The Brave and the Bold #36: "Shadow-Thief Of Midway City!"

The Brave and the Bold #36
"Shadow-Thief Of Midway City!"
June-July, 1961

Story: Gardner Fox
Art: Joe Kubert
Lettering: Gaspar Saladino

There must be someone or something to cast a shadow! Or so it was believed until the appearance of a bodiless shadow which passed through steel and concrete -- committing crimes at will! How could the authorities hope to catch an elusive criminal who could slip through their very fingers? Hawkman and Hawkgirl had to solve this particular problem when they pursue the... "Shadow-Thief Of Midway City!"

During the lunchtime break at Midway City National Bank, a security guard is unable to believe his very eyes! The hapless guard watches as a shadow walks through the bank's revolving doors, and there's no one present to cast it! As the silent shadow moves across the bank floor, the security guard reaches out for the shadowy figure, but his hand fails to make contact -- and there is a cold feeling, as if it were suddenly dipped in ice water! The bodiless shadow continues walking straight ahead through the teller's cage, its hands closing on packages containing bank notes... The stolen bank money is placed within a shadowy bag, and bullets fail to stop the bodiless shadow as it prepares to leave the Midway City National Bank!

Outside the bank, police cars have arrived... and the officers' bullets fail to bring the shadow to a halt! The silent shadow passes through a nearby building... leaving the police officers at a loss to explain what they have just seen for themselves! One hour later, a homing pigeon is hovering outside of the Midway City Museum. Inside, Shayera informs Katar that their spaceship receiviset has just shown their home planet of Thanagar is summoning them to return! They will have to leave the Earth! As Katar ponders using the cover of taking a vacation to protect their dual identities, Shayera spots one of Commissioner Emmett's homing pigeons with a message for them! The musem director and his spouse change to their Hawkman and Hawkgirl uniforms... armed with a crossbow to be used against the Shadow-Thief... Hawkgirl has been asked by Katar to carry a camera! In Commissioner Emmett's office, the Hawks are briefed about the mysterious Shadow-Thief. A police cordon is being thrown around Midway City, and the Hawks will be patrolling the skies! The police officers are to fire flares as soon as they spot the Shadow-Thief!

After winging their way to their orbiting invisible spaceship, Hawkman alters the crossbow bolts, and the Hawks begin their aerial patrol. Spotting a flare, Hawkgirl directs her spouse to fly down to a private residence, where the only complete American coin collection is housed! The Shadow-Thief is in the display room, helping himself to the million dollar coins. Hawkman hopes the crossbow quarrels will stop this mysterious thief! Whatever does happen will be recorded by Hawkgirl and her camera! Its loot is stuffed in a shadowy bag, the Shadow-Thief prepares to depart. The glass knobs on the crossbow bolts contain tear gas! If the Shadow-Thief needs to breathe -- this will make it difficult! Unaffected by the tear gas, the Shadow-Thief continues on its way. Since bullets and tear gas failed to stop it, Hawkman decides to fight it with fire!

Hawkman fires off the bolts again and again until the Shadow-Thief is surrounded by a ring of fire. For a moment, the mysterious criminal hesitates, then passes through the flames, unharmed. There is only one thing left to try -- a smoke screen to restrict its field of vision! FROOOSH This also fails, as the Shadow-Thief continues on its way, and passes through the sidewalk itself! Later, the mysterious criminal enters through the door of a trailer miles outside of Midway City.

The Shadow-Thief turns off the dimensiometer which enables him to assume his shadowy form! Carl Sands recalls how it was his own shadow that caused him to be apprehended while committing a burglary years ago! He had thought himself successfully hidden, but a policeman spotted his shadow, and arrested him! During those years in prison, Sands saw that his shadow could go outside of his cell -- but he could not! He used to pretend that he could command his shadow to seize the guard's keys to open his cell door. After serving his time, Carl Sands read up about shadow facts and fiction. It was once believed that a shadow could be caught within a string! Using a magic-trick book, Sands created a device which would allow him to walk away, leaving his shadow behind. A red light -- then a green light -- and a blue light are cast on a screen...

