Wednesday Comics: DC, August 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 May 13, 1982.

Batman #350: My brother had this issue, but I don't think we bought it off the stands when it came up. After the bite last issue, Robin is starting to not show up so well in mirrors. He heads home to the Batcave and invites Bruce and Alfred to a party at Dala's house. Bruce and Vicki go to the party at Dala's place, and Bruce notices that Dick is acting even more strange after last night. He follows Dick and Dala, trying to figure out what's going on. He loses track of them, but finds blood on the floor. Looking out the window of the room, Bruce spots Dala taking Dick downwards to the back of the house. Bruce keeps following, this time as Batman. He finds Dick's clothes on the ground and hears laughter, then the Monk lunges at him and bites his neck. Batman fights back, but it's already too late. 

In the Catwoman backup by Jones and DeZuniga, Selina wakes up next to a dead woman after her kidnapping in the previous installment. Selina impersonates the woman to find out why she was killed, leading her to have have to go on stage as a stripper in a club. When she sees one of the murders, she gives chase, following him onto the rooftops. When she doesn't quite make a jump, she's left vulnerable to the crooks attack.

Flash #312: Bates and Infantino have Flash investigating a series of crime that have the hallmarks of his enemy, Heat Wave. What's odd about that is that Heat Wave has apparently reformed and gotten a straight job. The Flash doesn't believe his old foe has really changed at first, but Heat Wave ultimately helps him stop the imposter.

In the Dr. Fate backup by Gerber/Pasko and Giffen, Fate manages to escape the Nihil-verse thanks to his link with Inza but in the process discovers her indiscretion with Copeland. Back in the Tower, Inza is angry that Kent won't share things with her. Kent claims not to remember a lot--but does remember seeing her with another man. The argument ends with Kent sleeping on the couch and waking up in the morning to find Inza gone. Worse yet, outside the Tower he finds the red gem from before the size of the sun and covering much of the sky. Vandaemon is back, and this is all thanks to the farmer from the first part, who is actually Ynar, a renegade Lord of Order.

G.I. Combat #243: In the first Haunted Tank tale, Kanigher and Glanzman kill off Slim, who at least in the last few years of his 21 years in this magazine, had always been the naysayer and complainer. Most of the issue is introducing his replacement Bill Craig, a 30-year veteran and cavalryman from WWI. He, of course, saves the crew here. Except for Slim. The second Haunted Tank tale finds Rick still dealing with Slim's death and blaming Bill. After Bill saves them again--riding a horse, no less--Rick accepts the new crewman.

Kashdan and Amongo give us a story told from the point of view of a bayonet used by a G.I. in the Pacific against the Japanese. There's an uncredited story about a heroic meterologist dying (but still succeeding) in an attempt to seed clouds the thwart the Germans with rain shortly after D-Day. Finally, the Mercenaries are back and in Sierra Verde fighting a Colonel Furioza and his bandits on behalf of some poor villagers. Again, they achieve the mission, but don't get paid. 

Jonah Hex #63: Fleisher really likes to pour the hardship on Hex! The offer of passage back to the States turns out to be ploy to shanghai Jonah. After a beating and some threats to Mei Ling, he goes to work. Then there's a cholera outbreak on the ship, and he gets sick and in delirium, hallucinates traumatic memories of his alcoholic and abusive father, He survives cholera (though the rest of the crew don't) and saves Me Ling from the cruel captain, but rashly throws him overboard, leaving only nonexperienced sailors on the ship. They drift for weeks until a storm wrecks the ship. Jonah and Mei Ling escape in a lifeboat but only after sharks kill the ship's doctor and Jonah get's bitten. His wound becomes infected, but they are rescued by a ship bound for San Francisco. Jonah recovers, but Mei Ling decides to leave him again when they reach port.

Legion of Super-Heroes Annual #1: DC had an ad in last weeks comics saying annuals were returning, and here's the first one. Levtiz and Giffen/Patterson have Brainiac 5 trying to cure young Danielle Foccart of her intractable neurologic disorder. Unfortunately, it instead results in her being possessed by Computo who is out for revenge against the Legion. Most of the team is defeated and captured, but Danielle's brother, Jacques, becomes the new Invisible Kid and saves the day. Between this issue and the Dr. Fate backup in Flash, Giffen's art is really starting to take on his (earliest) distinctive style.

Saga of the Swamp Thing #4: Pasko's story in this issue is a wrongheaded to me in a couple of ways. First off, it's clearly inspired by the Atlanta Child Murders of 1979-81 (and if the story alone didn't make you think of that, its last caption references them) so it's perhaps a little too soon to make flippant popular fiction about and a horrific event on the first anniversary of its ending. Second, the suggestion that somehow kids of the era were easy targets for murder due to being made too trusting by television promoting kindness and friendliness (presumably Mr. Rogers is his target here) somehow makes it even worse as it indicts positivity and sort of victim blames. Beyond that, the story about a demonically possessed children's tv host is pretty much par for the course for early 80s horror fare.

The Phantom Stranger backup by Barr and DeZuniga has the Stranger intervening to save a woman who has been turned into a mental zombie by a mystic incantation that saved her life, and finding himself in the clutches of his nemesis, Tannarak.

