Category: Carmine Infantino

Posted on

DC Finest: Robin – The Origin of Robin


By Ed Hamilton, John Broome, Gardner F. Fox, Cary Bates, Mike Friedrich, E. Nelson Bridwell, Frank Robbins, Dennis O’Neil, Bob Haney, Elliot Maggin, Bob Rozakis, Ross Andru, Curt Swan, Sheldon Moldoff, Pete Costanza, Chic Stone, Gil Kane, Irv Novick, Murphy Anderson, Dick Dillin, Rich Buckler, Bob Brown, Mike Grell, A. Martinez, Al Milgrom, José Delbo, Bill Draut, George Klein, Joe Giella, Sid Greene, Murphy Mike Esposito, Anderson, Vince Colletta, Dick Giordano, Frank McLaughlin, José Mazzaroli, Terry Austin, José Luis García-López, Ernie Chan & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-79950-829-8 (TPB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Robin the Boy Wonder debuted in Detective Comics #38 (cover dated April 1940 and on sale from March 6th). Co-created by Bob Kane, Bill Finger & Jerry Robinson, he was a juvenile circus acrobat whose parents were murdered by a mob boss. The story of how Batman took the orphaned Dick Grayson under his scalloped wing and trained him to fight crime has been told, retold and revised many times over the decades and still regularly undergoes tweaking to this day. Grayson fought beside Batman until 1970 when, as an indicator of those turbulent times, he flew the nest, becoming a Teen Wonder college student. His creation as a junior hero for younger readers to identify with inspired countless costumed sidekicks and kid crusaders, and Grayson continued in similar innovative vein for the older, more worldly-wise readership of America’s increasingly rebellious youth culture.

The first Robin even had his own solo series in Star Spangled Comics from 1947 to 1952, a solo spot in the back of Detective Comics from the end of the 1960s as covered here (but a position he alternated and shared with Batgirl) and a starring feature in anthology comic Batman Family. In the 1980s he led the New Teen Titans, initially in his original costumed identity but eventually in the reinvigorated guise of Nightwing, all while re-establishing a (somewhat turbulent) working relationship with his masked mentor.

This broad-ranging full colour but strictly non-digital compilation covers the period from Julie Schwartz’s captivating reinvigoration of the Dynamic Duo in 1964 until 1975 with Robin-related stories and material from Batman #184, 192, 202, 213, 217, 227, 229-231, 234-236, 239-242, 244-246, 248-250, 252, 254 & 259; Detective Comics #342, 386, 390-391, 394-395, 398-403, 445, 447, 450-251; World’s Finest Comics #141, 147, 195, & 200; Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen #111, 130 and Batman Family #1 & 3-5, spanning cover-dates May 1964 to May/June 1976.

With covers by Curt Swan, George Klein, Carmine Infantino, Joe Giella, Bill Draut & Vince Colletta, Neal Adams, Murphy Anderson, Mike Grell, Ernie Chan & Tatiana Wood, the developmental wonderment and rocky road from boys to men begins with ‘The Olsen-Robin Team versus… the Superman-Batman Team!’ Taken from World’s Finest #141, May 1964, by Edmond Hamilton, Curt Swan & George Klein, it’s a stirring blend of sci fi thriller and crime caper, wherein the underappreciated sidekicks fake their own deaths to undertake a secret mission even their adult partners must remain unaware of… for the very best of reasons of course.

The sequel (WFC #147, February 1965) delivers an engaging drama of youth-in-revolt as ‘The Doomed Boy Heroes!’ quit their assistant roles to strike out on their disgruntled own. Naturally there’s a perfectly reasonable – if incredible – reason here, too. Then in Detective Comics #342 (August 1965) cover-featured ‘The Midnight Raid of the Robin Gang!’ (John Broome, Sheldon Moldoff & Joe Giella) sees the Boy Wonder defy his mentor’s orders to infiltrate a youthful gang of costumed criminals. Following that, ‘The Boy Wonder’s Boo-Boo Patrol!’ (originally a back-up in Batman #184; September 1966 by Gardner Fox, Chic Stone & Sid Greene), shows the daring lad’s star-potential in a clever tale of thespian skulduggery and classic conundrum solving, before ‘Dick Grayson’s Secret Guardian!’ (Batman #192, June 1967, Fox, Moldoff & Giella) showcases his physical prowess in one of comic books’ first instances of the exoskeletal augmentation gimmick.

Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen #111 (June 1968) brought ‘Jimmy Olsen, Boy Wonder!’ by Cary Bates & Pete Costanza, which finds the cub reporter trying to prove his covert skills by convincing the Gotham Guardian that he was actually Robin (!), whilst that same month in Batman #202 the genuine article tackles the ‘Menace of the Motorcycle Marauders!’ (Mike Friedrich, Stone & Giella), consequently learning a salutary lesson in the price of responsibility. Then April 1969’s Detective Comics #386 featured the Boy Wonder’s first solo back-up in what was to become his semi-regular spot for years.

‘The Teen-Age Gap!’ as described by Friedrich, Ross Andru & Mike Esposito depicts a High School Barn Dance which only narrowly escapes becoming a riot thanks to Grayson’s diligent intervention. Its followed by an all new story from reprint collection Batman #213 (July/August 1969 and a 30th Anniversary reprint Giant) which offers an updated retelling of ‘The Origin of Robin’ courtesy of E. Nelson Bridwell, Andru & Esposito, reinterpreting those epochal events for the Vietnam generation. Gil Kane & Murphy Anderson assume the art-chores with Detective #390’s ‘Countdown to Chaos!’ (August 1969), bringing the support-series stunningly alive for the unfolding “Relevancy era” with Friedrich concocting a canny tale of corruption and kidnapping, leading to a paralysing city ‘Strike!’ for the Caped kid to spectacularly expose and foil in the following issue.

Next up is a modern landmark in the character’s long history as Batman #217’s ‘One Bullet Too Many!’ (December 1969, by Frank Robbins, Irv Novick & Dick Giordano) sees Dick leaves home to attend Hudson University. With the boy gone, Alfred and Bruce move with the times, shuttering both Mansion and Batcave and relocating to the penthouse of the Wayne Foundation Building in the heart of Gotham. It too offers subterranean lair extras and acts as base as Bruce sets up his Victims Inc. Program to aid the suffering survivors of crime. He also formally rededicates Batman to terrifying evildoers whether they be thugs, masterminds, or the new breed of semi-respectable “legitimate” businessmen who are little more than bandits with lawyers. His first mission is to solve the seemingly senseless murder of paediatrician Jonah Feilding.  Although not really a Robin tale, it is included here, and is closely followed by all of Detective #394 from the same month, with lead Batman feature finding ‘A Victim’s Victim!’ (Robbins, Bob Brown & Giella) in the crime-infested race car scene. This neatly segues into back up yarn ‘Strike… Whilst the Campus is Hot!’ (Robbins, Kane & Anderson) as callow freshman Dick Grayson stumbles into a campus riot organised by criminals backing radical activists, forcing the Teen Wonder to ‘Drop Out… or Drop Dead!’ to stop the seditious scheme. DC #398-399 (April & May 1970) then ran a 2-part spy-thriller with Vince Colletta replacing Anderson as inker. ‘Moon-Struck’ has lunar rock samples borrowed from NASA apparently causing a plague among Hudson’s students until Robin exposes a Soviet scheme to sabotage the Space Program in ‘Panic by Moonglow’.

The 400th anniversary issue (June 1970) finally teamed the Teen Wonder with his alternating back-up star in ‘A Burial For Batgirl!’ (Denny O’Neil, Kane & Colletta): a college-based murder mystery which again heavily references political and social unrest then plaguing US campuses, but which still finds space to be smart and action-packed as well as topical, before chilling conclusion ‘Midnight is the Dying Hour!’ wraps up the saga. Never afraid to repeat a good idea, Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen #130 (July 1970, by Bob Haney & Anderson) details the exploits of ‘Olsen the Teen Wonder!’ with the junior reporter again aping Batman’s buddy to infiltrate an underworld newspaper.

World’s Finest #195 (August 1970) sees Jimmy & Robin targeted for murder by the Mafia in ‘Dig Now, Die Later!’ (Haney, Andru & Esposito, whilst simultaneously in DC #402 ‘My Place in the Sun’ (Friedrich, Kane & Colletta), embroils Grayson and fellow Teen Titan Roy Harper Speedy in a crisis of social conscience, before our scarce-bearded hero wraps up his Detective run with corking crimebusting caper ‘Break-Out’ in the September issue. From #227 (December 1970) Robin’s romps transferred to the back of Batman, beginning with ‘Help Me – I Think I’m Dead!’ (Friedrich, Novick & Esposito) as ecological awareness catastrophically collides with penny-pinching Big Business on campus, launching an extended epic tracking the Teen Thunderbolt’s exploration of communes, alternative cultures and the burgeoning spiritual New Age fads of the day.

Inked by Frank Giacoia ‘Temperature Boiling… and Rising!’ (#229, February 1971) continues the politically-charged drama, albeit uncomfortably interrupted by a trenchant fantasy team-up with Superman sparked when the Man of Steel attempts to halt a violent campus clash between students and National Guard. The tale shifts to WFC #200 (February 1971) – crafted by Friedrich, Dick Dillin & Giella – where ‘Prisoners of the Immortal World!’ has brothers on opposite sides of the teen scene abducted with Robin & Superman to a distant planet where undying vampiric aliens wage eternal war on each other. A return to more pedestrian perils follows in Batman #230 (March 1971) sees ‘Danger Comes A-Looking!’ for our young hero in the form of a gang of right-wing, anti-protester jocks and a deluded friend who prefers bombs to brotherhood, courtesy of Friedrich, Novick & Giordano. ‘Wiped Out!’ (#231, May 1971) then offers an eye-popping end to the jock squad whilst #234 sees a clever road-trip tale in ‘Vengeance for a Cop!’, when a campus guard is gunned down forcing Robin to track the only suspect to a commune. ‘The Outcast Society’ has its own unique system of justice, but eventually the shooter is apprehended in cataclysmic closing ‘Rain Fire!’ (#235 & 236 respectively).

The Collective experience blooms into psychedelic and psionic strangeness in #239 as ‘Soul-Pit’ (illustrated by new penciller Rich Buckler) finds Grayson’s would-be girlfriend, “Jesus-freaks” and runaway kids all sucked into a telepathic duel between a father and son, played out in the ‘Theatre of the Mind!’ before exposing the ‘Secret of the Psychic Siren!’ and culminating in a lethal clash with a clandestine cult in ‘Death-Point!’ (Batman#242, June 1972). Elliot Maggin, Novick & Giordano then open an age of cosy-mystery capers by setting ‘The Teen-Age Trap!’ (Batman #244, September 1972), with Grayson mentoring troubled kids and finding plenty of troublemakers his own age, before ‘Who Stole the Gift from Nowhere!’ is a delightful old-fashioned change-of-pace yarn where our hero seeks out a hidden wealthy benefactor. Batman #248 offers ‘The Immortals of Usen Castle’ (Maggin, Novick & Frank McLaughlin) wherein another deprived-kids day trip turns into an episode of Scooby-Doo, Where are You?

Pencilled by Brown, the ‘Case of the Kidnapped Crusader!’ then puts the Student Centurion on the trail of an abducted consumer advocate prior to ‘Return of the Flying Grayson!’ (Maggin, Novick & McLaughlin from #250) painfully reminding the hero of his Circus past after tracking down pop-art thieves. Batman #252 (October 1973) sees Maggin, Dillin & Giordano’s light-hearted pairing of Robin with a Danny Kaye pastiche/avatar for charming romp ‘The King from Canarsie!’, before ‘The Phenomenal Memory of Luke Graham!’ (#254 January/February 1974 and inked by Anderson) causes nothing but trouble for the hero, his college professors and a gang of robbers. Issue #259 provides a fashion spread of new costumes suggested by readers in ‘A New Look for Robin’ before the next tale as year-long adventure drought ends with ‘The Touchdown Trap’ in Detective #445 (February/March 1975) as new scripter Bob Rozakis and artist Mike Grell catapult our hero into a 50-year-old college football feud that refused to die, after which ‘The Puzzle of the Pyramids’ (#447, illustrated by A. Martinez & José Mazzaroli) offers another cunning crime conundrum. Action-packed, chase-heavy human drama ‘The Parking Lot Bandit!’ & ‘The Parking Lot Bandit Strikes Again!’ (DC #450-451, August & September 1975, by Al Milgrom & Terry Austin) gives the titanic teen one last chance to strike a bit of terror into the hearts of evil-doers in his titular home before the next big change comes.

In the midst of another expansion, DC launched a line of double-length titles with Batman Family as possibly its strongest contender. A supersized anthology of new and vintage Bat-fare highlighting a vast themed cast, it paired Robin & Batgirl as a semi-official crimebusting duo. On sale from June 5th 1975, the first issue led with Maggin & Grell’s ‘The Invader from Hell!’ as the ghost of Benedict Arnold attacks Washington DC in a Satan-sponsored sortie to clear his name and rehabilitate his reputation.

With #2 all-reprint, we return for #3 as Maggin, José Luis García-López & Colletta bring the pair to Princetown and a fantastic clash with dinosaurs, future-men and the Spanish Inquisition in thrilling but deceptively peril-free lark ‘Isle of a Thousand Thrills!’ before seasonal shocker ‘Robin’s (Very) White Christmas!’ ( #4, Rozakis, José Delbo & & Colletta) sees Batgirl, Robin and Gotham Police Commissioner Jim Gordon unite to keep Syndicate snitch Tad Wolfe alive and out of the hands of infallible assassin Diamond Lilly.

The eccentrically eclectic collected collation of Teen Wonderments concludes with BF #5’s ‘The Princess and the Vagabond!’ by Maggin, Cary Bates, Swan & Colletta, wherein whilst babysitting foreign dignitary Princess Evalina, Congresswoman Barbara Gordon, her alter ego Batgirl, student guide Dick Grayson and Robin collectively inspire a mismatched romance by foiling the murder plot of sinister agency MAZE…

These stories span a turbulent and chaotic period for comic books: perfectly encapsulating and describing the vicissitudes of the superhero genre’s premier juvenile lead: complex yet uncomplicated adventures drenched in charm and wit, moody tales of rebellion and self-discovery, and rollercoaster, all-fun romps. Action is always paramount, and angst-free satisfaction is pretty much guaranteed. These cracking yarns are something no fan of old-fashioned Fights ‘n’ Tights fiction should miss.
© 1964, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1976, 2026 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

Today in 1926 saw the birth of American cartoonist George Booth (Spot, Local Item), with artist/inker Mike Royer (Magnus, Robot Fighter, Silver Star, Jack Kirby’s Fourth World, Kamandi) arriving in 1941 and iconic groundbreaking French fantasist Philippe Druillet (Lone Sloane saga, Yragaël, La Nuit, Salammbô, Nosferatu) in 1944. Romanian artist Sandu Florea (Batman: Battle for the Cowl, Justice Society of America, X-Men, Dou? palo?e) came along in 1946 and abstract expressionist/Underground Commix pioneer David Geiser (Demented Pervert, Uncle Sham, Edge City) one year later; colourist Adrienne Roy in 1953 and Belgian stylist Benoît Sokal (Inspector Canardo, Syberia) in 1954.

In 2007 we lost American cartoonist, sculptor, author and illustrator Howie Schneider (Eek & Meek, Chewy Louie).

Posted on

Daring New Adventures of Supergirl volume 1


By Paul Kupperberg, Carmine Infantino, Bob Oksner & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-6346-1 (TPB), 978-1-4012-7054-4 (Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

As a rule, superhero comics don’t generally do whimsically thrilling anymore. They especially don’t do short or self-contained. Modern narrative momentum concentrates on continuous extended spectacle, major devastation and relentless terror and trauma. It also helps if you’ve come back from the dead once or twice and wear military-grade thongs and thigh boots. Although there’s nothing intrinsically wrong with that – other than a certain pandering inappropriateness from striving to adjust wedgies during a life-or-death struggle – sometimes the palate just craves a different flavour…

Once upon a time, angsty in-continuity cataclysm was the rule, not the exception, but ever since DC readmitted all its past epochs into one vastly welcoming expansion multiverse via the Dark Night: Death Metal, Future State, Infinite Frontier and sundry successive mega-events, a spirit of joyous experimentation has resulted in some truly memorable storytelling. The impending, as yet unreleased and yet already controversial Supergirl movie being a case in point. So let’s look at something from back then that got us to here…

This decidedly backward-looking modern fable harks back to the simpler yet far more aggressive, in-your-face era of the 1980s: days of clearly defined plots, solid, imaginative characterisation and suspensefully dramatic adventure, by way of an almost alternative take on redoubtable Kara Zor-El, late of Krypton’s Argo City and another illegal alien immigrant on Earth.

