Category: DC Superhero

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Shazam! Archives volume 3


By Bill Parker, Rod Reed, C.C. Beck, George Tuska, Pete Costanza, Mac Raboy & others (DC Comics)
ISBN: 01-56389-832-2

One of the most venerated and beloved characters of America’s Golden Age of comics, Captain Marvel was created in 1940 as part of a wave of opportunistic creativity which followed the stunning success of Superman in 1938.

Although there were many similarities in the early years, the Fawcett champion quickly moved squarely into the area of light entertainment and even straight comedy, whilst as the years passed the Man of Steel increasingly left whimsy behind in favour of action, drama and suspense.

Homeless orphan and good kid Billy Batson was selected by an ancient wizard to be given the powers of six gods and heroes to battle injustice. He transforms 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 light entertainment magazine for WWI veterans named 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 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 young illustrator Charles Clarence Beck who, with his assistant Pete Costanza, handled most of the art on the series throughout its stellar run. At first the full-grown hero was a serious, bluff and rather characterless powerhouse whilst junior alter ego Billy was the true star: a Horatio Alger archetype of impoverished, bold, self-reliant and resourceful youth overcoming impossible odds by pluck, 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 the demonic Doctor Thaddeus Bodog Sivana, setting a pattern that would captivate readers for the next 14 years…

At the height of his popularity Captain Marvel outsold Superman and was even published twice-monthly, but as the Furious Forties closed tastes changed, sales slowed and Fawcett saw the way the wind was blowing. They settled an infamous long-running copyright infringement case begun by National Comics in 1940 and the Big Red Cheese vanished – as did so many superheroes – becoming little more than a fond memory for older fans…

This third magnificent deluxe full-colour hardback compendium re-presents a strip from anthology compendium America’s Greatest Comics, the second and third issues of Captain Marvel Adventures, his exploits from the fortnightly Whiz Comics #21-24 and also happily includes a selection of stunning covers from the plethora of extra and reprint editions generated by the Good Captain’s overnight success.

Although there was increasing talk of inevitable war amongst the American public; all these tales – spanning March to November 1941 – were created long before Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor and consequently have their share of thinly-veiled saboteur and spy sagas which permeated the genre until official Hostilities were finally established. Of more interest perhaps is that at this period the stories – many of them still sadly uncredited – still largely portray Marvel as a grimly heroic figure not averse to slaughtering the truly irredeemable villain and losing no sleep over it…

Following a nostalgic and highly educational Foreword by movie producer, author, historian and fan Michael Uslan, the wonderment commences with the magnificent Mac Raboy cover to America’s Greatest Comics #1 and the C.C. Beck illustrated thriller ‘Ghost of the Deep’ which led off that issue.

The merits of the ongoing court-case notwithstanding, Fawcett undeniably took many of their publishing cues from the examples of Superman and Batman. Following on from a brace of Premium editions celebrating the New York World’s Fair, National Comics had released World’s Finest Comics; a huge, quarterly card-cover anthology featuring a host of their comicbook mainstays in new adventures, and early in 1941, Fawcett produced a 100-page bumper comic dedicated to their own dashing new hero and the other mystery-men in their stable: Spy Smasher, Bulletman, Minute Man and Mr. Scarlet & Pinky and others.

‘Ghost of the Deep’ was an extra-long saga and canny mystery wherein a hooded mastermind used purloined technology to wage a campaign of terror against American Naval interests on both coasts before Billy and the Captain scotched his plans in a tale very much the template for the character’s future…

Meanwhile in Captain Marvel Adventures #2 (Summer 1941) the hero was still undergoing some on-the-job cosmetic refinements. In those formative years as the World’s Mightiest Mortal catapulted to the first rank of superhero superstars, there was actually a scramble to fill pages and just as CMA #1 had been farmed out to up-and-coming whiz-kids Joe Simon & Jack Kirby, the next two issues were rapidly compiled by mostly anonymous scripters and another rising star who drew the issues in a hurry, working from Beck and Parker’s style guides.

Young George Tuska added a raw, lean humanist vivacity to the tales beginning with ‘World of the Microscope’ wherein Sivana returned and dosed Billy and erstwhile ally Queen Beautia with a shrinking solution and left them at the mercy of bacterial monsters until Captain Marvel turned the tiny tables on him, after which a deadly stampede of giant spider robots presaged an ‘Invasion from Mars’, until the Big Red Cheese taught our planetary neighbours a lasting lesson in getting along.

DC/National Periodical Publications had filed suit against Fawcett for copyright infringement as soon as Whiz Comics #2 hit the stands and the companies slugged it out in court until 1953 when, with the sales of superhero comics decimated by changing tastes, Captain Marvel’s publishers decided to capitulate.

As a result most merchandising outfits steered well clear of Fawcett, compelling the publisher to generate toys, games, premiums and promotions themselves. The only notable exception was the blockbusting Adventures of Captain Marvel Movie Serial from Republic Pictures. Consequentially Fawcett used their magazines comicbooks to promote the films and practically invented Product Placement to plug their in-house merchandise.

‘The Curse of the Scorpion’ was an uncredited text feature which recapped the first episode of the movie serial and urged readers to follow the saga at their local cinemas after which the strip thrills resumed with Tuska’s ‘The Pirate’s Treasure’ (written by Rod Reed) as Billy investigated the murder of an old sailor and was press-ganged onto a modern-day buccaneer’s boat. Before long the radio reporter and his mighty avatar were embroiled in a war between rival South Seas rogues and the issue rousingly concluded with the Reed & Tuska saga of ‘The Arson Fiend’, a murderous supernatural firebug who acted out the frustrations of his ineffectual fire-insurance salesman alter ego…

Captain Marvel Adventures #2 (Fall 1941) opened with ‘The Menace of Muscles McGinnis’ wherein the toughest gangster in town tried to take over Billy’s radio station and literally had the wickedness beaten out of him by the unbeatable Crimson Crime-crusher, after which he was again targeted by the World’s Maddest Scientist who wanted to conquer the USA with ‘Sivana’s Paralyzing Gas’…

‘The Terror of the Goptas’ saw an ancient cult attack tall buildings and their architects, but although the devotees were acting to defend their cloud-living gods their new leader had far more mundane motives… The issue ended with another Sivana scheme as the Devil Doctor devised a synthetic zombie powered by the life-force of 1000 animals but little dreamed that ‘The Beast-Ruler’ might have his own agenda, such as uniting all of nature to eradicate humanity…

Whiz Comics #21 (September 5th 1941) featured ‘The Vengeful Four’ (illustrated by Beck) and saw Sivana gather three other villains to attack the hero in his youthful identity. What luck then that three other kids named Billy Batson were in town and that the magic of Shazam apparently extended to them…

Fat Billy, Tall Billy and Hill Billy took to trouncing thugs in a trice and, as the Three Lieutenant Marvels, would become frequent guest stars in years to come…

Written and illustrated by Beck, #22’s ‘The Temple of Itzalotahui’ was a turning point for the series. Tying into and deriving from the continuity of the movie serial, Billy gained an assistant in the form of Whitey Murphy, who was a co-star in the film iteration, but the real sea-change was the shift to light-hearted, tongue-in-cheek adventure as the lads travelled to Central America to search for a third cast member and found ancient Mayans and modern resource raiders…

Whiz #23 began a two-part thriller that again derived from product placement. ‘The Bal Masque’ found Billy and Whitey travelling to Washington DC to safeguard an Ambassador and his daughter at a grand soiree. The diplomats were unwitting couriers for a new defence code and when ruthless German agents struck Captain Marvel was drawn into a twisted web of cross and double-cross which culminated in a blistering sea battle in ‘The Secret of the Ring’ (24th November 28th 1941, by Beck & Costanza)…

With the code lost the Solomon-inspired Marvel swiftly devised a new cipher, and from that issue onwards, readers could decode secret messages in every story… as long as they were fully paid-up members of the new Captain Marvel Fan Club…

This nostalgic delight concludes not only with pages of biographical details on all the creators but also a brace of covers from two unique reprint compilations rushed out to satisfy the voracious demands of the hero’s burgeoning readership. Captain Marvel Thrill Book sports a stunning piece of Beck brilliance whilst Xmas Comics #1 by Raboy is a slice of pure comicbook mythology every art lover dreams of possessing.

DC eventually acquired the Fawcett properties and characters and in 1973 revived the Captain for a new generation to see if his unique charm would work another sales miracle during one of comics’ periodic downturns.

