Join me as I read DC Comics' output from January 1980 (cover date) to Crisis! This week, I'm looking at comics that were published on April 19, 1984.
Green Lantern #178: Thanks to the mysterious Monitor's actions as a go-between, Jason Bloch is introduced to the Demolition Team in a great two-page spread. He sends them to destroy Ferris Aircraft, then tries to call them off when he finds out Green Lantern is out of his coma and could mop the floor with them. The Monitor refuses to help him out, but the agent of Con-Trol who's been listening in decides to do Bloch a solid, without Bloch knowing.
Just as the Demolition Team attacks, Jordan is called away by the Guardians. He has to go save an alien planet that appears about to explode--exactly the sort of mission the great Tomar-Re failed at with the destruction of Krypton. As Jordan is puzzling out what to do, Carol and friends make a brave, but likely futile stand against the Demolition Team, only to have a third force enter the fight: the black and silver clad Predator!
Themed villain teams are definitely an 80s thing, but the Demolition Team is a weird one for those. Despite their construction worker-oriented theme, none of them actually have a background in construction/demolition. They all have various other specialties loosely related to what they use their equipment for. So why'd they pick the theme?
Batman and the Outsiders #12: I was suspicious last issue, but I didn't want to comment until I was sure: Aparo doesn't know what a katana looks like. The Japanese swords in this issue and the last often look like fanciful, broad-bladed scimitars, sometimes even held with the curve the wrong way.
Anyway, in the story continued from last issue, Katana reveals her whole, tragic backstory, and the Outsiders take on the warriors forced to work for the Yakuza since being freed from the blade. At the Yakuza base, the resurrected souls are defeated and returned to the sword and Takeo, Katana's criminal brother-in-law, is also killed in a duel with Katana. With the battle over, the Outsiders return home, only to discover on the flight back that Batman has been poisoned by a dart and is dying.
Infinity, Inc. #4: The Thomases and Ordway/Machlan take some time to reveal the origins of Jade, Obsidian, and Northwind as the three fly to Feithera to have Solomon Grundy imprisoned there. In a bold move that hopefully he didn't get full page-rate for, Thomas incorporates the first appearance of Feithera from Flash Comics #71 in the form of a reprint. After all that, the three meet up with the other Infinitors and learning that five members of the JSA have been found dead, apparently drowned.
Saga of Swamp Thing #26: I wouldn't call this a misstep exactly, but this issue certainly isn't on the level of what we've gotten from Moore before, primarily because it is almost entirely setup. It reads fine in the trade (which is how I've always read it before) but as a standalone issue it is obvious that Swampie and Abbie spend most of the issue just running or gaping accompanied by Jason Blood's semi-sinister narration. Besides narrating, Jason spends the issue just getting ready to fight the evil. Only the kids in the home and Matt Cable do anything definitive. The kids are starting to be prey for the Monkey King and the kid Paul clues Abbie in to how it works. Matt gets drunk and wrecks his car. Despite my gripes about this one, the ending promises a big confrontation next issue.
New Talent Showcase #7: The cover feature is a new one called "Mirrage" (extra "r" intended) by Tillman and Shoemaker about a guy who got super-powers from living on a farm whose water was contaminated with toxic waste. He apparently can become intangible and also forces toxins out of his system to sicken others. The other new ongoing is actually a return of "Class of 2164" by Klein and Showmaker, which now appears to be envisioned as an anthology of future stories. This is the best story of the issue with good art and a story about interplanetary travel via solar sails that's pretty hard sci-fi for comics.
There's a couple of shorts that seem like inventory stories left over from the anthology books of a few years earlier. One by Weaver/Grindberg involves a video game that apparently provides a conduit for near mystical contact with an alien species of unclear intent, and the old man who doesn't understand why he wasn't chosen in his youth. The other by Newell and Orzechowski/Alexander involves a future where a human being competing in an athletic competition with androids is a novelty and a triumph for the human race. It's a story that doesn't go anywhere beyond its premise.
Dragonknights comes to its end and is sort of underwhelming. Likewise, the comic strip throwback "The Mini (Mis)Adventures of Nick O. Tyme" continues to be tedious, though I do sort of admire the intent.
Sgt. Rock #390: This title has had some cool stories, but Kanigher's tendency to rely on "war is heck" (Comics Code approved) as the theme for them all, and his reliance on gimmicky stories gives us instead stuff like Rock apparently getting saved by the obligatory new guy who in this case appears to be the ghost of the Unknown Soldier--not the DC character as far as I can tell but the guy in the tomb.
The backup story with art by Auck, is also typical Kanigher fare of the Weird War Tales variety with two warriors on a battlefield continuing their struggle through many conflicts and generations.
Supergirl #21: Kupperberg and Barreto continue the story from this month's Superman. When Supergirl is attacked out of nowhere by alien spacecraft, which turn out to be the cult known as the Seeders). She tracks them to Metropolis, where Superman is fighting the Kryptonite Man. The Seeders are a third side in the conflict, as their commander, Lord Sed, has lost a hand in battle with the Kryptonite Man and is out for revenge. Superman tries to convince the Kryptonite Man that they aren't responsible for Krypton's destruction, but to no avail. Supergirl and Superman battle both Seeders and Kryptonite Man, but the latter two parties eventually destroy each other, with Kryptonite Man perhaps sacrificing himself to save the Earth in the end.
Warlord #83: I reviewed the main story here. In the Barren Earth backup by Cohn and Randall, Jinal hears a bit about Barasha's time among the people of the sky city, but it doesn't give her anything in the way of real answers. Meanwhile, she and her friends are being surveilled by a group of robed figures with advanced technology who view Jinal as a potential threat.
2 comments:
Skimming too fast, I initially thought that Sgt Rock cover was flipping us off, which, "bold statement."
I'd forgotten about the Monitor running all these calibration exercises . . . interesting idea, repetitive or just weird in practice. Probably better executed in Final Crisis but not by much.
Wonder if the Demolition Team is a pure Gibbons concept, they have wild 2000 AD / Village People "lost in translation" energy that I don't usually associate with a Wein script.
Oh! Wein! Which means Swamp Thing. Going back through these recently myself it's kind of amazing how decompressed the run really is. They'll get into a groove for a few issues and then the art team gets behind and Karen engineers a character spotlight like this or a flashback or something. And it happens again and again and again! I don't mind but you're right to note it.
I feel like Wolfman/Perez introduced the Monitor before there was a firm handle on what he was going to be doing, and even when they decided other writers weren't clued in.
Good thought on the Demolition Team. I could easily see them having the origin you hypothesize.
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