supercomputer, Moonavac, that he will, in about ten years, invent a propulsion system capable of reaching the moon. So the mechanic must find a way to get his life straightened out, with the FBI investigating him, everyone distrusting him, and the moonmen constantly haunting his dreams!
It seems to me that changing the features of the moon to resemble the mechanic’s face is a pretty extreme measure to go to. This is a pretty decent example of a “self-fulfilling prophecy” kind of story, in which something happens because of the attempts to prevent it from happening, though I’m not sure why the moonmen can’t just, you know, kill the guy themselves.
Funny line: “Many other strange things have been happening lately, Ken! Cyclones, hurricanes, tidal waves… Looks as if Mother Nature is going on a rampage! But the strangest phenomenon of all is… your face!”
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
“The Sign-Language of Space!”, by Binder and Greene, concerns an American Indian forest ranger who comes across aliens who have landed on Earth! Every attempt by the military to communicate with the alien fails, until the forest ranger employs American Indian sign language! The alien tells of how a new ice age threatened his planet, and his people had to build a giant space arc and search for another world to live on! When asked why they came to Earth, the alien seems to suggest that the Earthling “beat it”, to leave Earth as rapidly as possible! Since it seems like the aliens are planning on taking over Earth, the military quickly take the exploration party prisoner. But could they have mis-interpreted the alien message?
Okay, so this is another Binder tale about (mis)communication between us and aliens. It turns what could’ve been a pretty cheesy idea (the aliens understand Indian sign language) into something kind of interesting, because of the miscommunication aspect.
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
Jerry Coleman and Gil Kane present “Strange Journey to Earth!” about an alien who suddenly lands in the middle of the city, and begins behaving strangely. He pretty much ignores humans, except to force them away, and commences leveling buildings and drilling holes in the city streets and filling them with some strange pellets. Everyone is puzzled by the strange behavior of the alien, until schoolteacher Jeff Sanders figures out a way to chase him away!
This is actually a pretty cool little story concerning the mystery of what the alien was doing. I have to admit I didn’t figure out what was going on, partially because it actually seems incredibly implausible for a number of reasons. But it’s a neat story nonetheless.
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
“Catastrophe County, USA!” is a memorable story by Hamilton and Greene in which a group of scientists are chosen as part of a secret project to test structures against various sorts of artificially simulated natural disasters. Tragedy strikes quickly, however, when the architect of one of the structures is carried off with his building during the first manmade tornado! Then other mysterious acts of sabotage quickly been occurring. But who’d want to sabotage the project and why? And who could it be, since the project was top secret?
This is a pretty classic Hamilton story. I could easily imagine this being a Superman story, with Clark Kent assigned to cover the top secret tests for a future newspaper story or something (and only surviving the sabotage attempts due to being secretly Superman).
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
Coming up next issue: Gorillas in Space!
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
So, “Gorillas in Space!” opens up Strange Adventure #64, with Bill Finger and Carmine Infantino giving us the tale of a group of scientists who are about to launch the first manned space satellite. Suddenly, their work is interrupted when a ship lands on Earth nearby, and out walks a group of gorillas in spacesuits! The gorillas then precede to tell the scientists that they themselves were, in reality, a similar group of scientists who had built their own space station privately and launched it, only to discover once in orbit that the cosmic rays in space devolved them into gorillas! They warn that the scientists must cease their attempts to explore space, or a similar fate will befall them. One scientist, Dr. Owens, is suspicious of their story, and decides to risk being changed into a gorilla himself to find out what’s really going on!
This is one of those stories where the cover/splash page is far more exciting than the actual story ends up being. I was totally bummed that it wasn’t really about gorillas beating us into space!
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
Binder and Greene give us the kind of interesting story, “The Maze of Mars!”. In it, a hiker stumbles across a strange mountain tunnel, which he begins to explore. Suddenly, a creature from outer space appears behind him! So he ducks into the tunnel maze, and desperately tries to find his way through it, the space creature following him all the way, seemingly very interested in his movements! What does the space creature want? Is he an alien scientist testing the hiker’s intelligence, like a rat in a maze? Only if he can find his way through will he find out!
