845 – The Flash and the Justice Society

In Flash #129 (April 1962), Barry Allen gets his second crossover with the Golden Age Flash, Jay Garrick. We start on Earth-2 (just called “Another Earth” in this issue) with Jay Garrick reminiscing with his wife Joan about his adventures with the Justice Society years ago. There’s a couple nice pages where the Golden Age […]

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844 – The Incredible Hulk!

In March 1962, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby combine forces again and The Incredible Hulk #1 hit the newsstands. A combination of a Marvel Monster and a super-hero in a long-form serial story-telling style. Dr Bruce Banner saves teenager Rick Jones from the G-bomb and is bathed in the full force of the mysterious gamma […]

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843 – Adam Strange meets the JLA

Cross-pollination within the DC universe continues, as a villain from the Justice League of America #3 (Mar 1962), Kanjar Ro escapes from his imprisonment and surfaces on Rann, plaguing Adam Strange and his sweetheart Alanna. It turns out that Kanjar Ro has figured out a way to give himself triple super-powers thanks to the triple-sun […]

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842 – Abra-Kadabra!

Another month, another new Flash rogue: Abra-Kadabra makes his first appearance in Flash #128, March 1962. This time, it’s a stage magician in the 64th century, who laments that no one likes stage magic anymore because future science is so fantastical. He wistfully pines for an audience to applaud for him. He gets the bright […]

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841 – Bat-Baby

In Batman #147 (March 1962), a criminal gang and a renegade scientist use a ray to de-age Batman to the age of about four. DC’s fascination with their heroes in toddler-form continue, with Bat-Baby being added to the likes of Super-Tot and Wonder-Tot. Fortunately, little Brucey kept his mind and his strength, condensed into a […]

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840 – Flame-On for Sub-Mariner!

Last ish, our fledgling Fantastic Four foursome had went splitsville as that hot-head Johnny stormed off because The Thing kept picking on him. Johnny hides out with some roadsters working on hot-rod engines and uses his famous “Flame On!” catchphrase for the first time. We get several pages of the other team members looking throughout […]

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839 – The Metal Men!

Showcase #37 introduces another set of DC “silver age” heroes: The Metal Men. A series of artificially intelligent robots impractically made of individual precious metals and each given specific powers and personalities specific to their metal. The cast of characters includes their creator Dr Will Magnus and the token female robot “Tina” made of Platinum. […]

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838 – Grodd for Governor

In Flash #127, we meet up again with Grodd the Super-Gorilla, after a year’s absence in the comic books. Previously, Grodd’s consciousness was placed in that of a human, but managed to still get captured by The Flash. Now the human has been paroled and his gorilla mind is starting to re-assert itself. He makes […]

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837 – Four Fantastic Costumes

Fantastic Four #3 (Dec 1961) comes with some more world-building with Marvel’s new set of super-heroes given some snazzy uniforms (reminiscent of the Challengers of the Unknown), a Fantasticar, and an official headquarters (though the building is not yet named). This issue, the FF are up against “The Miracle Man”, who (spoiler alert) turns out […]

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836 – Supergirl Goes Public!

DC finally bites the bullet and makes a big, story-altering change to Supergirl by having Superman reveal her to the world in Action Comics #285 (Dec 1961). First, she reveals her identity to the Danvers, and then Superman reveals her hero persona to the world using a special television broadcast. She gets a big warm […]

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