Marvel Mondays: Energetic Egyptians

These two cats from the way back are distinct parallels for a number of reasons. Both Black Adam and Blue Beetle were tied to ancient Egypt, the former being its protector in centuries bygone before becoming its dictator, the latter being an archaeologist who unearthed its greatest secret and became a guardian of good himself. Each met a tragic end to their ignoble careers, despite what the two old men... Shazam and Pharoah... had expected of them when electing them their candidates of courage. 

And still they returned...

Teth Adam allowed greed to corrupt him, while Dan Garrett allowed overconfidence to overtake him. Each faced their own mortality and yet were revived in manners only left to comic books through pseudo-science and the like. While Dan proved the inspiration for another to take his name and his place, Adam became the perpetual thorn in the side of his arch-rival Captain Marvel. With but a handful of appearances for each, both men still found ways to leave their mark.

Both possessed vast powers by simply calling out to their mentors, such as flight, super strength, invulnerability, etc. While Dan continued his career as an archaeologist, Adam abandoned his occupation as... royal court lackey? Nevertheless, their greatest acclaim was that the were the forerunners for a new generation of superheroes that would take what they started to greater heights.

Their counterparts on Earth-One and Earth-Two were Mon-El/Eltro Gand and Halk Kar/Doctor Occult who like their Black and Blue dopplegangers had dual personas, superhuman abilities and having been early incarnations or placeholders for their Earths' greatest Supermen.

The similarities between these four individuals with similar power sets are:

• The Doctor's ancient Egyptian belt made of anti-gravity or "nth" metal is from the same era as that which Mighty/Black Adam was born into as Teth Adam, and where Blue Beetle originated. And this same anti-gravitational metal was later harnessed by Mon-El


• Like Mon-El, Black Adam was exiled for over a thousand years from his respective Earth. And just as Mon-El's heroic alter ego was Marvel Lad, Adam was tied to the Marvel Family albeit as their mortal foe.


• Both Beetle and the Doctor were under the tutelage of wise older men who guided them on their path, as was Adam before rejecting his mentor's guidance while the younger Eltro Gand lived up to his forefather Lar's legacy.

Fawcett Comics, such as Ibis, Golden Arrow and Lance O'Casey. In 1980 and 1985, DC Comics purchase Fawcett's Marvel Family then Charlton's Action Heroes, and the two were linked once more, now on parallel Earths, Four and Shazam.

Supermen Families: Offset Adventures

The Superman Family was prolific in having their tales chronicled, and not only alongside their most famous member. At least on Earth-One, as its members operated just as well individually as collectively like the Marvel Family.

In place of Lar Gand aka Mon-El who fought alongside Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes in the 30th Century, there was Doctor Occult who had similar abilities fighting alongside Superman in the All-Star Squadron. Other legacy characters were Eltro Gand and Halk Kar who met his Superman on one adventure with Halk's tale paralleling Lar's first encounter with the Boy of Steel. While Halk eventually returned to native Thoron, Eltro would assume Lar's heroic career a thousand years in the future, and this would parallel Richard Occult's tales both in a similar costume to Gand's and in his famed trench coat which both wore.

And rather than the bizarre mis-adventures of "Superman's Pal", wherein Jimmy Olsen was transformed by all manner of strange occurrences including a female 5th dimensional imp while wearing his trademark green suits... there was the wacky tales of the Justice Society's mascot Johnny Thunder, who's every wish and whim was turned on its head by an imp from the Thunderbolt Dimension. Other tales with Superman assisting mirrored those of another redhaired reporter Tubby Watts and his pal Johnny Quick. And Jimmy's latter day tales, when he teamed up with the Golden Guardian and the Newsboy Legion on Earth-One would be mirrored by the original Earth-Two adventures of the first Guardian and the Legion's parents, themselves children at the time.

On Earth-Two, there wasn't a "Superman's Pal...Jimmy Olsen" or the "Daring New Adventures of Supergirl" and the like. Sure, they had their own red-haired cub reporter in Jimmy, their own Girl of Steel (Power Girl, whose only solo tales were in "Showcase" #97-99), and the Metropolis Marvel's one true love in Lois. Nevertheless, there were adventures on Kal-L's world that offset those on Kal-El's world, even if their participants weren't Halk Kar of Thoron, James Olsen of Metropolis, the Masked Wonder of Smallville or Kara Zor-L of Kandor.

The Adventures of Superboy were balanced out by those of Darrell Dane aka Doll Man. Darrell was a miniature version of Superman on Earth-Two as was Kal-El's cousin Don-El on Earth-One. While both Don-El as Captain of the Superman Emergency Squad and Kal-L the Masked Wonder only had a few adventures, Superboy and Doll Man each had hundreds of tales between them.

Then there was the Federal Man, aka Steve Carson. Steve like his counterpart Cory Renwald was a government agent. Both Cory and Clark had common step-parents with Jonathan and Martha Kent, with Jerry Siegel and Joe Schuster being the creative "parents" of both Renward and Carson. On occasion, Steve even wore a spandex costume, thus at times mirroring on Earth-Two the later teen tales of the Superboy of Earth-One

Instead of the adventures of the younger adolescent Superboy in the 30th century, there were the tales Earth-Two's Wonder Woman had when travelling to the 30th century of her world. Earth-One Superman's alter ego Clark Kent was at times impersonated by the Kandorian leader of the Superman Lookalike Squad, Vol-Don. Vol-Don's Earth-Two counterpart Dave Clark aka Midnight had scores of tales mirroring thos of the "Private Life of (Earth-One's) Clark Kent".

