Now This Is a Silly Villain

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



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

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

More about →

Random Cover of the Day: Mystery In Space #31

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

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

More about →

Random Cover of the Day: Phantom Stranger #6

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

More about →

Random Cover of the Day: House of Mystery #79

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

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

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

More about →

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!

More about →

The Crack of Doom

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


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

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



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



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







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



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

More Doom to Come!

More about →

The Silver Age Superman

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

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

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



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

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

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



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


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

More about →