Have you ever been disappointed by '60s/'70s DC?

[Falcon16]

I have. For example, the first story of Superboy #202, where Shrinking Violet goes inside Colossal Boy to extract a bullet, but we don't see inside. Like, why would they do that?! I get why we didn't see inside Scorch, but Shrinking Violet's a HERO. Nowadays, this wouldn't get past quality control and they would HAVE to show inside.

There's also the Action Comics #283 (I think that was it) story where Supergirl goes inside Dick Malverne's adoptive father. That shows inside, but for some reason doesn't show Supergirl entering or exiting, only TELLING us it was thru the transfusion tube. Again, this would NOT get past quality control nowadays.

I find it hard to believe that DC never got M/F endo right. Why? I get these first two examples, because they were made during a different time, and I also get Justice League Vol 2 #27 with it being a villain and Nothing Is Scarier apparently (I wish that weren't true.) But the fact that every time DC does M/F endo, they either don't show inside or screw it up horrendously makes me sick.

Can anyone who's read Superboy #282 care to draw me a picture of Shrinking Violet inside Colossal Boy? I even have an idea of what song would play during it. https://youtu.be/ZHlTLKMz7dM

Does anyone else have stories about how the Silver and Bronze Age just disappointed them at some point? Curious to hear.

[LifeIsILL]

Spectre, Flash, Green Lantern, Justice League, Hawkman, Star Spangled War Stories, Doom Patrol, Adventure Comics, Aquaman, All Star Western, House of Mystery....these are all pretty decent, have lots of crazy ideas in these titles

The Superman and Batman titles are definitely more hit or miss. Wonder Woman is mostly miss.

I'm actually more disappointed by the classic Marvel books that people usually praise

[MajorHoy]

I have. For example, the first story of Superboy #202, where Shrinking Violet goes inside Colossal Boy to extract a bullet, but we don't see inside. Like, why would they do that?! I get why we didn't see inside Scorch, but Shrinking Violet's a HERO. Nowadays, this wouldn't get past quality control and they would HAVE to show inside.

Dude, that was only a six-page story!

What happened when she was finding / extracting the bullet wasn't the important part of the story. Granted, in modern comic books, they would have needed an entire 22-page story just to show what was covered in two panels, which would have probably turned this six-page story into a SIX ISSUE, tpb-friendly waste of time and money.

[Jim Kelly]

It's amusing to think that comic books are handed over to quality control and then pages have to be rewritten and redrawn to conform with their specific demands.

When I worked in the hospital lab, for awhile I had to prepare media for testing and I'd have to give those to a technician who was in charge of quality control. I was always scared of her giving me the thumbs down--which would mean another hour having to prepare the media all over again. It's funny to think of comics being submitted to that kind of testing.

Hey, Creed Bratton was responsible for quality control on THE OFFICE, but most of the time he couldn't remember what it was he did.

I guess there was a kind of quality control, in that comic books had to go to the Comics Code Authority first--but the quality they were controlling for had nothing to do with the artistic merits or entertainment value of the comic. They were looking out for specific things, and if comics didn't conform to their guidelines, they had to institute changes. So that might have been why some stories didn't get too graphic--because there might have been a red line just how much they could show.

Certainly after THE FANTASTIC VOYAGE came out in 1966, exploring the inside of the body was something that many stories did. But it's all about economy of story telling and how many pages they have for the story. In GREEN LANTERN 53--"Captive of the Evil Eye"--Hal goes inside the body of a giant alien. And in THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD 115--"The Corpse that Wouldn't Die"--the Atom goes inside the body of a dead Batman and animates him.

There were certainly comics at the time that bugged me. There was a common trope where a hero or villain would be in disguise, but then they would pull off their disguise to reveal their real face--and it was usually always the same kind of rubber mask that fit over their whole head. I would get so angry with this all the time in comics. Batman pulls off his disguise mask and underneath it's Batman in full cowl. I didn't understand why they couldn't make it more realistic. But economy of story telling. To get the reveal effect they wanted it all in one panel (or one cover image)--not a series of panels showing a well-prepared disguise being peeled off and then Batman putting on his cowl.

