Caveat Emptor

I had hoped to blog about Edgar Rice Burroughs and John Carter of Mars today but my NEL edition copy of "Thuvia, Maid of Mars" only arrived in the post on Thursday and I haven't had time to crack open its crisp but browning pages due to marking jotters. You can see the spicy cover in my July post "An Age Undreamed Of". So, I thought I'd blog about comics instead: largely, Silver and Bronze Age ones, at that.

 Do you have one of these? PM me....

Other inhabitants of the Blogosphere had been discussing their comic Holy Grails lately. My quest for Adventure Double Double Comics became a case of Buyer Beware this week. As I wrote previously, my orginal copy  from the early 70s featured the debut story of Shadow Lass and her home planet; Aquaman's mutant foe the Liquidator; a Neal Adams World's Finest tale with the origin of the Martain Manhunter as a backup; and a Kanigher Wonder Woman featuring Golden Age villainesses Giganta and Paula Von Gunther.All for ten pence!

 That little vertical logo and subliminal rising sun gives Aquaman a weirdly Manga flavour

  Fighting for your rights: Diana headbutts a frickin' steam train!

That LSH comic also carried the updated illustrated text feature on The Origins and Powers of the Legionnaires, the kind of mythic extra that becomes embedded in your forebrain as a kid.

 This version from Superman Annual 4. The feature was updated for Adventure

(I must stress I bought a copy of Adventure 365 in Stateside Comics in Virgin on Glasgow's Union Street around 1995. But having this particular collection of comics between two covers again  is becoming compelling!)

 It's well-known that the Thorpe and Porter comics rarely contain the same issues - certainly, that's been the case with each of the three I bought again this year. I was eager to know, therefore, what a lot of a pair of copies of Adventure Double Double 3 advertised on ebay might include, but unfortunately, I was outbid. In short order, however, a third issue surfaced and I won it, although I paid twice what I reckon it was worth.

When I collected it from the Elgin Sorting Office, I discovered the "Monkey's Paw"-style twist. This copy contained issues of Adventure, Aquaman, WF and WW, all right- just not the same issues. The Ross Andru Wonder Woman story is feeble nonsense about a giant baby and the Aquaman story is a febrile piece with murky work by Nick Cardy about an undersea femme fatale. The LSH story is the first half of the whimsical Chemoid story drawn by Marvel Family artist Pete Costanza; mad scientist Mantis Morlo, therefore, is a dead ringer for Dr. Sivana. The one positive thing about this Adventure, since I own an original copy, is the burgeoning romance between Karate Kid and Princess Projectra. The Legion's witchy answer to Grace Kelly gets a bit of background as we learn more about her Orikall (or Orakill) spiritualist tradition on the medieval planet Orando.
The World's Finest story is a strained and incoherent thing by young Jim Shooter. I was convinced Cary Bates's hand had been in this until I checked the credits on Comicvine. However, one-off villain Kralik the Conquerer prefigures Captain Action's foe Krellik, in Shooter's first two issues. I was also surprised that this was the first Two-Face appearance in over a decade and the cameo by the Composite Superman is quite bizarre.
The most disappointing thing about this copy is the number of missing pages: virtually seventy-five per cent of the Legion tale and a chunk of the Aquaman story. I don't blame the seller; there's no indication of tearing or broken binding, nor was it advertised as such. Still, it was an expensive disappointment.
Frustratingly, when a fourth copy went on sale, I contacted the seller and was told it featured The Superman/ Batman Revenge Squads, "The Strange Experiment of Dr. Erdel" and a story with The Fatal Five (but crucially not "Escape of The Fatal Five"). Again, I missed out on this one by a quid. But if, as I now suspect, it actually contained Adventure 352, below, I still wouldn't have had the right mag. The quest goes on...

At this point, a quick word about the wrap-up of the latest volume of the Levitz Legion, prior to the debut of Digital DC. While the sacrifice of Earth-Man was predictable, it was really the only way out for the character. I wish a murderous, fascistic xenophobe had never been foisted on the team in the first place and I also hope this marks the end of the Legion's involvement with Geoff Johns' unsophisticated take on the Green Lantern mythos. However, it was a bland and uninspiring finale, flat and and sketchily illustrated. This vogue for 90s style comics can't be over quickly enough for me.

