On the cover of Captain Carrot & His Amazing Zoo Crew #14, Captain Carrot says he created Super Squirrel, but inside it's shown that Gardner F. Fox created the Justa Lotta Animals comic which included Super Squirrel.

Ah, covers are all-too often misleading. Sometimes, they show scenes that don't even appear in the comic. Take, for example, the DC COMICS PRESENTS teamup with Superman and the Atom. The cover shows the Atom at Superman's gravesite, vowing to avenge him. But no such scene occurs in the comic -- the Atom witnesses what he thinks is Superman getting disintegrated (of course, it turns out that it's not what it looks like), but there is no funeral or anything -- he doesn't even tell the world about what he saw. There is not even a setup for the scene on the cover to occur. Of course, in the letter column, the editor defends the cover as being 'symbolic', saying they couldn't find a scene that was actually IN the story that would make a good cover. Of course, I say that's nonsense -- the scene with Superman supposedly being disintegrated would have made for a good cover.

Of course, I think covers that give away the ending of an issue are even worse. Fortunately, I haven't seen as much of those around in recent years.

True. A character will sometimes appear on a cover because the cover artist just wanted to draw the character. Sometimes the artist is hired to draw a cover, but has no info on what anyone in the story looks like.

Time Travel nits

Superman & Superboy could break the time barrier & met themselves at least twice.
Later it was established that two versions of the same person couldn't exist in the same time and the second version would become a phantom.

When fighting the Manhawks, Hawkman discovered that to commit their crimes they would project the place they were robbing into the future, which was gray because it hadn't happened yet.
However plenty of time travel stories before & after this always had the future exist rather than be a murky grey region.

How many races of Martians does DC comics have?

In a 1949 Superman story, Black Magic On Mars, we see Martler & his Martians, half the size of humans with small bodies, & big heads (my copy was in B&W so I don't know what color they were.)

In the '50s (1953?) J'Onn J'Onz, the Martian Manhunter arrives, green, average height & weight, does have the ability to shapechange.
(I believe in the '60s or '70s an albino offshoot of JJ's race was introduced, the White Martians.)

In the 1960 story, The Untold Story Of Red Kryptonite Superman remembers meeting a Kozz of Mars. Average height, pointy ears, scales?, my copy was in B&W so I don't know color.

I doubt that either Martler's Martians or Kozz of Mars were members of JJ's race because Martler's Martians lacked the superpowers of JJ & Kozz needed Superboy's superpowers to repair his spaceship.

Any other DC Martians hiding out there?

The Amazing World Of DC Comics
Since the DC in DC Comics originally stood for Detective Comics, does that mean that the title of this magazine really is The Amazing World of Detective Comics Comics?
;-)

The Amazing World Of DC Comics #14
A special issue devoted to the Justice League Of America and on the cover it says "Inside the longest running team in comics!"

No, that would have been issue 9 devoted to the Legion Of Super-Heroes.

The Legion first appeared in 1958, the JLA in 1960. Admittedly the Legion's run was spotty with gaps between appearances and even being moved from book to book whereas the JLA appeared regularly from it's first appearance, but then there should have been a qualifier on the statement.

Of course the word team could also apply to non-superpowered teams like the Blackhawks who started in the `40s and was canceled in the late `60s/early `70s.

Then again don't Batman & Robin qualify as a team?

In issue #1 of Shade, the Changing Man (the original Steve Ditko/Michael Fleischer run), Shade, falsely accused of being a traitor, escapes to the Earth-Zone. There, in an apartment he had pre-paid the rent for, he retrieves his M-vest. However, in #8, Shade says he has been keeping he M-Vest in the Zero-Zone.

The building which houses the ORC (Occult Research Center) organization, bears more than a passing resemblance to Dr. Strange's Sanctum, doncha think? In some issues, Wizor, the man in charge of ORC, when seen from behind, appears to be wearing Dr. Strange's cloak of levitation.

The creatures in the interdimensional zones bear more than a passing resemblance to the ones seen in Steve Ditko's run on Dr. Strange in Strange Tales, doncha think?

The character, Xexlo, seen in #8, has a costume that bears more than a passing resemblance to the Dread Dormammu's costume. (Ever get the feeling Ditko recycled more than a few of his earlier, better ideas?)

Thank the Meta!

Manhunter: The Special Edition
The list of awards, Table of Contents & Archie Goodwin's intro for the `79 reprint all call chapter 7 Götterdämmerung, but in the actual story the title is written Gotterdammerung without the umlauts.

The Himalayan Incident originally published in Detective Comics #437
Why does Christine refer to Manhunter as Manhunter? In all the previous instances shown in this & the next story we don't see him, or anyone, identify himself as Manhunter. So why has Christine taken to calling him by a name last used by two 1940's heroes?

Why was Manhunter disguised as Haj the Ancient? Yes, it makes for an amusing ending, but there doesn't seem to be any reason for it. Additionally his openly removing the disguise doesn't make sense either. If Christine had turned around she would have seen him.

The Manhunter File originally published in Detective Comics #438
Christine's informant told her of the attempt on Manhunter's life by tiger & even saw him experience regret at the killing of the tiger. In order to get that close one would assume the informant was also one of the ones who unleashed the tiger. So why didn't Christine ask who wanted Manhunter dead?

If Paul Kirk was believed killed in 1946 why would his bank account still be active in 1973? Possibly the Council could have had their man keep the account left open, but wouldn't someone wonder about that? Possibly the Council could have occasionally deposited & withdrawn money to keep the account open, but then people wouldn't assume that Paul Kirk was dead.

The Resurrection Of Paul Kirk originally published in Detective Comics #43
The flashback shows Paul Kirk wearing a red & blue costume with a blue mask that shows his nose & mouth, however, I believe that his original Manhunter costume had a full blue mask. (Roy Thomas made a joke about his voice being muffled in an issue of All-Star Squadron.)
Also other uses of the Manhunters, an organization that Paul Kirk was supposed to have belonged to, had slightly different looking red & blue costumes.

Cathedral Perilous originally published in Detective Comics #441
Dr. Myrkos says, "To prevent discord from spreading to the lower ranks... we made his death appear to be a heart attack!"
Isn't he talking to the lower ranks now?

At the end we discover that Christine's father is working for the Council. The problem is that he was speaking to the group while Christine was in the hall & she should have recognized his voice.

To Duel The Master originally published in Detective Comics #442
Okay, Christine is wanted as a criminal so she buys a train ticket with her father's credit card. Doesn't that just scream asking to be caught?

Page 3, panel 2 the caption says, "Moments later, brakes squealing, steam hissing, the Orient Express pulls into Sofia..." & since Mr. St. Clair meets his daughter on the train here, presumably he got on in Sofia, however on page 4, panel 8, the caption again reads, "Moments later, brakes squealing, steam hissing, the Orient Express pulls into Sofia..."

The tape recording Christine plays for Asano Nitobe is slightly different from what was said by Dr. Myrkos in Cathedral Perilous.
(Blue is from Cathedral Perilous, red is from To Duel The Master.)
"Oka was a brilliant genetic scientist, but he lacked vision! His inclusion in the Council was a mistake! He actually began to feel the other nine of us were placing personal interests above our original goal of saving mankind! Not unlike our other disappointment... Manhunter! When Oka refused to share further of his discoveries-- it was necessary to eliminate him! To prevent discord from spreading to the lower ranks... we made his death appear to be a heart attack!"
"...a brilliant GENETIC SCIENTIST, but lacked VISION! Actually began to feel we were placing PERSONAL INTERESTS above our original goal of SAVING mankind! When Oka refused to share FURTHER discoveries... it was necessary to ELIMINATE him! To prevent DISCORD spreading to the LOWER RANKS... We made his death appear to be a HEART ATTACK!"

