Wednesday Comics: DC, July 1985 (week 1)

My mission: to read DC Comics' output from January 1980 (cover date) to the end of Crisis. This week, I'm looking at the comics that were on stands in the week of April 4, 1985. 

Legion of Substitute Heroes Special #1: My brother and I had this issue back in '85, but I would have guessed we had at least another issue of Ambush Bug under our belts before this came out since I recall us already being familiar with the Giffen art style and humorous approach. It's possible with the vagaries of the newsstand, we didn't pick it up until a little bit later, I suppose.

Anyway, from the cover's faux editorial note on this issue makes it clear this is a humorous one-off to forewarn more traditional Legion fans. But in addition to the Subs, it features Matter Eater Lad heavily, and Pulsar Stargrave, perhaps suggesting that Legion lore isn't really as serious as some fans might think. The government of Bismoll has just purchased a new computer system, and Senator Tenzil Kem (the former Matter Eater Lad) has concerns. These fears seem warranted since the computers look like a whole herd of the Legion foe, Computo, and they are confirmed when the computers attract and embody Pulsar Stargrave. Luckily (maybe) Kem had already called in the Subs!

Mostly, they wander around lost while Kem solves the problem, though Polar Boy helps in Stargrave's defeat by freezing him to make him brittle, and then the unconscious Stone Boy delivers the decisive blow--when Kem drops him onto Stargrave from a height.

It's a silly issue, but an entertaining one.

Crisis on Infinite Earths #4: The uh, crisis deepens this issue. Batgirl and Supergirl share a moment in Gotham where Supergirl is able to help her friend out of a paralyzing despondency. In Japan, the Monitor oversees the origin of a new Dr. Light, who (I guess) is meant to be a lot more powerful than the original, because he certainly pins a lot of hope on her. Earth-6 is destroyed by the antimatter wave, but Pariah manages to save Lady Quark. 

Despite the new allies for the Monitor, his foe is also on the move. The shadow demons coalesce into larger shadow beings in the vicinity of the various towers/tuning forks. And though w're told that this is all part of the Monitor's plan, Harbinger strikes at the command of the enemy, apparently killing her mentor. Pariah assumes they are doomed. At that moment, the heroes of both Earths 1 and 2 can only watch in horror as their worlds, consumed by anti-matter and all is nothingness.

Atari Force #19: Baron and Bareto/Villagran bring our heroes home to New Earth but hardly get a warm welcome. They are forced to make a landing in an area where a new robotic weapon system is being tested. They survive that but then are taken into custody, there to await their trial. 

In the Taz backup by Hannigan and Wray we learn why Taz was carrying the red alien adversary when we first encountered her. It highlights Taz's singleminded pursuit of vengeance.

DC Comics Presents #83: Barr and Norvick/Hunt serve up some deep cut villains for this Superman/Batman and the Outsiders team-up. An accident turns Alfred Pennyworth into the villainous Outsider once again (last seen in 1977), and Superman joins forces with Batman and the Outsiders to defeat him and his ally I.Q. (last seen in 1982).

Fury of Firestorm #37: Nino's art is interesting here, but Cavalieri's story is confusing filler. We have a frame sequence where Martin and Ronnie are eating sushi and trying to figure out what recently went wrong with their powers (a plot point I don't recall) and flashback to an event earlier in their career where they lost control of their powers due to feedback but Ronnie figured out a solution to the problem due to a dream he had, after he attended an astrologist's lecture who told him to pay attention to dreams. Or perhaps that was part of the dream? I don't know, but it didn't hold my interest.

Justice League of America #240: This is another fill-in, this time by Busiek and Sekowsky/Mandrake. A frame sequence establishing two S.T.A.R. Labs research discovers a person in the time streaming and tracing their timeline to find out who they are. It turns out to be Phineas Quayle, a genius physicist from the 1930s whose altruism led him to travel time to seek out a solution to the Great Depression. Appalled by the future he saw, Quayle came to see superheroes as emblematic of the societal decay and rampant individualism he perceived, so he becomes the super-villain the Anomaly to defeat the Justice League and save everyone by "fixing" the future. He was defeated but made his escape into the timestream where he was trapped until the researchers freed him. He goes off to plot again, and the researchers just sort of shrug and assume the JLA will deal with him again.

