Recent content by Lorendiac

As those of you with long memories will recall, for several years now I have had a sacred tradition. In honor of this special day of the year, I am once again perpetrating -- I mean, perpetuating -- my charming habit of dusting off the debut story of some Golden Age superhero, and reading it...

I'm voting for the 1980s. Years ago, when I participated in a survey on "favorite comic book runs," I listed 10 runs, and realized, to my amusement, that 5 out of my 10 favorite long runs had all happened in, or at least begun in, the decade of the 1980s. Of course, that might have something to...

Once again, it is time for me to continue a proud tradition of celebrating this special day of the year by taking an incisive look at a classic comic book. The general idea is this: I scrutinize a Golden Age Superhero Debut Story with a modern eye, trying to evaluate it entirely on its own...

There's a sequence of events which has happened many times in superhero comic books. 1. Mystery Villain pops up and starts bedeviling the hero of the series. (Or the heroes, plural, if it's a team title, such as "X-Men" or "Teen Titans.") Sometimes he's mentioned as existing offstage, and...

As luck would have it -- just a few minutes after I'd rattled off the original post which launched this thread, I suddenly remembered what I'd heard about the unusual situation of Kid Eternity. ("You weren't supposed to die just yet. The paperwork got mixed up. We apologize for any...

I have no idea when The Phantom started chatting with ghosts. I vaguely remember being surprised by that in the movie in the 1990s. I can look into it. But it turns out there are a lot of other eligible candidates. With the feedback I've received on other sites, plus some additional research I...

First, let me thank you for answering my post! Yesterday night, when I looked, it had been up for a couple of days and had gotten over 120 hits, but no feedback whatsoever! :( (Fortunately, I had posted the same thing on a few other forums, where my queries have now received a considerable...

I suddenly found myself wondering about something: How many Golden Age comic book heroes, from any publisher, had origin stories which involved such things as "I'm a ghost" or "I was declared legally dead, but I got better" or "I have a ghostly assistant" or "I am possessed by the spirit of...

Well, as I said above, what's asserted on Wikipedia (and also on TV Tropes, and I think on at least one other website) is the idea that Ariel showed some signs of wanting to be Thundarr's lover (or lawfully wedded wife, or whatever) -- but he didn't even notice! That's not the same thing as...

Recently I had the chance to watch some old "Thundarr the Barbarian" episodes. Took me back to when I was a kid in the 1980s and watching the Saturday morning cartoons was a highlight of my week. When I checked Thundarr's entry on Wikipedia, and in a couple of other online resources, I found...

Well, that was an extremely dark moment -- and when I first read the relevant back issues, many years ago, I hated it -- but I question whether it qualifies as the first time Superman's stories went in a dark direction. Perhaps more of "the nadir of a downward trend that had been present at...

Come to think of it . . . I don't believe I've ever seen a reprint of the first appearance of the mad scientist known as Luthor. I've read reprints of at least a couple of his Golden Age appearances, but I don't think I know anything about his first story. Your mention of an "airplane race"...

In keeping with the tone of fairness, sobriety, and absolute accuracy which is always expected of us on this special day of the year, I've decided to examine a question I've seen many other people argue about on comic book forums. "When did superhero comic books start getting so dark in the way...

I'm wondering -- what are the most memorable times that a supervillain, supposedly a clever one, has come up with some elaborate plan which had a huge flaw in it that he didn't even notice at the time? I don't just mean "my plan failed because Superman showed up." I mean some fundamental flaw...

I can't remember any episodes I've seen from the various series of the now-defunct DCAU that had vampiric characters in them -- but I haven't seen everything, and I sure don't have a perfect memory for every detail of every show I ever watched! Anyone remember a vampire ever showing up for at...