While I liked this story, I couldn’t help but feel that it could’ve been a bit better. It’s got a bit of a “horror story” aspect to it, and perhaps it would’ve been stronger if they could’ve played that up more, which was probably impossible given the time at which this was published.
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
Next up is “The Man Who Discovered the West Pole!”, by Binder and Kane. Now this was an awesome story! One of the best in the book! In it… science goes wild! Telescopes start acting as microscopes! Boiling food turns it ice cold!, Crashing cars bounce off each other like rubber balls! Astronomer Paul Gibson figures out that this is all being caused by a strange electric comet that he discovered passing by Earth recently. Remembering an ancient Egyptian legend according to which the Earth possessed not only a North and South Pole, but also an East and West Pole, Gibson determines that the passing comet screwed up the “electrical poles” on two sides of the Earth. Since the East Pole is in the middle of the ocean, he decides to head for Equatorial Africa to find the West Pole, and hopefully find a way to put a stop to the madness, while people fight off attacks from giant sparrows and towns sink into a ground turned into ooze!
This story is fantastic on a number of levels! The whole East/West Pole idea is one of the coolest things I’ve come across in a while, and one that hasn’t been done to death like some of the other story concepts. And I absolutely love all the “Science goes wild!” scenes interspersed throughout the story.
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
Samachson and Grandenetti gives us “The Earth-Drowners”, in which Venusians plan to conquer Earth by melting the polar icecaps and flooding the world! Since they are water-breathers and need to place their machines on land, they hypnotize a deep-sea diver into carrying out the planting of their devices designed to cause the melting at various high places on Earth. As much as the heroic deep-sea diver tries to resist, he seems unable to resist the drive to plant the alien devices! Will he be able to thwart their plans?
This story was okay, but it was no “The Man Who Discovered the West Pole!”!
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
Strange Adventures #65 opens up with “The Prisoner from Pluto!”, in which the Plutonian Zar Kull is desperately trying to warn Earthlings about an immanent invasion from Saturn! Unfortunately, he has no way of communicating with the Earthlings except by exchanging his mind with a humans via a niftly li’l device he carries with him. But no matter what form he takes, he can’t seem to convince the humans that he’s serious! And, to make matters worse, they capture him an put him in prison! How will Otto Binder and Sid Greene resolve this situation?
This was an okay tale, but not really one of the better ones. I was particularly puzzled at how, after transferring his mind to a whale, Zar Kull was able to operate the machine in such a way as to transfer his mind back. Or for that matter, how he was supposed to located the gull whose mind he was in prior to that, to make sure the gull and whale’s minds get back in the right bodies. But I guess you’re not supposed to think about that.
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
Joe Samachson and Gil Kane give us “The Rock and Roll Kid from Mars!”, a crazy little tale about Kruj, a Martian kid who travels to Earth to meet the rock-n-roller he digs the most, trumpet player Larry Lowry! Things quickly get out of control when Kruj goes all crazy, stalker-y on Larry! He uses his Martian technology to punish anyone who is even the slightest bit critical of his Idol Lowry the Martian way, by eliminating their ability to hear his music ever again! I’m not sure all the critics would really be upset about this, but it sets the stage for an interplanetary culture clash!
This is a surprisingly inventive little story that at least put a smile on my face. I liked it!
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
We haven’t had an “Earth gets saved by someone in a random occupation” story for awhile, so Binder and Infantino make up for this with “War of the Mind-Readers!” in which Earth is saved by a dude with a mind-reading act! This is after he improbably gets involved in negotiations with a telepathic alien who just happens to land in the middle of his act. He becomes convinced that the alien is bluffing, and after making an incredible leap of logic as to what the alien’s plan really is, somehow manages to convince the “government officials” who have joined him in negotiations with the alien to follow his plan.
Okay, this story has kind of a neat idea, but I wasn’t too impressed by the actual story, which, as I suggested, contained some pretty improbable plot points.
