ADVENTURE COMICS #270; March 1960; DC Comics; Mort Weisinger, editor;
cover-featuring Superboy in "The Stolen Identities!" On the cover, which looks
like Curt Swan with Stan Kaye inks, our young hero is lying peacefully asleep on
his bed-- oddly, fully dressed in his Superboy costume, with a book open on
his stomach. His loving foster parents are looking in on him-- only they're
not quite his parents, for they have removed masks showing that they actually
have green alien faces with antennae. "Put on your 'Martha Kent' mask
quick! Superboy is about to awaken! He mustn't suspect that we are not his
parents, but aliens from anothr world!"
Review by Bill Henley
One trick Uncle Mort Weisinger had in his long career of selling comics to
young kids was to exploit their deepest fears. Just about everything a kid
might fear-- being rejected by parents or friends, being abandoned, becoming
ugly, being blacballed from a club or clique-- happened to Superboy at one time
or another. And here is another childhood fear on display, for what could
be more terrifying than finding out that your parents who love you and on whom
you are dependent are really alien monsters?
On the splash page of the inside story drawn by George Papp (I don't know
the writer), the alien "Ma and Pa Kent" have revealed themselves to Superboy
and are aiming a ray at him causing him to become "enormously fat" (yet another
kid fear). "And there is nothing you can do about it, Superboy, if you ever
want to see your foster parents again-- ALIVE!" "SUPERBOY embarks upon one
of the strangest adventures of his super-career, when he becomes the
unwilling foster-son of monsters from another world, in the amazing tale of the
STOLEN IDENTITIES!"
On the planet of Xelthu, some of its green, reptilian, antennaed inhabitants
focus their relescopic X-ray cameras on the faraway planet Earth, on the
village of Smallville, and on a certain "typical" (yeah, right) Smallville
home. As Ma and Pa Kent sit relaxing in their living room, Pa gets an odd
feeling that "hostile eyes are staring at me", but Ma pooh-poohs the idea; "Don't
be silly! It must be your imagination!" But Pa's imagination comes to life
as he and Ma find themselves disappearing from their peaceful living room to
find themselves "prisoners in a world of monsters". "Do not panic! You will
be quite safe as long as you do not oppose the masterminds of Xelthu!" The
Xelthuans seem offended by Ma's outraged description of them; "We are not
monsters! We are simply beings who evolved differently from yourselves!" But
what do these aliens want with this simple, elderly Earth couple? Ma and Pa
are horrified to find out as they observe the aliens make plastic masks of
their faces and duplicates of their Earth clothes-- items which enable the alien
couple Nerp and Irm Gikk to impersonate them. Shortly, Nerp and Irm are
beamed right into the Kent living room, as Pa groans, "Then it's true! Monsters
are masquerading as us on Earth! I wonder what they intend to do!"
Investigating the Kent home, Nerp and Irm are surprised to find the bedroom
of a teenage son-- and even more surprised to discover a closet full of
Superboy robots and a scrapbook of super-feats. "I'm afraid the Kent family is
not as typical as we thought!" They call back to Xelthu to send a teenage
alien to Earth to take the place of young Clark Kent, but the "master
teleport-ray" breaks down, leaving the Kents stranded on Xelthu and the pseudo-Kents
faced with the task of fooling their super-son. That son is about to return
from his patrol, musing, "Fighting all sorts of menaces and perils is exciting!
But afterwards, I like nothing better than returning to the safe, sane
atmosphere of the Kent home!" Arriving home, the Boy of Steel announces "I'm
starved! After I switch identities, let's eat dinner right away!" But Irm Gikk
is horrified to discover that the dinner Ma Kent had in the oven was a roast
beef; "The very thought of meat-eating makes Xelthunians feel ill! I can't go
through with this!" "You must steel yourself!" Nerp sternly directs.
