Category: JLA

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All-Star Comics: Only Legends Live Forever


By Gerry Conway, Paul Levitz, Ric Estrada, Wally Wood, Keith Giffen, Joe Staton, Bob Layton, Joe Giella, Dave Hunt, Dick Giordano, Brian Bolland, Jim Aparo & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-7795-0071-7 (HB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Ageless Evergreen Super-Sensationalism… 8/10

In the torrid and turbulent 1970s many of the comics industry’s oldest publishing ideas were finally laid to rest. The belief that characters could be “over-exposed” was one of the most long-lasting (after all, it never hurt Superman, Batman or the original Captain Marvel), garnered from years of experience in an industry which lived or died on that fractional portion of pennies derived each month from pocket-money and allowances of kids that wasn’t spent on candy, toys or movies.

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

Explicitly: If one appearance per month was popular, extras, specials and second series would be more so. By the time Marvel Wunderkind Gerry Conway was preparing to leave The House of Ideas, DC was willing and ready to expand its variegated line-up with some oft-requested/demanded fan-favourite characters…

Paramount among these was the Justice Society of America, the first comic book super-team and a perennial gem whose annual guest-appearances in the Justice League of America had become an inescapable and beloved summer tradition. Thus in 1976 Writer/Editor Conway marked his second DC tenure (he had first broken into the game writing horror shorts for Joe Orlando) by reviving All Star Comics with number #58. In 1951, as the first Heroic Age ended, the key title had transformed overnight into All Star Western, with that numbering running for a further decade as home cowboy crusaders like Strong Bow, Trigger Twins, Johnny Thunder (a new “masked” do-gooder, not the Golden Age costumed idiot with a genie) and Super-Chief.

If you’re interested, among the other revivals/introductions in “Conway’s Corner” were perennial star Plastic Man, Blackhawk, The Secret Society of Super-Villains, Freedom Fighters, Kobra, Blitzkrieg – and many more.

In case you need reminding in their anniversary year: All Star Comics #3 (cover-dated Winter 1940-1941 and released in November 1940) is the officially cited kick-off for all Superteam tales, even if the assembled mystery men merely had dinner and recounted recent cases. They didn’t actually go on a mission together until ASC #4, which had an April 1941 cover-date and hit newsstands on February 7th.

Set on the parallel world of Earth-2, and in keeping with the editorial sense of ensuring the series be relevant to young readers too, Conway reintroduced a veteran team, leavened with a smattering of teen heroes, combined into a contentious, generation-gap fuelled Super Squad. These young whippersnappers included Robin (already a JSA-er since the mid-1960s and Justice League of America #55); Sylvester Pemberton AKA The Star-Spangled Kid (in actuality a boy-hero from the 1940s lost in time for decades) and – it must shamefully be said – a busty young thing who quickly became the feisty favourite of a generation of growing boys.

Kara Zor-L was attention grabbing in all the right and wrong ways and would soon become infamous as the “take-charge” pushy feminist dynamo Power Girl.

This titanic hardback and digital collection volume gathers that 4-year run of the JSA from the late 1970s into a sublime showcase of so-different, ever-changing times via All-Star Comics #58-74, plus the series’ continuation and conclusion from epic anthology title Adventure Comics (#461-466), and includes the seminal saga from DC Special #29 which, after almost four decades, finally provided the team with an origin…

Without preamble, the action begins with ‘Prologue’: a 3-page introduction/recap/summation of the Society’s history as well as the celestial mechanics of Alternate Earths, as crafted by Paul Levitz, Joe Staton & Bob Layton and first seen in Adventure #461, January/February 1979. This outlines the history and workings of DC’s parallel continuities, after which the first half of the 2-part debut tale from All-Star Comics #58 (January/February 1976 by Conway, Ric Estrada &Wally Wood) finds newly-inducted Pemberton chafing at his time-lost plight and revelling in new powers after being given a cosmic-energy device by retired JSA veteran Starman.

When a crisis propels him and elder heroes Flash, Dr. Mid-Nite, Wildcat, Green Lantern, Hawkman and Dr. Fate into a 3-pronged calamity devastating Seattle, Cape Town and Peking (which you youngsters now known as Beijing). With man-made natural disasters, everywhere the elder statesmen split up but are overwhelmed, giving the new kids a chance to shine in ‘All Star Super-Squad’. With abrasive, impatient Power Girl in the vanguard, the entire team is soon on the trail of old foe Degaton and his mind-bending ally in #59’s conclusion ‘Brainwave Blows Up!’

Keith Giffen replaced Estrada in #60 whilst introducing a psychotic super-arsonist who attacks the Squad just as the age-divide starts grating and PG begins ticking off (or “re-educating”) the stuffy, paternalistic JSA-ers in ‘Vulcan: Son of Fire!’. Closing instalment ‘Hellfire and Holocaust’ finds the flaming fury fatally wounding Fate before his own defeat, just as a new mystic menace is stirring…

Conway’s last issue as scripter was #62. ‘When Fall the Mighty’ highlights antediluvian sorcerer Zanadu who devastatingly attacks, even as the criminal Injustice Gang open their latest vengeful assault using mind-control to turn friend against friend. The cast subsequently expands with the return of Hourman and Power Girl’s Kryptonian mentor, but even they prove insufficient to prevent ‘The Death of Doctor Fate’ as written by Paul Levitz. Assaulted on all sides, the team splinters. Wildcat, Hawkman and the Kryptonian cousins tackle the rampant super-villains whilst Flash & Green Lantern search Egypt for a cure to Fate’s condition, and Hourman, Mid-Nite & Star-Spangled Kid desperately attempt to keep their fallen comrade alive.

When they fail Zanadu renews his assault, almost adding the moribund Fate’s death-watch defenders to his tally… until the archaic alien’s very presence calls Kent Nelson back from beyond the grave…

With that crisis averted, Superman makes ready to leave but is embroiled in a last-minute, manic time-travel assassination plot (Levitz script, and fully illustrated by inimitable Wally Wood) which drags the team and guest-star The Shining Knight from an embattled Camelot in ‘Yesterday Begins Today!’ to the far-flung future and ‘The Master Plan of Vandal Savage’: a breathtaking spectacle of drama and excitement that signalled Woody’s departure from the series.

Joe Staton & Bob Layton took the unenviable task of filling his artistic shoes, beginning with #66 as ‘Injustice Strikes Twice!’ wherein the reunited team – sans Superman – fall prey to ambush by arch-enemies, whilst emotion-warping Psycho-Pirate starts twisting GL Alan Scott into an out-of-control menace determined to crush Corporate America beneath his emerald heel. This subsequently leads to the return of Earth-2’s Bruce Wayne, who had previously retired his masked persona to become Gotham’s Police Commissioner. In ‘Attack of the Underlord!’ (All-Star Comics #67, July/August 1977), the Injustice Society’s monstrous allies are revealed as subterranean conquerors who nearly end the team forever. Meanwhile, Wayne’s plans near fruition. He wants to shut down the JSA before their increasingly destructive exploits demolish his beloved city…

Contemporary continuity pauses here as the aforementioned case from DC Special #29 (September 1977) discloses ‘The Untold Origin of the Justice Society’ in an extra-length epic set in 1940. Here Levitz, Staton & Layton reveal previously classified events which saw Adolf Hitler acquire the mystical Spear of Destiny and immediately summon mythical Teutonic Valkyries to aid in the invasion of Britain. Alerted to the threat, US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt – hampered by his country’s neutrality – unofficially asks a select band of masked mystery-men to lend their aid as non-political, private citizens.

In a cataclysmic escalation, the struggle ranges from the heart of Europe throughout the British Isles and even to the White House Oval Office before ten bold costumed champions finally – albeit temporarily – stymy the Nazis’ plans…

Back in All Star #68 (October 1977) the Kryptonian Kid was clearly becoming top star of the show. ‘Divided We Stand!’ (Levitz, Staton & Layton) concludes the Psycho-Pirate’s scheme to discredit and destroy the JSA, and sets the scene for her first solo outing in Showcase #97-99 (which is not included here). Meanwhile GL resumes a maniacal rampage through Gotham and Police Commissioner Wayne takes extreme measures to bring the seemingly out-of-control JSA to book. With ASC #69’s ‘United We Fall!’, he reunites in his own team of retired JSA stars to arrest the rogue squad, resulting in a classic fanboy dream duel as Dr. Fate, Wildcat, Hawkman, Flash, GL & Star-Spangled Kid battled the original Batman, Robin, Hourman, Starman, Dr. Mid-Nite and Wonder Woman. It’s a colourful catastrophe in waiting until PG & Superman intervene to reveal the true cause of all that unleashed madness.

… And in the background, a new character was about to make a landmark debut…

With order restored ‘A Parting of the Ways!’ spotlights Wildcat and Star-Spangled Kid as the off-duty heroes stumble upon high-tech super-thieves Strike Force. These bandits initially prove too much for the pair – and even new star The Huntress – but with a pair of startling revelations in ‘The Deadliest Game in Town!’ the trio finally triumph. In the aftermath, the Kid resigns and the daughter of Batman & Catwoman replaces him…

All-Star Comics #72 reintroduces a brace of classic Golden Age villainesses in ‘A Thorn by Any Other Name’ – wherein the psychopathic floral fury returns to poison Wildcat, leaving Helena Wayne to battle the original 1940’s Huntress for an antidote and rights to the name. With Joe Giella taking over the inker’s role, concluding chapter ‘Be it Ever So Deadly’ sees the whole team deployed as Huntress battled Huntress whilst Thorn and The Sportsmaster do their deadly best to destroy the heroes and their loved ones. Meanwhile in Egypt, Hawkman & Dr. Fate stumble upon a deadly ancient menace to all of reality…

The late 1970s was a perilous period for comics, with exponentially rising costs inevitably resulting in drastically dwindling sales. Many titles were abruptly cancelled in a “DC Implosion” and All-Star Comics was one of the casualties. Issue #74 was the last, pitting the reunited Society against a mystic Armageddon perpetrated by a nigh-omnipotent Master Summoner who orchestrated a ‘World on the Edge of Ending’ before the JSA triumphantly dragged victory from the jaws of defeat…

Although the book was gone, the series continued in 68-page anthology title Adventure Comics, beginning in #461 (January/February 1979) with the first half of a blockbuster tale originally intended for the anniversary 75th issue. Drawn & inked by Staton, ‘Only Legends Live Forever’ details the Batman’s last case as the Dark Knight comes out of retirement to battle a seeming nonentity who has mysteriously acquired god-like power. Adventure #462 delivered the heartbreaking conclusion in ‘The Legend Lives Again!’ before AC #462’s ‘The Night of the Soul Thief!’ sees Huntress, Robin and assembled Society members deliver righteous justice to the mysterious mastermind who actually orchestrated the death of the World’s Greatest Detective…

For #464, an intriguing insight into aging warrior Wildcat reveals ‘To Everything There is a Season…’ as Ted Grant embraces his own mortality and begins a new career as a teacher of heroes, before ‘Countdown to Disaster!’ (inked by Dave Hunt) finds Flash, Green Lantern, Hawkman, Power Girl, Huntress & Dr. Fate hunting a doomsday device lost amidst Gotham’s teeming masses. It would be the last modern outing of the team for years to come…

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

Upping the gaudy glory quotient, a team pin-up by Staton & Dick Giordano and two earlier collection covers from Brian Bolland cap off the costumed dramas.

Although perhaps a tad dated now, these exuberant, rapid-paced, imaginative yarns perfectly blend the naive charm of Golden Age derring-do with cynical modern sensibilities. Here you will be reassured that no matter what, in the end our heroes will always find a way to save the day. Such classic spectacles from simpler times are a glorious example of traditional superhero storytelling at its finest: fun, furious, ferociously engaging, excitingly written and beguilingly illustrated. No Fights ‘n’ Tights fan should miss these marvellous sagas.
© 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, 2019 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

Today in 1912 Cliff Sterrett’s astounding strip Polly and Her Pals ran in US papers for the first time, and in 1921 artist Art Saaf was born – someone else you’ve probably enjoyed without even knowing it, so go learn about him too.