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
“The Man Who Grew Wings!” is a really nice story by Binder and Greene about a scientist who is working on a substance, Element X, which he hopes can unlock the secret to flight in animals. He experiments on non-flying relatives of flying animals, such as penguins and ants, and gives them the ability of flight. He plans on beginning research on other non-flying animals, such as cats and dogs, when suddenly he is bitten by one of his flying ants! Soon he finds himself growing wings, and with the ability to fly! Then he foils an alien invasion!
I kept thinking the whole time I was reading this story that if it was published a few years later, it would’ve been a perfect origin for a Silver Age Hawkman. And the “gets powers after being bitten by a mutated bug” origin… that sounds kind of familiar… Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
Speaking of could-have-been super-heroes, Strange Adventures #66 opens up with the tale of John Westerbrook, undercover cop who has spent the past two years trying to uncover the identity of the secret crime boss of Metro City. The afternoon before he supposed to finally meet the big boss, however, a freak accident with an x-ray machine turns him into “The Human Battery!”, charging his body with electricity, so that he shocks people when he touches them and can power lightbulbs by holding them. Rather than going to a hospital to deal with his condition, Westerbrook insists on continuing his undercover mission!
This Broome and Infantino tale definitely shows the beginning of renewed interest in the super-hero genre. Actually, it would be pretty cool if The Human Battery and The Man Who Grew Wings were retconned into being mid-50s super-heroes (with different names) in the current DCU. The story itself is fairly predictable, but interesting nonetheless.
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
Samachson and Greene give us “The Flying Raincoat!”, featuring an astronomer who accidentally stumbles upon an alien invasion when he picks up the wrong raincoat on his way out of a diner! The raincoat turns out to be a piece of alien equipment, and it begins flying through the air to take him to a rendezvous with alien infiltrators, who mistake him for one of their own in human form! The astronomer must find a way to stop the aliens!
This was an okay story, but not one of the more memorable ones.
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
Darwin Jones returns in “Strange Secret of the Time Capsule!”, by Binder and Kane, in which a strange container from 251 A.D. is uncovered by some archeologists. Unfortunately, all modern science seems to be unable to open the time capsule! And then, one day a mysterious locksmith appears and is able to open the box, but all it contains is a single metal rod! The metal rod is placed in a museum, but then a mysterious crime wave breaks out in the city, beginning with the metal rod!
Okay, other than the fact that the basic plot twist in this story rests on the archeologists being so incredibly incompetent that it takes Darwin Jones to point out something they should’ve realized immediately, this is a pretty nice story.
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
“Man of a Thousand Shapes!”, by Samachson and Infantino concerns a shape-changing alien who travels to Earth to hunt down an escaped criminal. So he gets a job at a carnival side-show, as a human shape-changer, hoping that the publicity of the act will attract the criminal he is looking for. And it does, and they fight.
This was another tale that was simply okay, but not one of my favorites. I suppose the ending battle between the two shape-changing aliens does presage silver-age super-heroics as well, so it’s interesting in that regard.
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
“The Martian Masquerade”, by Broome and Kane, opens up Strange Adventures #67. It begins, of all places, in the editorial offices of Strange Adventures, where editor “Mr. Black” (an obvious Julie Schwartz” analogue), is complaining that his writers aren’t giving him any good stories. A young unknown writer shows up at the office, and offers a story about Martians! But Martian stories are old news, but the writer promises his story to be different, because he himself is an authentic Martian, which he demonstrated by pulling off his human facemask! Seems this guy is actually Kobir, son of the head honcho of Mars, which has been secretly assisting Earth for years by telepathically influencing the development of our civilization. But Kobir wanted to prove that Earth people were ready to stand on their own, so he came to Earth against the wishes of his father. Once on Earth he meets an Earth professor who is working on a nerve paralyzer, something which Earthlings aren’t scheduled to develop for many years. When the Earth professor asks him to a science fiction masquerade party, he goes as his true Martian form, but risks revealing his true identity to the world! And also to the Martian agents who have been sent to capture him!
Okay, the setup of having the alien tell his tale to the Strange Adventures editorial office was kind of cool, but I’m not really clear on why the alien felt the need to tell his story there. And at the end I kind of felt sorry for poor Kobir, wondering if he’d ever get to see his Earth professor boyfriend again after he went home to Mars! Incidentally, the Martians in this story remind me a bit of Tomar-Re!
