Showcase Presents: Strange Adventures Vol. 1

Hang on a second, some of this doesn't make sen--THE END.

Strange Adventures Vol. 1 presents the book's run from issues #54-73. There are about four stories per issue, which means that they're all really short, coming in at six pages or less.

This wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing. There are plenty of DC stories from the same time period with good short stories. However, Strange Adventures doesn't even seem to try in terms of narrative. Here's what the process feels like:

WRITER: "Hey, I've got the start of an idea!"

EDITOR: "You have twenty minutes to get the full final copy on my desk."

Almost every single story is a half-thought idea that really doesn't go anywhere. It seems like they threw whatever was left over from other books into this one. The fact that writers come and go every single issue makes the case even stronger.

Somebody was paid to come up with this "idea."

I wanted to like this book so bad. I love the goofy Silver Age stories, but there was absolutely no substance to any of these. The only good thing about any of them are the titles. Just by reading some of those, there is so much wasted potential:

The Gorilla who Challenged the World
The Day the Sun Exploded
I Hunted the Radium Man!
The Invisible Masters of Earth!
The Super-Athletes from Outer Space!
The Man Who Remembered 100,000 Years Ago!
I Was the Man in the Moon!
The Man Who Discovered the West Pole!
The Flying Raincoat!
The Talking Flower!
The Man Who Couldn't Drown!
The Man with Four Minds!
Raiders from the Ultra-Violet!
The Man Who Ate Sunshine!
The Skyscraper that Came to Life!

All of the stories end abruptly and unexpectedly. There are so many questions unanswered, and there's usually one panel that desperately attempts to cram in the "explanation" of the entire plot. But there is no plot. Just a huge waste of time. I walked away from each story feeling one of three things:

1. Very mild amusement
2. Anger
3. Total indifference

Of course! How could I have been so blind?

The only counter-argument I find of why these stories are so lame is because they were written for young children. But even if I were eight years old, I would still be pissed at the total incoherency and lack of effort. The artwork doesn't offer much either. All of the people look the same, in the same static poses, never really doing anything.

Pictured: Logic, apparently.

Let me walk you through a story. I can do it quite fast, since there's nothing there to begin with:

1. The government is seeking defense against foreign guided missile attacks
2. An inventor creates a ray that will create a force field around a city
3. He tests it out. Inexplicably, gems rain from the sky, and people collect them
4. The gems exert telepathic commands, controlling people to take over the city
5. The inventor disables the evil gem by shooting his ray (in reverse) directly at it
6. THE END

I just want to punch someone.

Seriously, that's all there is to it. It's just so stupid. There are blind attempts to clumsily explain why shit is happening, but they never actually clarify anything. In fact, they usually just make it worse. Just thinking about it makes me mad.

There can be no other explanation.

Since this book runs smack-dab in the middle of the Atomic Age, nearly every story includes invasion by aliens, some kind of good/bad radiation, or the intense power of America's A-Bomb/H-Bomb. The very thinly veiled Soviet Union fear runs rampant.

IT'S. SO. SUBTLE.

Bottom line? Skip it. Just skip it. I am incredibly surprised that not one, but two volumes of Strange Adventures are included in DC's Showcase Presents TPBs. Why, when there are so many other worthwhile things?

Showcase Presents: Eclipso Vol. 1

Your wits will be no match for...Eclipso!

The only Eclipso volume available is rather short, clocking in just shy of 300 pages. But don't worry, it's just as entertaining as the other Silver Age superhero comics. Eclipso was a villain created by Bob Haney and Lee Elias. These stories are from House of Secrets #61 - 80, which run from July 1963 to October 1966. Bob Haney wrote all the stories. The art is basically a split between Alex Toth and Jack Sparling.

For those that don't know the character, Bruce Gordon was a famous scientist, exploring advances in solar energy. He was in the jungle, dismissing the locals' superstitions, when he was attacked by a tyrannical witch doctor. The witch doctor lunged too far, however, and threw himself over a cliff. During the struggle, Gordon was scratched by a mysterious black diamond.

