I don’t how many people really wanted DC to do this, but I’m glad they did. During Paul Levitz’s era as President of DC from 2002 to 2009, the company seemed to care much more about its origins and beginnings that it does now. Reprints and 80 Page Giants were far more common then, whereas now they are almost treated as a relic of a structure for comic books. Like many, Levitz was a fan of comics from since he was a kid. But, unlike some of his successors, he was aware that the past was as important as the future. Not only did 80 Page Giants return after nearly five decades away from comics, but they were produced in a way that made them faithful to the ones that were published during the Silver Age. Even More Secret Origins is a prime example of that. Its colouring may be refined (very faithfully I must add) and the paper quality may be excellent over the original poor paper of older comics, the differences end there. Classic tales, some of which DC are probably afraid of publishing now (that’s mainly down to how silly they are), are reprinted here for both old and new fans to enjoy. And let’s face, who doesn’t love a secret origin or two?
Even More Secret Origins was published in August 2003, long after the first two eighty-page-giants. However, its style remains the same. All stories are reprints of World’s Finest Comics 141, Flash 110, House of Secrets 61, Green Lantern (vol 2) 10 and The Brave and the Bold 34, by classic talent such as Ed Hamilton, Curt Swan, John Broome, Carmine Infantino, Bob Haney, Gil Kane and Joe Kubert (just to name a few). There is also a one-page prose origin story focusing on Blackhawk, covering its six members and their rather eyebrow-raising friend Chop-Chop. It’s from the 1950s. It’s
not much of a story, but it’s a nice touch. Lastly, I have read these stories in the DC Universe: Secret Origins hardcover.
The Jimmy Olsen-Robin Team Versus the Superman-Batman Team--- Written by Ed Hamilton with art by Curt Swan and George Klein
Before we get to the story, I think the title and very concept of the story should be questioned. Since when has the Jimmy Olsen-Robin Team been something so significant? Before I’d read this story, I knew that the characters had met in various stories, but I didn’t know they were a team. Regardless, this story kills them off. Well, seemingly from the cover. In the Daily Planet Building, a crazy inventor named Dr Dannifer leaves his predictor machine behind to ensure it gets in the newspaper. To test if it works, Jimmy asks it when the next news story will come from and it tells them that nearby, a tragedy will happen. Not long afterwards, Jimmy, Lois and Clark watch a man dressed as a bird on a phone wire high above a street. As you’d expect, he falls, but manages to grab onto another wire, saving himself. Just another day in Metropolis. Anyway, with their story found, Jimmy trusts the predictor and asks it what the next Superman-Batman story will be. Chillingly, it tells him that he and Robin will die in the World’s Finest’s next adventure. Telling the news to Superman, he takes Jimmy to the Batcave where they meet Batman and Robin. Showing the machine to Batman, Superman decides to use his X-ray vision on it, but it instantly disintegrates. Batman then shows Jimmy images of numerous evil scientists, hoping that one will be Dr Dannifer. But none of them are and Jimmy and Robin believe that they might actually die. Therefore, the two of them decide to go to a desert island… and Superman and Batman agree. Why? I don’t know why the heroes agree to that, but I guess this really is 1950’s parenting. On the desert island, Jimmy and Robin get to work on their plan. It turns out they have fooled everyone, and they have flown coffins to the island. From there, they dig their own graves and call Batman and Superman, pretending they are in danger. When they arrive, they find the lead coffins of their young friends. As Batman and Superman leave, planning to avenge the death of their friends, Robin and Jimmy watch and plan their next step in what is proving to be one of the most complicated stories ever. While searching for the ‘murderer’, Batman and Superman reminisce about the times they had with their ‘dead’ friends and how they have helped them in fighting evil. Meanwhile, Robin and Jimmy talk about how the whole thing started and the story becomes even more complex. A few days before, Robin and Jimmy overheard two criminals with invisibility belts planning to kidnap them both in order to blackmail