Category: Legion of Super-Pets

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DC Finest: Supergirl – The Girl of Steel


By Otto Binder & Jim Mooney, Jerry Seigel, Robert Bernstein, Leo Dorfman, Al Plastino, Curt Swan, Wayne Boring, Stan Kaye, John Forte, George Klein & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-8131-1 (TPB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

This epic compilation is another DC Finest edition: full colour continuations of their chronolgically curated monochrome Showcase Presents line, all delivering “affordably priced, large-size paperback collections”. Whilst primarily concentrating on superheroes, later releases will also cover genre selections like horror and war books, and themed compendia. Sadly, they’re not yet available digitally, as were the last decade’s Bronze, Silver & Golden Age collections, but we live in hope…

Superhero comics seldom do sweet or charming anymore. Narrative focus nowadays concentrates on turmoil, angst and spectacle and – although there’s nothing intrinsically wrong with that – sometimes the palate just craves a different flavour.

Such was not always the case, as this superb compendium of the early career of Superman’s cousin Kara Zor-El of Argo City joyously proves. Gathering here is pertinent material from Action Comics #252-288, Adventure Comics #278, Superman #139, 140 & 144, Superboy #80, Superman’s Girlfriend Lois Lane #14 & 20 and Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen #40, 46, 51 & 57 collectively spanning cover-dates May 1959 to May 1962.

Kicking off proceedings is the delightful DC House Ad advertising the imminent arrival of a new “Girl of Steel”. Sadly missing, however, is the try-out story ‘The Three Magic Wishes’ by Otto Binder, Dick Sprang & Stan Kaye from Superman #123 (August 1958) which told how a mystic totem briefly conjured up a young girl with superpowers as one of three wishes made by Jimmy Olsen. Such was the reaction to the plucky distaff hero that within a year a new, permanent (ish) version joined the Superman Family…

Here, then, after that promo, the drama commences with ‘The Supergirl from Krypton!’, the third story from Action Comics #252 introducing Superman’s cousin Kara, who had been born on a city-sized fragment of Krypton, which was somehow hurled intact into space when the planet exploded. Eventually Argo City turned to Kryptonite like the rest of the giant world’s debris, and Kara’s dying parents, having observed Earth through their scanners and scopes, sent their daughter to safety as they perished. Crashed on Earth, she’s met by Superman, who creates the cover-identity of Linda Lee whilst hiding her in an orphanage in rural small town Midvale, allowing the newcomer to learn about her new world and powers in secrecy and safety. This groundbreaking tale was also written by Binder and drawn by the hugely talented, vastly underrated Al Plastino.

Once the formula was established Supergirl became a regular feature in Action Comics (from #253), a residency that lasted until 1969 when she graduated to the lead spot in Adventure Comics. Then ‘The Secret of the Super-Orphan!’ sees her at orphanage, befriending fellow orphan Dick Wilson (eventually Malverne) who would become her personal gadfly – much as Lois Lane then was to Superman – a recurring romantic entanglement who suspects she has a secret. As a young girl in even less egalitarian times than ours, romance featured heavily in our neophyte star’s thoughts and she frequently met other potential boyfriends: including alien heroes and even a Merboy from Atlantis. Many early exploits involved keeping her presence concealed, even whilst practising and performing super-feats. Jim Mooney became regular artist whilst Binder remained chief scripter for the early run.

In Action #254, ‘Supergirl’s Foster-Parents!’ sees an unscrupulous couple of grifters adopt her in the belief she uses a “power tonic” to gain mighty abilities. They are easily foiled and sent packing, after which Linda meets a mystery DC hero after ‘Supergirl Visits the 21st Century!’ in #255 (Spoilers!: it’s World’s Finest Comics B-feature star Tommy Tomorrow – who you’ve never heard of or cared about…).

Linda’s secret is nearly exposed again in ‘The Great Supergirl Mirage!’ but she covers her tracks expertly before meeting a fellow associate of her cousin in ‘Jimmy Olsen, Supergirl’s Pal!’ by Binder, Curt Swan & John Forte from Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen #40 (October 1959). Here the Maid of Might repeatedly saves the temporarily blind cub reporter from a murderous conman, but cannot convince him that she is a Kryptonian and Superman’s secret weapon. Back in Action, she then grants ‘The Three Magic Wishes!’ to despondent youngsters and teaches a mean bully a much-needed lesson.

The Man of Steel often came off rather poorly when dealing with women in those unenlightened days, always under the guise of “teaching a lesson” or “testing” someone. When she ignores his secrecy decree by playing with superdog Krypto, cousin Kal-El banishes the lonely youngster to an asteroid in ‘Supergirl’s Farewell to Earth!’ – but of course there’s paternalistic method in the madness. Next, ‘The Cave-Girl of Steel!’ sees her voyage to Earth’s primordial past and become a palaeolithic legend before Jerry Siegel & Kurt Schaffenberger share ‘Lois Lane’s Secret Romance!’ (Superman’s Girlfriend Lois Lane #14, January 1960) as Linda plays matchmaker in a scheme to get Clark Kent and Lois hitched and eligible to adopt her…

Action Comics #260 does double duty next as the lead Superman – cowritten by Binder & Siegel and limned by Plastino – feature delivers more heartbreak for Lois after Superman & Supergirl perpetrate a very public romantic hoax on the world to thwart a potential alien attack in ‘Mighty Maid!’ In her own slot, the mystical Fountain of Youth transforms Supergirl into ‘The Girl Superbaby!’, eventually recovering for a tale introducing feline fan-favourite Streaky the Super-Cat as ‘Supergirl’s Super Pet!’ – with an attempt to cure kryptonite poisoning imbuing a mischievous stray kitty with on-again-off-again superpowers – after which ‘Supergirl’s Greatest Victory!’ supplies a salutary lesson in humility to the Girl of Steel as a second anti-K attempt almost kills cousin Kal-El…

Over in Superboy #80 (April 1960), Siegel, Swan & Forte detail a bittersweet encounter as Kara time travels to the recent past to alleviate the Boy of Steel’s loneliness and isolation on a star spanning playdate in ‘Superboy meets… Supergirl’s Darkest Day!’ only to realise to late that he must lose those precious memories or risk wrecking the course of history…

In Action Comics Binder moved on after scripting ‘Supergirl’s Darkest Day!’ – in which the Maid of Might rescues an alien prince – whilst incoming Jerry Siegel began his own tenure with ‘Supergirl Gets Adopted!’: a traumatic yet sentimental tale which ends with the lonely lass stuck back at Midvale orphanage.

I’ve restrained myself so please do likewise and act your age when I say the next story isn’t what you think. ‘When Supergirl Revealed Herself!’ (Siegel & Mooney, Action #265) is another story about nearly finding a family, after which Siegel, Swan & Forte’s ‘Jimmy Olsen, Orphan!’ (Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen #46) reveals how an accident gives the cub reporter amnesia and he ends up in Midvale where Linda Lee  is hiding whilst learning how to be a Supergirl…

Streaky returns in Siegel & Mooney’s ‘The World’s Mightiest Cat!’, straightening out a lost kid in the process of going bad, before Superman #139 (August 1960, by Binder, Swan & Forte) delivers a dramatic dilemma, a redefinition of the parameters of the deadly crimson mineral, and plenty of thrills with the Man of Steel forced to risk deadly danger and lots of informative flashbacks to rescue a sunken submarine whilst offering cousin Kara a lesson on ‘The Untold Story of Red Kryptonite!’

Courtesy of Siegel & Mooney Supergirl finally finds fantastic fellow super-kids in Action #267’s ‘The Three Super-Heroes!’ but narrowly fails to qualify for the Legion of Super Heroes through the cruellest quirk of fortune. After emotionally picking herself up she then exposes ‘The Mystery Supergirl!’ as a movie PR stunt prior to Superman #140 introducing the Maid of Might to her cousin’s unliving opposite.

Although later played for laughs, most early appearances of the warped duplicate were moving comic-tragedies, here as Binder, Wayne Boring & Stan Kaye debuted ‘The Son of Bizarro!’ When the fractured facsimile and wife Bizarro-Lois have a baby, it is fast-growing super-powered and human looking, causing the first couple of Htrae to be shunned by the populace of their square world of monsters.

The simple-minded, heartbroken father has no choice but to exile his son into space where chance brings the tyke crashing to Earth as ‘The Orphan Bizarro!’ Despatched to the same institution where Supergirl resides, “Baby Buster” becomes a permanent headache for the undercover Girl of Steel until a tragic accident seemingly mutates him. Eventually, distraught dad comes looking for him at the head of an angry army of enraged Superman duplicates and a devastating battle is narrowly avoided, with a happy ending only materialising due to the introduction of ‘The Bizarro Supergirl!’, after which ‘Lois Lane’s Super-Daughter!’ (by Siegel & Schaffenberger from SGLL #20) revisits the Imaginary Mr. & Mrs. Superman scenario wherein Lois & Clark Lane-Kent’s attempts to adopt Linda Lee lead to heartbreak and disaster…

Back in Action #369, Siegel & Mooney introduce fish-tailed Mer-boy Jerro as ‘Supergirl’s First Romance!’ in a charming comedy of manners and errors, whilst #270 provides a double bill beginning with Binder, Swan & Forte’s whimsical delight ‘The Old Man of Metropolis!’ as the Metropolis Marvel glimpses his own twilight years with Kara as Superwoman tending to an increasingly doddery and troublesome dotard of Steel before ‘Supergirl’s Busiest Day!’ by Siegel & Mooney sees her celebrating a very special occasion, accompanied by a cameo packed guest cast including Batman & Robin, Krypto and Superman’s Atlantean ex Lori Lemaris, after which Adventure Comics #278 (November 1960, by Binder & Plastino) sees Linda head to the days of Superboy in ‘Supergirl in Smallville!’ with the intention of proving to herself that she’s ready for adoption. It does not go well and crestfallen Linda heads back to the orphanage…

In Action #271 Siegel & Mooney host another bombastic appearance for Streaky as the wonder child builds ‘Supergirl’s Fortress of Solitude!’ and Binder wrote ‘The Second Supergirl!’ – a parallel world tale too big for one issue. Sequel ‘The Supergirl of Two Worlds!’ came in Action #273 – as did a novel piece of market research. ‘Pick a New Hairstyle for Linda (Supergirl) Lee!’ involved eager readers in the actual physical appearance of their heroine and provided editors valuable input into who was actually reading the series. It’s followed by another guest appearance (in Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen #51) where Binder Swan & Forte introduce ‘The Girl with Green Hair!’: a sultry superpowered alien who takes an unlikely shine to the lad. Unfortunately, she’s utterly bogus, a sham by a well-meaning Kara Zor-El to get Lucy Lane to be nicer to her supposed boyfriend. It all goes painfully, horribly wrong…

Siegel & Mooney soundly demonstrated DC’s dictum that “history cannot be changed” in ‘Supergirl’s Three Time Trips!’ – to meet Annie Oakley, Betsy Ross and Pocahontas – before Siegel & Plastino describe the terrifying plight of Superman, Supergirl and Krypto as ‘The Orphans of Space!’ (Superman #144) after the Man of Steel seemingly blows up Earth! ‘Ma and Pa Kent Adopt Supergirl!’ then offers a truly nightmarish scenario as Linda Lee experiences what might have been had she reached Earth before baby Kal-El…

Action Comics #276 delivers another double bill beginning with ‘The War Between Supergirl and the Superman Emergency Squad’ (Robert Bernstein, Wayne Boring & Stan Kaye) as Superman is conned into revealing his secret identity and must resort to incredible measures to make a swindler disbelieve his eyes, after which Siegel & Mooney’s ‘Supergirl’s Three Super Girl-Friends!’ offers a return visit with  the Legion of Super Heroes whilst in Action #277 an amazing animal epic ensues in ‘The Battle of the Super-Pets!’ as Streaky & Krypto compete for the attention and approval of their biped bosses…

Siegel & Mooney’s next five Action efforts comprise an extended saga, taking the Girl of Steel in completely new directions. On the eve of Superman announcing her existence to the world, Supergirl loses her powers and – resigned to a normal life – is adopted by childless couple Fred and Edna Danvers. Sadly, it’s all a cruel, deadly plot by wicked Lesla-Lar, Kara’s identical double from the Bottle City of Kandor. This evil genius wants to replace Supergirl… and conquer Earth. Mini-epic ‘The Unknown Supergirl!’, ‘Supergirl’s Secret Enemy!’, ‘Trapped in Kandor!’, ‘The Secret of the Time-Barrier!’ and – following the results of the Hair Style competition –‘The Supergirl of Tomorrow!’ ran in Action Comics#278-282: solidly repositioning the character for a more positive, effective and fully public role in the DC universe. The saga also hinted of a more dramatic, less paternalistic, parochial and even reduced-sexist future for the most powerful girl in the world, over the months to come; although the young hero is still very much a student-in-training, her existence still kept from the general public as she lives with adoptive parents who are completely unaware the orphan they have adopted is a Kryptonian super-being.

Its back to silliness first though as Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen #57 (Siegel, Swan & Kaye) offers an Imaginary story in which Linda loses her powers and memories. Through a cascade of coincidences ‘Jimmy Olsen Marries Supergirl!’. However when she returns to normal, newlywed Linda Olsen faces a dilemma that is only further fouled up by ‘Jimmy Olsen’s Two Brides!’

The accent on all these stories generally revolves around problem-solving, identity-saving and loneliness, with both good taste and the Comics Code ensuring readers weren’t traumatised by unsavoury or excessively violent tales. Plots akin to situation comedies often pertained, as in Action #283’s ‘The Six Red “K” Perils of Supergirl!’ Weird transformations were a mainstay at this time, and although post-modern interpretations might discern some metaphor for puberty or girls “becoming” women, I rather suspect the true answer is author Seigel’s love of comedy and an editorial belief that fighting was simply unladylike…

Red Kryptonite, a cosmically-altered isotope of the radioactive element left when Krypton exploded, caused temporary physical and sometimes mental mutations in the survivors of that doomed world. It was a godsend to writers in need of a challenging visual element when writing characters with the power to drop-kick planets. Here as limned by Mooney, the wonder-stuff generates a circus of horrors, transforming Supergirl into a werewolf, shrinking her to microscopic size and making her fat. I’m not going to say a single bloody word…

The drama continues with ‘The Strange Bodies of Supergirl!’ wherein Linda Lee Danvers’ travails escalate after she grows a second head, gains death-ray vision (ostensibly!) and morphs into a mermaid. This daffy holdover was actually more madcappery by Mr. Mxyzptlk, a shout out to simpler times in the face of a major change in the Girl of Steel’s status…

Hogging the cover (by Super-stalwarts Swan & George Klein) the simpler times ended as a major change in the Maid of Might’s status finally occurred. When her parents learn of their new daughter’s true origins, Superman allows his cousin to announce her existence to the world in 2-chapter saga ‘The World’s Greatest Heroine!’ concluding with a monumental battle against ‘The Infinite Monster!’ Here Siegel & Mooney detail how Supergirl becomes the darling of the universe: openly saving planet Earth and finally getting all the credit for it.

Action Comics #286 then pits her against her cousin’s greatest foe in ‘The Death of Luthor!’, prior to ‘Supergirl’s Greatest Challenge!’ seeing her visit the Legion of Super-Heroes to save future Earth from invasion. She also meets the telepathic descendent of her cat Streaky. His name is Whizzy – I could have left that out but chose not to – one more blow for smug, comedic effect…

Ending this epic compilation is ‘The Man who Made Supergirl Cry!’, signalling the beginning of Leo Dorfman’s contributions as scripter. Hugely prolific, he worked from the 1950s for Fawcett, on all Superman Family titles, Batman, DC’s horror line, Dell/Gold Key’s M.A.R.S. Patrol Total War and mystery anthologies including The Twilight Zone, Ripley’s Believe it or Not!, Boris Karloff Mystery and Grimm’s Ghost Stories under his own byline, as Geoff Brown or David George – and probably others – generating quality material continuously from the Golden Age until his death in 1974.

In this tight little closer thriller, Phantom Zone villains mentally control Supergirl’s new dad in a plot to escape their ethereal dungeon dimension… until she stops them with the help of fellow Legionnaire Mon-El…

Possibly the last time a female super-character’s sexual allure and sales potential wasn’t freely and gratuitously exploited, these tales are a link and window to a far less crass time, celebrating one of the few strong female characters parents can still happily share with their youngest girl children. I’m certainly not embarrassed to let any women see this volume, unlike most modern “Bad-Girl” books or male public figures you could possibly name.
© 1959, 1960, 1961, 1962, 2024 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Fantastic Four: Extended Family


By Stan Lee & Jack Kirby, Roy Thomas, John Byrne, Steve Englehart, Walter Simonson, Dwayne McDuffie, Tom DeFalco, Carlos Pacheco, Rafael Marin, Jeph Loeb, John Buscema, Rich Buckler, Arthur Adams, Paul Ryan, Stuart Immonen, Paul Pelletier, George Klein, Sol Brodsky, Chris Rule, Joe Sinnott, Art Thibert, Danny Bulanadi, Wade von Grawbadger, Rick Mounts & various (Marvel)
ISBN: 978-0-7851-5303-0 (TPB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

With only 67 days (but who’s counting?) to the premiere of Fantastic Four: First Steps, let’s activate our public service to newcomers option and start looking at the immense and critically important history and legacy of the fourth most important moment in US comic books – the creation of “The World’s Greatest Comics Magazine”…

Of course, whatever is up on screen won’t be what has gone before but try to remember it’s NOT REAL. It’s not even the comics you purport to love. It’s just another movie designed to appeal to the largest number of movie fans possessing only rudimentary knowledge of what involved. If you genuinely want to uphold the purity of the comics incarnations, buy a book like this one. Heck, buy a bunch and hand them out to people you’d like to impress and convert. This one would be a good place to start…

The Fantastic Four is considered by many the most pivotal series in modern comic book history, introducing both a new style of storytelling and a decidedly different manner of engaging the readers’ passionate attention. Regarded more as a family than a team, the line-up changed constantly over the years and this examination from 2011 gathered a selection of those comings and goings in a fascinating primer for new fans looking for a quick catch-up class.

