Category: Challengers of the Unknown

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Challengers of the Unknown by Jack Kirby


By Jack Kirby, France “Ed” Herron, Dave Wood, Roz Kirby, George Klein, Bruno Premiani, Marvin Stein, Wally Wood & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-7719-2 (TPB/Digital edition)

The Challengers of the Unknown were a bridging concept between the fashionably All-American, verifiably human trouble-shooters who monopolised comic books for the majority of the 1950s and the reimagined costumed mystery men who would soon return to take over the industry.

As superheroes began popping up mid-decade, in 1956 came a super-team – the first of the Silver Age – with no powers, the most basic and utilitarian of uniforms and the most dubious of motives… Suicide by Mystery. Nevertheless their launch was arguably the second most important event of the Silver Age

Crucially, they were a huge hit from the get-go, striking a chord that lasted for over a decade before they finally died… only to rise again and yet again. The very idea of them was stirring enough, but their initial execution made their success inevitable.

Jack Kirby was – and remains – the most important single influence in the history of American comics. There are quite rightly millions of words written about what the man has done and meant (such as Paul Kupperberg’s enthusiastic Introduction and John Morrow’s pithy Afterword in this superb compilation), and you should read those if you are at all interested in our medium.

I’m still going to add a few words to that superabundance here: one of his best and most influential projects which, like so many others, he perfectly constructed before moving on, leaving highly competent but never quite as inspired talents to build upon.

When the comics industry suffered a paranoia-induced, witch-hunt-caused collapse in the mid-50’s, Kirby returned briefly to DC Comics to produce tales of suspense and science fiction for the company’s line of mystery anthologies. In a few episodes, he also revitalised Green Arrow (then simply a back-up strip in Adventure Comics) whilst creating the newspaper strip Sky Masters of the Space Force.

At the same time he also re-packaged for Showcase (the try-out title that launched many Silver Age DC mainstays) an off-kilter team concept that had been kicking around in his head since he and long-time collaborator Joe Simon had closed their innovative but ill-timed Prize/Essankay/Mainline Comics ventures.

After years of working for others, Simon & Kirby finally established their own publishing company: producing comics with a much more sophisticated audience in mind. That happened mere months before an industry-wide sales downturn amidst a changing society awash with public hysteria generated by the anti-comic book pogrom spearheaded by US Senator Estes Kefauver and pop psychologist Dr. Frederic Wertham.

Simon quit the business for advertising, but Kirby soldiered on, taking his skills and ideas to a number of safer, more conservative and less experimental companies.

The Challengers were four ordinary mortals; explorers and adventurers who walked away unscathed from a terrible plane crash. Already obviously what we’d now call “adrenaline junkies”, pilot Ace Morgan, diver Prof Haley, acrobat and mountaineer Red Ryan and wrestler Rocky Davis summarily decided that since they were all living on borrowed time anyway, they would dedicate what remained of their lives to testing themselves and fate. They would risk their lives for Knowledge and, naturally, Justice.

The series launched with ‘The Secrets of the Sorcerer’s Box!’ in Showcase #6 (cover-dated January/February 1957 – so it was on spinner-racks and news-stands in time for Christmas 1956). Kirby and scripter Dave Wood, plus inkers Marvin Stein and Jack’s wife Roz, crafted a spectacularly creepy epic wherein the freshly introduced doom-chasers were commissioned by duplicitous magician Morelian to open an ancient container holding otherworldly secrets and powers.

The story roars along with all the tension and wonder of the B-movie thrillers it emulates and Jack’s awesome drawing resonates with power and dynamism, which grew even greater for the sequel: a science fiction drama instigated after an alliance of leftover Nazi technologists and contemporary American criminals unleashes a terrible robotic threat. ‘Ultivac is Loose!’ (Showcase #7, March/April 1957) introduced a necessary standard appendage of the times and the B-movie genre in the form of brave, capable, brilliant and beautiful-when-she-took-her-labcoat-off boffin Dr. June Robbins, who became the no-nonsense, ultra-capable (if unofficial) fifth Challenger at a time when most funnybook females had returned to a subsidiary status in that so-conventional, repressive era.

The uncanny exploits paused for a sales audit and the team didn’t reappear until Showcase #11 (November/December 1957) allowing The Flash and Lois Lane their respective second shots at the big time. When the Challengers returned, it was in alien invasion epic ‘The Day the Earth Blew Up’.

Uniquely engaging comics realist Bruno Premiani (a former associate and employee from Kirby’s Prize Comics days) came aboard to ink a taut doomsday chiller keeping readers on the edge of their seats even today, and in their final Showcase outing (#12, January/February 1958) the Questing Quartet were preparing a move into their own title.

‘The Menace of the Ancient Vials’ was defused by the usual blend of daredevil heroics and inspired ingenuity. The wonderful inking of George Klein adding subtle clarity to a tale of an international criminal who steals ancient weapons that threaten the entire world if misused), but the biggest buzz would come two months later with the first issue of their own magazine.

Written and drawn by Kirby with Stein on inks, Challengers of the Unknown #1 (May 1958) presented two complete stories plus an iconic introductory page that would become almost a signature logo for the team.

‘The Man Who Tampered with Infinity’ pits the heroes against a renegade scientist whose cavalier dabbling unleashes dreadful monsters from the beyond onto our defenceless planet, before the team are actually abducted by aliens in ‘The Human Pets’: forced to win their freedom and a rapid rocket-ship (sphere actually) ride home…

The same team were responsible for both tales in issue #2. ‘The Traitorous Challenger’ is a disturbing monster mystery, with June returning to sabotage a mission in the Australian Outback for the very best of reasons. Then, ‘The Monster Maker’ finds the team seemingly helpless against super-criminal Roc who can conjure and animate solid objects out of his thoughts.

Issue #3 features ‘Secret of the Sorcerer’s Mirror’ with Roz Kirby & Marvin Stein again inking The King’s mesmerising pencils as the fantastic foursome pursue a band of criminals whose magic looking-glass can locate deadly ancient weapons. Undoubtedly, though, the most intriguing tale for fans and historians of the medium is ‘The Menace of the Invincible Challenger’, wherein team strongman Rocky is rocketed into space, only to crash back to Earth with strange, uncanny powers.

For years the obvious similarities of this group – especially this yarn – to the origin of Marvel’s Fantastic Four (#1 cover-dated November 1961) have fuelled fan speculation. In all honesty I simply don’t care. They’re similar but different enough, and equally enjoyable so read both. In fact, read them all.

With #4, the series became visually immaculate as the sheer brilliance of Wally Wood’s inking elevated illustration to unparalleled heights. The scintillant sheen and limpid depth of Woody’s brushwork fostered an abiding authenticity in even the most outrageous of Kirby’s designs and the result is – even now – simply breathtaking.

‘The Wizard of Time’ is a full-length masterpiece that opens with a series of bizarre robberies leading the team to a scientist with a time-machine. By visiting historical oracles, rogue researcher Darius Tiko has divined a path to the far future. When he gets there, he intends to rob it blind, but the Challengers find a way to follow and foil him…

‘The Riddle of the Star-Stone’ (#5) is a full-length contemporary thriller, wherein an archaeologist’s assistant uncovers an alien tablet bestowing various super-powers when different gems are inserted into it. The exotic locales and non-stop action are intoxicating, but Kirby’s solid characterisation and ingenious writing are what make this such a compelling read.

