—

Welcome to 1966 WEEK — a 60th anniversary celebration of an extraordinary, landmark year in popular culture. For seven days, we’re bringing you a whole host of features on everything from Star Trek, to Batman, to the Beatles, to the Monkees, and much, much more. (Just check out Walt Grogan’s latest fab banner, above!) Click here for more of the far out fun! — Dan

—

The Green Hornet #1 (Feb. 1967), #2 (May 1967), and #3 (Aug. 1967). All were published by Gold Key.

By PETER BOSCH

Each issue was definitely not green but gold in its own way. I’m talking, of course, about The Green Hornet comic book series published by Gold Key, based upon the legendary TV program produced by Batman’s William Dozier that debuted 60 years ago on September 9, 1966.

There were only three issues in total but each was exceptional in a fashion – starting with the photo covers of Van Williams and Bruce Lee. However, Gold Key did not stop there. As was their publishing style at the time, there were more pictures on the inside front covers — and the inside back covers — AND the back covers, too! How cool is that?

The impressiveness of the comics did not end there. All three issues were drawn by the great Dan Spiegle, who caught the looks of the stars and captured the atmosphere needed for the Hornet and Kato’s nocturnal activities.

Splash page of The Green Hornet #1. Art by Dan Spiegle. Writer unconfirmed.

(The writer of the comic book title has been assumed to be Paul S. Newman but that has not been completely confirmed.)

Several recognizable moments from the television series were brought over faithfully to the comics, including:

Top: District Attorney Scanlon’s glasses buzzing and his arrival by secret elevator at Britt Reid’s home (The Green Hornet #1). Middle: The fantastuic rotation of the cars (Issue #2). Bottom: The outside alley wall’s advertisement splitting in two for the dynamic secret exit of the Black Beauty (Issue #1).

But enough talk! Time to get to the highlights of the comics adventures — and every photo cover inside and out. (Do I or do I not know what you really want to see?)

Let’s roll, Kato!

—

Plotlines for the comic books included certain elements that appeared in the television episodes. Here are brief storylines for the comics, along with sample Spiegle pages from each:

The Green Hornet #1 (released Nov. 1966) had a full-issue tale titled “Ring of Terror,” which included elements of the TV series’ two-part story “Beautiful Dreamer.” In a highly dramatic moment of the TV show, Casey Case (Wende Wagner) is brainwashed into trying to kill Britt Reid. The same twist was a plot element in the first issue, but with another character involved.

—

Moving on to the second issue…

Issue #2 (released Feb. 1967), featured “The Threat of the Red Dragons,” and had an Asian gang extorting money, similar in ways to “The Preying Mantis,” one of the best episodes of the TV series.

—

And the third and last issue…

The Green Hornet #3 (released May 1967) had two stories, also with aspects seen on the TV series.

The first story, “The Counterplot Affair,” is about a young foreign prince in danger. Inspiration for this tale may have come from the “Trouble for Prince Charming” episode, in which a grown-up foreign prince is threatened by secret factions within his own staff.

The second story, “Masquerade,” seems to have borrowed from the TV two-parter, “Corpse of the Year.” In “Masquerade,” a phony Green Hornet and Kato rob the proceeds of a masked ball but are stopped by the real heroes. “Corpse of the Year” focused on a fake Green Hornet committing murder.

It’s a shame there weren’t more issues of The Green Hornet published by Gold Key but it was likely a decision based on the fact that there was no more TV series to serve as a selling point. The first two issues had been released while the program was on the air, but the third issue came out two months after the last new show had been broadcast, on March 17, 1967. (The Star Trek comic book series from Gold Key was a definite exception to that line of thought, running 61 issues from 1967 to 1979.)

Thankfully, in the decades to come, the Green Hornet would make a return to comics, from Now, Dynamite — and DC.

Batman ’66 Meets the Green Hornet #1 (2014). Cover by Alex Ross.

—

MORE

— The Complete 1966 WEEK INDEX of Features. Click here.

— MORRISON MONDAYS: While BATMAN Was Campy and Fun, THE GREEN HORNET Was Just Plain Cool. Click here.

—

13th Dimension contributor-at-large PETER BOSCH’s first book, American TV Comic Books: 1940s-1980s – From the Small Screen to the Printed Page, was published by TwoMorrows. (You can buy it here.) A sequel, American Movie Comic Books: 1930s-1970s — From the Silver Screen to the Printed Page, is out now. (Buy it here.) Peter has written articles and conducted celebrity interviews for various magazines and newspapers. He lives in Hollywood.

—

Welcome to 1966 WEEK — a 60th anniversary celebration of an extraordinary, landmark year in popular culture. For seven days, we’re bringing you a whole host of features on everything from Star Trek, to Batman, to the Beatles, to the Monkees, and much, much more. (Just check out Walt Grogan’s latest fab banner, above!) Click here for more of the far out fun! — Dan

—

This week for RETRO HOT PICKS, Scott and I are selecting comics that came out the week of Sept. 9, 1966 — part of 13th Dimension’s 1966 WEEK celebration.

Last time for RETRO HOT PICKS, it was the week of Sept. 2, 1975. Click here to check it out.

(Keep in mind that comics came out on multiple days, so these are the issues that went on sale between Sept. 6 and Sept. 12.)

—

So, let’s set the scene: Public sentiment against the Vietnam War was growing but that didn’t sway President Johnson’s commitment to send more young men to fight in Southeast Asia, amid signals the conflict was far more complicated and difficult than initially anticipated.

On Sept. 7, the Department of Defense announced what would be the largest draft call for the war — with 49,200 registered men to be inducted into the military come October. It was the highest call since the Korean War. But again, the signs were there that things would get much worse before they got better.

The week before, United Nations Secretary-General U Thant of Burma announced he wouldn’t seek re-election, because the U.N. had been unable to end the conflict: “Today it seems to me, as it has seemed for many months, that the pressure of events is remorselessly leading toward a major war,” he said Sept. 1. “In my view the tragic error is being repeated of relying on force and military means in a deceptive pursuit of peace.”

Meanwhile, on Sept. 10, USAF Capt. Douglas “Pete” Peterson was shot down in his F-4 Phantom over Vietnam. Peterson would be captured and be held as a prisoner of war at the “Hanoi Hilton.” Five days earlier, Nguyen Van Bay became the first North Vietnamese fighter ace when he shot down his firth airplane. The American pilot, USAF Capt. Wilfred K. Abbott, also survived and would be held as a POW, including at the Hanoi Hilton.

(Both men wouldn’t be released until March 4, 1973, as part of Operation Homecoming. Peterson would in the ’90s be elected to Congress from Florida and eventually serve as the first U.S. ambassador to Vietnam, under both Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.)

Global sociopolitical saber rattling was pervasive: On Sept. 9, the Chinese detonated its third nuke, and scientists said it appeared the Communist nation was preparing a hydrogen bomb. Two days later, French President Charles de Gaulle ended a world tour with a visit to French Polynesia, witnessing his country’s third nuclear test at the Mururoa Atoll near Tahiti.

The French test had been postponed for 24 hours because of unfavorable winds that would send the fallout to areas that were inhabited. Despite the continuing poor conditions, the test took place so de Gaulle could see it before he left. As a result, radioactive contamination blew across Tahiti, the Cook Islands, Niue, the Samoan Islands, Tonga, Wallis and Futuna, Fiji, and Tuvalu.

De Gaulle wore a radiation suit.

Demonstrators in Atlanta, as Mayor Ivan Allen (top, right) looked on, like he had not a care in the world.

Racial tensions continued to bubble over across the United States. On Sept. 6, the Summerhill Riot, also known as the Atlanta Rebellion, began after the police shooting of an unarmed Black man, Harold Prather.

A group of local residents that ballooned to over 1,000 people protested unfair urban conditions, including discriminatory policing, poor housing, substandard housing and the negative impacts of urban renewal, including the construction of the nearby Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium.

Two days earlier, a civil rights march in Chicago and its suburb of Cicero, Illinois, degenerated into violence. Despite police and National Guard protection, hundreds of white hecklers confronted the marchers, hurling rocks and bottles. Fourteen were hurt and almost 40 arrested.

On Sept. 12, Black children were allowed to attend all-white schools in Grenada, Mississippi, for the first time. Integration at a local grammar school took place without any problems, but after 50 Black students entered John Rundle High School, a mob of about 150 racists arrived and blocked any more from getting in. Thirty-five students tried to get past the mob but were beaten by white assailants. The U.S. Justice Department charged the mayor, city council and police chief with refusing to protect the children.

IN OTHER NEWS

— NASA’s Gemini 11 (aka Gemini XI) mission launched Sept. 12. It was the 17th crewed American flight and the 25th overall.

— South African Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd, the architect of apartheid and considered the “father” of the white supremacist political system, was assassinated Sept. 6 during a parliamentary meeting in Cape Town. He was stabbed four times in the torso by Dimitri Tsafendas, a Communist activist who considered Verwoerd “Hitler’s best student.”

— On Sept. 10, Muhammad Ali, who had refused to be inducted into the armed forces about six months earlier because of his opposition to the Vietnam War, defended his world title in Frankfurt, West Germany, by beating European champion Karl Mildenberger, who had not lost in four years. Ali won in the 12th by TKO.

