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Here's what EDE will be reviewing in the fall...

SHOWCASE PRESENTS: BATGIRL VOL. 1 TP
Writers: Gardner Fox, Cary Bates, Bob Haney, Mike Friedrich, Robert Kanigher, Frank Robbins, Dennis O ' Neil and Elliot S. Maggin
Artists: Carmine Infantino, Curt Swan, Frank Springer, Gil Kane, Bob Brown, Win Mortimer, Irv Novick, Don Heck, Mike Sekowsky, Neal Adams and others
Collects stories from DETECTIVE COMICS #359, 363, 369, 371, 384, 385, 388, 389, 392, 393, 396, 397, 400, 401, 404, 405-424, BATMAN #197, ADVENTURE COMICS #381, WORLD ' S FINEST COMICS #169 and 176, THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD #78, JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #60 and SUPERMAN #268 and 279
$16.99 US, 520 pages

SHOWCASE PRESENTS: MARTIAN MANHUNTER VOL. 1 TP
Writers: Jack Miller, Joe Samachson and Dave Wood
Artists: Joe Certa
Collects stories from DETECTIVE COMICS #225-305
$16.99 US, 522 pages

SHOWCASE PRESENTS: ADAM STRANGE VOL. 1 TP
Writer: Gardner Fox
Artists: Mike Sekowsky, Carmine Infantino, Gil Kane, Murphy Anderson and others
Collects stories from SHOWCASE #17-19 and MYSTERY IN SPACE #53-84
$16.99 US, 512 pages

SHOWCASE PRESENTS: WONDER WOMAN VOL. 1 TP
Writer: Robert Kanigher
Artists: Ross Andru and Mike Esposito
Collects stories from WONDER WOMAN #98-117
$16.99 US, 528 pages

I'm looking forward to Wondy and Adam Strange. Believe it or not, I haven't bought a SHOWCASE yet, but I'll definitely be picking those two up.

I don't think I've ever read an early MARTIAN MANHUNTER story, so that one has me curious.

From what I understand, the early MM stories have him undercover through a huge portion of the run. He doesn't actually develop a conventional "super-hero" identity until rather late in the game.

As I've never been a huge fan of the character, I'm already predicting that my response is going to be that he worked best before they tried to turn him into a super-hero.

I can't *wait* to read your reactions to 'Wonder Tot', whose debut will be chronicled in the pages of WW's SHOWCASE #1!

MM's status as detective, rather than superhero, arouses my curiosity. No costume till later, then, I take it?

Does he shape-change, I wonder? Guess we'll find out in the summer.

Phantom Stranger + Doctor Thirteen = Crazy Delicious!

Cool!

When I finally follow-up and buy some of these, I might buy the Wonder Woman one too, as I don't think I've ever read a single WW comic pre-Perez.

I recently read all those JLA issues too Eryk and agree completely. Its almost more fun to just read the JLA/JSA team-ups during that era right there! I think the next few team-ups are some of the best overall (I love the one where Larry Lance makes the ultimate sacrifice in the end).

Whatever happened to the MM's sidekick, Zook? Did he just disappear into comics limbo?

I believe he recently showed up in an issue of Superman/Batman.

Okay, I'm really disliking this Tala chick that's been introduced as a villain. She's completely ruining the dynamic that existed in the first few issues of the series.

So now I'm getting close to halfway through the PHANTOM STRANGER volume, and all I can say is that I have never read a series that I liked so much in the first few issues, only to beging disliking it more and more as it goes on!

Was there an overhaul of the creative team?

Actually, now that I check... yeah. Robert Kanigher takes over the writing from Mike Friedrich with #4 of the actual series, and takes the series in a much different dirrection.

Friedrich's issues have very much a kind of "X-Files" vibe to them. Typically there will be something weird going on (a haunting or something), and then Doctor Thriteen and the Phantom Stranger will both show up to the scene. Then both work to expose whatever is going on as a hoax, and then Doctor Thirteen is satisfied, except that it always seems like the Phantom Stranger himself must've done something supernatural over the course of the adventure.
And they typically end with Doctor Thirteen saying something to the effect that he will one day expose the Stranger for the fraud he is.

Starting with Kanigher's run, the stories take a more blatantly supernatural tone, with the Phantom Stranger engaged in great mystical battles against the forces of evil, usually spurred on by the annoying Tala. There's also this group of four young hipsters who always happen to show up everywhere there's something weird going on. And Doctor Thirteen ends up being almost absurdly comical in virtue of his skepticism in the face of the great mystical fights going on all around him. If it weren't for the inclusion of flashback stories about past ghosts he'd busted, he'd come off as a complete doofus.

