Wednesday Comics: DC, February 1983 (week 1)

My goal: read DC Comics' output from January 1980 (cover date) to Crisis! Today, I'm looking at the comics at newsstands on the week of November 5, 1982. 

This week features a sort of 80s milestone. The "Meanwhile.." column appears for the first time. You can see the column from this month's comics here. There is a discussion of a History of the DC Universe series which sounds less like the series we got post-Crisis and more like Crisis on Infinite Earths itself which won't actually show up for a couple more years. Then, there are two Marvel/DC crossovers mentioned, one of which won't come along for 20 years and the other has yet to appear.

Wonder Woman #300: Nice wraparound cover, suitable for an anniversary issue, by Hannigan and Giordano. The interior uses quite a cadre of artists: Gene Colan, Ross Andru, Keith Giffen, Jan Duursema, Dick Giordano, Rich Buckler, and Keith Pollard, but it's the story by Roy and Danette Thomas that I have a problem with. Wonder Woman has been having bad dreams and awakens to see some kind of shadow creature looming near her. The 70s Sandman shows up and reveals it's a creature escaped from nightmare. He keeps promising she's okay now, but after she accepts Steve Trevors' proposal, and they start planning a wedding, the nightmares and anxiety just intensify.  Her nightmares all reveal sort of "What-Ifs?" (or perhaps Elseworlds) of alternate ways her meeting with Trevor and their subsequent relationship could have gone and ended up badly. In the end, it turns out the creature is Wonder Woman's own insecurities and doubts. She faces those with the help of Sandman. Trevor jilts her at the altar, ironically deciding he had feelings for Diana Prince (who is believed dead). The status quo is restored!

This probably read better in 1982, but in 2023 its problems are blatant. Primarily, it's that Wonder Woman is incredibly passive and reactive throughout the whole thing. She's literally being defeated by her own negative emotions. Sandman plays the "nice guy" creep, showing up with a pretense of helping, but later admitting to having been spying on her dreams ("to help") and being in love with her. Oh, and withholding information about the nature of the shadow being. After her marriage plan fails, he whisks her off to the dream world and assumes they'll start a relationship without any real consent from her. In the end, he recognizes his bad behavior, but it's a tepid admission and more importantly it still leaves Wonder Woman--the hero of the book--dazedly acquiescing to both the behavior and the apology. All this is particularly galling because this is a milestone issue and should be a celebration of the character,

Arak Son of Thunder #18: The trouble in Byzantium continues, courtesy of the Thomases and Gonzales/Alcala. Arak manages to escape from his bonds where Haakon and the treacherous Greeks have left him and battles to rescue the others from being consumed in Greek fire. He's help by Satyricus waking up and rousing the others. They manage to survive and save the Emperor and his mother, but Haakon escapes with a scholar than knows the secret of Greek Fire and hids for White Cathay. Irene gives Arak and crew a mission to follow Haakon back to White Cathay to retrieve Kallinikos or to kill him. A heretic Nestorian priest, Johannes, appears before the court and offers to help. The Byzantines want to kill him, but Arak defends them man who will serve as a guide. The four depart on their quest.

In the Valda backup, Greeramada needs the words of power from Malagigi to enact her evil plan for power, which he refuses to give. When the sorceress threatens to kill Valda, the wizard relents. Greeramada then leads Valda to the Mount of Martyrs to perform the resurrection spell. The spell appears to succeed when St. Denys appears carrying his own head. Valda manages to break free from the sorceress' control and impales her own a blade. The sorceress plans to use St. Denys to heal herself only to discover that she was tricked. Malagigi and the thief Brunello disguised themselves as St. Denys. The wizard hadn't given her the true spell. With the sorceress now dead, Brunello departs, and Malagigi and Valda plan to return the stolen reliquary.

Blackhawk #255: Evanier and Spiegle continue what I think is an underrated (and certainly uncollected!) run. Nazi scientist Dr Gehirn, having worked closely with Hugo Merson, has developed a low-frequency, mind-effecting radio signal which will induce psychological insecurities. The receiver is placed in a medallion, and German agents arranged for Blackhawk to receive this medallion and to wear it. For the next few days, the transmitted signals cause Blackhawk to experience nightmares and affect his concentration and leadership ability. He's pushed to the breaking point after he crashes in the desert and experiences physical deprivation as well as Gehirn's unrelenting attack. Luckily, the other Blackhawk's show up to rescue him and shoot down Gehirn's observation plane.

 

DC Comics Presents #54: Kupperberg and Newton work-in a sort of environmental message as Superman joins forces with Green Arrow to get to the bottom a mysterious, persistent smog over much of the country (including Metropolis and Star City). They are forced to battle against a scientist's energy-harnessing apparatus that causes tremendous air pollution as a by-product, which is more involved than you might think, as it's pulling from some extraterrestrial living energy thing. Interestingly (to me anyway) Kupperberg has Superman describing Star City as "to the north" of Metropolis which in context seems to imply it's further north on the East Coast.

Fury of Firestorm #9: Conway and Moore/Rodriquez pick up where last issue left off with Firestorm sinking in New York Bay and Stein trying to wake Ronnie up. He final does and the two head out to fight Typhoon and the storm. Ronnie gets frustrated with Stein criticizing his ill-considered attempts to help, and he releases all his nuclear energy at once, dissipating the storm, but causing them to split into their separate identities and they fall 4 feet to a building below.

Ronnie gets into another argument with Carmichael and the two arrange a time to fight. When they do, Carmichael takes advantage of a couple of distractions to knock Ronnie down, which has the effect of causing Doreen to rush to his aid. Ronnie has also been allowed back on the team and will play that night. Stein has a worse day as he loses his job and then falls off the wagon. Then, Typhoon starts up again. Firestorm is stymied a bit by Stein's intoxication, but Ronnie's renewed confidence perhaps gives Firestorm new reserves of power. Wherever it comes from, they apparently dissipate Typhoon ("he's gone" is all we are told, but it seems final.) 

The next issue blurb trumpets the return of Pat Broderick.

Justice League #211: Conway and Buckler continue the X-Element story, with the Justice League eager to accept help from the Treasurers who can give the element Earth now lacks. The Justice League begins to suspect the Treasurers' motives however when the alien's request they be given one particular human in exchange (who agrees to go willingly). They are right to be suspicious, because the aliens' cure causes one third of people and animals to be transformed into monsters. The Phantom Stranger appears to help out, even as Truthspeaker, a rebel Treasurer, reveals that his fellow aliens are actually the first wave of an invasion of Earth by the reptilian War-Kohn.

Adventure Comics #496: The only new story here is The Challengers of the Unknown by Rozakis and Toth/Giacola. Following up on the Professor's lead regarding a potential responsible party for the attempted murder of the group, they discovered that his cousin not only didn't try to kill them, but the uncle whose inheritance was the hypothetical motive isn't even head, having faked his death for tax purposes or something. Red Ryan gets confronted by a casino owner he owes.  The man is accused of plotting the murder, but he logically points out if Ryan were dead, he wouldn't get what he was owed. The Challengers-to-be are no closer to a solution.