Wednesday Comics: DC, January 1983 (week 3)

My mission: read DC Comics' output from January 1980 (cover date) to Crisis! This week, I'm looking at the comics at newsstands around October 21, 1983.

Brave & the Bold #194: Barr is joined by Infantino, though in a way the story feels more like the sort of thing Bates and Infantino might do in Flash. A motivational therapist Andrea Wye counsels the Rainbow Raider and Dr. Double X to realize their potential as villains by switching super-heroic opponents--the Flash and Batman, respectively.

Flash is attacked by Doctor Double X in Central City, while Batman has to face the Rainbow Raider in Gotham City. The villains get the upper hand against the unprepared heroes, and defeat and capture them. They back to Wye's island, where she pretends to experiment on the heroes, but Flash recovers quick thanks to his fast metabolism and frees Batman. Working together, Batman and Flash defeat the crooks, but Wye manages to escape while the heroes are busy capturing the criminals.

Camelot 3000 #2: Barr, Bolland, and Patterson continue their futuristic Arthurian epic. King Arthur and his entourage arrive at the United Nations and fight some Neo-Men goons.  Then they head inside, where Arthur pulls the sword from the stone. Seven stars shoot out of the sword and fly to various points around the world. Each star finds the reincarnation of one of the Round Table knights (plus Guinevere) and awakening their memories. Arthur, Merlin and Tom set about gathering his allies. At United Earth Defense headquarters, Commander Joan Acton recalls she is the Lady Guinevere. In Paris, France, wealthy Jules Futrelle remembers being Sir Lancelot. Meanwhile, the wicked Morgan Le Fay watches and schemes against Arthur. Another good issue, thought the star here is Bolland's art.

Daring New Adventures of Supergirl #3: Kupperberg and Infantino/Oksner pick up with the newly created Decay menacing the city. I'm not really sure what Pendergast's goal is now. He dissolves a homeless guy which is maybe in keeping with his previous mission, but then he dissolves some new construction. If he's just into destruction now, why start with the homeless guy? Anyway, Supergirl battle him, but she's almost defeated by his power when she allows him to grab her face with his dissolving hands! Luck for her, Psi has turned against Pendergast, whom she realizes has been manipulating her for his own ends. She appears at the battle, transforms Decay into Pendergast again, and vanishes from sight. There's also a subplot where Linda Danvers gets a part-time job as a secretary to her absent-minded major professor (and perhaps romantic interest). 

Overall, this really reads a lot like a 70s Marvel book, it's really only the Infantino art that keeps it from completely having that feel.

There's a Lois Lane backup by O'Flynn and Oksner continue the primetime TV drama sort of stories they were doing with Lois in Superman Family. In this one, an unsigned story on her desk seems to predict events in the future--but most of the story is about the apparent kidnapping of young model Missy Conrad, who actually ran away with her father whom she hadn't seen since her parent's divorce/ Then, she is really kidnapped by criminals her father owes money and Lois up in it.

Green Lantern #160: Barr and Pollard/La Rosa have Green Lantern abducted by The Headmen, goofy old foes of his that have elongated craniums like the Leader. They use their superhuman willpower to take control of his ring and knock him out. He's helped by Dorine Clay, a non-eggheaded member of the Headmen's race who explains that her previous rebellion failed. The Headmen are trying to join up with the Citadel and trying to use the captured Green Lantern as their admission ticket. Hal escapes briefly and tries to arm the rebels, but they overpower him again and put him and Dorine in a prison cell to be executed in the morning. Luckily, the Omega Men, who intercepted the Headmen's communication with the Citadel, come to their rescue.

Meanwhile, on Earth, there are still weird doings with a kid named Donny Weems and a crystal he found. On Tront, Green Lantern Eddore is determined to complete his mission, despite the Guardians telling him it's not in his jurisdiction anymore.

