Amazing World Of Superman!

It's Superman's birthday. And the Dojo wraps up a week-long celebration of the Man of Steel with a look a real bit of offbeat memorabilia, a tome titled Amazing World of Superman. Originally published in 1973 to celebrate Superman Day in the little city of Metropolis, Illinois, this oversized tabloid-size tome is a wonderful collection of all sorts of Superman stories, images, and whatnots. 

The volume opens with "Superman in Superman Land", a story by writer Bill Finger and artists Wayne Boring and Stan Kaye. Originally appearing in Action Comics #210 from 1955 this yarn imagines a theme park dedicated to the "Man of the Tomorrow". We get lots of offbeat glimpses of this imaginary park before we are introduced to a mysterious character who turns out to be Lex Luthor (no surprise). He's concocted a scheme to incapacitate the "Man of Steel" with the ubiquitous Kryptonite and trap him inside a mock-up of Krypton, one meant to be exploded. It will surprise no one that the scheme fails. 

This if followed by a "How to Draw Superman" page by Curt Swan as well as page introducing us to the extended Superman family. Then there is a wonderful ten-page article detailing how comic books are conceived and manufactured. It's a nifty item because it's loaded with photos of the staff of DC at the time. 

Then we are treated to a brand new (then) "The Origin of Superman" written by E. Nelson Bridwell, and drawn by Carmine Infantino, Curt Swan and Murphy Anderson. This is a delightful fifteen-page black and white presentation which hits all the highlights right through Clark leaving his foster parents in Smallville and taking up his career in Metropolis. There is a particularly touching scene with Clark and his dying foster father. 

Then a special detached fold-out poster showcases a "Map of Krypton" in amazing colorful detail. This map was rendered by E. Nelson Bridwell and artist Sal Amendola. Then we get a page showing how Superman made it big in syndicated comic strips. 

"Metropolis, Illinois - Story of an American City" presents copious features and images from the celebration for the inaugural "Superman Day". We get a lot of backstory about how this event came to be with photos of a guy named Charles Chandler dressed as Superman making appearances in sundry places like the TV show To Tell the Truth. 

"The Superman Legend - Rogues' Gallery" has more art by Murphy Anderson and writing by Bridwell as we meet some of the best villains such as the aforementioned Lex Luthor, Brainiac, Parasite, Toyman, and others such as the Phantom Zone villains. "The Secrets of Superman's Fortress" takes us inside the Fortress of Solitude as drawn by "Swanderson". 

(Al Hirschfield)

"It's a Bird...It's a Plane...It's Superman" is all about the Broadway show which debuted in 1966. We get some nifty photos from that singular show. "Superman Salutes Nasa" is about Superman's connection to the OAO -2 (Orbital Astronomical Observatory). "Important Dates in Superman's Life" is a one-page item which hits the highlights from Superman's publishing history in comics, novels and appearances in other media. Sadly, and frankly strangely, I found no references to either the utterly wonderful Fleischer cartoons of the 40's nor to the pretty darn good Filmation cartoons of the 60's here or any other place it the book. 

We get two pages from "Superman's Mission for President Kennedy" which was marred when it first appeared by the tragic assassination of the thirty-fifth president of the United States. The story was published at the request of both President Johnson and the Kennedy clan. 

"The Superman Legend" returns with a look at Superboy's hideout beneath the Kent home and info on his costume written by Bridwell with art by Bob Brown, Wally Wood and Mike Exposito. (This was presented in black and white.)

The book closes with a photo album of sorts which features George Reeves, Kirk Allyn, and others from Superman's film and TV adventures. The final image is a full-page poster shot of Superman by Curt Swan and George Klein (in black and white).

This wonderful time capsule was reprinted by DC in a hand hardcover format in 2021. At a mere twenty bucks it was a bargain then and now. Happy Birthday to the Man of Steel. Now it's time to enjoy some of that vintage George Reeves taking on those little creepy Mole Men on my TV. 

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Showcase Corner - Legion Of Super-Heroes Four!

The fourth volume of Showcase Presents Legion of Super-Heroes gathers together the Legion's final appearances in the pages of Adventure Comics where they'd debuted a decade earlier, created by Otto Binder. Thanks to the writing of Jerry Seigel, Edmond Hamilton, E. Nelson Bridwell and Jim Shooter with art by John Forte, Curt Swan, George Klein among others the team had found brilliant success in the fan community. But apparently sales were sluggish as the 60's wore on and the wacky Silver Age nonsense of the DCU was waning in appeal to readers wanting a richer experience such as supplied by Marvel. The team would find success in the coming decade, but in the interim they were consigned to back-up status first in Action Comics and later in Superboy, a title they'd overtake just as they'd done with is feature in Adventure Comics. But that's for next time. 