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Justice Society of America: A Celebration of 75 Years


By Gardner Fox, Robert Kanigher, John Broome, Denny O’Neil, Paul Levitz, Roy Thomas, Len Strazewski, James Robinson, David Goyer, Geoff Johns, Mike Sekowsky, Dick Dillin, Joe Staton, Rich Buckler, Jerry Ordway, Arvell Jones, Mike Parobeck, William Rosado, Stephen Sadowski, Alex Ross, Dale Eaglesham & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-5531-2 (HB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Timeless, Remorseless, Evergreen… 8/10

After the actual invention of the comic book superhero – via the Action Comics debut of Superman in June 1938 – the most significant event in our industry’s history was the combination of individual stars into a like-minded group. Thus, what seems blindingly obvious to us with the benefit of four-colour hindsight was proven: consumers couldn’t get enough of garishly-hued mystery men, and combining a multitude of characters inevitably increases readership. Plus, of course, a mob of superheroes is just so much cooler than one… or one-and-a-half if there’s a sidekick involved…

The creation of the Justice Society of America in 1940 utterly changed the shape of the budding industry. Following the runaway success of Superman and Batman (and other stars at other publishers!), both National Comics and its separate-but-equal publishing partner All American Comics went looking for the next big thing in funnybooks whilst frantically concentrating on getting anthology packages into the hands of a hungry readership. Thus All Star Comics was conceived as a joint venture affording characters already in their respective stables an extra push towards winning elusive but lucrative solo titles.

Technically, All Star Comics #3 (cover-dated Winter 1940-1941 and released in November 1940) was the kick-off, but the mystery men featured merely had dinner and recounted recent cases and didn’t actually go on a mission together until #4, which had an April 1941 cover-date and hit newsstands on February 7th.

Although itself a little bit vintage, this superb commemoration from 2015 cannily compiles significant exploits of the pioneering paragons: specifically All–Star Comics #4, 37, 55; Justice League of America #21, 22, 30, 47, 82, 83, 193; Adventure Comics #466; All-Star Squadron #67; Justice Society of America #10; JSA Returns: All–Star Comics #2; JSA #25; Justice Society of America vol. 2 #10 and Earth 2 #6, and – like all these generational tomes – follows a fixed pattern by dividing into chapters curated by contextual essays.

Here Roy Thomas’s history-packed treatise describes how leading characters from National-DC’s Adventure Comics and More Fun Comics and All-Star Publishing’s Flash Comics and All-American Comics were first bundled together in an anthological quarterly. Back then ‘A Message from the Editors’ asked readers to vote on the most popular…

The merits of the marketing project would never be proved: rather than a runaway favourite graduating to their own starring vehicle as a result of the poll, something radically different evolved. For the third issue, prolific scribe Gardner F. Fox apparently had the bright idea of linking all the solo stories by a framing device, with the heroes gathering to chat about their latest exploits. With that simple notion that mighty mystery men hung out together, history was made and it wasn’t long before they started working collaboratively as well as collegiately…

The anniversary amazement opens with Part I 1941-1950: For America and Democracy honing in on those early moments, as All Star #4 eventually unites the costumed community ‘For America and Democracy’ with Fox and artists EE Hibbard, Martin Nodell, Bernard Baily, Howard Sherman, Chad Grothkopf, Sheldon Moldoff & Ben Flinton relating solo cases for Flash, Green Lantern, The Spectre, Hourman, Doctor Fate, The Sandman, The Atom, Hawkman and Johnny Thunder which coincide, converge and result in a concerted attack on Nazi espionage master Fritz Klaver…

Pattern set, the heroes marched on against all foes from petty criminals to social injustice; aliens, mobsters and magical invaders until post-war tastes began shifting the formula…

With post-war tensions abated All Star Comics #37 (1947) introduced ‘The Injustice Society of the World’ (November 1947) in a yarn by Robert Kanigher, Irwin Hasen, Joe Kubert, Alex Toth, Carmine Infantino & John Belfi. This sinister saga sees America almost conquered by a coalition of supervillains before our on-the-ropes mystery men counterattack and triumph.

As superheroes plummeted in popularity, genre themes predominated and it was a stripped-down team (Flash, GL, Wonder Woman, Black Canary, Hawkman, Atom and Dr. Mid-Nite) who faced a flying saucer scare in #55: scouring outer space for ‘The Man Who Conquered the Solar System!’ (October/November 1955 by John Broome, Frank Giacoia, Arthur F. Peddy & Bernard Sachs).

Thomas then turns up again for another educational chat as Part II 1963-1970: The Silver Age of Crisis focuses on the era that changed comics forever.

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

It all began, naturally enough, in The Flash: trailblazing trendsetter of the Silver Age Comics Revolution. After successfully ushering in the return of the superheroes, the Scarlet Speedster – with Fox & Broome at the writing reins – set an unbelievably high standard for costumed adventure in sharp, witty tales of science and imagination, illustrated with captivating style and clean simplicity by Carmine Infantino.

The epochal epic that forever changed the scope of American comics was Fox’s ‘Flash of Two Worlds’ (Flash #123 September 1961 and not included here), establishing the existence of Infinite alternate Earths, multiple versions of costumed crusaders, and – by extension – the multiversal structure of the DCU. Every succeeding, cosmos-shaking annual summer “Crisis” saga grew from it. Fan pressure almost instantly agitated for the return of more “Golden Age Greats” but Editorial bigwigs were hesitant, fearing too many heroes would be silly and unmanageable, or worse yet, put readers off. If they could see us now…

These innovative crossover yarns generated an avalanche of popular and critical approval (big sales figures, too) so inevitably the trans-dimensional tests led to the ultimate team-up in the summer of 1963. A gloriously enthralling string of JLA/JSA convocations and stunning superhero wonderments begin with landmark opening salvoes ‘Crisis on Earth-One’ and ‘Crisis on Earth-Two’ (Justice League of America #21-22, August to September). In combination they comprise one of the most important stories in DC history and arguably one of the most crucial tales in American comics.

Written by Fox and compellingly illustrated by Mike Sekowsky & Bernard Sachs, the yarn sees a team of villains from each Earth plundering at will; meeting and defeating the mighty Justice League before imprisoning them in their own secret mountain HQ. Temporarily helpless “our” heroes contrive a desperate plan to combine forces with champions of another Earth to save the world – both of them – and the result is pure comic book majesty. It’s impossible for me to be totally objective about this saga. I was a drooling kid in short trousers when I first read it and the thrills haven’t diminished with this umpty-first re-reading.

This is what superhero comics are all about!

The second team-up is only represented by the concluding chapter ‘The Most Dangerous Earth of All!’ Justice League of America #30 (September 1964) reprised the team-up of League and Society, after (evil) versions of our heroic champions, and crucially beings from a third alternate Earth, discover the secret of trans-universal travel. Unfortunately, Ultraman, Owlman, Superwoman, Johnny Quick & Power Ring come from a world without heroes and only see the crimebusting JLA and JSA as living practice dummies to sharpen their evil skills upon…

With this cracking thriller the annual summer get-together became entrenched in heroic lore, giving fans endless entertainment for years to come and making the approaching end of school holidays less gloomy than they could have been.

The fourth annual event was a touch different: flavoured by self-indulgent humour as a TV show drove the wider world bats. Veteran inker Bernard Sachs retired before the fourth team-up, leaving the superb Sid Greene to embellish a gloriously whacky saga springing out of the global “Batmania” craze engendered by the twice-weekly Batman series…

A wisecracking campy tone was fully in play, acknowledging the changing audience profile and this time stakes were raised to encompass destruction of both planets in ‘Crisis Between Earth-One and Earth-Two’ (not reprinted here) and ‘The Bridge Between Earths’ (Justice League of America #47, September 1966), wherein a bold but poorly judged continuum-warping experiment drags two Earths towards inexorable hyper-space collision. Meanwhile, making matters worse, an awesome anti-matter entity uses the opportunity to break into and explore our positive matter universe whilst two worlds’ heroes are distracted by destructive rampages of monster-men Blockbuster and Solomon Grundy.

Peppered with wisecracking “hip” dialogue, it’s sometimes difficult to discern what a superb yarn this actually is, but if you can forgive or swallow the dated patter, this is one of the best plotted and illustrated stories in the entire canon. Furthermore, the vastly talented Greene’s expressive subtlety, beguiling texture and whimsical humour add unheard-of depth to Sekowsky’s pencils and Fox’s light & frothy comedic scripts.

The exercise in fantastic nostalgia continues with both chapters of a saga wherein alien property speculators seek to simultaneously raze Earths One and Two in ‘Peril of the Paired Planets’ (#82 August 1970 by O’Neil, Dillin & Joe Giella) and only the ultimate sacrifice by a true hero averts transdimensional disaster in ‘Where Valor Fails… Will Magic Triumph?’ (#83 September)…

Part III: Bronze Age and Beyond 1971-1986 returns to independent status and stories as – following another pertinent briefing from Thomas – we focus on a time when the team was on its second career after decades in retirement. Set on parallel world Earth-2, the veterans are leavened with teen heroes, combined into a contentious, generation-gap fuelled “Super Squad”. Those youngsters included grown up Robin, Sylvester Pemberton – The Star-Spangled Kid (a 1940s teen superhero lost in time for decades) and a busty young thing who quickly became the feisty favourite of a generation of growing boys: Kara Zor-L – AKA Power Girl.

It starts with a little history lesson as Paul Levitz & Joe Staton reveal how and why the JSA went away. In ‘The Defeat of the Justice Society’ (from Adventure Comics #466 December, 1979) they expose the reason why the team vanished at the beginning of the 1950s as the US government cravenly betrays its greatest champions during Joe McCarthy’s witch-hunts: provoking mystery men into voluntarily withdrawing from public heroic life for over a decade… until the costumed stalwarts of Earth-One started the whole Fights ‘n’ Tights scene all over again.

When Roy Thomas left Marvel for DC, he made a lifetime wish come true by writing his dream team… sort of. Justice League of America #193 (August 1981) featured a “Prevue” insert minicomic featuring the ‘All-Star Squadron’. Thomas, Rich Buckler & Jerry Ordway launched a series of new stories set in the immediate aftermath of the Pearl Harbor attack, told in real time and integrating previously published Golden Age tales into an overarching continuity. Here the JSA were augmented by contemporaries from other companies acquired by DC over the years – like Plastic Man, Firebrand and Uncle Sam – with minor DC stalwarts like Liberty Belle, Johnny Quick and Robot Man. The prequel tells of December 6th 1941 and how JSA heroes are attacked by villains from their own future as a mastermind seeks to alter history, leaving President Franklin Delano Roosevelt to issue a clarion call to all of Democracy’s other champions.

After an impressive and entertaining 5 year run that skilfully negotiated rewriting much continuity during Crisis on Infinite Earths, the series ended with All-Star Squadron #67 (March 1987) as Thomas, Arvell Jones & Tony DeZuñiga recondition ‘The First Case of the Justice Society of America’ (from All Star #4) revealing how Nazi Fritz Klaver met justice…

Industry insider Ivan Cohen then explains how things changed after the Crisis as a taster for Part IV: The JSA Returns 1992-2007. We open with the last issue of Justice Society of America volume 1 (#10, May 1993) – a series that concentrated on adventures of the aging heroes in modern times. ‘J.S.A. No More?’ by Len Strazewski, Mike Parobeck & Mike Machlan closed a superb, joyously fun run with geriatric wonders polishing off ancient mage Kulak to save humanity from an army of unquiet ghosts and zombies…

The heroes were re-rebooted six years later via a series of one-shots bracketed by a 2-issue miniseries. Here James Robinson, David Goyer, William Rosado, John Dell & Ray Kryssing conclude a WWII-set campaign against mystic marauder Stalker with ‘The JSA Returns, Conclusion: Time’s Arrow’ from JSA Returns: All-Star Comics #2 (Late May 1999).

