December 1966: Presenting a Pliable Parody

In late 1966, DC Comics editors must have thought that reviving Plastic Man would be a sure bet.

After all, Jack Cole’s iconic, comic superhero — who hadn’t been seen in 10 years — must have seemed perfectly positioned to echo the camp attitude of the Batman TV show, which had debuted to surprise hit ratings that January.

But that overlooked the fact that while the arch tone of the TV show may have appealed to some critics, most actual readers of superhero comics didn’t care to see their champions parodied. Camp would prove to be a blind alley in the comic books.

And much as I love Gil Kane’s art, I recall thinking at the time that the title was straining for humor. That’s never a way to get laughs.

“They took their cue from Cole’s version, but it wasn't as funny as Cole had made it, and disappeared in less than two years,” comics historian Don Markstein observed.

It didn’t help that a knock-off villain version of Plastic Man appeared with M.F. Enterprises knock-off version of Captain Marvel in Captain Marvel 1 (April 1966). Some sensible lawyer must have intervened, because his name was changed to Elasticman in issue 2 (June 1966).

Nor was Plastic Man the only superhero parody DC published that month. The Inferior Five were having their tryout run in Showcase, and Batman and Robin guest-starred in Jerry Lewis. And what, after all, could Wonder Woman’s villain Egg Fu be but the most leaden kind of parody?

The era was dominated by TV star Batman, who appeared on seven of the 28 covers DC published that month — eight if you want to count Catwoman and the Penguin showing up on the cover of Lois Lane. And comics were evolving, symbolized by the fact that the character who had kick-started the Silver Age, the Flash, finally married his long-time fiancé Iris West that same month.

October 1941: Nor Iron Bars a Cage…

Most secret identities wouldn’t last long in the real world, of course, but Daniel Dyce’s might.

Dyce, a/k/a Quality Comics’ mystery man 711, had one of those rare perfect dual identities.

“He roamed the underworld by night, in search of villains to bring in, like a good superhero should,” recalled comics historian Don Markstein. “But in the daytime, he hung around the jail where he was a convicted inmate. Of course, the fact that he was a resident of a jail cell with the lucky number 711 at Westmoor Prison, from which he obviously derived his superhero name, was just a ghastly mistake.”

A former district attorney, 711 had been wrongly convicted because of a good deed gone wrong. In prison, Dyce was able to come and go as he pleased via a secret tunnel. 

Dyce’s secret identity turned out to be extremely — ahem — convenient. Still, it was a bit cheeky of him to name himself after his own cell number. Something like “Monte Cristo” might have been a safer alternative.

“He even handed out fancy cards, supposedly showing the crooks what fate awaited them, but in reality, they represented the fate that had already befallen the masked hero,” Markstein noted.

His lucky number finally failed him, though. “He is eventually killed in action, his role being assumed by Destiny,” Jess Nivens noted.

Created by George Brenner, the mysterious 711 was one of no less than nine heroes who graced the pages of Police Comics 3 (Oct. 1941). The others included a masked reporter (the Sword), another masked prosecutor (the Mouthpiece), a masked chemist (the Human Bomb), aviator-adventurer Eagle Evans and Steele Kerrigan, who was another wrongfully imprisoned hero.

Ironically, in Police Comics, the law apparently didn’t work too well.

The playboy-turned-crimefighter Firebrand and his peek-a-boo shirt got the issue’s cover spot. But the two breakout stars of Police Comics would be found on the back pages — Arthur Peddy’s Phantom Lady and Jack Cole’s Plastic Man.