Reading The Twelve, Band of Heroes and The Marvel Project (not to mention the series in the "Miscellaneous New Universes" thread) recently really put me in the mood to read Project Superpowers. Unfortunately, I had no idea where I had filed it. Rather than look for it, I simply waited to discover it naturally, while looking for something else, which I did yesterday. Project Superpowers is Alex Ross and Jim Krueger's examination of Golden Age superheroes in the public domain. (New adventures of some of them can be found at other publishers as well.) It was initially presented in two "chapters," the first being eight issues (#0-7) and the second being 13 (#0-12). I read the first couple of issues of "Chapter One" and planned to read it in a single sitting at a later date, but when #7 shipped and I realized I had missed #6, I dropped it. I'm in the mood now, though, and have acquired a copy of #6. Here's a look at what's ahead.
- Airman
- Amazing Man
- American Crusader
- American Eagle
- The Arrow
- Atoman
- Big Blue [the Blue Beetle] (& Sparky)
- The Black Owl
- The Black Terror (& Tim)
- Black Venus
- Blue Bolt
- The Boy King (& his Giant)
- Captain Battle (& Captain Battle Jr.)
- Captain Courageous
- Captain Future
- The Cat[man] (& Kitten)
- The Crusaders
- Cyclone
- The Dart & Ace
- The Death-Defying [Dare]Devil
- Doc [Strange]
- Dynamic Man (& the Dynamic Family)
- The Fighting Yank
- The Flag
- The Flame (& Flame Girl)
- Golden Lad
- The Green Giant
- The Green Lama
- The Green Mask (& Domino)
- The Grim Reaper
- The Hood
- The Holy Terror
- Hydro
- Jack
- Lash Lightning (& Lightning Girl)
- The Liberator
- Man Of War
- Man O'Metal
- Masquerade
- Major Victory
- Marvelo
- Mr. Face
- Mr. Raven
- The Owl
- Phantasmo
- Pyroman
- Radior
- Rainbow Boy
- Rocketman (& Rocketgirl)
- The Mighty Samson (& David)
- Silver Streak
- Skyman
- Sparkman
- Strongman
- Sub-Zero Man
- Super-American
- The Sword
- The Target (& the Targeteers)
- The Unknown Soldier
- U.S. Jones
- V-Man (& the V-Boys)
- Vulcan
- The Woman in Red
- Yank & Doodle
Replies
What is it with the Golden Age covers? So many of them have Nazis and/or Monsters torturing beautiful women. This one's sliding directly into a fire. Is it because "girls have cooties?"
My father used to have a book that was a collection of pulp magazine covers from around this period, and there was a section on "exploitation of the ladies". It had two parts. One was relatively innocent stuff - pictures of attractive women that wouldn't even get you a second look today. Some of them might have been considered a little "racy" 85 years ago. The other section was stuff that would have made the above cover look tame, borderline torture porn that makes you wonder how it got published.
My point being that that sort of thing seems to have been common back then.
I assumed he’d be a dark avenger type, and played as a scary, lethal type. But IIRC, he was just a standard Golden Age costumed hero (albeit with super-strength).
Yeah, that's the dichotomy of Black Terror: he looks like he'd be "grim 'n' gritty" but he's not.
Was he bullet-proof, too? I don’t remember.
I'd guess he's probably bullet resistant, in the early Superman "nothing less than a bursting shell can penetrate his skin" vein.
Anyway, I didn't hate Black Terror, but I wasn’t impressed enough to read the next one right away.
I've discovered that these stories read best in small doses. It really helps jumping from character-to-character.
I forgot to mention that Beau Smith, Chuck Dixon and Dan Brereton did a version of Black Terror for Eclipse in 1989.
(I didn't read it.)
That’s because he’s a different character!
I'll be double-dipped! Due to their remarkable similarities (both androids in green-and-yellow costumes), I just assumed the 21st century incarnations were both based on the same character. that's what I get for not doing my due diligence. Thanks for the history lesson!
Here's a look at the Chesler version...
Canada’s Superior Comics picked up the series in 1947, with issues #21-24 and 30. (Once again, there are skipped issues.)
If Canadian comic book publishers are anything like American ones, I'd be willing to bet #25-29 were given to some other title.
I think we’re going to be introduced pretty soon to Dynamic Boy … and Dynamic Woman!
We've already seen Dynamic Boy (in a pin-up), and Dynamic Woman (in the story)... I just didn't mention it. They "lord it over" us "mere mortals" from a highrise skyscraper like Alan Moore's Miracleman and Miracle Woman (which I did allude to).
Is it because "girls have cooties?"
More likely because "sex sells."
ISSUE #2 - The Death-Defying Devil & The Flame
While the batttle against Dynamic Forces continues to rage in New York City, heroes freed from the urn begin to appear across the globe.
