Justice League of America #183: This issue is mostly setup--but it's an enticing setup! Conway and Dillin have the JSA and JLA getting together, only to be whisked away to an empty New Genesis. It seems that Apokolips is ascendant and the remaining free New Gods (Metron, Mr. Miracle, Big Barda, and Orion) need the help of the greatest heroes of two Earths. The end reveals Darkseid (presumed killed at the end of the Adventure Comics revival of the New Gods) to be back amongst the living. While Superman has interacted with the Fourth World mythos before, this is the biggest step to integration in the wider universe DC has taken since the New Gods' creation. It's the harbinger of what's to come.
Secrets of Haunted House #29: The first story here illustrates the sort of "twist that doesn't really work" ending that these horror stories sometimes fall prey to. An old magician, angry at the praise being given a young upstart, reveals that he truly possesses magical powers by kidnapping the young magician and his girl and putting them in the grasp of a demon he summoned. The young magician defeats the demon who seems to declare the young magician really has magical powers too before taking the old wizard's soul. The girlfriend queries the young magician about his powers, and he sort of shrugs it off with a vague answer. The second story by Gill and Henson has a classic suspense radio program vibe. A nephew ingratiates himself on his elderly uncle, then once he discovers the old man's secret vault, kills him for the inheritance. A police lieutenant knows the nephew is guilty, but can't prove it, so harasses him for years hoping hill slip up. He assumes the nephew got away with it, until when the old house is demolished and his corpse is found in the vault. He knew how to get in but not how to get out!
Lasky and Rubeny's "Master of the Double-Cross" has a tabloid reporter stealing the typewriter of a deceased mystery author after a seance and finding out it will magical type manuscripts in the vein of its previous owner. He uses this to get fame and fortune, but then the seance crowd discovers a cache of unpublished manuscripts of the deceased author and the former reporter gets arrested for fraud (?). It appears the ghost double-crossed him. The last story by Kellay and Henson has nice art, but that art doesn't convey some of the story beats it was supposed to, I guess. An aspiring model is snooping around the chateau of a reclusive, but very successful modelling agent and discovering--well, something that shocks her about the models, but there are a couple of panels where I can't tell what they are trying to convey. It's clear it has something to do with plastic surgery, though, and the young woman begs to get in on it. The agent and the surgeon agree, and the woman is transformed into their star model. Apparently, the surgeon somehow did his job too well, because all the assembled press rush up to touch the woman and all the rough handling makes her dissolve into a "putrescent," "crumpled mass." I don't think that's how plastic surgery works, but the story doesn't explain any more than that.
The backup introduces the "World of Krypton" feature. It has the simple but more reasonable moral of "stay in school, kid." Newman and Buckler have Superman relating the story of Kandorian citizenship classes to a potential high school dropout. Based on the story, Kandorian citizenship classes teach an unusual amount of wilderness survival, but then Krypton can be a pretty harsh environment so maybe that makes sense. It did cross my mind that Superman was just making up this story to keep the kid in school, but surely he wouldn't do that, right?
Wonder Woman #272: Conway and Delbo reset Wonder Woman in the last issue and the cover to this one trumpets: "A brand new start for the amazing Amazon--against her greatest foe!!" Which is Angle Man. A brand new start to just to fight Angle Man? He's her "greatest foe?" It's not a bad Angle Man story, but it's an Angle Man story! The Huntress backup by Levitz and Staton features Solomon Grundy, and is pretty good.
Weird War Tales #92: The first story by Burkett and Sutton is set during the Crusades. A Christian knight and a Muslim warrior must put aside their hatred to defeat the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. The second story by Kashdan and Redondo is the obligatory World War II piece. Here a Nazi experiment that turns soldiers in giantish, purple troll sort of creatures is uncovered. So has not to leave the Allied troops at the mercy of the monster, an American soldier bravely volunteers to have the procedure done to him. Neither of these stories are spectacular, but they're also not notably bad either. Meat and potatoes Weird War stuff.