The wound causes Gordon to morph into Eclipso, a villain hell-bent on nefarious schemes and treachery. However, he only morphs when exposed to an eclipse. In the earlier stories, the causes and effects of Eclipso are not very clear, but once Haney irons out the details, it breaks down like this:

• Artificial eclipses cause Gordon to morph temporarily into Eclipso
• Natural eclipses cause Eclipso to become a separate entity
• Harming one will harm the other
• The only way to force Eclipso back into Gordon is with a burst of light

I will point out that an "artificial eclipse" can be something as simple as someone walking in front of a light bulb, and a "burst of light" can be achieved in countless ways. Haney exploits both quite often. But then again, natural eclipses occur 2.4 times per year on average, so it's understandable. Yet even so, it seems like natural eclipses occur every few months according to these stories. Haney tries to justify it by having Gordon travel to different locations around the world, but even so, it's a laughable stretch. The origins and creation of the character are weird enough though, so it doesn't really bother me that much.

Wire.

Comet tail.

Dark lens.

Disc.

Another disc.

Sparks.

Light bomb.

A rock.

Flare.

Another disc.

Camera flash.

Light passing a window.

Fireworks.

Battery discharge.

Spotlight gun.

Searchlight.

Another light bomb.

Another light bomb.

Another light bomb.

As with every DC hero of the era, Gordon has a love interest. Her name is Mona Bennett, daughter of Gordon's mentor, Professor Bennett. Unfortunately, Gordon can't marry her because of...Eclipso! She and her father eventually discover Gordon's secret, and work with him to figure out a way to banish Eclipso forever.

Eclipso uses the powers of "black science" to perform his various deeds of villainy. He can hold the black diamond up to his eclipsed eye to shoot rays of black light, effectively blinding whoever is in the way. He can also hold it up to his non-eclipsed eye, which will shoot out bolts of pure energy. In later stories, he also gains the ability to levitate objects as well as use "spectrum powers," which shoot beams of light at different frequencies. These later powers are rarely used, though they would greatly assist Eclipso at nearly every turn. It also must be annoying to have to hold up that diamond every time Eclipso wants to do something, since it effectively means he can only have one arm open at all times. The fact that one eye is always closed means that Eclipso has absolutely no depth perception, which must also be a hinderance.

People are simply blinded, but they act like they've been physically hit.

Since Eclipso and Gordon are one and the same, Eclipso possesses Gordon's brilliance. This means that whenever Gordon lays out a plan to get rid of Eclipso, Eclipso himself knows the plan before he even materializes, and can therefore quickly stop it before it even starts. Sadly, Gordon, Mona and her father never seem to quite grasp this fact.

Some of these plans include locking Gordon in a secure chamber to prevent Eclipso from escaping (Eclipso simply altered the lock beforehand), or setting up a bright light right in front of Gordon before he transforms (Eclipso merely punches out the light). Eventually, Mona and Professor Bennett start carrying around "photon grenades," which emit burst of intense light, in order to stop Eclipso. Gordon himself is also working on an "ultraviolet gun," which will somehow cause Eclipso to be on the side of good instead of evil. It actually works eventually, effectively defeating the purpose of Eclipso existing. Oops.

Many times, Eclipso will release some dangerous threat, but then realize after the fact that if Gordon is killed, so too will Eclipso die. So he's forced to stop the danger he himself unleashed, usually being tricked back into Gordon at the end. For being so brilliant, both Gordon and Eclipso are pretty stupid.

So Eclipso's "plan" to avoid being tracked is 100% in opposition to his not being tracked.

Gordon and crew always keep track of when natural eclipses will occur, so that they can be prepared for Eclipso's imminent arrival. However, they nearly always forget until it's already too late.

I was surprised at how consistent and coherent all of the stories were. There's actual continuity throughout the whole thing, which is surprising since it's Bob Haney. After reading the first Brave and the Bold volume, I was expecting much of the same straight up wackiness.

Thankfully I wasn't completely let down.

The biggest thing that bothered me was that in nearly every instance, Gordon and Professor Bennett would walk into traps set by Eclipso. They would state that Eclipso must have planned and set up the trap during his last emergence from Gordon's body. However, the last time he appeared was in the previous story, and he definitely didn't have enough time to do any setting up of anything. Complex plots and tasks that would have taken weeks if not months are casually attributed to Eclipso. But Gordon knows and keeps track of exactly when Eclipso will and does appear. There's no way he would have had any time to perform these feats. They include traveling across the world to alter top-secret machines, creating and leading a criminal organization across an entire nation, building giant robots to destroy/enslave major cities, and the like.

"Yeah, I had a few minutes last time so I whipped this baby up."

It was just a glaring error across the whole thing. Eclipso doesn't have the power of flight or anything like that. Where is he getting the materials and financial resources for all of these elaborate (not to mention expensive) schemes? How does he have time to travel across the world all the time, especially to a country that Gordon will unknowingly be invited to weeks later?

