E-Man #3
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeE-Man #3 (cover-dated June 1974) is the single most character-dense issue of Charlton's fondly remembered Bronze Age series, introducing private investigator Michael Mauser — a character so well-received that he eventually anchored his own series and became a durable part of the E-Man mythology. The issue is also a small time-capsule of socially engaged superhero storytelling: its lead story, 'The Energy Crisis!', is a direct fictional response to the 1973 OPEC oil embargo, making it one of the few Charlton superhero comics to engage contemporary headlines with genuine narrative purpose. The backup feature, 'The Dragon Killer!', supplies the origin of time-wanderer Travis and his sentient time machine Anacrom, rounding out a single issue that punches well above the modest production standards Charlton was known for.
In "The Dragon Killer," young Travis sets out on a desperate journey through time after his parents disappear during a temporal voyage, only to cross paths with other travelers and a fearsome dinosaur. Along the way, he discovers the origins of his mysterious time-wandering companion, the robot Anacrom, and the strange forces that bind them to the timestream.
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A nationwide paper shortage triggered by a Canadian paper-mill strike forced a six-month gap between issues #2 and #3 of the series — an unusually long hiatus for a bimonthly title. Rather than simply waiting, writer Nicola Cuti and artist Joe Staton used the downtime productively: Cuti wrote 'The Energy Crisis!' as pointed social commentary on the oil crisis then gripping American daily life, while Staton took the opportunity to deepen and darken his visual approach to the book. The series itself existed because Charlton editor George Wildman had persuaded the Derby, Connecticut publisher to re-enter the superhero market after a years-long absence following Dick Giordano's 1968 departure, and Cuti and Staton had responded by designing a lighthearted, Plastic Man-influenced energy being whose costume bore Einstein's E=mc² formula as its chest insignia.
Trivia · 8 facts
- First appearance of Michael Mauser, private investigator — a supporting character who would later be spun off into his own solo series and whose name the series' letter column, 'E-Mail,' was eventually tied to.
- First appearance of villain Samuel Boar and his energy-absorbing enforcer The Battery, the primary antagonists of the lead story 'The Energy Crisis!'
- The lead story is an explicit fictional response to the 1973 oil crisis, set in New York City during the real-world power shortages of that era; the issue closes with a half-page in-story environmental and energy-conservation message attributed to E-Man.
- Backup story 'The Dragon Killer!' provides the origin of time-wanderer Travis and his sentient time machine Anacrom, both indexed characters making their debut here.
- The issue's cover is by Joe Staton; the backup story 'The Dragon Killer!' is written by Nicola Cuti and drawn by Wayne Howard — not by Staton, making this one of the few early issues where the two features have different art teams. The backup was previously misattributed to Wally Wood before correction via the Grand Comics Database Error Tracker.
- A six-month publication gap between issues #2 and #3 — caused by a Canadian paper-mill strike — gave Cuti and Staton extended time to develop the issue's storytelling and art style.
- The lead story 'The Energy Crisis!' has been reprinted at least four times: in E-Man (Gredown, 1976), E-Man (Modern Comics, 1977/1978), The Original E-Man and Michael Mauser #2 (First Comics, November 1985), and E-Man: The Early Years (First Comics, 2011/2015).
- E-Man #3 is cover-dated June 1974 and carries a cover price of 25 cents; it runs 36 pages in full color under a Comics Code Authority seal.
Cast · 7 characters
Full credits
Reprints
Reprinted in The Comic Reader #100 (1973), Comic Reader #104 (1974), E-Man #1 (1976), E-Man #3 (1978), Unexplored Worlds #[nn] (1982), The Original E-Man and Michael Mauser #2 (1985), E-Man: The Early Years #[nn] (2011)
Key issues in E-Man
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