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 December 15, 1983.
New Teen Titans #40: Perez delivers a great cover, but on the inside, he and Wolfman are back with the Brother Blood stuff I don't really like. The Titans are guests on Bethany Snow's TV show in a segment regarding proposed arms shipments to Zandia. The Titans, led by Wonder Girl, are unable to convince the other guests or the audience of the true evil intentions of the guy named Brother Blood whose live via satellite in a blood red outfit with a horned and fanged mask. He's just too darn charismatic! Dick figures out that the congressmen appearing on the program in support of Blood are actually his followers. Later, disguised as newsman Joe Walsh, Dick accompanies Bethany Snow and the three politicians on a fact-finding tour to Zandia, only to have his true identity uncovered by Blood's cult. Getting an emergency signal from Dick, the other Titans crash Blood's temple in their T-sub but get knocked out by gas. They awaken to find themselves about to be lowered into his weird pool of blood--and Dick in Brother Blood's thrall.
Superman #393: Rozakis/Cavalieri and Novick/Giordano discover yet another creep kind of obsessed with Lana: the super-villain called the Master Jailer. We last saw him back was in Superman Family #221 back in '82. He has a pretty ingenious plot, marred by his nuttiness. He targets Superman with missiles that fuse Green Kryptonite to his costume, and his costume to his skin. Superman appears to have succumb to the poisoning in the Fortress of Solitude. Next, the Jailer goes after Clark Kent. He looks all over town but has a tough time tracking him down. When he finally confronts him, Clark is revealed to be Superman--wearing a Clark Kent mask. He defeats the Master Jailer and reveals who he used a Bizarro device to make Bizarro copies of the Jailer's missiles that then exploded and de-Kryptonited him.
Arak Son of Thunder #31: Colon is back on art, though much of this story is a reprint of the Thomas/Colon/DeZuniga preview of Arak in Warlord #48 (1981). Arak relates that incident to Satyricus in context of a story about about a girl named Amber who was a slave to the viking jarl, Ottar. He contests with Sigvald for her, with Ottar planning to give the girl to whoever brings him the biggest piece of amber. Although, Arak successfully retrieved a larger piece of amber, he returned too late. Ottar died while he was away and, in the Viking tradition, his slave girl was killed with him. Arak began to think of leaving the company of the vikings as a result, which he soon would.
Batman #369: Moench and Newton/Alcala return to Alfred and his daughter, Julia. They're in Montreal investigating Jacques' murder. They must be on to something, because someone keeps trying to kill them. After more than one close call, Alfred calls in Batman for help. It turns out the assassin is Deadshot, who is so eager for revenge on Batman, he starts making blunders regarding the job he's supposed to be doing. Julia is desperate to avenger her father and is getting reckless, too. A well-timed Batarang at Julia's gun, keeps Deadshot from killing her and her from killing Deadshot. Batman interrogates Deadshot and the assassin reveals to their surprise that it was Jacques Remarque who hired him!
Flash #331: Bates/Cavalieri and Infantino/McLaughlin conclude the story from last issue. Flash lets Grodd think he's finished him, so the ape lets his guard down and let's Angelo go. Flash springs into action and uses his speed to actually move Grodd in front of his own mental blast. Solovar and the Gorilla City crew show up to bring the Flash home and take Grodd into custody. Meanwhile, the police are looking for the missing Barry Allen and somebody plants a bomb in the office of the Flash's lawyer. Hearing the explosion over the phone, the Flash races to save him, but will he be in time?
G.I. Combat #263: Continuing the story from previous issues, the Mercenaries managed to best the Yeti creature and grab the cobra statue--which doesn't appear to be made of anything like the gold and jewels they were promised. Still, the women with them are going to take it back to the temple, so the Mercenaries follow along to keep them out of harm. Good plan, because they do get attacked. Back at the temple, the old man uses some liquid to reveal it's true, golden, jewel encrusted form. He gives the Mercenaries a ruby each. They leave, but then Gordon decides he wants to go back for the woman he's sweet on, but the temple and its inhabitants have disappeared.
