Wednesday Comics: DC, March 1982 (week 2)

My goal: read DC Comics' output from January 1980 (cover date) to Crisis! This week, I'm looking at the comics at newsstands around December 10, 1981.

Batman #345: This one has a pulpy feel. It reminds me a bit of a Shadow or Doc Savage adventure. It begins with the mysterious Dr. Death killing a would-be betrayer with poison. Later, Robin is covered in dust by a mysterious flying figure. Batman discovers it's a toxin, and it's a race against time to save his partner. In the morgue, they discover the henchman killed earlier died of the same thing, but now they are caught and put into a death trap by Dr. Death! I'm sure it's just a coincidence that Karl Hellfern, homeopathic practitioner to the wealthy, has just come to prominence in Gotham.

There's a Catwoman backup here by Jones and von Eeden. Selina is hired to solve the mystery of some disappearing trains. She discovers the trains are apparently being diverted by ghosts!

Flash #307: Bates and Infantino/Smith are back. The Pied Piper returns with a scheme to both defeat the Flash and get revenge on his wealthy parents who have disowned him (and used their money and influence to hide the Piper's true identity). In the Dr. Fate backup from Pasko and Giffen and Mahlstedt, Totec sends Fate to a realm of the dead where his undead followers attack. Meanwhile, Totec begins a plan to usher in the Fifth Sun and return himself to godhood. Fate escapes from the undead, but then has to face a monster created from Inza's jealousy.

G.I. Combat #239: In Kanigher's and Glanzman's first Haunted Tank story, a maverick general who his superiors feel is reckless sort of proves them right by losing his son's life and then his own in a daring tank assault on a German fuel depot. In the O.S.S. story, Kana the Ninja is again dealing with anti-Japanese prejudice while trying to fight the Japanese. Next up, Boltinoff and Patricio have a woman inventor rescuing a squad of G.I.'s sent to destroy the cannon she made, which had fallen into German hands. Drake and Matucenio tell the story of a wastrel Balkan Prince who is forced to join the army by his father. He dies attempting to surrender to the Germans but his father is told he died a hero to spar his feelings.

In the last Haunted Tank story, Jeb and crew find a small Dutch doll with the mysterious message attached to it - "Aidez Vous! Denise." He leads them to a village being held captive by a German Panzer and associated troops. After defeating the Germans, they return the doll to the little girl who saved her town.

Jonah Hex #58: Jonah befriends a burly but simple-minded guy with a beloved dog who may be the only one that knows the location of a treasure. The only problem is the bad guys would like to get ahold of that information, and contrive a plan to kill them both.

The El Diablo backup continues to be good. This time El Diablo and his creator most face a renegade medicine man and his creation who looks a bit like Marvel's cowboy Ghost Rider. In the end, it's revealed that this white clad specter was sort of the original El Diablo.

New Teen Titans #17: Wolfman and Perez come up with a pretty good one here. One of the best so far of this run, to me. Wally's friend Francis Kane is dealing with a mother so overcome with grief for her dead husband and son that she spends all her time doing seances trying to contact them and blaming Francis for living, and weird manifestations of poltergeist type activity. Francis' mother believes she's possessed. Wally enlists Raven and later the rest of the Titans for help. The activity threatens large swathes of the city, and it looks like Francis may indeed be possessed but Cyborg realizes its magnetism, not magic. The reader finds out at the end that the silhouette of a devil has actually be Dr. Polaris with his horns, trapped in some other dimension and trying to use Francis to get out.

Secrets of Haunted House #47: This the last issue. It has a cover by Denys Cowan. They saved a few decent stories for end, I guess. Timmons and Carillo have a man planning to marry a woman then kill her for money. His plan is complicated by the boogey man he's had trapped in his closet with a light since his childhood. His would-be victim innocently releases the little man with predictable results. Sciacca and Estrada present a sort of Dorian Gray riff where a curse mirror turns a guy into a serial killer and reflects his moral decay. Kelley and Bisette present an atmospheric vignette about a ghostly woman cycling from girl to old woman while pursuing her animated, possessed teddy endlessly through the rooms of a haunted house. Kupperberg and Vicatan have an immortal witch undone when she mistakes two little people for children and tries to feed on their youthful life force. Finally, Cavalieri and La Roque present an unusual violent tale of a disturbed woman whose childhood trauma causes her to go into a dissociative state and attack when she holds a knife. Her son is killed and her husband soon to follow after a set of kitchen knives is delivered to their home as the result of a contest.

Superman #369: Superman learns the true meaning of Christmas. Not really, instead he fights the Parasite who has being using the actions of the unwitting FBI agent Cory Renwald (the kid raised by the Kents before Kal-El's crash as we saw a couple of months ago in Superboy) to set a trap. Superman overcomes the villain and gets a nice holiday moment with his almost-brother.

The Entertainment Industry in Yai

 Our Land of Azurth game continued with the party awaiting the archivist in the ancient, abandoned lounge in the depths of the city of Yai. Unfortunately, the Archivist returns in the custody of young guards of Yai who arrest the party. The leader would have summarily executed them had not one of his juniors named Irwin-37 recognized them as the characters from a popular entertainment. In an attempt to prove who they were he asked trivia questions about their adventures, but they barely remember the details and didn't do so well.