Batman and Robin. The two decided to contact Dr Dannifer to create a hoax so they can be safe while Batman and Superman can take out the criminals. So, I guess it’s good-intentioned, but I don’t know why they couldn’t have just told Batman and Superman about it. It would have made for a much simpler plot. Back in the present, the two of them head to an observatory in order to track the location of the invisible criminals. Once they do so, Jimmy contacts Batman with a fake voice, telling him where to find the criminals. Thanks to their trick, Batman and Superman find the criminals and take them out, before returning to the desert island. There, Jimmy and Robin watch as Batman and Superman open the coffins. Shocked, Robin and Jimmy find themselves in the coffin before revealing themselves to the heroes. Batman reveals that they have tricked them as well as the ‘corpses’ in the coffins are just wax figures. Superman worked out that Jimmy and Robin were playing a ruse due to Jimmy’s fingerprints on the coffins. However, in the end its all fine and after one of the strangest adventures you could read about, Jimmy and Robin are allowed to keep the wax figures. Seriously though, did this need to be this complex? I know its Ed Hamilton (who likes stories to have twists and unexpected turns), but this is overdoing it at points. While the story can be bogged down by some of the exposition about why Jimmy and Robin did what they did, it’s a good silver age World’s Finest story. I wouldn’t describe it as a classic since it doesn’t really add anything new, but it’s a compelling read, even if you wonder what the hell is going on sometimes…
To clash with the complicated story, we are given the simple, yet classic art of Curt Swan and George Klein, two silver age giants. Their sense of storytelling feels different to some of the other artists from the period in that it feels much more fluid and creative. The linework is excellently smooth and Swan draws what is the definitive version of all of these characters from the 1950s, especially Superman of course. If you’re looking for a definitive artist from the 1950s who defined not just one character, but a team of them, then Curt Swan is that person.
Story: 8.5/10
Art: 10/10
Meet Kid Flash --- Written by John Broome with art by Carmine Infantino and Joe Giella
Now this one is a classic. As opposed to the previous story, this one not only introduces a character who became the sidekick of one of DC’s most famous heroes, but that same character became that famous hero. In Barry Allen’s apartment, Iris West leaves her nephew, Wally, in the company of Barry as she tells him that he would like to meet his hero, the Flash. As Wally heads into the room where Barry says the Flash sometimes stays, he transforms into the Flash incredibly quickly and greets Wally. Afterwards, the Flash explains his origin to Wally, involving the chemicals and lightning. Suddenly, the same things happen again, but this time, its Wally. He (continued)
therefore gets the power to run incredibly fast and with that, the Flash decides to make Wally into his sidekick, giving him a costume and the name Kid Flash. The Flash then tells Kid Flash that he must return to work as Barry Allen, but in the meantime, Kid Flash can patrol the streets. Doing so, he overhears on the radio that some animals have escaped from the zoo and with his superspeed, he rescues the animals and puts them back in their cages, with the Flash watching him as he does so. Later in the day, Iris arrives and picks up Wally and asks about the new Kid Flash, but Barry tells her nothing as it’s a secret between him and Kid Flash. Despite not being a particularly plot heavy story, it is great as it is unforgettable in how Kid Flash is portrayed. Unlike other sidekicks, he is one who acts independently and due to that, he has the potential to star in his own stories. Sure, his origin is the most unoriginal and cliched thing I’ve ever seen, especially after reading the Flash’s origin, but overall, it’s a classic of its time and with few flaws.
Ah, the era before Carmine Infantino lost his magic. The 1960s is undoubtedly the greatest decade for his art. It has so much creativity while the smoothness and natural looking characters remain. In his latter stories during the 1980s, everybody appears to look deformed and odd, but that fortunately didn’t occur back in the sixties. Giella’s inks also work well with Infantino’s art as opposed to the likes of Bob Smith and other inkers he had later.
