Dan Hagen

1 week ago | firstcomicsnews.com | Dan Hagen

I have always regarded Menace of the Atomic Changeling as sort of “peak Green Lantern.”Green Lantern 38 (July 1965) is a great example of the kind of story Green Lantern could do that nobody else could — all kinds of outré elements. Here we had two heroes with rings that could do anything up against a foe that could transform itself into anything. “(W)hat the ring does perfectly is link Green Lantern’s imagination to the reader’s own,” wrote Alex S. Romagnoli and Gian S.

1 week ago | firstcomicsnews.com | Dan Hagen

On her way back from interviewing Dr. Albert Schweitzer in Africa, Lois Lane’s small plane develops engine trouble. Bailing out, she strikes her head on a rock upon landing and develops amnesia. And that’s how the Daily Planet’s star reporter became The Leopard Girl of the Jungle (Lois Lane 11, Aug. 1959). So maybe a subplot involving a jungle girl novel written by Lana Lang made little sense.

2 weeks ago | firstcomicsnews.com | Dan Hagen

A weak, vulnerable person is transformed by magic lightning into a caped, Herculean hero who can fly. Um, could you narrow that down a little more? That could be anybody. In his second adventure (Journey Into Mystery 84, Sept. 1962), the Mighty Thor exploited his built-in Captain Marvel motif by having Dr. Don Blake trapped before a firing squad, unable to reach the walking stick that would change him into the thunder god.

2 weeks ago | firstcomicsnews.com | Dan Hagen

I wonder if I’d have preferred Superman or Captain Marvel? Having been born in 1954, I came to awareness when The Adventures of Superman was airing on TV, and was besotted with the character. Captain Marvel had long since vanished, and I knew nothing about him until a few years later when I curiously picked up a copy of something called The Marvel Family at a second-hand shop.

2 weeks ago | firstcomicsnews.com | Dan Hagen

Stan Lee used the climax of Tales to Astonish 59 (Sept. 1964) as an opportunity to sharply etch the characters of his three protagonists. The tale begins with Giant-Man watching a newsreel projected by Iron Man, admitting that he feels sorry for the lonely Hulk. He and the Wasp decide to fly to New Mexico to try to talk the green goliath into rejoining the Avengers. But Henry Pym’s old enemy Davy Cannon, the Human Top, has been paroled, and secretly gins up a battle between the Hulk and Giant-Man.