TF Views

BWprowl wrote:

anderson wrote:So, the Crumbler is the owner of the chateau that’s under construction, and he’s sabotaging his own project to get the insurance money because he’s deep in debt? And Ollie’s already met him twice? And he gives himself away by mentioning the hospital, which he shouldn’t have known about? I’m shocked by these plot twists. Shocked, I say.

Oh man, I love it when comics do stuff like this. If Crumbles is so badly in debt, where did he even get the capital to make his amazing destructo-glove? All that to get some insurance money? I bet there are demolition and construction companies that would pay some serious dosh for an invention like his, why doesn't he just patent the technology, sell it to them, and retire comfortably?

Hell, even if he, for some reason, absolutely HAD to turn to crime to get the money he so badly needed, why didn't he just, I dunno, crumble into the back of a bank at night, crumble through a safe, and make off with a bunch of cash? Why the convoluted, circuitous start project->destroy project->collect insurance plot? It's just so...so hilariously needlessly complicated.

I know it's an 'old' comic book and we aren't supposed to question these sorts of things, but dammit, it just makes no sense to me!

There may be an explanation in the next issue. I don't know, I haven't read it yet, but I will say that despite the dated nature of dialogue and plots, Denny O'Neil does try to cover his bases when it comes to the logic of the plot. At least, that's my impression after reading a dozen of these old issues. It seems odd that he wouldn't provide a source for the Crumbler's power gauntlet despite the guy's money problems, or a reason why he's out to destroy the project rather than just rob banks. Though super-villains who use their inventions just to cause havoc is a certainly a convention of older comics.

Or it could be that, as you say, we're just not supposed to notice these things.

Green Lantern/Green Arrow #115 – April 1979
The Vengeance of the Crumbler! - Written by Denny O’Neil, with art by Alex Saviuk

Ah, so there is an explanation for the Crumbler’s convoluted scheme. He doesn’t actually own the project in question. It’s being built by his dad’s construction company. Yep, he had an abusive father growing up, and now it’s time for dad to pay. As a boy, the Crumbler was always interested in science, but his dad wasn’t having any of that nonsense, and threatened to beat him if he saw so much as a test tube any more. So Crumbler went to work for his dad’s construction company and secretly stole money from the company to develop his disintegration glove. The insurance scheme was meant to put back the money he stole so the theft wouldn’t be noticed. Hmmm…

Green Arrow goes after the guy with Black Canary, and nearly gets both of them killed as the Crumbler destroys the bridge they’re driving over. They fall into a frozen river, and Black Canary manages to get herself and the unconscious GA out. In a surprisingly realistic turn of events, both of them end up spending the rest of the issue in the hospital due to exposure. So it’s up to Hal to go after the Crumbler. Who flips out after spending time with the world’s worst psychiatrist and goes on a rampage, taking hostages and threatening to kill them all. Hal figures out a way to stop him, but not until noticing that something’s not quite right with his power ring. The last panel shows a glow of yellow energy coming from his power battery… and I don’t have the next issue to find out what it is. Argh.

So the moral of the story appears to be this: dads, don’t abuse your son if they’re interested in science, otherwise they’ll grow up to be a super-villain. Seriously, there’s actually a germ of a good story here if the writing was a little better, and the threats of freezing to death in an icy river or being taken hostage by someone who is essentially a terrorist are far more down to earth and far more relatable than the latest alien invasion. And of course child abuse is no laughing matter. A few tweaks here and there to remove the dated slang and writing style, and this could almost be a story that could be published today.

Green Lantern/Green Arrow #117 – June 1979
The Sight--of the First and Second Kinds!- Written by Denny O’Neil, with art by Joe Staton

All these exclamation marks in titles make me feel like I’m watching “Batman The Brave and the Bold”. And this is the earliest Joe Staton issue I've seen, though with all the gaps in my back issue collection, there’s no way to know if it is the first issue or not. He will go on to draw Green Lantern for a number of years. And speaking of gaps, apparently issue 116 sees one of the earlier appearances of Guy Gardner, pre-bowl cut, who was apparently killed by an exploding Green Lantern power battery. Hal certainly thinks he’s dead when this issue opens. And incidentally, the opening features the Joker and Two-Face as Hal and Ollie visit Arkham Asylum to look in on the Crumbler. No, he’s not a one story only villain, apparently. The Joker and Two-Face don’t think too much of Green Lantern and Green Arrow, and they comment that anyone can put on a suit and be a hero these days, but no one will ever measure up to Batman.

