13290015674?profile=RESIZE_710x

Welcome to our re-read of the first and greatest superhero team in comics ... and quite a bit more!

My plan is to re-read and discuss the Golden Age Justice Society of America, which ran from All-Star Comics #3 (Winter 1940) to All-Star Comics #57 (February-March 1951), and is currently being reprinted in DC's "DC Finest" line.

But, as ever, I am consumed by context. What events brought us to All-Star Comics #3? What characters did editor Sheldon Mayer and writer Gardner Fox have available from which to choose? What else was competing in the superhero space? To achieve that context, I plan to start the discussion at the publisher's beginning, when Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson launched National Allied Publications Inc. in 1935. That was the first step toward the Justice Society — and to DC Comics as we know it today. 

So before we even get to the JSA, I'll re-read and open for discussion all the solo stories starring JSA members, mostly from DC's Archives and Famous First Edition series. Which is actually quite a lot! (Although not as much as I'd prefer. I want it ALL!) I'll be writing about non-JSA superheroes created by National, Detective Comics Inc. and All-American Comics Inc. too, like Crimson Avenger and Doctor Occult. I'll also be tipping my hat to some non-powered characters, principally those who managed to appear outside their parent title, like Slam Bradley and Hop Harrigan. That means no re-read for the likes of "Bart Regan, Spy" and "Speed Saunders." Sorry, fellas, but I had to draw the line somewhere — before I found myself doing a deep dive into the history of Ginger Snap. 

Speaking of drawing lines, I won't be re-reading Superman and Batman. They are peripheral at best to the Golden Age JSA, and would overwhelm the discussion through sheer volume. The volume issue extends to Wonder Woman as well (Sensation Comics, Wonder Woman, Comic Cavalcade), but she was a major player in the JSA, so I haven't decided yet if I'll include her solo stories. (And I have quite a bit of time to decide, since the bulk of DC"s Golden Age Archives books consist of material published before Sensation Comics #1.) Fortunately, Jeff of Earth-J is already doing a re-read of the Golden Age Superman.

I should note that I'm using cover dates instead of ship dates (not all ship dates are available) and assigning specific months to seasonal cover dates. That is to say, I consider "Spring" to mean March-April-May, "Summer" to mean June-July-August, "Fall" to mean September-October-November and "Winter" to mean December-January-February. I know the books with seasonal dates don't always align with the months I've assigned. But I'm organizing by month, so I have to assign months to seasonal cover dates. The cover date for All-Star Comics #3 was Winter 1940, for example, so I'm going to call it "December." (The actual ship date was Nov. 22, 1940, according to the Grand Comics Database, for whatever that's worth.) It's not necessary for Golden Age books to be in specific order very often, but where they need to be (like Detective Comics #38 and Batman #1), I'll order them properly.

I've tried to be comprehensive, relying on a variety of sources, from online to reprints to "companion" books. A tip of the cowl to some of Luke Blanchard's posts in what amounts to almost an outline for this discussion. But I'm sure I've left out tons, especially reprints that I don't have or can't find, which may be at hand in your collection. I hope folks will do re-reads of reprints I've left out, as well as comment on what I've written. So let's hear what I've missed Legionnaires — and what you think!

You need to be a member of Captain Comics to add comments!

Join Captain Comics

Votes: 0
Email me when people reply –

Replies

  • Regarding the suppression of uncomfortable topics from an earlier era, some of you may find this interersting. It is the disclaimer from Society is Nix - Gleeful Anarchy at the Dawn of the America Comic Strip - 1895-1915, the revised and expanded second edition of which was released this week. I thought it was particularly well-stated.

    "About Racism in Early Comics"

    Many of the comics in this book contain words and images that are frankly offensive. Racial and ethnic stereotypes were a large part of humor at the turn of the last century, and comics, like all popular media, have always been -- for better or worse -- a reflection of the society of their times.

    It is difficult to find a comic artist in the first twenty years of the medium whose work did not contain at least some racially or ethnically insensitive characterizations. Even George Herriman, himself of biracial Creole parentage, employed racially offensive stereotypes in his early comics. It was simply part of the cartoon vernacular.

    Many such comics have been omitted from this volume, not merely because they are "politically incorrect," but, rather, because they are more callous and mean-spirited and discriminatory than historically significant. But others do contain racist words and images, which are nevertheless included as representative examples of significant work by important artists.

