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 #244: 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.

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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.