Blog 2.0

Last week, I started a review of the many comics I read after returning from my travels in June and July.  It was kind of fun to read two or three issues at a time.  And it’s been just as much fun to review them that way as well.

GI Joe: Real American Hero 166-167: My patience has finally run out on the retro GI Joe title.  It’s never been the best book but I had room for a mediocre comic with nostalgic appeal.  The biggest problem is the dialogue.  The old GI Joe always had a smattering of military jargon.  At the time, it seemed designed to educate.  But the current title is crowded with it, making every conversation stilted and awkward.

Green Lantern 66-67, Green Lantern Corps 60-61, Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors 9-11, War of the Green Lanterns Aftermath 1: The last few months of Green Lantern have been unusually inconsistent.  I had been enjoying the first half of the War of the Green Lanterns story.  But the second half, represented in these issues, felt a little repetitive and drawn out.  I was particularly disappointed that the four earth Green Lanterns went back to the same pairings after meeting up in the middle.  The story could have introduced greater variety in character conflict if they had shuffled their partnerships.  Post-War, the separate titles have focused on individual Green Lanterns in self-contained stories.  While I appreciate the attempt at a change of pace, the stories themselves have been somewhat trite.  The unfortunate result is that it feels like the titles are biding time until their re-launch in September rather than truly exploring the depths of their characters.  The one exception is the War of the Green Lanterns Aftermath.  That issue packed several strong emotional wallops such as Hal’s despair at being exiled to earth and Sinestro’s desperation to get rid of the green ring.  The story also featured the great character conflict that had made the first half of the War worth reading. 

The Guild: Bladezz: I’ve truly delighted in this series of one-shots.  Earlier issues focused on Vork’s pathos and Tinkerballa’s mystery.  This issue explored Bladezz’s home life.  We learn how teenaged troublemaker Simon became sensational model Finn Smulders.  More importantly, we peek in on his antagonistic relationship with his sister, his tempered affection for his mother and his youthful resentment of her new boyfriend.  It’s a wonderful domestic drama that brings great depth to the main character- something that we don’t see in the more farcical web series.   

Invincible 80/Guarding the Globe 5: Invincible, the hero, is back on earth after the long Viltrumite War story.  And Invincible, the comic, is back to the combination of home life and super-heroics that made the book great.  On the superhero side, Invincible is feeling quite confident.  He has fully accepted his role as earth’s protector.  He isn’t shy about rushing into danger or making major decisions.  But that confidence may just lead him into trouble before the story is over.  On the domestic side, Invincible is feeling out of his depth.  He’s not quite ready to embrace the more adult role that he’s inherited.  He feels a little lost without his mom, who went on a trip into space.  And he’s hesitant about his relationship with Eve.  He wants to be with her, but he’s not quite ready to make a home with her.  Switching back and forth between the two storylines helps both move along briskly.  And there are some great contrasts between civilian Mark Grayson and confident Invincible.  Meanwhile, Guarding the Globe has been a minor disappointment.  The story can’t quite decide what it wants to be.  Is it the story of minor heroes saving the day in the absence of earth’s greatest hero?  Or is it a super-human soap opera?  The lack of commitment to either approach leaves the title with an uneven tone and a story that lurches from one situation to another.  

iZombie 13-15: There aren’t enough superlatives to describe this comic.  I read the first 12 issues in the span of two weeks as I caught up to the iZombie bandwagon.  Now, I’m reading it in (mostly) monthly installments and it’s just as good.  Chris Roberson does a great job keeping us invested in the main character, Gwen.  Her personality is interesting and her problems are intriguing.  I can see why Horatio is falling in love with her.  On top of that, Roberson is doing a great job with the secondary characters too.  Scenes concerning the vampire coven, Scott’s grandfather and Claire, the mad scientist assistant, are as enjoyable as the main story.  I could do without the Dead Presidents back-up strip though.

Kirby Genesis 0 and 1: This has the potential to become my new favorite comic.  Like Marvels and Kingdom Come, Genesis follows an unlikely lead in Kirby Freeman.  He’s the slightly nerdy kid smitten with the hottest girl in school in a world that’s about to explode in wonder.  He’s down to earth, yet knowledgeable.  He’s a little bit awed but skeptical enough not to be carried away.  He’s a little bit funny, but he’s not the class clown.  He has a small dose of teen angst, but not so much to be off-putting.  The art is also amazing, though that should be expected from a team headed by Alex Ross.  I particularly appreciated the humorous style for the flashback scenes and the contrast of shadowed human beings with almost neon alien visitors. 

Legion of Superheroes 13-15/Adventure Comics 526-528: This just isn’t working.  The new Paul Levitz Legion hasn’t been awful.  It’s even been great on occasion, particularly in the Annual and the Legion of Super-Villains one-shot.  But as an ongoing title, it’s been mediocre more often than that.  I almost think this would work better as an over-sized quarterly comic.  There are too many storylines for any of them to move forward that much.  And there are too many changes in direction- such as Mon’El leaving and then coming back right away again.  Adventure has been slightly better thanks to a smaller cast and superior art by both Phil Jimenez (now departed) and Jimenez-influenced Geraldo Borges.  Unfortunately, the kids are often unlikable and that makes it difficult to care about their triumphs or the their setbacks. 

Red Skull: Incarnate 1: Wow, what a great comic.  When I saw that Marvel was publishing a Red Skull origin story, I merely hoped that it would be as good as 2008’s Magneto Testament.  I didn’t realize that this was an intentional follow-up by the same author, Greg Pak.  The previous series explored the events that caused a young boy victimized by Nazis to become one of the world’s greatest villains.  This series is an interesting counterpoint.  What would cause a young boy to become one of the most fearsome Nazis in comic book history?  It’s been an intriguing case study so far.  We see a childhood penchant for cruelty and early lessons against weakness.  Red Skull Incarnate is heading to a dark place.  But, on occasion, that can make for a fascinating story. 

The Red Wing 1: Jonathan Hickman’s new sci-fi series has the potential to be a really cool comic.  The series focuses on a team of pilots, kind of like Kurt Busiek’s Shockrockets but with the added twist of time travel.  That twist introduces unique dangers: instant aging, four-dimensional dogfights and being stranded in the age of dinosaurs.  There’s a strong human angle as the two main characters are trying to follow in their famous father’s footsteps.  And there’s a mystery to hook you in- are their fathers dead or merely lost in time?  The art has a Frank Quitely influence, though it’s lacking his polish.  Yet it’s strong enough to carry the story and convey the tension. 

Rocketeer Adventures 1-3:

By Andrew A. Smith

Scripps Howard News Service

Cartoon Network’s Young Justice cartoon isn’t your daddy’s Teen Titans. It’s not even your older brother’s.

Young Justice is its own animal by virtue of playing mix and match with the various teen sidekicks from different eras of DC superhero comics, plus inventing a couple more. For example, the show features the original Robin at age 13, even though in the comics he hasn’t been that age since the 1950s. By contrast, YJ features the contemporary comic-book version of Superboy, a teen cloned from Superman in 1993.

One new character is a black Aqualad, although the original in the comics was white (and is dead). Evidently DC liked what they saw, since the new guy was recently introduced as Aquaman’s partner in the comics, too. Another new character may be confusing if you know too much; she’s a girl archer named Artemis who is NOT A) the Amazon warrior with that name in Wonder Woman comics, or B) the girl archer in the 1998-2003 Young Justice series named Arrowette.

But you don’t need to know all that to enjoy the cartoon. The ensemble cast is fine without prior knowledge, and entertains by depicting the interactions of an immature Robin, a reckless Kid Flash, a brooding Superboy, a flighty Miss Martian, and so forth. The flirting, fighting and search for identity and acceptance all ring true.

My one complaint is how they portray the Justice League. The show’s premise, you see, is that the sidekicks had demanded to join the League and be treated as adults. But that wouldn’t create a show starring that all-important demographic, the teenager. So story considerations required heroes like Superman to refuse to associate with the kids, and force them instead to become a covert superhero team. That’s not only more dangerous, it’s cruel. Thankfully, these jerks masquerading as super friends don’t show up much, except for Batman (assignments), Black Canary (combat trainer) and Red Tornado (supervisor).

And it seems to be working; Young Justice has been renewed for a second season. If you can’t wait, Warner Home Video released the first four episodes on DVD July 19 as Young Justice: Season One, Volume One ($14.97) and DC Kids has launched a companion comic book.

REPRINT ROUNDUP

* Sweet Tooth is ongoing mature-readers series set in a post-apocalyptic America where a plague has wiped out most of humanity, and animal/human hybrids are being born. These hybrids are immune to the plague, and are pursued by the ruthless human survivors for their secret. The eponymous star is one such hybrid, a boy with antlers who loves chocolate. Hence, “Sweet Tooth.”

I have to say I’m not a fan of the impressionistic art style of writer/artist Jeff Lemire (Nobody). On the other hand, my wife is crazy about every aspect of the book, so it’s really a matter of taste.

You can judge for yourself with the latest collection, Sweet Tooth Vol. 3: Animal Armies (DC/Vertigo, $14.99). Collecting Sweet Tooth #12-17, this volume sheds some light on the plague’s origin, re-unites Sweet Tooth with the big man who’d sold him for experiments (and has since had a change of heart) and begins a quest to learn Sweet Tooth’s origins.

Naturally, all of this complicated by the usual inhabitants of an apocalypse: brutal survivors, religious fanatics, mad scientists and rogue militias. Which, in Lemire’s hands, feel fresh. I may not care for the art, but Sweet Tooth is an absorbing and disturbing read.

* When Deluxe Comics re-launched a beloved 1960s series in 1984 as Wally Wood’s T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents, I bought them while holding my nose. I was a purist, you see, and was irritated by the title and concept, because Wally Wood – the heart and soul of the series – had died in 1981. I didn’t think of these characters as the “real” agents of The Higher United Nations Defense Enforcement Reserve.

Now DC has reprinted those five issues as T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents Archives Volume Seven ($59.99), and I was surprised: They were much better than I remembered. With work by Rich Buckler, Dave Cockrum, Paul Gulacy, Jerry Ordway and George Perez, it is more consistent in quality than the original 1960s T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents, which featured two or three superstars (like Wood) but also a whole lot of drek. Given that DC has re-launched T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents currently with the welcome revelation that all previous stories remain in continuity, this volume of obscure stories is simply that much more necessary for any hard-core comics fan.

Contact Andrew A. Smith of the Memphis Commercial Appeal at capncomics@aol.com.

Among amateur comic-book historians, National Periodical Publications (DC) editor Jack Schiff is often tagged as “the man who nearly ruined Batman.”

In the late 1950’s, the Batman was yanked from his familiar dark alleys and moonlit rooftops, to be thrust into alien dimensions and distant solar systems.   Even readers of that era were left scratching their heads and muttering “What th--?”  But especially the fans of to-day, accustomed to the notion of the Masked Manhunter as a dark avenger of evil, and with the benefit of hindsight, regard the “science-fiction Batman” as a genuine “What were they thinking?” period.

Truth to tell, by the start of ‘50’s, the Batman's mystique as a grim, mysterious figure warring relentlessly against all criminals---the image so embraced by modern Bat-fans---was passé.  The Caped Crusader had dropped the article the from his name and had become plain old familiar “Batman”.  He and Robin operated more often during the day, travelled the world, and enjoyed a great deal of acclaim as lawmen.  Yet, Batman hadn’t strayed that far from his roots.  He was still a detective, following clues, donning disguises, and employing modern forensic techniques.  He had emerged from the shadows, but his adventures were still squarely in the realm of what was plausible for a costumed hero without super-powers.

