Retro Comics are Awesome

[andersonh1]

The Flash #110
December 1959-January 1960

Challenge of the Weather Wizard!
Another Flash villain debuts as we move into the 1960s. Barry is working hard not to be late for his dates with Iris, having agreed to be on time a dozen times in a row, when he has to deal with a localized rainstorm on a bright sunny day. Flash nearly captures the man who is causing the rain and shooting lightning at him, but a thick fog the man creates allows his escape. Flash learns from a U.S. Marshall that's been tracking this criminal that this is Mark Mardon, now calling himself the Weather Wizard. Mardon is an escaped convict who adopted his deceased brother's weather control research for criminal use. Flash manages to melt a glacier that the Wizard has sent towards the city, only to turn it into a flood which he also has to stop. He finally manages to capture Mardon and put him in jail, revealing that he had worked out that Mardon was going after the officers who had arrested him, one by one.

Barry makes his date with Iris right on time, only to realize he forgot to change out of his Flash costume.... and the story never resolves this! That's where it ends. Does Iris realize the truth? Does Flash talk his way out of his gaffe? We'll never know.

Meet Kid Flash!
Suppose we call you Kid Flash - The Fastest Boy Alive!

I can never quite decide if my favorite Flash is Jay Garrick or Wally West. Either way, I'm glad to see either one make an appearance in this book, and here we have Wally's very first story, as Iris brings her nephew to visit Barry in the hope that Barry can introduce Wally to the Flash. Barry comes up with a story that a spare room in his apartment (with a private lab just like his police laboratory, apparently) is one that the Flash uses, and he might just be in there! When Wally goes to take a look, Barry zips inside at super speed and puts on his Flash act. While telling Wally about the accident that gave him his speed, the exact same thing happens to Wally... a lightning bolt comes through the window and splashes a bunch of chemicals on him, leading the astonished Barry to wonder if he now has the same speed. The two test it out, and Wally is indeed just as fast as the Flash. Barry gives him a lecture on the responsibility of such a gift, and he gives him a miniature version of the ring and costume, and he comes up with the name Kid Flash, which Wally enthusiastically approves.

Barry has to head to work, so he leaves Wally alone to test his speed. But then Wally hears a radio report about dangerous animals escaping from the zoo, and taking Barry's lecture about responsibility to heart, he heads there to clean up the mess and get people out of harm's way. Barry gets to the zoo just in time to see Wally wrap things up and is proud of him. When it's time for Wally to leave, Iris asks him about Flash's identity, but Wally says that's a secret between him and "Mr. Flash", while Barry smiles in the background.

The enormous coincidence of Barry and Wally gaining speed in exactly the same way is something I think writers have struggled to explain ever since, and I have to admit that it could have been handled better. Barry's "he's in the other room" routine clearly only worked because Wally's a kid, but it's fun to watch. Barry is a serious science nerd if he has a lab at work and at home. And was it really wise to leave a newly empowered super speed child all by himself with no supervision? Don't get me wrong though, I can pick holes in this story, as I probably could with most of these, but I enjoyed it. I need to go read "Born to Run", Mark Waid's take on this origin story and compare the two. It's good to see Wally West taking the lead and solving problems by himself from day one. He's no helpless sidekick, he will become a fully formed character in his own right and it's good to get in at the ground floor.

[andersonh1]

When your story is "the Flash punching clouds", you know we've hit the height of Silver Age craziness. Wow....

The Flash #111
February-March 1960

Invasion of the Cloud Creatures!
Science nerd Barry Allen takes Iris to a lecture on "The Earth Below Us!" by Dr. Wiley Summers, an old college classmate of his. Summers relates a story of examining a volcano when he saw strange cloud creatures and had a sense of "terrible evil". The creatures don't show up as anything but ordinary clouds on the photos he took. When he consulted the authorities, no one believed him, so he is using his lecture tour to warn anyone who will listen. Iris thinks the whole story is absurd, but the creatures choose that exact moment to attack, deciding that all previous efforts to wipe out humanity have failed, so they're going to war, shooting lightning and destroying military equipment, while using sonics to shatter city buildings. The Flash goes after the creatures, attempting to attack them from the ground with a cyclone, but they just go higher and use that same technique to destroy more buildings.

