Ghosts, Space Dragons and a Really Cool Superfeat.

 

cover art by Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez

In the previous issue of Action Comics, Clark and Lois are in Smallville, dealing with apparent ghosts haunting the Kent house. Superman also gets ambushed by a super-powerful ancient Kryptonian warrior. In the next issue (#495--May 1979), writer Cary Bates and artist Curt Swan manage to bring the various plot elements together, explain what's going on, and bring the tale to a satisfying conclusion.

The full explanation is effectively divided between a dream Clark has of one of Superboy's adventures and a villain monologue. To sum it up, years ago, Superboy stopped a dragon-like monster from destroying an alien civilization. The Boy of Steel is given a token of gratitude, with no one realizing that the creature's astral essence had taken up residence in that token.

After years of rebuilding its energy, the creature manipulated Chief Parker and summoned up ghostly images. 

Now it is ready to assume a physical form, that of the ancient Kryptonian warrior called a Dwalu. It was thus able to sucker-punch Superman in the last issue. In this issue, the Dwalu and Supes eventually face off for a real fight.

It's a short fight, but gee whiz it's fun. Cary Bates shows off how good he is at writing Superman by having the hero use his powers in clever ways. He tunnels under the Dwalu to get in his own sucker-punch. When that doesn't work, he tangles the Dwalu's entergy sword in his cape and apparently throws it away. But actually he threw it around the world, catching it and using it to defeat his opponent.

That's just cool.

It turns out the creature isn't displeased with being defeated, as this somehow frees its astral essence and it leaves Earth.

Throughout the story, there's also some really fun dialogue between Chief Parker and Lois, then later Parker and Clark, hinting at Lois and Clark's feelings for one another without resolving anything.

Good characterization, a fun,original story and clever use of superpowers. This is how you make a comic book fun.

Next week, we'll see how Hulk is dealing with the death of a loved one.

Cover Cavalcade

 JANUARY IS FRANK R. PAUL MONTH!

A cover from 1929.

Friday's Favorite OTR

 Adventures of the Falcon: "The Case of the Carved Hand" 4/8/51

A two-timing broad, a jealous gangster and a henchman that doesn't care for his boss all add up to murder.

Click HERE to listen or download. 

Ghidorah's Re-Match

 

It is apparently a natural law that--in any monster-based movie universe--the monsters will eventually team-up or fight one another. Just as it happened with the Universal Monsters in the 1940s, so did it happen with the Gozilla universe in the 1960s.

Invasion of the Astro-Monster (1965) as the sixth Godzilla film. By that point, the Big G had fought King Kong and teamed-up with Rodan and Mothra to fight Ghidorah, the Three-Headed monster.

Poor Ghidorah. We are told that he's a Cthulu-level threat that destroyed Venusian civilization. But during the original Showa-era Godzilla films, he appears three times and it defeated handily each time. And on two of those occasions, he was being used as a mind-controlled puppet by alien invaders. 

Invasion (alternately titled Monster Zero) is his second appearance. The action begins on the newly discovered Planet X, located outside the orbit of Jupiter. Two Earth astronauts arrive to explore and make contact with the planet's inhabitants.

Planet X's civilization exists completely underground because (or so the aliens claim) the surface is repeatedly ravished by Ghidorah. Is Earth okay with the aliens transporting Godzilla and Rodan to Planet X? In return, Earth gets a miracle drug that will cure all disease.

That sounds like a good deal, but it turns out the aliens are back-stabbing rats. There's no miracle drug and the aliens are soon mind-controlling all three monsters and calling on Earth to surrender or be destroyed.

Controlling Kaiju to capture Earth is a plan that will be repeated again in 1968's Destroy All Monsters. I think the latter film is better, but Invasion is still a lot of fun. There's some great design work. Planet X's surface is a desolate rock-strewn wilderness that looks pretty cool. The Earth spaceship is neat, as is the Planet X spacecraft (a variation of the standard flying saucer). The monster fights are a lot of fun, though Godzilla's absurd victory dance after an initial fight with Ghidorah is a little bit too silly even for a Kaiju movie. The Godzilla films always worked best when they treated the idea of giant monsters seriously rather than dipping into slapstick. 

