What If a Bat and a Cat Had a Kid? DC Super-Stars 17

DC Super-Stars #17 (Nov.-Dec. 1977)
"Secret Origins of the Super-Heroes"
Huntress Story --
"From Each Ending... A Beginning!"
Paul Levitz-Joe Staton/Bob Layton

Doug: Back on February 13 I told you that this cover made me buy this book. As many of you agreed, and since I have the trade paperback Huntress: Darknight Daughter (J.A. Morris reviewed the entire trade on his Bronze Age Reprints blog on March 14) we'll take a look at the cover story, a 13-page visit to Earth-2 and the Golden Age Batman and Catwoman. DC Super-Stars #17 landed right in the thick of my love affair with the revival of the Justice Society of America within the pages of All-Star Comics (All-Star Comics #69 [Dec 1977] gets equal billing as the debut of the Huntress). Like many here, the concept of legacy heroes was fascinating to me -- that the Invaders had preceded the modern Marvel Universe was as enticing as the notion at DC that Earth-2 had a heroic history that pre-dated "our" Earth's by close to 20 years. And the Super Squad of Power Girl, the Star-Spangled Kid, and Robin gave a kid like me an opportunity to further appreciate the classic heroes of DC's WWII era. Now the Huntress would be a part of that -- yes, the offspring of the Golden Age Batman and Catwoman. Gives me pause...

100-Word Review: On Earth-2 in 1955, Bruce Wayne married a reformed Catwoman – Selina Kyle. Two years later their daughter Helena was born. Helena grew to be as smart and skilled as her famous parents. But one day in 1976 Selina answered a call that would change all their lives. A former henchman blackmailed Selina into becoming Catwoman for one more job. But a stray bullet and the appearance of the Batman destroyed the Wayne family’s world as Selina plunged to her death. Shortly, a new bat-like figure exacted revenge for her death – the Huntress would protect Gotham from its criminal element!

The Good: About a gazillion things, really. Where to start? Joe Staton's art - go! Staton's art is perfect for these stories that have a "yesterday" feel to them. I've always felt that on the All-Star material. Sure, he was a nice fit on Green Lantern, but for some reason I like him better on the Earth-2 stuff. There's a certain quirky charm to his figures, and his facial expressions are top shelf. Staton made good use of montage panels/pages for effect. His camera angles constantly shift, keeping the reader on alert - no easy way out in his panel work. Paul Levitz's story is a somewhat typical "Got it all/Lose it all/Exact revenge" tragedy. However, because I felt already fully-invested in the character due to her relationship to the Batman, Levitz was able to tug at my heartstrings. Of course, also being a fan of Batgirl, it was exciting to immediately see those possibilities for Earth-2, as well as a a potential set-up of a "next generation World's Finest" team of Power Girl and the Huntress. What's more, I'm really feeling many of these thoughts now as I did when I was 11 and read this for the first time. While it's not an original concept, it's execution and subsequent roll-out (until the Crisis, that is) made for some fun.

The Bad: I really only have one complaint with the story, and it involves a general complaint many of us have had with the way the Batman has been depicted on film since the Burton/Keaton film back in 1989 -- I am speaking of the voice. The gravelly voice.  In the climax of this story, as Helena Wayne has adopted the Huntress identity, she sets off after Silky Cernak. Cernak had been a member of the Catwoman's gang who went to the Big House when Selina Kyle went straight. Now out, Cernak was the one who contacted Selina Wayne about doing one more job -- or he'd make it known that she had indeed killed a man, something she'd sworn to the parole board and to Bruce Wayne. Obviously, the blackmail worked, as it got Selina back into the Catwoman costume, where she eventually met her tragic end -- from a ricocheted bullet fired by what appeared to be Cernak's gun. 

Later, after tracking Cernak to the Gotham docks, the Huntress appeared to him from the shadows. Cernak sits, waiting for a meeting he won't have -- of course he's talking to himself. He says, "I was just mindin' my own business, tryin' to make a buck!" From the shadows, a gravel-voiced shadow says, "Crime is no man's business, Cernak!" Cernak is ensnared in a rope, and turning sees a silhouette of the Batman. In fact, he even calls to the shadow, "Batman -- you again!" Now I have to wonder why Levitz went this route? Sure, the Huntress costume with its pointed mask and scalloped cape resembles the look of the Batman. But even given that, I'm drawn instead to what young Bruce Wayne said to himself many years earlier:  "Criminals are a superstitious cowardly lot, so my disguise must be able to strike terror into their hearts. I must be a creature of the night, black, terrible..." Well, if criminals are indeed superstitious wouldn't it have been better to have addressed Cernak in her own voice? Wouldn't there have been a chance that Cernak would have heard the voice of the now-dead Catwoman? Talk about instilling terror! But that's a very minor flaw in the overall story. It's just one of those "I'd have done it this way" sorts of things.

The Ugly: You get a big, fat N/A here, kids.