All that attention led to a spectacular new series, winning new fans for the old soldiers by turning the team into a mentoring service for young superheroes. It must have been hard to select a sample from that era, but here its ‘The Return of Hawkman: Seven Devils’ (JSA #25, August 2001 by Goyer, Geoff Johns, Stephen Sadowski, Michael Bair, Dave Meikis, Paul Neary & Rob Leigh).

But first, a slight digression…

Hawkman is one of the oldest, most revered heroes ever published, premiering in Flash Comics #1 (January 1940). Although created by Fox & Dennis Neville, the most celebrated artists to have drawn the Winged Wonder are Sheldon Moldoff and Joe Kubert, whilst a young Robert Kanigher was justly proud of his later run as writer. Carter Hall was a playboy archaeologist until he uncovered a crystal knife that unlocked submerged memories. He realised that once he had been Prince Khufu of ancient Egypt, and that he and his lover Shiera had been murdered by High Priest Hath-Set. Moreover, with his returned memories came knowledge that his love and his killer were also nearby. Using past life knowledge, Hall fashioned a costume and flying harness, hunting his killer as The Hawkman.

Once his aim was achieved, he and Shiera maintained their Mystery-Man roles to fight modern crime and tyranny with weapons of the past. Disappearing as the Golden Age ended, they were revived by Julie Schwartz’s crack creative team in the 1960s, but after a long career involving numerous revamps and retcons, the Pinioned Paladin “died” in the Zero Hour crisis.

The interconnection between all those iterations is resolved after time-lost Jay The Flash Garrick awakens in ancient Egypt, and learns from Nabu (the Lord of Order who created Doctor Fate, Black Adam and Khufu himself) the true origins of Hawkman. Meanwhile in the 21st century, the modern Hawkgirl discovers connections to alien cop Katar Hol, the Hawkworld of Thanagar and true power of empowering Nth Metal…

When Hawkgirl is abducted to aforementioned Thanagar by its last survivors, desperate to thwart the schemes of insane death-demon Onimar Synn, the JSA frantically follow and Carter Hall makes his dramatic return from beyond to save the day in typical fashion: leading the team to magnificent victory in this concluding chapter…

There had been many attempts to formally revive the team’s fortunes but it wasn’t until 1999, on the back of both a highly successful rebooting of the JLA by Grant Morrison & Howard Porter and James Robinson’s seminal but critically favoured modern Starman, that the multi-generational team found a new mission and fan-base big enough to support them. As the century ended the original superteam returned and have been with us in one form or another ever since.

Called to order after Infinite Crisis and Identity Crisis, this JSA saw surviving heroes from WWII as teachers for the latest generation of champions and metahuman “legacy-heroes”: a large, cumbersome but nevertheless captivating assembly of raw talent, uneasy exuberance and weary hard-earned experience. Taken from truly epic storyline ‘Thy Kingdom Come’, Geoff Johns, Alex Ross, Dale Eaglesham, Ruy Jose & Drew Geraci’s ‘What a Wonderful World’ comes from Justice Society of America (vol. 2 #10; November 2007). It expands clarifies and builds on heroes introduced in the landmark 1996 Mark Waid & Alex Ross miniseries Kingdom Come, and belated sequel The Kingdom.

The elder Kal-El from that tragic future dystopia has crossed time and dimensions to stop his world ever forming, and not even awakened god Gog or his new allies will stop him. ‘What a Wonderful World’ sees Tomorrow’s Man of Steel disclose how heroes and their successors almost destroyed the planet (with flashback sequences painted by Ross) before (another) Starman explains his own connection to all the realms of the multiverse. Initially suspicious, the JLA come to accept the elder Man of Steel, but elsewhere, a deadly predator begins eradicating demi-gods and pretenders to divinity throughout the globe…

Having grown too large and unwieldy again, DC’s continuity was again pruned and repatterned in 2011, founding a New 52 as sampled here in concluding segment Part IV: Revamp 2012. Accompanied by another Cohen text briefing, ‘End Times’ (Robinson, Nicola Scott & Trevor Scott) comes from Earth 2 #6 (January 2012) with a recreated JSA operating on a restored alternate Earth, but one where an attack from Apokolips has created a living hell for the survivors of humanity. Only a small group of metahumans such as Flash, Hawkgirl and Green Lantern are keeping humanity alive and free…

With covers by Hibbard, Irwin Hasen, Arthur F. Peddy & Bernard Sachs, Sekowsky, Murphy Anderson, Joe Giella, Neal Adams, Dick Dillin, George Pérez, Tom Grindberg & Tony DeZuñiga, Mike Parobeck, Dave Johnson, Andrew Robinson, Alex Ross, Ivan Reis & Joe Prado, this magnificent celebration of the premiere super-team is a glorious march down memory lane no fan can be without. If you cherish tradition, this titanic tome must be yours…
© 1941, 1947, 1950, 1963, 1964, 1966, 1970, 1979, 1981, 1986, 1992, 1999, 2001, 2007, 2012, 2015, DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

Today in 1919, Golden Age art star Gill Fox was born, whilst in 1953 strip paragon Milt (Count Screwloose of Tooloose) Gross passed on. You can see his whacky wonderment by checking out He Done Her Wrong.

Scribe supreme Greg Rucka was born in 1969 and this week we love his Stumptown stuff most. Go find Stumptown volume 1: The Case of the Girl Who Took her Shampoo (But Left her Mini) to see why. Lastly, the astounding Fran Hopper died today in 2017, She mostly drew for Fiction House from the industry’s earliest days and cleared a path for so many other women in what so wanted to be a white-boys-only club…

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DC Finest: Super Friends – The Fury of the Super Foes


By E. Nelson Bridwell, Denny O’Neil, Ramona Fradon, Kurt Schaffenberger, Ric Estrada, Alex Toth, Joe Orlando, Bob Smith, Vince Colletta with Dick Giordano, Curt Swan & Geoge Klein & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-79950-316-3 (TPB)

This book contains Discriminatory Content produced during less enlightened times.

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Evergreen Superhero Sagas For All… 9/10

Once upon a time comics were primarily created with kids in mind. Whilst I’d never advocate exclusively going back to those days, the modern industry has for the longest time sinned by not fully addressing the needs and tastes of younger fans these days. By that I mean less tie-ns and more accessible standard stoires like Marvel Adventures material or this stuff here.

Happily, DC has latterly been rectifying the situation with new and – most importantly for old geeks like me – remastered, repackaged age-appropriate gems from their vast back catalogue.

A superb case in point of all-ages comics done right is this tome celebrating the joys of childhood when comics and TV shows were interchangeable in kids’ head. It was all one great big dangerous fun world to save or conquer…

DC Finest: Super Friends:- The Fury of the Super Foes gathers comic book tales spun off from a hugely popular Saturday Morning TV Cartoon show: one that, thanks to the canny craftsmanship and loving invention of lead scripter E. Nelson Bridwell, became an integral and unmissable component of the greater pre Crisis on Infinite Earths DC Universe.

It was also one of the most universally thrilling and satisfying superhero titles of the period: featuring the smart, witty, straightforward adventures people my age grew up with, produced during a period when the entire industry was increasingly losing itself in colossal continued storylines and bombastic, convoluted, soap opera melodrama.It’s something all creators should have tattooed on their foreheads: sometimes all you really want is a smart plot well illustrated, sinister villains well-smacked, a solid resolution and early bed…

TV show Super Friends ran (under various iterations) from 1973 to 1986; starring primarily Superman, Batman and Robin, Wonder Woman, Aquaman and a brace of studio-originated kids as student crimebusters. The cast was supplemented by guest stars from the DCU on a case by case basis. The animated series made the transition to print as part of the publisher’s 1976 foray into “boutiqued” comics which saw titles with a television connection cross-marketed as DC TV Comics.

Child-friendly Golden Age comic book revival Shazam!- the Original Captain Marvel had been adapted into a successful live action series and its Saturday Morning silver screen stablemate The Secrets of Isis consequently reversed the process to become a comic book. With the additions of hit comedy show Welcome Back Kotter and animated blockbuster Super Friends four-colour format, DC had a neat outreach imprimatur tailor-made to draw viewers into the magic word of funnybooks.

At least that was the plan: with the exception of Super Friends none of the titles lasted more than ten issues beyond their launch…

This massive mega-extravaganza collects Super Friends #1-26 (spanning November 1976 to November 1979), includes promo comic Aquateers Meet the Super Friends and reprints material from Limited Collectors’ Edition #C-41 and C-46.

The fun begins a crafty 2-part caper by the wondrous E. Nelson Bridwell and illustrators Ric Estrada, Vince Colletta & Joe Orlando. ‘The Fury of the Super Foes’ finds heroes-in-training Wendy & Marvin – and their incredibly astute mutt Wonderdog – studying at the palatial Hall of Justice, even as elsewhere, a confederation of villains prove imitation is the sincerest form of flattery… if not outright intellectual theft. Having auditioned a host of young criminals, The Penguin, Cheetah, Flying Fish, Poison Ivy and Toyman are creating a squad of sidekicks and protégés to follow in their felonious footsteps. Now Chick, Kitten, Sardine, Honeysuckle and Toyboy are all ready and willing to carry out their first caper…

When the giant “Troubalert” screen informs our heroes of a 3-pronged attack on S.T.A.R. Labs’ latest inventions, the team split up to tackle the crises, but are thoroughly trounced until Wendy & Marvin break curfew to help them. As a result of the clash, Chick and Kitten are brought back to the Hall of Justice, but their talk of repentance is a rascally ruse and they secretly sabotage vital equipment. Thankfully, Wonderdog has seen everything and quickly finds a way to inform the still-oblivious good guys in issue #2, but too late to prevent the Super Friends being briefly ‘Trapped by the Super Foes’…

Aided and abetted by inker Bob Smith, the incomparable Ramona Fradon (Aquaman; Metamorpho the Element Man; Brenda Starr, Reporter) became penciller with #3, as ‘The Cosmic Hit Man?’ sees 50 intergalactic super-villains murdered by infernal Dr. Ihdrom, who then blends their harvested essences to create an apparently unbeatable hyper-horror to utterly overwhelm Earth’s heroic defenders. However, he falls victim to his own arrogance and Wendy & Marvin’s logical deductions…

‘Riddles and Rockets!’ sees the Super Friends overmatched by new ne’er-do-well Skyrocket whilst simultaneously seeking to cope with a rash of crimes contrived by King of Conundra The Riddler. Soon a pattern emerges and a criminal connection is confirmed…

Author Bridwell (Secret Six; Inferior Five; Batman; Superman; The Flash; Legion of Super-Heroes; Captain Marvel/Shazam!) was justly famed as DC’s Keeper of Lore and top Continuity Cop thanks to his astoundingly encyclopaedic knowledge of its publishing minutiae and ability to instantly recall every damn thing! ‘Telethon Treachery!’ gave him plenty of scope to display it with a horde of near-forgotten guest-stars joining the heroes as they host a televised charity event. Sadly, money-mad menace Greenback lurks in the wings, awaiting his moment to grab the loot and kidnap the wealthiest donors. Then The Atom (Ray Palmer) plays a crucial role in stopping the depredations of an animal trainer using beasts as bandits in ‘The Menace of the Menagerie Man!’ before a huge cast change is unveiled in #7 (October 1977) with ‘The Warning of the Wondertwins’…

You all know TV is very different from comics. When the next season of Super Friends aired, Wendy, Marvin & Wonderdog were abruptly gone, replaced without explanation by alien kids Zan & Jayna and their elastic-tailed space monkey Gleek. With room to extrapolate and in consideration of fans, Bridwell explained the sudden change via a battle to save Earth from annihilation whilst introducing the newest student heroes in memorable style. At the Hall of Justice Wendy & Marvin spot a spaceship hurtling to Earth on the Troubalert monitor and dash off to intercept it. Aboard are two siblings from distant planet Exor: a girl able to transform into animals and a boy who can become any form of water, from steam to ice. They have come carrying an urgent warning…

Superman’s alien enemy Grax has resolved to eradicate humanity and devised a dozen different superbombs and attendant weird-science traps to ensure his victory. These are scattered all over Earth and even the entire Justice League cannot stretch its resources to cover every angle and threat. To Wendy & Marvin the answer is obvious: call upon the help and knowledge of hyper-powered local heroes…

Soon Superman and Israel’s champion The Seraph are dismantling a black hole bomb whilst Elongated Man and titan-tressed Godiva perform similar service on a life-eradicator in England. Flash (Barry Allen) and mighty-leaping Impala dismantle uncatchable ordnance in South Africa before Hawkman & Hawkwoman join Native American avenger Owlwoman to crush darkness-breeding monsters in Oklahoma, whilst from the Hall of Justice Wendy, Marvin and the Wonder Twins monitor the crisis with a modicum of mounting hope…

The cataclysmic epic continues in #8 with ‘The Mind Killers!’ as Atom and Rising Son tackle a device designed to decimate Japan, and in Ireland Green Lantern Hal Jordan and Jack O’Lantern battle multi-hued monstrosities before switching off their technological terror.

