Classic Crisis #29 - The Heroes Of Yesteryear!

Having run through all the defunct heroes that the company had acquired over the decades, DC decided to plunder their own past and assemble some offbeat heroes from various genres to spice up the 1978 crossover event. Gerry Conway is the writer of the League adventures, a role he'd continue to hold for the remainder of the run.

"Crisis From Yesterday!" written by Gerry Conway and drawn by the always ready team of Dick Dillin and Frank McLaughlin under a Rich Buckler cover, begins quietly in 1978 as the Justice League of America and the Justice Society of America have a dinner on Earth-1 at Club 22. The heroes commemorate their annual team-ups with hopefully a quiet celebration. But the festive nature is shattered by an explosion. Then the story shifts to a limbo dimension bordering on the future time of 3786 A.D. where the Lord of Time, a League opponent reveals that his great computer in an effort to comply with its programming to fulfill the Lord's ambitions has engineered a means to dam the flow of time. The Lord realizes this is doom for all, but cannot stop his own creation. He hopes to goad the Justice League to save the day. As Club 22 shatters, the heroes see shadowy figures and forms before they become unconscious. Chapter 2 "Puppets from the Past" the attackers are revealed as heroes from across the centures. The Viking Prince, Jonah Hex, Enemy Ace, Miss Liberty, and The Black Pirate. These five individuals find themselves mysteriously assembled and able to communicate and further charged with vast energy enabling them to do fantastic things. Confused, Miss Liberty advises them to follow her to a place she knows where they can gather themselves. Meanwhile Superman breaks out the rubble of Club 22 and saves The Huntress, Flash, Star-Spangled Kid, Wonder Woman of Earth-2, Dr. Mid-Nite, and Elongated Man. Later Hawkman is found grieving over the comatose form of Hawkgirl. All of the other heroes in the combined JLofA and JSofA likewise are in comas. After taking their comrades to the hospital, Superman is able to trace a chronal energy signature which leads the survivors to Valley Forge. Chapter 3 "When the Heroes Fall..." begins with a furious battle between the League and Society members and the Heroes from the Past, and the time-travelers are able to defeat the combined might of the League and Society. In the epilogue, the Heroes of Yesterday are drawn into the Lord of Time's lair. He hopes that the defeat the combined heroes of the 20th century endured will make even more prepared to ultimately defeat his own computer. As the story ends the heroes recover and consider their attack.

 

"Crisis From Tomorrow!" is again by the Conway, Dillin and McLaughlin team. The cover is by Dillin and McLaughlin. Chapter 1 "From Out of the Ashes" follows the combined heroes Superman, Flash, Wonder Woman, Elongated Man, Dr.Mid-Nite, Hawkman, Star-Spangled Kid, and Huntress as they use an expanded Cosmic Treadmill to travel forward in time. Meanwhile at the fortress of the Lord of Time the five Heroes of Yesterday (Enemy Ace, Jonah Hex, Miss Liberty, Black Pirate, and Viking Prince) rally against the Lord of Time's computer who counters with a Tyrannosaurus Rex from the past and Lizard mutants from the future. The five brave heroes are stopped and sealed away. Chapter 2 "The Reefs of Time" begins with Aquaman returning from monitor duty to find most of his colleagues from the Society and the League in hospital beds comatose. He gets advanced equipment from the League's satellite and the doctors continue to try and save them. Meanwhile the heroes heading into the future come upon what they call reefs in time made of white dwarf star material. They are able to penetrate the barrier when Superman is charged by Star-Spangled Kid's cosmic converter and then thrown headlong into the reef by Wonder Woman. But Superman now has become comatose too. The heroes move on. Chapter 3 "Encounter at the End of Time" follows the relentless heroes as one after another they fall. First Hawkman, then Wonder Woman, until they reach the Lord of Time's castle. Inside the Flash finds the Heroes from Yesterday in coffins, but then is attacked and rendered comatose himself by pterodactyls. Then the remaining quartet continue and find a multi-armed robot from the future who defeats all save Ralph Dibny, the Elongated Man. It is left to Ralph, a hero who has been doubting his place among all these great heroes to save the day and destroy the computer by slithering by its defenses. The scene shifts forward as the heroes are all revived and assembled and commenting on the aftermath. The Heroes of Yesterday have been returned to their times and the Lord of Time has been imprisoned. The story ends as Elongated Man regales his wife with is heroic exploits. Conway does a smart thing by disabling most of the members of both the JLofA and JSofA right at the beginning of the story. That allows him a workable number of heroes to manipulate. The story benefits as some real characterization worms its way into this epic and we discover the center of our story is Ralph Dibny. The theme of never surrendering is well displayed and adds a neat focus to this story. It was fun to see these heroes from the past, but their powers are pretty amorphous, and sadly they have a relatively small role in the second part. Paradoxes being what they are, it's best I guess that the historical heroes are isolated. This was an entertaining effort. 