— A couple in suburban Kansas was expecting its first child. At the same time, a couple in New Jersey was expecting its second. The Kansas girl, Wendy, was born first, in November, followed by the New Jersey boy, Daniel, the next February. They would meet in New York in 1993, begin dating in 1994, and get married in 1996. We’ve been together 30 years.

It was a turning-point season for professional football. The National Football League and upstart rival American Football League had in June agreed on an eventual merger. Both leagues would continue playing separate schedules for the time being, but the 1966 season would culminate in the AFL-NFL World Championship Game — later officially named the Super Bowl. Two teams began play for the first time, as well: the expansion Miami Dolphins joined the AFL and the Atlanta Falcons debuted in the NFL.

The Falcons lost their Sept. 11 opener to the Los Angeles Rams, 19-14. The Dolphins began play Sept. 2 with a 23-14 loss to the Oakland Raiders. On the team’s very first play, however, Miami’s Joe Auer returned the opening kickoff 95 yards for a touchdown.

On Sept. 11, the 9th-place New York Mets reached into its farm system and put on the mound a 19-year-old right-handed fireballer, making him the second-youngest player in the majors. Nolan Ryan pitched in relief in an 8-3 loss to the Braves, who’d moved to Atlanta from Milwaukee that season. The teenager struck out the first batter he saw, plus two others across his two innings — and would go on to fire 5,711 more over 27 seasons to become the all-time strikeout king.

The Sound of Music won Best Picture earlier in the year.

The year was dominated by two movies that alternated back and forth at the top of the box office — The Sound of Music, which led this week, and Doctor Zhivago. Other hits included How to Steal a Million, a mixed-reviews heist comedy starring Audrey Hepburn and Peter O’Toole; the harrowing family drama Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, and directed by Mike Nichols; and, the jam-packed The Russians Are Coming the Russians Are Coming, with Alan Arkin in his first major movie role.

There was also the sci-fi classic Fantastic Voyage, starring Raquel Welch and her figure-hugging white uniform; Alfie, starring Michael Caine in one of his signature roles; and The Man Called Flintstone.

It was, hands down, one of the most notable weeks in television history — and the reason we picked this timing for 1966 WEEK. We’re just going to go chronologically:

Heading into the week, on Sept. 4-5, was the first Jerry Lewis MDA Labor Day Telethon. Lewis had been hosting telethons for muscular dystrophy since the early ’50s, but this was the first time it was held on Labor Day weekend.

There was a lot of skepticism that it would succeed since it was the last weekend of the summer season, but it turned out to be a smash, raising $1,002,114 (about $10 million today) in New York. The amount was such a surprise that Lewis had to climb a ladder and paint a “1” in front of the six-digit toteboard. The annual show would eventually expand nationally.

But it was the new network series that made a particularly strong mark on pop culture. Among the shows premiering were Star Trek (Sept. 8); The Green Hornet (Sept. 9); The Time Tunnel (Sept. 9); and The Monkees (Sept. 12) — all of which are being featured during 1966 WEEK. (You can find our 60th anniversary TOP 13 STAR TREK EPISODES POLL here.)

Other debuts included Tarzan (Sept. 8); That Girl (Sept. 8); The Rat Patrol (Sept. 12); and Family Affair (Sept. 12). Still to come were The Girl From UNCLE (Sept. 16) and Mission: Impossible (Sept. 17).

Released Aug. 16, almost a month before the show began.

Batman began its second season Sept. 7, and the big returning hits included Bonanza; Red Skelton; The Andy Griffith Show; The Lucy Show; The Jackie Gleason Show; Green Acres; Bewitched; The Beverly Hillbillies; Daktari; Gomer Pyle; Ed Sullivan; and, The Virginian.

But that’s not all! Also coming back were shows such as The (U.K.) Avengers; Candid Camera; Daniel Boone; The Dating Game; The Dean Martin Show; The FBI, Flipper; F Troop; The Fugitive; Get Smart; Gilligan’s Island; Gunsmoke; Hogan’s Heroes; The Hollywood Palace; I Dream of Jeannie; I Spy; Lassie; Let’s Make a Deal; Lost in Space; The Man From UNCLE; My Three Sons; Petticoat Junction; Peyton Place; To Tell the Truth; Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea; Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color; What’s My Line?; and, The Wild Wild West.

Saturday mornings made a big splash, too. On Sept. 10, Filmation’s The New Adventures of Superman, and Hanna-Barbera’s Space Ghost and Dino Boy and Frankenstein Jr. and The Impossibles all bowed. After school, The Marvel Super Heroes premiered this week in first-run syndication.

The Supremes’ You Can’t Hurry Love was the No. 1 single, with the Beatles’ Yellow Submarine and Donovan’s Sunshine Superman vying for the second slot. (The Fab Four’s Eleanor Rigby was also a hit.) Other major singles included Cherish, by the Association; Bus Stop, by the Hollies; Land of 1,000 Dances by Wilson Pickett; Wouldn’t It Be Nice, by the Beach Boys; Summer in the City, by the Lovin’ Spoonful; and the wonderful Sunny, by Bobby Hebb. Shooting its way up the chart was Cherry Cherry, the first hit for a young singer-songwriter from Brooklyn named Neil Diamond.

The Rolling Stones’ Paint It Black had peaked at No. 1 in June but it was still hot: They played it on Ed Sullivan’s season premiere Sept. 11, along with Lady Jane and Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby, Standing in the Shadow?

The Beatles’ Revolver — which featured both Yellow Submarine and Eleanor Rigby — hit the top of the albums chart this week in the United States. It was a truncated version of the British release, missing three songs — I’m Only Sleeping, And Your Bird Can Sing, and Doctor Robert — which were used already for the North American-only Yesterday and Today, which also reached No. 1. (1965’s Rubber Soul was in the top slot earlier in the year, too.)

Other popular albums included What Now My Love by Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass (one of three Alpert long-players to reach the peak in ’66); the recently released The Supremes A’ Go-Go; Frank Sinatra’s Strangers in the Night; and If You Can Believe Your Eyes and Ears, the first LP by the Mamas & the Papas.

Revolver would reign for six weeks but, more importantly, it ushered in a new era for the band, which was becoming increasingly experimental in its approach to its music. Rubber Soul was a precursor, but the recording of the LP, whose notable cuts also included Taxman; She Said She Said; Here, There and Everywhere; Good Day Sunshine; For No One; and Got to Get You Into My Life, was an important factor in the band quitting touring. (Their last show was only a couple of weeks earlier, Aug. 29, in San Francisco.)

The tracks, with their nontraditional instrumentation and arrangements, were difficult to reproduce live — not that the screaming fans could hear the music, anyway — and the band had become far more interested in the studio process. But the real shot across the bow of popular music was Tomorrow Never Knows, an album-ending masterpiece that’s as much a mind-blower today as it was 60 years ago. (Put on your earphones and just concentrate on Ringo’s drumming alone.)

Between Revolver — which now often tops lists of the Beatles’ best — and the influence of the Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds, which came out in the spring, John, Paul, George and Ringo were primed for their next titanic album.

Lay down all thoughts, surrender to the void. It is shining, it is shining…

—

Scott Tipton, contributor-at-large, 13th Dimension

The Amazing Spider-Man #43, Marvel. The first and perhaps best of John Romita’s Spidey villains. (He debuted two issues earlier.) Someday he’ll be in a good movie…

Dan adds: Not just that, it’s the first full appearance of Mary Jane Watson, whom we finally got to see on the last page of the previous issue, spouting her famous “Face it, Tiger…” line.

—

Aquaman #30, DC. Does Metamorpho not need to breathe? Huh. Learn something new every day.

Dan adds: He can make his own oxygen, right?

—

Tales of Suspense #84, Marvel. Seems like we never see the Super-Adaptoid anymore.

—

Tomahawk #107, DC. I need more of Gorilla Ranger.

—

Dan Greenfield, editor, 13th Dimension

Strange Tales #151, Marvel. Very quietly, this issue began a new era in the world of comics. Stan Lee and Jack Kirby were joined by a 27-year-old artist who finished Jack’s interiors and inked the King’s cover. It went over well. The next issue, he did interior finishes a second time. It also went over well. The issue after that he did finishes one more time, but he also penciled and inked the cover. With no shortage of cockiness, the kid signed with just his last name, all in caps: STERANKO.

—

Fantastic Four #57, Marvel. Let’s see, there’s the Sandman and the Wizard; the Inhumans; and The Thing watching The Marvel Super Heroes on TV! Most importantly, Doctor Doom meets the Silver Surfer for the first time, steals his power — and his surfboard! Lee, Kirby and Sinnott’s FF was in its Golden Age.

—

The Avengers #34, Marvel. The first appearance of the Living Laser, for all you Living Laser fanatics out there!

—

Career Girl Romances #37, Charlton. Dude, watch that hand — the Comics Code is looking.

—

Marvel Collectors’ Item Classics #6, Marvel. What a deal for a quarter!

