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Superman and the Birth of the Super Heroes

June 1938

The fledgling comic book industry still followed the traditions of its newspaper strip origins when the eager, imaginative team of writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster created an entirely new kind of hero. Released on April 18, 1938, Action Comics #1 introduced Superman and the Birth of the Super Heroes—promising action, excitement, and sheer wonderment unlike anything seen before.

A new world is born

The Man of Tomorrow was groundbreaking from the start. This iconic image—drawn by Joe Shuster—proclaims in no uncertain terms that there has never been a hero like Superman!

Although comic strips had been a mainstay of domestic life since the end of the 19th century, and extraordinary, masked mystery men graced newspapers, pulp magazines, and the (radio) airwaves for almost a decade, the coming of Superman in 1938 reset the boundaries of popular fiction.

The Man of Steel’s debut sparked a flurry of new Super Heroes at his publishers National/DC and a wave of imitators as other companies saw the potential of costumed comic book characters. Superman, however, reigned supreme, reinventing the comic industry and modern entertainment in general. He expanded into radio (and eventually film and television), games, toys, apparel, general merchandise, and even newspaper strips. This was especially gratifying for creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, who had, since 1933, been trying to sell earlier incarnations of their big idea to strip syndicates.

Love for the ages

The interactions between Lois Lane and Superman set the bar for every Super Hero relationship that followed throughout the comic book industry.

Ready for Action

Superman certainly reshaped, and arguably even saved, the entire comic book industry. Comic books had been a commercial proposition since 1933, but had concentrated on reprinting newspaper strips until Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson conceived new stars and material for his 1935 release New Fun Comics. Overnight the world became a more open, exciting place with opportunities for young creators to compete and craft their own stories for like-minded audiences.

Action Comics #1 (Jun. 1938) exuberantly launched a physical phenomenon who shrugged off bullets, juggled automobiles, and vaulted over buildings. Behind its now historic and much-imitated cover, a single page described a foundling’s escape from an ancient, self-destructing planet and explained his incredible gifts, all in nine brief panels. A year later, when the unstoppable, incredibly popular hero won his own solo title, his origin was revised and Superman’s birthworld named as Krypton.

Entitled Superman, Champion of the Oppressed, the story introduced a brightly caped and costumed crusader who would go on to treat crooks and the forces of authority with equal disdain. He was a vigilante who was hunted by cops for much of the early years and who masqueraded by day as reporter Clark Kent. Superman averted numerous tragedies in a personal crusade against injustice. These included saving an innocent woman from the electric chair and roughing up a serially abusive husband before working over the racketeer Butch to save his journalist colleague Lois Lane from abduction and worse.

The Man of Steel made a big impression on Lois by later exposing an arms industry lobbyist, who was bribing senators on behalf of munitions manufacturers hoping to stoke the profitable fires of war in Europe.

Listen chief, if I can’t find out anything about this Superman no one can!

Clark Kent | Action Comics #1

Bestseller

As months went by, the extraterrestrial hero proved far more popular than his stablemates Zatara: Master Magician, Chuck Dawson, Marco Polo, Pep Morgan, Scoop Scanlon, and Tex Thompson (who in 1941 became masked hero Mr. America, the Americommando). From issue #9 (Feb 1939) a cover banner proclaimed Superman’s presence within, becoming a cover inset with #12. He permanently secured Action Comics’ cover spot with #19 (Dec. 1939). The five covers Superman commanded between #1 and #19 outsold all other issues, and editors eventually sacrificed variety for guaranteed sales.

Within three years of his first appearance, the intoxicating blend of action and wish-fulfillment that grew out of the Great Depression and was a hallmark of the Action Ace’s early adventures grew to encompass broader themes. Cops-and-robbers crime-busting, science fiction, and fantasy now dovetailed with socially reforming dramas, sports, whimsical comedy, and, once America entered World War II, patriotic fervor for Superman.

Beyond comic books, Superman’s syndicated newspaper strip continued into the mid-1960s, spreading the concept of Super Heroes to a wider, international audience. So too did Fleischer/Famous Studios who, between 1941 and 1943, produced some of the most expensive—and best—animated cartoons ever conceived: all starring the mighty Man of Tomorrow!

Original thinking

Another key comics innovation was a swift visual biography and convenient contextual rationale that underpinned all the astounding adventure that followed.

