Brave & Bold #63 (Supergirl & Wonder Woman)

BRAVE AND THE BOLD #63; DC Comics; Dec. 1965-Jan. 1966; George Kashdan, 
editor; featuring Supergirl and Wonder Woman in "The Revolt of the  Super-Chicks!"
On the cover by Jim Mooney (Supergirl's regular artist at  the time),
Supergirl is trying to halt a hurtling missile, but Wonder Woman is  fastened to a
nearby flying disk and her body is emitting Kryptonite rays which  are making
Supergirl distinctly queasy.  Down in the corner of the cover, a  mushy-faced
figure is boasting, "MULTI-FACE talking!  I've turned WONDER  WOMAN into a
KRYPTONITE BOOBY-TRAP!  She'll be the death of SUPERGIRL  yet!"  And the cover
caption promises, "IT'S THE LIVING END!  TWO  SUPER-CHICKS ON A NEW KICK! 
SUPERGIRL-- A PARIS MODEL!  WONDER  WOMAN-- THE TOAST OF THE JET SET!"   

Review by Bill  Henley (toast of the rubber-band-airplane set)

The interior story is  written by Bob Haney, the regular B & B teamup writer,
and drawn by John  Rosenberger, according to the Great Comicbook Database.  B
& B was  notable at this point for using a variety of artists, some of whom
rarely if  ever worked on other DC superhero titles.  Rosenberger a few years
earlier  had been one of the main artists on Archie Comics' THE FLY and THE
JAGUAR.   Later on he would draw a number of Lois Lane stories for her title and
SUPERMAN  FAMILY.  This issue was also of note for being the first B & B
teamup--  and one of the few ever-- to feature a "Superman Famiily" character as
one of  the partners.  Evidently the obviousness of teaming up Supergirl and WW,
the two most powerful and prominent DC heroines, overcame Mort Weisinger's
well  known reluctance to allow any of "his" characters to be handled by any
other  editorial hands.

On the splash page, in separate scenes, Supergirl and WW  are both enjoying
the good life, female style, in "beautiful, glittering,  romantic Paris!" 
Supergirl is modeling a white floor-length evening gown  with elbow-length gloves
and pearl necklace, and as male onlookers utter French  endearments, she 
sneers at a mental image of her more usual self; "To  think I once wore that silly
costume and cape...NOW look at me!"  Likewise,  Wonder Woman is on a dance
floor being kissed by a handsome man, and wearing a  fashion gown (though she
stilll has on her Amazon tiara).  "When I wore  that frumpy Amazon outfit,
nothing like this ever happened to me!"  On a  "cockleshell" boat somewhere out in
the ocean, two lovers are stranded and  adrift, and things are about to get
worse for them, as a storm is ready to blow  up.  But the storm is man-made, as
the couple are movie stars shooting a  film on location, and the director on
shore nearby orders a giant fan to be used  to create wind and waves.  When the
fan goes out of control, it appears the  mock film tragedy may turn real, as
the small boat with the two stars is blown  through the air.  "Twenty million
bucks worth of talent-- gone with the  wind!", the director bemoans.  But
fortunately for the stars and Magna  Productions, Supergirl is happening by on
patrol, and she flies down to rescue  the boat and its famous occupants and carry
them ashore.  The Girl of Steel  is miffed, though, when the movie crew and
onlookers cluster around the stars,  particularly the leading lady, and ignore
her, the heroine of the  incident.  "I rescue the two most famous, valuable
stars in the world, and  all anybody can think of is her!  No wonder...she's all
woman....all  FEMALE!"  Looking at her image in the water, Supergirl is
suddenly  disgusted with her "loud costume" and her career of battling "grimy 
crooks".  She wants to "live the life of a normal, real, human girl" and  "be
feminine, desirable, adored by men".  (Uh, Supergirl, if you really  think the
typical "life of a normal, real, human girl" involves being a movie  star "adored
by men,", I'm sure a lot of normal, real, human girls would be glad  to
disabuse you of the notion....)  The news is flashed around the world  that
Supergirl has announced she is abandoning her super-heroine career, and  soon,
college student Linda Lee Danvers (in her demure schoolgirl clothes and  brown wig,
scarcely more glamorous than Supergirl's super-costume) receives a  visit from
her cousin Superman, who wants to dissuade her.  "You're simply  not like
other girls!  You can't escape your duty-- your destiny... the  responsibility of
using your great powers for mankind's benefit!"  But  Linda/Supergirl is
unmoved; she's determined that "that square chick, Supergirl,  is going out to
find glamor and romance-- something every girl needs!"   When Supes persists, she
gets downright cruel; "You sound like a stuffed shirt,  Superman!  What do
you know about women....how they feel...what they really  need?  You may be a
great hero-- but in the romance department-- well, just  ask Lois Lane!" 
Superman can only mumble, "Why...uh....ulp....I-- I'm very  FOND of girls....
I....uh...."  (Yeah, Supes, you better watch out, or Doc  Wertham may turn his
attention away from your friend Batman to you.)  As a  parting shot, Linda reveals
that her foster parents have given her permission to  take a year off from
college and are sending her on a trip to Paris.

But  Superman hasn't given up, and if he doesn't understand women, he'll find
someone  who presumably understands both women and super-heroics-- his JLA
comrade,  Wonder Woman.  He flies over Paradise Island (careful not to unleash 
disaster by actually "setting foot" on the female-only isle) where he is
spotted  by Wonder Woman, Wonder Girl (here, as in TEEN TITANS, Haney and editor
Kashdan  seem to think WG is a younger sister of WW) and their mother Queen 
Hyppolita.  Wonder Woman glides into the air to find out what Superman  wants,
and he explains how "Supergirl has forsaken the crime-fighting life to  seek
romance and glamor."  "Why, that foolish, giddy teen-ager!  She  can't do that! 
Super-heroines have a duty, a responsibility, a..."   "Uhh, that's what I
said!", Superman replies, and he begs WW to use her  "knowledge of female
psychology" to persuade Supergirl to change her mind.   WW eagerly agrees; "You bet I
will, Superman!" 

Arriving in Paris,  even WW is momentarily swayed by its romantic aura-- "If
only Steve were  here!"--but, "What am I saying!  I've got a job to do!" 
Trailing the  Giddy Teenager of Steel to an establishment called Anatole's, WW
finds her  modeling evening gowns for an admiring male audience, and then catches
one of  the admirers kissing Supergirl in the dressing room.  Ordering him
out, WW  accuses Supergirl of abandoning her duties to fall in with a "gigolo". 
But  she is distracted in mid-lecture by the sight of Supergirl's rack of 
high-fashion gowns, and when SG offers her the loan of one that would fit her, 
she agrees to do so, "just for fun, of course."  WW is dazzled by the sight 
of herself in the gown, but a mustachioed Latin-lover type named Andre Count De
Tour is even more dazzled, grabbing WW and smothering her with kisses.  And 
as she gazes into the Count's eyes, WW dizzily reflects, "Steve Trevor never 
kissed me like that.... I mustn't let this happen...this wonderful, delicious
thing... I'm WONDER WOMAN....wonder woman...."  It's not long before WW's 
superheroic duties are forgotten, as she tours Paris on the Count's arm.   But
the Count wants them to be "absolutely alone" together, and he has just the 
place in mind,  "a little isle in the sea-- Ile d'Amour!"  Curiously, 
Supergirl's own blond, beret-clad lover has exactly the same suggestion.   And on that
very Ile D'Amour, a a scientist informs a mysterious "Leader" that  something
called "Operation Armageddon", which will stagger the world, is now  ready to
start....

In Part 2 of "Revolt of the Super-Chicks", Supergirl  and the Count arrive at
the Isle of Love by boat, while Supergirl and her beau  approach from the
other direction by plane.  Each heroine idly wonders what  has become of the
other, but both are too distracted by their glimpse of glamor  to care much.  "But
both super-chicks are unaware that the Isle of Love is  also the secret
headquarters of a fantastic criminal character known only  as...MULTI-FACE!" 
Multi-Face, we learn, is thought dead in a prison  escape, but actually gained in a
freak accident the "ability to change my  features into any face, human or
animal, to suit my mood or purpose!"  His  current plan is to "strike at the
rocket freighters carrying precious cargos  over this island",  A plan which may
be stymied by the arrival on the  island-- reported to him by his spies-- of
two famous super-heroines, even if  neither is acting very heroic at the
moment.  "I cannot scare THEM away--  but perhaps I can INDUCE them to leave by
jeopardizing their male  escorts!"  Meanwhile, Wonder Woman's male escort,
whispering sweet nothings  in her ear, says he sees her as "at heart a truly frail,
feminine  creature!"  When a nearby drawbridge threatens to fall and injure
Andre, WW  has to perform a split-second superfeat while Andre has his eyes
closed to kiss  her, in order to avoid ruining her "weak and feminine" image. 
Similarly,  when falling boulders threaten Supergirl's French swain while they are
cavorting  on the beach, the Beach Bunny of Steel diverts his attention with
a wild  beachball toss and catches the boulders in midair-- then further
distracts him  by leaping into his arms in feigned fright at the sight of a small
crab.   Little do our reluctant heroines know that both threats have been
engineered by  Multi-Face and his agents.  Multi-Face sends his agents out to
create more  perils to distract Supergirl and WW.  Spotting a burning ship
offshore,  Wonder Woman manages to fix her lover's attention on an impromptu
performance of  "Cyrano de Bergerac" while she glides out to douse the fire by creating
a  waterspout.  However, "This is just so un-feminine-- and certainly doesn't
do a girl's hairdo any good!"  And still on the beach, Supergirl spots a 
plane about to crash, and sends her beau off to retrieve a lost beach towel 
while she flies up to restart the plane's engines with a blast of  super-breath. 
But returning to the island, she notes the complex of  buildings in the
isle's center and the"weird man" running it.  Then a cargo  rocket passes over the
island-- and is pulled off course by a magnetic beam  emanating from the
mysterious island installation.  And now the Chick of  Steel faces a dilemma.  Will
she keep her resolve to "give up being a  Supergirl who spends her life
battling crime", or will she "kiss romance goodbye  and wade into battle" against a
"fantastic hijacking scheme"?

