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SECRET SOCIETY OF SUPER-VILLAINS #3 / Oct’76 – “WAR FOR EARTHDEATH!”

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In some unspecificed HQ, Darkseid tells Kalibak that as Inter-Gang was insufficient, he decided to finance the Secret Society. But now some of their numbers are turning against him, and he feels Kalibak may have a chance to “redeem” himself. As Mantis battles several SS members, Star Saphire decides to escape, and hauls Manhunter out with her.

A seemingly-unrelated flashback shows Copperhead being sprung from prison, but he’s terrified of the one doing it!

Bringing the momentum of this issue to a complete halt, we see Digger & Scudder (Captain Boomerang & Mirror Master) in civilian clothes, robbing a hamburger joint (by nature of ordering a dinner and running out on the bill). These are some of Earth’s deadliest super-villains? Back at the Citadel, Manhunter arrives to interrupt more in-group squabbling, to explain exactly who Darkseid is and what the future will hold if they don’t put a stop to him. Later, Star Saphire runs into Green Lantern, and decides to tell him that the SS needs his help against a much deadlier enemy!

Finally, just as Mantis is about to recharge himself, the free SS members attack, a battle ensues, and the captive members are freed. Watching from afar, Darkseid announces he & Kalibak shall head for Earth, to put a stop to the SS themselves.


I hate to be overly-negative, but this feels like one of the most disjointed comic-book stories I’ve read in a long time. It doesn’t “flow”—it advances in fits and starts, as is each scene is almost completely unconnected to any other. There’s almost a feeling of somene working with a checklist of events they need to cram into the book, and it didn’t matter how they did it.

Though still listed as editor, Gerry Conway has been replaced as writer by David A. Kraft. Dave became one of my favorite writers at Marvel in the late 70’s, getting his start replacing Conway on THE DEFENDERS and LOGAN’S RUN. I see he got into the habit of that here. I’d never know this was his work—it feels too amateurish. Perhaps he was working to some kind of blueprint laid down by Conway? Meanwhile, Pablo Marcos continues on the art, much of his figure-work needlessly awkward, but the inks have taken an ugly down-turn. It seems the more comics I see from the 70’s, the more instances I see of some book starting out with X-artist on it, but soon replaced by Vince Colletta. You’d think going from Marcos-scratchy lines to Colletta-scratchy lines would be a natural, but all I can see here is a SEVERE drop in quality. It made me really appreciate the work Vinnie (and whatever number of assistants he had working for him) did over Jack Kirby’s pencils in the early 70’s. On just about any other book Colletta touched, all I can see is “typical Colletta”. I mean, the splash pages aren’t bad, but the rest of the book is so “average”, you just about want to scream.

Ernie Chan, who turned out to be one very prolific cover artist for DC around this time, does another decent piece dragged down by too much “junk” crammed into the top of the logo area. There’s what appears to be a very odd error on Kalibak’s legs, as either shadow rendering lines (seen on his right arm) or a darker color shade are notably missing. Before long, Ernie Chua would change his name to Ernie Chan and become one of the longest-running “finishers” on Marvel’s CONAN.
(12-3-2012)

SECRET SOCIETY OF SUPER-VILLAINS #4 / Dec’76 – “WHEN THIEVES FALL OUT...”

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The SSoSV call Wizard & Sinestro out for sitting on the sidelines during the recent battle, waiting to see who would win. As more in-fighting breaks out, Wizard zaps Hi-Jack into another dimension, before Sinetro grabs Wizard and the pair escape. Manhunter tells the rest of the group they’re better off without them. Meanwhile, Star Saphire leads Green Lantern into a confrontation with Mantis, during which the latter becomes so arrogant he makes the mistake of offending his lord and master, Darkseid. Perhaps most strange, when Sinestro & Wizard return to the Citadel, they find talent promoter Funky Flashman waiting for them, with an offer to improve their public image. WTF?????

Star Saphire finally rendezvous with the rest of the SSoSV, but has failed to notice she’s lost Green Lantern—but picked up Kalibak! A huge battle erupts between Kalibak & Gorilla Grodd, tearing across half of San Francisco, until Grodd winds up beating Kalibak more through trickery than sheer strength. While this is going on, Mantis begs to stay in Darkseid’s favor, but panics when he sees—of all things—The Black Racer (the embodiment of death) heading his way!


Another chaotic mess. Halfway thru the issue, Ernie Chan took over from Pablo Marcos, with Vince Colletta (apparently) inking all of it. David Kraft continues as writer, and Gerry Conway as editor, so it’s difficult to be sure who came up with what ideas in this issue. Funky Flashman, who had been such a vividly-crafted character in MISTER MIRACLE #6, seems more “generic” this time out, his dialogue terribly-over-written, and physically, he seems to bear more of a resemblance to Dave Kraft’s later DEFENDERS comedy character, “Dollar Bill”, than the obvious Stan Lee parody he was originally designed as. In general, I hate the habit of many 70’s comics writers of introducing sub-plots for a page or two in one issue, then leaving us hanging until next time... and probably the time after that. (Marv Wolfman would do this in TOMB OF DRACULA, usually for 6 issues in a row, when introducing new sub-plots.) It’s an over-reliance on “soap-opera” story structure which is just, to me, sloppy story-telling.
(12-6-2012)

DC SPECIAL #27 / May'77

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A relatively simple restoration, the biggest challenge was eliminating the glare at the bottom edge (yes, another of those endless comics sold in a SEALED plastic box).

Although this came out in between SSoSV #6 & 7, according to "He Who Wanders" (at LEGION WORLD), this CAPTAIN COMET spotlight issue apparently takes place in between #4 & 5, which is why I'm posting it here. Which makes sense, as CC seems to be missing from an issue or two.

