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Post by Ish Kabbible on Feb 28, 2017 19:09:14 GMT -5
And they finally realize she must be a girl because she doesn't have an Adam's apple. So weird! I impressed dozens of teachers in all my schools for knowing this bit of biology. Thank you Mort Weisinger and Edmond Hamilton  |
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Post by Hoosier X on Mar 1, 2017 11:55:38 GMT -5
Last night I read "The Doom of the Super-Heroes!" from Adventure Comics #310, and what a grim little tale it is! They're fighting a mysterious villain wearing a lead mask and he's very crafty and powerful ... and he kills off the Legionnaires one by one! They're dying in piles as the survivors bravely soldier on despite the odds.
WOW! I can't believe I've never heard of this one! Quite an intense little tale, sort of like the LSH version of The Dirty Dozen.
The fact that they get better at the end doesn't much minimize the intensity and the drama of the rest of the story.
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Post by MDG on Mar 1, 2017 12:16:57 GMT -5
Last night I read "The Doom of the Super-Heroes!" from Adventure Comics #310, and what a grim little tale it is! They're fighting a mysterious villain wearing a lead mask and he's very crafty and powerful ... and he kills off the Legionnaires one by one! They're dying in piles as the survivors bravely soldier on despite the odds. WOW! I can't believe I've never heard of this one! Quite an intense little tale, sort of like the LSH version of The Dirty Dozen. I didn't remember this one so I looked it up. I'm going to guess that the cover is from a different story. {Spoiler: Click to show}  |
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Post by Hoosier X on Mar 1, 2017 12:34:37 GMT -5
Last night I read "The Doom of the Super-Heroes!" from Adventure Comics #310, and what a grim little tale it is! They're fighting a mysterious villain wearing a lead mask and he's very crafty and powerful ... and he kills off the Legionnaires one by one! They're dying in piles as the survivors bravely soldier on despite the odds. WOW! I can't believe I've never heard of this one! Quite an intense little tale, sort of like the LSH version of The Dirty Dozen. I didn't remember this one so I looked it up. I'm going to guess that the cover is from a different story. {Spoiler: Click to show} Superboy is still getting the cover spot on Adventure Comics at this point. I haven't been reading every Superboy story as I've been going through the LSH tales, but I did read this one. Come on! How could you not read this one?!?! It's pretty dumb. But Lana Lang is always hilarious. |
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Post by Hoosier X on Mar 2, 2017 14:31:44 GMT -5
Adventure Comics #313 has a villain called Satan Girl!
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Mar 2, 2017 16:09:50 GMT -5
Last night I read "The Doom of the Super-Heroes!" from Adventure Comics #310, and what a grim little tale it is! They're fighting a mysterious villain wearing a lead mask and he's very crafty and powerful ... and he kills off the Legionnaires one by one! They're dying in piles as the survivors bravely soldier on despite the odds. WOW! I can't believe I've never heard of this one! Quite an intense little tale, sort of like the LSH version of The Dirty Dozen. The fact that they get better at the end doesn't much minimize the intensity and the drama of the rest of the story. Oh, I remember this story very, very well. I bought it when it came out (cover date July 1963) . Take into consideration I was an innocent 9 year old. Consider I have been reading DC comics for maybe 1 year at this point . Consider that death in comics was extremely, extremely rare. Consider the comic had an innocuous cover with Krypto talking and treating Superboy as a mutt. And I'm reading the Legion story and a Legionnaire dies when a mysterious applicant has a temper tantrum for being rejected. WOW! Didn't see that coming. Then more and more get killed off. HOLY SMOKES-Why are they doing this? Then a whole rocket ship full of Legionaries explodes. I WANT MY MOMMMEEE!! I really had no concept of death at this time. JFK hadn't been assassinated yet as well. DC hadn't published the story of how Ma and Pa Kent died yet. The famous Death Of Superman story told you up front it was an imaginary tale. Now I see that the Batman comic with Robin Dies At Dawn came out 1 month earlier but I did not read it before the Adventure comic So yes, The Doom Of The Super-Heroes really messed up my mind. Led me to kill a bunch of people since then. But I'll deny it. It was that short imp that did it |
