An (All-Star) Olympic Moment

Although swimming and gymnastics have dominated the first week of the Beijing Summer Olympics, I'm more a "track and field" guy, so I'm most looking forward to next week's coverage of those events. Until then, how about a super-speed race between the Flash, Wonder Woman, and...Green Lantern?

Kicking off a new quarterly anthology title in the winter of 1942, the three stars of Comic Cavalcade take part in a good-natured race...with Wonder Woman winning by a...er...."nose". This lighthearted scene would set the tone for the next several years' worth of Comic Cavalcade covers, as the famous trio would take part in activities as diverse as flying kites, riding a Merry-Go-Round, beating dirty rugs, going fishing, and even helping out an ailing Santa Claus.

It should be noted that even though Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, and the Flash appeared together on the covers of the first 29 issues (through 1948), the stories inside featured the three of them (as well as other superheroes) in solo adventures only. So, the race depicted on the cover was never part of an actual story.

That is, until Roy Thomas came along.

As one of the first comic fans to turn pro, Thomas' love for Golden Age superheroes has never been a secret. Almost singlehandedly bringing an awareness of first generation superheroes to new generations of fans, Thomas also brought an English teacher's sensibility for canonical detail to the table (Thomas taught high school English prior to entering the comics biz). Nowhere was this more evident than in the All-Star Squadron series he wrote (and edited) for DC Comics during the early 1980's.

Set during World War II and featuring most of DC's Golden Age pantheon, Thomas maintained that the stories published during the 1940's were all "canon" and, as such, were interwoven into his new All-Star Squadron adventures. In fact, right from the beginning of this entertaining series, Thomas was incorporating little "historical" touches that I was able to appreciate years later. In a special sixteen page preview appearing in Justice League #193 (1981), Thomas set the stage for the new series by showing what various heroes and villains were doing at this point in time...including a certain race between Wonder Woman, The Flash, and Green Lantern!

Though brief, we're finally given a story behind the cover of Comic Cavalcade #1. Apparently, Wonder Woman (newly arrived to Man's World), the Flash, and Green Lantern are participants in a "Race of the Century" for charity. Filming the race is one Johnny Chambers, secretly another Golden Age speedster named Johnny Quick.

(Click on the panels for a larger view)

Ever the stickler for detail, Thomas (and artist Rich Buckler) echo Wonder Woman's ribbon-breaking win from the Comic Cavalcade cover, followed by Flash and Green Lantern (who presumably used his ring's power to grant himself temporary super-speed).

You'll also note the packed stadium of spectators, who certainly went through alot of trouble to watch what was undoubtedly the shortest athletic event in human history!

Comments

[Thomas Aylesworth]

I loved Roy Thomas's All-Star Squadron. It remains one of my favorites that I pull out to reread occasionally.

[Mark Engblom]

Roy definitely had me for the first 35 to 40 issues. After that point, the lousy pencils of guys like Richard Howell and Arvell Jones really sunk the experience for me...and Roy's stories seemed to follow suit, unfortunately. Add to that the killing blow that Crisis on Infinite Earths dealt All-Star Squadron, and you've got yourself a pretty dreary final two years of the series.

But the glory days of the series (issues #19 through the mid-30's) remain some of my favorite comics.

[De Baisch]

So what did you think of Young All-Stars, Mark?

Excuse me while I duck ;-)

[meng]

what a bunch of nancy boys Flash and GL are... not only losing a sprint to a woman but a woman running in high heeled boots! hang your head in shame Jay Garrick!

seriously though, Mark, i'm with you on All Star Squadron... i bought the first 50 off the newsstand/comic rack and recently bought the last 17 for completion's sake. huge dropoff after Ordway left but really went into the toilet with the abundance of Vince Colletta and Tony Dezuniga inked issues...

[Kyle]

I loved the old All Star Squadron series! And I remember this race sequence during the "introduction" to the Squadron characters, but I don't remember making the connection to that old Comic Cavalcade cover. (Of course, I probably hadn't ever SEEN that cover way back then, so...)

[Brian]

Roy Thomas is one of those writers I'm just beginning to appreciate. His Avengers stuff, in particular, I really enjoy. I also just got a couple of those Alter Ego collections from Twomorrows, which are really great.

[Mark Engblom]

"So what did you think of Young All-Stars, Mark?"

Not much, I'm afraid. Roy tried making lemonade out of the lemons the Crisis left him with, but it didn't really gel for me. Having "cosmic stand-ins" for the Earth-2 Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman only served as a constant reminder of what was lost with Earth-2 disappearing down the rabbit hole. I did get a kick out of the Iron Munro character and his connection to the Hugo Danner character of Gladiator fame (the book that many point to as a big influence on Jerry Siegel)...but as for the rest of them, not enough to sustain my interest. I think I dropped it after only a handful of issues. I also recall the art being pretty disappointing as well. As much as I like Thomas' writing, his tastes in artists (when he edited titles) often didn't match up well with my own. I think in some odd way, Thomas actually preferred art that wasn't as competent or slick as modern comic book artwork for his WWII stuff...since it seemed to evoke a more "authentic" Golden Age aesthetic (at least that's my guess).

[Mark Engblom]

"Roy Thomas is one of those writers I'm just beginning to appreciate. His Avengers stuff, in particular, I really enjoy. I also just got a couple of those Alter Ego collections from Twomorrows, which are really great."

Every bit a "disciple" of Stan Lee, I see Thomas as the "glue" that kept Marvel trucking along into the 1970's as Stan gradually left his writing chores to become more of a public figure/ambassador for Marvel. True, his official stint as Editor-In-Chief was fairly short, but I think his unofficial role as Stan's right hand man lasted much longer (at least since the late 60's), ensuring the "personality" Stan established for Marvel would continue after The Man left the helm.

[suedenim]

I've been filling the gaps in my All-Star Squadron collection, and happened across *another* callback to these GL-Flash-Wonder Woman covers in Annual #1.

This one, to be precise:
http://comics.org/coverview.lasso?id=2824&zoom=4

They're doing this stunt at a war bond rally/circus as the story begins, which they spice up by having GL cause the wire to break "accidentally," which leads into some acrobatics and a trapeze stunt. I figured the trapeze bit must have *also* been a Comics Cavalcade cover gag, but in fact it looks like goofing around with trapezes is the only thing they *didn't* get around to doing on those covers....

[Dr. Retro]

Yes, Earth-Two "disappearing down the rabbit hole" was a big mistake. I quit reading comics after that, but started again when the JSA came back in 1999. Now that Earth-Two is back (sort of)I'm interested to see what happens now.