It's a pretty good-looking logo, though, and while I could take or leave the "at large," I think "Danger: Dinosaurs" promises a lot of potential. I mean, I would read a comic book with that title...!
In looking for the first time that the Justice Society encountered the Spear of Destiny in DC Special #29, I ended up looking at the gallery of the 1968-1977 series on The Grand Comics Database, and this one stood out. Because, again, dinosaurs.
To my surprise and delight, DC had actually collected this issue. It's in 2011's Secret Society of Super Villains Vol. 2, presumably because it stars Captain Comet, who looks like he's the hero of the SSoSV book, which I have never read and thus don't really know anything about.
To my surprise and delight, DC had actually collected this issue. It's in 2011's Secret Society of Super Villains Vol. 2, presumably because it stars Captain Comet, who looks like he's the hero of the SSoSV book, which I have never read and thus don't really know anything about.
A relatively minor character, Captain Comet was created in 1951 by, according to Wikipedia, Julius Schwartz, John Broome and Carmine Infantino. He therefore appeared well after the superhero boom of the early 1940s, but before the genre's Silver Age revival, which may explain his being a relatively minor character in the first place.
After a decent run in the pages of Strange Adventures, the Captain went into character limbo...until he started appearing in SSoSV and related stories in 1976 and 1977 and then reentered limbo after the DC Implosion. In the decades since, he's occasionally shown up in various DC space-related comics, and I understand Mark Waid has been using him in his recent Superboy stories in Action Comics.
His appearance in this comic is, of course, part of his late 1970s adventures. He's not the only old sci-fi character in "Danger: Dinosaurs at Large!", as the first page reveals: 
The other guy, the blonde in purple, is Tommy Tomorrow. Created in 1947 by five guys whose names don't sound familiar to me, he went from the pages of a Real Fact Comics to the back pages of Action Comics to World's Finest Comics to Showcase. I don't think I've ever actually read a story with him in it, but from what I see in this comic and from a few minutes of Internet research, he seems like a more-or-less generic space hero in the Buck Rogers/Flash Gordon mold, a handsome, effective and all-around stand-up guy having adventures in the future.
Bringing these two—And dinosaurs! Don't forget the dinosaurs!—together in this issue are writer Bob Rozakis, pencil artist Rich Buckler and inker Joe Rubinstein. How would they accomplish this? Time travel, of course!
That opening splash page above is followed by a pretty great two-page splash, featuring two scenes separated by many years and visually spaced out on the pages, bisected by the fiery diagonal slash of a meteor or comet:
On the left, it's 1977 aboard the Justice League satellite, and Captain Comet is hanging out with Hawkman, speaking in expository dialogue (Cap's been away for 20 years, he's a mutant born 100,000 years before his time) and telling Katar-Hol how he likes spending time with him. Is he about to make a confession of some sort? If so, the meteorite, and Hawkman refers to the object, interrupts them; it suddenly materializes, and disappears just as suddenly.
On the right, it's 2056 aboard a spaceship headed towards Vega IV to deliver medicine to help with a space-fever epidemic. Tommy Tomorrow (who looks kind of old to still be going by "Tommy" instead of "Tom" or "Thomas") and a Brent Wood are dressed in matching purple uniforms and are apparently in charge of piloting the ship. With them is an older bespectacled bald guy (Um, who I guess is my point-of-view character, as he's the one who looks most like me at this point). He's also dressed in purple, but a duller, paler shade, and without the snappy white gloves of Tommy and Brent.
The comet, as they call it, catches them in its " remendous gravitational pull" and it drags their ship along with it as it travels back to the past of "100,000,000 B.C.", where they are soon beset by huge pterosaurs (I'm not sure what the prevailing thoughts on the matter were in 1977, as I was still an infant, but 100 million years ago wouldn't have been dinosaur times; we now know they all went extinct about 165 million years ago).
