numbered spell levels pre-D&D (comics history question)

[Kobold Stew]

I'm reading a 1968 Charlton Hercules comic, and Hera casts a "type six" spell (with the implication this is pretty powerful). There's no previous context in the series for this sort of talk -- is there something in pop culture? What previous fiction used numbered spell power-levels that this would make this the obvious way for a goddess to speak?

Thanks for any help!

 

[Twiggly the Gnome]

Interesting find! Depending on what issue that was, it was written by either Joe Gill (co-creator of Peacemaker) or Denny O'Neil (legendary Batman writer).

 

[Kobold Stew]

Yes! It's a Denny O'Neill issue (writing under the pseudonym of Sergius O’Shaghnessey).

It's the "type six" spells that interest me!

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Denny being the progenitor of leveled spells would please me mightily, but I would want to go back and check and see if Jack Vance mentioned it first, even in passing.

 

[Kobold Stew]

Sorry -- just checked, it's issue 7. And so Joe Gill.

 

[Mad_Jack]

Given the vintage of the comic book and that there's no previous mention of it in the series, I'd say it's most likely just something the writer pulled out of thin air just for that comment.
Like Han Solo making the Kessel Run in twelve parsecs, the jargon came first and didn't mean anything particular (until somebody went back later and fleshed it out). You see it a lot in the long-running comic books that started in the late '80's and the '70's - a lot of the canon and historical events in the series were invented after the fact by later writers based on the barest of frameworks and/or casual references by the original writers.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Given the vintage of the comic book and that there's no previous mention of it in the series, I'd say it's most likely just something the writer pulled out of thin air just for that comment.
Like Han Solo making the Kessel Run in twelve parsecs, the jargon came first and didn't mean anything particular (until somebody went back later and fleshed it out). You see it a lot in the long-running comic books that started in the late '80's and the '70's - a lot of the canon and historical events in the series were invented after the fact by later writers based on the barest of frameworks and/or casual references by the original writers.

Literally how I create adventures and campaigns. The throwaway lines that people care about become more important and the stuff that they don't care about is just the noise that creates the impression of a full, detailed world.

I spent a lot of years deeply enmeshed in comics, so I guess it makes sense that I'd use the Grant Morrison method of world-building. (They especially love throwing out crazy proper names out there and then skipping away, leaving readers to wonder what the heck something was referring to.)

 

[Kobold Stew]

Given the vintage of the comic book and that there's no previous mention of it in the series, I'd say it's most likely just something the writer pulled out of thin air just for that comment.

That's a reasonable explanation if there is no identifiable source. I don't want to assume that, though, which is why I am asking.

Like Han Solo making the Kessel Run in twelve parsecs, the jargon came first and didn't mean anything particular (until somebody went back later and fleshed it out).

I'm not sure this is parallel, however. I understood this in 1977 because I had heard the exact same phrasing in the few contacts with drag racing I had seen -- (Beach Boys songs and Happy Days, probably), where someone might say "he can make the quarter-mile in 5 seconds" or whatever. That gets sci-fi'd up to be "parsecs" (leading to decades of silly apologies culminating ultimately in the movie Solo, when it is a writer's slip between a measure of time to one of distance), but the framing of the claim is exactly the same.

That's not the case with the panel, where Hera introduces a power-level measure for spellcasting. That's not saying it wasn't just made up on the spot -- it could have been, which would be a GREAT outcome from the question -- but it's a counter-intuitive way of measuring things. Not all things -- it's the way the Beaufort scale works, and possibly Joe Gill was a fan of Martin Frobisher -- but finding a fantasy precedent seems to me the most likely source.

 

[Alzrius]

I remember that a lot of old comics would sometimes print letters they'd received on something like the first or last page, often with editorial answers. Maybe a subsequent issue has a letter asking about this? It might be worth checking out.

 

[Umbran]

I'm not sure this is parallel, however. I understood this in 1977 because I had heard the exact same phrasing in the few contacts with drag racing I had seen -- (Beach Boys songs and Happy Days, probably), where someone might say "he can make the quarter-mile in 5 seconds" or whatever. That gets sci-fi'd up to be "parsecs" (leading to decades of silly apologies culminating ultimately in the movie Solo, when it is a writer's slip between a measure of time to one of distance), but the framing of the claim is exactly the same.

Yes, but that's exactly the point!

Han's language was chosen because of the sound of it. The actual content was not really well considered.
Same for the comic book - the author wanted something that sounded right - an implication ranking of power - without much consideration of the implications longer term.