New Teen Titans #22: Wolfman and Perez have most of the Titans in a dire situation. Captives of Brother Blood, Wonder Girl, Kid Flash, and Raven are thrown in a pit inhabited by a monstrous spider-like creature, as is Robin, but only after he's tortured by Brother Blood's Confessor for information. The remaining Titans attack the Church to rescue their teammates, but Brother Blood outplays them with the aid of Bethany Snow, a newscaster who is secretly a member of his cult, by making it appear that their attack is unprovoked and smearing them in the public's eyes. Cyborg causes tBlood's escaping airship to crash, but that was yet more manipulation and Blood is still very much alive, but the Titans are accused of trying to murder him.

Superman #373: Bates and Swan/Adkins continue the Vartox story. Vartox and Lana Lang continue their wedding plans, but Vartox's old flame, Syreena, mind controls Vartox into thinking Superman is trying to steal Lana away from him. Vartox heads off looking to kill his Kryptonian friend. We get Syreena's origin in this issue. It turns out she was a criminal who tried to seduce Vartox to manipulate him, but wound up falling for him. When he discovered the truth, he let her face justice, and he assumed she died later when their planet was destroyed.

The Rozakis/Schaffenberger "In-Between Years" story is even more pointless that usual. An ancient Inca crown is stolen from Prof. Lewis Lang, and Pete Ross (visiting Clark at college) and Superboy get it back for him. That synopsis makes the story sound like it could be more interesting than it is, but really it hinges on Pete knowing Clark is Superboy, but Superboy not knowing Pete knows for it's "drama."

Journal of Eternian Studies: The Search for Skeletor

Skeletor is the principle antagonist of the so-called Masters of the Universe myth and literary cycle. His inhuman physical appearance, magical power, and dedication to conquering Eternia through usurpation of the power of Castle Grayskull are consistent throughout the various stories, but other aspects of his character, including his origins and the seriousness of his menace, vary wildly.

It has long been the prevailing view among scholars that his depiction as blue skinned links him to the Gar people¹. The Gar civilization existed on the so-called Dark Hemisphere of Eternia, but came into conflict with groups on the Light Hemisphere in the islands of the Ocean of Gnarl and on the land bridge between the continents. By the time of the Randorian Renaissance, the Gar were a ethnic minority who suffered a good deal of prejudice owing to the belief that a Councilor of their ethnicity had betrayed and murdered the founding hero King Grayskull in the service of King Hiss of the Serpent Men².

Later stories explicitly make Skeletor King Randor's brother Keldor who was transformed by forbidden magic, in some versions specifically Hordak worship. While the identification is not without controversy, Keldor was depicted as Gar, or at least half-Gar. There are scholars that argue that Keldor himself is a fiction created for later anti-Gar polemics, but the more common view is the he was indeed Randor's half-brother, a perhaps the illegitimate offspring of Miro and a Gar woman. Keldor was, for a time, a serious rival to Randor's power owing in part to a strong powerbase among traditionalist Gar clans.

Skeletor, however, existed in myth and legend prior to his association with Keldor. He was depicted as an otherworldly or demonic entity who had arrived on Eternia through accident or intention, but now wished to re-open that portal to bring his people through to aid in his conquest.

What is likely the oldest known legend associating the two is curiously restrained regarding the specifics of their relationship. Keldor is shown as meddling in dangerous magic and disappearing after a mishap. Skeletor is depicted as attempting to thwart any investigation into Keldor's current whereabouts. The gaps n the narrative invite the audience to assume that Skeletor and Keldor one and the same, but do not make the link explicitly. It is argued that this structure is an indicator of the stories origins as Randorist propaganda either during the time when the throne was contested or shortly after Randor secured it. Further, the effectiveness of such propaganda would hinge on Skeletor as a character already known to the intended audience.

It could be that Skeletor's pre-existing Gar traits made this linkage with Keldor possible, but it is also possible that Skeletor's Gar coloration is a later addition. Certainly it is no accident that Skeletor's shade of blue has a long association with the supernatural in the Eternian mind. It has been suggested that both the Gar people and Skeletor are depicted as blue simply because of the rarity of the blue pigments in the Light Hemisphere used in art in the Gar ruins on Anwat Gar to depict rulers such as Shokoti and the persist association of the Gar with magic due to their status as diviners and purveyors of charms and curses.

Recently, archeological evidence of a skull faced god or demon that appears to have been the focus of ritual activity in the region around Castle Grayskull in the putative era of the first "He-man." Any correlation of this entity with Skeletor or the Gar is highly speculative.

______________________________________________

1. The Gar were typically depicted as blue-skinned. Whether they literally were, either naturally or as some form of body-adornment, or this depiction has symbolic significance is unknown.

2. If there is any truth to this allegation at all, it likely conveys persistent Serpos worship among the Gar during the period where Goddess worship was becoming dominant on the Light Hemisphere.

Toward a System for Four-Color Sword & Sorcery

I've been thinking about cobbling together a system for a Bronze Age of Comics Sword & Sorcery rpg, a rarefied genre, perhaps, but one I'm quite fond of. I figure it will be a Frankenstein's monster of ideas from Year Zero Engine games, Broken Compass, and a few things from 2d20, maybe. Like all of those games, I'm thinking its a d6 dice pool system. The base roll will be akin to the Attribute+Skill of those systems.