Clark enjoys the meal his Ma produces, though Ma herself seems oddly upset--
"Just a headache, son!"-- but after dinner he is puzzled to discover that not
only have Ma and Pa left their meals untouched, but the tin cans the food came
in have been bitten into! As Clark goes to bed, though, he concludes that Ma
and Pa are just playing some kind of weird joke on him (yeah, that's quite a
sense of humor the Kents have). The aliens look in on their sleeping "son"
(dressed in Clark Kent pajamas rather than his costume as on the cover) but
their thoughts are not parental; "It is important we communicate with Xelthu
about getting rid of Superboy and replacing him with a msaquerading youth from
our planet!" Constructing their own teleporter, the aliens send the Superboy
robots back to Xelthu where they are deactivated. Ma Kent remains defiant;
"You won't beat our boy so easily! Nothing can harm Superboy except
Kryptonite, and you have none on this world!" But when the aliens start a search for
Kryptonite, she is mortified to realize she has blurted out her son's
weakness. Finding a Kryptonite sample in a lead box in Superboy's workshop, Nerf
and Irm create a K-powered teleport ray to use on Superboy.
Still suspicious the next morning of his parents' odd behavior, Clark
gestures to Pa Kent to help himself to the breakfast toast-- only to have his
suspicions confirmed when Pa takes a bite out of the metal toaster instead of the
toast! "You fool, you! You couldn't control your appetite, could you,
Nerf?" Exposed as nonhumans, the Gikks reveal their true faces and warn Superboy
that his real parents' lives back on Xelthu depend on him behaving himself.
They explain that rather than being a planet of another star, Xelthu is
actually a subatomic world, and that they must perform an unspecified "mission" on
Earth. "What IS your mission? If you are not planning to steal my world,
or harm it, perhaps I can help you!" But the aliens demur; "No! We don't
trust you! You may only PRETEND friendliness, then try to defeat our mission!"
The Irms fire their "tele-ray" at Superboy, intending to send him too to
Xelthu to join his parents in captivity. But instead of being weakened and
teleported, Superboy only becomes ridiculously fat! It seems that the aliens
foolishly used red kryptonite instead of green K as the power source for their
ray, and it had its usual unpredictable effect. The henpecked Nerf is berated
by his mate; "Can't you ever do anything right, Nerf?"
For some reason, the Gikks allow Superboy to fly off on routine errands, in
his "super-plump" state, while they try to repair the teleportation ray.
Flying around Smallville like a super-blimp, our hero reminds Lana Lang that
they have a date, to which she replies, "You forget it! I can't stand fattys!"
Posing for a statuefor the Chamber of Commerce, Superboy enables the artist
to sculpt him in his normal shape by creating a trick mirror to slim down his
image. Returning home, Superboy finds the aliens still determined to
implement their mysterious "Plan Z" to save their world....but when they try to use
their "tele-ray", the Red K power source again fouls things up, causing
Superboy to become super-tiny instead of super-fat. Going off on patrol again,
Superboy stops a robbery and a murder by blocking a bullet that is as big as
he is. Next, the aliens finally explain their mysterious mission; the world
of Xelthu is located inside an atom which is located "atop one of the world's
highest structures", and their mission is to relocate that atom "where
nothing on Earth can harm it-- war, lightning bolts, and so on!" Again Superboy
offers his help in accomplishing this mission and is rebuffed. Once again
they try the tele-ray and again it malfunctions, this time turning Superboy into
a giant. In that shape, he traverses the world using his microscopic vision
to study the world's tallest structures looking for Xelthu. There's no joy
at the Leaning Tower of Pisa or the Eiffel Tower (though Frenchmen react in
awe at the sight of a giant-sized "Super Garcon") but at the Empire State
Building Superboy finds Xelthu, and even spots his captive parents. Chipping off
the tiny bit of the building on which Xelthu exists, Superboy drops it to
the bottom of the ocean, where he figures the tiny world will forever be safe
from harm. Acknowledging that Superboy has accomplished "Plan Z" for them,
the "masterminds of Xelthu" exchange the Gikks for the real Kents (and
Superboy's robots). "Thanks goodness you got those aliens to return us, son!" "I'd
save a thousand worlds to see my mom and dad safely home!"