Using their ship's laser field, they blow the head off of one of the poor beasts and then crash land. Tommy decides to go scout for the comet, as that is what brought them there. He takes the bald guy, who turns out to be a doctor, with him. If I were Tommy, I probably would have chosen my fellow big, strapping guy with a laser gun to accompany me instead of the elderly, easily frightened doctor, but then, what do I know? I'm not a Planeteer. (Oh, that's what Tommy and Brent are, I guess; not to be confused to those kids who use their magic rings to summon Captain Planet.)
That opening splash page above is followed by a pretty great two-page splash, featuring two scenes separated by many years and visually spaced out on the pages, bisected by the fiery diagonal slash of a meteor or comet:
On the right, it's 2056 aboard a spaceship headed towards Vega IV to deliver medicine to help with a space-fever epidemic. Tommy Tomorrow (who looks kind of old to still be going by "Tommy" instead of "Tom" or "Thomas") and a Brent Wood are dressed in matching purple uniforms and are apparently in charge of piloting the ship. With them is an older bespectacled bald guy (Um, who I guess is my point-of-view character, as he's the one who looks most like me at this point). He's also dressed in purple, but a duller, paler shade, and without the snappy white gloves of Tommy and Brent.
The comet, as they call it, catches them in its " remendous gravitational pull" and it drags their ship along with it as it travels back to the past of "100,000,000 B.C.", where they are soon beset by huge pterosaurs (I'm not sure what the prevailing thoughts on the matter were in 1977, as I was still an infant, but 100 million years ago wouldn't have been dinosaur times; we now know they all went extinct about 165 million years ago).
Meanwhile, back in 1977, a triceratops appears in the Gotham subway, and a gorgosaurus in Tokyo, "the city that has been 'destroyed' countless times in the movies by Godzilla." Aboard the satellite, Hawkman appoints Captain Comet "an honorary member of the JLA" so that he can take over for him on monitor duty, and teleports himself down to Gotham City to fight dinosaurs. 
Other Leaguers make dinosaur-fighting cameos while Captain Comet watches from above, although there's one "costumed character" confronting a brontosaurus in Sheboygan that he doesn't' recognize, presumably because of having been in space for 20 years. Reader will, of course, recognize him by his yellow cape, striped pants and the clock hands on his forehead: Chronos!
In the prehistoric past, something happens involving a dinosaur. Something awesome:
A Tyrannosaurus rex is wandering nearby the comet—which I guess is technically now a meteorite now that it's landed, right?—only for it to emit a flare of radiation that causes the dinosaur "an instant mutation," turning him into a man-sized humanoid dinosaur, teaching him English and even mutating clothes onto him. That's some radiation!
The newly christened Tyrano Rex will soon demonstrate a super-power of sorts: He's able to control dinosaurs! Immediately I wondered why I've never seen this dude in any other comics before. I mean, a humanoid T. rex with the power to control dinosaurs sounds like a pretty cool supervillain, right? Surely someone must have encountered him while reading this comic as a kid and then later grew up to write for DC Comics, right?
The newly christened Tyrano Rex will soon demonstrate a super-power of sorts: He's able to control dinosaurs! Immediately I wondered why I've never seen this dude in any other comics before. I mean, a humanoid T. rex with the power to control dinosaurs sounds like a pretty cool supervillain, right? Surely someone must have encountered him while reading this comic as a kid and then later grew up to write for DC Comics, right?
It's only a page later that Tommy and the doctor stumble upon this bizarre scene: 
Our new friend Tyrano Rex apparently built an altar for his "god", the comet/meteorite? And somehow forged and sculpted golden pterodactyls to adorn it? And what's with that weird TV screen behind and, here, seemingly connected to the altar, upon which we can see scenes from the "future"?
And, most importantly, just what on Earth is the dinosaur man doing? Note the motion line by his left arm. It looks like he's...exercising...?
And, most importantly, just what on Earth is the dinosaur man doing? Note the motion line by his left arm. It looks like he's...exercising...?
What I love most about this page is that it doesn't make much more sense in context than it does out of context. I mean, anyone encountering it anywhere would probably react similarly to the doctor: "Good Lord...what's that?"
Then, it's time for action!