The story very much feels like a Silver Age throwback, which was the intention. They even brought in classic JLA artist Sekowsky to pencil it.

Shadow War of Hawkman #3: We get a bit clearer idea this issue of what the Thanagarians are after. Apparently, all the upheaval on their homeworld has caused them to lose some of their technical know-how and the Hawks on Earth are the only ones that still have this tech they see as essential for conquest. They still seem advanced enough to cross interstellar space to come to Earth and steal stuff, which seems to be enough for most conquerors, but hey, can't be Thanagarians without antigravity belts, I guess. We also learn Shayera is still alive as she rescues Katar from Fell Andar and his crew. It turns out it was poor Mavis that died. 

The Thanagarians hook up one of their number's brain to the absorbacon and start surveilling everyone on Earth to see who else might know the location of the Hawks' tech. Katar and Shayera realize this will happen, so they destroy their devices hidden at the museum then sneak into JLA headquarters (getting in a fight with Aquaman and Elongated Man) to wipe info from the computers. Unfortunately, the Thanagarians have found and commandeered their spacecraft parked in orbit before they accomplish this.

Tales of the Teen Titans #54: Randall is on art here as Slade spends a short time in jail on the gun charge, and Gar pushes his friends away as he plots to kill his enemy. In the end, Slade is tired of being the Terminator, and Gar finds he can't kill him, so instead the two talk, and Gar gains some understanding. I think overall the issue is well done. I don't mind giving villains depth or nuance, nor do I mind this sort of "bad guy imparts wisdom" story, but absolving Slade by putting all the blame on Terra for her "being evil," and adding additional details to make it an easier sale (like revealing she had killed the king who helped raise Gar in Africa) is a bit much. I think Wolfman could have told a similar story without rehabilitating Slade to such a degree. Or even better, He could have never portrayed Terra and her relationship with Slade that way he did in the first place!

Vigilante #19: Wolfman is back as writer with Denys Cown on pencils and Maygar on inks. Vigilante gets involved in a family tragedy played out as a deadly confrontation between a young gang member in Chinatown and his father who is a gunrunner for the Tongs. The issue is one long fight sequence we begin in media res, interspersed with flashbacks to both events in Chase's life and that of the gang member leading up to this moment. Chase gets ready to assume his role as a judge and does what all superheroes seem to do when they quit: throw their costume in a round, domestic-style trashcan on the street corner.

Parsulan Character Ancestries

 I pitched the idea that I have been kicking around to my players after the last session, and they were into it. So into it they have already began thinking about characters, despite the fact we were going to play a module for a month or so while I got prepared! Still though, I'm glad to have the enthusiasm. Everybody seems interested enough in Nimble, too, which is the system we plan to use over 5e.

Anyway, there interest made me go ahead this weekend and get down in writing things I had been kicking around regarding races/ancestries in the game.

Darklings: These will be the Tiefling stand-ins. They are mutants essentially, born to human parents exposed to the tainted mana emanating from the demons' side of the Terminator or from Shadow cysts.

Dwarves: Spontaneously generated from the spilled ichor of a fallen titan. Like your usual Dwarf but given this is a setting with ancient Magitech, they have a inclination for that. In fact, there's a rumor a cabal of dwarves is trying to create a machine god to run the cosmos more efficiently that either the titans or gods did.

Elves: Like your typical elves really, though I think longer lived that the D&D standard. Dark elves (the name has nothing to do with coloration) are likely holdout titan-partisans.

Halflings: Svelter than the D&D standard, mostly like the half-foots (feet?) in Dungeon Meshi in appearance. Like in the 4e "lore," they will be a nomadic people, either in big wagons or barges.

