YMMV / The Golden Age

• Adaptation Displacement: Captain Triumph once had his own series, but when modern readers think of him, it is often for his role in this miniseries.
• Alternate Character Interpretation: In the Back Story, was Tex Thompson deliberately Stealing the Credit for Paul Kirk's heroic commando actions behind enemy lines? Did he claim credit for strategic reasons to draw the Nazis' attention away from Paul and let his friend operate with less trouble? Or was the mistake solely the press's fault due to Kirk being more of a covert operator they may not have even known about, while Captain Patriotic Thompson seemed like an ideal Propaganda Hero to prop up?
• Anti-Climax Boss: While Dynaman puts up an epic fight, his equal partner in evil-Ultra-Humanite, the very first supervillain of the DC pantheon-spends two pages wrestling with Manhunter, gets off a quick wild burst of gunfire from a stolen machine gun, and then falls out a window to his death. He never uses either his trademark albino gorilla body (which is absent from the story despite Humanite having been trying to escape somewhere to switch bodies when Manhunter catches him) or the whip, revolvers, and cape/flying carpet associated with his body-jacking victim Tex Thompson.
• Ass Pull: Casual readers who have never read stories with the Ultra-Humanite might find themselves confused about the way he emerges as the Big Bad with little to no mention of him earlier in the book.
• Complete Monster: The Big Bad Duumvirate, Adolf Hitler and the Ultra-Humanite, aim to Take Over the World. During World War II, the Ultra-Humanite performed inhumane experiments on German prisoners to perfect his process to take over bodies, killing all the scientists who helped him, before placing his mind inside superhero Tex Thompson. Becoming an American senator, the Ultra-Humanite places Hitler's brain inside another superhero, Dynaman, and the duo begin plotting to take over America and launch a war on all Communist countries. When exposed at a press conference, Hitler attacks, killing many civilians in his rampage, while ranting he will use his newfound power to conquer the planet with force.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Captain Comet only appears in the final issue, but his role as a brave emerging hero who initially isn't given the respect he deserves impressed a lot of people. It helps that he is one of the better fighters against Dynaman, although that isn't saying too much.
  • Ted Knight only appears for about two to three pages per issue, but his trauma over helping make the atom bomb and the beautifully drawn scene of him first using the cosmic staff in issue three make him a standout character for fans.
  • Amnesiac Hero Paul Kirk and Retired Badass Bob Daley only have small roles until about halfway through the story, but their accomplishments against the villains and warm moments of friendship make them highlights of the comic.
• Fanfic Fuel: What reasons did the few heroes seemingly absent from the loyalty pledge in Washington D.C. besides Alan, Ted, and Paul (Vigilante, Mr. terrific, etc.) have for their absences?
• Heartwarming in Hindsight: Tex Thompson/Mr. America's accomplishments and legacy are destroyed by him being bodyjacked by Ulta-Humanite in this story. In the main canon Justice Society of America stories, the Mr. America identity survives into the 21st Century, and even the tragic murders of Thompson's grandsons and their families aren't enough to put the Mr. America Legacy Character down for good.
• He's Just Hiding:
  • Miss America's death is possible to question, since her powers have let her recover from worse in the main timeline.
  • Bob Daley and Human Bomb both seem to die in the final battle, but their fates are only depicted in quick panels that don't show much of the gory details (after which they are never mentioned again) and some fans feel they may have only been wounded.
• Ho Yay: In the first issue, former sidekick Bob Daley has quite a bit of despair and resentment over being kicked out of Tex Thompson's life and spends a year living with Paul Kirk in the third issue (albeit while helping him deal with his amnesia and keep from being killed by assassins).
• Moral Event Horizon: Robotman killing Ms. America would already be this, but then it turns out he knew Dynaman was Hitler... and didn't care.
• My Real Daddy: James Robinson's status as the Real Daddy of Starman (and subsequent Starmen) began here, by giving Ted Knight depth he had never had before.
• One-Scene Wonder: Plenty of Golden Age heroes in the final issue (like Black Condor, Doctor Mid-Nite, The Ray, Doll Girl, Shining Knight, Stripesy, Madame Fatal, Air Wave, Blue Beetle I, Hercules, Sargon the Sorcerer, Great Defender, and particularly Unexpected Character Wildfire) stirred up quite a bit of excitement among comic purists just for being there, regardless of whether they clearly participate in the final battle or just stand around, barely in the panel.
• Signature Scene: Dozens of costumed superheroes, many of whom are unknown except to fans of The Golden Age of Comic Books, gathering together in Washington D.C. in the final issue and (in some cases) largely being curb-stomped by the Big Bad, is one of the more talked about parts of the comic.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
  • As cool and rewarding as it is to see Lance Gallant remain true to his I Just Want to Be Normal mindset in the climax, it can be frustrating that he never transforms into Captain Triumph once in the whole story, as only a few stories since the Golden Age have even featured the character and he does have some interesting powers that the miniseries never shows off. Specifically, he is a Flying Brick with limited shapeshifting abilities, and, when the brothers don't merge into Captain Triumph, Michael's ghost also has limited hypnosis abilities. None of this is even mentioned.