Superman and the Birth of the Super Heroes | Contents

Key issues

Famous Funnies—A Carnival of Comics #1 (October 1933)

Maxwell Gaines and Harry I. Wildenberg market the first true comic book.

New Fun #1 (February 1935)

First comic book published by National/DC.

New Fun #6 (October 1935)

Siegel & Shuster’s first comic heroes—Henri Duval and Doctor Occult—debut.

Detective Comics #1 (March 1937)

National/DC publish the first specifically themed comic book, a crime anthology

Action Comics #1 (June 1938)

A general adventure-themed title inadvertently creates superhero genre.

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Batman: Dark Knight Detective

May 1939

As Superman electrified the public, his publishers were already looking for the next sensation. They found it in aspiring writer Bill Finger and humor cartoonist Bob Kane’s fresh spin on contemporary fictional themes. In Detective Comics #27, they mixed movie horror, crime dramas, and pulp fiction mystery men to introduce Batman: Dark Knight Detective to Gotham City’s mean streets.

Watching the detectives

Sporting a moody yet splashy cover by Bob Kane, the advent of The Batman necessitated only the third-ever cover blurb in the magazine’s history.

Debuting a year after Superman, The Bat-Man confirmed DC as front-runner and conceptual leader of the rapidly expanding comic book world. The industry grew from the vital, viscerally compelling tales of both iconic creations. Light and dark, god and mortal, they encapsulate the entire heroic ideal. Both remain preeminent comic book characters more than 80 years later.

Whodunit?

After redefining conceptual limits of heroism with the demigod-like Superman, DC’s next step explored merely mortal, physical, and mental perfection in the form of an implacable Dark Knight Detective. When he took on a junior apprentice, the tone shifted, and dashing derring-do of a strictly human Dynamic Duo rapidly became the swashbuckling benchmark all comic book crime busters were measured by. Significantly, both adult hero and the first costumed junior partner debuted in the company’s longest-lived title.

Detective Comics #1 (March 1937) was the third anthology title devised by Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson. In 1935, he sensed the potential in Max Gaines’s new comic book invention. National Allied Publications produced all-new strip material in New Fun: The Big Comic Magazine and follow-up New Comics/New Adventure Comics (eventually Adventure Comics). Following common publishing practice, the owners founded a new company—Detective Comics, Inc.—for the third title. The success of Detective Comics (#1 cover-dated March 1937 and on sale from February 10th) led to the company becoming known as DC Comics.

The initial lineup included adventurer Speed Saunders, Cosmo the Phantom of Disguise, and Gumshoe Gus. It also featured Spy (Bart Regan) and Slam Bradley, both by newcomers Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. Issue #20 (Oct. 1938) saw pulp-style masked vigilante the Crimson Avenger premiere. Sheriffs, cops, private eyes, secret agents, and gentleman daredevils now made room for a new kind of hero—the Mystery Man.

The culmination was Detective Comics #27’s cover-featured new addition—The Batman. Bill Finger and Bob Kane’s The Case of the Chemical Syndicate was a spartan, understated yarn introducing playboy criminologist Bruce Wayne, who casually inserted himself into a string of industrialist murders. The killings ended only after an eerie vigilante The Bat-Man took over Police Commissioner Gordon’s stalled investigation, pitilessly exposing and destroying the killer. The strange, brooding, single-minded hero was an instant success with readers.

Dark omen

Bruce Wayne’s alter ego was inspired by a whim of fate and his interpretation of a strange intrusion.

The bat-winged combination of sleuth, action hero, and haunted avenger defeated criminals, crazed scientists, spies, cultists, Super-Villains like Doctor Death and Hugo Strange, and even a vampire. Issue #33’s clash with air-pirates included a two-page prologue revealing how young Bruce Wayne trained for decades to wage war against evildoers after witnessing his parents’ murder in a holdup.

Smashing success

Despite diligent planning and carrying a compact personal arsenal, Batman understood the value of improvisation and utilizing whatever came to hand.

Father figure

Detective Comics #38 (Apr. 1940) saw a softening shift of focus for Batman, one that changed the comic book landscape forever. Kane, Finger, and Jerry Robinson’s Robin, The Boy Wonder was child trapeze artist Dick Grayson, whose parents were killed before his eyes. Bruce Wayne was in the audience the night of their demise and invited the orphan into his home. Soon the teenager joined Batman’s crusade, by bringing to justice mobster boss Tony Zucco, the man behind his parents’ murders.

