najhoant Actually, it was written by Geoff Johns and Richard Donner... the director of the first Superman movie! ...and that’s just another reason why that issue is AWESOME!
14:42- Well, next issue covered that. The Senator and the businessman were behind the war that Superman was supposed to cover and ended with Superman convincing the two generals to fight each other in a brawl and ended up suing of peace after realizing that they don't know why they even fight in the first place.
Society has changed a lot since then as well, even in the US the law wasn't as big a force as it is today. Compared to Golden Age Bats or the Shadow or Zorro he's still a boy scout.
I dont get why people say Superman is boring He is a near indestructible alien from a dead planet Who fights villains like A short man with the ability to manipulate reality(Mr Mxyzplt/ I spelled it wrong on purpose) A large immortal rock baby (doomsday) And the deadly darkseid But he is a very human character And just an all around good guy
I always found Superman an interesting character, because despite being from another world, he is basically, the most Human Superhero, especially out of DC and the Justice League, and I like that he tends to do his thing, not because of some tragedy, but mostly because it’s right (the explosion of his planet really doesn’t always factor into his motivation), and it raises the nature vs nurture debate. Superman is really Clark Kent’s persona, in contrast to something like Batman, where Bruce Wayne is Batman’s persona.
Actually the "Super-Man" in the story is a victim of the man in the banner. That's a mad scientist who swindles a bum into being his test subject, the bum gets super powers and that's the Super-Man.
First Captain Marvel appearance: February 1940, first mention of flight powers: Whiz Comics #5 June 1940 First mention of Superman flying: a Superman radio program. air date: February 1940
@@henkman00Okay, got that one a bit backwards. Fair enough, that's my mistake. A quick google tells me that Superman first flew in the *comics* in the October of 1943, which is probably where my confusion comes from. That all said: it should be noted that both of this comic lines (Captain Marvel and Superman) *both* took from each other in their constant struggle to claim the top spot of superhero comics.
Wait! A clock of suspense? Did Action Comics #1 provide inspiration for Doomsday Clock decades later? And Doomsday Clock says DC when abbreviated! HOW FAR DOES THIS MADNESS GO?!
The 40s was a great time for Superman. The radio drama is amazing but few discuss it and the Fleischer cartoons are still my favorite adaptation of Superman.
You wanna know something funny? In the Superman tie-ins to Infinite Crisis, it was shown that during the fight between the main universe Superman and the Golden Age Superman, every time they traded blows, they found themselves living the life of the other (it was a nice concept but led to a dumb resolution). In that story, it showed the JSA fighting in WWII, with main universe Superman filling in for his Golden Age counterpart because of the aforementioned fight, and he originally planned to fly right to Germany and take out Hitler. Only to reveal that the Axis Powers were in fact protected by a magic barrier that the mystics among the JSA were trying to undo.
FeedEgg I've seen heroes that jump and it's not as good as people think. sailor moon, Birdy the mighty ECT. it looks like cool running or almost like floating.
Superman's method of reigning in lobbyists: Grab him by the collar of his shirt, leap onto a power line and threaten to electrocute him then jump onto a building and dangling him over the edge....why does Superman get to live out the American Dream
Linkara, I think you still got a few more years’ worth of secret origins to deliver. It’s 2018 now, and i can still name a whole bunch of people popular and/or relevant enough to warrant a review. DC: Martian Manhunter, Cyborg & the New Teen Titans (he’s now a founding member of the JLA, and the rest a pretty well-known thanks to the cartoon), Batgirl (and possibly Batwoman), Hawk & Dove (they’re slated to appear in the awful-looking Teen Titans live-action series), Plasticman, Black Canary, Hawkmanand Hawkgirl, The Suicide Squad, and of course our old Great-Disaster-Stopping pal The Atom Marvel: Wolverine, Quicksilver & Scarlet Witch, Vision, Black Panther, The Falcon, Captain Marvel and Carol Danvers (either separately or together), Morbius (he’s getting a movie), Blade, Nick Fury, Iron Fist, The Punisher, The Defenders, Captain Britain (OK, I might be stretching that one), Cloack & Dagger, and Marvel’s very first superhero, the Original Human Torch. On that note, maybe also the All-Winners Squad since they were Marvel’s first super-team. Just suggesting.