Now I can buy into a lot of craziness in these stories since they star a man who can run up to the speed of light, but every now and then they push things just a bit too far. It's great that Barry is observant and thinks he's spotted a possible weakness in the creatures, and that he's determined to test that out. But there's no way he can go cloud hopping, even at super speed. I just can't buy into that. But that's what he does. If you've ever wanted to see the Flash punch out evil cloud creatures, this is the story for you. And then he falls and manages not to hit the ground at a lethal speed by using his speed to gain purchase on the air so he can control his landing. And I just keep thinking "The Flash can't do that... or that... or that." And to top it all off, Iris turns Barry down for a date, because she has a date with Dr. Summers. Iris, you jerk. At least lie about why you can't go out with Barry!

This was one crazy story, which I thought had a nice foreboding opening and threat, only it was all probably a mistake to give the Flash an enemy outside his element, forcing the writer to come up with a solution that stretches even the comic-book logic of the Flash beyond the breaking point.

The Challenge of the Crimson Crows!
I'm glad to see that Wally is using his super-speed to help others -- and not for his own gain! It proves he's the right boy to be my protege!

Wally's first solo story sees him wake up back home in Blue Valley, thinking his speed and his adventure with the Flash all had to have been a dream. But when he's late to school and has to run for it, and shifts into super speed, he realizes it was all real, and he still has the ring with the costume that Flash gave him. When he uses his speed to win a basketball game, he realizes he will have to be more careful in future. The rest of the story involves Wally dealing with the problem of a gang that some of his friends from school are involved with, but this being a Silver Age comic, the "Crimson Crows" aren't selling drugs or involved with human trafficking, they play "chicken" on their bikes and fight with a rival gang, planning to destroy their clubhouse. During the fight, a fire starts in the rival gang's clubhouse, which Wally puts out as Kid Flash. This scares the gangs who "change their club into athletic groups". Wally writes a letter to let Flash know what's been happening, then simply runs it across the country and leaves it on Barry's windowsill.

It's a small beginning for Wally West, but youth gangs and peer pressure, plus a brief scene where Wally uses his powers for personal gain only to correct himself all add up to a decent solo adventure for Kid Flash, even in a tame Silver Age story. I liked it, and it's good to see Wally as a lead character, even at this early date.

[andersonh1]

The Flash #112
April-May 1960

The Mystery of the Elongated Man!
To no one's surprise, given the title of the story, this is the debut issue for Ralph Dibny, the Elongated Man. It's interesting to see that the Flash now has a second fellow super-hero as a supporting character in his book, though in this initial appearance, Flash thinks Elongated Man could be a criminal, and certainly thinks of him as a rival, particularly when the ever fickle Iris warns Barry that Elongated Man could beat Flash for Man of the Year. Ralph's origin involves a fascination with people in circuses who put on a stretching act, and he wants to stretch as well. He figures out that common element is a drink they all like called "Gingold Soda Water". Ralph isolates the main ingredient, gulps it down undiluted and though at first he thinks he's failed, he finds he is able to stretch his limbs and torso. It's more than a little bizarre to think that this was Ralph's life long ambition, but it takes all kinds.So he's a self-made superhero now, powered by a substance he has to presumably continue to consume to maintain his abilities. At first Flash captures him, accusing him of theft, but Ralph was also after the thieves, and the two clear the air and become friends.

I'm not the biggest Elongated Man fan, but I enjoy the fact that he, like Flash, enjoys the life of being a superhero. There's no angst here, and while Barry got his powers by accident, Ralph actively sought his out and kept looking until he succeeded. One of the appeals of this era is heroes who enjoy being heroes, so despite the undeniably strange life goal of wanting to be stretchy, we can add Ralph to that list.

Danger on Wheels!
What?! You're going to give the materials here several years' use -- in a couple of minutes!?

