Category: Crime Comics

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Yoko Tsuno volume 19: The Astrologist of Bruges


By Roger Leloup, coloured by Beatrice of Studio Leonardo & translated by Jerome Saincantin (Cinebook)
ISBN: 978-1-80044-130-9 (Album PB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

On September 24th 1970, “electronics engineer” Yoko Tsuno began her troubleshooting career as an indomitable intellectual adventurer. Her debut in Le Journal de Spirou was realised in “Marcinelle style” cartoonish 8 page short ‘Hold-up en hi-fi’ but although she is still delighting readers and making new fans to this day, her action-packed, astonishing, astoundingly accessible exploits quickly evolved into a highpoint of pseudo-realistic fantasies numbering amongst the most intoxicating, absorbing and broad-ranging comics thrillers ever created. Her globe-girdling mystery cases and space-&-time-spanning epics are the brainchild of Belgian maestro Roger Leloup who launched his own solo career in 1953 after working as studio assistant/technical artist on Hergé’s Adventures of Tintin.

Compellingly told, sublimely imaginative and – no matter how implausible the premise of an individual yarn – always firmly grounded in hyper-authentic settings underpinned by solidly-constructed, unshakably believable technology and unswerving scientific principles, Leloup’s illustrated escapades were at the vanguard of a wave of strips revolutionising European comics. Very early in the process, he switched from loose illustration to a mesmerising nigh-photo realistic style that is a series signature. That long-overdue sea-change in gender roles and stereotyping heralded a torrent of clever, competent, brave and formidable women protagonists taking their rightful places as heroic ideals and not romantic lures, consequently elevating Continental comics in the process. Such endeavours are as engaging and empowering now as they ever were, none more so than the travails of Miss Tsuno.

Her first outings (the aforementioned, STILL unavailable Hold-up en hi-fi, and co-sequels La belle et la bête and Cap 351) were mere introductory vignettes prior to epic authenticity taking a firm grip in 1971 when the unflappable problem solver met valiant but lesser (male) pals Pol Paris and Vic Van Steen. Instantly hitting her stride in premier full-length saga Le trio de l’étrange (in LJdS’s May 13th edition), from then on, Yoko’s efforts encompassed explosive exploits in exotic corners of our world, sinister deep-space sagas and even time-travelling jaunts. There are 31 European bande dessinée albums to date, with 19 translated into English thus far, albeit – and ironically – none of them available in digital formats…

Initially serialised in LJdS #2923 to 2943 and spanning April 20th to September 7th 1994, L’astrologue de Bruges became the 20th collected Yoko Tsuno album that same year. Following chronologically on from The Rhine Gold, it weaves a tale of Earth-bound archaic mystery as our tireless troubleshooter visits a living historical treasure trove for answers to a contemporary conundrum…

Walking the scenic canals of Bruges – “the Venice of the North” – Yoko strikes up a fortuitous conversation with a painter who is actually a very open-minded archaeologist and imaginative historian. Tsuno is there to meet another artist; one who has painted her portrait in local period dress. She thinks it’s from magazine photos of her, but Mr. Jos knows much of the confounding Jan Van Laet who has contacted Yoko, and none of what he knows is good…

Jos shows her the quiet passages and waterways of a renaissance city barely altered since the 16th century and offers to stay close during her interview with Van Laet: a man he seriously considers to be in league with the Devil…

Soon after her interview with the extremely off-kilter portraitist begins, Tsuno begins to agree with that assessment as Van Laet seeks to convince her that he captured her image from life, not photos, and that she had posed for him in 1545 Anno Domini. Her doubts take a hard knock when he also reveals ancient pictures and sketches of her with her friend Monya and foster daughter Morning Dew.

That’s when Van Laet’s patron and master the Marquis of Torcello joins the interview, claiming Yoko has lived since those Renaissance days afflicted by amnesia. Incensed and threatening, he also accuses her of holding his property: a vial containing an elixir of youth and another carrying the secret of a deadly biological super-weapon bottled by legendary, infamous natural philosopher, astrologer and alchemist Zacharius..

Escaping by hurling herself out of a window to be plucked from a canal by Mr. Jos, Yoko is pretty sure she knows the How if not Why of this situation. After all, Monya is a cherished comrade who was born in the far future and possesses a working time machine…

Resolved to learn everything and foil Torcello & Van Laet’s scheme to reintroduce the Black Death to the modern world, Yoko recruits steadfast comrades Pol & Vic to join her, Monya and Dew in an era of pestilence, intrigue, Inquisitions and ongoing Wars of Religion. She has no choice over the child… the painting already incontrovertibly proves Dew was present and in just as much danger as everyone else…

Mr Jos is vital in the planning and reconnaissance stages of the proposed mission. He now owns the fantastic house occupied by the undying villain in 16th century and allows Yoko access to all its many levels of subterranean cellars and workshops, and provides access to clothing of the era. Monya delivers everything else needed and during a terrific storm the party nervously head back to a time of terror and travail…

Befriending poverty-stricken flower seller Mieke on arrival, the time travellers are soon embroiled in an ongoing and escalating calamity involving Zacharius’ deranged-but-brilliant apprentice Balthazar, a scheme stripping churches of gold and portraitist Van Laet’s insidious human trafficking business selling his poor but honest models to the rich men who purchase his paintings. The true threat though is always Torcello who wants to spread doom and destruction in every era and gets his big chance after capturing Monya and stealing her Time Shifter…

The monster’s fate is someone else’s boon, however, as the doomed brief encounter of flirtatious Pol and meek Mieke suddenly grows into something much greater and happier ever after…

As ever, the most assured assets of these edgy endeavours are astonishingly authentic settings, benefitting from Leloup’s diligent research and meticulous attention to detail. A magnificently complex twisty thriller with doomsday overtones, displaying our valiant troubleshooter and her team triumphant in a taut, tense thriller of time bending terror, The Astrologist of Bruges is tense, moody, slow-burning, deviously twisted and potently plausible: a fable confirming how smarts and combat savvy are pointless without compassion, integrity and a sense of moral responsibility.
Original edition © Dupuis, 1994 by Roger Leloup. All rights reserved. English translation 2024 © Cinebook Ltd.

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DC Finest: Team-Ups: Chase to the End of Time


By Bob Haney, Cary Burkett, Martin Pasko, Dave Michelinie, Len Wein, Cary Bates, Steve Englehart, Paul Levitz, Jim Aparo, José Luis García-López, Murphy Anderson, Curt Swan, Dick Dillin, Joe Staton, Rich Buckler, Don Newton, Romeo Tanghal, Frank McLaughlin, Frank Chiaramonte, Dick Giordano, Jack Abel, Bob Smith & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-79950-082-7 (TPB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times

Here’s another stunning and timely compilation comprising the best of vintage comics; one more astounding and epic DC Finest edition. These weighty, full colour treasure troves are chronologically curated themed tomes highlighting past glories from the company that invented superheroes and so much more. Sadly, they’re not yet available digitally, as were the last decade’s Bronze, Silver and Golden Age collections, but we live in hope…

As you’ve probably noticed, a big part of superhero fiction involves interacting – if not always uniting – with other costumed stars. Every producer, purveyor and publisher of Fights ‘n’ Tights fare employs and exploits the concept of allied action and chums in conflict, with apparently every consumer insatiably coveting them and more of the same. With The Man of Steel and a whole bunch of super-suited & booted associates happily and profitably cavorting across big screens everywhere now, let’s look at a few of his past collaborations… and while we’re at it, peek at some of his best pal’s other playmates at the same time…

From the moment a kid first sees his second superhero the only thing he/she wants is to observe how the new gaudy gladiator stacks up against the first. From the earliest days of the comics industry – and according to DC Comics Presents first editor Julie Schwartz, it was the same with the pulps and dime novels that preceded it – we’ve wanted our idols to meet, associate, battle together (and if you follow the Timely/Marvel model, that means against each other) far more than we want to see them trounce their archenemies in a united front…

The concept of team-up comic books – an established star pairing or battling (usually both) with less well-selling company characters – was far from new when DC awarded their then-biggest gun (it was the publicity-drenched weeks before the release of Superman: The Movie and Tim Burton’s Batman was over a decade away) a regular arena to share adventures with other stars of their firmament, just as Batman had been doing since the middle of the 1960s.

The Brave and the Bold began in 1955 as an anthology adventure comic featuring short tales of period heroes: a format mirroring contemporary movie fascination with historical dramas. Written by Bob Kanigher, issue #1 led with Golden Gladiator, the Silent Knight and Joe Kubert’s now legendary Viking Prince. From #5 the Gladiator was increasingly alternated with Robin Hood, and manly, mainly mainstream romps carried the title until the end of the decade when the burgeoning costumed character revival saw B&B transform into a try-out vehicle like sister publication Showcase.

Brave and the Bold #25 (August/September 1959) debuted Task Force X: Suicide Squad, followed by Justice League of America (#28), Cave Carson (#31) and Hawkman (#34). Since only the JLA hit first time out, there were return engagements for the Squad, Carson and Hawkman. Something truly different appeared in #45-49 with science fictional Strange Sports Stories before B&B #50 triggered a new concept that once again truly caught reader imaginations.

It paired superheroes Green Arrow and Martian Manhunter in a one-off team-up, as did succeeding issues: Aquaman and Hawkman in #51, WWII wonders Sgt. Rock, Captain Cloud, Mme. Marie and the Haunted Tank in #52 and Atom with Flash in #53. The next team-up – Robin, Aqualad & Kid Flash – swiftly evolved into the Teen Titans. After Metal Men/the Atom and Flash/Martian Manhunter, new hero Metamorpho, the Element Man debuted in #57-58. Then it was back to superhero pairings with #59, and although no one realised it at the time this particular conjunction (Batman & Green Lantern) would be particularly significant. Soon the book would become a vehicle for Batman team-ups…

With the 1978 release of Superman The Movie it was time to reward the Man of Tomorrow with a similar dedicated publication, although in truth, the Action Ace had already enjoyed the sharing experience once before, when World’s Finest Comics briefly ejected the Caped Crusader and Superman paired with a coterie of heroes including Flash, Robin, Aquaman, Teen Titans, Vigilante, Dr. Fate and others (i#198-214; cover-dated November 1970 to October/November 1972) before the traditional status quo was re-established.

This superb all action collection intriguingly re-presents the first 14 star-studded monthly DC Comics Presents releases and the equivalent contemporary issues of The Brave and the Bold – #141-155). These together collectively span May/June 1978 through October 1979. We open with B&B and resident creators Bob Haney & Jim Aparo, so before the off here’s some background.

Robert Gilbert Haney, Jr. was born on 15th March 1926, growing up in Philadelphia listening to radio dramas and serials, and reading newspaper strips like Prince Valiant and Flash Gordon. Higher education at Swathmore College led to service in the US Navy. He was one of the lucky ones to survive The Battle of Okinawa relatively unscathed.

Follow up studies at Columbia University led to a Master’s degree, after which Haney began a prolific storytelling career by writing a slew of popular novels under a number of noms de plume. In 1947, he moved sideways into comic books, beginning with racy tale ‘College for Murder’ in Harvey Comics’ Black Cat #9 (cover-dated January 1948). From then until 1955 he freelanced for various publishers like Fawcett, Hillman, Standard and St. John on genre tales packed with action, grit and wit.

When anti-comics witch-hunts in the 1950s led to a bowdlerising, self-inflicted Comics Code, Haney shifted gears and began an almost exclusive position as a scripter at DC/National Comics, initially for the war comic division. His first sale was ‘Frogmen’s Secret’ in All American Men of War #17 (January 1955), and he scripted the very first Sgt Rock story in 1959, and countless more for all the combat titles.

Immensely versatile, he wrote for every genre division from licensed to humour, western to superhero and for titles including Blackhawk, Adventures of Rex the Wonder Dog, Sea Devils, Tomahawk, Challengers of the Unknown, Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen, My Greatest Adventure, Doom Patrol, Aquaman, Hawkman, Space Ranger, Green Arrow, Deadman, The Unknown Soldier, and the very first Batman team-up in The Brave and the Bold #59. For decades the book would be his personal playground and where he delivered his take on most of the company’s vast pantheon…

Haney co-created the Teen Titans, Metamorpho, Eclipso, Enchantress (in Strange Adventures), Aquagirl, Cain of The House of Mystery and the Super-Sons, but ultimately his style began to clash with DC’s changing teen demographic. Happily, he had also been working in animation since the mid-1960s, scripting episodes of The New Adventures of Superman and The Superman/Aquaman Hour of Adventure TV shows; and in the 1980s, DC’s loss was cartoon kids’ gain. Haney worked extensively on new shows including Karate Kat, Silverhawks and ThunderCats, as well as producing books of general fiction and consumer journalism. Ultimately, rapprochement with a new DC management saw Haney return to comics for nostalgia-tinged titles including Elseworlds 80-Page Giant #1 (August 1999); Silver Age: The Brave and the Bold #1 (July 2000); and – posthumously published –Teen Titans Lost Annual #1 (March 2008).

Haney died on November 25th 2004, in La Mesa, California.

Taking his cues from news headlines, popular films and proven genre-sources, Haney continually produced gripping yarns that thrilled and enticed, with no need for more than a cursory nod to an ever-more-onerous continuity. Anybody could pick up an issue of B&B and be sucked into a world of wonder. Consequently, these tales are just as fresh and welcoming today, their themes and premises just as immediate now as then. Moreover, Jim Aparo’s magnificent art is still as compelling and engrossing as it always was.

James N. Aparo (August 24th 1932 – July 19th 2005) was a true but quiet giant of comic books. Self-taught, he grew up in New Britain Connecticut, and, after failing to join EC Comics whilst in his 20s, slipped easily into advertising, newspaper and fashion illustration. Even after finally becoming a comics artist he assiduously maintained his links with his first career. For most of his career he was a triple-threat, pencilling, inking and lettering his pages. In 1963 he began drawing Ralph Kanna’s newspaper strip Stern Wheeler, and three years later was working on a wide range of features for go-getting visionary editor Dick Giordano at Charlton Comics. Aparo especially shone on the minor company’s licensed top gun The Phantom. In 1968 when Giordano was lured away to National/DC he brought his top performers (primarily Steve Ditko, Steve Skeates and Aparo) with him. Aparo began a life-long association with the company where legends live illustrating and reinvigorating moribund title Aquaman – although he also continued with The Phantom until his duties grew with the addition of numerous short stories for the monolith’s burgeoning horror anthologies and revived 1950s supernatural champion The Phantom Stranger.

Aparo went on to become a multi award-winning mainstay of DC’s artistic arsenal, with stellar runs on The Spectre, The Outsiders and Green Arrow, but his star was always and forever linked to Batman’s.

In B&B #141’s ‘Pay – Or Die!’ that relationship and the artist’s versatility shines as Black Canary helps Batman quash The Joker’s byzantine extortion scheme.