Then, in 1957, that plausibility hit the wall when the direction of Batman’s adventures took a radical shift---a thematic “left turn at Albuquerque”---and the Gotham Gangbuster went plunging into a climate more suitable for Flash Gordon.  As the editor in charge of Batman and Detective Comics at the time, Jack Schiff is viewed as the guy who gave him the shove.

A managing editor for National Periodical, Schiff also held the reins of such DC titles as House of Mystery, House of Secrets, My Greatest Adventure, and Tales of the Unexpected.   By the middle of the decade, these titles had shaken off their supernatural overtones and featured tales centering on weird creatures, alien devices, and the occasional adventure in space.   (The futuristic Space Ranger was the headliner in Tales of the Unexpected for five years.)  It is his association with these titles which, I think, causes many finger-pointers to blame Schiff for putting Batman into the same milieu.

The irony is that, unlike Julius Schwartz and Mort Weisinger, who thrived on science fiction elements, Schiff never really warmed to the genre.  Gerard Jones and Will Jacobs, in The Comic Book Heroes, provided some background on Schiff.  He had begun as a pulp editor at Standard Magazines in the 1930’s, but strictly over the mystery and horror titles, not Standard’s SF output.  In fact, he convinced Standard to hire Mort Weisinger to handle to its SF titles.  Later, after Weisinger jumped over to DC, he returned the favour by having Schiff hired to take his place when he left to join the military during World War II.

The fact that Schiff was uncomfortable with science fiction adds to the criticism of his handling of Batman.  After all, while merging the detective genre with that of science fiction is an odd fit, it isn’t unworkable.  Chester Gould was able to insert SF into the adventures of Dick Tracy---Batman’s kindred spirit---and it wasn’t too terrible.  But not only did Schiff shove SF down Batman’s throat, insist the detractors, it was bad SF.

It was bad science fiction; Schiff should probably take a hit for that.  But the detractors are wrong in holding Schiff to blame for putting Batman in space in the first place.

For that, one needs to look at Irwin Donenfeld, son of NPP’s co-founder, Harry Donenfeld, and editorial director for the DC line.

Donenfeld noted how the company's science-fiction titles were outselling its standard super-hero magazines.  He had also observed the public's growing interest with flying saucers, the launching of Sputnik, and the space programme.  Thinking he was on to something,  Donenfeld issued marching orders to the DC editors to add aliens and space travel to their stories.  

Or, at least, that’s how most accounts have it.

(Years later---as related in Les Daniels’ Batman: the Complete History---Irwin Donenfeld dissembled a bit on the subject, by stating that he couldn’t recall exactly what his rôle was in the SF shift.  “I like to take credit for everything,” he said, “but truthfully I just don’t know.”)

Conversion to a science-fiction slant wasn’t a problem for Schwartz, who was already operating in that genre, nor for Weisinger, whose Superman family of titles leant themselves to SF.  But for Schiff’s Bat-titles, it was a disaster.  And he knew it.

Schiff recognised that such alien concepts ran against the basic premise of the Batman as a sleuth and argued against the changes.  As he stated in an interview published in 1983's Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide:  "I was having disagreements with the management about the 'monster craze' everybody was into.  I fought the introduction into Batman and Superman of this trend, but I was pressured into using them."

Most sources cite the tale “Batman’s Super-Enemy”, from Detective Comics # 250 (Dec., 1957), as the beginning of the “science-fiction Batman”.  To be sure, there had been earlier Batman stories that had been based at least in part on SF (e.g., the two adventures involving the Batman of the 31st century from Batman # 67 [Oct.-Nov., 1951] and Detective Comics # 216 [Feb., 1955]).  But this was the first of what proved to be a six-year run of overwhelmingly SF-oriented tales in both Bat-titles.

Almost immediately, the Batman comic followed suit with “Batman---the Superman of Planet X”, in Batman # 113 (Feb., 1958).  And the concept was off and running.  Between December, 1957 and April, 1964, the Dynamic Duo were confronted by a giant lizard-man from Planet X, alien creatures springing from the mysterious space seeds, a crystal being from an atomic dumping ground, a jigsaw menace, a super-powered sky creature, a chemical monster created by lightning, a Cyclops from a space capsule, a giant wasp-monster, the Beast of Koba Bay, ogres created by a cosmic Z-ray, an other-dimensional silver thief, and a volcanic rainbow beast.

They conducted a manhunt for an alien criminal in outer space, ended an extra-terrestrial duel, thwarted two alien invasion forces, captured a space pirate, led a coup to overthrow the despot of another world, represented Earth in the Interplanetary Olympics, and became the captives of an alien zoo.

Batman visited the planets X, Ergon, Tora, Alcor, Zur-En-Arrh, the world of the Bat-People, and the Dimension of Doom.  He teamed up with the other-worldly lawmen Mahan, Tal-Don, Goga, Ardello, and Inspector Tutian.

And when he wasn’t dealing with “another bizarre creature with a fantastic weapon“, the Masked Manhunter was undergoing some bizarre changes of his own.  He was transformed into a giant and into a merman.  He was rendered invisible.  He acquired super-strength.  And at various times, he was turned into Zebra-Batman, Mummy-Batman, Element-Batman, Flame-Batman, Negative-Batman, Batman Genie, and Bat-Baby.

On the surface, one could see a certain logic in Donenfeld’s insistence on spacemen and monsters.  The late ‘50’s were also a time of some phenomenally popular science-fiction and monster movies.  Films such as The Day the Earth Stood Still, The Blob, Them!, Earth Versus the Flying Saucers, The Creature from the Black Lagoon, and The Thing (from Another World) were packing movie houses and drive-in theatres.  The thing was, in the case of the Batman, rocket ships and garish monsters stood in direct opposition to the mood that had been originally established for the Darknight Detective.  He was meant to operate in an environment as much like the real world as comic-book convention would permit.  Let Buck Rogers fight giant space dragons and Martian death-rays.

And if the premise was flawed, the execution was worse.

No matter how much one loves steak and lobster, if he eats nothing but steak and lobster every day, pretty soon he’s going to be dying for a grilled cheese sandwich, and Batman fans were exposed to almost a steady diet of aliens and monsters.  But overkill was only part of the problem.

As I mentioned, Jack Schiff never connected with the theme of science fiction, and I would hazard a guess that the writers were similarly flummoxed.  Most of the Batman stories during this period were written by Bill Finger---the man who had originated most of the aspects that marked the original concept for the hero, as a mysterious foe of evil, who assumed a bat-like motif because criminals were a cowardly, superstitious lot.  Finger must have had a difficult time wrapping science-fiction elements around the character he had envisioned as a dark avenger.

On rare occasion, it worked.  One of the most fondly remembered stories of the period was “Robin Dies at Dawn”, from Batman # 156 (Jun., 1963), and it has emerged as one of the classic Batman tales.  But it worked because Finger was able to provide a grounded explanation for the aliens and monsters.  The Masked Manhunter’s off-world visit, in this case, was actually a hallucination, the result of a sensory-deprivation experiment for which Batman had volunteered, to enable scientists to measure the effects of isolation on U. S. astronauts.  In fact, the true thrust of the story was how the after-affects of the hallucination interfered with the Batman’s ability to handle his regular duties.

But such logical space-age stories were the exception.  Most often, the readers were subjected to an endless parade of little green men, bug-eyed monsters, and grotesque distortions.  In short order, the tales grew repetitive and unexciting.  The effect on the Batman was disastrous.  As DC historian Les Daniels put it:  “There was no core character left, just a hollow man being battered from place to place by whatever gimmick could be concocted . . . . “

Schiff occasionally resisted the publishorial dictates and inserted some stories pitting the Dynamic Duo against ordinary crime figures, and he managed to include a few of the vintage villains, like the Joker and the Penguin, in adventures hearkening to the old days.  He was also responsible for the early 1960's Batman Giant Annuals which reprinted the old Batman-as-dark-detective stories.  Again, from Overstreet, Schiff related, "Letters from fans indicated their liking for the old stories," and he felt vindicated by this evidence that readers preferred the earlier-era traditional Batman foes over aliens and bizarre transformations.

Unfortunately, the suits at NPP refused to see what was clear-as-crystal to Schiff---even though sales on the Bat-titles were dropping precipitously.  Figures for 1962 showed an average total circulation of 410,000 for Batman and 265,000 for Detective Comics (and those numbers were down 82,000 and 49,000, respectively, from a mere two years earlier).  In contrast, for the same year, Superman sold 740,000 copies and Action Comics, 435,000.  Even Lois Lane (at 490,000) and Jimmy Olsen (470,000) outsold the Bat-titles.

Certainly contributing to this slide was the decline in art.  The dynamic, detailed art of Dick Sprang had been a drawing point on the Bat-titles for years.  Then, in 1954, he ended his regular run on Batman and Detective Comics to take over as the primary artist on World’s Finest Comics.  Stepping up to replace the loss of Sprang was Sheldon “Shelly” Moldoff.

Moldoff had served briefly as Bob Kane’s assistant back in 1939; in 1953, he returned to work for Kane as his “ghost”.  It was a good fit.  Moldoff matched Kane’s art perfectly in many ways:  the uneven sense of perspective, the stiffness of his figures, their undersized hands and feet, and the characteristic poses, such as characters stroking their chins.  What Moldoff couldn’t replicate was the sense of mood that Kane, for all of his shortcomings as an artist, managed to instil in the earliest Batman tales.

At least, the exceptional brush of Charles Paris was able to provide some strength and depth to Moldoff’s pencils.  But often as not, Moldoff inked himself, with a flat, scratchy, cartoon-like result.

It was a dismal showing for the Cowled Crusader under any circumstances, but as it was, it came at the worst possible time.  The other DC shops---the ones for which science fiction was more suited---were enjoying a renaissance.

Mort Weisinger had consolidated Superman and his various off-shoots---Superboy, Supergirl, Jimmy Olsen, Lois Lane---into a solidly unified mythos.    Weisinger saw to the introduction of one startling concept after another. The Fortress of Solitude.  The Phantom Zone.  Bizarros.  The Legion of Super-Heroes.  Multi-coloured varieties of kryptonite.   The bottled city of Kandor.  And they weren’t just one-shot wonders.  They crossed over, interlocked, opening new vistas for the Man of Steel’s adventures.

And even that paled next to what was going on over at Julius Schwartz’ editorial fiefdom.  Schwartz had scraped the barnicles off of some of DC’s Golden-Age characters---the Flash, the Green Lantern, Hawkman, and the Atom---and gave them space-age updates.  Green Lantern was one of an interstellar police force.  Hawkman and his wife, Hawkgirl, were cops too, from the distant planet Thanagar, sent to study Earth’s law-enforcement methods.

The revised origins of the new Flash and Atom emphasized the “science” in science fiction.  The physics were a little shaky but sounded sufficiently authentic for the readers to buy into it.  The rising generation of comics readers appreciated the new sophistication and swarmed each new issue.

It didn’t hurt that Weisinger and Schwartz employed the top tier of DC’s artists:  guys like Curt Swan and Gil Kane and Murphy Anderson.

Meanwhile, poor Batman was left to die of creative anemia.

Uninspired in both script and art, sales on Batman and Detective Comics continued to plummet. The concept of a science-fiction-oriented Batman hadn’t just failed; it had sucked the life out of the franchise.  By 1964, NPP was considering the unthinkable---cancelling the two titles featuring DC’s second-most-famous character. 

It was going to take a “Hail Mary” play to keep Batman alive, and fortunately---as I will discuss next time---DC had just the quarterback to call it.

This is my first Blog attempt and I've been thinking about it for a while now. I picked the title "Reflections" because you can see reflections in Gold, Silver, Bronze and the Brand New. Comics have always reflected pop culture, politics, social issues, current events and the world that they were created in. These are my opinions, my views and my conclusions. And I welcome comments and corrections.

