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.
But I will be re-reading reprints, or availing myself of online information where reprints don't exist, of 14 of the 17 Golden Age characters who launched or appeared in All-Star Comics #3-57. Those characters include:
- The Atom: All-American Comics #19-46, 48-61, 70-72; All-Star Comics #3-26, 28-35, 37-57; Big All-American Comic Book; Flash Comics #80, 82-85, 87 89-95, 97-100, 102-104; Comic Cavalcade #22-23, 28; Sensation Comics #86.
- Black Canary: All-Star Comics #38-57; Comic Cavalcade #25; Flash Comics #86-88, 90-104.
- Doctor Fate: All-Star Comics #3-12, 14-21; More Fun Comics #55-98.
- Doctor Mid-Nite: All-American Comics #25-102; All-Star Comics #6 (text story), 8-57.
- The Flash: All-Flash #1-32; All-Star Comics #1-7, 10, 24-57; Big All-American Comic Book; Comic Cavalcade #1-29; Flash Comics #1-104, Flash Comics miniature (Wheaties)
- Green Lantern: All-American Comics #16-102; All-Flash #14; All-Star Comics #2-8, 10, 24-57; Big All-American Comic Book; Comic Cavalcade #1-29; Green Lantern #1-38.
- Hawkman: All-Star Comics #1-57, Big All-American Comic Book, Flash Comics #1-104, Flash Comics miniature (Wheaties).
- Hourman: Adventure Comics #48-83, All-Star Comics #1-7, New York World's Fair Comics [#2].
- Johnny Thunder: All-Star Comics #2-4, 6-35, 37-39; Big All-American Comic Book; Flash Comics #1-91; New York World's Fair Comics [#2]; World's Best Comics #1; World's Fair Comics #2-3; Flash Comics miniature (Wheaties).
- Mister Terrific: All-Star Comics #24, Big All-American Comic Book, Sensation Comics #1-63.
- Sandman: Adventure Comics #40-102, All-Star Comics #1-21, Boy Commandos #1, Detective Comics #76, New York World's Fair Comics [#1-2], World's Finest Comics #3-7.
- The Spectre: All-Star Comics #1-23, More Fun Comics #52-101, a single panel in More Fun Comics #51.
- Starman: Adventure Comics #61-102, All-Star Comics #8-23.
- Wildcat: All-Star Comics #24, 27; Big All-American Comic Book; Comic Cavalcade #1-2; Sensation Comics #1-90.
The obvious exceptions here are Superman, Wonder Woman and Batman. Superman and Batman, called "honorary members" in the text, appeared twice in All-Star Comics, but I don't plan to re-read all their adventures from 1938 to 1951. They are peripheral at best to the Golden Age JSA, and would overwhelm the discussion through sheer volume. This problem extends to Wonder Woman as well, who appears in four titles in the Golden Age (Sensation Comics, Wonder Woman, Comic Cavalcade, All-Star Comics). I'll re-read and report on her JSA adventures, but like Batman and Superman, I'll just note her solo stories in passing with a summary that I'll grab somewhere online. That will keep the discussion abreast of any major developments, like new supervillains, in Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman stories.
Here are their Golden Age adventures:
- Batman: All-Star Comics # 7 (cameo), 36; Batman #1-63 (February-March 1951); Batman 3-D #1; Detective Comics #1-169 (March 1951); New York World’s Fair Comics [#2]; World’s Best Comics #1, World’s Fair Comics #2-50 (February-March 1951).
- Superman: Action Comics #1-154 (March 1951); All-Star Comics #7 (cameo), 36; New York World’s Fair [#1-2]; Superman #1-69 (March-April 1951); Superman 3-D #1; Superman at the Gilbert Hall of Science; Superman Miniature; World’s Best Comics #1; World’s Fair Comics #2-50 (February-March 1951).
- Wonder Woman: All-Star Comics #8, 11-22, 24-57; Big All-American Comic Book; Comic Cavalcade #1-29; Sensation Comics #1-102; Wonder Woman #1-46 (March-April 1951).
