Comic Book / Comic Cavalcade

Comic Cavalcade was a DC Comics anthology comics published from 1942 to 1954. The comic had 32 more pages than other DC Anthologies of the time like Sensation Comics and All-Star Comics and thus cost five more cents. While the book started out as a superhero anthology at issue 30 it switched to focusing on funny animals from a series of theatrical cartoons put out by Columbia Pictures.

The three headlining characters were Wonder Woman, Green Lantern and The Flash who were selected specifically because each had their own ongoing title at the time, in Wonder Woman (1942), Green Lantern (1941) and All Flash. While each story told in this anthology is designed to stand alone the Wonder Woman stories were still connected to the overarching plot in her own title and Sensation Comics, though none of those stories needed to be read to understand the ones in Comic Cavalcade.

Significant features in the Anthology:

• Wonder Woman (1-29)
• Green Lantern (1-29)
• The Flash (1-29)
• Scribbly (1-7)
• Wildcat (1-2)
• Hop Harrigan (3-25)
• Sargon (3-14)
• The King (3-4)
• Johnny Everyman (8-14)
• Cotton-Top Katie (19-29)
• Johnny Peril (19-29)
• The Atom (22-28)
• The Fox and the Crow (30-63)

Tropes:

• Anthology Comic: Started out as a Superhero anthology with a few humor comics thrown in, before being revamped as a Funny Animal anthology.
• Bucket Helmet: The cover of issue 23 depicts Cotton-Top Katie's friend wearing a pan on his head to pretend to the Flash.
• Christmas Special: The series has a number of Christmas Specials, though whether the theme goes beyond the Christmas cover is inconsistent.
• Covers Always Lie: Issues one through twenty-nine have covers depicting Wonder Woman, Green Lantern (Alan) and the Flash (Jay) working together, making the book appear to contain JSA stories. In the actual book each of these characters stories are self contained and they never interact.
• Forced Perspective: The cover of issue 21 pokes fun at fishermen using forced perspective to make their catch look bigger, by having Wonder Woman take a picture of Flash and Green Lantern who are holding the very tiny fish they caught really close to the camera with a hovering image of the resulting deceptive picture above.
• Villain Protagonist: In "Behind the 8-Ball" Percival Drizzle is a spineless man who tries to learn hypnotism to force his wife to be submissive to him. He daydreams about being less cowardly so that he can become a violent lecher.

Wonder Woman

For the related characters see the Earth-Two Wonder Woman Character Sheet.

Wonder Woman (Charles Moulton)

