851 – New Legionnaire: Ultra-Boy!

The blog post title contains the spoiler, but Ultra-Boy is a pretty well-known character in Legion lore these days that it’s hardly that much of a spoiler. A mysterious super-powered teen shows up in Smallville to uncover Superboy’s secret identity, accompanied by a stern, elderly man dressed in similar clothes. We get some cat-and-mouse where […]

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850 – Chemo!

In another outing of the Metal Men, chemical scientist Ramsey Norton dumps his failed chemical experiments into a plastic, human-shaped vessel, which he names Chemo. Somehow Chemo gains some form of sentience, animates the plastic vessel, grows to a gigantic size, and starts on a rampage, to topple buildings and proving impervious to police bullets. […]

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849 – Rip Hunter in Space

With no real pseudo-scientific explanation given, after encountering a stranded alien with super-powers in the past, Rip Hunter decides to chart a course into space with the Time Sphere.

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846 – Green Lantern and Flash Team Up

Speaking of teamups and crossovers, DC decided to feature a crossover event of sorts between the Silver Age Green Lantern and The Flash in Green Lantern #13 (April 1962). Iris West needs to go interview that famous test pilot Hal Jordan on the west coast, so off Barry Allen goes to vacation with her. At […]

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845 – The Flash and the Justice Society

In Flash #129 (April 1962), Barry Allen gets his second crossover with the Golden Age Flash, Jay Garrick. We start on Earth-2 (just called “Another Earth” in this issue) with Jay Garrick reminiscing with his wife Joan about his adventures with the Justice Society years ago. There’s a couple nice pages where the Golden Age […]

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843 – Adam Strange meets the JLA

Cross-pollination within the DC universe continues, as a villain from the Justice League of America #3 (Mar 1962), Kanjar Ro escapes from his imprisonment and surfaces on Rann, plaguing Adam Strange and his sweetheart Alanna. It turns out that Kanjar Ro has figured out a way to give himself triple super-powers thanks to the triple-sun […]

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841 – Bat-Baby

In Batman #147 (March 1962), a criminal gang and a renegade scientist use a ray to de-age Batman to the age of about four. DC’s fascination with their heroes in toddler-form continue, with Bat-Baby being added to the likes of Super-Tot and Wonder-Tot. Fortunately, little Brucey kept his mind and his strength, condensed into a […]

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839 – The Metal Men!

Showcase #37 introduces another set of DC “silver age” heroes: The Metal Men. A series of artificially intelligent robots impractically made of individual precious metals and each given specific powers and personalities specific to their metal. The cast of characters includes their creator Dr Will Magnus and the token female robot “Tina” made of Platinum. […]

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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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