Wednesday Comics: DC, January 1985 (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 October 11, 1985. 

Immortal Dr. Fate #1: In keeping with my standing policy, I won't review this issue as it is a collection of reprints of two Dr. Fate stories from the 70s (one of them being the one from 1st Issue Special #9) and one from the 40s, but I did want to mention it as I think it was likely my first encounter with Dr. Fate as a solo character--and it has a cool Simonson cover.

Amethyst #1: Mishkin/Cohn and Estrada/Colon take us back to Gemworld. Amy and Emmy (the Princess Emerald) aren't there, though, because they are stuck on Earth and can't seem to find a way back. What's more, there are new neighbors next door that appear to be Dark Opal and Prince Carnelian in 80s suburbanite disguise. In Gemworld, an evil is building while the houses squabble without Amethyst to lead them. That evil appears to be Fire Jade, who already has Sardonyx working for her. Thanks to a magical call from the ailing Citrina, Amethyst finally returns to Gemworld, but somehow without her body, leaving Amy Winston in a dangerous sleep.

Flash #341: The Flash's trial gets underway in earnest, and we find out Central City must not be in a state that requires grand jury indictments, because the prosecutor just announces in court he's changing the charge from manslaughter to second degree murder.  Meanwhile, the Rogues again capture and brainwash Big Sir who has been busy freeing dogs from animal control. He attacks the Flash just after court adjourns for the day and smashes his face to a pulp with his morning star. Flash is left unconscious and unmasked but unrecognizable.

Arak Son of Thunder #40: Interesting that Valda gets a special "co-starring" billing on the cover here. The Thomases and DeZuniga have Arak and friends participate in a living game of "Shah" (chess) for the life of the impetuous Alsind. This comes after Arak already used a ritual to save his life from his stab injury. The letter column contains some additional details about the Persian version of the game that became chess, so it's educational!

Batman #379: Moench and Newton/Alcala aren't done with the Mad Hatter as the villain pivots to a scheme to use crooks mind-controlled and given enhanced strength by special hats to set a trap for Batman. A trap the Caped Crusader and Robin fall into and would have been killed by had Nocturna not come to the rescue. She's keeping up her press to when the affections of the dynamic duo after the court awarded her custody of Jason Todd.

There are other plates spinning: Julia gets a job as a writer for the picture news. Vicki Vale is still interested in Bruce Wayne though she's trying to keep her distance. The blind girl and her dog have nursed Night Slayer back to health, convinced he is the Batman.

G.I. Combat #273: In the Haunted Tank story, Stuart's Raiders are sent to rescue two concentration camp escapees, a German stage memory expert and his Jewish wife, because the expert has memorized the names and contacts for the Nazi leadership's escape plans if the war should go badly. Briefly, it seems things are a bust because he has amnesia following a head injury, but an electric shock triggers his memory of the torture he suffered and everything else returns with it.

There are two more World War II shorts by Newman/Patricio and Drake/Gonzales. The Drake story has two G.I.'s escaping a German P.O.W. camp dressed as women. The final story is the "Bravos of Vietnam" with Trinidad on art. Kiley and crew are following an ARVN soldier to a supposed VC weapon cache, but they suspect he's a traitor leading them into a trap. That turns out to be the case, but the Bravos manage to beat the odds and make it out alive.

Jemm, Son of Saturn #5: Jemm is prisoner aboard the White Saturnian vessel, and that gives Potter and Colan/Janson time to catch us up on how there happen to be any White Saturnians still around since we were told they were all dead. Turns out this bunch was an exploratory expedition and all off-planet when the nuclear war happened. They've turned pirate since under Synn's leadership, and the soldier women have enslaved the scientist men aboard. Hearing that the hidden Red Saturnian city of Bhok was still around, they headed back home to check it out. Jemm and friends manage to escape with the help of Synn's concubine. Meanwhile, Superman has made his way to Bhok and tells them about Jemm, only to hear the leader say he despises the Saturnian Prince.

Omega Men #21: The letter column tells us this is Moench's and Smith's/Maygar's last issue, but the new creative team isn't announced yet. The Omega Men are on the planet Dreadfahl. After a bar fight, Nimbus tries the bring a wounded man peace but instead turns him briefly into an angry ghost. Losing the will to live over the horror he inadvertently committed, he goes into a catatonic state and Primus, Broot, and Doc enter his soul, facing perils there, to try and bring him back.