The trade I've used for reading and scanning retails for $20. Of course, we living here in the golden age of reprints know we can find discounted or used copies on the cheap. While this volume does not contain any of the All-Star Comics material (those are available in two trades and are also highly recommended), it does feature the Huntress's appearances from Batman Family and as a back-up feature in Wonder Woman. So feel confident that you'd be investing in some nostalgic time well spent! I would give one caution, however: Joe Staton's pencils can look very different when under the influence of various inkers. The first four stories were all inked by Bob Layton (as here); after that the art ebbs and flows, and is directly related to the embellishment. Ah, the Bronze Age and its inconsistencies...

Play That Funky Music... Secret Society of Super-Villains 8

Secret Society of Super-Villains #8 (July/August 1977)
"Let the Villain Fit the Crime"
Gerry Conway-Rich Buckler/Bob Layton

Doug: I don't know -- maybe Grodd could just drop his left arm really hard and break his own way out of Kid Flash's whirlwind trap? It has been many a moon since we looked in on DC's version of the Masters of Evil (and that might be a stretch); in fact, it was almost six full years ago that I reviewed SSoSV #7! And since that was the first issue of that mag that I owned, all this time later (and now in possession of both hardcover volumes of the collected issues) I've decided to review the next installment. Secret Society of Super-Villains would have been on my "pull list", had we known of such things in the Bronze Age. In the summer of '77 DC had the attention of 11-year old me with the Teen Titans revival, this mag, the Legion of Super-Heroes, the Batman mags (including Batman Family), Green Lantern/Green Arrow, and the All-Star Comics revival. It was a great time to have a foot in the universes of the Big Two! And today's fare is a fun little romp that probably leaves me feeling like I've had a snack as opposed to a full meal. As I did with my review of Silver Surfer: Judgment Day two weeks ago, I'll lead with a 100-word review of the plot and then go right into my now-typical format of The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. Onward, then...

Captain Comet, thinking he’s found the Secret Society’s HQ, attacks. Apparently Luthor had lied about the location, and the Society plots elsewhere. There’s a crystal meteorite of some power that they want. Funky Flashman is driving this train, to the resentment of the villains. Kid Flash gets involved when a local tough steals the prism from a museum, which in turn gets the Society involved. Captain Comet comes to the rescue, but in the fracas Star Sapphire wrests the bauble from our heroes. The good guys make another play, but in the end lose the meteorite a second time!

The Good: This was a fun comic, really holding up well over the decades. Now, you must understand that part of that stems from what it is -- it's designed to be a romp. C-list bad guys and second-rate heroes? You really weren't expecting the Galactus trilogy, were you? Well neither was I and that's why I had a great time re-reading this after all these years. Gerry Conway's script wasn't overly complex, but I want to stop short of saying it was "written for a 10-year old" as we often have said about DC Comics through the years. I'll stop short, because after all I was 11 when this saw the light of the spinner racks! It's just a neat little chase story, with the bad guys -- dubious collection of fiends that they are (the Wizard, Copperhead, Gorilla Grodd, the Trickster, Star Sapphire, and Funky Flashman) -- a step ahead of our heroes, Captain Comet and Kid Flash. Longtime readers know I'm in the Kid Flash fan club -- in fact, I'm on record as stating that this character design is among the best of the Silver Age, and certainly up there with the best costumes of any derivative hero/heroine. So when I saw "my guy" on the cover of this mag, well.. "this cover made me buy this comic book", so to speak. In the end I got what I expected -- no more, no less -- and I think that's why it was a somewhat satisfying read.

The art team of Rich Buckler and Bob Layton also turns in some solid work. The book is well-paced, and the fight choreography is action-packed. The guys do a nice job of changing the camera angle often, and the facial expressions throughout the book are noticeable -- two of my favorites in the book appear in the scans toward the bottom of this post. The story is laid out in a variety of panel grids in between pages with angular panels. There are no splash pages other than the first, and there is only one extra-large panel, provided for effect at the climax of the story (see bottom of post). The artists also provide some nice panels of Kid Flash using various aspects of his super speed -- in the sample attached to this text you'll see Layton emulate Vinnie Colletta as Kid Flash vibrates through a wall. I especially liked the way Grodd is drawn -- although a "gorilla", he looks more like what Joe Kubert drew as an "ape" in his Tarzan strip. I think this comes through in the panels I provided at the top of the post. Works for me.

The Bad: I got nuthin'. There really isn't anything for me to say in this category. However...

The Ugly: Funky Flashman. I wrote this on February 14 (no, I was not slighting my bride to spend time with you folks -- she was out of town most of the day!), and shortly after reading the story I tweeted at Gerry Conway and asked him about the general reception of Funky Flashman. I remarked that it seemed mean, and particularly when viewed through the lens of all these decades of Stan Lee vs. Jack Kirby. Conway stated,

Yet Conway wrote Flashman as Kirby intended the character to be "heard". I didn't press the issue in that regard -- I wouldn't denigrate Gerry Conway for staying faithful to a Jack Kirby creation, regardless of axes ground elsewhere. In some way had he changed Flashman's "voice" that might have been worse. What I'd encourage you to do, though, is to go sift through Conway's Twitter feed (@gerryconway) from Sunday, 2/14/16, as a lengthy conversation blew up that came to involve several fans as well as pros Kurt Busiek and Scott Edelman. It was fascinating to sit and watch as my original query took on a life of its own, with Martin Goodman, the Marvel Method, and office and corporate politics all coming under scrutiny. And I should remark that there wasn't any overt Stan-bashing in this particular story; I raised the issue with Conway simply because of the very existence of the character.