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
Hamilton and Greene give us “Search for a Lost World”, which is basically about this guy from a microverse whose world is suddenly subject to great upheaval as the bodies in the night sky begin to move strangely! Scientists theorize that it is some sort of disturbance from the larger universe that is causing this, and so one brave inhabitant of the microverse volunteers to be enlarged to giant size so that he can discover the cause! But finding cause is only half his challenge, as it will prove difficult for him to return home to his beloved planet and the girl he loved!
This is decent Hamilton story, though, like “The Martian Masquerade” is mostly told in flashback, which kind of dilutes it some. Some stories work really well with the “let’s show this odd event and then flashback to what led up to the situation”, but I don’t think it worked as well in this case as in the previous story.
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
“The Talking Flower” is a Samachson/Infantino collaboration, which gives us the tale of Willie Pickens, a down-on-his-luck chemist who is convinced he will never be successful until he convinces Helen to marry him. The problem is that Helen won’t consider marrying him until he’s successful! Helen suggests that what he needs to get a head is to dress better. After all, all the successful men seem to wear flowers in their buttonholes! So Willie acquires a flower, only it turns out to be an alien stranded on Earth! Willie and the alien flower try to find a way to help one another with their respective dilemmas!
This story pretty much rocks! Though I’m not really sure Helen is worth all the agonizing over…
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
Okay, so this seems to be the issue for love stories! “Gateway Through the Ages!” is a sweet boy-meets-boy tale by Hamilton and Greene, in which a young archeologist stumbles upon the famous labyrinth of Crete, and, exploring it, finds himself somehow transported through time to Crete itself! After being imprisoned by the Cretans, he meets the legendary scientist Daedalus and his handsome son Icarus, and joins in their escape plan! But our hero knows poor Icarus is destined to die in the escape attempt! Can he change his fate! Given that Icarus very much resembles the guy he’s attending a lecture with at the beginning of the story, I’m guessing the answer is “yes!”
Okay, other than being another flashback story which pretty much gives away the ending, this is a pretty interesting tale. I liked it!
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
Well before Aquaman had any connection to Atlantis, Broome and Infantino give us “The Man Who Couldn’t Drown”, the cover story from Strange Adventures #68, featuring the story of Paul Browning, who, after falling off an ocean liner, discovers he has the ability to breathe underwater! After being studied by scientists, it is discovered that Paul is a genetic throwback to a variant of early humans that were water-breathers. Such people were rumored to have lived in the ancient continent of Atlantis! Paul discovers that this legend is true when he meets the surviving descendants of the Atlanteans who want Paul to live among them a share with them the scientific knowledge of the surface world to help rebuild their civilization! So Paul has a choice, stay with the Atlanteans, or return home to the surface world in which he increasingly feels that he doesn’t belong!
Even aside from the cool “Alternate Atomic Age Aquaman” to add to our collection of Atomic Age almost super-heroes, this is a pretty nice story!
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
“Strange Gift from Space!”, by Samachson and Greene, gives us the story of Bob Fallon, who one day saves the life of an alien, who repays him with a certain gift, that at a certain moment in his life he would be able to “escran”, which is ability the alien once had. Before he can explain what “escran” means, the alien must flee from pursuing Air Force UFO patrolmen. Soon he discovers that escran means that he gains a glimpse of the future, a future in which a meteor will fall down towards a man in a checked suit! Can Bob save the man in the checked suit? And why is it important that he do so? And what happened to the alien?
This is another pretty sweet story. There’s a cool sequence of Bob speculating on what “escran” could mean, imagining himself with different powers. I suppose we are to assume Bob only gets to escran once, but we could possibly had him to our atomic-age heroes list if we imagine it a permanent gift.
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
Samachson and Kane’s “The Balloons that Lifted a City!” is a kind of odd story of a scientist who accidentally discovers an anti-gravity material in his lab. Unfortunately, while he lets go of the flask containing it, it flies out the window! Discovering that the factory from which the chemicals came had shipped their entire supply of the chemicals needed to make the formula to a balloon supply company, and the balloons were subsequently sold to a carnival, the scientist sets about collecting all the carnival balloons he can! Hopefully he can collect enough anti-gravity chemicals in time, because the city is about to be destroyed by a tsunami!