The mysterious Professor Ojo attacks Arkham and breaks the Crumbler out. Green Arrow pursues him while Hal goes to tell Guy Gardner’s girlfriend, Kari Limbo, that Guy has been killed. Kari is a fortune teller (hence the second sight of the issue’s title) and she and Hal hit it off right away. Yeah, nothing like casting your eyes towards your dead buddy’s girlfriend, Hal, though to be fair the attraction seems to be mutual. Not much comes of it though as Kari determines that Green Arrow is in danger and Hal has to rush off to help him as Green Arrow is about to be killed by the Crumbler. Of course, it’s easy for Hal to capture them, and the issue is over.

One of the things that continues to interest me is just how long these story elements continued to remain an official part of Hal Jordan’s fictional history. Apart from the retcon of Emerald Dawn (and more recently, Secret Origin), Hal’s history stayed mostly intact from 1960 through 2011. One of the reasons Guy held a grudge against Hal for so long and went through his “brain damaged thug” period with his belligerent attitude is because of course he wasn’t dead, just trapped, and he (probably rightly) resented Hal making out with his girlfriend behind his back, even if Hal and Kari had the excuse of thinking he was dead. And Kari Limbo was still around for years after this. If I remember right, she was shown to die when Mongul destroyed Coast City. The Starheart story from a few issues earlier remained official backstory up until right before the 2011 reboot, and indeed, one of the last Justice League/Justice Society crossover stories involved the Starheart gaining control over Alan Scott, and all the havoc that caused. The writers of Green Lantern in the 90s and 2000s were clearly aware of the character’s history and built off of it. Of course, who knows how much of that counts now? If nothing else, all the storylines with Green Arrow can’t have occurred in the New 52 since Green Arrow is such a different person now.

In any case, after years of being aware of these events as backstory, it’s enjoyable to go back and read the actual issues where they occurred.

I do take your point about stuff carrying over or not.

The other day, I was actually kind of wishing I could find some older (and I am guessing out of print) DC books that most likely do not have any relevance to the modern comics. But, I wanted to reread them for curiosity sake.


And, speaking of old and irrelevant comics...

Detective Comics #608-9:
These are reprinted in "Batman: Anarky", a compilation of material published ~20 years ago that was compiled about 15 years ago. So, yeah, this is double-dip retro.
Grant and Breyfogle are probably my all time favourite Bat-team. O'Neil and Adams were defining. Starlin and Aparro have more than their share of merit. But, Grant and Breyfogle hit the mark perfectly, making Batman both contemporary to the time of publication and essentially timeless in a way that no Morrisonian musing could.

The two issues are preceded by introductions written by Grant and Breyfogle about how they initially saw and revised the character. (Apparently, Anarky was intended to be a pre-Drake candidate for the Robin job.) Despite being 20 years old, and out context with modern DC, these comics still feel modern. If not for the art and some quirks of the writing, these comics could pass for something published today, not least because we are close to having costumed criminals (in the form of masked "Occupiers" and such) and an ever more restive population (with some legitimate grievances).


Grade:
A

The Grant/Breyfogle run on Detective Comics and Batman is one of my absolute favorites. They really got the character and turned out some great stories, month after month.

I found Green Lantern #150 interesting in light of Geoff Johns huge success with the multiple Lantern-Corps. But that idea didn't originate with him. March of 1982 saw Marv Wolfman and Joe Staton introduce us to... drum roll... the Anti-GL Corps! As the cover blurb tells us: Meet Hal Jordan, renegade Green Lantern of Earth -- Leader of the Anti-GL Corps -- his only thought to destroy, destroy, destroy!!

Hal is dragged into the anti-matter universe of Qward by an enhanced weaponer and imprisoned there. Hal has apparently finally tired of following orders and has abandoned the GL Corp. The Qwardians want him to join them, but he's not so sure he's ready to do that either. They want to study his ring to perfect theirs, which fire bursts of anti-matter and absorb the energy of green lantern rings. Hal makes a run for it, but only escapes with the help of Arisa, who definitely looks like a kid at this point. Of course, it's quickly revealed that Hal didn't actually quit, but is working undercover for the Guardians, who had learned about the Qwardian's weapon and needed to find out more as quickly as they could.

So we've got an equal and opposite Corps ready to be pitted against the Green Lanterns. But we also have Hal turned evil (temporarily), right down to the pointy Parallax looking mask as the enhanced weaponer is able to physically alter Hal and make him "evil". Apparently the Qwardian mad scientist who gave him the ability was working on him behind the scenes, or else he'd have turned Hal sooner, rather than simply trying to recruit him with words. However, Hal's evil turn only lasts a few pages until the other Green Lanterns are able to "cleanse" him and restore him to normal. Then while the rest of the Corps are trying to fight off the Anti-GL Corps, Hal, Arisa and Katma Tui find the anti-matter power battery and destroy it, ending the threat.