When Sands stepped back, his shadow image was imprinted on the screen! This trick would not allow his shadow to walk around. One evening while he was experimenting, Carl Sands heard a faint cry for help. Following the voice's instructions, he kept the color disc spinning at a steady rate, and learned in a dimension adjacent to his own, a creature needed his aid. After placing some iron filings under the revolving disc, Sands learned that these items powered a strange type of ray-gun. ZSST The creature had run out of iron and thanks to the third dimensional man, he was able to disintegrate the rock which had trapped him. In gratitude, the creature sent a dimensionmeter from his laboratory, and Carl Sands found it beneath the revolving disc. The rotating colored discs opened a gateway between their two dimensions!

Activating the dimensiometer, Carl Sands found his body shifting to another dimension which was a geographical duplicate of Earth! Although he was now in another dimension, he was able to cast a shadow on Earth! A pair of ebony gloves appeared after the dimensiometer. These gloves would enable Sands to reach from the other dimension into his own world! Sands wore the device and a specially designed uniform when he robbed the Midway City National Bank! All that could be seen of him was his shadow! When he returned to his trailer, he learned from the creature that the dimensiometer affected Earth's magnetic lines! If he continued using the device, he would cause another ice age! Blizzards would rage over the surface of the Earth! The oceans would be frozen solid! There would be no more food because all animal life would die out and nothing would grow! Mankind would soon follow...

Carl Sands refused to listen further and smashes the color disc which bridged their two dimensions. He intended on using the dimensiometer again and again... no matter what! CRASH As the Shadow-Thief, he would continue to rob whatever he could carry! No one was going to stop him! At Midway City Museum, Shayera and Katar ponder how they could defeat a shadow? She would not like to leave Earth for Thanagar without knowing they had been outsmarted by the Shadow-Thief! Even if they knew where he was, how could they capture him if they can't even touch him? Katar recalls the motion pictures Shayera took! After watching the footage, they make a profile still view of their suspect! At Midway City Police Headquarters, Hawkman browses through the mug book until he finds what he has been looking for. Carl Sands is their Shadow-Thief! Commissioner Emmett prepares to order a city-wide search for the recently released criminal suspect!

Hawkman points out they have to figure out a way to capture him or else he will slip through their fingers again! One hour later in Hawk Valley, Hawkman commands his feathered friends to find the evil man who steals from the Hawks' own people! Minutes later, the trailer is spotted, and Carl Sands is seen pouring a cup of coffee at the window! As the Hawks swoop towards his trailer, Hawkman tells Hawkgirl what they are going to do!

The two Thanagarian police officers grasp the trailer at opposite ends and activate their anti-gravity belts at full power, lifting it into the air. If Carl Sands becomes the Shadow-Thief, he will fall to his death! Realizing his predicament, Sands tries to trick Hawkman by agreeing to surrender! When the trailer is back on solid ground, he will exit once again as the Shadow-Thief! With the trailer back on the ground, Sands activates the dimensiometer, and believes that he has just outwitted Hawkman!

The Shadow-Thief lunges through the trailer and over the side of a cliff! Sands will fall just as hard in the other dimensional world as in this one! He must make himself visible again so that the Hawks can save him! A terrified Carl Sands yanks off the dimensiometer from his wrist, and it is caught by Hawkgirl! After catching the shaking Sands, the Hawks turn him over to the authorities, and Hawkgirl throws away the dimensiometer because its delicate mechanism was upset when Sands tore it off! It is now time for them to return to Thanagar! From the other dimensional world, the creature realizes that if Hawkgirl had been successful in activating the dimensiometer, the subsequent ice age would have ended all life on Earth!

This story was reprinted in DC Special #8 (July-September, 1970).

Who knows what evil lurks in the heart of the Shadow-Thief? Carl Sands knows!

I first learned of the Shadow-Thief in the 1975 Secret Origins Of Super-Villains tabloid edition.

The Shadow-Thief's sudden appearance at the Midway City National Bank made those present suffer from a bad case of withdrawal.

The authorities had a flare for the dramatic appearance of the Shadow-Thief.

The Hawks had a few crossbow quarrels to settle with the mysterious criminal.