Fortunately, Jeff of Earth-J is already doing a re-read of the Golden Age Superman. Jeff isn't doing a re-read of all Batman books, but he is compiling "The Greatest Joker Stories Ever Told," by which he means "all of them." Recently he's begun re-reading other major Bat-villains, which he discusses in Riddler - Prinze of Puzzles, The Crimes of Two-Face and Catwoman: Nine Lives of a Feline Fatale.
I should note that my methodology changed over time, as realities required. For instance, I initially lumped books together by cover date, but complications ensued for books without them, like quarterlies and specials. As the number of quarterlies and their importance increased, I ended up going by on-sale dates as the primary organizational tool. (Which aren't available for all books, but that's a lesser devil than chronologically misplacing Batman or All-Star Comics). Initially I only included mention of others strips in anthology books if they were of some importance, like Slam Bradley, but eventually I started including all of them. Here and there I would try to improve the format. And so forth. In some imaginary "someday" I'll go back through and make them all consistent.
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 a Luke Blanchard post in what amounts to an outline for this discussion. But I'm sure I've left out tons, especially stories I don't have or can't find, which may be at hand in your collection. I hope folks will do re-reads of stories 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!
Replies
I forgot to bring this up before but the Spectre is known to both the police and the public.
Is Doctor Fate?
Anyway, this is yet another brick in the foundation of the Justice Society. You can't have secret members!
I forgot to bring this up before but the Spectre is known to both the police and the public. Is Doctor Fate?
Most or all of these characters seem to be recognizable public figures from the get-go. In some cases, like Sandman, the strip begins with the understanding he's been operating for a while, and the cops recognize him on sight. Some, like Hourman, operate openly -- putting ads in the paper, calling the mayor and assembling the Minute Men, where the parents certainly know Hourman exists. Some, like Doctor Fate, are immortal, and common sense says there would at least be rumors of his existence. At any rate, I can't think of a single panel where somebody sees one of the Big Eight and says, "Who are you?" They all seem well-known to the police, and where it's pertinent to the plot, to the public.
The fact is, a great many Golden Age superheroes have no origin story. They just appear in media res (Sandman). When we do get an origin, we don't get a public reveal story -- they are just somehow known to the police, the public and the newspapers. At any rate, all of the JSA at this point (like most of their competitors) are bascially public figures as of November 1940.
I haven't watched for this aspect in particular, so I'd have to go back through my own posts to see the first instance for each hero where he's identified on sight by someone other than his girlfriend or a villain. I'm not sure what I'd gain from that, since many Golden Age heroes didn't even get origins, first adventures and/or backstories until the modern age. We learn far more about Wesledy Dodds from Sandman Mystery Theatre than we ever did from Golden Age Adventure Comics.
I'm kind of just rambling here, because I don't have any particulars. Most Golden Age heroes just appear full-blown, with the police and public aware of them. And there are several you'd think would not only NOT be public figures, but would AVOID it. Sandman should have gone to great effort to be a mystery actor, but he actually advertises, with sand at crime scenes. The Spectre could easily have gone under ther radar, but the police know about him, the press write about him, and so forth. Doctor Fate is contacted (through Inza) by "world scientists." Hawkman and Flash call in military air strikes, and nobody bats an eye (and Flash did it in Canada!).
It's a Golden Age trope, or a web of them, to skip over all that stuff we fans obsess over, and get directly to the adventure of the day. I suppose that's to be expected in children't literature, especially in stories that may be no more than 5 pages in length.
Anyway, that's my hazy take on it today. The answer to your question, though, is that all these character are demontrated to be known the police and public before the JSA forms. But don't ask me to explain why, in-story, that would be the case.
If anybody has anything to contribute to this topic, I'm all ears.
50 years later the situation had reversed. think of those "Batman" movies, which suffered from "originitis." Not only did Batman have to have an origin, but every single villain had to have an origin, too. Then whenever the series restarted, Batman's origin had to be retold again (and I'm not being redundant). I miss the days when audiences were [thought to be] sharp enough to just "go with it."