With the relevation of the New Ultimate Spider-Man being half-Latino, half African American, several of us (myself included) observed the lack of original minority/non-White heroes. I'm focusing on Marvel now but DC is equally lax on it. There are notable examples of black characters taking the names/personas of established white heroes: Iron Man, Captain Marvel, Goliath/Giant-Man, even Ultimate Nick Fury. To be fair, Marvel created all-new minority non-White heroes in their Silver Age but there were always problems.

The Black Panther is a real African king from the super sci-fi nation of Wakanda so it was difficult for readers to identify with him. He was a guest star for his first years, joining the Avengers. Then the term "Black Panther" took on a whole new meaning with the rise of the militant group, thus robbing him of a marketable, "safe" name. He was addressed as The Panther, the Black Leopard and his true name, T'Challa but this denied him any solo series until the regretably named Jungle Action. There have been many attempts to make the Black Panther a star; five different series, numerous minis, married to the X-Men's Storm and lately being treated as a major player in the MU. It may work yet though his lack of real powers and a dull costume are definite disadvantages.

The Falcon was always featured prominently but always as the second part of Captain America And... This sidekick label never left him and then there is his convoluted origin and constant attempts of upgrading him. Powers, no powers and the same falcon, Redwing, for over forty years! Maybe he has the super-powers!

The Prowler added some variety to Amazing Spider-Man but he's a very minor character, especially compared to Daily Bugle editor Joe Robertson.

But Marvel's best bet for a non-White superstar was:

Created by Roy Thomas, John Romita and Archie Goodwin, Luke Cage debuted in Hero For Hire #1 (Ju'72). His origin was definitely from the headlines. He was a black prisoner, wrongly convicted, mistreated by racist guards, who undergoes an experimental process to gain parole. But one of those guards tried to kill him but the overloaded treatment gives him "steel-hard skin and muscles to match!" He quickly escapes and starts a new life as a super-hero that the public can employ.

Luke had a hard life which he does not sugarcoat. He has committed crimes and done acts of violence but he was trying to better himself when he got framed. He is wary of the law and authority and rightfully so. But he wants to be a force of good, he just wants to be paid for it. This does has some precedence in the Marvel books. Both the Fantastic Four and the Avengers get stipends and the public believes that Iron Man works for Tony Stark.

Many complain about his outfit but it is appropiate. The metal handband shows his strength and nobility. The much-mocked yellow shirt works with his dark skin and makes him stand out. He does not hide in the shadows. He is in your face and proud. The chain belt reminds him of his wrongful imprisonment and gives him resolve to aid the helpless. He looks like a hero, an individual and a warrior.

Also worth mentioning is that not all whites are bad and not all blacks are good. Cage fought black foes (Diamondback, Black Mariah, Senor Muerte, Chemistro, Shades and Comanche) and white foes (Mace, the Christmas Bomber, Stilletto, not to mention Doctor Doom). The latter smacked in the middle of the Marvel Universe. The Doom issues of Hero For Hire #8-9 also have him meeting the Fantastic Four, which would pay dividends in the future. HFH #12 refer to Amazing Spider-Man #124 where he was hired by Jolly J. Jonah Jameson to capture the Wall-Crawler.

But in what would have been HFH #17, the big change comes as the title becomes Power Man, a strong and memorable name. He also battles Iron Man and holds his own.

Power Man had all the potential to be a super-star. Compelling origin, real powers, an interesting supporting cast but sales were never strong. He may have been Shaft Among the Super-Heroes but he never really fitted in. Too strong for urban crime and too urban for super-hero fare. He was even part of the Fantastic Four for three issues, replacing the Thing briefly. He was paired with fellow fad hero Iron Fist and for a time, Power Man & Iron Fist was one of Marvel's best comics.

Luke had several problems for success. His strength was seemingly purposely left vague. He battled Spidey, Iron Man and the Thing but no one knew how strong he really was. He was part of the Defenders for a time but was never asked to be an Avenger even though he had his own title. Simply put, he was never treated like a headliner. Flavor but not the main course! 

He could have been a contender. He really could have!

"Sweet Christmas!"

I was travelling for roughly 6 out of 7 weeks in June and July.  Among other things, that means I fell way behind in my comic book reading.  I still managed to make it to the shop occasionally and pick up whatever was sitting in my pull box.  But I simply couldn’t keep up with that many comics while on the road. 

On the bright side, that meant that I had a huge stack of comics waiting for me when I finally settled down again.  Even better, I had multiple issues of most titles.  Though I prefer single issues to trades, it can be a lot of fun to read two or three issues in a row.  You get a much better sense of where a story is going when its individual installments aren’t interrupted by 40 other series.    

Amazing Spider-Man 659-665: In these issues, Spidey joined the FF, took a turn teaching the Avengers Academy, got mixed up with Anti-Venom and Mr. Negative and ditched a movie night with Betty Brant.  I read some online reactions from people who didn’t like the first two stories, since they seemed to be about the guest-stars more than Spidey (the Avengers Academy issues were even written by the AA writer rather than the regular Spidey scribe).  But I loved them. I like Spidey’s niche in the FF.  He’s a perfect substitute for the Human Torch bringing both power and levity.   Yet Peter still feels like he’s a little bit out of place, so there’s still some of that typical Parker awkwardness.  The Avengers Academy story was just a fun read.  It reminded me of classic Marvel Team-Up stories, pairing Spider-Man with the newest hero in a way that shines light on both of them.  The one down note for me was the Anti-Venom story.  I find Anti-Venom one-dimensional and boring.  Plus, I was much more interested in Mr. Negative when he was influencing Aunt May, instead of serving as Anti-Venom’s foil.  However, it appears as if the Aunt May/Mr. Negative story was resolved in a side series as she only showed up for one panel.  Happily, the title quickly recovered with a great one-shot that focused on Peter’s friendship with Betty Brant.

American Vampire 14-16 and American Vampire: Survival of the Fittest 1-2: American Vampire is quickly becoming one of my favorite titles and a strong contender for series of the year.  Both stories take place during World War II.  In the main title, Henry Preston is serving in the Pacific where he’s been sent to destroy a vampire nest on the island of Taipan.  Skinner Sweet came along for reasons of his own, and Pearl Jones is back in Hawaii trying to unravel the mystery.  In the special mini-series, vampire hunters Cash McCogan and Felicia Book are posing as Nazi sympathizers in an attempt to acquire a potential cure for vampirism.  Both stories are full of setbacks and unexpected twists, deadly situations and heightened emotional drama.  My one small complaint is that the artists don’t do a good enough job differentiating stylistically between Pearl and Felicia and Skinner and Cash.  The separate leads should have separate looks. 

Astonishing X-Men 37-39: I like what Astonishing X-Men is doing right now.  The title is alternating between two stories that are supposedly happening at the same time.  In the first, one squad- Cyclops, Emma Frost, Wolverine and Armor- is in Japan fighting escapees from Monster Island.  The story is a lot of fun, riffing off of classic Godzilla movies.  Yet it also has a strong heart as Armor deals with the emotions of returning to her homeland as a hero for the first time.  In the second, another squad- Beast, Colossus, Shadowcat and Storm- has flown into orbit to help SWORD fight off a Brood incursion.  Once again, there’s a fun movie flavor to the story.  This time, the plot evokes the original Alien.  And, once again, there’s a strong emotional component with awkward reunions between Kitty and Lockheed and Beast and Brand.

Captain America 617-619 and Volume 6 #1: The biggest news for Captain America occurred in Marvel’s summer crossover, Fear Itself.  James “Bucky” Barnes, who had been carrying the shield, was killed.  Back in his own title, James was serving a prison sentence in Russia for crimes he had committed as the Winter Soldier.  It was a strong story, with the Black Widow and Sharon Carter working for his release while Bucky fought for redemption.  However, the emotional impact was lessened by Bucky’s appearance in Fear Itself, presumably after his release.  As for the new title, I should have known that I could trust Ed Brubaker.  The reason I’ve loved Captain America for the past seven years hasn’t been Steve Rogers or Bucky Barnes.  It’s been writer Ed Brubaker.  He delivered a great individual tale.  Plus, he set up Baron Zemo as a shadow threat, giving the title the continuing menace that it’s been missing since the Red Skull was defeated. 

Dollhouse: Epitaphs 0 and 1: This comic is not for the faint-hearted.  Based on Joss Whedon’s television show, the comic is set in the near future.  The Rossum technology to erase and replace personalities is about to go global.  This mini-series tells the story of those early survivors, the ones who resisted the technology, kept their own minds, banded together and began to fight back.  But their experience is not pretty.  They are abandoned and isolated.  They don’t know who or how to trust.  Some become callous killers.  Others look for love among the ruins.  There are even a few surprise appearances of characters from the TV show.  It’s an epic and emotionally satisfying tale so far, but it’s not a place I’d want to live. 

Fables 103-106: I’m sorry to say it but, for me, the Super Group story has been a giant misstep.  The only good stuff happened in sub-plots that had little to do with the main story.  I liked the final confrontation between Bigby’s dad and Mr. Dark.  But that had nothing to do with the gathering of heroes and could have happened just as easily without it.  Even worse, the plot device of putting together a super-team was contrived and out-of-place.  It is possible to tell a great story that breaks the fourth wall and comments on the nature of comic book superheroes.  It might have even worked in Jack of Fables, which regularly commented on literary devices and conventions.  But it was an awkward digression for Fables and never fit smoothly with the established tone of the series. 

Fear Itself: Every crossover walks a tightrope.  It needs to tell a main story that is engaging, exciting and complete in its own right.  It also needs to leave other strands of story that can be explored in the tie-ins.  Blackest Night got it right on both counts.  Civil War managed the first, Secret Invasion the second.  Fear Itself is teetering on the edge and in danger of falling.  The main story is bold and beautifully drawn.  However, significant plot points are being designated to the supporting series- specifically what happens to each of the hammer-wielders.  The two main story threads- Thor’s expulsion from Asgard and Captain America’s confrontation with Skadi- are going well.  But the other scenes feel more like an update about what’s happening in other comic books rather than sub-plots of this particular story.  Though, to be fair, there are a lot of pretty explosions. 

Fear Itself tie-ins: I sampled a few of the Fear Itself mini-series.  My recollection was that the series were hit or miss.  But when I looked back, I realized that was because I was including ongoing series.  The four mini-series that I sampled contained a lot more misses than hits- Alpha Flight, Uncanny X-Force, Wolverine and Youth in Revolt.  Alpha Flight had a decent premise- fighting Attuma after he’s been powered up by one of the magical hammers (see the previous entry).  Yet, despite my love for Alpha Flight, it’s a fairly mediocre comic.  Youth in Revolt is an attempt to salvage characters from the recently canceled Young Allies series and it’s about as bad as that series had been.  I had the highest hopes for Uncanny X-Force because the parent title is so good but this series inherited the violence but not the humor or the heart.  Surprisingly, Wolverine has been the only series worth reading, mainly because of the presence of Melita Garner.  I like the way that various writers have been slowly building her relationship with Wolverine in one-spots and specials like this. 

FF 2-6: First off, I don’t like the all-white costumes.  I wanted to give them a try, but then I saw the all-black costumes they wore for mourning and those were so much better.  Second, this is a pretty awesome comic if my only complaint is about the color of the costumes.  I like the mix of personalities.  Peter Parker is a good fit, bringing a similar sense of humor as Johnny Storm.  Alex Power is kind of cool as a Mr. Fantastic in training- learning to be a hero, a leader and a genius.  The kids and the guests keep the series light and surprising.  Oh, and I love the twists such as recruiting their greatest enemies to help defeat the Reed Richardses of parallel worlds.  The Inhumans issue was a minor misstep, but one that could be salvaged depending on how that story is integrated in future issues.  

