Wednesday Comics: May, 1983 (week 3)

My mission: read DC Comics' output from January 1980 (cover date) to Crisis! This week, I'm looking at the comics at newsstands around February 17, 1983.

One thing to notice before the reviews is no Camelot 3000 this week, or indeed this month!

Sgt. Rock #376: Great Kubert cover here. The main story is "The Dummy--Part 2." It's a follow-up to the story of one of those "red shirt" Easy Company casualties with a ventriloquist's dummy from issue 349 back in 1980. What's funny is it could easily be a horror story in basic outline: a dummy from a dead man gets returned to the guy's unit, and every soldier who carries it dies. The sergeant means to hear it talking to him, or at least imagines it's thoughts. Here it isn't, though, except in the sense of a lot of Kanigher's stories touching on the small horrors of war. In the end, the dummy is lost in the depths of a frozen river and Easy goes on.

The other stories include a story of Ancient Rome based on the Battle of Verona, and futuristic yarn by Truman where a human raider on an alien-controlled world fights and dies for a prize symbolic of his lost innocence: a teddy bear. 

Brave and the Bold #198: Barr and Patton/Hoberg tie up some loose ends from the Karate Kid series from 1978. Karate Kid comes back in time to tell his old 20th Century girlfriend, "hey sorry I never called. I met someone in the 30th Century, and I'm married now" but through an improbable coincident she's unknowingly let the wanted criminal Katy, who leads the terrorist group Black Heart, crash with her. So, Karate Kid gets to team-up with Batman and fight Pulsar (also from that Karate Kid series) who dies in this issue. This tying up of continuity loose ends is something the Marvel team-up books were fond of, and it looks like DC got in on the game too.

Daring New Adventures of Supergirl #7: Kupperberg and Infantino/Oksner pickup from last month with Supergirl busting into the Council's underwater installation, while Lester Adams is tried by his fellow Council members via a teleconference hookup and executed for his part of the failure to steal components for a communications-controlling satellite. Supergirl ultimately defeats the Council minions, Matrix-Prime, and Brains, and finds Adams's body, but doesn't know who killed him. Later, while at a concert in Grant Park, Linda Danvers sees a bolt of energy blast a figure in a trench coat, revealing her as Negative Woman of the Doom Patrol.

Green Lantern #164: Barr and Pollard/Adkins open with Hal forced to play Haljor the Barbarian, weilder of the Powersword. He's sent on a quest to find King Caarl's daughter, Princess Caarol, accompanied by Dorinda. Haljor follows the trail to Castle Oan, where the wizard Guardon holds the princess hostage. It turns out the Myrwhydden, a Mxyzptlk wannabe wizard, who is trapped inside the power ring. He's behind all the nonsense over the past two issues. It's all been a ploy for the wizard to escape, but Hal threatens to kill himself which would bring the Guardians' attention, so Myrwhydden releases is forced to release him.

Meanwhile, on Earth, a crystalline entity consumes the man who previously found the strange crystal on the floor. It keeps feeding on the carbon of the people around, growing larger. On Oa, the Guardians are watching, and they need to send a Green Lantern, but they can't un-exile Hal, so they decide to send John Stewart.

In the Tales of the Green Lantern Corps backup by Klein and Gibbons, Green Man must find a way to help a tribe of space [alternate name for the Romani people now often considered a slur] avoid destruction by antimatter, but they will only accept help from one of their own. So, he temporarily deputizes one of their young men as a Green Lantern so together they can save the caravan.

Night Force #10: Wolfman and Colan bring the "Beast" storyline to a close. The criminal, Brooks, that Winters sent into the brownstone is still desperate to find a way out. A doctor living in the building claims to have found a way, but the beast changes his behavior and starts attacking with some of the trapped people not wanting the Beast destroyed--one even suggesting that would be blasphemous. In the end, the door is opened, but none of them are brave enough to leave--except Brooks, when he hesitates, the Beast grabs him, and he most used the deceased doctor's poison-filled syringe to poison himself to kill the Beast. The now freed tenants don't know what to do. Overall, this was a good arc, but as an allegory for dictatorship, it's a bit strained and it probably could have been shorter with what story it had.

House of Mystery #316: In "I...Vampire," it's off to Moscow, where Bennett and Deborah go to find Mishkin, who they believe has been kidnapped. At the airport they are detained by the KGB, who have solar-powered, anti-vampire energy weapons.It turns out their boss, Col. Yuri Rashnikov. is a vampire and leader of a cabal slowly replacing the Russian high command with vampires, using a powder that removes a number of vampiric weaknesses. The Blood Red Moon, not to be left out of the issue, storm the compound led by Dunya Mishkin. Bennett and Deborah are cornered by werebeasts, but Dmitri arrives to save his friends, revealing that he has become a vampire!

Mishkin/Cohn and Tuska/Celardo present a tale of a 19th Century boxer challenged to match by an alien. The last story is about a puppeteer whose family isn't what he thinks it is. It's written by Fleming, and it's made creepy (and a bit confusing) by von Eeden's art. 

Legion of Super-Heroes #299: Karlak doesn't let up with Blok, White Witch, and Dawnstar. Things aren't looking good, but then White Witch unleashes on him. Meanwhile, Invisible Kid passes into a strange, dream-like dimension and encounters what seems to be his predecessor, and also finds Wildfire, who has somehow transformed back into Drake Burroughs, and is living it up. Invisible Kid hauls him back to the reality. A nice issue from Levitz, Giffen, and Mahlstedt, if nothing special.

