Our Army At War #104

In honor of Veteran's Day, I thought I'd pull out one of my older war comics (March 1961). As I have discussed in the past, Sgt. Rock was the undisputed star of Our Army at War; eventually the comic was renamed after him. No surprise, the crusty old Sarge isn't much on dames:

His men speculate that perhaps he'll feel different when he falls for a girl, but others doubt that he'll ever love anything more than his sub-machine gun. Later, the kid mooning over the photo nearly gets killed trying to win a medal for his Millie; only Rock's quick thinking saves the youngster.

Then, in the midst of a battle, Rock spots a live grenade in the trench with him and the guys. He rips off his helmet and covers the "potato masher". When he regains consciousness:

Pleased to meet you Nurse Jane, but don't call me 'Honey'. Turns out that the enemy has made a breakthrough and the hospital he's in is now in German-controlled territory. The two of them evacuate the hospital, and although Rock insists that he's headed back to the front lines, Nurse Jane isn't leaving him. And amusingly, as she outranks him, he cannot insist. Rock holds off the enemy with her help until Easy Company makes it there. And then Sarge really gets embarrassed:

Comments: A fun little story with terrific characterization for Nurse Jane. I don't know if she ever returned, but I'd love to see her again. Story by Kanigher; as usual, the terrific artwork is by Kubert.

Incidentally, Nerdy Bird has the latest on the long-rumored Sgt Rock film, which apparently is not going to be set during World War II. I concur with her assessment:

I'm no Sgt. Rock expert but isn't that like, oh I don't know, the entire point of the character?

The second story, My Rival, the Jet, tells of an odd romantic triangle, between Army nurse Sally Bell, her boyfriend Bill Gage (a Korean War aviator), and his plane, (named by its previous pilot) Suzie. Sally is jeaolous of the plane and hopes for it to be destroyed while sparing Bill's life. But when word comes that Suzie's been hit, Sally prays for it to save Bill. But when it does, she's still upset:

But when Bill's in danger again, Sally prays that Suzie will bring him back safely. And in the end:

Comments: The rivalry between Sally and Suzie is a little silly, but I found the ending very effective (if predictable). GCD credits the script to Bob Haney and the artwork to Irv Novick.

The third story is Combat Racket. A rookie infantryman can't stand the noises of war, but his Sarge has some advice:

While on patrol, they hear the sound of a gun bolt behind them, and firing at the sound, they kill two snipers. Then they hear the hissing of two "potato mashers" (grenades), and bat them away with the butts of their rifles. The Sarge puts his ear to the ground and hears the rumble of an approaching tank. Then they duck as a mortar shell whistles overhead. And in the end:

Comments: A simple and very effective little story by Hank Chapman, with art by Russ Heath.

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Book Review: Boys of Steel

I recently received an email from Marc Tyler Nobleman, the author of this book, and tracked down a copy of Boys of Steel at my local public library.

The book tells the story of Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster's effort to get publishers to accept their Superman character. It's aimed at youngsters from 8 years old and up (although it is suitable to be read to even younger children), but the book entertained and charmed this middle-aged comics fan.

Nobleman creates sympathy for Siegel right from the first page, where we learn that Jerry preferred being at home, with his friends, rather than in high school. Siegel's "friends" were the pulp heroes of his time, like Tarzan and Doc Savage. Eventually he finds another buddy who shares his interest in those types of adventure stories, an aspiring artist named Joe Shuster.

The idea for Superman came to Siegel one night while tossing and turning in bed. He got up to write down some of his thoughts, and the next morning dashed over to Shuster, who shared his excitement in the character. But publishers turned out to be less enthusiastic, and it was only after the S&S boys became established in the comics industry (creating characters like Slam Bradley and Dr Occult) that the company that would become DC published Superman in its first issue of Action Comics. And the rest, as they say, is history, with Superman rocketing to stardom in comics, newspaper strips, cartoons, radio, TV and the movies.