The attributes with the appropriate flavor came relatively easily:

• MIGHT: Force and physical power.
• DARING: quick motion and boldness of action.
• INTELLECT: Intelligence and reason.
• INSTINCT: Intuition and perception.
• CUNNING: Deception and manipulation.
• PRESENCE: Charisma and force of personality.

The skills though have been much harder. I was never able to get the list as comprehensive and right-sized as I wanted. Ultimately, I decided to go the direction of some of the 2d20 games and the Atomic Robo rpg (which uses a form of Fate) and go with something a bit broader than standard skills. I settled on calling them "Domains."

• SWORDS: The use of weapons and the general application and defense against violence. It also covers a practical knowledge of armor, weaponry, martial styles, tactics, and strategy. 
• DEEDS: Acting boldly and physically to alter or navigate the environment or withstand its rigors. It is used to climb or leap, push on despite exhaustion, or smash physical obstacles, but also to pass detected, hide, or hold one’s drink. 
• WILDS: Wisdom taught by the wilderness and living close to nature. It covers discerning the best way to move through difficult terrain, finding or building shelter, and tracking and reading sign, but also interacting with wild and domestic animals and knowledge of plants. 
• CITY: Knowledge born of the habitations of humans and their societies. It covers a character’s learning and ability to find and acquire new information, but also their sophistication in regard to social graces and etiquette. 
• WORDS: Relating to and communicating with others. It is used to influence, inspire or sway others through impassioned or reasoned arguments–or lies, or to discern the intent of others doing the same.
• SORCERY: Knowledge of the arcane or occult arts. It covers the reading of mystic tomes, the recalling of esoteric lore, the performance of spells or rituals, and sometimes resisting the effects of magic.

The astute reader will note they form pairs of sorts. I think 36 possible combinations of the Attributes and the Domains covers pretty well most relevant skill areas. Some are obvious like Might+Swords being used for melee attacks, but others are perhaps less so but hopefully make sense, like Intellect+Wilds being used to navigate by the stars or identify medicinal (or poisonous plants). Some combinations might seem equally plausible for some actions, but I see that as a feature not a bug.

Wednesday Comics: DC, August 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 May 6, 1982. 

Arak Son of Thunder #12: Thomas and Colon/Acala continue Arak's adventures in Greece. After getting shot by the arrow of a soldier of Byzantium last issue, Arak's new friend Khiron the Centaur is dying must reach the river Styx and cross into Hades. He's followed on that journey by the soldiers, but also by Arak and Satyricus. The soldiers enter the Underworld after Brutius kills one of his own men to distract the guardian Cerberus. Satyricus uses his pipes to put Cerberus to sleep, then he and Arak use a coin from the dead soldier to pay for passage over the Styx. In the end, Arak kills Brutius by drowning him in the river. Khiron is then allowed final peace, while his friends depart once again toward Byzantium.

The backup in this issue is the origin of Valda by the Thomases and Colon. Valda is revealed to be the daughter of Bradamante and a protege of Malgigi. She was taught warrior's skills by the spirit of a dead knight. 

DC Comics Presents #48: Mishkin/Cohn and Novick/McLaughin turn in a lackluster effort about alien octopoids invading Earth, and Superman and Aquaman being on-hand to stop them. Between this and the recent backup stories in Action, Aquaman has dealt with a lot of octopoid aliens lately.

The backup by Thomas and Alcala deals with the Black Pirate and has his son convincing him to side with the Puritans over the Crown.

Fury of Firestorm #3: Conway and Broderick/Rodriquez are doing the Spider-Man thing where our hero just can't get a break. Firestorm tracks down the muggers responsible for the death of John Ravenhair's grandfather, and Stein has to keep Ronnie in check to keep him from hurting them. Then, Ronnie goes home and his father is angry that he was kicked off the basketball team. When Ronnie can't explain why, his dad slaps him. Ronnie's girl also breaks up with him. 

Meanwhile, Killer Frost has escaped at her trial. She goes to the Bronx reservoir and freezes it solid. Then she turns her power onto the rest of the city and coats the five Burroughs with a thick sheet of ice. Firestorm finds Killer Frost sitting atop a custom-made ice throne on the roof of City Hall. Frost forces Firestorm to bow down before her and acknowledge her as the Queen of New York.

Justice League #205: Conway and Heck/Tanghal bring the Royal Flush Gang arc to well-needed close. Elongated Man and Black Canary capture the Ten aboard the satellite, but not before Green Arrow joins the ranks of comatose JLAers in the hospital. Batman and Flash join Elongated Man and Black Canary for an attack on the Royal Flush Gang's hideout, only to be taken out of action, one by one. In the end, the villains are predictably (it was setup in the first issue) betrayed by the Jack, who has conspired with Black Canary to take down King and Queen and reveal Ace as a robot. The hospitalized League members are saved when the astral self of Hector Hammond, the Royal Flush Gang's secret organizer, Wild Card, is unexpectedly attacked by the mental persona of  Prof. Stein, the only one aware of Hammond's psychic presence.

