Wednesday Comics: DC, June 1984 (week 4)

I'm reading DC Comics' output from January 1980 (cover date) to Crisis! This week, I'm looking at the comics on March 29, 1984.

Blue Devil #1: As foretold in the preview in Firestorm a couple of weeks ago, here's a new series for a new character from Cohn/Mishkin and Cullins/Marcos. The stunt man and special effects genius Dan Cassidy is with the crew shooting the film Blue Devil when a couple of the actors go poking around the ancient ruins nearby and manage to release the demon Nebiros from 6000 years of captivity. Nebiros threatens to kill them all, but Cassidy, though no superhero, goes into action to stop him. How this story departs from the traditional superhero origin tale is it isn't just the story of one hero-to-be doing the resuing. Blue Devil would never have been able to defeat Nebiros and send him from this plane without the help of the brave members of the film crew who are to be become Blue Devil's supporting cast. Their victory is not without its cost, however, as Cassidy discovers in the cliffhanger ending that somehow Nebiros' mystical attacks have bonded the exosuit to him. 

This is a bit of a weird origin, I think, and I thought so when I read it 41 years ago. If you want a blue devil guy, why not just have him transformed from regular old Dan Cassidy by Nebiros' magic? Is that much less believable than the suit becoming part of him? Conversely, if you wanted a guy in a super-powered suit, why bond it to him at all? 

Those story choices aside, it's a solid first issue with a well-outlined group of characters and great art from Cullins and Marcos.

Action Comics #556: Maybe a couple of months ago I wondered if the writers had dropped the long-simmering Vandal Savage plotline. Well, it's back this issue, and it seems like what happened was they lost interest. Wolfman and Swan (the creative team that started it, I think) wind it up with Savage's plan to make Superman look dangerous and turn Metropolis against him working after a could more contrived events. However, Superman basically confronts Savage wearing a wire (not literally, but in effect) and gets him to gloat and give away his whole plan. Everybody on TV sees this and it's all "curses, foiled again!" for ol' Vandal. It seems weird to stretch out over so many issues what ends as the plot of a 30 minute episode of a cartoon.

Arion Lord of Atlantis #20:  Our heroes are still trying to cope with the drowning of Khe-Wannatu, with Chian urging them to move on, when pirates in outfits and bright colors out of an 80s pop video attack (though nice art as always by Duursema/Smith). These are the crew of the Black Unicorn, a ship with a unicorn head on its prow, powered by some sort of magical solar-energy absorbing jewel. Arion and friends are captured and taken aboard the by Captain Bloodmoor. Arion challenges the captain and fights him in single combat, managing to win his own freedom and that of his friends. The group then accepts the captain's invitation to remain on board at Wyynde's urging. Wyynde has seen a particular mermaid out a port window...

All-Star Squadron #34: Thomas and Hoberg/Collins are still in the midst of the story about a Japanese attack on California on two Earths. On Earth-Two, Neptune Perkins and Johnny Quick are taken prisoner on a Japanese sub, and about to be executed when Firebrand, Starman, and Liberty Belle come to the rescue. On Earth-X, the Freedom Fighters are defeated in battle with Baron Blitzkrieg, who then beats up Hourman and calls him a drug addict. Following an explosion of the Japanese submarine, Firebrand is trying to swim to safety with an unconscious Johnny in tow when Tsunami attacks. While all this is going on the Spectre pleads with the Presence to allow him to right the wrong that has imperiled both worlds.

Detective Comics #539: Moench and Newton/Smith continue the story from this month's Batman with Dark Knight teaming up with Dunfey, the boxing title contender, to bring the murderer of slain champion Michael Greene to justice. Eventually, they locate their suspect and his boss, Dr. Fang in a gym. Fang challenges Dunfey to a match while Batman and Fang's thugs watch ringside. Fang comes on strong, but Dunfey holds his own and turns things around. He's close to defeating Fang when one of the thugs shoots at him and Batman sees an opening to take them down. Even with his right arm injured, Dunfey K.O.s Fang with a left.

The next morning, Dunfey takes the title belt from the manager of the boxing association and gives it to the family of the late champion, telling them that one day he might get his own title, but this one belongs to Greene. Batman relates that Dunfey was told his arm injury will prevent him from boxing ever again, but he doesn't believe it will hold the man back.

In the Green Arrow backup by Cavalieri and McManus/Trapani, Australian tabloid publisher Morris Burdick (wonder who that could be a stand-in for?) is looking to buy the Daily Star. A costumed villain whose sort of a cosplay Blue Devil (he's red, not blue be he has the horned mask and a trident weapon, though his looks made from pipes) called the Printer's Devil appears with a flame-throwing weapon and threatens the Star building. Green Arrow battles the Printer's Devil but is trapped by his own net-arrow as a stray flame from the Devil's weapon nears gas station pumps across the street from the newspaper.

