Wednesday Comics: DC, August 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 May 20, 1982.

Brave & the Bold #189: Kanigher and Aparo continue Batman's team-up with Thorn. Sort of, because no matter how many times Thorn helps him out, the Dark Knight is determined to go it alone. He tracks the Nazis to a secret base in (of course) Brazil, but he walks into a trap. The Nazis have captured Rose Forrest, who is still looking for her father's corpse, which was stolen by them as a means of coercing her to giving them what they want. When she learns that the Nazis have dumped the corpse in the river, Rose runs into the jungle and disappears. Thorn appears out of nowhere to help Batman break free and together, they take down the Nazis and sink the cannister of Inferno to the bottom of the river. Batman is curious about Thorn's real identity so he uses hypnosis to try to get her to spill it, but even she doesn't know.

Legion of Super-Heroes #290: Levitz and Giffen/Mahlstedt kick off the Great Darkness Saga in earnest. The Legionaires fail to keep creatures serving the Darkness from stealing 3 mystical artifacts across the world. During this, drama ensues as Chameleon Boy faces fallout from his recklessness on Khundia, Lightning Lad suffers from a neurologic condition, Saturn Girl and Timber Wolf try to deny the unresolved tension between them, and the Legion prepares for elections, with multiple candidates throwing their hats into the ring.

Meanwhile, on a barren world, the Master of Darkness feeds off the magical artifacts, then decides it's time he move to draining the living.

Green Lantern #155: Barr and Staton/Smith have the Guardians condemn Dalor to a Ritual of Endurance, which will either clear him or kill. This strikes Hal Jordan as a primitive way for them to operate, but hey, the Guardians are the boss. Jordan is tasked with going to Dalor's home planet to break the news of his death to his wife and kid, as it is assumed he won't make it.

Upon arrival, Jordan discovers that its a pervasive cultural trait to show gratitude for others' good deeds in any situation with gold. Dalor was just following his customs. Jordan realizes he messed up and flies back to Oa, entering the test to save Dalor. He does, but appears to drain his ring, and Dalor returns the favor and rescue him.  After Dalor heads home, Hal reveals that he just faked running out of power to see if Dalor would rescue him. The Guardians commend Jordan for learning a lesson.

House of Mystery #307: Jones and Sutton have Mary show up in Maine, 1964, with Andrew still chasing her. He rescues a young girl, Deedee, from drowning, and then her really trusting parents pretty much trust him completely and let him stay at their house. That night Mary appears and threatens to kill the kid if he doesn't give up his time-traveling ring. She reveals that the child is a young Deborah Dancer. When Andrew gives up the ring, Mary tries to kill him anyway. Adult Deborah in the future looks back through time and is able to take control of her past self long enough to save Bennett from death, but he can't travel time anymore.

Next up, Kelley and Matucenio tell the story of a "mad bomber" who decides to go after the girl who rejected him in high school, only to be killed by his own device and a miscalculation.  The last story by Jones and Spiegle is an EC sort of riff and probably the best of the issue. A mobster trying to escape a hit has an associate fake his death while he hides out in a bomb shelter. When time passes and he hasn't heard anyone, he tries to leave, but finds he's been buried alive! Sure that he has been betrayed, he digs his way out to find that the city has been destroyed by nuclear war and he'll now join it in death since he left his shelter.

Night Force #1: Wolfman and Colan/Smith continue the story they started in the preview. At the Potomac Psychiatric Hospital, patient Vanessa van Helsing sees visions of demonic forces, calling to her to join them. Baron Winters grants an interview to Jack Gold and tells him about Vanessa.  At Georgetown College, Professor Caine continues his experiments in parapsychology. He discovers that his experiments are taking place at the same moment that Vanessa is experiencing her paranormal visitations. Baron Winters arranges to have Vanessa released into Caine's care, which seems really unorthodox psychiatric treatment to me, but hey, it was the 80s.

Meanwhile, strange supernatural occurrences begin taking place all over Georgetown.

Sgt. Rock #366: Kanigher and Redondo repetitively tell us what a badass soldier Rock is as he tries to make his way back to Easy after leaving the hospital and has a hard time, allowing him to prove himself an ace artillerist, skilled frogman, and decent glider pilot.

DeMulder gives us a sci-fi tale of how communication barriers and misunderstand leads to war between humans and aliens. Then there are two Battle Album features: one a topical rundown of the Ninja, and the other about a futuristic tank. Finally, Bisson and Hardin provide an unexpected gremlin story where the creatures actually save a bomber from bad weather in WWII.

Superman Family #221: I thought it was over last issue, but nope, Kupperberg and Mortimer think than can get at least another installment from this Master Jailer thing. Supergirl tracks down the villain, but he converts her into light-energy with another weapon he devised and sends her into space. Supergirl manages to alter her course, sending herself into a space-warp that returns her to normal. She returns to Earth and captures the Jailer. At last. Kupperberg/Delbo do better with Jimmy Olsen. I mean, the story has still been a bit padded, but the end is kind of clever if convoluted. Jimmy has revealed Clark as Superman realizing he was being manipulated, but not realizing Clark actually is Superman! He hoped to give Supes room to catch Brainstorm, which he does ultimately by cluing Clark in. He tricks Brainstorm when he thinks (correctly) that he has siphoned some of Superman's power into Jimmy, and the villain is defeated.

O'Flynn and Oskner continue to do good stuff with Lois Lane. I should clarify that to say, I don't know it will much appeal to the average reader of superhero comics now or then, but I think they are accomplishing what they set out to accomplish. This story ties back in to a 70s LL socially relevant yarn about tainted water in an inner city school, but now Lois and a photographer stumble onto a plot to cause fear flashbacks in those who ingested the tainted water by reactivating the chemical as a trial run for spreading it in the entire city's water supply.

In Mr. and Mrs, Superman, Bridwell and Novick bring back the Archer, another Golden Age baddie. On one hand, it's nice to see these historic Superman foes revived. On the other hand, most of them seem ill-conceived as Superman foes.

Warlord #60: I detailed the main story in this issue here. In the Kupperberg and Duursema Arion backup, Arion goes astral (I guess) himself to do battle with Daanuth, and proves himself more than a match for the evil sorcerer.