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 comparing ship dates on books that don't have months assigned to covers, like quarterlies and specials, to ship dates on monthlies to figure out where those books should be placed. All-Star Comics #3, for example, is dated "Winter" on the cover, but the on-sale date places it with books with December 1940 cover dates, so that's where I put it..
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!
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The Golden Age Sandman has fascinated since I first saw in the JSA group shot seen above. He should look dorky ( see his Silver Age return in Justice League of America #46 in 1966) but he always appeared foreboding to me.
I read reprints of his gasmask and yellow/purple phases and enjoyed both versions. And I knew that they were the same because my first JLA/JSA team-up was in JLA #113 (O'74) which explained it.
It's fitting that he is the earliest Justice Society member (save for instant honoraries Superman and Batman) as he is the most "realistic" of them, the link from the pulp hero detectives/adventurers/mystery men to the superhero that he eventually becomes.
He also has a butler, Humphries, before Batman gets Alfred. I think that he knew that his employer was the Sandman.
(Of course, having watched some episodes of Jeeves and Wooster, I can't help wishing for a superhero series where the valet is the real hero!)
I read this story when I got a crisp copy of JLA #94 (N'71), the Neal Adams Deadman issue, that also contained Starman's debut. #99 also had a Sandman reprint.
Len Wein used the Slumbering Sentinel in all three of his JLA/JSA team-ups, a feat shared by Batman and the Elongated Man!
Worth noting that we are seeing the birth of DC's Super-Villains with the Ultra-Humanite with Superman, Doctor Death with Batman and the Tarantula with Sandman. Along with Zatara's Tigress and Tex Thomson's the Gorrah, this would lead to three important baddies in the next year or so!
The Golden Age Sandman has fascinated since I first saw in the JSA group shot seen above. He should look dorky ( see his Silver Age return in Justice League of America #46 in 1966) but he always appeared foreboding to me.
When I first "met" him in the '60s JLA/JSA crossovers, I dismissed Sandman as one of the many superfluous "punchy" heroes in the JSA with limited or non-existent super-powers. I wanted to see heavy hitters like Doctor Fate, Spectre and Starman! But I have grown to really appreciate Wesley Dodds for his many unique qualities. He probably didn't belong in the JSA (really, most of the punchy characters were superfluous), but I'm re-reading his solo adventures in the Golden Age Sandman Archives with enthusiasm.
Worth noting that we are seeing the birth of DC's Super-Villains with the Ultra-Humanite with Superman, Doctor Death with Batman and the Tarantula with Sandman. Along with Zatara's Tigress and Tex Thomson's the Gorrah, this would lead to three important baddies in the next year or so!
I hadn't considered that! Sort of an early Legion of Doom. I know next to nothing about Tex Thomson, but I have added "The One-Eyed Gorrah" to his entry in Action Comics #2. Feel free to tell me more about Thomson! Wikipedia tells me The Gorrah moves to Brooklyn in Action Comics #27. What th-?!
I think the Tarantula returns in All-Star Comics, but decades later Matt Wagner killed him off in his first story in Sandman Mystery Theatre #4. That's one of the many ways that Vertigo series re-wrote continuity (or was a separate continuity). In 1940 we'll be getting some more Ultra-Humanite-level baddies like Zor (Spectre), Wotan (Doctor Fate) and Luthor (Superman). And some Joker in Gotham!
I didn't even mention the Sandman's special "Silver Age" gun that shoots out cinder blocks and glass rods!
The Tarantula reappeared in All Star Squadron Annual #3 (1984) where he's dispatched in one panel by the Sandman and the Atom who comments how easy Sandman's first battle with him must have been! There's no coming back when you get dissed by the Golden Age Atom!
As for Tex Thomson, all I know is from his brief appearances in All Star Squadron, Secret Origins, Hero Hotline and The Golden Age. Which is not much though I know that he as Mister America had one of the silliest sidekicks in Fatman.
And that the Gorrah was becoming too popular so they dropped him!
The Golden Age Sandman has fascinated since . . .
Like Cap, I first encountered the Sandman in Justice League of America # 46-7 (Aug. and Sep., 1966). His multi-barreled sand-gun didn't bother me any more than Doctor Mid-Nite's cyrotuber did, and it wouldn't have, even if I'd been familiar with the Grainy Gladiator's grass roots. It made sense to me that the heroes from the Golden Age would've upgraded their weaponry over the ensuing decades.
What fascinated me most about the Sandman was his costume. It struck me as one of the most sensible outfits going for a "mystery-man". Most of it was normal civilian attire---a business suit and a fedora. All he needed to do to become his alter ego was don a gas mask and an opera cape. Heck, he could carry those in a briefcase. He could change to the Sandman in a flash, without any of the "I've learnt how to become a quick-change artist" nonsense that the Batman and most other non-powered costumed heroes threw at us. All Dodds had to do was put on the gas mask and tie on the cape, and he was good to go.
Moreover, for the Sandman, there was no worries over leaving his street clothes behind (something that most comics writers of that day ignored, anyway).
And if he had to become Wesley Dodds in a hurry, again it was swift and easy. He simply had to take off the mask and cloak and dump them in a handy dustbin or shove them into a near-by closet or something.
I loved the common-sense utility of it.
As has been mentioned, I couldn't help but see the Sandman as a pulp hero. At the time of JLA # 46-7, I was devouring all of the Doc Savage paperbacks I could find. (In a few years, I scarfed up the Avenger paperbacks.) He fit fight into the wealthy-playboy-secretly-a-masked-crimefighter trope of the Spider, the Black Bat, and the Phantom Detective. (The success of the paperback reprints of Doc Savage saw brief revivals of those characters in paperback form in the mid-to-late 1960's too, along with G-8 and Operator № 5. I sampled them all and found them readable, but second-rate to Doc. Lester Dent was a master of the medium.)