—

—

Welcome to 1966 WEEK — a 60th anniversary celebration of an extraordinary, landmark year in popular culture. For seven days, we’re bringing you a whole host of features on everything from Star Trek, to Batman, to the Beatles, to the Monkees, and much, much more. (Just check out Walt Grogan’s latest fab banner, above!) Click here for more of the far out fun! — Dan

—

Star Trek — or Star Trek: The Original Series, if you absolutely insist — debuted 60 years ago, on Sept. 8, 1966, and to celebrate, we’ve commissioned a poll to determine the TOP 13 STAR TREK EPISODES — RANKED.

A decade ago, we ran a similar ranking, but it’s one I did on my own. Not only have I re-done my own picks, I’ve invited a bridge full of Trek experts to join in the fun.

Who are they? Writer Dayton Ward, who has written or co-written 32 standalone Trek books; James Cawley, the owner and operator of the official Star Trek: Original Series Set Tour in Ticonderoga, N.Y., Rich Handley, a prolific Trek and pop culture historian who, among many other things, was the editor of Eaglemoss’ Star Trek Graphic Novel Collection; Bob Greenberger, another prolific pop culture historian with substantial Trekspertise, and the editor of DC’s 1980s Star Trek comics series.

Then, there are the 13th Dimensioneers who are Star Trek devotees, like Scott Tipton, writer of IDW’s various Star Trek books, whose best-known work is adapting (with his brother David and artist J.K. Woodward) Harlan Ellison’s original The City on the Edge of Forever teleplay as a graphic novel; Jim Beard, editor of Galloping Around the Cosmos, a collection of Trek essays; Peter Bosch; Chris Franklin; Franco; Walt Grogan, who did both of those banners above; and recurring cast member Fred Van Lente, who has a fantastic new COMIC BOOK DEATH MATCH for you, pitting Gold Key’s Star Trek against DC’s and Marvel’s.

Rounding out the crew, and making it a family affair, are myself and my son Sam Greenfield. We’ve watched the show together since he was a kid.

That makes 13 of us!

Each voter submitted a weighted ballot: top choice gets 13 points, second choice gets 12, and so on. The commentary below is mostly my own, though each voter chimes in when their top pick comes up. (My 2016 and 2026 votes are posted in the comments.) Dayton Ward couldn’t resist and did a full column outlining his selections. It’s a must-read and you can check it out over at his blog, The Fog of Ward.

BUT WAIT THERE’S MORE! To give you a full view of the voting, click here for THE BEST OF THE REST, including a list of eps that didn’t garner a single vote!

And now, to the poll! Here are the TOP 13 STAR TREK EPISODES – RANKED:

—

13. The Enemy Within (Season 1, 29 Points). Beat out Shore Leave for 13th on the list. Neither were on my ballot, but on a personal level, I’d go with The Enemy Within between the two for three basic reasons: 1) Epic William Shatner hammery. 2) The raging unicorn lap dog. 3) Shatner’s reference to it in the classic Saturday Night Live “Get a Life” skit.

—

12. The Cage (First Pilot, 31 Points). Rich Handley topped his list with this one. Here’s his argument: “Without Desilu greenlighting The Cage, there would be no Star Trek, and without Jeffrey Hunter there would be no Christopher Pike. Without this timeless story’s brilliant acting, writing, directing, music, effects, costuming, and cinematography, the franchise simply would not exist. It is immortal and it resonates in every single spinoff to date, giving us not only Pike, Spock, and Number One, but also Talosians, Orions, Vulcans, aliens testing humanity, transporters, phasers, cerebral storytelling with a profound message, you name it — at its core, The Cage is the purest statement of Gene Roddenberry’s original vision.”

—

11. The Devil in the Dark (Season 1, 39 Points). A personal favorite of mine. (I have a thing about adventurers in caves.) Bob Greenberger picked it No. 1: “One of the strongest recurring themes in the best of Star Trek is that mankind has a fear of the unknown, and we’re shown that often the fear is unfounded. This is the strongest of those offerings, given the inhuman alien appearance and the use of Kirk, Spock, and McCoy collaborating to resolve the problem.”

—

10. Arena (Season 1, 40 Points). A highly entertaining intersection of Star Trek drama, action and cheesiness, as well as the continuing theme that we’re mere bugs in the grand, universal scheme of things. Dayton Ward (reluctantly) made this his No. 1 pick: “Among my earliest recollections of watching reruns of the original series in the early-mid 1970s is Captain Kirk’s classic battle against the Gorn commander. When I was 7 or 8 years old, the action and fight scenes, along with Kirk outwitting his opponent, were the big draw.

“But as I grew older, I began to understand the story behind my favorite bits, along with the questions the script posed. This was far more than William Shatner fighting Bobby Clark and his rubber lizard suit. While I tend to resist picking a single personal favorite episode, this one’s definitely in the running if my back’s ever up against the wall.”

—

9. The Doomsday Machine (Season 2, 43 Points). The antecedent to Star Trek: The Motion Picture, held together by William Windom’s unhinged, interstellar Captain Ahab/Captain Queeg analogue. You sympathize with his raging frustration — as illogical as it is — at the same time you’re appalled by his gross negligence. His ultimate sacrifice is made more potent when you recognize — in his only appearance — how respected Matt Decker was, what he was reduced to, and what he gave up in the end. Ground soundtrack too. Also offers one of Spock’s greatest comebacks: “Vulcans never bluff.”

—

8. Journey to Babel (Season 2, 51 Points). I’m a huge fan of this episode, and placed it at No. 4. I’m glad it got the support it did from my fellow voters, but still wish it had ended up higher. The episode works on three distinct, yet interwoven, levels, and what’s most important to you depends on your perspective.

It just might be the best Star Trek world-building episode, a prime-grade showcase of what the Federation is, how it works, its politics, and the various, often cantankerous and unseemly species that make it up. Along with Amok Time, it’s also a seminal episode in showing who Spock is, and establishes his relationship with his parents, a storyline that would pay off again and again, for decades to come. Finally, it’s a cracking good suspense thriller and mystery. With all the colorful characters running around on the Enterprise, Captain Kirk still plays a central role in getting to the bottom of it all — while playing the sweaty hero at the same time.

—

7. A Piece of the Action (Season 2, 59 Points). When I was tallying the votes, I was so happy this episode got as much support as it did. I always had the feeling it was more of cult favorite at the U.S.S. Greenfield, as opposed to an episode with widespread love. I had this at No. 8, up from No. 9 a decade ago, and I’m really proud to see that my fellow voters went even harder for it.

Here’s part of what I wrote in 2016: “A Piece of the Action is pure comedy, a superb example of Star Trek’s satirical chops and an episode that is in some ways superior to the more famous The Trouble With Tribbles. This is a Kirk and Spock showcase, with William Shatner’s slow burn and Leonard Nimoy’s befuddled bemusement leading to funnier and funnier payoffs as the episode barrels along. The highlight, of course, is Kirk’s game of Fizzbin — and his exhortation, ‘How lucky you are! How wonderful for you!’ to one of the hapless henchmen before all hell breaks loose. (Spock’s wordless reactions are priceless too.)”

—

6. The Trouble With Tribbles (Season 2, 73 Points). Despite my misgivings, I voted this one spot higher than A Piece of the Action, not because I think it’s a better episode (though it’s close), but because I recognize its place in Trek lore, and you can’t discount that. That said, a number of voters left it off their ballots completely, with one calling it “overrated.” That’s probably true in the purest sense: I think a lot of voters (here and elsewhere) place this on their Top Whatever lists reflexively, because it’s what you do. Between those two schools of thoughts, though, The Trouble With Tribbles ends up where it belongs — in the middle of the list.

—

5. Space Seed (Season 1, 80 Points). Here’s a question for you: Is Space Seed a great episode strictly on its merits, or is it much better in hindsight because of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan? I have a hard time answering the question myself, which means its probably the former. Sam Greenfield has no such qualms, picking it No. 1: “The writers of the show didn’t know it yet, but through this episode they ended up establishing the foundations for the best Star Trek film of all time. Montalban is electric as he always was and Khan is still the greatest Trek villain to date.”

—

4. Amok Time (Season 2, 87 Points). We band of brothers. My chart-topper and I haven’t changed my thinking since the last poll. Here’s what I wrote then, edited ever so slightly: “What’s the point of Star Trek? The action? The science? The optimism? The trippy aliens? The exotic locales? The social awareness? The kitschy production values? Sure, all of that. All of that made Gene Roddenberry’s vision work in 1966 and 2016. (And 2026.)  But nowhere do all those things crystallize better than in the abiding friendship between Kirk, Spock and McCoy. They are the heart of Star Trek and the heart of its greatest episode, Amok Time.

“Amok Time is an episode in two acts, with a slow build-up that’s more psychodrama than space-faring adventure. Spock, the man of logic, has lost his mind. McCoy, the man of passion, succeeds in convincing Kirk of the seriousness of the situation. Kirk, the man of action, does what he has done so many other times: breaks the rules — not to save his crew or the Federation this time, but his friend.

“The needs of the one outweigh the needs of the many.”

There’s a lot more to consider with this classic and you can click here to really get into it.