How'd you like to be cruising down the highway and look over and see that van??

Doug: Hey, if you're a SSoSV fan, I'd really encourage you to get yer mitts on the trades or hardcovers (two volumes) that collect the entire series and periphery titles. You can usually snag them on the cheap, and as I've said, these stories are fun little diversions. I liked this then, and I've found that I can like them now -- we cannot always say that about our Bronze Age memories!

This Cover Made Me Buy This Comic Book

DC Super-Stars #17 (Nov-Dec 1977)
Cover by Joe Staton and Bob Layton

Doug: Way too many words and the logo is too big! But a giant square-bound DC with these three "secret origins"? Take my money!

Marvel Premiere 48: Let's Get Small -- the Conclusion

Marvel Premiere #48 (May 1979)
"The Price of a Heart"
David Michelinie-John Byrne/Bob Layton

Doug: Almost six years ago (!) I wrote a review of Marvel Premiere #47. I obtained that comic as a pack-in with the Marvel Legends Ant-Man figure. But I did not back in 1979 nor did I in the present ever have a copy of Marvel Premiere #48... until now! Last Tuesday I received my copy of the Marvel Pocketbooks The Astonishing Ant-Man: Origins, published by Panini Books. As Edo Bosnar has long sung the praises of these little tomes, I'll again echo his encouragement. They are so compact, yet contain the same number of reprints as would a regular size trade. And you cannot, cannot beat the price -- under $8.00 (free S&H) for this, which is less than a buck a book! The contents, you ask?

• Marvel Premiere #s 47-48
• Iron Man #s 131-133
• Avengers #s 195-196 and 223
• Marvel Team-Up #103

Doug: I'll get a couple of first impressions off my chest as we begin. David Michelinie tired me out real fast with his constant references to the pop culture of 1979. He mentioned the Dino diLaurentis King Kong film in this issue, but in part one he'd subjected me to Steve Martin (you know that's where I stole the title), Raquel Welch, James Whitmore, Bobby Riggs, and E.R.A. If that's what "holds up" means, then it didn't. It was just a bit much at times.  The art, on the other hand, was absolutely beautiful. Many of us have remarked through the years that as big fans of John Byrne's Bronze Age art, we're even bigger fans when he's inked by someone as polished as Terry Austin or in this case Bob Layton. It's a fantastic pairing, and one we should see more of (like on Hulk Annual #7).

Doug: So as we finished the last issue, our new Ant-Man Scott Lang was on a mission to enlist the aid of a Dr. Sondheim. She might have been the only physician on earth who could save Lang's daughter, Cassie. Cassie suffered from a heart ailment where the aorta had grown inward and created severe complications. Lang had gone to find Sondheim, but upon locating her was dismayed that she would not see him and was under the protection of armed toughs. Pressing the issue, Lang got himself slugged by some shadowy dude the size of the Hulk... but with a pink arm (?). So, having been a former burglar Lang decided he'd just trail Sondheim to wherever it was they took her. Her destination happened to be Cross Technological Enterprises, a company that made just about anything that could make its owner richer. And that owner just happened to be the body on the other end of that pink arm -- one Darren Cross, who really was as big as the Hulk!

Doug: Once inside CTE, Lang had stumbled across a closet that contained an Ant-Man suit. It seems Hank Pym had some association with CTE, so had apparently stashed a costume there. Lang stole it, took it back to his apartment and tried it on. The next thing we knew, he was superheroing. Accosting Dr. Sondheim in an operating room (after roughing up some of the goons standing guard), Lang was shocked to see Darren Cross rise from an operating table and state in no uncertain terms what was and was not going to happen. So as we pick it up in the conclusion, Cross and Ant-Man battle for a few panels before Cross knocks Ant-Man out of his senses. Using tweezers to pick up the tiny hero, Cross uses the growth gases on the front of the suit to return Ant-Man to his normal stature. Breaking the antennae on the helmet and ripping the gas canisters away, Ant-Man is tossed into a cell. Cross later comes by to visit his prisoner, and it's here we learn his origin.

Doug: Darren Cross was a successful businessman who had amassed a fortune. Driven, the tension in his life eventually caused his heart to malfunction. Seeing doctors, he was of course told to slow down, take a vacation, etc. Cross would hear none of it, and so sought a solution within his own company. He found it, in the form of an experimental device called the Nucleorganic Pacemaker. Immediately undergoing the implant, it was not long before Cross began to experience side effects. His strength and senses seemed heightened, but his complexion was turning a pink hue. Going into seclusion, Cross implored his doctors to cure him. They transplanted a heart... and another and another. Still no good, as the pacemaker was now basically eating the hearts. So Cross enlisted (involuntarily) Dr. Sondheim to help him with her knowledge of laser surgery. Ant-Man stopped Cross's monologue and asked how this would end -- if the pacemaker were to be removed, wouldn't that kill Cross immediately? Affirmative. But he'd never run out of replacement hearts, as Cross revealed a room filled with homeless men, kidnapped to be his endless supply of spare parts!

