MLJ is better known as the publisher of Archie Comics, but they have a superhero universe that is often forgotten by comic book fans. This is a documentary about their heroes and the creative people who created them.
@@TheMrPeteChannel I mean they push Riverdale so darn much, then again we're no longer in the age of Saturday Morning Cartoons which is where I could only see the Archie heroes getting a fair shot then as a live CW'esq TV show. Shield would be just written off as a Captain America knockoff (by those who don't bother doing any research of course)
Captain America co creator Joe Simon noted in an interview in the pages of the old Comic Scene Magazine that John Goldwater threatened Timely comics with a lawsuit, daring to claim that Timely's Captain America was a copy of MLJ's the Shield. Mr. Simon noted that while that forced Timely to re imagine Capt. America's shield from triangular to becoming a disc/circle, but he, personally, felt MLJ never really understood how to do superheroes properly.
Hi Dino, that was a good call on Simon's part. These characters all feel like they are close-but not fully developed. It's weird because even the new versions of these characters feel that way.
it wasn’t just the shield, it was the look of the character as well…and if you read between the lines he never refuted their claim of ripping their character off just taking a cheap shat at them over their characters not doing well
Wow, these characters are just really unlucky. Videos that profile heroes like these are always intriguing to me because it's a glimpse at how the comics landscape was like and how once upon a time, it wasn't just Marvel and DC doing well with superheroes.
As a collector of old-time radio programs, I was excited to learn about The Black Hood. With the character being broadcast by the Mutual Network, chances are that all but one of the episodes were destroyed in the same fire at the network hq that destroyed many of the episodes of The Adventures of Superman.
Same here. I was 10, and freshly obsessed with comics. This was right before Image started up, and before I started direct ordering, so I was limited to the offerings of grocery stores and walmart (as there was no comic store near me). All those first issues were so exciting for me. I liked The Fly the best.
the fox is a great legacy character. i especially love the stories "freak magnet" and "fox hunt" by dean haspiel and mark waid. definitely comics made for golden age fans and people who read comics to enjoy them
From the video's title, I'm surprised there was no mention of Captain Pureheart / Pureheart the Powerful staring Archie Andrews. (Starting in the mid-1960s.) Betty Cooper was Superteen, Jughead Jones was Captain Hero, and Little Archie was Little Pureheart. Reggie Mantle was a supervillain called Evilheart. Veronica was added to the Super Teens series in the 1990s as Miss Vanity.
I loved the Impact line, especially The Fly and Jaguar. Out of all of Archie's recent superhero comics, The Fox is my favorite, and I wish they would do more with him.
Hi Jolene Randoll--I want to read them too...I looked up on ebay and Amazon and the price of those books are through the roof...some of the books were going for $200 a pop! YIKES! That's just a little outside my budget for a paperback.
I had probably the whole line of the Charlton Heroes figures from the 80s. I think they came out around the Marvel Secret Wars figure release. The Web is one I recall well. I would use them as the casualty list when I played with my comics figures, they made good rabble! Wish I still had them. Thanks for the video, brings back some 'swell' memories of my boyhood comics days.
@@FizzFop1 Ah, Woolworths. The "Mighty Crusader" figures I had were bought from a MiCrorys, a dept. store just like a Woolworths...maybe you remember them. I suppose I was 9-10 years old when they came out based on Secret Wars time line.
I loved the simple more for kids mighty comics group. Great memories for me when i found these comics and I have also read the red circle comics from the 80’s. I recommend these for anybody who likes nostalgia.
Wow, cool vid! Loved the Impact Comics and had the full run of The Shield, The Fly and The Comet. They were a nice alternative to DC & Marvel. What actually drew me to The Shield in the first place was remembering I had a figure of him from back in the day. Back then I didn't know anything about them but just that they were cool looking figures, lol. Enjoyed hearing more about the history of these heroes.
love the impact series almost have the complete set. love how the whole thing comes together as one big story and even felt a little saddened by the fall of the comet. great story none the less. even better knowing they tied into the originals
Hi dustin! I have a handful of the impact series. I was out of collecting at that point. I do have almost a complete Red Circle 80s run. I will have to check them out sometime.
I got a few of them and some of the earlier stuff very hard to collect for but if I ever find them no matter the condition I buy them. love the stories very retro and comfortable feeling for a person that is tired of the whole galaxy or universe being threatened all the time. I like the old school bank robber with a strange masked boss or a mad scientist every now and then. the impact run tied into all the older comics with a few characters from the 70's appearing and even talking about the originals from the early 40's it was a nice long story but a bunch of stand alone ones as well. worked out well. read the mighty crusaders and the crucible from impact and you will be impressed with the series
Hi chwen hoou! Thanks for watching! I'm a child of the 70s/80s. I didn't get a chance to see them until their Red Circle run...fell totally in love with them. I still feel that 80s run should have lasted longer.
