Month: June 2023

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Flash Silver Age Volume One

This is a review of Flash: The Silver Age Volume One. I am behind on my reading, because last week I self-diagnosed with COVID. The good news is that after a miserable few days, I am ramping up my reading again. Anyway, The Flash is the first superhero comic I ever read. It wasn’t my first comic – I read a bunch of those Archie digests you used to be able to find at supermarkets – but I have a soft spot in my heart for the character.

The Flash is Barry Allen, police scientist. One night Barry is proudly examining his collection of chemicals (he’s that type of guy), when a bolt of lightning strikes, saturating him with a hodgepodge of those selfsame chemicals. Instead of being transported to the burn unit, Barry discovers that he has super speed. He dons a red costume with yellow lightning bolts, and the Flash is born!

 So far, so good. How are the stories? Well, they’re less stupid than the Batman & Superman stories of that time period, but that’s a low bar to hurdle. What we get is a heaping dose of junk science, wherein Barry’s speed allows him to do anything you can imagine. Forget faster than light travel; The Flash can break the time barrier!

 The Flash’s rogue gallery is a menagerie of bizarre characters. Thus far, the people’s champion is Gorilla Grodd, a super-intelligent talking gorilla with awesome mental powers. There’s also Captain Cold, The Pied Piper, The Weather Wizard, and Mr. Element. We have a fair number of invaders from outer space stories, along with tales that are plain weird. In one issue, the Flash fights a group of sentient thunderheads by cloud-skipping from cloud to cloud.

I’d be remiss in not mentioning Kid Flash, DC’s version of a teenager of the late 50’s. Wearing a bow-tie to school, calling every adult sir or ma’am, young Wally West is doomed to never have sex. I confess that I’m sort of surprised that Barry himself ever gets sex. When we first meet him, he’s in the police cafeteria drinking milk, which is as perfect a character moment as you will ever see. Barry is always late for his dinner dates with his girlfriend Iris, so she thinks he’s the slowest man on earth. Of course, she adores the Flash. The hero’s love interest disliking or being meh about him while adoring his alter ego is a tired trope, but to be fair, this was the 60’s.

A good read for Flash fans.

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Marvel Masterworks: Captain America Volume One

This is a review of Marvel Masterworks: Captain America Volume One. This graphic novel is the work of Jack Kirby, which means its good. Stan Lee is listed as the writer, but I read an interview with Kirby wherein he claims to have done both the art and writing. Having read a bunch of Marvel material in the 60’s, I think there might be something to his claims.

Captain America was a war hero/propaganda figure in the 1940’s. When the war ended, he was frozen in a block of ice for twenty years. If you want more, read this volume or watch any of the Captain America/Avengers movies. The stories are split between the 1940’s and the present day (in this case, 1965). In the 40’s, Captain America and his youthful sidekick Bucky win World War Two. In the 60’s, Captain America is a member of the Avengers. Twenty years have passed, but Cap’s rogue gallery remains mostly the same, Baron Zemo and The Red Skull.

Many of the stories in this volume are multiparters, but there isn’t an overarching story arc. The stories feature lots of action, and stretch Cap to his limits. My favorite story set in the past is when the Red Skull captures & brainwashes Cap, and sends him to London to kill the Allied Supreme Commander.

There are a bunch of great stories set in the present. Cap fights a Nazi doomsday weapon, the Red Skull returns with the cosmic cube (a weapon that gives the user control over reality), and there’s a radioactive biohazard story featuring Batroc the Leaper, which feels timely today (substitute COVID).

Captain America doesn’t have much of a cast in the present day, mostly because of the split between the past and the present. Special shout-out to the Red Skull, Cap’s opposite and ultimate nemesis.

Great work from Jack Kirby.

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Batman The Golden Age Volume Two

This is a review of Batman The Golden Age Volume 2. Not much has changed in the Bat-Verse since my last review, here. New York City has become Gotham City. Bruce Wayne’s fiancée breaks up with him to become a famous Hollywood actress, and Bruce picks up a new love interest to ignore. The Cat (aka Catwoman) is nowhere to be seen. Still no Alfred.

Batman and Robin have a father-son relationship which is emphasized more in this volume. When Robin is almost killed by thugs Batman goes crazy, gets shot three times, and beats a confession out of the offending crime boss (which won’t stand up in court). I believe they reused the image of Batman cradling Robin in his arms in the infamous Death in the Family storyline, where the Joker beats the second Robin to death with a crowbar.

This volume features the first appearance of the Scarecrow, a thin academic dude tough enough to go toe to toe with Batman. The Scarecrow is obsessed with fear. Here he doesn’t use fear gas and makes do with a gun. We also get a fair bit of the Joker, but most of the stories involve Batman & Robin fighting criminals – fifth columnists, modern-day pirates, Mob guys, fake Indian statues, etc.

There are a few outlier stories. In one issue, Batman & Robin go to the land of fairy tales to rescue a young woman. Some of these stories can be downright bizarre, as when Batman arranges it so that a young woman’s parents will think she’s a movie star when they visit her in Gotham. There are also a few morality tales, which you don’t see in comics nowadays.

If you enjoyed the first volume, you will like this.

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Marvel Masterworks: The Amazing Spider-Man Volume One

This is a review of Marvel Masterworks: Amazing Spider-Man Volume One. I am a Steve Ditko fan. I’ve always liked his art. I read an interview with Jack Kirby, and he spoke glowingly of Ditko, and Kirby’s wife Roz said that many of Kirby’s characters looked Polish, which I thought was funny. Ditko and Kirby were the architects of what is now a multibillion dollar company (Marvel Studios). Kirby’s fingerprints are all over Marvel – The Fantastic Four, The X-Men, SHIELD, The Avengers. Ditko contributed Spider-Man and Doctor Strange. His run on Spider-Man is one of the great superhero runs of the 20th century.

I’m not going to rehash Spider-Man’s origin – if you want that, just watch one of the many movies – but I will say that the reason Spider-Man is so great is that he’s the Every Man. Peter Parker is gifted with amazing powers. Since he needs money (who doesn’t?), he does what 99% of the human race would do and cashes in. Karmic payback comes when the burglar he could have stopped kills his Uncle Ben, and we’re off to the races.

The first volume introduces many of the members of Spider-Man’s rogue gallery, The Chameleon, The Vulture, The Sandman, The Lizard, Electro, and The Enforcers. Also present is Doctor Otto Octavius, aka Dr. Octopus, whom I’ve always viewed as Spider-Man’s greatest foe. I believe The Green Goblin makes an appearance in Volume Two.

What really makes Spider-Man great is the fact that Peter Parker is a loser. I don’t recall if he references the ole’ Parker luck, but it’s true. His luck stinks. Peter’s Aunt May has been in bad health for over sixty years. He’s broke and he can’t get a date. His peers mock him. In other words, he’s one of us, but when he puts on that Spider-Man costume with the underarm webbing, magic happens.

A must-read.