Marvel, Magic and Strange Tales: Part 1

SUPERHEROES WERE MY MAIN FOCUS during the Silver Age of the 1960s. Very occasionally I'd pick up a "horror" or science fiction title. The concept of Magic in comics fiction was barely touched upon. The Justice League had battled magicians a couple of times during the 1963 - 1964 period that I was reading their adventures, and the 1940s hero Dr Fate was one of their "Crisis" allies. But no one was really doing magicians as heroes in those formative Silver Age years.

Mandrake the Magician launched as a daily newspaper strip on 11 Jun 1934. A little less than four years later, Zatara made his debut in Action Comics 1 (Jun 1938). Then, 29 years after Mandrake's first appearance, Marvel published their own, very different magician Doctor Strange in Strange Tales 110 (Jul 1963).

The earliest template for comics magicians was King Features Syndicate's Mandrake, who starred in a hugely popular and successful newspaper strip beginning in the early 1930s and running right through to 2013. But we can trace the look and style of Mandrake's evening dress and top hat back even further to the famous stage magicians of Vaudeville like Howard Thurston, Harry Blackstone and, of course, Harry Houdini.

Harry Blackstone Sr was perhaps the most famous stage magician of the Vaudeville era, though his gentleman-in-evening-clothes style was probably modelled on Howard Thurston, who was active in the ten years before Blackstone began working. Leon Mandrake was the real-life counterpart of the comic strip Mandrake, who began performing under that name ten years before Lee Falk's strip began.

The variety theatre of Vaudeville was the staple entertainment for urban Americans from around 1860 to about 1910, when silent cinema began eating into its audiences. But the stars of Vaudeville rapidly became household names and were featured in all kinds of merchandising, including fictionalised adventures. And where there's success, there's imitators.

This Mandrake Sunday page features the gorgeous draftsmanship of Phil Davis, who drew the strip for thirty years. Two years after the first Mandrake Newspaper strip, King Comics began reprinting Sunday pages. In 1939, Columbia Pictures produced a serial version of the character, starring Warren Hull in the lead role ... without the trademark moustache.

Although there was already a stage performer working the Vaudeville circuit under the name of Mandrake the Magician, it has always been reported that Lee Falk's comic strip conjuror had the same name by coincidence. It's far more likely that Falk was using the far more famous Harry Blackstone as his template. When Falk realised there was a real-life Mandrake, he entered into an agreement with Leon Mandrake to cross-promote the strip and Leon's performances and the arrangement continued for years.

Zatara appeared in the first issue of Action Comics and continued for more than 140 issues. His series also ran in World's Finest and finished in 1951. Such was his popularity that he also merited two cover appearances in the early Action Comics. 

A couple of years after Mandrake's first appearance, the four-colour comic books took off. Hungry for content, comic book publishers would occasionally come up with startlingly original ideas for characters, but more often would just steal ideas from other creators. When Superman made his first appearance in Action Comics 1 (Jun 1938) one of the back-up features was Zatara, a tuxedoed magician who bore an uncanny resemblance to Mandrake. Where Mandrake "gestured hypnotically" to manifest his power over others, Zatara would use the gimmick of talking backwards ... "Ouy era won ni ym rewop!" However, both employed Eastern strongmen as their assistants - Mandrake had Lothar and Zatara had Tong.

Zatara's daughter Zatanna became something of a fan-favourite when she made her debut in Hawkman 4, in a story written by Gardner Fox and drawn my Murphy Anderson.

Zatara ran in Action Comics until issue 141 (Feb 1950) and in World's Finest from 1 (Spr 1941) to 51 (Apr-May 1951). The character then dropped out of sight and didn't appear again until the Silver Age, when we got to meet Zatara's daughter, Zatanna, in Hawkman 4 (Nov 1964).

Once comic books became the big money-maker of the late 1930s publishing industry, publishers were scrambling around to find material to fill their pages. Unsurprisingly, other companies began running their versions of the Vaudeville stage-magician-turned-crimefighter.

Ibis the Invincible was created by Bob Kingett. Born Amentep in ancient Egypt, Ibis arrives in the 20th century via suspended animation, waking up in a museum in the United States. Ibis appeared in every issue of Whiz Comics until the last 155 (Jun 1953).

Ibis the Invincible appeared in the first issue of Whiz Comics (issue 2, Feb 1940) and graduated to his own title in early 1943. Ibis also wore a tuxedo, but set it off with a jaunty turban, rather than a top hat. Ibis was actually a prince of ancient Egypt, who battles an evil magician, The Black Pharaoh, and comes off second best. Placing his love Taia and himself in a state of suspended animation, both wake up in the 20th Century and naturally elect to fight crime. With his magic Ibistick, Ibis wields the limitless occult power of dynastic Egypt - the bad guys don't have a chance. Ibis fought the forces of evil until 1953, when Fawcett Comics ceased publishing. The rights were acquired by DC Comics and the character was revived for one more adventure in 2007.