Still, it was good enough to so doubt and they were escorted to the city so that the Elders could decide what to do with them. They find out on the way that the show about them is the creation of the reclusive celebrity producer, Cory-01.

In the more vibrant areas of the domed city they are imprisoned while awaiting an audience with the Elders. Irwin-37 reveals that the city is indeed a ship, an ark, sent into space in a long, elliptical orbit to return to Earth after the planet had sufficiently recovered from a cataclysm and could be repopulated by the people for the ark. Apparently, though, something went wrong as they arrived to a world still dangerous and overrun with mutants (which he assumes the party to be). Irwin-37 tells them it has been generations since they landed, but the Elders feel the outside is full of contagion.

After Irwin leaves, a weird, unicycle vehicle brings a mysterious visitor and his body guards. He somehow is able to free Kully and beckons him to come forward. Kully is reluctant, but the visitor reveals himself to be Kory Keenstep, his father! Kully goes with him.

Kory reveals himself to be the producer Cory-01. He connived his way into Yai society using tech from the Toad Temple. He noticed they had read the Azurth book, so he sold them on further adventures of our heroes. He later revealed that he had come by these tales by spying on the party using a device of Yai.

Unfortunately, his production has been shut down due to the Elders' concerns that it was corrupting the morals of the youth. Kory has an idea to convince them using a "ghost trick" he got from an old book he read in Yai. He claims to have a way to send Kully back in time to haunt the Elders and somehow change their minds. He offers Kully a disguise that looks like the outfit warn by the mysterious stranger the party meet in the future.

Meanwhile, the rest of the party got an audience with the Elders. Well, not in person with the giant images of the three Elder's heads. They don't want to listen to the party's concerns about the Wizard and the shadows. They are aware of the Wizard's menace, but dismiss his ability to effect them. The party does get through to them sufficiently that they at least agree to consider their words.

The group is moved from the jail, at least, to better quarters, but they are still prisoners. Kully returns and tells them what his father said. Later, Kory comes to visit and they try to convince him to help, but predictably he is unwilling to stick his neck out--until they mention the Shadows. He's heard them talk about what they saw in the future when he was spying on them, but didn't see any of the events they were describing. He tells them he can send them to the future again, and they can get the images he needs to make a special--essentially a propaganda film to convince Yai to join the fight against the Wizard. The party doesn't trust him, but they agree.

Convincing Irwin-37 to give them a visit with Kory the next day, they are surprised to see the time machine he promised isn't a machine at all but more like a magic ritual. This is why he couldn't send any Yai folk through time: they don't have the talent for it. He explains it won't be their bodies but their "thoughtforms" or something. 

The party prepares. Kully is to go to the location of their other selves and film them--becoming the mysterious stranger the others always suspected he was. The rest of the party will stay hidden and film the Gloom Elves and their Shadow allies outside.

The ritual begins, but it doesn't go as smoothly for Shade as for the others...

To be continued.

Can Willow be Redeemed by Moebius? Let's Take A Look

The original version of this post appeared in 2017. Then, I was criticized by a couple of people for being unduly harsh to the film Willow. On reconsideration, I suppose that is fair, though I still maintain it doesn't quite come together with anything like the same magic as Star Wars. There is now a new Willow series on Disney Plus and the comments I've heard haven't been great, but I'll reserve judgement for now.

Moebius's concept work, which I first glimpse in a magazine around the time of the movie's release is as great as ever. Perhaps it doesn't suggest a weird fantasy Willow or anything that radical, but it does at least suggest to me a decent Studio Ghibli-esque film might have come from the material. Let's take a look and (re-)imagine:

Here's the titular hero and (I believe) one of his Nelwyn fellows. Nothing of the pastoral gentility of a Baggins, nor the too literal "small folk" of the film. These guys make me think of Howard's diminutive and declining Picts in "The Lost Race," but also aboriginal peoples like the Emishi (in Princess Mononoke) or Ainu. A sense of the Nelwyn threatened by humanity (or Daikini) would have been nice. I like the long earlobes, too.

Madmartigan is the rogue with the heart of gold Han Solo type, but with a bit more wastrelness, he could have been a wuxia sort of character or Sanjuro from Yojimbo or Mugen from Samurai Champloo--both of which are great swordsman, too. Moebius gives us a design that completely fits with those characters, suggests a world of ronin or wandering swordsmen of some sort.

So at this point, you might be thinking, "basically he's just going to say Willow should have been more Asian?" So now I'm going to throw you off:

King Kael here (General Kael in the film) is described as "bestial" in the third draft of the script, which he obviously is here. Perhaps he is a lover of Bavmorda transferred by her magic? A reverse Beauty and the Beast (there's maybe a bit of Cocteau's beast about him. Maybe?) Or is he the captain of the flying monkeys, so to speak? Anyway, he fulfills a bit of a Witch-King of Angmar role, so fleshing out his badass villainy would have been good.