Flashpoint 1: I feel a little like Barry Allen.  Despite reading comics as fast as I can, I still haven’t caught up with Flashpoint.  So it’s not quite fair to compare Flashpoint to Fear Itself.  After all, I liked the first issue of Fear Itself.  The series didn’t start to wobble until the third and fourth issues.  All I can say by way of comparison is that I hope Flashpoint stays steadier on its feet because it’s done a great job of bursting out of the starting block.  I like the set-up- Aquaman and Wonder Woman are warring over Europe while Cyborg is trying to put together a team to stop them.  And I like Flash’s confusion.  Expected allies are adversaries.   Expected friends are practically strangers.  Now we see if Cyborg (and Geoff Johns) can pull the confused and scattered misfits into a force capable of bringing peace to this world. 

By Andrew A. Smith

Scripps Howard News Service

July 26, 2011 -- With the arrival of the Captain America movie, Titan has released two excellent books shining a light on the character’s creators.

For those just coming in, Cap was created in 1941 by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, in a story lifted almost intact for the movie. While Kirby died in 1994, his partner is still very much with us at age 97, as demonstrated by his new autobiography, Joe Simon: My Life in Comics ($24.95).

Given that comic books more or less came into being in the 1930s, Simon’s Life in Comics is also the story of the industry. He was present for most of the major events in the history of comic books, and was the cause of a few of them. For example, Simon was the first editor at Marvel Comics (called Timely in the 1940s), where he hired a teenager named Stan Lee. Simon worked with nearly every major creator through the 1960s, co-created entire genres (including “kid gang” comics and romance books) and worked for publishers as small as Crestwood and as huge as the company we know today as DC Comics. “Simon and Kirby” was such a recognizable franchise that the duo received royalties (which was unheard of in the 1940s), were the first to have their names on the covers of comic books as a sales tool and today have an entire archives series devoted to their works.

And as much insight as Simon’s book gives us to comics personalities like Bob Kane (creator of Batman), Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster (creators of Superman) and Will Eisner (creator of The Spirit), he also managed to be around for a lot of non-comics twentieth century history. Which is how he managed to run into comedian Sid Caesar, actor Cesar Romero, boxer Jack Dempsey, writer Damon Runyon and other luminaries.

One can easily glean from the book how Simon managed to be so popular. His easy, affectless prose reveals an affable, flexible, generous and optimistic personality. Add to that Simon’s obvious creativity, and he was no doubt a lot of fun to be around. Since most of us will never have the fortune to meet him, this book is the next best thing.

The next best thing after the autobiography are the comics Simon created, and Titan has collected one of the oddest and funniest titles he and Kirby ever did.

Simon and Kirby left Captain America Comics with issue #10 in 1942, after an acrimonious dispute with publisher Martin Goodman. So when they heard Goodman was going to revive the Living Legend in 1953 (Cap had been canceled in 1950), it rubbed salt into a still-open wound. But the proactive Simon, always looking to turn a negative into a positive, had a brainstorm. He quotes himself as saying to Kirby, “You know, there’s no reason we can’t do our own character again. They can’t corner the market on patriotism, after all. Why don’t we show them how it’s done?”

Thus was born Fighting American at tiny Prize Comics, another star-spangled hero in the tradition of Simon and Kirby’s own Captain America … sort of. Naturally, the powerful pencils for which Kirby was known were present, and as bombastic as they ever were on Captain America. But something was different this time: a sense of humor. Fighting American was so over the top in Red-baiting, Commie-bashing, flag-waving hoo-ha that it was practically a parody of itself (and of Captain America).

“Sure, the book was full of Commies and offbeat villains,” Simon says in the foreword to Titan’s new Fighting American collection ($19.95). “But it also poked fun at the whole superhero thing.” The ever-earnest and jingoistic Fighting American (and his sidekick Speedboy) battled characters like Poison Ivan and Hotsky-Trotski with the same campy seriousness Adam West would affect in the Batman TV show more than a decade later.

The Fighting American trade paperback collects every story in the series, which ran only seven issues (with a two-issue reboot), but was still around longer than the Captain America revival, which died in 1954. (Cap wouldn’t become the popular fixture he is today until his second revival in 1964.) And even 60 years later, the humor and inventiveness shine through every page of Fighting American.

Both books offer welcome insights into both Simon and Kirby. Creating Captain America alone would be enough for most, but for this pair it was just a beginning.

 Contact Andrew A. Smith of the Memphis Commercial Appeal at capncomics@aol.com.

I moved to York, Pa., about 12 years ago, and my wanderings through the area lead me to an interesting discovery: This was once the headquarters to the Record Club of America, a company that frequently advertised in 1970s-era comics.

Through a little bit of internet Google-fu and some on-site snooping, I've found a little bit about the company that duked it out with BMG and Columbia House, two more well-known music mail-in clubs.

You can read all about it in the latest entry at Comics on the Brain!

By Andrew A. Smith

Scripps Howard News Service

'Cowboys & Aliens' movie lifts graphic novel's high concept

Another comic-book concept makes its movie premiere July 29: Cowboys & Aliens. And therein hangs a tale.

Cowboys & Aliens debuted as a standalone graphic novel from Platinum Studios in 2006 by writers Fred Van Lente and Andrew Foley, penciller Luciano Lima and a host of inkers. The story involved an expansionist alien species crash-landing in 1870s Arizona and annexing it while building a transmitter to contact their fleet to finish the job. Apache warriors, gunslingers and pioneer settlers joined forces to battle them, stealing alien equipment where they could to equal the odds.

While the thrust of the story was action, action, action, there was some social commentary too. One gunslinger remarked that the aliens had no right to conquer our turf just because they had better weapons, which resulted in a sheepish “Oh” after a stern look from the Native Americans. The “all men are brothers” theme was underscored by some cross-racial romance, as a gunslinger and a (female) alien science officer fell in love, as did a (white) female gunslinger and an Apache warrior.

None of which seems to apply to Cowboys & Aliens the movie. Starring Daniel Craig, Harrison Ford and Olivia Wilde, the film seems to take very little from the graphic novel except the name and the high concept.

But what a concept it is! It’s almost impossible to look at the GN cover, the movie posters or movie trailers and not have a thrill of anticipation. A cowboy shooting at a UFO with a sixgun? That begs the who, what, why and how response.

Which answers in part this question I hear a lot: How come Hollywood has come to rely so much on comic books as their source material? This is especially remarkable when you consider how comics were once fiercely snubbed by pop culture in general, especially the much-maligned superhero genre. For this 40-year comics reader, it’s a 180-degree turn from my youth, when I had to hide comics to avoid getting beaten up.

So what’s changed? A recent “Simpsons” episode depicted Bart explaining, “Hollywood has run dry of ideas.” While that may be partly true, I think some other things are going on here:

• Comics have really grown up. And I’m not just talking about more sophisticated themes in superhero comics (which are also on display in the X-Men and Spider-Man movies). What I mean are terrific non-superhero comics that have been turned into occasionally terrific movies like 300, Constantine, Kick-Ass, Ghost World, Hellboy, A History of Violence, The Mask, Priest, Men in Black, Red, Road to Perdition, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, Sin City, V for Vendetta, Wanted and many more. Regardless of their medium of origin, these are just good stories.

• Movie F/X have caught up to comics. It used to be that if you wanted to see an exploding sun or a plausible space ship, you’d read a comic book (or a science fiction book and imagine it). Now the movies can do it – which means they can finally do comic books and science fiction right.

• Comics concepts come pre-vetted. If you’re writing a Batman movie, for example, you’re standing on the shoulders of giants. The Dark Knight has appeared in hundreds of thousands of stories over more than 70 years, and has had hundreds, if not thousands, of writers. That means all the mistakes have been made; those authors have found what works and what doesn’t, and have discarded the dross. They’ve already done the focus groups, involving millions of readers over decades. If a concept is still in a long-running comic book, that means it’s popular and it works and movie writers should use it. No thinking required.

• Comics are basically movie storyboards. Comics do all the work for a director. The pacing, camera angles and storytelling have all been thought out in advance.

Movies that ignore these lessons do so at their peril. When you compare a list of the worst comic-book movies with a list of comic-book movies where the writers jettisoned or fundamentally altered the existing mythos, many names appear on both. (See: Catwoman, Elektra, Jonah Hex, etc.)

That deviation from source material is happening with Cowboys & Aliens, but here we’re talking about a single graphic novel, one which was a a fairly pedestrian take on what is clearly a cool concept. This time, the movie-makers might be right to start over.

And, honestly: Cowboys shooting at UFOs! How can you go wrong?

 Contact Andrew A. Smith of the Memphis Commercial Appeal at capncomics@aol.com.

Those of you who have been regular Deck Log followers have seen me discuss the mid-‘60’s phenomenon known as “Batmania” a few times.  It’s one of those things impossible to convey in the written word.  You had to experience it.  When the ABC network launched its new series Batman on 12 January 1966 . . . well, the phrase “overnight sensation” would not be an overstatement. 

Fads come and go, of course.  But normally they infect only a particular sub-set of society and that’s usually a segment of the younger generation.  Batmania was different.  It was one of those rare crazes that swept across the entire culture, regardless of age distinctions.  So, naturally, opportunists found a way to make a buck off of it.

Comics publishers weren’t the only folks to jump on board the super-hero gravy train inspired by the Bat-craze.  Television executives from rival broadcasters CBS and NBC set out to fashion their own super-hero spoofs and, hopefully, leech some of Batman’s ratings-smashing popularity to their own networks.

Comics enthusiasts occasionally discuss the coïncident timing which saw DC’s Doom Patrol and Marvel’s X-Men, two strikingly similar concepts, debut mere months apart in 1963.  And there were other curiously fortuitous instances of this kind, such as the Red Tornado/the Vision in 1968 and the Swamp Thing/the Man-Thing in 1971.

In the case of DC and Marvel, maybe it was happenstance, maybe it wasn’t.  But television has never been that coy about it.  Not only did CBS and NBC present the public with a pair of super-hero sitcoms featuring closely matching characters and premises, but they were introduced on the same night, 09 January 1967, and only a half-hour apart.  Like their spiritual progenitor, Batman, they were both mid-season replacement shows.  And that would not be the end to their parallels.

For those of you who, like me, were around then, this will bring back some memories.  Possibly, even fond ones.  For those of you who came in late, it should be an interesting glimpse of television’s own Silver Age of super-heroes.

A Scientist, Both Wise and Bold, Set Out to Cure the Common Cold;

Instead, He Found This Power Pill . . . .

The first of these Batman wanna-bes was shown on Monday nights, at eight p.m.  (I won’t go into what it says about my brain that I remembered the day of the week without having to consult a 1967 calendar.)  This was the CBS product and it was titled Mr. Terrific, and if you’re thinking that it was about the old DC hero, Terry Sloan, the Man of a Thousand Talents, you’re wrong.  It would probably have been a better show if it had been.

Of the two super-hero send-ups produced by CBS and NBC, this one was, technically, first---and not just because it aired a half-hour before NBC’s effort.  In the summer of 1966, the Tiffany Network had already turned its eye toward producing a Batman clone.  The result was a pilot starring Alan Young, coming off a successful run in Mr. Ed, as Stanley H. Beamish, a nebbishy department-store clerk.  As the plot relates, the efforts of a government laboratory have resulted in the creation of a pill which will bestow a human being with the basic array of Superman-like powers---super-strength, invulnerability, flight, super-speed, and X-ray vision.  Hilarity ensues when it’s discovered that the only person the pill will work on is Stanley Beamish.

