THE EVERLASTING FIRST: Quick Takes For P [comics edition]

Continuing a look back at my first exposure to a number of rock 'n' roll acts and superheroes (or other denizens of print or periodical publication), some of which were passing fancies, and some of which I went on to kinda like. They say you never forget your first time; that may be true, but it's the subsequent visits--the second time, the fourth time, the twentieth time, the hundredth time--that define our relationships with the things we cherish. Ultimately, the first meeting is less important than what comes after that. But every love story still needs to begin with that first kiss.



THE PRANKSTER



For younger comics fans, it may be hard to believe that an evil practical joker was once considered among Superman's greatest foes. Before dark 'n' gritty, a goofy 'n' gimmicky criminal called The Prankster was right up there with Lex Luthor, Brainiac, and...um, The Toyman in the pantheon of the Man of Steel's adversaries, and Brainiac was actually the relative latecomer of the four. Jokes and contraptions aside, The Prankster's intent was as larcenous and murderous as any Joker, Penguin, or Clayface over in Gotham City. I don't think The Prankster appeared in any of the few Superman comic books I read with family when I was five, nor was he ever on TV's The Adventures Of Superman, which I knew from reruns in the early '60s. It's likely that I first saw The Prankster on The New Adventures Of Superman, the 1966-67 Saturday morning cartoon series that returned Superman and company to the tube. The TV cartoon Prankster looked absolutely nothing like his comic-book inspiration. I don't think The Prankster appeared often (if at all) in new comic book stories in the '60s--maybe in the Superman-Batman team-up title World's Finest Comics--so I have no idea when/where I first encountered The Prankster in four-color panel form. If nothing else, I read the black-and-white reprint of "The Terrible Trio!," the 1954 Luthor-Prankster-Toyman saga reprised in the 1971 hardcover collection Superman From The 30's To The 70's.



THE PUNISHER




Man, I hate this guy, and my reasons may be just an eensy bit hypocritical. I mean, he was okay as a villain, I guess. My introduction to the character was his debut in The Amazing Spider-Man # 129 (February 1974). In that story, The Punisher (Frank Castle) is an assassin hired by The Jackal to kill everyone's favorite web-slinger. I don't remember if we learned The Punisher's back story that early on, of how the murder of his wife and children prompted him to become a lethal vigilante. By '74, I was perfectly okay with The Shadow taking fatal retribution against the underworld, with James Bond making appropriate use of his license to kill, and I was aware that The Batman bumped off a few nogoodniks in his earliest appearances in 1939. But my rules were (and remain) different for comic-book superheroes from the Silver Age to date: superheroes don't kill. They don't. So the idea of The Punisher eventually mingling (however uneasily) with mainstream Marvel superheroes--as a freakin' hero--always struck me as wrong. I've never seen any of the Punisher movies, though I did see the character's arc on the second season of Netflix's Daredevil. The only Punisher appearance I ever really liked was in the big DC-Marvel crossover JLA/Avengers, when Batman spots The Punisher about to execute some drug dealers and spends about twenty minutes whompin' on old Frank, off panel. Classic.

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