Wednesday Comics: DC, August 1984 (week 3)

Join me as I read DC Comics' output from January 1980 (cover date) to Crisis! This week, I'm looking at comics that were published on May 24, 1984.

Warlord #84: I reviewed the main story here. In the Barren Earth backup by Cohn and Randall, Jinal gets an audience with one of the mysterious, robed rulers of the floating city of D'Roz. He reveals that the Harashashan and the Mulge are creations of his people, and he is aware the Qlov are on Earth. He's unconvinced, however, that he should join Jinal's side over theirs. He tasks her with capturing a Qlov so they both can be questioned at the same time.

Legion of Super-Heroes #1: Here begins another direct sale only relaunch by the popular creative team of Levitz, Giffen, and Mahlstedt. It's off to a great start with the reveal of a shadowy group as it recruits Lightning Lord and extracts from him a vow to kill his brother, Lightning Lad. 

In a casino on Ventura, Star Lad, Dream Girl and Shrinking Violet have a run in with Micro Lad, but he's pulled away into a dimensional rift before they can apprehend him. Later, renegade Daxamite Ol-Vir is recruited from Takron-Galtos by what appears to be the same group and told he is to join a new Legion of Super-Villains.

Giffen's art has pretty much reached its final Legion form, though it's not as messy or angular here as in say Ambush Bug or the Legion of Substitute Heroes Special to come, though maybe that's down to different inkers.

Batman and the Outsiders #13: As BatO closes on its first year we get a silly story from Barr and Day/Marcos. Batman was poisoned last issue, and there's no antidote, but a physician prescribes keeping him physically and mentally active to maybe help him burn through the poison. So, at the suggestion of Alfred, they take him to Crime Alley and re-enact the murder of his parents! Somehow, a crime boss gets word of his condition, and they have to contend with a gang's assault. The trauma-reinforcing approach seems to work, and Batman's life is saved. He reveals his secret identity to the Outsiders, but of course, they already know.

Blue Devil #3: Mishkin/Cohn and Cullins/Martin pick up where last issue left off with Blue Devil being thoroughly examined by S.T.A.R. Labs (and repeating his origin for new readers). Meanwhile, Shockwave is being berated by his employer, Metallo, who decides to handle the situation himself. He attacks the lab, and despite Blue Devil's attempts to stop him, replaces his regular old kryptonite heart with the synthetic super-kryptonite. The radiation field is so potent, Superman can't get into the building to help. Blue Devil uses his brain, though, deducing that Metallo is powered by the kryptonite and contrives to get in close enough to remove it. Superman swoops in to help the mop up of Metallo's forces and after hearing his story, takes Blue Devil to introduce him to an expert in magic who might be able to help. The action and humor formula of this book is really coming together, and the art looks great.

Green Lantern #179: Wein and Gibbons present what seems practically like a backdoor pilot for a Predator series as the enigmatic new character singlehandedly takes down the Demolition Team with style and banter. He even steals a kiss from Carol Ferris, which I'm sure was intended for its 1984 audience to read as "charming rogue." I had previously assumed the Predator was Mr. Smith from Con Trol, but that's not made clear. They are definitely related in some way, though, which undercuts the "Predator as hero" idea. This issue also undermines the Demolition Team who come off like chumps after their big introduction.

Meanwhile, Hal is trying to save Omnicron Ceti IV. He gets the idea of using stellarium from asteroids to create damping rods to absorb the radiation from the planet's core and cool it. When the planet is saved, the Guardians congratulate Jordan for a job well done, but he angrily warns them that if his home and friends suffered in his absence, he'll make the Guardians regret it. He flies back to Earth and finds Ferris Aircraft in flaming ruins.

In the backup by Klein and Gibbons, we're back to the world of "Green Magic" and the conflict between science and sorcery with a young Green Lantern in the middle. Hollika Rahn struggles to bring together her sorcerer friend with her scientist ally, Tahrk. They agree to be allies just in time, as a stalking submarine of the scientists emerges near the shores of their island.

Infinity, Inc. #5: In a twist surprising no reader, I'm sure, the JSA members aren't really dead, but instead just out for a bit after "drowning" in the Koehaha River, also known as the Stream of Ruthlessness, which is no doubt from some Golden Age story. The Justice Society members wake up at their own autopsy without consciences and beat up the Flash and several Infinitors. Meanwhile, Brainwave Jr. and Star-Spangled Kid are ambushed by the Ultra-Humanite.

New Talent Showcase #8: First up is a new feature apparently named "Jenesis" (there's not a title in the issue though) by Newell with art by Beachum/Alexander, accentuating the 80s-ness of an already 80s story. Anxieties about women in the workplace collide with the ghosts of Vietnam as scientist Alix Ward loses her baby perhaps due to her reckless pursuit of knowledge or maybe due to a fight with a crazy vet but develops super-powers to rescue herself and her husband from the husband's former friend out for revenge for choices made during the war.

Mirrage is still dealing with Slice, the ruthless enforcer for drug lords, who kidnaps Mirrage's girl. Like a few stories this issue the writing and cramped layouts make this seem longer than its page count suggests. The poster child for that is "Cosmos Clinics: Clinic Conflict" by Marchman and Orzechowski/Pharms that seems to cram 32 pages of story in. It involves a chain of clinics that offer a chance at super-powers but deliver those with a side of mind control and creeping government takeover. They maintain fear through a group of enforcers clad in pink and magenta leotards with high collars. But hey, there is a resistance trying to take them down.

The "Class of 2064: Dragonfly" story, probably the best of the issue, concludes with the young pilot on her summer break managing to bring the ship in relatively unharmed with the help of her robot, winning the respect of her father.