Gotterdammerung originally published in Detective Comics #443
Did Dan Kingdom ever appear in a previous issue? It just seems strange that Batman refers to him as a best friend, but, outside of this story, I don't remember ever seeing or hearing of him before.

Man, Enforcer's got an ugly outfit. (Yeah, a charge that can be leveled at any number of heroes & villains.) Did he ever appear again & did he ever get a better looking costume?

The Final Chapter
This story was plotted by Goodwin & Simonson, but Archie died before it could be finished. Simonson finished it as a wordless story. One problem with that is that there seems to be a flashback in the middle, but since nothing says it's a flashback it*, at first, seems to be a continuation of the chase that has been going on, so Christine's surprise at the clone dressed as Manhunter seems odd since they were just chasing a clone dressed as Manhunter.
Also there was a clone who used the Manhunter costume & name in The Secret Society Of Super-Villains, although I suppose Christine, Asano & Kolu wouldn't know about him since it was a SECRET Society and he did die trying to stop Darkseid.

* There are hints that it's a flashback, the unusual color scheme, the time on the clock & the clone's relaxed attitude & being out of costume at the beginning of it, but that could also have been signs that this was the next day & the colorist screwed up.

The first page of The Himalayan Incident is reprinted on the last page to symbolize Batman telling Gordon about Manhunter. However the colors are different from the reprint of this story in this edition. Most noticeably Christine's hair is orange instead of red.

One nice touch with the reprinted portion (besides containing words written by Archie Goodwin) is that caricatures of Walt & Archie have been placed on the post where the original had the story title.

Limited Collectors' Edition C-36
Stories From The Bible... Book One
More like Book Only. Big plans for this. The back cover says "First of a series" & promises stories from the Old & New Testaments and it ends with Sodom & Gomorrah. Good artwork from Nestor Redondo, however.

The cover shows various 'clips' of the assembled stories, from left to right: Creation; Tower of Babel; Sodom Gomorrah; Noah's Ark; Adam & Eve; Cain & Abel. Not exactly the order the stories proceed in.

The story begins with two children, David & Hannah, & their unnamed grandpa. David doesn't believe in the Bible stories, instead believing what the scientists say and Grandpa says, "Scientists will be the first to tell you that they don't have all the answers!" then asks some rhetorical questions about not knowing the how, why or who of various things and then launches into a retelling of the Bible stories completely ignoring the scientific inaccuracies. (And no, I won't go into them here since that's more of a Religious Musings thing.)
This I think was a big nit. If you weren't going to address the scientific accuracy, why bring it up in the first place? If this were a book of Greek Myths (narrated, no doubt, by Wonder Woman) I seriously doubt they would have started off by questioning the scientific accuracy & having WW say, "Scientists will be the first to tell you that they don't have all the answers!"

One interesting thing about this book is simply the amount of nude characters (carefully posed to cover the censurable parts*) in here. Somewhat unavoidable since Adam & Eve's nudity was part of the plot, but surprising for the time (1975). I wonder if this is the first time in a Comics Code Authority book that naked people are portrayed? (Or, at least, to this degree of exposure?)
* Well, I think we see Adam's bottom & later the bottom of a naked moon goddess statue.

God tells Noah to build the Ark with 3 decks, but the blueprint shows 4 decks.

Oddly enough Grandpa's retelling includes tidbits of information about life & school & weapons of the Biblical era.

At the end David has completely forgotten about that science stuff & just wants to hear more stories. Way to keep your integrity, kid.

All-Star Squadron
When Roy Thomas did All-Star Squadron he invented a sister for the original Firebrand and gave her fiery powers & she adopted the same superhero name.

What's interesting is that Quality Comics (Where Firebrand began) had a superheroine with the ability to control fire & flame named Wildfire. So why did Thomas feel the need to create a new character rather than reuse an already existing one?

Possibly the fact that the Legion had a hero named Wildfire may have been a consideration, but All-Star Squadron had all sorts of heroes whose names duplicated other heroes (Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern, etc., etc.)

I kept mentioning the DC Implosion in my nitting of Freedom Fighters as if everyone knows what it was. I suppose I should try to explain it for those who don't know.

In the spring of 1978 DC was hyping "The DC Explosion!" The plan was in the summer various books would expand their page counts (& prices) and there would be new back-up series featuring various characters, some new, some old, some spun off from other series. I believe they printed one month of the expanded books then TPTB at DC canceled the whole thing and even various titles for being too expensive. People referred to the mass cancellations as "The DC Implosion" as a twist on The DC Explosion.

The intended back-up series I can remember were
The Atom
Big Barda (from the Mister Miracle series)
Enemy Ace
Hawkman
The Odd Man (a new creation by Steve Ditko)
OMAC
The Ray
Tales Of The Amazons (I think that was what it was called, somekinda Wonder Woman spinoff)
I think that was it.

Other victims of the DC Implosion include Steel, the Indestructible Man, Shade, the Changing Man, Firestorm, Claw the Unconquered, Doorway to Nightmare and Black Lightning. Here's a website devoted to those cancelled titles, revealing what the next issues of each title would have been had the series not been cancelled: Cancelled Comics Cavalcade.

I just double checked the site I linked to. It's not the one I was thinking of. It does provide scans of the first pages or covers to the titles that were the victims of the DC Implosion, but no real details. For that, you'd have to purchase individual issues of their reviews. The site I wanted appears to be unavailable right now, as they relocating to a new server.

Some of the choices for which DC Explosion back-up series went in which comic seem odd.

Hawkman in Detective Comics. Ehhhh... yeah Hawkman can play detective, but it's not the first comic that would come to my mind for the character.

The Ray in Black Lightning. Huh? What the heck does The Ray have in common with Black Lightning? (Two heroes who grew up in the ghetto, held down by the Man...) Then again, had the title not been cancelled, they could have become DC's answer to Luke Cage & Iron Fist?

The Demon in Batman Family. I just don't see the family resemblance. Okay, Batman & Man-Bat have both teamed up with The Demon, but that's a pretty flimsy excuse to make him part of the family. Also the magic elements far remove the character out of the more down to earth urban setting that's typical for Batman & his extended family (not that they haven't had their share of magical adventures, but it's usually the exception rather than the rule).

The Prez -- a title about the first teen-aged president, which got a hilarious send-up on Gone and Forgotten and was so obscure it was picked up by Neil Gaiman for use in Sandman -- was another victim of the DC Implosion. It was canceled after four issues even though the fifth had been produced.

Benn, I also remember visiting the Web site that included scans from the CCC. It's a shame to see it's gone, even temporarily.

Was the Prez really a teenager or was he just elected by teenagers? Somehow I though his age was given as 20 or something. Course the only issue I remember looking at was the one with the parapalegic vampire in the wheeled cart.

Fictional Presidents of the DC Universe.
Prez
Lex Luthor
Travis Morgan (some point in the future in The Warlord)
The female president from the imaginary story Superman 2001 (Actually I think Supes was president in an imaginary story as well.)

I believe Star Hunters was also cancelled by the DC Implosion. 1 issue before the story could have ended.

I think Batman Family was as well, but they just shifted the stories over to a Dollar-sized Detective Comics. One The Odd Man story was also printed in Detective.

The revived All-Star Comics got canned, but the JSA stories moved over to Adventure Comics.

For the record, Prez's last name was Rickard. As I recall, he was one of the last characters created by Joe Simon, co-creator of Captain America. I'm not certain how old Prez was when he was elected. I thought he was 18; maybe he wasn't.

A President Rickard, btw, appeared in Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Strikes Again mini-series of a couple of years ago. (God, did that thing su<k!) It was clearly meant to be Prez.

Excelsior!

Incidentally, President Clinton gave a speach at Superman's funeral.

I'm not positive how old President Rickard was since I haven't read the books in mumblemumble years.