Meanwhile, the Fighting Yank (and the ghost of his ancestor), Green Lama, Black Terror and the American Spirit beat a stategic retreat to Shangri-La after having dealt Dynamic Forces a significant blow. American Spirit knows more about the heroes being released from the urn than he is letting on. The Fighting Yank and Black Terror have a partial reconciliation. They were good friends, along with Doc Strange (at least on the covers) back in the '40s.
*THE BIG THREE: We've seen the Blue Beetle (now "Big Blue") in flashback, but I doubt we'll see much of him in the present day.
DAREDEVIL:
The "Death-Defying Devil" is, of course, the original Daredevil. The OG Daredevil debuted in Silver Streak Comics #6, as a back-up feature, but soon became the title's most popular character, eventually spinning off into his own eponymous title. Prior to that, the most popular character had been the Yellow Claw, who debuted in #1.By #6 he was the Green Claw before settling on just plain "Claw." [NOTE: There wasn't even a Silver Streak character until #4, and Dark Horse's Silver Streak Archives begins with #6.] Daredevil was Bart Hill, mute due to the trauma of being branded on the chest with a boomerang-shaped iron. The boomerang became his weapon of choice, and he wore a yellow and blue costume. By Daredevil's second appearance, however, he had regained the ability to speak, and his costume became red and blue. He became a playboy and accquired a girlfriend, Tonia Saunders. Except for the name, this could almost be a different charactyer. His haircolor changed, his origin wasn't mentioned, and I have no idea whether or not he even still has the scar. His early adventures can be found in two volumes of Silver Streak Archives and one of Daredevil.
THE FLAME:
The Flame, by Eisner-Iger Studios' Lou Fine, was the lead feature of Fox's Wonderworld Comics. One of the Flame's stories, from issue #8, can be found in Supermen! - The First Wave of Comic Book Heroes 1936-1941 (see below... that's the Flame on the cover). That book contains appearances of several of the characters from Project Superpowers, including the Daredevil story from Silver Streak #7 (mentioned above). Also, you won't find the first appearance of Silver Streak (the character) in the Silver Streak Archives, but you will find it in the Supermen! collection.
I vividly remember this Michael T. Gilbert page from The Daredevil Chronicles (1982).
And even today, Stan Lee gets grief for it!
But don't let that guy sit on your furniture!
I was looking over my shelves to see if I had any Golden Age comics collections I had forgotten about (hey, it happens!) when I came across a volume of Daredevil "Pre-Code Classics" from PS Artbooks. Why did I buy this when I already owned Dark Horse's Daredevil Archives? A quick perusal yielded the answer: whereas the Dark Horse collections reprinted the Silver Streak and Daredevil comic books in their entirety, the PS Artbooks volumes collected only the "Daredevil" stories (from Silver Streak #6-17 and Daredevil #1-13).
From what I remember I was reallt into this series. I thought it was preety great, I also know I got to the point I didn't care any more. I don't recall what that point was. But these first series....man I was into it.
What happened before this? Don't know, don't care.
I will agree with you, Travis, to the extent that I am really enjoying this series so far. Whether or not Ross and Krueger can maintain that level of interest remains to be seen. Part of it is that I do enjoy supplementing my reading with some of the Golden Age stories, but another part is that I'm reading these issues on a daily basis rather than a monthly one. (I do tend to "lose the story" of virtually any series reading on a monthly basis.)
ISSUE #3 - Masquerade & The Mighty Samson
After retreating to Shangri-La, the Superpowers are pursued by the American Crusaders, Dynamic Man's shock troops. [This is neither here nor there, but I like to think that Shangri-La, Nanda Parbat and K'un Lun are all the same place, but on multiple Earths. Also, I can't get the Don Henley song out of my head.] I haven't mentioned it, but the Fighting Yank's death has been foreshadowed all along. In this issue, he is appareantly killed.
Elsewhere, Samson reveald to the Scarab that he was blinded by the atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki. He was presumed by the blast and has recently returned, but he was not imprisoned in the urn. The Devil gains an ally in Paris. (I'm not sure who she is, but she appears to be a new character, a secret agent-type.) Meanwhile, the Flame has made his way to the Santa Monica Pier where he is smacked by a huge wave and is reunited with Hydroman, now "Hydro." (More on him in #4.) Miss Masque (now "Masquerade") appears in an unidentified Asian city and is reunited with V-Man. (More on V-Man can be found in IDW's Super-Patriotic Heroes, edited by Craig Yoe.) The Face (now "Mr. Face") appears in a city in Mexico (I think). All of these locations are experiencing some sort of disaster: tidal wave, fire, epidemic, giant insecrs, etc.