Saga of Swamp Thing #27: Well, we get to the climax of this story and like with many of the decompressed comics this storyline prefigures, it seems a bit flat given the buildup, and ironically, rushed. This isn't a comic about punch 'em ups, so I don't expect pages of slugfest between Swamp Thing, the Demon, and kamara. The point is, ultimately, that the kid Paul has to conquer his fear and in doing so, defeat the entity. But given the two prior issues' pacing it seems to me we needed another complication or wrinkle in the plot before the resolution. Anyway, I'm glad Moore worked the Demon into the story, and poor Matt Cable's unwise deal with a talking fly is suitably ominous.

Sgt. Rock #391: I think this is the last of those stories that appeared in the Best of DC #61 anthology I keep mentioning: "Killers Also Smile." It wasn't one of the highlights of that digest for me, but its tale of a sadistic but pleasant and smiling SS commander killing the children of a town probably struck me more then than it does now after I've been reading Kanigher's war comics for years for this blog. I will say, it is better than average script for Kanigher made into a better comic with Gonzales' layouts and visual storytelling. 

The backup story by Joe Moore and Rex Lindsey has an old pilot prove that he should be listened to by the young fighter pilots in the Pacific. While this is inspired by true events (at least based on what I read on Wikipedia) the choice of Lindbergh as the hero of a World War II story is more than a little ironic given his early Nazi sympathies.

Supergirl #22: Infantino and Oksner are back just in time for Infantino's pencils to go to good use drawing a weird, future creature with a design that harkens back to the pulp illustration-inspired Silver Age, but with the twist of the change in his style in the years since. There's a blackout in Chicago and Supergirl spends the evening saving the day, but Dr. Barry Metzner doesn't hear the taped message he set under his pillow to play while he slept. The message of which he had no memory wherein he urges himself to forget the past and only concentrate on the present. As Metzner's suppressed memories surface, he's transformed into a spindly, macrocephalic, futuristic man with psychokinetic powers. The future-Metzner lashes out with his psychic might, causing devastation but so far not hurting bystanders. When Supergirl arrives on the scene, he envelopes her in flames from a wrecked car. Oh, and before that, Supergirl appears breaks up with the guy she's been dating.

Thriller #9: DuBay is joined by new artist Alex Niño, and the exit of the creators of the title is complete. Trying to escape from the Soviet Union after the events of last issue, Angie Thriller leads the Seven Seconds to a super-secret installation where genetically engineered lifeforms tend genetically engineered foodstuffs under the supervision of an AI to feed all the Soviet Union. This is slavery, and Thriller means for her operatives to destroy the base with a nuclear warhead to put the creatures out of their misery. The team have feelings about all the deaths they wind up being responsible for, but hey. DuBay seems committed to keeping Thriller weird, but this just doesn't feel like the sort of story Fleming would have done. Nino keeps the art very much in the von Eeden style, but has a different storytelling sensibility.

The Omega Team

Here's an idea for a campaign for an action/covert mission rpg. Outgunned is what I'm thinking of, but it would work with something like Top Secret/S.I. too, I think. I see it as having something of the vibe of an 80s indie comic, so keep that in mind when reading the pitch:

In the "near future" (from the 80s, so maybe it's like mid to late 90s?) a young man with immense, psychic power has gone rogue, escaping the top secret facility he has been living in. His ultimate goals are unclear, but the first thing he does is make the world's nuclear arsenals inoperable. The Soviets (they're still around) suspect some sort of U.S. super-weapon attack (which isn't far from the truth, really). Everybody's paranoid and non-nuclear war breaks out in various places around the world.

That was just this guy's first trick. What will an unstable, poorly socialized individual with almost god-like power and a grudge against the U.S. government do next? The government doesn't want to find out. The PCs are the agents they send to solve the problem--with extreme prejudice. They're the solution of last resort: the Omega Team*.

The Omega Team would be an eclectic group of experts in various fields tasked with tracking this guy down and ending his menace. He probably has recruited others with paranormal abilities (but much lower powerful levels), and he moves around a lot, so it's no easy task.

The idea shameless lifts the basic plot idea from Marvel Comics' Nth Man: The Ultimate Ninja, but Akira, Thriller (the comic), Odd John, and the anime Lazarus are also inspirations, as well as 80s team stuff in general like G.I. Joe.

*The Omega Team was the name of a comic my cousin, brother, and I created as kids about a group of mutants working for the government. I've recycled it before for this idea.

The Patchwork Kingdom Crawl

 As has been pointed out before, the kind of frontier envisioned by old D&D owes more to Westerns than it does to the Western European Middle Ages or most of the fantasy works in the Appendix N. The modern idea of the "points of light" setting is perhaps closer to these things but still tends to miss the mark for many sources of the game's inspiration.

There's another option that shows up often, in disparate places from Le Morte d'Arthur to Star Trek, and many works in between. We have heroes wandering from one place to another, perhaps with a goal, perhaps not. These places are more or less civilized jurisdictions, but they have unusual customs (from the perspective of the protagonists) or eccentric or antagonist authorities. While one of the examples I mentioned above describes voyages covering a significant amount of territory (interplanetary!), some fairy tale-ish or picaresque stories (like Oz novels) do the same thing over a much smaller area: A patchwork of fiefdoms or petty kingdoms. The sort of campaign that could easily be made from a map of Holy Roman Empire:

This differs from the points of light setting in that there really isn't a distinction between wilderness for adventure and civilization for safety. In fact, the challenges of the wilderness in such stories may be much more limited than the challenges of civilization. The various eccentric monarchs and humorously dangerous social situations Manuel finds himself in in Figures of Earth are good examples, as are the strange and isolated cities John Carter visits in his wanderings across Barsoom.

The advantages of this sort of setting to me would be that it's very easy to work in all sorts of adventures from social conflict and faction stuff to traditional dungeons and overland travel.