Warlord #69: I reviewed the main story in this issue here. In the Barren Earth backup by Cohn and Randall, Skinner and Jinal arrive at the Harashashan camp, where they are taken captive and forced to reveal Jinal's crazy scheme to kidnap the leaders of both factions and make them negotiate. Surprisingly, the reader of the reptilian clade admires her moxie or something and agrees to meet with the kidnapped leader from the city.

At Last, Thono Inn

 After a bit of a hiatus, or Gnydrion game using Grok?! continued. The party was complete:

• Antor Hogus (Paul) - Vagabond, now with the air of authority.
• Jerfus Grek (Jason) - A Gentleman of the Road, high on patent medicine.
• Nortin Tauss (Aaron) - An arcane dabbler whose quality is underappreciated.
• Yzma Vekna (Andrea) - Just along for the ride.

Inside the mysterious chest in the wagon was a device of the Ancients that the group surmised was the peddler's means of making his patent medicines. It seemed to be missing any substrate for manufacture at present. The group loaded up the chest with the device and personal supplies of the medications, which Antor and Jerfus wasted no time indulging in.

Back on the road, they soon were in sight of the resort on the banks of the Lake of Vermilion Mists. They turned over their caloot and hostler with a suitable tip. They also chose to confide in the make regarding their special mission, but then they swore him to secrecy.

They make their way into the main building of the Inn, where they are greeted by Yrleen Thono, the 25th generation of her family to operate the resort, and her husband, Gris Samber. They confide in the couple regarding their mission from the Compulsor. After overcoming Samber's qualms, they are allowed a look in the guest book. There is indeed a "W. Zunderbast" who has been there 5 days. Probably the malefactor they are looking for!

Yrleen has Merva, one of the servants, lead them to their suite. They have their luggage (mainly their appropriated chest) brought up to the room. They look forward to a dinner of lake gas steamed land crab and seasonal vegetables.

A Sci-Fi Setting Idea

My recent readings in science fiction and musings on Star Frontiers have given me an idea for a science fiction setting combining some thoughts I've had stemming from both.

The basic idea involves a future Earth controlled by benevolent AI that is something those presented in the novelization to Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Stross' Accelerando and a little like Watts' Blindsight. Most people are enmeshed in digital simulations to various degrees and have little, direct human contact. They're content to let the AIs run things. More individualistic, conservative elements of human society, still interested in physical experiences and challenges, have moved to the outer Solar System.

When a wormhole gateway left by a previous intelligent culture is discovered in the Solar System, the AI guides of the human race see the perfect way to channel the more erratic humans of the outer system: they open up the Frontier.

Exactly where in the galaxy (or perhaps the universe) the Frontier is located is unclear, but it's far from Sol. In a relatively small area of space compared to Sol's local environment, it has a number of human habitable worlds--and a few technologically advanced alien species.

Megacorporations are allowed to guide settlement of the region. Both the settlers and the AI on Earth ironically agree that a new society replicating the one on Earth shouldn't be created on the Frontier. To this end, technology is limited and controlled, policed by the Institute. This gives the Frontier a somewhat retro, "cassette futurism"-tinged vibe.

Eventually, the Frontier develops away from corporate rule, but after the unexplained collapse of the wormwhole back to Sol, there is war, and then an economic depression that paves the way for a corporate bailout and a re-establishment of central government via a "special-purpose district." The megacorporations promise to re-establish full representative democratic rule in time for the bicentennial celebration of human arrival on the Frontier. 

What's on TV

Here's your periodic reminder that if you have an interest in old TV shows, Jason "Operation Unfathomable" Sholtis and I are watching one a week, pulled from the forgotten corners of streaming and the moldering pages of old TV Guides, in our "Classic TV Flashback" over on the Flashback Universe Blog.

We've been on a British TV kick lately, sampling Star Cops (1987) and Jason King (1971).

Wednesday Comics: May, 1983 (week 2)

I'm reading DC Comics' output from January 1980 (cover date) to Crisis! Today, I've got the comics at newsstands the week of February 10, 1983. 

Batman #359:  Conway and Jurgens continue Croc's rise in the Underworld as he murders Boss Falco in prison and proclaims himself "King Croc" in this issue. (Interestingly, Batman and Gordon call him "Killer Croc" but that's not a name Croc himself ever uses.) The cover is misleading as no costumed villains show up. It's all part of Conway building the pre-fab menace.

We get Croc's origin this issue (he's from Tampa FL and apparently born in 1948), some digs at the criminal justice system in the South, and a view of a more reactionary asshole Batman emerging after years of the nice that will take inner city kids out to clean up a park. He's dismissive of Croc's trauma-filled childhood (or at least Gordon's mild empathy over it), and chews Robin out when he suggests maybe having the Todds investigate these murderous criminals isn't a good idea. He says he's tired of "citizens" waiting for someone else to save them, and that the Todds made a commitment, and they should stick to it. Some of this may be Conway signaling Bruce is stinging from getting beaten (again) in this issue by Croc, but it's still a shift--and will have in-story consequences.

Against Robin's instructions, Joe and Trina Todd follow Croc's minion extorting money from the circus. At the Gotham Zoo, they walk into a trap.