Story: 9.5/10
Art: 9/10
The Genius Who Fought Himself --- Written by Bob Haney with art by Lee Elias
At the time, Eclipso was never considered to be a major new character. The only reason that DC decided to reprint this story in the 80 Page Giant was probably because of the character’s rise to prominence. Whether that be Eclipso: The Darkness Within or James Robinson’s JLA: Rise of Eclipso, the character has risen through the ranks and is no longer a forgotten creation. Haney’s origin for Eclipso begins with the opening of Solar City, a new revolutionary city, which was partly developed by Dr Bruce Gordon. Later, during his researching of a black diamond, a solar eclipse occurs thousands of miles away and Bruce suddenly transforms into Eclipso, another being altogether. Eclipso goes on a rampage across Solar City and destroys most of it, before heading back to Bruce’s room and preparing a trap for him. When Eclipso transforms back into Bruce, Professor Bennett appears (who developed the now destroyed Solar City with Bruce) and finds his friend is the villain. However, he discovers that Bruce doesn’t remember anything from when he was Eclipso. But he explains to Professor Bennett that when he was exploring the South Pacific, Bruce ignored the warnings of a local tribe about taking pictures of a solar eclipse. When Bruce did so, he was confronted by a strange Eclipso-like alien, who cut Bruce with his black diamond and caused Eclipso to become present within him. Back in the present, Bruce decides that he must look for the black diamond which Eclipso hid from him during his period of control. I don’t know if there were any other heroes at the time with similar powers or gimmicks, but Eclipso feels genuinely unique in its approach to creating a new (continued)
character. Anyway, during their search, Bruce and Bennett explore the destroyed ruins of Solar City and pledge that they must stop Eclipso from taking over ever again. Therefore, they come up with a plan. Bennett locks Bruce inside a special vault during the next eclipse in order to keep the world safe from Eclipso. However, the villain tricks Bennett by making him open the vault. Eclipso locks Bennett inside the vault and tries to kill him using a turbo fan (which so happens to be inside the vault), but his plan fails and Eclipso transforms back into Bruce. However, Bruce tells Bennett that in the vault before he transformed, he released high-photon light which would quickly transform him back into Bruce from Eclipso when the time came. However, this doesn’t really solve any of their problems as Eclipso remains alive inside Bruce. I can see some potential for follow-up stories, but only if it concludes Bruce’s story and ends with Eclipso being defeated for good. Of course, that didn’t happen, and it renders any development of the character pointless. Due to that, I’ve never been a huge fan of Eclipso as I’ve always felt that they could do a great story with him like they did with Deadman, in which the character goes on a journey to solve his problem. But it seems like they never did, which is a shame after a good first story here.
Lee Elias is not an artist I’m overly familiar with, but his rough style works relatively well with a darker character like Eclipso. The inks can look a bit messy, and the overall storytelling isn’t much of anything to write home about, but the appearance of the art meshes well with the dark mood of the story.
Story: 8/10
Art: 7.5/10
The Origin of Green Lantern’s Oath --- Written by John Broome with art by Gil Kane and Murphy Anderson
Sometimes, an origin story is made of a compelling plot, great characters and memorable moments. Then, on other occasions, you get stories like this. Who the hell asked for the origin of Green Lantern’s ridiculous oath, something which I don’t even read when it’s said in every issue because it means absolutely nothing? Not only that, but its very unpractical for a hero to even have oath. And, as this story points out, it is entirely pointless. Becoming Green Lantern, Pieface (a rather racialist name for GL’s young Inuit friend) asks about the hero’s oath and what it means. From there, Green Lantern mentions three unconnected cases, one where he used blinding light to take out some crooks (In Brightest Day), one where he fought some criminals in a dark cave (In Blackest Night) and another when he scanned the city with his power ring looking for Carol Ferris’s safe (No Evil Shall Escape My Sight). And that’s it. That’s a story. It is probably the worst origin story you could ever read, partly because its not an origin story and partly because no one cared about his stupid saying. And the most significant crime of this story is the fact that it is firmly established that Hal Jordan can become Green Lantern without saying the oath, therefore rendering the oath and story entirely pointless. I guess I shouldn’t be too angry as its only about ten pages, but that’s still too long if you ask me.
It’s a shame the talents of Gil Kane and Murphy Anderson are wasted on this trash. While the story looks impressive visually, it still doesn’t make the story any better. Nobody could because there is no significant story. Kane’s art may be action packed and Anderson’s inks embellish the pencils so well, but no artist could have made this story any better. Still, that shouldn’t undermine their art or talent.