The two Haunted Tank stories continue to get mileage out of Craig's son, Eddie, now being a member of the crew. This particularly comes to the fore in the second story which has a frame story of Eddie writing a letter to his mother (Craig's estranged wife) regarding recent events where a fuel shortage for both sides starts as problem but ultimately becomes an advantage for Stuart's Raiders as they're able to take out a group of immobile Panzers solo after that fill up courtesy of captured German vehicles. In the first, Gus' background as a minster is highlighted as he struggles with the commandments of his faith and his duty as a soldier. In the end, though, Kanigher doesn't really have anything profound to say about that, but it's good to see Gus get the spotlight.
The nonseries story is about a bomb disposal team dealing with a bomb made with a particularly tricky fuse. It no doubt carries an additional air of verisimilitude as the writer, Paul S. Newman, served as a tech with a bomb disposal unit.
Omega Men #12: Broot and Shlagen part company with the rest of the Omega Men on Rashashoon. Broot feels he has delayed too long finding his wife. They follow coordinates stolen from the Citadel to a near-lifeless planetoid. There they discover radiation-poisoned Changralynian youth toiling away. They have never met their captors or heard of the Citadel. They work in the name of their religion. At their temple, Broot is horrified to discover that the blind priestess is his wife, Kattayan-Bish.
Meanwhile, the other Omega Men led by Primus race back to Euphorix. They arrive only moments too late. Kalista has re-activated the energy shield and destroyed the controls so that it can't be lowered again.
Star Trek #1: Barr and Sutton/Villagran continue from where last each left off with another almost pitch perfect evocation of Trek. Kirk and Lt. Bryce are in spacesuits attempting to get into the Klingon station hidden in wormhole space while Saavik in a shuttlecraft attracts the Klingon's attention. Captain Koloth (presumably not the same as the one in TOS) is smart though and suspects the shuttle may be a ruse. He orders extra guards and also has guys watch his helmsman Konom, who was the one who secretly signaled the Federation. After some fights and quick thinking, Kirk, Bryce, Saavik and Konom escape via the transporter--but only after Kirk leaves a bomb whose detonation causes the base to return to normal space. Koloth chooses to blow his crew up rather than be captured.
Interestingly, there is foreshadowing of STIII here in some of McCoy's thought balloons. The Klingons are very much of the ST:TMP mold, not the version with less elaborate makeup we'll get in STIII and later. The only detail that seemed off to me is Bryce opening fire on disintegration setting on a group of Klingon guards. It seems like the Starfleet way might have been to stun them, but I can't think of a completely analogous scene in a TOS episode to compare.
2 comments:
New Teen Titans #40: I remember thinking at the time that it was ludicrous for a bunch of US senators to be openly supportive of someone so transparently evil as Brother Blood and somehow remain in office. In 2024, it doesn't even strain my disbelief.
Superman #393: That solution with the Bizarro anti-K missiles feels like something from 20-odd years in the past. Just ludicrous. The snazzy cover did get me to buy a Superman book though, which was a rarity for me at this point in the 80s.
Arak Son of Thunder #31: This one almost got me to cancel my mail-order sub to Arak, although in the end I stuck with it. Not a fan of reprinted material.
Batman #369: The sad part is I think Deadshot's somehow managed to get even worse at actually hitting Batman over the years. How do you blow holes in his cape like that and fail to clip at least one of his legs? HOW???
Brother Blood's name and costume still strain my disbelief, tbh. If he wore a suit and was nominally Christian then I could see it working.
That Batman cover is pretty terrific. Ed Hannigan knew how to design covers. (At least I think that's him).
It's too bad DC didn't get to start their Star Trek comics with an adaptation of WoK. I skiped these back in the day but I hear they were pretty good.
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