I dunno. I thought this was one of the goofier and less memorable tales in the book.
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
By contrast, Samachson and Greene’s “The Game of Science!” was goofy but definitely memorable! In this story, Dr. Mark Carwell, director of a scientific laboratory, discovers that the lab’s new invention has been stolen by their secretary, Mr. Kenton! The story basically concerns Carwell chasing Kenton around the country-side, while at the same time watching children play games at key points in the chase and using those games as an inspiration to help him catch Kenton! So, watching two boys play tag, and one crawl through a pipe that the other one is too big to fit through, only to be caught on the other side by the smart “it” who runs around the pipe to the other side instead of crawling through inspires Carwell to avoid Kenton’s trick of blocking the entrance to a cave he enters by going around the hillside to find the back entrance to the cave through which Kenton is planning on escaping. And that’s the basic premise of the story.
This story definitely seemed to me like they were up against a deadline, waiting to see if any Martians might walk in and give them a story, and just threw together this kind of half-baked idea to fill space. I suppose, though, maybe the idea was that it would appeal to the kids who were the targeted audience of the magazine? I guess there’s even a deeper message that the games children play actually serve as good training for the kind of situations you will find yourself in as an adult? Er… if you make a habit of chasing criminal thieves who steal secret inventions from your laboratory, that is!
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
I'll get back to Strange Adventures soon, but first a quick comment about Batgirl:
Sheesh! Talk about a character that they can't quite decide what to do with!
First she's a mousy, "plain Jane" librarian who becomes Batgirl for the adrenaline rush.
Then she get a makeover to become super-hot librarian chick and Gotham socialite, who seems to have no problem getting dates.
Then they ship her out of her series and off to DC to become a congresswoman, and date Clark Kent! Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
Currently reading Adam Strange!
Wow! I had no idea it was going to be this awesome! Love Rann as a setting! Love the fact that they even joke about the fact that some crazy menace just happens to appear everytime Adam travels to the planet!
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
EDE's groovy new acquisition:
Showcase Presents Young Love, Vol. 1 Posted by Dev - Em on :
Almost picked up the Adam Strange one. If it's there the next time I have money...maybe I will.
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
Jeepers! Just read the first story from "The Private Diary of Mary Robbin, R.N."!
On her first day as a nurse, she get taken out and kissed by this doctor, who later turns out to be a total manwhore! She also gets kissed by a patient right as his girlfriend walks in, and then has to reunite them! There's crazy romantic tension all over the place!
Posted by MLLASH's *glare* on :
I take it your new sig is from that no-doubt timeless tale?
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
Yep!
Other groovy things from Young Love #39:
A story about a Texas heiress coming home after three years in Europe to try and re-unite with her foster brother/guardian whom she's always loved! Also featuring Texas-style fist fights and people being pushed into pools!
Then there's the story of this poor girl who's lost her boyfriend to her dumb but beautiful best friend and has to suffer as the bridesmaid at their wedding! She's haunted by memories of their great times together when they used to climb mountains and perform experiments in his chemical lab and stuff! Fortunately, a car accident caused by his inept driving presents the opportunity for her to prove herself as the one who really loves him!
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
*Gasp!* I haven't actually read any more of YL Showcase, but today I got in the mail none other than SP: All-Star Squadron!
Must read!
Posted by KidChaos on :
I'm expecting Showcase Presents: The Losers to come in the mail either today or tomorrow.
And coming out next week is Showcase Presents: The Spectre!
(I would have gotten the All Star Squadron one, but I own the originals)
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
I have about half the issues, but haven't read them in probably about twenty-five years.
Anyway, read the first arc tonight. Not bad, but the fairly convoluted use of time travel to use cool villains that wouldn't actually appear for several more years definitely seemed more forced than it did when I was a kid and was just wowed by the raw number of cool old heroes and villains I'd never seen before.
