ALL-STAR WESTERN (1st series) #108; Aug-Sept. 1959; DC Comics (National Comics Publications); Julius Schwartz, editor; cover-featuring "The Secret Origin of Johnny Thunder!" On the cover pencilled and inked by Gil Kane (per the GCD), Johnny Thunder confronts a desperado who is locked inside a cell but who has a gun and a grip on the aging sheriff of Mesa City (who, as we shall see, is Johnny's father). The bad guy warns, "I'm breakin' outa here with the sheriff in front o'me! Any shot at me-- is a shot at him!" But the sheriff would rather be shot than used as a hostage; "Never mind me, Johnny! SHOOT! SHOOT!"
Review by Bill Henley
During the late 1940's and early 50's, it was a sign of the decline and fall of the Golden Age of Comics-- superhero comics, at least-- when the Western hero called Johnny Thunder usurped the name of the recently-defunct comical JSA member, and the original Green Lantern's cover spot in ALL-AMERICAN COMICS (which soon became ALL-AMERICAN WESTERN)...When the JSA itself vanished and ALL STAR COMICS became ALL STAR WESTERN, that virtually put an end to the Golden Age. . When ALL-AMERICAN WESTERN made another conversion to MEN OF WAR in 1952, Johnny Thunder moved over to ALL-STAR WESTERN, at first as a backup feature to the Trigger Twins (of whom more later), but eventually taking over the cover slot.
But what goes around comes around, they say. By 1959, costumed superheroes were making a big comeback, and the two conventional Western anthology comics being published by DC, ALL-STAR WESTERN and the generically titled WESTERN COMICS-- both edited at that point by Julius Schwartz-- were struggling to survive. For ALL-STAR, Schwartz seems to have decided that the best way to keep the book alive was to make it look as much like a superhero book as possible. Johnny Thunder, who had always had something of a superheroic tinge with his double-identity setup, was given the lead position, and with this issue he got a redesigned ASW cover logo emphasizing his name, a new more colorful costume, and a relaunch of sorts with a retold origin story.
"The Origin of Johnny Thunder" (the interior title drops the "Secret" part, perhaps in recognition that a secret that is accessible to anyone with a dime handy isn't much of a secret) was written by Robert Kanigher, who had scripted all or most of the Johnny Thunder stories up to that point, and drawn by Gil Kane with inks by Joe Giella. I haven't had a chance to read the first JT story from ALL-AMERICAN COMICS #100, but I gather this origin tracks the original version in basic outline if maybe not in full detail. The splash panel depicts much the same situation as the cover, with the bad guy now out of the jail cell but still holding Sheriff Tane hostage. Caption: "You asked for it, readers! And here it is! The inside story of the man who leads two entirely different lives! One-- in which he fights bullets with books! And the second in which he draws like lightning-- and fires like thunder! Now-- it's all revealed in the breathless tale of-- THE ORIGIN OF JOHNNY THUNDER!"
"When the West was wild and young," a little boy named John Tane walked the streets with his father, vigorous and dedicated Sheriff Bill Tane. (How about that, the sheriff has my name. I'm not sure if his first name was ever actually given before this-- he was usually just referred to as "Sheriff Tane".) The sheriff expects that one day his son will "grow up to take MY place ''n' MY badge," and he admonishes his son to keep his silver star badge shiny and to take, when the time comes, a hard-line approach to law enforcement; "Always remember there's one answer to crime-- BULLETS!" But his pretty, red-haired mother (whose first name isn't mentioned here) teaches young John differently; "Books are better than bullets! If you teach children to be good citizens there will be no need for guns!" When the sheriff confronts a shotgun-wielding outlaw named Blackeye and wounds him but is himself wounded in turn, this just reinforces each parent's opposite viewpoint; "Bullets.. are the only answer to a killer!" "No.. no! If he had been taught to be decent from the start, he would never have become a killer!"
The years bring change as Mrs. Tane dies (in a scene not shown on-panel here), Sheriff Tane ages and slows down, causing Mesa City residents to wonder if he shouldn't be replaced by a younger man, and young John Tane grows to manhood-- but not the kind of manhood his father wants for him. For, following a promise given to his mother on her deathbed, John Tane has taken the job of schoolmaster in the town school in order to carry on her message that "books are better than bullets". This engenders only bitterness in the Sheriff, who faults his son for not growing up to wear a silver deputy's star at his side as he hoped. As Sheriff Tane confronts his errant son in his own classroom, a stray bullet from outside seems to negate the late Mrs. Tane's lesson by piercing one of John Tane's prized books!
The bullet was fired by one of the "Clifton boys," a badman pair who are raiding Mesa City and "havin' a big joke at the law's expense!" The Sheriff rides after the Cliftons and overtakes one of the outlaws, but his brother is waiting in ambush, and he lassos and disarms the Sheriff! Left alive but robbed of his gun, horse and badge, Sheriff Tane trudges back into town in utter humiliation and is met with a warning from one of the town fathers; "You've got to face it, Sheriff! Your son won't help you! And you no longer can handle your job alone! The council gives you 24 hours to get a deputy-- or resign!"
How will young John Tane overcome this double bind in which his parents have placed him? He gets a glimmer of an idea when his friend Kathy Brown-- after urging him to do something to help his father-- asks him what costume he plans to wear to the town masquerade ball. In private, he dons the costume he had ordered, a colorful cowboy outfit with blue jeans and a bright red shirt and silver-studded ten-gallon hat. (This is a different costume from the fringed buckskin jacket he wore in all his previously depicted adventures. He would wear the new outfit for the rest of his run, but having him don it at the very beginning of his career makes this a curious sort of retcon.) Though John Tane now looks very different from his traditional schoolteacher looks, he is still recognizable as himself-- and that won't do, for "There's only ONE way I can keep my promise to Mother and remain a schoolteacher-- and also help Dad by becoming ihs deputy! And that's by becoming two different people!" As the next step in his transformation, John removes his eyeglasses, which, he muses, are made of plain window glass and are worn only in order to "look more scholarly!" Next, he rubs black dust into his bright blond hair in order to obscure his true blond hair color. He realizes he must change more than his physical appearance; "My metamorphosis is complete! Uh-h! I still speak like a schoolteacher! My language must change too! Let's see... If yuh're lookin' for a deputy, Sheriff, I'm yore hombre!" But with a new identity must come a new name! He decides he can still use his first name by changing it from the prim "John" to the more relaxed "Johnny," but what for a last name? The answer comes when a sudden storm fills the air around him with lightning and thunder. "Listen to that thunder! Wait-- Thunder? Johnny Thunder? Hmm-- not bad! Johnny Thunder-- JOHNNY THUNDER!"
