Category: DC Superhero

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JLA volume 9: Terror Incognita


By Mark Waid & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-56389-936-2

By the time of these tales (reprinting issues #55-60) the Justice League of America had become once more a fully integrated part of the DCU and no longer a high-profile niche project for creative superstars. Mark Waid, joined here by Chuck Dixon and Scott Beatty, proved that the heroes were the true stars in a succession of fast, furious and funny fights ‘n’ tights romps that managed to blend high concept and big science with all the classical riffs beloved by long-term fans.

Starting off this volume is the extended, eponymous dark and devilish thriller ‘Terror Incognita’ as the sinister White Martians (first rearing their pallid spiky heads in JLA: New World Order) return to transform the planet into their own recreational slaughterhouse. Launching the campaign with a series of blistering personalised psychic assaults in ‘Came the Pale Riders’ by Waid, Bryan Hitch and Paul Neary, their intensifying efforts were met with valiant resistance in ‘Harvest’ (illustrated by Mike S. Miller & Dave Meikis), before Batman led the counterpunch with plenty of guest-stars in tow in ‘Mind Over Matter’ (Miller & Neary) resulting in a calamitous crescendo and glorious triumph in ‘Dying Breath’.

With no appreciable pause for breath the team then became involved in the cross-company publishing event that saw “Jokerised” super-villains running amok throughout the DCU (see Batman: the Joker’s Last Laugh for further details).

‘Bipolar Disorder’ (scripted by Chuck Dixon and Scott Beatty, with art from Darryl Banks & Wayne Faucher) saw magnetic malcontent and world class lunatic Dr. Polaris made even crazier when infected by the Crazy Clown’s unique brand of insanity, stretching Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern, Martian Manhunter and Plastic Man to their utmost in a bid to preserve the planet deep in the icy Antarctic wastes…

Rounding out the book is a classy Christmas neo-classic as Plastic Man reveals how Santa Claus joined the JLA in the outrageously engrossing ‘Merry Christmas, Justice League… Now Die!’ by Waid, Cliff Rathburn & Paul Neary.

Witty, engaging, beautiful and incredibly exciting these are some of the best superhero adventures ever created: timeless, rewarding sagas that must be part of your permanent collection…
© 2001, 2002 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Showcase presents Teen Titans volume 2


By Bob Haney, Nick Cardy & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-84576-677-1

It’s hard to grasp now that once kid heroes were a rarity and during the beginning of the Silver Age, often considered a liability. Now the massive brand that is the Teen Titans (with numerous comicbook iterations, a superbly successful TV show and even an award-winning early reading comic (Aw, Yeaah! Tiny Titans!) their continuance is as assured as anything in our biz, but during the tumultuous 1960s the series – never a great seller – courted controversy and an actual teenaged readership by confronting controversial issues head on.

I must have been just lucky, because these stories of lost youth searching for meaning were released just as I turned into a teenager.  They resonated because they were talking directly to me.  It didn’t hurt that they were brilliantly written, fantastically illustrated and staggeringly fresh and contemporary.  I’m delighted to declare that age hasn’t diminished their quality or impact either, merely cemented their worth and importance.

The concept of underage hero-teams was not a new one when the Batman TV show prompted DC to entrust the big heroes’ assorted sidekicks with their own regular comic in a hip and groovy ensemble as dedicated to helping kids as they were to stamping out insidious evil.

The biggest difference between wartime groups like The Young Allies, Boy Commandos and Newsboy Legion or such 1950s holdovers as The Little Wise Guys or Boys Ranch and the creation of the Titans was quite simply the burgeoning phenomena of “The Teenager” as a discrete social and commercial force. These were kids who could be allowed to do things themselves (within reason) without constant adult help or supervision. As early as June-July 1964 Brave and the Bold #54 had tested the waters with a gripping tale by Bob Haney & Bruno Premiani in which Kid Flash, Aqualad and Robin thwarted a modern-day Pied Piper.

What had been a straight team-up was formalised a year later when the heroes reunited and included Wonder Girl in a proper super-group with a team-name: Teen Titans. With this second collected volume of those early exploits the series had hit a creative peak, with spectacular, groundbreaking artwork and fresh, different stories that increasingly showed youngsters had opinions and attitudes of their own – and often that they could be at odds with those of their mystery-men mentors…

Collecting Teen Titans #19-36, and the team-up appearances from Brave and the Bold #83 and 94 and World’s Finest Comics #205, these stories cover the most significant period of social and political unrest in American history and do it from the perspective of the underdogs, the seekers, the rebels…

The wonderment begins with a beautifully realised comedy-thriller as boy Bowman Speedy joins the team. ‘Teen Titans: Stepping Stones for a Giant Killer!’ (#19, January/February 1969) by Mike Friedrich, Gil Kane & Wally Wood, pitted the team against youthful criminal mastermind Punch who planned to kill the Justice League of America and thought a trial run against the junior division a smart idea…

Brave and the Bold # 83 (April-May 1969) took a radical turn as the Teen Titans (sans Aqualad, who was dropped to appear in Aquaman and because there just ain’t that much sub-sea malfeasance) tried to save Bruce Wayne’s latest foster-son from his own inner demons in a tense thriller about trust and betrayal in the Bob Haney & Neal Adams epic ‘Punish Not my Evil Son!’. TT #20 took a long running plot-thread about extra-dimensional invaders and gave it a counterculture twist in ‘Titans Fit the Battle of Jericho’, a spectacular rollercoaster romp written by Neal Adams, penciled by him and Sal Amendola and inked by brush-maestro Nick Cardy – one of the all-out prettiest illustration jobs of that decade.

Symbolic super-teens Hawk and Dove joined the proceedings for #21’s ‘Citadel of Fear’ (Adams and Cardy), chasing smugglers, finding aliens and ramping up the surly teen rebellion quotient whilst moving the invaders story-arc towards a stunning conclusion. ‘Halfway to Holocaust’ is only half of #22; the abduction of Kid Flash and Robin leading to a cross-planar climax as Wonder Girl, Speedy and a radical new ally quashed the invasion forever, but still leaving enough room for a long overdue makeover in ‘The Origin of Wonder Girl’ by Marv Wolfman, Kane & Cardy.

For years the series had fudged the fact that the younger Amazon Princess was not actually human, a sidekick, or even a person, but rather an incarnation of the adult Wonder Woman as a child. As continuity backwriting strengthened its stranglehold on the industry it was felt that the team-tottie needed a fuller background and this moving tale revealed that she was in fact a human foundling rescued by Wonder Woman and raised on Paradise Island where their super-science gave her all the powers of a true Amazon. They even found her a name – Donna Troy – and an apartment, complete with hot roommate. All Donna had to do was sew herself a glitzy new costume…

Now thoroughly grounded the team jetted south in #23’s fast-paced yarn ‘The Rock ‘n’ Roll Rogue’ (by Haney, Kane & Cardy), trying to rescue musical rebel Sammy Soul from his grasping family and his lost dad from Amazonian headhunters. ‘Skis of Death!’ (#24, November-December 1969) by the same creative team saw the quartet holidaying in the mountains and uncovering a scam to defraud Native Americans of their lands. It was a terrific old-style tale but with the next issue the most radical change in DC’s cautious publishing history made Teen Titans a comic which had thrown out the rulebook…

For a series which spoke so directly to young people, it’s remarkable to think that ‘The Titans Kill a Saint?’ and its radical departure from traditional superhero stories was crafted by Bob Kanigher and Nick Cardy – two of the most senior creators in the business. It set the scene for a different kind of human-scaled adventure that was truly gripping, bravely innovative. For the relatively short time the experiment continued, readers had no idea what was going to happen next…

While on a night out in their civilian identities Robin, Kid Flash, Speedy, Wonder Girl, Hawk and Dove meet a telepathic go-go dancer Lilith who warns them of trouble. Cassandra-like they ignore her warnings, and a direct result a globally revered Nobel Laureate is gunned down.

So soon after the death of John and Robert Kennedy, Martin Luther King and the even more controversial murder of Malcolm X this was stunning stuff and in response all but Robin abandoned their costumed personas and with the help of mysterious millionaire philanthropist Mr. Jupiter dedicated their unique abilities to exploring humanity and finding human ways to atone and make a difference…

With Lilith beside them they undertake different sorts of missions, beginning with ‘A Penny For a Black Star’ in which they attempt to live in a poverty-wracked inner city ghetto, where they find Mal Duncan, a street kid who becomes the first African-American in space, although it’s a one-way trip…

Issue #27 reintroduces an eerie element of fantasy as ‘Nightmare in Space’ (Kanigher, George Tuska, Carmine Infantino & Cardy) finds the Titans en route to the Moon to rescue Mal but encountering something far beyond the ken of human imagining.