Fast-paced, straightforward, done-in-one dramas almost by definition, these quick treats were perfect introducer tales and seldom carried over, but in #142, ‘Enigma of the Death-Ship!’ sees Aquaman and wife Mera battle the Dark Knight to suppress a family secret, before the sordid trail of a covert Gotham drug lord leads to the most respected man in America in the next issue, with Cary Burkett collaborating with Haney for conclusion ‘Cast the First Stone’ as manic crime-crusher The Creeper confronts his mentor and finds even the most esteemed hero can have feet of clay…

The brave, bold portion of our entertainment pauses here to allow the Metropolis Marvel his moment to shine with a debut 2-part thriller from DC Comics Presents #1 & 2 (July/August & September/October 1978), featuring Silver Age Flash Barry Allen, who had also been Superman’s first co-star in that aforementioned World’s Finest Comics run. ‘Chase to the End of Time!’ and ‘Race to the End of Time!’ by scripter Marty Pasko & utterly astounding José Luis García-López inked by Dan Adkins, rather reprises that selfsame WF tale. Here warring alien races trick both heroes into speeding relentlessly through the time-stream to prevent Earth’s history from being corrupted and destroyed. As if that isn’t dangerous enough, nobody could predict the deadly intervention of the Scarlet Speedster’s most dangerous foe, Professor Zoom, the Reverse-Flash, but the heroes sort it all out in the end…

In B&B #144 Haney& Aparo deliver a magical mystery tale of ‘The Arrow of Eternity’ as Caped Crusader and Emerald Archer head back in time to Agincourt and foil a wicked plot by time-tamperer the Gargoyle, whilst in DCCP #3, David Michelinie’s tantalising pastiche of classic Adam Strange/Mystery in Space thrillers results in a modern masterpiece for García-López to draw and ink in ‘The Riddle of Little Earth Lost’. Here Man of Two Worlds and Man of Steel foil the diabolical cosmic catastrophe scheme of deranged ex-tyrant Kaskor to transpose, subjugate and/or destroy Earth and light-years distant planet Rann.

Courtesy of Haney & Aparo, The Phantom Stranger and Batman face ‘A Choice of Dooms!’ pursuing voodoo crime lord Kaluu in B&B #145 whilst DCCP #4 welcomed Len Wein to script the superb ‘Sun-Stroke!’ for García-López, as Man of Steel and madly-malleable Metal Men join forces to thwart solar-fuelled genius I.Q. and toxic elemental menace Chemo after an ill-considered plan to enhance Earth’s solar radiation exposure provokes a cataclysmic solar-flare…

Haney and guest artists Romeo Tanghal & Frank McLaughlin switch worlds and times in B&B #146 as the Batman of World War II assists faceless superspy the Unknown Soldier in stopping Nazi assassin Count von Stauffen from murdering America’s top brass and greatest scientists to sabotage the nation’s most secret weapon project, whereas modern day Sea King Aquaman is embroiled in ‘The War of the Undersea Cities’ (by Wein, Paul Levitz & Murphy Anderson) in DCCP #5.

This time, Superman must step in after Aquaman’s subjects in Poseidonis re-open ancient hostilities with the mer-folk of undersea neighbour Tritonis, home of the caped Kryptonian’s college girlfriend Lori Lemaris. Fortunately, cooler heads prevail when the deadly Ocean Master is revealed to be meddling in their sub-sea politics…

Supergirl enjoyed her first ever B&B Bat team-up. She had previously paired with Wonder Woman in #63, in the outrageously-dated and utterly indefensible ‘Revolt of the Super-Chicks!’ but here in #147 however, Burkett & Aparo’s ‘Death-Scream from the Sky!’ sees her and the Gotham Guardian save the world from extermination by satellite and shady surprise super villain Dr. Light…

A DCCP two-parter opens with ‘The Fantastic Fall of Green Lantern’ (Levitz, Curt Swan & Francisco Chiaramonte) in #6 which sees the Man of Steel briefly inherit the awesome power ring after Hal Jordan falls in battle against his female antithesis Star Sapphire. Although triumphant against her, “Green Superman” is subsequently ambushed by warriors from antimatter universe Qward leading to ‘The Paralyzed Planet Peril!’ (#7 by Levitz, Dick Dillin & Chiaramonte) wherein those bellicose aliens seek to colonise Earth… until robotic AI hero Red Tornado swirls in to the rescue.

Back in B&B, Good Cheer mingles with Drama as ‘The Night the Mob Stole X-Mas!’ delivers seasonal fluff by Haney pencilled by Joe Staton, with Aparo applying his overpowering inks to a tale of cigarette smugglers and aging mafioso, with Plastic Man helping to provide a mandatory Christmas miracle. The disbanded Teen Titans briefly reform in #149 for Haney & Aparo’s ‘Look Homeward, Runaway!’ to help Batman hunt and redeem a kid gang moving from petty crime to the big leagues after which in DCCP #8, ‘The Sixty Deaths of Solomon Grundy’ (Steve Englehart & Murphy Anderson) teams Swamp Thing with Action Ace. At this time the bog-beast still believed he was a transformed human and not an enhanced plant, and Alec Holland searches the sewers of Metropolis for a cure to his condition, only to stumble onto a battle between the Man of Steel and the mystic zombie who was “born on a Monday”…

Anniversary event The Brave and the Bold #150 was celebrated with a pairing that was both old hat and never seen before. Haney & Aparo’s ‘Today Gotham… Tomorrow the World!’ commemorates the landmark anniversary with an extended tale of Bruce Wayne’s abduction by terrorists and the undercover superhero who secretly shadows him. No hints here from me…

In that other caped crimebuster’s book, Pasko returns to script Staton & Jack Abel’s ‘Invasion of the Ice People!’ in #9, wherein Wonder Woman assists in repelling an arctic assault by malign disembodied intellects whist in B&B #151, The Flash becomes prey and appetiser for a predatory haunt feeding off patrons at Gotham’s hippest nightspot… and Batman barely breaks the spell at the ‘Disco of Death’ (Haney & Aparo). Another 2-part tale commences with DCCP #10’s ‘The Miracle Man of Easy Company’ (Cary Bates, Staton & Abel), as a super-bomb blasts Superman back to WWII and a momentous if amnesia-tainted meeting with indomitable everyman soldier Sgt. Rock. However before the Caped Kryptonian returns home to battle a brainwashed and power-amplified Hawkman in #11’s ‘Murder by Starlight!’ (Bates, Staton & Chiaramonte) there’s an intriguing interruption. B&B #152 splits the saga as Haney & Aparo reveal ‘Death Has a Golden Grab!’. Here mighty mite The Atom helping the Gotham Gangbuster stop a deadly bullion theft.  Chronologically #153 – courtesy of Burkett, Don Newton & Bob Smith – then sees Red Tornado help Batman survive old school greed and the hi-tech ‘Menace of the Murder Machines’ before DCCP #12 arranged a duel between the Man of Steel and New God Mister Miracle in ‘Winner Take Metropolis’ by Englehart, Richard Buckler & Dick Giordano.


B&B #154 finds Element Man Metamorpho treading ‘The Pathway of Doom…’ to save former girlfriend Sapphire Stagg and help Batman disconnect a middle eastern smuggling pipeline, prior to the brave, bold portion of our entertainment coming to a close with #155’s ‘Fugitive from Two Worlds!’ as Haney & Aparo detail Green Lantern Hal Jordan clashing with the Dark Knight over jurisdiction rights regarding an earthshaking alien criminal.

Closing this perfectly curated portion of comics history is another two-part tale spanning centuries as Levitz scripts an ambitious epic limned by Dillin & Giordano that begins with ‘To Live in Peace… Nevermore!’ When the Legion of Super-Heroes visit the 20th century they must prevent Superman saving a little boy from alien abduction to preserve the integrity of the time-line. It doesn’t help that the lad is Jon Ross, son of Clark Kent’s oldest friend and most trusted confidante. Furious and deranged by loss, Pete Ross risks the destruction of reality itself by enlisting the aid of Superboy to battle his older self in ‘Judge, Jury… and No Justice!’, but achieves only stalemate and a promise from the Man of Tomorrow to somehow make things right…

This titanic tome offers a tantalising snapshot of combined A-lister capers and demonstrates the breadth of DC’s roster of lesser stars in punchy, pithy adventures acting as a perfect shop window and catalogue of legendary fascinating characters – and creators. It also delivers a delightful variety of self-contained, satisfying entertainments ranging from the merely excellent all the way to utterly unmissable. DC Finest: Team-Ups is an ideal introduction to the DC Universe for every kid of any age and passport to Costumed Dramas of a simpler, more inviting time.
© 1978, 1979, 2025 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Action Comics: 80 Years of Superman the Deluxe Edition


By Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster, Fred Guardineer, Don Cameron, Mort Weisinger, Jerry Coleman, Otto Binder, Edmond Hamilton, Len Wein, Cary Bates, Marv Wolfman, John Byrne, Roger Stern, Joe Kelly, Grant Morrison, Paul Levitz, Mort Meskin, Ed Dobrotka, Fred Ray, Wayne Boring, Al Plastino, Jim Mooney, Curt Swan, Carmine Infantino, Gil Kane, Dick Giordano, Kerry Gammill, Bob McLeod, Ben Oliver, Neal Adams plus Many & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-7887-8 (HB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

It’s a fact (if such mythological concepts still exist): the American comic book industry would be utterly unrecognisable without the invention of Superman. His unprecedented adoption by a desperate and joy-starved generation quite literally gave birth to a genre if not an actual art form. Within three years of his June 1938 debut, the intoxicating blend of eye-popping action and social wish-fulfilment which hallmarked the early Man of Steel had grown to encompass cops-and-robbers crime-busting, socially reforming dramas, science fiction, fantasy, whimsical comedy and, once the war in Europe and the East embroiled America, patriotic relevance. He’s also been regular blockbuster business in his many and varied screen interpretations, too.

In comic book terms, though, Superman is master of the world, having utterly changed the shape of a fledgling industry and modern entertainment in general. There were newspaper strips, radio & TV shows, cartoons, games, toys, mountains of merchandise and those movies mentioned. Everyone on Earth gets a picture in their heads when they hear his name.

It all started with Action Comics #1 and continues to this day, so this bold compilation (presumably soon to be superseded by a 90th Anniversary edition) celebrates the magic, not just with the now-traditional re-runs of classic Superman tales, but with informative articles and fascinating glimpses of some of the other characters who shared the title with him. This epic album gathers material from Action Comics #0, 1, 2, 42, 64, 241, 242, 252, 285, 286, 309, 419, 484, 554, 584, 655, 662 & 800, opening with writer/DC publisher Paul Levitz’s Introduction, a fond Foreword from Laura Siegel Larson and Jules Feiffer’s scene-setting, context-creating essay ‘The Beginning’ before the immortal pictorial wonderment commences.

Most early tales were untitled, but for everyone’s convenience have been given descriptive appellations by the editors. Thus, after that unmistakeable, iconic cover and a single page describing the foundling’s escape from exploding Planet Krypton (also explaining his astonishing powers in 9 panels), with absolutely no preamble ‘The Coming of Superman’ by Jerry Seigel & Joe Shuster introduces a costumed crusader – masquerading by day as reporter Clark Kent – averting numerous tragedies. As well as saving an innocent woman from the electric chair and roughing up a wife-beater, the tireless crusader works over racketeer Butch Matson – consequently saving suave and feisty colleague Lois Lane from abduction and worse since she is attempting to vamp the thug at the time!

The mysterious Man of Steel makes a big impression on her by then outing a lobbyist for the armaments industry bribing Senators on behalf of greedy munitions interests fomenting war in Europe…

To say the editors were amazed by Superman’s popularity was a gross understatement. They had their money bet on a knock-off Mandrake the Magician crafted by veteran cartoonist Fred Guardineer as graphic top dog. Here, Zatara: Master Magician’s mystic/illusion powers are fully demonstrated in ‘The Mystery of the Freight Train Robberies’ but it’s still a run-of-the-mill, rather sedate affair when compared to the astounding exploits of the Caped Wonder.

Next up is a sneak peek at ‘The Ashcans’: unused and alternative illustrations that didn’t make that crucial first cut, after which Action #2 (with a Leo O’Mealia generic adventure cover) supplies the conclusion of Superman’s first case as ‘Revolution in San Monte’ finds the mercurial mystery-man travelling to the war-zone to spectacularly dampen down hostilities already in progress…

‘The Times’ by Tom DeHaven deconstructs the mythology of the title before Fred Ray’s Superman cover (November 194)1 introduces Action #42’s ‘The Origin of the Vigilante’ by Mort Weisinger & and incredible Mort Meskin. This spectacular western-themed hero-romp proves the anthology title had plenty of other captivating characters to enchant audiences…

AC #64 debuted ‘The Terrible Toyman’ (Don Cameron, Ed Dobrotka & George Roussos), wherein an elderly inventor of children’s novelties and knick-knacks conducts a spectacular campaign of high-profile and potentially murderous robberies, with Lois as his unwilling muse and accessory, and is followed by a little tale of serendipity as Marv Wolfman harks back to his early days and explains ‘How I Saved Superman’. That’s followed by a genuine lost treasure as ‘Too Many Heroes’ offers an unpublished 1940s Superman tale – credited to Siegel & Shuster – rescued from destruction and obscurity. What a gift!

David Hajdu exposes the allure of the alter ego in ‘Clark Kent, Reporter’, after which we jump to June 1958 and the beginning of the Silver Age. Action Comics #241 cover-featured ‘The Key to Fort Superman’: a fascinating, clever puzzle-play guest-featuring Batman, scripted by Jerry Coleman and limned by Wayne Boring & Stan Kaye as an impossible intruder vexes the Man of Steel in his most sacrosanct sanctuary. One month later Otto Binder & Al Plastino introduced both the greatest new villain and most expansive new character concept the series had seen in years.

‘The Super-Duel in Space’ has evil alien scientist Brainiac attempt to add Metropolis to his collection of miniaturised cities in bottles. As well as a titanic tussle in its own right, the tale totally changed the Man of Steel’s internal mythology: introducing Kandor, a city packed with Kryptonians who all escaped the planet’s destruction when Brainiac abducted them. Although Superman rescues his fellow survivors, the villain escaped to strike again, and it would be years before the hero could restore Kandorians to their true size.

After some intriguing and noteworthy test-runs, a future star of Superman’s ever-expanding universe launched in Action Comics #252. ‘The Supergirl from Krypton!’ (May 1959), saw Superman discover he has a living relative in cousin Kara Zor-El who had been born on a city-sized fragment of Krypton, which was hurled intact into space when the planet exploded. Eventually Argo City turned to Kryptonite like the rest of the detonated world’s debris, and her dying parents repeated recent history as, observing Earth through their scopes, they despatched Kara to safety as they perished.

