What it's Like to Travel The Stars

Presumably no one on Earth has yet experienced interplanetary space travel. When the creators of space travel-related media go to describe it or evoke the feeling of it for their audience they tend to analogize it in terms of some idiom of travel their audience is familiar with. The ways in which travelers interact with travel, the stylings of ships and controls, and the attitude of the world toward pilots--all of these things are typically informed more by the specific analogy employed that the speculative mechanics of the travel.

For example, the most pervasive of these is likely space travel as sea travel. This occurs at the level of language where we usually talk of "spaceships" instead of craft or vehicles and crew rankings/positions typically follow naval models. This analogy is evident in Star Trek in its naval organization and the conduct of its space battles, but also in the particular romanticization of both vessels, voyaging, and at times, captaincy. In Star Trek V, Kirk quotes the 1902 poem "Sea-Fever" by Masefield: "All I ask is a tall ship, and a star to steer by," and it's not at all out of place with the vibe.

Star Wars engages in the sea travel analogy, too. It and its imitators like Battlestar Galactica have capital ships acting as aircraft carriers. The Millenium Falcon is a tramp freighter with a captain supposedly inspired by Humphrey Bogart's screen persona (and perhaps his famous role as a tramp steamer captain in The African Queen (1951)). His adventures with Chewbacca prior to Star Wars probably look a lot like episodes of the radio series Voyage of the Scarlet Queen just translated from the South Seas to the Rim. Cowboy Bebop really hits you over the head with the tramp sea vessel analogy by having the Bebop land in water and being built from a sea-going vessel.

Star Wars likes to mix things up, though. It also employs the second most common analogy: space travel as air travel. Dogfights between fighters have moves out of World War II and hotshot pilots are almost as important to the narrative as they are in Top Gun. The cockpit controls of the Millennium Falcon, and the fact "she doesn't look like much" but "she's got it where it counts" could easily be the way a cargo pilot in some pulp adventure describes his aging sea plane, as in Tales of the Gold Monkey (or more accurately, the sort of fiction that inspired it) or the cargo planes in the early years of the Steve Canyon comic strip.

The third analogy that comes to mind is trucking. I define this as a focus on space travel as performed by rather unromanitic figures, blue collar-working stiffs, often solitary and with few amenities in their utilitarian-appearing vessels. It is not nearly as common as the other two, but it is specifically evoked in Alien and in Cowboy Bebop in the episode "Heavy Metal Queen." The farhaulers of the Transhuman Space setting also have some of this vibe. 

Are there other analogies? Probably. I think some media gestures toward spacecraft as automobile, often in a sort of plot where automobile itself is just the modern stand-in for the freedom of a "fast horse." Leigh Brackett has several protagonists on the run from the law in a fast, small ship like an outlaw escaping on horseback in a Western or a muscle car in a 70s car movie. Battle Beyond the Stars, the Star Wars-inspired space opera retread of the Magnificent Seven (and thus, Seven Samurai) has several of its "hired guns" traveling in solo spacecraft, and at least one is a cowboy. These are less convincing, though, because spacecraft tend to only analogize to cars or horses in media in limited ways. They always occur in "mixed metaphors."

And there are a lot of those of course, with Star Wars being the obvious example, as I said. Still, I find it interesting just how clear these analogies often are.

Wednesday Comics: DC, September 1984 (week 4)

I'm reading DC Comics' output from January 1980 (cover date) to Crisis! This week, I read the comics on sale on June 28, 1984.

Warlord Annual #3: I reviewed this annual by Burkett and Jurgens/DeCarlo starting here. In it, Morgan and crew are back in time and meet one of Deimos' ancestors and also learn the origins of Atlantean beast-man creating technology.

Action Comics #559: It's another 2-story issue and again the first story by Rozakis and Schaffenberger is sort of a throwback as it brings back the Yellow Peri from 1982. Loretta Grant gets the magic book back that transforms her into the Yellow Peri. She performs good deeds magically for a fee, an idea of her grifter husband who eventually manipulates her into attacking Superman. Despite all this, Superman lets her keep the magic book in the end. I'd suspect that won't turn out well, but I'd place equal odds-on Yellow Peri never showing up again Pre-Crisis. We'll see!

In the second story by Kupperberg and Saviuk, an encounter with an alien creature results in the temporary de-supering of Superman's hair, allowing Clark Kent to indulge in a visit to the barbershop for a haircut.

Arion Lord of Atlantis #23:  Duursema is back on art. Arion and crew get back to Atlantis and the king seems uninterested in their warnings about Garn Danuuth. Soon strangers start being hostile to Arion and then his friends. Garn shows up but he seems all good now. This all culminates with Wyynde and Arion fighting a duel to the death in the arena. The weakness of this issue is that Arion seems really dumb. From the moment they arrive, and the king is acting out of character, he should have considered a plot by Garn, but know, he doesn't seem to even after his friend and lover turn on him. Maybe mind control magic doesn't exist in Atlantis, so he doesn't consider he because he has no framework for it, but I suspect his thickness is merely in service of padding out the plot.

