The First Underground Comics?

DC was able to launch several series in the early 1960s featuring characters without super-powers. Sea Devils, Challengers of the Unknown, and Rip Hunter all had decent runs before giving up the ghost by the end of the decade. But there were several pilots whose chute failed to open, including this one.

Cave Carson was certainly given a chance to succeed; his tryouts spanned eight issues or about 200 pages. That's longer than some characters that did get their own mags, like the Hawk and the Dove or Anthro.

Cave's crew consisted initially of Bulldozer Smith, a former sandhog (underground tunnel expert) and Christie Madison, a geologist (yet another early 1960s DC female character in a non-traditional woman's occupation). Looking at that lineup, you can see the one item missing in the standard foursome as exemplified by the Fantastic Four, Rip Hunter and the Sea Devils. Smart guy (Cave), strong guy (Bulldozer), woman (Christie), but no kid. The team would expand in later stories to include Lena, a pet lemur, and Johnny Blake, Cave's swaggering rival for Christie's affections.

The story begins with Cave trapped below the surface of the Earth. Via a flashback, we learn that Cave had gone down there to investigate some mysterious occurrences. A giant metal tower and some train cars had been sucked down into the ground. He left his two assistants behind to finish work on the Mighty Mole:

Fantastic modes of transportation were pretty standard in the Silver Age, from the Batmobile to the Arrowcar to the Pogo Plane to the Metal Men's flying platform. Kids are fascinated by unusual vehicles and the Mighty Moles' likely prototype was the Hillman car, a 1960s amphibious craft:

Christie and Bulldozer have completed the Mole and bore into the ground looking for Cave, whom they find trapped under some freight cars. After rescuing him, they learn of the cause of the mysterious occurrences:

And from there, the story has them chased from the magnetic monster to a giant lizard to the lava monster shown on the cover, then back to the magnetic monster who destroys the lava monster before being defeated by Cave and the Mole:

The story is standard early 1960s DC, with monsters and more monsters; Bruno Premiani's art is the main redeeming feature. Jack Schiff was the editor for the first five (Brave & Bold) tryout issues, and the stories feature his steady recipe of monsters and aliens.

Things do improve a bit when the series was given further shots in Showcase #48, 49 and 52. There is some character development and hints of depth in this sequence from #48:

By this point Murray Boltinoff was the editor, with Lee Elias on the artwork and Bob Haney handling the plot and dialog. Although I am not a fan of Haney's work on the Brave and the Bold and Teen Titans, he does a decent job here of making the characters more three-dimensional. He adds what would appear to be a long-term villain here:

But although the series improved quite a bit under the new creative team, it was not a hit with the youngsters of the 1960s and save for a few cameo appearances, Cave Carson has largely vanished. I recommend the Showcase issues as worth reading.

Update: An anonymous commenter points to the Pellucidar series by Edgar Rice Burroughs, in which Abner Perry invents the Iron Mole, a craft that takes him to a world at the Earth's core. This is obviously the inspiration for the Mighty Mole, although the latter does have an amphibious quality that I cannot find in ERB's creation.

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Brave & Bold #57: DC's First Ambivalent Superhero

Up till this point, DC's superheroes had all pretty much relished their superpowers. And why not? Who wouldn't want to be able to zoom at super speed, or have a ring that obeys your every command, or shrink down to the size of an atom... provided, of course, that you could also be normal whenever desired.

Ben Grimm, aka the Thing from the Fantastic Four, changed all that. While he had extraordinary strength, his powers came with a curse: he looked like a pile of orange rocks 24-7. Granted, it's been done to death since, but in the early 1960s this was pretty revolutionary stuff. When the Thing was followed up by characters like the Hulk, Spiderman and the X-Men, it was clear that Marvel was onto something. Comics fans liked heroes with permanent problems, not just the temporary annoyance of a Mr Mxyzptlk or a brush with Red Kryptonite.

DC obviously took note and responded with Metamorpho. Rex Mason was a world-famous adventurer who traveled the globe. His employer was Simon Stagg, a wealthy, but unscrupulous tyrant, who also had a gorgeous daughter named Sapphire. Rex and Sapphire were engaged, much to the dismay of Stagg's brutish assistant, Java, an unfrozen caveman who was smitten with the young woman himself.

