Was the Flash really first?
Most comic book historians regard the advent of the Silver Age of Comic Books as the debut of the Barry Allen Flash in Showcase #4, Oct. 1956. But was Barry really the first Silver Age super-hero? Some say no. Let’s examine the case a little more closely…
It is indisputable that the “Whirlwind Adventures of the Fastest Man Alive” no doubt breathed new life into a comics genre that had been wheezing along for several years. At the time of the Flash’s debut, Marvel / Timely / Atlas had no super-hero comic book titles in their line, and DC only had three being published under their own names, the so-called “Big Three” of Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman. One has but to examine the stories being published about these three characters during the mid-Fifties to see that the post-Comics Code years were not exactly the peak era for the medium. The Batman tales that took him off the grim and gritty Gotham streets to send him to alien worlds and different time periods were, in my opinion, particularly damaging to the image of a once-hard edged crimefighter and master sleuth.
The Flash’s popularity led to DC re-creating a number of their other Golden Age heroes in “modern” form, including Hawkman, Green Lantern, and the Atom. But was the Flash really there first? Some historians say he was beaten to the Silver Age punch by not one but two other heroes.
Captain Comet first appeared in Strange Adventure #9, June 1951. Since this could technically be considered the tail end of the Golden Age of Comics, calling the good Captain the first Silver Age hero is at the very least debatable. Some say he would better be described as one of if not the last Golden Age hero. But let’s take a closer look at the character…Captain Comet is described as a mutant born a hundred thousand years before his time. Unlike other Golden Age heroes with their gimmicked planes, cars, and motorcycles, the Captain has his own spaceship. His powers include telepathy, clairvoyance, telekinesis, electricity control, super strength, invulnerability, photographic memory, and an immense IQ. This makes him quite unlike the vast majority of Golden Age heroes who mainly hit people and/or blasted stuff. A Space Age mutant flying around in a rocket just plain sounds more Silver Age to me. Golden Age heroes often got their powers from supernatural sources, Silver Age heroes from scientific means. See Green Lantern Alan Scott’s magic green ring versus Hal Jordan’s alien-powered one, or Carter Hall’s reincarnated Egyptian prince Hawkman versus Katar Hol’s alien policeman for perfect examples of this phenomenon.
A strong case for Captain Comet’s place as the first Silver Age hero came in James Robinson and Paul Smith’s excellent 1993 mini-series. In the climactic final issue, set on January 8, 1950, all of the DC heroes converge on Washington, DC and become involved in a battle with Dyna-Man, an almost unstoppable force in human form. A young, never-before seen hero throws himself into the fray, and ends up on the cover of Life Magazine when the dust clears. The young man is Captain Comet. It would appear that no less a personage than James Robinson, a writer noted for his love and esteem for comics history, considers the Captain and not the Flash as the first Silver Age hero.
The other contender for the title of first hero of the Silver Age of Comic Books is J’onn J’onzz, the Manhunter from Mars, who debuted in Detective Comics #225, November 1955. J’onn is another science-themed character in that he is a Martian who was brought accidentally to Earth by an experiment gone awry, and he too was loaded with super powers. His tales, though, while entertaining enough, were not really the stuff of what most people consider super hero comics. He was, for all intents and purposes, more of a detective who used his powers to solve cases than he was a super hero. The “detective with a gimmick” was a popular character type for DC in the late-Forties through the Fifties. Some examples of this type include Roy Raymond TV Detective, Detective Chimp, and Pow Wow Smith Indian Lawman.
Of the two, I feel that the case for Captain Comet is far stronger than that for J’onn J’onzz, for the reasons detailed above. Of course, proclaiming the Captain the first Silver Age super hero would mean cranking back the Silver Age starting date by five whole years, and I doubt most comic book history buffs would be willing to accept that radical a change. Looks like the Flash keeps his title, whether he really and truly deserves it or not.
Most comic book historians regard the advent of the Silver Age of Comic Books as the debut of the Barry Allen Flash in Showcase #4, Oct. 1956. But was Barry really the first Silver Age super-hero? Some say no. Let’s examine the case a little more closely…
It is indisputable that the “Whirlwind Adventures of the Fastest Man Alive” no doubt breathed new life into a comics genre that had been wheezing along for several years. At the time of the Flash’s debut, Marvel / Timely / Atlas had no super-hero comic book titles in their line, and DC only had three being published under their own names, the so-called “Big Three” of Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman. One has but to examine the stories being published about these three characters during the mid-Fifties to see that the post-Comics Code years were not exactly the peak era for the medium. The Batman tales that took him off the grim and gritty Gotham streets to send him to alien worlds and different time periods were, in my opinion, particularly damaging to the image of a once-hard edged crimefighter and master sleuth.
The Flash’s popularity led to DC re-creating a number of their other Golden Age heroes in “modern” form, including Hawkman, Green Lantern, and the Atom. But was the Flash really there first? Some historians say he was beaten to the Silver Age punch by not one but two other heroes.
Captain Comet first appeared in Strange Adventure #9, June 1951. Since this could technically be considered the tail end of the Golden Age of Comics, calling the good Captain the first Silver Age hero is at the very least debatable. Some say he would better be described as one of if not the last Golden Age hero. But let’s take a closer look at the character…Captain Comet is described as a mutant born a hundred thousand years before his time. Unlike other Golden Age heroes with their gimmicked planes, cars, and motorcycles, the Captain has his own spaceship. His powers include telepathy, clairvoyance, telekinesis, electricity control, super strength, invulnerability, photographic memory, and an immense IQ. This makes him quite unlike the vast majority of Golden Age heroes who mainly hit people and/or blasted stuff. A Space Age mutant flying around in a rocket just plain sounds more Silver Age to me. Golden Age heroes often got their powers from supernatural sources, Silver Age heroes from scientific means. See Green Lantern Alan Scott’s magic green ring versus Hal Jordan’s alien-powered one, or Carter Hall’s reincarnated Egyptian prince Hawkman versus Katar Hol’s alien policeman for perfect examples of this phenomenon.
A strong case for Captain Comet’s place as the first Silver Age hero came in James Robinson and Paul Smith’s excellent 1993 mini-series. In the climactic final issue, set on January 8, 1950, all of the DC heroes converge on Washington, DC and become involved in a battle with Dyna-Man, an almost unstoppable force in human form. A young, never-before seen hero throws himself into the fray, and ends up on the cover of Life Magazine when the dust clears. The young man is Captain Comet. It would appear that no less a personage than James Robinson, a writer noted for his love and esteem for comics history, considers the Captain and not the Flash as the first Silver Age hero.
The other contender for the title of first hero of the Silver Age of Comic Books is J’onn J’onzz, the Manhunter from Mars, who debuted in Detective Comics #225, November 1955. J’onn is another science-themed character in that he is a Martian who was brought accidentally to Earth by an experiment gone awry, and he too was loaded with super powers. His tales, though, while entertaining enough, were not really the stuff of what most people consider super hero comics. He was, for all intents and purposes, more of a detective who used his powers to solve cases than he was a super hero. The “detective with a gimmick” was a popular character type for DC in the late-Forties through the Fifties. Some examples of this type include Roy Raymond TV Detective, Detective Chimp, and Pow Wow Smith Indian Lawman.
Of the two, I feel that the case for Captain Comet is far stronger than that for J’onn J’onzz, for the reasons detailed above. Of course, proclaiming the Captain the first Silver Age super hero would mean cranking back the Silver Age starting date by five whole years, and I doubt most comic book history buffs would be willing to accept that radical a change. Looks like the Flash keeps his title, whether he really and truly deserves it or not.
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