Meanwhile on Earth Donna Troy’s roommate Sharon had stumbled upon an alien incursion. ‘Blindspot’ by Steve Skeates & Nick Cardy, was tangentially linked to another innovative saga then playing out in Aquaman’s comicbook. Both were edited by young Dick Giordano, who was at this time responsible for the vast proportion of bold new material coming out of DC, even whilst proving himself one of the best inkers in the field.

You’ll need to see a (hopefully) forthcoming Aquaman Showcase edition for that delight, but suffice to say that the Sea King’s foe Ocean Master had allied himself with aliens and Sharon became involved just as Aqualad returned looking for help. Unable to understand the Titan’s reluctance to get involved he tries to go it alone but hits a problem only the original team can fix, which they do in Skeates & Cardy concluding instalment ‘Captives!’

However, once the alien threat is thwarted the heroes once more lay down their powers and costumes…

Teen Titans #30 featured three short tales, all written by Skeates. ‘Greed… Kills!‘ illustrated by Cardy, is a canny mystery exploring street and white-collar crime, ‘Whirlwind’ a Kid Flash prose novelette with art from Sal Amendola and ‘Some Call it Noise’ (Infantino & Cardy) an Aqualad solo tale in which his girlfriend Aquagirl takes a near-fatal wrong turn at a rock concert.

Student politics took centre-stage in #31’s lead feature ‘To Order is to Destroy’ (Skeates, Tuska & Cardy as the young heroes investigate a trouble-free campus where unhappy or difficult scholars are given a small brain operation to help them “concentrate” whilst a Hawk and Dove solo ‘From One to Twenty’ pitted quarrelsome Don and Hank Hall against a crafty band of murderous counterfeiters in a deft crime-caper by Skeates, Tuska & Cardy.

The gifted trio then opened up the fantasy element again with a time-travelling, parallel universe epic beginning in #32 with ‘A Mystical Realm, A World Gone Mad’ as Mal and Kid Flash accidentally changed the past turning Earth into a magical madscape. However undoing their error resulted in a Neanderthal teenager being trapped in our time, presenting the group with their greatest challenge: turning a savage primitive into a modern man.

Illustrated by Tuska and Cardy ‘Less Than Human’ signaled the full return of Bob Haney as writer and the gradual return of powers and costumes picked up pace as the grand experiment, if not over, was restated in terms that looked less harshly on bread and butter fights ‘n’ tights scenarios.

Brave and the Bold #94 (February-March 1971) was a powerful counter-culture thriller as the team infiltrated an inner city commune to solve a nuclear bomb-plot in ‘Rebels in the Streets’ and the exigencies of publishing moved the series into the blossoming world of the supernatural as costumed heroes temporarily faded in favour of tales of mystery and imagination.

‘The Demon of Dog Island’ (Haney, Tuska & Cardy) found the team, including Robin who had quietly rejoined during the civilisation of cave-boy Gnarrk, desperately battling to prevent Wonder Girl’s possession by a gypsy ghost whilst ‘The Computer that Captured a Town’ (World’s Finest Comics #205, September 1971) cleverly examined racism and sexism as Superman found the Titans trapped in a town that had mysteriously re-adopted the values of the 1890s (Skeates, Dick Dillin & Joe Giella)…

Teen Titans #35 continued the supernatural theme as the team traveled to Verona in ‘Intruders of the Forbidden Crypt’ (Haney, Tuska & Cardy) wherein Lilith and the son of Mr. Jupiter’s business rival found themselves drawn into a beguiling web of tragedy as they were compelled to relive the doomed love of Romeo and Juliet despite all the rationalisations of modern science and the best efforts of the young heroes…

‘A Titan is Born’ by the same creators was a rite of passage for Mal as the everyman hero had to face the murderous Gargoyle alone and unaided, whilst the reincarnation tragedy concluded with fate foiled in ‘The Tomb Be their Destiny’, the cover feature of #36. Filling out that issue and this book are two brief vignettes, the Aqualad three pager teaser ‘The Girl of the Shadows’ by Skeates & Jim Aparo and an impressive opening episode in the origin of Lilith. ‘The Teen-Ager From Nowhere’ by Haney & Cardy showed the ten year old orphan’s first prescient exploit and the distrust that it engendered, promising much more to come: a perfect place to end this second monochrome masterpiece of graphic literature…

Although perhaps dated in delivery, these tales were a liberating experience for kids when first released. They truly betokened a new empathy with independent youth and tried to address problems that were more relevant to and generated by that specific audience. That they are so captivating in execution is a wonderful bonus. This is absolute escapism and absolutely delightful.

© 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972, 2007 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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The Greatest Team-Up Stories Ever Told


By various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 0-930289-51-X

When the very concept of high priced graphic novels was just being tested in the early 1990s DC Comics produced a line of glorious hardback compilations spotlighting star characters and celebrating standout stories from the company’s illustrious and varied history decade by decade. They even branched out into themed collections which shaped the output of the industry to this day.

The Greatest Stories collections were revived this century as smaller paperback editions (with mostly differing content) and stand as an impressive and joyous introduction to the fantastic worlds and exploits of the World’s Greatest Superheroes. However for sheer physical satisfaction the older, larger books are by far the better product. Some of them made it to softcover trade paperback editions, but if you can afford it, the big hard ones are the jobs to go for…

From the moment a kid first sees his second superhero the only thing he/she wants is to see how the new costumed marvel stacks up against the first. From the earliest days of the industry (and according to Julie Schwartz’s fascinating introduction here, it was the same with the pulps and dime novels that preceded them) 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 archenemy one more time…

The Greatest Team-Up Stories Ever Told gathers together a stunning variety of classic tales and a few less famous but still worthy aggregations of heroes, but cleverly kicks off with a union of bad-guys in the Wayne Boring illustrated tale ‘The Terrible Trio!’ (Superman #88, March 1954) as the Man of Steel’s wiliest foes, Lex Luthor, Toyman and the Prankster joined forces to outwit and destroy him, whilst World’s Finest Comics #82 (May-June 1956) saw Batman and Robin join the Man of Tomorrow in a time-travelling romp to 17th century France as ‘The Three Super-Musketeers!’, helping embattled D’Artagnan solve the mystery of the Man in the Iron Mask.

A lot of these stories are regrettably uncredited, but nobody could miss the stunning artwork of Dick Sprang here, and subsequent research has since revealed writer Edmond Hamilton and inker Stan Kaye were also involved in crafting this terrific yarn.

Kid heroes prevailed when Superman was murdered and the Boy Wonder travelled back in time to enlist the victim’s younger self in ‘Superboy Meets Robin’ (Adventure Comics #253, October 1953) illustrated by Al Plastino, whilst two of that title’s venerable back-up stars almost collided in an experimental crossover from issue #267 (December 1959).

At this time Adventure starred Superboy and featured Aquaman and Green Arrow as supporting features. ‘The Manhunt on Land’, with art from Ramona Fradon & Charles Paris, saw villainous Shark Norton trade territories with Green Arrow’s foe The Wizard. Both parts were written by Robert Bernstein, and the two heroes and their sidekicks worked the same case with Aquaman fighting on dry land whilst the Emerald Archer pursued his enemy beneath the waves in his own strip; ‘The Underwater Archers’, illustrated by the excellent Lee Elias.

As I’ve mentioned before, I was one of the “Baby Boomer” crowd who grew up with Gardner Fox and John Broome’s tantalisingly slow reintroduction of Golden Age superheroes during the halcyon, eternally summery days of the 1960s. To me those fascinating counterpart crusaders from Earth-Two weren’t vague and distant memories rubber-stamped by parents or older brothers – they were cool, fascinating and enigmatically new. And for some reason the “proper” heroes of Earth-One held them in high regard and treated them with obvious deference…

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

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

During a benefit gig Flash (police scientist Barry Allen) accidentally slips into another dimension where he finds the comic-book champion he based his own superhero identity upon actually exists. Every adventure he’d avidly absorbed as an eager child was grim reality to Jay Garrick and his mystery-men comrades on the controversially named Earth-2. Locating his idol Barry convinces the elder to come out of retirement just as three Golden Age villains, Shade, Thinker and the Fiddler make their own wicked comeback… Thus is history made and above all else, ‘Flash of Two Worlds’ is still a magical tale that can electrify today’s reader.

