I liked the balance that dc had with its old horror titles like House of Mystery, The Witching Hour, or House of Secrets. While the stories inside were filled with scary creatures and dark morality tales, the horror hosts that introduced them still had a sense of humor about them. A wicked sense of humor to be sure, but it was definitely there. It was a juxtaposition that worked well for a young reader like I was at the time.
Great title!
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, the cover art could be a little misleading. Like the one where some pretty blonde figure skater was being chased by skeletal hockey players?
ReplyDeleteNo such girl anywhere in that story! The cover for that particular issue was just plainly and simply the illustrative equivalent of clickbait.
Hmmm, not a bad idea actually. If GR was a DC character, I definitely could see him regularly/semi-regularly showing up at the House of Mystery, especially as a member of the JL Dark. He'd fit right in.
ReplyDeleteI like Cain and Able best when they appeared in the Blue Devil comic. The humor was silly but still amusing.
ReplyDeleteOrdinaryguy2
Is that a Daffy Duck "life preserver ring" Cain is wearing?
ReplyDeleteI think it would be funny to see him in the actual house interacting with Cain! The way Cain seemed so casual about scary monsters! And this certainly would be an interesting story!
ReplyDeleteI never recall seeing these titles when I was a kid in the late 70s/early 80s but I always grab them if I spot them in a discount box at a con. They're fun, and since there is no continuity or storylines you don't have to read them in order!
ReplyDelete@Anonymous No. 1--That was HOUSE OF SECRETS #114.
ReplyDelete@Anonymous No. 3--Yes, I believe it is.
Dr. Otr: I know what you mean. It seemed like these titles never made to the spinner racks but languished in the back of the magazine shelves with "Savage Sword" and the biker mags.
ReplyDeleteI think Dale is on to something there. Ghost Rider is probably the ideal Marvel character to team up with JLD in STF.
ReplyDeleteWhat if the events that gave the Marvel heroes their powers (radioactive spider, cosmic rays, gamma bomb, super soldier serum, Adamantium, genetic mutation, etc) only gave them powers after killing them, effectively making all their powers supernatural. Even Stephen Strange's car wreck and Tony Stark stepping on a landmine may have killed them before they went on to become heroes. Of course, divine intervention makes them appear to be alive to humans, but their abilities are all actually supernatural in nature because they are spirits/angels.
ReplyDeleteI thought Tony Stark's powers as Iron Man were from his high-tech armor suit.
ReplyDeleteAnon: Tony's power is his genius at imagining, designing, and building the suit and its gadgets and getting them all to actually work (while partying his ass off). It's at a level far enough at the end of curve to possibly be metahuman or supernatural.
ReplyDeleteYes, Stark came up with most of his tech after stepping on that landmine so maybe he was killed by that act and received supernatural intelligence as a result. You could explain all metahumans and mutants in a similar fashion. They all get powers or abilities after being killed. The powers are bestowed by God but they have free will to use them for good or evil either becoming angels, demons, or something in between.
DeleteMaybe the Force was with Tony when he got caught in that SE Asian explosion (in his comic book origin). If so, that might make him either a descendant or an ancestor of Iaco Stark (from the GFFA)!
ReplyDeleteP.S. @ Ross: hint-hint! ;-)
ReplyDeleteI will always believe that Justice League Dark is a terrible idea. These mysterious heroes have always worked as loners. Sure they team up once and awhile for a great threat, but to form a "team" with a dumb name no less is simply ridiculous and i cant believe these "fans" accept it!!
ReplyDeleteWhy not, Anon? The concept worked for the original Silver Age Defenders over at Marvel!
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