In Marvel Mystery Comics #3 (November 1939), Namor the Sub-Mariner meets Betty Dean the Undercover Police Officer. Bill Everett did a great job illustrating and writing this new character, giving her the right amount of heart and sincerity which she used to try and steer our fiery anti-hero to the side of us poor surface […]
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The Shield was the first over-the-top-patriotic superhero, arriving at least a year before Captain America. Debuting in Pep Comics #1 (November 1939), he was a G-Man who designed his own costume that gave him a dizzying array of powers: bulletproof, flameproof, super speed, super strong, he could scale walls and he had radio gadgets to […]
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In Action Comics #20 (November 1939), Superman discovers that Hollywood actress Dolores Winters is acting rather strangely the day after acting so nicely to Clark Kent. After Dolores gives him the stink eye, Superman makes the intuitive leap that the Ultra-Humanite has placed his brain inside Dolores’ body. But it’s comforting to know that Superman […]
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Johnny Thunder(bolt) also debuted in Flash Comics #1 (November 1939). Like the other two heroes he shared the book with (Flash and Hawkman), Johnny Thunder was a one-gimmick wonder. This time, the gimmick was that he didn’t know he was a hero. Most of this time, this played like somewhat unfunny comedy. In this first […]
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Hawkman also debuted in Flash Comics #1 (November 1939). He was created by Gardner Fox and Dennis Neville. Carter Hall, a research scientist and collector of weapons, has a dream of a past life as Prince Khufu, he discovers the Ninth Metal, creates wings which defy gravity and decides to use “weapons of the past” […]
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November 1939 was a big month for All-American Publications, as it debuted its second title, Flash Comics. In issue #1, Gardner Fox introduced a couple very important superheroes that would later become part of the DC Universe almost right away (even though All-American would not officially merge with DC for a half a decade). The […]
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In Detective Comics #34 (November 1939), Bruce Wayne meets up with a woman whose brother had his face burnt away by a terrible ray… those pesky terrible rays. The mad is not The Question, but I thought he looked similar enough to the character created thirty years later that I would include it here. While […]
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In Action Comics #19 (October 1939), Zatara visits a city full of gorillas with human slaves, a full generation before Planet of the Apes. Crazily enough, this is not the fabled African Gorilla City that bothers the Flash decades later but a different city of gorillas in Mexico (?!?) made by a mad scientist who […]
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In Detective Comics #33 (October 1939), the Batman is finally given an origin story – and wow, what a powerful page and half that is! Apparently Bill Finger wrote this part of the story (the rest being written by Gardner Fox) and the words combined with the iconic imagery of Bob Kane continue the dark […]
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In Action Comics #18 (September 1939), Superman used his x-ray vision for the first time (his super-hearing had been hinted at in a previous story). I picture what is happening with Superman’s powers here as a sort of “arms race”, since I’m sure Jerry Siegel had constant pressure to make Superman more exciting than other […]
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