Scripter Dave Wood returned for #6’s first story. ‘Captives of the Space Circus’ sees the team shanghaied from Earth to perform in an interplanetary travelling carnival, before the evil ringmaster is promptly outfoxed and they return for France “Ed” Herron’s mystic saga ‘The Sorceress of Forbidden Valley’. Here, June becomes an amnesiac puppet in a power struggle between a fugitive gangster and a ruthless feudal potentate.

Issue #7 offers another daring double-feature: both scripted by Herron. First comes relatively straightforward alien-safari saga ‘The Beasts from Planet 9’, but it’s followed by a much more intriguing yarn. On the ‘Isle of No Return’, the “Challs” face a super-scientific bandit whose shrinking ray leaves them all mouse-sized….

Concluding Kirby-crafted issue #8 (July 1959) delivers a magnificent finale to a superb run as The King & Wally Wood go out in stunning style with a brace of gripping thrillers – both of which introduce menaces who would return to bedevil the team in future exploits.

Dave Wood, Kirby and the unrelated Wally Wood reveal ‘The Man Who Stole the Future’: introducing evil mastermind Drabny who steals mystic artefacts and conquers a small nation before the team dethrone him. However, although this is a tale of spectacular battles and uncharacteristic, if welcome, comedy, the real gem here is space opera tour-de-force ‘Prisoners of the Robot Planet!’ Written by Kirby (probably with Herron), it sees the human troubleshooters petitioned by a desperate alien, travelling to his distant world to liberate the organic population from bondage to their own robotic servants These have risen in revolt under the command of the fearsome autonomous automaton, Kra in a clear example of fiction foreshadowing fact. Do you know what your AIs do while you’re reading old comics…?

These are classic adventures, told in a classical manner. Kirby developed a brilliantly feasible concept with which to work and heroically archetypical characters. He then tapped into an astounding blend of genres to display their talents and courage in unforgettable exploits that informed and affected every team comic that followed – and absolutely informed his successive landmarks with Stan Lee.

But then Jack was gone…

The Challengers followed the Kirby model until cancellation in 1970, but due to a dispute with Editor Jack Schiff the writer/artist resigned at the height of his powers. The Kirby magic was impossible to match, but as with all The King’s creations, every element was in place for the successors to run with. Challengers of the Unknown #9 (September 1959) saw an increase in those fantasy elements favoured by Schiff, and perhaps an easing of the interpersonal tensions that marked previous issues (Comics Historians take another note: the Challs were bitching, bickering and barking at each other years before Marvel’s Cosmic Quartet ever boarded their fateful rocket-ship).

But that’s meat for another book and review…

Challengers of the Unknown is groundbreaking, wonderful and utterly timeless: sheer escapist thrills no fan of the medium should miss and perfect adventurers in the ideal setting of not-so-long-ago in a simpler, better galaxy than ours.
© 1957, 1958, 1959, 2003, 2017 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved

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Showcase Presents Doom Patrol volume 2


By Arnold Drake, Bruno Premiani, Bob Brown & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-85768-077-8 (TPB)

In 1963 DC/National Comics converted a venerable anthology-mystery title – My Greatest Adventure – into a fringe superhero team-book with #80, introducing a startling squad of champions with their thematic roots still firmly planted in the B-movie monster films of the era which had for so long informed the tone and timbre of the parent title.

That aesthetic subtly shaped the progression of the strip – which took control of the title within months, prompting a title change to The Doom Patrol with #86 – and throughout a 6-year run made the series one of the most eerily innovative and incessantly hip reads of that generation. Happy 60th Anniversary, you “Fabulous Freaks”!

No traditional team of masked adventurers, the cast comprised a robot, a mummy and a 50-foot woman in a mini-skirt, united with and guided by a brusque, domineering, crippled mad scientist, all equally determined to prove themselves by fighting injustice their way…

Two relatively recent compilations are still awaiting a third and final edition to complete the reprint run, and this monochrome tome from 2010 might have to do for some time yet.

Should you be afflicted with the curse of a completist nature, Doom Patrol: The Silver Age volume 1 spans June 1963 to May 1965, re-presenting in full colour My Greatest Adventure #80-85 and Doom Patrol #86-95, whilst Doom Patrol: The Silver Age volume 2 covers June 1965-November 1966 via Doom Patrol #96-107, The Brave and the Bold #65 and Challengers of the Unknown #48. They’re both available digitally, but should you want a comprehensive read-through, that’s going to take a little more effort than we spoiled 21st Centurians are used to…

Spanning March 1966 to their radically bold demise in the September/October 1968 final issue, this quirky monochrome compilation collects their last exploits as seen in Doom Patrol #102 to 121: a landmark run that truly deserves better dissemination…

These creepy Costumed Dramas were especially enhanced by the superb skills of Italian artist Giordano Bruno Premiani, whose comfortably detailed, subtly representational illustration style made even the strangest situation frighteningly authentic and grimly believable.

As such, he was the perfect vehicle to squeeze every nuance of comedy and pathos from the captivatingly involved and grimly light-hearted scripts by Arnold Drake who always proffered a tantalising believably world for the outcast heroes to strive in.

Those damaged champions comprised competitive car racer Cliff Steele, but only after he’d had “died” in a horrific crash, with his undamaged brain transplanted into a fantastic mechanical body – without his knowledge or permission…

Test pilot Larry Trainor was 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 be perpetually wrapped in radiation-proof bandages.

Former movie star Rita Farr was exposed to mysterious gases on location. These gave her the unpredictable, initially uncontrolled ability to shrink or grow – in part or wholly – to incredible sizes.

The outcasts were brought together by brilliant, enigmatic Renaissance Man Niles Caulder who, as The Chief, sought to mould the solitary misfits into a force for good. The wheelchair-bound savant directed the trio of solitary strangers in many terrifying missions as they slowly grew into a uniquely bonded family…

Here – now firmly established in the heroic pantheon – The Doom Patrol join fellow outsiders The Challengers of the Unknown in #102’s ‘8 Against Eternity!’: battling murderous shape-shifter Multi-Man and his robotic allies as they seek to unleash a horde of zombies from a lost world upon modern humanity

Meanwhile, super-rich Steve Dayton – who had created a psycho-kinetic superhero persona Mento solely to woo and wed Rita, met outrageous, obnoxious Gar Logan. It was disgust at first sight, but neither the ruthless, driven billionaire authority figure nor wildly rebellious Beast Boy realised how their lives would soon entwine…

Whilst a toddler in Africa, Logan had contracted a rare disease. Although his scientist parents’ experimental cure beat the contagion before they died, it left him the colour of cabbage and able to change shape at will. A protracted storyline commenced in #100 wherein the secretive, chameleonic kid revealed how he was now an abused orphan being swindled out of his inheritance by his unscrupulous guardian Nicholas Galtry. The greedy, conniving accountant had even leased his emerald-hued charge to rogue scientists…

Rita especially had empathised with Gar’s plight and resolved to free him from Galtry whatever the cost…

DP #103 held two tales, beginning with a tragedy ensuing after Professor Randolph Ormsby sought the team’s aid for a space shot. When the doddery savant mutates into flaming monster ‘The Meteor Man’ it takes the entire patrol plus Beast Boy and Mento to save the day.