—

3. Balance of Terror (Season 1, 96 Points). Says Fred Van Lente, who voted it ahead of the class: “The neo-submarine cat-and-mouse of it all, yes. Mark Lenard’s terrific turn as the Romulan captain, yes. The xenophobia against Spock by some of the freaked-out crew, sure. But what really sets this episode apart from all others is the brilliant frame of the wedding of two characters we’ve never heard of before turning so movingly tragic by the end. Rarely has the human cost of Enterprise’s five-year mission ever been so poignantly explored.”

Balance of Terror is in many ways the best of the Original Series and I was exceptionally pleased to see it remade on Strange New Worlds, as a way to show the differences between Kirk and Pike — and to explain why Kirk is the greatest of all Starfleet captains. A brilliant episode that never gets old and never has a dull moment.

—

2. Mirror, Mirror (Season 2, 98 Points). Walt Grogan, who led his Top 13 with it: “You just can’t beat a parallel universe story and having read DC Comics’ JLA/JSA team-ups before this, I was all in! I loved all the subtle and not-so-subtle changes and the subterfuge!”

When it comes down to it, Mirror, Mirror is probably the single most entertaining episode of the entire series, from the opening shot to the final credits. Riveting and even intoxicating. The only reason I don’t put it at the top is because it’s essentially a deconstruction and it works as well as it does because of all that’s been established before it. So a strong No. 2, for sure.

—

1. The City on the Edge of Forever (Season 1, 100 Points.) Chris Franklin put it No. 1: “It’s not only the greatest episode of the original series, it’s one of the best episodes of television, period. And I’m talking about the episode AS produced, written by Harlan Ellison, but with revisions by Genes Roddenberry and Coon, and D.C. Fontana. Having chosen to save his reality and let his love die, Kirk’s censor-busting “Let’s get the hell out of here” never fails to give me chills. Franco concurs: “Written by Harlan Ellison (who yelled at me once! That was awesome!) A love story. A tragedy. Just a well-told story.” And Scott Tipton, who, as I noted above, helped adapt Ellison’s original vision as a graphic novel for IDW: “How could it be anything else? Harlan Ellison’s heartbreaking tale of a love that could change the course of history, and the choice James Kirk made that cost him everything.”

An unsurprising pick, to be sure. Not dissimilar to The Trouble With Tribbles, it’s like every time Stairway to Heaven tops a classic-rock radio survey: It just is. Two contrarians left it off their ballots completely, which just shows you how strong this episode is that it still ended up at the top. (For my part, I had it at No. 6.)

—

We’re not done yet! Click here for the BEST OF THE REST.

—

MORE

— The Complete 1966 WEEK INDEX of Features. Click here.

— The TOP 13 STAR TREK Episodes: THE BEST OF THE REST. Click here.

— COMIC BOOK DEATH MATCH: Gold Key’s STAR TREK vs. Marvel’s STAR TREK vs. DC’s STAR TREK. Click here.

—

Welcome to 1966 WEEK — a 60th anniversary celebration of an extraordinary, landmark year in popular culture. For seven days, we’re bringing you a whole host of features on everything from Star Trek, to Batman, to the Beatles, to the Monkees, and much, much more. (Just check out Walt Grogan’s latest fab banner, above!) Click here for more of the far out fun! — Dan

—

For 1966 WEEK and the 60th anniversary of Star Trek, which first aired Sept, 8, 1966, we’ve posted our poll of the TOP 13 EPISODES — RANKED.

You can find that list, the names of the voters, how the weighted ballot worked, and how this came together, by clicking here.

But I also wanted to show off how the rest of the episodes fared, the ones that may be favorites to some, but just didn’t make the cut.

So here’s the BEST OF THE REST — the second 13 vote leaders, plus the also-rans and the episodes that didn’t get even a single vote!

—

BEST OF THE REST

Shore Leave (27 Points). Picked No. 1 by not one, but TWO voters — Jim Beard and James Cawley. Beard: “The perfect episode: bright and cheerful moments of honest, heartfelt character emotions, balanced with the real threat of death among the flora and fauna. Beyond that, the possibilities the planet offers are food for further thought beyond this story. I look forward to seeing this one every single time.” Cawley: “This is my all time favorite. It’s the first episode I ever saw, and I love the adventure, fun and action. It drew me in as a kid and never let me go.”

Spectre of the Gun (26)
The Naked Time (21)
All Our Yesterdays (19)
The Conscience of the King (18)
The Enterprise Incident (17)

Assignment: Earth (15). Peter Bosch had this at the top: “It’s a suspenseful episode, sure, but I like the casting of Robert Lansing and Teri Garr. Oh, yes, and Isis (played in human form by April Tatro but the vocal cat sounds were by the wonderful Barbara Babcock). Too bad this never went to its own series.”

(Tie) A Taste of Armageddon/I, Mudd/The Tholian Web (14)
Let That Be Your Last Battlefield (13)
(Tie) The Changeling/Metamorphosis (12)

—

THE ALSO-RANS

11 Points

The Corbomite Manuever
Where No Man Has Gone Before

10 Points

Errand of Mercy
The Menagerie
The Squire of Gothos
Wink of an Eye

9 Points

Wolf in the Fold

8 Points

Day of the Dove
The Immunity Syndrome
Plato’s Stepchildren

6 Points

The Galileo Seven
Miri

4 Points

The Paradise Syndrome
What Are Little Girls Made Of?

3 Points

Operation – Annihilate!
Patterns of Force

2 Points

The Empath
Requiem for Methuselah
Return to Tomorrow
Tomorrow Is Yesterday
The Ultimate Computer
Whom Gods Destroy

1 Point

The Apple
The Way to Eden

—

ZERO VOTES

The Man Trap
Charlie X
Mudd’s Women
Dagger of the Mind
Court Martial
The Return of the Archons
This Side of Paradise
The Alternative Factor
Who Mourns for Adonais?
Catspaw
Friday’s Child
The Deadly Years
Obsession
The Gamesters of Triskelion
A Private Little War
By Any Other Name
The Omega Glory
Bread and Circuses
Spock’s Brain
And the Children Shall Lead
Is There in Truth No Beauty?
For the World Is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky
Elaan of Troyus
The Mark of Gideon
That Which Survives
The Lights of Zetar
The Cloud Minders
The Savage Curtain
Turnabout Intruder

—

MORE

— The Complete 1966 WEEK INDEX of Features. Click here.

— The TOP 13 STAR TREK Episodes — RANKED. Click here.

— COMIC BOOK DEATH MATCH: Gold Key’s STAR TREK vs. Marvel’s STAR TREK vs. DC’s STAR TREK. Click here.

—

Welcome to 1966 WEEK — a 60th anniversary celebration of an extraordinary, landmark year in popular culture. For seven days, we’re bringing you a whole host of features on everything from Star Trek, to Batman, to the Beatles, to the Monkees, and much, much more. (Just check out Walt Grogan’s latest fab banner, above!) Click here for more of the far out fun! — Dan

—

By FRED VAN LENTE

Welcome back, Panel Pugilists, for a first-ever three-way COMIC BOOK DEATH MATCH battle in honor of the 60th anniversary of Star Trek, which debuted in the U.S. via NBC on September 8, 1966.

My personal history with Star Trek is a sporadic one. I watched TOS as a kid, even though my dad hated it: A naval history nut, he couldn’t get over the fact the captain aways went along with the lower ranks on landing missions, which he found ridiculous (we all have our pet bugaboos). I missed Next Generation completely, but when I came home from work at the mall the summer I spent in Syracuse, N.Y., in between college semesters, the only thing watchable on TV was Deep Space Nine, a show I fell in love with. During the pandemic lockdown I did a complete DSN rewatch, which was followed by a TOS rewatch, and since then, in my 50s, I’ve become a fairly hardcore Trekkie. Better late than never, I guess.

Mostly I’ve consumed my Star Trek on TV, as God intended, with the occasional movie thrown in, and have never actually read a Trek comic before (or read a Trek novel, or played a Trek video game, though the TTRPG from Modiphius is quite good) so this is my first perusal of the ’60s-’80s Gold Key, Marvel and DC series. In honor of Enterprise’s five-year mission, I’ll give each title five issues to wow me before I decide which is best.

As an extra bonus, I’ll pepper the match with photos of me at the mind-blowing recreation of the TOS sets found at the Star Trek Original Series Set Tour in Ticonderoga, New York, which I had the extreme pleasure of visiting this summer. In addition to the sets itself, which you need to see to believe, the Tour has an impressive collection of costumes from both TOS and Next Gen. I was particularly thrilled to stand next to a dress worn by beloved-by-13th-Dimension Yvonne Craig as the Orion Marta in “Whom Gods Destroy.” That day I had worn my Orion dancer t-shirt given to me by the late, great S’Klallam comics artist Jeffrey Veregge, gone too soon, who specialized in geek designs with a Native American style.

So what are we waiting for? Hear that bosun’s whistle? Condition: Alert! FIGHT!

—

ROUND ONE

Star Trek #1: “The Planet of No Return” (Gold Key, 1967)

In this story by Sky Masters of the Space Force’s Dick Wood and artist Nevio Zeccara, a “space fog” of microbes that rapidly mutates animal life into killer plants has infested a planet Enterprise is exploring. (They name it “Planet KG,” after “Kelly Green,” and I was like “who’s she?” until I looked it up and realized it’s a particular shade of green…) An away team member is transformed into a giant Heap-like beast who slays another attacking plant.

