Category: Hawkman & Hawkgirl

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DC Finest: The Spectre – The Wrath of the Spectre


By Gardner F. Fox, Bob Haney, Mike Friedrich, Steve Skeates, Dennis J. O’Neil, Mark Hanerfeld, Jack Miller, Michael L. Fleisher, Paul Kupperberg, Mike W. Barr, Roy Thomas, Murphy Anderson, Carmine Infantino, Ross Andru & Mike Esposito, Neal Adams, Jerry Grandenetti, Jack Sparling, Bernie Wrightson, José Delbo, Jim Aparo, Frank Thorne, Ernie Chan, Michael R. Adams, Rick Hoberg, Jerry Ordway, Richard Howell, Larry Houston, Gerald Forton & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-3417-1 (TPB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times

This stunning compilation is another long-awaited full colour chronolgically curated compilation delivering “affordably priced, large- paperback collections” highlighting DC’s past glories. Sadly, none are yet available digitally, as were the last decade’s Bronze, Silver and Golden Age collections, but we live in hope…

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Sublime Seasonal Spookfest for Comics Addicts… 10/10

Created by Jerry Siegel & Bernard Baily in 1940 and debuting via a 2-part origin epic in More Fun Comics #52 & 53, The Spectre is one of the oldest characters in DC’s vast character stable. Crucially, just like Siegel’s other iconic creation, the Ghostly Guardian soon began suffering from a basic design flaw: he was just too darn powerful. However, unlike Superman this relentless champion of justice is already dead, so he can’t really be logically or dramatically imperilled. Moreover, in those far off early days that wasn’t nearly as important as sheer spectacle: forcibly grabbing the reader’s utter attention and keeping it stoked to a fantastic fever pitch.

Starting as a virtually omnipotent phantom, the Astral Avenger evolved over various revivals, refits and reboots into a tormented mortal soul bonded inescapably to the actual embodiment of the biblical Wrath of God…

The story is a genuinely gruesome one: police detective Jim Corrigan is callously executed by gangsters before being called back to the land of the living. Commanded to fight crime and evil by a glowing light and disembodied voice, he was indisputably the most formidable hero of the Golden Age. He has been revamped many times, and in the 1990s was revealed to be God’s own Spirit of Vengeance wedded to a human conscience. When Corrigan was finally laid to rest, Hal (Green Lantern) Jordan and murdered Gotham City cop Crispus Allen replaced him as the mitigating conscience of the unstoppable, easily irked force of Divine Retribution. Last time I looked, Corrigan had the job again…

However, the true start of that radically revitalised career began in the superhero-saturated mid-1960s when, hot on the heels of feverish fan-interest in the alternate world of the Justice Society of America and Earth-2 (where all their WWII heroes retroactively resided), DC began trying out solo revivals of 1940’s characters, as a counterpoint to such wildly successful Silver Age reconfigurations as Flash, Green Lantern, Atom and Hawkman…

This colossal compilation documents the almighty Man of Darkness’ resurrection in the Swinging Sixties, his landmark reinterpretation in the horror-soaked, brutalised 1970s and even finds room for some later appearances before the character was fully de-powered and retrofitted for the post-Crisis on Infinite Earths DC Universe. As such, this Spectre-acular tome of terror (660 subtly sinister peril-packed pages!) re-presents material from Showcase #60, 61 & 64; team-up tales from The Brave and the Bold #72, 75, 116, 180 & 199; The Spectre #1-10; lead strips from Adventure Comics #431-440: a tryptich serial from horror-anthology Ghosts #97-99 and a wartime-set saga from JSA retro hit All-Star Squadron #27-28: cumulatively channelling January/February 1966 to December 1983.

Back in the Sixties DC had attempted a number of Earth-2 team-iterations (Starman & Black Canary – with Wildcat – in The Brave and the Bold #61-62, whilst Showcase #55 & 56 spotlighted Doctor Fate & Hourman, with a cameo from the original Green Lantern), but inspirational editor Julie Schwartz & scripter Gardner F. Fox only finally achieved their ambition to relaunch a Golden Age hero into his own title with the revival of the Ghostly Guardian in Showcase. It had been hard going and perhaps ultimately happened only thanks to a growing general public taste for supernatural stories…

After three full length appearances and many guest-shots, The Spectre won his own solo series at the end of 1967, just as the superhero craze went into steep decline, but arguably Showcase #60 (cover-dated January/February 1966 but actually on sale from Novenember 25th 1965) anticipated the rise of supernatural comics by re-introducing Corrigan and his phantom passenger in ‘War That Shook the Universe’ by Earth-2 team supreme Fox & illustrator Murphy Anderson. This spectacular saga reveals why the Heroic Haunt had vanished two decades previously, leaving fundamentally human (but dead) Corrigan to pursue his war against evil on merely mortal terms – until a chance encounter with a psychic investigator frees the spirit buried deep within him. A diligent search reveals that, 20 years previously, a supernal astral invader broke into the Earth plane and possessed a mortal, but was so inimical to our laws of reality that both it and the Grim Ghost were locked into their meat shells until now…

Thus began a truly Spectre-acular (feel free to groan, but that’s what they called it back then) clash with devilish diabolical Azmodus that spans all creation and blew the minds of us gobsmacked kids…

Showcase #61 (March/April) upped the ante as even more satanic Shathan the Eternal subsequently insinuates himself into our realm from ‘Beyond the Sinister Barrier’: stealing mortal men’s shadows until he is powerful enough to conquer the physical universe. This time The Spectre treats us to an exploration of the universe’s creation before narrowly defeating the source of all evil…

The Sentinel Spirit paused before re-manifesting in Showcase #64 (September/October 1966) for a marginally more mundane but no less thrilling case after ‘The Ghost of Ace Chance’ takes up residence in Jim’s body. By this time, it was established that ghosts need a mortal anchor to recharge their ectoplasmic “batteries”, with this unscrupulous crooked gambler determined to inhabit the best frame available…

Try-out run concluded, the editors sat back and waited for sales figures to dictate the next move. When they proved inconclusive, Schwartz orchestrated a concerted publicity campaign to further promote Earth-2’s Ethereal Adventurer. Thus The Brave and the Bold #72 (June/ July 1967) saw the Sentinel Spook clash with Earth-1’s Scarlet Speedster in ‘Phantom Flash, Cosmic Traitor’ (by Bob Haney, Carmine Infantino & Charles “Chuck” Cuidera). This sinister saga sees the mortal meteor arcanely transformed into a sinister spirit-force and power-focus for expired but unquiet American aviator Luther Jarvis who returns from his death in 1918 to wreak vengeance on the survivors of his squadron – until the Spectre intervenes…

Due to the vagaries of comic book scheduling, B&B #75 (December 1967/January 1968) appeared at around the same time as The Spectre #1, although the latter had a cover-date of November/December 1967. In this edition it follows the debut of the haunted hero in his own title…

‘The Sinister Lives of Captain Skull’, by Fox & Anderson, divulges how the botched assassination of American Ambassador Joseph Clanton and an experimental surgical procedure allows one of the diplomat’s earlier incarnations to seize control of his body and, armed with mysterious eldritch energies, run amok on Earth. These “megacyclic energy” abilities enable the revenant to harm and potentially destroy the Grim Ghost, compelling the Spectre to pursue the piratical Skull through a line of previous lives until he can find their source and purge the peril from all time and space. Meanwhile over in the Batman team-up tale – scripted by Haney and limned by Ross Andru & Mike Esposito – Ghostly Guardian joins Dark Knight to liberate Earth-One Gotham City’s Chinatown from ‘The Grasp of Shahn-Zi!’: an ancient oriental sorcerer determined to prolong his reign of terror at the expense of an entire community and through the sacrifice of an innocent child, after which the Astral Avenger proceeded on Earth-Two in his own title…

With #2 (January/February 1968) artistic iconoclast Neal Adams came aboard for Fox-scripted mystery ‘Die Spectre – Again’ wherein crooked magician Dirk Rawley accidentally manifests his etheric self and severely tests both Corrigan and his phantom lodger as they seek to end the double-menace’s string of crimes, mundane and magical. At this time, the first inklings of a distinct separation and individual identities began. The two halves of the formerly sole soul of Corrigan were beginning to disagree and even squabble…

Neophyte scripter Mike Friedrich joined Adams for #3’s ‘Menace of the Mystic Mastermind’ wherein pugilistic paragon Wildcat faces the inevitable prospect of age and infirmity even as an inconceivable force from another universe possesses petty thug Sad Jack Dold, turning him into a nigh-unstoppable force of cosmic chaos.

Next, ‘Stop that Kid… Before He Wrecks the World’ was written & illustrated by Adams with a similar trans-universal malignity deliberately empowering a young boy as a prelude to its ultimate conquest, whilst #5’s ‘The Spectre Means Death?’ (all Adams again) appears to show the Astral Adept transformed into a pariah and deadly menace to society, until Corrigan’s investigations uncover emotion-controlling villain Psycho Pirate at the root of the Heroic Haunt’s problems…

Despite the incredible talent and effort lavished upon it, The Spectre simply wasn’t finding a big enough audience. Adams left for superhero glory elsewhere and a hint of changing tastes emerged as veteran horror comics illustrator Jerry Grandenetti came aboard. Issue #6 (September/October 1968) saw his eccentric, manic cartooning adding raw wildness to the returning Fox’s moody thriller ‘Pilgrims of Peril!’ Anderson also re-enlisted, applying a solid ink grounding to the story of a sinister quartet of phantom Puritans who invade the slums of Gateway City, driving out the poor and hopeless as they hunt long-lost arcane treasures. These would allow demon lord Nawor of Giempo access to Earth unless Spectre can win his unlife or death duel with the trans-dimensional horror…

As the back of #7 was dedicated to a solo strip starring Hourman (not included here), The Spectre saga here – by Fox, Grandenetti & Anderson – was a half-length tale following the drastic steps necessary to convince the soul of bank-robber Frankie Barron to move on. As he was killed during a heist, the astral form of aversion therapy used to cure ‘The Ghost That Haunted Money!’ proves not only ectoplasmically effective but outrageously entertaining…

Issue #8 (January/February 1969) was scripted by Steve Skeates and began a last-ditch and obviously desperate attempt to turn The Spectre into something the new wave of anthology horror readers would buy.

As a twisted, time-lost apprentice wizard struggles to return to Earth after murdering his master and stealing cosmic might from the void, on our mundane plane an exhausted Ghostly Guardian neglects his duties and is taken to task by his celestial creator. As a reminder of his error, the Penitent Phantasm is burdened by a fluctuating weakness – which would change without warning – to keep him honest and earnest. What a moment then, for desperate disciple Narkran to return, determined to secure an elevated god-like existence by securing ‘The Parchment of Power Perilous!’…

The Spectre #9 completed the transition, opening with an untitled short from Friedrich (illustrated by Grandenetti & Bill Draut) finding the Man of Darkness again overstepping his bounds by executing a criminal. This prompts Corrigan to refuse the weary wraith the shelter of his reinvigorating form and when the Grim Ghost then assaults his own host form, the Heavenly Voice punishes the spirit by chaining him to the dreadful Journal of Judgment: demanding he atone by investigating the lives inscribed therein in a trial designed to teach him again the value of mercy.

