Action Comics #553: Kane sends the Forgotten Heroes charging out of the cover, at least. As Vandal Savage tries to deceive the people of Metropolis into thinking Superman as turned against them, the Man of Steel and Rip Hunter's team go back to the dawn of time to try and stop the villain from harnessing the powers of Creation. The Forgotten Heroes get some screentime investigating the alien pyramids, but really it mostly comes down to Superman, so it's effectively glorified cameos for them.
Camelot 3000 #10: Barr, Bolland, and Austin have Mordred, Morgan Le Fay, and their alien allies take out the buffoonish leaders of the Earth's world powers. Tensions are beginning to appear between Mordred and Morgan. Meanwhile, Arthur and his knights break into a spaceport and steal a spacecraft. Their destination is the 10th planet and Castle Le Fay.
I feel like this series has dragged on a bit two long, but it still looks really good.
Detective Comics #535: Nice Cullins/Giordano cover. Moench and Colon/Smith continue the story from the last couple of issues. After Deadshot's claim that Jacques Remarque hired him, Julia is convinced the man who has been a father to her is still alive, and Alfred's urging of caution cause friction between them. Batman learns from the Montreal Police that Deadshot was somehow connected to terrorist and a scheme involving stolen art from France, which would explain how Jacques Remarquebecame involved. In transport, Deadshot escapes but winds up leading our heroes to the terrorists' hideout. Julia brashly rushes in but is rescued by Alfred and Batman. The criminals as apprehended, and Julia accepts that her adoptive father is dead.
Meanwhile, in Gotham, the new crime lord, Dr. Fang, prepares for a meeting with Bullock.
In the Green Arrow backup, Oliver is taken down by the Detonator, who discovers that the archer doesn't have the black box (he stashed it). Ollie awakens in a hospital, surrounded by Rick and Ozone, who has picked the box up. Turns out, there is no pilot voice recording on it. Green Arrow calls in the suspects so he can play detective and reveal which one is the Detonator: Coopersmith, the pilot, who gave himself away by not calling for help.
Arion Lord of Atlantis #17: Kupperberg and Duursema send Arion and crew back to the land of the Khe-Wannantu so Arion can get the aid of the shaman Moonstalker to help rid him of Garn Daanuth. They arrive just in time to see Wyynde's wedding which causes Mara to get upset and run off.
Not only can't the shaman help, but Garn's power is able to penetrate into the physical world causing madness in the village. Arion tries to use illusions to help but that only weakens him, and Garn is able to gain control and free himself from Arion's body.
All-Star Squadron #30: Thomas and Hoberg/Machlan re-introduce a number of characters that DC acquired from Quality comics. At the first meeting of the massively expanded roster of the All-Star Squadron at the Perisphere, Uncle Sam appears to request help to rescue Earth-X, a parallel world in peril. He reveals that he took several heroes from Earth-2 to Earth-X already, but they all died, including former JSA member, Hourman.
Just as the Squadron prepares to vote on assisting Uncle Sam, Midnight busts in, having escaped from some Nazis. He passes out, and the All-Star’s discover he's carrying an injured Doll Man with him in a shoebox.
Nathaniel Dusk #2: Still not a fan of the decision not to ink this. It makes it look like there's some sort of book-long printing error. That aside, McGregor and Colan continue to deliver a satisfying detective story. Dusk manages to avoid falling to his death off the building and escapes the two goons trying to kill him. He goes to Joyce's apartment and finds the police are there. His friend, Lt. Abrahams tells him Joyce has been murdered.
After attending Joyce's funeral, Dusk begins to suspect the attempt was made on his life because he was dating Joyce, but he doesn't know enough about her to know why. Arthur Squire calls Dusk and offers to feel in some of the blanks, but when Dusk gets to his house, Squire has been murdered, and the goons are there. They chase him on to a train and appear to have him dead to rights as he's trying to climb onto the roof.
New Adventures of Superboy #51: With a Frank Miller cover depicting Superboy walking out of Smallville, this one gives "new direction" vibes, but actually it's a reprint collation of the "Superman: The In-Between Years" backups by written by Rozakis with various artists from Superman #359, 362, and 366. I didn't compare them to see if they are complete reprints or whether they might have been re-edited like a TV clip show, but they are definitely the same stories. I can't fault them too much for this though. Many of their current readers likely missed some or all of those stories from 1981. I would think it was even better if this was placing them where they should go in Superboy's life chronologically, but I'm pretty sure that isn't the case.
Jonah Hex #82: Fleisher and Ayers/DeZuniga handle the carriage laden with explosives cliffhanger at the end of last issue in the manner of movie serials. They back up and show us Hex and Turnbull escaping before it exploded. Papagayo realizes they got away, but he's having too much fun to bother going after them. Eventually, Turnbull and Hex make it to down and Turnbull, in recognition of the multiple times Hex saved his life, agrees to clear Jonah's name-- but after that, they will be enemies again.
The new couple of Hart and Mei Ling are in town, but Hart is shot, and Mei Ling is kidnapped by men with a grudge against Hex. Hart and Hex track the men down and rescue her, but when Jonah catches the two embracing, he punches Hart out and storms off.
Meanwhile, Emmy Lou has left town on a stagecoach gets to think back on how she came to be among the Crow and how she met Jonah. Then the stage is robbed, but the robbers choose to take Emmy Lou as well as the valuables.
World's Finest Comics #301: This story by Mishkin/Cohn and Chen/Marcos takes place before the arc that concluded in last issue. The cover of this issue is misleading in that it suggests a giant Superman is menacing Batman and the villain, Siphon. In the actual issue, Siphon's attempt to...well, siphon Superman's power has left him a raging being of pure energy. Batman makes common cause with Siphon to restore Superman to normal and keep him from killing the villain, which he knows his friend will forever regret. Siphon still plans to siphon all of Superman's power for himself. In the end, Superman is restored to corporeal form, and it's his powers that defeat Siphon as the villain is overwhelmed by super-senses.
3 comments:
I bought Camelot 3000, Detective and Nathaniel Dusk out of this weeks assortment. The high-contrast pencils and solid colors of that first Nathaniel Dusk series look terrible. They get it right on the second series.
I see cover credits on two of these comics. I'm not sure when DC started doing this but it's probably sometime during your pre-Crisis read. I'm not sure if it ever goes line-wide or not. Still, a nice thing to see.
I'm not sure when that went line-wide but it's definitely in this period. I've heard Thomas was to thank for that because he had a contract clause that said he got cover credit if anyone did, so DC just found it easier to give everyone credit, but I don't know the truth of that story.
That Superboy does look like the cover of a comic with at most three months left to run. I wonder why they didn't just end it here as a transition to adult Superman in the regular books . . . especially with the ominous Superboy Prime already on the scene.
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