In Part 3,  Supergirl decides to rescue the rocket, but she's not quite ready
to give up her  dream romance yet, so she makes sure her lover Henri is
trapped on a small ledge  while retrieving her towel before she flies on her
mission.  "Oh, if only  there were someone else here for this job!"  There is, but
she's not any  more enthusiastic either-- Wonder Woman sees Supergirl
struggling with the  runaway rocket, and decides she must help, but she persuades Andre
to jump into  the island castle's moat to retrieve a flower for her, knowing
he will have  trouble climbing back out.  Changing into her unfashionable but
functional  star-spangled bathing suit, WW prepares to go to Supergirl's aid,
but Multi-Face  sends a "strange disk" rolling after her from his nerve
center.  Suddenly  she finds herself helplessly held to the magnetic disk by her
metal Amazon  bracelets, and she is brought into Multi-Face's lab, where the bad
guy proceeds  to turn her from Supergirl's would-be ally into a weapon against
her, by  showering her helpless body with liquid Green Kryptonite. 
Multi-Face sends  the disk flying after Supergirl, who is still trying to stop the
runaway cargo  missile, and the Green K rays emanating from Wonder Woman quickly
weaken  her.  Supergirl realizes that WW gave up her own romance in order to
come  to her aid-- "I guess neither of us could escape being super-heroines!"--
but  will Multi-Face's scheme eliminate both of them?  Desperately, Supergirl 
uses her weakening heat vision to melt a load of gold bullion carried in the 
cargo rocket, causing it to drip down and cover Wonder Woman's body and block
the deadly Kryptonite rays.  (Funny, I always thought it was only lead that 
could stop Kryptonite rays, not gold.  And Supergirl is sure taking a  chance
on WW's degree of invulnerability to assume that a shower of molten gold 
won't do nasty things to her complexion and skin tone.)  The weight of the  gold
causes the flying disk to spin out of control and crash into Multi-Face's 
lab, and the impact of the crash frees WW from the magnetic grip on her 
bracelets as well as the coating of gold.  Leaping and spinning to the  attack, WW
punches out Multi-Face with a vengeance; "Time to punch your ticket,  you
romance-wrecker!"  Multi-Face's gang attacks WW with guns, but  Supergirl crashes
through the wall to stop them; "These characters didn't know  that Wonder Woman
and I are a double feature act!"  (I've owned this comic  for a while, but I
can't remember for sure if I actually read it before, and  while reading it this
time I kept expecting to learn that one or both of the  heroines' lovers were
Multi-Face in disguise.  But they weren't.  In  fact, Multi-Face never does
put his shape-changing ability to any good use in  the story, which makes one
wonder why Haney bothered to give it to him.  He  could have been any ordinary
scheming high-tech villain.)

After rounding  up Multi-Face's gang, Supergirl and WW realize their lovers
are each both still  stranded, but instead of trying to carry on their frail
flower act, they each  come to the rescue in their costumed identities and
reveal that their romances  must end because they cannot escape their destinies as
super-heroines.   Bidding a sad farewell to the Isle of Love and to love
itself, they fly back to  the U.S., where Superman thanks Wonder Woman for her
successful effort to bring  Supergirl back to her senses and her career as a
superhero.  Supergirl and  WW both wink at the reader-- and Superman folds his arms
with a skeptical look  on his face-- as Supergirl assures her cousin that WW
did, indeed, save her from  the awful fate of "living in Paris like a *sigh*
foolish, frivolous child!   Right, Wonder Woman?"  "Right, *sigh*, Supergirl!"

Also in the issue are a public service page, "Builders of the Future,"  about
the work of the United Nations organization UNESCO: a text page on "unsung 
heroines" such as Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell (the first American woman doctor) and
Susan B. Anthony; a house ad for the first appearance of Ultra the
Multi-Alien  in MYSTERY IN SPACE.  And also, oddly enough, a house ad for this selfsame
issue of BRAVE & BOLD.  ("They're BRAINY...they're BRAWNY... they're 
BEAUTIFUL... and they're the SWINGIN'EST SUPER-CHICKS you ever laid eyes on! Who 
else but SUPERGIRL and WONDER WOMAN!")  Apparently somebody in charge of 
slotting house ads on the pages didn't notice there wasn't much point in  promoting
an issue which presumably the reader has already bought and paid  for. 

Supergirl and Wonder Woman had one other Silver Age team-up, in WONDER  WOMAN
#177, which I reviewed on the list some time back.  It was a  transition
issue between the Kanigher/Andru/Esposito WW and the "new"  non-costumed WW, and
involved the two heroines both being kidnapped by an alien  conqueror and
forced to fight for the right to marry him.

Dr. Solar #5, "The New Man of the Atom!"

DR. SOLAR, MAN OF THE ATOM #5; Sept. 1963; Gold Key Comics; no editor  listed
on indicia.  On the painted cover (credited to George Wilson by the  Great
Comic Book Database), a foe in a fireproof suit fires a flamethrower at  the
green-skinned, red-costumed figure of the Man of the Atom, wrapping him in 
flames, but the blaze does not faze our hero, who knocks down the bad guy with a 
roundhouse punch.  The typset cover blurb reads, "FOR THE FIRST TIME -  Solar
shows himself as the invincible Man of the Atom!" (On my copy, at least,  the
same cover scene appears as a back cover pinup minus the cover log and blurb 
lettering.)

Review by Bill Henley

In 1962, Western Publishing,  which had long produced and packaged comic
books to be distributed under the  Dell Comics banner, ended its contract with
Dell and began publishing comic  books under its own Gold Key imprint.  One of
the reasons for the breakup,  reportedly, was the extreme conservatism of Dell
management regarding what kinds  of comics they would publish.  For one thing,
it's said, even though the  Silver Age of superhero comics was nearing its
height and competitors such as DC  and Marvel were gaining market share with
costumed guys, Dell refused to publish  superheroes, perhaps remembering how the
"long underwear heroes" became objects  of criticism, along with horror and
crime comics, during the Wertham era of the  1950's. 

In any case, when Western went off on its own as Gold Key,  one of the first
new titles it published was a superhero title-- DR. SOLAR, MAN  OF THE ATOM. 
(Some reference sources say DR. SOLAR #1, dated Oct. 1962,  was *the* first
Gold Key comic, though others state a GK issue of WALT DISNEY'S  COMICS &
STORIES preceded it.)  Even then, though, Gold Key took a  cautious approach to the
costumed hero genre-- specifically, it took them until  this issue, #5, to
make their new character actually a *costumed* hero operating  in public.

Atomic radiation was, of course, a popular source for  superhero origins in
the early Silver Age.  Several of the original Marvel  heroes got their powers
from radiation in one form or another.  Even before  that, Charlton came out
with Captain Atom, who gained "atomic powers" after  being accidentally
disintegrated and somehow reconstituted in a nuclear missile  explosion.  And in DR.
SOLAR #1, it was young atomic scientist Dr. Solar  (his real name, not a
superhero nom de guerre-- later stories gave his full name  as Dr. Raymond Solar)
who sacrificed his normal life to bring a critical nuclear  reactor under
control, but somehow, instead of actually dying, became a "walking  atomic pile"
living on radiation instead of air and food.  He learned over  time that he
could emit radiation in various forms or even turn his entire body  into beams of
light or other radiation-- but he dared not touch or remain close  to another
person without endangering them with his radioactivity.  Over  his first
several issues, Solar struggled to hide his condition, from all except  his friend
and boss Dr. Clarkson, while learning to understand his abilities and  use
them to foil various plots-- mostly masterminded by the mysterious  archvillain
Nuro-- to sabotage the Atom Valley nuclear research center.  

This issue contains two stories, and the first, "The Crystallized  Killers,"
features Solar still in his early non-costumed phase.  Working in  his
shielded lab, Dr. Solar "conducts a new experiment to turn energy into  matter".  He
finds success in transmuting an energy beam into a crystalline  object. 
(Curiously, the caption refers to the object as "no bigger than a  golf ball", but
the panel shows it as even smaller than that, about the size of  a marble and
held between Solar's finger and thumb.)  Solar and Dr.  Clarkson are excited
by the find and decide that it should be taken to a Mr.  Wolson, a New York
expert in crystallography, for analysis.  Flying to New  York City in his own
private plane, Solar dons a "radiation shielding cape"-- a  mackinaw like
garment, not a superhero-type cape-- so that he can meet with  Wolson without
endangering him.  As Solar shows the crystal object to  Wolson, an accidental
collision knocs the crystal to the floor, and on picking  it up, both are startled to
find that the impact has caused the crystal to grow  noticeably.  The two
scientists decide to "work through the night" in  Wolson's lab, but first Wolson
locks the lab door, apologizing for locking Solar  in with him but noting this
is a safety requirement of the lab's insurance  company.

But locked doors do not an impregnable fortress make, especially  when a
sinister figure has a copy of the key that will "get us into Wolson's  lab!"  Two
hoodlums prepare to invade the lab, donning twin disguises that  make them
look like identical brown-haired men with eye patches.   Meanwhile, Solar and
Wolson find that when the crystal object is struck it  expands further,
"splitting off new planes and building new facets!"  They  are even more excited when a
fluoroscope analysis reveals that the growing  crystal is an entirely new
element.  But also intrigued are the eye-patched  twin thugs, who appear on the
scene and order the scientists to "hand over that  sample!"  "But this has no
value to YOU-- only scientific..."  "Maybe  we're a couple of science buffs!" 
But actually, "Our orders are to get  that stone for somebody BIG!"  When
Wolson lunges at the hoods, one of them  shoots him with a pistol, leaving him
moaning on the floor.  "Finish off  the OTHER guy!  The LAST thing we need is a
WITNESS to a murder rap!"   But Dr. Solar doesn't finish so easily, as he
removes his radiatiion-shield cape  and begins to glow with heat.  The crooks are
baffled when their bullets  melt before touching the glowing Solar, and even
more nonplussed when he grabs  their gun and melts it too.  But as the crooks
try to flee, all are  distracted when the crystal rock begins to grow wiildly,
stimulated by the  radiation from Solar's body.  Quickly, Solar and the two
crooks are trapped  within the crystal as it grows to fill the entire room. 
Punching at the  crystal does no good, only causing it to grow further, and Solar
is inhibted in  his efforts to escape by the presence of the two crooks--
"This pair knows too  much of my secret already!"  He tries converting himself
into pure light,  blinding the hoods while he seeks an exit from the crystal. 
But even in  his light form Solar is unable to escape the crystal, which merely
reflects his  light-form back and forth.  But then Solar hatches a new plan,
deducing  that even though the crystal grows when struck, "no new matter is 
created".  If so, then the larger it gets, the more fragile it grows.   And so,
back in his human form, Solar strikes at the crystal again and again  until,
at last, it "shatters like a huge soap bubble!"

Freed of their  crystal prison, Solar and the crooks all grab for their
dropped gun (apparently  they had an extra one Solar didn't melt) but Solar gets
there first and gets the  drop on the crooks until police arrive.  He accuses
the crooks of murdering  the now-dead Wolson, but they in turn threaten to
expose Solar's secret;   "How can you believe that creep?  He isn't even human!  We
saw him  glowing so hot he MELTED BULLETS!  He even melted my gun!"  But
giving  Solar a knowing smile, one of the cops says he understands the bad guys'
ploy;  "You can't be electrocuted if you killed someone while you were INSANE!"
  Back at Atom Valley, Solar laments that the new element was lost since it 
disintegrated completely when the crystal burst, and further worries that his 
secret may be in danger.  But Dr. Clarkson relieves Solar of that fear by 
pointing out a newspaper headline; "WOLSON'S KILLERS FACE CHAIR-- Insanity Plea 
Story Not Believed By Jury!" 

The issue features a letters page,  "Solar's Science Forum", and one reader,
Gregg Way of Seattle, Washington, asks  for the identity of the uncredited
writer.  The editor says, "Solar's  adventures have been written by different
peopler and it's difficult to single  out any one of them for credit, " but "Most
of them, and all in this issue, were  written by Paul Newman, a regular
contributor to Gold Key Comics."    (The GCD confirms Paul S. Newman as writer of
the stories in this issue, and  also identifies Golden Age veteran Bob Fujitani
as the artist.)  Another  enthusiastic reader, Jim Connor of Key West,
Florida, urges the editor not to  include "space monsters" in Solar's adventures,
and is reassured, "Although the  basis of the character is pure fantasy, we try
to keep his adventures within the  realm of actual scientific fact.  Since the
existence of space monsters has  no basis in proven fact, Solar will probably
never meet one."  (I'm not  sure without reading through the rest of my set
of SOLAR whether that promise  was kept, but in any case, arguably there's a
lot better scientific  justification for believing in the existence of
extraterrestrial life, even  "space monsters", then there is for believing a man could
be exposed to a fatal  dose of radiation and gain the power to turn bodily
into radiation himself and  back again, rather than simply being killed.) 