"Ring Of Fire" was a popular tune sung by Johnny Cash.

Carl Sands' shadow had quite a reach, but he could not elude the long arm of the law.

Red, green, and blue are popular colors with the Lantern Corps.

A shadowy profile introduced each episode of "Alfred Hitchcock Presents".

The Hawks wheet, while other people tweet!

Carl Sands refused to sit through the trailer, rushing into the main feature, and a sudden drop in height.

Steve Chung
"Shadow-Review Of Midway City!"

Hawkman #3, "Birds in the Gilded Cage!"

HAWKMAN #3; Aug-Sept. 1964; DC Comics; Julius Schwartz, editor; featuring 

Hawkman and Hawkgirl in "The Fear That Haunted Hawkman!" and the cover-featured 
"Birds in the Gilded Cage!"  Both stories written by Gardner Fox and 
pencilled and inked by Murphy Anderson.  On the cover by Anderson, Hawkman  and
Hawkgirl are caught in the aforementioned glowing, golden cage floating in 
mid-air, as a gang of thugs (nattily dressed in coats and ties, like all 60's DC 
thugs, except that one has taken his coat off) are shooting at them at 
point-blank range.

Review by Bill Henley

On the splash page of  "The Fear That Haunted Hawkman!", Hawkgirl is left on
her own to combat an armed  crook an an aerodynamically improbable flying
platform, as Hawkman flies away  like a scared pigeon; "I'm too scared to capture
that Pogo-Jet crook!   You'll have to carry on by yourself, Hawkgirl!"  One
day, "under the  blazing noonday sun," Shiera Hall (aka Hawkgirl) is working in
her garden on the  Midway City museum grounds when a loving couple happens by.
The man (who  looks a bit like Gardner Grayle of the Atomic Knights, but
bears the notable and  distinguished name of Bill) has just offered his girl an
engagement ring, making  her "the happiest girl in the world".  But suddenly
she has a change of  attitude, as the girl cowers back from her lover; "Stay
away from me!   I--I'm AFRAID of you!"  She hurls back the engagement ring and
flees in  terror, much to the puzzlement both of the spurned swain and the
onlooking  Shiera.  Later that moonlit night, Shiera takes her dog Penny for a walk
in  the garden while musing over the day's events; "Love is a funny thing,
isn't it,  Penny?"  Suddenly Penny the poodle starts growling and yelping with
fear,  and yanks her leash loose of Shiera to flee into the night.  "And I
thought  Penny was so fond of me!"

Later, Shiera tries to explain to her husband  Carter Hall about the odd
events, but he is more concerned with an emergency  call from Police Commissioner
Emmett.  It seems Midway City is being  plagued by crooks calling themselves
"Sky-Raiders" who use high-tech "Pogo-jet"  devices to hop through the air and
evade police on the ground and helicopters in  the air.  (Yet another example
of comic-book crooks using gadgetry to steal  when they could make a lot more
money with less risk by selling the inventions  to the Pentagon or some other
eager buyer.)  Hawkman and Hawkgirl are even  more maneuverable in the air,
however, and their wings don't alert the bandits  with loud noise like police
choppers.  Setting themselves up with portable  radar detectors at opposite ends
of Midway City, our heroes keep watch for the  sky-bandits, and it is
Hawkgirl who first catches a trace of them, as they  descend to rob the guests at a
party atop a swank penthouse apartment.  The  raiders'  hopes of a clean
getaway are dashed as the Winged Wonders fly at  them from different directions.  At
first, our heroes make quick work of  the airborne gang, as Hawkman catches
one in a gladiatorial net, Hawkgirl dodges  another's gunfire and upends his
pogo-jet, causing him to descend to earth with  his emergency chute, and Hawkman
lifts another raider off his jet and drops  him. 