Weird War Tales #114: Kanigher and Carillo have the Creature Commandos seemingly beaten, forced to perform in a circus for the Nazi leadership, including Hitler. The Commandos allowed themselves to get captured, though, so they could get into the concentration camp where a French scientist they were looking for had been sent. The Commandos liberate the camp, but the scientist chooses to stay and fight as a partisan rather than coming with. There's a pretty good sequence in this issue where the parachuting commandos have to fight with a German fighter squadron attacking them.

Wonder Woman #294: Thomas/Wolfman and Colan/McLaughlin start a new story that seems to involve mind controlling hand held video games--probably something of a topic de jour in 1982. First Wonder Woman rescues a trucker who wrecked his rig because of a compulsion to play the game. Then a copy of the game gets into the hands of the Blockbuster, who is staying with the Macon family in Bleak Rock. When Mr. Macon tries to take the game away, Blockbuster gets angry and, resorting to savagery for the first time since meeting the Macons, smashes out of their house and runs off. While Diana Prince is at her surprise birthday party (the day is actually the fake birthdate she gave the U.S. Army), she hears on the news that Blockbuster is attacking missile silos in the Appalachians. AS Wonder Woman, she goes to the Appalachians and battles Blockbuster until little Carrie Macon gives him the broken video game, which calms him right down. Wonder Woman allows Blockbuster to go back with the Macons, which seems a bit dangerous, but okay. Later, Wonder Woman tells Steve that there is something sinister about the "Commander Video" game, but after she leaves, he takes the game out of his desk drawer and starts playing it.

Weird Revisited: The Anthology Crawl

This post was originally published on May 2, 2013, shortly after the death of Andrew J. Offutt.

News of Andrew J. Offutt's passing on April 30 got me to thinking about the Sword & Sorcery anthology series he edited (Swords Against Darkness) and fantasy anthologies in general. It seems to me you could use such an anthology (or anthology series) for inspiration and nonrandom "random placement" of encounters/things of interests in a hexcrawl or dungeoncrawl.

Simply pick an anthology. Read every story in it (even the duds--but skimming is ok) and pick some interesting element out of each, be it a monster, encounter, location, or item. Place these on your map in order, or arrange them to taste. You could even get more "madlibs" about it and predetermine what you were going to take from each story (an item, a place, an encounter), before you read (or re-read) the story, forcing you to stretch your creative a bit more to fit it in.

The Grind of Acheron

There is a realm where the obdurate, crystalline structure of a Mechanus shatters and fragments, floating free into the void of half-formed concept. This is a border, though not any physical border because the clockwork nirvana is infinite and redundant in its mechanism, but a conceptual border where the Prime Mover's certainty no longer holds, where the grand program fails. This was the place where, after the fall from Unity (as Law sees it), rebellious Archons sundered themselves from Mechanus. This is the ideaspace separating Pure Law from Hell. This is Acheron.

It's a hell of sorts in its own right. Its acolytes know it as the Crucible. Here, they contend, new truths of Law are formed. Perhaps one day there will be one stronger and surer than either Hell or Mechanus? Adepts of Pure Law view it as gall on the purity of Order, the place where Hell's error abrades it. The Lords of Hell see it as an opportunity.

Pieces of supernal machinery break off at the edges of Mechanus, twisting and reforming, to store failing Order within, into planet-size Platonic solids which continue to degrade, erode and crumble. These have been colonized by numerous beings: malcontents from Hell, reformed things of Chaos, and authoritarian souls with iron dreams of their own version of Order. All the would-be dictators and tyrants begin to gather their followers among the lost and the beaten and forge their own armies of conquest. And then they go to war.

The struggle is as senseless as it is endless. None of the despots or authorities are ever able to overwhelm the others and seldom do they convert them. The strength of Law is shattered, after all. Also, none of them have clear vision of Unity, for they were only born after it. They merely ape what they know of Hell, crudely. 

One might be tempted to view Acheron as a place of Chaos, but philosophers point out that when taken as a whole, the plane is as predictable as Mechanus. Its war machines grind forever on at the behest of devils who will never achieve the godhood they crave.

Wednesday Comics: DC, July 1982 (week 4)

My goal: read DC Comics' output from January 1980 (cover date) to Crisis! This week, we review the comics hitting the newsstand on April 29, 1982.

Action Comics #533: Wolfman and Swan resolve the H.I.V.E. story. The organization threaten the world with a cloud of nuclear waste to distract Superman so they can kill Jimmy and Lois. Our heroes stay one step ahead. 

In the Atom backup, Air Wave and his father D.A. Larry Jordan help the tiny titan foil a Dallas oilman's plot to blow up the nuclear physicists' convention.

All-Star Squadron #11: Thomas and Gonzales/Ordway have Akhet and his Flying Eye are preparing the annex in the Earth in the name of his Brotherhood. After an encounter with the All-Stars, the alien abducts Hawkgirl, Steel, Robotman, and Atom. While the Flying Eye patrols the globe, the world leaders weigh their options. A group of All-Stars investigating the disappearance of a group of missing scientists and the captured All-Stars in the Eye both discover the same thing: Anton Hastor, the supposedly dead enemy of Hawkman and Hawkgirl.

Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew #5: The Zoo Crew help museum curator Oklahoma Bones (son of the famous archeologist) with the issue of alien easter eggs uncovered before World War II on Easter Bunny Island. Pig-Iron accidentally activates an egg and releases an alien yolk monster. The Crew ultimately scrambles the egg monster, but at the annual White House Easter Egg hunt a visiting ambassador turns out to be the Ratzi Baron von Vermin and the eggs he donated eggs are duplicates of the one which nearly destroyed the Zoo Crew.

Detective Comics #516: Conway and Newton bring the School of Crime storyline to a close. The criminals catch on to Batman's disguise as Matches Malone. The Headmaster asks him to be the next guy to dress up as Batman for a demonstration. Batman realizes what they are up to and escapes the trap, then starts taking the thugs down one by one. The Headmaster has a total breakdown seeing all his plotting and planning brought to an end. Meanwhile in Gotham, Vicki Vale is pushed to deliver her photos with evidence of Batman's identity--which will go into the hands of Rupert Thorne, and Gordon becomes partners with Jason Bard, determined to find the truth behind Hamilton Hill.

In the Batgirl backup by Burkett and Delbo, Barbara is in a bad way after the bite of Lady Viper. While she remains unconscious for about a week, Lady Viper continues her criminal spree. But when Barbara finally wakes up, she finds out things have gotten even worse: She's now a snake woman like Viper!

New Adventures of Superboy #31: An obsessed scientist gives his son super-powers. As Pulsar, he's pitted against the Boy of Steel. Dear old Dad continues to sap Superboy's strength with a red sun ray just to make sure of his kid's victory. In the end, though, tips from Pa Kent on the "sweet science" of boxing help Superboy win the day, and Pulsar turns against his father's "win at all costs" methods.

Dial H for Hero continues to be a thing. They fight a villain named Whitefire and their are two characters created by one fan this issue, which is notable, but honestly that's all I recall and I only read it two days ago.

Tales of the New Teen Titans #2: Wolfman and Perez reveal the origin of Raven, most of which we knew already, but now we get more of her time in Azarath and the reveal (at least I think it was a reveal) that Trigon was actually born of the evil of the people Azarath they cast out into the space between dimensions. One nice touch is how questions the Titans ask Raven as she's telling the story kind of lampshade questions the reader might have like: "How did these people leave Earth and go to this place between all dimensions to begin with?" Anyway, given that most of this was known, I don't feel like the extended origin justifies its page count.

Unknown Soldier #265: Haney and Ayers/Talaoc send the Soldier to North Africa where he must solve the murder of the tyrannical Brigadier General "Bull" Bannon. He has full authority to act as judge, jury, and executioner, but Bannon was hated by his men and the Colonel that seems likely to have killed him is beloved and by all appearances a fine leader. This one is continued to next issue.

The Losers encounter some kids really gungho to go to war and the Losers are sort of forced to let them in a story by Kanigher and Evans, which is disappointing in that it barely uses the Losers at all. Kanigher/Severin bring the Enemy Ace back to the killer skies where takes out some French planes trying to ambush him then tangles with crazy ol' Steve Savage briefly.

World's Finest Comics #281: Burkett and Novick bring Superman's and Batman's class with the military name-themed b-listers to a close. While Batman prepares to thwart their plans from the inside, Superman escapes the timeless dimension they sent him to by focusing on his heartbeat and thus bringing time to the timeless place. With the team back together, the bad guys go down. 

Next up, Green Arrow tracks down a homeless woman to was witness to an arson for insurance money scam, but not before the arsonists kill her. Ollie figures out the real estate mogul responsible and blackmails him into building a homeless shelter to avoid jail. Rozakis and Saviuk still have Hawkman out in space fighting aliens. This incident has gone on too long for me. We end on the Bridwell/Newton Marvel Family, which has the Family (plus Kid Eternity) having to contend with a giant Mr. Mind.

Weird Revisited: Comic Book Swordswomen of the Seventies

The original version of this post appeared in 2010...

 

"Sword-swinging fantasy protagonist" has generally been a male gig. The pulps gave us a number of Sword & Sorcery heroes of renown, but Jirel of Joiry, CL Moore's "gal Conan," is the only heroine of note from the era--Howard's Dark Agnes being a "historical" adventuress. It wasn't until the Sword & Sorcery revival of the late seventies-early eighties that more women joined the fray.

Despite the smaller number of Swords and Sorcery heroes in comics, there's a much larger percentage of swordswomen. This can probably be attributed to the visual nature of comics--and the inherent appeal of scantily-clad warrior ladies to a predominantly male audience. Despite that, the beauteous women warriors of comics are for the most part more obscure than their male counterparts. It's time they got their due, starting with the trailblazers of the 1970s.

The first swordswoman of the seventies didn't have to deal with sorcery, but she did exist in a post-apocalyptic-fantasy setting, so I'm going to give her a nod. Lyra of the Femizons is from the pages of Savage Tales (vol. 1) #1 (1971) in a story called "Fury of the Femizons." This might be Stan Lee's update on William Moulton Marston's psychosexually underpinned Wonder Woman concept, or an alarmist "cautionary tale" of women's lib gone wild--or, you know, an idea he scrawled on a napkin at a local deli to fill pages.