Re-titled Shazam! due to the incontestable power of lawyers and copyright convention, the revived heroic ideal enjoyed mixed success before being subsumed into the company’s vast stable of characters…

Nevertheless Captain Marvel is a true icon of American comic history and a brilliantly conceived superhero for all ages. These magical tales again show why The Big Red Cheese was such an icon of the industry and proves that these timeless, sublime comic masterpieces are an ideal introduction to the world of superhero fiction: tales that will appeal to readers of any age and temperament…
© 1941, 2002 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Superman’s First Flight


By Michael Jan Friedman & Dean Motter (Scholastic)
ISBN: 978-0-43909-550-1

We parochial and possessive comics fans too often regard our purest and most powerful icons in purely graphic narrative terms, but characters such as Batman, Spider-Man, the X-Men and Superman long ago outgrew their four-colour origins and are now fully mythologized modern media creatures instantly familiar in mass markets, platforms and age ranges.

Another captivating case in point is this beguilingly enthralling retelling of the Man of Steel’s formative journey to self-discovery retold for the very young as part of the Hello Reader early-learning program devised by Children’s publisher Scholastic.

Categorised as Level 3 (school years 1 and 2, with Level 2 being kindergarten and 1 as pre-schoolers) the story crosses that crucial divide wherein parents still read to their kids, but the little tykes are also beginning that wonderful, magical journey into literacy by themselves…

This clever, sensitive and age-appropriate retelling by Michael Jan Friedman encapsulates and addresses every maturing child’s growing feelings of potential alienation, sense of growth, self-discovery and independence by focussing on High School kid Clark Kent on the day that the solitary teen discovered why he had always felt somehow different from his classmates.

When Clark suddenly, impossibly, heard and saw a car crash from miles away, without thinking he found himself running and jumping over buildings. Arriving on the scene he tore metal doors off burning cars and outraced an explosion to save a trapped driver…

Terrified that he might be a monster he confided in his parents, who promptly shared a secret they’d been harbouring all Clark’s life. In the barn they showed the lad a tiny one-man spaceship which had crashed to Earth years ago, carrying an alien baby…

As Clark approached the capsule a hologram activated and the boy saw his birth-parents Jor-El and Lara who explained why he could perform feats no one else could…

Shocked and distraught, Clark ran away as fast as he could and before he knew it was flying high above the world. The glorious shock at last made him realise that different didn’t mean bad…

And soon the world was daily made better by a visitor from afar known as Superman…

This enthralling little adventure is a cleverly weighed introduction into the Man of Tomorrow’s past, magnificently complemented by 31 painted illustrations by gifted design guru and illustrator Dean Motter that will amaze kids and astound even their jaded, seen-it-all-before elders.

No Supermaniac could consider their collection complete without a copy of this wonderful little gem and Superman’s First Flight is the ideal introduction for youngsters to their – surely – life-long love affair with reading…
© 2000 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved. All Rights Reserved.

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Batman’s Dark Secret


By Kelley Puckett & Jon J Muth (Cartwheel Books/Scholastic)
ISBN: 978-0-43909-551-8

We insular and possessive comics fans tend to think of our greatest assets in purely graphic narrative terms, but characters such as Superman, Spider-Man and Batman have long-since grown beyond their origins and are now fully mythologised modern media creatures instantly familiar in mass markets, platforms and age ranges.

A case in point is this beguilingly enthralling retelling of Batman’s origin intended for the very young as part of the Hello Reader early-learning program devised by Children’s publisher Scholastic.

Categorised as Level 3 (school years 1 and 2, with Level 2 being kindergarten and 1 as pre-school) the story crosses that crucial divide wherein parents still read to their kids, but the little tykes are also beginning that wonderful, magical journey into literacy by themselves…

This clever, sensitive and age-appropriate retelling by Kelly Puckett follows young Bruce Wayne as he enjoys a movie-night revival of the swashbuckling film Zorro and the life-altering encounter and tragic fate of his parents in that dank, enclosed, lightless alley behind the cinema. The loss and trauma led to the orphan becoming solitary, sad and afraid of the dark despite every effort of butler-turned-guardian Alfred until an unhappy accident turned the boy’s life around forever…

One day Bruce stayed out in the rolling grounds of Wayne Manor far too late until he suddenly realised that the sun was setting. Racing back to the bright, luminescent safety of the big house he abruptly fell through a weak patch of ground into a huge cave beneath the mansion and found himself in utter blackness.

Fighting blind panic he brushed past many tiny bats, but they didn’t scare him. However when a giant, red-eyed, leather-winged monster started towards him Bruce swung wildly at it and realised that the big bat was actually afraid of him. Something changed in him then and fear left his heart forever…

He knew that he could fight wicked things with fear and the dark as his weapons…

This enthralling little adventure is a perfectly balanced and well-gauged baptism into Batman’s world, magnificently complemented by thirty stunning painted illustrations by master of mood and mystery Jon J. Muth that will delight kids and astound even their jaded, seen-it-all-before elders.

No Batfan should consider their collection complete without a copy of this wonderful little gem and Batman’s Dark Secret is the ideal introduction for youngsters to their – hopefully – life-long love affair with reading…
© 1999 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved. All Rights Reserved.

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Batman and the Outsiders: The Snare


By Chuck Dixon, Carlos Rodriguez, Julian Lopez, Ryan Benjamin, Bit & Saleem Crawford (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-84856-136-6

Following the forcible dissolution of Nightwing’s covert and pre-emptive strike force, Batman resumed leadership of the Outsiders and, after a daunting series of on-going auditions, settled on a core squad comprising Metamorpho, Grace, Katana, Geo-Force, Batgirl and Green Arrow, keeping mass-moving powerhouse Thunder on a short probationary leash and with standby options on a number of others…

This second slim tome collects issues #6-10 of the return run of the Dark Knight’s covert operatives – the first occurring during the 1980s and as yet only partially re-presented in Showcase Presents Batman and the Outsiders volume 1. This epic middle section of a triptych of books (the last still forthcoming) deals with an epic struggle against a terrifying extraterrestrial plot which threatened to engulf the Earth…

Written throughout by Chuck Dixon, the action starts with ‘Ghost Star’ – illustrated by Carlos Rodriguez & Bit – as elemental changeling Rex Mason drifts helplessly in space, trapped aboard a space shuttle commandeered by the employees of mystery plutocrat Mr. Jardine.

Orbiting the far side of the Moon, Metamorpho observes a titanic alien structure under construction. When the marooned hero finally contacts Earth, Batman, who had assumed his agent had burned up in the ship’s launch, immediately sets a rescue-plan in motion. Worryingly, it involves stealing a rocket from a top-secret and ultra-secure Chinese military base…

Meanwhile Rex has infiltrated the mystery construct and discovered it to be manned by possessed human astronauts all working like soulless drones to complete the cosmic conundrum…

And on Earth, Outsiders Green Arrow, Grace and Katana are captured by Chinese metahuman guards Dragonfire, Angry Wizard and Barefoot Tiger. A massive international incident seems inevitable but the general in charge seems to prefer a quieter, far more final solution…

In ‘The Snare’ Batman allows his new boffin Salah Miandad access to the Batcave supercomputers to defeat the Chinese electronic security measures as, half a world away, Batgirl attempts to free the captives from their brutal interrogators and Geo-Force seeks assistance from the US Pacific Fleet.

Beyond the Moon, Metamorpho is running for his life from the mindless construction slaves only to be ejected from the bizarre artefact into hard vacuum…

The rescue of Rex’s rescuers gets underway when the Dark Knight brings in old Outsiders team-leader Nightwing, but before he can begin, Batgirl is forced to very publicly save her comrades from a firing squad in ‘The Hard Way’ (pencilled by Julian Lopez). Out in space Rex manages to find sanctuary on the space-shuttle he’d previously vacated and discovers the purpose of the mystery device when it unleashes a devastating particle beam at the Lunar surface, shattering the crust and vaporising untold tons of dust, rock and lunar ice…

In Inner Mongolia things look bleak for Batman’s overmatched and outgunned operatives until Nightwing and Thunder appear, teleported in by the reconfigured and repurposed Observational Metahuman Activity Construct – now dubbed Remac.