I strongly suspect that it also performed a similar function for doddering old devotees such as me, always looking for a salutary refresher session…

If you’re absolutely new to the first family of superhero fantasy, or returning after a sustained hiatus, you might have a few problems with this otherwise superb selection of clannish classics featuring not only Mister Fantastic, Invisible Woman, The Thing and The Human Torch, but also many of the other Marvel stalwarts who have stuck a big “4” on their chests (or thereabouts) and forged ahead into the annals of four-colour heroic history. However, if you’re prepared to ignore a lot of unexplained references to stuff you’ve missed (but will enjoy subsequently tracking down), there’s a still a magically enthralling treat on offer in this terrific tome.

The Fantastic Four are – usually – maverick genius Reed Richards, his fiancée – and later wife – Susan Storm, their trusty college friend Ben Grimm and Sue’s teenaged brother Johnny: moral, brave, decent, philanthropic and driven survivors of a privately-funded space-shot which went horribly wrong after cosmic rays penetrated their ship’s inadequate shielding.

After crashing back to Earth, the quartet found they had all been hideously mutated into outlandish freaks.

This compilation gathers Fantastic Four #1, 81, 132, 168, 265, 307, 384 & 544, plus #42 of the third volume which began in 1998. Confusingly, the title resumed original numbering with this tale, so it’s also #471 of the overall canon.

Everything began with the premier release (cover-dated November 1961 and on sale from August 8th of that year) which introduced Lee & Kirby’s ‘The Fantastic Four’ (with inkers George Klein, Sol Brodsky, Chris Rule and others, plus Artie Simek lettering and Stan Goldberg colouring) depicting mysterious mad scientist Dr. Richards summoning helpful helpmeet Sue, burly buddy Ben and Sue’s brother Johnny before heading off on their first mission. Via flashback we discover their incredible origins and how the uncanny cosmos made them all into outlandish freaks…

Richards’ body had become impossibly pliable and elastic, Sue could fade away as a living phantom, Johnny would briefly blaze like a star and fly like a rocket whilst poor, tormented Ben devolved into a horrifying brute who, unlike his comrades, could not return to a semblance of normality on command. Shaken but unbowed, the valiant quartet vowed to dedicate their new abilities to benefiting all mankind. In second chapter ‘The Fantastic Four meet the Mole Man’ they foil a sinister scheme by another hideous outcast who controls a legion of monsters and army of subhuman slaves from far beneath the Earth by uncovering ‘The Moleman’s Secret!’

This summation of the admittedly mediocre plot cannot do justice to the engrossing wonder of that breakthrough issue; we really have no grasp today of just how different in tone, how utterly shocking it all was.

“Different” doesn’t always mean “better”, but the FF was like no other comic on the market at the time and buyers responded to it hungrily. Throughout the turbulent 1960s, Lee & Kirby’s astonishing ongoing collaboration rewrote all the rules on what comics could be and introduced fresh characters and astounding concepts on a monthly basis. One such was The Inhumans. Conceived as a lost civilisation and debuting in 1965 (Fantastic Four #44-48) during Stan & Jack’s most fertile and productive creative period, they were a race of disparate (generally) humanoid beings, genetically altered by aliens in Earth’s distant pre-history, who consequently became technologically advanced far ahead of emergent Homo Sapiens.

Few in numbers, they isolated themselves from barbarous dawn-age humans, firstly on an island and latterly in a hidden Himalayan valley, voluntarily confined to their fabulous city Attilan – until a civil war and a deranged usurper brought them into humanity’s gaze. Old foe and charter member of the villainous Frightful Four, Madame Medusa was revealed as a fugitive member Attilan’s Royal Family, on the run ever since a coup deposed her lover: the true king Black Bolt.

With her cousins Triton, Karnak and Gorgon, the rest would quickly become mainstays of the Marvel Universe, but Medusa’s bewitching teenaged sister Crystal and her giant teleporting dog Lockjaw were the real stars of the show. For young Johnny, it was love at first sight, and Crystal’s eventual fate would greatly change his character, giving him a hint of angst-ridden tragedy that resonated greatly with the generation of young readers who were growing up with the comic…

Crystal stuck around for many adventures and eventually when the now-married Sue had a baby and began “taking things easy”, the Inhuman Princess became the team’s first official replacement. FF #81 (December 1968 by Lee, Kirby & Joe Sinnott) announced ‘Enter – the Exquisite Elemental’ as the devastatingly powerful slip of a girl joined Reed, Ben & Johnny just as incorrigible technological terror The Wizard attacked the team. In blisteringly short order Crystal promptly pulverized the murderous maniac and began a long combat career with the heroes.

After untold centuries in seclusion, increasing global pollution levels began to attack the Inhumans’ elevated biological systems and eventually Crystal had to abandon Johnny and return to Attilan. By the time of Fantastic Four #132 (March 1973) Lee & Kirby had also split up and Roy Thomas, John Buscema & Sinnott were in charge of the show. The concluding chapter of a 2-part tale, ‘Omega! The Ultimate Enemy!’ described how Crystal, her brand new fiancé Quicksilver and the rest of the Inhumans were attacked by their own genetically-programmed slave-race (!!) the Alpha Primitives, seemingly at the behest of Black Bolt’s diabolical brother Maximus the Mad. The truth was far stranger but the strife and struggle resulted in Medusa returning to America with the team…

The more things changed the more they stayed the same, however, and by FF #168 (March 1976) Sue was back but the Thing was forcibly retired. In ‘Where Have All the Powers Gone?’, Thomas, Rich Buckler & Sinnott revealed how Ben had been cured of his condition. Reverted to normal, pedestrian humanity thanks to radiation exposure and a blockbusting battle with The Hulk, Ben was apparently forever deprived of the Thing’s sheer power, and Reed had enlisted Hero for Hire Luke Cage as his replacement. However, the embittered Grimm simply couldn’t adjust to a life on the sidelines and when brutal bludgeoning super-thug Wrecker went on a rampage, merely mortal Ben risked life and limb to prove he could still play with the big boys…

After years in creative doldrums the FF were dynamically revitalised when John Byrne took over scripting and illustrating the feature. Following a sequence of bold innovations, he used companywide crossover Secret Wars to radically overhaul the team. In #265 (April 1984) he revealed the big change in a brace of short tales re-presented here. Firstly, ‘The House That Reed Built’ sees the group’s Baxter Building HQ as the star when the automated marvel diligently deals with a sinister home-invasion by Frightful Four alumnus The Trapster, after which Sue Richards is introduced to the Thing’s replacement (Ben having remained on the distant planet of The Beyonder for personal reasons) as the green-&-glam She-Hulk joins up in ‘Home Are the Heroes’.

Jumping to October 1987, Fantastic Four #307 offered the most radical change yet as Reed & Sue retired to the suburbs to raise their terrifyingly powered omega-mutant son Franklin, leaving the long-returned Thing leading a team consisting of the Human Torch, old flame Crystal and super-strong but emotionally damaged Amazon Sharon Ventura initially employing the sobriquet Ms Marvel. However, before they even have a chance to shake hands, the new team is battling arcane alchemist Diablo in the Steve Englehart, John Buscema & Sinnott gripping thriller ‘Good Bye!’

An even bigger shake-up occurred during Walter Simonson’s run in the gimmick-crazed 1990s. In an era of dwindling sales, high-profile stunts were the norm in comics as companies – realizing that a large sector of the buying public thought of themselves as canny “Investors” – began exploiting the readership’s greed and credulity. A plot twist, a costume change, a different format or shiny cover (or better yet covers: plural): anything, just so long as The Press got hold of it, translated directly into extra units moved. There are many stories and concepts from that era which (mercifully) may never make it into collections, but there are some that deserved to, did, and really still should be.

Simonson was writing (and usually drawing) the venerable flagship title with the original cast happily back in harness and abruptly interrupted his high-tech, high-tension saga with a gloriously tongue-in-cheek graphic digression. Over three issues – #347-349 – he poked gentle fun at trendmeisters and speculators, consequently crafting some of the “hottest” comics of that year. Reprinted from FF #347 (December 1990) is splendid first chapter ‘Big Trouble on Little Earth’ (illustrated by Arthur Adams & Art Thibert, assisted by Gracine Tanaka) revealing how a Skrull outlaw invades Earth, with her own people hot on her viridian high heels. Evading heavy pursuit she attacks the FF and seemingly kills them. Disguised as a mourning Sue Richards she then recruits the four bestselling heroes in the Marvel Universe – Spider-Man, The Hulk, Wolverine & Ghost Rider – to hunt down their “murderers” as The NEW Fantastic Four! The hunt takes them to the bowels of the Earth and battle with the Mole Man, revealing fascinating background into the origins of monsters and supernormal life on Earth…

What could so easily have died as a cheap stunt is elevated not only by the phenomenal art but also a lovingly reverential script, referencing all those goofy old “Furry-Underpants Monsters” of immediate pre-FF vintage, and is packed with traditional action and fun besides. Sadly, only the first pulse-pounding chapter is here so you should track down the entire tale as seen in Fantastic Four: Monsters Unleashed.

Roster change was a constant during that desperate decade. When Tom DeFalco, Paul Ryan & Danny Bulandi took over the series, they tried every trick to drive up sales but the title was in a spiral of commercial decline. Reed was dead – although Sue refused to believe it – and Franklin had been abducted. Her traumatised fellow survivors had their own problems. Johnny discovered his wife Alicia was in fact Skrull infiltrator Lyja, Sharon Ventura was missing and Ben had been mutilated in battle and was obsessively wearing a full-face helmet at all times.

In #384’s (January 1994) ‘My Enemy, My Son!’, Sue hired Scott Lang AKA Ant-Man as the team’s science officer whilst she led an increasingly compulsive search for her lost love. No sooner has the new guy arrived than Franklin reappears, grown to manhood and determined to save the world from his mother, whom he believes to be possessed by malign spirit Malice.

Following crossover event Onslaught the FF were excised from Marvel’s continuity for a year. When they returned rebooted and revitalised in 1998, it was as Stan & Jack first envisioned them, and in a brand-spanking new volume. Always more explorer than traditional crimebuster team, the FF were constantly voyaging to other worlds and dimensions. In Volume 3, #42 (June 2001 and double-numbered as #471) Carlos Pacheco, Rafael Marin, Jeff Loeb, Stuart Immonen & Wade von Grawbadger offered a blistering battle between the Torch and old frenemy Namor the Sub-Mariner which rages through New York City whilst Reed, Sue & Ben are lost in the Negative Zone. Strapped for allies, the torrid two form an alliance against mutual foe Gideon, with Johnny re-recruiting Ant-Man and She-Hulk prior to accepting the Atlantean’s cousin Namorita as the latest Fantastic Four part-timer.

This meander down memory lane concludes with another major overhaul, this one stemming from 2007’s publishing event The Initiative. Crafted by Dwayne McDuffie, Paul Pelletier & Rick Magyar, Fantastic Four #544 (March of that year) featured ‘Reconstruction: Chapter One – From the Ridiculous to the Sublime’, with Marvel’s first family bitterly divided after the events of the superhero Civil War. After years of stunning adventures, the closeknit clan split up over the Federal Superhuman Registration Act. Insolubly divided, Reed sides with the Government and his wife and brother-in-law join the rebels. Ben, appalled at the entire situation, dodges the whole issue by moving to France…

A story-arc from FF #544-550 (originally running as ‘Reconstruction’) began in the aftermath in the group’s inevitable reconciliation. However, temperaments are still frayed and emotional wounds have barely scabbed over. When Reed & Sue attempt to repair their dented marriage by way of a second honeymoon (because the first was just so memorable!) they head to the moon of Titan; courtesy of the Eternal demi-gods who inhabited that artificial paradise. On Earth, Ben & Johnny are joined by temporary houseguests Black Panther and his new wife Ororo, the former/part-time X-Man called Storm. The royal couple of Wakanda are forced to leave their palatial New York embassy after it is bombed, but no sooner have they settled in than old ally Michael Collins – formerly cyborg hero Deathlok – comes asking for a favour.

A new hero named Gravity had sacrificed his life to save Collins and a host of other heroes, and his body was laid to rest with full honours. Now, that grave has been desecrated and the remains stolen. When the appalled New FF investigate, the trail leads directly to intergalactic space. After visiting the Moon and eliciting information from pan-galactic voyeur Uatu the Watcher, the new questing quartet travel to the ends of the universe where cosmic entity Epoch is covertly resurrecting Gravity to become her latest “Protector of the Universe”. Unfortunately, she isn’t likely to finish her magic as the Silver Surfer and Galactus’ new herald Stardust are attacking the sidereal monolith, preparatory to her becoming the World-Eater’s next meal…

For the rest of that epic you’ll need to seek out Fantastic Four: the New Fantastic Four.

With a full gallery of covers by Kirby, Sinnott, Steranko, Marie Severin, Buckler, Byrne, Ron Frenz, Arthur Adams & Thibert, Ryan, Pacheco, Michael Turner & more plus pin-ups by Steve Epting & Paul Mounts, this power-packed primer and all-action snapshot album is a great way to reacquaint yourself with or better yet discover for the first time the comicbook magic of a truly ideal invention: the Family that Fights Together…
© 2018 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved.

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DC Finest: Legion of Super-Heroes – Zap Goes the Legion


By James Shooter, E. Nelson Bridwell, Cary Bates, Curt Swan, J. Winslow “Win” Mortimer, Jack Abel, Ross Andru & Mike Esposito, George Tuska, Vince Colletta, Dave Cockrum, Murphy Anderson, Mike Grell, Carmine Infantino, Neal Adams, Nick Cardy & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-77952-849-0 (TPB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

This stunning compilation is another of the first wave of long-awaited DC Finest editions: full colour continuations of their chronologically curated but monochrome Showcase Presents line. The line delivers“affordably priced, large-size (comic book dimensions and generally around 600 pages) paperback collections” highlighting past DC glories. Whilst primarily concentrating on the superhero pantheon, there will also be genre selections like horror and war books, and themed compendia. Sadly, they’re not yet available digitally, as were the last decade’s Bronze, Silver and Golden Age collections, but we live in hope…

Once upon a time, a thousand years from now, super-powered kids from many worlds took inspiration from the greatest legend of all time and formed a club of heroes. One day those Children of Tomorrow came back in time and invited their inspiration to join them…

Thus began the vast and epic saga of the Legion of Super-Heroes, as first envisioned by writer Otto Binder & artist Al Plastino when the many-handed mob of juvenile universe-savers debuted in Adventure Comics #247 (April 1958). That was just as a revived taste for superheroes was gathering an inexorable head of steam in the US. Since then, the fortunes and popularity of the Legion have perpetually waxed and waned, with their future history tweaked and overwritten, retconned and rebooted over and over again to comply with editorial diktat and fickle fashion.

This sturdy, cosmically-captivating compendium gathers the chronological parade of futuristic delights from Adventure Comics #374-380 & 403, Action Comics #378-387 & 389-392, Superboy #172-173, 176, 183-184, 188, 190-191,193, 195 and Superboy Starring the Legion of Super-Heroes #197-203, cumulatively spanning cover-dates November 1968 through July/August 1974.

