Mighty Samson Archives

by Robert Greenberger

You talk about the old Gold Key superheroes and fans will immediately think of Magnus and Solar thanks to their continued appearances via Valiant and later this year from Dark Horse. Some might remember Brothers of the Spear but only the true aficionado could conjure up the Mighty Samson. Gerry Jones and Will Jacobs described the series as featuring “a superstrong survivor on a post-apocalyptic Earth, with decent stories and competent but constrained art from Frank Thorne and Jack Sparling.” The constrained part has more to do with Gold Key’s editorial tastes than the talents of these pros as you will see in the first volume of Mighty Samson Archives, coming this month from Dark Horse.

The series debuted in 1964, in the wake of not only Gold Key’s success with Magnus and Solar, but also with the growing number of superhero titles from DC and Marvel. The initial run lasted a mere 20 issues, ending in 1969 with a revival running from 1972 to 1976, ending again with issue #31. Some scattered reprints could be found in the various issues with the final new story published in 1978’s Gold Key Champion #2.

Samson was created by science fiction author and comic book writing legend Otto Binder, with Thorne drawing the first five issues. The ‘70s revival, as you will see in subsequent volumes, featured art from journeymen Jose Delbo and Jack Abel. Volume one, though, collects Mighty Samson #1-7 so you get both Thorne and Sparling. The majority of the covers were painted by Gold Key mainstay Morris Gollub, with a handful from the ever-reliable George Wilson.

While not the first series set in a post-atomic horror (that goes to DC’s Atomic Knights), this arrives in the years after the concept of nuclear Armageddon had permeated every facet of society so this series was a logical offshoot.

The world is a savage place, with mutated beasts and little in the way of society, government or even supplies. Samson earned his name because his benign mutation made him larger and stronger than other surviving humans. He was trained by his loving mother to use his gifts in proper ways. As she lay dying, he vowed, “”to protect the weak from the powerful, the good from the evil!” Samson is a wanderer in the region known as N’Yark, a barbarian in nature, who possesses immense strength. Despite that, he is challenged as seen in the very first story as he battles a liobear, losing an eye in the encounter. The first story also introduces romantic interest Sharmaine and her father Mindor, a wise man who gleans much from surviving artifacts from the past (circa 20th Century).

Historian Jeff Rovin once noted, “Mighty Samson is energetic if utterly two-dimension, less concerned with characterization than with throwing an odd variety of foes at the hero.” Of course, that could be said of many characters introduced in the 1950s and 1960s. Samson, though, was a survivor against nearly impossible odds and was at least someone you’d want to root for.

ABC’s Mighty Samson animated series from 1967 thankfully has no relation to the Gold Key hero.