Last ish, our fledgling Fantastic Four foursome had went splitsville as that hot-head Johnny stormed off because The Thing kept picking on him. Johnny hides out with some roadsters working on hot-rod engines and uses his famous “Flame On!” catchphrase for the first time. We get several pages of the other team members looking throughout […]
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They just added Hippolyta as an active member of Wonder Woman’s family, but they decided to add another incarnation of our main hero in Wonder Woman #122 (March 1961): Wonder Tot. This is really a try-out via a device that de-ages Diana to just above toddler. She manages to kick-ass anyway.
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It’s almost like every book in the DC universe was told to expand their mythos. The Batman family got a new member, so did the Wonder Woman family. Superman had the Phantom Zone added. And the JLA got a new member. So what about Green Lantern? Well, Green Lantern #6 (March 1961) added the concept […]
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Mythos be busting out all over the place, with the introduction of another major element of Superman stories being introduced in Adventure Comics #283 (February 1961): The Phantom Zone! Superboy discovers some Kryptonian machines sent into space (by Jor-El of course) and learns about how the Phantom Zone was where Krypton placed its dangerous criminals […]
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After all that deeper thinking about character motivation, it’s time for something light-hearted and fun: a new Legionnaire is introduced in Adventure Comics #282 (Jan 1961): Star Boy! Lana wants to make Superboy jealous, so she eavesdrops as a new teen superhero arrives from the future to meet Superboy. She learns the teen’s identity is […]
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I should have known by the ending of the first Xenmu story back in July 1960 that he would return. In Journey into Mystery #66 (Dec 1960), he does this very thing – being the only “giant Marvel monster” to appear in the last couple months. Production trouble at Atlas/Marvel? Or maybe a re-thinking of […]
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DC continues to world-build and expand on its characters, trying Aquaman and Aqualad out in a full-length story in Showcase #30 (Nov 1960). Atlantis is really the third “character” in the story, with Aquaman’s full origin retold as flashback (including his mother, the exiled Atlanna, and his father Tom Curry). Aquaman returns to Atlantis, responding […]
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Superboy #68 (Nov 1960) features the next appearance of a young Lex Luthor in a Superboy story. Superboy eventually defeats the “Army of Living Kryptonite Men” by getting help another L.L: Lightning Lad from the Legion of Super-Heroes. Lex learns of the existence of the Legion and theorizes that a Legion of Super-Villains must also […]
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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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Atlas/Marvel covers are decorated with more giant monsters in January 1960: Rro! and Taboo! Another thing I’m noticing with Marvel stories from this era is that these anthological tales are now getting sequels, such as “Return of the Martian” features another tale of “Zetora the Martian” in Journey into Mystery #58. Clear indications that the […]
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