These boards tend to be very image intensive, but short on discussion.
As the originator of this thread, I was hoping for some discussion too.
I have about 10 Adventure Comics topics I'd like to discuss, but I'll start it out with this one:
When did the Silver Age begin specific to Adventure Comics?
I personally am of the belief that each series had its own unique entry into the Silver Age. For me, Adventure seemed to be focused on Superboy as a a kid (like 11-13) up until the mid-to-late 50's, then it really changed its focus to Superboy as a teen-ager. It might be coincidence, but this change seemed to me to occur about the same time as Showcase #4. As an example, here is #227 where Superboy is quite clearly a BOY:
Compared to an issue like #246 where he seems to be a teen-ager:
The change wasn't a sharply defined one. In the late 40's and early 50's he was almost exclusively a boy, in the mid 50's he seemed to shift back-and-forth from boy to teenager, but by the late 50's/early 60's he was exclusively a teenager.
My guess is that this was a result of changing demographics. In 1953 the first of the baby-boomers was seven. By 1959, however, there were teenaged boomers. DC was likely just trying to appeal to this changing audience.
Another guess is that Adventure Comics focus on a teen-ager had more of an impact on Marvel Comics than most other DC titles.
Anyway, I just wanted to start off a discussion in addition to the eye-candy covers that I cannot compete with.
-John