DC might've missed a bet. There was precidence for a comic-book hero to jump to the pulps. The Black Hood débuted as a comic-book character in Top-Notch Comics # 9 (Oct., 1940), put out by MLJ, which also published the Shield and Archie. The Black Hood did some title-jumping over the years, but his comics series lasted until 1947.
He was popular enough to jump to the pulps in 1941, starting with Black Hood Detective (Sep., 1941), published by Columbia Publications.. And that might've been the key---Columbia was owned by Louis SIlberkleit and Maurice Coyne, two of the three men who founded MLJ comics. Unfortunately, what was sauce for the comics wan't sauce for the pulps. The Black Hood's pulp career lasted for only three stories, the last two appearing in Hooded Detective (a title change, which always signifies a struggling magazine), with cover dates of November, 1941, and January, 1942. I've read all three of those Black Hood stories, and they're decently written, solidly in the nature of pulp pot-boilers. I guess he just didn't catch on with fans of prose heroes.
Thus, I can't say that the Sandman would've been a successful pulp series---but certainly all the elements were there.
I liked the Sandman's original costume for many of the same reasons.
I dismissed Sandman as one of the many superfluous "punchy" heroes in the JSA with limited or non-existent super-powers . . .He probably didn't belong in the JSA (really, most of the punchy characters were superfluous) . . .
"Great minds" and all of that, Cap. On the "Time Capsule" threads of the DC Archives Message Board, I regularly do reviews (the gimmick of the Time Capsules is that they cover comics that came out fifty years previous to the current month), and even though we're long past the Silver Age, I still keep my hand in. I've offered to review the revived All Star Comics which hit the stands in late 1975. We haven't hit that "fifty years ago" month yet, but I've finished my review of the first issue of the revival, All Star Comics # 58 (Jan-Feb., 1976) for when we get there.
In my commentary of adding the Star-Spangled Kid to the mix, I remarked on gimmick of the Kid using the cosmic rod, loaned to him by Starman, and that's where I made my own statement about "punchy" heroes in the Justice Society. To wit:
I didn’t understand [the need to give the Star-Spangled Kid the cosmic rod] (any more than I understood why Denny O’Neil felt the Black Canary had to be given a sonic-scream power in order to join the Justice League). The JSA had quite a few members whose only “power”, outside of a gimmick or two, was the ability to punch good---Black Canary (when she was still around), Mister Terrific, Sandman, Wildcat.
I didn't mind the "punchy" heroes in the JSA as much as you did, Cap. But, after reading the entire original run of All Star, I have to admit that it was obvious that the "punchy" heroes were overshadowed by the super-powered members, especially guys like Doctor Fate and the Spectre. The writers had to go some to make it appear that the "punchy" heroes were contributing as much as the others.
The Spectre: "I am basically God's Understudy."
The Atom: "I have the proportionate strength and speed of a short guy."
Robin: "Sure, but I can't get in the JSA! Just wait till I grow up!"
The Atom: "I have the proportionate strength and speed of a short guy."
"And I work out regularly!"
All jokes aside, Al Pratt demonstrates super-strength in his first five adventures (All-American Comics #18-22, 1940), the ones reprinted in JSA All-Stars Archives Vol. 1. I do a re-read on those, but that's pretty much all the solo Atom reprints I have. I had always believed, because Roy Thomas said so in All-Star Squadron, that Atom got super-strength by being irradiated by Cyclotron (All-Star Squadron #21, I think). And he changed costumes in 1948 to reflect that. But maybe I'm' misremembering, or maybe Atom only demonstrated super-strength in his parent title. I'm curious to see Atom's power level in All-Star Comics when we get there. (We will get there soon, I promise!)
Like Cap, I first encountered the Sandman in Justice League of America # 46-7 (Aug. and Sep., 1966). His multi-barreled sand-gun didn't bother me any more than Doctor Mid-Nite's cyrotuber did, and it wouldn't have, even if I'd been familiar with the Grainy Gladiator's grass roots. It made sense to me that the heroes from the Golden Age would've upgraded their weaponry over the ensuing decades.
Same. I did have a mild annoyance as a kid with those weapons upgrades being so silly, and -- something I couldn't have articulated at the time -- so off-brand. I would have expected Sandman to have evolved a better way to put criminals to sleep, for example, or for Doctor Mid-Nite to have created some sort black-light projector (which Phantom Lady had back in the '40s at Quality) or retinal neutralizer. Instead they had weapons that weren’t necessarily related to their motif, and would shoot things bigger than what would fit in the barrel.
But those were minor quibbles. I was fascinated by all these “new” characters in the ‘60s. So much to learn!
What fascinated me most about the Sandman was his costume. It struck me as one of the most sensible outfits going for a "mystery-man.”
I’ve discussed here before how much I loved the Elseworlds JSA: The Liberty Files, because it posits JSA members as espionage agents, which means they are dressed more like World War I commandos than superheroes. Their outfits and gear are practical, plausible and era-appropriate. It’s like they were all Sandmen!
As has been mentioned, I couldn't help but see the Sandman as a pulp hero.
Agreed. In the foreword to the Sandman Archives, Jim Amash says Sandman’s closest antecedent is Jimmie Dale, the Gray Seal. I don’t know much about pulp heroes, so I’ll have to take his word for it. I wonder if he’s the “Jimmy” in Planetary that I had always assumed to be based on Operator No. 5. Maybe it was a combo Jim.
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