All-Star Squadron #37: Thomas and Jones/Howell pick up where last issue left off. An uncharacteristically (well, for the Earth-One version, at least) hotheaded Superman is spoiling for a fight with the Marvels, and briefly gets it before cooler heads prevail, and they all realize they are on the same side. We hear how they got here from Earth-S and how they want to get Billy/Captain Marvel back and go home. The magical plot contrivance shield over Europe makes it difficult, but if the two join the technologically empowered JSA as plain old Freddie and Mary, it shouldn't be a problem. Sneaking into Germany, the JSA and the kids find Billy Batson captive, but they are ambushed by the Nazi Captain Marvel. It seems a Nazi scientist has a device that can separate the powered forms from those empowered by Shazam's magic lightning. They do that to Mary and Freddie, too, and send the Marvels to attack Britain.

The mind-controlled Marvels are able to get the better of the powered JSA members left behind, but luckily the group in Germany escapes. As soon as the Batsons and Freddie get out of the range of the Nazi's shield, the Marvels turn good again and help the JSA defeat a German invasion force. Then, they use their powers to recombine and transport themselves back to their Earth.

Detective Comics #542: Again, the assassin makes an attempt Bullock's life but dumb luck (scrambling to get a car cigarette lighter) saves him. With an injured arm, Bullock is on light duty and winds up being the one to accompany the Child Welfare worker to pull Jason from Bruce's custody. The legalities of Bruce's custody are weird here. Moench seems to not want to have Bruce breaking the law, but yet maintain he can't legally have Jason (for some reason the papers weren't signed). It just seems contrived. 

Anyway, while Bruce meets with his team of legal eagles and offers to double their salaries if they can figure a way to get Jason back. Jason slips out of his new living space to answer a bat signal and try to protect Bullock from the assassin. Ultimately, Batman arrives to save the day, but now Batman and Robin have two separate abodes.

Sun Devils #3: The mysterious, ethereal Myste helps Rik Sunn led hi ragtag squadron to victory over the Sauroid invaders. Their dictator natural executes the commanders responsible for the failure, but his troubles only increase as his Crustate allies rethink their planned attack on Earth. Meanwhile, the success of Rik and others leads the Centaurian forces to reconsider rejecting them, and they give them special status with new fighters and snazzy red and black uniforms. Myste reveals herself to the group and is going to continue to aide them. Rik and Annie get some private time and their relationship blossoms. Things aren't all roses for the Sun Devils, though, as we discover there is a traitor among them.

Super Powers #3: Kirby/Cavalieri and Gonzales/Kupperberg have the heroes comparing notes on their recent encounters with villains with heightened powers. Their speculations are cut short by an attack by the Amazons, including Wonder Woman, on the island nation of San Marcos thanks to the actions of the enhanced Brainiac. The heroes have to pull out all the stops to defeat them, including Aquaman summoning a kaiju. Then Brainiac de-evolves Superman to a belligerent, Kryptonian caveman.

Tales of the Legion #315: Levitz/Giffen and Shoemaker/Kesel have a trio Legionnaires crash the trial room of the Dark Circle, but the Circle members tap their sun's power to teleport themselves and Ontiir to a secret satellite. The Circle orders Ontiir to prove his loyalty by giving up his secrets and committing suicide. The Legionnaires arrive in time to prevent that with the Science Police on their heels. The Legionnaires see the Dark Circle's true Cthulhoid form. Ontiir refuses to drop his weapon and is shot and killed by Chief Zendak without us every learning what side he really though it was on. The Circle declares they have nothing to fight over anymore and leaves. Later, Supergirl tells Brainiac 5 that maybe she shouldn't and come, and she doesn't fit in with the Legion anymore. Promising to see him sometime later, she heads back to the 20th Century.

In the backup by Levitz/Newell and Tuska/Kesel, the White Witch continues telling her origin story to Blok. She reveals how Mordru was one of her teachers, and how he betrayed her out of spite and changed her appearance, so she looked like an old woman.

World's Finest Comics #307: Kraft/Rozakis finish this epic with von Eeden/Andrews. I wonder if Kraft was satisfied with the result? Anyway, Superman is trapped by the villains, giving X'ult time to reveal his backstory. He's an alien and the source of everyone's powers is really a technological artifact from his home world. He revives Barracuda and places her under his control. He makes the mistake of having Batman locked in a cell though, which the Caped Crusdader of course, escapes from, then frees Swordfish and Null. They get Superman out too, and the heroes confront X'ult. Swordfish's love frees Barracuda from control, and the two of them and X'ult are plunged into the past, still battling.

With X'ult gone Null's and Void's powers are...well, you know. The heroes take them back to the authorities.