Landing on Earth, she met Superman and he created the cover-identity of Linda Lee, hiding her in an orphanage in small town Midvale so that she could master her new powers in secrecy and safety. Larry Tye’s ‘Endurance’ discusses longevity and political merit before we return to Superman’s official Action Comics co-star throughout the 1960s…

Hogging the cover (by Super-stalwarts Curt Swan & George Klein) the simpler times of practicing in secret ended as a big change in the Maid of Might’s status occurred. When her new adoptive parents learned of their new daughter’s true origins, Superman allowed cousin Kara to announce her existence to the world in 2-part saga ‘The World’s Greatest Heroine!’ (#285 February 1962) and ‘The Infinite Monster!’ (#286, March). Here Siegel & Jim Mooney detail how Supergirl becomes the darling of the universe, openly saving planet Earth and finally getting the credit for it.

Those long-standing TV connections were exploited in Action Comics #309 (February 1964) for hoary secret-identity save plot ‘The Superman Super-Spectacular!’ as a telethon posed a puzzle for the always overbooked Man of Steel. Written by Edmond Hamilton and illustrated by Swan & Klein, it sets up a scene where the Action Ace can use none of his usual tricks to be both Superman and Clark simultaneously, and delivers a truly shocking and utterly era-appropriate solution…

Hurtling forward to December 1972 and Action #419 we meet a surprisingly successful back-up feature created by Len Wein, Carmine Infantino & Dick Giordano. ‘The Assassin-Express Contract!’ introduced Christopher Chance as the Human Target, hiring himself out to impersonate endangered individuals such as the businessman “accidentally” sitting in the sights of a hitman, thanks to a disgruntled employee dialling a wrong number…

From a period where Golden Age stories were assumed to have occurred on parallel world Earth-Two, ‘Superman Takes a Wife’ first appeared in 40th Anniversary issue #484 (June 1978). Here Cary Bates, Swan & Joe Giella detail how the original 1938 Man of Tomorrow became editor of the Metropolis Daily Star in the 1950s and married Lois Lane. Thanks to villains Colonel Future and The Wizard who had discovered a way to make Superman forget his own existence, only she knew that her husband was once Earth’s greatest hero…

More meta-realistic meandering led to ‘If Superman Didn’t Exist’ (by Marv Wolfman & Gil Kane in Action #554 (April 1984) which posits an alien-subjugated Earth deprived of heroes until two kids with big dreams invent one…

In 1985 DC Comics rationalised, reconstructed and reinvigorated their continuity with Crisis on Infinite Earths. They also used the event to regenerate key properties at the same time. The biggest gun they had was Superman and it’s hard to argue that the change was not before time. The big guy was in another slump, but he’d weathered those before. So how could a root and branch retooling be anything but a pathetic marketing ploy that would alienate the real fans for a few fly-by-night Johnny-come-latelies who would jump ship as soon as the next fad surfaced? This new Superman was going to suck…

But he didn’t.

Public furore began with all DC’s Superman titles being “cancelled” (actually suspended) for three months, and yes, that did make the real-world media sit-up and take notice of the character everybody thought they knew for the first time in decades. However, there was method in this seeming corporate madness.

The missing mainstays were replaced by a 6-part miniseries running from October to December 1986. Entitled Man of Steel it was written and drawn by Marvel’s mainstream superstar John Byrne and inked by venerated veteran Dick Giordano. The bold manoeuvre was a huge and instant success and the retuned Superman titles all came storming back with the accent on breakneck pace and action. Superman had always enjoyed brief or lengthy partnerships with other if lesser heroes and Action Comics was confirmed as a team-up vehicle for the Man of Steel. Issue #584 had a January 1987 cover-date and featured a case fighting with and beside the Teen Titans as the young heroes had to battle an apparently out-of-control Caped Kryptonian with a ‘Squatter’ secretly riding in his head…

Following a gentle cartoon “roasting” by Gene Luen Yang in ‘Supersquare’, Roger Stern, Kerry Gammill & Dennis Janke review ‘Ma Kent’s Photo Album’ (from AC #655, July 1990) offering some insights into growing up different before a major turning point began…

As years passed, Lois and Clark gradually grew beyond professionalism into a work romance but the hero had always kept his greatest secret from her. That all changed after the Man of Tomorrow narrowly defeated mystic predator Silver Banshee and decided no more ‘Secrets in the Night’ between him and his beloved (by Stern & Bob McLeod: #662, February 1991).

Action #800 (April 2003) offers a reverential examination of the ongoing myth thus far as ‘A Hero’s Journey’ combines a Joe Kelly script with art from Pasqual Ferry, Duncan Rouleau, Alex Ross, Tony Harris, Bill Sienkiewicz, Dave Bullock, Ed McGuiness, J.H. Williams III, Dan Jurgens, Klaus Janson, Killian Plunkett, Jim Lee, Tim Sale, Lee Bermejo, Cam Smith, Marlo Alquiza & Scott Hanna: cherry-picking unmissable moments from a life well lived…

In 2011, DC again rebooted their entire line and Superman was reimagined once more. ‘The Boy Who Stole Superman’s Cape’ by Grant Morrison & Ben Oliver comes from Action Comics #0, (November 2012), focussing on a decidedly blue-collar champion just learning the game and painfully aware of the consequences if he makes a mistake, before we wrap up the celebrations with April 2018’s ‘The Game’ by Levitz & Neal Adams. Here primal archenemies Superman and Luthor face off for another round in their never-ending battle…

Before the curtain comes down, there’s still more unbridled joy and rekindled memories as ‘Cover Highlights’ resurrects stunning examples from the Golden, Silver, Bronze, Dark and Modern ages of the Man of Tomorrow, as well as the very best of Action Comics ‘Now’.

Should you be of a scholarly or just plain reverential mood you can then study the copious ‘Biographies’ section so you know who to thank…

Exciting, epochal and unmissable, this is a book for all fans of superhero stories and the man who started them all.
© 1938, 1941, 1943, 1958, 1959, 1961, 1963, 1972, 1978, 1984, 1986, 1990, 1991, 2003, 2012, 2018 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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DC Finest: Superman – Kryptonite Nevermore


By Dennis O’Neil, Leo Dorfman, Cary Bates, Len Wein, Curt Swan & Murphy Anderson, Ross Andru & Mike Esposito, Dick Giordano, Carmine Infantino, Neal Adams & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-79950-165-7 (TPB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times

This stunning compilation is part of the DC Finest editions line: full colour chronologically curated paperback compilations delivering “affordably priced” comic books generally around 600 pages and highlighting past glories.Whilst primarily and understandably concentrating on the superhero character pantheon, there will also be genre selections like horror and war books, and themed compendia. Sadly, they’re not yet available digitally, as were the last decade’s Bronze, Silver and Golden Age collections, but we live in hope…

Superman is the comic book champion who started the whole genre and, in the decades since his 1938 debut, has probably undertaken every kind of adventure imaginable. With that in mind it’s tempting and very rewarding to gather up whole swathes of his inventory and periodically re-present them in specific themed collections, such as this one commemorating one his greatest extended adventures. The episodes contained herein were originally released just as comics fandom was becoming a powerful – if headless – lobbying force reshaping the industry to its own specialised desires and remains a true landmark of the superhero genre. Moreover the brand overhaul seen here was a major concerted effort to re-energise the Man of Steel at a time when comics superheroes were experincing a major die-back…

When Julie Schwartz took over editorial responsibility for the Superman title in 1970, he was expected to shake things up with nothing less than spectacular results. To that end, he incorporated many key characters and events simultaneously developing as part of fellow iconoclast Jack Kirby’s freshly unfolding “Fourth World”. That bold experiment was a breathtaking tour de force of cosmic wonderment which brought a staggering new universe to fans: instantly and permanently changing the way comics were perceived and how the entire medium could be received. Don’t think for a moment that the 1985 reboot triggered by Crisis on Infinite Earths was new or innovative… just necessary…

As the Sixties closed, Schwartz was again breathing fresh life into a powerful but moribund icon – a job he had been excelling at since more-or-less singlehandedly kickstarting the Silver Age of Comics. Superman had been a mega-media star since his launch, with internationally syndicated comics, books, newspaper strips, movie and cinema serials plus hugely successful radio and TV shows (live action and animated) making the franchise globally recognizable. Whenever that happens, inevitably overkill and overexposure inescapably set in and the core property needs to be carefully overhauled or vanish forever. I’ll bet you can think of plenty of really famous and ubiquitous things from your childhood that one day you simply stopped noticing. Happily, sometimes they can be reborn…

Schwartz knew his market and was open to new ideas, and his creative changes were just appearing in 1971. The new direction was also vanguard and trigger for a wealth of controversial, socially-challenging “realistic” story content unseen since the feature’s earliest days: a wave of tales ultimately described as “Relevant”…

With iconic covers by Curt Swan, Carmine Infantino, Neal Adams, Dick Giordano, Murphy Anderson & Jack Adler, this titanic tome collects in whole or in part the Man of Steel’s first comics renaissance through exploits from Action Comics #393-406 and Superman #233-238 and #240-242, spanning cover dates October 1970 to December 1971.

On sale from 27th August 1970, Action Comics #393 hinted at rather than heralded a new era as ‘Syperman Meets Super-Houdini!’ In a tale by prolific lead super-scribe Leo Dorfman and artists Curt Swan & Murphy Anderson (AKA “Swanderson”) the ultimate hero faces a moral dilemma when reformed crimnal turned escape artist “Hair-breadth” Holahan is blackmailed to resume his criminal ways – or lose his abducted son. Of course, Superman can help…

Following a Superman Scrapbook Pinup, with Swanderson reworking a classic Golden Age Superman contents page, second strip ‘The Day Superboy Became Superman!’ (by Dorfman as Geoff Brown with Ross Andru & Mike Esposito illustrating) depicts a pivotal moment for college boy Clark Kent as radical student Marla Harvey showed the so-conservative law-&-order adherent what those concepts meant to people trapped in poverty and privation…

The updating of an icon continued in AC #394 with Swanderson illustrating both ‘Midas of Metropolis’ and low key “Geoff Brown” character vignette ‘Requiem for a Hot Rod’. The lead yarn pits Superman against world’s richest man Cyrus Brand, who seemingly infects the Action Ace with his own all-encompsing lust for money, only to find the hero is incorruptible and knows actual crime when he sees it, whilst a humourous follow-up sees Clark and Lois Lane at a vintage car event, cleverly exposing a bully rigging games of chicken for cash…

Action #395 revealed ‘The Secrets of Superman’s Fortress’ with a dynamic cutaway spread fuelling an “untold tale” of an early romantic encounter with a sexy alien Superman could have loved. Sadly, super-powered Althera was of an incompatible species… and also a slaver…

Dorfman was the go-to guy for supernatural tales and weird phenomena articles, and at the forefront of a shift in tone as DC characters and titles embraced the global resurgence in spooky horror and mystery fare. Next here a back-up guest starring Supergirl explores the uncanny powers and shocking truth of accident inducing accessory ‘The Credit Card of Catastrophe’, but comes down down heavily on the side of rationality and confidence trickery in the end…

As the sixties closed and with his various screen appearances a thing of the past, Superman was soon in dire need of an editorial overhaul. That officially began with Superman #233 in a groundbreaking epic serial edited by incoming reboot wunderkind Julius Schwartz that was heavily promoted in advance. Crafted by scripter Dennis J. “Denny” O’Neil, and ubiquitous illustrators Swan & Anderson – although stand-in Dick Giordano inked #240 – a deliberate and very public abandonment of tired old super-villains, fanciful Kryptonian scenarios and otherworldly paraphernalia instantly poked the readership and revitalised the Man of Tomorrow, attracting new readers and beginning a period of engagingly human-scaled stories making Superman a “must-buy” character all over again.

The innovations began with ‘Superman Breaks Loose’ as a government experiment to harness Kryptonite as an energy source goes explosively wrong. Closely monitoring the test, the Metropolis Marvel is blasted across the desert surrounding the isolated lab, but somehow survives a supposedly fatal radiation-bath. Then, reports begin filtering in from all over Earth: every piece of the deadly mineral has been transformed to harmless, common iron! As he goes about his protective, preventative patrols, the liberated hero experiences an emotional high at the prospect of all the good he can now accomplish. He isn’t even phased when the Daily Planet’s new owner Morgan Edge – a key character created by Jack Kirby for his soon to unfold Fourth World Saga – shakes up Clark Kent’s cosy civilian life: summarily ejecting him from the print game and remaking him as a roving TV journalist…

Meanwhile, the desert site of his recent crashlanding offers a moment of deep foreboding as Superman’s irradiated imprint in the sand shockingly grows solid and shambles away in ghastly parody of life…

Over in Action Comics #396, editors Murray Boltinoff & E. Nelson Bridwell continued in their editorial positions (right up until #419 December 1972) but heralded the beginning of a radical new age with a 2-chapter Imaginary Story (hey, didn’t Alan Moore do that too?) ‘The Super-Panhandler of Metropolis!’ was set years from “now”, where a highly advanced Earth wonders why and how Superman disappeared. Media mogul Jimmy Olsen discovers the shocking truth of the hero’s degrading decline in #397 as ‘Secret of the Wheel-Chair Superman!’ sentimentally focuses on a pitiable but still valiant do-gooder giving everything for those in need, and thereby saving himself too.