The next feature in this issue is the ADVENTURE debut of Congorilla, who in
a game of musical backups had just been pushed out of ACTION COMICS by an
expanded Supergirl feature, and in turn pushed Green Arrow out of his
long-running slot in ADVENTURE (though the amazing archer still had WORLD'S FINEST to
hang out in). "Of all the wonders of the Congo jungle, no phenomenon is more
fabulous than the amazing man-ape, CONGORILLA! His daring feats of strength
plus his keen, human intelligence combine into a huge fighting machine that
leaves both his friends and foes limp with awe! But how is it possible for a
giant gorilla to think like a human being? Learn the amazing secret of the
extraordinary jungle creature known as.... the NINTH WONDER!" On the splash,
panel, the golden gorilla picks up a jeep full of "ivory raiders" and lifts
it over his head. A gold shipment on the Congo River is captured by a gang of
"river pirates" using a miniature submarine. But Congorilla leaps into the
water and seizes the sub by its anchor chain, hauling it up onto shore and
leaving the pirats high and dry. "That's CONGORILLA! The natives talk of a
golden gorilla who has the intelligence of a man!" "Maybe he has ONE man's
intelligence, but TEN men cannot equal his strength!" For his next feat,
Congorilla breaks into "an abandoned fort converted into a scientific laboratory"
to rescue Professor West, a kidnapped scientist (but apparently not Iris
West's absent-minded dad from THE FLASH). It seems a criminal scientist named Dr.
Kovec has captured West to get his atomic secrets before they can help the
"Western democracies". Kovec and his gang are baffled how a mere beast can
comprehend Prof. West's plight, but when Congorilla evades their bullets by
locking himself and West in a chemistry lab with no exit, they conclude, "That
ape ain't so smart after all! He trapped himself!" But Kovec is astounded
when he looks through a chink in the wall and finds that the ape is working
with chemicals in the lab. The result of the simian experiment is
nitroglycerine, which he uses to blow a hole in the wall and escape with Prof. West.
Next, Congorilla learns that Mau Mau agitators have stirred up trouble between
white plantation owners and the "normall peaceful" Wambu tribesmen, and halts
the fighting without bloodshed by flying a crop-dusting plane and bombing
the rebellious warriors with choking insecticide gas. "The beast not only has
extraordinary intelligence and strength, he USES his power to help people in
distress! Thank goodness he's no legend...but a FACT!" (Of course the Wambu
and Mau Mau might see things differently, viewing Congorilla as a pawn of
sinister European colonialists.)
But how did Congorilla become such a brainy wonder? The answer, we learn,
lies in an incident where "famed hunter Congo Bill" (who had had a long career
in ACTION COMICS before being anthropoidized) and his kid sidekick Janu
came across a Congo native struggling in the water and menaced by crocodiles.
They rescue the old man only to find him near death from a fever, but
nonetheless, in gratitude, the "aged medicine man" offers Congo Bill a magic ring
which he says will give him the power to exchange his human mind with the mind
of a mighty golden gorilla. Later, after an encounter with a gang of ivory
raiders slaughtering elephants, Congo Bill spots the fabled golden gorilla and
decides to test the strange promise. The ring works and Congo Bill finds
himself gifted with the strength of Congorilla, with which he is able to lift
the raiders' jeep and hurl it into the nearby lake, and frighten the elephants
into moving to a safer stamping ground. But there is a downside as well, for
when Congo Bill becomes Congorilla, his human body has the savage mind of
the ape and has to be restrained for safety. "And now that you've met
CONGORILLA, follow his startling adventures in the next issue of ADVENTURE COMICS!"
Congorilla appeared in ADVENTURE through issue #283, April 1961 (skipping
#282) before being squeezed out by "Tales of the Bizarro World", which was in
turn replaced by the Legion.