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Post by Hoosier X on Mar 2, 2017 16:53:02 GMT -5
Last night I read "The Doom of the Super-Heroes!" from Adventure Comics #310, and what a grim little tale it is! They're fighting a mysterious villain wearing a lead mask and he's very crafty and powerful ... and he kills off the Legionnaires one by one! They're dying in piles as the survivors bravely soldier on despite the odds. WOW! I can't believe I've never heard of this one! Quite an intense little tale, sort of like the LSH version of The Dirty Dozen. The fact that they get better at the end doesn't much minimize the intensity and the drama of the rest of the story. Oh, I remember this story very, very well. I bought it when it came out (cover date July 1963) . Take into consideration I was an innocent 9 year old. Consider I have been reading DC comics for maybe 1 year at this point . Consider that death in comics was extremely, extremely rare. Consider the comic had an innocuous cover with Krypto talking and treating Superboy as a mutt. And I'm reading the Legion story and a Legionnaire dies when a mysterious applicant has a temper tantrum for being rejected. WOW! Didn't see that coming. Then more and more get killed off. HOLY SMOKES-Why are they doing this? Then a whole rocket ship full of Legionaries explodes. I WANT MY MOMMMEEE!! I really had no concept of death at this time. JFK hadn't been assassinated yet as well. DC hadn't published the story of how Ma and Pa Kent died yet. The famous Death Of Superman story told you up front it was an imaginary tale. Now I see that the Batman comic with Robin Dies At Dawn came out 1 month earlier but I did not read it before the Adventure comic So yes, The Doom Of The Super-Heroes really messed up my mind. Led me to kill a bunch of people since then. But I'll deny it. It was that short imp that did it Yeah, I can see how this story would FREAK OUT THE KIDS in 1963. As I'm going through these LSH stories in Adventure Comics, sometimes I read the Superboy stories and sometimes I don't. I had to read the one where Superbaby was flying around wearing a green mask and freaking out the good people of Smallville until they formed one of those "angry villager" mobs like those from the Universal Frankenstein movies. (I especially love the scene where Superbaby attacks the army games at Fort Smallville because he wants to play with the tanks.) This story ends with Ma Kent mildly scolding little Clark for flying where people can see him, and he looks at the floor and says "I sowwy, Mommy." And the one where Lana Lang and her professor father are lost on an expedition in Africa, and Superboy helps them in secret (because it will embarrass Lana's father as an explorer if it turns out that Superboy helped them) by making Lana look like she's a jungle girl who can swing across ravines and raise her hand to soothe savage African jaguars (while Superboy is behind a bush holding the jaguar's tail). And they reach civilization and safety at the end of Page Two! (The rest of the story is about how Hollywood hears about Lana's exploits and they decide to film a Jungle Girl movie on location in Smallville with Lana as the star and she becomes difficult and stuck-up and full of herself. (By which I mean, EVEN MORE difficult and stuck-up and full of herself than usual.)) Yeah, this story goes seriously off the rails. I mention these Superboy stories to help illustrate Ish's point that, yes, "The Doom of the Super-Heroes" is not your usual Silver Age DC comic book story. (And, yes, I did read the one where Superboy is acting like a dog and Krypto is the master. Bananashenanigans!) |
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Post by Hoosier X on Mar 2, 2017 16:57:14 GMT -5
I have to admit, I'm still marveling at the idea that there was a Fort Smallville. Built in the 1850s, I presume, to protect the settlers from the winged Indians who eventually left Earth and became space Indians by the 30th century, when one of their number - Dawnstar - joined the LSH.
And not just any space Indians! Super space Indians!
