The Classy Comics Podcast

Squirrel Girl goes back to the 1960s and battles Doctor Doom and then teams up with Howard the Duck.
Affiliate link included.
Transcript:
Graham:Squirrel Girl heads back to the 60s more than once. We’ll take a look at it as we take a look at Squirrel Girl Vol. 3: Squirrel, You Really Got Me Now.

[Intro Music]
Announcer:Welcome to the Classy Comics podcast where we search for the best comics in the universe. From Boise Idaho, here is your host Adam Graham.
Graham:This book is a bit longer than most Squirrel Girl books. It collects issues 1 through 6 plus it also collects issue 6 of Howard the Duck where there was a crossover. For those who don't know, Squirrel Girl is Doreen Green, an Empire State University computer science student with powers like superhuman agility, a prehensile tail and actually the ability to communicate with squirrels. She was created by Will Murray and Steve Ditko with the idea of having her be a lot horrid character back in the 90s and that was fully realized in the unbeatable Squirrel Girl series. Now this is volume 3 because there was actually a previous series of 8 issues that was relaunched because of Secret Wars when Marvel relaunched all of their comics and I have to give props to the creative team of Ryan North and Erica Henderson with the cover which cleverly has the saying, “Only our second number one this year so for”.
The first issue is a pretty basic story. Doreen's mom comes for a visit and tells embarrassing stories that embarrass her in front of her friend Nancy. However, seemingly out of nowhere, the Hydra villain, Brain Drain appears and attacks but Tippy Toe, Squirrel Girl’s squirrel is able to chew through some wires which frees him from Hydra control and ends up in him enrolling that E.S.U. to study computer science.
This story was a one issue one shot story. It didn't work for me. It felt like they were trying a little bit too hard and it also felt like there was too much going on in the issue for it to work because you had like a brief intro fight and then you had the meeting with mom and then you had Brain Drain. So, it was really unfocused.
Next up though, is issues 2 through 5, which is a story which begins with Squirrel Girl, out of nowhere, waking up in the 1960s. And this is before the Fantastic Four and Spider-Man emerged. And so she goes ahead, tries to fit into the 1960s but she notices someone who has ear buds in which is not technology that was available back in the 60s and so it turns out there are a lot of E.S.U. computer science students who have ended up back in the 1960s. At the same time, only one person from the modern day remembers that there is a Squirrel Girl and that she's gone and that's her friend Nancy. So, Nancy sets out to find someone who can travel back in time after she finds a message from Squirrel Girl. Unfortunately, people who are friends with Squirrel Girl, such as Tony Stark, don't actually remember that she existed. So, she ends up having to ask for help from Dr. Doom and she explains that it's possible that Squirrel Girl could meet an earlier version of Doom and end up defeating him and she promises to stop Squirrel Girl from doing that if he'll only take her back in time.
They arrive in the 1960s but instead of taking everybody back as promised, Doom has another idea. And what I really like about this is they do capture kind of the absurdity of Doom's attitude in many ways and it's actually pretty funny. After Nancy checks her time frame on Wikipedia for the timeline of the 20th century, it reveals that Doom actually took over the world in 1962. Doom, says “I've won. I've already won. No matter what the era, Doom always win and this world shall be run by Doom.” and Nancy says, “We had a deal, Victor.” “You agreed that you would ensure she never attacks me.

Squirrel Girl goes back to the 1960s and battles Doctor Doom and then teams up with Howard the Duck.

Affiliate link included.

Transcript:

Graham: Squirrel Girl heads back to the 60s more than once. We’ll take a look at it as we take a look at Squirrel Girl Vol. 3: Squirrel, You Really Got Me Now.

[Intro Music]

Announcer: Welcome to the Classy Comics podcast where we search for the best comics in the universe. From Boise Idaho, here is your host Adam Graham.