The Kanigher issues aren't bad, but I just find epic battles between massively powered magic users to be kind of boring, and I was really excited by Friedrich's takes on the characters, so it was disappointing that it didn't continue.

Interestingly, the book then starts getting better later on, as they basically split it up into one solo Phantom Stranger tale and one solo Doctor Thirteen tale per issue.

The Phantom Stranger starts encountering more diverse sorts of plots, from underground civilizations of evil children to robotic African gods, which is kind of groovy. And Doctor Thirteen battles evil hypnotic rock and roll bands and crazy scientists trying to create utopian societies in the swamp. These issues are generally pretty cool, though I still like the first few issues better.

FINAL VERDICT: Okay, so the Phantom Stranger volume actually ends up being pretty decent. I still like the first few issues the best, but the second half of it is actually pretty awesome as well.

And it's worth it because the last story has this guy who looks kind of like Dr. Mayavale working for the "Dark Circle", a crazy religious cult that uses supernatural assassins!

Next: To start reading BatB!

Yikes! I haven't finished the BatB stories yet, and I just received three new Showcases in the mail!

Anyway, the BatB are pretty much a mixed bag. It's amazing how contrived some of the team-ups are. One of the grooviest is actually Batman versus Eclipso, also featuring the Queen Bee and that international organization of evil, Cyclops, which I know from Metamorpho is led by that villain of the DC Ages, the Stingaree! Anyway, considering the fact that I've generally had basically zero interest in the Eclipso character, this story kind of intrigued me.

There's also a decently groovy story in which the Flash helps Bats catch some thieves that have sneakers that give them super-speed. The real interest of the story is this subplot that Flash's powers are killing him whenever he uses him, and so there's a whole heroic sacrifice kind of thing going on.

Anyway, I just got through the first Batman/Green Arrow team-up, which I'd already read in the Green Arrow volume. Basically, there's this Indian who went to college instead of learning the "old ways" of the tribe, and now Bats and G.A. have to teach him how to be an Indian so he can compete in the competition to become chief of the tribe so the heap big bad Indian (who's also an evil businessman) doesn't take over. But the real villain is J. Jay Jaye, alias the Promoter, who forces the heap bad Indian guy to summon the Thunderbird with Indian magic. Yeah, it's as bad as it sounds.

Don't you hate it when you concoct this brilliant scheme to lure a criminal into a trap by pretending you're distracted by the two beautiful super-heroines who pretend to fall in love with you, only to super-heroines fall in love with you for real and thus distract you for real? The difficult life of a bat-stud...

In other news... tons of appearances by Spiffany Jewelery in BatB!

Batman and Sgt. Rock team-up = One of the coolest things I've ever read! And I was totally caught off guard by its coolness!

So I finished BatB. The last story is all about Batman macking on Diana Prince in her "de-powered" phase. Which is funny considering that last time they teamed up, she was all ga-ga over him, and he seemed completely uninterested!

An EDE SHOWCASE REVIEW QUICK QUIZ:

Suppose your wife suddenly gets extremely sick and dies. On her deathbed, she tells you that she's a lost princess of Atlantis and your son has inherited her ability to live in the ocean and communicate with fish.

Do you:

a) Dismiss your wife's dying statements on the assumption her mind must have gone as she died.
b) Take your kid to a hospital to find out if there's anything weird about him.
c) Toss your kid in a large aquarium with a bunch of angry swordfish and see what happens.

I know! I know!

Its c), Right?

Its what I would do.


Did you get to "The Mermaid from Metropolis" yet?

Oh, I *just* read it!

Classic!

Another parenting-related quiz:

Which of the following is more important to make sure that your children know:

a) The fact that the heat of an electric torch can relax the muscles of a clam.

b) The fact that you adopted them after finding them floating in a basket in the middle of the ocean, especially when the question of their parentage comes up.

Ahhh! Aqualad's prepubescent crush on Aquaman is kind of endearing!

You know... I'm digging this Aquaman Showcase quite a bit. I'm actually a bit surprised, as I always considered the character to be dorky on the level of Green Arrow or something.

The thing is that he's actually pretty cool as long as he remains a water-based character. It's only when you see him in JLA or some other book where he spends his time on land that he starts to seem kind of goofy.

You know... every Showcase would really benefit from having random stories where Jimmy Olsen takes on the role of the protagonist for a day.

"The Monster who Loved Aqua-Jimmy!" is fantastic! Especially for the guest appearance by Lori Lemaris!

I hope there's a Jimmy story like that in the upcoming Wonder Woman Showcase!