They discover the plants are carnivorous and herd the animal forms like cattle to the slaughter, Yeoman Rand among them. Spock saves Janice by destroying the attacking plants with a pinpoint phaser beam from orbit. The away team beams back, and decides the only way to save “Galaxy Alpha” from the spore-emitting trees on the planet’s surface is to follow not the Prime Directive, but the Ripley Directive:
“Total destruction,” intones the Captain’s Log as Enterprise blasts the planet’s surface with death rays: “A mission that must be fulfilled before we can continue our tour of research through the vast reaches of the universe.”

This is the least Star Trek thing ever. If this was the show, the writers would have contrived a peaceful, not-Ripley solution. It’s even less Star Trek than the green uniforms, the fact the transporters are called “the teleportation chamber,” and that nobody but Spock (and arguably Janice Rand) consistently looks on-model.

Of course, the show’s budget would have also never allowed the massive sci-fi horror action epic that Wood and Zeccara cram into 24 pages of comic book. Kudos!

—

Star Trek #4: “The Haunting of Thallus” (Marvel, 1980)

“Hey Fred, why are you starting your Marvel read with #4?” I can hear you asking, and first off, how dare you question the chairman and sole member of the North American Comic Book Death Match Commission.

I’m starting here because I want this to be a fair fight, and the first three issues of the House of Ideas’ series are unfairly handicapped by being reprints of the Marvel Super Special adaptation of the 2001-wannabe snoozefest that is Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Rob Kelly does a great job summarizing the original and its Marvel version on this very site.

With the fourth issue, though, Marv Wolfman, Dave Cockrum and Klaus Janson actually get to provide us with original material, kicking the staidness of TMP out of the airlock. Enterprise is ordered to bring an orange Xenomorph back to a prison planet, only to be attacked by a Wolfman, a (Marv) Wolfman-mustachioed Dracula and a Frankenstein! Suck it, Robert Wise! The prison planet is a spooky cobweb-festooned mansion on a floating asteroid that… appears to be run by the Klingons? I have no idea what’s going on here, but as long as Kubrickian light shows are nowhere to be found, I’m happy.

—

Star Trek #1: “The Wormhole Connection” (DC, 1984)

Marvel’s Trek lasted all of eighteen issues, and the Distinguished Competition wasted no time in picking up the story after Wrath of Khan, courtesy of Marvel Trek veteran Mike W. Barr, accompanied by Tom Sutton and Ricardo Villagran. Once again in command of the Enterprise, Kirk tangles with some Klingons blowing up Starfleet vessels in the not-very Neutral Zone. Much of the human—er, half-Vulcan, half-Romulan drama revolves around Saavik having a rough time settling in as replacement to the recently-deceased Spock. All 12 Saavik fans were thrilled to see her get more character development, I’m sure, but yet another Starfleet vs Klingons tale reads like a cover band that only knows one hit.

—

ROUND TWO

Star Trek #2: “The Devil’s Isle of Space” (Gold Key, 1968)

Wood and Zeccara send Murderprise to Galaxy Nabu, which, mercifully, is not infested with Jar-Jars, but does have a planet with “a huge electronic field” that grabs the ship in its grip. As per last issue, Spock hangs out on the ship doing his Alien Nerd stuff while Kirk and the landing party beam down to the surface.

James T and the Redshirts (my con band) discover the planet is a penal colony and are captured by the dominant faction of convicts. A super volcano will make the planet go “supernova” (you know, like stars normally do) in twenty-four hours, lending real urgency to the prisoners’ escape. Kirk nobly refuses to let any of these space psychos on board his ship; instead he gives Spock command, then orders him to get Murderprise as far away from planet Exploding Alcatraz as possible.

But! Kirk made Spock captain before giving him the final “order,” which means Spock outranks him and doesn’t have to do anything he says. Nyah! Instead he tricks the prisoners by dropping a phony supply shuttle onto the planet filled with a Starfleet raiding party that frees Kirk and lets Murderprise escape the planet before it blows, killing all the cons on its surface.

This one would have actually made a great episode of the show, even though for the second issue in a row a Trek story ends with the destruction of a planet and everyone on it.

—

Star Trek #5: “The Haunting of the Enterprise!” (Marvel, 1980)

 Things have gone pear-shaped for Starfleet’s Finest. The Klingons capture Spock and bring him aboard their ship while monsters overrun Enterprise. It turns out the Klingons found a “horror movie archivist” in a drifting spaceship and hooked him up to a “thought enhancer” that is sending his memories of old scare flicks to the Xenomorph in Kirk’s brig who’s acting as a transmitter to make those memories a reality. Geez, I can appreciate Wolfman’s replacements Denny O’Neil and Mike W. Barr (with Cockrum and Janson) are trying to give us a rock-em, sock-em anti-The Motion Picture adventure here, but I have no clue what’s going on.

—

Star Trek #2: “The Only Good Klingon…” (DC, 1984)

Kirk and Klingon-hating Ensign Bryce (they killed her dad) have beamed into “wormhole space” where lurks a Klingon space station running secret anti-Starfleet ops in the Neutral Zone. Bryce freezes temporarily before helping Kirk take out the Klingons that try to capture them, and he reminds her he froze once on Tycho IV, the kind of oblique TOS reference I thought I’d have to wade through a lot more of in these comics. Trekkies who show restraint, I like it!

Lt. Saavik also infiltrates the station on a shuttle and the trio beams out with a defector who is the rare Klingon pacifist. They force the space station to phase out of the wormhole, but the commander blows up the station rather than let Enterprise capture it. The furious Klingon Empire declares war on the Federation, blaming Kirk by name. Seems bad! A vast improvement by Barr and Sutton from #1.

—

ROUND THREE

Star Trek #3: “Invasion of the City Builders” (Gold Key, 1968)

Alberto Giolitti takes over art duties. This month, Murderprise flies (literally, through the atmosphere) to “Planet Questionmark” (sic), where the natives’ machines do their farming, policing, and taxes for them. Ultimately, city-building machines arise that, once turned on, never stop building, even though said cities stand empty, since there’s not enough people to populate them.

This prescient story anticipates both our current A.I. anxiety and China’s “ghost cities.” Because machines now program other machines, the dwindling organic populace has lost the skills to shut them down. Kirk pledges Murderprise’s support in whooping robot ass via what I like to call The Magnus Directive. After some false starts, Spock sciences up a compound that weakens the builders’ metal and the robocalypse commences. The local organics saved, Murderprise flies off to a new mission of planetary destruction, perhaps slightly disappointed that they genocided half a planet’s intelligent entities this time.

—

Star Trek #6: “The Enterprise Murder Case!” (Marvel, 1980)

Marvel must have heard all my Murderprise cracks, because in this Barr, Cockrum and Janson joint, the ambassador from Federation member-elect planet Yannad VI gets beamed up with a knife in his back. He was fine when he left his homeworld, how did the knife get in his back in the transporter beam? Kirk is unusually cranky about this mystery, and when confronted by McCoy we learn it’s because he knew the murder victim: a stray phaser blast from Ensign Kirk while quelling a planetary uprising years ago injured the ambassador badly enough to prevent him from taking the throne. Unfortunately, with that clue, most anyone who’s read a murder mystery can now figure out the solution (the ambassador “murdered” himself to get revenge on Kirk), leaving the rest of the story to spool out without much tension.

For reasons known only to Paramount, apparently Marvel’s Star Trek license limited them to use only characters from The Motion Picture in their comics; this is used as an excuse for this series’ failings. On which I, somebody who (often) does licensed comics for a living, call bullshit. If all you’ve got is TMP, all you’ve got is Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Sulu, Uhura, Chekov, Scotty, Rand, Chapel, Vulcan (the planet), the Klingons, whatever species that bald lady was from, and the entire Enterprise herself. That’s plenty to work with for compelling story hooks, as Barr proves here. It’s the execution that’s iffy.

—

Star Trek #3: “Errand of War!” (DC, 1984)

The one thing I could do with less of in Trek, next to time travel, is god-like space genies who can manipulate time, matter and energy with a snap of their fingers: your Qs, your Trelanes, your Excalbians, who thought they could determine the superiority of good or evil by pitting Kirk, Spock, Abraham Lincoln and Genghis Khan against each other like Pokémon in one of my least favorite third-season episodes, “The Savage Curtain.” (The superhero genre overly abuses this space-genie trope as well, I’d have to say.)

In this issue, Barr and Sutton reveal that the Excalbians, dissatisfied with the results of “Curtain,” have manipulated the Klingons and Federation into declaring war on each other by impersonating each other’s leaders. They broadcast vicious propaganda that causes a riot on Enterprise and the near-lynching of the pacifist Klingon still on board. Kirk figures out he’s being manipulated soon enough, and recruits Klingon Captain Kor, his sparring partner in “Errand of Mercy,” the excellent episode that introduces the Klingons, into exposing the aliens’ subterfuge. On the show, the Excalbians are poo-piles of steaming lava; here Sutton renders them as humanoid geodes, which makes the proceedings all the more surreal.

