Người đăng:
lecuongle on Thứ Năm, 9 tháng 12, 2010
Story: Harry Harrison
Art: Dan Barry
Summary: Returning to the Special Corps base on Mars after his Ethiopian adventure (see D2-087 Kenoma and the Space-Jacker), Flash is reunited with Worriless Willie, who has left the Space Academy for a trial mission with Flash involving his special mind powers.
Travelling to a Martian border settlement, Flash and Willie learn about the ancient Martian race who once inhabited the area, but before their new mission gets underway, Willie experiences powerful visions of an alive and thriving race...
Người đăng:
lecuongle on Thứ Hai, 6 tháng 12, 2010
I linked a week ago to Again With the Comics' post on the Helmet of Hate story in Jimmy Olsen. As you will recall from reading that post, at the end of the story it was revealed that the entire plot was based on Plan "J", a pre-arranged scheme where Jimmy Olsen was to do certain things to help out Superman.
As it happens, I was re-reading Lois Lane #29 today, and the cover story in that issue reveals Plan "L": It's a ridiculously convoluted plot, obviously partly so to provide us with that entertaining cover scenario. Here's Lois explaining what Plan "L" told her: Okay, but what if he's in trouble from Green K near Niagara Falls, or in Egypt? Was there a plan for that? At any rate, Lois sets about kissing every superhero she can get her lips on, which on this day in Metropolis just happens to be Green Arrow, Aquaman and Batman. After they're covered with her lipstick, they wipe it off onto a hankie which Batman flies up to the Fortress. Superman then coats his own face with the lipstick, because it has a form of Red Kryptonite on it that provides temporary immunity to Green Kryptonite. Oh, and she had to do it in that zany fashion because the villains were spying on her: Note to self: When planning to keep tabs on Lois Lane, make the crystal eye a little less obvious.
Người đăng:
lecuongle on Thứ Bảy, 4 tháng 12, 2010
In the mid-1950s, TV viewers were riveted to their screens by the Quiz Shows of the time. However, in 1958 it was discovered that some of the shows (notably Twenty-One) were rigged, with the producers providing the contestants the answers and coaching them on how to make the show more dramatic. The story was immortalized in the 1994 film on the scandals, Quiz Show.
But in Batman #108 (June 1957), readers of Batman comics learned the truth before the rest of the public, in The Big Batman Quiz. In the story, contestant Frank Davis is about to go for the big money: Batman is a special judge to determine whether the answers to the questions are right or wrong. Davis aces the $75,000 question: How did Batman apprehend the criminal Fenton brothers? Answer: By soaring into their mountain hideout on a kite. But the big question is a shocker: And even more startling, Davis has apparently deduced the answer, as he writes Bruce Wayne's name on a card and shows it only to Batman. However, before Davis can exit the isolation booth, he keels over and dies. And when they pull him out, the pad on which he wrote Batman's secret identity is blank; it appears that someone tore the top sheet off.
Suspicion immediately falls on Garth, a criminal who was scheduled to appear on another program on that network, and who escaped during the show: However, as they try to catch the thief, Batman realizes that "Garth" knows too much about the TV business for a common crook and they discover that the real crook has been bound and gagged in a prop room. The killer is obviously someone associated with television, and Batman quickly figures out who it is: Harmon (the game show's host) had coated the light bulb in the isolation booth with a chemical that turned into a poisonous vapor when heated. Ironically, the vapor also erased the handwriting on the pad, thus saving Batman's real identity.
Based on the timeline of the real quiz show scandal, it appears that the writer had the basics right before the scam broke. The contestants were indeed furnished with the answers, but not in order to split the prizes. The story broke completely in 1958:
The gravy train derailed in August and September of 1958 when disgruntled former contestants went public with accusations that the results were rigged and the contestants coached. First, a standby contestant on Dotto produced a page from a winner's crib sheet. Then, the still bitter Herbert Stempel, Van Doren's former nemesis on Twenty One, told how he had taken a dive in their climatic encounter.
When Enright subsequently told him the promise couldn't be kept because he had sold his shows to NBC itself, Stempel went to the authorities to explain how the show was fixed and his own role in the rigging. As he later testified to Congress, he also agreed to talk to a reporter from the New York Post in February 1957, but the paper feared a libel suit if they went public with Stempel's original accusations at the time they spoke.
However, when we consider the timeframes for publishing comics, it seems unlikely that the scandal could have been public knowledge at the time the Batman story was written. According to the Master List for DC maintained at DC Indexes, Batman #108 hit the newsstands on April 16, 1957. Given the several months' delay between creation of a comic and its actual publication, it appears likely that the story must have been written prior to Stempel's talk with the New York Post. Note as well that the scandal did not become public at that time as the Post did not run with it.
The GCD does not have a credit for the script on this story. I have a vague memory that one of the famous comic book writers appeared on one of the quiz shows of the 1950s. Anybody? Bueller?
Update: Commenter Lee points to this appearance by Leo Dorfman, which is indeed the one I remembered:
Người đăng:
lecuongle on Thứ Năm, 2 tháng 12, 2010
Story: Harry Harrison
Art: Dan Barry
Summary: Leaving Medusa for the Mars base (see D2-086 Operation Medusa), Flash and Kenoma discover that a stowaway has sneaked on board their ship, but are prevented from acting as the desperate criminal is well armed.
Demanding a hefty ransom and safe passage to Earth in Flash’ ship, the stowaway injures Kenoma before bailing out to safety, leaving Flash with the unenviable task of trying to find a needle in a haystack...
Summary: Heading towards Medusa to apprehend the mastermind behind the terror at the Jupiter construction camp (see D2-085 Convict Squad and the Drug Trade), Flash and Kenoma find that the enemy is way ahead of them as they discover their local contact murdered on arrival.
With the body count clocking up fast as they try to evade several assassination attempts in close succession, Flash and Kenoma must keep their eyes open at all times and trust nobody...
Summary: Returning to the Special Corps Base after carrying out his mission to Skragg (see D2-084 Convict Squad and the Skraggs), Flash is paired with Kenoma, another of the hardened ex-convicts on parole duty, for a secret mission to a construction camp above Jupiter.
Reporting to the commander on the site, Flash and Kenoma learn that their brief is to keep their eyes open for anything suspicious as the site has been plagued by too many accidents - with more to come...
Summary: Leaving planet Rog with his rehabilitated murder crew (see D2-083 Convict Squad on Rog), Flash lands at the Special Corps Base with his new recruits only to learn that Dr. Zarkov has been kidnapped whilst on an observer mission to the planet Skragg (see also D2-049 The Ambassadors).
Leaving the Martian desert base in the company of ‘Baron’ Otto, an intensely intuitive member of the convicted murder crew assisting Flash on planet Rog, Flash touches down on a planet famous for its dangerously paranoid rulers...
