Wednesday Comics: DC, November 1984 (week 2)

I'm reading DC Comics' output from January 1980 (cover date) to Crisis! This week, I read the comics released the week of August 9, 1984. 

Batman #376: A misleading cover here by Hannigan/Giordano. Maybe it's meant to be symbolic? Natalia Knight (Nocturna) seems to be winning the custody battle for Jason, thanks to Bruce's lack of chill in the courtroom, and perhaps the influence of Mayor Hill on the proceedings. It doesn't help that Jason told the court he wants to live with Natalia, because he thinks she's up to something and wants to go undercover to stop her. As Batman, Bruce is drawn to Nocturna, particularly given her intoxicant perfume, but are interrupted briefly by Anton the Slayer of Night who's even more jealous now that Nocturna has rejected him for committing murder and despoiling the night. Dangeorus interruptions aside, the two finally get their kiss.

Arak, Son of Thunder #38: Valda and Malagigi arrive in Baghdad at the court of Harun Al-Rashid as emissaries of Charlemagne, but don't find it as an enlightened a place as they had thought. While touring the dungeons (as one does) with Vizier Barmak they find Arak under torture. They free him and he explains how he and his companions were captued by Barmak in the desert. Sharizad is in the harem, Alsind is toiling as an alchemist, and Satyricus is in the menagerie. Alsind causes an explosion and escapes, and discovers Satyricus amid strange animals.

Flash #339: Bates and Infantino/McLaughlin plod along with the Trial of the Flash storyline, as Cecile interviews Barry's parents about the events at the wedding, then gets down to jury selection. Meanwhile, the Rogues contrive to make normally gentle Dufus, now armored up as Big Sir, enraged at the Flash. Big Sir attacks with ferocity, knocking out the Flash and flying off with him. The Monitor watches all of this only mild interest. 

G.I. Combat #271: In the Haunted Tank story, Craig is seriously injured on his birthday no less, but the crew are detoured from an attempt to get him to a doctor by the need to help Rock and Easy Company. Ultimately, a captured German physician renders aid and a German soldier with the same blood type agrees to give a blood transfusion.

 In the next story, Kashdan and Tlaloc gives the history of a particular bugle that plays its unlikely "Last Charge" atop a windmill in World War II. Then, Kashdan and Matucenio have a quick-thinking medic leave a map to Japanese tunnels on the back of another soldier in iodine before they are killed. Drake and Felugi have a paratrooper in France find a momento of his father than died in World War I. Finally, the Mercenaries head into the desert of Iran to take on a fanatical terrorist cult.

Jemm, Son of Saturn #3: Potter and Colan/Janson leave Jemm and friends in the sewer so we can get a flashback to Jemm's origin. We learn of the conflict between the polar White Saturnians and the desert-dwelling Red Saturnians and their fight over the only fertile region on the planet. Jemm is a prince of that verdant kingdom, educated in the ways of peace, and believed to be a ruler destined to bring complete peace to his world. Things don't go well though, and he has to flee, but after both races are almost completely wiped out. The robots of the White Martians continue to pursue him. Meanwhile, the government, considering the origins of the spacecraft, consults with an expert on extraterrestrials: Superman.

It's interesting that in 1984 the series goes all-in on a Saturn both with a rocky surface and life-bearing. I understand they hadn't yet retconned the Martian Manhunter's Mars, but that still requires less suspension of disbelief at that point than Saturn. Plus, Potter just replicates the ethnic conflict of DC's Mars to a new planet.

Omega Men #20: Moench and Smith/Magyar finally get Lobo to the asteroid to rescue the Omega Men before the force from Euphorix can destroy it. Tigorr and Primus are gone through a teleporter, though, and in the hands of a Psion who plans to vivisect them. They escape and trap the Psion is his own duplicator device. Lobo and the others figure out where they must be and pick them up to. I haven't mentioned it before, but there have been references to Lobo being the last Velorpian and the duplication process was derived from Velorpian reproduction. We get the story the destruction of his people at the hands of the Psions in this issue. His Czarnian background is a post-Crisis invention.

Star Trek #8: Barr and Sutton/Villagran continue their Saavik story, bridging her appearances in STII and STIII. In the grip of the pon farr blood fever, she threatens the Enterprise her attempt to take her shuttle to her betrothed, Xon. Xon is actually undercover, posing as a Romulan on a research facility near the Galactic Barrier. A Romulan scientist is trying to recreate the empowering of Mitchell and Dehner in "Where No Man Has Gone Before." They partially succeed, but then Saavik shows up with Enterprise close behind. They rescue Xon from interrogation and manage to destroy the Romulan base, then trick a Romulan warbird (which looks like the one in the original series episode "Balance of Terror" and not again).

Superman #401: Bates and SWan/Oksner revert to a more Superman: The Movie version of Luthor after the more vengeful version of recent appearances. They do keep the Lexorian warsuit, though. In fact, Luthor manages to trap Superman within the suit, adding features that make it difficult for the Man of Steel to use his powers to escape or to get help. Ultimately, though, he outsmarts Luthor by using heat vision to leave a Kryptonian message for Jimmy, and he contacts Supergirl, who uses a ruse to get Luthor to release her cousin. Later, however, Luthor muses to himself that the warsuit analyzed Superman's physical being and transmitted the information to him, which he intends to use against the Man of Steel in their next encounter.

Tales of the Teen Titans #48: A group of super-powered synthetic humanoids created in Dayton Laboratories, the RECOMbatants escape to the streets of Las Vegas, and the Titans are called in to help apprehend them. In the midst of their clash, the Titans realize the Recombatants just want to live normal lives and decide to help them. Ultimately, the synthetic beings realize their situation is hopeless and destroy themselves in a way that prevents the lab from making more like them. Meanwhile, back in New York, Gar Logan begins planning Donna Troy and Terry Long's wedding celebration at Dayton Estates, and Terry gets some off-color wedding presents from his students. After the Titans get back from Vegas, Joe Wilson again attempts unsuccessfully to reach out to Raven.

Wolfman and Rude/Gordon must have coordinated this issue with Evanier and Meugniot on Eclipse Comics' DNAgents. This issue with his stand-ins for that title's team comes about 3 weeks after the DNAgents faced a group of Titan stand-ins, Project Youngblood in DNAgents #14.

There's also a Flash Force 2000 bonus this issue by Fleming and Cowan/Trapani. It's based on a Matchbox toyline I didn't remember that DC did mini-comics for. It's about a post-apocalyptic yarn where both sides use vehicles with artificial intelligence.