Doctor Fate first appeared in More Fun 55, written by Gardner Fox and drawn by Howard Sherman. His first cover appearance was in the following issue, More Fun 56 (Jun 1940). Readers had to wait a year until More Fun 67 (May 1941) for an origin story.

DC/National Comics gave us a second magician character when Dr Fate debuted in More Fun Comics 55 (May 1940). Fate was more the superhero type, with his blue leotard and golden full-face helmet, underlined by the fact that he was also a charter member of the Justice Society of America. 

Doctor Fate is in reality Kent Nelson. While on an archeological gig in the Valley of Ur with his father Sven, the Nelsons unwittingly revive the ancient sorcerer Nabu the Wise, but Sven is accidentally killed in the encounter. Nabu adopts Kent and teaches him the secrets of sorcery over the next twenty years. Returning to America, the grown-up Kent sets up his headquarters in a windowless doorless tower in Salem, Massachusetts and, with his love interest Inza, begins his war on crime. By the nature of his power, Doctor Fate is - along with The Spectre - one of the most powerful characters in the DC canon.

Doctor Fate's Salem tower made an appearance on the front cover of More Fun 61 (Nov 1940), then Fate himself took over the cover slot from The Spectre from More Fun 68 (Jun 1941) to 76 (Feb 1942), after which he lost out to Green Arrow.

His strip ran until More Fun 98 (Jul-Aug 1944), then character wasn't seen again for almost twenty years, when Fate was a guest-star - along with the rest of the Justice Society - in Justice League of America 21 (Aug 1963) and 22 (Sep 1963), in the classic "Crisis on Earth One/Two" storyline, which I covered in the previous entry of this blog.

The Steranko cover for the collection of Norgil pulp stories, written by Walter Gibson, better known as the "raconteur" of The Shadow.

Meanwhile, Street and Smith - publishers of The Shadow and Doc Savage pulps - had also entered the comics market and gave us a comic strip version of their own tuxedoed magician Norgil, in Shadow Comics 3 (May 1940) and 9 (Mar 1941), as well as in Doc Savage Comics 4 and 5 (May and Aug 1941). Like other comic book magicians, Norgil had a pretty assistant, Miriam. The comic strip version couldn't have been that popular, as he only made four comics appearances, but his pulp adventures had been well-received and ran in the Street and Smith pulp Crime Busters (and later Mystery Magazine) from November 1937 to November 1940.

Norgil's first comics appearance was in Shadow Comics 3, in an untitled story by an unknown writer and an unnamed artist ... pretty mysterious, eh?

The character had no supernatural powers and was a stage magician who solved crime, often involving a well-known stage illusion as a plot device. His pulp adventures were crafted by legendary Shadow writer Walter Gibson, himself a talented magician who also ghosted books for Harry Houdini and Howard Thurston.

Merlin the Magician ran in the first 45 issues of Quality's National Comics, initially written and drawn by Dan Zolnerowich under the pen-name "Lance Blackwood", but later by Fred Guardineer.

Over at Quality Comics, another conjuror in a tuxedo, Merlin the Magician, was featured in the first issue of National Comics (Jul 1940). This mystic mage acquired his powers when his eccentric uncle bestowed upon him the actual cloak of the legendary Merlin. This instantly gave Jock Kellogg all the powers of the Arthurian magician, which included teleportation, summoning of mythological creatures to do his bidding, astral projection, telekinesis, reality manipulation and the ability to bring anyone back to life. Often he would invoke his magic by pronouncing his spells backwards, probably because writer-artist Fred Guardineer was also responsible for DC's Zatara character. All of this he used to fight nazis. The biggest mystery was how the war managed to last another five years. Merlin ran in National Comics till issue 45 (Dec 1944).

Sargon the Sorcerer - the back-up feature that wouldn't die. Despite being a bit hokey and a bit bland, Sargon lasted the longest of the Golden Age magician heroes, almost eight years across three different DC titles.

A little late to the party - but enjoying a longer run than others - was yet another tuxedoed and turbanned mystic, DC's Sargon the Sorcerer. Sargon appeared in All-American 26 - 50 (May 1941 - Jun 1943), then in Comic Cavalcade 3 - 14 (Sum 1943- Apr-May 1946), having a short run in Sensation Comics 34 - 36 (Oct - Dec 1944), then permanently moving to Sensation with issue 52 (Apr 1946) and ending in 83 (Nov 1948). Using magic power derived from the mysterious "Ruby of Life" Sargon, aided by his comedy relief manager Max O'Leary, fought crooks, spies and his azure-skinned archenemy the Blue Lama, the Queen of Black Magic. Sargon would return in the Silver Age as a villain, but quickly reformed and was made an honorary member of the Justice League.

