Bronze to Gold

In a previous post, I was recollecting the last Charlton comic I bought, from Virgin in Glasgow's Union Street in the late autumn of 1981. I was reminded of this book, which sat on the same rack for weeks and which I may yet track down again for its Giordano cover.

 John Byrne's White Raven caught my eye on that cover, for a couple of reasons: 

Tonight's post, however, features two of DC's reprint titles from the early years of the US energy crisis. Some computer bugs meant this one, which should have gone up this afternoon, is a bit delayed.

Wanted 6 is another all-Golden Age reprint issue and if the letters page is anything to go by, that was a popular format. Two missives request forties reprints (although regular correspondent James T. McCoy still hopes to see new material)
"Starman": this is a sequel to the Mist story in the Flying Heroes Super-Spec of the previous spring. In this one, the nebulous old spook hypnotises innocents to commit robberies. It's another cinematic Jack Burnley outing for the Astral Avenger with the hypochondriac alter ego.


 "The Man Who Met Himself": surprisingly, editor Bridwell's first villainess in this title is the mystical Blue Lama, rather than the better-known Catwoman, Cheetah or even the Harlequin ( more of whom on  Materioptikon in coming weeks.) The hero of this magic adventure is, of course Sargon the Sorceror, whom I first encountered as a Marvel-style anti-hero in the early Bronze Age, for story reasons I still can't really fathom.


"The Wasp's Nest": this is the second outing for the sadistic killer, Yellow Wasp and the most exciting Wildcat reprint yet. There is a suggestion in the artwork that the Wasp, who lives in an Expressionist tree, is oriental. Amusingly, however, gangling sidekick Stretch Skinner strongly resembles Eleventh Doctor, Matt Smith. 

This is an appealing issue with a strong selection of stories.

Published in the same month, Legion of Super-Heroes was a short-lived title- so short-lived I never saw another issue, after this one, in the Seventies. "The Lad Who Wrecked the Legion" is an example of a specific type of LSH tales: that of the Legion Infiltrator. It is played out in "The Weddings that Wrecked the Legion"; in the début of Dynamo Boy; Nemesis Kid; and, oddly, of Universo. This time, the renegade is Command Kid, who demonstrates powers not unlike those of future Legionnaire Princess Projectra. But he's also possessed by a demon from a "taboo island"!
Jim Mooney makes a rare Legion appearance as penciller; his work is more emotional and dynamic than John Forte but compared to the havoc on the Cardy cover, it's a bit disappointing. There's more Mooney work in the back-up strip, "Riddle of the Space Rainbow": a polite interplanetary mystery with Tommy Tomorrow. It's standard space-opera from the early Silver Age.
 For me as a kid, the real interest in this issue was Cary Bates' text feature on the Membership List (part one!) I had last seen this Lore of the Legion in about 1970-1, serialized in Super DC 2-4, I think. This one included updates on Shadow Lass, Chemical King and Timber Wolf, a character I'd only glimpsed in an issue of Action in Girvan three years earlier. The details of powers and origins became burned into a part of my brain for decades to come.


Coming soon: The Two Doctors

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