Graham: This book is a bit longer than most Squirrel Girl books. It collects issues 1 through 6 plus it also collects issue 6 of Howard the Duck where there was a crossover. For those who don’t know, Squirrel Girl is Doreen Green, an Empire State University computer science student with powers like superhuman agility, a prehensile tail and actually the ability to communicate with squirrels. She was created by Will Murray and Steve Ditko with the idea of having her be a lot horrid character back in the 90s and that was fully realized in the unbeatable Squirrel Girl series. Now this is volume 3 because there was actually a previous series of 8 issues that was relaunched because of Secret Wars when Marvel relaunched all of their comics and I have to give props to the creative team of Ryan North and Erica Henderson with the cover which cleverly has the saying, “Only our second number one this year so for”.

The first issue is a pretty basic story. Doreen’s mom comes for a visit and tells embarrassing stories that embarrass her in front of her friend Nancy. However, seemingly out of nowhere, the Hydra villain, Brain Drain appears and attacks but Tippy Toe, Squirrel Girl’s squirrel is able to chew through some wires which frees him from Hydra control and ends up in him enrolling that E.S.U. to study computer science.

This story was a one issue one shot story. It didn’t work for me. It felt like they were trying a little bit too hard and it also felt like there was too much going on in the issue for it to work because you had like a brief intro fight and then you had the meeting with mom and then you had Brain Drain. So, it was really unfocused.

Next up though, is issues 2 through 5, which is a story which begins with Squirrel Girl, out of nowhere, waking up in the 1960s. And this is before the Fantastic Four and Spider-Man emerged. And so she goes ahead, tries to fit into the 1960s but she notices someone who has ear buds in which is not technology that was available back in the 60s and so it turns out there are a lot of E.S.U. computer science students who have ended up back in the 1960s. At the same time, only one person from the modern day remembers that there is a Squirrel Girl and that she’s gone and that’s her friend Nancy. So, Nancy sets out to find someone who can travel back in time after she finds a message from Squirrel Girl. Unfortunately, people who are friends with Squirrel Girl, such as Tony Stark, don’t actually remember that she existed. So, she ends up having to ask for help from Dr. Doom and she explains that it’s possible that Squirrel Girl could meet an earlier version of Doom and end up defeating him and she promises to stop Squirrel Girl from doing that if he’ll only take her back in time.

They arrive in the 1960s but instead of taking everybody back as promised, Doom has another idea. And what I really like about this is they do capture kind of the absurdity of Doom’s attitude in many ways and it’s actually pretty funny. After Nancy checks her time frame on Wikipedia for the timeline of the 20th century, it reveals that Doom actually took over the world in 1962. Doom, says “I’ve won. I’ve already won. No matter what the era, Doom always win and this world shall be run by Doom.” and Nancy says, “We had a deal, Victor.” “You agreed that you would ensure she never attacks me.

A Star Trek spin-off that never was becomes a comic book, featuring twin Richard Nixons.
Affiliate link included.
Transcript:
Graham:The Star Trek T.V. spinoff that never happened gets its own comic book. Is it any good? Find out as we take a look at Star Trek Assignment: Earth, straight ahead.