For this colossal collection, each issue’s stand-alone back-up has been moved to allow an uninterrupted lead story and for reader convenience of comprehension. Thus, next comes #396’s Brown/Swanderson teaser ‘The Invaders from Nowhere!’: an intellectual mystery with Superman perplexed and imperiiled by super-technological aliens somehow living inside his own infallible arctic citadel. It is bolstered by the legendary ad that announced the big change in Metropolis…

Rendered by Swan & Vince Colletta, ‘A New Year Brings a New Beginning for Superman 1971’ announced Clark’s job change and enhanced cast, trumpeted that Jimmy Olsen and Lois Lane would be joined by The Newsboy Legion and Rose and the Thorn and that Supergirl would get a new look, as well as suspending the venerable World’s Finest team of Superman, Batman & Robin, with the title becoming a Superman team-up book…

‘The Super-Captive of the Sea!’ was AC #397’s closer, wherein the Man of Tomorrow is indefinitely trapped beneath the oceans thanks to aquatic aliens flooding Earth’s skies with red sun refracting crystal clouds. They wanted Superman for their own world, but foolishly understimated his ingenuity and determination…

O’Niel & Swanderson’s intensely sophisticated suspenseful overhaul properly resumes in Superman #234’s ‘How to Tame a Wild Volcano!’ as an out-of-control, politically untouchable plantation owner/human trafficker refuses to let his indentured workforce flee an imminent eruption on the island of Boki. Handicapped by international laws, the Man of Steel can only fume helplessly as the UN blunders towards a diplomatic solution, and his anxiety intensifies when a sinister sand-thing inadvertently and agonisingly drains him of his powers. Crashed to Earth in a turbulent squall, the de-powered champion is attacked by work boss Boysie Harker’s thugs and instantly responds to the foolish provocation, relying for a change on determination rather than overwhelming might to save the day…

In #235, the ‘Sinister Scream of the Devil’s Harp’ tacitly acknowledged fasionable arcane influences – remember, the comics industry and wider world was enjoying a periodic revival of interest in supernatural themes and stories – as mystery musician and apparent polymath Ferlin Nyxly reveals the secret of his ever-growing aptitudes and gifts is an archaic artefact which steals from living beings knowledge, talents and even Superman’s alien abilities. The Man of Steel is initially unaware of the drain as he’s trying to communicate with his eerily silent dusty doppelganger, but once Nyxly graduates to a full-on raving super-menace self-proclaimed “Pan”, the taciturn homunculus unexpectedly joins its living template to trounce the power plunderer…

“The Youth” and their music take centre stage in Action #398 as Kent’s news round-up of the college campus scene unmasks sinister sonic skulduggery that – accidentally combined with Kryptonian recording tech – makes Superman an out-of-control rioter thanks to ‘The Pied Piper of Steel’, after which Dorfman/Brown reveal a horrifiying transformation for Supergirl into a ‘Spawn of the Unknown’…

Superman #236 offered a Batman cameo and science fictional morality play when cherubic E.T.’s seek Superman’s assistance to defeat a band of devils and rescue Kent’s friends from Hell. However, the ‘Planet of the Angels’ proves to be nothing of the kind, and the Man of Steel must pull out all the stops to save his adopted homeworld from a very real Armageddon, whilst in Action #399 ‘Superman, You’re Dead… Dead… Dead!’, finds the hero trapped with other great men of the past abducted by future historians and accidentally discovering a ghastly end that awaits him, before realising that something’s not quite right, whilst B-feature ‘Superbaby’s Lost World’ sees the Tot of Tomorrow lost in a theme park and exploited as cover by charismatic bandits Connie & Hyde. Of course this innocent waif is far more than anyone can handle…

Superman #237 sees him save an astronaut only to see him succumb to a madness-inducing mutative disease. After another savage confrontation with the Sand-thing further debilitates him, the harried hero is present as more mortals fall to the contagion. Convinced he is both carrier and cause, the ‘Enemy of Earth’ considers quarantining in space. Meanwhile, Lois tumbles into another lethal predicament and Kal-el’s instinctive intervention seemingly confirms his earlier diagnosis, before another clash with the sandy simulacrum on the edge of space presents an incredible truth.

Painfully debilitated, Superman nevertheless saves Lois and again meets the ever-more human creature. Now able to speak, it offers a chilling warning and the Man of Steel realises exactly what it is taking from him and what it might become…

In Action #400 ‘My Son… Is He Man or Beast?’ sees Superman made reluctant guardian to troubled teen Gregor Nagy: an angry boy with astounding shapeshifting powers that will inevitably kill him, whilst back-up ‘Duel of Doom!’ offers an untold Tale of Kandor as students, rivals and lovers Yllura and Arvor vie for academic awards, almost die together and ultimately learn the value of teamwork and togetherness…

The Man of Tomorrow is a mere shadow of his former self in Superman #238, unable to prevent terrorists taking over a magma-tapping drilling rig and endangering all Earth in ‘Menace at 1000 Degrees!’ With Lois among their hostages and the madmen threatening to detonate a nuke in the pipeline, the Action Ace desperately begs his doppelganger to assist him, but its cold rejection forces the depleted hero to take the biggest gamble of his life…

Superman #239 was an all-reprint giant featuring the hero in his incalculably all-powerful days – so not included here – before Action Comics #401 & 402 address the growing contemporary political crisis of First Nations’ rights in ‘Invaders Go Home’ and ‘This Hostage Must Die!’ The continued tale sees Superman taken hostage by Indian protesters seeking to stop the US government taking a piece of sacred ground for a rocket base. Despite being apparently helpless before the magic of Angry Young Medicineman Dan Red Hawk the Action Ace is playing a covert game and hunting a criminal profit motive behind all the passionate rhetoric and popular dissent…

Cary Bates scripted #401’s back-up yarn as ‘The Boy Whe Begged to Die!’ sees our hero forced to use his superwits when he’s accidentally activates a mega-timebomb and fails to evacuate every civilian in time whilst Brown delivers #402’s ‘The Feud of the Titans!’ as Superman and Supergirl inexplicably go to war for possesion of the Fortress of Solitude…

The physically diminished Caped Kryptonian returned in Superman #240 (O’Neil, Swan and Dick Giordano inks) to confront his own lessened state and seek a solution. In ‘To Save a Superman’, his inability to extinguish a tenement fire and the wider world’s realisation that their unconquerable champion is now vulnerable and fallible makes his dilemma dangerously common knowledge. Especially interested are the Anti-Superman Gang who immediately allocate all resources to destroying their nemesis. After one particularly close call, Clark is visited by an ancient Asian sage who somehow knows his other identity and offers an unconventional solution…

From 1968 superhero comics began to decline – just as they had at the end of the 1940s – so publishers sought fresh ways to maintain their readerships as tastes changed. Back then, the industry depended on newsstand sales, and if you weren’t popular, you died. Editor Jack Miller, innovating illustrator Mike Sekowsky and relatively new scripter Denny O’Neil came up with a radical proposal and made history by depowering the only female superhero then in the marketplace. They had the mystical Amazons leave our dimension, taking with them all their magic – including Wonder Woman‘s powers and all her weapons…

Reduced to humble humanity she chose to stay on Earth, assuming and legitimising her own secret identity of Diana Prince and resolved to fighting injustice as a mortal. Tutored by blind Buddhist monk I Ching, she trained as a martial artist, and quickly became a formidable enemy of contemporary evil. Now, I Ching claims he can repair Superman’s difficulties and restore his dwindling might, but evil eyes are watching. Arriving clandestinely, Superman allows the adept to remove his remaining Kryptonian powers as a precursor to fully regaining them, allowing the ASG opportunity to strike. In the resultant brutal melee, the all-too-human hero triumphs in the hardest fight of his life…

The saga continues with Swanderson back on art in #241, withSuperman overcoming momentary but nigh-overwhelming temptation to put down his oppressive burden of duty and lead a normal life. Admonished and resolved, he submits to Ching’s resumed remedy ritual and finds his spirit soaring to where the sand-being lurks, before explosively reclaiming the stolen powers. Leaving the gritty golem a shattered husk, the astral Kal-El brings the awesome energies back to their true owner and a triumphant hero returns to saving the world…

Over the next few days, however, it becomes clear that something has gone wrong. The Man of Tomorrow has become arrogant, erratic and unpredictable, acting rashly, overreacting and even making stupid mistakes. In her boutique, Diana Prince discusses the problem with Ching and the sagacious teacher deduces that whilst merely mortal and fighting ASG thugs, Superman received punishing blows to the head which have caused a brain injury that did not heal when his powers returned…

When the out-of-control hero refuses to listen, Diana & Ching track down the dying sand-thing and beg its aid. The elderly savant recognises it as a formless creature from other-dimensional Quarrm and listens to the amazing story of its entrance into our world. He also suggests a way for it to regain some of what it recently lost…

Superman, meanwhile, has blithely gone about his deranged business until savagely attacked by a statue of a Chinese war-demon. Also able to steal his power, it has been possessed by a second fugitive from Quarrm. It has no conscience and wears ‘The Shape of Fear!’…

The shocking saga concludes in ‘The Ultimate Battle’ as the second Quarrmer falls under the sway of two petty thugs who use it to put freshly de-powered Superman into hospital…

Rushed into emergency surgery, the Kryptonian fights for his life as sand-thing confronts war-demon in the streets. Events take an even more bizarre turn once the latter drives off its foe and turns towards the hospital to finish off the flesh-&-blood Superman…

Regaining consciousness – and a portion of his power – the Metropolis Marvel battles the beast to a standstill but needs the aid of his silicon stand-in to drive the thing back beyond the pale. With the immediate threat ended, Man of Steel and Man of Sand face off one last time, each determined to ensure his own existence no matter the cost…

The stunning conclusion was a brilliant stroke on the part of the creators, one which left Superman approximately half the Man of Tomorrow he used to be. Of course, he eventually returned to his unassailable, god-like power levels but never quite regained the tension-free smug assurance of his pre-1970s self…

For now though, with the epic ended day-to-day dilemmas resume with Action #403 and Bates & Swanderson’s ‘Attack of the Micro-Murderer’, wherein the Krptonian is attacked and fatally infected by sentient time-travelling micobe Zohtt before millions of earthlings donate blood to flush his system clean, after which Brown channels Daniel Keyes’ Flowers for Algernon for ‘The Man With the X-Ray Mind’ as an intellectually-challenged janitor develops and tragically loses astounding mental abilities…

Dorfman scripted #404’s ‘Kneel to Your Conqueror, Superman!’ wherein governemntal secret weapon/supergenius Rufus Caesar goes rogue and devises tech to steal The Action Ace’s powers, before inevitably overreaching and reaping every tyrant’s fate. As Geoff Brown, the multi-faceted writer offers another glimpse at our hero’s college years with ‘The Day They Killed Clark Kent’ relating a memorable teaching moment after a hazing incident is covertly commandeered and redirected by the Adolescent of Steel. Then Bates introduces ‘The Starry-Eyed Siren of Space!’ in Superman #243, as cosmic catastrophe catapults the Caped Kryptonian into an encounter with disembodied ultra-mentalities Kond & Rija. Sadly, the latter recalls the long forgotten joys of physicality and constructs an organic form to woo Superman, leaving Rija no choice but to do similar and win back his mate…

‘Superman, Bodyguard or Assassin?!’ leads in Action #405, as Bates posits an Imaginary Story near future where a Psy-ops expert turns the Man of Steel into an assassin pointed at the US President. He follows up with regulation continuity thriller ‘The Most Dangerous Bug in the World?’ as Clark Kent is swept up in a product demo that threatens to expose his secret identity. Over in Superman #244, O’Neil anticipates early AI anxiety and human responses via the rampages of ‘The Electronic Ghost of Metropolis!’, before AC #406 sees Dorfman deal with the rise of counter cultures and semi-religious cults as telejournalist Clark Kent investigates a charismatic ‘Master of Miracles’. What he discovers is a devious plot orchestrated by someone very close to his home and his heart…

For the same issue, the writer dons his “Brown” mantle to expose a restless and beleagured supernatural alchemist inhabiting the Tower of London for centuries as ‘The Ghost That Haunted Clark Kent’ before the wraparound superhero-bedecked cover for all reprint giant Superman #245 and Curt Swan’s pencilled model sheet ‘The Man of Many Faces’ penultimately usher in final wonder ‘Danger… Monster at Work!’ from #246, with Len Wein debuting as super-scribe and introducing an extended cast of Clark Kent’s neighbours in a wry and witty warning tale of pollution gone mad and monsters in Metropolis’ sewers, perfectly limned by Swan & Anderson…

A fresh approach, snappy dialogue and more human-scaled concerns to balance outrageous implausible fantasy elements all wedded to gripping plots and sublime art make Kryptonite Nevermore one of the very best Superman sagas ever created, and its wonderful to see the other stories of the time included for balance and to prove that this was very much the Man of Steel getting his long-needed second wind for the next comics age.

A must-have graphic collection to sit on the same shelf as Watchmen, Batman: Year One, Segar’s Popeye, Gottfredson’s Mickey Mouse, The Fourth World Saga, Kirby & Lee’s Galactus Trilogy and Chaykin’s American Flagg!, this is a shining exemplar of action- adventure comics captured at their most perfect moment. Why don’t you have this yet?
© 1970, 1971, 2025 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Moon Knight Epic Collection volume 2: Shadows of the Moon


By Doug Moench & Bill Sienkiewicz, with Jack C. Harris, Alan Zelenetz, Denys Cowan, Vicente Alcazar, Jimmy Janes, Greg LaRoque, Klaus Janson, Frank Giacoia, Steve Mitchell, Josef Rubinstein, Armando Gil, John Tartaglione, Bob Camp, Dave Simons, Joe Albelo & various (MARVEL)
ISBN: 978-1-3029-3368-5 (TPB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Moon Knight is probably the most complex and convoluted hero(es) in comics. There’s also a lot of eminently readable strip evidence to support the contention that he’s a certifiable loon. The mercurial champion first appeared during the mid-1970s horror boom: a mercenary Batman knockoff hired by corporate villains to capture a monster. Sparking reader attention, the mercenary spun off into a brace of solo trial issues in Marvel Spotlight and welter of guest shots before securing an exceedingly sophisticated back-up slot in the TV-show-inspired Hulk Magazine and inevitably graduating to the first of many solo series. His origin eventually revealed how multiple-personality-suffering CIA spook-turned-mercenary Marc Spector was murdered by his employer and apparently resurrected by an entombed Egyptian god…

This second colossal compilation re-presents Moon Knight #5-23, transecting March 1981 through September 1982: a period of vast change and experimentation in comics that saw the Lunar Avenger notionally hived off from the greater Marvel Universe to experience far more mature storytelling, via the suddenly blooming Direct Sales comics marketplace…

The saga had begun in Werewolf by Night #32 (August 1975): a fresh strand in an extended plot thread wherein lycanthrope Jack Russell and his sister Lyssa were targets of criminal capitalists the Corporation. The plutocratic cabal believed that by terrorising the public, they could induce them to spend more and sought for months to add werewolves to their army of monsters. Thus Doug Moench & Don Perlin (with assistance from little Howie Perlin) introduced Spector: a rough-&-ready modern warrior hired by plutocratic plunderers and equipped with a silver-armoured costume and weapons to capture Russell or his animal other as ‘…The Stalker Called Moon Knight’. The bombastic battle and its ferocious sequel received an unprecedented response, rapidly rocketing the lunar avenger to prominence as Marvel’s edgy answer to Batman. Within a year the spectral sentinel had returned for a two-part solo mission that fleshed out his characters (yes, plural!) and hinted at a hidden history behind the simple hireling façade (Marvel Spotlight #28-29.

The back-written yarn proved the mercenary to be a well-established clandestine crimebuster with vast financial resources, a dedicated team of assistants including old comrade/pilot “Frenchie” and liaison/lover Marlene Alraune, in-the-know Grant Mansion domestics Nedda & Samuels, plus a wide-ranging network of street informants, a mansion/secret HQ, a ton of cool gadgets… and at least four separate identities. This latter aspect would inform Moon Knight’s entire career as various creators explored where playacting ended and Multiple Personality Disorder – if not outright supernatural possession – began. Thanks to his brush with the werewolf, the vigilante had also gained a partial superpower. As the moon waxed and waned, his physical strength, speed, stamina and resilience also doubled and diminished.

