682 – The Creature From Planet X

In late 1950s, Atlas Comics had not yet transformed into Marvel Comics, but its fantasy and sci-fi titles started featuring more outlandish covers replete with fantastical creatures in both shape and names. In Strange Worlds #3 (January 1958), we get a nice early example of this with “The Creature from Planet X”. The cover features […]

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681 – Not Quite Negative Man

In House of Mystery #84 (Jan 1959), a one-off story called “Negative Man” drawn by Jack Kirby has a scientist accidentally get a near-fatal dose of radio energy which causes a being made of pure energy to come out of his body. The being is eventually defeated by coming into contact with first water, then […]

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680 – Superboy Meets Oliver Queen

About a half a year after Superboy met Robin, Superboy gets a chance to meet Oliver Queen, the future Green Arrow, in Adventure Comics #258 (January 1959). Superboy tries to invent a machine to look back into the past, but via an “atmospheric disturbance” it lets him see into the future, 1959 to be precise. […]

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679 – Titano

Another Superman villain is introduced in Superman #127 (Dec 1958): Titano! Yes, we clearly needed a “super-ape”. Chimp goes into a rocket / spaceship, is exposed to two meteors (uranium and kryptonite) and comes back grown to enormous size and sporting kryptonite vision. A “certain spin” sends Titano across the time barrier into the past […]

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678 – Mirror Master!

DC decided that the new Silver Age Flash was a success in his Showcase try-outs and gives him his own magazine in Flash #105 (December 1958). This happens to be exactly 10 years after the Golden Age Flash magazine was cancelled, and DC decided to keep the series numbering. This issue marks the debut of […]

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677 – Mr Freeze Zero

By the end of 1958, DC starts to really focus on giving their superheroes more interesting villains to fight. Batman #121 (Dec 1958) introduces Mr. Freeze, though he is called Mr. Zero in this first story, “The Ice Crimes of Mr. Zero”. He is an unnamed criminal scientist who had an unfortunate accident that forced […]

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676 – Clarence Kelvin

In Superman #126 (Nov 1958), Superman gets super-amnesia again when he decides to spend Clark Kent’s vacation on coming up with a cure for Kryptonite in his Fortress of Solitude. A freak explosion wipes out Superman’s memory. After quickly learning about his powers, he instinctively flies back to Metropolis where he decides to take on […]

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675 – Congorilla

In Action Comics #248 (Nov 1958), Congo Bill, an adventure character that had run for 17 years as a backup strip in Action Comics is transformed by a magic ring into Congorilla – the body of Congo Bill inside the body of a powerful ape. This is another sign that the market’s interest in superheroes […]

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674 – Red Kryptonite Effects

Red kryptonite returns in Adventure Comics #255 (October 1958). Maybe the writers forgot or ignored the “red kryptonite is 10 times as powerful as green kryptonite” story from a few months and wanted to tell a different story. This time a “Martian” brings a fragment of red kryptonite to Earth and it splits Superboy into […]

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673 – Super-Vreedl

In Challengers of the Unknown #5 (October 1958), the Challs face off against Vreedl, a member of a safari that manages to get ahold of sacred stones that bestow super-powers and somehow manages to always keep one step ahead of our heroes until the end. He shoots and manipulates fire, he gains the power of […]

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