Flash #321: Infantino's art comes off different this issue, likely due to the mysterious inker credited as "Taurus S." Anyway, Sabre Tooth, the assassin from previous issues, escapes from jail and is going to kill Barry Allen. He almost does so as Barry and Fiona visit Creed's grave. Barry's Flash abilities save him, but Sabre Tooth gets away. Meanwhile, Tomar Re has pancakes with a family, and the Reverse Flash makes a last page escape from whatever extradimensional realm he was stuck in. Even beyond, the new inker, Infantino seems to stretch himself on the depiction of that place.

The Creeper backup trudges along with Gafford joined by a new art team: Patton and DeCarlo. Patton took over last issue, but I think I forgot to comment. Anyway, the Creeper traces the source of the tainted cocaine that seems to be turning users into monsters.

 

G.I. Combat #253: After D-Day, the Haunted Tank and crew are on their way to Paris. When their captain is killed before they reach the city and Notre Dame, which he had dreamed of seeing, Jeb vows to take his body there, despite orders from Eisenhower that they are to hang back and give General Leclerc and his French 1st Armored Division the honor of retaking the capital. Racing ahead, Jeb and his win find the city still very much in German hands and have to evade death until help arrives.

The second Haunted Tank story is one of those with a mildly humorous premise Kanigher does from time to time. Rick sees a little French girl eyeing a doll in a shop window and vows to buy it for her, but he and the rest of the crew are pulled out of the pay line to be sent on a mission to recover a fortune in stolen gold. Their way back is made more difficult by country folk constantly demanding payment from the "rich Americans" to help them, but the crew has no money except the gold they are carrying and can't spend. In the end, the girl gets her doll, but only after the crew has a shoot out with Germans on a bridge with stacks of gold bars as cover.

Kanigher and Catan have the Mercenaries in the Middle East tangling with an Arab leader whose men executed some Western missionaries.  

 

The other tales are by Boltinoff/Trinidad and Kashdan with Talaoc and Ayers and are (mostly more serious). A kid dreams of firing a machine gun, and gets put on a crew, but dies in the bitter cold on a frozen river before ever firing a shot. His lifeless fingers, frozen to the trigger, manage to kill some Germans, though. A French dog saves a G.I. from a German soldier, and a G.I. is saved from the Japanese by Truk Islanders and tries to return the favor by rushing to warn them so they can escape a U.S. bombing. 

Omega Men #2: Slifer, Giffen, and DeCarlo pick up from last issue with the team in trouble. After the nuclear attack, Primus is badly injured, and their "bio-systems" are nearly depleted. Tigorr disobeys Primus to go get supplies and barely makes it back. We get more of Broot's tragic backstory and discover that while most Changralynians blame him for the destruction, there is a cultish group that idolize his resistance.

Meanwhile on the Omega Men's ship, Kalista forces a captured Citadelian to send false reports to his commander. Treacherous Demonia begins sowing seeds of mistrust within rank and file, scaring some with a tale of Primus' apparent mind-control capabilities.

 

Saga of the Swamp Thing #13: This storyline comes to an end, and I am sorry to say, Pasko and Yeates do not stick the landing, which honestly is a result telegraphed for a few issues now. I lot of things happen at the last minute and the ending seems sort of arbitrary. In the Fortress of the Beast, Swamp Thing, Liz, Dennis, and Dr. Kripptmann are each tricked by hallucinations of their most painful memories that disguise death traps. Once they make it through, it is revealed that Grasp has been the Anti-Christ all along. Or maybe he's just the Herald of the Beast? Is there a difference? Anyway, the Golem's back, and there's stuff with the locket, and then Swampie gets powered up enough to defeat Karen and Grasp.

Swamp Thing with the help of Liz, Dennis and Kripptmann, returns to his home swamp in Louisiana to restore and heal himself from his infection. General Sunderland still has plans to get Swamp Thing, though.

In the Cuti/Carrillo Phantom Stranger backup, Yehudi Jones has the knack for never being seen and makes a living pilfering from people. The Phantom Stranger forces him start living in the world and be somebody to save a beautiful girl from corruption by the hands of the drug pusher, Dan D. Candy.

New Teen Titans #31: After their defeat last issue, the Titans aren't in a good place when they get back to the Tower. Kid Flash is still convinced Raven is evil and frustrated the other Titans aren't listening to him. Cyborg is still ruminating over finding out the girl he is into has a fiancé, and Robin is still being distant from Starfire for reasons. Oh, and Raven's been kidnapped. But hey, Donna show's up and tells them Terry proposed. None of this goes anywhere, but it's simmering in the background as they head to Zandia to get Raven back.

In Zandia, we learn the Brotherhood is after Brother Blood's secrets. The Brain has deduced that Raven likely discovered these unconsciously. When all of his teammates attempt at coercion and torture fail, Brain tries a gentler approach, and Raven agrees to help. Trailing the bad guys to the site of Brother Blood's secret "Regeneration Chamber," the Titans come on strong, but the Brain is able to turn the tide against them. Believing her teammates have been killed, Raven goes berserk and almost kills the Brotherhood before Wonder Girl manages to bring her to her senses.

Superman #383: Bates and Swan/Hunt give us another one of those "puzzle stories" so common to Superman comics of the Bronze Age. First off, Bates lays out a lot of character business in the Daily Planet, presumably to pay off in later issues, including the big one of Lois questioning her relationship with Superman given that he won't commit--and perhaps realistically can't. 