Hal doesn't get off scot free, however. He really did violate Corp rules by refusing to respond to a call for help from Ungara because he was helping Carol Ferris. Normally this would mean trial and dismissal from the Corps, but in light of his outstanding record, Hal isn't booted out. His punishment is that he will not be permitted to return to Earth until the Guardians say he can go back. He asks for some time to tie up loose ends, and is granted 24 hours. Hal doesn't argue, doesn't complain, just agrees that he broke the rules and that the discipline is completely warranted.

So, in many ways, this is a very modern comic. Double sized, big threat, lots of characters and a major change in the status quo for the main character. And it just goes to show how much recycling of ideas we get in long-running comics. In 1982, an evil Lantern Corp was a one-issue threat to be revealed and then dealt with. It's well worth the look back to get some perspective.

andersonh1 wrote:I found Green Lantern #150 interesting in light of Geoff Johns huge success with the multiple Lantern-Corps. But that idea didn't originate with him. March of 1982 saw Marv Wolfman and Joe Staton introduce us to... drum roll... the Anti-GL Corps! As the cover blurb tells us: Meet Hal Jordan, renegade Green Lantern of Earth -- Leader of the Anti-GL Corps -- his only thought to destroy, destroy, destroy!!

I really wouldn't say the Anti-Green Lantern Corps was meant to be an idea to introduce multiple Lantern Corps or anything like what Johns idea was. I mean, the Anti-GL's didn't even last through the one issue, and was meant to be more of an evil opposite similar to the GL's yet were very different, seeing as they were powered by Anti-Matter rather than something like willpower. Johns idea was more to expand upon the background of the Green Lantern mythos itself, connect the different powers we'd seen (Green, Yellow and the Star Sapphire) as well as introducing some new ones with his new concept of the Emotional Spectrum.

Sparky Prime wrote:

andersonh1 wrote:I found Green Lantern #150 interesting in light of Geoff Johns huge success with the multiple Lantern-Corps. But that idea didn't originate with him. March of 1982 saw Marv Wolfman and Joe Staton introduce us to... drum roll... the Anti-GL Corps! As the cover blurb tells us: Meet Hal Jordan, renegade Green Lantern of Earth -- Leader of the Anti-GL Corps -- his only thought to destroy, destroy, destroy!!

I really wouldn't say the Anti-Green Lantern Corps was meant to be an idea to introduce multiple Lantern Corps or anything like what Johns idea was. I mean, the Anti-GL's didn't even last through the one issue, and was meant to be more of an evil opposite similar to the GL's yet were very different, seeing as they were powered by Anti-Matter rather than something like willpower. Johns idea was more to expand upon the background of the Green Lantern mythos itself, connect the different powers we'd seen (Green, Yellow and the Star Sapphire) as well as introducing some new ones with his new concept of the Emotional Spectrum.

I agree, Wolfman didn't intend to expand the GL universe the way Johns did. As you say, he was just creating a one-off threat for a milestone issue. It's just interesting to see early parallels and compare with what came later.

Flash archives vol. 2

You can’t get much more retro than comics published in 1941. I’ve read precious few comics from the Golden Age, mainly early Superman and Batman stories from their archived volumes, and a little All-Star/JSA. It’s always a revelation to go back and read about these characters in their earliest appearances and to see how they’ve changed over the years. Yes, the writing and art are more simplistic, but there’s still often something enjoyable about the originality and creativity of these early comics. Yesterday I bought the Golden Age Flash archives volume 2, and I had a chance to browse the book and read a few of the stories. I probably won’t detail them all here, but I’ll hit the highlights as I read the book and note things of interest.

One of the first things that jumps out is the art. It’s actually pretty decent and well-drawn, if more on the cartoonish side than the realistic side. It is also, as the introduction points out, pretty straightforward. A lot of the panels are middle-distance shots of the action. Backgrounds are functional, not detailed. There might be a few closeups of faces, but you don’t see a lot of overhead or long-distance views. Coloring is fairly basic. Pages are dense, with probably six to nine panels per page. One thing that I found somewhat annoying was the lettering, which was neat and readable, but which was also in italics. There’s no creative, dynamic page layouts, just straightforward storytelling. I will say that this archive volume has been nicely restored, with art that looks sharp and bright and clean, and not like something printed on newsprint some 70 years ago. I can see why these books normally cost $50, and given all the restoration work it must have taken, that’s not an unreasonable price.