    Our purpose in documenting these works is not to shock or offend or in any way excuse the practive. Still, publishers should no more exclude these pages than censor The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Perhaps cartoonist and historian Art Spiegelman said it best:

    It's hard to overstate how racist, sexist and jingoistic most American comic strips and comic books have been throughout their history. But expurgating leaves us without a history at all.

    Why couldn't DC include something like that in their collection?

  • JUNE 1938

    Here we go: The Big Kahuna has arrived. Contrary to popular belief, it took a while for New York publishers to understand how much money could be made from men in tights in this new "comic book" arena, and to jump in with their own superheroes. Heck, it took a while for Detective Comics Inc. to figure out what they had on their hands, and to cash in. So the superhero avalanche is imminent, but not immediate.

    'ACTION COMICS' #1
    13534944462?profile=RESIZE_400xSuperman

    Real name: Kal-L
    Created by: Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster
    Debut story: Untitled by Siegel and Shuster (12 pages)
    Where I read it: I've read it countless times, and it's available in a lot of places. The first time I read it was probably Secret Origins #1 (February-March 1973). 
    Significance: JSA member

    The first story about the most famous superhero in the world is a bit muddled. But the creators' enthusiasm practically crackles through the pages and the dynamism that propels the story can still excite all these years later.

    Superman's origin is dismissed in a one-pager. We go from doomed Krypton to Smallville orphanage in three panels, then we learn about his powers and mission.

    But that's just the warm-up. The real story begins on page 2, and moves with breathtaking speed as Superman saves a man from being wrongfully executed, stops a wife-beating, saves Lois from a kidnapping and exposes government graft. Meanwhile, Clark Kent is introduced and assigned the Superman beat, and Lois Lane is introduced and gets in a few digs at Clark. Not bad for 12 pages!

    But that's all the Superman I'm going to do. Jeff of Earth-J is already doing that HERE, and doing it in his usual thorough and entertaining way. Besides, while the Man of Steel is important in a lot of ways, he simply isn't that important when it comes to the Golden Age JSA.

    Fun Facts:

    • Superman appeared in more than 50 stories before the JSA formed. Not as many as Slam Bradley, but close!
    • Lois Lane and Daily Star editor George Taylor also debuted in Action Comics #1.
    • This version of Superman is usually referred to as Kal-L, to distinguish him from the Earth-One (and current) version, who goes by Kal-El.
    • The issue numbers I use below as a cut-off for the Golden Age Superman come from DC's Golden Age Superman omnibus series.

    Golden Age appearances: Action Comics #1-240; All-Star Comics #7 (cameo), #36; New York World's Fair Comics (both issues); Superman #1-121; World's Best Comics #1; World's Finest Comics #1-70, Superman 3D, Superman at the Golden Hall of Science, Superman miniature (Pep). Almost all have been reprinted.
    Current status: Enjoying the "Summer of Superman" at DC Comics, and starring in a new movie.

    Zatara the Magician
    Real name:
    Giovanni "John" Zatara
    Created by: Fred Guardineer
    Debut story: "The Mystery of the Freight Train Robberies" by Guardineer (12 pages)
    Where I read it: Famous First Edition #C-26 (1974)
    Significance: Golden Age DC superhero

    Zatara has no origin in his first appearance, and already has an arch-enemy: "The Tigress." She's behind a train-robbing gang, and Zatara sets out to figure how she does it. He and Tong — who is much like Mandrake's Lothar — figure out there's an inside man, and when a cop is killed during a train robbery, the police think it's him. Zatara doesn't think so, and his efforts absolve the dead cop, reveal the true inside man and break up the roberry ring (although The Tigress gets away to bedevil Zatara again).

    In this story, Zatara was without the pencil-thin mustache that was de rigueur for characters who looked like stage magicians. Zatara uses the trademark backwards-talk three times in the story, but achieves a lot of magic without it — like seeing the future in a crystal ball, levitation and transformation (of a gun into a banana). He also uses a gun himself, but like with Batman, I doubt that continues.

    13660162063?profile=RESIZE_180x180Speaking of Mandrake clones, I had assumed all my life that characters like Zatara were swipes of comic strip hero Mandrake the Magician, created in 1934. But Lee Falk's character was also a possible swipe, of a real stage magician named Leon Mandrake. The original Mandrake began as a vaudeville performer in 1922, and as you can see from the photo at left, adopted the top hat and tails so many later comics magicians wore as well.

