In Adventure Comics #207 (October 1954), Johnny Quick has his last adventure of the 1950s, making him the last Golden Age superhero DC retires in this tail end of the superhero decline. It’s a forgettable tale (other than force-feeding his sidekick Tubby Watts hamburgers to drown his heartache), but it does mean that DC will […]
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The last appearance of the Justice Society for more than ten years occurs in All-Star Comics #57 (December 1950) with “The Mystery of the Vanishing Detectives”. It’s mostly a bland story about a crime syndicate boss named The Key, but I did find it interesting that a panel featuring Wonder Woman’s invisible plane describes it […]
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In All-Star Comics #50 (October 1949), it is established for the first time that the members of the Justice Society of America know each other’s secret identities. Jay Garrick (The Flash) and his college classmates had written down their ambitions a decade before with their professor, and one of the classmates had decided to become […]
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In Flash Comics #104 (December 1948), the Rival makes his first appearance. Though he is not the first evil speedster, he is the first recurring evil speedster and the first to style himself after The Flash. Dr. Edward Clariss worked on a chemical formula to give himself temporary superspeed after learning that the Flash was […]
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In All-Flash #32 (October 1947), two new Golden Age villains are introduced in two different stories: The Fiddler and Star Sapphire. This brings the number of enduring DC villains introduced in 1947 to at least eight. The Fiddler was a criminal who was imprisoned in India and learned the mysteries of Indian music from a […]
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The march of new DC supervillains continues with the introduction of a Golden Age Flash rogue: Thorn from Flash Comics #89 (September 1947). Thorn is the split personality of Rose, who gained her powers in the jungles of Tashmi while helping a professor conduct secret botanical experiments. In this first story it is not fully […]
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In another “Liar’s Club” story, the Flash relates the story of “The Race Through Time!” in Comic Cavalcade #19 (December 1946). Gangster Tag Madden steals a serum which gives him super speed and The Flash must race him through the ancient past and the distance future. In it, we also get the first occurrence and […]
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In All-Flash #23 (April 1946), we actually get a genuine science fiction story in which the Flash is transported to the Planet Karma, has to time travel into the future of that planet, battle aliens and alien dinosaurs, and correct his own mistakes by doing even more time-traveling. I like how the Flash is still […]
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The Flash’s comic relief supporting characters (Winky, Blinky and Noddy – cheap knockoffs of the Three Stooges) make their first solo appearance in All-American Comics #73 (March 1946). This is another signal of non-superhero / humor comics becoming more prominent. Phew! only a few more years of this stuff to go through before the Golden […]
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The Flash experiments a little more with time travel in Comic Cavalcade #11 (May 1945). This time, seeking a vacation, he travels back to the time of Robin Hood and accidentally becomes the Will Scarlet character of those stories. I’m taking a couple days off for Christmas – be back Thursday!
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