The story generated an avalanche of popular and critical approval (big sales figures, too) so after a few more trans-dimensional test runs the ultimate team-up was delivered to slavering fans. ‘Crisis on Earth-One’ (Justice League of America #21, August 1963) and ‘Crisis on Earth-Two’ (#22) combine to become one of the most important stories in DC history and arguably one of the most important tales in American comics. When ‘Flash of Two Worlds’ introduced the concept of Infinite Earths and multiple heroes to the public, pressure had begun almost instantly to bring back the actual heroes of the “Golden Age”. Editorial powers-that-be were hesitant, though, fearing too many heroes would be silly and unmanageable, or worse yet put readers off. If they could see us now…

The story by Fox, Mike Sekowsky Bernard Sachs finds a coalition of assorted villains from each Earth plundering at will and trapping the mighty Justice League in their own HQ. Temporarily helpless the heroes contrive a desperate plan to combine forces with the champions of a bygone era and the result is pure comicbook majesty. It’s impossible for me to be totally objective about this saga. I was a drooling kid in short trousers when I first read it and the thrills haven’t diminished with this umpty-first re-reading. This is what superhero comics are all about!

The wonderment continues here with a science fiction hero team-up from Mystery in Space #90, which had been the home of star-spanning Adam Strange since issue #53 and with #87 Schwartz moved Hawkman and Hawkgirl into the back-up slot, and even granted them occasional cover-privileges before they graduated to their own title. These were brief, engaging action pieces but issue #90 (March 1964) was a full-length mystery thriller pairing the Winged Wonders and Earth’s interplanetary expatriate in a spectacular End-of the-World(s) epic.

‘Planets in Peril!’ written by Fox, illustrated by Carmine Infantino and Murphy Anderson, found our fragile globe instantly transported to the Alpha-Centauri system and heading for a fatal collision with the constantly-under-threat world of Rann at the behest of a scientific madman who eventually proved no match for the high-flying, rocket-powered trio.

Before settling into a comfortable pattern as a Batman team-up title, Brave and the Bold had been a high-adventure anthology, a try-out book like Showcase and a floating team title, pairing disparate heroes together for one-off  adventures. One of the very best of these was ‘The Challenge of the Expanding World’ (#53, April-May 1964) in which the Atom and Flash strove valiantly to free a sub-atomic civilisation from a mad dictator and simultaneously battled to keep that miniature planet from explosively enlarging into our own.

This astounding thriller from Bob Haney and the incredible Alex Toth was followed in the next B&B issue by the origin of the Teen Titans and that event is repeated here. ‘The Thousand-and-One Dooms of Mr. Twister’ (#54, June-July 1964) by Haney, Bruno Premiani and Charles Paris united sidekicks Kid Flash, Aqualad and Robin the Boy Wonder in a desperate battle against a modern wizard-come-Pied Piper who had stolen the teen-agers of American everytown Hatton Corners. The young heroes had met in the town by chance when students invited them to mediate in a long-running dispute with the town adults, but didn’t even have a team name until their second appearance.

By the end of the 1960s America was a bubbling cauldron of social turmoil and experimentation. Everything was challenged and with issue #76 of Green Lantern, Denny O’Neil and comics iconoclast Neal Adams completely redefined contemporary superhero strips with relevancy-driven stories that transformed moribund establishment super-cops into questing champions and explorers of the revolution. ‘No Evil Shall Escape My Sight!’ (O’Neil, Adams & Frank Giacoica, April 1970) is a landmark in the medium, utterly re-positioning the very concept of the costumed crusader as ardent liberal Green Arrow challenges GL’s cosy worldview as the heroes discover true villainy can wear business suits, harm people just because of skin colour and happily poison its own nest for short term gain…

Of course the fact that the story is a brilliant crime-thriller with science-fiction overtones beautifully illustrated doesn’t hurt either…

The Fabulous World of Krypton was a long-running back-up feature in Superman during the 1970s, revealing intriguing glimpses from the history of that lost world. One of the very best is ‘The Greatest Green Lantern of All’ (#257, October, 1972 by Elliot Maggin, Dick Dillin & Dick Giordano) detailing the tragic failure of avian GL Tomar-Re, dispatched to prevent the planet’s detonation and how the Guardians of the Universe had planned to use that world’s greatest bloodline…

Brave and the Bold produced a plethora of tempestuous team-ups starring Batman and his many associates, and at first glance ‘Paperchase’ (#178, September 1981) by Alan Brennert & Jim Aparo from the dying days of the title might seem an odd choice, but don’t be fooled. This pell-mell pairing of Dark Knight and the Creeper in pursuit of an uncanny serial killer is tension-packed, turbo-charged thriller of intoxicating quality.

The narrative section of this collaborative chronicle concludes with the greatest and most influential comics writer of the 1980s, combining his signature character with DC guiding icon for a moody, melancholy masterpiece of horror-tinged melodrama. From DC Comics Presents #85 (September 1985) comes ‘The Jungle Line’ by Alan Moore, Rick Veitch & Al Williamson wherein Superman contracts a fatal disease from a Kryptonian spore and plagued by intermittent powerlessness, oncoming madness and inevitable death, deserts his loved ones and drives slowly south to die in isolation.

Mercifully in the dark green swamps he is found by the world’s plant elemental the Swamp Thing…

The book is edited by Mike Gold, Brian Augustyn & Robert Greenberger, with panoramic and comprehensive endpaper illustrations from Carmine Infantino (who blue-printed the Silver Age of Comicbooks) and text features ‘The Ghosts of Frank and Dick Merriwell’, ‘That Old Time Magic’ and a captivating end-note article ‘Just Imagine, Your Favourite Heroes…’. However for fans of all ages possibly the most beguiling feature in this volume is the tantalising cover reproduction section: team-ups that didn’t make it into this selection, filling in all the half-page breaks which advertised new comics in the originals. I defy any nostalgia-soaked fan not to start muttering “got; got; need it; Mother threw it away…”

This unbelievably enchanting collection is a pure package of superhero magnificence: fun-filled, action-packed and utterly addictive.
© 1954-1985, 1989 DC Comics Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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Justice Society Volume 2


By Paul Levitz, Joe Staton & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-1194-3

This second of twin volumes gathering the 1970s revival of the fabled Justice Society of America collects issues #68-74 of All-Star Comics plus the series’ continuation and conclusion from giant anthology title Adventure Comics #461-466.

Set on the parallel world of Earth-2 the veteran team was leavened with a smattering of teen heroes combined into a contentious, generation-gap fuelled “Super Squad” – although by the start of this book that rather naff sub-title has been quietly dropped and the assembled multi-generational team are all JSA-ers. .

Those youngsters included a grown up Robin, Sylvester Pemberton, the Star-Spangled Kid (a teen superhero from the 1940s who had been lost in time for decades) and a busty young nymphet who quickly became the feisty favourite of a generation of growing boys: Kara Zor-L – Power Girl.

By issue #68 (October, 1977) the curvy Kryptonian was clearly the star of the show and as ‘Divided We Stand!’ by Paul Levitz, Joe Staton & Bob Layton, concluded a long-running scheme by the villainous Psycho-Pirate to discredit and destroy the JSA she was well on the way to her first solo outing in Showcase #97-98 (reprinted in Power Girl). Meanwhile Green Lantern resumed a maniacal rampage through Gotham City and Police Commissioner Bruce Wayne took steps to bring the seemingly out-of control team to book.

In #69’s ‘United We Fall!’ Commissioner Wayne bought in his own team of retired JSA-ers to arrest the “rogue” heroes, resulting in a classic fanboy dream duel as Dr. Fate, Wildcat, Hawkman, Flash, GL and Star Spangled Kid battled the one-time Batman, Robin, Hourman, Starman, Dr. Midnight and Wonder Woman. It was a colourful catastrophe in waiting until Power Girl and Superman intervened to reveal the true cause of all the madness. And in the background, a new character was about to make a landmark debut…

With order (temporarily) restored ‘A Parting of the Ways!’ focussed on Wildcat and Star Spangled Kid as the off-duty heroes stumbled upon a high-tech gang of super-thieves called the Strike Force. The robbers initially proved too much for the pair and even new star The Huntress, but with a pair of startling revelations in ‘The Deadliest Game in Town!’ the trio finally triumphed. In the aftermath the Kid resigned and the daughter of Batman and Catwoman (alternate Earth, remember?) replaced him.

