Here is it at last, the last Ask Mr. Silver Age column, from CBG #1699"
Imitation was the sincerest form of getting a plot started in DC’s Silver Age
DC’s Great Pretenders!
Dear Mr. Silver Age,
Your column on heroes and villains who disguised themselves as Marvel heroes [CBG #1694 (http://www.cbgxtra.com/columnists/craig-shutt-ask-mr-silver-age/marvels-great-pretenders-ask-mr-silver-age-cbg-1694-oct-2012)] showed that there sure were a lot of those guys! Did as many imitate DC heroes?
Reep D.
Metropolis (30th century)
Mr. Silver Age says: They sure did, Reep, if only because they had more heroes running around. And most of them liked to dress up, so putting together a list of Top 10 Best DC Pretenders took considerable pondering.
One of the reasons there were so many identity switches was the need to hide secret identities by allowing both identities to be seen at the same place at the same time. Hobie Brown and Happy Hogan used that pretext in our Marvel rankings (to dress up as Spider-Man and Iron Man, respectively). But Superman and Batman made a career of trying on each other’s clothes—and, fortunately, they were nearly identical in appearance. What were the chances?
For that reason, I’ve eliminated all instances of solo Superman impersonators or Superman and Batman trading costumes. Those can fill a different list—and probably will.
That still didn’t make it easy to pick the finalists. Here’s my list of the best Silver Age (ie, 1956-1970) DC hero impersonators, ranked by coolness factor (ie, my favorites and how convincing they were).
Fun fact: In my Marvel list, six of the positions were taken by villains. In the DC list, only two are villains. Make of that what you will.
10. All of the Paradise Island Amazons in “The Secret Amazon Trials!” in Wonder Woman #98 (May 58). It’s not difficult to find Wonder Woman imposters in her early Earth-1 days. Starting with #98 (when Andru & Esposito took over the artwork), there are seven covers featuring at least two Wondies through #142! And that doesn’t even count the “Impossible Tales” covers when she teamed with herself at various ages (you had to be there). Apparently, lots of Wonder Women sold lots of comics.
In most cases, these pretenders were mirror images, robots or other faux Amazons designed to battle Diana, not take her place via subterfuge. So they weren’t as much fun.
The best was the first, when we relive the day when Hippolyta decided to send an ambassador to Man’s World. All the Amazons wanted the honor, so they held a competition. The ladies worried that Mom would play favorites, so Diana disguised all the other Amazons to look like her!
Why didn’t she just disguise herself? Let’s say it was because Hippolyta would have recognized an unfamiliar face rather than because it created a cool cover. Following the contest, the final loser ripped of her Diana mask, showing the winner was the real one! What are the chances?
9. Thomas (Pieface) Kalmaku in “The Power Ring That Vanished!” in Green Lantern #5 (Mar-Apr 61). To clandestinely search for four missing scientists without raising concerns about a missing hero, the Emerald Gladiator used his ring to turn Tom into a faux GL. That included his body, costume and a small bit of emerald power, backed by Tom’s will power, which allowed him to fly and pass through walls.
What it didn’t do was allow him to hold onto the ring as the imprisoned scientists drew it to them while he flew around being prominent. Their beam yanked the ring off his finger in midair. When they focused on keeping Tom from falling from the sky, the ring fell and was retrieved by evil scientist Hector Hammond, who had evolved the scientists into futuristic beings to aid his evil-doing.
Mayhem ensued, with Hammond using the ring to “de-evolve” Kalmaku into a chimpanzee. That required quite a leap from one lineage to another, but never mind. Fortunately, the real Emerald Deal showed up, Hammond’s ring lost its juice, and Tom was restored.
8. The Elongated Man and The Atom in “Two Batmen Too Many!” in Batman #177 (Dec 65). The two Batman of the title were our two heroes, which we of course didn’t learn until near the end. They dressed up for an elaborate hoax to trick a criminal into revealing where he’d hidden some gems.
But the crook saw through the plot and captured EM and the Atom. The Dynamic Duo rescued their heroic chums and then tracked down the gems’ hiding places through sheer detective work. What a team.
7. Jimmy Olsen in “Jimmy Olsen, Boy Wonder!” in Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen #111 (Jun 68). After being turned down in his application to join the Mystery Analysts, Jim vowed to prove he was worthy. He called up his sometimes-partner Robin and convinced him to help him pretend to be the Boy Wonder well enough to fool Batman!
Their tricks included a costume, hair dye, rubber mask (of course), fingertip fingerprints and training on Robin-like moves. Jim not only impersonated Robin, but he also took the place of Dick Grayson at high school. Now that’s loyalty to a partner!
The disguise fooled the Darknight Detective for about a minute, and he set up his own hoax to turn the tables. But Jim in turn saw through that play-acting. Sadly, he still didn’t get to join the club, as they explained he needed to be 25 years old for reasons known only to them. Dang!