The now anthologised issue continued with ‘Abraca-Doom!’ (Dennis J. O’Neil & Bernie Wrightson) as The Spectre attempts to stop a greedy carnival conjurer signing a contract with the Devil, whilst ‘Shadow Show’ – by Mark Hanerfeld & Jack Sparling – details the fate of a cheap mugger who thinks he can outrun the consequences of a capital crime. The Spectre gave up the ghost, folding with #10 (May/June 1969), but not before a quartet of tantalising tales shows what might have been. ‘Footsteps of Disaster’ (Friedrich, Grandenetti & George Roussos) follow a man from cradle to early grave, revealing the true wages of sin, whilst ‘Hit and Run’ (Steve Skeates & Jose Delbo) proves again that the Spirit of Judgment is not infallible and even human scum might be redeemed. Jacks Miller & Sparling asked ‘How Much Can a Guy Take?’ with a shoeshine boy pushed almost too far by an arrogant mobster before the series closed with a cunning murder mystery involving what appeared to be a killer ventriloquist’s doll in Miller, Grandenetti & Roussos’ ‘Will the Real Killer Please Rise?’ With that the Astral Avenger returned to comic book limbo for nearly half a decade until changing tastes and another liberalising of the Comics Code saw him arise as lead feature in Adventure Comics #431 (January/February 1974) for a shocking run of macabre, ultra-violent tales from Michael L. Fleisher, Jim Aparo and friends

‘The Wrath of… The Spectre’ offered a far more stark, unforgiving take on the Sentinel Spirit; reflecting the increasingly violent tone of the times. Here, a gang of murderous thieves slaughter the crew of a security truck and are tracked down by a harsh, uncompromising police lieutenant named Corrigan. When the bandits are exposed, the cop unleashes a horrific green and white apparition from his body which inflicts ghastly punishments horrendously fitting their crimes.

With art continuity (and no, I’m not sure what that means either) from Russell Carley, the draconian encounters continue in #432 as in ‘The Anguish of… The Spectre’ assassins murder millionaire Adrian Sterling and Corrigan meets the victim’s daughter. Although the now-infallible Wrathful Wraith soon exposes and excises the culprits, the dead detective has to reveal his true nature to grieving Gwen. Moreover, Corrigan begins to feel the stirring of impossible, unattainable yearnings…

Adventure #433 exposed ‘The Swami and… The Spectre’ with Gwen seeking spiritual guidance from a ruthless charlatan who promptly pays an appalling price when he finally encounters an actual ghost, whilst #434’s ‘The Nightmare Dummies and… The Spectre’ (with additional pencils by Frank Thorne), reveals a plague of department store mannequins running wild in a killing spree at the behest of a crazed artisan who believes in magic – but cannot imagine the cost of his dabbling. AC #435 introduces journalist Earl Crawford who tracks ghastly fallout of the vengeful spirit’s anti-crime campaign in ‘The Man Who Stalked The Spectre!’ Of course, once he sees the ghost in grisly action, Crawford realises the impossibility of publishing this scoop…

Adventure #436 finds Crawford still trying to sell his implausible story as ‘The Gasmen and… The Spectre’ sets the Spectral Slaughterman on the trail of a gang who kill everyone at a car show as a simple demonstration of intent before blackmailing the city. Their gorily inescapable fate only puts Crawford closer to exposing Corrigan…

Meanwhile elsewhere, Haney & Aparo reunite Batman, Detective Corrigan and a far kinder Spectre for Brave and the Bold #116’s ‘Grasp of the Killer Cult’, as the heroes hunt WWII veterans targetted by the spirits of dead Kali worshippers on a murder spree to generate enough arcane energy to resurrect their goddess, before Adventure #437’s ‘The Human Bombs and… The Spectre’ (pencilled by Ernie Chan with Aparo inks) sees a kidnapper abduct prominent persons – including Gwen – to further a mad scheme to amass untold wealth… until the Astral Avenger ends both financial aspirations and deadly depredations forever.

Despite critical acclaim – and popular controversy – the weird writing was on the wall for the grimmest ghost ever and AC #438 heralded the beginning of the end in Fleischer, Chan & Aparo’s ‘The Spectre Haunts the Museum of Fear’. Here a deranged taxidermist turns people into unique dioramas until the original spirit of vengeance intervenes. The end was in sight again for the Savage Shade and #439’s ‘The Voice that Doomed… The Spectre’ (all Aparo art) turns the wheel of death full circle, as the Heavenly Presence who created him allows Corrigan to fully live again so that he can marry Gwen. Sadly, it’s only to have the joyous hero succumb to ‘The Second Death of The… Spectre’ in the next, last issue (#440, July/ August 1975) before tragically resuming his never-ending mission. This milestone serial set a stunning new tone and style for the Ghostly Guardian which has informed each iteration ever since…

By the early 1980s, the latest horror boom had exhausted itself and DC’s anthology comics were disappearing. As part of the effort to keep them alive, Ghosts featured a 3-part serial starring “Ghost-Breaker” and inveterate sceptic Dr. Terry 13 who at last encounters ‘The Spectre’ in issue #97 (February 1981, by Paul Kupperberg, Michael R. Adams & Tex Blaisdell). Here, terrorists invade a high society séance and are summarily dispatched by the inhuman poetic justice of a freshly-manifested Astral Avenger. Resolved to destroy the sadistic revenant vigilante, recently converted true beliver Dr. 13 returns in #98 when‘The Haunted House and The Spectre’ finds the Ghost-Breaker interviewing Earl Crawford and subsequently discovering the long-sought killer of his own father. Before 13 can act, however, the Spectre appears to hijack his justifiable retribution…

The drama ends in Ghosts #99 as ‘Death… and The Spectre’ (inked by Tony DeZuñiga) sees scientist and spirit locked in one final furious confrontation. Then more team-up classics from Brave and the Bold follow, beginning with ‘The Scepter of the Dragon God’ (by Fleisher & Aparo from #180, November 1980). Although Chinese wizard Wa’an-Zen steals enough mystic artefacts to conquer Earth and destroy The Spectre, he gravely underestimates the skill and bravery of merely mortal Batman, before #199’s ‘The Body-napping of Jim Corrigan’ (June 1983 by Mike W. Barr, Andru & Rick Hoberg), depicts the undead investigator baffled by the abduction and disappearance of his mortal host. Even though he cannot trace his own body, the Spectre knows where the World’s Greatest Detective hangs out…

This staggering compendium of supernatural thrillers concludes with a two-part saga from revivalist treat All-Star Squadron #27 & 28 as Roy Thomas, Jerry Ordway, Richard Howell, Larry Houston & Gerald Forton take us back to embattled 1942 where America’s greatest superheroes strive against the last outbreak of fascist tendencies.

Here the Golden Age Superman, Batman and Robin join Doctor Fate, Tarantula, Firebrand, The Atom, Hawkman, Phantom Lady, Amazing Man, Commander Steel, Dr. Mid-nite, Starman, Sandman, Flash, The Guardian, Johnny Thunder, Green Lantern, Johnny Quick, Liberty Belle and Wonder Woman go in search of a missing ghostly Guardian only to learn ‘A Spectre is Hanting the Multiverse!’ with the mightiest being in creation enslaved to pan-dimensional tyrant Kulak, High Priest of Brztal and facilitating a long-anticipated scheme to eradicate Earth, it’s no small mercy that humanity has other uncanny defenders – such as Sargon the Sorceror – to call upon…

Although an incongruously superhero-heavy tale to end on this compilation covers much of the darlest corners of DC legend and fable. With covers by Anderson, Infantino, Jack Adler, Adams, Grandenetti, Nick Cardy, Aparo, Tatjana Wood, George Tuska, Anthony Tollin & Jerry Ordway, and ranging from fabulously fantastical to darkly, violently enthralling, these comic masterpieces perfectly encapsulate the way superheroes changed over a brief 20-year span, but remain throughout some of the most beguiling and exciting tales of the company’s canon. If you love comic books you’d be crazy to ignore this one.
© 1966, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1974, 1975, 1981, 1983, 2012 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

On this day in 1867 strip pioneer Winsor McCay was born. Check out Daydreams and Nightmares – The Fantastic Visions of Winsor McCay for more.

Today in 1938 Belgian giant Raoul Cauvin was born. Bluecoats volume 18: Duel in the Channel was the last book of his we covered, whilst in 1946, the first issue of Le Journal de Tintin went on sale. Stuff from there like Blake and Mortimer is all over this site. Just use the search box and see…

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JSA vs. Kobra


By Eric S. Trautmann, Don Kramer & Michael Babinski, with Neil Edwards & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-84856-955-3 (TPB)

This book includes some Discriminatory Content produced during less enlightened times.

After the actual invention of the comic book superhero – for which read Superman’s debut in 1938 – the most significant event in the genre – and indeed industry’s – progress was the combination of individual attention-getters into a group. Thus what seems blindingly obvious to us with the benefit of four-colour hindsight was proven: a number of popular characters could multiply readership by combining forces and readerships. Plus of course, a whole bunch of superheroes is a lot cooler than just one – or even one and a sidekick.

The Justice Society of America was created in the third issue (Winter 1940/1941) of All-Star Comics, an anthology title featuring established characters from various All-American Comics publications. The magic was instigated by the simple expedient of having the assorted heroes gather around a table and tell each other their latest adventure. From this low-key collaborative conference it wasn’t long before the guys – and they were all white guys (except Red Tornado who merely pretended to be one) – regularly joined forces to defeat the greatest villains and social ills of their generation. Within months the concept had spread far and wide…

And so the Justice Society of America is rightly revered as a landmark in the development of comic books and, when Julius Schwartz revived the superhero genre in the late 1950s, the game-changing moment came with the inevitable teaming of the reconfigured mystery men into a Justice League of America. From there it wasn’t long until the original and genuine article returned. There were many attempts to formally revive the team’s fortunes but it wasn’t until 1999, on the back of both a highly successful reboot of the JLA by Grant Morrison & Howard Porter, and a seminal but critically favoured new Starman by Golden Age devotee James Robinson, that the multi-generational team found a concept and fanbase big enough to support them. In 1999, the original super-team returned and have been with us in one form or another ever since. In this anniversary year there have numerous excellent efforts to revamp the original OG, and we’ll be getting to those in the months to come…

On sale from November 13th 1975 but cover-dated February 1976, Kobra originated in his own short-lived title during a period of desperate experimentation, whilst traditional superhero sales were plummeting and the industry feared its inevitable extinction. Credited to Martin Pasko, Steve Sherman, Jack Kirby & Pablo Marcos, the saga was a radical updating of Alexandre Dumas’ 1844 novel Les Frères Corses – The Corsican Brothers…

When conjoined twins Jeffrey and Jason Burr were surgically separated soon after birth, Jeffrey was abducted by disciples of the Cult of Kobra and raised to be their Dark Messiah: a deadly warrior, scientist and strategist dedicated to bringing about the end of civilisation and initiating a cleansing “Age of Chaos”. The peculiar circumstances of their birth meant that Jeffrey and Jason maintained an uncanny psychic connection wherein one would experience the hurts and harms inflicted upon the other. Over the years this led Jason to become the ultimate weapon in a war waged by numerous DC heroes against his serpentine terrorist sibling.

Eventually Jason was safely murdered by Kobra, but later resurrected as an even greater evil, assuming his brother’s position as head of the World’s most dangerous death-cult. The new Kobra was an utterly dedicated fanatic who wedded the cult’s technological resources to hideous, sacrificial blood-magic and preferred faith-driven disciples to the disaffected proto-thugs employed by his predecessor (for further details you should see Checkmate: Pawn Breaks or wait for me to finally review the new edition or just buy the book and take a chance…)

The JSA battled the first Kobra many times (most notably in JSA: Darkness Falls and JSA: Savage Times) but were utterly unprepared for the sheer horrors in store when they swung into action against the inheritor of the Snake cult…

This terse, tense collection re-presents 6-issue JSA vs. Kobra ‘Engines of Faith’ miniseries which, informed by the actions of real-world terrorism of fundamentalist factions around the globe, finally elevated Kobra to the first rank of villains: the deadly herald of the World’s End who plays a lethal game of cat-&-mouse with the Planet’s Smartest Man and some of the most experienced heroes of all time…

The Serpent Lord begins his campaign of terror in ‘Bad Religion’, dispatching suicide bombers to destroy the Justice Society in their own home and thereby confronting logic and superpowers with pure faith and high-tech explosives. Caught off guard by foes actually happy to die if they can strike a blow against their master’s enemies, the JSA are further wrong-footed by seemingly random attacks against civilians and institutions, all orchestrated by field commander and fanatical bride of death Ariadne Persakis.