‘No Home for a Robot’, continues unpacking the Mechanical Man’s early days following Caulder’s implantation of Cliff’s brain into an artificial body. The shock had seemingly driven the patient crazy as Steele went on a city-wide rampage, hunted and hounded by the police. Here, the ferrous fugitive finds brief respite with his brother Randy, before realising that trouble would trail him anywhere…

DP #104 astounded everyone as Rita abruptly stopped refusing loathsome Steve to become ‘The Bride of the Doom Patrol!’ However, her star-stuffed wedding day is almost ruined when alien arch-foe Garguax and The Brotherhood of Evil crash the party to murder the groom. So unhappy are Cliff and Larry with Rita’s “betrayal” that they almost let them…

Even whilst indulging her new bride status in #105, Rita can’t abandon the team and joins them in tackling old elemental enemy Mr. 103 during a ‘Honeymoon of Terror!’ before back-up yarn ‘The Robot-Maker Must Die’ concludes Cliff Steele’s origin as the renegade attempts to kill the mystery surgeon who had imprisoned him in a metal hell… finally giving Caulder a chance to fix a long-term malfunction in Steele’s systems…

‘Blood Brothers!’ in #106 introduces domestic disharmony as Rita steadfastly refuses to be a good trophy wife: resuming the hunt for Mr. 103 with the rest of the DP. Her separate lives continue to intersect, however, when Galtry hires that elemental assassin to wipe Gar and his freakish allies off the books…

The back-up section shifts focus onto ‘The Private World of Negative Man’: recapitulating Larry Trainor’s doomed flight and the radioactive close encounter that turned him into a walking mummy. However, even after being allowed to walk amongst men again, the gregarious pilot finds himself utterly isolated and alone…

Doom Patrol #107 began an epic story-arc concerning ‘The War over Beast Boy!’ as Rita and Steve open legal proceedings to get Gar and his money away from Galtry. The embezzler responds by commencing a criminal campaign to beggar Dayton which inadvertently aligns him with the team’s greatest foes. Already distracted by the depredations of marauding automaton Ultimax, the hard-pressed heroes swiftly fall to the murderous mechanoid as Rita is banished to a barbaric sub-atomic universe…

The secret history of Negative Man resumes with ‘The Race Against Dr. Death!’ when fellow self-imposed outcast Dr. Drew draws the pilot into a scheme to destroy the human species which had cruelly excluded them both, before Larry’s ebony energy being demonstrates the incredible power it possesses by saving the world from fiery doom.

In #108, ‘Kid Disaster!’ sees Mento diminished and despatched to rescue Rita whilst Galtry’s allies reveal their true nature before ambushing and killing the entire team…

…Almost.

Despite only Caulder and Beast Boy remaining, our exceedingly odd couple nevertheless pull off a major medical miracle: reviving the heroes in time to endure the incredible attack of alien colossus ‘Mandred the Executioner!’ whilst Larry’s ‘Flight into Fear’ at the comic’s rear proves that Drew hasn’t finished with the itinerant Negative Man yet…

DP #110 wonderfully wraps up the Beast Boy saga as Galtry, Mandred and the Brotherhood marshal one last futile attack before the ‘Trial by Terror!’ finally finds Logan legally adopted by newlyweds Mr. and Mrs. Dayton. Sadly, it’s a prelude to a titanic extraterrestrial invasion in #111, which heralds the arrival of ‘Zarox-13, Emperor of the Cosmos!’

The awesome overlord and his vanguard Garguax make short work of the Fabulous Freaks and, with all Earth imperilled, an unbelievable alliance forms, but not before ‘Neg Man’s Last Road!’ ends Trainor’s tale as the alienated aviator again battles Dr. Death, before joining a band of fellow outcasts in a bold new team venture…

Unbelievably, the uneasy alliance of the DP with The Brain, Monsieur Mallah and Madame Rouge as ‘Brothers in Blood!’ in #112 results in no betrayals and the last-minute defeat of the invincible aliens.

Moreover, although no rivalries were reconciled, a hint of romance does develop between two of the sworn foes, whilst at the back, untold tales of Beast Boy begin as ‘Waif of the Wilderness’ introduces millionaire doctors Mark and Marie Logan whose passion for charity took them to deepest Africa and into the sights of native witch-man Mobu who saw his powerbase crumbling…

When their toddler Gar contracts dread disease Sakutia, the parents’ radical treatment saves their child and grants him metamorphic abilities, but as they subsequently lose their lives in a river accident, the baby boy cannot understand their plight and blithely watches them die.

Orphaned and lonely, he inadvertently saves the life of a local chief with his animal antics and is adopted, …making of Mobu an implacable, impatient enemy…

Doom Patrol #113 pits the team against a malevolent mechanoid one-man army in ‘Who Dares to Challenge the Arsenal?’ but the real drama manifests in a subplot showing Caulder seeking to seduce schizophrenic Rouge away from the lure of wickedness and malign influence of the Brotherhood of Evil.

The issue includes another Beast Boy short as ‘The Diamonds of Destiny!’ finds two thieves kidnapping the amazing boy, just as concerned executor Nicholas Galtry takes ship for the Dark Continent to find the heir to his deceased employer’s millions…

DP #114 opens with the team aiding Soviet asylum seeker Anton Koravyk and becoming embroiled in a time-twisting fight against incredible caveman ‘Kor – the Conqueror!’ whilst Beast Boy segment ‘The Kid who was King of Crooks!’ sees toddler Gar turned into a thief in Johannesburg… until his Fagin-ish abductors have a fatal falling out…

The next issue debuts ‘The Mutant Master!’: pitting the team against three hideous, incomprehensibly powerful atomic atrocities resolved to eradicate the world which had cruelly treated them. Things might have fared better had not the Chief neglected his comrades in his obsessive – and at last successful – pursuit of Madame Rouge…

Also included is ‘General Beast Boy – of the Ape Brigade!’, wherein a Nazi war criminal is accidentally foiled by lost wanderer Gar. The madman’s loss is Galtry’s gain, however, as his search ends with the crook “rescuing” Logan and taking him back to safe, secure America…

The mutant maelstrom concludes in #116 as ‘Two to Get Ready… and Three to Die!’ features Caulder saving Earth from mutant-triggered obliteration to reap his reward in a passionate fling with the cured – but still fragile – Rouge.