    Mandrake is more than just a name. It's a toxic Mediterranean plant that can be used as a poison, an anesthetic or a hallucinogen, and has been associated with magic since at least the Bronze Age. So maybe Falk found the word elsewhere.

    But Leon began a bit earlier than Falk's Mandrake. He began his stage career in Canadian vaudeville at age 11 in 1922, and by 14 was performing fire-breathing, ventriloquism and mind-reading.  At 16 he was touring with the Ralph Richards magic show and by the 1930s was touring solo. 

    According to Canada.com, Mandrake "met Phil Davis, the cartoonist/artist for Mandrake the Magician in St. Louis. The comic strip writer, Lee Falk, claimed the Mandrake name was a coincidence. Davis then drew the Mandrake character to resemble Leon as they forged an agreement to promote each other's work." Which is probably when Mandrake adopted the pencil-thin mustache.

    It's possible that Lee Falk came up with the name "Mandrake the Magician" independently of, but simultaneously with, a stage performer touring North America as "Mandrake the Magician," and they just happened to look exactly alike. But it's a whale of a coincidence. That they later agreed to cross-promote buries any potential bad blood, so the point is more or less moot. But all later top-hat-and-tails magicians owe a debt to them both.

    I learned this in part from stories about Alex Grand's Understanding Superhero Comic Books. As I posted about Nadir, Grand posits that most Americans gained entry into the worlds of fantasy through stage magicians. He lists the "Four Magi" as foundational archetypes, consisting of Harry Houdini (1874-1926); Alexander, The One Who Knows (1880-1954); The Great Blackstone (1885-1965); and Leon Mandrake (1911-1993). 

    Fun Facts:

    • Zatara had 32 appearances before the formation of the JSA. 
    • Zatara made his first full cover appearance on Action Comics #12 (May 1939). 
    • Zatara is the father of current Justice League member Zatanna Zatara.
    • Zatara is the uncle of the magic-wielding Zachary Zatara, who is Zatanna's cousin.

    Golden Age appearances: Action Comics #1-132, 136, 138, 141; New York World's Fair Comics (both issues); World's Best Comics #1; and World's Finest Comics #2-51.
    Current status: Dead. Zatara died in mystic combat with the brujeria in Swamp Thing #50 (July 1986). The latest Zatanna #1 (April 2025) has a montage of Zatanna's life that includes the death scene in Swamp Thing, plus a gravestone as an exclamation point. So he's still dead.

    Tex Thomson
    13661450853?profile=RESIZE_400xReal name:
    Harold "Tex" Thomson
    Created by: Ken Fitch and Bernard Baily 
    Debut story: Untitled by Fitch and Baily (12 pages)
    Where I read it: Famous First Edition #C-26 (1974)
    Significance: Becomes a costumed hero in 1941.

    Tex Thomson struck it rich in the oil business (in Texas, naturally) and decided to adventure around the world. In his first story he finds a body in England, and is accused of murder. It turns out to be a set-up, and he turns the tables on the murderers. There's nothing particularly English about the story, so I don't know why it was set there. They even have a sheriff as the top lawman. I know, I know, England invented sheriffs (shire reeves). But this story read as if it could have occurred in West Texas. 

    Thomson has the anchor spot and is 12 pages — the same length as the intro story — so I assume DC thought he would have legs. 

    Fun facts:

    • Thomson takes on the superhero persona Mr. America in 1941, and receives the nickname "Americommando" in 1942. 
    • According to Wikipedia, Thomson's name was misspelled "Thompson" in James Robinson's Starman (1994-2000) and that has become standard. (I have retained the Golden Age speling for this Golden Age re-read.)
    • The Ultra-Humanite killed Tex Thomson in the Elseworlds story The Golden Age, secretly implanting his own brain in Thomson's body as he once did with actress Delores Winters. 

    Golden Age appearances: Action Comics #1-74 (June 1938-July 1944).
    Current status: Unknown. DC's National Comics #1 (1999) implies that Thomson died trying to save civilians during the bombing of Dresden in World War II. On the other hand, writer Bob Rozakis said Thomson was the secret "Coordinator" of Hero Hotline (1989), but it wasn't revealed in-story. Given all the reboots since, he isn't alive or dead until someone opens Schrödinger's box.