The former Omac – originally designed to nullify metahumans – is under the telemetric control of Salah (still safely closeted away in the Batcave) and together they make short work of the Chinese super-squad, leaving Nightwing and Thunder free to help the already-liberated Outsiders trash the conventional military forces on the base before beaming back to Gotham City…

By the time ‘The Uninvited’ begins, Metamorpho has returned to Earth and been arrested by the Europeans for hijacking their space-shot – although he quickly escapes in his own uniquely embarrassing manner – whilst Outsiders science officer Francine Langstrom has been piecing together the informational snippets Mason had gleaned whilst aboard the astral weapon…

For months Jardine has been covertly co-opting astronauts from many nations, using them to build his honking giant space-gun; returning them to earth with their memories erased. His goal, now apparently realised, was to vaporise moon ice and store it beneath the satellite’s surface. Luna now has an underground sea at its core… but why?

To answer that question Batman determines to probe the subconscious of the unwitting astronauts and calls on the particular talents of Lia Briggs: once the psionic Outsider Looker and now an even more formidable telepath, thanks to her death and resurrection as a Vampire Queen…

Her mental probing almost costs Lia’s undead life but she discovers that the abductees’ minds were temporarily switched with those of incomprehensibly alien mentalities with dark designs upon our world. She also finds a connection to a rave-bondage club in old Gotham…

This tome concludes with ‘Monsters’ (illustrated by Ryan Benjamin & Saleem Crawford) as a raid on the club reveals a ghastly form of Russian Roulette where thrill-seeking kids pay to be attacked by a monstrous alien parasite. For most it is instant death, but a very lucky few find the fatal bite activates their latent metahuman powers…

However the gullible super-stooges have no idea just what their benefactor’s true agenda actually is and, even as Batman and his team pursue the creature, back at base, Francine and her newly-returned husband Kirk (Man-Bat) Langstrom can only watch in horror as Salah’s consciousness is absorbed into and trapped within Remac…

To Be Concluded… One day, I hope.

Fast, furious, cynically clever, beautifully illustrated and utterly compelling, this is another old-fashioned rollercoaster romp that fulfils every dyed-in-the-spandex Fights ‘n’ Tights fan’s fevered dreams and art-lovers will also adore the gallery of superbly evocative covers by Doug Braithwaite, J. Calafiore, Mark McKenna & Brian Reber.

Straight-shooting rough and tumble comicbook clamour at its very best…
© 2007, 2008, DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Superman: the Action Comics Archives volume 4


By Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster, Don Cameron, John Sikela, Ed Dobrotka, Sam Citron, Ira Yarbrough, Jack Burnley & Stan Kaye (DC Comics)
ISBN: 1-56389-710-5

Without doubt the creation of Superman and 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 1938 debut the intoxicating blend of eye-popping action and social wish-fulfilment which hallmarked the early exploits of the Man of Tomorrow had grown to encompass cops-and-robbers crime-busting, reforming dramas, science fiction, fantasy and even whimsical comedy, but once the war in Europe and the East snared America’s consciousness, combat themes and patriotic imagery dominated most comicbook covers if not interiors.

In comic book terms at least Superman was master of the world, and had already utterly changed the shape of the fledgling industry. There was the popular newspaper strip, a thrice-weekly radio serial, games, toys, foreign and overseas syndication and the Fleischer studio’s astounding animated cartoons.

Thankfully the quality of the source material was increasing with every four-colour release and the energy and enthusiasm of Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster had informed and infected the burgeoning studio that grew around them to cope with the relentless demand.

Superman was definitely every kid’s hero, as confirmed in this classic compendium, and the raw, untutored yet captivating episodes reprinted here had also been completely embraced by the wider public, as comicbooks became a vital tonic for the troops and all the ones they had left behind…

Due to the exigencies of periodical publishing, although the terrific tales collected in this fourth hardback tome putatively take the Man of Steel to January 1944, since cover-dates described return-by, not on-sale dates they were all prepared well in advance, and real-world events and reactions took a little time to filter through to the furious four-colour pages, so many of the stories have a tinge of uncertainty and foreboding that was swiftly fading from the minds of the public as the far more immediate movie-newsreels showed an inexorable turning of the tide in the Allies’ favour…

Nevertheless since invaders, spies and saboteurs had long been a tried-and-true part of the narrative currency of the times, patriotic covers – which had been appearing on many comicbooks since the end of 1940 – piled on the galvanising pressure and resulted here in some of the most striking imagery in Superman’s entire history.

Spanning October 1942 to January 1944, this fourth delicious deluxe hardcover collection of the Man of Tomorrow’s exploits reprints the lead strip from issues #53-68 of totemic, groundbreaking anthology Action Comics, following the never-ending battle for Truth, Justice and the American Way to a point where War’s end was perhaps in sight and readers could begin considering a life without potential invasion and subjugation, seen here by an almost imperceptible shift from a war footing to stories of home-grown domestic dooms and even some whimsically fun moments…

Co-creator Jerry Siegel was finally called up in 1943 and his prodigious scripting output was somewhat curtailed, necessitating more and more contributions from the ingenious and multi-faceted Don Cameron and with Shuster – increasingly debilitated by failing eyesight and tied up in producing the newspaper strip, the trusty, ever-changing stalwarts of the Superman Studio were drawing most of the comicbook output at this time. Following a fulsome Foreword from publisher and long-time fan Bill Schelly the wonderment commences with Action Comics #53 and Siegel & John Sikela’s fantastic thriller ‘The Man Who put Out the Sun!’ wherein bird-themed menace Night-Owl uses “black light” technology and ruthless gangsters to plunder at will until the Man of Steel takes charge. In #54 ‘The Pirate of Pleasure Island!’ followed the foredoomed career of upstanding citizen Stanley Finchcomb, a seemingly civilised descendent of ruthless buccaneers, who succumbed to madness and became a ruthless marine marauder. Or perhaps he truly was possessed by the merciless spirit of his ancestor Captain Ironfist in this enchanting supernatural thriller by Siegel & Sikela…

Ed Dobrotka stepped in to ink the whimsical Li’l Abner spoof ‘A Goof named Tiny Rufe’ as the desperate cartoonist Slapstick Sam began to plagiarise – and ruin – the simple lives of a couple of naïve hillbillies until Superman interceded, whilst ‘Design for Doom!’ in Action #56, by Siegel & Sikela, pitted the Man of Tomorrow against a deranged architect who created global, city-wrecking catastrophes simply to prove the superiority of his own creations.

Superman was pitifully short on returning villains in the early days so #57’s return of the Prankster as ‘Crime’s Comedy King’ made a welcome addition to the Rogues Gallery, especially as the Macabre Madcap seemed to have turned over a new philanthropic leaf. Of course there was malevolence and a big con at the heart of his transformation, after which the Action Ace stepped into Batman territory for #58’s gruesome drama ‘The Face of Adonis!’ (illustrated by Sam Citron & the Superman Studio) which saw a rogue plastic surgeon transform an aging movie star into a grisly grotesque, holding his face hostage and turning the celluloid hero into his personal thief. Even Superman could not prevent this dark drama from ending in tragedy…

Sheer fanciful fantasy featured in 59#s ‘Cinderella – a la Superman’ (Sikela) as in an early experiment in continuity-busting, Clark Kent had to babysit Lois’ niece Susie Tomkins and dreamed his heroic alter ego into becoming the Fairy Godmother in a witty and imaginative re-enactment of the classic tale. Susie would return over and again as a pestiferous foil for both Clark and Superman…

A different kind of prototype Imaginary Tale was seen in #60 with ‘Lois Lane – Superwoman!’ wherein the hospitalised and concussed go-getter dreamed that she developed abilities equal to the Metropolis Marvel’s after a blood transfusion from the Man of Steel. Despite proving her worth over and again as a costumed crusader, in the end Lois fell into cliché by cornering Superman and demanding they marry…

Siegel & Sikela ended their Action Comics partnership in #61 with ‘The Man they Wouldn’t Believe!’ as Lois seemingly fell for a flamboyant playboy and Clark was panicked into revealing his secret identity in a vain attempt to win her back. Typically she refused to believe him and every effort Kent made to prove his Kryptonian mettle ended in humiliating disaster. How fortunate, since Lois was playing a part to expose a ruthless criminal…

Don Cameron took over as scripter with #62, kicking off a fine run with the utopian future shocker ‘There’ll Always be a Superman!’ (with art by Dobrotka) as an aged sage in 2143AD regaled his grandchildren with tales of how the ancient Man of Tomorrow polished off Nazis who had enslaved their ancestor as part of a plan to build U-Boat bases under America – an old sea yarn confirmed by the storyteller’s other houseguest, Superman himself…

