812 – Secret Origins!

In June 1961, DC published a super-collection of many superhero origin stories entitled Secret Origins, a one-shot. I’m a sucker for origin stories and I really liked the 1986+ series of the same name, which helped solidify DC’s continuity in a post-Crisis on Infinite Earths timeline. But back in the 1960s, there was no really […]

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811 – Dev-Em

Adventure Comics #287 (June 1961) introduces the story of Dev-Em, a super-bratty teenager who lived on Krypton and used to babysit Kal-El. Dev-Em has a habit of getting into trouble by stealing technology and inventions from the Jor-El’s laboratory. When he discovers Jor-El’s prediction of the end of Krypton, he steals technology to build himself […]

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810 – The Young and the Restless Lesla-Lar

Action Comics #279 (June 1961) continues the multi-issue Supergirl story arc started last month, where we learn that Supergirl lost her powers due to an evil, jealous, genius inventor named Lesla-Lar who lives inside the bottled city of Kandor and happens to look exactly like Supergirl. Meanwhile, a de-powered Linda Lee tries to make the […]

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809 – Legion of Super-Villains and Luthor

No less than 7 months earlier, DC foreshadowed the Legion of Super-Villains and now we get their first appearance of the LSV in Superman #147 (June 1961). In prison, Luthor offers to repair other inmate’s radios, cobbling together a super-scientific device that can project his voice into the future for this hypothesized evil Legion to […]

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808 – Marvel Monsters: May 1961

Well Marvel Comics is finally here, and by May 1961, all comics by Atlas Comics have the “MC” insignia. I also notice a distinct lack of kooky monster names this month. Other than a revisit of Grogg, Marvel seems to have switched to more descriptive names like “Sandman”, the return of Colossus, and “The Crawling […]

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807 – De-Powered Supergirl Arc

Action Comics #278 (May 1961) begins a multi-issue spanning Supergirl arc, starting with the revelation that Superman has decided to reveal the existence of Supergirl to the world. It’s been more than two years since the introduction of the Supergirl character and perhaps the writing team has run out of ways to make interesting stories […]

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806 – Sinestro!

Green Lantern #7 (May 1961) debuts another long-standing Green Lantern villain: Sinestro. The Guardians explain to Hal Jordan that Sinestro was the Green Lantern of sector 1417 on the planet Korugar. I guess they should have thought twice to give a power-ring and battery to a being with such an obviously-evil name, but oh well. […]

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805 – Pete Ross Learns the Secret

The second outing of Pete Ross happens in “Pete Ross’ Super-Secret!”, a story in Superboy #90 (May 1961). In it, Pete Ross continues to be a stand-up guy against bullies picking on “that drip” Clark Kent and then happens to discover that Clark is actually Superboy. This is a bit of clever planning on the […]

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804 – Lana Marries Superman

In the fifth story in the “Imaginary Tales” series in Lois Lane #26 (May 1961), Lana reveals to Superman she knows his secret identity. It turns out she is noble about this and wants him to erase her memory with his super-hypnotism. Surprisingly (to me), this causes Superman to suddenly fall madly in love with […]

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