Doug: Cross left Ant-Man alone after telling all the dark secrets -- after all, that's what super-powered and over-confident knuckleheads do. Lang was nothing if not resourceful. He'd stashed a couple of spare antennae in his boot, just in case (Deus. Ex. Machina.). Getting the cybernetic helmet back up and running allowed him to call for troops. The ants came quickly, helping to also get the gas canisters back. Lang immediately went into attack mode, knowing that he had to a) stop Cross, and b) get Dr. Sondheim out so she could operate on Lang's daughter. The action over the next several pages is outstanding -- extremely well-delineated, choreographed, and paced. One of the treasured shots from Marvel Premiere #47 was a growing-and-punching Ant-Man -- Byrne and Layton repeat that here a couple of times, to great effect. As the fisticuffs continue to rise in intensity, Cross suddenly seizes up, then collapses. Dead. Ant-Man whirls toward Dr. Sondheim, incredulous. She says that it wasn't anything Ant-Man did (which was actually the answer Lang was looking for), but something she had done to Cross earlier. You see, she knew of Cross's "source" for the constant heart transplants. And so when Ant-Man had interrupted her surgery, she had just finished leaving Cross's old heart inside him, rather than giving him a new one. She told Ant-Man that she knew her oath, but she also knew the horrible truth about Cross. Do no harm, indeed.

Doug: But wait, there's more! The creators don't leave us hanging in regard to Cassie's surgery, which was good since this is a try-out book filled generally with one-shots. Dr. Sondheim was able to get Cassie's heart back in functional order. But as Lang was breaking his conversation with her, a voice from behind him made an address. It was none other than Yellowjacket -- the very inventor of the Ant-Man technology. Lang stuck both his hands out in front of him as if waiting for cuffs, assuming the Avenger had come to reclaim what was his and to take Lang back to prison for the burglary of CTE. But no -- Hank Pym had sought out Scott Lang only to give his blessing. Pym explained that he'd actually watched, through surveillance cameras, Lang steal the suit. Keeping an eye on Lang, YJ had followed him into CTE on the quest to find Dr. Sondheim. However, the more experienced hero had been knocked out while trying to move about in stealth mode and was not able to give Lang any back-up. Since Lang had won the day on his own, it only made sense to Pym to welcome Lang into the fraternity. And thus, as they say, was born a hero!

Doug: Shame on me perhaps, because the entire time I was watching Ant-Man this past July I made no connection to the Darren Cross in the film with the big pink guy here in Scott Lang's origin story. But I'm going to give myself a pass on it, since as I remarked at the top I had never seen today's issue until just a few days ago. So the meat-and-potatoes of the comic book version of Cross were largely unknown to me. But I was surprised at how much of this two-issue introduction formed the backbone of the Ant-Man film. That Pym saw Lang steal the suit, that Pym and Cross were connected, that Pym gave Lang his blessing -- all of that made the final cut. So really, if you think "comic accurate", the writers and creators of the film really honored the source material. It's refreshing to now know that. This was a really fun two-parter, and to those of you who got to read both sides of this tale back in the day, I'm envious. This would have hit the spinner racks only several months before I took my high school hiatus from collecting. My loss, as I'd have liked to have been able to spend some more time with our new hero, Scott Lang.

PS: The Ant-Man costume is a classic design, isn't it?

Sharing the Fight Together -- Champions 12

The Champions #12 (March 1977)(cover by Dave Cockrum)
"Did Someone Say... the Stranger?"
Bill Mantlo-John Byrne/Bob Layton

Doug: When I was a freshman in high school I split my football season oscillating between the "A" team and the "B" team. I was a bit undersized for the line positions as compared to a couple of the 14-year old brutes in my class, but I guess I must have done something right (periodically at least) to get called back up a time or two throughout those three months. I reflected on those days while reading our comic of the day. Let's face it -- we don't all have the same talents, body types, attitudes, etc. Each of those attributes goes into our ability to perform at a necessary level for the task at hand. So as I was reading I kept coming back to a question we've asked so many times on this blog: Why did some Bronze Age titles last longer than others?, why did some seemingly good ideas crash?, and so on. The Champions was a team I always thought should succeed. Throw two Avengers, two X-Men, and a popular Ghost Rider together and what's not to love? Shoot -- the marketing possibilities should have been inherent to the characters. But as we all know, this title didn't have whatever it was that could have elicited the "call up" to prime time status. In fact, as we get into today's review I'm going to posit that I am surprised it lasted as long as it did!

Karen: Well partner, you know I spent a lot of time on this question, when I wrote an article on The Champs for Back Issue! magazine a little while back (issue #65 to be precise). I think there were a number of reasons for their failure, but issues like this one, for reasons we'll get into, certainly didn't help improve the team's status.

Doug: To some extent I think we as readers just rationalized, "Well, these guys aren't the Avengers, or the Fantastic Four, or the X-Men..." and just accepted shoddy execution.

Doug: I chose this issue rather than the preceding book in large part to the throwdown that dominates the first half of the story. Having purchased this off the spinner rack as an almost-11-year old, the visuals were striking to me -- giant on the cover (check) and on the splash page two more giants (check and take my money, please). I've told of my affinity for Hank Pym and for Colossal Boy several times -- I don't know why, but I just think visually giants are the best part of any comic they're in. Maybe you're in the "everything's better with gorillas" camp. Me = giants. So as I'm coming back to this as a 49-year old (I read this while out in Washington DC a few weeks ago), I'm pretty eager to renew my sense of wonderment. Yeah, no -- that didn't happen. So what went wrong? Shall we?

