50's comic-book heroes [Archive] - HERO Games Discussion Boards

FenrisUlf

Oct 6th, '05, 07:57 AM

Vanguard00

Oct 6th, '05, 08:07 AM

I know that Flash and Green Lantern were both 'revamped' in the 50's, but I don't know of new characters. There were lots of 'adventure' comics in the 50's, though: Wyatt Earp, Roy Rogers, Robin Hood, some battlefield stuff...that sort of thing.

I'll see what I can find out.

Vanguard00

Oct 6th, '05, 08:19 AM

Challengers of the Unknown first appeared, but they're not really superheroes. But Legion of Super-Heroes first appeared in 1958 (Adventure #247).

Marvel attempted a revival following the Code-Crisis of the fifties using Namor, Human Torch & Captain America, but apparently it failed. Marvel published mostly horror, sci fi and westerns in the 50's.

Still looking, though.

Blue

Oct 6th, '05, 08:21 AM

Hard to spot heroes created in this time period. Even Marvel Boy (1952) actually had two earlier incarnations. And I'm pretty sure the Rawhide Kid isn't what you were looking for.

New Comics in this period tended to resemble Dime novels. All westerns, suspense tales, and romance comics.

fredrik_nilsson

Oct 6th, '05, 08:28 AM

Now, we all know that the evil Doc Wertham drove superhero and horror comics out of existence in the 50's, yet I've read that there were some new superheroes from both DC and Marvel at that time. Does anyone know anything about who these characters were or where I could go to learn more?
Normally I'd recommend these places, ... :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dc_comics
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvel_Comics
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superhero

... but they don't say a word about supers that were created during the 50's.

There is always the possibility to browse Toonopedia (http://www.toonopedia.com). :?

Vanguard00

Oct 6th, '05, 08:32 AM

Dr. Anomaly

Oct 6th, '05, 08:58 AM

If there were new superheroes in the 1950s, they're from underground comics and I can't find 'em.
Vanguard00, you yourself pointed out the LSH; since it was their first appearance (in 1958) how do they not qualify as "new" superheroes in the 1950's? :confused:

McCoy

Oct 6th, '05, 09:09 AM

J'onn J'onzz, 1955

Vanguard00

Oct 6th, '05, 09:16 AM

Vanguard00, you yourself pointed out the LSH; since it was their first appearance (in 1958) how do they not qualify as "new" superheroes in the 1950's? :confused:
I meant other than what I came up with already :)

Darren Watts

Oct 6th, '05, 09:29 AM

New or at least majorly revamped superheroes in the decade of the '50s:

Captain Comet (1952)
Krypto The Superdog (what, he doesn't count?) (1953)
The Batmen of Other Countries (a goofy story, but strangely important to DC continuity) (1955)
Martian Manhunter (1955)
Flash II (Barry Allen) (1956)
Batwoman (1956)
The original Legion Of Superheroes (Lightning Lad, Saturn Girl, Cosmic Boy) (1958)
Challengers Of The Unknown (sort of supers, anyway) (1957)
Congo Bill & Congorilla (1957 &1959- originally just an adventure strip, but got superpowers within the decade)
Supergirl (1959)
Green Lantern II (Hal Jordan) (just squeaks in at the end of '59)
Aqualad just missed, in 1960.

Jimmy Olsen first became Elasti-Lad in 1958, too.

The late '50s at DC saw a lot of sci-fi action heroes who wound up as part of their eventual superhero universe as well:

Space Ranger (1958)
Adam Strange (1958)
Tommy Tomorrow (1958)
Rip Hunter (1959)

Plus there were several other action heroes from different time periods who blurred the line into superheroism, like Tomahawk, Nighthawk (a masked cowboy) and a few others.

Timely's brief comeback in the early '50s only recreated '40s characters, except for Venus (who wasn't much of a superhero) and a few monster characters who've been retconned into supers. As a bit of trivia, Patsy Walker (who later became the heroine Hellcat) first appeared in the Atlas romance comic Patsy & Hedy in 1952. There weren't any significan indy heroes created in the '50s- only the most popular of the non-DC heroes still had series at the beginning of the decade (the Marvels, Doll Man, Plastic Man), and all of them had died off by 1954 or so.

Darren Watts

Oct 6th, '05, 09:31 AM

I imagine Steve Long is the one to ask here, as he is the dean of superhero comic-book history...

