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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Maybe it was a tactic on Wesley's part - he bought some outfits that he wouldn't normally be caught dead in, so there'd be no chance of someone saying, "Hey, that outfit that the Sandman is wearing looks just like that suit I saw Wes Dodds in!"
Maybe so! But I don't understand enough about men's fashions in the '40s to make a guess either way. I mean, Sandman's business suit looks pretty nice to me, but I live in an era where long pants and the lack of a baseball cap is considered dressing up. (We went to a restaurant last night that has a dress code, and we did indeed wear grown-up clothes. But we were in the minority, surrounded by shorts and T-shirts and whatever. Of course, it was 100 degrees outside, so maybe the restaurant was cutting diners a break and minimal attire will become the norm in the years to come.) Does anybody know if what Sandman is wearing is nice enough for Dodds to wear? Or is it deliberately something a rich man wouldn't?
After sleeping on it, I've decided that I see some sort of plan to Sandman's outfit: It's all secondary colors except the mask. If this was really a consideration, it's a good one. The mask is what Sandman wants people to look at and remember, so it's bright yellow (and blue on the back, another primary color). The rest of his outfit is green, purple and orange -- all secondary, and less bright, colors. Forgettable, perhaps, compared to the blue-and-yellow mask. Which, as we have seen, is the only thing that separates Sandman from Dodds visually. He takes off the mask, and voila, Sandman disappears. This may be complete invention on my part, but I can at least imagine a possible thought process.
Not so with the Golden Age Green Lantern, who wears an odd outfit that is disjointed top to bottom. It's a mix of primary (red and yellow) and secondary (green and purple) colors, it has unnecessary straps on the boots, and the high collar has never been a thing in American fashion (that I know of). Where would he even find such a thing? And a purple one at that! Ditto with the cape, which is one color on outside, and a different color on the inside. Throw in a poofy red pirate shirt and a domino mask (which disguises nothing), and it's an outfit that is both hideous and impractical.
Open to any and all suggestions, especially with Alan Scott arriving soon!
One aspect of the Sandman's gasmask that hasn't been said is that it makes him look unearthly, almost robotic. There is no way of knowing his emotions. It's the ultimate poker-face! It's similar to Doctor Fate and both would change their looks around the same time!
One thing that I always liked about Alan Scott's costume was that it looked like something that a guy with no design sense might come up with.
Where would he even find such a thing?
He had a magic ring, which could've spun straw into gold, for aught we know. To my mind, the real question is: "How did the guys without magic rings get their costumes?" Where did Ted Grant get his cat costume? How did Charlie McNider create his outfit? How did Al Pratt create that quasi-bondage outfit that he wore? (Maybe we don't want to know the answer to that one!) How the Hell did Peter Parker design and create such a cool costume? Where did he find red fabric with a spider-web design on it?
But I digress...
We see the next hero up actually sew his costume!
Though he might have had some divine intervention!
How the Hell could the Spectre of all people not have just magicked up a costume for himself?
I don't want to say too much now but it was probably a "hardship" he had to overcome!
Sandman's first costume was also often complemented by a cape of some sort - sometimes long, sometimes just a pelerine - which of course he would not wear as part of civilian clothes. A flowing cape of an unusual or bright color (often purple, sometimes red) would be yet another element to distract from the regular dress clothes underneath, as well as useful to hide the upper part of the underlying jacket, making it appear more generic and unremarkable.
When not using such a cape, Wesley Dodds usually complemented his costume with a long overcoat instead, which fulfilled many of the same roles.
One notable, even unique detail about Wesley is that while he had a very firm life partner in Dian Belmont, they never formally married. That is a very unusual choice for the time period, and it is odd that no story seems to have ever attempted to elaborate on that. Particularly unusual because Dian was a socialite and the daughter of a District Attorney. Their refusal to marry ought to have brought undesired attention and had no clear justification. If you ask me, it is a story waiting to be told. The kind of story that Roy Thomas loves to tell.
As for Alan Scott, I always found his costume striking. He promised that it would be bizarre and IIRC "unforgettable", and did he ever deliver. Even the refusal to have any green elements in such a colorful montage seems oddly defiant in some way, even unsettling. So impressive that it would probably make people forget to look at the face.
Sandman Mystery Theatre adresses Wes & Dian's unusual relationship dynamics, as they work their way to settling on relationship parameters that work for them. I don't recall if the possibility of marriage is ever brought up (it's been a while since I've read the later half of the series), but I'm pretty sure it was, and that he and Dian mutually decided that despite loving each other, they didn't want to marry.
So yes, there is a story -- but I forget the details of it!
Does anybody know if what Sandman is wearing is nice enough for Dodds to wear? Or is it deliberately something a rich man wouldn't?
If I'm following your question correctly, Cap, you're asking if the civilian clothing that Wesley Dodds/the Sandman wears comforms what the typical man actually wore in the 1930's/40's, or did it betray his wealthy roots by being "dressier".