The wheelchair wonder seizes centre stage in #117 as his neglect drives the team away, leaving him vulnerable to attack from a mystery man with a big grudge in ‘The Black Vulture!’, before a reunited squad deals with grotesque madman ‘Videx, Monarch of Light!’ even as the Brain challenges Caulder to return his stolen chattel Rouge. Nobody thought to ask her what she wanted, though, and that’s a fatal oversight…

Tastes were changing in the turbulent late 1960s and the series was in trouble. Superheroes were about to plunge into mass decline, and the creators addressed the problem head-on in #119: embracing psychedelic counter culture in a clever tale of supernal power, brainwashing and behaviour modification leaving the DP cowering ‘In the Shadow of the Great Guru!’…

An issue later they faced a furious Luddite’s ‘Rage of the Wrecker!’ when a crazed scientist declares war on technology – including the assorted bodies keeping Cliff alive…

The then-unthinkable occurred next and the series spectacularly, abruptly ended with what we all believed at the time to be ‘The Death of the Doom Patrol!’…

Faced with cancellation, Editor Murray Boltinoff and creators Drake & Premiani wrapped up all the long-running plot threads as spurned Madame Rouge goes off the deep end and declares war on both the Brain and Caulder’s “children”…

Blowing up the Brotherhood, she attacks the city until the DP remove themselves to an isolated island fortress. Even there they are not safe and her forces ambush them…

Captured and facing death, Rouge offers mercy if they abandon their principles and allow her to destroy a village of 14 complete strangers in their stead…

At a time when comics came and went with no fanfare and cancelled titles seldom provided any closure, the sacrifice and death of the Doom Patrol was a shocking event for us youngsters. We wouldn’t see anything like it again for decades – and never again with such style and impact…

With the edge of time and experience on my side, it’s obvious just how incredibly mature Drake & Premiani’s take on superheroes was, and these superbly engaging, frenetically fun and breathtakingly beautiful stories rightfully rank amongst the very best Fights ‘n’ Tights tales ever told.

Even the mercilessly exploitative many returns of the team since can’t diminish that incredible impact, and no fan of the genre or comic dramas in general should consider their superhero education complete until they’ve seen these classics. Let’s hope DC wise up quickly and release that final volume soon…
© 1966, 1967, 1968, 2010 DC Comics, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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The Brave and the Bold volumes 1 & 2: The Lords of Luck and The Book of Destiny


The Lords of Luck By Mark Waid & George Pérez & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-84576-649-8 (US HB) 978-1-84576-649-8 (TPB)

There are so many great graphic novels and compilations available these days that it’s always a shock when I realise how many more are still out of print. Here’s a classic example just begging for revival and digital editions…

The Brave and the Bold: The Lords of Luck collects the first 6 issues of another revival of a venerable DC title (technically volume 3 and spanning April -September 2007): returning it not only to the fitting team-up format we all enjoyed, but doing so with such style, enthusiasm and outright joy that I’m reduced to a gawping, drooling nine-year-old again.

Here Mark Waid, George Pérez and inkers Bob Wiacek & Scott Koblish crafted an intergalactic romp through time and nether dimensions, ripping across the DC Universe in a funny, thrilling and immensely satisfying murder-mystery-come-universal-conquest saga.

When Batman and Green Lantern (in part one ‘Roulette’ and concluding episode ‘The Girl Who Knew Too Much’) discover absolutely identical corpses hundreds of miles apart it sets them on the trail of probability-warping aliens and the missing Book of Destiny – a mystical chronicle of everything that ever was, is, and will be!

And yes, that makes this a notional tie-in to The Sandman series by Neil Gaiman and his coterie of classy creatives…

Each issue/chapter highlights a different team-up and eventually the hunt by Adam Strange, Blue Beetle (‘The Lord of Time’), Destiny (of the Endless, no less in chapter 4 ‘The Garden of Destiny’), the Legion of Super Heroes (‘The Batman of Tomorrow’), Lobo, Supergirl (‘Ventura’) and a mystery favourite from long-ago (you’ll thank me for not blowing the secret, honestly!) plus an incredible assortment of cameo stars coalesces into a fabulous free-for-all that affirms and reinforces all the reasons I love this medium.

With the value-added bonus of an annotated exploration of Waid & Pérez’s creative process to entrance the aspiring creator-of-tomorrow, this is a great story with great art, and is perfect for all ages to read and re-read over and over again. So let’s hope that happens soon…

© 2006, 2007 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

 

The Book of Destiny

By Mark Waid, George Pérez, Jerry Ordway, Bob Wiacek & Scott Koblish (DC Comics)

ISBN: 978-1-4012-1838-6 (HB) 978-1-4012-1861-4 (TPB)

The Book of Destiny is a mystical ledger which charts the history, progress and fate of all Reality and everything in it – except for the four mortals entrusted with its care at the end of The Brave and the Bold: The Lords of Luck. The death-defying Challengers of the Unknown – cool pilot Ace Morgan, indomitable strongman Rocky Davis, intellectual aquanaut Prof. Haley and daredevil acrobat Red Ryan – live on borrowed time and were bequeathed the terrifying tome by Destiny of the Endless since their lives are no longer included within its horrifying pages…

After the staggering spectacle of the previous Brave and the Bold story-arc, here Waid & Pérez, with inkers Bob Wiacek & Scott Koblish are joined by co-penciller Jerry Ordway for a stunning sequel featuring most of the DC universe…

This compilation collects issues #7-12 (volume 3 from December 2007-June 2008) of the high-energy, all-star revival of the venerable DC title: playing novel games with traditional team-up format as a mysterious mage begins manipulating heroes and villains in a diabolical alchemical scheme to transform the cosmos fundamentally and forever…

Beginning with ‘Scalpels and Chainsaws’ – wherein Wonder Woman and the ever-abrasive Power Girl rub each other the wrong way (oh please, what are you, ten!?) whilst tackling an undead invasion, the case takes a stranger turn and Kara-Zor-L accidentally discovers the Caped Kryptonian has been brainwashed into trying to murder her cousin Superman…

Their ill-tempered investigations lead to the fabled Lost Library of Alexandria and a disastrous confrontation with the deranged Dr. Alchemy, but he too is only a pre-programmed pawn – of a sinister presence called Megistus – who needs Power Girl to use the mystical artefact known as the Philosopher’s Stone to turn the Fortress of Solitude into pure Red Kryptonite…

Thanks to Wonder Woman’s battle savvy, the plot is frustrated and the stone thrown into the sun… just as Megistus intended…

All this has been perused in the mystic chronicle by the Challengers and their fifth member Dr. June Robbins – whose merely mortal existence and eventual doom are tragically recorded in the Book. They rush off to investigate a universe-rending menace even as ‘Wally’s Choice’ brings The Flash and his rapidly aging children Jai and Iris West into unwelcome contact with manipulative genius Niles Caulder and his valiant Doom Patrol. “The Chief” claims he can cure the twins’ hyper-velocity malady, but Caulder never does anything for selfless reasons…

With no other hope, Wally and wife Linda acquiescence to the mad genius’ scheme – which relies on using elemental hero Rex Mason to stabilise their kids’ critical conditions. It might have worked, had not Metamorpho been mystically abducted mid-process – consequently transforming the children into bizarre amalgams of Negative Man and Robot Man…

Worst of all, Flash is almost forced to choose which child to save and which should die…

Thinking faster than ever, the Scarlet Speedster beats the odds and pulls off a miracle but, in a distant place, the pages of the Book are suddenly possessed and abruptly attack the Challengers…

‘Changing Times’ features a triptych of short team-up tales which play out as the Men that History Forgot battle a monster made of Destiny’s pages, beginning as the robotic Metal Men joined forces with young Robby Reed who could become a legion of champions whenever he needs to Dial H for Hero.

Sadly not even genius Will Magnus could have predicted the unfortunate result when crushingly shy robot Tin stuck his shiny digit in the arcane Dial…

Next, during WWII the combative Boy Commandos are joined by The Blackhawks in battling animated mummies intent on purloining the immensely powerful Orb of Ra from a lost pyramid, after which perpetually reincarnating warrior Hawkman joined All-New Atom Ryan Choi in defending Palaeolithic star-charts from the marauding Warlock of Ys.

