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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AUGUST 1939
'ADVENTURE COMICS' #41
Sandman
Story: Untitled by Bert Christman (6 pages)
Where I read it: Golden Age Sandman Archives Vol. 1
This is a cracking good story about murder and drug trafficking. It literally could happen today.
In the course of the story, drug dealers kill a "hophead" who threatens to squeal if they won't give him some "smoke." (I am quoting directly because I'm not sure what drug is in play here.) A reporter witnesses the murder, and dives off the docks to escape when the dealers try to shoot her. They chase her across some body of water in rowboats, trying to shoot her all the while. She later hides in a furnace in an abandoned power plant, where the dealers plan to burn her alive. Jeepers!
The only thing that stops them is the Sandman, whose presence is unexplained. I don't mind, because this six-pager is one long, desperate chase scene that doesn't give you time to ask irrelevant questions. And it gives Sandman another opportunity to spend an entire episode in his swim trunks!
Sartorial watch: Sandman is seen in his traditional ensemble in only one panel, this time in orange suit, blue cape and brown hat. For most of the story he's in his swimsuit, retaining only a shoulder holster and his gas mask.
'MORE FUN COMICS' #46
Biff Bronson has a story.
'DETECTIVE COMICS' #30
Cover: Fred Guardineer answers the eternal question, who would win a fight, a guy with a knife, or a guy with an acetylene torch?
Batman: Doctor Death, Round 2, by Gardner Fox and Bob Kane (10 pages).
Slam Bradley has a story, with a Wayne Boring credit.
Crimson Avenger goes on hiatus.
'ACTION COMICS' #15
Cover: Superman rescues a submarine on a cover by Fred Guardineer.
Superman: Superman dives for an undersea treasure to pay of the debts of Kidtown. Untitled story by Jerry Siegel and Paul Cassidy (13 pages).
Tex Thomson and Zatara also have stories.
'ALL-AMERICAN COMICS' #5
Hop Harrigan, Scribbly and Red, White and Blue have stories.
THE COMPETITION
Chic Carter (later The Sword), Bozo the Robot and Hugh Hazzard, and Invisible Hood debut in Quality's Smash Comics #1. Bozo is likely inspired by Elektro at the New York World's Fair. The Invisible Hood's strip is titled "Invisible Justice."
Green Mask, Zanzibar the Magician and Blue Beetle debut in Fox's Mystery Men #1.
Speed Centaur debuts in Centaur's Amazing Mystery Funnies v2 #8.
So Sandman trumps Batman in the specialized outfit department, too!
At least in the swimwear department!
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.
That’s an interesting series, and one I’d love to do here as well. I was reading a few issues the other day looking up some trivia, and realized how little I remember. I do remember that the trio that launched the “Super-Squad” – Power Girl, Robin and Star-Spangled Kid – almost immediately became a duo, and at the time I wondered why. Were they afraid Robin would claim the lion’s share of attention? That didn’t stop them from dropping in the Earth-Two Superman for an extended run, which I had forgotten.
I’m sure somebody has done a run at the All-Star Comics re-launch and All-Star Squadron at some point on this board, but old threads are hard to find. It may be time to do new ones, at least once I’m past the current mammoth project.
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.
Maybe Roy thought they needed the super-power gimmicks to keep up with the Joneses. The world of 1970s was much more super-powered than the 1940s. It’s hard to punch out a parademon or a Starbreaker, but a cosmic rod and a sonic scream might level the playing field.
I didn't mind the "punchy" heroes in the JSA as much as you did, Cap.
My initial antipathy was born of being 6 years old and wanting to see spectacle. Vestiges of that initial disappointment hung on long after my more adult self should have moved on. But over the years my attitude has changed, especially as some of these secondary characters have gotten both attention from writers and prominent panel time. These days I appreciate most of them individually, instead of my childhood “interchangeable legion of punchy guys” assessment. To wit:
Black Canary: I was unimpressed with her ‘60s return, using defensive “jiu-jitsu” and somehow having whatever she needed in a tiny choker around her neck. Now? Capable of such b@d@$$ery that she doesn’t even need the sonic scream. But she has it in her hip pocket just in case. (Break glass in case of parademons.)