Robin takes the stage

Robin’s youthful glow of eager enthusiasm leavened the taciturn darkness of Batman and provided greater avenues for character development and plot exposition.

Weeks later, Batman #1 (May 1940) offered a remastered origin culled from Detective Comics #33 and #34, and four adventures. These included a return clash with Hugo Strange and debuts for The Joker and Catwoman, as the grim Gotham Guardian gradually evolved into a mentor, protector, and role model.

The Dark Knight became DC’s most popular Super Hero, with Robin battling beside him until 1970 when, acknowledging those turbulent times, Robin flew the nest to become a Teen Wonder college student. His creation as a character with which younger readers could identify inspired countless costumed sidekicks and kid crusaders. Dick Grayson has evolved into a symbol for and forerunner of a new style of hero reflecting the ever-changing youth culture.

…This fellow they call the ‘Bat-Man’ puzzles me!

Commissioner Gordon | Detective Comics #27

Batman: Dark Knight Detective | Contents

Key issues

New Fun #1 (February 1935)

DC’s title launches with many junior protagonists such as Jack Andrews—All American Boy, Buckskin Jim, and Bobby and Binks and the Magic Crystal of History.

Detective Comics #1 (March 1937)

A crime anthology becomes the comic industry’s first themed title.

Action Comics #1 (June 1938)

DC introduces the Super Hero genre.

Detective Comics #20 (October 1938)

Crimson Avenger, DC’s first masked crime fighter, debuts.

Detective Comics #27 (May 1939)

Batman makes his first appearance.

Superman #1 (Summer/June 1939)

DC premieres the inaugural solo feature comic book.

Detective Comics #38 (April 1940)

Robin debuts as the comic book industry’s first costumed sidekick.

Batman #1 (May 1940)

DC launches the industry’s second solo Super Hero feature title.

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First Meeting of the Justice Society of America

December 1940

It was still early days for comic books when scripter Gardner Fox and artists Everett E. Hibbard, Bernard Baily, Sheldon Mayer, Chad Grothkopf, Howard Sherman, Ben Flinton, and Martin Nodell crafted a commercial collaboration between sister companies to promote their heroes. The result was the invention of Super Hero teams, and the first meeting of the Justice Society of America in All Star Comics #3.

Called to order

Although sedate by modern standards, the image and idea of all Super Heroes working together was radical and thrilling to readers in 1940.

Following the runaway successes of Superman and Batman, both DC Comics and its publishing partner All-American Publications (AA) eagerly sought the next hit to spring from their anthology titles. All Star Comics was produced by AA, but was a joint venture designed to give already established characters from both companies an extra push toward winning a solo title.

The Justice Society of America debuted in the third issue of All Star Comics (December 1940), which featured characters from National-DC’s Adventure Comics and More Fun Comics and AA Publishing’s Flash Comics and All-American Comics. New stories in the anthology quarterly were accompanied by A Message from the Editors asking readers to vote on their favorite feature.

All together now

The merits of the marketing project were never proved. Instead of a new A-lister emerging and graduating to his own starring vehicle as a result of the poll, something unexpected evolved. For the third issue, prolific writer Gardner Fox and Max Gaines’s brilliant, multitalented assistant Sheldon Mayer conceived the notion of linking the previously solo adventures through a lighthearted framing sequence, with the heroes gathering to chat about their latest exploits.

Mayer was a comics polymath who, as legend has it, rescued a rejected strip proposal called Superman from the trash and convinced editor Vin Sullivan to run it in new title Action Comics. Working with Gaines, Mayer revolutionized the still nascent comics industry. When not editing, designing, or illustrating text stories for All-American, he wrote and drew strips such as Scribbly, Boy Cartoonist.

A minor character in the strip—washerwoman and landlady Ma Hunkel—was actually an early JSA recruit in her other heroic identity as urban vigilante the Red Tornado. Mayer is best remembered today for his highly addictive humor strip Sugar and Spike, the inventive, antic adventures of preverbal but supremely communicative toddlers.

Your country calls!

The greatest heroes of the age first convened for a meal and to compare case notes, but by the end of the initial meeting had started their first case—investigating spies for the FBI!