(According to the GCD, this issue had an installment of SOLAR's regular 
filler feature, "Professor Harbinger".  He was an eccentric scientist who  in each
four-page story would address the reader describing some future  catastrophe
or bizarre change that science predcted would one day occur to the  world--
and then, at the end of the story, the Professor would be freaked out by  some
mundane chance occurrence that he thought was actually the start of the 
disaster of the issue.  I can't review the Harbinger story in SOLAR &5,  though,
since it seems to be absent from my copy, which has some loose pages in  the
centerfold area.  I guess I'm fortunate neither Solar story was  affected.) 

The second story in the issue, "The New Man of the  Atom", begins with a
burly, bald-headed, cigar-smoking man (who bears a  noticeable resemblance to Lex
Luthor), reading the same newspaper headline from  the end of the first story.
But he, Nuro, knows better than to imagine  that the two crooks' strange
story is merely a failed insanity plea.  He  hired the two thugs, and he believes
they fell afoul of the same atomic-powered  nemesis who foiled Nuro's
nefarious plans several times before--destroying a  "gold converter" that collected
gold at the cost of turning the seas  radioactive, wrecking a spy-in-the-sky
satellite, and exposing a minion with the  power of invisibility.  (All these
from earlier issues of SOLAR, of  course.)  But now Nuro has a clue to the
identity of his archfoe.  The  atomic-powered man must be the scientist who brought
the "strange crystal" to  New York in the first story, and a man with Nuro's
resources can find out who  that was.  Meanwile, the man in question, Dr.
Solar, is puzzled by a  mystery of his own-- why his hair, formerly dark brown,
has suddenly turned  white.  Solar's colleague and would-be girlfriend Dr. Gail
Sanders also is  startled by his hair change, but Solar warns her away from
him, starting to  reveal that he may be radioactive and cutting himself off. 
But when Solar  tries to confer privately with his one confidant, Dr. Clarkson,
Gail insists on  sticking around; "I WON'T leave!  For a long time I've been
afraid that the  sudden change in you was more than just (a) mental reaction
(to a reactor  accident)...You've acted strangely ever since!  You isolated
yourself--  never worked long with others, almost as if you might be DANGEROUS! 
Now I  want to know-- I HAVE to know!"  And so, at last, Solar reveals to Gail
the  secret otherwise "known only to (Clarkson), the head of security and the 
President"... the story of how the reactor accident turned him, Solar, into 
something both more and less than a normal human.  Upon learning the truth, 
Gail now understands why Solar has been so cool and reticent lately, but she 
wonders, "But you do still have human FEELINGS, don't you?"  Before he can 
answer he is interrupted by Clarkson, who has deduced the reason for the sudden 
whitening of his hair; "because of the enzymatic nature of hair follicles, 
that's where the slowest conversion took place!"  But Clarkson has a more 
important concern.  If Gail could deduce that there is something strange  about Dr.
Solar, so can others.  "I'm afraid your atomic powers CAN'T  remain secret
much longer!" 

But Solar has a possible answer to the  problem-- one familiar to all
superhero fans from the days of Siegel and Shuster  onwards, though in this comics
universe just entering the superhero age, Solar  thinks it's a brilliant new
stratagem.  "What if SOMEBODY ELSE seemed to be the Man of the Atom?  Suppose I
wore a UNIFORM and a headdress that would  HIDE my face (and) disguise me--
while identifying its wearer as the MAN OF THE  ATOM!"  (While talking, Solar
doodles a drawing of his proposed  "headdress"-- a cowl with a visor that,
probably coincidentally, closely  resembles the one worn by Cyclops, who debuted
with Marvel's X-Men just a few  months earlier.)  Clarkson muses, "Hmmm....you
mean deliberately set up a  red herring.... it MIGHT just work!" 

Meanwhile, however, the evil  Nuro sends his henchmen with flamethrowers to
set the prairie surrounding the  Atom Valley nuclear plant on fire, knowing
that the blaze will not only endanger  the station staff, but threaten to set off
nuclear missiles and ignite a  war.  That should be enough of a threat to
lure the mysterious "atom man"  out into the open, Nuro reasons.  And indeed, he
is right; Dr. Solar strips  off his normal clothes to reveal a bright red
bodysuit (apparently he took all  too literally Clarkson's comment about being a
"red herring").  A  distinctive emblem appears on his chest; "You certainly
picked the perfect  symbol-- the sign for RADIOACTIVITY!"  Nuro's flamethrowing
henchmen are  startled to witness a streak in the sky that resolves into a
red-clad figure on  the ground.  On Nuro's orders, they train their flamethrowers
directly on  him; "This flame is hot enough to stop a SHERMAN TANK!"  But it's
not hot  enough to stop the Man of the Atom, who wades through the stream of
fire as if  it were a warm breeze, and seizes the flamethrower hoses to melt
them.   Then a brilliant flash of light from Solar's body blinds and
incapacitates the  enemy agents. This leaves Solar, however, with the problem of
stopping the fire  they have already started.  It could be done by diverting a nearby
river to  flood the plain and the missile silos, but how can even the Man of
the Atom do  that?  It's Superman who has the might to "change the course of
mighty  rivers", but Solar improvises, turning his body (uniform and all) into
an  "atomic-powered drill" and digging a trench to lead the river water onto
the  burning prairie and into the silos, ending any chance of an accidental
missile  launch.  Firemen, arriving belatedly on the scene, are astonished by the
sight of the red-clad figure, and though he "blasts skyward in a crackling
bolt  of nuclear lightning", one of the firemen snaps a picture first.  The 
masked Man of the Atom appears on the front page of newspapers and is credited 
with preventing nuclear war, and Clarkson is delighted; "You've managed to 
establish a successful alter ego!"  "I only hope no one connects Solar the 
scientist with Solar, Man of the Atom!"  Not nearly so enthused is Nuro,  who
stabs the newspaper image of his foe with a knife blade; ""Blast that  mask!  I
STILL don't know who I'm fighting!   He must be some  supernatural creature with
extraordinary powers!  WHATEVER he is-- he must  be DESTROYED!"

And Nuro sure kept trying-- the bald-headed would-be world  conqueror was the
villain behind the scenes in nearly every issue of the DR:  SOLAR series,
whose original run continued through issue #27 dated in  1969.  The series was
rather low-key and cerebral for a superhero  comic,  with emphasis on science
(or at least pseudo-science) over  knock-down drag-out action or soap-opera
complications.  (Though a brief  four-issue rvival in 1981-82, written by one-time
Marvel scribe Roger McKenzie,  gave Solar a bad case of Marvel-style angst
over his inhuman condition and  inability to get close to friends and would-be
lovers.)  Still later, a  much altered version of Solar (dropping the "Doctor")
became a major feature of  the Valiant line of comics.  And currently, the
story reviewed above and  other early Gold Key SOLAR issues are available in a
hardcover archive-type  edition published by Dark Horse  Comics.

Showcase #75 (Hawk & Dove)

SHOWCASE #75; June 1968; DC Comics; Carmine Infantino listed in the indicia 
as editor (was there anything else he edited personally?); featuring the debut
of The Hawk and the Dove, created, plotted and drawn by Steve Ditko with 
script/dialogue by Steve Skeates.  On either side of the cover by Ditko, we 
have figures of the two heroes, the red and white costumed Hawk with clenched 
fist and aggressive scowl, and the blue and white Dove with meek, uncertain 
expression and posture; below the heroes' figures are their high school aged 
alter egos.  In the center, a series of panels of a screaming, stooping red  hawk
and a gentle, alarmed white dove, and the blurb, "In this world, those who 
seek justice often walk different paths; the TOUGH and the TAME!  The 
CHALLENGER and the CHALLENGED!  This is our tale....a tale of two  brothers...the HAWK
and the DOVE!"  Unusually, the characters' logo appears  at the bottom of the
cover rather than the top.

Review by Bill  Henley

With the nation once again bitterly split into hawks and doves  over Iraq
(no, I'm not going to get political this time and discuss my own views  on the
issue), it seems like an appropriate time to review this quirky series, a  late
Silver Age attempt by DC to exploit "relevance", as well as the talents of 
Steve Ditko, who with Stan Lee had been responsible for the creation of the most
successful new superhero of the 60's. 

In the Prologue, we find  dueling counter-demonstrations on a college campus,
as supporters of the war  (presumably the one in Vietnam, though the word
Vietnam is never specifically  mentioned) carry signs urging, "Keep Up the
Bombing," "No Let-Up", and "Fight to  Win", while on the other side the slogans are
"Peace", "Pull Out" and "Stop the  Bombing".  Two younger than usual part
icipants, on opposing sides, are high  school students and brothers Hank and Don
Hall.  Dark-haired Hank, the  older of the two, clad in suit and bow tie 
complains about the peace  demonstrators and insists, "Force is the only way to make
them (apparently  meaning the wartime enemy, not the demonstrators) quit! 
Force is the only  thing they understand!"  Younger blond-haired Don, clad in
suit and bow tie  (did even the geekiest teenager in 1968 wear a bow tie?  Did 
*anyone*?)  on the other hand thinks that "compromise" is the key and 'if  we
give in, everybody'll be happy and we'll have peace!"  As the brothers  argue,
the older demonstrators on each side resort to more violent tactics, and  as
police arrive to quell a brewing riot,  they order "you kids" to "beat  it". 
Meanwhile, we see a shot of the nearby high school, where "students  not yet
old enough to participate in significant debate are content to  participate in
student government, sporting events and occasionally in doing  their
homework"... and between the two campuses stands the Elmond County  Courthouse, where
the father of the two Hall boys is judge.  As Part 1 of  the story "In the
Beginning..." opens, Judge Hall is dealing out the maximum  sentence to a hoodlum
named Dargo who has been found guilty of running a  protection racket on shop
owners.  Outraged by the stern judgment, Dargo  vows to have his "boys" take
revenge; "You're as good as dead right now,  Judge!  I SWEAR it!"  Unfazed, the
judge meets his son Hank, who is  returning from the demonstration and
complaining about the foolishness of his  brother and the other "peaceniks"; "I
thought college was supposed to make you  smart, but these weirdies don't even
have enough brains to know when they're  wrong!"  The judge suggests that, in
that case, "Explain to me just what  makes YOU right and THEM wrong!"  When Hank
has no answer, his father  comments, "Neither of you has thought this thing
out!  That makes you BOTH  wrong!"  When Don arrives and defends his own
beliefs-- "Violence only  begets more violence! Nothing is ever solved by
fighting!"-- the judge is  scarcely more charitable, pointing out that "sometimes
violence is necessary"  and that neither brother has learned the use of logic to
solve problems;  "Sometimes it surprises me that my two sons could act so
irrationally!" (The  Judge seems to have been Ditko's own viewpoint character,
championing  quasi-Objectivist reason and logic against his sons' emotion.  Though it
was fairly clear that between the two boys, Ditko's own views were closer to
Hawk's.) 

The discussion of violence is interrupted by an act of  real violence, as one
of Dargo's thugs opens the judge's chambers door and hurls  a bomb.  Urged by
their father, the boys reach safety behind a desk but the  judge himself is
caught in the blast and injured.   While Don stays  with his father, Hank is
tempted to chase the bomber but goes for medical help  instead.  Later, as the
judge rests in a hospital bed, the boys and their  mother are relieved he
survived, but Hank is concerned about another attack,  while Don is confident a
police guard will provide safety. 