Wednesday Comics: DC, August 1984 (week 2)

I'm reading DC Comics' output from January 1980 (cover date) to Crisis! This week, I'm reviewing the comics released on the week of May 17, 1984. 

Sgt. Rock Annual #4: This was, I think, the actual first issue of a Sgt. Rock comic I bought. There weren't many of those--this may be the only one. It was the cover that captured my interest, I suspect. The story gives almost as much "screen time" to the Iron Major as to Rock himself. We see how he lost his hand to frostbite on the Eastern Front saving a soldier in his command from a freezing river, a soldier that dies this issue before he can get him to medical attention. The Iron Major is the sort of honorable Wehrmacht soldier that crops up in Kanigher's stories, the better to portray wear as a tragedy for all involved, I suppose. In this story, though, there are examples of German war crime and depravity for the Major (and the reader) to disapprove of, dispelling any idea he might be typical. In the end, faced with being complicit with war crimes, he chooses to shoot an SS officer who would use see the people of a village killed to get at Easy Company. He and Rock part with an understanding--but an understanding that includes the likelihood of one of them killing the other in the future.

Batman #374: Nice cover by Newton and Giordano. Moench and Newton/Alcala bring back the Penguin who hasn't been a solo villain in a story since 1982 in Brave and the Bold #185. The story does a bit of a thing I don't like in comics: where the feelings (or presumed feelings) of the readership is projected into the world of the comics. Penguin perhaps isn't taken seriously as a villain in 1984 perhaps due to hangover from the 60s Batman TV show, ergo in the DC Universe Penguin isn't taken seriously. Still, I like the characterization Moench gives him. It's a bit like Meredith's TV portrayal but with a greater hint of menace. If the Penguin isn't considered a threat in the DCU, he seems to be saying, it isn't because he isn't actually threatening. Anyway, the Penguin is staging a series of crimes so he can get the recognition he feels like he deserves. He pulls off his caper and gets away with information that could lead to international geopolitical consequences. Meanwhile, Vicki frets over whether to publish a shot she snapped of him that portrays him in the light he wants--and of course, she's also still worried about Julia perhaps moving in on Bruce. A worker at Gotham children services is convinced Jason needs to be taken from Bruce. If she only knew!

Arak Son of Thunder #36: In the aftermath of the defeat and unmasking of the serpent men, there are suspicions regarding the identity of the traitor in their midst with Alsind's uncle and Arak having a mutual mistrust. Josephus tells them to seek the sword, and Arak does just that with his vague, demigod powers. He leads them to a place to dig where eventually they break into a buried chamber with the burning sword floating in the air. After Arak grasps the sword a giant worm attacks them reveals himself to have the upper torso of a man and the body of a snake. Arak kills him, but as he dies the Lord of Serpents projects his image into the room and whisks Alsind and his Sharizad away with magic. Alsind's mother is revealed as the traitor, and she is killed by his uncle. Arak vows to get the youths back.

There's another "Young Arak" backup with art by Forton but really nothing of import happens, other than we get some Quontaukan (borrowed) mythology about the world being on back of a turtle.

Flash #336: I don't know that this run gets the credit (or the blame) for it, but this is pretty close to 21st Century style decompression here in the Bronze Age. The most noteworthy thing in this installment is there really isn't even a super-villain adversary in it. The Flash has saved the Mayor from mind-control enforced suicide and the Mayor tells him about the hypnotism, but the Flash is unable to trace the control device to the Pied Piper. When he's told about the rockslide destroying Peter's house, he races to check on Cecile and is told a dead woman has been found in the ruins--but it winds up being someone else: the assistant of a tabloid journalist bugging the home. Realizing where Cecile must be, the Flash digs at super-speed to reveal the intact sensory deprivation tank with a still-living Cecile inside. Cecile is momentarily grateful, but her coldness toward Flash soon returns. We learn later this issue that she blames the Flash for the death of someone whose grave she visits. The Flash tracks down the men who set off the bomb above the house and links them to crooked attorney N.D. Redik. Redik jumps from a window to commit suicide rather than go to jail.

G.I. Combat #268: In the first Haunted Tank story, Stuart's Raiders are exhausted and ordered to R&R in a small French town near the front. Mostly, they slip around a table in the cafe while the populace, grateful for their efforts, do things for them. When the German's attack the town, though, the Raiders can't let the civilians fight the battle alone. The second story is "Battle of Two Flags" and I think Kanigher has done this idea before, complete with elevating the Confederate battle flag, albeit divorced from any historical context.

There's a story by Kashdan and Cruz about an American MP whose shiny brass belt buckle saves his life, then a Mercenaries installment that sees the trio agreeing to arm and train a group of Pacific Islanders to fight their enemies for a handful of pearls. The Islanders are poor modern soldiers and ultimately reject the weapons and training of the Mercenaries as useless, instead finding the courage to fight in the way they already know.

Omega Men #17: Moench takes over as new regular writer with Smith/Tanghal handling art duties. Felicity begins acting strangely and Doc determines she is receiving a telepathic distress call. After determining the source, a group of Omega Men fly off to check it out. They find an asteroid and beign to explore.They accidently reactive an ancient Psion experiment which starts producing duplicates of Tigorr. They began attacking each other and then the Omegan's ship. Primus goes into the cave Tigorr originally entered to investigate.

Meanwhile on Euphorix, the judiciary recommends exile for Alonzo Dulak for his part in the "Crisis of the Shield," and a distracted Kalista concurs. A spy carries word to Harry Hokum who plans to woo Dulak to his side.

