Cover Cavalcade

  JUNE IS AVENGERS vs JLA MONTH!!!

February 1976: The Avengers cover is by Gil Kane and the JLA cover by Dick Giordano.

Cover Cavalcade

  JUNE IS AVENGERS vs JLA MONTH!!!

From February 1975. Nick Cardy drew the JLA cover and Ron Wilson drew the Avengers.

Cover Cavalcade

  JUNE IS AVENGERS vs JLA MONTH!!!

From February 1974. The JLA cover is by Nick Cardy; the Avengers by Jim Starlin.

Cover Cavalcade

 JUNE IS AVENGERS vs JLA MONTH!!!

From February 1973: The JLA cover is by Nick Cardy and the Avengers by Rich Buckler. 

Cover Cavalcade

 JUNE IS AVENGERS vs. JLA MONTH!!!

Two Neal Adams covers, both in issues cover dated February 1972.

Justice League Annual #1 (1983)--The Final Chapter

 

cover art by Rick Hoberg

JLA Annual #1 (1983): Plot by Paul Levitz, script by Len Wein, art by Rick Hoberg

The last chapter ended with Zatanna summoning the entire League (or, at least the members working on the current case) to the Dream Dimension. Now they are assaulting Dr. Destiny's base.

Once inside, they battle some random nightmares and also discover that Destiny is holding the current Sandman a prisoner.

This version of Sandman is a little obscure, because he only had a few appearances in the 1970s and 1980s. Originally created by Jack Kirby and Joe Simon in 1974, I believe his identity was retconned by Roy Thomas in a later appearance in Wonder Woman. Anyway, by this time, he's a professor who has gotten trapped in the Dream Dimension (able to visit Earth only an hour a day) and who now operates as a protector of that realm.

But for the moment, he's not doing anyone any good. In a tactical blunder, the various heroes try to charge Dr. Destiny one at a time, allowing him to use Sandman's sleep-inducing sand to knock them out. I suppose it can be argued that the nightmares they are fighting stopped them from making a coordinated attack on the master villain. But this isn't explicitly stated and the heroes come across looking a little silly.

But before going down, Elongated Man presses a button ejecting Sandman from the tube in which he's trapped, sending him back to Earth. Dr. Destiny doesn't care, though. He has captured the Justice League and now plans to force them to sleep without dreaming until they deteriorate the way he has.

Because he wasn't conscious, Sandman has no idea how he got to Earth. But from observing dreams, he knows that Superman is nearby, taking a nap as Clark Kent.

Sandman enters the apartment and gets attacked by nightmares. This wakes up Superman, who disposes of the nightmares. Sandman then brings them both to the Dream Dimension.

They fight Destiny, who at first appears to be getting the best of them. But (as we learn in the Epilogue), Ralph come up with a plan that allows the League to break out of their tubes while Destiny is distracted by Sandman and Supes. Confronted by a dozen superheroes, he faints. 

A brief epilogue explains how Ralph planned the escape and has Sandman turn down membership in the League. (Being able to visit Earth for just an hour at a time puts a limit on his usefulness.) 

I do think the heroes getting captured one at a time does make them look bad, but other than that, Hoberg's art looks great and the bizarre fight scenes are fun to look at. Ralph regaining his confidence in the previous chapter is highlighted nicely here by his saving the day twice. And its nice to see a character falling into obscurity--the Sandman--get another day in the limelight before he disappears into Comic Book Limbo. 

As for the book as a whole, it tells a strong story that follows Comic Book Logic and thus makes internal sense, it looks good and it uses a large cast of characters effectively. It come out near the end of the Bronze Age, demonstrating that this era of comics was still capable of telling fresh, fun stories.

Next week, we'll jump back to the Golden Age and visit with yet another obscure hero.

Justice League Annual #1 (1983)--Chapter 5

 

cover art by Rick Hoberg

JLA Annual #1 (1983): Plot by Paul Levitz, script by Len Wein, art by Rick Hoberg

Chapter 5 is pretty short, existing to first-- let Ralph Dibney overcome the self-doubt he was having at the beginning of the story; and second -- to set up the big battle coming in Chapter 6.