In Part  2, "A Voice...A Voice...." the boys are heading to the hospital for
another  visit after school the next day when Hank spots and recognizes the
crook who  threw the bomb.  Hank wants to "jump him" right there, but Don
restrains  him and urges calling the police instead.  They compromise on tailling
the  crook together, with Don hoping to spot a policeman along the way.  No cop 
shows up when you need one, but the boys trail the bad guy to an "old
theatrical  warehouse" being used as a gang hideout.  Impulsive as always, Hank
insists  on crawling in through an open window, and Don follows him; "I shouldn't,
but  you ARE my brother and I can't let you go in there alone!"  However,
while  trying to move quietly, the brothers accidentally lock themselves in a
room,  where they can hear the gangsters plotting-- to invade Judge Hall's
hospital  room and finish the job of murder.  Outraged, Hank is ready to try to break
out of the rooma and confront the crooks directly, but again Don restrains
him,  pointing out that it will do their father no good if the two of them
attract the  gang's attention and are killed.  But Don's plan to break out after
the  gang leaves and call the police goes awry, as they find themselves
helplessly  trapped in the room and unable to break out.  As Hank pounds uselessly on
the door, a desperate and frustrated Don muses, "If only we had some sort of
super-strength....or power..."  Hank jeers at Don's "fantasies", but 
suddenly it becomes more than a fantasy, as a "disembodied voice speaks  up. 
"POWER?  YOU WISH POWER?  THEN SO BE IT!  WHO OR WHERE  I AM IS NOT FOR YOU TO KNOW
(but) YOU HAVE BEEN CHOSEN!  YOUR WISH SHALL BE  GRANTED!  YOU BOTH SHALL HAVE
POWERS, IF THIS IS WHAT YOU SEEK!  WHAT  POWERS DO YOU WISH?"  Hank wants the
power to take on the gangsters and  "SMASH them...TEAR them apart so they'll
never commit crimes again!"  Don,  on the other hand, is content to receive
the power to "save Father" and leave  retribution to the police.  As the
brothers argue some more, the Voice  interrupts; "SILENCE, BOTH OF YOU!  WE SEEM TO
HAVE HERE A HAWK AND A  DOVE!  SO BE IT!  LET THE TRANSFORMATION BEGIN!" 
Suddenly, the  brothers' ordinary clothes transform into costums, as Hank is clad
in bright red  and white costume and mask with flaring wing feathers, and  Don
finds  himself wearing a baby-blue outfit with white trim and droopy feathers.
  Hank is delighted with his new look, but Don complains, "Yick!  I didn't 
WANT a costume-- let alone one as sickening as this get-up!"  Talking back  to
the Voice, Don complains that he doesn't want to go through life looking like 
a bird, but the Voice explains that the transformatiion into Hawk and Dove is
temporary and will end when the powers are no longer needed.  After that, 
if the powers are needed again, the brothers can regain them by saying the
words  "Hawk!" and "Dove!"-- but the change will work only if "injustice" is
present,  and once the powers are no longer needed, "you will revert to your
ordinary  selves!"  (Thus, unlike most superheroes, Hawk and Dove did not have 
complete control either of when they assumed their costumed identities nor when 
they returned to their alter egos.)  But what sort of powers do they have, 
Hank/Hawk demands to know.  Simply "EXTENSIONS OF THOSE ABILITIES YOU  ALREADY
POSSESS!  WHATEVER YOU COULD DO MOMENTS AGO, YOU CAN DO INFINITELY  BETTER, WITH
GREATER EASE AND CONSUMMATE SKILL!"  (This was in line with  Steve Ditko's
apparent preferences, in creating characters, as he seemed to like  costumed
acrobats and fighters without cosmic-level super-powers or outre  abilities.) 

As the Voice takes its leave, the brothers find that  with their new powers
they can easily break through the door that previously  trapped them.  But will
they be in time to save their father?  As a  corrupt orderly allows the
gangsters to approach Judge Hall's room, Hawk and  Dove scramble across rooftops
and over parked cars, swim a river and climb a  drainpipe to reach the
hospital..  Hawk scorns Dove who is afraid of being  seen, but Dove scores a point on
his brother when they find that, even with  their increased powers, Dove can
actually swim and climb better than  Hawk.

But as Part 3 "The Birds Fly!" opens, the real question is, can the  Dove
fight-- and will he?  As the costumed boys burst into the hospital  room, they
find they are the only thing standing between their father and the  gangsters,
who have shot the police guard from behind.  Hawk plows into the  thugs with
flying fists and "a harshness bordering on base cruelty", "You won't  get any
mercy from ME!  I'm gonna play this the same way YOU'RE playing  it!"  But how
will his opposite, the Dove, play it?  He tries to talk  the crooks out of
their murder plot, dodging their blows as he insists that they  have no chance to
win and might as well surrender to the police.  A lucky  blow dazes Dove and
the crooks push him out the window, from which he would fall  to his death
except that his enhanced abilities enable him to grab a flagpole  and swing back
up to the wndow.  Meanwhile, Hawk is so intent on committing  mayhem with the
lesser thugs that he does not notice the gang leader pulling a  gun and moving
to "finish off the judge".  It is Dove who spots this threat  and grabs the
thug, disarming him and holding him helpless.  Then Hawk  crashes into the scene
and hits the gangleader with a smashing punch to the jaw,  much to Dove's
displeasure; "You didn't hafta do that!  I coulda held  him!  You're worse than a
witless barbarian!" 

With all the  gangsters out for the count, our heroes are left with their
father; "Looks like  we saved your hide, Judge!  No need to thank us, fighting
crime is how we  get our kicks!"  The Judge does thank his masked rescuers but
wants to know  their names; "Just call us the Hawk and the Dove!  It's up to
you to guess  which is which!"  An anxious Dove hurries his boastful brother
away,  pointing out that with the threat of the gang ended they may revert to
their  normal selves at any moment.  And indeed, as soon as they close the door 
behind them, Hawk and Dove are once more mere Hank and Don Hall.  Hank is 
eager to reveal their secret to their father and receive his accolades, and for 
once Don agrees with him, hoping the judge will sanction their secret costumed
crimefighting.  But they're in for a shock when they hear the judge tell a 
news crew that even though he is grateful for the Hawk and Dove's lifesaving 
intervention, "I cannot condone their actions!  There can be no place for 
vigilante tactics!   Private citizens, no matter how honorable their  intentions
are, cannot be allowed to take the law into their own hands!   Even hardened
criminals are guaranteed due process of law!  I suggest that  the two who call
themselves the Hawk and the Dove turn themselves over to the  authorities!" 
Once again the brothers agree, that this quashes any thought  of revealing
their secret to their father.  But they disagree on what to do  about it, as Don
is ready to give up the identity of the Dove-- "I never wanted  to get into
this crime-fighting bag anyway!", but Hank complains that   "Dad's been a judge
so long he's starting to think like a lawbook" and doesn't  understand the good
the Hawk and Dove can do.  The brothers walk away still  squabbling, as Hank
calls his brother a "coward" for wanting to give up  crime-fighting, and Don
retorts that Hank "can't beat up everybody you disagree  with".  But the real
decision whether Don will become the Dove again-- or  Hank, the Hawk- lies with
a higher power, one even higher than the "Mysterious  Voice".  "Shall we
write FINIS to the Hawk and the Dove?  Have their  careers ended before they even
got started?  NOT ON YOUR LIFE!  THE  HAWK AND THE DOVE appear in their own
magazine on sale June 25th!"  As far  as I know, this was the only instance
where it was announced that a SHOWCASE  tryout series would get its own book
within the SHOWCASE issue itself--though  around this time, there were several
series which got their own titles quickly  after only a single tryout issue.  It
seems to kind of negate the point of  having a SHOWCASE tryout, if the decision
to  launch a new title is already  made even before the SHOWCASE issue
appears. 

The ensuing HAWK AND  DOVE title lasted just 6 issues, dated Aug-Sept. 1968
through June-July  1969.  Steve Ditko only stayed around for the first two of
those  issues.  The fannish rumor at the time was that the hawk/dove dichotomy 
carried over into the comic's creative team itself, as Ditko was a confirmed 
hawk while scriptwriter Steve Skeates was a dove.  As a result, Ditko  tended
to draw and plot Hawk as heroic and Dove as ineffectual and bumbling,  while
Skeates slanted the dialogue the other way.  Clearly an unstable  situation,
which ended as Gil Kane took over the artwork with issue #3 and  stayed on for
the run of the title (and scripted #5 and 6 as well).  Kane  was an ideal
choice to carry on the visual look established by Ditko, and did a  good job of
putting forth the idea that both heroic brothers had things to  learn, the Hawk
when to restrain his aggressive impules and the Dove when  violence in defense
of self and others was unavoidable.  But as with so  many innovative
late-Silver Age creations at DC, the run was short as management  pulled the plug
after about a year.  As with Ditko's Creeper and other  late-SA creations, though,
DC couldn't leave the battling brothers alone in  limbo.  They hung out off
and on with the Teen Titans.  In 1981,  writer Alan Brennert and Jim Aparo
produced a Batman/Hawk and Dove team-up which  made a perfect coda to the series
(and ought to be included if DC ever does a  collection of the series) in which
Batman encounters Hawk and Dove who have  grown to adulthood but still not
wholly learned to resolve their philosophical  differences or use their powers
to their full potential.  It might be  better if that had been the final end of
Hawk and Dove, but the Brennert B &  B story was wiped out of continuity, as
the characters reverted to teenage and  the original Dove was killed off in
CRISIS IN INFINITE EARTHS; Hawk survived,  made some appearances with the New
Teen Titans, and starting in 1988 got a new  HAWK AND DOVE series teamed with a
new, female Dove.  (As the 80's turned  into the 90's era of grim'n'gritty,
down'n'dirty "heroes", Hawk was certainly  more in turn with the era than the
Dove.)  Still later, Hawk suffered the  indignity of being named at the last
minute as the villainous Monarch in the  ARMAGEDDON crossover miniseries (was
that it?  those crossovers tend to run  together in my mind) after a plan to make
the revived Captain Atom-- another  much-changed Ditko creation-- the bad guy
fell through.)

But the Hawk and  Dove are not forgotten, and even made a recent appearance
in a new medium as  they were spotlighted in an animated JUSTICE LEAGUE
UNLIMITED episode, recruited  for the expanded JL and still in their original Hank
and Don Hall  identities.  Perhaps, as I noted at the start, their time has come
around  again....

Showcase #39 (2nd Metal Men)

SHOWCASE #39; May-June 1962; DC Comics; Robert Kanigher, editor (and 
writer); featuring the Metal Men vs. "The Nightmare Menace!"  On the cover  by
regular MM artists Ross Andru and Mike Esposito, the Metal Men begin their  long
tradition of fighting mostly other robots, as a giant green robot fires a  beam
at the MM which is melting them down.  Urged on by Platinum, Gold  stretches
out an arm to get the merely human Doc Magnus out of the path of the  deadly
beam. (Curiously, on this and other early Showcase-MM covers, Gold is  colored
lemon-yellow rather than the actual gold color he sports inside the  comic.) 
The blurb tells us, "Out of smoke and flame arises the most unique  band of
fighters-- METAL MEN-- to battle the NIGHTMARE MENACE!"  

