Super Super Heroes!

For as long as I can remember, I have been fascinated by Super Heroes. I love the fantasy; the idea that the secret identity can hide behind a pair of glasses; the magic of the gadgets or the super powers that each hero possesses. I like the absolutely random situations that the super hero, usually in their secret identity, finds themselves in.

I remember watching the old Batman TV series, starring Adam West and Burt Ward, and thought it wonderful. Back then, I didn’t realise just how camp it was, but I think that is what makes me like it even more now. Remember the Batman movie where four of his arch enemies teamed up against him – Catwoman, The Joker, The Riddler and The Penguin. Great stuff.

The Six Million Dollar Man was another of my favourites, but Steve Austin was a super hero with a difference – he was an agent. He didn’t have a secret identity, but he went ‘undercover’ quite a few times. And then came The Bionic Woman – Jaime Sommers (Lindsay Wagner) with slightly different powers. A bionic ear compared to Steve Austin’s bionic eye did not affect the cases she went on in any way whatsoever. I always remember an episode where she had to jump out of a high window to escape from someone, but as soon as she landed on the ground her legs exploded due to the strain. I’ll have to see if I can find that episode again now.

Another trio around the same time had no super powers or secret identities, but in my mind they were as much super heroes as the costumed ones. these three were Charlie’s Angels. Solving cases without super powers, they always managed to get the bad guy.

Then we have Wonder Woman. Lynda Carter first appeared during the war years to show us the adventures of Diana Prince and her whirling ability to change clothes. I remember once spinning around so fast just to see if I could magically change my clothes. It didn’t work, but I’m not a super hero. In later shows, Wonder Woman was brought up to date, in to the 1970s. She was still played by Lynda Carter and it was good to see her fighting crime in the same time as the Bionic Woman or Charlie’s Angels. I always wanted them to somehow meet up, but I don’t think they ever did.

Anyway, back to Wonder Woman. One Saturday, in 1978 I was in a newsagent and spotted on the shelf a pile of comics. On the cover of the top comic, Wonder Woman was unconscious at the bottom of the page, and all around her other super heroes were also knocked out. Standing over them were five ‘bad guys’ as I thought. I had to ask for that comic to be bought for me, as I wanted to know what was wrong with Wonder Woman. (At the same time, I asked for several other comics from the pile, but this one I class as the first one I ever bought.)

When I got home, I started to read the amazing adventures of duplicate earths, and a baddie who could control time itself. I was surprised to see that there were two Wonder Women and two Supermen (and duplicates of other heroes who I didn’t know at the time), and as I read on I discovered they were from Earth One and Earth Two. The Wonder Woman in this story (the one on the cover) was from Earth Two, as the Earth One one was written out early on in the story with a host of other characters. Four heroes from Earth One’s Justice League of America, and four heroes from Earth Two’s Justice Society of America set out to find out who was responsible for the other characters being placed into a magical ‘coma’ after an explosion ripped through the building where they were having their annual party. The eight heroes found the five baddies (who weren’t really baddies at all – they were heroes from the past plucked from their time by the Time Lord (not Doctor Who)  in order for them to defeat the two teams of super heroes. They were defeated very easily, and a splash page of the defeat resembled the picture on the cover. I now knew what had happened to Wonder Woman. When the eight recovered, the five heroes from the past had disappeared, and the final panel of this issue showed the heroes of the JLA and JSA determined to find them again. I couldn’t wait to see what happened in the next issue.

Unfortunately, I had to wait as the issue wasn’t in the shop the next time I went. I constantly looked for it, knowing that one day I would find it. I eventually got the second part of the story in 2008. Thirty years later! Not bad, is it, waiting thirty years for part two. I wasn’t disappointed either.

The particular comic book was DC’s Justice League of America number 159. Number 160 was published the following month, but for whatever reason I missed it in the shops – and back then we could only buy them from the shops – but I knew that one day I would read the second part.

Also at the same time, Superman the Movie was at the cinemas, starring Christopher Reeve, so super heroes were in the public eye at that time.

My fascination and interest and enthusiasm for these amazing adventures in comic book form didn’t go unnoticed from some of the other kids at school, and they even gave some of them yet another reason to tease and pick on me. No matter what they said didn’t matter though, as they just weren’t interested, and eventually I stopped talking about them. I continued buying them, however, and read them every month.

My interest in these super people has never faded, and I’ve enjoyed many TV moments with Dean Cain as Superman, John Wesley Shipp as The Flash, Chuck Wagner as Automan, Patrick Duffy as The Man Fram Atlantis, Gudrun Ure as Supergran, Sarah Michele Gellar as Buffy the Vampire Slayer and many, many more. And now I have Tom Welling in Smallville, playing the young Superman. This series is bringing in other DC characters, including Justin Hartley as Green Arrow.

Oh, and speaking of Tom Welling, my ‘Tomometer‘ has increased by three: Tom Owen, Tom O’Connor and Tom Daley – I knew I knew more Toms, and I’m sure I know even more. I will continue updating my list as and when, it is now up to thirty!

So, there’s part of my history with Super Heroes.

There is more. A lot more!