Tyrano tells his "people" (a bunch of dinosaurs and pterosaurs nearby) that the men from the future are evil spirits come to steal their god, and he sics them on our heroes. Tommy uses his "space-gun" to cover them as they begin their retreat to the ship.
And then, back in the seventies, Captain Comet notices Chronos gloating in front of what he calls a "hole" but appears to be identical to the screen above Tyrano's comet altar. It's through this that the dinosaurs are coming into the present.
Captain Comet flies from the satellite to Wisconsin and helps Chronos fight off a brontosaurus and a pair of "stegosauri". During the battle, Chronos uses a surprising array of time-based weapons, including spear-like watch hands and blinding "sands of time". Unfortunately for the time thief, Captain Comet was able to read his mind during the scene (Oh, apparently Captain Comet can read minds; this, like his other powers, he announces and explains at various points in the story). By doing so, he learns that Chronos is actually a villain.
In fact, he's the villain of the piece, even if he didn't make it on the cover like Tyrano Rex did. It was Chronos who drew the comet towards Earth (um, somehow), hoping to possess its unique powers over time, but he lost it, and it ended up in dinosaur times. The screen/hole/tunnel is his doing, apparently part of an effort to get his hands on the comet.
Captain Comet flies from the satellite to Wisconsin and helps Chronos fight off a brontosaurus and a pair of "stegosauri". During the battle, Chronos uses a surprising array of time-based weapons, including spear-like watch hands and blinding "sands of time". Unfortunately for the time thief, Captain Comet was able to read his mind during the scene (Oh, apparently Captain Comet can read minds; this, like his other powers, he announces and explains at various points in the story). By doing so, he learns that Chronos is actually a villain.
In fact, he's the villain of the piece, even if he didn't make it on the cover like Tyrano Rex did. It was Chronos who drew the comet towards Earth (um, somehow), hoping to possess its unique powers over time, but he lost it, and it ended up in dinosaur times. The screen/hole/tunnel is his doing, apparently part of an effort to get his hands on the comet.
The dinosaurs being at large, "The Incredible Dinosaur Invasion of 1977!", that's just a side-effect.
In the past, Tommy Tomorrow makes a dinosaur explode:
And then he and the doctor make it to the ship, use a special metal grabbing arm that seems like it was designed specifically to pick up comets as they fly by (with Tyrano Rex leaping aboard the ship after the comet) and then flying straight into the time tunnel, which is in the process of shrinking, thanks to Captain Comet using his mental powers to try and close it in 1977.
In the present, Tyrano Rex holds the comet aloft, and Chronos shoots some watch hand spears at him, inadvertently striking the comet and causing it to explode, which reverts the dinosaur-man back into a normal dinosaur. So I guess that's why we've never seen Tyrano Rex again; the villain was only around for like 15 pages of a single comic from 49 years ago.
In the past, Tommy Tomorrow makes a dinosaur explode:
In the present, Tyrano Rex holds the comet aloft, and Chronos shoots some watch hand spears at him, inadvertently striking the comet and causing it to explode, which reverts the dinosaur-man back into a normal dinosaur. So I guess that's why we've never seen Tyrano Rex again; the villain was only around for like 15 pages of a single comic from 49 years ago.
There's one more dinosaur fight left, as the heroes deal with the Tyrannosaurus rex that was temporarily Tyrano Rex, and then there's nothing left but the epilogue, wherein the characters debrief with Superman and Hawkman.
In the very last panel, Captain Comet tries to do that wink at the reader thing that Superman perfected, and he looks awfully awkward doing so:
So, I guess that's what I've missed my whole life by never having read this comic. It, obviously, has its moments, but doesn't quite live up to the promise of the cover...as is, of course, so often the case with comic books, especially those from yesteryear when great thought and care was put into the crafting in each cover, as it was the primary way in which publishers tried to sell a particular comic over another to their readers, who would likely be learning of it for the first time when they saw it on a spinner rack or a newsstand.
I still love that "Danger: Dinosaurs" logo, though; I wouldn't mind seeing that make a comeback for some future story about a dinosaur invasion of the DC Universe. Maybe next year, for the book's 50th anniversary..?
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