Created by writer Gardner Fox and artist Harry Lampert, the Flash was among the first of…
Just Imagine!
JUST IMAGINE! November 1960: Pity the Old Man in the Sky
Superheroes generally have one power of which even they remain unaware: they don’t age. We long-time…
JUST IMAGINE! July 1970: The Female of the Species
In 1970, Marvel unveiled the first of its several female counterparts to Spider-Man. And it turned…
JUST IMAGINE! July 1942: A Superman No More
Perhaps MLJ may have decided that Batman-like heroes were on the way in, and Superman-like heroes…
JUST IMAGINE! May 1941: Beware the Butterfly’s Bayonet
In a single story in Captain America Comics 3 (May 1941), we get mummies, a looming…
JUST IMAGINE! October 1960: When Dinosaurs Fly Through a Hole in the Sky
When I was a boy in the early 1960s, my heart belonged to the superheroes. But…
JUST IMAGINE! December 1939: Small Heroes, Big Dreams
Everything about superheroes is gigantic, symbolically if not literally. They are colossal, displaying the strength of…
JUST IMAGINE! August 1964: Even Iron Can Crumble
“I think of a hero as someone who understands the degree of responsibility that comes with…
JUST IMAGINE! October 1943: Johnny Thunder Plays Spider-Man
Super-goofball Johnny Thunder probably drove some readers up the wall. In All-Star Comics 18 (Fall 1943),…
JUST IMAGINE! April 1946: The Superhero Circus Leaves Town
Superheroes are supposed to arrive in the nick of time, but Stuntman left it too late,…
JUST IMAGINE! August 1962: The Monster At My Window
There’s something about the thing that’s inexorably approaching that can send a particularly keen frisson of…
JUST IMAGINE! October 1962: Aliens and Alienation
For a second time, interplanetary foes have attacked the Fantastic Four through the tactic of turning…
JUST IMAGINE! December 1939: The Name is Phantom, Bob Phantom
I always suspected that Bob Phantom, an early MLJ superhero, added the friendly, aw-shucks “Bob” just…
JUST IMAGINE! July 1930: The Shadow Arrives, and Returns and Returns
By the time Superman arrived in 1938, the Shadow was already a well-established multi-media superhero who’d…
JUST IMAGINE! March 1966: Home is the Hunter
Many of Spider-Man’s early foes were animal-themed costumed adventurers, like him. And one of them was…
JUST IMAGINE! December 1942: The Rabbit Who Said ‘Shazam!’
Fawcett’s Captain Marvel was one early superhero who swiftly evolved into a franchise. Debuting in 1940,…
JUST IMAGINE! May 1965: Where Strides Steve Ditko…
Steve Ditko gave the Hulk a more sinister quality than other artists, and I always found…
JUST IMAGINE! November 1965: The Ghost in the Machine
Advancing age helps you appreciate the appeal of T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agent NoMan. In the first issue of…
JUST IMAGINE! February 1963: Brains Over Basketball
Wish fulfillment. It supplies the kick to comic book superhero stories, but it’s a successful element…
JUST IMAGINE! April 1964: Clash of the Titans
Peak Marvel? In 1964, I’d have said that happened when Fantastic Four 25 hit the newsstands…
JUST IMAGINE! May 1964: Giants in the Earth
I remember the thrill I got just looking at a house ad for Giants Walk the…
JUST IMAGE! August 1941: How to Escape a Shark Tank
As death traps go, being dropped into a shark tank has got to rank right up…
JUST IMAGINE! October 1964: The Ironic, Ionic Wonder Man
Born to die in a single issue, Wonder Man nevertheless ended up spawning four enduring Marvel…
JUST IMAGINE! April 1961: A Space Ghost Winks
Comic books rarely use a good idea only once. For example, take Charlton’s Space War 10…
JUST IMAGINE! Oh, the Things a Thunder God Can Do
Thor’s go-to powers of flight, super-strength and super-durability were suggested by the Captain Marvel/magical transformation template…
JUST IMAGINE! August 1965: Subby Moves into a Duplex
Marvel’s seagoing Superman of the 1940s became a useful utility character early in the 1960s, serving…
JUST IMAGINE! July 1957: Who Was that Old Masked Man?
In the superhero desert of the late 1950s, kids like me were eager for any glimpse…
JUST IMAGINE! May 1962: The Man Who Bested the Justice League
In Justice League of America 4 (April-May 1961), the Flash proposed Adam Strange for membership, despite the fact…
JUST IMAGINE! April 1940: Another Mask for the Black Bat
The back story of The Mask is more interesting than the story itself. “The Mask is…
JUST IMAGINE! August 1970: Marvel’s Cravings
Marvel superheroes used to “grow weary of inactivity” a LOT. I don’t know, maybe relax a…
JUST IMAGINE! January 1967: At the End of the Jungle Trail
Within the boom-and-bust cycles of the comic book industry, you can in retrospect spot those moments…
JUST IMAGINE! December 1957: The Hidden Defenders of Ditko
Steve Ditko’s 1950s fantasy stories offer examples of one of his running themes: the hidden defender.…
JUST IMAGINE! May 1966: Heroes and Humor
Rather amazingly, seven of the 11 titles Archie Comics had on the newsstands in May 1966…