Story: 2/10
Art: 10/10
Creature of a Thousand Shapes --- Written by Gardner Fox with art by Joe Kubert
I’m struggling to decide whether the story about Green Lantern’s Oath is the worst story in the book, or this one. Now, I’ve never liked Hawkman or any of that Thanagarian crap. I don’t know why, but it might be down to my hatred of pure hard science fiction. Of course, I love science fiction when it’s mixed with fantasy or if it’s mixed with realism, but when a story tries too hard to turn science fiction into hard fact and it confuses things, I just turn off. Also, Hawkman and his whole race just come across as boring and pompous. All they do is dominate a scene or story and it annoys me because of how boring they are. Plus, you would have thought that for an origin story, there would be something interesting here. But there isn’t. As an alien transforms into a dog and then transforms into a bear, killing a man, Thanagarian officers Katar and Shayera Hol arrive on Earth, tracking the alien named Byth. Just to make things easier for myself, I’ll just be calling them Hawkman and Hawkgirl. Anyway, arriving on Earth, the Hawks meet with Police Commissioner George Emmett and tell them that Byth, a scientist from their planet, is loose on Earth after inventing a pill which can transform him into any other creature. They explain they have been tracking Byth’s ship since it left Thanagar. Somehow believing the Hawks, the Commissioner decides to help by giving them civilian identities as Directors of the city’s museum. They accept and before long, they are in charge of a museum. I don’t see how this helps them, but I guess it solidifies the character as heroes of Earth now. Anyway, Byth spends most of his time stealing diamonds as a bird. When Hawkman and Hawkgirl find him, Byth transforms into a Thanagarian Kasta Bird, a strange dinosaur-like creature. They attempt to chase him, but they are too late and Byth escapes, somehow arriving in a land below the sea where he finds some unknown animals. After some time, the Hawks find him and chase him once again, but he escapes once more, this time to the surface where he threatens Midway City as a Thanagarian Brontadon, another dinosaur-looking creature. However, Hawkman and Hawkgirl easily pick him up and throw him into a river, defeating him. With that, the Hawks decide to stay on Earth and with that, they end one of the dullest comics I (continued)
think I’ve ever read. That’s really the main problem here. The plot just isn’t interesting enough. Its also over-long, to the point where most of it could be cut or there are just parts in it which don’t add up. For instance, the strange land under the sea came out of nowhere and meant nothing to the story, especially since it hosts another scene where Byth escapes from the Hawks. I suppose it does well in cementing the Hawks as heroes on Earth, but that is all the ‘good’ it does really. Definitely, it is the dullest read of the whole book and I’d certainly avoid it on re-reading.
Strangely enough for an artist who isn’t known for drawing superheroes, Joe Kubert became somewhat famous for drawing Hawkman and many believe his art defines the character. This may be true, but it isn’t very pretty to look at. It all looks very rushed and sloppy. Despite a good sense of storytelling, it should have been refined more as the finished look of the story is just awful.
Story: 1.5/10
Art: 5/10
VERDICT
Overall, Even More Secret Origins is possibly the worst of the four Secret Origins 80 Page Giants that DC produced. But that doesn’t mean its bad. Most of the stories here are good, some even excellent in establishing newer characters. Kid Flash is a prime example of that and, to some extent, so is Eclipso. The Jimmy Olsen-Robin team isn’t exactly a classic in terms of what happens in it, but it’s still a good silver age story. But the bad stories are very bad. The one about Green Lantern’s Oath is pointless and the Hawks story just bored me to no end. But, as usual, there is some great art here and that shouldn’t be forgotten. Still, at least we’ve got some of the best origin stories coming up next time…
Stories: 7/10
Art: 8/10
Next Week: Weird Secret Origins. Written by Gardner Fox, Bob Haney, Dave Wood, France Herron, Jack Miller, Robert Kanigher and Jerry Siegel with art by Howard Sherman, Howard Purcell, Sheldon Moldoff, Carmine Infantino, George Roussos, Ramona Fradon, Joe Simon, Gray Morrow, Wayne Boring, Stan Kaye and Bernard Baily. Expected by 04/04/2021.
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