I don't care if people say he's basic, boring, or old news. Superman was the first superhero I was ever introduced to. And to be frank, he ALWAYS WILL BE my favorite superhero. He represents everything a hero should be: brave, compassionate, kind, and a symbol of hope.
Ah, Secret Origins Month. One of my favorite parts of AT4W. I wonder what'll be the ones for 2014. So far, we've done: Superman, Spider-Man, Batman, X-Men Wonder Woman, Fantastic Four, Alan Scott (GA Green Lantern), Captain America Iron Man, Jay Garrick (GA Flash) Teen Titans, Hulk, Hal Jordan (SA Green Lantern), Hank Pym (Ant-Man), Barry Allen (SA Flash), Thor Because of the movies though and the resurgence of certain heroes thanks to them, you may end up doing Secret Origins Month a while longer. Maybe, as its timely, and the movies coming next year, maybe you can do the first issues of The Avengers and the Justice League. In addition to that you can perhaps also do Doctor Strange and Aquaman. Speaking of timely, it's also funny to see this considering that bit a little while back about a pristine copy of Action Comics #1 selling for a whopping $3.2M.
I always assumed that when linkara says that comics are weird its just the old comics but i was reading the most recent nightwing comic and to sneek in to a casino he becomes a stripper
If you'd like to see what Supes would look like hopping around town just check out the first couple of Fleischer brothers cartoons from '39. These were made before flight became one of his powers.
DUUUUUUUUUUUDE! Though, to be fair, even 90s kids grew up with the image of Christopher Reeve as the canonical Superman. It's really the 2000s when kids were less attached to him.
8:58 In story explanation, to show off Superman's feat of strength. Plausible real world explanation? The 1930's were a bad time and being a rich politician, perhaps he commissioned a crew to outfit a steel door to fortify his sleeping chambers in an effort to feel safe from those who would rob or kill him. 9:58 The clock was meant to convey to the readers that Superman has only 12 minutes to convince the Governor to pardon the poor woman before she's executed. The clock disappears, not because of a continuity error, but because the Governor has successfully pardoned the woman and the clock is no longer needed. 11:46 Not sure if you were poking fun at the crude penciling, or serious. Either way, the object is a belt.
Trans8010 I disagree with linkara on the clock too. that's a cliche movie scrne when suddey.the clock becomes important and they showcase it's clicking. hoekng that scene last is usually not the whole.movie. after supes convinced the guy it just doesn't matter anymore.
Not a bad first story for Superman. The alien thing from a planet that was destroyed, his relationship with Lois, his strength, his desire to do good(well a bit extreme but hey), the basic design of his costume, all these have remained the same for all these years. Nice!
Some more trivia, when this story was reprinted in Superman #1, there was an added scene in which Clarke Kent tries to get a job at the Daily Star from George Taylor, and fails to do so, he changes into Superman, spies on George Taylor's office and overhears a lynching. Then Sups arrives just in time to stop the lynching, and the lynch victim informs Superman that he was witness to a murder and that the framed woman was set-up by a nightclub songstress who was motivated by the victim "two-timing" the songstress. From there, Superman arrives at the Songstress' dressing room and claiming he obtained the info that the Songstress is guilty, thanks to the lynch victim, in which the songstress tries to resist to no avail and that is where we arrive at with Superman bounding and gagging the songstress...
Back east the Kennedys would have been like the Kardashians are today. John aka Jack would have been 21 at the time of the comic's publishing. So in other words Siegel and Shuster would have been very much aware of who Jack Kennedy was
The best use of the "I am a man!!" meme. I do find it funny that the closing ad blurb eventually did come true. Superman *did* reshape the destiny of the world, or at least the world's understanding of what a superhero is. :)
That's what they need to try next. Make a movie adaptation of golden age Superman. Set in the 1930s, with the power limitations, the orphanage backstory (explained quickly), and even the types of plots with a well-meaning but sometimes scary-as-fuck Superman just going around and imposing his will when he sees something he doesn't like. I mean _that_ could be the story. He could actually have an arc (for once). They could come up with in-story reasons for him to go from his golden age self to silver age self.
Perhaps after a while, he starts realising how frightening he comes off to others including civilians he’d be rescuing and works on becoming a more well-meaning character. Sort of like DC’s New Frontier showed Batman going from his more intimidating early Pre-Robin Golden Age persona into a less scary character after seeing how terrifying he came off as to a child he was rescuing from a cult.