Supergirl first gained her solid slice of fan devotion as a secondary strip in Action Comics: a tag-along (and trademark protection device) to her more illustrious cousin – and his dog. After years of faithful service, both as cover feature of Action Comics, Adventure Comics and Superman Family and via her own solo title (twice!) and even her own movie as a spin-off part of the Christopher Reeve film franchise, in 1985 she was killed off as a sales gimmick to celebrate DC’s 50th anniversary in the groundbreaking Crisis on Infinite Earths. Since then, a number of characters have used the name – but none with the class or durability of the original… so she was brought back too.

Following a few intriguing concept-tweaking test-runs, the first true Girl of Steel debuted as a future star of the ever-expanding Superman pocket universe in Action Comics #252 (cover-dated May 1959 and on sale from March 31st). Superman’s cousin had been born on a city-sized fragment of Krypton, hurled intact into space when the planet exploded. Eventually, Argo’s minerals turned to Kryptonite like the rest of the detonated world’s debris, and Kara’s dying parents Zor-El and Alura, observing Earth through their viewer scopes, sent their daughter to safety even as they apparently perished. Crashlanding, she immediately and fortuitously met the Metropolis Marvel, who created a cover-identity: “Linda Lee”. Hiding her in an orphanage in bucolic Midvale, he intended allowing her time to adjust to and learn about her new world whilst mastering her powers in secrecy and safety.

… And isolation. At no stage did anyone consider moving the recent orphaned newcomer in with her only surviving family. Kara reached her maturity without the closeness Clark Kent’s human parents provided… although she was eventually adopted by human couple Fred and Edna to become Linda Lee Danvers. Supergirl experienced her own secret double life in the rear of Action Comics: gradually moving from Superman’s covert secret weapon to an independent star turn, and from minor player to globally acclaimed celebrity. From the back of the book to the front of the house is always a reason to celebrate, right?

For decades, DC couldn’t make up their minds over Supergirl. I’ve actually lost count of the number of different versions to have cropped up over the years, and never been able to shake a queasy feeling that above all else she’s a concept that was cynically shifted from being a way to get girls to reading comic books to one calculated to ease young male readers over the bumpy patch between sporadic chin-hair outbursts, voice-breaking and that nervous period of hiding things under your mattress where your mum never, never ever looks…

Her popularity waxed and waned until that attention-grabbing death during Crisis on Infinite Earths. However, in the aftermath (once John Byrne had successfully rebooted the Man of Steel and negated her existence along with all other elements of doomed Krypton) non-Kryptonian iterations began appearing: each accumulating a cadre of steadfast fans. Ultimately, early in the 21st century, DC’s Powers-That-Be decided the real Girl of Steel should come back – sort of…

The New 52 company-wide reboot recast her as an angry, obnoxious distrustful teen fresh from Argo, before the 2016 DC: Rebirth event unwrote most of those changes: reinserting much of that original origin material whilst aligning the comic book iteration with the popular TV series broadcast from October 2015 to November 2021. Then, under the aegis of the Infinite Frontier revolution, Tom King, Bilquis Evely, Mat Lopes & Clayton Cowles crafted 8-issue limited series Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow (cover-dated August 2021-April 2022). Now you’re ready for the film, okay?

Right here though, we love comics most so let’s look at why Kara Zor-El was so resilient and indomitable…

This incarnation began as The Daring New Adventures of Supergirl with #1 through 12 (cover-dates November 1982 to October 1983) forming the contents of the collected volume under scrutiny here. The series was changed to Supergirl vol 2 for #13-23 (November 1983 to September 1984), which has its own compilation that we’ll get to in the fullness of time.

Clearly a last shot at life in a precarious, rapidly changing marketplace, this Supergirl acknowledges and accommodates all the convoluted continuity trappings grown around the feature since her 1959 debut, but combines fashionable soul-searching, “Fresh Startism”, and feminist go-getting with mad scientists, monsters, corporate skulduggery, clandestine conspiracies, darkly modern attitudes and edgy psychological underpinning, as befitted her literal last chance. This was to see if she could be a sustainable star in contemporary DC’s firmament and advance beyond “girl” to woman… even if branding wouldn’t allow a name change…

The tale unfolds throughout courtesy of Superman franchise writer Paul Kupperberg (World of Krypton, Superman, Checkmate, Vigilante, Arion, Doom Patrol, Green Lantern, Scooby Doo, Tom and Jerry) who steers Kara’s course by blending old standbys with new friends and foes. The look is handled by visual Architect of the Silver Age Carmine Infantino (Flash, Black Canary, Adam Strange, Batman, Elongated Man, Batgirl, Deadman, Human Target, Star Wars, Nova, Spider–Woman) and glamour/humour inker Bob Oksner (Jerry Lewis, Bob Hope, Angel and the Ape, Ambush Bug, Leave it to Binky). We open with strangers on a train as, after again failing to find a place for her civilian self in many roles and goals, Linda Danvers quits her acting career in New York and moves to Chicago to become a post-grad psychology student at Lake Shore University…

An introductory conceptual recap is only part of TDAoS #1’s ‘A Very strange and Special Girl!’ as the subtle delights of a placid rail journey are briefly interrupted by an industrial meltdown, which is swiftly solved by Supergirl. However, soon Linda faces a true ordeal as she registers at LSU, and impossibly finds an apartment thanks to new vivacious but goofy student friend/human whirlwind Joan Raymond. Danvers’ second first day encounter is not so happy as, after literally bumping into troubled student Gayle Marsh, the two psychically connect.

Gayle is also extraordinary: a mentally disturbed mutant who has fallen under the spell of deranged pedagogue Mr Pendergast. He is convinced Earth is doomed to decline into moral decay and is exploiting Marsh’s psionic abilities to achieve his own far from clear aims…

As Joan moves Linda into the same apartment building she currently graces and introduces her around to an exhausting flurry of fellow dwellers, Pendergast grooms Gayle to the next level, creating a costumed identity for her and unleashing “Psi” on the unknown woman who so unsettled her. Of course the chaotic attack is met not by a shy post-grad but the ever-vigilant Girl of Steel…

The second issue began a back-up feature starring Lois Lane so Supergirl tales were accordingly slightly truncated. Even so, ‘Crisis Over Chicago!’ depicted an explosive clash over the Windy City, with Psi’s initial superiority lost once Pendergast orders her not to kill another superfemale he can exploit. The spat is resolved by allowing Gayle to destroy Chicago instead, but the delay has enabled Kara to marshal her resources and decisively strike back. Driven off, Psi retreats to Pendergast’s home where, whilst Linda Danvers recovers in the bosom of new friends, master and servant have one final argument, and the sinister Svengali suffers the full force of Psi’s unleashed powers…

The introductory opus concludes with the abuser appropriately transformed into a rampaging slime monster rabidly consuming corruption (mostly “winos, dropouts and homeless people”)… Linda meanwhile, meets her excessively weird new tutor/graduate studies supervisor Dr. Metzner, and one of her new housemate takes an unwise side hustle. Acting student John Ostrander (yes, it’s an in-joke!) becomes a delivery boy to make ends meet but his cavalier work ethic gets him – and latterly Supergirl – into a world of trouble. Before that though, the malign manifestation that was Pendergast continues its depredations until clashing again with vengeful Psi and is ultimately defeated by the Girl of Tomorrow on ‘Decay Day’…

In #4, ‘Hail, Hail, The Gang’s All Here!’ expands soap opera elements as Dr Metzner continues to confuse, Joan still won’t stop talking and Ostrander fails to deliver a certain package to the wrongest of people. Thus he is marked for death by a secret cabal seeking to dominate the business world by controlling Earth’s “exchange of information” through supernormal means. As Chicago’s latest superhero is kept busy battling gimmicked-up super-thugs Kong, Brains, Bulldozer and Ms. Mesmer, John makes his fatal negligent misstep, setting upon his clumsy trail the Windy City’s covert rulers The Council.

Through super-hirelings The Gang the clandestine pencil-pushers provoke an extended clash as ‘Fear Times Four’ finds the Girl of Steel neutralised by Ms. Mesmer’s powers – until Linda’s visiting human parents Fred & Edna Danvers find a work-around to crippling post- hypnotic suggestions – and all but Brains are captured. Then, murderous, mechanistically-fertile mechanoid Matrix-Prime unleashes a hordes of killer-bot babies in a vengeance strike that wrecks the airport in ‘Battleground O’Hare’ but cannot stop Supergirl discovering the Council’s secret citadel at the bottom of Lake Michigan…

Her shattering retaliation and subsequent clash with an army of mercenaries/“security consultants” in #7’s ‘This Meeting Will Come to Disorder!’ exposes a hidden mastermind behind all the chaos, but not even the fighting-mad “Maid of Steel” can stop his getaway…

With a moment of peace at last, Linda opts for a relaxing jazz concert in Grant Park but instead stumbles into even more peril after a recent ally is attacked there…

TDAoS #8 opens with outsider hero Negative Woman ambushed by an energy-stealing atomic assassin before Kara reunites with the New Doom Patrol who must act as ‘Stand-Ins For Supergirl!’ The DP (Neg-Woman, Tempest, Celsius & Robotman Cliff Steele) have been hunting a superpowered Vietnam vet/AWOL US war criminal for months; and now that hate-filled radioactive killer has had enough. Regrouping in ‘Re-Enter: Reactron!’ our heroes chase and harry Reactron as he randomly attacks places storing nuclear materials – like Linda’s new alma mater – whilst attempting to link up with prospective new employers The Council.

In the inevitable final clash, The Last Daughter of Krypton goes toe to toe with the maniac and defeats him, but at terrible cost…

In #10, aftereffects of her battle have left Kara suffering from debilitating ‘Radiation Fever!’ Committed comatose to hospital, on awakening she ignores doctor’s orders, discharges herself and retreats to her other identity, waiting for a recovery that does not happen. Elsewhere, exposed Council supremo The Chairman consults his pet evil scientist Professor Drake and hatches a plot to remove Supergirl whilst exploiting her as a resource. Thus when Matrix-Prime goes on another rampage, still-ailing Linda abandons her date with new beau – music tutor Philip Decker – to stop the robot. Instead, she is defeated and ends up in Drake’s lab as a helpless genetic template for a line of Supergirl clones under the Chairman’s control. Sadly, Drake has over-promised and the army of obedient perfect copies are not what he intended. At least they are obedient…

Drake also assumed his process and her ongoing radiation-poisoning had finished off his test subject, but while boasting to his boss, weakened, still-declining Kara breaks free of ‘A Dark and Frozen Purgatory!’ and shakily heads to the Arctic circle Fortress of Solitude. In response, the six successful, foot-long Supergirl clones are despatched to kill the already dying hero, but even without her Kryptonian powers that’s no easy task. Nevertheless, the stubborn fight can only end one way…

The yarn and this first volume closes with #12 and a full dose of pure comic book deus ex machinery as ‘Guess Who’s About to Die!’ finds Supergirl beaten and thrown into cousin Superman’s all-purpose cosmic trash-disposal unit – AKA “the Disintegration Pit”. However, interaction of the roaring radiations there with her own nuclear-ravaged form generate a spontaneous reversal, and a restored Caped Kryptonian counterattacks, cunningly dispatching the mini-me Maids of Steel to become again the One-and-Only Supergirl…

Enraged and out for blood, she heads back to Chicago and a showdown with Drake and the Chairman, but arrives too late…

To Be Continued…

With eye-catching covers from Rich Buckler, Dick Giordano, Keith Giffen, Klaus Janson, Mike DeCarlo, Ed Hannigan, Gil Kane and Paris Cullins, this is an old-school no-nonsense comics saga of goodies vs baddies and well-meaning outsiders striving to fit in. It offers nothing but fun, thrills and a brief escape from worldly woes. And what’s wrong with that?
© 1982, 1983 2016 DC Comics. Ali Rights Reserved.

Today in 1928 we welcomed both Filipino artist and creator Jesse Santos (Brothers of the Spear, The Occult Files of Dr. Spektor, Dagar the Invincible, Tragg and the Sky Gods) and Belgian all-star component of Le Journal de Spirou Yvan Delporte (Steve Severin, Gaston Lagaffe, Idées noires, The Smurfs, Isabelle), followed a year later by Atlas-era artist Vic Carrabotta (The Amazing Adventures of Buster Crabbe, Two Gun Kid, Apache Kid, Kid Colt: Outlaw, Outlaw Kid, Jann of the Jungle, and all their genre anthologies). The date also greeted writer Alan Zelenetz (Alien Legion, The Raven Banner, Kull, Conan) in 1948; mangaka Reiko Okano (Onmyoji) in 1960; writer Peter Milligan (2000 AD, Shade the Changing Man, X-Statix) in 1961; artist Mike Wieringo (Fantastic Four, Sensational Spider-Man, Flash) in1963; Kevin Van Hook (Bloodshot, Superman and Batman vs. Vampires and Werewolves) in 1965; and artist Carlo Pagulayan (Elektra, Emma Frost, Deathstroke, Planet Hulk, Batman) in 1978.

The same date saw the deaths of cartoon pioneer Frank King (Gasoline Alley, The Rectangle) in1969 and Filipino cartoonist Larry Alcala (Siopawman, Slice of Life, Mang Ambo, Kalabog en Bosyo) in 2002.

Posted on

Adam Strange Archives volumes 1 – 3


By Gardner F. Fox, Carmine Infantino, Mike Sekowsky, Bernard Sachs, Joe Giella, Murphy Anderson, Gil Kane & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-0148-7 (HB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

For many of us the Silver Age of comics is the ideal era. Varnished by nostalgia (because that’s when most of us caught this crazy childhood bug) the clear, clean-cut, uncomplicated optimism of the late 1950s and early 1960s produced captivating heroes and villains who were still far less terrifying than the Cold War baddies who troubled our parental units. The sheer talent and professionalism of the creators working in that temporarily revitalised comics world resulted in triumph after triumph to brighten our young lives and which – remarkably – still shine today with quality and achievement.

One of the most compelling stars of those days was an ordinary Earthman who regularly commuted to another world for spectacular adventures, armed with nothing more than a ray-gun, a jetpack and his own ingenuity. He was Adam Strange, and like so many of that era’s comics triumphs, he was the brainchild of Julius Schwartz and his close team of creative stars.

Showcase was a try-out comic conceived to launch new series and concepts with minimal commitment of publishing resources. If the new character sold well initially, a regular series would follow. The process had already worked with phenomenal success. The revised Flash, new concept Challengers of the Unknown and at-last-promoted-to-solo-status (Superman’s Girlfriend) Lois Lane had all won their own titles and Editorial Director Irwin Donenfeld now wanted his two Showcase editors to create science fiction themed stars to capitalise on the twin zeitgeists of the “Space Race” and the popular fascination with movie monsters and aliens.

Jack Schiff came up with the futuristic crime fighter Space Ranger (who debuted in issues #15-16) and Schwartz went to reliable cohort Gardner Fox, Mike Sekowsky & Bernard Sachs to craft the saga of a modern-day explorer in the most uncharted territory yet imagined.

Showcase #17 (cover-dated November/December 1958 and on sale from September 18th) launched as Adventures on Other Worlds, and told of American archaeologist Strange who, whilst fleeing from enraged natives in Peru, jumps a 25 ft chasm only to be hit by a stray teleport beam from a planet orbiting Alpha Centauri. He materialises in another world, filled with giant plants and monsters and is rescued by a beautiful woman named Alanna who teaches him her language through uncanny science!

Premier yarn ‘Secret of the Eternal City!’ reveals that Rann is a planet recovering from atomic war, and the beam was in fact a simple flare, one of many sent in an attempt to communicate with other races. In the four years (speed of light, right? As we all knew, Alpha Centauri is about 4.3 light-years from Sol) that Zeta-Flare travelled through space, cosmic radiation converted it into a teleportation beam. Until the radiation drained from his body, Strange would be a very willing prisoner on a fantastic new world.

