American Secrets

I’m finally getting around to reading this. Only owned it 30 years. The plot is as bonkers as the Vanity comics. This time it is shape-shifting lizards disguised as humans. Actually I always had a problem with the Martian Mnhunter’s powers. Invisibility? How? Why? Shape Shifting? Come on! Initially in the 1950s adventures his powers varied wildly depending on whatever was required for the plot. In the 1960s he appeared in the JLA as a replacement for Superman. (They didn’t want to “overuse” Superman even though he already featured in a number of titles).

The only thing of note in this book is one panel. Do they/did they proof read comics or was it just up to the letterer to get it right? Or was the letterer just following the script as written? Either way surely “shouldn’t of” should be “shouldn’t have” shouldn’t it?

Spelling mistakes are one thing but grammatical errors annoy me more. To this day I still regularly get an email from someone trying to sell something or other that begins with “Hope your well”. Every time I have to force myself not to reply with “Hope my well what? Never runs dry?”.