In the main storyline, an ancient robot is unearthed, and it immediately attacks Superman. All is not as it seems, however! It turns out that Robrox, the ancient alien robot, is here to prevent some catastrophe foreseen by his makers that would destroy life on Earth. They catastrophe will be triggered by Superman's heat vision thanks to the machinations of the Superman Revenge Squad. Robrox prevents Superman from unleashing his heat-vision on Earth, then explains everything to him once Superman has safely deployed it on the lifeless Moon.

Talking with Gob

Our Land of Azurth 5e game continued last night. The party was still dealing with the bifurcated black and white adepts from last session. They tried to make sense of each adept's claim that the other was the villain, but ultimately, they just decided to try and seize the magic sabaton and be done with it.

A fight broke out as one kept blasting them with glowing orbs, while the other triplicated himself and attacked. The party triumphed, but only after depleting poor Dagmar's healing magic keeping them from going down. They wore forced to take a long rest in the barricaded room and wind up having to bluff a Phanfasm and his goblin troops once and them stay quite when some other (unseen) wandering monsters came sniffing around.

The next room contained the crystalline Gob, himself--or more precisely, Gob's self-image. He was at work on some sort of geometric equations and fretting over the elementary particles responsible for good and evil. The party got to ask him some questions about the origins of the world, discovering that Azurth was a sort of "terrarium" and outside it's "event horizon" was the rest of the universe. Whatever any of that meant!

After that, they had to backtrack to the domain of the Snooty Elves to go another direction. They found a room with a red crytal altar that held another piece of armor, a greave, floating in the middle of the room. When Waylon tried to grab it, he was frozen in some sort of stasis field. The party tried dispelling it (didn't work), then moving things with mage hand (didn't work in the duration of the spell), but finally Erekose was able to drag Waylon out. They then used mage hand to put a noose around the greave and they took turns slooowly dragging it out of the field.

Wednesday Comics: DC, May 1983 (week 1)

My ongoing mission: read DC Comics' output from January 1980 (cover date) to Crisis! Today, I'm looking at the comics at newsstands on the week of February 3, 1983. 

Amethyst: Princess of Gemworld #1: Following up on last month's preview, Mishkin/Cohn and Colon debut their new fantasy 12 issue "maxi-series." Amy Winston is a 13 year-old regular kid on Earth but an 18 year-old princess named Amethyst in the magical realm of Gemworld. She was sent to Earth to keep her safe as her family was imperiled by the conquests of the villainous Dark Opal and his allies. Largely this issue is a lot of setup and exposition, but it manages to move pretty well. The intended audience for this seems to be pre-teen/tween girls, but there's at least one jarring note in that regard: there's a scene with some troll troops of Lord Sardonyx who seem to threaten sexual assault against the princess. Anyway, Colon's art looks good with this sort of material.

Blackhawk #258: We get another Chaykin cover on this issue, though not as good as last issues. Evanier and Spiegle have the Blackhawks chasing down the plans for yet another German super-weapon, but this one isn't as fanciful as the War Wheel. It's the atomic bomb. They manage to steal the plans from the Germans and those with knowledge of them are killed, but not before a prototype missile is launched toward Blackhawk Island. They evacuate but forget a nurse that had been tending Stanislaus in the rush. That watch their home destroyed and a life lost in horror. Throughout the issue there is discussion and disagreement among the Blackhawks about the use or desirability of anyone having such a weapon. It's perhaps simplistic or trite by adult standards in 2023, but it would have a given a 10 year-old in 1983 a lot to think about.

 

DC Comics Presents #57: Mishkin and Saviuk/McLaughlin present a sort of Marvel-esque update of the Atomic Knights that will be the version we get in Who's Who, not the more fanciful version of Strange Adeventures. A series nuclear weapons system computer glitches throughout the world leads Superman and S.T.A.R. Labs scientist Marene Herald to the isolation tank of Gardner Grayle, a volunteer in an experiment to assess post-nuclear war survival scenarios. Instead, Grayle's mind has been manufacturing adventures of for himself leading a group of Atomic Knights in a fantasy, post-holocaust world. The computer, unconsciously urged by Grayle, has been inching toward bringing a nuclear apocalypse to a more horrible reality. Superman has to go into the dream world and convince Grayle to give it up.

Fury of Firestorm #12: Conway, Broderick, and Rodriquez have two Hyenas on the loose and Firestorm has been "infected" himself--though it only seems to progress when he is in Firestorm form, not split Ronnie and Stein. The Dr. Shi Hyena goes after Dr. Gleason, the chief resident of the hospital (the age and demeanor of the "chief resident" seem to suggest that Conway believes a chief resident is the "chief of staff" and not just the most senior of the junior physicians in a specialty), but the Summer Hyena tries to stop him, and Firestorm manages to capture them both. In the end though, Firestorm seems trapped in combined form.

Also this issue: Stein loses his job. Carew admits to having a tape (one where Stein probably admits he's Firestorm, but Carew did listen) except that now it's disappeared, and Stein's ex-wife seems to be running some nefarious plan against him. She reports to a mysterious stranger who refers to her as Operative Nine.

Justice League #214: The Justice Leaguers begin to remember who they are, but they are taken captive by the Devil Guards of Goltha. They are rescued by the Wanderer, who is revealed as Krystal Kaa, rightful ruler to the throne, and her friends the Siren Sisterhood, an all-female underground resistance. Black Canary is seemingly killed by their captor, Princess Kass'andre but Mother Moon, a mystic healer and leader of the Sisterhood, resurrects her, and the two groups join forces. There is some indication, though, that they Sisterhood might not be everything they seem, and a figure watches the League's doings from the shadows of a cave.