In the Tales of the Green Lantern Corps backup by Rozakis, Moore, and Rodriquez, continue the story from last issue. Penelops learns that the aliens heating his world are doing it accidentally as they try to increase the sun's energy to make another world warm enough for them to live. Penelops urges them to stop, but their process is irreversible. Thinking quickly, Penelops moves his world to a cooler orbit and the aliens still get their new home.

House of Mystery #312: Mishkin/Cohn and Gonzales have Bennett back in New York with his friends.  There have been a rash of disappearances in the subway, and they think it could be vampires. Bennett goes down to investigate and meets a reporter named Maggie Carle. They're attacked by a giant arachnoid beast who apparently has escaped from Barr Laboratories, the company responsible for creating the cancer cure that made humans poisonous to vampires. A team of men working for Barr Laboratories get the drop on Bennett and Carle and insist that they come with them.

Jones and Zamora tell the story of a poor waitress who is convinced the elixir she sees a strange, elderly man drink every day in the dinner where she works is some sort of miracle drug, but only after she's invaded his home to still a supply does she find out its embalming fluid and the man is undead. Boltinoff and Sangalang round out the issue with the tale of a wealthy, young couple in New York City who join the exclusive Suicide Club, only to find it lives up to its name in its expectations for its members who lose at games of chance. If that balk and following through, the club turns to murder.

Legion of Super-Heroes #295: Giffen gets a bit of a break as he shares penciling duties with Howard Bender this issue. Blok deduces that the Legion foe Universo is a renegade Green Lantern after watching tapes of an early adventure of the Legion in which they are at odds the Green Lanterns who are trying to stop a scientist from looking back at the origins of the universe (I feel like that's going to come up again). After the initially conflict, Green Lantern Vidar tries to do the same thing and gets kicked out for his crimes then goes on to become Universo.

Night Force #6: Once again, Wolfman and Colan/Smith show the scientific establishment out of its depth dealing with the paranormal. The head of Science City uses his psychics to unless Vanessa's link to darkness fully at it means their doom. Demons roam the complex and the KGB agents from his issue free Caine and Gold in the hopes they can help. But Vanessa feels abandoned by Gold and the demons are out to get him specifically! There's a Nigel Kneale sort of approach here. The demons are real things but not what folklore or ancient belief has said they are, but something more pseudo-scientific. It perhaps doesn't jibe with the DCU as a whole or even other elements in Night Force, but it works for this story.

While all of this is going on, Baron Winters gets a visit from the cops who promptly open the wrong door and get lose in the past, so now Winters has to rescue them.

Sgt. Rock #372: Another single appearance member of Easy Company meets his end as a kid who uses his (sanitized to hide the horrors of war) diary entries as letters who to his parents. Rock has the somber duty of writing the last entry and letter.

Warlord #65: I went over the main story in this issue here. In "The Barren Earth" backup, Jinal is found by some robed desert-dwellers who turn out to be reptilian. They don't harm her, but they aren't particularly helpful either. Then she's captured by human marauders who certainly don't have good intentions. Luckily, she's rescued by a guy that is dressed like one of the reptilians and rides a similar mount but is actually a human named Skinner who says he'll take her to civilization.

Phaelorn Gap

Shreev Seg Molok (art by Jason Sholtis)

Phaelorn Gap is a town near the Lake of Vermilion Mists along the Panarch's roadway heading east away from the great cities and across the mountains. It is the center of the scintilla harvesting industry with the Lake. The wealth harvested from the Lake belongs by law to the Panarch and flows to his coffers save that which is paid in renumeration or lost to corruption. 

The divers, young, unmarried women by tradition, receive little in the way of wages for their efforts, but do receive a state pension upon retirement. Some former divers become matrons, responsible for wrangling and discipline of the divers and insuring they do not skim from harvest unduly. The matrons, of course, take their gratuity before the Panarch gets his.

Operations in Phaelorn Gap are overseen by the Eminent Compulsor. The current holder of that position is Briszm Wungar. Officially his only function is to ensure the scintilla are transported West and the Panarch receives his due. In practice, he is the overseer of the entire operation, enriched by his own peculation.