Hi Patrick, actually they still live. Archie currently has a Mighty Crusaders title under the Dark Circle banner. It's drawn and written in a Marvel 90s throwback way. The new title feature the children of these heroes.
Hi Jeremy, Thanks for watching!!! I really liked The Black Hood too...my local comic shop owner claimed they didn't sell and stopped shelving them. Shame.
The small shops struggle to stay in business and they pay for what they order and are stuck with the inventory. That makes them more hesitant to take risks on lesser-known titles. I got lucky in the sense that a guy had put it on his pull list, then never showed up again.
Your channel is very quickly becoming one of my favorite daily go-tos for little interesting factoids about comics' past. :) So happy to have found your channel.
Hi Jamie, thanks for watching. I wish I could produce videos faster. It takes time to do research and my computer is dying. Hope to have a few new videos out soon.
Great set of characters . I had most of all there books except for the Gold age one's. I wish someone would bring them back out again but do them right with the original characters.
Good to have you back! I was hungry for a new video. I think I've watched your video library a million times. Keep up the good work. I can't wait for more!
Thanks Chuck...I've been busy...the place I work at was moving locations and they decided to maintain the workload instead of shutting down for a month...I got tons of over time which left me no time to work on Lost Heroes. I also tried to juggle five videos at once and it bogged me down. I just started focusing to get one done.
Hi Surge, yeah it was the 1980s Red Circle books that hooked me to these characters as well. All of them are great under appreciated books. Shame they never caught on...I'm trying to find the new relaunch Dark Circle books...hard because most shops in my area are not carrying them. From the few I've seen, they are okay...not great...not awful...but solid. My gut instinct is they are going to continue to struggle.
I got into these characters in the mid-60;s revival, the GA versions were mostly great, a few like Mr. Satan were duds. I figure Bob Phantom got his name from the letter pages of The Phantom Detective where reader's letters were were addressed "Dear Bob" ( the author ) or Dear Phantom ( the hero ).
I actually owned the exact Superhero comic digest with the Black hood that you showed (my first exposure to him and the Fly ) as a kid. I remember buying it from a bus station! Wow!
Hi Drake! These characters have so much potential...it amazes me how mismanaged these characters are. There was a brief spark in the 1980s, but there was too much competition at an amazing level for them to compete. To jump start a superhero universe like this...you have to commit to a long term plan. MLJ has always pulled the plug when they don't get instant success. It's a shame.
I like this series... we've also been doing similar videos over on our channel. While most comic book channels focus on Marvel, DC, Image and Valiant... We like to focus on lesser known heroes from those publishers as well as Dynamite, Boom, IDW etc.
Man, these MLJ characters seem really, really cool. Especially The Comet in terms of his design and even the fact that he was killed off. I confess I haven't read them much of them, even the Impact resurrection in the early 90's, but this documentary really makes them come off interesting and different.
Hi kforcer! Thanks for watching! It's sort of a shame they never got any of the revivals off the ground. I can only speculate as to why they don't get traction with readers. It's a solid super hero universe.
In the UK we had black-and-white reprints of some of these heroes during the late 60s to mid-70s. It was a real cheap paper stock and had hit-and-miss distribution. You would have several full stories with Characters like the Black Hood, The Fly and Dynamo etc. These stories were fun but had very little depth to them.
In the first Mighty Crusaders comic, they run into 2 other teams of golden age MLJ heroes; the Terrific Three, and the Ultramen. But those teams never appeared again. I always thought it would have been cool if they had tried to do more with them, even if only as backup stories in other books. I think the Fox was a member of the Ultramen, and when they came out with the Red Circle line in the 80's, they gave the Fox a female helper called She-Fox. It would have been great if they had added her to the Ultramen team. Also in the '80s they had a team of robot dopplegangers of past MLJ heroes fight the Mighty Crusaders; I think they were called the Malevolent Legion of Juggernauts (MLJ). I always thought it would be cool if they said they were based on a team of those original heroes called the Mighty Legion of Justice, making them kind of like the Defenders were to the Avengers
I vaguely recall reading the fourth issue of Mighty Cruaders ("Too Many Heroes") with great delight. A barber shop back issue, as I recall! Anyway, when DC came out with the Impact line, I gave it a try. But, I gotta be honest. I much preferred their Red Circle effort. Followed by Archie Group's New Crusaders! The quantity of issues published might not have been impressive. But, for me, the quality of story-telling was. 🙂
Very interesting although in all honesty, I thought this was going to be a video about Pureheart (Archie), Captain Hero (Jughead), and Super Teen (Betty) and their nemesis Evilheart (Reggie). :)
i always liked these heroes. i liked all the shields and the fly. i had that digest as a kid that black hood was great. i thought the 2008 dc books pretty good. the black circle was pretty dark. the shield was decent . i like the thunder agents but they are another group ppl keep trying to bring back and it never works.