Star Trek #10: Captain Styles and Excelsior arrive at Regula Station to retrieve Kirk and his crew. The pompous Styles has no love for any of them and seems determined to make things as difficult as possible. When confronted by the Mirror Enterprise and its crew, though, he's quickly off maneuvered and his ship boarded. The Kirks of two universes come face to face on Excelsior's bridges.

Superman #403: Kupperberg writes both stories this month. In the main one, he's joined by Swan/Oksner and they reveal that Superman is potentially far too trusting. An alien master thief from the planet Ramox gets intel from the Monitor to start a crime spree on Earth. After a couple of clashes, Superman finally stops him, then the thief seems to change personality and claims he was suffering from a genetic compulsion to theft, but being caught broke the compulsion and now he'll never do it again. Superman buys it without any real evidence. 

In the backup art is by Saviuk and Marcos. It's got an interesting conceit, I guess, but it doesn't make for a riveting story. Johnny Webber, Clark Kent's old classmate and the reformed villain Dyna-Mind, invites Clark to come to a Smallville High School reunion, but keeps calling him "Superman" and calls Superman "Clark Kent." Webber seems unaware he's got this mixed up, but it causes Clark a great deal of consternation as he scrambles to cover this up and figure out how it happened. In the end, super-hypnosis comes to the rescue, to make Webber forget what he must have accidentally picked up as Dyna-Mind. It was nice to see the Superboy series not forgotten, though.

Wednesday Comics: DC, January 1985 (week 1)

My mission: to read DC Comics' output from January 1980 (cover date) to Crisis. This week, I start a new year in cover dates. I'm looking at the comics that were at newsstands in the week of October 4, 1984. 

In the "Meanwhile..." column this month, Giordano announces that Justice League/Avengers isn't happening and gives his side of the story as to why this is, taking issue specifically with comments by Shooter in Marvel Age that he feels mischaracterized the situation.

Swamp Thing Annual #2: As a kid I thought this issue was amazing, a real tour de force. It sees Swamp Thing journey into the afterlife, first Heaven and then Hell, to recover the soul of Abbie. Along the way he meets some DC supernatural stars: Deadman, Phantom Stranger, the Demon, and the Spectre. Seeing these guys spouting (semi-)profundities and presented in a more mystical than superheroic context gave then a gravitas they didn't seem to possess before. 

It's a good issue, undeniably. One that pretty much lays the blueprint for a lot of what we'll see in Sandman, both in content and style. Reading it as an adult, though, it isn't perfect. It seems really more a standard issue amount of story expanded to annual length just to give us a chance to have all these guest stars. It feels like there could have been a little more to it, and it comes off as a bit slight, beyond the worldbuilding.

Atari Force #13: The editorial column announces this is Conway's last issue; Mike Baron will be taking over as scripter. Conway and Barreto/Villagran definitely do a lot to bring this long arc to a resolution. The Dark Destroyer takes a few minutes to gloat and reveal how he came to be in a copy of Martin's body. All this taunting, though, just enrages Martin who attacks the Destroyer, and the surprise of that allows the other Atari Force members to break free. They can't stop the antimatter bomb though, so they are forced to escape, leaving a beaten Destroyer behind. The bomb explodes, seemingly killing him and destroying the world.

There's another "humorous" Hukka backup by Kupperberg and Manak/Giffen.

DC Comics Presents #77: Wolfman and Swan/Hunt bring back the Forgotten Heroes who we last saw in Action Comics #553, some 9 months ago. Mr. Posiedon frees Ultivac, and the robot's rampage attracts the attention of the Forgotten Heroes who are giving a press conference nearby. Poseidon is partnered with the Enchantress (still a villain, but now blonde for some reason) who is trying to free the sorcerer, Kraklow. The b-list Superman villain Atom-Master allies with them and we've got the Forgotten Villains, though they don't get that name this issue. The Forgotten Heroes have to contend with Superman who gets turned into a dragon by Kraklow's magic. Thankfully, Animal Man's powers to copy animal abilities apparently extend to mythical creatures as well. In the last panel, the villains are bolstered by the arrival of the Faceless Hunter from Saturn.