Meks: Mechanicals. They were created as servants and soldiers by the now-fallen Magitech Empire of Alphanion, but have developed more independence over the centuries. They reproduce via Mothernodes, ancient pieces of Magitech sometimes found in Alphanion ruins. They take the place of the Warforged, but broader in conception. The Steam Men of Hunt's Jaekelian novels, Mattie from Sedia's The Alchemy of Stone, and the droids in Star Wars are also influences.

Myrclawr: Cat people of the anime/manga variety. They are also a created species from the Age of the Wizard-Kings.

Weird Revisited: The Collected Planes

Reposting this from 2024 is my reminder to myself to get around to finishing this series one of these days. I also think I may revise a couple of the ones I have already written.

 

One of these days, I'm going to completely finish (and maybe publish) this series on the Great Wheel, but until then, here's everything I've done.

The Planes of Pure Law
The Planes of Chaos
Hell
Carceri

Hades

Arborea

Elysium

Beastlands

Gehenna

Twin Paradises

The Layers of Heaven (part 1) (part 2) (part 3) (part 4)

Arcadia

Limbo

Ysgard

Wednesday Comics: DC, June 1985 (week 4)

I'm reading DC Comics' output from January 1980 (cover date) to Crisis! This week, I read the comics on sale on March 28, 1985.

Ambush Bug #1: Giffen, Fleming, and Oksner bring us the solo debut of a character Giffen has pushing for a while now. I loved this issue when it came out, and I think it holds up reasonably well today. The plot of the main story involving Republican terrorists threatening to release stores of old nerve case unless the Congress votes to begin production of new nerve gas, is not so alien to our current political moment to have lost its satire, if some of the details (like a joke about Boll Weevil Democrats) belong to a different time. Giffen's latter 80s style of a lot of panels with rough black line borders and no whitespace in between has reached its mature form, though characters are not quite as stylized here as they will get.

Action Comics #568: With the cover of this issue, I wonder why they didn't publish it as the February issue? The stories continuing to be continuity-free, so I don't see why this month's and last month's couldn't have been switched. Anyway, the first story isn't the cover story but a bit of silliness by Maggin and Swan/Williamson about Superman being called in to help when a stage magician's magic (he has real magic but doesn't use it in his stage performance) accidentally sends the audience (including Perry White's grandkids) to India.

The second (longer) story by Boldman and Bender/Nino goes with the cover. A thief fleeing the 30th Century into the past, accidentally delivers a device into Jimmy's hands that he thinks is some sort of matchmaking device after suggests he come to a particular street corner where he meets the lovely Jennifer, with whom he matches so well. Soon, Lois and Clark get in on the matchmaking, pairing Lois with detective Preston Chandler, and Clark with the librarian Mindy, who turns out also to be the superheroine Nova-Woman. In the end, Science Police Officer Shvaughn Erin shows up to reveal the device isn't a matchmaker, but a thought actualizer, drawing images from a person's subconscious and making them solid. She takes the device back and the dream dates disappear.

Arion Lord of Atlantis #32: Kupperberg and Duursema continue "The Magic Odyssey" with part 3. Confidant that his magic has returned, Arion ignores Yoshiro's warnings and goes on a quest to recover a dark jewel that can somehow turn Wyynde back to normal. Unexpectedly he is returned to the Darkworld where he arrives at the place he spent some many years in his youth. He encounters Ghy, a somewhat sinister looking imp that was nevertheless a childhood friend. Unfortunately, as we saw last issue, Arion has fallen into a trap set by Tomokata (who's trying to steal Chian from him) and Dark Majistra who was imprisoned inside the dark jewel, but now freed.

Meanwhile back in Atlantis, King D'Tilluh has taken his own life. As the ministers debate who to name as his successor, T'Galla, the king's warrior daughter barges in having just returned home.

All-Star Squadron #45: Continuing the story from last issue, Johnny Quick and Libby get the location of Blitzkrieg's hideout from his assistant, Zwerg. Johnny is delayed, but Liberty Belle and Hawkgirl attack the hideout where Blitzkrieg is using the vibrations of the Liberty Bell to cure his psychological blindness? Yeah, it didn't make much sense to me either!

