Favorite Golden Age Comic Book Superhero?

Cafe Society
1

For the sake of the discussion, the Golden Age begins in 1938, & runs to 1945.

Superhero defined–any sentient entity with powers, skills, abilities, technologies or resources greater than those possessed by ordinary mortal men, who uses these qualities to fight injustice & defend Mankind.

Who is/are your favorites?

Mine–

[list=A]
[li]Hourman. A nice gimmick, with power for 1 hour, skip an hour, can’t use the powers without the Miraclo tablets.[/li][li]The Golden Age Atom. Liked both of his odd costumes.[/li][li]The Original Green Lantern. Dunno why.[/li][li]The Spirit. Great scripts![/li][li]Captain America.[/li][li]And, of course, Superman.[/li][/list]

2

Does Captain Marvel count? If so, the Marvel family (Captain, Mary and Junior) were my faves as a kid.

Does anybody remember what SHAZAM is an acronym for?

Until I heard Jim Nabors pronounce it, I thought it was SHAZZ-em. Like, it was TARR-zun and not tar-ZANN.

Was there ever a Captain Marvel movie, serial, TV show? I never saw it, if so.

3

I have a soft spot in my heart for Captain Marvel and his whole crew. I’ve only read a few of the actual stories and plot synopses of others but I thoroughly enjoyed everything about them.

I’ve only read one Bulletman story but thought it was quite good.

4

For Captain Marvel: Wisdom of Solomon; Strength of Hercules; Stamina of Atlas; Power of Zeus; Courage of Achilles; Speed of Mercury.

For Mary Marvel: Grace of Selena; Strength of Hippolyta; Skill of Ariadne; Speed of Zephyrus; Beauty of Aurora; Wisdom of Minerva.

For Hoppy the Marvel Bunny: Salamander; Hogules; Antlers; Zebreus; Abalone; Monkury (specific attributes from specific dieties is AFAIK unknown although presumably they match up to those of the dieties they parody).

5

It was a Saturday morning kid’s show, usually paired up with Isis.

6

Nice work!

7

There was also an old Republic Movie Serial, shot in B&W.

You can get it on DVD.

8

In addition to the TV show mentioned below, there was a Captain Marvel serial back in 1941. A lot of fanboys always said it was one of the better serials of its time, and Tom Tyler was a good choice for playing the Captain. You can buy it from Amazon:

9

At one point in the serial Capt. Marvel shoots Turkish soldiers with a machine gun. Oh also these are retreating soldiers and he shoots them in the back. SHAZAM! indeed.
For me Captain America cannot really be topped.

10

I’m a fan of the Golden Age Sandman (although I prefer the modern retellings of his Golden Age adventures from Sandman Mystery Theatre), Golden Age Starman (but again, as told by James Robinson in the '90s), Golden Age Green Lantern, Phantom Lady, and the Spirit.

11

I always favored Mr. Terrific, Hourman, Sandman, an Dr. Midnite from the Justice Society.

The Golden Age was full of rich folk who became socially conscious and fought thugs or scientists who became socially conscious and fought other scientists who were not as enlightened.

12

I admit I had to refresh myself on Hoppy’s pantheon.

13

Superman, of course. But one of my minor favorites is the Golden Age Black Widow.

Yes, you know most Marvel characters had Golden Age counterparts. The Human Torch, Captain America, The Angel, The Vision (Same color pattern, by the way), Ka-Zar, but nobody remembers Ms. Clare Voyant.

Interesting stuff.

14

I’m also a huge fan of the Golden Age Superman, but the modern version… not so much. I even wrote about the character in my blog, with a few choice scans from the old comics:
http://bigbadvoodoolou.blogspot.com/

15

And for Black Adam, it’s the stamina of Shu, swiftness of Heru, strength of Amon, wisdom of Zehuti, power of Aton, courage of Mehen

16

Additionally, there was this *SHAZAM cartoon from 1981* as well CM’s appearances in some episodes of Justice League Unlimited.

Superman remains my favourite, but if anyone wants to really delve into this, I strongly suggest picking up the first 50 or so issues of the 1980s comic book series All-Star Squadron. In addition to showcasing just about every character DC had at the time, the book has a much more serious tone than most other comics at the time, starting as it does with the attack on Pearl Harbor and with a few “Hells”, “Damns” and sexual innuendos along the way.

17

Spirit is definitely the top: certainly the best written strip of its time, and still one of the best written ones ever. The art was also pretty creative.

Plastic Man. No hero ever had more fun than Plas.

Superman and Batman. No need to say anything more.

18

I’ll admit I don’t have much first-hand knowledge of Golden Age heroes (not as much as I’d like), but one I’ll always like from what I know of him is Iron Munro.

Also I’m an Aquaman fan till the day I die. And Hourman , I agree that he is cool.

Hell, there’s something about the older heroes that just seems…I dunno, more authentic.

19

These are coming out in Trade Paperback format.

20

I believe Iron Munro was an analogue for Hugo Danner, the main character from Phillip Wylie’s novel Gladiator, one of the first modern stories about a superhero as we know them (and in turn one of the inspirations for Superman). I think the great Howard Chaykin adapted Gladiator to a comic book format recently, but I haven’t heard anything about it, one way or another.