The behind-the-scenes changes really kick in here. Gerry Conway was listed as editor on SSoSV #1-4. After that, Paul Levitz was listed as editor on DC SPECIAL #27, Denny O'Neil as editor on SSoSV #5, and Jack C. Harris took over for a nice haul beginning with SSoSV #6. When I was a teenager, I had no idea what an "editor" did on comics, and so had no idea that often they are THE driving force behind everything that goes on, including assmbling the creative team, and often steering the writers in whatever directions to take a series in the long haul. So when you go thru 4 editors in 4 issues, you can expect CHAOS, not to mention a complete overhaul of creative teams, and in this case, a total change in the overall direction of the book in general.

Bob Rosakis (a constant presence at DC in the 70's) was the writer for DC SPECIAL #27 as well as SSoSV #5-7. One could say he was filling in for Gerry Conway, as when Conway returned to DC from his brief return to Marvel, he took back SSoSV and did the title from #8-14, and also did DC SPECIAL SERIES #6 (the SSoSV SPECIAL), and, SUPER-TEAM FAMILY #13-14, which features plot-lines that spilled over into it from SSoSV.

When I think about it, Conway leaving a book, then coming back some months later, is something that one almost never saw happen at Marvel (except when it happened with Jack Kirby in the early & mid-60's, on books he created himself, and was then asked back to make "modifications" to, such as Ant-Man / Wasp / Giant-Man, and Hulk). Frankly, when Conway kicked so many people off so many books during his brief return-stint to Marvel in 1977, it annoyed me no end, and saddened me that NONE of the writers displaced (Steve Englehart, Steve Gerber, Tony Isabella, Marv Wolfman) ever managed to return to the books they were kicked off of (with the exception of Steve Englehart on AVENGERS, but that took an awful lot of years to happen, not a matter of a few months).

As often happens with a change in editors, the switch from Conway to (eventually) Harris saw the departure of penciller Pablo Marcos, who was replaced by Rich Buckler, who did DC SPECIAL #27 and SSoSV #5-9. Inks were supplied on the various issues by Joe Rubinstein, Vince Colletta, Bob Layton & (my favorite) Bob McLeod.

Many of the covers of DC SPECIAL focused on themes rather than characters: Super-Gorillas, Earth-Shaking Stories, War of the Giants, War Against the Monsters, Earth Shattering Disasters. This may explain why "Dinosaurs At Large!" was more prominent than "Captain Comet".

SECRET SOCIETY OF SUPER-VILLAINS #5 / Feb’77 – “ENDGAME!”

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Mantis grovels at Darkseid’s feet for his life as The Black Racer approaches. Just then, the SSoSV, led by Manhunter, arrive, and Darkseid—incredibly—orders The Black Racer away. (Since when does he have any connection with, or power over, the being who is the embodiment of death?) After the group of villains gives Mantis a pounding, and Manhunter decides to tackle Darkseid himself (physically—this is unheard of!!!), Darkseid decides to open a Boom Tube to return to Apokalips. But Manhunter zooms in after him, announcing that his creators made him a human bomb. An instant later, a huge explosion erupts from the Boom Tube, apparently taking both Manhunter and Darkseid with it.

And so, it looks like 7 pages in, the first main storyline of this series reached an abrupt (if absurd) conclusion. We then have 2 pages of Funky Flashman (who has ditched the sunglasses now) incessantly rambling on and on and on about nothing I can make any sense out of, until Sinestro literally pushing his face away and flies off, departing the group, and Earth. (“On that note, we take out leave of the frankly fantabulous Funky for now... to return next issue!” As I said, this sort of bad habit of using brief interludes to advance sub-plots got very, very annoying in the 70’s.)

Captain Comet digs himself out of some rubble, then proceeds to dig Green Lantern out as well. GL takes CC to the satellite HQ of the Justice League of America, where Superman announces their computer database has verified that CC was a hero decades past. GL suggests they “chaperone” CC for awhile, to help bring him up to speed on the status of heroes and villains on Earth. A little while later, GL and Hawkman see Sinestro attacking San Francisco on their monitor, and Hawkman decides to dive into action, since GL was scheduled for “monitor duty”. Apparently pissed off at the entire SSoSV, Sinestro has decided to cause San Francisco to suffer a massive earthquake, JUST to ensure ther destruction of the Sinister Citadel! (Isn’t that a bit of overkill?)

Seconds into a fight, Sinestro smashes Hawkman’s gravity belt, showing up just how limited this guy’s range of super-powers really is (and making it look like he should have let Green Lantern go on this mission instead). As CC dives to Hawkman’s rescue, Sinestro decides to escape into space (like he probably should have done earlier). In the sort of stunt you’d probably never see outside of a DC comic, CC manages to stop the Citadel building from collapsing. He then takes Hawkman with him into space, using his unusual power to surround the two of them with an oxygen bubble. What Hawkman could do, in space, without his gravity belt, is beyond me, though. Sinestro attacks CC, and CC manages to beat Sinestro single-handed (while Hawkman just hovers there helplessly as a spectator). As the pair take Sinestro back to the JLA satellite as their prisoner, CC announces his intention to round up the remaining Secret Society members.


Well, this was one severely underwhelming transitional issue. Denny O’Neil fills in as editor for the departed Gerry Conway, while Bob Rosakis joins the line-up as the new regular writer. Along the way, O’Neil and Rosakis prove they have no clue how to write Darkseid, and their grasp of physics, characterization, character motivation, pacing and story structure are severely backward. Maybe having just spent a year-and-a-half re-reading Jack Kirby comics has spoiled me, but it seems the contrast between his writing and just about everyone else’s at DC points out just how lame most DC Comics writing really was back then. The fact that, to this day, many so-called ‘fans” continue to push the idea that Kirby was a “terrible” writer becomes all the more baffling then. I can only figure that people who feel that way are either used to reading CRAP and can’t deal with anything that ISN’T crap, or there’s a certain amount of jealousy or resentment involved, if only by proxy. Many fans look back on old comics they read when they were kids with an almost unhealthy amount of nostalgia, which makes many old books seems better, in their memories, than they actually were. Kirby’s stuff is SO GOOD, it makes everyone else’s look WORSE than it already was. And who wants their cherised memories ruined that way?