After the first issue, Super-Magic Comics changed its title to Super-Magician Comics and enjoyed a healthy six-year run, with the real-life Blackstone as the lead feature for the first five years.

After being impersonated by so many comic book magicians, Harry Blackstone himself became a comic character, starring in Street and Smith's Super-Magician Comics 1 - 46 (May 1941 to Feb 1946). The comic-book Blackstone had no supernatural powers, but instead used his knowledge of stage magic to uncover the schemes and machinations of the underworld.

Mark Merlin was created by Mort Meskin, a former member of the Simon and Kirby studio, and ran for six years from House of Secrets 23 to 73, initially scripted by Jack Miller, then by Arnold Drake and finally by Bob Haney.

The archetypal magician fell out of favour during the post-war years and it would take the Silver Age superhero revival to reboot the genre. The 1959 debut of Mark Merlin in DC's House of Secrets 23 (Aug 1959) was a little misleading, as the earliest adventures had the occult detective mostly fighting aliens and robots. Any supernatural menaces were usually dismissed as hoaxes by the end of the adventure. But in 1963, editor Jack Schiff was replaced by Murray Boltinoff. And Boltinoff replaced scripter Jack Miller with Arnold Drake and within a few issues, Mark Merlin was battling genuine occult menaces. Then in 1965, Mark Merlin was killed off, then reincarnated in House of Secrets 74 (Sep-Oct 1965) as Prince Ra-Man.

Bring on the bad guys - The only new magicians we'd see from DC during the early 1960s were villainous adversaries for our heroes to best. Felix Faust would take on the entire Justice League before being defeated. Future magician Abra-Kadabra would transform The Flash into a puppet before being returned to the 64th century to face a death sentence.

And that was it for a while. The stage magician in a tuxedo archetype pretty much went away after this, but for the revival of Zatara and his daughter Zatanna in Hawkman 4 (Nov 1964) - however I get the distinct impression that this was done a little tongue-in-cheek. It's difficult to take Zatanna's costume seriously, as much as I might like it. 

We did, however, see the Justice League battle a different style of ancient sorcerer Felix Faust in JLA 10 (Mar 1962), and in The Flash 128 (May 1962), the Scarlet Speedster had his hands full with future magician Abra-Kadabra, who used super-advanced science that resembled magic and wore a weird stylised future-tux. But we wouldn't see "real" magic in comics until the following year, when Steve Ditko came to our rescue.

The first Human Torch stories in Strange Tales were plotted by Stan, scripted by Larry Lieber and drawn by Jack Kirby. By Strange Tales 106, Kirby was off the book and inker Dick Ayers took over pencilling as well. With Strange Tales 108, Lee replaced Lieber with Robert Bernstein and brought Kirby back for two issues. With Strange Tales 110, Bernstein was out and Ernie Hart was in. Issues 112 and 113 had Jerry Siegel on scripting.

Marvel's Strange Tales had been running the solo adventures of The Fantastic Four's Human Torch from issue 101 (Oct 1962). I had the impression that Stan's heart wasn't really in it, as these early Torch tales had some strange differences compared to the Human Torch depicted in the FF comics. This Torch had a secret identity and lived in a small town in upstate New York. The FF Torch lived in the Baxter Building in Manhattan with the rest of the FF. I could be mistaken, but it seems as though starring the Human Torch in Strange Tales was an edict from Publisher Martin Goodman rather than an inspiration from Editor Stan Lee.

The Torch made his directionless way through Strange Tales for nine months before Stan Lee decided to try out another feature in the book. Steve Ditko had brought Stan a new character called Mister Strange, probably a bit corny for a character who was to appear in Strange Tales. Stan didn't seem awful keen, and was dismissive of the idea in a letter to Jerry Bails.

"We have a new character in the works for Strange Tales," Stan wrote on 9th Jan 1963. "Steve Ditko is gonna draw him. Sort of a black magic theme. The first story is nothing great, but perhaps we can make something of him—'twas Steve's idea, and I figgered we'd give it a chance, although again, we had to rush the first one too much. Little sidelight: Originally decided to call him MR. STRANGE, but thought the MR. a bit too similar to MR. FANTASTIC—- now, however, I just remember we had a villain called DR. STRANGE just recently in one of our mags—- hope it won't be too confusing! Oh well..."

Who is Dr Strange? Where did he come from? What sinister purpose does he have appearing unannounced in Strange Tales 110? Why does Stan hate him at first, then very quickly love him? Perhaps these questions will be answered in the next entry in this blog.

Dr Strange first appeared in Strange Tales 110 (Jul 1963) with little fanfare. There was no origin, no explanation of who this character was and how he fitted into the Marvel continuity. The character made another appearance in Strange Tales 111, then promptly disappeared, a pretty good trick, even for a comic book magician.

