Detective Comics #531: Moench and Colon/Alcala conclude the Chimera arc with Batman escaping the hungry lions, but absent most of the issue while Jason tries to figure out the Chimera's identity in the daytime. Has he killed Waldo and replaced him completely, or could he be someone else in the circus? Investigating Waldo, he comes upon Batman--who turns out to be the Chimera, but luckily Waldo appears and he's Batman is disguise. The two take out the Chimera together and free the real Waldo. This super-villain-less story line was a nice change of pace, and a good showcase for the soon to be much maligned Jason Todd.
In the backup by Cavalieri and Moore/DeCarlo, Green Arrow thwarts the Survivalists by preventing the nuclear silos from completely opening with magnetic arrows and blasting the power supply for the missile detonators. He trails the terrorists through the sewers, but winds up getting caught along with a thief pilfering the Survivalists' stores of supplies.
New Adventures of Superboy #46: Kupperberg and Saviuk/Schaffenberger continue Superboy's visit to Japan and his conflict with Sunburst. We get further hints that there is some motivation behind Sunburst's crimes other than greed, but Superboy doesn't pick up on the hints, so we don't get an answer. Also: Clark tries sushi and spits it out when he hears it's raw fish. Meanwhile, hoods with a protection racket visit Jonathan Kent to persuade him not to run for city council, which has the opposite effect.
In the Dial H backup by Bridwell/Rozakis and Bender/Giella, Chris (as Trouble Clef), Vicki (as Venus the Flyign Trap) and Nick Stevens storm the Master's hideout, but are greeted by a group of super-villains: Hitpin, Decibel, Electron, and the Overseer. As soon as they defeat those guys, they discover a room full of other costumed characters awakening from some sort of tubes.
Action Comics #548: Bates, Saviuk and Colletta/Marcos present a story we are told is occurring somewhat out of continuity, but we're not given any indication when (Mike's Amazing World of DC Comics places it between next month's JLA and this week's World's Finest). Anyway, it's sort of an intriguing start: A group of aliens land on a meteor and discover that it's debris of the planet Krypton. They find evidence of the ruined Argo City – the birthplace of Supergirl. Meanwhile, an attempt to create a synthetic diamond becomes unstable and Superman compresses it and throws it into space. In other, I'm sure unrelated, jewel-centric developments, some of the Phantom Zone criminals escape the Zone by concentrating their mental energies on an ultra-rare example of Jewel Kryptonite.
Later, Clark Kent is assigned to interview a community watch organization in inner city Metropolis known as the White Wildcats. During the interview, Clark discovers that the hi-tech outfits they sport are based on Kryptonian designs.
Arion Lord of Atlantis #12: Moench and Duursema/Mandrake send Arion and friends off to the city Thamuz, where Garn Daanuth kept a tower stronghold, on a quest to restore his magic. In the tower, Arion, Wyynde, and Mara encounter a series of magical creatures and traps. This includes S'Net, Garn's jackal-headed former lieutenant, who's also seeking the magic of the tower. Arion and friends triumph, but all they retrieve from the tower is an empty sword hilt. Lady Chian shows up at the end with a message for Wyynde concerning his father.
Jonah Hex #77: As was strongly hinted last issue, Fleisher and Ayers/DeZuniga reveal that Jonah has been tricked into getting imprisoned by the machinations of Turnbull. He shows up to gloat. That was probably a mistake, because Hex now knows the score and begins looking for an opportunity to escape. The warden puts out the false story that Hex has died in prison, which makes the situation all the more embarrassing potentially when Hex does escape. Turnbull visits his crony the governor and accidentally kills him in anger after the guy reveals he gave a signed letter to Hex stating the bounty hunter's innocence. Hex's escape is revealed, but everyone thinks he killed the governor. Turnbull and his goons go after Emmy Lou because they think she must have the governor's letter.
Sword of the Atom #2: Strnad and Kane have the Atom and Taren spared a death by rats so they can fight and die in Morlaidh's gladiatorial games. However, Taren is blinded before the games, apparently by order of King Caellich's prime minister Deraegis, but the deed is blamed on the king. A riot breaks out because of this action, and the Atom and Taren are spirited away by Princess Laethwen to a rebel camp outside the city. Due to his disability, Taren asks the Atom to lead the rebels in the field. We learn that Taren was captured due to a traitor in his ranks. Voss, either jealous of the Atom or a traitor, attacks him. Meanwhile, we get a glimpse of Deraegis' plan to fan the fires of revolt, so he can seize the throne.
World's Finest Comics #296: Kraft is the writer here, but Fontes is given a credit as "co-plotter and creative cohort." Andru and DeCarlo are on art. This still continues to be a team-up book with the conceit that the two stars are sort of on the outs, so they spend the issue doing things solo.
In Gotham, Batman encounters a group of robotic-looking individuals called the Pantheon, who raid the Gotham Art Museum. In Metropolis, Jimmy tells Clark about sightings of a dinosaur around Mount Ossa in East Africa, just before Superman has to fly to the Gotham Airport to stop the Pantheon from stealing a plane.
Earthquakes start occurring all over the world. While Superman deals with the natural disasters, Batman traces the Pantheon to Africa. At Mount Ossa, Batman fights the Pantheon who tells him they plan to replacement humanity, and Superman arrives, tracing the earthquake source, and finds a giant, crystalline structure called the Cosmic Tree.
All-Star Squadron #26: Thomas and Ordway/Machlan are milking this arc for all it's worth and then some. Or maybe they are doing decompression before it was cool? In any case, there is a lot of talking with a few important revelations, like that the Ultra-Humanite of the 80s (fresh off the JLA/JSA crossover) found a way to contact the Ultra of 1942 and hatch a plan to free him and the other super-villains from that previous story from Limbo. Also, we learn from Brainwave, Jr. how the other members of Infinity, Inc. got co-opted to Ultra's cause. The super-villains from 1983 appear in place of the missing 40s heroes. Brainwave leads the All-Stars in a search for Ultra, who is now hidden with his allies and captives in Mt. St. Helens, Amazing Man decides for the moment to stay a heel, and the Infinitors escape.
All-Star Squadron #26: "Or maybe they are doing decompression before it was cool?"
ReplyDeleteI question whether decompression has ever been cool. Certainly isn't in modern written-for-trades storylines where nothing happens for five issues in a row before all the action shows up in the last issue, or interminable trash fires like the 90s Clone Saga. There's a happy medium between Golden Age density and sprawling nonsense, and as with so many things the moderate option tops extremism at either end of the spectrum.
Krypto-futurist street fashion may be the best concept of the summer if not the year.
ReplyDelete"Trouble Clef" is on the list somewhere as well but its position is left to the commenterati.