Apologies for the small scanner bed -- but a cool Byrne/Layton 2-page splash nonetheless!

Doug: We open on the roof of a building in Los Angeles, hometown of the Champions. Black Goliath, who showed up as a guest-star in #11 is slugging it out with the Stilt-Man. THE STILT-MAN!! Has the hair on your neck laid back down yet? Me, too. Let's face it -- if we're reading an issue of Daredevil, OK. Give me the Stilt-Man for a one-issue filler until we get the next plot of the Owl or the Purple Man shows up again. But against Black Goliath? Now we're back to another previous conversation -- why didn't that character take off? Great costume (well, if the abs window had been closed... Carol Danvers got it taken care of with her own costume), as I've said - great powerset, association with the Avengers via Hank Pym, and on and on. But if you're going to reduce the character to relying solely on his size and stripping away what made him a recurring character in the Avengers in the first place -- his brains -- then of course he's not going to last long. He's not the Hulk, after all! And let me get a beef off my chest right from the start: the Stilt-Man is a normal-sized guy with hydraulic lifts that telescope his "legs" to allow him to burgle offices and apartments in high places. That's about it. He himself does not grow. But apparently artists John Byrne and Bob Layton didn't get that memo, because throughout the story Stilt-Man is proportionally larger than he should be. So while the splash page looks cool, it's really not. Or it shouldn't be. One punch from BG and we should be moving on to some other conflict. But no...

Karen: Black Goliath was one of those characters I always enjoyed seeing whenever he popped up, but he certainly was never utilized to his full potential. So that made him a perfect fit for the Champions. I agree with you about how annoying it is to see Stilt Man drawn as a giant - did no one look at old comics?

Doug: It does make one wonder. Maybe an issue like that could be due to all the editorial instability at Marvel in the mid-70s?

Doug: So the Champs arrive, and while the pictures are pretty, this quickly devolves into one of the most frustrating things about team books: Why don't teams fight as teams? Here the Champions attack singly... over and over again. Darkstar, Iceman, Hercules, Black Goliath, Angel, Ghost Rider all fail in succession and it's almost comical. Against the Stilt-Man if you didn't catch that earlier. And the big guy gets away. From all of them. Of course Herc wants to go after him, but BG says no way -- it's his fight and he'll end it. So off he goes in pursuit while the team heads back to their HQ. Black Widow had gone ahead of them and had found a Ms. Reggie Claybourne, a woman in possession of an item wanted by the Stilt-Man. Reggie relates a tale (in what passes for "urban language" in Bronze Age comics) of how her husband had come into possession of a glowing box of something after having been assigned the task by some underworld types. He stole the deal from Stark International, and it doesn't look good. So Herc swears the lady will have their aid, but before they can make the next move the wall begins to glow!

Karen: The Stilt-Man. The Champions couldn't even beat the Stilt-Man. They spend six pages trying to stop him, and fail miserably. Honestly, any single one of them should have been able to beat him, and certainly he should be no problem at all for Hercules. But no, Stilt-Man actually kicks Hercules away! So even an Olympian God becomes a loser when he hangs around with these guys! And I think that sort of exemplifies one of the biggest problems with the book - the team never felt like they were big league, despite having some major players. 

Doug: I fully agree. Hey, and when you think about the battle that begins this book, I'm wondering if the 2-page splash (so three full-pagers to begin the story) was in large part because the plot was so weak?

Doug: Shortly, as the radiant area continued to enlarge, the Stranger of all people steps through! Say, you ever get a load of that fella's togs? Pretty big dude, and pretty awful outfit. Strip away that green belt and whatever-it-is, and he's wearing a big red Onesie. Pretty scary. So he's not happy, says he doesn't have much time, neither does the universe, and he needs what Reggie Claybourne has. Yeah, right. Darkstar again attacks first (did we Americans have a stereotype of Russians as headstrong? Because Natasha always remains pretty calm, at least in this book), and gets eye-zapped. Bobby's next -- nothing. Natasha and Johnny -- hand-zapped, and then Blaze is telekinetically launched across town. Darkstar is able to save him from taking the ultimate header, but they're away from the fray for the time being. Herc picks up some machinery a la Ben Grimm, only to have it melted by the Stranger's soul gem. While all this is going on, the telly is on and showing news reports of Black Goliath's battle against the Stilt-Man. I suppose it's a nice juxtaposition of two fights, but again -- the first one should be over, and this new one is progressing so much the same way that I began to think the Champs would never win a battle. No wonder they got cancelled!

Karen: While the Stranger is certainly an improvement on the Stilt-Man, he really moves the Champs out of the realm of being the "team for the common man" as they had proclaimed themselves. Although you could argue that the Stranger is an old foe of Angel and Iceman, since the two faced him in his first appearance way back in X-Men #11 in May 1965. Regardless, I guess I'd rather see the big shorts-wearing alien than Stilt-Man. "Onesie" - nice one Doug. What was it with Kirby and giving all these giant, near-omnipotent beings leg-baring outfits?

