Welcome to the Greylands!
If you’re new to this little journey, you can check out the first post to learn what it’s all about.
- Action Comics #394
- Adventure Comics #399
- Batman #226 (the debut of the awe-inspiring Ten-Eyed Man!)
- Brave and Bold #92
- Detective Comics #405
- The Flash #201
- G.I. Combat #144
- Justice League of America #84
- Superman’s Girlfriend, Lois Lane #106
- Superman #231
- World’s Finest #197 (reprints, won’t be covered)
- World’s Finest #198
Bolded entries are covered in this post, the others will be covered soon.
Superman #231
“The Wheel of Super-Fortune!”
Writer: Cary Bates
Penciler: Curt Swan
Inker: Dan Adkins
This one is pretty nuts, ladies and gents. It’s the second part of last month’s crazy-pants story, and it ups the insane ante to new heights. It’s a weird, wild combination of random elements that make a very Silver Age-ish story, continuing the trend of the Man of Steel’s books feeling dated. This particular issue combines magic and mad science, plus a bald Superman and lots of melodrama with Lois. Feast your eyes on this odd offering.
It begins with a recap of last issue, as Super-Lex takes Lois to the Fortress of Solitude, where he just happens to have a giant crystal that can somehow replay the past. He shows her Clark Kent’s ridiculous villainous origins, but Lois is way too obsessed to listen to any of his ‘logic’ or ‘reason.’ She’s in love with the formerly comatose crook, and nothing can change that! We’re not quite dealing with the capable and self-possessed Lois we were just talking about in the last post. In the flashback, we see that Clark may have been given ‘evil genes,’ but he apparently wasn’t given brains, as he plans to set himself up as a ‘big-time gang boss’ with the proceeds from one little gas station robbery. Is…is that how it works? Somehow, I doubt it.
Meanwhile, in his deceased mad scientist/benefactor’s secret lab, Clark discovers a criminal teletype, which tells him about some mystic named Grandovic that can predict the future for criminals, which sounds promising to him. The neophyte ne’er-do-well takes one of the bad doctor’s unlikely inventions and robs a bank, nearly killing Lois in the process, as she’s too smitten to get out of the way of the giant rolling tank!
Fortunately, Super-Baldy is there to save the day, and we get a bizarrely hilarious scene where Lois furiously attacks the hero because he’s preventing her from leaping to her death and he knocks her out with one finger. Of course, while he’s dealing with the irrational reporter, Clark gets away, having left behind a bomb to cover his escape.
The villainous Kent uses his ill-gotten gains to garner an audience with Grandovic, a randomly floating mystic-type in Tibet. After giving him a diamond worth 2 million bucks, the visionary answers his burning question, how can he defeat Superman. Grandovic fills Clark in on all of Lex’s history, and points out that he loves Lois, so he can be attacked through her. In response, Kent proves how evil he is by poisoning the swami, who in turn prophecies his assailant’s death through the means of a steering wheel. Clark thinks he’ll just avoid cars and be fine, but apparently he never studied his mythology.
Back in Metropolis, Lex secretly protects Lois from a falling piece of masonry, though she notices that Superman must have intervened in some fashion and begins to reassess her view of him. Before anything else can come of that, Lex is attacked in his apartment by a cool looking robot, which unfortunately only lasts two pages before the hero literally chops it in two with his hand. Inside is a taped message that directs the Man of Tomorrow to a rendezvous with Clark, wherein the criminal reveals that he’s given Lois a drug that he can use to kill her with the push of a button. He tells his nemesis that unless the big baldy backs off, he’ll kill his girl.
After a mix-up with a super-robot, Clark makes good on his threat, but he only stuns Lois, rather than kill her. She immediately throws herself at him when she awakens, but he’s got no time for her. He’s got a wildly impractical war-machine to drive! He takes a new vehicle out to level Metropolis, and when Super-Lex doesn’t back off, he does just that, amazed that the Metropolis Marvel would allow this to happen. As the hero destroys his vehicle, Clark declares that all the thousands of deaths he just caused are on Lex’s head, but the Man of Steel was one ludicrous step ahead of him.
It turns out that Lex built an entire, FULL-SCALE replica of Krypton at some point in the past and filled it with androids. He just evacuated the entirety of Metropolis overnight and filled it with his kryptonian androids, so no-one died! Wow. That’s a big development to toss out in a single line of dialog. Of course, it doesn’t account for the billions of dollars worth of property damage, but oh well. I wonder if Zack Snyder read this comic. I suppose not, since there’s no sex and death.
Well, silly plot devices and terrible directors aside, Clark pulls a different kind of device out of his pocket. It’s a ray that steals Superman’s powers and transfers them to a nearby object, specifically, a steering wheel. Clark very helpfully explains the entire situation to Lex as opposed to, you know, just grabbing the artifact himself while the hero is reeling. In the struggle that follows, Super-Lex gets the brass super-ring and Clark dies…because….the story is almost over? There’s really no good explanation. His ‘evil genes’ basically fry his brain, and this magically fixes everything, including Lois’s obsession. I’m not going to try to explain this last page. Just read it and marvel at the craziness as Bates suddenly realizes he’s run out of space and has to wrap everything up.