All Star heroes

In 1940, following two issues of individual adventures, All Star Comics #3 saw young, valiant Johnny Thunder idly wish that he could pal around with famous Super Heroes. Accidentally activating the magical Thunderbolt genie bonded to him, Johnny compelled his heroic idols to let him gate crash their first meeting after the he expressed his wish to be one of them.

The wonder of super-teams began with the simple expedient of having assorted heroes gather around a table to regale each other with tales of recent adventures. The Flash told of battling modern pirates, Hawkman had crushed a fire cult, and the Spectre battled moon monster Oom. Hourman tackled criminal impersonators and Red Tornado left early due to a costume malfunction. The Sandman told of a giant-making scientist he’d recently defeated and Doctor Fate described fighting a necromancer, before Johnny shared a recent bad date. The Atom foiled a holdup and Green Lantern shone his light to expose a framing attempt. During the stories, The Flash abruptly left in response to a telegram and came back with urgent news from Washington, DC. The FBI needed the heroes to rout a group of fifth columnists trying to destroy America for the Axis powers. This spurred the JSA to work together against a common foe for the first time.

From this low-key collaboration and the natural notion that Mystery Men would probably hang out together, history was made. It wasn’t long before the guys—and they were all white men (except Red Tornado who masqueraded as one)—regularly joined forces to defeat the greatest Super-Villains and challenge the social ills of their generation.

Team supreme

Over decades, heroes like Robin inherited their mentors’ positions as the JSA grew from a team into a family—as seen in this group shot by Murphy Anderson (Justice League of America #76 Dec. 1969).

I know! I’ll contribute an idea!—Suppose you each tell the most exciting experience you’ve ever had… That’ll entertain everybody!

Johnny Thunder | All Star Comics #3

First Meeting of the Justice Society of America | Contents

Key issues

Famous Funnies—A Carnival of Comics #1 (1933)

Maxwell Gaines and Harry I. Wildenberg market the first true comic book.

New Fun #1 (February 1935)

First comic book published by National/Allied Publications (later DC Comics).

New Comics #1 (December 1935)

The second title, a humor anthology, is released.

Action Comics #1 (June 1938)

Super Heroes are born as Superman debuts.

Adventure Comics #32 (November 1938)

Retitled New Comics rebrands as a drama anthology.

All American Comics #1 (April 1939)

Maxwell Gaines launches DC’s autonomous sister company—All American Publications—with a general anthology.

Adventure Comics #40 (July 1939)

The DC anthology launches its first Super Hero—the Sandman.

Flash Comics #1 (January 1940)

All American Publications releases new Super Hero heavy anthology.

More Fun Comics #52 (February 1940)

The DC anthology begins transition to Super Heroes with first appearance of the Spectre.

All Star Comics #1 (June 1940)

AA and DC collaborate on Super Hero anthology to promote its midranking stars.

All Star Comics #3 (December 1940)

The Justice Society debuts.

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For America and Democracy

March 1941

The superhero phenomenon was less than three years old when comics all-rounder Sheldon Mayer and writer Gardner Fox devised the next great innovation. All Star Comics #4 saw each chapter and its solo star individually illustrated by DC’s and All-American’s top artists, but a true team effort was needed to safeguard the nation. The JSA was ready to respond and fight for America and Democracy!

Capitol idea

The JSA’s first official mission was a request from the US government to make the nation safe from hidden forces poisoning it from within.

The creation of the Justice Society of America changed the comic book industry. Seeing a favored hero alongside unknown but equally appealing new characters not only thrilled readers but also made sound commercial sense. Now, as the nation braced itself for inevitable involvement in the war ravaging Europe, creators embraced the tone of the times, recasting their heroes as champions of liberty and freedom.

Patriot gains

In the early days, heroes knew of each other but respected jurisdictions. However, in All Star Comics #3 (Dec. 1940, several renowned Mystery Men met to enjoy a dinner and trade tales of recent cases. During the event, The Flash was called to Washington, DC to meet the Chief of the FBI (recognizably drawn, but never named, as J. Edgar Hoover). The Flash swiftly returned to tell his friends of a mission only they could accomplish.

