JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #45 (1966)
by Gardner Fox & Mike Sekowsky
The Silver Age JLA rarely finds supervillains who are physical threats without specific gimmicks… but then there’s the Shaggy Man.
And yes, that is his actual name.
You would expect the JLA to receive mail, but you’d probably think it’s just fanmail…
…but nope, they also receive requests for help that way. So it’s no surprise that some letters are delivered too late for them to act.
Uhm, Hawkman, you okay buddy? You look like you’ve seen some things.
Look I’m not saying letters are entirely useless, but you need someone to help you avoid DESTROYING THE EARTH, maybe try a phone call instead!!!
Incredibly, Flash remembers that he can time travel (!!!!), but Green Arrow points out that it’s useless because according to pre-Crisis rules you can’t change history.
That’s fine, but it’s not the only possible use of time travel!!! Why can’t you just use it to gather information? You obviously know the threat hasn’t destroyed the world, and since you haven’t heard anything in two years it can’t have caused TOO much damage!
Then again, considering the professor who sent the letter didn’t bother to make any calls in TWO YEARS, maybe he’s not all there to begin with.
The basic idea is pretty neat and kind of ahead of its time: replacing human organs with plastic alloys.
And that’s how we get Hairy Frankenstein here.
They could’ve gone with “the Plastalloy Man” and it would’ve made exactly the same sense… but they decided “yep, Shaggy Man, that’s a good name for a monster”.
The scientist decides Shaggy Man is too dangerous to survive, so he has to figure out a way to put him down.
Good luck with that, because he’s basically indestructible: he survives having molten iron poured over his body (!!!!)…
…with magnets!
However, the fact that Shaggy Man is indestructible doesn’t mean he’s invincible: the magnets managed to trap him for TWO YEARS… until Flash shows up and sets him free accidentally.
In the flashbacks, Shaggy Man didn’t seem all that scary. But consider that he’s HUGE.
Also, in his case “indestructible” doesn’t have the same implication of, say, Superman’s invulnerability. You CAN hurt him, even with just one exploding arrow… but it won’t do you any good.
Flash then has an idea that barely ever shows up in JLA stories: why not try the same thing that worked before?
Because of the OTHER reason why Shaggy Man is so dangerous: you basically can’t hurt him the same way twice, because he’s constantly adapting.
So Shaggy Man is basically the pre-Crisis Doomsday.
Ever wondered why Hawkman’s iconic weapon is his mace? Because his “talon-pike” looks absolutely ridiculous.
While these Leaguers deal with the Shaggy Men, their colleagues investigate a completely different mystery: a scientist looking for the remains of “Earth’s lost moon”.
Now you might be wondering WTF does that even means, and… you’re not ready for this.
(I tried to find an online copy of Newsweek from September 1965 but I had no success; I’d be curious to know what Fox is referencing here)
Yeah we’re also dealing with a monster that is, uhm, just a little different from Shaggy Man.
Alien insanity aside, it’s a fine idea for a sci-fi premise…
…although the archeologist is “beyond the rain forests of Brazil, over the tundra country of northern Chile”, and I don’t know how many texts from 5800 BC he could find there.
Wonder Woman tries to use her lasso on the alien, but it’s powerless against “its massive metal appendage”.
Considering Atom and Batman and the only other Leaguers here, they don’t have anything else to throw at the alien once it’s taken out Wonder Woman.
This looks a job for Shaggy…
…Man.
Who is busy fighting his own reflection, so… anyone care to phone Superman?
The world’s greatest heroes, ladies and gentlemen.
That’s until the Flash leads the Shaggy Man against the alien, and it’s AWESOME!
Sadly we don’t get to see any of it, but the JLA commentary is just priceless.
As funny as the moment is, it’s a serious situation: the fact that Shaggy Man is going to win against the alien is taken for granted, but after he wins… who’s going to win against the Shaggy Man?
Well, there’s only one way to defeat a Shaggy Man: another Shaggy…
…Man.
And so the heroes triumph by holding the two Shaggy Men AND the alien inside the same cage, fighting each other for all eternity.
I mean it’s not like they could ask Green Lantern or Superman to take them out of there and throw them into the Sun or something.
In case you’re curious: the original Shaggy Man will show up again in issue #104 from 1973 (summoned by Hector Hammond of all people)… he DOES end up fighting Superman, who has some difficulty with his regenerating abilities.
Incredibly, the SECOND Shaggy Man… the one created at the last minute to fight the original… also shows up later, in 1981’s issue #186.
He got the chance to be drawn by George Pérez AND be thrown into space with a nuke!
Historical significance: 2/10
The Shaggy Man shows up multiple times, but his influence is extremely limited.
Silver Age-ness: 6/10
There is SOME attempt to give a scientific explanation for everything… but come on, this one has Plastic Super-Frankenstein AND Tentacle Rock Monster!!!
Does it stand the test of time? 9/10
All jokes aside, this was one of the greats. Its only faults are the artwork (Sekowsky is better than usual here, but action is not his forte and this REALLY needed better action scenes) and the fact that the two JLA missions are pretty disjointed until the end, so it could’ve benefitted from sharing time more equally between the two monsters… but still, when the two halves join it’s quite satisfying.
We also have heroes that for the most part are very logical in their actions, the Fox formula of dividing the team makes sense this time,and the cherry on top: almost no Snapper Carr!
Ridiculous Flash feat of the day 
Martian Manhunter power of the day
He doesn’t show up once in the entire comic. 
How close is this to the modern character?
Despite having few Silver Age appearances, Shaggy Man left enough of a presence to be recovered by Grant Morrison in his 1997 JLA run… kind of.
Captain Atom supporting character and general superhero nuisance General Eiling transferred his mind into the Shaggy Man, in order to cure himself from brain cancer, and turned into the supervillain called simply The General.
He started off fairly intelligent, but slowly devolved into a more animalistic creature.
So if we’re talking about the General incarnation, I’d have to say 4/10… I really liked that story, but it had little to do with the original.
In 2013, another Shaggy Man has been introduced, this time a creation of Professor Ivo (the creator of Amazo).
I haven’t read that story so I can’t comment on the likeness, but I think it’s an android now.
Kind of a shame the Shaggy Man hasn’t be used more… he’s an awesome monster and one of the few that can give trouble to the Justice League.
Between the super-strength and the ability of healing from anything, it’s like throwing the Hulk and Wolverine together!
So if I’ve read this correctly, the Justice League are terrible at reading their mail and their favoured mode of combat is “let’s have you and him fight.”
So they’re the laziest superheroes ever?
They’re actually innocent about the mail: it’s not like they waited two years before reading it, they received the mail two tears late.
The Eiling version showed up onscreen thanks to Justice League Unlimited. The backstory is changed to involve Captain Nazi, but it’s essentially the same “big unstoppable guy with tusks” as Shaggy Man.
While I was unable to locate the article Fox is referencing, I did find a listing for that issue of Newsweek that includes a table of contents. The September 20th, 1965 issue has an article titled “Did a moon collide with the earth?”