Showcase 12
January - February 1958

"The Menace of the Ancient Vials!"

Cover: Jack Kirby and Marvin Stein
Editor: Jack Schiff
Writer, penciller: Jack Kirby
Inker: Marvin Stein
24 pages

Characters: Ace Morgan, Rocky Davis, Prof Haley, Red Ryan. Intro: Amos Hunter, Chet Hollister, Dr. Rodney. Villains: Karnak, a kraken, Brommer, Gortz, a Fire Being.

Synopsis: An international criminal acquires vials containing sorceror's potions that can expand a person's size, create a fire being, or create duplicates of its drinker. The Challengers must combat and defeat all these dangers.

Story and art © DC Comics

Much text generously supplied by DarkMark's Comic Indexing Domain!

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Comments

Another hodge-podge issue, almost a duplicate of Showcase 6. Their first appearance had four menaces made by alchemists hidden in drawers in a magic box. Now four ancient alchemical vials pop out four more menaces. (Didn't anyone learn anything from Pandora?) The Challs knock off each menace singly and then round up the bad guys who spilled them. The story ends up four shorts strung together but, hey, it's exciting.

This epic battle was filmed live and shown in newsreels all over the world. One person who saw it, and was inspired to heroics himself, was Jonn Jonzz, who became the Manhunter from Mars (New Frontier 3).

Jack Kirby also, uh, revisited the theme in Marvel's Tales of Suspense 8.

Interesting the demographics of comics. Clearly the book is designed for teen and pre-teen boys. And look at the subtext.

In the 1950s, when America had nothing real to fret about, the media manufactured the idea that juvenile deliquency should be in everyone's worry box. There were many efforts at social engineering: short videos to demonstrate proper behavoior for kids (and adults), church programs, public burnings of comic books(!), and public service ads like "Wanted: A Teen-Age Code". Message: Teens should self-police, such as "Don't crash parties."

At the other end of the spectrum, but still on the same line, DC published many comedy titles based on movies and television shows. (TV was not yet the One-Eyed Monster.) Bob Hope, Jerry Lewis, Sgt Bilko, and The Honeymooners were popular titles. Of course, there was a paucity of superheroes. Their emphasis on grisly crimes - cited before a Congressional investigation - had almost extinguished superheroes. Reading about crime led children to emulate gangsters, went the theory. Or at the least, become juvenile deliquents.