Dude.

Agent 13

Oct 6th, '05, 09:45 AM

A few that haven't been mentioned:

1951 - Dr. Thirteen
1952 - Phantom Stranger
1955 - Ace the Bat-Hound
Viking Prince
1959 - Sgt. Rock
Lady Blackhawk
Bat-Mite

Darren Watts

Oct 6th, '05, 09:55 AM

Forgot the Phantom Stranger!?! D'oh!!! dw

Vanguard00

Oct 6th, '05, 09:57 AM

Dude.
Noted :)

Darren Watts

Oct 6th, '05, 10:19 AM

Noted :)

Just teasin'. Steve's comic-fu is very solid, but it doesn't really go back past the seventies. dw

mvoncannon

Oct 6th, '05, 11:23 AM

Wow! Impressive. Repped for knowledge.

John Desmarais

Oct 6th, '05, 12:51 PM

This question is for the real old-timers out there. Now, we all know that the evil Doc Wertham drove superhero and horror comics out of existence in the 50's, yet I've read that there were some new superheroes from both DC and Marvel at that time. Does anyone know anything about who these characters were or where I could go to learn more?

I imagine Steve Long is the one to ask here, as he is the dean of superhero comic-book history, but whoever knows something helpful, I'll appreciate whatever you've got to say.

Try this:
http://www.wtv-zone.com/silverager/CSHTML/1955.shtml
http://www.wtv-zone.com/silverager/CSHTML/1956.shtml
http://www.wtv-zone.com/silverager/CSHTML/1958.shtml
http://www.wtv-zone.com/silverager/CSHTML/1959.shtml

FenrisUlf

Oct 6th, '05, 01:59 PM

Dude.

Sorry Darren. I am a great big dummy. :idjit:

And after going home, I found an old issue of What If? that argued for a '50's Avengers'. From the story, they spoke of 3-D Man, Marvel Boy, Venus, the Living Robot (who started out a killer, but was reformed by Venus' 'Love Powers'), and the Human Gorilla (basically a man turned into a gorilla, who then spends all his time angsting about it).

They also had FBI agent Jimmy Wu, who's name I swear I remember from SHIELD or the like, and Fu Manchu (with the requisite Nazi mad scientist) as the main villain. There were other villains too, including a guy with x-ray eyes, a living skeleton, and a green-skinned Russian Commie named Electro who could hurl lightning bolts. But that's all I can remember right now.

Blue

Oct 6th, '05, 02:27 PM

and the Human Gorilla (basically a man turned into a gorilla, who then spends all his time angsting about it). Impossible! They didn't invent angst until the X-men! ;)

JmOz

Oct 6th, '05, 02:44 PM

I imagine Steve Long is the one to ask here, as he is the dean of superhero comic-book history, but whoever knows something helpful, I'll appreciate whatever you've got to say.

To expand on Darren's Dude comment:

Around here Steve is the guy you go to for guns, his tastes run towards darker characters with Iron Age mentalities

For general Comic Guruship DW is the man, especialy on the lighter stories of the 60-80's

Dr. Anomaly

Oct 6th, '05, 02:49 PM

To expand on Darren's Dude comment:

Around here Steve is the guy you go to for guns, his tastes run towards darker characters with Iron Age mentalities

For general Comic Guruship DW is the man, especialy on the lighter stories of the 60-80's
"And in other news today, the Legion of Super-Pets inducted a new member: Genre Hound! Darren Watts -- Genre Hound's real name -- said that he looked forward to working with the other members of the team, and stated that though he wasn't native to this century or time period, felt that he 'fit right in' with the ideals and general viewpoints expressed by our modern 30th century society. We would like to welcome Genre Hound to the 30th century, and believe we'll be seeing great things from him in the not-too-distant future!" [/newscaster]

Darren Watts

Oct 6th, '05, 03:21 PM

Sorry Darren. I am a great big dummy. :idjit:

And after going home, I found an old issue of What If? that argued for a '50's Avengers'. From the story, they spoke of 3-D Man, Marvel Boy, Venus, the Living Robot (who started out a killer, but was reformed by Venus' 'Love Powers'), and the Human Gorilla (basically a man turned into a gorilla, who then spends all his time angsting about it).