Now, it's back to the Asian stylings. The mask suggests (to me) childhood mindwarping courtesy of Bavmorda for the warrior woman Sorsha. Maybe she's just go a slight blemish, but has been convinced its a horrible disfigurement a la (some accounts of) Doctor Doom? Maybe her inhuman beauty as a daughter of the Tuatha de Danaan-esque folk of Tir Asleen is her disfigurement to her witch queen mother? Note that the mask isn't just a human mask, it's go that single Oni horn. Probably means something.

Lastly, I believe this is one of two fairly divergent designs Moebius did for the brownies--but in an earlier script draft Willow and baby get captured by elves who are described as wearing "samurai-type outfits and angry little haircuts." These are guys who (in the script) collect baby tears as part of their gig. Now think of these sinister little guys, like a mashup of the Indian in the Cupboard and the evil faerie of del Toro's Don't be Afraid of the Dark remake. I think we could do without the French accent Lucas specifies for their leader, though.

Weird Revisited: Sin's Queen

The Phlegethon is a river of blood, formed from the runoff from infernal slaughterhouses and soul-rendering plants. Where it snakes through the city of Dis, one finds dens of depravity and vice run by the crime family that bears its name.  Belial is the boss here, and despite what you may have heard, Belial is a woman.

Or least, Belial is now.  Like all hell lords (ladies), Belial can take many forms. These days, Belial appears as a beautiful, dark-eyed woman, usually dressed in black. Her shadow is a deep red and tangible, like velvet.

The Phlegethon family runs brothels catering to unusual, often violent tastes, torture clubs, and brutal fight club gambling houses. Phlegethon’s entertainments draw hell denizens--both devil and damned--as well as visiting debauchees from all over the multiverse.

Combat: Belial uses a cat o’ nine tails when when she wishes to draw out the encounter.  She bleeds her foe tauntingly before the final kill. She carries a silver-plated infernal pocket pistol for those occasions when she can’t be bothered. It fires bullets specially crafted from truly depraved souls that cause lingering pain and disturbing nightmares even after they’re removed unless a their curse is removed.

Diabolical Abilities: Belial can know a mortal’s secret sins or secret desires of a carnal or violent nature at a glance. Her breath can cause an intoxicated delirium. Her slightest touch can cause intense pain or pleasure.

Pacts: Belial may be summoned with a drop of blood shed by a willing victim in either fear or ecstasy, caught in a silver chalice, and then boiled away over a small flame. Belial can reveal secret sins or desires of anyone (for a price) or provide instruction in techniques to prolong pain or pleasure.

Wednesday Comics: DC, March 1982 (week 1)

I'm reading DC Comics' output from January 1980 (cover date) to Crisis! Today, I'm looking at the comics at newsstands on the week of December 3, 1981. 

Arak Son of Thunder #7: Thomas apparently wasn't up to writing chores this month as he's "plotter," and Conway and Barr are "scripters." Colon/Rodriquez still do the art. Arak and Valda end up in Rome seeking help from Pope Hadrian. He doesn't know much and suggests they go to Byzantium. They also meet the Wandering Jew and discover a subterranean people, the descendants of the followers of Pope Ursilus (presumably a standin for Antipope Ursinus give the years. Maybe just a typo?) who are followers of the mad, Black Pope. Arak is like someone's pseudohistorical D&D campaign.

DC Comics Presents #43: This is a fun issue by Levitz and Swan. Mongul takes Superman captive as he menaces Earth with the Sun-Eater, and Jimmy Olsen summons the Legion of Super-Heroes to help--the issue reminds us of Jimmy's history with the Legion. It also creates so tension in that the last time the Legion tangled with the Sun-Eater, Ferro Lad had to sacrifice himself to do it. Wildfire does here, but "sacrifice" is much less permanent for a guy made of energy, in fact it's turned into an end of the issue joke. Swan's stiff, more normally proportioned Mongul leaves a lot to be desired.

Ghosts #110: There isn't much worthwhile in this issue. There's a weird intro that promises "The Shattering Secret of Squire Shade" and then doesn't deliver. Unless the secret is that his carriage turns into a sleigh and his horses into reindeer at midnight on (presumably) Christmas? Anyway, Levitz and Gonzales present a vaguely Christmas story where toys commanded by an electronic device take revenge on a mean store owner. Then Kelly and Trinidad expect us to side with TV Network execs (I guess) as they plot and carry out the murders of every critic in the country after one of their fellows commits suicide following bad reviews. In Kelly's second attempt he's aided by a Paris Cullins who hasn't yet developed his distinct style for the story of a family plagued over the generations by the spirit of a cruel ancestor who is given a chance to walk the Earth again by replacing his doppelganger descendants.

Justice League #200: This is an issue fondly thought of by many, and I see why, but it's not my favorite of this Conway run. It does have an all-star cast of artists, though: Perez, Broderick, Kane, Infantino, Bolland, and Kubert. It riffs off the Appellaxian invasion from the origins of the JLA but adds the twist of a portion of the story where the newer League members must fight the original ones. It's got that hero vs. hero action, teams splitting up--all the classic superhero tropes.