Back on the JLA satellite, Zatanna has magically traced Dr. Destiny to the dream dimension. She transports there, bringing Red Tornado and Ralph along.

They are attack by giant, nightmare versions of Dr. Destiny. Ralph briefly thinks this is the sort of situation he dreaded, where his skills as a detective are meaningless. But he realizes he's got to do something and uses his powers in a clever way to take out one of the nightmares. The other heroes dispose of their opponents as well.

After spending several pages setting up Ralph's self-doubt in Chapter 1, the resolution of this does come across as a little abrupt, but it does make sense. Ralph is tossed into a "the chips are down" situation where he's got to either act or give up. It is a little abrupt for storytelling purposes, but it makes complete character sense. And, to be fair, Ralph will get a Moment of Awesome in the final chapter.

Anyway, this confirms that Dr. Destiny is in the dream dimension, so Zatanna ends this brief chapter by summoning the rest of the League.

It is another well-written chapter. The brevity makes me a little embarassed to dedicate an entire post to it, but it does logically advance the story and resolve Ralph's character arc, leaving the comic book free to use the last chapter for a epic final battle with a fun plot twist. We'll look at that final chapter next week.

Justice League Annual #1 (1983)--Chapter 4

 

cover art by Rick Hoberg

JLA Annual #1 (1983): Plot by Paul Levitz, script by Len Wein, art by Rick Hoberg. 

Chapter 4 takes us to Gotham City, where Wonder Woman and Flash are joined by the John Stewart Green Lantern to continue the search for Dr. Destiny.

John isn't a League member at the time, was suddenly found himself in costume with his ring filling him in on the case. Apparently, the Guardians have sent him to lend a hand.

I don't think we get an explanation for what brought the heroes specifically to Gotham, but John is soon using his ring to home in on some delta wave activity. This gives us a wonderful panel in which John manifests a giant green bloodhound sniffing out the delta waves. It's probably not a necessary thing for John to do, but it's awesome all the same and using a GL ring to call up cool images to represent whatever practical thing you are doing should be standard practice among all members of the Lantern Corps.

Soon, they find the missing artists mentioned in the previous chapter. When John tries to free them from the equipment to which they are attached, this manifests villains from Wonder Woman's subconscious. The three heroes are fighting dream versions of the Tornado Tyrant, Amazo and Dr. Light.

What follows is a short fight scene--each hero only gets a few panels for his/her part of the fight. But in each case, the hero uses his/her powers intelligently to defeat one of the dream villains. I especially like the swift and practical method Wonder Woman uses--wrapping the Amazo manifestation in her Lasso of Truth, forcing it to realize its just an illusion, which in turn forces it to vanish.

The heroes find Dr. Destiny in a back room, but this is just a hologram. The real Destiny has become "one with his dream machine," though Wonder Woman wonders how he can do this when he can no longer dream.

That's it for Chapter 3. Next week, we'll pay a visit to the Dream Dimension,

Justice League Annual #1 (1983)--Chapter 3

 

cover art by Rick Hoberg

JLA Annual #1 (1983): Plot by Paul Levitz, script by Len Wein, art by Rick Hoberg. 

Today, we get to Chapter 3, in which Aquaman, Black Canary and Green Arrow travel to New York to follow up a possible lead to Dr. Destiny.

That lead involves several missing artists who are noted for the vivid imaginations. There's a chance their disappearance might involve the villain. And, in fact, it does. Dr. Destiny, monitoring the heroes from his secret HQ, strikes out at them for getting too close to a real clue.

He causes creepy-looking creatures to come into existence over equally creepy-looking statues created by the missing artists.

What follows is a short but really fun fight scene. I actually like it a lot better that the abrupt fight scene from the previous chapter. This time, we get to see each of the three heroes involved have a Moment of Awesome.

