A Look At Some DC History According To Chase

Chase #6 provides some history on both Cameron Chase and the DC Universe in general.

From the story we learn that by the early 1960s, most of the JSA had retired or were moving that direction. At that time, though, a new group of costumed vigilantes showed up. Mostly they seem to have been people treating it almost as a hobby, something fun to do with friends. Some people became heroes, some became villains. It was beer league softball between the local heating and cooling company and the fire department, only with costumes and silly death traps. Then a woman was killed in the crossfire of a battle, no one was brought up on charges, and her grieving husband became Doctor Trap, devoted to killing heroes and villains alike. He was pretty successful until a few of the JSA* donned their costumes and brought him in. According to Cameron, that was it for super-heroes for about a decade.

A few things that stood out:

- The JSA members being regularly active into at least the late 1950s, possibly even later. I remember seeing something online about how after World War 2 "mystery men" types started facing more government scrutiny, being asked to unmask and reveal their identities to the government**. If I'm remembering that right, did the rest of the JSA unmask for the government, so they'd be allowed to continue working without antagonizing the government? Or did they try to be quieter about their work, sticking to shadows so all the cops would have is a criminal's word they were captured by the Green Lantern?

- Chase's description of heroes in the '60s seems to be describing DC's Silver Age, but minus the recognizable heroes, since Crisis on the Infinite Earths reset things so Superman, Batman, and such didn't show up until the '80s. Or was it the '70s? I have this other vague recollection that in the post-CoIE timeline, Bats and Supes had been operating for about ten years by the time the new stories picked up (though Wonder Woman was just leaving Themiscrya at that point, so she could be portrayed as naive about the ways of the outside world, I think). If so, that would correspond to Chase's comment about superheroics not starting up after Doctor Trap for a decade. Figure he was brought down in the mid-1960s. Ten years later, Bats and Superman pop up (along with probably Hal, Barry, Ollie, Dinah(?), I don't know who else). Ten years after that you get to where things picked up post-CoIE.

Sorry. I'm giving myself a headache, so I can only imagine what it's like for you trying to follow my line of reasoning here. Anyway, the heroes in the '60s are being heroes because they enjoy it, they all seem to be friends, they may even be friends (or were friends) with their villains. That would be reminiscent of Superboy and Luthor being friends until Superboy accidentally made Lex bald. Perhaps hero-villain feuds of the time started over arguments about lawn maintenance, missing bowling night too often, or the hero getting the villain's promotion at the office. At any rate, there were "rules", so civilians were rarely in danger, and even more rarely harmed, and the "death traps" weren't really all that deadly.

Actually, it reminds me of the cartoons with the sheep dog and the coyote, Ralph and Sam? They're set against each other, but it's cordial, and there's a pattern to things. The coyote tries for the sheep, gets caught at it, gets pummeled, but seems to recover soon enough, so no harm, no foul. When the day's done, the dog picks him up, dusts him off, maybe helps him make it home and they bid farewells until tomorrow, when it all starts again. None of it really means much of anything, the coyote may not even need the sheep he's trying to steal. He brings a lunch pail with him, and maybe his sandwich is mutton, but maybe it isn't, and even if it is, that's no guarantee it's from a sheep he grabbed. Ralph and Sam are dancers, going through their routine, but there's no urgency behind it, it's just a paycheck.

- The safe nature of things up until then is why the death of Caroline Trap is such a shock. It's not supposed to go that way. Civilians aren't supposed to get hurt, but maybe the costumes changed the venue of their fight to spice things up. I really get the sense the battle between the Justice Experience and the House of Pain was prearranged when both groups escape prosecution for her death. I'd think at least the villains would get tagged, but they seem to have bought their way out of it as well. Or they had the heroes (who again, might be their friends and neighbors) do it for them, perhaps threatening exposure of secret identities if they were prosecuted***? That leads to Doctor Trap, who is a harsher villain, maybe even a Golden Age hero. Batman used to shoot criminals, Superman used machine guns on enemy planes, Starman seems to have sent people to their death****. The heroes of the '60s aren't capable of dealing with this type of threat, and wind up exterminated. it takes the Golden Agers coming out of retirement to stop him.