I wonder if Simon's last creations (Prez, The Green Team, whatever else) would have worked better at a company like Harvey or Archie? Goofy, humorous concepts like those would seem to be better nourished by companies which focused on humor rather than a company known more for superheroes. (Admittedly, at the time, people might not have seen the writing on the wall about the direction that DC would take in the next few years.)

up until recently firestorm was a single person, sorry I can't remember his name. But now he's not only changed (again) but now is someone else entirely with no explaination that I've heard..what gives?

I'm getting a headache.

Firestorm, IIRC, was originally two people sorta, kinda inhabiting the same body. The way it was set up reminded me of Rick Jones' and Captain Mar-Vell's relationship in Marvel Comics' Captain Marvel. I'm not sure when Firestorm became one individual. Nor for that matter am I conversant with the current version of the character. He just never interested me. To me, he was too powerful. Moreso than Superman ever was. Sort of the Molecule Man gone good.

Make Mine Marvel!

Firestorm was originally two people, Ronnie Raymond & Prof. Stein, joined together in a nuclear fusion accidents. (Oh, those wacky nuclear acidents.)

Then Prof. Stein died of cancer (or did he?), and Ronnie & a member of the Russian Rocket Reds (forget the guy's name) joined together during a nuclear explosion to become a new Firestorm.

It was later revealed that Firestorm was actually a fire elemental & he was supposed to have joined up with Prof. Stein (who didn't die), but not Ronnie. The second series ended with Stein becoming Firestorm and ending up in a far off sector of space. (Although later stories did have him somehow returning & rejoining with Ronnie.)

I have heard about the new Firestorm series & that a new kid is now Firestorm, but I haven't read it & don't know how he relates to the previous versions.

One question: How is it that a "fire elemental" can change the molecular structure of an object? I mean, other than turning it to ashes? (Ya ever get the feeling that the DC PTB really don't much of a clue when it comes to Firestorm?)

"Up, up and away!"

How is it that a "fire elemental" can change the molecular structure of an object?
Welllllllll, it is a nuclear fire & elemental relates to the elements...

World's Best Comics: Golden Age Sampler & World's Best Comics: Silver Age Sampler
Got these recently & after reading them found myself wondering why DC published them? Given all the Archive editions out there why were these stories picked to serve as advertisements?

The Golden Age Sampler contained stories of Superman, Batman & Robin, Wonder Woman, & Plastic Man. The Silver Age Sampler has stories of the Justice League of America, the Legion of Super-Heroes & Sgt. Rock.

Did they really worry that those Archive Editions weren't selling enough? I would think that they would try more of a mix of titles, popular & lesser known like say several Golden Age Samplers, one with a Superman story, a Spectre story & a Starman story, another with a Batman & Robin story with a Black Canary story & Golden Age Flash or Green Lantern. Or a Batman & Robin story from World's Finest (I believe the World's Finest Batman stories are the least reprinted.)

The Legion story in the Silver Age Sampler is the most reprinted Legion story (the first one). It would have been nice to see another Legion story chosen.

Given that the intent is to get people to buy the Archive Editions it would have been nice to see a wider selection from the various Archives.

Sgt. Rock
The Rock Of Easy Co.! Our Army At War #81 Reprinted in World's Best Comics: Silver Age Sampler
The first Sgt. Rock story. I'm surprised there was a second one. Not the best written tale.

My dad had some comments about the character. Given that the character's backstory was he worked in a steel mill dad was surprised that he was Sgt. Rock & not Sgt. Iron, & also that the villain was the Iron Kapitan.

He was also amazed at the heavy weapons Rock would use. (Although my favorite comment related to this came from artist Joe Kubert himself and was something to the effect that Rock would carry belts of extra ammo when the average soldier would have to be ordered to carry a comb. Most soldiers didn't carry anything they didn't have to especially if it was heavy.)

Sgt. Rock is referred to throughout the story as Sgt. Rocky. Later stories would indicate that his last name is just Rock, not Rocky. Heck, in modern set stories he is called General Rock, not General Rocky.

Page 5, Panel 5. The colorist goofed up & colored Rock & a soldier's uniforms the same color green as the German uniforms rather than the brownish color of the rest of the story.

In the last panel a soldier refers to his group as "East Company". Letterer goofed up there.

Knights Of The Galaxy
Lives Of A Rocket Lancer! Mystery In Space #5 Reprinted in Justice League of America #85
A four-dimensional movie? What's that? Most movies are 2-D having Height & Width. 3-D movies give the illusion of having Depth. The 4th dimension however is time, so what would a 4-D movie be? If a character gets taken by surprise in the first showing he knows what's coming the second showing? If you watch the movie 5 years later do the characters look 5 years older? Talk about meaningless technobabble.

Page 2, Panel 6. Ora's arms & shoulders are colored green although other panels show these bare. There are ink lines that the colorist missed & went over.

The Knights of the Galaxy are set in the 25th century & in this story their minds are switched with King Arthur & his Knights of the Round Table which Ora figures come from the 6th century.
For a scientist Ora's math skills aren't very good because at one point she thinks there is a difference of 2400 years between them.

The Greatest 1950s Stories Ever Told
The table of contents lists a Peter Porkchop short between the Nighthawk story & the Wonder Woman story, but it's not printed.

Tomahawk was a character set in the 1700's in the American colonies.

The Black Cougar! Star-Spangled Comics #113 Reprinted in The Greatest 1950s Stories Ever Told
Tomahawk & his young partner really come off like a costumeless Batman & Robin.

The captions say that Warden Bramm has a goatee, but it is never drawn.

Tomahawk captures the Black Cougar, but they don't search him??? In his cell the Black Cougar pulls out the fake mustache, goatee (which we never see) & yellow hair dye so he can disguise himself as Warden Bramm.

Captain Comet was a mutant born with abilities from 10,000 years in the future. He had SF based adventures in the 1950s, then was revived in the 1970s appearing mostly in back-up or supporting roles.

Devil's Island In Space! Strange Adventures #28 Reprinted in The Greatest 1950s Stories Ever Told
Moments after a hydrogen bomb fails to go off Captain Comet is on the island to see what went wrong because he is less likely to be destroyed than another man on Earth.
I think Superman might disagree with that.

Here Captain Comet believes his abilities are strong enough to protect him from a hydrogen bomb explosion. When the character was revived in the 1970s the writers seemed to have weakened his abilities considerably. I can't imagine the `70s version surviving an H-Bomb explosion.

The Septarch, rulers of the planet Lamia, decide to dump their criminals on Earth in part because we aren't advanced enough scientifically to pose a threat to them.
Yeah... however the criminals are advanced enough & if they had decided to use their knowledge to become rulers of Earth they could then advance Earth technology to a point where it would become a threat in a fairly short span of time.

The Phantom Stranger was a combination horror host/hero. While starting in the 1950s his real fame would come with his revival in the 1960s.

When Dead Men Walk! Phantom Stranger #1 Reprinted in The Greatest 1950s Stories Ever Told
Being used to the later Phantom Stranger stories it's really kind of weird to see this first one. For one thing you see his eyes. Later artists, like Jim Aparo, would have the Stranger's eyes be covered in shadow, except when he either tipped his hat or when knocked unconscious. Showing the eyes makes the Stranger oddly vulnerable.

Carson Rand thinks, "If Heath won't give me those papers". Although 'his ghost' goes to retrieve them from Edgar Jones.

The 'ghost of Bart Benson' secretly taught an untamable horse to roughneck by use of an ultra-high whistle. Given the amount of time the bad guy had to do that I'm amazed. The villain was really in the wrong line of work to begin with.