As the story begins, Rex is returning from a visit to the jungles of South America, where he was in search of the formula used by witch doctors to create their shrunken heads. He makes quite an entrance:

That turns out to be a gag he's pulled on Stagg and the mayor, who had planned a ceremony and speech to greet the famed traveler. Actually Mason had parachuted from the plane earlier and landed in Sapphire's convertible. When Stagg's goons order the pair back to the millionaire's mansion, they make the most of their time:

Cute bit, probably inspired by the James Bond flicks of the time. Stagg has a new assignment for Mason, one that will pay him enough for him to marry Sapphire:

However, when they locate the hidden pyramid, problems arise. At first, the pyramid glows red hot. Then later, after finding the Orb of Ra, Java turns on Rex:

When he recovers, Rex finds himself trapped:

After passing out from the heat, Rex is surprised to discover he's still alive, but dramatically changed:

He's still sealed inside the pyramid, but "a strange thought occurs to his confused brain" and he turns gaseous, seeping through the cracks to the outside.

Java has escaped in a backup plane. Rex quickly realizes that with his new powers he can fix his damaged machine:

In the next chapter, Mason appears to have been boning up on those chemical lessons, as he seeks his revenge on Java and Stagg:

When Stagg tries to shoot him, Rex learns he's invulnerable to bullets in his new form. But not invulnerable to something else:

He and Stagg reach an uneasy truce. Stagg will try to help him get back to his normal state, and Rex will not destroy his castle. There follows a couple pages where Stagg experiments on Metamorpho, which functions mostly to define his powers. He's virtually invulnerable (except for that Orb of Ra) and he can change into almost any element found in the human body.

But Stagg is unable to reverse the incredible change. Java goes nuts and tries to burn down the castle, but Rex saves Sapphire, whose feelings have not changed:

She suggests that he use his powers for good until he can be changed back. Meanwhile, Daddy has hidden the orb in a shark tank he conveniently keeps in another part of the castle.

Comments: Entertaining origin issue, enlivened quite a bit by Ramona Fradon's artwork (embellished by longtime Batman inker Charles Paris). The story was written by Bob Haney. Oddly enough, when DC came up with their next conflicted superhero, he had a very similar quadrifurcated appearance:

There was at least one significant difference between Metamorpho and the Thing. While both were appalled at their freaky-freak McAlien freak appearance, Ben was capable of being irascible even about other things, while Rex remained pretty much happy-go-lucky except about his appearance.

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A Small Tribute to Neal Adams--Brave & Bold

Neal Adams made his debut on Batman by doing covers, including the standing images of Batman and Robin atop the old covers on Batman #200. But his first real work on Batman came in Brave and Bold #79, and to say it was eye-popping to those of us who were used to Sheldon Moldoff would be putting it mildly. Check out this opening sequence:



That is perfect; the atmosphere, the angles, the witness discovered in the final panel. The story brings in Deadman, the character that Adams had worked on during the final issues of Strange Adventures before it became a reprint magazine, so there was another reason for him to do the issue.



Note the cute little sight gag there with Alfred and the dog.

Much like Dick Sprang, Adams used reversed camera angles between panels to create flow and action:



Indeed, at times he has so much action going on that the art not only breaks through the panel, it seems to rise up out of the page:



Another nice side-effect of Adams working on the Brave & Bold series is that we also saw his take on whatever guest star was appearing with Batman in that issue:







Including, improbably:



This story never made any sense; even as a teenager back in 1968 I snorted at the idea that Bruce Wayne was an adult back in WWII. Heck, my dad was 39 back then and he was still a sophomore in high school when the war ended, so that would put Bruce in his 40s. But still, if anybody ever asks you if Batman fought against the Nazis during WWII in Europe, the answer is yes:



In the next issue we got our first look at the new Green Arrow:



I previously talked about that issue here.