[Intro Music]
Announcer:Welcome to the Classy Comics podcast where we search for the best comics in the universe. From Boise Idaho, here is your host Adam Graham
Graham:Fifty years ago, at the end of season two Gene Roddenberry left Star Trek the original series. The Season two finale was a backdoor pilot for another T.V. series. This was a common practice at the time, although it's really somewhat annoying in retrospect, where you watch one T.V. series but you get a pilot for another potential series. Sometimes this can work well, if they mesh together for example, the Andy Griffith Show really had a back-door pilot as part of the T.V. series, Make Room for Daddy. However, the match of Star Trak and Assignment Earth wasn't really good match. It had to have the Enterprise travelling back in time to 1968 for the flimsiest of reasons and then the crew of the enterprise really didn't impact the outcome of the story.
The characters for Assignment Earth did that. The characters were Gary Seven, a human who was actually taken by aliens and trying to be part of their long, ongoing organization which tries to save humanity from itself. He has an I.Q. of 200 and is in peak physical condition, able to resist a Vulcan Nerve Pench. His secretary, Roberta Lincoln, is somebody who came in just looking for job and only in the episode Assignment Earth does she really learn what's going on. She can be flighty and erratic but she is actually really intelligent, which makes her an asset. And then there is Isis, a shape shifter who, most of the time looks like a cat. However, is able to change into a beautiful black-haired woman and they are assisted by a computer that's known as the Beta 5, which can allow them to teleport and do a lot of other neat tricks.
The series wasn't picked up but John Byrne gave them a comic mini-series with stories set between 1968 to 1972. So, let's take a look at this series and see how it worked.
The book starts out with “Brighter Than a Thousand Sons.” It begins with a duplication of the final scene of the Assignment Earth T.V. show and then it picks up three months after the Enterprise left where they are in Albuquerque, New Mexico and they're clued in to a Soviet agent plot to hijack a rocket test and so they go undercover at the nucular laboratory at San Lobos because apparently, they don't want to be sued by the government for using San Alamos.
But at any rate they discover a scientist is doing a test on advanced nucular fusion. This alarms Gary Seven because this technology destroyed Delphi Centaurius Six. Gary Seven begins to fall for the female lead scientist on the project and at the same time, they try to track down who the spy is. There is actually a page plus with John Byrne drawing panels about each particular scientist and potential for them to actually be the criminal behind the action and so it's a mystery story but without really enough time to develop.
Now, we have the next story which is Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow, and in this story the enterprise arrives in 1969. However Gary Seven is able to figure out without contacting them that this is actually an earlier version of the Enterprise arriving because this story is taken from season one of Star Trek. “Tomorrow is Yesterday,” which has the Enterprise ending up in 1969 and trying to find a way to remove evidence of their arrival from local databases so as to not interfere with history and what we see in this story is that Gary Seven and Miss Lincoln are kind of on the periphery of the story trying to make sure...

A Star Trek spin-off that never was becomes a comic book, featuring twin Richard Nixons.

Affiliate link included.

Transcript:

Graham: The Star Trek T.V. spinoff that never happened gets its own comic book. Is it any good? Find out as we take a look at Star Trek Assignment: Earth, straight ahead.

[Intro Music]

Announcer: Welcome to the Classy Comics podcast where we search for the best comics in the universe. From Boise Idaho, here is your host Adam Graham

Graham: Fifty years ago, at the end of season two Gene Roddenberry left Star Trek the original series. The Season two finale was a backdoor pilot for another T.V. series. This was a common practice at the time, although it’s really somewhat annoying in retrospect, where you watch one T.V. series but you get a pilot for another potential series. Sometimes this can work well, if they mesh together for example, the Andy Griffith Show really had a back-door pilot as part of the T.V. series, Make Room for Daddy. However, the match of Star Trak and Assignment Earth wasn’t really good match. It had to have the Enterprise travelling back in time to 1968 for the flimsiest of reasons and then the crew of the enterprise really didn’t impact the outcome of the story.

The characters for Assignment Earth did that. The characters were Gary Seven, a human who was actually taken by aliens and trying to be part of their long, ongoing organization which tries to save humanity from itself. He has an I.Q. of 200 and is in peak physical condition, able to resist a Vulcan Nerve Pench. His secretary, Roberta Lincoln, is somebody who came in just looking for job and only in the episode Assignment Earth does she really learn what’s going on. She can be flighty and erratic but she is actually really intelligent, which makes her an asset. And then there is Isis, a shape shifter who, most of the time looks like a cat. However, is able to change into a beautiful black-haired woman and they are assisted by a computer that’s known as the Beta 5, which can allow them to teleport and do a lot of other neat tricks.

The series wasn’t picked up but John Byrne gave them a comic mini-series with stories set between 1968 to 1972. So, let’s take a look at this series and see how it worked.