Star Trek #7: Barr and Barreto/Villagran put Saavik through pon farr (erroneously spelled "pon far" throughout this issue), so Kirk and crew must divert to Vulcan with Kirk's son, David, who happens to be visiting, to find Saavik's intended, Xon (whose name is an easter egg for Trek fans, being named for a character who would have appeared in the scrapped Star Trek Phase II series). The problem is Xon isn't there and is on some secret mission for the Vulcan government. Saavik finds out where he is from Sarek's computer and steals a ship to go after him, and Enterprise pursues her. We get Saavik's origin as half-Romulan, an idea that appeared in the Wrath of Khan script and in a line of dialogue filmed but cut. Fans had deduced she was part Romulan, though, based on the fact that the language she and Spock spoke in a scene in WOK wasn't Vulcan as presented in ST:TMP. Anyway, this detail and the tease about Spock's katra suggest Barr is getting access to inside information.

Superman #398: In the first story, Cavalieri and Swan/Hunt bring back Mickey Norris for his last appearance, the kid Superman fan we first saw in issue 388. Mickey is inadvertently causing problems for the Man of Steel as he plays because he's conjuring menaces and stealing Superman's powers each time he pretends to have one. Superman uses Mickey's powers to his advantage, having the kid conjure a solution. The second story by Kupperberg and Saviuk/Jensen is sillier but I kind of like it: Superman's Clark Kent clothes stored in the secret pocket of his cape get inhabited and animated by alien energy lifeforms. 

Tales of the Teen Titans #45: Wolfman and Perez/de Carlo pick up an unspecified time after last issue. Changeling is still dealing poorly with the death of Terra as the other Titans try to get on with their lives with Donna's wedding to Terry approaching. Joe and Raven develop a friendship as Raven continues to deal with things she won't share. Wally and Francine visit, but Wally doesn't share that the use of his power is causing him pain and he maybe be seriously ill. An immediate crisis emerges when Aqualad and Aquagirl show up at the Tower near death. After they are given medical care, Aqualad tells them that the H.I.V.E. has attacked Atlantis. The team wants to put a stop to H.I.V.E. once and for all.

Religion in Middle-earth

Art by Falmarin de Carme

I came across this site a couple of weeks ago that compiles additional background material generated for a Finnish Middle-earth based role-playing campaign. What I found most interesting is its extrapolation and elaboration of the religions for Middle-earth. 

This is a perceived area weakness pointed out in Tolkien's work in the past. In Imaginary Worlds, Carter notes critically that Tolkien's world "has no religion in it." In Dragon #127, Rolston in his review of Lords of Middle-earth for MERP gets to the gamer brass tacks of it:

According to Lords of Middle-earth, Middle-earth has a "seemingly inexhaustible collection of deities, pantheons, practices, and religions." However, all of them are wrong. Eru is the only god, and the Valar and the Maiar are simply his servants. Enlightened folk (Elves and Dunedain) practice a nonritualistic monotheism with no formal clergy - pretty boring stuff by FRP standards. 

A lot of epic fantasy has followed Tolkien's areligious example (Jordan's Wheel of Time series, for one) and as modern society becomes ever more secular, it probably is less and less seen as a deficit. Still, if you think of religion is a fascinating aspect of the real world well worth including in imagined worlds (where you at, Gloranthaphiles?) it's cool to see the work Sampsa Rydman has done here. The religions described build on the details provided in Tolkien's extensive writings and (so far as I am familiar with the lore) the new things added seem consistent.

For instance, the orthodox worship of Númenor is as described in terms of its simple ritual and insistence that only the king prays to Eru. The description of a Trinity of Eru, Word, and Flame Imperishable seems a credible extrapolation from details given. Likewise, the sort of Satanic faith of the Black Númenoreans is given a creed that is consistent with what me know about the downfall of their land but with reasonable details as to what Sauron might have convinced them to get them on his side. "Doing evil" (from the point of view of the doer) has historically not really been a common motivator for human religions, so it makes more sense that those that Sauron seduced to his cause were given some other line: "The Valar have wronged both you and the true god, and the true god will redress that wrong if you help him out."

Art by Angus MacBride

Of course, an issue with religion in Middle-earth is canonically we know what's true and what isn't. For a game campaign I think it might be more fun, as Rolston implies, if that weren't true. Going as far as Jacqueline Carey's The Sundering duology and switching the moral polarity of the two sides doesn't really help, but borrowing her idea that the Creator is out of the picture and the lesser gods have differing understandings or interpretations of how to carry out their mission leads to a more ambiguous situation with more possibilities for equally valid appearing religions. In other words, something like the sort of cosmologies or interpretations offered in fantasy works that utilize Judeo-Christian mythology as their backdrop. Really just making the complete truth unknowable to beings within the world (even immortal ones like the elves) would serve the same purpose, though I think most people familiar with Middle-earth would tend to make assumptions that would make this minimal change approach Less effective.

I don't think a Middle-earth game (or a game in any setting) has to have religion (unless you got clerics, in which case, you sort of already do), any more than you are required to explore any other element of culture, but if you're planning to run a long campaign I think it's an interesting facet to add.

Wednesday Comics: DC, August 1984 (week 1)

My mission: to read DC Comics' output from January 1980 (cover date) to Crisis. This week, I'm looking at the comics that were at newsstands on the week of May 10, 1984. 

Atari Force #8: This is another one of the stories from that analogy that was so formative to my early comics fandom, Best of DC #61. It's plotted by Conway but writer by Helfer with art by Garcia-Lopez and Villagran. In a misguided attempt to find and help Morphea, Babe and Hukka take a ship and go off-course, crashing on a planet where two hobbit-sized alien species are at war. Though he doesn't understand the conflict or their language, Babe manages to side with the native species fighting and helps its last survivor get revenge on the invaders. The Conway/Helfer story here may not be seminal in the way of "Anatomy Lesson" or "Who is Donna Troy?" but it is a well-done story with good visual storytelling. Its inclusion in the anthology shows the breadth of DC Comics in the era.