None of them are aware that they are doing the work of malignly omnipresent Megistus…

The fourth chapter paralleled the Challengers’ incredible victory over the parchment peril with a brace of tales seeing the Man of Steel travel to ancient Britain to join heroic squire Brian of Kent (secretly the oppression-crushing Silent Knight) in bombastic battle against a deadly dragon, whilst the Teen Titan’s untold second ever case finds Robin, Wonder Girl and Kid Flash in Atlantis for the marriage of Aquaman and Mera.

Unfortunately Megistus’ drone Oceanus crashes the party, intent on turning Aqualad into an enslaved route map to the future…

And in California, the Challengers attempted to save Green Lantern’s Power Battery from being stolen only to find it in the possession of an ensorcelled Metamorpho…

As the Element Man easily overwhelms Destiny’s Deputies, Jerry Ordway assumed the penciller’s role for issues #11-12.

‘Superman and Ultraman’ saw the natural enemies initially clash and then collaborate at the behest of an alternate universe’s Mr. Mixyezpitelik, who reveals the appalling scope and nature of Megistus’ supernal transformational ambitions, leading to a gathering of the heroic clans and a blistering Battle Royale in the roaring heart of the Sun…

With the fate of reality at stake and featuring a veritable army of guest stars ‘The Brave and the Bold’ concludes the saga with a terrible, tragic sacrifice from the noblest hero of all, whilst subtly setting the scene for the then-upcoming Final Crisis…

With fascinating designs and pencil drawings from Ordway to tantalise the art lovers, this second captivating collection superbly embodies all the bravura flash’n’dazzle thrills superhero comics so perfectly excel at. This is a gripping fanciful epic with many engaging strands perfectly coalescing into a frantic and fabulous free-for-all overflowing with all the style, enthusiasm and exuberant joy you’d expect from top costumed drama talents.

The Brave and the Bold: The Book of Destiny is another great story with great art, ideal for kids of all ages to read and re-read over and over again.
© 2007, 2008 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Swamp Thing: The Bronze Age volume 2


By David Michelinie, Gerry Conway, Carla Conway, David Anthony Kraft, Steve Englehart, Bob Haney, Martin Pasko, Nestor Redondo, Fred Carrillo, Keith Giffen, Michael Netzer, Murphy Anderson, Ernie Chan & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-9422-9 (TPB/Digital edition)

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Utter Moodily, Moss-Bedecked Entertainment Perfection… 9/10

The first fan-sensation of the modern era – now officially enshrined as the Bronze Age – of American comic books – Swamp Thing has powerful popular fiction antecedents and in 1972 was seemingly a concept whose time had come again. Prime evidence was the fact that Marvel were also working on a man-into-mucky, muddy mess character at the very same time.

Both Swampy and the Macabre Man-Thing were thematic revisions of Theodore Sturgeon’s classic novella It, and bore strong resemblances to a hugely popular Hillman Comics star dubbed The Heap. He/it sloshed through the back of Airboy Comics (née Air Fighters Comics) from1943 onwards and my fan-boy radar suspects Roy Thomas’ marsh-monster the Glob (from Incredible Hulk #121, November 1969 and #129, June 1970) either inspired both DC and Marvel’s creative teams, or was part of that same zeitgeist.

It should also be remembered that in the autumn of 1971 Skywald – a very minor player with big aspirations – released a monochrome magazine in their Warren Comics knock-off line entitled The Heap.

For whatever reason, by the end of the 1960s superhero comics were in another steep sales decline, again succumbing to a genre boom led by a horror/mystery resurgence. A swift rewriting of the Comics Code Authority augmented the changeover and at National/DC, veteran EC comics star Joe Orlando became editor of House of Mystery and sister title House of Secrets.

These returned to short story anthology formats and gothic mystery scenarios, taking a lead from TV triumphs such as Twilight Zone and Rod Serling’s Night Gallery.

Referencing the sardonic narrator/storyteller format of those EC horror titles, Orlando created Cain and Abel to shepherd readers through brief, sting-in-the-tail yarns produced by the best new and established creators the company could hire. Artists Neal Adams, Mike Kaluta, and especially Bernie Wrightson produced some of their best work for these titles, and the vast range of spin-offs the horror boom generated at DC.

The 12th anthology issue of the resurrected House of Secrets (#92, June/July 1971) cemented the genre into place as the industry leader. There writer Len Wein & Wrightson produced a throwaway gothic thriller set at the turn of the 19th century, wherein gentleman scientist Alex Olsen was murdered by his best friend with his corpse dumped in a swamp.

Years later, Olsen’s beloved bride – now the unsuspecting wife of the murderer – was stalked by a shambling, disgusting beast that seemed to be composed of mud and muck…

The tale struck an immediate chord with the public. That issue was the best-selling DC comic of that month, and reader response was fervent and persistent. By all accounts, the only reason there wasn’t an immediate sequel or spin-off was that the creative team didn’t want to produce one. Eventually however, bowing to interminable pressure, and with the sensible idea of transplanting the concept to contemporary America, Swamp Thing #1 appeared on newsstands in the Spring of 1972. It was an unqualified hit and instant classic…

Wein & Wrightson produced 10 issues together: an extended, multi-chaptered saga of justice and vengeance encompassing a quest for answers that was at once philosophically typical of the time and a prototype for the story-arc and mini-series formats that dominate today’s comics. They also used each issue/chapter to pay tribute to a specific sub-genre of timeless horror story whilst advancing the major plot…

When Alec and Linda Holland retreated deep into the Louisiana Bayou to work on a bio-restorative formula to revolutionise global farming, they had no idea criminal organisation “The Conclave” was after their research. Despite the best efforts of Secret Service agent Matt Cable, the lab was bombed and Linda died instantly. Alec – showered with his own formula and blazing like a torch – hurtled to a watery grave in the swamp. He did not die…

Transformed by the formula (and remember, please, this was prior to Alan Moore’s landmark re-imagining of the character) Holland transformed into a huge man-shaped thing: immensely strong, barely able to speak, and seemingly composed of living plant matter. Holland’s brain still functioned, however, and he vacillated between finding his wife’s killers and curing his own monstrous condition. Cable, misinterpreting the evidence, became obsessed with killing the beat, believing it caused the deaths of his two friends and charges…

Swamp Thing travelled the world, encountering the darkest outbreaks of classic supernature and the insatiable greed of human beasts before eventually convincing Cable of his innocence and true identity. Joined by Abigail Arcane – niece of archenemy and necromantic sorcerer Anton Arcane – they roamed a nation and world increasingly beset by uncanny terrors and macabre plots, with new allies like mystery man Bolt at their side.

Wein’s last issue was #13, having ushered in a new direction for Nestor Redondo – who replaced Wrightson with #11 – to display his own gifts and quickly become the artistic driving force.

Born in 1928 at Candon, Ilocas Sur in the American Territory of the Philippines, Redondo was influenced by US strips like Tarzan, Superman, Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon which were immensely popular in the entertainment-starved Pacific Archipelago.