All-Star Comics #72 reintroduced a couple of classic Golden Age villainesses in ‘A Thorn by Any Other Name’ as the floral psychopath returned to poison Wildcat, leaving Helena Wayne to battle the original Huntress for the cure and the rights to the name…

The concluding ‘Be it Ever So Deadly’ (with Joe Giella taking over the in inkers role) saw the entire team in action as Huntress battled Huntress whilst Thorn and the Sportsmaster did their deadly best to destroy the heroes and their loved ones. Simultaneously in Egypt Hawkman and Dr. Fate stumbled upon a deadly ancient menace to all of reality…

The late 1970s was a perilous period for comics with drastically dwindling sales. Many titles were abruptly cancelled in a “DC Implosion” and All-Star Comics was one of the casualties. Issue #74 was the last and pitted the entire team against a mystic Armageddon perpetrated by the nigh-omnipotent Master Summoner who orchestrated a ‘World on the Edge of Ending’ before once more the Justice Society triumphed.

Although their book was gone the series continued in the massive 68 page anthology title Adventure Comics, beginning in #461 with the blockbuster tale intended for the anniversary 75th issue. Drawn and inked by Staton, ‘Only Legends Live Forever’ detailed the last case of Batman as the Dark Knight came out of retirement to battle a seeming nonentity who had mysteriously acquired god-like power.

Divided into two chapters, #462 delivered the shocking conclusion ‘The Legend Lives Again!’ whilst ‘The Night of the Soul Thief!’ saw Huntress, Robin and the assembled JSA deliver righteous justice to the mysterious mastermind who had truly orchestrated the death of the World’s Greatest Detective.

Adventure #464 provided an intriguing insight into aging warrior Wildcat as with ‘To Everything There is a Season…’ he embraced his own mortality and began a new career as a teacher of heroes, whilst ‘Countdown to Disaster!’ (inked by Dave Hunt) saw Flash, Green Lantern, Hawkman, Power Girl, Huntress and Dr. Fate hunt a doomsday device lost in the teeming masses of Gotham. It would be last modern solo outing of the team for decades.

But not the last in this volume: that honour falls to another Levitz & Staton landmark history lesson wherein they revealed why the team vanished at beginning of the 1950s. From Adventure #466 ‘The Defeat of the Justice Society!’ showed how the American Government betrayed their greatest champions during the McCarthy Witch-hunts provoking them into withdrawing from public, heroic life for over a decade – that is until the costumed stalwarts of Earth-1 started the whole Fights ‘n’ Tights scene all over again…

Although perhaps a little dated now, these exuberant, rapid-paced and imaginative yarns perfectly blend the naive charm of Golden Age derring-do with cynical yet hopeful modern sensibilities that will always hold out hope for hero to save the day. Fun, furious and ferociously fun, this is stuff non mystery-man maven can do without.
© 1977, 1978, 1979, 2006 DC Comics. All rights reserved.

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The Greatest Flash Stories Ever Told


By various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-0-93028-981-2

When the very concept of high priced graphic novels was just being gradually accepted in the early 1990s DC comics produced a line of glorious hardback compilations that highlighted star characters and even celebrated the standout stories from the company’s illustrious and varied history decade by decade.

The Greatest Stories collections were revived in this century as smaller paperback editions (with mostly differing content) and stand as an impressive introduction to the fantastic worlds and exploits of the World’s Greatest Superheroes but for sheer satisfaction the older, larger books are by far the better product. Some of them made it to softcover trade paperback editions, but if you can afford it the big hard ones are the jobs to go for…

Since I believe reading comics to be a fully immersive experience (smell, feel, good coffee, biscuits, a solid soundtrack playing and somewhere someone futilely shouting to get your attention) I’ll be reviewing most of them over the up next few months but I’m starting with the volume dedicated to the hero attributed with starting the Silver Age and the other characters who share the sobriquet of “the Fastest Man Alive”…

Edited by Mike Gold and Brian Augustyn with contributions from Robert Greenberger, Katie Main and Dan Thorsland plus a foreword by artist and ex-publisher Carmine Infantino, this volume presents some genuinely intriguing choices featuring the first three men to dazzle generations of readers as The Flash.

From the Golden Age comes four fabulous exploits of Jay Garrick – a scientist exposed to “hard water fumes” which gave him super-speed and endurance, beginning with his very first appearance ‘The Fastest Man Alive’ from Flash Comics #1 (January 1940) by Gardner Fox & Harry Lampert, who speedily delivered an origin, a returning cast and a classic confrontation with sinister gang the Faultless Four and their diabolical leader Sieur Satan.

This is followed by ‘The Flash and the Black Widow’ from issue #66 (August 1945) written by budding horror-novelist Robert Bloch and illustrated by E.E. Hibbard wherein a seductive menace transformed helpless victims – including hapless comedy sidekicks Winky, Blinky and Noddy – into talking animals.

‘Stone Age Menace’ (Flash Comics #86, 1947) is a time travel caper scripted by Robert Kanigher and illustrated by Lee Elias whilst from December of that year the same team crafted a spectacular clash with criminal mastermind the Turtle, who tried once more to profit from ‘The Slow-Motion Crimes’.

As the 1950s dawned the popularity of costumed heroes dwindled and for nearly a decade licensed properties, Crime, Westerns, War, Mystery and other genre fare dominated the newsstands. Despite the odd bold sally, costumed heroes barely held their own until Julius Schwartz ushered in a new age of brightly clad mystery-men by reviving the Flash in 1956. For the great majority of fans (aging baby-boomers that we are) police scientist Barry Allen will always be the “real” Scarlet Speedster, struck by lightning, bathed in chemicals – if you couldn’t find an atomic blast to survive, that kind of freak accident was the only way to start a career.

From his spectacular run comes the pivotal event which marked the beginning of a way of life for so many addicted kids: ‘Mystery of the Human Thunderbolt!’ (Showcase #4), written by Kanigher, penciled by Infantino and inked by Joe Kubert, was another quick-fire origin with crime story attached as the brand new hero discovered his powers and mission and still found time to defeat a modern iteration of the Turtle.

John Broome and Gardner Fox would write the bulk of the early tales, introducing a “big science” sensibility and, courtesy of Broome, a Rogues Gallery of fantastic foes which would become the template for all proper superheroes. After four Showcase try-outs the Vizier of Velocity won his own title, picking up the numbering of Flash Comics which had folded in 1949 after 104 issues.

Such a one was Grodd, sole malcontent of a race of hyper-evolved simians who in Broome, Infantino & Joe Giella’s ‘Return of the Super-Gorilla’ (Flash #107, June 1959) lured the Scarlet Speedster to the centre of the Earth and a lost race of bird-men. Another was The Trickster, a prankster-bandit who could defy gravity. In his debut appearance ‘Danger in the Air!’ (Flash #1113, June 1960), Broome, Infantino & Giella provided the ideal counterpart to the rather stuffy hero whilst #119’s ‘The Mirror-Master’s Magic Bullet’ (March 1967 and inked by Murphy Anderson) showed the hero’s wits were always faster than any speed his feet could attain.

Ductile Detective Elongated Man began as a Flash cameo and his subsequent guest-shots were always a benchmark for offbeat thrills. In #124 (November 1961, inked by Giella) Captain Boomerang’s ‘Space Boomerang Trap’ led to an extra-dimensional invasion and an uneasy alliance of heroes and villain whereas next issue’s epic ‘The Conquerors of Time!’ was a mind-boggling classic as time-travelling aliens attempted to subjugate Earth in 2287AD by preventing fissionable elements from forming in 100,842,246BC. Antediluvian lost races, another pivotal role for Kid Flash Wally West (easily the most trusted and responsible sidekick of the Silver Age), the introduction of the insanely cool Cosmic Treadmill plus spectacular action make this a benchmark of quality graphic narrative.

‘Flash of Two Worlds’ (not included here so see either Showcase Presents the Flash volume 2 or the aforementioned Flash: the Greatest Stories Ever Told 2007 tpb) revived the Golden Age Flash, and by implication, the whole 1940s DC pantheon, by introducing the concept of parallel worlds and multiple Earths which became the bedrock of the entire continuity, and which the company still mines to such great effect.

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

Barry Allen’s best friend was test pilot Hal Jordan who fought crime as an agent of the Guardians of the Universe, so the heroes joined forces on a regular basis. From Flash #143, March 1964 comes the intriguing high-tech mystery ‘Trail of the False Green Lanterns!’ by John Broome, Infantino and Giella, who also produced the award-winning and deeply moving ghost-story ‘The Doorway to the Unknown!’ (#148, November 1964).