… And an incredibly unlucky one apparently, as no sooner has Adam started acclimatising than an alien race named The Eternals invade, seeking a mineral that can grant them immortality. The Terran tourist’s courage and sharp wits enable him to defeat the invaders, only to have the radiation finally fade, drawing him home before the adoring Alanna can administer a hero’s reward. Thus were established the narrative principles of this beguiling series. Adam would intercept one of the many follow-up Zeta-beams sent by Rann over the years, hoping for some joyful times with his alien sweetheart, only to be confronted with a planet-menacing crisis. The very next of these came in the same debut issue. ‘The Planet and the Pendulum’ saw him obtain the crimson spacesuit and weaponry that became distinctive trademarks in a tale of alien invaders which also introduced the subplot of Rann’s warring city-states, each desperate to progress and all at different stages of recovery and development. Rann was a world of constant danger both domestic and from the skies above: non-stop peril for which brains, not brawn, were the best solution. Sadly, Strange was only able to stay on the atom-war scarred planet for as long as it took teleporting Zeta Beam radiation to dissipate, whence he would fade away to reappear on Earth until the next beam hit him – a procedure just as fraught and risky. Adam found true love with Alanna and unparalleled adventure, but the universe seemed determined to keep them apart.

The next issue featured the self-explanatory ‘Invaders from the Atom Universe’ and ‘The Dozen Dooms of Adam Strange’ wherein our reluctant hero must outwit the dictator of Dys who plans to invade Alanna’s city of Rannagar. With this tale Sachs was replaced as inker by Joe Giella, although he would return as soon as #19’s Gil Kane cover, the first to feature the title Adam Strange over the unwieldy logo “Adventures on Other Worlds”. ‘Challenge of the Star-Hunter’ and ‘Mystery of the Mental Menace’ are classic puzzle tales wherein the Earthman must outwit a shape-changing alien and an all-powerful energy-being. These were the last in Showcase (cover-dated March/April 1959). With the August issue (on sale from Jue 4th) Adam Strange took over the pole position and cover spot of venerable anthology title Mystery in Space.

As well as a new home, the series also found a new artist. Carmine Infantino, who had worked magic with The Flash, applied his clean, classical line and superb design sense to create a stark, pristine, sleekly beautiful universe that was spellbinding in its cool but deeply humanistic manner, and genuinely thrilling in its imaginative wonders. MIS #53 began an immaculate run of exotic high adventures with ‘Menace of the Robot Raiders!’ by Fox, Infantino & Sachs, followed in glorious succession by ‘Invaders of the Underground World’ and ‘The Beast from the Runaway World!’

With #56 Murphy Anderson became lead/semi-regular inker, and his precision brush and pen made the art a thing of unparalleled beauty. ‘The Menace of the Super-Atom’ and ‘Mystery of the Giant Footprints’ are sheer visual poetry, but even ‘Chariot in the Sky’, ‘The Duel of the Two Adam Stranges’ (MIS #58 & #59, inked by Giella) and ‘The Attack of the Tentacle World’, ‘Threat of the Tornado Tyrant’ and ‘Beast with the Sizzling Blue Eyes’ (MIS #60-62, inked by Sachs) were – and remain – streets ahead of the competition in terms of thrills, plot complexity, spectacle and imagination.

Anderson returned with #63, marking the introduction of some much-needed recurring villains (the Vacuumizers of Vantor) who employed ‘The Weapon That Swallowed Men!’, #64’s chilling ‘The Radio-active Menace!’ and, ending this initial volume, ‘The Mechanical Masters of Rann’; all superb short-story marvels that appealed to their young readers’ every sense – especially that burgeoning sense of wonder.

The deluxe Archive format made a fitting home for these extraordinary exploits that are still some of the best written and drawn science fiction comics ever produced. Whether for nostalgia’s sake, for your own entertainment or even to get your own impressionable ones properly indoctrinated, you really need this book in your home.
© 1958, 1959, 1960, 1961, 2003 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

Adam Strange Archive volume 2

By Gardner Fox, Carmine Infantino, Joe Giella, Murphy Anderson & various (DC Comics)
ISBN13: 978-1-4012-0780-9 (HB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

The Silver Age “thinking man’s hero” returned for more alluring Love & Jetpacks action in this second compilation of adventures on other worlds, reprinting tales from Mystery in Space #66-80 (cover-dated March 1961 to December 1962).

Adam Strange, more than any other character, epitomises the Silver Age of Comics. A calm clearheaded Earth archaeologist and scientist who coolly conquered all adversity through rational effort. It was witty, sophisticated, gloriously illustrated and fantastically imaginative, and there was always Alanna: beautiful, capable but somehow unattainable. The happy-ever-after was always just in reach, but only after one last triumphant exploit…

After the bravura boldness of the first Adventures on Other Worlds the far-flung fantasy continued with ‘Space Island of Peril’ by Fox, Infantino & Giella, a duel with an alien super-being who planned to throw Rann into one of its suns, followed in #67 by the deceptively eerie ‘Challenge of the Giant Fireflies!’, as Adam’s adopted home was menaced by thrill-seeking creatures who live on the surface of Earth’s sun.

Next, Anderson returned as inker-in-residence for ‘The Fadeaway Doom!’ wherein Rannian General Kaskor (another menace who would constantly vex Adam and many planets) made a unique attempt to seize power by co-opting the Zeta Beam itself. Then ‘Menace of the Aqua-ray Weapon!’ saw the Kirri – a primordial species from Rann’s primeval past – return to take possession of their old world, whilst #70 revealed how ‘The Vengeance of the Dust Devil!’ threatened not just Rann but also Earth itself!

Inked by Giella, ‘The Challenge of the Crystal Conquerors!’ was a sharp game of bluff and double-bluff with Adam’s other home planet at stake, whereas MIS #72 delivered a radical departure from the tried-&-true formula. ‘The Multiple Menace Weapon!’ found Adam deliberately diverted to Rann of the year 101,961AD to save his own distant descendants before being dumped back to deal with a threat to his own time and place. This was followed by action-packed mystery thriller ‘The Invisible Raiders of Rann!’ after which the puzzles continued with #74’s complex conundrum ‘The Spaceman who Fought Himself!’, inked by back-for-good Murphy Anderson, and leading into Mystery in Space #75 and a legendary team-up with the freshly-minted Justice League of America. Here Adam & Alanna save two worlds threatened by despicable slaver and star pirate Kanjar Ro in ‘Planet That Came to a Standstill!’ – indisputably one of the best tales of DC’s Silver Age and a key moment in the development of cross-series continuity.

After that 25 page extravaganza it was back to 14 pages for #76’s ‘Challenge of the Rival Starman!’ as Adam becomes involuntary tutor and stalking-horse for an alien Champion, prior to ‘Ray-Gun in the Sky!’– an invasion mystery that invited readers to solve the puzzle before our hero did. ‘Shadow People of the Eclipse!’ then pitted the Earthman against a bored alien thrill seeker. MIS #79’s ‘The Metal Conqueror of Rann!’ found him fighting a much more personal battle to bring Alanna back from the brink of death. This second deluxe tome closes with ‘The Deadly Shadows of Adam Strange!’ wherein nemesis in waiting Mortan wreaks a bizarre personal revenge on the Champion of two Worlds…

Don’t dawdle now. Catch that next Zeta beam for more amazing adventures…
©1961, 1962, 2006 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

Adam Strange Archive volume 3

By Gardner F. Fox, Carmine Infantino, Murphy Anderson, John Giunta, Sid Greene, Joe Giella & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-1661-0 (HB)

For us remaining Baby-Boomer brats, Adam Strange, more than any other character, epitomises the Silver Age of Comics. An Earthman visiting other worlds, filled with monsters, fabulous marvels and non-stop peril for which brains, not brawn, were the only solution. Strange was an interplanetary ambassador very much of his era. However, as his elegant genre-adventures gave way to a superhero avalanche, the creative dream team of Fox, Infantino & Anderson, (latterly aided and abetted by Sid Greene & Giella) were called away to shepherd more urgent and new-fangled costumed creations…

From Mystery in Space #92 (June 1964 and on sale from April 30th) incoming editor Jack Schiff supervised Strange’s exploits until his final appearance in #102 (September 1965). Space Ranger had joined the book’s line-up and immediately taken over the cover-spot, with Adam & Allana’s forays (not included here) crafted by Fox, Dave Wood, Jerry Siegel, Lee Elias & Dick Dillin, until they were ousted by incoming experiment Ultra, the Multi-Alien…

This third and final hardback outing gathers the last vestiges of that Silver Age excellence – comprising Mystery in Space #81-91, and includes a team-up from Hawkman #18 and a pertinent short story from Strange Adventures #157.

Jim Starlin’s introduction ‘Adam Strange: The Coolest Dude Around’ precedes a deluge of daring delights from Fox, Infantino & Anderson, beginning with MIS #81 and testing our hero to his limits as Alva Xar – the dictator who caused Rann’s nuclear armageddon – returns after 1000 years to threaten both Adam’s home planets in ‘The Cloud-Creature that Menaced Two Worlds!’…

Then a terrestrial criminal’s scheme to conquer Earth is thwarted as a result of Adam ending a ‘World War on Earth – and Rann!’ before #83 pits the sagacious star man against a desperate ‘Emotion Master of Space!’ whilst relentless Rhyntharian Dust-Devil Jakarta returns, shrugging off ‘The Powerless Weapons of Adam Strange!’ (Giella inks). Triumphing anyway, Strange & Alanna are almost annihilated by the ‘Riddle of the Runaway Rockets!’ – which sees a revived primordial robot rampage under the vivid veridian skies – before ‘Attack of the Underworld Giants!’ (inked by John Giunta) foreshadows big changes to come via a fantastic vision…

An intriguing diversion from sci fi sister anthology Strange Adventures #157 (October 1963) follows. ‘Rescue by Moonlight!’ (Fox, Infantino, Giunta & Anderson) is a Space Museum yarn (anthological done-in-one tales centred around Earth’s official interstellar knowledge repository) wherein 25th century descendent Alan Strange foils the theft of exotic mineral “parastil”.

Mystery in Space had headlined Strange since #53, but with #87 (November 1963) Schwartz capitulated to and capitalized on the growing superhero boom: adding Hawkman (and Hawkgirl!) in a back-up slot that included full cover-privileges. Not included here, initial yarn ‘The Amazing Thefts of the I.Q. Gang!’ subtly impacted our hero’s lead tale as ‘The Super-Brain of Adam Strange!’ (with Sid Greene as final regular inker) sees the Earthman hyper-evolved by Zeta-radiation and an unlikely menace to all…

An ethereal do-gooder went well astray in ‘The Robot-Wraith of Rann!’ and Adam subsequently proved irresistible to the ‘Siren of the Space Ark!’ before Infantino & Anderson reunited for Fox’s extra-length length End-of the-World(s) epic ‘Planets in Peril!’ in #90. However, after teaming Adam and the Hawks to save two worlds, the glory days concluded quietly with ‘Puzzle of the Perilous Prisons!’ (MIS #91, May 1964), offering a return engagement with archfoe Mortan and a nasty case of evil duplicate girlfriend…

Strange’s later divergent direction was ignored by Fox & Anderson in early 1967 when they crafted Hawkman #18 wherein the Winged Wonder joined Strange against malevolent Manhawks to locate the ‘World That Vanished!’ The planet in question was Thanagar and when it went, it took Hawkman’s beloved wife Shayera with it…

This volume concludes with biographies of the creators, but not sadly the conclusion of that fable as Adam wasn’t in it. If you hate to be kept hanging you’ll need to find a different reprint edition carrying that one.

Also available in a monumental omnibus edition, but not in any format ordinary earthlings can lift or afford, these tales are desperately in need of a digital age refit and restoration.
© 1963, 1964, 1967, 2008 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

Today in 1915 literary agent, writer, editor and architect of the Silver Age of comic books Julius Schwartz was born. He shares his birthday with British cartoonist Jack Edward Oliver (Fresco-Le-Ray, The Champ, Master Mind, Vid Kid, Cliff Hanger) in 1942 and in 1976 Brazilian illustrator Adriana Melo (Star Wars, Iron Man, Fantastic Four, Silver Surfer, Rose & Thorn, Birds of Prey, Sinestro, Witchblade).

The date also marks the launch of Frank Willard’s pioneering Moon Mullins strip in 1923 and Jim Davis’ Garfield in 1978.

Posted on

DC Finest: Deadman – How Many Times Can a Guy Die?


By Arnold Drake, Neal Adams, Jack Miller, Bob Haney, Robert Kanigher, Dennis O’Neil, Mike Friedrich, Jack Kirby, Paul Levitz, Cary Bates, Carmine Infantino, Dick Dillin, George Tuska, Jim Aparo, Mike Grell, Fred Carillo, Kurt Schaffenberger, George Roussos, Joe Giella, Mike Royer, Vince Colletta, Tex Blaisdell & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-79950-771-0 (TPB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

As the 1960s ended, a massive superhero boom became a slow, inescapable bust, with (formerly) major draws no longer able to find enough readers to keep them alive. The appetite for superheroes was diminishing in favour of more traditional genres, and rational editorial response was to reshape costumed characters to fit evolving contemporary tastes.

Publishers swiftly changed gears and even staid, cautious DC reacted rapidly to make masked adventurers fit the new reality. Newly revised and revived costumed features included roving mystic troubleshooter Phantom Stranger and golden age titan The Spectre, whilst resurgent traditional genres spawned atrocity-faced WWII spy Unknown Soldier and cowboy bounty hunter Jonah Hex, spectral western avenger El Diablo and game changing monster hero Swamp Thing, all spearheading a torrent of new formats, anthologies and concepts.

Crucially, supernatural themes and horror-tinged plots were shoehorned into those superhero titles that weathered the trend-storm. Arguably, the moment of surrender and change had already arrived in 1967 with the creation of Boston Brand in the autumn of “The Summer of Love”, as venerable sci fi anthology Strange Adventures was abruptly reconditioned as the haunted home of an angry ghost…

Without fanfare or warning, Deadman debuted in #205 with this collection re-presenting that origin event and thereafter, pertinent contents from #206-216 and crossovers and guest shots from Aquaman #50-52; The Brave and the Bold #79, 86, 104, 133, Justice League of America #94; The Phantom Stranger #33, 39-41; World’s Finest Comics #223 & 227, Challengers of the Unknown #74; Forever People #9-10 and Superman Family #183, all cumulatively spanning cover-dates October 1967 to May/June 1977.

Crafted by Arnold Drake, Carmine Infantino & George Roussos, SA #205’s ‘Who Has Been Lying in My Grave?’ opens at the funeral of high wire acrobat Boston Brand: a rough, tough, jaded performer who had seen everything and masked his decent human heart behind an obnoxious exterior and cynical demeanour. As “Deadman”, Brand had been the star attraction of Hills Circus and lover of its reluctant owner Lorna Carling. He also acted as a secret guardian for the misfits it employed and sheltered. That makeshift “family” includes simple-minded strongman Tiny and Asian mystic Vashnu, but also had some bad eggs too, like alcoholic animal trainer Heldrich and chiselling carnival Barker Leary. The aerialist kept them in line… with his fists, whenever necessary…

One fateful night, Brand almost missed his cue because of Leary and Heldrich’ antics, but also because he had to stop local cop Ramsey harassing Vashnu. It would have better if Brand had been late, because as soon as he started his act – 40 feet up and without a net – someone put a rifle slug into his heart. Despite being dead before he hit the ground, Brand was scared and furious. Nobody could see or hear him screaming, although Vashnu kept babbling on that he was the chosen of Rama Kushna – “the spirit of the universe”. The hokum all came horribly true when that entity astonishingly made contact, telling Boston that he would walk among men until he found his killer.

The gig came with some advantages. He was invisible, untouchable, immune to the laws of physics and able to take possession of the living and drive them like a meat car. His only clue was witnesses in the audience who claimed that a man with a hook had shot him…

Outraged, still disbelieving and seemingly stuck forever in the ghastly make-up and outfit of his performing persona, Deadman’s first posthumous act is to possess Tiny and check out key suspects. Soon the dormant Hercules finds that the cop Ramsey and Heydrich are involved in a criminal conspiracy, but they definitely are not Brand’s murderers. Eventually, the ghost learns a shocking fact: his desperation is not worth the life of anyone else and he must not let his anger put his “vessels” in harm’s way…

Scripted by Drake and inked by Roussos, second episode ‘An Eye for An Eye!’ was Neal Adams’ illustrative debut. He was born on June 15th 1941 at Governors Island, New York City. The family were career military and Neal grew up on bases across the world. In the late 1950s, he studied at the High School of Industrial Art in Manhattan, and graduated in 1959.