Nobleman has an engaging writing style that makes the book a quick read and he clearly loves his topic. Each page features the retro-30's-style illustrations of Ross MacDonald, which supplement the text perfectly. This is a beautiful book that gives an inspiring message to kids that success may not come easy, but it does come with diligence and persistence. At the end, there are three pages of text only that give the story behind the story, detailing the longstanding efforts by Siegel and Shuster (and their heirs) to retrieve the rights to the character.

Although I was familiar with much of the background, the book did provide some surprises. Siegel's father died of a heart attack while being robbed at his clothing store. This created an additional motivation for Jerry to create a hero who would fight crime and injustice.

Boys of Steel has received numerous positive reviews and awards, which you can see at Nobleman's blog. It is an American Library Association Notable Children's Book for 2009 and A Junior Library Guild Selection. I cannot recommend this book highly enough. If you'd like to buy it (the book would make a great Christmas gift), consider getting it from my Amazon store:



Marc mentions that he is currently working on a similar biography of Bill Finger, the writer who co-created Batman. I look forward to that volume with great anticipation!

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Lois Lane #73

This cover attracted attention due to Craig Yoe's recent book on (Superman co-creator) Joe Shuster's rather R-rated cartoons, and so I thought I would go through the issue.



As the story begins, the US is sending out an unmanned probe outside the solar system. It lands on another world and gathers samples of the soil, atmosphere, and vegetation. But it encounters an alien life form, who hitches a ride on the vehicle as it heads back to Earth:

As the probe returns, Lois and Lana are battling for a scoop. Since Lana's a TV reporter, her story will go out over the airwaves before Lois can even file her copy But Lois decides to sneak closer to the craft to get a photo while it's being decontaminated, a process that will take a few hours, so that she can beat Lana to the story. Unfortunately for her, the alien being chooses this moment to exit the craft:

Using Lois' body, the alien steals a jeep and heads for a nearby lake, where he does some quick chemistry:

When poured into the lake, the chemicals provide fuel to strengthen the alien's force power. However at that moment, the police arrive in search of the stolen jeep, so the alien drives higher into the mountains to escape. But the altitude has an unexpected side effect, as it weakens the alien and he is forced to exit Lois' body. The police give Lois an alibi:

The alien follows Lois as she heads back to the Planet to develop her film. Realizing that she might have caught him in her photo, he takes control of a nearby reporter:

Clark quickly destroys the film, ruining Lois' scoop. Lois chalks this up to professional jealousy, but for some reason does not remain angry at him for long. Meanwhile, Jimmy is having trouble landing the flying newsroom, and attempts to summon Superman with his signal watch. While the alien can hear the signal, he doesn't know what to do, and so the helicopter collides with the building. Annoyed at the sound, he takes the watch from Jimmy's hand and shuts it off.

Perry assigns Clark to judge a beauty pageant for one of the Planet's advertisers, but the alien, not knowing what Earth standards of beauty are, makes a funny mistake:

Pretending to be in love with Clark, Lois kisses him, but surreptitiously picks his pocket and finds the signal watch. Say what? Why would she pick his pocket to find out why he's acting so strangely? The alien pretends to lose his footing and falls off a cliff into the sea, intending to kill Clark and take over another body. But when he crashes onto the rocks below he discovers that Clark's really invulnerable and has a different uniform underneath. Lois uses the signal watch to call Superman and the alien responds:

But while flying Lois back to the Planet, the alien goes too high and conks out again, releasing Superman from his control. Superman mentions to Lois that he blacked out and remembering her own experience, she deduces what has happened. Superman does some research on demonic possession and we get the explanation for the cover:

As the alien enters the Fortress, he sees that weird scene. The puppet apparently comes to life:

But it's all a trick to convince the alien to take over the puppet's body, where he can be trapped. Superman quickly beams the alien and the puppet into the Phantom Zone.

Comments: Sweet mother of mercy, this is a wacky story! It's pretty obvious that this was one of those issues where Weisinger came up with a cover idea, and then told Leo Dorfman to create a story based on it. As is quite common with these crazy puzzle covers, the answer to the riddle is "They did it to fool an alien."