Along with the change-over in writing, this issue also marks the debut on the book of Rich Buckler. A lot of people tend to dismiss Buckler for the periods where he was tracing Kirby panels, but the truth is, he spent most of his time being a 3rd-rate Neal Adams. What nobody seems to point out is just how stiff and awkward so much of his figure-work tends to be (which may be why his bogus Kirby work stands out, as it tends to be better than his usual stuff). Quite often, intense, overpowering inks help to hide Buckler’s shortcomings as a layout man, but in this case, the inks are by Vince Colletta, and somehow, that just draws more attention to the problem.

The nicest way I can describe this issue is that it’s across-the-board “average” for mid-70’s DC. It’s not really terrible... but there’s nothing here to get worked up about either.
(12-9-2012)

SECRET SOCIETY OF SUPER-VILLAINS #6 / Apr’77 – “CAPTAINS CATACLYSMIC!”

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It’s “theme” crime time again, as former SSoSV members (and Flash rogues gallery members) Captain Cold and Captain Boomerang have (between issues) broken Batman pirate-themed villain Captain Stingaree out of prison, to go on a crime spree in which they capture of kidnaps other “Captains”. Only in a DC book, right? First, they use Captain Boomerang’s rotating boomerang-shaped spaceship to invade “Space Lab” and hold its crew hostage, then they board and loot the “S.S. Sunset” (the world’s largest passenger liner), and finally, they interrupt a football game in order to kidnap the captain of one of the teams.

Captain Comet interrupts the 1st crime (but is forced to let the baddies go free when they threaten the life of one of the astronauts), nobody gets in the way the 2nd time, but Comet and Black Canary intrude the 3rd time, beating and capturing the 3 baddies, and managing to rescue the 2 earlier captives when Comet learns their location by reading Stingaree’s mind.

While this is going on, Funky Flashman & The Wizard are watching the crime spree on the TV news, as Funky keeps rambling about how this sort of thing give super-villains “poor P.R.”. I just don’t GET what he hopes to accomplish with his idea of “selling” the Secret Society to the “buying public”.

In the meantime, Comet, dejected after the 1st fight with the baddies went bad, tries to help an old lady across a street, and is almost beaten to a pulp by the angry, paranoid woman who begins swinging her handbag at him and warning him to stay away. Watching the scene, an attractive brunette named “Debbie” introduces herself and invites him up to her apartment for “coffee and a bite of an apple”. I suppose this is supposed to pass for both humor and character development, but I don’t know. Later on, Green Arrow continues to be annoyed at the idea of “baby-sitting” an over-the-hill hero, and gets even more annoyed when his steady girlfriend, Black Canary, decides to accompany Captain Comet on a crime-fighting jaunt, leaving him behind. There are times when the “new”, loud-mouthed Oliver Queen was interesting, meaningful, or funny, but sometimes, he’s just an annoying parody of himself.

The last page reintroduces Copperhead, and reveals that the mysterious person who broke him out of jail a few issues back knows about the Secret Society, and announces to Funky & The Wizard that HE intends to take over! (Even a brief glimpse at the shape of the person’s silhouette should be enough to clue in any longtime DC reader as to their identity...)


Jack C. Harris takes over as regular editor this issue, but the only immediate change is former Wally Wood assistant and future superstar Bob Layton taking over the inks—which is a HUGE step up from Vince Colletta, no doubt about it. Apart from making Rich Buckler almost look like he knows what he’s doing, for the first time, Funky actually begins to resemble Marvel Comics editor & huckster Stan Lee. (Sadly, Vince Colletta inked the cover. Maybe it was done before the rest of the issue?)

This issue also announces the major shake-up of the editorial staff, and introduces new publisher Jeanette Kahn! This coincides with the debut of the new DC logo (a wide circle with stars in it surrounding a bold “DC” tilted at a 45 degree angle, resembling a sports team logo). A new era for DC was about to begin!
(12-9-2012)

KAMANDI, THE LAST BOY ON EARTH #50 / May'77

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I would never have imagined I'd reach a point where I actually restored 50 KAMANDI covers in a row!!!

When I used "levels", the lime green background faded out too much, so I had to go back to an earlier version and adjust the green areas separately. Next up was some "fill in" down the right edge, as I didn't want to have the main character's foot, or the white circle at the top, cut off. A few specks of black here and there needed clean-up, as did the bottom edge, where the color was fading out.

It seems editor Jack C. Harris had it as part of his agenda to connect the future world of KAMANDI with the future world of OMAC. I don't see why such a thing should be considered necessary, or even desirable. KAMANDI wasn't the only one of DC's alternate futures that this kind of thing was going on with, either. It was a misguided attempt to "unify" the DC Multiverse, and make it more like the "Marvel Universe". But as Frank Frazetta liked to tell other artists, "You should be a first-rate YOU, not a second-rate ME." Unfortunately, this obsession with making DC more like Marvel would continue into the 80's, culminating in the admittedly creative CHAOS that followed their year-long company-wide crossover mini-series, CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS. Ironically, in the shake-up and restructuring of the "New DC Universe", the future Earths of both OMAC and KAMANDI became out-of-continuity. Stories that had deep meaning to readers suddenly "no longer existed", the events in them, at least from the point-of-view of the New DCU, "never happened".

But that was still 9 years away...

SECRET SOCIETY OF SUPER-VILLAINS #7 / Jun’77 – “LUTHOR’S LEAGUE OF SUPER-VILLAINS”

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Lex Luthor—“the most brilliant criminal scientist in the history of the world”—announces that HE’s taking over the Secret Society, so he can use it to defeat Superman. Doesn’t this guy have any new ambitions? The Wizard, upset about this, since Funky Flashman “promised” him HE could be leader, objects, and tries to pick a fight with Luthor. It goes badly. Finally, he decides to play along. Now, it seems Funky has a reputation for being able to “recruit” people, and Luthor wants him to get Felix Faust and Matter Master to join HIS new Secret Society, since Superman is vulnerable to magic. Lex tells The Wizard that if he’s willing to apologize, he can join in.