Shifting gears to nail-biting suspense, Action #63 revealed ‘When Stars Collide!’ (Cameron & Ira Yarbrough), the cosmic calamity that caused Superman to lose his memory and fall under the sway of devious and manipulative crooks. As if that wasn’t enough, the debris from the stellar smash was falling inexorably to Earth and the only man who could save us had no idea what to do until Lois shook his wits clear…

Another returning villain debuted in #64 in the Dobrotka- illustrated classic ‘The Terrible Toyman’, wherein an elderly inventor of children’s novelties and knick-knacks began a spectacular spree of high-profile and potentially murderous robberies, with Lois as his unwilling muse and accessory after which ‘The Million-Dollar Marathon!’ purloined the venerable plot of George Barr McCutcheon’s 1902 novel Brewster’s Millions (and filmed four times – 1915, 1921, 1926 & 1935 – before Action Comics #65 made it the subject of the October 1943 issue) to show Superman helping a poor doctor spend $1,000,000 in twenty-four hours to inherit twice that amount for a children’s hospital. Trying to queer the deal was the poor medic’s rascally cousin and a pack of very violent thugs…

Heartstrings were further tugged in #66 when an elderly blind millionaire was reunited with his long-lost grandson in ‘The Boy who Came Back!’ Even after Superman reluctantly exposed the cruel scam there was still a shocking (and still surprising today) twist in the tale, whilst ‘Make Way for Fate!’ (#67 and illustrated by Citron) saw the Man of Steel turn back time and reunite stubborn lovers separated for decades as part of a larger plan to build a new Officer Training School in Metropolis…

This spectacular collection closes with ‘Superman Meets Susie!’ (Yarbrough & Stan Kaye) as little Miss Tomkins returned as a teller of huge fibs, which the Man of Tomorrow undertook to make real, all in an attempt to teach Lois a little patience. However the incorrigible brat goes too far when she starts reporting her fantasies to the papers and crooks take advantage…

The main bulk of the stunning covers in this collection were by Jack Burnley and almost exclusively war-themed (excluding The Prankster on #57) until the Toyman’s launch in #64, after which the overseas struggle quickly gave way to scenes of homeland crime and fantastic adventure, with artists John Sikela, Ed Dobrotka & Stan Kaye generally taking that lead spot.

These Golden Age tales offer irresistible and priceless enjoyment at an absurdly affordable price and this superbly robust and colourful format has inestimably advanced the prestige and social standing of the medium itself as well as preserving a vital part of American popular culture.

Still some of the very best Fights ‘n’ Tights any fan could ever find, these tales belong on your bookshelf in a prideful place you can easily reach for over and over again.
© 1942, 1943, 1944, 2005 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Showcase Presents the Doom Patrol Volume 1


By Arnold Drake, Bruno Premiani, Bob Brown & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-84856-218-9

1963 was the year when cautious comicbook publishers finally realised that superheroes were back in a big way and began reviving or creating a host of costumed characters to battle outrageous menaces and dastardly villains.

Thus it was that at National Comics venerable anthology-mystery title My Greatest Adventure dipped its toe in the waters with a radical take on the fad and introduced a startling squad of champions with their thematic roots still firmly planted in the B-movie monster films of the era that subtly informed the parent comic.

No traditional team of masked adventurers, the cast comprised a robot, a mummy and an occasional 50-foot woman, who joined forces with and were guided by a brusque, domineering, crippled mad scientist to fight injustice in a whole new way…

Covering June 1963 to February 1966, this first quirky monochrome compilation collects the Fabulous Freaks’ earliest exploits from My Greatest Adventure #80-85 and thereafter, issues #86-101 of the renamed title once overwhelming reader response compelled editor Murray Boltinoff to change it to the Doom Patrol.

The dramas were especially enhanced by the drawing skills of Italian cartoonist and classicist artist Giordano Bruno Premiani whose highly detailed, subtly humanistic illustration made even the strangest situation dauntingly authentic and grittily believable as with the premier tale ‘The Doom Patrol’ scripted by Arnold Drake and Bob Haney, which saw a mysterious wheelchair bound scientist summon three outcasts to his home promising to change their miserable lives forever.

Competitive car racer Cliff Steele had died in a horrific pile up, but his undamaged brain had been transplanted into a fantastic mechanical body. Test pilot Larry Trainor had been trapped in an experimental stratospheric plane and become permanently radioactive, with the dubious benefit of gaining a semi-sentient energy avatar which could escape his body to perform incredible stunts for up to a minute at a time.

To pass safely amongst men Trainor had to constantly wrap himself in special radiation-proof bandages.

Ex-movie star Rita Farr had been exposed to mysterious gases which gave her the unpredictable and, at first, uncontrolled ability to shrink or grow to incredible sizes.

These outcasts were brought together by brilliant but enigmatic Renaissance Man The Chief, who sought to mould the solitary misfits into a force for good and quickly proved his point when a mad bomber attempted to blow up the city docks. The wheelchair bound savant directed the trio of strangers in defusing it and no sooner had the freaks realised their true worth than they were on their first mission…

In the second chapter ‘The Challenge of the Timeless Commander’ an incredibly ancient menace tried to capture a fallen alien ship, intent on turning its extraterrestrial secrets into weapons of world conquest, culminating in ‘The Deadly Duel with General Immortus’ which saw the Doom Patrol dedicate their lives to saving humanity from all threats.

My Greatest Adventure #81, solely scripted by Drake, featured ‘The Nightmare Maker’ combining everyday disaster response – saving a damaged submarine – with a nationwide plague of monsters. Stuck at base, The Chief monitored missions by means of a TV camera attached to Robotman’s chest, and quickly deduced the uncanny secret of the beasts and their war criminal creator Josef Kreutz.

A clever espionage ploy outed the Chief – or at least his image, if not name – in #82’s ‘Three Against the Earth!’, leading the team to believe Rita a traitor. When the cabal of millionaires behind the scheme were revealed as an alien advance guard who assumed the wheelchair-bound leader to be a rival invader, the inevitable showdown nearly cost Cliff what remained of his life…

‘The Night Negative Man Went Berserk!’ in #83 spotlighted the living mummy when a radio astronomy experiment interrupted the Negative Man’s return to Larry Trainor’s body, pitching the pilot into a coma and sending the ebony energy creature on a global spree of destruction. Calamity piled upon calamity when crooks stole the military equipment constructed to destroy it and only desperate improvisation by Cliff and Rita allowed avatar and host to reunite…

Issue #84 saw ‘The Return of General Immortus’ as ancient Babylonian artefacts led the team to the eternal malefactor, only to have the wily warrior turn the tables and take control of Robotman. Even though his comrades saved him Immortus escaped with the greatest treasures of all time…

My Greatest Adventure #85 was the last issue and featured ‘The Furies from 4,000 Miles Below’, monstrous subterranean horrors fuelled by nuclear forces. Despite having tricked Elasti-Girl into resuming her Hollywood career, the paternalistic heroes were pretty grateful when she turned up to save them all from radioactive incineration…

An unqualified success, the comicbook transformed into The Doom Patrol with #86 and celebrated by introducing ‘The Brotherhood of Evil’, an assemblage of international criminals and terrorists led by French genius-in-a-jar The Brain and his greatest creation, a super-intelligent talking gorilla dubbed Monsieur Mallah. The diametrically opposed teams first crossed swords after brotherhood applicant Mr. Morden stole Rog, a giant robot the Chief intended for the US military…

DP #87 revealed ‘The Terrible Secret of Negative Man’ when Brotherhood femme fatale Madame Rouge tried to seduce Larry. When the Brain’s unstoppable mechanical army invaded the city, Trainor was forced to remove his bandages and allow his lethal radiations to disrupt their transmissions…

An occasional series of short solo adventures kicked off in this issue with ‘Robotman Fights Alone’, wherein Cliff was dispatched to a Pacific island in search of an escaped killer, only to walk into a devastating series of WWII Japanese booby-traps…

All the mysteries surrounding the team’s leader were finally revealed in issue #88 with ‘The Incredible Origin of the Chief’, a blistering drama which told how brilliant but impoverished student Niles Caulder received unlimited funding from an anonymous patron interested in his researches on extending life. Curiosity drove Caulder to track down his benefactor and he was horrified to discover the money came from the head of a criminal syndicate who claimed to be eons old…

Immortus had long ago consumed a potion which extended his life and wanted the student to recreate it now that the years were finally catching up. To insure Caulder’s full cooperation, the General had a bomb inserted in the researcher’s chest and powered by his heartbeat …

Building a robot surgeon, Caulder tricked Immortus into shooting him, determined to thwart the monster at all costs. Once clinically dead, his Ra-2 doctor removed the now-inert explosive and revived the bold scientist, but tragically the robot had been too slow and Caulder lost the use of his legs…

Undaunted, the Man Who Lived Twice then destroyed all his research and went into hiding for years, with Immortus unaware that Caulder had actually succeeded in the task which had stymied history’s greatest doctors and biologists…

Now, under the alias of super-thief The Baron, Immortus had captured the Doom Patrol and demanded a final confrontation with the Chief. Luckily the wheelchair-locked inventor was not only a biologist and robotics genius but also adept at building concealed weapons…

In #89 the team tackled a duplicitous scientist who had devised a means to transform himself into ‘The Animal-Vegetable-Mineral Menace’ and ‘The Private War of Elasti-Girl’ saw the Maid of Many Sizes use unsuspected detective skills to track down a missing soldier and reunite him with his adopted son before ‘The Enemy within the Doom Patrol’ saw shape-shifting Madame Rouge infiltrate the team and almost turn them against each other.

