Category: DC Superhero

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Superman vs. Shazam!


By Gerry Conway, Roy Thomas, Julie Schwartz, Paul Kupperberg, Joey Cavalieri, Mark Waid, Jerry Ordway, Judd Winick, Rich Buckler, Gil Kane, Alex Ross, Ian Churchill & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-7795-0909-3 (TPB/Digital edition)

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Golden Grudge-Match Magic… 8/10

Superman debuted in Action Comics #1 in the summer of 1938. Created by Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster, it proved extremely popular across many disparate media and sparked a new kind of hero and story form. You’re here right now because of him…

Another one of the most venerated and loved characters in American comics was created by Bill Parker & Charles Clarence Beck for Fawcett Publications as part of the wave of opportunistic creativity that followed that successful launch of Superman. Although there were many similarities in the early years, the “Big Red Cheese” moved swiftly and solidly into the area of light entertainment and even broad comedy, whilst as the 1940s progressed the Man of Tomorrow increasingly left whimsy behind in favour of action and drama.

Homeless orphan and thoroughly good kid Billy Batson was selected by an ancient wizard to battle injustice and subsequently granted the powers of six gods and mythical heroes. By speaking aloud the wizard’s name – itself an acronym for the six patrons Solomon, Hercules, Atlas, Zeus, Achilles and Mercury – Billy would transform from scrawny boy to brawny (adult) hero Captain Marvel.

At the height of his popularity, Captain Marvel hugely outsold Superman but, as the decade progressed and tastes changed, sales slowed. An infamous court case begun in 1941 by National Comics citing copyright infringement was settled and like so many other superheroes, the Captain disappeared, becoming a fond memory for older fans. A big syndication success, he was missed all over the world…

In Britain, where an English reprint line had run for many years, creator/publisher Mick Anglo had an avid audience and no product, and transformed Captain Marvel into atomic age hero Marvelman, continuing to thrill readers into the early 1960s.

Decades later, as America lived through another superhero boom-&-bust, the 1970s dawned with a shrinking industry and wide variety of comics genres servicing a base that was increasingly founded on collectors and fans rather than casual or impulse buyers. National Periodicals/DC Comics needed sales and were prepared to look for them in unusual places.

Since the court settlement with Fawcett in 1953 they had secured the rights to Captain Marvel and his spin-off Family. Now, though the name itself had been taken up by Marvel Comics (via a circuitous and quirky robotic character published by Carl Burgos and M.F. Publications in 1967), the publishing monolith decided to tap into that discriminating if aging fanbase.

In 1973, riding a wave of national nostalgia on TV and in the movies, DC brought back the entire beloved cast of the Captain Marvel crew in their own kinder, weirder universe. To circumvent the intellectual property clash, they named the new title Shazam! (…With One Magic Word…) after the memorable trigger phrase used by myriad Marvels to transform to and from mortal form and a word that had already entered the American language due to the success of the franchise the first time around.

Although the fortunes of Billy and Co have waxed and waned, one thing never did – the primal joy of all fans everywhere as they asked the eternal question of the golden age sales competitors: “Who would win if…?”

This rather hastily updated and rereleased volume is based on a 2013 edition but has come back presumably because it features so many stories starring surprise modern movie star Black Adam and gathers All-New Collectors’ Edition C-58, DC Comics Presents #33-34 & 49, DC Comics Presents Annual #3, Kingdom Come #4, Superman #216 and Power of Shazam #46 spanning 1978 to 2005. It’s by no means a comprehensive compilation with some notable omissions – such as my personal favourite ‘Make Way for Captain Thunder!’ from Superman # 276 (June 1974) – but there is plenty here to whet appetites and tantalise fading memories if you’re nearer the age of the Wizard than Billy…

The action begins ‘When Earths Collide’ as seen in May 1978’s tabloid-sized special All-New Collectors’ Edition C-58 as crafted by Gerry Conway, Rich Buckler & Dick Giordano. At this juncture, prior to Crisis on Infinite Earths, the Shazam Family lived on alternate Earth-S whilst the regular DC pantheon inhabited the universe dubbed Earth-One.

This epic yarn sees ancient Martian sorcerer Karmang the Evil attempt to merge both worlds by harvesting the energy of cataclysmic combat, to which end he resurrects long-dead Shazam-empowered Black Adam and the mystic Quarmer being that haunted Superman as the Sand Thing.

As they stalk and provoke the heroes, Karmang curses the champions with addictive rage, compelling them to attack each other and liberate the super-forces Karmang craves. Thankfully, Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen and Supergirl join Mary Marvel and an unsuspected secret ally to sabotage the scheme before the Big Blue Boy Scout and Big Red Cheese pummel each other and the worlds out of existence…

Conway, Roy Thomas, Buckler & Giordano then craft a 2-part epic in DC Comics Presents #33 and 34 (May & June 1981) as ‘Man and Supermarvel’ finds the Action Ace and Good Captain helplessly swapping powers, costumes and Earths, thanks to the mirthlessly manic machinations of Fifth dimensional imp Mr. Mxyzptlk and malevolent alien worm Mr. Mind.

Despite the intervention of Mary Marvel and Captain Marvel Junior in the concluding issue, the villains’ sinister manipulations allow antediluvian revenant King Kull to become ‘The Beast-Man that Shouted ‘Hate’ at the Heart of the U.N.’ (Thomas, Buckler & Giordano).

The consequent confrontational clash rumbles across myriad dimensions and only goes the heroes’ way after they stumble upon the garish homeworld of Lepine Legend Hoppy the Captain Marvel Bunny…

Black Adam takes centre stage in DC Comics Presents #49 (September 1982) as Thomas, Paul Kupperberg, Buckler & John Calnan detail how the troubled Billy Batson of Earth One is targeted by the immortal wizard in ‘Superman and Shazam!’

From his citadel in the Rock of Eternity, the mage seeks to empower a child and create a Marvel on Superman’s adopted homeworld. However, when he tries to enlist the Man of Steel’s assistance to create another Captain Marvel, everything goes badly wrong and the Earth-S original has to step in from his own world to stop the opportunistic depredations of his devil-hearted predecessor Teth Adam…

Captain Marvel’s blend of charm, drama and whimsy made and remade many fans, even prompting a live action TV series, but never quite enough to keep the series going in such economically trying times. Despite cancellation, however, the series persevered in back-up slots in other magazines and the character still made the occasional bombastic guest-appearance such as 1984’s DC Comics Presents Annual #3.

As delivered by Thomas, Julie Schwartz, Joey Cavalieri and illustrator Gil Kane, ‘With One Magic Word’ is a cracking and witty 40-page romp which sees the Earth-S Doctor Sivana appropriate the mystic lightning that empowers Billy, leading to a monolithic multidimensional melee involving not just the Marvel Family but also the Supermen of both Earths One and Two (this was mere months before Crisis on Infinite Earths lumped all these heroes onto one terribly beleaguered and crowded world) before peace, sanity and the status quo was restored…

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

Set approximately twenty years ahead, the grandiose saga detailed a tragic failure and subsequent loss of Faith for Superman and how his attempt to redeem himself almost caused an even greater and ultimate apocalypse.

Scripted by Mark Waid, the events are seen through the eyes and actions of Dantean witness Norman McCay, an aging cleric co-opted by Divine Agent of Wrath The Spectre after the pastor officiated at the last rites of dying superhero Wesley Dodds. As The Sandman, Dodds had been cursed with precognitive dreams which compelled him to act as an agent of justice.

This is a world where metahumans have proliferated: spawning a sub-culture of constant, violent clashes between the latest generation of costumed villains and vigilantes, all uncaring of collateral damage they daily inflict on mere mortals around and in all ways beneath them.

