Friday's Favorite OTR

Suspense: “Murder in G Flat” 4/5/51

Suspense was, of course, well-known for using a different movie star in nearly every episode—often casting them in parts against type. Perhaps the niftiest variation of this was casting a well-known comedian in a serious role.

“Murder in G-Flat” gives us Jack Benny, doing an excellent job of playing Hercules Remington, a piano tuner who finds himself involved in an adventure involving a cache of stolen money and, eventually, a murder.

Benny plays the role completely straight and he has a strong story to back up his performance. The tale has several great twists coming one on top of another, with a tense climax atop a Coney Island funhouse—where Hercules Remington’s habit of mentally translating all sounds into their musical equivalent just might help save his life.

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Wait-a-minute!! Did Dale just STAB FLASH GORDON IN THE BACK???

Read/Watch ‘em in order #15

Flash Gordon’s Trip to Mars (1938) picks up right where the previous serial left off—with Flash, Dale and Zarkov heading back to Earth after defeating Ming on the planet Mongo.

Dale is still played by Jean Rogers, but she’s now a brunette rather than a blonde. This was, of course, done to make her look more like Dale does in the comic strip. But it makes it look as if—in universe—Dale took time to re-color her hair during the trip home.

Gee whiz. Women!!

Anyway, there’s no peace for the heroic. A mysterious beam from outer space is wrecking havoc with Earth’s atmosphere. The trio (along with a stowaway reporter named “Happy” Hapgood) take off in a rocket trip and back track the beam to Mars.

The situation is thus: Mars is ruled by the pleasant-to-look-at but evil Queen Azura, who carries a white sapphire with her that gives her magical powers. (Azura, by the way, is a character taken from Alex Raymond's original strip, though I believe she was  based on Mongo in the strip.)

Ming the Merciless—supposed dead on Mongo—is now serving as Azura’s chief henchman. He is planning, of course, on double-crossing the queen and taking over as soon as he can manage it. To this end, at least one of Azura’s soldiers is really loyal to Ming and he’s also managed to make a secret alliance with the savage Forest People of Mars.

Azura has a sort of self-made problem. She transforms people who displease or betray her into Clay People, then send them off to live in remote caves. But now there’s enough Clay People to be a threat to her. So Ming builds a “nitron lamp” that is shooting out a beam to suck all the “nitron” out of Earth’s atmosphere, using that element to build powerful bombs with which to attack the Clay People. This will have the side effect of destroying all life on Earth, but Ming is perfectly happy with that since he blames the loss of his throne on Mongo on an earthman.

Got all that? It’s actually a pretty nifty set-up for some good adventure storytelling. In fact, it gets even a little more convoluted. The Clay People at first think Flash and his friends are also enemies, there’s a black sapphire hidden in a Forest People temple that can cancel out Azura’s magic and Prince Barin (Flash’s chief ally from Mongo) shows up about a third of the way into the serial.

The screenplay manages to juggle all these elements quite effectively. In fact, the various shifting loyalties and hidden intrigues help provide quite a bit of suspense on top of the race to save Earth.

It’s nice to see Barin again, though fans of the first serial can’t help but miss Prince Thun the Lion Man and King Vultan the Hawk Man—the other members of Flash’s original motley crew of heroes on Mongo.

Production values are good—the light bridge that connects the airfield in Azura’s city with her palace (and it’s exactly what it says it is: a bridge made of light) is a fun effect, as are the bat-wing capes that most Martian soldiers wear. These capes can work as parachutes or otherwise allow their wearers to glide short distances. One effect—the Clay People emerging from the walls of their cave—is a simple dissolve shot that still manages to look appropriately creepy.

I don’t believe I’ve watched this specific serial before. At first, I was worried about the character of Happy Hapgood. Clearly, he was meant to be a comic relief character. As much as I love the serials of this era, the one thing they never did well was comic relief. The “funny” guys are never funny and are usually completely useless in terms of helping fight the bad guys.

But Happy, though he does have some comic relief responsibilities, actually proves to be a worthy ally. In fact, he gets to save Flash’s life on one occasion.