As the turbulent Sixties began, he was a budding illustrator working in advertising, ghosting newspaper strips and seeking to break into comics. Whilst pursuing a career in “real” and “commercial” art, Adams did pages for Joe Simon at Archie Comics (The Fly and that red-headed kid, too) before becoming one of the youngest artists to co-create/illustrate a major licensed newspaper strip (Ben Casey, based on a popular TV medical drama). The neophyte’s attempts to break in at DC were not so successful…

Comic book fascination never faded, and as the decade progressed, Adams drifted back to National/DC, creating covers as inker or penciller. His chance came via anthological war comics and he eventually found himself at the vanguard of a revolution in pictorial storytelling. He made such a mark that decades later, DC celebrated his contributions by reprinting every piece of work Adams ever did for them in commemorative collections. Sadly, we’re still awaiting a definitive book of his horror comics and covers, and will probably never see his sterling efforts on licensed titles like Hot Wheels, The Adventures of Bob Hope and The Adventures of Jerry Lewis. That’s a real shame: they all display his wry facility for gag staging and personal drama…

Most importantly, Adams was a tireless campaigner for creators’ rights, whose efforts finally secured some long-ignored liberties and rewards for the formerly invisible stars of comic books.

Back with Deadman, however, the tale is a strong one and indicates a sea change in narrative style as Deadman expedites his hunt for justice. The stories henceforth focus on those who are temporarily occupied by Brand: a string of episodic encounters mirroring the protagonist of contemporary hit TV show The Fugitive (and by extension, Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables), with an unfairly accused victim searching for personal justice across America, to the benefit of many people in crisis.

Here, that’s young Jeff  Carling, who’s fallen in with a dangerous biker gang and is set up to pay for their crimes. He’s also Lorna’s brother, which is how Deadman gets involved in the mess, after learning the cash-strapped kid had taken out a life insurance policy on circus star Deadman just before the Hook struck…

Having saved the kid from a perfect frame, Brand resumes his search and, as Jack Miller took over scripting in #207, is forced to ask ‘What Makes a Corpse Cry? The hunt leads him to revisit the night he saved bar girl Liz Martin from a drunken assault by her boss Rocky Manzel, but when the spook checks in, he finds Liz and boyfriend Paul being terrorised by Rocky, who coldly implies he caused the death of her last protector…

Even after using his ghost gifts to disqualify Manzel, Deadman is compelled to help the young lovers, and exposes the club owner’s criminal secret, but once again almost causes the death of his human host.

Miller & Adams were providing a very different reading experience with mature tales delivered via innovative, staggeringly powerful art, but they struggled with deadlines, and ‘How Many Ways Can a Guy Die?’ was delivered in 4 parts across Strange Adventures #208 and 209. The revelatory tale introduces Brand’s trapeze artist rival Eagle, who had tried to kill him years before, and now seeks to replace him in the big top and Lorna’s bed… whether she wants him or not. When Deadman again borrows Tiny to dissuade the thug, Eagle threatens the gentle strongman with the “same thing Brand got” and the ghost is convinced his quest is almost over.

However, the truth is far crueller, and when Deadman uncovers his rival’s actual scheme, the cost to Tiny and alternate vessel Pete is far too high…

His hunt stalled again, Brand finally thinks to check the official police investigation in #210’s ‘Hide and Seek’ (cover-dated March 1968). To his disgust, he finds the case is cold, with assigned detective Michael Riley dishonourably discharged from the force due to the testimony of a man with a hook. Sensing a breakthrough, Deadman possesses Riley and, visiting the other “witness” to the former cop’s reported use of excessive force, uncovers a devious plot. Sadly, despite clearing Riley’s name, Brand misses The Hook who flees to Mexico but not before coldly disposing of the only man who could describe him…

Hot on the trail, Deadman arrives in El Campo in #211, and endures a shocking surprise in ‘How Close to Me My Killer?’ as Miller’s last story introduces wayward twin brother Cleveland Brand. Flashbacks show the lost sibling had plenty of motive to murder his showbiz brother, but as the tale unfolds, Boston learns he has an unsuspected niece and his people-trafficking but repentant brother needs haunted help to save smuggled “wetback” labourers from a Texan businessman looking to whitewash his criminal endeavours…

Adams took over scripting with #212 and ‘The Fatal Call of Vengeance’ sees another change of direction, adding more conventional fantasy elements to the mix as Cleveland and his daughter Lita head north to the Hills Circus. Wearing his brother’s costume, Cleve revives the Deadman act and, in Mexico, a man with a hook sees a headline and rushes back to the USA. Faster than any jet, Boston is already there and watches helplessly as his brother makes himself a target of the unknown killer. The phantom is also completely spooked by new lion tamer Kleigman who is rude, unfriendly and missing his right hand…

With everyone at odds, both Boston’s returned killer and the circus family set traps with disastrous results, but in the end the Hook escapes again and it’s Tiny who’s left bleeding out from a gunshot…

‘The Call from Beyond!’ then tests Deadman’s abilities to the limit as he enters Tiny’s consciousness to expedite his recovery and break an assumed-fatal coma. Following that miracle, the restless revenant repays his debt by saving the reputation and life of Tiny’s surgeon Dr. Shasti after the medical savant is duped by murderous con artist/medium Madam Pegeen…

The afterlife of a reluctant and selfish spectral stalwart then continues in The Brave & Bold #79 (August/September 1968): heralding Adams’ assumption of interior art duties on that title and launching a groundbreaking run rewriting the rulebook for strip illustration. Penned by Bob Haney, ‘The Track of the Hook’ paired the Gotham Guardian with the justice-obsessed ghost as a false trail led Boston to Gotham. After clearing up the confusions and dethroning millionaire crime-lord Carleton “Kubla” Kaine, Deadman returned to finding own killer. However his earthy human tragedy elevated Batman’s costume theatrics into deeper, more mature realms of drama and action. It was probably mainstream superhero fandom’s first glimpse of the ghost. During this period, Adams was writing and illustrating Brand’s solo stories in Strange Adventures and although his consultation of the World’s Greatest Detective bore little useful progress, it had provided the lonely ghost with a first genuine point of human contact…

Back in Strange Adventures # 214 (cover-dated September/October 1968), Robert Kanigher scripted To Haunt a Killer’ as Brand is seduced by loneliness into sharing the romantic experiences of Phil and his girlfriend Ruth. That salacious intrusion sours once Brand discovers his new meat suit is a hitman and his overreaction almost costs innocent Ruth everything…

When Adams returns to full control in #215, the narrative arc takes a huge leap forward as ‘A New Lease on Death’ accidentally drops his killer right in his lap. Witnessing a murder, Deadman trails the shooter all the way to Hong Kong where he finds an ancient, super-advanced League of Assassins and discovers the truly trivial reason for his own extinction…

Furiously questioning ‘Can Vengeance Be So Hollow?’, Brand meets for the first time killer mystic The Sensei – a master murderer who has dealt with ghosts before – and helplessly, frustratingly, experiences the end of the Hook. When the sinister sage executes Boston’s death-long quarry, Rama Kushna asks if a balance has been struck and capitalises on Brand’s furious negative response. Brand demands true justice for everyone and inadvertently elects himself the agent of its enactment in ‘But I Still Exist’…

The drama abruptly concluded in Strange Adventures #216 (January/February 1969), as the grim ghost seeks to disrupt the Sensei’s next scheme: the violent erasure of a Tibetan spiritual paradise. Nanda Parbat is a sanctuary for the wicked where the ancient villain’s murderous recruits and other fallen folk live in inexplicable peace, harmony and safety. Such a benevolent Shangri La is bad for the business of murder, but Deadman’s efforts to save the city from invasion initially falter when he flies in and suddenly becomes a living, breathing person again.

… And that’s where the story ended as his Strange Adventures run ended without warning. The next issue began reprints of Adam Strange and The Atomic Knights as the title reverted to its space opera roots. Although his own series had stalled, Deadman stuck around as a perennial walk-on (float-on?) star in many titles, beginning with a return engagement with Batman as the year ended. The Brave & the Bold #86 (October/November 1969) found Brand back in Gotham City, where a string of civilian strangers inexplicably targeted the Caped Crimebuster. The “World’s Greatest Detective” deduced that they were possessed by his former ally and that ‘You Can’t Hide from a Deadman!’

Scripted by Haney, the captivating epic of death, redemption and resurrection pulled together all the floating strands from Deadman’s anticlimactic last issue in a classic clash that became a cornerstone of Bat-mythology forever after. Here, Adams’ concepts and art revealed how Nanda Parbat was under attack by the Sensei’s forces, and how Brand had been briefly brainwashed to attack the Gotham Guardian, in advance of a last-ditch defence of the holy city by the Dark Knight and Deadman’s possessed twin brother Cleveland.

Deadman rematerialised mere months later in a triptych of back-up tales interwoven into a larger but no-less-revolutionary Aquaman storyline (for the full story see Aquaman: Deadly Waters Deluxe edition wherein the Sea King is despatched to a Microverse by aliens working with super villain Ocean Master: a plot accidentally uncovered by Brand, when guilt drags him from a life of solid recuperation back to the intangible quest for cosmic justice…

Here, from Aquaman #50-52 (March/April to July/August 1970), ‘Deadman Rides Again!’ in supplemental tales written and illustrated by Adams: a complex braided crossover as the Sea King endures bizarre threats and incomprehensible rituals in a subatomic realm, whilst Brand acts invisibly and intangibly to save the hero and prevent an alien invasion.

‘The World Cannot Wait for a Deadman’ sees the spirit flitting between dimensions with shapeshifting enigma Tatsinda, before parallel plots converge and complete when ‘Never Underestimate a Deadman’ exhibits the extraterrestrials beaten by the ghost and his pal…

Deadman’s haunting wandering dramas lead to another non-team-up in Challengers of the Unknown #74 (June/July 1970): a far eerier affair tailored to the rise in supernatural terror tales. ‘To Call a Deadman’ is written by Dennis O’Neil, with George Tuska limning scenes featuring the still-breathing “Death-Cheaters”, whilst Adams illustrated those portions focussed on Brand as he imperceptibly aids them in thwarting an ethereal psychic kidnapper seeking to steal a little girl’s soul. The chilling thriller also guest-stars hardboiled private eye Jonny Double and every one of them is needed to defeat the ghastly menace behind the astral abduction.

The same separate artist trick worked supremely well in his next manifestation as Justice League of America #94’s ‘Where Strikes Demonfang?’ by Mike Friedrich, Dick Dillin, Adams & Joe Giella, as the ghostly guardian helps Batman, Aquaman & Green Arrow foil a murder mission by The Sensei’s previously infallible archer Merlyn and the League of Assassins.

The period was one of constant desperate experimentation. Jack Kirby’s Fourth World was a huge risk and massive gamble for an industry and company that was a watchword for conservatism and it was probably incredibly tough for editors and publishers to stop themselves interfering… and they often didn’t.

With sales low, spooky stories proliferating everywhere and popular wisdom saying character crossovers boosted sales, Kirby eventually caved to pressure and agreed to guest another creator’s star in his stand-apart unfolding epic. Thus Forever People #9 hosted homeless horror hero Deadman who was made marginally manifest by a seance and a New Genesis Cosmic Cartridge. The vengeance hunter then accepted an artificial body to pursue the man who killed him (already dead remember?) in an intriguing, action-packed but ultimately ridiculous aside that began by introducing a ‘Monster in the Morgue!’ It rampaged through town before tech bandits ‘The Scavengers’ sought to steal Brand’s new “mobile home”, and drew the wrath of ghost and teen godlings. The yarn actually ended with a plug for Kirby’s forthcoming series The Demon and we don’t talk about the divergent yarn at all around here…

A far more coherent crossover came in Brave and the Bold #104 as Haney & Jim Aparo detailed a poignant story of love from beyond the grave in the enigmatically entitled ‘Second Chance for a Deadman?’ wherein the ghost helps Batman take down murderous mobster Lilly Lang, wrongly assuming he can redeem her only to learn that even a corpse can be crushed by heartbreak…

In World’s Finest Comics #223, while hunting a serial killer, Superman & Batman recruit Brand to help. Shocks abound when evidence points to the culprit being the brain-damaged, secretly institutionalised, unsuspected older brother of Bruce Wayne but when the total truth emerges in ‘Wipe the Blood off My Name’ (Haney, Dillin & Vince Colletta), the lonely, isolated ghost goes off the rails and decides to keep possession of Thomas Wayne Jr.

Batman has other ideas though…

Ignoring these events, Deadman then clashes with The Phantom Stranger (#33, November 1974 by Drake & Mike Grell) during the Man with No Name’s war against spiritual mad scientist Dr Zorn. In ‘Deadman’s Bluff!’, the ghost’s protracted, apparently obsessively pointless hunt for his own murderer is exploited by the villain and, as ever, the chase ends in frustration and fury, even though Zorn fails to spark war between the ethereal avengers, and instead causes an antagonistic partnership to be established for the future…

After months of manhunting, Batman’s search for Thomas Wayne culminates in ‘Death Flaunts its Golden Grin’ (World’s Finest Comics #227, February 1975 by Haney, Dillin & Tex Blaisdell), as the caped crusaders find the fugitives whilst tracking global smugglers. The moment of triumph is brief and ends in tragedy for all concerned, after which the guy in the hat gets reacquainted with the spectre in skin-tights for Phantom Stranger #39’s ‘Death Calls Twice for a Deadman’: a last-ditch effort to revive dwindling sales as horror stories faced their own decline. Guest-starring The Sensei, it signalled a belated return to the company’s over-arching continuity, but was too little, too late. Deadman also co-starred in PS #40’s ‘In the Kingdom of the Blind’ and #41’s concluding chapter (February-March 1976 and both by Levitz & Carillo) ‘A Time for Endings’ as modern mage Dr Nathan Seine sought to bring Elder Gods to Earth using blind psychic Cassandra Craft as a medium. With that tale’s finish the series ended and the Stranger all-but-vanished until the winter of 1978 and a giant-sized Deadman team-up tale from DC Super-Stars #18 that is regrettably omitted here…

Instead Deadman – and Haney & Aparo – remanifested in B&B #133 to deliver ‘Another Kind of Justice!’ to rum-runner Turk Bannion when his heir and murderer turn to a more modern form of smuggling and Dark Knight and Wandering Wraith object…

The uncanny explorations end on a lighter note as Cary Bates, Kurt Schaffenberger & Colletta explore uncanny excursions on ‘The Day Lois Lane Walked All Over Superman!’ (Superman Family #183, May June 1977) with Brand invisibly aiding all concerned when a deadly. monomaniacal psychic begins messing with mind-control and body-borrowing…

With stunning covers by Infantino, Sekowsky, Roussos, Adams, Nick Cardy, Aparo, Tatjana Wood, Kirby & Royer, this graphic grimoire perfectly captures the tone of an era in transition through a delirious run of comics masterpieces no ardent art lover or fanatical fear aficionado can do without.
© 1967, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1977, 2026 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

Born today in 1927, both Hugo (Sergeant Kirk, Ernie Pike, Corto Maltese) Pratt and Ross (Metal Men, Wonder Woman, Spider-Man, The Punisher) Andru made major contributions to comics, as did animation historian, author, critic, and founding editor of Funnyworld Michael Barrier who arrived in 1940.

Today in 1941 Neal Adams (Batman, Superman, Deadman, X-Men, Avengers, Inhumans, Ms. Mystic) was born, followed four years later by iconoclastic author Don Macgregor (Sabre, Black Panther, Killraven, Morbius, Detectives Inc., Ragamuffins, Nathaniel Dusk, James Bond, Zorro); in 1955 by artist Brent Anderson (Ka-Zar the Savage, X-Men: God Loves, Man Kills, Astro City) and in 1976 Dustin Nguyen (Ascender, Descender, The Authority, Batman: Streets of Gotham, Batman: Lil Gotham).

In 1958 today Cliff Sterrett’s Polly and her Pals appeared for the last time, and in 1999 Scottish cartoonist and playwright John Glashan (Genius, Lilliput, The Spectator, Punch, Private Eye, The New Yorker) died this day.