Weird War Tales #109: This issue has a great cover to me. Kanigher replaces DeMatteis on the Creature Commandos and his characterization and dialogue is more consistent with the teams' origins, but at least this first part of the story has a bit less of the "war is hell" aspect of Dematteis' yarns, and he uses a lot more bombastic, Marvel style alliteration. Spiegle's art is probably more consistent with better visual storytelling than what we've got previously, but he doesn't really have a flair for monsters. Kashdan and Zamora follow-up the Commandos with the story of robots used as weapons in futuristic war, who wind up manipulating humans into staying in a continuous state of war to prolong their existence.

Kanigher and Hall/Celardo present an unusual War That Time Forgot tale by moving Circe to Dinosaur Island and having her turn hapless G.I.s into dinosaurs. Finally, Kanigher and Randall present a short, and obvious story about WWI soldiers fighting in a graveyard and dying in the same open grave.

Wonder Woman #289: True to form for Thomas, this issue re-introduces the Golden Age villain Dr. Psycho (though maybe we saw him briefly the issue before). This creates a bit of a continuity glitch, as Psycho had a few appearances in the 60s, starting in the nebulous period between the Golden Age and Silver Age continuity. These have been retroactively deemed appearances of this Dr. Psycho, but the original Who's Who lists this as his modern first appearance. Anyway, Psycho siphons ectoplasm from Steve Trevor and becomes Captain Wonder. The misogynist villain who is literally kind of a mental parasite is rife for modern use, and I think Grant Morrison made good use of him in this context in Wonder Woman Earth-One. Anyway, Silver Swan also makes an appearance at the end of this issue, promising an even bigger conflict next month.

The Huntress backup by Levitz and Staton sees her battling the Crime Lord, who's a crime boss really into the SCA--or at least wearing armor and carrying Medieval weapons.

Solar Wars: The Hutt Crime Family

The Hutt crime family was one of the most powerful criminal organizations of the Imperial era. Based on Mars, its reach extended throughout the system, owing to its connections to Nar Shadaa in the Jovian Trojans. It's most famous boss was Jaba, often called "Jaba the Hutt," who took control after a gang war in 3244. During Jaba's reign, the Hutt family was involved in smuggling, piracy, drug and weapons trafficking, and the slave trade, and well as various forms of cybercrime. 

Jaba's base of operations, his so-called Palace, was a former monastery of the Bomar sect, located in the Martian desert. Jaba's palace was in really a fortress, guarded by a compliment of his soldiers and any number of bounty hunters and contract killers vying for employment. Jaba was rumored to keep a unique, genetically engineered creature called "the Rancor" in a pit beneath the palace that he used to dispose of those that had displeased him.

This is a follow-up to this post.

Wednesday Comics: DC, February 1982 (week 4)

My goal: read DC Comics' output from January 1980 (cover date) to Crisis! This week, I'm looking at the comics at newsstands around November 26, 1981. 

Action Comics #528: Wolfman and Swan bring back Brainiac (previously reformed by Superman's actions). He's arrived to get Superman's help to stop a Death Star-looking doomsday device he built in his villainous days, which is now headed for Earth. No disrespect to Swan, but as a kid reading comics in the 80s, the Buckler cover was more enticing than the Swan interiors.

Adventure Comics #490: With this issue, we say good-bye to Adventure Comics in this format and to Dial-H for Hero as its own series. While I can't say I'm super enamored of the concept, it wasn't really done any favors by the very episodic nature of its stories (even in an era of more "done in one.") While there was a sort of ongoing background plot with a shadowy Big Bad, that was never really given the attention it needed.

Anyway, this final issue has got some interesting designs but also some of the worst looking art in places. A villain called the Abyss transports our heroes to some weird worlds like something out of 70s Marvel but cycling through different super-identities is a winning strategy. At least in the story--not for comic sales.

All-Star Squadron #6: Thomas and Buckler continued travails of the All-Stars within days of the Attack on Pearl Harbor. They rescue Hawkgirl from sacrifice by the Feathered Serpent, but he still manages to gain supernatural power over people with "pure" Native American ancestry and decides to revive an empire. He even starts pushing around his Nazi Allies. Eventually, our heroes defeat him, and he's revealed to be a German in redface. His power is dissipated, and everyone goes back to normal. The JSAers who intended to give up their costumed identities and enlist are confident they are living the homefront in good hands with these new heroes.

Detective Comics #511: Bruce is convinced there's something more to Reeves' colossal political blunder that cost him the election, and he's right. Reeves finds out himself that the architect of his downfall was Rupert Thorne. Meanwhile, Dick decides to go back to college. Then, Batman tangles with another one-off Conway villain: the illusion producing Mirage.

