I couldn’t help it. That's just the way my mind works.
During a recent bit of chatter over on the message boards, I was reminded of a couple of pieces of Silver-Age trivia that I’ve carried around in my brain for a half-century, and it started me thinking about tossing another quiz at you folks. Before I knew it, I had the requisite list of ten posers.
Before I could do anything with them, the estimable Craig “Mr. Silver Age” Shutt posted his annual Silver-Age Trivia Challenge. I look forward to his quiz every year, and every year, my forehead gets flattened another millimetre or so from slapping it and exclaiming, “Of course!” when I read the answers. That’s what makes Craig’s annual puzzlers so enjoyable---it’s not so much a matter of what you know or don’t know; it’s more like connecting the dots. His questions provide one end of the connexion and you have to come up with the other. That gets the brain neurons firing.
Craig’s challenge wasn’t any different for me this year; I’m rapidly coming up on needing a smaller hat size.
If you haven’t already done so, stop right here, and go click on the thread to his quiz and test your mettle on a real Silver-Age master’s work. Go ahead. I’ll wait.
Back? Good. Fun, wasn’t it?
Now for the amateur production.
Hopefully, your brains haven’t burnt out from tackling Mr. S.A.’s questions. Actually, I’m hoping a lot of you are the crazy types whose moods get whetted for more after something so challenging. Which is why I’m going ahead with my own quiz, instead of writing an article on the Legion Espionage Squad or something. As with my last two efforts, I’ve selected questions with two qualities in mind for the answers---they elicit a sense of “Wow, I didn’t know that!”, and they defy an easy Google-search.
The rules are the same as always. All questions, and the answers you smart folks will hopefully provide, come from the Silver Age, as I define it---the fall of 1956 through to the end of 1968. If your answer doesn’t come from a comic book published during this period, then it doesn’t count.
You guys are a sharp bunch. That, combined with the fact that I’m rapidly approaching geezerhood, means that one of you may come up with an answer that I missed because I forgot to take my slug of Geritol to-day. As long as it’s substantiated by information from a Silver-Age comic, I’ll give you credit for a correct response.
You’re free to use any resource you want to determine the correct answers. As I said, I’ve attempted to make the questions relatively immune to search engines, but a fertile mind can accomplish wonders. Each correct answer earns you ten points. Incorrect answers cost you nothing. After all, this isn’t Jeopardy!; all you win here are bragging rights.
Lastly, this particular quiz is limited to the DC universe. You Marvel mavens will get your shot the next time around.
All set? As always, I’ll start off with a lob . . . .
1. Of the five services of the U.S. Armed Forces (Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, and Coast Guard), which one did Wonder Woman join as Diana Prince?
2. What was the name of the asteroid where the ancestral home of Bron Wayn E7705---the Batman of 2967---was located?
3. Who starred as Green Lantern in the Earth-One series about the Emerald Crusader?
4. Speaking of television shows, what was the name of the television programme regularly hosted by Lana Lang for WMET-TV?
5. In what story/issue did Superman first meet Adam Strange?
6. What story/issue marked J’onn J’onzz’s last Silver-Age appearance with the Justice League of America?
7. Speaking of the JLA, per the by-laws of the Justice League, what was the schedule for its regular meetings?
8. In what story/issue did Bizarro № 1 with his classic reversed “S-shield” insignia first appear?
9. Speaking of Bizarros, what did the Bizarro-Flash have as a chest insignia?
10. What was the last story/issue to show Hector Hammond as a normal man, before he enlarged his own brain?
I’ll be back with the answers in two weeks. Good luck!
Comments
Fun quiz, Commander. Although I don't know the answer to any of them....Can I chalk it up to before my time?
Good to see you post, Hal. You did well on the quiz, too. More details, though, will have to wait until I post the correct answers.
Sorry to be so coy, but the more responses I get, the less I can say without possibly tipping off others to the right answers.
Good ones, Commander!
For number 9, I remember reading the story. It was a Lois Lane story oddly enough. The duplication ray was shot at the Flash from a distance, and I believe it was while Flash was chairing a meeting of the JLA. He was holding a gavel in front of his chest, and the duplication ray put a gavel rather than a lightning bolt on the chest insignia of the Bizarro Flash.
Heh! You got quite a few correct, Luke. (I can't be more specific right now, lest I inadvertantly tip off others who want to take a stab at it.)
More important, you nailed a couple of the trickier ones, so that's good on you. Unfortunately, you also missed one of the tricky ones. Still, it's a pretty good score overall.
1.The Army. The retelling of her origin in Wonder Woman #159 puts her origin during WWII, when there was as yet no Air Force. Steve Trevor was in Army Intelligence and, while I don't have the second story from the issue, I must suppose as in the Golden Age she joined the WAACs.
2.Nykteris?
3.Charles Vicker.
4.I Remember Superboy.
5.Pass.
6.My best guess, by your definition of the Silver Age, is "Substitute Superman!" in Action Comics #366.
7.From memory, once a month.
8.Bizarro No. 1 (who was in fact the second Bizarro, but why quibble?) debuted in Action Comics #254, but the reversed symbols were introduced in “The Good Deeds of Bizarro-Luthor!” in Adventure Comics #293.
9.Pass.
10.“The Power Ring that Vanished!” in Green Lantern #5. He had already transformed himself by the time he next appeared in Justice League of America #14, but only became paralyzed when he returned in “Master of the Power Ring!” in Green Lantern #22.