Cary Bates became the Flash’s regular – and exclusive – writer from the early 1970s to the hero’s demise in 1985, but he was only a promising newcomer when he co-scripted with Fox the exuberant fourth-wall busting epic ‘The Flash – Fact or Fiction?’(#179, May 1968, illustrated by Ross Andru & Mike Esposito) which took the multiple Earths concept to its logical conclusion by trapping the Monarch of Motion in “our” Reality, where the Flash was just a comic-book character! However Bate’s slick solo effort ‘How to Prevent a Flash’ (Five-Star Super-Hero Spectacular 1977), illustrated by Irv Novick & Frank McLaughlin shows a mature subtlety that highlights not just superpowers but the hero’s forensic thinking…

Barry Allen died during the Crisis on Infinite Earths – and stayed dead for what is now a very long time in comics. In the years leading up to that he endured a monolithic saga wherein his wife was murdered, he destroyed her killer and was ultimately brought to trial for manslaughter. That saga, encompassing #275-350, is condensed here into ‘The Final Flash Storyline’ – a handy text feature by Bates with illustrations from Infantino, Dennis Jensen, Gary Martin, Frank McLaughlin, George Pérez & Jerry Ordway.

In honour of his ultimate sacrifice, Barry’s nephew Wally West graduated from sidekick to the third Sultan of Speed and carved his own legend in scarlet and gold. This terrific tome concludes with a Reagan-era classic as the severely outclassed new hero battled Vandal Savage in the gripping ‘Hearts… of Stone’ (Flash volume 2, #2 July 1987 by Mike Baron, Jackson Guice & Larry Mahlstedt) to close the book.

Not quite the icon Superman, Batman or Wonder Woman are, Flash is nevertheless the quintessential superhero and the reason we’re all doing this today. This delightful book is a superb example of superhero stories at their very best and whatever your age or temperament there’s something great here for you to enjoy and treasure.
© 1940-1987, 1991 DC Comics. All rights reserved.

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The Sandman


By Joe Simon & Jack Kirby with Mike Royer & others (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-2299-4

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Perfect for the die-hard fanboy superhero purists and lovers of pure comic magic  9/10

In the early days of the American comicbook the fledgling industry was awash with chancers, double-dealers, slick operators and outright crooks. Many creative types fell foul of this publishing free-for-all but a rare few took to the cut and thrust and managed not only to survive but also to prosper.

Just as the Golden Age of comics was beginning two young men with big hopes met up and began a decades-long association that was always intensely creative, immensely productive and spectacularly in tune with popular tastes. Joe Simon was a sharp-minded, talented young man with five years experience in “real” publishing, working from the bottom up to art director on a succession of small paper such as the Rochester Journal American, Syracuse Herald and Syracuse Journal American before moving to New York City and a life of freelancing as an art/photo retoucher and illustrator. Recommended by his boss, Simon joined Lloyd Jacquet’s pioneering Funnies Inc., a comics production “shop” generating strips and characters for a number of publishing houses eager to cash in on the success of Action Comics and its stellar attraction Superman.

Within days Simon created The Fiery Mask for Martin Goodman of Timely Comics (now Marvel) and met young Jacob Kurtzberg, a cartoonist and animator just hitting his stride with the Blue Beetle for the Fox Feature Syndicate.

Together Simon and Kurtzberg (who went through a legion of pen-names before settling on Jack Kirby) enjoyed a stunning creative empathy and synergy which galvanized an already electric neo-industry with a vast catalogue of features and even sub-genres. They produced the influential Blue Bolt, Captain Marvel Adventures (#1) and, when Martin Goodman made Simon the editor of Timely, created a host of iconic characters such as Red Raven, the first Marvel Boy, The Vision, Young Allies and of course the million-selling mega-hit Captain America.

Famed for his larger than life characters and colossal cosmic imaginings, “King” Kirby was an astute, spiritual hard-working family man who lived though poverty, gangsterism, the Depression and World War II. He had seen Post-War optimism, Cold War paranoia, political cynicism and the birth and death of peace-seeking counter-cultures. He was open-minded, always saw the best in people and was utterly wedded to the making of comics stories on every imaginable subject.

When Goodman failed to make good on his financial obligations, Simon & Kirby jumped ship to National/DC, who welcomed them with open arms and a big chequebook. Initially an uncomfortable fit, bursting with ideas the company were not comfortable with, the pair were soon given two strips that were in the doldrums until they found their creative feet.

Once established and left to their own devices they created the “Kid Gang” genre with The Newsboy Legion (plus super-heroic mentor The Guardian) and the unique international army The Boy Commandos – who shared the spotlight with Batman in Detective Comics and whose own solo title was frequently the company’s third best seller.

Those moribund strips they were first let loose upon were a big game feature called Paul Kirk, Manhunter, which they overnight turned into a darkly manic, vengeful superhero strip, and one of comics’ first masked mystery-men – The Sandman.

This superb hardback collection reprints all the Simon and Kirby Sandman tales, including the covers they produced for the issues they didn’t craft, lost art pages, original art reproductions plus informative text articles from Kirby historian John Morrow and writer Mark Evanier and also includes Simon & Kirby’s reunion reinvention of Sandman from 1974 (which in turn spawned one of Kirby’s last, short-lived series for DC).

Created by Gardner Fox and originally illustrated by Bert Christman, the Sandman premiered in either Adventure Comics #40 July 1939 (two months after Batman debuted in Detective Comics #27) or two weeks earlier in New York World’s Fair Comics 1939, depending on whether some rather spotty distribution records can be believed.

Face utterly obscured by a gasmask; caped and business-suited millionaire adventurer Wesley Dodds wielded a sleeping-gas gun to battle a string of crooks and spies, accompanied by his paramour Dian Belmont, before gradually losing the readers’ interest and slipping from cover-spot to last feature in Adventure Comics, just as the cloaked pulp-hero avengers he emulated slipped from popularity in favour of more flamboyant fictional fare.

Possessing a certain indefinable style and charm but definitely no pizzazz, the feature was on the verge of being dropped when he abruptly switched to a skintight yellow and purple costume complete with billowing cape and gained a boy-sidekick, Sandy the Golden Boy (Adventure Comics #69, December 1941, by Mort Weisinger & Paul Norris), presumably to move closer to the overwhelmingly successful Batman model.

It didn’t help much.

So when Simon & Kirby came aboard with #72, the little banner above the logo on the Jack Burnley Starman cover gave no hint of the pulse-pounding change that had occurred. ‘Riddle of the Slave Market’ saw a sleek, dynamic pair of gleaming golden lions explode across eleven pages of graphic fury as the Sandman, sans that daft cape, crushed a white-collar criminal with a nasty line in illicit indentured servitude. Moreover the character had overnight acquired his unique gimmick: Sandman’s crusades against crime were presaged by the perpetrator suffering nightmares of imminent retribution…

This semi-supernatural element and fascination with the world of dreams (revisited by S&K a decade later in their short-lived experimental suspense series The Strange World of Your Dreams) added a conceptual punch to equal the kinetic fury of their art, and when #73 (with the S&K Manhunter now hogging the cover) the Sandman strip ‘Bells of Madness!’ ramped up the tension with another spectacular action epic as the Dream Warriors exposed a cunningly murder plot.

With Adventure #74 Sandman and Sandy took back the cover spot (only their third since #51) keeping it until the feature ended. Only once did Sandman not appear on the cover – #99: another S&K Manhunter classic. With #103 the magazine underwent a complete overhaul with new feature Superboy leading a cast of established regulars – Green Arrow, Aquaman, Shining Knight and Johnny Quick – parachuted in from other magazines.

The story in #74 was an eerie instant classic: ‘The Man Who Knew All the Answers’ was a small-town professor who artificially increased his intellect – but not his morality. When his perfectly planned crimes brought him into conflict with the Sandman it was clear that his brain enhancer did nothing for his common sense either.

‘The Villain From Valhalla!’ (Adventure Comics #75 June 1942) pitted the galvanic heroes against a hammer-wielding Norse god in a cataclysmic Battle Royale, which is followed here by an equally astounding clash with sinister floral villain Nightshade. ‘The Adventure of the Magic Forest’ comes from World’s Finest Comics #6 (Summer 1942), one of two S&K exploits in that legendary high-profile anthology.

Sandman was also a founding member of the Justice Society of America, appearing in many issues of All-Star Comics. A number of the pertinent chapters were also produced by Joe & Jack but are not included in this otherwise comprehensive compendium: completists will need to track down the superb All-Star Archives (volumes 4 and 5) for those dynamic classics.