This is a pretty goofy story. It’s all over the place, with the random criminal guru, the tons and tons of mad-style science, the Lois subplot, and ridiculous ending gambit by Super-Lex. Interestingly enough, this issue also reprints a Superman story from 1956, and that one is positively grounded and restrained compared to this one, which is instructive in context. There’s not really much to recommend this comic. I’ll give this goofy tale 2 Minutemen. It’s entertaining, but nutso.
World’s Finest #198
“Race to Save the Universe!”
Writer: Dennis O’Neil
Penciler: Dick Dillin
Inker: Joe Giella
Editors: Julius Schwartz and E. Nelson Bridwell
“Joanie Swift, Queen of Speed!”
Penciler: Paul Norris
Inker: Paul Norris
Editors: Whitney Ellsworth, Jack Schiff, Julius Schwartz, and E. Nelson Bridwell
Well in contrast to that last Superman story, this issue of World’s Finest is just plain fun! It’s full of big, bombastic action, cosmic concepts, and a universe-spanning setting that would be perfectly at home in Grant Morrison‘s JLA. Considering the fact that Morrison penned some of the best League adventures of all time (not perfect, but undeniably great), that’s a very good thing. This comic is just a rip-roaring adventure from start to finish, and while it’s packed full of crazy events and ideas, they all work together and make sense in the mad, wonder-packed world of the DC Universe.
It opens with a bang, as Jimmy Olsen steps out of bed and right through time itself! He plummets through a strange hole in the time continuum (gotta’ love comics science!) and right into the middle of a Roman chariot race, circa 15 B.C.! Not only that, a Roman charioteer charges through a similar portal and finds himself in ‘modern’ day Metropolis. Of course, the Man of Steel is confused at first, thinking that this guy in the Roman getup is just some nut. After all, given the insanity of his daily routine, that’s as likely as anything else. In a fun and funny little moment, Superman just lets the Centurion break his sword on the ‘ol abs-of-steel so he can see for himself how pointless it is to fight. Just as the Metropolis Marvel is about to take this time-tossed Roman to the funny-farm, he’s interrupted by one of the Guardians of the Universe!
The Guardian, with their usual tact, orders the Man of Tomorrow to get to Oa, today, and we get one of the only bits of this story that irked me. Superman flies straight to their world, with his Roman in tow, and somehow the guy doesn’t die a messy and unpleasant death in the vacuum of space. The text tells us that he takes a ‘space-warp,’ but one would imagine such a phenomenon as being…you know…in space. Still, it’s a minor point, and I absolutely love the poor, rattled Roman’s befuddled thought bubbles as he tries to make sense of what in the heck is happening to him! “Surely I have passed beyond the mortal realm!” he thinks as Superman flies him through space, and “Have I passed unto Olympus?” is his wondering thought when he sees the strange science of the Guardians. If I have one criticism of this comic, it’s that I would have loved to see more of this guy!
Well, speaking of the Blue Man Group, no, not that one, once he arrives, they fill our hero in on the situation that spurred his summons. Apparently beings called the ‘Anachronids,’ bizarre forms of life that move faster than the speed of light, have moved into inhabited space. These creatures move so fast, in fact, that their very passage is playing merry havoc with space/time, causing random rifts to open between today and yesterday, the likes of which spawned Superman’s Latin companion. The Guardians have need of the Man of Steel’s incredible speed and endurance, as they must stabilize the time-stream by employing a counter-balancing speed-force to that of the Anachronids. Of course! That kind of wonderful techno-babble totally works in the DCU. The trouble is, Superman by himself is not going to produce enough power, so the Guardians send him to recruit the Flash and give the Scarlet Speedster a medallion that will grant him endurance and the ability to run in space. Together, the titanic twosome must race for the galaxy or risk time itself unraveling in the face of the universe-shattering speed of the Anachronids!
Got all that? Good, because we’re only on page six! Well, once Superman picks up his partner in speed, the Flash offers a friendly idea, noting that they have raced in the past, but they have never had a definitive outcome. He suggests that they make their universe-saving jaunt a competition, which would hopefully drive both of them to give their utmost. This, and several other moments, show a particular strength of O’Neil’s writing in this issue.
The casual, jolly attitude they take to their world-saving, the free-spirited love for adventure that both heroes evince, is a great deal of fun. I just can’t help but compare this to the endlessly grim and serious comics of the modern era, where even characters who should have a real sense of wonder and adventure about them still manage to be relentlessly serious and joyless as often as not.
So, it is with good spirits that our heroes set out on their race, passing the Moon in a moment and tearing through the cosmos on an incredible journey. In a fun little detail, Batman officiates the start of the contest. Meanwhile, we check back in with poor Jimmy in Rome, and his high school Latin fails him miserably as he finds himself sentenced to death as a wizard! Back in space, Superman and the Flash are ambushed by the incredibly speedy Anachronids, who begin firing at them with energy weapons. The Man of Steel manages to protects his partner, but their antagonists turn their deadly attentions to a nearby star, causing it to go super nova in a matter of moments. It’s a lovely page, and it really sells the scope of the challenge facing our heroes.