So does Dale—who gets a Crowning Moment of Awesome when she steals a strato-sled (think sci-fi jet fighter) and uses it to bomb some Forest People who are about to overwhelm Flash and Zarkov. If there’s any one complaint that could be made about the first serial, it’s that Dale doesn’t get to do anything other than wait to be rescued. But this time around, she has opportunity to pull her own weight.

Of course, in a later chapter, she’s exposed to the “Incense of Forgetfulness” by the Forest People and—in what may be the single best cliffhanger moment in serial history—stabs Flash in the back. But that doesn’t detract from her previous Action Girl moment at all. Heck, that pesky “Incense of Forgetfulness” would throw anybody off.

There is one more thing that deserves mention. Azura’s powers (which include teleportation as well as transforming people into clay people) are unabashedly described as magic. I was half-expected an explanation from Zarkov at some point telling everyone that it’s really some form of super-science. But no—it’s magic.

And, though Flash Gordon’s universe is technically one of science fiction and not fantasy—this fits into the story’s ambiance just fine. The solar system according to Flash is a pretty gosh-darn bizarre place and there’s actually room for a little bit of magic.

In the end, Ming travels so far into Crazy Town that even his own minions start to doubt him. The Earth is saved and Flash’s posse heads back home to a ticker-tape parade.

Overall, the original Flash Gordon serial is the better of the two, if only because of a slightly more entertaining set of supporting characters and some cool visuals (such as the Hawk Men’s floating city) that this one never quite equals. But Trip to Mars is still one of the best serials of the decade—a worthy addition to Flash Gordon’s interplanetary career.

History of the Marvel Universe: May 1969

FANTASTIC FOUR #86

Doom’s robots are out-of-control and attacking the village. Reed organizes the villagers into a defensive unit, while Ben and Johnnie form a first line of defense.

As the battle begins, the hypnosis blocking the FF’s powers begins to wear off. So what follows is a classic “last stand” scenario, in which the outnumbered and outgunned heroes are slowly forced back into a single building and all seems lost.

But Reed has deduced that Doom would have built a fail-safe system into the robots. He pulls out a last-second tactic that destroys the robots.

Doom, ever the sportsman-like winner, decides to blow the whole darn village up. But the building in which everyone is hiding is saved by a force field. Sue—worried about her family—has left Franklin with a babysitter and rushed to join them.  Now all that’s left is confronting Doom himself.

This issue contains a fast-moving battle that’s mapped out for us with an expertise that’s notable even by Jack Kirby’s usual high standards. We are able to follow along with a number of different characters as the action moves from one line of defense to the next, until we arrive at the final last stand location, without ever losing track of the flow of events.

SPIDER MAN #72

Here’s a one-issue story to provide a break between multi-issue arcs. The Shocker is back, stealing the ancient tablet that Spidey had so much trouble recovering. But when that proves too hot to fence, he tries robbing an armored car.

In each circumstance, he encounters Spider Man. Like Kirby, John Romita provides us with some great fights scenes, ending when the webslinger—realizing that Shocker’s vibration power was absorbing the forces of his punches--let’s loose with all his strength to knock out the villain.

In between these fights, Peter ships Aunt May off to Florida for her health. This is a good thing. I like Aunt May and I understand her thematic importance to being a part of Spider Man’s mythos, but there are times when her “always on the verge of death” vibe begins to get on one’s nerves. Providing us with a break from that is a good idea.

Also, Gwen continues to suspect that Peter lacks physical courage. When Flash Thompson comes home on leave, Peter gets annoyed with him for hitting on Gwen. Gwen’s reaction is to be critical of a “boy” like Peter getting upset with a “man” who has seen combat. Ouch.

This is actually a great idea for shaking up Peter’s relationship with Gwen. It’s a perfectly logical extension of his secret identity. He actually proves his courage on a daily basis, but he can’t actually tell Gwen about it.

Finally, there’s a hilarious interlude with Jameson, who is still hospitalized and must be sedated when he sees a story in the Robertson-edited Daily Bugle that calls Spider Man a hero.