The issue features a "Smallville Mailsack" lettercol, which mostly consists
of readers pointing out supposed "boo-boos" in previous stories, and Uncle
Mort explaining why they weren't really "boo-boos" at all. In one letter,
however, reader Terry Slaven of Snyder, New York, praises the previous story
"Prisoner of the Super-Heroes" (the second appearance of the Legion) and asks if
there will ever be a sequel in which Superman meets the other Legionnaires
grown up. "Great idea. We'll pass it along to our writers," Ye Ed replies.
Another letter, from Eloise Murphy of Houston, Texas, asks if Lana Lang as a
grownup is heartbroken because Superman prefers Lois Lane to her. For an
answer, Mort points Eloise to another of his titles, LOIS LANE, where "grown-up
Lana Lang is still very much active" and "still hasn't given up on Superman!"
Finally in this issue is an Aquaman tale-- though the blurb on the cover
advertises it as "EXTRA! A new AQUALAD story!"-- for this is only the second
appearance of Aquaman's new kid sidekick. But the Sea King may come to regret
sharing his throne, for the story is titled "The Menace of Aqualad!" On the
splash panel, a wild-eyed Aqualad stalks Aquaman with a spear-gun, as our
hero wonders if his new ward "intends to make the fortune-teller's
prophecy...that Aqualad will replace me as king of the sea....come true!" Some friendly
sailors present Aquaman with a birthday cake, and as he shares the
"home-baked" cake with Aqualad, the Atlentean orphan he adopted in the previous issue,
he reflects "how poorly equipped I am to bring you up, Aqualad! I haven't
even got a home for you to live in!" "Gosh, Aquaman! I don't care where we
live! I'm happy just being with you!" Later, in a show for the benefit of
retired sailors, Aquaman performs a death-defying stunt, diving from a helicopter
into just six feet of water. Onlookers expect him to be killed, but instead
of landing in the water he lands in the spouts of his friendly whales.
Later, observing an old woman falling off a dock, Aquaman rescues her, and in
gratitude she offers to tell his fortune. "I don't believe in superstitions!
But I won't hurt her feelings!" But the gypsy woman foresees "great danger for
you, Aquaman! Someone has come into your life who may imperil you... and
REPLACE you!" Aqualad gasps, "She means ME!" but Aquaman brushes off the
prediction. But when Aqualad accompanies Aquaman to the aid of a sinking ship,
the sea prince suffers a glancing blow from the prow of the vessel. Aqualad
insists he is unhurt, but shortly afterward he starts to behave oddly,
showing a fascination with a statue of Neptune, the original "sea king", musing
about the prospects of becoming King of the Sea when Aquaman is gone, and
disappearing off by himself after having squids leave clouds of ink to keep Aquaman
from following him. Later, Aquaman is astounded when Aqualad deserts him
while he is battling skin-diving crooks stealing rare fish specimens; he gets
no help from Aqualad, though he does get help from a school of luminous fish
who blind the attackers. Then Aquaman is caught in a giant net Aqualad has
constructed, and attacked by a maddened narwhale, with Aqualad nowhere in
sight. Is a crazed Aqualad scheming to destroy Aquaman so that he can become the
new sea king? Aquaman manages to escape the net-trap and the narwhale, but
when Aquaman reappears he confronts the boy with his suspicions. But he
learns he has misjudged his young ward, as Aqualad leads him to an undersea cavern
that is now lighted by luminous fish, decorated with the Neptune statue, and
furnished with hamoocks and carpet made out of net. Yes, Aqualad's secret
is that he has put together a home for the two sea rovers, as a birthday gift
for his mentor. As swarms of fish pass by in a birthday salute, Aquaman
muses, "I'm ashamed of myself for thinking ill of Aqualad! I said we'd need a
home....and he secretly MADE a home! Yessir! When I retire, he'll make that
prophecy come true! Even now, he's a true king of the sea!"