The plot. Ooooookay. Margo discovered Matt Wright was embezzling from the company. Somehow Matt got hold of a letter from Margo's fiancé, John Martin, who died in a plane crash with 2 friends. All 3 men had reasons for coming out west & John had written what they were (Carson Rand wanted to get some papers from a blackmailer & Bart Benson wanted to break an unbreakable horse). Matt decides to pretend to be the ghosts of these three men & shows up at the blackmailer's demanding the papers & the ranch where he breaks the horse & finally confronting Margo pretending to be her fiancé to have her join him in the afterlife.
1. I wonder why Margo didn't immediately report to her boss or the police that Matt was embezzling.
2. How conveeeeeeeenient that he got this letter & learned of these three men's 'missions', especially the blackmail one, and that all three men died in a plane crash* & that he somehow was able to come up with & almost pull off this scheme in the short amount of time he had to do it in.

* I wondered if he was also responsible for the plane crash, but nothing in the story says so.

Tommy Tomorrow began, oddly enough, in a comic called Real Fact Comics #6, as a prediction of what could come. Eventually he became a SF hero with the typically absurd (but oddly fun) stories of the era.

Marooned In The Fourth Dimension Action Comics #238 Reprinted in The Greatest 1950s Stories Ever Told
Tommy's boss tells Tommy that a Professor Jaxon needs volunteers to go into the fourth dimension. Later when talking to Professor Jaxon the Professor states that he's sent things into the fourth dimension, but that he hasn't got anything back, but thinks a human could find a way to send a message back.
Uhhhhh, yeahhhhhhhh...
We later find out that this whole thing is a trick to free a criminal (the volunteer) & that Professor Jaxon is actually criminal 'Genius' Jones.
So was there a real Professor Jaxon & his reputation is what convinced the head of the Planeteers or can anyone pretend to be a scientist & request a prison volunteer for experimentation?

Oddly enough when Tommy discovers that the machine is not plugged in, he demands that the Professor send him where he sent the volunteer, we find out that Jones has a working machine he just unplugged it so the crook can escape & he really sends Tommy to the fourth dimension.

Somehow, despite nothing ever coming back, Jones knows that Tommy is an intangible phantom who will be unable to communicate. I would have assumed that the machine was one big disintegration chamber myself.

Johnny Thunder, The Fighting Plainsman (not to be confused with Johnny Thunder, the befuddled hero with the magical Thunderbolt) this was a western cowboy hero with a dual identity. *yawn*

The Unmasking Of Johnny Thunder All-Star Western Comics #124 Reprinted in The Greatest 1950s Stories Ever Told
Inaccurate title as Johnny Thunder doesn't wear a mask. He uses black hair dye to color his blonde hair & wears western style clothes & his civilian identity of John Taine wears glasses & eastern style clothes.

The people in this town are dumb, Dumb, DUMB! Nobody, not even the hero's father (Sheriff Taine), realizes that John Taine & Johnny Thunder are one & the same. Do the folks in this town hate schoolteachers so much that they refuse to spend any time with John? Johnny is loved & respected by apparently the whole town, the sheriff even wishes he was his son instead of John (the sissy schoolteacher). At least with Clark Kent/Superman & Metropolis you have thousands to millions of people & the number of people who've met both is relatively slim. This on the other hand is a small western town.
When Johnny thinks his father is dead he publicly states that he is Sheriff Taine's son & at the end of the story we find out that nobody believed him. What?!? The writers of Superman would have come up with some kind of story to explain it all away. Superman's readers wouldn't have swallowed that 'oh, they just didn't believe him' garbage.

Why did Johnny name his all-white horse Black Lightning?
(And what do you think a later superhero with the same name would think of that? ;-)

Johnny falls off his horse & is dragged with no apparent injuries???

King Faraday was some kind of spy guy. Don't know too much about him.

Spy Train World's Finest Comics #64 Reprinted in The Greatest 1950s Stories Ever Told
Major Lester tells Faraday that the stolen item would make the atom bomb as harmless as a mud pie, but the experts said that it would make a hydrogen bomb the trigger to a much bigger explosion. So rather than making an A-Bomb harmless it would seem to make it even more dangerous.

The killer/thief had written down 3:30 down on a sheet of paper, but the train leaves at 3:50. Don't people usually write down what time a train leaves, not what time they should be at the station?

Page 5, Panel 3. the words Paris & Istanbul are in red lettering on a green background, but the green disappears after that & in panel 6 word Paris is black on white.

his civilian identity of John Taine
errrr... Tane.

Oddly enough Robert Kahniger wrote the original Johnny Thunder as well as the second Johnny Thunder.

More DC Martians?
In Congo Bill #6 (Gorilla City!) Congo Bill encountered intelligent, talking gorillas from another planet. (No, not Solovar's people.) The leader mentioned 2 moons & Congo Bill assumed this meant Mars. Of course, Bill could be wrong & the gorillas came from another 2 mooned planet.

Another possibility comes from the Chris KL-99 series from Strange Adventures #1-3, 5, 7, 9, 11 & 15. (Superman met Chris in an issue of DC Comics Presents so he exists in the Earth-1 dimension.) I haven't read these stories & haven't seen any pictures but Chris had a Martian crewman named Halk. Be interesting to see if he looks like any other DC Martian before or after.

I mentioned on some board or other that according to DC editorial policy that Kryptonians & other aliens were Human. I finally found a statement of that. In the letter column of Four Star Spectacular #6 (February, 1977) editor E. Nelson Bridwell wrote, "A Human is a Human, no matter what planet he or she hails from. This was demonstrated some years ago when Van-Zee, of the bottle city of Kandor, married Sylvia DeWitt, an Earthwoman. They had children - which would have been impossible if they had been of different species. Therefore, Superman and his fellow Kryptonians are true members of the species Homo sapiens - Human Beings."

Interesting how he steps aside from one impossibility, natives of two different planets producing offspring, by using another impossibility, Homo sapiens somehow independently evolving on another planet.

Four Star Spectacular was a reprint magazine with the intention of presenting 4 stories with 4 super stars (1 Superboy & 1 Wonder Woman plus 2 others). With the second issue shrinking page counts had to change that to three stories with 4 super stars (unless they found 2 really short stories). However finding one story with 2 super stars tended to be the hard part.
Issue 2 had a team-up of Kid Flash & the Elongated Man, which was an unusual team-up so I'd say they succeeded there.
Issue 3 had a team-up of Superboy & Supergirl. Well, not exactly. Superboy lost his memory & ended up on Argo City where he met a young, pre-Supergirl, Kara. Not a bad story, but certainly fudging the super star team-up aspect.
Issue 4 featured a story with Hawkman & Hawkgirl. Wow! You almost never see that happening! *rolls eyes*
Issue 6... oddly enough issue 6 did have four stories, but the cover featured Krypto the Superdog as the fourth super star, but he appeared in the Superboy story. (Wow! You never see Superboy & Krypto teaming up.) The fourth story in the issue was actually an Etta Candy short. Guess the editor's figured that Krypto was a bigger star than Etta Candy.

Silver Age Hawkman
Attack Of The Crocodile-Men! Hawkman #7 Reprinted in Four Star Spectacular #1
To pass through a destructive force field, Hawkman covers himself with an electrical charge. However the glow that symbolizes the charge is missing in the panel just before he passes through the field.

Crocodile-Men (actually crooks dressed like an ancient Egyptian god) come out of their secret headquarters under a waterfall and walk on the river wearing somekinda buoyant boots.
Uh, yeahhhhhhhh. Even if the boots could hold up a normal sized human on still water the problems of standing up & walking would be even harder on a fast moving, turbulent river. Oh yeah, and they're also fighting Hawkman as well. Yeahhhhhhhh...

In this story Hawkman encounters members of CAW (Criminal Alliances of the World) & he thinks he will encounter them again.
Isn't it interesting how different heroes encounter criminal organizations that only they fight. Hawkman faces CAW. Aquaman faces O.G.R.E. Batman faces CYCLOPS. However I don't think any other hero ever encountered these groups.

