Wednesday Comcs: DC, July 1982 (week 1)

I'm reading DC Comics' output from January 1980 (cover date) to Crisis! Today, I'm looking at the comics at newsstands on the week of April 8, 1982. 

Arak Son of Thunder #11: Thomas and Colon/Acala continue Arak's encounters with creatures from Greek myth. Khiron leads Arak to the top of Mount Olympus where Arak's face has been carved in the mountainside! Khiron offers to train Arak like he did Heracles. That's got to wait, thought, because they've got to fight a harpy. Then, they encounter the satyr, Satyricus who lured Valda away from Arak in the night. The satyr tells them that soldiers led by Brutius have captured Valda. They raid the soldier's camp, but Valda has already been taken elsewhere, and Khiron gets shot by an archer.

The Viking Prince back-up comes to its conclusion with Prince Jon and his companions reaching the fortress of Krogg the Red. Jon fights his way to the tower where Krogg is holding his sister at swordpoint. Rather, than risk his sister's life, Jon surrenders. To save her brother, Ailsa throws herself out the tower window. Jon throws his sword and kills Krogg. His quest at an end but not in the way he had hoped, Jon sets out to wander the world with his companions.

DC Comics Presents #47: Kupperberg and Swan/DeCarlo bring us a crossover with the Masters of the Universe franchise. This would be when is only a toy line (and possibly one not even on the shelves yet. I'm not sure of the dates.), before the Filmation cartoon. Superman is brought to Eternia to help He-Man and Battle Cat fight off Skeletor and Beastman, who are attempting to take over Castle Grayskull. This is the first appearance of the Prince Adam secret identity, though he's more of a playboy here, more Don Diego de la Vega than Clark Kent. Also, Swan does not draw particularly compelling muscle-bound fantasy warriors.

Fury of Firestorm #2: Conway and Broderick/Rodriquez complete the Black Bison story, and really there's not much to it. After Firestorm lost his trail last issue, Black Bison is loose on the streets of New York, and rides his white stallion to the uptown townhouse of senator Walter Reilly. In the name of avenging his people's stolen sacred heritage, he kidnaps Reilly's daughter Lorraine, and brings her to Central Park to hold her hostage.

Firestorm flies to the rescue, but Black Bison animates the Alice in Wonderland statues to attack him. Luckily for our hero, John Ravenhair's girlfriend Vanessa arrives at the park. She tries to reach the John still with Black Bison. While Bison is distracted by Vanessa, Firestorm snatches the cult talisman off his chest. With the influence of the talisman gone, Black Bison turns back into John Ravenhair. The smitten senator's daughter tries to get a date with Firestorm.

Justice League #204: Conway and Heck/Tanghal continue the attack by Royal Flush Gang. Superman is defeated by the Queen of Spades at a circus; Green Arrow is attacked aboard the JLA satellite by the Ten, while Elongated Man and Black Canary trace a clue to their antagonists to Megaform Industries in California and its president, Derek Reston. We get several lines to the effect of "wow, California's so different!" I wonder what Conway was doing with that? Anyway, Wild Card is revealed as Hector Hammond.

Weird War Tales #113: Kanigher and Carillo have J.A.K.E.-2 dropped to soldiers in the field, and just in time too, because the Japanese have deployed a samurai robot! As the cover completely gives away, J.A.K.E. uses his head to dispatch his foe. 

The next story by Snyder and Cullins purports to describe how a soldier shooting at birds led to the start of the Italian invasion of Ethiopia. The final story by Pasko and Silvestri/Mahlstedt has aliens giving the human inhabitants of a post-apocalyptic Ice Age technology, but the humans chaff under what they perceive as unfair restrictions. The aliens just don't want the humans to repeat the mistakes of the past, but the human won't listen. As their resentment explodes in a rebellion against their patrons, we discover the slaughtered aliens were actually the descendants of humans who escaped Earth and went to the stars, returned to help their brothers.

Wonder Woman #293: Levitz/Thomas and Colan (abetted by a cadre of inkers) brings the Adjudicator saga to a close. The women Teen Titans and Wonder Woman take on the final horseman, Death. They are on the verge of defeat, but when Adjudicator sees the people of Earth trying to defend their heroes, he recalls his horseman. At the same time, Wonder Girl, Starfire, Wonder Woman, Supergirl, Zatanna, Madame Xanadu, Black Canary, the Huntress, Power Girl and Phantom Lady vanish from their respective Earths as they are transported to Adjudicator's ship. He still plans to destroy the Earths, but he's going to keep them as specimens. There they discover the truth: the Adjudicator is no cosmic judge of worlds. He was merely given unimportant worlds to play with by his alien Overseers to keep him out of trouble. Just as he is about to blast them all into oblivion, when he is teleported away by his keepers. Zatana returns them all to their proper worlds and times.