It's almost time for summer vacation, and Wally West is listening to his teacher, Linda Grant, tell the class about the new school they'll be in next fall. Wally notices that Ms. Grant is not her usual cheerful self, and when he asks her, she tearfully tells him that her fiance Ralph Parker's construction company was outbid by an out-of-town company, Big Ace, for the construction of the new school. Wally wishes he could help, and after he passes the construction site, he runs across two thugs messing with Ralph Parker. He switches to Kid Flash and helps run them off. Parker has no idea who they were. There's a side plot involving go-karts that exists just to fill a page or two (and give the story a title which has little relevance to the main plot), before Parker wonders if the out of town company is using substandard materials. He and Kid Flash investigate, and sure enough, it's the old "cheap materials" scam that Superman had trouble with back in the 30s and 40s. Big Ace loses the contract and Parker gains it, with the kids and Kid Flash pitching in to finish the school. Kids wanting to have anything to do with school may be the most impossible to swallow event in any of these stories!!

[andersonh1]

The Flash #113
June-July 1960

Danger in the Air!
I'm not sure I've read a book that gives us so many crazy new villains this quickly, month after month. This issue debuts the Trickster, another crazy costumed thief with a gimmick for the Flash to contend with. The Trickster can seemingly run on air and starts the issue by robbing an airplane. Meanwhile Iris is griping yet again about Barry being late, when she notes in the paper that Flash has challenged the Trickster. I like to see the Flash trying to draw his enemies out rather than just searching the city for them, nice change of tactics here. It works, but Trickster uses sneezing powder to temporarily stall Flash, then escapes by running off the edge of a cliff where Flash can't follow.

The story then shifts to the origin of the Trickster, James Jesse, a highwire circus performer who is obsessed with Jesse James rather than practicing his act. Jesse is afraid of being on the wire, and over time invented and perfected shoes that can keep him in the air via jets of compressed air. So it's another case of technology making the crook, like Captain Cold or the Weather Wizard. But circus life isn't the thrill it used to be, so Jesse turns to crime like Jesse James. Back in the present day, the presence of a circus in town leads Flash to guess that the Trickster is probably a circus performer based on the costume, and a search of his dressing room proves Jesse's guilt when he finds the Trickster costume. Barry is able to pacify Iris for missing their date by claiming he helped the Flash capture the Trickster, and she's eager to hear the story.

I'm still amused by all these villains who could probably exploit their technology to make millions, but who instead dress up in a crazy costume and rob banks. In a lot of ways the Flash rogues are just variations on a theme, but I'm impressed by the number of ways that the writers come up with to try and challenge a character who really should be unstoppable.

The Man Who Claimed the Earth!
No Kid Flash story this issue. Iris ditches Barry for Wiley Summers (from Flash #111) to "help him with some important research". Barry doesn't buy it, and is jealous enough to go spy on the two of them at super speed so he can't be seen. Barry is embarrassed that he was wrong when he finds the two of them examining some unidentified metal that Summers discovered. The metal is from a crashed spacecraft piloted by the equivalent of the Greek Gods, aliens who intended to colonize Earth but who lost contact with their spaceship. They rediscover Earth, the "lost planet", and send Po-Siden to scout it out. He finds that the human population of Earth are descended from the colonists who survived the crash and claims rulership, fending off the Flash several times and flooding some coastal areas in an attempt to assert mastery over the "insolent colonials". When he tires of fighting the Flash and tries to destroy him with a bolt "nucleo energy", the Flash races all the way around the world and hits Po-Sidon from behind. It's hilarious that they just throw this powerful alien into the city jail! Po-Sidon agrees to leave the Earth in peace and is allowed to return home, with Zus deciding that like the American colonists winning independence, the Earth colonists have done the same.

But what about Iris and Dr. Summers, you ask? Barry goes to check on her and she's still busy helping Summers with his research, so Barry takes charge and makes her leave, with Iris saying "Barry, you're so masterful!" Holy cow. I'm not sure what this says about Barry and Iris's relationship, but it's hilarious to read.