Wonder Woman #303: Mishkin and Colan bring back the Green Lantern foe, Dr. Polaris. After an incident in which a USAF plane is destroyed by a mysterious magnetism, both Steve Trevor and the newly arrived Maj. Keith Griggs make a dual test flight over the area. A gigantic apparition materializing before them. Wonder Woman comes to the rescue, recognizing the apparition as Polaris. Wonder Woman is unable to prevent the villain from putting the two jets on a collision course.

In the Huntress backup by Cavalieri and DeCarlo/DeZuniga  we seem to be getting a plot very like the Wild Wild West episode "The Night of the Ready-Made Corpse." Amos Tarr is helping villains fake their death to escape justice (and blame Huntress for killing them!) in exchange for part of their take--or their whole take as he seems to be killing them, himself. Huntress discovers the plot but falls into his clutches and winds up in a death trap.

Arak Son of Thunder #21: Arak and his companions cross a sea of sand, then a river and cataract of boulders, but they finally get to the castle where Angelica is holding Maligigi.

Arak and Valda rush to the top of Angelica's tower, leaving Satyricus and Johannes behind. The two surprise the sorceress and quickly overpower her. Arak hesitates in delivering her the coup de grace, so she is able to turn the tables and capture the heroes in a net. 

In the Valda backup, Pip encounters a phantom that appears to be his grandfather. Somethings not right, so Valda fights the spirit and discovers that it is under the control of Baron Ovis. She destroys it, but Ovis's men take Pip hostage. Valda takes Ovis leading to a standoff. Luckily, Charlemagne and his men arrive. Ovis dies of his own sorcery. Pip and then king reconcile.

Weird Revisited: Atomic Age Operation Unfathomable

This weekend, while getting over COVID, I was thinking about this idea again...

 

At the close of World War II, captured German scientists revealed to both the Americans and the Soviets the existence of an unfathomable Underworld on hinted at in legend and folklore. Perhaps driven mad by experimentation with Underworld technology, the Soviet scientist Yerkhov, with the consent of his superiors, takes an artifact known as the Nul Rod and leads an expedition of crack Soviet troops into the depths. The exact fate of the expedition is unknown, but one of Yerkhov’s assistants emerged from a cave in the Nevada desert. His mind broken by his experiences, he gave revealed little reliable intelligence, but did have in his possession a rough map of the expedition’s journey.

Denying the Soviet’s the Nul Rod and establishing an American presence in the Underworld is now our strategic priority. We believe a smaller mission, attracting less attention from the hostile locals, might be able to succeed where Yerkhov failed.

So, I think it would be pretty easy to drop Jason Sholtis's Operation Unfathomable into a 50s sci-fi/monster movie sort of setting. It already has a lot of the right elements. I could see a TV show (by Irving Allen, naturally), something like a cross between Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea and Combat!.

Wednesday Comics: DC, April 1983 (week 4)

I'm reading DC Comics' output from January 1980 (cover date) to Crisis! This week, we look at the comics hitting the newsstand on January 27, 1983.

Weird War Tales #122: Kanigher brought us a Robo-Samurai and a Robo-Geisha before, so I guess the arrival of a Robo-Sumo was inevitable. George Tuska draws this one.

The second story is a gimmicky one, but pretty good. Roger Baker is bitter because he hasn't been given a chance to live up to his brother's example as a pilot but in New York in 1933 he gets more than he bargained for when he's called out to deal with a certain (unnamed) primate's rampage. In the last story by Mishkin/Cohn and Newton, a submarine commander hears of the attack of a mysterious submariner, and an old submariner from World War I tells him of an encounter with a vessel flying that same flag all those years ago.

Brave and the Bold #197: This issue by Brennert and Staton/Freeman has been reprinted in several collections, including Greatest Batman Stories Ever Told. It's the Earth-2 Batman, a few months prior to his death, writing down in his memoir the story of how he fell in with one of his former enemies, Catwoman. As the cover indicates, it involves a plot by the Scarecrow, though the most interesting part of the issue (and the thing that leads to Batman being able to have a lasting relationship with Catwoman) is his realization that Bruce Wayne has really been the mask. The events of the story allow him to find both Bruce Wayne and the love of his life. It's a good story that DC can really only tell because it has the "spare Batman" on Earth-2.

Action Comics #542: Wolfman and Swan bring back Vandal Savage (last seen in #516), and he's got a cunning plan which somehow involves creating Superman robots to perform heroic deeds for Metropolis and then tricking the Man of Steel into destroying them. I feel like Savage could have come up with a simpler plan with a similar chance of success, but I guess we'll see how things play out. I'm also not sure how this will lead up to the "exciting new era" promised on the cover.

Arion Lord of Atlantis #6: Moench and Duursema/Mandrake have the Atlantean refugees looking for safety, so Arion and his friends make their way south guided by magic. General Balar has a different direction in mind, so he and D'Tilluh part ways with the group, while Arion leads Chian, Wyynde, and Mara on a quest.

They find a sort of lost valley with sub-men and dinosaurs. They're captured, but after Arion helps the sub-men with the dinosaurs, they become friends. Meanwhile, Garn breaks into Arion's tower to steal his magic. He summons a demon from the Dark World that possesses Chian. When her will proves to be too powerful, the demon takes control of sub-man chief, Grondar. During the battle, Arion and Chian are transported to Dark World.

