Golden Age Read-Through: DC Comics October, 1941: The Mist in Kentucky

So for a change of pace I read some on my Golden Age Read through.  I read everything I can get from Fawcett, Timely, Quality, DC, and some Dell.  I normally focus on one publisher for a month.  What I sometimes do is flip between.  I'll read a couple of books from this month, then a silver-age comic or two, then a couple of golden age, etc.  Last night I read Action Comics #41, Adventure Comics #67, All-American Comics #31, and All-Star Comics #7.

The stand-out from the pack was Adventure #67.  I've been wanting to write about Adventure for awhile.  Starman is one of the more interesting serials put out by DC in 1941.  First while not the first playboy secret ID (Sandman, Carter Hall, and Bruce Wayne - of course), Ted Knight is the first played for humor as a playboy with an acute case hypochondria constantly convinced he is on the verge of some medical condition.  Secondly, his villains are different from most heroes.  Most heroes, even the big guns like Superman and Green Lantern spend the majority of their time fighting organized crime and social ills, Starman almost exclusively is called in by FBI Chief Wooley to battle some new mad scientist's schemes.  Now don't get me wrong, I know that others have fought mad scientists, but the frequency and variety makes Starman stand-out.  The final component of Starman's appeal is the art by Jack Burley.  His art has a silver age style of refinement and cleanness that is ahead of the time of most of his peers.  In this story, we have the first appearance of the Mist using his cloaking technology to bomb defense sights.  This story also benefits from a unique setting for a Golden Age story, the Mammoth caves in Kentucky.  At this point, Adventure also features the Shining Knight, The Hourman, Steve Conrad, Federal Men, Paul Kirk-Manhunter, and the Sandman.  It is typical of how superheroes were starting to dominate the market at this point with only two strips not featuring costumes heroes: Steve Conrad and Paul Kirk-Manhunter.  Soon Paul Kirk would become a mystery man.

Second favorite out of the batch was All-Star Comics #7.  Green Lantern decides the JSA should raise money for war refugees and sets a goal of 1,000,000 dollars with each member raising 100,000 -- except Johnny who volunteers to come-up with 300,000.  At this point, the overarching plot is basically a framing device for each creative team of the normal hero to tell their story within.  I give credit to all of the different teams by coming up with unique ways for each hero to raise their share.  It is also worth commenting on the team line-up changes 4 issues into the JSA's run.  Characters with a quarterly book are honorary members and not part of the active roster, so Green Lantern joins Flash -- who left last issue, Batman, and Superman on the honorary roles, Hourman takes an unexplained leave of absence in the last two pages.  It is announced that starting in #8 their place will be taken by Starman and Dr. Mid-Nite.