Posted on

Crisis on Multiple Earths: The Team-Ups


By Gardner Fox, John Broome, Carmine Infantino, Murphy Anderson, Gil Kane, Dick Dillin, Joe Giella, Sid Greene & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-0470-9 (TPB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

As I’ve interminably mentioned before, I was one of the “Baby Boomer” crowd that grew up with Gardner Fox & John Broome’s tantalisingly slow reintroduction of Golden Age superheroes during the halcyon, eternally summery days of the 1960s. To me those fascinating counterpart crusaders from Earth-Two were never vague and distant memories rubber-stamped by parents or older brothers – they were cool, fascinating and enigmatically new. And for some reason the “proper” heroes of Earth-One held them in high regard and treated them with obvious deference…

It all began, naturally enough, in The Flash, flagship title of the Silver Age Revolution. After ushering in the triumphant return of the costumed superhero concept the Scarlet Speedster, with Fox and Broome at the reins, set an unbelievably high standard for superhero adventure in sharp, witty tales of science and imagination, illustrated with captivating style and clean simplicity by Carmine Infantino.

Gardner Fox didn’t write many Flash scripts at this time, but those few he did were all dynamite. None more so than the full-length epic that literally changed the scope of American comics forever. ‘Flash of Two Worlds’ (The Flash #123, cover-dated September 1961, illustrated by Infantino & Joe Giella) introduced the concept of alternate Earths to a growing continuity and by extension resulted in the multiversal structure of the DCU, Crisis on Infinite Earths and all the succeeding cosmos-shaking crossover sagas that grew from it… And of course where DC led, others followed…

During a benefit gig Flash (police scientist Barry Allen) accidentally slips into another dimension where he finds the comic-book hero he based his own superhero identity upon actually exists. Every adventure he had absorbed as an eager child was grim reality to Jay Garrick and his mystery-men comrades on the controversially named Earth-2. Locating his idol, Barry convinces the elder to come out of retirement just as three Golden Age villains, the Shade, Thinker and Fiddler, make their own wicked comeback…

Thus is history made and above all else, ‘Flash of Two Worlds’ is still a great read that can electrify today’s reader.

Fox revisited Earth-2 nine months later in #129’s ‘Double Danger on Earth!’ (inked by Murphy Anderson) as Garrick ventures to Earth-1 to save his own world from a doom comet, only to fall foul of Captain Cold and The Trickster. Another cracking thriller, as well as double Flash action, this tale teasingly reintroduced Justice Society stalwarts Wonder Woman, Atom, Hawkman, Green Lantern, Dr. Mid-Nite & Black Canary. Clearly Editor Schwartz had something in mind…

‘Vengeance of the Immortal Villain!’ from Flash #137 (June 1963, inked by Giella) was the third incredible Earth-2 crossover, and saw the Flashes unite to defeat 50,000 year old Vandal Savage and save the Justice Society of America: a tale which directly led into the veteran team’s first meeting with the Justice League of America and start of those aforementioned “Crisis” epics.

That landmark epic can be found elsewhere whilst this collection continues with the less well-known ‘Invader from the Dark Dimension!’ (Flash #151, March 1964, by Fox, Infantino & Giella): a full-length shocker wherein the demonic Shade ambitiously attempts to plunder both worlds.

Public approval was decidedly vocal and Editor Julie Schwartz used DC’s try-out magazines to sound out the next step: stories set on Earth-2 with exclusively Golden Age characters. Showcase #55 saw the initial team-up of Doctor Fate and Hourman as the Justice Society stalwarts battled the monster of Slaughter Swamp after ‘Solomon Grundy Goes on a Rampage!’ Produced by Fox & Anderson, this bombastic yarn even had room for a cameo by Earth-2’s Green Lantern, and the original text page featuring the heroes’ origins is also reproduced here.

Showcase #56 also featured “the Super-Team Supreme” (and by the same creative team supreme) in ‘Perils of the Psycho-Pirate!’ wherein ex-con Roger Hayden (cell-mate of the original JSA villain) steals the magical Masks of Medusa to go on an emotion-controlling crime-spree. Fan-historians should note that this tale is a pivotal antecedent of landmark event Crisis on Infinite Earths as well as a superbly engaging adventure in its own right. A text feature on the original Psycho-Pirate accompanies the story.

Although getting in late to the Counterpart Collaborations game, the inevitable first teaming of the Hal Jordan and Alan Scott Green Lanterns is one of the best – and arguably the second-most important – story of the entire decade. ‘Secret Origin of the Guardians!’ (John Broome, Gil Kane & Sid Greene, Green Lantern #40, October 1965) introduced renegade Guardian Krona, revealed the origin of the multiverse, showed how evil entered our universe and described how the immortal Oans took up their self-appointed task of policing the cosmos. It also shows Kane’s paramount ability to stage a superhero fight like no other. This pure comic book perfection should be considered a prologue to the aforementioned Crisis on Infinite Earths.

Still looking for an Earth-2 concept that could support its own series Schwartz, Fox & Anderson debuted the team of Starman & Black Canary in The Brave and the Bold #61 (September/October 1965): pairing the heroes against eerily translucent villain The Mist in ‘Mastermind of Menaces!’ This compelling thriller is augmented here by a text bio of Black Canary.

Although not featured in this volume, Schwartz & Fox did finally achieve their ambition to launch a Golden Age hero into his own title. After three Showcase appearances and many guest-shots The Spectre won his own book at the end of 1967, just as the super-hero craze went into a steep decline. We conclude with a back-up tale from The Spectre #7 (November/ December 1968). Fox, Dick Dillin & Greene’s ‘The Hour Hourman Died!’ is a dark, clever attempted-murder mystery that packs a book’s worth of tension and action into 9 moody pages and serves as a solid thematic reminder that the golden Silver Age of the 1960s was a creative high point that simply ended too soon, because when you start at the top the only way is down…

Still irresistible and compellingly beautiful after all these years, the stories collected here highlight the immense talent and imagination of the creators: gifts which shaped the US comics industry forever after and are still influencing not only today’s funnybooks but also the movies, TV and animated shows and movies that grew from them. These are tales and this is a book you simply must have.
© 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1968, 2005 DC Comics. All rights reserved.

Today in 1899, Golden Age comic book pioneer Everett M. “Busy” Arnold (Quality Comics) was born, followed in 1911 by novelist, shared continuity groundbreaker and unparalleled inspirational character creator Gardner F. Fox (Justice Society & League of America, Flash, Zatanna, Sandman, Dr, Fate, Johnny Thunder, Hawkman, Doc Savage, Red Wolf, Adam Strange, The Face, Crom the Barbarian, Skyman, Starman, Spymaster, Batman, Batgirl, and thousands of genre shorts for every company in the US, ad infinitum).

In 1936 Malfunction Junction cartoonist Malcolm Hancock was born.

Posted on

The Incredible Hulk Marvel Masterworks volume 15


By Roger Stern, John Byrne, Steven Grant, Doug Moench, Sal Buscema, Carmine Infantino, Steve Ditko, Jack Abel, Mike Esposito, Alfredo Alcala, Joe Sinnott, Al Milgrom & various (MARVEL)
ISBN: 978-1-3029-3805-5 (HB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Bruce Banner was a military scientist accidentally caught in a gamma bomb blast of his own devising. As a result, stress and other factors cause him to transform into a giant green monster of unstoppable strength and fury. He was one of Marvel’s earliest innovations and first failure, but after an initially troubled few years finally found his size-700 feet and a format that worked, becoming one of the company’s premiere antiheroes and most popular features.

The Gamma Goliath was always graced with artists who understood the allure of shattering action, the sheer cathartic reader-release rush of mighty “Hulk Smash!” moments, and here – following in the debris-strewn wake of Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, Marie Severin and Herb Trimpe – Sal Buscema had been showing the world what he could do when inspired and unleashed…

This chronologically complete monster monolithic monster mash-up re-presents Incredible Hulk #234-244 plus Annuals #8 & 9, collectively spanning April 1979 through February 1980, featuring tales and ancillary material generated while the Growling Green Giant utterly dominated global TV screens. Prior to that torrent of tumult, however, we open with another behind-the-scenes reminiscence from writer/editor Roger Stern in his engaging Introduction.

Previously, having failed to end the curse of the Hulk through psychoanalysis, S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Clay Quartermain and gamma-charged psychologist Doc Samson had witnessed the man-monster defeat insidious villains Moonstone and the Leader before Banner and the Hulk were ensnared in the schemes of criminal cabal The Corporation – specifically an internecine power struggle between West Coast Chief Curtiss Jackson and (ultimately ousted) East Coast head/corrupt US Senator Eugene Stivak, operating under the nom-du-crime Kligger.

Now, with Jackson in hiding and Kligger dethroned thanks to the Hulk, S.H.I.E.L.D., Captain America, The Falcon, Marvel Man/Quasar, and – in related operations – Torpedo and Machine Man, the aftermath saw the Emerald Titan flee. Linking up with drop-out pal Fred Sloan, their quixotic road trip ended on the campus of the University of California at Los Angeles where the man-monster was reunited with another old friend…

Trish Starr championed an alternative, magic-adjacent lifestyle when The Defenders battled her mad scientist uncle Egghead  and had since moved her peace-&-love message into a student house in Berkeley where laid-back student dudes get a taste of another world when the Hulk moves in with them. However, fear and suspicion are impossible to suppress and when one “drops a dime and calls the fuzz” (or notifies the authorities if you prefer) it results in chaos.

Of course, the authorities informed are not cops but The Corporation, where frantically–rebuilding Jackson sees opportunity to re-ingratiate himself with the fearsome Board of Directors and remove two thorns in his side. Crafted by Stern, Sal Buscema & Jack Abel, Incredible Hulk #234 sees the Gamma Goliath angry and unleashed in ‘Battleground: Berkeley!’ after Jackson frames Machine Man for kidnapping Trish. This lures the Jade Juggernaut (and Fred) to Jackson’s Central City base – The Mid-State Tower – where his forces are ready to end the blockbusting brute…

Meanwhile the real robot hero has been cleared of crimes covertly orchestrated by Kligger and is a free “man” when #235’s ‘The Monster and the Machine’ (inked by Mike Esposito) finds the furious Hulk attacking Machine Man’s human friend and advisor Dr Peter Spaulding. The clash rapidly escalates in ‘Kill or Be Killed!’ with the Hulk now nigh-mindless with rage. His mechanical foe is far more controlled and detects Jackson’s radio communications. Sadly so does the viridian berserker who heads for the Corporation’s secret skyscraper HQ to save Trish and punish Jackson…

The Hulk is beyond all reason and turns his wrath on Jackson with everyone else in sight caught in the carnage. As Machine Man (who went on from this clash into his own revived solo title) valiantly strives but fails to stop the man-brute, the earthshaking battle culminates in the fall of the tower in #237’s ‘When a City Dies!’ (Abel inks). With Jackson done and dusted, emerging from the rubble of the 80-storey shambles, Hulk’s appetite for destruction is still not sated. Thankfully, before collapsing in the robot version of utter exhaustion, Machine Man mesmerises the monster into a coma and employs an anti-gravity push to send the sleeping beast, far, far away…

Incredible Hulk Annual #8 follows as ‘Sasquatch!’ – written by Roger Stern & John Byrne, with art from Sal B & Alfredo Alcala – sees still-surly Hulk waking up in the mostly unoccupied region of British Columbia. Befriended by understandably nervous, self-imposed hermit Maureen Mores Friesen, he gradually calms enough to revert to Banner, but only until the Canadians deploy their own gamma monster – Dr Walter Langowski of government super-squad Alpha Flight – to end the incursion whatever the cost…

The Canadian catastrophe that results sees the Hulk still at large as US President Jimmy Carter, Quartermain and S.H.I.E.L.D. researchers survey what remains of Central City in Incredible Hulk #238’s ‘Post Hulk …Post Holocaust!’ (Stern, Buscema & Abel). Meanwhile, the monster’s peregrinations bring him to the attention of a clandestine cabal who bedevilled heroes for years. Cautiously, “They-Who-Wield-Power” plan their next atrocity…

As seen primarily in Marvel Team-Up, a shadowy trio of observers with an undisclosed agenda had monitored superbeing episodes and provided advanced technologies for monsters and villains like Lava Men, Stegron and The Orb to battle Spider-Man, Hercules, Nova, Ghost Rider, Black Panther, Thor and more. Now they subtly pull strings drawing the Gamma Juggernaut southwards, using bullion bandit Goldbug as their latest instrument…

It comes together in #239’s Esposito-inked ‘All That Glitters…’ as a brief pause on Hulk’s travels sparks a military incident. Taking a nap atop national monument Mount Rushmore, the monster is confronted by a joint military and S.H.I.E.L.D. response. However, instead of more shattering violence, the stand-off ends peacefully when Goldbug slips in, offering escape in his new ship. Sadly, it’s designed to siphon Hulk’s energies to power the vessel all the way to South America where the thief can plunder a literal city of gold in the Andes. Hulk is not happy and escapes, but not before they reach their destination where The Brotherhood of They are waiting.

In #240’s ‘…And Now El Dorado’ (inked by Joe Sinnott) years of scheming come to fruition as a hidden civilisation (last seen as the Forbidden Land in Avengers #31, August 1966) welcomes the outcast and the criminal mastermind to an idyllic paradise covertly controlled by a back-stabbing triumvirate seeking dominion of Earth. Autocrat Prince Rey and cleric Lann, Keeper of the Sacred Flame have warred for decades, but the balance is maintained by aged enigmatic Des who perpetrated They’s campaign to create global tectonic anomalies that fed the Flame. Des also exerts a shocking hold on the Hulk, dangling the prospect of resurrecting his lost love Jarella if the monster behaves and follows orders…

A bitter truth is revealed in the Buscema-inked ‘Partners in Deception!’ when Banner too becomes fuel for the Sacred Flame, with Des stealing that power to eradicate his allies and regenerate himself. Revealed as one of the Hulk’s earliest enemies and with Goldbug forced into playing hero to save his own skin, ‘Sic Temper Tyrannus!’ sees the unlikely outworlder allies saving Earth as their enemy ascends to godhood before inevitably overextending himself… and again underestimating the sheer bloody-mindedness of the Jade Juggernaut…

The end comes courtesy of plotter Stern, scripter Steven Grant & Sal B, in #243’s ‘Death… and Destiny!’ With the world restored, the Hulk resuming his wandering and Goldbug getting just what he deserves, in the wings, the mental collapse of General Thaddeus Ross has left a vacuum the US government fills with his protégé Glenn Talbot, newly promoted to lead America’s anti-Hulk task force…

Written by Doug Moench and illustrated by Steve Ditko & Al Milgrom, Incredible Hulk Annual #9 offers a short diversion as the monster is targeted by chess-obsessed millionaire Charles Reigel, leading fellow members of the Gotham Game Club in a high-tech campaign against the epitome of unreasoning brute force. Sadly, ‘A Game of Monsters and Kings’ is not what the Green Goliath wants and the Hulk does not play well with others…

This titanic tome wraps up its storytelling component with a brief continuity palate cleanser as #244 reintroduces Hollywood special effects wizard Bob O’Bryan who, thanks to alien invaders, can possess and animate a gigantic stone statue. His efforts to keep the mighty It, the Living Colossus from evil Dr. Vault was once the stuff of L A legend, but means nothing to Bruce Banner when he awakes from another Hulk-out in Tinseltown.

Incredible Hulk #244’s ‘It Lives!’ (by Grant, Carmine Infantino  & Esposito) sees coincidence and concatenation conspire to bring all player together for Vault’s last pursuit of the prize, only to learn that gamma beats granite every time…

To Be Hulk-inued…

With covers by Milgrom, Bob Layton, and Ditko the bonus portion of this blockbusting bonanza includes the covers (front & back) of Hulk-starring reprint tabloids  Marvel Treasury Edition #20 and 24 – by Bob Budiansky & Abel and Budiansky & Bob Wiacek respectively. There are also house ads and a gallery of Hulk pinups by Ron Wilson, Frank Giacoia, Dave Hunt & Pablo Marcos created for Marvel UK titles plus a large section of designs by Mark Gruenwald revamping Goldbug, his ship and Tyrannus.

The Incredible Hulk is one of the most well-known comic characters on Earth, and these stories, as much as the movies, cartoons, TV shows, games, toys and action figures are the reason why. For an uncomplicated, earnestly vicarious experience of Might actually being Right, you can’t do better than these exciting episodes, so why not Go Green – even if it’s only in your own delirious head?
© 2021 MARVEL.