    Scoop Scanlon
    13661451680?profile=RESIZE_400xReal name:
    "Scoop" Scanlon is the only name given
    Created by: Bill Ely
    Debut story: Untitled by Bill Ely (6 pages, B&W)
    Where I read it: Famous First Edition #C-26
    Significance: Appeared outside parent title

    Reporter Scoop Scanlon and photographer Rusty James of the Bulletin get wind that the cops are bringing an international jewel thief to New York via boat. When they arrive at the docks, they see men with tommy guns under their coats, no doubt accomplices of the jewel thief come to help him escape. As the police and jewel thief arrive and the gunmen drop their coats, Scoop jumps the gunmen and takes a couple out of action. The others open fire, and the cops fire back. The thief and an accomplice escape in a car, and the police and the Bulletin boys give chase. Scoop grabs a tommy gun and jumps in a police car (try that in 2025 and see how far you get) while Rusty gets on the spare tire of the criminal car (and as we find out later, pokes a hole in the gas tank). A pre-arranged moving van cuts off most of the police, but the car with Scoop goes around on a sidewalk. The criminal car runs out of gas, and Scoop and the cop arrest the thief and his accomplice. "Boy, what a story!" Scoop says, because it is an unwritten rule of Golden Age comic books that reporters must say something like this at the end of every story.

    Fun facts

    • Scoop's story is in B&W.
    • Temerson/Helnit/Continental introduced another reporter named Scoop Scanlon in Terrific Comics #2 (March 1944), who is unrelated.

    Golden Age appearances: Action Comics #1-13 (June 1938-June 1939).
    Current status: No appearances after 1939.

    Pep Morgan, an all-around athlete who is preposterously competent at every sport, first appeared in More Fun Comics #12 (July 1936), where he fills in for an errant shortstop and makes the team. Morgan continued in More Fun Comics through issue #29 (February 1938), mostly by Creig Flessel. In his first Action story, Morgan's a boxer who wins the Light Heavyweight title, and in the course of the story exposes a crooked fight doctor. Morgan boxed, cross-country-tracked and sportsballed his way through #41 (October 1941), by Fred Guardineer. Despite all those stories, though, he was never given a first name.
    Chuck Dawson, a Western character, lasted through Action Comics #22. This episode is in B&W.
    The Adventures of Marco Polo, described as "historical adventure," lasted through Action Comics #17 (October 1939).

    'MORE FUN COMICS' #32
    13661451894?profile=RESIZE_400x
    Doctor Occult: Untitled story by Siegel and Shuster (4 pages). The story opens with three thugs breaking into a bank vault. Occult and Rose Psychic are there, but as we learn later, only in astral form. When the crooks open the safe, they see Satan and freak out. (It was an illusion created by Occult.)

    Occult and Rose knew about the robbery because Occult had developed an evil-detecting machine. "The hyper-sensitive needle fluctuates whenever malignant thought-waves are being broadcast. — A few calculations indicate to me the source of the waves." (Evidently, technobabble wasn't invented by Star Trek.) The machine registers and Occult and Rose zip away to see what it is. (Note: We are told that the duo are going to places in astral form, but visually they are actually disappearing and reappearing elsewhere.) They appear (albeit invisibly) where two thugs are playing cards. A third shows up and tells the others he won't tell them the plan. So Occult uses "hypnotic-suggestion" to make him spill the beans. He is horrified that he talked. "Don't let th' boss know I blabbed!"

    Anyway, the plan is to poison milk at a dairy that won't pay protection money. (The fiends!) Occult and Rose put them to sleep. (And it sure looks like it's Rose doing it.) They get the address of the boss and zip off to confront him. "Joining hands, Rose and Dr. Occult travel thru the supernatural world. What will they find at their destination???"

    Despite the "to be continued" caption at bottom right of the last panel, we'll never know. This is Occult's last in-story appearance until All-Star Squadron #49 (September 1985), almost 50 years later.

    'NEW ADVENTURE COMICS' #27
    Nadir: Untitled by Bill Ely (4 pages).
    Captain Jim of the Texas Rangers, a Western character who debuted in New Comics #2, makes his final apperance.

    'DETECTIVE COMICS' #16
    Slam Bradley investigates (and probably slams) the Broadway Bandit in an untitled story by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster.

    • Mandrake is more than just a name. It's a toxic Mediterranean plant that can be used as a poison, an anesthetic or a hallucinogen, and has been associated with magic since at least the Bronze Age. 