Wungar is not personally an opposing man, so he must rely on the dignity of his office and the strong arms of his local enforcers to assure his will is done. Chief among these enforcers is the Shreev, Seg Molok, and his subalterns. Molok is a veteran of minor conflicts in the region and is said to have survived (after sufficient brave resistance, certainly) the Whelming of Fort Olmovar by the Great M'Gog Horde. He is a man respected by the townsfolk of Phaelorn Gap for his pragmatism and evenhandedness. His sense of honor and appreciation of duty is such that the size of the inducement proffered sways him less than his reckoning of the ethical questions involved. 

Wednesday Comics: DC, January 1983 (week 2)

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 October 14, 1982. 

Batman #355:  Good cover by Hannigan and Giordano. On there drive home Bruce and Vicki are run off the road by Catwoman and into the river. Bruce manages to get them both out. Knowing that she has made a terrible mistake, Catwoman flees without looking back.

Later, as Vicki recuperates in the hospital, Bruce hears from Jason Bard and Jim Gordon that Rupert Thorne has been convicted of the murder of Pauling and Gordon gotten a call to meet with Mayor Hill. After leaving the hospital, Gordon goes to Hill's office. Hill is concerned that the Gotham City Council are call a recall election and in order to try to head than off, he gives James Gordon his old job back under the condition of his support.

That night, Batman goes to Selina's apartment and finds only her panther who hasn't been fed in a while. After taking care of the animal, he finds a clue that leads him to the Catamont warehouse. Catwoman is waiting and attacks. With Batman at her mercy due to his still healing injury, she could easily kill him, but she realizes her mistake and pulls back. They apologize to each other for the pain they each have caused and part ways.

A continuity glitch in this issue: Catwoman clearly knows Bruce is Batman, but earlier stories in this arc make it clear she doesn't know. Future stories (still pre-Crisis) will stick with the version where she never knew.

Flash #317: Bates and Infantino continue the Goldface story with the Eradicator lurking in the background. The Flash tangles with Goldface twice and gets defeated. Goldface demands Flash leave town or he'll continue murdering people in Central City.. The Flash isn't about to leave, but he recruits the reformed Heatwave to help him try to take down the villain. They get closer, but again Goldface escapes, and Flash is left in peril of drowning. Meanwhile, the Eradicator makes short work of Goldface's goons that come after him, and Creed Philips discovers that the Eradicator killed his physician (he doesn't appear to know that he's the Eradicator).

G.I. Combat #249: Kanigher and Vicatan bring back the Mercenaries are and get embroiled in saving Tibetan refugees from river pirates then meet a girl whose brother is the Dalai Lama(?). She offers them a jade pendant in exchange for helping get her brother across the border. Turns out she planned to sell out her brother to the Soviets, which the Mercenaries prevent, but then (as usual) they don't get paid because the emerald is shattered by bullets. 

There are two Haunted Tank stories as usual, but made a bit more memorable than average by a kind of ironic view of the fortunes of war. In the first, Jeb looses a bet with the tank retrieval crew when he assures them they won't have to pick up his disabled tank again, which of course they do on the next page. In the second, Jeb and his men spend the whole issue getting a captured German officer back to command only to have him almost immediately allowed to escape because he was a double agent.

The other two stories include a bleak short about a disabled former soldier who returns home to me mocked by young men eager to go fight themselves, unaware of his service. Finally, there's a "based on a true story" tale about how planting some bamboo aids soldiers in escaping a Japanese POW camp.

Masters of the Universe #2: I reviewed this issue here back in 2015. 

 

Saga of the Swamp Thing #9: Swamp Thing and crew arrive in New Jersey, where their helicopter (created by Reef in the previous issue) disintegrates and Reef is conveniently killed in the crash. Swamp Thing is morose the whole time because he's realized the little girl he was trying to protect (Karen Clancy) turns out to be evil incarnate.

