For All Mankind #12

Rob and Super Friend Terry O'Malley review "The Atomic Twosome" by E. Nelson Bridwell, Ramona Fradon, and Bob Smith, from SUPER FRIENDS #12! Plus Listener Feedback!

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Opening and closing themes by Hanna Barbera.

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31 responses to “For All Mankind #12

  1. At the risk of crossing show-streams, I never had “Mountain” comics, but I did have “boating” comics. My dad had a small boat when I was growing up and the family went fishing most weekends. While it was fun for my brother and father, I always got seasick so I would bring a book or comic along to enjoy and focus on while the boat rocked back and forth. This was one of the comics i would bring along. If I could share a pic of the actual issues, you would see that it was well read and much loved.

  2. Wow! TNT & Dyna-Mite! Maybe after vanishing from the pages of DC they joined up with the Earth-1 versions of Wildcat and Greg Saunders Vigilante and did some wildcat prospecting in the American south west and found a fortune in silver. They the lived happily ever after.
    Jayna’s confusion about elephant seals supports the theory that, at least under E. Nelson Bridwell, she could turn into any creature she could imagine and be granted any abilities she believed them to have.
    As far as the ages of The Wonder Twins, they would seem to be the equivalent of 17 or 18 in Earth Years. I base this on their cartoon appearances where they are often seen hanging out and talking to teenagers who drive and hang out unsupervised. Several of them are often seen wearing Lettermen’s Jackets suggesting they are juniors or seniors in High School. This has been another installment of Matt over thinks trivial pop culture!
    It was interesting to hear that Terry worked at the New England Aquarium. Anyone who grew up watching WLVI TV 56 out of Boston knows the New England Aquarium even if they’ve never been.
    “What a giant turtle!”
    “Look how close they are!”
    “I can walk like penguin.”
    “Hey mom, the dolphin show!”
    Thank guys for a great episode

  3. Fun episode. As I have said I collected a smattering of Super Friends but not all, so hearing about these issues is a blast.

    I mostly knew TNT and the Dynamite Kid from Young All-Stars so hearing this story (maybe this is Earth-Haney?) and their sad fate was wild!

    I also have to admit, sheepishly, that Jayna is quite fetching in this issue. Quite fetching indeed.

    And yes Matt, I remember that commercial completely! Terry has such fun jobs – Aquarium, Museum of Science, musician! Way more hip than me!

  4. Always a pleasure to hear Terry on the network! I have never owned or read this issue, so I don’t know when I first learned TNT and Dan appeared in Super Friends, but my first reactions were probably “Why?” and “How?”. This does seem to violate the “Superboy/Man was the first super hero on Earth-One” rule, so it surprises me that ENB would want to go there, being DC’s unofficial/official Superman historian. Seeing Ramona Fradon draw the “Dynamite” Duo makes me realize how much they look like the Phantom, just like Menagerie Man!

    And it’s okay Rob, looking at the pages in the gallery, I couldn’t help but think “Wow, Jayna is cute”. I think most of us listening were younger than Jayna (whether she was 15 or 18) when we first encountered her, so it also helps cut down on the “ick” factor. She’d be older than all of us now! I don’t recall having a big crush on Jayna, but I did on just about every Filmation female, from Batgirl, to Teela!

    Chris

  5. Not to get too far ahead of all this, but there is back-up story in a later issue of Super Friends in which Zan and Jayna are shown attending high school. So they’re supposed to be younger than 18 for sure…

  6. Last issue, we met Superman look-alike Prince Mark. This issue, we got to see Superman look-alike Van-Zee. Now, I’m curious. Are there any more Superman look-alikes out there, and have they ever all teamed up together with the Man of Steel? I’m guessing he could get up to some real super-shenanigans with the help of the Society of Superman Look-Alikes (trademark pending).

    Thanks for another excellent episode.

      1. There is an issue of ACTION COMICS circa 1976 where several Superman look-alikes and men who have pretended to be Superman were all on the Johnny Carson Show. Dr. Light assumes one of them is the real Man of Steel and attempts to kill all of them. It’s pretty cool, even though it doesn’t actually feature either Prince Mark (IIRC) or Van Zee.

        1. Mort Weisinger would say in lettercols, to readers questioning the existence of all these doubles, that statisticians say everyone on Earth has at least 17 doubles, so how many must be out there in the universe?

          Yeah, sure Mort.

      2. Tim Price would approve of that edit! Van-Zee and other Kandorian look-alikes (the Kryptonian genome lacks variety) did form a squad of substitutes to double for Kal-El in a pinch. Once in Superman or Action #idon’tremember, one went crazy as a result of an accident and thought he was Superman.

    1. The original 1950s Metallo was a double for Clark Kent, but with a mustache. I think Alex Ross used this version in his Justice miniseries.

  7. Hello everyone!

    Rob, thanks so much for another great podcast. I eagerly look forward to them each month.

    Since it’s been discussed numerous times that the color scheme for villains is green and purple, shall we discuss the cover of issue #12? TNT, the assumed villain, is drawn in ‘atomic’ green, against a purple background.

    Regarding Aquaman and his telepathic abilities, we will see him using his telepathy on other animals in SF, similar to issue #6, when he communicated with walruses when fighting the Menagerie Man.

    One of my favorite aspects of this issue is that we see Zan & Jayna actually in training. In the cartoon they are constantly talking about training, and wanting to be ‘real’ super heroes, but we never really see them training.