Lyra's 23rd Century is essentially a reverse Gor, or The Planet of the Apes if you replace "apes" with "Amazons." Lyra is the toughest gladiatrix around, defeating (and killing) the weak for the "vicious voluptuaries" of Queen Vega's court. That's until she meets hunky slave Mogon and agrees to help him with his revolutionary aims for the sake of love. It all ends tragically, of course--well, mostly for Mogon. Lyra is forced to kill him to "prove" her loyalty to Vega. But she feels really bad about it and realizes, "when a man is but a slave--it is the women who live in bondage." Not sure what Lee meant there, but let's move on.

Our next swordsman is a little less obscure. Red Sonja, the so-called She-Devil with a Sword, debuted in 1973 in Conan the Barbarian #23. Sonja was Roy Thomas' Hyborian Age adaption of Sonya of Rogatino in his Conan-ified interpretation of Robert E. Howard's historical actioner "The Shadow of the Vulture." Thomas' Sonja got magical puissance with a blade from a goddess, along with geas that she would never know (in the Biblical sense) a man until he had defeated her in fair combat. After her Conan appearances, she got a famous chain-mail bikini from artist Esteban Maroto and a lot of further appearances, including a succession of three self-titled series.

Marvel's loss of the Howard licenses couldn't sheathe Sonja's sword. She came back, and so did her chain-mail outfit so beloved by artists and fans. After a couple of one shots at other companies, Dynamite Entertainment picked up the character in 1999, and she's still going strong in an ongoing series and a succession of limiteds.

Just as Red Sonja was beginning to climb in popularity, DC unleashed their own swordswoman. Raven-haired Starfire got her own title from the start, debuting in 1976. The creation of David Micheline and Mike Vosburg, Starfire swung her sword for her world’s freedom from the alien Mygorg and Yorg for only 8 issues. Like Lyra, she had a dead love for motivation, and like Red Sonja, she was always spurning the advances of men.

The next two heroines chronologically have a connection to Red Sonja. The first, and the one to appear in the seventies, was Ghita of Alizarr. Frank Thorne took over the pencilling chores for Red Sonja in Marvel Feature #2 (Jan. 1976) and continued through the eleventh issue of her first self-titled series. Thorne spent most of the seventies getting photographed with attractive women--mostly by dressing up like a wizard and judging Red Sonja lookalike contests at conventions:

It's fair to say that ending his tour on Red Sonja didn't end his interest in buxom warrior women, so he created his own. In Warren's futuristic 1984 #7 (1978), the Red Sonja-reminiscent but blonde-tressed, Ghita of Alizarr debuted. Freedom from Comics Code restrictions freed Ghita from her clothes--frequently--and she proved not at all encumbered by any Sonja-esque restrictions on whom she might have sex with or how often.

Ghita appears in three issues of 1984 and also in several collections where Thorne gets to play Thenef the Wizard in the cover photographs.

And here our heroines ride forth out of the seventies. 

Go Ape

 

Over on the Flashback Universe Blog, Jason Sholtis and I have started an episode by episode review and commentary on The Planet of the Apes 1974 TV show.

Head over there are check it out if that short of thing interests you.

Wednesday Comics: DC, July 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 April 22, 1982.

Brave & the Bold #188: Kanigher and Aparo team Batman with Thorn (as in Rose & Thorn). After taking a group of any city kids to do some environmental clan up, Batman investigates the murder of a former Nazi spy and the theft of a canister of a deadly, biological warfare gas. Batman meets Rose Forrest as she's weirdly being attacked by birds, then investigates the theft of her father's corpse from its grave. At the cemetery, Batman tangles with a group of Neo-Nazis and he is assisted by Thorn, Rose's alter. Together, Batman and Thorn defeat the Nazis, but Batman decides to continue his investigation alone.

Legion of Super-Heroes #289: The Legion searches for its five members who are lost on an icy asteroid. Lightning Lad and Chameleon Boy both engage in some self-flagellation on how their leadership got the group here. Saturn Girl and Timber Wolf, trapped on the asteroid get close, which is easily misunderstood by Light Lass when she arrives with the rescue party. Meanwhile, the darkness teased a couple of issues back is about to make itself known. Levitz and Giffen/Patterson are handling both the character stuff and foreshadowing their epic well.

Green Lantern #154: Barr and Staton/Smith have a distress signal taking Hal to planet where he saves some natives and takes them to their tribe, whose chief thanks him for protecting them "again." Only problem is Hal's never been here. After he helps them out again they offer him a throne and jewels. It turns out they mistaken him for a Green Lantern, named Dalor, who shows up and tells Hal that he is in Sector 2813 instead of 2814. Dalor explains that the tribe's offerings are merely his payments for his services. Hal's not happy about that and demands Dalor to accompany him to his spatial base.

Dalor's a new Green Lantern, but he explains all the planets have been paying him for his services, so he thought was the way it went for Green Lanterns. Hal wants to tell the Guardians, but there's another distress signal from the planet. Dalor tries to beat Hal to attend to the emergency, but he falls unconscious, just like the rest of the tribe, due to a sulfur cloud. Hal fans out the gas and saves everybody but the chief, who died by intoxication. Hal lays into Dalor for his behavior, but the projection of a Guardian appears in front of them, saying that they'll judge the one responsible.