I read your summary of the Spectre story (which I have come to think of as "The Golden Gum of Gustav Gilroy") and quickly came to the conclusion, This is a story I've got to read! Then I posted about a Catwoman story. After that, somewhere between my keyboard and my bookshelf, with the image of the cover of More Fun Comics #61 in my mind, I pulled the Doctor Fate Archive off the shelf and read that story. D'oh! I immediately realized my error, but decided to read it anyway. I read all of the Doctor Fate Archive back in 2007 when it was first released, and although I remember liking it, not a lot of it stuck with me (to be prefectly honest). This "extra thick" archive is one of my favorites because it comprises all of Doctor Fate's Golden Age stories in a single volume. Sometimes they read better in dribs and drabs, though, rather than all at once.
This is also and extremely bad story (bad science, mostly). You already hit the highlights, but some of the main points bear reiterating. "A strange nebula... enters space between the Earth and the Sun" (emphasis mine). Doctor Fate decides, "I must overtake it -- discover what motivates it." "What motivates it"? It's a nebula! Or is it? Actually, there is a "globular being" inside it, controlling its movement. While Fate makes a trip to Earth to have Inza "see your leaders here" to warn tham that "the globe may break the orbital gravity of the sun and Earth! Toss this planet millions of light-years out into space," the globular being does exactly that.
One panel later, Earth is already plagued by snow and ice storm. Then Fate shoots the globular being with his "Uranean weapon" and, "caught by the Sun's gravity, the Earth slips into its own orbit. [WHEW!] Warmth again descends upon its people." And the peoples' reaction?
The rest of the story proceeds pretty much as Cap described: Fate commits genocide of the Globe people, then kills the scientist he deems responsible for "sending electrical discharges along the cosmic rays" which "pulled the [globular] planet toward us" and "almost caused the Earth to slide from the solar system."
But then I still wanted to read the Spectre story to see if I could make some sense out of it. I couldn't, really, but I think the bit with the gum was a "golden herring" (to coin a phrase). "I'm beginning to understand certain things now," thinks Corrigan as he helps himself to a piece of gum from the "street vendor." Although the man is undoubtedly involved with Gilroy's "Golden Curse," I think the gum is totally unrelated to the means. It's easy to conflate the gum with the gold because of what Jim was thinking when he took a piece, but who knows what "certain things" he was "beginning to understand" when he took a piece. Of course that still leaves all those other things Cap mentioned in his summary unaccounted for, but I think we can safely tick "gum" off the list. In the sentence, "Merely by re-arranging the atomic structure of my victims!" the word "merely" is doing a whole lot of work!
I don’t agree the More Fun Comics #61 “Spectre” story is so illogical.
1.The newspaper headlines p.1 panel 2 put “ghost” and “wraith” in inverted commas. People in Center City know he’s supposed to be a ghost, but they’re sceptical and don’t know what to make of him. So the Police Chief doesn’t accept the Spectre is a ghost and is prejudiced against him. The note-recipients take the threats they’ve received at face value.
2.The villain writes threatening notes in the Spectre’s name so the Spectre will be blamed for his murders. Not needing the money, he’s killing for revenge (p.10). This way he gets to tell his victims he’s going to murder them without tipping the world off who he is.
3.Although Jim breaks up with Clarice in #53, subsequent events in #54 and #55 involve him with her again. At the end of #55’s story he says romance isn’t for him, but Clarice still wants him. Apparently he’s accepted an invitation to the Winstons’ between issues. When he arrives she says she wasn’t sure he’d come, so they haven’t fully resumed their relationship.
4.The villain blackmails Clarice into meeting him, and impersonates the Spectre, because he wants her!
He twice attempts Jim’s murder to get him out of the way. This might be to clear the way to Clarice, but Jim has also been publically involved with the case - Jim and the Chief go to see Crane at his office p.2 - so the villain may know he’s working on it. The information may have been in the newspapers: the informer knows about the death threats p.2.
Why shouldn’t the villain know about the informer? The informer knows about the villain. He might be one of his targets who’s guessed the truth, or someone who otherwise knows him: his brother, a former lab partner, his chemicals supplier …
5.When the villain swallows the transformation agent at the end it acts instantly, but I don’t see why there couldn’t be a version with a delayed effect.
We don’t see the manoeuvring by which he kills the informer p.3 and his hirelings p.5, but one can see ways he may have done it. The death of the informer is consistent with his having taken some of the gum before entering Headquarters. The hirelings may have died from something that was slipped to them beforehand, or something left for them at the hideout: powder on the phone and door handles, say.