All-Star Squadron #20: After standing around last issue and watching the JSA members fall to Brain Wave's power, the Squadron rushes in and, well, joins the fallen JSA on Brain Wave’s illusionary, psychic battlefield. 

Green Lantern finally arrives at the New York World’s Fairgrounds. He also enters Brain Wave’s mental environment, but his superior willpower allows him to overmatch Brain Wave. He manages to free his friends but the devastation wrought by his rage in the illusionary world leaves him shaken and quoting the Bhagavad Gita, "prefiguring" Oppenheimer and the Trinity test. And so the point of this sideline is revealed: to get in a reference to the horror of the atomic bombs that will end the war.

Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew #14: Bridwell/Shaw and Gordon fallen get to the crossover with the Just 'A Lotta Animals promised in previous issues. These are the characters Roger Rabbit has been writing and drawing in his comics. We get a Silver Age-y brief on alternate Earths and then the traditional style of these crossovers, though it's continued next issue. There is some mildly amusing rivalry between Super-Squirrel and Captain Carrot.

Detective Comics #525: We get a new penciler this issue in the form of Dan Jurgens. My friend Chad Bowers had previously put forward a concept he called the "prefab villain." This is a villain created to be a big deal in contrast to a villain who is created for a story, then later evolves over time into a big deal. A prefab villain isn't bad--Galactus is sort of a prefab villain. But many of them are a bit "try hard." Killer Croc is clearly a prefab villain, but while Conway's intentions are evident, it's worked okay so far. In this issue, Batman tracks him into the sewers, and Croc gets the better of him forcing Batman to allow himself to be washed away from the fight which leads Croc to assume Batman is utterly beaten and a coward, when in actuality Batman's actions are more strategic.

Bruce also has a falling out with Vicki after he kind of implies their relationship is not serious. At the Sloan Circus, Robin makes a decision that may well have serious consequences, as he asks the Todds for their help in capturing Croc.

In the Green Arrow backup, Arrow manages to outshoot the crooks and get out of the situation he found himself in last installment, but Machiavelli beats a retreat. He shows up again at a Teamsters meeting late, but before he can talk them into a city-paralyzing strike, GA fakes a fire with his smoke arrow and shows the audience how they should depend on each other--rather than on "number one"--to get to safety. Worker solidarity over crooked demagogues.  

Jonah Hex #71: This is a weirdly paced issue in that Fleisher dispenses with what has been a multi-issue storyline in the middle of the issue with Tim Daniels heroically sacrificing himself to thwart the plans of the cult leader, Manitou. His conniving son goes to his reward courtesy of Jonah, who shoots a stalactite down so it stabs the younger Daniels through. That done, we move to the next story with El Papagayo kidnapping Emmy, and Jonah forced to steal a Queen Isabella necklace from the Mexican government while disguised as Papagayo. Of course, he walks right into a trap.

New Adventures of Superboy #40: Aliens appear in orbit and convince Superboy they are friendly when they really want to get him out of the way. There's a school dance coming up and Clark doesn't have luck getting a date. Ma Kent strangely reveals his identity to her friends, but no one believes her and when a kid at school makes fun of him and his mother, Clark loses it and slugs him. Clark decides decides to stop being Superboy. Not sure where Kupperberg and Schaffenberger are going with all of this!

In the Dial H backup by Bridwell/Rozakis and Bender/Adkins, a new villain called the Coil (not unlike Coil-Man from the Impossibles) stills the car of a wealthy man that Chris' dad happens to be driving for a security test. The kids dial up the identities of Kinetic Kid and Genesis to pursue him.

World's Finest Comics #290: Cool Hannigan/Janson cover. On the inside, Moench and Gonzales deliver another odd one. Bruce Wayne is enjoying a shiatsu massage from a woman named Yumiko, but before things can get more romantic, there's Bat-Signal in the sky and Bruce has got to go. He leaves Yumiko in his bedroom while he races down to the Batcave.

Meanwhile, Superman is dealing with a giant worm attacking a ship in the Atlantic. Unbeknownst to Supes, the worm takes the ship underwater to a cave near Gotham where a stalagmite humanoid commands its worm "brother" to drop the ship in a pit of magma. The creature then somehow siphons the energy from the oil inside and calls forth more of its kind.

Yumiko sees a green glow coming from a cave near Wayne Manor and investigates, getting captured by the stalagmite creatures. In the meantime, Batman is on his way home but is swarmed by bats and nearly driven off the road. Using a special sonar from the Batcave, Batman manages to wrangle the bats, and he contacts Superman for help.

Superman relocates the bats to elsewhere, and the heroes investigate what caused this. They go into the cave in where Yumiko was taken. As they get closer to the source of the green glow, Superman gets weaker until the heroes finally find the central chamber, filled with stalagmite creatures and Yumiko as prisoner of the leader of the monsters: Stalagron! Finally, Superman realizes what should have been clear from the beginning: the source of the creatures' power is Kryptonite.

The Weird Mind of Gob

Our Land of Azurth 5e game continued, with the party avoiding fighting the snooty elves at the dinner party they crashed last adventure. The elves let them pass into "The Room Revolving," but only if they promised not to steal anything. The party did. Reluctantly.

The revolving room left Waylon and Shade dizzy and motion sick, but when they stopped, they found a centaur with a Brian Blessed-type, expansive personality and a need to brawl to regain full "reality"--whatever than might mean for a figment of a crystalline, giant gnome's imagination. For their troubles, Wayon is gifted with a lucky silver horseshoe.