House of Mystery #306: Jones and Sutton bring Andrew Bennett and Mary to Victorian London. Bennett is immediately mistaken for Jack the Ripper, and Mary is murdering woman in the name of the ripper to try to kill the ancestor of Dr. Barr who made the cancer cure that's killing vampires, so he'll never be born. Turns out the doctor who helps Bennett is actually Jack the Ripper, and his housekeeper (the sister of a prostitute Mary kills is Barr's ancestor.

The next story by Cavalieri and Patricio is better and certainly less convoluted. Government agents are interrogating a Private who stole a file on the secret Project: Ultra. They give him an experimental truth serum, which allows him to see all truth. The final story by Gwyon and Curry has a young boy told all his life by his vain and neurotic mother only to find it it's true--as he bleeds to death from hemophilia. As someone with hemophilia, I don't particularly find the story offensive, but it is dumb and terribly inaccurate in its portrayal of the condition.

Sgt. Rock #365: Kanigher and Redondo have Easy in a tough spot in the desert, but they're saved by a gungho kid from Appalachia who loved the arm so much he wants to stay in 30 years. He doesn't get to, but breaking the usual formula, he isn't KIA, but gets a ticket home due to injuries. He guips he got 30 minutes of action instead of 30 years. Mandrake is on art duties for the next story, a sci-fi yarn where a woman fleeing invading aliens is helped out by the geyser, Old Faithful. Between this and Brave & the Bold this month, I suspect Kanigher has an environmentalist streak.

In "Destruction from Below" a violent leader of a Stone Age human tribe leads them underground, but then he falls into some weird mushroom patch and sleeps for a looong time. When he awakens, he attempts to lead the degenerate descendants of his band, but the modern world is too much for them to handle when they emerge in a city park. In the final story with art by DeMulder, an F-4 Phantom pilot's dream of a dogfight with a dragon is symbolically prophetic of the way he escapes an enemy in a dogfight the following day. 

Superman Family #220: Supergirl is still trapped in a ghostly state thanks to Master Jailer. She goes to Ivy University and seeks help from Ray Palmer, the Atom, who is able to figure out a solution. Returned to normal, Supergirl goes back to New York. She manages locate the Master Jailer's hideout in the Brooklyn Bridge--but he turns out to be a robot, and the real Master Jailer is still at large.

In the Kupperberg/Delbo Jimmy Olsen, the accumulated inconsistencies lead Jimmy to begin to realize that he is under someone's influence. But he goes to the Planet and accuses Clark of being Superman, as Brain Storm observes from his secret lair. The O'Flynn/Oksner has a reformed criminal Lane helped stay out of jail tipping her off to a job his old gang is pulling. She helps fake his death so they can catch the gang. Finally, in the Mr. and Mrs. Superman story by Bridwell/Schaffenberger, introduce (briefly) a Supergirl stand-in--Liandly from the planet Rolez. She returns to her homeworld at the end of the story, but not before helping Superman against the Earth-2 Colonel Future.

Warlord #58: I detailed the main story in this issue here. In the Kupperberg and Duursema Arion backup, Arion continues on his journey more troubled than before, after learning he was born from cosmic matter. Meanwhile, Garn Daanuth, sorcerer and ruler of the dead city Mu, plots Arion's downfall. While Arion sleeps the sorcerer sends an astral projection to kill him. Arion awakes up but is struck down by Garn. Gemimn and Chaon observe the battle an argue over who they think will prevail.

Four-Color Swords & Sorcery: Monsters!

Earl Norem

Big monsters are a hallmark of Bronze Age Four-Color fantasy of the Swords & Sorcery mode. These creatures are often are the antagonist of the "big battle" of the issue, the full manifestation of the menace posed by the main villain--and occasionally the main villain themselves. Less formidable big monsters may be an obstacle to the final confrontation with the villain.

The monsters come in a variety of forms from merely giant to gargantuan natural animals to animate statues/automata of humanoids or animal shape. Tentacled, tendriled, or pseudopod-waving creatures seem to particularly common. I suspect so their threat is made clear in a way that doesn't immediately injure the heroes or result in a Comics Code Approval imperiling amount of blood.

So are multiple heads. Both of these have the added benefit particularly in games of allowing one creature to engage multiple heroic opponents more easily.

These creatures, at least the bigger ones, are seldom defeated by hacking them until they die. In game terms, the simplest to defeat require a "critical hit" or called shot of some sort, often an injury to their eye. Others are dispatched by a trick of some sort: using the environment or their own abilities or natural weaponry against them. Finally, some can only be killed using a special item or weapon, typically obtained earlier in the adventure.

What does this meaning for emulating the genre in gaming? These are my take aways:

• Unique, big monsters need to show up regularly. Maybe not every adventure, but most of them.
• The best way to defeat the creatures should seldom be the most obvious brute force method.
• This means the GM needs to reward creative thinking by the players to handle these encounters.
• If the ways of defeating the monster are particularly limited, the means must be telegraphed to the players and be available to them.

Outgunned

Two Little Mice, the designers of Broken Compass, have a new game on the way called Outgunned, which is billed as "a cinematic action rpg inspired by the classics of the action and heist genre, from Die Hard to True Lies, passing through James Bond, Lethal Weapon, Kingsman, Ocean’s Eleven, Hot Fuzz, and the latest John Wick."

