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Wednesday, August 21, 2024

Wednesday Comics: DC, November 1983 (week 3)

My mission: read DC Comics' output from January 1980 (cover date) to Crisis! This week, I'm looking at the comics on newsstands around August 18, 1983.


Thriller #1: In an unspecified near future New York, Dan Grove is considering suicide, dealing with the trauma of filming his brother's brutal assassination by the terrorist Scabbard in the Middle East. Instead. he's reluctantly recruited into a group of adventurers named the Seven Seconds by a ghostly presence of Angeline Thriller, who wants "Seven Seconds to save the world."

The creation of Fleming and von Eeden, Thriller is (like Ronin) emblematic of the new things DC is trying in this era. I remember reading the Meanwhile column on it as a kid, and it seemed so different from anything I was used to in comics. Today, I would say it perhaps prefigures some of the things the British writers would do that became Vertigo, or perhaps more accurately, it resembles something you might see in the direct sell indies of the era. Unfortunately, the storytelling and presentation is as offbeat as the content, and I don't think that part works quite as well. We'll see if that impression changes with later issues.


Daring New Adventures of Supergirl #13: The indicia title of this issue says the title is still "The Daring New Adventures of Supergirl," though on the cover it's just "Supergirl." Kupperberg and Infantino/Oksner introduce a new costume ditching the short of "70s cocktail waitress/stewardess' vibe she was rocking. There's also the beginning of a new story arc, as Kara learns that her neighbor, Mrs. Berkowitz, has had a swastika painted on her door by a fascist group, the Party for Social Reform.  Linda attends a rally at which the group's imposing leader preaches some dog-whistle anti-Semitism.  When a riot breaks out, incited by the staged beating of one of the party members posing Jewish protestor, Supergirl intervenes and orders their leader to end the rally.  Instead, the woman reveals her name as Blackstarr, and she focuses her cosmic powers on the Maid of Might, knocking her to the ground.


Batman and the Outsiders #4: Another lackluster issue by Barr and Aparo. I think they're still figuring out what to do with the team. A former Batman (and Black Lightning) foe now calling himself Meltdown has broken out of prison and is stealing radioactive materials. The Outsiders pursue and do battle but Batman is suspicious something more is going on here. The one thing I did like about this issue was the twist that the warden of the prison is the real villain, and Meltdown was merely driven to desperation because the establishment was withholding life-saving treatment.


Green Lantern #170: I guess Cohn and Tuska/Sekowsky felt like last issue was great because they repeat the same basic framing sequence of the Guardians telling Lantern Kista X, who questions their treatment of Jordan, another story about a former Green Lantern aimed to convince her "the Guardians always know best." In this one, Green Lantern Monak falls to an invasion of his homeworld by the robotic forces of Z'nang after he had warned the Guardians about a despotic takeover on the Z'nang world and they had declined to allow him to intervene. His son, Meeno, because the next Lantern and makes war on the Z'nang in violation of the Guardians' orders, even directing a comet toward the world. When he's shown that the comet will kill many innocent victims of the dictorial regime, he redirects the comet but is killed by Z'nang soldiers. The ring passes to a Z'nang political prisoner who can now fight to liberate his people.  

Jordan wakes up from the mindgame test the subjected him to, and he is dismissed. He asks for another reply beyond "don't call us, we'll call you," particularly given his current exiled status, but none is forthcoming. Despite this, he tells Krista where he given the option to do it all over, he would still choose to be a Lantern.


Sgt. Rock #382: In the main feature by Kanigher and guest artist Spiegle, Easy takes a town and with it some German prisoners who all happen to be teenagers. The leader is as fanatical as the come, and refuses to go easily, killing some of Easy's "green recruits" with a grenade. This story is a bit unusual; I expected Rock to be able to get through to the kid a bit, but no, he's Nazi through and through.

There are a bunch of shorts on everything from the Ghost Dance and Wounded Knee to the F-111, but the only other story is a "Men of Easy" feature on Little Sure Shot, that's okay, other than the silliness of depicting Native Americans in the reservation (presumably) in what must be the 20s or 30s in stereotypical Hollywood "Plains Indians" regalia.


Legion of Super-Heroes #305: Levitz and Giffen/Schaffenberger have a group of Legionnaires go into action against the Shrinking Violet imposter that's married Colossal Boy. Her name is Yera, and she reveals she is working for a group on Imsk that turn out to be separatists. Colossal Boy naturally doesn't take this well but joins the others in trying to locate the real Violet. What follows is well-done, with Cham infiltrating the group as Yera, then calling in the others for a devastating assault. In the coda, Colossal Boy reveals to Yera that he has decided whatever her true identity, she is the one he has fallen in love with.


Warlord #75: Cool Jurgens cover. I reviewed the main story here. No Barren Earth backup this month.

6 comments:

  1. Thriller #1: Never saw this anywhere in person back in the day, although I'm not sure if that was because no one was stocking it at all or because it was selling out before I ever saw a copy. One of these days I should probably give it a try just to see what it was all about, but it sure doesn't get the kind of buzz Ronin did.

    Green Lantern #170: Guardians continuing to prove they're the actual worst people in the multiverse. I think there was a Superdickery post about how they let Krypton blow up because they'd foreseen what Kal-El would be like in the Silver Age and didn't want the competition.

    Legion of Super-Heroes #305: Snazzy cover, but it doesn't exactly show the Legion in a great light. Well, their feet, anyway. "Yay, we beat the tiny lady!" is never a very heroic look regardless of circumstances.

    Warlord #75: Have to say, Lord Saber-Tooth has remarkably clear speech balloons considering his dentition.

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  2. I _loved_ Thriller when it came out. Like Ronin it was difficult to decipher, but worth the effort IMHO. I've been meaning to reread the Fleming/Von Eeden issues as they were one of my favorite things from that time.

    I bought Warlord, Legjon and Batman & The Outsiders as well. Legion was the best of those. Warlord is past it's prime at this time. I'm not sure if BatO ever had a prime. If it was fine, but never competitive with Titans/Legion/X-Men.

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  3. @Dale Houston Thanks, now my Thriller curiosity is worse than ever. :)

    Have to agree on Warlord. Post-Grells (husband and wife) just never reached me the way the earlier stuff had. We're nearing the end of my steady readership, although I did eventually fill in my collection years later just to see what I'd missed - a decision I regretted, frankly.

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  4. @Dirk: You only need issues 1-7. Maybe 8. Fleming leaves after issue 7 and Bill DuBay starts writing it. Trevor Von Eeden leaves after issue 8 and the rest are drawn by Alex Nino.

    Post-Grell Warlord was not for me. I'd been a fan since issue 3 and dropped the series sometime after he became President of the USA.

    Maybe spoiler alert on that last one.

    I picked up the early 90's mini, the unfortunate non-Grell reboot, and then the final Grell series as they came out.

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  5. @Dake Houston I happily followed Grell to Jon Sable and Starslayer, but after that I kind of petered out on following him between books and publishers. Can't even really say why - started college and my comic reading dropped like a rock for years.

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  6. Same. Green Arrow as well. Lost interest around the time of Shaman's Tears, and some of that might have been due to distribution issues.

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