Fury of Firestorm #31: Tuska's guesting on art so there's a pretty big stylistic shift, and some characters are off model. Conway's back to tie up the story, in a way that feels like a season-ending TV episode rushing to tie up all the loose ends. Firestorm reveals he was sort of baiting Mindboggler this time. She leads him to Breathtaker, who he deals with pretty easily, having figured out that he also is about mind games. Mindboggler then offers to help Firestorm and Firehawk against the 2000 Committee, who likely have Lorraine's father captive. The assault against the Committee is over pretty quick (some of the fight is even handled off-panel!) and Clarissa's perfidy is also revealed. That's that, everybody goes back to their lives, with the bad guys going to jail--except for Mindboggler who the heroes let go.

Justice League of America #234: Conway and Patton continue the New Teen Titans inspired character stuff as Steel goes out with Vibe's sister, Zatanna chastises Aquaman for being too hard on the new guys, but most of the story goes to Vixen who finds out a terrorist organization is working for her uncle, the dictator of M'Changa and the man who killed her father. She goes after his men to learn his whereabouts but tries to keep the rest of the League out of it. Meanwhile, the Monitor and Lyla watch as a being known as the Overmaster recruits and trains the Cadre, which includes Crowbar from last issue.

New Teen Titans #4: This is an odd issue to me because Wolfman and Perez don't play things the usual way. Trigon and Raven seem to have achieved victory. The Titans (among other heroes) are physically embedded in a column and Lilith can only observe as her friends, trapped in nightmares of their own worst fears and taunted by sinister doubles, one by one give in to anger and kill their tormenting duplicates. Often in comics, overcoming one's evil doppelganger rather than cowering or giving in is the correct solution, but here besting them gives Trigon his victory. Then the evil Titans, freed from their softer emotions, attack and kill Raven! They return to their normal selves, but Lilith reassures her horrified friends that that was what needed to happen, which again, is certainly a zag instead of a zig for this sort of story.  Trigon awakens to take vengeance for the death of his daughter, but I have to wonder: Didn't he realize something like this might happen when he turned the Titans evil?

Tales of the Green Lantern Corps Annual #1: Kupperberg is still trying to make Maaldor a thing. Having him as a Superman foe must not have been getting him there, so now he gets to menace the Green Lantern Corps, with Kane giving him a whole new, more orcish appearance. Something has drained the power of the Main Battery on Oa and kidnapped three Guardians. A group of well-known lanterns (but not one from Earth) set out to find them. It's a trap to drain yet more energy by Maaldor, whose breaking out of his other-dimensional prison. Arkkis Chummuck bravely goes hand-to-hand with the villain, as the other lanterns back him up. Arkkis and Maaldor appear to die together. Well, except Maaldor will appear in Crisis. But he's defeated for now!

Wednesday Comics: DC, December 1984 (week 4)

I'm reading DC Comics' output from January 1980 (cover date) to Crisis! This week, I read the comics on sale on September 27, 1984.

All-Star Squadron #40: We continue on from the events of last issue with Green Lantern and Hawkman showing up to end the riot--and mostly, unfortunately, looking like they are taking the side of the white bigots. Hawkman even seems swayed for a moment by the Real Americans rhetoric, suggesting some kind of influence is at play. The two meet up with the other All-Stars, and they all head down to the jail to try to protect Amazing Man and his father from being lynched by an angry mob fired up by hate and the words of the Real American. When Robot Man sees the other All-Stars starting to fall for the message, he frees Amazing Man and broadcasts loudly to the crowd to drown out the Real American. Amazing Man battles the masked racist and reveals him to be a robot! So, it turns out the Phantom Empire was provided the Real American android with mesmerizing voice by the Monitor. That seems pretty strange. So, the Monitor has been active in multiple time periods all at once (to the extent that means anything with time travel involved)? Is he going to show up in Jonah Hex next? Sgt. Rock?

Action Comics #562: The team-up no one demanded! Rozakis and Schaffenberger/Hunt bring back the Planeteer (the guy who thinks he's a reincarnation of Alexander) and ally him with Queen Bee (whose last appearance was in Super Friends #45). They've got some plot involved super-magnetism, and they would probably have succeeded in capturing Superman had they not turned on each other. In the B plot, the Daily Planet staff gets invited to see their old co-worker Steve Lombard in Damn Yankees.

Arion Lord of Atlantis #26: Kupperberg and Sherman-Tereno/Rodriquez get Arion back to Atlantis, but he finds things in a bad state. The king is in seclusion and hasn't been seen for some time, leading to unrest in the streets. Lady Chian is gone, and Wyynde is in some sort of catatonic state. To make matters worse, the cult of a malign deity, Kr'Rth, has secretly returned to town, looking to use the rising chaos to summon their lord. Arion makes an attack on their church but winds up getting captured.