Next, they encountered a room with a town of tiny people in colorful costumes--who started shooting siege weapons at the party when they crossed their land. Next was a webbed filled chasm....and where there are webs, of course, there are giant spiders. These were adept at shooting webs and entangling the party, but eventually they were felled thanks to distance weapon work.

Next room sucked them in and threw them against the opposite wall with some strange force. After that insult, it was empty.

They came a room in darkness save for a revolving, sparkling orb. Two monk-like figures, bifurcated black and white, each declared the other a villain. Within the room was a silver sabaton--one of the armor pieces the party was seeking!

Star Frontiers "Appendix N"

Jim Burns

Star Frontiers has a list of "Reading for Fun and Ideas" but (and I'm not the first to point this out) it's really just a grab-bag of good and/or classic science fiction. The relationship between the list and SF's explicit and implied setting and the sort of elements that would show up in a game are elusive. It isn't anything like a "how-to" manual.

So I thought it was worth coming up with a list of inspirational media that is more to the point. This will be my perspective; I make no claims about what works the original authors made in mind. I will, though, at least for the works I dub "core," try to stick to works that could have been inspirations back in 1982.

The Core

General features: A lack of focus on cybernetics, dystopia, interaction with inscrutable aliens, common psi, or space empires. They tend to have generally a more upbeat (at least not brooding or dour) tone and a focus on adventure rather than tech. 

CJ Cherryh - The Pride of Chanur. Interesting but accessible aliens. space trading. 

Alan Dean Foster - Humanx Commonwealth series, particularly the subseries of the Adventures of Flinx and Pip. Strong human-alien cooperation (and with insectoid aliens), conflict with another alien species, unusual planets for adventure.

Andre Norton - Solar Queen series. Corporate-centered space travel and free-trading. Mysteries of previous civilizations on isolated worlds.

Jack Vance - The Demon Princes series. Travel between core worlds and a frontier region, Space criminals and cops. Strange societies.

                     Planet of Adventure series. Stranded on an alien planet after a crash with a lot of weird stuff going on.

Ralph McQuarrie

The Frontier

These works are either post-1982, have fewer elements of homology to the Star Frontiers setting, or both.

Brian Daley - Han Solo Adventures series. fast-paced adventure, human-nonhuman cooperation.

                     Hobert Floyt and Alacrity Fitzhugh series. friendly aliens, humorous and picaresque.

Edmond Hamilton and others - Captain Future series. space criminals and mad scientists. A smaller number of worlds.

Film/TV:

Buck Rogers in the 25th Century. More action pulp than serious sci-fi. Costume design aesthetic of roughly the same era as the game.

Firefly. Smaller setting. ragtag crew like a PC party.

Comic Books/Strips:

Atari Force vol. 2. '80s science fiction aesthetics, friendly humanoid aliens.

Star Hawks. Space law enforcement.

Star Wars. The post-Empire Strikes Back era of the comic has aesthetics not unlike the game, and the comic and comic strip at times have more general Space Opera plots.

Wednesday Comics: DC, April 1983 (week 3)

My mission: read DC Comics' output from January 1980 (cover date) to Crisis! This week, I'm looking at the comics at newsstands around January 20, 1983.

Camelot 3000 #5: Barr and Bolland/Patterson are still taking their time, but there's the sense things are being setup now. Morgan le Fay reveals what she's been up to since Malory's account, which includes acquiring alien allies and an alien disease. Meanwhile, there are fractures in the Round Table company. Lancelot and Guinevere renew their affair. Galahad threaten to leave, and Tristan, eager to physically be a man again, may be prepared to make a deal with Morgan. 

Warlord #68: I reviewed the main story in this issue here. In the Barren Earth backup by Cohn and Randall, the city is attacked by the reptilian Harahashan. That prompts Skinner and Jinal to consider the humans should negotiate with the desert-dwellers. When the king doesn't agree, they kidnap him in the middle of the night, which doesn't seem the best plan.

Daring New Adventures of Supergirl #6: Kupperberg and Infantino/Oksner pick up where they left off last issue. Brains is still trying to make her get away when a big robot rises from the Lake Michigan. The robot is Matrix-Prime, and it has drone-robots inside its body. It steals a large box from a hangar at O'Hare and fights Supergirl. She lets the robot get away so that she may follow it to its base in an air-filled dome on the bottom of the lake.

In the Lois Lane backup by O'Flynn and Oksner, Lois goes undercover to rescue Jimmy from Brainstorm's former gang, but things go south and the two have to put a beating on the gang. Who needs Superman? Then Lois finds a baby on her doorstep, with a note with a note explaining she's the daughter of Lois' old roommate, Kristin Cutler. Cutler turns up dead the next day.

Green Lantern #163: The point of this two-parter eludes me, but Barr and Pollard/Hoberg bring it to a close here, whatever their intention. Jordan and Dorine Clay keep encountering traps until they stumble into a room with poisonous gas. Dorine passes out, but then Hal sees his missing power battery in the next room. He drags Dorine to the next room and attempts to grab it, but the airlock opens, and they get thrown out to space. With only seconds to live, Green Lantern grabs the battery ad recharges his ring. He subdues the murderous ship, and they fly back to the planet to tell the kid's parents about his death. Hal promises his killer will be found and punished, but then he disappears cloud of smoke, leaving his ring behind.