In New Zealand, time-scanning Tuatara tips off Red Tornado to the position of a bomb cached in the distant past whilst Venezuela’s doom is diverted through a team-up of Batman, Robin and reptile-themed champion Bushmaster. And in Taiwan a melding of sonic superpowers possessed by Black Canary and the astounding Thunderlord harmoniously saves the day…

The saga soars to a classic climax with ‘Three Ways to Kill a World!’ in which the final phases of Grax’s scheme fail thanks to Green Arrow & Tasmanian Devil in Australia, with Aquaman & Little Mermaid sorting out the embattled seas off Denmark and Wonder Woman & The Olympian preserving modern Greece.

Or at least, they would have if the Hellenic heroes had found the right foe. Sadly, their triumph against Wrong-Place, Right-Time terrorist Colonel Conquest almost upsets everything. Thankfully, the quick thinking hero-students send an army of defenders to Antarctica where Norwegian novice Icemaiden dismantles the ultimate booby-trap bomb.  However, whilst the adult champions are engaged, Grax invades the Hall of Justice seeking revenge on the pesky whistleblowing Exorian kids. He’s completely unprepared for and overwhelmed by Wendy, Marvin & Wonderdog, who categorically prove they’re ready to graduate to the big leagues…

Thus with Zan & Jayna enrolled as latest heroes-in-training, Super Friends #10 details their adoption by Batman’s old associate – and eccentric time travel theoretician – Professor Carter Nichols, just before a legion of alien horrors arrive on Earth to teach the kids that appearances can be lethally deceiving in ‘The Monster Menace!’ In #11, ‘Kingslayer’ pits the heroes against criminal mastermind Overlord who has contracted the world’s greatest hitman to murder more than one hundred leaders at one sitting…

Another deep dive into DC’s past resurrected Golden Age titans T.N.T and Dan, the Dyna-Mite in ‘The Atomic Twosome!’ These 1940s mystery men had been under government wraps ever since their radioactive powers began to melt down, but when an underground catastrophe ruptures their individual lead-lined vaults, the Super Friends are called in to prevent potential nuclear nightmare. Then the subterranean reason for the near tragedy is tracked to a monstrous mole creature, and leads to the introduction of eternal mystic Doctor Mist, who reveals the secret history of civilisation and begs help to halt ‘The Mindless Immortal!’ before its random burrowing shatters mankind’s cities. From here, Bridwell would build a fascinating new team concept that would support decades of future continuity…

Super Friends #14 opens with ‘Elementary!’; introducing four ordinary mortals forever changed when possessed by ancient sprits. Tasked by Overlord with plundering the world, Undine, Salamander, Sylph & Gnome are defeated by our heroes yet retain their powers and so become crimefighting team The Elementals. Also on view is a short back-up illustrated by Kurt Schaffenberger & Bob Smith. ‘The Origin of the Wondertwins’ at last reveals they are Exorian genetic throwbacks (despised outcasts on their homeworld) who fled from a circus of freaks and uncovered Grax’s plot before taking that fateful voyage to Earth.

Big surprises come in ‘The Overlord Goes Under!’ (Fradon & Smith) as the Elementals begin battling evil by joining the Super Friends in crushing the crook. All those superheroes are blithely unaware that they are merely clearing the way for a far more cunning and subtle mastermind to take Overlord’s place…

‘The People Who Stole the Sky!’ in SF #16 is a grand, old-fashioned alien invasion yarn, foiled by the team and the increasingly adept Wonder Twins whilst ‘Trapped in Two Times!’ has Zan & Jayna used by the insidious Time Trapper to lure their adult mentors into deadly peril on Krypton in the days before it detonated, and future water world Neryla in the hours before it’s swallowed by its critically expanding red sun. After rescuing the kids – thanks largely to Superman’s legendary lost love Lyla Ler-Rol – the Super Friends employ Tuatara’s temporal insight and Professor Nichol’s obscure chronal methodologies to hunt the Trapper in a riotous yet educational ‘Manhunt in Time!’ (art by Schaffenberger & Smith), by way of Atlantis before it sank, medieval Spain and Michigan in 1860CE: all to thwart a triple-strength scheme to derail history and end Earth civilisation…

SF #19 sees an encore for Menagerie Man in ‘The Mystery of the Missing Monkey!’ (Fradon & Smith) as the animal exploiter appropriates Gleek: intent on turning his elastic-tailed talents into a perfect pickpocketing tool, before Denny O’Neil (as Sergius O’Shaugnessy) teams with Schaffenberger & Smith for a more jocular turn. Here, chaos and comedy ensue when the team tackles vegetable monsters unleashed after self-obsessed shlock-movie director Frownin’ Fritz Frazzle uses Merlin’s actually magical Magic Lantern to make a “masterpiece” on the cheap in ‘Revenge of the Leafy Monsters!’…

Bridwell & Fradon bounce back in #21 where ‘Battle Against the Super Fiends!’ has the heroes travelling to Exor to combat super-criminals who can duplicate their power-sets, after which ‘It’s Never Too Late!’ (#22, O’Shaugnessy, Fradon & Smith) reveals how time bandit Chronos subjects the Super Friends to a chronal-delay treatment rendering them perennially too late to stop him… but only until Batman and the Wonder Twins out-think him.

The Mirror Master divides and banishes teachers from students in #23 but is ultimately unable to prevent an ‘SOS from Nowhere!’ (Bridwell, Fradon & Smith) to the Flash. This episode also spends time fleshing out the Wonder Twins’ earthly alter egos as Gotham Central highschoolers John & Joanna Fleming…

With O’Shaugnessy scripting, ‘Past, Present and Danger!’ sees Zan & Jayna’s faces found engraved on a recently-unearthed Egyptian pyramid. Upon investigation inside the edifice, the heroes awaken two ancient exiles who resemble the kids, but who are in truth criminals who fled Exorian justice thousands of years previously. How lucky, then, that the kids are perfect doubles that the villains can send back with the robot cops surrounding the pyramid – once they’ve got rid of all those busybody Earthling heroes…

Enjoying promotion through treachery, habitually harassed Underling has seized power at last in Bridwell’s ‘Puppets of the Overlord’, and then employs forbidden technology to mind-control adult and junior heroes. Happily, international champions Green Fury (later Fire), Wonder Woman’s sister Nubia, Tasmanian Devil and Seraph can join Green Lantern and Queen Mera of Atlantis in delivering a liberating solution, after which this splendid selection of super thrills pauses with SF #26 as Bridwell, Fradon & Smith bring back some old friends and enemies for ‘The Wondertwins’ Battle of Wits!’ when a scheming former Bat-foe enacts an infallibly murderous plot…

Rounding out the frenetic fun is a features section that includes the Alex Toth cover from Limited Collectors’ Edition #C-41  and new material from sequel C-46. These include a comic strip collaboration with Bridwell on introductory tale ‘Super Friends’ which was a star-studded framing sequence for a big reprint issue of Justice League classics. The wonders are further augmented by Toth’s comprehensive pictorial essay on creating ‘TV Cartoons’ (with contributions from Bob Foster), plus his ‘The JLA on TV’ model sheets, and designs of ‘The Hall of Justice’ by Terry Austin. As you of course know, comics legend Toth was lead designer on the characters’ transition to TV animation…

The extras include mini-comic Aquateers Meet the Super Friends – a 1979 promotional giveaway included with every purchase of Super Friends Swim Goggles. An uncredited framing sequence (which looks like a Continuity Associates project that Dick Giordano & Frank McLoughlin had a hand in) segues into ‘The Greatest Show on Water’ – an Aquaman short by Fradon originally published in Adventure Comics #219, (December 1955).

The bumper fun wraps with Alex Ross’ painted cover from 2001 book collection Super Friends!

With covers by Fradon, Smith, Schaffenberger, Colletta, Ernie Chan and more, this hopefully initial compendium is superbly entertaining, masterfully crafted and utterly engaging. It offers stories of pure comics gold to delight children and adults in equal proportion. Truly generational in appeal, they are probably the closest thing to an American answer to the magic of Tintin or Asterix and no family home should be without this tome.

Sadly, this masterful mystery megamix is not yet available digitally, but we live in hope. In the meantime, if you prefer your cartoon crimebustng computer collated you could access 2020’s Super-Friends: Saturday Morning Comics volume 1.
© 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, 2001, 2025 DC Comics, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Today in 1697, Willam Hogarth was born. Notionally adding to the comics lustre and significance, in 1918, Howard Purcell was also added to the planet’s roster, as was Neil Gaiman in 1960. In the exit column for today, in 1993 we lost astounding illustrator Alberto Breccia, and in 2006 immortal sci fi writer Jack Williamson. All those other guys you can find in old posts here, but I particularly recommend Beyond Mars – The Complete Series 1952-1955.

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Vixen: Return of the Lion


By G. Willow Wilson & CAFU, with Bit, Josh Middleton & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-2512-4 (TPB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Welcome to Black History Month UK 2025. The theme this year is “Standing Firm in Power and Pride” and nobody ever accused us of being subtle…

In 1978 fashion model Mari Jiwe McCabe nearly became the first black woman to star in her own American comic book. Sadly, the infamous “DC Implosion” of that year saw the Vixen series cancelled before release. She eventually premiered three years later in Action Comics #521’s ‘The Deadly Rampage of the Lady Fox’ (by creator Gerry Conway and Superman mainstays Curt Swan & Frank Chiaramonte) and thereafter remained, lurking around the DC Universe until she joined a re-booted JLA (latterly dubbed “JLA Detroit”) in Justice League of America Annual #2.

A classic team-player, over intervening decades working within assorted JLA rosters, Suicide Squad, Ultramarine Corps, Checkmate and the Birds of Prey, Vixen’s origin has changed a lot less than most. It even remained mostly un-meddled-with when she made the jump to TV as part of the DC Legends of Tomorrow show.

Mari Jiwe comes from a line of warriors blessed by animist Trickster god Kwaku Anansi. The mythical creator of all stories claims to have designed her abilities – and those of fellow bestial hero Animal Man – allowing Vixen, through use of an arcane artefact dubbed the Tantu Totem, to channel the attributes and signature abilities of every animal that has ever lived.

As a child in M’Changa Province, Zambesi, Mari’s mother was killed by poachers and her missionary father murdered by his own brother over possession of the Totem. To thwart her uncle, the orphan moved to America, eventually becoming a fashion model to provide funding and cover for her mission of revenge…

At first a reluctant superhero, Vixen became one of the most effective crusaders on the international scene and was a key member of the Justice League (the one just before the New 52 Reboot). Previously, when her powers began to malfunction she was forced to confront Anansi himself (for which tales see Justice League of America: Sanctuary and Justice League of America: Second Coming).

