Boo!perheroes Week, Part 4: Action Comics #415, Superman in "Meet the Metropolis Monster!"

It all begins innocently enough...

I just hate when people hover over me at work! But it turns out Handsome isn't there to wash the windows, he's got another agenda as he bursts into Clark's office and rips open his shirt, and it ain't romance. Soon a no-holds barred superfight is in progress...


Dollface falls back out the window and gets embedded in the ashphalt. I'm going to assume Clark didn't superspeed to rescue him because...it all happened too fast? But anyway, the creature yet lives!

Only it's real...in a comic book. Soon the always copyright-conscious Daily Planet is reporting on events and admitting a similarity of the creature to an established icon.

Later, the monster is seen on a rooftop with an attractive female with him, making like King Kong. Superman uses his super-sniffer to track down the musty smell he caught earlier, except...
Yes, all he finds is a human male lying in an alley next to the title of this blog. The man appears to have a connection to Herman Munster, as he relates that he created the monster and that it has mortally wounded him so he could not stop it. The man dies, even as the monster appears to be rampaging around the city, terrorizing the always self-reliant Metropolis police force. Ah, the days before the SCU.

Superman, meanwhile, has flown the apparent inventor of the monster to his Fortress of Solitude, where he slaps together a Bring People Back To Life Machine, only I think some of the instructions are in Japanese so it might not work. But note the blog title has followed them all the way to the North Pole! I'm everywhere, man!

Supes does some mad scientist stuff, jolting the body back to life, and just then the monster breaks into the Fortress with a CRRAASSSHHHH.

They have another tussle, only now the monster can speak and chastises Superman for allowing the humanoid to escape, because it's the real menace.


At no point is it mentioned that the monster creating a hole in the wall might have helped the
humanoid escape, because now it's flashback time. The waviness around the panel below means flashback, not that you have cataracts. Whew, that's a relief!


You get the gist. It's the old "alternate dimension where monsters are regular people" gag, and this particular monster created an artificial humanoid. In an interesting inversion of the Twilight Zone "Eye of the Beholder" concept, the uggos in that dimension somehow know they are hideous, despite there being no one to compare themselves to...hmm...and so the inventor that Superman has been assuming is a monster on a rampage attempted to create beautiful specimens. He explains that he was unable to explain before, because his vocal cords had not adapted to the earth atmosphere. I have no zinger for that. The logic is sound.

But anyway, somehow due to the way Superman revitalized it, the humanoid is breaking down into giant cells, which are going to multiply and presumably swallow the earth.


But stopping the cell-being is really not too difficult, they're still in the North Pole so all it takes is some freezing. Later, Superman apologizes to the "inventor" for judging him solely based on his appearance (and that he ripped off Clark's clothes upon first meeting him).


Oh, yeah, and the girl the monster had been seen with earlier was actually another of his humanoid creations. I often refer to my friend's wives as their "female humanoid", which may be one reason I don't really have friends. The inventor goes with her back through the dimensional portal, promising he'll create a mate for her. Yeah, that's the first thing I'd do. Well, I think we've all learned an important lesson about tolerance, bringing the dead back to life, and skirting copyright. It's a cool issue, a fun story, and I like the various tributes to the Frankie mythos, even having Superman in the role of mad scientist. It's alive!

Boo!perheroes Week, Pt. 3: Fantastic Four #239, "Wendy's Friends"

Oh we got a scary one for you tonight, kids! The tale begins as a mysterious figure walks into the Baxter Building past the always alert doorman O'Hoolihan.

Faith 'n' begorrah! Who could this be? She makes her way to the reception desk where Johnny is repairing the robo-receptionist. Then the scene shifts to the laboratory of Dr. Reed Richards, and the stubble, as ever, tells us he has just failed in another attempt to turn Ben back into a human.
Johnny brings the mysterious woman in to the workout room, and once she enters we discover it is none other than the legendary...

...whom Ben has referenced frequently throughout the series. Until now she has been like one of those people in sit-coms that are referred to frequently but never seen, but here she is in the flesh.

But that just sets it up for the main story. Aunt Petunia meets the rest of the FF, and relates that she is not there for a social visit. She wants the FF's help back in her town of Benson, where she lives with her husband, Ben's uncle Jake. She says the town is in danger of being frightened ...to death!