Wildcat: The one punchy guy I always enjoyed. He doesn’t need anything more than a right hook, because it is a world-champion right hook. Also, I love his 1940s tough-guy persona, reminiscent of so many of my favorite old B&W movies. In the ‘40s he didn’t stand out, when everybody talked like that. In the 21st century, he is a delightful reminder of the “Greatest Generation,” which I grew up around. (I loved the time-displaced version of Lady Blackhawk that served in one iteration of Birds of Prey for the same reason.) He was just killed in the current JSA, but I hope that’s temporary. There’s not a lot about Yolanda “Wildcat II” Montez that holds my attention.
Sandman: His solo ‘40s adventures, which once did not intrigue me, I now find fantastic. They are often Nick-and-Nora, drawing-room-mystery type stories, albeit quite serious (because people die) and taking place mostly outside drawing rooms. But they are also a bit light-hearted, because Wes and Dian are so good at this, and are having such a grand time. The Sandman of the solo stories is rarely confrontational, using his wits and sneakiness to whittle down his foes piecemeal in a manner that is downright plausible. This approach doesn’t seem suited to JSA-style adventures, but I don’t remember from my first read and I’ll put it to the test on the re-read.
Atom, Doctor Mid-Nite, Mister Terrific: Still looking for reasons to appreciate these characters. Maybe the re-read or you guys will give me some.
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.
Which was true of the later Justice League of America stories as well. Who can forget Aquaman cheering from a box of water as the JLA fought robots in JLA #13, and for those cheers to be instrumental in the victory?
I have vague memories from my first reading of All-Star that the more esoteric powers were toned down, and powerhouses like Green Lantern and Spectre ended up just punching people, like Doctor Mid-Nite and Atom. I may be misremembering, so I’m looking forward to the re-read.
Also, I’m curious about something I didn’t look for in the first reading, and may not be there at all. But we all know that Gardner Fox wrote Martian Manhunter as a green Superman, I think the explanation being that he wasn’t familiar with MM’s more unusual powers, since he didn’t write that strip. So I’m curious to see if Doctor Fate is more Doctor Fate-like in All-Star (since Fox wrote Fate in More Fun Comics), whereas a character like Spectre might be less Spectre-like (since he was written by Jerry Siegel). This would be answered if, for example, Doctor Fate would make a reference to Chaldeans (while punching out crooks) and Spectre just acts like Superman instead of a ghost (while punching out crooks).
I have many, many old assumptions and misremembrances that I plan to put to the test in the re-read!
It was Gerry Conway that had Starman break his leg and gave his cosmic rod to the Star Spangled Kid in All Star Comics #58 (F'76) because he was introducing a new Starman in 1st Issue Special #12 (Ma'76).
Had this at-the-time one-shot hero proved popular and gained his own title, perhaps Ted Knight would have retired and the Kid would have kept the cosmic rod and not need to create the cosmic converter belt!
Stargirl: The Lost Children (2023) retraoctively gives Blue Beetle a sidekick named Sparky.
Sparky, who appears to have been later re-named "Spunky", first appeared in The Blue Beetle #14 (September 1942), so he wasn't a retroactive insert.
I did not know that. I'll make the fix.
SEPTEMBER 1939
'MORE FUN COMICS' #47
Last Joe Shuster credit on Radio Squad, but Jerry Siegel continues as writer.
Biff Bronson has a story in this issue.
'ADVENTURE COMICS' #42
Sandman
Story: Untitled by Bert Christman
Where I read it: Golden Age Sandman Archives Vol. 1
I think this as close to an origin as we're going to get in the Golden Age.
Dodds summons two old Navy flier friends for a rendezvous in Wyoming, Dr. Clyde "Clipper" Dunlap (New York) and artist Happy "Hap" O'Shea (Southern California), and all three appear to have their own airplanes. Dodds believes a man with an axe to grind is killing their old comrades for revenge. Three are already dead so our trio sets out to guard the fourth, a pilot named Steve Weber. Dodds hands them gas masks and says, "You know what these are for — you've helped me before." Happy responds, "Three Sandmen are we!" They set out to protect Weber, and end up in a dogfight with four other planes.