6.It’s not indicated that Jim is off the clock when he leaves Headquarters p.3. He presumably is when he calls on the Winstons p.6, but he doesn’t report the progress of his investigation in between. Apparently the Chief knows from experience he might find him at the Winstons’ - Jim and Clarice used to be engaged - and he’s an abusive boss who thinks he can intrude on his subordinate’s time and impose unreasonable deadlines.
I wish I'd read the story you wrote, Luke, instead of the one I did read! :)
'ADVENTURE COMICS' #56
Cover date: November 1940
On-sale date: Oct. 4, 1940
Cover: Hourman battles a lion, by Bernard Baily
Sandman
Untitled by Gardner Fox, Creig Flessel and Chad Grothkopf (10 pages).
Where I read it: Golden Age Sandman Archives Vol. 1
Dian and Wes are at a nightclub when it is robbed. Wes exchanges words with one of the thieves, and as they are leaving, pulls a derringer out of a shoulder holster and wings one of them. (This is the first time I remember Sandman using an ordinary gun.) Sandman recognizes the hoods, and goes to their hideout, where he subdues them and takes the loot back. But he leaves them there, and they come to. One of the hoods wonders if the smart-mouth at the robbery with the gun might be the Sandman. He sends his men to snatch Dodds. Dian arrives as they are leaving and realizes what's happened. She dresses as Sandman and rescues Wes (apparently where the hoods hang out is common knowledge, except to the police).
This and Dian's origin are two my favorite Dian stories. Dian is good at safecracking, high-speed chases and impersonating Sandman. (But she delegates fist-fighting to Dodds.)
Hourman
Untitled is by Ken Fitch and Bernard Baily (8 pages).
No reprint (read online)
A wave of sabotage hits the East Coast. Tyler is about to leave for a week with the Minute Men on Lonely Island, when his boss sends him to cater to a customer. He delays his trip, and visits Dr. Slight at Castle Doom, which has a wall, moat, drawbridge — oh, and a vicious dog, which Slight controls with hypnosis. Plus a bunch of life-size circus statues, including a winged horse. Nothing strange about that at all. Tyler is there to mix a chemical for Slight because the doctor's eyes and hands are no longer steady. Tyler doesn't recognize the mixture, even though he's a chemist. He discovers newspaper clippings of all the acts of sabotage. Tyler "puzzles" over all this.
But who cares? Time to go to Lonely Island with a bunch of underage boys for a week! He meets with Jimmy, Thorndyke and a fat kid. Suddenly a nearby munitions plant blows up and the watchman swears he saw a winged horse. Hourman dumps the kids at a nearby traveling circus, and while there, sees some of the circus people leaving during a performance. Unlike all that stuff at Castle Doom, this is suspicious! He follows their wagon to a powerhouse, where he catches Sandor (a ringmaster), a strongman and a midget sabotaging the power house. When he punches the strongman, he breaks into pieces of plaster, and has a radio inside. He busts up the midget, too, and then the powerhouse explodes. Hourman sees a winged horse flying away, but doesn't follow because ... I don't know. Reasons, I guess.
Hourman races back to the circus, where he finds the boys and the ringmaster's clothers. Finally putting it all together, Hourman goes to Castle Doom. But he falls through a trap onto a secret chute that drops him in a "transparent steel coffin." Slight is there, and answers Hourman's "How do you do this?", as villains do:
"A secret chemical of mine. I can give life to plaster casts, and direct them by means of a special machine. I take my circus of crime all over the country, and after I establish a reign of terror, I will rule the Earth."
Well, that makes perfect sense. Meanwhile, the Minute Men arrive, and Slight sends some plaster midgets out to pour boiling oil on them, which turns out will work, because they are climbing the walls instead of coming in a door or window. Hourman happens to have acid in his ring, and gets out of his "coffin" while Slight is distracted, and punches him out. Good thing it wasn't the usual gas in his ring today! He saves the boys, and they go on their long-delayed vacation on Lonely Island. Evidently Hourman's punch killed Slight, because Hourman explains that with him dead, none of his plaster statues can operate.