New Teen Titans #1: Here we are at the 1st issue of the new, direct-sale only, better paper Titans book. The issue opens with credits indicating Wolfman and Perez are the books co-editors as well as creators. There's not an indication of how much time has passed since last month's Tales of the Teen Titans #44, but it's long enough that Jericho is an established (if still new) member of the team and no mention is made of Tara's death. Anyway, in a training exercise Jericho uses his power to take over Raven, leaving him horrified at his brief glimpse of Raven's inner struggles and turmoil. He convinces the rest of the team they need to help Raven, but none of them know how, and then Raven rebuffs them and announces she's leaving the team.

Before that can happen, Jericho again enters Raven's mind, hoping to find some way to help. Instead, he experiences something akin to hell and gets the notice of the part of Trigon that dwells inside her. Jericho is cast out and Raven disappears. As the Titans try to determine what happened, sky outside the Tower grows dark and there's thunder accompanied by sinister laughter.

DC Comics Presents #72: Kupperberg and Saviuk/Jensen come up with perhaps the most unusual team up this title has seen. The dimension where Maaldor (him again!) is basically a god has succumbed to his madness--a madness that might spread to other worlds. Sensing this danger (and the suffering of Maaldor) Phantom Stranger recruits Superman to go to that world with the only person capable of fighting madness with madness: the Joker. Once he gets the hang of manipulating reality, Joker threatens to betray his allies, but the Stranger and Superman are one step ahead. It's an unconventional story and not the best this title has had to offer, but not the worst either.

Fury of Firestorm #26: We left Firestorm in pretty dire straits, having been bitten by a cobra and being attacked by animated toys. Firestorm manages to get out of this predicament by using his power to transform some of the toys into a mechanism to suck out the poison. Seems dubious to me, but hey, it's a comic with a ghost of a Native American shaman fighting a guy with fire for hair! Anyway, despite being weakened Ronnie insists they pursue the villains who escaped by hijacking helicopter. He isn't up to stopping them alone, but luckily, they get close enough to Reilly's office that the fight gets Lorraine's attention, so she comes to help as Firehawk. Ultimately, though, after animating the Statue of Liberty, forcing Firestorm to turn it into a "bop bag," Black Bison and Silver Deer get away. 

Justice League of America #229: Conway and Kupperberg/Marcos continue the War of the Worlds. Firestorm and Martian Manhunter are teamed up despite Firestorm's newfound and relentless distrust of the Martian. Laying the groundwork for what is to come, the President quizzes Aquaman on where the League's most powerful members are, and he acknowledges they've been absent of late. Elongated Man shows up to help, though. Martian warships converge on the League Satellite and the Challenger boards it, though they manage to defeat him. Seeing to confirm Firestorm's suspicions Martian Manhunter dons a space suit and takes a Justice League shuttle, going it alone. In reality, he intends on facing the Marshal himself.

Ronin #6: Miller brings his groundbreaking limited series to an end a bit over a year after it began. It might have backed more of a punch if it had come out in a timelier fashion, but he saves some of his most elaborate layouts and intricate pencils for this final chapter--even if those sometimes leave the action a bit confusing. Casey fights her way into Aquarius to rescue the Ronin, which she now knows to be Billy. A visit to her husband, Peter, allows him to reveal that Virgo built this samurai fantasy to exploit Billy's power to transform itself from a machine to actual synthetic life. In the end it's freeing Billy from Virgo's clutches that is the solution to defeating it. Casey commands him with his ronin mentality to commit seppuku for his failures. The shock brings down the system, but the ending is ambiguous because the Ronin still seems to be alive. Anyway, work like this definitely paved the way for the real innovation in mainstream comics away from just newsstand superheroes.

Vigilante #9: Wolfman and Andru/Adkins continue the story from last issue. Chase escapes the burning house (just barely), but Ebert is dead, and a singed business card is the only clue. Chase is still thinking about taking the judgeship and has a couple of meeting that lean heavy into talk of "bleeding heart liberals" and "ACLU types" letting criminals off, but maybe this isn't the ethos of the title as much character development for the supporting cast. Later, the Electrocutioner and Vigilante tangle again, and the Electrocutioner kills another criminal. Meanwhile, JJ tracks the business card to a factory and decides to hack their computer. He rashly goes to the factory in person, falling into a trap set by the Controller. The next morning, Chase and Terry see a news reporter indicating JJ's body was found in the Hudson.

Wonder Woman #318: The story by Busiek and Norvick/Magyar is a fill-in, though its message is perhaps in harmony with the one in the ongoing story. Wonder Woman is transported to the 63rd Century to save the then-conquered Amazons from a race of sort of Magenta pig-faced orc aliens who have invaded Paradise Island. Once they are defeated, Wonder Woman (and Aphrodite) convince Hippolyta and her tribe that this happened in part because they strayed from the mission they were given.

The Huntress backup by Cavalieri and Beachum/Martin continues with Helena tangling with the ninja-like Nightingale and trying to solve the mystery of her friend's murder. The detective work here is good. With that and the art, this is one of the best of Cavalieri's Huntress stories. Shame it hasn't been collected.

Urshurak

Scott 'Dwarfland" Driver once opined that there was often more gaming inspiration to be had from "bad" fiction than from good. He was specifically talking about the works of Lin Carter, but I think this is often true in general. I haven't read Urshurak by the Brothers Hildebrandt and Jerry Nichols, so I can't comment on it specifically, but that seems to be the internet consensus. Here's a typical review.