They jump in the Fantasticar and soon they are in Benson, Arizona, where an archaeological dig is taking place. They meet famed archaeologist Dame Ruth Efford, who began the dig following the discovery of an arrowhead by a local little girl named Wendy.

That same night, some of Dr. Efford's students go wandering the desert. When suddenly -

The bodies are found, the next day, apparently with expressions of horrific fear on their faces - related to us with a conversation between Johnny and a pre-Nova Frankie Ray. Frankie gives Wendy a ride back to her home, where she discovers the little girl is being abused by her father, and Frankie threatens him if he touches her again.

There is some dialogue over what it could be they are up against. Dr. Richards says it may be something they simply can't fight. We then see Wendy, in despair over her father, go wandering into the desert alone at night. She is seemingly taken up into a maelstrom of sand, and then the scene cuts to the Thing asleep in his bed at the Benson Motel.

I love that picture because it's not often one sees a monster awakened by bizarre creatures in the middle of the night, a bit like if the Frankenstein monster were being abducted by aliens or something. Suddenly these proto-Gremlins critters are everywhere in the hotel, and as the FF runs out, they see Benson is in chaos. The FF do what they can, putting out fires, but in the morning all the townspeople get in cars and leave.

Wendy has turned up with her father, who says the creatures shows him he can change his ways. It is up to Reed Richard to try as best he can to explain what happened.

The ending is a bit odd, as it almost seems as if the FF just leave Wendy there by herself, but I assume that her now-reformed father is somewhere about. She walks to a secret cave only she knows, and we are left with the following chilling tableau.


It's an interesting, mysterious story. I like that the FF doesn't really get to the bottom of things, and don't exactly have anything solid to fight. Not that I'd want every issue to be like that, but it's cool to have a Twilight Zone story in a superhero comic.

The critters in the ish remind me a bit of this little gem -

WhooOOooO*perheroes Week, Part 2, Adventure Comics #408: Supergirl in "The Face at the Window"

It all begins as Linda and her fellow reporters at K-SFTV are standing around, using hip lingo and making politically incorrect analogies.


After a lengthy introductory sequence, they get in the news van and drive around all day until they finally find the splash page.

Yes, it's another creepy house, and this one is also owned by an old man, as in our last tale of the mighty and the macabre. Exactly why the reporters are going there is not clear. Anyway, the old man's not too keen on reporters snooping around the place, which is obviously a dead giveaway that all is not kosher with the property. The old man supposedly lives alone in the house, but-

Creepy! Let's zoom in on that -

As they say in Pepe le Peau cartoons - le yipe! Well, I've got goosebumps. It's the kid in Three Men and a Baby all over again! Well not really all over again, that movie hadn't been made yet.

As all this is going on, there has been a bit of a sub plot involving Linda's co-worker at the station, Nasthalsia, though more commonly known by the apt name of Nasty, getting up to all sorts of shenanigans to try to prove Linda is Supergirl. What a terrible person, coming up with a crazy story like that! Well, except we know she's actually right, but we don't want her to know that, and we definitely don't want her telling other people about it, and Nasty is a notorious blabber mouth. Who works at a TV station. Yeah, you get the picture.

So anyboo, Supergirl has developed the picture she took at the house, only in the picture there is no face! Don't front like you're not terrified by now, don't even play that!

She goes back to the house determined to prove she was right lest she face the good-natured condescension of her co-workers. Nasty also heads to the house, correctly believing Linda will investigate as Supergirl. Nasty dons a black cat-suit not unlike Diabolik's. Speaking of outfits, it is important to note at this point Supergirl is wearing a suit made for her by the Kandorians, because she is having a problem with her powers going on and off. The suit can duplicate some of her powers, and is also quite fashion-forward.

Supergirl skulks around the house a bit, admonishing herself with various bits of good, if obvious, advice, and just generally narrating her own adventure, as many of us are wont to do.

Linda deals with being creeped out by continuing to address herself in her thoughts, probably for the sense of detachment that it provides.

Yes, Nasty is so nasty she even blames Supergirl for what are clearly her own decisions. She surrenders to the old man, who says he will call the police. Then he hears sounds of someone else, and that someone else is, of course, the Maid of Might.


Fortunately either her invulnerability holds up or else the suit does. Either way, she manages to apprehend the old man, only now the little girl is missing. Supergirl's frantic search for her reveals something interesting.