The preacher sees a final crisis coming… but feels helpless until the Spectre takes him on a bewildering voyage of unfolding events, McCay must act as the ghost’s human perspective as the Spirit of Vengeance prepares to pass judgement on Humanity…

Seen here is the concluding chapter: a staggering battle of superpowers, one last moment of salvation and a second chance for humanity during a calamitous ‘Never-Ending Battle’…

At first Superman’s plans seemed blessed to succeed, with many erstwhile threats flocking to his banner and doctrinaire rules of discipline, but as ever there are self-serving villains with their own agendas. Lex Luthor had organised a cabal of like-minded compatriots such as Vandal Savage, Catwoman and Kobra – a “Mankind Liberation Front”. With Captain Marvel as their utterly corrupted slave, this group is determined the super-freaks will not win, but salvation hinges on the outcome of their tool’s clash with a despondent, embittered Man of Steel…

The emotional trauma is heaped on Billy in Power of Shazam #46 (February 1999) as he reels from his failure to stop an atomic atrocity that killed many of his friends. Deeply traumatised, he at first ignores the depredations of Black Adam and allows Superman to fight his foe in Fawcett City, but when turns when pushed to far unleashing his ‘Absolute Power’ and lashing out at family, friends and foes alike in a powerful and disturbing tale by Jerry Ordway & Giordano…

The Fights ‘n’ Tights furore ends here with another single chapter from a greater epic as Superman #216 (June 2005, by Judd Winick, Ian Churchill & Norm Rapmund) sees the heir of Shazam battling a Man of Steel controlled by rage-filled Demon of Darkness Eclipso in ‘Lightning Strikes Twice Part Three’ which was part of the build up to the Acts of Vengeance storyline…

Comics are such an interconnected, overlapping and entwined medium these days that I suppose my crusty old git reservations against incomplete stories can be ignored by most readers. That said, the material here is spectacular and thrilling and should gratify and satisfy new readers generated by movies or even word of mouth. With covers by Buckler, Giordano, Kane, Ross, Churchill & Dave Stewart and Ordway, this tome offers a quick glimpse of what’s great and topical, and for those in need of more there are entire worlds waiting for you to find them…
© 1978, 1981, 1982, 1984, 1996, 1999, 2005, 2013, 2018, 2021 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Justice Society of America: The Demise of Justice


By Len Strazewski, John Broome, Paul Levitz, Rick Burchett, Grant Miehm, Mike Parobeck, Tom Artis, Frank McLaughlin, Frank Giacoia, Arthur Peddy, Bernard Sachs, Joe Staton & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-7795-0744-0 (HB/Digital edition)

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Golden Ageist Evergreen Enjoyment… 8/10

Released in 2021 to celebrate their 80th anniversary, here’s yet another DC core concept given fresh wings by a modern movie. If you can find it, this hardback/digital delight is good old fashioned fun and will make a perfect present for you or yours…

After the actual invention of the comic book superhero – the Action Comics debut of Superman in 1938 – the most significant event in the industry’s history was the combination of individual sales-points into a 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 many characters inevitably increased 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 utterly changed the shape of the budding business and – technically – All Star Comics #3 (cover-dated Winter 1940-1941, released in December 1940) was the kick-off. However, in that landmark, the assembled heroes merely had dinner whilst recounting recent cases and didn’t actually go on a mission together until #4 (cover-dated April 1941).

With the simple notion that mighty mystery men hung out together, history was made and it wasn’t long before they started working together…

However, when WWII ended, superheroes gradually declined, and most companies had shelved them by 1950. The plunge in popularity led to a revival in genre-themed titles and characters, and it was a stripped-down team (Flash, Green Lantern, Hawkman, The Atom, Black Canary, Dr. Mid-Nite and Wonder Woman) who battled on in contemporarily tailored crime and science fiction sagas before the title abruptly changed into All Star Western with #58.

It would take a second age of superheroes to revive them, this time as the champions of a parallel universe dubbed Earth Two…

Gathered here is a near-forgotten limited series concerning the latter days of the team’s Golden Age that originally ran in Justice Society of America #1-8 (April to November 1991), augmented by the last tale of the original era as seen in All-Star Comics #57, (February/March 1951), plus a turning point tale from Adventures Comics #466 (December 1979). They are preceded a sparkling, informative and appreciative Foreword by Golden Age aficionado and super scripter Mark Waid.

The miniseries – subtitled Vengeance from the Stars! – that comprises the majority of this tome was scripted by journalist and educator Len Strazewski (Speed Racer, The Flash, Phantom Lady, Starman, The Fly, The Web, Prime, Prototype, Elven) and illustrated by a rotating team of artists, opening as Rick Burchett illustrates ‘Beware the Savage Skies’. Here recently-retired mystery man Ted Knight – AKA Starman – is attacked in his private New Mexico observatory by incredible astral energy beings. Broken and dispirited, he is then enslaved by an old enemy who purloins his wondrous gravity rod before luring Jay (Flash) Garrick into a deathtrap that results in power outages across America…

The plot thickens with ‘The Sack of Gotham’ (art by Grant Miehm) as radio and television executive Alan Scott seeks to keep the lights on in his city whilst Black Canary prowls the darkened streets deterring looters and career criminals. Distracted by a museum break-in, she finds herself punching way, way up as undead monster/moron Solomon Grundy and a gang of determined bandits help themselves to ancient Egyptian artefacts at the behest of a hidden client. By the time Scott arrives as Green Lantern, the Canary has been thrashed and captured, leaving him to battle an animated star constellation dubbed Sagittarius…

Burchett inks the astoundingly talented Mike Parobeck in #3’s ‘Dead Air’, as the star thing blacks out Gotham and Scott struggles to stop it. Complications occur when Grundy – afflicted with an obsessive hatred of Green Lantern – forgets the orders from the mystery Machiavelli to attack his emerald enemy. Far away, Ted Knight learns that his gleeful foe intends to conquer Earth by eradicating modern technologies and attitudes and replace them with primordial magic and tyranny…

Tom Artis & Frank McLaughlin limn #4 as ‘Evil of the Ancients’ sees reincarnating Egyptian warrior Hawkman uncovering star-themed neolithic treasures in his day job as archaeologist Carter Hall. These findings expose the history and provenance of the constellation creatures, but also trigger the arrival of another…

Despite aerial valour and the US Army’s best efforts, deadly colossus Andromeda storms off with a clutch of atom bombs and only the sudden arrival of The Flash prevents utter disaster. The clash resumes in ‘Double Star Rising!’ by Parobeck & Burchett, as arcane knowledge and modern tech savvy combine to trace the stellar plunderer and the incredible pyramid of power it is constructing. When the heroes try to destroy it they are confronted with a second energy horror but find a way to defeat both at once, compelling the man behind the plot to finally take a personal hand in the fight…

Far across the country the Lantern and the Canary escape captivity in ‘Danger Flies the Skies’ (Artis & McLaughlin), thanks to some timely aid from valiant sidekick Doiby Dickles, and track west after the museum artefacts in time to reinforce Flash and Hawkman in ‘The Return of the Justice Society’ (art by Miehm & Burchett). Redeemed and reinspired, Knight once more takes up his costumed identity to end the villain’s plot in ‘Battle of the Stars!’

In the heady aftermath, the JSA ponder what the next decade will bring, unaware that political conspiracies, public paranoia and a wave of intolerance masquerading as social conformity was waiting to change the world in ways no one could anticipate…

In continuity terms, this was technically the antepenultimate adventure of the JSA, with the rousing romp slyly heralding mood swings in the heartland of Democracy. It is thus smartly supplemented by the team’s final appearance of the Golden Age (in All-Star Comics #57) and a chilling, thematically-aligned codicil from Adventures Comics #466.

Written by John Broome and illustrated by Frank Giacoia, Arthur Peddy & Bernard Sachs, All-Star Comics #57 was the JSA’s last hurrah as ‘The Mystery of the Vanishing Detectives!’ pitted them against criminal mastermind The Key. When he abducted Earth’s greatest criminologists in advance of a spectacular robbery spree, the superheroes were called in to solve the case and prevent an impending catastrophe. It took a lot of time and effort, but the JSA never fail…

The fallow period and gradual return of the JSA was a major success of fan power in the 1960s, but that decade too ended with superheroes on the wane. During 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 pernicious and long-lasting (although 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 the pocket-money and allowances of children which 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 the newly revived horror stories – were consciously being produced for older readerships. Nearly a decade of organised fan publications and letter writing crusades had finally convinced publishing bean-counters what editors already knew: grown-ups avidly read comics too. Moreover, they happily spent more than kids and craved more, more, more of what they loved.

Explicitly: If one appearance per month was popular, extras, specials and second series would be more so. By the time Marvel Comics Wunderkind Gerry Conway left The House of Ideas, DC was willing and ready to expand its variegated line-up with some oft-requested 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 and other superhero titles had become a beloved tradition and treat.

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 #58.

