Retro Comics are Awesome

[andersonh1]

Detective Comics #218
April 1955

Batman, Junior and Robin, Senior!
Script: Bill Finger Pencils: Sheldon Moldoff Inks: Stan Kaye

Be careful, Batman! Remember, no reckless kid stuff!

"Scientific advancement coopted by criminals" is a common plotline, and in this story it leads to an interesting fantasy scenario: a reversal of the ages in the Batman and Robin duo. I kept being reminded of the New Teen Titans when Dick Grayson was an adult and was still wearing the Robin costume before he switched to his Nightwing persona. We start out with another "famed scientist", Dr. Richard Marsten, who has discovered that "chemicals in the body" cause aging, but he's invented a gas that can reverse or stimulate aging. He's visited by a man calling himself Ephraim Vair, who slugs him and steals the gasses for criminal purposes. Vair is really Wilton Winders "notorious and ruthless ex-scientist". So it's scientist gone bad abusing the work of a famous scientist! Science vs science!!

Batman and Robin are called in, and we learn that Marsten is in a coma from the attack. Batman investigates "Vair" from a business card in Marsten's pocket and find that the name is fake. The printer describes the man who had the cards made and Batman recognizes the description as Winders. Batman investigates, and I like his trick of talking to an associate of Winders, who obviously is not going to give his friend up, while Robin watches from a distance to learn the phone number when the guy calls Winders to warn him. But when Batman and Robin go after Winders, the gasses are turned on Batman and Robin, who know nothing about them, aging Robin and de-aging Batman. One side effect of the gas is that people who are de-aged forget all that they've learned in the interim, so the now teenaged Batman has forgotten most of his crime-fighting knowledge. Robin is now the senior member of the team, thinking his way through the case while Batman is "impulsive and reckless".

Now we get to Winder's plot: to de-age rich men without telling them of the catch, that they'll forget everything they learned in the decades they have lost. Conklin, auto-manufacturer, is the first victim. He is de-aged twenty years, but forgets all that he learned and is nearly killed when he forgets about the heat drying lamps in his plant. It's Robin who comes up with a plan to save his life. Robin calls Gordon to warn him about Winders, and Gordon is baffled by how much older Robin sounds, but agrees to spread the word. The action picks up here as Robin and Batman arrive at a movie set where Winders is trying the same trick with an aging action movie star. Winders starts aging people in a desperate effort to slow them down. Robin uses makeup to make Winder's pal look old and thus tricks him into telling what Winders will do next. Gordon arrives and is shocked at what's happened to Batman and Robin. Winders, meanwhile, is on the run and hits several police with the aging gas to stop pursuit. Winders decides the only way to avoid being caught so he can get out of town is to age himself and make himself unrecognizable. But Robin recognizes Winders by the shape of his ears of all things (he's picked up Batman's encyclopedic knowledge!) and the now-old Winders doesn't have the puff to outrun him and is caught. Everyone is returned to normal, and Marsten, though out of his coma, can't remember the formula, so this can never happen again.

I can see this type of story as one of those "imaginary tales" if it was written later on. Here Bill Finger invents the aging gas, both to create the scenario of reversing the Batman and Robin team's roles, and to drive the plot. It's pure fantasy, even though it's "science", but it's a fun scenario to watch. And the ending, where Winders just starts aging people left and right, including himself, was pretty wild and one that I didn't see coming.