The two battle Zyklon while Blitzkrieg rants and waits for a lightning strike to power the device, Frankenstein-style, which will restore his sight. Hawkgirl and Zyklon knock each other out. Lightning strikes, and it restores the Baron’s sight but also giving Belle sonic powers! Blitzkrieg manages to escape, though.

Detective Comics #551: Moench and Broderick/Smith continue the Calendar Man story from Batman. Doing some sleuthing, Batman figures out where Calendar Man is likely to strike next, but he sidelines Robin out of fear that Calendar Man will make good on his threat to kill him. Batman surprises Calendar Man at his caper, but the actions of a thug who figured Calendar Man wasn't up to the task of killing Batman, distracts the hero and Calendar Man escapes. Batman gets home to find Jason is missing, having rashly gone out as Robin on his own.

Cavalieri and Moore/Patterson present a Green Arrow backup that seems ripped from today's headlines. After a run-in with overzealous immigration enforcement at a diner, Ollie and Dinah try to help the undocumented immigrant brother of an El Salvadorian refugee working there. Ollie learns that there is a network of people helping those fleeing the war-torn country get into the U.S. A Catholic Church turns out to be one such sanctuary, and that's where Ollie meets Francisco, the man he's looking for. Unfortunately, immigration enforcement raids the place, and Oliver is taken into custody with Francisco and the local priest. Elsewhere, the mysterious Onyx gets ready to begin her search for Oliver Queen.

Jonah Hex #91: Fleisher and Morrow have Hex encounter a "nearly eighteen" year-old runaway looking to become a trick rider in a Wild West show after he saves her from a rattlesnake. A romance blossoms, though Hex protests (weakly) about their age difference. He goes with her to Rory Starbuck's Wild West Review but runs into trouble when he catches some disgruntled former employees in an act of sabotage. Ultimately, Hex briefly disguises himself as a clown to catch the badguys--but also catches Carolee two-timing him with Starbuck after taking literally his protestations that she should be with somebody younger.

Meanwhile, Emmylou is having hard time making good her escape from Brett and his gang, and when she does, she appears to fall into an abandoned well. The next issue blurb promises something we won't expect. I wonder if it has anything to do with another ad for Hex (coming in June) in the letter column?

Sun Devils #12: Jurgens and Mitchell bring the series to an end, and it's a bit anticlimatic. The Sun Devils reunite with the beaten Rik and go on to take the Starcrusher back from the Sauroids, but there's no boss badguy to confront here, just a lot of minions. Perhaps the real interesting developments of the issue are elsewhere. Earth is made aware in time to throw off the Crustate attack. Rik and crew (after some soul-searching) decide not to use the weapon to destroy the Sauroid homeworld, but then they turn it over to the Centaurian leader who promptly does so, then brands the Sun Devils outlaws so they can't reveal the truth of what he did. After their goodbyes, the team splits up to go into hiding, Rik takes off on his own, supposedly, but he's aware that Anomie, who he forgave but said he couldn't be in a relationship with again, has stowed away on his ship.                 

                       

Tales of the Legion #324: Levitz/Newell and Jurgens/Kesel have Ultra-Boy, Mon-El, and White Witch arriving at a scene of planetary destruction that Gigi is certain is the work of Dev-Em. The Legionnaires tangle with a masked Dark Circle agent that is as powerful as Dev-Em, but then there is more than one of them. Unmasking their defeated opponents, they find they are Dev-Em clones. The Dark Circle reveals that are holding the real Dev-Em captive with Kryptonite. Meanwhile, Dawnstar still pines from her love from the previous lackluster story.

In the backup by the same writers with art by Colon/Martin, Invisible Kid has to solve the mystery of why a project to map the planet Ordse is being sabotaged.

V #5: Bates and Smith/Alcala continue the story from last issue. Earl Meagan (the Carl Sagan stand-in) continues his personal mission of against the Visitors over the objections of Resistance who thinks his attack, if carried out, will cause massive reprisals by the aliens. Predictably, Diana's overtures of peace are a ruse, and she takes Meagan captive on the Mothership, unaware he's carrying a micro-nuke in his body. Meanwhile, Ham and Chris infiltrate the Visitor facility where Kyle is being kept and learn it is essentially a big food science experiment in fattening up humans to make them tastier!