Review by Bill Henley

It's one of the more famous "inside"  stories of the Silver Age....how some
other feature planned for SHOWCASE #38 in  1962 fell through, and within a few
days to meet the deadline veteran  writer/editor Robert Kanigher conceived a
quirky band of robotic heroes and in  collaboration with artists Andru and
Esposito rushed them into print.  And  how the last-minute creation struck a chord
with readers and did well enough to  win its own series which ran through the
rest of the Silver Age (and sporadic  revivals and guest shots since).  This
review however isn't of that very  first Metal Men story, but the second one,
after DC higher-ups apparently  decided the Metal Men had potential and gave
the OK for a full tryout run in  SHOWCASE.

The splash page is a recast version of the cover scene, again  with the
hostile robot melting down the Metal Men as Gold slings Doc to  safety.  Our story
begins with headlines referring to the previous SHOWCASE  adventure, "Metal
Men Save Country From Flaming Doom!" (the "doom" was a flying  manta-ray-shaped
monster) and a scene of a "spontaneous meeting" in which eager  crowds call
for the nation's newest heroes to appear publicly and receive  accolades for
their feats.  They don't realize, apparently, that the Metal  Men were even more
heroic than they know, for the robots sacrificed their  mechanical "lives" to
stop the monster menace.

Meanwhile, in an  unidentified "foreign country" (but one whose architecture
includes  Russian-style onion domes), a leader now frets, "The world now
believes we have  lost the race for supremacy to America's latest secret weapon--
the METAL  MEN!  We must destroy these super fighters in a way that will prove
to the  world that WE are invincible!"  And this task is assigned to Von
Vroon, an  ex-Nazi scientist recruited by the unidentified foreign foe.  (Unlike 
Marvel and other comics publishers, DC at this period was leery of explicitly 
identifying Russian Communists as villains.  Of course, while the fictional 
Von Vroon is a bad guy, the ex-Nazi scientists *we* recruited, like the 
real-life Wernher Von Braun, were good guys....)  "Until now-- we have kept  your
terror inventions a secret!", the foreign leader tells Von Vroon.   "The time
has come to unleash them!"  Von Vroon is eager for the  assignment; "I will go
to America and turn these Metal Men into  junk!"

But will there be any Metal Men to be turned into junk?  Not  if "Doc" Will
Magnus, the brilliant inventor who created them, has his  way.  When Colonel
Caspar, Doc's liaison with the military, arrives at  Doc's lab to relay the high
miltary brass's order that the Metal Men be  recreated, he finds Doc fondling
and polishing miniature models of the Metal  Men, particularly the
pseudo-female Platinum.  But as for rebuilding the  life-size versions, "No!  I'll never
assemble them again!  Only to go  through the torture of seeing them
sacrificed-- one by one!"  But when  Caspar reminds Doc that the MM are "only metal,"
not human, and that anyway  their assignment will only be to receive medals,
Doc accedes; "I--I guess I AM  behaving like a fool-- instead of a scientist!" 

Before long, a  whole new set of full-sized Metal Men stand in review for Doc
and Caspar.   But something is different from the previous versions.  When
told that they  are going to receive medals for their predecessors's heroism,
they have no  reaction other than saying in unison, "Thank you, sir!"  When Doc
tells her  that after the medal ceremony he will have to keep his original
promise to send  her to the Science Museum as an exhibit, an impassive Platinum
merely says,  "Yes, sir!"  Caspar notices the difference, commenting how when
the  previous Platinum was told she would be sent to the museum, she threw her
arms  around Doc and begged to stay with him.  "From Gold to Lead, each one of
them was different!  But these Metal Men seem all alike-- like  ROBOTS!" 
"That's what they are!", Doc points out.  Duh.  

The difference, though evident to Doc and Caspar-- "Maybe there was a 
deviation in the ORIGINAL band that made them act the way they did!"-- is not 
apparent to the cheering crowds that gather on the Washington Mall for the award 
ceremony (metals receiving medals).  But the sinister Von Vroon is hidden  in
the crowd and ready to activate a remote control to "make the Metal Men look 
like all-American flops!  HA! HA! HA!"  The ceremony is interrupted by  the
appearance of a giant, purple, clanking robot "crushing everything in its  path".
Doc orders Platinum to carry out her "specialty" against the giant  robot,
trapping it in a metal web.  But though she obediently says, "Yes,  sir!"  she
clumsily casts her net not around the foe but around Doc and the  other Metal
Men themselves.  Meanwhile, in the sky above, one of the jet  fighter pilots
forming an honor guards decides to attack the robot himself,  since "the Metal
Men seem to have gotten combat-fright or something!"  And  at the same time,
Doc orders Iron to brace Gold's feet as the ductile metal  stretches and
reaches out to seize the giant robot.  But missing the robot  entirely, Gold instead
collides with the diving jet fighter.  Doc next  orders Iron to shape Lead
into a cannonball to hurl at the robot, but the strong  metal applies so much
friction that Lead starts to melt.  And so, as the  crowds flee in panic and the
giant robot continues its rampage, Von Vroon gloats  that he has accomplished
his mission of disgracing the Metal Men and humiliating  America before the
world.

Will the Metal Men somehow redeem  themselves?  Before finding out in Part 2,
we have house ads for SEA DEVILS  (another Kanigher-created feature) and a
SUPERBOY issue featuring "The  Super-Mischief of Superbaby!"  Then there are two
educational pages of  "Metal Facts and Fancies!', drawn by Andru and
Esposito,   Back at the  scene of the catastrophe, more jet fighters try to repair the
failure of the  Metal Men by downing the giant robot, but it shoots a green
beam out of its head  that disables the jets and forces the pilots to
crash-land.  Victorious,  the robot vanishes out of reach by drilling itself into the
ground.   Meanwhile, cheers have turned to jeers for the hapless Metal Men, and
the  military orders Doc Magnus, "Get them out of here before the crowd melts
them  down into pennies!"  The crowd doesn't get the chance, for as he
returns to  his vast lab complex, Doc himself dumps his failed robots from his 
flying-saucer-like jet flyer straght into a giant smelter.  But does this  mean
Doc has given up on the Metal Men for good?  No, for he and Col.  Caspar muse
that perhaps some unknown, accidental factor gave the original Metal  Men their
unique personalities-- and success in battle.  Looking up his  notes on the
original creation of the MM, Doc finds that at the same time he  molded them,
"intense aurora borealis activity" occurred.  He concludes  that the radiation
must have had "a mysterious effect on their metallic  structure"-- and that,
therefore, the "real" Metal Men might "live" again if the  metallic shards left
when they were destroyed battling the Flaming Doom can be  gathered up. 
Caspar is skeptical , suggesting such a recreation is  impossible, but a
now-enthusiastic Doc responds, "Impossible?  So was a  MATCH!  A RADIO!  A CAR!  A
PLANE!"  Setting out on their  quixotic mission, Doc and Caspar find the twisted
form of Tin still lying where  he fell (apparently the street cleaners around
here aren't very  efficient).  The other Metal Men lie inert at the bottom of
the sea and are  recovered from there by Doc and Caspar in scuba gear (maybe
they should have  called on the Sea Devils for help). 

And so, once more Doc sets to  work turning metal junk into functioning
robots.  But as the new/old Metal  Men stand ready , Caspar worries; "They look
exactly like their  IMITATIONS!  How do you know they won't be as USELESS?"  "I
won't know  until I ACTIVATE them!  All I have to do is press their
atomic-powered  starter button-- but-- I-- I'm almost afraid to--!"  While Doc hesitates,
we have a "Magic With Metals" text page and an ad in which Superman invites 
readers to attend the King Bros. Sells & Gray Circus at the Palisades 
Amusement Park in New Jersey.  But then, as Part 3 of "The Nightmare  Menace!"
opens, Doc plucks up his courage and one by one, flicks each robot's on  switch and
finds each one reacting to being reborn in characteristic  fashion.  Humble
Tin begs, "I know I'm not as strong as other metals, but  if you'll only give
me another chance!", and is reassured, "You've got nerves of  steel, Tin and
that's what counts!" Iron says, "Don't mention steel in my  presence!  Steel's
still wearing diapers compared to me!"  Boastful  Mercury insists, "I may not
be the oldest, but I'm the most unusual!" because of  being liquid at room
temperature.  (I don't think it ever was adequately  explained how Mercury managed
to function at all as a humanoid-shaped robot  without melting down into a
blob even when not being attacked by heat rays and  such..) Though not quick on
the uptake, Lead recalls that he "has a gimmick"  too-- protecting against
atomic radiation.  Gold boasts of his monetary  value-- "Only kings could afford
shields made out of me!"  (He doesn't  mention that a shield made out of
heavy, soft gold probably wouldn't be of much  use in actual battle.)  As for
Platinum, her first words are, "I hope  you've forgotten about sending me to the
Science Museum!" (if he had, she's just  reminded him).  When Doc points out
that he made a promise,  "Tina"  hugs her inventor and urges him to tell museum
officials that "you can't part  with me-- like so many other artists who fell
in love with their own  creations!"  Doc's affectionate response is, "I always
knew your reactor  system had bugs in it!!  I'll have to work them out later!"
 

But though the reborn Metal Men clearly have their unique personalities 
back, it remains to be seen whether they can redeem in battle the failures of 
their earlier replacements.  "It is our task to find that robot of terror--  and
turn defeat into victory!  No matter how many of us perish in the  attempt!" 
stalwart Gold speaks for the group.  Meanwhile, the U.S.  prepares to hold a
World's Fair spotlighting "American ingenuity" creating the  "world of
tomorrow".  Hiding with his giant robot in a cave, Dr. Von Vroom  sees the fair as an
obvious opportunity to humiliate America yet again.   But Doc and the Metal
Men also arrive at the scene of the fair, deducing that it  will be the robot's
next target.  As the MM move through the crowds, they  are jeered as
"super-flops", and emotional, egotistical Mercury gets steamed  up.  But Doc warns that
he will be sent back to the lab if he can't control  himself until the Metal
Men get their chance to redeem themselves.  As Doc  and the MM pass by, Von
Vroom, mingling in the crowd, trying to avoid being  recognized as a Nazi war
criminal before carrying out his plan, jumps on a  merry-go-round to escape
notice, but falls victim to a personal weakness,  becoming dizzy and nearly
fainting due to the whirling motion. (I can empathize,  Doc-- my wife who loves
amusement parks is always dragging me along to them  though I can't stand the
rides.  Though a mere merry-go-round I can manage  to tolerate.)  Noticing a lost
child crying for her mommy, the  feminine-looking Tina reassures her and Tin
does handstands to amuse her.   The child's mother is grateful when she catches
up, but hr husband is still  scornful; "They're supposed to be super heroes--
not super NURSEMAIDS!"   Another minor crisis is resolved when a couple are
trapped atop a stalled  amusement park ride, and Gold stretches upward to form
a ladder for them to  reach the ground.  But still much of the crowd is
unimpressed; "They're  supposed to be super heroes-- not super ACROBATS!" 