Jonah Hex #85: Fleisher remarks in the letter column that this is the 100th Hex story he has done. He also breaks the news that, due to sales, Jonah Hex is moving to bimonthy. On the plus side, De Zuniga is moving to full art duties. In the story, Turnbull and his fellow Fort Charlotte-truthers put the Grey Ghost, a masked vigilante that does reprisal executions for the Confederate Lost Cause, on Jonah's trial. He might have succeeded too, but an ambush on the road then an assault on Adrian's family by goons sent by her jilted fiancé, Clifford, manage to injury the Ghost in the crossfire and spoil his plans. Adrian, too, is injured confronting the Ghost, who Hex thinks is dead, but in actuality escapes.

Meanwhile, poor Emmy Lou is still being held captive by the gang that wants them to join their heist.

Legion of Super-Heroes #312: An editorial comment in the letter column here outlines the plans for the Legion going forward (much more completely than the comparable comments before in Teen Titans): a new "off-set printing" direct market series will be started and the old "letterpress" newsstand title will (starting with issue 314) change its name to "Tales of..." and after the next year, become a reprint title of the direct market series. 

As to the story itself, this issue seems mostly prelude. The Legion is called in to help the Science Police after a terrorist bombing in Metropolis. It's followed closely on the heels by a couple more. The perpetrators and the motivation for the bombings is mysterious as no ransom is asked for. The issue has a light tone, I think, for the subject matter but that's probably because most of it's pages are spent in lighter character interactions.

New Adventures of Superboy #54: The chubby, canary-yellow Klingon type, Harzz, from last issue initiates his plan for revenge against Superboy with Superboy Revenge Squad along to observe by using artificially created disasters to manipulate Superboy into destroying the Earth. Superboy doesn't fall for it, and the Revenge Squad leader executes Harzz as a competitor. Kupperberg and Schaffenberger/Giella keep juggling the other plotlines from previous issues: Lana escalates her selfish attempt to get Clark's attentions back by using Superboy to make him jealous, while Jonathan Kent stands defiant in the face of increasing pressure to drop his bid for city council, acceding to the demands of crooked developer, Gary Simmons.

World's Finest Comics #304: Sometimes in comics a writer just wants to make a character or characters a thing even though they plainly are not going to be. Kraft and Lightle/Trapani give us the demanded by no one origin of Null and Void. It is surprisingly involved Peter (Void) getting hired to rescue Solomon (Null) from Nazis in the Caribbean, then them being forced into a rather culturally insensitively portrayed "Voodoo ritual." They get super-powers from this as it not uncommon in comics.

Anyway, in the present Peter manages to get off from the crimes he committed their last appearance by calling into question Superman's and Batman's testimony since one is an alien and the other a masked vigilante. There doesn't appear to be any prosecutor at this trial, so the judge goes along with it. Batman starts stalking Peter to get him to trip up, but then he learns the artifact that empowered them is being trasported in a block of ice, he rounds up Null and they go to Costa Rica to retreive it. Batman and Superman have figured out what they are after and confront them, but Void sends Superman to another dimension and Null neutralizes Batman's sense so they can knock him out. The villains make good their escape.

Wednesday Comics: DC, June 1984 (week 3)

Join me as I read DC Comics' output from January 1980 (cover date) to Crisis! This week, I'm looking at comics that were published on March 22, 1984.

Warlord #81: I discussed the main story here. In the Barren Earth backup by Cohn and Randall, Jinal and her companions rely on the city that serves as D'roz's embassy, and everyone gets to do a bit of relaxing. Jin and Renna visit a bathhouse but wind up getting into a fight (a scene that seems right up Randall's preferred illustration alley) and have to be rescued by Yisrah and his magician tricks.

Batman and the Outsiders #11: Barr and Aparo shine a bit of a spotlight on Katana as a ninja-type guy breaks into her apartment and after a fight, steals her sword. Katana leaves for Japan without telling any of the others where she's going, but after Halo let's them known she's gone, they manage to follow her there. She reluctantly reveals that she has come to retrieve her sword, which contains the soul of her slain husband.

Meanwhile, the guy who stole the sword has taken to the blade to Noguri, the head of a ninja clan, who uses a ritual to extract the souls a group of warriors killed by the sword, including Katana's husband, and bind them to his service to seek revenge on Katana.

Green Lantern #177: This issue is mostly a reprint of a story by Wein and Cockrum from issue 128 where Hector Hammond is siphoning off Jordan's ring energy to use against him. We just got a new framing sequence by Wein and Patton/Smith where a question from a reporter prompts Jordan to recall that earlier adventure. What's interesting is the story was also presented as a flashback when it was first published.

There's a Tales of the Green Lantern Corps backup by Wein and Kane that was reprinted in that Best of DC #61 I've mentioned before. It's the tale of Kwo's last day as a Green Lantern before retirement. The story works I think because it is somewhat understated.  Kwo does a number of heroic things, but he doesn't "face his greatest challenge" or die a heroic death. Instead, he turns in his ring thinking about a kid's kite he rescued.