As it turns out, in Sapporo, Japan, actor Gregory Reed is currently filming the “SUPERMAN” movie—and Luthor sics his trio of sorcerers there to disrupt it, certain it will draw Superman’s attention. Instead, it draws the attention of Captain Comet and Hawkgirl. And in the ensuing chaos, somehow, it completely escapes the baddies that the guy playing Superman in the movie is NOT the genuine article! In the frustration, Funky tells Lex, “Calm yourself, my good man! You must learn to tolerate the trivialities of your compatriots!” Angered, Lex replies, “COMPATRIOTS?! What have I got in common with ANY of YOU?” Funky yanks off his toupee... “Why LEX—we both agree that BALD is beautiful!” “Good lord!”

Following the humiliating defeat (in which the real Superman never even showed up!), Lex gets angry at Funky, who reminds Lex that LEX picked the team of baddies. Lex departs, determined to get back at Funy another way—and decides to contact the police and let them know about the Secret Society and their HQ. But Funky beats him to the punch, and phones the cops, who ARREST Luthor as he exits the building!


For the first time since he appeared, we have an explanation for exactly what good Funky Flashman can do for the SSoSV. Despite his long-winded never-ending ramblings over the last several issues, until now, I didn’t have a clue. I’m just wondering if the writers did until now, either? There’s something really perverse (and hilarious) about a story involving the making of the SUPERMAN movie, which features both Lex Luthor and Funky Flashman... especially when you consider that in the real world, actor Gene Hackman appeared to be playing FUNKY in the film, not Luthor. Not only would this go for his personality, and wardrobe, but the notable scene in the film where Hackman YANKS off his toupee!!! I’ve heard that the producers of the SUPERMAN movie did not have a clue what they were doing, and this seems like further proof of it. It’s as though someone, somehow, used THIS comic for reference—and then got the 2 characters confused!!!

If nothing else, Bob Rosakis proves he’s got a sense of humor—never anything to dismiss lightly. Rich Buckler & Bob Layton continue to do decent work, and among other things, Funky continues to be a DEAD RINGER for Stan Lee.
(12-11-2012)


This scan required a bit of "fill-in" in the upper-left and lower-right edges, and the graytones had to be lightened up on a separate layer. About an hour's work-- not bad.

NEW GODS #12 / Jun’77 –
“THE RETURN OF THE NEW GODS” / “PRELUDE TO A HOLOCAUST”

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A group from New Genesis—Orion, Lightray, Forager, Metron, Lonar and a blue-skinned woman named Jezebelle—travel to Apokalips on the word of The Source, to seek out Darkseid. Following a brief battle with some Para-Demons, they discover he’s left the planet, and set up a base on Earth’s moon. There, they find a computer with a list of six people Darkseid suspects may have the Anti-Life Equation. Each one of them takes one of the people on the list and goes to contact them, to let them know their lives are in danger.


THE NEW GODS is considered Jack Kirby’s most “personal” project. Apart from telling a compelling story with well-drawn, sharply-defined characters, it also gave him a platform to make commentary on then-current affairs within a science-fiction allegorical framework. Perhaps it it should not be surprising, then, than in others’ hands, it had been almost universally handled badly. And, perhaps as a direct extension of that, Kirby’s own work on the concept has been derided by an inordinately large percentage of comic-book fans and critics. Having just recently re-read Kirby’s stories, however, what I see is that the original stories stand out as some of the most inspired comics of their time in their inspiration and execution, while at the same time, they just don’t “continue” well under others. Many fans are so in love with characters and their universes, and wish to seem them continue endlessly, no matter how bad they might be. In many, if not most fans’ eyes, they don’t even realize, indeed, have no conception of just how bad some of the books they’re reading really are.

The best thing I can say about NEW GODS #12 is that it’s a major step up from 1ST ISSUE SPECIAL #13. Believe me, that’s faint praise, and definitely a left-handed compliment.

My first exposure to Kirby’s Fourth World was the late-70’s revival, and the main reason I checked it out was because my favorite comics writer at the time, Steve Englehart, had been driven away from Marvel, and decided to spend a year at DC, before quitting comics entirely to become a novelist. Thus I found myself buying Englehart’s JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA, DETECTIVE COMICS, and MISTER MIRACLE. Except for JLA, I actually missed the first 2 issues of the other books, and wound up buying them soon after as back issues. I liked what Englehart did with all 3 series. I suppose it was natural curiosity to check out the “other” Fourth World book, NEW GODS. As with the others, I walked in in the middle and got the first 2 issues as back-issues soon after. I’m not sure I ever re-read these in sequence before, but I’m starting to now. What I do remember was, while MISTER MIRACLE was inspired and entertaining under both Englehart and then Steve Gerber, NEW GODS seemed “flat” somehow. Whatever “magic” there was supposed to have been in the original series, I couldn’t see it in the revival. Decades later, I’ve come to realize this is actually par for the course with MOST books, and a state of affairs most comics fans (and editors) willfully blind themselves to.

The editor on this project was Paul Levitz, who at the time, was still a relative newcomer to DC, having come up from working in fanzines with the likes of Bob Layton & John Byrne. Levitz wrote a rather “generic” introductory editorial in which he tries to give readers “enough” info without giving them “too much”. None of it really inspired or grabbed me. I’m afraid that was reflected in the rest of the book.

Writer Gerry Conway at this point seemed to be known mostly for having become a professional at a very young age, and having written tons of comics, most of which were not very inspired, the bulk of which tended to be overly-serious, somber, lacking in any sort of humor, and with a tendency to kill off villains (most of whom wound up being brought back in later stories by other writers anyway). Shortly before this, he had a stint as both editor and writer of KAMANDI (mostly writing new dialogue over Jack Kirby’s—the blind arrogance of doing such a thing boggles the mind at this point). Conway briefly returned to Marvel, where he served as Editor-in-Chief for an astonishingly short time, during which he somehow managed to kick several of their best writers off long, very impressive runs of books, just so Conway could make extra money on the side writing the books instead. Across the board, his issues were flat, generic, and uninspired, which made it even more of a travesty for how he got on those books in the first place. And now here he was, taking on Jack Kirby’s most “personal” project, which, according to Levitz, he’d been a strong advocate in reviving.