[andersonh1]

Secret Origins #50
Flash of Two Worlds (post Crisis)

Having recently re-read the original version of this story while going through the Flash omnibus, I was aware that there was a post-Crisis retelling and I was curious about how closely it hewed to the original. Surprisingly there are some well-known names attached to this story. Grant Morrison wrote it, and Mike Parobeck drew it. The whole thing is framed as a school report by, as it turns out, a young Garfield Logan/Beast Boy.

Once upon a time there was a Flash who lived in Keystone City, but he and the city both vanished, and people only vaguely remember both. There is also a bridge from Central City across the river to nothing, and no points for guessing where that bridge originally led. From here the story plays out much like the original, with a promised magician to give a stage show for kids doesn't show, and Iris brings in the Barry Allen Flash. He does a bunch of tricks for the kids, but unlike the original where he vibrates at super speed and ends up on a parallel Earth, here he hears strange music and tells Iris that he needs to investigate. Trying it again on the bridge, he is able to see Keystone City across the river, where previously he had seen nothing. Instead of another Earth slightly out of synch, it's Keystone City that is out of synch, and it's been done deliberately by the same three villains of the original story: the Thinker, the Fiddler and the Shade. Barry learns where he is by looking at a newspaper, as in the original, and he goes to find Jay Garrick, just like the original story.

Things diverge a bit more here. Everyone in the city is hypnotized by the music, and Barry has to work to wake Jay up. Jay is much more assertive here than in the original, and he's well aware of who is to blame. He enlists Barry's help to put an end to this. Meanwhile the three villains bicker and then decide that life is to dull since winning, and they need to expand from the city to the country, or even the world. They are shocked to see two Flashes instead of one. The story takes a moment to replicate the "saving the man from a falling girder scene", and there is no failure to stop the villains in this version. The Shade tries to run in a speedboat, as in the original, but Barry takes him down fast. Jay punches out the Fiddler before he can even begin to play, and the two let the Thinker run, but then disassemble his thinking cap and deposit him in jail. The two Flashes destroy the Fiddler's giant violin that had taken the city out of phase, and suddenly Keystone is back, and people remember it, and families are reunited with loved ones they had forgotten existed.

Overall, not as good as the original, though it improves on a few aspects and homages all the important concepts and scenes. There's just a hint of the Grant Morrison weirdness here, which is constrained by the need to retell a reasonably faithful version of the old Gardner Fox plot. It's not a bad update, all things considered.

[andersonh1]

The Flash #114
August 1960

The Big Freeze!
Captain Cold returns as Iris and Barry head to a parole board meeting to testify against Leonard Snart getting a parole. Barry is able to appear as the Flash to testify against him while he's supposedly sitting in the car. Snart is turned down, but lucky for him, he's a refrigeration expert and uses a tiny refrigeration unit that he built in the prison workshop to shatter his cell bars and freeze the guards on the way out of prison. But does he go on another crime spree? No, he's in love with Iris and proposes to her! When she turns him down, he freezes Central City in a glacier, threatening to keep it that way until Iris agrees to marry him. When Flash returns, he has to deal with both Cold's mirages, and the very genuine glacier. All that does is slow Flash down for a few pages before he takes out Cold and frees the city. I have to say, despite the silliness of Cold's goals, I love the idea of the entire city frozen in a glacier as an old school super-villain plot. And all the guys in prison sweating while Snart keeps cool is another fun scene.

King of the Beatniks!
Kid Flash takes on the ultimate villains... uh, well, not really. But the Beatniks' dialogue is hilarious. Wally's friend Jimmy is accused of cheating, and while it doesn't take his teacher long to figure out that he didn't actually do it, it's too late as he's gone to stay with his cousin out of town. Wally is concerned because they need Jimmy for the big track meet. Wally heads to Jimmy's relatives in "York City" to find him, and finds that Jimmy's cousin Paul is part of a gang of Beatnik thieves who tried to recruit Jimmy. Kid Flash has to stop them. It's not a major challenge for Wally, other than when he stuns himself hitting a door, wakes up and sees a bullet coming at him and has to get out of the way. That's a fun super speed scene. He rounds up the gang and gets Jimmy back home, clearing up the cheating accusation and allowing Jimmy to compete in the track meet. Not the most compelling of plots for an adult, but I imagine a kid in school reading this would find more to appreciate with Wally and Jimmy's student woes.