The book starts out with “Brighter Than a Thousand Sons.” It begins with a duplication of the final scene of the Assignment Earth T.V. show and then it picks up three months after the Enterprise left where they are in Albuquerque, New Mexico and they’re clued in to a Soviet agent plot to hijack a rocket test and so they go undercover at the nucular laboratory at San Lobos because apparently, they don’t want to be sued by the government for using San Alamos.

But at any rate they discover a scientist is doing a test on advanced nucular fusion. This alarms Gary Seven because this technology destroyed Delphi Centaurius Six. Gary Seven begins to fall for the female lead scientist on the project and at the same time, they try to track down who the spy is. There is actually a page plus with John Byrne drawing panels about each particular scientist and potential for them to actually be the criminal behind the action and so it’s a mystery story but without really enough time to develop.

Now, we have the next story which is Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow, and in this story the enterprise arrives in 1969. However Gary Seven is able to figure out without contacting them that this is actually an earlier version of the Enterprise arriving because this story is taken from season one of Star Trek. “Tomorrow is Yesterday,” which has the Enterprise ending up in 1969 and trying to find a way to remove evidence of their arrival from local databases so as to not interfere with history and what we see in this story is that Gary Seven and Miss Lincoln are kind of on the periphery of the story trying to make sure...

A look at the public domain hero with Spider powers who came before Spider-man.
Transcript:
Host:She's not amazing, spectacular or sensational, but she is the first ever web slaying superhero. We'll tell you all about it as we look at Spider Queen, a hero of the public domain, straight ahead.

Spider Queen was one of several script in the short lived the Eagle comics. The first script appeared in issues 2 through 4 and so will take a look at all 3 stories. I should note, that because she is public domain, she has been used in other works by other creators. The character was used actually as a supervillain by Roy Thomas in The Invaders. The whole reason for that and that character's story is matter we're not going to get into but we're just going to focus on the heroic aspects of her golden age appearances.
In the first story, it begins with her already a Spider Queen stopping a bank robbery and then flashes back to her origin story and we find her working as an assistant to her husband, who is described as a brilliant, young scientists. However, the artist draws the husband as having white hair and a white moustache. He is killed by criminals and then Shannon, while cleaning out his things, discovers a formula that can be used to make spider web fluid. She then takes the formula and invents 2 bracelets from which she can fire it and combining that with her athletism, she becomes Spider Queen and sets out to war on crime. Well after she knocks out multiple bank robbers including the one with the bag, Detective Mike O’Bell, happens on the scene and arrest the criminals and takes the money to the chief of police. However, the chief of police is actually the head of the gang, which Shannon discovers and he's determined to take the money back and split it with the gang and just rely on it being his word against O’Bell’s because apparently O’Bell didn't get a receipt. At any rate, Shannon decides she has to tell O’Bell what's going on so that he can arrest the chief and in a really funny sequence, Shannon gets O’Bell into her apartment and insist on serving him something to drink and while he's waiting for her to come back she comes back in as Spider Queen jumps out the window after telling him about the chief and then while he's leaning out the window runs back in, changes back into Shannon and offers in the tea but Mike excuses himself and goes off to confront the chief, the chief is captured and that's pretty much the end of the story.
In the second story, in a shop there are kidnapping and shenanigans going on and the owner of the shop is being tortured as Spider Queen happens upon it and Mike O’Bell follows quickly behind, confronts Spider Queen, she knocks him out and then she realizes the crooks are still there and she needs to lead the crooks away from O’Bell, less they find him and kill him and so she leads them on a merry chase, jumps out of the window, which confuses the villains and it's really funny because it's like she can hear them up there saying, where is she going and she's saying and she's actually saying this, teehee. I love it. A superhero who says teehee. Well, O’Bell wakes up and finds the victim gone and asks Shannon for help to try and ask some questions because he figures she would not be suspected, since she's the little fluffy type. This is his words not mine, and no one would suspect anything. She goes and gets information by swinging in and confronting the criminals and threatening them with providing the information or else, which is one of the worst things you can threaten someone with during the golden age. It turns out she is able to get information to Mike. Mike rescues the victim but he has trouble getting away. Spider Queen gets a boat for them but it turns out that the boat's motor’s not working. However, she's able to use her spider web to subdue ...