Scripted by author, essayist, journalist and comics scribe G. Willow Wilson (Cairo, Air, Ms. Marvel, Wonder Woman) and illustrated by Carlos Alberto Fernandez Urbano AKA CAFU (Action Comics, T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents, Imperium, Unity), Vixen: Return of the Lion was originally seen as a 5-part miniseries in 2009. We open here with ‘Predators’ wherein a League operation uncovers a plot by techno-thugs Intergang to fund a revolution in troubled African nation Zambesi.

Amongst impounded files is a record “proving” that 15 years earlier, Vixen’s mother was actually killed by Aku Kwesi, a local warlord working with the American criminal organisation. When Mari learns this truth, not even Superman can stop her from heading straight to her old village to find the man responsible. Africa is not America, however, and the lawless settlement has no time for a woman who does not know her place – even if she does have superpowers. When Kwesi appears, Vixen’s abilities are useless against him and she escapes with her life only because the warlord’s lieutenant Sia intervenes…

In ‘Prey’, broken, gravely wounded Mari is dumped in the veldt by Sia and staggers her way across the war-ravaged plain, battling beasts and hallucinating – or maybe meeting real ghosts – until she is attacked by a young lion and rescued by a holy man.

Alarmed at Vixen’s disappearance and further discoveries connecting Kwesi to Intergang, the JLA mobilise in ‘Sanctuary’ as lost Vixen slowly recuperates in a place where the constant conflicts of fang & claw survival are suspended. Here, saintly Brother Tabo offers Mari new perspective and greater understanding of her abilities. Her JLA colleagues, meanwhile, have exposed Intergang’s infiltration but fallen to a power even Superman could not resist…

As the League struggles against overwhelming odds, ‘Risen’ sees a transcendent Vixen flying to the rescue, and picking up some unexpected allies before facing her greatest challenge in shocking conclusion ‘Idols’, wherein more hidden truths are revealed and a greater mystery begins to unfold…

Featuring a gallery of stunning covers by Josh Middleton, this is an exceptional and moodily exotic piece of Fights ‘n’ Tights fluff to delight devotees of the genre and casual readers alike, and one long overdue for re-release and inclusion in the growing library of environmentally-beneficial digital comics and books. This gem isn’t even available digitally and that’s just a crime against comics consuming nature…
© 2006, 2009 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

Today in 1940 was the birthday of groundbreaking comics auteur Richard Corben, creator of Den, although we rather liked his Haunt of Horror: Lovecraft. It also marks the first appearance of Zack Mosely’s Smilin’ Jack newspaper strip, and the passing of Golden Age great Bob Powell, who we most recently lauded via Bob Powell’s Complete Cave Girl.

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Superman: Phantom Zone


By Steve Gerber, Gene Colan, Rick Veitch, Tony DeZuñiga & Bob Smith (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-4051-6 (TPB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Today would have been Steve Gerber’s 78th birthday. For no appreciable reason, he would have found that to be quite funny. You should go read more comics by him. Here’s some many people don’t immediately think of when listing his so-many sublime star turns…

Once upon a time for fans and comics creators alike continuity could be a harsh mistress. When maintaining a faux-historical cloak of rational integrity for made-up worlds we inhabited was paramount, the greatest casualty of semi-regular reboots and sweeping changes, often meant some terrific tales suddenly never happened. Everything goes now of course, thanks to parallel world-ery, but way back whenever, it was a most painful time for me…

Many examples of this wholesale binning of entire charm-drenched mythologies happened but the convergent growth of graphic novels fortunately provided a sanctuary of sorts, such as this paean of pictorial praise for the mythology had evolved around Superman in the wonder years between 1948 and 1986.

Thankfully DC has always understood that a good story is worth cherishing. This slim, trim spectral selection gathers superb 4-issue miniseries The Phantom Zone (originally appearing from January to April 1982) and includes the very last pre-Crisis on Infinite Earths Zone yarn as first seen in DC Comics Presents #97 (September 1986). It also simultaneously celebrates the stylish and enthralling scripting of unique comics voice Steve Gerber and his most ardent collaborator Gene (Howard the Duck, Stewart the Rat) Colan.

Gerber was a uniquely gifted writer who combined a deep love of comic book continuity minutiae with dark, irrepressible wit, incisive introspection, barbed socio-cultural criticism, a barely reigned-in imagination and boundless bizarre surrealism. His stories were always at the extreme edge of any mainstream company’s intellectual canon and never failed to deliver surprise and satisfaction, especially when he couched his sardonic sorties as thinly-veiled attacks on burgeoning cultural homogenisation and commercial barbarity.

This riotous recapitulation of all that lost Man of Tomorrow ficto-history begins in ‘The Haunting of Charlie Kweskill!’ as the eponymous Daily Planet paste-up artist collapses at work. The solitary little dweeb has been sleeping badly, plagued by nightmares of a life on long-gone planet Krypton. His dreams detail how brilliant scientist Jor-El devised a non-lethal way to deal with Krypton’s most incorrigible criminals: human monsters such as Jax-Ur, Professor Va-Kox, Dr. Xadu, sadistic psycho-killer Faora Hu-Ul, potential dictator General Dru-Zod, and even Jor’s own bad & crazy cousin Kru-El…

Many lesser menaces like psionic aberrants Az-Rel and Nadira were also banished to the misty twilit realm, as well as stranger outcasts like callous biological experimenter Nam-Ek, but the one who most catches Charlie’s attention is fraudster Quex-Ul; a Kryptonian who appears to be Charlie’s doppelganger…

Of course, the dreams are all true: telepathic broadcasts beamed at Charlie by Zone inmates from within the plane of timeless intangibility. Quex-Ul had been one of them, surviving long after Krypton died, but was innocent of his crimes. He had been framed and mind-controlled by a mastermind who had deservedly perished when the Red Sun world detonated. Once Superman corrected the injustice and released the poor dupe, Qwex-Ul had saved the Man of Steel from a Gold Kryptonite trap, thereby losing his inherent Kryptonian abilities and memory in the process. The grateful, heartsick Action Ace had found the amnesiac a job at the Planet and almost forgot his alien origins in the years since. Charlie’s former fellow inmates had not…

Their telepathic onslaught turns Kweskill into a somnambulistic slave, unknowingly spending his nights breaking into labs and stealing high-tech components. Superman, slowly putting the puzzle pieces together, is just too late to thwart the stealthy scheme, and as he bursts into Charlie’s apartment a hastily cobbled together Phantom Zone projector hurls him and the hapless mind-slave into the ghostly region, whilst simultaneously freeing a legion of the cruellest and most bored criminals in existence…

The saga expands with ‘Earth Under Siege!’ as Superman and Charlie helplessly watch Zod, Jax-Ur, Va-Kox, Faora and Kru-El immediately undertake the next stage of their plan, leaving passively nihilistic Az-Rel and Nadira to negligently torture monstrous Nam-Ek with their psychic talents when not mocking the ranting liturgies of religious zealot Jer-Em, whose manic bigotry and fundamentalist isolationism caused the death of every person in Argo City…

Superman’s cousin Kara Zor-El had been born on the city-sized fragment of Krypton, hurled intact into space when the doomed world detonated. Eventually, Argo turned to Green Kryptonite like most of Krypton’s detonated debris, and her dying parents, observing Earth through their scopes, sent their daughter to safety as they perished. On Earth, the teenager met the Man of Steel who created for her the identities of Linda Lee and Supergirl, concealing her from the wider world whilst she learned all about her new home… and how to use her astounding new abilities in secrecy and safety.

As the emotionally disconnected, disaffected and doubly alienated youths laconically saunter through Metropolis; casually slaughtering cops and citizens, Zod’s more motivated cronies have reached Superman’s Fortress of Solitude and destroyed the only means of returning them to their extra-dimensional dungeon.

The next move is attacking the Justice League satellite, hurling it and occupants Flash, Red Tornado, Zatanna, Black Canary, Elongated Man, Firestorm & Aquaman on a non-stop trajectory out of the Solar System. Rampant Kryptonians destroy Earth’s communications satellites and trigger a mass launch of nuclear missiles, leaving Wonder Woman and Supergirl to narrowly avert atomic Armageddon whilst the frantic Man of Tomorrow can only watch in horror…

Not every Zone inhabitant is a criminal. For instance, Daxamite Mon-El was exposed to common lead in ‘Superboy’s Big Brother’ (by Robert Bernstein & Papp in June 1961’s Superboy #89) when his lingering, inexorable death was only forestalled by depositing the dying alien in the Zone until a cure could be found. Now, as Green Lantern faces the Zod Squad on Earth only to be soundly beaten and have his Power Battery stolen, Mon-El informs Charlie and Superman of a possible back way out of the realm of hellish nullity…

On Earth, as Wonder Woman subdues Nam-Ek, Supergirl checks in with Batman, desperately trying to ascertain where Superman has gone. As the Dark Knight heads to Metropolis to investigate, Kara returns to the Fortress and is ambushed by Kryptonian escapees and beaten near to death…

With no other choice, Charlie and Superman reluctantly pass through a dimensional portal even the obsessed villains were too scared to risk, encountering surreal madness in ‘The Terror Beyond Twilight!’…

Back in the physical world of touch and time, Supergirl saves herself from ghastly atomic disintegration as Charlie and Superman pass through stormy turbulence and a tedious waiting-room-realm before arriving on a peculiar plane where they are confronted by luscious sirens with impossible riddles and exploding heads. Their narrow escape from the Priestesses of the Crimson Sun only leads to Kryptonian wizard Thul-Kar who magicked himself into the Zone in ages past and now slavishly serves an erratic, malevolent sentient universe named Aethyr. It wants to consume Charlie and Superman but only by passing through it can they reach the physical world again…

On Earth, chaos reigns. Batman is utterly unable to pacify extremist Jer-Em, who deems the planet impure, unclean and unholy. He would rather die than soil his Kryptonian purity here.

… And high above the world, other freed villains have their own plan to fix the situation: a gigantic Phantom Zone Cannon to inexorably and eternally banish Earth into the twilight dimension in the course of one full rotation…

The drama comes to a tragic conclusion in ‘The Phantom Planet!’ as Az-Rel and Nadira, having found kindred spirits amongst Metropolis’ disenfranchised Punk Rock counterculture – before killing them – encounter Jer-Em in martyr mode. The now-suicidal cleric is quite keen on taking the rest of the apostate Kryptonians with him…

As the world turns into intangibility, in France, Faora has briefly resumed her passion for murdering males (before they’re all gone) whilst in Aethyr’s universe an appalling sacrifice enables Superman to return to physicality just in time to lead a last desperate charge, saving the day and putting the villains back where they belong… those still alive, that is…

The remainder of this fantastic collection recounts the tying up of all those intriguing concepts and loose ends in a spectacular sidebar to the end of DC’s original universe.

In 1986 the company celebrated its 50th year with groundbreaking Crisis on Infinite Earths: radically overhauling a convoluted multiversal continuity and starting afresh. All Superman titles were cancelled or suspended pending a back-to-basics reboot courtesy of John Byrne, allowing for a number of very special farewells to the old mythology. One of the most intriguing and challenging came in the last issue of DC Comics Presents (#97) wherein ‘Phantom Zone: the Final Chapter’ by Gerber, Rick Veitch & Bob Smith offered a creepy adieu to a number of Superman’s greatest foes.

Tracing Jor-El’s discovery of the Phantom Zone through to imminent multiversal annihilation, this dark yarn built on Gerber’s landmark miniseries and revealed that the dread region of nothingness was in fact a sentient echo of a dead universe which had always regarded the creatures deposited within it as irritants and agonising intruders.