One drawback of these regular reviews is that I’m often forced to repeat myself in pointing out the strengths of the best Marvel Comics of this era. For instance, I’m mentioned Kirby’s and Romita’s expert fight choreography at least 23,146,023 times. I’m also repeating myself here when I sum up my above comments on this issue by mentioning for the 1,456,294 time how skilled Lee and Romita were at inserting all these character moments without breaking up the overall rhythm of the story or slowing down the pacing. But it continues to be true.

All the elements of Spider Man that would be clichéd soap opera material if done less skillfully are woven into the plot each month with real skill. The plot construction from this issue gives us perhaps the finest examples of what makes Peter Parker/Spider Man such an enduring character.

THOR #164

Okay—okay—OKAY!!! I KNOW! It’s now 23, 146, 024 times that I’ll have mentioned Jack Kirby’s skill at choreographing fight scenes.

Because he does it again here. Thor and Sif battle Pluto and his mutates in the far future. During that fight, they and the missing atomic research lab get zapped back to the present.

So now the Army (and Baldar, who is sent to Earth by Odin because the poor sap can’t get Karnilla out of his head) join in the battle. Gee whiz, this is cool stuff.

It all ends in a perfectly logical manner—though I have to say that this time around it comes across as a dues ex machina. Zeus learns that Pluto is up to something, pops down to Earth, gives Pluto a talking too and zaps all the various bad guys back where they belong.

But Thor and his friends aren’t going to have much of a rest. An as-yet unidentified specimen in the atomic research lab is breaking out of its containment chamber…

That’s it for May. In June, the New York Mets are in second place right behind the Chicago Cubs.

But—oddly—Marvel Comics features less bizarre  happenings as the five members of the Fantastic Four confront Dr. Doom; Spider Man finally learns what the heck is actually on that ancient tablet; and Thor confronts a being more powerful than Nolan Ryan’s fast ball.

Cover Cavalcade

I know its only been a month since featuring a Viking Prince cover, but this one is too cool not to show you.

Friday's Favorite OTR

Inner Sanctum: “Birdsong for a Murderer” 6/22/52

In my opinion, this is THE classic Inner Sanctum episode, with a superb performance by Boris Karloff and a strong plot that zigs and zags unexpectedly at the end.

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New book on Charlie Chaplin

Here's an interview with the author of a new book on Charlie Chaplin.   This guy obviously knows his stuff and this interview is a real education by itself. The book is now one I'm anxious to read.

PREPARING FOR AN APE MAN’S VISIT

Read/Watch ‘em in order #14

It was fourteen years between Pellucidar (the second novel about that world at the Earth’s core) and Tanar of Pellucidar. The third novel didn’t appear until 1929, when it was serialized in The Blue Book Magazine.

The first two novels in the series formed a self-contained adventure with a satisfying ending, so there was no immediate story-driven need for a sequel. Also, Burroughs’ biggest commercial success was Tarzan and he spend a lot of time writing about the ape man or overseeing merchandising efforts. By 1929, the Lord of the Jungle had appeared in twelve novels.

I have a theory about why Burroughs opted to return to Pellucidar after a decade and a half away. I’ll preface this by saying I only did a minimal amount of checking about Burroughs’ reason and didn’t find any information. It’s entirely possible my theorizing could be completely and demonstrably wrong. If any of you know the real story behind his decision to write another Pellucidar novel, please leave a comment.

But in the meantime, I like my theory enough to just blindly go for it and pretend its true. In the twelve Tarzan novels thus far published, the ape man had already encountered at least seven lost or hidden civilizations. Well, the marketplace demanded more Tarzan adventures, but perhaps Burroughs was afraid of running the lost civilization idea into the ground. He’d return to that concept several times in future Tarzan novels, but by the time 1929 rolled around, he may have wanted to try something different.

So how about having Tarzan visit a previously established location in the ERB universe? It might be tricky figuring out how to get him to Mars or Venus. I kind of wish he’d sent Tarzan to Caspak at least once (though comic book writer/artist Russ Manning would eventually take the ape man there in an excellent graphic novel).

Burroughs, though, decided on sending Tarzan down to Pellucidar. But how to get him there and, perhaps more importantly, why would he go?

