Wednesday Comics: DC, March 1983 (week 4)

I'm reading DC Comics' output from January 1980 (cover date) to Crisis! This week, we look at the comics hitting the newsstand on December 30, 1982.

Detective Comics #524: Conway and Newton get to the end of this Squid interlude and the point of this 2-parter: namely to build up Conway's next big villain, Croc. Batman, though injured, manages to escape the Squid's deathtrap. After some ranting, Squid sends the assembled thugs out to search for him, but one, Croc refuses, calling Squid a loser. Squid accosts him and we see Croc's reptilian visage revealed for the first time. 

Batman makes it home where Dick Grayson is holding a reception for the circus folk, including the Flying Todds. While Alfred is bandaging Bruce and the two are talking with Dick, Trina Todd blunders in. Dick is sure she now knows Bruce is Batman.

Elsewhere, Squid is still ranting about how he's going to overcome this setback. Suddenly, a window breaks and there's a shot. Squid sees Batman arrive and after a melee shoots and kills him, yelling in triumph... Except none of that happened. There was a shot through the window, but it hit Squid and he dies there on the warehouse floor, experiencing one last grandiose fantasy. The shot was fired from a neighboring roof by Croc, avenging the insult from earlier.

In the Green Arrow backup, Ollie defeats Executrix with reflector-signal arrows and grills her for information about Machiavelli. In the meantime, Machiavelli has convinced the Wall Street Irregulars that criminals can run Star City better than its elected officials. Later, he crashes a town hall on the anti-strike proposal and gives a speech that is greeted with cries of "Mac for mayor!" Green Arrow starts to intervene, but one of the villain's goons gets the jump on him.

Weird War Tales #121: We get it already, Bob Kanigher, people are horrified and repelled by the Creature Commandos, and they are unjustly ostracized! The last 3 issues, at least, have had the Commandos in Allied control territory where they can be mocked and ridiculed before they head out to some ridiculous but uninteresting mission. Where are the robot Aztecs/Lemurians and such of early in his run? So here, the Commandos anger the carnival freakshow performers because customers would rather gawk and ridicule them for free instead of paying. Then, they head to Holland where 3 beautiful Dutch Freedom fighters show an interest in Shrieve, Velcro, and Griffith. They turn out to be robots. There's also a windmill firing rockets. This later stuff is crazy enough to work, but it's thin.

In the second story, German spies steal the U.S. Navy zeppelin LZS-6, but they didn't reckon with Gremlins, and they all meet their doom.

Action Comics #541: Wolfman and Kane bring us to the finally of the Satanis storyline, and it's pretty much one long fight. It's sort of modern (or Marvel) feeling in that regard, and it's all Gil Kane art, but in the end, there aren't really any twists or surprises sufficiently surprising to make it not feel perfunctory. It's well enough executed, but not really memorable. Meanwhile, in the Daily Planet, Lois seems to be getting a bit jealous of Lana in regard to her relationship with Clark, and a mysterious "Mr. Moore" (whose face, in soap opera style, we aren't shown) arrives at the office.

Arion Lord of Atlantis #5: I hadn't noticed last issue, but Moench took over as writer after #3. That explains the degree to which the origin given in the past two issues doesn't seem to entire jibe with what we were told before. Anyway, the tale of Arion's origin continues, this time revealing how he met Chian and Wyynde. Arion breaks free and also frees his friends. Danuuth is defeated and routed (but not killed), though at the cost of the life of Calculha.

All-Star Squadron #19: Thomas and Ordway have the Squadron, responding to Brain Wave's challenge, fight their way into the Perisphere on the grounds of the '39 New York World's Fair and find members of the Justice Society unconscious and captive, forced to dream of making a bloody assault on the Japanese, and being killed in the process...which will eventually kill them in the real world. Brain Wave taunts the Squadron and they are pretty much powerless this issue to do anything but watch this happen. Far be it from me to tell a guy with a career as long as Thomas' how to right funny books, but devoting whole issues to the exploits of others while your ostensible protagonists set on the sidelines seems a questionable approach, at least.

Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew #13: Shaw and Goldberg/Gordon have Southern Califurnia beset with a snowstorm thanks the the villainous Cold Turkey and his minions. The Zoo Crew tracks him down before he can muscle his way into part ownership of a rich gold mine. There are also extended (and unfunny) Bob Hope and Marx Brothers gags, would no doubt lost on the titles presumed readership even in 1982.

Jonah Hex #70: Fleisher and Ayers/DeZuniga start with Jonah dumping White Claw in a grave before he and Emmy head out to steal his Colt dragoons back from the Shoshone. Meanwhile, Ernest Daniels, the last man involved in the robbery which led to the death of Hex's fiancee those years ago has made a better man of himself over the years but feels that isn't enough and sets out with one of his sons to find Hex and try to make amends. His other son, Jason, has an alternate plan, hoping to kill his father and his brother and inherit his father's fortune.

Ernest and his good son wind up with Jonah and Emmy in the hands of a cult leader nut who calls himself the Manitou and plans to blow a damn, flooding a town, and have it planned on the local Indian tribe to start a war. After Manitou leads his men out, they manage to escape but run right into the hands of Jason and his thugs.

New Adventures of Superboy #39: Kupperberg and Schaffenberger take a break from the Freaky Friday storyline for a holiday themed issue. When Flash Thompson Bash Bashford gets all cynical about Christmas, Superboy takes him to a post-apocalyptic Smallville on an alternate Earth where there is no Christmas, and amazingly, that works to cheer him up. 

In the Dial H backup by Bridwell/Rozakis and Bender/Adkins the Chris and Vicki dial up the heroes Rock and Roll (heroes again created by their friend Nick Stevens) to deal with an emergency. Meanwhile, the police are flummoxed on a case, which is just what the Master wants--and somehow, he has Greg King, Chris' father, doing his bidding.

World's Finest Comics #289: Third Gil Kane cover this week. Moench takes over writing duties, but the approach is so consistent with the previous arc I feel like the editor Wolfman is has a strong hand in it. While I think the emphasis on the bromance between Batman and Superman is an interesting element, it seems a bit overdone. I wonder if it's this series that perhaps suggested the romantic pairing of Batman and Superman stand-ins in The Authority? Anyway, Batman is unable to prevent the death of a mugging victim and that triggers his childhood trauma. Meanwhile, Superman, a Kryptonian orphan among mortals, is feeling isolated and melancholy, and the two get together for some friend therapy and the Fortress of Solitude. Then there's some business with a meteor that contains these worm-like, living alien probes. After first, the probes are making weapons in the Fortress go haywire, but they eventually calm down and talk to our heroes.

The probes say that they were created by the Kryll, a race which had lost emotion in their quest for immortality and sent these probes out to find it. After coming to Earth, the probes have discovered through the mopiness of Superman and Batman that emotion requires death, and so the probes sacrifice their own lives and transmit this message to their makers.