Regardless, the art was surely the main selling point for purchasers in 1979. That and curiosity got me to pick it up on ebay a few months ago. It's gorgeous if you like the work of the Hildebrandt Brothers, though it could easily, I suppose be derided as too traditional or even generic nearly 50 years on. Certainly, the images and a thumbnail description of the plot mark it as a work of a more naive time when it comes to genre fantasy. There are heroes and a quest with swords and sorcerers and elves and dwarves in a vaguely faux Medieval Europe sort of setting. There are some sci-fi elements (it's a bit of fusion of Lord of the Rings and Star Wars), but no gestures toward realism, grittiness or deconstruction to be found.

Perhaps it's just nostalgia, but naive fantasy has a certain sort of appeal to me, though. It's not that I never want fantasy to go new places, but having seen the new places it has gone over the decades become, in their own way, stale or cliched or really shine in their focus on aspects other than adventure and action (which are the most relatable of fictional elements to the gaming table), I sometimes feel the pull for gaming inspiration to the things that wouldn't have made my reading list a decade or so ago.

And honestly, more fantasy epics could probably benefit from high tech Amazons. 

Weird Revisited: Further Ideas on Clerics

Prismatic Wasteland's call for a Blogging Conclave seemed like a good time to revisit this post originally presented in January of 2020:

It is no secret that clerics have always held a bit of an uneasy place in D&D. They were supposedly inspired by the vampire hunters of Hammer Horror with some further borrowings from Crusader orders. Even if later editions with variable domains, weapons, and powers have ameliorated there implicitly Christian, monotheistic origins, we are still left with them serving pantheons drawn from modern imposed-systemization on characters from later versions of myth, a systemization alien to actually polytheistic religions. But still, it's only a game, we can run with that, right?

Well, we're still left with unanswered questions regarding how the cleric class fits into the structure of religious organizations. Do all priests have spells? If so, where do they get the experience to go up in level?

Here are some possibilities drawn from real world examples that are potential answers, though of course not the only answers, to these questions. Most of these assume clerics adventure because they are "called" to in some way. Whether this is a legitimate belief on the part of the cleric and society or a mistaken one would depend on the setting.

Lay Brothers 
Clerics are not ordained priests but warrior lay brethren, like the sohei of Japan or the military orders of Europe. They would overlap a bit with paladins, but that's real just a matter of whether they were stronger in faith or battle. In this version, priests might or might not have spells, but if they did it would strictly be at the dispensation of their deity.

Prophets/Evangelists
This is more or less the idea I proposed in this post. Clerics are outside the church hierarchy, though they may or may not have started there. They were chosen by their deity for a special purpose. They may be reformers of a church that has been corrupted or lost it's way, founders of a heretical sect with a new interpretation, or the first in ages to hear the voice of a new god. Priests here may have no magic or may be powerful indeed but erroneous in their theology.

Mystics
Similar to my "Saints and Madmen" ideas before, mystics are either heretics or at the very least esotericists with a different take on their religion than the mainstream one. The difference between this and the Prophet above is that they have no interest in reforming the church or overturning it, they are either hermits or cult leaders who isolate themselves from the wider world to pursue their revelations. John the Baptist as portrayed in The Last Temptation of Christ would fit here, as would perhaps the Yamabushi of Japan, or certain Daoist sects/practitioners in China. They might be not at all scholarly (with all spells/powers being "gifts of grace" unavailable to less fanatical priests) or very scholarly with powers/spells coming from intense study or mediation which even more mainstream priests cannot master.

Special Orders
Clerics are members of special orders within the church hierarchy dedicated to recovering the wealth and lost knowledge of dungeons for the the glory of their deity and the betterment of their church. Not all  priests have spells. Clerics are priests chosen for their aptitude or particular relationship with the divine or whatever. These orders may be quite influential within the church hierarchy, but their mission thin their ranks and keeps them in the wilderness and away from centers of power--perhaps by divine will or by design of church leaders.

Wednesday Comics: DC, July 1984 (week 4)

I'm reading DC Comics' output from January 1980 (cover date) to Crisis! This week, I'm looking at the comics on April 26, 1984.

Super Powers #1: This is an out of continuity tale (though it doesn't outright say so) to tie-in with the Kenner Super Powers action figure line. Kirby gets a plot credit and provides a cover with inks by Royer. The story is scripted by Cavalieri with art by Gonzales/Marcos. Darkseid imbues four Apokolipsian champions to recruit agents and give them power to defeat his enemies. The four each chooses a super-villain, giving them powers they've never had before, allowing Luthor, Brainiac, Penguin, and the Joker to each defeat the members two members of the Justice League.

Thriller #8: This issue actually came out last week, but I forgot to include it. Bill DuBay comes on board as new writer with Fleming exiting due to conflict with editorial (though of course that isn't mentioned here). Von Eeden is still on art but this is his last issue. The story takes a dramatic shift but feels like DuBay is trying to stay loosely consistent with the sort of stories presented before. Janet is shot down over the USSR and captured. The Soviets have a living super-computer in the form of a child and its aware of Thriller and the Seven Seconds and wants lure them in for its own purposes. The team takes the bait. Janet is rescued at it turns out the super-computer only wants out of its existence in servitude. Somehow, Angie seems to convert its child-self to energy like her and bring it along.

Action Comics #557: There are two stories this issue. The first by Kupperberg and Swan/Hunt involves Terra-Man stealing the same Rembrandt paintings three times in an effort to lure Superman into a showdown, which of course, he loses. In the second by Rozakis and Bender/Hunt, when Superman finds out he inadvertently helped a murderer escape 7 years ago, he recreates the crime scene as it was to catch the crook. It's unclear to me exactly how that all happens but the story didn't seem worth re-reading to see if it sticks together or not.

Arion Lord of Atlantis #21:  Still hanging with the pirate crew, Arion and friends get in on the game, until an angry sea god challenges them and Arion has to dig deep to access his magic that is now only available as plot contrivance. Wyynde must accept that Fawndancer, being a mermaid now, lives in a different world, and he says goodbye to her forever.

