Wednesday Comics: DC, October 1982 (week 2)

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 July 8, 1982. 

Batman #352: Kupperberg joins Conway on this one with Newton/Calnan on art. Gordon is in the hospital after being beat up by cops where he's visited by the new commissioner who tells him to stop investigating the electoral fraud. Batman shows up and warns them to stay away from James Gordon or else they would have him to deal with. When they're gone, Gordon asks Batman to continue the investigation on his behalf. Meanwhile, Vicki sees Thorne at her editors office, but then Morton commits suicide.

 Later, Vicki and Bruce are on a romantic cruise, and they see giant zeppelin appear and steal a nearby battleship with antigravity technology. Bruce pulls his disappearing act on Vicki to change into Batman. He uses his equipment to climb to the dirigible, but he doesn't do it unseen. Colonel Blimp commands his men to take care of Batman and a tussle with them leads to Bats being thrown off the zeppelin, though he leaves a bat-tracer behind.

Batman barely makes it back to the Batcave after the fall the zeppelin. The next day, he and Robin follow the tracking signal. Out in the woods, the Batmobile is wrecked by land mines. Only a few miles away, Colonel Blimp and his small army prepare their next attack.

Flash #314: Bates is back with Infantino. Barry has apparently lost Fiona to a relationship with her State Senator boss, Phillip Creed. There's also a new, deadly vigilante in town, the Eradicator, who with a touch dissolves criminals into a puddle of goo. I'm sure these things are totally unrelated, though!

G.I. Combat #246: 30th Anniversary issue where Kanigher and various artist pull one of those DC War Comic crossovers here. I always like these; they seldom produce the best stories in these comics, but they also aren't as boring as the mediocre ones. The concept here is that the Haunted Tank boys are on a suicide mission that involves taking the tank into the Lascaux Caves where there are Germans hiding. Glanzman handles the art on the Tank parts of the story. After a prologue, the narrative flashes back to Capt. Storm and the O.S.S. (art by E.R. Cruz) who discover a sub pen deep beneath the caves with experimental missiles that can destroy Allied cities. Control tasks the Haunted Tank with taking that base out. 

Next, Johnny Cloud ends some air support to the crew, and Easy shows up to help out. Cruz is up again, as the Losers and Kana take out a German U-boat with advanced missiles in the Pacific. Easy and the Tank crew have to dissemble and re-assemble the tank to carry it down some stairs before they can final complete their mission, in the final parts again drawn by Glanzman.

There's a text piece this issue where Robin Snyder the diegetic history of the Haunted Tanks service from landing in North Africa to Europe. I dig this stuff that strongly roots war comics (or any kind of comics really) in real history.

 

Jonah Hex #64: Fleisher and Ayers/DeZuniga pour some more misery into Hex's backstory, as we find out in his days as a scout (prior to the Civil War) he was engaged to Cassie Wainwright, the daughter of the general he was working for. When a group of corrupt soldiers led by Walt Barstow contrive to steal money from the government, Cassie is an unfortunate casualty as they leave her at the mercy of Comanches. Hex hasn't though about Barstow and those guys in years, but trying to collect a bounty, he discovers Barstow is now a corrupt sheriff playing both sides in bandit predations on a town. So afraid Hex has come after then, Barstow forces a show down, which ends in his death. 

Saga of the Swamp Thing #6: Pasko and Yeates really serve up an odd title. It would have been at home at Vertigo if it just had a more 90s sensibility. This issue, we get more evidence that "Casey" (turns out, not her real name) the little girl Swampie is bent in trying to save ain't as innocent as she appears. Her dying mother asks someone to kill the girl to kill her, for one thing. And the formerly possessed child killer that supposedly kidnapped her, runs out to beg armed men to get him away from her. Then the girl blasts the guys with her power. Harry Kay (that guy just won't die) is flying around in a helicopter, trying to find the girl with a psychic. Meanwhile, Swamp Thing and his crew sneak onto a Sunderland luxury cruise, and Swamp Thing has to contend with some tentacled creature, then at a costume party, a bunch of guests unmasks to reveal their single, cyclops-like eyes. Sunderland is almost comically into weirdness every way you turn, it seems like.

New Teen Titans #24: Wolfman and Perez are still pushing the Omega Men and their Vega System deal. This issue follows their appearance in Action last month. Superman introduces them to the Titans, which is convenient because they can take the Titans with them on their return to their home system so the Titans can rescue Starfire. On the Citadel homeworld, Blackfire turns Starfire over to Lord Damyn, the none too bright Citadel chieftain, and learns of the Citadel's plan to kidnap the Vegans' living goddess, X'Hal. When the Citadel attacks Okaara, the Titans and the Omega Men aid in the planet's defense, while Changeling, disguised as a Gordanian, attempts to smuggle Robin and Cyborg into the enemy mother ship to rescue Starfire.

Superman #376: The Superman titles in this era often seem very retro with throwback Silver Age-y stories. It's not consistent, but it happens enough to make his two titles standout from DC's Bronze Age output (with 3 titles: Swamp Thing, New Teen Titans, and Legion of Super-Heroes perhaps harbingering something knew). Elliot S. Maggin takes over writing here, and his approach is definitely Silver Age (or perhaps Paleo-Neo-Silver Age). Here, Perry White is struck down by the super-villain Ozone-Master. As he's in the hospital in critical condition, he gets Superman to bring him one last cigar--one given to him by mutant children--gains super-powers, and team-ups with Superman in bringing their foe to justice.

Kupperberg/Infantio's Supergirl backup is mostly just advertising to Superman readers that she's go a new series coming up as most of this was implied by her last story in Superman Family. Linda gives notice on her soap opera job, then meets up with Superman in Kansas to inform him of her decision. He tries to talk her out of it, but Supergirl stands firm and tells him that she hasn't come to get his advice, only to tell him her decision. Superman accepts the fact that Kara is an adult now. She tells him (and the audience) that she is relocating to Chicago and flies off in that direction.