Star Trek Movie Special #1: Nice cover here by Chaykin. Barr and Sutton/Villagrain adapt Star Trek III: The Search for Spock which was released on June 1, 1984. Though it's been clear from hints dropped in the regular series, that Barr knew at least some of the plot points of STIII, he didn't quite set things up for the start of the film, so there's a bit of discontinuity between what we last saw there and where this issue picks up. It's unexplained, for instance, at what point Saavik left Enterprise and how much time has passed since we saw Kirk acting as captain with a full crew compliment and the apparent decision to decommission the vessel. Still, the same creative team on the adaptation does make it seem to flow into continuity better. It will be interesting to see what they do regarding STIV that seems to pick up closely on the heels of this film in movie continuity, but won't actually be released until 1986, leaving a lot of comic issues in between.

The Rpg Art of Kent Burles

 I first became aware of Canadian artist Kent Burles via his comic book work in The Adventurers, though I had seen it decades ago in Malibu's Planet of the Apes comics, too. Once I began to associate his style with his name, I connected him with a lot of rpg illustration from the past I had liked but hadn't known the artist. He did work in the 80s through the 00s in a lot of places: Iron Crown Enterprises, Steve Jackson Games, Palladium, and Green Ronin, among others.

Here are a couple of pieces that really showcase his design sensibility. I love the texture on both of these. It recalls for me the work of Stephen Fabian:

His elaboration of clothing decoration, armor, and technology is a bit like Jack Kirby but also strongly classic Sword and Sorcery:

This is just some of the stuff I could find online. Some of his most fantastical work I think is in the MERP Dol Guldur supplement. I don't know if it says "Tolkien," but it's got a strong S&S vibe and hints of Kirbytech, and it really sells the evil and deadly nature of the fortress. Anyway, I think his stuff is under-appreciated, which is unfortunately true of a number of rpg artists' work of the same era.

Triads

 Welsh triads, a historical form found in Medieval manuscripts where folkloric and mythologic tidbits are presented in groupings of three seem a compact way of delivering some light setting info. 

Playing with the form, I came up with a couple related to the setting I posted about here. 

Three terrible spectres of the Realm:
Pendhol,who seeks his lost crown and lost head in the hills of Hern,
And Llaithwyn, Lady of the Night Mists, who the wise give courtesy but only fools embrace,
And Black Gawl, the hound loosed by the Beast from the Outer Dark to herald the doom of Men.

Three cunning folk of the Realm:
Morgna, witch and shape-changer, whose hut wanders the Marshes of Morva,
Wyrthegern the Mad, who lives in the wild and speaks in riddles,
And the Wizard Midhryn of Many Names, who was judged most cunning of all.

Wednesday Comics: DC, September 1984 (week 3)

div style="text-align: left;">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 June 21, 1984.

Thriller #10: DuBay/Niño deliver a weird story (in a way different from how pretty much every Thriller story is weird) that feels like that last issue or next to last issue where they throw some stuff at you out of left field (see the endings of Rust, Nth Man, and Druid, to name a few). Except this isn't the end. We get the connection between Quo, the Salvotini siblings, Lusk, Thriller, and the terrorist Iskariot revealed, as they are shown to be students of the mysterious Verity, who was sort of the "Golden Age" Angie Thriller. While we're getting all this backstory, terrorists set off nukes in New York killing millions. Well, they did, but then time gets rewound, and it seems like we're poised on a new age of spiritual awareness, but then Verity gets accidentally shot and killed. But perhaps that's what was meant to happen? I don't know, but there's a next issue. Niño's art here has a sort of Milt Caniff vibe, different from his usual look. 

Batman and the Outsiders Annual #1: While I'm sure there are some 70s examples, maybe even some 60s ones, the mid-80s seem to be the Golden Age of themed super-villain teams. We got things started with the Demolition Team a few months ago, and now Barr and his collaborators give us what I think may be the exemplar of such teams: the seasonally appropriate Force of July. A Conservative politician creates the team to promote his vision of American ideals and pits them against Batman and the Outsiders (why are they his primary target? It's their book!) who become aware of his connection to a theft from S.T.A.R. Labs. The politician, who took Orwell's 1984 as a how-to manual, has deployed a satellite to monitor Americans constantly for unpatriotic behaviors and attitudes. In the initial skirmishes, the Outsiders are defeated and captured, but eventually they win the day, and the Force of July appears to have been killed. (SPOILERS: They weren't.) Geo-Force and Metamorpho go into space to destroy the satellite.

This issue also debuts Geo-Force's new, green and yellow costume. It also reveals that he knows that his sister Tara was a traitor, despite the Titans hiding it from him out of kindness in their book, Barr reveals that Batman apparently told Brion. Way to keep Nightwing's confidence, Batman!

DC Comics Presents Annual #3: From a story by Thomas, Cavalieri and Kane tell an action-packed tale of a cross-dimensional team-up between Captain Marvel and two Supermen--with appearances by Mary Marvel and Captain Marvel Jr. for good measure. Dr. Sivana attacks Superman on Earth-One, why the story doesn't really explain, because is main plot (and the issues) involves him having knocked out the wizard, Shazam, so he can set up a device on the Rock of Eternity and siphon the power of the magical lightning when he tricks Billy Batson into saying "Shazam!" Empowered like a Marvel, Sivana beats up Captain Marvel and imprisons him to die, then tricks Mary and Captain Marvel Jr., before heading to Earth-Two to beat up its Superman. Leaving him in a death trap, he travels to Earth-One and is about to kill that Superman, when Captain Marvel rallies and turns the tide. There is a lot of action, but not really a lot of team-up and most of the issue is the various characters taking on Sivana solo.

