Some More Continuity Examples from DC

DC could be maddening about this; for example, I can show you at least a half dozen stories about how Clark Kent/Superman met Perry White, each of which contradicts the other five. But at the same time, there were stories that legitimately referred to prior issues.

For example, in Adventure #209, Smallville celebrates Superboy Week, with parades and speeches and tributes to Superboy, including this one:

So I looked up "The Giant Who Stalked Smallville" and sure enough a story by that name featuring similar action to that shown above had appeared three years earlier, in Superboy #21:

In Adventure #211, Superboy has an interesting dream about his future life as Superman. In the dream (where he has become a museum curator), he meets an inquisitive reporter for the Daily Planet named Lois Lane. The writer highlights how amazing it is that his dream correctly predicts this part of the future:

At the end of the story, Clark realizes that there is a good explanation as to how his dream predicted Lois' career as a reporter:

And as it happens, there was an earlier story where Lois and Clark had met (although the circumstances are slightly different than indicated):


I talked about some other continuity examples in the Golden Age of Batman last year.

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Martian Manhunter's Powers

It was noted in a recent post at Comics Should Be Good that the Martian Manhunter's powers were quite extraordinary and that they kept growing as needed by the plots. So here's a look at what J'onn J'onnz could do.

We learn about his first power in the very first panel featuring him:

He can change his appearance at will:

His mind over matter ability comes in handy:


Two powers are hinted at here, but not stated:

He can make his body insubstantial, and turn invisible. Of course, you can argue that the invisibility power is simply a use of his ability to change his appearance. Making his body insubstantial is a power that has many applications in the stories. For example, he often uses it to walk through walls or to let bullets pass through him.

This power is a bit problematic:

Note that he is not just seeing into the future, as the text states. He's seeing into a future that no longer exists. Indeed, in the story, Jones has to intervene to make that future come true.

Here's one that I'm going to call foul on:

Martian molecular hypnosis? That's really just mind over matter, as Jones admits in a later panel.

There are numerous other examples of the writers using ridiculously convoluted language to describe his powers, when really they are just applications of some of the abilities already discussed. For example:

Retracing thought processes is just an application of mind-reading.

Of course, you can make similar arguments about a lot of the powers, so it can get a little arbitrary. For example:

Is he flying? Or just using an application of his mind over matter ability? I'll go with flying here, but obviously that's a judgment call.

Here's a pretty straight-forward power:


The first of his awesome eye-powers makes its appearance:


Figuring out what to call some of the powers can be tricky. I guess we should call this one "near-invulnerability":

And this probably qualifies as microscopic vision:

We learn a little bit more about the source of J'onn's powers here:

Here's a power that didn't get used often:

But if he can teleport himself anywhere in the world, couldn't he also teleport himself back to Mars?

Another judgment call:

He can change his size, and in this case, I don't think from the context that it's just changing his appearance.

This one's really complicated:

Nullifying the Earth's gravity sounds like flying, doesn't it? Still, walking on the water implies something a little different, and it's such a cool and unique power that I can't resist including it in the list.

That's it for the first ten stories (Detective 225-234). I will return to this post and add more powers over time.

Here's the list so far: Mind-reading, changing his appearance at will, mind over matter, making his body insubstantial, invisibility, the ability to see possible futures, flying, super-sensitive hearing, X-ray vision, near-invulnerability, microscopic vision, teleportation, changing his size and walking on water.

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Frew 1143: The Devil's Library (Part 1)

Writer: Claes Reimerthi

Artist: Joan Boix

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Scanned & edited  by "Laki"

Courtesy: Kit walker 

All credits go to both friends.

Fantomet Cover:

Fantomet #5 - 1996 (Nov)

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Silly Panel Saturday

You gotta love a gang that's so superstitious they have to remind themselves what not to do. And yes, the Martian Manhunter uses their fears against them.

Inspired by this post at Comics Should Be Good.

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Thank You For Not Smoking

You can't help thinking that the Martian Manhunter would have a much easier time of it in today's virtually smoke-free society than back in the puff-a-holic 1950s:

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Super Swipe #9: Space Circus

Up till now, all the swipes I have covered involve stories updated for either Superboy or Superman. But here's one where a Superboy tale was converted into a problem for his adult counterpart:


In both stories, a circus advertising itself as being from another world sets up on the outskirts of town (Smallville and Metropolis, respectively). Both circuses require coins instead of bills:


The updated version does have one of my favorite goofy Silver Age panels:

In each case, Kal El prevents a disaster from occurring, resulting in a surprising offer:


But the circus owner won't take no for an answer, and sics some of his monsters against the Lad/Man of Steel. At first he is able to defeat them, but:


Neither beast can beat Supes, but he cannot beat them either. It looks like a stalemate, but the circus owner threatens to loose the monster on the nearby town. So Superboy/Superman agree to join the circus reluctantly, but warn that they will leave if they can figure out away to defeat their nemesis. Which they shortly do:


Incidentally, these stories fit Weisinger's seven year pattern nearly precisely with Adventure #198 coming out in March of 1954, while Superman #145 carried a cover date of May 1961.

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A Taste of Moronica

This one's a little out of my normal bailiwick, being published in 1952, but I just read this story and found it hilarious. ACG briefly came out with a comic called Dizzy Dames (subtitled Screwballs in Skirts). Nowadays, of course, it would be decried as sexist, but was it back then? Remember, this was the era where comedy duos relied on one dimwit and one straight-man. Were Burns and Allen sexist, or I Love Lucy? And of course it was not uncommon for the shoe to be placed on the other foot; the Honeymooners is a classic example of a sensible wife exasperated with her buffoonish hubby.

Anyway, I loved this story and had to share it with you. Any idea who the artist is? His work is deceptively simple but very expressive.

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