6. Mavis Trent in “Topsy Turvy Day in Midway City!” in Mystery in Space #88 (Dec 63). A city-wide appliance malfunction hit Shierra Hall while she was ironing her Hawkgirl costume in a secret storage room the Hawks kept at the Midway City Museum (don’t ask). While she went to learn what was happening, the door accidentally opened—just as Mavis walked by.
Spying Hawkgirl’s costume on the ironing board, she tried it on. Just then, Hawkman arrived through the rooftop hatch. He told “Hawkgirl” they had to get moving, so off she flew with him. Her flying skills left a lot to be desired, and she got involved in some heavy mayhem (as well as some snuggling with Katar) before Shayera showed up in a spare costume.
To her credit, Mavis demanded to know why the Hawks used her museum as their hideout (duh). To her discredit, her biggest concern was learning if they were married, because she’d set her cap for the big lug. Through some semantical and alien subterfuge, the Commissioner let Mavis think that Hawkman wasn’t married, proving he couldn’t be Carter Hall, since he was married. Whew!
5. The Entire Justice League in “Operation: Jail the Justice League!” in Justice League of America #61 (Mar 66). Doctor Destiny really liked playing dress-up to fool the JLA. He impersonated a member for most of “When Gravity Went Wild!” in JLA #5 (Jun-Jul 61), and then created an entire team of doppelgangers to frame the JLA in “The Super-Exiles of Earth!” in JLA #19 (May 63). Both are classics, but they didn’t make our list.
Instead, I went with #61, in which Green Arrow resigned from the team, saying he was giving up adventuring and advised them to do the same. The members accepted his resignation, then individually disguised themselves as the Emerald Archer to attract the danger he clearly was facing (well, Wondie decided she couldn’t pull it off).
As GA, they each faced a super-villain from their rogues’ gallery, but were defeated—and swapped appearances with the villain! So it looked like GA had gone on a multi-city spree to clean up crime. But the real GA knew the “crooks” had to be his buddies. His resignation had been a ruse to uncover who Dr. Destiny was disguised as this time! He did so and captured the doc, but Destiny transported in all the rogues for one last battle royale. That didn’t end well for them.
4. Superman and The Flash in “Who Stole My Super-Powers?” in Superman #220 (Oct 69). One day, an amnesiac Flash woke up on a deserted island, but slowly realized who he was and ran “home.” Meanwhile an amnesiac Superman (who looked like Barry Allen), woke up in a field and found he could run really fast—but had no other super-powers.
“Superman’s” wallet said he was Clark Kent, but he didn’t look like the guy on Kent’s driver’s license. So he disguised himself as Kent and went to the Daily Planet, where they welcomed him back. But he found his amnesia was so bad he couldn’t remember how to write a news story. Meanwhile, the Flash discovered he couldn’t vibrate through walls—but he could smash them down. What a hoot.
Ironic and hilarious mayhem ensued until “The Flash” ran into “Clark Kent” and realized they looked identical. Comparing notes revived their memories. They’d been on a mission during which they’d switched costumes (so Barry could survive in outer space) and been blasted back to Earth, losing their memories. With that all fixed up (and their costumes restored), they kicked some alien butt, having gained some insight into what the other guy does.
3. Lesla-Lar in “Supergirl’s Secret Enemy” in Action Comics #279 (Aug 61), to #284. This six-part epic began with Lar, a mad Kandorian scientist, turning green with envy as she watched Supergirl’s accomplishments. She thought Kara got too much credit and she got too little. So she shot Supergirl with a ray that removed her powers, so Superman wouldn’t reveal her existence to the world.
When Linda Lee fell asleep fretting over that calamity, Lesla teleported her to Kandor. Then she brainwashed Kara into thinking she was Ms. Lar while Lesla transported herself to Midvale. Fortunately, Lesla was an exact twin of Kara, so no disguise was necessary. What are the chances?
“Supergirl” then revealed her existence to Lex Luthor (in prison), and they plotted to kill Superman. But “Lesla” in Kandor tried to warn Kandorian authorities about the criminal Supergirl, so the real Lesla swapped them back, leaving Linda to think it was a dream.
Next ish, Lesla swapped places again, tricked Superman into thinking he’d helped restore her powers, and set up Superman for the kill. Then she intended to kill Luthor, leaving her free to conquer or destroy Earth as she pleased. What an evil lady!
The story continued for four more issues, with “Lesla” playing Supergirl in a Kandorian movie plus key roles for red kryptonite and Mr. Mxyzptlk. A good time was had by all, except Lesla and Lex. In the next issue (#285), with Lesla’s power-robbing and identity-switching antics over, Kal-El announced the presence on Earth of Kara Zor-El.
2. Professor Zoom in “One Bridegroom Too Many!” in The Flash #165 (Nov 66). The Reverse-Flash was a truly bad piece of business, and this was when we realized the key role he would play in Barry Allen’s life. In this case, Zoom, imprisoned in the future, decided the best revenge would be to permanently swap places with The Flash—so he did. Zap!