  • Miss America never gets to demonstrate her unique Transmutation powers. She is also primarily characterized in her role as Thompson's abused mistress rather than as the political aide who could have provided an interesting Sympathetic P.O.V. to the people who believe in Thompson's (supposed) vision for the country.
  • Sportsmaster makes one appearence as a criminal Alan Scott fights, then makes a cameo appearence during the final battle, where he gets a Heroic Sacrifice after taking advantage of an amnesty offer. It would have been interesting seeing him between those two points, getting more Character Development.
  • While there really wasn't enough room to feature too many heroes in a four issue miniseries, a lot of the many Golden Age heroes who cameo in the fourth issue can feel underused, as there are fans who would have liked to see them interact with the main characters, adjust to the postwar world, and do more in the final battle (especially since it is hard to tell what happened to many of them).
    • Miss America's prime timeline teammates the Freedom Fighters (especially Human Bomb, whose drawn-out fight with Dynaman is largely off-panel) get a few panels of pagetime but not a word of dialogue.
    • Wildfire only reappears for a single panel after being absent from comic pages for decades and having been very popular during her original run.
    • Jay Garrick has no dialogue and never fights Dynaman at the same time as Johnny Quick despite the stated Always Someone Better relationship between the speedsters.
    • Red Torpedo, Sandman, Plastic Man, Wildcat, Guardian, and the Seven Soldiers of Victory appear so breifly (most of them just in background scenes) that it's easy to forget they appear at all.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
  • Dynaman and Tigress's role as fellow Young All-Stars during the war is unmentioned and their teammates don't show up at all, even for the Washington Climax. This can feel regrettable, given how their past history could have given them interesting interactions with Dynaman as he achieves unexpected prominence. Lightning Bruiser Iron Munro had the potential to put up a better fight against Dynaman than most of the other heroes, Flying Fox and Tsunami could have added some diversity to the gathering of heroes, and Tsunami (as someone who temporarily fought against the U.S.) would have been a potential Red Scare target.
  • "Plot" may be too strong of a world, but given how Rod Reilly remains active as Firebrand in this timeline, he and his sister Danette (a member of the All-Star Squadron, which is prominent in this universe) could have made a good Sibling Team (or a Power Trio with Danette's husband Shining Knight, who does cameo) during the gathering in Washington, with both Firebrands backing each other up in battle. However, Danette is absent from the gathering in Washington, and this opportunity is lost.
  • While the final battle is by no means anticlimatic, it could have been expanded beyond Dynaman curb-stomping most of the Golden Age heroes singlehandedly while Paul and Bob go after Humanite and Paula and Lance fight Robotman. Johnny Thunder and his genie don't end up doing anything, when they could have complicated things for a while, like Atom, and all of the ex-Nazi Mooks and scientists from the earlier issues are nowhere to be seen when they'd have had a vested interest in helping their bosses.
  • Little is said about Thompson's political policies (besides his anti-communism and advocacy for finding a Superman Substitute) and why they are simultaneously appealing to both patriotic, progressive, and intelligent superheroes and his covert Nazi backers. His views on race (which Hitler implies he and Humanite had to pretend to take a progressive stance on could have been used to bring Amazing Man (the first chronological black superhero and a former pawn of Humanite or a non-Ethnic Scrappy version of Gargantua T. Potts (his second sidekick in The Golden Age of Comic Books) into the story.
  • The supervillain amnesty and recruitment drive that begins with Tigress could have been a big plotline focusing on the whole assortment of Golden Age villains either at their best, being Falsely Reformed Villains loyal to Thompson, or both, but only a few more villains seem to accept the amnesty offer, do so offscreen, and only cameo afterward.
• Unexpected Character:
  • In canon, Bob Daley/Fatman is a Bumbling Sidekick who failed to impress fans and was quietly retired, but he gets to be a nuanced main character here.
  • Great Defender (a vitamin-enhanced Flying Brick, minus the flying part, whose series ended in 1944 and who doesn't even have a Wikipedia page) appears noticeably in three panels and even gets a line.
  • Captain Triumph has rarely appeared since the Golden Age of Superheroes except to be an Affectionate Parody, but he is a main character and is treated very seriously.
  • Lots of Silver Age heroes appear in the fourth issue and most only cameo in one panel, but Flying Brick Captain Comet gets the kind of role that would normally be reserved for Superman.
  • In the main continuity, Miss America is one of the less prominent Freedom Fighters (DC Comics), but she gets a secondary role here, while her better known teammates like Black Condor, Phantom Lady, and the Ray only get cameos.
  • Dan the Dyna-Mite is an obscure sidekick to an obscure hero, but he enters the spotlight after being chosen to have his powers enhanced and become The Face of the movement Tex Thompson is building, as well as the victim of a body snatching that lets the villains use those new powers.
  • Wildfire makes her only appearance in the DC multiverse (in one panel, laughing about something with Black Canary in the background) since the company purchased the rights to her character in the fifties.
  • In a story where very few supervillains appear, Injustice Society members Harlequin, Gambler, Psycho Pirate, and Fiddler appear in the background of one panel featuring gathered heroes (presumably, they accepted Thompson's amnesty offer like Tigress and Sportsmaster).

---