I personally don't see how superheroes would find anything "impossible to believe" after a couple years on the job. If we didn't know he was evil before, referring to the little girl as "brat" definitely puts him over the top. She seemed like a pretty well-behaved little ghost. For ghost she was, as Linda later revisits the house and-


So it's another story from the early seventies, again with a creepy house, an old man, and a dead child. It is interesting to note in both cases the child had actually died from a disease and was not murdered, probably a requirement of the Comics Code Authority, which is fine with me.

*(that's a ghostly WhooOOooO, in case that's unclear)

BOO!perheroes Week, Pt. 1: Teen Titans #43 "Inherit the Howling Night!"

The Teen Titans are just hanging around outside a creepy house at night. Well, you know how teens like to loiter, perhaps they thought it was a 7-Eleven. So our story begins with the Teen Titans hanging out outside the creepy house witnessing a group of hideous demons involved in a juggling act with a small boy. Those demons appear to be strictly nogoodniks, so our gang of hipsville adolescents is on the case, tigers!

Kid Flash, being the fastest, goes whipping into the house to put the kibosh on this horrific activity, but it looks as if due to some magical interference he's getting nowhere fast!

Clearly some evil vibes are afoot in this crazy place! The rest of the heroic youngsters are similarly thwarted, until mystically mental Lilith waves some mandrake root at the beasties, causing them to disperse...for now.

The old man tells them a story of the curse that had plagued the dump for years, since around the time of the birth of little Davey, when various implements and weapons took on a life of their own and attacked and killed his mother and his father, the son of the old man. Ever since then there have been numerous attacks by demons and the place is just generally a supernatural bummer. So of course the Titans decide this will make a fabulous place to spend the night.

The next morning, Speedy decides to make an udder freeloader of himself.

Don't have a cow! Ouch!

As Donna enters the barn, some proto-Evil Dead hijinks take place.

Not just in the barn, but in the house as well -

Gonna need a lot of pancakes to mop that up!

Robin is getting off pretty light, especially considering he's watching Davey in the house. The demons use some potent flower scents to knock him out and steal the kid. As usual, it's up to Lilith to try to get down to cases, after they spot a ghost on the stairs that the old man, Cyrus, reveals is his departed daughter-in-law Rebecca.

Lilith's powers give her a technicolor, surround sound vision of how Rebecca was left alone in the house with Davey when he was a baby. The child took ill and before she could do something about it, he died, and she swore to the night she would give her soul to have her child alive again. Obviously someone listened, for the baby was seemingly returned, safe and sound. Only later did the various weird things happen that ended the lives of his parents.

The ghost disappears and the flashback disperses, and the demons are outside again playing hot potato with Davey.


Even when confronted with the supernatural, detective skills can come in handy. Robin is one of the world's greatest detectives. I'm not sure if he comes in 2nd or 3rd, bearing Elongated Man in mind...but even the world's 3rd greatest detective still has to be pretty good, right?

Robin figures out there is something significant where the demons are go-go dancing every night, and has Kid Flash zip out there and uncover it, and what the it is turns out to be a small trunk containing...


...this is years before Beast Boy will change his name to Changeling, by the way. Somehow, Cyrus figures out that what he must do is slay the unclean thing that has been posing as his grandson.


...and so ended the last Titans adventure of their original run. They would be on hiatus after #43 for several years. When they did return, the groovy age was over and the disco age had begun.

Teen Titans seemed like a good place to start BOO!perheroes week, a look at horror in superheroes stories. It's interesting to read the original series and see it evolve from superhero adventure into a horror series. It provides a microcosmic look at how it was that only a few years after the peace and love era, suddenly fascination with the supernatural and monsters was everywhere. In issue #25, in a famous story, the Titans were indirectly responsible for the killing of a peace activist named Dr. Swenson. Bob Haney, as writer, then seemed to have a hard time coming up with solid menaces for the kids to face. After all, if they were fighting crooks and villains, wasn't that really not very peaceful? But as the series started getting further into the seventies, the problem seemed to be resolved by having the Titans fighting ghosts and demons, as you just saw. Even pacifists can't object to fighting monsters, can they? And so we might see how the peace and love era eventually gave way to a new age of horror in entertainment.