In the letter column, the editorial vaguely references big changes coming to the TV show that will put the comic out of step but promises a special issue soon to reconcile the two. The letters are an interesting time capsule. Many praise V (a series now mostly forgotten I think) as the best science fiction TV show since Star Trek (The original series, of course. TNG is still about 2 years away.)

World's Finest Comics #316: Cavalieri's and Stroman/Aiken/Garvey's latest villain to challenge the combined might of Superman and Batman: Cheapjack, the top hat-wearing leader of a biker gang called the Werewolves of London that operate out of the woods on the outskirts of Gotham, I assume. The cover says he's "back," but this is actually his first appearance. He's started a gang war by kidnapping the daughter of the head of the Massimo crime family. He wants to corner the drug market to flood the streets with his new drug, synthedrine. Batman and Superman go undercover in the rival gangs to stop the war.

Team-up books are always a bit weird continuity-wise, as the can't (or at least typically don't) fit easily with what's going on in other books. We get that here as Bruce Wayne seems caught between potential love interests: a businesswoman and a nightclub owner, without any mention of the separate love interests he's caught between in his solo books. Superman, despite all this going on in his books, finds a lot of time to gang out in Gotham, buddying around with a guy that the rest of the DCU would suggest he's had a falling out with at this point. 

The Bard of Azurth

Our Land of Azurth 5e game concluded last night with our heroes facing down a shadow creature of immense size. Every bite attack it made threatened to swallow one of the party, and it periodically emitted bursts of necrotic energy. Luckily, they have Dagmar to keep throwing out the healing and two energy weapons they obtained long ago from visitors from the future (or perhaps past?). Erekose drained his energy rifle attacking the creature and was forced to go back to his sword. Ultimately, they destroyed the monster, but it went out in a blast of negative energy.

Dagmar checked on the emaciated form of the Wizard. He was alive but barely and not saying anything useful. Waylon tried shooting the black, anti-glowing orb over head with his energy pistol. The blasts seemed to burn it, but it didn't take it long to heal. 

A group of Gloom Elf priests in tall hats emerged from the shadows (naturally!). They didn't attack but suggested the party's actions were futile. The Anti-Sun was already beginning to manifest in this world. It had provided the power that allowed the Wizard to manifest a giant shadow to fight the machine of the rebels, though the effort had drained him. They did not care. The Anti-Sun was here!

The party's response was to attack them. In a few rounds, they had killed the elven priests, but the avatar of the Anti-Sun was still hung above their heads. Luckily, they remembered (with a hint from the DM!) that they had previously defeated a shadow dragon by overloading one of the energy weapons. They did so again, and the resultant explosion put a ragged hole in the black sphere. Dagmar gave her all into a blast of radiant energy that finished it off, closing the portal.

The party heard noises in the chamber outside and prepared for another fight, but it turned out to be the soldiers of the rebellion led by Queen Desira of Virid and Warrior Princess Bellona of Sang. They related that once the giant shadow of the Wizard was defeated, and the Gloom Elves mysteriously withdrew, the city fell quickly. Their forces were just mopping up. 

The party debated saving the dying Wizard but ultimately decided to let him die rather than risk it.

The princesses suggest the party return to the camp and get some food and rest. They do, and the first person they know they run into is Kory Keenstep. He talks circumspectly about a trip back in time that he chose not to take, but his sone Kully did. When queried further, he suggests the party talk to the Clockwork Princess, Viola.

The party finds her in the command tent. She reveals that defeating the Wizard might have likely led to the destruction of Azurth, as his existence constituted a causal loop around it. The only way to protect against that was to stabilize Azurth's history.

Instead of using a children's story to serve the evil ambition of one man, Azurth needed a new story to sustain it. So, the princesses sent back a storyteller, Kully the bard, to tell the faeries, the proto-goddesses of Azurth, a new story. One not subverted by the wizard.