But as "Johnny Thunder" steps out onto the streets of Mesa City, John Tane feels all eyes on him and wonders if his disguise is working. Are people just curious about a stranger in town, or do they recognize the meek schoolteacher trying to play he-man? He quickly gets a chance to show his true colors as one of the Clifton outlaw gang accosts his friend Kathy Brown and steals a bag containing the bank deposit for the ranch she owns! Johnny lunges at Clifton but stops as he realizes that the outlaw has his gun drawn but his own is still in its holster! But when the outlaw sneers at Sheriff Tane as a "lame duck", Johnny is outraged by the insult to his father and leaps forward,knocking aside Clifton's gun by swinging his hat at it, pulling the badman off his horse and subduing him in a violent fistfight! Arriving on the scene, the Sheriff finds the new arrival in town vaguely familiar and asks if they have ever met before. Our hero evades; "If yuh ever met Johnny Thunder, Sheriff-- then yuh met me!" The sheriff decides that Johnny's fighting prowess doesn't remind him of anyone else that he knows, but that he'd like to see more of Johnny Thunder as his new deputy! Kathy Brown also likes the idea of Johnny staying around, and urges him to take the deputy job and to attend the upcoming masquerade ball. Johnny promises to do so and reflects that appearing at the ball in both of his identities will be "the final test of my disguise! Will her woman's heart be able to tell that both men are the same?"
Some time later, Johnny Thunder steps into the sheriff's office only to find that Clifton, by a ruse, has seized the Sheriff as a hostage and taken his gun! The Sheriff urges Johnny to shoot down the outlaw regardless of the risk to him, but-- to the Sheriff's bitter disappointment-- Johnny is unwilling to shoot and risk the life of his father. As Clifton rides away, still holding the Sheriff hostage in front of him on his horse, the Sheriff bitterly calls Johnny Thunder "a weakling! Jest like my son!" "I've failed Dad again-- even in my new identity!" But Johnny Thunder rides after Clifton, trailing him at a distance in hopes of finding a new opportunity to rescue his father. He is startled to witness Clifton riding through a waterfall and disappearing. Johnny follows through the waterfall and discovers that it is the entrance to a hidden valley where the Clifton brothers have their hideout in a small cabin. Sneaking up to the building, he finds the outlaws once again taunting the sheriff, offering him one last chance to wear his silver star badge before they kill him! Johnny literally tries to "smoke out" the badmen by stuffing his shirt into the chimney so that the interior will be filled with smoke and the Clifton brothers will be forced to emerge and perhaps give Johnny a clear shot at them. Johnny leaps from the cabin roof and knocks out one of the outlaws, but not before he fires a shot at Johnny which comes close enough to him to blind him with the gunflash. As a figure emerges from the swirling smoke, Johnny dares not shoot lest it be his father! But then, peering at the two figures through the smoke, Johnny spots a clue which tells him which man to take on! He still dares not fire his gun, but he dodges the remaining outlaw's gunfire and brings him down with a volley of fists! As Sheriff Tane emerges, he asks how Johnny knew which man to tackle. Johnny explains that he caught a glimpse of the shining silver star which the sneering outlaws had intended the Sheriff to die wearing, and knew that the other figure was his foe! And now the Sheriff gives the stranger, "Johnny Thunder," the accolade he has never given his son; "I always had hopes my son would be my deputy one day... but you risked your life for me... as if you really were my son! I'd be proud to have you as my deputy! "N' take my place some day! Will you?" As they shake hands on it, Johnny reflects, "You don't know it, Dad... but your son IS going to be your deputy!" (As I reread this story, I thought that even for a comic book, the idea of Johnny Thunder being the Sheriff's actual, official deputy is far-fetched. Normally, a sheriff's deputy would have a known habitation and be available to help with routine duties as well as violent outbreaks of lawbreaking. And indeed, Kanigher and/or Schwartz evidently had second thoughts, as in the next issue there is a flashback to this scene in which Johnny turns down the offer to be official deputy and agrees only to be an "unofficial" deputy appearing when he is most needed.)
Robert Kanigher had a tendency to set up a situation for a series character and then pound the situation totally into the ground in nearly every story about that character. This had certainly been true of the Johnny Thunder series, in which Johnny constantly faced the contempt and rejection of his father for his real self, even while winning his father's praise in his alternate identity. This pattern continued for the next few Kanigher-written stories in ASW. Only in what turned out to be the last three Johnny Thunder stories, in ASW #117-119, did the pattern change as Gardner Fox took over scripting the strip and created a new story hook, as John Tane/Johnny Thunder played secret identity games with a new character, the "female Robin Hood" outlaw Madame .44.
The "double-length" Johnny Thunder origin story squeezed out one of the usual features in ASW, the "Foley of the Fighting Fifth" feature about a heroic Cavalry officer. (Foley would return for the next few issues before being dropped for good.) So the remaining story in this issue is a tale of the Trigger Twins, "Sheriff Trigger's Lucky Streak!", written by Gardner Fox (succeeding Kanigher who had written the TT stories up to this point) and drawn by Carmine Intantino and Bernard Sachs. The Trigger Twins were yet another example of Kanigher taking a premise and pounding at it repetitively for years. In this case the convoluted premise was that that the well-meaning but usually inept Walt Trigger was the sheriff of Rocky City, but when real danger threatened his identical twin brother Wayne usually had to take over for him to perform the crime-fighting feats that were beyond Walt's ability. Here, things work out a little differently. (Another difference is in the identical sheriff outfits that both brothers wear when in action. Previously they had worn fringed buckskin outfits similar to Johnny Thunder's previous outfit. But Julie Schwartz apparently decided the buckskin look was really out of style, and gave the twins a new look with green jeans and vests over pinstriped shirts.) On the splash page Wayne sees Walt outnumbered three to one by a trio of charging badmen. Will this be another occasion when "He'll need more than LUCK to get him out of that spot!"? As the story begins, Sheriff Walt Trigger is for once doing his job himself, as he pursues an outlaw riding "the fastest critter in the Territory!" As the badman on his superior horse pulls away, Walt is distracted by a cry for help. He spots an elderly Indian clinging to a rock in the midst of a rushing river. No believer that "a good Indian is a dead Indian," Walt uses his lasso to rescue the Indian, named Bent Spear, who in gratitude offers Walt his precious good-luck charm, a small carved image. Though he doesn't believe in luck charms, Walt doesn't want to hurt the Indian's feelings, so he accepts the charm and carries it in his holster as directed.