MASQUERADE:
If there is one thing this discussion has brought to light, it is my deficiency in certain aspects of Golden Age comic book lore (see "Dynamic Man," above). I previously knew of no Golden Age femme fatale known as "Masquerade." Who is she? The "Woman in Red" (America's Best Comics)? "Lady Satan" (Dynamic Comics)? No, she is obviously "Miss Masque" of Exciting Comics. But I still don't know of any of her original stories that have been reprinted. If anyone knows where I can find some (or even one), please let me know. She reappears with no memory of who she is. Miss Masque did not appear until after the war, but the conceit of the Yank's plan is to capture the essence of the heroes one at a time over the course of several years, so it really doesn't matter how long their respective series lasted. Whenever their titles were discontinued, that's when they were imprisoned.
THE MIGHTY SAMSON:
For one of the covers (but none of the stories), see Fantagraphics' SUPERMEN! - The First Wave of Comic Book Heroes (1936-1941). Again, if anyone knows where I can find any of these "Samson" stories reprinted, please let me know. As I mentioned above, Samson was blinded by the atomic bomb blast at Nagasaki, but was not imprisoned in the urn. His whereabouts during the intervening years have yet to be revealed.
MR. FACE:
Also featured on the cover of #3 is Mr. Face (formerly "The Face").
"Grim and fantastic -- composed of the stuff of tortured nightmares -- weird and gruesone is... The Face! Who is he? All the underworld would like to know! Is he a criminal? All the law enforcing agencies think so -- but they lack proof! He comes and goes grinning an eternal grin -- like a nameless shadow, silent and mysterious!"
Tony Trent is a radio station owner and on-air commentator. As "The Face" he wears a rubber mask, custom-made to fit his features exactly. One of his adventures appears in SUPERMEN! - The First Wave of Comic Book Heroes (1936-1941), which says: "Though the character had remarkable staying power (undoubtedly due to [Mart] Bailey's fine artwork), by 1947 its shock value had worn off completely. Bailey continued the Face sans mask as Detective Tony Trent until Big Shot's final issue, no. 104 (August 1949)." When he reappears from the urn in the present day, we learn how the Fighting Yank tricked him into donning the mask one more time before imprisoning him in the urn. Now the mask won't come off his face.
THE NEXT ISSUE PROJECT:
Of all the series Erik Larsen has been associated with, his "Next Issue Project" has been my favorite (a low bar, I know). The conceit of the of the series was to produce one additional issue of a series that came to an end in the Golden Age. For example, Fantastic Comics came to an endin 1941 with #23, so the Next Issue Project set out to produce a 24th issue. No effort was made to make the "missing" comic look anything like a Golden Age one; each artist would draw the feature he was assigned in his own style. The problem with this idea is that so few of the features have been reprinted that a modern audience would have no way of gauging how faithful the "continuation" is. Case in point, I myself am wholly unfamiliar with the following characters from Fantastic Comics "#24":
ASIDE: You'll notice I did not include "Stardust" in that list. That's because, in the early 2Ks, Fantagraphics released two volumes of The Complete Works of Fletcher Hanks: "I Shall Destroy All the Civilized Planets" and "You Shall Die by Your Own Evil Creation." (Later, these volume were combined into a single tome, "Turn Loose Our Death Rays And Kill Them All!") In 2007, I lobbied hard for The Complete Works of Fletcher Hanks to be awarded that year's "Cappy" in the catagory "Best Reprint or Archive." Unfortunately, I was unsuccessful (although it did win that year's prestigious "Jeffy" in the same catagory). But I digress...
The "Next Issue Project" didn't last very long. I bought both issues I saw, but I found out just today that there is a third issue I missed.
Here's a look at the Chesler version...
Despite the fact that Dynamic Man and Dynamic Boy appear on this cover, they were not a team. In fact, they didn't even know each other.
Dynamic Man debuted in the first issue, while Dynamic Boy was introduced in issue #2, headlining a separate strip. His name was Kent Banning, and he got super-powers from a serum by some guy named Dr. Brown. He appeared again in issue #3, and then shuffled off to comic book limbo.
The second Dynamic Boy was Ricky McQuade, kid brother of Bert McQuade, high school football coach and secretly Dynamic Man. He first appeared in Dynamic Comics #11 with zero introduction. He was just suddenly there, with everyone acting like he'd always been there. It was Chuck Cunningham Syndrome in reverse.
Of course, when Dynamic Man was suddenly a high school football coach, the strip acted as if that had always been true, when he really didn't have a private life (or as far as I know, a civilian name) before that. I'd have to look that up to be sure.
Anyway, I assume it'll be Ricky and not Kent in Project Superpowers. But they're both in public domain, so I'm eagerly waiting to find out!
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