Issue #91 introduced multi-millionaire Steve Dayton who created a superhero persona solely to woo and wed Rita Farr. With such ambiguous motivations ‘Mento – the Man who Split the Doom Patrol’ was a radical character for the times, but at least his psycho-kinetic helmet proved a big help in defeating the plastic robots of grotesque alien invader Garguax…

DP #92 found the team confronted by a temporal terror in ‘The Sinister Secret of Dr. Tyme’ with the abrasive Mento again saving the day whilst ‘Showdown on Nightmare Road’ in #93 saw The Brain’s latest monstrous scheme result in the evil genius being planted inside Robotman’s skull and poor Cliff transplanted into a horrific beast, until the Chief out-played the French Fiend at his own game…

Bob Brown stepped in to illustrate #94’s lead feature ‘The Nightmare Fighters’ with an eastern mystic’s uncanny abilities swiftly debunked by solid American science but Premiani was around to render the solo-feature ‘The Chief “Stands” Alone’ wherein Caulder eschewed his deputies’ aid to bring down bird-themed villain The Claw with a mixture of wit, nerve and weaponised wheelchair.

When The Chief attempted to cure Rita and Larry in DP #95 it resulted in switched powers and the ‘Menace of the Turnabout Heroes’, so naturally that would be the very moment the Animal-Vegetable-Mineral Man would pick for a return bout, whilst in #96, on ‘The Day the World Went Mad!’, the Patrol’s frantic investigations revealed that the global wave of insanity was caused by a deadly alliance of the Brotherhood, Garguax and Immortus, which they were helpless to counteract…

In issue #97 that sinister syndicate attacked Earth by transforming innocent citizens into crystal, spectacularly resulting in ‘The War against the Mind Slaves’, the return of Mento and a stunning showdown on the moon, after which #98 saw both ‘The Death of the Doom Patrol’ – a grievous over-exaggeration on behalf of transmutational foe Mr. 103, who was actually compelled to save Caulder from radiation poisoning – and the Brown-drawn solo-thriller ’60 Sinister Seconds’ in which Negative Man had to find and make safe four atomic bombs in different countries within as minute…

Brown also handled both tales in Doom Patrol #99, starting with an old-fashioned battle against a deranged entomologist whose mechanical insects delivered ‘The Deadly Sting of the Bug Man’ and proceeding to the groundbreaking first appearance of shape-shifting juvenile delinquent ‘The Beast-Boy’ who burgled than saved the team with his incredible ability to become any animal he could imagine.

A vast extended storyline began with #100 and ‘The Fantastic Origin of Beast-Boy’ (illustrated by Premiani) wherein the obnoxious kid was revealed as orphan Gar Logan, a boy being slowly swindled out of his inheritance by his ruthless guardian Nicholas Galtry.

The conniving accountant had even leased his emerald-hued charge to scientist Dr. Weir for assorted experiments, but when the Patrol later tackled rampaging dinosaurs, the trail led to Gar who at last explained his uncanny powers.

Whilst in Africa as a toddler Logan had contracted a rare disease and his scientist father tried an experimental cure which left him the colour of cabbage but with the ability to change shape at will.

Now it appeared that Weir has used the lad’s altered biology to unlock the secrets of evolution… or had he?

Despite foiling the scheme the team have no choice but to return the boy to his guardian, but Rita is not prepared to leave the matter unresolved… The anniversary issue also saw the start of an extended multi-part thriller exploring Cliff’s early days after his accident and subsequent resurrection beginning with ‘Robotman… Wanted Dead or Alive’. Following Caulder’s implantation of Cliff’s brain into the mechanical body the shock drove the patient crazy and Steele went on a city wide rampage…

This first fantastic collection concludes with Doom Patrol #101 and the riotous romp ‘I, Kranus, Robot Emperor!’ wherein an apparently alien mechanoid had a far more terrestrial and terrifying origin, but the real meat came from the subtle war between Galtry and the Chief for possession of Beast Boy.

The tale ended on a pensive cliffhanger as the Patrol then dashed off to rescue fellow adventurers the Challengers of the Unknown – a tale for the next volume, I’m afraid…

There was still however the second instalment of the Robotman saga, saw the occasionally ration, if paranoid Cliff Steele hunted by the authorities and befriended by crippled, homeless derelicts in ‘The Lonely Giant’…

Although as kids we all happily suspended disbelief and bought into the fanciful antics of the myriad masked heroes available, somehow the exploits of the Doom Patrol – and their surprisingly synchronistic Marvel counterparts the X-Men (freaks and outcasts, wheelchair bound geniuses, both debuting in the summer of 1963) always seemed just a bit more “real” than the usual caped and costumed crowd.

With the edge of time and experience on my side it’s obvious just how incredibly mature Drake and Premiani’s take on superheroes actually was and these superbly engaging, frantically fun and breathtakingly beautiful tales should rightfully rank amongst the finest Fights ‘n’ Tights tales ever told.
© 1963, 1964, 1965, 2009 DC Comics, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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Batman and the Outsiders: The Chrysalis


By Chuck Dixon, Julian Lopez, Carlos Rodriguez & Bit (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-84856-070-3

Following the forcible dissolution of Nightwing’s covert and pre-emptive strike force, Batman once again took over the leadership of the Outsiders and, after a daunting series of auditions, settled on a core squad comprising the Martian Manhunter, Metamorpho, Grace, Katana and Catwoman, with standby options on a number of others and rejecting mass-moving powerhouse Thunder mooching about on probation…

This first slim tome collects issues #1-5 of the second run of Batman and the Outsiders, and is the initial book of a triptych of volumes (the last still forthcoming) covering an epic struggle against a terrifying extraterrestrial plot which threatened to engulf the Earth; eventually growing to involve a goodly portion of the planet’s metahuman protectors…

Written throughout by Chuck Dixon and inked by Bit, the breakneck action erupts in ‘The Chrysalis’, illustrated by Julian Lopez, wherein master strategist Batman dispatches Katana, Metamorpho and Catwoman to infiltrate the skyscraper HQ of mystery Eurotrash money-man Mister Jardine, whose corporate conglomerate has been making some very peculiar purchases – items dubious enough to set alarms roaring in the Bat-computer…

With the Martian Manhunter inserted as a psionic Trojan Horse inside the building, the infiltrators discover the enigmatic billionaire has not only illegally stockpiled radioactive and fissionable materials but also unearthed a deadly anti-metahuman weapon of the sort which nearly overran the world during the Infinite Crisis…

The Observational Metahuman Activity Construct – or Omac – is a nanotech-purposed cyborg designed to overcome any super-powered foe, and in ‘Infestation’ (pencilled by Carlos Rodriguez) the freshly repurposed death-machine goes after the Outsiders whilst the Manhunter plunders Jardine’s data.

With the situation rapidly going south, Thunder defies Batman and rushes to the rescue, proving his assertion that she is not professional enough for the team. Already en route, rowdy Amazon Grace Choi is preparing an escape route for the sorely pressed team when, in a desperate move, the Element Man channels all the citadel’s power through his own unique body and immobilises the Omac…

‘Throwdown’ (with Lopez returning to the pencil art) sees the terrified and self-preserving Catwoman quit and replaced by Cassandra Cain, the reformed assassin who was briefly the third Batgirl, as Batman and the Outsiders defy the Justice League by refusing to destroy the captured nano-nemesis.

