Somewhere on Earth, Orion crashes into a warehouse being used as a base for Apokalips soldiers, led by Kalibak. Despite apparently being killed in their last encounter, Kalibak is still very much alive, and Orion demands to know the whereabouts of Darkseid. In a flashback, Highfather, Scott Free, Barda & Metron greet Orion, returning from a scounting mission to Apokalips, who reports they are definitely preparing for war. A moment later this is confirmed as Apokalips warriors attack, before being driven off by Metron’s use of a Boom Tube. Back on Earth, Orion causes the floor beneath Kalibak to collapse. He’s then confronted by Granny Goodness, whose own men subdue Orion and take him prisoner. Metron uses a Boom Tube to spy on Darkseid and Doctor Bedlam. On Apokalips, Orion recovers, escapes, battles Kalibak, then confronts Darkseid, who tells him what Highfather and Metron already know. Darkseid’s scientists have managed to somehow attune his heartbeat to Earth’s sun, so that if he dies, the sun will go nova, destroying Earth’s solar system in the process. With a stalemate, they leave, while Darkseid vows he will rebuild his damaged organization .
Jack Kirby’s most “personal” project was NEW GODS. It really hurt him when it was cancelled in mid-story, and there’s every indication he hoped to continue it eventually. But things at DC just weren’t going right, and he wound up accepting an offer from Stan Lee to return to Marvel. Ironically, one month after his last DC book, NEW GODS was revived in the pages of the last issue of 1ST ISSUE SPECIAL. Before my current re-reading project, I’d only read this story once, sometime in the early 80’s. I wasn’t too impressed with it then, even when compared to later issues of the revived ongoing. But reading it again now, so soon after plowing thru all of Jack’s early-70’s books, I think I’m in state of shock. This is one of the WORST comics I’ve read in years!
Let’s start with the cover. Dick Giordano does a perfectly serviceable, if rather stiff, shot of 5 characters flying through space. However, at no time in the past have we ever seen Barda, Orion, or Mister Miracle flying under their own power (like Superman). Nor has Barda gone into action as such in a bikini, rather than her armor. Also, down in the lower-left corner, they list 5 characters—including Darkseid (who is not pictured), but not Lightray (who is!).
The splash page gets things started on the wrong foot, as some character, off-camera, yells out, “It’s ORION of the NEW GODS”. Nowhere in any of Kirby’s stories did any of these characters refer to themselves or each other as “New Gods”. The story title, “Lest Night Fall – Forever!” is one of those really stilted, psuedo-Shakespearean-sounding things, and the lettering for the title is so small, crammed into a corner, like an afterthought.
The dialogue in this comic is abysmal. For some years now, I’ve run across many references to Jack Kirby’s dialogue & narration being “awkward and stilted”, or “unnatural”, yet apart from a tiny handful of instances, most of what I read was powerful, dramatic, gripping, poetic, and memorable. Not this stuff. This is just bad on top of bad. And there are multiple examples of thnings that just do not sound like anything these characters would ever say, like when Orion calls Highfather “Wise one”, or Metron says to Orion, “Dear friend” (he’d be too detached for that sort of familiarity). On page 5, Highfather asks, “Metron—is your MOEBIUS CHAIR fully CHARGED?” When did he ever have to “charge” it? And how about this exchange on page 8 between Orion and Kalibak-- “You hurl ASTRO-FORCE at me?” “Not AT you, brother mine—UNDER you!” “Brother mine” sounds like something Roy Thomas would have used. On page 9, Granny Goodness says, “You DO remember me, don’t you, dear boy?” Apart from a cople panels of MISTER MIRACLE #18, when did Orion ever encounter her? Her words seem like they shuld have been aimed at Scott, not Orion. Even Darkseid sounds completely uncharacteristic, when he speaks to Highfather, saying, “...he HAS overheard it through Metron’s BOOM TUBE—HAVENT’ you, dear Izaya?” “Dear”???