Today in 1964 Brazilian artist Sergio (Lone Ranger) Cariello was born, with Stephanie (Harley Quinn, Wonder Woman, Spider-Gwen, Grim) Phillips arriving in 1991. On the debit side this date in 1957 saw the end of Italian comics legend Guido Fantoni (Capitan Walter, Nutor, Flash Gordon, Brick Bradford, The Phantom, Mandrake the Magician); mature content Spanish wizard Alfredo Pons in 2002; Disney mainstay Romano Scarpa in 2005 and our own national treasure Leo Baxendale (Minnie the Minx, The Bash Street Kids, Wham!, Pow!) in 2017.

Posted on

The Avengers Marvel Masterworks volume 19


By David Michelinie, Steven Grant, Roger Stern, Mark Gruenwald, Jim Shooter, Bob Layton, Tom DeFalco, John Byrne, George Pérez, Sal Buscema, Carmine Infantino, Arvell Jones, Ron Wilson, John Fuller, Dan Green, Ricardo Villamonte, Josef Rubinstein, Jack Abel, Gene Day, Mike Esposito, Brett Breeding, Joe Sinnott, Bruce Patterson & various (MARVEL)
ISBN: 978-1-3029-1637-4 (HB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

The Avengers have always proved that putting all one’s star eggs in a single basket pays off big-time: even when all Marvel’s classic all-stars such as Thor, Captain America and Iron Man are absent, it merely allows the team’s lesser lights to shine more brightly. Of course, all founding stars were regularly featured due to the rotating, open door policy, which means that every issue includes somebody’s fave-rave – and the boldly grand-scale impressive stories and artwork are no hindrance either. With the team now global icons, let’s look again at the stories which form the foundation of that pre-eminence.

Re-presenting Avengers #189-202, plus a pertinent tale from Marvel Premier #55 (August 1980) and a lost snippet from Tales to Astonish (vol. 2 #12, November 1980) these sagas encompass cover-dates November 1979 to December 1980. Jim Shooter, having galvanised and steadied the company’s notional flagship moved on, leaving David Michelinie to impress his own ideas and personality upon the team,. However such transitions are always tricky and a few water-treading fill-ins were necessary before progress resumed. For behind the scenes details you can read of his recollections in his fascinating ‘Introduction by David Michelinie’ before diving in to the fabulous action and drama. Another Introduction by latterday editor Tom Brevoort can be found in the book’s Bonus Section, eulogising and appreciating the return of George Pérez to the Avengers before diving in to the fabulous action and drama…

Previously: After defeating the Absorbing Man, apparently resolving the convoluted origins of Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch, inviting Ultron’s robot bride Jocasta into their midst, defeating vintage murder-mech enigma Arsenal and stopping world conquering sentient elements, the team were ready for a break but would be disappointed…

Avengers #189 reveals how deeply unhappy official reservist Hawkeye takes a day job at (corrupt and EVIL) tech company Cross Technological Enterprises and inadvertently begins his steady march to solo stardom. When the current administration began interfering in Avengers business intrusive and obsessive NSA Agent Henry Peter Gyrich laid down the law and winnowed the army of heroes down to a federally acceptable (and “manageable”) seven-and-a-spare: Captain America, Iron Man, Falcon, Scarlet Witch, Vision, Wasp, Beast and Ms. Marvel. Gyrich had spitefully rejected the in-your-face archer in favour of Falcon – who was parachuted in (against his own wishes!) to conform to government affirmative action quotas…

Feeling rejected by the team and definitely still persona non grata to the obnoxious pencil-pushing Government gadfly, Hawkeye goes corporate in ‘Wings and Arrows!’ (Steven Grant, John Byrne & Dan Green). It’s not too long before he’s earning every penny as the new security chief by battling alien avian interloper Deathbird of the Shi’ar…

As a terrifying horror from space crashes to Earth and rampages through Manhattan, the Avengers ae summoned to tribunal seeking to close down the group. However, with a monster in the streets, Beast sees a way to dent Gyrich’s credibility and win back Avengers autonomy in chilling monster-mash ‘Heart of Stone’. Despatched to stop the thing, their subsequent battle draws in scarlet swashbuckler Daredevil who helps expose an old enemy in disguise…

Scripted by Micheline, concluding chapter ‘Back to the Stone Age!’ sees the assemblage overwhelmed by petrifying space pirate The Grey Gargoyle and the Falcon prove his worth until the team can rally and render the marauder helpless, after which artists Arvell Jones & Ricardo Villagran limn #192’s ‘Steel City Nightmare!’ When former industrialist/inventor and occasional Avenger Simon Wonder Man Williams visits Detroit to finalise selling his old steel mill to Tony Stark, they uncover an old but lasting connection to Thor’s uru hammer and the site’s new covert status as a centre of organised crime activity. When a whistle-blower is murdered only to return as a rampaging vengeance-driven flame monster, the call goes out and the Avengers find ‘Battleground Pittsburgh!’ (illustrated by Sal Buscema & Green) to be almost more than they can handle.

Inked by Josef Rubinstein, George Pérez draws the Micheline-scripted ‘Interlude’ in #194, as roster changes saw the Scarlet Witch (briefly) and Falcon leave and Wonder Man return. With Jocasta destabilizing the Vision’s marriage, tensions are high but the later discovery that wannabe actor Simon Williams is moonlighting as a clown on children’s television takes off a lot of edges. Focus abruptly shifts when an apparent escaped mental patient circumvents Avengers security, breaks into the mansion and begs for help. Returned to his carers at the Solomon Institute, Selbe’s plight remains uppermost in Wasp’s thoughts. When she investigates the facility she exposes an horrific science abomination in progress before vanishing without trace…

New Ant-Man Scott Lang got his first dose of team action in Avengers #195 (May 1980) in Michelinie, Pérez, Jack Abel & Green’s ‘Assault on a Mind Cage!’ When his benefactor Hank Pym/Yellowjacket asks Lang to help infiltrate the suspect Solomon asylum he believes holds the Wasp hostage the miniature marvels uncover illegal cloning for spare parts and a murderous madman also capitalising on the facilities to profitably train better henchmen for major villains and mob bosses…

The climactic clash resulting from ‘The Terrible Toll of the Taskmaster’ (by Michelinie, Pérez & Abel) wrecks the joint but leaves former burglar and convict Lang one step closer to true redemption…

Cold War paranoia fuels Avengers #197’s ‘Prelude to the War-Devil!’ (illustrated by Carmine Infantino, Abel and a horde of helpers) wherein overwrought scientist Dr. Cowan absconds from Stark Detroit facilities inside a super-mecha warrior initially built to destroy the undisputed king of Kaiju (see Godzilla: The Original Marvel Years). Unable to stand the tension any longer, the boffin intends triggering WWIII and ending the anxiety of humankind once and for all, but must first face the deployed and increasingly desperate Avengers in ‘Better Red Than Ronin!’ (art by Pérez, Brett Breeding & Gene Day) and cataclysmic climax ‘Last Stand on Long Island’ (inked by Dan Green).

Away from the mounting carnage, a disturbing subplot played out as a strange, terrifyingly rapid transformation sees Carol Danvers (Ms, and these days Captain Marvel) impossibly pregnant and bringing an unknown baby with no father to term in a matter of days. Reaching out to the Scarlet Witch, the hasty decision is to call in the full resources of the Mighty Avengers…

The mystery is solved in bonanza anniversary issue #200 (October 1980 by plotters, Jim Shooter, Pérez & Bob Layton; scripter Michelinie, and artists Pérez & Green). In ‘The Child is Father To…?’ with almost the entire past roster on hand, the miracle baby is born without incident, but consequently hyper-rapidly matures as time goes wild around the city. With different eras overwriting the present, the unearthly boy begins building a machine to stabilise the chaos despite the profoundly suspicious heroes misunderstanding his motives. Marcus claims to be the son of time-master Immortus, seeking to escape eternal isolation in transdimensional Limbo by implanting his essence in a mortal tough enough to survive the energy required for the transfer.

Literally reborn on Earth, his attempts to complete the process are foiled by the World’s Most Confused Heroes and he is tragically drawn back to his timeless realm. Carol, suddenly declaring her love for Marcus, unexpectedly goes with him. The heroes unquestioning acceptance of the result might well be the greatest failure and betrayal in Avengers history…

The clean-up begins in #201 where ‘The Evil Reborn’ sees Michelinie, Pérez & Green adapt a Jim Shooter short story as Tony Stark succumbs to previous, deep-buried hypnotic programming to reconstruct cybernetic conqueror Ultron…

The tale is cut short as back-up strip ‘Bully!’ by Michelinie, Roger Stern, Pérez & Day explores the off-duty life of butler Edwin Jarvis as he improves his home neighbourhood with a little human-scaled heroism and defiance in the face of insurmountable odds…

The Avenging escapades pause for now with bombastic brutal closing chapter ‘This Evil Undying’ (Micheline, Pérez & Mike Esposito) as the team (Captain America Thor, Wasp, Vision, Scarlet Witch, Hawkeye and Jocasta free Iron Man from the metal maniac’s domination and apparently end the threat forever…

Supplementing the main drama are a brace of contemporaneous tales beginning with the first Wonder Man solo saga, as published in Marvel Premiere #55 (August 1980). ‘A Force of Two!’ by Micheline, Layton, Ron Wilson & Joe Sinnott sees Simon Williams return to another of his old factories (in Brooklyn this time) to clean out the criminal trash who took over after his “death” and eventual resurrection as being of ionic energy. Even he isn’t quite enough to oust entrenched Maggia mobsters – and their lawyers – and requires a little offbeat assistance from an old pal who risks everything to atone…

Next comes a six-page vignette starring The Vision, created during a rookie initiative program in 1976 by Tom DeFalco, John Fuller & Bruce Patterson, ‘Double Vision’ sat in the inventory drawer until seen in Tales to Astonish (vol 2 #12, November 1980) and relates how the eerie android saves a diplomat and other caught in a plane hijacking…

With covers by Byrne, Pérez, Frank Miller, Dave Cockrum, Wilson, Sinnott, Green, Bob McLeod, Rubinstein and Terry Austin; original art pages from Byrne, Pérez, Green & Day; the Pérez/Tom Smith painted cover to Avengers Visionaries: George Pérez (1999) and the aforementioned Brevoort appreciation of the artist from that tome, this compelling collection is available in hardback and digital iterations, and a must-read moment of wonder every fan must see.
© 2019 MARVEL.

Today in 1877 Catalan comics creator and pioneer Tomàs Padró died, as did French surrealist cartoonist and multimedia maven Roland Topor in 1997. In 1934 Chilean Disney artist Vicar (Víctor José Arriagada Ríos) was born, as was arch-stylist Paul Rivoche (Mister X, Batman, Exile of the Aeons) in 1959.

On this date in 1990 The Times of India supplement Indrajal Comics published its last issue. Started in 1964 its 805 issues brought The Phantom, Flash Gordon, Mandrake, Garth, Rip Kirby, Phil Corrigan, Buz Sawyer, Mike Nomad, Kerry Drake, and others to millions of readers, and in 1976 debuted homegrown Indian hero Bahadur by Aabid Surti.

Posted on

DC Finest: The Flash – The Fastest Man Dead


By Robert Kanigher, Mike Friedrich, Steve Skeates, Dennis O’Neill, Bob Haney, Len Wein, Cary Bates, Gil Kane, Irv Novick, Don Heck, Dick Dillin, Bob Brown, Murphy Anderson, Dick Giordano, Joe Giella, Nick Cardy, Frank McLaughlin, Tex Blaisdell, Carmine Infantino, Neal Adams, Jack Adler, Tatjana Wood, John Costanza & various (DC Comics)

ISBN: 978-1-77952-836-0 (TPB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Here’s another compelling DC Finest edition: chronologically curated paperback archives (generally around 600 pages) highlighting past glories. Whilst primarily concentrating on the superhero pantheon, there are genre selections including horror, sci fi, western and war books, but sadly none yet available digitally. However, we live in hope…

The Silver Age of US comics is formally and forever tied to Showcase #4 and the rebirth of The Flash. That epochal issue was released in the late summer of 1956 and from it stems all today’s print, animation, games, collector cards, cosplay and TV/movie wonderment. No matter which way you look at it, the renaissance began with The Flash, but it’s an unjust yet true fact that being first is not enough: it also helps to be best and people have to notice. MLJ’s The Shield beat Captain America to the news-stands by over a year yet the former is all but forgotten today. I mention that here as it pertains to this collection, which sees the advent of original Shield co-creator Irv Novick (Bob Phantom; Hangman; Steel Sterling; Silent Knight; Robin Hood, all DC war books, Captain Storm; Sea Devils; Batman, The Joker; Lois Lane; Tomahawk and more) as the Scarlet Speedster’s regular illustrator; a run (oh. Ha-Ha.) spanning Flash #200-270 and close to a full 10-year stretch with him only absent for #205, 213-214 & 264…

For the early trendsetting sagas and situations you should catch DC Finest: The Flash – The Human Thunderbolt and take as read that here the (second) Flash is Barry Allen, a police forensic scientist simultaneously struck by lightning and bathed in exploding chemicals from his lab. Supercharged by the accident, Barry (a lifelong fan of comic books) took his superhero identity from his favourite childhood reading – and eventually his acknowledged alternately Earth predecessor. Once upon a time there was a “fictional” scientist named Jay Garrick who was exposed to the mutagenic fumes of Hard Water and promptly became the “fastest man alive”…

Wearing a sleek, streamlined, tricked-out bodysuit (courtesy of  Carmine Infantino – a major talent approaching his artistic and creative peak), Barry was point man for the spectacular revival of a genre and an entire industry. He also became a renowned intergalactic champion, wholesome family man and paternalistic elder statesman of the superhero set after marrying his longtime fiancée Iris West…

With Infantino safely elevated to DC’s current publisher, this splendidly tempting full colour paperback of Seventies hits displays the glorious work of the last replacement illustrators before the Flash landed in Novick’s hands, just as changing tastes rejected the previously paramount, rationalistic science fiction worlds touched by the Vizier of Velocity. Now high speed action involved issues of social relevance and themes of supernatural horror and makes for some weird moments as this copious compendium covers The Flash #197-229 (May 1970 – October 1974) plus guest shots in World’s Finest Comics #198-199 (November & December 1970) and The Brave and the Bold #99 (December 1971/January 1972).

Gil Kane & Vince Colletta capture all the fun and thrills of Mike Friedrich’s ‘Four-Star Super-Hero’ in the opening yarn of Flash #197 as a sharp cop spots a private communication tic only shared with his lab partner Barry Allen. Attempts to save a secret identity and convince Charlie Conwell otherwise are further hampered by blizzard conditions in Central City, canny crooks with jetpacks and skis, a flu epidemic and Barry’s dedication to Amateur Dramatics, which see him take time out to play every part in the local presentation of Hamlet. All’s well that ends well and after that show goes on, it’s back to cosmic basics with Robert Kanigher’s ‘To the Nth Degree’ showing the Crimson Comet catapulted across the universe to save fire-beings on an exploding planet, courtesy of another wild invention of his father-in-law Professor Ira West…

Kanigher, Kane & Colletta open #198 where ‘No Sad Songs for a Scarlet Speedster!’ has three orphan kids aid a gun-shot and temporarily brain-damaged Flash regain his lost mojo before neophyte superhero Zatanna guests in ‘Call it …Magic’ (by Friedrich, Don Heck & Colletta) and requires swift rescue after being abducted across arcane dimensions by macabre body-snatcher Xarkon…

Kanigher, Kane & Colletta’s ‘Flash? Death Calling!’ in #199 focuses on the ordeals of scientist Dr Hollister who dons the scarlet skin-tights to punish himself after apparently accidentally killing the hero. However that guilt also saves the day and resurrect the speedster – just in time for Flash to meet superspy Colonel K (of US-IN-T Agency) and stop a Chinese energy missile smashing into ‘The Explosive Heart of America!’ (Kanigher, Kane & Colletta)

Novick and inker Murphy Anderson join Kanigher for anniversary celebration ‘Count 200 – and Die!’ as the Monarch of Motion succumbs to mind manipulation and is manoeuvred by sinister siren Dr. Lu into  assassinating the US President. Thankfully our hero (Flash of course, not PotUS!) is faster than his own fired gunshot and is back in all-American action for #201, enduring Kanigher, Novick & Anderson’s ‘Million-Dollar Dream!’ and applying tough love to wheelchair bound sports star Pablo Hernandez. The treatment restores the player but that’s only fair as the hero was responsible for initially crippling the kid…

Many issues offered second stories at this time, and the policy of guest shots for other Flash-family favourites was solidly in place. Here Kanigher, Novick & Anderson take us to Earth Two and swift encore for an old villain as Jay Garrick produces – eventually – the ‘Finale for a Fiddler!’