Blue Devil #4: This is a fun issue with a lot of the humor that marks the series. Superman takes Blue Devil to the Justice League Satellite to introduce him to Zatanna in hopes she might have a cure for his condition. Before he meets her though, he challenges Superman to an arm-wrestling contest and loses badly much to Elongated Man's amusement. When Zatanna does show up, she consults a book on demonology for background on Nebiros. She concludes that only Nebiros can undo the magic that grafted the costume onto Dan, so she opens a portal to the demon's realm and sends Blue Devil in to talk with him. It doesn't go well, and soon Nebiros is again loose in the world. After they battle him on the island where he was first awakened, the demon escapes and heads to Mexico.

Green Lantern #179: Wein and Gibbons/DeCarlo pick up where last issue left off. Jordan is back on Earth, but Ferris Aircraft is in flames and the Demolition Team are in custody thanks to the mysterious Predator. Jordan, feeling guilty, tries to do something--anything--to help. He finds out Clay Kendall has survived but is paralyzed. Carol angrily gives Hal an ultimatum: either choose her or the Green Lantern Corps. Hal does what anyone might do in that situation: he seeks advice from his friends who happen to be Green Arrow, the Flash, and Superman. Unfortunately, they all give different advice. After thinking it over, Hal visits Carol to give her his final decision: He's quitting the Corps.

In the backup by Klein and Gibbons, we're still on the world of "Green Magic." Green Lantern Hollika and her friends defend themselves from the scientists' submarine. The pilot turns out to be Tahrk's father who says he's escaped the Scientists to join the young rebels.

Infinity, Inc. #6: While most of the Infinitors recover from the beating their elders in the JSA gave them last issue, The Huntress fights with Robin to keep him from killing Boss Zucco who is now an old man with dementia in a prison hospital, and Brainwave, Jr. and the Star-Spangled Kid learn the details of the Ultra-Humanite's evil plan, which naturally also features a recap of Ultra's history.

Legion of Super-Heroes #2: The stakes escalate as Levitz and Giffen follow a similar pattern to previous arcs: small groups of Legionnaires engage enemies whose ultimate goals are uncertain and often lose, at best only driving the enemies off. The new Legion of Super-Villains is at least thwarted from their goal of killing any Legionnaires, but they're able to steal the Polymer Shield that covers Earth. In that engagement, Saturn Girl goes into labor! 

This issue also features the famous panel of the Legion of Super-Villains at a table, and Giffen/Mahlstedt have positioned them in homage to da Vinci's The Last Supper.

New Talent Showcase #8: Editorial seems to have given up on this book. The features are getting more amateurish and at least two stories seem to have goofs that should have caught. Contrary to this trend, though, is the cover feature Jenesis written by Newell with nice art by Beachum/Alexander. Alix Ward officially begins her superhero career while on vacation in Wyoming, but she almost gets killed in a fire set by her opponent. Her husband isn't sold on all this, but she derides his "bleeding heart" concerns.

Cosmic Clinics ends as weird as it began with like a whole limited series on fast forward in the pages of this one feature. Good triumphs over evil and the nefarious clinics are shutdown. Mirrage also reaches the end of his run, rescuing his girl from the deranged hit man. "The Mini (Misadventures) of Nick O. Tyme continues to do whatever it has been doing.

Saga of Swamp Thing #28: Swamp Thing is being haunted by the ghost of Alec Holland. He follows the ghost to his old lab, where Swamp Thing relives the mirrors of Holland's wife Linda, and the events leading up to their deaths. He digs a grave, hoping to put the spirit to rest, but the apparition of his old (pre-Moore) myself points him to the water where Holland's remains must be. Once he recovers Holland's bones and lays them to rest in the grave, Holland's spirit is at peace at last. A creative way to do an origin recap from Moore and McManus.

Sgt. Rock #392: Despite what the cover teases, Kanigher and Redondo aren't ending Rock's war, they just have the brass decide they need him doing basic training at Fort Dix. This is presented as permanent, but I'm betting he's back on the frontline's next month. Anyway, Rock's example and training makes a wimpy kid named Cohen step up.

In the backup story, "Escape," Harris and Lindsey spin a parallel story of two brothers: one a soldier escaping from a German POW camp, the other a criminal escaping from prison in the U.S. and losing his life after killing a dirty Nazi collaborator who escaped with him.

Supergirl #23: Kupperberg and Infantino/Oksner pick up in the middle of Supergirl's battle with the future man. It sort of turns out a draw, with Supergirl unable to lay a hand on him, but the mutant being expending too much energy. After he escapes, we learn his origin, which any astute reader would have guessed: Young genius Barry Metzner created an evolution machine to unlock the potential of his mind by turning him into a hyper-evolved, future man. Only the self-hypnosis tapes kept that megalomaniacal part of him dormant, but it a power outage let it loose. He and Supergirl tangle again, but future man keeps underestimating the Maid of Might. She appeals to the Metzner self within him, shocking him to fight for dominance with her apparent death. That trick gives her the opening to apply super-hypnosis and turn him back to normal. After all that, Linda Danvers goes home and finds old flame 

Dick Malverne waiting for her. To be continued!

