Wednesday Comics: DC, March 1981 (wk 2 pt 1)

My goal: read DC Comics' output from January 1980 (cover date) to Crisis! This week, I'm looking at the comics at newsstands around December 23, 1980.

Action Comics #517: Conway and Swan/Hunt give us a topical Christmas story (in contrast to the Green Lantern story that states its "1981," ignoring when the comic was actually published). Superman has to leave a Planet office party to help an alien get back a quasi-religious artifact given to his race by a messiah type, which has supposedly been stolen by another species. It turns out the first alien's race had actually stolen it back from the others and are now planning to launch a war of retaliation. Superman has to stop a war between these two factions with long religious enmity--and get back to Earth in time to kiss Lois under the mistletoe.

The Aquaman backup by DeMatteis and Heck reveals that the villain behind the bogus Black Manta (and maybe the Poseidon, too) is Ocean-Master. Aquaman fights with him on a rooftop in a pretty atypical move for these aqua-characters, but Ocean-Master escapes.

Adventure Comics #479: Adventure is back, and it's been turned over completely to Dial H for Hero. This is a reboot of a strip from the late '60s. The conceit of this one is that teens Chris and Vicki discover "dials" (resembling rotary phone dials if you kids remember those), which allow them to transform into a new superhero identity every time they dial H-E-R-O. These stories are by Wolfman and Infantino, but the superhero/villain designs are reader submissions and are credited in the stories. None of the stories are at all memorable, and I refuse to look them up as I have a super-sized issue of Detective to discuss below, but I do recall one of the characters this issue (the villain, Silver Fog), was created by Harlan Ellison, age 46, of Sherman Oaks, CA.

Brave & the Bold #172: Conway and Infantino/Mitchell bring Conway's Firestorm over for a visit. Jason Bard, detective from well, Detective Comics, is here too, and his presence reveals either Infantino or Mitchell or both can't draw a fedora that doesn't look like a travesty. Anyway, Stein and Raymond are having blackouts, and Batman does what any concerned teammate would do, he spies on Firestorm. He discovers that the Nuclear Man is under the control of a sentient nuclear reactor, somehow brought to that state by the accident that created Firestorm. It's now out for world conquest or something. Firestorm's power holds the key to its defeat, though, in a battle of fusion versus fission. Firestorm's able to absorb the probably-lethal dose of radiation Batman took, too.

Nemesis is back in the backup by Burkett and Spiegle. I like Spiegle's art, but I find these just don't hold my interest. This lowkey organized crime fighting is sort of bland. Maybe it would be more appealing not sandwiched at the end of a unremarkable superhero yarn, I don't know.

Detective Comics #500: This is an anniversary issues with a number of creators and at least one story that has gone on to be reprinted elsewhere. Brennert's and Giordano's "To Kill A Legend" is that one. The Phantom Stranger offers Batman (and Robin) a chance to go to another Earth and prevent the death of Wayne's parents on that world. They succeed, and the spoiled, young Bruce Wayne of that world is inspired to to change his life not by the loss of his parents but by the Dynamic Duo's heroic example. On this re-read, what's most interesting to me is the dates this story gives. It sets the death of the Waynes "20 years" before the present on Earth-1--all well and good. But the Phantom Stranger says there was another Bruce who's parents died "40 years before." The associated image looks like the Golden Age Batman, but 40 years from from the present would be the time period when Earth-2 Batman was an adult, not a kid.

Wein and Aparo bring us a fun one: "The Too Many Cooks Caper." Slam Bradley is ostensibly the lead, but it's all all-star jam of non-powered, non-costumed DC heroes: Mysto, Captain Compass, Jason Bard (again!), Roy Raymond, TV Detective, Pow-Wow Smith, and Christopher Chance, the Human Target. "Once Upon A Time" is a clever short by Wein and Simonson, where there is no dialogue but only well-placed, cliched literary lines. 

Barr and Garcia-Lopez set The Elongated Man and his wife to Sue to solving "The Final Mystery of Edgar Allan Poe" in their somewhat humorous style. Next up is a Batman prose piece by Walter Gibson, creator of the Shadow, with illustrations by Tom Yeates. Levitz and Adam Kubert present Hawkman and Hawkgirl discovering the truth behind "The Strange Death of Dr. Erdel." This is a bit weaker as a story than the previous ones, but it's a nice component to a anniversary collection like this. Bates, Infantino, and Smith provide an answer to "What Happens When A Batman Dies?" which is Deadman shows up and tries to keep him from going to the Afterlife, and the spirits of his parents tell him to get back down there and keep fighting. All and all, this is a really good issue, perhaps the best all around of the year.

Green Lantern #138: Maybe Wolfman is stretched too thin, because Thomas is brought on as scripter here. I can't say this issue is an improvement over the last two. In fact, returning to the Eclipso story from the future is a bit of a let down, but only a little since all of this feels like treading water. After a couple of skirmishes, Eclipso unleashes his master plan: a satellite launched from Ferris Aircraft that will create an eclipse. He also uses a beam from his diamond to bifurcate Jordan into good an evil. Meanwhile, there's just enough of the kidnapping of Carol to remind you its there without it actually going much of anywhere.

The Adam Strange backup by Sutton and Rodriquez gives Alanna a chance to come to Earth for once. The two visit New York and foil a terrorist plot at the Statue of Liberty.

House of Mystery #289: This issue introduces the "I...Vampire" strip by DeMatteis (listed as creator as well as writer) and Sutton. We are thrown in in media res with the vampire, Andrew Bennett, and his human companions taking on the vampiric minions of the Queen of the Blood Red Moon. Only a bit later do we get Bennett's origins and learn that his former love Elizabeth is that queen. A good start for the series. 

The rest of the issue isn't that great. Dennehy and Chan deliver a ironic tale of a killer getting run over by his own car (I guess? The art is unclear) when he goes back to gloat over a guy he left to die. Kashdan and Rubeny execute an idea by Don Glut, which sees an inventor get revenge on the guy who stole the credit and the money from his hologram projector by somehow putting the villain in a literal hell caught on film.