Drawing from an early age, Nestor emulated his brother Virgilio – who worked as a comics artist in the young country. The Philippines became a commonwealth in 1935, and achieved full-independence from the USA in 1946, but maintained close cultural links to America.

Nestor’s parents pushed him into architecture but within a year he returned to comics. A superb artist, he far outshone Virgilio – and everybody else – in the cottage industry. His brother switched to writing and they teamed up: producing some of the best strips the Islands had ever seen, the most notable and best regarded being Mars Ravelo’s Darna.

Capable of astounding quality and incredible speed, by the early 1950s Nestor was drawing for many titles. Publications like Pilipino Komiks, Hiwaga Komiks and Espesial Komiks were fortnightly and he usually worked on multiple series simultaneously, pencils and inks. He also produced a wealth of covers.

In 1953, he adapted MGM film Quo Vadis for Ace Publications’ Tagalong Klasiks #91-92. Written by Clodualdo Del Mundo, it was serialized to promote the movie in country, and impressed MGM so much that they offered 24-year old Nestor a US job and full residency. He declined, thinking himself too young to leave home yet.

Ace was the country’s biggest comics publisher, but by the early 1960s they were in dire financial straits. In 1963 Nestor, Tony Caravana, Alfredo Alcala, Jim Fernandez, Amado Castrillo and brother Virgilio set up their own company CRAF Publications, Inc., but times were against them and publishers everywhere. Around this time, America called again, in the form of DC and Marvel Comics.

By 1972, US based Tony DeZuñiga had introduced Filipino artists to US editors. Nestor drew horror tales for House of Mystery, House of Secrets, The Unexpected, Phantom Stranger, Secrets of Sinister House, Witching Hour, Weird War Tales; Marvel’s Man-Thing; and an astonishingly lovely run on Rima the Jungle Girl (loosely adapting W. H. Hudson’s seminal 1904 novel Green Mansions), before joining Swamp Thing.

He also worked on Lois Lane and the Tarzan franchise, and in 1973 produced literary adaptations including Dracula and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde for Vincent Fago’s Pendulum Press Illustrated Classics (later reformatted as Marvel Classics Comics). In later years, he moved to Marvel to ink and eventually fully illustrate The Savage Sword of Conan.

During his DC period he was tapped to draw an adaptation of King Arthur which DC killed before it was completed (once again some pages survive and the internet is your friend if you want to see them) but did limn tabloid-sized Limited Collectors’ Edition: The Bible.

This epic bayou bonanza gathers the last of the original Swamp Thing run (#14-25), plus guest appearances from Challengers of the Unknown #81-87; The Brave and the Bold #122 & 176 and DC Comics Presents #8 (spanning cover-dates January/February 1975 to July 1981) .

Roving America during a period of political instability tainted by cultural hedonism and paranoia, Cable, Abby, Bolt and miserable misshapen Alec Holland (whom they had recently broken out of federal custody) continually stumbled into weird and deadly situations. With writer David Michelinie joining Redondo, proceedings open here with ‘The Tomorrow Children’ (ST #14, January/February 1975).

Separated again, Holland’s human helpers search for him as the depressed nomad discovers an isolated Bayou community of simple folk persecuting a family of freakish kids. Swamp Thing drives off one murderous mob, but stories of the outcast kids’ uncanny powers and the plain facts of strange accidents and mysterious disappearances won’t go away. By the time the townsfolk return to destroy the “demon children”, Holland has discovered radioactive waste is causing all the problems, but far too late to prevent tragedy or promote understanding…

Swamp Thing then falls under ‘The Soul-Spell of Father Bliss’: a seemingly serene and benign cleric with demonically disturbing notions on how to restore faith to his disinterested flock. When Cable and Abby finally find Swamp Thing, it’s not Alec Holland inside the vegetable colossus and only an ultimate sacrifice can save them and humanity from the priest’s folly…

In the awful aftermath, Bolt is captured by agents unknown and the restored Holland-Thing leads a rescue party against an old adversary. Typically, the venture is derailed by cruel fate and the monster ends up alone on tiny Kalo Pago island in the middle of a revolution. On one side is a viciously repressive military government while the rebels are led by High Priestess Laganna – who has a direct line to zombie gods.

Caught in the middle, Holland cannot stem the tide of terror on the climactic ‘Night of the Warring Dead’…

ST #17 finds Bolt a prisoner of resurrected former Conclave chief Nathan Ellery, but when Abby, Cable and Swamp Thing finally stumble into his HQ, the maniac’s mercenaries, mechanical myrmidons and global mind-control contraption ‘The Destiny Machine’ at first appear to be an unbeatable opposition. But only at first…

Fleeing the destruction they have partially wrought, the victorious heroes crash land in an idyllic hamlet filled with violently murderous old folk. Its apologetic administrator claims Serenity is an experimental “ultimate retirement facility”, but before long is revealed as a demonic  ‘Village of the Doomed’ requiring all Holland’s power to escape and exorcise…

Cover-dated October 1975, The Brave and the Bold #122 then counts down ‘The Hour of the Beast!’ Bob Haney & Jim Aparo detail the awesome spectacle of Swamp Thing’s return to Gotham City and efforts to save it from a monstrous vegetable infestation. When Holland then becomes a target for a profit crazed showman, it needs all Batman’s ingenuity to save his ally and his city…

That same month in Swamp Thing #19, Gerry Conway joined Redondo to reveal ‘A Second Time to Die’ as a very familiar muck monster prowls Florida’s Everglades and – barely sentient – is befriended elderly Seminole hermit Ho’tah Makanaw. Nearby, Abby Cable and Bolt drive into Gatorberg, seeking their lost companion and following rumours of a big green monster…

The town is far from friendly but one boy is happy to take them to the old Indian who might know something of what they’re seeking…

Events take a drastic turn when the plant giant attacks a government drilling installation even as Ho’tah reveals a magical secret and sets the stage for an incredible clash in the next issue when Swamp Thing Holland battles incredible duplicate ‘The Mirror Monster’ for all the wrong reasons and for people who don’t deserve his aid…

Although the quality of the storytelling was getting better, the times were turning against the horror medium and as Michelinie returned in #21, it was for a science fictional romp as Holland was abducted by alien collector/slaver Solus. The bitterly contested escape left the monster stranded in an American desert and captured by rogue scientists battling madness-inducing contagion in their top secret atomic weapons base. Of course, definitions of “victim” or “cure” for ‘The Solomon Plague’ depended on who was doing the diagnosing, and when the “patients” started resisting treatment Holland could only watch helplessly as nature took its course…

Another attempt at a new direction began in Swamp Thing #23 as Conway & Redondo unleashed ‘Rebirth and Nightmare’, with a mystery mastermind targeting the moss monster and despatching costumed nemeses Sabre and Thrudvang, the Earth Master, even as the lonely wander made contact with his long-lost – and never-mentioned – smarter brother Edward Holland…

Their combined efforts to concoct a cure are initially successful despite Sabre’s surprise attack, but as we all know “no good deed goes unpunished”…

Cover-dated August/September 1976, an era ended with #24 as Conway, David Anthony Kraft, Ernie Chan & Fred Carrillo all collaborated on ‘The Earth Below’ as human but still traumatised Alec Holland faces Sabre, even more costumed crazies and ultimately tectonic terror Thrudvang, all craving the bio-regenerative formula still afflicting the former plant monster…

That catastrophic cliffhanger clash was never completed as the title was cancelled without warning or fanfare, just as it was about to formally join the superhero section of the DCU. It was probably for the best. As the Vertigo imprint would prove in a later age, some champions need sophisticated darkness to properly thrive…

As for the Bronze Age, Swamp Thing became a part of the army that hung around waiting to be picked for guest shots or even a revival. With the superhero genre recovering, one old concept granted a new shot ultimately led to fresh shoots for Holland.