—

ROUND FOUR

Star Trek #4: “The Peril of Planet Quick Change” (Gold Key, 1969)

Kirk & Co. beam down to a constantly evolving planet in search of “Tiantianium,” which can power a spaceship for a year (dilithium crystals must not have been in the stack of old TV Guides that, as far as I can tell, were all Dick Wood had to go on for research). Spock is acting weirder than usual, though, insisting the crew figure out a way to fix the planet’s many changes before extracting the “TI” ore.

Turns out the Science Officer has been possessed by the glowing balls of light that are all that remain of the planet’s original inhabitants, zapped by a weird meteorite. They’ve shanghaied Spock’s body (not to be confused with “Spock’s Brain“) because his Vulcan hardware and their alien software are simpatico.

Once the natives are restored to flesh-and-blood form, however, the evilest Ball of Light remains inside Spock, because he wants to leave this dumb planet and go partying in space. Back on Murderprise, though, Spock manages to seal himself into the “teleportation chamber” (transporters also not being in the TV Guides) and he uses it to separate himself from the alien freeloader. Transporter mishaps have been a stock Trek episode hook since TOS Season One, and I like how Wood uses one to resolve a conflict.

—

Star Trek #7: “Tomorrow or Yesterday” (Marvel, 1980)

Tom DeFalco and Mike Nasser take the conn, with Janson still on inks, telling the story of Andrea IV, a planet in the path of a deadly radioactive cloud. Kirk, Spock and McCoy beam down to evacuate the population, only to discover there’s ancient statues of the three of them already there! The landing party figures out that the seemingly primitive Andreans (Prime Directive? Hello?) experience time in toto as opposed to sequentially, so they both anticipated Enterprise’s arrival and built the doohickeys necessary to save their planet from the cloud. For some reason, though, the device requires the temporally locked crew to throw the “on” switch.

—

Star Trek #4: “Deadly Allies!” (DC, 1984)

Kor and Kirk join forces to track down the Excalbians by heading to Organia, where their space genies forced a treaty on the Federation and the Empire in the latter’s first appearance, a truce all Trekkies have been whining about being violated in the Marvel and DC lettercols since both series began.

Once the Klingons and Starfleet arrive on the planet, the admiral gives a big speech in classic Kirkian fashion, successfully daring the Excalbians to pick on someone their own size, and take on the Organians in a War of the Space Genies to truly determine this good versus evil stuff. My one gripe with this fun issue from Barr, Sutton and Villagran is that colorist Michele Wolfman has all the Klingons be bright lemon-yellow for some reason.

—

ROUND FIVE

Star Trek #5: “The Ghost Planet” (Gold Key, 1969)

“Secure seat belts!” is my favorite Captain Kirk command in any series so far, as Murderprise is sucked into the rainbow rings encircling what appears at first sensor-glance to be a barren planet with an empty city. Big-headed “twin supremes” of Planet Numero Uno (Wood puts a lot of effort into his planet names) have engaged in a deadly civil war that caused the factions to retreat to twin orbiting satellites. Murderprise manages to drag the radiation-emitting rings into space and the factions immediately recommence hostilities, but then the rings return. Murderprise says they can turn the rings back on whenever they feel like it, so they’d better start making nice or they’re gonna get it. Turns out this is a ruse by Spock: He played old movies of the rings onto the atmosphere to make the combatants give up their arms.

—

Star Trek #8: “The Expansionist Syndrome” (Marvel, 1980)

Poor Spock, he keeps getting hijacked by aliens! In this story by Martin Pasko, Cockrum, and Ricardo Villamonte, it’s the Mox of Agena IV who zap Spock onto their ship, after disabling Enterprise’s matter/antimatter generators for intruding into their territory. Kirk and a landing party beam down to the planet to look for him, recruiting a member of the “Orgs,” a rival race, as a guide into the very cool Cockrum-designed Mox city. (The design of the Mox themselves are pretty cool, too — that’s them on the cover.)

Our heroes noodle out that the “Mox” are machines and the “Orgs” are organic creatures. The Orgs resent the Mox for living in “comfort” (because they have no organic needs) while the Orgs struggle to feed and clothe themselves. Committed pacifists, the Mox snatched Spock hoping to use his Vulcan telepathy to non-violently quell an Org invasion force. When this fails, a scientist stuck in Enterprise’s sick bay beams down to try and defuse the conflict, as without being able to travel to a starbase for medical treatment, she’ll die anyway.

This script could’ve used another draft. There’s a lot of great ideas here, but the resolution is rushed and muddled.

—

Star Trek #5: “Mortal Gods” (DC, 1984)

In the best of this trifecta of planetary civil war stories, Barr, Sutton and Sal Amendola have Enterprise discovering a crashed Starfleet captain has cornholed the Prime Directive by taking over a primitive planet as a pseudo sky god. The captain has used his godly authority to quell the world’s two dueling factions but the landing party’s arrival puts the lie to his divinity, jump-starting the conflict and forcing Kirk, Saavik and crew to save the day.

—

THE VERDICT: Gold Key’s stories are banana-pants, equal parts exhilarating and exhausting; Marvel never really found its footing post-TMP; while, to my shock, replacing Spock with Saavik made DC’s stories refreshingly different Trek fare for a brief era rarely fleshed out in any other medium.

—

MORE

— The Complete 1966 WEEK INDEX of Features. Click here.

— The TOP 13 STAR TREK Episodes — RANKED. Click here.

— The TOP 13 STAR TREK Episodes: THE BEST OF THE REST. Click here.

—

Welcome to 1966 WEEK — a 60th anniversary celebration of an extraordinary, landmark year in popular culture. For seven days, we’re bringing you a whole host of features on everything from Star Trek, to Batman, to the Beatles, to the Monkees, and much, much more. (Just check out Walt Grogan’s latest fab banner, above!) Click here for more of the far out fun! — Dan

—

Hey, you need wallpaper or a screensaver to celebrate the 60th anniversary of Star Trek, right? Of course!

Des Taylor’s got you covered:

“Star Trek has always had a place in my heart (except the recent stuff — LOL), and a place in my household growing up,” sez Des. “For me, before fandoms, conventions and collectibles, it was always on in the house, and no matter what — ANYONE could sit down and watch the show. Here’s hoping it’ll last another 60 years!”

—

Want more 1966 WEEK? Click here!

Want a commission? Buy prints? Buy Des’ comics? Check out his Despop Art website!

—

MORE

— THE BLUE LOTUS STRIKES: Dig All the Variant Covers for DES TAYLOR’s 1960s Spy Romp. Click here.

— If Only There Were More JAMES BOND COMICS That Adapted the Movies. Click here.

—

DES TAYLOR is the man behind creator-owned comic properties Scarlett Couture, The Vesha Valentine Story, The Trouble With Katie Rogers and a new property in the works The Blue Lotus Strikes. His client list includes DC Comics, La Perla, FHM, Cosmopolitan, Universal Music, ITV Studios America and many more. When he’s not working on his own properties or churning out commissions, Des spends his spare time… working some more, hating Arsenal and raising his two baby daughters, Scarlett and Leia-May.

—

Welcome to 1966 WEEK — a 60th anniversary celebration of an extraordinary, landmark year in popular culture. For seven days, we’re bringing you a whole host of features on everything from Star Trek, to Batman, to the Beatles, to the Monkees, and much, much more. (Just check out Walt Grogan’s latest fab banner, above!) Click here for more of the far out fun! — Dan

—

By BILL MORRISON

The Green Hornet was created by George W. Trendle and Fran Striker for radio station WXYZ, a mere 13.2 miles from my childhood home in Lincoln Park, Michigan. The radio station, which also gave birth to the Lone Ranger, was located in the Maccabees building in midtown Detroit. This is a fact I was unaware of until adulthood, but had I known it when the Green Hornet TV series premiered on ABC television 60 years ago this coming Wednesday, my little 7-year old head might easily have exploded.

I was an instant fan of the Batman show that had its debut eight months earlier on January 12, 1966, and by fall I was eagerly anticipating the arrival of another pair of masked heroes who drove around in a tricked-out black car, fighting crime. I tuned in for the premiere episode on September 9, 1966, and was not disappointed! The show turned out to be more adult in tone than I’d expected, and the heroes didn’t wear capes and tights, just normal clothes (except for the masks, of course.)

Their car looked more like a regular sedan, with no hornet motifs, and I wondered why it wasn’t green instead of black. The villains didn’t wear garish costumes or makeup, just subdued suits and hats. And they didn’t cackle maniacally, or have weirdly-decorated hidden lairs either. But somehow, none of that mattered. It had a really exciting theme song that lodged itself in my brain, great gadgety weapons, exciting plots, and terrific fight scenes. And the narrator sounded like the same guy who set up each episode of Batman, so there seemed to be a link between the shows. Little did I know that both series were produced and narrated by William Dozier!

After a cold open, each episode went into the opening credits montage with Dozier’s narration, “Another challenge for the Green Hornet, his aide Kato, and their rolling arsenal, the Black Beauty! On police records, a wanted criminal, the Green Hornet is really Britt Reid, owner-publisher of the Daily Sentinel; his dual identity is known only to his secretary, and to the district attorney. And now, to protect the rights and lives of decent citizens, rides the Green Hornet!”