Takeaways:
Minute Men watch:
THE COMPETITION: NOVEMBER 1940
Big Shot Comics #7 (of 33, Columbia)
Blue Bolt #6 (of 101, Novelty/Premium/Curtis)
Blue Ribbon Comics #7 (of 22, Archie)
Crack Comics #7 (of 62, Quality)
Crash Comics Adventures #5 (of 5, Temerson/Helnit/Continental)
Cyclone Comics #5 (of 5, Worth Carnahan)
Exciting Comics #6 (of 69, Pines)
Fantastic Comics #12 (of 23, Fox)
Feature Comics #38 (of 124, Quality)
Hit Comics #5 (of 65, Quality)
Jumbo Comics #21 (of 167, Fiction House)
Jungle Comics #11 (of 163, Fiction House)
Marvel Mystery Comics #13 (of 91, Marvel)
Master Comics #8 (of 133, Fawcett)
Mystery Men Comics #16 (of 31, Fox)
National Comics #5 (of 75, Quality)
Pep Comics #9 (of 136, Archie)
Reg'lar Fellers Heroic Comics #3 (of 15, Eastern)
Shadow Comics #7 (of 101, Street & Smith)
Smash Comics #16 (of 85, Quality)
Sparkler Comics #1 (of 2, first series, United)
Super-Mystery Comics #4 (of 48, Ace)
Target Comics #10 (of 105, Novelty/Premium/Curtis)
Thrilling Comics #10 (of 80, Novelty/Premium/Curtis)
Walt Disney's Comics and Stories #2 (of 264, Dell)
Wham Comics #1 (of 2, Centaur)
Whiz Comics #10 (of 155, Fawcett)
Wings Comics #3 (of 124, Fiction House)
Wonderworld Comics #19 (of 31, Fox)
Zip Comics #9 (of 47, Archie)
That Sandman story apparently inspired Dian Belmont's death in the flashback in All Star Squadron #18 where she is killed disguised as the original Sandman. She got better Post-Crisis!
I was in grade school when I was shocked to learn that there was a Golden Age Vision! And he looked strange too!
And who would have thought that Quality's Quicksilver would become so important to DC in the 90s and renamed Max Mercury!
That Sandman story apparently inspired Dian Belmont's death in the flashback in All Star Squadron #18 where she is killed disguised as the original Sandman. She got better Post-Crisis!
Is that the one where she's killed by Nazis? She got a second (and better) death later, I think in one of the JSA Secret Files books. She got cancer, and she and Wesley traveled the world until she succumbed to the disease. Then he died in a confrontation with Mordru. His funeral, I think, was in JSA #1 -- the series that launched from the "JSA Returns" series of one-shots with Golden Age titles. I think both of those deaths are still in continuity.
I was in grade school when I was shocked to learn that there was a Golden Age Vision! And he looked strange too!
I was even older!
And who would have thought that Quality's Quicksilver would become so important to DC in the 90s and renamed Max Mercury!
It's one way to get around adding a Flash clone to a comics universe that is already chockablock with super-speedsters.
Was it Nazis or regular criminals? I honestly don't remember. My takeaway was that she designed a new yellow and purple costume for the Sandman, showed it during an interview with author Jonathan Law who was so impressed by it (and her, the wolf!) that he used the same design for his Tarantula outfit. Without asking!
But she was killed and her nephew was revealed to be Sandy Hawknis (another retcon). She was dropped from the Sandman feature with the costume change but made an appearance in All Star Comics after it!
As for the Golden Age Vision, they reprinted one story of his in Marvel Super-Heroes #13 (Ma'68) better known then as the second appearance of Captain Mar-Vell and today for being the first appearance of Carol Danvers!
He was one of the Golden Age heroes that Rick Jones conjured up in Avengers #97 (Ma'72).
He reappeared in the 1993 Invaders miniseries, simply called Aarkus, his real name.
And he appeared in the two Golden Age of Marvel trade paperbacks from 1997 and 1999.
DC only reprinted one Quicksilver story in The Flash #214 (Ap'72), in an amazing coincidence around the same times as the Vision was appearing in The Avengers! The story was from 1948 and by then, Quicksilver was no longer using any form of super-speed!
However, Murphy Anderson drew a great picture of him for Who's Who!
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