The sheer scale of the bloodletting and illogical nature of the attacks soon has our heroes fighting amongst themselves as they strive to find some rhyme or reason behind such senseless, murderous assaults… so why then does Persakis abruptly surrender herself to their custody?

‘Strange Days’ finds the team seething but still unable to fathom the terrorist’s game plan… until Ariadne breaks free of Checkmate custody. Apparently the covert international spy-force has been hopelessly infiltrated and compromised. The senseless death-toll mounts exponentially and as, the team narrowly thwart an assault on a giant particle accelerator that could split the Earth in two, masked genius Mr. Terrific begins to discern a pattern to the random madness in ‘Misdirection’…

Brutal attacks intensify and, although it appears the good guys are slowly gaining the upper hand, Terrific perceives the hidden agenda behind the unceasing ghastly blows against decency and civilisation. ‘Lightning in a Bottle’ sees Kobra make his ultimate move and apparently fail, leading to a gathering of champions ‘Beating the Grass’ and taking the war to the relentless foe, but even after stunning climax ‘Shedding Skin’ the weary heroes cannot be sure if they have won the day or somehow lost the war entirely…

This is a stunning piece of Fights ‘n’ Tights fiction: dark, dramatic and intensely compelling. Writer Eric S. Trautmann melded shiny superheroics, grim realpolitik and genuine cultural zeitgeists into a splendidly mature costumed drama, and the effective underplayed art of Don Kramer, Neil Edwards and inker Michael Babinski is chillingly effective at capturing the tone as well as the events.

If you think you’ve grown beyond gaudy mystery men and “goodies” against “baddies” this graphic novel is more than likely to make you think again.
© 2009, 2010 DC Comics. All rights reserved.

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DC Finest: Hawkman volume 1 – Wings Across Time


By Gardner F. Fox, Bob Haney, Joe Kubert, Gil Kane, Murphy Anderson, Howard Purcell, Carmine Infantino & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-79950-250-0 (TPB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Here’s another stunning compilation from the DC Finest line: full colour chronolgically curated collections delivering “affordably priced, large-size (generally around 600 pages) paperback collections” of past glories. Whilst concentrating on the superhero pantheon, there are and will also be assorted genre selections like horror and war books, and themed compendia.  

Sadly, none of these comics classics are available digitally, as were the last decade’s Bronze, Silver and Golden Age collections, but we live in hope and keep on whining…

Not all passions are romantic: mine is to finally have all old comics forever available in curated editions. These astoundingly engaging Silver Age tales are another joyous moment of past glories revisited highlighting one of the most effective and enduring romantic crime-busting, world-saving partnerships in comics…

With a superhero revival in full swing by 1961, Editorial mastermind Julius Schwartz turned to resurrecting one of DC’s most visually arresting and iconic Golden Age characters. Once again eschewing mysticism for science fiction (the original Hawkman was a reincarnated Egyptian prince murdered by a villainous priest who just kept coming back…), Schwartz picked scripter Gardner F. Fox who had created the Golden Age great and matched him with artist Joe Kubert to construct a new and contemporary hero for the Jet/Space Age.

This titanic tome at last gathers in full colour the works and deeds of the Winged Wonders as first seen in The Brave and the Bold #34-36 & 42-44 & 51; The Atom #7; Mystery in Space #87-90 and Hawkman #1-11: cumulatively spanning February/March 1961 to December 1965/January 1966.

Katar Hol and Shayera Thal are police officers on their own planet of Thanagar. The married couple have travelled to Earth from the star system Polaris in pursuit of a spree-thief named Byth who assaulted a scientist and stole a drug bestowing the ability to change into anything. Thus the scene was set in ‘Creature of a Thousand Shapes!’ which graced The Brave and the Bold #34 (cover-dated February/March 1961) back when the title was a try-out vehicle like Showcase. Disappointments aside, the origin yarn is a spectacular work of graphic magic, with the otherworldly nature of the premise rendered captivatingly human by the passionately emphatic, moody expressiveness of Kubert’s art. It is a minor masterpiece of comic storytelling, and still a darned good read.

The high-flying heroes returned in the next issue, now “temporarily” stationed on Earth to study Terran police methods. In ‘Menace of the Matter Master’ they defeat a plundering scientist who has discovered a means to control elements and indulge in super-larceny, before ‘Valley of Vanishing Men’ takes our fully-integrated visitors from another world to the Himalayas to unlock the astounding and ironic secret of the Abominable Snowmen. Last shot in the try-out session, B&B #36 sees them defeat modern day wizard Konrad Kazlak in ‘Strange Spells of the Sorcerer!’ and, soon after, save Earth from another Ice Age whilst outwitting ‘The Shadow Thief of Midway City!’

With the 3-issue audition over, the publishers sat back and waited for the fan letters and sales figures… and something odd happened: fans were vocal and enthusiastic, but the huge sales figures that previously accompanied such reactions just weren’t there. It was inexplicable. The quality of the work was plain to see on every page, but somehow not enough people had plunked down their dimes to justify an ongoing Hawkman series.

A year later DC tried again. The Brave and the Bold #42 (June/July 1962) featured ‘The Menace of the Dragonfly Raiders’ which found Katar & Shayera returning to Thanagar just in time to encounter a bizarre band of alien thieves and the sinister hand of their oldest foe. Here was superhero action in a fabulous alien locale and the next issue maintained the exoticism – at least initially – before Hawkman and Hawkgirl returned to Midway City to defeat a threat to both worlds – ‘The Masked Marauders of Earth!’.

One last B&B issue followed (#44, October/November 1962) with two splendid and delightful short tales. ‘Earth’s Impossible Day!’ focused on Shayera’s desire to celebrate a holiday tradition of Thanagar before eerie doomsday thriller ‘The Men who Moved the World’ unearthed a lost civilisation and the return of Earth’s original occupiers seeking to move back again…

And then the Hawks vanished again. It certainly looked like this time the Schwartz magic had stumbled if not faltered. It was not, however, the end of the saga. Convinced he was right, Schwartz retrenched. Enjoying some success with his latest revival and mindful of the response when he had teamed Flash with Green Lantern in the summer of 1962, the editor had writer Fox include the Winged Wonder in The Atom #7 (cover-dated June/July 1963). An interplanetary thriller illustrated by Gil Kane & Murphy Anderson, ‘The Case of the Cosmic Camera!’ is a rocket-paced invasion rollercoaster ranging from the depths of space to Earth’s most distant past, where this new, clean-limbed version of the Avian Avenger clearly found fan-favour. In 1963 Hawkman returned! Again!

Mere months later, and dated November, Mystery in Space #87 had the Pinioned Paladin in action on the cover. The anthologogical sci fi standard had been the home of interstellar adventurer Adam Strange since #53, so now Schwartz moved his Winged Wonders into a plausible back-up slot and even bestowed occasional cover-privileges. Still beguilingly written by Fox, Kubert’s dark gritty art was superseded by the clean, graceful illustration of Anderson. Crime caper ‘The Amazing Thefts of the I.Q. Gang!’ dealt with a unexpected repercussion of an Adam Strange thriller and was followed a month later by ‘Topsy-Turvy Day in Midway City!’… a whimsical flourish as the cosmic couple’s devotion and Thangarian wedding customs lead to the capture of Terran bank bandits…

With the management now on board, guest appearances to maximise profile were easier to find. Hawkman returned to The Brave and the Bold with #51 (December 1963/January 1964) to team with Aquaman and face the ‘Fury of the Exiled Creature’ in a quirky tale of monsters, magic and mayhem in sunken Atlantis written by Bob Haney and illustrated by the criminally neglected Howard Purcell. Back in Mystery in Space #89 the ‘Super-Motorized Menace!’ proved the highest tech motor cycle is still no match for ancient weapons and alien  advantages…

These brief, engaging action pieces paled before the majesty and ambition of MiS #90 which delivered a full length epic uniting teaming the Hawks and Adam Strange in a legendary End-of the-World(s) epic. Illustrated by Carmine Infantino & Anderson, ‘Planets in Peril!’ was the last Hawkman back-up. From the next month, and after three years of trying, Hawkman soared into his own title.

Cover-dated April/May 1964, Hawkman #1 is a gem by Fox & Anderson. Two of the most visually arresting chracters in comics, the Hawks also boasted one of the most subtle and sophisticated relationships in the business. Like Sue & Ralph Dibney (Elongated Man and wife) Katar & Shayera are equal partners, and both couples were influenced by the Nick & Nora Charles characters of the Thin Man movies. Like those progenitors, the interplay of the Hols at home or at work is always rich in humour and warmth. In ‘Rivalry of the Winged Wonders’ – and whilst accommodatingly recapping their origins for newcomers, the couple decide to turn their latest case into a contest – Hawkgirl (eventually more appropriately called Hawkwoman) will use Thanagarian super-science to track and catch a band of thieves, whilst Hawkman limits himself to Earth techniques and tools to solving the crime.

This charmingly witty yarn is balanced by action thriller ‘Master of the Sky Weapons’ as recentlt resurrected ancient Mayan warrior Chac threatens Earth with disinterred alien super weapons. The the second issue stuck with star-stuff as the ‘Secret of the Sizzling Sparklers!’ offered an action-packed thriller of transdimensional invasion before closing with ‘Wings across Time!’: a mystery revolving around the discovery of the flying harness of legendary figure Icarus.

With “Carter & Shiera Hall” established as archeologists at Midway City Museum and Earth’s crypto-history & -zoology offering constant story-inspiration, another criminal brain-teaser opened the third issue. However, scientific bandits proved less of a menace than ‘The Fear that Haunted Hawkman’ with inexplicable panic attacks, before ordinary thugs and an extraordinary alien owl converged to make our heroes ‘Birds in a Gilded Cage’. Hawkman #4 then opened with a tale destined to revolutionise DC comics. ‘The Girl who Split in Two!’ introduced legacy hero Zatanna, daughter of a magician who fought crime in the 1940s only to “mysteriously disappear”…

From the very first issue, and for over a decade, Zatarra was a hero in the Mandrake mould who fought evil in the pages of Action Comics. During the Silver Age, Gardner Fox had Zatarra’s young, equally gifted daughter search for the missing mage, systematcally teaming up with superheroes he was currently scripting (if you’re counting, those tales appeared in Hawkman #4, The Atom #19, Green Lantern #42, and the Elongated Man strip from Detective Comics #355). A very slick piece of backwriting latterly included the high-profile Caped Crusader via Detective #336 – ‘Batman’s Bewitched Nightmare!’. The saga concluded in Justice League of America #51’s ‘Z… As in Zatanna… and Zero Hour!’). The collected saga Zatanna’s Search is currently out of print but you can go here for our take on it…

This wide, long-running experiment in continuity proved there was a dedicated fanbase with a voracious appetite for experimentation and relatively deep pockets. Most importantly, it finally signalled an end of the period where DC heroes largely lived and battled in self-imposed worlds of their own.