As Beamish, Alan Young was clumsy and addle-brained, kind of a dumber version of Wilbur Post.  Young is a talented actor, as was Edward Andrews, who played the head of the government bureau in charge of the super-power pill.  But here, they both played their parts too broadly, and frankly, the script didn’t give them a whole lot to work with.  It was an embarrassment to all involved, and CBS wisely passed on it.

That would have been that for TV’s Mr. Terrific---except that a few months later, CBS got wind that NBC was busy producing its own super-hero satire and the buzz was that it was pretty good.  Not wanting to be left in the lurch, it locked some writers in a room and told them they couldn’t come out until they fixed Mr. Terrific.  The result was a revamp with about as much housecleaning as Julius Schwartz’ revival of the Flash.

The premise---that a “power pill” would give super-powers to only one man---was retained, as was the name of that fateful subject, Stanley Beamish.  Aside from that, everything else, including the cast, was changed.  Now, Stanley Beamish, played by Stephen Strimpell, was half-owner of a small-time garage and filling station.  Where Stanley is meek and mild, his partner and best friend, Hal Walters (Dick Gautier, best remembered as “Hymie the Robot”, from Get Smart), is self-confident and an inveterate skirt chaser.

When a government scientist invents the power pill---accidentally this time, instead of on purpose---the Bureau of Special Projects determines that the only subject in all the country that the pill will affect is Stanley Beamish.  Barton J. Reed (John McGiver), head of the Bureau, and his aide, Harley Trent (Paul Smith), seek out Stanley and recruit him into super-powered government service.  Stanley must keep his rôle as a super-hero secret from everyone, including Hal.

Instead of the ridiculous costume worn by Alan Young in the pilot, which resembled an old-fashioned deep-sea diver’s suit painted gold (and probably was), the new Mr. Terrific costume showed a bit more decorum:  a gold-lamé jacket, which reversed into a regular sport coat, so Stanley could hang it up in his locker at the garage; and an aviator’s scarf and goggles.

In his portrayal of Beamish, Stephen Strimpell was more subdued than Young.  Strimpell’s Beamish was impish and easy going, but didn’t come across as a total nimrod.  Clearly he was out of his depth performing espionage work for the government and often screwed up because of that, but it never devolved into the can’t-walk-and-chew-gum-at-the-same-time level.

The same kind of restraint was shown in the characters of Reed and Trent.  While they occasionally displayed moments of childishness---generally, to accommodate the insertion of a joke---they usually came across as competent.  Or, at least, sitcom competent.

When assigned to a mission, Beamish would be provided with three power pills---one large white one, which rendered him super-powered for one hour; and two small, red pills, which were ten-minute “boosters”.  This was the “maximum dosage”, after which Stanley would have to wait an unspecified amount of time before taking any more power pills.

The need to take to pills to become super-powered and the imposed time-limits served as a major source of drama and comedy in the series.  Frequently, Stanley would drop one of the pills, or it would wear off, at the worst possible time.

The writers had generally done well in revising the series.  They had certainly moved it a notch or two up from the pilot.  There was just one problem . . . .

It wasn’t funny.  It was silly; it was whacky; it was lighthearted fluff, but it wasn’t funny.  And it sure didn’t drag in anywhere near the audience that Batman did.

Mr. Terrific’s competitor over at NBC wasn’t that funny either, which was astounding, considering its pedigree.

Look!  It’s the Man Who Flies Around Like an Eagle!

Look!  It’s the Enemy of All That’s Illegal!

As soon as the closing credits had rolled on the adventures of power-pill-popping Stanley Beamish, it was eight-thirty, and time to switch the channel to NBC and catch its super-hero spoof, about a mild-mannered man who gains super-powers by ingesting a chemical substance.  Only this one was different:  instead of swallowing a pill, he drinks a potion!

O.K., there were more differences than that, but not enough.

The Peacock Network’s foray into super-hero farce was called Captain Nice.  This was the show that spooked CBS into resurrecting Mr. Terrific.  And no wonder. It was created by and written by and executive produced by Buck Henry, one of the comic geniuses behind Get Smart.  And it was directed by Jay Sandrich, who also directed Get Smart and would go on to helm Mary Tyler Moore for most of its run and the first three seasons of The Cosby Show.

Unlike Mr. Terrific’s premiere episode, which began with the format already in place (relying on Paul Frees’s rhyming narration in the opening credit sequence to bring the viewers up to speed), Captain Nice kicked off with his origin. 

In the beginning, our hero is Carter Nash, police chemist for the Big Town Police Department and general all-around nerd.  Nash is played by William Daniels.  (Yes, that William Daniels.)  He lives in his parents’ house and under the thumb of his gently domineering mother (Alice Ghostly).  Though he owes his position on the police department to his uncle, the mayor of Big Town, the meek, socially awkward Nash is actually a quite capable chemist.

Through research and experimentation, Nash succeeds in his goal of developing a serum that imbues whomever drinks it with the usual set of super-powers---super-strength, invulnerability, flight.  (No super-vision, though.)  Unfortunately, this comes in the middle of a crisis---master criminal Omnus has escaped from prison and is loose in Big Town---and the mayor and the police chief have no time for Nash’s boring recitations.

Dejected, Carter returns to his lab and pockets the phial of “super-juice”.

In one of those situations that exists only in sitcoms, the meek Nash is the romantic interest of tall, willowy, attractive policewoman Sergeant Candy Kane (Ann Prentiss, sister of Paula).  She aggressively pursues the shy chemist, who is befuddled by her attentions.  She inveigles Carter into walking her home through the local park.  Unfortunately, they stumble across the fugitive Omnus and his gang.  The hoods overpower Nash and kidnap Candy.

With no other option, Carter drinks the sample of the formula he has with him.  It works, but the explosive release of power shreds his outer clothing, leaving him in tatters and his long johns.  He stumblingly rescues Candy and captures Omnus and his henchmen; “stumblingly” because he doesn’t know how to manage his newfound strength.  A park employee who witnessed his feats notes the “CN” monogram on Nash’s belt buckle and asks him what the initials stand for.

“Uh . . . Captain,” he replies.

“Captain what?”

“Captain . . . Nice.”

When Carter returns home, he tells his parents about the formula, deciding to destroy his notes so it won’t fall into the wrong hands.  Instead, his mother persuades (read: orders) him to fight crime as a super-hero.  Using old sheets and some curtain remnants, she redesigns his long johns into an ill-fitting costume and Captain Nice, hero of Big Town, is born!

Despite the difference in set-ups, Captain Nice was pretty much Mr. Terrific separated at birth.  Taking the super-juice did nothing to remedy Nash’s shyness or awkwardness.  As with Mr. Terrific, the Captain’s inability to hold his super-strength in check inadvertently resulted in more damage than would have been caused by the bad guys he caught.  Also like Terrific, Captain Nice had difficulty manuœvering himself in flight and his landings invariably smashed walls or gouged pavement.

In another echo of Mr. Terrific, the effects of the super-juice lasted for only an hour, so all too often, Captain Nice reverted back to his non-powered self at inopportune times.  On the other hand, one marked difference was, while the power pills worked only on Stanley Beamish, Nash’s formula would work on anybody.  A couple of episodes had Captain Nice dealing with someone else who had drunk the stuff.

Buck Henry’s fingerprints were all over the Captain Nice series.  His taste for quirky villains.  His overuse of catchphrases, some of which---the old “I asked you not to tell me that” gag, for example---were lifted straight out of Get Smart. 

And his reliance on running gags.  The most notable of these in Captain Nice was the fact that Carter Nash’s father was always shown reading a newspaper which concealed his face.  He spoke only rarely, but when he did, sharp-eared viewers could recognize the voice of long-time character actor Byron Foulger.

Curiously though, these things, which had helped make Get Smart such a hit, fell flat on Captain Nice.  The humor never quite seemed to gel.  If I had to hazard a guess, I’d say the reason for that was the fact that the character dynamics in Captain Nice were an inversion of those in Get Smart.

Maxwell Smart was arrogant, pompous, and completely unaware of his own ineptitude.  This made him both a foil for the madcap events around him and a source of them.  But Carter Nash, unlike most goofy characters on television, was self-conscious about his shortcomings.  His flaws might have been mildly humorous in and of themselves, but they also made Nash sympathetic.  He came across as a victim of the zaniness, rather than a part of it.  That made it hard to laugh at him.

That might have been one of the reasons that Captain Nice failed to attract an audience.  Like Mr. Terrific, the show limped along for half a season, then finished out the year in reruns.

What Went Wrong?

I wasn’t about to write this entry based only on recollexions that were forty-four years old.  Fortunately, the original Alan Young pilot for Mr. Terrific is available for viewing on line.  So are the first episodes of both series, along with excerpts of the others.  I watched all of these, not only to confirm my rote memories, but to be able to evaluate the shows from an adult perspective.

Here’s what I found.

There was nothing wrong with the acting, on either series.  The regular players in both shows delivered measured, competent performances.  Granted, there was no stretching or going against type.  We’re not talking Anthony Hopkins here.  The character actors stayed strictly within their established personas.  That’s not a criticism; they were matched to specific rôles and played them well.  There was no scenery chewing or over-the-top emoting.

The two leads---Stephen Strimpell, on Mr. Terrific, and William Daniels, on Captain Nice---approached their similar characters differently, but effectively.  Strimpell’s Stanley Beamish was whimsical, evoking a childlike sense of fun.  Daniels, as Carter Nash/Captain Nice, was adjusted to his shyness and social geekdom.  He brought a certain dignity to the character.  Neither of the two heroes was a buffoon.

The problem, as I saw it, lied in the writing.  I once stated the term “situation comedy” can be broken down in two ways:  “situation comedy”, in which the humour comes from the dialogue and the character interaction, with the situation being almost incidental; and “situation comedy”, in which the yuks are supposed to come from the whacky or outlandish situation and the characters’ response to it.

Mr. Terrific and Captain Nice both fell into the latter camp (though Captain Nice tried a little harder to bring in some of the elements of the first category, too).  Unfortunately, the situations presented in the two shows were tepid and predictable.  Captain Nice rips the door off the mayor’s office because he doesn’t know his own strength. Har har har.  Mr. Terrific misses the window of Bureau Chief Reed’s office and flies through the wall.  Ho ho ho.  Not only predictable, but repetitive, for these sort of things, with only minor variations, happened over and over.  The plots were little more than frameworks to move the hero from one of these set-pieces to the next.

As I mentioned earlier, the time limits on their super-powers was a convenient device to create situations where the hero’s powers suddenly fade away and he has to face his enemies as his normal inept self.  This quickly became a crutch for writers stuck for an amusing scene.  Few episodes failed to contain a sequence in which poor Stanley or poor Carter found himself powerless in front of a gang of bank robbers or a nest of hostile spies.  Or while in mid-air.  (Going by the shows, anyone watching would think that, in 1967, the United States was covered with haystacks.)

This sort of thing, especially if done right, can be funny once or twice.  But it wears out its welcome pretty fast after that.

It didn’t take long for me to develop an admiration for the actors’ professionalism.  They had been handed listless, carbon-copy scripts and they were doing the best they could to make them work.

No doubt the CBS and NBC folks were confounded as to why their super-hero spoofs weren’t rising to the popularity of Batman.  That was because their producers had completely missed the element that had made Batman such an effective satire.

The Batman television series simply took comic-book super-hero conventions and exaggerated them.  This was brilliant because it worked on two levels.  The kids enjoyed the show as a straight adventure, while the adults recognised the absurdity inherent in the super-hero concept.  They chuckled at the seemingly endless supply of gadgets that the Caped Crusader pulled out of his utility belt or his lectures to Robin on the importance of good citizenship while they were bat-climbing a wall.

Where Batman made super-heroes funny, Mr. Terrific and Captain Nice tried to make funny super-heroes.