In 1951, the original title transformed overnight into All Star Western with the numbering running for a further decade for the home of cowboy crusaders like Strong Bow, The Trigger Twins, Johnny Thunder and Super-Chief. Now, set on Earth-Two, and in keeping with the editorial sense of ensuring a series be relevant to young readers too, Conway reintroduced the veteran team, leavened with a smattering of teen heroes forming a contentious, generation gap-fuelled “Super Squad”…

Augmented by Robin (a JSA-er since the mid-1960s in Justice League of America #55), Sylvester Pemberton/Star-Spangled Kid and a busty young thing who rapidly became the feisty favourite of a generation of growing boys: Kara Zor-L – Power Girl. Closing this collection is a short piece as she and fellow newcomer Huntress discuss how the Golden Age ended…

Taken from massive 68-page anthology title Adventure Comics 466 where Paul Levitz & Joe Staton delivered a pithy history lesson exposing the reason why the team vanished at the beginning of the 1950s, ‘The Defeat of the Justice Society!’ shows how the American Government cravenly betrayed their greatest champions. Set during early days of the McCarthy era anti-communist witch-hunts, a sham trial provoked the mystery men into voluntarily withdrawing from public, heroic life. There they stayed until the costumed stalwarts of Earth-One started the whole Fights ‘n’ Tights scene all over again…

These exuberant, rapid-paced and imaginative yarns perfectly blend the naive charm of Golden Age derring-do with cynically hopeful 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. These are classic tales from simpler times and a glorious example of traditional superhero storytelling at its finest: fun, furious and ferociously engaging, excitingly written and beguilingly illustrated. No Fights ‘n’ Tights fan should miss these marvellous sagas.
© 1951, 1979,1991, 2020 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Superman: Strange Attractors


By Gail Simone, Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning, John Byrne & Nelson (DC Comics)
ISBN 978-1-4012-0917-9 (TPB)

Here’s a Superman collection tailored to the fight fan, as the mighty Man of Steel takes on a bevy of baddies in terse tales designed as an antidote to an over-abundance of multi-chapter epics. I’m focussing on it here primarily because it’s also a complication- and continuity-light compendium featuring movie Man of the Moment Black Adam…

Created by Otto Binder & C.C. Beck, Black Adam/Teth Adam debuted in The Marvel Family #1, cover-dated December 1945. There he was revealed as the power-corrupted predecessor of current magical superhero (the Original…) Captain Marvel. The Egyptian relic’s reign of evil ended with his death at the end of the story…

You can’t keep a good villain down though, and when the Golden Age Marvel was revived in the 1970s as Shazam!, the ancient antithesis eventually returned to bedevil the heroes. He even survived the continuity changing chaos of Crisis on Infinite Earths and numerous subsequent reboots.

For present purposes, the following is the backstory new readers should access…

Once upon a time Billy Batson was a little boy living on the streets of Fawcett City. His archaeologist parents had left him with an uncle when they went on a dig to Egypt. They never returned, his little sister vanished and Billy was thrown out so his guardian could steal his inheritance.

Sleeping in a storm drain and selling newspapers for cash, the indomitable lad grew street-smart and resilient, but when a shadowy stranger bade him follow into an eerie subway, the boy somehow knew it was all okay. Soon after, he met the wizard Shazam, who bestowed upon him the powers of six ancient Gods and Heroes.

Thus began an astounding career as wholesome powerhouse hero Captain Marvel. Billy eventually found lost sister Mary and shared his nigh-infinite power with her, as they both subsequently did with disabled friend Freddy Freeman.

They fought and eventually reached an accommodation with militant progenitor Black Adam, who was the wizard’s first superhuman champion, reborn in the body of Theo Adam – a distant descendant who had murdered the Batson’s parents. When a succession of crises arose, everything changed.

Immortal Shazam was murdered, Billy was exiled to the transcendent Rock of Eternity as his replacement and Freddy became a new Captain Marvel; his mighty gifts supplied by a completely different pantheon of patrons.

Meanwhile, Black Adam had found peace and redemption in the love of ascendant nature goddess Isis …until she was cruelly taken from him. The worst tragedies befell poor Mary. Deprived of her intoxicating powers she became an addict without a fix… until soul-sick Adam shared his dark energies with her. His corrupted spirit fatally tainted the once-vibrant innocent…

During his lost phase, the Egyptian warrior vacillated between hard-line hero and outright menace: joining the Justice Society of America but also arbitrarily administering his old testament brand of judgement whenever he felt the need…

This selection of Superman stories comes from Action Comics #827-828, and #830-835 (spanning July 2005 through March 2006). The run of was originally interrupted for the “Sacrifice” storyline (and collected as a graphic novel of the same name), so the volume reconvenes with the episode after…

First up is eponymous 2-part saga ‘Strange Attractors’ and Strange Attractors part 2 – Positive Reinforcement’: a battle against the incredibly bad and quite mad Master of Magnetism Dr Polaris, aided, if not abetted, by the resurrected reprobate Black Adam, currently holding a high position in supervillain army The Society…

Following the aforementioned Sacrifice pause, we reconvene with #830’s ‘The Great Society’ as the Man of Tomorrow tackles Dr. Psycho. The old Wonder Woman villain is a physically stunted, sadistic psychologist with the power to control minds. When he arrives in Metropolis intent on mischief, Superman finds that every citizen is a foe and hostage at the same time.

Once again, Black Adam is on hand to render ambivalent assistance as ‘Black & Blue’ (a Villains United tie-in) sees Adam reassess his role before it all devolves into the obligatory fist fight.

Scripted by Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning ‘Old Ghosts’ sees Devil-surrogate Lord Satanus and the Spectre use the city as a phantasmal Ground Zero next, and, after refereeing that little cataclysm, Superman finds himself the target of a psychic and spiritual assault from old JLA foe The Queen of Fables in ‘Depths’ and ‘Awake in the Dark’ – with Norm Rapmund, Larry Stucker, Marc Campos, & Oclair Albert joining Nelson in applying inks to John Byrne’s pencils..

The furious ferocious fun concludes in a duel with Livewire, that perky punkette with absolute control of all things electrical who contracts ‘A Contagion of Madness’ with Gail Simone, John Byrne and inker Nelson delivering potent, punchy and self-contained mini-classics.

Not overly complicated, concentrating on exhilaration and excitement, but still managing to sustain some tense sub-plots involving Lois Lane-Kent and the rest of the venerable supporting cast, these stories are just plain fun. It’s a shame that the experiment doesn’t seem to have caught on …
© 2005, 2006 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Superman: Kryptonite Nevermore


By Dennis O’Neil, Curt Swan, Murphy Anderson, Dick Giordano & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-7795-0755 (HB/Digital edition)

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Total Entertainment Perfection… 10/10

Superman is the comic book crusader who started the whole genre and, in the decades since his 1938 debut, has probably undertaken every kind of adventure imaginable. With that in mind it’s tempting and very rewarding to gather up whole swathes of his inventory and periodically re-present them in specific themed collections, such as this hardback celebrating one his greatest extended adventures. The episodes contained within were originally released just as comics fandom was becoming a powerful – if headless – lobbying force reshaping the industry to its own specialised desires and remains a true landmark of the superhero genre.

When Julie Schwartz took over editorial responsibility for the Man of Steel in 1970, he was expected to shake things up with nothing less than spectacular results. To that end, he sagely incorporated many key characters and events that were simultaneously developing as part of fellow iconoclast Jack Kirby’s freshly unfolding “Fourth World”.

That bold experiment was a breathtaking tour de force of cosmic wonderment which brought a staggering new universe to fans: instantly and permanently changing the way comics were perceived and how the entire medium could be received.

Schwartz, meanwhile, was again breathing fresh life into a powerful but moribund icon – a job he had been excelling at since he more-or-less singlehandedly kickstarted the Silver Age of Comics. Superman had been a mega-media star since his launch, with internationally syndicated comics, books, newspaper strips, movie and cinema serials plus hugely successful radio and TV shows (live action and animated) making the franchise globally recognizable. Whenever that happens, inevitably overkill and overexposure inescapably set in and the core property needs to be carefully overhauled or vanish forever. I’ll bet you can think of plenty of really famous and ubiquitous things from your childhood that one day you simply stopped noticing. Happily, sometimes they can be reborn…

Schwartz knew his market and was open to new ideas, and his creative changes were just appearing in 1971. The new direction was also vanguard and trigger for a wealth of controversial and socially-challenging story content unheard of since the feature’s earliest days: a wave of tales ultimately described as “Relevant”…

The era itself and those vital changes are described and contextualised in Paul Levitz’s Introduction, after which the crucial radical shift in Superman’s vast mythology starts to unfold.

With iconic covers by Neal Adams, Dick Giordano, Carmine Infantino & Murphy Anderson, this titanic tome collects Superman #233-238 and #240-242, originally running from January to September 1971.

The groundbreaking epic was crafted by scripter Dennis J. “Denny” O’Neil, and veteran illustrators Curt Swan and Murphy Anderson – although stand-in Dick Giordano inked #240. A deliberate and very public abandonment of super-villains, fanciful Kryptonian scenarios and otherworldly paraphernalia instantly revitalised the Man of Tomorrow, attracting new readers and began a period of engagingly human-scaled stories which made Superman a “must-buy” character all over again.