Adventure #76 again heavily emphasised the foreboding dream element in ‘Mr. Noah Raids the Town!’ as a soothsaying mastermind unleashed preposterously intelligent animals to steal and kill whilst #77’s ‘Dreams of Doom!’ found an innocent man plagued by nightmares and compelled to solicit the aid of the Master of Dreams… and only just in time!

A sinister Swami was exposed in ‘The Miracle Maker!’ whilst the final World’s Finest guest-shot (#7, Fall 1942) dipped heavily into exotic fantasy for ‘A Modern Arabian Nightmare!’ before Adventure #79 perfectly banged the patriotic drum in an eerie temporal-trap mystery ‘Footprints in the Sands of Time!’

It was back to thrill-a-minute manic crime mayhem in #80’s ‘The Man Who Couldn’t Sleep!’ but ‘A Drama in Dreams’ presented a baffling conundrum for Sandy alone to solve whilst the creators went for seasonal shocks in the madcap Yule yarn ‘Santa Fronts for the Mob.’

Issue #83 led with a blockbusting boxing romance as the heroes came to the aid of ‘The Lady and the Champ!’ and included a gloriously over-the-top Boy Commandos ad featuring Hitler, Mussolini and Tojo as only Jack and Joe could defame them. Next comes the gloriously Grand Guignol saga of the ‘Crime Carnival’ and a delightfully wry romp ‘The Unholy Dreams of Gentleman Jack’ before the creators once more returned to a favourite theme of childhood poverty in ‘The Boy Who Was Too Big for his Breeches.’

The war was progressing and soon both Joe and Jack would be full-time servicemen so perhaps the increasingly humanistic tales of the latter run were only to be expected. The shift in emphasis certainly didn’t affect the quality of such gems as ‘I Hated the Sandman!’ from #87 wherein narcoleptic Silas Pettigrew learned a salutary lesson or the heartwarming and exuberant childhood fantasy ‘The Cruise of the Crescent’ whilst #89’s kidnap drama ‘Prisoner of his Dreams’ and the boisterous ‘Sleepy Time Crimes!’ proved that whatever else happened action and excitement would always be the series’ watchwords.

In the months prior to their induction Simon & Kirby went into overdrive, building up a vast reserve of inventory stories for their assorted strip commitments, but even so relentless publishing deadlines soon ate them up. Adventure Comics #91 featured the last S&K yarn for a year and a half, long after Kirby had shipped out to fight in Europe and Simon had begun his service with the US Coast Guard.

‘Courage a La Carte’ has precious little – if indeed any – Kirby art in it, but is nonetheless a sterling saga of malice unmasked and justice triumphant, after which only the covers of Adventure #92-97 reprinted here kept the artist’s light burning in the heart of their fans.

They returned for issue #100 (October/November 1945) with tempestuous crime caper ‘Sweets for Swag!’ – the cover of #101and again inside #102 with the swansong drama ‘The Dream of Peter Green!’ as Sandman and Sandy exposed shoddy dealings in city contracting and gave ghetto kids decent playgrounds to grow fit and healthy in.

National Comics was no longer a welcoming place for the reunited duo and by 1947 they had formed their own studio and begun a long and productive relationship with Harvey Comics (Stuntman, Boy’s Ranch, Captain 3-D, Lancelot Strong, The Shield, The Fly, Three Rocketeers and others) and created an stunning variety of genre features for Crestwood/Pines (supplied by their Essankay/Mainline studio shop) which included Justice Traps the Guilty, Black Magic, Fighting American, Bullseye, Foxhole and Young Romance amongst many more (see the superb Best of Simon and Kirby for a salient selection of these classic creations).

As comics went through bad times the pair eventually went their separate ways but were reunited for one last hurrah in 1974 whilst both working once more for DC. As a result they re-imagined the Sandman as a fully fantastic scientific master of the metaphysical, policing the nightmares of humanity from a citadel deep in “The Dream-stream.”

‘The Sandman’ (scripted by Joe, drawn/edited by Jack and inked by Mike Royer) is pure escapist delight as young Jed Paulsen tapped into the oneiric horrors of villainous cybrid General Electric as he attempted to conquer the World of Our Dreams. When all hope seemed exhausted Jed was rescued and befriended by the omniscient Lord of Sleep and his ghastly assistants Brute and Glob…

This rambunctious romp is a great place to end our volume but since six further adventures of this Weaver of Dreams were completed (albeit with no Simon and varying degrees of Kirby) perhaps one day they too will make the jump to graphic novel immortality…

After years of neglect the glorious wealth of Jack Kirby material available these days is a true testament to his influence and legacy, so this magnificent collection of his collaborations with fellow industry pioneer Joe Simon is another gigantic box of delights that perfectly illustrates the depth, scope sheer thundering joy of the early days of comics: something no amount of corporate shoddy behaviour can ever diminish.

© 1942, 1943, 1944, 1945, 1946, 1974, 2009 DC Comics. All rights reserved.

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Showcase Presents Batman volume 4


By Frank Robbins, Irv Novick, Bob Brown, Joe Giella & various (DC Comics)
ISBN13: 978-1-84856-357-5

After three seasons (perhaps two and a half would be closer) the overwhelmingly successful Batman TV show ended in March, 1968. It had clocked up 120 episodes since the US premiere on January 12, 1966. As the series foundered and crashed the global fascination with “camp” superheroes – and no, the term had nothing to do with sexual proclivities no matter what you and Mel Brooks might think about Men in Tights – burst as quickly as it had boomed and the Caped Crusader was left with a hard core of dedicated fans and followers who now wanted their hero back.

For the editor who had tried to keep the most ludicrous excesses of the show out whilst still cashing in on his global popularity, the reasoning seemed simple: get him back to solving baffling mysteries and facing genuine perils as soon and as thrillingly as possible.

No problem.

This fourth impressively economical black and white compendium gathers Batman and Robin yarns from Batman #202-215 and the front halves of Detective Comics #376-390; the back-up slot being delightfully filled until #383 by the whimsically wonderful Elongated Man, whereafter he was unceremoniously dropped to make room for Batgirl’s own solo sallies.

The 27 stories here (some of the Batman issues were giant reprint editions so only their covers are reproduced within these pages) were written and illustrated by an evolving team of creators as editor Julie Schwartz lost some of his elite stable to age, attrition and corporate pressure, but the “new blood” was only fresh to the Gotham Guardian, not the industry and their sterling efforts deftly moulded the character into a hero capable of actually working within the new “big things” in comics: suspense, horror and the supernatural…

The book leads off with ‘Gateway to Death!’ (Batman #202, June 1968) by Gardner Fox, an un-attributed artist – possibly Dick Dillin or Mike Sekowsky – & Sid Greene, a spooky graveyard chiller which found the Dynamic Duo chasing a psychic plunderer towards their own prognosticated doom, after which Detective #376 (by the same creative team) asked ‘Hunted or …Haunted?’ as a time-traveller inadvertently put the fear of death and worse into the Caped Crusader.

Batman #203 was an 80-Page Giant with a cover by Neal Adams, whilst an old foe returned in ‘The Riddler’s Prison-Puzzle Problem!’ (Detective #377, Fox, Frank Springer & Greene) before Frank Robbins (creator of newspaper strip Johnny Hazard) joined the writing team for ‘Operation: Blindfold!’ illustrated by Irv Novick & Joe Giella, a two-part criminal conspiracy saga wherein a legion of thugs and sightless beggars almost took over Gotham.

With veteran penciller Bob Brown on Detective and Novick on Batman the artistic quality was high and consistent but unfortunately the strictly chronological reprinting works against the reader as the concluding episode is postponed and derailed here by Detective #378, the first half of a generation gap murder-mystery ‘Batman! Drop Dead… Twice!’ (Robbins, Brown & Giella) which itself climaxed after ‘Blind as a… Bat?’ from Batman #204 with a rollicking rollercoaster ride of spills and chills in ‘Two Killings For the Price of One!’ in Detective #379.

Issue #380 follows, introducing a new love-interest in Ginny Jenkins, the ‘Marital-Bliss Miss!’ (Robbins, Brown & Giella) who only pretended to be the new Mrs. Bruce Wayne for the very best of motives – saving his life – whilst in Batman #206 Novick & Giella illustrated a canny thriller ‘Batman Walks the Last Mile!’ pitting the Caped Crusader against a conman who claimed to be the brains behind the Dynamic Duo’s success.