Or I hated stories that completely screwed up years of continuity. The lead story in WORLD'S FINEST COMICS 223--"Wipe the Blood Off My Name"--nearly had me going bald with tearing my hair out. It's revealed that Bruce has an older brother named Thomas that his parent warehoused in a home for the mentally defective. I just hated this--it completely ruined all of the Wayne family history. How did this story ever get published?

The thing is, those negative reactions were back in the day. Now when I go back to read comics--and especially when I read comics that I've never read before or I've completely forgotten from that time period--I'm not that critical. I'm just happy to revisit that era and discover new details I would have missed at the time. The stuff that doesn't make sense is sometimes more entertaining--I can laugh about it and not get angry. They were doing the best they could for the time and they had their own standards for why stories should be how they were. Actually, getting into their heads and seeing why they made those decisions that seem odd to us now is a great rabbit hole to climb down into.

[SJNeal]

I have been disappointed by DC in every era.

[RobinGA]

When you read comics from the early 1960s it is definitely a different era. You can't
expect it to look the same. Certainly, the art will look more primitive compared to modern
comics. I remember going back to read the early LSH comics, being surprised how the early
stories were pretty simplistic. But then there are these tremendous stories that were just
remarkable.

The Denny O'Neil Green Lantern/Green Arrow was simply incredible. If you haven't read it,
try and find them, they are frankly amazing.

Like with anything there are stories that work, while others do not.

[Falcon16]

Dude, that was only a six-page story!

What happened when she was finding / extracting the bullet wasn't the important part of the story. Granted, in modern comic books, they would have needed an entire 22-page story just to show what was covered in two panels, which would have probably turned this six-page story into a SIX ISSUE, tpb-friendly waste of time and money.

It could've just been covered in ONE panel. ONE panel just to show the insides. I am into endo, and this was mentioned on an endo forum. I went into it expecting to see inside. It WAS the important part of the story. It just... SKIPS to the end. I HATE the lack of quality M/F endo in DC Comics, and how if there's endo, Superman is usually the host. Superman isn't even hot!! I just find innards sexy-looking (due to the colors.) ONE PANEL is all they needed. ONE. Like the Leezle Pon inside Guy Gardner panel. Just ONE.

[SJNeal]

So the purpose of this thread is to express your disappointment in Silver Age comics inability to satisfy a fetish...?

[Falcon16]

So the purpose of this thread is to express your disappointment in Silver Age comics inability to satisfy a fetish...?

Yes. I guess so. But it outrages me. Why isn't there well done M/F endo in DC Comics? Keep in mind, who I think is attractive is a wildcard. I'm not into any "main" character whose name isn't Hal Jordan, Cyborg, or (even though they're Marvel) Spider-Man and Wolverine.

Maybe I'm the bad guy. I get mad at unimportant details because of my fetish. Someone who I told I was into endo said "Stop romanticizing your sick and twisted perversion." I know Frank Miller wrote his fetishes into his comics, but I'm literally the only DC fan into endo. I'm also young (19 on the 27th), so there's a lot for me to learn. My fetishes are like kryptonite to Superman. Remember that scene in Superman III where Clark Kent fought his evil side? That's me and my dark side. I have an idea for a script where Superman is reincarnated into the body of a teenage girl, and in it, she learns to be more responsible and use her goodness to help others.

Please support me in my journey in life. I want to work for DC when I grow up.

[John Venus]

Most of the time, yeah, especially the JL. The characters sounded the same, the stories were very cookie cutter and the art was not very good most of the time. Snapper Carr was so annoying that I'm glad Denny O'Neill booted him out of the League. 60's Marvel, especially Marvel, blew me away (the Avengers, not so much though although I enjoyed PTSD Cap).