They also had FBI agent Jimmy Wu, who's name I swear I remember from SHIELD or the like, and Fu Manchu (with the requisite Nazi mad scientist) as the main villain. There were other villains too, including a guy with x-ray eyes, a living skeleton, and a green-skinned Russian Commie named Electro who could hurl lightning bolts. But that's all I can remember right now.

NP- like I said, I was just joshin'. 3-D Man is a '70s retcon into the '50s, and Living Robot and Human Gorilla are characters from non-supers monster comics in the '50s. Venus and Marvel Boy were real late-Timely heroes, though, as was Jimmy Woo, who was the protagonist in Yellow Claw comics (a rare bad-guy lead series of the time.) Oh, and I looked it up- Venus actually debuted in 1948 herself, so drop her from the list.

Here, I bestow upon you all a wonderful site. God bless Jess Nevins, Avatar of the Chronicler and Keeper of the Faith.

http://www.geocities.com/ratmmjess/toc.html

dw

assault

Oct 6th, '05, 05:33 PM

I've always been struck by how brief the "superhero gap" actually was.

Essentially, sales started dropping after WWII, bottomed out by the early 50s, and started to pick up again from 1956. That's about ten years.

Of course, all of this stuff really only applies to the US industry.

Mutant for Hire

Oct 6th, '05, 06:16 PM

Hugh Neilson

Oct 6th, '05, 07:19 PM

In retrospect, even if Seduction of the Innocent hadn't been published, I doubt that the superhero comics would be significantly different than they are now. Even without the CCA, I suspect in the somewhat repressed fifties the superhero comics (which were considered kid's stuff) would be cleaned up and shed their pulp roots. There would have just been a more gradual transition between the golden and silver ages.

Suoers had steadily declined since WW II. Seductionnof the Innocent's big backlash was against crime and horror comics, which then ruled the roost. In fact, the toning down of such comics, which put some of the more succesful publishers out of business (eg. EC) probably helped the Supers resurgence, in that they cleared the playing field by eliminating a lot of the popular genres the Supers then stepped in to replace.

psm

Oct 6th, '05, 07:59 PM

Supers had steadily declined since WW II. Seduction of the Innocent's big backlash was against crime and horror comics, which then ruled the roost. In fact, the toning down of such comics, which put some of the more succesful publishers out of business (eg. EC) probably helped the Supers resurgence, in that they cleared the playing field by eliminating a lot of the popular genres the Supers then stepped in to replace.

Damn, you beat me to it. If it wasn't for Wertham, superheroes would be a much smaller part of the comic industry. I'm not sure how much smaller but it would be alot different than the 80% it is now. I figure it would look alot more like the Manga market at least in terms of popularity and diversity. In alot of ways the publishers (using Wertham as an excuse) crippled the industry by forcing themselves to refrain from doing anything considered remotely adult. Its been 50's years since the comic code authority was brought into play and we are still feeling its effects. For better or worse we probably always will.

ChaosDrgn

Oct 6th, '05, 10:38 PM

Just to post it, another retcon for the 50's

Torch of Liberty & Radio Girl

csyphrett

Oct 7th, '05, 05:43 PM

Don't forget the Harvey heroes, and Captian Atom.
CES

assault

Oct 7th, '05, 09:05 PM

Don't forget the Harvey heroes, and Captian Atom.
CES

Which Captain Atom is this one?

csyphrett

Oct 7th, '05, 09:15 PM

Which Captain Atom is this one?

I am wrong about Captain Atom. He debuted March, 60. Missed it by three months.
CES

zornwil

Dec 27th, '05, 06:35 PM

Yeah, I'm finding out the same thing. Doc Wertham's book pretty much squelched superhero creativity during that time. DC managed to keep Action Comics (Superman) and Detective Comics (Batman) going, but they're the only two. It wasn't until the late 50s that DC revamped Flash, Green Lantern and Atom, and it wasn't until 1960-61 that comics made a big comeback.