In an era where teen angst and the counter-culture played an increasingly strident part Robin’s role as spokesperson for a generation was becoming increasingly important, with disputes and splits from his senior partner constantly recurring. Detective #381 featured one of the best as Batman literally dumped the Boy Wonder in ‘One Drown… One More to Go!’ – another clever crime conundrum from Robbins, Brown & Giella.

Batman #207 carried a classy countdown to catastrophe drama as all Gotham hunted for ‘the atomic nightmare’ of ‘The Doomsday Ball!’ whilst ‘Tec #382 continued the theme of youth in revolt with ‘Riddle of the Robbin’ Robin!’ but the disagreements were never serious or genuine, although that would soon change. Batman #208 was another reprint Giant: this time focusing on the women in his life. However even though Schwartz varied the usual format by having Gil Kane draw interlocking framing sequences, turning the issue into one big single story, all that has all been left out here so you just get the rather nifty Nicky Cardy cover.

Detective #383 was a straightforward thriller set in Gotham’s Chinatown: ‘The Fortune-Cookie Caper!’ but outlandish mind-bending mystery was the order of the day in ‘Jungle Jeopardy!’ in Batman #209 and ‘Tec #384 asked ‘Whatever Will Happen to Heiress Heloise?’ a crafty last tale of cross and double-cross from Gardner Fox, illustrated as ever by Brown & Giella.

Catwoman returned mob-handed – or is that mob-pawed? – in Batman #210 with eight other cat chicks in tow so the Caped Crimebuster was hard-pressed to solve ‘The Case of the Purr-Loined Pearl!’ whilst Bob Kanigher wrote one of the best tales of his long and illustrious career for Detective #385 as a nameless nonentity became the most important man Batman never met in the deeply moving ‘Die Small… Die Big!’

Issue #386 found Bruce Wayne a ‘Stand-In for Murder’ (Robbins, Brown & Giella) whilst the heroes had secret identity woes in ‘Batman’s Big Blow-Off!’ (#211, (Robbins, Novick & Giella) and Young Turk Mike Friedrich returned to script a reworking of Batman’s very first appearance for the 30th Anniversary issue of Detective Comics. ‘The Cry of Night is… Sudden Death!’ was a contemporary reworking of issue #27’s ‘The Case of the Chemical Syndicate’ which launched the Dark Knight on the road to immortality (and to see the original check out Batman Chronicles Volume 1, or any of the many “Best of” collections that feature this landmark tale) but once more the relationship between Batman and Boy Wonder came under probing scrutiny.

‘Baffling Deaths of the Crime-Czar!’ (Batman #212, Robbins, Novick & Giella) pitted a trio of exuberant hit-men against the heroes, before John Broome made a final scripting contribution that moved the Joker away from Clown crimes and back towards the insane killer we all cherish in ‘Tec #388’s ‘Public Luna-tic Number One!‘  – a classy sci-fi thriller that totally reinvented the Laughing Loon, in no small part thanks to the artistic efforts of Brown & Giella.

Batman #213 was another reprint Giant, celebrating other landmarks of the 30th Anniversary and featured a new retelling of ‘The Origin of Robin’ courtesy of E. Nelson Bridwell, Ross Andru & Mike Esposito, which is included here after the spiffy cover from Bill Draut & Vince Colletta.

The road to a scary hero continued with Detective #389 and the Robbins-scripted ‘Batman’s Evil Eye’ wherein the Scarecrow infected Gotham’s Guardian with the power to terrify at a glance – obviously somebody saw the long-term story potential in that stunt…

There was still potential to be daft too, though as seen in ‘Batman’s Marriage Trap!’ (#214, Robbins, Novick & Giella) wherein a wicked Femme Fatale set the unhappy spinsters of America on the trail of Gotham’s Most Eligible Bat-chelor (see what I did there? Wishing I hadn’t…?) Not even a guest-shot by positive role-model Batgirl can redeem this peculiar throwback – although the art just might…

The last Detective tale is from #390 and pits the Dynamic Duo against lacklustre costumed assassin The Masquerader in ‘If the Coffin Fits… Wear It!’ before the end of an era is presaged in Batman #215 and ‘Call Me Master!’ by Robbins, Novick and the soon to become legendary Dick Giordano. Although a clever tale of mind-control skullduggery, this tale trialed the loss of Wayne Manor and an all-out split between Dark Knight and Boy Wonder: events that would come to pass within mere months, ushering in a bold new direction for the Bat-Universe

This volume brings three decades of Batman to a solid conclusion. Soon safe boy-scout Caped Crusader would become a terrifying creature of passion, intellect and shadowy suspense.

Stay tuned: This book is wonderfully good but the very best is still to come…

© 1968, 1969, 2009 DC Comics. All rights reserved.

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JLA Volume 6: World War III


By Grant Morrison, J.M. DeMatteis, Howard Porter, Mark Pajarillo & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-84023-184-7

With this sixth collection of breathtaking adventures starring the World’s Greatest Superheroes, the progression of gargantuan epics and mind-boggling conceptual endeavours culminated in the cosmic spectacle re-originators Grant Morrison and Howard Porter had been patiently working towards for three years: a “Big Finish” saga that proved well worth the wait.

This book, collecting issues #34-41of the monthly comic-book, also includes contributions from writer J.M. DeMatteis and art by Mark Pajarillo, John Dell, Drew Geraci & Walden Wong as an ancient extra-universal terror-weapon finally began to eat its way through reality.

Beginning with the thematic prelude ‘The Ant and the Avalanche’ (Morrison, Porter & John Dell) the JLA faced increased super-villain violence, natural disasters and general madness and New God Orion determines that a threat from the time of the Primal Gods is loose and closing on Earth. With the entire planet in turmoil, Lex Luthor and his malevolent allies prepared to destroy all heroes once and for all…

‘The Guilty’ by J.M. DeMatteis, Mark Pajarillo & Walden Wong took a timely sidestep to focus on debased angel Zauriel and the Hal Jordan-bonded Spectre and the past mortal sins of the assembled Leaguers. Cleansed and refreshed the team then embarked on the six-part epic ‘World War Three’ (Morrison, Porter and Dell), starting by learning the origins of Mageddon, a semi-sentient doomsday weapon that fostered hatred and violence. And now it approached Earth…

Responding to its presence the erstwhile hero Aztek (see JLA Presents Aztek, the Ultimate Man) came out of retirement as Luthor’s team ambushed the JLA in their lunar citadel with devastating success… Meanwhile on Earth, the inexorably approaching God-Weapon was driving the populace, human and not, into mania and blood-frenzy whilst the hard-pressed superhero community found that even they were not immune from Mageddon’s influence…

When even Heaven refused to act in Earth’s defence all hope seemed lost until the long-lost Flash returned with assistance from the end of time and space and Zauriel won help from an unexpected source, but even this was not enough until a hero made the ultimate sacrifice and humanity took its fate into its own disparate hands for a spectacular and cathartic cosmic climax that will delight fans of every persuasion and preference.

Compelling, challenging and genuinely uplifting this tale is a high-mark in modern superhero comics and one no fan can afford to miss. Morrison & Porter’s JLA was never afraid of looking back fondly or laughing at itself: an all-out effort to be Thrilling, Smart and Fun. For a brief moment in the team’s long and chequered career they were truly the “World’s Greatest Superheroes.” This is the kind of joyous frolic that nobody should ever outgrow and these are graphic novels to be read and re-read forever…

© 1999, 2000 DC Comics.  All rights reserved.

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Justice Society Volume 1


By Gerry Conway, Paul Levitz, Wally Wood, Joe Staton & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-0970-4

In the turbulent 1970s many old publishing ideas were finally laid to rest. The belief that characters could be “over-exposed” was one of the most long-lasting, garnered from years of experience in an industry that lived or died on that fractional portion of pennies derived each month from the pocket money and allowances of children which wasn’t spent on candy, toys or movies.

By the end of the 1960s comicbook costs and prices were inexorably rising and a proportion of titles – especially the newly revived horror stories – were consciously being produced for older readerships. Nearly a decade of organised fan publications and letter writing crusades had finally convinced publishing bean-counters what editors already knew: grown-ups avidly read comics too; they would happily spend more than kids and they wanted more, more, more of what they loved.

Explicitly: If one appearance per month was popular, extras, specials and second series would be more so. By the time Marvel Wunderkind Gerry Conway was ready to leave Marvel, DC was willing to expand its variegated line-up with some oft-requested fan-favourite characters. Paramount among these was the Justice Society of America, the first comicbook super-team and a perennial gem whose annual guest-appearances in the Justice League of America had become an inescapable and beloved summer tradition.

