I never wanted a comic book more
than the 25-cent DC giant Secret Origins,
which was on newsstands in June 1961, the month I turned 7.
Unfortunately, I wasn’t alone. The
comic sold out instantly at my newsstand in Effingham, IL, and I was so
disappointed I burst into tears on the spot. Then I was ashamed at having
cried.
But we almost never got to read characters’ origins in those halcyon days, and to
acquire a bunch of those in one comic would have been a thrill.
I wouldn’t learn until years later
than DC’s apparent discomfort with reprinting 1940s material would lead them to
cheat a bit on the Secret Origins
title, meaning that the real origins
of the Superman-Batman team, Wonder Woman and Green Arrow would remain secret.
In fact, the only “Golden Age
material” to be found in all 80 pages was an old copy of Flash being chuckled
over by police scientist Barry Allen while he ate lunch in one panel.
The earliest story reprinted was
the origin of the Martian Manhunter from Detective
Comics 225 (November, 1955). The Silver Age characters Flash, Green
Lantern, Adam Strange and the Challengers of the Unknown had all debuted in
1956 or later, and their actual first stories were included as well.
But instead of Wonder Woman’s real
1941 origin, we got a reconned version by Robert Kanigher, Ross Andru and Mike
Esposito reprinted from Wonder Woman 105
(April, 1959).
Green Arrow and Speedy got even
shorter shrift, merely a text page that summarized their origins from Adventure Comics 256 (January, 1959) and
Adventure Comics 262 (July, 1959). In
fact, of course, they had debuted 18 years earlier in More Fun Comics 73 (November 1941).
Even May of 1952 was apparently
too “Golden Age” for the editors. That’s when Superman and Batman actually met
in the pages of Superman 76 (although
they’d teamed up even earlier on Superman’s radio series). Instead, DC
reprinted the retconned Origin of the
Superman-Batman Team by Edmond Hamilton, Dick Sprang and Stan Kay that had
appeared in World’s Finest Comics 94
(May-June, 1958).
So that dark, sunny June day I had
to content myself with the origin of a new superhero in Archie Comics’ Adventures of the Jaguar 1, Detective, the second issue of
Charlton’s Gorgo, the battle between Batman and the super-powered Villain of 1,000 Elements in Detective Comics 294, learning The Secret of Tigerman from World’s Finest 119, seeing the debut of The Legion of Super-Villains in Superman 147 and the exciting third Superman Annual, featuring The Strange Lives of Superman.
That one was almost as good as Secret Origins.
Almost.
Despite its deficiencies, Secret Origins remained The One That Got
Away. I hadn’t learned, at 7, that desire often makes the unattainable seem more
wonderful than reality can ever be.
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