Now as cosmic carnage reigns Aethyr, still served by Kryptonian mage Thul-Kar, causes the destruction of the Bizarro World “Htrae” and the deification/corruption of Fifth Dimensional pest Mr. Mxyzptlk, as well as the subsequent crashing of Argo City on Metropolis. As a result Zod and fellow immaterial inmates are freed to wreak havoc upon Earth – but only until the now-crystalline pocket dimension merges with and absorbs the felons, before implausibly abandoning Superman to face his uncertain future as the very Last Son of Krypton…

Superman has proven to be all things to all fans over his decades of existence and Gerber’s takes on these timeless tales of charm, joy and wholesome wit are unique and more necessary than ever: not just as a reminder of great tales of the past but as an all-ages primer of wonders still to come…
© 1982, 1986, 2013 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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DC Finest: Metamorpho – The Element Man


By Bob Haney, Gardner Fox, Ramona Fradon, Joe Orlando, Sal Trapani, Chic Stone, Jack Sparling, Charles Paris, Mike Sekowsky, Jim Aparo, Mike Esposito, Bernard Sachs & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-79950-184-8 (TPB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

It’s a big year for comics anniversaries, and we can’t let this special guy go unmentioned – especially as he’s in this years much-debated new Superman blockbuster.

Sadly, most of his far & wide back catalogue is still unavailable even in digital formats, and when the star is as long-lived and media-present as this guy that’s an awful lot of extra appearances for a fan to find. Maybe this book and the film will act as a catalyst for DC to get a move on…

By the time Metamorpho, The Element Man was introduced to an increasingly superhero-obsessed world, the first vestiges of a certifiable boom were just becoming apparent. As such, his light-hearted, nigh-absurdist blue-collar take struck a Right-Time, Right-Place chord, blending far out adventure with tongue-in-cheek comedy. The bold, brash – often positively vulgar – “Man of a Thousand Elements” debuted in The Brave and the Bold #57, cover-dated January 1965 and on sale from October 29th 1964: just in time for Halloween. After a second try-out tale in the next issue, he and his crackers cast catapulted right into a solo title for an eclectic, oddly engaging 17-issue run augmented by plenty of opportunistic guest shots. Sadly, this canny compendium – collecting all those eccentric debut adventures from B&B #57- 58, 66, 68 & 101, Metamorpho, The Element Man #1-17 and Justice League of America #42 – is at present unavailable in digital formats too.

Sans dreary preamble, the action commences immediately with ‘The Origin of Metamorpho’, written by Bob Haney, who created the concept and character and wrote everything here bar the Justice League story. The captivating art is by Ramona Fradon & Charles Paris and introduces glamorous he-man Soldier of Fortune Rex Mason: employed as a globetrotting artefact-procurer and agent for ruthlessly acquisitive scientific genius/business tycoon Simon Stagg. Mason is obnoxious, tough talking and insolent, but his biggest fault as far as the boss is concerned is that the mercenary dares to love – and be loved by – the plutocrat’s only daughter Sapphire…

Determined to rid himself of the impudent “fortune-hunter”, Stagg sends his potential son-in-law to Egypt tasked with retrieving fantastic artefact the Orb of Ra from the lost pyramid of Ahk-Ton. The tomb raider is accompanied only by Java: formerly a fossilised Neanderthal corpse Rex had extracted from a swamp and whom Stagg subsequently restored to life. Mason plans to take his final fabulous fee and whisk Sapphire away from her controlling father forever, but fate and his companion have other plans…

Utterly faithful to the scientific wizard who was his saviour, Java sabotages the mission, leaving Mason to die in the tomb, victim of an ancient, glowing meteor. The man-brute rushes back to his master, carrying the Orb and fully expecting Stagg to honour his promise and give him Sapphire in marriage. Meanwhile, trapped and painfully aware his time has come, Mason swallows a suicide pill as the scorching star-stone rays burn through him…

Instead of death relieving his torment, Rex mutates into a ghastly chemical freak able to shapeshift and transform into any of the elements or compounds that comprised his human body: carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, calcium, iron, cobalt and so many others…

Hungry for vengeance, Mason returns to confront his betrayers, only to be overcome by alien energies emanating from the Orb of Ra. An uneasy détente is declared as Mason accepts Stagg’s desperate offer to cure him – “if possible”. The senior Stagg is further horrified when Rex reveals his condition to Sapphire and finds she still loves him. Totally unaware of his employer’s depths of duplicity, Mason starts working for the tycoon as metahuman problem-solver Metamorpho, the Element Man…

Brave and the Bold #58 (February-March 1965) reveals more of Stagg’s closeted skeletons when old business partner Maxwell Tremayne kidnaps the Element Man and later abducts Sapphire to ‘The Junkyard of Doom!’ Apparently, the deranged armaments manufacturer was once intimately acquainted with the girl’s mother and never quite got over it…

The test comics an unqualified success, Metamorpho promptly started in his own title, cover-dated July-August 1965 and on sale from May 27th, just as a wildly tongue-in-cheek “High Camp” craze was catching on in all areas of popular culture. This blended ironic vaudevillian kitsch with ancient movie premises as theatrical mad scientists and scurrilous spies began appearing absolutely everywhere…

‘Attack of the Atomic Avenger’ sees nuclear nut-job Kurt Vornak seeking to crush Stagg Industries, only to be turned into a deadly, planet-busting radioactive super-atom, after which fashionably foreboding ‘Terror from the Telstar’ pits our charismatic characters against Nicholas Balkan, a ruthless criminal boss set on sabotaging America’s Space Program. Manic multi-millionaire T.T. Trumbull uses his own daughter Zelda to get to Simon Stagg through his heart, accidentally proving to all that the old goat actually has one. This was part of TT’s attempt to seize control of America in ‘Who Stole the U.S.A.?’ with the ambitious would-be despot backing up the scheme with an incredible robot specifically designed to murder Metamorpho. Happily, Rex Mason’s guts and ingenuity prove more effective than the Element Man’s astonishing powers…

America saved, the dysfunctional family head South of the Border, becoming embroiled in ‘The Awesome Escapades of the Abominable Playboy’ as Stagg schemes to marry Sapphire off to Latino Lothario Cha Cha Chavez. The spoiled, wilful child is simply trying to make Mason jealous and has no idea of Daddy’s true plans whilst Stagg senior has no conception of Chavez’s real intentions… or connections to the local tin-pot dictator…

With this issue gloriously stylish innovator Ramona Fradon left the series, to be replaced by two artists who strove to emulate her unique, gently madcap manner of drawing with varying degrees of success. Luckily, veteran inker Charles Paris stayed on to smooth out rough edges.

Before we see them though, the buzz extended to a quick guest shot in a top mainstream title.

A classic romp written by Gardner Fox and illustated by Mike Sekowsky & Bernard Sachs, Justice League of America #42 (February 1966) sees the reluctant hero joyfully join the World’s Greatest Superheroes to defeat cosmic menace The Unimaginable. The grateful champions instantly offer him membership but are astounded when – and why – ‘Metamorpho Says… No!’:

In Metamorpho #5 the first substitute was E.C. veteran Joe Orlando whose 2-issue tenure began with outrageous doppelganger drama ‘Will the Real Metamorpho Please Stand Up?’ wherein eccentric architect Edifice K. Bulwark wants Mason to lend his abilities to his chemical skyscraper project. When Metamorpho declines, Bulwark and Stagg attempt to create their own Element Man with predictably disastrous consequences. ‘Never Bet Against an Element Man!’ (#6 May-June 1966) then takes the team to the French Riviera as gambling grandee Achille Le Heele snookers Stagg and wins “ownership” of Metamorpho. The Gallic toad’s ultimate goal was stealing the world’s seven greatest wonders (including the Taj Mahal and Eiffel Tower) and, somehow, only the Element Man can make that happen…

Elemental entertainment returned to The Brave and the Bold in #66 (June/July 1966) as ‘Wreck the Renegade Robots’ by Haney, Sekowsky & Mike Esposito sees a mad scientist usurp control of the Metal Men just as their creator Will Magnus is preoccupied with a cure to turn Metamorpho back into an ordinary mortal…

Sal Trapani began drawing the regular title with #7’s ‘Terror from Fahrenheit 5,000!’ as the acronymic superspy fad hit hard. Metamorpho is enlisted by the C.I.A. to stop suicidal maniac Otto Von Stuttgart destroying the entire planet by dropping a nuke into the Earth’s core, before costumed villain Doc Dread is countered by an undercover Metamorpho becoming ‘Element Man, Public Enemy!’ in a diabolical caper of doom and double-cross.

B & B #68 (October/November 1966), the still chemically active crimebuster battles popular TV Bat-Baddies The Joker, Penguin and Riddler as well as a fearsomely mutated Caped Crusader in thoroughly bizarre tale ‘Alias the Bat-Hulk!’ – both yarns courtesy of Haney, Mike Sekowsky & Mike Esposito.

Metamorpho #9 shifted to classic fantasy when suave and sinister despot El Mantanzas maroons the cast in ‘The Valley That Time Forgot!’: battling cavemen and antediluvian alien automatons, after which a new catalysing element is added in ‘The Sinister Snares of Stingaree!’ This yarn introduces Urania Blackwell – a secret agent somehow transformed into an Element Girl and sharing all Metamorpho’s incredible abilities. Not only is she dedicated to eradicating evil like criminal cabal Cyclops, but Urania is also the perfect paramour for Rex, who even cancels his wedding to Sapphire to go gangbusting with her…

With a new frisson of sexual chemistry sizzling barely beneath the surface, ‘They Came from Beyond?’ finds a conflicted Element Man confronting an apparent alien invasion whilst ‘The Trap of the Test-Tube Terrors!’ sees another attempt to cure Rex of his unwanted powers. This allows mad scientist Franz Zorb access to Stagg Industry labs long enough to build an army of chemical horrors. The plot thickens with Zorb’s theft of a Nucleonic Moleculizer, prompting continuation in #13 wherein Urania is abducted only to triumphantly experience ‘The Return from Limbo’…

Prior to that, however, the tone of the times dictated the birth of a new – comedic – feature as ‘Meta-Maniacs of the World Unite!’ exposes domestic secrets of the cast. A second dose, ‘Meta-Maniacs of the World Unite… Again??’ closed the issue and even more in-vogue nonsense closed #14 in the form of ‘Meta-Maniacs of the Universe (we’re expanding) Unite… Once More??’

Events and stories grew increasingly outlandish and outrageous as TV’s superhero craze intensified, and ‘Enter the Thunderer!’ (#14, September/October 1967) depicted Rex pulled between Sapphire and Urania whilst marauding extraterrestrial Neutrog terrorises the world in preparation for the arrival of his mighty mutant master. The next instalment augured an ‘Hour of Armageddon!’ as the uniquely menacing Thunderer takes control of Earth until boy genius Billy Barton aids the Elemental defenders in defeating the alien horrors. The drama closed with more silliness and a competition in ‘Meta-Maniacs of the World, This is it… The Big Payola!’

Trapani inked himself for Metamorpho #16: an homage to H. Rider Haggard’s She novels (and the 1965 movie blockbuster) wherein ‘Jezeba, Queen of Fury!’ changes the Element Man’s life forever. When Sapphire marries playboy Wally Bannister, the heartbroken Element Man undertakes a mission to find the lost city of Ma-Phoor and encounters an undying beauty who wants to conquer the world… and who just happens to be Sapphire’s exact double.

Moreover, the immortal empress of a lost civilisation once loved an Element Man of her own: a Roman soldier named Algon who became a chemical warrior 2000 years previously. Believing herself reunited with her lost love, Jezeba finally launches a long-delayed attack on the outside world with disastrous, tragic consequences…

‘Metamaniacs! The Large Payola… Again???’ and a cast pinup by Fradon & Paris stridently underscore the parlous state of play before the oddly appetising series came to a shuddering, unsatisfactory halt with the next issue as the superhero bubble burst. Costumed comic characters suffered their second recession in 15 years and Metamorpho was an early casualty, cancelled just as (or perhaps because) the series was emerging from its quirky comedic shell with the March/April 1968 issue. Illustrated by Jack Sparling, ‘Last Mile for an Element Man!’ sees Mason tried – and executed! – for the murder of Bannister, resurrected by Urania Blackwell and set on the trail of true killer Algon. Consequently, Mason and Element Girl uncover a vast conspiracy and rededicate themselves to defending humanity at all costs. The tale ends on a never-resolved cliffhanger: when Metamorpho was revived as a back-up feature some years later no mention was ever made of these last game-changing issues…

Before that though, one final indigity to endure offers a last look at the cast as‘Meta-Maniacs of East Cupcake (wherever that is), Unite! More Mighty Element Man Contest Winners!’

delivers the last edirorial duties before the lights went out.