All-Star Squadron #35: Thomas and Hoberg/Collins continue to milk this Earth-X arc. Johnny Quick and Liberty Belle are saved from Tsunami by Starman and Firebrand. Neptune Perkins does battle with the Japanese agent (and loses), while the All-Stars head to Santa Barbara. On Earth-X, the Red Bee shows up just in time die heroically and distrace Baron Blizkrieg long enough for Hourman to escape. Hourman frees Freedom Fighters, while Uncle Sam bashes Blitzkrieg.

The Baron escapes back to Earth-2 with three Nazis from Earth-X. The Spectre shows up, and tells them all this world-hopping is wreaking cosmic havoc and 3 of them must stay behind to maintain balance. Uncle Sam, Ray, and Black Condor volunteer.

Blue Devil #2: Cohn/Mishkin and Cullins/Martin pick up with Cassidy in Metropolis, trying to figure things out now that he's trapped in the Blue Devil suit which is essentially a part of him now. Complicating matters, Shockwave, a mercenary villain who has just stolen some synthetic kryptonite from S.T.A.R. Labs, destroys his brownstone. Once again, Cassidy is forced against his inclination to play superhero. Shockwave is defeated but gets away--without the kryptonite. the STAR Labs' scientist is grateful to Cassidy and agrees to help him find a cure for his condition. However, Verner Studios has sent him a cease-and-desist order, telling him he can't appear in public because the Blue Devil is their property!

Detective Comics #540: Moench and Newton/Smith conclude the Scarecrow story. Batman and Robin separately manage to avoid the surprises Scarecrow had in store for them. They meet-up again in Scarecrow's hideout, and Batman thinks he knows a way to block the villain's fear signal. After some adjusts it appears they are both protected, and they go on to confront and defeat Scarecrow. Only when this is done does Robin realize only he was protected, and Batman was really only controlling his fear and bluffing. Meanwhile, Bullocks clumsiness saves him from an assassin's bullet, but the assassin doesn't know that and reports to Mayor Hill that the job was done.

In the Green Arrow backup by Cavalieri and McManus/Trapani, Green Arrow uses one of the Printer's Devil's fires to burn through the net, then puts out the fire before it can reach the gas pumps, escaping the predicament we left him in last issue. The Printer's Devil escapes, but in a confrontation the next day at the Daily Star's offices, the two tangle again. Green Arrow captures him and reveals him to be not an agent of Burdick but fellow columnist Thomas Doyle. He hoped to devalue the Star through his Scooby Doo-ish, costumed terrorism and make it less valuable to Burdick. He sort of succeeds because Burdick decides not to buy the paper.

Legion of Super-Heroes #313: Levitz and Giffen/Mahlstedt have the Legion, and the Science Police still trying to track down the bomber who has now threatened to bomb the United Planets Council Building and kill the President — Colossal Boy's mom. After multiple attacks they are able to thwart the Legion finally gets a break that leads them not to a member of the Science Police but a civilian contractor that happened to do some computer programming for them. We also get a map of "Metropolis" this issue, but it's confusing because it's just New York City. I don't mean a stand-in, but literally New York. It seems like Levitz is saying New York City will be called Metropolis in the future, but what about Superman's Metropolis in the present? The DCU can't just be an alternate world where Metropolis is NYC, because both clearly exist in published stories. Anyway, we also get another remind of the impending shift to two books for this title.

New Adventures of Superboy #54: The chubby, canary-yellow Klingon type, Harzz, from last issue initiates his plan for revenge against Superboy with Superboy Revenge Squad along to observe by using artificially created disasters to manipulate Superboy into destroying the Earth. Superboy doesn't fall for it, and the Revenge Squad leader executes Harzz as a competitor. Kupperberg and Schaffenberger/Giella keep juggling the other plotlines from previous issues: Lana escalates her selfish attempt to get Clark's attentions back by using Superboy to make him jealous, while Jonathan Kent stands defiant in the face of increasing pressure to drop his bid for city council, acceding to the demands of crooked developer, Gary Simmons.

This is the last issue of this title. The letter column asserts that Superboy's adventures will continue in another title, DC Double Action, in the future, but that series never materialized, likely in part due to the changes wrought by Crisis. I don't mourn the loss of Superboy, but the core concept, the teen superhero, is obviously one with a lot of promise which (for Superman, at least) we had to wait for TV to exploit.

Sun Devils #1: This is a space opera by Conway and Jurgens/Maygar. Conway tells us that the basic idea was a joint effort between him and Thomas, mixing his love of space stuff and Thomas' love of history. It shows in that there has perhaps never been so blatant a sci-fi version of the lead up to World War II. The leaders of the free worlds think peace has been achieved through appeasement, but Karvus Khan and his Sauroids want war, as a surprise attack on the planet Wolfholme demonstrates. Rik Sunn, former aspiring diplomat, is thrust into fighting a renegade war against the empire that destroyed his home, but he looks like he's going to find an eclectic group of allies. The World War II and Star Wars influences are obvious, but what is perhaps less apparent but still pretty clear when you think about it, is that this is a space opera re-imaging of Blackhawk, with Rick Sunn in the Blackhawk role and the Sun Devils his cadre.

Tales of the Teen Titans Annual #3: Wolfman and Perez/Giordano get us to the end of "The Judas Contract." H.I.V.E. has the Titans and they are again help suspend by their limbs, their powers siphoned. Lucky for them Nightwing and Jericho have infiltrated H.I.V.E.'s base to come to their rescue. Thanks to Terra, they are captured, but when the Terminator recognizes his son, the distraction gives Jericho the opportunity to possess him. Using the Terminator's body and weaponry, he frees the Titans, and they all start fighting the H.I.V.E. 