I think that this Aquaman story appears in the AQUAMAN ARCHIVES volume, and
(though I could be mistaken) that it's the only story of the three in this
issue of ADVENTURE that's been reprinted anywhere.
like Curt Swan with Stan Kaye inks, our young hero is lying peacefully asleep on
his bed-- oddly, fully dressed in his Superboy costume, with a book open on
his stomach. His loving foster parents are looking in on him-- only they're
not quite his parents, for they have removed masks showing that they actually
have green alien faces with antennae. "Put on your 'Martha Kent' mask
quick! Superboy is about to awaken! He mustn't suspect that we are not his
parents, but aliens from anothr world!"
Review by Bill Henley
One trick Uncle Mort Weisinger had in his long career of selling comics to
young kids was to exploit their deepest fears. Just about everything a kid
might fear-- being rejected by parents or friends, being abandoned, becoming
ugly, being blacballed from a club or clique-- happened to Superboy at one time
or another. And here is another childhood fear on display, for what could
be more terrifying than finding out that your parents who love you and on whom
you are dependent are really alien monsters?
On the splash page of the inside story drawn by George Papp (I don't know
the writer), the alien "Ma and Pa Kent" have revealed themselves to Superboy
and are aiming a ray at him causing him to become "enormously fat" (yet another
kid fear). "And there is nothing you can do about it, Superboy, if you ever
want to see your foster parents again-- ALIVE!" "SUPERBOY embarks upon one
of the strangest adventures of his super-career, when he becomes the
unwilling foster-son of monsters from another world, in the amazing tale of the
STOLEN IDENTITIES!"
On the planet of Xelthu, some of its green, reptilian, antennaed inhabitants
focus their relescopic X-ray cameras on the faraway planet Earth, on the
village of Smallville, and on a certain "typical" (yeah, right) Smallville
home. As Ma and Pa Kent sit relaxing in their living room, Pa gets an odd
feeling that "hostile eyes are staring at me", but Ma pooh-poohs the idea; "Don't
be silly! It must be your imagination!" But Pa's imagination comes to life
as he and Ma find themselves disappearing from their peaceful living room to
find themselves "prisoners in a world of monsters". "Do not panic! You will
be quite safe as long as you do not oppose the masterminds of Xelthu!" The
Xelthuans seem offended by Ma's outraged description of them; "We are not
monsters! We are simply beings who evolved differently from yourselves!" But
what do these aliens want with this simple, elderly Earth couple? Ma and Pa
are horrified to find out as they observe the aliens make plastic masks of
their faces and duplicates of their Earth clothes-- items which enable the alien
couple Nerp and Irm Gikk to impersonate them. Shortly, Nerp and Irm are
beamed right into the Kent living room, as Pa groans, "Then it's true! Monsters
are masquerading as us on Earth! I wonder what they intend to do!"
Investigating the Kent home, Nerp and Irm are surprised to find the bedroom
of a teenage son-- and even more surprised to discover a closet full of
Superboy robots and a scrapbook of super-feats. "I'm afraid the Kent family is
not as typical as we thought!" They call back to Xelthu to send a teenage
alien to Earth to take the place of young Clark Kent, but the "master
teleport-ray" breaks down, leaving the Kents stranded on Xelthu and the pseudo-Kents
faced with the task of fooling their super-son. That son is about to return
from his patrol, musing, "Fighting all sorts of menaces and perils is exciting!
But afterwards, I like nothing better than returning to the safe, sane
atmosphere of the Kent home!" Arriving home, the Boy of Steel announces "I'm
starved! After I switch identities, let's eat dinner right away!" But Irm Gikk
is horrified to discover that the dinner Ma Kent had in the oven was a roast
beef; "The very thought of meat-eating makes Xelthunians feel ill! I can't go
through with this!" "You must steel yourself!" Nerp sternly directs.
