Reviewed by Brian Domingos

It's called MORE FUN COMICS and let me tell you, it certainly is.

This milestone issue contains the first adventures of Green Arrow (and Speedy, the Cyclone Kid) and Aquaman, King of the Seas, as well as stories featuring the Spectre, and a thrilling lead story about Doctor Fate. Basically, these are just short, silly, little tales that make you say "what the hell?" as you read them. But they're so much fun, you don't seem to mind.

Where to begin...?

*cough*

MORE FUN COMICS starts with a "two-fisted" adventure of the man of magic and mystery, Dr. Fate. Fate stops Mr. Who from stealing a fantastic treasure, but not before Who drinks his "Solution Z", altering his size and giving him "the strength of ten gorillas!" After making short work of Who's gigantic spider (a la Solution Z), Fate follows Who to a houseboat he's robbing. It's here we find out that not only is Fate the man of mystery and magic, but also king of nautical puns. Awful, awful puns. Oddly, not once does Fate, The man of magic and etc. actually use magic. Sure, he flies, but he takes out the spider by tying it up and he merely throws Who through the bottom of the boat. David Copperfield, he's not.

Next up is the Green Arrow story, which by today's standards, isn't actually that bad. The plot surrounds the death of members of the History Club with famous names (e.g. George Lincoln gets shot, John Hale is hanged, Anthony Caesar gets stabbed). GA hears about this, grabs Speedy and heads after the mysterious murderer in the arrowplane, the fastest car on wheels.

GA and Speedy arrive at the burning house of Frank D'Arcy. (Joan D'Arc, you catching on yet?) GA saves D'Arcy and quickly heads across town to save Ezra Samson from one of those generic, bowling-ball-shaped bombs. They free Samson, then head to Amos Socrates' home to find the murderer forcing him to drink poison. GA shoots the glass from Socrates' hand and the gun from the murderer's, now revealed to be - Ezra Samson! Samson takes off in his car. GA shoots out his tire, causing the car to drive off the road and... "a mass of twisted and tangled steel forms a coffin for the arch criminal." Ouch.

And with that, the Green Arrow starts his career off with a bang.

The Spectre story, written by Superman's dad Jerry Siegel is a fairly interesting yarn. In this story, the Chief gets phone calls about a volcano appearing in downtown Cliffland. Corrigan sends out the Spectre to survey the damage. The Spectre advances on the volcano only to have it disappear. With the crisis averted, Jim has a date with his gal, where they encounter a lion and other wild animals on the loose.

Hmm.... The plot thickens...

The Spectre travels the town and returns the animals to the zoo. Returning to Corrigan's body, the Spectre gets a phone call revealing the source of the mysterious creatures and the volcano. Spectre goes to the address to find his source being teleported by a purple haze. He follows after and saves the man from from a stampede of elephants. The man turns out to be the creator of the device. Apparently, his assistant has been using the teleportation device for evil. The scientist forfeits his life to save the world, drawing his villainous lab partner into the purple haze. The Spectre destroys the machine, bringing its reign of terror to an end.

The real treasure in this book, though, is the first Aquaman story. It opens with a Nazi submarine firing on a boat full of refugees and hospital workers. Riding atop a dolphin, Aquaman, in all his orange and green glory, goes after the Nazis and sinks the submarine. He chases the now- fleeing Nazi soldiers, who defeat him by dropping a hammer on his head, knocking him unconscious. Not a bad plan on the fly, if you ask me. They decide to dispose of him by - get this - tying him up and dumping him in the ocean. Why they do this, I'm not sure - but it doesn't work. Again, Aquaman calls on the help of his underwater friends: "Hello fish!" "Hi, Aquaman!"

Aquaman comes back, kicking ass and taking names. Single-handedly, he destroys a U-112 submarine, disarms a Nazi naval base and says, "Oh, yeah? Who's next?" And with that, he forever digs a hole to live in, in our hearts.

What else can I say? These were the days before the really Dark Knights. Back when heroes were actual tough guys and all the villains wore cloaks. The dialogue might be a bit trite, the storytelling a bit off, but they're amusing and the art is very decently rendered.

But most of all, these comics have heart. They were part of a new medium, showing the world what they could do. We're all the better for these stories. Every person reading this should thank their respective gods that these creators were there in the trenches, fighting the good fight and paving the way for the creators of today.

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Brian Domingos is a regular contributor to PopImage. Fear his mighty ways.

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