During this time the superhero again went into recession, briefly supplanted by horror and other traditional genre entertainment, but was slowly recovering to another peak. That plunge in costumed character caper saw the team lose a long-held lead spot in Adventure Comics and relegated to a back-up slot in Action… and even vanish completely for a time. Legion fans, however, are the most passionate of an already fanatical breed…

No sooner had the LSH faded than agitation to revive them began. Following a few tentative forays as an alternating back-up feature in Superboy, the game-changing, sleekly futuristic artwork of newcomer Dave Cockrum inspired a fresh influx of fans. Soon the back-ups took over the book – exactly as they had done in the 1960s when the Tomorrow Teens took Adventure from The Boy of Steel to make it uniquely their own…

At this time the youthful, generally fun-loving and carefree Club of Champions hit top form, having only just evolved into a dedicated and driven dramatic action series starring a grittily realistic combat force in constant, galaxy-threatening peril. Although now an overwhelming force of valiant warriors ready and willing to pay the ultimate price for their courage and dedication, science itself, science fiction and costumed crusaders all increasingly struggled against a global resurgence in spiritual questioning and supernatural fiction…

The main architect of the transformation was teen sensation Jim Shooter, whose scripts and layouts (generally finished and pencilled by the astoundingly talented and understated Curt Swan) made the series accessible to a generation of fans growing up with their heads in the Future. However once fashions shifted, the series was unceremoniously ousted from its ancestral home and full-length escapades to become a truncated back-up feature. Typically, that shift occurred just as the stories were getting really, really good and truly mature…

With covers by Curt Swan, Mike Esposito, Carmine Infantino, Neal Adams, Nick Cardy and Dave Cockrum throughout, the tense suspense begins with Adventure #374 and ‘Mission: Diabolical!’ (by Shooter & Golden Age veteran Win Mortimer) and a peep at the future equivalent of organised crime when most of the Legionnaires are ambushed and held hostage by the insidious Scorpius gang. Hard-pressed by rival outfit Taurus, the mobsters have decided to “recruit” a team of heroes to equal their enemies’ squad of hyper-powered goons – Rogarth, Mystelor, Shagrek, Quanto and Black Mace. Of course, after defeating their targets, the pressganged kids – Supergirl, Element Lad, Dream Girl, Ultra Boy and Matter-Eater Lad – are double-crossed by Scorpius and would have died if not for a fortuitous intervention by the Legion of Substitute Heroes…

Next #375 & 376 comprises a powerful and devious 2-part thriller introducing galaxy-roving heroes The Wanderers and seeing those temporarily-insane-&-currently-evil alien champions battle the United Planets’ metahuman marvels – who are distracted by an interdimensional conundrum and far more concerned with determining who amongst them will be crowned ‘The King of the Legion!’  The matter was only relevant because a trans-reality challenger has demanded a duel with the “mightiest Legionnaire”…

However, when the dust settles the only hero left standing is chubby comic relief Bouncing Boy…

After the triumphant winner is spirited away to another cosmos, he materialises in a feudal wonderland complete with comely princess menaced by a terrifying invader. Unfortunately our hero is soon exposed as shapeshifting Durlan Legionnaire Reep Daggle, not obese-but-Human Chuck Taine, and he manfully overcomes his abductors’ initial prejudices and defeats evil usurping threat Kodar. The freakish victor even wins the heart of Princess Elwinda before being tragically rescued and whisked back across a permanently sealed dimensional barrier by his ignorant legion buddies who mistake a Royal Wedding for ‘The Execution of Chameleon Boy!’…

A welcome edge of dark and bitter cynicism was creeping into Shooter’s stories, and ‘Heroes for Hire!’ (pencilled by Mortimer and inked by Jack Abel) sees the team begin charging for their unique services, but it’s only a brilliant ploy to derail the criminal career of Modulus, an avatar of sentient living planet Modo who had turned that world into an unassailable haven for the worst villains of the galaxy…

Adventure #378 opened another tense and moving two-parter which began when Superboy, Duo Damsel, Karate Kid, Princess Projectra and Brainiac 5 are poisoned and find themselves with ‘Twelve Hours to Live!’  With no cure possible the quintet separate to spend their last day in the most personally satisfying ways they can – from sharing precious moments with soon-to-be bereaved family to K-Kid’s one-man assault on major league supervillain team the Fatal Five – only to reunite in their final moments and die together…

The incredible conclusion begins when a hyper-advanced being calling itself a Seeron freezes time and offers to cure the barely walking dead victims… but only if new arrivals Ultra Boy, Phantom Girl, Chameleon Boy, Timber Wolf, Star Boy, Lightning Lad & Chemical King return to his universe and defeat an invasion by brutes invulnerable to the mighty mental powers of the intellectual overlords. However, even as the shanghaied Legionnaires triumph and return, their comrades had been found and afforded the honour of ‘Burial in Space!’…

Happily, a brilliant last-second solution enables the dead to rise just in time to lose their long-held position in Adventure Comics as changing tastes and shrinking sales prompted an abrupt change of venue. ‘The Legion’s Space Odyssey!’ (# 380, May 1969 by Shooter, Mortimer & Abel) sees a select band of Legionnaires teleported to the barren ends of the universe only to laboriously battle their way home against impossible odds, which include the “death” of Superboy and persistent sabotage by the Legion of Super-Pets. Of course there’s a perfectly rational, reasonable excuse for the devious scheme, so the tale is best remembered by fans for being the mission on which Duo Damsel and Bouncing Boy first get together…

From #381 onwards Adventure was filled with the 20th century exploits of Supergirl, whilst the Legion occupied her secondary spot in Action Comics, beginning with a reprint in #377 not included here. All new short Tales of the Legion of Super-Heroes began in #378 (July 1969) with Shooter, Mortimer & Esposito’s ‘The Forbidden Fruit!’ wherein Timber Wolf is deliberately addicted to a hyper-narcotic lotus in a vile scheme to turn the team into pliable junkies. Fortunately, the hero’s love for Light Lass allows him to overcome his awful burden, before #379’s ‘One of us is an Impostor!’ by E. Nelson Bridwell, Mortimer & Murphy Anderson offers a sharp mystery yarn to baffle Mon-El, Dream Girl, Element Lad, Shadow Lass and Lightning Lad once thermal thug Sunburst and a clever infiltrator threaten to tear the team apart from within…

Duo Damsel declares war on herself in #380 when her other body falls under the sway of an alien Superboy and turns to crime, leaving Bouncing Boy to clean up the psychological mess of ‘Half a Legionnaire?’ (Shooter, Mortimer & Abel) and in #381, Matter-Eater Lad reveals his lowly origins and dysfunctional family to lonely Shrinking Violet and ends up ‘The Hapless Hero!’ battling her absurdly jealous absentee boyfriend Duplicate Boy… the mightiest hero in the universe…

In #382 covert sub-team Ultra Boy, Karate Kid, Light Lass, Violet & Timber Wolf attempt to quell a potential super-robot arms-race and find that to succeed they might ‘Kill a Friend to Save a World!’, after which our still-heartbroken Durlan finds an Earthly double of his lost love Elwinda. However, when he morphs into her ideal man, he soon sees the folly of ‘Chameleon Boy’s Secret Identity!’ – a true tear-jerker with the hint of a happy ending from Bridwell, Mortimer & Abel… and a worrisome glimpse into how lonely guys think…

Shooter left his dream job with #384, but signed off in style with his landmark ‘Lament for a Legionnaire!’ which offers a welcome fill-in job by the superb Curt Swan under Abel’s inks, relating how Dream Girl’s infallible prophecy of Mon-El’s demise comes true, whilst his shocking resurrection introduces a whole new thrilling strand to the Lore of the Legion.

Bridwell, Mortimer & Abel depicts the failure of a vengeance-crazed killer’s quest for ultimate retribution in ‘The Fallen Starboy!’ prior to crafting Action Comics #386’s ‘Zap Goes the Legion!’, wherein cunning Uli Algor believes she has out-thought and outfought the juvenile agents of justice but has overlooked one crucial detail…

In #387 the creators delightfully add a touch of wry social commentary when the organisation must downsize and lay off a Legionnaire (for tax purposes!) after the government declares the team has ‘One Hero Too Many!’ before Action #389 (#388 being an all-reprint Supergirl giant), sees a now revenue-compliant Club of Heroes face ‘The Mystery Legionnaire!’ Here Cary Bates, Mortimer & Abel detail how robot dictator Klim is defeated by a hero who doesn’t exist, before Bridwell’s ‘The Tyrant and the Traitor’ (#390) reflects 1970’s political turmoil with a tale of guerrilla atrocity, destabilising civil war and covert regime change.

The Legion Espionage Squad is tasked with doing the dirty work, but even Chameleon Boy, Timber Wolf, Karate Kid, Brainiac 5 & Saturn Girl are out of their depth. Only ‘The Ordeal of Element Lad!’ in #391 saves the undercover unit from ignominious failure and certain death. Action #392 (September 1970) temporarily ended the feature’s unbroken run with a low-key but gripping yarn from Bates, Mortimer & Abel including alternate dimensions and some preposterous testing of ‘The Legionnaires that Never Were!’

The Frantic Futurians weren’t gone too long. In 1971 a concerted push to revive the Teen Warriors of Tomorrow culminated in a giant reprint issue of Adventure Comics. Cover dated April 1971, #403’s classic yarns were supplemented by new ‘Fashions from Fans’ as reinterpreted by Bridwell, Ross Andru & Esposito and also included a comprehensive ‘Diagram of Legion Headquarters Complex’, included here for your delight and delectation…


Then, March cover-dated Superboy #172 began an occasional series of new Legion exploits, beginning with ‘Brotherly Hate!’ by Bridwell & George Tuska. The sharp, smart sibling saga detailed the convoluted origins of twins Garth and Ayla Ranzz – AKA Lightning Lad & Light Lass – and their troubled relationship with older brother Mekt; lethal outlaw Lightning Lord…

Some of those fan-costumes – generally the skimpier ones designed for the girl heroes produced in an era when underwear passed for combat attire – were adopted for the ongoing backups, which continued the comeback trail in ‘Trust Me or Kill Me!’ (#173 by Bates & Tuska), with the Boy of Steel compelled to devise a way to determine which Cosmic Boy is his friend and which a magical duplicate wrought by malefic mage Mordru…

The origin of Invisible Kid and the secrets of his powers are explored when a thief duplicates the boy genius’ fadeaway gifts in #176’s ‘Invisible Invader!’, whilst Bates, Tuska & Vince Colletta report on the ‘War of the Wraith-Mates!’ in #183 as energy entities renew an eons-old war of the sexes after possessing Mon-El, Shadow Lass, Karate Kid & Princess Projectra.

Superboy #184 hints at days of greatness to come in ‘One Legionnaire Must Go!’ when Matter-Eater Lad is framed and replaced by his own little brother in a tasty tale by Bates. However, the big advance is the inking of LSH fan-fanatic Dave Cockrum over Murphy Anderson’s pencils. The neophyte artist would transform the look, feel and fortunes of the Legion before moving to Marvel and doing the same with a nigh-forgotten series: X-Men…

With #188’s Bates scripted ‘Curse of the Blood-Crystals!’ (July 1972), Anderson started inking Cockrum in the sixth stunning tale of a now unstoppable Legion revival that would eventually lead to their taking over the comic book. A diabolical yarn of cross-&-double-cross sees a Legionnaire possessed by a magical booby-trap and forced to murder Superboy – but which of the two dozen heroes is actually the prospective killer? Issue #190 then featured ‘Murder the Leader!’ as the Fatal Five attack during the election of a new Legion head and rival candidates Saturn Girl and Mon-El must work together if either is to take the top job, after which Bates & Cockrum’s stunning thriller ‘Attack of the Sun-Scavenger!’ offers a staggering burst of comics brilliance, as manic solar scoundrel Dr. Regulus uses his own death as the key to ultimate victory after again attacking Sun Boy and his Legion comrades…

In Superboy #193, Bates & Cockrum’s back-up sees Chameleon Boy, Duo Damsel, Chemical King & Karate Kid undercover on a distant world to prevent atomic Armageddon in ‘War Between the Nights and the Days!’, followed by #195’s ‘The One-Shot Hero!’ telling the tale of ERG-1 – a human converted to sentient energy in an antimatter accident. The character had been mentioned in a 1960’s tale of the Adult Legion, with Bates & Cockrum at last fleshing out his only mission and heroic sacrifice with passion and overwhelming style…

The really big change came with the July issue as the long-lived title (which had premiered in 1949 just as the Golden Age was ending) transformed into Superboy Starring the Legion of Super-Heroes with #197. The relaunch kicked off with full-length extravaganza ‘Timber Wolf: Dead Hero, Live Executioner!’ as the Boy of Steel is summoned to the future to be greeted by a hero he believed had died in the line of duty. Somehow, Timber Wolf had survived and triumphantly greets his old comrade, but astute Legion leader Mon–El fears some kind of trick in play. He’s proved right when the miraculous survivor goes berserk at an awards ceremony, seeking to assassinate the President of Earth.

Wolf is restrained before any harm can be done and a thorough deprogramming soon gives him a clean bill of mental health. Unfortunately, that’s exactly what the team’s hidden enemy had planned and when a deeper layer of brainwashing kicks in, the helpless mind-slave sabotages security systems, allowing militaristic alien warlord Tyr to invade Legion HQ. Happily, telepath Saturn Girl is on hand to free the mental vassal and scupper the assault, but in the scuffle Tyr’s computerised gun hand escapes, swearing vengeance…

The organisation’s greatest foes resurface with a seemingly infallible plan in #198’s ‘The Fatal Five Who Twisted Time!’: travelling back to 1950s Smallville and planting a device to edit the next thousand years and prevent the Legion ever forming. Second chapter ‘Prisoners of the Time Lock’ reveals how a squad comprising Brainiac 5, Element Lad, Chameleon Boy, Karate Kid, Princess Projectra and Mon-El has already slipped into the relative safety of the time stream, resolved to restore history or die with a resultant clash concluding in ‘Countdown to Catastrophe’…

With an entire issue to play with but short stories still popular with readers, the format settled on alternating epics with a double dose of vignettes. Thus #199 opened with ‘The Gun That Mastered Men!’ as Tyr’s computerised wonder weapon sought to liberate its creator, only to rebel at the last moment and try taking over Superboy instead. When that threat is comprehensively crushed, Bouncing Boy takes centre stage to relate his solo battle against Orion the Hunter in ‘The Impossible Target’ It’s mere prelude to anniversary issue #200 wherein he loses his power to hyper-inflate and must resign. However, it does allow the Bounding Bravo to propose to Duo Damsel, unaware that she had been targeted and designated ‘The Legionnaire Bride of Starfinger’. The marriage is an event tinged with grandeur and tragedy as the supervillain kidnaps her in ‘This Wife is Condemned’, attempting to emulate her powers and make an army of doppelgangers, but ‘The Secret of the Starfinger Split!’ is never revealed once Superboy enacts a cunning counter-ploy…

SsLSH #201 featured the resurrection of ERG-1 as the energy-being reconstitutes himself to save the team from treachery in ‘The Betrayer From Beyond!’ whilst ‘The Silent Death’ sees precognitive Dream Girl infallibly predict a comrade’s imminent demise – even though no hero anywhere appears to be endangered. The next issue was a 100-Page Giant but only two tales were new. They were also Cockrum’s final forays in the 30th century and saw the debut of his equally impressive successor Mike Grell as inker on ‘Lost a Million Miles from Home!’ Here Colossal Boy & Shrinking Violet face perplexing mystery in deep space: an inexplicable loss of ship’s power which compels them to abandon ship in the worst possible place imaginable. This is followed by ‘The Lore of the Legion’ as Bridwell & Cockrum detail the facts and figures on 16 Legionnaires…

Closing that issue was Bates & Cockrum’s ‘Wrath of the Devil-Fish!’ It was the artist’s swan song, featuring the debut of the re-designated ERG-1 as Wildfire when an eerie amphibian creature attacks a pollution-cleansing automated Sea-Station. Of course, the monster is not what he seems and the Legion hope they might have found a unique new recruit…

Having utterly transformed the look, feel and fortunes of the Legion, Cockrum moved to Marvel where he would perform the same service for another defunct and almost forgotten series called the X-Men. With Grell now handling full art, the youthful Club of Champions were still on the meteoric rise, depicted as a dedicated, driven, combat force in constant, cosmos-threatening peril. However, our super-science stalwarts still struggled against a real-world resurgence in spiritual soul-searching and supernatural dramas, with most of the comics industry churning out a myriad of monster and magic tales. The dominant genre even invaded the bastions of graphic futurism in #203’s ‘Massacre by Remote Control’ (Bates & Grell) when increasing indifference and neglect prompt veteran Invisible Kid to sacrifice his life to save his comrades. Sadness is tinged with arcane joy, however, as this was a twist on gothic ghost stories with the fallen hero united with a lover from the far side of the Veil of Tears…

The Legion of Super-Heroes is one of the most beloved but bewildering creations in funnybook history and largely responsible for the growth of the groundswell movement that became Comics Fandom. Moreover, these scintillating and seductively addictive stories – as much as Julie Schwartz’s Justice League or Marvel’s Fantastic Four – fired up the interest and imaginations of generations of readers and underpinned the industry we all know today.

If you love comics and haven’t read this stuff, you are the poorer for it and need to enrich your future days as soon as possible.
© 1968, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1974, 2024 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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DC Finest: Superman Family – The Giant Turtle Man


By Jerry Siegel, Otto Binder, Robert Bernstein, Jerry Coleman, Leo Dorfman, Curt Swan, Jim Mooney, Kurt Schaffenberger, George Papp, Al Plastino, John Forte, Sheldon Moldoff, Stan Kaye & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-79950-110-7 (TPB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

On April 18th 1938 when the Man of Tomorrow debuted in Action Comics #1, he was instantly the centre of attention. However, even then the need for a solid supporting cast was apparent and cleverly catered for. Glamorous daredevil reporter Lois Lane premiered right beside Clark Kent and was his constant companion and foil from the outset. Although unnamed, a plucky red-headed, freckled kid started working alongside Lois & Clark from issue #6 (November 1938) onwards.

His first name was disclosed in Superman #13 (November-December 1941), having already been revealed as Jimmy Olsen to radio fans as he was a major player in The Adventures of Superman show from its debut on April 15th 1940. As someone the same age as the target audience: on hand for the hero to explain stuff to (all for the listener’s benefit), Jimmy was the closest thing to a sidekick the Action Ace ever needed. He’s remained a sporadic yet amazingly popular one ever since.

When the similarly titled TV show launched in the autumn of 1952, it was again an overnight sensation and National Periodical Publications began cautiously expanding their revitalised franchise with new characters and titles. First to get a promotion to solo-star status was the Daily Planet’s impetuously capable if occasionally conveniently naive “cub reporter”. His addictively charming, light-hearted escapades began in Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen #1 (September/October 1954): only one of many spin-off stars in the Caped Kryptonian’s ever-expanding entourage.

Nevertheless, despite characters burgeoning on the pages of Superman’s titles it took three years for cautious Editors to tentatively extend the franchise again. In 1957, just as the Silver Age of Comics was getting underway, try-out title Showcase – which had already launched The Flash in #4 and Challengers of the Unknown in #6 – followed up with two issues entitled Superman’s Girl Friend Lois Lane (#9 & 10). Also conveniently naïve when a story demanded it, the “plucky News-hen” was awarded a series of her own. Technically it was her second, since in the 1940s she had commanded a regular solo-spot in Superman.

