In Wonder Woman #128 (Dec 1961), the writers struggle to figure out how to solidify the “Wonder Family” by having Wonder Woman tell the origin story of her invisible robot plane to recordings of herself at younger ages as Wonder Tot and Wonder Girl. As Wonder Woman is about to leave Paradise Islands, she realizes […]
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In Action Comics #284 (Nov 1961), a ghostly hand leaves Clark Kent a message. Using red kryptonite, Superman shrinks himself down to toddler-size for the amusement of the reader. Of course there is a reason he does this, and we just have to be patient and watch random humans refuse to believe the toddler is […]
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Action Comics #284 (November 1961) wraps up the long-running Supergirl serial of stories that began in early 1961 with a carryover of the last three effects of red kryptonite from the previous issue, one of which is to turn her into a mermaid. Jerro takes this opportunity to propose, which leaves Supergirl briefly speechless. The […]
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Detective Comics #298 (October 1961) introduces a Silver Age counterpart to an old Golden Age Batman villain: Clayface. Batman and Robin are attending a charity benefit when suddenly a lumpy man in a trenchcoat appears. If I had a nickel for every time that happened. Suddenly Clayface turns into a giant snake, then an eagle […]
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In Flash #125 (October 1961), Wally West, aka Kid Flash, goes to visit his aunt and ends up spending time with Barry Allen, aka the Flash. We learn that since time travel has become an important part of being a speedster, that Barry has invented a “cosmic treadmill”. Barry explains that the treadmill helps a […]
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In Tales to Astonish #27 (Sept 1961), a one-shot quickie sci-fi / horror tale “The Man in the Ant Hill!” establishes the second major character in the fledgling Marvel universe: Hank Pym! Despite being mocked by the scientific community, Hank develops a serum that can shrink things. Okay. After trying it on a chair, he […]
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In Fantastic Four #2 (Sept 1961), Marvel starts to gradually expand its mythos by introducing a shape-shifting alien race about to conquer Earth: The Skrulls! Four Skrulls establish a beach-head of tarnishing the FF’s reputation by masquerading as the superheroes and stealing jewelry or destroying property. The plan is to discredit the superheroes and then […]
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Action Comics #282 (Sept 1961) carries on with Part 5 of the continuing saga of Lesla-Lar v Supergirl, which is kind of just all over the place. Superman continues the “debugging” session of why Supergirl’s powers are missing in the present but have resurfaced in the past. He builds her a time machine to visit […]
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In Green Lantern #9 (September 1961), Hal’s nemesis, Sinestro, makes his second appearance, complete with villainous exposition explaining how he escaped that green bubble they trapped him in last time. Our hero, Hal Jordan, is looking forward to the first GL Con… “the first galaxy-wide conference of all power battery possessors”. That’s kind of interesting, […]
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In Superman #149 (Sept 1961), a memorable “imaginary tale” was published: “The Death of Superman”. It starts out kookily enough: Luthor suddenly seems to repent, synthesizing a serum to cure cancer from a meteorite he finds in a prison rockpile. Despite this, the justice system is skeptical of his reformation, and rightfully so, until Superman […]
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