Except it isn't. This is the last issue of the series, which I think is sort of a shame. There were some at least mildly interesting plot threads left dangling. It felt like the team was crafting something here that got cut short.

Warlord #84: I reviewed the main story here. In the Barren Earth backup by Cohn and Randall, Jinal and crew embark on their mission to capture a Qlov. They don't have much difficulty finding one but taking it alive is a different manner. The story ends on a cliffhanger, with the Qlov and Jinal squaring off for a sword duel.

Weird Revisited: The Moving Pointcrawl

The original version of this post appeared in July 2015. I never did finish writing In Doom's Wake, but it got playtested twice I believe. I really should get around to finishing it one of these days.

The pointcrawl, which abstracts a map to the important points, eliding the empty places/boring stuff a hexcrawl or similar complete mapping would give equal weight, is [in 2025 certainly!] a well-established concept. One unusual variation not yet explored [it wasn't in 2015, and still isn't, so far as I know!] is the crawling of moving points.

Admittedly, these would be pretty unusual situations--but unusual situations are the sort of stuff adventures are made from: Exploring a flotilla of ancient airships or the various "worlds" in a titan wizards orrery; Crawling the strange shantytown distributed over the backs of giant, migrating, terrapin. Flitting from tiny world to tiny world in a Little Prince-esque planetary system. Some of these sort of situations might stretch the definition of pointcrawl, admittedly, and to model some of them in any way accurately would require graphing or calculus, and likely both.

Let's take a simple case--something from an adventure I'm working on. Say the wrecks of several ships are trapped in a Sargasso Sea of sorts. The weed is stretchy to a degree, so the wrecks move to a degree with the movement of the ocean, but the never come completely apart.

The assumption (to make it a pointcrawl, rather than just a hexcrawl, where the points of interest move) is that there were pretty much only certain clearer channels a small boat could take through the weed--or maybe certain heavier areas that a person who wasn't too heavy could walk over without sinking in complete.

The map would look something like this:

Note that this map is pretty abstract, despite appearances. The distances or size of the weed patch aren't necessarily to scale with the derelict icons. Length of connecting lines is of course, indicative of relative travel distance. The colors indicate how "stretchy" an area is: blue can move d4, orange d6, and red d8 in feet? yards? tens of feet? Not sure yet. Anyway, whether this drift is closer or farther away would depend on a separate roll of 1d6 where odds equals farther and evens closer. Of course, they can't come any closer than the distance they are away on the map, so any "extra" distance would be a shift to one side or the other.

Zigzags denote a precarious patch, where there would be an increased risk of a sudden thickening (if I'm going with boat travel) or falling in (if I go with walking). Dots will denote an extra wandering monster or unusual event check.

So there are a lot of kinks to work out, but that's the basic idea.

The Ruin of Mogh's Fort

Mogh's fortress is a ruin. Pigs root in the courtyard and roam noisily in his empty halls or drowse in sunbeams beneath a decaying roof. Mogh's once great chair is little more than kindling, crushed and splintered by generations of stout boars have scratched bulk against it.

The commote, a backwater of Hern trithing since its petty lords yielded to Arrn, is mostly the domain of the pig herds, which are both bane and boon to small and scattered villages. A few old folk have the knack of apprehending the grunting, snorting porcine tongue, and the pigs affirm (or so they claim) what the elders already knew: it is wise to stay clear of the ruins of Mogh's fort, particularly after dark.

The bandit lord and his bloody-handed reavers are long gone, but Mogh's doom is said to have come by a curse, and the curse may yet linger. Sometimes, the elders say (and the pigs, too, perhaps) that not all nocturnal visitors to the fortress come on four hooves. There are those demon swine that may choose to go about on two. 

Wednesday Comics: DC, September 1984 (week 2)

I'm reading DC Comics' output from January 1980 (cover date) to Crisis! This week, I'm reviewing the comics released the week of June 14, 1984. 

Jemm, Son of Saturn #1: I saw the ads a lot for this maxi-series as a kid, but I've never read it. The idea of character from Saturn offended my childhood desire for "realism" in my comics about super-powered do-gooders in skintight costumes. Post-Crisis, when I learned a bit about the character, I assumed this series was intended as a reboot/revamp of Martian Manhunter in the way that was so common in the late 80s/early 90s and that's sort of true, but not exactly it. Apparently, Jemm was originally intended to be the J'onn's cousin, but seems to be sort of a replacement Martian as J'onn hadn't appeared for a while. They abandoned the plan for the connection (turning Jemm to a Saturnian) when Conway decided to bring back J'onn in the JLA. 