When it suddenly reactivates itself, both teams are simultaneously attacked and only a tremendous joint effort subdues it once more.

In the aftermath, JLA-er Geo-Force quits and rejoins his old Outsider allies, unaware that the Dark Knight has manipulated his former comrades, allowing his science squad Francine Langstrom and Salah Miandad time to reprogram the death machine as another member of the covert team…

In ‘Mission: Creep’ a pair of mysterious strangers also enlist, as does radical wild card Green Arrow, before the Outsiders invade French Guiana to stop a commercial space launch. Langstrom’s investigations have revealed that the sinister Jardine has been using Omac technology to create new biological species designed to live off-Earth…

Whilst the billionaire moves to take over the site, eliminating the launch personnel and loading two ships with his mysterious payloads, in the surrounding rainforest wildly differing perspectives and methodology have set the Outsiders at each others’ throats…

Meanwhile in Gotham, Salah has finally erased the captured cyborg’s protocols and dubbed the reformed member Remac, blissfully unaware that the giant automaton still has a measure of its old sinister sentience…

And in the jungle, Batman and his squad close in on the launch-pad determined to stop whatever Jardine wants rocketed into space, blithely oblivious to the cadre of metahuman mercenaries waiting to ambush them…

This first cliffhanging chronicle concludes with ‘Ghosts’ as Batman’s ethereal emissaries Ralph and Sue Dibny (dead but still battling evil as Ghost Detectives) scuttle the trap, allowing Metamorpho, Katana, Green Arrow and Batgirl to overcome murderous assassins Gunhawk, Militia, Bunny and Camorouge, whilst even Jardine’s personal Omac bodyguard is unable to withstand the gravity-warping power of Geo-Force.

Nevertheless, the mission is not a success as one of the ships manages to launch, carrying with it into appalling unknown dangers the valiant but vastly over-matched Metamorpho…

To Be Continued…

Fast and furious, beautifully illustrated and totally mesmerising, this spectacular romp is a fabulous Fights ‘n ‘Tights thriller to delight fans of the genre and art-lovers will also adore the gallery of covers and variants by Doug Braithwaite, Ryan Sook, Eric Battle & Art Thibert.

Straightforward action adventure at its very best…
© 2007, 2008, DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Batman: Turning Points


By Greg Rucka, Ed Brubaker, Chuck Dixon, Steve Lieber, Joe Giella, Dick Giordano & Bob Smith, Brent Anderson, Paul Pope & Claude St. Aubin (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-1360-2

Over the many decades of Batman’s existence, almost as important as the partnership between Dark Knight and assorted Boy Wonders has been the bizarrely offbeat yet symbiotic relationship between those caped and costumed vigilantes and Gotham City’s top cop James Gordon.

In this collection, compiling five individual pastiches released as the miniseries Turning Points in 2001, readers saw revealed significant moments in the development of that shadowy alliance produced, as an added bonus for long-term aficionados, in tribute to key eras in Batman’s waxing and waning career by veteran artists and the toast of the new wave creators…

It all begins with ‘Uneasy Allies’ by Greg Rucka & Steve Lieber, set in the days – and style – of the mysterious vigilante’s stormy debut in Frank Miller & Dave Mazzucchelli’s Batman: Year One.

Police Captain Gordon is still the only honest cop in a corrupt and brutally gung-ho force, reeling from the shock of his wife divorcing him. When bereaved, heartsick and crazed college professor Hale Corbett takes a wedding hostage, Gotham’s SWAT team commander is champing at the bit to storm in and rack up the body-count, but wanted felon The Batman offers Gordon a slim hope of ending the siege without loss of life…

All the masked nut-case wants in return is a sympathetic ear at the GCPD…

A working relationship established, ‘…And Then There Were… Three?’ (by Ed Brubaker & Joe Giella – who drew many of the 1960s stories and the Batman newspaper strip) celebrates the era of TV’s “Batmania” as, about a year after their first meeting, reports of a garishly garbed boy assistant to Batman begin to filter in. As deadly psychopath Mr. Freeze rampages through the city, Gordon demands to why the now-tolerated Caped Crusader is recklessly endangering a child…

In a romp filled with such past icons as giant props and gaudy villains, a decidedly deadly outcome makes Gordon realise the true nature of Batman and Robin’s relationship…

‘Casualties of War’ (Brubaker, Dick Giordano & Bob Smith) is set in the bleak aftermath following the death of second Robin Jason Todd, the crippling of Barbara (Batgirl) Gordon and the torture of her father, all at the bone-white hands of The Joker.

A solitary, driven Dark Knight haunts the streets and allies, ceaselessly crushing criminals with brutal callousness, whilst sinister serial killer The Garbage Man prowls unchallenged…

When the wheelchair-bound Barbara fails in an attempted intervention to calm a Batman pushing himself near to breaking-point, it takes a rooftop heart-to-heart with now Commissioner Gordon to finally crack the Gotham Guardian’s shell and begin the healing process…

Years later, as a result of a strategically systematic attack by would-be crime-lord Bane, an exhausted and broken Batman was replaced by another, darker hero. Set during the Knight-Fall publishing event, ‘The Ultimate Betrayal’ (by Chuck Dixon & Brent Anderson) describes the moment Gordon realised that his enigmatic ally had become a remorseless machine and exterminating angel hunting criminals with no regard to life anymore.

If only third Robin Tim Drake could have told him that the man behind the cowl – and claws and razor-armour – was actually Azrael: hereditary and murderously programmed living weapon of an ancient warrior-cult…

The journey comes full circle with ‘Comrades in Arms’ by Rucka, Paul Pope & Claude St. Aubin, wherein a mysterious stranger and his family hit Gotham on a mission to find Gordon and Batman, just as the Commissioner introduces his destined successor Michael Akins to the Major Crimes Unit.

Word on the street is that the Russian mob are planning a huge retaliatory strike and every cop is waiting for the hammer to fall when Hale Corbett walks into Police HQ demanding to see Gordon and the masked manhunter who changed his life all those years ago…

Filtered through gritty modern sensibilities but still able to revere past glories and the Batman’s softer side, this superbly readable collection also includes a cover gallery by artistic all-stars Javier Pulido, Ty Templeton, Joe Kubert, Howard Chaykin, Pope & Tim Sale.
© 2001, 2007 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Superman: World Without a Superman


ISBN: 978-1-56389-193-9
By Dan Jurgens, Karl Kesel, Jerry Ordway, Louise Simonson, Roger Stern & various (DC Comics)

Although largely out of favour these days as all the myriad decades of Superman mythology are inexorably re-assimilated into one overarching all-inclusive multi-media DC continuity, the stripped-down, gritty post-Crisis on Infinite Earths Man of Steel as re-imagined by John Byrne, and marvellously built upon by a stunning succession of gifted comics craftsmen, produced some genuine comics classics.

Most significant of them was a three-pronged story-arc which saw the martyrdom, loss, replacement and eventual resurrection of the World’s Greatest Superhero in a stellar saga which broke all records and proved that a jaded general public still cared about the venerable, veteran icon of Truth, Justice and the American Way…

This second landmark collection features material which originally appeared in Adventures of Superman #498-500, Action Comics #685-686, Superman: the Man of Steel #20-21, Superman #76-77 plus material from Superman: the Legacy of Superman and Superman #75, covering cover-dates January-March 1993 and originally published as the braided saga “Funeral for a Friend”.

After a brutal rampage across Middle America the mysterious monster dubbed Doomsday had only been stopped in the heart of Metropolis by a supreme and fatal effort on Superman’s part. Our story begins moments later in ‘Death of a Legend’ (scripted by Jerry Ordway and illustrated by Tom Grummett & Doug Hazlewood) as Lois Lane and still-standing survivors Guardian, Dubbilex and the JLA attempt vainly to resuscitate the fallen victor.

Elsewhere in the rubble Lex Luthor II (actually the original evil entrepreneur in a cloned body) recovers the still-living remains of Supergirl. Her intimate relationship with the Man of Steel a closely guarded secret, Lois is compelled to revert to journalist mode, unable to explain why she isn’t rushing to the aid of her fiancé Clark Kent, who is still numbered among the missing.