Infinity, Inc. #3: The Thomases and Ordway/Machlan show us what Star-Spangled Kid, Huntress, and Power Girl were up to while the rest of their developing team were in the past for a few pages. Then when the others return from 1942, they all go to set up shop at Stellar Studios, an abandoned movie company owned by the Star-Spangled Kid. Turns out Solomon Grundy is making the movie lot his home. Meanwhile, several JSA members have been lured into a trap and drowned in a underground river by an evil Superman.

Saga of Swamp Thing #25: Given the title's Vertigo future and the direction of Pasko's run before his, it's interesting that Moore ties his Swamp Thing as much to the DC Universe as he does. With had the Floronic Man the last arc, and as this one gets started with see Jason Blood arrive in Houma, apparently after the demon Kamara, last seen in The Demon #4 (1972). Abbie intersects with Blood's hunt as she has just taken a job at a children's psychiatric facility where one of the patient's is being menaced by the demon of fear. This issue is all build up, but it's an interesting build up.

New Talent Showcase #6: This issue sees the end of the Feral Man (Ringgenberg and Carlson) and Ekko (Margopoulos and Lightle) stories. Ekko is the most accomplished and interesting of the issue due mostly to Lightle's art. The story veers to melodrama with Simon's evening being spoiled by the arrival of his date's estranged husband. Then it's some swift, superhero action as he suits up as Ekko to confront the villainous Hit Team, resolving the conflict surprisingly quick. After nearly killing the elderly Crimeking, Ekko decides to stick to medicine and give up the superhero gig. But will it last? So far as this title goes, it does.

Feral Man also makes an abrupt end, but with an even weirder turn. The boss at the CIA reveals Feral Man must work for him or else they'll detonate the bomb they implanted in his head. Also, he's got to bring in the woman, Ruby, who's been helping him. Feral Man surprisingly agrees. Surprisingly, once Ruby is in CIA's hands, she's offered a job to. Our heroes go to work for the government they've been trying to escape. I'm sure they had some wild adventures, but we're destined not to see them.

There's another installment of Dragonknights, where the Dark Lord escapes his exile and inhabits the body of the awesomely named Lord Thrash, his right-hand goon. The heroic kids manage to free the Dragonknights, too, but then they refuse to fight for Earth!

The last story is a sort of retro comedy one-pager by Stephanie DeStefano, "The (Mini) Misadventures of Nick O. Tyme"

Sgt. Rock #389: This one is an example of another Kanigher go-to writing tactic: really hammering home a theme or motif. The named members of Easy keep getting injured and left behind and they keep giving Rock some keepsake, good-luck charm to be returned to them when he sees them again. Rock almost loses all the items in a German ambush, but Worry Wart saves the day. Rock gets to return all the items at the hospital.

The backup story is about a q-ship in a life or death (mostly death) struggle with a U-boat. It makes some gesture to war as the equalizer in the last two panels which the rest of the story didn't really build up to. It was written and lettered by "The Kubies" which was a group of students in the Joe Kubert School.

Supergirl #20: Kupperberg and Infantino/Oksner celebrate an anniversary for Supergirl. First though, she experiences times where her powers and strength fail, and of course, that means the Parasite who just tangled with Superman last month. She manages to get out of a deathtrap with her special, Kryptonian metal comb and defeat Parasite, who she learns is just a clone. Later, Superman escorts her to a surprise gathering celebrating the anniversary of her arrival on Earth. The Justice League of America and Teen Titans turn up, and a statue of Supergirl is erected over the spot where she landed on Earth in her rocket (at 12:17pm). Thanks to Thanagarian technology, the statue floats in a fixed spot above the ground.

Thriller #7: Fleming and von Eeden seem between story arcs, so not a lot happens this issue. Our heroes get together for an Italian meal from Mama Salvotini and Edward Thriller invites both the Kane Creole clones over. Dan gets some background on the mysterious Quo, who got so spiritual advanced he became a concept of balance of good and evil and finds out that the guy was once the husband of White Satin. The background on Quo reminded me of some later pre-Vertigo and early Vertigo stuff.

Wednesday Comics: DC, June 1984 (week 2)

I'm reading DC Comics' output from January 1980 (cover date) to Crisis! This week, I'm reviewing the comics released on the week of March 15, 1984. 

Tales of the Teen Titans #43: I think this may have been the third Teen Titans issue I read, though I bought it as a back issue later, not when it was new. Still, it was my first exposure to the whole "Judas Contract" story of which it is part two. My assessment now is the same as then: Wolfman and Perez deliver a very fine comic.

Dick is attacked by the Terminator and barely escapes. When his teammates don't respond to his summons, he goes investigating and determines they were all ambushed and taken by Terminator. He can't figure out how the villain determined all the Titans' secret identities or how he defeated Raven and Terra until the mysterious woman and young man from last issue show up to reveal that the woman is the Terminator's ex-wife, and that Terra was an infiltrator for this very purpose. Meanwhile, Terminator delivers the other captured Titans to H.I.V.E.