Aquaman lures his opponent into the harbor, where he then summons up electric eels to "disrupt the creature's unliving substance." I'm not sure that electric eels (which I THINK are exclusively a South American creature) would be living in New York Harbor, but what the hey. It's still a cool tactic and perhaps the eco-system in the DC Universe works a little bit differently than it does here on Earth Prime.

Black Canary takes out her monster with her sonic cry. Green Arrow repeats this tactic against HIS monster with a sonic arrow, then realizes taking out the statues will prevent any more monsters from appearing.

As I said, it's a cool fight. Each hero uses his or her brains as well as individual powers/weapons to deal intelligently with the threat. That's how a battle in a comic book universe SHOULD play out.

The chapter ends with Dr. Destiny remarking that he's found something "drifting in the dreams of Wonder Woman" that will destroy the Justice League. We'll find out more about that when Wednesday posts resume after the holidays.

Justice League Annual #1 (1983)--chapter 2

 

cover art by Rick Hoberg

Chapter two of JLA Annual #1(plot by Paul Levitz, script by Len Wein, art by Rick Hoberg) picks up with the JLA's efforts to track down Doctor Destiny. The first team we follow is Hawkman, Hawkgirl, Adam and Firestorm, with Firestorm carrying the others in a "nuclear air-bubble." Gee whiz, I love Comic Book Science!

Hawkgirl has rigged up a sensor to detect Delta Waves, brain waves that are generated when we sleep. So there are moments when Comic Book Science sort-of, kind-of matches up with real-life science. Of course, in this case, we have an alien with a delta wave detector being carried in a bubble made of nuclear energy--proving that in the end Comic Book Science beats the snot out of real life. 

The detector brings them to a sleep research facility at Ivy University. It's not Dr. Destiny's HQ, but he is still monitoring the League. So he brings the dreams of the sleeping subjects to life and has those now solid dreams attack the heroes.

The heroes fight back against the dreams until Firestorm puts a stop to it by freezing up the mind-machines to which the sleepers are attached, waking them up in the process. This causes the dreams to fade away. The heroes are victorious and have confirmed that Dr. Destiny is definitely out to get them.

It's a good chapter, which includes some fun banter between the Hawks while they are in the air bubble. A longer fight scene would have been nice, giving a greater sense of a real threat to the heroes, but what we have looks cool and I do appreciate that the story as a whole had to fit into a certain page count.

Next week, we travel to New York City to see what Aquaman, Green Arrow and Black Canary are doing. 

Justice League Annual #1 (1983)

 

cover art by Rick Hoberg

Two weeks ago, we finished a detailed look at an Avengers Annual from 1967. Justice League of America Annual #1, which we will look at beginning today, is from 1983. The 16-year gap means we aren't comparing and contrasting what Marvel and DC were doing at the same time. Instead, we've just looked at a fun book set in the Marvel Universe. Now we're looking at a fun book set in the DC Universe. Like most of my choices of what comics to review, it's pretty much just a whim.

Anyway, this JLA story was plotted by Paul Levitz, written by Len Wein and drawn by Rick Hoberg. It begins in the JLA satellite, which is being attacked by super-powerful robots. One of the JLA members in the fight is Elongated Man, who realizes he's outclassed in a fight where the bad guys can go toe-to-toe with Superman and Flash. And when Ralph is unable to stop one particular robot, the satellite is torn open and the JLA is blown into space.

Well, this turns out to be a dream. Ralph is having a nightmare--a manifestation of his fears that he's not able to contribute anything significant to the League.

Unknown to Ralph, someone else is observing his dream. The villainous Dr. Destiny has watched the dream in a monitor. When the scene jumps to his point-of-view, we also learn that he's operating a research clinic somewhere, giving himself the illusion of a normal appearance when interacting with the nurses. His research is studying dreams, with one of the nurses mentioning that patients who are kept from dreaming are "becoming pale and taunt, their faces almost skeletal."

Well, by golly, Destiny has a skeleton face because he's no longer able to dream! And he blames the JLA for his condition. He was only observing Ralph's dream, but he's now planning on using the dreams of the heroes against them.

