In Showcase #8 (March 1957), the Flash returns and his “rogues gallery” begins with the introduction of Captain Cold. Len Snart, an “ambitious crook”, wants a weapon capable of defeating the Flash. By using a cyclotron, he turns his gun into a cold weapon and after abandoning several names (Mr Arctic, The Cold Wave, Sub-Zero, […]
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In Batman #107 (Feb 1957), Dick Grayson (Robin) accidentally is exposed to a gas that ages him to adulthood. Yep, it turns out that Superman was too busy to analyze a lead-lined device he found in space, so he left it with Batman, and poor Robin took a blast of space gas in the face. […]
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In World’s Finest #87 (January 1957), Elton Craig, a would-be criminal manages to find a kryptonite meteorite, which also happens to contain a box of super-power capsules from Jor-El of Krypton. Craig manages to weaken Superman, forcing Batman to take a capsule and help defeat the villain. I’ve made short shrift of these Jor-El coincidences, […]
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In Batman #106 (December 1956), Batwoman makes her exciting return to crime-fighting from her early retirement. Despite previously promising Batman to not play caped crusader, Kathy Kane wears her costume to a masquerade ball, but gets embroiled in a case with Batman and Robin again. All’s well that ends well, and Kathy promises yet again […]
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Early one morning in Adventure Comics #232 (Nov 1956) – with a solid WHAMMMP! – another intact Kryptonian city lands on Earth, this time right next to Smallville…. ಠ_ಠ In terms of lazy writing, this one might just take the cake. The Kryptonian city chunk happens to contain the very house where Kal-el was born, […]
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In November 1956, DC introduced a new group of heroes in Showcase #6: The Challengers of the Unknown. Most folks credit Jack Kirby in some way with the creation of this group, which consisted of four daredevils: Rocky Davis, Prof Haley, Red Ryan and Ace Morgan who, after miraculously and inexplicably surviving a plane crash […]
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In November 1956, DC took over production of Blackhawk, a team of aviator heroes that first appeared back in 1941 published by Quality Comics. Interestingly, DC decided to keep the publication going from its original number (#108) and kept the original penciller and inker. This makes Blackhawk one of the few titles/heroes continuously published from […]
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Action Comics #223 (October 1956), brings us another super-coincidence, as Superman discovers a chunk of Krypton that happens to contain the laboratory of Jor-El, including his journal and films of his exploits. Superman is discovers that before he sent his son to Earth, he had built an “Earth valley” on Krypton to explore how Kryptonians […]
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Jack Kirby continues to lay the groundwork for the Marvel era. In Yellow Claw #3 (October 1956) an alien named UFO from Alpha Centauri is befriended by the Yellow Claw and turned against Americans. He has the ability to manipulate tremendous cosmic energy, which he yields against the Americans until he is shown the error […]
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Though Batman may be insisting on only One Robin for now, Action Comics #222 (Sept 1956) brings us “The Duplicate Superman”. The government sets off a new experimental bomb, the Q-Bomb, and Superman is caught in the blast, resulting in the splitting of Superman into two nearly identical beings. It turns out they are identical […]
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