Wow, what kid could resist that? And over the narration blared the theme song, a jazzed-up version of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s classical piece, “Flight of the Bumblebee,” wonderfully reimagined and arranged by composer Billy May, with a faster than light trumpet solo by Al Hirt.

And there was something really cool about the Hornet wearing just a sleek green trench coat and fedora, with only a green mask under the brim of his hat to conceal his true identity and to let us know that he wasn’t merely a private detective. There are dozens of adjectives that could be used to describe TV’s Batman and Robin. Campy, fun, thrilling, satirical, colorful, and sexy are a few that come to mind. But Van Williams as the Green Hornet, and Bruce Lee as Kato… well, they were just cool! Batman was still my Numero Uno, but I instantly loved the Green Hornet too. I may have even appreciated the differences and the fact that the Green Hornet show wasn’t just a copy of Batman. It was in the same family, but it had its own personality, and that helped to make it great.

The show only lasted a single season, and because of that the 26 episodes weren’t rerun on TV as often as longer-running shows. They showed up occasionally on cable stations like FX, or as holiday marathons on the Syfy Channel, and for legal reasons, the series has never been released on home video, so access to them remains sparse. Consequently, the Green Hornet show wasn’t something I thought about very much as an adult. That is, until I got a wedding invitation around 20 years ago. A friend of mine who worked in comics and animation was getting married, and he and his bride decided to have a costume wedding.

The invitation was emphatic that all guests must come in costume, and given my pal’s occupation and circle of friends, I knew that most of the attendees would come dressed as characters from pop culture, most likely comics and cartoon characters. So, I started thinking about what my ceremonial cosplay might be, and quickly determined that I wanted to dress as a super hero of some sort. But somehow, I felt that wearing tights and a cape to a wedding would feel weird and inappropriate. If I wasn’t wearing a suit and tie, it just wouldn’t feel proper.

So that eliminated several beloved characters and left me jotting down a list of heroes who fight crime in suits. It was a short list that included the Spirit, the Golden-Age Sandman, and you guessed it… the Green Hornet. I didn’t think I could find a vintage gas mask, so Sandman was out. The real contest was between the Spirit and the Hornet. The Spirit would have been fun, but when I imagined myself looking all cool like Van Williams in that long green, unbelted trench coat, my decision was made! The kid in me couldn’t resist the idea of creating a cool Green Hornet costume just like the one I saw all those years ago on TV.

The first thing I did was go on online to see if I could find a replica of the mask and gas gun from the show for sale. I didn’t think I could make those myself, at least not to my own standards of authenticity. Luckily, I found an enterprising bootlegger on eBay who made and sold pretty authentic-looking Green Hornet props, and with the mask and gun, I had the beginnings of my costume.

I went into my closet and discovered a skinny dark green tie that had belonged to my dad in the ’60s, and also pulled out a white dress shirt, black pants, and black shoes. Those were easy. In a drawer, I found a pair of green leather gloves that were a little snug, but looked fantastic. I have no idea who they’d belonged to or why I had them, so I consider them a gift from the cosplay gods.

The only components left were the hat and coat. I knew I’d have to go to a tailor to get the coat made, so I figured the best course was to try to find a stingy brim ’60s-style green fedora, and then match the coat color to the hat. There was a great hat store in Pasadena, California, not terribly far from where I lived at the time, so I paid a visit and found that they stocked just about every style of fedora imaginable. I found one that was green, and it was a pretty close match to the hat in some color publicity photos I had from the show.

My next stop was a tailor shop on Ventura Boulevard in Sherman Oaks. I went in with the hat and one of the color photos that showed the full coat, including the black velvet collar, and asked the tailor if he could reproduce it in my size just from looking at the photo. He said it would be no problem and proceeded to take my measurements. Then, he brought out a book of fabric swatches and we went through it with the green hat close at hand, page by page, looking for a fabric that was a close match.

Some swatches were too yellow, some too blue, others were too light or too dark. The tailor turned another page, and there I saw a swatch that was a near-perfect color match! I pointed emphatically and said, “That’s it! That’s the one!” Hallelujah! The tailor made a note and told me to come back in a week or so to pick up the coat.

I had a great sense of relief. Everything hinged on having the perfect coat, and I could now check that off my list. My wife, Kayre, being a vintage band singer, had already put together a killer costume of her own, and was going to the wedding as Betty from Dave Stevens’ Rocketeer comics.

On the day that I was scheduled to pick up the coat I went in to the tailor’s shop with an enormous sense of anticipation, and the tailor didn’t let me down. He unveiled my new garment, and it was incredible. He had paid attention to every detail, and to my eyes it could have been an actual costume plucked from a rack at 20th Century Fox Television studios. I tried it on, and it fit perfectly and felt fantastic. Everything was terrific, except for one thing. I had made a fatal error when I placed the order by forgetting to ask what the cost would be.

The tailor handed me the bill and I audibly gasped. I may even have choked a little. The total cost for materials and labor was a thousand dollars! Now I had never had a garment made for me, so I didn’t really know what a custom-tailored coat should cost, but a thousand dollars was a lot of money, especially in the mid-2000s. This was way more than I expected to pay.

But of course, it was completely my fault that I didn’t get an estimate up front, before any work was done. After catching my breath, I asked the tailor why the garment was so expensive, and he simply responded, “Well, the fabric you chose is cashmere.”

Cashmere?! That’s the fabric you always hear about in movies when rich people are bragging about their expensive clothes! It’s like the clothing equivalent to filet mignon! How could I be so stupid? I was so focused on getting the fabric color right, and so delighted to have found the perfect shade of green, I completely forgot to ask about the cost. It never occurred to me that some fabrics would cost vastly more than others!

When I arrived home with my thousand-dollar costume piece, Kayre naturally wanted to see it. I reluctantly took it out of the garment bag and upon seeing the quality, she said, “Wow, it’s beautiful! How much did it cost?” I fessed up and told her it took a full grand out of our bank account, then closed my eyes and waited for the explosion.

But Kayre was great. Stern, but great, and very cool. She calmly told me that from this day forward, whenever the temperature dipped below 40 degrees and we had to attend a dressy event, weddings, funerals, religious services of any kind, theater outings, etc., I would be wearing that coat. Then she added, “And when you die, you’re going to be buried in it.”

Over the years, I have managed to get a lot of use out of it. It does look great, just as a dress coat, and every so often someone recognizes it as the Green Hornet’s overcoat.

I’ve also worn the entire costume on a few occasions like Halloween and Purim, and a few years ago I talked Kayre into making herself a Kato costume so we could go as a duo to a party.

There are some low-quality Green Hornet episodes on YouTube, and I plan to celebrate the anniversary of the show’s debut this Wednesday by watching a few. I may even crank up the air conditioning and put on the coat.

—

Want more 1966 WEEK? Click here!

Want more MORRISON MONDAYS? Come back next week! Want a commission? See below!

—

MORE

— Three Decades Ago, TEX AVERY’s Fantastic Characters Finally Got Their Due in Comics. Click here.

— BATMAN AND ROBIN ON THE ROOFTOP: There’s No Such Thing as Too Many Homages. Click here.

—

—

UPDATED 9/7/26: It’s 1966 WEEK! The Adam West Batman series’ second season debuted 60 years ago, on Sept. 7, 1966. Perfect time to reprint this piece from September 2021! For more 1966 WEEK festivities, click here. Right on! — Dan

—

Last week, on Adam West’s birthday, we reminded you of the release of Zlonk! Zok! Zowie! The Subterranean Blue Grotto Essays on Batman ’66 – Season One, a non-fiction anthology edited by Jim Beard, with Rich Handley, by bringing you Jim’s 13 COOL THINGS ABOUT BATMAN ’66 SEASON ONE. Click here to check it out because it’s pretty dang swell.

Anyway, we decided to go back to the Bat-well this weekend, with 13 COOL THINGS ABOUT BATMAN ’66 SEASON TWO — because Biff! Bam! Ee-Yow! The Subterranean Blue Grotto Essays on Batman ’66 – Season Two is out now, featuring The Batcave Podcast host John S. Drew, 13th Dimension columnist Paul Kupperberg, Michael Jan Friedman, Bobby Nash, Chris Franklin, Ed Catto, and my own bad self, among the contributors.

So if you want to order the books – and you do – click here for Season One and click here for Season Two.

In the meantime, dig 13 COOL THINGS ABOUT BATMAN ’66 SEASON TWO:

—

By JIM BEARD

1. Van Johnson’s Minstrel doesn’t get the attention he deserves, especially since he’s not only one of the few Bat-Villains that, within the fiction of “The Minstrel’s Shakedown/Barbequed Batman,” the Caped Crusader’s never met before, but he’s also said to be Batman’s equal or better in terms of being an electronic genius. How cool is that?

—

2. Forget about the absolute insanity of Liberace being on Batman and take a moment to consider the absolutely cool badassery of Aunt Harriet in “The Devil’s Fingers/The Dead Ringer.” Now there’s one pistol-packin’ mama!