Some Bronze Age purchases from ebay next. The Special All-Magic 100-pager issue of Superman was a favourite of mine in the early 70s. There's the second Golden Age outing for the imp Mr. Mxyztplk ("Hey, McGurk!") and a colourful  Schaffenberger  tale of Jimmy Olsen and Pandora's Box. The lion's share of the issue goes to a Green Lantern story by Gil Kane featuring Zatanna. It's a crazy Fox mishmash of Cornish legend and Steady State cosmology, drawn in the kinetic "Sugar-lips" Sword and Sorcery style. A couple of whimsical Superman stories from the Forties-one featuring comedy conjurors Hocus and Pocus, guaranteed not to turn up in the Henry Cavill movie- are topped by the Circe saga, from 1963: an eight on the Steven Moffat scale of Convoluted, it even features Lois in a spacesuit. The Superman Revenge Squad, Krypto, Lana Lang and Saturn Woman of the Adult Legion and Proty II (who had some kind of falling-out with Reep Daggle, presumably) are all involved, as are Superman's heretofore undisclosed magnetic poles!
Check out The Graffiti Game feature if you ever wanted to see Clark and Superman with an Afro.Or Chaykin's Iron-Wolf take on Superman (which looks exactly like the tonsorial fashion for Hielan' laddies this year.)

It's not very polite, on Gerry Conway's birthday, to be disparaging about his early JLA work but coming immediately after Englehart's run, his stories suffer in comparison. Behind a rainbow-coloured Wonder Woman bondage cover, issue 151 features a stag party for Ray Palmer ( and we know how well that worked out) and a  complex and silly scheme better suited to the Super Friends. The woeful membership of Amos Fortune's villainous  Luck League includes Cyclone, the Crier and Water King. On a positive note, there's some characterisation-albeit of the strident kind- for new member Hawkgirl and a splendid Dillin robot, embossed with lucky charms.

 Joe Staton finds a couple of reasons to put Kara centre stage. Oh, my achin' Kryptonian back!

The second issue, from 1978,  features the wedding of the Atom. This month's villain, the campy Siren, turns out to be the antediluvian love goddess from the previous issue's "Fiend With Five Faces". The bulk of this issue is pencilled by Juan Ortiz whose work reminds me a little of Jim Starlin.There's scarcely an image in this story, however, to beat  Dillin's Red Tornado whirling alongside the Batplane, while one of my favourite Bronze Age Leaguers, the Phantom Stranger, perches on the wing holding on to the brim of his fedora!
Except, that is, for a double-page spread of the wedding party, whose super-heroic alter egos are rising Spectre-like from their bodies. Hal Jordan, inveterate swinger, is apeing the Stranger's polo neck/medallion combo (and  probably reeking of Brut).  Wrapping up loose ends from "Super-Team Family", Captain Comet- the greatest Bronze Age Leaguer who never was- is a guest, as is Supergirl. Kal-El's cousin, while never as interesting as Conway's own Power Girl, had previously been a guest-star in a Conway/ Despero adventure. It's surprising, therefore, that the Maid of Might was never made a member of the Satellite League.

Finally, Conway's  recent 1980s Retroactive JLA issue comprises two tales of "Ronald Reagan's America". I'm baffled as to why he would want to repeatedly write off his own creations as "light-weight wannabes" throughout the new story. Granted, it doesn't depict Steel or Vibe in a very flattering light; this version of Steel has only two modes: anger or self-pity. Nor did I care for the tragic foreshadowing of the Dibnys' fate or the Geoff Johns analogue delivering the moral of the story. But Aquaman, the Manhunter, Vixen and Zatanna looked powerful and imposing. Comparing the shadowy pages with the bright colours of the reprint, I prefer the 80s. I'm not convinced that the Detroit League was the worst team book at DC in that period- for me, without Perez, the New Teen Titans was depressing, dreary  fare while without Ordway, Infinity Inc.was a charmless soap opera. "In The Shadow of the Ox" remains my favourite Vixen story and continues to support my belief that she should have been a break-out character, rather than token Strong Black Woman.

Coming soon: Conan, Carter and Clom.
The Legal Bit: all images are presumed copyright of their respective owners.