Detective Comics #545: Moench and Colan are still going "decompressed" with this storyline. Here with catch up with the Night Slayer as he crawls away following being shot by Nocturna. He escapes through the sewers and winds up on a beach where he is found by a blind woman and her service dog. Believing he is Batman, she takes him back to her shanty and nurses him back to health, developing a crush on him. Knight begins to play on her affections, but the real Batman is now on his trail.

Jonah Hex #88: At the end of last issue, Jonah discovered Emmy Lou's wanted poster painting her as the "Blonde Bandit," but he knows somethings fishy. He spends most of the issue trying to find her, first encountered a gang dressing a male member up like her and bringing those guys in. Then, he tracks down the real deal only to burst in the door to save her and have her accidentally shoot him. Meanwhile, poor Adrian is on the drain robbed by the copycats and gets hit on the head and gets amnesia. She winds up believing she is another young woman (who was actually killed on the train) and takes work as a saloon girl.

Spanner's Galaxy #1: A space opera from Cuti and Mandrake. They are so focused on worldbuilding this issue, they don't really make a compelling story. An unseen and context-free interrogation narrate the events. We follow Polaris Spanner from boyhood, where a visit to a market planet introduces him to individuals that will play a big role in in his life. His father buys a fancy alien weapon for the power stone in it but then gets into conflict with knights of an equanoid alien race that want their fallen comrade's weapon back. Later, these Kaborians show up on the Spanners' giant ameba farm to buy the item just in time to rescue Polaris from getting engulfed by one of the stock. They take him back to their homeworld and decide to train him as the first human Kaborian Knight. He's father is all good with this and gifts him the weapon (a shek) that started this whole thing on graduation. Polaris also learns how to "castle" which is teleporting via exchanging places with a willing castling-capable individual through some advanced alien tech. For unclear reasons, Polaris is branded a criminal and goes on the run from various forces. It's a lot for one issue, and it's a bit of a slog.

Sun Devils #6: Rik, Anomie, and Shikun meet up with a group of escaped slave sauroids who agree to get them out of the tunnels beneath the city. They meet up with the other Sun Devils, which is a good thing, because the way is blocked by soldiers. They manage to fight their way out, but not before Pook, Anomie's pet, is killed.

Tales of the Legion #318: Levitz and Shoemaker/Kesel have the remaining Legionnaires debating what to do about their diminished strength with some of their members on leave and others missing. Meanwhile, Shadow Kid, brother of Shadow Lass, infiltrates the camp of some rebels on Talok VIII and gets captured by the Persuader, the right-hand man to the rebel leader, Lady Memory. When Shadow Lass find out, she and Mon-El rush to help. They deal with the rebels and the Persuader easily, but Lady Memory reveals her power and brings Mon-El to his knees.

 

World's Finest Comics #310: This is a bit of standard Bronze Age, done-in-one fare, but I like it better than the extended arcs we were having before. Cavelieri and Woch/Maygar provide a story similarly structured to the last couple of issues, where Batman and Superman are pursuing separate cases but come together in the end. In the main story, the guy running a boy's club in a Metropolis slum is disappointed that the kids idolize a neighborhood petty criminal over Batman and Superman, who they see as square. The decides to give then a new role model, and using his engineering knowledge, he becomes the budget costumed-hero Sonik. On his first outing, he meets Batman, but they both run afoul of the mod assassination group Batman has been tracking. They escape through Batman's know-how, but Sonik accounts himself well in the next encounter, one that the kids' witness. 

Meanwhile, Superman has thwarted an assassination attempt against an Arab terrorist in Metropolis for a peace meeting. He catches up with Batman and meets Sonik and the kids. Sonik reveals his identity which makes the boys really interested in the club. Later Bruce Wayne shows up to announce he is funding the club, and Clark Kent comes by to do a news feature on it.

DC Sampler #3: This final issue of the DC Sampler looks toward 1985. It opens with a Swamp Thing teaser, then has two pages each plugging the limited series Robotech Defenders and Conquerors of the Barren Earth. Next up are single pages on Hunger Dogs and America vs. The Justice Society. There's two pages on the shakeup doing done with Green Lantern, then two pages on the Who's Who. Spanner's Galaxy gets 2 pages. Then, we see the silhouette of the enigmatic Monitor that has been appearing so much, and we are told all will be revealed in a title called DC Universe: Crisis on Infinite Earths, though in the opening "Meanwhile..". column of this issue Dick just calls it Crisis on Infinite Earths. We get a hint of what's in store for Atari Force, and a primer on Batman and the Outsiders. The upcoming Superman: The Secret Years gets teased, as does the return of Amethyst. Blue Devil, World's Finest (which mentions Sonik), and the twice monthly Teen Titans and Legion of Super-Heroes are featured. The issue closes with teases for DC Challenge and Jonni Thunder aka Thunderbolt.