When Jack Kirby was working on this series, he did the initial concept, the story, the layouts, and the dialogue, so it was all “ONE” creation, consistent, each element supporting and enforcing the others, even before the actual illustration (which could have been done by someone else without really changing things that much). Here, the story, the layouts and the dialogue are being done by THREE different people—Gerry Conway, Mike Vosburg, and Denny O’Neil—and each of these elements seem to be working at odds with the others. Nothing is really “clicking”. As for the art itself, I never saw this before, but Mike Vosburg’s art and rendering here reminds me of 2nd-rate Joe Kubert art (maybe 3rd-rate). Editor Gerry Conway, from the moment he took over from Kirby, apparently favored Kubert art on the covers, so I suppose this explains why the art looks this way. (But then, why have Dick Giordano doing the cover, and a cover which does not really reflect the story’s contents?)
Next, what was the point of completely re-designing Orion’s outfit? Instead of the “science-fiction warrior” look he had up until now, here, he looks like a “generic super-hero”, right down to a face-mask, and an “O” on his chest. As if that wasn’t bad enough, there’s also Kalbak. Under Jack Kirby, Kalibak reminded me of Ulik, the troll from THOR. In most of his appearances, he wore a tunic and cape, as if he stepped out of some Roman Empire epic. In his final appearance, he went bare-chested, like a Roman gladiator. Here, his entire physique has changed. He looks taller, thinner, and appears to be wearing a sleeveless t-shirt. He looks less monstrous and more like a pro wrestler.
On top of anything else, there are just too many characters in this story, especially as it’s only 18 pages in length. The editorial page, which attempts to recap things and bring new readers up to speed, is so awkwardly and confusingly written, I can’t imagine anyone who wasn’t already a Kirby fan plowing through it and wanting to go any further. In effect, this entire magazine seems less like a “relaunch” and more like an attempt to finally drive the last nails into something that DC didn’t like in the first place. Why? Why did they even bother???
Oddly enough, a revival of MISTER MIRACLE was announced, to be done by writer Martin Pasko, artists Ric Estrada and Joe Staton, and editor Joe Orlando. As far as I know, this never happened. (Unless there’s a never-published comic sitting in some drawer all these years?)
What a complete waste of paper! (11-17-2012)
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We follow a number of mostly well-known DC villains commiting crimes and escaping the law, then receiving invitations to join something called the “Secret Society”. They meet at a place referred to as the “Sinister Citadel” or the “Citadel Sinister” (somebody’s not being consistent), which is in the top floors of a 100-story tower in San Francisco. A cross-section diagram details various rooms, in the fashion of several similar views of “The Baxter Building” seen over the years. The lobby itself appears to be the one from the Hyatt Embarcadero on Drumm, as seen in both THE TOWERING INFERNO and HIGH ANXIETY.
As the baddies meet, they’re attacked by members of the Justice League! No, it’s not a trap, but rather a test, as the heroes turn out to be only be robot replicas, which are easily defeated. The meeting is then presided over by Manhunter (the Archie Goodwin-Walt Simonson version), who then sends several of them on another “test”, to steal a sphere of solid plutonium from a scientific outpost housed in a remote lighthouse. During a scuffle with secuirity guards, Copperhead accidentally drops the sphere in the water offshore, and is left behind by his escaping comrades.
The 70’s were certainly a strange time for comics, and entertainment media in general. A certain downbeat aura seemed to overshadow most things, as movies had bad endings, characters’ lives seemed to be forever falling apart, “disaster” movies were a huge, successful fad, and comics flirted with several series that focused on villains, rather than heroes. While Marvel had SUPER-VILLAIN TEAM-UP, DC had SECRET SOCIETY OF SUPER-VILLAINS. In charge (at least at the beginning) was Gerry Conway (you can tell it’s him, the book has zero sense of humor, and the narration often describes in overly-serious tones what you’re already seeing in the visuals). The art on the 1st issue was by Pablo Marcos and Bob Smith. It’s not particularly “bad” – but nothing really stands out as excessively “good” either.
Most of the baddies here I’ve seen or heard of, including Mirror and Master, Captain Cold and Gorilla Grodd (all FLASH baddies), Sinestro and Star Saphire (both GREEN LANTERN villains, although Star Saphire is not the original but a new “replacement” version), The Shadow Thief (longtime HAWKMAN villain), The Wizard (Earth-2 JSA villain--what's HE doing here?) and Copperhead (originally a Batman BRAVE & THE BOLD villain—I guess this would be scraping the bottom of the barrel). Oddly enough, Catwoman is mentioned in one narration box, but does not appear in that panel, or on that page, or anywhere in the comic at all. Looks to me like Gerry Coinway needed an editor. It was later revealed that the Paul Kirk Manhunter was not the one who died at the end of the Goodwin-Simonson story, but a clone. That makes at least 2 characters in this story who are new versions of earlier characters, a recurring theme in many Gerry Conway stories in the 70’s.
