Fury of Firestorm Annual #2: Conway and Arthur Byron Cover do one of those occasional illustrated text piece stories that I almost always find dull (which is the case here). The art by Kayanan and Colon doesn't seem up to their usual standards, so maybe it bored them too? Anyway, Ronnie plays poorly at a game and worries about letting the team down at the next one because he's hallucinating villains all over the place. To make matters worse, some weird alien, exiled by the Guardians of the Universe, has crashed on earth and decides to use Firestorm as a living power plant to get him into space again. The alien is thwarted, and Ronnie shoots the winning buzzer-beater, redeeming himself. The source of the hallucinations turns out to be the emerging psychic powers of the student manager of the team. The story has real Spider-Man vibes, but of the sort of Spider-Man story you might see in other media.
Action Comics #561: Despite a cover by Barreto promising something with more, well--action, Kupperberg and Schaffenberger /Jensen provide a silly and mostly stakes-free story of the Toyman setting up a fake quiz show so he can trick a childhood rival into revealing what happened to the very first toy the villain made. The second story by Bridwell and Boring is marginally better with a red kryptonite exposure splitting two Supermen from Clark Kent: one, a Superman of the future with "future powers" and an eight-year-old Superboy from 1963.
It's not like there haven't been stories done in a more modern storytelling vein or arcs with truly dangerous villains, but we keep coming back to this sort of continuity-free, low action material like it's still the Silver Age. I suspect the blame lies with Schwartz in the editor's seat.
Arion Lord of Atlantis #25: Kupperberg and Sherman-Tereno/Rodriquez open with Arion lost in the Darkworld with no way home after the defeat of Garn Danuuth. Guided by his father, he begins searching through the everchanging landscape for the Nexus, the one place where he might escape. He encounters some alien beings likewise trapped, and they become traveling companions for a time, but they encounter only violence and hardship. Eventually, Arion finds himself at the Nexus. Its elderly guardian demands Arion fight him to the death. Only one of them may leave Darkworld. Arion rejects all the violence and refuses to fight the old man. In being willing to be sacrificed, he frees both himself and the old alien, and they return home.
While the solution to Arion's conundrum was fairly obvious, I thought, this sojourn into Darkworld was a nice change of pace.
All-Star Squadron #38: I owned this issue as a kid. Any new hero appearance was interesting to me, and I was unaware of Amazing Man prior to this. Thomas and Hoberg/Collins follow-up the events of last issue as a group of All-Stars arrive in Detroit to find Amazing Man. They encounter more racism than they expected and a Phantom Empire (Klan stand-in) rally attempting to drum up support for stopping black migrants to the city from getting housing. In a clash, Amazing Man is defeated by the masked Real American, who is somehow able to drain his powers. Trying to serve the law rather than justice, the All-Stars are spurned by both sides in the conflict. Meanwhile, in Washington, Green Lantern and Hawkman fail to persuade President Roosevelt to lend a hand, so they decide to fly off to aid their comrades.
Detective Comics #544: Nocturna is forced to attack the Thief of Night to save Batman's life, but the Thief gets away. She reveals she knows Batman's secret identity and again suggests they marry and be parents to Jason. Otherwise, she'll keep his secret, but she will still compete with Bruce for custody. Batman is so enchanted by her that he just has to get away rather than give an answer. The trail of the Thief is a dead end, but Batman has better luck pressuring the recently released hitman that tried to kill Bullock. The assassin reveals he's a member of Fang's crew doing the bidding of Mayor Hill. Convinced Hill is also responsible for Bruce's legal troubles, Batman vows to take the Mayor down. Meanwhile, Nocturna turns up the charm on Jason, too.
Omega Men Annual #1: Moench again leans into his very science fantasy interpretation of the Omega Men, as he and Niño/Smith revisit the situation with Harpis' missing wings. They fly through space (telekinetically, not by flapping, if that matters) chased by Hokum and the Citadel and Harpis. The other Omega Men are chasing after her. They come to the planet Sindromeda where a long-ago accident has created a hellworld and a psychically empowered monster. Confronting her on past, and with the help of a balloon-like grafalloon, Harpis reclaims her wings, but refuses to kill the creature that had usurped them. Whether this controversial-among-her-fellows decision leads to good or ill in the future is purposely left unrevealed.
Sun Devils #5: Rik and Anomie are not quite as dead as it appeared last issue, but they are still being attacked by a relentless sauroid warrior. Their friends eventually come to the rescue but not before we get some of Scylla's backstory--and the revelation that there's a traitor among the Sun Devils. The rescue may be too late, though, as Anomie returns to consciousness to see Rik floating away into space, the helmet of his spacesuit shattered.
Super Powers #5: Kirby takes the reigns for this final issue, and the art gets a bit better, but unfortunately Theakston's inks smother a lot of Kirby's detail, so it doesn't look all that great. Despite the failures of Darkseid's emissaries, his invasion of Earth commences, but Metron joins in on the side of the heroes. The seed of Apokolips' armies defeat are in the powers given to Earth's villains. Anyway, I guess this helped sell toys. It was also probably a lot of kids' first introduction to Kirby.
Tales of the Legion #316: Newell works from a plot by Levitz/Giffen as Wildfire finds himself again in the Dream Dimension with the two Invisible Kids. Invisible Kid II has figured something out about these strange evens and reveals that Lyle Norg is actually a demon looking to trap them. The two manage to trick the creature and escape.
In the backup by Levitz/Newell and Tuska/Kesel, the other Heroes of Lallor conspire to help Duplicate Boy regain his confidence and his powers as he mops over Shrinking Violet dumping him.
World's Finest Comics #309: Busiek and a journeyman Texiera with inks by Alcala have Superman made the trustee of wealthy businessman Raymond Arnau's estate. Since Arnau appears to have been murdered, the selection of Superman seems particular significant, so he asks Batman to help him investigate. After some investigative work, the two heroes discover that Arnau's former partner Crane is wearing a powered suit and running a criminal operation as Quantum--and he murdered Arnau when he found out. As seems to happen a lot these days, Quantum's suit is able to emit Kryptonite radiation, but Batman is able to take out the villain while he's gloating.
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