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 August 2, 1984.
Blackhawk #273: Evanier and Spiegle take the Blackhawk's to Mechuoko Province, China, where they team-up with Wu Cheng aka Chop-Chop, to defeat a dragon-shaped war machine. In the aftermath, Chop-Chop rejoins the group. Unfortunately, as the cover announces, this is the last issue.
Evanier's editorial column tells an amusing story of him (as editor) firing himself (as writer), then the editor (him) and the artist (Spiegle) quit in protest. The real story, as he's since related in interviews, is that he and Spiegle had been frustrated by DC's lack of promotion and disinterest in the title, despite its not great but adequate sales. The book's cancellation more reflected it not fitting DC's vision than its performance. A limited series by DuBay and Infantino is announced here, but that never materialized, though pages of it have surfaced, according to the internet. I suspect it was a victim of Crisis. I liked the idea of this book, but it seemed run out of steam some time before the end finally came.
Atari Force #11: The cover by Hannigan/Giordano gives away the big reveal of the issue, but I guess the second page was going to give it away, anyway. Blackjack is taking orders from the Dark Destroyer to sabotage Scanner One. He succeeds before they realize what's going on. Dart confronts the betrayer and fights with him, defeating him before he can kill her. The Destroyer gloats he used Blackjack's fear of death as the key to controlling him. He also taunts Martin with the fact he's going to destroy the human race! Meanwhile, back on New Earth, Chris prepares to stand trial, while still trying to convince the powers that be of the danger they are in.
DC Comics Presents #75: Kupperberg and Mandrake have Arion transported into the future during a battle with Chaon. After the obligatory misunderstanding and brief fight, Arion crafts translation devices from hoop earrings, and he and Superman can effectively team-up. To thwart Chaon's plans before the lunar eclipse, they have to first travel to the ruins of the City of the Golden Gate beneath the ocean. Arion uses the power of the final crystal of Calculha to transport them to the Darkworld. They defeat the godling and Superman thrown back to his own time. As things return to normal, Arion is conveniently left with no memory of the future.
Fury of Firestorm #29: Cavalieri is scripter here again. That 2000 Committee just doesn't want to give up. Having been let down by the Monitor, it hires Breathtaker, who sends his agents after Firestorm. Mindboggler convinces the hero of the existence of a volcano in central park, causing him to act in ways that make him look dangerous and unstable to the public. However, a shadowy flunkie of Breathtaker's is angry he wasn't given a shot at the hero and goes rogue to prove his worth.
Justice League of America #232: I bought this issue by Busiek and Kupperberg off the stands, but I didn't remember much about it other than the splash page. The JLA and JSA are still tangling with the Commander, an alien entity who has possessed a scientist, Joshua Champion, and has attacked the Pentagon. Unfortunately, some of the heroes are now under the Commander's control, and the others have to stop them. We get the Commander's origin: He had been the ruler of his entire universe and now wields the psychic energy of every creature in that dimension. He was looking for new worlds to conquer and Champion offered that. Dr. Fate's magic plus the psychic powers of the combined Champion family manage to open a riff back to the Commander's native dimension. He's holding on to the rim, though, and they can't push him through.
Here we get a unique Monitor and Lyla cameo. The Commander is aware of the Monitor monitoring him--and that distracts him long enough that the heroes can force him through the riff. And that's that for the old Justice League in the pre-Crisis universe. The Detroit League takes over next issue.
Superman Annual #10: This is a weird story from Maggin and Swan/Anderson, that doesn't do its cover justice. In the wake of the creation of the universe, an object is formed that, over the ages, took on the shape of a sword with a stylized "S" symbol on its hilt. It becomes known throughout the universe as the Sword of Superman (why not, I guess?), ages before Superman appeared. In the present, King Kosmos (last seen in DCP Annual #2) has possessed the body of industrialist Oswald Mandias (get it?) and is turning the world against Superman. The only thing that can help Superman is the power of the sword.
New Teen Titans #3: Continuing from the last issue, things go from bad to worse. The Titans return from the devastated Azarath to Earth but find it in the grip of Trigon with Raven as his demonically transformed minion. They do wonder why Earth's other heroes aren't helping, lampshading a common convention of comics, before attacking the father and daughter at what used to be Titan's Tower, but is now a throne. Jericho is put into shock by an attempt to possess Raven, and the other Titans are thrown into individual nightmare realms, where they watch evil shadows of themselves hurt their loved ones or taunt them with failure. On Earth, Lilith, and Arella see the Titans embedded in a stone column with expressions of despair.
Vigilante #12: Kane steps in to do art this issue and Wolfman gets more philosophical than usual about justice, vengeance, and the toll trying to find either can take. Adrain spends much of the issue, not sleeping haunting by the fact that the man he was got his family killed, and the man he is now got J.J. killed. He decides to take in some target practice but runs across a woman he thinks is fleeing attackers and helps her out. She turns out to be a rape victim turned Ms. 45 who executes the unarmed men in front of him, as he tries to get her to stop. Adrain ends the issue no more certain or less haunted than win he began it.
Wonder Woman #321: Mishkin and Heck continue to heap complications into the story arc. Eros shows up to save Wonder Woman from Dr. Cyber's death trap. He wants revenge against the villain, but she doesn't even know who he is. While they escape and keep Eros from killing Cyber, Steve reveals that Wonder Woman's memories have been tampered with by Hippolyta. When Wonder Woman and Steve ask Eros to explain his desire to kill Cyber, he tells them that he is the real Steve Trevor--and Cyber killed him. Meanwhile, an agent is pretending to be interested in Etta Candy, when he's actually trying to prove that she is Wonder Woman.
In the Huntress backup by Cavalieri and Whigham/Maygar, a handy mirror clues Helena into the therapist's murderous intent. She defeats her in a scuffle before the misogynist cop with the creepy intense interest in Huntress shows up. It turns out the therapist thought Huntress was there to apprehend her as she's one of Tarr's and Fether's (perhaps less than completely willing) accomplices. Where the dangling plot threads were going to go, we'll never know, because this is the last Huntress backup. The editorial promises a follow-up so where but as with so many of these sorts of promises in 1984, this doesn't come to pass.
2 comments:
Justice League of America #232: Going by the expression on Superman's face as he's socking Diana, I think this one goes on the roster of Super-Dickery incidents, mind control or not. You could at least pretend you're not enjoying this, Clark.
Wonder Woman #321: "Where the dangling plot threads were going to go, we'll never know, because this is the last Huntress backup. The editorial promises a follow-up so where but as with so many of these sorts of promises in 1984, this doesn't come to pass."
This whole period is kind of depressing to read in hindsight, and it's in large part because of that factor. So much wasted time reading stories that would go nowhere. It's like a preview of what you get if you read a lot of webcomics. I'd dropped off so thoroughly by this stage that I don't really know what it felt like if you didn't know what was coming.
For those who were reading off the stands, did it feel like the End Was Nigh for many characters, books and plotlines, or was the advent of Crisis a real surprise back in those pre-internet days?
I think I didn't notice most of these never to materialize projects because I wasn't reading the titles effected (Huntress, Blackhawk, Supergirl, and earlier Night Force) and at around 10 I was generally reading the letter column. I was focused on the "new DC" like Blue Devil, Star Trek, and various limited series.
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