[Sparky Prime]

The Infinity Gauntlet (1991)

Mistress Death believed there to be a cosmic imbalance between the living and the dead, and so revived Thanos to balance it. But Thanos used the power boost she gave him for this task to collect the Infinity Gems instead, hoping to court Death as her equal. Only the power the Gems makes him superior to Death, and she's not pleased with his actions. Thanos attempts to gain her favor, ultimately snapping his fingers to remove half the sentient life in the universe as Death had tasked him with, but she still gives him the cold shoulder. Loosing his temper, the energy he inadvertently sends out causes severe damage throughout the universe. The Earth is devastated by earthquakes and tsunami, and is even knocked from its orbit. Adam Warlock recruits Earth's remaining heroes (and Dr. Doom), as well as various cosmic entities, to battle Thanos. They ultimately loose, but in defeating Eternity, Thanos takes his place as a cosmic entity, allowing Nebula to remove the Gauntlet from his physical body. Nebula undoes everything Thanos had done with the Infinity Gems. A few heroes from Earth, as well as the Cosmic Entities battle with Nebula, but ultimately, it's Adam Warlock's connection to the Soul Gem that causes a surge between the Gems that forces her to take it off. In a mad dash for the Gauntlet, Adam Warlock takes possession of it, and Thanos seemingly kills himself rather than be held accountable for his actions. Traveling 60 days into the future, Adam, Pip and Gamora find Thanos on an unknown planet where he claims he wants to live a quiet life as a farmer.

--

This is the first time I've read this story. I can see why it's one of the more popular Marvel crossover events. I gather there were a few tie-ins for this story. Unlike my complaints for Secret Wars II and Secret Wars (2015), I didn't really get the sense I was missing out on anything though. There's a few things I felt like they probably explored more in depth, but either got a decent enough recap or weren't really necessary for the main title. Like, there's this one part where they're gathered what remains of Earth's heroes, and the Hulk initially refuses to join them, apparently because he's not happy with the Avengers at the moment. It's immediately resolved when Iron Man says they'd be open to him rejoining the Avengers. I dunno, I just get the sense the Hulk tie-in probably did more with that since the pacing of that scene in this book doesn't feel natural.

It's interesting to see most of the story is Thanos doing a thing with his power and Earth dealing with the fallout from it. It's not until the last couple issues they're able to confront him. And even then, they stand no chance against him. Both Vision and Adam point out how Thanos always leaves something to be used against him. I'm not so sure that's true. He does limit his abilities somewhat when fighting the heroes of Earth but that's manipulation from Mephisto. It's ultimately an oversight on his part that causes him to loose the Infinity Gems. I do like how by defeating Eternity he doesn't think he needs his physical body any longer, forgetting that he needs the Infinity Gems to maintain that level of power. But I wouldn't say that's the same as Thanos setting himself up for defeat, but rather it's his hubris. I also kinda wished there were more aliens involved in the battle against Thanos. There were two... Drax and Silver Surfer. But It would have been nice to see some involvement from the Kree or the Skrulls... both of which are featured in this series, albeit only to blame each other for the disappearances caused by Thanos.

The thing that disappointed me the most about this book is that when Nebula undoes everything Thanos did. In other words, the writer hit the reset button so that most of this book didn't even happen. It's even established no one remembers it, save for the few summoned back to battle Nebula.

Overall, I really enjoyed this story.

[andersonh1]

Green Lantern/Green Arrow #83
April-May 1971

...And a Child Shall Destroy Them!
Script - Denny O'Neil Pencils - Neal Adams Inks - Dick Giordano

Hal and Ollie fight Richard Nixon! Well, sort of, because apparently Sybil, the little girl with telekenetic powers, was modelled after Nixon's likeness. And Grandy who bullies and uses her is Spiro Agnew, Nixon's VP. It's just bizarre, and it adds one more odd layer to this very odd story, which opens up with someone we'll later learn is Carol Ferris being crippled after she accidentally bumps into a man, who orders his telepathic little girl to make her sorry. Flash forward a month and Hal, Dinah and Ollie are visiting Meadowhill School where Dinah hopes to start teaching. The three of them are attacked by a flock of birds, which leads to Dinah mentioning the Hitchcock film (and a cameo by Hitchcock as a mailman). They're greeted at the door by Grandy, the school cook (the same man Carol ran into in the preview) and Jason Belmore, owner of the school, who strongly objects to the presence of "costumed individuals". We've never seen him on panel before, but Belmore was named as Carol's fiancé in GL #49, and we learn she broke off the engagement in GL #73. He has a special gripe with Green Lantern, so he may well be aware of Carol's feelings for him. Or it could just be Grandy manipulating Belmore, as Dinah notices.