Anyway, Potter and Colan/Janson open their story with young Luther Mannkin in Harlem, who discovers Jemm in an alley and takes the confused alien the apartment he shares with with his brother and blind grandfather. (The influence of the recent hit E.T. can be felt strongly here.)  Luther's brother Lincoln has to find a way to pay Claudius Tull the money he owes him for the heroin he was supposed to sell, or his thugs will hurt Lincoln and his family. In an attempt to strongarm Tull's goons, Lincoln and his ne'er-do-well friend Vin stage a poorly planned ambush at the apartment that would likely have led to all their deaths if not for the intervention of Jemm. Unfortunately, Grandpa is killed. Meanwhile, two NASA scientists and a CIA agent investigate Jemm's crashed ship and are attacked by other, white-skinned aliens.

Amethyst Annual #1: Amethyst and Gemworld are back courtesy of Mishkin/Cohn, and this time, Estrada/Marcos on art. On Earth, Amy Winston is having a tough time adjusting to life as a young teen when she had been the older Amethyst and finds the boy's her age lacking compared to the dreamy Prince Topaz.  When an mischevious dwarf shows up and tries to steal her gem, she and her friend Rita wind up transported back to Gemworld. Meanwhile, an enigmatic, malevolent entity disrupts a ceremony to install the new head of House Emerald. Eventually, characters from both plot threads collide as they must try to defeat a feline wizard's familiar that was empowered by the energies between worlds on their long-ago trip to Gemworld. To defeat the creature, Amethyst, Rita, and the youngest Emerald daughter take it back to Earth, where it becomes a normal cat, but they get trapped there, supposedly unable to return to Gemworld. The issue ends with a promise of a new Amethyst series.

All-Star Squadron Annual #3: The Thomases and a host of artists (including Giffen, Infantino, Boring, and the regular team) do a super-sized version of what they often do in the main series: split the group up to face challenges. After a framing story in 1942 with Tarantula and Wonder Woman, we get to the main event set in 1941 where the JSA must deal with Ian Karkull and the villains he has recruited to assassinate future presidents. I'm not sure, but it could be that the genesis of this story was simply to get an end resulting as consequence of Karkull's actions: the JSA members are "bathed in energy" that will in the coming years slow down their aging. 

Batman #375: Inspired by the creations of one of his henchmen that happens to be an artist and a poet, Mr. Freeze aspires to freeze all of Gotham with his new ice cannon, but in deference to the concerns of his lackeys that his aims might be too lofty, he agrees they should test it first by freezing and robbing a bank. The freeze the bank from underneath and steal the cash, but when Vicki and Julia fall into the whole they leave, Freeze attempts to use them the capture Batman and Robin. The crimefighters intervene, but Freeze is defeated. Julia boldly kisses Batman, which Vicki applauds, not knowing that that's her man!

Meanwhile, the social worker shows up to see Jason at 11 pm and when Alfred is forced to tell her the kid is out with Bruce, she says she's going to remove him from Bruce's care.

Like the Penguin issues that preceded it, I feel like Moench is trying to capture a bit of the Batman TV show vibe with his portrayal of Freeze and his schemes without getting too campy. Like Barr's tenure that will come later, he doesn't run from or try to disguise the silliness but rather seems to be trying to balance it out. It's very different from the approaches people will take to the series in the decades post-Dark Knight Returns.

Arak Son of Thunder #37: With Colon guesting on art, we get to see what Valda has been up to recently. Charlemagne hosts Prince Ecgfrith of Mercia who gives the king a unicorn as a gift. It's suggested, based on the legends, that Valda tames the beast, but though the court isn't aware, she is no longer a virgin after her romance with Arak. Ultimately, Malagigi has to stop the rampaging unicorn with a sleep spell. Ecgfrith wants to marry Valda, and her uncle and Charlemagne are considering it. A joust competition is offered to give Valda a way out. Surprisingly, Ecgfrith wins, and the marriage is on, but she backs out at the altar. Her uncle Rinaldo admits that the joust was fixed with an enchanted lance. Valda is released from her vow to marry the prince, and Charlemagne sends her to Baghdad to treat with Harun Al-Rashid. Malagigi goes along, both of them sure they will meet up with Arak again.

Flash #337: Bates and Infantino/McLaughlin keep the plates of this long story spinning with the mayor recanting his previous condemnation of the Flash on TV and announcing he will fund the rebuilding of the Flash Museum. We get multiple conversations teasing why Cecil might hate the Flash, but other than mentioning her father, no one explains. Captain Boomerang taunts the Pied Piper regarding his (now failed) plan to use public opinion to take down the Flash instead of doing directly. Rising to the challenge, the Piper summons "speed demons" from another dimension and has them attack the Flash.

G.I. Combat #269: This issue kicks off with a Haunted Tank tale with the crew feeling particularly hopeless in the seemingly unending war. Sgt. Rock has a cameo, and he and Easy feel the same. But then we end on a note of hope with a star and a babe born in a stable. Seems odd they didn't save this one for a Christmas issue. The second Haunted Tank story involves Jeb on the coast of Brittany lamenting the glory days of cavalry past, but when he's forced to fight a panzer with just a wild stallion, I bet he looks forward to getting his tank back.

