CoronaVirus Comics SPIDEY SUPER STORIES "Spidey vs Mister Measles"

Spider-Man's fought many strange foes...

...but none stranger than the dastardly, diseased TV super-villain whose only appearance was narrated by Morgan Freeman!

(Yes, that Morgan Freeman!)

See what happens when you don't get your inoculations, kids?

Marvel's Spidey Super Stories #2 (1974) takes the tv ep's script and uses it verbatim for this adaptation illustrated by penciler Win Mortimer and inker Mike Esposito.

Ensemble member Skip Hinnant (who played most of the Spidey villains as well as regular character Fargo North: Decoder) portrayed Mister Measles.

Morgan Freeman narrated all the Spidey segments (even ones where he appeared as regular character Easy Reader), including this one.

Unfortunately, there's no extant video of this segment, but the audio from it was taken and used on the Peter Pan/Power Records LP album Spidey Super Stories!

And we have it here!

Note: Spidey didn't speak in the TV episodes!

His dialogue was shown in on-screen word balloons the audience would read...sometimes out loud...sometimes really loud, as my screeching little brother did!

So, ensemble member John Boyd (who also wrote most of the Spidey segments) did the webhead's dialogue for the record album!

Also note: Power Records did combination record album/comic books so kids could read along a comic with the audio...like this!

They adapted a number of existing Marvel comic stories featuring the Fantastic Four, Captain America, Man-Thing, and others...including Spider-Man!

But the comics versions of the stories in this particular album were found only in the Spidey Super Stories comic book!

The album didn't have any comics!

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Best of Spidey Super Stories

(which, sadly, does not include this story)

PLASTIC MAN "Plastic Man's Fantastic Old Man" Conclusion

We Have Already Seen...

...err..wait!

This cover scene does not appear in this story!

In fact, there's no simian of any sort in the story! 

Apparently, then-publisher (and cover penciler) Carmine Infantino's fetish for apes got the best of him!

Well, at least the captions are accurate!

This tale concerns the Silver Age Plastic Man's dad...the Golden Age Plastic Man!

Now in retirement, the older super-hero is about to lose his only source of income, his Plastic Acres retirement home to the notorious criminal King of Spades!

The two heroes and their sidekicks pose as a shiek and his entourage in order to catch the greedy King of Spades robbing them...

Oh, look!

Another ape (on the Jerry Lewis cover)!

Wow, they were everywhere in those days!

Though writer Arnold Drake would remain for the rest of the title's run, this was artist Win Mortimer's swan song as he went on to extended stays on both Legion of Super Heroes (in Adventure Comics and Action Comics) and Supergirl (in Adventure Comics, when Legion transferred over to Action Comics)!

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Plastic Man 80-Page Giant

Featuring classic tales from each of his eras (Golden Age/Silver Age/Bronze Age)

PLASTIC MAN "Plastic Man's Fantastic Old Man" Part 2

When Last We Left Our Heroes...

...it turns out the Silver Age Plastic Man is the son of the Golden Age Plastic Man, who now runs a retirement home!

The tawdry tale concludes...TOMORROW!

BTW, I mentioned we did an editorial change to the art for this never-reprinted story by writer Arnold Drake and artist Win Mortimer.

Nobody posted what it was, so I'll tell you.

I photoshopped the Golden Age Plastic Man's legs back to their "bare flesh tone" color!

The published story had both the Silver Age and Golden Age PMs with the red leggings that defined the Silver Age version, which made it difficult to tell them apart in panels where they appeared together!

So for the sake of historical accuracy, I modified the pages.

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Plastic Man 80-Page Giant

Featuring classic tales from each of his eras (Golden Age/Silver Age/Bronze Age)

PLASTIC MAN "Plastic Man's Fantastic Old Man" Part 1

We presented a never-reprinted tale with three different origins for the Silver Age Stretchable Sleuth...

...but this never-reprinted tale is the real deal, we pinky-swear it!

When DC bought the Quality Comics line in the mid-1950s, they kept four titles going...Blackhawk, G.I. Combat, Heart Throbs, and Robin Hood Tales.

The rest of the titles (and characters) were held in abeyance, and apparently forgotten about.

(I'm not sure if editor Julie Schwartz even remembered DC had the rights to Plastic Man when the Elongated Man was created in The Flash, then given his own strip in Detective Comics!)

When Plas was revived in 1966, many fans were disappointed that he wasn't Jack Cole's Golden Age version with sidekick Woozy Winks.

This tale by writer Arnold Drake and artist Win Mortimer from DC's Plastic Man #7 (1967) was meant as a tie-in to that version.

You'll note the older Plas has the angular, almost lupine look of the original version.

In addition, I've taken the liberty of making an editorial alteration throughout the tale to keep the Golden Age version "on model".

If you haven't already figured out what it is, you'll discover what it is...TOMORROW!

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Plastic Man 80-Page Giant

Featuring classic tales from each of his eras (Golden Age/Silver Age/Bronze Age)

PLASTIC MAN "Three Faces of Plastic Man" Conclusion

We Have Already Seen...

...the evil Dr Dome has cloned his equally-evil daughter, Lynx, to question the three people who claim to have witnessed the origin of Plastic Man so that the villian can go back in time and prevent Plastic Man from gaining his powers!

Two Lynx have already heard wildly-different versions of the Ductile Detective's origin!

Now the last Lynx interviews Plas' best friend, Gordon Trueblood.

What a time in DC Comics history this was!
The same month in 1966 this tale ran in Plastic Man #2, the Silver Age Batgirl made her first appearance in Detective Comics #359!
In less-notable events, the premiere and origin of B'Wana Beast was published in Showcase #66 and the Blackhawks began their (thank God temporary) transition from aviator-adventurers to superhero-spies in Blackhawk #228!
You can read about the Blackhawks' ill-advised revamping HERE!
None of the tall tales in this issue was Plas' true origin, though the first one does have elements of the Golden Age hero's origin!
But this guy is not the Golden Age hero!
(Note Dr Dome's comment that Plas and he have been at odds for eight years!
The final issue of the Golden Age Plas' book had been published eight years earlier!)
Everything will become clear at the end of August as we present the never-reprinted Silver Age sequel tale that clears up the matter!

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Plastic Man 80-Page Giant

Featuring classic tales from each of his eras (Golden Age/Silver Age/Bronze Age)

PLASTIC MAN "Three Faces of Plastic Man" Part 2

When Last We Left the Stretchable Sleuth...

...the evil Dr Dome has cloned his equally-evil daughter, Lynx, to question the three people who claim to have witnessed the origin of Plastic Man so that the villian can go back in time and prevent Plastic Man from gaining his powers!

(NOTE: May be NSFW due to a racial stereotype that persisted into the 1960s)

Be here tomorrow as we witness the final alleged origin of Plas!

Please Support Hero Histories

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Plastic Man 80-Page Giant

Featuring classic tales from each of his eras (Golden Age/Silver Age/Bronze Age)