Tanar of Pellucidar’s purpose, beyond telling a cracking good adventure story, is to set up the method and reason for Tarzan visiting that world in 1930’s Tarzan at the Earth’s Core.

To this end, Burroughs tells us of an inventor friend named Jason Gridley, who invents a new radio with which he contacts Abner Perry in Pellucidar. Jason finds out David Innes, Emperor of Pellucidar, is a prisoner of the Korsars.

The Korsars are descendents of Moorish pirates who entered Pellucidar through an entrance near the North Pole. (There’s no discussion about why Moorish pirates were sailing around that far out of their bailiwick. I’ll have to theorize about that someday.)

The Korsars raid one of the tribes that make up the Empire and are driven off, but not without capturing the warrior Tanar.

The Korsar chief has a beautiful adopted daughter named Stellara—the daughter of a woman captured while pregnant years ago. This is a Burroughs novel, so Tanar and Stellara are soon in love.

What follows is a novel-length set of successive mini-adventures. A storm wrecks the Korsar fleet and leave the two protagonists stuck on a slowly sinking hulk. They make it ashore, but run into various dangers there. There’s a pause in the action when they find the village of Stellara’s mother and seem to find a home.

Burroughs actually spends a chapter or two in romantic-comedy mode at this point, when the local equivalent to the prom queen falls for Tanar and the local equivalent to the star quarterback falls for Stellara. But fortunately, the threat of sudden violent death turns up before this drags out too long when Stellara is again captured by Korsars.

Actually, I shouldn’t make too much fun of the rom-com interlude. It’s a bit strange, but Burroughs had a good sense of humor and he does turn this into an entertaining enough sequence.

Anyway, multiple escapes, rescues and recaptures follow until Tanar and Stellara end up as prisoners in the Korsar’s main city. Here they meet David Innes, who had been himself captured while on a rescue mission to help Tanar.

This leads to another escape, another recapture and another escape. In all that confusion, Tanar and Stellara end up getting away, but David is still a prisoner.

Well, that can’t be allowed to stand. When Jason Gridley learns of this, he immediately determines to lead a rescue mission into Pellucidar via the polar opening that David discovered during the course of the novel. And maybe—just maybe—it might be a good idea to take along someone who can operate effectively in a jungle environment…

I suppose it can be legitimately argued that the plot lacks a solid enough structure—the individual action set pieces do have a certain randomness to them and the story runs through several successive bad guys who aren’t really different enough from one another to give them individual personalities. With one exception, the successive villains all seem like the same guy with different names attached.

But it’s a fun story all the same. Burroughs was a master at fast pacing, so the tale is always moving along at a nice clip. Even the romantic comedy interlude doesn’t really slow anything up.

The Korsars are a nifty and unusual addition to the normally prehistoric world of Pellucidar. And those random action set pieces are among some of Burroughs’ best. Particularly notable is Tanar’s one-on-one battle with a bizarre humanoid creature (a member of a cannibalistic subterranean race called the Buried People) and his fight against a saber-tooth tiger after both he and the tiger have fallen off a cliff and into the ocean.

Also, there’s a sequence in which Tanar is locked by the Korsars in a pitch-black dungeon--a form of horrible psychological torture for those used to living in eternal daylight. Tanar’s efforts to maintain his sanity while conceiving of a desperate escape plan is nothing short of riveting.

Stellara is a likable heroine. Unlike many damsels in distress, she’s perfectly willing to help out in a fight if she can. In fact, she saves Tanar’s life on at least one occasion. Though she does lose some Action Girl cred later on when, in a fit of jealousy, she makes the world’s stupidest decision and ends up getting both her and Tanar recaptured by the Korsars.

But remember that, though Tanar’s story is a fun one, the main purpose of this entire novel is to end with David Inness a helpless prisoner in need of rescuing. It’s all exists to give Tarzan of the Apes an excuse to travel to Pellucidar. And that’s just fine. The universe will be a richer place because of this.

And, by golly, that on-the-surface-of-the-ocean fight between Tanar and a saber-tooth tiger is by itself sufficient justification for the novel in of itself.