The last culprit in the early demise of Mr. Terrific and Captain Nice was, I suspect, the fact that the suits at CBS and NBC didn’t want to devote more money or time than was necessary into developing their respective series.  They didn’t expect to have to.  They figured any programme that looked like Batman would be as popular as Batman.

They misjudged the timing, too.  Fads, by their very definition, have a short shelf life.  Batmania had peaked and was winding down.  By the time their super-hero spoofs hit the airwaves, it was “been there, done that” as far as the viewing public was concerned.

Both Mr. Terrific and Captain Nice ended, with their last rerun episodes, on the same day---28 August 1967.  Together at birth, together at death.

If it was any consolation, Batman---the series they had tried so hard to copy---would reach its end a mere seven months later.  And the Bat-craze would become a Bat-memory.

By Andrew A. Smith

Scripps Howard News Service

'First Avenger' lifts the best of comics' Captain America

Captain America: The First Avenger, premiering July 22, looks to be the best comics-to-film movie of the summer – which is saying a lot – but is also loaded with fun facts:

* This movie is the fifth appearance of the Living Legend of WWII on film, but the only one to be remotely accurate . . . or even good.

A 1944 Captain America serial was unlike the comic books of the time, as it depicted Cap with a red star(!) on his chest, no shield, no sidekick and he was, of all things, a stateside district attorney (instead of a U.S. Army private).  

Captain America and Captain America II: Death Too Soon aired on CBS in 1979, both starring Reb Brown and jettisoning the World War II connection completely. They were awful.

A 1990 Captain America starred Matt Salinger and, of all things, an Italian Red Skull. (He’s a Nazi. His name is Johann Schmidt. He was Hitler’s right-hand man. He’s German!) It was so bad it went straight to VHS.  

* Some recent Marvel movies have had oblique references to First Avenger. Partially-constructed shields appear in both Iron Man movies. The Incredible Hulk mentions the wartime Super-Soldier Formula, which is what creates the Star-Spangled Avenger.

* This movie returns the favor. The subtitle The First Avenger is a hint to where all these movies are heading: The Avengers in 2012. Also, Howard Stark – Tony Stark’s father, who was significant in Iron Man II – is part of the Super-Soldier science team in First Avenger.

* Incidentally, The First Avenger subtitle was added to become the whole title when the movie was distributed in areas where America isn’t particularly popular. But it turns out that even countries like France wanted the full title, because Captain America is such a well-known brand. Now the Captain America part will be dropped from the title in only three countries: Russia, Ukraine and, oddly, South Korea.

* In the comics, sidekick James “Bucky” Barnes was a teenager in the war (albeit a lethal, highly trained one). In the movie he appears to be old enough to volunteer for service. To my mind that’s an improvement, since the “child endangerment” aspect of Robin-like sidekicks always bugged me.

* Beginning in 1963, Marvel’s Sgt. Fury and the Howling Commandos told the tales of a fictional U.S. Ranger group in World War II. To explain how Nick Fury could remain active into the 21st century, Marvel has explained that his aging has been scientifically retarded. However, the movie version of Fury, played by Sam Jackson, will sidestep the aging question entirely by Fury not appearing in World War II in First Avenger, although the Howling Commandos will.

Speaking of the Howlers, it appears Captain America and Bucky will lead them. Of the comic-book squad, only two appear in the movie: Cpl. Timothy Aloysius “Dum Dum” Dugan, a huge Irishman, and Gabe Jones, an African-American trumpet player. The team is fleshed out by a Japanese-American, Jim Morita; an Englishman, Montgomery Falsworth; and a Frenchman, Jacques Dernier. All three have their roots in the comics as well.

Stan Lee created Morita and his Nisei (American-born Japanese) squad in a 1967 Sgt. Fury to recognize the efforts of patriotic Japanese-Americans in WWII. Falsworth was the wartime Union Jack, England’s answer to Captain America, created in a 1976 Invaders, another title set during the war. Dernier first appeared in a 1965 Sgt. Fury as the French Resistance liaison for the Howlers.

* Cap’s wartime sweetheart was French Resistance fighter Peggy Carter, who will be played by Hayley Atwell as a conflation of various female characters. Their bittersweet romance probably won’t leave a dry eye in the house.

* One surprise is Arnim Zola, a Skull henchman and Nazi scientist who eventually transfers his consciousness to a robot. Another is the appearance of a Cosmic Cube (hinted at in Thor), a weapon that didn’t exist in the comics until 1967. I suspect it will play a role in Avengers, too.

* Hydra, a nation-less terrorist organization, predated al-Qaida by decades with its first comic-book appearance in 1965. In the comics, Hydra was founded by surviving Axis players near the end of World War II, which makes their appearance in the movie in conjunction with the Red Skull entirely consistent. Their creed is eerily modern: “Hail Hydra! Immortal Hydra! We shall never be destroyed! Cut off a limb, and two more shall take its place!”

Art above:

1. Chris Evans plays Captain America in CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER, from Paramount Pictures and Marvel Entertainment. He is seen here in full combat regalia. Photo credit: Courtesy of Paramount Pictures and Marvel Studios © 2011 MVLFFLLC. ™ & © 2011 Marvel. All Rights Reserved.

2. Dominic Cooper plays Howard Stark in CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER, from Paramount Pictures and Marvel Entertainment. In both the comics and the movies, Howard Stark is based loosley on Howard Hughes and Walt Disney. Photo credit: Jay Maidment / Marvel Studios © 2011 MVLFFLLC. ™ & © 2011 Marvel. All Rights Reserved.

3. Chris Evans plays Steve Rogers (center) with the Howling Commandos, who are somewhat different from the comics version of the First Ranger Attack Squad. Bruno Ricci plays Jacques Dernier (third left from center), Kenneth Choi plays Jim Morita (second left from center), Neal McDonough plays Dum Dum Dugan (first right from center), Sebastian Stan plays James "Bucky" Barnes (second right from center), JJ Feild plays Montgomery Falsworth (third right from center), and Derek Luke plays Gabe Jones (fifth right from center) - in CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER, from Paramount Pictures and Marvel Entertainment. Photo credit: Jay Maidment / Marvel Studios © 2011 MVLFFLLC. ™ & © 2011 Marvel. All Rights Reserved.

4. Hayley Atwell plays Peggy Carter, center, in CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER, from Paramount Pictures and Marvel Entertainment. Peggy is a U.S. Army officer present at Captain America's birth and is, as they said in the 1940s, both a tomato and a tough broad. Photo credit: Jay Maidment / Marvel Studios © 2011 MVLFFLLC. ™ & © 2011 Marvel. All Rights Reserved.

Hugo Weaving plays Red Skull in CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER, from Paramount Pictures and Marvel Entertainment. Photo credit: Courtesy of Paramount Pictures and Marvel Studios © 2011 MVLFFLLC. ™ & © 2011 Marvel. All Rights Reserved.

Stanley Tucci plays Dr. Abraham Erskine in CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER, from Paramount Pictures and Marvel Entertainment. In the comics, Erskine is a Jewish scientist smuggled out of Germany during the pogroms, and is based loosely on Albert Einstein. In fact, in the comics, his security codename is "Reinstein." Photo credit: Jay Maidment / Marvel Studios © 2011 MVLFFLLC. ™ & © 2011 Marvel. All Rights Reserved.

At left, Chris Evans plays Steve Rogers in CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER, from Paramount Pictures and Marvel Entertainment. In this scene, Evans poses in a position lifted straight from the comics. Photo credit: Jay Maidment / Marvel Studios © 2011 MVLFFLLC. ™ & © 2011 Marvel. All Rights Reserved. At right, Steve Rogers staring in disbelief at his new body is a familiar scene in such comics as "Tales of Suspense" #63. Courtesy Marvel Comics

Contact Andrew A. Smith of the Memphis Commercial Appeal at capncomics@aol.com.

July 17, 2011 -- Here are some thoughts rambling through my head that aren't worth a whole post by themselves:

1) Marvel is ribbing DC's relaunch in their most recent solicitations by bragging about their high issue numbers. You've probably seen "Uncanny X-Men -- still at #340!" or whatever. But I've noticed that Marvel is, in fact, relaunching a lot of their long-running series on the sly:

• They launched Hulk along with the long-running Incredible Hulk -- but now they're canceling Incredible Hulk (currently called Incredible Hulks), so the remaining major Hulk title is one with low numbers. Result: A Hulk relaunch.
• They turned the long-running Daredevil into Black Panther: Man Without Fear, and launched a new Daredevil #1. Result: A Daredevil relaunch.
• They've turned the long-running Fantastic Four into FF, starting over with #1. Result: A Fantastic Four relaunch.
• They're canceling the long-running Uncanny X-Men and relaunching with Uncanny X-Men #1. Result: An X-Men relaunch.
• They turned the long-running Thor back into Journey into Mystery, and gave the Thunder God a new title. Result: A Thor relaunch.
• They turned the long-running Captain America into Captain America and Bucky, and gave Cap a new title. Result: A Captain America relaunch.
• They flat-out relaunched The Punisher, canceling the old title and beginning a new one (with Castle's second title, Punisher MAX, only about a year old ).

Toss in the resurrections of Ghost Rider, Moon Knight and Alpha Flight, all with #1s, and that's at least 10 relaunches in recent months. It's not 52, but it's still too many to be bragging about how they've kept their old numbering.

2) I love having Legionnaires from around the world, offering unique insights and perspectives. And I'm frequently reminded of that by a peculiar difference between American English and UK English: verb-subject agreement. I first noticed it in sports (which the English refer to as "sport"), where Americans say St. Louis IS but the Cardinals ARE doing such-and-such, shifting from singular to possessive depending on the subject. But I hear on BBC radio UK speakers using the plural no matter what, so Manchester ARE doing such-and-so, which sounds weird to American ears. This also applies to "United States" as a subject; American says the United States IS doing such-and-such -- we actually fought a bloody war to establish that the USA is, indeed, a singular noun and not a collection of individual states that can secede at any time -- but UK speakers say "the United States are" -- which, again, sounds odd to American ears.

I may have some of the above mucked up -- I don't actually memorize how UK speakers talk, I only notice when a noun/subject "disagreement" sets off my copy editor sense -- but it also applies to Marvel and DC. American speakers generally use the two as singular nouns, whereas UK speakers generally use the two as plural nouns. Americans say "Marvel is ... " while UK speakers say "Marvel are ..."

The upshot is that every time I read "DC are run by boring guys in suits" or "Marvel are run by monkeys" I'm reminded how wide-spread the Legion of Superfluous Heroes is, how much diversity we have, how much cultural exchange is going on ... and it makes me smile.

3) Years ago, the Frito Bandito was officially and publicly banished by Frito-Lay as an offensive cultural stereotype. I haven't heard anything to corroborate this, but it appears the same is true of any heavily-accented Mexican character, from Jose Jimenez to Speedy Gonzales to Baba Louie (in Quick-Draw McGraw). Whereas other offensive cultural stereotypes, such as Pepe LePew, seem to still be around. Anybody know?

4) In the current Avengers cartoon, the three-part season ender had the Assemblers banished to the nine realms of Norse mythology, whereupon they had to battle back to Asgard to confront Loki.

It's interesting to note that Captain America was in Niffleheim or Muspelheim or Hel (I've forgotten which, but it was one of the lands of the dead) where he met the shades of deceased Howling Commandos -- including JACK Fury, the African-American commander of the squad. In the comics, of course, Jack Fury was a World War ONE veteran, and Caucasian, while Nick was the WWII Howler, and, of course, also Caucasian. Evidently the concept of Nick Fury as an African-American has now made a third leap in the culture, from the Ultimate universe to the movies and now to the cartoons (and Fury's WWII connection has been severed). The problem, of course, is that the U.S. armed forces weren't integrated in World War II, and the idea of a black man commanding white troops was, AFAIK, impossible. I like a black Nick Fury just fine -- and who doesn't love Samuel L. M-Fin' Jackson -- but I don't like history being messed with.  We need to be aware of our mistakes, so we don't repeat them, and anachronisms like this bury the mistakes of our past. And the way America has historically treated its black sons and daughters is a Very Big Mistake that should not be, ahem, whitewashed.