[andersonh1]

Still have some Flash to read, but it's time to head into a new decade for Batman.

The Batman Golden Age Omnibus vol. 7

World's Finest Comics #43
December 1949 - January 1950

The Man with a Thousand Eyes!
A secret invention that no one should have known anything about is stolen, and an informant who knows something about it is gunned down on the street. The man has a "third eye" on his forehead, a sticker that links him with Count Florian, an international spy that Batman and Robin encountered while they were helping Scotland Yard. That particular trip overseas took place in Detective Comics #110 from April 1946, but Count Florian is a new villain who did not actually appear in that story, so this is one of the first instances I can recall of an "unseen adventure" being retroactively placed into Batman's history. Florian has turned his spying talents to crime rather than international politics, and Batman vows to bring him down.

What follows is a series of pages showing crooks acting as Florian's agents, observing and communicating covertly to pull off crimes, while Florian instructs other crooks in further covert techniques. Batman decides to infiltrate Florian's gang by disguising himself as Paul Dekker, another spy who is already in jail. Florian suspects that it's Batman in disguise and pulls the old "poisoned wine" trick, only both drinks are poisoned, and only if Dekker returns with Batman's secret identity within 24 hours will Florian give him the antidote. Batman does just that, technically, by revealing at the end of the 24 hours that he is Batman (but without giving away that he's Bruce Wayne, of course). Dekker gives him the antidote but then orders his men to gun Batman down, only for Robin to arrive as planned and the two of them take down Florian and end his "crime spying" operation.

This is one of the few times in this era that it feels like the story is just too short. Florian is actually a very successful villain, who is able to outmaneuver Batman until he panics at the end. If they did multi-chapter stories at this point, Count Florian would have made a good end villain after a series of lower level guys were taken out. As it is, the victory feels too easy, and though Florian is captured on panel, the rest of the spy ring only rates a mention in the caption box of the last panel. This story had a good idea that deserved more room to develop.

[andersonh1]

I was browsing the used bookstore today and they had a couple of Marvel omnibi on the shelf, so I flipped through "The Mighty Thor" vol. 3 just out of curiousity. Nice Jack Kirby art through most of it, and I did notice a couple of differences between how Marvel and DC treat their Silver Age material. Marvel includes the letters pages, and intros from various shorter reprints, and they have some bonus material in the back of the book in the form of some pencil art, or covers from earlier reprint collections of the same material. It's a nice package that shows a bit more attention to detail than DC seems to include. Not that I really need anything other than the cover and interior pages, but I'll admit the letter pages are a nice touch.

[andersonh1]

Batman #56
December 1949-January 1950

This issue has some of the best art restoration and finest linework I've seen in any of these Batman volumes. I wish the entire series looked this good.

Ride, Bat-Hombre, Ride!
The story kicks off when Batman and Robin save Jose Camaran, visiting President of a (fictional) Latin American republic from assassination. Camaran tells them of a criminal band led by El Papagayo, and that it was one of his followers who tried to kill him. He begs Batman to come to his country and train another Batman to help restore law and order. Batman agrees and flies the Batplane down and begins evaluating candidates, adapting his techniques to the terrain of this country. A horse instead of a car, and a whip instead of the silken rope, etc. After many failed candidates, a promising young man (with a big mustache, and it's amusing to see him in the Batman costume with that 'stache!) named Luis Peralda seems like he can pass all the tests. But we quickly find out that he works for El Papagayo, and is there to learn all the tricks Batman can teach him to use for crime.

But Peralda gives himself away, and Batman takes his place as the Bat-Hombre! However, the imprisoned Peralda escapes and intercepts Batman, falling to his death from a cliff as the two of them struggle. However, the struggle has alerted the bandits, who capture Batman and Robin, and Batman has to throw his voice and imitate El Papagayo's parrot to implement his plan to turn the tables on the bandits and capture them all. Colonel Moreno and his men arrive during the fight to help round them up, before heading home. Did they ever train another Bat-Hombre? We don't see it if it happens.

