Favorite Villain by Year of Debut: Round 1, Part 7 (1961 - 1963)

[Air Wave]

You asked for it! Now you can vote for your favorite supervillains! Here they are listed chronologically by year of debut. Vote for as many as you like!

[Sutekh]

Always had a soft spot for Chronos, and Secret Six made me a fan of Catman, so those two get my votes on this one.

[Jim Kelly]

Cat-Man (Tom Blake) came along at a time in the early 1960s when Jack Schiff was doing his own mini-revival of past super-villains. Maybe as an effort to revive the failing sales. When Julie Schwartz took over, he would do the same.

While Catman himself was a new super-villain, he must have been influenced by Catwoman. And Catwoman was someone that Schiff could not possibly revive. Exactly why escapes me, but there had to be some specific thing about Catwoman that made her untouchable. Clearly the Comics Code had something to do with it, but the precise complaint from the censor board is lost to time.

And by introducing a Cat-Man, Jack could get away with putting a "Cat-Woman" into those stories--which was Kathy Kane dressed up as Cat-Woman. So Kathy in a catsuit was no danger to the moral health of little boys--yet an injunction against Selina Kyle kept her out of bounds.

Other mini-revival super-villains: Mad Hatter, Mirror Man, Dr. Double-X, the Terrible Trio, the Penguin. And then there was Clayface II (Matt Hagen)--not the original Clayface (Basil Karlo) or anything like him but he did have the same codename. Add to that Dr. No-Face (Paul Dent), a new no-good, but in the tradition of Two-Face, Clayface and False-Face.

[OBrianTallent]

Cat-Man (Tom Blake) came along at a time in the early 1960s when Jack Schiff was doing his own mini-revival of past super-villains. Maybe as an effort to revive the failing sales. When Julie Schwartz took over, he would do the same.

While Catman himself was a new super-villain, he must have been influenced by Catwoman. And Catwoman was someone that Schiff could not possibly revive. Exactly why escapes me, but there had to be some specific thing about Catwoman that made her untouchable. Clearly the Comics Code had something to do with it, but the precise complaint from the censor board is lost to time.

And by introducing a Cat-Man, Jack could get away with putting a "Cat-Woman" into those stories--which was Kathy Kane dressed up as Cat-Woman. So Kathy in a catsuit was no danger to the moral health of little boys--yet an injunction against Selina Kyle kept her out of bounds.

Other mini-revival super-villains: Mad Hatter, Mirror Man, Dr. Double-X, the Terrible Trio, the Penguin. And then there was Clayface II (Matt Hagen)--not the original Clayface (Basil Karlo) or anything like him but he did have the same codename. Add to that Dr. No-Face (Paul Dent), a new no-good, but in the tradition of Two-Face, Clayface and False-Face.

Is that actually true? I had never heard that, how crazy! Catman was always a curiosity for me (I'm a pet lover and lean more towards cats than dogs, so I naturally gravitated towards cat themed characters). However, I always found him to be written rather poorly until Gail Simone got him in her Secret Six. However I never cared that much for his costume and was really excited to see him updated with the New 52. I seem to recall the New 52 giving him powers which I wasn't crazy about, however, his costume update more than made up for that. I would love to see Gail return to write more Catman preferably in his own series, but will take him in a new Secret Six. Maybe I can dream and get Mahmud Asrar to draw it as well. lol.

[jamgut]

Lightning Lord (61)
Saturn Queen (61)
Cosmic King (61)

[Jim Kelly]

Lightning Lord (61)
Saturn Queen (61)
Cosmic King (61)

They were grouped together in part 6 as the Legion of Super-Villains, which is all there was, just those three in 1961--SUPERMAN 147 (August 1961)--3rd story, "The Legion of Super-Villains" by Jerry Siegel, Curt Swan and Sheldon Moldoff.

Not everyone considers that adult Legion of Super-Villains to be in the same continuity as the Legion of Super-Heroes or the later L.S.V. On Mike's Amazing World of Comics, Mike took this position:

As theorized for years and finally shown in Legion of Super-Heroes #300, the Adult Legion of Super-Heroes actually comes from a future time-line different from that of the standard Legion of Super-Heroes, thus making this appearance both the first real and first chronological appearance for the Adult Legionnaires, who will continue to make appearances in the Superman Family books throughout the 1960s. In this appearance, the Adult Legionnaires wear costumes different from those of their teenage counterparts, and Saturn Woman has brown hair.

[R.I.P. Mike]

[Air Wave]

Star Sapphire leads here so far.