You say Metalo; I say Metallo

In a few weeks, we’re going to begin a periodic look at some of the Superman and Superboy stories of the mid to late 1950s, a time when Mort Weisinger was the editor of the books and—to keep the character fresh—ordered the writers to introduce a new element to Superman’s mythology every six months or so.

One of the issues we’ll eventually be looking at is Action Comics #252 (May 1959), which is most important for the introduction of Supergirl, but also contained the origin of a second-tier Superman villain: Metallo, the cyborg with a Kryponite heart.

But, before we dive into the Weisinger era, I wanted to examine one of those minor and largely meaningless coincidences that I tend to enjoy so much. Seventeen years before he fought Metallo, Superman fought Metalo.

It happened in World’s Finest Comics #6 (Summer 1942). Eventually World’s Finest would become the venue for a monthly Superman/Batman team-up, but at the time it still featured the two heroes in separate stories.

In the Superman tale, someone steals a train. He doesn’t rob a train, he steals it—picking up the huge vehicle and flying away with it.

At first, everyone (except Lois and Clark) suspect Superman has gone bad. After all, who else could possibly have the power to perform such a feat?

But soon, the perpetrator turns up again, this time stealing an ocean liner that’s carrying a gold shipment. It turns out to apparently be a robot, who calls himselt Metalo. The two Men of Steel fight, but Metalo gets away. He later demands a ransom paid by the businessmen of Metropolis to keep him from destroying the city.

This leads—to the surprise of absolutely no one—to Lois Lane getting kidnapped. But Superman tracks down Metalo and his gang—first to a circus headquarters, then to a mountain hideout. The “robot” turns out to be an evil scientist in an indestructible suit. After another fight, Metalo falls into a pit of lava. Superman thinks he’s destroyed, but he actually fell on a ledge and vows revenge.

Reading this story makes me wonder if—seventeen years later—either Mort Weisinger or writer Robert Bernstein remembered this minor villain and re-used the name to create a new sort-of-a-robot villain in Metallo. Perhaps Jerry Siegel, who I believe was back writing for DC by this time, mentioned Metalo in a story conference.

But I think it likely Metalo had simply been forgotten by 1959. The name (regardless of whether you use one L or two) has a real comic book rhythm to it, so it’s not surprising that separate variations of it might arise for different robotic villains.

Whatever the case, Metalo has faded into obscurity (though he did make a return appearance in 1982 in Superman Family 217), while Metallo is still a part of the Superman mythos even after several recent and annoyingly frequent reboots. That’s not surprising—the concept of Metallo having a Kryptonite heart is pretty gosh-darn cool. Whereas a guy in a metal suit—while perfectly adequate as a one-shot villain—doesn’t have the same nifty vibe.

By the way, it’s possible that the 1942 Metalo story was a partial inspiration for a 1946 story arc in “The Adventures of Superman” radio show. In that story, a circus strongman manages to fake super powers while wearing a Superman suit and committing robberies. The “It must have been Superman” plot device and the use of a circus provide us with some circumstantial evidence.

Anyway, we’ll be looking forward every so often to the era in which Metallo (the two-L version) was created. Rather than cover these issues chronologically, we’ll look at them thematically. I’m going to divide the stories we examine into the following categories:

1. Kryptonians and Krypton (Supergirl, Kandor, Phantom Zone villains, etc)

2. Superpets (Not all of them were Kryptonian, you know.)

3. The Daily Planet (a few key stories involving Lois or Jimmy)

4. The Fortress of Solitude

5. Villains (Lex, Braniac, Metallo, etc.)

6. The Legion of Superheroes.

I think that will cover the important stuff. If any thinks of any elements of the Man of Steel’s mythology that I’ve left out, please leave a comment.

We will be continuing the chronological look at the best of 1960s/early 1970s Marvel comics. But, in addition to interspersing discussions of random classic comic stories that simply catch my eye, we’ll also be examining these Superman stories from time to time.

Roy Crane and the first ever adventure comic strip--The Final Chapter

Here's the last of the videos about Roy Crane I've been making at work.

Cover Cavalcade

George Rozen is best remembered for his Shadow covers, but he was good in whichever genre he was illustrating.