A look at the public domain hero with Spider powers who came before Spider-man.

Transcript:

Host: She’s not amazing, spectacular or sensational, but she is the first ever web slaying superhero. We’ll tell you all about it as we look at Spider Queen, a hero of the public domain, straight ahead.

Spider Queen was one of several script in the short lived the Eagle comics. The first script appeared in issues 2 through 4 and so will take a look at all 3 stories. I should note, that because she is public domain, she has been used in other works by other creators. The character was used actually as a supervillain by Roy Thomas in The Invaders. The whole reason for that and that character’s story is matter we’re not going to get into but we’re just going to focus on the heroic aspects of her golden age appearances.

In the first story, it begins with her already a Spider Queen stopping a bank robbery and then flashes back to her origin story and we find her working as an assistant to her husband, who is described as a brilliant, young scientists. However, the artist draws the husband as having white hair and a white moustache. He is killed by criminals and then Shannon, while cleaning out his things, discovers a formula that can be used to make spider web fluid. She then takes the formula and invents 2 bracelets from which she can fire it and combining that with her athletism, she becomes Spider Queen and sets out to war on crime. Well after she knocks out multiple bank robbers including the one with the bag, Detective Mike O’Bell, happens on the scene and arrest the criminals and takes the money to the chief of police. However, the chief of police is actually the head of the gang, which Shannon discovers and he’s determined to take the money back and split it with the gang and just rely on it being his word against O’Bell’s because apparently O’Bell didn’t get a receipt. At any rate, Shannon decides she has to tell O’Bell what’s going on so that he can arrest the chief and in a really funny sequence, Shannon gets O’Bell into her apartment and insist on serving him something to drink and while he’s waiting for her to come back she comes back in as Spider Queen jumps out the window after telling him about the chief and then while he’s leaning out the window runs back in, changes back into Shannon and offers in the tea but Mike excuses himself and goes off to confront the chief, the chief is captured and that’s pretty much the end of the story.

In the second story, in a shop there are kidnapping and shenanigans going on and the owner of the shop is being tortured as Spider Queen happens upon it and Mike O’Bell follows quickly behind, confronts Spider Queen, she knocks him out and then she realizes the crooks are still there and she needs to lead the crooks away from O’Bell, less they find him and kill him and so she leads them on a merry chase, jumps out of the window, which confuses the villains and it’s really funny because it’s like she can hear them up there saying, where is she going and she’s saying and she’s actually saying this, teehee. I love it. A superhero who says teehee. Well, O’Bell wakes up and finds the victim gone and asks Shannon for help to try and ask some questions because he figures she would not be suspected, since she’s the little fluffy type. This is his words not mine, and no one would suspect anything. She goes and gets information by swinging in and confronting the criminals and threatening them with providing the information or else, which is one of the worst things you can threaten someone with during the golden age. It turns out she is able to get information to Mike. Mike rescues the victim but he has trouble getting away. Spider Queen gets a boat for them but it turns out that the boat’s motor’s not working. However, she’s able to use her spider web to subdue ...

Learn the original 1970s origin of escape artist Scott Free. (No, we didn't make up that name, Jack Kirby did.)
Affiliate link included.
Transcript:
Graham:Meet the world's greatest escape artist as we review Mister Miracle by Jack Kirby, straight ahead.