But Stan Lee was about to have an epiphany ... and that story - and the story of Dr Strange - will be told in the next edition of Marvel in the Silver Age.


Next: More Marvel, Magic and Strange Tales

My Top Ten DCs of the Early 1960s: Part 2

IN THE EARLY 1960s I EXPERIMENTED WITH DC COMICS. It was only for a couple of years before I moved on to the good stuff - Stan Lee's Marvel Comics - but for those first tentative steps into the four-colour world, I knew only the implausible coincidences and plot-driven stylings of Mort Weisinger and Julius Schwartz. And while I still much prefer Marvel to DC, especially the comics of my youth, there are a few DCs that I still remember with love and affection.

It's true ... there's a lot of Mort Weisinger books in my top five, but these stories were pitched perfectly at my age-group at the time. I would have been nine when I was picking up those early Action Comics. Click image to enlarge.

Last time on this blog I looked at the lower half of my top ten most fondly-remembered DC stories of my formative years - around 1963 to 1965 - then ran out of room (and time) because I found I had more to say than I'd thought ... so here, then, are the top five. Again, I stress these are not the "best" DC comics of that era, just the ones that struck a chord with me and that I still remember to this day.

5. JUSTICE LEAGUE 21 & 22

OK, maybe this DC story is one of the best of the era. It was so successful that it became an annual event and established the whole DC multiple-universe thing. In the story it's explained that the Golden Age DC characters from the 1940s actually exist in a parallel universe on Earth-Two. The Silver Age DC superheroes all live on Earth-One. OK, it's a tad more complicated than that, as Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman continued straight on from the 1940s to the 1960s, but if you need to know more about that, you can Google it yourself.

Unusually for an early 1960s comic, the Crisis on Earth One/Two story unfolded across two complete issues of Justice League of America, created by the regular team of scripter Gardner Fox and artists Mike Sekowsky and Bernard Sachs.

For me, the first glimpse I had of DC's alternate Earths - and indeed of Golden Age characters - was in the Justice League of America stories, "Crisis on Earth-One" and "Crisis on Earth-Two" in issues 21 and 21 (Aug & Sep 1963) of that comic. And despite the spotty distribution we had to deal with in the UK, I distinctly remember buying both issues from a spinner rack at the same time, probably in the autumn or winter of 1963. Then I pretty much read them to pieces ...

New readers get an introduction to not only The Justice League but also The Justice Society in the first three pages of the tale. And there's an explanation of how the parallel Earths are related to each other and a reference the Flash 123 (Sep 1961) where DC first introduced the concept.

The plot is a little complex, but scripter Gardner Fox has fifty pages for explanations. Essentially, two trios of criminals, from two different Earths, plan to commit crimes then escape justice by immediately fleeing to the alternative Earth. So Earth-One's Felix Faust (from JLA 10, Mar 1962), Chronos (from The Atom 3, Oct 1962) and Doctor Alchemy (from Showcase 13, Mar 1958 - though he was "Mr Element" back then) conspire to commit crimes on their native Earth-One then hide out on Earth-Two ... while The Fiddler (All-Flash 32, Dec 1947), The Wizard (from All-Star 34, Apr 1947) and The Icicle (from All-American 90, Oct 1947) will carry out million-dollar robberies on Earth-Two then cross over to Earth-One to escape. Then, to further complicate things, the Earth-Two villains plan to disguise themselves as their Earth-One allies, rob Las Vegas (called "Casino Town" in the story) and defeat Earth-One's Justice League heroes.

Here's a montage of my favourite scenes from Justice League of America 21 ... I love the panel where the JLA and the JSA meets for the first time. Check out the two Atoms in the foreground shaking hands.

Highlights of Justice League 21 for me were the two scenes in Chapter Two where the "weaker" heroes save their more powerful colleagues. The Atom rescues Martian Manhunter from a shower of fiery pebbles by literally kicking them into touch, while Green Arrow saves Superman from a fire hydrant transformed into Kryptonite by dowsing it in lead paint from a well-placed trick arrow. I also loved the scene where the JLS summons the JSA with a good, old-fashioned seance ... and the following iconic scene where the Justice League members shake hands with their Earth-Two counterparts. All magical memories for me, even after more than fifty years.

The issue ends with the JLA, trapped in their own secret sanctuary by the magic of The Wizard, escaping to Earth-Two via Dr Fate's magic and preparing to chase down the Earth-One villains there.

So complicated is this tale that the splash page of Justice League 22 is given over almost entirely to a recap of the story so far. It's exactly the sort of thing I would have skipped over as a nine-year old. But here is is, in case you really need to read it.

