March 1967: Doubling Atomic Action

Attempting to stop a mysterious purple-clad criminal from stealing valuable bookends, the Atom is shocked to see the thief disappear through a portal to Earth-Two.

The super-villain turns out to be the Thinker, an archenemy of the Flash since 1943. He’s upped his game since then with a “thinking cap” that stimulates his brain, increasing his intelligence to genius level.

“I’ve also managed to increase its sidereal powers so that the creative centers of my brain are tremendously hyped up!” he thinks. “Now I can generate any amount of telekinetic energy …  enabling me to mentally create actual objects and people (that) will act as I command.”

The gloating Thinker believes he’s committed the perfect crime by robbing on one planet and then escaping to another — until TV news informs him of the startling fact that “the Thinker” has also stolen rare bookends on Earth-Two!

That mystery is the springboard for a satisfying Gardner Fox yarn, The Thinker’s Earth-Shattering Robberies, in The Atom 29 (March 1967). Handsome Gil Kane/Sid Greene art enhances this first team-up of the Golden Age and Silver Age Atoms.

The younger Atom had previously teamed up with Hawkman (Case of the Cosmic Camera!, The Atom 7, June 1963), the Flash (The Challenge of the Expanding World!, The Brave and the Bold 53, April 1964) and the Metal Men (Revenge of the Robot Reject, The Brave and the Bold 55, Aug. 1964). 

The Thinker had earlier faced the original Earth One/Earth Two doppelgängers — the two Flashes — while teamed up with the Fiddler and the Shade (Flash of Two Worlds, The Flash 123, Sept. 1961).

The influence of the Batman TV shows can be seen in the prominently displayed sound effects and Al Pratt’s “Atomobile.” I liked it. A true “convertible,” it switched instantly from ordinary car to super-vehicle. 

Another Golden Age superhero, the Sandman, was also sporting a “Sandcar” around this time, but that vehicle dated back to Adventure Comics 76 (July 1942).

November 1966: The Atom Gets Into a Cat Fight

I have a special affection for DC’s Atom stories. The Atom’s singular powers put him in a position that had its own special appeal. 

He could travel in time, into subatomic worlds or instantaneously through telephone lines, but he could also slug it out with the kind of masked criminal gangs who kept the Dynamic Duo busy. Because of his small stature, even cat-costumed thugs could pose a credible threat against him.

“When the Atom discovered that he could retain his full 180 pounds even at peewee size, he also became an impressive action hero, bouncing off rubber erasers and wafting on breezes, then increasing his weight and driving his tiny fist into a crook’s jaw,” noted Will Jacobs and Gerard Jones in The Comic Book Heroes. “That was a godsend to Gil Kane; after years of DC pussyfooting with physical combat, editors were finally getting bold enough to let him strut his gift for action. Murphy Anderson’s inking, though, gave the violence a tidy, everyday flavor that accented the charm of the Tiny Titan.”

“Another aspect of the character which I think makes him unique is that his abilities simultaneously make him powerful and vulnerable,” Matthew Grossman observed. “He can ride through telephone wires, but water-filled sinks are a potentially deadly menace! The nature of Atom’s abilities requires intellectual planning by the hero to overcome challenges, which I’d say more than most firmly puts him in the Silver Age ‘scientific adventurer’ mold.”

Beauty and the Beast Gang (The Atom 27, Nov. 1966) was a human interest story with superheroes. Ray Palmer’s shy friend, photographer Willie Farr, is hoping to take shots that will help his secret love, lonely Ivy Town secretary Dawn Hudson, win a beauty contest. But one of his infrared photos accidentally reveals the identity of a member of the masked Panther Gang, putting Willie in danger and getting the Atom involved. The Tiny Titan catches the criminals while managing to play Cupid.

January 1960: Big Purple Beasts and the Borg

I wonder if the purple simian-ish creature in I Was a Bodyguard to a Beast (My Greatest Adventure 39) counted toward DC’s monthly maximum quota on gorilla covers?

I’m guessing not.

Meanwhile, in the Space Ranger story in Tales of the Unexpected 45, artist Jim Mooney shows us a criminal’s “army of specially trained interplanetary beasts” that might have made appropriate foes for the Legion of Super-Pets a couple of years later.

Come to think of it, Space Ranger’s Cryll and Chameleon Boy’s Proty were a lot alike. Cryll and the Martian Manhunter’s Zook might have fit right in with the Legion of Super Pets.

Such are the kinds of thoughts that jolt me awake at night.

Strange Adventures 112 includes a Gardner Fox/Mike Sekowsky cover story and a Space Museum story, Revolt of the Spaceships!

“The Space Museum tales center on a 25th Century museum filled with objects commemorating heroic deeds leading to the conquest of space,” noted comics historian Michael E. Grost. “Each tale would involve a visit by Howard Parker and his young son Tommy Parker. Howard would tell Tommy the story behind one of the objects in the museum.

“The Space Museum tales sometimes contained science fiction mysteries; near the end of each tale, Howard would pause, and urge Tommy to find a clue that would solve the mystery. The effect is similar to Ellery Queen’s Challenge to the Reader.”

The issue also includes a John Broome/Sid Greene story intended to underline editor’s Julius Schwartz’s running theme about celebrating the intellect. 

In Tomorrow’s Hero, mutant Ral Grayson has the ability to understand things instantly by just seeing a portion of the process, a power he employs to stop an alien invasion.

The invaders’ name? The Borg.

January 1958: Strange Mysteries of Other Planets

Even in the superhero desert of the 1950s, a lot of comic book stories might be described as “superhero adjacent.”

Super powers never really went out of fashion, only costumed crusading did for a while.

For example, take the story Bodyguard from Space! (Strange Adventures 88, Jan. 1958). Writer Gardner Fox and artist Carmine Infantino give us a tale about an alien visitor from the planet Klysistron who can levitate objects, turn invisible and intangible and communicate telepathically. He announces that he has “journeyed across three billion light years of space” to protect news cameraman Jim Carson. Unknown to himself, Carson carries telepathically implanted information vital to revitalizing the alien planet’s dying sun.

Meanwhile, over in Mystery in Space 42 (March 1958), writer John Broome and artist Sid Greene provide us with Mail Rider to the Stars, an interstellar version of the Pony Express.

“A lone rocket pilot delivers mail to far-flung planets, despite all obstacles,” recalled comics historian Michael E. Grost. “It is notable for being one of the first depictions of a ‘black hole’ in fiction.

“Probably one of the best features of this story is Sid Greene’s art. There is some of his distinctive future architecture. One tower has a spiral ramp around it, reaching to its top.

“There are also some good shots of the rocket ship zooming around through the asteroids. The combination of the curving lines of the rocket exhaust and the circles of the asteroids makes for some pleasing visual patterns. Such scenes of space flight often recur in Greene’s tales.”

The issue includes The Dual Identity World by Greene and writer Otto Binder. “This is another Binder mystery about a hard-to-interpret planet: here two explorers literally see the world in two different ways,” Grost reported. “This is a most ingenious tale. It has elements of an allegory and a fable, and should be better known: it would make a great proverb, to illustrate some important ideas about perception.”