Superman’s ultimate sacrifice affects everyone deeply. Retired costumed crusader Jose Delgado considers returning to the Gangbuster role which almost killed him. Inventor Emil Hamilton and ex-prizefighter Bibbo Bibbowski dedicate their merely mortal gifts to carrying on the Man of Tomorrow’s work. With genetics research lab Cadmus and Metropolis authorities squabbling over the Kryptonian’s remains and the still-living Doomsday, in Smallville, Kansas an elderly couple sit in stunned shock, horror and disbelief…

‘Re-Actions’ by Roger Stern, Jackson Guice & Denis Rodier sees Project Cadmus Director Paul Westfield  thwarted in his efforts to harvest Superman’s corpse by Luthor, who intends to finally bury the Man of Steel in a fitting public mausoleum in Centenniel Park. As the news spreads and the world mourns, the recuperated Supergirl becomes the public face of Team Luthor’s expanded role as protectors of Metropolis…

In a place outside of time, temporal custodians Waverider and the Linear Men perpetually review the final battle but can find no viable way to turn back time…

‘Funeral Day’, by Louise Simonson, Jon Bogdanove & Dennis Janke, follows the World’s Greatest Heroes as they pay final homage to their valiant comrade amidst a world expressing its unceasing grief in respectful dignity… but not the whole world…

In Kansas, bereft Jonathan and Martha Kent, unable to attend their own son’s interment, hold a private ceremony in the field where he first fell to Earth…

In honour of Superman, the Justice League and other heroes gather to perform good deeds in his name, divined from the vast sacks of letters left for Superman every day in ‘Metropolis Mailbag II’ (Dan Jurgens & Brett Breeding), whilst young runaway Mitch, whose family were amongst the first victims of Doomsday, makes his own pilgrimage to the site of the Action Ace’s death, convinced that by saving him Superman had forfeited his own life…

In a quiet part of the city, Lois and Ma and Pa Kent and Lana Lang convene. As the only people privy to Superman’s secret they must decide whether to reveal his identity to a public already flooded by shysters and charlatans claiming to be the fallen champion’s intimates and legal heirs…

Meanwhile, beneath the mausoleum, Westfield’s agents are working: digging ever closer to the Kryptonian’s cadaver…

Although nobody can fathom why, Luthor had placed security sensors in the crypt and sends Supergirl to investigate the disturbance in ‘Grave Obsession’ (Ordway, Grummett & Hazlewood). She discovers the body gone and a huge hole leading down to the subsurface enclave of the dropouts, alien dregs and mortal monsters known as Underworlders who have carved out a tenuous home for themselves beneath the streets of Metropolis. With Police Inspector Dan “Terrible” Turpin she battles a number of the realm’s bizarre inhabitant’s but find no trace of the Man of Steel.

Frustrated, they return to the surface, but the veteran cop is suspicious. Why would young Luthor build a crypt with monitors and access tunnels…?

‘Who’s Buried in Superman’s Tomb?’ (Stern, Guice & Rodier) quickly answers the question by revealing the Man of Steel’s corpse on a slab at Cadmus, unbenownst to Project’s security chief Guardian (a clone of murdered cop and part-time superhero Jim Harper), who is patrolling Metropolis to honour his departed friend. Meanwhile Luthor is plagued with doubt: since cheating certain death himself, he is painfully ware – and afraid – that his greatest enemy might have done the same…

At Cadmus, Dubbilex, Guardian and the Newsboy Legion (juvenile clones of a 1940s crimebusting team whose “Originals” are now Project scientists) discover Superman’s body and confront Westfield…

And at the tomb a new religious cult has manifested, predicting the rise and return of the Last Son of Krypton, whilst Luthor rushes over to Cadmus determined to stop Westfield at all costs…

‘The Guardians of Metropolis’, by Karl Kesel & Walter Simonson, reveals how Superman’s genetic code is finally broken, but before the maliciously ambitious Westfield can capitalise on it, Guardian and the Newsboy remove the data and consign it to deep space in the care of augmented Jim Harper clone Auron, whilst in ‘Ghosts’ (Simonson, Bogdanove & Janke) the deep tunnels beneath Metropolis flood, driving many Underworlders to the surface and Lois down to the depths to investigate possible deliberate sabotage. Meeting the Newsboy Legion there, she backtracks to Cadmus and discovers her beloved Clark’s corpse. She determines to make the defilers pay with the power of the Press…

And in Kansas, bereaved and broken, Jonathan Kent collapses under the agony of a massive heart attack…

After Supergirl and Lois furiously invade Cadmus to retrieve the body, ‘The End’ (Jurgens & Breeding) sees a murderously triumphant Luthor reclaim Superman’s body “for Metropolis” and finally bury his arch-foe, whilst in Smallville Clark Kent’s Pa succumbs and passes from this world…

This powerful if ponderous epic concludes with ‘Life after Death’, by Ordway, Grummett & Hazlewood, as doctors frantically attempt to resuscitate Jonathan Kent, who has passed beyond Mortal Realms and met his cherished son. As Gangbuster bites off more than he can chew in the alleys of Superman’s city, Jonathan battles ghosts, memories and demons in a last-ditch struggle to save his boy. With the opportune aid of cosmic entity Kismet the elder Kent finally convinces Superman to leave the light and return to Earth…

He awakes in the ER, mumbling “Clark is back”…

And all over Metropolis, as fresh sightings of the hero begin to circulate, Lois and the police discover Superman’s coffin is open and the tomb is empty again…

To Be Concluded…

Relatively short on action but bursting with tension, drama and emotion, the brooding mood here served as a valuable and necessary palate-cleansing pause before the stunning epic conclusion introduced a plethora of Supermen in a bold and long-term push to revitalise the Superman franchise, but the positively manic public interest beyond the world of comics even embraced this distinctly downbeat interlude, taking everyone by surprise and making the Man of Tomorrow as vital and vibrant a sensation as in the earliest days of his creation.
© 1993 DC Comics, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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Showcase Presents Wonder Woman volume 4


By Robert Kanigher, Ross Andru & Mike Esposito, Irving Novick & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-84856-474-9

Wonder Woman was created by psychologist and polygraph pioneer William Moulton Marston and uniquely realised by respected illustrator and co-creator Harry G. Peter just as the spectre of World War II began to directly affect America.

Using the pen-name Charles Moulton, Marston scripted all her adventures until his death in 1947, whereupon Robert Kanigher took over the writer’s role. H. G. Peter soldiered on with his unique artistic contribution until he passed away in 1958. Wonder Woman #97, in April of that year, was his last hurrah and the end of an era.

With the exception of Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and a few innocuous back-up features, costumed heroes had all but vanished at the end of the 1940s, replaced by mostly mortal champions in a deluge of anthologised genre titles until Showcase #4 rekindled the public’s interest in costumed crime-busters with a new iteration of The Flash in 1956.

From that moment the fanciful floodgates opened wide once more, and whilst re-inventing Golden Age Greats such as Green Lantern, Atom and Hawkman, National/DC gradually updated all the those venerable veteran survivors who had weathered the backlash and none more so than the ever-resilient Amazing Amazon …

Artists Ross Andru & Mike Esposito, who had illustrated every script since Wonder Woman #98 in May of 1958, finally bowed out during the dog-days of this pivotal monochrome collection (re-presenting issues #157-177, October 1965-August 1968), graduating to Superman, Brave & the Bold, The Flash and eventually new Kanigher combat creation The Losers, whilst the Amazing Amazon floundered on the edge of cancellation – as indeed she had done for much of the 1960s.

Writer/editor Kanigher had constantly reinvented much of the original mythos, tinkering with her origins and unleashing her on an unsuspecting world in a fanciful blend of girlish whimsy, rampant sexism, strange romance, alien invasion, monster-mashing and utterly surreal (some would say-stream-of-consciousness) storytelling…

By the time this volume opens the Silver Age superhero revival was at its peak and, despite individual stories of stunning imagination and excellence, the format and timbre of Wonder Woman was looking tired and increasingly out of step with the rest of National/DC’s gradually gelling – and ultimately shared – continuity but, by its close, costumed characters were again in decline and a radical overhaul of Diana Prince was on the cards…

While all the other champions and defenders were getting together and teaming up at the drop of a hat – as indeed was the Princess of Power in Justice League of America – within the pages of her own title a timeless, isolated fantasy universe was carrying on much as it always had.

The madcap mythological mayhem began with the first of a two-part shocker from Wonder Woman #157 when Diana followed her beloved on a suicide mission to Red China – or Oolong Island, at least – where an insane and obnoxious giant cybernetic menace was planning to launch Nuclear Armageddon against the West.

