Flash Comics #123 (July 1961) has the official birth of the DC multiverse in the landmark story “Flash of Two Worlds”. After super-speed vibrating during a show for charity, Barry Allen’s Silver Age Flash finds himself in a similar-but-different world, where Central City is replaced by Keystone City. Remembering that Jay Garrick, the “fictional” inspiration […]
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In June 1961, DC published a super-collection of many superhero origin stories entitled Secret Origins, a one-shot. I’m a sucker for origin stories and I really liked the 1986+ series of the same name, which helped solidify DC’s continuity in a post-Crisis on Infinite Earths timeline. But back in the 1960s, there was no really […]
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Blue kryptonite makes its first appearance in Superman #140 (August 1960), when Superman and Supergirl take on the entire Bizarro world of imperfect Supermen and Lois Lanes. This time a seemingly human child is born to Bizarro No. 1 and sent to Earth, where Supergirl helps care for him. Supergirl falls into the path of […]
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In Green Lantern #2 (July 1960), Green Lantern (Hal Jordan) gets a confidante just like Roy Thomas suggested he should in an Inuit mechanic friend, Thomas Kalmaku aka “Pieface”. I’m pretty sure “Pieface” is referring to the round-ness of the face. Despite that racist nickname, the character is not depicted as a racist caricature, but […]
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In Adventure Comics #128 (March 1948), the writers of Superboy decided to toss more continuity out the door in favor of a cool story idea: A young Clark Kent win a prize to be a cub reporter for the summer for the Daily Planet, and guess who the other winner is: Lois Lane! Of course […]
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Although he is a far cry from his Silver Age counterpart, the Golden Age Psycho-Pirate makes his debut in All-Star Comics #23 (November 1944). Charles Halstead, a frustrated linotyper, commits crimes based on emotions and challenges the Justice Society of America. He has no powers and would not merit a mention in this blog if […]
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The final hero that was introduced in Police Comics #1 (May 1941), was the Human Bomb, created by Paul Gustavson. Roy Lincoln swallowed an explosive capsule his father was invented to prevent it falling into the hands of spies, and became explosive. As a kid, I first met members Uncle Sam, the Phantom Lady and […]
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Quality Comics started a new comic book in April 1940: National Comics #1. This book featured the debut of an odd superhero, Uncle Sam created by Will Eisner. Eisner based the superhero on the character used for U.S. Army recruiting since the 1800s. The superhero was the embodiment of the American spirit, seemingly indestructible in […]
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