Conway’s narration and dialogue, as always, is flat, generic, uninspired and overly-serious. But let’s get into specifics. Why would Orion suddenly become part of a “fighting team”, when he’s always been the extreme example of a “lone wolf”? Conway spends 2 pages giving us a brief background on the history of New Genesis and Apokalips, but between the words and the illustrations, nothing even hints at the grandeur or the horror that came before. What on Earth is Lonar and his stallion doing as part of this “team”? We learn virtually nothing about him here. And who is “Jezebelle”, who makes her first appearance here? She’s given NO introduction whatsoever, no background info, the brief scenes she’s in she exhibits no apparent personality, etc. And people have the nerve, the utter stupidity, to complain about Jack Kirby’s writing???

The sequence where Orion approaches the air force base to contact Brigadier General Maxwell Torch (one of those believed to possibly hold the Anti-Life Equation) reminds me of nothing less than a rehash of multiple scenes from the Stan Lee-John Buscema SILVER SURFER book. The “hero” is spotted by the military, who goes into attack mode, several planes are blown out of the sky, and nobody even tries to communicate or explain what’s going on—at least, until after-the-fact. I know at this point the SURFER comic was considered a “big deal” despite its abject failure in the sales department. Perhaps it shouldn’t surprise me that someone who spent so much time honing his skills at Marvel should pay such obvious tribute to a book that may have seemed like Marvel’s equivalent of Kirby’s NEW GODS—big, serious, violent, pretentious, “important”, and a sales failure. After all, wouldn’t it seem to some misguided types that the best way to do a “Kirby” book would be to strip away Kirby and turn it into a “Stan Lee” book instead?

Don Newton came up from the fanzines, where he did a ton of work, much of it focused on Fawcett’s CAPTAIN MARVEL. Then he spent some time at Charlton, where he did THE PHANTOM. Like Jim Aparo, when I look back, I sometimes wish Charlton paid better so Newton could have made a better living doing THE PHANTOM instead of BATMAN. At any rate, one of Newton’s 1st assignments when he finally, after many years, managed to break into DC, was NEW GODS. The artwork is beautiful. No one can deny that. Newton has a very “naturalistic” look to his work, with feeling, sensitivity, mood, shadows, and a certain knack for technology. But what I’m seeing here is in places an almost total disconnect between the illustrations and the story that is trying to be told. I suppose the problem is that instead of ONE man doing both, and there being an automatic, instinctive, intrinsic connection between the two, you have one man doing the writing, and another, living on the other side of the country, doing the art. And as I said, the writing is nothing to brag about in the first place.

Added to that is that, somehow, Newton’s depictions of Apokalips and the DNA Project seem totally removed from anything Kirby designed. WHY re-design so much from scratch? The brief vision of Apokalips, looking back at it now, reminds me more of the work of French artist Phillipe Druillet than anything in ALL the Kirby Fourth World books combined. I don’t get it. Didn’t Newton have any research material? Or did someone (Levitz? Conway?) suggest he come up with his own architecture?

Of the various inkers who worked with Newton over the years, my personal favorite has always been Dan Adkins. Over at Marvel, Adkins proved he was one of the best inkers who ever worked for the company. His work as inker on MASTER OF KUNG FU was my favorite of that book’s entire run. That track record continued without a break at DC. Imagine my delight, decades later, to read an interview with Newton in which he revealed that HIS favorite inkers for his own work were Dan Adkins and Alfredo Alcala—the same two as mine. What utterly BAFFLES me, as I re-read this book, was when Paul Levitz, in his editorial, describes Adkins as “one of the few inkers who can create the detailed realism and psuedo-Kirby machinery THE NEW GODS demands”. EXCUSE ME????? Wouldn’t—shouldn’t—that be the penciller’s job? Is it possible those backgrounds I complained about were all Adkins’ work, and not Newton’s, at all?

In a mirror of NEW GODS #1, this first new issue opens with the main characters travelling around, having conflict, coming into contact with those believed holding the Anti-Life Equation, and then, on the last page, we see Darkseid, who is looking forward to the conflict. He mentions the “The Pact” which has been broken—yet surely that happened before NEW GODS #1, not recently?

One problem with comics from this specific time period is, as the page count got lower and lower (here down to a mere 17 pages of story!) it seemed as though you were getting more ad pages than you were story, and often, the ad pages had a way of grabbing your eyes more than the story pages. That’s sad.

The cover is by Al Milgrom, who, oddly enough, was a mainstay as inker on MASTER OF KUNG FU in its earliest period. He also did a lot of pencilling for Marvel, notably CAPTAIN MAR-VELL and GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY. Here, in a total departure from anything he’d ever done before, he creates a tribute to the look of Kirby-Royer. Which almost makes sense—except it’s absolutely NOTHING like the interior art of Newton-Adkins.

I’d like to sum up by mentioning again the “disconnect” between writer and artist. I do love the art of Newton & Adkins. I just don’t think the storytelling here is that good. But I feel it’s the writer that's mostly at fault. After all, while DC may have been leaning more toward (AHEM) “Marvel Method” by this point, they always had a strong sense of editorial control, and part of that was deliberately keeping a separation between writers and artists, lest they “get above themselves”. I think there’s only one way this book could really have worked with Newton & Adkins on the art. That would have been if JACK KIRBY had been writing it. After all, that’s the kind of arrangement he wanted in the first place!
(12-16-2012)

I recently continued this thread elsewhere, but had actually forgotten to come back here and resume posting. Does the present "LEGION WORLD" board seem a bit too... "busy" to anyone else? Whatever happened to nice, "simple", message boards? Oh well.