Meanwhile in Washington D.C., Harry Kay takes Paul Feldner to a Sunderland facility to be treated for his burns. It turns out Karen Clancy had thought he might be the catalyst whose power she could consume to achieve her ultimate power, but nope, that's another associate of Kay's named David Marx. Karen develops into a fully grown woman over Feldner's burning body and offers to spare him in exchange for Marx. Marx goes to her willingly to save Feldner's life. Harry Kay is revealed to be a Nazi war criminal and he is operating his own mission, separate from the Sunderland's goals. 

Swampie and friends are confronted by Kay at the Barclay clinic where he explains that he is trying to obtain "information of vital importance to the future of the world" and asks for their help. They so Kay has his flunky Milton attack them with psychic powers.

In the Cavalieri/Carrillo Phantom Stranger backup, The Phantom Stranger and a builder investigate a murder and strange phenomena inside a church scheduled for demolition. Turns out it's living gargoyles.

New Teen Titans #26: Wolfman and Perez continue their story about runaways and street crime. Raven heals the wounded youth at the cost of nearly succumbing to the spirit of her demonic father, Trigon. The guy turns out to be the older brother of the teenager whose death Dick and Kory witnessed last issue. He had come to New York to investigate his brother's death only to nearly be killed by gangsters working for drug kingpin Anthony Scarapelli. Back at the youth center, the Titans meet with Adrian Chase and Roy Harper, the latter working as a liaison between federal and local authorities on drug-related cases. Leaving with the Titans, Roy gets into his Speedy gear, and they team-up to bust up Scarapelli's plans to have his new drug shipment distributed by duped, teenage runaways. Two of the kids, however, are killed in the fight, despite the Titans' efforts. Some of the ones that return home alive don't get happy endings, either. It's all a little heavy-handed and maybe even trite, perhaps, but no more so than what was in a lot of primetime dramas. And this was a comic for kids. it works as an arc and sort of differentiates the Titans from the X-Men.

There's also an Atari Force preview in this issue by Conway and Andru/Giordano. Disappointingly, this story is more an advertisement for DC's Comics that came with certain Atari game cartridges. It features the characters from those comics and is much more standard "toy tie-in comics" than the ongoing series than will follow the next year.

Superman #379: No mention is made of Superman's reduced power this issue. In Mike's Amazing World of DC Comics chronology for Superman, Wolfman's depowered Superman arc in Action (and crossing over into the Teen Titans) occurs well before the stuff going on in the other Superman titles, which is the most harmonious way of handling everyone else ignoring what Wolfman is doing.  

Anyway, in this issue Bates and Swan a strange proto-being is causing Bizarros all over Htrae to explode, and Bizarro No. 1 comes to Earth to see if Superman can help do anything about it. It turns out its actually a plot by Bizarro Luthor to save Bizarroworld from an alien invasion. 

This issue is the first appearance of the Bizarro Justice League and Bizarros Yellow Lantern, Hawkman, and Aquaman.

Rumble Beneath the Arena

 Our Land of Azurth 5e game continued back on last Sunday with a pretty much all combat session as the party thumbed their collective nose as the Looms' warning and entered the complex built with the junk wall behind the arena. They descended into subterranean rooms where they found a masked giant with a maul and a group of poisoned armed mooks.

These guys wore the group down. In fact, Waylon was have gone down if not for the timely healing of Dagmar. As some of the group had triumphed, Loom unleashed some sort of a sonic attack to soften them up for the attack of a large mechanical monster than was able to shoot fire out of its finger tips. Erekose and Waylon teamed up on it with their magic weapons while Shade and Dagmar hit him from a distance. When it was destroyed it exploded (or course), but the party managed to avoid major harm.

They were hurting after that and downed some good berries and took a short rest before moving on.