And sure enough, the charm seems to bring Walt good luck, as he inadvertently comes upon the outlaw he was chasing, who has doubled back on his trail! In an uncharacteristic feat, Walt is able to leap from his horse at the outlaw, disarm him, and haul him back to Rocky City to be jailed! When he spots a bank robber fleeing in the dead of night, Walt fires his gun at the crook only to have his gun jam, and thinks his sudden good luck has turned bad! But then he discovers that an accomplice was hiding in the shadows and would have shot him if he had successfuly fired his gun. Now warned, Walt is able to subdue both robbers; "My luck is twice as good as I thought it was!" And to the captured criminals, he boasts, "You aren't fighting just me, boys-- you're fighting my good-luck charm, too!"
Walt awakens his brother Wayne to tell him of his newfound source of good luck, but a sleepy Wayne dismisses the effectiveness of the charm; "Don't believe that it was luck alone! You had confidence in yourself! That was the big thing!" The next day, Sheriff Walt sets out in high feather to trail a band of stagecoach robbers; "With my good luck, I'll have 'em behind bars before sundown!" But Wayne, playing his normal role as a storekeeper, is disturbed that his brother is depending entirely on luck and not taking normal precautions. He decides to put on his matching sheriff outfit and follow Walt in case he needs help. While Walt rides in the wrong direction, Wayne uses his tracking skills to find the trail of the robbers, and he lets himself be seen long enough to decoy the badmen in Walt's direction. When he spots the owlhoots, Walt is able to take one of them out of action with a punch and shoot the gun out of the hand of the other (a feat that was in real life pretty much unknown even to real gunslingers, let alone a supposedly maladroit sort like Walt). When one of the bad guys mentions seeing Walt up in the hills, Wayne realizes with disappointment that once again his identical brother has had to help him do his job! But at least he caught the bad guys himself, thanks to his lucky charm!
But when he sees Wayne again and gives credit for the capture to his lucky charm, Wayne tells Walt to look in his holster for his charm-- and it is gone! Wayne had removed the charm in order to teach his brother a lesson. "You had a streak of good luck which you played for all it was worth! But there'll come a time when BAD luck dogs your footsteps! You'll have to counteract it with your wits and skill-- NOT with a good-luck charm!" And Wayne points out that in reality Walt did defeat the outlaws "on fighting ability alone," without any help from the luck charm! Walt agrees to stop carrying the lucky charm, but leaves it visible on a shelf "to remind me of what I can do WITHOUT it!" (Gardner Fox was obviously trying to get away from Kanigher's depiction of Walt as a near-complete dolt, and in the next few "Twins" stories, Walt performs most of his sheriff duties with minimal help from Wayne. But Walt didn't have too much longer to enjoy his newfound competence. With ASW #117, the Trigger Twins were dropped in favor of the "Super-Chief" series which backed up Johnny Thunder in what turned out to be the last three issues of the title.)
Though Julie Schwartz was obviously more at home on the streets of New York or the imagined space trails of sci-fi than in the Wild West, he tried to give ASW more of a Western flavor with filler features such as an info page on "Pioneer River Crossings" and a "Hitching Post" lettercol which featured questions and answers on the real-life West rather than comments on the ASW stories. But sci-fi and superheroics both got into those last three issues of ASW, #117-119, as the quasi-superhero Johnny Thunder was backed up by the aforementioned Super-Chief, an actual super-powered hero -- albeit an American Indian hero from "the days before the white man came"-- who in one story fought aliens from outer space. Interestingly, though, while Schwartz tried to save ALL-STAR WESTERN by making it look more like a superhero comic, he went in the opposite direction with his other fading Western title, WESTERN COMICS. There, the somewhat fanciful Pow-Wow Smith was replaced as lead/cover feature by "Matt Savage, Trail Boss," which by comic-book standards was a gritty and realistic series, telling the story of a Western cattle drive without overt fantasy elements. But that title too was cancelled, leaving DC for the next few years of the Silver Age without any Western titles, unless you count TOMAHAWK.
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Showing posts with label All-Star Western. Show all posts
Showing posts with label All-Star Western. Show all posts
All-Star Western #119
ALL-STAR WESTERN ("starring JOHNNY THUNDER" on the cover logo) #119;
June-July 1961; DC Comics; Julius Schwartz, editor. The cover blurb advertises,
"Featuring MADAME .44, Outlaw Queen-- in GHOST TOWN GUN-FIGHT!" with an additional
blurb, "Amazing New Series-- SUPER-CHIEF-- Wonder Warrior of the Woodlands!"
On the cover scene by Gil Kane and (I think) Joe Giella, Johnny Thunder and
the redheaded, white-clad, bandanna-masked Madame .44 are in the thick of the
advertised gunfight, directing fire at unseen adversaries.
Review by Bill Henley
At the beginning of 1951, superheroes were mostly "out" in comics, Westerns
(among other genres) were "in", and so, ALL-STAR COMICS, formerly the home of
the glorious Justice Society of America, suddenly converted with issue #58 to
ALL-STAR WESTERN, featuring such range-riders as the Trigger Twins, Foley of
the Fighting 5th (Cavalry), and (starting with issue #67) the double-identity
gunslinger Johnny Thunder, who swiped his name from the previous humorous
quasi-superhero of the JSA and launched his career by taking over the lead spot from
the original Green Lantern in ALL-AMERICAN COMICS/WESTERN.
But by mid-1961, just over a decade later, the tables were turned.