      Unrelated Trivia Note: The mandrake plant's genus name, "mandragora", was used as the name of a malevolent cosmic being, the Mandragora Helix, that fought the Fourth Doctor and Sarah Jane Smith in Renaissance Italy in the 1976 Doctor Who serial, "The Masque of Mandragora".

    • "Mandragora" is also the common name for the plant in Italian. In Portuguese and Spanish it is the same, with an added acute accent on the second "a".

      It is something of a cliche that the plant is used by witches and wizards, presumably in fiction about as much as in real life(TM).

    • Yeah. I've heard some wild stories about the ways the mandrake plant was alleged to have been used in magic.

    • It's pretty toxic, so if anyone has used it on other people IRL, it probably didn't end well.

       

    • "Drake," in addition to being a male duck, also has the meaning "dragon" in English, starting in Middle English and deriving all the way back from Latin draco and Greek dracon. I wonder if the "dragora" part of the Italian word derives from drago, the Italian word for dragon, and if the connotation remains the same.

  • Lee Falk pencilled the initial Mandrakes himself, and claimed he based Mandrake's face on his own. But I think Phil Davis based his version on Basil Rathbone. I watched The Bishop Murder Case (1929) recently. Rathbone stars as Philo Vance, and he looks amazingly like Mandrake. Vance is a playboy amateur criminologist who consults with the DA. Mandrake took on a playboy character, and consulted with the police. 

    In his More Fun Comics stories Pep Morgan is a college amateur athlete. In his Action Comics ones he seems to be an all-rounder professional.

    The "Chuck Warren" story in New York World's Fair Comics #1 uses the college athlete concept. The GCD doesn't record any other appearances, so I think "Chuck Warren" appeared in lieu of a "Pep Morgan" story, for whatever reason.

    Homer Fleming on ""Chuck" Dawson" was also the artist of "Buck Marshal". He had also been doing "Captain Jim of the Texas Rangers" in New Comics/New Adventure Comics, which ended at this point, so he was a staple of DC's early Westerns.

    Bill Ely continued in comics into the Silver Age. He drew Rip Hunter... Time Master from #8.

    • Homer Fleming on ""Chuck" Dawson" was also the artist of "Buck Marshal". He had also been doing "Captain Jim of the Texas Rangers" in New Comics/New Adventure Comics, which ended at this point, so he was a staple of DC's early Westerns.

      I haven't been including masked Western characters because they're from another time period and aren't applicable to the JSA. But some are examples of the evoltuion of the masked hero in the 1930s and 1940s, so the analytical part of my brain wonders if I shouldn't have checked Western strips for any significant, early supehero-adjacent character. However, the part of my brain that shrieks in horror at the prospect of investigating every Western character from 1395 to 1940 thanks me. If there are any that I should include, tell me and I'll add them to the proper posts retroactively.

      I work ahead, so sometimes I get mixed up about what I've posted and what I haven't, but I know I mention when both Buck Marshall and Captain Jim end, and it's not far off if it hasn't happened already. I wonder what Homer Fleming does after that. 

  • I find the slot and space given to "Tex Thomson" confounding, as it's a weak story and Baily isn't known to have been a DC creator before this. Was it a proposed newspaper strip, rearranged and supplemented? Baily's earlier credits at the GCD are mostly for star portraits pages. A serial, "The Buccaneer", started in More Fun Comics at the same point.

    From #2 Zatara is last (except for a gag or other filler page) and "Tex Thomson" only gets 6 pages. (But it was back to 12 for the next two issues, then went down to 10.) It could be a different feature. The story starts in media res, and is introduced by a story-so-far caption, as if it were the continuation of a serial. The approach to Tex is different. In #1 he's explained as a globetrotting oil millionaire, but he comes across as a former cowpuncher. In #2 he wears a check shirt and jodpurs, and might be a college man. (He says he was a college fencer in #5, and is also drawn with a pencil moustache from that point, which I take as an aristocratic touch.) He has a travelling companion, Bob Daley. The story is a lost civilisation adventure, and introduces Thomson's recurring enemy, the Gorrah. The art shows a Caniff influence.

    In #2 the 6 released pages went to "Inspector Donald and Bobby" with art by Leo O'Mealia, who may have been DC's best draftsman at this early point and did several of the early Action Comics covers. This feature also appeared in #4, where it got its pages from "Zatara".

This reply was deleted.