 Here's a gallery of covers featuring early cover appearances of the "Heroes of Yesterday". Alas The Black Pirate never rated a cover. 

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The New Frontier!

Darwyn Cooke's 2004 epic DC: The New Frontier is truly that, a mighty and lasting epic. It is at once of its time and timeless, it is simultaneously historical and mythic, and it tells a story we all know but which is fresh and new and compelling. And that doesn't for a moment consider that Cooke's artwork is fetching beyond words and his storytelling itself is eloquent and grand and brazen and nigh flawless. I heap a lot of praise on this "Elseworlds" effort (does DC still use this phrase) which relates how the Golden Age of heroes fell before the paranoia of the Red Scare and how new heroes were still able nonetheless to come from the shadows when a startling menace appears. This story has touches of H.P. Lovecraft with a eldritch monster from the depths of both outer space and of Earth's prehistory, a malevolent intelligence that communicates with certain humans in their dreams, driving them mad and often to their death. This story evokes time and again the shining heroism of The Right Stuff, the opulent romance about America's earliest space program.

We get to see some of the greatest of the DC heroes in fresh lights that makes them feel more real to me and not just characters in yet another yarn about saving the planet, though that's just what this is. The heroes in focus in this story are not necessarily the ones you'd first expect given that this is a stealth origin of the Justice League story. We focus on the tragic WWII outfit The Losers, the relentless Cold War Suicide Squad, and the complex Challengers of the Unknown, with types like Slam Bradley and King Faraday getting substantial roles.  We meet and follow novice heroes like Hal Jordan as Green Lantern and Barry Allen as The Flash. A significant effort is spent making Martian Manhunter a compelling character, as much a cinematic creation as a comic book one. And finally there is the grim American fable of John Henry, a tormented black man who takes the fight to the Klu Klux Klan in the bowels of the South. Loved the treatment of DC's big three with Wonder Woman in particular coming across as a warrior born, Superman as truly the greatest of heroes and Batman as the wily schemer and tactician at which he excels.  

I read the story in the "Black Label" edition which puts the story together into one tome and doesn't divide the sections by anything other than the chapters Cooke used internally throughout the series. It reads and feels like a true "graphic novel", a complex tale of inspiring heroism in a time fraught with danger and menace. It's one of those stories in which you probably know the good guys will win, but until they do it holds you by the throat. Also this one is filled with loads of extras such as the copious annotations to each installment and lots of anticipatory art and such. 

Here are the covers for the original series and the subsequent JLA one-shot specials. 

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Classic Crisis #28 - Legions Of Super-Heroes!

The recent crossovers between the Justice League and the Justice Society had focused on reviving long lost heroes such as the Seven Soldiers of Victory, Quality's Freedom Fighters, and Fawcett's champions.

 

In 1977 the two teams meet up with another then-current DC team, the Legion of Superheroes. This crossovers is almost like a meeting of the Schwartz-DC heroes and the Weisinger-DC heroes.

While Julie Schwartz had been fabricating his modernized DC universe with updated heroes of classic DC types, Weisinger concentrated on the Superman universe and arguably the most innovative thing to come out of that arena in the Silver Age was the Legion of Superheroes. And since continuity was an important part of Bronze Age DC, it was of course only normal that these sides of the DCU would meet.   

The Legion of Superheroes had really become the darlings of the DC universe again after some years in the wilderness as back-ups. Dave Crockrum's redesigns for the Legion some years before had rescued them and given them some charms for Bronze Age fans. Cockrum pulled off the same magic with the X-Men later in the decade. Mike Grell had really turned the Legion into fan favorites and its this polished team that shows up at last in the crossover.