Terra goes a little crazy, not understanding the situation and feeling betrayed by Slade, she fights both him and the Titans. The Titans are hampered in their ability to take her down by their refusal to believe she is truly their enemy and it's being mind-controlled in some way. Terra's emotions and powers get out of control, and she winds up burying herself under earth and debris.

The Titans take her body back to New York where there's a funeral with the Outsiders in attendance. They don't tell her brother the truth, that she was a villain who betrayed them, letting him believe she died in the line of duty.

Though it seems like this was the point to Wolfman and Perez, the lack of any sort of motivation for Tara's behavior other than she's "crazy" or "evil" is a weakness with this story to me. The Terminator becomes, if not sympathetic at least understandable after we have his backstory, but Terra isn't provided with the same depth.

World's Finest Comics #305: I still don't know what Kraft sees in Null and Void, but here we are on part 2 of their return with von Eeden on art. The international scramble to claim the mysterious frozen figures ends up with they split up and the Russians getting the woman and the Swedes the man. Batman is caught in the middle of all this. He confronts Null and Void again, and Null decides to surrender, but Void escapes into the Void where he previously sent Superman, allowing the Man of Steel to escape from that surreal realm. 

The Russians take the frozen woman into Cuban waters, but Batman and Null go after the figure in the hands of the Swedish. In a firefight, Null touches hands with the figure who has the same tattoo and awakens the pirate-dressed guy who calls himself Swordfish. Swordfish has no idea how many years he has been trapped, but he joins Null and Batman on their quest to free his companion, Barracuda.

Meanwhile, Peter without his Void powers and trapped in the other realm, encounters X'ult, the enemy of Swordfish and Barracuda.

A Pantheon from Kirby's New Gods

Art by Alex Ross

Jack Kirby's so-called "Fourth World," an interconnected group of series at DC Comics from 1970-1973, posits a new group of god-like beings emerging from Ragnarok. These beings are presented and engage in action largely like other modern-era superheroes, but I've been thinking about whether one could make a pantheon from them usable in a traditional, medievalish fantasy game.

A notable trait of the so-called New Gods is that they are arranged in a sort of dualistic polytheism (not unlike the gods of Tekumel in Empire of the Petal Throne). The gods of New Genesis are the "good" gods and those Apokolips are the "evil" gods. 

As presented in the comics, the portfolios of the Apokolipsian gods (to the extent they are clear) are modern evils. They are mostly related to concerns of its author in post-World War II West, rather than traditional concerns of ancient or Medieval peoples. They will require some modification. They work better as devils or demons, probably, as Apokolips is pretty much Hell.

Interestingly, the stories that take place on Apokolips regarding the escape of Mister Miracle and friends have an almost gnostic dimension. Darkseid is a Demiurge sort of figure, while the Promethean Himon is the serpent in the stifling, poisonous Garden of Apokolips leading Mister Miracle to freedom.

In contrast, the gods of New Genesis are a bit more straightforward, harkening in many cases to Norse or Greek polytheistic figures. The problem is they just don't always have really clearly portfolios. 

Anyway, here's what I've got:

New Genesis:

• Highfather - Patriarchal leader of the gods of New Genesis. God of Wisdom, Diplomacy, and Rulership.
• Lightray - God of light, probably the sun too.
• Orion - God of War; given to berserker rages.
• Mister Miracle - A dying and rising god, probably with a mystery cult.
• Big Barda - Warrior goddess; defector from Apokolips
• Black Racer - Psychopomp and god of Death.
• Lonar - the Wanderer; god of horses and hospitality
• Metron - God of knowledge and travel.

Apokolips:

• Darkseid - Supreme god of evil.
• Kalibak - Monstrous son of Darkseid; god of violence and destruction.
• DeSaad - Lord of torture and cruelty
• Doctor Bedlam - God of Madness
• Female Furies - A (more) evil version of Valkyries
• Glorious Godfrey - God of Lies
• Granny Goodness - The cruel mother; a stealer of children, perhaps a Baba Yaga sort?
• Kanto - God of assassins
• Mantis - Vampiric lord of plagues and pestilence
• Steppenwolf - Dark lord of the hunt

Setting Folklore

I was on vacation last week and visited Antwerp where I saw the Brabofontein in the Grote Markt. It depicts events related to the legendary founding of Antwerp, where Roman soldier Silvius Brabo defeated Druon Antigonus, who had been demanding tribute to use a bridge over the River Scheldt. Brabo's killing of the giant provides the folk etymology of the origin of the name Antwerp as Brabo did to Druon what the giant had done to unfortunates who couldn't pay his toll: he cut off his hand and threw it across the river. Hence, the name Antwerp is supposed to come from handwerpen (throwing hands).

Anyway, the legend and the statue caused me to consider why isn't there more of this sort of folklore and folk etymology in settings? I sort of did some of this with the City and Weird Adventures (see "Thraug's Head", and perhaps "Saint Joan of the City" and "Short People, Big Worm"--admittedly, these blur the lines because they are depicted as relating history, not folklore, but I think they serve a similar purpose in their fancifulness and mostly not direct applicability to adventuring), but I haven't really done much of that in other settings.

I feel like little details like this both make places feel more real, but also potentially provide springboards for adventure because in fantasy worlds, even the strangest details might well be true. I suppose some people might think this sort of thing is excessive or maybe even unhelpful because it might confuse player's about what's true and what isn't, but I would argue a ruthless economy of setting details, limiting them to only things relevant to adventuring/dungeoncrawling and the need for every one of those details to be literally true or at least definitively falsifiable loses an aspect that differentiates rpgs from other sorts of games, that is, the ability to truly explore an imagined world.