I dunno, I love villains. I always find myself drawn to heroes that have large and colorful rogues' galleries (thanks to decades of comics history and series, of course). That's just me, though
I know a certain Japanese super hero that pre-date Superman called Ogon Bat. Fun Fact: Ogon Bat didn't start out as a manga or some tv show, it started out as a very old form of Japanese story telling called Kamishibai or Paper Theater. It was pretty popular at the time even getting a live action film which again pre-date Superman.
When the clock with "9 minutes to go" is discussed there's actually about that much time left in the video. Was the whole video deliberately structured just so he would get to that part with 9 minutes left?
Golden age superman was a tyrant. He would threaten to smash your head in if you didn’t give him the info he wanted or admitted to a crime (which would be inadmissible in court lol)
I have to wonder what it would be like if Superman was "revealed" to the world as a baby. Probably would turn out really different if the whole world just realized "SUPER STRONG FLYING SPACE BABY HAS ARRIVED" and reacted to that. I'm sure it's been...poorly addressed before though.
3:41: I actually DO have a physical copy of Action Comics #1.... Well, sort of. It's a reprint (if it were real, I'd either sell it or put it in a vault), but I honestly couldn't tell the difference. I got it at Montreal Comic Con this summer. I was walking with my friend when I saw it hanged up at one of the shops. My eyes widened when I saw it. And it was hella cheap! ($10 or $15). I honestly thought I was being pranked. I was still happy to get it, though.
+Jake Bryant (JBryant) Actually I think Gilgemesh would be the first, since he was a heroic demi-god battling golums, bulls, ogres and armies. Not to mention that he was a Mesopotamian superhero who was folklore about 7000 years ago. That being the dawn of human civilization and 4000 years before Hercules.
Jake Bryant Good question! And it also depends on which version of the myth one is referring to. Especially the story where Gilgamesh leads an army to hold off a siege by the city of Kish, and him almost getting clobbered from behind, and his sidekick Enkidu saving his hide, to Gilgamesh losing his playing ball in the underworld, and Enkidu being the loyal sidekick, going down there to retrieve it.
The way I see it, superheroes are like genres of music. They're very difficult to define and even more difficult to determine when the first examples came about. Think about it. If you're trying to study a genre of music, it's almost impossible to definitively identify when the genre started because there a gajillion subgenera and they all bleed into one another.
The minimum wage in the US in 1938 was 0.25$, which is 4,38$. Forteachers (to get a medium class and not a minimum wage worker), the average salary for a (white) teacher in 1938 was 1,046$, 20,000$ today. The average salary today is around 69,800$ in rural districts, 74,200$ in suburban districts. Inflation does not mean everything ^^
Alright, heads up guys. Linkara has given the October/November 2014 schedule, and his lineup for Secret Origins Month 2014 is Captain Marvel/Shazam, Wasp, Robin, and The Avengers.
Actually during WWII, before the Pearl Harbor attacks most Americans wanted to stay out of the war in Europe. The Isolationist movement was strongly against going to war, as many felt Nazi Germany was unstoppable (due primarily to their propaganda which hide the fact that their supposedly mechanized army still relied heavily on horses). Charles Lindbergh was a bigwig of the Isolationist movement and unfortunately believed in the American eugenics movement which Hitler and the Nazis also ascribed to (though Lindbergh would denounce the death camps after the war, his role within the isolation movement and fears he was sympathetic to the Nazis lead him to be rejected from serving in the Army Air corps after Pearl Harbor).
All I can say about who came before Superman in the superhero spectrum is that the Green Hornet popped up in 1936 and Superman came around 2 years later.
probably because (as far as I'm aware) he doesn't monetize his TH-cam channel. Linkara's a capitalist, but that doesn't mean he's greedy. he already has three other websites with monetized videos and his Patreon account, not to mention his merchandise store.
Not sure who you're replying to here, but I do indeed monetize the youtube channel. Multiple streams of revenue help ensure that if one site goes down, I have alternatives available to me to keep me afloat.
I like that the first line Superman utters is basically "take me to your leader". How truly befitting his extraterrestial roots!
"Superman is destined to reshape the destiny of a world!" He did indeed!