New Gods #1: This month, a Baxter paper format limited series reprinting Kirby's New Gods begins. I think I had read a back issue of Forever People before this, but Darkseid's appearance on the Super Friends was still 6 months away. I don't think I read this issue until months later, after the Super Powers limited series and the cartoon. Anyway, this issue reprints stories from New Gods #1 and #2 from 1971. In keeping with my reprint title policy, I didn't reread them here, but I felt it was important to note the series.

Batman #372: This story gets reprinted in Best of DC #62 ("Year's Best Batman Stories"), and I can see why given that Moench and Newton/Alcala deliver a well-crafted story that is somewhat unusual. My complaint would be it isn't much of a Batman story. It's more like a prestige drama about professional boxing, with the concern with race and didacticism on the topic that goes with that, that happens to include Batman. The primary characters here are Greene, the black current heavyweight champ, and Dunfey, a young white upstart challenger.  We see the events that led up to their fight, including inner workings of training and how fights are arranged. Dunfey is unaware Dr. Fang is threatening Greene's family to get him to take a dive. Both are unaware that a mentally ill fan has come to the match to kill the celebrity referee, a retired boxer who he idolizes. Batman is at the match to stop the killer but is unaware of Fang's involvement.

Like I say, it's an unusual story. It reminds me a bit of what Eisner did with the Spirit where the hero was not always the main character of a particular story, but now that I think about it, Moench did this sort of thing some in Moon Knight, too. 

Arak Son of Thunder #34: Against Satyricus' better judgement, Arak agrees to escort the alchemist's two daughters to Baghdad. It turns out one of them isn't a daughter but instead Alsind, Prince of Arabia. On the way to the boys mother, they see a shooting star then camp near the supposed location of Abel's tomb and encounter a ghul that appears in a woman's guise. Arak defeats it with his iron-headed axe, but it pronounces his doom, warning of an encounter with the Serpent to come.

There's a backup with art by Forton/Maygar that tells a story of Arak's youth. To prove his courage to older boys that are picking on him, Arak goes to the cave of Yaogah, a bear spirit, intending to kill the bear and bring its paw back as proof of his deed. However, the bear spirit beats him but spares his life as it senses who he is. Arak returns to the village having learned the lesson that he need not prove his courage to anyone but himself.

Flash #334: Bates and Infantino/McLaughlin continue to pour the misery on Barry. His defense attorney in his manslaughter trial says she hates the Flash but won't tell him why and neither will her partner, his college friend. The Pied Piper mind controls the mayor to get him to refuse funding the rebuilding of the Flash Museum, leading to the Flash to angrily confront him on TV. Then Flash gets manipulated by the Piper to destroy a newscaster's desk during a live broadcast making him look dangerously unstable.  The fuse keeps burning slow on this one.

G.I. Combat #266: After downplaying WWII last issue, Kanigher brings it back this issue with two Haunted Tank stories. The first one is a story that takes play back before Arch's death and sees the crew fretting over the morality of having to transport a sniper with a mission to assassinate Rommel. Stuart ultimate fights with him and has to kill him, so it winds up being lucky the guy was a double agent, trying to kill Rommel for Hitler who felt threatened by the Desert Fox's popularity. 

The second story follows on the heels of their last (chronological) appearance and has Sgt. Craig in charge as Stuart is recovering and is mostly about the dynamics between him and his son. There's a story about a U.S. pilot that is forced to use his plane as an air-to-air missile to defeat a new, German jet, and Kana finishes up what he was doing in the past and gets back to the present to save the day.

Omega Men #15: Klein and Smith/Tanghal finish up their story with Primus and the Omega Men trying to break the energy shield around Euphorix using bombardment with meteors. Some of the Omega Men are troubled by this plan but haven't yet challenged Primus. The conflict is being prolonged by Alonzo keeping Primus from talking with Kalista through deception. When his treachery is revealed, the two come to terms--but too late to stop the shield from being broken. In fact, only the intervention of Auron, who senses the shield contained energy from X'Hal, saves Euphorix from a meteor impact. The planet's people are understandably unhappy with the Omega Men and drive them away but not before Primus gets to reunite with Kalista. Despite Primus' apologies and protestations of love, Kalista is furious that he endangered so many lives. He leaves the palace, and Kalista runs after him to say she loves him too, but it is too late.

The letter column tells us we are due for one more fill-in issue (by Cavalieri) before new, regular writer Doug Moench arrives.

Star Trek #5: Barr and Sutton/Amendola follow-up the first arc with a done-in-one story. This one is a typical Prime Directive story, where a captain Kirk knows has crashed on an alien planet and altered the culture to his own benefit. Kirk has to do some Prime Directive violating things himself to correct the situation. The only variance from the TOS formula is that the wayward friend of Kirk's is redeemed and leaves the planet with the Enterprise. In its very standard storytelling, this one isn't particularly memorable, but when measured against previous ST comic series that typically failed to feel like Trek, I still think it's a success.