Is this the busiest Intro page you ever saw? The verbiage has literally crowded the splash art off the page. It's a pretty brave move, when the format of the day was to have a big eye-grabbing image at the start of every chapter.

There then follows an epic 17-page battle as the combined might of the Justice League and the Justice Society defeat their foes, one-by-one. And just when it seems their victory is complete, the superheroes are trapped by another of the villain's machinations, this time ending up floating in space, trapped in cells tailor-made to negate their powers. Of course, our heroes escape in a cunning and clever way and congregate on Earth-One to beat the tar out of the cross-dimensional baddies in an epic double-page spread by Sekowsky and Sachs.

Absolute chaos - The Justice League and the Justice Society gang up on a handful of villains and whoop their behinds from one dimension to another. When you look at it like this, it hardly seems fair, does it?

Much as I love this comic - and bear in mind this is regarded as a classic by many Silver Age fans - there's not really a great deal of story here. An incredible 35 pages of the 50-page tale is devoted to battle scenes. More than two thirds. With a few chat scenes interspersed. It's no wonder that later fans criticised the Justice League of America comic for portraying the DC heroes as having scant personality and interchangeable dialogue.

Stan Lee's more populist approach in the Marvel Comics of the same period would very quickly start stealing sales from DC, while the DC editors scratched their heads and wondered why.

I don't think Gardner Fox and his DC contemporaries were bad writers, but they were of another era. And what was sufficient back in the 1940s Golden Age of Comics just didn't fly in the youth-culture driven 1960s, something I've discussed in other chapters of this blog. A cool name, costume and clever super-powers weren't enough, on their own, to sell comics. The new breed of comic fan wanted characterisation, wisecracks and a good storyline as well. And that's what, in the end, drove me away from DC and towards Marvel.

But hokey though they may be ... my nine-year old self still loves those old Justice League comics ...

4. BATMAN ANNUAL 4

This was one of the earliest American comics I can remember owning. It certainly wasn't bought new - it was coverless - and I wasn't one of those kids who likes to rip the covers off comics. I have a feeling someone might have given it to me, because the cover was missing. But wherever I got it from, I loved this comic, literally to pieces.

In the early 1960s, Superman editor Mort Weisinger realised there was a market for 25 cent comics packed with old reprints. With double the cover-price and no editorial costs, it was a no-brainer and Batman editor Jack Schiff soon followed suit.

Two stories in the bumper crop of Batman reprints from the character's silliest period still stand out in my memory... "The First Batman", in which Batman discovers his father fought crime in a bat-costume before he did, and "The Man Who Ended Batman's Career" in which Batman develops bat-phobia and changes his identity to Starman. So much did I love the latter story that, when I was nine, I tried to make myself a Starman costume, so I could help Batman.

We all know Bruce Wayne became Batman when a bat flew in his window one night and he was inspired to disguise himself as "a creature of the night, dark and terrible." as described in Detective Comics 33 (Nov 1939). But this story suggests that another Wayne had the same idea two decades earlier.

"The First Batman" originally appeared in Detective Comics 235 (Sep 1956), story by Bill Finger and art by Sheldon Moldoff and Stan Kaye, though the first page carries Bob Kane's signature. The story recaps the origin of Batman and reveals the final fate of Joey Chill, the murderer of Bruce Wayne's parents. But a chance discovery of a Batman-like costume in the attic of stately Wayne Manor prompts Bruce to recall the time when his father wore a Bat-costume. Attending a masquerade ball in the costume, Wayne senior is grabbed by gangsters who need his medical skills to remove a bullet from crook Lew Moxon. Dr Wayne fights back though, and Moxon is arrested and sentenced to ten years. When Moxon is finally released, he wants to get even, but isn't prepared to kill Dr Wayne himself. Thus it's revealed that Joey Chill was only the trigger-man. It's Moxon who was behind the murder of Bruce Wayne's parents. The rest of the tale has Batman track down Moxon and ring a confession out of him.

It's a memorable tale for me because it reveals essential back story to Batman's origin. I don't know whether those plot details became canon ... I suspect not, but I quite like the way Bill Finger revises Batman's history in an interesting way.

As a kid, I liked Starman even more than Batman, for some reason. It never occurred to me to wonder how Batman managed to get a Starplane built so quickly ... and by whom? But I really liked the star-darts Starman used to pin baddies to a wall.

The second memorable tale in that Annual was "The Man Who Ended Batman's Career", which appeared originally in Detective Comics 247 (Sep1957). Another Finger/Moldoff extravaganza, this time inked by Charles Paris, this story had Batman afflicted with a morbid fear of bats by mad Professor Milo. Unable to even look at the emblem on his Batman costume, Bruce Wayne is forced to adopt a new costumed identity ... Starman. Starman's gimmick is that he can fling ninja stars with deadly accuracy. Only Robin's intervention gets Batman over his phobia and back to his bat-fighting self.

