My mission to read DC Comics' output from January 1980 (cover date) to Crisis enters its fifth year. This week, I'm looking at the comics that were at newsstands on the week of February 2, 1984.
Thriller #6: Fleming and von Eeden/Giordano finish the Kane Creole story. And the resolution is really convoluted. An older Kane Creole gets out of prison where he has been for killing his promoter. He isn't the original Kane Creole (who is the true Elvis expy of this universe) but he's getting a movie made about him anyway, and his younger lookalike (or another Kane Creole lookalike) has been hired to do another bank robbery stunt as publicity. Proxy, who has disguised himself as young Kane Creole, hears this and realizes he has to let the Seven Seconds know because they've set a trap at that bank expecting a real robbery. The Young Kane fights with the Seven Seconds, but the old one shows up to try to put an end to the violence. The old one reveals in confession that the young Kane is his clone--and he's a clone as well, made from genetic material from the exhumed body of the original by his unscrupulous promoter. It's the violation of this graverobbing resurrection that led the Creole clone to murder.
When people say Thriller is innovative, prefiguring the 90s Clone Saga surely isn't what they mean!
Atari Force #5: Conway and Andru/García-López have brought the team together at last as Tempest, Dart, and Morphea assist Martin in stealing his old spacecraft Scanner One and taking off to find the Dark Destroyer. Not that they believe him yet; they each have their reasons for going along. Morphea gets the opportunity to rescue Babe, so he goes too. Pakrat stows away to escape arrest by his brother. New Earth government allows Rident Oly to go after them to get his brother back, but all the doubters are in for a surprise because the Dark Destroyer does exist, and he's waiting to meet them.
Fury of Firestorm #23: The Conways and Kayanan/Rodriquez deliver an issue that I think wears its influences on its sleeve: It's at once very topical, but also clearly indebted to a sort of Spider-Man plot template. I liked it a lot more than the previous story arc. Ronnie is moping because he feels guilty about his relationship with Doreen given Firestorm's relationship with Firehawk. He makes his day worse by accidentally magnetizing and ruining a shipment of computer stuff while stopping a runaway train. The owner of said computer stuff, Felicity Smoak, threatens to sue him. After more bullying from Cliff at a school play, Ronnie decides to attend a computer show mentioned by fellow Cliff-victim and classmate Barney Bonner. At the show, an electrical villainess, Byte, emerges from a computer and attempts to kill Dr. Stein's friend, Belle Haney. Firestorm stops her (for now), but Ronnie recognizes Byte as Blythe Bonner, another schoolmate and sister to Barney.
DC Comics Presents #69: Evanier and Norvick/Jensen gives us a time travel crossover. An old award is found in a drawer at the Daily Planet recognizing Perry White for reporting on Hitler's "Secret Olympics" in 1941. The weird thing is, Perry has absolutely no memory of it. Must be a slow day for superheroism, because Superman decides to go back in time and see what the deal is. He winds up covertly (so as not to disrupt the timeline) helping the Blackhawks defeat some chemically enhanced Nazi super-soldiers and saving Albert Einstein, all while meeting a younger Perry White. Perry writes about what he knows of those events, but then Himmler grabs him and wipes his memory, so the Germans won't be embarrassed by their defeat. All this Superman just watches because he can't change the timeline. Curiosity satisfied; Superman returns to the present.
Justice League of America #226: While the letter column promises Conway and Patton cooking up big changes ahead, Cavalieri and Patton/McLaughlin trudge on with the second part of their story. The Leaguers battle Hellrazer and his djinn to a stand-still, but when he escapes to his own infernal dimension of Perdition, he takes Zatanna captive. Green Arrow, Black Canary, and Hawkwoman enter Hellrazer's dimension to rescue her. Meanwhile, Elongated Man and Red Tornado join Atom and Hawkman in Morocco, where Lord Arsenic, another Faitlux leader, has used Luciferase and a mystic mask to gain the power of the deity Set--which mostly seem to be shooting energy blasts. The heroes defeat him by turning his own powers against him and set out to track the rest of the Luciferase. In Perdition, the heroes believe they have found Zatanna (thought Hawkwoman is suspicious) but the story clearly telegraphs it isn't her.
Wonder Woman #315: Mishkin and Heck continue the story from last issue. Tezcatlipoca depowers Wonder Woman into Diana Price, but she still manages to hold on her own and help Griggs thanks to her martial arts skills she learned when she was depowered before. Tezcatlipoca forces her to face funhouse mirror reflections of part of her character she rejects, but she overcomes these weaknesses, and again empowered, prepares to square off with the mad god. Meanwhile, someone is stalking Etta Candy, and Steve Trevor and a gremlin flying in Wonder Woman's plane hear a surprising message mentioning Trevor's death.
The art by Beachum/Martin has the Huntress backup looking better than it has in the past, I think, and Cavalieri's writing reaches for greater sophistication. The plot primarily revolves around Huntress trying to find out who leaked information regarding the limb regeneration program, Project Starfish. It turns out ultimately that the Sea-Lion is involved. What's more interesting though is how Cavalieri portrays and highlights Huntress relationship with several men in the supporting cast. There's the hospital intern Kelly who awkwardly asks her if she wants to listen to old Motown records at his place and seems intimidated by her. There's the cop, Minelli, who's assigned to surveil her, who has an obsessive attraction. Then there's her ostensible boyfriend Sims, who seems to resent her independence and wants someone more submissive. Huntress actually gets told by a man in this issue that she should smile more.
Blackhawk #270: Evanier and Spiegle pick up where last issue left off: the Blackhawks are in the hands of General "Killer Shark: Haifisch, and their leader is riding in a coffin on a train toward Spain. From Spain, Blackhawk steals a plane and flies back to Blackhawk Island, where he learns that his men have been captured, so he flies to save them.
Meanwhile, Haifisch has moved his prisoners and his troops to a U-boat in the English Channel. He fires a radar-guided antiaircraft missile at the pursuing Blackhawk, knocking him from the sky and presumably killing him. Blackhawk bailed out, though, so when Killer Shark surfaces, Blackhawk jumps him from the superstructure of his own sub. They fight hand-to-hand with Blackhawk losing, until the arrival of a flight of RAF planes distracts the Nazi general. The sub is taken and the prisoners freed, but the Killer Shark presumably escapes.
2 comments:
We're nearing the end of the real Thriller - which I loved with the caveat that I have not read it in 40 years. Both this title and Atari Force were great for a while and then handed to lesser creators. Or other creators, I gues, I generally like Mike Baron's work more than Gerry Conway's but Conway was cooking with gas on Atari Force.)
Half of these comics have creator credits on the front cover.
Yeah, I feel like Conway was too slow in getting to where he wanted to go with Atari Force and left Baron in a difficult place. Conway started out great, though.
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