Doug: I'm going to defer to a psychoanalyst on that last question. Too many possibilities racing through my mind right now!

Doug: So while all these shenanigans are taking place, Reggie notices that the glowing box that was in the paper bag is no longer there but has in fact been replaced by what looks like an alien igloo. And it's glowing and growing quickly. Reggie is swallowed by the thing while she cries for help. The Stranger turns with a concerned look just as the Angel pummels him right in the kisser. Ah, impetuous Warren Worthington. The Stranger grabs him angrily, then makes him listen to the history of this menace he calls the Null-Life Bomb. The Stranger had brought it to Earth to pass judgment on our planet, but was thwarted by the Silver Surfer. During that battle, an earthman had sacrificed his own life to disarm the bomb. The Stranger left, contemplating whether or not he'd judged humanity too harshly. But only days ago he sensed that the bomb had become active again, hence his journey to Earth to claim it. The Null-Life Bomb is basically a mechanical black hole, growing and swallowing all life in its path. The Stranger remarks that it is over -- the one thing in the universe that can stop the bomb cannot be obtained. Natasha, the most sensible of her teammates, says wait -- if there's a way at all it needs to be found. The Stranger, in his best "to be continued" manner, says that there is one way, but that it will be virtually impossible. And then, prior to departing our plane, he teleports six Champions to the realm of one Kamo Tharn (last seen in Thor #235). Herc warns everyone to be on guard, because this is going to get rough.

Karen: There are a couple of things that I liked in this second half of the issue. When I first read this story, I thought the idea of the Null-Life Bomb was pretty cool. And it's still kinda neat today. I also was intrigued by Johnny Blaze's interest in Black Widow, and if that could go anywhere, seeing as how he had his own title and presumably his own love interest in it. But I have to agree, too much recap, the interspersed scenes with Goliath were ho-hum (if anything, how long it took him to defeat Stilt-Man only made him look worse), and the last page, revealing next issue's big threat to be a grade C Thor villain nobody cared about in the first place, was less than thrilling.

Doug: I know Bill Mantlo is a respected scribe among our readership. His work on the Champions was certainly a step forward from what had come before in that mag. But this issue's dilemmas, and next issue's conclusion, certainly could have been combined and fit into one 20-page story. It's one thing if the storytellers create tension, giving the reader a sense of dismay in regard to the well-being of our protagonists. I never felt that. The first half of this tale instead ended up being really frustrating for me because I just knew if this were "real" we most likely wouldn't have even read about the Stilt-Man battle in the papers. It should not have been worth mentioning. But instead I spent 10 minutes of my time on it. Jeez, I sound grumpy. I'm really not, and I don't usually dwell on things like the query "Does it hold up?" because I normally don't know what that means. But this book's the poster child for what we loved as kids and read later as adults and have a long pause to wonder why in the world we'd have liked it in the first place. Again, the art is nice (aside from my quibble about Stilt-Man's body size) and moves the reader through the plot. But the plot itself needed some work.

Karen: I don't know if you're grumpy so much as frustrated. I've always had a sort of love/hate feeling for The Champions, because I wanted to like it more than I did. It seemed like it was starting to come along when Mantlo came aboard and we had fairly consistent artwork from Byrne (although I liked Bob Hall as well). Sometimes you can throw a hodge-podge of characters together and make a team book work; and sometimes, you can't. The lack of any real reason for their existence, coupled with less than sensational stories, left me always wanting more. I think the Champions stories and ideas I had in my head were (and are) what made me enthusiastic about the book.

Doug: This book (and title) should have been better than it was...

This Cover Made Me Buy This Comic Book

Doug: Lots to love about this one, folks. What sayest thou? Good cover, or bad? Did you have this book?

Indiana Comic Con Report: TOTAL FAIL

Doug: Below is the original introduction to today's post, written on Friday evening, 3/14/2014.

Doug: Came. Saw. Conquered. Well, I don't know about that last part. Yesterday I made the 2 1/2 hour trek south to Indianapolis for my first Indiana Comic Con. Many thanks to Redartz for the tip several weeks ago, as despite my relatively close proximity to the Hoosier capital, I did not even know there was a major con in Indy. It worked out great family-wise, too, as I was able to meet the boys for lunch ahead of entering the Convention Center. My oldest is volunteering in media relations at the Big Ten Men's Basketball Tournament at Banker's Life Fieldhouse this weekend, so was going to be in town anyway; as they'd both gotten out of school Friday for spring break, I asked the younger if he wanted to ride with his brother to Indy and meet me to go to the con. He obliged, so we had a nice father-son day and then I brought him home with me for the week.