Outside GA asks about GL's recognition of Belmore, but Hal doesn't want to talk about it. They see someone at their car and fear more trouble, but it's Carol Ferris, in a wheelchair. GL clearly still has strong feelings for her as she drives away with GL and GA. Carol tells them about the attack from the first page, not that she knew it was an attack. She describes it as a painful seizure that no specialists have been able to diagnose. Her engagement with Belmore is back on (or else O'Neil didn't know it was broken off in a Mike Friedrich-written issue), but ever since he took over the school he's been constantly terrified of something. The discussion ends there as the car shakes itself apart and runs off into the ravine. GL rescues everyone, recharges his ring, and they head back to the school. Hal wants to conserve his ring's energy, which surprises Carol, but this is a sadder, more doubting GL than the one she used to know.

Meanwhile Dinah is threatened by Grandy, so she switches to her Black Canary outfit, She handles the fight easily, but Sybil takes her out. In the cellar, Grandy explains that Sybil can control people with her mind. He leaves Dinah to be attacked by wasps, while GA and GL enter the school (and who is this Hal Jordan who worries about doing so without permission??) where Belmore tells them what's going on. Grandy commands Sybil to attack them all, but hearing Dinah scream enables Green Arrow to resist and fire an arrow that disables the two of them. They rescue Dinah, and Hal realizes that what happened sounds exactly like what happened to Carol. He confronts Grandy who tells Sybil to punish Hal, but Sybil has had enough abuse and enough of harming people. She collapses the roof, apparently killing Grandy and herself while Hal gets all the students outside, though the last panel hints that Sybil survived.

The final few pages give us a major status quo change as Hal takes off his mask and admits who he is to Carol, and she is not at all surprised. They both suffered from pride, wanting love on their own terms. My opinion is that Hal should have told Carol ages ago, but finally these two get some resolution after years of the old "loves my alter ego rather than me" storylines followed by years of Hal separated from his former supporting cast and preferring his fists to his ring, which really hurt the series in my opinion. Of course, having read this series for years, I know full well the two of them have been on again, off again ever since, but it's still nice here to finally see Hal come clean about his super hero life with a positive response from Carol.

Your humble reviewer was born in May 1971, the cover date on this issue, so we've finally reached issues published in my lifetime. It would be a few more years before I could have read them, even if my dad approved of comics, which he did not. Back in the present, the first time I read this story I recognized that Neal Adams based his character models for Grandy and Sybil on someone, even if I didn't know who, and it kind of pulled me out of the story, because I figured it had to be some sort of political statement even if I didn't know what. And I still don't, unless he's calling Agnew the power behind the throne or something. The story itself is worthwhile not so much for the Grandy/Sybil plotline (which makes no sense, why is Grandy using her powers in such a limited fashion and setting?) but rather for finally addressing Hal and Carol, though poor old Jason is only in two panels after page 17, last seen taking Dinah to the hospital, so his feelings about losing Carol are never addressed. He's never been anything but a plot device anyway. Interesting issue, and I guess I have more positive feelings about it than negative. Addressing long-term continuity makes it feel more like a continuation of Green Lantern than most of what we've seen since issue #76.

[andersonh1]

Green Lantern/Green Arrow #84
June-July 1971

Peril in Plastic
Script - Denny O'Neil Pencils - Neal Adams Inks - Bernie Wrightson

This was the first issue of GL/GA I ever read, as far as I can remember. It opens the trade collection I bought way back in the day, back when trade paperbacks were not as ubiquitious as they are now. It's a 1993 edition with a purple cover, GL and GA drawn by Neal Adams charging at the reader, and the title "More Hard Traveling Heroes". This trade includes the covers in a reduced size cover gallery in the back of the book rather than before each issue.There's a three page introduction written by Dick Giordano and quotes from various songs of the era in between the chapters. "He's only a Pawn in their Game" by Bob Dylan precedes "Peril in Plastic".

