Yeah, everyone knows Batman. And Superman. And Captain America. But what about Blue Bolt? Or Marvelo, Monarch of Magicians? How about Sub-Zero or Spacehawk, Superhuman Enemy of Crime?
After Superman exploded on the scene, the dawn of the comic book in the late 1930s offered a flood of dazzlingly named, strangely attired do-gooders all trying to compete with the Man of Steel's success. No idea was too strange, no gimmick too outlandish. Seventy years on, most of these early comic book stars are forgotten, mouldering away in landfills. Golden age superheroes always looked intriguing to me, whenever I'd see strange titles like Silver Streak Comics and Amazing Mystery Funnies in a magazine. Of course, these old back issues were well out of my price range!
Supermen! The First Wave of Comic Book Heroes 1936-1941 is the book I've been waiting for – a crazed whirlwind tour through the raw badlands of early superheroes, the best and the weirdest of the early days. Gathering a decent sampling of these stories today, if you could even track down the rare original comics, would cost you thousands, but Fantagraphics Books has assembled 20 of these quirky gems into a nicely designed, affordable full-color paperback. It's like a roadmap of alternative history, where you can imagine that a character like Stardust the Super Wizard became a star.
Some of the earliest adventures here are truly rough stuff (such as The Clock, who appears to be a man in a tuxedo wearing a napkin on his face), but given time, the young comics pioneers began to really stretch their wings in stories of sustained invention and oddity. After a few stories that are more of historical value than entertainment, such as a very early effort by Superman creators Siegel and Schuster starring Dr. Mystic, Supermen! opens up into a strange and wonderful ride. Giant robots, werewolves, malevolent gorillas – they're all here.
Creators who would go on to more famous work include Jack Kirby, with Cosmic Carson, Will Eisner with Yarko The Great (they really were just picking names out of a hat, weren't they?) and Basil Wolverton with Spacehawk. None of these stories are quite up to their later creations, but they all have strong hints of what was to come. There's a willingness to try anything in this new genre – such as The Face, whose entire gimmick seems to be wearing a creepy Halloween mask.
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Article comments
1 - Bill Sherman
I remember back in the early seventies a fannish publisher put out black-and-white photocopy books of various Golden Age superhero titles. Even in faded b-&-w, the whacked-out dynamics of Cole's Daredevil Versus the Yellow Claw popped at ya. I can't wait to see this collection.