Although costumed hero capers were waning in general appeal, Flash was still hugely popular. Thus when World’s Finest Comics began a run of Superman team-ups with #198, the Red Runner was the clear first choice and allowed editors to return to a thorny topic which had bedevilled fans for years.

The comic book experience is littered with eternal, unanswerable questions. The most common and most passionately asked always begin “who would win if” or “who’s strongest/smartest/fastest…” Here, crafted by Denny O’Neil, Dick Dillin & Joe Giella, ‘Race to Save the Universe!’ and concluding instalment ‘Race to Save Time’ (WFC #198-199) upped the stakes on two previous competitions as our high-speed heroes are conscripted by the Guardians of the Universe to circumnavigate the entire cosmos at their greatest velocities to reverse the rampage of the mysterious Anachronids: faster-than-light creatures whose pell-mell course throughout galaxies is actually unwinding time itself and unravelling the fabric of creation. Little does anybody suspect that Superman’s oldest enemies were behind the entire appalling scheme, but the battle was swiftly won and reality saved in the end…

It was a far more grounded but no less chilling situation in Flash #202 where Kanigher, Novick & Anderson despatch reporter Iris Allen to Hollywood where she is kidnapped by murderous cultist creeps ‘The Satan Circle’ and her frantic husband confronts the unknown and the worst aspects of human nature to save her. Kid Flash then endures his own eldritch overload as ‘The Accusation!’ (by Steve Skeates, Dillin & Anderson) finds college-age comet Wally West tormented by visons of impending death that come appallingly true…

With Kanigher, Novick & Anderson at the helm #203 augured a huge change in the cosy domestic set-up as ‘The Flash’s Wife is a Two-Timer!’ reveals that Iris is actually a foundling sent through time to escape atomic armageddon and only the adopted child of scatterbrained super-genius Ira West. When the process reverses itself and she is dragged back to the future – Central City 2970 AD – The Flash follows and is caught up in a war that has been all but won by oppressive East-bloc tyrant Sirik the Supreme. Of course his intervention is enough to reset the scales before he returns baffled bride Iris Russell (née West)-Allen to her immigrant time period.

Once there though, repercussions of the revelation continue as a recovered 30th century keepsake turns her into an uncontrollable, secret-exposing blabbermouth in #204’s ‘The Great Secret Identity Exposé!’ with the Justice League understandably irate that Flash talks in his sleep and his wife knows all their civilian identities…

Back up tale ‘The Mind-Trap’ (Skeates, Dillin & Anderson) then sees Kid Flash chasing a body-stealing Egyptian pharaoh’s ghost to end the issue on a lighter note…

The Flash #205 was another hugely popular reprint collection of the era, sporting a cover by Dick Giordano (and included here) before it was back to spooky business in #206 for Kanigher, Novick & Anderson’s ‘24 Hours of Immortality!’ as haughty alien superbeings resurrect a recently killed surgeon and young mother to attend to unfinished business, but for the most mean-spirited motives – until Flash intervenes with a lesson all could benefit from.

With the supernatural now fully unleashed at DC, Flash #207 led with Friedrich, Novick & Anderson’s ‘The Evil Sound of Music!’, as former mystic hero Sargon the Sorcerer exploits his own family and rock ‘n’ roll-loving kids to restore his lost powers, before confronting the Scarlet Speedster, his own inner demons and rapacious external devils on the path back to the light. Grounding that journey to hell, Kid Flash then faces ‘The Phantom of the Cafeteria!’ ending the depredations of a superfast, hyper-hungry alien in a quick but satisfying yarn from Skeates, Dillin & Giordano.

In #208, Kanigher, Novick & Anderson exposed ‘A Kind of Miracle in Central City’ as wayward kids exploited by drug pushers are saved by prayer, the timely intervention of nuns and invisible superspeed before Flash #209 debuted new regular writer Cary Bates. He would run with the Vizier of Velocity for the rest of the series, only missing #213-214, 217, 293, 306 and 313 between 1970 through 1985.

Fresh from the starting blocks, Bates, Novick & Giordano took the speedster into higher, weirder realms ‘Beyond the Speed of Life!’ where Flash and reality shielding Sentinel stopped existence from being devoured. Meanwhile, on mundane Earth old Rogues Trickster, Captain Boomerang and Gorilla Grodd squabbled over bragging rights for who had finally killed the hero. At the back, Kid Flash saved a student troubled by gangsters in ‘Coincidence Can Kill!’ courtesy of Skeates, Dillin, Giordano.

A visit to 2971 came with #210 as Bates, Novick & Giordano expanded the Earth East-Earth West “warm” war in ‘An Earth Divided!’ with Flash seeking to save man-made President Abraham Lincoln (II) from belligerent occidental tyrant Bekor. Science fiction surrendered to spooky tales next as Flash teamed up with Batman in Brave and the Bold #99. Here Bob Haney, Bob Brown, & Nick Cardy revealed how an attempt to resurrect Bruce Wayne’s parents opened the door to the Dark Knight’s possession by an unquiet spirit. ‘The Man Who Murdered the Past!’ almost ensured an invasion of angry ghosts until superspeed and smart thinking saved the day…

Comics were always about popular trends, and in Flash #211 Bates, Novick & Giordano contrived alien invaders who used the fad of rolling derby to fuel the destruction of Earth via constantly ‘Flashing Wheels!’ However, Kid Flash was on far more stable ground as he exposed corrupt officials covering up toxic dumping in ‘Is This Poison Legal?’ by Skeates, Dillin & Giordano. Equally bold and topical the next issue saw ‘The Flash in Cartoon Land!’ with Novick & Giordano depicting how manic 64th century magician Abra Kadabra trapped the hero and a little lad Barry Allen was babysitting in a graphic madhouse where scientific rules did not apply.

The next two issues – #213 & 214 – were reprint specials represented here with the original covers by Neal Adams & Cardy before #215 saw Bates, Novick, Frank McLoughlin & Giordano detail the ‘Death of an Immortal!’ The eons are catching up with undying villain Vandal Savage who attempts to trick Barry Allen and Jay Garrick into remedying the crisis for him. However their mission is intercepted by chronal cop Tempus and the end is not what Savage anticipated…

For Bates at least, Flash was all about his signature Rogues Gallery and in #216 the writer revealed the shocking truth about multiple personality villain Al Desmond/Dr. Alchemy/Mr. Element. Seemingly cured and reformed, Desmond was afflicted by ‘The Curse of the Dragon’s Eye!’ (Novick, Frank McLoughlin & Giordano), astrally connected to an unstable star in the constellation Draco and vacillating between manic and passive, and Good and Evil as it built to cataclysmic detonation. Now that time had come and Flash had to save his friend and hopefully prevent him destroying Earth when his patron star died. Its counterbalanced by Skeates & Dillin’s Kid Flash fable ‘2D?’ as Kid Flash goes after extradimensional slavers abducting workers who stare at certain paintings for too long…

Hard times for superheroes saw Green Lantern take up residence in the anterior pages of The Flash from #217 and shorter tales began with a fill-in from Len Wein for Novick & McLoughlin. ‘The Flash Times Five is Fatal!’ saw the hero attacked by a rogue AI built by Ira West. It preferred sabotage, reality warping and murder to rescinding its categoric statement that no one as fast as the Scarlet Speedster could possibly exist…

Bates and the Pied Piper returned in #218 as a cunning sonic ambush was foiled by speed vibrations generating ‘The Flash of 1,000 Faces!’ whilst in #219 (with Joe Giella inking) ‘The Million Dollar Deathtrap’ saw the hero targeted by wagering rivals Mirror Master and The Top and only triumphing after applying the proven principle of “divide and conquer”…

Flash literally and grotesquely joined protégé Kid Flash in #220 as The Turtle (Barry’s very first super-foe) returned to alter Earth’s internal vibrations and cure ‘The Slowest Man on Earth’ of his unique condition no matter the cost to everyone else. Thankfully two heads proved better than one in this instance and the shaking shakedown was averted.

Co-scripter John Warner joined Bates, Novick & McLoughlin for #221’s ‘Time-Schedule For Disaster!’ as techno-bandit Cipher attempts – and ultimately fails – to harvest Flash’s speed vibrations to power his weapons before #222’s ‘The Heart That Attacked the World!’ (Novick, McLoughlin & Giordano) offers a full-length team up with Green Lantern as Weather Wizard and Sinestro join forces to end their enemies. Sadly, born betrayer Sinestro secretly linked the Speedster’s racing heartbeat to the continued existence of Earth…

In #223, Bates, Novick & Giordano ‘Make Way for the Speed-Demons!’ as another old enemy rigs races between Flash and three mechanical racers of land sea and air, with the expressed intention of humiliating the speedster whilst hiding his true intentions, before #224 introduces ‘The Fastest Man Dead!’ after Barry’s friend and mentor Charlie Conwell is murdered. That doesn’t stop the veteran helping Flash close the last case on his docket and save his pal Barry one last time…

Another Scarlet-Emerald team-up sees Flash again battle Professor Zoom, the Reverse-Flash before discovering  ‘Green Lantern, Master Criminal of the 25th Century!’ (#225, Bates, Novick & Giordano) is the villain’s unwilling slave. Of course, it all plays out successfully in time, after which Captain Cold and Heatwave embroil Barry Allen in their psycho-drama rivalry, thereby inadvertently subjecting Flash to ‘The Hot-Cold War in Central City!’ (inked by Giordano & McLoughlin). Immediately afterwards (with McLoughlin inking) #227 reveals ‘Flash – This is Your Death!’ as Captain Boomerang ( and his dad!) rerun past fast & furious clashes whilst seeking to end the hero’s career and existence forever, before Tex Blaisdell inks #228’s ‘The Day I saved the Life of the Flash!’ Here Bates injects himself into the story as a comic book writer from Earth-Prime accidentally slips across dimensional divides; arriving on Earth-One in time to aid the “fictional” speedster he scripts in a deadly duel with the Trickster…

This compendium closes with the pertinent original material from 100-Page Spectacular Flash #229 which led with a Golden Age Flash team up as ‘The Rag Doll Runs Wild!’ Here Bates, Novick, Giordano & McLoughlin detail how a seeming resurgent rampage by a 1940s thieving contortionist is merely a mask for a far more sinister scheme perpetrated by a hidden vengeful mastermind. Closing proceedings are two teaser treats from that giant compendium: specifically a ‘Flash Puzzle’ by Bob Rozakis, Infantino & Anderson and an unattributed ‘Flash Trivia Quiz and Answers’…

With covers by Kane, Infantino, Anderson, Neal Adams, Colletta Giordano, Jack Adler, Cardy and Tatjana Wood, this splendid selection is a must-read item for anybody in love with the world of words-in-pictures and fast-paced fantasy fables. Ready. Steady, Go get it!
© 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1974, 2026 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

Today in 1906 was the birth date of cartoonist Dale Messick (Brenda Starr, Reporter) followed ten years later by comic book/ad exec Irv Novick, and author Peter O’Donnell (Modesty Blaise, James Bond, Romeo Jones) in 1920. In 1954 Jamie Delano (Captain Britain, Doctor Who, Hellblazer, Animal Man) joined the party as did Matt Kindt (Poppy and the Lost Lagoon, Dept. H, MIND MGMT, BRZRKR) in 1973.

Posted on

DC Finest: Justice League of America – Starro the Conqueror


By Gardner F. Fox, Mike Sekowsy, Carmine Infantino, Bernard Sachs, Murphy Anderson, Joe Giella & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-79950-773-4 (TPB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

After the actual invention of the comic book superhero – by which we mean the launch of Superman in 1938 – the most significant event in the industry’s progress was to combine individual sales-points into a group. Thus what seems blindingly obvious to us with the benefit of four-colour hindsight was irrefutably proven: a number of popular characters could multiply readership by combining forces. Plus, of course, a whole bunch of superheroes is far cooler than just one – or even one and a sidekick…

Thus the Justice Society of America is rightly revered as a true landmark in the development of comic books and – when Julius Schwartz began reviving and revitalising the nigh-defunct superhero genre in 1956 – the next key moment would come a few years with the inevitable teaming of reconfigured mystery men. The League launched in The Brave and the Bold #28 (cover-dated March 1960 but actually on sale from December 29th 1959) and cemented the growth and validity of the revived subgenre, triggering an explosion of new characters at every company producing comic books; even spreading to the rest of the world as the 1960s progressed.

Spanning March 1960 to May 1963, this full-colour paperback collection of timeless classics re-presents The Brave and the Bold #28-30, issues #1-19 of the epochal first series of Justice League of America and a crucial early cross-branding event from Mystery in Space #75, with scripter Gardner Fox and illustrators Mike Sekowsky & Bernard Sachs – with the support of Joe Giella, Carmine Infantino & Murphy Anderson – seemingly able to do no wrong. That moment that changed everything for us baby-boomers came in The Brave and the Bold #28, a classical adventure title that had recently become a try-out magazine like Showcase. Just in time for Christmas 1959 ads began running…

“Just Imagine! The mightiest heroes of our time… have banded together as the Justice League of America to stamp out the forces of evil wherever and whenever they appear!…”

When it came that first tale was written by the indefatigable Gardner Fox and illustrated by quirky, understated virtuoso Mike Sekowsky, and inked by Bernard Sachs, Joe Giella & Murphy Anderson. ‘Starro the Conqueror!’ saw Flash, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, J’onn J’onzz – Manhunter from Mars and recent debutante Green Lantern defeat a marauding alien starfish whilst Superman and Batman stood by as a reserve. In those naive days, editors feared their top characters could be “over-exposed” and consequently lose popularity. The team also picked up an average American kid as a mascot. “Typical teenager” Snapper Carr would prove a focus of fan controversy for decades to come, and the yarn was/is supplanted by fact page ‘The “Starfish” Family!’ crafted by clever persons currently unknown…

Confident of his material and the superhero genre’s fresh appeal, Schwartz had two more thrillers ready for the following issues. B&B #29 saw the team defeat a marauder from the future who apparently had history on his side in ‘The Challenge of the Weapons Master!’ (inks by Sachs and Giella) whilst #30 saw the debut of the team’s first mad-scientist archvillain in the form of Professor Ivo who employed and his super android Amazo in ‘The Case of the Stolen Super Powers’ (Fox, Sekowsky & Sachs) to  end the try-out run. Three months later a new bi-monthly title debuted…

Perhaps somewhat sedate by histrionic modern standards, the JLA was revolutionary in a comics marketplace where less than 10% of all sales featured costumed adventurers. Not only consumer imagination was struck by hero teams either. Stan Lee was apparently given a copy of Justice League by his boss Martin Goodman and told to do something similar for the tottering comics company he ran… and look what came of that…

Justice League of America #1 offered a voyage to ‘The World of No Return’, in the insalubrious company of trans-dimensional tour-guide and tawdry tyrant Despero who bedevilled the World’s Greatest Heroes until, once again, plucky Snapper Carr became the key to defeating the villain and saving the day. As previously mentioned, although Superman and Batman were included in the membership their participation was strictly limited as editorial diktat at the start to avoid possible reader ennui and saturation from over-exposure. That ended from this point forward as they joined the regulars in all their games.

The second issue’s ‘Secret of the Sinister Sorcerers!’ presented an astounding conundrum as the villains of Magic-Land sneakily transposed the location of their dimension with Earth’s, causing the Laws of Science to be replaced with the Lore of Mysticism. The true mettle of the costumed heroes (with Superman & Batman fully participating in the proceedings) was shown when they had to use ingenuity rather than their powers to defeat fearsome foes and set two worlds to rights.

JLA #3 introduced despicable despot and slimy sentient trafficker Kanjar Ro who attempted to turn the team into his personal army in ‘The Slave Ship of Space!’, before the next episode was the first of many to feature a new member joining the team. Green Arrow saved the day in science-fiction thriller ‘Doom of the Star Diamond’, but was almost kicked out in #5 as the insidious evil genius Doctor Destiny inadvertently framed him ‘When Gravity Went Wild!’