Thono Inn

The Thono Inn and Baths are a famed, but aging attraction near the Lake of Vermilion Mists, which offer "gas baths" of the peculiar substance of the Lake itself in addition to more traditional bathing. Yrming is the eleventh generation of Thonos to run the baths, though in truth she leaves the day-to-day management to her husband, Gris Samber, while she manages the special activities for the inn's extensive festival schedule that borrows holidays liberally from diverse civic and religious calendars. So large are the baths that Thono Village has arisen nearby to support it. 

The pumps which support the unique bath offerings require the work of an expert engineer to maintain. Ormaz Halx is the current individual charged with this task. He is given to reminding anyone that questions his decisions that he once studied at the hwaopt library (true in the strictest sense). He is also given to intemperance regarding the local distilled spirit. When deep in inebriation, he has been known to speak of a mysterious cave containing crystalline columns which somehow fulfill desires. He will angrily deny every having said anything of the sort when sober.

The Thono family and their loyal employees have a historic antipathy with the Cult of the Hierodule who bring their celebratory revels to the vicinity annually. This ill-feeling is primarily financial, owing to the grubby, vagabond nature of the cult leaders and their followers, and the promiscuous ways of the cult's youthful celebrants who provide for free erotic services for which the inn's contracted, professional staff would charge.

Gris Samber takes a broad view of who one day might be a paying customer and so does not urge his staff to violence against their transients, with the probable exception of Bardo Clart, the cult's current wild-eyed and hirsute leader.  

Wednesday Comics: DC, January 1983 (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 October 7, 1982. 

Arak Son of Thunder #17: Arak and Valda are almost able to fight their way out of the palace of the Emperor, but Aetius, counselor to the emperor, uses sleeping sand to knock them out aided by the untimely arrival of Haakon, an emissary from White Cathay, trying to curry favor with the Emperor. They wind up in the dungeon, but Irene, mother to the Emperor, visits the dungeons and offers Arak a deal for his freedom. It seems she doesn't trust Haakon and believes he is there to steal the secret of Greek fire. her suspicions prove correct, as Haakon tries just that at a demonstration that day, but she didn't reckon on Aetius being in cahoots. Arak is knocked out and kidnapped and the villains are about to set fire to a boat with Valda, Irene, and the Emperor on board.

In the backup, the Thomases and Gonzales/Alcala give Valda and Maligigi a city (mis)adventure As the cross paths with the thief Brunello who they believe is going to steal the remains of St. Denys which are kept in a jeweled reliquary. Then it turns out the theft has already occurred. Greeramada, the supposed friend of Malgigi, unleashes demons. She demands that the sorcerer provide her with the spell which will cause the beheaded saint to rise again.

Blackhawk #254: In the main story, Evanier and Spiegle have the Blackhawks helping to defend the French town of West Dieppe from Nazi invasion. When Blackhawk gets a report that Professor Merson was sighted in Berne, he flies there alone. It's a trap, though, and Domino is waiting. When the rest of the team gets word of his capture, they fly to Berne and find Blackhawk tied to the front of a tank. The 'Hawks have a dilemma: destroy the tank with Blackhawk on it or die. Instead, Olaf uses the bazooka on the German infantry instead and the surprising move allows them to get Blackhawk and get away.

The backup with art by Cockrum has Chuck on a solo mission to deliver a communique. He spots the plane of Nordling, Hitler's private courier. He follows the Nazi into an abandoned building, but Nordling becomes aware of him, and Chuck is shot and wounded. Chuck manages to make it outside. When he sneaks back in later, he finds the Nazi protecting a group of stray cats. Chuck calls Stan and Chop Chop to patch him up and take Nordling into custody.

 

DC Comics Presents #53: Mishkin and Swan/DeZuniga provide a seasonal story with "The Haunting Dooms of Halloween!" having Superman visit the House of Mystery. This sort of offbeat team-up has a certain charm for me, and it's the sort of thing Marvel didn't really do in their team-up books. Anyway, the villain here is Mr. Mxyzptlk who lures Supes into the House of Mystery to save Lois Lane and some transformed trick-or-treaters.