Huh gandalf was right
13:02 Fun fact: Action Comics #1000 featured a short story by Geoff Johns about the guy Superman hung up on the pole
najhoant
Actually, it was written by Geoff Johns and Richard Donner... the director of the first Superman movie!
...and that’s just another reason why that issue is AWESOME!
@@daelen.cclark awesome dude 😎👍🏻😎
I love that this first issue paints an image of Superman as a guy who wants to do just the hell he wants, and you can't stop him.
HiperPivociarz the right thing in service of mankind.
14:42- Well, next issue covered that. The Senator and the businessman were behind the war that Superman was supposed to cover and ended with Superman convincing the two generals to fight each other in a brawl and ended up suing of peace after realizing that they don't know why they even fight in the first place.
Really? Huh, the more you know...
So Golden Age Supes was more Chaotic Good unlike the modern Lawful Good Supes?
What would Golden Age Batman be? Neutral Good maybe?
Maybe.
Sketchy Pluto Well, Golden Age Batman was known to kill people
Society has changed a lot since then as well, even in the US the law wasn't as big a force as it is today. Compared to Golden Age Bats or the Shadow or Zorro he's still a boy scout.
He wasa a socialist power fantasy
I dont get why people say Superman is boring
He is a near indestructible alien from a dead planet
Who fights villains like
A short man with the ability to manipulate reality(Mr Mxyzplt/ I spelled it wrong on purpose)
A large immortal rock baby (doomsday)
And the deadly darkseid
But he is a very human character
And just an all around good guy
Because they read The Dark Knight Returns and decided that Superman’s a sell out.
@@HBarnill Frank never got Supes. However the real Superman goes against the government when they are on the wrong side of matters.
Now comes a new enemy, Big Dix!
@@xanderm6090 like electing LEX LUTHOR for president.
@@xanderm6090 Didn't he once renounce his US citizenship because they were assholes?
I always found Superman an interesting character, because despite being from another world, he is basically, the most Human Superhero, especially out of DC and the Justice League, and I like that he tends to do his thing, not because of some tragedy, but mostly because it’s right (the explosion of his planet really doesn’t always factor into his motivation), and it raises the nature vs nurture debate. Superman is really Clark Kent’s persona, in contrast to something like Batman, where Bruce Wayne is Batman’s persona.
Which is why man of steel is the worst superman movie
The original villanous "Super-Man" looks a lot like Luthor.
They probably decided to reuse that design for Lex Luthor.
@@johnnygyro2295 indeed, you are correct. Elements of the original “Super Man” as he was called was an inspiration for Lex himself.
Actually the "Super-Man" in the story is a victim of the man in the banner.
That's a mad scientist who swindles a bum into being his test subject, the bum gets super powers and that's the Super-Man.
8:00 "Superman didn't fly..." Well what do you expect? Captain Marvel wasn't around to steal from yet.
First Captain Marvel appearance: February 1940, first mention of flight powers: Whiz Comics #5 June 1940
First mention of Superman flying: a Superman radio program. air date: February 1940
@@henkman00Okay, got that one a bit backwards. Fair enough, that's my mistake.
A quick google tells me that Superman first flew in the *comics* in the October of 1943, which is probably where my confusion comes from.
That all said: it should be noted that both of this comic lines (Captain Marvel and Superman) *both* took from each other in their constant struggle to claim the top spot of superhero comics.
Wait! A clock of suspense? Did Action Comics #1 provide inspiration for Doomsday Clock decades later?
And Doomsday Clock says DC when abbreviated! HOW FAR DOES THIS MADNESS GO?!
Not sure. Since Doctor Manhattan's involved, space is warped and time is bendable...
wait is that a reference
The 40s was a great time for Superman. The radio drama is amazing but few discuss it and the Fleischer cartoons are still my favorite adaptation of Superman.
I like Superman: The Animated Series. And the DCAU in general.
You wanna know something funny? In the Superman tie-ins to Infinite Crisis, it was shown that during the fight between the main universe Superman and the Golden Age Superman, every time they traded blows, they found themselves living the life of the other (it was a nice concept but led to a dumb resolution). In that story, it showed the JSA fighting in WWII, with main universe Superman filling in for his Golden Age counterpart because of the aforementioned fight, and he originally planned to fly right to Germany and take out Hitler. Only to reveal that the Axis Powers were in fact protected by a magic barrier that the mystics among the JSA were trying to undo.