The Challengers of the Unknown was a bridging concept. As superheroes were being revived in 1956 here was a super-team – the first of the Silver Age – but with no powers, basic utilitarian uniforms instead of costumes and the most dubious of motives – Suicide by Mystery. They debuted in Showcase #6 (cover-dated February 1957 and on sale in early November of 1956) and followed up in #7, 11 & 12 before gaining their own title (#1-77, May 1958-January 1971, plus a reprint revival in #78-80 in 1973).

They were a huge hit and major players in their time, striking a chord that lasted for more than a decade before they finally died… only to rise again and yet again. The idea of them was stirring enough, but their situation made their success all but inevitable. Conceived by inspirational human hit-factory Jack Kirby – before his move across town to co-create the Marvel Universe – the solid adventure concept and imperfect action heroes he left behind were idealised everyman characters for the tumultuous 1960s – an era before superheroes overtook anthological genre heroes to secure a virtual chokehold on comic book pages.

Kirby had developed a brilliantly feasible concept and heroically archetypical characters in cool pilot Ace Morgan, indomitable strongman Rocky Davis, intellectual aquanaut “Prof.” Haley and daredevil acrobat Red Ryan. The Challengers of the Unknown were four (extra)ordinary mortals; heroic troubleshooter and explorers who walked away unscathed from a terrible plane crash. Already obviously what we now call “adrenaline junkies”, they communally decided that since they were all living on borrowed time, they should dedicate what remained of their lives to testing themselves and fate. The quartet would risk their lives for KNOWLEDGE and, naturally, JUSTICE.

They were joined by an occasional fifth member, beautiful (of course) scientist June Robbins in their second appearance (‘Ultivac is Loose!’ in Showcase #7, March/April 1957), and she became a hardy perennial, frequently popping up to solve puzzles, catch criminals and generally deal with aliens, monsters, mad boffins and assorted supernatural threats. Over the decade other Challengers audited this core group, but none as bizarre as those that popped in during their late 1970s resurgence…

The return began in 1976 as a try-out serial in Super-Team Family #8-10 (January-May 1977) and led to the launch of Challengers of the Unknown #81 (June/July 1977). Crafted by Conway, Michael Netzer (nee Nasser) & Bob Wiacek, it’s included here and sees the boys and June Robbins defeat an old super-foe in ‘Multi-Man’s Master Plan’. In the course of the battle, Prof is diagnosed with an appalling, life-threatening fungal infection that dictates the team heading to Perdition, Pennsylvania, with persistent wannabe hanger-on Gaylord Clayburne desperately seeking to insert himself into the rescue mission…

Older fans will know that’s where Holland first defeated a Lovecraftian horror (Swamp Thing #8): a tale fully reprised in CotU #82, as Conway, Netzer & Joe Rubinstein reveal ‘The Lurker Below’, examine the ‘Legacy of the Damned’, expose ‘The Soul Predator’ and ruthlessly respond as ‘The Lurker Rises’…

As a deranged priest seeks to manifest cancer-god M’Nagala, Keith Giffen & John Celardo take over art duties with #83 as the embattled Challs seek to close ‘Seven Doorways to Destiny’. As Prof succumbs to fungal assimilation, aid comes as Clayburne recruits human Dr. Alec Holland as a potential ‘Savior from the Swamp?’ even as ‘The Gods Crawl Closer’. Unknown to the vainly striving Challengers, the subsequent battle reverts Holland to his vegetable form, but ‘Monsters, Good and Evil’ cannot stop the ghastly devil until Holland’s ultimate sacrifice. His triumph over M’Nagala goes completely unnoticed…

Issue #84 finds the human heroes attempting ‘To Save a Monster’ called Prof Haley, but falter until the spirit of Boston Brand occupies and cures him ‘When Deadmen Walk’. In the meantime the Challs learn Holland is the Swamp Thing and seek to make amends. With unperceived aid from Brand, they track the bog beast down only to find he/it has been taken over by Multi-Man…

The threat is covertly countered by Deadman, who sticks around when the Challs offer the plant monster a place on the team, just as Challengers of the Unknown #85 introduces ‘The Creature from the End of Time!’ as ‘The Box from Beyond’ materialises in Toronto, spawning murderous ‘Monsters and Men’ and necessitating a ‘Flight into the Future’…

The team had hoped to consult legendary specialist Rip Hunter, Time Master, but learn he and his team have been missing for a decade…

Disappointed but undeterred, the Challs (minus angry quitter Red Ryan but with unsuspected stowaway Deadman) take off for 12 million AD, leaving recuperating Prof behind to face an unsuspected menace…

Penultimate issue #86 solves the mystery of Rip Hunter as the heroes encounter ‘The War at Time’s End’, whilst recap ‘The Way it Began’ restates the convoluted path and events that brought the situation about.

The dismantling of humanity’s final dystopia begins as ‘If This is Tomorrow, You Must Be Rip Hunter!’, leads to the Challenger team investigating ‘Time Times Terror’ and discovering ‘A Pit by Any Other Name’ before the saga concludes in complete chaos with #87 (June/July 1978) as the  ‘Twelve Million Years to Twilight’ pits the human heroes against mutated terrors of the dominant Sunset Lords.

In the end, the future of humanity depends on monsters ghost and primitives enacting an ‘Assault on Sunset’ to secure ‘Twilight’s Last Glimmer’, courtesy of Carla & Gerry Conway, Giffen & Celardo.

Once again, an abrupt cancellation was the reward for valorous service and all players returned home to be shelved again. This compendium closes with a brace of superhero team-ups and a lost treat for true devotees, beginning with DC Comics Presents #8 (April 1979), as ‘The Sixty Deaths of Solomon Grundy!’ by Steve Englehart & Murphy Anderson pairs bog beast with the Man of Steel. Still believing he was a transformed human and not an enhanced plant, Swamp Thing here searches the sewers of Metropolis for a cure to his condition, only to stumble onto a battle between Superman and the mystic zombie who was “born on a Monday…

Crafted by Martin Pasko & Aparo, an encore in The Brave and the Bold #176 (July 1981) reunites Batman and Swamp Thing in a convoluted tale of Bayou-based murder and frame-ups in ‘The Delta Connection’ before the previously unpublished contents of Swamp Thing #25.