The turbo-twosome have to outrun the exploding star (how’s that for wide-screen action?), but they are almost caught by the solar fire until they dive through a rift in space, perhaps caused by the Anachronids’ passage. They fall into a bizarre, barren landscape, getting separated in their descent. Superman finds himself under a strange, center-less sun that oscillates between red and yellow, and during the sanguine state, he’s clobbered by a trio of…shall I say ‘phantom’ assailants? We just see their ghostly outlines, but sharp-witted DC fans will likely recognize some of the Phantom Zone villains. What is going on?!
The trio attempts to feed the unconscious Man of Steel to a horrible, Lovecraftian monster, and the sun’s split personality renders him mostly helpless. Fortunately, the Flash has been searching for him, and he launches a cleverly deduced attack against the big green ugly. He sees that it has no eyes, and, in a bit of a stretch, he thinks that it may have a radar sense that he can confuse. He does so by whipping up a dust storm. The Speedster guesses that the antenna near the creature’s mouth are probably important, so with a dust storm and an attack to its sensitive tendrils, he frees his partner, who, with a return of yellow sunlight, decks the beast into a mountain. It’s a great action sequence, and while the Flash’s idea about a radar sense doesn’t really get set up properly, I’m willing to let it go because the rest of the encounter makes pretty good sense. Eyes or radar, it’s reasonable to think that a dust storm might be a good distraction.
The monster escaped, the heroes take to their heels once more, racing straight through the heart of the bizarre star, hoping that their path to freedom lies within. Superman points out that space and time is distorted around stars, so they count on this being their doorway back into the normal universe. That mostly works in a comic kind of way, so I’m not going to kick, especially because it just looks awesome.
Free, the racers once again encounter their eerie antagonists, and they endeavor to capture one. When they manage to slow the speeding being down, they discover that it is actually a robot! What’s more, the machine disintegrates shortly thereafter, apparently not designed to exist at anything below the speed of light. With more questions than answers, the heroes once more take up their race, tearing off through space, and for the final page of the book, we check back in with poor Jimmy, who is facing a firing squad of Roman archers. The story ends with their arrows in the air!
This is just a fun, exhilarating issue. This is the type of Bronze Age story that I really love. It’s got vast, cosmic scope, big ideas, and bigger action. The cheerful, grand heroism of this tale is precisely what makes comics great. The mystery set up in this comic is intriguing, and I can’t wait to see where it goes next issue. It helps that Dick Dillin is really firing on all cylinders for this book, turning out some great art and some really dynamic, well-rendered action. The stiffness from some of his JLA issues is gone and what is left is imaginative and lovely. I really like the camaraderie and friendship displayed between the two heroes, even if they aren’t given a ton of development. Their spirit of adventure comes through, and in an epic tale like this, that’s enough. They also each got a moment to shine, as the narrative was nicely balanced between their exploits, and the Jimmy subplot provided an enjoyable dose of comic relief. I particularly enjoy the universe spanning nature of this yarn, bringing in several different elements of the DC mythos, from the Guardians to our spectral villains. I’ll give this cosmic adventure 4.5 Minutemen, a great score!
There’s an enjoyable reprint of a Johnny Quick story as a backup to this issue.
Final Thoughts for the Month:
This was really a rather fascinating month. It really drove home to me how much things at DC had changed in just one year’s time. Over the course of the last year, we’ve watched as DC comic books go from the racial homogeneity of the Silver Age to a set of titles that, at least in the supporting casts of their stories, tend to feature more than a few minority faces. It really seems like there has been an increasing attention to racial issues. Obviously, this month we saw a particularly excellent story on race, but it seems to me that the company as a whole has taken an effort to present a more realistically diverse portrayal of the world in the pages of their books. I’m not positive, but it does seem to be so, and that is a pretty cool development to watch happening.
This month also gave us both the highs and the lows of creativity, with two different new concepts being introduced, both of which would endure for a time, though to very different fates. While the Ten-Eyed man was a goofy concept that was too silly even for comic books, the League of Assassins showed promise from the very beginning, worthy antagonists for the Dark Knight, employing many of the same methods and skills that he himself uses. They are an interesting threat lurking out there in the DC Universe, and readers must have looked forward to their return. At the same time, one can’t quite imagine anyone clamoring for the return of the Ten-Eyed Man. Despite that, he will once again grace the pages of Batman in just five issues.
Perhaps most intriguing of all, this month showed us another side of Robert Kanigher. I’ve certainly not been kind to this fellow, and yet in this month alone saw several solid stories penned by this maligned writer and one exceptional tale. How strange to see Kanigher take an inning after the messy, silly stories he’s told previously. I’m very curious about whether this is a turning point or a high water mark.
Well, that will do it for November, 1970! It was a pretty good month, all told, but I’m excited to head into the final month of this first year. Hopefully I can move through 1971 a little more quickly. Otherwise, this process is going to take forever and a day! Until next time, keep the heroic ideal alive!
The Head-Blow Headcount:
Once again, it’s been a quiet month, with no new additions to the wall of shame. I bet December will hold new noggin’ knockin’ wonders for us, though!
The Greylands 