Clark enjoys the meal his Ma produces, though Ma herself seems oddly upset--
"Just a headache, son!"-- but after dinner he is puzzled to discover that not
only have Ma and Pa left their meals untouched, but the tin cans the food came
in have been bitten into! As Clark goes to bed, though, he concludes that Ma
and Pa are just playing some kind of weird joke on him (yeah, that's quite a
sense of humor the Kents have). The aliens look in on their sleeping "son"
(dressed in Clark Kent pajamas rather than his costume as on the cover) but
their thoughts are not parental; "It is important we communicate with Xelthu
about getting rid of Superboy and replacing him with a msaquerading youth from
our planet!" Constructing their own teleporter, the aliens send the Superboy
robots back to Xelthu where they are deactivated. Ma Kent remains defiant;
"You won't beat our boy so easily! Nothing can harm Superboy except
Kryptonite, and you have none on this world!" But when the aliens start a search for
Kryptonite, she is mortified to realize she has blurted out her son's
weakness. Finding a Kryptonite sample in a lead box in Superboy's workshop, Nerf
and Irm create a K-powered teleport ray to use on Superboy.
Still suspicious the next morning of his parents' odd behavior, Clark
gestures to Pa Kent to help himself to the breakfast toast-- only to have his
suspicions confirmed when Pa takes a bite out of the metal toaster instead of the
toast! "You fool, you! You couldn't control your appetite, could you,
Nerf?" Exposed as nonhumans, the Gikks reveal their true faces and warn Superboy
that his real parents' lives back on Xelthu depend on him behaving himself.
They explain that rather than being a planet of another star, Xelthu is
actually a subatomic world, and that they must perform an unspecified "mission" on
Earth. "What IS your mission? If you are not planning to steal my world,
or harm it, perhaps I can help you!" But the aliens demur; "No! We don't
trust you! You may only PRETEND friendliness, then try to defeat our mission!"
The Irms fire their "tele-ray" at Superboy, intending to send him too to
Xelthu to join his parents in captivity. But instead of being weakened and
teleported, Superboy only becomes ridiculously fat! It seems that the aliens
foolishly used red kryptonite instead of green K as the power source for their
ray, and it had its usual unpredictable effect. The henpecked Nerf is berated
by his mate; "Can't you ever do anything right, Nerf?"
For some reason, the Gikks allow Superboy to fly off on routine errands, in
his "super-plump" state, while they try to repair the teleportation ray.
Flying around Smallville like a super-blimp, our hero reminds Lana Lang that
they have a date, to which she replies, "You forget it! I can't stand fattys!"
Posing for a statuefor the Chamber of Commerce, Superboy enables the artist
to sculpt him in his normal shape by creating a trick mirror to slim down his
image. Returning home, Superboy finds the aliens still determined to
implement their mysterious "Plan Z" to save their world....but when they try to use
their "tele-ray", the Red K power source again fouls things up, causing
Superboy to become super-tiny instead of super-fat. Going off on patrol again,
Superboy stops a robbery and a murder by blocking a bullet that is as big as
he is. Next, the aliens finally explain their mysterious mission; the world
of Xelthu is located inside an atom which is located "atop one of the world's
highest structures", and their mission is to relocate that atom "where
nothing on Earth can harm it-- war, lightning bolts, and so on!" Again Superboy
offers his help in accomplishing this mission and is rebuffed. Once again
they try the tele-ray and again it malfunctions, this time turning Superboy into
a giant. In that shape, he traverses the world using his microscopic vision
to study the world's tallest structures looking for Xelthu. There's no joy
at the Leaning Tower of Pisa or the Eiffel Tower (though Frenchmen react in
awe at the sight of a giant-sized "Super Garcon") but at the Empire State
Building Superboy finds Xelthu, and even spots his captive parents. Chipping off
the tiny bit of the building on which Xelthu exists, Superboy drops it to
the bottom of the ocean, where he figures the tiny world will forever be safe
from harm. Acknowledging that Superboy has accomplished "Plan Z" for them,
the "masterminds of Xelthu" exchange the Gikks for the real Kents (and
Superboy's robots). "Thanks goodness you got those aliens to return us, son!" "I'd
save a thousand worlds to see my mom and dad safely home!"
