[dwilt]

I always enjoy these collections, thanks. But tell me if I'm seeing something wrong. On page 5 of the scan, in the first story, Dyce is sentenced to life under the name of his friend, Jacob Horn. Yet 2 panels later, "a few lines in a remote corner of a newspaper" indicate (the real) "Jacob Horn...was instantly killed." So Dyce pretended to be Jacob Horn but the real Horn didn't change his name? Oh well, this is nit-picking, especially in a story where a "promising young attorney" can just say he's somebody else and get sentenced to life in prison, but then dig his way out and become a crime-fighter (returning to prison voluntarily).

Link to the book: 711 Complete Collection

[FraBig]

Well, what can I say, those are the incoherences that make Golden Age comics so fun to read! The focus is on keeping the reader curious about what happens next and explore new and innovative concepts, more than applying real-world logic to the fictional world.
The latter is a typical Silver Age tradition, mostly pursued by Marvel Comics in the so-called "Marvel Age of Comics" (post-1961). In the Golden Age the main aim was pure entertainment and innovation, more than developing a coherent and realistic fictional universe.

Or that's at least my interpretation of it.

[varulfo]

I noted another inchoerence in the first story: while this appears to be the first 711 adventure, the guardian of the Panzer's warehouse immediately recognizes him when attacked, like he would have been an already famous superhero well known in the underworld.
It's really interesting your interpretation about the golden-age/silver-age dicotomy regarding the coherence of the narration: indeed the trick i've noted above allows to quickly cut down the often boring narrative of the character origins, immediately projecting the reader in the heart of the story.

[FraBig]

Exactly! Golden Age was characterized by a prolific and continuous stream of new characters and features, and that combined with anthological titles (a character story is usually 10 pages or less) forced them to quickly introduce the action and the thrill, whithout leaving much time for character origins or realistic timings.

There are exceptions, obviously: some Golden Age heroes have their first appearance completely dedicated to their origins, only for them to don their superhero costume at the end of the story. But that's definitely a less common dynamic.

The general Golden Age first appearance is either composed of a few pages of origin story, and then the hero dives into some action, or the hero is already active and there's a quick flashback on his origins, or there is no origin story at all.

This is to say and confirm that the focus of the Golden Age was quite certainly on the action and the exploration of new concepts, and the realism of those concepts and situations was a secondary factor.

On the contrary, in the Silver Age, the focus was mostly on the justification and realism of the character's powers and motives that make him a superhero. And this is especially clear in that sub-period of the Silver Age called the "Marvel Age", because Marvel Comics (pushed by Stan Lee's beliefs) was focused on [1] the "superheroes with super-problems" concept, thus making them more human and realistic and [2] the scientific nature of superpowers.

I'm not actual comic historian, but as a fan that's what I've been detecting during my readings.

[The Australian Panther]

FraBig.

Well argued.

I'm not actual comic historian, but as a fan that's what I've been detecting during my readings.

You and I have that in common, Reading a lot of these at the same time , instead of picking up books once a  month, you begin to see patterns and characteristics that are not immediately obvious.

in the Silver Age, the focus was mostly on the justification and realism of the character's powers and motives that make him a superhero. 

 
Unfortunately, that's not what we see today in Superhero comics, when nearly every hero has 'died' and come back to life at least once and the 'Universe' is being 'saved' several times a month, that anchor to the real world is no longer there for most comic series.
cheers!