There are some weapons on the wall that look to be too high up for any members of CAW to reach from the floor.

An important plot of this story are 2 ancient jackal statues that are really teleportation devices. (Of course ancient Egyptians had teleportation devices. Don't you watch Stargate? ;-) These devices get smashed and Sheira thinks that they will never learn the secret of teleportation now.
1. Even though they are smashed you can study what's left of them & Hawkman does know the energy frequency since that's how he got through the forcefield.
2. They must have figured it out at some point because years later the JLA would use Thanagaran teleport technology to get to & from the JLA satellite.

Vigilante was a modern cowboy riding his Vig-Cycle instead of a horse.

The Unlucky Horseshoe Action Comics #194 Reprinted in Four Star Spectacular #5
The crook is getting away in a truck across a suspension bridge. Vigilante & Stuff climb one of the bridge towers, then Vigilante puts the horseshoe over the cable, grabs hold of both sides and slides down the cable while Stuff hangs onto him. When they get ahead of the truck they drop down onto the top of the moving truck.
1. By the time they climb to the top of the tower the truck should have completely crossed the bridge.
2. Aren't suspension bridge cables really thick? Like, say, too thick to wrap a horseshoe around?
3. If I'm not mistaken suspension bridge cables are also not smooth enough to pull off this sliding maneuver.
4. Suspension bridge cables are not over the roadway so dropping off them should not put you over a car. Although maybe there was a really strong wind at the time?
5. Vigilante is still holding onto the horseshoe as he drops. How did he lift it off the cable as they decided to drop off?

Even if Vigilante could correctly guess where the truck would be I should think that when Vigilante & Stuff hit that roof they would both bounce off (or possibly break through) rather than safely land & keep their balance.

When the crook heard them land he stopped the truck, got out and started running away. The picture shows Vigilante & Stuff standing on the roof. Shouldn't hitting the brakes have caused Vigilante & Stuff to go flying? (I think after this they went & had breakfast at Milliways.)

There is a rumor that the rattle in Jesse James' horseshoe is caused by a capsule that contains a map to his treasure & yet only after Vigilante returns the stolen horseshoe to the museum does the museum decide to open the horseshoe & find out what caused the rattle. What took them so long to do this?

It turns out that the capsule in the horseshoe contained arsenic. The Museum guy thinks that Jesse James would have taken it if things had gone bad.
Yeahhhhhhhhh, someone decides to commit suicide & instead of shooting themselves or getting someone to shoot them, they remove the shoe from their horse's hoof, pop open the horseshoe, remove the surprisingly intact capsule and swallow it.

Congo Bill
Safaris For Sale Original publication not given. Reprinted in Tarzan #231
Summary: Wilson, who runs safaris for rich men who can't hunt, but who want pictures of themselves standing over dead animals as if they shot them, is offered money to kill his latest client by a business rival. So he takes him to where really dangerous animals are, but Congo Bill discovers what's going on and stops it.

Part of the plot had me confused. I can understand the concept of talented hunters shooting animals then taking pictures of the clients posing, but it's also said that this is being done in a National Park where the animals are tame & will play dead.
1. Did Tanganyika allow safaris to take place in a park in 1952?
2. Are the animals going to be really shot or just playing dead?

Congo Bill comes across Wilson & his client, Dexter, facing a leopard & Congo Bill can tell the leopard is a man-eater if he ever saw one.
Can you really tell a man-eater just by looking at it? Isn't that like telling a man's a killer by his beady-eyes?

Wilson sees Congo Bill's hat in the bush & tells Dexter it's a lion and they shoot. Then Wilson plans to shoot Dexter & claim that Congo Bill & Dexter shot each other.
1. Since he's going to shoot Dexter in the back the "shot each other" story is going to be a little hard to swallow.
2. Wouldn't authorities wonder that both Congo Bill & Dexter have bullets from the same gun in them?

Detective Chimp. Yep. Believe it or not. A chimp who helped his owner, the sheriff of Oscaloosa County, Florida, solve crimes.

Return Of Detective Chimp Original publication not given. Reprinted in Tarzan #231
The solution to the murder is that the person who was left out of the will did it.
Yeah, that'll really get them back in the will, won't it?

More Martians
The Secret Story Of Ray-Gun 64! Original publication not given, but possibly Strange Adventures or Mystery In Space. Reprinted in DC Super-Stars #9
This story has a red-skinned, yellow-eyed race of Martians, possibly with 2 antennae. Since the story has a reference to the planet Rann it is set in Earth-1's dimension.

I wonder if the Rann reference was actually in the original publication? DC Super-Stars #9 was subtitled The Man Behind The Gun! & all the opening captions of the collected stories had Man Behind The Gun in bold letters so I suspect there was some relettering to add this. It's possible the Rann reference may have been added as well. Although if it was in the original publication it's interesting because this story was originally published in 1951. Adam Strange wouldn't go to Rann until 1958.

Famous First Edition #F-8
The editor's note says this reproduction is an exact replica of Flash Comics #1 as printed in 1940.
Uh, no. This book was cover dated January, 1940, so it was probably printed in 1939.
Also the Johnny Thunder story is set in 1939 & the Warfare In Space story is set in 2139 which probably indicates that 1939 was the year those stories were intended to appear.

Johnny Thunderbolt Flash Comics #1 Reprinted in Famous First Edition #F-8
Better known as Johnny Thunder. Interestingly enough, while we do see a traditionally rendered thunderbolt, the talking, anthropomorphic Thunderbolt is not seen. (Guess the writers hadn't decided to give Johnny a better half yet.)

Page 4 Congreve's suit is light blue, but on Page 5 it's dark blue.

Warfare In Space Flash Comics #1 Reprinted in Famous First Edition #F-8
A 2-page text story by Gardner Fox. First of a multi-part story. I read in Les Daniels' Marvel Five Fabulous Decades that comics had to include text pieces in order to get the Post Office's magazine rate. For some odd reason the Post Office didn't consider comic books without them to be magazines. Go fig?

Humans have colonized Jupiter. Wonder how they can breath?

"A bullet in space just drops into the void - no air to carry it."
Do I even need to say anything here?

Little Boy Blue And The Blue Boys Sensation Comics #1 Reprinted in Famous First Edition #C-30
Tubby is reading the first issue of Sensation Comics.
Say wha...?!?
I wonder what he thought of the story he & his friend appeared in?
Oddly enough he comments on the Wildcat story which follows this one & mentions how Wildcat was inspired by the Green Lantern's comic.

Tommy & Tubby make up costumes for themselves, go to their clubhouse, but decide to change clothes outside since there is no one around, then go to toss their regular clothes inside.
Outside of plot considerations (there are gangsters inside the clubhouse) why do the boys decide to change clothes outside? Closet exhibitionists?

Wildcat Sensation Comics #1 Reprinted in Famous First Edition #C-30
Not a nit here, but Wildcat is inspired to put on a costume to fight bad guys because he hears of a comic book character called Green Lantern. The kid who told him about Green Lantern also mentions Flash Comics. It would seem that in Wildcat's world GL, Flash, Hawkman & Johnny Thunder are just comic book characters which seemingly becomes a nit when Wildcat later joins the Justice Society of America.
Of course it's possible that All-American Comics was either making up stories about 'real' super-heroes, or they got permission from the heroes to produce comic books based on them. Could be a way for the heroes to supplement their income? ;-)

Zatanna The Magician Not sure if this had been printed before or not DC Super-Stars #11
Zatanna turns a cobra into an apple tree & then eats an apple. Okay, technically she hasn't killed the snake, but that just seems a bit creepy.

Page 2, Panel 4. Zatanna's face & hand are white.

Page 13, Panels 3 & 4. Zatanna's shirt gets ripped fighting with demons. Her shirt sleeves are hanging, but still connected at the cuffs & up at the shoulders, but from Page 14 on the sleeves are completely missing, although the cuffs remain.