Full details came in For America and Democracy (All Star Comics #4), as the assorted champions made their own way to FBI headquarters to hear the Chief’s request. They were told to seek and destroy spies, saboteurs, subversives, and traitors undermining America and corrupting the young and impressionable. The entire espionage operation had a guiding genius controlling the covert campaign, and he, too, had to be stopped at all costs!

Splitting up to cover more territory, the case resolved into separate but connected tales as Gardner F. Fox and illustrators E.E. Hibbard, Martin Nodell, Bernard Baily, Howard Sherman, Chad Grothkopf, Sheldon Moldoff, and Ben Flinton dispatched the heroes where they were most needed. The Flash crushed fascist Greyshirts fomenting unrest in Detroit; Green Lantern destroyed a zeppelin sabotaging US radio transmissions; and the Spectre doomed saboteurs wrecking munitions factories in Pittsburgh. For their part, Hourman saved Oklahoma oil wells and Doctor Fate New England’s naval yards from Greyshirt sabotage, while Sandman preserved free press in El Paso, and Hawkman halted the destruction of Californian aviation plants.

In each instance, defeated insurgents gave up the name of their leader, and as the heroes converged on Toledo, Ohio, and Nazi spymaster Fritz Klaver, The Atom quashed propaganda and dissent on college campuses before being magically drawn to Johnny Thunder, whose Thunderbolt genie had accidentally whisked them both into the heart of Klaver’s citadel. Thankfully, that’s when the JSA converged on the HQ to confront and take out the arrogant, unrepentant, fifth column mastermind.

Force for freedom

From the first, America’s heroes proved to tyrants and bullies who the real Übermensch were.

The mission set a pattern for many years to come. The team would identify a problem, initially divide their response into solo missions, and then meet at the end to finish the case together. The format lasted for decades, tweaked in later years to allow for individual pairings of two or three members. The winning formula also became the template for the Justice League of America 20 years later.

The JSA inspired imitations both within the company and further afield. As 1941 closed, DC created a squad comprising many non-JSA stars. The Seven Soldiers of Victory starred in 14 issues of Leading Comics before vanishing as the war ended. Their time would come again, decades later.

Stars and stripes forever!

Although America was almost a year away from officially entering World War II, the language and iconography of patriotism was already reshaping the look of their characters and comics.

I’m going to enjoy this job!

Hawkman | All Star Comics #4

Dark days

Once America entered World War II, the Justice Society renamed itself the Justice Battalion. The premise saw the heroes immediately enlist in various military services after the attack on Pearl Harbor, yet continue meeting to maintain the JSA branding during those dark days. Postwar, a smaller team continued into the 1950s, battling aliens, petty criminals, social injustice, mobsters, and magical invaders, as much as the changing tastes of its readership.

The war also had a lasting effect on superheroes themselves, demanding that bad guys were primarily enemy operatives, and thus stifling the development of Super-Villains. As a result, their conspicuous absence may have precipitated the rapid decline of so many costumed characters after hostilities ceased.

For America and Democracy | Contents

Key issues

All Star Comics #3 (December 1940)

The Justice Society of America premieres.

All Star Comics #4 (March–April 1941)

The Justice Society’s take on first mission together.

Leading Comics #1 (December 1941)

DC launches its own Super Hero team, the Seven Soldiers of Victory.

Leading Comics #15 (June 1945)

Abrupt thematic switch to funny animal stories signals decline of comic book Super Heroes.

All Star Comics #57 (March 1951)

The last Justice Society of America story.

All Star Western #58 (May 1951)

All Star Comics transforms into a western anthology.

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Wonder Woman Arrives in Man’s World

January 1942

National Allied Publications/Detective Comics Inc. set the standard for Super Heroes before sister company All American Publications responded with its own string of stars. AA’s most enduring success was Wonder Woman. Debuting in Sensation Comics #1—the new Super Hero was a complete reversal of established trends, courtesy of psychologist William Moulton Marston and illustrator Harry G. Peter.

For America and democracy!

Following her sensational 1941 debut in All Star Comics, the war against tyranny greatly advanced when Wonder Woman joined the fight.

Wonder Woman is the ultimate female exemplar. Since her debut, she has entered global consciousness, a paradigm of comics’ values, and an inspirational symbol to women everywhere. The amazing Amazon epitomizes the eternal balance between brains and strength and has joined a select group of literary creations, such as Sherlock Holmes, Dracula, or Tarzan, to achieve meta-reality.

