Having walked away from Spider-Man with issue 38 (July 1966), Steve Ditko, at the height of…
Just Imagine!
JUST IMAGINE! August 1954: The Monster Saves the Day
Even with superheroes in retreat in the early 1950s, super-powered protagonists sometimes continued to come to…
JUST IMAGINE! June 1953: Exit in the Sky
The Phantom Stranger was sort of a Spectre for the conformist 1950s — less extravagant, less…
JUST IMAGINE: May 1962: The Ham of Tomorrow
Thanks to writer John Broome, the Flash’s archenemies often had singular, quirky and engaging motivations. Captain…
JUST IMAGINE! March 1976: Superstars and Superheroes
From 1976 to 1978, DC published 18 issues of an eclectic anthology reprint title called DC…
RICH REVIEWS: February 1951: He Discovered Batman’s Secret — Twice
All Batman’s costumed foes are, to some degree, distorted mirror images of the hero himself, but…
JUST IMAGINE! February 1940: Death Stars in a Comic Book
Once you’ve created Superman, how do you top that? Why, with super-Superman, of course. So that’s…
JUST IMAGINE! March 1957: The Lure of the Sphinx
A gigantic being with a face of a human and the body of a lion? Naturally,…
JUST IMAGINE! September 1962: A Small Success for Marvel Comics
Ant Man was sort of an afterthought superhero, a surprise holdover from another genre entirely. Henry…
JUST IMAGINE! April 1965: To Fight the Unbeatable Foe
Daredevil knows this is one fight he’s going to lose, and that he’ll probably be killed.…
JUST IMAGINE! June 1960: A Hero of High Caliber
Cross Gunsmoke with Batman and you might well come up with a concept like Charlton Comics’…
JUST IMAGINE! May 1936: A Saucy Wink From Behind the Mask
The domino mask originated in 17th-century Venice as part of Carnival celebrations. By the 18th and…
JUST IMAGINE: August 1958: Ranger with a Raygun
Okay, he was no Adam Strange or even a Captain Comet. But Space Ranger managed to…
JUST IMAGINE! June 1960: A Sea-Fox, a Martian and Joanne Woodward
The first issue of Batman Comics I ever bought, as opposed to Detective Comics, was 132…
JUST IMAGINE! December 1958: Flying in the French Sky
The superhero fell on hard times after World War II in France. Having been occupied by…
JUST IMAGINE! February 1911: A Surreal Source for the Superhero
If you’re tracking the origin of the American superhero genre, you’ll find that one path inevitably…
JUST IMAGINE! July 1939: Setting the Underworld on Fire
Like the equally fiery Human Torch, the Flame was part of that first wave of superheroes…
JUST IMAGE! July 1939: The Nietzschean Superwoman
Combine Tarzan with Superman and make the character a woman who doesn’t mind snapping men’s spines,…
JUST IMAGINE! March 1961: It’s a Bird! It’s a Train! It’s Super-Chief!
By 1961, the mainstream view of Native Americans was shifting from the villainous savages of the…
JUST IMAGINE! June 1964: The Day of the Dark Defenders
“The first black superhero was the Black P…“ “The Black Phantom, yes. Published in 1964.” The…
JUST IMAGINE! January 1943: Justice in Jodhpurs
Captain Triumph was one of those t-shirt-and-jodhpurs superheroes of the 1940s, like Doc Strange. I suspect…
JUST IMAGINE! June 1883: Archery and Archenemies
Archaeological evidence suggests early humans developed archery for hunting and warfare between 64,000 and 71,000 years…
JUST IMAGINE! June 1962: The Return of the Vanished Detectives
In the early 1960s, DC Comics tantalized us with allusions to the forgotten mystery men in…
JUST IMAGINE! February 1965: The Fall of a Titan
The Hulk had ceased his homeless wanderings through the Marvel universe just as Giant-Man and the…
October 1962: The Tiny Titan’s Time Trials
Super-villains didn’t ordinarily rate a big build-up in DC Comics house ads, but Chronos the Time…
JUST IMAGINE! April 1969: The Return of Adam Strange
I had just turned 5 when Adam Strange’s ongoing Mystery in Space series appeared on the…
JUST IMAGINE! November 1965: The Most Dangerous Game
In their second and final team-up try-out, Starman and the Black Canary fought another costumed pair,…
JUST IMAGINE! March 1941: They Arrived with Dizzying Speed
Superhero concepts came along fast — and loose — in the late 1930s and early 1940s.…
JUST IMAGINE! October 1965: A Twist in the Tail
“By 1965, the superhero revival in American comic books was in full swing, and even the…
JUST IMAGINE! February 1952: The Challenge of the Supermen
Whenever Superman had to face off against some other superman, DC Comics earned my dime. Unfortunately,…
JUST IMAGINE! August 1959: Behold Ze Battle Doll
At age 6, my only problem with Mlle. Marie was that I had no idea how…
JUST IMAGINE! December 1929: A Witch on the Water
Her tall, grim shadow fell across America’s newspapers just as the Great Depression arrived. In December…
JUST IMAGINE! August 1948: One Brief Shining Heroine
A wave of superwomen arrived toward the end of the 1940s, just as the tide turned…