Firstly, however, billionaire Steven Grant, New York cabbie/information gatherer Jake Lockley, repentant gun-for-hire Marc Spector and the mysterious Moon Knight adapted to the lives of an urban vigilante even if occasionally his pasts – especially Spector’s former CIA career and exploits in espionage and terrorism-for-hire – often encroached on his chosen path of redemption. Groundswell took hold and the Moon Knight guested in Defenders #47-#51, Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man #22-23 & Marvel Two-In-One #52 before landing a back-up slot in adult-adjacent Hulk Magazine #11 (October 1978). The residency and more mature tales led to the advent of artistic debutante Bill Sienkiewicz from #13 (February 1979) and a certain syzygy gelled. The run ended in Hulk Magazine #20 (April 1980) and was followed by monochrome magazine Marvel Preview (#21, Spring 1980), before that chapter in the character’s life apparently closed, leading to the far more complex and conflicted career of a man seeking atonement as the November cover-dated premier solo title exposed the secrets of The Macabre Moon Knight…

Moench & Sienkiewicz were allowed leeway to experiment with the format of lone avengers and revealed how world-weary, burned-out mercenary Spector was working for murderous marauder Raul Bushman but reclaimed his moral compass after his ruthless boss murdered archaeologist Peter Alraune for the contents of a recently excavated Sudanese tomb. His daughter Marlene escaped, as did equally disgusted comrade Frenchie, but when Spector attempted to stop Bushman executing witnesses he was beaten and left to die in the desert.

Dying by degrees, Spector crawled for miles and died just as he entered the tomb of Pharoah Seti, where Marlene and her workers were hiding. Dumped at the feet of a statue of Khonshu – ancient god of the Moon, Guardian of Night’s Travellers and Taker of Vengeance – he inexplicably revived. Clearly deranged, he draped the statue’s white mantle around himself, before going out into the night. By dawn, Bushman’s band are dead and the monster fled…

Skipping forward and hinting at an eventful road to his life as a multi-identity superhero, the origin ended with a fateful showdown with the returned Bushman in his New York lair…

In short order, gritty, edgy but (barely) mainstream stories focused on MK’s pitiful homeless informant Crawley targeted by a bloody butcher hunting bums and indigents, introduced first returning villain/nemesis Anton Mogart/The Midnight Man, and saw the Lunar Avenger stalked by a quintet of specialist assassins.

Without pausing for breath Moench, Sienkiewicz & Klaus Janson open proceedings in this second collection by exploring and spoofing teen horror movies, adopting changing cultural cues of the new era. Here the team barely survive a ‘Ghost Story’ (MK #5 March 1981) after tracking trigger-happy bandits to a notorious murder house in upstate New York. The Reddich place boasts horrific historical murders and attracts attention from bravado-drenched kids and ghost chasers but also masks a hidden history of family madness and ongoing mayhem. Add a hunt for long-lost buried loot and a determined guy draped in a white sheet and terrifying revelations – and an increased body count – are the end result…

One month later, Steven Grant gifts Moon Knight’s intelligence gathering unit – Crawley, diner owner Gena Landers, her teen sons Ricky & Ray and cabbie Jake Lockley – with a Caribbean vacation just in case Marc Spector needs help investigating a voodoo-themed crime wave on the isle of St. Lucien. Spector had been requested to crush the Zuvembie ‘White Angels’ by an old war buddy, but soon exposes a drugs and human trafficking scheme by a local plantation owner…

America’s “War on Drugs” also informed MK #7, as Moench, Sienkiewicz & Janson detail how ruthless miscreants poison Chicago’s water supply with hallucinogens and turn the conurbation into a howling homicidal madhouse. Moon Knight & Co are in town and are just as drenched and deranged by the time ‘The Moon Kings’ ends on a cliffhanger, and following a brief gallery of original art from the preceding stories, spectacularly concludes with Frank Giacoia inking ‘Night of the Wolves’ with the still impaired heroes foiling a cruel blackmail plot and last-ditch chemical revenge strike

Moon Knight #9 sees Sienkiewicz inking himself for ‘Vengeance in Reprise’ as Bushman breaks out of jail just as Anton Mogart steals the statue of Khonshu from Steven Grant’s mansion. Sadly, the artefact is all that stabilises Moon Knight’s splintered personalities and as he tracks down and defeats both his despised foes, ‘Too Many Midnights’ (#10) sees the statue lost and the hero fractured. Happily, Marlene has a solution and the lunar guardian is back in #11 ‘To Catch a Killer’ rampaging through the New Orleans Mardi Gras. The team are there in pursuit of coke dealer Cajun Creed, but Frenchie is dangerously distracted by the unexpected return and sudden murder of his old flame Isabelle Kristel…

A ghastly new foe debuts in #12 as Marlene’s brother Dr. Peter Alraune Jr. endures ‘The Nightmare of Morpheus’. Administered experimental drugs that hideously mutated him and gave him energy-warping powers by the sleep disorder specialist, patient Robert Markam tirelessly tracks Alraune seeking revenge but thankfully Moon Knight is able to put him out, after which a notionally similar ally appeared…

Despite his early career being packed with guest shots, the solo spooky star Moon Knight was a difficult fixture for many Marvel heroes but a somewhat sympatico headset could be seen in Frank Miller’s Daredevil. Thus MK #13 offered ‘The Cream of the Jest’ as the fresh out on parole master of media manipulation unites with former Moon Knight foe Ace Taggert to achieve mutual revenge on their most hated enemies. Sadly, as both heroes monitor the malefactors, differences in style and approach lead to a clash of policy and methods… and then just a clash…

Moench & Sienkiewicz were continually experimenting and reaching a creative peak, and #14’s ‘Stained Glass Scarlet’ (cover-dated December 1981) was a milestone that polarised fans. A classic tragedy, delving deep into dysfunctional families, it saw a mysterious woman in red occupying an abandoned church until her solitude is shattered by Moon Knight’s pursuit of psychotic prison fugitive Joe “Mad Dog” Fasinera. The killer was looking for loot hidden by his equally murderous father, but found his cloaked foe, his mother Scarlett and his just deserts…

Released on October 6th 1981 but cover-dated January 1982, Moon Knight #15 heralded longer even more mature stories as Marvel dropped the ad content and hived off the title from standard newsstand distribution, making it available only through subscription or specialist comic book stores. To prove this was a far harder hero now Moench & Sienkiewicz’s ‘Ruling the World from His Basement’ featured an assassination campaign against foreign dignitaries perpetrated by a crazed white supremacist spouting Nazi ideology. He was also a trusted member of the community and associate of Moon Knight.

And Rats.

Racist killer Xenos employed rodents in a most disquieting manner, so be warned…

The big evolution was marked and celebrated in an illustrated essay by Moench with ‘Shades of Moon Knight’ precising the character(s) of the lone hero and recapitulating on his techniques, methodology and associates.

‘Shadows of the Moon’ by Jack C. Harris & Denys Cowan, inked by Steve Mitchell, Josef Rubinstein & Janson led in MK #16 as a cop who despises vigilantes like Moon Knight is murdered, and his son begs the masked hero to help. with a guest cameo by Ben The Thing Grimm, Spector’s efforts to expose corrupt industrialist Alexander Latimer, lead to brutal battle with philosopher/assassin Blacksmith and barely thwarted nuclear annihilation before justice is served.

The main event was supplemented by ‘Seekers of Stone’, first tale of new feature Spector: Mercenary – The Man Who Will Be Moon Knight with Harris, Jimmy Janes & Armando Gil revealing how the mercenary dealt with a double-crossing Nazi war criminal who hired him to “recover” a mystic trinket…

With Steve Mitchell inking, Moench & Sienkiewicz return with ‘Master Sniper’s Legacy!’ as an extended epic opened to find Spector contacted by old friend Benjamin Abramov. The Israeli agent needs his help to destroy terrorist Nimrod Strange and his fanatical Third World Slayers cult but is gunned down by Strange’s emissary the Master Sniper whilst talking to Spector and Marlene. Once the killer has been dealt with, Spector vows to destroy the Third World Army at any cost…

Moench, Cowan & Rubinstein’s far lighter ancillary tale sees the young(er) Spector south of the border, raiding tombs and learning the folly of indulging in ‘The Worship of False Idols’ before MK #18 resumes the war as Spector deals with ‘The Slayers Elite’ (Moench, Sienkiewicz & Mitchell) sent to make an example of Abramov’s widow, before “Allen” Zelenetz reminds us of earlier team-ups in ‘The Many Phases of Moon Knight’ text feature which neatly segues into #19’s ‘Assault on Island Strange’ by Moench, Sienkiewicz & Mitchell. As Moon Knight punishes operations by the Third World Slayers, Marlene goes undercover as the top terrorist’s bodyguard. Much too close to Nimrod Strange for comfort, her compromises to survive outrage Moon Knight who takes out his aggression on the maniac’s home base. However, his righteous fury is not enough to stop Strange giving himself a lethal munitions upgrade, renaming himself Arsenal and setting off to attack New York with Marlene still beside him…

The saga explosively concludes in #20’s ‘Cut Adrift off the Coast of America’ (Moench, Sienkiewicz & Mitchell) as Arsenal discovers the viper in his deranged bosom and attempts to turn Manhattan Island into a super-colossal bonfire with stolen oil tankers only to finally fail thanks to Moon Knight and a really, really angry Marlene…

Sudden change of pace ‘The Master of Night Earth!’ (Moench, Vicente Alcazar, John Tartaglione & Bob Camp in MK #21 sees the world-weary warrior of shadow encounter genuine supernatural forces after joining Jericho Drumm/Brother Voodoo to foil insurrection and revolution in Haiti, backed up by new bonus feature Tales of Khonshu, wherein Zelenetz, Greg LaRoque & Dave Simons expose ‘Murder by Moonlight’ as a fleeing murderer encounters a museum statue of the lunar god of vengeance and experiences something… uncanny…

Now possessing mind control and illusion-casting powers, maddened angry sleep-deprived Morpheus returns to wreak final vengeance on his tormentor in Moench & Sienkiewicz’s ‘The Dream Demon’ – and so very nearly succeeds before concluding episode ‘Perchance to Scream’ sees further escalating carnage lead to an ultimate sacrifice that seemingly ends Morpheus’ depredations forever…

Dividing those momentous events, Zelenetz, LaRoque & Joe Albelo lighten the mood with WWII titbit ‘Moon Over Alamein’ as British Eighth Army troops take shelter in a certain tomb, and resist every temptation to rob or defile it. Is that perhaps why a spectral apparition later escorts them safely through deadly mine fields? Only Khonshu knows for sure…

With covers by Sienkiewicz, Earl Norem, Frank Miller, Al Milgrom, Ron Wilson & Dave Simons, Steve Mitchell and Joe Jusko, this collection of groundbreaking and innovative tales and on-fire creators finding new envelopes to push wraps up with a House ad for Scarlet in Moonlight, 1981’s Moon Knight portfolio by Sienkiewicz, offering 4 pencil plates and letter page art from #6, 9, 21, 23. There are also  unused covers for #9, 12 &13 and 11 pages of original art/covers (including a painting) all by LaRoque, Sienkiewicz, Cowan & Rubinstein.

Moody, dark, thematically off-kilter and savagely entertaining this second volume sees the “Batman knock-off” fully evolve into a unique example of the line between hero and villain and sinner and saint, all wrapped up in pure electric entertainment for testosterone junkies and suspense lovers.
© 2019 MARVEL.

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Shazam! Family Archives volume 1


By William Woolfolk, Otto Binder, Joe Millard and many unknown authors, C.C. Beck, George Tuska, Mac Raboy, Al Carreño, Mark Swayze & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-0779-3 (HB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

One of the most venerated and beloved characters of America’s Golden Age of comic books, Captain Marvel was created in 1940: part of the wave of opportunistic creativity which followed the stunning success of Superman in 1938 and Batman one year later. Although there were many notable similarities in the early months, Fawcett’s champion quickly moved squarely into arenas of light entertainment and even pure comedy, whilst as the years passed the Man of Steel increasingly left whimsy behind in favour of action, drama and suspense.

Homeless orphan and all-around decent kid Billy Batson was selected by an ancient wizard named Shazam to utilise the powers of six ancient gods and heroes in a never-ending battle against injustice. Thereafter he could transform from scrawny, precocious kid to brawny (adult) hero Captain Marvel by speaking aloud the wizard’s acronymic name – invoking the powers of legendary patrons Solomon, Hercules, Atlas, Zeus, Achilles and Mercury.

Publishing house Fawcett had first gained prominence through an immensely well-received magazine for WWI veterans entitled Captain Billy’s Whiz-Bang, before branching out into books and general interest magazines. Their most successful publication – at least until the Good Captain hit his stride – was the ubiquitous boy’s building bible Mechanix Illustrated and, as the comicbook decade unfolded, the scientific and engineering discipline and “can-do” demeanour underpinning MI suffused and informed both the art and plots of the Marvel Family titles.

Captain Marvel was the brainchild of writer/editor Bill Parker and brilliant illustrator Charles Clarence Beck who, with his assistant Pete Costanza, handled most of the art for the series throughout its stellar but too brief run. Before eventually evolving his own affable personality the Captain was serious, bluff and taciturn: a rather charmless powerhouse. Always, junior alter ego Billy was the true star: a Horatio Alger archetype of impoverished, boldly self-reliant and resourceful youth overcoming impossible odds through gumption, grit and sheer determination…

After homeless orphan newsboy Billy was granted access to the power of legendary gods and heroes, he won a job as a roaming radio reporter for Amalgamated Broadcasting and first defeated demonic Doctor Thaddeus Bodog Sivana, setting a pattern that would captivate readers for the next 14 years…

At the height of his immense popularity Captain Marvel – and many of his fellow Shazam!-powered pals – were published twice monthly and outsold Superman, but as the Furious Forties closed, tastes changed, sales slowed and Fawcett saw the way the wind was blowing. In 1953, they settled an infamous, long-running copyright infringement suit begun by National Comics in 1940 and the “Big Red Cheese” vanished – like so many other superheroes – becoming no more than a fond memory for older fans. Fawcett in full bloom, however, was a true publishing innovator and marketing dynamo – now regarded as inventor of many established comic book sales tactics we all take for granted today. This stunning, lavishly sturdy full-colour hardback compendium gathers magnificent examples of the most effective strategy: spin-off characters linked to the primary star. Fawcett was the company responsible for creating crossover-events and in 1942 they devised a truly unforgettable villain and set him simultaneously loose on their stable of costumed champions whilst using his (temporary) defeat to introduce a new hero to their colourful pantheon.

The epic creation of Captain Marvel Jr. and his originating antithesis Captain Nazi were fully covered in Shazam! Archives volume 4 so feel free to go there first…

This subsidiary collection gathers his subsequent appearances as brand new headliner in Master Comics #23-32 (February to November 4th 1942) plus the first issue of his own solo title (Captain Marvel Jr. #1, cover-dated 18th November 1942) and also includes the debut appearance of mighty Miss Mary Marvel who premiered in Captain Marvel Adventures #18 (December 11th 1942). All that and the stunning covers by Beck & Raboy are preceded by an erudite and incisive Foreword from artist, editor, historian – and former student of C.C. Beck – P.C. Hammerlinck, who reveals many secrets of the original comics’ production before the classics commence.