But I can't help feeling a little bad for Ghidorah. He's supposed to be a terrifying Destroyer of Worlds. But he just can't win a fight no matter how hard he tries.

Home Town Visits and Ghostly Soldiers

 

cover by Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez

"The Secret of the Super S" appeared in Action Comics #494 (April 1979). Written by Cary Bates and drawn by Curt Swan, it sends Clark Kent back to his hometown of Smallville in search of a story.

Someone mailed a variation of Superman's S symbol to the Daily Planet. The letter that comes with it promises more Superman secrets to come.

Perry sends Clark and Lois to Smallville (where the letter was postmarked) to find out what's what. They are supposed to be met at the train depot by now-retired Police Chief Parker. But Parker is at Clark's old home, being attacked by a Revolutionary War ghost. 

Parker is unhurt by the ecto-plasmic blade. That night, Superman makes a nostalgic patrol run over Smallville. He stops some vandals from spray-painting buildings, only to discover one of them has painted the alternate-S. The hooligan claims the idea came to him while he was driving on the road that passed the Kent home.

Soon after that, Lois is threatened by the ghost of a World War 2 soldiers.

Various clues bring Superman a partial answer to what's going on. Something was projecting images of soldiers into the heads of Parker and Lois. Parker is a Revolutionary War buff and Lois had an uncle who served in the war. Also, Superman realized that Parker was mentally commanded to mail the S to the Daily Planet. But who or what is behind all this?

Parker and Lois had seen what for each of them was the most powerful warrior-image they could think of. Superman finally sees such an image. But in his case, it's a little more than an image. He's attacked from behind by a Dwalu, a seven-foot warrior that had lived on Krypton centuries ago. They had wiped each other out in a civil war. But now one of them is back with his full powers and his equally-powerful Xaka sword and, as Superman says as he loses consciousness--"With or without super powers, I"m no match for it."

This is a fun issue. Swan's art was always great. It's nice to see Chief Parker in an adult Superman story. The premise is fresh and clever. We'll see how Superman deal with a Dwalu when we look at Action Comics #495 next week. 

Cover Cavalcade

 JANUARY IS FRANK R. PAUL MONTH!

A 1928 cover.

Friday's Favorite OTR

 Weird Circle: "The Pistol Shot" 3/19/45

An army officer in Czarist Russia employs an unusual method of revenge against a fellow officer who wronged him.

Click HERE to listen or download. 

Deep Space and Martian Deserts

 

Read/Watch 'em In Order #166

I have reviewed the first three Dan Fowler, G-Men stories from the 1930s with the intent of covering at least the first five as part of the Read/Watch 'em In Order series. I was relying on reprints by the excellent company Radio Archives to access these tales. But I realized they haven't yet reprinted the fourth Fowler novel yet. So we leaving gangsters and tommy guns behind to move into outer space. Today's post is actually a re-run from a decade ago---reviewing the first of 8 Tom Corbett, Space Cadet novels. I'm re-posting this review of the first novel to officially add it to the Read/Watch series. 

Tom Corbett come into existence in a roundabout way. Writer Joseph Greene authored a radio script in 1946 titled "Tom Ranger," but this was never produced. Then, in 1948, Robert Heinlein wrote the novel Space Cadet, which sold rather well. This convinced Greene to dust off his space cadet radio script, which eventually found its way to television in 1950 as Tom Corbett, Space Cadet.

 

Tom became a pretty popular guy. The same cast of actors doing the TV show brought it to radio in 1952 and there were also comic books, novels, coloring books and a Viewmaster set.

The first of the eight novels is also from 1952. Stand by for Mars was written under the pen name of Carey Rockwell--I'm afraid I'm not sure if the author was indeed Joseph Greene. But whomever wrote it, it's a fun book.

The novel tells of Tom's first few months at the Space Academy. In terms of characterization, it's fairly straightforward--Tom is a straight-arrow guy who wants to do well. One of his teammates (cadets are assigned to teams of three) is Roger Manning, who is brilliant but snotty and disrespectful. The third team member is Astro, who is already a skilled engineer but struggles with the advanced mathematics he must learn.