Superman #396: While Superman is serving as a consultant on a Superman movie, an alien called Intellex the Brain Bandit shows up and tries to make Superman's brain part of his collection. Luckily, a masked hero calling himself the Mysterious Masquerader shows up to help Superman out. This is a very Silver Age-y sort of tale with Intellex as a Silver Age Brainiac-esque villain and the mystery of the Masquerader's identity apparent form the start, but Cavalieri clearly has tongue in cheek with his all as his apparent in some of the dialogue between Intellex and his robot assistant. They're almost a proto-Magna Khan and L-Ron.

Vigilante #7: Cool Andru/DeCarlo cover here. Wolfman and Patton/Marcos continue the story from last issue with Adrian telling J.J. and Terry the rest of his story of the mysterious woman he met last issue took him to a place where he met three others who trained him and taught him to recover from harm at an almost supernatural rate. The whole thing seems very dream-like and feels like it was perhaps inspired by the origin of the Mark Shaw Manhunter from 1st Issue Special #5, but without all the backstory of the Manhunters. In fact, the weakness here to me is, despite the uncanniness of how he comes to be trained by them, the four seem pretty regular people, no distinct costumes or rituals, really.

While all this is going on, Cannon and Sabre escape the hospital, nearly killing Captain Hall in the process, and the Controller unveils his plan to the mob bosses.

Wednesday Comics: DC, June 1984 (week 1)

My mission is 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 March 8, 1984. 

Giordano's "Meanwhile.." this month talks about the debut of both the New Gods reprint series and Blue Devil. He also talks about the upcoming DC Who's Who and a maxi-series History of the DC Universe.

Atari Force #6: Conway and García-López/Villagrain continue the story from last issue with Tempest, Dart, and Pakrat infiltrating the alien ship that we know belongs to the Dark Destroyer. They walk into a trap. Tempest is beaten by the Dark Destroyer himself, but Dart and Pakrat manage to elude his troops. The Destroyer taunts Martin about being close to his goal of killing the children of his enemy the Atari Force. Instead of breaking Martin, though, it rouses him to action. This issue is better than the last few. It finally seems like we are moving forward and García-López's layouts are great.

Fury of Firestorm #24: This was the first Firestorm story I ever read. Indeed, it's perhaps the only issue of the title my brother and I ever bought off the racks. It's a good issue, but it may have been the Blue Devil preview that lured us in. In the main story, the Conways and Kayanan/Tanghal continue from last issue with Lorraine and Ronnie paying a visit the Bonner's house to try and confirm Ronnie's suspicion that Byte who was out to kill Belle Haney is actually Blythe Bonner. They discover that Frank Bonner, Blythe's and Barney's father and Ronnie's teacher, is probably an alcoholic and he's pining over a photo of Belle Haney! After an angry Blythe throws them out, they go find Belle Haney who admits she was once Belle Bonner and the mother of the kids. When she was working at home, the kids got accidentally shocked by some of her computer equipment. Frank got angry and kicked her out, though later it seems he has told the kids she left them. This being the 80s, instead of just getting a shock, the kids got super-powers, so our heroes learn the origins of Byte and Bug, just as they show up to whisk their mom into a computer Tron-style and kill her.

The heroes save Belle, and Byte and Bug exit to the real world. Bug begins to have second thoughts about killing people, and Byte lashes out at him too. Frank arrives to see all this. Byte realizes what she's done escapes into an electrical outlet as her brother dies (according to the internet; I didn't feel like the issue was entirely clear), but her parents reconcile. Anyway, pretty good story with 80s themes of computers, women in the workplace, and the dissolution of families.

In the preview by Mishkin/Cohn and Cullen/Marcos we are introduced to Dan Cassidy, a movie stuntman who has made an almost Iron Man-level powered suit as the monster costume for a film. See what we lost with the rise of CGI? Anyway, the Trickster, another special effects guy in his regular ID, shows up to take Cassiday down a peg. Hijinks ensue when a silly villain takes on a guy who doesn't know from superheroics and still has to work the kinks out of his new suit. This preview well presents the humorous approach to supers that will inform the title and also introduces us to the books supporting cast. After this, we were looking forward to the ongoing book, and we didn't have to wait long.

DC Comics Presents #70: Team-up comics have always been the "junk food" of comics publishing, but some stories are better than others. Kupperberg and Saviuk/DeZuniga deliver one of those others here, teaming up the Metal Men with Superman. A mad scientist captures the Metal Men and puts them through several end-of-the-world scenarios created by his seemingly all-powerful computer in an effort to find someone that can continue with him post the end of the world. Superman shows up and saves the Metal Men, then suggests to the scientists that it just might be his creation of a very real end of the world scenario that ends the world.

Justice League of America #227: Cavalieri and Patton/Alexander conclude their Fiatlux stoyline, and really, it's about time. Lord Claw, the third Fiatlux leader, takes control of the cult after the defeats of the other leaders in previous issues. His gimmick is the use of genetically engineered animals. Green Arrow, Black Canary, Zatanna, and Hawkwoman return from Hellrazer's dimension to join the other Leaguers in attacking Claw's island base, with only Hawkwoman having any suspicion that Zatanna has been possessed by the demon. Hellrazer emerges from Zatanna's body and kills Lord Claw, taking over Fiatlux himself, but luckily Zatanna remembers the spell that will transport the demon back to his own world.