The innovations began in ‘Superman Breaks Loose’ (Superman #233) when a government experiment to harness Kryptonite as an energy source goes explosively wrong. Closely monitoring the test, the Action Ace is blasted across the desert surrounding the isolated lab, but somehow survives a supposedly fatal radiation-bath. Then, reports begin filtering in from all over Earth: every piece of the deadly mineral has been transformed to harmless, common iron…

As he goes about his protective, preventative patrols, the liberated hero experiences an emotional high at the prospect of all the good he can now accomplish. He isn’t even phased when the Daily Planet‘s new owner Morgan Edge (a key Kirby character) shakes up his civilian life: summarily ejecting Clark Kent from the print game to remaking him as a roving TV journalist…

Meanwhile, the desert site of his recent crashlanding offers a moment of deep foreboding as Superman’s irradiated imprint in the sand shockingly grows solid and shambles away in ghastly parody of life…

The suspense resumes in #234’s ‘How to Tame a Wild Volcano!’ as an out-of-control plantation owner refuses to let his indentured native workforce flee an imminent eruption on the island of Boki. Handicapped by misused international laws, the Man of Tomorrow can only fume helplessly as the UN rushes towards a diplomatic solution. His anxiety intensifies when a sinister sand-thing inadvertently passes him and agonisingly drains him of his powers.

Crashing to Earth in a turbulent squall, the de-powered hero is attacked by work boss Boysie Harker‘s thugs and instantly responds to the foolish provocation, relying for a change on determination rather than overwhelming might to save the day…

The ‘Sinister Scream of the Devil’s Harp’ in #235 gave way to weirder ways – the industry was enjoying a periodic revival of interest in supernatural themes and stories – as mystery musician and apparent polymath Ferlin Nyxly reveals the secret of his ever-growing aptitudes and gifts is an archaic artefact which steals from living beings knowledge, talents and even Superman’s alien abilities.

The Man of Steel is initially unaware of the drain, as he’s trying to communicate with his eerily silent doppelganger, but once Nyxly graduates to a full-on raving super-menace self-dubbed Pan, the taciturn homunculus unexpectedly joins its living template to trounce the power thief…

Issue #236 offered a Batman cameo and a science fictional morality play as cherubic aliens seek Superman’s assistance to defeat a band of devils and rescue Kent’s friends from Hell. However, the ‘Planet of the Angels’ is nothing of the kind, and the Metropolis Marvel must pull out all the stops to save Earth from a very real Armageddon, after which Superman #237 sees him save an orbiting astronaut only to see him succumb to madness-inducing mutative disease. After another savage confrontation with the sand-thing further debilitates him, the harried hero is present as more mortals fall to the contagion.

Believing himself the cause, the ‘Enemy of Earth’ considers quarantining in space. As he decides, Lois Lane stumbles into another lethal predicament and the hero’s instinctive intervention seemingly confirms his earlier diagnosis, but another clash with the ever-present sandy simulacrum on the edge of space presents an incredible truth. Painfully debilitated, Superman nevertheless saves Lois and again meets the evermore human creature. Now able to speak, it offers a chilling warning and the Man of Steel realises exactly what it is taking from him and what it might become…

A mere shadow of his former self, the Man of Tomorrow is unable to prevent a band of terrorists taking over a magma-tapping drilling rig and endangering the entire Earth in #238’s ‘Menace at 1000 Degrees’. With Lois among their hostages and the madmen threatening to detonate a nuke in the pipeline, the Action Ace desperately begs his doppelganger to assist him, but its cold rejection forces the depleted hero to take the biggest gamble of his life…

Superman #239 was an all-reprint giant featuring the hero in his incalculably all-powerful days – so not included here – but the diminished Caped Kryptonian returned in #240 (with Giordano inks) to confront his own lessened state and seek a solution in ‘To Save a Superman’. The trigger is his inability to extinguish a tenement fire and the wider world’s realisation that their unconquerable champion is now vulnerable and fallible…

Especially interested are the Anti-Superman Gang who immediately allocate all resources to destroying their nemesis. After one particularly close call, Clark is visited by an ancient Asian sage who somehow knows his other identity and offers an unconventional solution…

From 1968 superhero comics began to decline – just as they had at the end of the 1940s – so publishers sought fresh ways to keep audience as tastes changed. Back then, the industry depended on newsstand sales, and if you weren’t popular, you died. Editor Jack Miller, innovating illustrator Mike Sekowsky and relatively new scripter Denny O’Neil came up with a radical proposal and made history by depowering the only female superhero then in the marketplace. They had the mystical Amazons leave our dimension, taking with them all their magic – including Wonder Woman‘s powers and all her weapons…

Reduced to mere humanity she chose to stay on Earth, assuming and legitimising her own secret identity of Diana Prince: resolved to fighting injustice as a mortal. Tutored by blind Buddhist monk I Ching, she trained as a martial artist, and quickly became a formidable enemy of contemporary evil.

I Ching claims he can repair Superman’s difficulties and dwindling might, but evil eyes are watching. Arriving clandestinely, Superman allows the adept to remove his Kryptonian powers as a precursor to restoring them, allowing the A-S Gang opportunity to strike. In the resultant brutal melee, the all-too-human hero triumphs in the hardest fight of his life…

The saga continues with “Swan-derson” back on art in #241 as Superman overcomes momentary but almost overwhelming temptation to surrender his oppressive burden and lead a normal life. Admonished and resolved, he then submits to Ching’s resumed remedy ritual and finds his spirit soaring to where the sand-being lurks before explosively reclaiming the stolen powers. Leaving the gritty golem a shattered husk, the phantom brings the awesome energies back to their true owner and a triumphant hero returns to saving the world…

Over the next few days, however, it becomes clear that something has gone wrong. The Man of Tomorrow has become arrogant, erratic and unpredictable, acting rashly, overreacting and even making stupid mistakes. In her boutique Diana Prince discusses the problem with Ching and the sagacious teacher deduces that whilst merely mortal and fighting AS gangsters, Superman received punishing blows to the head which have caused a brain injury that did not heal after his powers returned…

When the hero refuses to listen, Diana and Ching track down the dying sand-thing and beg its aid. The elderly savant recognises it as a formless creature from other-dimensional Quarrm and listens to the amazing story of its entrance into our world. He also suggests a way for it to regain some of what it recently lost…

Superman, meanwhile, has blithely gone about his deranged business until savagely attacked by a statue of a Chinese war-demon. Also able to steal his power, it has been possessed by a second fugitive from Quarrm. It has no conscience and wears ‘The Shape of Fear!…

The shocking saga concludes in ‘The Ultimate Battle’ as the second Quarrmer falls under the sway of two petty thugs who use it to put the again de-powered Superman into hospital…

Rushed into emergency surgery, the Kryptonian fights for his life as sand-thing confronts war-demon in the streets, but events take an even more bizarre turn once the latter drives off its foe and turns towards the hospital to finish off the flesh-&-blood Superman. Regaining consciousness – and a portion of his power – the Metropolis Marvel battles the beast to a standstill but needs the aid of his silicon stand-in to drive the thing back beyond the pale. With the immediate threat ended, Man of Steel and Man of Sand face off one last time, each determined to ensure his own existence no matter the cost…

The stunning conclusion was a brilliant stroke on the part of the creators, one which left Superman approximately half the man he used to be. Of course, all too soon he returned to his unassailable, god-like power levels but never quite regained the tension-free smug assurance of his 1950s-1960s self.

A fresh approach, snappy dialogue and more human-scaled concerns to balance outrageous implausible fantasy elements all wedded to gripping plots and sublime art make Kryptonite Nevermore one of the very best Superman sagas ever created. Also included are creator biographies, the iconic ‘House Ad’ by Swan & Vince Colletta which proclaimed the big change throughout the DC Universe, plus a thoughtful ‘Afterword by Dennis O’Neil’ to wraps things up with some insights and reminiscences every lover of the medium will appreciate.

A must-have graphic novel to sit on the same shelf as Watchmen, Batman: Year One, Segar’s Popeye, Gottfredson’s Mickey Mouse, Kirby & Lee’s Galactus Trilogy and Chaykin’s American Flagg!: a shining exemplar of action- adventure comics captured at their most perfect moment. Why don’t you have this yet?
© 1971, 2009, 2020 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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The Newsboy Legion Volume One


By Joe Simon & Jack Kirby with Arturo Cazeneuve, Gil Kane, John Daly, Harry Tschida & others (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-2593-3 (HB/Digital edition)

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Never Too Early for Classic Comic Kid Capers… 9/10

Just as the Golden Age of Comics was beginning, two young men with big dreams met and began a decades-long association that was uniquely, intensely creative, immensely productive and spectacularly in tune with popular tastes. As kids both had sold newspapers on street-corners to help their families survive the Great Depression…

Joe Simon was sharp, smart, talented and studious, with 5 years’ experience in “real” publishing: working from the bottom up to become art director on a succession of small paper like the Rochester Journal American, Syracuse Herald and Syracuse Journal American.