New Adventures of Superboy #26: Inventor Phineas Potter wants to help Clark out, so he doses him without his knowledge with a spray that makes him irresistible to women, which complicates his activities as Superboy. There's also a gang convinced the inventor gave Clark some pills to make him bullet proof. It all works out in the end, of course. In the backup by Rozakis and Delbo, Superboy goes 4 years into the past (1962, specifically) to do research for a school paper on a space flight and sees his younger self thwarting saboteurs in an incident he no longer remembers. But why not?

Unexpected #219: This issue feels like left over Time Warp material or maybe a test run at a new sci-fi anthology. Helfer and Estrada have the cover story maybe inspired by the Outer Limits episode "The Invaders." Tiny aliens are pursued by very early animals including cockroaches and have the misfortune of trying to hide in a roach motel which gets tossed into a pile of garbage and burned. Mayer and Matucino follow it up with a convulted sci-fi yarn about a space traveler who hitches on to a ship that is unfortunately run by long-lived beings. He ages, imprisoned there, and the alien captain plans to use the human as a patsy for his crimes, but ultimately, he somehow gets the girl and immortality. 

Kashdan and von Eeden present the story of a feral human child raised by aliens who gets revenge on the man who killed her parents. Cohn and Giffen provide the only non-sci-fi story in the group about the devil trying to sell prosperity to a town for a price--it's the same deal he gives Nazi Germany.

Unknown Soldier #260: A crew mutinies and takes a Q-boat into a fjord to surrender to the Germans. The Soldier goes in disguised as a ruthless German commander to shock the crew into not turning traitor. Turns out those boys were just tired and want out of the war, so once the real Nazis are dispatched, Unknown Soldier is willing to say they were killed in action and let them go. Such is the war as portrayed by Haney and Ayers/Talaoc.

In the backup, we get Enemy Ace by Kanigher and Severin. A general decides von Hammer is too important to the German war effort to let him lead his squadron anymore, so they send in a ringer, but Hans ain't having it. He stills a plane to go and join his men.

World's Finest Comics #276: Barr pens the first two stories this issue. Dr. Double X breaks out of Gotham and tangles with both Superman and Batman, putting Batman in a death trap where Superman might inadvertently cause his death. Then, Oliver Queen is caught in a prison riot thanks to a loss of power. He has to improvise a bow and arrow to keep the assassin Slingshot from killing an ex-gang boss. 

In the Zatana story by Kupperberg and Speigle, a trick gone wrong leads to her manager being nabbed by demons. Zatanna must cross through the portal into the demonic realm and encounters and evil version of herself. Rozakis' and Infantino's Hawkman pines for his missing wife, feels guilty about flirtation with Mavis, then here's from birds that something is weird with the weather. Weather Wizard is the cause. The Captain Marvel (really Marvel Family) story by Bridwell and Newton has the Marvels trying to find off invaders from another dimension and needing help from some aging vets--who somehow get help from dead comrades in arms. 

Across the Solar System

This is a follow-up to this post about a hard(er) science fiction Star Wars confined to the Solar System.

Lando Calrissian reportedly became Baron-Administrator of Bespin, the largest cloud city and mining facility in the atmosphere of Saturn, after winning a high-stakes a card game. Largely Calrissian ignored the mining operation (except to collect his skim of corporate profits), instead focusing on running the entertainment facilities where the workers spent their credits.

The capital of the Solar Empire and largest city in the system was Coruscant, a Bishop Ring at Earth-Luna L4. 

The Kaminoans of Europa were known for their expertise in cloning and genetic engineering. Their techniques were disapproved of in the Republic and eventually outlawed under the Empire.

The Sand People of Mars represented a remnant of the first, genetically-engineered colonial population. They were hostile to later, post-complete terraforming colonists.

Wednesday Comics: DC, February 1982 (week 3)

My goal: read DC Comics' output from January 1980 (cover date) to Crisis! This week, I'm looking at the comics at newsstands around November 19, 1981.

Brave & the Bold #182: Kraar and Infantino team-up Batman and the Riddler to follow the clues and find kidnapped mystery novelist Hugh Creighton. Well, Batman wants to find the novelist; the Riddler wants to take down the crook who's jacking his style. Turns out Creighton is behind it all, and wants revenge on Batman who he feels upstaged him. He would have gotten away with it, too, if the Riddler hadn't saved Batman from the deathtrap.

In the Nemesis backup, the hitman Greyfox manages track down Nemesis through his helicopter and lays a trap.

Legion of Super-Heroes #283: Levitz comes on board as writer with Broderick on art, and things immediately get a little better. The Legion must stop a band of organleggers from making off with organs from Medicus One, but doing that is easier than defeating the life-energy-sucking monster they leave behind. Luckily, Blok isn't organic life.

Green Lantern #149: Jordan returns to Oa and remains adamant he's going to quit the Corps after this business on Ungara, even though Katma Tui and Arisia try to talk him out of it. Meanwhile, Gold Face is beat up by his former flunkie who is revealed as the Qwardian St'nlli. The Qwardian then goes looking for Green Lantern.

On Ungara, the impending ice age proves beyond Jordan's ability to stop until Arisia arrives to lend a hand. Just as they seem to have accomplished the task with a giant mirror, St'nlli attacks.