Posted by Fanfic Lady on :
I agree the time travel elements are forced, but within the context of Roy Thomas' career -- he had spent the previous several years going through the motions at Marvel, and was finally getting a chance to work on the characters that got him into comics in the first place -- it has a certain joyful energy that I think compensates for its flaws.
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
The stories definitely show an excitement and enthusiasm for the characters that's missing from a lot of today's comics. And there's just so much story packed into them... no wonder I read these things over and over as a kid. Even granted the fact that each issue is about 20% longer than most modern comics, there's just so much grooviness on each page!
Anyway, I read #4-6 yesterday, which gives us the Holy Grail excuse for why A-SS doesn't attack Japan, and the A-SS traveling to Mexico to prevent an uprising of mind-controlled pureblood Mayans from seizing control of Mexico and allying with the Nazis, a plotline that also doesn't hold up as well now as it did when I was a kid, but is nonetheless fun.
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
Read #7-9, all about Churchill's trip to he U.S. and Baron Blitzkrieg's attempts to assassinate him and Roosevelt. Now this is prime stuff! A beautiful blending of history, obscure bits of continuity and dynamic super-hero action! Love it completely!
Posted by Fanfic Lady on :
I agree, those are excellent issues.
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
Next three issues feature an apparent alien invasion engineered by Hawkman foe Dr. Hastor.
This arc has a really cool setup with Earth threatened by a common enemy and the possibility of having to obtain a temporary truce with the Axis powers in order to fight this common foe. The actual story is a bit of a letdown after that setup, though isn't bad in and of itself.
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
So, next up we have the "day in the life" issue #13, which is pretty groovy, though the main story of Firebrand being cured of her racism when she finds out her brother was saved by a Japanese-American comes off a bit forced.
And then we have the two issues from the JLA/JSA/A-SS crossover, which is a little weird to include them without the rest of the story, but they do hold up surprisingly well on their own. I have absolutely no ability to be objective about these issues, however, because my childhood fondness for them automatically ranks them among the greatest things in the history of stuff. Seriously, in play here there's at least four time periods, and four alternate earths, and at least two alternate timelines on those alternate earths... and my seven year old self had no problem keeping all of this straight. And this, folks, is why I love comics.
Posted by MLLASH's back on :
Bitchen stuff like that was why I loved pre-Crisis DC comics and remain a lifelong fan!
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
A-SS Annual #1 was pretty much first-rate stuff, with the Atom, Wildcat, and the Guardian discovering that they'd all been trained by the same guy, who'd now been turned evil by some weird alien energy. The ending epilogue explaining the origin of the energy seemed a bit goofy, but the issue otherwise held up really well.
Posted by Cobalt Kid on :
Joe Morgan! Great character.
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
So, then the collection is rounded out with three really solid single-issue stories. First up, Roy works a bit of continuity magic as he reveals the first appearance of incredibly obscure Wonder Woman villain Nuclear (who, oddly enough, has magnetic powers). Then we see the "Trial of Robotman" to determine whether he is human or merely a machine, and therefore the property of Bob Crane's heirs. And lastly, there is the return of Sandman foe "The Villain of Valhalla", which is really an excuse to introduce Tarantula to the series and spell out his origin.
All three of these stories are pretty much prime stuff, with Thomas really hitting his stride. And all three of them serve the purpose of filling in continuity gaps, but somehow it doesn't get distracting in the way so many modern stories that are "about continuity" seem to be. Anyway, definitely fantastic reading, and I'll certainly snatch up another volume of this if it is released! I remember the next story featuring Brain Wave subjecting the JSAers to nightmarish visions of war being kind of disturbing when I was a kid, so I look forward to seeing how it holds up.
Posted by Fanfic Lady on :
As I recall, the next year or so worth of issues was, in my opinion, the high point of the entire run. The aformentioned Brain Wave story, the introduction of Infinity Inc, the Freedom Fighters epic...great stuff.
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
^^Those are the ones I remember reading as a kid. I'm pretty sure I first discovered the title through the JLA/JSA crossover, and bought it pretty consistently through Crisis, as well as picking up some of the earlier issues.
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the Holiday Girls! They've got so much potential! I particularly like the fact that they represent a variety of female body shapes.
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