There's a O.S.S. story that, as per usually, involves brave allied spies making the ultimate sacrifice to destroy a German "heavy water" facility in the Netherlands. Then, Sgt. Bullett's Bravos are back for a little "Mekong Madness." When ordered to bring back a group of Green Berets that have gone rogue, they instead backup the group sneaking into a VC camp in Cambodia in an attempt to free some Green Beret P.O.W.s. The mission ends with all the Green Berets dying, so the Bravos take back their dog tags and call it mission completed.

Omega Men #18: Continuing from last issue, Moench and Smith/Tanghal give us an army of Primus clones to pit against the Tigorr ones threatening to overwhelm the Omega Men's ship. Luckily, the Primus clones are more disciplined and willing to work with the original to help the Omega Men, but somehow this all leads to creation of a giant Tigorr.

This is a goofy story. It's a weird to me that this is what Moench wanted to do as his debut, as it has a real "ran out of ideas" feel. Maybe it's an indication of how seriously Moench takes the material?

Superman #399: Kupperberg and Barreto/Hunt bring back Colonel Future for his second (and last) appearance. NASA scientist Edmond Hamilton manages to get in another life imperiling situation and has a prophetic vision of what he believes to be Superman's death, as a charity event that involves multiple people dressed as Superman (including a group of crooks looking to cash in), Hamilton as Colonel Future tries to keep the Man of Steel away and save his life. As with his first appearance, it turns out Hamilton's interpretation of his vision is faulty. In a strange twist, it's actually Hamilton in a Superman costume that dies--at least for a few seconds. Superman is on hand to provide super-CPR to save his life.

Tales of the Teen Titans #46: Wolfman and Perez/de Carlo have Aqualad and Aquagirl leading post of the Titans on an underwater assault against H.I.V.E.'s lair. The H.I.V.E. Mistress has a trick up her sleeve, though, and seems to have trapped the Titans in a pod before causing it to explode.

Meanwhile, we get hints of Changelings vigilante actions in Manhattan, and Cyborg has confronts and then reconciles with his estranged grandparents.

DC Sampler #3: This is basically an extensive advertisement, but it's interesting what series get featured and what does not. The Justice League of America spread teases the new team that will appear in Annual #2. Thriller is featured even though the title is nearing its end.  There are no promos for Wonder Woman, Firestorm, Jonah Hex, any war title, or any Batman title beyond Batman and the Outsiders.

Dread Knights and Dead Lovers

Our Land of Azurth game continued last night, but I haven't written about the previous session, so this covers both. The party only had one more shard of the mirror to collect. A mirror that would free the soul of Nocturose, but if that was for good or ill they didn't know for sure.

The last shard was on an altar amid standing stones on an island within a stinking bog. A poisonous, stinking bog. If all that wasn't bad enough, it had a guardian, a spirit naga. She wasn't much of a match for the whole party, though, but Shade was poisoned by inhaling too much swamp gas.

With all the shards in hand, they returned to the tower. The door was locked, and when Erekose tried to force it, he was blasted by intense cold. Luckily, he's resistant to the elements so it was a minor inconvenience. Within the crumbling tower, they saw a mirror in need of repair and an empty thrown. The ghostly Nocturose asked them to repair the mirror to free her so that she could be reunited with her love, the Dark Queen Morthalia.

The characters surprisingly quickly given a number of potential warning signs, agreed to give it a try. As they did, Nocturose revealed she had left one thing out: there were Dread Knights who guarded the mirror. The wraiths materialized out of shadow and were all "have at thee!"

The fight was on! It was two against five, but the party beyond Erekose had a hard time hitting them. Waylon went down and Erekose was close, but Dagmar's healing kept them in the fight, and she managed to blind one of the knights. Eventually, the party prevailed.

The party repaired the mirror, and Nocturose's spirit appeared within to thank them before fading away to return to her body. The party tried to make a pitch for her convincing Morthalia to join the fight against the Wizard, but it's unclear she got the message.

When they returned to report their success, they found a crowd including their old friend, Commodore Cog, the steam-powered ship captain. The reunion was spoiled when he revealed the monarchs leading the rebellion--Viola, Desira, and Bellona--had somehow been turned to stone.

This adventure was a modified version of Kobold Press' Shadows of the Dusk Queen.

Further Thoughts on Magic

Thinking about my Monday post further (and reading more examples of magic in McKillip's Heir of Sea and Fire), I feel like the part that perhaps the most central element to number of these magic systems I like is that they demonstrate Frazer's concept of sympathetic magic.

Raderle can create a powerful illusion of large lake, by digging a fist-sized hole and pouring water into it. Arthur in The Revolutions can snap a chair leg by snapping the stem of a wine glass. These are both examples of similarity, or like producing like.

The other common employed aspect of sympathetic magic is contagion. It shows up quite a bit in The Revolutions, but I don't think I quoted an example. It's where an item that was once physically connected to someone or something else still has a magical connection to that thing. This is being able to cast a spell on someone because you have a lock of their hair or the like.