• Bathtub Mermaid: Gerta commissioned some giant fishbowls so that she could recapture Sharkeeta and the other mermaids and move them to her lab to experiment on them. The mermaids stole the things and modified them to hold air so that they could hold Amazons captive in them underwater as they were understandably upset about being treated like fish instead of people.
• Bound and Gagged: It is a Golden Age Wonder Woman feature, so one can expect Diana and/or Steve Trevor to end up tied or chained up at least once per story. They're frequently blindfolded and gagged as well. Special mention to Wondy getting tied to an airplane propeller in this book.
• Bratty Teenage Daughter: Given her budding Mad Scientist status Gerta von Gunther's teenaged rebellion and push against authority figures and rules is far more dangerous than that of the average teenager. She has a bad habit of unintentionally creating monsters while trying to test her boundaries and argue for her right for space and freedom.
• Chemically-Induced Insanity: Protus Plasm developed his "moron hormone", which makes people act like toddlers, to drug government officials into apparent mental breakdowns.
• Condescending Compassion: Some Pacific Islanders who claim they're being attacked by "Iron Giants" are brushed off as superstitious by the army, and when Steve Trevor arrives to placate them he's working off that intel and therefore thinks the islanders are making things up and need things explained to them by someone more educated and rational. While he's condescendingly trying to comfort a local by saying there are no Iron Giants he's picked up and kidnapped by one.
• Cult: The "Retreat for Child-Minded Individuals" is for all intents and purposes a base for a cult Plasm's constructed as the Great Blue Father. Its location is secret and it's filled with people he regularly drugs with his moron hormone, and they all think of him like their father. Plasm even refers to his victims as his "family," even though his plan is to kill them all off.
• Face of an Angel, Mind of a Demon: Randy Holcome is a noted pretty boy in the corner of Texas Etta is from, but Etta's father is on to something when he says that there is something sinister hiding behind the man's physical beauty.
• Kidnapping Bird of Prey: In "The Vulture's Nest" giant vultures grab Etta and Mimi right off their horses, though these vultures are later revealed to be humans wearing suits.
• Not Quite Flight: Di uses a tree to slingshot herself into the air to catch a giant vulture, as at this point in her history she couldn't yet fly but could control how strongly gravity effected her.
• Our Mermaids Are Different: Gerta von Gunther created a number of winged shark mermaids, they were led by one of their number named Sharkeeta and turned against her to get retribution for being kept in tanks like pets.
• Patricide: Randy Holcome murders his father when he realizes his dad is going to be shrinking what he gets in the will.
• Pirate Girl: In a past life Judy MacGregor turned to piracy after realizing that her fiancé had betrayed her. She claimed a pirate crew by killing their captain while he was threatening her and then taking down those crew members who tried to fight her.
• Punny Name: In addition to Etta Candy making plenty of appearances "The Invisible Invader" names one of her Holliday Girls, a group that regularly fights Nazi spies and other foes, Bee Strong.
• Rabble Rouser: Randy Holcome incites a lynch mob by working up people over the "fact" that Judy MacGregor murdered his father and is now under arrest and protection by the sheriff they all know is in love with her. While Judy makes a convenient frame job Randy is the one who actually killed his father, and he nearly succeeds in lynching the sherif too.
• Reincarnation Romance: Judy MacGregor and Sheriff Gary Banks have a rather twisted iteration of the concept. His past self was rather taken with her but was respectful of the fact that she was engaged, while she lightly flirted with him before murdering him in a rage because her fiancé wasn't on hand when she first learned that her fiancé had married someone else. He was her first victim as she started out as a pirate, while their 1940s iterations ended up in love.
• Shaming the Mob: Wonder Woman is able to make most of Randy Holcome's lynch mob feel ashamed of themselves after forcing him to admit to murdering his father in front of them, but this only happens after they've got a noose around their sheriff and Etta's necks.
• Swordfish Sabre: A group of swordfish try attacking Sharkeeta but Wonder Woman snaps off three of their "swords" and fights using them.
• Tampering with Food and Drink: Plasm gets his hands on people by making them ingest his moron hormone without their knowledge. Because seriously, who in their right mind would consume something called a "moron hormone."
• Torches and Pitchforks: Randy Holcome gathers a crowd to tear their way into the Sheriff station in order to lynch Judy MacGregor for killing his father, and the sherif for trying to keep her out of their hands. The murder he's acting so upset about is one which he committed, he's just happy to convince the township that Judy was responsible and then kill her in a way that spreads blame around so that she can't defend herself.
• Xray Sparks: When King Vulture's Electronomizer is used on Wonder Woman her skeletal and nervous system are visible in white while her body becomes a black silhouette.

Robert Kanigher's run

• Casual Interstellar Travel: Hatorians come from outside of the solar system and have space craft that can reach it little time. Thankfully for Wonder Woman the warlike people have no interest in any of its planets until one, Badra, ends up stuck on Earth.
• Dynamic Entry: Right as Wonder Woman figures out where Badra fled to, Badra catches her off guard by making her return through a solid wall.

Green Lantern

For the related characters see the Green Lantern (1941) Character Sheet.

• Buried Alive: When GL is faced with an unexpected return by Solomon Grundy, whom Alan had trapped on the moon in All-Star Comics #33, Alan encases him in a ring construct and buries him deep within the earth.
• Cowboy Cop: The GCPD officer who arrests Locksley Smith isn't corrupt in the traditional sense, but he delights in the thought of arresting a man for jaywalking rather than issuing a warning and seems downright giddy when he realizes that since Locksley is unemployed and the cop is putting him before an uncaring judge that Locksley will do prison time for being broke. Debtors prison being illegal in the United States get the same empty lip service in the DCU as it does in real life, and this cop loves it.
• Cursed with Awesome: Locksley Smith can open any lock, and has used it to save children trapped in safes. The fact that he cannot help but open any lock he's within a foot of no matter how foolhardy it is and how much he doesn't want to is a pretty big downside, but while it has mostly ruined his ability to hold a job it's also saved his life and others.
• Distinguishing Mark: Dick Cashmere has a very distinct arrow shaped birth mark on his wrist, which allows his father to identify him as an adult after having been separated from him as an infant.
• Forgot About His Powers: Green Lantern frequently goes an entire story only using his ring to fly, and even then landing and getting in fistfights when it will ensure the story doesn't get wrapped up too quickly.
• Jaywalking Will Ruin Your Life: Locksley Smith gets grabbed and roughly arrested for jaywalking right after getting fired from his job, and then brought before a Hanging Judge who has him sent to prison when he's unable to afford the fine. Due to his uncontrollable lock opening this means that he subsequently frees every criminal in the prison and a mob boss who realizes what's going on kidnaps Locksley to use him to open safes and locks against his will.
• Long-Lost Relative: The rail magnate John Cashmere is reunited with his long lost son Dick after his son is fully grown with no knowledge of his birth father, with a very distinct birth mark enabling their reunion.
• Power Incontinence: If Locksley Smith gets close enough to a lock he can't help but unlock it even when he'd literally rather die. While this was okay when he was a child, save for getting yelled at frequently, and he even once rescued a baby locked in a safe no one knew the combination to it has mostly served to ruin his life and make it impossible for him to hold a job.
• Trainstopping: In "The Case of the Withered Flower" GL stops a locomotive that's set off by a trap in the Cashmere Locomotive Works.