The only other super-characters that appear are Helio and Prince Ra-Man, both characters that really don't have anything to contribute and quickly fade away.

Eclipso is referred to as, "the most daring character ever created in comics!" Which is kind of true, I guess, because it's kind of a ridiculous premise, especially when you look at the details of the characters' relationships. Hell, he was probably created on a dare, and the bet was they couldn't get it to work and no one would accept it. But if there's one man who would take that dare, it's Bob Haney.

Toth's and Sparling's artwork is good. Panel layouts are creative, character faces show lots of expression, artwork isn't recycled whatsoever, there's lot of cool perspective shots, and people actually look like individuals (as opposed to cookie cutter models). I liked it.

Recommended? Probably not. There are better things out there, and the stories eventually turn formulaic, and after Gordon effectively makes Eclipso a good guy, there's not really any reason to continue anyway. I'm not surprised the character never really made a name for himself. The 1990s re-imagining added a lot more to the character, so if you're really interested in Eclipso, that era would probably be more interesting.

Showcase Presents: Ghosts Vol. 1

Now I do believe in ghosts!

This volume is the Silver Age compilation of Ghosts issues #1-18. They ran from Sep. 1971 to Sep. 1973. Each issue has between four and six different stories, all having to do with the supernatural. I was pleasantly surprised at the variety of storytelling present. I initially expected most stories to be simple copy/paste jobs, where a ghost haunts someone until death. Yet the series presents itself as "true tales of the weird and supernatural." It's like a historical record of supernatural occurrences throughout the centuries. This means that a large variety of locations and time periods are used, as well as actual historical figures mixed in with the fictional accounts.

Stories could be anywhere from 1300 to "present day" 1970. Locations I can think of off the top of my head are Italy, Haiti, Germany, England, France, America, Spain, and the Czech Republic. But since it's historically accurate, the beginning narration may point out that the name of the country has changed over time due to the course of history. It really gives the whole thing a much more credible feeling.

The writers are also well-researched into the native customs of wherever a story takes place, and use that to their storytelling advantage. They also use phrases in the native language whenever possible. A lot of effort went into making these stories seem as believable as possible. It was much appreciated on this end. Granted, there were some ridiculous clichés, but they were the exception. I hardly ever rolled my eyes, and we're talking Silver Age DC here. That's saying something.

Unfortunately, the names of the writers for most of the stories are unknown. The only regularly reoccurring one is Leo Dorfman. He's credited to writing approximately 25% of the material, although it's likely he did more.

The artists, on the other hand, are nearly all accounted for. The art itself is hit and miss. The work that stood out to me was by Jack Sparling, John Calnan, Jim Aparo, Nestor Malgapo, E. R. Cruz, and Gerry Talaoc. Outside of those six, the rest of the art got the job done, but was pretty formulaic and disappointing. The book is printed in black and white, which is actually superior for this kind of work. Colorization at this time took away from the quality and detail of the pencil/ink work.

Plus a lot of them are pretty funny.

The stories themselves are quite good. There are the standard plots: curses uttered before death, spirits returning to avenge their wrongful death, etc. But then there are stories where the ghosts are actually assisting the (still living) protagonist who has been wronged, often without their knowledge. The ghosts are the good guys most of the time, trying to make the world a better place (in their own way).

There are also the stories of the tricksters plotting a prank, and the whole thing going smoothly, until it's revealed that the key players never actually showed up. All of the stories have an opening and closing narration, and the last sentence in all of them is an inquiry to the readers' belief in the supernatural (e.g. "Now do you believe in ghosts?", "It might have happened...only if you believe in ghosts!", etc.)

The antagonists, who most of the time are the living, are such assholes. You're looking forward to seeing them haunted for the rest of their life and beyond.

I cannot get over what an asshole this guy is.

There is also quite a bit of violence, which I'm not sure how DC got away with so much during this time period.

There are certain plot devices that show up quite a bit. For instance, to reveal the presence of phantoms, infra-red lights, infra-red film, or infra-red radiation is used (not sure how that last one works).

And since it's DC, and it's the 1970's, they can't escape having some goofier stuff.

There were some stories that had that humorous plot twist. For example, a greedy merchant turns his village against a "witch" he discovered, his goal being obtaining her land. Yet later, she returns to exact her revenge with magic she "learned in the grave," which effectively actually makes her a witch, right?

Pictured: A grudge.

