The SILVER AGE's greatest hits, misses and ground outs:6837
 Leftover Sundae Gnus
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CatmanAmerica private msg quote post Address this user | |
Still hoping someone will bring up short lived series like Marvel's Amazing Adventures that turned into a showcase for Steve Ditko's Amazing Adult Fantasy before the final issue became Amazing Fantasy and introduced Spider-Man or D.C.'s Showcase and Brave & The Bold tryouts that didn't quite make the cut. These are all interesting and discussion worthy.   . |
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X51 private msg quote post Address this user | |
The monster books are all pretty similar. |
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X51 private msg quote post Address this user | |
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 I live in RI and Rhode Islanders eat chili with beans.
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esaravo private msg quote post Address this user | |
| @CatmanAmerica - Speaking about Showcase, the Spectre was another Golden Age character that was resurrected in that title. After a few appearances in Showcase, he as given his own (short-lived) series. He then appeared in various titles over the years, and was given lead status again later in (Weird) Adventure Comics (with some killer covers by one of my favorite Batman artists Jim Aparo). Here’s the first issue of his SA series.  |
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doog private msg quote post Address this user | |
I find Magnus, Robot Fighter a failure, although it was my favorite read as a very young kid. 46 issues, 22 by the great Russ Manning. His mini skirt was a bit weird, though. |
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Leftover Sundae Gnus
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CatmanAmerica private msg quote post Address this user | |
| When Amazing Adventures came out Marvel was already looking for something to move beyond the monster of the month flavor. Don't get me wrong, I have an enduring affection for all those invading monster books and collected them ravenously for several years as a kid. That said, I was also fond of Amazing Adult Fantasy and became a devotee of Steve Ditko's finely stylized uncluttered art and AAF's O'Henry-esque plots. Loads of fun, but apparently neither themed book had the circulation Martin Goodman and Stan Lee envisioned when the idea was pitched. The only sure-fire winning concept would turn up in Amazing Fantasy #15 (the Adult part of the title was dropped). After that issue the title was abruptly cancelled to focus on Spidey's first foray in his own magazine. Magnus and Spectre seemed to fare better within their limited sphere of influence although both series popularity failed to knock one out of the park as other more popular SA series did. |
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Leftover Sundae Gnus
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CatmanAmerica private msg quote post Address this user | |
| It would be interesting to do a run down (not literally running down) all of the early D.C. try out characters in Showcase and Brave & The Bold that failed to take off. There are a lot of curious SA themes in those books. Alas, I didn't collect many D.C. books from that era, but these two titles are intriguing. Showcase started in '56 I think. What year did Brave & The Bold start? . |
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 PEDIGREED... Again!
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martymann private msg quote post Address this user | |
Surprised that these characters lasted as long as they did. mm |
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Leftover Sundae Gnus
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CatmanAmerica private msg quote post Address this user | |
| @martymann Metal Men was a silly concept, but a lot of fun for awhile. The idea of giving various metals personalities based on their strengths, functions and comparative values was clever. However, the plots seemed to hit a brick wall after awhile. It's sort of like telling a great joke or story: once everyone knows the punchline you have to keep embellishing just to hold folk's interest. I think the series probably just ran out of steam. |
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Foghorn_Sam private msg quote post Address this user | |
Easy there pilgrim; silly concept??? If I remember right, a robot very much like the Metal Men: the liquid metal, shapeshifting T-1000 from, Terminator 2: Judgement Day, made that one of the coolest Sci-Fi movies ever made. I immediately made the connection with the abilities of Metal Men when I first saw it, even where they destroyed the T-1000 in a cauldron of molten metal which was a plot device used several times in the comic book, (such as portrayed on this Metal Men cover below).  |
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Leftover Sundae Gnus
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CatmanAmerica private msg quote post Address this user | |
Quote:Originally Posted by Foghorn_Sam I loved the series, but c'mon, Metal Men was pretty silly. I think that was part of it's charm. Lead was thick headed & overweight (heavy), Tin was meek, skinny & weak, Platinum was an expensive stone cold fox, Iron was a confident strong man, Mercury was a temperamental hot-head, etc. It was impossible to take this series seriously, but it was loads of fun nonetheless. I can't fathom the Terminator 2 connection as a comparable, except that the T-1000 was basically a transformable metal entity. Personality-wise, each of the Metal Men were unique and heroic from the outset. Also, setting them up with a human handler makes them more comparable with Ted Healy and the Three Stooges than the Terminator films. We may differ in our perception of this series, but that doesn't mean your analysis is any less valid.  |
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Foghorn_Sam private msg quote post Address this user | |
I think what was interesting about the Metal Men was that since they were robots, the writers and artists were able to take liberties and do things to them that you would not see happening to other (human) characters because the Comics Code Authority wouldn't have allowed it. They routinely suffered dismemberment, decapitation, internal parts blown out, being eaten, absolute death and destruction etc. only to be salvaged by good 'ol Doc and brought back whole for the next issue.  |
