All-Star Squadron #40: We continue on from the events of last issue with Green Lantern and Hawkman showing up to end the riot--and mostly, unfortunately, looking like they are taking the side of the white bigots. Hawkman even seems swayed for a moment by the Real Americans rhetoric, suggesting some kind of influence is at play. The two meet up with the other All-Stars, and they all head down to the jail to try to protect Amazing Man and his father from being lynched by an angry mob fired up by hate and the words of the Real American. When Robot Man sees the other All-Stars starting to fall for the message, he frees Amazing Man and broadcasts loudly to the crowd to drown out the Real American. Amazing Man battles the masked racist and reveals him to be a robot! So, it turns out the Phantom Empire was provided the Real American android with mesmerizing voice by the Monitor. That seems pretty strange. So, the Monitor has been active in multiple time periods all at once (to the extent that means anything with time travel involved)? Is he going to show up in Jonah Hex next? Sgt. Rock?
Action Comics #562: The team-up no one demanded! Rozakis and Schaffenberger/Hunt bring back the Planeteer (the guy who thinks he's a reincarnation of Alexander) and ally him with Queen Bee (whose last appearance was in Super Friends #45). They've got some plot involved super-magnetism, and they would probably have succeeded in capturing Superman had they not turned on each other. In the B plot, the Daily Planet staff gets invited to see their old co-worker Steve Lombard in Damn Yankees.
Arion Lord of Atlantis #26: Kupperberg and Sherman-Tereno/Rodriquez get Arion back to Atlantis, but he finds things in a bad state. The king is in seclusion and hasn't been seen for some time, leading to unrest in the streets. Lady Chian is gone, and Wyynde is in some sort of catatonic state. To make matters worse, the cult of a malign deity, Kr'Rth, has secretly returned to town, looking to use the rising chaos to summon their lord. Arion makes an attack on their church but winds up getting captured.
Detective Comics #545: Moench and Colan are still going "decompressed" with this storyline. Here with catch up with the Night Slayer as he crawls away following being shot by Nocturna. He escapes through the sewers and winds up on a beach where he is found by a blind woman and her service dog. Believing he is Batman, she takes him back to her shanty and nurses him back to health, developing a crush on him. Knight begins to play on her affections, but the real Batman is now on his trail.
Jonah Hex #88: At the end of last issue, Jonah discovered Emmy Lou's wanted poster painting her as the "Blonde Bandit," but he knows somethings fishy. He spends most of the issue trying to find her, first encountered a gang dressing a male member up like her and bringing those guys in. Then, he tracks down the real deal only to burst in the door to save her and have her accidentally shoot him. Meanwhile, poor Adrian is on the drain robbed by the copycats and gets hit on the head and gets amnesia. She winds up believing she is another young woman (who was actually killed on the train) and takes work as a saloon girl.
Spanner's Galaxy #1: A space opera from Cuti and Mandrake. They are so focused on worldbuilding this issue, they don't really make a compelling story. An unseen and context-free interrogation narrate the events. We follow Polaris Spanner from boyhood, where a visit to a market planet introduces him to individuals that will play a big role in in his life. His father buys a fancy alien weapon for the power stone in it but then gets into conflict with knights of an equanoid alien race that want their fallen comrade's weapon back. Later, these Kaborians show up on the Spanners' giant ameba farm to buy the item just in time to rescue Polaris from getting engulfed by one of the stock. They take him back to their homeworld and decide to train him as the first human Kaborian Knight. He's father is all good with this and gifts him the weapon (a shek) that started this whole thing on graduation. Polaris also learns how to "castle" which is teleporting via exchanging places with a willing castling-capable individual through some advanced alien tech. For unclear reasons, Polaris is branded a criminal and goes on the run from various forces. It's a lot for one issue, and it's a bit of a slog.
Sun Devils #6: Rik, Anomie, and Shikun meet up with a group of escaped slave sauroids who agree to get them out of the tunnels beneath the city. They meet up with the other Sun Devils, which is a good thing, because the way is blocked by soldiers. They manage to fight their way out, but not before Pook, Anomie's pet, is killed.
Tales of the Legion #318: Levitz and Shoemaker/Kesel have the remaining Legionnaires debating what to do about their diminished strength with some of their members on leave and others missing. Meanwhile, Shadow Kid, brother of Shadow Lass, infiltrates the camp of some rebels on Talok VIII and gets captured by the Persuader, the right-hand man to the rebel leader, Lady Memory. When Shadow Lass find out, she and Mon-El rush to help. They deal with the rebels and the Persuader easily, but Lady Memory reveals her power and brings Mon-El to his knees.
World's Finest Comics #310: This is a bit of standard Bronze Age, done-in-one fare, but I like it better than the extended arcs we were having before. Cavelieri and Woch/Maygar provide a story similarly structured to the last couple of issues, where Batman and Superman are pursuing separate cases but come together in the end. In the main story, the guy running a boy's club in a Metropolis slum is disappointed that the kids idolize a neighborhood petty criminal over Batman and Superman, who they see as square. The decides to give then a new role model, and using his engineering knowledge, he becomes the budget costumed-hero Sonik. On his first outing, he meets Batman, but they both run afoul of the mod assassination group Batman has been tracking. They escape through Batman's know-how, but Sonik accounts himself well in the next encounter, one that the kids' witness.
Meanwhile, Superman has thwarted an assassination attempt against an Arab terrorist in Metropolis for a peace meeting. He catches up with Batman and meets Sonik and the kids. Sonik reveals his identity which makes the boys really interested in the club. Later Bruce Wayne shows up to announce he is funding the club, and Clark Kent comes by to do a news feature on it.
DC Sampler #3: This final issue of the DC Sampler looks toward 1985. It opens with a Swamp Thing teaser, then has two pages each plugging the limited series Robotech Defenders and Conquerors of the Barren Earth. Next up are single pages on Hunger Dogs and America vs. The Justice Society. There's two pages on the shakeup doing done with Green Lantern, then two pages on the Who's Who. Spanner's Galaxy gets 2 pages. Then, we see the silhouette of the enigmatic Monitor that has been appearing so much, and we are told all will be revealed in a title called DC Universe: Crisis on Infinite Earths, though in the opening "Meanwhile..". column of this issue Dick just calls it Crisis on Infinite Earths. We get a hint of what's in store for Atari Force, and a primer on Batman and the Outsiders. The upcoming Superman: The Secret Years gets teased, as does the return of Amethyst. Blue Devil, World's Finest (which mentions Sonik), and the twice monthly Teen Titans and Legion of Super-Heroes are featured. The issue closes with teases for DC Challenge and Jonni Thunder aka Thunderbolt.
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