 

Most of the character development comes from the three learning that they can trust each other and discovering what makes Roger such a jerk. These characterizations are all predictable, but they are handled competently and we end up liking the trio.

Thematically, Stand by for Mars is very similar to Heinlein's novel in that it emphasizes loyalty, idealism and (perhaps most importantly) intelligence as being the most valuable traits for an astronaut to have. We never forget that Tom, Roger and Astro are able to handle complicated math, engineering and navigational problems. At one point, when Roger talks about doing logarithms in his head when no computer is available, you kind of want to smack him one for being such a smarty-pants. But you don't doubt for a moment that he can do it.

 

The action scenes are also handled well. While out on training maneuvers, Tom's ship answers a distress signal. What follows in quick succession are rescuing passengers off a damaged ship before it blows up; doing make-shift repairs on the ship; crash-landing in the Martian desert; surviving a three-day sandstorm; digging their way out of the wrecked ship without drowning in powdery sand; and walking across the blistering hot desert with insufficient water.

It's well-told and exciting stuff, with the emphasis on the necessity of teamwork and the need to think & act intelligently. Everything Tom and his team do makes sense, as they take carefully calculated risks before acting to first save others and then save themselves.

In the hands of a less-skilled writer, Stand by for Mars would be corny and forgettable. But Carey Rockwell--whoever the heck he was--creates likable characters and has them acting in believable ways. It's all still kind of corny, but in a good way. The writer, I think, believed in the ideals he was presenting and his effective prose is combined with this sincerity to give us a classy and entertaining story.

Why Hulk Can't Have Nice Things

 

cover art by Herb Trimpe

Hulk #205 (November 1976) returns to the saga of Jarella, the queen of a microscopic world who was enlarged along with the Hulk to become a part of our world. She can't go back, because someone stepped on the slide that contained Jarella's home world. 

Jarella, though, is unconcerned with the genocide of her people, since she and Bruce Banner are in love. To be fair to her, it does turn out that Jarella's world wasn't actually destroyed, though it is in sad shape when Hulk pays them a return visit 40 issues later. Here's a Continuity Note from the Marvel Wiki about Hulk #247: 

Oh, well. Comic Book Science is a complex thing, isn't it?

Anyway, Bruce and Jarella are out for a walk and a visit to an ice cream shop. But villainy is afoot. An unidentifed scientist, tired of being a nobody, has recovered an android called Crypto-Man. C-M once fought Thor but was defeated. The unnamed scientist has found and rebuilt him. Raving that he will no longer be a nobody, Nameless Guy sends C-M out to rob a bank.

Naturally, Bruce and Jarella are nearby. When C-M sees Jarella's green skin, Nameless Guy (observing the scene remotely) figures she might be connected with the Hulk and decides to have the android drain her of any power she might have.

The story is written by Len Wein and drawn by Sal Buscema and Joe Staton. They are a great team, as this moment in the story proves. The panels showing close-ups of Jarella as she becomes more fearful also show us Bruce's hands as he Hulks out, making Hulk's entrance into the story in the next panel very powerful. 

The ensuing battle is pretty cool, with the two opponents slugging each other and Nameless Guy funneling more and more power into the android. But when falling debris threatens a child, the battle takes a turn. Jarella saves the kid, but is hit by the debris herself.

That gets Hulk angry. And, of course, if you are fighting the Hulk, you don't want to make him angry.

The android is destroyed. A power feedback kills Nameless Guy, with a bit of effective irony added when a narration panel tells us his body would be burned beyond recognition and forever unidentified when found. He wanted to be somebody, but he'll be nobody forever.

Jarella dies in Hulk's arms. Desperately, he takes her to Gamma Base, but she's beyond help. 

The story ends with Hulk deciding to see his friend who can do magic to see if HE can help. We'll see how that works out when we look at the next issue in a few weeks.

It's a great story. Jarella's death carries an appropriate emotional impact and we can't help feeling compassion for the big green guy and can also understand his desperate refusal to accept her death. 

