I do admire elegant plotting. And that would include plots such as The Menace of Red-Green…
Dan Hagen
Dan Hagen is a retired newspaper journalist and editor, a former journalism professor, and a mighty comics presence in print and on the web. You can find Dan's work at... danhagengreatcaesar.blogspot.com, justimaginedanhagen.blogspot.com and captaincommentdanhagen.blogspot.com
JUST IMAGINE! September 1957: Cloud with a Silver Lining
It’s a happy ending story with a somewhat sinister vibe. Steve Ditko’s The Man Who Stepped…
JUST IMAGINE! August 1958: The Darts of Outrageous Fortune
Someone who poses as a superhero for sketchy ulterior motives can serve as the springboard for…
JUST IMAGINE! July 1955: The Dreams of Lois Lane
Superman and Lois Lane finally married in 1955, 17 years after they met — but it…
JUST IMAGINE! February 1963: A Whirlwind with Quite an Appetite
To tell the truth, I always preferred the scrappier, edgier Warner Brothers animated characters to Disney’s,…
JUST IMAGINE! May 1967: Lo, This Power Overpowered
I hadn’t read the Hulk’s feature in a while, but the elegant and balanced Gil Kane…
September 1961: Dueling the Diabolical Dust Devil
Adam Strange couldn’t come to grips with the greatest of his foes. That’s because he was…
JUST IMAGINE! February 1953: When Batman Battled King Kong
Batman has a history of tackling challenges outside his weight class that long predates the Batman…
JUST IMAGINE! June 1965: When Evil Was Born
Jack Kirby and Stan Lee gave us a belated origin for Captain America’s archenemy in 1965.…
JUST IMAGINE! April 1958: The Phantom of Krypton
Superman editor Mort Weisinger never minded borrowing the high points of a good melodrama. For example,…
JUST IMAGINE! February 1969: Dr. Graves’ Strange Adventure
Wielding uncanny powers, unheralded and unrecognized by those he shields from harm, he’s what I call…
JUST IMAGINE! June 1961: The Mouse That Soared
The Terrytoons movie cartoon character Mighty Mouse, who debuted in 1942, was an attempt to combine…
JUST IMAGINE! September 1947: How the Superheroes Lost to Love
I always keep a couple of DC romance comics on my prized spinner rack — there…
JUST IMAGINE! November 1960: That Thing You Doom
As thrilled as I was by Superman’s first annual in 1960, I was even more excited…
January 1940: I Was a Superman for the FBI
Fueled by Superman’s energy, the year 1939 was charged with possibilities for this new thing under…
JUST IMAGINE! July 1951: The Many Faces of Mandrake
“I don’t know why people are so keen to put the details of their private life…
JUST IMAGINE! February 1964: The Men With the Power
In the early 1960s, Steve Ditko created two super-electrified characters, one for Charlton Comics and the…
JUST IMAGINE! September 1966: Presenting a Pliable Parody
In late 1966, DC Comics editors must have thought that reviving Plastic Man would be a…
JUST IMAGINE! July 1958: A Duel of Imagination
The Challengers of the Unknown vs. King Kong? Well, why not, presuming Jack Kirby is pushing…
JUST IMAGINE! November-December 1954: Believe It or Not…
Okay, once you’ve given Jimmy Olsen his own comic book title, what exactly do you…
JUST IMAGINE! December 1944: Truth, Justice & the Tibetan Way
One of those powers the Green Lama acquired in Tibet must have been adaptability. Though little-known…
JUST IMAGINE! June 1939: When the Cops Corner Superman
Superman had just destroyed the office of a corrupt patent attorney, and the police had him…
JUST IMAGINE! January 1942: When Cap Went to the Dogs
Captain America filled in for Sherlock Holmes in unraveling the mystery of The Phantom Hound of…
JUST IMAGINE! January 1967: The Legion vs the FF
Even for a 16-year-old wunderkind, writer Jim Shooter had a lot of good ideas. For example,…
JUST IMAGINE! July 1965: The Meteor Menace
The Man of the Atom passed one traditional superhero rite of passage — a fight against…
JUST IMAGINE! September 1967: Saturday Morning With Wings
DC Comics’ Hawkman was subject to the sincerest form of flattery in 1967 when the Hanna-Barbera…
JUST IMAGINE! February 1972: Code of the Werewolf
Werewolf by Night was born because Stan Lee stood up to the Comics Code Authority. Created…
JUST IMAGINE! March 1960: Jigsaws and Jeopardy
The first menace I saw Batman and Robin tackle was not the Joker, not the Penguin,…
JUST IMAGINE! February 1940: When You’re Young at Heart
Instant grownup — no, instant SUPER grownup! For a kid, that’s wish fulfilment on steroids. In…
JUST IMAGINE! September 1976: The Sadness of a Seventies Superman
A caped figure in red and blue leaping about the city skyline, Omega the Unknown seemed…
JUST IMAGINE! March 1941: The Avenger from a Cloud of Smoke
Marvel’s 1940s superhero, the Vision, could be as grimly efficient as DC’s Spectre when it came…
JUST IMAGINE! May 1959: A Golden Gorilla in a Silver Age Classic
An offbeat twist turned a tired jungle adventure feature into a science fiction/superhero story. “(W)ith rainforests…
JUST IMAGINE! October 1942: The Tyrannosaurus Test
I’ve always figured that a real superhero — even one who lacked superpowers — ought to…