Page 14, Panel 1. The colorist forgot to give Zatanna's left arm flesh color. (I thought at first it was a sleeve, but her sleeves were in tatters on the previous page.)

The Big House Of Monsters! Star-Spangled War Stories #132 Reprinted in DC Special #21
The splash page shows a tyrannosaurus/allosaurus type dinosaur chewing on the raft, but in the actual story it's a bipedal styracosaur type dino that's chewing on the raft.

The Barren Earth was a series that ran as a backup in Warlord #63-65, 67-70, 72-74, 76-88 (usually 6 or 7 pages each) & then had a 4-issue miniseries, Conqueror Of The Barren Earth & was never heard from again. Pity. It was a pretty good series and the only reason to own any issue of The Warlord not written by Mike Grell.

It was written by Gary Cohn & drawn by Ron Randall.

It's set in the far future. After the sun started to cool & expand humanity left Earth & encountered a race called the Qlov. After battling for 3,000 years Humans returned to Earth to set-up garrisons for when the war reached that sector. The war never got there but those garrisons were left on the Barren Earth. 2,000 years later war is once again coming to Earth's sector and a ship has come to Earth to alert the descendants of those troops manning the garrisons and that's when the story begins.

I tried several times to summarize the backup stories, but what works as 6 or 7 page chapters just doesn't reduce easily.
Main character: Jinal Ne' Comarr of the Federation.
Other main characters: Skinner & Renna of the Garrison city Arq, Lord Barasha of the Harahashan, Yisrah the shaman.
Summary: Jin & a bunch of redshirts get stranded on Earth after their ship encounters a Qlov battleglobe near Earth. Jin discovers that the garrison has run down & the Arqians have become more savage. Jin arranges a truce between the Arqians & the Harahashan & discovers an old Federation battleship, but it's taken away by remote control. She learns of the Old Ones who live in a floating city called D'roz. Trying to get them on the Federation's side in the war with the Qlov, they tell her that some Qlov survivors have also landed on Earth & she must capture a Qlov so they can make an informed decision about whether to help. The answer is No & Jin vows to conquer the Barren Earth. Cue Miniseries.

Stranded! Warlord #63
Page 3, Panel 2. Jinal's blonde hair is brown

Page 3, Panels 3 & 6. Her blonde hair is orange.

Page 6, Panel 4. Orange again.

Page 7, Panel 6. Her hair is green. (I think the colorist got a little sloppy with the blue of her uniform.)

Advar is white with blonde hair, but on first page Advar was colored brown with blue hair.

The Long Trek Warlord #64
Cover nit. At the top of the cover is blurb mentioning The Barren Earth & a reduced copy of Narra getting attacked. On the cover the creature has a purple jaw, but in story it's all orange. On the cover Narra is white with a blue outfit & grey boots, but in the story she's black with a green outfit & green boots.

NANJAO. Jinal's name is first given in this issue.

Now Advar's hair is brown, but he's still Caucasian.

Last issue Jin had blue leggings. Now her legs are bare.

Last issue Uzzek suggested staying in the crashed ship & waiting for someone to come. Advar suggested going & looking for the garrison city. Someone says, "No Advar -- Uzzek is right..."
However this issue they leave the crashed ship & look for the garrison city.

The City In The Sands Warlord #67
Page 4, Panel 4. Jinal's bare legs are colored yellow.

Siege Warlord #68
Jin & Skinner are dressed as Harahashan (lizard-men) on Page 4 their visible skin is colored green, but the rest of the chapter it's a normal skin color.

Into The Lizard Camp Warlord #69
In the previous chapter Jin was completely dressed as a Harahashan, but here she wears her regular outfit with a Harahashan hood & cloak & boots. Guess Ron Randall couldn't stand the thought of not drawing those bare legs. ;-)

Okayyyyyy, in Chapter 3 a Slaver cut open Jin's top from the bodice to the belly button, afterwards it was held together with a thread, but on Page 2, Panel 6 the cut & thread appears to be missing.

Page 6, Panel 6. the loop & knot that holds the thread holding her uniform together reappears. It had been visible last issue, but since it hadn't been seen previous to this panel in this chapter I assumed that she had found a sewing machine off panel & stitched the top together rather than depending on a simple thread & knot job to hold it together.

The Mulge! Warlord #70
All traces of the tear have disappeared. Okay they do say that 3 weeks have passed so maybe this is a replacement top made to look exactly like her original one.
Actually it's amazing how many people seem to be wearing the exact same clothes. Okay, sometimes the colors are different, but the black lines appear the same.

The Quest Begins! Warlord #78
Caption calls her Jinal Ne Comarr instead of Jinal Ne' Comarr.

Slave Market Warlord #79
At the end of the last chapter, Jinal, Skinner & Renna had been captured by Slavers & Skinner was wearing blue pants. At the beginning of this chapter they are prisoners inside the Slavers' vehicle & Skinner's pants are now white.
Why did the Slavers make Skinner change his pants?

Pursuit! Warlord #80
Some dead humans are colored light green. Was colorist trying to color them blue, but accidentally added yellow?

Other Survivors... Warlord #81
Page 1, Skinner's pants are white. Page 2 they are brown. Page 3, Panel 1 they've turned into blue shorts. Also his arms are white.

Open City Warlord #82
Skinner's pants are white again & his boots, which last issue were blue, are now brown.

2 women in blue robes appear to have blue skin as well, but when we see them again later they have normal skin color.

Okayyyy, Renna & Jin have gone into a woman's only* 'club' & are relaxing naked in a hot tub when some brutish women come in claiming this as their room, Renna slips on some kind of nightie or slip, a fight starts & Jin quickly wraps a towel around herself, the whole place erupts into a brawl, Jin & Renna end up jumping through a second story window to the street below.
1. Jin's towel tying skills are amazing. That knot stays tied together the whole time.
2. Renna's nightie must be sturdier than it looks. It too stays on & doesn't tear.
3. Jin & Renna don't cut themselves smashing through the glass pane, nor are they injured by hitting the ground.
4. Surprisingly there doesn't seem to be any trace of the broken glass on the ground.

* Women only, except for the scantily clad men serving them.

Capture The Qlov! Warlord #86
Last issue when the Qlov activated his energy blade it glowed yellow, here it glows red.

NNAN, but this seems to start about the same point as last issue ended, and Jin's teammates have gotten closer to her. Although since she says practically the same thing she said last issue maybe between issues they got closer & here she repeated herself to get them to back off?

Page 5, Panel 8. Jin's blonde hair is orange.

Miniseries Summary: Jin & company are returning to Arq. Jin plans to get the garrison back up to working order & start making alliances to unite the world when they discover that Arq has been attacked & decimated by the army of Zenghla. Journeying to the waterworks they discover that Zenghla's army has the surviving Arqians & 100 Harahashan trapped. Jin & company fight their way in. Lord Barasha & the Harahashan fight their way out to gather other Harahashan while the Arqians seal themselves into the waterworks. However Zenghla has allied himself with the Mulge who burrow in. Skinner & Renna manage to escape, but Yisrah & Jin are captured and Zenghla tells her he has dreamed that he will conquer the world with her at his side as his consort. She fights against him, but eventually gives in and joins him & gets the Harahashan, Skinner & Renna to follow Zenghla as well. The Old Ones see Zenghla's success as a threat and attempt to stop him, but even D'roz falls, although the Old Ones escape. Jin is shown her future, the Old Ones appear & explain about the Qlov and ask that Jin try to put a stop to the war between humans & Qlov. The book ends with a Confederation Battleship arriving.

The Ravager! Conqueror Of The Barren Earth #1
NANJAO. The ship that took Jin to Earth is finally named here. It was The Renewal.