Or a weird promise made by a doctor to never bury a dead woman's body. So logically, he sticks the corpse in a clock and leaves it in his office for all to see. But after he dies, the owner of the museum where the clock has been taken decides he doesn't want that gross thing hanging around. So he buries it (with a humorous piece of logic thrown in).

Naturally, she returns and kills them all for breaking a promise made years before any of them had been born and couldn't possibly have known about. Oh well.

Overall, it was a really good and entertaining read. I was really happy at the diversity of the storytelling, as well as the historically and geographically accuracy. It really turned them from regular ghost stories into authentic narratives. Plus this volume has pretty much my favorite cover ever. DC's horror comics of this time are all pretty good. I've already made it through The Spectre, House of Mystery, and House of Secrets volumes, and I'm looking forward to Weird War Tales, The Witching Hour, and Secrets of Sinister House. Just need some free time, which everybody has a ton of, right?

Showcase Presents: Martian Manhunter Vol. 1

Great suns! Continuity! The enemy of all Martians!

This volume was pretty ridiculous. In a good way. In a hilariously good way. The stories are very short, most are only 5-6 pages, as they were a tiny feature in Detective Comics at the time. Unfortunately, this means there are no covers, and very rarely even a splash page as an introduction, since every inch of space needed to be used for the core story. But there's nothing wrong with short stories. On the contrary, when I only had a minute or two of free time, I could get through one without having to worry about multiple parts or super intricate plots. It was pretty cut-and-dried. This doesn't mean there isn't a ton of laugh-out-loud moments of ridiculousness. They pop up almost every issue. And there's a lot of them. This book is the character's run from November 1955 to June 1962, Detective Comics 225-304. All of the stories (save the very first one from 1953) are attributed to Jack Miller. He seems to have a lot of fun writing for the character, and it's one of the most entertaining Silver Age volumes I've read so far. Joe Certa is attributed to providing all the art, and his fairly dynamic presentation complements the writing very well. I imagine translating the writing into a visual must have proven perplexing at times, considering what actions Miller has the Martian Manhunter perform. I also imagine both of them had a lot of laughs working on this project.

The very first story, interestingly, is from a Batman comic from 1953. A Martian criminal flees to Earth, and an officer of the law is sent after him. Upon landing and being discovered by Batman and Robin, the lawman states he is lightheaded. Batman, scientific wiz that he is, tells him it's because Earth's atmosphere has way more oxygen than Mars, and instructs him to simply, "Breathe lightly till you gets used to it!" Glad you're around, Batman.

I should add the criminal flees to Earth because, "It is the only planet with an atmosphere similar to Mars!" The integration of statements like these is absurd, especially when the writers seem to try their best to include actual scientific facts. Long story short, the criminal is captured and the lawman goes back to Mars. This story is considered the 'harbinger' of the Martian Manhunter, but I really can't see any connection other than a dude came over from Mars. Coupled with how big science fiction stories were at the time and the fact that it predates the Detective Comic stories by years, it makes the case even weaker. Plus, his appearance is a regular white guy in a retro sci-fi costume with a ray gun, not the green martian we all think of today.

In his first 'real' story, the Manhunter is transported to Earth by Dr. Erdel, who uses his 'Robot Brain' to probe space, time, and the FOURTH DIMENSIONNNN. He pushes a button to see what it will do (which he should know since he built it?), and it instantly transports Martian J'onn J'onzz right into his lab. J'onn then changes his appearance to an Earthling in order to avoid causing shock. Having the total opposite effect, this change causes Dr. Erdel to suffer a massive heart attack and die. Since the doctor is the only one who can operate the Robot Brain, J'onn is effectively stranded. I do enjoy this aspect of J'onn's background, except for the fact that there is no reason at all for him to be stranded for more than a few hours (as will be explained).

Side note: Why does Dr. Erdel, who has the mental capacity and skill to construct this 'Robot Brain' completely by himself, and who also knows that it can somehow probe spacetime, die of shock as soon as something happens? It doesn't seem like he should be too surprised about anything at that point. It should also be noted that over the course of this volume, other scientists fix the Robot Brain (multiple times), as well as everyday thugs and J'onn himself, yet he never goes back to Mars at any of these occasions due to circumstances of the situation.