Flash

For the related characters see the The Flash Character Sheets.

• Bound and Gagged:
  • The Thinker ties the Flash and Brian to a large ventilation fan.
  • The Turtle ties Jay and Iris to a spit revolving slowly over a fire, intending to force them to die a slow death.
• Eyes Out of Sight: Blinky Boylan has thick bangs covering his eyes.
• Gag Nose: Mortimer Appleby has a nose that is at least six inches long.
• The Nose Knows: Mortimer Appleby can smell such things as fish underwater and the burning ozone created when the Flash is running at high speeds.
• Slow and Steady Wins the Race: The Turtle is a firm believer in the concept, and while it works for him through a couple of jobs eventually Jay's speed wins the day.
• Super-Speed: Jay has super speed of course, and the antagonist Tag Madden gains it by stealing Jay's attempt to recreate the formula that gave it to him.
• Tae Kwon Door: When Jay is tracking down the kidnapped reporter Ken Kummer he intentionally slams a door open into one of the kidnappers.
• Tap on the Head: In one of the few Golden Age instances where getting hit on the head and knocked out has lasting repercussions Joan hitting Mortimer Appleby as he walked in the door due to misidentifying him ended up greatly reducing his smelling abilities. He was quite pleased as his heightened sense of smell was driving him nuts.

Hop Harrigan

• Ace Pilot: Hop was a USAAF pilot during the war, and continued on as a test pilot able to rescue his plane in situations where almost any other pilot would end up in a fiery crash.
• Guy in Back: Tank was Hop's gunner during WWII.
• Handicapped Badass: Danny Lane is blind, but has a good enough sense of hearing to semi-reliably aim a gun at his would be kidnappers.
• Improbable Aiming Skills: Danny Lane, who is for the record blind, manages to steal a gun from his kidnappers and shoot the gun out of another one's hands.
• Works Set in World War II: Hop and Tank are a USAAF pilot and his gunner in the Pacific theater of the war. After the war ended their stories sometimes had flashbacks to their time serving in it.

Johnny Peril

• Beware of Hitchhiking Ghosts: On his way to cover the story of a football player's recent murder Johhny picks up a hitchhiker in the rain who claims to have seen the murder and gives him the name of the perpetrator. His hitchhiker later turns out to be the ghost of the victim.
• Exposition Victim:
• Framing Device: Save for his very first story all of Johnny's tales are told as if he's running his story by his editor before writing it for the paper he works for.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Johnny helping an abused little girl after he's been on the run due to being framed for a murder is what gets him caught by police. The actual murderer ends up giving a deathbed confession after being in an accident, which was good for Johnny since he had no way to convince authorities he wasn't responsible.

Cotton Top Katie

• Animal Athlete Loophole: Katie's Uncle in Australia sends her a Kangaroo named Myrtle, that turns out to be the best player by far on Katie's baseball team as none of the kids can catch the ball no matter how perfect a toss was.
• We Were Rehearsing a Play: At one point the Perfessor {sic} seems to be talking to himself and Katie and Orville think the heat has fried his brain since he's not responding to them. Once a doctor comes along Perfessor claims he was just practicing and Katie shoves him into the fountain for panicking them.

Atom

• "Shaggy Dog" Story: Pratt's girlfriend orders him to buy a new hat to replace his worn out one or she won't go on a date with him. He promptly does so, but some criminals have hidden loot sewn into the band and he spends the rest of the story fighting to keep it and get it back, only for it to be ruined as soon as he's to meet her.