The splash shows Hal trying to stop a dam from breaking and flooding a valley full of houses. "A story plucked from the fears of a nation" proclaims the text. But we don't immediately see an explanation as the story returns to Hal and Carol, back together and very much in love. Twenty-one days of enjoying each other's company for the first time in a long time, both in terms of publication time and the narrative. They both regret the time wasted, and it's an interesting way to deal with how the characters were written back in the early Silver Age. It was just a storytelling convention of the era: the hero can't tell his girlfriend who he really is. It didn't bother me then, and indeed I laughed at some of it. But it's genuinely nice to see it resolved here. Carol is still paralyzed after last issue, and is going to see a doctor in Piper's Dell about a specialized treatment.

Hal goes to visit Ollie at his new apartment, not in the best part of town. They banter about musical tastes, and it's a fun scene. When they're not butting heads over issues, these guys have actually become friends. Suddenly there's a news bulletin about the seawall at Piper's Dell in danger of destruction, and Hal heads there where bombs are destroying the sea wall. He collects them all using a magnetic field created by the ring and they explode harmlessly in the sea. He plugs a hole in the wall and is tired out. This is the first big "stunt" he's tried with the power ring since the Guardians weakened it, and he's exhausted by the effort. The mayor, Wilbur Palm, approaches him and thanks him, giving him a tour of the very polluted town. Once again, the likeness appears to be an actual person, and according to what I could find he's modeled after Carmine Infantino. Everything's plastic here, including the key to the city and the little gizmo that's constantly pumping out perfume. It turns out to be a trap, GL can't focus enough to fly or to defend himself as members of the town attack him. He sends his ring to Green Arrow's apartment as he's captured and sedated. Ollie doesn't see it right away as Dinah comes calling and they go on a date.

Turns out the mayor is really Black Hand! The "cliche criminal" element of the character is absent here (though he still has his notebook). He's been hired to help run an experiment in mass brainwashing. He used Carol to lure GL to Piper's Dell, and having brainwashed the town into believing that GL tried to destroy their seawall, he turns GL and Carol loose and lets the town's residents attack them. Meanwhile Ollie returns having ruined the date with Dinah and finds Hal's ring. Realizing this means Hal is in trouble, Ollie has to suit up, find Hal's hotel room and the invisible power battery, charge it up, and then rent a rowboat to cross the harbor. How much time does all of this take? Are Hal and Carol on the run from the mob this whole time? Hal in a few pages will think about "the past hour" so I'm assuming that's how long all of this took Ollie. Thankfully Ollie gets there just about the time Hal and Carol are trapped on the seawall, and he uses an arrow with the ring on it, shooting the arrow between Hal's fingers so he can put on the ring and deal with the crowd. Now that's the type of shooting GA should be doing more often, incredibly skilled shots that no one else could manage. With his ring and willpower back, Hal wraps up the situation easily, capturing Black Hand in a glob of melted plastic. As they reflect back on events the next day, Ollie wonders if the brainwashed crowd in Piper's Dell were really any different than everyone else?

Plastic, pollution, and people too caught up in modern life to really think for themselves: Denny O'Neil got the mix of social issues and super-hero action pretty well balanced this time, and both GL and GA get roles in the story that suit their abilities. This one has some nostalgic appeal for me, being as I said the first issue of this series I ever read, and I think O'Neil is getting better at balancing the cast and at actually allowing Ollie and Hal to be friends. There's some decent continuity here and once again this feels like a continuation of the Green Lantern series we've been reading in a way those early GL/GA issues really didn't.