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Post by foxley on Oct 15, 2014 15:32:51 GMT -5
So it was pretty unusual, but not the first... I kinda suspected a Bat-villain or two got one (Superman didn't really have any recurring villains, other than Ultra/Lex). Good to know. Don't forget Catwoman's origin "The Secret Life of the Catwoman" in Batman #62 in 1950, ten years after her debut in Batman #1. I thought about "The Secret Life of Catwoman", but it's her telling her origin rather than the reader being shown it in flashback. |
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Post by wildfire2099 on Oct 16, 2014 20:12:13 GMT -5
Back on the road, so back to paperbacks  (I really want to get to Flash, though... soon).  Showcase #12 'Menace of the Ancient Vials' This one was kinda long and meandering.. the Challengers are chasing some thieves, and they find an uncharted island. The thieves land first, and discover an archeologist living there, with some magic vials from a long forgotten civilization (these poor guys don't even get named), that he things have great power. The crooks take them and drink the 1st one, making them giants. The Challengers are up to the task though, Ace gets one to take himself out with a rock between the eyes while the others ran for a cave, and the others make a giant pit trap for the other. The Challengers go to save the old guy and capture the thieves, when the formerly giant guys (now just fine and regular size again, get the drop on them) but they break another vial and a fire elemental thing comes out. .. then a Kraken in the 3rd. The thieves get killed (all but the ringleader) and he drinks the next one, which makes him into multiple man, and lets him get the upper hand until he gets greedy and drinks the last one, which was an antidote... the end! This was a great example of why 12 pagers in the silver age are better... kinda a boring story here, it felt very by the numbers to me. Story: C History: D- Challengers of the Unknown #1 'The man who tampered with infinity' The Challengers are summoned to Washington (the guy they talk to looks alot like a non-wheelchair bound FDR, but he's not identified by title or name) to find June has been kidnapped as part of a wave of scientific crimes. They try to stop the next one, and get beamed to the bad guys hideout. The evil mad scientist has used a bunch of stolen bits of tech to make a transporter, and he's about to try to use it to grab something from the far corner of the universe. He does so as the Challengers look on, and he summons two weird alien monsters.. the scientist and his henchmen panic, and allow the Challengers to take control, but in the process he sends the aliens out in the world. using the transporter (leaving June to be in charge of the prisoners, which was kinda cool), they go find them and zap them back, the capture the scientist and his cronies. The Challengers seem alot more competent here than the first couple stories, which is nice, but they still don't really have any personality to speak of. 'The Human Pets' This was my favorite one so far... Abner Jenkins (way before he becomes the Beetle over in Marvel  ), has a strange metal sphere crash into his farm... luckily, the Challengers are in town. They come to investigate, and get sucked into it. Turns out it belonged to a giant alien. It's quickly clear they've been put in a terrarium, by an alien kid as pets. They quickly notice the kid is hiding them from their parents, so the Challengers manage to break out and call mom, who orders junior to send them home. The did re-use the same scene as last issue with the giants, as 3 of the Challengers ducked into a Spacemouse hole, while Ace was stuck outside... not sure if they're trying to establish Ace as more fearless than the others, or it's just a co-incidence at this pont. Story: B+ History: B (1st issue has to get some love) |
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Post by wildfire2099 on Nov 29, 2014 22:45:15 GMT -5
 It's really a shame when the cover is the best part... Showcase #13 Story #1: Flash gets his watch to starting picking up radio signals from police around the world, and rushes around saving people world wide in the 80 minutes before a date with Iris... at one point, he worries he's lost a day going the wrong way around, but then he gets home and realizes he hasn't. The end! Other than pointing out Jules Verne, and telling us how tall the Eiffel Tower is, this is a pretty pointless story. The thing that really threw me is the watch thing... Barry says (to himself, and us) that he's been working on it for 'Months'. That implies he's been the Flash for at least that long... I guess we're operating more or less in real time? Are we to assume lots of unchronicled adventures then? People in France knew exactly who he was, after all.. unless that's trading on Jay's rep. Not to mention he had his ring-costume (a far more impressive feat of engineering) pretty much right away, but it took months to get a radio in his watch? Something not right there. Story #2: Mr. Element has