- I've been trying to decide what the death of Caroline Trap, and subsequent rise of Doctor Trap, represents in comic terms. I've settled on the Death of Gwen Stacy for now. It's the point where Peter Parker being Spider-Man actively started getting people hurt, rather than protecting them, as the Justice Experience fighting House of Pain got Caroline Trap killed. We don't even know what The House of Pain were up to. Were they any threat, or was this just a stupid fight between costumes, that only concerned costumes? Of course, Larry Trap wasn't involved in his wife's death as Peter Parker was, but Trap is described as a brilliant but eccentric inventor, who was a social outcast until he met Caroline. He's worse off than Peter was, but there's a similarity in the situation. Both Spider-Man and the Goblin escape prosecution initially, this despite Spider-Man actually saying in front of cops that he's the one who killed Gwen. But they can't stop him from swinging away, just as they Goblin was able to fly off*****.

- When punishment does come to the Green Goblin, it's not a sound thrashing followed by jail, but actual death (for the next 20+ years, anyway). Peter Parker may not have allowed himself to kill Osborn, the way Trap killed those he held responsible, but he still got to see Osborn die. And Spider-Man's suffered as well. Clones, his best friend's disintegrating sanity, all the times Aunt May nearly keeled over, his death at the hands of Kraven. On and on. It's perhaps not the death Doctor Trap would have given him, but it's been a lot of pain. Peter Parker lost Gwen, who he loved, and Spider-Man pays the price. It just so happens they're the same guy.

- It's not a perfect match by any means. It's a Marvel thing rather than a DC one, but I couldn't think of a DC story that would work, chronologically. Gwen's death seemed to have an effect on comics, or else was a highly noticeable symptom of changes that were already going on. heroes failing to protect people, and that has an effect on those left behind, as well as those that get killed. The truth of her father's life has clearly played a role in Cameron's attitude towards capes, and the fact her mother seems unwilling to deal with it has probably soured the relationship between the two of them. Maybe it's addressed in the issues I don't have, but I'd be curious to see what Cameron laying all this out for Terry did for things between the two sisters. On Spidey's side, you have most notably, Harry Osborn. He loved Gwen too, and not only does he lose her, he loses his father, after learning his dad played a role in Gwen's death, and learns his best friend was there when his father died. And Harry snaps, and even though he'd pull himself together over time, he'd always fall apart again eventually******. Harry even has to face people coming after him because of his legacy, such as the Hobgoblin. The deaths keep hurting people long after they occurred.

OK, I think I'm out of steam. If you have a better suggestion for what Doctor Trap and Caroline could represent, by all means, let's have them. Gwen Stacy was just the best I could come up with.

* The panel shows Alan Scott, Jay Garrick, the Golden Age Starman and Dr. Mid-Nite.

** I think I read about it on Seven Hells!, because Devon Sanders was showing Hawkman's response to the Congressional committee's request he unmask. Hawkman's response was essentially to tell them to come take his mask, if they could, or else stick their request where the sun don't shine.

*** If I'm right - long odds, I know - it would explain the existence of agencies like the DEO. here's an example where not only are the heroes not policing themselves, they're covering each others' butts, and protecting the bad guys as well. Larry Trap wouldn't be the only person angered or concerned about that.

**** The Absorbascon's last post - at this point - is a panel with Starman telling someone 'Death is their only reward'. Even if he's not actively terminating the person, and he may not be, he's not trying to save them either.

***** The Goblin had been ducking punishment from the start. Whenever he lost, he either escaped, or came down with amnesia, and so Norman Osborn was allowed to continue with his life, without facing the consequences of the Goblin's actions. One could argue being forgotten and trapped within Osborn's mind was punishment, but probably not tangible enough for people harmed by his actions.

****** I don't know how Brand New Day changes things, so I'm going to leave it be, and operate off the stories I actually know.