Superheroes were in again, Westerns were on the way out (at least at DC Comics-- the
horse operas would have a few more years of popularity on TV and at some other
comics publishers) and editor Julius Schwartz struggled to keep DC's two
surviving Western titles alive. For the generically titled WESTERN COMICS, he tried
a lead feature that came as close as a Code-approved comic book could to the
gritty reality of Western life (see my review of WESTERN COMICS #77, featuring
Matt Savage, Trail Boss, which I think is still up on the Silver Age Reviews
website). For ALL-STAR WESTERN , on the other hand, Schwartz seems to have
adopted the motto "If you can't beat the superheroes, join them", and not only
emphasized the more superhero-ish aspects of lead feature Johnny Thunder, but
brought forth one of the most bizarre cross-genre characters in comics history.
The Johnny Thunder tale is written, I think, by Gardner Fox, and drawn by
Kane and Giella. The striking splash page depicts the bespectacled schoolmaster
John Tane and the primly dressed, long-skirted, blonde Jeanne Walker
confronting each other as, in the background, half-toned figures of their alter egos,
Johnny Thunder and Madame .44 face off with guns in hand. "When an outlaw
queen meets the king of the lawmen, sparks are bound to fly! And when each has a
telltale clue to the other's secret identity, the action and suspense pile
up!" As the story begins, black-haired lawman Johnny Thunder is warned, "Freeze,
Johnny Thunder! I'm going to SHOOT!" But it's not quite what you think---
this time, Johnny faces not a gun but an early-model camera, wielded by lady
photographer Jeanne Walker. Finding that Johnny isn't keeping still enough for
his image to register on the crude camera equipment, Jeanne insists that he
use a "head-holder" to keep his face motionless. But surreptitiously, as she
prepares Johnny for his photo sitting, she smears the back of his head with
"waterproof powdered silver". By watching the townsmen of Mesa City for this
telltale mark, she hopes to ferret out Johnny Thunder's secret identity. But as
Johnny assumes that secret identity by washing black dye out of his hair, he
has similar ideas in his mind, "I've eliminated the possibility of every girl
in Mesa City being Madame .44 - except one!", namely, photographer Jeanne
Walker herself. He does not know that, even with his hair restored to its natural
blond color as teacher John Tane, the silver streak left by sneaky Jeanne
remains.
As Jeanne walks the streets of Mesa City looking for the man with the
telltale silver mark, she encounters John Tane and nearly discovers his secre then
and there-- but she is distracted by the arrival of a Cheyenne Indian girl, who
urges Jeanne to accompany her. As the two ride off together, John Tane's
curiosity is sparked, and eventually he reassumes his Johnny Thunder identity to
trail them. "All I keep thinking of is-- suppose Jeanne Walker is Madame .44?
Right now-- she might be out robbing!" Down the trail, Johnny discovers a
fallen man who says that Madame '44 stole "ten thousand iron men" (ie, dollars)
from him. Leaving the man to be cared for by a passing stage driver, Johnny
rides in pursuit with his suspicions of Jeanne redoubled. But as he approaches
the ghost town of Blackwater Gulch, he is observed from atop a ridge by the
Madame herself, who fears that as "the greatest tracker in the West", he will
discover the hiding place of the robbery booty she cached there. She hurries
to pull the money out of its hiding place in a dry well, but too late, for
Johnny gets the drop on her and clicks handcuffs on her wrists. Then he reaches
to pull down her bandanna mask and expose her identity-- but before he can do
so, a bullet zings between them, coming from a band of armed men led by the
man, Ab Jones, who Johnny just rescued. "Why, it's that fellow you robbed!" As
the two dive for cover, Madame insists, "I robbed him of money he stole from
the Cheyenne-- intending to give it back to them!" The attackers are clearly
as willing to shoot Johnny as Madame '44, and so Johnny unlocks her cuffs and
gives her back her guns so that they can fight together. Meanwhile, the Madame
explains that Ab Jones is a crooked Indian agent who got rich by taking
government money for supplies to the Indians and pocketing most of the money while
giving the Cheyenne "threadbare blankets and patched clothes". As part of her
self-appointed mission to "help those the law can't punish", Madame .44
intends to give the proceeds of Jones' graft to the Indians. Moreover, she claims,
Ab Jones is the leader of the "Green Hat Gang" Johnny and his father, Sheriff
Tane, have been hunting-- though "that's your affair-- not mine!"
Agreeing to split up, Johnny climbs into a barn loft as Madame gives him
covering fire, and then leaps down as a "human battering ram" to subdue three
members of the gang. Meanwhile, the Madame knocks out a fourth owlhoot and then
makes her own escape, with her secret identity intact but without the $10,000
that Johnny Thunder recovered. As she schemes to get the money back, Johnny
has a bad day in court, as the four attackers escape justice by insisting that
they didn't recognize Johnny Thunder and, seeing him fighting alongside the
notorious Madame .44, thought he must be an outlaw like her. In the absence of
any other evidence (an editor's note explains that Johnny can't repeat what
Madame told him about Ab Jones because it would be "hearsay evidence" and
inadmissible), the four are released and ride away. Johnny is now determined to
catch Ab Jones with the goods, but he figures it will be less suspicious if he
trails them in his John Tane identity-- and even less suspicious-looking if he
has a "date" along. (Did they talk about going on "dates" back in the 1880's?)
Meanwhile, Madame .44 has decided to replace the lost loot by winning a
$10,000 reward for the capture of the Green Hat Gang, and she too decides to trail
the gang in her civilian guise and under the cover of an outing with a
gentleman acquaintance. And so, John Tane and Jeanne Walker take a buggy ride
together... as each of them nurses suspicions that the other is not what he or she
seems. The subterfuge saves their lives as the Green Hats spot them from
hiding, but hold their fire figuring there is no point shooting at a harmless
schoolteacher and his lady friend. But each of the pair also spot the outlaws'
hiding place, and that night, after returning to town, Johnny Thunder and Madame
.44 both ride out again on the trail of the gang. As they confront the
outlaws, they are as startled to see each other as the Green Hats are to see them,
and Johnny is nearly shot, but Madame .44 saves his life by knocking the
outlaw's gun hand aside. Working as a team, Johnny and Madame .44 subdue the gang
with their stolen loot and graft earnings, and Madame urges Johnny to repay her
lifesaving aid by donating the $10,000 reward to the Cheyenne. But in the
course of the fight, each acquired a telltale mark-- a powder burn on Madame
.44's wrist, and a bruise on Johnny's cheek. The Madame makes her escape as
Johnny is securing the prisoners (presumably he didn't try too hard to hold her as
well) and the next day, John Tane and Jeanne Walker aproach each other on the
Mesa City street, each looking for the mark that will expose the other's
secret. "Will Johnny Thunder uncover the secret identity of Madame .44? Will the
outlaw queen solve a riddle at which so many others have failed? Don't miss
the surprising sequel in the next issue of ALL-STAR WESTERN!" But, alas, all
of the readers missed that surprising sequel, for there was no next issue of
ALL-STAR WESTERN (at least not until 1970, and then it didn't have either
Johnny Thunder or Madame .44 in it). The title was cancelled with this issue.
