More Fun Comics #73: Man-Made Fish-Man

So I'm skipping over the introduction to the JSA (Justice Society of America) in All-Star Comics (1940) #3 because it is really just a bunch of individual "solo" stories by each member of the team instead of a feature in which the team functions as a team for the first time by combating some.... some... thing.

Mrs. Hinkle (the Red Tornado)
((She's the one on the right.))

(Besides, my prepared rant on the complete absence of women on the original team was undercut when I discovered that the Red Tornado, who has a cameo on page 31, is in fact a woman (Mrs. Hunkle). Though, since she has been described as a "parody hero," I'm not sure if she counts as an official member of the team here.)

Most Amusing Panel Prize:

"Nothing can kill me"!!! "But I don't want to hang here like a dish of food, so---"

Doctor Fate decides not to stay for dinner.

More Fun Comics (1935) #73 marks the first appearances of Green Arrow (and his pal Speedy) and Aquaman. There are also stories from the mag's ongoing regulars, Doctor Fate and The Spectre, but as this issue does not constitute their first appearances, I will not touch upon them here. (Plus there's a couple other tales in this issue that did not fancy my interest at all so they will be neglected entirely (no offence intended)).

Green Arrow & Speedy                                                               The Spectre                       

Surprising Details:

The Robin Hood Green Arrow & Speedy tale is not very illuminating or particularly engaging, but some interesting details that I didn't know before include the fact that Green Arrow and Speedy share an apartment (some bi-potential there?) and they have an Arrow Car (like the Batmobile).

(Aside: I also just finished reading the first volume of Injustice: Gods Among Us Year One in which Harley Quinn suggests to Green Arrow that he needs to rename his Arrow Cave with The Quiver instead. I totally agree. (The Bat Cave makes sense for Batman's secret lair because, you know, bats live in caves, but arrows -- notsomuch. The Quiver IS so much better than the "Arrow Cave.")

Anyway, the real surprising details for me are found in the Aquaman story. My limited knowledge of the character comes from Saturday morning cartoons of the Super Friends and more contemporary versions from the 1980's/2010's.

I had no idea Aquaman started out as a regular kid who just so happened to be raised underwater in the ruins of the ancient city of Atlantis that his famous explorer dad had discovered (after has mom had died).

Rather than being born an Atlantean (part-Atlantean) with the capacity to breathe underwater and to communicate with the inhabitants of the sea, Aquaman developed these skills "by training and a hundred scientific secrets" that his father had discovered in the Atlantean archives.

Final Notions:

The "Golden Age" comics I've read so far seem to focus on amazing feats. Crazy scientists running amok, supernatural phenomena, alien invasions, all thwarted by the stalwart hero. Perhaps these comics were truly geared toward a more juvenile audience so the creators tried to keep the moral logic simple and straightforward.

But there does seem to be something masculine about these tales, too. The emphasis on action and accomplishment. Dominating evil with fists and smarts and clever quips.

The almost complete lack of emphasis on complex motivations for any character besides the hero (and even the hero himself) is a struggle for me. I have always been more interested in the "why" than the "how" (though I do like the "how" to make logical, scientific sense when it can)

The goal/the outcome that is the driving force of these early tales seems to be how to obtain mastery over the other or the self. It is not to better understand the other or the self. The goal isn't to question or to grow, the goal is simply to win.

Now is it fair for me to characterize these simple morality tales (which are most often resolved through violence) as masculine story-telling...?

Series: All-Star Comics (1940)

Issue #: 003

Copyright: DC Comics

Cover Date: Winter 1941

Cover Price: 10¢

Page Count:  68 pages

Print Release: 22-October-1941

Digital Release: 17-November-2015

Writer:	Gardner Fox
Penciler:	Everett E. Hibbard
Inker:	Everett E. Hibbard
Colorist:	None Listed
Cover Art:	Everett E. Hibbard
Source Links:	comiXology / Comic Vine / Wikipedia
Story Title:	“The First Meeting of the Justice Society of America”

Writer:	Evelyn Gaines
Penciler:	Sheldon Mayer
Inker:	Sheldon Mayer
Colorist:	None Listed
Story Title:	“Guarding an Heiress”

Series: More Fun Comics (1935)

Issue #: 073

Copyright: DC Comics

Cover Date: November 1941

Cover Price: 10¢

Page Count:  59 pages

Print Release: 24-September-1941

Digital Release: 19-May-2012

Writer:	Mort Weisinger
Penciler:	Paul Norris
Inker:	Paul Norris
Colorist:	None Listed
Cover Art:	Howard Sherman
Source Links:	comiXology / Comic Vine / Wikipedia
Story Title:	Aquaman: “The Submarine Strikes”

Writer:	Gardner Fox
Penciler:	Howard Sherman
Inker:	Howard Sherman
Colorist:	None Listed
Story Title:	Doctor Fate: “Mr. Who”

Writer:	Mort Weisinger
Penciler:	George Papp
Inker:	George Papp
Colorist:	None Listed
Story Title:	Green Arrow: “Case of the Namesake Murders”

Writer:	Jerry Siegel
Penciler:	Bernard Baily
Inker:	Bernard Baily
Colorist:	None Listed
Story Title:	The Spectre: “The Vanishing Menaces”

Action Comics #23: Lex Luthor is Not Bald

The Lex Luthor of old is somewhat different from the Luthor I have come to know  (Michael Rosenbaum's portrayal of him on Smallville is still one of my favorites).