The final exploit in this volume as comes from Brave and the Bold #101 (April/May 1972) as, Haney & Jim Aparo close proceedings with a grim and gritty finish for our hero when he assists the World’s Greatest Detective in outrageous murder-mystery ‘Cold-Blood, Hot Gun!’: seeking to save stubborn disinherited Sapphire Stagg from the World’s deadliest hitman.

Individually enticing, always exciting but oddly frustrating in total, this book will delight readers who aren’t too wedded to cloying continuity but simply seek a few moments of casual, fantastic escapism.
© 1964, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1970, 1972, 2005 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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The Joker: The Clown Prince of Crime


By Dennis O’Neil, Elliot S! Maggin, Martin Pasko, Irv Novick, Dick Giordano, José Luis García-López, Ernie Chan, Vince Colletta, Tex Blaisdell, Frank McLaughlin & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-4258-9 (TPB/Digital edition)

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. Therefore, I’m again abusing my privileges to carp about another brilliant vintage book criminally out of print and not yet slated for revival either physically or in digital formats…

HEY! THERE’S A CLOWN! MUST BE A PARTY SOMEWHERE!

An old adage says that you can judge a person by the calibre of their enemies, and that’s never been more ably demonstrated than in the case of Batman. Moreover, for most of his near century of existence, but most especially ever since the 1970s, the position of paramount antagonist has been indisputably filled by the Clown Prince of Crime: The Joker! He celebrates a major milestone this year having originally hit newsstands in Batman #1 cover-dated Spring and officially on sale from April 25th 1940. That’s 85 exploding candles and poisoned cakes and he’s still totally lethally crazy after all these years…

In the late 1960s superheroes experienced a rapid decline in popularity – presumably in reaction to global mass media’s crass and crushing overexposure. Batman’s comic book franchise sought to escape their zany, “camp” image by methodically re-branding the character and returning to the original 1930s concept of a grim, driven Dark Avenger. Such a hero demanded far deadlier villains and with one breakthrough tale Denny O’Neil, Neal Adams & Dick Giordano reinstated the psychotic, diabolically unpredictable Killer Clown who scared the short pants off readers of the Golden Age Dark Knight. ‘The Joker’s Five-Way Revenge’ from Batman #251 (September 1973) was a genuine classic which totally redefined The Joker for my generation (and every one since) as the Mirthful Madcap became an unpredictable utterly ruthless psychotic exponent of visceral Grand Guignol. Terrifying and beautiful, for many fans this was the definitive Joker story…

Within a year and a half of that breakthrough revision the Harlequin of Hate was awarded his own series. Titles starring villains were exceedingly rare and provided quite a few problems for writers and editors still labouring under the edicts of the Comics Code Authority.

The outré experiment practically ended after 9 issues (spanning May 1975 to October 1976 plus one late published digital issue in 2019) having utilised some of the most talented creators in DC’s employ and remained a peculiar historical oddity for decades. Now, in these less doctrinaire times those strange tales of the Smirking Slaughterman have a fairer shot at finding an appreciative audience through this full-colour trade paperback collection.

The murderous merriment commences with ‘The Joker’s Double Jeopardy!’; wherein fellow Arkham inmate Two-Face arrogantly escapes, pinking the Felonious Funnyman’s pride and compelling the giggling ghoul to similarly break out thereby proving he’s the greater criminal maniac. Their extended duel of wits and body-counts only lands them both back inside.

The “revolving door” security at Arkham eventually leads to the firing of much-harassed guards Marvin Fargo & Benny Khiss in ‘The Sad Saga of Willie the Weeper!’ However, as the again-at-liberty Lethal Loon attempts to bolster the confidence of a lachrymose minor-league larcenist (for his own felonious purposes, naturally), the defrocked jailers determine to restore their honour and fortunes. Astoundingly, they actually succeed…

Written by O’Neil with art by Ernie Chan (nee Chua) & José Luis García-López, ‘The Last Ha Ha’ then details a burglary and the kidnapping of superstar cartoonist Sandy Saturn by a green-haired, cackling crazy. Witness accounts lead the cops to the ludicrous conclusion that The Creeper is the culprit. Cue lots and lots of eerie chortling, mistaken identity shenanigans and murderously manic explosive action…

The ethical dilemma of a star who’s arguably the world’s worst villain is further explored in ‘A Gold Star for the Joker!’ (Elliot S! Maggin, García-López & Vince Colletta) wherein our Perfidious Pagliacci inexplicably develops a crush on Black Canary’s alter-ego Dinah Lance and resolves to possess her or kill her. Typically, even though she’s perfectly capable of saving herself, Dinah’s current beau Green Arrow (see what I did there?) is also a possessive aggressive kind of consort…

‘The Joker Goes Wilde!’ (Martin Pasko, Irv Novick & Tex Blaisdell) finds the Clown Prince in a bombastic competition with similarly playing-card themed super-thugs The Royal Flush Gang to secure a lost masterpiece, but even as he’s winning that weird war, the Harlequin of Hate is already after a hidden prize. More force of nature than mortal miscreant, the Pallid Punchinello meets his match after assaulting actor Clive Sigerson in #6. Famed for stage portrayals of a certain literary detective, Sigerson sustains a nasty blow to the head which befuddles his wits and soon ‘Sherlock Stalks the Joker!’ (O’Neil, Novick & Blaisdell); foiling a flood of crazy schemes and apprehending the maniac before his concussion is cured…

We learn some surprising facts about the Clown Prince of Carnage after he steals the calm, logical intellect of Earth’s most brilliant evil scientist. Naturally the psychic transference in ‘Luthor… You’re Driving Me Sane!’ (Maggin, Novick & Frank McLaughlin) is two-way and, whilst the newly cognizant Clown becomes ineffably intelligent, Lex Luthor is now a risk-taking maniac unphased by potential consequences and determined to have fun no matter who dies…

The eighth outing for The Joker featured a clash with Gotham’s self-acclaimed Master of Terror as ‘The Scarecrow’s Fearsome Face-Off!’ (Maggin, Novick & Blaisdell) saw the top contenders for scariest guy in town (not counting Batman!) stealing each other’s thunder whilst vying for that macabre top spot, before the villainous vignettes of this captivating chronicle conclude with a claws-out clash as ‘The Cat and the Clown!’ (Maggin, Novick & Blaisdell) sees an aged comedian and his million-dollar kitty targeted by rival rogues Catwoman and the Joker.

Unhappily for the crooks they had both underestimated the grizzled guile of their octogenarian victim…

Latterly in Fall of 2019 the unpublished tenth issue was released digitally and hopefully one day a truly complete collection will be released including it, although it does appear in the monolithic, print-only and rather inaccessibly expensive The Joker: The Bronze Age Omnibus (Collected). For the sake of full disclosure, Pasko & Novick’s tale ‘99 and 99/100% Dead!’ involves a deal with the Devil (AKA “Lou Cipher”) and scheme to murder Earth’s greatest heroes that doesn’t quite come about and end on a cliffhanger…

With covers by Dick Giordano, Chan & García-López, this quirky oddment offers slick plotting, madcap malice and lunatic larks and a lesser degree of murderous mayhem than most modern fans might be comfortable with, but also strong storytelling and stunning art to delight fans of traditional Fights ‘n’ Tights sagas.
© 1975, 1976, 2013 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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JLA Classified: New Maps of Hell


By Warren Ellis, Jackson Guice, David Baron, Phil Balsman & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-0944-5 (TPB/Digital edition)

Once again, we’re saddened by news of the passing of another comics stalwart who died too young and at the height of his powers. Jackson “Butch” Guice was born in Chattanooga Tennessee died on June 27th 1961 and worked in comics for most of his life, beginning on fanzines, small press and independent titles such as The Crusaders, and after making waves on The Micronauts went on to stellar career illustrating the industry’s top titles and characters (including X-Men, X-Factor, Doctor Strange, Captain America, Nick Fury, Winter Soldier, Superman, Supergirl, Wonder Woman, The Flash, Aquaman, Birds of Prey, Resurrection Man and more), independent hits (like Swords of The Swashbucklers, Badger, Nexus, Chronicles of Corum, Eternal Warrior, Storming Paradise, Ruse, Mandalay, Olympus) with his hyper realistic style particular effective in licensed properties and adaptions like Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Wild Cards, Aliens, Terminator and Predator. He died on May 1st 2025.

For a fuller epitaph and gallery of Butch’s astounding ability and variety please check out In Memoriam: Comic Artist Jackson “Butch” Guice.

Butch was very much an in-demand collaborator and switched titles swiftly and often, making finding a book fully focussed on his work rather rare. We will cover more idiosyncratic collections – like Mandalay and Swords of the Swashbucklers – later, but for now let’s revisit a short sharp superhero feast showing him in all his solo glory.

JLA Classified: New Maps of Hell

Here’s a grand, old-fashioned, straightforward, no-strings-attached superhero blockbuster: one any old punter can pick up with no worry over continuity or identification and where good guys and bad guys are clearly defined. That’s due in large part to the fact that nobody really does those anymore, but at least it gives me the opportunity to take another look at a slow burner from 2006, which definitely grows on you with every re-read.

Produced at a time when the Justice League of America was enjoying immense popularity and benefiting from a major reboot courtesy of Grant Morrison, this politically-barbed, end-of-the-world epic starring Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern, Oracle and Martian Manhunter first ran in #10-15 of supplemental title JLA Classified (cover-dates September 2005 to February 2006), with gritty futurist scribe Warren Ellis upping the angst-quotient on a hoary old plot whilst illustrator Jackson Guice adds a terrifying veracity to events via his gifts for realism and authenticity.

It begins as Clark Kent and wife Lois Lane stumble onto a dirty little secret. Assorted, and one would assume unconnected, scientists and bean counters at President Lex Luthor’s Lexcorp conglomerate have been committing suicide in large numbers and the intrepid reporters suspect something very nasty is going on…

In Gotham City, Batman learns police and authorities have been turned away from an extremely unconventional crime-scene by Feds and a private security company, and he too starts digging…

In the Bermuda Triangle, a researcher team is invited to the Amazon’s ancient library of knowledge, only to die when the sky-floating island explodes in a horrendous detonation.

Legacy Flash Wally West has terrible dreams of his beloved predecessor Barry Allen (dead and venerated at this juncture) which lead him to a similar catastrophic conflagration, whilst Green Lantern Kyle Rayner ruminates on a primordial legend of the Corps’ origins until a wave of explosions rouse him to action…

In the ruins of each disaster the scattered, hard-pressed heroes find an ancient parchment of alien hieroglyphs, and when Superman recovers another page of the same from the shredded remnants of a plummeting space station, the call goes out to activate the League…

Tasking cyber-savant Oracle and aged Martian sole survivor J’onn J’onzz with uncovering information, the team learn of an antediluvian scourge that had wracked the red planet millions of years past: A God/Devil testing a species’ right to survive and which heralded its coming through a written code. Apparently, Luthor’s scientists have found such writings in remnants of ancient Sumeria and begun deciphering the text…

Mobilising to stop the summoning, our heroes confront Luthor in the White House but are too late. In Las Vegas the bowels of Hell vomit horrors into the streets and as the frantic super squad rush to battle they are snatched up, separated by the malign entity.