Doug (3/15/2014): Well, all that being said, here's the reality -- the organizers, promoters, whoever, of the Indiana Comic Con GROSSLY underestimated the demand for their product. Posting a rant on Twitter after I got home, I was informed by follower TropicalHippie that yes, this is the first year for the Indy Con. Man, had to be. Tickets were so affordable compared to WizardWorld Chicago, which I've lamented in the past. For my son and I to go, our admission was going to be a combined $40 ($20 apiece) and we only paid $5 to park. I was planning on some serious bang for that buck. Here's the chain of events: I arrived to an Arby's that was about halfway between Banker's Life Fieldhouse and the Convention Center. I met the boys and a friend at 11:30 and we stayed until around 12:15. My younger son and I moved the car closer to the Convention Center and entered the building around 12:30; the Con had opened for the day at 10:00 am. We entered the main entrance, to be greeted by four lines of people standing as if in a queue. Two lines faced us, two lines faced away from us. Now, Indy was pretty busy this weekend, what with the Big Ten tourney, a local St. Patrick's Day 5K, and who knows what else. However, spying many superhero t-shirts and a little cosplay in those lines made it quickly clear that this was not good.

Doug: So, mystified by what we saw, we began to walk along the side wall, hoping for a) the end of the line, and b) some information on what the heck was going on. It didn't take long before an usher (who looked amazingly like Richard Kiel, sans dental work - dude was every bit of 7-feet tall) shouted out town crier-style that the convention halls (the Con was only in halls D and E, so you know there was room not used) were full and had to be shut down. Not only were ticket sales cut off, but will-call tickets were not even being honored. Imagine this -- a line probably over 1/2 block long, but times four. If there were 1000 people in that line, there easily could have been 1500. I am not exaggerating. And think about this, too -- at 12:30, ticket sales were cut off. The con was going to close at 6:00 pm. There is no way that all of those in line would get into the two exhibition halls. So for every person who was left out, that was $20 in revenue that would be unrealized. Potentially, if most of those people did what we did and left, that's over $20K left on the concourse.

Doug: So I didn't get to meet Steve Englehart, or Keith Pollard, Rich Buckler, George Perez, or Bob Layton. I didn't get to peruse any 4 for $20 trade paperback boxes. Nothing. I did text my friend, former DC artist Don Kramer, who was on the guest list. He said that he wasn't aware of what was going on outside the exhibition halls, but that inside it was super-crowded and very difficult to move -- it was actually kind of a pain, he said. And, as fate would have it, he was seated two chairs down from Perez. Doh!

Doug: I'm sorry I don't have better news to report today. I really hoped to have some cool photos to show. Instead, all you get is the one below taken by my son when we got back home. It shows me lamenting the lack of Englehart's and Buckler's signatures on a two-page spread of the Marvel Chronicle. My loss, but yours, too. But so it isn't a total loss of a day, make the leap to this post from a few years ago celebrating meeting our favorite comic book creators. Thanks!

"Boy, I've Always Wanted to Ask..."

Doug: Karen and I are considering venturing into new territory on the Bronze Age Babies, but we want to ask for your input and perhaps even assistance first. With the discussion over the past couple of weeks of my attending the March 14-16 Indiana Comic Con in Indianapolis, Karen and I have mused on the possibilities of expanding our horizons by reaching out to some of the Bronze Age creators who might be so inclined as to answer a few questions. This is sort of where you come in.

Doug: One of my proposals to Karen was that if either of us encounter a writer or artist at a con we should introduce ourselves, maybe hand out some sort of leaflet about the blog, and ask if the person at hand would mind if in the near future we sent them a few questions. Those questions might concern some general topics our readers have broached, or they might be very specific to a series of comics being currently reviewed on the BAB (I do intend to ask Steve Englehart about writing the character Leila, currently featured in our "Secret Empire" reviews). Of course we've all recently seen the power of having a creator chime in on a specific subject in the amazing contribution Kurt Busiek made to our Vision/Original Human Torch entry in the second Super-Blog Team-Up.

Doug: Today we're asking for you to propose questions that might be sent to one of the five creators below. Now there's no guarantee at this point that we're moving forward with this; but we did want to gauge interest in this as a future endeavor of ours. At the present time, the following Bronze Age creators are scheduled to appear at the Indiana Comic Con -- here's hoping that I (and Redartz, too!) strike gold and get to meet these folks who have brought so much comics pleasure to our lives. Hyperlinks will take you to their work or discussion on their work as it has appeared here on the BAB.

Rich Buckler

Steve Englehart

Bob Layton

George Perez

Keith Pollard

An Obscure Nightcrawler Story: Bizarre Adventures 27

Bizarre Adventures #27 (July 1981)
"Show Me the Way to Go Home..."
Jo Duffy/Bob Layton-Dave Cockrum/Ricardo Villamonte

Doug:  How about this for a splash page?  That's some good Dave Cockrum X-art, isn't it?  And did you notice that Dave placed himself on the cover of the TV Guide?  Funny guy...  Today concludes our trip through this magazine.  We've previously toured the Phoenix and Iceman entries and today we'll finish the excursion with a look at the fuzzy elf, Nightcrawler.  You'll notice that Jo Duffy is responsible for the script, as she was on the Iceman tale.  I felt that that story was not terrible, but mediocre.  We'll see how this one goes.

Doug:  As the team watches an old Zorro flick an alarm suddenly goes off in the mansion.  The team recognizes it as emitting from Cerebro, but at a pitch they've not previously heard.  Nightcrawler, on Cyke's orders, "bamfs" ahead to check it out.  As the team arrives to the control room, Kurt Wagner has a wry smile on his face -- Cerebro has detected half a mutant!  So, it's into a cruiser and off to Poughkeepsie to check it out.  Upon arrival, they find the Vanisher, last seen in battle against the Champions and frozen in the Darkforce of Darkstar.  And there he stands -- half a mutant!  Cyclops warns Kurt not to touch the Vanisher, but you know how that goes -- Nightcrawler reaches out and then there's a huge "BAMF!"

