Books of the Week: Wow-- 1,000 + Pgs DC Showcase: Metal Men Vol 1 and 2

 Over the last couple of years, I bought many DC Comics 500 page black and white collections of classic comics and most recently, finally read "DC Showcase Presents: The Metal Men" Volumes 1 and 2.  I love the characters and had never read their debut comics run until now. The stories were good, but there was otwo repetitive themes throughout all of them that became tiresome... Today's blog is about those trade paperbacks.

MY TAKE - The metal man had been around since 1962 and it's a great concept. It's about a scientist named Doc Magnus who created robots who were extremely malleable and made out of different medals like lead, gold, platinum, tin, iron, and mercury. All of them are in the likeness of men except for platinum who is in the likeness of a woman. 

THEME 1:  Although I liked the early issues, one theme that ran through all of them that got to be really annoying was that platinum, the female robot, pined over her creator and was "in love with him." In Every single issue including the four debut issues in showcase magazine and the 35 issues of the metal men series itself platinum, known as Tina, cried over Doc Magnus not returning her affections. It got to be extremely tiresome. 

THEME 2: In the first 20 stories of the Metal Men, it seemed like they were always getting totally destroyed and were rebuilt relatively quickly. That also became tiresome!

ODD NOTE:  The creators did develop and conceive a villain known as Chemo, an animated chemical villain who is still popular 62 years later (although "chemo" is known today as a cancer treatment- but they would never have known that). 

 DC Showcase Presents: The Metal Men V1 & 2 B&W Archive 1962-1969

ABOUT THE BOOKS: DC's showcase vol 1 and 2 of the classic Metal Men contains the complete early run beginning with four issues of showcase before the Metal Men got into their own series! Plus, these two volumes also contain metal numbers 1 through 35. Presented in black and white , this is an archive of DC Showcase Comics Volumes 1 and 2. Spanning the years 1962 to 1969, this also includes the classic Brave and the Bold issue #55 with guest the Atom!! Artists and writers include: Robert Kanigher, Bob Haney, and Mike Esposito. **these are long out of print!**

DC Showcase The Atom Vol 2: Superheroics and Learn History!

As a comic book fan, I've been reading comics since the 1970s, and I had never read the classic
stories about the superhero named "The Atom" who, using white dwarf star material, could shrink himself down to subatomic sizes and control his weight at the same time. In the DC Showcase collection Vol. 2 of the Atom stories, you'll not only enjoy interesting stories of Atom's adventures, but you'll learn some unique history as well.
  Gardner Fox, the writer of The Atom in the 1960s apparently knew his history amazingly well. There are a series of stories called "Time Pool" stories where the Atom goes back into the past using an invention from a scientist he knows. The invention drops a metal "grabbing" claw tied to a rope into a time stream. The Atom has "boarded" the rope and slipped back into time periods with him.

SO, WHAT KIND OF HISTORY DO YOU LEARN? I asked Tom verify the events in one British history story, and he learned they were true.
Here are 2 examples of what I learned:
1) CROWN JEWELS THIEF - One story involved British history where Colonel Tom Blood stole the Crown Jewels and was later appointed to guard them by King Charles II!
LINK TO THE HISTORY: https://www.history.com/news/the-man-who-stole-the-crown-jewels

2) WHEN THE CALENDARS CHANGED IN 1750 - There's another story where the Atom goes back to England. In March, 1752 in London it was voted that 11 days would "disappear" during the switch from the Julian calendar to the newly adopted Gregorian calendar. That loss of days was slated from Sept. 2nd where the next day would be Sept. 13.
IT'S TRUE!  THE HISTORY: in 1752, England and its colonies went to sleep on September 2 and rose on September 13, as per the Calendar Act of 1750. Russia didn’t change calendars until February 14, 1918 and skipped a whole 13 days, meaning their October Revolution of 1917 actually happened, by today’s dating system, in November.

ABOUT THE DC SHOWCASE COLLECTION: "Ivy University professor and scientist Ray Palmer discovers a mysterious meteorite giving him the ability to shrink his body to microscopic size! Fashioning a uniform from fibers taken from the meteorite, Dr. Palmer learned to control not only his size but also his mass, emerging as a mighty champion of justice and enemy of all evil -- as the hero called the Atom! Now an experienced crime-fighter, the Tiny Titan defends Ivy Town against the villainy of such foes as Chronos the Time-Bandit, the Thinker,the Panther, the Bug-Eyed Bandit and many others"--P.

Classic Comic Collection: Showcase Presents All Star Comics Vol. 1

Being a huge comic book fan and collector and having grown up reading comics in the 1970s and
1980s, I had to get the 445 page collection of the revitalization of the Justice Society of America collection called "All Star Comics."  The Justice Society of America was created in the 1940s and featured superheroes of the Golden Age, like the original Flash, Green Lantern, Hawkman, Dr. Fate, Wildcat, Dr. Midnite, Hourman, Wonder Woman and Superman.
  DC Comics had the brilliant idea in the late 1950s to make these old characters superheroes of "Earth 2." The current iterations were on "Earth 1."
   When the JSA was revitalized in the 1970s, all of those characters came back, although in their 50s and 60s, and were joined by new, young heroes like a grown up Robin (Batman's partner), Power Girl (counterpart to Earth-1's supergirl), Star Spangled Kid (an actual character from the 1940s who was "transported" to the 1970s), and a new character called the Huntress (daughter of Earth-2 Batman and wife Catwoman - yes, they married on Earth-2).
   The stories were great, and it's pretty much all inclusive (there are references to the "Crisis on Infinite Earths" saga, but they couldn't reprint those here without including all 12 issues and you can get them separately). The stories, characterizations, and art work was great.
  It's an Outstanding collection of Earth-2 heroes as they should be, and I will always treasure it in my collection to read over and over again.

A Classic Superhero collection: Showcase Presents: Batman Vol 4

I love comics of the 1960s - 1980s, and Batman has always been one of my favorites. Recently I finished enjoying a collection of over 500 pages of Batman (and Detective) comics reprints from the 1960s in DC Showcase: Batman Volume 4.
   These stories are from the 1960s, when Batman's popularity was at an all-time high thanks to his hit liveaction TV series. This collection includes battles with The Joker, The Riddler, Catwoman and a league of assassins, and appearances by Robin and Batgirl. It's a really enjoyable collection  and nowhere near as "dark" and "brooding" as the Batman of the 1990s and 2000s.
  It's one for the collection that will be read over and over again.
  Stories in this collection highlight Batman's 300th appearance where in Detective Comics #327, editor Julius Schwartz decided to give Batman and Robin a "new look". This paperback is the fourth collection to reprint the first stories from Detective Comics and Batman with this new editorial approach in black and white, and in chronological order. This fourth collection reprints stories from June, 1968 to September, 1969.