Of course, the crooks soon figure out that Starman is just Batman in another costume ... but it was a fun ride while it lasted, and my nine-year old self was disappointed that Starman didn't get his own comic. Plus, I knew about ninja stars long before anyone else did.

Despite Shelly Moldoff's idiosyncratic art style, I was a big fan of the Atomic Age Batwoman. Though she was initially treated as Batman's Lois Lane - more an annoyance than an ally - she quickly became an integral part of the extended Bat-family. Her last appearance was in Detective 318 (Aug 1963), after which she disappeared with no explanation.

What I had completely forgotten about Batman Annual 4 was that it also reprinted the first appearance of Batwoman. Now anyone who has followed my blog over the years will know that my favourite female comic characters typically have dark hair. So as a kid, I loved the 1950s version of Batwoman and thought she was a wonderful partner for Batman ... much better than that daft Robin. 

Of course, given the times, Batwoman was portrayed as a "typical female". Her Bat-weapons were sneezing face powder, charm bracelets that doubled as handcuffs and a compact mirror she used to dazzle crooks, all carried in a handbag ... At one point, when Batwoman tries to help, Batman observes, "This is no place for a girl". A few pages later, some crooks say, "Batman and Robin ... and Batwoman. There's only two of them, the girl doesn't count." Finally, Batman figures out her secret identity as Kathy Kane, trapeze artist-turned-socialite, and tells to end her career as a crimefighter. "If I found you out," says Batman, "crooks could too, eventually! Once they learned your real identity, you'd be in mortal danger." Batwoman capitulates. "I never thought of that," she says, "I guess you're right. I - I'll quit my career as Batwoman." Thank goodness she didn't, eh? 

Here's some of my favourite Batwoman covers. Batman 105 was her second appearance. Batman 102 (Mar 1959) had the pair marry. Detective 276 (Feb 1960) teamed Batwoman up with Bat-Mite. In Batman 131 (Apr 1960) we find out what happens in the future when Batman marries Batwoman. In Batman 133 (Aug 1960) it's that pesky Bat-Mite again. And Batwoman's final appearance was in Detective 318.

I'll round out this section with a selection of my favourite Batwoman covers, ranging from her second appearance in Batman 105 (Feb 1957) to her final outing in Detective Comics 318 (July 1956).

3. SUPERBOY 89

Another comic I really enjoyed as a pre-Marvel child was Superboy. Incredibly, there are no collected editions of the Silver Age Superboy stories. I can't only surmise that there some sort of rights problem that prevents it. However, The Legion of Superheroes collections from DC include many stories from the original Superboy comics, including one of my favourites, "Superboy's Big Brother" from Superboy 89 (Jun 1961).

The cover of Superboy 89 depicts perhaps the daftest scene in the comic, where Superboy and his new "big brother" discover a "Jack-in-theBox monster left behind by a weird race of space people who make crazy toys."

My earliest exposure to Superboy would likely have been through one of those old black-and-white Superboy Annuals that were published in the UK during the late 1950s and early 1960s. I definitely recall having an Annual that had about 80 pages of George Papp-drawn Superboy reprints with Rex the Wonder Dog as a backup, but I can't identify which one it was because it was coverless. And I can't rightly say whether I read "Superboy's Big Brother" in the colour comic or in the B&W reprint, but the story stuck with me over the decades ...

These black-and-white albums were produced by a company called Atlas Publishing (no relation to Marvel Comics) during the late 1950s and early 1960s. They also published Superman and Batman Albums, and several ongoing comics like Space Ace, Lone Star and Diamond Adventure Comic. 

Written by Robert Bernstein and drawn by George Papp, behind a cover by Curt Swan and Stan Kaye, "Superboy's Big Brother" was a rare, 19-page tale at a time when DC typically filled their books with eight and 13-page stories. And it's probably Bernstein's highest-profile story.

The story begins joyously, with Superboy enjoying the company of his "big brother" as they use their super-powers to "play ball" together and perform other super-feats, but will soon descend into mistrust and suspicion.

The tale begins when a mysterious rocket crash-lands near Smallville. Superboy investigates and discovers a lad slightly older than himself among the wreckage. The teenager has no memory of who he is, but a plaque round his neck inscribed with Krytonian characters. Superboy immediately assumes that the newcomer is Kryptonian and probably related. This is confirmed when "Mon-El" proves to have super-powers, just like Superboy. However, further discoveries - Krypto doesn't recognise Mon-El and Mon-El is immune to Kryptonite - make Superboy suspect there's another explanation for his brother being on Earth.

Ultimately, Superboy causes the near-death of his newly-found "brother" when he fears that Mon-El has some sinister motive for pretending to be from Krypton, despite Mon-El never making any such claim. It's interesting that Bernstein's script makes Superboy the baddie and Mon-El the innocent victim.