In previous reviews I’ve banged on about the patronising, parochial – and to at least some of us – potentially offensive portrayals of kids and most especially women during this period, and although some fairer, more affirmative instances were starting to appear, those warnings still bear repeating. Read with eyes open and social conscience primed please…

At that time, hers was one of precious few titles with a female lead, and, in the context of today, one that causes many 21st century fans understandable qualms of conscience. Within the confines of her series the valiant, capable and determined working woman careered crazily from man-hungry, unscrupulous paranoid bitch through ditzy simpleton to indomitable and brilliant troubleshooter – often all in the same issue. The comic book was clearly intended to appeal to the family demographic that made I Love Lucy a national phenomenon, and many stories were played for laughs in the same patriarchal, parochial manner: a “gosh, aren’t ladies funny?” tone that appals me today – but not as much as the fact that I still love them to bits.

That they’re mostly sublimely illustrated by the wonderfully whimsical Kurt Schaffenberger softens the repeated blows, but really, at my age I should know better…

For the close Superman Family and extended cast the tone of the times dictated a highly strictured code of conduct and parameters: Daily Planet Editor Perry White was a stern, shouty, elder statesman with a heart of gold, Cub Reporter Jimmy was a brave, impulsive, unseasoned fool – with a heart of gold – and Lois was brash, impetuous, unscrupulous and nosy, obsessed with marrying Superman, despite being – deep down – another possessor of an auric aorta. There were also more people with blue or green skin than brown or other human shades, but as I’m trying to plug this book’s virtues I’m just shutting up now.

While I’m at it though, this stunning compilation is another DC Finest editions: full colour extensions of their monochrome Showcase Presents line, delivering “affordably priced, large-size (comic book dimensions generally around 600 pages) paperback collections” highlighting past glories. Sadly, as yet they’re unavailable digitally but we live in hope…

Somehow, even with such byzantine editorial mandates in place the talented writers and artists assigned to detail these wholesomely uncanny exploits crafted tales both beguiling and breathtakingly memorable… and usually as funny as they were thrilling.

By today’s standards, Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen wasn’t quite as contentious, but still far too often stories meant to amuse portrayed the bright, bold boy in demeaning if not downright cruel situations and experiencing humiliating physical transformations. Even so, a winning blend of slapstick adventure, action, fantasy and science fiction (in the gentle, insidiously charming manner scripter Otto Binder had perfected 15 years previously at Fawcett Comics on Captain Marvel) made the series one of the most popular of the era. Again, originally most yarns were played for laughs in a father-knows-best manner and tone which can again appal me today, even though I still count them amongst some of my very favourite comics. Confusing, ain’t it?

This cinematically timely, intriguingly chronologically comprehensive compendium collects exploits starring the Man of Steel’s mates and kin (and pets) as first seen in Action Comics #266, 277 & 278, Adventure Comics #287, Superman #142,143 & 147, Superboy #87, 90 & 92, Superman’s Girlfriend, Lois Lane #19-28, and Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen #47-56, cumulatively spanning July 1960 to October 1961: a period of infinite wackiness and outrageous absurdity, but heralding the inevitable dawning of a more serious milieu for the Action Ace and those close to him.

This particular series of ethical conundrums commence with ‘The World’s Mightiest Cat!’ by Jerry Siegel & Jim Mooney, as the Supergirl story in back of Action Comics #266 finds her secret identity of foundling Linda Lee endangered by a fellow orphan at Midvale Orphanage who thinks her ginger cat Streaky has super powers…

Our perpetual lady-in-waiting follows in 3 yarns limned by Schaffenberger as Superman’s Girlfriend, Lois Lane #19 (August 1960) opens with Robert Bernstein’s ‘The Day Lois Lane Forgot Superman!’ Here, devoted sister Lucy convinces her perennially heartbroken elder sibling to try hypnosis and get past her destructive obsession. Sadly, when it works, Lois finds time to pester Clark so much he has no time to save the world…

When an accident seemingly catapults Lois into history she becomes enamoured of Samson, a hero with a secret identity and ‘The Superman of the Past!’ This quirky yarn by Binder segues into a new occasional series from Siegel & Schaffenberger. ‘Mr. and Mrs. Clark (Superman) Kent!’ was the first of a poignant tragi-comedy feature depicting the laughter and tears that might result if Lois secretly married the Man of Steel. Although seemingly having achieved her heart’s desire, she is officially only married to dull, safe Clark, and must keep her relationship with Superman secret: unable to brag or show pride and forced to swallow the rage she feels whenever another woman throws herself at the still eligible bachelor hero…

For an artefact of an era uncomfortably dismissive of women, there’s actually genuine heart and understanding in this tale, and a minimum of snide sniping about “silly, empty-headed girls”. Perhaps it was the influence of the tailored-for-adults Superman newspaper strip Siegel was simultaneously scripting leaking into the funnybook line….

Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen #47 sees Jimmy in over his head, impersonating escaped convict Winky McCoy and trapped as ‘The King of Crime!’ in a cracking thriller by Bernstein, Curt Swan & John Forte, before the impatiently underage lad transforms into a husky 30-something thanks to another Professor Phineas Potter potion in ‘Jimmy Grows Up!’  Here Binder sagely proves maturity isn’t everything, before Siegel wraps up the issue with a rousing romp as alien producers who previously made horror movies starring Superman & Jimmy return to Earth seeking sequels. It soon transpires that the robot reporter they use to replace Jimmy doesn’t like the prospect of being junked at shooting’s end, and tries to do away with the original in ‘The Monsters from Earth!’…

SGLL #20 (October 1960) opens whimsically with ‘Superman’s Flight from Lois Lane’ (Siegel & Schaffenberger), as the Man of Steel escapes into his own past to see if a different life-path might result in a civilian existence unencumbered by “nosy snooping females”. Disc jockey Clark soon learns his inquisitive assistant Liza Landis makes Lois look positively disinterested and gladly ends the experiment, after which ‘The Luckiest Girl in Metropolis!’ (Bernstein & Al Plastino) finds Lois targeted by a Machiavellian mobster seeking to destroy her credibility as a witness, prior to Siegel & Schaffenberger revisiting the Imaginary Mr. & Mrs. scenario with ‘Lois Lane’s Super-Daughter!’ wherein attempts to adopt Linda Lee lead to heartbreak and disaster…

That same month in all-Swan & Forte Jimmy Olsen #48, anonymously scripted ‘The Story of Camp Superman!’ presents heartwarming mystery as the cub works as counsellor to troubled kids – one of whom knows entirely too much about Superman – whilst ‘The Disguises of Danger!’ revisits undercover Jimmy’s acting gifts to get close to a cunning crook. Binder’s ‘The Mystery of the Tiny Supermen!’ sees the Kryptonian Bottled City Kandor’s miniscule Superman Emergency Squad harass Olsen in a devious ploy to prevent his accidentally exposing the Man of Steel’s civilian identity…

All-Schaffenberger Lois Lane #21 delivers a double length epic by author unknown wherein the Anti-Superman Gang utilise explosive toys to endanger the pesky reporter in ‘The Lois Lane Doll!’ It compels the Action Ace to hide her in his Fortress of Solitude, but even that proves insufficient and she finds refuge – and unlikely romance – ‘Trapped in Kandor!’ Siegel then pens a classic yarn of bitter rivalry as the two women most dear to Superman gain incredible abilities and duke it out like men in ‘The Battle Between Super-Lois and Super-Lana!’

SPJO #49 leads with ‘Jimmy’s Gorilla Identity!’ as the luckless lad meets DC stalwart Congo Bill and gets his personality trapped in the hunter’s occasional alter ego – giant golden ape Congorilla. Next, Prof. Potter is blamed for – but entirely innocent of – turning the kid into ‘The Fat Boy of Metropolis!’ in a daft but clever crime caper, prior to Siegel playing with contemporary trends as Jimmy impersonates a rock ‘n’ roll star to impress Lucy Lane in ‘Alias, Chip O’Doole!’…

In Superman #142 (January 1961), Schaffenberger limns Binder’s ‘Lois Lane’s Secret Helper!’ wherein faithful super dog Krypto cunningly plays matchmaker to secure a comfy future for himself, before SGLL #22 – another all Schaffenberger affair – starts with a Red Kryptonite experiment afflicting the Metropolis Marvel with a compulsion to repeatedly pop the question to dubious and suspicious Lois in Siegel’s ‘The Day When Superman Proposed!’

Bernstein’s ‘Lois Lane’s X-Ray Vision!’ sees irradiated sunglasses create a tidal wave of problems for Superman, before making her the ‘Sweetheart of Robin Hood!’ in another time-shift dream seeing the reporter courted by a very familiar-seeming Defender of Truth, Justice and the Nottinghamshire Way…

In SPJO #50, Siegel, Swan & Sheldon Moldoff’s ‘The Lord of Olsen Castle!’ sees Jimmy as potential heir to a Swedish castle and title. All he must do is accomplish a slew of fantastic feats and defeat an ogre, utterly unaware Superman and a host of Kryptonians are secretly pitching in. ‘The Weirdest Asteroid in Space’ (Binder, Swan & Moldoff) then offers a bold monster mystery before another Potter experiment shifts all Superman’s might into his teen pal in ‘The Super-Life of Jimmy Olsen!’ (by an unknown author and illustrated by Plastino).

Superman #143 (February 1961 by Siegel & Forte) celebrates ‘Lois Lane’s Lucky Day!’ as the courageous reporter busts up a crooked carnival with some unsuspected Kryptonian help, before Lois Lane #23 opens with Binder & Schaffenberger’s riotous romp ‘The 10 Feats of Elastic Lass!’  Here our impetuous journalist borrows Jimmy’s stretching serum to track down mad bomber The Wrecker, before debunking ‘The Curse of Lena Thorul!’ (Siegel): exposing a bewitching beauty’s incredible connection to Lex Luthor and leading into another Seigel Imaginary visit to a possible future wherein ‘The Wife of Superman!’ is worn to a frazzle by twin super-toddlers and yearns for her old job at the Daily Planet…

Jimmy Olsen #51 discloses ‘Jimmy Olsen’s 1000th Scoop!’ (Bernstein, Swan & Forte), with the prospective milestone repeatedly delayed by Superman for the best possible reasons, after which a sultry alien takes an unlikely shine to the lad. Unfortunately, ‘The Girl with Green Hair’ (Binder, Swan & Forte) is the result of a scheme by a well-meaning third party to get Lucy to be nicer to Jimmy and it all goes painfully, horribly wrong before ‘The Dream Detective!’ (Swan & Kaye) finds the callow cub inexplicably develop psychometric abilities and unravel mysteries in his sleep…

In Superboy #87, Bernstein & George Papp reveal ‘When Lana Lang First Suspected Clark Kent!’ proving that even when he was a kid, pesky smart girls kept trying to expose his secret identity even as ‘Krypto’s First Romance!’ (Siegel & Papp) finds the star -spanning superdog falling for Kolli – a comely canine shot into space by nasty humanoids on planet Mogar as part of their war preparations. Tragically, Krypto’s brief fling is doomed from the start and he has to make an appalling decision and sacrifice…

‘The Super-Surprise!’ opens Lois Lane #24: an anonymously scripted thriller sending Lois undercover as a platinum blonde, to scupper a plot against Superman, and superbly rendered by Schaffenberger, as is Bernstein’s ‘The Perfect Husband!’, wherein a TV dating show leads Lois into a doomed affair with a he-man hunk almost the spitting image of Clark. Almost…

The issue closes on Bernstein & Forte’s ‘Lois Lane… Traitor!’ with her in the frame for murdering the King of Pahla… until the incredible, unbelievable true culprit comes forward. Also available that month, Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen #52 featured Leo Dorfman, Swan & Kaye’s ‘The Specter of the Haunted House!’ as a gang of cunning thieves use supernatural sceptic Olsen as a patsy for a robbery scheme, before ‘The Perils of Jimmy Olsen!’ (Swan & Forte art) sees the laid-up apprentice scribe use a robot double to perform feats of escalating daring… and stupidity. ‘Jimmy Olsen, Wolfman!’ (Siegel, Swan & Kaye) then delivers a welcome sequel to an earlier tale wherein Superman’s Pal is again afflicted by lycanthropy thanks to the pranks of 5th dimensional imp Mr. Mxyzptlk…

In Lois Lane #25 Siegel & Schaffenberger’s Imaginary series reaches a bittersweet high point in ‘Lois Lane and Superman, Newlyweds!’ as the severely sidelined spouse convinces hubby to announce their relationship to the world… and faces shocking consequences. The brilliant reporter side is highlighted in Bernstein’s diabolical thriller ‘Lois Lane’s Darkest Secret!’ with the daring investigator risking her life to draw out a mesmeric master criminal before ‘The Three Lives of Lois Lane!’ (uncredited, with Forte illustrating) sees her surviving a car crash, only to be subsumed into the personalities of dead historical figures Florence Nightingale, Betsy Ross and Queen Isabella of Spain. Here, Superman can only stay near and try to limit the damage her episodes create…

SPJO #53 opens with Siegel, Swan & Kaye’s ‘The Boy in the Bottle!’ as Jimmy suffers future shock whilst trapped in Kandor, after which sheer medical mischance results in Siegel, Swan & Forte’s now-legendary saga of ‘The Giant Turtle Man!’ and an oddly casualty-free monster rampage before ‘The Black Magician!’ (unknown writer, Swan & Forte) finds Olsen banished to King Arthur’s court by spiteful Mr. Mxyzptlk. Action Comics #277 then offers a truly delightful Supergirl yarn crafted by Siegel & Mooney. ‘The Battle of the Super-Pets!’ finds Streaky typically envious after she pays attention to shameless ingratiating mutt Krypto. When Superman suggests they compete for her attentions to prove who’s best (no, really!), they select the most unlucky locale of all for their arena…

Superman’s Girlfriend, Lois Lane #26 delivers three more Schaffenberger classics, starting with Siegel’s ‘The Day Superman Married Lana Lang!’  In this imaginary tragedy, the Action Ace finally settles down with his childhood sweetheart, but lives to regret it, whilst ‘Lois Lane’s Childhood!’ (Siegel) reveals how the lives of Kal-El on doomed Krypton and baby Lois on Earth were intertwined by fate and providence, before Bernstein’s ‘The Mad Woman of Metropolis’ closes the comics cavalcade on a stunning high. Here, Lois foils a diabolical plot by criminals to murder Clark and drive her insane, whilst for SPJO #54, Bernstein, Swan & Kaye’s ‘Elastic Lad’s Wrestling Match!’ finds Jimmy incensed after deducing that the grappling game is fixed and fake (shocking, no?).  The outraged fan uses his occasionally empowered alter ego to expose the institutionalised shenanigans, after which he comes into possession of Mr. Mxyzptlk’s magic wishing hat and – through a succession of whacky happenstances – saves Superman as ‘King of the Giant Ants!’ An unrecorded writer then employs Swan & Kaye’s gift for comedy to catalogue the horrors of literal infantilisation after the impetuous boy reporter accidentally transforms himself into ‘Baby Jimmy Olsen!’