Meanwhile, Arisia tries to stop Eddore whose ignored the Guardians' command to cease his current mission. But Eddore overpowers the rooky, and pushes on, convinced this is the only way for the Green Lantern Corps to survive.

In the Tales of the Green Lantern Corps backup by Klein and Patton, we're introduced to the world of Rhoon where "sorcerers" (it's unclear if they actually have magic or some sort of mutant powers) have been pushed to an isolated by the ruling scientists, but now the discovery of the energy source, glowstone under that land makes the scientists want to get at it.  Hollika Rahn is the Green Lantern of the world the orphaned daughter of scientists, raised by the sorcerers. She goes into battle for them and the meets the son of a scientist likewise pushed into a war he doesn't believe in. Like many of these shorts, the worlds and setups are often interesting, but the stories themselves don't go to much.

Night Force #9: The criminal who was Baron Winters' unwitting operative in New York last issue is still stuck along with the residents in the alien-occupied brownstone. The alien does kill anyone or even hurt them, in fact, it even gives them things from time to time. It just won't let them leave. And when they die for whatever reason, it consumes them, leaving only bones. Wolfman makes it clear he intends this as a metaphor for dictatorship, but given how the creature operates, I don't find it terribly apt. Even in the ways it does fit, it certainly isn't deep or illuminating. Still, this is a comic for kids and it's an interesting horror situation with a kind of Twilight Zone vibe. 

House of Mystery #315: In "I...Vampire" Mishkin and Cullins/Sutton have our heroes checking out a public rally of the American Crusade religious movement led by Reverend Warnock. When Mishkin realizes that his vampire mother Dunya is one of their leaders, Deborah goes to infiltrate the group. She's kidnapped and taken to Washington, D.C. Warnock backs Senator Payson for the presidency with the plan to turn him into a vampire after the election. Bennett is captured trying to rescue Deborah and gets staked and placed on a burning pyre. Mishkin rescues Deborah, and together they save Andrew from a fiery death. He stakes Warnock on stage while the tent around them burns, then mesmerizes Payson to erase his memory. Andrew and Deborah flee the scene, but Dmitri stays behind to confront his mother.

Newman and Talaoc present a tale of the 16th Century where a Baron cuts the hand from an ape-like beast he meets in the forest, only to find that it reverts to the ringed hand of a woman. He becomes suspicious of the wife of a visiting friend who keeps her injured hand covered. In the last story by Cavalieri, Yeates and others, a couple made rich by the sale of a quack medicine must face justice from a mob of people deformed by their product.

Legion of Super-Heroes #298: Some Legionnaires investigate a murder on a mining asteroid and runs into an Kharlak (a Champion of Khundia), who holds them at bay, then escapes. Meanwhile, Duplicate Boy tracks Colossal Boy and Shrinking Violet down to their romantic getaway on a resort planet and gets into a brawl with Gim. Jilting her old beau without warning is out of character for Shrinking Violet, and other Legionnaires take notice. Foreshadowing!

This issue also has a preview for Amethyst: Princess of Gemworld by Mishkin/Cohn and Colon. Amethyst, a stalwart princess of Gemworld battles the sinister Dark Opal who is looking to get a hold of her gem and conquer Gemworld. In the end, Amethyst is revealed to be the alternate identity of a 13-year-old girl in our world. I wonder if this preview's presence in Legion is proof of the frequently repeated assertion that Legion's audience included a higher proportion of women?

Sgt. Rock #375: I've mentioned before that Kanigher recycles ideas, and I think Sgt. Rock may be where that's most apparent. I'm not going to even consider the "introducing soldiers just to kill them that issue" as recycling, because I think it's just more a byproduct of this type of storytelling, but Rock is sleeping and symbolically visited by the ghosts of three such new casualties. The last one to die, Whittler, was working on something secretly (just like the artist soldier is a previous issue) and it turn out to be carvings of the heads of the members of Easy.

There's some repetition in the shorts too. There's a movie star who manages to become a real hero in death. The final one parallels the lives of a Japanese and a U.S. Marine up until their fatal confrontation. 

Strange Things Along the Road to Thono Inn

After a holiday hiatus, our Gnydrion game in Grok?! continued last night. The party on hand:

• Jerfus Grek (Jason) - A Vagabond, possibly coming up in the world.
• Nortin Tauss (Aaron) - An arcane dabbler in need a good, stout staff.
• Yzma Vekna (Andrea) - A teamster once more.

Drafted for a special mission by the Eminent Compulsor, the party wastes no time in exercising the perquisites such as they are of that position. Cue shopping montage with the hapless Deputy Var Nee in tow.

Provisions obtain for travel and Jerfus now dressed for the job he aspires to rather than the job he has, the party also acquires a caloot-pulled wagon to make the journey. The caloot is pictures above.

On the way, they encounter a peculiar--one of those various of abherrant magical energy. In this case, it's a circle of blue light accompanied by a sound of heavy breathing. When a beetle is placed inside, it gets exuberant growth on its carapace. None of the party deigns to enter themselves.

Closer to the lake, they encounter an intinerant salesman's wagon missing a wheel and apparently abandoned. They find a supple of two sorts of bottles inside. One is labelled "Hyunnir's Remedy" and the other "Balm of Tsura." Imbibing the remedy makes Jerfus feel invigorated, tingly, and extremely confident.

Next, they directed their attentions to a locked trunk. Jerfus fails to jimmy the lock, but Yzma succeeds in breaking it with the butt of her blunderbuss...