Wednesday Comics: DC, March 1982 (week 3)

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 17, 1981.

Brave & the Bold #184: This is a Christmas story by Barr and Aparo teaming Batman and the Huntress. The Huntress comes to Earth-One to spend Christmas with her quasi-family, Batman. The holiday spirit is soured when records from an arrested mobster appear to show that Thomas Wayne had financial deals with the mob, and his former accountant's records seem to confirm it. Bruce decides to give up the cowl and the Huntress frets that that decision will lead to his death just like it did for her father. In the end though, the accountant was the dirty one and Thomas Wayne is exonerated.

Legion of Super-Heroes #285: Levitz and Broderick/Tanghal have the Legion in the market for a new cruiser on Nullport, but they uncover a Khundish plot. The story introduces H'Hrnath, the cigar-chomping, hard-bargaining, equine manager of Nullport. There's a Dream Girl backup by Levitz and Giffen where she works to restore the Naltorian precognitive abilities.

Green Lantern #150: Wolfman and Staton finally close in on the reset I had been anticipating since the outset of this storyline. First though, a defeated Jordan is taken by St'nlli to Qward. The Qwardians have developed their own Antimatter Lantern Corps, but they need to reverse engineer Jordan's ring to maybe keep their lanterns from dying in 24 hours. Rebuffed by the Guardians, Arisia shows up to help Hal, who reveals this has been an undercover mission all along. They defeat St'nlli, but with an army of Antimatter Lanterns against them, they only triumph thanks to the timely arrival of the Green Lanterns. 

With the Qwardians thwarted, the Green Lanterns return to Oa, where the Guardians given Jordan their verdict. Even though they don't like his recent approach to his duties, they can't ignore his outstanding history as a Green Lantern. As punishment, they command him to leave Earth and not return until his penance is paid. They give him only 24 hours to resolve things back home. Immediately, Hal recharges his ring and returns to Earth, where a lot of story threads having been coming to a head in his absence.

House of Mystery #302: The cover here is completely misleading and seems to reference the story in the next issue if the blurb can be believed. Jones and Sutton again pick up the saga of I...Vampire after Bennett faked his death and started walking across Kansas a couple of issues back. He visits the home of the man he switched places with after the auto accident. The guy's widow, June, takes him on as a boarder and the family grows fond of him. Then her son gets a stake through the heart in an attempt to kill Bennet. Realizing he's brought more death to the people he cares about, Bennett tries to leave. The Cult of the Blood Red Moon catches up to him, and June is killed by an arrow helping him escape. Bummed out by having caused the deaths of an innocent family, he wanders sadly into the night.

Mishkin/Cohn and Redondo/Pabulos present a tale of a roulette game where years of life are the stakes. There's a jokey, alien invasion one pager, then a Christmas tale by Jones and Spiegle. Charlie and Benny are barely scraping by, and Charlie is even considering putting his mentally handicapped brother in an institution, but then a thief who has stolen a Santa disguise leaves his loot and their house, giving them a green Christmas.

Phantom Zone #3: Gerber and Colan/DeZuniga continue the Phantom Zone criminals' assault on the Earth. Supergirl escapes the disintegration pit they through her into but is very week. Batman encounters Jer-Em, the mad prophet, and barely makes it out alive. Meanwhile, Superman and Kweskill continue to try to find a way out of the Phantom Zone, encountering dangerous and bizarre beings, including a Kryptonian wizard who tells them Aethyr, the sentient universe of which the Phantom Zone is a manifestation. 

Sgt. Rock #361: Kanigher and Redondo phone in the main story about two Colonels wanting to know who really leads Easy Company. All the flashbacks tell us it is of course Rock, but none of the Combat Happy Joes say so, fearing that Rock will be moved to a different job or something. Kanigher and Mandrake do a little better with a short about a downed Japanese pilot and a gunner from a sunk U.S. ship fighting to the death over a life preserver. Then there's a story of Celts versus Romans with art by Duursema. Finally, Creamer draws a story about a cowardly Huey pilot in Vietnam who declines to pick up a group of soldiers in desperate need of evacuation only to discover upon his return to base that his brother was among them.

Superman Family #215: After a rocky start last issue, the two Supergirls, who have switched time periods, manage to pull things together and defeat their admittedly B-lister foes, even though classic Supergirl has her powers diminished by the future orange sun, and future Supergirl has her powers increased almost beyond control by the yellow sun of the 20th Century. Then, future Supergirl hypnotizes classic Supergirl so she forgets the whole thing. In Mr. and Mrs. Superman, Superman has to attend Lois's and Clark's anniversary party, but how can Clark be two places at once? With the help of Batman is disguise, of course. 

Rozakis and Calnan/Hunt deliver the obligatory Christmas story when Superbaby helps Jonathan Kent play Santa Claus for the kids at Smallville Orphanage. O'Flynn and Oskner/Colletta Lois Lane teaches a cocky journalism grad about first-hand experience in the sort of crazy-ass reporting she seems to do. Kupperberg and Delbo have some fun with Jimmy Olsen investigating an attack with an acid-tinged cream pie on a rival newspaper publisher, where culprit turns out to be a gruntled, former cartoonist.

Warlord #55: I detailed the main story in this issue here. Kupperberg and Duursema start their high sorcery Arion series as the new backup. Atlantis is beleaguered by the advancing glaciers of the Ice Age and the displacement of "primitives" that live north of them. Only the arrogant young high mage Arion is able to keep the ice at bay--but now it seems his magic has left him.