House of Mystery #301: In the opener by Mishkin and Duursema, a sheriff rescues a woman from the surf who wears antiquated clothes and has the speech patterns to match. Is she a timelost survivor of the lost colony of Roanoke? Anyway, they eventually are going to get married, but strangers show up, reveal the story of her being from the lost colony to be a lie, and take her away. But then maybe that isn't true? My question is: Is this horror? Then there's a short by O'Flynn and Giffen/Smith about a woman deciding she must kill her vampire lover.

Cavalieri and von Eeden find mutant, thousand-legged cats to be the solution to (human) overpopulation, while Mishkin/Cohn and Rubeny suggest a deal with the Devil (who really does live inside the Earth) is the solution to the energy crisis--at least for a while. Finally, a man in need of money for his wife's cancer treatment agrees to help an alien reporter find a deadly lifeform on earth, which winds up being his wife's tumor cells.

Phantom Zone #2: Gerber and Colan/DeZuniga continue to add to the Phantom Zone mythology. The Kryptonian criminals are out, while Superman and Quex-Ul are stuck in the Zone. The criminals throw the JLA satellite out of orbit, steal Green Lantern's power battery, and almost start a nuclear war. Supergirl battles them and is defeated. Batman goes to the Fortress of Solitude, but Zod has already destroyed the Phantom Zone projector. Wonder Woman gets the full story of what happened from Nam-Ek.

Meanwhile, Mon-El tells Superman there are levels to the Zone and maybe a way out. Superman and Quex-El are going to try and find it.

Sgt. Rock #361: Kanigher and Redondo bring the feels (as the kids say) with Rock vowing to get a gravely injured lieutenant to the town of St. Antoine alive. He does it, but barely. The lieutenant lives long enough to tell the Italian war orphan he had been planning to meet that he and his wife are adopting her. He gives her a picture of her new mother and sends her on her way before dying.   

Tim Truman writes and illustrates the story of an old Apache renegade pitting himself against a young Apache working as a scout for the cavalry. Mandrake delivers a futuristic tale of a cyborg whose plans of conquest are foiled by the aging of his still-biologic organs. Randall finishes things off with a story of samurai in feudal Japan.

Superman Family #215: Pasko and Mortimer have Supergirl tangling with Toxus, a polluting villain from the future. She's aided by the Supergirl from 500,000 years in the future, who explains two villains have been released and switched in time. The Supergirls switch time periods themselves to tackle the misplaced villains but have trouble adjusting to the different eras. Mr. and Mrs. Superman finally resolve the Insect Queen storyline by getting the scarab away from Lana and thwarting the ultra-ant (Ultra-Humanite in an ant body). In the Private Life of Clark Kent, the ace reporter discovers that Frank, the doorman at his apartment house, is really Franklin Pierce Jackson, an old star from baseball's Negro Leagues, and he gets him to coach some kids. 

Lois Lane finds a billionaire who has been missing for almost seven years and wants stay missing. She winds up helping thwart a relative who stands to inherit his money and wants the ex-billionaire dead. Finally, Jimmy Olsen investigates a charity with mob ties--and grows some self-respect and breaks up with Lucy Lane once and for all.

Warlord #54: I detailed the main story in this issue here. The Levitz/Yeates Dragonsword story concludes with Thiron appearing to be near defeat by the Emperor Quisel, but then the sword, man, and dragon become one and he transforms into a dragon man. He burns Quisel to ash, rebuffs the offers made to him by the two calculating mages that wouldn't help. Bidding goodbye to Dsyillus whose descendants he claims will inherit the land, he flies off into comic book limbo.

The Ruined Temple [Broken Compass]

We continued our Broken Compass game last night, "The Quest for the Serpent Throne" with the adventurers facing a number of jungle pulp adventure perils. First, their path was blocked by rapids on a tributary of the Hooghly. Sam Stone managed to make it across but hardly unscathed, (he took a spill and acquired the Bleeding Feeling.) so the rest of the party decided to find a way around. While they were separated, Sam was taken captive by a jungle tribe. There others were too once they were reunited.

After the Professor spoke to the tribe's chief, the chief sent them to a ruined Naga Temple. There they read ancient inscriptions that revealed the very items they sought could be used to fulfill a ritual brining the return of the Naga's from the Underworld.

Then they had a run in with a giant cobra. The managed to hide in the temple and block the door until the snake went away.

TO BE CONTINUED

Still getting to know the system, so I made a couple of missteps in running this session. The giant cobra was either an Enemy if you fought it or a Danger if you tried to run away. In either case, the difficulty level was such that the character was likely to fail. But a fail in Broken Compass doesn't mean you don't succeed in what you were trying to do, it just means you had to rely on Luck (and use some Luck Points) to do it. The player's were sort of treating Luck like Hit Points and wanting to be too granular with their actions (trying to do one thing to set up something else), when mostly, the scene seemed to be constructed to be an obstacle that made player's use up some Luck to get by. I presented the situation as one they had to succeed at to get through, but really the players were always likely to get through, it was just a question of how much Luck they lost.