(And as if to symbolize that what goes around comes around, the next page of the
issue was a full-page house ad for issue #5 of JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA, the
hit title featuring the reincarnation of the JSA which had been evicted from
ALL-STAR a decade before.)
Amazingly enough, however, the Johnny Thunder tale at long last did have its
sequel , in perhaps the longest-continued story in comics history. In DC
COMICS PRESENTS #28, Dec. 1980 (whose lead feature was a Superman/Supergirl
team-up vs. Mongul), fan writer Mike Tiefenbacher teamed up with Gil Kane, artist of
the original story, to tell "Whatever Happened to Lawman Johnny Thunder?"
Picking up where they left off so long ago, John Tane and Jeanne Walker approach
each other, still looking for the telltale clue-- when once again they are
interrupted by the attack of the bank-robbing Silk Black, an outlaw with a
special mad-on for Johnny Thunder. As each of the couple run off the change
identity, Johnny muses on how he got started in the double-identity business, in
order to get out of a family double bind with a sheriff father who wanted him to
follow in his footsteps as a lawman, and a deceased mother whose last wish was
that her son would lead a peaceful life as a teacher.. As Johnny gets his
mind back on the present and starts shooting it out with Silk Black, he is
winged in the shoulder. Madame .44 rides to the rescue, only to be targeted by
Sheriff Tane (Johnny's father) who knows her only as an out-and-out outlaw. He
doesn't know, as Johnny now does, that "Despite her unlawful methods, Madame
.44 wants JUSTICE as badly as I do!" Johnny tries to stop his father from
gunning down the Madame, but blacks out from his wound. When he comes to, Silk
Black, the Madame and the Sheriff have all disappeared, and a storm is blowing
up. Riding on their trail, Johnny reunites with Madame .44, and working
together they manage to survive an avalanche, a fall into a raging river and a
climactic battle with Silk Black-- but in the process, their secret identities are
thoroughly exposed to each other as the pouring rain washes out the hair dye
each one uses. Johnny brings the Madame to the Sheriff's custody, but arranges
for a full pardon for her, and shortly after they are married-- and we learn
that all this is a family story being told to their children, one of whom is
named Chuck-- presumably meant to be a very distant ancestor of Bouncing Boy of
the Legion of Super-Heroes.
But back to ASW #119, for there is one story left before the title closes up
for good-- the third and last tale of Super-Chief, super-powered hero of an
Indian tribe "in the days before the white man came". (Earlier in the run of
ASW, one of its features was Strong Bow, another warrior of the pre-Columbian
era, though without super-powers. Apparently DC didn't mind having Indian
heroes as headlines, but was antsy about having them operate in historical times
when they might get into conflict with white people.) The story is by Gardner
Fox with pencils and inks by Carmine Infantino, and on the splash page of "The
Sky People!" Super-Chief holds himself aloft in the sky by whirling a tree
branch like a propeller, as green men using similar whirling devices shoot
ray-guns at him. As the story begins, Flying Stag, "mightiest hunter of The Nations
tribe", fires an arrow at a deer, only to see the deer dodge his arrow by
floating into the air. "By Manitou! Some great magic steals my dinner right
from under my eyes!" Meanwhile, "his sweetheart White Fawn" prepares food for
the two of them and her mischievous young brother Lightfoot, but when Lightfoot
plays a prank on her she says with exasperation, "Ohhh-- I wish Manitou would
come and carry you off, sometimes!" Be careful what you ask for, for
Lightfoot floats off into the air-- crying "Save me! I didn't mean it!"-- as if her
wish had been granted. When the panicky White Fawn tells Flying Stag what has
happened, he concludes that "I can best investigate this mystery as--
Super-Chief!" Seeking out his secret cache, Stag reflects that "For one hour out of
every 24, Manitou has granted me super-powers! Mine is the strength of 1000
bears, the speed of 1000 deer, the leaping prowess of 1000 wolves!" He dons his
"costume", which consists of a buffalo-head mask, black leggings and the
amulet which grants him his powers, and takes giant leaps through the air hoping
to spot Lightfoot and other living things that have been snatched into the sky.
"Meanwhile, young Lightfoot finds himself in a great room facing creatures
the like of which he has never imagined"-- green humanoids who are studying
Earth life-forms before beginning their hunt for the valuable mineral "carasote"
(aka aluminum). Rather than being cowed by his close encounter with alien
life, however, Lightfoot is determined to repay them for "treating him quite
arrogantly" He fells them momentarily with sneezing powder from his parfleche
bag, and seizes a control rod, hoping to snap it off to use as a war club. The
rod doesn't break, but it does cause the space vehicle they are in to crash to
the ground. After making the forced landing and subduing Lightfoot, the
aliens decide to start their "carasote" mining operation while repairing the
damage to the ship. (Hasn't all this taken longer than the hour Super-Chief keeps
his powers? For that matter, did pre-Columbian Indians really keep time in
terms of hours?) Super-Chief is alerted by animals fleeing from the noisy
mining machine, and, reaching the scene, leaps into the air lifting the mining
engine and lets it crash to the ground and smash. He then uses his super-speed
to disarm the alien guards (apparently recognizing their weapons as a threat,
even though he has no experience with regular guns, let alone ray-guns). Some
hunters of "the Nations" then arrive on the scene, but so does the spaceship
(apparently repaired already, or maybe a second ship, it's not altogether
clear). The aliens descend from the ship hanging from whirling propeller devices
and fire their stun-guns at the Indian tribesemen. Dodging the blasts,
Super-Chief converts a tree trunk into an imitation of the propeller devices and uses
his powers to spin it at super-speed and lift him into the air. while
praying, "Great Spirit, give me the strength to overcome these sky creatures!"
