The Dynamic Duo
May 7, 2008 by The Fortress Keeper
Oops.
It appears your friendly neighborhood Keeper has accidentally locked himself in the Fortress’ Golden Age exhibit.
So, instead of opining (again) on the return of Barry Allen and DC’s inability to pair Grant Morrison up with a decent artist on Batman (sole exception: J.H. Williams III on the “Club of Heroes” story), we will take another dip into the public domain for a rip-roaring tale of he-man action.
Today, the spotlight is on Blue Bolt - a Flash Gordon-esque character who discovers a lost kingdom beneath the earth and finds himself matching wits with the deadly Green Sorceress, one of the most striking villains of the Golden Age.
Blue Bolt was created by Joe Simon, who enlisted a valuable partner to help write and draw the character for the next dozen or so issues - Jack Kirby
The following story, which originally appeared in Blue Bolt Comics #2, is the first Simon & Kirby tale to appear in comics. Unlike the assembly-line approach seen in American comics through most of the medium’s history, this story is a true collaboration between two creators working closely together.
Although a bit primitive compared to what the two would achieve later in their careers, Simon & Kirby’s Blue Bolt clearly displays the spark of genius that would go on to create Captain America, Young Romance and a host of other landmark characters and titles.
It’s funny. Normally, I’d expect that if the story opens on a character talking about their completing a machine to hurl trillions of volts of electricity at someone’s kingdom, with the hero in the same room, that character would be the villain, who captured the hero.
I can really picture Silver Age Lex Luthor spouting that off to a captured Jimmy Olsen, who’s bait so Lex can try shooting Superman with trillions of volts (which Superman would probably pretend to be affected by, so he could be brought inside Lex’ lair, so he could deliver a more humiliating defeat).
I wonder if that means anything in relation to changes in comics, or if it’s just me.
When I first read the story, I had much the same reaction. Then I heard that Simon & Kirby were channeling their feelings about Hitler’s conquest of Europe into the strip, and the sentiment of defeating an enemy at all costs made a little more sense.
In the next installment, there’s a lot of talk about disarmament so Blue Bolt and friends weren’t completely blood-thirsty.
Of course, they did employ a mind-wipe to get the job done …