Hawkman #4 back-up ‘The Machine that Magnetized Men!’ is another enthalling howdunnit  tale as the Pinioned Paladins use reason and deduction to defeat thieves who are impossible to touch. For the next issue ‘Steal, Shadow… Steal!’ was the first full-length thriller, wherein ruthless Shadow Thief Carl Sands returns seeking revenge, believing causing Earth’s next Ice Age to be an acceptable consequence of his schemes, whilst in #6, publishing fashion caught up with the Hawks…

Another epic, and one that turned DC’s peculiar obsession with gorillas into a classic adventure, ‘World Where Evolution Ran Wild!’ lures our heroes to fabled Illoral, where a scientist’s explorations and interventions have stretched Natural Selection to un-natural limits. Bold, brash and daft in equal amounts, this is a fabulous romp and seeing again the cover where Hawkman struggles for his life against a winged gorilla makes the adult me realise those DC chaps might have known what they were doing with all those anthropoid covers!

By issue #7 (April/May 1965) the world was gripped in secret agent fever as the likes of James Bond, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., and a host of others snuck and sashayed across our screens. Comics were not immune,  even though spies had been a staple threat there for decades. Before Hawkman joined the gang, however, he had to deal with the rather mediocre threat posed by solar ray inspired criminal genius Ira Quimby and ‘The Amazing Return of the I.Q. Gang!’ As they were quickly returned to prison the Hawks faced the ‘Attack of the Crocodile-Men!’: a high-octane super-science thriller introducing C.A.W. – the Criminal Alliance of the World…

Another supremely captivating cover adorned #8, as the Hawks fought an ancient Roman Artificial Intelligence, built by not-so-mythical metalsmith Vulcan in ‘Giant in the Golden Mask!’, before defeating an alien Harpy who’d been buried for half a million years and promptly triggered a ‘Battle of the Bird-Man Bandits!’ as soon as she woke up…

Hawkman #9 saw The Atom as guest star when an old villain returned with a seemingly perfect revenge plan. Full-length super-thriller ‘Master Trap of the Matter Master!’ offered sheer superhero hi-jinks, after which #10 saw a playful Fox at his best in both ‘Hawkman Clips the Claws of C.A.W!’ This was another espionage drama with a delicious subplot as the Winged Wonder aids a sexy CIA agent with a big secret of her own – before solving ‘The Magic Mirror Mystery!’: a fair-play brainteaser with lots of high-flying action to balance the smart stuff.

This glorious volume closes with another superb full-length epic. Clearly designed as a so-fashionable “player on the other side”, ‘The Shrike Strikes at Midnight!’ leaving our heroes trailing a super-powered, winged bandit all over the world and on to the star system Mizar, in a gripping tale of crime, super-villainy, aliens, revolutions and even dinosaurs…

Although never the major player of his 1940s ancestor, Hawkman grew to be one of the most iconic characters of the second superhero boom, not just for the superb art but also because of a brilliantly sly, whimsically subtle writer with a huge imagination. These tales are comfortably familiar but also grippingly timeless. Thankfully, comics are a funny business; circumstances, tastes and fashions often mean that wonderful works are missed and unappreciated, but it aso means revivals are never too late. Don’t make the same mistake readers did in the 1960s. Whatever your age, read these astounding adventures and become a fan. It’s never too late.
© 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1966, 2025 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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


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

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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DC Finest: Justice League of America – The Bridge Between Earths


By Gardner F. Fox & Mike Sekowsky, Denny O’Neil, Dick Dillin, Frank Giacoia, Joe Giella, Sid Greene, George Roussos, Neal Adams & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1779528377 (TPB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

This stunning compilation is part of the first tranch of long-awaited DC Finest editions: full colour continuations of their chronolgically curated monochrome Showcase Presents line, delivering “affordably priced, large-size (comic book dimensions and generally around 600 pages) paperback collections” highlighting past glories.Whilst primarily and understandably concentrating on the superhero character pantheon, there will also be genre selections like horror and war books, and themed compendia such as the much anticpiated gathering of early ape stories (brace yourself for DC Finest: The Gorilla World in July!).

Sadly, they’re not yet available digitally, as were the lst decade’s Bronze, Silver and Golden Age collections, but we live in hope…

Keystone of the DC Universe, the Justice League of America is the reason we still have a comics industry today. The day the first JLA story was published marks the moment when superheroes truly made comic books their own particular preserve. Even though the popularity of masked champions has waxed and waned a few time since 1960, and other genres have re-won their places on published pages, in the minds of America and the world, Comics Means Superheroes and the League signalled that men – and even a few women – in capes and masks were back for good…

When Julius Schwartz began reviving and revitalising the nigh-defunct superhero genre in 1956, his Rubicon move came a few years later with the uniting of his reconfigured mystery men into a team. The JLA debuted in The Brave and the Bold #28 (cover-dated March 1960) and cemented the growth and validity of the revived subgenre, consequently triggering an explosion of new characters at every company publishing funnybooks and spreading to the rest of the world as the decade progressed.

Spanning June 1966 to June 1969, this first full-colour paperback compendium of classics re-presents issues #45-72 of the epochal first series with scripter Gardner Fox and illustrator Mike Sekowsky eventually giving way to new wave Denny O’Neil and Dick Dillin with inkers Joe Giella, Sid Greene, George Roussos seemingly able to do no wrong. While we’re showing our gratitude, lets also salute stalwart letterer Gaspar Saladino for his herculean but unsung efforts to make the uncanny clear to us all…

The adventures here focus on the collective exploits of Superman, Batman, Flash, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, J’onn J’onzz – Manhunter from Mars, Green Arrow, The Atom, hip and plucky mascot Snapper Carr, latest inductee Hawkman and a few unaffiliated guest stars as the team consolidated its hold on young hearts and minds whilst further transforming the entire nature of the American comic book experience.

The volume encompasses a period in DC’s history that still makes many fans shudder with dread but I’m going to ask them to reconsider their aversion to the “Camp Craze” that saw America go superhero silly in the wake of the Batman TV show (and, to a lesser extent, the Green Hornet series that introduced Bruce Lee to the world). I should also mention that comics didn’t create the craze. Many popular media outlets felt the zeitgeist of a zanier, tongue-in-cheek, mock-heroic fashion: Just check out episodes of Lost in Space or The Man from U.N.C.L.E if you doubt me…

Without pause or preamble we plunge straight into the fun with Justice League of America #45 (cover dated June 1966) with Fox, Sekowsky, Frank Giacoia & Joe Giella for the witty monster-menace double-feature ‘The Super-Struggle against Shaggy Man!’ A wisecracking campy tone was fully in play with the next issue, in acknowledgement of the changing audience profile. It was the opening part of the fourth annual crossover with the Justice Society of America and this time the stakes were raised to encompass destruction of both planets in ‘Crisis Between Earth-One and Earth-Two’ and #47’s ‘The Bridge Between Earths!’ Here a bold – if rash – experiment pulls the two sidereal worlds into an inexorable hyperspace collision, whilst making matters worse, an antimatter being uses the opportunity to explore our positive matter universe.

Peppered with wisecracks and “hip” dialogue, it’s sometimes difficult to discern what a cracking yarn this actually is, but if you’re able to forgive or swallow dated patter, this is one of the best plotted and illustrated stories in the entire JLA/JSA canon. Furthermore, the vastly talented Sid Greene signed on as regular inker with this classic adventure, adding expressive subtlety, beguiling texture and whimsical humour to the pencils of Sekowsky and Fox’s increasingly light, comedic scripts. The next issue was an 80-Page Giant (reprinting Brave and the Bold #29 and Justice League of America #2 and 3, represented here by its stirring Sekowsky/Murphy Anderson cover, to be followed by ‘Threat of the True-or-false Sorcerer’ in which a small team of the biggest guns (Batman, Superman, Flash & Green Lantern) must ferret out a doppelganger Felix Faust before the mage inadvertently dissolves all creation.

There’s no excessive hoopla to celebrate the fiftieth issue but ‘The Lord of Time Attacks the 20th Century’ is another brilliantly told tale of heroism, action and sacrifice that -uncharacteristically for the company and the time – references the ongoing Vietnam conflict. With “Batmania” in full swing, editor Schwartz also deemed it wise to include Robin, The Boy Wonder with regulars Aquaman, Flash, Green Arrow, Wonder Woman, Snapper Carr & Batman. Issue #51 concluded a long-running experiment in continuity with ‘Z – As in Zatanna – and Zero Hour!’, in which a young sorceress concluded a search for her long-missing father with the assistance of a small group of Leaguers and guest-star Ralph “Elongated Man” Dibny.

Zatarra was a magician-hero in the Mandrake mould. In the 1940s he fought evil in the pages of Action Comics for over a decade, beginning with the very first issue. During the Silver Age Fox had Zatarra’s young and equally gifted daughter, Zatanna, go searching for him by guest-teaming with a selection of superheroes Fox was currently scripting (if you’re counting, these tales appeared in Hawkman #4, Atom #19, Green Lantern #42, and the Elongated Man back-up strip in Detective Comics #355). Thanks to a very slick piece of back writing the roster included the high-profile Caped Crusader via Detective #336’s ‘Batman’s Bewitched Nightmare’. For that full story you could track down Justice League of America: Zatanna’s Search…

Experimentation was also the basis of #52’s ‘Missing in Action – 5 Justice Leaguers!’, a portmanteau tale showing what happened to those members who didn’t show up for issue #50. Hawkman – plus wife and partner Hawkgirl – Green Lantern, Martian Manhunter and Superman reported their solo yet ultimately linked adventures, whilst The Atom referred them to his time-travelling escapade with Benjamin Franklin from the pages of his own comic (The Atom #27 ‘Stowaway on a Hot Air Balloon!’). Batman still managed to make an appearance through the magic of a lengthy flashback, showing again just how ubiquitous the TV show had made him. No editor in his right mind would ignore a legitimate (or even not-so much) chance to feature such a perfect guarantee of increased sales.

‘Secret Behind the Stolen Super-Weapons!’ saw Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Arrow & Hawkman – again with Hawkgirl guest-starring – deprived of their esoteric armaments and in desperate need of the Atom, Flash, Aquaman & Superman whilst card-carrying criminals returned in ‘The History-Making Costumes of the Royal Flush Gang!’: a taut mystery-thriller with plenty of action to balance the suspense, and fed into another summer-spectacular team-up with the JSA.

Boasting a radical change, the Earth-2 team now starred an adult Robin instead of Batman, but Hourman, Wonder Woman, Hawkman, Wildcat, Johnny Thunder & Mr. Terrific still needed the help of Earth-1’s Superman, Flash, Green Lantern & Green Arrow to cope with ‘The Super-Crisis that Struck Earth-Two!’ and ‘The Negative-Crisis on Earths One-Two!’

This cosmic threat from a dying universe was in stark contrast to the overly-worthy but well intentioned ‘Man – Thy Name is Brother!’ in #57, where Flash, Green Arrow & Hawkman joined Snapper Carr in defending human rights and equality via three cases involving ethnic teenagers: a black kid, a native American/Apache (and if that modern phrase doesn’t indicate the necessity and efficacy of such stories in the 1960’s then what does?) and an aid-worker in India. Morepver, although it’s all beautifully drawn and obviously heartfelt, I still ponder on the fact that all the characters are male…

Eventually comics would confront even that last bastion of institutionalised prejudice….

Another Eighty-Page Giant cover – by Infantino & Anderson – follows as #58 reprinted Justice League of America #1, 6 & 8, which is followed by the extremely odd conceptual puzzler ‘The Justice Leaguer’s Impossible Adventure!’ wherein the heroes battle beyond realty to prevent raw evil poisoning the universe before another “hot” guest-star debuted as JLA #60 featured ‘Winged Warriors of the Immortal Queen!’ and pitted the enslaved and transformed team against DC’s newest sensation: Batgirl.