Meanwhile, Von  Vroom has recovered from his attack of vertigo and is ready
to reactivate his  robot, which drills up from the ground to invade the
fairgrounds.  The  crowd is reassured, not by the presence of the Metal Men, but by
jet fighters  which attack the robot (never mind that the fighters didn't do
any better than  the MM earlier).  The robot's green beam partially melts the
planes,  sending them hurtling toward the ground.  But, anchored by Iron,
Platinum  this time unerringly forms a giant net to catch the planes and lower them
safely  to the ground.  As the robot continues its rampage, Doc directs the
Metal  Men to split into teams;  Iron and Lead join forces, Mercury insists on 
operating alone, and Tina is also insistent on staying with Doc himself,
leaving  Gold and Tin as an oddly assorted team.  And those two are the first to 
encounter the giant robot.  Gold stretches upward to attack the robot, with 
Tin trying to serve Iron's usual role as anchor on the ground.   Predictably,
the lightweight Tin fails, causing both robots to flip upward off  the ground. 
But the failure turns into an unexpected success as their  momentum hurls Gold
and Tin into the giant robot's head and knocking it to the  ground. 
"Everyone will be fighting to have you on his team!", Gold  reassures Tin.  But the
victory is short-lived, as the felled robot opens  up to reveal a slightly
smaller robot hidden inside, which rises and continues  its rampage.  Next
encountering the solo Mercury, the enemy robot becomes  articulate, warning the liquid
metal "Out of my way, you walking junkpile!   I'll boil you into soup!"  But
Mercury dodges the robot's heat beam as he  taunts the foe, and as a beam
strikes in back of Mercury he utilizes the energy  to expand and strike the
robot's vulnerable head.  Once again the robot  falls, but a smaller one emerges
Chinese-box fashion from inside.  Meeting  it, Iron and Lead try the same trick
their earlier versions failed at, with Iron  molding Lead into a cannonball. 
This time Iron holds his strength in check  enough to keep Lead solid, and Lead
makes a heavy impact on the robot's  body.  But yet again, as it falls,
another robot appears from inside  it. 

As the robot teams reunite with Doc and Tina and compare  notes, the latest
robot appears and targets them directly with its heat  beam.  "Once you're out
of the way-- you'll invent no more defenses!", the  robot's voice tells Doc. 
But, enacting the cover/splash scene, Gold lifts  Doc out of the direct path
of the beam.  As the Metal Men melt into  helplessness, a new robot just
life-size emerges and chases Doc through the  fairgrounds.  Fortuitously, however,
Doc and the robot both fall through a  chute onto one of the fair's spinning
rides, and the robot suddenly becomes  helpless.  The reason becomes evident as
the last robot opens up and the  vertigo-prone Von Vroom himself emerges from
it.  Doc subdues Von Vroom and  recognizes him as "the Nazi scientist missing
since the war!  The  authorities will be glad to see you!  You have many
crimes to answer  for!"  Returning to the half-melted Metal Men, Doc announces that
their  mission is accomplished (even though, technically speaking, the Metal
Men  themselves failed again to stop the robot) and that he will return them
to the  lab to be rebuilt again.  That accomplished, Gold announces, "Doc--
we're  ready for our next mission!"  But Tina chucks Doc under the skin and says,
"Give the poor man a chance to rest!  After all, he's only human!"   "And so
ends the second adventure of the astonishing Metal Men!"  It wasn't  the
last, of course-- the Metal Men appeared in two more issues of SHOWCASE and  then
went on to a 41-issue Silver Age run in their own title.  (Another 
curiosity-- the Metal Men's debut in SHOWCASE #37 does not seem to have been  their only
"fill-in" appearance in that title.  At the end of SHOWCASE #39,  an editor's
blurb announces that "this is the last trial issue of METAL MEN!" as  the
robots and their creator wait for word from their readers whether they shall 
return in their own title.  But then the MM appeared yet again as the  feature in
SHOWCASE &40.  Looks like once again, something else planned for  that issue
of SHOWCASE fell through and Kanigher, Andru and Esposito were called  on to
fill the gap with another MM issue.  Or was it that DC brass decided  they
needed one more tryout appearance to make sure if the MM could support  their own
title?) 

Showcase #72 (Top Gun)

SHOWCASE #72; Jan-Feb. 1968; DC Comics; Robert Kanigher, editor; featuring 
"Top Gun"-- a blanket title for reprints of Western stories from DC's 
1940's-50's Western line.  The cover by Russ Heath depicts gunslinging hero  Johnny
Thunder shooting a silhouetted bad guy at point blank range (and it looks  like
he's shooting him in the stomach, which is kind of nasty).  According  to the
cover blurb, "The Real Old West EXPLODES to Life Again!  Featuring  JOHNNY
THUNDER and the TRIGGER TWINS!"

Review by Bill Henley

By  the latter part of 1967, when this book appeared, the Silver Age of
Superhero  Comics was already showing signs of tarnish.  The BATMAN TV show was no 
longer a national craze and was heading towards cancellation in early '68.  
The smaller comics publishers that had jumped on the superhero bandwagon were 
jumping back off.  And even DC, which started it all, was taking another 
look at comics genres it had abandoned during the hero boom-- genres such as 
horror, teen humor....and Westerns.  I believe this SHOWCASE issue was DC's 
first attempt to test-market a Western revival, though I don't know if the 
issue's reprint content was an atttempt to do so on the cheap, or because (as 
sometmes happened with SHOWCASE) something else planned for the issue fell  through
at the last minute.

Even during the Western genre's comics heyday  in the 1950's, DC wasn't
really a major player compared to other publishers such  as Atlas-Marvel, Dell, and
ME (Magazine Enterprises).  DC had a few  licensed cowboy-star comics such as
DALE EVANS and JIMMY WAKELY in the late  40's, and HOPALONG CASSIDY (taken
over from Fawcett) in the mid to late  50's.  And there was TOMAHAWK, which ran
unbroken through the 50's and 60's  but wasn't really a conventional Western
(at least till the end; see my recent  review of SON OF TOMAHAWK #131).  But as
far as staright, original Western  titles were concerned, DC was limited to
three anthology titles, ALL-AMERICAN  WESTERN, which ran 1948-52 before
converting to a war book; ALL-STAR WESTERN,  which broke diehard superhero fans'
hearts when it went west and evicted the  JSA, and ran till 1961; and the
generically titled WESTERN COMICS, which ran  1948-61.  The stories reprinted in this
SHOWCASE come from the ALL-AMERICAN  and ALL-STAR titles.

First, we have the Trigger Twins, in "Sheriff on a  Spot!", originally
published in ALL-STAR WESTERN #101 from 1958.  The story  was written by Robert
Kanigher, pencilled by Carmine Infantino and inked by Joe  Giella.  (Incidentally,
credits and original publication dates in this  review are courtesy of the
Great Comic Book Database, which I finally figured  out how to access...though
the artistic credits, at least, are pretty  obvious.)  On the splash page,
Sheriff Walt Trigger is confronting a  shadowed gunman who is shooting at his feet
and warning, "Next shot-- I raise my  sights!", but though he has lost his
own gun, the sheriff refuses to retreat;  "Can't let the law fall-- before a
killer's guns!"

In a scene highly (and  probably consciously) reminiscent of the classic
movie "High Noon", the assorted  townspeople of Rocky City hide inside buildings
as their sheriff, Walt Trigger,  waits for the arrival of a killer known as (no
kidding) Doc Doom on the 3:23 pm  train from Pecos.  Or *is* it Walt Trigger
waiting for the showdown?   Evidently not, for in back of the general store
owned by his brother Wayne  Trigger, the real sheriff thinks, "I've got to stop
that twin brother of mine  from being a bull's eye target for me!"  Dressed in
Wayne's civilian  clothes, Walt goes out on the street and tries to dissuade
Wayne, who is wearing  Walt's distinctive buckskin sheriff's outfit and badge,
from taking his place  yet again.  But Wayne insists; "The Sheriff of Rocky
City can't run from a  killer sworn to get him-- the moment he's released from
prison!"  "There is  no Sheriff of Rocky City, Wayne-- since I've resigned!",
Walt points out.   Not so; Wayne informs him; he tore up Walt's letter of
resignation before anyone  saw it, and now he, Wayne, is going to uphold Walt's
reputation as "a hero-- a  legend!"  "You know I'm a fumbler, Wayne!  You know
I'm just not good  enough to tackle Doc Doom!  I don't care about myself, but
it's not fit for  the law to fall before Doc's guns!", Walt says, explaining
why he isn't facing  the danger himself.  Walt goes on to recount past exploits
of "his" which  were actually made possible only by Wayne's secret help....
such as escaping  from a quicksand bog while under fire from the "Cactus Gang". 
Back in the  present on the Rocky City street, Walt is about to carry out his
threat to  resign publicly, when a young boy darts out to cheer him on; "No
badman can beat  you, Sheriff Walt!  All of us kids are going to be like you
when you grow  up!"  "Well, Walt?  Want to break a kid's heart by resigning?"  
his brother asks.  Apparently not, for Walt agrees to change clothes with 
Wayne again, and, clad in his official "uniform", take up the vigil for Doc Doom 
himself.

"And then, like a black shadow spreading its wings across the  prairie....the
3:53 FROM PECOS..."  "A lone figure gets off-- before whom  the prairie seems
to shrink... His face is the face of Doom (but no, it's not  covered by a
metal mask)....His hands are the hands of Doom... His steps  are...(well, you get
the idea).  As Doc advances on his target, unknown to  Walt, Wayne has
changed back into his duplicate sheriff's outfit, just in case  Walt needs some
behind-the-scenes help.  And it's a good thing, for Wayne  soon discovers why Doc
Doom is so confident of victory; he has a couple of gang  members backing him
up from hiding.  Not wanting to attract attention by  gunfire, Wayne allows
himself to be lassoed by the two gunmen, but then, "with a  mighty effort,"
yanks them off their horses with their own ropes and "hurtles  into them like a
twin-fisted thunderbolt," putting them out of action.  But  now, it is up to the
"fumbler" Walt to face Doc Doom himself.  And at first  he seems to justify
his own low opinion of himself, as his fast draw is too slow  and the Doc shoots
his twin guns out of his hands.  Doc shoots at the  ground by Walt's feet
and orders the now unarmed sheriff to "Dance!"  But  no dancing for Walt today;
instead, he advances steadily toward the outlaw,  repeating to himself
mentally, "Can't let the law fall-- before a killer's  guns--!"  Presumably all his
determination would be of little use if Doc  actually fired at point-blank
range, but he is so unnerved by the lawman's  fearless advance that he lets Walt
get close enough to take him out with a punch  to the jaw.  And so, Walt
justifies his young fan's confidence after all;  "I told you no gunman could stop
you, Sheriff Walt!"

Though the series  ran for nearly the whole run of ALL-STAR WESTERN, the
Trigger Twins had possibly  one of the silliest premises of any Western strip, or
indeed any kind of  strip.  It was an example of writer Robert Kanigher's
tendency to take a  premise and absolutely pound it into the ground.  It never was
clear why  the two brothers didn't do the sensible thing and exchange roles
permanently and  publicly, with the crack-shot Wayne taking on the job of
sheriff and the  well-meaning but inept Walt becoming a peaceable storekeeper. 
(Another  oddity was that when the series was cover-featured in ASW, the covers
invariably  featured both twins in their identical sheriff outfits-- even
though the whole  premise depended on their never being seen together in "uniform"!)