The Space War

Here's the idea inspired by Andor: It's the 33rd Century and the solar system is a powder keg ready to blow. Twenty years ago, a fascist regime toppled the ailing Solar Republic to establish the Empire. But on the colony worlds and orbital habitats resistance to the new government was never completely crushed. If these groups can get organized, there will be a full-scale rebellion.

Take the grittier turn on the Star Wars universe of Andor and Rogue One, filter it through The Expanse (with a bit more advance technology like terraforming, cloning, and AI) and set it all in the 33rd Century (just like Lucas did his original treatment for The Star Wars) and you've got a less pulp and perhaps more cyberpunk version of my Pulp Star Wars setting.

There would be no nonhumans (well, no alien species, perhaps robots or droids are still common--and clones), no jedi, and fewer worlds. But drawing on the dark shadows of the Star Wars universe, I think would translate pretty well.

Weird Revisited: Aliens to Know...and Fear

I keep thinking I'm going to stat these guys, but I haven't got around to it yet, so I figured it was time to share. I don't know the original artist or source, but this should prove a handy reference for "real world" close encounters. You can't tell the players without a scorecard.

1. Roswell, 1947. As described by Beverly Bean, who reportedly had the bodies described to her by her father who had guarded them: "He said they were smaller than a normal man--about four feet--and had much larger heads than us, with slanted eyes, and that the bodies looked yellowish, a bit Asian-looking."
2. Valensole, 1965. Maurice Masse a French "agriculturalist" saw a spaceship and these guys
3. Villa Santina, 1947. An Italian artist was able to sketch his close encounter.
4. Salzburg, 1957. A soldier in the U.S. Army supposedly described these guys to a Canadian newspaper.
5. California, 1952. Orthon of Venus gave a message to George Adamski about nuclear energy.
6. São Francisco de Sales, 1957. Antonio Vilas Boas was abducted by these smartly uniformed guys who took him to have sex with an alien woman.
7. Voronezh, 1989. Robotic alien shows up in Russia to hassle teenagers as witnesses look on.
8. Aveley, 1974. Weird aliens abduct a whole family.
9. Pascagoula, 1973. Carrot alien. Only in Mississippi.
10. Caracas, 1954. He had a sphere motif going on.
11. Greensburg, 1973. Bigfoot-UFO team-up.
12. Kelly, 1955. Better known as the Hopkinsville Goblin Case--which I have statted.
13. And the Chupacabra needs no introduction.

Wednesday Comics: DC, February 1982 (week 2)

My goal: read DC Comics' output from January 1980 (cover date) to Crisis! This week, I'm looking at the comics at newsstands around November 12, 1981.

Batman #344: Conway, Colan and Janson bring the Poison Ivy and Arthur Reeves, mayoral candidate, subplots to a conclusion, plus reintroduce Vicki Vale (who hadn't appeared in a canonical appearance since 1963 but had shown up in a 1977 appearance that was retconned by this issue). Ivy gets control of Wayne Enterprises, but Batman starts waging psychological warfare by essentially stalking her with a plan to get her to break and make a confession, but instead she turns her assistant into a plant monster and has him attack. Robin shows up to help Batman and Ivy is apprehended. The assistant spills the plot to the cops. Meanwhile, Reeves reveals his evidence Batman is really a mobster, but a reporter quickly shows the evidence to be fake. Notably, this issue seems to directly follow last month's Detective Comics. While events in the other title have been mentioned before, this seems to be setting up a tighter continuity.

Flash #305: Mishkin and Cohn manage to give the Mirror Master a bit of tragedy. He's fallen in love with an Atlantean scientist who has been trapped in a mirror for thousands of years. Using his knowledge of the Flash, he launches an elaborate plan that will end up with the Flash liberating her by taking her place. It works well until the very end, where Flash destroys the mirror, thwarting the plan and trapping the woman presumably forever.

We get a new Dr. Fate backup from Pasko and Giffen and Mahlstedt. At the Boston Museum of Natural History, cultists have released the Lord of Chaos, Totec. When Fate and Totec fight they are pretty evenly matched, but then Inza shows up just in time to be taken hostage. Totec captures Fate too then starts the final summoning that will cause the fifth massive extinction event on Earth.

G.I. Combat #238: In Kanigher's and Glanzman's first Haunted Tank story, the crew is supposed to be part of a group opening up another front to take the pressure off the Soviets, but they wind up having to go in solo. They meet kids being trained to fight Nazis and ride a log down a flume to stop the kids' parents from getting executed. Why don't any World War II films show us the real war like these Haunted Tank comics. In their second outing, they are riding a raft down river (tank and all) picking up allied soldiers scattered in the drop near Eindoven. They wind up being carried out to sea and having a tank on a raft versus U-boat battle.

The other stories include one of the usual O.S.S peices. Then there's a short about a guy who intends to run in the next Olympics but makes his last run on a Pacific Island dropping a grenade in a Japanese pillbox. Finally (and really, it's been enough), there's a story of an American POW secretly kept captive by a Japanese officer following the war who feeds squirrels then makes his escape when the squirrels attack the Japanese officer looking for food.