It has spent eons traversing the universe testing the worth of intelligent races and individually putting them to their sorest tests. However, the monstrous terror has never faced beings like the JLA before, or a mind like the Batman’s, and soon the horror’s own darkest secret is exposed and its fatal weakness exploited to devastating effect…

With a painted cover gallery by Michael Stribling, this tale offers simple, solid Fights ‘n’ Tights fun gilded with a cynically sly post-modern edge: a sound example of costumed action blockbuster comics at their best.
© 2005, 2006 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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DC Finest: Green Lantern – The Defeat of Green Lantern


By Gardner F. Fox, John Broome, Bob Haney, Gil Kane, Carmine Infantino, Ramona Fradon & Charles Paris, Murphy Anderson, Joe Giella, Frank Giacoia, Sid Greene & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-77952-848-3 (TPB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times

This stunning compilation is another of the initial batch of DC Finest editions: full colour extentions 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.

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

After a hugely successful revival and reworking of Golden Age all star The Flash, DC (National Periodical Publications as they were then) built on a resurgent superhero trend. Cover dated October 1959 and on sale from July 28th, Showcase #22 hit newsstands at the same time as the fourth issue of the new Flash comic book (#108) and once again the guiding lights were Editor Julie Schwartz and writer John Broome. Assigned as illustrator was action ace Gil Kane, generally inked by Joe Giella.

Hal Jordan was a brash and cocky young test pilot in California when an alien policeman crashed his spaceship on Earth. Mortally wounded, Abin Sur commanded his ring – a device which could materialise thoughts – to find a replacement officer: one both honest and without fear. Scanning the planet, the wonder weapon selected Jordan, whisking him to the crash-site. The dying alien bequeathed his ring, the lantern-shaped Battery of Power and his profession to the astonished Earthman.

In 6 pages ‘S.O.S Green Lantern!’ established characters, scenario and narrative thrust of a series that would become the spine of all DC continuity. With the concept of the superhero being re-established among the buying public, there was no shortage of gaudily clad competition. The better books thrived by having something a little “extra”. With Green Lantern that was primarily the superb scripts of John Broome & Gardner Fox and astounding ever-evolving drawing of Gil Kane (ably abetted by a string of top inkers) whose dynamic anatomy and dramatic action scenes were maturing with every page he drew. Happily, the concept itself was also a provider of boundless opportunity.

Other heroes had extraterrestrial, other-dimensional and even trans-temporal adventures, but the valiant champion of this series was also a cop: a lawman working for the biggest police force in the entire universe.

This fabulous compilation gathers Green Lantern #19-39 (March 1963 – September1965) plus his guest shots in The Flash #143 and The Brave and the Bold #59, and opens with a return match for sound-weaponising radical Modoran ultranationalist Sonar in ‘The Defeat of Green Lantern!’ (Broome, Kane & Joe Giella): a high-energy super-powered duel neatly counterpointed by whimsical crime-caper ‘The Trail of the Horse-and-Buggy Bandits!’ by the same team, wherein a little old lady’s crossed phone line led the Emerald Gladiator into conflict with a passel of crafty crooks. Issue #20’s ‘Parasite Planet Peril!’ (Broome, Kane & Murphy Anderson) then triumphantly reunites GL with new best buddy The Flash in a full-length epic to foil a plot to kidnap human geniuses.

One of the DCU’s greatest menaces debuted in #21’s ‘The Man Who Mastered Magnetism’. Broome created a worldbeater in dual-personality villain Doctor Polaris for Kane & Giella to limn, whilst ‘Hal Jordan Betrays Green Lantern!’ is the kind of action-packed, devilishly baffling puzzle-yarn ex-lawyer Fox excelled at, especially with Anderson’s stellar inks to lift the art to a delightful high. Fox also scripted the encore of diabolical futurist villain Hector Hammond in ‘Master of the Power Ring!’ (Giella inks) before Broome turned his hand to a human-interest story in the Anderson-inked ‘Dual Masquerade of the Jordan Brothers!’ Here, Hal plays mischievous matchmaker, trying to convince his future sister-in-law that her intended is in fact Green Lantern!

These costumed drama romps are in themselves a great read for most ages, but when also considered as the building blocks of all DC continuity they become vital fare for any fan keen to make sense of the modern superhero experience. In #23 our hero tackles the ‘Threat of the Tattooed Man!’ in the first all Fox scripted issue and the start of Giella’s tenure as sole inker, as the Ring-Slinger tackles a second-rate thief who lucks into the eerie power to animate his skin-ink, after which ‘The Green Lantern Disasters’ take the interplanetary lawman offworld to rescue missing comrade Xax of Xaos: an insectoid member of the GL Corps. Broome scripted #24, heralding the first appearance of ‘The Shark that Hunted Human Prey!’ after an atomic accident hyper-evolves the ocean’s deadliest predator into a psychic fear-feeder, whilst ‘The Strange World Named Green Lantern!’ (inks by Frank Giacoia & Giella) finds the Emerald Gladiator trapped on a sentient lonely planet craving his constant presence…

GL #25 featured Fox’s full-length thriller. ‘War of the Weapon Wizards!’ sees GL fall foul of lethally persistent Sonar and his silent partner-in-crime Hector Hammond, whilst in the next issue Hal’s girlfriend Carol Ferris is again transformed into a man-hating space queen determined to beat him into marital submission in ‘Star Sapphire Unmasks Green Lantern!’ This wry and witty cracker by Fox is supplemented by his superb fantasy ‘World Within the Power Ring!’ wherein the Viridian Avenger battles an extraterrestrial sorcerer imprisoned inside his ring by deceased predecessor Abin Sur…

Fox’s super-science crime thriller ‘Mystery of the Deserted City!’ led in GL #27, before Broome charmed and alarmed with ‘The Amazing Transformation of Horace Tolliver!’, as Hal learns a lesson in who to help – and how. An appearance in The Flash #143 (March 1964 by Fox, Carmine Infantino & Giella) delivered another full-length team-up with for ‘Trail of the False Green Lanterns!’ as a bizarre string of multiple manifestations lead the baffled heroes to a new nemesis – future-gazing mad scientist Thomas Oscar Morrow.

There’s no prize for guessing who – or what – menace returns in #28’s ‘The Shark Goes on the Prowl Again!’, but kudos all round if you can solve the enigma of ‘The House that Fought Green Lantern!’: both engaging romps courtesy of writer Fox, whereas Broome adds to his tally of memorable creations with the debut of “Cliché Criminal” Black Hand – who purloins a portion of GL’s power in ‘Half a Green Lantern is Better than None!’, as well as penning a brilliant back-up alien invader tale in ‘This World is Mine!’

This issue, #29, is doubly memorable as not only does it feature a rare – for the times – Justice League cameo (soon to be inevitable – if not interminable – as comics continuity grew into an unstoppable force in all companies’ output) but also because the incredibly talented Sid Greene signed on as regular inker.

Issue #30 offered two more Broome tales: dinosaur attack thriller ‘The Tunnel Through Time!’ and a compelling epic of duty and love as Katma Tui – who replaced the renegade GL Sinestro as the Guardians’ operative – learns to her eternal regret ‘Once a Green Lantern… Always a Green Lantern!’ The same writer provided baffling mystery ‘Power Rings for Sale!’ and tense Jordan Brothers thriller ‘Pay Up – or Blow Up!’ whilst Fox handled all of #32: tantalizing crime caper ‘Green Lantern’s Wedding Day!’ and transgalactic Battle Royale ‘Power Battery Peril!’, in which Jordan comes to the initially involuntary assistance of an alien superhero team…

Nefarious villain Dr. Light opted to pick off his enemies one by one after his debut defeat in Justice League of America #12, and his follow-up attempts in various member’s home titles reached GL with #33, but here too he gets a damned good thrashing in ‘Wizard of the Light Wave Weapons!’, whereas thugs in the back-up yarn, as well as giving artist Gil Kane another excuse to show his love of and facility with movie gangster caricatures, come far too close to ending the Emerald Gladiator’s life in ‘The Disarming of Green Lantern!’

Fox had by this time become lead writer. ‘Three-Way Attack against Green Lantern!’ in #34 was another extended cosmic extravaganza as Hector Hammond learns the secrets of the Guardians of the Universe and launches an all-out assault on our hero, after which both scripts in #35 – costumed villain drama ‘Prisoner of the Golden Mask!’ and brain-swop spy-saga ‘The Eagle Crusader of Earth!’ – look much closer to home for their abundance of thrills, chills and spills.

Next up is a guest shot with resurgent star Batman from The Brave and the Bold #59 (April/May 1965) which became the prototype of that title’s next 20 years. Scripted by Bob Haney and illustrated by Ramona Fradon & Charles Paris it saw Gotham Gangbuster and Emerald Crusader reliving the The Count of Monte Cristo as they sought to foil ‘The Tick-Tock Traps of the Time Commander!’ after devious criminal scientist John Starr tricked Bruce Wayne into clearing his name. The liberated rogue then stole the green energy to fuel a chronal assault on Gotham but had severely underestimated his foes’ resilience and ingenuity.

Firmly established as a major star of the company firmament, Green Lantern increasingly became the series to provide conceptual highpoints and “big picture” foundations. These, successive creators would use to build the tight-knit history and continuity of the DC universe. At this time there was also a turning away from the simple imaginative wonder of a ring that could do anything in favour of a hero who increasingly ignored easy solutions in preference to employing his mighty fists. What a happy coincidence then, that at this time Gil Kane was reaching an artistic peak, his dynamic full-body anatomical triumphs bursting with energy and crashing out of every page…

Scripted by Fox Green Lantern #36 cover-featured bizarre mystery ‘Secret of the Power-Ringed Robot!’ (how can you resist a tale that is tag-lined “I’ve been turned into a robot… and didn’t even know it!”?) and trumped that all-action conundrum with the incredible tale of Dorine Clay – a young lady who was the last hope of her race against the machinations of the dread alien Headmen in John Broome’s ‘Green Lantern’s Explosive Week-End!’

As previously stated, physical combat was steadily overtaking ring magic on the pages of the series and all-Fox #37’s‘The Spies Who “Owned” Green Lantern!’ – despite being a twist-heavy drama of espionage and intrigue – was no exception, whilst second story ‘The Plot to Conquer the Universe!’ pitted the Emerald Crusader against Evil Star, an alien foe both immortal and invulnerable, who gave Jordan plenty of reasons to lash out in spectacular, eye-popping manner.

For #38 (another all-Fox scripted affair), Jordan re-teamed with fellow GL Tomar Re to battle ‘The Menace of the Atomic Changeling!’ in a brilliant alien menace escapade counterpointed by ‘The Elixir of Immortality!’ wherein criminal mastermind Keith Kenyon consumes a gold-based serum to become a veritable superman. He might be immune to Ring Energy (which can’t affect anything yellow, as eny old Fule kno) but eventually our hero’s flashing fists bring him low – a fact he will never forget on the many occasions he returns as merciless master criminal Goldface…

Closing this outing is Green Lantern #39 (September 1965), featuring two tales by world-traveller John Broome, Kane & Green: opening with a return engagement for Black Hand, entitled ‘Practice Makes the Perfect Crime!’ and ending in a bombastic slugfest with an alien prize fighter named Bru Tusfors in ‘The Fight for the Championship of the Universe!’ They were mere warm-ups for the next issue and even more cosmic excitement…

These costumed romps are in themselves a great read for most ages, but when also considered as the building blocks of all DC continuity they become vital fare for any fan keen to make sense of the modern superhero experience. This blockbusting book showcases Broome, Fox & Kane’s imaginative and creative peak: a plot driven plethora of adventure sagas and compelling thrillers that literally reshaped a Universe. Action lovers and fans of fantasy fiction couldn’t find a better example of everything that defines superhero comics.

This fresh and evergreen collection is a must-read item for anybody in love with comics and especially anyone just now encountering the hero for the first time through his movie and TV incarnations.
© 1963, 1964, 1965, 2024 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.