737 – Super-Women and Brainiac

In “Lana Lang, Superwoman!”, the third story in Lois Lane #17 (March 1960), Superman gives Lana an injection of his super-blood temporarily granting her super-powers. At first Lois is jealous, but then Superman does the same for Lois. Lois has been a super-woman many times before, but this is a first for Lana, at least […]

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736 – Super-Hypnosis

In Superman’s Girlfriend, Lois Lane #17 (March 1960), Doris Drake, the world’s richest heiress learns how to read minds and accidentally stumbles onto Superman’s secret identity. Knowing this, she schemes to marry Clark Kent, but Clark Kent discovers what’s going on and uses super-hypnosis on Doris to wipe her mind clean. This is the first […]

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734 – Future Bat Family

Batman #131 (February 1960) introduces the literary device of Alfred’s stories that he writes in his diary about the future of the Bat Family. In this first imaginary tale, Bruce Wayne marries Kathy Kane and reveals his identity to her. They eventually have a red-headed son, Bruce Wayne Jr. Batman announces his retirement and Dick […]

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733 – Supergirl meets Superboy

DC continues to weave Supergirl throughout the Superboy family of books. In Superboy #80 (Feb 1960), Supergirl learns from Superman that he was lonely as a teenager without a playmate. Supergirl gets the bright idea to travel back in time to meet Superboy and play with him. What ensues is a cute story with the […]

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732 – Superboy Meets Lex

In Adventure Comics #271 (Feb 1960), Superboy meets a new kid in town: Lex Luthor. This is the first comic that uses his full name in the story (though it was mentioned in a previous letters column. Lex starts out as a really smart guy who is also a Superboy fan. He ends up saving […]

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731 – Elongated Man

The Elongated Man makes his premiere in Flash #112 (Feb 1960) by taking the Flash’s lime light. Ralph Diby is not the first stretchy super-hero nor does he become the most prominent stretchy superhero (I guess that falls to Mr. Fantastic and not Plastic Man?), but he does get some interesting twists when he gains […]

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730 – Marvel Monsters: Jan 1960

Atlas/Marvel covers are decorated with more giant monsters in January 1960: Rro! and Taboo! Another thing I’m noticing with Marvel stories from this era is that these anthological tales are now getting sequels, such as “Return of the Martian” features another tale of “Zetora the Martian” in Journey into Mystery #58. Clear indications that the […]

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729 – That Yellow Sun Tho

Both of the Superman and Supergirl stories in Action Comics #262 make it suddenly clear that the reason Kryptonians have powers on Earth is not strictly because of the heavier gravity of Krypton, but because Krypton had a red sun and Earth has a yellow one. I haven’t seen this mentioned before. Clark, Lois, Perry, […]

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728 – Captain Atom!

Charlton’s Space Adventures #33 (January 1960) introduces a new super-hero: Captain Atom! Created by Joe Gill and Steve Ditko, Captain Adam was a physics prodigy, chemist, and ballistics genius but woops, he drops a screwdriver and is trapped on a rocket carrying an atomic bomb that detonates in space. He rematerializes soon after back near […]

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