The scene changes to the JLA satellite--not in a dream, but in reality. The JLA is meeting with Commissioner Gordon, who has a problem and can't get hold of Batman. (A line of dialogue and a footnote tells us the Caped Crusader is busy with a mission in Batman and the Outsiders.) Gordon brings them evidence that Dr. Destiny has recently escaped from Arkham Asylum, leaving an animated illusion behind to prevent his escape from being quickly noticed. Finding him is clearly a job for the Justice League. 

This brings us to the end of the first chapter. It's a strong opening for the story. It starts with the action in full swing--that the initial battle turns out to be a dream doesn't distract from it. It's still exciting with Hoberg's art bringing it all vivid life. Finding out its a dream leads us to Dr. Destiny, introducing us to the villain. If a reader doesn't know the details of Dr. D's backstory, that's okay. We know he's an enemy of the JLA, that he can access their dreams and that he holds them responsible for his skeletal appearance because he now lacks the ability to dream. That's sufficient for telling this particular tale.

Giving us a Commissioner Gordon cameo is fun and a logical way to bring the JLA up to speed on Dr. Destiny's escape. All of this together is a prime example of strong story construction. 

Next week, we'll look at Chapter 2 and find out if the story continues to be fun.

Cover Cavalcade

  OCTOBER IS HAWKEYE & GREEN ARROW MONTH!!!

A 1961 cover by Murphy Anderson.

Alien Medical Care Ain't What It Used To Be!

 

cover art by George Perez

Justice League #202 (May 1982), written by Gerry Conway and drawn by Don Heck, is a fun issue that tells a well-constructed story, but I gotta pause to make fun of the first page before discussing the story itself.

This story is set in a time when the JLA all shared their secret identities with one another. Batman is in space, repairing a component of the JLA satellite. No one, other than Hawkman (who is also on satellite duty) can see him. WHY is he wearing his cowl in space? How much money did it cost to design and build a space helmet that would fit his cowl? Does he expect to run into a cowardly, superstitious space mugger who will be frightened by the Batman cowl? No one can see you in space, Bruce! Give yourself a break and take off the mask!

Of course, the reason is that he looks cooler with the mask on and readers will readily identify who he is. And this is appropriate. But I'm just not sure there's a good in-universe reason for it.

Anyway, something goes wrong with the repair. Batman is knocked out and flung into space.  A hole in the satellite means it begins to decompress inside.

Hawkman sends out an emergency signal. What follows are a few pages that I expect might have been added because the main story didn't fill 25 pages. But, if so, it's expertly done filler. We see what Wonder Woman, Red Tornado, Atom and Zatanna were doing just before responding to the signal. We also see why other JLA members don't respond--they are either too busy (Superman is chasing a comet; Aquaman is helping a damaged ship,etc) or don't hear the signal. Flash, for instance, was taking a shower. It's a nifty little sequence that helps add a little verisimilitude to the DC Universe.

Once aboard the satellite, the heroes plug up the hole. In the meantime, though, Batman's drifting body has disappeared from the scanners.

The heroes head out in a shuttle to search for the Caped Crusader. They pass through a barrier that takes them behind a cloaking field and discover a huge alien ship. The ship defenses activate and the heroes spend a few pages battling tentacles, lasers and missiles before getting inside.

Once inside, a robot tells them that the "doctor" is busy right now. The helpful robot also explains what's going on. 

200,000 years ago, an alien explorer--a bear-like being named Ursak--was travelling to different worlds. When he stops on a world inhabited by primitive cavemen, he's injured in an attack and his automatic medical equipment is damaged. So he puts himself in stasis and calls for help.

The hospital ships takes millennia to trace the signal and, when it arrives, mistakes Batman for Ursak. So the emergency medical treatmen Batman has been receiving turns him into a alien hybrid with super strength and an unstable outlook on life.

The JLA tries to subdue him, but get their butts handed to them. Soon, only Hawkman is still standing. But he's been studying the ship and is able to lure crazy-Batman into a trap, knocking him unconscious with an electrical surge that also disables the hospital ship.