Next week, we'll begin a look at a 2-part Superman story in which Clark Kent tries to figure out why his old home in Smallville is now haunted.

Cover Cavalcade

 JANUARY IS FRANK R. PAUL MONTH!

Another cover from 1927.

Friday's Favorite OTR

 Destination Freedom: "The Ballad of Satchel Paige" 5/15/49

The story of one of baseball's greatest pitcher is told in a mixture of dialogue, narration and song. It's an incredibly entertaining half-hour.

Click HERE to listen or download. 

An Irishman walks onto a Submarine...

 

cover art by Sidney Riesenberg

During the Great War, an Irishman named Kelly is aboard a ship torpedoed by a German U-boat. He's picked up by the sub and taken prisoner.

This is the premise of "Fathoms Deep," by John Austin Schetty, publishee in the June 1935 issue of High Seas Adventures. 

It's a short but fun story. The sub is commanded by the autocratic Von Weber. The crew is maltreated and unhappy. Kelly is put to work on the sub, in fact, to replace a crewman Von Weber had shot in a fit of pique. 

Kelly dislikes being a prisoner, but he's not helpless. He befriends a crewman named Schnieder. Schnieder was also born and raised in the States, but was visiting his grandparents in the Old Country when the war broke out and found himself drafted into the German navy.

Kelly uses his friendship to arrange some alone time with the ship's forward pumps. This starts a chain-reaction of trouble for Von Weber. The boat begins to sink by the bow, nearing its crush depth. The crew seems likely to mutiny with Von Weber belatedly realizing he never has bothered winning their loyalty. 

Kelly, surprsinging, gives Von Weber a way to get his crew off the sub before they mutiny. But Kelly has plans beyond this--plans of which Von Weber will not approve...

It's a fun story that manages to pull off a few nice plot twists despite it's short length. You can read it online HERE.

Rip Van WInkle by way of Walt Kelly

 

cover art by Walt Kelly

The third issue of Dell's Fairy Tale Parade (October-November 1942) included an adaptation of Rip Van Winkle, drawn by Walt Kelly.

Every single one of Kelly's Fairy Tale Parade stories are things of beauty and "Rip" is no exception. The adaptation follows Washington Irving's short story pretty closely. Rip is married with two kids. He's easygoing, but a bit lazy, while his wife is a bit of a nag constantly after him to get some work done. She's deliberately presented as an unpleasant shrew, though realistically, you can't blame her for wanting Rip to do some work.

To get a break from his wife, Rip goes squirel hunting. Here he meets the small Dutchmen who are playing at bowls and drinking beer from kegs. Rip shares some beer, falls asleep and wakes up several decades later. When he wanders back into town, he gradually figures out what happened. His wife has died and his grown daughter takes him in.

Kelly's adaptation is smoothly written, telling the story effectively and economically. His art, as I already mentioned, is beautiful. The comic version leaves out a possible origin for the Dutchmen, but that's an understandable cut when adapting the tale to another medium. Also, I've always felt the original short story implies the Dutchmen may have deliberately did Rip a favor by keeping him asleep until his nagging wife was gone. That idea isn't brought across in Kelly's version, but that's was just my personal impresson of Irving's tale.

You can read this online HERE.

Next week, we'll return to the Hulk and the saga of his no-longer-microscopic girlfriend.

Cover Cavalcade

 JANUARY IS FRANK R. PAUL MONTH!

A 1927 cover.

Friday's Favorite OTR

 Our Miss Brooks: "The English Test" 8/14/49

Miss Brooks ropes Mr. Boynton into taking her to a party. But this party will only takes place if Stretch Snodgrass--a less-than-stellar student--can pass the English final. Miss Brooks' tutoring session with Stretch is hilarious.

Click HERE to listen or download. 

2nd Best Civil War Novel

 

The edition of Shelby Foote's 1952 novel Shiloh that I just read includes a blurb calling it the best Civil War novel ever. Actually, Michael Shaara's The Killer Angels is unquestionably the best, but Shiloh is a pretty close second. 