During the process, Zoom stole some Barry memories so he’d be up to date on events. Hey, what do you know, it’s my wedding day! Zoom then rewired Barry’s electric razor to make himself look just like Barry. Kids, don’t try that at home.
When he heard a police radio call on a burglary, Zoom decided that to take Flash’s place, he had to go all the way. So he captured the crooks! He liked the accolades he received, but he couldn’t bring himself to return the money they stole, so he kept it. He decided to think that through after the wedding.
Fortunately, that time never came. The Flash realized who was doing this to him and how to escape. He then kidnapped “Barry” from the altar and they dueled for the right to be Barry—and marry Iris. Guess who won?
1. The Entire Justice League in “One Hour to Doomsday!” in Justice League of America #11 (May 62). Have I mentioned how much fun it is to dress up like the Justice League? This is the second time in this list that the Justice League themselves have done it! This time, though, they dressed up as each other to foil three magical demons.
The demons, unleashed by Felix Faust, captured the League and imprisoned them as vapor in bottles. When they escaped (you knew they would), Aquaman noted that the demons had called them by name when they worked their incantations. So they decided to swap identities to try to fool them.
GL, confident after his work with Tom Kalmaku (above in #9, even though that didn’t work out all that well), agreed to make the switches. So GL, Flash, GA, Superman, Aquaman, Wonder Woman, Martian Manhunter and Batman became Batman, GA, Flash, Aquaman, Superman, Martian Manhunter, GL and Wondie. Leave it to GL to ensure the super-serious Batman got to be Wondie.
They then used their own powers to replicate those of the hero they were pretending to be so the demons wouldn’t get wise. Watching the heroes pull off their tricks over nine pages was a ton of fun. As my first-ever issue of JLA (and one of my first super-hero comics altogether), I was mightily impressed. They made it look like fun to pal around and try on each other’s clothes—which the heroes of the DCU did pretty often.
-- MSA
Replies
Lord, am I going to miss your monthly column, Craig. This one is a prime example why.
Thanks, Commander! I'm going to miss it, too. I already do. But I no longer have to worry that you're going to beat me to an idea I was thinking of!
-- MSA
Gotta love Mavis Trent...or not.
The Lesla-Lar story was one of the highlights of Supergirl's Silver Age career, in my opinion.
We talked about Justice League of America #61 three years ago over at Mister Silver Age's forum here.
Mavis Trent dressed up as Shayera again in The Shadow War of Hawkman #1-4. That didn't turn out so well for her!
The Lesla-Lar story was one of the highlights of Supergirl's Silver Age career, in my opinion.
I agree on that one. They did an abridged, edited version of the sage in Action #360, which was an interesting way to splice it all together. The fact that it delayed Supergirl's reveal to the world added a level of importance that her other stories didn't have.
-- MSA
As for the Atom and the Elongated Man, did Batman really need their help to catch some run of the mill jewel thief and his gang? And they got clobbered by said-gang because they couldn't use their super-powers! Sometimes I get the feeling that the Silver Age Batman just wasn't into it anymore and created these (overly) elaborate schemes to keep his interest up.
What would have been next? Asking the Flash and Hawkman to track down car thieves or Wonder Woman and Green Arrow helping him go after fraudulent checks?
BTW, funny you should mention GA and Wonder Woman as a team especially with the Operation: Jail the Justice League listed & the picture chosen with Diana. Given that he was written as a bit of an egoist at times, he probably would have loved the idea of WW dressed as him for a night of romance with him. Bwahahahahaha.
Batman #177 has a December '65 cover date. Obviously the Elongated Man is still in Detective because he's in his original purple costume. However I've read that each time he was paired with the Caped Crusader on the cover, sales dropped! Thus he was never really considered a feasible JLA member in the Silver Age, though Julius Schwartz certainly liked him.
The Atom was up to #22 in December '65. He wasn't ready to be cancelled yet but his stock was dropping. I believe that by this point he was already regulated to the JLA's B-list with Wonder Woman, Green Arrow, Aquaman and Martian Manhunter.
I wrote a bit about Batman's lack of effort previously. I still prefer the 50s Dick Sprang Batman to the New Look Era!
Craig:
Let me add my voice to those who lament the lost of the Comics Buyer's Guide and your column.
But considering what I know about deadlines, did you have any other columns all ready prepared before the cancellation And if so, will they be running here at some point?
Thanks, Lee! CBG shut down just as our deadline for #1700 was upon us. I hadn't worked any further ahead than that, as I'd learned that there might be changes in themes or requests for specific topics that could change what I was writing about. I had ideas for the next few months, but fortunately it hadn't gone beyond that to even pulling comics, much less writing..
We're actually considering options for what to do with our #1700 material, so it's likely you may be able to see at least some of that sometime in the future. We'll see what happens.
I really do wish they'd done that issue. Brent seemed to be convinced it was better this way, but I think announcing that #1700 was the last issue might've brought in some last-time readers and advertisers that would've been good for everyone. But they didn't think so.
-- MSA
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