Lively, entertaining reviews of, and essays on, old and newer films and everything relating to them, written by professional author William Schoell.

Thursday, March 24, 2016

SUPERHUMAN: THE BRONZE AGE OF COMICS

SUPERHUMAN: THE BRONZE AGE OF COMICS. Timbre Books; 2016.

Shameless promotion time again.

Here at last is my follow up to The Silver Age of Comics. In this tome you will learn:

* How feminist hero Ms. Marvel told off her teammates on the Avengers when they seemed to think all she needed was a good lay to settle  her down.
* How Marvel's first African-American super-hero, the Black Panther, went from being King of Wakanda to a strange Jack Kirby fantasy creation.
* How the X-Men's Jean Grey turned into the Phoenix, who wiped out an entire galaxy with nary a thought.
* Why Batman and Robin split up -- only to get back together again. Did it have something to do with Catwoman, or Ra's al Ghul's daughter, Talia?
* How black superhero Luke Cage, aka Power Man, teamed up with blond and blue-eyed martial arts master Iron Fist.
* Why Brainiac-5 of the futuristic Legion of Super-Heroes went nuts.
* How Spider-Man's frail Aunt May went into a nursing home, died, then came back again!
* Why Brother Blood, arch-enemy of the New Teen Titans, wound up in a war with the disembodied Brain and his Brotherhood of Evil.
* How the Justice League of America took on hungry mutated animals who slayed humans in a bloody arena, and helped bring the golden age's Justice Society back into prominence.
* How Wonder Woman finally lost her virginity -- and to whom.
* Why the Flash was put on trial for murdering the woman who killed his wife!
* The differences between Marvel and DC Comics competing undersea kings, Aquaman and Namor, the Sub-Mariner.
* Why Thor's father, Odin, tried to murder his son -- more than once!
* Why Black Goliath and Black Lightning used the word "black" in their names even though it was obvious they were African-American.
* What did Shang-Chi, the Master of Kung Fu, have to do with venerable villain Fu Manchu?

For the answers read SUPERHUMAN: The Bronze Age of Comics, available on Amazon in a spanking new Kindle edition. [Also downloadable on computers and mobile devices.] Naturally many of these comic book characters appeared in movies and TV shows decades after they were created for the comics.



2 comments:

angelman66 said...

So cool, Bill, that this is another area of your expertise and passion. Comic books are such a unique combination of pop art and mythology, romance, sex, fantasy, good vs. evil, the whole shebang. I look forward to checking out both these volumes...
-Chris

William said...

Thank you, Chris. And I absolutely love your description of comic books! Great!