To be fair, Tinya's being asphyxiated by the vacuum cleaner and probably can't think clearly. Just saying.

This is only about 20 years after Billy Batson worked at WHIZ while Freddy Freeman sold newspapers, with both living on their own as minors. Kids back then could relate to independent teens, but over time, readers aged and had a different perspective as adults with kids of their own.

When the LSH first appeared, the concept of being a teenager was still fairly new, and kids were still getting jobs at 14-15 years old. (Go back about ten years and look at how young George Bailey is when he works at Gower's drugstore in flashbacks in "It's a Wonderful Life.")

This episode reminded me of something that isn't talked about much: In the earliest versions of the LSH origin, the age of majority on some planets (Braal comes to mind) is 14, which means that stuff that looks questionable is probably supposed to be completely legal and aboveboard.

I figured it was because they worked together in a clinic for income-challenged people; I always thought that the high-stress environment creates a stronger bond (kind of like how doctors and nurses call each other by first name in M*A*S*H when they aren't on duty).

Fantastic episode, as always. BTW, Jay Garrick revealed his identity in his chapter in 1978's DC Special Series #11 (script by Cary Bates, art by Kurt Schaffenberger and Murphy Anderson), which also featured a rare-for-the-1970s appearance by Johnny Quick.

Oh, yeah! I forgot to mention that I loved the Mantis Morlo story, and anyone who disagrees is a feeb. Sorry, not sorry. 😁

(Oh, and I was also into New Teen Titans and X-Men at the same time as you. Check out the recent Subs episode where we talked about our first X-Men comics.)

Thanks to Steve, by the time I was five years old, I knew some of the names of comic book writers, and I could tell the difference between George Klein and Jack Abel inking Curt Swan's pencils. So yeah, I knew who Shooter was.

But about Jim Shooter: My older brother Steve, whose Adventure Comics issues I swiped at age three to help me learn how to read (the first comic I bought was Superboy #200), was only four years younger than Shooter, so Steve talked about Shooter when I was a kid.