 "Crisis in the 30th Century!" was written by the team of Paul Levitz and Marty Pasko, and drawn as usual by Dick Dillin and Frank McLaughlin. Anthony Tollin is credited with the colors and Milt Snapinn is identified as the letterer. The cover is a rare one by Dick Dillin himself. The story picks up in 1977 in the satellite headquarters of the Justice League where the Justice Society has been resting after a battle with the Psycho Pirate in their own title. The heroes from both teams are snatched by a giant mystical hand and dragged to the century 2977. The League members are Superman, Green Arrow, Black Canary, Green Lantern, and Batman. The Society members are Dr.Fate, Green Lantern, Hawkman, Flash, and Power Girl. They have been kidnapped by Mordru, a 30th century magician and longtime foe of the Legion of Superheroes. Superman, a member of that team as a boy recognizes their captor. Mordru tells the heroes that he's held some Legion members hostage as others seek out the Bell, the Jar, and the Wheel, three mystical artifacts which imprison three ancient demons named Abnegazar, Rath, and Ghast. As it turns out the League had once battled these demons and imprisoned them, keeping the three artifacts in the satellite, but it seems the JLofA satellite has been blown up since 1977 and the artifacts are missing. Mordru wants the teams to find the items and return them. He has already sent Legion members to do so, but they've not returned. Mordru keeps Green Arrow and Canary as hostages and sends the heroes on their missions. Chapter 2 "Crisis on a Cosmic Quest!" shows Legion members Wildfire and Sun Boy prisoners of a people shaped like wheels. Superman, Hawkman, and Dr.Fate show up and they figure out the people of this world worship the wheel and have taken its shape. Dr.Fate fills the sky with bright explosions which the people are fascinated with, they then alter their worship and their shapes allowing the combined heroes to leave with the magical wheel. Chapter 3 "For What the Bells Tolls..." shows Batman and the two Green Lanterns showing up over a planet attacked by space dragons. Legion members Brainiac 5 and Princess Projectra are already trying to negotiate for the Bell, but since it keeps the dragons at bay the people of the planet are loathe to give it up. Batman figures out the planet needs a scarecrow and the Lanterns carve a massive predator of the space dragons into one of the planets uninhabited land masses which serves silently to repel the dragons. The team then leaves with the Bell. Chapter 4 "The Final Errand" has only Power Girl and Flash finding the Jar, but its been mistaken for an egg by the aliens of the planet on which it fell. Power Girl switches out a true egg for the false one and they able to leave with their prize with minimal fuss. The heroes return to Mordru and try to attack him, but fail. He then uses his skills to free the three demons, and return the heroes (save Green Arrow and Black Canary) back to their own times. But Abnegazar, Rath, and Ghast promptly turn on Mordru and as the story ends Green Arrow and Black Canary are trapped in the unconscious Mordru's hourglass pendant and the Demons plot their next move against Earth.

 

"Crisis In Triplicate!" is again by the Pasko, Levitz, Dillin, and McLaughlin team. The cover is by Rick Buckler and Jack Abel. The story begins with the demons Abnegazer, Rath, and Ghast free and plotting against Earth. The Legion of Superheroes (Lightning Lad, Ultra Boy, and Wildfire attack them but are rebuffed. Then Sun Boy, Saturn Girl, Ultra Boy, and Brainiac 5 are ordered to take Mordru's spiritual form and combine it with his body in his prison. Green Arrow and Black Canary unfortunately go along for the ride. The three demons though have different plans for Earth. Abnegazar has grown weary of strife and seeks world peace and harmony under his rule, Rath seeks to plunder the planet of all its physical wealth, and Ghast wants nothing less than to completely reshape the planet meaning its near complete destruction. The demons battle one another but realize their powers cancel one another out. So they get teams of heroes to battle for them. Abnegazar chooses Lightning Lad, Chameleon Boy, Shadow Lass, Princess Projectra, and Wildfire to fight for him. Reaching back into to time, the other demons recapture the League and the Society and use them as pawns. Rath takes control of the JSofA and Ghast takes control of the three remaining JLofA members. Chapter 2 "The Battle that Shook the 30th Century!" begins with a flash of action. The three teams battle one another back and forth across the landscape of future Earth. Meanwhile Mordru's body is about back to his tomb and Green Lantern of Earth-1 has gone to rescue Arrow and Canary. He does so and the trio also defeats the Legion members who brought Mordru's form. Back on Earth the members of the opposing teams realize that they are under different levels of control from the demons and realize that a stalemate between their forces might bring about a potential resolution to the problems. Battling over a global tunnel, the teams almost succeed. Chapter 3 "Some Say the World End in Fire...Some Say In Ice!" has the heroes fighting in a future city in the Antarctic snowfields. They pursue their strategy of striving for a stalemate and succeed. This frustrates the demons who once again attack each other directly. Abnegazar and Rath eliminate each other. Ghast survives and is defeated by the combined power of the heroes and imprisoned when Dr.Fate (juiced up with power left over from the deceased demons) in the fragments of the JLofA satellite which is reassembled around him. The heroes compare notes and then head back to their own times, a slight alteration to their memories thanks to the Green Lanterns to forestall paradoxes.