There is also, surprisingly, some dispute about who wrote or drew some of the stories. Records from the time are not always available or complete, and authors and artists are not always credited on the printed page. A lot of the stories in this particular collection were written by Gardner Fox and drawn by E.E. Hibbard, but the forward makes clear that the information may or may not be complete.

This volume collects stories from Flash comics (which also featured Hawkman, going by the covers) and All-Flash. Jay Garrick was apparently a popular enough character at the time to support a monthly and a quarterly comic. Flash comics must have been considered an anthology and not a comic solely about Garrick, because the volume includes an ad in which the Flash “graduates” out of the Justice Society since he has his own book. It’s part of the JSA rules that characters which star in their own series are only honorary members instead of full-time. How that works when the characters are supposed to be “real” in their own context, I don’t know. It’s comic-book logic.

One last thing I noted: so far, in the first three stories anyway, there are no super-villains. It’s the Flash versus small-time crooks. There are, according to the table of contents, 17 issues reprinted in this volume, so I’ll be curious to see when they turn up. Superman fought ordinary people and problems in his earliest appearances too. But in the first Flash story of the volume, Jay deals with a “protection racket” who are threatening a friend of his girlfriend Joan (who knows he’s the Flash!). In the second story, the Flash hits a pedestrian, only to find that the whole thing is a scam and he deals with the crooks. In the third story, Joan accidentally buys a utility company (!) that’s gone to auction, and through a series of circumstances Jay helps the former owner of the utility deal with a greedy uncle and get his utility up and running again. All pretty small time stuff, but what’s fun about each of the stories is the way the Flash deals with the crooks. He’s almost a practical joker in a sense. He obviously outclasses the crooks in every way, so he eavesdrops on them by standing in the same room with them and moving so fast they don’t know he’s there. Then he’ll mess with them and force them to do stuff they don’t want to, like have the flunkies punch their boss, and of course they have no idea why this is happening. In one case, he makes the protection racket henchmen eat and eat until they’re so stuffed they can’t move, which is a bit more original than punching them I guess. He generally just seems to have a lot of fun messing with the villains in any given story. I do note that he’s a bit chauvinistic, with several comments about “women!” that aren’t very flattering, though Joan has some unflattering comments about men at one point as well. The stories are a product of the times they were written in, no doubt. A prime example of that is Jay going for a smoke at one point in his retold origin-story from All-Flash #1. It’s not a defining character trait or a way to say anything about him, it’s just a casual action.

Speaking of his origin, it’s told in two pages. Jay is a college student at the time, studying “heavy water” or some such thing, probably related to atomic power. Keep in mind that these stories predate World War 2 and the atomic bomb. As he’s waiting for his experiment to finish, he goes for a smoke and ends up inhaling the fumes from the hard water. He’s taken to the hospital, where at least one nurse knows that he has become incredibly fast. Naturally he decides his abilities must be put to use to champion the underdog, and he ends up telling his girlfriend all about it, in a total departure from the usual “must keep my secret identity from my love interest” type of scenario seen in comics.

Interesting stuff all around, and fun to finally read. The stories are fluff and entertaining, if not terribly deep or engaging.

Daredevil: Born Again

This particular story has a good reputation, and I seem to remember actually reading the whole thing years ago. I've never collected Daredevil prior to last year, but my brother used to read it, so it's possible that he had the trade or the original issues. Since I've been reading the current Waid-authored Daredevil series since it began, it wasn't a tough choice to pick up this story from the mid-80s and give it a try. I'm not a big fan of Frank Miller's over the top macho noir storytelling, but I have to admit that he seems to have brought his A-game to this story and he seems more restrained than he was in the Dark Knight Returns, for example.

I've only read the first chapter so far, which was issue 227 originally. I'm impressed by just how much story is packed into a single issue. I'm not so impressed by Miller's treatment of Karen Page, Daredevil's former secretary and then love interest, who is now a drug-addicted porn star. Nice way to destroy a female character, Miller. But her degredation serves a plot purpose since it kicks off the whole storyline. She sells Matt Murdock's secret identity as Daredevil for a drug fix, and the name eventually reaches the Kingpin, who then uses his connections to destroy Murdock's life. The IRS siezes his assets, he's disbarred, foreclosed upon and he nearly goes to jail, though his law partner Foggy keeps him out. At the very end of the issue, his apartment building is destroyed, finally tipping him off to who is behind everything since he had no idea up to that point. And Kingpin sends hitmen to kill everyone who passed Murdock's name along so that he's the only one who knows it. It's a lot of storytelling and a lot of plot, but none of it feels rushed. Everything unfolds at a good pace. It's an excellent first chapter to the story, not a five minute decompressed bunch of splash pages, and definitely leaves me wanting to see what happens next.