The backup story is Lois Lane's Fairy Godmother. While volunteering at a local hospital, Lois encounters the title character (also known as Dody), who displays astonishing magical powers:

Magical powers? Why do I get the sneaking suspicion this is not a fairy godmother, but someone whose name begins with M and has no vowels?

After dinner at Lois' apartment, where the fairy godmother provides the food, we see that the girl reporter is on the same wavelength as she suggests a game of Scrabble. But the fairy godmother is having none of that, and suggests that Lois and Superman go out on the town. She changes Lois into an elegant gown and forces Superman to arrive at the door:

Superman heads back to his lecture, while Lois quarrels with Dody. Some very positive characterization here:

The next day, Superman has completed the new stadium for Metropolis, but when he uses his heat vision to inscribe a plaque dedicating the stadium to the local Olympic heroes, Dody forces him to write "Superman loves Lois Lane" instead. This infuriates the Man of Steel, who comes to the logical if erroneous conclusion that the girl reporter was behind it all.

The next day, Dody causes Superman and Lois to become manacled together, and because the effect is magical, Supes is unable to separate them. He is convinced she did this to learn his secrets so she could blackmail him into marrying her. But Lois comes up with a good solution; she drinks some of Jimmy Olsen's Elastic Lad serum in order to slip out of the handcuffs. Later, she finally convinces Dody to play some Scrabble:

Okay, so it wasn't Mxyzptlk himself, but his girlfriend. There is an overly long explanation as to why she did it, which essentially is that she hoped to get Mxy to marry her. Superman apologizes for doubting Lois:

And of course she gets her wish even without magic.

Comments: A cute, if predictable story, again written by Dorfman. As with the opening story, the artwork is by the always wonderful Kurt Schaffenberger, one of my favorite artists of the Silver Age.

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Fantastic Four Fridays: Mr Miracle

One of the biggest strengths of the Marvel Silver Age was the willingness of Stan and his artists to adapt and change their characters. However, almost every strength comes with a weakness, and in Marvel's case, it was that their series almost all seemed to tread water for a few issues before finding their footing, to mix a few metaphors.

So it is with this issue. Obviously, Stan had gotten enough feedback to know that he had to give his characters more recognizable uniforms, and so:

And yet, the story itself is just okay. To begin with, the villain is introduced by a very cliched method; he's performing an act in front of an entranced crowd at a packed nightclub, which includes Reed, Sue, Ben and Johnny. Granted, Stan and Jack pull it off with some panache:

But I could point you to a half dozen or more stories that include the same wheeze. Given that the Miracle Man (as he bills himself) is a wild success, we get into almost the same situation as I talked about earlier this week: Couldn't he make more money performing his act than being a crook? But no:

We get the first cutaway of the FF headquarters:

My blog-buddy Mark Engblom used to refer to these diagrams as "random coolness" and I cannot agree more. Almost all the teams had something like this; the first ones I can remember are the Batcave schematics in the 1940s.
We learn why the Miracle Man was not willing to settle for just being a well-paid entertainer:

It's the difference between having your "crib" featured on MTV and being the ruler of all you survey.
Reed almost stops the villain, but he gets beaned by a brick hurled by the Miracle Man, who's not above stooping to such cheap methods. Reed comes off as a Batman clone here:

Although why Mr Fantastic is interacting with a police commissioner about a guy who's threatening to take over the whole blamed planet is not explained.

