Can you think of any super-heroes created in the 60s that didn't at some point have a regular home?  That is, they -

- didn't have their own book (like Spider-Man, Batman, etc), or

- star in their own strip (like Supergirl in Action and Adventure, for example), or

- were a member of a super-team (like the Black Panther, Cyclops, or The Thing)

In the 1970s and afterwards, as literally hundreds of new characters debuted, lots of charcaters were seen infrequently, but I'm wracking my brain trying to think of someone who would have only been a guest star here and there.  I'm sure I'm missing one or more head slapping obvious ones.

Anyone?

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  • B'wana Beast and Dolphin both debuted in Showcase during the 1960's, but weren't seen again until just before Crisis.

  • "At some point" kind of limits the options. Sub-Mariner was primarily a guest-star (usually in FF, but elsewhere as well) until he was awarded his own feature in Astonish. I would probably include the Inhumans, who didn't get their own strip until Amazing Adventures in 1970.

  • Lana Lang, in her identity as the Insect Queen.

     

    She is the Insect Queen

    Young and keen

    Only seventeen.

    Insect Queen

    Hear the thrum

    Of her humming wing

    Oh yeah.

    She can spy

    Like a fly-y

    And convey complex information using apiarian waggle dances.

    Oh

    See that girl

    Watch her sting

    Call her the Insect Queen!

     

    She even has a potential side-kick (Bee-Boy). And while I'll grant she did appear in a couple of LSH stories they only let her in as a reserve member.

  • Mort Weisinger once stated in a letter column that Lana was slated to get her own title! Whether it would have been Superboy's Girlfriend, Lana Lang, Superman's Backup, Lana Lang or whatever wasn't mentioned. Quite possibly it may have had stories of both the teen and adult Lana, which. I'm sure. would have had more Insect Queen stories.

  • I'd not heard that, but I guess it does make sense that it should have been considered given that the Super-titles were collectively the industry's bestsellers for much of the 60s and Lois Lane was easily the top-selling comic with a female lead. On the other hand, it's hard to imagine Lana getting a title before Supergirl got one.

      

    I really wish there were no editing time-limit, so I could change "Watch her sting" to "Feel her sting".

  • That's the ironic thing about Weisinger's comment. The reader was asking why Supergirl didn't have her own title and he replied that she would get one eventually but Lana was the next one planned!

  • My first thought was that the idea might've been to do Lois Lane's Rival, Lana Lang, then Superboy's Girlfriend, Lana Lang, which has a plausibility to it as Lana got to star and save the day in Superboy stories of the period in a way that Lois didn't in Superman's titles. But I suppose the idea could also have been to do an actual superheroine book, Lana Lang, Insect Queen. Bee-Boy could even have been created for it. Of course, whether such a speculation makes sense depends on when Weisinger made the comment.

  • Not sure about the Insect Queen as the focus of the proposed book as IQ wasn't featured that often. A Lois Lane's Rival theme was possible but hardly admirable. At least, Betty and Veronica shared a title!

    I'm more inclined to think that it would have starred a Teen Lana, expanded her circle of friends, given her a "frenemy", spotlighted Insect Queen occassionly and maybe have a grown-up Lana story once in a while.

     

  • Getting back to John's question, a number of one-off superheroes appeared in the Super-books, such as Super-Youth from Superboy #109 (an Earth boy who gained powers when Superboy took him to the planet Brozz), the super-powered Native American Strong Bear from Lois Lane #49 (regarding whose fate, oops! Well, a girl's only human), Luma Lynai from the Supergirl story in Action Comics #289, and Volar from the Supergirl story in Adventure Comics #384. One might also mention the dead heroes whose histories can be read on their monuments in Shanghalla in the LSH story in Adventure Comics #341.

     

    Of recurring characters from the Super-titles, Dev-Em once he reformed (but in the Silver Age the reformed Dev-Em only appeared in one story) and Swifty, a dog that twice gained super-powers and became Krypto's rival.

     

    Marvel's Stingray, who debuted in Sub-Mariner #19 in 1969, is now an Avenger, but didn't become one for many years.

     

    Mera from Aquaman arguably fits John's description, but perhaps not in spirit.

     

    This post displaced the thread NBM for August from the Sneak Peeks, Solicitations & PR forum from the home page.

  • If recurring superpowered characters who didn't don costumes or adopt sobriquets may be counted, Lena Thorul, Luthor's telepathic sister who was used as a semi-regular supporting character in Supergirl stories in the 60s. She's Supergirl's friend rather than a hero in those stories, but she joined the FBI.

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