You will believe a man can hop like a bunny.
FeedEgg I've seen heroes that jump and it's not as good as people think. sailor moon, Birdy the mighty ECT. it looks like cool running or almost like floating.
Superman's method of reigning in lobbyists: Grab him by the collar of his shirt, leap onto a power line and threaten to electrocute him then jump onto a building and dangling him over the edge....why does Superman get to live out the American Dream
snakes3425
You should read how the story goes on. Superman methods do not get any nicer.
force a man to participate in war, etc.
@@Takao0815
No, he does that to the guy funding the lobbyist.
@@help4343 What "no"?
@@Takao0815
No, the man he forces to participate in the war is not the lobbyist.
@@help4343 Now I understand. Yes ambiguous words from me.
Let's go ALL the way back: is Gilgamesh a Superhero?
Possibly. It depends on whether or not you think mythological heroes count...
... yes.
Superman, called the first Superhero, also arguably the first Supervillain with that concept.
VGMPlaysstuff he wanted to help people.so no
He's talking about the original concept of the character, that was designed to be a super villain.
The original concept of the character was that Superman was going to be a Weak Livered Pole Cat
Solidus-Skully so that's why they decided to have a Superman villain that has a solar powered villain in the movie?
So we owe all of our love and passion to the Superman we cherish so dear to the lowly ant, who someone put two and two together. and BAM!
Superhero equivalent of the cool-aid man? but linkara superman has wall repairing powers remember?
Only in Superman 4. He never had that power in the comics.
no he doesn't that's bullshit never happen in the comics so doesn't count as canon only as bullshit
Dude it was a joke.
***** I know, wait it's been two months holy shit
Memories in the corners of my mind...
This is widely considered to be the single most important comic in history
14:54 This joke is one of Linkara's greats.
Given the amount of supervillain attacks that happen in the dc universe steel doors would be very commonplace.
Considering the power level of most superhumans in the DC universe, a steel door wouldn't be very effective as a safety measure against supervillains.
@@edvance1030 Well back then, there wasn't that many super threats so really a steel door would work back then.
"Sold the rights to Superman for 130$" ARE YOU INSANE?!
that was big money back in the day. nowadays it's at best a low tier paycheck.
No that was still only a $2,000
These kids grew up in poverty
Linkara, I think you still got a few more years’ worth of secret origins to deliver. It’s 2018 now, and i can still name a whole bunch of people popular and/or relevant enough to warrant a review.
DC: Martian Manhunter, Cyborg & the New Teen Titans (he’s now a founding member of the JLA, and the rest a pretty well-known thanks to the cartoon), Batgirl (and possibly Batwoman), Hawk & Dove (they’re slated to appear in the awful-looking Teen Titans live-action series), Plasticman, Black Canary, Hawkmanand Hawkgirl, The Suicide Squad, and of course our old Great-Disaster-Stopping pal The Atom
Marvel: Wolverine, Quicksilver & Scarlet Witch, Vision, Black Panther, The Falcon, Captain Marvel and Carol Danvers (either separately or together), Morbius (he’s getting a movie), Blade, Nick Fury, Iron Fist, The Punisher, The Defenders, Captain Britain (OK, I might be stretching that one), Cloack & Dagger, and Marvel’s very first superhero, the Original Human Torch. On that note, maybe also the All-Winners Squad since they were Marvel’s first super-team.
Just suggesting.
Love the secret origins episodes. Thank you, Linkara. :)
"Those are my sunglasses!" This is what the 9 minutes clock was counting down to? Well worth the wait.
Destruction of private property? So, Man of Steel really went back to it's roots.
to be fair, MoS Superman was thrown or punched through a building most of the time
30s Supes was the precursor to 70s Green Arrow.
SrGurkman 70s green arrow destroyed poor neighborhoods and bridges too?
+Trisket Ha, ha.
TheKeyser94 Zod wasn't the one that destroyed an extremely expensive big rig because it's driver was a prick. Using telephone poles to do so.
I'm surprised he didn't mention that Zatara is the father of Zatanna.
Bedford Crenshaw
It wasn’t relevant.
Do you think Zatanna will get a secret origin episode?
John Morgan
I assume he will.
I don't care if people say he's basic, boring, or old news. Superman was the first superhero I was ever introduced to. And to be frank, he ALWAYS WILL BE my favorite superhero. He represents everything a hero should be: brave, compassionate, kind, and a symbol of hope.