But then the tables turn, as Hawkman pursues the now grounded  gang leader
into the Midway City museum garden.  Under the eyes of an  Egyptian statue,
Hawkman catches up to and punches out the crook, who is on the  verge of surrender
when suddenly Hawkman has a change of mind.  Cringing  back from the
gangster, Hawkman shouts, "No-- no!  Got to get away from  him!"  Chickenman, er,
Hawkman flees into the sky as a puzzled but elated  Sky-Raider makes his getaway. 
Rejoining Hawkgirl, Hawkman makes a lame  excuse about "missing" the gang
leader while struggling to control his shakes  and terror.  In the coming days,
Carter Hall broods; "I was actually AFRAID  of that sky-raider!  I still am! 
Does this mean I'm finished as a  crime-fighter?"  while Shiera observes his
odd behavior and worries;  "Carter just isn't himself.  I wish I knew what upset
him so.  But  sooner or later he'll tell me!" Hawkman's newfound cowardice
does not extend to  other foes, however; he haunts police headquarters looking
for assignments, and  flies off to handle a riot singlehandedly while the cops
puzzle, "I've never  seen anybody as eager for a fight as Hawkman!  What's he
trying to prove  anyway?" 

As Part 2 of "Fear" opens, Hawkman continues his quest to  prove his bravery,
taking on a pair of armed thugs, rescuing a family from a  blazing building,
and punching another crook.  But "He alone knows the  bitter truth, against
which he put up a grim, silent battle"... for though he is  not afraid of anyone
or anything else, his terror of the Sky-Raider chief is as  strong as ever. 
And in the meantime, that chief is recruiting a new gang  of raiders and
making improvements on his pogo-jet fleet specifically designed  to deal with
Hawkman.  "Well, this is it!" Carter thinks when Shiera gets a  call from the
Commissioners that the Sky-Raiders are striking again.  "I'm  about to find out if
that haunting fear overwhelms me when I face that  gang-leader again!"  On the
way to face the raiders, Hawkman tells Hawkgirl  that he will take "first
crack" at the raiders, but warns her that he might run  away and leave her to
face them alone.  She asks for an explanation, and  Hawkman confesses at last his
crippling fear of the gang leader.  Hawkgirl  sees a possible connection with
the two incidents of unexplained fear she  witnessed, but before she can
explain, the Hawks and the sky-raiders confront  each other, with the raiders now
armed with new weapons-- glowing saucers they  shoot at Hawkman and Hawkgirl. 
"If one of those charged saucers gets  within a foot of them, it'll stiffen
'em-- for good!"  Hawkman shows no  fear as he uses his long wooden
quarterstaff to fend off the saucers, smashing  each one before it can approach him or
Hawkgirl.  (Good thing he just  happened to pick out the right ancient weapon to
deal with this particular  threat.... A quarterstaff probably wouldn't have
helped much if the raiders had  used plain-ordinary guns.)  Nor does our hero
succumb to terror as he takes  on the three subordinate raiders and knocks them
off their sky-craft.  But  when it comes down to him vs. the leader, the
inexplicable fear kicks in again,  and he shivers and flees, calling on Hawkgirl
to take over.  He can only  watch helplessly from a distance, "paralyzed with
fear," as Hawkgirl takes on  the leader alone, dodging his gunfire and finally
knocking him off his  craft.  Once victorious, instead of scorning her
cowardly consort, Hawkgirl  embraces and comforts him, "Poor sweetheart!  If you'd
only told me what was  wrong, I could have helped you!"  for she has deduced a
possible cause for  his unnatural fear.  She has realized that each of the
fear-incidents took  place in the vicinity of the Egyptian statue in the museum
garden.  Thus  reminded, Hawkman recalls that "This statue was used by a certain
Pharaoh to  keep his subjects in utter fear of him!"  Analyzing the statue
with X-rays,  Hawkman and Hawkgirl discover that it has a tilted slab of "special
mineral"  inside the head, which causes any light entering the top of the
statue's head to  be reflected out its eyes.  "The light must be transmuted into
a ray that  affects the amygdala in the brain!  Experimental scientists have
induced  fear by electrical shocks to this part of the brain!"  Experimenting
with a  bird, the Hawks confirm that the light-rays from the statue also induce
fear.  But they have an antidote.  "By reversing the polarity of the 
mineral, we'll create an opposite effect!"  "Instead of being AFRAID--  anyone whom
that light hits will LIKE whoever he or she is with!"  (Does  that mean that
if Hawkman were with the sky-raider chief or some other crook  when affected by
the light, he'd like the crook enough to help him get away with  his crimes? 
Sounds like a possible springboard for another story, but as  far as I recall
it was never picked up on.)  Hawkman thinks the case is  resolved, but Shiera
knows otherwise, as she contrives to get Bill and his  estranged fiancee back
together under the glowing eyes of the statue, and their  love is rekindled. 
But Shiera's job is still not done, as she hurries off  "to find Penny-- and
make my pet like me again, too!"  (But maybe she never  did find the lost dog,
since I don't believe the prodigal poodle ever showed up  in a story again.) 