[Intro Music]
Announcer:Welcome to the Classy Comics podcast where we search for the best comics in the universe. From Boise Idaho, here is your host Adam Graham.
Host:In the 1970s, Jack Kirby jumped from Marvel to D.C. Although he will later go back to Marvel, later on in the 70s and write books such as Black Panther. During his run with D.C., his greatest contribution is the so-called Fourth World stories as Kirby created Apokolips, New Genesis, Darkseid and Mister Miracle, who will be discussing today. Last year as part of the Jack Kirby centennial, a new edition of Mister Miracle by Jack Kirby was released, containing his entire 18 issue run on the character. So, we'll go ahead and talk about the book and we'll go through it first issue by issue and then I'll talk about it in general.
Mister Miracle number 1 kicks off with Thaddeus Brown as Mister Miracle, the world's greatest escape artist who has an assistant named Oberon. Scott Free just happens to come upon Mister Brown and they strike up a friendship with Scott sticking around to help out. But Brown is killed by the gangster, Steel Hand and Free takes on the identity of Mister Miracle and get Steel Hand to agree to confess to his involvement in shooting Thaddeus Brown, if Mister Miracle escapes from the trap that is planned. Steel Hand is one of those villains who sounds like a bond villain and literally has a steel hand and of course, Mister Miracle is able to prevail and Scott Free is established as the new Mister Miracle. And it's worth noting here, that his origin on Apokolips, none of that is discussed in this first issue. He's just a guy who stumbles by and has a talent for escape aided by his technological aids.
Mister Miracle 2 begins to answer many of these questions as Granny Goodness is introduced in this story and is determined to recapture Scott Free and to punish him and so she sends her robot raiders after him and they take Oberon and Mister Miracle goes to a rescue Oberon and has to beat her robot, the Overlord.
Issues 3 and 4 are important for Mister Miracle as we see the introduction of Dr Bedlam and in his first story, Dr Bedlam appears on earth in a very cool scene involving things called animates, which are look like robots but one of them is chosen and slowly turns into Dr Bedlam. Dr Bedlam sets a trap for Scott and gets Scott to come up into a building and then releases something into the water that causes everyone in the building to go completely paranoid and Scott's job is to make it out of the building alive which is a challenge given all of the people who are…with everyone out to kill him. This also allows the introduction of Big Barda in issue 4 as she comes to Scott's rescue. She is the leader of the female Furies and she is a recognized commander in the armies of Apokolips. So, she's a trained soldier and she offers her assistance in getting Scott out and ends up teaming up with him.
In issue five finds Dr. Vundabar coming in with another plot to get Mister Miracle and we also get more on Barda. When she's not in her warrior duds, she's in a kind of a skimpy costume but on her side clip, there's a stud that she presses and it actually goes ahead and instantly transforms her into her armor within microseconds and it's a really nice touch and a really good sequence in here. The story also launches the start of the young Scott free stories as we get background on what his life was on Apokolips and want to led up to his decision to leave.
Issue 6 sees a promoter known as Funky Flashman come to get Mister Miracle to s...

Learn the original 1970s origin of escape artist Scott Free. (No, we didn’t make up that name, Jack Kirby did.)

Affiliate link included.

Transcript:

Graham: Meet the world’s greatest escape artist as we review Mister Miracle by Jack Kirby, straight ahead.

[Intro Music]

Announcer: Welcome to the Classy Comics podcast where we search for the best comics in the universe. From Boise Idaho, here is your host Adam Graham.

Host: In the 1970s, Jack Kirby jumped from Marvel to D.C. Although he will later go back to Marvel, later on in the 70s and write books such as Black Panther. During his run with D.C., his greatest contribution is the so-called Fourth World stories as Kirby created Apokolips, New Genesis, Darkseid and Mister Miracle, who will be discussing today. Last year as part of the Jack Kirby centennial, a new edition of Mister Miracle by Jack Kirby was released, containing his entire 18 issue run on the character. So, we’ll go ahead and talk about the book and we’ll go through it first issue by issue and then I’ll talk about it in general.

Mister Miracle number 1 kicks off with Thaddeus Brown as Mister Miracle, the world’s greatest escape artist who has an assistant named Oberon. Scott Free just happens to come upon Mister Brown and they strike up a friendship with Scott sticking around to help out. But Brown is killed by the gangster, Steel Hand and Free takes on the identity of Mister Miracle and get Steel Hand to agree to confess to his involvement in shooting Thaddeus Brown, if Mister Miracle escapes from the trap that is planned. Steel Hand is one of those villains who sounds like a bond villain and literally has a steel hand and of course, Mister Miracle is able to prevail and Scott Free is established as the new Mister Miracle. And it’s worth noting here, that his origin on Apokolips, none of that is discussed in this first issue. He’s just a guy who stumbles by and has a talent for escape aided by his technological aids.