This is a rather Marvel-type story with a fair amount of action, but it isn't really a very good one. Interestingly, a lengthy letter in this month's letter column says the problem with JLA's low sales is that the characters can't have impactful stories here (in contrast with the New Teen Titans) due the need for characters to appear elsewhere. Editorial responds that Conway is still working on a plan to deal with that...

Wonder Woman #316: Mishkin and Heck continue Wonder Woman's fight against Tezcatlipoca. She finally defeats the god (maybe) when she shatters an image which bound him to his mortal host. She frees the Amazons from his mental domination--though these strangers are still a mystery. They ask Wonder Woman if she is really Artemis and tell her that Hippolyta told them she was dead, but that the queen has "lied before." Meanwhile, Griggs meets a soldier in the Central America nation of Tropidor who tells him the rebels worship Tezcatlipoca, Steve Trevor and a gremlin near Paradise Island, and Sofia threatens Hippolyta with revealing the secret of her manipulation of Diana. Still not sure where Mishkin is going with this, but if this were a modern comic I'd say we're heading toward a soft reboot.

In the Huntress backup by Cavalieri and Beachum/Martin, the Sea-Lion takes time to gloat as he prepares to inject the captured Huntress with a mutation, giving her time to escape. Sea-Lion is defeated and taken into custody.

Wednesday Comics: DC, May 1984 (week 4)

I'm reading DC Comics' output from January 1980 (cover date) to Crisis! This week, I'm looking at the comics on February 23, 1984.

World's Finest Comics #302: Grittier than usual cover this issue by Hannigan and Janson. A yacht full of rapidly decomposed corpses in Gotham is harbinger of a terrorist attack on Metropolis using a kryptonite-based plague. The mastermind demands a high ransom for the antidote, lest Gotham suffer the same fate. Superman barely escapes after having to crawl through the subway tunnels and gets to Gotham where he starts trying to find a cure while Batman does detective work in a race against time. 

The green plague and the yacht full of skeletons are pulpy details, like something out of a Norvell Page Spider novel. Kraft's story presents a problem it takes both Superman and Batman to solve without it being a cosmic-level threat, though Chen's and Marco's art gives the mystery of the mastermind's identity away by rendering him with a look that says "villain" from the moment he's introduced.

Action Comics #555: It's the 25th Anniversary of Supergirl's debut in Action Comics and all Kupperberg and Swan/Hunt got us was an appearance by the Parasite. The baddie returns to Earth, saps Superman's powers as he's wont to do, and traps Supes in an airtight prison with only minutes of breathable air. The ever-resourceful Superman uses the super- hard lenses of his glasses to cut through the side of the container, escapes, and then hypnotizes the Parasite into restoring his super-powers. After he imprisons Parasite, he goes to meet Supergirl, fulfilling the anniversary requirement of this issue.

Arion Lord of Atlantis #19:  Kupperberg and Duursema pick up with our heroes still reeling from the drowning of Khe-Wannatu. There's little time for grief, though, because Garn Danuuth isn't done. He summons the dark god, Thalas, and Arion and the Golden Goddess Deedra must do battle with them. Deedra turns Garn to gold and she and Thalas leave this plane, but poor Arion is left underwater to drown. He's saved by Fawndancer, Wyynde's wife, who has somehow been transformed into a mermaid.

I perhaps don't comment enough on what a unique comic Arion is. It's very much Dr. Strange meets Conan with some elements from literary high fantasy of the era thrown in. I think it has some of the problems of Dr. Strange, like not well defining what magic can do and how it works leading to a lot of "the solution is this thing we've just introduced this issue" and the weaknesses of trying to adapt high fantasy (a genre that traditionally engages in a lot of rigorous worldbuilding) to the comics approach of making it up as we go. It is an interesting experiment, though.

All-Star Squadron #33: Thomas and Hoberg/Collins deliver a split story.  On Earth-X, Uncle Sam and the nascent Freedom Fighters battle a Japanese attack on Santa Barbara only to come face to face with Baron Blitzkrieg who has Hourman in a deathtrap. On Earth-Two, Firebrand and Johnny Quick meet Neptune Perkins, while Starman and Liberty Belle spy on a meeting of Japanese Americans where Tsunami tries to get them to join the Japanese cause. When they refuse, she lashes out, injuring her own father.

Meanwhile, The Spectre is still being held between worlds by the command of the Voice. He tries to get back to Earth-Two but finds his efforts are threatening to draw both Earth-Two and Earth-X together--and maybe destroy them both.

Detective Comics #538: Moench and Colan/Smith bring a mildly amusing follow up to this month's Batman. Collins, Catman's former cellmate, is allowed to break out of prison so he can lead Batman and the police to the loot from his last heist. He steals Catman's costume, and thinks it's giving him nine lives, but it's really Batman secretly helping him out of danger. After a cave in, Batman finds the loot, but Catman winds up in the Batcave, where a weary Batman confronts him and beats the hell out of him.