Kara Zor-El aka Supergirl had mostly solo tales in Action Comics, then Adventure Comics, followed by her first self-titled series which led to her featured in Superman Family and concluding in a second eponymous book. Kara Zor-l aka Power Girl was featured alongside the Justice Society of America in stories chronicled in All-Star Comics followed by Adventure Comics and later Infinity Inc.

While Supergirl had a scant few adventures as a member of the Legion of Super-Heroes, Power Girl had a scan few sole adventures apart from the teams for which she was a member. Supergirl's early tales, where she was pals for with Lena (Luthor) Thorul were offset by the solo adventures of Lena's cosmic twin Liberty Belle aka Libby Lawrence that proceeded Power Girl's first appearance.

Then there was that one true love, Lois Lane, who had golden age adventures in the backpages of Superman starting in issue #29 through #42, before graduating into a co-star in the Mr. and Mrs. Superman tales in a few issues of "Action Comics" and "Superman" before their continuing series featured in Superman Family #195-222.

Although not nearly the volume of cases that her Earth-One counterpart had in "Superman's Girl Friend Lois Lane" #1-137, this would be compensated by the adventures of a contemporary of Earth-Two's Lois in Jane Arden, also a news reporter. She had scores of tales in Quality Comics. Jane Arden's Earth-One counterpart Meg Tempest was always a background character in Lois and her friends adventures.

Superfriends Eve: Superman and Superboy's Brothers... and Other Super-People

Concluding our Superfoes week and starting a new one on a high note, let's consider two Superfriends in the literal sense... in fact for a brief period they seeming to be Superfamily of the Man of Steel. Mon-El of Earth-One and the less famous yet similarly dressed Halk Kar of Earth-Two. Were they counterparts, or something else? Yes, and they were not alone, as we'll see.

Both were space explorers, Mon from the planet Daxam and Halk from the planet Thoron. Each had amnesia and, as you no doubt can tell by the adjacent panels, both came with a note from their presumed papa Jor-L/Jor-El. While Superman aided his brother when Halk powers ebbed, Superboy acted as such attempting to humiliate Mon-El whom he grew suspicious of in the course of their brief initial relationship. Subjecting the Daxamite to lead lined meteorites disguised to look like Kryptonite in order to see if Mon-El was faking his identity, something unexpected occurred. Superboy nearly doomed Mon-El although his amnesia lifted and he realized from where he came. As a resident of Daxam, Mon-El as Lar Gard recalled that his people have a fatal reaction when exposeed to lead.

Halk Kar also soon after first appearing on Earth-Two realized he was not a Kryptonian, but from a small planet named Thoron. Interestingly, Mon-El common weakness reducing him to just below Kal-El as far as power levels, while Thoron's size is what left the Halk-Kar a weaker version of Kal-L. Lar Gand and Halk Kar had similar experiences when they initially met the Supermen and their fathers. 

Since the 1953 publishing date of Halk's sole appearance falls into the golden age of comics, just barely, he would fit into the Earth-Two universe and this would explain how a young Superboy, and a grownup Superman both met two similarly clad men with similar ties to their father and not have a serious case of deja vu. While Mon-El reappeared 1000 years later when cured of lead poisoning with the help of the Legion of Superheroes, living inside the Phantom Zone as one of its wraiths, such wasn't the case for Halk Kar. Upon his regaining his memory, Halk Kar returned to Thoron, never to be heard from again.


As for Lar, he auditioned for the Legion as Marvel Lad then revealed himself to be Mon-El and was accepted by them. This Marvel Lad alter ego would find a parallel in another 20th century superhuman clad in red and blue.

Mon-El's exploits were continually chronicled alongside his fellow Legionnaires, until his temporary death, when he was replaced by the descendant 30th century or Lar's brother, a lookalike lad named Eltro Gand. Eltro tried to stave off a prediction that his ancestor would perish, however it would be he that accidentally placed Mon-El in a life-threatening predicament. When Lar fell into a death-like coma due to lead poisoning, Eltro gave his life to preserve Lar's utilizing a specialized Daxam device. He thus transferred some of his mental persona into Lar. Thus, Eltro still existed in some form as Mon-El developed further as a costumed crusader and stalwart member of the Legion.

Osgood Armsby aka Richard Occult was an orphan trained alongside another parent-less child, Rose Psychic, in a hidden fortress until their young adulthood. From this tutelage, the pair gained abilities to move heavy objects through will power, transform into phantom, traveling instantly to any point on Earth-Two, and various other skills. Richard, accompanied by Rose, traveled to America where he adopted the alter ego of Doctor Occult... using their amazing abilities to combat evil.

Richard's mentor Zator later recruited him to defeat a conquering alien, wherein the Doctor adopted a uniform with an opposite color scheme to that soon to be worn by Superman, while remarkably similar to the costume of his counterpart Eltro Gand in his Mon-El alter ego. With this uniform, he also had a special belt allowing him to fly and turn matter into stone. This belt was made of nth metal and was created by Prince Khufu, ancestor to Hawkman. The Doctor would continue to have his own adventures with Rose assisting him, as well as becoming a member of the All-Star Squadron.

Following this encounter with his grandnephew, Lar found that his mind melded with Eltro's caused him to begin to doubt his abilities. Even though he was elected as deputy leader of the Legion for three terms, after this encounter with near death Lar/Eltro combined had the willpower to claim the role as head leader for the first time.

What became of Richard Occult following his costumed career and trench-coat tales after the 1930's and early 1940's is unknown, although the Doctor did reappear in the waning hours of the Crisis on Infinite Earths in the 1980's to save humanity once more, aiding fellow All-Star Alan "Green Lantern" Scott. He had a long association with his adopted sister Rose Paychic who aided him on several cases and had similar phasing abilities... similar to Mon-El and his Legion teammate Phantom Girl whom he interacted with both inside the Phantom Zone he was imprisoned and on Legion tales later.