He moved to New York City and a life of freelancing as an illustrator, art & photo retoucher. Encouraged and recommended by his boss, Simon joined Lloyd Jacquet’s pioneering Funnies Inc.: a production “shop” generating strips and characters for numerous publishers, all eager to cash in on the success of Action Comics and its stellar attraction Superman. Within days, Simon devised The Fiery Mask for Martin Goodman of Timely Comics (AKA Marvel), where he became acquainted with young Jacob Kurtzberg, a cartoonist and animator just hitting his stride with The Blue Beetle for the Fox Features Syndicate.

Together Simon & Kurtzberg (who went through many pen-names before settling on Jack Kirby) built a creative empathy and synergy that galvanized an already electric neo-industry with a vast catalogue of features and even sub-genres. They produced influential monthly periodical Blue Bolt, sub-contracted and dashed out Captain Marvel Adventures (#1) for Fawcett and, once Martin Goodman appointed Simon his editor at Timely, created a host of iconic characters like Red Raven, the first Marvel Boy, Hurricane, The Vision, proto-Kid Gang The Young Allies and, of course, million-selling megahit Captain America.

Famed for his larger-than-life characters and colossal cosmic imaginings, “King” Kirby was an astute, spiritual, hard-working family man who lived through poverty, gangsterism and the Depression. He loved his work, hated chicanery of every sort and foresaw a big future for the comics industry…

When Goodman failed to make good on his financial obligations, Simon & Kirby jumped ship to National/DC, who welcomed them with open arms and a fat chequebook. Bursting with ideas the staid company were not comfortable with, the hypercreative duo were initially an uneasy fit, and given two strips that were in the doldrums until they could find their creative feet: Sandman and Manhunter.

They turned both around virtually overnight before, ensconced, established and left to their own devices, launching the aforementioned Kid Gang genre (technically “recreating” as the notion was one of their last Timely innovations in 1941s bombastic, jingoistic Young Allies #1). Their DC star fully rose with a unique juvenile Foreign Legion dubbed The Boy Commandos.

The little warriors began by sharing the spotlight with Batman and Robin in flagship title Detective Comics, but they rapidly won their own solo title. It promptly became one of the company’s top three sellers.

Boy Commandos was such a success – frequently cited as the biggest-selling US comic book in the world at that time – that the editors and Publisher Jack Liebowitz, knowing the Draft was imminent, greenlit completion of a wealth of extra material to lay away for when their stars were called up. S&K consequently assembled a creative team which generated so much material in a phenomenally short time that Liebowitz suggested they retool some of it into adventures of a second juvenile team. Thus was born The Newsboy Legion (and superheroic mentor The Guardian)…

Based on the Our Gang/Little Rascals film shorts (1922-1944) and Angels With Dirty Faces (1938, directed by Michael Curtiz), the Newsboy Legion was pitched halfway between a surly bunch of comedy grotesques and charmingly naive ragamuffins, and comprised four ferociously independent orphans living together on the streets, peddling papers to survive. There was earnest, good-looking Tommy Tompkins, garrulous genius Big Words, diminutive, hyper-active chatterbox Gabby and feisty, pugnacious Scrapper, whose Brooklyn-based patois and gutsy belligerence usually stole the show. They were headed for a bad end until somebody extraordinary entered their lives…

Their exploits generally offered a bombastic blend of crime thriller and comedy caper, leavened with dynamic superhero action and usually seen from a kid’s point of view. The series debuted in Star-Spangled Comics #7, forcing the Star-Spangled Kid and Stripesy off the cover slot and lead position. The youngsters remained opening feature until the end of 1946, when – without fanfare or warning – #65 found them gone: ousted and replaced by Robin, the Boy Wonder. His own youth-oriented solo series subsequently ran all the way to SSC #130 in 1952, by which time superhero romps had largely been supplanted throughout the industry by general genre tales.

This collection reprints the first 26 episodes, spanning Star-Spangled Comics #7 to 32 (April 1942-May 1944), and includes stunning covers by Kirby, inker Arturo Cazeneuve, Fred Ray and teenage debutante Gil Kane. It opens with a lyrical and revelatory reminiscence from Joe Simon himself. His invaluable Introduction ‘Birth of the Legion’ leads directly into a potent tale of poverty and skulduggery pitted against idealism to create optimism in the darkest of urban outposts as ‘The Story of the Newsboy Legion’ introduces rookie cop Jim Harper walking a beat in the inner city hellscape dubbed “Suicide Slum”.

When he’s jumped by a gang of thugs and severely beaten, Harper responds in an unlikely manner: raiding a costume store and cobbling together an outfit to obscure his identity. Donning a blue bodystocking, hooded mask, crash-helmet and shield, he hunts down his assailants and gives them the thrashing they so richly deserve…

Happily, his illegal actions accidentally result in the arrest of an infamous kidnap ring. The mysterious figure is dubbed the Guardian of Society by the newspapers selling like hotcakes on street corners. Harper has no intention of repeating his foray into vigilantism, but when he catches Tommy, Big Words, Gabby & Scrapper shoplifting, their lives are all forever changed…

The tough little monkeys are destined for reform school until the cop makes an earnest plea for clemency on their behalf. In response, the judge appoints him their legal guardian. The lads are far from grateful and send him packing, but when their next get-rich-scheme involves them with armed bandits, they realise the mettle of the man they’re saddled with…

Witnesses to the crimes of murderous mobster Frankie the Fence and hopelessly implicated in them, the boys are about to die when a human thunderbolt in a mask and helmet comes to their rescue.

In actual fact it’s unclear who saves whom, but at the end the Newsboy Legion are finally set on a righteous path, but with their suspicions aroused. Frustratingly, no matter how hard they try, the boys can’t prove that their two Guardians are the same guy…

And thus the scene was set: the lads constantly looking for broadly legal ways to make a living, whilst Harper hovered over them as a guide and his alter ego worked tirelessly behind the scene to keep them alive and extricate from the trouble that always found them on the streets and alleys of the most-crime-infested slum in America…

The very next month Tommy stumbles onto the hideout of fugitive killer Black Leo Lucas and his abduction to ‘Last Mile Alley’ leads the fighting-mad Guardian to a confrontation with the latest Big Boss who thought himself untouchable. ‘The Rookie Takes the Rap’ then sees Harper framed by devious gambler Sure Thing Kelly and only cleared by the actions of his now-devoted foster-kids…

To be frank, the relationship between Jim and the boys was never properly defined. Although he was responsible for keeping them out of trouble, they never lived with him and generally provided for themselves whilst – presumably – still sleeping on the streets…

Having now made some headlines of their own, the boys are offered the chance to be ‘Kings for a Day’ in Star-Spangled Comics #10: running various municipal departments in a grand civic publicity stunt. Sadly, the event is hijacked by mobster The Mark, whose plans to plunder the entire city would have succeeded had he not underestimated those pesky kids temporarily in charge of the emergency services…

Many episodes worked powerfully against the pervasive backdrop of crushing poverty and social injustice. SSC #11 saw the boys arrested by a heartbroken Jim for burglary and sent to the State Reformatory. What he doesn’t know is that the boys have learned of corruption at ‘Paradise Prison’ and seek to expose unctuous, sanctimonious Warden Goodley for the sadistic grafter he truly is…

With little kids starving in their hovels and resorting to petty theft, the boys decide to make a documentary with borrowed film equipment. Naturally the hunt for perfect locations drops them right in the laps of bank bandits resulting in a ‘Prevue of Peril’, and requiring another last-minute save by the blockbusting blue-&-gold mystery man with the pot on his head…

With the clue in the name, the Legion still made most of their living hawking newspapers. Whenever tabloids weren’t selling, things got tough, and in SSC #13 falling sales spur the lads to create their own local periodical. With Harper’s assistance, the premier issue of the Slum Sentinel proves a huge success but ‘The Scoop of Suicide Slums!’ makes the area too hot for crooks in their warrens. However, in seeking to crush the little newsmakers, the city’s biggest racketeer only exposes himself to Legion scrutiny …and the Guardian’s furious fists!

Philanthropist Wilbur Whilling is a man with a plan. Using the Legion as his unwitting shills, he convinces slum residents to donate everything they have to build a modern apartment project to house everyone. Sadly, ‘The Meanest Man on Earth!’ never expected the kids to uncover his fraudulent alliance with lawyers and planners to repossess the snazzy new complex upon completion, and certainly isn’t ready for the personal retribution doled out by Scrapper and the man in the mask.

Arturo Cazeneuve became prime inker with #15’s ‘Playmates of Peril!’ as Patrolman Harper’s frequent absences lead to his being partnered with a supervising sergeant. It doesn’t stop his trouble-magnet wards falling into another criminal caper and being taken hostage: necessitating a storm of frantic improvisation to save them, his job and his secret identity…

When Tommy saves a child from being run over, the hero is eagerly adopted by rich banker Willis Thornton. He doesn’t want to go but his pals force him to take his shot at escaping the ghetto. All too soon, though, ‘The Playboy of Suicide Slum!’ is framed for robbery at the Thornton mansion and needs his true brothers to clear his name, after which ‘The Newsboy Legion versus the Rafferty Mob’ finds the kids in a turf-war with rival street toughs led by the toughest girl they have ever encountered.