He also states that his people can't come get him because they haven't created a ship that can carry them to other worlds. It might take them hundreds of years, even. Yet countless times, ships from all over the place (e.g. Mars, Jupiter, Venus) land on Earth, complete with aliens inside. Beings are also transported instantaneously to Earth through various means (sometimes even by accident), not even requiring a vehicle. J'onn even manages to contact his family back on Mars via video screen (somehow), so they know exactly where and how far away he is, but never just hop in or send a ship to go get him.

Early on, J'onn states that Mars had eliminated the strange Earth custom known as 'crime' centuries ago with their 'Enlightened Science', which I would love to witness firsthand. This statement is also complete crap, as a myriad of criminals from Mars all flee and come straight to Earth. I guess it must be the similar atmosphere. While he's waiting for rescue, J'onn takes the opportunity to help out Earthlings by becoming a police detective in his human form. I should point out that it isn't shown exactly how he becomes a detective, the police captain merely states, "You've qualified to become a detective! You'll be on the force tomorrow!" Just like that. This in itself is a marvel, since he has absolutely no form of identification. No social security number, no driver's license, no birth certificate, no passport, no immigration documents, no work history, no references, no anything. But Captain Harding states that, "He has qualified." What kind of qualification test could possibly have been given in such a short time with such gratifying results?

And his powers. Holy crap, his powers. Countless abilities are introduced, then lost, forgotten about, or just not used anymore. We're talking invisibility, the ability to extract gold from the ocean (he needed money to survive on Earth, obviously), telekinesis, walking through solid objects, bending light rays, reading minds, seeing the goddamn future, breathing underwater, seeing through solid objects, super strength, heat vision, super hearing, super breath, changing his physical appearance, nullifying Earth's gravity in a localized field, flight, instantly growing facial hair, magnetizing objects, teleportation, being near invulnerable, creating mirages/illusions, super speed, and others. It is also unclear what restrictions his powers have. At first, he must be invisible to use his powers, then he states that it doesn't matter and he can do it either way, then he states that he is unable to use his powers while invisible. It's really whatever fits the bill at that point.

He also blatantly uses his powers in front of everyone. Other officers at the precinct, regular citizens, criminals he's apprehending, anybody. His biggest fear is his true identity being revealed. This is again, ridiculous, since as soon as he brings criminals in they immediately claim he is an alien since he used his powers right in front of them in order to make the capture. Every single time the lawmen laugh and kick the criminal(s) off to jail, because how could a criminal possibly tell the truth about anything? J'onn also almost always makes some sort of smug statement about 'not having revealed his true powers', usually right after doing so. When he appears suddenly in the middle of a crowd, people stare with wide eyes and gaping mouths and usually say something like, "Where in the world did he come from?" and then just keep on walking and get on with their daily business. When he walks through a wall into a gang's hideout, they all shoot at him out of what I'm guessing is blind terror. Of course the bullets go right through him, and the next panel is of J'onn turning the criminals in and making some cocky remark about how he, "Probably just got lucky this time!"

His only weakness? Fire. Any kind of fire. A match, a cigarette, a flamethrower, you name it. At one (hilarious) point, he even stumbles and nearly faints when someone on the other side of a door is audibly fired from their job. Needless to say, nearly every case he is assigned to involves fire on some level. From being a stuntman in a movie to shoveling coal into a furnace, there's fire everywhere. And apparently on Mars they don't even have fire, because when J'onn gets back there (temporarily), five Earthlings have conquered the entire planet with a book of freaking matches, and nobody knows what to do, so they submit to their 'Earthling Masters'. So how does J'onn know a) what it's called, and b) that he should be afraid of it? So many questions, Manhunter. It should be noted that fire doesn't seem to harm him, it only makes him lose his superpowers, so as soon as he walks away (or sometimes simply avoids looking at the flames), he becomes super again. The Martians are also repeatedly noted as 'the leading race in the universe'. I suppose an additional weakness would be anyone with a speck of logic or intelligence, but thankfully there don't seem to be any of those on Earth (or anywhere else, for that matter).

There is also a notable lack of supervillains in this volume. The only non-regular foes he faces are other aliens. The craziest things on Earth he faces are magic (which usually turns out to be fake), and criminals with insanely weird scientific inventions. The rest of the time, it's just commonplace thugs, so his powers really aren't necessary for stopping most of them, but he heavily relies on them to get the job done. Of course, most of the crooks are always SMOKING! Which means J'onn becomes as helpless as an infant and only wins by sheer luck most of the time.