Fury of Firestorm #8: Conway and Moore/Rodriquez bring back Typhoon for some reason. Things haven't gone well for David Drake since the accident that made him Typhoon. He's been in a psychiatric hospital and gets out only to have his wife leave him. He snaps and goes looking for revenge. Meanwhile in New York City, after testing his powers under Stein's supervision, he goes to the movies with his friends and winds up beating up that jerk Cliff Carmichael. 

Typhoon arrives in New York and kills the former captain of the ship who inadvertently caused his transformation, then he goes after Stein, heaving the sea captain's corpse through his office window. Firestorm's first priority is to save innocent lives. Through trial and error, he attempts to direct people out of the path of Typhoon's fury. The villain gets the upper hand, however and delivers a blow that sends the unconscious Firestorm plummeting into the bay.

Justice League #210:  Conway and Buckler/Tanghal have Ray "the Atom" Palmer and his colleague Physicist David Dorman discover an "X-Element," a catalyst for all basic chemical reactions, which is about to decay, and thus disrupt all natural processes on Earth. As the Atom, Ray summons the Justice League, which splits up into sub-teams as they do to stave off world-wide apocalypse. Just as all seems lost, aliens calling themselves the Treasurers appear, offering to reverse the decay of the X-Element in exchange for specimens of Earth flora and fauna, including (unknown to the JLA) one human: a seemingly ordinary postal clerk named George Arthur Stuart.

Wonder Woman #298: Ed Hannigan/Dick Giordano cover on this issue. Believing Wonder Woman to be dead, Aegeus has forced Trevor to help him find Paradise Island in the Bermuda Triangle where he begins an assault. Wonder Woman, however, is still very much alive. She recovers and defeats the terrorists and Bellerophon, and heads for Paradise Island. Steve Trevor, dumped off Pegasus but caught by Queen Hippolyte, is taken to Science Island without touching ground and employs a hang-glider to try and attack Aegeus. Before his foolish heroics can lead to his death, Wonder Woman appears, takes Steve back to Science Island, and defeats Aegeus, who uses a last thunderbolt to teleport himself away to--well, not quite disappear until the Who's Who, but he doesn't have many rematches left.

In the Huntress backup by Cavalieri and Staton, Huntress looks like she may meet her end in the coils of Boa's pet constrictor but Blackwing comes to her aid. Huntress gets to hear his origin before she heads out to confront Boa and his gang, and this time, triumph over them. 

Adventure Comics #495: As usual, the only new story here is The Challengers of the Unknown by Rozakis and art this time by Toth/Gaicoia. Continuing the extended "Challengers Begin" origin story from last issue, the not-yet-Challs hang in Rocky's apartment, reading and paying bills. Professor Haley is still chewing on their as yet unsolved jet sabotage. They all have reasons to believe they might have been the target though the possibilities seem far-fetched: Native Alaskans angry about desecration of a burial ground, the allies of a deceased South American dictator, Haley's cousin Freddie hoping to gain an inheritance. That last seems the best lead, but before they can leave, Red has something else to say...next issue.

A More Civilized Age

Art by Donato Giancola

I'm all for "lived-in futures" and dusty, grubby space Westerns, but I feel like there are some science fiction aesthetics that don't get their due. And I'm not talking gleaming, featureless rocket hulls and silver lamé outfits. I mean the more refined, swashbuckling, adventure film derived style.

Alex Raymond's Flash Gordon was probably the biggest feature in promoting this style, but it shows up in other places like Cody Starbuck by Howard Chaykin:

And in Milady 3000 and i Briganti by Magnus (Roberto Raviola):

It's not really absent from the Star Wars saga. It just shows up more in the prequels than in the original films. I think there's a hint of it in Lynch's Dune and the SyFy mini-series version--though it is sorely lacking from the drear Villeneuve version.