Though he knows that his allotted hour of power is almost up, he manages to
destroy the aliens' stun-guns and knock them out of the air, causing his tribesmen
below to shout, "Only Super-Chief could have defeated these men who fly like
birds! Aieee! He is the greatest of all chiefs!" But then, as his hour
expires, Super-Chief realizes that little Lightfoot is still a prisoner in the
"skyship" above. Quickly coming up with a plan, (non)Super-Chief directs his
braves to create a giant bow and arrow by bending back trees and using a log as the
"arrow"-- to which Super-Chief himself clings as it shoots skyward. The
"arrow" falls short, but Super-Chief manages to catch a fin of the spaceship with
his rope, and then the Indians on the ground grab the other end of the rope
and pull on the ship, forcing it to land. An unhurt Lightfoot is released and
reunited with White Fawn, and the aliens emerge to bargain with the Indians
using telepathy. In return for permission to mine the "carasote" which the tribe
has no use for, the aliens present Super-Chief with a jeweled necklace (an
allusion to the story of Indians trading Manhattan for $24 worth of trinkets?)
and Super-Chief presents it to White Fawn. But Super-Chief only gets
super-grief as a reward, for when he resumes his "civilian" identity as Flying Stag,
Fawn only complains, "Why don't YOU ever win a pretty necklace for me, the way
Super-Chief did?" "I can't tell her it was I who won it-- without betraying
my secret identity! But this is a sacrifice I must make! In order to obtain
my super-powers, I vowed never to let anyone know who I really am! I'm my own
worst rival!" The closing caption promises, "Another startling adventure with
Super-Chief in the next issue!", but, again, it was a promise that was
broken. And no one ever got around to doing a story of "Whatever Happened to
Super-Chief?" (though someone should have in that DC PRESENTS series, it would have
been a hoot). Indeed, as far as I'm aware, Super-Chief has never appeared
again except for a reprint of his first story in a 1970's SUPERMAN 100 PAGE
SPECTACULAR. (I reviewed ASW #117 featuring that story and also the debut
appearance of Madame .44, years ago on the list in the pre-Yahoo days...but I lost
that review in a hard drive crash. I don't suppose anyone has that review, or
others of mine, saved somewhere?)
"Featuring MADAME .44, Outlaw Queen-- in GHOST TOWN GUN-FIGHT!" with an additional
blurb, "Amazing New Series-- SUPER-CHIEF-- Wonder Warrior of the Woodlands!"
On the cover scene by Gil Kane and (I think) Joe Giella, Johnny Thunder and
the redheaded, white-clad, bandanna-masked Madame .44 are in the thick of the
advertised gunfight, directing fire at unseen adversaries.
Review by Bill Henley
At the beginning of 1951, superheroes were mostly "out" in comics, Westerns
(among other genres) were "in", and so, ALL-STAR COMICS, formerly the home of
the glorious Justice Society of America, suddenly converted with issue #58 to
ALL-STAR WESTERN, featuring such range-riders as the Trigger Twins, Foley of
the Fighting 5th (Cavalry), and (starting with issue #67) the double-identity
gunslinger Johnny Thunder, who swiped his name from the previous humorous
quasi-superhero of the JSA and launched his career by taking over the lead spot from
the original Green Lantern in ALL-AMERICAN COMICS/WESTERN.
But by mid-1961, just over a decade later, the tables were turned.
Superheroes were in again, Westerns were on the way out (at least at DC Comics-- the
horse operas would have a few more years of popularity on TV and at some other
comics publishers) and editor Julius Schwartz struggled to keep DC's two
surviving Western titles alive. For the generically titled WESTERN COMICS, he tried
a lead feature that came as close as a Code-approved comic book could to the
gritty reality of Western life (see my review of WESTERN COMICS #77, featuring
Matt Savage, Trail Boss, which I think is still up on the Silver Age Reviews
website). For ALL-STAR WESTERN , on the other hand, Schwartz seems to have
adopted the motto "If you can't beat the superheroes, join them", and not only
emphasized the more superhero-ish aspects of lead feature Johnny Thunder, but
brought forth one of the most bizarre cross-genre characters in comics history.
The Johnny Thunder tale is written, I think, by Gardner Fox, and drawn by
Kane and Giella. The striking splash page depicts the bespectacled schoolmaster
John Tane and the primly dressed, long-skirted, blonde Jeanne Walker
confronting each other as, in the background, half-toned figures of their alter egos,
Johnny Thunder and Madame .44 face off with guns in hand. "When an outlaw
queen meets the king of the lawmen, sparks are bound to fly! And when each has a
telltale clue to the other's secret identity, the action and suspense pile
up!" As the story begins, black-haired lawman Johnny Thunder is warned, "Freeze,
Johnny Thunder! I'm going to SHOOT!" But it's not quite what you think---
this time, Johnny faces not a gun but an early-model camera, wielded by lady
photographer Jeanne Walker. Finding that Johnny isn't keeping still enough for
his image to register on the crude camera equipment, Jeanne insists that he
use a "head-holder" to keep his face motionless. But surreptitiously, as she
prepares Johnny for his photo sitting, she smears the back of his head with
"waterproof powdered silver". By watching the townsmen of Mesa City for this
telltale mark, she hopes to ferret out Johnny Thunder's secret identity. But as
Johnny assumes that secret identity by washing black dye out of his hair, he
has similar ideas in his mind, "I've eliminated the possibility of every girl
in Mesa City being Madame .44 - except one!", namely, photographer Jeanne
Walker herself. He does not know that, even with his hair restored to its natural
blond color as teacher John Tane, the silver streak left by sneaky Jeanne
remains.
As Jeanne walks the streets of Mesa City looking for the man with the
telltale silver mark, she encounters John Tane and nearly discovers his secre then
and there-- but she is distracted by the arrival of a Cheyenne Indian girl, who
urges Jeanne to accompany her. As the two ride off together, John Tane's
curiosity is sparked, and eventually he reassumes his Johnny Thunder identity to
trail them. "All I keep thinking of is-- suppose Jeanne Walker is Madame .44?