I try to be gentle in my reviews about artists, but there's just no way to say it other than Win Mortimer's arrival on the Legion scene indicated a severe downturn in the quality of the images. His first few issues are dreadful, but later the arrival of inker Jack Abel helps things enormously. The Legion features a lot of characters and making them recognizable is key to good storytelling and Mortimer fails that test in his first few issues. He's not helped by Shooter's increasingly wonky stories which seem more interested in finding new settings than developing characters. An exception to that would be Bouncing Boy and Duo Damsel, two of the sillier heroes who eventually seem to find comfort in each other's company.  Shooter also focuses a lot on heroes he'd created, which is not unusual, but some of the classic heroes suffer. Karate Kid gets a lot of attention. Things in that area are not helped by the introduction of Chemical King and Timber Wolf. As good as these heroes might be, they become just more for the fire in the melee of these last Adventure Comic episodes. 

The Shooter-Mortimer-Abel team move over to Action Comics where the Legion becomes a back-up feature switching places with Supergirl who took over the cover feature in Adventure Comics. The Legion stories ranged from seven to twelve pages and given the limitation began to focus more on a few Legionnaires at a time. We learn about Matter-Eater Lad's unfortunate family life, we learn of Duo Damsel's lack of confidence and see her find comfort with Bouncing Boy for the first time, Shrinking Violet has boyfriend problems as her beau Duplicate Boy is always away, and we see Duplicate Boy seek love again, among other stories. Superboy takes on Reserve status when the ranks of the Legion grow too large to keep a tax-free status. One story uses the Legion Espionage Squad in a style reminiscent of Mission Impossible. 

E. Nelson Bridwell takes on the writing chores and is joined by Cary Bates. George Tuska becomes the artist when the strip moves to the back pages of Superboy. We begin to see new costumes for some of the heroes and heroines using designs sent in by fans. (See the bottom of the post for more on that.) Saturn Girl is the first to feature a fresh new look.  And then the most momentous event occurs when Cary Bates is joined by the art team of Murphy Anderson and Dave Cockrum. Soon the art is just by Cockrum and the Legion is on the verge of its next bright era. More on that next time as I take a gander at the fifth Showcase volume,

Here are the Adventure Comics covers in this volume and the Action Comics and Superboy covers which featured the debut of the back-up Legion tales. Most of these are by the late great Neal Adams. 

Adventure Comics interrupted the Supergirl feature to give us a Legion reprint volume. These are all classic Legion tales, but there were some fascinating pages featuring outfits designed by fans. Some of these would actually make their way into the comic. 

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Shazam! The World's Mightiest Mortal - Volume Three!

The third volume of Shazam! The World's Mightiest Mortal is all about E. Nelson Bridwell and Don Newton. Bridwell had proven his affection for the characters from Fawcett when he took over the writing chores from Denny O'Neil and Elliot S Maggin. He sent the character onto a premise-changing tour of the country alongside his "Mentor" when the TV show caused a spark of interest in the waning comic. And now he was there to shepherd the Marvel Family as they moved from their own comic into the expansive pages of World's Finest. This was in the days of the dollar comic and DC once again proved creative in trying to find packages and price points which allowed fans to get value for money and which would allow DC to ascend once again to their coveted number one position. That never happened but it wasn't for lack of trying. 

Don Newton was a Captain Marvel fanboy from way back. I do believe that he cosplayed as the "Big Red Cheese" at early comic book conventions. Newton was a fan artist of some repute who finally got a gig at DC drawing the heroes he adored. He'd busted out in the pro ranks at Charlton on Lee Falks' The Phantom. Later he'd make a mark on Batman, but I firmly believed his best work was on Shazam! in the pages of World's Finest and later Adventure Comics. And it's all here between these two covers. 

Bridwell and Newton gave the reader fresh stories which drew successfully on the rich history of the Marvels. Familiar villains such Dr. Sivana, Mr. Mind, Ibac, and Captain Nazi made appearances. But so did less familiar baddies such as Sabbac and Oggre. They even created a few new menaces such as Darkling and Chain Lightning. The adventures are brisk and fun but not as light-hearted as what had come before. There was a sense of consequences and a whisper of real danger which had not been with the early Shazam! stories. The stories might even continue from month to month such as a three-part yarn which reformed the infamous Monster Society. Bridwells demonstrated a keen knowledge of the Marvel mythology and Newton brought it to life in a delightful manner.  

Alas Shazam was not featured on the covers of most of the World's Finest run. But here are a few select covers on which Captain Marvel does put in an appearance. 

The series wrapped up its World's Finest run when that comic reverted to a regular format. The last two stories by Bridwell and Newton appeared in the first two digest-sized Adventure Comics. 

