Wednesday Comics: DC, July 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 April 23, 1981.

Action Comics #521: Conway and Oksner had pitched Vixen (which is her official name here, but she's called Lady Fox more often this issue) for the DC Explosion, but that was not to be. She is introduced here, stealing a truck load of furs belonging to Mordecai Mule. Superman views her as a criminal at first, but Lois and Clark discover that Mule is dealing in illegal furs, so instigates an elephant herd to stampede, hopping to kill them. Superman and Vixen  team up to stop them, then Vixen apprehends Mule.

In the Aquaman backup by Rozakis and Saviuk, Aquaman is practicing his fish telepathy because he's envious of Hawkman's ability to talk to birds, because Aquaman can only send thoughts, not hold a conversation. This dubious premise laid out, Aquaman soon discovers a gelatinous sea creature with the power to shrink. He calls in the Atom, who's the only shrinking expert he knows. Ultimately, they discover the creature changes size in response to threats and Aquaman's telepathy frightened it. I bet that never happened to Hawkman.

Adventure Comics #483: The first story here is the most interesting for it's world-building. The villain is the Games-Master who uses various game themed gadgets. We are told he was a former hitman for the Joker and his lieutenant also is a former member of the Joker's gang. He's unusually stiff opposition for the Dial H kids--or maybe their just off their game. The rest of the issue they have a tough time with a big game poacher in a furry outfit called the Wildebeest. The kids dial up their first superhero duo with Black and White. In a subplot, the parents of the kid whose always antagonizing Chris are getting divorced, so he starts ditching school and falls in with a street gang like out of a 60s tv show.

Brave & the Bold #176: Batman teams up with Swamp Thing in a story by Aparo and future Saga of the Swamp Thing writer, Martin Pasko. Selina Kyle asks Batman to help save the life of her sister (who knew she had a sister?) who is going to be killed in the Louisiana prison she's in by former criminal associates. Batman gets there too late, and Felicia has already escaped into the swamps, but she's being pursued by hired killers. She's killed, but Swamp Thing mistakes her for his wife Linda and attacks the killers. The killers escape, but Batman and the Swamp Thing team up (after the required initial confusion and conflict) to track down the killers and bring them to justice. The lack of success in saving Felicia makes them story a bit more the ending more downbeat that typical.

Madame Xanadu #1: This was DC's first comic exclusive to the direct market, and their second publication to not be available on the newsstand. It's pretty much like an issue of her cancelled 70's title Doorway to Nightmare. In the main story by Englehart and Rogers, Madame Xanadu deals with two difficult visitors. The first is a drug addict that tries to rob her, but she convinces him to go to treatment. Then, a woman shows up with a book of spells wanting to learn witchcraft. Xanadu refuses to teach her and tries to warn her off, but the woman storms out and runs into the addict and they have an instant attraction. Next Xanadu sees them, they're swingers living together with drugs and magic. They throw a big party and the night of debauchery culminates with the demons Ishtar and Tammuz being summoned, but Xanadu reveals her presence. She appeals to the couple's sweeter, more tender side and the two break the spell. The guy gets clean and the woman swears off magic.

The other story reminds me a bit of The Martian Chronicles. It's by DeMatteis and Bolland. A native of an alien world takes an injured human from a spaceship crash into his home. His wife, who seems ill herself, demands he kill the human, blaming him for the deaths of her friends and children. The alien uses his powers to heal the human and sees into his mind at the same time. Including the desperate search for resources that drove humans to strip the resources of other worlds (like this one). This man, however, tried to stop the other humans and was an outcast because of it. The alien's wife believes he is being deceived and again demands he kill the human before succumbing to her illness. The alien considering that humans killed his wife too in a way looks at the unconscious man with anger. Later, other humans come looking him. The alien and his wife tell them the man Turner has died. They go away laughing that he won't get his back pay. The alien drops the illusion. He and Turner are left alive.  The alien comments on the disease of hate, and the two go together to bury his wife.

These two stories are above average for anthologies of the period. Maybe they felt they could stretch a bit more in the direct market?

House of Mystery #294: Kaluta's cover is more intriguing than the stories, per usual. The first story by Conway and Infantino/Beatty is about wealthy financer Craig who is completely afraid of the dark since he stole a charm from a voodoo practitioner in Haiti as a boy and felt the presence of something in the darkness. When the power goes out in his home, taking all his lights with it, Craig panics and has a heart attack. It turns out his subordinate (looking to take over his company) did it, but when he turns out the lights whatever it was that had haunted Craig bites him in two. 

The second story by Jones and Yeates is a bit better, and "samples" The Haunting of Hill House in some of its narration. Jud periodically visits a an abandoned old house where a murder took place and meets a beautiful woman who only appears at night. She claims to be ghost who killed herself after catching her husband in an affair, but Jud discovers the truth. She isn't a ghost at all but a living woman "haunting" her old house in her guilt over the accidental death of her husband after he caught her in an affair. Jud coaxes her out of the house and back into the world, but disappears--and she sees his grave in the yard.

The last story by Kupperberg and Tuska/DeZuniga is a EC sort of tale updated for the 80s. The Bates family has a new baby, but John Bates doesn't want the baby to grow up in the witch coven he and his wife are members off. He starts a legal preceding to stop her, but in the course of the trial his wife asks they consider the child's wishes--then John Bates disappears, his baby having changed him into a teddy bear.

Legion of Super-Heroes #277: So, the Legionnaires are back on Earth trying to save a cargo ship of these camel-headed aliens when Phantom Girl is attacked by kelp that has somehow been brought to life. her teammates are distracted, but luckily a costumed guy called Reflecto shows up to save her and whisk her off to Legion HQ for medical attention. Some of the Legion (well, Wildfire) is suspicious of Reflecto but other than refusing to say who he is or what his deal is, he seems a decent guy, so they let him fly off. Meanwhile, Grimbor the Chainsman is out for revenge for the death of Charma, so he wraps the Earth in light-chains to hold it hostage. The Legion flies off to help, and Reflecto follows. Conway and Thomas wrote this nonsense, but hey, Janes is back on art, so it's better than it could be.

The Unknown Solider #253: Haney and Ayers/Tlaloc manage to contrive to have the Soldier fighting Nazi spies at the Statue of Liberty. The actually events of the story aren't as cool as the cover, though. The Solider has to bring a German American corporal back to New York City from Europe. The government wants the corporal to help stop his grandfather who is apparently spying for the Germans. The corporal is reluctant to do the mission, in part because it's his grandfather, but also because he knows the mob will be after him once he's back in New York. In the end, the Soldier takes care of the mob interference and the corporal's grandfather takes a dive from the crown of the Statue of Liberty after refusing to see error of his ways.

The Enemy Ace backup is a disappointment. Von Hammer takes the young woman he caught signaling the British up with him to protect the German zeppelins. She gets hit by stray shot and dying, she reveals she is the sister of the soldier he's been looking for, showing her matching bracelet. She the first person he happened to tell the story to was the one he was looking for.