Right now-- she might be out robbing!" Down the trail, Johnny discovers a
fallen man who says that Madame '44 stole "ten thousand iron men" (ie, dollars)
from him. Leaving the man to be cared for by a passing stage driver, Johnny
rides in pursuit with his suspicions of Jeanne redoubled. But as he approaches
the ghost town of Blackwater Gulch, he is observed from atop a ridge by the
Madame herself, who fears that as "the greatest tracker in the West", he will
discover the hiding place of the robbery booty she cached there. She hurries
to pull the money out of its hiding place in a dry well, but too late, for
Johnny gets the drop on her and clicks handcuffs on her wrists. Then he reaches
to pull down her bandanna mask and expose her identity-- but before he can do
so, a bullet zings between them, coming from a band of armed men led by the
man, Ab Jones, who Johnny just rescued. "Why, it's that fellow you robbed!" As
the two dive for cover, Madame insists, "I robbed him of money he stole from
the Cheyenne-- intending to give it back to them!" The attackers are clearly
as willing to shoot Johnny as Madame '44, and so Johnny unlocks her cuffs and
gives her back her guns so that they can fight together. Meanwhile, the Madame
explains that Ab Jones is a crooked Indian agent who got rich by taking
government money for supplies to the Indians and pocketing most of the money while
giving the Cheyenne "threadbare blankets and patched clothes". As part of her
self-appointed mission to "help those the law can't punish", Madame .44
intends to give the proceeds of Jones' graft to the Indians. Moreover, she claims,
Ab Jones is the leader of the "Green Hat Gang" Johnny and his father, Sheriff
Tane, have been hunting-- though "that's your affair-- not mine!"
Agreeing to split up, Johnny climbs into a barn loft as Madame gives him
covering fire, and then leaps down as a "human battering ram" to subdue three
members of the gang. Meanwhile, the Madame knocks out a fourth owlhoot and then
makes her own escape, with her secret identity intact but without the $10,000
that Johnny Thunder recovered. As she schemes to get the money back, Johnny
has a bad day in court, as the four attackers escape justice by insisting that
they didn't recognize Johnny Thunder and, seeing him fighting alongside the
notorious Madame .44, thought he must be an outlaw like her. In the absence of
any other evidence (an editor's note explains that Johnny can't repeat what
Madame told him about Ab Jones because it would be "hearsay evidence" and
inadmissible), the four are released and ride away. Johnny is now determined to
catch Ab Jones with the goods, but he figures it will be less suspicious if he
trails them in his John Tane identity-- and even less suspicious-looking if he
has a "date" along. (Did they talk about going on "dates" back in the 1880's?)
Meanwhile, Madame .44 has decided to replace the lost loot by winning a
$10,000 reward for the capture of the Green Hat Gang, and she too decides to trail
the gang in her civilian guise and under the cover of an outing with a
gentleman acquaintance. And so, John Tane and Jeanne Walker take a buggy ride
together... as each of them nurses suspicions that the other is not what he or she
seems. The subterfuge saves their lives as the Green Hats spot them from
hiding, but hold their fire figuring there is no point shooting at a harmless
schoolteacher and his lady friend. But each of the pair also spot the outlaws'
hiding place, and that night, after returning to town, Johnny Thunder and Madame
.44 both ride out again on the trail of the gang. As they confront the
outlaws, they are as startled to see each other as the Green Hats are to see them,
and Johnny is nearly shot, but Madame .44 saves his life by knocking the
outlaw's gun hand aside. Working as a team, Johnny and Madame .44 subdue the gang
with their stolen loot and graft earnings, and Madame urges Johnny to repay her
lifesaving aid by donating the $10,000 reward to the Cheyenne. But in the
course of the fight, each acquired a telltale mark-- a powder burn on Madame
.44's wrist, and a bruise on Johnny's cheek. The Madame makes her escape as
Johnny is securing the prisoners (presumably he didn't try too hard to hold her as
well) and the next day, John Tane and Jeanne Walker aproach each other on the
Mesa City street, each looking for the mark that will expose the other's
secret. "Will Johnny Thunder uncover the secret identity of Madame .44? Will the
outlaw queen solve a riddle at which so many others have failed? Don't miss
the surprising sequel in the next issue of ALL-STAR WESTERN!" But, alas, all
of the readers missed that surprising sequel, for there was no next issue of
ALL-STAR WESTERN (at least not until 1970, and then it didn't have either
Johnny Thunder or Madame .44 in it). The title was cancelled with this issue.
(And as if to symbolize that what goes around comes around, the next page of the
issue was a full-page house ad for issue #5 of JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA, the
hit title featuring the reincarnation of the JSA which had been evicted from
ALL-STAR a decade before.)
Amazingly enough, however, the Johnny Thunder tale at long last did have its
sequel , in perhaps the longest-continued story in comics history. In DC
COMICS PRESENTS #28, Dec. 1980 (whose lead feature was a Superman/Supergirl
team-up vs. Mongul), fan writer Mike Tiefenbacher teamed up with Gil Kane, artist of
the original story, to tell "Whatever Happened to Lawman Johnny Thunder?"
Picking up where they left off so long ago, John Tane and Jeanne Walker approach
each other, still looking for the telltale clue-- when once again they are
interrupted by the attack of the bank-robbing Silk Black, an outlaw with a
special mad-on for Johnny Thunder. As each of the couple run off the change
identity, Johnny muses on how he got started in the double-identity business, in
order to get out of a family double bind with a sheriff father who wanted him to
follow in his footsteps as a lawman, and a deceased mother whose last wish was
that her son would lead a peaceful life as a teacher.. As Johnny gets his
mind back on the present and starts shooting it out with Silk Black, he is
winged in the shoulder. Madame .44 rides to the rescue, only to be targeted by
Sheriff Tane (Johnny's father) who knows her only as an out-and-out outlaw. He
doesn't know, as Johnny now does, that "Despite her unlawful methods, Madame
.44 wants JUSTICE as badly as I do!" Johnny tries to stop his father from
gunning down the Madame, but blacks out from his wound. When he comes to, Silk
Black, the Madame and the Sheriff have all disappeared, and a storm is blowing
up. Riding on their trail, Johnny reunites with Madame .44, and working
together they manage to survive an avalanche, a fall into a raging river and a
climactic battle with Silk Black-- but in the process, their secret identities are
thoroughly exposed to each other as the pouring rain washes out the hair dye
each one uses. Johnny brings the Madame to the Sheriff's custody, but arranges
for a full pardon for her, and shortly after they are married-- and we learn
that all this is a family story being told to their children, one of whom is
named Chuck-- presumably meant to be a very distant ancestor of Bouncing Boy of
the Legion of Super-Heroes.