Action Comics #278 exposed ‘The Super Powers of Perry White!’ (Jerry Coleman, Swan & Kaye) with the senescent editor suddenly gaining incredible abilities and an inexplicable urge to conquer the world, whilst in Superboy #90 another uncredited script – this time delineated by Papp – shares ‘Pete Ross’ Super-Secret!’ as Clark’s best friend discovers his alien alter ego. SGLL #27 follows, opening with Bernstein & Schaffenberger’s ‘Lois Lane’s Super-Brain!’ When Lois accidentally mutates herself into a creature with a colossal cranium she spends all her time and boosted intellect trying to hide it from Superman, before baffling mystery ‘The Battle of the Sisters!’ (Siegel Swan & Kaye) seemingly sees the Man of Steel ditch Lois for hot, blonde, younger sibling Lucy, prior to Bernstein & Schaffenberger relating ‘The Last Days of Lois Lane!’ as – believing herself fatally irradiated – the dedicated journalist resolves to risk what time she has left scoring the most dangerous scoops ever…

One of the most consistent motifs in fiction is the “Dark Opposite” or “player on the other side”: a complete antithesis of the protagonist often bearing many apparent similarities. Rock yourself to sleep at night if you wish, listing such deadly doppelgangers from Professor Moriarty to Gladstone Gander…

“Imperfect” Superman duplicate Bizarro either debuted as a misunderstood freak/unwilling monster in Binder & Papp’s captivatingly tragic ‘The Battle with Bizarro’ (Superboy #68, October 1958 and not included here) or in the similarly titled Superman newspaper strip sequence written by Alvin Schwartz (episode 105, pages #6147-6242, spanning August 25th -December 13th 1958), with the latter scribe claiming he’d thought up the idea months earlier. The newsprint version was certainly first to employ those eccentric reversed-logic thought-patterns and idiomatic speech impediment…

Although later played primarily for laughs, such as in his tenure in Tales of The Bizarro World (Adventure Comics #285-299 June 1961 – August 1962), most early comic book appearances of the dippy double were generally moving, child-appropriate tragedies, unlike here – Adventure Comics #287 – as ‘Jimmy Olsen’s Kookie Scoops!’ reveal the backwards-living artificial beings kidnapping him to run their newspaper on their square planet Htrae…

Next ‘Krypto Battles Titano’ (Superman #147, by Siegel & Plastino) after the Dog of Steel voyages back to the Age of Dinosaurs to romp, inadvertently saving humanity from alien invasion beside the Kryptonite-mutated giant ape. Then, SPJO #55 and Plastino plus unknown author introduce ‘The Monster That Loved Aqua-Jimmy!’ The odd coupling occurs after Olsen gains the powers of Aquaman and stands (swims?) in for him in the world’s oceans. The rest of the issue offers tales from Bernstein, Swan & Kaye, beginning with ‘Jimmy the Red, Thor’s Best Pal!’ wherein a magic tablet hurls the lucky lad back to ancient Scandinavia to befriend the god of thunder and help defeat Loki, after which ‘Jimmy Olsen’s Secret Power!’ exposes seeming betrayal as a strange new talent literally repels his best pal…

Pausing women’s business for now, Superman’s Girlfriend, Lois Lane #28 begins with ‘The Lois Lane of the Future!’ as Siegel & Forte supervise the Man of Tomorrow being banished to the far future by Lex Luthor. There he meets – and is incredibly annoyed by – super-powered possible descendent Lois 4XR until he finds his way home, prior to Schaffenberger & Siegel’s ‘Lois Lane’s Super-Lesson!’ with Superman secretly aiding billionaire Rajah Bandhi win her hand in marriage after she cruelly scorns and spurns him (!!) and concluding with Bill Finger & Schaffenberger’s ‘Lois Lane, Gun Moll!’ as another Luthor scheme apparently turns her into the most vicious criminal in Metropolis…

Cover-dated October 1961, Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen #56 leads with Imaginary Story ‘The Son of Jimmy Olsen!’ by Siegel & Schaffenberger, as Superman & Lois’ daughter elopes with the rash child of Jimmy & Lucy, culminating in catastrophic consequences. It’s followed by a return to consensual Continuity and Siegel & Forte’s mystery tale ‘The Jinx of Metropolis!’ as Jimmy suddenly becomes sudden death to anything metallic. This ushers us into Bernstein & Plastino’s Hollywood glamour-soaked yarn ‘Jimmy Olsen’s Sweethearts’, wherein Lucy is outraged – and utterly baffled – to find Jimmy apparently two-timing her with every starlet in Tinseltown. Of course, all is not what it seems…

This monumental memento to simpler, weirder times concludes with a shaggy dog tale from Superboy #92, where Coleman & Papp debuted ‘Krypto’s Arch-Enemy!’ after teenaged Lex Luthor’s canine companion Destructo stumbles into a lab experiment and gains superpowers. Obviously, the Bad Boy (and his mighty dog) seek to settle old scores, but happily Krypto is too smart for them…

As well as containing some of the most delightful episodes of the pre-angst, cosmically catastrophic DC, these fun, thrilling, deeply peculiar and, yes, occasionally offensive tales perfectly capture the changing tone and tastes reshaping comics moving from the smug, safe 1950s to the seditious, rebellious 1960s, all the while keeping to the prime directive of the industry: “keep them entertained and keep them wanting more.”

Despite all the well-intentioned quibbles from my high horse here in the 21st century, I think these stories still have a huge amount to offer funnybook fun-seekers and strongly urge you to check them out for yourselves. You won’t be sorry…
© 1960, 1961, 2025 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Tiny Titans volume 2: Adventures in Awesomeness


By Art Baltazar & Franco & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-2328-1 (TPB/digital edition)

Links between animated features and comic books are long established and, for younger consumers, indistinguishable. Honestly, it’s all just entertainment in the end…

For quite some time at the beginning of this century, DC’s Cartoon Network imprint was arguably the last bastion of children’s comics in America and worked to consolidate that link between television and printed fun and thrills with stunning interpretations of such small screen landmarks as Ben 10, Scooby Doo, Powerpuff Girls, Dexter’s Laboratory and many more screen gems.

The kids’ comics line also generated truly exceptional material based on TV iterations of the publisher’s proprietary characters – such as Legion of Super Heroes, Batman: Brave and the Bold and Krypto the Super Dog as well as material like Billy Batson and the Magic of Shazam! which was merely similar in tone and content. For many (mostly adults) the line’s finest release was a series ostensibly aimed at early-readers but which quickly became a firm favourite of older fans and a multi-award winner too.

Superbly mirroring the magical wonderland inside a child’s head where everything is joyfully all smooshed up together, Tiny Titans became a sublime antidote to continuity cops and slavish fan-boy quibbling (all together now: “… erm, uh… I think you’ll find that in…”) by reducing the vast cast of the Teen Titans Go! animated series, the far greater boutique supplied by mainstream comics – and eventually the entire DC Universe continuity – to little kids and their parents/guardians in a wholesome kindergarten environment.

It’s a scenario spring-loaded with multilayered in-jokes, sight-gags and the beloved yet gently mocked trappings and paraphernalia generations of strip readers and screen-watchers can never forget… and all located in the utopian Sidekick City Elementary School. Art Baltazar and co-creator Franco (Aureliani) mastered a witty, bemusingly gentle manner of storytelling that just happily rolls along, with assorted (sort-of familiar) characters getting by, trying to make sense of the great big world. The method generally involves stringing together smaller incidents and moments into an overall themed portmanteau tale and it works astoundingly well.

After handy and as-standard identifying roll-call pages ‘Meet the… Tiny Titans’ and a poster page cover of ‘Titans in Space’, the pint-sized tomfoolery opens with ‘Ya Think?’ as transparent-headed Psimon deliberates over his checkers game with similarly glass-fronted The Brain… until Kid Flash and Wonder Girl start heckling…

Meanwhile, at school, Starfire gets a text from her dad telling her to come home. Of course, she invites all her friends and two-and-a-half days later the entire class is wandering around alien planet Tameran…

Once they get back Robin convenes a meeting of his new avian themed ‘Bird Scouts’, only to find his alternate identities causing a little contention and confusion…

The issue ends with a Franco Tiny Titans pinup preceded by a return confrontation between Psimon and his hecklers in ‘To Get to the Other Side’. Sadly, once again his tormentors get the last word…

‘Report Card Pickup!’ finds adult Justice Leaguers confronting Principal Slade (AKA Deathstroke) and substitute teacher Mr. Trigon over the grades of the little folk whilst introducing a new intake from Sidekick City Preschool – ominously dubbed the Tiny Terror Titans…

Starfire gives Blue Beetle an unwanted makeover in ‘Happy Feeling Blue’ whilst Robin, Batgirl and Ace the Bat-hound get invitations to BB’s birthday party in ‘Joke’s on You’.

Elsewhere, the other Wonder Girl (the series played extremely fast-&-loose with continuity so suck it up if you’re expecting serious logic, ok?) and tiny winged Bumblebee indulge their ‘Book Smarts’ until Beast Boy shows up. Meanwhile under the sea, Aqualad chairs a meeting of ‘Pet Club, Atlantis’ until Raven and The Ant spoil things by breaking the first rule…

Concluding with a Puzzler page and a bonus pinup, #8 gives way to a 9th issue and inescapable predicament as the kids go ape because of ‘Monkey Magic’…

When Beppo the Super-Chimp gets hold of a magic wand at Robin’s Comic Book Party, the attendees are soon reduced to hirsute ancestral forms. Thankfully Batgirl & Bumblebee are meeting with the size-shifting Atom family (The Atom, Mrs. Atom, Crumb, Dot, baby Smidgen and little dog Spot) and initially missing the ensuing chaos.

Bad boys of the Brotherhood of Evil aren’t so lucky when Beppo flies over and suddenly Brain and Psimon are as simian and banana-dependent as their talking-gorilla comrade M’sieu Mallah and before long Starfire and Batgirl also get monkey-zapped…

Resolute, bureaucratic Robin then institutes the first meeting of ‘The Titan Apes’ but that only provokes the pesky Super-Chimp to really see what his wand can do and even after Raven’s magic sorts everything out, Beppo rises to the challenge…

Closing with another Tiny Titans Puzzler Page and pinup of the diminutive ‘Atom’s Family’ the animal antics carry over into the next month as ‘World’s Funnest!’ sees Supergirl entertaining Batgirl at ‘Tea Time’. Tragically, the Girl of Steel has forgotten to feed pet cat Streaky and her guest has been equally derelict in her duties to Ace, forcing the power pets to seek redress as the little ladies set out on a global jaunt, meeting annoying monsters Kroc and Bizarro…

A Tiny Titans Word Link Puzzler and Bonus Pinup of the eventually-reconciled stars wraps up the issue before the penultimate outing reveals romantically declined Beast Boy in the throes of ‘Terra Trouble’. The green Romeo’s intended inamorata is a feisty lass with refined tastes and in ‘Counting on Love Rocks!’ she shows him the depth and density of her disaffection, after which Robin greets visiting Russian student Starfire and gets wrapped up in a tempestuous ‘Name Exchange’ dilemma.

Terra meanwhile is not fooled by a viridian ‘Rock Dog’ and Beast Boy ends up with more bruises. Wiser, younger heads (mask, helmets, etc) just go to a carnival and leave them to it, with the lovesick loser escalating his campaign with a little ‘Rock Show’ whereas Aqualad and scary blob Plasmus attend a monster movie ‘Double Feature’…

Agonisingly undaunted, Beast Boy decides on a costume makeover and new origin. Dressed like Superman he builds a ‘Rocket Box’ but yet again fails to kindle a spark…

Silent mirth then illuminates ‘Tiny Titans Presents… The Kroc Files: Changing a Lightbulb’ before another TT Puzzler and ‘Super Bonus Pin-Up! of Alfred and the Penguins’ escort us smartly to the final outing in this smart and sassy tome.

‘Faces of Mischief’ focuses on the school staff as ‘Morning with the Trigons’ finds the substitute teacher and demonic overlord called in on short notice. It’s ‘Monday Morning’ and as the Principal and Trigon goof off to a baseball game, Slade leaves cafeteria server Darkseid in charge. This is the chance the Apokolyptian Lord of Destruction has been waiting for…

With the adult slackers listening to ‘Take Me Out to the Ballgame’, the kids are forced to endure exams and their ‘Finals Crisis’ seems eternal. After apparent ages, Robin needs a ‘Hall Pass’ but is soon accosted by not just the official Monitor but also the diabolical Anti-Monitor (trust me, if you’re wedded to DC Lore, this is comedy gold: for the rest of you, it’s still hilariously drawn…)

Finally, the dread day ends for the kids, but as Raven heads home with Slade’s kids Rose and Jericho, she hears something that could ruin her life and takes drastic steps to ensure ‘Our Little Secret’ just as their dads concoct a sinister do-over for the following week…

Bringing the graphic glee to a halt is a silent ‘Kroc Files: Sending an E-Mail’, a TT Baseball Unscramble Puzzler and a pin-up of the entire nefarious ‘Sidekick City Elementary Faculty’.

Despite being aimed at super-juniors and TV kids, these wonderful, wacky yarns – which marvellously marry the heart and spirit of such classic strips as Peanuts and The Perishers with something uniquely mired and marinated in unadulterated nerdish comic bookery – are unforgettable gags and japes no self-respecting fun-fan should miss: accessible, entertaining, and wickedly intoxicating to readers of any age and temperament. What more do you need to know?
© 2008, 2009 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Supergirl: The Silver Age volume 1


By Otto Binder, Al Plastino, Jerry Seigel, Jim Mooney & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-7292-0 (TPB/Digital edition)

Superhero comics seldom do sweet or charming anymore. Narrative focus nowadays concentrates on turmoil, angst and spectacle and – although there’s nothing intrinsically wrong with that – sometimes the palate just craves a different flavour.

Such was not always the case as this superb compendium of the early career of Superman’s cousin Kara Zor-El of Argo City – gathering material from Action Comics #252-284 and spanning May 1959-January 1962 – joyously proves. Also included to kick off proceedings is the delightful DC House Ad advertising the imminent arrival of a new “Girl of Steel”. Sadly missing, however, is the try-out story ‘The Three Magic Wishes’ – written by Otto Binder and illustrated by Dick Sprang & Stan Kaye from Superman #123, August 1958 – which told how a mystic totem briefly conjured up a young girl with super powers as one of three wishes made by Jimmy Olsen. Such was the reaction to the plucky distaff hero that within a year a new version was introduced to the Superman Family…

Here, then, the drama commences with ‘The Supergirl from Krypton!’, the third story from Action Comics #252 introducing Superman’s cousin Kara, who had been born on a city-sized fragment of Krypton, which was somehow hurled intact into space when the planet exploded. Eventually Argo City turned to Kryptonite like the rest of the giant world’s debris, and Kara’s dying parents, having observed Earth through their scanners and scopes, sent their daughter to safety as they perished.

Crashing on Earth, she is met by Superman who creates the cover-identity of Linda Lee whilst hiding her in an orphanage in small town Midvale allowing her to learn about her new world and powers in secrecy and safety. This groundbreaking tale was also written by Binder and drawn by the hugely talented Al Plastino.

Once the formula was established Supergirl became a regular feature in Action Comics (starting with #253), a residency that lasted until 1969 when she graduated to the lead spot in Adventure Comics. In ‘The Secret of the Super-Orphan!’, at her new orphanage home she makes the acquaintance of fellow orphan Dick Wilson (eventually Malverne) who would become her personal gadfly (much as the early Lois Lane was to Superman), a recurring romantic entanglement who suspects she has a secret. As a young girl in far less egalitarian times, romance featured heavily in our neophyte star’s thoughts and she frequently met other potential boyfriends: including alien heroes and even a Merboy from Atlantis.

Many early tales involved keeping her presence concealed, even whilst performing super-feats. Jim Mooney became regular artist as Binder remained chief scripter for the early run. In Action #254’s ‘Supergirl’s Foster-Parents!’ sees an unscrupulous couple of con-artists easily foiled, after which Linda meets a mystery DC hero when ‘Supergirl Visits the 21st Century!’ in #255. Her secret is nearly exposed in ‘The Great Supergirl Mirage!’ before she grants ‘The Three Magic Wishes!’ to despondent youngsters and teaches a mean bully a much-needed lesson.

The Man of Steel often came off rather poorly when dealing with women in those far less enlightened days, always under the guise of “teaching a much-needed lesson” or “testing” someone. When she ignores his secrecy decree by playing with super dog Krypto, cousin Kal-El banishes the lonely young heroine to an asteroid in ‘Supergirl’s Farewell to Earth!’ but of course there’s paternalistic method in the madness…

‘The Cave-Girl of Steel!’ sees her voyage to Earth’s ancient past and become a legend of the Stone Age before AC #260 finds her transformed by the mystical Fountain of Youth into ‘The Girl Superbaby!’ The next tale introduced feline fan-favourite Streaky the Super-Cat in ‘Supergirl’s Super Pet!’ after which ‘Supergirl’s Greatest Victory!’ supplies a salutary lesson in humility to the Girl of Steel. Binder moved on after scripting ‘Supergirl’s Darkest Day!’ in which the Maid of Might rescues an alien prince before incoming Jerry Siegel began his own tenure by scripting ‘Supergirl Gets Adopted!’: a traumatic yet sentimental tale which ends with the lonely lass back at Midvale orphanage.

I’ve restrained myself so please do likewise when I say the next adventure isn’t what you think. ‘When Supergirl Revealed Herself!’ (Siegel & Mooney, Action #265) is another story about nearly finding a family, after which Streaky returns in ‘The World’s Mightiest Cat!’ as prelude to Supergirl finding fantastic fellow super-kids in Action #267’s ‘The Three Super-Heroes!’ She narrowly fails to qualify for the Legion of Super Heroes through the cruellest quirk of fortune, but – after picking herself up – exposes ‘The Mystery Supergirl!’ prior to Siegel & Mooney introducing fish-tailed Mer-boy Jerro as ‘Supergirl’s First Romance!’

Packed with cameos like Batman & Robin, Krypto and Atlantean Lori Lemaris, ‘Supergirl’s Busiest Day!’ sees her celebrating a very special occasion, after which Streaky enjoys another bombastic appearance as the wonder child builds ‘Supergirl’s Fortress of Solitude!’ before Binder wrote ‘The Second Supergirl!’ – an alternate world tale too big for one issue. Sequel ‘The Supergirl of Two Worlds!’ appeared in Action #273 – as did a novel piece of market research. ‘Pick a New Hairstyle for Linda (Supergirl) Lee!’ involved eager readers in the actual physical appearance of their heroine and provided editors valuable input into who was actually reading the series…

Siegel & Mooney soundly demonstrated DC dictum that “history cannot be changed” in ‘Supergirl’s Three Time Trips!’ before ‘Ma and Pa Kent Adopt Supergirl!’ offered a truly nightmarish scenario: rapidly followed by a return visit to the Legion of Super Heroes in ‘Supergirl’s Three Super Girl-Friends!’, whilst Action #277 featured an amazing animal epic in ‘The Battle of the Super-Pets!’

The next five tales form an extended saga, taking the Girl of Steel in totally new directions. On the eve of Superman announcing her existence to the world, Supergirl loses her powers and – resigned to a normal life – is adopted by the childless Fred and Edna Danvers. Sadly, it’s all a cruel and deadly plot by wicked Lesla-Lar, Kara’s identical double from the Bottle City of Kandor. This evil genius wants to replace Supergirl and conquer Earth…

This mini-epic – ‘The Unknown Supergirl!’, ‘Supergirl’s Secret Enemy!’, ‘Trapped in Kandor!’, ‘The Secret of the Time-Barrier!’ and (following the results of the Hair Style competition) ‘The Supergirl of Tomorrow!’ ran in Action #278-282: solidly repositioning the character for a more positive, effective and fully public role in the DC universe. The saga also hinted of a more dramatic, less paternalistic, parochial and even reduced-sexist future for the most powerful girl in the world, over the months to come; although the young hero is still very much a student-in-training, her existence still kept from the general public as she lives with adoptive parents who are completely unaware the orphan they have adopted is a Kryptonian super-being.