The world would reset in about 14 hours.

The party asked if they would remember. Viola said she wasn't certain. Possibly they would since they had been to the beginning of Azurth themselves. They'll just have to find out.

The following morning, the party awakened in their residence, the former Dove Inn in Rivertown. There were no signs of war or occupation anywhere. The statue in the town square is not of their rivals the Eccentrics, but of them.

The End

The Masters of Mayhem are:

Dagmar ...... Andrea

Erekose .......... Bob

Shade ........... Gina

Waylon .......... Tug

Zabra ......... Kathy

previous members:

Kairon ........... Eric

Bellmorae ...... Haigen

and 

Kully Keenstep ...... Jim

Spells Against Civility Progress Report

Jason and I are still working on our 2-page comic for the first issue of the Swords Against! Sword & Sorcery anthology. Jason sent me the inked first page so I could start laying out the lettering, and that's what the images here are from, though there is a still some clean-up and shadowing to come on the art.

This is how it starts with the barbarian Karkath:

And this is how it ends for him:

Wednesday Comics: DC, June 1985 (week 3)

I'm reading DC Comics' output from January 1980 (cover date) to Crisis! This week, I'm looking at comics that were published on February 21, 1985.

Batman and the Outsiders #22: Alan Davis makes his American comics debut taking over on art from Aparo. As the Outsiders arrive in the ruin of the JLA satellite, this issue feels very modern (or at least very early 21st century) in its portrayal of a very driven Batman with secret plans to make up for what he perceives as his JLA teammates' shortcomings and his tendency to view his new teammates as instruments to use toward his goals. The team has brought Dr. Jace with them to use the JLA's special equipment to help them learn more about Halo's origins. Examining her brainwaves, they awaken her hidden self and discover she is an aurakle, one of a group of sentient energy beings that have existed since the before the universe. The aurakle that became Halo had been fascinated with organic beings and inhabited the body of Violet Harper after her death.

At first, the Outsiders are sort of skeptical about Halo's story, but after a group of aurakles arrive to force her to re-merge with their "unity", they can't doubt it. At first the Outsiders hold their own against the energy beings, but the aurakles blow a hole in the station and take Halo away. Several of the Outsiders and sucked into space, but Geo-Force saves them and Metamorpho seals the breach.

Blue Devil #12: Under the demonic influence of his trident, Blue Devil goes on a bit of a rampage but given the tone of this book it's played a bit for laughs with his maniacal statements being mostly movie industry cliches. Green Lantern tries to stop him, but well, fire can be yellow...so they have to call in Zatana. She gets to the bottom of what's going on, and as they free his trident from its demonic possessor, Etrigan shows up and attacks, not knowing Dan is cured. They soon straighten things out, though, and Etrigan leaves. The Demon is miscolored this whole issue so that he looks like he's shirtless but still has red frilly cuffs.

Green Lantern #189: John Stewart and Katma Tui combat Sonar and his new super-powered cronies, Throttle and Blindside. Meanwhile, Hal and Carol investigate the identity of the Predator, but so far, they haven't found anything substantive. Hal also pays a visit to Guy Gardner in the facility where he lives, having suffered brain damage. He intends to pay more frequent visits as he fills a kinship with this other former Lantern.

In the "Tales of the Green Lantern Corps" backup by Klein and O'Neill, Xax, the insectoid Green Lantern of Xaos, tried to feed the hungry masses, but his ring wasn't up to keeping up with the demand. He tries his best to prevent a war between clans fighting over the harvest. The Spider Guild invades and wraps the Xaosians in cocoons. Xax saves some of his fellows while confronting guild machines, but he falls into a yellow metal trap.