Thus in 1976 along with Blackhawk, Plastic Man, Secret Society of Super-Villains, Freedom Fighters, Kobra, Blitzkrieg and many others Conway signalled his DC tenure by reviving All Star Comics with number #58 (the original title had transformed overnight into All Star Western with that number running for a further decade as the home of such cowboy crusaders as Strong Bow, the Trigger Twins, Johnny Thunder and Super-Chief.

Set on the parallel world of Earth-2 and in keeping with the editorial sense of keeping the series relevant to young readers too, Conway reintroduced the veteran team and leavened it with a smattering of teen heroes, combined into a contentious, generation-gap fuelled “Super Squad”.

The youngsters included Robin (already a JSA member since the mid 1960s – see Showcase Presents the Justice League of America volume 3), Sylvester Pemberton, The Star-Spangled Kid (in actuality a teen superhero from the 1940s who had spent decades lost in time) and a busty young nymphet who quickly became the feisty favourite of a generation of growing boys: Kara Zor-L AKA Power Girl.

This first of twin volumes gathers all the 1970s tales into a fine showcase of different, ever-changing times and includes All-Star Comics 58-67 plus the seminal DC Special #29 which, after almost four decades, finally gave the JSA an origin…

After a three-page recap by Paul Levitz, Joe Staton & Bob Layton, outlining the history and mechanics of the alternate Earths, the first tale found newly-adopted Star-Spangled Kid chafing at his time-lost plight and revelling in his new powers (he had been given a cosmic power device by retired veteran Starman) in Seattle when a crisis propelled him and elder heroes Flash, Dr. Mid-Nite, Wildcat, Hawkman, Green Lantern and Dr. Fate into a three-pronged calamity devastating that city, Cape Town and Peking (which you youngsters now know as Beijing) with man-made natural disasters.

The veterans split up but were overwhelmed, giving the new kids a chance to shine in ‘All Star Super-Squad’. With the abrasive, impatient Power Girl in the vanguard the entire team is soon on the trail of old foe Degaton and his mind-bending ally in the concluding ‘Brainwave Blows Up!’ by Conway, Ric Estrada and Wally Wood.

Kieth Giffen replaced Estrada in issue #60 for the introduction of psychotic super-arsonist ‘Vulcan: Son of Fire!’ as age divide began to chafe and Power Girl began to tick off and re-educate the stuffy, paternalistic JSA elders. In ‘Hellfire and Holocaust’ the flaming fury mortally wounded Dr. Fate before his own defeat, and a new mystic menace was uncovered.

Conway’s last issue as scripter was #62’s ‘When Fall the Mighty’ as antediluvian sorcerer Zanadu attacked, whilst the criminal Injustice Gang opened their latest attack using mind-control to turn friend against friend…

The cast expanded with the return of Hourman and Power Girl’s Kryptonian mentor, but even they were insufficient to prevent ‘The Death of Doctor Fate’ (written by Paul Levitz and fully illustrated by the inimitable Wally Wood). Attacked on all sides, the team splintered: Wildcat, Hawkman and the Kryptonians tackling the assembled super-villains, Flash and Green Lantern searching Egypt for a cure to Fate’s condition and Hourman, Mid-Nite and Star-Spangled Kid desperately attempting to keep their fallen comrade alive.

They fail and Zanadu attacked again, almost adding Fate’s defenders to his tally until the sorcerer’s very presence called him back from beyond the grave…

With the crisis averted Superman prepared to leave but was quickly embroiled in a manic time-travel assassination plot (Levitz & Wood) that dragged the team and guest-star Shining Knight from an embattled Camelot in ‘Yesterday Begins Today!’ to the far-flung future and ‘The Master Plan of Vandal Savage’ a breathtaking spectacle of drama and excitement that signalled Wood’s departure from the series.

Joe Staton & Bob Layton had the unenviable task of filling his artistic shoes, beginning with #66 as ‘Injustice Strikes Twice!’ with the reunited team, sans Superman, falling prey to an ambush from their arch-enemies, whilst the emotion-warping Psycho-Pirate began to twist Green Lantern into a maniac menace determined to crush Corporate America leading to the return of Earth-2’s Bruce Wayne, who had eschewed his masked persona to become Gotham’s Police Commissioner.

The Injustice Society had monstrous allies and in ‘Attack of the Underlord!’ a subterranean race nearly ended the tea forever. Meanwhile Wayne laid plans to close down the JSA before their increasingly destructive exploits demolished his beloved city…

The modern adventures pause here and this first colourful chronicle closes with the aforementioned classified case from DC Special #29 (September 1977). ‘The Untold Origin of the Justice Society’ by Levitz, Staton & Layton, reveals how in 1940 Adolf Hitler acquired the mystical Spear of Destiny and summoned mythical Teutonic Valkyries to aid in the imminent invasion of Britain.

Alerted to the threat, American President Roosevelt, hampered by his country’s neutrality, asks a select band of masked mystery-men to lend their aid privately. In a cataclysmic escalation the struggle ranged from the heart of Europe, throughout the British Isles and even to the Oval office of the White House before ten bold costumed heroes finally – if only temporarily – stopped the Nazis evil plans…

These classic tales from a simpler time are a glorious example of traditional superhero storytelling at its finest: engaging, exciting and perfectly illustrated. No Fights ‘n’ Tights fan can afford to miss these marvellous sagas.

© 1976, 1977, 2006 DC Comics. All rights reserved.

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Batman: Private Casebook


By Paul Dini, Peter Milligan, Dustin Nguyen & Derek Fridolfs (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-84856-213-4

Award-winning animator and director Paul Dini once more proves that he’s the best Batman writer of the 21st century in another collection of his pure, modernistically refined and retro scripts, gathered from Detective Comics # 840-645 and DC Infinite Halloween Special #1. A consummate storyteller, Dini is also quite obviously a lover of the character in all aspects over nigh-on eight decades of stalking the scum of the Earth.

This volume, superbly illustrated by Dustin Nguyen & Derek Fridolfs, begins with an astounding resumption of the Caped Crusader’s mission after the cataclysmic events of Batman: The Resurrection of Ra’s Al Ghul. As the Dark Knight hunts a new foe he seizes the chance to finally end the threat of the Demon’s Head forever, in the uncompromising chiller ‘The Resurrection of Ra’s Al Ghul: Epilogue.’

‘The Wonderland Gang!’ sees a collection of Batman’s oldest foes unite as the most obvious team ever when Mad Hatter, Tweedledum & Tweedledee combine forces with the Lion, the Unicorn, the Walrus and the Carpenter to wreak excessive havoc for untold profit in the wealthy palaces of Gotham. Naturally, all is not as it seems…

Peter Milligan wrote ‘The Suit of Sorrows’ as the haunted armour Batman wore in the aforementioned Resurrection of Ra’s Al Ghul begins to exert a malicious influence over his actions. The struggle against the suit and the cult that crafted is a powerful parable of willpower over desire and acts as a prelude to the return of Azrael to the DC Universe – but not in this book…

Dini and some of his favourite heroes and villains return for ‘Opening Night’ as the Penguin, new Ventriloquist and malignant dummy Scarface cross swords with the Gotham Guardian and Zatanna; a complex and beguiling tale that ends in blood-soaked ‘Curtains’ for more than one player in the drama.

Catwoman and reformed consulting detective Edward Nigma go looking for answers as a mutilating murderer haunts the city’s mean streets and not even Batman’s newest weapon “the Heirs of Lupin” (an online community of DC sleuths including Detective Chimp and Oracle) can divine the true secret of ‘The Riddle Unanswered’.

This stellar confabulation ends with a vignette starring Zatanna in solo inaction taken from DC Infinite Halloween Special. ‘Kcirt Ro Taert’ is a spookily shocking shaggy dog story that ends this classy compendium on an unbeatable high note.

Howsoever short-term sales-stunts bend and twist the Batman mythos, the core elements of the character remain unimpeachable and Paul Dini always find a way to satisfactorily blend the contemporary with the classical. His tales of a renewed, determined and darkly benevolent crime-fighter look well set to finally overturn the Grim Sociopath image that has dogged Batman for too long…

These fresh, thrilling and compelling adventures will astonish long-time fans and casual browsers equally. This is the still best Batman in years. By the way if you’re thinking of settling for the softcover edition of this fine collection, be advised that the hardcover has secondary, different front and back covers under the regular and spectacular dust jacket reproduced above. I know how funny we Bat-fans can get if we think we’ve missed something…

© 2007, 2008 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.