However, by 1968 the new superhero boom looked to be dying just as its predecessor had at the end of the 1940s. Sales were down generally in the comics industry and costs were beginning to spiral, and more importantly “free” entertainment, in the form of television, was by now ensconced in even the poorest household. If you were a kid in the sixties, think on just how many brilliant cartoon shows were created in that decade, when artists like Alex Toth and Doug Wildey were working in West Coast animation studios. Moreover, comic-book heroes were now appearing on the small screen. Superman, Aquaman, Batman, the Marvel heroes and even the JLA were there every Saturday in your own living room…

It was a time of great political and social upheaval. Change was everywhere and unrest even reached the corridors of DC. When a number of creators agitated for increased work-benefits the request was not looked upon kindly. Many left the company for other outfits. Some quit the business altogether.

The remainder of this collection increasingly reflects the turmoil of the times as the writer and penciller who had created every single adventure of the World’s Greatest Superheroes since their inception gave way to a “new wave” writer and a fresh if not young artist.

Kicking off the fresh start is ‘Operation: Jail the Justice League!’ by Fox, Sekowsky & Greene: a sharp and witty action-mystery with an army of supervillains wherein the team must read between the lines as Green Arrow announces he’s quitting the team and super-hero-ing!

George Roussos replaced Greene as inker for ‘Panic from a Blackmail Box!’, a taut thriller about redemption involving the time-delayed revelations of a different kind of villain, and ‘Time Signs a Death-Warrant for the Justice League’, where the villainous Key finally acts on a scheme he initiated way back in Justice League of America #41. This rowdy fist-fest was Sekowky’s last pencil job on the team (although he returned for a couple of covers). He was transferring his attentions to the revamping of Wonder Woman (for which see the marvellous Diana Prince: Wonder Woman volume 1 ).

Fox ended his magnificent run on a high point with the 2-part annual team-up of League and the Society. Creative to the very end, his last story was yet another of Golden Age revival of the kind that had resurrected the superhero genre. JLA #64 & 65 featured the ‘Stormy Return of the Red Tornado!’ and ‘T.O. Morrow Kills the Justice League – Today!’ with a cyclonic sentient super-android taking on the mantle of the comedic 1940s “Mystery Man” who appeared in the very first JSA adventure (if you’re interested, the original Red Tornado was a brawny washer-woman/landlady named Ma Hunkle, who fought street crime dressed as a man).

Fox’s departing shot saw the artistic debut of veteran Blackhawk artist Dick Dillin: a prolific draughtsman who would draw every JLA exploit for the next 12 years, as well as many other adventures of DC’s top characters like Superman and Batman. His first jobs were inked by the returning Sid Greene, a pairing that seemed vibrant and darkly realistic after the eccentrically stylish, almost abstract late period Sekowsky.

Not even the heroes themselves were immune to change. As the market contracted and shifted, so too did the team. With no fanfare Martian Manhunter was dropped after #61. He just stopped appearing and the minor heroes (ones whose strips or comics had been cancelled) got less and less space in future tales. Denny O’Neil took over scripting with #66, opening with a rather heavy-handed satire entitled ‘Divided they Fall!’ wherein defrocked banana-republic dictator Generalissimo Demmy Gog (did I mention it was heavy-handed?) used a stolen morale-boosting ray to cause chaos on a college campus. O’Neil was more impressive with second outing ‘Neverwas – the Chaos Maker!’: a time-lost monster on a rampage. However, the compassionate solution to his depredations better fitted the social climate and hinted at joys to come when the author began his legendary run on Green Lantern/Green Arrow with Neal Adams.

‘A Matter of Menace’ featured a plot to frame Green Arrow by daft villain Headmastermind , but is most remarkable for the brief return of Diana Prince. Wonder Woman had silently vanished at the end of #66 and her cameo here is more a plug for her own de-powered adventure series than a regulation guest-shot. This is followed by a more traditional guest-appearance in #70’s ‘Versus the Creeper’ wherein the much diminished team of Superman, Batman, Flash, Green Lantern & Atom battle misguided aliens inadvertently brought to Earth by the astoundingly naff Mind-Grabber Kid (latterly seen in Seven Soldiers and 52) with the eerie Steve Ditko-created antihero along for the ride and largely superfluous to the plot.

Eager to plug their radical new heroine, Diana Prince guested again in #71’s ‘And So My World Ends!’: a drastic reinvention of the history of the Martian Manhunter from O’Neil, Dillon & Greene which, by writing him out of the series, galvanised and reinvigorated the character for a new generation. The plot introduced the belligerent White Martians of today and revealed how a millennia long race war between Whites and Greens devastated Mars forever.

Closing down this outing, ‘Thirteen Days to Doom!’ offers a moody gothic horror story in which Hawkman was turned into a pillar of salt by demons, precipitating another guest-shot for Hawkgirl, but excellent though it was, the entire thing was but prelude to O’Neil’s first shot at the annual JLA/JSA team-up in issues #73 and 74.

For which you’ll need a different volume…

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

These classical compendia are a dedicated fan’s delight: an absolute gift for modern readers who desperately need to catch up without going bankrupt. They are also perfect to give to youngsters as an introduction into a fabulous world of adventure and magic. Although an era of greatness had ended, it ended at the right time and for sound reasons. These thoroughly wonderful thrillers mark an end and a beginning in comic book storytelling as whimsical adventure was replaced by inclusivity, social awareness and a tacit acknowledgement that a smack in the mouth doesn’t solve all problems. The audience was changing and the industry was forced to change with them. But underneath it all the drive to entertain remained strong and effective. Charm’s loss is drama’s gain and today’s readers might be surprised to discover just how much punch these tales had – and still have.

And for that you need to buy this book…
© 1966, 1967, 1968, 1969, 2024 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Golden Age Hawkman Archives volume 1


By Gardner F. Fox, Dennis Neville, Sheldon Moldoff & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-0418-1 (HB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

There are many comics anniversaries this year. Some of the most significant will be rightly celebrated, but a few are going to be unjustly ignored. As a feverish fanboy wedged firmly in the past, I’m again abusing my privileges here to carp about another brilliant vintage book, criminally out of print and not slated for revival either physically or in digital formats…

Although one of DC’s most long-lived and certainly their most visually iconic character, the various iterations of Hawkman have always struggled to find enough of an audience to sustain a solo title. From his beginnings as one of the assorted second features in new anthology Flash Comics (the others being Cliff Cornwall, The King, The Whip, spoof hero Johnny Thunder and Ed Wheelan’s “Picture Novels/Minute Movies”), adding lustre to the soaraway success of the eponymous speedster helming the title, Winged Wonder Carter Hall has struggled through assorted engaging, exciting but always short-lived reconfigurations.

Over decades from ancient hero to re-imagined alien space-cop and post-Crisis on Infinite Earths freedom fighter, or the seemingly desperate but highly readable bundling together of all previous iterations into the reincarnating immortal berserker-warrior of today, the Pinioned Paladin has performed exemplary service without ever really making it to the big time. Hopefully that’s all changed now, thanks to modern movie trends…

Created by Gardner Fox & Dennis Neville, Hawkman first took to the skies in Flash Comics #1 (cover-dated January 1940, but actually on sale from November 20th 1939). He stayed there, growing in quality and prestige until the title died at the end of the Golden Age, with the most celebrated artists to have drawn the Feathered Fury being Sheldon Moldoff and Joe Kubert, whilst a young Robert Kanigher was justly proud of his later run as writer.

Together with his partner Hawkgirl/Hawkwoman, for over a decade the gladiatorial mystery-man countered fantastic arcane threats and battled modern crime and tyranny with weapons of the past before vanishing with the bulk of costumed heroes as the 1950s dawned. His last contemporary appearance was in All Star Comics #57 (1951) as official leader of the Justice Society of America, after which the husband-and-wife hellions were revived and re-imagined nine years later as Katar Hol and Shayera Thal of planet Thanagar. That was thanks to Julie Schwartz’s crack creative couple Gardner Fox & Joe Kubert – a space-age reinterpretation which even survived 1985’s winnowing Crisis on Infinite Earths. Their long career, regular revamps and perpetual retcons stalled during 1994’s Zero Hour crisis, but they’ve reincarnated and returned many times since. However, despite being amongst DC’s most celebrated and visually vibrant strips over the years, Hawkman & Hawkwoman always struggled to retain sufficient audience share to sustain their numerous solo endeavours.

This spectacular deluxe hardcover re-presentation of their formative years (collecting appearances from Flash Comics #1-22, spanning cover dates January 1940 to October 1941) opens with a fond reminiscence by artist Moldoff (Batman, Black Pirate, Sea Devils, Gang Busters, Mr. District Attorney, Moon Girl) in his Foreword before the magic begins as it should with Fox & Neville’s ‘The Origin of Hawkman’. In an first epochal episode, dashing Carter Hall is a playboy scientific tinkerer and part-time archaeologist with a penchant for collecting old, rare weapons, whose dormant memory is abruptly unlocked by an ancient crystal dagger newly purchased for his collection. Through dreams, the dilettante realises that once he had been Prince Khufu of ancient Egypt, murdered with his lover Shiera by Anubis’ High Priest Hath-Set. Moreover, with his newly returned memories, Hall realises the eternal struggle is primed to play out once more…

As if pre-destined, he bumps into equally reincarnated and recently-remembering Shiera Sanders just as a terrifying electrical menace turns New York City’s subway system into a lightning-fuelled killing field. The new couple soon deduce the deadly genius Doctor Hastor is their reborn ancient nemesis Hastor and, after fashioning an outlandish uniform and anti-gravity harness from mystic Egyptian “Ninth Metal”, Hall hunts the deranged electrical scientist to his lair. He’s just in time to save mesmerised Shiera from a second death-by-sacrifice: mercilessly ending the cycle – at least for now…

Flash #2’s ‘The Globe Conquerors’ concentrated on fantastic science as Hall & Saunders tackle a modern Alexander the Great who builds a gravity-altering engine in a ruthless quest to conquer the world, whilst ‘The Secret of Dick Blendon’ in #3 sees “The Hawk-Man” expose a wicked scheme by insidious slavers turning brilliant men into zombies for profit, to gather riches and to ferret out the secret of eternal life.

Sheldon Moldoff debuted as artist in Flash Comics #4, illustrating a splendidly barbarous thriller wherein the Winged Warrior clashes with ‘The Thought Terror’: a sinister mesmerist enslaving the city’s wealthy citizens, prior to ‘The Kidnapping of Ione Craig’ in #5 pitting the crimefighting phenomenon against “Asiatic” cultists led by legendary assassin Hassan Ibn Saddah. These killers are determined to stop a pretty missionary and secret agent from investigating distant “Araby”. Moldoff has received overly unfair criticism over the years for his frequent, copious but stylishly artistic swipes from newspaper strips – usually those of  master craftsmen Alex Raymond and Hal Foster – in his work of this period, but one look at the stunning results here as the feature took a quantum leap in visual quality should silence those quibblers for good.