The one story that really stick in my mind is a Superman story where he fought Black Zero 'The Man Who Destroyed Krypton' and the story climaxed with Superman having to stop an anti-matter bomb headed towards earth. I was actually on the edge of my seat wondering how Superman was going to stop this and it really was a job for a Superman and then.....it ended with him digging a hole through the earth allowing the anti matter meteor to pass through the earth harmless. That was about the dumbest resolution for a plot ever. I would love for a Kurt Busiek or Mark Waid style retelling of this story but with a better ending.

Another story I recall was a Superboy story where Clark Kent is taking a test and he thinks to himself 'yeah, I'm not going to answer every question correctly otherwise I would give away my secret identity' and then the smug little **** excuses himself after finishing his test, goes back in time to view the actual historical event he was writing about and then came back to the present. That story made me understand why Lex Luthor hated Superman so much.

[SJNeal]

Yes. I guess so. But it outrages me. Why isn't there well done M/F endo in DC Comics? Keep in mind, who I think is attractive is a wildcard. I'm not into any "main" character whose name isn't Hal Jordan, Cyborg, or (even though they're Marvel) Spider-Man and Wolverine.

Maybe I'm the bad guy. I get mad at unimportant details because of my fetish. Someone who I told I was into endo said "Stop romanticizing your sick and twisted perversion." I know Frank Miller wrote his fetishes into his comics, but I'm literally the only DC fan into endo. I'm also young (19 on the 27th), so there's a lot for me to learn. My fetishes are like kryptonite to Superman. Remember that scene in Superman III where Clark Kent fought his evil side? That's me and my dark side. I have an idea for a script where Superman is reincarnated into the body of a teenage girl, and in it, she learns to be more responsible and use her goodness to help others.

Please support me in my journey in life. I want to work for DC when I grow up.

Okay. Thanks for clearing that up for me.

[MoneySpider]

Yep. When they cancelled Vixen's ongoing solo book in 1978 even before the first issue hit the stands because of a blizzard, and then haven't given her another solo ongoing book for 43 years. Yeah, I'm a bit salty.

Although I will give kudos to the person or people who tried to give Vixen the chance to have an ongoing solo book in the first place. That editorial staff showed more initiative with Vixen than any of the other editorial staffs that followed.

[LifeIsILL]

The one story that really stick in my mind is a Superman story where he fought Black Zero 'The Man Who Destroyed Krypton' and the story climaxed with Superman having to stop an anti-matter bomb headed towards earth. I was actually on the edge of my seat wondering how Superman was going to stop this and it really was a job for a Superman and then.....it ended with him digging a hole through the earth allowing the anti matter meteor to pass through the earth harmless. That was about the dumbest resolution for a plot ever. I would love for a Kurt Busiek or Mark Waid style retelling of this story but with a better ending.

There are modern stories that's like that. In the Batman/Superman annual Superman threw Warworld into the phanzom zone when it was about to collide with Earth. Written by Greg Pak.

Or Wolverine shooting Planet Doom with the Phoenix Gun. Or Hulk punching an asteroid the size of Earth etc...

There are 60s and 70s Marvel stories that were just like that. Dr.Strange solo series for example, 80% of the stories were some demon showing up from some dimension, and then possessing a human/animal/furniture, and then Strange defeating him in the final 2 pages at the end by casting a boring spell. Really repetitive. But those get a pass because.....Stan Lee....I guess.

Another story I recall was a Superboy story where Clark Kent is taking a test and he thinks to himself 'yeah, I'm not going to answer every question correctly otherwise I would give away my secret identity' and then the smug little **** excuses himself after finishing his test, goes back in time to view the actual historical event he was writing about and then came back to the present. That story made me understand why Lex Luthor hated Superman so much.

That actually sounds interesting and different from the usual superhero stuff. Like something from the Vertigo imprint. Or something out of a Deadpool mini.

[Jim Kelly]

Jim Kelly has left the chat.

[Talon1load]

I'm almost scared to ask but what is endo?