In a more somber Green Arrow backup by Cavalieri and McManus/Marcos, we get parallel stories of Ollie taking down a gunrunner, Jacaruso, while remembering three years ago how he was to have an interview with a famous musician (heavily implied to be John Lennon) only to have the musician killed in front of him just before. Interestingly, Ollie is referred to as a "gonzo journalist" in this story.

Jonah Hex #84: Hex buys some new guns and heads down to New Orleans on a job to protect the beautiful daughter, Adrian, of a wealthy man from a kidnapping scheme. The girl falls for Hex, naturally, and her fiance is, naturally, not happy about it. They are jumped at Mardi Gras and Hex and Adrian are taken, but ultimately Hex gets them out. The cowardly fiance is out, and now Adrian plans to marry Hex.

Meanwhile, we see Hart and Mei Ling, and Jonah's son who somehow looks about 6 now. Then there's Emmy Lou, still being held captive by the robber, whose advances she keeps spurning.

Nathaniel Dusk #4: McGregor and Colan come to the conclusion, which feels a bit abrupt, but that's not uncommon for the detective genre. Dusk escapes a death by ferry propellor and gets out of the river. He's figured out his friendly corner newsstand owner has been informing on him to the mob. After he confronts that guy, he goes to meet Joyce's mother. She reveals that Joyce was married to an abusive mobster who have never accepted she ran away from him. The blonde goon greets Dusk as he leaves the old woman's apartment, and he's again treated to a deathtrap with an injection of rat poison. After a night in the hospital, he goes to confront the mobster. Blondie accidentally kills his boss in the conflict, then Dusk sets the guy's curly hair on hair in the scuffle. 

Some have complained there isn't a whole lot of mystery here, just "scuffles and chases," which is true, but this is a detective story, so I don't think it's out of bounds. At worst, it's one twist short. I would agree the story is slight for the run time and is filled with action set pieces. It's a level of action more akin to 70s film and TV shows than a reflection of pulp fiction gumshoes, and the ending the first 3 issues on a cliffhanger feels like movie serials. 

New Adventures of Superboy #53: A lot going on this issue, but the first thing to notice is how different Schaffenberger looks under Giella's inks. After their first assault on Earth fails, aliens from Drulok ally themselves with the Superboy Revenge Squad against Superboy, but that doesn't come to a whole lot this issue. While dealing with these aliens, Clark has to deal with Lana making a play for him in jealousy over his relationship with Lisa. Councilman and profiteer Gary Simmons escalates his attempts to keep Jonathan Kent from running for political office by taking a hit out on him.

Ronin #5: I had almost forgotten this series was still going. Anyway, the Ronin and Casey get closer, and she begins to be able to see things the way he does. For instance, Virgo's new robot soldiers appear as demonic samurai. Meanwhile, McKenna thinks he has pieced most of it together: Billy's telekinetic powers were greater than anyone, but Virgo knew. He created this Ronin identity from TV shows he saw as a child. But what's Virgo after, and what's her role? Five issues in Miller has really established his own style and the influence of European comics and Japanese manga seems more subsumed into his vision.

Wednesday Comics: DC, May 1984 (week 3)

My mission: read DC Comics' output from January 1980 (cover date) to Crisis! This week, I'm looking at the comics that were published February 16, 1984, the week of my eleventh birthday.

Warlord #81: This was the only issue from this birthday week for me that I bought on the stands. I discussed the main story here. In the Barren Earth backup by Cohn and Randall, Jinal and friends move toward a mysterious, more technologically advanced city. She discovered Barasha was educated there for a time in his youth. Lurking nearby, however, is a Qlov scouting party.

Batman and the Outsiders #10: Lightle/Trapani take over art this issue. Black Lightning is a prisoner and meets the woman that arranged his capture: the mother of Trina Shelton, the young woman whose death resulted from his actions. Faced with his obvious guilt and remorse over what happened, Mrs. Shelton begins to have second thoughts about the whole "hiring supervillains to execute someone" thing.

The Outsiders come looking for their comrade. Batman gets into the Masters of Disaster's hideout in the guise of Matches Malone. The others stage a full-on assault. During the ensuing battle, the repentant Mrs. Shelton jumps in the way of a blast fired by Heatstroke, taking the blast meant for Black Lightning. The Masters are routed, and the heroes go home.

Green Lantern #176: Wein and Gibbons/Giordano continue the story from last issue. Jordan's body is in a coma and is rushed to the hospital. Meanwhile, his intellect is trapped inside the Shark's mind, as are the Shark's other victims. The Shark is toying with them before he consumes them, but Jordan still has access to his power ring's energy and manages to hold him at bay for a time. His ring's charge will on last so long, though, but luckily Carol figures out it might help and brings the power battery to Hal's semi-conscious body and coaxes him into recharging his ring. He floods the Shark's mind with green energy and frees all the captives. Then, GL has to stop the Shark from getting more radioactive material in the physical world. In the melee, the Shark appears to die in an explosion.