Maintaining the use of exotic locales, the story extended in #6 as Hall and Ione struggle to cross burning Saharan sands to the African coast before defeating Arab slavers and their deadly ruler ‘Sheba, Queen of the Desert’ before in #7 further exploring the mystical and supernatural underpinnings of the strip. These readily lent themselves to spooky tales of quasi-horror and barbaric intensity. Generally, “The Eerie Unknown” and deluded dabblers in darkness were oft-used elements in Hawkman tales, as seen in ‘Czar, the Unkillable Man’, wherein the Avian Avenger, back in the USA and reunited with Shiera, contests a merciless golem animated by a crazed sculptor aiming to get rich at any cost. Issue #8 offered another deranged technologist as Professor Kitzoff – ‘The Sunspot Wizard’ – alters the pattern and frequency of solar blemishes to foment riot, madness and chaos on Earth… until the Winged Wonder intervenes, after which in ‘The Creatures from the Canyon’ Hawkman repels aquatic invaders living in the depths 5,000 feet below Manhattan Island after they decide to expand their ancient empire upwards…

Bidding for an old firearm at an auction in #10, Hall is inexorably drawn into a maddening murder-mystery and hunt for a lost Colorado goldmine in ‘Adventures of the Spanish Blunderers’, before ‘Trouble in Suburbia’ manifests after a hit-&-run accident draws plucky Shiera into a corrupt and convoluted property-scam. Boyfriend Carter is quite prepared to stand back and let her deal with the villains – even if Hawkman must exert some surreptitious muscle to close the case. Another murderous scam then involves an old High Society chum as ‘The Heart Patient’ reveals how a devious gold digger and a rogue doctor serially poison healthy young men to fleece them into paying for a cure, whilst in #13, ‘Satana, the Tiger Girl’ preys on admirers for far more sinister reasons: pitting Hawkman and Shiera against scientifically hybridised killer-cats…

‘The Awesome Alligator’ sees an elder god return to Earth, inspiring and equipping a lethal lunatic in a plot to conquer America with ancient secrets and futuristic super-weapons. None of those incredible threats could withstand cold fury and a well-wielded mace, however…

At this time the Pinioned Paladin usually dispatched foes of humanity with icy aplomb and single-minded ruthlessness, and such supernatural thrillers as #15’s ‘The Hand’ gave Fox & Moldoff ample scope to display the reincarnated warrior’s savage efficiency, as when he tracks down a sentient severed fist stealing and slaughtering at its inventive master’s command. In #16,‘The Graydon Expedition’ reinforces the hero’s crusading credentials after ferociously independent Shiera Saunders goes missing in Mongolia, and the Winged Wonder undertakes a one-man invasion of a fabulous lost kingdom to save her. Flash Comics #17 offered ‘Murder at the Opera’, putting the bold birdman on the trail of an arcane Golden Mummy Sect with a perilously prosaic origin and agenda, whilst #18 has him investigating skulduggery in the Yukon after the philanthropic Miss Saunders rushes north to offer aid to starving miners during ‘The Gold Rush of ’41’.

Evidently capable of triumphing in any environment or milieu, Hawkman next derailed deranged physicist Pratt Palmer in #19, when that arrogant savant attempts to become the overlord of crime using his deadly ‘Cold Light’ discoveries. One month later, ‘The Mad Bomber’ sees the Avian Ace ally with a racketeer to stop mad scientist Sathan destroying their city with remote-controlled aerial torpedoes, after which Hawkman must end the tragically terrible accidental rampage of an extraterrestrial foundling raised by a callous rival for Shiera’s affections in ‘Menace from Space’…

This high-flying compilation concludes with October 1941’s Flash Comics #22 and ‘The Adventure of the Killer Gang’, wherein stubborn Shiera witnesses a bloody hijacking and determines to make the bandits pay. Although she again helps Hawkman deal with the murderous vermin as a civilian here, big changes were in store for her…

Already in All Star Comics #5 (July 1941) she had first worn wings and a costume of her own, and in Flash Comics #24 (December 1941) she would at last become an equal partner in peril and fully-fledged hero: Hawkgirl. Sadly that’s a tale for another volume…

Exotic, engaging and fantastically inviting, these Golden Age adventures are a true high-point of the era and still offer astonishing thrills and chills. When all’s said and done it’s all about the heady rush of raw adventure, but there’s also a fabulous frisson of nostalgia here to wallow in: recapturing that magical full-sensorium burst of smell and feel and imagination-overload that finds kids at a perfect moment and provokes something visual and conceptual that almost literally blows the mind.

We re-read stories hoping to rekindle that instantly addictive buzz and constantly seek out new comics desperately hoping to recapture that pure, halcyon burst, and these lost mini-epics are phenomenally imbued with everything fans need to make that breathtaking moment happen. Hopefully DC will realise that one day soon and revive these compelling compulsive collections: either in solid form or at least as digital editions…
© 1940, 1941, 2005 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Superman: The Man of Steel volume 2


By John Byrne, Marv Wolfman, Paul Levitz, Jerry Ordway, Greg LaRoque, Erik Larsen, Karl Kesel, Dick Giordano, Keith Williams, Mike DeCarlo, Arne Starr, P. Craig Russell, Bob Smith, Jose Marzan Jr., John Beatty, India Inc. (Giordano, Kesel, Bob Lewis, Ordway, Russell, Smith, Robert Ian, Bill Wray), Kurt Schaffenberger & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-7795-0591-0 (HB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

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

They couldn’t have been more wrong.

It began with all Superman titles being “cancelled” (actually suspended) for three months, and yes, for the first time in decades, that did make the real-world media sit up and take notice of the character everybody thought they knew. However, there was method in this seeming corporate madness. The missing mainstays were replaced by a 6-part miniseries running from October to December 1986. Entitled Man of Steel, it was written and drawn by Marvel’s mainstream superstar John Byrne – fresh off a spectacular, groundbreaking run on Fantastic Four – inked by venerated veteran Dick Giordano. The bold manoeuvre was a huge and instant success. So much so that when it was first collected as a stand-alone compilation album in 1991, it became one of comics’ premiere “break-out” hits in the new format that would eventually become the industry standard for reaching mass readerships. Nowadays few people buy the periodical pamphlets but almost everybody has read a graphic novel…

From that overwhelming start the Action Ace seamlessly returned to his suspended comic book homes, enjoying the addition of a third monthly title that premiered that same month. Superman, Adventures of Superman, and Action Comics (which became a fan-pleasing team-up title guest-starring other favourites of the DC Universe, in the manner of the cancelled DC Comics Presents) were instant best-sellers. The back-to-basics approach lured many readers to – and, crucially back to – the Superman franchise, but the sheer quality of the stories and art are what convinced them to stay. Such cracking, clear-cut superhero exploits are a high point in the Action Ace’s decades-long career, and these collections are certainly the easiest way to enjoy one of the most impressive reinventions of a comic book icon.

So successful was the relaunch that by the early 1990’s Superman would be carrying four monthly titles as well as Specials, Annuals, guest shots and regular appearances in titles like Justice League – quite a turnaround from the earlier heydays of the Man of Steel when editors were frantic about never overexposing their meal-ticket.

In Superman’s 85th year of more-or-less consecutive and continuous publication, a new sequence of collections brought Byrne & Co.’s tales to a new generation of fans, and at long last we’re getting around to plugging the rest of them whilst adding our usual plea that the series continues and re-presents more of this wonderful material…

Spanning cover-dates May to December 1987 and re-presenting Superman #5-11, Action #588-593 and Adventures of Superman #429-435, plus crossover issues Legion of Super-Heroes #37-38 with relevant informative bio-pages from Who’s Who: The Definitive Directory of the DC Universe #13 & 23 and Who’s Who Update 1987 #2, 4-5, this monumental sequel compilation follows the Never-Ending Battle in unfolding, overlapping story order, not chronological release dates, and opens with ‘How Did I Get Here?’ – a reprinting of editor Mike Carlin’s introduction from a 2006 collection before the Actions and Adventures continue to unfold…

With Byrne’s so-very-controversial reboot of the world’s first superhero a solid smashing hit, the collaborative teams tasked with ensuring his continued success really hit their stride with the tales here, beginning with ‘The Mummy Strikes’ and ‘The Last Five Hundred’ (Byrne & inker Karl Kesel, from Superman #5-6). This introduces a first hint of romance between the Man of Tomorrow and Wonder Woman before Lois Lane and Clark Kent are embroiled in an extraterrestrial invasion that started half a million years ago, and features rogue robots and antediluvian bodysnatchers.

In ‘Old Ties’ (Adventures of Superman #429) Marv Wolfman & Jerry Ordway reveal the catastrophic repercussions of hidden race of alien telepaths the Circle transferring their expansionist attentions from rogue state Qurac to Metropolis, before segueing into a sidereal saga from Action Comics #588-589. Here Byrne & Giordano combine the Caped Kryptonian with Hawkman & Hawkwoman in ‘All Wars Must End’ – an epic battle against malign Thanagarian invaders – before meeting Arisia, Salaak, Kilowog, Katma Tui and other luminaries of the Green Lantern Corps who rescue the star-lost Superman in ‘Green on Green’ before uniting together and eliminating an unstoppable planet-eating beast.

Superman #7 by Byrne & Kesel follows ‘Rampage!’ as a petty male colleague sabotages a Metropolis lab experiment, accidentally mutating his boss Dr. Kitty Faulkner into a super-strong, rage-fuelled monstrosity. Thankfully, Superman is on hand and keeps a cool head, but only until Adventures of Superman #430 which sees the Metropolis Marvel ‘Homeward Bound!’ courtesy of Wolfman & Ordway before resorting to harsh measures in pitched battle against metahuman bandits the Fearsome Five. In Action Comics #590 Byrne & Giordano explored ‘Better Living Dying Through Chemistry’, wherein a bizarre toxic accident turns ambulatory waste dump Chemo into a giant Superman clone. Happily, its old adversaries The Metal Men are on hand to aid in the extremely violent clean-up…

As the ripples of Crisis on Infinite Earths pinged across the new DCU, there were a few bumps to smooth out that had missed being sorted during the big show. One of the most confusing was how the new Superman was never a costumed, crusading Boy of Steel. This epic tome includes two critical issues of Legion of Super-Heroes (#37-38) which outlines and resolves the dilemma that occurred after the Man of Tomorrow’s retcon eliminated his entire career and achievements as Superboy. The crossover event provided a classic back-writing exercise to solve an impossible post-Crisis paradox whilst giving us old geeks one chance to see a favourite character die in a way all heroes should…

Legion of Super-Heroes #37 (August 1987, by Paul Levitz, Greg LaRoque, Mike DeCarlo & Arne Starr) sets the scene for ‘A Twist in Time’ as a team of 30th century Legionnaires head back to 1960s Smallville to visit inspirational founding member Superboy only to find themselves attacked by their greatest ally and inspiration – the Time Trapper. The saga segues into Byrne & Kesel’s ‘Future Shock’ (Superman #8) as a strange squad of aliens appear in his beloved boyhood hometown. Mistaking Superman for Superboy, the Legionnaires attack, and after an inconclusive clash concludes, start piecing together an incredible act of villainy and cosmic manipulation that has made suckers of them all…

When a kill-crazed Superboy shows up the tale shifts to Action #491 as Byrne & Keith Williams reveal a ‘Past Imperfect’ where the youthful and adult Kal-Els butt heads until a ghastly truth is exposed, leading to Levitz, LaRoque & DeCarlo’s stunning and tragic conclusion in Legion of Super-Heroes #38, where the devious reality-warping mastermind behind the scheme falls to ignominious defeat at the hands of ‘The Greatest Hero of Them All’…

Back on solid ground and his own reality the one-&-only Superman then battles a new kind of maniac malcontent in ‘They Call Him… Doctor Stratos’ (Adventures of Superman #431 by Wolfman, Erik Larsen & embellishment tag-team “India Inc.”), delivering a crushing defeat to a weather-warping would-be god before Byrne & Kesel’s Superman #9 sees the Last Son of Krypton meet The Joker for the first time in a maniacally murderous battle of wits ‘To Laugh and Die in Metropolis’…

Accompanied by inker P. Craig Russell, Wolfman & Ordway open extended story arc Gangwar with ‘From the Streets, to the Streets!’ as a mystery mastermind foments chaos and teen unrest, with unsavoury tycoon Lex Luthor implicated. Social worker/troubled youth mentor Jose Delgado returns, but seems as helpless as Superman, Lois or Jimmy Olsen in saving Perry White’s son from a life of crime or imminent incarceration…

Inked by Keith Williams, Byrne teams the Man of Steel with Jack Kirby’s New Gods Big Barda and Mr. Miracle in fighting depraved Apokolips émigré Sleez during ‘A Walk on the Darkside’ and sequel ‘The Suicide Snare’ before channelling our hero’s pre-Crisis days in ‘The Super Menace of Metropolis’. Aided by Kesel, he reveals how Luthor tries to discredit the Action Ace by boosting his powers after which Bob Smith joins Ordway illustrating ‘A Tragedy in Five Acts’: the second part of Gangwar where escalating street chaos leads to a life-altering injury for Jose Delgado…

For Superman #11, Byrne & Kesel reintroduce a carefully revamped fifth dimensional prankster in wickedly barbed, in-joke drenched Mr. Mxyzptlk romp ‘The Name Game’, whilst in AoS #435,Wolfman, Ordway & José Marzan complete this collection’s comics section with Gangwar conclusion ‘Shambles’ – introducing mystery street hero Gangbuster, before #436’s ‘The Circle Turns’ finds Superman assaulted by psychic delusions thanks to the vengeful alien telepaths: two slower tales building on the strong continuity and character interactions that typified this incarnation of the Man of Tomorrow.