If you pause at 4:46, the guy to the left of the cover behind Superman looks like he’s trying to keep the book from collapsing in on itself.
12:28 D-Did Linkara just pull a Superman Prime?
Ah, Secret Origins Month. One of my favorite parts of AT4W. I wonder what'll be the ones for 2014. So far, we've done:
Superman, Spider-Man, Batman, X-Men
Wonder Woman, Fantastic Four, Alan Scott (GA Green Lantern), Captain America
Iron Man, Jay Garrick (GA Flash) Teen Titans, Hulk,
Hal Jordan (SA Green Lantern), Hank Pym (Ant-Man), Barry Allen (SA Flash), Thor
Because of the movies though and the resurgence of certain heroes thanks to them, you may end up doing Secret Origins Month a while longer. Maybe, as its timely, and the movies coming next year, maybe you can do the first issues of The Avengers and the Justice League. In addition to that you can perhaps also do Doctor Strange and Aquaman.
Speaking of timely, it's also funny to see this considering that bit a little while back about a pristine copy of Action Comics #1 selling for a whopping $3.2M.
DC Comics: All your characters are belong to us!
16:55 WOW Zatara is as Old as Superman!
The guy in the corner of the cover is possibly my favourite piece of comic art.
7:54- Wait, that's how the comic started? I thought the one from my class' website was broken.
Huh, I had no idea Zatara came out with Superman of all people.
TIME FOR A POWER WEDGIE!
@@elijahfordsidioticvarietys8770 Captain Underpants!!
Not enough necksnapping. 7/10.
4:46 i think hes a velma type, looks like he just found his glasses too
jinkies
I always assumed that when linkara says that comics are weird its just the old comics but i was reading the most recent nightwing comic and to sneek in to a casino he becomes a stripper
Bat cow that is all.......and the time a cow become thor on that one cover.
If you'd like to see what Supes would look like hopping around town just check out the first couple of Fleischer brothers cartoons from '39. These were made before flight became one of his powers.
WAIT, Zatanna's father is as old as superman.....OMG.
I LOVE SUPERMAN
And before someone from the nineties rants about how Superman is a boring goody goody character.
Anyone that says that doesn't understand Superman as a character at all.
DUUUUUUUUUUUDE! Though, to be fair, even 90s kids grew up with the image of Christopher Reeve as the canonical Superman. It's really the 2000s when kids were less attached to him.
A physical Marvel
Willie: "SHHH!!! Quiet lad! You want to get sued?"
Groundskeeper Willie?
8:58 In story explanation, to show off Superman's feat of strength. Plausible real world explanation? The 1930's were a bad time and being a rich politician, perhaps he commissioned a crew to outfit a steel door to fortify his sleeping chambers in an effort to feel safe from those who would rob or kill him.
9:58 The clock was meant to convey to the readers that Superman has only 12 minutes to convince the Governor to pardon the poor woman before she's executed. The clock disappears, not because of a continuity error, but because the Governor has successfully pardoned the woman and the clock is no longer needed.
11:46 Not sure if you were poking fun at the crude penciling, or serious. Either way, the object is a belt.
Trans8010 I disagree with linkara on the clock too. that's a cliche movie scrne when suddey.the clock becomes important and they showcase it's clicking. hoekng that scene last is usually not the whole.movie. after supes convinced the guy it just doesn't matter anymore.
♫Here comes Kal-El, here comes Kal-El, he's gonna save the day!♫
Remember; this is the same Superman who would one day be beaten to death by Superboy Prime.
4:32 Money was good in the Gread Depression. Well, if you *_had_* *_it_* , that is.
Not a bad first story for Superman. The alien thing from a planet that was destroyed, his relationship with Lois, his strength, his desire to do good(well a bit extreme but hey), the basic design of his costume, all these have remained the same for all these years. Nice!
Some more trivia, when this story was reprinted in Superman #1, there was an added scene in which Clarke Kent tries to get a job at the Daily Star from George Taylor, and fails to do so, he changes into Superman, spies on George Taylor's office and overhears a lynching. Then Sups arrives just in time to stop the lynching, and the lynch victim informs Superman that he was witness to a murder and that the framed woman was set-up by a nightclub songstress who was motivated by the victim "two-timing" the songstress. From there, Superman arrives at the Songstress' dressing room and claiming he obtained the info that the Songstress is guilty, thanks to the lynch victim, in which the songstress tries to resist to no avail and that is where we arrive at with Superman bounding and gagging the songstress...