The flight recorder of The Renewal shows Jin on ship bare legged, but in the first chapter she had blue leggings. (Okay, the colorist just colored her legs blue, but we don't deal in reality. ;-)

Also Jin is shown wielding her energy blade which she didn't do until she was on the planet.

Here the group Jin belongs to is called the Confederation instead of Federation.

Jin says Humans & Qlov have been at war for 3,000 years instead of 5,000 years.

In the early chapters Renna was jealous of Jin & even told her that Skinner was her man. Here we find out that Renna got onto the Council because of a relationship with Chairman Mangle. Puts an odd twist on that jealousy of hers.

Another odd moment comes when Renna tells Jin, "someday you may need a sister... or more than a sister..."
More than a sister? I suppose there may be other ways to interpret that line, but I always felt that Gary Cohn was implying Renna is bisexual. (Hmmm, maybe she wasn't jealous of Jin, but of Skinner?)

The open city of Skeen is now spelled S'keen.

Page 10, Panel 3 & Page 13, Panel 5. Renna's red outfit is brown.

The Warrior! Conqueror Of The Barren Earth #3
Barasha says that Renna & Skinner escaped because Jin taught them to swim. Except that in Warlord #76 Jin says, "None of your people know how to swim." Issue 76 led directly into 77 & while 78 starts a week into the Quest for the Old Ones I seriously doubt that Jin would spend time teaching Skinner & Renna how to swim while preparing for a trek across the desert.

The Conqueror Conqueror Of The Barren Earth #4
Page 5, Panel 5. An empty caption box. Guess the reader is supposed to write in what issue the asterisk refers to. ;-)

Here it's stated that the Qlov are human/insect hybrids created by the Old Ones of D'roz. However in Warlord #81 it was stated that the Qlov are not human. In Warlord #69 Jin said that the Harahashan were humans who evolved to a lizardlike state (although it was later revealed that they too had been created by the Old Ones.)

The last caption box says that plans have been made to continue the series, but it just depends on a response from the readers. Guess it wasn't a big enough response.

If This Is The Future You Must Be Tommy Tomorrow DC Special #27
This text piece does a nice job of nitting the various temporal problems of Tommy Tomorrow (went to rocket college in 1954, landed on Mars in 1960, landed on the moon in 1967, graduated in 1988, landed on Venus in 1998, & finally was established as working in 2050) but it does have a temporal nit of its own. It says that Tommy's first appearance was in Real Fact Comics #6, January-February 1977.
That should be 1947, not 1977.

The Super-Athletes From Outer Space! original publication not listed Reprinted in DC Super-Stars #10
This story involves Saturnian athletes training for a track meet on Titan. Since Titan's gravity is "scientifically changed" for each meet they train on different planet's to get used to the different gravities.
Scientifically changed? What a clumsy way of phrasing it.

As a kid I could never understand why they would practice on planet's with lesser gravity. Just go to Jupiter if any other planet is chosen your strength will be greater. Although since then I've learned that different gravities will create different atmospheric conditions which certainly would affect how an athlete performs. Not that any of that is addressed in this story. At one point the alien coach is glad to encounter an Earth coach because "Earth's gravity is so strange to us." How? Isn't gravity a constant on Saturn & every other planet they trained on?

Johnny Quick was a superspeedster who got his power by reciting a speed formula.

Tubby Watts, Efficiency Expert! Original publication not given, but probably an issue of Adventure Comics Reprinted in World's Finest Comics #224
According to this story one drop of water on magnesium will start a fire. Noooooo, a drop of water on already burning magnesium will make it burn hotter.

One funny irony is that in this same issue a Metamorpho story was reprinted that had Metamorpho holding a shark's jaws open, underwater, with a magnesium strut. Guess the editors weren't paying much attention to the stories they reprinted.

Metamorpho was a reluctant super-hero. He was turned into a multi-colored freak who could turn himself into any element or chemical.

Never Bet Against An Element Man! Original publication not given Reprinted in World's Finest Comics #224
Plot: Achille Le Heele, kidnaps Metamorpho's boss Simon Stagg & forces Metamorpho to steal the 7 modern wonders of the world because he believes that an Interpol agent planted evidence on one of them that would reveal Le Heele's criminal empire.

Metamorpho turns into nitric acid to dissolve the Eiffel Tower. Problem is we saw tourists on the tower and he didn't seem to give them any time to get off.

Achille Le Heele bets Simon Stagg that the first 5 girls at a beauty contest will be blonde. Metamorpho plucks their hairs to reveal that four of the girls had dye jobs.
You know, Le Heele didn't bet that they would be natural blondes. Oddly enough, Le Heele pays up.

Metamorpho reduces the Taj Mahal to dust, then has elephants vacuum up the dust with their trunks and put it into baskets.
I would imagine that in reality you would get a lot of sneezing elephants after trying this stunt.

It's revealed that the evidence against Le Heele was actually on a pillow that has transfered itself to Simon Stagg's skin. Simon is knocked off a boat and Metamorpho catches him with his left hand. Later Le Heele thinks he's safe because the information has faded from Stagg's leg, but Metamorpho holds up his right hand & reveals that he had turned his palm to a sensitive nitrate plate to preserve the evidence.
Not only is it the wrong hand, but between catching Stagg & showing the info, Metamorpho had turned his right hand into a copper grappling hook.

The end is a real copout. Metamorpho says to the readers that how he restored the Eiffel Tower & Taj Mahal is a secret. (i.e. writer Bob Haney didn't have a clue & couldn't think up any doubletalk to cover it.)

In The Case Of The Martian Witness! Strange Adventures #114, Star Hawkins tracked down a green, pointy-eared, bulky-bodied, thin-limbed Martian. Doesn't seem seem to be a member of any Martian race we've met before, but I'm not certain if Star Hawkins ever crossed over with another member of the main DC Universe (Superman, Batman, etc.), so I'm not sure if this is can be considered a nit or not.

Manhunters Of The World was a series about policemen & organizations around the world. It ran as a backup series in Star Spangled Comics & World's Finest Comics

The International Sky Police! Star Spangled Comics #109 Reprinted in Detective Comics #444
The caption describes planes as "winged silver giants", but the colorist made the plane shown a grayish purple.

Kid Eternity was a boy on his grandfather's ship when it was blown up by the Nazis. Mr. Keeper took him to Eternity to discover that he wasn't scheduled to die for 75 years. To make up for this the Kid was allowed to return to Earth, accompanied by Mr. Keeper & the Kid could summon any dead person by shouting "Eternity".

Untitled Kid Eternity #10 Reprinted in Detective Comics #444
Plot: Crime boss Dude Rich is chased into a warehouse by cops. He knocks out Stogie & leaves him to die in his place. When the cops believe that Dude Rich died he goes to a plastic surgeon & has his face changed. After killing Dr. Wan, & using the name The Unknown takes over his old gang. Kid Eternity & Mr. Keeper are investigating the sudden crime wave. Kid realizes that no one knew the underworld better than Dude Rich & tries to call him from Eternity with no luck. Mr. Keeper goes to Eternity to see what the problem is & the Kid gets captured by The Unknown who thinks the Kid knows his secret. Finding out what happened Mr. Keeper returns to Earth & tells the Kid to call for Stogie. Stogie appears, kills Dude Rich for killing him.

Mr. Keeper comments on the growing housing shortage of Eternity. I'm guessing this was a running gag in the series, but given the religious type setting one wonders why God can't just expand Eternity to accept more souls?

Dr. Wan arrives in Eternity & told that he's too early, that he's not scheduled to die yet.
Presumably murder isn't included as part of God's great plan, so why don't these people who were taken too early get allowed to return to Earth like Kid Eternity?
Also if Dr. Wan died before his time because he was murdered you'd think Stogie would have as well since he was also murdered. Yet there is no evidence of Stogie arguing with St. Peter (or whoever that is) about arriving too early.