The glory days of full-on “costumed crazies” was still in the future and most tales of this period involved extraterrestrial or fringe technology-triggered emergencies such as the mad scientist who encountered them next. ‘The Wheel of Misfortune!’ saw the debut of pernicious and persistent master of wild science Professor Amos Fortune, who weaponised luck to challenge the masked marvels, whilst #7 was another alien invasion plot (Agellaxians this time) who used an amusement park as a live-weapons lab, using humans to beta test their tech and eerily transform the swiftly-investigating heroes infiltrating ‘The Cosmic Fun-House!’

Organised crime then collided with cruel happenstance in January 1962’s JLA #8. ‘For Sale… the Justice League!’ offered a smart gangster caper wherein cheap hood Pete Rickets finds a prototype teaching tool and misuses it as mind-control weapon to enslave the superhero team before simple Snapper once again saves the day.

As often remarked, back then origins and character background were not as important as delivering solid entertaining stories and it was not until Justice League of America #9 (cover-dated February 1962 and on sale from December 21st 1961) that the group shared its motivating first case with enthralled readers via the narrative engine of curious Snapper Carr. Nigh-mythic now and oft-recounted. ‘The Origin of the Justice League’ recounts the circumstances of the team’s birth in an alien invasion saga as mighty space warriors seeking to use Earth as a gladiatorial arena in which to decide the future ruler of their distant world Appellax…

It’s followed by the series’ first continued story. ‘The Fantastic Fingers of Felix Faust!’ finds the World’s Greatest Superheroes already battling a marauder from the future – the Lord of Time – when they’re spellbound by a vile sorcerer. Faust has awoken three antediluvian demons (Abnegazar, Rath and Ghast) and sold them the world in exchange for 100 years of unlimited power. Although the heroes eventually outwit and defeat Faust they have no idea that the demons are loose…

Although chronologically and sequentially adrift, next up is  Mystery in Space #75 (May 1962), wherein the worlds-beating team guest-star in a full-length thriller in Adam Strange’s ongoing, off-world epic adventures. Strange is an Earth archaeologist who regularly teleports to a planet circling Alpha Centauri where his wits and ingenuity saved the citizens of Rann from all manner of interplanetary threats and menaces. In ‘The Planet that came to a Standstill!’, Kanjar Ro attempts to conquer Strange’s adopted home, and our gallant hero must enlist the aid of the JLA before once again saving the day himself. This classic team-up was written by Fox, and illustrated by Carmine Infantino & Murphy Anderson.

Then, back in JLA #11 (also cover-dated May 1962) concluding chronological conundrum ‘One Hour to Doomsday!’ sees the JLA pursue and capture initial target The Lord of Time, before becoming trapped a century from their home-era by the awakened, re-empowered demons. This level of plot complexity hadn’t been seen in comics since the closure of EC Comics, and never before in a superhero tale. It was a profound acknowledgement by the creators that the readership was no longer simply little kids – if indeed it ever had been…

Perennial archvillain Doctor Light debuted in #12, attempting a pre-emptive strike on the team by transporting them to carefully selected sidereal worlds where their abilities would be useless, but ‘The Last Case of the Justice League’ proved to be anything but, and in the next issue the heroes saved our entire reality by solving ‘The Riddle of the Robot Justice League’: sinister simulacra created to stop the champions from halting the theft of our life-energy by agents of another cosmic realm. Then ‘The Menace of the “Atom” Bomb!’ in #14 proved to be  a neat way of introducing latest inductee The Atom whilst showing a fresh side to an old villain masquerading as new nemesis Mister Memory…

‘Challenge of the Untouchable Aliens’ in JLA #15 added some fresh texture to the formulaic plot of extra-dimensional invaders out for our destruction before ‘The Cavern of Deadly Spheres’ delivered a deceptive change-of-pace tale with a narrative technique that just couldn’t be used on today’s oh-so-sophisticated audience, but still has the power to grip a reader. Ever challenging and always universal continuity building, more links between heroes were formed in #17’s ‘Triumph of the Tornado Tyrant!’ Here a sentient cyclone that had once battled indomitable Adam Strange (in Mystery in Space #61) set up housekeeping on an desolate world and ponder the very nature of Good and Evil and even roleplay out its deliberations. It soon realised that it needed the help of the Justice League to reach a survivable conclusion…

Teaser Alert: As well being a cracking yarn, this story is pivotal in the development of the android hero Red Tornado…

JLA #18 found the heroes forcibly summoned to a subatomic universe by three planetary champions whose continued existence now threatened to destroy the very world they were designed to protect. ‘Journey to the Micro-World’ found the JLA compelled to defeat opponents who were literally unbeatable and discovering yet again that Batman’s brains were a super power no force could thwart…

One final perplexing puzzle was posed in ‘The Super-Exiles of Earth’ after unstoppable duplicates of the heroes go on a crime-spree, forcing global governments to banish the League into space. Breaking rules and laws whilst battling undercover in their civilian identities, the team prove too much for the mystery mastermind behind the plot and return to public acclaim in a stellar wrap-up to another fabulous feast of four-colour fun.

With iconic covers by Sekowsky, Infantino and Anderson, these tales are a perfect example of all that was best and purest about US comics’ Silver Age: combining optimism and ingenuity with bonhomie and adventure. This slice of better times also has the benefit of cherishing wonderment whilst actually being historically valid for any fan of our medium. Best of all the stories here are still captivating and enthralling transports of delight.

These classical compendia are a dedicated fan’s delight: an absolute gift for modern fans who desperately need to catch up without going bankrupt. They are also perfect to give to youngsters as an introduction into a fabulous world of adventure and magic…
© 1960, 1961, 1962, 1963, 2026 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

Today in 1883 trailblazing strip creator Frank King (Gasoline Alley) was born, as was trendsetting illustrator Mac Raboy (Captain Marvel Junior, Green Lama, Flash Gordon) in 1914; German comics legend Rolf Kauka (Dagobert, Fix und Foxi) in 1917 and Gerard Way (Umbrella Academy, Doom Patrol, some music and TV and movies ‘n’ stuff) in 1977.

In 1978, DC’s The World’s Greatest Superheroes newspaper strip premiered.

Posted on

Green Lantern: The Silver Age volume 1


By John Broome, Gardner Fox, Gil Kane, Mike Sekowsky, Carmine Infantino, Ross Andru, Joe Giella, Murphy Anderson & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-6348-5 (TPB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Today marks the centenary of Eli Katz, who, as Gil Kane, worked from the Golden Age until his death (on January 31st 2000) to make comics the art form it is today. Diligent, resolute and always challenging himself, Kane was a trendsetting pioneer in style, in form and in comics philosophy. He was also a visual architect of the superhero revival in the Silver Age and a key component in the evolution of the Graphic Novel.

Gil Kane worked as an artist, and an ever-more effective and influential one, drawing – and writing – for many companies since his 1940s debut: on superheroes, action, war, mystery, romance, movie adaptations and, perhaps most importantly, Westerns and Science Fiction tales. In the late 1950s Kane was one of editor Julius Schwartz’s go-to artists for regenerating the superhero. Yet by 1968, at the top of his (admittedly much denigrated) profession, this relentlessly revolutionary and creative man felt so confined by juvenile strictures of the industry that he struck out on new ventures, jettisoning editorial and format bounds of comic books for new visions and media.

His Name Is Savage was an adult-oriented monochrome magazine about a cold and ruthless super-spy in the James Bond/Man Called Flint mould, co-written by friend & collaborator Archie Goodwin. It was very much a precursor in tone, treatment and subject matter to many of today’s adventure titles. The other venture, Blackmark (also with Goodwin), not only ushered in an era of comic book Sword & Sorcery, but became one of the first Graphic Novels. Technically, as the series was commissioned by publisher Ballantine as eight volumes, it was also America’s first comic Limited Series. Volume 1 launched in January 1971, with volume 2 just completed when the publisher killed the project. Albeit a generation Kane’s junior, long term seasoned collaborator Roy Thomas reprinted those tales in Marvel’s Savage Sword of Conan and Marvel Preview, with artwork rejigged to accommodate a different page format.

In comic books Kane’s milieux included Boy Commandos, Young Allies & Newsboy Legion, Johnny Thunder, Jimmy Wakely, Hopalong Cassidy, Rex the Wonder Dog, The Atom, Plastic Man, Robin, Batgirl, Batman, Superman, Flash, Hawk and Dove, Captain Action, T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents, U.N.D.E.R.S.E.A. Agent, plus hundreds of genre yarns – romance, war, sci fi, western and horror – before landing at Marvel Comics to reinvent Amazing Spider-Man, Captain America, Thor, Hulk, Ka-Zar and Captain Marvel, co-creating Adam Warlock, Morbius, Iron Fist. He adapted John Carter, Warlord of Mars and other adventure fantasy properties and reinvigorated dozens of horror-hero and superhero stalwarts, all while filling in on seemingly every character and cover going…

Restless and craving what the medium could still achieve, he created newspaper strip Star Hawks (in 1977 with Ron Goulart) and numerous special projects like Jason Drum for Le Journal de Tintin and The Ring of the Nibelung. Also working as Gil Stack, Scott Edward, Stack Til, Stacktil, Pen Star and Phil Martell, Kane was a foundation stone of comics and remains a vivid, vital inspiration to future generations of creators and readers.

With all that in mind let’s revisit a character he co-created and who will be forever associated with Kane: the Silver Age Emerald Gladiator…

After their hugely successful revival and reworking of The Flash, DC (or National Comics as they were) were keen to build on the resurgent superhero trend. Showcase #22 hit the stands at the same time as the fourth issue of the new Flash comic book – #108 – and once again the guiding lights were Editor Julie Schwartz & writer John Broome. Assigned as illustrator was action ace Gil Kane, generally inked by Joe Giella.

This fabulous paperback compilation gathers Showcase #22-24 (September/October 1959 to January/February 1960) and Green Lantern #1-9 (July/August 1960-November 1961) and reveals how a Space Age reconfiguration of the Golden-Age superhero with a magic ring replaced mysticism with super-science.

Hal Jordan was a young test pilot in California when an alien policeman crashed his spaceship on Earth. Mortally wounded, Abin Sur commanded his ring – a device which could materialise thoughts – to seek out a replacement officer, honest and without fear. Scanning the planet it selected Jordan and brought him to the crash-site. The dying alien bequeathed his ring, the lantern-shaped Battery of Power and his profession to the astonished Earthman.

In six pages ‘S.O.S Green Lantern’ established characters, scenario and narrative thrust of a series that would increasingly become the spine of DC continuity, leaving room for another two adventures in that premiere issue. ‘Secret of the Flaming Spear!’ and ‘Menace of the Runaway Missile!’ were both contemporary thrillers set against the backdrop of the aviation industry at a time when the Cold War was at its height. Unlike Flash’s debut, the publishers were now confident of their ground. The next two issues of Showcase carried the new hero into even greater and more fantastic exploits. ‘Summons from Space’ sent Green Lantern to another world: saving an emerging race from a deadly threat at the behest of the as-yet-unnamed leaders of the Green Lantern Corps, whilst ‘The Invisible Destroyer’ pitted the neophyte Emerald Gladiator against earthbound eerie menace – a psychic marauder that lived on atomic radiation.

Showcase #24 (January/February 1960) featured another spy-ring in ‘The Secret of the Black Museum!’ but Jordan’s complex social life took centre-stage in ‘The Creature That Couldn’t Die!’ when the threat of an unstoppable monster paled before the insufferable stress of being his own rival. Hal’s boss Carol Ferris, controversially left in charge of her father’s aviation company (an utterly radical concept in 1960 when most women were still considered fainting-fodder fluff), won’t date an employee, but is deliriously happy for him to set her up with glamorous, mysterious GL…

Six months later Green Lantern #1 was released. All previous tales had been dynamically drawn by Kane & Giella, in a visually arresting and exciting manner, but the lead tale here, ‘Planet of Doomed Men’ was inked by the astoundingly multi-talented Murphy Anderson, and his fine line-work elevated the tale (more emergent humans in need of rescue from another monster) to the status of a minor classic. Giella returned for the second tale, ‘Menace of the Giant Puppet!’, in which GL fought his first – albeit rather lame – supervillain, the Puppet Master.

The next issue originated a concept that would be pivotal to the future of DC continuity. ‘The Secret of the Golden Thunderbolts!’ featured an Antimatter Universe and the diabolical Weaponers of Qward: a twisted race who worshipped Evil, and whose criminals (i.e. people who wouldn’t lie, cheat, steal or kill) wanted asylum on Earth. Also inked by Anderson, this is an early highpoint of tragic melodrama from an era where emotionalism was actively downplayed in comics. The second story ‘Riddle of the Frozen Ghost Town! is a crime thriller highlighting the developing relationship between the hero and his Inuit (then “Eskimo”) mechanic Tom “Pieface”Kalmaku.

The Qwardians returned in the all-Giella-inked #3, leading with ‘The Amazing Theft of the Power Lamp!’ before Jordan’s love life again spun out of control in ‘The Leap Year Menace!’, whilst GL #4 saw the hero trapped in the antimatter universe in ‘The Diabolical Missile from Qward!’ (Anderson inks) nicely balanced by light-&-frothy mistaken-identity caper ‘Secret of Green Lantern’s Mask!’ This last was apparently crafted by a veritable round-robin raft of pencillers including Kane, Giella, Carmine Infantino, Mike Sekowsky and Ross Andru…

Issue #5 was a full-length thriller introducing Hector Hammond, GL’s second official recurring super-foe in ‘The Power Ring that Vanished!’: a saga of romantic intrigue, mistaken identity and evolution gone wild. This was followed by another pure science fiction puzzler ‘The World of Living Phantoms!’ (Kane & Giella), debuting avian Green Lantern Tomar Re and opening up the entire universe to avid readers.

Having shown us other GLs, Broome immediately excelled himself in the next episode. ‘The Day 100,000 People Vanished!’ brought the Guardians of the Universe into the open to warn of their greatest error: renegade Green Lantern Sinestro who, in league with Qwardians, had become a threat to the entire universe. This taut, tense shocker introduced one of the most charismatic and intriguing villains in the DCU, and the issue still had room for a dryly amusing, whimsical drama introducing Tom Kalmaku’s fiancée Terga in ‘Wings of Destiny’.

In the early 1960s DC production wizard Jack Adler devised a process to add enhancing tone to cover illustrations. The finished result was eye-catching and mind-blowing, but sadly, examples such as the cover of #8 here really don’t work with the glossy pages and digitised colour-tints of modern reproduction. Never mind, though, since contents ‘The Challenge from 5700 AD!’ comprise a fantasy tour de force as the Emerald Gladiator is shanghaied through time to save the future from an invasion of mutant lizards…

Sinestro returned in the next issue – the last in this astounding cosmic collection – with his own super-weapon in ‘The Battle of the Power Rings!’ (with Anderson again substituting for Giella) but the real gold is ‘Green Lantern’s Brother Act’, with the revelation of Hal’s two brothers and a snoopy girl reporter convinced young Jim Jordan is secretly the ring-slinging superhero. This wry poke at DC’s house plot-device shows just how sophisticated Schwartz & Broome believed their audiences to be.

In those long ago days costumed villains were always third choice in a writer’s armoury: clever bad-guys and aliens always seemed more believable to creators back then. If you were doing something naughty would you want to call attention to yourself? Nowadays the visual impact of buff men in tights dictates the type of foe more than the crimes committed, which is why these glorious adventures of simpler yet somehow better days are such an unalloyed delight. These Fights ‘n’ Tights romps are in themselves a great read for most ages, but when also considered as the building blocks of all DC continuity they become vital fare for any fan keen to make sense of the modern superhero experience.

Judged solely on their own merit, these are snappy and awe-inspiring; beautifully illustrated by a rapidly evolving graphic narrative superstar in ascendance: captivatingly clever thrillers that amuse, amaze and enthral both new readers and old devotees. This collection is a must-read item for anybody in love with our art-form and especially for anyone just now encountering the hero for the first time through his TV incarnation.
© 1959, 1960, 1961, 2016 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

Today in 1882 Spanish creator Salvador Bartolozzi (weekly Pinocchio) was born, with The New Yorker cartoonist Chon Day arriving in 1907, Levi Katz in 1926 and crusading Filipino cartoonist Pol Medina Jr. (Pugad Baboy) in 1960. In 1980 Dash Shaw (Bottomless Belly Button, New School, The Unclothed Man In the 35th Century A.D., Courier) joined that august grouping.

In 1936 Frank Leonard’s Mickey Finn strip debuted, and ran until 10th September 1977.