CosmoShidan and the murder victim's name was Jack Kennedy.
Yikes.
Back east the Kennedys would have been like the Kardashians are today. John aka Jack would have been 21 at the time of the comic's publishing. So in other words Siegel and Shuster would have been very much aware of who Jack Kennedy was
Whoa, I didn't even know that! Thanks for sharing! :)
Is it just me but at 12:10 Liz looks just like blair butler from attack of the show.
"Superhero equivalent of the Cool-aid Man"
Bwahaha!
One thing I'll say is that that title art is clever and hilarious
11:58 I AM A MAN!!!
Gilgamesh was the first “superhero” even if the term wasn’t coined back in 4000bc! He was kicking ass with his pal Enkidu before Sups and Herc!
The best use of the "I am a man!!" meme. I do find it funny that the closing ad blurb eventually did come true. Superman *did* reshape the destiny of the world, or at least the world's understanding of what a superhero is. :)
Been waitin' for a rerun of this
I just noticed that when the clock saying nine minutes to go appears in the video there is nine minutes left in the video LOL
That's what they need to try next. Make a movie adaptation of golden age Superman. Set in the 1930s, with the power limitations, the orphanage backstory (explained quickly), and even the types of plots with a well-meaning but sometimes scary-as-fuck Superman just going around and imposing his will when he sees something he doesn't like. I mean _that_ could be the story. He could actually have an arc (for once). They could come up with in-story reasons for him to go from his golden age self to silver age self.
Perhaps after a while, he starts realising how frightening he comes off to others including civilians he’d be rescuing and works on becoming a more well-meaning character. Sort of like DC’s New Frontier showed Batman going from his more intimidating early Pre-Robin Golden Age persona into a less scary character after seeing how terrifying he came off as to a child he was rescuing from a cult.
I dunno, I love villains. I always find myself drawn to heroes that have large and colorful rogues' galleries (thanks to decades of comics history and series, of course). That's just me, though
It's also cool to see what dynamic a superhero has with their rogues gallery. The Flash's are my favorite reason for that particular reason.
Holds up surprisingly well!
is that zatara the father of zatanna?
10 years of secret origins month, my favorite time of AT4W
I know a certain Japanese super hero that pre-date Superman called Ogon Bat.
Fun Fact: Ogon Bat didn't start out as a manga or some tv show, it started out as a very old form of Japanese story telling called Kamishibai or Paper Theater. It was pretty popular at the time even getting a live action film which again pre-date Superman.
TheKeyser94 Yeah, really old stuff.
Linkara please make a Secret Origins Month playlist
He did.
When the clock with "9 minutes to go" is discussed there's actually about that much time left in the video. Was the whole video deliberately structured just so he would get to that part with 9 minutes left?
15:25 Keep in mind that when this comic was released, in 1938, there was no war in Europe.
Golden age superman was a tyrant. He would threaten to smash your head in if you didn’t give him the info he wanted or admitted to a crime (which would be inadmissible in court lol)
8:05 Don't worry Linkara, he's just adopting her, so it's fine.
I have to wonder what it would be like if Superman was "revealed" to the world as a baby. Probably would turn out really different if the whole world just realized "SUPER STRONG FLYING SPACE BABY HAS ARRIVED" and reacted to that. I'm sure it's been...poorly addressed before though.
8:46 I dunno why, but that image does make me laugh. Comics were pretty damn funny back then.
Yay! In fact, the Spider-Man one is one of my favorite episodes
Well that was cool to see the very first superman stuff
superman is cool
6:16 How did he figure out the shell one? Did he serve in the military and get hit by a shell?
10 cents in 1938 is about 2 dollars today when accounting for inflation. So it's not like the comic prices went up by THAT much.
3:41: I actually DO have a physical copy of Action Comics #1.... Well, sort of. It's a reprint (if it were real, I'd either sell it or put it in a vault), but I honestly couldn't tell the difference.
I got it at Montreal Comic Con this summer. I was walking with my friend when I saw it hanged up at one of the shops. My eyes widened when I saw it. And it was hella cheap! ($10 or $15). I honestly thought I was being pranked. I was still happy to get it, though.