Meanwhile Congressman Bloch calls the Monitor, unaware Smith from Con-Trol is spying on him.  The Monitor agrees to help Bloch and calls in the Demolition Team. At Ferris Aircraft, Rich Davis and Bruce Gordon are discussing the new solar-engine powered jet. Richard is still having chest pain and dismissing it. Bruce finds a threatening note under his blueprints and assumes it comes from Bloch.

Infinity, Inc. #2: The Thomases and Ordway/Machlan finish off the origin of the team and get them up to the point of their first appearance in All-Star Squadron. While the newcomers argue about their next move, Brainwave, Jr. crashes the JSA setting and gets into a fight with them, leading Star-Spangled Kid to make a decision. He forms a team, Infinity, Inc., and invites the six newcomers Power Girl, and the Huntress to join. After that Ultra-Humanite blasts them, and then the events that lead to All-Star Squadron #25 occur. 

This is kind of an odd way to introduce a new team. Ending a two-issue arc with a sort of "now you know the rest of the story" doesn't really build moment for the next issue and provides a convenient jumping off point. I think it might have been better to start after the All-Star issues and flashback to how they came together.

Legion of Super-Heroes #311: There are two stories in this issue. In the first by Levitz, Brainiac 5 has a showdown Computo, whose mind he's trying to separate from Danielle Foccart's body. He succeeds and gets a new Legion HQ in the process, but he has to blow the old one up first. The story plays lighter than most and Giffen's art brings the humor to the fore.

The second story has art by Colan and Mahlstedt. Wildfire goes in search of Dawnstar, who is still on her cultural proscribed quest for a soulmate. We get to see Dawnstars homeworld and her people, at least briefly. In the end, Dawnstar decides Wildstar is what she is looking for at least in terms of love and friendship, despite his lack of a physical body.

New Talent Showcase #5: The cover feature of this issue is Dragon Knights by Scianna and Scarborough who don't seem to have done anything else beyond this. It's a fantasy that aims at a bit of whimsy, I think, with somewhat cartoony art, but while there may be a kernel of something here it's amateurish. There's a quest in the offing, a brother and sister raised by a wizard must find the Dragon Knights to stop the big bad.

The most accomplished story this issue is "Moon River" a science fiction tale that I wonder if was originally submitted for one of DC's anthology titles and inventoried. It's a clearly Logan's Run-inspired story of a dystopian future, would-be escapees, and animal themed hunters. It marks the debut of Mindy Newell, who will go on to do a lot of work at DC and at First, and Cara Sherman-Tereno, who has a short-listed of credits, but still got work throughout the 80s at DC and First.

We also catch up with Feral Man (Ringgenberg and Carlson) and Ekko (Margopoulos and Lightle). Ekko continues to read like an indie supers title maybe based on someone's Champions campaign with the number of costumed characters it introduces every installment, but it has the most polished art with Lightle's accomplished use of screentone. The primetime supers conspiracy story of Feral Man probably has the better story of the two by a hair (heh), but its art is notably less accomplished.

Sgt. Rock #388: Pretty standard stuff. In the main story by Kanigher and Redondo, a little Arab girl takes a liking to Bulldozer after he gives her some chocolates and warns Easy of bandits robbing corpses of equipment to sell on the black market. When the raiders come after her in reprisal, Bulldozer defeats them in a firefight but is unable to save the girl. The second story by Harris and Lindsey is one of those "impaired soldier scared and alone is guided to safety by a voice on a communication device, only to later find the device didn't work and there was no one there." Sometimes this sort of plot is an implied ghost story, but this one ends with no ready explanation.

Supergirl #19: Linda Danvers is watching TV with her friend when she's startled to see Supergirl on it. She decides to go confront this imposter, but discovers she no longer has her kryptonian powers! Meanwhile, Supergirl keeps having fleeting thoughts of another identity she doesn't quite remember. Ultimately, it turns out that the Linda Danvers is actually formed from the diminutive Supergirl clones that Supergirl depowered a few issues ago. The real Supergirl gets her memory and identity restored and the clone is promised a life of her own. 

Kupperberg and Infantino/Oksner deliver a short of off-beat story that, for its unusualness, is one of the most interesting in the series so far. It does share some similarities, at least in concept, with a Spider-Man story by Flanagan/Butler from What If? #30 (1981).

Saga of Swamp Thing #24: Despite the cover, Moore and Bissette/Totleben use the JLA in what amounts to a cameo. The Floronic Man announces his intentions to the world. He's going to have plants pump out oxygen to force humanity to abandon fire or destroy themselves. The JLA debates what to do, but isn't able to come up with a solution that could stop him when he has the Earth's plant-life on his side. Thankfully, Swamp Thing is here to break his arm, then point out that he's harming the Green and is acting just like another human. The plants reject him, and Woodrue is forced to flee, then is captured by the League to take to Arkham. Swamp Thing reveals to Abbie what he now knows of his origin and tells her he is at last happy.