They have another battle with the Miracle Man, who manages to get away, but is being shadowed by the Invisible Girl. Inevitably, the FF have another one of their regular internal squabbles:

Everybody had the hots for Sue Storm in the 1960s; there's even a Spiderman story with that as a subplot. The Miracle Man discovers she's with him and forces her to summon the rest of the FF. Interestingly, despite the constant bickering between Reed and Ben, note this scene:

Very positive characterization for the Thing. Thumbs way up on that; extra good characterization is rare enough in the Silver Age that it deserves mention. Johnny blinds the Miracle Man temporarily, and his powers are abated. Reed explains:

But Ben is furious that Johnny gets the credit for eliminating the menace of the Miracle Man, and in the ensuing brouhaha, Johnny quits the FF:

What can we do if he decides to turn against us? My first suggestion would be to have a firehose and a pail of sand ready, since that's what most crooks do when faced with the Human Torch.
Comments: Good story, mediocre villain. But the FF was about to really hit its stride in the next few issues. Be here next Friday for the incredible return of the Sub-Mariner!

Incidentally, I should mention that Aaron over at Silver Age Gold is doing a similar series to this, going through the entire SA Thor series. Worth the read!

If you'd like to read these stories, I recommend:


Incidentally, thanks very much to whoever made the first purchases from my Amazon store; it was quite a thrill!

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Doom Patrol #98

As the story begins, the Chief summons the Doom Patrol to his office to announce that he is disbanding the team. His hope was that he could remold the three of them into a team of heroes that the world would admire and respect. But instead they are still looked upon as freaks and outcasts. When Cliff mentions the lives they've saved and the criminals they've locked up:

But the trio has no intention of disbanding no matter what the Chief decides, so they create their own hideaway, shown here:

But they don't realize that the Chief fired them because he had only ten days left to live, reasoning that their anger at him would inspire them to show him wrong. We get our first look at the villain of the piece here:

That's a pretty ugly costume. The 103 apparently refers to the number of elements in the periodic table (at the time, although apparently we're now up to 118). Mr 103 turns out to have the ability to change parts of his body into any element. As you can probably guess, this gives the opportunity for lots of chemistry information to be shoehorned into the story:

The DP goes back to the Chief to see if he can give them a lead on the identity of Mr 103, and discovers him near death. But he is able to give them a ray that will freeze the criminal no matter what element he changes into. And they force the Element Man to rescue the Chief from his fatal disease.

Comments: Entertaining story, and good artwork; the main negative is that the villain is a bit on the trite side. It also makes me wonder if we'll ever see that backup headquarters again.

The second story is about Negative Man's attempt to prevent a nuclear war. Some terrorists have hidden four nukes in the US and Russia.

But the last bomb explodes and the only hope is for the President to get on the "hot line" to the USSR. But there is a break in the cable, and only Negative Man can repair it:

Comments: Kind of a filler story, with most of the Doom Patrol sitting around doing nothing but watching. We are never told who the mysterious terrorists are or for whom they are working. It's notable mostly for featuring Bob Brown artwork, rather than the usual Bruno Premiani.

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Debate Toss-Up: Should the Silver Age Villains Have Simply Patented Their Inventions?

This came up in the comments on the last post and it's absolutely a perfect argument, especially as phrased by two of the commenters. Jim noted:

Say what you like about the Rogues -- they were fast learners. None of them were scientists by training; just about every one of them started out as an ordinary crook who'd stumbled on a gimmick (often by accident); yet by their second appearance they'd not only mastered their technology but made some truly impressive advances in it.

Just to take one example: In his first appearance, Captain Boomerang was a thief who used boomerangs to snag necklaces and knock out the Flash from behind. When he next appears, he's spent his time in prison inventing a TIME-TRAVELING BOOMERANG.

Makes you wonder why they didn't just make a fortune by patenting their inventions.

But Blaze countered with:

They probably stole their technological improvements as well. Even if we're seeing the inside of the villain's head (I so miss thought bubbles), these sociopaths no doubt lie even to themselves.

After all, this is the Silver Age, when Lois Lane (and probably Iris West...as I said earlier, I'm not Flash scholar) would be sent down to interview Professor Potter on his new time machine. Not in a "stop the presses, someone has invented time travel" hysteria, but in a "it'll make a good lead for the science section" all in a day's work tone.

So, either villains like Boomerang stole the work of scientists like Potter or building a time machine in that world is like inventing a more efficient vacuum cleaner.

