Speaking of over-powered god-like beings, the Roman God Mercury awakens in Superman #20 (November 1943) and causes mischief for Superman. Eventually, Superman takes scissors and snips off Mercury’s ankle and helmet wings… a little harsh! Humiliated, Mercury stops clowning around and helps clean up the mischief and goes back into hibernation for another 1,000 years. […]
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Wonder Woman’s powers continue to grow as she uses her power of astral projection in Sensation Comics #25 (November 1943) to track down criminals. Speaking of newfound powers, over in Superman #20 (also November 1943), we learn that Superman has super-control over his super-facial-muscles: And so the super-powers arms race continues…
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Bruce Wayne loses ward-ship over Dick Grayson for the first time in Batman #20 (October 1943), a recurring story idea that comes up in later years. Dick’s shifty Uncle George and Aunt Clara come to claim him, take Bruce to court claiming his playboy ways are a bad influence, and then use the opportunity to […]
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In September 1943, Otto Binder created Miss America for Marvel Mystery Comics #49, because we needed more patriotic-themed super-heroines, apparently (remember Liberty Belle?). Miss America is Madeline Joyce, the daughter of a billionaire who encounters a freak accident in an experimental electrical laboratory and gains superhuman strength and the ability to fly.
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I picture Stan Lee in the 1960s poring through old Marvel comic books in search of new villain ideas and coming across Captain America #32 (Sept 1943). In that issue, Captain America faces off against two new Nazi villains in two separate stories: The Mole Man and The Vulture. Not to be confused with their […]
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The Golden Age Flash finally gets a slightly memorable villain in the form of The Thinker in All-Flash Comics #12 (September 1943). The Thinker is Clifford DeVoe, an attorney whose career is ended by a criminal and decides to work on the other side of the law, out-thinking everyone with his tremendous brainpower. This version […]
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Speaking of split personalities, Harvey Kent aka Two-Face is cured of his split personality in Detective Comics #80 (August 1943). Harvey reforms, wins his girl back, and has plastic surgery to fix the disfigurement. Like almost all comic “transformations”, this is mostly a temporary one, though I believe this is Two-Face’s last appearance in the […]
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Wonder Woman finally gets a recognizable villain in the form of Cheetah in Wonder Woman #6 (August 1943). Priscilla Rich has a split personality and takes it out on Wonder Woman by dressing up in a skin-tight cheetah costume. This is, of course, the Golden Age version of the villain and not the version of […]
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In a surprising-for-the-time war tale, Aquaman meets up with a Russian boat captained and crewed by only women – who manage to hold their own against Nazis. While at first it seems like the story is a bit gimmicky, it is interesting in that the women are never shown as helpless, and it seems like […]
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Toyman makes his bland debut as the newest Superman villain in Action Comics #64 (July 1943). In a world that already has The Joker and The Prankster, it seems like a pretty gimmicky idea, but whatever. The only real memory of Toyman I have from my youth is from the phenomenal Alan Moore 2-issue story […]
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