Obviously, colouration isn't a factor. Even in the '30's/'40's, there were green suits, tan suits, brown suits, black suits, and, of course, grey suits and blue suits. And a variety of textures: pinstripe, chalkstripe, window-pane, hound's-tooth, herringbone, etc. However, the printing systems of comics then did not allow for accurate depictions of these colours and patterns, so we see more garish replications. I'm guessing your question wasn't really going there.
So, what we're talking about here is whether the Sandman wearing a suit, in and of itself, is "dressing up" from what the typical man on the street would wear.
The answer is---no. At least, not by what we can tell from the art.
What we now call the business suit was originally called a "lounge suit" in the first three decades of the twentieth century. The idea was that it was more casual attire than morning wear (cutaway coat, crevat, vest, pinstripe trousers) and evening wear (black tie and white tie) It was the standard attire for men going about their regular business. Unless a man was a labourer or fulfiled an occupation that required a uniform (such as a milkman), you didn't see him in public, as a rule, in anything less than a lounge suit. At most, men engaged in retail work would remove their suit jackets and hats---and perhaps don accoutrements of their occupations. For example, a butcher would take off his suit jacket and put on a bib apron to protect his shirt and trousers. You'd probably see him in a straw hat, too, as straw boaters were traditional attire for butcher. Men who worked as bookkeepers or other kinds of administrative work would take off their jackets in the office and don sleeve garters and visor.
Men in these sort of jobs, at the end of the day, took off their work accessories and put their suit jackets back on before going out on the street.
Hats were standard wear, as well. Most men wore fedoras or bowlers. (Bowlers started to phase out in the early '40's, but didn't really die until the1950's; fedoras, however, are evergreen.) If a man wore a Homburg hat, that was a reliable indicator that he occupied a higher financial status. Men in the first half of the twentieth century would no more think of going outside without their hats than they would without their shoes.
The best indicators of how men typically dressed in public back then is to look at the newsreels of the 1930's through the 1950's. You'll see street scenes in cities, crowds at baseball games, people boarding cruise ships and aeroplanes, all sorts of public venues---and nearly all the men will be wearing suits and ties and hats, or at the least, sport coats and ties. Newpaper photos of crowd scenes will show the same thing.
I've seen plenty of newsreel footage taken during the Great Depression, and I'm always bemused at the fact that the out-of-work men standing in bread lines and at soup kitchens were better dressed than the average man on the street to-day..
Nor is it an indicator of socio-economic status that the Sandman/Dodds wears double-breasted suits. To-day, a double-breasted suit is considered slightly more elegant than a single-breasted suit. But in the 1920's, '30's, and early '40's, double-breasted suits were typical and usually seen more often than single-breasted suits. And men who wore single-breasted suits almost always wore vests with them. World War II spelt the decline of the double-breasted suit, due to wartime rationing of fabric. Because the jacket fronts overlap in a double-breasted suit, it requires more fabric. So, from 1943, new suits were single-breasted and men wore them without vests (again, to conserve fabric). About 1947 or so, the double-breasted suit bounced back, although the preferred style was the 6 x 1 button arrangement, over the traditional 6 x 2. (See figure below.)
The double-breasted suit remained popular through most of the 1950's, but died out toward the end of the decade, as the style of suit shifted to the slimmer lines seen in the early 1960's. (They did enjoy a brief revival in the mid- to late 1980's when "power suits" became the rage.)
What all this is leading to is that---the simple wearing of a suit does not indicate the Sandman/Dodds' social status. It could be anyone from a file clerk to a millionaire playboy in a suit.
What would indicate the Sandman/Dodds' financial status would be the quality of his suit. The proportions of any man's body are so idisyncratic that it's rare that a suit off the rack fits a given man perfectly. Even if the department store provides minor alterations, there are still going to be some evidence of an inperfect fit---usually at the shoulders or the collar (the dreaded "collar gap") or at the button stance.
Another indicator of quality is the material. Most off-the-rack suits of the '30's/'40's/50's were plain wool or cotton or linen. A more expensive suit would be made of worsted wool, garbardine, or silk.
So, if one were to see the Sandman and his suit fit perfectly---meaning it was tailored---and the fabric was one of the upscale materials, then those things would indicate that the man behind the gas mask was wealthy. Conversely, if the Sandman was in a suit that fit O.K., and was made of plain wool or tweed, then it could be anybody under the gas mask. The problem for the readers, of course, is that that sort of detail doesn't come across in the pencil drawings.
So, no, the simple fact that the Sandman wears a suit and fedora doesn't betray his social standing.
Is that what you were asking, Cap?
The superhero features copied each other, and pinning down who did what first can be tricky. I didn't realise Superman outraced a bullet in New York World's Fair Comics #1. That means he did it before the Flash in Flash Comics #1.
Batman's Batgyro from Detective Comics #31 might be the first accessorised superhero vehicle.
The Spectre might be the first comic book hero to do the cape in front of the face thing. The gesture is there on the cover of More Fun Comics #54, in the main image and in the logo cameo.
Wildcat's accessorised motorcycle predates the accessorised Batmobile.
The first appearance of Superman's Secret Citadel in "Muscles for Sale!", Superman #17 slightly preceded the debut of Batman's Hall of Trophies in "Brothers in Crime!", Batman #12 (a great story).
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