The Runaway Shadow

 We had a couple of players out, so we postponed our Land of Azurth 5e game until next week. So instead of gaming, I got a chance to work on the Land of Azurth comic story starring Waylon the Frogling called "The Runaway Shadow." This was originally planned for Underground Comics #2, but that hasn't happened unfortunately. Also, Jeff Call, the original artist, got a new job in animation in California and moved before being able to complete the story back in 2018. I did get this page out of it, and it was great. Lettering here, by me:

The project was shelved for a few years, but then I picked it back up in in 2021, at least enough to commission comics artist Mike Kazaleh to draw the whole thing. I told Mike I was looking for a bit of Harvey Comics vibe, without being a pastiche, and he did a great job. Here's the the first page, again lettered by me:

I started coloring it last night, using digital halftone brushes to mimic old school comic's coloring, but I'm not done with that yet.

Wednesday Comics: DC, December 1984 (week 3)

I'm reading DC Comics' output from January 1980 (cover date) to Crisis! This week, I'm looking at comics that were published on September 20, 1984.

Legion of Super-Heroes #5: The culmination of the Legion of Super-Villains story, sees the heroes rally, Lighting Lass best her older brother in one-on-one combat, and Princess Projectra exact vengeance on Nemesis Kid for Karate Kid's death. Orando is left in the pocket dimension, which may have been one of the narrative goals of this whole arc, and Projectra leaves the Legion. 

Batman and the Outsiders #16: The Barr/Aparo team is back, as Halo upset by nightmares that point to her unremembered past. Batman makes some highly dubious leaps of logic and deduces enough to send Jason Bard to Missouri to potentially track down her parents. Some of the Outsiders go to watch their friend reunite with her family. Meanwhile, Metamorpho meets with Sapphire in secret, but her father Simon Stagg has foreseen this event and attacks Metamorpho with men each armed with an Orb of Ra. Despite getting a device from Dr. Jace to protect him from a single orb, Metamorpho is effectively killed. When Outsiders return to their headquarters, they are startled to find Dr. Jace and Sapphire waiting with their dead teammate!

Blue Devil #7: This issue shows we an integral part of the creative team Cullins is. Even with Gil Kane on art duties, it Mishkin's and Cohn's story just doesn't work as well. Sharon and Dan try to go out on a date in L.A., which is of course complicated from the start by Dan being bonded to the Blue Devil costume. It gets even more complicated when the Trickster shows up at the restaurant asking her Dan's help. He's being chased by some sort of organization with advanced technology, and they've hired Bolt to kill him. Blue Devil is able to hold off Bolt for now, but his nice suit and the date are ruined.

Green Lantern #183: Wein and Gibbons/Farmer have Major Disaster poised to destroy Baldwin Hills dam and flood the city unless Green Lantern faces him, but the guy he's looking for isn't a Lantern anymore. And the poor villain is unable to say the name of the guy he wants even though he knows it because of something Jordan did to his brain in a previous encounter. In anger, Disaster destroys the dam, and it's a rocky start for Stewart as his lack of experience almost leads to his failure and his own death. He learns quick, though, and is able to defeat the villain through a psychological ploy that probably tears the last shred of sanity Major Disaster has. Jordan, seeing this all on TV, really feels he made a mistake giving up the ring.

Speaking of mistakes, in the Tales of the Green Lantern Corps backup by Cavalieri and O'Neil, Yron's brash actions lead to the Guardians demanding he return the ring. He refuses, and foolishly escalates his conflict with the Krydos, putting himself in a position where they are able to kill him with a new weapon. As he dies, he realizes his errors and uses the last of his life force to somehow resurrect Stel, wo defeats the Krydos and erects a memorial to Yron's bravery.

