Ah, the lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer. Those days of soda and pretzels and beer . . . and my annual Silver-Age trivia challenge!
Even when my contributions to my Deck Log were restricted by work, I still managed to produce a trivia quiz every summer. But I have to wonder how long I can keep it going. The internet is slowly, but inexorably ruining some of my best questions---by making even the most obscure information available on line, and thus, to locating with a search engine. Case in point: one question I’d been saving for almost ten years---“What is the first name of the wife of Smallville chief of police Douglas Parker?”---I’d planned for this year’s outing. But wouldn’t you know? The right answer popped up on the first hit when I ran it through Google. So, I had to jettison it. I’m not going to make it that easy for you.
It took me about half a day to gin up a replacement query that got through the search-engine test. Yet, the fact remains: the internet is closing in on me. I have to wonder how long I can keep ahead of it. I’m good for at least one more year, though. I’ve already prepared my challenge for 2026.
As always, for the benefit of those who may be tackling my quiz for the first time, there’s some terms and conditions to get out of the way.
■ All of the questions and answers are drawn from Silver-Age material. In the case of this quiz, that means anything produced by DC Comics from July, 1956 (the month Showcase # 4 hit the stands) until the end of 1968, which I demark as the end of the Silver Age. If your answer comes from outside that period, then it is invalid. For example, if I were to ask “What was the first name of Professor Erdel, who brought J’onn J’onzz to Earth?”, and you answered with “Saul”, you would be wrong. In that first Silver-Age story, the professor’s first name was “Mark”. “Saul” was a post-Crisis revision.
Fair warning: forgetting the Silver-Age limitation has been the biggest reason that folks have gotten a question wrong.
■ I’m definitely not infallible, also something to which the veteran players here will attest. I easily might have missed something, somewhere, in those twelve years of DC publication. If you come up with an answer that meets the criteria of the question and can cite the Silver-Age reference, then I’ll gladly award you credit for a correct response. “But I always thought . . .” explanations won’t cut it, though.
■ I’ve got no problem with anybody using a search engine to look for answers. That’s why I try to make my questions as Google-proof as possible. The right answers to my quiz-questions are difficult to find with a search engine, though I cannot say impossible. At least once, I tripped myself up when an article that I had written for another site contained the answer to a question from that year’s challenge, and one of the players found it.
■ Lastly, there are no prizes, not even a No-Prize. You’re playing for bragging rights.
All right, fingers on the home keys . . . As always, I’ll start off with a lob.
1. Outside of J’onn J’onzz himself, who was the only other regularly appearing DC hero to make an appearance in the “Manhunter from Mars” series? (And no, Zook doesn’t count.)
2. What was the title of the last film in which Rita Farr, of My Greatest Adventure/The Doom Patrol, starred?
3. Name the explorer who came into possession of a magic belt which gave him the super-power of Legionnaire Duo Damsel.
4. Who was the only member of the Justice League whose civilian identity was known to Batgirl?
5. Speaking of the Justice League, what villain tackled the JLA in no less than four different identities?
6. Six years ago, in a Marvel-related Silver-Age challenge, I asked you how far Mister Fantastic could stretch. In this year's DC quiz, I'm asking for the Elongated Man’s elastic limit.
7. Simon Stagg was never able to do it, but what regularly appearing DC scientist actually succeeded in returning Metamorpho, the Element Man, to his normal form of Rex Mason?
8. Speaking of Simon Stagg, who was, briefly, his first son-in-law?
9. What was Wonder Woman’s favourite television show?
10. What was the vital component of Multi-Man’s liquid light formula?
There you have them, ladies and gents. Good luck!
Replies
1. Zook doesn't count? How disrespectful! But by that standard the answer is Batman in Detective 322, when Professor Hugo went from Bat-foe to Manhunter-foe.
2. One I could solve by the brute-force, read-the-issues method ... if I had the time (that's not meant as a criticism, it's an excellent question)
3. Cliff Battles, the Split Man.
4. Ray Palmer because she saw Atom unmask in "Winged Warriors of the Immortal Queen."
5. I'm guessing it's Amos Fortune, who fought them as Professor Fortune, Ace of the Royal Flush Gang, and Mr. Memory. Can't figure out the fourth identity.
6. I was convinced Ralph mentioned his limit in the story "Battle of the Elongated Weapon" but no, it's 100 yards, according to a footnote in "Peril in Paris," detective #344. The brute-force approach worked.
7. Will Magnus in B&B 66, "Wreck the Renegade Robots"
8. Wally Bannister, murdered by the Prosecutor to frame Metamorpho for an unknown client.
9. See #2
10. According to Challengers of the Unknown #30 ("Multi-Man, Villain Turned Hero,") the key components are zenoite, carubium and borium oxide.
Have you considered "don't use search engines" as a condition of the quiz? It's a small enough group of competitors the honor system would seem workable.
And yes, Serpent-Man, as Philip mentioned above, would make an obvious fourth identity as he has different powers from any of the others (even if I do think of him as "Ace in a different suit").
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