It strikes me that the SECRET SOCIETY may have been one of the inspirations for THE LEGION OF DOOM on the 1978-79 episodes of CHALLENGE OF THE SUPER-FRIENDS.
Ernie Chua (who later changed his name to Ernie Chan) provides one of the sloppiest covers I’ve ever seen from him. He did a ton of DC covers around this time, but before long would move over to Marvel to become a long-running “finisher” on CONAN THE BARBARIAN. (11-22-2012)
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Gotham’s finest are sweeping for crime, intent on making the streets safe for the visiting Shah of Karkan, scheduled to sign an important oil treaty with the Feds. Batman investigates the condemned sports stadium, rumored to be “haunted” and finds what he thinks is someone trapped in a sack being hurled to their death. But it’s really Mister Miracle, practicing a new escape act. It seems he & his wife Barda have returned to Earth following their wedding, and re-teamed with Oberon to get the excape act started up again.
All this sounds fine; I never thought his leaving Earth made much sense in the first place, especially given what must be HUGE “issues” between Scott and his father, who he had not seen since he was a very young boy. But Scott’s motivations for returning do not sound right here. “Back here on Earth, people called me a charlatan... a cheating trickster! I had to come back to PROVE myself! To triumph and silence the doubters!” This is the 2nd time Bob Haney & Jim Aparo have featured Mister Miracle in B&B, and both times I find myself wondering if Haney ever even bothered to read any of Jack Kirby’s stories.
Batman has concocted an elaborate ruse to get the Shah from the airport to his hotel, by substituting an imposter in the heavily-guarded limo, while the real Shah hides in a laundry truck Batman drives himself. Yet on arrival, the Shah has vanished, kidnapped while Batman was only a few feet away. “OOPS!!!” To prevent an international panic, and keep the kidnappers off-guard, he has Gordon lie to The President by saying the real Shah is still safe, since he found a bugging device on Jim Gordon’s telephone.
Returning to the stadium, Batman tries to convince Scott he needs his help. “Sorry, BATMAN! I helped you once—but now my OWN life comes first! I must practice! I’m almost ready for my comeback!” Good grief, this can’t possibly be the same person who fought against totalitarianism and evil in general. Is Bob haney just TRYING to make Jack’s character look bad?
Batman appels to Scott’s “professional pride”, proposing a duel of escape arsists. The cover shows an very evil-looking Barda &v Oberon spraying Batman & Mister Miracle with liquid ice, as if they’d turned evil—I wonder if someone came up with this “hook” first, they had Haney write the story to justify it? Batman winds up escaping before Scott does, using a heating device in his utility belt—how very like the sort of thing we’ve seen Scott do many times in his own book.
Batman impersonates the Shah himself this time, and in the middle of the night, he’s kidnapped—along with his bed—right out of the hotel suite via a cargo helicopter also designed for underwater action. Inside the sunken and converted heavy cruiser “Gotham City”, he’s taken to the real Shah, and meets the person behind the kidnap—Granny Goodness. It seems the entire plot involves Granny wanting to be young again. She’s made a deal with “America’s rival power”, who have a sciewntist, Dr. Kiev, who’s developed a youth-giving serum, which he will give her in exchange for kidnapping the Shah and disrupting the treaty. All of which sounds completely outside the scope of anything I would expect Granny to be involved in.
As it turns out, Scott was hidden in the base of the bed (what would he have done if they’d just taken Batman, and left the furniture behind?), and he, Batman & the Shah escape, Scott staying behind long enough to cause the sunken ship to explode, hopefully taking Granny with it. Scott laments that he pulled off a fantastic escape for his comeback, but nobody got to see it. Bats responds, “Maybe it was for the best! After all, what could you do for an ENCORE?”