Sadly, although the artists involved are easily recognisable, the identities of these tales’ writers are lost to us but strong possibilities include primarily Rod Reed and Ed “France” Herron (both early editors of Fawcett’s comics line) as well as Bill Parker, Manly Wade Wellman, Joe Millard, Otto Binder and William Woolfolk.

Before the advent of the World’s Mightiest Boy, Bulletman – ably assisted by his companion Bulletgirl – was undoubtedly Fawcett’s runner-up star turn; hogging the covers in monthly Master Comics and carrying his own solo comic title. That all changed with the 21st issue and murderous arrival of Captain Nazi. Hitler’s Übermensch made manifest, the monstrous villain was despatched to America to spread terror and destruction and kill all its superheroes.

The Horrendous Hun stormed in, taking on Bulletman and Captain Marvel who united to stop the Fascist Fiend wrecking New York City. The battle ended inconclusively but restarted when the Nazi nemesis tried to wreck a hydroelectric dam. Foiled again, the monster sought to smash a new fighter plane prototype before Captain Marvel countered him, but was not quick enough to prevent the killer murdering an old man and brutally crushing a young boy.

Freddy Freeman seemed destined to follow his grandfather into eternity, but guilt-plagued Billy brought the dying lad to Shazam’s mystic citadel where the wizard saved his life by granting Freddy access to the power of the ancient gods and heroes. Physically cured – except for a permanently maimed leg – there was a secondary effect: whenever he uttered the phrase “Captain Marvel” Freeman transformed into a superpowered, invulnerable version of his mortal self.

The prototype crossover epic concluded in Master Comics #22 when the teen titan joined Bulletman & Bulletgirl in stopping a string of Captain Nazi-sponsored murders, victoriously concluding with a bold announcement that from the very next issue he would be starring in his own solo adventures. That parade of epic exploits begins in this tome with ‘Captain Nazi’s Assassination Plot’ (Master Comics #23), immaculately rendered by the Alex Raymond-inspired Raboy who would produce for the feature some of the most iconic art of his illustrious career. Sadly, that meant struggling constantly with punishing deadlines and his own impossibly harsh standards. Moreover, the legend abounds that Raboy would rewrite scripts he wasn’t happy with…

Earning a living selling newspapers on street corners, young Freddie spots Captain Nazi again and dogs his corpse-strewn trail as the fascist kills a British agent and attempts to murder President Roosevelt. Then ‘Death by Radio’ introduces sinister serial killer Mr. Macabre who brazenly broadcasts his intention to assassinate former business partners until the young Marvel confronts him. Master Comics #25 sees Freddie investigate a little lad’s broken balloon in Woolfolk & Raboy’s ‘The Case of the Face in the Dark!’, only to stumble upon a cunning plot by the Japanese to invade Alaska. Whereas his senior partner’s tales were always laced with whimsy, Junior’s beautifully depicted exploits were always drenched in angst, tension and explosive action. The climax, which involved the bombastic boy-warrior shredding wave after wave of bombers, is possibly one of the most staggering printed spectacles of the Golden Age…

On a smaller scale, the next issue featured Otto Binder’s ‘The Return of Mr. Macabre!’ as the killer, turned sickly green after a failed suicide attempt, kidnaps a US inventor ferrying vital plans to England. The plot goes well until Macabre’s rendezvous with Captain Nazi in mid-Atlantic is interrupted by Junior, who saves the day by ripping their battleship apart with his bare hands! In a rare display of close continuity, Freddie then carries on to London in MC #27 to counter ‘Captain Nazi and the Blackout Terror’, with the malign master of disguise setting out to neutralise the city’s anti-Blitz protocols. For his service, Freddie is made a special agent for Winston Churchill…

Never captive for long, in the next issue the Hunnish Hauptman spearheads an Atlantic reign of terror and kidnaps America’s chief of War Production, until Junior single-handedly invades ‘Hitler’s Headquarters of Horror’, linking up with a German Resistance movement to free the crucial captive. After such smashing successes it was no surprise that in #29 British Intelligence tapped innocuous Freddie Freeman to infiltrate Hitler’s Fortress Europa and prepare the enslaved populations under ‘The Iron Heel of the Huns’ to rise when the inevitable Allied counterattack came…

MC #30 saw the wonder boy back in the USA, stopping Captain Nazi’s plan to poison an entire military base in ‘Captain Marvel Jr. Saves the Doomed Army’, before malignant Mr. Macabre joins the Japanese to abduct a crucially-placed diplomat in ‘The Case of the Missing Ambassador’ but inevitably tasting frustrating defeat and receiving the sound thrashing he so richly deserves…

With #32, Master Comics became a fortnightly publication, but Freddie barely noticed since he was embroiled in a decidedly domestic atrocity wherein corrupt orphanage officials collected and abused disabled kids to turn a profit in ‘The Cripple Crimes’…

A blockbuster hit, “The Most Sensational Boy in the World” promptly won his own title as 1942 drew to a close, but with Raboy already hard-pressed to draw 14 pages a month to his own exacting standards, Captain Marvel Jr. #1 was illustrated by reliable Al Carreño – a Fawcett regular who had covered almost every character in the company’s stable.

The bumper book – probably scripted by Binder & Joe Millard – began by briefly reprising ‘The Origin of Captain Marvel Jr.’ before depicting ‘Wings of Dazaggar!’ wherein Junior follows Captain Nazi to an occupied West African colony and uncovers a flight of secret super-planes intended to bomb America to dust. After scotching that scheme Freddie is drawn into an eerie murder-mystery as a succession of gangsters and investigative reporters fall victim to ‘The Shadow that Walked!’…

Then, thugs snatching beggars off the street to fuel a fantastically callous insurance scam make their biggest mistake by grabbing lame Freddie Freeman as their next patsy in ‘The Case of the Cripple Kidnappers’, before the soaring sagas conclude on a redemptive note as Captain Marvel Jr. “encourages” ‘The Cracked Safecracker’ to renounce his criminal ways and look after his elderly, ailing and extremely gullible parents…

This superb graphic grab-bag concludes with a landmark from ‘Captain Marvel Introduces Mary Marvel’, as capably rendered by Otto Bonder and Fawcett illustration mainstay Mark Swayze as first seen in Captain Marvel Adventures #18 (cover-dated December 11th, 1942). Preceded by a glorious painted cover from Beck of what would become known as The Marvel Family, the story saw boy broadcaster Billy Batson hosting a radio quiz show and finding himself drawn to sweet rich kid Mary Bromfield. During the course of the show – which also includes Freddie Freeman amongst the contestants – Billy is made shockingly aware that Mary is in fact a long-lost twin sister he never knew he had (take that, Luke Skywalker!), but before he can share the knowledge with her, gangsters kidnap her for a hefty ransom. Although Captain Marvel & Junior rescue Mary, they foolishly fall under the sway of the crooks and are astounded when she idly mutters the word “Shazam!”, transforms into the World’s Mightiest Girl and rescues them all…

Crisis over, the trio then quiz the old wizard and learn the secret of Mary’s powers – gifts of a group of goddesses who have endowed the plucky lass with the grace of Selene, strength of Hippolyta, skill of Ariadne, fleetness of Zephyrus, beauty of Aurora (always crucial when battling thugs, brutes and beasts!) and wisdom of Minerva – before welcoming their new companion to a life of unending adventure…

Notwithstanding the acute implied sexism of Mary’s talents coming from goddesses rather the same source as the boys’, her creation was a milestone of progress adding a formidable, unbeatable female role model to the ranks of the almost universally male mystery-man population of comic books.

The original Captain Marvel is a key factor in the development of American comics history and a brilliantly conceived superhero for all ages. These enchanting, compelling tales show why “The Big Red Cheese” and his oddly extended family was such an icon of the industry and proves that such timeless, sublime graphic masterpieces are an ideal introduction to the world of superhero fiction: tales that cannot help but appeal to readers of every age and temperament.
© 1942, 2006 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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The Phantom: The Complete Sunday Archive volume Five 1953-1956


By Lee Falk & Wilson McCoy, & various (Hermes Press)
ISBN: 978-1-61345-169-4 (HB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Born Leon Harrison Gross, “Lee Falk” created the Ghost Who Walks at the request of his King Features Syndicate employers who were already making history, public headway and loads of money with his first strip sensation Mandrake the Magician. Although technically not the first ever costumed champion in comics, The Phantom was the prototype paladin to wear a skin-tight body-stocking and the first to have a mask with opaque eye-slits…

The generational champion debuted on February 17th 1936, in an extended sequence pitting him against an ancient global confederation of pirates called the Singh Brotherhood. Falk wrote and drew the daily strip for the first fortnight before handing over illustration to artist Ray Moore. The spectacular and hugely influential Sunday feature began in May 1939.

For such a long-lived, influential series, in terms of compendia or graphic collections, The Phantom was quite poorly served in the English language market (except for the Antipodes, where he’s always been accorded the status of a pop culture god). Many companies have sought to collect strips from one of the longest continually running adventure serials in publishing history, but in no systematic or chronological order and never with any sustained success. That began to be rectified when archival specialists Hermes Press launched their curated collections…

This fifth fabulous festival of rain forest romances and jungle action is a landscape hardback (or digital) tome, displaying alternately complete full colour Sunday episodes or crisp monochrome instalments shot from press proofs and digitally remastered. Released in December 2018, its 208 pages are stuffed with sumptuous visual goodies and documentary materials like panel and logo close-ups, comics covers and original art, and opens with publisher Daniel Herman’s Introduction ‘The Phantom Sundays Continue…’.

This recaps all you need to know about the ongoing feature and discloses how reproduction of such an ancient and venerated features offers its own unique problems…

For those who came in late: 400 years ago, a British mariner survived an attack by pirates, and – after washing ashore on the African coast – swore on the skull of his father’s murderer to dedicate his life and that of his descendants to destroying all pirates and criminals. The Phantom fights evil and injustice from his fabulous lair deep in the jungles of Bengali, revered and feared throughout Africa and Asia as the “Ghost Who Walks”…

His unchanging appearance and unswerving war against injustice led to his being considered an immortal avenger by the uneducated, credulous and wicked. Down the decades, one heroic son after another has inherited the task, fought and died in an unbroken family line, with the latest wearer of the mask indistinguishable from the first and proudly continuing the never-ending battle. In his first published exploit, the Phantom met and fell for wealthy American sophisticate Diane Palmer. His passion for her was soon reciprocated and returned and she became a continuing presence in both iterations of the series as ally, partner, sounding board, a means of reader identification and naturally a plot pawn and perennial hostage to fortune. She was also a handy conduit as the hero occasionally shared four centuries of Phantom history, hearing tales of ancestral Ghosts Who Walked in earlier eras. As was the fashion of the feature almost every saga included powerful, capable and remarkably attractive women as both heroes and villains.

However as the ultra-conservative 1950s unfolded, that femme fatale policy was increasingly downplayed. For Falk & Wilson McCoy’s opening tale ‘Madcap Miriam’ (running from (May 31st to October 18th, 1953), that results in a bored multi-millionairess deciding only the “most romantic man of Earth” is good enough for her and sends faithful personal secretary Steve to scour the globe for him. When he at last returns with a photo of the Ghost Who Walks all Miriam’s wealth and wiles are turned upon him…to no effect.

When everything else fails, Miss Miriam tracks him to the jungle and hires thugs to abduct him, before The Phantom loses his patience, crushes her brute squad and makes Miriam his skivvy in the Skull Cave. The miracle of honest toil, being relentlessly bullied and close proximity soon works its unique romantic magic on the captive when Steve arrives to rescue her…

Running October 25th 1953 to January 31st 1954, ‘The Imaginary Playmate’ sees the Jungle Guardian befriend a lonely lad stuck alone on a busy plantation. With his parents too preoccupied to pay attention, Conley Wright is happy to find a fantastic adult willing to indulge in his games and stories. However, as Dad grows more concerned about his boy being lost in fantasy, a gang intent on acquiring the plantation offer incontrovertible proof that the kid’s playmate is all too real and very protective…

February 7th to June 6th 1954 encompassed an epic tale of vengeance as the current Ghost Who Walks finally faced the traitor who betrayed his father when that worthy sought to end the Singh Brotherhood and returned without his equipment, only to die. Now at last The Phantom’s justice lands on mini-tyrant Rama: the villain who killed his father and stole ‘The Belt’. A decade later this yarn was retooled for Gold Key’s Phantom comic book.

The same is true for ‘The Master Spy’ (June 13th – October 10th 1954) which focuses on the Jungle Patrol: a peacekeeping paramilitary force secretly established and run by the Phantom to police the many tribes and intruders seeking to exploit them. When they are approached by “historian” Dr. Heg they have no idea that he is employed by a colonising totalitarian state to undermine the stable society. He benefits greatly from the covert nature of the force, as “The Patrol” are worthy soldiers have truly no idea who their mysterious “Commander” is. When Heg subverts an ambitious but well-meaning new recruit the efficient system goes awry and chaos almost destroys everything until the Phantom takes a firm grip of the situation…

Contemporary politics gives way to timeless fantasy next as ‘Alexander’s Cup’ (October 17th 1954 – February 27th 1955) reveals how History’s greatest treasures are stored in the fabulous Skull Cave. After saving fever-wracked explorer Wells, the Phantom foolishly shows him The Diamond Cup of Alexander the Great (also owned by Xerxes, Jules Caesar and other great men before vanishing from public gaze) and accidentally triggers a greed-fuelled rampage by eager criminals and ambitious chancers like Wells’ explorer colleague Lorgen. Eventually, however, the stolen chalice is restored, but only after one of the most spectacular recovery operations the Ghost Who Walks has ever attempted…

A brief, palate-cleansing all action clash with protection racketeers ‘The Gibs Brothers’ (March 6th – April 3rd) segues into extended warfare against a society of murderers as ‘The Crescent Cult’ sees the Jungle Ghost crushing an assassination gang determined to murder their country’s new Maharani. The assaults are constant and the cult of Kratan is riddled deep in every stratum of the kingdom, so the Phantom’s first move is to kidnap and hold prisoner the intended victim. From there it’s just mopping up, really…

The USA’s rapidly growing dose of UFO fever manifested next as from August 14th through November 6th, a tribal headman teaches the village children of the time when the Ghost Who Walks repelled ‘The Horned Star Demons’. What follows is a wry spin on a classic plot as alien scouts pick The Phantom as the “typical earthling” to test their prowess and superior technology on, prior to deciding to invade or not…

An always fruitful recurring subplot involved Diana Palmer’s stinking rich family continually seeking to discredit her true love and get her married off to money. Now her grandfather had his shot at ending the romance by finding her ‘A Proper Husband’ (November 13th 1955 – February 13th 1956). Bigwig H.H. Palmer’s grand idea is to apply business methods and interview an army of tough guy types, but of course no one measures up and are completely useless when kidnappers join the festivities. Lucky The Phantom and Good Boi Devil aren’t too far away…

Penultimate peril ‘The Jungle Tourneys’ (February 19th – May 20th) then reminds readers that tribal rivalries are settled by Phantom-instituted combat sports days, which culminate with the African last man standing allowed the honour of battling the Ghost Who Walks. Sadly this year an unlucky prison escapee who finds the Phantom’s clothes is stuck fighting a native gladiator in a centuries-old grudge match… and loses.