Bonus features this time include previous collection covers by Ordway, and augmenting the Costumed Dramas are more extracted character profiles from Who’s Who: The Definitive Directory of the DC Universe #13 & 23 and Who’s Who Update 1987 #2, 4-5, featuring Mr. Mxyzptlk, Rampage!, Superboy (Kurt Schaffenberger inks), The Legion of Super-Heroes (by LaRoque & Larry Mahlstedt), and Time Trapper (Keith Giffen & Rick A, Bryant) before a big bold pin-up of the Man of Steel ends the fun for now.

These superhero sagas are true a high point in the Man of Tomorrow’s near nine decades of existence and these astoundingly readable collections are certainly the easiest way to enjoy a stand-out reinvention of the ultimate comic-book icon.
© 1986, 1987, 2020 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Dear Justice League


By Michael Northrop & Gustavo Duarte, coloured by Ma Maiolo & lettered by Wes Abbott (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-8413-8 (PB/Digital edition)

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Comic Perfection and Ideal Stocking Stuffer… 10/10

Keystone of the DC Universe, the Justice League of America is the reason we have a comics industry today. After the actual invention of the comic book superhero – for which read the launch of Superman in June 1938 – the most significant event in the industry’s progress was the combination of individual sales-points into a group. Thus, what seems blindingly obvious to everyone blessed with four-colour hindsight was irrefutably proven: a number of popular characters combining forces can multiply readership. Plus of course, a whole bunch of superheroes is a lot cooler than just one – or even one and a sidekick…

The Justice Society of America is rightly revered as a landmark in industry development but faded and failed after tastes changed at the end of the 1940s. When Julius Schwartz began reviving and revitalising the nigh-defunct superhero genre in 1956 the true turning point came a few years later with the (inevitable?) teaming of his freshly reconfigured mystery men. When wedded to relatively unchanged costumed big guns who had weathered the first fall of the Superhero, the result was a new, modern, Space-Age version of the JSA and the birth of a new mythology.

The moment that changed everything for us baby-boomers came with The Brave and the Bold #28 (cover dated March 1960): a classical adventure title recently retooled as a try-out magazine like Showcase. Just in time for Christmas 1959, ads began running…

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

When the JLA launched it cemented the growth and validity of the genre, triggering an explosion of new characters at every company producing comics in America and even spread to the rest of the world as the 1960s progressed. Superheroics have waned since, but never gone away, and remain a trigger point for all us kids. However, comics have grown serious and mature, and we increasingly left the kids out of the equation, letting TV cartoons pick up the slack. Even the roster in this tale is informed as much by animation adventures as potent printed page-turners…

Well, superheroes are still kids’ stuff as this superb book – and its sequel – attest. An early entry in DC’s project to bring their characters back to young readers, Dear Justice League takes all the iconic riffs and paraphernalia attached to the team and comedically runs wild with a core conceit: the heroes individually answering emails – or other, older, lesser communications – from young fans with problems to share or questions needing answers.

Played strictly for laughs by Brazilian illustrator/slapstick maestro Gustavo Duarte (Bizarro, Monsters! and Other Stories link both please), the segmented saga is composed by author and journalist Michael Northrop (Trapped, Plunked, Gentlemen, TombQuest) who blends charm with wit and a great deal of heart for maximum effects.

It begins as long-suffering little Ben Silsby gets under some steel-hard skin by texting ‘Dear Superman’, whilst ‘Dear Hawkgirl’ distracts the winged wonder so much during an alien bug battle that she neglects her beloved hamster. Although old foe Black Manta is no problem, the Sea King reads a ‘Dear Aquaman’ question and must ponder hygiene issues to the point of upsetting Hall of Justice roommate Purdey (his goldfish)…

As the team convene to discuss big bug activity, a ‘Dear Wonder Woman’ direct message send the Amazing Amazon off on an embarrassing memory moment whilst ‘Dear Flash’ takes on bullies, poor concentration and bad parenting, ‘Dear Green Lantern’ trades fashion tips and colour swatches with grade school diva-to-be Shalene and ‘Dear Cyborg’ finds a different kind of opponent online and ready to rock…

Ultimate paranoid the Dark Knight doesn’t do email and must find another way to respond to a ‘Dear Batman’ that sets his sentimental heart and brutal boyhood into perspective, which all sets the scene for ET extermination excitement as the bug subplot rattling through all the vignettes boils over into all-ages cartoon action in blockbuster finale ‘Dear Justice League’…

Pure comics nostalgia writ large and hard hitting. Enjoy all you oldster kids…

Extra material includes creator biographies, the ‘Hall of Justice Top Secret Files (No Peeking!)’ of our heroes, and their animal ‘Auxiliary Members!’ before concluding with come-hither extracts from other kid-friendly books in the line (specifically the sequel plugged next) and Superman of Smallville by Art Baltazar & Franco.

Fun, deceptively thrilling and infinitely re-readable, this old school treat is a must have item for anyone who loves superheroes.
© 2019, DC Comics All Rights Reserved.

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Kingdom Come – New Edition



By Mark Waid & Alex Ross, with Todd Klein & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-9096-2 (TPB/Digital edition)

With documentary The Legend of Kingdom Come out and another commemorative edition scheduled for early next year, it’s time to revisit this modern classic once more and prep for all the furore to come. It’s also a damn fine read to amble into the festive season with…

In the mid-1960s a teenaged Jim Shooter wrote a couple of stories about the Legion of Super-Heroes set some years into the team’s own future. Those stories of adult Legionnaires revealed hints of things to come that shackled the series’ plotting and continuity for decades as eager, obsessed fans (by which I mean all of us) waited for the predicted characters to be introduced, presaged relationships to be consummated and heroes to die. By being so utterly impressive and similarly affecting, Kingdom Come accidentally repeated the trick decades later, subsequently painting the entire post Crisis on Infinite Earths DC Universe into the same creative corner until one of the company’s periodic continuity reboots unleashed possibility and uncertainty again…

Envisaged and designed by artist Alex Ross as DC’s answer to groundbreaking epic Marvels, Kingdom Come was originally released as a 4-issue Prestige Format miniseries in 1996 to rapturous acclaim and numerous awards and accolades. Although set in the future and an “imaginary story” released under DC’s Elseworlds imprint, it almost immediately began to affect the company’s mainstream continuity.

Set approximately 20 years into the future, the grandiose saga details a tragic failure and subsequent loss of Faith for Superman and how his attempt to redeem himself almost leads to an even greater and ultimate apocalypse. The events are seen through the eyes and actions of Dantean witness Norman McCay, an aging cleric co-opted by Divine Agent of Wrath the Spectre after the pastor officiates at the last rites of dying superhero Wesley Dodds. As the Sandman, Dodds was cursed for decades with precognitive dreams which compelled him to act as an agent of justice.

Opening chapter ‘Strange Visitor’ reveals a world where metahumans have proliferated to ubiquitous proportions: a sub-culture of constant, violent clashes between the latest generation of costumed villains and vigilantes, all unheeding and uncaring of the collateral damage they daily inflict on the mere mortals around and in all ways beneath them. The shaken preacher sees a final crisis coming, but feels helpless until the darkly angelic Spectre comes to him. Taken on a bewildering voyage of unfolding events, McCay is to act as the ghost’s human perspective whilst the Spirit of Vengeance prepares to pass final judgement on Humanity.

First stop is the secluded hideaway where farmer Kal-El has hidden himself since the ghastly events which compelled him to retire from the Good Fight and the eyes of the World. The Man of Tomorrow was already feeling like a dinosaur when newer, harsher, morally ambiguous mystery-men began to appear. After the Joker murdered the entire Daily Planet staff and hard-line new hero Magog consequently executed him in the street, the public applauded the deed. Heartbroken and appalled, Superman disappeared for a decade. His legendary colleagues also felt the march of unwelcome progress and similarly faded from sight.

With Earth left to the mercies of dangerously irresponsible new vigilantes, civil unrest escalated. The younger heroes displayed poor judgement and no restraint, with the result that within a decade the entire planet had become a chaotic arena for metahuman duels.

Civilisation was fragmenting. The Flash and Batman retreated to their home cities and made them secure, crime-free solitary fortresses. Green Lantern built an emerald castle in the sky, turning his eyes away from Earth and towards the deep black fastnesses of space. Hawkman retreated to the wilderness, Aquaman to his sub-sea kingdom whilst Wonder Woman retired to her hidden paradise. She did not leave until Armageddon came one step closer…

When Magog and his Justice Battalion battled the Parasite in St. Louis, the result was a nuclear accident which destroyed all of Kansas and much of Iowa, Missouri and Nebraska. Overnight the world faced starvation as America’s breadbasket turned into a toxic wasteland. Now with McCay and the Spectre invisibly observing, Princess Diana convinces the bereft Kal-El to return and save the world on his own terms…

In ‘Truth and Justice’ a resurgent Justice League led by Superman begins a campaign of unilateral action to clean up the mess civilisation has become: renditioning “heroes” and “villains” alike, imprisoning every dangerous element of super-humanity and telling governments how to behave, blithely unaware that they are hastening a global catastrophe of Biblical proportions as the Spectre invisibly gathers the facts for his apocalyptic judgement.