In between the issue's two stories, the  "Hawkman's Roost" lettercol appears,
with uniformly enthusiastic comments on  HAWKMAN #1.  One of the laudatory
letters, from Kevin C. Ryan of Houston,  Texas, refers to "Murphy Anderson's
incredibly realistic and detailed  artwork".  I was a little surprised, a while
back, to learn that this  reaction to Anderson's HAWKMAN artwork wasn't
unanimous.  I liked  Anderson's art fine myself at the time these stories first came
out, and still  do.  But an issue of ALTER EGO focusing on the Silver Age
Hawkman indicated  there was a faction of fandom who really hated the changeover
from Joe Kubert  art in the BRAVE & BOLD Hawkman issues to Anderson art in the
short MYSTERY  IN SPACE run and Hawkman's own title.  I don't really
understand  this.  Sure, Kubert's art was great, but I thought Anderson worked just as 
well on the strip, though in a somewhat different way.

Anyway, Anderson  returns to draw the cover-featured "Birds in the Gilded
Cage" in this issue, and  the splash page scene is just another angle on the
cover scene of the caged  Hawkman and Hawkgirl being shot at by crooks. 
"Somewhere north of Midway  City, Hawkman and Hawkgirl swoop towards the lawn of a
mountain hideaway"....it  seems that, on their way to Hawk Valley, they have
happened to spot a group of  known mobsters.  A lucky break for our heroes; not so
lucky, Hawkgirl  notes, is the fact that they haven't brought along any of
their usual ancient  weapons.  So they are obliged to swoop and dodge wildly in
order to evade  the mobsters' gunfire and take them on bare-handed.  "It makes
no  difference.  They'll be in prison cells soon enough!" a confident Hawkgirl
boasts.  "As if Hawkgirl has spoken magic words, prison cells appear"-- one 
prison cell, anyway, floating in mid-air-- but it holds our heroes, not the 
crooks!  Hawkman and Hawkgirl are caged and helpless, and seemingly soon  will
be dead ducks, er, hawks, as the crooks shoot through the cage bars.   But
fortunately, the glow around the cage forms a force-field which deflects the 
bullets.  This is limited consolation, however, as the mobsters make a 
leisurely getaway as the Hawks watch helplessly.  Shortly afterwards, a  winged,
purple, birdlike alien flies up and dissolves the cage with a wand,while  beaming a
telepathic explanation; "I beamed that protective cage around you-- so  those
hunters wouldn't harm you!"  The alien fails to comprehend our  heroes'
indignant response that they were the ones doing the hunting, and  Hawkman deduces
that though they can understand the bird-alien's thoughts, human  thoughts are
on the wrong "frequency" for telepathic communication.  The  Winged Wonder
observes, though, that as the bird-alien approaches another of its  kind. it
flies erratically as if it were communicating complex messages by the  pattern of
its flight.

