Hero Histories

Wednesday, October 26, 2022

Heroic Halloween Horror SCORPION "Devil Doll Commission" Part 1

In the 1970s there were a number of pulp-style heroes in comics...

...and here's a never-reprinted story featuring one of the best of them against an occult menace!

...murdered via voodoo doll!

This spooky tale continues Tomorrow...

The Scorpion was the creation of Howard Chaykin, a young writer-artist who was already a recognized talent in the comics industry.

Unfortunately, while he was (and is) good, he was also slow, and the deadline for this issue crept up on him.

To get the book out on time, a group of friends including Mike Kaluta, Walt Simonson, Ed Davis, and Berni Wrightson jumped in doing whatever needed to be done, so the issue is a fascinating amalgam of styles.

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Weird Heroes
Volume 1

Friday, October 21, 2022

BLACK ADAM RETURNS Conclusion

We Have Already Seen...

...Black Adam has been resurrected by Captain Marvel's arch-enemy, Dr Sivana!
Unable to defeat the Big Red Cheese, Adam follows Sivana's suggestion to slay Shazam and deprive Cap of his power source...not realizing that it would probably also result in losing his own powers!

Note: this was years before the movie Superman II and Superman's "amnesia kiss" which made Lois Lane forget that the Man of Steel and Clark Kent were one and the same!

Black Adam would return several more times to battle Captain Marvel...and Superman, as well, before 1985's Crisis on Infinite Earths would end the DC multiverse and reboot literally everything!

But that's a story for another time!

See
Black Adam
opening today
Only in theatres!

Thursday, October 20, 2022

BLACK ADAM RETURNS Part 1

Though Black Adam died at the end of his lone Golden Age appearance as shown HERE...

...as they say on Monty Python's Flying Circus; "He got better!"

Note: this story was created during the run of the 1970s SHAZAM! TV series, and the comic adapted elements of the show, inserting Billy Batson's already-existing Uncle Dudley into the safari-jacketed and mustachioed Mentor role, and utilizing the "Eterni-phone" (which usually connected directly to the gods whose initials made up "Shazam") to contact the old wizard!

To be concluded
TOMORROW!

Writer (and associate editor) E Nelson Bridwell was a serious "continuity cop" as this explanation of how the Egyptian gods (with a bit of logic-stretching) filled out the "SHAZAM" anagram shows!

Plus, artist Kurt Schaffenberger hard worked on the original Fawcett run of the "Marvel Family" when he entered the comics business back in the 1950s!

But this story from DC's SHAZAM! #28 (1976) shows him at his artistic peak two decades later!

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Black Adam
Box Set
(Featuring the current version of the character, not the original incarnation we're showing!)

Wednesday, October 19, 2022

BLACK ADAM "Who He WAS, and How He Came to Be..." Conclusion

We Have Already Seen...

...Black Adam, the first person the old wizard Shazam granted powers to, has returned after 5,000 years to continue his attempt to conquer the Earth!

But a duo of new Shazam-created champions, Captain Marvel and Captain Marvel Jr, stand in his way.
But all three combatants discover their magical powers are equal, and neither side can gain an advantage!
As Black Adam retreats to rethink his strategy against these new enemies, the Marvels head to the Rock of Eternity to consult Shazam as to how to defeat a foe exactly like themselves...

This tale, written by Otto Binder, penciled by C C Beck, and inked by Pete Costanza from Fawcett's Marvel Family #1 (1945), was Black Adam's sole Golden Age appearance!

(Amazing, considering how often villains considered deceased managed to reappear in comics!)
After Shazam and his champions were revived by DC in the Bronze Age, Black Adam was left in literary limbo...