I think altogether they managed to put out four or five titles. I think they may have had a western and a war comic as well as the super hero titles. I really loved the Tower heroes. It's a shame that they are tied up in legalities so that we may never see new stories ever again. I've heard that DC Comics did a mini series with George Perez art and can't release it. Rumor has it that the artwork for it is some of his best. It's a total shame the world will probably never get to see it.
Funny enough I was very into the Impact! line when it came out or knew a lot about it but, just the other day, on a whim, bought the three issues loose leaf Who's Who comics DC put out at the time. The characters seem kind of interesting. I was thinking of tracking down the actual comics next.
Thank you for the compliment V.K.S. I'm learning on these as I go along. The best way to learn is by doing. I've gotten to the point where I enjoy coming home after work and put in another 8 hours editing (lol).
That's wonderful! Practise makes perfect! It's also good that you enjoy doing these. It's no good working on something if you don't enjoy it. Btw (I know it won't be out for a while) what's in stall for the next video and will you be doing live action reenactments again like in the Black Bat episode?
You missed the fact that Jack Jones played Black Jack between cases and the corrupt cops who tried to kill him mocked him by giving him the Jack of Spades as they walled himup. Gwandanaland does EXCELLENT collection of these G.A.public domain stories. The Black Circle range got me into The Black Hood.
Steel Sterling’s origin sounds like a bonkers 60s origin if it was done to him by force or a 90s origin if done as an alternative to the death penalty- crazy yet somehow works.
The Web's retirement was short lived, as he would put on his costume and continue to fight crime behind his wife's back. She eventually finds out about this, gets really angry, but then decides to just become a superhero herself, she takes self defense lessons, puts on a black and red costume, and takes the name "Pow Girl", the gimmick was that while Pow Girl would help The Web often, he has no idea that Pow Girl is actually his wife, and that the reason she forgave him for donning the costume again is because she is being a superhero herself to keep an eye on him.
It’s that Siegel touch of rich, delicious stoopid. I had to get old to appreciate this kind of wild and desperate story crafting. See also: MF Enterprises Captain Marvel and ACG’s Magicman and Nemesis!
Seems like those early Golden Age versions of these characters were all around better. There's no doubt that Cyclops and Solar/Doctor Solar took their look from The Comet. Something that always bugged me about the use of Shield is that his early look of literally having this huge American shield on his chest was such a stricking image and good look for a super-hero but since then everytime companies used the Shield, they took it away and made the character more plain. Even MLJ themselves quickly dropped the big shield. Maybe it's easier to not draw it, I don't know. But without it the character just look more average and just another Captain America rip-off. S'mont, people, his name is The Shield! lol And that shield is why he stands out!
Day the earth stood still copied idea with a robot which shot beam from visor and came after Comet so might have also copied that if they did not know about the Comet.
Yeah! A new video! Wow! Amazing research! Good job once again! The 80's line up had some potential. I don't know if it was editorial or lack of good writing staff, but they sure had some great artists lined up: Carmine infantino (on the Comet), Steve Ditko (The Fly), Gray Morrow (Black Hood), and, my favorite, Alex Toth on the Fox and some covers. Jim Steranko also did a cover or two IIRC. The 90's DC Impact line also had some potential. I liked their version of the female Jaguar (especially the early issues with art by David Williams), The Fly (with amazing Mike Parobeck art), and weird but interesting Black Hood (with art by another personnal favorite Rick Burchett).
Hi Rangersly!!! I liked the 80s Red Circle a lot and supported them. I loved Buckler's work. The line couldn't catch fire...I think distribution had something to do with it...I had to order them through a distributor...they didn't show up at the grocery store or my local comic shop shelves until they went back to the Archie Adventure Series logo. The 90s Impact line was interesting--but at times I felt like they were trying too hard to be cool. I did like their version of the Jaguar...it was probably their best book (especially those first issues).