The next feature in this issue is the ADVENTURE debut of Congorilla, who in
a game of musical backups had just been pushed out of ACTION COMICS by an
expanded Supergirl feature, and in turn pushed Green Arrow out of his
long-running slot in ADVENTURE (though the amazing archer still had WORLD'S FINEST to
hang out in). "Of all the wonders of the Congo jungle, no phenomenon is more
fabulous than the amazing man-ape, CONGORILLA! His daring feats of strength
plus his keen, human intelligence combine into a huge fighting machine that
leaves both his friends and foes limp with awe! But how is it possible for a
giant gorilla to think like a human being? Learn the amazing secret of the
extraordinary jungle creature known as.... the NINTH WONDER!" On the splash,
panel, the golden gorilla picks up a jeep full of "ivory raiders" and lifts
it over his head. A gold shipment on the Congo River is captured by a gang of
"river pirates" using a miniature submarine. But Congorilla leaps into the
water and seizes the sub by its anchor chain, hauling it up onto shore and
leaving the pirats high and dry. "That's CONGORILLA! The natives talk of a
golden gorilla who has the intelligence of a man!" "Maybe he has ONE man's
intelligence, but TEN men cannot equal his strength!" For his next feat,
Congorilla breaks into "an abandoned fort converted into a scientific laboratory"
to rescue Professor West, a kidnapped scientist (but apparently not Iris
West's absent-minded dad from THE FLASH). It seems a criminal scientist named Dr.
Kovec has captured West to get his atomic secrets before they can help the
"Western democracies". Kovec and his gang are baffled how a mere beast can
comprehend Prof. West's plight, but when Congorilla evades their bullets by
locking himself and West in a chemistry lab with no exit, they conclude, "That
ape ain't so smart after all! He trapped himself!" But Kovec is astounded
when he looks through a chink in the wall and finds that the ape is working
with chemicals in the lab. The result of the simian experiment is
nitroglycerine, which he uses to blow a hole in the wall and escape with Prof. West.
Next, Congorilla learns that Mau Mau agitators have stirred up trouble between
white plantation owners and the "normall peaceful" Wambu tribesmen, and halts
the fighting without bloodshed by flying a crop-dusting plane and bombing
the rebellious warriors with choking insecticide gas. "The beast not only has
extraordinary intelligence and strength, he USES his power to help people in
distress! Thank goodness he's no legend...but a FACT!" (Of course the Wambu
and Mau Mau might see things differently, viewing Congorilla as a pawn of
sinister European colonialists.)
But how did Congorilla become such a brainy wonder? The answer, we learn,
lies in an incident where "famed hunter Congo Bill" (who had had a long career
in ACTION COMICS before being anthropoidized) and his kid sidekick Janu
came across a Congo native struggling in the water and menaced by crocodiles.
They rescue the old man only to find him near death from a fever, but
nonetheless, in gratitude, the "aged medicine man" offers Congo Bill a magic ring
which he says will give him the power to exchange his human mind with the mind
of a mighty golden gorilla. Later, after an encounter with a gang of ivory
raiders slaughtering elephants, Congo Bill spots the fabled golden gorilla and
decides to test the strange promise. The ring works and Congo Bill finds
himself gifted with the strength of Congorilla, with which he is able to lift
the raiders' jeep and hurl it into the nearby lake, and frighten the elephants
into moving to a safer stamping ground. But there is a downside as well, for
when Congo Bill becomes Congorilla, his human body has the savage mind of
the ape and has to be restrained for safety. "And now that you've met
CONGORILLA, follow his startling adventures in the next issue of ADVENTURE COMICS!"
Congorilla appeared in ADVENTURE through issue #283, April 1961 (skipping
#282) before being squeezed out by "Tales of the Bizarro World", which was in
turn replaced by the Legion.