It's interesting to me that this story is apparently one that inspired Grant Morrison. International Bat-men and Batman Incorporated seems to dilute the original concept to me, in that if multiple people can be trained as Bruce trained himself, is Bruce Wayne really that extraordinary? Even the various Robins have never proven to be as good as Batman himself, even after years of apprenticeship. And it's not a big deal in 1950, when Batman is a public figure, but this raises his profile higher than he would probably want it to be. Still, it's a fun story, and you can almost see the writers trying out new concepts here, and continue to try them out as we'll see more "replacements for Batman" not only in this issue, but in the months ahead.

The Riddle of the Seven Birds!
"Squeeze" Miller heads to the electric chair on the same day that the Penguin gets out of prison, having received a lighter sentence for ratting Miller out. The Warden insists that the Penguin never killed anyone, but I'm sure that's not the case. Anyway, Penguin promises to go straight, only to find that Miller's lawyer is waiting with a promise that Miller has left Penguin $250,000 if he will pull seven jobs. Penguin's resolution to reform goes out the window because he wants the money. The Penguin uses birds to commit the various crimes, making it fairly obvious to anyone who knows his methods that he's behind it, even though for once he's not taking credit. He actually manages to commit all seven crimes, so even though he's caught, he gets the bonds that Miller promised him... only they're counterfeits that the Penguin himself had made. Miller used Penguin's greed to get revenge on him and see that he went back to prison. There's just enough variance from the usual Penguin formula and just enough character-based storytelling to elevate this one a bit for me.

A Greater Detective Than Batman!
Jack Starr, Gotham Express crime reporter cracks a case before Batman can even arrive on the scene. Stolen loot is recovered even though the thief, "Specs" Rose, escapes. Batman graciously congratulates him, but Vicki Vale is not happy that he's stolen the spotlight from Batman. The hunt is on for Specs, with some competition between Starr and Batman. Each time Specs strikes, Starr comes away looking like the hero, but Batman works out the deeper plan behind the various robberies. When he catches Specs, the crook reveals that he had been using Starr by planting obvious clues to try and throw Batman off. Starr apologizes and goes back to his crime reporting.

[andersonh1]

Way back when I started reading Marvel Masterworks Amazing Spider Man vol. 1 and 2. I say "started" because I don't think I ever finished vol. 1, let alone volume 2.
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=1140&p=44039&hilit=Ditko#p44039

However, though I no longer work near the same library, I was in the area the other day and checked out Spider Man volumes 2,3 and 5 (didn't see 1 or 4). Having read quite a bit of Silver Age Flash lately, I was interested in comparing it to Silver Age Marvel, and yes, I can see the difference. The villains are just as silly for Spider-Man as they are for the Flash, but I have to admit that the melodramatic soap opera that is Peter Parker's home and school life is not only a lot more engaging than Barry Allen's personal life, it also carries on from issue to issue. It feels like an ongoing storyline, even though in reality it's probably just as much "back to the status quo" at the end of every issue as Barry's life is. The Marvel universe feels much more connected, as characters from other series frequently appear in Spider Man's book, particularly the Human Torch. They do bicker a lot for no real reason, something you don't see a lot of over at contemporary DC. The most blatant example of character promotion has to be the annual from the middle of volume 2, where characters like Thor literally just fly through for a couple of panels and get name-checked by Spider Man, while a caption box tells us where they can be regularly found. Steve Ditko's art is an acquired tasted, and nowhere near as polished as John Romita from volume 5, but it's grown on me. Villains who show up in the ten issues include Doc Ock, the Sandman, Electro, and first appearances by the Green Goblin, the Scorpion and the Sinister Six. There's a new character literally almost every month and a lot of world-building.

None of this is anything that hasn't been said before, but it's been interesting to actually read and compare for myself as opposed to reading some reviewer comment on the differences between the two companies. Today there are probably far less differences today with all the talent that goes back and forth, but in the 60s I can see a massive difference in storytelling.