Last summer I mentioned that I was working on a different type of Silver-Age challenge, one that I would present in a different format. I worked toward that, but got overcome by life events, as those of you who've read my personal posts can imagine. The biggest hurdle is that the new format is graphic-heavy, and I just didn't find the time to work that out. Maybe next year.
But to those of you who look forward to my annual offering, never fear. I had a store of various regular-quiz-type questions on hand. Not categorised. No underlying theme. Just questions that I hadn't found a ready place to use them. You might call them leftovers.
As such, this year's quiz will include posers from both DC Comics and Marvel Comics. Otherwise, the rules remain the same. As always, for the benefit of those who may be tackling my challenge for the first time, I'll go over those rules. (You veterans skip this part, I'm sure.)
■ All of the questions and answers are drawn from Silver-Age material. In the case of this quiz, that means anything DC or Marvel Comics-related produced 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 Silver-Age 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.
O.K., you old pros can come back, now. We're ready to go. As always, I'll start off with a lob . . .
1. Per the Legion Constitution, the Legion of Super-Heroes leader is answerable to only one official. Who?
2. Doctor Strange's cloak of levitation wasn't just a fashion choice. How did he obtain it?
3. During the brief time that Johnny Storm was a student at Metro College, who held the college football team's record for the most touchdown passes?
4. Who considered Hal Jordan as his best friend while in the U.S. Air Force during the Korean Conflict?
5. Who was the first Legionnaire expelled from the Legion of Super-Heroes?
6. What World War I ace in the DC universe was recognisable in the skies by his signature coal-black Spad?
7. What was the highest U.S. Army rank, specifically, did the Howlers' old World War II C.O., Sam Sawyer, hold during the Silver Age?
8. Who was the valedictorian of the S.H.I.E.L.D. academy class of 1966?
9. Who finally repaired Professor Erdel's robot brain that brought J'onn J'onzz to Earth and enabled the Manhunter to return to Mars?
10. Who was the first person projected into the Phantom Zone by Jor-El?
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There you go, gang---have at it, and good luck!
Replies
Hi Commander! Hope your health is improving and my best wishes to you and the GMB! Now, let's see how I do this year...
1) The Legion leader is answerable only to the President of Earth.
2) Dr. Strange earned his Cloak of Levitation from the Ancient One after the first time he defeated Dormammu.
3) Wyatt Wingfoot?
4) Larry Trainor
5) Sun Boy when he supposedly lost his powers.
6) Hans von Hammer, Enemy Ace - the Hammer of Hell.
7) General
8) Jasper Sitwell
9) J'onn J'onzz himself
10) He tested the Phantom Zone projector on his wife Lara
Great quiz as always Commander! Thanks, and stay well!
Yours,
Eric L. Sofer
x<]3:o){
The Silver Age Fogey
6. I don't think Enemy Ace would be flying a French plane. I'm guessing Steve Savage the Balloon Buster who did fly a SPAD.
That's perfectly reasonable. I knew about Savage, but I didn't know that a Spad was a French plane. Ah well, live and learn.
Hello, old friend. I've not updated on my condition because I haven't got anything to report. I still feel great. I jump out of bed every morning (or afternoon---I am retired, y'know). I still show absolutely no symptoms. I'll know something in a couple of weeks when I undergo the MRI on 14 July to see how much the radiation treatments eradicated the tumour. I see my oncologist the day after. It's been a long time to wait, and I admit, I'm getting a bit antsy to get the MRI done.
As far as your performance on the challenge, as you know, I won't divulge too many specifics at this point. I can say that you got some right, and you got some wrong.
Heh.
Darn, when you mentioned your personal life I hoped it was something good. Best wishes on the MRI.
Thanks! In my debrief after the last radiation treatment, I was informed that the radiation itself would taint the results of the MRI, so I had to wait until the residual radiation wore off before undergoing the MRI. I was also told that the wait would pose no health risk, in terms of the cancer, to me. Still, it's difficult to just sit back and twiddle my thumbs for ten weeks before learning how successful the treatments were.
I believe the "hurry up and wait" aspect is the worst part for anyone with a serious ailment.
Absolutely. I've been lucky in that regard but I've gone through it with family and friends.
Likewise!
I met with an acquaintance last week who has had ongoing cancer-related issues. She still has concerns, but she's looking good.
The doctors once told her she probably wouldn't survive beyond 2014.
Always good to hear things like that.
1. Commander of the Science Police, according to the Legion Constitution in Adventure 325-6.
(I got this from one of your old quizzes, as I remembered that question being a Fail for most of us, including me).
2. He received it from the Ancient One after triumphing over Dormammu. "Domain of the Dread Dormammu," Strange Tales 126
3. I’m guessing it’s Wyatt Wingfoot’s father “Big Will” Wingfoot. Can’t find a specific reference.
4. Bill Davis, according to “Green Lantern’s Explosive Weekend,” In GL 36
5. Ultra Boy as “The Renegade Super-Hero” in Adventure Comics 316.
I was going to say Sun Boy but he resigned when he lost his powers.
6. The Hangman in Star Spangled War Stories 139.
7. Captain in WWII, Colonel in Korea, General in ‘nam.
I’m convinced this is wrong because it’s too easy for one of your quizzes (and while I didn’t use Google, I imagine it’s not google-proof) and your “U.S. Army, specifically” makes me think it will hinge on a military detail the online references didn’t pick up. HOwever it’s what I got.
8. Jasper Sitwell
9. Alex Dunster in Detective Comics #228
I correctly guessed this would be in your old column on J’Onn not returning to Mars (I laugh fiendishly — “I shall turn Commander Benson’s encyclopedic knowledge of the Silver Age into a weapon against his quiz!”).
10. Jor-El in Superboy 104, “Untold Story of the Phantom Zone.”
Wasted a lot of time researching Dr. Xadu, Jax-Ur and the Kryptonian super-hypnotist Ral-En before i figured it out.
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