The accent on these stories generally revolves around problem-solving, identity-saving and loneliness, with both good taste and the Comics Code ensuring readers weren’t traumatised by unsavoury or excessively violent tales. Plots akin to situation comedies often pertained, as in ‘The Six Red “K” Perils of Supergirl!’ Peculiar transformations were a mainstay of Silver Age comics, and although a post-modern interpretation might discern some metaphor for puberty or girls “becoming” women, I rather suspect the true answer can be found in author Seigel’s love of comedy and an editorial belief that fighting was simply unladylike…

Red Kryptonite, a cosmically-altered isotope of the radioactive element left when Krypton exploded, caused temporary physical and sometimes mental mutations in the survivors of that doomed world. It was a godsend to writers in need of a challenging visual element when writing characters with the power to drop-kick planets. Here the wonder-stuff generates a circus of horrors, transforming Supergirl into a werewolf, shrinking her to microscopic size and making her fat. I’m not going to say a single bloody word…

The drama continues and concludes – like this initial Silver Age compilation – with ‘The Strange Bodies of Supergirl!’ wherein Linda Lee Danvers’ travails escalate after she grows a second head, gains death-ray vision (ostensibly!) and morphs into a mermaid. This daffy holdover to simpler times presaged a major change in the Girl of Steel’s status… but that’s a volume for another day.

Throughout her formative years Kara of Krypton underwent more changes than most of her confreres did in 20 years, as editors struggled to find a niche the buying public would appreciate, but for all that, these yarns remain exciting, ingenious and utterly bemusing.

Possibly the very last time a female super-character’s sexual allure wasn’t equated to sales potential and freely and gratuitously exploited, these tales are a link and window to a far less crass time, displaying one of the few truly strong and resilient female characters parents can still happily share with even their youngest children.
© 1959, 1960, 1961, 1962, 2017 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Showcase Presents Superman Family volume 3


By Otto Binder, Robert Bernstein, Jerry Siegel, Alvin Schwartz, Bill Finger, Curt Swan, Kurt Schaffenberger, Wayne Boring, Dick Sprang, Al Plastino, Stan Kaye, Ray Burnley, John Forte, George Klein, John Giunta & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-84576-812-6 (TPB)

When the groundbreaking Man of Steel debuted in Action Comics #1 (June 1938) he was instantly the centre of attention, but even then the need for a solid supporting cast was apparent and wisely tailored for. Glamorous daredevil girl reporter Lois Lane premiered beside Clark Kent and was a constant companion and foil from the outset.

Although unnamed, a plucky red-headed, be-freckled kid started working for Clark and Lois from Action Comics #6 (November 1938) onwards. His name was used in Superman #13 (November-December 1941), having already been revealed as Jimmy Olsen due to being a major player on The Adventures of Superman radio show from its debut (April 15th 1940).

As somebody the same age as the target audience for the hero to explain stuff to (all for the listeners’ benefit), he was the closest thing to a sidekick the Action Ace ever needed…

When the similarly titled television show launched in the autumn of 1952 – preceded a year earlier by landmark B-movie Superman and the Mole Men – it was another immediate sensation and National Periodicals began cautiously and judiciously expanding their revitalised franchise with new characters and titles.

During the 1950s/early 1960s, being different in America was a Very Bad Thing. Conformity was sacrosanct, even in comicbooks, and everybody and everything was meant to keep to its assigned and intended role: for the Superman family and cast, that meant a highly strictured code of conduct and parameters. Daily Planet Editor Perry White was a stern, shouty elder statesman with a heart of gold, Cub Reporter Jimmy was a brave and impulsive, unseasoned fool – with a heart of gold – with Lois brash, nosy, impetuous and unscrupulous in her obsession to marry Superman although she too was – deep down – another possessor of an Auric aorta. Moreover, although Clark was a Man in a Man’s World, his hidden alter ego meant that he must never act like one…

Yet somehow even with these mandates in place the talented writers and artists assigned to produce their wholesomely uncanny exploits managed to craft tales both beguiling and breathtakingly memorable – and usually as funny as they were exciting.

First to fill a solo title were the gloriously charming, light-hearted escapades of that rash, capable but callow photographer and “cub reporter”. Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen #1 launched in 1954 with a September-October cover date, the first spin-off star of the Caped Kryptonian’s rapidly expanding multi-media entourage.

As the decade progressed the oh-so-cautious Editors tentatively extended the franchise in 1957 just as the Silver Age of Comics was getting underway, and it seemed that there might be a fresh and sustainable appetite for costumed heroes and their unique brand of spectacular shenanigans. Try-out title Showcase, which had already launched The Flash (#4) and Challengers of the Unknown (#6), followed up with a brace of issues entitled Superman’s Girl Friend Lois Lane in #9 and 10, before swiftly awarding the “plucky news-hen” a series of her own; in actuality her second, since for a brief while in the mid-1940s she had held a regular solo-spot in Superman.

At this time Superman’s Girlfriend, Lois Lane was one of precious few titles with a female lead and – in the context of today – one that gives many 21st century fans a few uncontrollable qualms of conscience. Within the confines of her series the valiant and capable working woman careered crazily from man-hungry, unscrupulous schemer through ditzy simpleton to indomitable and brilliant hero – often all in the same issue – as the exigencies of entertaining children under the strictures of the Comics Code all too often played up the period’s astonishingly misogynistic attitudes.

The comic was clearly intended to appeal to the family demographic that made I Love Lucy a national phenomenon and Doris Day a ditzy latter day saint, so many stories were played for laughs in that same patriarchal, parochial manner; a “gosh, aren’t women funny?” tone that appals me today – but not as much as the fact that I still love them to bits.

It helps that they’re mostly illustrated by the wonderfully whimsical Kurt Schaffenberger.

Jimmy fared little better: a bright, brave but naive kid making his own way in the world, he was often butt of cruel jokes and impossible circumstances; undervalued and humiliatingly tasked in a variety of slapstick adventures and strange transformations.

This third cunningly conjoined chronologically complete compendium collects the affable, all-ages tales from Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen #35-44, March 1959-April 1960 and Superman’s Girlfriend, Lois Lane #8-16, April 1959-April 1960. It commences with the Man of Steel’s Go-To Guy in three tales drawn by the wonderful Curt Swan.

Probably fuelled by television (syndicated reruns kept the Superman family at the forefront of childish viewing habits) Jimmy’s comic was highly popular for over two decades, blending action, adventure, wacky comedy, fantasy and science fiction in the gently addictive, self-deprecating manner scripter Otto Binder had perfected in the 1940s and early 1950s at Fawcett Comics on the magnificent original Captain Marvel (you can call him Shazam!).

As the feature progressed, one of the most popular plot-themes (and most fondly remembered and referenced today by most Baby-Boomer fans) was the unlucky lad’s appalling talent for being warped, mutated and physically manipulated by fate, aliens and even his friends…

Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen #35 (March 1959) opened with ‘The Menace of Superman’s Fan Mail!’, by Binder & Swan, inked by Stan Kaye. Here, the cub reporter undertakes to answer the mountain of missives for the Man of Steel: inadvertently supplying a crook with an almost foolproof method of murdering the Metropolis Marvel.

The remaining tales are inked by Ray Burnley, beginning with a rather disingenuous yarn seeing the kid repeatedly causing trouble by wearing a futuristic suit of mechanised super-armour which only made him look like ‘The Robot Jimmy Olsen!’, whilst in ‘Superman’s Enemy!’ the devoted dope overnight turns into a despicable, hero-hating wretch. However, as a veritable plague of altered behaviour afflicts Clark Kent’s friends, the Action Ace soon discerns an underlying pattern…

Superman’s Girlfriend, Lois Lane #8 (April 1959) opened with Alvin Schwartz & Kurt Schaffenberger’s ‘The Superwoman of Metropolis’, heavy-handedly turning the tables on our heroine when she develops incredible abilities and took on a costumed identity, and was instantly plagued by a suspicious Clark determined to expose her secret.

‘The Ugly Superman!’ dealt with a costumed wrestler who fell for Lois, giving the Caped Kryptonian another chance for some pretty unpleasant Super-teasing. It was written by Robert Bernstein, who unlike me can use the tenor of the times as his excuse, and pleasingly ameliorated by Schaffenberger delivering another hilarious dose of OTT comedic drama illustration. Following is a far less disturbing fantasy romp: ‘Queen for a Day!’ (Bernstein, Wayne Boring & Stan Kaye) found Lois and Clark shipwrecked on an island of Amazons with the plucky lady mistaken for their long-prophesied royal saviour…

Jimmy Olsen #36 began with Binder, Swan & Burnley’s ‘Super-Senor’s Pal!’, with the boy South of the Border in the banana republic of Peccador helping a local rebel fight the dictators by masquerading as a Latino Man of Steel. Kaye inked the momentous debut of ‘Lois Lane’s Sister!’, introducing perky “air-hostess” Lucy as romantic foil and occasionally attainable inamorata for the kid, in a smart, funny tale of hapless puppy love. With Burnley inks the final tale details the cub reporter’s accidental time-trip to Krypton and ‘How Jimmy Olsen First met Superman!’

Although we all think of Siegel & Shuster’s iconic creation as the epitome of comicbook creation, the truth is that very soon after his launch Superman became a multimedia star and far more people have seen or heard the Man of Steel than have ever read him – and yes, that does include the globally syndicated newspaper strip which ran from 1939 to 1966. By the time his 20th anniversary rolled around he had been a regular on radio, starred in a series of astounding animated cartoons and two movies, and just ended his first smash live-action television serial. In his future were many more, a stage musical, a stellar movie career and almost seamless succession of TV cartoons beginning with The New Adventures of Superman in 1966 and continuing ever since. Even Krypto got in on the small-screen act…

Thus it’s no wonder tales from this Silver Age period should be draped in gaudily wholesome trappings of Tinseltown – even more so than most of celebrity-obsessed America. It didn’t hurt that editor Whitney Ellsworth was a part-time screenwriter, script editor and producer as well as National/DC’s Hollywood point man.

The Man of Tomorrow’s TV presence influenced much of Lois Lane #9: a celebrity-soaked issue scripted by Bernstein which began with artists Dick Sprang & John Forte detailing how performer Pat Boone (who just-coincidentally had his own licensed DC comic at that time) almost exposed Earth’s greatest secret in ‘Superman’s Mystery Song!’

The Silver Screen connection continued in the Schaffenberger-limned ‘The Most Hated Girl in Metropolis’, wherein Lois is framed for exposing that self-same super-secret as a ruse to get her to Hollywood for her own unsuspected This is Your Life special. That issue ended with a welcome return to fantasy/comedy as Schaffenberger introduces a lost valley of leftover dinosaurs and puny caveman Blog – ‘Lois Lane’s Stone-Age Suitor’…

In JO #37 Bill Finger, Swan & John Forte reveal the incredible truth about multi-powered Mysterio in the case of ‘Superman’s Super-Rival’, whilst Binder, Swan & Kaye expose the difficulties of frivolous Lucy Lane having ‘The Jimmy Olsen Signal Watch!’: a timepiece that kept the boy on a constant electronic leash…

This issue closes with a cunning caper wherein resident crackpot genius Professor Phineas Potter concocts a serum enabling Jimmy to reprise his many malleable antics and tangled troublemaking as ‘The Elastic Lad of Metropolis!’ (Binder, Swan & George Klein) – and almost exposing Superman’s secret identity into the bargain.

Records from the period are sadly incomplete but Bernstein probably wrote each tale in Lois Lane #10, beginning with Schaffenberger-limned classic ‘The Cry-Baby of Metropolis’, as Lois – terrified of losing her looks – exposes herself to a youth ray and temporarily turns into a baby, much to the amusement of Superman and arch-rival Lana Lang…

Schaffenberger also illustrated ‘Lois Lane’s Romeo!’ with the constantly spurned reporter finally giving up on her extraterrestrial beau. Typically, she’s then romanced by a slick, romantic European who’s was also a conniving, crooked conman. She rebounds in top crime-busting form for ‘Lois Lane’s Super-Seance!’ (Boring & Kaye): apparently endowed with psychic sight, but actually pulling the wool over the eyes of superstitious crooks.

Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen #38 also tapped TV connection as the lad becomes ‘The MC of the Midnight Scare Theatre!’ (Bernstein, Swan & Forte): uncovering an incredible mystery after his hoary, hokey stage act apparently scares four viewers to death…

Although by the same creators, the broad humour of ‘Jimmy Olsen’s Wedding! to Lucy has a far less ingenious explanation, but at least ‘Olsen’s Super-Supper!’ (Bernstein, Swan & John Giunta) wraps up on a high as the impecunious kid enters an eating contest and allows shady operators to try an experimental appetite-increasing ray on him. Of course, the mad scientists have an ulterior, criminal motive…

A plane crash and head wound transform Lois into a fur-bikinied wild woman in #11 of her own magazine, but – even after being rescued by Superman – ‘The Leopard Girl of the Jungle!’ (Finger & Schaffenberger) has one last task to valiantly undertake. Anonymously authored ‘The Tricks of Lois Lane!’ finds the restored reporter up to her old tricks to expose Clark as Superman, whilst ‘Lois Lane’s Super-Perfume!’ (Bernstein) seems able to turn any man into a love-slave – until the Man of Steel exposes criminal scammers behind it…

Binder, Swan & Forte crafted all of Jimmy Olsen #39, beginning with the lad stuck on another world and quickly seen as ‘The Super-Lad of Space!’, after which, back in Metropolis, his ill-considered antics lose and win and lose him again a fortune in ‘The Million Dollar Mistakes!’ Lastly, ‘Jimmy Olsen’s Super-Signals!’ see him misplace his Superman-summoning watch and forced to spectacularly improvise every time he gets into trouble…

Bernstein wrote LL #12, beginning with two Schaffenberger specials: ‘The Mermaid of Metropolis’ in which an accident dooms Lois to life underwater beside Sea King Aquaman, until Superman cures her piscoid condition, whilst in ‘The Girl Atlas!’ Lana sneakily turns herself into a super-powerhouse to corral the Man of Steel and learns what sneaky means when Lois strikes back…

Al Plastino rendered ‘Lois Lane Loves Clark Kent!’, as the reporter, believing she has incontrovertible proof of Superman’s secret, starts a campaign to entrap her unknowing colleague in wedlock…

Swan & Forte illustrated all of JO #40, beginning with Binder’s ‘The Invisible Life of Jimmy Olsen’ as our hapless chum is enmired in all manner of mischief after a gift from his best pal unexpectedly leaves him unseen but not trouble-free. ‘Jimmy Olsen, Supergirl’s Pal!’ sees the reporter temporarily struck blind, just as a crook with a grudge tries to kill him. With Superman out of touch, the Caped Kryptonian’s secret weapon Supergirl (at this time a newly-arrived, hidden trainee no one except cousin Kal-El and Krypto know of) rushes to the rescue, only to have the feisty lad disbelieve and dispute her very existence.

Bernstein then exposes ‘Jimmy Olsen, Juvenile Delinquent!’ as he goes undercover to break up a street gang and discovers Perry White’s own son is a member…

Bernstein & Schaffenberger led in Lois’ 13th issue, hilariously ‘Introducing… Lois Lane’s Parents!’ Superman had offered her a lift home to the farm of Sam and Ella Lane for a family reunion, but thanks to a concatenation of circumstances, local gossip and super-politeness, the Man of Steel quickly finds himself peer-pressure-press-ganged into a wedding.

Fair Warning: this contains Lois’ first nude scene as a proud father gets out baby albums…

From the same creative team – and in a brilliant pastiche of My Fair Lady – ‘Alias Lois Lane!’ see the indomitable inquirer undercover as sketchy floozie Sadie Blodgett in a plan to snap candid shots of a movie star. It all goes south when “Sadie” is “hired” by crooks to impersonate Superman’s girlfriend in an assassination plot bound to fail!

Next, Finger, Boring & Kaye disclose ‘The Shocking Secret of Lois Lane!’ following a tragically implausible incident forcing the journalist to cover her disfigured head in a lead-lined steel box. Thankfully, the Action Ace is around to deduce what’s really going on…

Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen #41 opened with Bernstein, Swan & Forte’s ‘The Human Octopus!’, highlighting the lad’s negligent idiocy as he impetuously eats alien fruit and grows six more arms. However, the true effect of the space spud is far more devious…

Binder & Kaye joined Swan for ‘The Robot Reporter!’, with Jimmy using an automaton provided by Superman to do his job as he recuperates from a damaged ankle. Nonetheless, he manages to get into trouble from the comfort of his apartment. Thanks to stupid showing off, he’s then mistaken for a master fencer and catapulted into a Ruritanian adventure as ‘Jimmy Olsen, the Boy Swordsman!’ (Binder, Swan & Forte).

Binder & Schaffenberger opened LL #14 with ‘Three Nights in the Fortress of Solitude!’ as conniving journalist has contrived to isolate herself with Superman long enough to prove how much he needs a woman in his life, only to suffer one disaster after another…

Bernstein scripted ‘Lois Lane’s Soldier Sweetheart!’, revealing her warm and generous side as she helps a lonely GI attain his greatest desire. Jerry Siegel then returned to the character he created (and based on his own wife!) using still-secret Supergirl to catastrophically play cupid in ‘Lois Lane’s Secret Romance!’