So far, we've had a well-written and well-drawn science fiction adventure.  Gerry Conway then manages to give the tale a nicely ironic ending. The ship is reactivated and realizes its mistake. Batman is cured. AND we also learn that Ursak did not come to Earth, but to another planet. The signal sent back to his homeworld had been distorted and brought the hospital ship to the wrong place. It continues on its journey to find Ursak while the JLA members wonder how Ursak will feel when he learns he's been in suspended animation for 200,000 years.

It's a strong story from start to finish. The action scenes allow each JLA member to have their moments; Hawkman solves the problem with brains as well as brawn; and the saga of Ursak gives it all a strong science fiction feel that works very well.

Next week, we'll head back to 1942 and visit Bulletman.

From Rann to Earth and Back Again

 

The thing about Adam Strange was that he wanted to live on the planet Rann with his wife, but would be forced to regularly return to Earth. While on Earth, he would get zapped by a teleportation beam called the Zeta Ray. That would bring him to Rann. But when the Zeta radiation wore off, he would be zapped back to Earth. 

I always wondered why he didn't just get to Rann by another method--he lives in a Comic Book Universe where this is a real possibility--and then be able to just stay there permanently.

That's because I never happened to have read Mystery in Space #75 (May 1962), in which writer Gardner Fox and artist Carmine Infantino explain just why this is. 

In the previous issue, Adam had returned to Rann via a teleport machine he'd captured from invading aliens. Now he can stay as long as he want.

But space pirate Kanjar Ro has escaped from the planet on which the Justice League had imprisoned him. (Which was apparently done without any judicial process, but there you go.) He wants revenge on the JLA. His plan is to find a planet with three suns that has a lighter gravity than his home planet. Then he can figure out a method to gain Superman-like powers. Remember that the Man of Steel gets his powers from our yellow sun plus Earth's lower gravity when compared to Krypton. By replicating this on a planet with three suns, Kanjar will have three times Superman's power. Comic Book Science at its best!

The action now jumps back to Rann, where Adam and his wife Alanna enounter a barbarian tribe that now has a bell-like weapon that allows them to gain physical control over others. Adam and Alanna have a narrow escape, then wear earplugs to allow them to infiltrate the barbarian camp by mingling with prisoners. Here they discover that Kanjar Ro has set up camp. He has a Gamma Gong that he intends to use to control the entire planet AND he's having those he has enslaved build the devise necessary to bombard him with solar radiation from the three suns, giving him Superman Powers x 3.

Gardner Fox was a great writer and I largely enjoy this story, but he tended to occasionally over-write and over-explain. This happens here, slowing the story and obscuring Infantino's magnificent art with too many word balloons and boxes of expository narration. 

In fact, I'm not going to try to explain the rest of the story in detail, because that would bog down this blog post even more than it probably already is. Suffice to say that stopping Kanjar Ro involves stealing the bad guy's Cosmic Ship, sailing to Earth as a clue for the JLA, taking a Zeta Beam back to Rann and eventually confronting Kanjar with the Justice League as allies. It's actually a cool plot, following sound Comic Book Logic from start to finish. Adam come up with legitimate clever ideas for countering the villain throughout the tale. It just needs an excessive amount of exposition to get there. 

By now, though, Kanjar has completed his solar radiation bath and is easily kicking JLA butt. But Adam deduces that metal from Kanjar's home planet would work on him the way Kryptonite works on Superman. This allows him to save the day.

But Adam got zapped by Kanjar Ro before the battle ended. This leaves him with a perculiar condition--if he stays on Rann for more than short visits, he'll get sick. So the short Zeta Beam visits are now his only option.

Despite my criticisms of the story, it really is a fun Silver-Age romp. And I'm happy to learn that what I always thought was a plot hole was actually explained. You see? The Silver Age all made sense! It did! It really did!

Next week, we'll jump back in time to land on the beaches of Normandy with a particular Allied soldier on D-Day. Or try to land, anyways.