The Justice League of America tryout issues of The Brave and the Bold flew off the newsstand shelves and supermarket spinner racks in late 1959 and early 1960.
And one of several reasons for that was the appeal, to small children, of the superheroes’ colorful costumes.
These superheroes had the same gaudy glory that delights children in hummingbirds and goldfish. And if their adventures finally made no sense, well, neither do fairy tales or dreams. The superheroes were surrealism for kids.
I recall being almost hypnotized by the flashing primary colors of those covers — one character scarlet and canary yellow, another emerald green and jet black. The blond man was in green and bright, scaly orange, while the woman wore a swimsuit of red, white, blue and yellow. A blue cape, boots and trunks contrasted with the vivid green skin of the team’s fifth member.
Irresistible — if somebody had one left to sell to you!
Professor Ivo, the villain who created the power-stealing android Amazo, turned out to be an early adopter of the preferred method of imprisoning and displaying captured superhero teams. You line them up in large, individual transparent tubes.
It’s so showy, you know.
Meanwhile, in Showcase 26, ancient Egyptians were facing green-skinned, big-eyed alien invaders while Rip Hunter’s time travelers watched. The handsome Joe Kubert cover for The Aliens from 2,000 B.C. was made more intriguing by the fact that the “ancient astronauts” idea was still novel at the time. It wouldn’t be done to death until a decade later.
Paul Zuckerman wrote: This was the first JLA comic that I got. As I mentioned elsewhere, I am not sure that I got it off the newsstand because my copy was missing most of the Wonder Woman chapter. When the story was reprinted a few years later, much of the intro section was cut to make space. So, it wasn't until the 70s when I got a replacement copy for my long missing original copy that I finally got to read the whole story in one sitting! I certainly did read it though before I saw the ad for issue one--and I got that and only missed one issue (15) until I went on hiatus for three-years; and then never missed another issue for the rest of the original run.
ReplyDeleteThe issue was Amazo was--amazing! It blew me away at age 7 1/2 even though Superman and Batman, my "two favorite heroes" barely appeared. It was a thrilling story with lots of action and facts thrown in there without even knowing it!
I did not get Rip Hunter's book though. It was several years before I collected that title for a while, and long after Kubert's short turn on it. I did finally get to read the issue recently in the Showcase reprint edition.
Bruce Kanin wrote: This may sound like a ridiculous analogy, but B&B and SHOWCASE were like undersea volcanoes that rise above the surface to become lush new islands. Stories like the B&B JLAs were something wonderfully exciting & new. I didn't come across them until much later, via compilations and even later via the DC Archive Editions, but to this date they haven't lost their charm.
ReplyDeleteThe Amazo story, somewhat like the Composite Superman tale in WORLD'S FINEST years later, is one of my favorites!