MISTER MIRACLE #19 / Sep'77
cover by Marshall Rogers

“IT’S ALL IN THE MINE!”
When Gerry Conway barged into Marvel to become their new Editor-In-Chief, among other things, he deliberately kicked several very successful & popular creative teams off of books, just so HE could write them himself to make more money in his spare time away from the office. Among the atrocities committed, was nit-picking Steve Englehart to death on THE AVENGERS to the point where he managed to send Englehart off the deep end, inspiring him to decide to QUIT comics altogether!! But first, he'd spend a year at DC, and get whatever he had left out of his system.

One of the 3 books he tackled was MISTER MIRACLE. There had been plans announced for a MM revival at the time of the infamous 1st ISSUE SPECIAL issue of NEW GODS. That never materialized. But here, Englehart was teamed with Marshall Rogers (who he also worked with on DETECTIVE COMICS, on what many consider the "definitive" run of BATMAN ever, ever done), and, perhaps in a sign of just how pathetic DC could really be... Vince Colletta.

Of all the various "Fourth World" revivals ever, ever done since Jack Kirby had his most personal project cancelled out from under him, THIS brief run remains, in my mind, the BEST ever done. When I look back on it (and keep in mind, I have NOT re-read these... YET), so much about it seems... "wrong". But compared to EVERYTHING else I've seen...and that especially goes for the Conway-Newton NEW GODS that was running at the same time... THIS-- is a MASTERPIECE.

I reccomend it without any reservations!
(2-3-2014)

NEW GOD #14 (Oct'77)
cover by Rich Buckler & Al Milgrom

"A CHILD SHALL LEAVE YOU!" /
"WHILE MAN-GODS WAR"
by Gerry Conway, Don Newton & Dan Adkins

I have very little memory of this. Except, I think, Esak gets kidnapped in this one. If I'm right, that MAY have been the inspiration for what Kirby did with Esak later on.

Apparently, Orion fights Dr., Bedlam in this. Doesn't seem right, somehow, Orion fighting a Mister Miracle villain...
(2-4-2014)

MISTER MIRACLE #20 (Oct'77)
cover by Marshall Rogers & Vince Colletta

"ECLIPSE"
from the GCD: "Synopsis: Scott rescues Barda on the Moon."

Somehow, when Steve Englehart jumped ship from Marvel to DC, I was a bit late finding out. I did somehow just barely manage to get his JLA run right from the start, but I missed his first 2 issues of DETECTIVE, and his first issue of MISTER MIRACLE. So THIS comic-- believe iit or not-- was MY very first exposure to the FOURTH WORLD!!! No S***!

I was already familiar with Marshall Rogers from the "Daughters of the Dragon" 2-parter in THE DEADLY HANDS OF KUNG FU #32-33 (Jan-Feb'77), which may well have been his first professional job, for all I know. Suffice to say, while Chris Claremont's writing tended to be too "intense" and often character-destructive (he loved to put his heroes THRU HELL, and I think he really enjoyed it), Steve Englehart was my FAVORITE writer in comics at the time, and he was the sole reason I decided to check out DC Comics at all during this period. I was NOT disappointed.

This is the middle of a 3-parter, which, sadly, was the ONLY thing Englehart ever actually planned to do on this book. Barda's kidnapped in part 1; she's rescued in part 2; but, her spirit and life are in deadly danger, so Scott has to risk his own to save hers in part 3.

Along the way, Englehart takes the next logical step following MM #18, when, abruptly, Scott & Barda got married, left Earth, and all their friends, and went to New Genesis to live. In the tradition of Steve's work on DR. STRANGE, MASTER OF KUNG FU and CAPTAIN MAR-VELL, he has Scott "accept" his New Genesis heritage, come to terms with who he is, and become far more "god"-like than he had ever been before.

Once again, I highly reccomend anyone who's a fan of the character check these issues out.
(2-5-2014)

Pardon me for interrupting, but I just wanted to mention:

The Darkseid the Legion fought in the Darkseid Saga was far more powerful than in any other incarnation I can think of.

Ordinarily, Darkseid is portrayed as having Kryptonian-class strength and toughness, or possibly a little beyond, having access to advanced technology, and possessing “Omega-Beam” vision, which, depending on the writer, can be either completely devastating or pathetically feeble.

The 3Oth-century Darkseid, on the other hand, appeared physically more powerful than the forces of Superboy, Supergirl, Mon-El and Ultra Boy combined. He was able to teleport planets across interstellar distances, control the minds of billions of fully-powered Daxamites simultaneously, and effortlessly overpower opponents at the level of the Time Trapper a Controller and Mordru. Sensorially, he was apparently simultaneously aware of numerous events taking place over thousands or even millions of cubic light-years, even probing the minds of at least hundreds of specific individuals in conflict with his forces.

The Legion and their associates were merely an annoyance, and he was only “defeated” by the continued resistance of the Legion and their allies because his conquest of the United Planets was not entirely effortless!

At his power levels, he could have easily wiped out the Legion, Wanderers, Heroes of Lallor, and Science Police, and reigned unchallenged over the remaining Galaxy, but this would not have been a victory in his mind: he wanted them all to voluntarily bow down to him.

As I think back on it now, I am sometimes sad that the Darkseid Saga ever happened. That, and the year or so leading up to it, and the year or so following, showed me the true potential of the Legion story. For so many years afterwards, that promise was unfulfilled, and now, it is gone.

“It is so much darker when a light goes out, than it would have been if it had never shone.” – John Steinbeck

I started this review project back in mid-2011, and posted them at 6 different boards. I actually got kicked off of several boards. The only one that really bugs me is the ONLY one I actually got a LOT of feedback at, which was CAPTAIN COMICS. Several members there had it in for me 2 years ago, and the moderators-- who ALL appear to have been like-minded-- let me be harrassed for 6 MONTHS without doing a damned thing. A shame, as the several people who regularly responded to my NEW GODS reviews there (none of whom were moderators) wrote some of the most INTELLIGENT discussion about Jack Kirby's writing I have ever seen online.