I really love this series. Since you brought up Tower Comics, even though they aren't part of the Golden Age, any thoughts of making a video of the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents?
Hi Peter! Thanks for watching! I'm a big fan of the Thunder Agents. I became quite giddy when I discovered their connection with Archie Comics (via Harry Shorten). I haven't planned on doing anything with them in the near future, but it would be a great idea for a story...especially with all the litigation over ownership.
I found a collection of the New Crusaders series a while back, which was my first introduction to the MLJ library. I was deeply disappointed to see that the series was canceled; it had a lot of promise imo.
In England. In the mid /late comics . We had the fly, the hangman ,the fox and many others in b/w comics. Forgot what the comics were but they had funny toons with them.
Thanks KecloserotPrime! I do a horrible job promoting Lost Hero. I've had people constantly tell me that I have to end the videos with a reminder to hit "Like" and "Share." I personally don't like that ending...it sounds needy to me. I also question how effective it is. I've talked to a number of web people about getting subscribers and views on youtube and no one has an answer. The only thing I can think of is to get more people to share the vids on their social media...but the big question is "How do I do that?"
Thanks!!! I'm working on three videos right now. Two of them are on pulp heroes so I have to build a lot of the visuals. It takes me forever to get them done.
@@FizzFop1 A lot of that stuff is basically forgotten about. I myself even forgot Shield did not ripoff Cap even though at one time I knew it. Old age lol.
Hi the dread tyger! When I saw those covers, I knew I had to work them into the story...by the way Midwood Publishing also comes up in my Wally Wood video. I go into a little more detail about how they came about.
Wow, could these be the most-rebooted superheroes of all time? Is there any continuity between runs? Or any fun retcons like Miracleman? I say WELL DONE keep up the good work, keep that comics-love alive!
Hi Stephen! Thanks for watching. From what I can tell, the books are all over the place. Some are strung together with a thread of continuity while other runs are startups. It's a mess.
@FizzFop1 I was surprised there was no mention of when Archie Comics decided to make the Archie characters into into super heroes like Archie (Pureheart The Powerful), Betty Cooper (Superteen), Reggie Mantle (Evilheart, a sometimes villain/sometimes hero, depending on his mood), and Forsythe "Jughead" Jones (Captain Hero). On a side note, how many of us remember " A. R. C. H. I. E.: The Man From R.I.V.E.R.D.A.L.E. " from back in the spy days?
I remember picking up some of the 90s issues circa 1993 thinking they were some sort of obscure Zero Hour like themed comics but were actually too bland for my taste and weren't as anatomically correct. I guess I missed out on thr 80s line because those ones look awesome.
@@FizzFop1 Thanks a bunch! The comics I love from the 30s to 50s just because of the mindframe of the writers att are often very expensive and don't come by easily. But I also LOVE 80s comics because of the creative light upon which they were created so I ocassionally drop by a comic book store here in Montevideo which has CB from the 70s onwards so that helps a lot!
I kinda blame myself to a degree for Red Circle heroes not getting a bigger push on DC since I did like how the Shield looked in that mid--00s run (even having some random cameos as someone not involved in any individual story but helping to evacuate innocents while all the shit was going down). I just didn't have nearly the disposable income so I had to pick carefully what I followed back then, sometime to my regret such as Countdown to Final Crisis ugh! Still I thought they and the Millstone roster could have been a better fit into the DCU then Jim Lee's Wildstorm, where many characters felt too close a parallel to already iconic big DC guys.
Hi theblocksays! I sort of felt the same way. I didn't really support them under the DC either. Wish I had because I'm not all that thrilled with the new direction of the characters.
Now I want to go read and collect the Impact runs. When I was a snooty 14 year old I just scoffed at the adds in DC comics lol. I never really realized they were GA characters
With a cover like that I'd love to be in the girls dormitory lol After reading up on them I think part of the problem with the Archie heroes was the lack of risk taken by the publishers and writers, the time to comeback was back in between the 70's and 80's when the comic art reflected the times. It's a shame really I would have loved a third company to compete against marvel and DC to break up the monotony of Captain america and superman.
Hi Player Juan! I totally agree...also, I think there was also a failure to take a risk with the recent Dark Circle relaunch...those comics were about as dark as Noon in the Sahara. None of the stories had any type of edge on them...they pretty much played it safe and boring, and that was probably the reason why they failed. As for those paperback covers used in the end credits, they were priceless...I had a hard time picking which ones to use...I found dozens of them and they were all hysterical.