And when Deadman returned in B&B #86, Adams really went to town:





Just a beautiful issue. Unfortunately, that was basically it for Adams in Brave & Bold for awhile, but not to cry; the next story he drew for Batman was the classic, Secret of the Waiting Graves from Detective #395. But I'll have to cover that and some of the other Adams Silver Age in a future post.

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Single Issue Review: Brave and the Bold #69

Lord knows the Silver Age was not the best era for Batman, but even in the depths of that era he rarely appeared in a stinker quite as bad as this one. Note when reading this review that although the cover above is not exactly dynamic and thrilling, it's also completely bogus. The scene depicted on the cover never appears inside the comic book.

The story opens with residents of Gotham City getting quite an odd sight:



Now, it looks to me like if he twisted a little bit, he could get out of that, but apparently not. Commissioner Gordon is summoned and after a joke about how the Policemen's Ball is coming up, but it's not a masquerade, he asks how Batman got trapped. Batman explains that he had spring fever, and went for a drive in the country. After falling asleep in a field he awoke to find himself trapped.

They take him to the police lab, but the metal proves impervious to any efforts to remove the mechanical bat from Batman. So he asks them to contact Green Lantern, and meet him at dawn in the park. And he shuffles away. No, I am not kidding:



Bear in mind that they just transported him to the lab with a police escort, but now he's walking through Gotham alone? At night? Can we say convenient to the needs of the plot?

Fortunately nothing happens and the next morning GL cuts Batman free. Wow, that was pretty quick resolution of the story on page 5. But a few minutes later as GL flies away he spots Batman in the Whirly-Bat, who doesn't know anything about being trapped. So it was clearly a plot to get power from the power ring, which suggests that they are facing the Time Commander, a villain they had previously encountered in Brave & Bold #59 who used the same MO.

Indeed it is he, as we learn in the next sequence, where the Time Commander indulges himself in a little mumbo-jumbo monologue:



As names of dreaded things go, Cosmo is, shall we say, right up there with Shagg and Fin Fang Foom. Not exactly calculated to keep kids awake at night.

The Time Commander succeeds in bringing him back but there's just no gratitude these days:



It turns out that Cosmo has absorbed star power over the years, and he attacks the Time Commander with that, and old TC has to vamoose into a "temporary time plane", leaving Green Lantern and Batman to handle the problem of Cosmo.

They encounter Cosmo as he's tearing down an abandoned building with "emanations from his body". GL discovers that his power ring is useless against Cosmo as he's absorbed energy from the ring already. They observe that Cosmo pores through the rubble of the building as if he's looking for something. Batman calls the Police Department and learns that the former owner of the building was Carruthers (who was the scientist who created Cosmo).

Batman and GL find Carruther's diary in the rubble which gives Batman his next clue:



Now, note that Batman is in the Whirly Bat there. He dashes off to find Carruthers, who left note in his diary that he particularly liked this one nursing home. And Batman comes back again with Carruthers:



Okay, it would have been pretty gay to have Carruthers sitting on Batman's lap in the Whirly-Bat, but don't you think we are owed some explanation as to this heretofore unseen helicopter?

But it turns out that Carruthers isn't Carruthers, he's Batman and Batman is some guy from the nursing home, and the real Carruthers has regained his memory and arrives in an ambulance from the nursing home with a fluid that will (and does) destroy Cosmo. And we get the wrap-up at the end:



Comments: Painful. Just painful. This was while the Batman TV show was in full swing--note the "Go-Go Chex" on the cover--and while most of the Batman-related comics during that era were mediocre, Brave and Bold managed to take the level of suckage to new lows.

There are many hideous issues of Brave and Bold around this time and it's not hard to figure out the culprit. There are two issues of B&B from 1965-1968 that aren't jaw-dropping bad, and those are the two Black Canary/Starman issues, the only issues that Bob Haney didn't write. You can make an argument for the Metamorpho tryouts being less horrific than most thanks to Ramona Fradon's style, but remember that Haney around 1968 had Neal Adams doing his stories and they still stank on ice (but looked marvelous).

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Lessons in Bad Characterization: Brave & Bold #64

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

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

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

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

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



She faints and they recognize each other:



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

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



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



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

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

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



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

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