—

3. It’s no surprise to me a hip show like Batman would include then-cool musical guest-stars like Paul Revere and the Raiders in “Hizzoner the Penguin/Dizzoner the Penguin,” but the group was actually working for the dirty bird on his crooked campaign? Wild!

—

4. There’s something so incredibly cool in “The Impractical Joker/The Joker’s Provokers,” it often goes unnoticed by fans—Batman talks about the Clown Prince of Crime’s past as a hypnotist. What does that mean? Our hero knows who the Joker was before he was, y’know, the Joker? The mind boggles. Oh, and the laughing lunatic makes a time machine.

—

5. The cool musical guest-stars thing continued in “The Cat’s Meow/The Bat’s Kow Tow” with an appearance by singing duo Chad and Jeremy. Now, I’d never be mistaken for their biggest fan, but watch their charming teatime scene with Aunt Harriet and you’ll see the boys’ true personalities come through. Holy Humble Pop Stars!

—

6. Last week I mentioned my love for Planet of the Apes and it’s rare crossovers with Batman. There’s another cool one in “The Puzzles are Coming/The Duo is Slumming” in the form of none other than Dr. Zaius himself as the puzzlin’ Puzzler. It just goes to prove you can’t keep a good orangutan down.

—

7. One of my most-favorite Batman episodes is the amazingly cool three-part “The Zodiac Crimes/The Joker’s Hard Times/The Penguin Declines.” Everything about it is a stand-out to me, including a post-feature film villain team-up, a giant Robin-eating clam, and a smackdown-showdown in the Batcave. It’s like getting a whole ’nuther Batman movie!

—

8. You want even more musical guests? In a bout of rampaging nepotism (look it up), singer Lesley Gore lands on the series not as herself (take that, Chad and Jeremy!), but as Pussycat, Catwoman’s cattily cool sidekick in “That Darn Catwoman/Scat, Darn Catwoman.” And does she sing? Yes, yes she does—twice!

—

9. “Batman’s Anniversary/A Riddling Controversy” is well-named, considering its disdain among fans for replacing Frank Gorshin with John Astin as the Riddler. For me, there’s a cool-as-cool moment in it with a musical cue that rocks my world every time I hear it, namely that jazzy-snazzy mix of the Batman theme with “Happy Birthday/Anniversary.” I can really groove to it.

—

10. “The Joker’s Last Laugh/The Joker’s Epitaph” is a fairly standard Joker story with a nice Star Trek connection — guest stars Lawrence Montaigne and Phyllis Douglas each appeared in the 23rd century — but when I was a kid I focused on two things in this one: The Jokermobile… and the cool little fake Batcave the Dynamic Duo uses to put the joke on the Joker. Did I want one for myself? Yes, I did. Also, there’s another mention of the murder of Bruce’s parents in this one. Hmm, maybe it isn’t just merely “fairly standard.”

—

11. Ah, the Green Hornet episode. What can be said about “A Piece of the Action/Batman’s Satisfaction” that hasn’t been said before? How about this: There’s a cool moment when Britt and Kato are changing into the Hornet and, err, Kato, and they have the uniforms on and the masks off. That’s cool because that didn’t happen on their own show, just here. And it’s a little ironic considering Batman’s stars never had a moment like that.

—

12. Maybe the kiddies better turn away and not read this one. You see, at the end of “King Tut’s Coup/Batman’s Waterloo” Bruce Wayne—how should I say this?—gets lucky. I think that definitely proves that man does not live by cool crimefighting alone, eh?

—

13. What? The Joker again? One might say the Hateful Harlequin rules Season Two, but in “Pop Goes the Joker/Flop Goes the Joker” he really has his ups and downs. To wit, he discovers the Batpoles in Wayne Manor, but Alfred makes sure he’s taken for a ride on them—literally. The cool part is when we the viewers get an unprecedented look at the shaft down to the Batcave, though the Joker remains ignorant as to Gotham City’s best kept secret.

—

Zlonk! Zok! Zowie! The Subterranean Blue Grotto Essays on Batman ’66 – Season One is published by Crazy 8 Press and lists for $14.99. Click here to order.

Biff! Bam! Ee-Yow! The Subterranean Blue Grotto Essays on Batman ’66 – Season Two is also available, at $15.99. Click here.

—

MORE

— 13 COOL THINGS ABOUT BATMAN ’66 SEASON ONE. Click here.

— ADAM WEST’s TOP 13 Groovy Moments as BATMAN — RANKED. Click here.

—

UPDATED 9/7/26: The Batman #251 Facsimile Edition is being re-released this week, this time with the UPC symbol on the back, and with foil and sketch logo covers. Perfect time to reprint this piece, which first ran during October 2019’s JOKER WEEK! Plus, also hit up BATMAN #251: How Fans Reacted to the Return of THE JOKER. Dig it! — Dan

—

Walking into Midtown Comics this week and seeing a glorious new reprint of 1973’s Batman #251 made me realize something that has really been self-evident for a good long time: the Bronze Age is comics’ true Golden Age.

Now, I love the actual Golden Age. I love the Silver Age even more. And I love a lot of what the Modern Age has to offer.

But, push to shove, no period in the history of our favorite entertainment medium burrows deeper into my heart than the Bronze Age, which I define as 1970 to 1986. (Others have more nebulous definitions but I see it as beginning when Robin split for college and ending when Crisis on Infinite Earths wrapped up.)

Did you know the original art for the Batman #251 cover will be going up for auction? It’s true.

Anyway, you could chalk some of it up to nostalgia, sure. I was a child of the ’70s, that era of Batman TV reruns, Megos and Hostess ads, the heyday of Ben Cooper costumes and Slurpee cups.

But there’s more to it: Taking the 81 years of the Superhero Era in sum, no period better exemplifies comics’ ability to entertain and make you think.

It’s the ideal nexus of high adventure, dazzling art, pathos, realism and fantasy. Serious but never too serious. Sometimes silly but in the best way.

And as far as standalone stories go, Batman #251 — The Joker’s Five-Way Revenge! by Denny O’Neil and Neal Adams — is absolutely unparalleled. Everything taken together,  it’s the single greatest issue ever produced and I expect I’ll believe that until I read my last comic.

Best opening splash page ever.

But hey, I’m sure you’ve got your own Bronze Age choice for that distinction and I invite you to list it in the comments below.

In any event, Batman #251 is a deceptively simple story executed masterfully: the Joker, who has been locked away (DC pretty much had him on the shelf for several years), returns to kill his old gang because one of them had betrayed him.

It marked the Harlequin of Hate’s return to his homicidal roots and O’Neil infuses the 22 and a half pages with a thrilling combination of suspense, action and dark humor, tossing in a sly bit of social commentary for good measure.

And Adams? Adams is Adams at his very best, illustrating with power, atmosphere and style – a monument to a magnificent career that’s influenced two generations of artists and will influence countless more.

I’ve written a lot about Batman #251 over the years. I’ve had a chance to talk to Denny O’Neil and Neal Adams about it. (Click here.)

It’s also been the centerpiece of JOKER WEEK: It capped both our TOP 13 JOKER STORIES EVER (click here) and TOP 13 JOKER COVERS EVER (click here) rankings.

We also showed you an EXCLUSIVE SNEAK PEEK at the Batman #251 Facsimile Edition. (Click here.) DC released it this week in tandem with the movie Joker — which, bringing it full circle, inspired JOKER WEEK to begin with.

This brings me back to Midtown Comics.

I’ve told this story before, but every week, I cross Park Avenue at 47th Street on my way to the shop – an intersection that the Joker looms over on the cover of Batman #251.

Every time I make that trek, I look up and imagine that spectacular image. Every time.

So, it was only fitting that when I got to the store on this particular Wednesday, bright, crisp copies of this exemplar of comics creativity were waiting for me, telling me in my mind something meaningful and true:

This is why we read comics.

—

MORE

— The Complete JOKER’S WEEK Index of Features. Click here.

— NEAL ADAMS Discusses the Cover to BATMAN #251. Click here.

—

UPDATED 9/7/26: The Batman #251 Facsimile Edition is being re-released this week, this time with the UPC symbol on the back, and with foil and sketch logo covers. Perfect time to reprint this piece, which first ran in November 2020. Plus, also hit up BATMAN #251: Towering Evidence the Bronze Age Is the True Golden Age. Dig it! — Dan

—

Hey, we all know that 1973’s Batman #251 — The Joker’s Five-Way Revenge! by Denny O’Neil and Neal Adams — is an outright classic and one of the greatest Batman stories ever. As far as I’m concerned, it’s the best single issue in the Caped Crusader’s history — and I’m not alone in thinking that.

But it’s always fascinating to see what contemporary readers thought about a comic that has been lionized for nearly 50 years.

Well, jump ahead to Batman #254 and you’ll see what the fuss was about when the Clown Prince of Crime returned to Gotham after a years-long hiatus.

Right on:

Almost universal praise, though reader Michael Sloan — where is he now, I wonder — was a bit all over the map.

But hey, they had hot takes even then.

—

MORE

— BATMAN #251: DENNY O’NEIL and NEAL ADAMS on Bringing Back THE JOKER. Click here.

— How Fans Reacted WHEN ROBIN LEFT FOR COLLEGE. Click here.