Once we get to the 1960s, the deaths of super hero characters becomes a more frequent occurrence, though still relatively a rarity (and usually the characters who meet their end--Lightning Lad, Junior Juniper, Ferro Lad--either aren't the headliners of their series but rather one member of an ensemble. And some of them, like Lightning lad, … Continue reading The Death of Menthor
As we spoke about earlier, the deaths of super hero characters didn't really become a thing until the 1960s, and didn't become an industry-wide trend until the 1980s. Nowadays, virtually every character has died and been resurrected at least once over the years, but back in the day, this was relatively unthinkable. The Comet was … Continue reading The Death of #711
Captain America was not the first patriotically-themed super hero to appear in comic books. That honor is reserved for The Shield, headliner of PEP COMICS for MLJ (eventually ARCHIE) who first appeared in the inaugural issue of that series, the creation of Harry Shorten and Irv Novick. Like most of the early super heroes, the … Continue reading Making The Shield Into Captain America
For the first thirty to forty years of super hero comics, it was a rarity for a super hero to meet his maker. While the death and resurrection of super hero characters has now become de rigeur, for much of the publishing history of such characters, stories of this nature were few and far between. … Continue reading The Last Comet Story
This one's a little bit of a cheat, as the story I'm about to share with you doesn't concern Robotman, Elasti-Girl or negative man in any way, nor does it have any direct relevance on the World's Strangest Heroes apart from the similarity of name. But as the Doom Patrol's creators seemed to take inspiration … Continue reading The First Doom Patrol
The Ghost Rider was a popular character in the later days of the Golden Age of Comics. He successfully combined several genres--super hero, western, supernatural--in a single series. It was an outgrowth of another strip entirely, the Calico Kid--at a certain point, Rex Hart (later Rex Fury) abandoned his guise as the Calico Kid in … Continue reading The Last Ghost Rider Story
DAREDEVIL was one of the more popular series that ran in the Golden Age of Comics. It started out as a typical super hero title, but took on a different flavor with the introduction of the Little Wise Guys in issue #13. The Wise Guys were a group of young kids who would help Daredevil … Continue reading The Last Daredevil Story
The final appearance of the stories Marvel Family during the golden age was in MARVEL FAMILY #89, the final issue of that title. That story's been reprinted at least once over the years. But it got me thinking: what was the last solo Captain Marvel story to see print? And so, here is the result … Continue reading The Last Captain Marvel Story
The recent series I did on how reprinted Plastic Man stories were altered by the Comics Code got me thinking about when the last original Golden Age Plastic Man story might have been done. So I did some quick research, and now I present it for your entertainment. It was in PLASTIC MAN #52 cover-dated … Continue reading The Last Plastic Man Story
And here we finish up our sequence on the final appearances of the mainstay Timely super-heroes with the final appearance of the Human Torch's kid buddy, Toro. As opposed to Bucky, who at least got shot honorably while fighting the good fight, Toro simply stopped showing up one day--his position as the Torch's right arm … Continue reading The Last Toro Story