Now that is a very interesting argument. I will admit that I have always been in the "Jim" corner in the past on this; I have pointed out quite often that many of the inventions of crooks have been so good that one ponders in vain as to why they would not have simply made their fortune with it.

And yet Blaze offers the perfect argument against this; if we accept the Silver Age world why would we think these inventions would be staggeringly valuable? What I find interesting about that argument is that it accepts much of the conceit of the Silver Age--the invention of time traveling machines, for example--without the implied pulling of that concept into our own world.

And that is very intriguing. Would a time-travel machine be as valuable in the DC universe of the Silver Age, with the Atom's Time Pool, Superman's twisting, Batman's friend Carter Nichols, and the Cosmic Treadmill, as it is to our eyes?

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Showcase #8

This was the great unknown comic. DC reprinted stories like crazy in the 1960s and 1970s, especially Flash Comics, which joined their annuals rotation in 1963. And yet somehow the two stories in this issue were not reprinted until the 1990s, although one of them featured the first appearance of Captain Cold, one of the more significant villains in Flash's Rogue's Gallery. (Correction: As pointed out in the comments by Robert McKinney, DC reprinted the Captain Cold appearance in Limited Collector's Edition #C-39 in 1975.)

Reading it makes it pretty obvious why Julius Schwartz and DC's various reprint editors kept the issue under wraps during the 1960s. The first story, Secret of the Empty Box, while clever, has some obvious problems with the Silver Age Flash. It starts off with Barry late (as usual) for a date with Iris. But he's got a good excuse; a small girl has lost her ring down a storm drain:

Okay, given that it became accepted that the Flash could vibrate his way through anything (including dimensions), that's problematic. The story itself features three magician brothers whom the Flash defeats one at a time as they pop out of the Empty Box of the title:

The story has some interesting aspects, but there's also considerable DC silliness. For example, at one point Barry decides to change into his secret identity of the Flash in one of those old-fashioned "photograph yourself" booths. The sleazy owner thinks he's gotten the golden ring with Flash's secret identity, but:

Uh, if you can change faster than 1/100,000th of a second, why bother ducking into a booth?

The second story, is the Coldest Man on Earth, definitely one of those stories that I craved in the 1960s. Captain Cold was a strong contender for best Flash villain in the Silver Age. I preferred the Reverse Flash, but you could argue that CC was Dr Octopus to Professor Zoom's Green Goblin; the villain who seemed like the top enemy as the Silver Age ended.

Captain Cold pulls off a daring robbery in broad daylight:

The Flash attempts to stop him, but:

In a flashback, we learn that Len Snart was an ambitious criminal who searched for a way to defeat the Flash. This was helpfully supplied by a scientific magazine:

And when he accidentally invents a cold ray, we get this amusing moment:

I absolutely love the idea of the villain trying out nicknames for himself. Further experiments reveal to Captain Cold that he can create illusions from his ray gun, which he uses against the Flash:

But:

And of course, the Flash ends the fight shortly thereafter.

Comments: The first appearance of Captain Cold demonstrates nothing of the characteristic he became noted for in the Silver Age: his desire to impress women. It's another significant negative to the story.

However, there is another three-page story in that issue, that I suspect will not see the light of day again. Not that it's a bad story by any means, it's just not part of the Flash saga. The story is entitled, "The Race of Wheel and Keel," and tells of a race:

So, New York to SF around South America versus St. Louis to SF through "Indian Country," is the basic premise. As you would expect, there are issues:

But eventually the stagecoach defeated the ship anyway, establishing the need for transcontinental travel rather than going around South America. The protagonist of the story is John Butterfield. Despite a somewhat less adventurous life than shown in this story, he did establish the companies that became American Express and Wells Fargo.

Overall, I can see why Showcase #8 remained under wraps for so long. Although the stories are not terrible by any means, they are inconvenient in several ways, since they reveal the way Schwartz and his writers were still experimenting with the character when this issue came out (in May-June 1957).

The stories in Showcase #8 and many other Flash tales are reprinted in:

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