As Superboy's suspicions grow, he lays a trap for Mon-El and disguises some lead boulders to look like Kryptonite and arranges to have them rain down on Mon-El and himself. Superboy pretends the "Kryptonite" is killing him, and when Mon-El appears to have the same reaction, Superboy thinks he's exposed Mon-El's deception. But it turns out there's an explanation.

"Mon-El" is actually from the planet Daxam, where the inhabitants are super-sensitive to lead, a substance that kills them with only one exposure. Superboy's only recourse is to send Mon-El into the Phantom Zone until a cure for the lead poisoning can be found.

It's a story full of loss, loneliness and recrimination, a rare emotions-driven story in DC's Silver Age. Superboy's feeling of isolation - as the last survivor of Krypton - makes him ready to accept Mon-El as his older brother. Mon-El is also a connection to Superboy's lost parents, and as a teenager rather than a grown man, Superboy would still feel that loss keenly. And it is Superboy's suspicions that cause him to lay the fatal trap for Mon-El, dooming his best friend because he thought Mon-El was trying to cheat him.

All these story elements I recognised as important and resonant, even as a nine-year old child. Even back then, I was looking for stories about human emotions, something that most of the DC line didn't offer.

Of course, later - probably due to reader reaction - a cure was found for Mon-El and he was able to join the Legion of Superheroes in the 30th century. But it was this story that started it all and still remains in my memory more than fifty years after I first read it.

2. ACTION COMICS 300

My second-favourite DC comic of my pre-Marvel years is another Mort Weisinger spectacular, "Superman under the Red Sun", which appeared in Action Comics 300 (May 1963).

Behind this iconic cover by Curt Swan and George Klein is an equally classic Superman story, in which Superman is trapped in the far-flung future where the Sun has turned red, robbing him of his powers. How will Superman escape this unescapable trap? My nine-year old self really needed to know.

Though only running 14 pages, this story - written by Ed Hamilton and drawn by Al Plastino - was able to give us a sense of Superman's isolation as a stranger in a strange land.

It starts with Superman investigating a spaceship in Earth orbit, which turns of to be a craft of the criminal organisation, The Superman Revenge Squad. The spaceship tries to flee, going so fast it cracks the time barrier into the future. Superman gives chase, but suddenly loses his powers and plummets to earth, a million years in the future under a red sun.

Though Mort Weisinger (along with Julius Schwartz) came from a science fiction background, the science here is wobbly. A star like Sol may have started as a red dwarf, and later in its cycle might become a white dwarf, but it doesn't have enough mass to end up as a red giant. So in the far flung future, Sol wouldn't become red. Plus, a million years is but a moment in a star's evolution. It would take around 10 trillion years for a star like Sol to enter its next phase. But I didn't know that when I was nine.

The story has a couple of plot holes ... the chief one is that one million years isn't enough time for the sun to evolve to another state. Secondly, when our sun does change, it will become a white dwarf. And thirdly, a red sun is lower-powered than a yellow one and therefore wouldn't cause the Earth's oceans to dry up.

The main point is that Superman finds himself alone and powerless a million years in the future where all his friends are long-dead. Using only his wits he must figure out how to escape from this time and return to 1963. Accompanied only by an android duplicate of Perry White, Superman sets off to reach his Fortress of Solitude at the North Pole, where he believes he may find a way to escape his predicament.

Along the way, Superman and Robo-Perry encounter some exotic life forms, like a land whale and land octopi (which again wouldn't have evolved in a mere one million years), which add some further danger to the trek.

Great ... Superman has a plan to allow him to return to his own time. He'll shrink himself with the still functioning reducer-ray, then pilot a tiny Kandorian rocket through the time barrier. But what's the error here? Click the image to expand and read the pages and see if you can figure it out.

Finally, Superman makes to the Arctic, now a desert wasteland, and scales the cliff to the door of his Fortress. But even as Superman gains entry through the door's huge keyhole, he's dismayed to discover that the bottle cit of Kandor is no longer there. I'm not quite sure how that would have helped him, but there's another solution at hand. A miniature Kandorian rocket has been left behind, along with the shrinking ray Superman has used before to reduce his size to allow him to enter Kandor. So that's all fine. He can make himself small enough to climb in the rocket and fly out of there and through the time barrier. But then the plotting gets a little muddled.

Superman also finds a piece of Red Kryptonite he was looking for, thinking "This Red Kryptonite won't affect me till I unwrap it. I once observed its effect on Krypto and it should have the same effect on me." What? What effect? The second to last panel has tiny Superman back in Metropolis musing, "Now to wait until the temporary effect of the Red Kryptonite wears off and I'm my super-self again."