This is not one of my favorite crossovers. Again Dillin and McLaughlin get huge props for telling an amazingly complex story literally overflowing with heroes. Sadly few of the Legion members get much personality save Wildfire and Brainiac 5. Some don't even speak I'd reckon. The League and Society do better with Power Girl getting a lot of attention. She was the breakout star of the new All Star comic and she gets showcased a bit here. I'm not quite sure where this story goes wrong. The elements seem pretty good. Mordru and the Demons seem worthy opponents, but somehow it all just rattles along barely, seemingly wanting to fall apart at any minute. The story just feels compressed and crowded. I will say that the satellite reforming was a really cool sequence, and in 1977 an interesting glimpse into a near future which hadn't quite happened yet. It makes sense that Paul Levitz would have a hand in this story since he was in charge of the Legion at the time. But it's a shame that Steve Englehart never wrote a crossover. This two-parter interrupts Englehart's great run on the JLofA, and he'd come back on board for two more issues after this crossover completed. Englehart's League was vibrant with personality, and sadly there's little of that in this tale. Probably just no room for it despite some expanded page counts. There was little novelty in this one either, since all the heroes on display had their own series at this time. This is a diverting tale, but not really compelling alas. 

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Kingdom Come!

In my universe comic books exist BAR and AAR, that is Before Alex Ross and After Alex Ross. Ross with his paintings made the Marvel Universe look new and fresh again, even when he was rendering it oldest components. The only artist who had the same impact to my mind was Neal Adams who a generation or more before had brought to the page his bold illustrative stylings. Ross upped the ante on realism but to my falls short in the area of dynamics. Don't get me wrong, by and large I love the work of Alex Ross and followed Astro City through all its publishers and incarnations in no small part due to the paintings Ross did for each and every cover. But when I read a Ross story (and not just stare lovingly at one of his covers) my eye sometimes lost and clarity of detail which I know must be there gets washed out by the complexity of an image. 

Nonetheless Ross is the perfect candidate to work with Mark Waid on Kingdom Come, a rather grim look at a possible DCU future in which Superman has been swept aside for someone more hip and sadly much more dangerous. He and the other heroes have fallen away as a new more brutal and less empathetic generation of characters take to the streets to fight crime and each other with a wild abandon that often caused as much harm as good. The morality of doing good seemed to have become radicalized and made for dangerous super types of all sorts. In this story a good man becomes gifted with the ability to see the future, a gift he inherited from Wesley Dodds the Sandman, and this man a preacher by trade is led by the Spectre to scene after scene of Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman and others attempting to deal with crisis brought on by a "hero" named Mangog who caused nuclear devastation in the center of the United States bread basket, effectively irradiating the state of Kansas and regions beyond. In the face of this calamity the veteran heroes return to the playing field and attempt to bring order. And that's just the beginning as efforts to bring justice and peace prove much more difficult. 

Here are the original covers. 

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Classic Crisis #27 - With One Magic Word!

By the time of the 1976 JSofA and JLofA crossover, a lot had happened in the broader DC universe, namely the Justice Society had at long last gotten their own series again in the revived All-Star Comics. It's a wonderful run, but it did take the special bloom off the annual crossover event since seeing these Earth-2 legends was much more commonplace now. So the special sauce in these annual events needed to be something else and in 1976, the added spice was the revival of the Fawcett heroes.

DC had long ago sued Fawcett Comics out of business claiming that Captain Marvel was a rip-off of Superman. The famous case resulted in the Marvel Family disappearing from the shelves and becoming a misty part of comics history. When I first encountered Captain Marvel it was in Jules Feiffer's The Great Comic Book Heroes and Feiffer was only allowed at that time to show one page of the Big Red Cheese's origin for historical purposes.

So it's obviously ironic when DC bought the defunct Fawcett heroes and revived the Marvel Family at last in the pages of Shazam!. Now in this crossover trilogy we'd get a glimpse of other Fawcett heroes not seen for many decades.