With legends shattered, the prestige of victory goes to the head of Woban of the Wambesi whose triumph sparks chaos and disruption until the real Phantom restores the status quo of The Phantom’s Peace…

Closing this graphic safari, ‘Pirate Day’ (May 27th – August 19th 1956) finds the port city of Bengali-Town celebrating its own version of trick or treat. Unfortunately, as adults, citizens and kids pick up swag sacks and go marauding like jolly corsairs and buccaneers, real crooks use the festivities to rob a swank ball. When they villains are separated all the loot goes into one sack, and that one is accidentally confused with a candy-stuffed satchel that passed around with astounding frequency, before the Ghost Who Walks settles the matter to everyone’s satisfaction. Well, not the robbers, of course. The Phantom hates pirates…

If the kind of fare you’d encounter in a 1940s Tarzan movie or noir thriller might offend, you should consider carefully before starting this book, but if you’re open to oldies with inherent but honest historical and cultural challenges there’s a lot to be said for these straightforward pioneering thrillers. Finally rediscovered in this hemisphere, these lost gems are especially rewarding as the material is still fresh, entertaining and addictively compelling. However, even if it were only of historical value (or just printed for Australians – manic devotees of the implacable champion from the get-go) surely the Ghost Who Walks and fiancée/wife-who-waits is worthy of a little of your time?

The Phantom® © 1953-1956 and 2018 King Features Syndicate, Inc. ® Hearst Holdings, Inc. Reprinted with permission. All rights reserved.

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The Shield – America’s 1st Patriotic Comic Book Hero


By Irving Novick, Harry Shorten & various (Archie Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-87979-408-5 (TPB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

There are numerous comics anniversaries this year. Some of the most significant will be rightly celebrated, but many are going to be unjustly ignored. As a feverish fanboy wedged firmly in the past, I’m still abusing my privileges to revisit another brilliant vintage book, criminally out of print but at least readily obtainable in digital formats…

Happy Birthday US of America! – even the less reasonable bits…

In the dawning days of the comic book business, just after Superman and Batman had ushered in a new genre of storytelling, many publishers jumped onto the bandwagon and made their own bids for cash and glory. Many thrived and many more didn’t, remembered only as trivia by sad blokes like me. Some few made it to an amorphous middle-ground: Not forgotten, but certainly not household names either…

The Shield was FBI scientist Joe Higgins who created a suit and vitamin supplement system bestowing enhanced strength, speed and durability. These advantages he used to battle America’s enemies in the days before the USA entered World War II. Latterly, he also devised a Shield Formula to increase his powers. Beginning with the first issue of Pep Comics (January 1940) he battled spies, saboteurs, subversive organisations and every threat to American security and well-being and was a minor sensation. He is credited with being the industry’s very first Patriotic Hero, predating Marvel’s iconic Captain America in the “draped in the Flag” field.

Collected here in this Golden-Age fan-boy’s dream (barely available as a trade paperback but also more accessible in digital formats) are the lead stories from monthly Pep Comics #1-5 (January – May 1940) plus three solo adventures from hastily assembled spin-off Shield-Wizard Comics #1 (Summer 1940).

Following a Foreword from Robert M. Overstreet and context-providing Introduction from Paul Castiglia the jingoistic wonderment opens with FBI agent Joe Higgins smashing a “Stokonian” spy and sabotage ring in his mystery man identity of The Shield – ‘G-Man Extraordinary’. Only his boss J. Edgar Hoover knows his dark secret and of the incredible scientific process that has made the young daredevil a veritable human powerhouse.

In Pep #2, as American oil tankers begin vanishing at sea, The Shield hunts down the ray gun-wielding rogues responsible and delivers punishing justice before #3 sees mini parachute mines cause devastating destruction in US waters… until the patriotic paragon locates the undersea base of brilliant science-maniac Count Zongarr and deals out some more all-American retribution…

There’s a whiff of prescience or plain military/authorial foresight to the blistering tale from Pep #4 (May 1940) when dirty, devious, diabolical Mosconians perpetrate a sneak attack on Pearl Harbor. Warned by a clairvoyant vision from new mystery man The Wizard, Higgins hurtles to Hawaii to scotch the plot. When fists and fury aren’t quite enough, the Shield turns an exploding volcano on the murdering backstabbers! Mission accomplished, Higgins takes an ocean liner home in Pep #5, only to have the ship attacked by vengeful Mosconians. After thwarting the sinister ambushers and battling his way home, Joe arrives back in the USA just in time to thwart a tank column attack on Congress!

The blistering pace, energising enthusiasm of the creators and sheer scale, scope and bravura of the Patriotic Paragon’s adventures made him an early hit, and he soon won a second venue for his crusade – the aforementioned Shield-Wizard Comics. The cunningly contrived shared title hit newsstands on June 20th 1940, and opened with the expanded origin for the red, white and blue blockbuster reprinted here.

In 1916 Joe Higgin’s father was a scientist and officer in US Army Intelligence. Whilst working on a formula to make men superhuman, Tom Higgins was attacked by enemy agents and lost his life when they blew up a fleet of ammunition barges. To make matters worse, the innocent dedicated agent was posthumously blamed for the disaster…

Joe grew up with the shame but swore to complete his father’s work and clear his name. By achieving the first – and gaining super-powers – Joe consequently lured out spy master Hans Fritz (who had framed his dad) and accomplished the most crucial component of his crusade: exonerating Tom Higgins. Then, with dad’s old partner J. Edgar as part of the secret, the son joined the FBI and began his work on America’s behalf…

Shield-Wizard #1 contained three complete exploits of the Star-Spangled Centurion, with the second introducing Joe to new partner Ju Ju Watson: a doughty veteran agent dedicated to completing the young operative’s training. Together they investigate a steel mill infiltrated by crooks holding the owner hostage and aiming to purloin the payroll. Young Higgins’ next case involves grisly murder as corpses are found concealed in a floating garbage scow with the trail leading back to vice racketeer Lou Zefke. His ongoing trial is stalling for lack of witnesses, but with only the slimmest of leads and plenty of enthusiasm, The Shield steps in and cleans up the mess…

Raw, primitive and inarguably a little juvenile, these are unadorned, glorious romps from the industry’s exuberant, uncomplicated daw days: Plain-&-simple fun-packed thrills from the gravely under-appreciated Irving Novick (Batman, Flash, Captain Storm, Wonder Woman, countless war comics, The Joker) & Harry Shorten (Archie Comics, Charlton Comics, The Black Hood, T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents, There Oughta be a Law!) and others whose names are now lost to history.

Despite absolutely not being to everyone’s taste, for dyed-in-the-woollen-tights superhero freaks, these guilty pleasures are worth a look, affording a rapturous tribute to those less complicated times and folk who always saw simple solutions to complex problems…
© 1940, 2002 Archie Publications In. All Rights Reserved.

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Word came yesterday that we’ve lost yet another comics giant. James Charles Shooter (27th September 27th 1951 – 30th June 2025) wrote countless comics stories, from the minor to the most major of major stars, and changed or steered the courses of US comic book stars with landmark tales like Marvel Super Hero Secret Wars, Secret Wars 2, Avengers: The Korvac Saga, The Superman vs. Flash race tradition, and Original Graphic Novels for Dazzler, Thor, the Avengers & X-Men (The Aladdin Effect) and more.

Wikipedia has a very fair assessment of him which you can read here .

Jim Shooter began his creative career at DC, a teenager helping his poorly-paid parents with bills. His submissions impressed editor Murray Boltinoff who bought his early stories, leading to residencies on the Legion of Super-Heroes and most of the Superman family of titles.

Combining his continued education with the stresses of being a jobbing writer, when he moved to Marvel his tales included continuity-changing runs on Daredevil, The Avengers, Super-Villain Team-Up, Ghost Rider, Spider-Man and others. As editor and publisher he created child-friendly imprint Star Comics for younger readers, sanctioned creator-owned venue Epic Comics and created Marvel’s New Universe sub-strand (writing core title Star Brand – some would say as autobiographical wish fulfilment). He pushed moving beyond the company’s established complex-continuity roots, writing “real world” material such as Team America and others. He also forged indelible links with toy and licensing brands that swiftly made Marvel the most profitable comics publisher in the US.

Outspoken, controversial and often ferociously dogmatic, Jim was Business to the bone without ever forgetting his blue-collar, poverty-driven roots. Bluntly, he alienated many key creators, but whatever others thought, did what he considered best. However, his work – he also pencilled many stories – was never dull and never, never, never boring. He was a master of science fiction themes, and understood childlike wonder, loss and comedy moments.

Always championing creator rights, Jim instituted return of artwork to artists and, when ousted from Marvel and setting up his later companies Valiant, Defiant and Broadway Comics, operated a collective writing policy that saw every participant in the incredibly collaborative process of making comics fully credited and remunerated for their contributions. He also always mentored new talent and encouraged everyone to push their own limits.

Jim Shooter was One of Us: a comics fan and story lover who made the jump from consumer to creator, so I’m asking those who care to remember him for his less well known – but often best written – efforts by hunting down and enjoying the items – or any Shooter effort – reviewed here.

The Valiant Era Collection and Warriors of Plasm
By Jim Shooter, Bob Hall, Faye Perozich, Kevin Vanhook, Don Perlin, Steve Ditko, Gonzalo Mayo, Stan Drake, Yvel Guichet, Ted Halsted, John Dixon, Paul Autio & various (Valiant)
No ISBN/ ASIN: B000H2UTEI

During the market-led, gimmick-crazed frenzy of the 1990s, amongst the interminable spin-offs, fads and shiny multiple-cover events a new comics company revived some old characters and proved once more that good story-telling never goes out of fashion. At DC, 14-year-old Shooter wrote epic runs on The Legion of Super-Heroes, Supergirl and Superman, and scripted the company’s first toy tie-in Captain Action, before moving to Marvel in 1976. When he became the Editor-in-Chief, Shooter made Marvel the most profitable and high-profile they had ever been. and, after his departure, used that writing skill and business acumen to transform an almost forgotten Silver-Age character pantheon into contemporary gold.

Western Publishing had been a major player since comics’ earliest days, blending a wealth of licensed titles such as TV and Disney titles, Tarzan, and the Lone Ranger with homegrown hits like Turok, Son of Stone and Space Family Robinson. During the 1960s superhero boom, these adventure titles expanded to include, Brain Boy, M.A.R.S. Patrol – Total War, Magnus, Robot Fighter and in deference to the atomic age of heroes, Nukla and the utterly brilliant Dr. Solar, Man of the Atom. Despite supremely high quality and passionate fan-bases, they never captured the media spotlight of DC or Marvel’s costumed cut-ups. Western shut up their comics division in 1984.

With an agreement to revive some, any or all of these four-colour veterans, Shooter and co-conspirator Bob Layton came to a bold decision and made those earlier adventures part-&-parcel of their refit: acutely aware that older fans don’t like having their childhood favourites bastardized and that revivals need all the support they can get. Thus the old days were canonical: they “happened”…

The company launched with a classy reinterpretation of science fiction icon Magnus, but the key title to the new universe they were building was the broadly super-heroic Solar, Man of the Atom Alpha & Omega and Second Death which launched with an eye to all the gimmicks of the era, but also cleverly realised and realistically drawn.

Hit after hit followed and the roster of heroes expanded until dire market conditions and corporate chicanery ended the company’s stellar expansion. Gradually it fractionated and despite many revivals since, has all but disappeared now…

Here’s another innovation of that idea-packed era – a sampler of hits and one of their earliest graphic novels – from the early days of the format we’re all so familiar with. The Valiant Era Collection, re-presenting Magnus #12, Solar #10-11, Eternal Warrior #4-5 and Shadowman #8 was released in 1994 as an introduction to the new old brand and canny compendium of first appearances from the company’s burgeoning continuity. It gathered a disparate selection of tales which had one thing in common: the debuts of characters that had quickly become “hot”.

In the collector-led era of the early 1990s – before one zillion internet sites and social networking media – many new concepts caught the public’s attention only after publication. The seemingly-savvy snapped up multiple copies of comics they subsequently couldn’t sell and many genuinely popular innovations slipped by unnoticed until too late. This trade paperback from a company that valued storytelling above all else addressed that thorny issue by simply bundling their own hot and hard to find hits in one book…

‘Stone and Steel’ was written by Faye Perozich & Shooter and illustrated by Gonzalo Mayo, and found Robot-Fighting superman Magnus transported to a timeless dimension where dinosaurs and cavemen existed side by side. Once there he became embroiled in a battle for survival against his old enemy Laslo Noel: a rabid anti-technologist not averse to using modern super-weapons to force his point of view.

The Lost Land had other defenders, most notably two Native American warriors named Turok and his young companion Andar. The pair had been a popular Western Publishing mainstay for over a quarter of a century (see Turok, Son of Stone) and their initial (re)appearance here led to their revival in a succession of titles which survived the company’s demise, as well as a series of major computer and video games.

That spectacular, entrancing epic is followed by a 2-part Solar saga introducing an immortal warrior prince and paving the way for the disclosure of the secret history which underpinned the entire Valiant Universe.

Solar was brilliant nuclear physicist Phil Seleski, who designed a new type of fusion reactor and was transformed into an atomic god when he sacrificed his life to prevent it destroying the world. His energized matter, troubled soul, coldly rational demeanour and aversion to violence made him a truly unique hero – but his discovery of hidden meta-humans and a genuine supervillain in the ambitious, mega-maniacal form of ultra psionic Toyo Harada led Solar into a constantly escalating Secret War. Solar #10 – ‘The Man who Killed the World’ by Shooter, Don Perlin, Stan Drake, John Dixon & Paul Autio – introduced a raft of new concepts and characters, beginning with troubled teen Geoffry McHenry – the latest in a long line of Geomancers blessed/cursed with the power to communicate with every atom that comprises our planet. When the world screams that a sun-demon is about to consume it, Geoff tracks down Seleski only to determine that Solar is not unique and the threat is still at large.

Meanwhile, Harada’s Harbinger Foundation has sent all its unnatural resources to destroy the Man of the Atom, supplemented by a mysterious individual named Gilad Anni-Padda: an Eternal Warrior who had been battling evil around the globe for millennia and has worked with a number of Geoff’s predecessors…

Concluding chapter ‘Justifiable Homicides’ (Shooter, Steve Ditko, Ted Halsted & Mayo) finds Geomancer, Gilad and Solar battling for their lives against an army of Harbinger super-warriors. As always with this series, the ending is not one you’ll see coming…

Gilad soon helmed his own series and Eternal Warrior #4-5 introduced his immortal but unnamed undying nemesis in ‘Evil Reincarnate’ (Kevin Vanhook, Yvel Guichet & Dixon), a tale of ancient China which segues neatly into a contemporary clash with a drug-baron who is his latest reborn iteration. Then nanite-enhanced techno-organic wonder warrior Bloodshot explodes onto the scene in ‘The Blood is the Life’ (Vanhook & Dixon): a blockbusting action epic setting up the enhanced assassin’s own bullet-bestrewn series and tangentially, the 40th century Magnus spin-off Rai…

The final debut in this volume was not for another hero but rather the introduction of the Valiant Universe’s most diabolical villain. Shadowman #8 held ‘Death and Resurrection’ (Bob Hall, Guichet & Dixon) and changed the rules of the game throughout the company’s growing line of books.