There are instances, of course, where J'onn loses his powers for whatever reason (a special comet flying by, position of the moon, a meteor falling in the middle of the city, spoiled milk, etc.). It is always only temporary, and things work out for J'onn in the end, but he is the most pathetic example of a regular human being. Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern were infinitely more effective in Home Alone than J'onn without his powers (and they got their ass kicked by a ten-year-old). J'onn can't even walk without tripping over his own feet. For some reason, he also loses his vulnerability fire at these points. In addition, it is shown that on Mars, the inhabitants have no superpowers due to the planet's atmosphere. This implies that the entire planet must be people constantly dying from falling out of windows, drowning in puddles, and starving because they can't figure out how the food is supposed to get inside of them. "We Martians are the leading race in the universe!"

For all its logic faults, I highly recommend giving this a read. I had a smile on my face for almost every story, just because they are so entertaining. You'll know if it's something you'd be interested in within the first five stories, and if you do like them, there are more than 80 in this book alone. I haven't started Volume 2 yet, but I am looking forward to it very much. Even though it takes Miller a while to let the character find his feet, it's worth it all the way. Covering all the hilarity in this book would take up way too much time, so you should just check it out yourself.

DC Silver Age Heroes

You are hilarious.

I have attended a few comic conventions in the recent past, and have enjoyed myself quite a bit. I stare in awe at the classic Silver Age and super-rare Golden Age comics on the shelves of dealers. I also stare in awe at those price tags. Even if I had the money, I don't know if I would spend it on that. I like reading comics. I like the stories, artwork, and all that.

Unfortunately for me, as I was growing up, the comics on the shelves of most places that sold them were from the 1990s. At the time, I was a child and thought that's how all comics were. Lots of blood, grim combat with little dialogue spoken aloud, lots of pouches and enormous guns. I watched Batman: The Animated Series and the other DC animated stuff at the time religiously. I also watched some Marvel cartoons (i.e. X-Men, Spider-Man) and enjoyed them very much.

I knew as a child that comics had been around for a long time, but I never really thought about the stories or where characters came from. They were always there, right? In reading Spider-Man, I didn't actually know who Gwen Stacy was, but I had a comic where the Green Goblin talked about her dying. Whatever, it didn't really matter to me. I never asked myself, "Who is Gwen Stacy?" I will add that I was an idiot for not asking questions like these.

The Green Goblin is the Green Goblin, how can there be more than one? Bruce Wayne was always Batman, no one else was ever Batman. How could they be when Bruce Wayne is Batman? Robin died!? No way, he's right here! That must be a lie.

Jump to the present. Obviously I know a bit more, but comics have such a rich history. It's an extremely long process to catch up. And often huge characters and events are cast aside through the course. It's a never-ending process, but I am loving it. The internet also makes it easier to discover and research things. And I'm still just talking mainstream DC and Marvel right now. There's so much I don't even know about still.

So at these conventions, aside from all the crazy-expensive comics, figures, posters, etc., I see these huge boxes filled with "DC SHOWCASE PRESENTS" books. They each have a mainstream DC character on them, multiple volumes for some characters. I find out they're mostly Silver Age stories. The only prior reason stopping me from checking out older stories (as much as I wanted to) was that there was no way to find them other than getting actual issues ($$$) or just reading summaries online, which is not the same. But here come these magnificent volumes, and since it's a convention, everybody has them, and they're trying to get rid of them. Brand new for $5 each. Damn. So I pick up a lot. And I have been reading them ever since.

It doesn't bother me that they're in black and white. And to be honest, there were periods where coloring practices actually detracted from the line work. The stories, for the most part, are engaging, hilarious, and overall pretty awesome. And since they're books, I don't have to worry about them falling apart or anything like that. There's about twenty issues in each volume (in chronological order, to boot). Fifty books? You've got 1,000 issues right there.

The stories. Man, the stories. There are ridiculous villains, heroes, events, situations, the whole package. The dialogue is laugh-out-loud funny. I'm not saying it's funny because they're bad. They're really damn good. It's just such a different time. If stuff like this came out now, I don't know how long it would survive. But at the time, that was the norm for hero stuff, and the humor in them has circled around to being what we consider funny again. I can't recommend checking them out enough. Heroes I never even knew anything about other than names and basic ability (e.g. The Elongated Man, The Atom, Martian Manhunter, etc.) have such a good history. I am mad at myself for not looking for these sooner.

Marvel also has their "MARVEL ESSENTIALS" line, which is exactly the same thing, except there's a lot lot lot more of them, and they go all the way into the 1990s, whereas the DC ones tend to stop near the mid to late-1970s with the later volumes.