The novel covers the April 6-7, 1862 battle that took place near Shiloh Church in Tennessee. In two days of hard bloody fighting, the South was defeated, "which ended the Confederacy's hopes of blocking the Union advance into Mississippi and doomed the Confederate military initiative in the West."

Foote was an excellent military historian as well as an excellent novelist. His 3-volume history on the Civil War is worth reading, though it has been justly criticized for being weak on discussing politics and social issues key to understanding the war. Foote's failure as an historian, I think, was that he was wrapped up too much in the Noble Lost Cause view of the Confederacy, even while this view was being thoroughly discredited. 

But Shiloh still has power. It's structured in an interesting way. It has seven chapters (each running 30-35 chapters). Each of the first six has a different first-person narrator. Chapter 1's narrator is an aide to the Confederate commander, General Albert Johnson. Chapter 2 is told from the perspective of a Union officer serving as an adjutant. Both narrators are given their own strong personalities, while their narration is used to bring readers up to speed on the tactical situation as the battle is about to begin.

By the way, though the battle is described through the eyes of fictional characters, it unfolds in a meticulously accurate manner.

The next four chapters switch back and forth between different Union and Confederate soldiers--guys on the front lines, who don't themselves know the big picture, who are smack in the middle of mud and rain and blood and death and fear. It's a fascinating and powerful way to tell the story of the battle.

The causes of the war are not touched on in any depth, but they don't need to be. This is a novel that brings the fighting down to the level of the common soldier. These are men who were not at all unconcerned with the war's cause, but big issues often take second tier to survival when those soldiers are getting shot at. 

The final chapter returns to the Confederate aide, as he accompanies the retreating army and ponders an uncertain future.

Killer Angels, by the way, also used alternate point-of-view characters, though Shaara stuck to historical characters and used third-person narration. His book wins because the battle scenes are just a little more vivid and he manages to cover both Northern and Southern motivations for fighting more thoroughly than Foote without slowing down the action at all. Both Foote and Shaara are worth reading. 

Those Annoying Shape Shifters!

cover art by Kurt Schaffenberger

Captain Marvel Jr #78 (Feb. 1950) predates the classic movie Invasion of the Body Snatchers by six years. 

This article from the Science Fiction Encyclopedia details the rich history of shape-changing aliens, humans and monsters. By 1950, this concept was really starting to catch hold by 1950 (though there are a few earlier classic examples). So it's probably not that much of a coincidence. But this story is set in the silly, fun, and unique Captain Marvel universe. A story that hits same paranoia vibe as Body Snatchers or John Campbell's novella "Who Goes There?" is bound to stand out.

The mild-mannered Mr. Peeble has bought a paper from Freddie Freeman every day for years. So when Mr. Peeble drops his notebook, Freddie tries to return it to him. But Freddie discovers that Mr. Peeble isn't really Mr. Peeble. He's an alien that's part of a vast conspiracy in infiltrate and take over humanity.

 

Freddie transforms into Captain Marvel Jr. and, after the alien arrogantly boasts about the whole secret invasion plan, he bashes Preeble into bits. He also discovers the notebook he found includes a list of the other aliens, which includes a railroad tycoon, a surgeon, military leaders, a diplomat and so on.

But Freddie can't get anyone to believe him. The aliens have had years to establish their human identities and can't even be identified via medical examination.

So Freddie starts tailing the tycoon around town, hoping for a break. He gets that break when he realizes the aliens can't see the color red.

He uses this to expose the aliens. The aliens fall back on their Plan B--taking the risk of a military takeover. But Freddie foils this. While the aliens are all flying towards their secret base, Freddie paints an intervening mountain red. The aliens all fly their ships into the now invisible-to-them mountain. Earth is saved.

The story, written by Otto Binder and drawn by Bud Thompson, has the same fun, unique vibe that all the Golden Age and Silver Age Marvel Family stories had. But added to that is the paranoia that Body Snatchers would perfectly capture six years later. The aliens look really creepy in their natural form, one of them dies a pretty graphic death when caught in a fire and Freddie's initial helplessness when he can't get anyone to believe him is powerful. 

 

You can read the story online HERE. 

Next week, we'll see how Walt Kelly interpreted the story of Rip Van Winkle.