Saturday, July 24, 2010

The Top Martian Manhunter Covers of the 1950s (plus foreign editions, reprints and rarities)



A while back, I responded to a list of The Most Iconic Martian Manhunter Covers, and then DC's 75th anniversary celebration began, so I offered J'Onn J'Onzz Variant Cover Suggestions. None of these things are a true "top cover countdown" for our favorite Martian, and I've been asked to compile just such a beast. Seeing as that's a fairly enormous task, I've decided to break up my lists by decade, starting with the 1950s. However, John Jones, The Manhunter from Mars wasn't featured on any covers for its first five years or so. How about I look at some oddball reprints of those tales, along with various and sundry, until the real countdowns roll out?

Big Boy: Anthology reprints, originally heavily Western skewed, with a few ongoing characters. Co-Features include Tomahawk, Roy Raymond TV Detective, Bobo Detective Chimp, Silent Knight, Prof. Eureka and Green Arrow & Speedy.

Big Boy #17 (February, 1958): Reprints "John Jones' Female Nemesis" from Detective Comics #246.

Big Boy #18 (March, 1958): Reprints "The Martian Without a Memory" from Detective Comics #248. Also featured the unrelated "I Met the First Martian" from My Greatest Adventure #16

Big Boy #19 (April 1958): Reprints "The Stymied Sleuth" from Detective Comics #250.

Big Boy #20 (May 1958): Reprints "Target for a Day" from Detective Comics #249.

Big Boy #21 (June 1958): Reprints "The Impossible Messages" from Detective Comics #247.

Big Boy #22 (July 1958): Reprints "Alias Mr. Zero" from Detective Comics #251.

Big Boy #23 (August, 1958): Reprints "The Menace of the Super Weapons" from Detective Comics #252.

Big Boy #24 (September, 1958): Reprints "The Super Reporter!" from Detective Comics #253.

Big Boy #25 (October, 1958): Reprints "The One-Man Army" from Detective Comics #254.

Big Boy #26 (November, 1958): Reprints "The Carnival of Doom" from Detective Comics #256.

Big Boy #27 (December, 1958): Reprints "King of the Underworld" from Detective Comics #257.

Big Boy #28 (January, 1959): Reprints "World-Wide Manhunt" from Detective Comics #255.

Big Boy #29 (February, 1959): Reprints "The Jinxed Ship" from Detective Comics #258.

Big Boy #30 (March, 1959): Reprints "John Jones' Super Secret" from Detective Comics #260.

Big Boy #31 (April, 1959): Reprints "The Getaway King" from Detective Comics #259.

Big Boy #38 (November, 1959): Reprints "The Fantastic Human Falcon" from Detective Comics #265.

Big Boy #40 (January, 1960): Reprints "The Crime Conjurer" from Detective Comics #263.

Big Boy, after increasingly sporadic heroic offerings, returned to the non-recurring character anthology format of reprinting straight adventure and sci-fi/horror material. It's final issue revisited J'onn J'onzz, as well as Roy Raymond, Tommy Tomorrow and Rex the Wonder Dog...

Big Boy #45 (June 1960): Reprints "The Challenge of the Masked Avenger" from Detective Comics #266.

The Hundred Plus Comic #50 (Circa 1960-1962): Reprints "The Impossible Inventions" from Detective Comics #279.



Rommets Helter: Specialized in Blackhawk, with minors in Atom, Batman & Robin.

Rommets Helter #1 (1965): Reprints "The Case of the Golden Eagle" from Detective Comics #320.

Rommets Helter #2 (1965): Reprints "The Hobby Missions" from Detective Comics #323.

Rommets Helter #3 (1965): Reprints "The Man of 1,000 Disguises" from Detective Comics #315.

Rommets Helter #4 (1965): Reprints "J'onn J'onzz vs. John Jones" from Detective Comics #314.

Rommets Helter #1 (1966): Reprints "The Man Who Saved Earth" from Detective Comics #314. John Jones was the cover featured star this issues, thanks to art derived from a repurposed splash page.

Rommets Helter #2 (1966): Reprints "The Invaders from the Space Warp" from Detective Comics #311.

Rommets Helter #3 (August, 1966): Reprints "The Bandits with Super-Powers" from Detective Comics #316.

Rommets Helter #5 (December, 1966): John Jones had already been dropped from the book at this point, as part of a format change that left only Blackhawk and the Atom appearing.

Läderlappen #7 (June, 1967): Reprints "J'onn J'onzz's Pesky Partner" from Detective Comics #312.

Superman Presents World's Finest Comic Monthly #42 (Circa 1968): Reprints "The Case of the Magic Baseball" from Detective Comics #226.

Superman und Batman #2 (Egmont Ehapa, 1969): Reprints "The Strange Experiment of Dr. Erdel" from Detective Comics #225.

Superman und Batman #3 (Egmont Ehapa, 1969): Reprints "The Case of the Magic Baseball" from Detective Comics #226.

Superman #19 (December, 1969): Reprints "John Jones' Farewell to Earth" from Detective Comics #267.

Super Adventure Album #5 (Circa 1976-77): Reprints "Wanted -- the Capsule Master" from The Brave and the Bold #50, plus three Justice League of America stories.

Gigant #5 (October 1978): Reprints the Manhunter from Mars serial from Adventure Comics.

Also, be sure to check out the 1960s British Batman Annuals and the Superman Official Annual 1983

There are also plenty of obscure U.S. reprints, highlights including:

The Best of DC #30 (November, 1982): Reprints "The Man with 20 Lives" from Detective Comics #227.

The Greatest 1950s Stories Ever Told (October 1990): Reprints "Escape to the Stars" from Detective Comics #228, plus a cover gallery. 1992 Edition.

Mysteries in Space: The Best of DC Science Fiction Comics (October 1980): Reprints "The Strange Experiment of Dr. Erdel" from Detective Comics #225, plus the cover of House of Mystery #151.

The Best of DC #52 (September, 1984): No reprint, but look at the back of that head!

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