Captured and transformed into ‘I – the Bomb!’ Steve Trevor was only saved by Amazon science but still had to endure separation and ‘The Fury of Egg Fu’ in #158 before crushing the ovoid outlaw once again.

Kanigher never forgot he was writing comicbooks and he took pains to constantly point it out to the readership – even though their preference might not be to have narrative rules, and suspension of disbelief flouted whilst fourth walls were continually broached. With ‘The End – or the Beginning?’ which closed out the issue, he gathered all the vast cast of the series in his office and told them that most of them were fired. Readers were then challenged to guess who would be back for the Big Change in #159…

The promised reboot consisted of a full switch to the faux 1940’s stories road-tested in #156 (see Showcase Presents Wonder Woman volume 3) and began with ‘The Golden Age Secret Origin of Wonder Woman’ wherein we saw the humbling and self-exile of the Amazons, and how thousands of years later baby Diana was shaped from clay and given life by goddesses Athena and Aphrodite. Growing to mighty maturity, the girl then rescued downed Air Force pilot Steve Trevor and after winning a divinely-ordained contest travelled back to “Man’s World” to conquer injustice and aggression through Amazon strength and ideals.

There was even room for a follow-up tale in which their journey was interrupted by enemy agents who brought down Wonder Woman’s Invisible Plane on ‘Doom Island’, only to discover the staggering power of America’s latest defender…

Issue #160 found her battling deranged bandit The Cheetah who took her Amazonian Bracelets of Submission and inadvertently unleashed all Diana’s pent-up hostility in ‘The Amazon of Terror’ before arch foe Mars psychically prompted a brilliant if misogynistic mutant midget to attack her in ‘Dr. Psycho’s Revenge’…

WW #161 opened with a convoluted clash against freelance spy Countess Draska Nishki whilst rival film companies battled to produce the ultimate filmic Pharaonic epic. Happily ‘The Curse of Cleopatra’ proved to be industrial espionage and not ancient Egyptian evil and, undaunted, Diana then foiled a crooked attempt to steal Steve’s knowledge by Nishki and Angle Man who shrank inside his skull. Determined to save her beloved’s honour the Amazon had to win an incredible ‘Battle Inside of a Brain!’

‘The Startling Secret of Diana Prince’ opened #162 and disclosed how the Paradise Island Émigré purchased the identity and papers of lovelorn Army Nurse Diana Prince in order to be close to Trevor at all times before ‘The Return of Minister Blizzard’ pitted Wonder Woman against an icy usurper determined to steal the throne and heart of a polar princess by giving her Manhattan as a gift…

Psycho returned in #163 and used an evolutionary advancement device to turn a two-ton anthropoid into curvaceous eight-foot tall blonde berserker. ‘Giganta – the Gorilla Girl’ then attacked the Amazon, determined to have Steve as her mate… ‘Danger – Wonder Woman’ then reintroduced the Machiavellian Paula von Gunta – also inexplicably hot for Trevor – who used thugs, hypnosis and the Amazon’s own magic weapons in her campaign to remove her romantic rival.

Issue #164 featured a full-length thriller wherein the Power Princess was almost bamboozled into marrying Steve’s commanding officer General Darnell, before being compelled by Angle Man and her own magic lasso into attacking America in ‘Wonder Woman… Traitor’ whilst in #165 ‘Perils of the Paper Man’ found an incredible parchment pariah turn to crime in an effort to win the Amazon’s heart before ‘The Three Fantastic Faces of Wonder Woman’ were made manifest by the irrepressibly evil Dr. Psycho.

In #166 ‘The Sinister Schemes of Egg Fu, the Fifth’ to steal US submarines were quickly scrambled by the Amazing Amazon whilst in ‘Once a Wonder Woman…!’ Diana’s attempts to win Steve in her unglamorous mortal persona were accidentally foiled by the perfidious Cheetah and WW# 167 offered up ‘The Secret of Tabu Mt.’ when the real Diana Prince needed help rescuing her new husband from a lost Aztec tribe, after which Steve shamefully used the ‘Strange Power of the Magic Lasso’ to make the Amazon his slave for a day…

After inexplicably forgiving the sod, in #168 Diana almost lost her magical lariat in ‘Three Hands on the Magic Lasso’ when a ruthless collector hired Giganta, Dr. Psycho and Paula von Gunta to steal it for him whilst ‘Never in a Million Years’ found Diana back on Paradise Island attempting to forcibly dissuade a love-struck Amazon from following a man back to America.

The Golden Age veneer was gradually slipping and it once again seemed that the series was sliding towards oblivion. Middle period fantasy elements began to reappear, so when Mars created an almost unstoppable menace in #169, guile and passion at last won the day when ‘Wonder Woman Battles the Crimson Centipede’ after which General Darnell renewed his romantic campaign when the Amazon was trapped in ‘The Cage of Doom!’

A duplicate of Steve created by Dr. Psycho in #170 psychologically tortured and almost destroyed ‘The Haunted Amazon’ and unconquerable alien apes could only be stopped by ‘Wonder Woman – Gorilla’ after which WW#171 saw vacationing Amazons sucked into the ‘Terror Trap of the Demon Man-Fish’ before a malign miniscule malcontent reared his furry head again in the crime caper ‘Menace of the Mouse Man!’

Veteran war artist Irv Novick took over the art with #172 (October 1967) and ‘A Day in the Life of an Amazon’ presented a slightly more realistic edge, even though the portmanteau tale saw Diana crush costumed criminals, fight a giant baby and blitz an alien invasion whilst ‘The Amazing Amazon Crime!’ found her hard-pressed to defeat a felonious android facsimile…

Firmly re-established back in the late Sixties, #173 revealed ‘Wonder Woman’s Daring Deception’ when a jealous Amazon tried to usurp her position as ambassador to Man’s World after which she briefly became ‘Earth’s Last Human’ until a neat time-travel trick enabled her to go back in time and foil a Martian sneak attack. In #174 her boyfriend at last got to outshine Diana when mysterious power-pills (courtesy of Angle Man) enabled the Air Force pilot to become a superhero in ‘Steve Trevor – Alias The Patriot’ whilst ‘Wonder Woman vs. the Air Devils!’ ended the issue in a tense duel between the Princess of Power and the self-proclaimed King of Crime…

With the end in sight and after decades at the helm, Kanigher managed one last genuine surprise twist in #175 when ‘Wonder Woman’s Evil Twin!’ from a parallel Earth attacked, determined to take everything our heroine cherished, but his final script was something of an anticlimax when the ‘Threat of the Triple Stars’ (#176 June 1968) found the Amazon seriously outmatched by three brothers whose sibling rivalry extended to seeing whom could out-power, woo, overwhelm and wed her. Apparently she had no say in the matter…

The final tale in this volume – and indeed of the old Amazing Amazon – was a fill-in by Bill Finger, J. Winslow Mortimer & Jack Abel, and one of the best tales of the entire run.

‘Wonder Woman and Supergirl vs. the Planetary Conqueror!’ (August 1968) detailed how interplanetary marauder Klamos had briefly tired of battle and sought a mate. Abducting the most powerful females from a host of worlds, the astral emperor forced them to battle for the “honour” of being his bride. In a thrilling, gritty tale, the Girl of Steel and Amazing Amazon at last showed their mettle – and feminist credentials – by trashing everything and exposing a colossal deception at the heart of an evil empire that spanned a dozen galaxies.

It was a splendid high note to end on. With the next issue Mike Sekowsky would begin a root and branch overhaul that would see Steve murdered, Diana stripped of her powers and the Amazons gone from the Earth. A whole new kind of Wonder Woman was coming… and can be seen in the magical quartet of full-colour collections Diana Prince: Wonder Woman, and hopefully one day in an equally stunning monochrome Showcase edition such as this one…

Always wild, bold, action-packed, thrilling and utterly delightful, whilst often mind-boggling and practically incomprehensible by modern narrative standards, these exuberant, effulgent fantasies are usually illogical and occasionally just plain bonkers, but in those days adventure in the moment was paramount and if you could put rationality and consistency aside for a moment these utterly infectious romps simply sparkled then and now with fun, thrills and sheer spectacle.

Wonder Woman is rightly revered as a focus of female strength, independence and empowerment, but the welcoming nostalgia and easy familiarity of such innocuous imaginative fairytales must be a magical escape for open-minded readers, whilst the true, incomparable value of these stories is the incredible quality entertainment they still offer.
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