World's Finest Comics #302: Grittier than usual cover this issue by Hannigan and Janson. A yacht full of rapidly decomposed corpses in Gotham is harbinger of a terrorist attack on Metropolis using a kryptonite-based plague. The mastermind demands a high ransom for the antidote, lest Gotham suffer the same fate. Superman barely escapes after having to crawl through the subway tunnels and gets to Gotham where he starts trying to find a cure while Batman does detective work in a race against time.
The green plague and the yacht full of skeletons are pulpy details, like something out of a Norvell Page Spider novel. Kraft's story presents a problem it takes both Superman and Batman to solve without it being a cosmic-level threat, though Chen's and Marco's art gives the mystery of the mastermind's identity away by rendering him with a look that says "villain" from the moment he's introduced.
Action Comics #555: It's the 25th Anniversary of Supergirl's debut in Action Comics and all Kupperberg and Swan/Hunt got us was an appearance by the Parasite. The baddie returns to Earth, saps Superman's powers as he's wont to do, and traps Supes in an airtight prison with only minutes of breathable air. The ever-resourceful Superman uses the super- hard lenses of his glasses to cut through the side of the container, escapes, and then hypnotizes the Parasite into restoring his super-powers. After he imprisons Parasite, he goes to meet Supergirl, fulfilling the anniversary requirement of this issue.
Arion Lord of Atlantis #19: Kupperberg and Duursema pick up with our heroes still reeling from the drowning of Khe-Wannatu. There's little time for grief, though, because Garn Danuuth isn't done. He summons the dark god, Thalas, and Arion and the Golden Goddess Deedra must do battle with them. Deedra turns Garn to gold and she and Thalas leave this plane, but poor Arion is left underwater to drown. He's saved by Fawndancer, Wyynde's wife, who has somehow been transformed into a mermaid.
I perhaps don't comment enough on what a unique comic Arion is. It's very much Dr. Strange meets Conan with some elements from literary high fantasy of the era thrown in. I think it has some of the problems of Dr. Strange, like not well defining what magic can do and how it works leading to a lot of "the solution is this thing we've just introduced this issue" and the weaknesses of trying to adapt high fantasy (a genre that traditionally engages in a lot of rigorous worldbuilding) to the comics approach of making it up as we go. It is an interesting experiment, though.
All-Star Squadron #33: Thomas and Hoberg/Collins deliver a split story. On Earth-X, Uncle Sam and the nascent Freedom Fighters battle a Japanese attack on Santa Barbara only to come face to face with Baron Blitzkrieg who has Hourman in a deathtrap. On Earth-Two, Firebrand and Johnny Quick meet Neptune Perkins, while Starman and Liberty Belle spy on a meeting of Japanese Americans where Tsunami tries to get them to join the Japanese cause. When they refuse, she lashes out, injuring her own father.
Meanwhile, The Spectre is still being held between worlds by the command of the Voice. He tries to get back to Earth-Two but finds his efforts are threatening to draw both Earth-Two and Earth-X together--and maybe destroy them both.
Detective Comics #538: Moench and Colan/Smith bring a mildly amusing follow up to this month's Batman. Collins, Catman's former cellmate, is allowed to break out of prison so he can lead Batman and the police to the loot from his last heist. He steals Catman's costume, and thinks it's giving him nine lives, but it's really Batman secretly helping him out of danger. After a cave in, Batman finds the loot, but Catman winds up in the Batcave, where a weary Batman confronts him and beats the hell out of him.
In a more somber Green Arrow backup by Cavalieri and McManus/Marcos, we get parallel stories of Ollie taking down a gunrunner, Jacaruso, while remembering three years ago how he was to have an interview with a famous musician (heavily implied to be John Lennon) only to have the musician killed in front of him just before. Interestingly, Ollie is referred to as a "gonzo journalist" in this story.
Jonah Hex #84: Hex buys some new guns and heads down to New Orleans on a job to protect the beautiful daughter, Adrian, of a wealthy man from a kidnapping scheme. The girl falls for Hex, naturally, and her fiance is, naturally, not happy about it. They are jumped at Mardi Gras and Hex and Adrian are taken, but ultimately Hex gets them out. The cowardly fiance is out, and now Adrian plans to marry Hex.
Meanwhile, we see Hart and Mei Ling, and Jonah's son who somehow looks about 6 now. Then there's Emmy Lou, still being held captive by the robber, whose advances she keeps spurning.
Nathaniel Dusk #4: McGregor and Colan come to the conclusion, which feels a bit abrupt, but that's not uncommon for the detective genre. Dusk escapes a death by ferry propellor and gets out of the river. He's figured out his friendly corner newsstand owner has been informing on him to the mob. After he confronts that guy, he goes to meet Joyce's mother. She reveals that Joyce was married to an abusive mobster who have never accepted she ran away from him. The blonde goon greets Dusk as he leaves the old woman's apartment, and he's again treated to a deathtrap with an injection of rat poison. After a night in the hospital, he goes to confront the mobster. Blondie accidentally kills his boss in the conflict, then Dusk sets the guy's curly hair on hair in the scuffle.
Some have complained there isn't a whole lot of mystery here, just "scuffles and chases," which is true, but this is a detective story, so I don't think it's out of bounds. At worst, it's one twist short. I would agree the story is slight for the run time and is filled with action set pieces. It's a level of action more akin to 70s film and TV shows than a reflection of pulp fiction gumshoes, and the ending the first 3 issues on a cliffhanger feels like movie serials.
New Adventures of Superboy #53: A lot going on this issue, but the first thing to notice is how different Schaffenberger looks under Giella's inks. After their first assault on Earth fails, aliens from Drulok ally themselves with the Superboy Revenge Squad against Superboy, but that doesn't come to a whole lot this issue. While dealing with these aliens, Clark has to deal with Lana making a play for him in jealousy over his relationship with Lisa. Councilman and profiteer Gary Simmons escalates his attempts to keep Jonathan Kent from running for political office by taking a hit out on him.
Ronin #5: I had almost forgotten this series was still going. Anyway, the Ronin and Casey get closer, and she begins to be able to see things the way he does. For instance, Virgo's new robot soldiers appear as demonic samurai. Meanwhile, McKenna thinks he has pieced most of it together: Billy's telekinetic powers were greater than anyone, but Virgo knew. He created this Ronin identity from TV shows he saw as a child. But what's Virgo after, and what's her role? Five issues in Miller has really established his own style and the influence of European comics and Japanese manga seems more subsumed into his vision.
2 comments:
Arion Lord of Atlantis #19: While it didn't always work, I found Arion interesting enough to keep reading it and in general liked the concept of doing what was sort of sword & sorcery with a mage as protag rather than the usual swordsman. It was a neat inversion of the usual formula, anyway - and as you said there was some Doctor Strange in teh mix, and I always liked Doc.
Think at this point the only DC books I was buying regularly were Arion and Arak. My tastes in comics had always been odd, and with college looming they got even stranger.
I can understand that. My college years were dominated by Vertigo.
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