Another interesting bit is that Tony Stark was marooned in whichever world the trolls live in ... you know, the trolls who forged Thor's Mjolnir and Odin's Gungnir. So, naturally, Stark and the trolls forged Uru, Asgardian, Iron Man armor! That was pretty cool ... and now I read that this bit is being repeated (nine-fold!) in 'Fear Itself.' Coincidence? Cross-pollination? The tail wagging the dog? I don't know, but it's interesting.

Those are some of the thoughts rattling around in my head on a lazy, hot Sunday. Now to go watch the Japan-U.S. match in the women's World Cup final. GOOOOOOOOALLLL!

Andrew A. Smith

Scripps Howard News Service

July 12, 2011 -- In the early part of the twentieth century, the United States had the world’s most amazing and unique comic strips, a legacy of innovation and irresistible storytelling almost forgotten today. Which is just one of the reasons I’m grateful for The Comics: The Complete Collection (Abrams ComicArt, $40), by Brian Walker.

Walker, who previously released this book in two volumes, is a comic-strip expert who has worked in every aspect of the field. He is part of a team producing new strips (“Beetle Bailey,” “Hi & Lois”), has taught cartoon history at the School of Visual Arts, was director at the Museum of Cartoon Art, served as editor of Collector’s Showcase and has written both books and magazine articles on the subject.

Walker is such a scholar that, if there’s a flaw in the book, it is his relentless amassing of minutiae. Walker is so thorough, so methodical and so academic that this can be a formidable and forbidding tome to the newcomer.

But for those of with a love of the medium it’s virtually indispensible. In the first few chapters alone Walker demolished a host of myths about R.F. Outcault’s “The Yellow Kid” that I had taken as gospel for decades. From there Walker’s work is one discovery after another. Like which strips were owned by the syndicate and which by the artists (which often forced major artists elsewhere, like Roy Crane leaving “Captain Easy” to start “Buz Sawyer”). Like how the phrase “hot dog” got popularized (Tad Dorgan’s “Inside Sports”), or what katzenjammer means (German for “cats howling,” and a popular ‘20s euphemism for a hangover) and why a “Rube Goldberg device” is still a catchphrase.

Walker also brings an artist’s eye to how many amazing, uniquely American early strips got started and what effect they had, like the surreal “Krazy Kat” (George Herriman), the intricate “Little Nemo in Slumberland” (Winsor McCay) and the art Deco “Bringing up Father” (George McManus). He continues with the rise of strips through their heyday, and later fall, examining not only the strips themselves and giants like Milton Caniff (“Terry and the Pirates”), Al Capp (“Li’l Abner’) and Walt Kelly (“Pogo”), but the now-declining business of comic strips and even the marketing (think “Buster Brown shoes” plus radio, television and movie spinoffs).

Naturally, there are hundreds, if not thousands of actual comic strips included. Combine that with interviews and biographies of major American cartoonists, and Comics: The Complete Collection lives up to its name. This book is so comprehensive and full of valuable information that superlatives simply fail me.

Speaking of important comic strips, author Craig Yoe has contributed Krazy Kat and the Art of George Herriman: A Celebration (Abrams ComicArts, $29.95).

Most people are familiar with the strip’s basics, but almost nobody knows what it means. Ignatz Mouse hates the androgynous Krazy Kat, whom he routinely bops in the head with a brick, which the smitten feline interprets as a valentine, but Offissa Pupp regards as criminal behavior (especially since he is enamored of the cat) and routinely jails the surly mouse. All this occurs in a vaguely Southwestern U.S. landscape that morphs and/or moves from panel to panel.

Celebration collects rare essays by names big and small who interpret this strange triangle in a myriad of ways. Some note that Herriman was “Negro” on his birth certificate, but “Caucasian” on his death certificate, which is fascinating all on its own – but was racial uncertainty or insecurity a factor in “Krazy Kat”? And if so, for God’s sake, someone explain how!

Alas, Celebration does not end the mystery of “Krazy Kat,” but simply informs it. And, you know, that’s exactly how it should be.

If all this comics history arouses a taste for some seminal comic strips, look no further than Fantagraphics’ “Captain Easy” collections. This series (it’s up to volume two, $39 each) collects Roy Crane’s Sunday pages about the good-natured “soldier of fortune,” which were prequels to the dailies Crane was producing at the same time, which paired an older Easy with the strip’s original star, Wash Tubbs.

Collected in oversize hardbacks that present the pages at their original size, these beautiful books restore one of the original adventure heroes of the strips – the affable (albeit two-fisted) mercenary who was much more interested in excitement than money or women, which is what he was supposedly after. Easy moved through a more innocent – and largely unexplored – world, and there’s no better word for this adventure strip than “charming.”

Contact Andrew A. Smith of the Memphis Commercial Appeal at capncomics@aol.com.

Every so often, in order to put the subject of one of my Deck Log entries into perspective, I have to go back to before the beginning of the Silver Age.  Since I’ll be talking about that “Ninth Wonder of the World”, Congorilla, this is one of those times.  So let’s ratchet the dial of the Wayback Machine much farther back than usual, back to the dawn of the Golden Age.

 To More Fun Comics # 56 (Jun., 1940), to be precise.

 Anyone in the comics industry at the time---from the publisher down to the kid who sharpened the pencils and emptied out the dustbins---understood what the popularity of Superman meant to comics.  When comic books, in the format we recognise to-day, were introduced in 1934, publishers cast about for the type of material that would be most popular.  Funny animals.  “Bigfoot” cartoons.  Westerns.  Mysteries.   Detective stories.  Sea tales. You name it.  It wasn’t until National Comics (DC) introduced Superman in 1938, to an overwhelming response, that comics publishers knew how to set their course.

Super-hero series took over the four-colour pages.  Still, even after a couple of years, National wasn’t sure that “mystery-men”, as they were called, would prove to be anything more than a fad which would shortly run its course.  With the luxury of hindsight, we know better, but National was hedging its bets.  Many of its smaller, supporting series featured heroes who didn’t wear tights and capes.  For these, it drew from types that showed popularity in other media, such as the pulps and newspaper comic strips.  So, sandwiched between the super-hero headliners were plenty of stories about detectives and magicians and explorers, any genre that might prove to be the next wave.

That brings us to More Fun Comics # 56, which saw the debut of Congo Bill--- renowned hunter, explorer, and baldfaced swipe of Alex Raymond’s successful “Jungle Jim”.  Bill was sprung full-blown on the readers, already established as an experienced, knowledgeable, and tough-as-nails soldier of fortune.  He was never given an origin and the only detail mentioned about his background was that he had been a pilot during the first World War.  We were never even told his last name; he was “Congo Bill” to everybody.

As befitting a “two-fisted globetrotter”, the most remote places of the world were Congo Bill’s sandbox.  The locales ranged from that first adventure in the African interior to the Himalayan mountains to the South American tropics.  Egypt, Mexico, the East Indies, the Caribbean, the Yukon---all these and more were backdrops for a Congo Bill adventure.

Like many back-up series, Bill didn’t enjoy much of a supporting cast.  For about a year and a half, “noted botanist and archæologist” Professor Joe Kent accompanied Bill, who served as his guide.  Sometime later, he picked up a kinda-sorta girlfriend, Shiela Hanlen.  By this time, the series had jumped ship to Action Comics.  Apparently a lifestyle of snakes, bugs, hostile natives, and dysentery didn’t appeal to Shiela.   She was gone after Action Comics # 44 (Jan., 1942) and so was Professor Kent.

It really didn’t matter; Congo Bill steamed right along, leaving other second-stringers such as Pep Morgan, the Black Pirate, and Clip Carson (another Jungle Jim clone) in his wake.  The strength of series was its verisimilitude.  The premise of an adventurer with no ties opened the door to virtually any kind of plot.  In any given issue, Congo Bill could discover a lost city in Africa, encounter dinosaurs in a hidden prehistoric valley, investigate a haunted castle in Syria, battle smugglers along the Ivory Coast, get captured by a secret cult in India, or infiltrate an underwater Nazi U-boat base.  Occasionally, there would even be a fish-out-of-water tale set in New York or some other big city, showing how Bill’s wilderness skills would come in handy in modern civilisation.  The series could be moulded like clay, to fit any theme editor Whitney Ellsworth thought would sell comics.

In 1948, Congo Bill hit one of the benchmarks of a successful character when Colombia released the fifteen-chapter movie serial, Congo Bill, starring Don McGuire as the “famed hunter and animal trainer.”  The plot involved an infant lost in the Africa, following a plane crash, who grows up to become a fabled “white goddess” of the jungle.  Bill is hired to find her by the executors of her father’s multi-million-dollar estate and out to stop him is the fellow in line to inherit that wealth if the girl isn’t found.

The moderate success of the serial propelled the comic-book series along for a few more years.  A couple of changes came along the way.  Bill was given an official reason for his varied adventures by making him a troubleshooter for the World-wide Insurance Company.  Then, in Action Comics # 191 (Apr., 1954), Bill picked up a sidekick---Janu, a young boy who been brought up in the jungle after his father had been killed by a tiger.  Janu’s style of speaking came from the Superbaby-Zook-Bizarro school of English, but at least he gave Bill someone to talk to and provide exposition.

The arrival of Janu, the Jungle Boy, came just in time for the next development of the series:  graduating to its own title.

By the early 1950’s, the Golden-Age glow of super-heroes had finally dimmed, and DC, like other comics publishers, was looking for the next Big Thing.  In a scattershot approach, it produced Western series, series about big-city newspapers, supernatural and science-fiction anthologies, titles based on pirates, mediæval knights, firemen, frogmen, and anything else it could think of.

Seeing as how Congo Bill had hung on gamely for well over a decade, it seemed like a natural.  So, in the summer of 1954, Congo Bill # 1 (Aug.-Sep., 1954) hit the stands.  Bill’s series in Action Comics continued to run concurrently with his own magazine.  It was a good thing, since Congo Bill didn’t have the success that DC had expected.  It ran for seven issues, ending a year after it started.

The cover of that first issue of Congo Bill featured a golden gorilla.   That would prove to be prescient.

Meanwhile, in Action Comics, Congo Bill and Janu rolled right along, rescuing lost safaris and nabbing ivory poachers.  But comics were about to experience another sea change, and this time, it would have an effect on the way Bill did business.

Showcase # 4 (Sep.-Oct., 1956) saw the return of an old DC super-hero---the Flash!  But this wasn’t your father’s Scarlet Speedster.  He had been revised as a new character, upgraded for the times, under the auspice of editor Julius Schwartz.  The sales of Showcase # 4 soared.  To make sure it wasn’t a fluke, the Flash appeared in three more issues of Showcase, and each time, the sale figures were impressive.  It was official:  super-heroes were back in vogue.

DC followed up with revised versions of other old super-heroes, such as the Green Lantern and the Atom.  And some existing, non-super-hero series were nudged in that direction.  Over at Detective Comics, the Manhunter from Mars series featured a Martian posing on Earth as a human police detective, secretly using his otherworldly abilities to solve crimes.  Now the emphasis shifted to the Manhunter performing super-feats in his natural alien form, and by 1959, he was operating openly as a super-hero.

Plain, old Congo Bill, in his old-style pith helmet, jodhpurs, and sidearm, just wouldn’t do, decided Action Comics editor Mort Weisinger.