"Crisis In Eternity!" was plotted by E. Nelson Bridwell, scripted by Marty Pasko and featured artwork by the stalwart team of Dick Dillin and Frank McLaughlin. Ernie Chua/Chan supplied the covers for all three issues in this trilogy. The story begins with King Kull, the last of the Beast-Men from Earth-S (the Earth where the Fawcett cheroes lived, the "S" standing for "Shazam"). He wanted revenge and started that revenge by using a torpor ray to stop the gods on the Rock of Eternity, the same gods who gave power to the Marvel Family. Only Mercury escaped with a plan he got telepathically from Shazam the wizard.

Chapter 1 "Gather Ye Heroes While Ye May!" shows Mercury collecting his superheroes from three Earths. He gets Green Arrow, Superman, Flash, Green Lantern, Hawkman, and Hawkgirl from Earth-1. He gets Flash, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Johnny Thunder, Robin and Batman (his first crossover appearance)from Earth-2. And from Earth-S the representatives are Ibis the Invincible, Spy Smasher, Bulletman, Bulletgirl, Mr.Scarlet and Pinky the Whiz Kid. The heroes gather and divide into to teams to meet the threats.

Chapter 2 "Crisis On A Lost Continent" has Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Arrow, and Spy Smasher take on Queen Clea of the Amazons, Blockbuster, Penguin, and IBAC to save Earth-2 on the risen island of Atlantis. Superman and Wonder Woman dispatch Clea and her enslaved Blockbuster. Arrow defeats the Penguin, and Spy Smasher beats IBAC by getting him to say his name turning him into his inoffensive other self. But the true threat to the is a cloud which uses gravity fields to crush surface features into the Earth itself. Superman is able to compress this offending cloud using his super-breath and send it into space.

"Crisis On Earth-S!" is by the same creative team of Bridwell, Pasko, Dillin, and McLaughlin.

Chapter 3 "The Volcano Connection" shows the heroes Hawkman, Hawkgirl, Bulletman, and Bulletgirl battling an erupting volcano which spews material which transforms people into stone. Hawkman is affected slightly. The scene shifts to Billy Batson (the boy who would be Captain Marvel) and he reports about the weird events on Earth-S including a walking skyscraper.

Chapter 4 "The Sting of Laughter...The Splash of Tears..." showcases the heroes Batman, Robin, Mr.Scarlet and Pinky. They battle the Earth-2 Joker and an Earth-S villain named Weeper. These two commit jewel robberies by animating the jewels which walk out of the store behind them. Batman himself has been afflicted though by a jaw partially transformed into steel. The combined sleuths defeat the villains, but changes continue to happen as Pinky's hair acquires a diamond consistency. The heroes learn that the true threat is posed by Dr.Light and The Shade and a world which is now torn between unchanging sides of perpetual day and night.

Chapter 5 "Chaos in Chiarscuro!" has Bulletman and Hawkman battling the Shade and his darkness but are concerned when the Shade's cane seems not to be in control of the dark. Meanwhile Bulletgirl and Hawkgirl battle Dr.Light and discover that he too doesn't seem to have complete control of the sunshine. It's discovered that two satellites are the offending devices and using the Shade's cane and Dr.Light's gun the two satellites are smashed into one another cancelling the threat to Earth-S. The transformations of all kind immediately vanish.

"Crisis In Tomorrow!" is again by the creative team of Bridwell, Pasko, Dillin, and McLaughlin.

Chapter 6 "The Odds Against Tomorrow!" begins in the futuristic domed city on Earth-1 which comes under attack by Mr.Atom the giant robot from Earth-S. That threat is confronted by the combined forces of the Green Lanterns and Ibis the Invincible. But they are stymied by Mr.Atom's black aura. Meanwhile the two Flashes and Mercury rush around the domed city saving the people and doing what can be done to forestall property damage.

Chapter 7 "Death Is A Green-Skinned Computer" reveals that Mr.Atom is assisted by a flying saucer. Green Lantern of Earth-1 investigates and finds longtime Superman foe Brainiac behind the threat of Mr.Atom's black protective aura and further he is using the energy of the Flashes to power his ultimate scheme.

Chapter 8 "When Titans Clash!" has the heroes face off again Mr.Atom who gets hold of the Ibis stick and commands it to send Ibis into the heart of sun. But a protective spell on the wand reverses the effect and Mr.Atom himself is sent hurtling into space out of sight. The city saved, the heroes plan to reassemble for the final assault on the Rock of Eternity where King Kull is encamped. But Kull uses Red Kryptonite from Earth-2 to transform the Man of Steel into a mad killer and sets him to assault his comrades. On Earth-S though Johnny Thunder has arrived to visit the Marvel Family trapped in their mortal forms and uses his Thunderbolt to substitute for the lightning normally sent by Shazam. The Marvel Family now unleashed they race to the Rock of Eternity to defeat King Kull. Then Captain Marvel flies to confront the berserker Superman and just as the two titans are about the crash into one another Marvel calls down Shazam's lightning, changing himself into Billy Batson and driving out Superman's rage. Superman saves Batson and the threat ended the assembled heroes of the three Earths fly off to their respective homes.