Conceived by psychologist and polygraph pioneer William Moulton Marston—a forward thinker embracing comics’ educational potential—Wonder Woman’s adventures were a communal effort, credited to Charles Moulton. Marston’s stories were influenced by his wife, Elizabeth, and their life partner, Olive Byrne. He died in May 1947, and former secretary Joye Hummel ghost-wrote around 70 scripts between 1944 and 1947 before writer Robert Kanigher assumed control. Aside from early fill-ins by artist Frank Godwin, the adventures they collectively penned were mostly drawn by illustrator Harry G. Peter, with Irwin Hasen and Bernard Sachs helping out before Peter’s death in 1958.

Wonder Woman was an earnest attempt to offer girls positive, powerful role models, and—for editor M.C. Gaines and his brilliant assistant Sheldon Mayer—a sound move to sell more comics to girls. All Star Comics #8 (cover-dated Jan. 1942, but actually on sale from October 21, 1941) introduced Wonder Woman, and she formally debuted one month later as the cover feature of a new anthology. Her debut in All Star Comics was an unprecedented move—with pages added to the title—giving the new hero a canny sales boost from the start.

A man! A man on Paradise Island! Quick! Let’s get him to the hospital.

Princess Diana | All Star Comics #8

Secret origin

In combination, Introducing Wonder Woman and Wonder Woman Comes to America reveal how a secluded society of immortal super-women changes forever after US Army Intelligence Captain Steve Trevor crashes on their island. His recovery is supervised by young, impressionable, headstrong Princess Diana.

Ready maid alias

The Amazon solved two problems and helped true love’s course by acquiring the identity of Army nurse Diana Prince.

Dreading her child’s growing obsession with the interloper from an intractably violent world, Diana’s mother, Queen Hippolyte, recounts the Amazons’ history. They were seduced and betrayed by men but rescued by goddess Aphrodite on condition that they isolate themselves and devote their energies to becoming ideal beings.

Secret weapons!

Diana arrived in the wider world, bearing unique armaments—indestructible Amazonium bracelets, a throwing tiara, and an invisible plane. Her magical Lasso of Truth would not be created until Sensation Comics #6.

After Trevor explains the sinister plot that accidentally brought him to the island, and how the planet is imperiled, Athena and Aphrodite instruct Hippolyte to send an Amazon back with him to America to fight for freedom and liberty. An open contest seeking the best candidate is held and, despite being forbidden to compete, Diana triumphs to become their emissary. Accepting the outcome, Hippolyte dispatches Diana to Man’s World with an arsenal of super-scientific and magical weapons.

Role reversal

Gallant and go-getting, action man Steve Trevor found difficulty adapting to the role of hostage and victim in need of constant rescuing.

Secret identity

Leading from the front in Sensation Comics, the story resumed with Wonder Woman comes to America as the culture-shocked hero leaves Trevor in a hospital before foiling dangerous bank robbers and briefly falling in with a smooth-talking con artist. Perhaps the most telling innovation was buying her secret identity from lovelorn Army nurse Diana Prince. This elegantly allowed the princess covert access to Steve while enabling the heartsick medic to join her fiancé in South America. Wonder Woman and Captain Trevor then crush a spy ring that had targeted a Draft Induction Center with poison gas. Typically, Steve breaks his leg and ends up in the hospital again, where Nurse Prince once more takes care of him.

An instant, game-changing hit, Wonder Woman won her solo title months later (Summer 1942), and her success saw her, along with Superman and Batman, survive beyond the Golden Age of costumed heroes. For decades, Wonder Woman was the most popular female Super Hero on the newsstands and an inspiration to generations of young girls.

The gentle touch

Dedicated to peace, Wonder Woman knew when to apply force and exactly how much was needed to end conflict.

Wonder Woman Arrives in Man’s World | Contents

Key issues

Action Comics #1 (June 1938)

Super Heroes begin.

Flash Comics #1 (January 1940)

All American Publications launches its first Super Hero heavy title.

All Star Comics #1 (Summer 1940)

DC and AA feature characters such as Sandman, The Flash, The Spectre, Hawkman, and Hourman in a shared anthology comic book.

All Star Comics #3 (Winter/December 1940)

The Justice Society of America debuts.

All Star Comics