Back in Midway City, the Hawks report the debacle  to Commissioner Emmett,
who gripes about the unwanted interference of the aliens  with a police case. 
But perhaps all is not lost, as a small bird knocks on  the window.  As Hawkman
communicates with the bird, the irritable Emmett  complains, "Well, what's it
saying?  I can't understand a WHEET from a  TWEET!"  It seems that Hawkman
sent the bird to follow the escaping  mobsters and keep tabs on them, and now it
has come to report while sending yet  another bird on the crooks' trail. 
Following a succession of avian "stool pigeons", the Hawks catch up with the
fleeing mobsters and prepare to capture  them at last.  But wouldn't you know it,
the purple bird-aliens show up  again to benevolently "protect" our heroes,
who they think have been lured into  the sights of the "hunters" by some sort
of "duck call" equivalent.   Quickly, Hawkman orders Hawkgirl to fly a
figure-eight along with him.  "No  time to explain!  It (the bird-creature) won't
interfere with us  now!"  And indeed, as the avian alien waits and watches,
Hawkman and  Hawkgirl take on the crooks, grabbing the rear bumper of their car and
using  their anti-gravity belts at full power to upend it.  subduing the
mobsters  as they fall to the ground.  With the crooks safely in hand, Hawkman 
directs Hawkgirl to hover motionless in the air, her wings spread upward, as he 
flies a circle around her.  Hawkgirl complies but demands to know the  meaning
of these "mad antics".  Hawkman explains that he has observed and  deduced
the meaning of a couple of the bird-aliens' flight signals.  the  figure-eight
means "Don't interfere", while the circle around a line means  "Farewell". 
(Hmmm.... perhaps those signals should have been reversed,  since in real life it
is a circle with a slash through it that has come to  symbolize "don't do
this".)  Back in Midway City, the Hawks report their  exploit to a pleased
Emmett, who dismisses them to go home by making the  "farewell" symbol with his
hands. 

Reviewing or rereading a Silver  Age Hawkman story always brings to mind a
question....why was HAWKMAN the least  successful of the Julie Schwartz Golden
Age hero revivals, except for the later  SPECTRE?  Why did the Winged Wonder
take so long to win a book of his own,  and then lose it relatively quickly
(after 29 issues)?  The series had  planty going for it, including solid scripts
by Gardner Fox and brilliant art by  both (IMO) Kubert and Anderson?

Did fans really not warm to the Anderson  art, as the ALTER EGO comments by
Mike Vosburg and others suggest?  Or,  conversely, was it the Kubert art in B &
B, decidedly different from the  slick look of the Flash or Green Lantern
series, that initially turned off some  readers?

Did the team-up of married partners turn off younger readers,  who still
thought "girls are icky" and didn't want to read about "mushy stuff"  or heroes
who reminded them of their parents?

Did heroes whose only real  super-power was flight seem ineffectual compared
to the likes of Flash, GL, or  Superman?  Maybe so (though the Atom was no
super-powerhouse either, and he  did better than Hawkman despite getting a later
start-- and obviously a lack of  super-power didn't cripple Batman).

My personal theory is that, while all  the above factors may have entered in,
Julie Schwartz went one hero too far with  the science-fictional emphasis
that proved successful with Flash, GL, and  Atom.   Most popular superheroes have
a fairly simple origin that can  be summarized in a sentence or so.  Not so
Hawkman and Hawkgirl.   Alien policemen who land on Earth chasing one of their
own crooks but then just  happen to decide to hang around.... who have wings
and costumes that  coincidentally resemble Earth birds.... who are associated
with space despite  having wings (which wouldn't work in a vacuum) and bare
chests (well, Hawkman,  anyway-- if Hawkgirl had also had that costume, the
series might have been a lot  more popular, except it wouldn't have got past the
Comics Code) ... who have  access to advanced alien weapons but for no
particularly comprehensible reason  use ancient Earth weaopns instead.  Too many
discordant elements.   Schwartz would have done better in this cae, IMO, if he and
Fox had gone back to  the Golden Age Hawkman's origin, or something closer to
it.  Say, Carter  and Shiera Hall are real Earthly museum archeologists who
find the wings and  "Nth metal" anti-gravity belts in a ruin of an ancient
civilization and decide  to use them to fight evil.  Simplet, and probably more
comprehensible to  the average Silver Age reader.  And I suspect the series might
have worked  better by emphasizing more mysticism and Earth-based
supernatural/spooky  elements, rather than Schwartz's beloved science fiction elements. 
(For  example, making the fear-inducing statue in this issue's lead story a 
supernatural element rather than a contrived sci-fi gimmick.)

Not that  the SA Hawkman wasn't a good series as it stood....but I can kind
of see why it  didn't become a big hit.