Wednesday Comics: DC, April 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 January 21, 1982.

Brave & the Bold #185: Kraar and Gonzales/DeCarlo throw Green Arrow into the mix. It's a fun pairing because, despite the characters' not dissimilar schticks, their personalities are very different. It almost has a bit of "buddy comedy" feel. Batman asks Green Arrow to play the role of Robin Hood during the party of a millionaire, and Ollie reluctantly agrees. The Penguin crashes the party--and who knew he had robots at his disposal? The portrayal here of Penguin's menace and competence isn't what I expected. 

Legion of Super-Heroes #286: Levitz and Broderick/Tanghal have the Legion enjoying some time off when Dr. Regulus shows up on R. J. Brande's private planetoid for a death match against Sun Boy. It takes more than Sun Boy to defeat Regulus and stop the destruction his sabotage will cause. Also, Brande tries to connect with his son, Chameleon Boy, but Cham takes the espionage squad off on a mission, apparently to avoid his dad. 

In the backup by Levitz and Giffen, Princess Projectra is crowned Queen of Orando after her father's death, but her cousin challenges and defeats both her and Karate Kid in a trial by combat for the crown.

Green Lantern #151: Wolfman and Staton detail Jordan's last 24 hours on Earth before his space exile. He's got a lot to do. He tells the Flash to tell the League he's going. He goes to Carol's house and winds up in another fight with Gold Face and his goons and defeats them. Gold Face reveals he's been working with Bloch. Jordan flies off, arriving just in time to save Carol and Bruce Gordon from Benjamin Bloch and his men. 

Green Lantern also arrives in the desert just in time to save Carl Ferris from Ted Bishop. Bishop manages to burn some of the papers than prove Bloch's guilt, though. Still, there's enough to exonerate Ferris even if it doesn't convict Bloch. Lastly, Jordan professes his love for Carol again and leaves.

House of Mystery #303: Here is the carnival story promised last issue. Jones and Sutton have Bennett infiltrating the show which is controlled by agents of the Blood Red Moon to stop their plans and rescue a woman. In the end, the woman is killed, and he appears to get a stake through the heart from Mary. Next up is a two-pager nonhorror thing by Wein and Spiegle about a primitive couple in a post-apocalyptic, swamp Los Angeles area.

"Hellride" by Mishkin/Cohn and Infante has a jack-o-lantern headed fiend riding after an outlaw biker, but the biker's skill wins out in the end. Jones and Tlaloc round out the issue with some EC-esque ridiculousness about a man with such a fear of bugs, he goes into pesticide synthesis to eradicate it. He marries a woman who is an insect enthusiast, but eventually he can't take it anymore and hatches a murder scheme. The insects he hates so much make sure he's the one that dies instead.

Phantom Zone #4: Gerber and Colan/DeZuniga's epic concludes. Superman challenges and escapes from Aethyr, but only after the death of Charlie Kweskill/Quex-Ul. Meanwhile, Earth's heroes have rallied. Superman and Supergirl smash the giant, Phantom Zone projector the criminals are menacing Earth with, knocking out the villains, and restoring Green Lantern's power battery to him.

The Zoners turn on each other. Az-Rel burns Faora to settle a score. The fanatic Jer-Em kills himself and Nadira with kryptonite. In her dying moments, she uses her power on Az-Rel, who loses control of his power and burns himself to ash. The surviving villains are sent back to the Phantom Zone created by Green Lantern.

Sgt. Rock #363: Easy Company is lured into a trap in the town of Boileau. While they are holed up, the men are convinced they are going to die and carve their names on a wooden post by way of memorial. Rock isn't ready to give up yet and gets them out in the end. Mandrake joins Kanigher on a story about a pilot so haunted by dreams of dying in fire, he chooses drowning instead. The last story has G.I.'s overthrowing the commander of a sadistic Japanese P.O.W. camp after the war has technically ended. It's marred by the carcicaturish coloring of the Japanese skintones, somehow made worse paired with Truman's somewhat crude art here.

Superman Family #217: No Private Life of Clark Kent story this month which is really just as well. In the Bridwell/Schaffenberger Mr. and Mrs. Superman story, Metalo (one "l" on Earth-2) weakens Supes with a ray, so he's got to do an exercise program to regain his strength for the fight. In the Kupperberg/Mortimer Supergirl story we're treated to an amazing display of her powers (following radio waves visually back to their source, memorizing a fingerprint then perusing police files from miles away to find a match) as she brings to justice a bomber bent on revenge in the 2 minute break of TV interview.

Kupperberg is back again with Delbo for Jimmy Olsen. Jimmy has to solve a mystery when his lunch with Inspector Henderson is interrupted by a writer who confessing to a murder he didn't commit. Finally, the O'Flynn/Delbo Lois Lane story has a famous country singer performing a song stolen from Lois's old college roommate, now a struggling songwriter (who's so Western-dudded out, it makes me wonder where Lois went to college), and Lois sets out to find the guilty party.

Warlord #56: I detailed the main story in this issue here. The backup continues Kupperberg's and Duursema's Arion. Arion heads out into the frozen wastes with his companions/protectors Wynde and Chian to find his former master. They get in a fight with a primitive tribe dwelling in a cave. Ultimately, Arion is captured and about to be sacrificed.