Wonder Woman #272: Conway and Delbo reset Wonder Woman in the last issue and the cover to this one trumpets: "A brand new start for the amazing Amazon--against her greatest foe!!" Which is Angle Man. A brand new start to just to fight Angle Man? He's her "greatest foe?" It's not a bad Angle Man story, but it's an Angle Man story! The Huntress backup by Levitz and Staton features Solomon Grundy, and is pretty good.
World's Finest #265: Five features, and none of them particularly good. The Haney/von Eeden is the best of the lot, though it has an over-complicated plot involving roses, an obscure point of Star City history, an evil twin, and the kidnapping of Dinah. Equally confusing but less enjoyable in the end is the Superman/Batman and Robin cover story. where old JLA villain Simon Magus returns with a plot to siphon science energy to bolster his power in Earth's universe as well as the magical universe he comes from so he can take over both. Maybe he's siphoning magical energy from the other universe too? I don't know. Anyway, it's got Superman fighting what he calls a Balrog, for what it's worth. The Hawkman story by DeMatteis and Landrgraf works a Star Trek-esque "alien rebels with a legit grievance but deplorable immediate aims/methods" plot, but with less skill. The Red Tornado tale by DeMatteis and Delbo is just a recap of his story thus far to set up conflict with a new villain" T.O. Morrow, who has now transformed himself into a buff, nongreen Leader-type with bulbous cranium and moustache. Bridwell and Newton continue their Marvel Family yarn with conflict with Kull (not that one, the other one) and Mr. Atom is sort of a modern take on the Monster Society of Evil, I think.
Another nice cover by Kaluta there. They were really working him hard for the non-supers books in this stretch, weren't they?
ReplyDeleteThat Wonder Woman cover though - cripes, we get it, she's supposed to be DC's patriotic heroine. When your main character is essentially wearing a flag as a costume already the only excuse for an eagle showing up is if you're telling a Penguin story. Which would have been better than Angle Man.
Nice to know Destiny was always a bit of a prat, rather than just becoming one in Vertigo.
Every time I read these commentaries I come away with the same thought: I wish they were still publishing Weird War.
ReplyDeleteSurprising amounts of DeMatteis showing up now. I love the way you are flagging all creator teams and wonder if the historical record might benefit from noting which books were edited out of which office . . . giving Bridwell a slot that would have otherwise been open to a hungry freelancer or tryout feels like an Untold Tale. Did he beg? Trade favors? Come up with a killer pitch and get the slot through honest talent? The editor would have played a role there.
ReplyDeleteAnyhow, ditto Weird War . . . weird book, weird hybrid niche. Neat to see Levitz continuing on Earth 2 after his JSA saga finally wrapped up. I wonder if there's anything in these that feels especially "Earth 2" beyond the particular character mix he had to work with. In a way this might have been one of the biggest internal catalysts of the crisis . . . perfectly comprehensible to the reader but a pain for creative to keep straight for no apparent reason. I can see people like Pasko flying off the hook when told to obey the minutia while people like Haney blithely ignore.
That's a good point about the editors. I may take a look at that and give a list.
ReplyDeleteRegarding the Earth-2 stuff, Conway's approach to all these characters is very "Marvelized." His neither his New Gods or his JSA have any sort of distinct flavor, I don't think. Of course, the JLA had been a bit Marvelized since Englehart's run on the '70s.
The Conway insight is super interesting . . . Marvel Earth as "the other earth," stuck behind an impermeable vibrational barrier and spawning its own character mix. If I recall, Marvel had just gone a little deep down the continuity well a few years previous on nostalgia (?) books like Invaders and Roy Thomas is on the horizon over here ready to school everyone on what really belongs on Earth 2 and what was just a chronicler's error.
ReplyDeleteDick, I love the idea of the Penguin becoming Wonder Woman's greatest foe, even if briefly. They would play off each other extremely well, especially if the Cheetah got involved with Gotham as frenemy for Catwoman.