Well Showcase just seems to be cranking out concept after concept. In Showcase #9 (May 1958), Lois Lane finally gets a magazine to shine all to herself, which would later carry into “Superman’s Girlfriend, Lois Lane”. Stories show Lois getting into trouble on her job and the like, but in contrast to her original solo […]
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Jimmy Olsen’s comic book has always been a place for comic relief. In Jimmy Olsen #21 (April 1957), he mistakenly thinks Lois Lane is in love with him and ends up proposing to her not to break her heart. He continues the mix-up into his dreams where he imagines the wedding takes place, Superman is […]
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In World’s Finest #88 (March 1957), Luthor and the Joker team up for the first time. Luthor invents “mechano-men”, robotic automatons that can do their bidding. Superman and Batman try to foil what appear to be attempted crimes only to be made fools of for stopping legitimate activities. The villains attempt to rob the treasury […]
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In Superman #113 (March 1957), we get more Superman mythos building by Bill Finger, when Superman discovers a strange headpiece apparatus near a kryptonite meteor. He discovers that the headpiece allows him to play back mental images from his father, Jor-El. When he plays it back, he learns that Jor-El had to foil the plot […]
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In Showcase #8 (March 1957), the Flash returns and his “rogues gallery” begins with the introduction of Captain Cold. Len Snart, an “ambitious crook”, wants a weapon capable of defeating the Flash. By using a cyclotron, he turns his gun into a cold weapon and after abandoning several names (Mr Arctic, The Cold Wave, Sub-Zero, […]
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In Batman #107 (Feb 1957), Dick Grayson (Robin) accidentally is exposed to a gas that ages him to adulthood. Yep, it turns out that Superman was too busy to analyze a lead-lined device he found in space, so he left it with Batman, and poor Robin took a blast of space gas in the face. […]
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In World’s Finest #87 (January 1957), Elton Craig, a would-be criminal manages to find a kryptonite meteorite, which also happens to contain a box of super-power capsules from Jor-El of Krypton. Craig manages to weaken Superman, forcing Batman to take a capsule and help defeat the villain. I’ve made short shrift of these Jor-El coincidences, […]
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In Batman #106 (December 1956), Batwoman makes her exciting return to crime-fighting from her early retirement. Despite previously promising Batman to not play caped crusader, Kathy Kane wears her costume to a masquerade ball, but gets embroiled in a case with Batman and Robin again. All’s well that ends well, and Kathy promises yet again […]
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Early one morning in Adventure Comics #232 (Nov 1956) – with a solid WHAMMMP! – another intact Kryptonian city lands on Earth, this time right next to Smallville…. ಠ_ಠ In terms of lazy writing, this one might just take the cake. The Kryptonian city chunk happens to contain the very house where Kal-el was born, […]
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In November 1956, DC introduced a new group of heroes in Showcase #6: The Challengers of the Unknown. Most folks credit Jack Kirby in some way with the creation of this group, which consisted of four daredevils: Rocky Davis, Prof Haley, Red Ryan and Ace Morgan who, after miraculously and inexplicably surviving a plane crash […]
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