In the ensuing chaos, crippled warrior Bruce Wayne rejects Superman’s paternalistic, doctrinaire crusade and allies himself with mortal humanity’s libertarian elite – Ted (Blue Beetle) Kord, Dinah (Black Canary) Lance and Oliver (Green Arrow) Queen – to resist what can only be considered a grab for world domination by its metahuman minority. As helpless McCay watches in horror, Wayne’s group makes its own plans; one more dangerous thread in a tapestry of calamity…

At first Superman’s plans seem blessed to succeed, with many erstwhile threats flocking to his banner and his doctrinaire rules of discipline, but as ever there are self-serving villains with their own agendas. Lex Luthor organises a cabal of like-minded compatriots – Vandal Savage, Catwoman, Riddler, Kobra and Ibn Al Xu’ffasch (“Son of the Demon” Ra’s Al Ghul) – into a “Mankind Liberation Front”. With Shazam-empowered Captain Marvel as their slave, this group are determined the super-freaks shall not win. Their cause is greatly advanced once Wayne’s clique joins them…

‘Up in the Sky’ sees events spiral into catastrophe as McCay, still wracked by his visions of Armageddon, is shown the Gulag where recalcitrant metahumans are dumped. He also witnesses how it will fail, learns from restless spirit Deadman that The Spectre is the literal Angel of Death and watches with growing horror as Luthor’s plan to usurp control from the army of Superman leads to shocking confrontation, betrayal and a deadly countdown to the End of Days…

The deadly drama culminates in a staggering battle of superpowers, last moment salvation and a second chance for humanity in a calamitous world-shaking ‘Never-Ending Battle’…

Thanks to McCay’s simple humanity, the world gets another chance and this edition follows up with epilogue ‘One Year Later’ ending the momentous epic on a note of renewed hope…

This particular edition – released as a 20th Anniversary deluxe hardback, a standard trade paperback and in digital format – came with an introduction by author and former DC scribe Elliot S. Maggin, assorted cover reproductions and art-pieces, an illustrated checklist of the vast cast list plus a plethora of creative notes and sketches in the ‘Apocrypha’ section, and even hints at lost glories in ‘Evolution’: notes, photos and drawings for a restored scene that never made it into the miniseries. We will have to see what Kingdom Come DC Compact Comics Edition additionally offers when it’s released next May…

Epic, engaging and operatically spectacular, Kingdom Come is a milestone of the DC Universe and remains to this day a solid slice of superior superhero entertainment, worthy of your undivided attention.
© 1996, 2006, 2008, 2016, 2019 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Because Quality Counts …9/10

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Showcase Presents Hawkman volume 2


By Gardner F. Fox & Murphy Anderson, Bob Haney, Dick Dillon, Arnold Drake, Raymond Marais, Robert Kanigher, Denny O’Neill, Johnny Craig, Chuck Cuidera, Gil Kane, Sid Greene, Joe Giella, Joe Kubert & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-1817-1 (TPB)

After fighting long and hard to win his own title it was such a pity that time and fashion seemed to conspire against the Winged Wonder…

Katar Hol and his wife Shayera Thal were police officers on their own highly advanced planet of Thanagar. They originally travelled to Earth from the star system Polaris in pursuit of a shape-changing spree-thief named Byth but stayed to study Earth police methods in the cultural metropolis of Midway City. This all occurred in the wonderful ‘Creature of a Thousand Shapes’ in The Brave and the Bold #34 (cover-dated February/March 1961), but the public was initially resistant and it was three years and many further issues, guest-shots and even a back-up feature in Mystery in Space before the Winged Warriors finally won their own title.

Cover-dated April/May 1964, Hawkman #1 signalled the beginning of a superb run of witty, thrilling, imaginative and hugely entertaining science fiction, crime-mystery and superhero adventures that captivated the devoted but still painfully small audience. All those wonderful stories can be found in Showcase Presents Hawkman volume 1, and hopefully one day in proper full-colour archival editions both paper and pixel forms.

Until then there’s this second, concluding Showcase volume, reprinting in crisp efficient monochrome Hawkman (volume 1) #12-27, Brave and the Bold (volume 1) #70, The Atom (volume 1) #31 and avian portions of last-ditch combination-comic The Atom and Hawkman #39-45, spanning cover-dates February/March 1966 to November 1969.

All-out action and sci fi thrills and spills recommence with a large-scale cosmic epic that originally debuted in Hawkman #12. ‘The Million-Year-Long War!’ is pure Gardner Fox bravura storytelling, recounting how a Thanagarian exploration team awakens two aliens determined to kill each other even after eons of suspended animation. That reawakened enmity drove them both to possess all Thanagar, turning Hawkman’s homeworld into one huge weapon. As usual Fox’s imaginings are gloriously illustrated by Murphy Anderson (Superman, Atomic Knights, The Spectre, Captain Comet, Adam Strange, Korak, Son of Tarzan, John Carter of Mars, Buck Rogers) – as they would be until Julie Schwartz surrendered editorial control with issue #22.

Hawkman #13 offered startling time-bending saga ‘Quest of the Immortal Queen!’ wherein a Valkyrie from Earth’s far future opted to add the Winged Wonder to her seraglio of lusty warriors plucked from history. Happily, wife Shayera strenuously objects and is both smart and tough enough to sort things out. Fox’s treatment of female characters was highly unique for those pre-feminist times: all his heroines – a large number of them wives, not wishy-washy “girlfriends” – were capable, intelligent and most importantly, wholly independent and autonomous individuals.

Hawkgirl was written as every bit her husband’s equal. The Hawks had one of the most subtle and sophisticated relationships in the business. Like Sue and Ralph Dibney (Elongated Man & wife) Katar and Shayera were full partners (both couples clearly influenced by Nick and Nora Charles in The Thin Man movies) and the interplay between them was always rich in humour and warmth.

As a sign of the times, super-secret criminal conspirators C.A.W. (Criminal Alliance of the World) returned to seize control of the ‘Treasure of the Talking Head!’ This ancient computer was built before the birth of Christ and held all the world’s knowledge, and was a hard-won prize prior to the Pinioned Paladins facing a fantastic monster in ‘Scourge of the Human Race!’: an encounter revealing the true history of humanity when the last surviving specimen of Homo Sapiens’ earliest rival for mastery of the planet attempts to reverse evolution…

Hawkman #16’s ‘Lord of the Flying Gorillas!’ was a dimension-hopping sequel to issue #6 (‘World Where Evolution Ran Wild’): an incredible Lost Worlds romp combining secret history, fantastic fantasy and DC’s fabled fascination with apes and simians of every sort, whilst #17’s ‘Ruse of the Robbing Raven’ changed pace with a clever costumed crook caper. The issue also contained the first short back-up tale in over a year – another science-based whodunnit entitled ‘Enigma of the Escape-Happy Jewel Thieves!’

Hawkman then guest-starred – and clashed – with Batman in The Brave and the Bold #70 (February/March 1967). ‘Cancelled: 2 Super-Heroes’ was by Bob Haney, EC legend Johnny Craig & Charles “Chuck” Cuidera depicting the usually comradely crimebusters at each other’s throats due to the machinations of a manic millionaire who collected secret identities. Later that month in his own title the Winged Wonder teamed with Adam Strange against malevolent Manhawks to locate the ‘World That Vanished!’ The planet in question was Thanagar and when it went, it took beloved Shayera with it…

This colossal tale concluded in the next issue with the action-packed ‘Parasite Planet Peril!’ after which the Avian Ace joined his old ally in The Atom #31 for ‘Good Man, Bad Man, Turnabout Thief!’ (Fox, Gil Kane & Sid Greene) to battle a phantom super-criminal hidden within the brain of an innocent man. Katar Hol returned to home ground for Hawkman #20’s ‘Death of the Living Flame’: a classy anthropological tomb-raiding yarn and the introduction of a new and persistent foe in ‘Lion-Mane… the Tabu Menace!’

The alien-infected leonine marauder was back in the very next issue but ‘Attack of the Jungle Juggernaut!’– a typically classy thriller for Fox &Anderson – was their swan song. Admin trading saw them bowing out as Julius Schwartz moved to more important titles and – with #22 – George Kashdan took over Hawkman’s editorial reins. He tapped his go-to guys Haney, Dick Dillin & Cuidera to continue the adventures of the Winged Wonders in a market increasingly indifferent to costumed characters.

‘Quoth the Falcon… Hawkman Die!…’ certainly hit the ground running in a tale of extraterrestrial-induced paranoia and civil unrest, resulting in Hawkman revealing his secret identity and alien heritage to an increasingly hostile and intolerant Earth…

In #23 ‘The Hawkman from 1,000,000 B.C.!’ delivered another dark, moody tale wherein a mad scientist’s time-plundering ray inflicts dinosaurs, ancient warriors and an amnesiac Hawkman on the shell-shocked citizens of Midway City. Arnold Drake scripted alien invasion epic ‘The Robot-Raiders from Planet Midnight!’ and Haney resurfaced for ‘Return of the Death Goddess!’ offering Shayera Thal’s brief but ghastly possession by the ghost of the mythical Medusa…

The writing was on the wall by June-July 1968 and the prophetically entitled ‘Last Stand on Thanagar!’(#26  scripted by Raymond Marais), was a rushed inconsequential affair preceding final tale ‘…When the Snow-Fiend Strikes!’ which ended Hawkman’s solo career with a muddled tale of Communist agents and Yetis in the Himalayas.

The close of the 1960s were bad times for superheroes. Buying tastes had changed and a drop in comic sales and attendant rise of interest in supernatural themes prompted publishers to drop or amend much of the anti-horror provisions of the Comics Code Authority. Tales of mystery and imagination were returning after nearly a decade-and-a-half, but sales figures notwithstanding, Julie Schwartz had worked too hard to just let Hawkman die. Just as Marvel were converting their double-feature “split books” into solo titles, the Avian Ace was crammed into the equally-struggling Atom comic title for one last year of trying. Beginning with #39 (October/November 1968 and carrying on the numbering of the Tiny Titan’s title) The Atom and Hawkman featured some of Schwartz’s biggest creative guns, alternating short solo stories with shared adventures. The first of these was ‘Vengeance of the Silver Vulture!’: an epic clash against resurgent Mayan death-cultists written by Bob Kanigher, illustrated by Anderson & Joe Giella with cover art by Joe Kubert – who would also contribute interior art to the feature he struggled so long and hard to create.

Written by Fox, pencilled by Kubert and inked by Anderson, the Hawkman portion of #40 – ‘Man with the Inbuilt Panic Button!’ and its sequel ‘Yo-Yo Hangup in the Sky!’ from #41 – are one last splendid slice of the “Good Old Days”: an intriguing mystery about an ordinary man who suddenly develops the power of teleportation – but only from one life-threatening crisis to a greater one…

Denny O’Neil joined Dick Dillin & Sid Greene for ‘When the Gods Make Madness!’, a full-length team-up pitting heroes against Hindu gods, before Kanigher revived the Golden Age Hawkman’s greatest foe The Gentleman Ghost in 2-part saga ‘Come to my Hanging!’ and concluding clash ‘The Ghost Laughs Last’, both limned by Anderson.

The Atom and Hawkman #45 was the FINAL final issue: a revelatory psycho-drama by O’Neil, Dillin & Greene starring both heroes. It wrapped up their comic tenure and set them up with a prolonged series of further adventures to be seen in Justice League of America (a veritable lifeboat for cancelled costumed crime-fighters at that time) and later 1970s’ series like Secret Society of Super-Villains and Super Team Family.

‘Queen Jean, Why Must We Die?’ revealed the Atom’s fiancée Jean Loring was descended from aliens who had crashed on Earth in the Stone Age. Returned from sub-molecular exile, the modern-day survivors of the accident drove her insane because their hereditary rulers must be free of all care. The heroes rescue but not cure her, and this tale would provide the basis for Loring’s actions in later sagas Identity Crisis and Countdown to Final Crisis. Apart from the JLA, occasional guest-spots and back-up features in Action and Detective Comics that was it for the Winged Wonders until changing tastes and times gave them another, indeed many other, shots at the stars.

Hawkman briefly grew into one of the most iconic characters of the second superhero boom, not just for the superb art but also because of brilliant, subtle writing and incomparable imagination. These tales are comfortably familiar but grippingly timeless. Yet comics are a funny business; circumstances, tastes and fashions often mean that wonderful works are missed and unappreciated.

Don’t make the same mistake readers did in the 1960s. Together with its first volume this book captures and perfectly preserves the very essence of the Silver Age of Superheroes. Whatever your own vintage, read these astounding adventures and become a fan. It’s never too late.
© 1966, 1967, 1968, 1969, 2008 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.