Par for the course for Haney & Aparo. As usual, not bad, but not great either. I guess sometimes, especially in comics, that’s better than most. This was the first B&B guest-appearance by one of Kirby’s new creations following his departure. It would not be the last! (11-18-2012)
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A now-obscure super-hero from the 1950’s, Captain Comet, returns to Earth after decades in outer spece, and promptly, on seeing Green Lantern fighting several members of the SSoSV, decides GL is using his much-greater powers to “attack” his lesser foes. Now, I ask you—I know space is vast, but this is the DC Universe. How is it even possible that someone like Captain Comiet could spend decades in DC Universe outer space, and have NO IDEA who the hell the Green Lantern Corps are?????
CC rescues “Jack” (formerly of The Royal Flush Gang) and Gorilla Grodd (who looks more like one of the man-apes from 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY than any gorilla I ever saw), and the trio are soon at the “Citadel Sinister”. While blanketing the entire room with a mental block to prevent CC from reading their thoughts, Grodd has read CC’s mind and relates his origin to the group. With a skeptical Captain Cold abstaining, they vote CC as a new member of the “Secret Society”, figuring they can dupe him into helping them in their schemes.
Later that night, Manhunter confronts CC in a quiet part of town, and discovers that CC actually realizes the “Society” is composed of baddies—all except Manhunter, a clone of Paul Kirk, who was the only survivor when all the rest of Kirk’s clones were killed, and the only one who wasn’t evil! But just as a new secret alliance is being formed, Mantis, last seen in Jack Kirby’s Fourth World books, appears, and declares that for their “treachery” they must die! This would seem to indicate WHO was backing the SSoSV. After all, if you’re supplying an outfit like Inter-Gang, what’s a super-villain group? (Just in case anyone was wondering WHY I’m including this series in my “Fourth World” review series.)
Although Mantis is driven off, Manhunter decides to take the aggressive stance, and leads the members of the Society to one of many secret scientific labs spread all across the world, the work of “the true face of evil”—DARKSEID. Just then Mantis and some underlings arrive and attack the entire group. In the midst of the melee, he orders them, “Either SURRENDER—or DIE!”
Someone online (I think) suggested that whatever direction this book was intended to go in somehow got derailed only 2 issues into its run. The letters page reveals that there was, in fact, a different, UNPUBLISHED version of SSoSV #1, which wound up being run in the mail-order-only AMAZING WORLD OF DC COMICS #11. As for SSoSV #2, I can only suppose someone at DC figured that, for the sake of the Comics Code (or perhaps simply as a matter of “drama”), it wouldn’t be right to do a series that focused on a group of Super-Villains without having someone on the opposite side to balance things out. After all, most DRACULA stories have Professor Van Helsing (or some wimpy “hero” filling in the slot), and seemingly every FU MANCHU story has Sir Dennis Nayland Smith of Scotland Yard. Here, we have a clone of the Goodwin-Simonson MANHUNTER, and, CAPTAIN COMET. Hmm. Oddly enough, I mostly remember CAPTAIN COMET from the late-80’s series, L.E.G.I.O.N. which told the adventures of an interstellar police force, run by “Brainiac 2” (ancestor of “Brainiac 5” of the LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES), who was so nasty and viscious and utterly ruthless, including with his own people, that you were often hard-pressed to think of him as any kind of a “hero”.
Behind-the-scenes, on the creative side, things are ALREADY changing, which is usually not a good sign with a brand-new series just getting started. Creator, editor & writer Gerry Conway apparently got the flu and was only able to dialogue the first half of the book. Leaping into the breach is David Kraft, who they announce will be taking over the book with the next issues. This is interesting, as not too long after this, when Conway briefly went to Marvel, one of the books he took over was THE DEFENDERS—and once he returned to DC, the guy who took over the book was David Kraft!
Meanwhile, it’s a funny thing. I’ve never been a fan of Bob Smith’s inks, yet here, he seems to be almost invisible, as, if they didn’t list his name in the credits, I’d have sworn Pablo Marcos did the whole art job himself. Apart from his usual awkward figure-work, the heavy-duty lines looks EXACTLY like solo Marcos, which I’ve seen in Marvel B&W horror & S&S mags, and in Warren horror books by the ton.