So now we know that Sandman can fly an airplane (and owns one), and served in the Navy. We also know he has two old Navy friends who know he's the Sandman, and have apparently helped the Sandman in the past. Hmmm. Those are some stories worth telling.
Oddity: The dogfights and the gas masks hint at action in World War I. But if Wesley Dodds turned 18 in 1918, the last year of the war, he'd turn 39 in 1939, the year this issue was published. Even if he lied about his age to get into the war earlier, it wouldn't change the math much — being a veteran of WWI would mean Sandman's adventures took place in Wesley's late 30s and early 40s. That's pretty old for a mystery man, and would mean a much earlier retirement than his peers. We must assume that either A) Dodds did not fight in World War I, but joined the Navy in the interwar years despite great personal weatlth and practiced dogfights and poison-gas training, or B) we chalk it up to elastic comic book time, or even time dilation on Earth-Two (until that explanataion evaporated with Crisis). Or maybe a third explanation I haven't thought of.
Fun fact: Luke Blanchard suggests this story might have been commissioned as a Three Aces story, and converted.
Sartorial watch: We only see Dodds from the waist up, where he's wearing a white shirt and orange-brown flight jacket. He puts on the mask, and et voila! He's the Sandman. Well, one of three in this story.
'DETECTIVE COMICS' #31
Where I read it: Detective Comics #31 Facsimile Edition
Cover: One of the most famous Batman covers of all, by Bob Kane. That's "The Monk" carrying Julie Madison at bottom left.
Batman
Untitled story by Bill Finger, Bob Kane and Sheldon Moldoff (10 pages)
Bruce Wayne's fiancee Julie Madison almost kills a man under hypnosis. Wayne takes her to a doctor, who also appears to be under hypnosis. The doctor suggests Julie take a trip — specifically to Hungary, "the land of history and werewolves!" Nothing suspicious about that at all. Wayne books her a ticket and follows her as Batman in the Batgyro.
Batman confronts "the arch-criminal known as The Monk" on Julie's ship. (He is covered head to toe in a red hood and robes.) Batman is almost hypnotized, but uses his Batarang to break the Monk's concentration. He escapes, and follows the pair to Paris. He searches everywhere for Julie, terrifying the locals. When he finds her, she is guarded by a giant ape, and in escaping the ape, Batman falls into a net. The Monk is going to lower the net into a pit of snakes, but Batman uses his Batarang to escape. He is once again trapped behind bars with the giant ape, as The Monk taunts him that he's going to feed Julie to his werewolves. He escapes, finds a car with Julie in it heading to Hungary, and forces it to crash. Julie is safe, but the Monk has retreated to Hungary. Batrman takes his Batgyro in pursuit.
Fun Facts:
It's never explained why The Monk wanted Julie Madison. Surely there were Hungarian girls he could get more easily to feed his werewolves. Or why he would know to hypnotize Julie's doctor, or even know which doctor in Gotham she'd go to. But it's a suitably gothic Golden Age story, clearly influenced by the horror movies and/or serials of the time, so I can forgive all that.
Slam Bradley
Untitled by Siegel and Shuster (13 pages).
Slam and Shorty are at the zoo, and see a guy feeding lit cigarettes to the animals. Slam slams him. The next day, the cops show up to say the man has had his head torn off his body. Slam isn't a suspect, but has to be questioned. They go back to the zoo and chat with the keeper, Dugan, only to see a photographer climb to the top of the bear cage. Dugan tries to get him off, but he falls in. Slam gets into the cage and slams the bear. But the photographer is already dead. Later, they hear on the radio that a third man is dead, with his head caved in. Now it's murder! They go to the zoo and confer with Dugan, and decide to wait overnight to see if the killer strikes again. Someone tries to kill Slam in the dark, and put Shorty in the bear cage. Slam saves Shorty and they call it a night. But there's a "boa constrictor" in their bed! (It's clearly a viper, but entertainment creators today still make that mistake.) Slam shoots it, and they go to bed. Shorty sneaks out and confronts Dugan, throwing a ball at him, which the keeper uses his left hand to catch. Shorty says he saw the killer was left-handed and bluffs that he saw him limp (the keeper has a limp). Dugan blurts a confession, but puts Shorty in a tiger cage at gunpoint. Slam appears and saves Shorty, but the tiger gets out and kills Dugan as Slam shoots it. The keeper says he couldn't bear to see people abuse his animals and killed those that did.