Infinity, Inc. #9: The title page promises this is the "penultimate chapter" in the "Generations" story, which is good, because it has dragged on too long. Brainwave, Jr. and Star-Spangled Kid encounter the Brain Wave in Limbo, while Starman, Jade, and Obsidian fight Green Lantern in space. Meanwhile, Northwind manages to let Hawkman escape. Huntress and Power Girl are making progress, though, with the former heading back to Colorado to end the threat of the waters, and the latter grabbing some kryptonite to use against her cousin. A number of the heroes wind up back in Colorado and are greeted by the Ultra-Humanite.

New Talent Showcase #12: Nothing really memorable this issue. Kessler and Orzechowski do a time travel story involving ancient Egypt. Klein and Chen have a kid meet the unusual, magical family living next door. The (Mis)Adventures of Nick O. Tyme come to a conclusion. 

Scianna and Grindberg deliver what may be the highlight (such as it is) of the issue, with a story about a dystopian society where only those with "privilege" aren't granted basic services and rights, and a teen seeks out to get his. The last story is a very typical, white guy is the chosen one of an ancient Asian-coded mystic order, and he breaks all the rules but is just so damn good, with a semi-clever name: 21st Sentry A.D.

Saga of Swamp Thing #31: Moore and Bissette/Alcala have the Monitor so scared by events in Houma even he wants to turn away! Most of this issue is Arcane following Swamp Thing and gloating about his triumph, and his murder of Abby. When they get to the swamp, though Swamp Thing makes his retort, revealing his new understanding of what he is and his power. He quickly weakens Arcane to the point Matt Cable can regain control of his body. Though the effort costs him his life, Matt uses his reality warping power to restore Abby's body to life, but her soul is still gone--in Hell now, according to Arcane. This is the first issue I believe that has had the "Sophisticated Suspense" banner.

Sgt. Rock #395: The cover of this issue touts it as "All-Kubert," and he is the artist on these two Kanigher written stories. The first is a reprint from 1968 that has a sleep deprived Rock on the verge of a nervous breakdown after 4 green recruits appear to be killed on a patrol. He seems to be visiting by the Ghost of Noble War (or something. The apparition isn't name.) and wants he pulls himself together, he finds the noobs didn't die after all. The longer (and better) story is also a reprint from '68. It's told in verse as Easy picks up a hayseed guitar player who looks anachronistically like something of a hippie. He seems spacey and unreliable until a German officer messes with his guitar.

Warlord #88: I reviewed the main story here. In this final installment of the Barren Earth backup by Cohn and Randall, Jinal gets to make her appeal to the mysterious masters of D'Roz, as apparently does the Qlov she captured. The Qlov is allowed to leave, and Jinal receives the answer for her request for aid: "No!" Jinal angrily vows to do this without them, and we're promised this will play out in the Conquerors of the Barren Earth limited series.

Wednesday Comics: DC, December 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 September 13, 1984. 

Flash #340: So finally, as the cover declares: "The Trial of the Flash Begins," but don't expect any legal drama from this issue. Bates and Infantino/McLaughlin are up to the same old thing as Flash escapes from and then befriends Big Sir but rescuing the misguided giant and a bear cub he's concerned about. Meanwhile, the Rogues go on a crime spree, and a psychic brought in by Captain Frye gets closer than either of them realizes to the hereabouts of Barry Allen. The trial begins with the shady DA confident of a conviction, and the Flash late to proceedings.

Arak Son of Thunder #39: We get an introduction to the various legendary beasts held with Satyricus, and as they all have a hatred of Barmak, the caliph's vizier for their imprisonment, they agree to join Alsind in seeking revenge. Meanwhile, Malagigi attempts to secure the release of the others, but the vizier denies knowledge of the other captives. The wizard finds Arak's otomahuk, proving Barmak is lying. He escapes Barmak's goons and finds the caliph with his harem. Just then, the beasts attack.

Malagigi, Arak and Valda fight to protect the caliph from the beasts. Most of the animals are slain, but after Barmak kills Alsind with a thrown dagger, the basilisk attacks him and turns him to stone.

Batman #378: Moench and Newton/Alcala reveal the verdict in the custody battle that has been running through the bat-titles: Natalia Knight gets custody of Jason. While dealing with all this, Batman keeps up the pressure on Mayor Hill, by "haunting" him. The Mad Hatter, meanwhile, wants Hellstrom's loot from the Nightmare, Inc. robberies and delivers a special hat to Natalia to get the information out of her mind. Thanks to this happening on Jason's fist night with her, Batman happens to show up to stop him, which is a good thing because if the Hatter had gotten away with the data in his computer, he might also have learned Batman's and Robin's secret IDs. Nocturna again makes a plea for a new relationship with Batman and Robin, but neither trusts her.

