Fresh Eyes on Old Books #20

So based on the math, when I get to #26, we will have been doing this for a year.  How time flies!

Avengers #40 from 1967

So this is a pretty straightforward comic.  If you ever want to look for quality, just go with the Roy Thomas and Don Heck run of the Avengers. Namor gets all uppity about some big misunderstanding with the Navy, so he starts (of course) attacking the Earth.  However, Hercules literally keeps throwing him out of the picture.  Then it becomes an entirely separate story about the Cosmic Cube.  Namor finds it and proceeds to use it to create a giant sea-creature that can distract all the other Avengers while he has a rematch with Hercules.  No seriously, that’s what happens.  Then they lose the Cosmic Cube and everybody just stops fighting.  Gotta love the 60’s kids!  More info can be found HERE.

Let’s see, from this Avengers team, The Wasp is now dead.  Giant Man is now the Wasp.  Hawkeye is blind but there’s a couple mini-series out there.  Namor has an ongoing series.  And Hercules has a new series that just started (and it is really good).  Good stuff all over.

World’s Finest #101 from 1959

So we’ve pretty firmly established that the 50’s were a pretty ridiculous time for DC Comics.  And having Superman fight a giant crab in this issue is no exception.  Somebody is creating illusions of Batman and Superman and using them to, of course, commit crimes.  It’s a quick fun little story.  There’s also a Tomahawk story which toes a fine line of almost being completely racist.  Then in a third story,  a giant moon comes out of the sky, and it’s up to Green Arrow and Speedy to stop it.  They, obviously, get caught in a giant mechanical spider’s electrical web, but they absolutely manage to stop it.  And it all ends with smiles and punchlines.  More info can be found HERE.

Underworld #9 from 1949

Ho. Lee. Crap.  This is the wordiest comic I’ve ever seen.  It’s like the author didn’t trust the artist to be able to draw, so he wrote a short story to go with it.  The first story screams “Golden age” in that every drawing is really stiff, the story involves roughly one million double crosses, and it’s as close to noir as the late 40’s can possibly get.  There’s also a story about “The White Mask”, which is a guy who basically looks like he’s wearing a hanky with eye holes over his face.  It’s a big book with plenty of stories, but it’s a pretty tough read.  It definitely does not hold up well, but let’s be real here.  It’s been 60+ years… More info can be found HERE.

Crime and noir books have gone out pretty harshly.  Much like westerns, it’s a very niche market, so they’re tough to find.  Criminal is by far the best crime book out there.  If you’re looking for a reuse of old Golden Age characters like The White Mask, look towards Dynamite’s Project: Superpowers.

And that’s it folks!  I’ll see you next time!

“The” Dan Jacka.

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