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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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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835 – Legion of Super-Pets

The Legion of Super-Pets make their official debut in Adventure Comics #293 (Dec 1961). The Legion of Super-Heroes recruit a variety of super-powered pets: Krypto, Streaky, Beppo and Comet the Super-Horse, who makes his “sneak peak” premier here. The pets are called upon to save Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes who are being threatened […]

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834 – Invisible Plane Origin

In Wonder Woman #128 (Dec 1961), the writers struggle to figure out how to solidify the “Wonder Family” by having Wonder Woman tell the origin story of her invisible robot plane to recordings of herself at younger ages as Wonder Tot and Wonder Girl. As Wonder Woman is about to leave Paradise Islands, she realizes […]

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833 – Mon-El Again

In Action Comics #284 (Nov 1961), a ghostly hand leaves Clark Kent a message. Using red kryptonite, Superman shrinks himself down to toddler-size for the amusement of the reader. Of course there is a reason he does this, and we just have to be patient and watch random humans refuse to believe the toddler is […]

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832 – Supergirl Restored

Action Comics #284 (November 1961) wraps up the long-running Supergirl serial of stories that began in early 1961 with a carryover of the last three effects of red kryptonite from the previous issue, one of which is to turn her into a mermaid. Jerro takes this opportunity to propose, which leaves Supergirl briefly speechless. The […]

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831 – The Second Clayface

Detective Comics #298 (October 1961) introduces a Silver Age counterpart to an old Golden Age Batman villain: Clayface. Batman and Robin are attending a charity benefit when suddenly a lumpy man in a trenchcoat appears. If I had a nickel for every time that happened. Suddenly Clayface turns into a giant snake, then an eagle […]

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830 – The Cosmic Treadmill

In Flash #125 (October 1961), Wally West, aka Kid Flash, goes to visit his aunt and ends up spending time with Barry Allen, aka the Flash. We learn that since time travel has become an important part of being a speedster, that Barry has invented a “cosmic treadmill”. Barry explains that the treadmill helps a […]

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827 – Supergirl Power Debugging

Action Comics #282 (Sept 1961) carries on with Part 5 of the continuing saga of Lesla-Lar v Supergirl, which is kind of just all over the place. Superman continues the “debugging” session of why Supergirl’s powers are missing in the present but have resurfaced in the past. He builds her a time machine to visit […]

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826 – Sinestro Returns

In Green Lantern #9 (September 1961), Hal’s nemesis, Sinestro, makes his second appearance, complete with villainous exposition explaining how he escaped that green bubble they trapped him in last time. Our hero, Hal Jordan, is looking forward to the first GL Con… “the first galaxy-wide conference of all power battery possessors”. That’s kind of interesting, […]

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