With the series cancelled, in-production story ‘The Sky Above’ by Kraft, Chan & Carillo is presented here as plot, script, uncoloured cover 16 pages of layouts, the pencils and inks in a clash with Hawkman that really should have officially taken place…

Also offering covers by Redondo, Aparo, Chan, Netzer, Neal Adams, Rubinstein, Rich Buckler, Jack Abel, Frank Giacoia, Alex Saviuk, Dick Giordano, José Luis García-López and Mike Kaluta; editorial material from Challengers of the Unknown #86 and an unused cover by Rick Veitch & Michelle Madsen, this collection comprises a genuine landmark of the art form, with stories that are superb examples of old-fashioned comics wonderment, from a less cynical and sophisticated age, but with a passion and intensity that cannot be matched. And, ooh, that artwork…

If you love comics you must have his buried treasure.
© 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1981, 2019 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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JLA: Year One


By Mark Waid, Brian Augustyn & Barry Kitson with Michael Bair, John Stokes, Mark Propst, & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-56389-512-8 (TPB)

If the chop-and-change continuity gymnastics DC have undergone in recent years gives you a headache, but you still love reading excellent superhero team stories, you could just take my word that this is one of the best of that breed and move on to the next review. If you’re okay with the confusion or still need convincing, though, please read on.

With then-partner All-American Publishing, in 1940 DC published the Justice Society of America in All-Star Comics from #3. Cover-dated “Winter Issue”, it spanned the year end and was on sale from November 22nd until January. The JSA were the first superhero team in comics.

In 1960 after a decade largely devoid of superheroes, the now fully-amalgamated publisher sagely revived the team concept as the Justice League of America, and gradually reintroduced the JSA ancestors as heroes of an alternative Earth to a fresh new caped and cowled world. By 1985, the continuity had become saturated and overcrowded with so many heroic multiples and close duplicates that DC’s editorial Powers-That-Be deemed it all too confusing and a deterrent to new readers, and decreed total change. It resulted in maxi-series Crisis on Infinite Earths and the events of the groundbreaking, earth-shattering saga led to a winnowing and restructuring of the DC universe…

With all the best bits from past stories (for which one could read “least charming or daft”) having now occurred on one Earth, and with many major heroes remade and re-launched (Superman, Wonder Woman, Flash et al.), one of the newest curses to readers – and writers – was keeping definitive track of what was now DC “History” and what had now never actually happened.

Thus 12-issue maxi-series JLA: Year One presented the absolute, definitive, real story of the formation and early days of the Justice League, the World’s Greatest – but no longer first – Superheroes…

Of course, since Zero Hour, Infinite Crisis and all the other subsequent publishing course-correcting extravaganzas (such as 52, Countdown, Dark Nights: Death Metal and so on) it’s not strictly true anymore. Still. Again…

None of which impacts upon the superb quality of the tale told here. Way back then – January to December 1998 and in the wake of Grant Morrison & Howard Porter’s spectacular re-reboot of the team – Mark Waid, Brian Augustyn & illustrator Barry Kitson (plus assorted assisting inkers) produced a superb version of that iteration’s earliest days. It’s still one of the best and most readable variations on the theme, even if DC have inexplicably let it slide out of print…

It begins “ten years ago” in ‘Justice League of America: Year One’ as a hidden observer gathers files on an emergent generation of new costumed heroes. When an alien invasion from Appellax brings inexperienced neophyte heroes Flash, Green Lantern, Black Canary, Aquaman and Martian Manhunter together to save Earth from colonisation, the media scents a news sensation, but the real story is the hidden forces hovering in the background of the event…

The Canary was reimagined as the rebellious daughter of the JSA original who had been active during WWII, and the others, like the Sea King and J’onn J’onzz, had undergone recent origin revisions too…

The main action begins after that initial victory, as the heroes – novices all, remember – opt to stick together as a team, only to be targeted by secret super-science society Locus, who begin snatching up alien invader corpses for genetic experimentation…

The second issue sees the new kids as media sensations overwhelmed and out of their depth, with everyone wanting a piece of them. Older outfits like the Blackhawks, Challengers of the Unknown and even officially-retired JSA veterans are watching with apprehension whilst Bruce Wayne wants them far away from Gotham City as they establish their ‘Group Dynamic’. Even trick archer Green Arrow is constantly hanging around, clearly angling for an invitation to join, but that’s never gonna happen…

Immortal villain Vandal Savage targets the inexperienced heroes with a squad of veteran supervillains – the Thorn, Solomon Grundy, Clayface and Eclipso – as everywhere, more new superheroes are emerging. Savage is resolved to stop this second Heroic Age before it begins…

In #3, Locus’ bio advancements lead to alliance with Savage, but their schemes are sidelined as the team struggle to work together. Every man there seems distracted by Black Canary, but their “chivalrous impulses” in combat are not only insulting but will get someone killed – if not by enemies, then by her…

The team is fully occupied playing ‘Guess Who?’ after accepting funding and resources from a mystery billionaire. The influx of cash results in a purpose-built secret mountain HQ, a covert personal communications network, live-in custodian/valet/tech support Snapper Carr and a security system designed by maverick teen genius Ted Kord.

At least the heroes are starting to bond, sharing jokes, origins and trade secrets, but tensions are still high and trust in each other is fragile…

Inker Michael Bair joins with #4 as ‘While You Were Out…’ sees Locus at last launch their campaign of conquest: picking off lone hero Dan Garrett, whose mystic Blue Beetle scarab proves no match for alien-enhanced bio-weaponry, even as the heroes are all singled out for close observation by mystery operatives…

The merciless Brotherhood of Evil unleash Locus-designed horrors on Manchester, Alabama in #5, leading to a tenuous team-up of Justice League and Doom Patrol that ends in disaster and defeat. Maimed and deprived of their abilities, they are ‘A League Divided’ until the DP’s resident genius Niles Caulder provides stopgap powers and weapons in ‘Sum of Their Parts’ (inked by Bair & John Stokes), enabling the heroes to rally and restore themselves…

In ‘The American Way’ the JLA suffer a shock after their greatest inspiration – Superman – declines an offer to join, even as Locus’ endgame begins.

The dispirited heroes barely notice, as ‘Loose Ends’ exposes treachery in the ranks, further distracting the heroes who discover a trusted ally has been spying on them in their private lives. They have no idea what’s really going on…

With unity shattered, the JLA turns on itself, missing Locus’ attempt to terraform Earth and literally ‘Change the World’…

‘Heaven and Earth’ (inked by Bair & Mark Propst) finds all humanity’s helpless and all its many heroes subdued in a superpowered blitzkrieg that catches the planet napping. Crushed, defeated and interned in ‘Stalag Earth’ all hope is lost until the reunited Justice League lead a counter-offensive, turning tragedy into triumph and ensuring ‘Justice for All’…

A brilliantly addictive plot, superbly sharp dialogue and wonderfully underplayed art suck the reader into an enthralling climax that makes you proud to be human… or at least terrestrially-based. This saga of our champions’ bonding and feuding under extended threat of rogue geneticists, planetary upheaval, and the mystery of who actually bankrolls the team, all added to continual, usual, everyday threats in a superhero’s life, is both enchanting and gripping.

When it’s done right there’s nothing wrong with being made – and allowed – to be feel ten years old again. In-the-know fans will delight at the clever incorporation of classic comics moments, in-jokes and guest-shots from beloved contemporaneous heroes and villains such as the Sea Devils, Metal Men, Atom and such, but the creators of this revised history never forget their new audience and nothing here is unclear for first-timers. The finale is a fan’s all-action dream with every hero on Earth united to combat all-out alien invasion! …And of course, the rookie JLA save the day again in glorious style.
© 1998 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.