Wednesday Comics: DC, January 1985 (week 1)

My mission: to read DC Comics' output from January 1980 (cover date) to Crisis. This week, I start a new year in cover dates. I'm looking at the comics that were at newsstands in the week of October 4, 1984. 

In the "Meanwhile..." column this month, Giordano announces that Justice League/Avengers isn't happening and gives his side of the story as to why this is, taking issue specifically with comments by Shooter in Marvel Age that he feels mischaracterized the situation.

Swamp Thing Annual #2: As a kid I thought this issue was amazing, a real tour de force. It sees Swamp Thing journey into the afterlife, first Heaven and then Hell, to recover the soul of Abbie. Along the way he meets some DC supernatural stars: Deadman, Phantom Stranger, the Demon, and the Spectre. Seeing these guys spouting (semi-)profundities and presented in a more mystical than superheroic context gave then a gravitas they didn't seem to possess before. 

It's a good issue, undeniably. One that pretty much lays the blueprint for a lot of what we'll see in Sandman, both in content and style. Reading it as an adult, though, it isn't perfect. It seems really more a standard issue amount of story expanded to annual length just to give us a chance to have all these guest stars. It feels like there could have been a little more to it, and it comes off as a bit slight, beyond the worldbuilding.

Atari Force #13: The editorial column announces this is Conway's last issue; Mike Baron will be taking over as scripter. Conway and Barreto/Villagran definitely do a lot to bring this long arc to a resolution. The Dark Destroyer takes a few minutes to gloat and reveal how he came to be in a copy of Martin's body. All this taunting, though, just enrages Martin who attacks the Destroyer, and the surprise of that allows the other Atari Force members to break free. They can't stop the antimatter bomb though, so they are forced to escape, leaving a beaten Destroyer behind. The bomb explodes, seemingly killing him and destroying the world.

There's another "humorous" Hukka backup by Kupperberg and Manak/Giffen.

DC Comics Presents #77: Wolfman and Swan/Hunt bring back the Forgotten Heroes who we last saw in Action Comics #553, some 9 months ago. Mr. Posiedon frees Ultivac, and the robot's rampage attracts the attention of the Forgotten Heroes who are giving a press conference nearby. Poseidon is partnered with the Enchantress (still a villain, but now blonde for some reason) who is trying to free the sorcerer, Kraklow. The b-list Superman villain Atom-Master allies with them and we've got the Forgotten Villains, though they don't get that name this issue. The Forgotten Heroes have to contend with Superman who gets turned into a dragon by Kraklow's magic. Thankfully, Animal Man's powers to copy animal abilities apparently extend to mythical creatures as well. In the last panel, the villains are bolstered by the arrival of the Faceless Hunter from Saturn.

Fury of Firestorm #31: Tuska's guesting on art so there's a pretty big stylistic shift, and some characters are off model. Conway's back to tie up the story, in a way that feels like a season-ending TV episode rushing to tie up all the loose ends. Firestorm reveals he was sort of baiting Mindboggler this time. She leads him to Breathtaker, who he deals with pretty easily, having figured out that he also is about mind games. Mindboggler then offers to help Firestorm and Firehawk against the 2000 Committee, who likely have Lorraine's father captive. The assault against the Committee is over pretty quick (some of the fight is even handled off-panel!) and Clarissa's perfidy is also revealed. That's that, everybody goes back to their lives, with the bad guys going to jail--except for Mindboggler who the heroes let go.

Justice League of America #234: Conway and Patton continue the New Teen Titans inspired character stuff as Steel goes out with Vibe's sister, Zatanna chastises Aquaman for being too hard on the new guys, but most of the story goes to Vixen who finds out a terrorist organization is working for her uncle, the dictator of M'Changa and the man who killed her father. She goes after his men to learn his whereabouts but tries to keep the rest of the League out of it. Meanwhile, the Monitor and Lyla watch as a being known as the Overmaster recruits and trains the Cadre, which includes Crowbar from last issue.

New Teen Titans #4: This is an odd issue to me because Wolfman and Perez don't play things the usual way. Trigon and Raven seem to have achieved victory. The Titans (among other heroes) are physically embedded in a column and Lilith can only observe as her friends, trapped in nightmares of their own worst fears and taunted by sinister doubles, one by one give in to anger and kill their tormenting duplicates. Often in comics, overcoming one's evil doppelganger rather than cowering or giving in is the correct solution, but here besting them gives Trigon his victory. Then the evil Titans, freed from their softer emotions, attack and kill Raven! They return to their normal selves, but Lilith reassures her horrified friends that that was what needed to happen, which again, is certainly a zag instead of a zig for this sort of story.  Trigon awakens to take vengeance for the death of his daughter, but I have to wonder: Didn't he realize something like this might happen when he turned the Titans evil?

Tales of the Green Lantern Corps Annual #1: Kupperberg is still trying to make Maaldor a thing. Having him as a Superman foe must not have been getting him there, so now he gets to menace the Green Lantern Corps, with Kane giving him a whole new, more orcish appearance. Something has drained the power of the Main Battery on Oa and kidnapped three Guardians. A group of well-known lanterns (but not one from Earth) set out to find them. It's a trap to drain yet more energy by Maaldor, whose breaking out of his other-dimensional prison. Arkkis Chummuck bravely goes hand-to-hand with the villain, as the other lanterns back him up. Arkkis and Maaldor appear to die together. Well, except Maaldor will appear in Crisis. But he's defeated for now!