Legion of Super-Heroes #4: The plan of the Legion of Super-Villains is revealed as they cause Orando to be transported to another universe. While the Legionnaires back in the main universe are at a loss, Light Lass escapes, regaining her lightning powers once more, and frees her captured comrades. In a life-or-death combat with Nemesis Kid, Karate Kid is pushed to his limited, but assistance from Projectra allows him to destroy the villain's plant-moving device, returning Orando to the mainstream universe--but at the cost of his life. Intense action from Levitz/Giffen and Lightle/Mahlstedt!
Batman and the Outsiders #15: Von Eeden steps in for art duties as Batman and the Outsiders are challenged to a duel against Maxie Zeus and his New Olympians during the 1984 Summer Olympics. Each of the Outsiders is paired off against a different New Olympian for a specified contest, but ultimately it turns to one-on-on combat where the Outsiders are victorious. In the meantime, Batman learns what Maxie is after: all this was so Zeus could provide his daughter, Medea, with a mother figure. He just intended to do it by kidnapping an Olympic athlete. When the truth is revealed, Lacinia agrees to take care of Medea, and Zeus is willingly taken to the authorities.
Blue Devil #6: This is done-in-one that keeps up the humorous tone but doesn't really deal with the ongoing story elements, other than Dan Cassidy getting used to his condition. On the planet Maldor, two ne'er-do-well aliens, Jorji and Lehni (get it?), are running from the robot cops and accidentally go through a transport portal to Earth. There, they mistake Blue Devil for a cop, and get into a brawl at a studio party, until the robot cops arrive and they have to join forces. The Cullins/Colon pairing on art for some reason doesn't work as well in the first few pages, but mid-issue they hit their stride.
Green Lantern #182: In the wake of Hal's resignation from the Corps, he visits the grave of Abin Sur (providing a chance to recap his origin). Meanwhile, the Guardians have no choice but to select a new Green Lantern. It's just in time, too, because Major Disaster attacks a dam, demanding a rematch with Green Lantern. He's angered and confused, and Hal is shocked, when John Stewart arrives as Earth's new protector.
In the Tales of the Green Lantern Corps backup by Cavalieri and Kevin O'Neil we go to the planet Grenda, where Yron is critical of the planet's fallen Green Lantern, Stel, and when the Krydos invade, also its new protector from another world. Yron thinks he could do it better, so he attacks the Lantern and demands the guy take him to Oa. Surprisingly, Yron's tactics work, and soon he's a new Green Lantern! However, when it uses his power in an attempt to save his people, he winds up harming them. This story is really made interesting by O'Neil's art that brings a 2000AD vibe to it.
Infinity, Inc. #8: We're still seeing everything the JSA members gone ruthless are doing, and the Infinitors and other Society members being unable to stop them. Green Lantern takes over the world's broadcasting airways. The Atom fights Nuklon at a nuclear reactor, and the kid loses and is apparently killed. Wonder Woman slaps around her own offspring as well as Hawkman's son before taking Steve Trevor to Paradise Island to save his life. Meanwhile, Dr. Mid-Nite and Shiera Hall search for the Ultra-Humanite, and Ultra makes a call to the Monitor.
New Talent Showcase #11: Well, there are fewer superhero stories this issue and some early (and amateurish) work by some artists that will be well known in a few years. The first of those is Tom Grindberg who is with Newell on a story of a disabled Native American(ish) boy who overcomes his disability and the prejudice of his tribe to become a great warrior after he befriends the horse of his dreams (literally): a black beauty he names Night Mare.
The next story is a very 80s tale of a low intellectual functioning Vietnam vet who snaps and goes on a rampage after an ambitious journalist wrongly accuses him of having killed a child. It's got art by Breyfogle, but he hasn't developed his distinctive style yet. Then there's a comedic (I guess) detective piece by Timmons and Schwartz that I couldn't get into enough to tell you what happened. There's Nick O'Tyme (again). Finally, we get the follow-up to last issue's superhero story "Still Only Human," which is just as amateurish as last installment.
Saga of Swamp Thing #30: Moore and Bissette/Alcala continue a slow build with Arcane taking time to explain to Abbie how he came to be in possession of Matt's body and Matt's reality manipulation power. Then he taunts the Swamp Thing and leads him to Abbie--who is now dead.
The most interesting thing about this story is how tied to the DCU it is. The Monitor makes an appearance. Arcane's magical power level is compared to that of the Spectre or Trigon. The Joker even gets a cameo.
Sgt. Rock #394: In the main story, Rock and Easy get through a remarkable day without anybody dying, including any of the Germans they are in conflict with, despite Worry Wort being sure his number is up. The other stories are a short about pilot who is convinced he's got gremlins, and a tale set in ancient Rome where a group of rebellious gladiators see how a cruel Emperor likes risk his life in the arena in front of a fickle crowd.