The issue features a "Smallville Mailsack" lettercol, which mostly consists
of readers pointing out supposed "boo-boos" in previous stories, and Uncle
Mort explaining why they weren't really "boo-boos" at all. In one letter,
however, reader Terry Slaven of Snyder, New York, praises the previous story
"Prisoner of the Super-Heroes" (the second appearance of the Legion) and asks if
there will ever be a sequel in which Superman meets the other Legionnaires
grown up. "Great idea. We'll pass it along to our writers," Ye Ed replies.
Another letter, from Eloise Murphy of Houston, Texas, asks if Lana Lang as a
grownup is heartbroken because Superman prefers Lois Lane to her. For an
answer, Mort points Eloise to another of his titles, LOIS LANE, where "grown-up
Lana Lang is still very much active" and "still hasn't given up on Superman!"
Finally in this issue is an Aquaman tale-- though the blurb on the cover
advertises it as "EXTRA! A new AQUALAD story!"-- for this is only the second
appearance of Aquaman's new kid sidekick. But the Sea King may come to regret
sharing his throne, for the story is titled "The Menace of Aqualad!" On the
splash panel, a wild-eyed Aqualad stalks Aquaman with a spear-gun, as our
hero wonders if his new ward "intends to make the fortune-teller's
prophecy...that Aqualad will replace me as king of the sea....come true!" Some friendly
sailors present Aquaman with a birthday cake, and as he shares the
"home-baked" cake with Aqualad, the Atlentean orphan he adopted in the previous issue,
he reflects "how poorly equipped I am to bring you up, Aqualad! I haven't
even got a home for you to live in!" "Gosh, Aquaman! I don't care where we
live! I'm happy just being with you!" Later, in a show for the benefit of
retired sailors, Aquaman performs a death-defying stunt, diving from a helicopter
into just six feet of water. Onlookers expect him to be killed, but instead
of landing in the water he lands in the spouts of his friendly whales.
Later, observing an old woman falling off a dock, Aquaman rescues her, and in
gratitude she offers to tell his fortune. "I don't believe in superstitions!
But I won't hurt her feelings!" But the gypsy woman foresees "great danger for
you, Aquaman! Someone has come into your life who may imperil you... and
REPLACE you!" Aqualad gasps, "She means ME!" but Aquaman brushes off the
prediction. But when Aqualad accompanies Aquaman to the aid of a sinking ship,
the sea prince suffers a glancing blow from the prow of the vessel. Aqualad
insists he is unhurt, but shortly afterward he starts to behave oddly,
showing a fascination with a statue of Neptune, the original "sea king", musing
about the prospects of becoming King of the Sea when Aquaman is gone, and
disappearing off by himself after having squids leave clouds of ink to keep Aquaman
from following him. Later, Aquaman is astounded when Aqualad deserts him
while he is battling skin-diving crooks stealing rare fish specimens; he gets
no help from Aqualad, though he does get help from a school of luminous fish
who blind the attackers. Then Aquaman is caught in a giant net Aqualad has
constructed, and attacked by a maddened narwhale, with Aqualad nowhere in
sight. Is a crazed Aqualad scheming to destroy Aquaman so that he can become the
new sea king? Aquaman manages to escape the net-trap and the narwhale, but
when Aquaman reappears he confronts the boy with his suspicions. But he
learns he has misjudged his young ward, as Aqualad leads him to an undersea cavern
that is now lighted by luminous fish, decorated with the Neptune statue, and
furnished with hamoocks and carpet made out of net. Yes, Aqualad's secret
is that he has put together a home for the two sea rovers, as a birthday gift
for his mentor. As swarms of fish pass by in a birthday salute, Aquaman
muses, "I'm ashamed of myself for thinking ill of Aqualad! I said we'd need a
home....and he secretly MADE a home! Yessir! When I retire, he'll make that
prophecy come true! Even now, he's a true king of the sea!"
I think that this Aquaman story appears in the AQUAMAN ARCHIVES volume, and
(though I could be mistaken) that it's the only story of the three in this
issue of ADVENTURE that's been reprinted anywhere.