Hostilities cease as soon as a gang of gunsels use the distraction as a way of trapping the Guardian…

‘The Education of Iron-Fist Gookin’ sees the slum’s most brutal thug taking elocution lessons from Big Words, and picking up a few morals – plus a pardon and new start – along the way, before ‘The Fuehrer of Suicide Slum’ focuses on Scrapper and takes the odd narrative liberty, depicting the boys battling Nazis after a sneak attack and invasion of New York City…

Steve Brodie inked the return to comic book reality in Star-Spangled Comics #20’s ‘The Newsboys and the Champ!’ as the boys help hillbilly boxer Zeke Potts navigate the lethally crooked big city fight game before ‘The House Where Time Stood Still’ (Cazeneuve inks) finds the kids selling war bonds. To do so they explore a derelict house and discover two be-whiskered hermits who have shunned the world for decades. The belligerent Presby brothers change their isolationist attitudes once Nazi spies move into their home, so it’s a good thing the Legion didn’t take that first “no” for an answer…

Gabby wrecks an automobile and incurs dubious yet huge debt in the Cazeneuve-inked ‘Brains for Sale!’ and his proposed payment solution leads the entire team into deadly danger from an underworld surgeon, after which ‘Art for Scrapper’s Sake’ (John Daly inks) sees that bellicose boy discovering his extremely profitable creative side. Typically, he’s far from happy after realising he’s just the patsy for a high-end art fraud…

Cazeneuve returns as regular inker with ‘Death Strikes a Bargain’ in SSC #24, as a crime crackdown in Suicide Slum leads to the kids being parachuted into a luxurious new life as part of a bold social experiment. Of course, the reformer in charge has a murderous ulterior motive for his seeming benevolence…

A vacation growing vegetables on a farm in ‘Victuals for Victory’ lands the lads in more trouble as their nearest neighbours turn out to be bucolic bandits hiding out after a big city crime spree, whilst ‘Louie the Lug Goes Literary’ sees the Guardian bust a major felon and inadvertently spark a massive hunt for the racketeer’s favourite tome… and the incredible secrets it holds…

Star-Spangled Comics #27 has the lads as volunteer firefighters encountering an insurance inspector-turned-arsonist eager to ‘Turn on the Heat’, whilst #28’s ‘Poor Man’s Rich Man’ sees kindly night watchman Pop O’Leary inherit a fortune. Immediately lavishing largesse on all the other unfortunates in Suicide Slum, Pop only starts to worry after his unpaid bills mount up and his lines of credit dry up, until the Newsboys discover the generous geezer is victim of a cruel plot by saboteurs. They furiously take appropriate action, with the hammer-fisted Guardian charging along for the ride…

Always seeking solid investments, the kids hop on the publishing bandwagon in ‘Cabbages and Comics’: hoping to make millions peddling their own strip magazine. Their big mistake is incorporating local hoods’ likenesses and overheard snippets of gossip in the final mix…

Naturally, their masked protector is on hand to prevent them perishing from the indignation – and guns – of the plunderers they inadvertently expose and plagiarize…

In SSC #30, a reformed crook is framed and ‘The Lady of Linden Lane’ suddenly abandons her miserly ways and starts acting very strangely, leading the lads to devilish fraud, after which neophyte superstar Gil Kane illustrates ‘Questions, Please?’ with brilliant Big Words and even his less cerebral comrades becoming radio quiz sensations on the very night the dread Purple Mask gang raid the studio.

This stunning assemblage of astounding articles concludes with Star-Spangled Comics #32 as the boys act as ‘The Good Samaritans!’ (by Kane & Harry Tschida), unknowingly sheltering a gang of desperate, starving thieves holding millions in hot cash they can’t spend… yet…

After years of neglect, the glorious wealth of Jack Kirby material available these days is a true testament to his influence and legacy, and this magnificent, initial collection of his collaborations with fellow pioneer Joe Simon is a gigantic box of delights perfectly illustrating the depth, scope and sheer thundering joy of the early days of comics.
© 1942, 1943, 1944, 2010 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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The Other History of the DC Universe


By John Ridley, Giuseppe Camuncoli, Andrea Cucchi, José Villarrubia & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-7795-1197-3 (HB/Digital edition)

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Hard-Hitting, Strong Medicine… 9/10

The evolution and assimilation of non-white, non-standard characters – defined and othered by skin colour, religion, ethnicity and who loves whom – has been in most mass media what author and screenwriter John Ridley (12 Years a Slave; Future State: The Next Batman) has described as “measured progressiveness”.

That’s especially true in comics, where incremental firsts have been applauded – and rightly so, as the industry has always been at the forefront of progressive thinking and action – but has also suffered from a tickbox mentality where true change has been slow to materialise and hard to sustain. We can say “first black superhero”, “first gay hero”, “first interracial marriage” or “first same-sex kiss” , but other than offering a glimmer of acceptance, and recognition, what has changed?

It’s certainly better than an all-white, all-male milieu where “different” equates to “lesser than”, where more than 50% of the populace and who knows how much of the readership doesn’t conform to proposed norms and are reduced to eye-candy, plot props and useless bystanders (not even competent villains who at least have agency!). For the longest time these attitudes were tacitly enshrined on funnybook pages – and not even for sinister reasons – but what appears to simply be an unconscious acceptance of an unchallenged status quo…

You can read other books or even some previous posts here from the last month for background, if you want, but here and now, I’m pointing you towards a fascinating and gripping series recently collected as an answer to that situation.

Here Ridley – with illustrators Giuseppe Camuncoli, Andrea Cucchi, José Villarrubia and letterer Steve Wands – re-examines and deconstructs DC’s record of Diversity progress via all those slow incremental steps and breakthroughs: interpreting through the eyes and attitudes of the revolutionary characters the company added but with modern sensibilities and opinions in play…

Filtered from a socio-political perspective and assessment of those times – but not in the comfortably parochial “everything’s basically fine” tones of a white, male middle class parental audience-placator – you’ll learn a different history: one told not under Comics Code Restrictions, or commercial interests sanitising culture and attitude to keep (covertly and actively) racist authorities from embargoing titles but as heroic individuals finally telling their sides of a well-known story.

Published under DC’s Black Label mature reader imprint it begins with the story of Black Lighting in Book One – 1972-1995: Jefferson Pierce. Here we see the inner workings of an African American former Olympian who became a school teacher and vigilante to save lives and how it destroyed and damaged his family, after which Book Two – 1970-1989: Karen Beecher-Duncan & Mal Duncan recounts in their words how being the tokens on a team of white privileged teen super do-gooders shaped their lives and relationship.

A far darker divergence is applied to Japanese warrior/assassin Katana in Book Three – 1983-1996: (plus the kanji for Yamashiro Tatsu), exploring the tragic Japanese widow’s reinventions from faithful wife/widow to murderous killer and lethal weapon to nurturing superhero and beyond…

The lecture continues with the tale of a Gay Latinx cop who inherited the role of DC’s most mysterious avenger in Book Four – 1992-2007: Renee Montoya, before The Question resolves into second generation angst and answers for Book Five – 1981-2010: Anissa Pierce. Here Black Lightning’s actual legacy and effect on DC continuity is reappraised through the eyes of his superhero children Thunder and Lightning, with religion and sexual orientation also coming under fire.

All we’ve seen before is summed up with no obfuscations or confusions, but you might want to reread or acquaint yourself with the original material as seen in various volumes of Black Lightning, Teen Titans, The Outsiders as well as selected continuity highpoints of Green Lantern, Batman, Cosmic Odyssey, Crisis on Infinite Earths, Death of Superman. Don’t let the reading list deter you though: you could simply plunge right in and wing it. The material, its tone and reinterpretation are carefully orchestrated and fully approachable for any level of fan from veteran adept to casual film watcher…

Ridley enacts a miraculous slice of sleight of hand here, examining simultaneously the actual published comics as accepted DC lore but also the redefining times they were created in and filling out the characters in modern terms – quite a feat of meta-realism…

The covers are by Camuncoli & Marco Mastrazzo with Jamal Campbell producing some stunning variants, but the true attraction of The Other History of the DC Universe is the knowledge that times and attitudes have changed enough that this book is even possible. Read it and see…
© 2021 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Swamp Thing: The Bronze Age volume 2


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Deadman: Book One


By Arnold Drake, Jack Miller, Carmine Infantino, Neal Adams, George Roussos & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-3116-3 (TPB/Digital edition)

As the 1960s ended, a massive superhero boom became a slow but certain bust, with formerly major successes no longer able to find enough readers to keep them alive. The taste for superheroes was diminishing in favour of more traditional genres, and one rational editorial response was to reshape costumed characters to fit evolving contemporary tastes.