(The Marvel Family with Unfortunate Stereotypes)
This three-part crossover is a hectic race of a story with a pace that never slackens at all. That frankly is a bit of a problem as we are confronted with so many different heroes and villains that scorecards are absolutely required to make sense of the action. The stories seem frankly to lack a focus, a central figure through which the furious action can be processed. In previous crossovers the Red Tornado provided that filter. In the previous year the visiting writers Bates and Maggin played the role. But in this story there seems to be no true center. Shazam might've been a good candidate for it, likewise Billy Batson who does report on the action from time to time.

 

I personally would've loved to have seen more done with the Earth-2 Batman who shows up in this one almost by accident and gets no mention at all from the Earth-1 heroes who I'd imagine might be eager to meet him after all this time. He does get some good cover time on the second issue of the crossover I'll have to admit. It was nice to see him and Robin teaming up, given what will happen to him soon in the regular Justice Society storyline.

The offbeat villains are fun for sure. There seemed to be a real desire to dig out some curious combos this time out. Putting the Weeper with the Earth-2 Joker was funny, and it was cool to see the robots Brainiac and Mr. Atom join forces. But overall, it was quite difficult to get a grip on why the baddies were doing what they were doing. Their crimes seemed random to the overall plot as the villains themselves seemed not to be plugged into the true nature of the plot. This added to the chaos.

I liked this crossover for its novelty, and I have to give Dick Dillin an award for maintaining as much clarity as he does with the armada of characters he's presented with.

And despite the cover of the third issue in the crossover, Captain Marvel and Superman do not actually clash in any real sense. That would have to wait for a few years when they duked it out in a special tabloid comic dedicated to that very purpose.

In the last analysis this storyline is more of a fun but incomplete stunt than a true involving story. That's a pity, because there's a ton of potential in these pages.

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The Silver Age Of DC Comics!

Taschen's The Silver Age of Comics 1956-1970 by Paul Levitz is another entertaining guided tour through the history of arguably the most important producer of comics in the last century. There's no doubt that Marvel fills that niche in this century but it was of course not always so. And the passing of the torch can be seen in many ways as the pages in this exceedingly large tome flip by. 

Like the previous volume dedicated to the Golden Age, this one begins with an interview. This one is with Neal Adams, the artist who changed the look of DC more than any other in the Silver Age and beyond. I admire and respect the work of Neal Adams as much nearly any other artist from that era and I will not diminish his contribution to the art and the working conditions of the industry. He was an instrumental figure, but alas he is all too aware of it and he doesn't do modesty. Every interview I've ever read with Adams has the same supreme confidence in both his skills and recollection and sadly that comes across as brash self-love. I don't debate the facts, just the skill of the presentation. 

The Silver Age of DC Comics details in brisk form how the lowly comic book form was kicked back into gear with the appearance of Barry Allen the Flash. It of course was not as simple as that and I'm one of those who is attracted to the notion that Martian Manhunter is the marker for the Silver Age, but I won't pick that wound. The Silver Age at DC was one operated by professionals such as Carmine Infantino, Gardner Fox, John Broome, Gil Kane, Murphy Anderson, Joe Kubert, Jerry Grandenetti, Irv Novick, Robert Kanigher, Curt Swan and many many others. All of these gentlemen (Ramona Fradon the lone distaff voice) were craftsmen who knew how to make a comic book. So sure were they of their skills and the impact of those skills on the marketplace, that as they filled the comic racks with such as Justice League of America, The Flash, Challengers of the Unknown, Hawkman, Atom, Green Lantern, and more such as the legion of Superman titles and more than a few Batman titles they never saw the Stan Lee machine at Marvel inching ever closer. The meteoric rise and fall the Batman TV show certainly helped save not only that character but lifted all of comics out of their rut and infused them with a fresh hip energy. And with the guidance of editors such as Julius Schwartz, Mort Weisinger, and Jack Schiff the DC line was really several lines in one, a machine dedicated to professional-looking comics that would begin the Silver Age and end it number one in the field. 

Here are some of the grand DC comic covers featured in this entertaining book. 

And next time the Bronze Age is upon us all. 

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