But back to ASW #119, for there is one story left before the title closes up
for good-- the third and last tale of Super-Chief, super-powered hero of an
Indian tribe "in the days before the white man came". (Earlier in the run of
ASW, one of its features was Strong Bow, another warrior of the pre-Columbian
era, though without super-powers. Apparently DC didn't mind having Indian
heroes as headlines, but was antsy about having them operate in historical times
when they might get into conflict with white people.) The story is by Gardner
Fox with pencils and inks by Carmine Infantino, and on the splash page of "The
Sky People!" Super-Chief holds himself aloft in the sky by whirling a tree
branch like a propeller, as green men using similar whirling devices shoot
ray-guns at him. As the story begins, Flying Stag, "mightiest hunter of The Nations
tribe", fires an arrow at a deer, only to see the deer dodge his arrow by
floating into the air. "By Manitou! Some great magic steals my dinner right
from under my eyes!" Meanwhile, "his sweetheart White Fawn" prepares food for
the two of them and her mischievous young brother Lightfoot, but when Lightfoot
plays a prank on her she says with exasperation, "Ohhh-- I wish Manitou would
come and carry you off, sometimes!" Be careful what you ask for, for
Lightfoot floats off into the air-- crying "Save me! I didn't mean it!"-- as if her
wish had been granted. When the panicky White Fawn tells Flying Stag what has
happened, he concludes that "I can best investigate this mystery as--
Super-Chief!" Seeking out his secret cache, Stag reflects that "For one hour out of
every 24, Manitou has granted me super-powers! Mine is the strength of 1000
bears, the speed of 1000 deer, the leaping prowess of 1000 wolves!" He dons his
"costume", which consists of a buffalo-head mask, black leggings and the
amulet which grants him his powers, and takes giant leaps through the air hoping
to spot Lightfoot and other living things that have been snatched into the sky.
"Meanwhile, young Lightfoot finds himself in a great room facing creatures
the like of which he has never imagined"-- green humanoids who are studying
Earth life-forms before beginning their hunt for the valuable mineral "carasote"
(aka aluminum). Rather than being cowed by his close encounter with alien
life, however, Lightfoot is determined to repay them for "treating him quite
arrogantly" He fells them momentarily with sneezing powder from his parfleche
bag, and seizes a control rod, hoping to snap it off to use as a war club. The
rod doesn't break, but it does cause the space vehicle they are in to crash to
the ground. After making the forced landing and subduing Lightfoot, the
aliens decide to start their "carasote" mining operation while repairing the
damage to the ship. (Hasn't all this taken longer than the hour Super-Chief keeps
his powers? For that matter, did pre-Columbian Indians really keep time in
terms of hours?) Super-Chief is alerted by animals fleeing from the noisy
mining machine, and, reaching the scene, leaps into the air lifting the mining
engine and lets it crash to the ground and smash. He then uses his super-speed
to disarm the alien guards (apparently recognizing their weapons as a threat,
even though he has no experience with regular guns, let alone ray-guns). Some
hunters of "the Nations" then arrive on the scene, but so does the spaceship
(apparently repaired already, or maybe a second ship, it's not altogether
clear). The aliens descend from the ship hanging from whirling propeller devices
and fire their stun-guns at the Indian tribesemen. Dodging the blasts,
Super-Chief converts a tree trunk into an imitation of the propeller devices and uses
his powers to spin it at super-speed and lift him into the air. while
praying, "Great Spirit, give me the strength to overcome these sky creatures!"
Though he knows that his allotted hour of power is almost up, he manages to
destroy the aliens' stun-guns and knock them out of the air, causing his tribesmen
below to shout, "Only Super-Chief could have defeated these men who fly like
birds! Aieee! He is the greatest of all chiefs!" But then, as his hour
expires, Super-Chief realizes that little Lightfoot is still a prisoner in the
"skyship" above. Quickly coming up with a plan, (non)Super-Chief directs his
braves to create a giant bow and arrow by bending back trees and using a log as the
"arrow"-- to which Super-Chief himself clings as it shoots skyward. The
"arrow" falls short, but Super-Chief manages to catch a fin of the spaceship with
his rope, and then the Indians on the ground grab the other end of the rope
and pull on the ship, forcing it to land. An unhurt Lightfoot is released and
reunited with White Fawn, and the aliens emerge to bargain with the Indians
using telepathy. In return for permission to mine the "carasote" which the tribe
has no use for, the aliens present Super-Chief with a jeweled necklace (an
allusion to the story of Indians trading Manhattan for $24 worth of trinkets?)
and Super-Chief presents it to White Fawn. But Super-Chief only gets
super-grief as a reward, for when he resumes his "civilian" identity as Flying Stag,
Fawn only complains, "Why don't YOU ever win a pretty necklace for me, the way
Super-Chief did?" "I can't tell her it was I who won it-- without betraying
my secret identity! But this is a sacrifice I must make! In order to obtain
my super-powers, I vowed never to let anyone know who I really am! I'm my own
worst rival!" The closing caption promises, "Another startling adventure with
Super-Chief in the next issue!", but, again, it was a promise that was
broken. And no one ever got around to doing a story of "Whatever Happened to
Super-Chief?" (though someone should have in that DC PRESENTS series, it would have
been a hoot). Indeed, as far as I'm aware, Super-Chief has never appeared
again except for a reprint of his first story in a 1970's SUPERMAN 100 PAGE
SPECTACULAR. (I reviewed ASW #117 featuring that story and also the debut
appearance of Madame .44, years ago on the list in the pre-Yahoo days...but I lost
that review in a hard drive crash. I don't suppose anyone has that review, or
others of mine, saved somewhere?)
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