come to Keystone City, and is ready to defeat Flash.. with his scientific knowledge and awesomely named minions, he defeats Flash a couple times. but then neglects to realize Flash can melt anything with friction, and is captured. This one was a pretty fun silver age romp.. Mr. Element is awesome. I loved his minions were named after the inert gases (Because you can't do anything without me, he tells them). And how he beat Flash a couple times just with prior planning and intelligence. He only loses when Flash manages to survive getting shot into space. So, yeah, not only do Flash melt Vanadium (which was correctly listed as having a melting point of 1910C) but he actually went into space for a minute or so.. that was OK, though because he held his breath. And apparently his whatever his costume is made of can take ALOT. Still really fun though Story: C- for the 1st, B+ for the 2nd History: B- (1st Dr. Alchemy in his original guise) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Showcase #14 So is 1 random sci-fi story/one supervillian a thing? Or just a co-incidence? Story #1: Iris gets put on an expiremental Rocket to try to photograph a UFO, and gets captured by '4th dimension beings'. They're little green men (literally). Flash runs through time and somehow finds them, and the do the Gulliver thing to him. While they explain they have very short life cycles, they grow into giants and put him in an hour glass, so he can watch the countdown to their atomic bombs going to destroy the Earth. Oh, and they have Iris, too. Flash does some super-speedy things and saves the day without too much fuss, and Iris tells Barry how great Flash is at dinner. The End. Story #2: In prison, Mr. Element's cell mate happens to have the Philopospher's Stone, but doesn't know it. He gets it from him and uses it to escape. Under his new guise as Dr. Alchemy, he commits a bunch of crimes and challenges Flash to catch him. Flash has seemingly alot less trouble with the more powerful version, and catches him and tosses the stone into orbit. The 1st story was just silly, in a bad way. They send random reporters in space ships to chase UFOs? No military? No scientists? Nope, just a reporter looking for a good pic for the front page. Ugh. The aliens or whatever were incredibly generic and cheesy, as many are in these stories. Dr. Alchemy (whose costume I love) is a mystery. The Philopospher's stone pretty much lets him do anything (he summons stuff 'out of the air molecules' a couple times) so why bother with crime? Why not just create whatever he needs? I guess one could argue hubris, wanting to beat the Flash... but couldn't he just turn HIM into gold? or Whatever? He went from being a scientist doing cool science stuff to a guy hamhandedly using a magic rock. Too bad, because the hood is pretty sweet. No since of the minions, either. Don't even get me started about how hard Flash would have to throw something to get it in to orbit... he was traveling fast, but HORIZONTAL... he had to throw it VERTICAL... duh! story: D-/C- History: B- (first legit Dr. Alchemy) |
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shaxper
CCF Site Custodian
Posts: 22,867
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Post by shaxper on Nov 29, 2014 22:56:50 GMT -5
Yikes. These sound as painful as virtually every Silver Age DC story I've ever encountered that wasn't done under Weisinger's Superman office. Hope you'll press on, but I'm also very glad I'm not the one reading these |
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Post by wildfire2099 on Nov 29, 2014 23:50:27 GMT -5
Yeah, that's why I got a bunch of titles at once, and switch back and force... you just can't binge read these without losing your mind.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Nov 30, 2014 2:04:09 GMT -5
Yeah, that's why I got a bunch of titles at once, and switch back and force... you just can't binge read these without losing your mind. This is absolutely true. More than one or two Silver-Age DC stories a month is way too many. Except that Shax is mistaken about the Weisinger Superman books. Those are utterly unreadable. |
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Post by Action Ace on Nov 30, 2014 2:16:40 GMT -5
Yeah, that's why I got a bunch of titles at once, and switch back and force... you just can't binge read these without losing your mind. Maybe you mere mortals can't, but I can. Then again, I've never been accused of being sane by anyone in this forum.  |
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Post by wildfire2099 on Nov 30, 2014 8:50:07 GMT -5
I don't have any Superman and Batman from that era... I'll probably get some at some point, but what I have right now is good... I've got Atom, Hawkman, Challengers, Elongated Man, and Phantom Stranger in Showcases, then Flash and JLA in color Omnibuses.... that'll do me for a while.
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Post by Cei-U! on Nov 30, 2014 9:33:19 GMT -5
Wimps! I spent four months this year reading Silver Age DC and I'm still sane. And so am I.