Similarity shows up some in D&D spell material components, but I think more of these are sort of jokey correspondences instead.  These things are fine and could even be flavorful for bigger spells or more complicated rituals, I think more spells that used a perhaps caster-specific but reasonable application of similarity and contagion. 

Wednesday Comics: DC, September 1984 (week 1)

My mission: to read DC Comics' output from January 1980 (cover date) to Crisis. This week, I'm looking at the comics that were at newsstands on the week of June 7, 1984. 

Vigilante #10: Great cover this issue by Ross Andru. Feeling guilt and anger over the death of J.J., Adrian retreats from the people around him into grim avenger mode. After pushing Terry away, he begins to go after the mob, leaning on various members to get information on J.J.'s killer. Meanwhile, the Controller puts his plan into motion, first roping the mob leaders into his scheme then distracting the police with fake alarm signals.

Atari Force #9: Christopher teleports back home surprising Professor Venture who has a lot of questions. After the security forces barge in to apprehend him, he 'ports to the O'Rourke's residence. Both of these interactions provide a frame for Conway and García-López/Smith to recap everything that's happened in the series so far as well as the original Atari Force's first encounter with the Dark Destroyer. It all looks great and maybe this recap was needed for new readers, but it still feels like the story isn't really going anywhere fast.

Blackhawks #272: Evanier and Speigle again devote a bit of time to the Blackhawk's providing answers to "why do the German's do what they do?" which I guess could be an important line of inquiry, but none of the Blackhawks (or presumably Evanier) have anything enlightening to say. Thankfully, this stuff is short-lived, and we instead turn to the barmaid Helga (who Blackhawk met in issue 267) who has fallen for some propaganda and got herself trained and conditioned to be Domino II with a mission to kill Blackhawk. She fails, and Blackhawk manages to break her conditioning enough to take her into custody so that she hopefully can be rehabilitated. 

In the backup story with art by Ken Steacy, Hendrickson meets an enlisted airman whose job it is to paint pinup girls on the noses of planes at an airbase when tasked with a prisoner transport. Hendrickson thinks this is a frivolous custom and the painter should be fighting, but he changes his mind when the soldier's painting rescues the two of them from the escaped prisoner.

DC Comics Presents #73: Bates and Infantino/Hunt bring some continuity into this team-up, because the Flash's legal woes are very much on his mind and Superman's. The Flash is drawn into the other-dimensional world of Norkk, and Superman (after receiving Flash's distress call) follows. There he discovers that the Flash appears to have gone rogue, terrorizing the people and destroying their city. Things aren't as they appear, of course, and it's all the work of the Phantom Zone criminals exerting telepathic influence.  Our heroes working together are able to prevail.

Fury of Firestorm #27: Conway and Kayanan/Rodriquez finish up this Silver Deer and Black Bison storyline. Silver Deer plans to make Congress to pass a law granting Indian tribes their hereditary lands back, then make them commit suicide afterwards so they can't repeal it. We get her origin by way of explanation for this scheme. It involves an Indian Reservation in North Carolina featuring a log cabin on what looks like the plains, where wolverines are apparently common. Anyway, she saw her brother and father die due to the prejudice of Whites and now she wants revenge. There's this Congressional costume party in town that she crashes to enact her plan. Firestorm and Flamebird show up to defeat her, which ultimately, they do, freeing Black Bison from her control. Silver Dear appears to have died, but they don't find the body, suggesting Conway wanted to keep the option of her coming back (but she doesn't).

Justice League of America #230: Conway and Kupperberg/Marcos continue the War of the Worlds, and things are looking grim for Earth and its defenders. The JLA satellite has been ruptured, threatening the lives of the Leaguers on board, and Earth's leaders are deciding when to deploy nukes with a Martian armada surrounding their world. All isn't lost, though! The Hawks appear out of warp for an ambush and Martian Manhunter sneaks aboard the Martian command ship to challenge the Marshal to a one-on-on combat. J'onn ultimately wins but would have been felled by treachery if not for the timely intervention of Firestorm.

The letter column promises a two-parter by Busiek and Kupperberg that will explain where the League's heavy-hitters were during this arc, but also it teases a whole new Justice League in the upcoming annual.

Wonder Woman #319: We're back with the Mishkin and Heck/Maygar storyline. Sofia finally sits down and begins to spill what she knows about Steve Trevor to Diana--except it turns out that isn't the real Diana. The imposter goes on to steal nuclear codes and frame Diana for the crime, while the real Diana is fighting a robotic distraction as Wonder Woman. In the end, the villain is revealed to be Dr. Cyber, who we last saw almost 3 years ago in issue 287.

The Huntress backup by Cavalieri concludes but with artwork this time by Woch which just doesn't have the same pizzazz. Huntress defeats Nightingale in one-on-one combat and reveals the ninja to actually be a man, an actor named Seiji Kato. She also exposes Seraphin's artifact fraud: the samurai statue head all this was about is a forgery.