Jonah Hex #57: Fleisher takes another dive into Hex's past. Hiding into a town, Hex saves an older woman from some thugs in a saloon, and it is revealed that she is his mother. She let's Jonah spend the night at her nearly bare, rat-infested apartment, and he recalls when she left him when he was a boy, running off with a traveling salesman and leaving Jonah with his abusive, alcoholic father. Near dawn, he gets up and goes to find the gambler his mother owes money to and guns down the man and his henchmen. Hex rides out of town echoing to his mother her last broken promise to him as a boy: "be back again real soon."

The El Diablo backup is a good one. El Diablo relentless pursues a group robbers and murderers into the desert, refusing to let them leave or even turn back. They turn on each other, then on him and in the end, they are all dead. El Diablo explains to the last one that the desert has become their Hell where they will stay for all eternity.

New Teen Titans #16: Wolfman and Perez give Kory a boyfriend, Frank Crandall, but he's really an agent working for a rogue HIVE leader who's looking to discover the Titans' secrets. The rest of the team discovers the truth, but before they can tell Starfire, Frank is killed by his boss. Starfire goes on a rampage but is stopped by her teammates from murdering the HIVE guy. He's later killed by his peers for taking insanctioned action.

Also, this issue we get a preview of Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew by Thomas/Conway and Shaw/Andru. Superman is stopping a meteor and winds up being transported to the furry animal comics universe of Earth-C. The meteor winds up giving a number of the inhabitants super-powers, including Captain Carrot. Superman and Captain Carrot team-up to stop a plot to use a de-evolution ray on the United Nature Building in Gnu York. Yes, we are in for a lot of those sorts of puns.

Secrets of Haunted House #46: Enjoy this title while you can because this is the penultimate issue.  Harris and Sutton start us off with what might be a superhero origin. I man is summoned by his father who reveals he's a wizard and passes his power to his sun via a sweet magical bandolier and talisman. He manages to defeat some bad guys and save his girlfriend. Next up, Sciacca and Bernard have a guy getting rich after he buys a newspaper from the future from a strange curio shop. He should have read beyond the final section, though, because the paper also contained his obituary! Kanigher and Vicatan have a woman on a trip to Egypt manipulated by an ancient cult who believes her to be the reincarnation of a queen. Her spirit gets a bit of revenge though, as she causes the cult leader who killed her to be killed to serve her in all eternity.

Then there's "Star-Trakker" by Timmons and Ditko where an android sent to collect samples of alien life crashes on Earth in a swamp instead and starts capturing and killing humans fulfill its function. A government operative named Stone is sent out to disable the creature and eliminate any witnesses. In the end, he's revealed to be yet another android.

Superman #368: Vlaatu (really Superman in deep disguise) leaves the Revengers to head out on his mission, reverting to his true form and Superman thought process as he nears Earth. But the Revengers suspecting Vlaatu's identity have planted a hypnotic suggestion making him believe he is actually a Super-droid sent destroy Superman. He plans a violent gesture to draw is quarry out and settles on killing Lois Lane! Lois, playing a hunch, throws herself off a cliff and sees her in peril breaks the Revengers' hold on Supes' mind. He flies back to the Revenger planetary base and puts mist around it, so if they leave, they will get amnesia and forget their hatred of Superman. Convenient!

We also get another Superman 2020 story. It's New Year's Eve and the flying, domed city of New Metropolis is going to drop like the Time Square ball. When it lands, everyone appears dead! It turns out terrorists unleashed a deadly plague, but Superman managed to introduce a counteragent that put everyone into suspended animation temporarily. He's got to race against time to stop the terrorists and find a cure.

Ascending to Yai

 Our Land of Azurth 5e campaign continued last night with the party perhaps entering into Yai from a cave and finding themselves in a storage room. A higher tech storage room of on par with some other strange places they've been in the past, but essentially a storage room. 

The cantrip Thaumaturgy came in handy this adventure as it allowed them to open doors they didn't possess the color-coded key card to open, and to inadvertent free two grateful shedu. The shedu, in return warned them of a brain-eating monster lurking about and suggested this structure had once moved through higher dimensions in some fashion. The shedu also revealed they had been subsisting on a store of twinkies.

They road a lift between levels and found mostly storage, but did encounter a robotic watchman who they were able to successfully talk with via magic. He didn't tell them anything they found useful, however. Leaving a storage area, they found themselves in an atrium on a walkway overlooking an expansive garden, gone wild with neglect below. On the walkway, they also ran into an old man.

He said his name was now "the Archivist," and he had once lived in Yai of which this was a sublayer. He took the party for hallucinations, at first. He did note they looked vaguely familiar. He was a foundling, taken in by the people of Yai and so had always been something apart from them. He took this job to catalog their history, but the people of Yai were now only concerned with their entertainments, not their past. He seldom had any contact with them now.

Waylon asked the old man if he had seen any of the Azurth books. The old man thought that rang a bell and said he would go look. He asked the party to wait in the lounge for his return and pointed them the way.