I suspect some incompetent editorial interference. Perhaps some panels were removed from the last page to accomodate the ad. But there's definitely something missing here. Perhaps the original script had Superman shrunk down by the Red Kryptonite. That's certainly the implication in the published text. Maybe Weisinger thought that Red K shouldn't affect Superman when he doesn't have powers, so asked his staff to edit that bit out. They just didn't do it properly.

That notwithstanding ... it's still one of my all-time favourite early 1960s DC stories. It has a melancholy feel to it that other Superman stories of the era didn't have.

1. ACTION COMICS 309-310

My top DC story of the early 1960s is another sad one. "The Untold Story of Argo City" is an expanded version of the origin of Supergirl that appeared back in Action Comics 252 (May 1959). Essentially, the plot points are the same, but the later two-parter, which ran in Action Comics 309 and 310 (Feb-Mar 1964), expands more on the scenes in the doomed Argo City, where the Kryptonians struggle to survive life on a rock of solid Kryptonite.

Five years after Supergirl first appeared, DC Comics gave us an expanded version of Supergirl's origin in the two-part tale, "The Untold Story of Argo City", which would add a dilemma for Supergirl when she must choose between her adoptive parents, The Danvers, and her real parents, Zor-El and Allura.

The story is scripted by Leo Dorfman - expanding the original plot of Action 252 by Otto Binder - and drawn by Jim Mooney, and begins with Linda (Supergirl) Danvers dreaming that her real parents, Zor-El and Allura, are trying to communicate with her. With the help of Superhorse's telepathic powers, Supergirl is led to believe that her Kryptonian parents are alive but trapped in the Phantom Zone. Yet when Supergirl enters The Zone she fails to find any trace of her parents.

Via the ChronoScope, Supergirl can watch the last moments of Argo City, as first survival then doom beckon to the last surviving citizens of Krypton.

Her next plan it to use a handy "ChronoScope" that Superman invented (presumably solely for this story) to watch long-past events in Argo City to discover what happened to Zor-El and Allura. At last it's revealed that Supergirl's parents escaped into a dimension similar to The Phantom Zone, but separate from it. Now it only remains for Supergirl to figure out how to release Zor-El and Allura from The Survival Zone.

Supergirl's quest takes her first to Kandor City, where scientist help track the movements of Supergirl's parents inside the Survival Zone to the implauible "New Krypton", a memorial set up by Superman and Supergirl in tribute to the lost souls of Krypton. From there she then unnecessarily follows the Survival Zone "gulf stream" back to Earth where she can begin the process of extraction using a handy "sensitive view screen for national defence" that's conveniently stowed in the Danvers' basement. A few tweaks and Zor-El and Allura are able to step through the screen and into Supergirl's reality.

The big problem Supergirl faces in the conclusion of this tale is how she can bring her real parents back from The Survival Zone without breaking the hearts of her adoptive parents, The Danvers. In the end, Zor-El takes that decision out of Supergirl's hands.

But after a few joyous scenes of reunion and enjoying each other's company, it's plain that this can't be allowed to go on, so the Els must be sent to Kandor by DC's Dark Overlord Weisinger so that the status quo can be maintained.

I think the reason I still remember this story and how it made me feel when I read it back in 1964 is that once again, it's about emotions. Supergirl's feeling of loss when she believes her real parents are dead, her feeling of hope when it seems possible that they have somehow survived, then the emotional dilemma she faces if her real parents and adoptive parents are living in the same world. I also found the scenes of the Argoans trying to survive quite affecting, especially the scenes of hopelessness when the meteor shower pierces the protective lead sheeting, exposing the Argo citizens to the deadly Kryptonite rays ...

To me, this all demonstrates that the stories that resonate with us and stay with us even decades later are always powered by emotion. I think this was something that Stan realised when he first started trying to craft better stories at Marvel. When DC published the occasional emotion-driven story it was by accident and even as Marvel began to outsell DC in the mid-1960s, the DC editors never made the connection, and continued to stick to their plot-driven tales for the rest of the decade, allowing Marvel to take the top spot and relegate the once mighty DC Comics to second place.

Trapped on live television, as the subject of the show "America's Greatest Heroes" Superman is unable to find someone to pose as Clark Kent, until help arrives from an unexpected quarter. Because, after all, if Superman can't trust the President of the United States, who can he trust? Tragically, President Kennedy was dead before this comic went on sale ...

One final coda ... Action Comics 309 also featured a Superman story where the tv show "Our American Heroes" wants to honour Superman, but as Superman's "best friend" Clark Kent is also on the guest list, Superman's in a bit of a bind. One by one, his solutions are removed until it seems like his identity will be compromised by Clark Kent's "no-show". Then - surprise - Clark shows up. How did he do it? The answer seems so obvious now, leading to one of the greatest final lines in a comic story ever ...

Next: Of Marvel, Magic and Strange Tales