The mystery: Show of hands, everyone who guessed Dugan was the killer! Oh, everybody? In the story, it's only Shorty who figures it out.
Fun fact: Slam and Shorty sleep in the same bed. Probably normal in 1930s New York, with small apartments and a housing crunch. But it will make today's audiences snigger.
Buck Marshall, Bart Regan, Larry Steele, Speed Saunders, Bruce Nelson and Cosmo all have stories in this issue. Buck and Cosmo stories aren't full color.
Inside back cover: House ad for New York World's Fair Comics [#1].
'ACTION COMICS' #16
Cover: Fred Guardineer depicts an Arab and a Foreign Legionnaire fighting in the desert. Wow, 16 issues in, and they still haven't figured out it's Superman that sells this book.
Superman: Superman fights gambling. Siegel and Shuster, 13 pages.
Tex Thomson and Zatara also have stories.
'ALL-AMERICAN COMICS' #6
Scribbly
"Untitled" by Sheldon Mayer (4 pages)
Where I read it: The Greatest Golden Age Stories Ever Told
The editor of the Daily Clarion thinks Scribbly is a famous midget cartoonist, and almost hires him at $100/week. Scribbly smokes a cigar and becomes so sick he doesn't remember the offer, and is hired by Mack Maclin of the Daily Dispatch at $13.50/week. I suspect in a previous issue Macklin had spread the rumor of the famous midget cartoonist to mess with the Clarion. Anyway, Scribbly has a job as a cartoonist and his mother doesn't believe him -- until she sees "Why Big Brudders Leave Home" in the next morning's Dispatch.
Cute story, and as usual, Mayer's art is very polished.
Fun fact: Ma Hunkel appears in one panel looking at Scribbly's csrtoon in the paper. "Well, my lands!! It looks just like the real cartoons, don't it?"
Hop Harrigan and Red, White and Blue also have stories in this issue.
'SUPERMAN' #2
Superman: Reprint from the newspaper strip. Superman saves a heavyweight boxer's career. Siegel and Shuster, 16 pages.
Superman: "Superman's Tips for Better Health" is a one-pager by Siegel and Shuster (and Paul Cassidy).
Superman: "Superman Champions Universal Peace!" Reprint from the newspaper strip. Superman stops formula for deadly gas from going to "Boravia," which is the country propped up by Lex Luthor in the new Superman movie. That's a deep cut, Mr. Gunn! Siegel and Shuster, 24 pages.
Superman: "Superman and the Skyscrapers" Reprint from the newspaper strip. Superman investigates the deaths of construction workers. Siegel and Shuster (16 pages).
Superman: Two-page text story where Superman drives a racketeer out of town.
Remember to check Jeff's early Superman thread for more!
THE COMPETITION
Aman the Amazing-Man (sometimes Amazing Man), Cat Man (sometimes Cat-Man), Minimidget and Mighty Man debut in Centaur's Amazing-Man #5. Despite the numbering, that's the first issue. The Amazing Man stories from Amazing-Man #5-18 have been reprinted in Golden Age Classics: Amazing Man Vol. 1 by PS Artbooks.
Show of hands, everyone who guessed Dugan was the killer!
Nothing like a mystery with only one possible suspect.
Isn't a "midget" already "mimi" by nature?
Nothing like a mystery with only one possible suspect.
It almost works in the first ever episode of Scooby Doo (September 13, 1969), because the original kiddie audience (hand up) didn't yet know that the ghost/monster would always be some guy in a costume.
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