G.I. Combat #272: In the Haunted Tank story, Stuart's Raiders lead a one take invasion as they serve as the feint giving cover for the D-Day landing. Mlle. Marie and her resistance fighters make a guest appearance. The Mercenaries take a job to find a Vietnam vets Vietnamese wife and bring her to the U.S., but things get complicated when Vietnamese officials get in the way, and they discover the couple has a young daughter. 

Kana appears in a very unespionage-related O.S.S. story has he flies a mission to destroy a Japanese Kamikaze base and discovers his cousin Myobu is one of the Kamikaze pilots. In the nonseries story, the Allies send three French agents into occupied France to carry a code book to the resistance. One of the agents proves to be working for the Germans and takes the codebook to them, but the Allies were aware one of the agents was a traitor and so implanted homing transmitters in the dummy code books to guide a bombing raid.

Jemm, Son of Saturn #4: Something I've never thought of before, but Superman's appearances with other characters (particularly newly introduced characters) often involve Superman acting without full information and making the situation worse. Such is how he is utilizes by Potter here. Working with a government a rogue agent to track down the Saturnian, Superman suspects he isn't being told the full story but goes along with a confrontation that escalates quickly and leads to a fight with Jemm, then Superman getting shot himself by his revenge-maddened ally who has stolen a secret government super-weapon designed to take down any alien. Then, the White Saturnians show up, and Jemm and others are taken captive, but not before a young girl is accidentally killed.

Omega Men #21: This is a fill-in issue, done while Moench and Smith were working on the annual. Sharman Di Vono, the credited writer, just has a couple of DC credits and seems to have worked mostly in animation. Alex Niño appears to be their go-to for fill-ins on this title. His work is more pleasing here than on the late Thriller. Anyway, Omega (Wo)Man Syri (first and only appearance) and a robot sidekick are on a routine mission when they have to deal with leftover Citadel forces that have turned to piracy.

Star Trek #9: "New Frontiers" perhaps signals that Barr and Sutton/Villagran are stuck bridging the "gap" between two movies that (though maybe they don't know it) that follow directly. They do an admirable job of filling this (forced) space, even if the continuity produced isn't going to be seamless. We pick up where STIII ended, with Spock still convalescing on Vulcan and Kirk and crew heading off in the stolen Bird of Prey to do something else important. Meanwhile, Starfleet is sending Styles and the Excelsior to bring them in.

What Kirk and crew is up to is telling Carol Marcus about her son's death in person. She blames Jim at first but ultimately realizes that he has lost a son too, and they hold a memorial service.  The story then makes a disorienting shift to Enterprise at the Regula One Station. Kirk accuses Carol of undermining him with their son, then sentences her to death--and has the station destroyed. Before the last page reveal, I knew we were in the Mirror Universe, but the smash cut shift is a clever device.

Superman #402: Bates and Swan/Oksner have Daily Planet newcomer, Justin Moore encounters what appears to be a stubble-bearded Superman in an alley, with limited memory and powers, begging for help. Moore helps him avoid the apparent aliens searching for him and hides him in the Superman Museum. Unfortunately, Justin's help is repaid with paranoia, and he soon finds himelf running for his life from a semi-super madman. That is until the real Superman and the aliens, who are really cops from the future, arrive to take the psychiatric patient from that same future with delusions of Superman-hood into custody. The Monitor's satellite makes an appearance as the future folks seek out his help in locating the real Superman.

In the backup story by Bridwell and Boring/Marcos, it's a sort of Freaky Friday where Jor-El wakes up in the body of his adult son on present day Earth, while Kal-El is in his father's body in Krypton of the past, thanks to the machinations of Phantom Zone escapee, Kru-El.

Tales of the Teen Titans #49: The Titans are getting ready for Donna's and Terry's wedding. At least in the framing sequence with art by Perez. Most of the issue deals with Wally and Frances defeating Dr. Light in Central City (which Wolfman tells us is a small, suburban city in the Sunbelt, weirdly) which provides a good place for Infantino to make a guest appearance on pencils. An amusing detail is that Dr. Light never actually sees who defeats him, since Wally is moving too fast, and Frances' powers aren't visible. A brief cameo by the Flash confirms what Wally already suspected: using his super-speed power is killing him and there is no cure. Despite the horrible new, Wally phones to confirm his attendance at the wedding.