Cei-U!
I summon the rubber room!
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Nov 30, 2014 10:58:01 GMT -5
Wimps! I spent four months this year reading Silver Age DC and I'm still sane. And so am I. Cei-U! I summon the rubber room! Were you ultimately getting paid to read them? Recompense mitigates the madness. |
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Post by Cei-U! on Nov 30, 2014 11:31:28 GMT -5
Wimps! I spent four months this year reading Silver Age DC and I'm still sane. And so am I. Cei-U! I summon the rubber room! Were you ultimately getting paid to read them? Recompense mitigates the madness. You think I'd subject myself to that much nonsense WITHOUT getting paid? Cei-U! I summon my mercenary side! |
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Post by wildfire2099 on Nov 30, 2014 20:57:48 GMT -5
If someone was going to PAY me to read comics, yeah, I'd be all over them like a Purple Kryptonite super-rash on Superman!
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Post by wildfire2099 on Dec 22, 2014 0:31:38 GMT -5
 Flash #105 'Conqueror from 8 million BC' Well, Katmos is pretty cool visually, but not much otherwise. We learn he was the ruler of a 'metallic empire' 8 million BC (or 8 million years ago, depending), and he wants his job back. He goes through a string of robberies to enhance his 'mind control gun'.. it uses radiation, naturally, to take over the world. We get an origin recap, as Barry is waiting to hear something. He finds out Katmos is near the part, and attacks, only to be blasted by the gun (which didn't work a minute before, but does on him) and captured. We get a nice villain monologue, a typical nonsensical speed-use escape, and a one punch win for Flash. I didn't realize Barry lived in Central City as well... I thought it was Keystone. Also, Barry states in the issue he's been the Flash for 'about a year'.. about 2 and 1/2 real time years since his debut... that's slower time passing than it seemed before. 'Master of Mirrors' The Mirror Master tells us all about his powers... apparently he can pretty much do anything he wants with mirrors. Instead of taking a picture of some money and making it real, though, he decides to duplicate bank tellers to steal money instead. Barry Allen notices his favorite teller parting his hair and wearing his wedding ring on the wrong side (very cool!), and follows him, only to be outran, even as the Flash! He finds an array of weird creatures, and figures out they're made of light, so he cuts the power to the building and wins... the end! This one was alot more fun (and a bit more logical), if you accept that Mirror Master basically has a hand held ST:TNG holodeck. Flash's speed continues to be really inconsistent. Even if the hologram/mirror guy was moving at the speed of light, Flash has god far faster than than... I guess maybe because he's downtown, he doesn't want to blow out all the windows? Or can't manage the obstacles? The things silver age writers had to do to deal with overpowered heroes. Two things stuck out to bug me, though: One, why doesn't he just make money? Or diamonds? Or whatever he wants to buy with the money? Granted, he's already a criminal, but using such a fantastic invention for bank jobs is a bit silly. Also, they say Flash passes through walls 'like a paper airplane in a tornado can go two feet into a might Oak.' First off, if that was true, he'd be making a Flash-sized hole in the wall, not passing through. I'm pretty sure eariler they already described him as 'passing through with the proper vibratory frequency' or some such... I know later they describe it as moving through the spaces in the atoms... plowing through, though, is silly. At least have the comic book science be consistent! Story 1: C- Story 2: C+ Historical Significance: B+ (First actual Flash Comic for Barry Allen, First Mirror Master) |
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Post by Cei-U! on Dec 22, 2014 10:44:05 GMT -5
One, why doesn't he just make money? Or diamonds? Or whatever he wants to buy with the money? Granted, he's already a criminal, but using such a fantastic invention for bank jobs is a bit silly. The answer, of course, is he suffers from Scudder's Syndrome (cf. the Lash House thread). Cei-U! I summon the shameless plug! |
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Post by wildfire2099 on Dec 22, 2014 11:20:55 GMT -5
LOL! Of Course! I hadn't totally made the connection until you mentioned it.
He's a good choice to name it after... those powers were pretty off the hook, and his goals were awfully low.
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(I really want to get to Flash, though... soon).
), has a strange metal sphere crash into his farm... luckily, the Challengers are in town.