NAN, but one of the papers reporting on the crime wave is the Daily Star. I wonder if Kent or Lane wrote the article? ;-)
(Okay, at the time of this story Superman's paper had been the Daily Planet for years & Kid Eternity was published by Quality Comics not DC, but it amused me.)

Apparently on Earth-X, or whatever Earth this was, Sherlock Holmes was a real person since Kid Eternity is able to summon him to investigate.

Holmes is dressed in the stereotypical Holmes get-up that purists insist was not his normal wear.

Mr. Keeper tells the Kid to call Stogie, whom the Kid had never heard of before. Problem is Mr. Keeper shouldn't know his name either.
At the beginning of the story Kid & Mr. Keeper are investigating an explosion on Earth. Overhearing the cops say that Dude Rich died is what let's them think that Dude Rich is dead & presumably they didn't see Stogie in Eternity checking in since they were on Earth.
Days later when Dr. Wan arrives in Eternity they find out he was murdered & go down to try & find the killer. Stogie is not around.
Weeks later the Kid tries to call Dude Rich, Mr. Keeper goes to check on why he didn't appear, Stogie is hanging around the main desk & tells Mr. Keeper that he had died in Dude Rich's place, but he does not say what his own name is.
I suppose it's possible that Mr. Keeper could have met Stogie at some point in Eternity when the Kid wasn't around, but the story seems to indicate that Mr. Keeper is meeting Stogie for the first time when he finds out the truth.

Roy Raymond TV Detective was the host of Impossible, But True & investigated various stories. The series ran in Detective Comics.

The Good-Luck Prophet Detective Comics #285 Reprinted in Detective Comics #444
Roy says, "Oh, we'll--Let's go to lunch".
I think he meant `Oh, well', not we'll.

Sierra Smith Western Detective was a cowboy detective whose series ran as a back-up in Dale Evans Comics.

The Case Of The Haunted Horse! Dale Evans Comics #9 Reprinted in Detective Comics #444
Cute title.

Okayyyyyyy, the horse Bluebell disappeared for a while then came back. Ever since then someone has been luring the horse away every night & apparently riding her hard. We find out that the first night she escaped she got mixed up with some horses Sam Brack was taking down to Mexico in the dead of night, putting solid gold horseshoes on them & bringing them back across the border in the daytime as Mexican horses & avoiding the taxes on the Mexican gold. Problem is that Bluebell is shy & won't let strangers approach her, hence she's still wearing the gold horseshoes & Brack's men are trying to catch her. But if she won't let strangers approach her then how did she get the horseshoes put on her in the first place???

The Demon was created by Jack Kirby when he came to DC in the `70s. The demon Etrigan was a servant of Merlin the magician. After the fall of Camelot the Demon seemingly disappeared, replaced by Jason Blood, until the 20th century when he was summoned again.

The Eternity Book Detective Comics #482
Okayyyy, the demon Etrigan can be summoned by saying "Yarva demonicus Etrigan! I summon the demon Etrigan!" So why does Jason Blood's coat of arms bear the legend "Yarva demonicus Etrigan"? Wouldn't anyone reading that aloud accidentally summon Etrigan? Also this saying must have gone down real well during times when the churches were going around giving hell to anyone that had anything that even hinted at something demonic.

Jason is turning to Etrigan & Glenda says, "After all this time, it can't be happening again!"
All this time? He last became the Demon in The Batman Family #17, cover dated May 1978 while this issue is cover dated March 1979. Less than a year.

Return To Castle Branek! Detective Comics #483
Baron Tyme says, "You cannot threate me, demon!"
Threate? Could he mean Threaten?

Tyme Has No Secrets! Detective Comics #484
Jason thinks to himself that he hates to summon Etrigan. He didn't seem to have much trouble in The Batman Family #17. He was switching back & forth without much of a problem.

Identity Crisis #7

A just in case: SPOILER ALERT.

That said, Sue Dibny's murderer is Jean Palmer, the ex-wife of the Atom. At one point in #7, we see a flashback to when Jean was allegedly attacked from behind. She was supposedly bound, blindfolded and gagged and then a noose, hung over a door, was placed around her neck. (#3 and 4). Turns out that Jean, using Ray Palmer's shrinking tech, shrunk down, then enlarged herself so that she "grew" into the noose. (#7) And apparently, the gag and blindfold. I'd love to know how that was accomplished.

On about page 23, we see Oliver Queen in his full Green Arrow outfit. One of the strange things about that costume is the mask. It covers his eyelids. That'd have to be a very uncomfortable mask to wear, doncha think?

Excelsior!

The Elongated Man is a stretchable sleuth/superhero.

Missing One Miracle Car Detective Comics #488
The Elongated Man goes through an automatic paint sprayer hiding inside a tire. Surprisingly the tire comes out the other end without any paint on it.

The Elongated Man says to Evans, "After your attack on me you faked unconsciousness!"
No. Not from what we see in the story. The miracle car disappears, EM goes downstairs to see if it's been taken there & sees Evans on the ground claiming to have been attacked. EM continues onward where he's pushed into the automatic paint sprayer by a masked assailant, probably Evans. When EM arrives back topside Evans is shown standing there. The only time he could have faked unconsciousness is before EM was attacked.

Boy Commandos was a WWII strip by Joe Simon & Jack Kirby telling the adventures of an international group of boys working as commandos. The feature was popular enough to survive the war & feature peacetime adventures as well, finally ending in 1949. When Jack Kirby came back to DC in the `70s reprints of the series appeared as backups in Mister Miracle & were popular enough for DC to try a brief reprint run of the title.

The Sphinx Speaks Detective Comics #66 Reprinted in Boy Commandos #1
Plot: A rather whimsical envelope to the story. It's the year 3045 & reporter Casey 39 is sent to the museum where they've uncovered artifacts of a 20th century battlefield. One of those artifacts was a 6000 year old mummy & when Casey sarcastically asks him to tell him something, the mummy removes his bandages (he likes to stretch his legs every thousand years or so) and tells him of the time the Boy Commandos stopped the Nazis from using the Sphinx as a radio station. After telling the tale and the mummy returns to his rest, Casey rips up the story figuring no one will believe it.

When coming out the mummy asks Casey for a smoke as he hasn't had one for 6,000 years.
Did Egyptians in the years circa 3045 BC have smokes? (I don't think they had tobacco as I think that was from the New World, but were there other things they could have smoked?)

Black Lightning #4

First, a couple of comments about the Cyclotronic Man, the villain of this story introduced in this issue: One, that has got to be one of, if not the most, ungainly name for a supervillain yet. The only real advantage to it is that the average person would have no clue to what his powers are. Sort of like "Rogue".

Secondly - Doesn't his costume look like a try-out for Ambush Bug's?

On page 13, C.M. "speed(s) up the atomic particles in the roof under (Black Lightning)" to make them "age centuries in seconds". Why would the roof age if it's molecular structure was sped up? Personally, I'd've expected the roof to catch on fire from having its molecules speed up. But that's just me.

On page 14, C.M. surrounds Black Lightning and Jimmy Olsen (long story) with a positively charged field and a negatively charged field surrounds himself. For some reason, this causes Jimmy and B.L. to float in the air. Why? (There's also some gobbledegook about the positive and negative fields attracting each other. Frankly, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense. There's no reason why the field should hold Lightning and Olsen. Thus there's no reason why C.M. should be able to use the fields to attract and repel each character.)

Excelsior!

I noticed in the Bud Plant catalog that DC has put out a Seven Soldiers of Victory Archive. Volume 1 reprints Leading Comics #1-4. There were only 14 issues of Leading Comics published, so if each volume reprints 4 SSoV adventures what are they gonna do in volume 4? Do they have some unpublished SSoV stories lying around?