Mister Miracle 2 begins to answer many of these questions as Granny Goodness is introduced in this story and is determined to recapture Scott Free and to punish him and so she sends her robot raiders after him and they take Oberon and Mister Miracle goes to a rescue Oberon and has to beat her robot, the Overlord.

Issues 3 and 4 are important for Mister Miracle as we see the introduction of Dr Bedlam and in his first story, Dr Bedlam appears on earth in a very cool scene involving things called animates, which are look like robots but one of them is chosen and slowly turns into Dr Bedlam. Dr Bedlam sets a trap for Scott and gets Scott to come up into a building and then releases something into the water that causes everyone in the building to go completely paranoid and Scott’s job is to make it out of the building alive which is a challenge given all of the people who are…with everyone out to kill him. This also allows the introduction of Big Barda in issue 4 as she comes to Scott’s rescue. She is the leader of the female Furies and she is a recognized commander in the armies of Apokolips. So, she’s a trained soldier and she offers her assistance in getting Scott out and ends up teaming up with him.

In issue five finds Dr. Vundabar coming in with another plot to get Mister Miracle and we also get more on Barda. When she’s not in her warrior duds, she’s in a kind of a skimpy costume but on her side clip, there’s a stud that she presses and it actually goes ahead and instantly transforms her into her armor within microseconds and it’s a really nice touch and a really good sequence in here. The story also launches the start of the young Scott free stories as we get background on what his life was on Apokolips and want to led up to his decision to leave.

Issue 6 sees a promoter known as Funky Flashman come to get Mister Miracle to s...

The Flash meets the Reverse Flash for the first two times while villain from the 1960s battle to win top ranking in the prison newspaper.
Affiliate link included.
Transcript:
Graham:Meet the Reverse Flash for the first time as we take a look at The Flash: The Silver Age Vol. 3, straight ahead.
[Intro Music]
Announcer:Welcome to the Classy Comics podcast where we search for the best comics in the universe. From Boise Idaho, here is your host Adam Graham
Graham:The third volume of Flash Silver Age comics features some milestones but a little bit less than in previous volumes. Probably the first one that happens. This book, I should say, collects issues 134 to 147of the Flash, running up to about September of 1967. The first big thing that happens is in Flash number 135, when the earth is being invaded from another dimension and Wally West gets a new costume. His original Kid Flash costume was just a mini Flash costume. A bolt extends from Barry’s chest and changes his costume into the traditional Kid Flash costume, which I think is just a great look. Barry says that the costumes being the same could create confusion and it didn't really do it too much because you could always tell from a perspective, as long as you made it clear that Barry was bigger, draw him bigger, you could tell who was who but you don't always look at people from that particular perspective. So, now with the new costume, and they actually drew a few panels where Wally was in the foreground and was bigger, just because of his placement in the panel but you could still tell it was Wally. So, it was a nice change. One thing I don't like about it is because you have the bolt of energy extending from Barry’s chest to change the costume, he delivers a page long technobabble incomprehensible explanation of why it happened, which has to do with the interdimensional alien invasion and super weapons. It just bogs down the story. It would just have been a lot simpler and made a lot more sense just to have Barry say, “By the way, I've been thinking our costumes, you need your own look. I came up with this design. What do you think?”, and if he likes it, just super sew it up, be a lot simpler. But at any rate, it does introduce that classic look for Kid Flash.
Issue 139 introduces the Reverse Flash, one of the most dangerous and deadly Flash villains. He is a man from the 25th century, who, his favorite historical character is the Flash but not for fighting crime or virtue, that part he doesn't like. He just likes it that he goes really fast, which I think explains why some people like superheroes. Not for their values but just because they do cool things even if they don't really like the superheroes’ virtues. So, what had happened was that a time capsule was sent into the future and it was found and Eobard Thawne ran off with the Flash costume that the Flash had put in the time capsule. The goofiness of the origin comes from the fact that Thawne’s claim was that there were super speed wave patterns that were on the costume from 500 years previously that he was able to amplify with 25th century technology. I mean it's a really silly idea for giving him powers. The story is good once he gets powers and really tries to find a way to compete with the Flash and the Flash travels back in time. It's a really fun epic story.
I think the second story is better in issue 147, the second Reverse Flash story. He finds a way to…because he also goes by the name Professor Zoom, he finds a way to get powers through element Z and he comes up with a plan for a criminal activity that involves making the element man return to his life of… The Element Man really has been trying to reform, and so there is this sort of battle for his future and for his life between the Flash and the Reverse Flash that really is just a nice touch for this issue.

