America vs. the Justice Society #1: This feels like the title Thomas was born to write: It combines the Golden Age characters he loves with extensive continuity patches and retcons. There are even notes about where things are drawn from. He's joined by his wife in plotting, and by multiple artists (Kayanan, Buckler, and Ordway) and inkers (Alcala and Collins). In the story, the discovery (and subsequent publication by Clark Kent's Daily Star) of a diary written in Batman's own hand naming the Justice Society as conspirators with Adolf Hitler causes Congress to summon the team for a hearing, and Robin and the Huntress find themselves working as legal counsel on opposing sides. While of course they aren't going to turn out to be guilty, it isn't immediately apparent where the story might be going, so that's kind of interesting.
maArion Lord of Atlantis #26: The demon god Kr'Rth is marauding through the city, and Arion is in the thrall of his high priestess who plans to make the mage her consort. Arion is just faking though. As soon as he can, he slips out to borrow magic from his deceased dad to send Kr'Rth back into darkness. Even though he probably saved Mara's life, she is in no way greatful, still holding a grudge for what happened in his absence.
Kupperberg and Duursema give us a Chian solo story. After being nearly hit by an arrow while riding through a forest, she meets a girl named Lyla who has run away from her responsibility to fulfill her people's obligation by being placed in a temple. Lyla's story reminds Chian bitterly of her own childhood. Soon, Lyla's father and other hunters catch up, and both Chian and the girl are taken prisoner.
All-Star Squadron #41: Firebrand, Green Lantern and Hawkman save an unconscious Starman from falling to his death, giving Thomas/Kupperberg and Jones/Collins the excuse they need to tell his origin, courtesy of Tarantula's book on super-heroes. After giving Batman and Robin a bit of help at a robbery and acquiring the nonfunctional gravity rod designed by Professor Davis from his cousin Sandra, Ted Knight powers Davis's rod with "unknown cosmic rays", makes a costume, and offers his services to the FBI as Starman.
Detective Comics #546: Moench and Colan/Smith are still plugging along. Anton Knight is still recovering with the blind woman. Jason is settling in to living with Natalia, though he doesn't buy for a minute she just wants to be his mom. After Batman's last issue, Hill retaliates by framing him for a crime, suspending Gordon, and sending Gotham PD after Batman. Gordon tells Batman to look out for Gordon, who needs looking out for, because another assassin takes a shot at him. Fed up, Bullock heads over to Hill's mansion to confront his former boss. After Bullock delivers his threat, Hill pulls out a gun and shoots him, claiming self-defense.
Spanner's Galaxy #2: Cuti and Mandrake have Spanner castling (teleporting) onto a ship that's just been overrun by pirates. He helps the crew retake the ship, then agrees to help a young woman he calls "Icy Rivers" get to her fiancé at port. Apparently, they are both specially engineered perfect specimens of their race on their way to a new planet called Paradise. Spanner helps the couple and meets a diminutive alien with a knack for engineering. After various trials, including saving the girl from a premature autopsy and escaping the hunters pursuing him, Spanner castles off-world, one step ahead of the law.
Sun Devils #7: Conway and Jurgens/Mitchell continue this space opera saga with the revelation that the scientist the team recently liberated from the Sauroids has know-how to build a super-weapon that could end the war. The weapon, by disrupting a sun, would kill millions, and that sits uneasily with some of the team, including Anomie. Rik feels like obtaining this weapon for Earth and her allies is the only way. The team flies off to harvest the necessary neutronium from a nebula, but command intercepts a message and realizes there's a traitor among them. The Sun Devils run into an ambush, and Rik and Anomie must escape their destroyed ship by donning spacesuits. They run right into Drakon, the elite sauroid warrior leading the assault.
Tales of the Legion #319: Levitz and Shoemaker/Kesel follow up on last issue with group of Legionnaires dealing with a frenzied Mon-El dealing with the memories of Phantom Zone confinement. Meanwhile, Shadow Lass is forced to fight for her life against Lady Memory. She wins that battle, then the cavalry arrives to defeat the Persuader and Lady Memory's rebel army. The solution to Mon-El's mental state proved to be snapping him out of it by recalling his greatest trauma, so Superboy brought out the Phantom Zone Projector for that purpose.
World's Finest Comics #311: Nice cover by Cullins and Janson. Cavalieri and Woch have the Monitor (this guy again!) testing Superman's and Batman's abilities, by giving a teenage computer hacker (previously attempting to hack into Phil Foxman's computer and read as yet unpublished New Teen Tyros stories) access to the Fortress of Solitude, where he unleashes monsters from Superman's zoo and giant combat robots carrying kryptonite. Working together Batman and Superman manage to contain the emergency as Superman deals with the monsters and robots and Batman finds the source of the problem and presumably gives the kid a stern talking to. The Monitor, not satisfied with the results, contacts a group of villains called The Network (who got teased in the DC Sampler) for a go against the heroes.
Action Comics #563: This issue is a bit of a departure from the norm, having 3 humorous short stories. The first brings back Ambush Bug and unites the team of Fleming and Giffen that will be responsible for his limited series. It's really the first appearance of the character as he'll appear there: fourth wall breaking, referencing of comic book events (in this case, Secret Wars and Spider-Man's symbiote suit) and very silly. He plays a short of Daffy Duck character, though that would make Superman his Porky Pig straight man. Thankfully, the story doesn't overstay its welcome by going on too long.
The second story features Mr. Mxyzptlk and is by Bridwell and Saviuk/Jensen. Mxy demands Morgan Edge make him a media star, and foils plans to send him home by making it impossible for people to write or say any name backwards. Superman eventually figures out a way to send the imp home and it's a bit of a cheat, referencing for no real reason Bizarro Kltpzyxm, but it works.
The last story by Boldman and Bender/Marcos harkens back to those classic Silver Age Jimmy Olsen yarns. Needing to rescue a young girl, Jimmy drinks his Elasti-Lad formula but becomes a blob instead of merely stretchy. Unable to communicate, most people think he's a monster, but Superman comes to his rescue (eventually).
3 comments:
"The demon god Kr'Rth..."
What kind of demon god can't scrape up the $250 to buy a vowel?
Times were hard in the Nether Realms then.
I bought Action, Legion and America vs. The Justice Society out of this bunch. The Ambush Bug story was the high point for me. I remember America Vs The Justice Society being a slog and also marred with Flexographic printing which did not help.
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