Y'know, I really like the Fox-inspired idea of a super who's got a camera built into his costume to take snaps of the action. Modernize it and you get some cape who's set up to livestream himself on patrol and has a social media account set up for crime tips. Patreon-sponsored vigilante, anyone?
Yeah, you can't look at him without thinking about Cyclops. If you look throughout the golden age, you can see where Marvel people like Stan Lee or Roy Thomas found their influences.
Yep, what a loss, but that's what happened back in those days. I use to work for an NBC affiliate...one day I see the creative services director throwing out huge stacks of tapes. It turns out it was the station library from the 1950s, 60s, and 70s. She wanted the office they were stored in. She didn't think about telling anyone or asking permission. She wanted the room. About two months later, the station anniversary was coming up and they wanted to produce a history of the station program...no archive tapes remained...needless to say, when management found out...she was gone. Over the years, I've heard way too many stories like that from TV and radio people.
Hi darkmountain1. I never could quite figure out Archie's popularity either. I always thought the superheroes they had was good enough to make a legit run at Marvel and DC...especially after Marvel pushing away their fanbase like they have in the past couple of years. Unfortunately, the new Dark Circle line followed Marvel with the "woke" cliche story lines and really hasn't made a name for themselves. They could have really rocked the comic world. Shame.
They had copies of The Mighty Crusaders and New Crusaders last time I was at Ollie's Outlet so you might be able to find issues of them there. They also had a newer version of The Shield but this time with a woman might be granddaughter of original have not gotten around to reading it yet.
Love the MLJ heroes! First got into them from the 80's Red Circle Crusader series. Think I still have that first 3 issue arc that reintroduced the team. Love the characters but each version is so different from the last, you'd get whiplash trying to sort it out. Impact was decent, but seemed to lose steam after the first year. The Archie stuff was all over the place and the Dark Circle stuff was trying too hard for my tastes. Did love the Fox minis. Think I need to go back and hunt down the rest of the Red Circle stuff.
I was introduced to them back in the 80s also. Fell in love with the line. I like Impact-but something seemed off...Dark Circle to me was a mess...they really did try too hard to be edgy and missed.
@@FizzFop1 Yeah. The MLJ heroes are great characters but nobody seems to know what to do with them, or get stoo worried that they'll get lost in the crowd if they are written as 'just superheroes', so have to add a bunch of bells and whistles.
@@travishiltz4750 The thing that hurts the worst is the concepts are there. This should be easy for writers to pick up and run with the stories...but I can''t figure out how they go wrong or why these characters can't get traction.
@@FizzFop1 I get it's a crowded market, which can be a problem, but too many writers are overly concerned with making their mark and telling a big story and that's sometimes at the expense of the character. If every story is earth-shaking and changes the status quo, then you have no status quo and very little to hook the reader.
When the Crusaders were reissued in the 80's &90's I got a subscription through my comic shop I enjoyed the series I even collected the individual characters books and crossovers for as long as they were offered I preferred the golden age characters to the modern ones
No Tippy? I’m way late to this party, and this may have gotten covered in another vid. Several comments about the Archie teen humor heroes being omitted, but no mention of the connection back to Tower Comics. I was delighted to see the thread from MLJ through the Midwood sleaze into Tower Comics, but I’m surprised there’s no mention of Tower poaching Samm Schwartz away from his run on Jughead at Archie to do Tippy Teen and Tippy’s Friends Go-Go & Animal for Tower! Some of those got reprinted by Seaboard/Atlas as well! What a crazy business.
greetings from AU This may be a little late, but what a great video, I have always loved these guys, In Australia we came in with the sixties stuff. The heart would skip a beat seeing all those great covers together on the stands.I am always drawn to the more obscure hero/heroine, and love the back history and the guys and gals who choose a career in what would have been the netherworld. I never give a hoot about the Mint condition or the slab, except for preservation. But to hold that comic and wonder where have you been? what did the first owner think when the plucked you off the shelf sixty years ago? Keep up the great work! The Gold Key Kid
Was looking back online I actually kinda liked Roy, despite not visually being a match for Wizard, almost a fusion of Golden age Robin with Buckey Barnes' colors (but blonde). And he even got some solo adventure stories which had to be a first for a boy-sidekick in these comics, including one where he magical painter want him to live model for him and the brush strokes somehow transport him to pre-historic times so he can help of tribe of cavemen defeat caveman Hitler and Mussolini...yeah comics are weird. LOL
Hi Teague! They both sound like a dozen other shows. The radio producers were probably limited at what they could do so everything sounds very similar.
