Destruction and resurrection are a running theme in superhero stories. I think our unconscious minds are…
Dan Hagen
Dan Hagen is a retired newspaper journalist and editor, a former journalism professor, and a mighty comics presence in print and on the web. You can find Dan's work at... danhagengreatcaesar.blogspot.com, justimaginedanhagen.blogspot.com and captaincommentdanhagen.blogspot.com
JUST IMAGINE! October 1961: Mayhem in Miniature
In order to tell a good superhero story, writers must constantly come up with ways to…
JUST IMAGINE! May 1954: Amid the Alien Corn
A Cold War “enemy within” vibe continues in Strange Adventures 44 (May 1954), when evil, intelligent…
JUST IMAGINE! August 1957: My Fair Super-Girl
Although the Superman comic books were aimed at kids, the Superman newspaper strip necessarily included…
JUST IMAGINE! February 1955: Fighting Red with Red
Odd that such a red-baiting character would dress all in red. A sort of anticommunist Batman,…
JUST IMAGINE! October 1947: The Shadow of Hawkman’s Ghost
The Gentleman Ghost, a character created by Robert Kanigher who first appeared in Flash Comics 88…
JUST IMAGINE! July 1950: King for a Brief Day
If superheroes were fading in 1950, maybe secret agents were the coming thing? During the spring…
JUST IMAGINE! November 1961: The Stranger in the Swamp
Just as cruelty was punished in Marvel’s short fantasy stories, kindness, and decency were always rewarded.…
JUST IMAGINE! January 1962: Flubber’s Strange Adventure
In 1961, jalopies took to the skies — first in the hit Disney comedy The Absent-Minded…
JUST IMAGINE! March 1963: When Titans Tangle!
Fantastic Four 12 (March 1963) offered something rare then — a superhero battle that enabled readers…
JUST IMAGINE! January 1929: Optimism and Armageddon
The art may seem a little crude, but the sense of wonder is palpable in the…
JUST IMAGINE! June 1966: Finding the First Fortress
Supermen seek solitude. After all, being inundated by ordinary people’s needs and demands would be draining,…
JUST IMAGINE! October 1965: The Perfidious Premiere of Power Man
Even at first glance, I recognized Power Man as a nod to that one-issue wonder, Wonder…
JUST IMAGINE! October 1944: Siblings Shamble Out of the Swamp
One of the greatest foes ever faced by Green Lantern and the Justice Society of America…
JUST IMAGINE! September 1958: A Venusian Eye in the Sky
Admittedly, The First Satellite (Space Adventures 25, Sept. 1958) was a pretty predictable piece. Bellicose Earthmen…
JUST IMAGINE! April 1941: Zatara in Action
Although he always lived in Superman’s shadow, Zatara the Magician was at least as powerful as…
JUST IMAGINE! July 1963: FF Shrinks as Marvel Universe Grows
I must have reread Fantastic Four 16 (July 1963) more often than any other issue, and…
JUST IMAGINE! July 1987: Wonder Drugs to the Rescue
Superheroes may be fiction, but wonder if drugs are real. Originally, in his first appearance in…
JUST IMAGINE! January 1958: Strange Mysteries of Other Planets
Even in the superhero desert of the 1950s, a lot of comic book stories might be…
JUST IMAGINE: March 1982: Shout ‘Kimota!” and Transform Comics
Before his own Watchmen and Frank Miller’s Dark Knight Returns, there was 1982’s Marvelman, Englishman Alan…
JUST IMAGINE! April 1960: Wolf Man Jimmy
Superman’s pal may have been mystified about how he became a Wolf Man (Jimmy Olsen 44,…
JUST IMAGINE! March 1962: Monsters May Be Misunderstood
From the first, Marvel Comics regularly repeated an anti-prejudice theme (except where “Reds” were concerned, of…
JUST IMAGINE! July 1925: Beware the Deadly Ringer
Virtually a one-man fiction factory, the British writer Edgar Wallace perpetuated many of the melodramatic conventions…
JUST IMAGINE! December 1958: The Four Faces of the Jackal
For years, I assumed that the Batman villain King Tut, played with scenery-chewing relish by Victor…
JUST IMAGINE! June 1959: The Invisible Tomahawk
Tomahawk started out fighting redcoats and ended up battling frontier dinosaurs, frontier supermen, giant gorillas, Indians…
JUST IMAGINE! December 1952: Double, Toil and Trouble
In November, Captain Comet had encountered a female counterpart, Miss Universe. The next month saw him…
JUST IMAGINE! December 1959: How the Blackhawks Evolved
Part of my fascination with comic book house ads is seeing what was inside the titles…
JUST IMAGINE! January 1967: The Super Powers of the Twilight Zone
“Some people possess talent, others are possessed by it. When that happens, a talent becomes a…
JUST IMAGINE! August 1992: A Superhero in Pleasantville
Martian Manhunter: American Secrets illustrates how superhero comics can be used for retrospective moral satire. The…
JUST IMAGINE! February 1980: A Forgotten Feel-Good Film
If Frank Capra had made a superhero movie, it might well have been 1980’s Hero at…
JUST IMAGINE! November 1956: Have Rocket Belt, Will Fight Crime
In France after World War II, superheroes became problematic. Characters like Tarzan and the Batman-like French…
JUST IMAGINE! September 1964: When Justice Jests
One scene in superhero stories always amuses me. It’s the bit where some bully, smartass, or…
JUST IMAGINE! February 1947: The Wonder in the Wheelchair
Gardner Fox wrote superhero stories intended to provide support for the disabled, all the way back…