New Adventures of Superboy #49: Nice Kane cover. Kupperberg and Schaffenberger have Clark and Lisa go on a date to see a Smallville performance by Zatara. When the magician's magic accidently opens a portal allowing the barbarian warrior, Turlock the Berserker, to invade Earth, Superboy's and Zatara's powers combined aren't enough to stop him. Luckily, Johnny Webber, the former Dyna-Mind, has genuinely reformed and surreptitiously renders aid.
In the Dial H backup, Bridwell/Rozakis and Bender/Giacoia reach the end of this arc and with it the entire series. The Master remains confused as to his goal in all of this, and our heroes can't help him. When the Wizard that created their dials shows up, he merges with the Master, and it turns out they were actually two parts of Robbie Reed, the original Hero Dialer from the 60s. He tells the kids how he got split and how he lost his original dial. Thanking the kids for their good deeds, he decides wisely to retire from hero-ing and gives his dial to Nick. The Dial H kids get one last appearance in Crisis.
Ronin #4: Miller really takes his time with this one. It looks good but not a lot happens. In one half of the story, the Ronin gets around (eventually) to rescuing Casey from an underground cannibalistic tribe. In the other, where things happen at a bit of a quicker pace, Peter McKenna, concerned about Aquarius' move into weapons manufacture, comes to believe Taggart isn't himself. That's true, but McKenna is unprepared when he discovers the truth about what's behind Taggart's sudden personality changes.
Arion Lord of Atlantis #15: Picking up where last issue left off, Mara attacks Chaon with predicable results. The god of Chaos gloats for a little while, but then Chian senses the danger and comes to Arion's aid too. She rescues Arion from the sewers, but Chaon (disguised as the priest Trykhun) slaps a spell on Mara so she can't say anything. He urges Arion and Chian to go back to the sewers. They fight a gang of mutant folks of some sort then reach something called the Flame of Hjerta. Chaon tricks Arion into thinking Chian is dead to goad him into attacking. Somehow, if Arion strikes him, he'll achieve victory and be able to destroy existence, but this isn't clear to me. Anyway, thanks to Mara's ingenuity in discovering she has telepathy (not just in animal form) and her persistence, Arion gets wise to Chaon's plan, and instead strikes the Flame, ending Chaon's threat for now.
Action Comics #551: Kane is on art and Wolfman is back as the writer. With him, the simmering Vandal Savage storyline gets mentioned again, but it's mostly it's just background. Two children are going to die without an experimental medication from the Soviet Union, but the supply is being held up due to an attack by Afghan militants. Superman races to get the drug in time but is held up by emergencies around the globe.
All-Star Squadron #29: The Shining Knight has just finished a sortie against German raiders over Britain when he gets a request to assemble with all the All-Stars back in America. Pondering whether to leave his native Britain, he tells Churchill of an adventure he had with the Seven Soldiers of Victory, which is essentially a retelling and expansion of Leading Comics #3, where all Seven Soldiers get a solo mission in Golden Age team comics fashion.
Detective Comics #534: Moench and Colon/Alcala continue the story from this month's Batman. The captured Dr. Lignier refuses to give up anything to the police, and Jason doing his own investigation can't turn up Ivy's location. When the Wayne Foundation execs that visited Exotica get up and walk out of the office though, the situation gets more urgent. Ivy calls them to her, and her plants and machines steal their brainwaves to create more of those plant men.
Batman figures out the fire was ruse, and Ivy is still at the site of her "old" Crime Alley hideout, just underground. He and Jason go there, but Ivy throws a vine rope around Jason's neck and Batman has to fight the plant men. It's Jason that saves the day by turning the tables on Ivy and getting the garrot around her neck and forcing her to call off her minions. Later, with Ivy in custody, Batman announces Jason is ready to be his partner, and they humorously discuss possible codenames.
In the Green Arrow backup by Cavalieri and Patton/McManus, the Werewolves of London motorcycle gang make off with the black box everybody's after, and The Detonator also escapes. Green Arrow gets a captured gang member to tell him where they're holed up. When he goes to the Werewolves' hideout, another of their crew gets the jump on him before he can do anything.
Jonah Hex #80: Fleisher and Ayers/DeZuniga pick up where last issue left off. Hart rescues Jonah but the arrival of the sheriff means Hex has to do his recovering in jail. Hart agrees to go retrieve the letter which will exonerate Hex--though not from this most recent false charge--but he's captured by Turnbull's men who also want the letter. Emmy Lou (dressed like a "Sexy, Native American Princess" Halloween costume) is at the jail at the same time Mei Ling visits making things awkward. Man of Two Bloods shows up that night and busts Hex out of jail. Meanwhile, Hart has escaped the goons, but Turnbull is off to get the letter.
Hex and Turnbull have a confrontation at the place the letter is hidden. It ends up with Turnbull getting rattlesnake bit. Dying, he still aims a pistol for Hex's back...
World's Finest Comics #299: The intriguing cover only barely has any connection to the interior. I have to hand it to Kraft here: This story is a really modern-seeming condemnation of colonialism for something from 1983. Superman and Batman (still tense with each other over the Markovia incident) follow Zeta into the tree. Zeta, still pondering his place in the cosmos, plans to send them to two different places where they will be individually tested. They agree.
Batman meets the aliens at the top of the Cosmic Tree who tell him that their world is in danger of over-population. The Cosmic Tree is a portal to other worlds that they use to seek out new colonies for their people. They claim their enemies at the bottom of the Tree are impatient with the pace of things and want to commit genocide on Earth to hasten colonization. Superman arrives at the bottom of the Cosmic Tree, and he meets a group called the Sensitives who can see through time. They claim that the aliens at the top of the tree are dooming their race by preventing them from colonizing new worlds. Superman is lied to by the "Present" who was creator of the Pantheon.
In the end, the problem is communication. Both sides of this struggle have stopped talking. However, both plan to exploit the Earth and destroy humanity. It's only the timeframe and means they are arguing about. We are told their society is nothing but consumers who produce nothing,
Batman and Superman manage to trick the aliens, allowing Superman to get back to Earth where he can stop Mu of the Pantheon from executing his plan. But the portal closes and Batman seems trapped on the alien world.
1 comment:
Ronin is the clear winner here. I bought the TPB fairly recently and I thought it held up. Hard to imagine the DC of 5 years earlier publishing something like that.
I also bought the Detective but don't remember it. I'd like a DC's Finest of GA/BC solo stories from whenever it is until he got his beard to just before The Longbow Hunters.
I might have gotten that All-Star. The cover looks familiar and I had an interest in the Seven Soldiers of Victory.
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