The Kickstarter hasn't launched yet, but the "quickstart" (really more of a preview) is available on drivethru as pay what you want. It's basically the same system as Broken Compass, though has a few new features and refinements. It's a bit less rules lite than BC, though still very much a rules lite game.

Wednesday Comics: DC, July 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 April 15, 1982.

Batman #349: Conway and Colan/Alcala reveal just what sort of trouble Robin is in, when Dala outs herself and her "brother," a Monk, as vampires. Robin escapes, but not before Dala bites him. Meanwhile, with the threat of Vicki Vale revealing her photo evidence about Batman's real identity, Alfred goes to Boston to hire the Human Target to impersonate Bruce Wayne. To shake for father out of his depression after losing his job, Barbara gets him to partner with Jason Bard in order to investigate the suspicious political situation in Gotham.

Flash #311: Bates is milking this mystery of the identity of Colonel Computron. He's firmly zeroed us in on the suspects, but it's really just a tease in that he isn't giving us any means of choosing who might be the culprit. The alliance Colonel Computron and Boomerang doesn't last long, as Computron traps the Flash and Captain Boomerang on a high-tech boomerang that takes them both into the past. They contend with pirates, but then make it back to the present--but Computron still gets away. 

In the backup, Dr. Fate is trapped in the nihil-verse and his to contend with the Lord of Chaos,  Vandaemeon. He makes it back to Earth, only to find Inza missing from the tomorrow. Meanwhile, Inza is getting close to the silver fox, Vern Copeland. 

G.I. Combat #243: In the first Haunted Tank tale, Kanigher would have us believe that a group of highly disciplined teen soldier would turn on their Oberst when it was revealed that Americans weren't cowardly like he said. Next we get something more plausible, as an O.S.S. operative pretends to be a blind man to get to the top of the Eiffel Tower--and blow it up--so the Germans can't use it as an observation post. He fails. 

Newman and Redondo present a pointed tale of the Pacific Theater, where a Nisei soldier fights bravely for the U.S.--and his parents read his letters about his exploits from a U.S. internment camp. Kashdan/Catan reveal the secret history of a Jewish clairvoyant who tricks Hitler into flubbing the response to D-Day. In the final Haunted Tank story, Jeb briefly loses his nerve worrying about the price of command, but rallies to when the day.

Jonah Hex #62: Hex's caught by the Manchu Emperor, who knows about the assassination plot by the White Lotus and is prepared to torture Hex to find out where she is. Luckily, Mei Ling rescues him and the two escape the palace. Sledge, a sailor, offers them passage back to the states, on the ship Malay Tiger, but when they discover the ship's carrying opium, things get ugly. Meanwhile, the Imperial troops raid the White Lotus stronghold, but Wu Gong Phat escapes and swears revenge against Hex.

Saga of the Swamp Thing #3: "A Town Has Turned to Blood." Pasko and Yeates have the Swamp Thing and Casey arriving via freight-train in Rosewood, Illinois. Swamp Thing becomes involved with a small band of hunters out to rid their town of vampires. They ultimately flood the town to get rid of the vampires--will see how that turns out in Alan Moore's run. Swamp Thing is pretty cold in that the sole survivor of the humans, a teenage boy, asks Swamp Thing to take him with him, but Swampy says, "no, stay and rebuild the town." This town that is under feet of water. Where no one else is left alive.

New Teen Titans #21: Wolfman and Perez introduce Brother Blood. Raven and Starfire save a baseball stadium crowd from terrorists, unaware that they are being monitored by the criminals' secret backer in a satellite base. Meanwhile, Cyborg's ex, Marcy Reynolds, is murdered when she tries to leave the Church of Brother Blood's commune. Trying to get information on the cult, Robin, Kid Flash, Wonder Girl, and Raven infiltrate the cult, and are disturbed by what they see. Their identities are discovered, and the four battle Blood and his minions, but are defeated. Raven's soul-self escapes to warn the other Titans.

This issue also contains a preview of "The Night Force" by Wolfman and Colan/Smith. The mysterious, time-traveling Baron Winter reviews the operatives he soon plans to gather: Jack Gold, a reporter investigating a Pentagon operation called "Project Satan"; Donovan Caine, a professor conducting a parapsychology experiment in the form of a Black Mass; and Vanessa van Helsing, a young psychiatric patient who only Winter seems to be able to calm. But someone else is watching these individuals, as well.

Superman #373: Bates and Swan/Hunt bring back Vartox. He's after a quick hookup with his love interest, Lana Lang, but when she suddenly acquires an aura that will allow her to live on his homeworld, maybe they can get married after all? Vartox assumes this strange turn of events is just his power working unconsciously (okay), but it turns out it's part of a revenge plot by Vartox's first (and supposedly deceased) lover.

In the "Private Life of Clark Kent" backup, Linda Danvers talks Clark into doing a cameo on her soap Secret Hearts as himself. When Clark hears an ambulance nearby being stuck in gridlock, he tries and apparently fails to get Linda to change into Supergirl help. He becomes Superman and does it himself. He confronts Linda about not handling it, but it turns out she was asking him via super-ventriloquism to handle take care of it. Embarrassed that he was not listening to her at the time, Clark apologizes. The drama!