Publishers swiftly changed gears and even staid, cautious DC reacted rapidly: making masked adventurers designed to fit the new landscape. Newly revised and revived costumed features included roving mystic troubleshooter The Phantom Stranger and golden age colossus The Spectre, whilst resurgent traditional genres spawned atrocity-faced WWII spy Unknown Soldier and cowboy bounty hunter Jonah Hex, spectral western avenger El Diablo and game-changing monster hero Swamp Thing, spearheading a torrent of new formats, anthologies and concepts.

Moreover, supernatural themes and horror-tinged plots were shoehorned into those superhero titles that weathered the trend-storm. Arguably, the moment of surrender and change had arrived with the creation of Boston Brand in the autumn of 1967, when venerable science fiction anthology Strange Adventures was abruptly retooled as the haunted home of an angry ghost…

Without fanfare or warning, Deadman debuted in #205 with this first collection (of five) re-presenting that origin event and thereafter, pertinent contents from #206-213: cumulatively spanning cover-dates October/November 1967 to July/August 1968. The drama is preceded by Introduction ‘How Deadman Came to Life’ by originator Arnold Drake and the Foreword – ‘A Most Unusual Character’ by Carmine Infantino – each reminiscing, recapitulating and confirming just how daring and unprecedented the new kind of hero was…

Then it’s straight into eerie action with ‘Who Has Been Lying in My Grave?’ – by Arnold Drake, Carmine Infantino & George Roussos – as we attend the funeral of high wire acrobat Boston Brand: a rough, tough, jaded performer who had seen everything and masked a decent human heart behind an obnoxious exterior and cynical demeanour.

As “Deadman”, Brand was the star attraction of Hills Circus and lover of its reluctant owner Lorna Carling, as well as a secret guardian for the misfits it employed and sheltered. That makeshift “family” includes simple-minded strongman Tiny and Asian mystic Vashnu, but also had a few bad eggs too… people like alcoholic animal trainer Heldrich and chiselling carnival Barker Leary.

The aerialist kept them in line… with his fists, whenever necessary…

One fateful night, Brand almost missed his cue because of Leary and Heldrich’ antics and also because he had to stop local cop Ramsey harassing Vashnu. It would have better if he had been late, because as soon as he started his act – 40 feet up and without a net – someone put a rifle slug into his heart…

Despite being dead before he hit the ground, Brand was scared and furious. Nobody could see or hear him screaming, and Vashnu kept babbling on that he was the chosen of Rama Kushna – “the spirit of the universe”. The hokum all came horribly true as the entity astonishingly made contact, telling Brand that he would walk among men until he found his killer…

The sentence came with some advantages: he was invisible, untouchable, immune to the laws of physics and able to take possession of the living and drive them like a car. His only clue was that witnesses in the audience claimed that a man with a hook had shot him…

Outraged, still disbelieving and seemingly stuck forever in the ghastly make-up and outfit of his performing persona, Deadman’s first posthumous act is to possess Tiny and check out the key suspects. Soon the dormant Hercules finds that the cop and Heydrich are involved in a criminal conspiracy, but they definitely are not Brand’s murderers…

Eventually, the ghost learns a shocking fact: his desperation is not worth the life of anyone else and he must not let his anger put his “vessels” in harm’s way…

Second episode ‘An Eye for An Eye!’ was scripted by Drake, and was Adams’ illustrative debut. Originally inked by Roussos, here it is rather unfairly reinked by Adams and further enhanced by modern colouring techniques. I understand how the artist should have autonomy and agency in his own work, but for the sake of chronology and authenticity, I take quite a bit of umbrage on behalf of old “Inky”, whose efforts seem unfairly judged and slighted by these revisions…

That being said, the tale is a strong one and indicates a sea change in narrative style as Deadman expedites his hunt for justice. The stories henceforth focus on those who are temporarily occupied by Brand: a string of episodic encounters that mirrored the protagonist of contemporary hit TV series The Fugitive (and by extension, Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables), with an unfairly accused victim searching for personal justice all across America, to the benefit of many people in crisis.

Here, that’s young Jeff  Carling, who’s fallen in with a dangerous biker gang and is set up to pay for their crimes. He’s also Lorna’s brother, which is how Deadman gets involved in the mess, after learning the cash-strapped kid had taken out a life insurance policy on the circus star just before the Hook struck…

Having saved the kid from a perfect frame, Brand resumes his search and, as Jack Miller took over scripting in #207, is forced to ask ‘What Makes a Corpse Cry? The hunt leads him to revisit the night he saved bar girl Liz Martin from a drunken assault by her boss Rocky Manzel, but when the spook checks in, he finds Liz and boyfriend Paul being terrorised by Rocky, who coldly implies he caused the death of her last protector…

Even after using his ghost gifts to disqualify Manzel, Deadman is compelled to help the young lovers, and exposes the club owner’s criminal secret, but once again almost causes the death of his human ride…

Miller & Adams were providing a very different reading experience with innovative, staggeringly powerful art, but struggled with deadlines, and ‘How Many Ways Can a Guy Die?’ was delivered in 4 parts across Strange Adventures #208 and 209. The revelatory tale introduces Brand’s trapeze artist rival Eagle, who had tried to kill him years before, and now seeks to replace him in the circus and Lorna’s bed – whether she wants him or not…

When Deadman again borrows Tiny to dissuade the brute, Eagle threatens the gentle strongman with the same thing Brand got and the ghost is convinced his quest is almost over. However, the truth is far crueller, and when Deadman uncovers his rival’s actual scheme, the cost to Tiny and alternate vessel Pete is far too high…

The hunt stalled again, Brand finally thinks to check the official police investigation in #210’s ‘Hide and Seek’ (cover-dated March 1968). To his disgust, he finds the case is cold, with assigned detective Michael Riley dishonourably discharged from the force due to the testimony of a man with a hook…

Sensing a breakthrough, Deadman possesses Riley and, visiting the other “witness” to the former cop’s reported use of excessive force, uncovers a devious plot. Sadly, despite clearing Riley’s name, Brand misses The Hook who coldly disposes of the only man who could describe him before fleeing to Mexico…

Hot on the trail, Deadman arrives in El Campo in #211, and endures a shocking surprise in ‘How Close to Me My Killer?’ as Miller’s last story introduces wayward twin brother Cleveland Brand. Flashbacks show the sibling had plenty of motive to murder his showbiz brother, but as the tale unfolds, Boston learns he has an unsuspected niece and his people-trafficking but repentant brother needs some haunted help to save smuggled “wetback” labourers from a Texan businessman looking to whitewash his criminal endeavours…

Adams took over scripting with #212 and ‘The Fatal Call of Vengeance’ sees another change of direction, adding more conventional fantasy elements to the mix as Cleveland and his daughter Lita head north to Hills Circus.

Wearing his brother’s costume, Cleve revives the Deadman act and, in Mexico, a man with a hook sees a headline and rushes back to the USA.

Faster than any jet, Boston is already there and watches helplessly as his brother makes himself a target of the unknown killer. The phantom is also completely spooked by new lion tamer Kleigman who is rude and unfriendly and is missing his right hand…

With everyone at odds, both Boston’s returned killer and the circus family set traps with disastrous results, but in the end the Hook escapes again and it’s Tiny who’s left bleeding out from a gunshot…

This first collection concludes with a dip into the madly metaphysical as ‘The Call from Beyond!’ tests Deadman’s abilities to the limit as he enters Tiny’s consciousness to promote his recovery and break a assumed-fatal coma. Following that miracle, the restless revenant repays his debt by saving the reputation and life of Tiny’s surgeon Dr. Shasti after the medical savant is duped by murderous con artist/medium Madam Pegeen…

With groundbreaking covers by Infantino, Sekowsky, Roussos & Adams and ‘Biographies’ of the creators involved, this spectral delight perfectly captures the tone of an era in transition through a delirious run of comics masterpieces no ardent art lover or fanatical fear aficionado can do without.
© 1967, 1968, 2011 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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The Mystery of the Meanest Teacher – a Johnny Constantine Graphic Novel


By Ryan North, Derek Charm & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-7795-0123-3 (TPB/Digital edition)

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Moody, Mirthful and Magical… 8/10

In recent years DC has opened up its shared superhero universe: generating Original Graphic Novels featuring its stars in stand-alone adventures for the demographic inappropriately dubbed Young Adult. To date, results have been rather hit or miss, but when they’re good, they are very good indeed. An ideal example is this cheery chiller reinterpreting the formative years of DC’s magical bad boy: particularly concentrating on his early relationship with things that go bump in the night…

You’ve either heard of John Constantine by now or you haven’t, so I’ll be brief. Created in 1985 by Alan Moore, Steve Bissette, Rick Veitch & John Totleben during a groundbreaking run on Swamp Thing, the unlikeliest of heroes is a mercurial modern mage, a dissolute chancer and self-appointed mystic fixer who plays like an addict with magic – on his own terms for his own ends.