The first third of the Superman movie condensed into a few sentences.
I like grape Gatorade too! =D
So it begins: Secret Oranges in glorious 480p. Wonderful!
It wasn't the Daily Star yet. It was the Evening News in Cleveland.
In the pages showing his abilities Superman looks like he is balding in the panel where he outruns a train.
where did you get this scan of the comic ive been looking everywhere for good scans of some golden age big name heros and cant find them anywhere
So in essence, Hercules is the first superhero. Fascinating :)
+Jake Bryant (JBryant) Actually I think Gilgemesh would be the first, since he was a heroic demi-god battling golums, bulls, ogres and armies. Not to mention that he was a Mesopotamian superhero who was folklore about 7000 years ago. That being the dawn of human civilization and 4000 years before Hercules.
Whoa. How come he doesn't have a comic
Jake Bryant Good question! And it also depends on which version of the myth one is referring to. Especially the story where Gilgamesh leads an army to hold off a siege by the city of Kish, and him almost getting clobbered from behind, and his sidekick Enkidu saving his hide, to Gilgamesh losing his playing ball in the underworld, and Enkidu being the loyal sidekick, going down there to retrieve it.
The way I see it, superheroes are like genres of music. They're very difficult to define and even more difficult to determine when the first examples came about. Think about it. If you're trying to study a genre of music, it's almost impossible to definitively identify when the genre started because there a gajillion subgenera and they all bleed into one another.
10:08 There's 9 minutes left in the video... shiiiiiiiiit...
Upon re-watching this episode I realized that clock appeared when there was 9 minutes left on the video.
I didn't realize this is where Zatanna's father came from!
"OH YEAH~!"
10:22
I wouldn't be surprised if due process wasn't even a thing back then
Would if be accurate to call the golden age Superman a consequentialist?
Based on inflation if you wanted a comic to still be priced at ten 1938 cents in 2010 it would cost $1.55.
So yeah, $3.99 is a bit absurd.
The minimum wage in the US in 1938 was 0.25$, which is 4,38$.
Forteachers (to get a medium class and not a minimum wage worker), the average salary for a (white) teacher in 1938 was 1,046$, 20,000$ today. The average salary today is around 69,800$ in rural districts, 74,200$ in suburban districts.
Inflation does not mean everything ^^
Alright, heads up guys. Linkara has given the October/November 2014 schedule, and his lineup for Secret Origins Month 2014 is Captain Marvel/Shazam, Wasp, Robin, and The Avengers.
14:02 What the hell, Superman?!
I actually have a copy I bought at comic con, but I assume it’s a reprint
Action Comics #1 walked so Earths End could fly.
Actually during WWII, before the Pearl Harbor attacks most Americans wanted to stay out of the war in Europe. The Isolationist movement was strongly against going to war, as many felt Nazi Germany was unstoppable (due primarily to their propaganda which hide the fact that their supposedly mechanized army still relied heavily on horses). Charles Lindbergh was a bigwig of the Isolationist movement and unfortunately believed in the American eugenics movement which Hitler and the Nazis also ascribed to (though Lindbergh would denounce the death camps after the war, his role within the isolation movement and fears he was sympathetic to the Nazis lead him to be rejected from serving in the Army Air corps after Pearl Harbor).
All I can say about who came before Superman in the superhero spectrum is that the Green Hornet popped up in 1936 and Superman came around 2 years later.
Great Depression was mostly over when this comic came out.
probably because (as far as I'm aware) he doesn't monetize his TH-cam channel. Linkara's a capitalist, but that doesn't mean he's greedy. he already has three other websites with monetized videos and his Patreon account, not to mention his merchandise store.
Not sure who you're replying to here, but I do indeed monetize the youtube channel. Multiple streams of revenue help ensure that if one site goes down, I have alternatives available to me to keep me afloat.
@Linkara- this is what happens when I try to make Reply comments on my mobile device. in any case, I apologize for making assumptions.
MarcTaker S'all good. ^_^
+Linkara-AtopTheFourthWall (VOICE AT VOLUME 10) 😲😲😲😲😲😲😲😲😲 SUPER MAN Couldn't Fly?"
+Nathan Gottschalk Btw Im Not Trying To Yell I Just Prefer All CapsLock"