Jimmy Olsen #42 started with uncredited story ‘The Big Superman Movie!’ (art by Swan & Forte), wherein the star-struck kid consults on a major motion picture. He would far rather have played himself, much to Lucy’s amusement, but ultimately the sharp apprentice journalist has the last word – and laugh. Bernstein was back for ‘Perry White, Cub Reporter!’ which has Editor and junior trading places, with power only apparently going straight to Olsen’s head, after which ‘Jimmy the Genie!’ sees something similar occur when boy reporter and magical sprite exchange roles in a clever thriller illustrated by Swan & Giunta.

Superman’s Girlfriend, Lois Lane #15 featured a landmark mystery in ‘The Super-Family of Steel!’ (Binder & Schaffenberger) which seemingly sees Lois attain her every dream. She and her Kryptonian Crimebuster first become ‘Super-Husband and Wife’, with ‘The Bride Gets Super-Powers’ as a consequence. They even have a brace of super-kids before the astounding ‘Secret of the Super-Family’ is revealed…

In Superman’s Pal #43 TV show 77 Sunset Strip got a name-check as ‘Jimmy Olsen’s Four Fads!’ (Swan & Kaye) finds the kid attempting to create a teen trend to impress Lucy, whilst as ‘Phantom Fingers Olsen!’ (Boring & Kaye) he infiltrates a gang of murderous thieves, before being adopted by ‘Jimmy Olsen’s Private Monster!’ (Siegel, Swan & Forte). After causing no end of embarrassment in Metropolis, the bizarre beast takes Jim to his home dimension where even greater shocks await…

The book’s final Superman’s Girlfriend, Lois Lane is #16 (April 1960) opening with ‘Lois Lane’s Signal-Watch’ with Schaffenberger art on (possibly) a Siegel script. Here the Man of Steel learns to regret ever giving a woman who clearly has no idea what “emergency” means a device to summon him at any moment of day or night…

That slice of scurrilous 1950s propaganda is inexplicably balanced by a brilliant murder thriller displaying all Lois’ resilience and fortitude as she infiltrates and solves (Bernstein’s) ‘The Mystery of Skull Island’, before Siegel authors another cruel dark tragedy wherein Superman tries to cure Lois’ nosy impulses – by tricking his own girlfriend into believing she has a death stare in ‘The Kryptonite Girl!’ Of course, as all couples know, such power develops naturally not long after the honeymoon…

I love these stories, but sometime words just fail me.

Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen #44 completes this third monochrome monolith, starting with Halloween-styled tale ‘The Wolf-Man of Metropolis!’ (Binder, Swan & Kaye) by blending horror, mystery and heart-warming charm in a mini-classic which sees the boy cursed to hairy moon madness. Desperate for surcease his only hope is a willing maiden to cure him with a kiss. That’s followed by Siegel, Swan & Forte’s ‘Jimmy’s Leprechaun Pal!’, a magical imp who made life hell for the cub until human ingenuity outwitted magical pranksterism, after which Bernstein, Swan & Kaye crafted possibly the strangest and most disturbing yarn in this compilation as the boy went undercover as a sexy showgirl to get close to gangster Big Monte in ‘Miss Jimmy Olsen!’

As well as containing some of the most delightful episodes of the pre angst-drenched, cosmically catastrophic DC, these fun, thrilling, deeply peculiar and yes, often potentially offensive stories also perfectly capture the changing tone and tastes which reshaped comics from the safe 1950s to the seditious, rebellious 1970s, all the while keeping to the prime directive of the industry – “keep them entertained and keep them wanting more”.

Despite my good-natured cavils from my high horse here in the 21st century (or “the End of Days” as they’re more commonly known), I think these stories have a huge amount to offer funnybook fun-seekers. I strongly urge you to check them out.
© 1959, 1960, 2009 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Showcase Presents Superman volume 3


By Otto Binder, Jerry Siegel, Robert Bernstein, Bill Finger, Jerry Coleman, Edmond Hamilton, Leo Dorfman, Jack Schiff, Wayne Boring, Al Plastino, Curt Swan, Kurt Schaffenberger, Jim Mooney, George Papp, Sheldon Moldoff & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-1271-1 (TPB)

Superman has proven to be all things to all fans over his decades of existence, and with the character currently undergoing another radical overhaul, these timeless tales of charm, joy and wholesome wit are more necessary than ever: not just as a reminder of great tales of the past but as an all-ages primer of the wonders still to come…

At the time these tales were published The Metropolis Marvel was enjoying revived interest. Television cartoons, a rampant merchandising wave thanks to the Batman-led boom in “camp” Superheroes generally, highly efficient global licensing and even a Broadway musical: all worked to keep the Last Son of Krypton a vibrant icon of Space-Age America.

Although we think of Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster’s iconic invention as the epitome of comic book creation, in truth soon after his launch in Action Comics #1 he became a multimedia star and far more people have enjoyed the Man of Steel than have ever read him. By the time his 20th anniversary rolled around, Superman was a regular on radio, astounding animated cartoons, two movie chapter-plays and a feature film, and had just ended his first smash-hit live-action television serial. In his future were many more; a stage musical; a franchise of cinematic blockbusters and a seamless succession of TV cartoons, starting with The New Adventures of Superman in 1966. Even Krypto got in on the small-screen act…

It’s no wonder then that tales from this Silver Age period should be so draped in wholesome trappings of “Tinseltown” – even more so than most of celebrity-obsessed America. It didn’t hurt that editor Whitney Ellsworth was a part-time screenwriter, script editor and producer as well as National/DC’s Hollywood point man. His publishing assistant Mort Weisinger – a key factor in the vast expansion of the Kryptonian mythos – also had strong ties to the cinema and television industries, beginning in 1955 when he became story-editor for the blockbusting Adventures of Superman TV show.

This third magnificent monochrome chronicle collects the contents of Action Comics #276-292, Superman #146-156 and excerpts from Superman Annuals #3-5, spanning May 1961 to October 1962; taking its content from the early 1960’s canon (when the book’s target audience would have been actual little kids) yet showcasing a rather more sophisticated set of tales than you might expect…

Wide-eyed wonderment commences with Action Comics #276’s ‘The War Between Supergirl and the Superman Emergency Squad’ by Robert Bernstein, Wayne Boring & Stan Kaye. Here, Superman is conned into revealing his secret identity and resorts to incredible measures to make a swindler disbelieve his eyes, after which #277 presented ‘The Conquest of Superman!’ (Bill Finger, Curt Swan & John Forte): another brilliantly brutal duel against super-scientist Lex Luthor.

Superman #146 (July 1961) offered ‘The Story of Superman’s Life’ relating more secrets by recapitulating Clark Kent’s early days in a captivating resumé. Covering all the basics, Otto Binder & Al Plastino share the death of Krypton, rocket-ride to Earth, early life as Superboy, death of the Kents and moving to Metropolis. Closing, ‘Superman’s Greatest Feats’ (Jerry Siegel & Plastino) sees the Man of Tomorrow travel into Earth’s past and seemingly succeed in preventing such tragedies as the sinking of Atlantis, slaughter of Christians in Imperial Rome, deaths of Nathan Hale, Abraham Lincoln and Custer and even the death of Krypton’s population. Of course it is too good to be true…

Action #278 featured ‘The Super Powers of Perry White!’ (Jerry Coleman, Swan & Kaye) with the senescent editor suddenly gaining superpowers and an inexplicable urge to conquer the world. In Superman #147 ‘The Great Mento!’ – Bernstein & Plastino – a mystery mind-reader threatens to expose the hero’s secret identity. ‘Krypto Battles Titano’ (Siegel & Plastino) finds the wandering Dog of Steel voyaging back to the Age of Dinosaurs to play before inadvertently saving humanity from alien invasion alongside the Kryptonite-mutated giant ape. The issue closed with ‘The Legion of Super Villains’ (Siegel, Swan & Sheldon Moldoff): a landmark adventure and stand-out thriller featuring Lex Luthor and the adult Legion of Super-Heroes overcoming certain death with valour and ingenuity.

This was followed by Swan’s iconic cover for Superman Annual #3 (August 1961); the uncredited picture-feature Secrets of the Fortress of Solitude and a superb back-cover pin-up.

The author of Action #279’s Imaginary Story ‘The Super Rivals’ is regrettably unknown but John Forte’s sleekly comfortable art happily limns the wild occurrence of legendary heroes Samson and Hercules brought to the 20th century by Superman to marry Lois Lane and Lana Lang, to keep them out of his hair! In #280 ‘Brainiac’s Super Revenge’ (Siegel, Swan & Kaye) returns that time-lost villain to our era and attacking the Man of Steel’s friends, only to be foiled by guest-star Congorilla (veteran Action Comics hero Congo Bill, who traded consciousness with a giant Golden Gorilla). Imaginary Stories were conceived as a way of exploring non-continuity plots and scenarios devised at a time when editors believed that entertainment trumped consistency and knew that every comic read was somebody’s first…

When Editor Weisinger was expanding Superman continuity and building a legend, he knew each new tale was an event adding to a nigh-sacred canon: that what was written and drawn mattered to readers. However, the ideas man wasn’t going to let aggregated “history” stifle a good plot situation, nor would he allow his eager yet sophisticated audience to endure clichéd deus ex machina cop-outs to mar the sheer enjoyment of captivating concepts. The mantra known to every fan was “Not a Dream! Not a Hoax! Not a Robot!”: emblazoned on covers depicting scenes that couldn’t possibly be true – even if it was only a comic book.

Superman #148 opened with Edmond Hamilton, Swan & Moldoff’s  ‘The 20th Century Achilles’, wherein a cunning crook makes himself immune to harm, after which ‘Mr. Mxyzptlk’s Super Mischief’ (Siegel, Swan & Moldoff) again finds the 5th dimensional pest using magic to cause irritation after legally changing his name to something even easier to pronounce, whilst the delightfully devilish ‘Superman Owes a Billion Dollars!’ – written by Bernstein – depicts the Caped Kryptonian’s greatest foe: a Revenue agent who diligently discovers that the hero has never paid a penny of tax in his life…

Action Comics #281 features ‘The Man Who Saved Kal-El’s Life!’ (Bernstein & Plastino), relating how a humble Earth scientist visited Krypton and cured baby Superman, all wrapped up in a gripping duel with a modern crook able to avoid Superman’s every effort to hold him, whilst in Superman #149, ‘Lex Luthor, Hero!’, ‘Luthor’s Super-Bodyguard’ and ‘The Death of Superman’ (Siegel, Swan & Moldoff) form a brilliant extended Imaginary saga describing the insidious inventor’s ultimate victory over the Man of Steel.

In “real” continuity, Action #282 shares ‘Superman’s Toughest Day’ (Finger & Plastino) as Clark Kent’s vacation only reveals how his alter ego never really takes it easy, before #283’s ‘The Red Kryptonite Menace’ (Bernstein, Swan & Kaye) follows Chameleon Men from the 30th century afflicting the Action Ace with incredible new powers and disabilities after exposing him to a variety of Crimson K chunks.

Superman #150 opened with ‘The One Minute of Doom’ – Siegel & Plastino – disclosing how all survivors of Krypton – even Superdog – commemorate the planet’s destruction, before Bernstein & Kurt Schaffenberger’s ‘The Duel over Superman’ finally sees Lois and Lana Lang teach the patronising Man of Tomorrow a deserved lesson about his smug masculine complacency.

Siegel, Swan & Kaye then baffle readers and Action Ace alike ‘When the World Forgot Superman’, in a clever and beguiling mystery yarn, followed here by extracts from Superman Annual #4 (January 1962): the stunning cover and featurette The Origin and Powers of the Legion of Super-Heroes by Swan & George Klein.

Action #284 featured ‘The Babe of Steel’ (Bernstein, Swan & Klein) wherein Superman endures humiliation and frustration after deliberately turning himself into a toddler – but there’s a deadly serious purpose to the temporary transformation…

Superman #151 opens with Siegel & Plastino’s salutary story ‘The Three Tough Teen-Agers!’ wherein the hero sets a trio of delinquents back on the right path, after which Bernstein, Swan & Klein’s ‘The Man Who Trained Supermen’ sees Clark expose a crooked sports trainer. ‘Superman’s Greatest Secret!’ is almost revealed after battling a fire-breathing dragon which survived Krypton’s doom in a stirring tale by Siegel, Swan & Klein: probably one of the best secret-identity-saving stories of the period…

Since landing on Earth, Supergirl’s existence had been a closely guarded secret, allowing her time to master her formidable abilities. These tales were presented to the readership monthly as a back-up feature in Action Comics. However with #285, ‘The World’s Greatest Heroine!’ finally goes public in the Superman lead spot, after which the Girl of Steel defeats ‘The Infinite Monster’ in her own strip. Supergirl became the darling of the universe: openly saving the planet and finally getting credit for it in stirring tales by Siegel & Jim Mooney.

Action #286 offered mini-epic ‘The Jury of Super-Enemies’ (Bernstein, Swan & Klein) as the Superman Revenge Squad inflicts Red K hallucinations on the Man of Steel: tormenting him with visions of Luthor, Brainiac, the Legion of Super-Villains and other evil adversaries. The saga continued in the next issue, but before that Superman #152 appeared, with a surprising battle against ‘The Robot Master’ (Siegel, Swan & Klein), charmingly outrageous romp ‘Superbaby Captures the Pumpkin Gang!’ (Leo Dorfman & George Papp) and ‘The TV Trap for Superman!’, a devious crime caper by Finger & Plastino with the hero unwittingly wired for sound and vision by a sneaky conman…

The Revenge Squad thriller concluded in #287’s ‘Perry White’s Manhunt for Superman!’ (Bernstein, Swan & Klein) as an increasingly deluded Man of Tomorrow battles his worst nightmares and struggles to save Earth from a genuine alien invasion.

Finger & Plastino’s ‘The Day Superman Broke the Law!’ opened Superman #153, as a wily embezzler entangles the Metropolis Marvel in small-town red tape before ‘The Secret of the Superman Stamp’ (Edmond Hamilton, Swan & Klein) sees a proposed honour for good works turned into a serious threat to the hero’s secret identity…

‘The Town of Supermen’ by Siegel & Forte, then finds the Man of Tomorrow in a western ghost town in a deadly showdown against ten Kryptonian criminals freshly escaped from the Phantom Zone…

The growing power of the silver screen informed ‘The Man Who Exposed Superman’ (Action #288 by writer unknown and Swan & Klein) as a vengeful convict originally imprisoned by Superboy attempts to expose the hero’s identity by blackmailing him on live television. ‘The Super-Practical Joker!’ (#289 by Dorfman & Plastino) sees Perry White forced to hire obnoxious trust-fund brat Dexter Willis: a spoiled kid whose obsessive stunts almost expose Superman’s day job.

Opening Superman #154, Hamilton, Swan & Klein’s ‘The Underwater Pranks of Mr. Mxyzptlk’ see the insane sprite return, resolved to cause grief and stay for good by only working his jests whilst submerged, after which ‘Krypton’s First Superman’ (Siegel, Swan & Klein) tells a lost tale of baby Kal-El on there that has unsuspected psychological effects on the full-grown hero. Next comes an example of the many public service announcements running in all DC’s 1960’s titles. ‘Superman Says be a Good Citizen’ was probably written by Jack Schiff and definitely illustrated by Sheldon Moldoff.

Exposure to a Red Kryptonite comet in Action #290 sees him become ‘Half a Superman!’ in another sadly uncredited story illustrated by Swan & Klein, after which Superman Annual #5 (July 1962) offers another stunning cover and displays the planetary Flag of Krypton, whilst Superman #155 featured  2-chapter ‘Superman Under the Green Sun’ and ‘The Blind Superman’ by Finger, Wayne Boring & Kaye, as the Man of Steel is trapped on a totalitarian world where his powers don’t work. Blinded as part of the dictator’s policy to keep the populace helpless, even sightless, nothing stops the hero from leading the people to victory. As if that wasn’t enough Siegel, Swan & Klein then debut showbiz thriller ‘The Downfall of Superman!’ with a famous wrestler seemingly able to defeat the Action Ace – albeit with a little help from some astounding guest-stars…

‘The New Superman!’ (Bernstein & Plastino, Action #291) sees the Metropolis Marvel lose his deadly susceptibility to Kryptonite, only to have it replaced by aversions to far more commonplace minerals, whilst #292 reveals ‘When Superman Defended his Arch Enemy!’ – an anonymous thriller illustrated by Plastino – which has the hero save Luthor from his just deserts after “murdering” alien robots…

The grand excursion into comics nostalgia ends with one of the greatest Superman stories of the decade. Issue #156, October 1962, featured Hamilton, Swan & Klein’s novel-length saga ‘The Last Days of Superman’ which began with ‘Superman’s Death Sentence’ as the hero contracts deadly Kryptonian Virus X and goes into a swift and painful decline. Confined to an isolation booth, he’s visited by ‘The Super-Comrades of All Times!’ who attempt cures and swear to carry on his works… until a last-minute solution is disclosed on ‘Superman’s Last Day of Life!’ This tense and terrifying thriller employed the entire vast and extended supporting cast that had evolved around the most popular comic book character in the world and still enthrals and excites in a way few stories ever have…

As well as containing some of the most delightful episodes of pre angst-drenched, cosmically catastrophic DC, these fun, thrilling, mind-boggling and yes, occasionally deeply moving all-ages stories also perfectly depict the changing mores and tastes which reshaped comics between the safely anodyne 1950s to the seditious, rebellious 1970s, all the while keeping to the prime directive of the industry: “keep them entertained and keep them wanting more”.

