Hero Histories: Silver Age

Showing posts with label Silver Age. Show all posts

Monday, June 24, 2024

Russkie-Smashers SPACE ADVENTURES "Captain Atom II '...on Planet X' "

Despite the misleading title, Our Russkie-Smashing Hero never leaves Earth orbit...

...as you'll see in this tale from Charlton's Space Adventures #36 (1960)!

WOW!

Writer Joe Gill and illustrator Steve Ditko jammed a lot into just five pages!

These days, that'd be a whole issue, if not a two-parter!

As you saw, "Planet X" was, in fact, an artificial satellite, not another planet!
But the code-name made for a catchy title for an extremely-action-packed tale, eh?

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Action Hero Archives
Captain Atom
Volume 1

Monday, June 3, 2024

NoKo Crushers SGT FURY AND HIS HOWLING COMMANDOS "Commission in Korea!" Conclusion

We Have Already Seen...

...the Howling Commandos under Colonel "Happy Sam" Sawyer, are sent into North Korea to blow up a secret air base!

With a slightly shaken-up "Happy Sam" stationed outside the base as backup, Sgt Fury and the Howlers attack in their own inimitable style...

Why all the set-up for Nick Fury?

He had recently-appeared in Fantastic Four (V1N21 [1963]) as an eyepatch-wearing CIA colonel (though he's named "Sgt Fury" and wearing ripped Army fatigues on the cover) to help them stop the Hate Monger and reminisce with Reed Richards/Mr Fantastic, whom he'd met during WWII when Reed was an OSS agent.

So we knew the crusty noncom-turned-officer had survived to the (then) present day.

But bigger plans were in store for Nick...

Fury had just replaced The Human Torch and The Thing as Dr Strange's co-feature in Strange Tales as of #135 (1965), making him the first comic character to have two simultaneous strips set in two different time periods!
(Howling Commandos in the 1940s, S.H.I.E.L.D. in the "present day" 1960s!)
Several of the Howlers joined Nick at S.H.I.E.L.D., including Dum-Dum, Gabe, and eventually, Eric Koenig.

Fanboy Trivia:

Eric isn't in this Annual set in the period between World War II and the 1960s because he wasn't even introduced into the WWII-era Howling Commandos comic until six months after the Annual was published (#27 in late 1965)!
And, we finally got to see the only exclusive Sgt Fury-themed Marvel merchandise of the 1960s...a Sgt Fury and His Howling Commandos t-shirt (which, unlike most of the other Marvel shirts of the 1960s, had never been reissued by Graphitti!)

Would I love to have a Sgt Fury and His Howling Commandos shirt (in XXL, sadly)...

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Marvel Epic Collection

Sgt Fury and His Howling Commandos
#2 Berlin Breakout
(Which includes this story!)
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Monday, May 27, 2024

NoKo Crushers SGT FURY AND HIS HOWLING COMMANDOS "Commission in Korea!" Part 1

Though Sgt Fury and His Howling Commandos were best-known for their World War II exploits...

...many of the current comic readers don't know how they battled Commies in the 1950s!

And, no, this ain't rebooting Marvel history with retroactive continuity like the recent Ben Grimm and Logan mini-series presentation!
This was written and illustrated during the Silver Age of Comics by the original Marvel Bullpen crew and has been officially part of Marvel continuity since!

This tale from Marvel's Sgt Fury and His Howling Commandos Annual #1 (1965), gives the details...

We'll observe, Commie...NEXT MONDAY!

In the 1960s, Marvel's Annuals were a mixed bag.

Unlike DC's 80-Page Giants which were all-reprint, Marvel's combined a new lead story with new behind-the-scenes featurettes and pin-ups along with a couple of reprinted stories into a 72-page package for the same 25₵ price as the aforementioned Giants.

This Stan Lee-scripted, Dick Ayers-penciled, Frank Giacoia-inked tale ("Frankie Ray" was Giacoia's pseudonym because he was doing a lot of freelance work for DC at the time.) covered a major, but untold, event in the group's history...their only battle during the Korean War!

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Marvel Epic Collection

Sgt Fury and His Howling Commandos
#2 Berlin Breakout
(Which includes this story!)
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Monday, April 22, 2024

WEREWOLF: The Silver-Age SuperHero Who Battled ONLY Russkies and Chi-Coms!

He's the "SuperHero with The Easiest to Draw Costume in Comics History"...

...and, during his three-issue run, he fought only Communists!

Russkies once!

Chinese twice!

To learn about this all-but forgotten crusader against Communism, here's the links to his adventures which we previously presented!

Note: There are links at the end of each issue's entry to the next chapter!

Issue #1

Issue #2

Issue #3

Trivia: Though his fellow monster/heroes Dracula and Frankenstein were reprinted in the early 1970s when the revision of the Comics Code allowed mainstream four-color comics to use "traditional monsters" again, Werewolf wasn't included in the revival!

Well, what are ya waiting for?

START READING!!!

Or...

Are You a

PINKO COMMIE???

Wednesday, July 26, 2023

Reading Room THE SHADOW "Showdown on Gargoyle Island!"

The Shadow is Losing to the One Foe He Can't Defeat...

...an artificially-enhanced man equipped by Shiwan Khan to resist the Shadow's ability to "cloud men's minds"!

There was one more camp-classic issue of The Shadow, and we presented it several years ago HERE, HERE, and HERE.
It's the only issue of the series without Shiwan Khan!

You can also read the somewhat less-campy first issue (by writer Robert Bernstein and artist John Rosenberger) on this blog by clicking HERE, HERE, and HERE!
We haven't done #2 yet, but we'll get to it soon!

PLUS: You can read the text feature revamping The Shadow's origin that ran through all eight issues of the comic series by clicking HERE....which leads us into...