I kept wishing I'd get more feedback HERE!

I first encountered the LEGION via 2 stories in mid-late 60's, both of which turned out to be written by Jim Shooter (while he was in high school-- that just ain't right!!!). I began buying LSH regularly with-- of all things-- "Prelude To Earthwar", and got the last 2 Jim Sherman issues before Joe Staton took over. I lived thru the entire Gerry Conway era, the brief Roy Thomas period, and witnessed Paul Levitz' 2nd run from the beginning. Keith Giffen's ressurection after being fired by Marvel was a thing to behold. It was slightly baffling when stories with sub-plots evolved into ONGOING soap-oera format. I always preferred the former, and enjoyed any time when Levitz would do a tightly-constructed 4-parter ("The Universo Project", for example).

I enjoyed-- or SUFFERED through-- so much over the years following the LEGION. I'm pretty sure that, despite how "late" I started buying regular, I bought LEGION longer, without any breaks, than any other comics series ever. This is buying them when they came out, not via back-issues.

It was 5 issues into Waid & Kitson's uncalled-for reboot that I finally stopped. it wasn't even nearly as bad as several previous periods. I was just bored out of my mind. Enough was enough.

If someone REALLY wanted to revive the "real" LEGION, they could do it in a heartbeat. I don't know what's stoppng them.

First and foremost, LEGION should never be tied to ANYTHING going on in 20th Century DC titles. They change too often. And in its glory days, the LEGION was better than the present-day stuff. The tail should not wag the dog.

THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD #138 (Nov'77)
cover by Jim Aparo

"MILE HIGH TOMBSTONE"
Typical for DC, they decided to do a new MISTER MIRACLE team-up to promote his book, but it came out smack in the middle of a 3-parter. Bob Haney & jim Aparo do their usual job. I leave it to others (for now) to decided if that's good or bad.
(2-6-2014)

NEW GODS #15 (Dec'77)
cover by Rich Buckler & Joe Rubinstein

"THE APOCALYPSE CHILD" /
"THE EDEN CONFLAGRATION"

NO details at the GCD this issue. After 3 issues of Gerry Conway, Don Newton & Dan Adkins, this issue we have Rich Buckler & Bob McLeod filling in. Newton would be back next issue (in fact, he did every issue of this run except this one) but Adkins would be missing 2 issues in a row, and after 3 more, would miss the storyline's conclusion. All the same, this is actually more "stable" than most for DC around this period. And at least they seemed to be trying to get their top-top-notch artists involved.

Such a shame they had one of their WORST writers in charge of the mess.
(2-7-2014)

MISTER MIRACLE #21 (Dec'77)
cover by Marshall Rogers & Vince Colletta

"COMMAND PERFORMANCE!"
from the GCD: "Synopsis: Scott takes his act to Apokolips."

In order to save Barda's soul, Scott returns to Apokalips and stages a particularly suicidal escape, by allowing himself to be captured and locked in a more viscious than even usual death trap. Not only is his escape designed to snap Barda back to herself, but it's also DELIBERATELY designed to do the same to all the inhabitants of Darkseid's planet by inspiring them to THINK for themselves and consider their lives do not have to be what Darkseid decides. We could really use that sort of thing RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW!!! (One could see this as another lead-up to a later story by Jack Kirby-- "THE HUNGER DOGS".)

Steve Englehart, Marshall Roger & Vince Colletta do what was scheduled to be their FINAL issue on the revival. It's a MASTERPIECE!!! I suppose one might question the wisdom (if any) of reviving a series where the creative team went in KNOWING they were only going to do 3 issues before jumping ship.

I also find it bordering on INSANE that the guy responsible for driving Englehart to his bizarre actions was, at this moment, back at DC, and driving NEW GODS into a literary COMA.
(2-8-2014)

SUPER-TEAM FAMILY #15 (Mar-Apr'78)
cover by Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez
interiors by Gerry Conway, Arvell Jones & Romeo Tanghal
I imagine this ties in with the current NEW GODS story, also by Conway, but as I've never read it, I can only try to imagine how. Judging by the cover, it looks like this is a lead-in to the upcoming CLIMAX to Conway's "big story".

STF #15 is one of those I didn't even realize existed (as a NEW GODS appearance) until I ran across it by accident browsing around the GCD. (By the way, trust me when I say the images I've posted are HUGE improvements over what they have there right now.) Purely because it seems to be part of the NG story, I'd probably wanna track down a copy of it, if I could find a cheap one. I have not yet re-read most of the Conway run, so, before I do would be a good time to find one. Don't wanna have to suffer thru stuff like this more times than I need to.

Anyone who's read Kirby's story "Spawn" might have a clue as to how all this (ALLEGEDLY!!!) ties in.
(2-9-2014)

I really hate to interrupt the flow of this, but I've enjoyed the posts I've read this week.

I've never been much of a Kirby art fan. It's a view I've had since wondering why the Boy Commandoes looked like old men when I was a kid. It's a view that persisted despite seeing endless tributes and articles about his influence. The more people would go on about it, the less likely I was to read one. Particularly tributes from companies that seemed to muck him about. I simply avoided Kirby back issues.

Someone gave me a Kirby scrapbook when I was younger full of random cut out panels from the books. I didn't read too much of that, and it didn't do much for me. Everyone looked careworn, old and there was something wrong with the proportions.

I probably thought his best days were long gone by the time he pitched up at DC. Perhaps he had been pinched by DC as much as a marketing move as anything else. That his series didn't run for years and years reinforced that for me.

However, I did pick up a Mister Miracle comic a while back for a bargain, not expecting too much. I didn't get far before I was aware of just how it leapt off the page and out of the book at me. I was very surprised at just how dynamic it was. At how much energy was in the pages. Not for the first time in comics, I began to have the dawning feeling that I should really have been paying a lot more attention.