Jack Boniface was a struggling session saxophonist trying to strike it rich in the Big Easy when he was seduced by Lydia, a mysterious woman he picked up in a club. Her sinister, trysting assault left him unconscious, amnesiac and forever altered by a bite to his neck. Lydia was a Spider Alien: part of a race preying on humanity for uncounted centuries and responsible for creating many of the paranormal humans who secretly inhabit the world.

Her bite forever changes Jack and when darkness falls he becomes agitated, restless and extremely aggressive: forced to roam the Voodoo-haunted streets of New Orleans as the compulsive, impulsive daredevil dubbed Shadowman – violent, driven, manic and hungry for conflict… but only when the sun goes down. This tale examines the deadly criminal drug sub-culture of the city as a new narcotic begins to take its toll. a poison forcing its victims to careen through the streets bleeding from every orifice until they die. Witnesses call them “Blood Runners”…

As Shadowman investigates he is unaware that he is a target of the drug’s creator – ancient sorcerer Master Darque – and that soon the world will no longer be the rational, scientific place he believed. Before long, Jack will have terrifying proof that magic is both real and painfully close and that the Man of Shadow is not a creature of exotic physics and chemistry but something far more arcane and unnerving…

Despite being a little disjointed, these stories are immensely readable and it’s a tragedy that they’re not all readily available, as Valiant’s hostile takeover led to the breaking up of and selling on of various stars…

Still, there are always back issue comics and digital collections and the hope that the new revival might spawn a few trade paperback editions. Until then you can still hunt down this and the precious few other collections via your usual internet and comic retailers, and trust me, you really should…
© 1994 Voyager Communications Inc. and Western Publishing Company, Inc. All rights reserved.

Warriors of Plasm: The Collected Edition
By Jim Shooter, David Lapham, Mike Witherby, Bob Smith & various (Defiant)
ISBN: 978-1374700000, ASIN: B000R4LMUQ

If the 1980s was the decade where anybody with a pencil and a printer’s phone number could enter the business, the 1990s saw the rapid rise – and very often equally swift fall – of the small corporation publisher. Many businesses opened or acquired a comics division to augment or supplement their core business: like the Nintendo Comics that were packaged by and published in conjunction with Valiant Comics…

Jim Shooter founded Valiant with Bob Layton, and later went on to launch the short-lived but highly impressive Defiant Comics of which this book is – to my knowledge – the only collected edition. That’s a great pity as the range of talent that briefly worked there, as well as the titles themselves, showed immense promise. The legal war of attrition with Marvel that caused their early closure is well documented elsewhere, so I’ll swiftly move on to the product itself.

Flagship title Warriors of Plasm was a powerful alien intervention tale set mostly in an alternate universe where a single race had taken genetic science to such extremes that their homeworld had become a voracious planetary organism continually feeding on the biomass of other worlds.

Society on The Org was hierarchical, imperialistic and ritually sadistic, where the credos of “survival of the fittest” and “evolve or die” had the force of fanatical religion. Ruled by a weak Emperor, the court lived a life of brutal hedonistic luxury, revelling in decadence whilst relentlessly jockeying for advantage.

Lorca is a Seeker, high in the court and charged with finding new worlds for the Org to consume, but something within him defies official doctrine that personality is an aberration and that all bio-matter belongs to the greater whole. Bodies are mulched and recycled whilst individuality is an anti-social aberration, yet all organisms clearly would do absolutely anything not to die.

Spurred on by his corrupt rival Ulnareah, Lorca forms an illegal relationship with Laygen, a girl created without state-approval, and when caught, he is forced to recycle her to preserve his own existence.

Bitter and discontented, he eventually returns to work, but when he discovers Earth beyond the transdimensional veil he sees an opportunity to overthrow the Org and take supreme control. Humans are strong, individualistic, fierce warriors, and – with his tricks of genetic augmentation – could defeat any force the Org might muster. Thus, he teleports 10,000 test subjects to his private vats… but something goes wrong.

Only five humans survive, mutated into superhuman beings, but the Seeker is unaware of this since he’s been arrested by the authorities who never stopped watching him…

How the transformed humans escape and the uneasy alliance they form with unlikely liberator Lorca makes for a refreshingly novel spin on the old plot of revolution and redemption, and Shooter’s dialogue and characterisations of what could so easily have been stock characters add layers of sophistication to a fantasy drama many “adult” comics would kill for even today.

Simultaneously understated and outrageous as inked by Mike Witherby, David Lapham’s incredible art & design captivates and bewilders, adding a moody disorientation to a superb, action-packed thriller, especially in the incredible, climactic 4-page fold-out battle scene.

Originally produced as Warriors of Plasm #1-4, ‘The Sedition Agenda’ was preceded by an issue #0 daringly released only as a set of trading cards and supplemented by a prequel tale outlining the social relevance of gory global sporting phenomenon known as ‘Splatterball’, (written & drawn by Lapham with inks by Bob Smith), and these too are gathered here for your delectation.

Still seen on internet vendors’ sites, I have no idea where else you can find a copy of this terrific little book but I hope you do, just as I wish that some smart publisher would pick up the rights for all the Defiant material and the Broadway Comics Shooter produces after Defiant died: but maybe one day somebody will get the remaining band back together and finish all these lost stories…
© 1994 EEP, L.P. All Rights Reserved.

R.I.P. Jim…

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New Crusaders Legacy


By Rich Buckler, Ian Flynn, Robert Kanigher, Marty Griem, Lou Manna, Rex Lindsey, Stan Timmons, Bill DuBay, Jr., Rich Margopoulos, David M. Singer, Alex Toth, Carmine Infantino, Steve Ditko, Dick Ayers, Gray Morrow, Alec Niño, Tony DeZuñiga, Louis Barreto, Adrian Gonzales, Ricardo Villagran, Frank Giacoia, Alan Kupperberg, Jerry Gaylord, Ben Bates, Alitha Martinez & many more (Red Circle/Archie Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-936975-22-8 (TPB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

In the dawning days of the comic book business, just after Superman and Batman pioneered a new genre of storytelling, many publishers jumped onto the bandwagon and made their own bids for cash and glory. Many thrived and many more didn’t; now relished only as trivia by sad old blokes like me. Some few made it to an amorphous middle-ground: not forgotten, but certainly not household names either.

MLJ were one of the quickest publishers to jump on the Mystery-Man bandwagon, following the spectacular successes of the Man of Tomorrow with their own small yet inspirational pantheon of gaudily clad costumed crusaders, beginning in November 1939 with Blue Ribbon Comics. Soon followed by Top-Notch and Pep Comics, their content was the standard blend of two-fisted adventure strips, prose pieces and gag panels and, from #2 on, superheroes. However, after only a few years Maurice Coyne, Louis Silberkleit and John Goldwater spotted a gap in the blossoming market and in December 1941 nudged aside their masked heroes and action strips to make room for a far less imposing hero; an “average teen” who would have ordinary adventures like the readers, but with triumphs, romance and slapstick emphasised. The teen phenomenon was pure gold and by 1946 the kids had taken over, so MLJ renamed itself Archie Comics; retiring its heroic characters years before the end of the Golden Age and becoming, to all intents and purposes, a publisher of family comedies. Its success, like Superman’s, changed the content of every other publisher’s titles, and led to a multi-media industry including TV shows, movies, a chain of restaurants and even a global pop hit Sugar, Sugar (a tune from their animated show).

By this stage the company had blazed through an impressive pantheon of mystery-men who would form the backbone of numerous future superhero revivals, most notably in the High-Camp/Marvel Explosion/Batman TV show-frenzied mid-60’s era. The heroes impressively resurfaced under the company’s Red Circle imprint during the early days of the Direct Sales revolution of the 1980s, but after a strong initial showing, again failed to sustain the public’s attention.

Archie let them lie fallow (except for occasional revivals and intermittent guest-shots in Archie titles) until 1991, when the company licensed its heroes to superhero specialists DC for a magically fun, all-ages iteration (and where’s that star-studded trade paperback collection, huh?!). Impact Comics was a vibrant, engaging and fun all-ages rethink that really should have been a huge hit but was again cruelly unsuccessful. When the line folded in 1993 the characters returned to limbo. DC had one more crack at them in 2008, incorporating The Mighty Crusaders & Co into their own maturely angst-ridden and stridently dark continuity – with the usual overwhelming lack of success.

Over the last decade the wanderers returned home to Archie in superbly simplistic and winningly straightforward revivals aimed squarely at old nostalgics and young kids reared on action/adventure TV cartoons: brimming with all the exuberant verve and wide-eyed honest ingenuity you’d expect from an outfit which has been pleasing kids for over 80 years.

Released initially online in May 2012 – followed by a traditional monthly print version that September – the first story-arc made it to full legitimacy with a thrill-packed trade paperback collection, equally welcoming to inveterate fanboys and eager newcomers alike. The series introduced a new generation of legacy heroes rising from the ashes of their parents/guardians’ murders to become a team of teenaged gladiators carrying on the fight as New Crusaders.

This collection supplements and follows on from that magical makeover: with mentor The Shield training the potential-filled juniors with the records of their predecessors. The stories included here come from those aforementioned 1980s Red Circle episodes; culled from the

Mighty Crusaders #1, 8, 9; The Fly #2, 4, 6; Blue Ribbon (vol 2) #3, 8, 14; The Comet #1 and Black Hood #2, collectively spanning 1983-1985.

Following an engaging reintroduction and recap, contemporary creative team Ian Flynn, Jerry Gaylord, Ben Bates & Alitha Martinez reveal how the grizzled, flag-draped veteran has trouble reaching his teenaged students until he begins treating them as individuals, and sharing past Crusaders’ cases. Starting with personal recollections of his own early days as America’s first Patriotic superhero in ‘The Shield’ (Mighty Crusaders #8, by Marty Greim, Dick Ayers & Rich Buckler), Joe Higgins explains his active presence in the 21st century, leading into a recapitulation of the first Red Circle yarn.

‘Atlantis Rising’ is from Mighty Crusaders #1, by Buckler & Frank Giacoia, which saw psionic plunderer Brain Emperor and immortal antediluvian Eterno the Conqueror launching a multi-pronged attack on the world. They are countered by an army of costumed champions including the Golden Age Shield, Lancelot Strong – the (other) Shield – and for a while there were three different ones active at once – Fly and Fly-Girl, The Jaguar, The Web, Black Hood and The Comet, who communally countered a global crimewave and clobbered the villains’ giant killer robots…

This is followed by a modern interlude plus pin-up and data pages on Ralph Hardy AKA ‘The Jaguar’ before a potent vignette by Chas Ward & Carlos Vicat. ‘The Web’ offers the same data-page update for masked detective/criminologist John Raymond before ‘The Killing Hour’ (Blue Ribbon #14, by Stan Timmons, Lou Manna, Rex Lindsey & Chic Stone) sees the merely mortal manhunter join his brother-in-law The Jaguar in foiling nuclear terrorism.

Modern pin-ups and data-pages reintroduce ‘The Comet’ before Bill DuBay, Jr., Carmine Infantino & Alec Niño reworked the original 1940’s origin tale by Jack Cole from Pep Comics #1 in (1940). Reproduced from 1984’s The Comet #1, this chilling yarn detailed how an idealistic scientist became the most bloodthirsty hero of the Golden Age, with a body-count which made The Punisher look like a social worker.

The infomercial for ‘Steel Sterling’ precedes a wild and whimsical origin-retelling of the star-struck, super-strong “Man of Steel” by his 1940s scripter Robert Kanigher, illustrated with superb style by Louis Barreto & Tony DeZuñiga from Blue Ribbon #3, after which ‘Fly Girl’ gets star treatment in a brace of tales, augmented as always by the ubiquitous fact-folio.

Buckler, Timmons, Adrian Gonzales & Ricardo Villagran’s ‘A Woman’s Place’ (The Fly #2) clears up an exceedingly sexist old-school extortion ring whilst ‘Faithfully Yours’ (Fly #6) sees her movie-star alter ego Kim Brand subjected to a chilling campaign of terror from a fan. Timmons, Buckler, Steve Ditko & Alan Kupperberg take just the right tone in what might be the first incidence of stalking in US comics…

‘Black Hood’ has no modern iteration in the New Crusaders. Still active in contemporary times, he encountered the kids during their debut exploit and is phenomenally cool, so he gets a place here. Following the customary introductory lesson he appears in a gritty, Dirty Harry styled caper (from Blue Ribbon #8 by Gray Morrow) as undercover cop – and latest convert – Kip Burland, who sidesteps Due Process to save a kidnapped girl and ensure the conviction of crooks hiding behind the law. The gripping yarn also discloses the centuries-long justice-seeking tradition of “The Man of Mystery”…

That’s followed by a snippet from Rich Margopoulos, Kupperberg & Giacoia’s ‘A Hero’s Rage’ wherein Kip discovers his uncle Matt (the Golden Age Black Hood) has been murdered. Ditching his leather jacket and ski-mask in favour of the traditional costume, the bereaved hero suits up and joins the Mighty Crusaders…

Without doubt the most engaging reprint in this collection and by itself well worth the price of admission is ‘The Fox’ from Black Hood #2. Written and drawn by the inimitable Alex Toth, this scintillating light-hearted period comedy-drama finds the devilish do-gooder in Morocco in 1948 and embroiled with wealthy expatriate ex-boxer Cosmo Gilly, who has no idea he’s become the target for assassination…

The recondite recollections surge to a climax with ‘Old Legends Never Die’ (MC#9, by David M. Singer, Buckler & Ayers) as the first Shield is accused of excessive force and manslaughter when his 1940’s crime-fighting style seemingly results in the death of a thief he apprehended. With Joe Higgins’ costumed friends in support but out of their depth in a courtroom, the convoluted history of the three heroes bearing his codename is unpicked during ‘The Trial of the Shield’ before the uncannily sinister truth is exposed…

Supplemented by a plentiful cover gallery and packed with the kind of ephemera that sends old Fights ‘n’ Tights fans into paroxysms of delight, I fear this is probably a book only the wide-eyed young and dedicated still ambulatory old fart nostalgists could handle, but it is such a perfect artefact of the superhero genre I strongly urge anyone with a hankering for masked adventure and craving Costumed Dramas to give it a long look.
NEW CRUSADERS and RED CIRCLE COMICS ® ACP, Inc. © 2013 Archie Comics Publications. All rights reserved.