Infinity, Inc. #15: The Chroma story arc (if we can call it that) concludes this issue. Mostly, the story is about the disagreement among the Infinitors with Obsidian frustrated the others still seem to be fascinated with the alien and are blind to the threat he poses. Backing up Obsidian's intuitions is the crowd building ominously outside the hospital where Chroma is recovering and the other Infinitors sort of baseless but persistent feelings of his beneficence. This all comes down to a short fight between them at the hospital before Chroma just decides humanity isn't ready for him yet and leaves. It seems Thomas is going for the sort of comic-book-profound, cosmic story of his days at Marvel, but this just doesn't reach the level of bombast to pull that off. McFarlane's layouts are much more conventional this issue with better use of space, and the stylistic flourishes he will later be known for are either embryonic or being tamped down by DeZuniga's inks.

New Teen Titans #9: I read this issue in 1986 when it was reprinted in Tales of the Teen Titans #68. Wolfman and García-López/Tanghal continue the story from last issue. The Teen Titans rally the Titans of myth to carry the battle against Thia to Olympus. The first encounter Kole who Thia made imprison the Amazons with her crystal powers. The freed Amazons are able to join the fight, which is good because Thia sends the monstrous Typhon against our heroes. Ultimately, Hyperion sacrifices himself to destroy his wife, though two consumed together in flames. The Titan team defeats Typhon, and Lilith is reunited with the winged alien. In the aftermath, a grateful Zeus decrees that the surviving Titans of myth, and Lilith, now recognized as a demi-goddess, may remain in Olympus.

Sgt. Rock #401: The first story is one of the oddest of Kanigher's works on this title. Easy company see's a meteor coming streaking across the sky, then encounters the large meteorite stuck in the ground. Then it seems to sort of follow them, showing up when they encounter a group of refugees and share food, then again in the stream near a bombed-out village, where Rock referees a confrontation between a lone German soldier and French locals, both only children. The mysterious visitor, drawing conclusions about the contradictory nature of humanity, leaves again for the cosmos.

The next story by Joe Kubert is about a German corporal who basically becomes an avatar of death in guilt over being the sole survivor of his squad is a reprint from Weird War Tales #1. The final story by Arata and the Kubert brothers tells the story of a boy who played with toy tanks designed the resemble those of World War II, but finds his own interactions with military vehicles in Vietnam less enjoyable.

Saga of Swamp Thing #37: Moore and Veitch/Totleben introduce John Constantine, who is a mysterious world traveler on a mission to combat the coming of some malevolent entity. Constantine shows up in Louisiana where Swamp Thing, tended by Abbie, is still trying to regrow his body. Constantine taunts him with knowledge about the swamp thing's capabilities and purpose and challenges him to meet him in a town named Rosewood outside of Chicago in a week. Swamp Thing accepts the challenge, musing that the name "Rosewood" seems familiar to him. We're also told in passing by Abbie that Nukeface is "probably dead," so that's that, I guess.

Talent Showcase #17: We get the ending of Collapsar's storyline by Tillman and Woch, and it involves him bringing together two factions on the alien world he wound up on. Sort of anticlimatic, really. 

The other two stories are sort of action stories (one kind of spy-fi) written by Rowlands. They both demonstrate a feel for story structure and breakdowns that is definitely a cut above what we generally get in this title. Some credit for this may well be due to the artists, too: Grindberg on the spy story and Ron Wagner on the action one, both of whom would have long penciling careers for various publishers mostly not on superhero books. Unfortunately, neither of the stories are very good overall.

Warlord #94: I reviewed this issue here.

Who's Who #4: This is the Cs so there are a lot of Captains here. We get the recently acquired Charlton character Captain Atom making his DC debut. His first in-story appearance will be Crisis #6. Interestingly, his alter ego is given as Nathaniel Adams in a retcon. Captain Carrot is here, too, showing Earth-C isn't forgotten, nor is Earth-S with Captain Marvel and Captain Marvel, Jr. present. The cool but obscure adventure character Captain Fear is featured in his Simonson rendition. We last saw him in Unknown Soldier #256 back in 1981. Cheshire from NTT is here, as is that Forgotten Hero, Cave Carson. A half-page Chlorophyll Kid entry is a harbinger of a rising profile for the Legion Subs. The standout illustration this issue, though, has got to be Dave Stevens' Catwoman I.