The  next, short (3 page) feature is "Panhandle Terror!",  an "Epic of the
Texas  Rangers!", originally from ALL-AMERICAN WESTERN #125 published in 1951.  
The artist-- and according to the GCD, the scripter as well-- is Joe  Kubert.
On the splash panel,  the figure of outlaw Joe Freitas stands  with smoking
gun atop a symbolic outline of the state of Texas, shaking his fist  and
warning, "I OWN TEXAS!  And if anybody tries to stop me from collectin'  my
rightful tribute-- I'LL KILL 'IM!"  Freitas, it seems, may not have  dominated the
whole state of Texas, but he cut a swathe in the Panhandle  section.  shooting
dead a prospector who refused him a share of his fiind,  and burning the house
and barn of a recalcitrant rancher.  The Texas  Rangers', the state's
legendary police force, are out to get Freitas, since  local lawmen have been unable
to bring him to book due to the reluctance of  local witnesses to testify
against him.  One Ranger promises he has a plan  to bring Freitas in within two
weeks.  "Several days later, along the Red  River in the panhandle," Freitas
spots a prospector who looks like he has a good  haul of gold nuggets.  He accosts
the prospector, demanding, "I see you've  done well on MY LAND... I'm here to
collect MY RENT!"  When the prospector  protests that the area is United
States territory, not "his" land, Freitas  expresses his resentment; "IT'S MY
LAND!  i tilled this Texas soil for  years and it yielded me NOTHING!  Now I'm
collecting for my labor...WITH  INTEREST!"  Suddenly, the prospector-- who is, of
course, the Ranger going  undercover-- hurls the pebbles from his gold sluice
pan into Freitas' face;  Here's PART of your land...CATCH!"  Freitas's shot
goes wild and then, "in  a blind rage," he rushes at the Ranger without his
gun; "I'LL TEAR YOU APART  WITH MY BARE HANDS!" only to be taken out by a punch
from the Ranger; "You're  not so much a terror when the odds are EVEN, are you,
Freitas?"  "And so  ended the reign of the Panhandle's terror... Ranger John
Kelson brought in his  man, and Freitas paid his penalty-- IN FULL!"  (This is
presented as if it  were a true story, but I don't know if it actually is or
not.)

Finally,  we have a tale of Johnny Thunder-- the double-identity Western
gunslinger, of  course, not the earlier dimwit JSA'er with the magic Thunderbolt. 
The  story is "Unseen Allies!" from ALL-AMERICAN WESTERN #104, 1948 (just a
couple of  issues after that title went all-Western and dumped Green Lantern),
written by  Kanigher and drawn by Alex Toth.  The splash page is a generic
shot of  Johnny riding to the rescue on his horse Black Lightning, with gun  bla
zing.  "Raze Ruin and his gang thought they could make an outlaw  paradise of
Mesa City!  One man stood in their way-- JOHNNY THUNDER!   When they trapped
him, they thought they had won!  But they didn't know  until the battle at Blind
Man's Canyon of Johnny Thunder's UNSEEN ALLIES!"   (Incidentally, one thing
making me think that last Texas Ranger story may be  true is the bad guy having
the mundane name of Joe Freitas rather than something  overtly villainous
like Raze Ruin or Doc Doom.) 

Riding with his  gang into the vicinity of Mesa City, "the only law west of
the Pecos,"  (I  thought that was Judge Roy Bean), one-eyed Raze Ruin reflects
how the town would  make a perfect base of operations if it weren't for the
town's pesky sheriff and  his even peskier unofficial aide, Johnny Thunder.  But
Raze has a plan to  neutralize them.  "We'll KIDNAP SOMEONE SPECIAL from Mesa
City and leave an  easy trail t'foller!"-- and then lure the sheriff and
Johnny into an  ambush.  Meanwhile, in town, Sheriff Tane is engaged in an old
argument  with his blond, bespectacled son John.  The Sheriff wants John to
abandon  "this woman's work o' teachin' kids" and join him as a lawman.  But John 
insists, "If these kids learn to keep law and order in schoo, it'll stay with 
them all their lives!  Sometimes WORDS are STRONGER than bullets,  Dad!" 
Unimpressed, the sheriff rides away snorting, "BAH!  You're not  fit to bear the
name of Tane!"  Some time later, while preparing lessons  for his class, the
schoolmaster is captured by Raze Ruin's mob.  He puts up  a better fight than
the gang expects-- "He mus' think HE'S JOHNNY THUNDER  instead of a sissy
schoolmaster!" but is subdued and dragged along.  Along  the way, Tane keeps
whistling loudly, though "Whistlin' for help won't do yuh no  good!  Who'd yuh
expect to ride up... JOHNNY THUNDER?"  Leaving John  Tane tied up and under guard
in Dead Man's Canyon, Raze and his gang ride back  to make sure the Sheriff and
Johnny Thunder are riding into their trap.   The lone guard with a sadistic
streak removes John's gag to hear him "squeal for  mercy", but instead of
squealing, he hears more whistling.  And then, a  fiery horse with the speed of
light....no, wait a minute, that's somebody else's  horse.  But anyway, a white
horse gallops up and head-butts the guard into  unconsciousness.  "I knew you'd
hear my whistle, Black Lightnin'"   (Why is the horse Black Lightnin' if he's
white?  Because of a black  lightning-shaped blaze on his forehead.)  "Now
you've got to untie my ropes  before that owlhoot comes to!", and, in an animal
feat worthy of Rex the Wonder  Dog, the horse does so.  Leaving the guard
bound and blindfolded, John Tane  assumes his other guise of Johnny Thunder-- for,
of course, Raze and gang never  knew they had already captured one of the men
they sought to trap.  Back in  Mesa City, the gang attaches a taunting note
to the sheriff's office challenging  the lawman to follow the trail and rescue
his son.  Despite his lack of  regard for his offspring, and the absence of
Johnny Thunder, Sheriff Tane sets  off immediately; "'Tain't my son that's been
kidnapped, but the PEACE!  The  law's been challenged, and I'm hittin' back
for it!"  Atop a high bluff,  Johnny spots his father riding into ambush, but he
is too far away to help--  until he and Black Lightnin' take a long leap into
the river below.   Surfacing safely, they join the sheriff, and Johnny tells
Tane that he has  already freed his son (true, in a manner of speaking) but
now they both are  caught in Raze Ruin's ambush.  The Sheriff is shot from his
horse and  Johnny is also thrown when Black Lightnin' takes a bullet.  Firing
at the  gang, Johnny gets one of them but falls to the ground himself.  Two of
the  outlaws approach him, only to find that he is playing possum and shoots
them  down.  Those are his last two bullets, though, and Raze Ruin himself
faces  an unarmed foe; "Johnny Thunder's cold meat when he ain't got lead to 
throw!"  But, getting to his feet, Johnny advances boldly in the face of  Raze's
loaded guns, haranguing him; "YOU CAN'T KILL ME, RAZE!  I'M NOT A  PERSON, I'M
AN IDEA!  AND YOU CAN'T SHOOT AN IDEA!  I'M FIGHTING FOR  THE IDEA THAT MEN
CAN LIVE IN PEACE WITHOUT FEAR!  IF I FALL A MILLION MEN  ARE READY TO TAKE MY
PLACE!  BUT MEN LIKE YOU-- ARE ALONE!"   The discombobulated Raze finally
fires, but misses at point blank range, and is  felled by Johnny's punch. 
(Curiously, *all three* of the stories in this  book involve the hero psyching the
bad-guy gunman out from using his gun in  time, rather than outshooting the bad
guy.  This doesn't exactly encourage  the idea that good always wins over evil.
It more suggests that good wins  over evil only when evil is too dumb to
shoot while it has the chance.) As  Johnny patches the wounds of the Sheriff (and
his horse), the Sheriff gripes  that he's going to have to apologize to his
son when he sees him.  "He said  WORDS CAN BE MIGHTIER THAN BULLETS -- 'n YOU
JUST PROVED IT!"

There were  no further SHOWCASE issues of "Top Gun", though a few years
later, in 1971, DC  published several "Super DC Giant" and "DC Special" issues of
Western reprints,  and a couple of them carried the logo "Top Guns of the
West".  And in 1973,  there was a three-issue JOHNNY THUNDER  reprint series and a
TRIGGER TWINS  one-shot.  But in the meantime, in issue #76, SHOWCASE did go
west again  with an all-new feature, BAT LASH.  That led to a series of its
own, which  is regarded by many fans (including me) as a classic, but only lasted
seven  issues.  It took the grim'n'gritty Jonah Hex, starting in 1972, for DC
to  find a Western star who was a long-term success.  (And he *wasn't* in the
habit of facing down gunmen armed only with his sense of moral  superiority.)

Doom Patrol #86, "The Brotherhood of Evil!"

THE DOOM PATROL #86 (formerly MY GREATEST ADVENTURE); March 1964; DC  Comics;
Murray Boltinoff, editor; featuring the DP versus "The Brotherhood of  Evil!"
in a story written by Arnold Drake and drawn by Bruno Premiani (the team 
that created nearly all of the Silver Age DP stories).  On the cover, the  four
members of the Patrol watch, fascinated, a TV screen (low-tech-- black and 
white) showing two of their enemies, a disembodied brain in a mechanical 
life-support setup and a gorilla carrying a submachine gun and wearing a  bandolier
of bullets.  "This is the ultimate mission for which I created  you-- the
destruction of the Doom Patrol!" the brain says through its mechanical  voicebox. 
"Summon the others!"  "Yes, master, I will obey!", the  gorilla responds.

Review by Bill Henley

The prominent appearance  of the Doom Patrol-- and their archfoes, the
Brotherhood of Evil-- in the past  two weeks' animated Teen Titans TV episode,
inspired me to pull out for this  review the first encounter between the Patrol and
the Brotherhood. It's also the  first issue of DOOM PATROL under its own
title.  For the previous six  issues, the DP had been the lead feature in the
former sci-fi/fantasy anthology  title, MY GREATEST ADVENTURE.  Evidently DC
decided the DP were popular  enough to carry their own title.  Besides, the title
MY GREATEST ADVENTURE  was kind of awkward for a comic featuring an ongoing
series.  If you figure  that "My" refers to the protagonists of the book, the
Doom Patrol, then the  implication is that the DP adventure in each succeeding
issue has to be  "greater" than all the ones before.  That would be quite a
challenge for  any creative team.

Instead of a standard splash page, the opening page of  the story is a
four-panel set of "capsule biographies" of the DP members.   Rita Farr, we are told,
saw "her brilliant Hollywood career ended" when "strange  volcanic fumes"
gave her to power to expand and reduce her body.  "In a  world that fears the
mysterious and unknown, Rita, now called Elasti-Girl,  became an OUTCAST!" 
(Nonetheless, I always figured Rita got a better deal  than the three male DP
members, since she was neither crippled nor freakishly  disfigured.  A later story
tried to redress the balance by establishing  that the volcanic fumes that
gave Rita her powers also shortened her  lifespan.  But not much was ever done
with that idea.)  Larry Trainor  became radioactive from "unidentifed solar
rays" but gained the power to  "release Negative Man, a radio-energy being that
moves at the speed of  light!  But Larry, too, is an OUTSIDER!"  (No, that's a
whole  different team, and it didn't come along for a couple of decades yet.)  
Cliff Steele, once a "wealthy international daredevil", saw not only his car
but  his body "totaled" in a racing accident, and only his brain survived to
be  transplanted by a "brilliant surgeon-inventor" into "a hulking metal and 
electronic form"-- Robotman.  "Thus was born another-- HUMAN EXILE!"   Finally
we have The Chief, the wheelchair-bound genius who "preserved" Robotman  and
brought the three DP members together under his leadership.  "But of  him,
almost NOTHING is known!  Now, these four exiles from the human race  dedicate
themselves to protecting the world that had once rejected them!"   A conventional
splash page appears on page 2, on which a giant red robot with a  man riding
in its transparent head holds the more compact Robotman in one fist  and is
preparing to seize the Statue of Liberty from its pedestal.   Elasti-Girl,
parachuting onto the scene, is astounded by the chutzpah of "the  Brain, the
guiding spirit of the Brotherhood of Evil"  "IT'S THE MOST  BRAZEN THEFT IN
HISTORY!" 