If there were new superheroes in the 1950s, they're from underground comics and I can't find 'em.
My reading of that history is this isn't quite true. It squelched the horror comics for sure, and those were its primary target (of course supers were high on the list, too). But supers had already fallen from favor and were a losing proposition. Before Wertham's crusade (which to be fair he really wasn't in many ways responsible for the results of - he preferred a rating system or such, he wasn't fond of the Comics Code, which was really a combination of industry shennanigans to bump off EC along with appeasing the PTA-type groups) supers were largely replaced by crime and horror and so on. At least in the couple histories I've read. I agree the Comics Code had a stultifying effect on certain types of supers stories, but many have also accredited the Comics Code with creating an environment which Stan Lee could exploit well, staying at first well within its bounds and developing (resurrecting, whatever) an exciting genre despite its constrictions. Naturally the CC and supers comics would eventually collide as supers comics matured, but that wasn't a problem early on.

PS - whoops, I see Hugh and others did mention this towards the end of the thread. Oh, wel, I won't delete since I said some other stuff, not all duplicate.

zornwil

Dec 27th, '05, 06:37 PM

In retrospect, even if Seduction of the Innocent hadn't been published, I doubt that the superhero comics would be significantly different than they are now. Even without the CCA, I suspect in the somewhat repressed fifties the superhero comics (which were considered kid's stuff) would be cleaned up and shed their pulp roots. There would have just been a more gradual transition between the golden and silver ages.
I'm not so sure. Given the success of horror and crime and romance, I think supers could have well taken a somewhat different turn. And the real shame is that just when EC was truly raising the bar, that bar got smacked down. Without the CC, I think the early supers comics might have been way more mature and interesting. But maybe you're right, I'm not dismissing the notion, I just am not so sure and tend to think it would have been noticably different.

wcw43921

Dec 28th, '05, 02:03 AM

Here's a page (http://www.internationalhero.co.uk/f/fightame.htm) for Joe Simon and Jack Kirby's Fighting American, first published in 1954.

And here's another (http://www.fightingamerican.net/).

Superskrull

Dec 28th, '05, 05:10 AM

Here's a page (http://www.internationalhero.co.uk/f/fightame.htm) for Joe Simon and Jack Kirby's Fighting American, first published in 1954.

And here's another (http://www.fightingamerican.net/).

Don't look too deep, lest the Eye of L'fylde cast its gaze upon you.
http://members.aol.com/chrisv82/america.htm

Suleyman Rashid

Dec 28th, '05, 05:16 AM

Aqualad just missed, in 1960.

Actually he qualifies. The last year of the 50's is 1960, not 1959, remember?

Dr. Anomaly

Dec 28th, '05, 10:21 AM

Actually he qualifies. The last year of the 50's is 1960, not 1959, remember?
That's true of centuries and milennia (they start on xxx1, not xxx0), and it may be the case for decades...but when someone says "1950s", doesn't that mean any year in which the 3rd digit is a 5? They aren't necessarily counted the same way. I, for example, would have a very hard time seeing 1960 included in "the 50s" and 1950 included in "the 40s" and so on and so forth.

zornwil

Dec 28th, '05, 11:07 AM

That's true of centuries and milennia (they start on xxx1, not xxx0), and it may be the case for decades...but when someone says "1950s", doesn't that mean any year in which the 3rd digit is a 5? They aren't necessarily counted the same way. I, for example, would have a very hard time seeing 1960 included in "the 50s" and 1950 included in "the 40s" and so on and so forth.
And I would assume that 2000 is part of the 2000s in any dialogue, not part of the 1900s, regardless of the mathematical meaning of the 00s.

Enforcer84

Dec 28th, '05, 11:11 AM

Dude.
He didn't know Darren! Spare him! Please, you can't have any more blood on your hands!

Enforcer84

Dec 28th, '05, 11:16 AM

I am wrong about Captain Atom. He debuted March, 60. Missed it by three months.
CES
/Maxwell Smart

Missed it by that much!

/End Maxwell Smart

Superskrull

Dec 28th, '05, 02:25 PM

I am wrong about Captain Atom. He debuted March, 60. Missed it by three months.
CES

Hmm, does anyone here know if this is based on the actual month he appeared or is this a case of going by the cover date? They used to be like 3 months ahead of the actual month they appeared in to allow longer life on the comic racks.

zornwil

Dec 28th, '05, 03:26 PM

Either way, I wouldn't pick nits. It's not like it makes a meaningful difference - it's on the cusp, if someone wants to use it and call it '50s it's no travesties, similarly no issue if left out.

Anyway, from looking online the issue is accredited as March, 1960, so I would strongly suspect it hit the stands around the end of 1959, IIRC the practice of releasing well in advance of cover was also common then.