In Superboy #5 (Sept 1949), for the first time, Superboy concentrates his x-ray vision into heat vision to melt a bullet. The bullet was meant for a girl named Lucy from Borgonia, who is a top athlete visiting Smallville. She ends up helping Superboy and being dubbed Supergirl:
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In September 1949, Superman #61 hit the stands – the most important book so far in the evolution of the Superman myth. In it, Superman encounters a fake “swami” who happens to have a piece of kryptonite in his turban. Lois Lane helps him out of this first encounter. The swami, believing he has hex […]
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In All-Star Comics #49 (August 1949), the JSA continues to chug along. This story reveals that the JSA have a surprising amount of sophisticated technology – a computer lab that analyzes crime data from newspapers, and video chat technology borrowed from the Amazons: It’s funny that these things, which were 100% science fiction back then, […]
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In Action Comics #137 (August 1949), Tommy Tomorrow gets into a spherical time machine and accidentally lands back forty years in 1949. The machine looks suspiciously like the time machine used by Rip Hunter.
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ACG continues to push its horror comic with Adventurers of the Unknown #7 (August 1949), featuring a story called “Drums of the Undead” which featured zombies. The zombie was a pretty new concept to western culture at the time, but the latter half of the 20th century brought zombies to the foreground in horror culture.
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In Superman #60 (July 1949), the Man of Steel demonstrates, for the first time, his ability to suck all the air out of a room…. literally!
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From Whiz Comics #112 (June 1949), Fawcett Comics continues to draw a hard line between Billy Batson and Captain Marvel – which are still clearly different people, I was surprised to learn that this did not change until well after Fawcett went under and DC acquired the rights to the character. In fact, it wasn’t […]
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Though the Kents were introduced way back in Superman #1 – in Superboy #3 (May 1949), Ma and Pa Kent finally join the supporting cast of Superboy stories. Up until this point, both Kents have only been seen in 1 or 2 panels in Superboy or Superman flashbacks, but this is the first time they […]
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By April 1949, the only DC superheroes left with their own books are the Trinity, but there is one exception: All-Star Comics. Amidst all the superhero comic book cancellations in the late 1940s in both Timely (Marvel) and DC Comics, the Justice Society of America continues to escape replacement by a horror or western comic! […]
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The final issue of Sub-Mariner Comics #23 also came out in March 1949. Like the Human Torch’s last issue, it features an origin story for the Sub-Mariner that goes much deeper into Namor’s birth, early life, than has ever been seen before. I don’t know if this was just a backup story they had lying […]
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