Shazam!

Saw the Shazam! movie over the weekend, and thoroughly enjoyed it. Funny, full of heart ( and charm ), and unexpectedly moving in places, it made me smile a lot.
Holy Moley, does this mean DC have finally got their act together, movie wise? I mean, I didn't much care for Aquaman, but Wonder Woman was great, and with Shazam! being much better than it has any right to be, maybe they're out of the doldrums at last. I hope so.

Meanwhile, there's the Bronze Age Captain Marvel run. I know it didn't sell very well, and doesn't get a lot of love, but I thought it was great. And let's face it, you got C.C.Beck, Bob Oskner and Kurt Schaffenberger, so it couldn't help but look wonderful.
Both Denny O'Neil and Elliot S. Maggin were on writing duties, ( initially, with E. Nelson Bridwell taking over later ) and although they apparently struggled with the format and the small page count for each story, I didn't notice any of that at the time. I thought it was a great comic, and still do.
Here's how the Big Red Cheese came back the first time round.

Must There Be A Superman?

Well, must there? Loads of writers have tackled the issue of whether or not humanity could start taking Superman for granted, and not actually progress as a species as a consequence.
But I think Elliot S. Maggin was the first to actually ask the question in print, in this issue where those pesky know-it-all's The Guardians Of The Universe decide we can get along perfectly fine without outside help.
Which is a bit rich, considering they're the ones providing us with a Green Lantern.
Regardless, this is a great story, without an easy answer, and actually isn't about Superman at all, but about mankind, and how much responsibility we might be prepared to take for ourselves.

Adam Strange Adventures

Silver Age space hero Adam Strange had himself a little mini-renaissance in the early Bronze Age, when Strange Adventures briefly began reprinting his original stories from the early '60's, behind glitzy new covers from Neal Adams:

And Joe Kubert:

Much like John Carter, Adam is a great wish-fulfillment character. No tedious messing about with Gamma rays or radioactive spiders here; if you want adventure and excitement, all you have to do is figure out where and when the next Zeta-beam is going to pass over the Earth, stand in front of it, and hey presto, you're on the super scientific planet of Rann where alien beauty Alanna is waiting for you to save her world from alien invasion yet again.

Considering there is an alien invasion every single time Adam goes to Rann, and he's always sent home once he's thwarted it, never getting to enjoy the hem hem fruits of his labours, you'd think he'd get a bit cheesed off with the unfairness and arbitrariness of the Zeta-beam.

You might also think the good citizens of Rann might get a bit fed up with always being invaded themselves, and come up with some kind of planetary defence network, rather than wait for some random Earthman to appear every eight days and get them out of trouble.

Not a bit of it though, as here in a couple of new adventures at the time. In this Denny O' Neil, Gil Kane & Murphy Anderson piece, Adam is a bit more two-fisted and gung ho than he used to be, but then what's the point of getting Kane in and not having a fight scene or several?

The only other new piece at the time was this unusual illustrated prose piece from Gardner Fox and Murphy Anderson, much more in keeping with Adam's usual Silver Age style, even if it is a puzzle why they went down the 'picture story' route.