Warlord #87: I reviewed the main story here. In the Barren Earth backup by Cohn and Randall, Jinal and friends face difficulties taking the captured Qlov back to the Sky City when they are pursued by a Qlov vessel. They are rescued by the timely arrival of the flying city of D'roz.
Thriller #12: DuBay/Niño sort of rally here at the end, I think, as things wrap up better than I might have expected from the last couple of issues. Or Dubay does. I don't know what's going on with Niño's art here, but it is just not up to his usual standards. Anyway, Lusk and friends are provoking a nuclear war to actually bring about the enlightenment of humankind and Angie seems to be helping them. There's a race against time element as the Seven Seconds work to stop things--and appear to make the bad decision to launch the U.S.'s missiles. Only they don't, because Angie has a plan and has been working Lusk. As the story closes, everyone is hopeful for a world with nuclear disarmament.
While it's easy to criticize this rump half of the series, the truth is the first half was kind of rough, too. Thriller was always better in conception than execution. Whether with time and a sympathetic editor it could have become something great or whether Fleming's and von Eeden's reach had exceeded their grasp, we'll never know.
7 comments:
I do think that Fleming and Von Eeden bit off more than they can chew with Thriller, but it was a great ride with them while it lasted. After they were gone it was more Filler than Thriller. Good on DC for taking an initial chance with something that weird.
I stopped reading The Warlord with the issue prior to this one. Buckler inking Jurgens seems like a good choice - all the goodness of Rich Buckler's rendering minus the swipes.
Is this the "Say Uncle?" issue? If so, I somehow skipped that two page spread on the initial read 40 years ago.
I haven't read Blue Devil in like 40 years. I'd think Colon, who also has a cartoony style would work pretty well with bigfoot Paris Cullins. Your post says 'Colan' and I don't think Paris Cullins inked by Gene Colan (or vice-versa) would work very well.
Fun issue of Batman and the Outsiders. If you're going to have a fill-in artist Trevor Von Eeden is a pretty good one. As was Steve Rude on this month's Titans.
Also a good issue of Legion. I think the Baxter book got all the attention while I thought of the newprint comic as filler. Lightle doesn't get enough credit as a Legion artist.
You're right, it's Colon. I'm not sure what you mean about "say uncle" in regard to the Warlord issue, but I didn't re-read it for this.
Sorry, I should have specified the "Say Uncle" issue of Swamp Thing. IT's a two page reveal somewhere around this time that I missed. Maybe in an earlier issue.
Looking at this recap and refreshing my sense of the interviews makes me answer your closing hypothetical in the negative . . . Thriller would have needed miraculous institutional support to succeed without smoothing out every raw edge that sold the original pitch.
We can imagine Len Wein or young Karen Berger taking it on as a passion project but in that scenario it probably becomes yet another bickering (dialogue/writer-driven) YA found family, maybe a kind of Baxter Infinity Inc. with its own packaged back story. Otherwise it could've gone to Comico to live with the Elementals and Mage and Grendel (or even Capital Comics in poorly distributed B&W) and gotten more time to grow into itself from issue to issue but probably turned into bickering YA found family that way too.
Maybe Giordano bought the pitch and marketing fell in love with it because they were looking jealously at the indies and getting bored with the house style. They wanted a cool indie book but couldn't make it happen inside Warner. Either way, I love it in the abstract, for what it wanted to be and where it takes us (Thriller died so Astro City could one day fly), but it's always more awesome in the recaps than on the page. A missed opportunity, a road not taken because we didn't have enough gas in that particular tank, a regret.
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Always liked how Projectra in the "grip" (haha, cheap shot SPOILERS, eh, nemesis kid?) of her big feelings learns to love the planet device mighty fast when it gives her a way to quit the UP experiment decisively and drastically. It's a profound psychological gesture I still think about all the time. From a certain point of view the entire Baxter run becomes her grieving, recovery and reintegration into a post-magic-wars world. She is the protagonist.
Good thinking! This one has the CCA seal back so looking around reveals that "Say Uncle" was last issue.
Yeah, it was the issue before.
Perhaps Giordano was in love with "The New DC," and Thriller was a reasonable risk in his mind? While you have to have some successes, the inevitable failures, so long as they are ambitious and garner the right attention, can grow the rebranding.
I really like that . . . my initial thought was that he greenlit it straight to Direct Only because he wanted to give relatively expensive books (probably Ronin, maybe Camelot 3000) a little more company on the order form. Either way, we missed our chance to ask him whether he personally considered the book a failure or not!
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