The Flash meets the Reverse Flash for the first two times while villain from the 1960s battle to win top ranking in the prison newspaper.

Affiliate link included.

Transcript:

Graham: Meet the Reverse Flash for the first time as we take a look at The Flash: The Silver Age Vol. 3, straight ahead.

[Intro Music]

Announcer: Welcome to the Classy Comics podcast where we search for the best comics in the universe. From Boise Idaho, here is your host Adam Graham

Graham: The third volume of Flash Silver Age comics features some milestones but a little bit less than in previous volumes. Probably the first one that happens. This book, I should say, collects issues 134 to 147of the Flash, running up to about September of 1967. The first big thing that happens is in Flash number 135, when the earth is being invaded from another dimension and Wally West gets a new costume. His original Kid Flash costume was just a mini Flash costume. A bolt extends from Barry’s chest and changes his costume into the traditional Kid Flash costume, which I think is just a great look. Barry says that the costumes being the same could create confusion and it didn’t really do it too much because you could always tell from a perspective, as long as you made it clear that Barry was bigger, draw him bigger, you could tell who was who but you don’t always look at people from that particular perspective. So, now with the new costume, and they actually drew a few panels where Wally was in the foreground and was bigger, just because of his placement in the panel but you could still tell it was Wally. So, it was a nice change. One thing I don’t like about it is because you have the bolt of energy extending from Barry’s chest to change the costume, he delivers a page long technobabble incomprehensible explanation of why it happened, which has to do with the interdimensional alien invasion and super weapons. It just bogs down the story. It would just have been a lot simpler and made a lot more sense just to have Barry say, “By the way, I’ve been thinking our costumes, you need your own look. I came up with this design. What do you think?”, and if he likes it, just super sew it up, be a lot simpler. But at any rate, it does introduce that classic look for Kid Flash.

Issue 139 introduces the Reverse Flash, one of the most dangerous and deadly Flash villains. He is a man from the 25th century, who, his favorite historical character is the Flash but not for fighting crime or virtue, that part he doesn’t like. He just likes it that he goes really fast, which I think explains why some people like superheroes. Not for their values but just because they do cool things even if they don’t really like the superheroes’ virtues. So, what had happened was that a time capsule was sent into the future and it was found and Eobard Thawne ran off with the Flash costume that the Flash had put in the time capsule. The goofiness of the origin comes from the fact that Thawne’s claim was that there were super speed wave patterns that were on the costume from 500 years previously that he was able to amplify with 25th century technology. I mean it’s a really silly idea for giving him powers. The story is good once he gets powers and really tries to find a way to compete with the Flash and the Flash travels back in time. It’s a really fun epic story.

I think the second story is better in issue 147, the second Reverse Flash story. He finds a way to…because he also goes by the name Professor Zoom, he finds a way to get powers through element Z and he comes up with a plan for a criminal activity that involves making the element man return to his life of… The Element Man really has been trying to reform, and so there is this sort of battle for his future and for his life between the Flash and the Reverse Flash that really is just a nice touch for this issue.