He is not a good guy. He is not a nice person, but all too often, he’s all there is between us and the void…

Winning his own series by clamorous popular demand, Constantine’s own series Hellblazer premiered in 1988, during the dying days of Reaganite Atrocity in the US but at the height of Thatcherite Barbarism in England. We’re pretty much singing the same songs now as back then but – with 5th rate Britain’s Got Talent cover-artist wannabes as our revolving-door leaders – that’s something little Johnny will surely get around to sorting if he gets another outing…

In 1988, creative arts and Liberal attitudes were dirty words in many quarters and the readership of Vertigo was pretty easy to profile. The long-running series started with relatively safe horror plots, introducing us to Constantine’s unpleasant nature, chequered history and odd acquaintances. Even then, discriminating fans were aware of a joyously anti-establishment political line, rebellious nature and wildly metaphorical underpinnings. Racism, Darwinian politics, gender fluidity, plague, famine, gruesome supernature and more were everywhere in the dark dystopian purview of John Constantine – a world of bleeding-edge mysticism, Cyber-shamanism and political soul-stealing.

Relax. That is not the Constantine you’re looking at here…

Courtesy of writer Ryan North (Dinosaur Comics, Adventure Time, Slaughterhouse-Five, Power Pack, Machine of Death, Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, How to Invent Everything, Star Trek – Lower Decks) and illustrator Derek Charm (Jughead, Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, Uncle Scrooge, Jughead’s Time Police, Star Wars Adventures) – assisted by letterer Wes Abbott – we’re meeting a wily wizard in waiting: someone apparently without conscience or impulse control who bears more than a passing resemblance to juvenile parental burden Dennis the Menace – but more the malign mischief maker from The Beano than Hank Ketchum’s wayward waif…

It begins in London where a cocky kid pops into a sweetshop. Unfortunately, Archibald Junior’s Discount Confections is no ordinary purveyor of tasty treats, but then again, Johnny Constantine is no ordinary kid…

Behind a cheesy façade of fragrant gleaming bottles, jars and bags, this exotic emporium has a back room where ghosts, demons and world-devouring cosmic entities can also snatch a little snacky something. It just another eldritch secret that Johnny – who calls himself “Kid Constantine” – somehow knows. The boy has an astounding affinity for magic and has even befriended a few lesser devils, but he also has a weakness for Archibald’s magic chocolates.

Sadly, this latest shoplifting lark endangers all of Earth and, haunted by angry ghosts, the Kid has to take refuge with a pack of low-grade demons.

He’s been casually manipulating his parents for a while now, and fooling himself that he’s a wicked cool Jack the Lad, but he learns a few hard truths as he even wears out his welcome with the unholy monsters, and immediately opts to try boarding school to evade further repercussions. Best of all, the place is in America…

It’s pretty far away, but Johnny doesn’t mind. He’s always been better off alone. Just look what happened to the last friend he foolishly shared his magical gifts with…

With terrifying ease, the unaccompanied boy rocks up at The Junior Success Boarding School in Massachusetts, but his charm and roguish manner can’t help him adjust, settle in or make any friends on campus. In fact, he’s actually starting to feel a bit lonely… until a bit of lazy, labour-saving magic is spotted by fellow sixth grade outsider Anna.

The Kid is just starting to think he might have made a mistake coming to America when she comes clean and confesses that she too can make little miracles…

Our gobsmacked loner thinks long and hard before letting his guard down, but soon they are friends and co-conspirators, playing pranks and testing their limits. It seems the best of all worlds until their homeroom teacher Ms. Kayla starts behaving strangely…

Formerly the nicest adult in school, she abruptly changes, spitefully singling out Johnny and Anna for special attention and cruel psychological bullying. Before long, the supernatural students are using their gifts to learn what caused the transformation, but discover it’s far worse than they could ever have imagined…

Facing a deadly existential supernatural threat, Kid Constantine does what he always does and runs away, deserting Anna and the school, but everything changes when he hits the forests surrounding the institution and meets a potentially life-changing ally in the huge form of a witch-hunting demon called Etrigan…

Chastened and emboldened, the Kid makes a decision that will change his life: returning to school, joining Anna and the Demon in ending a monstrous menace more terrible than anyone could have imagined…

Rowdy, rousing and riotous – and sublimely stuffed with twists, shocks and enticing snippets of DC lore – the battle against unforgiving evil culminates in a clever piece of misdirection and some stellar sleight of hand as valiant Anna and duty-driven Etrigan see their bad boy come good and save everything…

This tale is done in one but the book also offers a lengthy excerpt from Jeffrey Brown’s Batman and Robin and Howard that is also worth some of your time and attention…

Bold, beguiling, brilliantly entertaining and deliciously uplifting, The Mystery of the Meanest Teacher is a magical rite of passage and smartly funny adventure with a twist to charm and thrill full-on fans and nervous neophytes alike: one introducing a new wondrous world with a rousing reminder that there is magic everywhere.
© 2020 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Superman & Batman vs Vampires & Werewolves


By Kevin VanHook & Tom Mandrake (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-2292-5 (TPB/Digital edition)

The Man of Tomorrow and the Dark Knight are two characters who have, for the most part, escaped their lowly comics origins to join a meta-fictional literary landscape populated by the likes of Mickey Mouse, Tarzan and Sherlock Holmes. As such their recognition factor outside our industry means that they get to work in places and with other properties that might not appeal to funny-book purists.

Take for example this out-of-print tale that piles on heaped helpings of monster-bashing, and which, despite a host of guest-stars, felt on release more like a test launch than a assured hit and has since become as vanishingly vaporous as its arcane antagonists…

Superman & Batman vs. Vampires & Werewolves is an intriguing, if flawed, oddment (with one of the clunkiest titles ever imagined) that should have appealed to the casual reader, especially if they’re not too adamantly wedded to the comic book roots and continuity of the DC Universe.

Prowling the streets of Gotham City, Batman comes across a partially devoured corpse and is promptly boots-deep in an invasion of mindless berserker vampires and werewolves who turn the city into a charnel house. Helpless to combat or contain the undead rampage, the Caped Crimebuster accepts the aid of enigmatic (but rational) vampire Marius Dimeter and his lycanthropic counterpart Janko who grudgingly ally themselves with the hero to track down Herbert Combs – a truly deranged scientist resolved to traffic with the Realms Beyond.

To facilitate his goals, Combs turned Janko and Dimeter into the accursed creatures they are and unleashed his plague of horrors on America to further his research. The bonkers boffin is infecting more helpless humans and has become an actual portal for Lovecraftian beasts to invade our reality…

Superman joins the fray just as one of these Elder God nightmares is unleashed, but even after its defeat he’s no real help: hampered more by his ethical nature than utter vulnerability to magic. Far greater aid is provided by super-naturalist Jason Blood and his Demonic alter-ego, whilst Kirk Langstrom – who can transform into the monstrous Man-Bat at will – provides both scientific and brutally efficient clean-up assistance.

Fellow harder-edged heroes such as Wonder Woman, Nightwing and Green Arrow turn up and join the battle to great effect, but after their admittedly impressive cameos and participatory contributions inexplicably wander off before the overarching threat is ended…

Nuh-uuh! Once a team-up begins, comics guys (who aren’t paid big bucks like big-name guest actors) don’t leave until the day is saved!!

So it’s up to the headliners – with Dimeter and Janko – to finally restore order and normality, even though the cost is high both in blood and convictions…

At the last, the superheroes are – relatively – victorious, but the ending is rather ambiguous and leaves the impression that the whole affair has been a pilot for a Dimeter spin-off…

This was clearly a break-out publishing project, aimed at drawing in new readerships like those occasional movie tie-ins that drive professional fans crazy, and on that level the daft and inconsistent plot can be permitted, if not fully forgiven.

VanHook (Flash Gordon, Bloodshot, G.I. Joe, Red Tornado) makes more films than comics these days and the tale is certainly most effective on the kind of action and emotional set-pieces one sees in blockbuster flicks: so even if there are far too many plot holes big enough to drive a hearse through, the sensorial ride should carry most readers through. Most importantly, the moody art of Tom Mandrake (Grimjack, The Spectre, Batman, Firestorm, Martian Manhunter) is – as ever – astoundingly powerful: dark, brooding and fully charged for triumph and tragedy…

So if not perhaps for every reader, there’s a great deal of sinful pleasure to be found here. And let’s face it: who doesn’t like monster stories or finding out “who would win if”…
© 2008, 2009 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.