Wednesday Comics: DC, December 1984 (week 1)

My mission: to read DC Comics' output from January 1980 (cover date) to Crisis. This week, I'm looking at the comics that were at newsstands in the week of September 6, 1984. 

Atari Force #12: Conway/Helfer and Garcia-Lopez/Smith move toward the climax of the arc. Christopher Chance starts his trial on New Earth by condemning the authorities for their foolishness and trying to escape again. Meanwhile, the crew of Scanner One, still dealing with Blackjack's betrayal, are pulled toward the Dark Destroyer's ship in orbit around a planet at the edge of New Earth's system. Escaping via a smaller craft, they land on the planet in secret and discover the Dark Destroyer's horrifying antimatter bomb. They attack the Dark Destroyer's forces, but they're outnumbered, and Blackjack betrays them again. Though defeated, Martin confronts the Dark Destroyer, who removes his helmet to reveal he's Martin Champion, or at least looks like him.

There's a humorous Hukka backup story by Giffen. In the letter column, we're given the news that Garcia-Lopez is leaving the book for the New Teen Titans and Barreto is replacing him.

DC Comics Presents #76: Mishkin/Cohn and Barreto team-up Superman and Wonder Woman. As weird creatures attack a demonstration of new biological research, the heroes spring into action. It turns out the mastermind behind the attacks is a woman raised by the Amazons who now uses their secret of living clay, like the substance from which Wonder Woman was created, to make warriors and monsters that do her bidding. Ultimately, it's revealed she's doing this to seize the scientist's formula as rescue herself from the potentially fatal results of her self-experimentation, but she fails and dissolves to mud in Wonder Woman's arms.

Fury of Firestorm #30: Cavalieri and Kayanan/Tanghal pick up where last issue left off. Mindboggler has Firestorm in her control, but before she can bring him back to Breathtaker, the cops show up and arrest him for his erratic behavior in Central Park. Still out of it, he's beat up in jail, before being picked up for transport to another facility. It turns out, though, that the transport is a fraud, perpetrated by Incognito who has gone rogue to prove himself to Breathtaker. Firestorm escapes after a run-in with a rival gang, but Mindboggler grabs him again and appears to be in total control.

Justice League of America #233: Conway and Patton kick off the Detroit League's debut in the regular title with a story that perhaps emphasizes their new direction: a focus on the characters and their interactions. The spotlight here is mostly on Vibe who is challenged by the Skulls to take a stand in the conflict between their gang and his former gang, El Lobos. Zatanna and Vixen step in to help, but Vibe doesn't appreciate their involvement. When local grandmotherly type Mother Windom fills in the other Leaguers on Vibe's background and the fact that his brother is now leader of El Lobos, they get involved in the turf war, easily ending the conflict--for the moment. Not exactly high stakes superhero action, but in the coda, Crowbar, former leader of the Skulls, is mysteriously transformed by an unknown being calling itself the Overmaster.

Vigilante #13: Kane is still on art, and Wolfman switches things up for a more investigative mystery sort of story, though still with a lot of action. Vigilante sets out to clear a man who appears to have murdered his partner and his partner's wife (with whom he was having an affair) by poisoning, but Vigilante doesn't buy it. In the course of proving the man's innocence, he fights with the guy twice, then causes him to fall from an airplane in a continued scuffle, shoots him, and steals his parachute, leaving his dead body to drop to the ground. But in the end, Vigilante figures out who framed the guy even though he can't tell anybody. Justice!

Wonder Woman #322: Mishkin and Heck/Maygar engage in some patching up of continuity as they bring this arc to a close. Following Eros's assertions last issue, we find out from Hippolyta (and Aphrodite) that the goddess was only able to resurrect Steve Trevor the first time he died by melding him with the power of Eros, which is why Eros now thinks he was Trevor. The manipulation of Diana's memory is revealed, but then Eros goes on a rampage, trying to kill the Steve Trevor, who (this issue reminds us) is the Steve Trevor of an alternate Earth. Anyway, by the end of this issue the current alt-Steve Trevor has the memories of the dead Earth-One Steve Trevor, so all's well, and we can never speak of this all again! Diana, disillusioned by the Hippolyta's manipulation leaves Paradise Island "forever."

In the editorial, we're told that due to sales, Wonder Woman is going bimonthly following this issue. The next issue blurb teases an appearance by the Monitor who, we are told, has been appearing all over the DCU getting ready for his role in something called Crisis: Earth.