Review: Secret Origins of the Golden Age by Roy Thomas, et al.

In the wake of Crisis on Infinite Earths, DC began publishing an ongoing series of origin stories, clarifying and adjusting the histories in the wake of the new universal history. Especially in the early days of the series, it alternated between Golden Age heroes and newer heroes; our man Roy Thomas of course edited and wrote most of the Golden Age ones. All of the JSA ones were collected in Last Days of the Justice Society, and I enjoyed reading those ones interspersed with Infinity, Inc., so I decided that when I read The Young All-Stars, I'd intersperse all the non-JSA stories.* (I did also read the non-Golden Age story in each issue, if I hadn't read it already.)

I would say there's sort of three genres here. One seems to basically re-present an old story, but with a new artist and slightly spruced up dialogue. The Superman one is a good example of this: you know all of this because you've read other Superman stories. How can anyone compete with Action Comics #1, even if you do get Wayne Boring and Jerry Ordway to illustrate it? For most of the others, even when you haven't read the original story, you can tell that you're reading a not very tweaked version of something that isn't very interesting: being a slightly better version of a dumb Golden Age story is still a dumb Golden Age story. Doll Man, the Whip, Doctor Occult, Black Condor, and the Grim Ghost were all hard to slog through even though they were just 20 pages long.

The second genre is the continuity solution: the story that fixes a problem, and sews some old stories together. Sometimes this is interesting if it's done deftly. The Batman story, for example, does this. Thomas weaves together some backstory elements from a few early Golden Age Batman stories to make a coherent story about a young Bruce Wayne figuring out if he can love and be Batman. Plus, then, he gets Marshall Rogers and Terry Austin to do the art, a team that has nothing to do with the Golden Age Batman, but who were responsible for one of the best Batman runs ever. The Manhunter story does a good job weaving DC's many Manhunters (four, I think) plus an alien space robot cult, into a coherent history in a way that nicely sets up the Millennium storyline and fleshes out the world of All-Star Squadron/Infinity, Inc./Young All-Stars. The origin of the "Golden Age" Fury is designed to solve a problem created by the changes to Wonder Woman's continuity, but works nicely on its own as a story that ties into both Infinity, Inc. and Young All-Stars.

On the other hand, it can feel like you're reading a bunch of exposition solving a problem you didn't particularly care about. I think probably there's potential in Miss America, for example, but her tale here is one part origin, one part explanation of how come she's alive when she died in All-Star Squadron, and one part explanation of how she fills Wonder Woman's place in the JSA. Like, this isn't going to get me interested in reading more about her-- and even if it did, I couldn't, since she just puts in small appearances in Young All-Stars. Of course this is Roy Thomas's specialty, but it's not just him; the Power Girl story by Paul Kupperberg is just a really long and convoluted explanation of how she could think she was Superman's cousin, but actually be an Atlantean princess, since in the post-Crisis universe, Superman was supposed to be the only surviving Kryptonian.

(And like many retcons done for the sake of retcons, rather than the sake of story, they didn't stick. I am pretty sure that basically no post-1989 JSA stories actually used Miss America as a Wonder Woman analogue, and as far as I know, no post-Crisis Superman stories really acknowledged that supposedly Superman thought he had a Kryptonian cousin for several years.)

There's a third genre here, though, and it's one Roy Thomas is the master of: the historical period piece. Probably my two favorite of all these origins were the ones for the Crimson Avenger and Midnight. Both of these Thomas suffuses with period detail and flair, fleshing out largely forgotten characters by making their worlds feel more lived-in and real. The Crimson Avenger story was a neat tale taking place on the night of the Orson Welles War of the Worlds broadcast, fleshing out the Crimson's role as a newspaper editor in a time of war-- but before America had entered it. Gene Colan and Mike Gustovich's art is atmospheric; you can see why the strength of this origin ultimately lead to a Crimson Avenger miniseries (which I will read after finishing Young All-Stars). Similarly, the Midnight story embeds him in the world of old-time radio, though as far as I know nothing much came of the character after this story. Len Wein's Uncle Sam story was also pretty good, giving an explanation (albeit a weird one, even by comic book rules) to a character I had seen in a lot of things, but didn't actually know how he really worked.