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Mar 2, 2017 18:06:31 GMT -5
I have to admit, I'm still marveling at the idea that there was a Fort Smallville. Built in the 1850s, I presume, to protect the settlers from the winged Indians who eventually left Earth and became space Indians by the 30th century, when one of their number - Dawnstar - joined the LSH. And not just any space Indians! Super space Indians! Not many know this but the Super Space Indians were one of the stars for the comic industries first inter-company crossover event     |
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Post by Hoosier X on Mar 3, 2017 10:55:39 GMT -5
Last night I read Adventure Comics #314. Its about a villain who goes back in time and recruits several of the bad guys of history, and he always pops up when history has conspired to bring them down. Its Nero, John Dillinger and Hitler. Presumably, Hitler is saved just minutes before the Human Torch shows up and burns him to ashes. So you get to see John Forte drawing Hitler for several pages! Awesome! So they go back to the 30th century and the main villain exchanges their bodies with Superboy, Mon-El and Ultra Boy. So for quite a bit of the story the mind of Hitler is flying around and wreaking havoc in Superboy's body. Weird and wonderful. I'm starting to think that if I made a TOP TEN list of my favorite LSH stories, it would be made up entirely of stories from the era when John Forte was drawing it. |
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Mar 3, 2017 12:40:41 GMT -5
I'm starting to think that if I made a TOP TEN list of my favorite LSH stories, it would be made up entirely of stories from the era when John Forte was drawing it. was doing much of the writing at this time I believe (along with Otto Binder and Jerry Siegel).Hamilton was a fine old school SF writer during the 1930's and early 1940's. I see GCD credits Hamilton as the writer for the Legion stories from 306-319 among others. Hamilton wrote some popular SF series. Captain Future during the 1940's was his best known. He married fellow SF author Leigh Brackett. His best novel was 1951's City At World's End and his most popular, mature SF short story was What's It Like Out There (1952) |
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Mar 3, 2017 12:57:05 GMT -5
I'm starting to think that if I made a TOP TEN list of my favorite LSH stories, it would be made up entirely of stories from the era when John Forte was drawing it. was doing much of the writing at this time I believe (along with Otto Binder and Jerry Siegel).Hamilton was a fine old school SF writer during the 1930's and early 1940's. I see GCD credits Hamilton as the writer for the Legion stories from 306-319 among others. Hamilton wrote some popular SF series. Captain Future during the 1940's was his best known. He married fellow SF author Leigh Brackett. His best novel was 1951's City At World's End and his most popular, mature SF short story was What's It Like Out There (1952) Hamilton was definitely an old-school "space opera"/pulp writer who never really quite moved into the "Golden Age of SF" style of writing. He was one of the central Weird Tales writers, along with Lovecraft and Howard. City At World's End is probably his most modern work, though The Star Kings is probably his most representative. |
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Mar 3, 2017 13:39:24 GMT -5
Superman (and Legion Of Super Heroes) editor Mort Weisinger, along with Julie Schwartz, were huge fans of SF before they worked for DC Comics. I believe Weisinger even published his own fanzine way back in the 1930's and attended all the gatherings, meeting the professional writers and making contacts. One of his most important contributions for DC Comics was bringing some of this writing talent to the comics. Edmond Hamilton, Manly Wade Wellman and I believe Henry Kuttner all came via Weisinger's invitation.
SF pulp writing was low pay and there certainly was not a plethora of outlets for these authors. So comics was attractive for the extra money. And since writers did not get public credit, the writer's "reputations" was not sullied for writing funny books
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Post by Hoosier X on Mar 4, 2017 14:37:04 GMT -5
Yesterday I read "The Legion's Super-Contest" from Adventure Comics #315. I would have included the cover but the Superboy story is on the cover and, boy, it looks pretty dumb! (I haven't read that one yet.)
The LSH story is about the Substitute Legion! And it's pretty AWESOME!
The Legion finds out about the Subs because green-skinned glass-stealing space pirates attack the Earth while the LSH go off-planet to a Interplanetary Space Police Convention. So, it's the Subs to the rescue! And the Subs are no longer a secret.
But the LSH is honored by the Subs' efforts and they decide to hold a contest where each of the Subs will be given a difficult task and awarded points for how quickly and efficiently they take care of the crisis. Whoever gets the most points wins the contest and will be given membership in the Legion!
It's pretty awesome! And the ending ... I love it! You have to read it yourself.
As I read more and more of these early stories of the Substitutes, the more I love Night Girl and the more I hate The Legion of Substitute Heroes Special from the 1980s.
And I love the Subs as a whole a lot more. Even Stone Boy is growing on me.
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Mar 4, 2017 17:18:45 GMT -5
And I love the Subs as a whole a lot more. Even Stone Boy is growing on me. Stoned Boy is a cool dude |
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