Respected business acumen, brilliant strategist, authentic rationalized fear of the other (in the form of the all-powerful alien that is Superman) -- these characterize Luthor for me.

Instead, Luthor makes his first appearance in Action Comics #23 as a red-haired megalomaniac who apparently has hypnotic powers (he also appears to die in this issue, but comic book deaths are rarely permanent, as we all know).

Most Amusing Panel Prize:

I cannot get over how often the classic heroes threaten the "bad guys" with violence and death; it's the vividness of Superman's threat here that amuses me; "brains dashed out against that wall" (that and the passive voice used in an attempt to obscure who will be doing the dashing).

As a nice touch to begin this issue, Clark Kent gets to rescue Lois for once (though she's unconscious so he still won't get any of the credit).

Though Clark and Lois are working as war correspondents, Clark ends up brokering a peace after Superman stops Luthor's plan to escalate a war so he can swoop in and take over everything once the nations at war are weakened.

Interesting Details:

Two key details are established here that will continue to inform Luthor's character: Luthor is a super-genius, and he is very rich. (It is debatable that he is, in fact, "yellow," as Superman indicates in the panel below. (Lex will eventually lose the hair, though.)

Last Notions:

Superman's arch-nemesis begins as just another archetypal villain; there is nothing personal in his animosity towards Superman, and he has no deeper motivation for his evil activities besides accruing power.

Given the lack of psychological complexity in the early versions of these classic heroes and villains, I can see why some scoffed at comic book readers back in the day.

Comics have not always been grand literature, challenging our underlying assumptions about the nature of the universe. And yet, this form of light entertainment has given birth to some phenomenal ideas that have produced epic stories ever since.

Series: Action Comics (1938)

Issue #: 023

Copyright: DC Comics

Cover Date: April 1940

Cover Price: 10¢

Page Count: 14 pages

Print Release: 21-February-1940

Digital Release: 30-July-2011

Writer:	Jerome Siegel
Penciler:	Joe Shuster
Inkers:	Paul Cassidy
Colorist:	None Listed
Cover Art:	Joe Shuster Paul Cassidy
Source Links:	comiXology / Comic Vine / Wikipedia
Story Title:	“Europe at War” Part II

Action Comics (1938) #1

Issue #001
18-April-1938

If chronology is the plan, then the oldest book in my collection is DC's Action Comics (1938) #1, published in April of 1938, which I purchased last year for all of 99¢ on comiXology.com.*

*[Please note that this version of the comic has only the Superman story and not the other stories that were originally part of the anthology.]

Most Amusing Panels Prize:

Superman dumps nameless bound & gagged woman on the Governor's lawn. Tells her to "make yourself comfortable." WTH?

I must confess, this will be my first time reading many of the "classics" in my collection. Yet, when I do read them, I am invariably confounded and amused, often in equal measure, and Action Comics #1 was no exception.

Surprising Details:

In Superman's first appearance in comics, this alien baby who has crash-landed on earth is not adopted by Jonathan and Martha Kent as I had always believed him to be.

Rather he is "turned in" to an orphanage after his discovery at the crash site by a "passing motorist." (An alien spacecraft with a child therein was apparently not that shocking of an event back in 1938.)

Siegel and Shuster establish Superman's bona fides as a classic hero by having him complete astounding feats as an infant, much like the Greek Hercules who strangles two snakes whilst but a babe in his crib.

What really cracked me up with this issue, though, was the bound and gagged woman at the beginning of the story. Upon my first reading, I could find absolutely no explanation for her state of bondage nor for Superman's unceremonious depositing of her on the lawn at the governor's estate.

It was only on the second reading that I realized the note Superman leaves behind to explain himself contains the secret as to the bound woman's identity: She's the bad guy!

(I clearly breezed by that little detail.)


The other totally amusing reading error I made was when Clark Kent, as Superman, attempts to rescue Lois Lane from Pushy Guy (who has kidnapped her because she had turned him down when he had tried to cut in on her and Clark on the dance floor).

After catching up to them at super-speed, Superman elects to violently shake the bad guys out of the getaway car -- the same car, alas, in which they are holding Lois hostage. (Poor girl!)

But, upon closer inspection, I realized that the red I had mistaken for part of Superman's cape was, in fact, Lois' red dress as she falls from the car into superman's waiting arms (or, more accurately, his waiting left arm as he has to use his right one to shake the car).

Dang, talk about heroes causing property damage...!

The Cliffhanger:

In addition to rescuing Lois from her would-be kidnappers, Superman saves the innocent woman on death row (by depositing the real culprit on the Governor's lawn), stops a random wife-beater (after a phone tip to the newspaper where Clark Kent works), and threatens a Washington lobbyist who is trying to corrupt a Senator.

The issue ends on a literal cliffhanger in which Superman is nonchalant about missing his jump between buildings in our nation's capitol with the terrified Lobbyist dangling in his arms. "Doggone it!"

Last Notions:

I find it difficult to bring a sophisticated modern reading to material as dated as this. Crafted in a different era to an audience with radically different experiences and expectations, I might as well be a human alien commenting on Martian artistry to the Poet Laureate of Mars.

Instead I intend to read the classic comics in my collection to better understand the legacy that informs the contemporary comics that I love.

Released: 18-April-1938

Series: Action Comics (1938)

Issue: #001

Copyright: DC Comics

Cover Date: June 1938

Cover Price: 10¢

Page Count: 13 pages + Cover*

Story Title: "Superman: Champion of the Oppressed"

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