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Foghorn_Sam private msg quote post Address this user | |
Here are a few more that appeared in 1968 (Wow!!! Has it really been 50 years ago?), co-created and drawn by the late Steve Ditko for DC that just never quite caught on and have had several iterations and re-boots over the years.    |
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Leftover Sundae Gnus
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CatmanAmerica private msg quote post Address this user | |
| The Creeper was interesting because it took Ditko's simple, finely rendered artistic style and bathed his new character in sharply contrasting psychedelic colors. This was probably intentional, but sadly, his simple delicate style tends to get lost in the bold color palette and odd two dimensional shading choices. I always preferred his work on Spider-Man, Dr. Strange and especially Charleton's reenvisioned Blue Beetle because his art never took a backseat to the color. The Hawk and Dove never appealed to me as characters even though it was a brilliant concept. One problem the series had was that it came out in the middle of a national debate over the selective service and the U.S.'s long involvement in an increasingly unpopular war that lacked a defendable objective. The mischaracterization of The Dove as resisting any fight ...even to the point of refusing to take the side of his overtly aggressive brother... made his efforts appear cowardly. While the concept of the series raised interesting questions about choices, for many, Hawk & Dove was uncomfortably close to militaristic propaganda. |
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Foghorn_Sam private msg quote post Address this user | |
| I think it's interesting that in 1968 DC and Marvel both launched a bunch of new titles and many of them were gone in just a few years. | ||
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X51 private msg quote post Address this user | |
Quote:Originally Posted by Foghorn_Sam Not strange. Marvel was being distributed by DC's distribution company and they were limited in the number of titles they could release in the 60's. That's why they had the double feature books like Tales to Astonish being one half Hulk and one half Submariner. Marvel went with Curtis who didn't limit their titles so they split all the characters off into their own books and tried giving new titles a shot. DC probably tried to flood the market with titles to make up for Marvel leaving and flood the market with books to limit Marvel's space on the spinner racks. The audience was probably getting bigger, but not enough to cover the increase in production. Paper costs were increasing and that made profitability more difficult. |
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I think I was the most shocked that the original X-Men series got canceled with issue #66 in early 1970. I had stumbled upon the X-Men title with issue #54, but was able to find older issues clear back to issue #49 still on the rack with the exception of #52, which I couldn't find anywhere. I loved the title, but of course I found it right when Steranko and Adams took up the artwork and did it ever rock. It quickly became my favorite book. I just couldn't believe the title was stopped after all those fantastic issues that in my mind, far outshined some other titles that didn't get canceled. I remember being so disappointed and puzzled about it.    |
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Quote:Originally Posted by Foghorn_Sam X-Men had a disadvantage in that it was bi-monthly for many years. You had to wait two months to get the current installment. X-Men #'s 1-11 had one main villain... Magneto. They battled the same villain for close to 2 years. If you read the published letters during that time period fans were wanting a change. Issue #11 introduced the Stranger who just took Magneto out of the picture completely. That opened the door to new villains. Juggernaut entered the picture, followed by the lame early sentinels. At the end of the third year they were already bringing back Magneto. The Werner Roth art and the lack of writing direction really made the stories drag. I liked the characters and the social interaction between the characters, but the stories didn't really move forward much and there was no intensity. The all time low for the X-Men was a 40 something issue number where the team breaks up. Scott Summers becomes a DJ and Jean Grey becomes a model. It is completely lame. I think it's really funny, but it's lame. Neal Adams said that he chose to work on X-Men because it was the poorest seller. He said there was a lag in sales data coming back to Marvel and sales had increased after he started on the book. Had Marvel seem the data sooner, they might not have cancelled the series. |
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Leftover Sundae Gnus
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CatmanAmerica private msg quote post Address this user | |
| Excellent discussions in this thread. One of my favorite concepts from the SA was the original Task Force X Suicide Squad which premiered in Brave & The Bold #25. This version was nothing like the later version of costumed misfits. The first Suicide Squad had mixed gender non-costumed quasi-military team-up and fought prehistoric creatures, giants, etc. Never a huge hit, I think it's kinda cool! . |
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Foghorn_Sam private msg quote post Address this user | |
| So many different concepts were tried out and I believe DC was smart to have and use Showcase and the Brave and the Bold as their platform to toss out those works. I think as they tried to survive the new Comics Code, it made necessity the mother of invention and instead of comic books dying out, they experienced a second renaissance that we now call the the Silver Age because of those efforts. | ||
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Leftover Sundae Gnus
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CatmanAmerica private msg quote post Address this user | |
Quote:Originally Posted by Foghorn_Sam True, DC had a very good system. Some of those failed try-outs looked like sure-winners though. . |
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