I've picked up a number of the Mister Miracle issues since. With nothing much interesting me from the Big 2 at the moment, I'm looking forward to reading them. Then I'll come back to read the comments on this thread.

MISTER MIRACLE really breaks down into 2 periods. The 1st is when the mystery of who he is, his background, how he came to Earth, and how he decides to go BACK and "win" his freedom comes out.

After that, the rest of his adventures are on Earth. A lot of hardcore Kirby fans dismiss those, but I think they're a lot of fun.

Rumor has it MM was not originally conceived as part of the "Fourth World" cycle, but folded into it at a late date. If so, the later issuea are probably closest to what it might have been original conceived as. They actually remind me of an early-70's version of STUNTMAN from the late 40's. There was a sketch showing Kirby's intention to introduce both a "Stuntgirl" and "Stuntboy", and in MM you have that with Big Barda and Shilo Norman.

At my own "KIRBY LAND" Facebook group, I'm currently re-posting (among other things) the "FOURTH WORLD" reviews, in chronological sequence, along with a TON of scans. It's the 2nd tme around for that thread, begun sometime last year at "The Jack Kirby Fan Page" Facebook group. Insanely, that group was HIJACKED by someone named Mark Gordon, who conned his way into becoming a moderator, then KICKED OVER 100 people out of the group as part of some insane vendetta. Those of us who were booted quickly set up no less than 3 NEW groups, each with a soewhat different focus, and each of which promotes the other 2.

The one thing NONE of us tolerate, apart from "personal attacks" on other group members, is anyone showing EXCESSIVE sympathy to Kirby's "editor" from the 1960's.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1420447508202699/

What annoys me no end is that the single most intelligent (and long-winded) discussion of these stories was at the CAPTAIN COMICS message board. It went on for 54 pages, with virtually no intrusion by fanatical "MMMS" types. And I was PERMANANTLY BANNED from the board a couple weeks ago, by "agreement" of all 8 "moderators". These are the same 8 guys who, 2 years ago, allowed someone at the board to ATTACK and HARRASS me non-stop fo over 6 months without doing a damn thing to stop it. They've really showed their true colors by this latest action.

Is this what happens when you read too many Legion Adventure comics? You end up being Saturn Girl. Dynamo Boy or Dream Girl in real life? Jeepers!

Interesting to see the ideas from Stuntman being refined over such a long period.

"Interesting to see the ideas from Stuntman being refined over such a long period."

Jack Kirby, like a lot of creative artists, had a habit of reusing his own ideas in different forms over time. FANTASTIC FOUR combined elements of THE NEWSBOY LEGION (a group of diverse friends who like to argue a lot), CHALLENGERS OF THE UNKNOWN (a team of uniformed adventurers) and, early-on, the "monster" books. And of course, Kirby had started the romance comics fas in the late 40's. Some of those used to sell a MILLION copies a month!

FIGHTING AMERICAN was the early-50's version of CAPTAIN AMERICA (and the "answer" to the Lee-Romita 50's CAP revival).

NEW GODS #16 (Feb'78)
cover by Al Milgrom & Joe Rubinstein

"THE TITAN AND THE HUNTER" /
"CONCLUSION AMONG COBWEBS"
Gerry Conway, Don Newton & Joe Rubinstein produce another slick-looking exercise in emptiness. If (when?) I get around to re-reading these, maybe I'll have more to say... but, maybe not. Hmm.
(2-10-2014)

MISTER MIRACLE #22 (Feb'78)
cover by Marshall Rogers

"MIDNIGHT OF THE GODS"
from the GCD: "Synopsis: Scott tries to assassinate Darkseid."

One of the biggest "WTF???" moments in the entire revival comes from an unexpected (you'll pardon the expression) "source". When Steve Englehart signed on with DC, for one year (as he put it), his intention was to throw out everything he had in one fell swoop, get it out of the way, and get out. For good. In the case of MM, that meant a 3-issue storyline, in which he would elevate the character to a new level, give him a new direction, and then leave it to others who would carry on from there.

APPARENTLY... whoever they had in mind, wasn't ready yet-- or else, whichever editor was in charge (Larry Hama, according to the GCD), hadn't found anyone yet. This is so typical of DC during this period. Starting a book without a steady creative team lined up.

So what happened? Englehart was called back to do "ONE MORE"... which he hadn't planned to do. At all. And he did "ONE MORE"... which went COMPLETELY against the grain of every single thing he'd done in the previous 3 issues!! So much so, and even he knew it, that he decided to use the psudonym "John Harkness", in order to separate himself from a work he wasn't happy with at all.

So, completely out of left field, instead of leaving Apokalips after he's rescued Barda, Scott decided to pull an "Orion", and go in, single-handedly, to try and KILL Darkseid. IT DOESN'T WORK. And at the end, he gets banished to some nether-dimension. It's as if Englehart was writing an allegory for his own situation of writing this issue.

This was also Marshall Rogers' last issue on the book, although he would contribute several more covers. I was just reading the other week about how Rogers' fortunes at DC kept fluctuating erratically and drastically. He went from one of the hottest guys in the biz (doing both DETECTIVE and MM) to having nobody returning his phone calls-- for NO apparent reason.

Decades later, after Englehart & Rogers reunited to do DARK DETECTIVE-- the first "Earth-1" Batman stories in 15 years-- DC, abruptly, changed their minds and decided to cancel the 2nd set of 6 issues. And further, decided they would "NEVER" publish them.


When I wrote a personal commentary about Rogers' career the other week, and passed it around to a lot of people I knew, one of them-- one of my top favorite comics pros-- wrote back saying he "HATES those M*****F****** at DC" and has no interest in ever working for them again. WHOA.

But getting back to the stories... reading this, at the time, was such a "total disconnect", that looking back on it now (even though I haven't had a chance to actually dig it out and re-read it-- YET), it makes me think, gee, why didn't they just CANCEL the book after Steve's 3 issues were done with? Despite this... there was still a BIT more life left in it... surprisingly so... as we'll find out in a bit.
(2-11-2014)