I know I certainly do.
© 1961, 1962, 2007 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Showcase Presents Legion of Super-Heroes volume 4


By James Shooter, E. Nelson Bridwell, Cary Bates, Curt Swan, George Papp, J. Winslow Mortimer, George Tuska, Dave Cockrum, Murphy Anderson, Mike Esposito, Vince Colletta & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-2185-0 (TPB)

Once upon a time, a thousand years from now, a band of super-powered kids from a multitude of worlds took inspiration from the greatest legend of all time and formed a club of heroes. One day those Children of Tomorrow came back in time and invited their inspiration to join them…

Thus began the vast and epic saga of the Legion of Super-Heroes, as initially envisioned by writer Otto Binder & artist Al Plastino when the many-handed mob of juvenile universe-savers debuted in Adventure Comics #247 (April 1958) just as the revived superhero genre was gathering an inexorable head of steam in America. Since that time the fortunes and popularity of the Legion have perpetually waxed and waned, with their future history tweaked and rebooted, retconned and overwritten over and over again to comply with editorial diktat and popular fashion.

This drama-drenched fourth monochrome compendium gathers a chronological parade of futuristic delights from June 1968 to September 1970, originally seen in Adventure Comics #369-380 and the reprint issue #403, plus back-up tales from Action Comics #378-392 – a time when the superhero genre again dipped in popularity. Also included in this enchanting tome are the tentative first forays of the team’s slow revival as an alternating back-up feature in Superboy, via game-changing exploits from #172-173, 176, 183-184, 188 190 and 191, collectively covering March 1971 to October 1972.

During this period the youthful, generally fun-loving and carefree Club of Champions peaked; having only just evolved into a dedicated and driven dramatic action series starring a grittily realistic combat force in constant, galaxy-threatening peril. Although now an overwhelming force of valiant warriors ready and willing to pay the ultimate price for their courage and dedication, science itself, science fiction and costumed crusaders all increasingly struggled against a global resurgence in spiritual questioning and supernatural fiction…

The main architect of the transformation was teenaged sensation Jim Shooter, whose scripts and layouts (generally finished and pencilled by the astoundingly talented and understated Curt Swan) made the series accessible to a generation of fans growing up with their heads in the Future but as the fashions shifted, the series was unceremoniously ousted from its ancestral home and full-length adventures to become a truncated back-up feature in Action Comics. Typically, that shift occurred just as the stories were getting really, really good and truly mature…

Crafted by Shooter, Swan & Jack Abel, tense suspense blooms with ‘Mordru the Merciless!’ (Adventure Comics #369) when the Legion is attacked by their most powerful enemy: a nigh-omnipotent sorcerer the entire assemblage had only narrowly defeated once before.

A sneak attack shatters the whole team and only four escape, using a time-bubble to flee to the remote, archaic era where Superboy lived. With him come Mon-El, Shadow Lass and Duo Damsel, last remnants of a once-unbeatable force.

Mordru’s magic is stronger though and even the time-barrier cannot daunt him. Disguised as mere mortals, the fugitive Legionnaires’ courage shines through in exile as petty gangsters take over Smallville. The teens quashed the parochial plunderers and then opt to return to the 30th century and confront Mordru, only to discover he’s found them first…

The saga concluded in #370’s ‘The Devil’s Jury!’ wherein the band again break free to hide in plain sight by temporarily wiping their own memories to thwart the Dark Lord’s probes. Against appalling odds and with only Clark Kent’s best friend Pete Ross and Insect Queen Lana Lang to aid them, the heroes’ doomed last stand implausibly succeeds when Mordru’s overbearing arrogance causes his own downfall.

Then when the exhausted fugitives get back to the future they joyously discover that Dream Girl and benign sorceress White Witch had undone the deluded Dark Lord’s worst…

Extortion and espionage were the order of the day in #371’s ‘The Colossal Failure!’ as a Legionnaire’s parents are abducted and the hero is forced to botch missions. Ordered to retrain at the high security Legion Academy, Colossal Boy is subsequently caught selling the team’s training secrets and cashiered from the organisation…

This issue also offered the George Papp illustrated ‘When Superboy Walked Out on the Legion!’, wherein hyper-advanced super snobbish aliens threaten Smallville unless Superboy leaves Earth to join their band of press-ganged heroes. It requires ingenuity, a faux civil war and massive destruction to finally convince the alien autocrats to let the assembled champions return to their own home-worlds…

Colossal Boy’s tale of woe concluded in Adventure #372 when his concerned former comrades uncover the cause of the expelled giant’s dilemma, tracking him to a ‘School for Super-Villains!’ (Shooter, Swan & Abel), where the fallen hero is compelled to teach meta-powered man rogues all the LSH’s secrets.

Luckily – and thanks to the expedited induction of apprentice and ergo unknown heroes Timber Wolf and Chemical King – the good guys infiltrate and shut down this first incarnation of the Legion of Super-Villains.

From #373 onwards Golden Age veteran J. Winslow Mortimer replaced Swan as penciller and ‘The Tornado Twins!’ Don and Dawn Allen run rings around and generally humiliate the assembled heroes… but all for a very good cause, before ‘Mission: Diabolical!’ in #374 focusses on the future equivalent of organised crime after most Legionnaires are ambushed and held hostage by the insidious Scorpius gang.

Hard-pressed by rival outfit Taurus, the mobsters decided to “recruit” a team of heroes to equal their enemies’ squad of hyper-powered goons; Rogarth, Mystelor, Shagrek, Quanto and Black Mace. Of course, after infiltrating and defeating their foes, the compromised kids – Supergirl, Element Lad, Dream Girl, Ultra Boy and Matter-Eater Lad – are double-crossed by Scorpius and might have died if not for fortuitous intervention by the Legion of Substitute Heroes…

Next (#375-376) comes a powerful and devious 2-part thriller introducing galaxy-roving heroes The Wanderers, with that temporarily-insane-and-evil group battling the United Planets’ champions. They are far more concerned with determining who will be crowned ‘The King of the Legion!’ …

The matter is only relevant because a trans-dimensional challenger has demanded a duel with the “mightiest Legionnaire”, but when the dust settles the only hero left standing is chubby comic relief Bouncing Boy. When the triumphant winner is spirited away to another cosmos he lands in a feudal wonderland – complete with beautiful princess – menaced by a terrifying invader.

Sadly the hero is soon exposed as shape-shifting Durlan Legionnaire Reep Daggle and not the at-least-human Chuck Taine, but manfully overcomes his abductors’ initial prejudice and defeats usurper threat Kodar. He wins the heart and hand of Princess Elwinda, but is tragically rescued and whisked back across a permanently sealed dimensional barrier by his legion buddies who mistake a Royal Wedding for ‘The Execution of Chameleon Boy!’

A welcome edge of dark and bitter cynicism was creeping into Shooter’s stories, and ‘Heroes for Hire!’ (pencilled by Mortimer & inked by Jack Abel) sees the team charging for their unique services, but it’s only a brilliant ploy to derail the criminal career of Modulus: avatar of sentient living planet Modo who has turned his world into an unassailable haven for the worst villains of the galaxy…

Adventure #378 opens another tense and moving 2-parter as Superboy, Duo Damsel, Karate Kid, Princess Projectra and Brainiac 5 are poisoned and face only ‘Twelve Hours to Live!’

With no cure possible, the quintet separate to spend their last day in the most personally satisfying ways they can – from sharing precious moments with soon-to-be bereaved family to K-Kid’s one-man assault on the Fatal Five – only to reunite for their final moments and die together…

The incredible conclusion sees hyper-advanced being Seeron freeze time and offer to cure the practically dead victims if late arrivals Ultra Boy, Phantom Girl, Chameleon Boy, Timber Wolf, Star Boy, Lightning Lad and Chemical King return to his universe and defeat an invasion by brutes invulnerable to the mighty mental powers of the intellectual overlords…

However, even as the abducted Legionnaires triumph and return, their comrades – having been had been found again – are afforded the honour of ‘Burial in Space!’ …

Happily, a brilliant last-minute solution enables the dead to rise just in time to lose their long-held position in Adventure Comics as changing tastes and shrinking sales prompted an abrupt change of venue.

‘The Legion’s Space Odyssey!’ (# 380 cover-dated May 1969, by Shooter, Mortimer & Abel) sees a select band of Legionnaires teleported to the barren ends of the universe and forced to laboriously battle their way home against impossible odds. This argosy includes the “death” of Superboy and persistent sabotage by the Legion of Super-Pets. There’s a perfectly rational and reasonable excuse for the devious scheme of course, with the tale best remembered by fans as the mission on which Duo Damsel and Bouncing Boy first got together…

From #381 onwards Adventure Comics was filled with the 20th century exploits of Supergirl and the LSH took over her back-up spot in Action Comics, beginning with a reprint in #377 which is not included here.

Original, shorter Tales of the Legion of Super-Heroes began in #378 (July 1969) with ‘The Forbidden Fruit!’ by Shooter, Mortimer & Mike Esposito with Timber Wolf deliberately addicted by criminals to a hyper-narcotic lotus in a bold scheme to turn the entire team into pliable junkies. Fortunately, the hero’s love for Light Lass allows him to overcome his awful burden, before #379’s ‘One of us is an Impostor’ (E. Nelson Bridwell, Mortimer & Murphy Anderson) offers a clever mystery to baffle Mon-El, Dream Girl, Element Lad, Shadow Lass and Lightning Lad as thermal thug Sunburst and a clever infiltrator threaten to tear the team apart from within.

Duo Damsel declares war on herself in #380 when one body falls under the sway of an alien Superboy. As half of her turns to crime, only Bouncing Boy can clean up the psychological mess of ‘Half a Legionnaire?’ (Shooter, Mortimer & Abel), after which Matter-Eater Lad reveals lowly origins and a dysfunctional family to lonely Shrinking Violet in #381: ending up ‘The Hapless Hero!’ battling her absurdly jealous absentee boyfriend Duplicate Boy -mightiest hero in the universe…

In #382 a covert team comprising Ultra Boy, Karate Kid, Light Lass, Violet and Timber Wolf attempt to end a potential super-robot arms-race and find that to succeed they have to ‘Kill a Friend to Save a World!’, before still-heartbroken Durlan Reep discovers an Earthly double of lost love Elwinda. However, on morphing into her ideal man he quickly sees the folly of ‘Chameleon Boy’s Secret Identity!’ – a tear-jerker with a hint of happy ending from Bridwell, Mortimer & Abel.

Shooter left his perfect job with #384, but signed off in style with his landmark ‘Lament for a Legionnaire!’ With art misattributed to Mortimer but in fact a welcome fill-in by Curt Swan & Abel, it tells how Dream Girl’s infallible prophecy of Mon-El’s demise comes true whilst his shocking resurrection introduces a whole new thrilling strand to the Lore of the Legion.

Bridwell, Mortimer & Abel show how a vengeance-crazed killer’s quest for retribution fails in ‘The Fallen Starboy!’ before crafting ‘Zap Goes the Legion!’ (Action #386) wherein female foe Uli Algor believes she has outthought and outfought the juvenile agents of justice. She forgot one crucial detail, however…

Then in #387 the creators delightfully added a touch of wry social commentary when the organisation had to downsize and lay off a Legionnaire for tax purposes after the government declares the team has ‘One Hero Too Many!’

Action #388 was an all-reprint Supergirl giant, but the now revenue-compliant Club of Heroes returned in #389 with ‘The Mystery Legionnaire!’ (by Cary Bates, Mortimer & Abel), explaining how robot dictator Klim is defeated by a hero who doesn’t exist, and Bridwell’s ‘The Tyrant and the Traitor’ (#390) reflects political turmoil of the 1970’s in a tale of guerrilla atrocity, destabilising civil war and covert regime change. The Legion Espionage Squad is tasked with doing dirty work, but even Chameleon Boy, Timber Wolf, Karate Kid, Brainiac 5 and Saturn Girl are out of their depth and only ‘The Ordeal of Element Lad!’ in the next issue saves the undercover unit from ignominious failure and certain death.

Action #392 (September 1970) temporarily ended the feature’s unbroken run with a low-key but gripping yarn from Bates, Mortimer & Abel including alternate dimensions and preposterous testing of ‘The Legionnaires that Never Were!’…

The Frantic Futurists weren’t gone too long. In 1971 a concerted push to revive them began with March-dated Superboy # 172 and ‘Brotherly Hate!’ by Bridwell & George Tuska. The sharp, smart yarn details the convoluted origins of twins Garth and Ayla Ranzz AKA Lightning Lad & Light Lass and their troubled relationship with older brother Mekt – the deadly outlaw Lightning Lord.

At the same time Adventure Comics #403 (April 1971) was released: an all-Legion reprint special which included new ‘Fashions from Fans’ by Bridwell, Ross Andru & Esposito as well as a comprehensive ‘Diagram of Legion Headquarters Complex’, included here for your delight and delectation…

Some of those fan-costumes – generally the skimpier ones designed by boys for the girl heroes – were adopted for ongoing backups appearing in Superboy. They continued the comeback with ‘Trust Me or Kill Me!’ (#173 by Bates & Tuska). Here, Superboy must devise a way to determine which Cosmic Boy is his true friend and which a magical duplicate made by malefic Mordru.

The origin of Invisible Kid and secrets of his powers are examined in #176 when a crook duplicates the boy genius’ fadeaway gifts in ‘Invisible Invader!’, whilst Bates, Tuska & Vince Colletta report on the ‘War of the Wraith-Mates!’ (#183) with energy entities renewing an eons-old war of the sexes after possessing Mon-El, Shadow Lass, Karate Kid and Princess Projectra.

In a tale by Bates. Superboy #184 hinted at days of greatness to come with ‘One Legionnaire Must Go!’ Here Matter-Eater Lad is framed and replaced by his own little brother, but the big advance was the inking of LSH fanatic Dave Cockrum over Murphy Anderson’s pencils. The neophyte artist would gradually transform the look, feel and fortunes of the Legion before moving to Marvel and doing exactly the same with an almost forgotten series entitled X-Men…

With Superboy #188’s Bates-scripted ‘Curse of the Blood-Crystals!’ (July 1972), Anderson began inking Cockrum, in the sixth stunning back-up tale of a now unstoppable Legion revival that would eventually lead to them taking over the entire comic book. This clever yarn of cross-&-double-cross finds a Legionnaire possessed by a magical booby-trap and forced to murder Superboy… but which of the two dozen heroes is actually the prospective killer?

Superboy #190 featured ‘Murder the Leader!’ as the Fatal Five attack during the election of a new Legion Commander. Rival candidates Saturn Girl and Mon-El must work together if either is to take the top job, after which this volume concludes with stunning thriller ‘Attack of the Sun-Scavenger!’ (Bates & Cockrum from #191). In a staggering burst of comics brilliance, manic solar scoundrel Dr. Regulus again attacks Sun Boy and his Legion comrades, using his own apparent death as key to ultimate victory…

The Legion of Super-Heroes is unquestionably one of the most beloved and bewildering creations in funnybook history and largely responsible for the growth of groundswell movements that became American Comics Fandom. Moreover, these scintillating and seductively addictive stories – as much as Julie Schwartz’s Justice League or Marvel’s Fantastic Four – fired the interest and imaginations of generations of and underpinned the industry we all know today.

If you love comics and haven’t read this stuff, you are the poorer for it and need to enrich your future days as soon as possible.
© 1968-1972, 2010 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Superman: The Third Kryptonian


By Kurt Busiek, Dwayne McDuffie, Fabian Nicieza, Rick Leonardi, Renato Guedes, José Wilson Magalhaés, Dan Green & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-1987-1 (TPB)

After interminable page counts and the preponderant never-ending angst of hyper-mega-ultra-braided multi-part cross-overs, it’s quite nice to pick up an – admittedly slim – endeavour of more modest means and intent: to wit, a book with a couple of stories that actually begin, occur and end.

Collecting Action Comics #847, Superman #668-670 and Superman Annual #13, this tome actually has three yarns to delight, beginning with Kurt Busiek, Rick Leonardi and Dan Green’s mini-epic wherein every survivor of lost Krypton on Earth, including Power Girl, Clark and Lois’ adopted son Chris (don’t fret, it’s all explained in the story) and even Krypto are targeted for destruction by brutal space pirate Amalak, hungry to take vengeance for the misdeeds of the long dead “Kryptonian Empire”.

Imagine how the irate rogue reacts upon discovering that – unbeknownst to all – an actual survivor of that long-dead galactic aggressor-state has been living secretly on Earth for years…

Good old-fashioned romp though it is, the real meat of this tale was an adjustment and rewriting of Kryptonian history for the post-Smallville/Superman Returns generation. As the disparate continuities of TV, Cinema and comic books were massaged closer to overarching homogeneity, the best of the old was retrofitted to the new. This is an uncomplicated adventure thriller with nostalgic overtones that has a lot to recommend it.

‘The Best Day’ (Busiek, Fabian Nicieza, Guedes & José Wilson Magalhaés) offers sheer delight, and beautiful execution. In a quiet moment, Superman and Supergirl take the Kent clan on a picnic to the stars where we get a chance to see beloved characters interact in joy and relaxation, as the skies of a million universes aren’t collapsing around their invulnerable ears. It’s a brave, rewarding return to old ways and I still want to see more of it.

So go no further than ‘Intermezzo’ (McDuffie and Guedes), another introspective segment sliced from a longer epic, short on punching but big on emotional wallop as Jonathan and Martha Kent share secrets and reveal close-held fears as their adopted son struggles off-camera with another “Never-Ending Battle.”

It’s such gentle moments and the emotional beats that give the best adventure fiction its edge, and this book has them in delightful quantities. This is the stuff that made Superman a legend, and in this anniversary year this collection is an ideal argument for stuff like this to stage a comeback.
© 2007, 2008 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.