As our story begins, The Chief wheels  himself around the halls of the DP's
headquarters calling peevishly for his  three colleagues; "Where IS everybody
around this blasted place?"  Each of  the others, it seems, is engaged in a
different mysterious mission.  Larry  Tranor releases Negative Man and sends him
flashing at lightspeed around the  world to Egypt, where he grabs a chunk of
rock from atop the Great Pyramid (and  puzzles tourists who think they have
seen lightning in a cloudless sky).   Rita Farr goes shopping and is told by a
jewelry salesman there is no time to  get the item she has picked engraved, to
which she replies, "I'll take care of  it myself!", and, back at HQ, she
shrinks herself to tiny size to engrave  infinitesimal lettering on a tie clip. 
Robotman, on the other hand, is  frustrated; "Rita and Larry, with their
fantastic powers, will create wonderful  gifts!  How can I compete when I've got
nothing but these clumsy metal  hands?"  The next day, at the team's dinner table,
the three present The  Chief with a birthday cake.  They don't know if it's
actually his birthday,  since The Chief has kept all such personal information a
secret, even from the  DP, along with his original identity; but they've
decided to declare this day  his brrthday.  Larry's gift is a model of the Sphinx
carved from his piece  of the Great Pyramid.  (The Egyptian ministry of
antiquities might not be  as appreciative of Negative Man's bit of vandalism as The
Chief is.)   Rita's gift is the tie clip engraved in tiny print with The
Chief's attributes  spelling out his nom de guerre-- Courageous, Heroic,
Intelligent, Exasperating,  Fighter  The leader is touched as well as amused by Rita's
inclusion of  "exasperating".  Finally, Cliff  reveals his gift.  Attempting to
crib a trick from Superman (though this isn't mentioned in the story),
Robotman  took a big lump of coal down into the depths of a hot spring in an
attempt to  use the combination of volcanic heat and the super-pressure of his
robotic  hands, to squeeze the coal into a diamond.  Unfortunately, it turns out 
Cliff squeezed a little too hard.  "But I'll cherish that diamond DUST 
forever!", The Chief assures him.  Following the party, The Chief reflects  (with a
tear glistening at the corner of his eye) that by coincidence it really  was
his birthday...while Rita hints that she'd like to see the inside of  Negative
Man's metal-walled living quarters, but the hint is rebuffed.   Alone inside
his room, Larry mutters that if Rita actually knew why he wears  bandages and
lives within metal walls, "SHE'D NEVER WANT TO LOOK AT ME  AGAIN!" 

But enough with the festivities and soap opera.... the  action is about to
begin,as military authorities discover that two sealed train  cars containing a
secret, sealed cargo have been stolen.  The news dismays  The Chief, for the
contents of the cars were one of his own inventions, intended  to aid the first
astronauts on the moon, but now destined to be put to more  nefarious use. 
In Part 2, "The Trail of the Terrible Titan!" the giant red  robot, manipulated
by a man inside its transparent forehead, begins seizing cars  on a bridge
and bending the bridge itself into ruin.  The robot, calling  itself Rog, goes
on to commit other acts of seemingly motiveless destruction,  such as wrecking
oil wells.  "That big bozo hasn't stolen a thing!   All he's done is give a
bad name to us robots!", Cliff Steele gripes.   Landing a small plane on a dam
Rog is attacking, the DP come face to face (so to  speak) with Rog and discover
that the human driving him is one "Mr. Morden, a  one-man crime wave!  So
he's the one who stole Rog!"  (Much later, the  name "Mr. Morden" would be given
by writer J. Michael Straczynski to an even  more sinister character on the TV
series BABYLON 5.)  Under Morden's  control, Rog fires a heat-ray from its
"face", melting a wing of the DP's plane;  but, warned of this ability by The
Chief, Larry releases Negative Man who  extends his 'body" around Rog's head,
blocking the deadly beam.   Elasti-Girl then expands herself to give Rog the
chance to pick on somebody its  own size.  One might still wonder how the flesh
and blood Rita would fare  in hand-to-claw combat against the metallic Rog....
but we won't find out just  now, for Rog seizes Larry Trainor and Robotman in
its claws and Morden threatens  to crush them if Rita attacks.  You'd think
Robotman might not crush that  easy, but the human Larry Trainor is certainly
vulnerable enough, and a stymied  Rita is forced to make a deal that Rog and
Morden will be allowed to escape if  Cliff and Larry are released.  "For the
first time, the Doom Patrol must  retreat!" 

"Next day, at an exclusive girls' school in Paris," we  find the beautiful
though severe-looking Madame Rouge teaching a class in the  irregular French
verb "avoir".  But when she receives a message from her  "cousin Rog," she
quickly dismisses class in order to engage in far more  irregular doings, ushering
Mr. Morden into the presence of The Brain,  head  of the Brotherhood of Evil
"the most powerful crime syndicate in the  world."  Still blindfolded to keep
secret the way into the Brotherhood's  secret sanctum, Morden engages in some
flattery, saying he is "proud to stand  before the most notorious human of all
time."  But when his blindfold is  removed, even he is shocked to learn that
the word "human" is debatable, while  the name The Brain is all too literal--
for that is all that is left of the  criminal mastermind, preserved in liquid
and tended by machines.  "Is this  some morbid joke?"  No, says The Brain; his
body died, but his assistants  "preserved my genius-- my BRAIN!"  Duly
impressed, Morden offers the giant  robot Rog as his "membership fee" for joining the
Brotherhood.  The Brain  accepts, but points out that Morden and the robot
only fought the Doom Patrol  "to a standstill".  "ONLY?  No man ever did that
well against those  fabulous freaks!"  The Brain admits this, but says that when
Morden and Rog  face the DP again they will need the aid of another member of
the Brotherhood,  Monsieur Mallah, who has been waiting in the shadows. 
Morden is skeptical  that Mallah will be of any help, until the Monsieur steps into
the light and is  revealed as a gorilla, gifted by The Brain with
genius-level human intelligence  along with his natural strength and agility.  Recovering
his poise from  another shock, Morden apologizes, and the urbane anthropoid
replies, "No  apologies necessary!  Between us, we shall bring an end to the
Doom  Patrol-- and earn you full membership in the Brotherhood of Evl!"

Soon,  Morden, Rog and Mallah are sent off by The Brain to commit "the most
fantastic  crime ever committed!"  And what are the Doom Patrol doing in the 
meantime?  The Chief's "giant computer" has deduced not only that the goal  of
Rog's crimes is to win membership for its master in the Brotherhood of Evil, 
but has narrowed down  their next infamy to three possibilities.  And  so,
Robotman is set to guard one of the likely targets-- the Statue of  Liberty.  He
hits the jackpot, as out of a fogbank Rog appears, using a  pair of motor
launches as "water skis".  As Rog reaches to pull down the  giant statue, The
Chief, watching by television, realizes, "He's out to pull the  most brazen theft
in history-- so he can ransom it back for millions!"  He  summons Larry and
Rita to join Robotman in carrying out "Plan #3".  While  Negative Man flashes to
the scene and again blocks Rog's heat beam, Cliff  attaches a plastic
explosive device to Rog's foot.  But apparently Rog is  better built than even its
creator The Chief realized, for the bomb only twists  its metal foot a bit.  And
with sixty seconds past, Negative Man must  return to Larry Trainor to save
his life.  Fortunately, Elasti-Girl arrives  on the scene by parachute and,
growing to giant size, she lands a mighty kick on  Rog's "face" which disables
its heat-beam.  While giant robot tangles with  giant lady-- literally, snarling
Rita in her own parachute lines-- Monsieur  Mallah emerges from Rog's head
and takes on Robotman.  Rog grabs for the  statue, but Rita gains the upper hand
over the robot at last, lifting it over  her head and hurling it to the
ground, smashing the glass head from which Morden  controls the robot.  A defiant
Morden warns that Rog has planted a time  bomb at the base of the statue, and
Robotman seizes the bomb and attempts to  smother it with his metal body.  But
when the bomb fails to go off, the DP  realize that it is a decoy, a ruse to
enable the Morden and Mallah to  escape.  Back at DP headquarters, The Chief
notes that at least they  spoiled the Brotherhood's plan, but that Larry Trainor
nearly paid a high price  for the partial victory, since he kept Negative Man
out of his body almost long  enough to kill him.  "I'm okay now, except for a
nasty headache!"   Larry insists, but a solicitous Rita urges him to take
fewer risks; "If anything  happened to you, I don't know what I-- I mean, WE'D
do!"  But back in his  metal room, Larry is still convinced that if Rita saw his
unmasked face, "SHE'D  RUN FOR HER LIFE!"  "What is Larry's grim secret?",
the final caption  asks.  "How will the Brotherhood of Evil strike back?  Don't
miss the  next sensational DOOM PATROL issue!" 

The back pages of the issue  are filled by "A Medal for Go-Buggy 3!", billed
as a "Doom Patrol Special", but  obviously an inventory story left over from
MY GREATEST ADVENTURE.  Within  a few issues, the book would feature
full-length DP stories or backups   about individual DP members.  But in the meantime
this story drawn (and  signed) by Howard Purcell tells the story of Major Reed,
an astronaut who upon  splashdown in the space capsule Go-Buggy 3, is caught
in the vicinity of a  Pacific nuclear test and transformed into a bizarre
semi-humanoid tornado  creature.  Rescued, Reed is returned to the United States
and presented to  the world as a hero-- though he must remain hidden inside
Go-Buggy 3 until a  cure can be found.  But is it actually Reed?  No!  In
actuality  the man who underwent the strange transformation is Capt. Toji Nagawa, a 
long-lost Japanese naval officer stranded on the remote island.  Overcoming 
the real Reed, Nagawa is the one who potentially menaces the United States in 
his powerful tornado-form.  Resorting to drastic measures, the real Reed 
paddles a floating log to the area of another nuclear test (a lot of those  lately,
it seems) and allows himself to be transformed into another  tornado-creature
so that he can return home and battle Nagawa.  The two of  them battle
undersea and in midair until suddenly, fighting near the top of the  Washington
Monument, they both suddenly revert to human form.  Thinking  Reed and his
tornado-adversary have both perished, military authorities are  about to pin a medal
on his space capsule in his memory.  But the ceremony  is disrupted when the
real Reed, appears, along with a defeated Nagawa in tow,  having somehow
managed to get both of them down from the top of the  monument.  The general in
charge is pleased to pin the medal on Reed  himself instead of his spacecraft, and
Reed expresses the hope that on his next  mission, Go-Buggy 4 "tosses me into
a nice, safe orbit!"

The DP story is  reprinted, I believe, in volume 1 of DC's hardcover DOOM
PATROL ARCHIVES (is  there a second volume yet?)  The current rebooted DOOM
PATROL series  features a similar subplot of doomed love between Rita Farr and one
of the DP  members -- but in the Byrne series, it is Robotman she is attracted
to.   (But in the original series, she wound up sometime later marrying
neither  Negative Man nor Robotman but Mento, the millionaire with a helmet that
gives  him psychic powers-- who wound up replacing The Chief as DP leader in the
animated Teen Titans episode.)