In Action Comics # 224 (Jan., 1957), Congo Bill encountered a gorilla with a golden pelt and seeming to exhibit a higher intellect than usual for such an animal.  Bill spent the rest of the story saving it from some determined hunters looking to mount the ape’s golden head on a wall.

There’s no way to know for sure, but either Weisinger or writer Robert Burnstein probably remembered this story and used it as a springboard for “The Amazing Congorilla”, which appeared in Action Comics # 248 (Jan., 1959).

This landmark tale begins with Congo Bill rescuing an old friend, Chief Kawolo.  The tribal witch doctor had accidentally fallen into a steep ravine, and though Bill is able to pull him to safety, Kawolo is mortally wounded.  That night, while he lays dying, Kawolo gives Bill a ring bearing the carved image of a gorilla.  It is a magic talisman, the witch doctor explains, that will allow Congo Bill to exchange identities with the legendary golden gorilla, sacred to his tribe.

Should Bill need the strength of the golden gorilla, says Kawolo, he has only to rub the ring.  Then, his mind and that of the great ape will exchange bodies, for a period of one hour.   Congo Bill dismisses this as superstition, but dons the ring, humouring his old friend in his final moments.

Weeks pass (in which, remarkably, Bill apparently resists the impulse to test the ring just to see what happens), then one day, while the famed jungle adventurer is exploring a deep cave, an earthquake causes a cave-in, sealing the entrance.  Trapped, Congo Bill remembers the ring and Kawolo’s words.  Not really expecting it to work, but with nothing to lose, Bill rubs the ring.  Instantly, his head begins to spin . . . .

Some distance away from the cave, the sacred golden gorilla is lumbering through the tall grass when his eyes suddenly flash with intellect.  To Congo Bill’s amazement, the magic ring has worked!  His mind now occupies the body of the golden ape.   He rushes back to the site of the cave-in and with the mighty strength of the gorilla, he clears the entrance.  Inside, he discovers his human body gibbering incoherently and beating his chest.

Bill realises that the gorilla wears a duplicate of the magic ring on one of its fingers, and when the hour elapses, he rubs it---and finds his mind back in his own body.

Following super-hero tradition, Congo Bill determines to use his newfound power to battle poachers, smugglers, and other jungle evil.   It doesn’t take long for stories of a golden gorilla with a man’s intelligence to spread through the continent, and the man-ape was given the name Congorilla.

Once the new format was established, there seemed to be a great deal of need for a gorilla with a man’s intelligence.  Congo Bill, as himself, was pushed more and more into the background.  Lost was the idea that the rugged adventurer had been quite capable of handling jungle crimes with only his tracking skills, his revolver, and a good right cross.  The scripts would tell us what a “famed hunter and explorer” he was, but we saw little evidence of it.

On the other hand, Congorilla made quite a name for himself.  Whenever Bill’s mind took over the golden ape’s body, he didn’t take too many pains to hide the fact.  Friends and foes alike were constantly amazed at the gorilla’s human feats---driving a jeep, piloting an aeroplane, administering medicines, communicating by morse code, and the like.  That seemed to be the hook.  Most stories contrived to put Congorilla in a situation of ape “imitating” man.

Only Janu was privy to the secret of Congo Bill’s magic ring.  Good thing, too, because the biggest drawback to the mind-switching routine was the fact that, when Bill’s mind inhabited Congorilla, the ape’s mind occupied his human body.  In order to keep his body from being imperiled whenever he made the switch, Bill would resort to protective measures, such as lashing himself to a tree, or taking sleeping pills to knock himself out, whenever the gorilla’s mind entered it.  Janu’s job was to stand guard over Bill’s body while Congorilla was in action.

Usually it was an easy enough assignment, but every once in a while, the gorilla-brained Bill would get loose.  Then Janu faced the knotty task of controlling the antics of a gorilla-in-a-man’s-body, as well as trying to cover up for Congo Bill’s apparently bizarre behaviour.  Generally, the jungle boy wasn’t too good at either.

And then there a few occasions when ring on the golden gorilla’s finger would become lost, meaning Bill could not transfer his mind back to his own body after the hour had elapsed.  It was fun having a gorilla’s body every once in a while, but the prospect of spending the rest of his life in it always spooked the bejesus out of him.

Another problem was the existence of the golden gorilla when he was just being a gorilla.  He may have been sacred to Chief Kawolo’s tribe, but to others, he was an inviting target.  Hunters wanted to bag him for a trophy; circus owners wanted to capture him for display as a unique attraction.  Bill spent quite a few stories babysitting the big gold simian.

The Congorilla series finally lost its long-time home in Action Comics early in 1960, when Mort Weisinger decided to devote more pages to the Supergirl back-up.  But Congo Bill, Janu, and the golden ape were still popular enough that it was moved over to Adventure Comics, beginning with issue # 270 (Mar., 1960).

Another indication that Weisinger intended to keep the concept alive was when, after twenty years, Congo Bill made his first appearance in another character’s series.  In “Jimmy’s Gorilla Identity”, from Jimmy Olsen # 49 (Dec., 1960), Bill approaches Jimmy because of the cub reporter’s friendship with Superman.

Bill needs the Man of Steel’s help.  As the hunter explains to Jimmy, the golden gorilla had been captured in Africa and shipped to some place in the vicinity of Metropolis.  Bill has checked all the local zoos and circuses, to no avail.  He’s hoping that Superman, with his telescopic vision, can locate the golden-pelted ape.  To impress upon Jimmy the urgency of the matter, Bill reveals the secret of his magic ring and how it enables him to become Congorilla.

Unfortunately, Superman is unavailable.  He’s undertaking a crucial mission at the Earth’s core.  Even Jimmy’s signal watch is of no help; heavy deposits of lead ore block the super-sonic signal from reaching the Man of Steel’s super-hearing.  Congo Bill opts to continue his search on his own, leaving his magic ring with Jimmy, to show Superman later.  Of course, Bill has no idea of what a bucket of worms he has just opened.

Because it's only an eleven-page story, it takes the Jimster less than a day to succeed where Bill failed.  The cub reporter finds the golden gorilla in the possession of the owner of a wild-animal farm.  Almost immediately, though, an emergency arises, and naturally, the impetuous Jimmy sees this as a job for Congorilla.  He rubs the magic ring and finds himself in control of the gorilla’s body.  Unfortunately, he does a piss-poor job of making sure his human body is safe while the ape’s mind occupies it.  Hijinx ensue.

It was a valiant effort, but over in Adventure Comics, Congo Bill’s series was finally running out of steam.  The last Congorilla tale appeared in issue # 283 (Apr., 1961), after which it was cancelled to make room for, of all things, “Tales of the Bizarro World”.

Whatever Congo Bill and Congorilla fans there were left hadn’t quite seen the last of them, yet.  Bill returned to his old Action Comics stomping grounds when Superman, Perry White, Lois Lane, and Jimmy Olsen visited Africa in “Brainiac’s Super-Revenge”, from Action Comics # 280 (Sep., 1961).  The story begins when Brainiac is accidently freed from the ice-age prison where Superman had left him five issues previous.  Intent on revenge, the computer villain returns to the modern era and tracks down the Man of Steel and his friends while they are exploring the Congo.

After using a kryptonite bomb to neutralise Superman’s powers, Brainiac shrinks the lot of them down to doll size and imprisons them in a bottle.  Unfortunately for his revenge plot, a familiar golden gorilla is also shrunken with them.  When the simian begins to act intelligently, Superman and Jimmy catch on.  Still possessing his gorilla strength, Congorilla enables them to escape the bottle.  And when Brainiac is distracted by Congo Bill, growling and beating his chest like an ape, the Man of Steel is able to restore himself, his friends, and Congorilla to their normal sizes.  One tap of his super-strong hand later and Brainiac is under wraps.

That was it for Bill and the golden ape, until 1965, when four issues of World’s Finest Comics carried reprints of old Congorilla stories in the title’s “Surprise Feature” back-up slot.  These got enough positive reception for Mort Weisinger to test the waters for the character’s revival.   That came in “Jimmy Olsen, Ape Man”, from issue # 86 (Jul., 1965) of the cub reporter’s title.

Here, Jimmy receives a report from the African branch of his fan club; two strangers bound for the Kilimanjo mountains were overheard discussing something called “Project Kryptonite”.  With Superman away on one of those space missions he goes on whenever the plot needs him out of the way, Jimmy decides to check it out himself.  He heads for the Kilimanjo mountain country in Africa and seeks out Congo Bill’s help.  The famous jungle expert is laid up with a broken arm, however, so he loans Jimmy his magic ring. 

As it turns out, the golden gorilla is foraging in the same region, so the Jimster pulls the mind-switch.  In the body of Congorilla, it’s a snap for the cub reporter to ascend Kilimanjo.  At its snowy peak, he discovers the two men.  They’re renegade scientists who have constructed a “hyper-magnetron”, designed to draw kryptonite meteors from space, to use against Superman.  Jimmy has other ideas about that.

Actually, as Jimmy Olsen stories go, this one isn’t shameful at all, with little of the ludicrousness that usually makes Silver-Age fans squirm whenever the phrase “Jimmy Olsen story” is mentioned.  It’s a decent showing for Congorilla, even with Jimmy’s mind instead of Congo Bill’s.  With a little tinkering, it wouldn’t have been out of place in the original series.

Nevertheless, it was the last Silver-Age hurrah for Congo Bill and the great golden ape.  It would be another dozen years before fans became nostalgic enough for Congorilla to see him, again.

OK, it's not really a re-launch. I just said that to get you to read this. Did it work?

Anyway, a few months back I asked for suggestions for how to improve the site. A great many excellent suggestions were made, especially by Lumbering Jack, but only one really requires a lot of prep time. And that is: DEATH TO ALL GROUPS!

Well, not all of them. But the consensus was that Groups were superfluous, and split conversations into more than one place, and were confusing for newbies, and caused genital warts.

Now, not all Groups were unnecessary. Here are the ones I intend to keep:

WILD CARDS: This singular interest with almost zero overlap with comics really needs a "room" where Wild Carders can gather and do their thing. This is the one place I think Groups functions the way it's supposed to.

COMICS NEWS: Because otherwise all the press releases that I ... um, I mean, Newsboy posts would sorta overwhelm the front page teases.

THE TIMELINE GROUP: This Group was created by the Baron as a home for all of his Earth-44 stuff, which is so huge I would not dream of asking him to move it all. If I can, I'll rename it "Earth-44 Timeline Group" (but I'm not sure I can).

MODERATORS: Don't look over here. There's nothing over here. This is not the Group you're looking for. (Seriously, this is a private "room" for the Mods to discuss problems freely without worrying about hurt feelings. We need the room, because e-mail has proved too clumsy.)

And I propose to add a Group at some point, that will be ARCHIVES or FAQ or somesuch as a place where we can park things we will reference in future: Board rules, columns with lots of good information, FAQs, Moderator contacts, boilerplate legalese, stuff like that. If anyone can suggest a name to cover all that, I'm all ears!

Anyway, I intend to delete all the rest. Which means:

1) If there's a group you think has a compelling reason to exist that you want to convince me to keep, you'd better get to convincing, and

2) If there's a thread or a post in any group that you want to save, get to saving it. Cut and paste to another thread somewhere, or start a thread and paste it, or whatever. Because when I delete a given Group, I doubt I can resurrect anything.

And when will I delete this Groups? You fools! Why would I explain my master plan and give you time to stop it? I did it 20 minutes ago! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Just kidding -- I couldn't resist the Watchmen reference. Anyway, I thought a month would be enough time, so how about Aug. 1 for The Big Delete?

As ever, spout off, Legionnaires. This is your site, and I'm doing this to make it better. If I'm NOT gonna make it better, then let me know!