In his second appearance in All-American Comics #20 (September 1940), the Mighty Atom gets a costume, which is basically a blue blanket over his head, a tight yellow shirt showing off his man-cleavage, and high-cut brown shorts to show off his masculine legs. I thought he was tired of being made fun of?
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Superman #7 (September 1940), introduced a new Daily Planet editor, Perry White, replacing the previous editor (George Taylor). The character of Perry White was actually introduced in February 1940 when the Adventures of Superman radio show began. It’s interesting to see how the various media incarnations of Superman (comic book, newspaper strip, radio show, cartoons) […]
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In Detective Comics #44 (September 1940), the Crimson Avenger succumbs to peer pressure and gets a traditional superhero costume, but even his fancy new duds can’t save him from being dull.
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Robin’s dream story in Detective Comics #44 (September 1940), foreshadows what I consider to be the worst era of Batman story-telling. With the introduction of Robin to the Bat-mythos, the character deviated from his noir, grim and gritty feel towards silly, fantasy stories and stayed that way for the next 25 years.
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The original Golden Age character, The Atom was introduced in All-American Comics #19 (August 1940). In his first adventure, Al Pratt was a short, meek college student who was tired of being bullied, gosh-darn it. He had Joe Morgan, a retired boxer, train him to the peak of physical perfection. In this first appearance, we […]
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In Flash #10 (August 1940), Johnny Thunderbolt finally realizes he has some power, but remains clueless as to how to invoke it.
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In Smash Comics #14 (July 1940), Quality introduces a new superhero in the form of The Ray. The Ray is “Happy” Terrill, a newspaper reporter who is exposed to radiation in a weather balloon experiment and gains fantastic radiation powers – at the cost of his pants. The Ray shows up in other versions throughout […]
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In Crash Comics #4 (July 1940), Cat-Man debuts, who is, of course, an orphaned boy raised by a tigress and imbued with powers and abilities of a tiger. Only two issues later, Crash Comics would be renamed to Cat-Man Comics and re-start numbering at issue 1. Tem Publishing later become Holyoke Publishing, but as far […]
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By Superman #6 (July 1940), Superman is nearly flying. I say nearly because other stories in this issue use the term “gliding” and show him using his cape to halt his descent. By now, the DC universe has at least two characters that can fly: Hawkman and Green Lantern. It feels like Superman should join […]
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Mystery Men Comics #13 (June 1940) makes the first mention of Blue Beetle having super-powers by ingesting “Vitamin 2X”. Wow, having a sidekick like Dr Franz, the pharmacist, who can make costumes bulletproof and invent vitamins that give super-energy is really making Blue Beetle more exciting 😛
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