    As for the ages of the twins, they are somewhere between 16 and 18. Two minor spoilers …..in the origin story (which will appear in issue #14) it is mentioned that the twins have no rights until the age of 20 under Exxorian law. It also mentions that they were taught to fly spaceships “when they were old enough”. If we equate that to getting a driver’s permit, that would put them between 16 and 18.

    Thanks again for your hard work!

    Chuck

  8. Another great episode! I agree with Terry that the story was good, but proved to be unsatisfying. Too much build up, and then…..what? The two poor slobs are separated again, seemingly forever. So what was the point?
    I did like seeing the Wonder Twins training with the Super Friends, and I sometimes wondered why Wendy & Marvin weren’t featured in the same way. They should have been taught how to box or spar, too, right? I don’t recall them ever being used in that way.

  9. One more thought that just came to me. We have a contrast between two dynamic duos who touch their hands to gain powers. One set turns into facets of nature, the other into destructive energy. A subtle message perhaps?

  10. I was buying SF monthly by the time this one came out and enjoyed seeing some heroes I’d heard about only on some ENB text page in Secret Origins or wherever, but found the ending downbeat, like most everyone else here. Two best pals finally are free from imprisonment after decades, only to be split up and made into sub-Human Bombs? They deserved a speedy sequel.

    Given the hotness of the Wonder Twins this issue, how do we interpret the ecstatic look on Aquaman’s face as Zan gives him a special shower?

    And there’s an equivalent panel on the centre panel of page 13, when Jayna is thrusting her chest out towards Arthur before, apparently, her arms become elephant seal ears.

    Back to the doubles business, how pure must Kryptonian DNA be when Van-Zee’s response to, ‘Why, Van-Zee looks just like you, Superman’ is, ‘I should do, we’re cousins’.

  11. Welcome to the podcast Terry!
    It was great to hear from you in this episode and I look forward to hearing you on the next episode as well!

    Although as a character I like Robin more than Aquaman (sorry Rob) I don’t really think that Robin WOULD BE able to outspeed Aquaman on land as shown on page 12. I’m surprised that Rob didn’t stick up for this MISTAKE! (big grin)

    As anyone who listens to this show probably knows, I LOOOOOOOOOVE (with 10 O’s) the Super Friends comic. However, that being said, this is one of my least favorite issues. The only things that I like about this issue are the training session being shown, Ramona’s art, and the last panel appearance of Dr. Mist.
    All that to say I’m so happy that this podcast exists. Although this issue is kinda a dud for me, by listening to the podcast and then reading all of the comments here, I HAVE now enjoyed this story – even if it’s only because of all of the ‘bonus material’.

  12. “Good lord! A flying man!” I don’t get it — these two WWII mystery men were kept in bunkers but there was no reason for, y’know, NEWS, to have been withheld from them for all that time. A copy of the Daily Planet with their meal, so they can read about these new superpowered guys battling evil out there? I guess that couldn’t be arranged. Hope these two at least got word that the good guys won the war an’ stuff.

    James Robinson’s “The Golden Age” provides an alternate story of what happens to Dan Dunbar, although not one that can fit with the events of this Super Friends story. That reminds me that DC has a Golden Age crimefighter named Tex Thompson, while TNT’s name is Tex Thomas. Maybe it’s just me, but I often have to differentiate these two Texes mentally when I come across one or the other of them in comics. It doesn’t help matters that Thompson used multiple costumed identities. If there’s a third Tex T. in DC that I don’t know about, please DON’T tell me about him — I don’t wanna know!

    What I do wanna know is — how come that famous emoji of Jayna’s hair isn’t the right color? You know the happy-faced emoji in the shape of Jayna’s ‘do. It’s brown for some reason, but that’s not Jayna’s hair color. Weird.

  13. Thanks for inviting me to the Hall of Justice, Rob! Also, thanks for the encouraging comments, super friends!
    I want to touch on a couple of things I said in the ‘cast. First, in talking about the future appearance of TNT, I said the book was Super-Team Family. That was wrong, it’s Superman Family #190. My brain regrets the error made by my mouth. Secondly, I tried to foreshadow part of my discussion by mentioning a certain panel, but then we never discussed that panel! In the penultimate panel on the last page, Superman mentions a recent fight with The Parasite. That was in Superman #321-322. What I wanted to discuss was how E. Nelson Bridwell acknowledged specific stories currently happening in the DC Universe! As a young reader, I was often annoyed at how some events would never be mentioned in other books. Did any Justice Leaguer ever express their sympathies to Aquaman for the loss of his child? On panel? etc.
    Finally, here’s the link to the song that Rob let me plug on the show. https://rumbarrecords.bandcamp.com/track/some-kind-of-christmas-free-digital-download-single
    See you next month, Crime Stoppers!

  14. Another great episode! Although I felt the issue itself was a little “meh”, I laughed out loud twice – once when Jayne turned into an elephant seal and even more so when Zan “refreshed” Aquaman! Ick!
    Also not reading ahead but I know the global guardians are coming, so was very excited to see Dr.Mist!

  15. Back in the days before All-Star Squadron first appeared and Roy Thomas declared that all 1940s DC and Quality characters lived on Earth-2, there was an established continuity of some pre-Superboy Earth-1 heroes–just no MAJOR superheroes. But Zatara, Robotman, Sargon, and Vigilante (at least an Earth-1 counterpart of Vigilante) were all shown at various times as Earth-1 heroes that predated Superman.

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