There are about 400 pages of story here; it could make a nice two-volume collection were DC so motivated (but I doubt they ever will be). I am happy I read even the weaker ones, because the good ones made it worth it, and I appreciate the extra context I got for the appearances of these Golden Age characters in various Roy Thomas productions and (I assume) future stories. Though I doubt I'll ever read something that makes me glad I read the Doll Man one!

Secret Origins of the Golden Age originally appeared in issues #1, 3, 5-6, 8, 11-13, 17, 19, 21-22, 26-30, and 42 of Secret Origins vol. 2 (Apr. 1986–July 1989). The stories were written by Roy Thomas, Dann Thomas, Paul Kupperberg, Len Wein, Robert Loren Fleming, and Sheldon Mayer, and co-plotted by E. Nelson Bridwell, Ehrich Weiss, and Roy Thomas. They were pencilled by Wayne Boring, Jerry Bingham, Gene Colan, Marshall Rogers, Murphy Anderson, Mary Wilshire, Tom Grindberg, Mike Gustovich, Howard Simpson, Arvell Jones, Grant Miehm, Tom Artis, Gil Kane, Sheldon Mayer, Mike Harris, Stephen deStefano, and Michael Bair, and the inking was by Jerry Ordway, Steve Mitchell, Mike Gustovich, Terry Austin, Murphy Anderson, Mary Wilshire, Tony DeZuniga, Bob Lewis, Greg Theakston, Bob Downs, Howard Simpson, Damon Willis, Grant Miehm, P. Craig Russell, Fred Fredericks, Gil Kane, Sheldon Mayer, Mike Harris, Paul Fricke, and Michael Bair. Colors were provided by Gene D’Angelo, Carl Gafford, Marshall Rogers, Shelley Eiber, Julianna Ferriter, Tom Ziuko, Anthony Tollin, Liz Berube, and Helen Vesik, and the stories were lettered by David Cody Weiss, Carrie Spiegle, Albert De Guzman, Agustin Mas, Milt Snapinn, Jean Simek, Helen Vesik, Gaspar Saladino, Duncan Andrews, Sheldon Mayer, and Janice Chiang. The series was edited by Roy Thomas, Robert Greenberger, and Mark Waid.

* The full list: Superman (#1), Captain Marvel (#3), Crimson Avenger (#5), Batman (#6), Doll Man (#8), Power Girl (#11), Fury (#12), the Whip (#13), Doctor Occult (#17), Guardian (#19), Uncle Sam (#19), Black Condor (#21), Manhunter (#22), Manhunter (#22), Miss America (#26), Zatara (#27), Midnight (#28), Red Tornado (#29), Mr. America (#29), Plastic Man (#30), Grim Ghost (#42).

This post is fifteenth in a series about the Justice Society and Earth-Two. The next installment covers The Young All-Stars. Previous installments are listed below:

1. All Star Comics: Only Legends Live Forever (1976-79)
2. The Huntress: Origins (1977-82)
3. All-Star Squadron (1981-87)
4. Infinity, Inc.: The Generations Saga, Volume One (1983-84)
5. Infinity, Inc.: The Generations Saga, Volume Two (1984-85)
6. Showcase Presents... Power Girl (1978)
7. America vs. the Justice Society (1985)
8. Jonni Thunder, a.k.a. Thunderbolt (1985)
9. Crisis on Multiple Earths, Volume 7 (1983-85)
10. Infinity, Inc. #11-53 (1985-88) [reading order]
11. Last Days of the Justice Society of America (1986-88)
12. All-Star Comics 80-Page Giant (1999)
13. Steel, the Indestructible Man (1978)
14. Superman vs. Wonder Woman: An Untold Epic of World War Two (1977)
• Wonder Woman: Earth-Two (1977-78)