Doug:  Yeah, he really shouldn't have touched the Vanisher in the middle of that Darkforce.  That loud "BAMF!" sent the two teleporters through time, space, and dimension to lord-knows-where.  As they finally slipped back into reality, there was a separation and Nightcrawler landed on a planet full of shapely females -- offering him to be their god or king!  Nightcrawler's flattered, but takes the high road and tries to teleport away.  But instead of "bamf!", we hear "poot!"  Now, in the presence of fine-looking women that's not exactly the best noise to make!  It sets in pretty quickly that ol' Kurt Wagner isn't going anywhere soon.  Some unknown distance away the Vanisher has landed and is having a similar experience.  However, being an egomaniacal villain, he's trying the high-and-mighty approach, even as he too is offered godhood and/or a kingship.  The women find him humorous, and despite his failed attempts at manipulating the Darkforce, the ladies decide to keep him.  So they literally drag him off to places yet unknown to us.

Doug:  Scene-shift back to Nightcrawler, who has been set up like a shiek or sultan with the ladies as his harem.  It's definitely a wine/women/song setting.  It gets pretty cryptic in a hurry, as Nightcrawler enjoys himself but with lots of questions.  The ladies (by the way, check out the various costumes in the story -- seems like some Legion wear might be sneaking in here and there) tell him that males are not native to their planet, so when one arrives they make him their god or king -- to further the population.  But, they also tell, the gods and kings never seem to last too long.  An oracle is mentioned, and Nightcrawler says he'd really like to see that.  So it's up from the table and off on a short field trip.  Inside the cave of the oracle, Nightcrawler is stunned to see a television!  Once turned on, a little old lady, looking like Granny from the Looney Tunes, greets him.  She tells Kurt that all he needs to do to get home is to go to the Well at the Center of Time.  It's a crater only a few miles away that can transport him right back home.  However, she cautions that if he takes anything from there, or leaves anything behind, she can make no guarantees -- he has to leave exactly as he came in.  And then as he and the escorts turn to leave, the oracle tells him to watch his tail while he's there.  Huh?

Doug:  We cut to another part of the world where the Vanisher has set himself up as a god.  The locals are waiting on him hand and foot, but the Vanisher is stuck in his old ways.  He looks at each piece of treasure bestowed upon him and wonders how he could fence it!  Suddenly Nightcrawler steps forward from the shadows, spooking the Vanisher.  Nightcrawler tells him what he's learned about leaving, but the Vanisher rebukes him -- he ain't going!  So the X-Man says if the Vanisher won't come along peacefully, he'll have to go by force!  The Vanisher throws a vase at his would-be abductor, and then appropriates a sword.  "Swashbuckling?" says Nightcrawler, who then grabs a cutlass of his own.  The two men duel, with Nightcrawler getting the better end of it all.  He finally subdues his foe, and bodily removes him from his harem.  As the two Earthlings march out, the women tell them to be careful -- they seem not at all bothered that the "gods" are leaving.

Doug:  Nightcrawler hustles the Vanisher to the Well at the Center of Time.  Upon seeing it, the Vanisher emphatically declares that he's not jumping into that crater.  He then uses the Darkforce to craft a huge hand, pick up Nightcrawler, and drop him.  Nightcrawler is losing his patience quickly, when the Vanisher pulls a "sheet" of Darkforce from his body and hurls it at Nightcrawler.  Kurt's engulfed in the stuff, and disappears!  As it's like one big shadow, Nightcrawler did a fade-out.  However, upon returning he encourages the Vanisher to restore the Darkforce to his outer covering -- it's apparently wearing a little thin.  At that moment huge beasts rush the two mutants, forcing them to their only recourse -- jumping into the crater.  They do, and fall back through the inter-dimensional abyss.  Back in Poughkeepsie, Nightcrawler and the Vanisher reappear right where they'd "BAMF!"ed out only seconds before.  The Vanisher tries to go all Mr. Threatening on the X-Men, but his steam is lost when he notices he's... naked!  His teleporation powers restored, he gets outta Dodge pretty quickly!  Storm asks Kurt for an explanation and all he tells her is that he's been to paradise... and someday he's going back!

Doug:  This story, of the three in the book, would have looked the best in color (although it is striking in the format you see).  I imagine it would have looked something like the Thing/Hulk graphic novel The Big Change.  I thought this story was a nice way to end the magazine -- pretty light and breezy fare.  Cockrum just had a passion for Nightcrawler, and that spirit shines through the art.  It's fun.  Overall, I'm not sorry I own this magazine -- if I hadn't said it before, this was the first time I'd read any of these three stories.  They're all OK -- if I had to rank them, I'd probably go Nightcrawler, Phoenix, and Iceman.  However, the Iceman story far and away looked the best -- it was just beautiful!  Bronze Age X-Men -- that's just never going to be a horrible experience, is it?  Nope -- like golden days of yore.  Thanks for sticking with me over these past three months!