Stupid Comics

The idea of The Big 3 is something numerous comic book companies have used as a headliner for their main heroes. DC started out with their All-American Publications had Green Lantern, Flash, and Wonder Woman, but eventually it became the Trinity consisting of Wonder Woman, Batman, and Superman when merged with National Periodical Publications. Marvel's Big 3 would change over the decades depending on the character's popularity, for instance if you asked someone in the 90s who their Big 3 was back then they'd probably pick Punisher, Venom, and Wolverine, although their mainstay troika is Captain America, Iron Man, and Thor. Subsequently, Malibu's Ultraverse would have their own versions of Marvel's Big 3 with Hardcase, Prototype, and Prime. Wildstorm even had their own team actually called The Big 3 made of Mr. Majestic, Maximum Man, and The High. But the kickoff point for the concept started in the titular comic book from Fox Features Syndicate in 1940. This was bra...

There is a lengthy catalog of Golden Age debutantes who secretly fought crime in their spare time. Purple Tigress, Miss Fury, Phantom Lady, Black Cat, Yankee Girl, Wildfire, Spider Widow, Miss Masque, and Black Angel were all super socialites, most of which didn't have any actual superpowers. One of the more well-known heroine heiresses was Lady Luck who despite her name didn't have luck-altering powers like some Marvel Comics characters. Beginning as a back-up feature in The Spirit section of various newspapers., it was dreamed up by Spirit creator Will Eisner and artist Chuck Mazoujian for part of Eisner's special 16-page segment that got its own insert with the Sunday papers which included the magical superhero Mr. Mystic who along with Lady Luck got their own 4-page story in each issue. Lady Luck started out in June of 1940 in The Spirit's first package and was in reality rich girl Brenda Banks that billed her secret identity as a "modern day Robin Hood", ...

One of three separate characters named Wonder Boy that premiered in 1940, the most enduring was the one from Quality Comics in their first issue of National Comics. Created by female comics writer Toni Blum and Tarzan artist John Celardo, this version of Wonder Boy didn't have a secret identity and was simply referred to as his professional label of Wonder Boy. WB was similar to Superman as he was the last known surviving member of a race of humans on the planet Viro who was sent to Earth in a missile that plunges into the heart of Chicago resulting in the deaths of several citizens. At least when Superman came to Earth he only wrecked a few acres of farmland, but Wonder Boy's arrival caused the slaughter of possibly hundreds of innocent people. Wonder Boy makes first contact with the police who obviously don't believe he's an alien despite surviving a missile crash that he only could've survived thanks to his alien physiology that the narration tells us is the stre...

Lightning Comics was a branch of the Milson Publishing Company in 1967. They only had two separate titles under this brand, Fatman The Flying Saucer and Super Green Beret. Both of these were created by the same artists, CC Beck and Otto Binder, who most people would know from their earlier work with Fawcett Comics in 1939 in making the original Captain Marvel, aka: "Shazam". After DC Comics eventually put Fawcett out of business because they believed Captain Marvel was ripping off Superman, DC bought the rights to the character and eventually put him under their own label, but only under the title of Shazam as the name Captain Marvel had been scooped up conveniently by Marvel Comics who was a totally different character. There was an other minor publisher in 1966 called MF Enterprises who came out with their own character named Captain Marvel that was a flying alien android with no connection to either DC or Marvel's, but MF Enterprises shut down due to legal conflicts. L...

From Blue Beetle to Catman, Joe Kubert is one of the most recognized artists of the Golden Age. He along with cartoonist Norman Maurer set up the renowned Joe Kubert School for young wannabe comic book artists. One of their earliest attempts at advertising was a comics ad that ran in 1953 and tried to horn in on the current trend of 3D comic books that had just come out. 3D comics were seen the same way as 3D movies that could be read with a special pair of glasses that usually came free with each issue, even though there weren't too many actual titles done in 3D. The advertisement would have been acceptable enough if it were just geared towards catching the eye of generic comic artists, but the fact that they put an emphasis on creating 3D comics makes it look really suspicious. The artwork used for 3D comics is roughly the same as regular ones, so there wasn't really any special reason to highlight 3D art. The ad claims to have received hundreds of letters on how to be a 3D c...