The Marvel Family then went on a hiatus and would not make a substantial return to the DC firmament until after the Crisis on Infinite Earths when Captain Marvel was tapped to join the Justice League. There was a meager attempt to revive the characters by Roy Thomas and Mark Beachum but it failed to find its mark. Later Jerry Ordway developed The Power of Shazam which took the same approach in art that Don Newton had followed and gave us a Shazam for new audiences. The characters remained in the ever-changing DCU until in more recent years a feature film has once again raised awareness of one of comic's most successful characters. 

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Shazam! The World's Mightiest Mortal - Volume Two!

DC had brought Captain Marvel back to life again after decades in limbo thanks to DC's very own lawsuit. They had brought back one of Captain Marvel's original creators in C.C. Beck. Despite this though the book seemed to not be catching on. Beck himself was disgruntled and after a year slipped away from the title. Artists like Kurt Schaffenberger (another original Cap artist) and Bob Oksner among others moved in to make the book look a bit more like other DC titles. But the attempt to target especially young readers seemed a failure. That is until TV took an interest. 

 

DC slapped a little blurb on the cover which said "Shazam! Saturday's TV Hit Show!". The live action Shazam! show from Filmation was making people take notice. So in another brilliant move DC decides to double down and give the comic reader even more new wonderful Shazam! stories. Well actually they didn't. 

What they did was turn the book into a reprint magazine for four issues. While still touting the TV connection the reader found solid but aged Fawcett stories inside the comic which was for sell on the stands. It wasn't until the TV show got a second season that DC finally got gears going to revise the series to fit and they gave us all some wonderful surprises as well. 

E. Nelson Bridewell and Kurt Schaffenberger gave us a new more DC friendly version of the hero. Billy Batson is sent on an across-country odyssey during the United States' bicentennial year to visit important cities. His companion is Uncle Dudley who functions as his "Mentor" on the trip. This new mentor and Billy use an RV to traipse across the land and there they meet others and save lives from various plots by Dr. Sivana or Mr. Mind. Further Billy is given a device which allows him to contact the very "Elders" who give him his powers for useful advice. In other words, DC made the comic as much like the TV show as possible and thanks to Bridwell they did it in a rather clever way. 

And then there was Isis. Dick Giordano knocks out some typically handsome art to introduce the Filmation-created female counterpart for Captain Marvel. She's a teacher who is empowered by Egyptian gods. She gets her very own comic for a time and so the Saturday morning comic corner at DC gets a little bit larger. 

So Billy Batson and his "Mentor" Uncle Marvel (sporting a mustache to evoke that Les Tremayne look) travel to the cities of Washington D.C., Philidelphia, Boston, Buffalo, Pittsburgh, and Columbus meeting TV executives and battling the menaces they find there. They are aided in the battle by Kid Eternity and Minute Man. The "Superman" featured on the cover of one issue is not who you think it is. They battle the schemes of Sivana and the brawn of Black Adam and IBAC.  

Then Schaffenberger steps aside and is replaced by artist Tenny Henson, a Filipino talent. He's really good and wraps up the peripatetic adventures with stops in Detroit and Indianapolis. Mr. Mind steps in as the uber-villain while Mr. Atom shows up to supply the muscle. Bridwell's scripts are smart and clever and do a grand job of transferring the essence of the TV show to the handsome comic. But things are about to change big time. 

The cross-country odyssey is ended when the threat of Captain Nazi resurfaces. But the biggest change is the art which is done in this single issue by Alan Lee Weiss with inks by Joe Rubinstein. The classic appearance of the Marvels is at long last abandoned and a more realistic look wins the day. I liked the classic look, but I loved this new more muscular modern Captain Marvel. 

In the next issue a new artist appears by the name of Don Newton and Captain Marvel and the Shazam Family will never look the same. Under a rugged Mike Nasser cover we have a Cap who is at once more real and still evocative of the classic in a battle against the evil King Kull which blows the top off. Sadly this is the last issue of the classic Shazam! run, but it's not the end of E. Nelson Bridwell's and Don Newton's Captain Marvel. But first there's this. 

DC had teased a meeting between "The Man of Steel" and "The Big Red Cheese" several times over the years since they had procured the rights to Fawcett's number one hero. But despite many tempting covers, the contact always proved less than advertised. Superman makes two appearances on Shazam! series covers and is not featured in the comic book. Lex Luthor does make contact with what was dubbed "Earth-S" but thinks he had a dream. DC worked extra hard to make the first conflict between these two mega-heroes a big deal and they succeeded with the "All New Collectors' Edition" of "Superman Vs. Shazam!". Rich Buckler is tapped to draw this oversized epic with a script by Gerry Conway, the writer who had previously given the world the first ever team-up of Superman and a certain friendly neighborhood wall-crawler. Supergirl and Mary Marvel have substantial parts to play in this yarn, but after all these years the excitement of that first big clash seems somewhat dimmed. 

Still, it's a great way to wrap up this volume. Next time we get to see what I think is perhaps Captain Marvel's most shining moments at DC when we follow Bridwell and Newton to Worlds Finest and beyond. 

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