The cover for this issue is by Dick Giordano & Terry Austin (though you couldn't prove the inks by me). Apart from the horrific amount of text and garbage clogging up the top half of the cover, I'm also bugged by the awkward composition with all those people running in the background, and the really lame coloring job which tends to make things confusing to look at. Let me put it this way-- if Stan Goldberg had colored this piece, you can bet he'd have done some kind of "monotone"-ish effect in the background, to make the 2 foreground figures (CC & GL) stand out from everything else. I mean-- people got PAID to do work this bad???
As an aside-- looking at the linework and the background figures in particular, it's just possible this cover may answer the question of WHO inked those pages of MISTER MIRACLE #1-4 that I thought looked so much like "later" Klaus Janson. Since the figures HERE look identical to what I saw there, it strongly suggests those really "ugly" pages were the work of either Dick Giordano, or some assistant OTHER than Frank McLaughlin (the McLaughlin pages were more obvious than the Giordano ones)-- and, just possibly, Terry Austin! (Unless someone finds out that Austin wasn't in comics by this point, either...) (11-29-2012)
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Fresh from a successful jewel heist, a very annoyed Captain Cold is kidnapped by teleportation beam to the HQ of a group of super-villains who invite him to join. The group discovers the brains behind their outfit is none other than Darkseid, “Prince of Apokalips”. Following a brief run-down on his background and activities, he leads them on a raid on a military base to steal cannisters of “Wargas 94—the deadliest nerve gas in the world”, with which they intend to “blackmail the Earth”. After some squabbling and in-fighting to get their hands on it, Manhunter points out that Darkseid has been using them, as his real intentions are to turn all of Earth into a slave-labor camp. No sooner has it dawned on them that his behavior in this raid has been completely out-of-character than “Darkseid” is revealed to be a robot. It’s almost as if Gerry Conway were writing Dr. Doom instead of Darkseid when he did this. The villains elect to stay together as a “Secret Society” to fight Darkseid’s ambitions while continuing to pursue their own criminal agendas.
According to Paul Levitz’ introduction / editorial, editor & writer Gerry Conway put this book together before finding out that publisher Carmine Infantino had other ideas in mind. Rather than fine-tune as they went, the decision was made to completely do the entire book over from scratch. So certain members of the group were replaced, and artists Ric Estrada & Pablo Marcos were replaced by Pablo Marcos & Bob Smith. I find it ironic that what may be possibly one of the worst-ever depictions of Jack Kirby’s vilain, Darkseid, should get published, if only in DC’s mail-order-only magazine AMAZING WORLD OF DC COMICS, while genuine Kirby books were left sitting in storage, some of them never published to this day.
I wonder how they wound up with Dick Dillin doing the cover?
This entire story (along with the entire issue it appeared in) can be read online at the AMAZING BLOG OF DC COMICS blogspot!
In some unspecificed HQ, Darkseid tells Kalibak that as Inter-Gang was insufficient, he decided to finance the Secret Society. But now some of their numbers are turning against him, and he feels Kalibak may have a chance to “redeem” himself. As Mantis battles several SS members, Star Saphire decides to escape, and hauls Manhunter out with her.
A seemingly-unrelated flashback shows Copperhead being sprung from prison, but he’s terrified of the one doing it!
Bringing the momentum of this issue to a complete halt, we see Digger & Scudder (Captain Boomerang & Mirror Master) in civilian clothes, robbing a hamburger joint (by nature of ordering a dinner and running out on the bill). These are some of Earth’s deadliest super-villains? Back at the Citadel, Manhunter arrives to interrupt more in-group squabbling, to explain exactly who Darkseid is and what the future will hold if they don’t put a stop to him. Later, Star Saphire runs into Green Lantern, and decides to tell him that the SS needs his help against a much deadlier enemy!
Finally, just as Mantis is about to recharge himself, the free SS members attack, a battle ensues, and the captive members are freed. Watching from afar, Darkseid announces he & Kalibak shall head for Earth, to put a stop to the SS themselves.
I hate to be overly-negative, but this feels like one of the most disjointed comic-book stories I’ve read in a long time. It doesn’t “flow”—it advances in fits and starts, as is each scene is almost completely unconnected to any other. There’s almost a feeling of somene working with a checklist of events they need to cram into the book, and it didn’t matter how they did it.
Though still listed as editor, Gerry Conway has been replaced as writer by David A. Kraft. Dave became one of my favorite writers at Marvel in the late 70’s, getting his start replacing Conway on THE DEFENDERS and LOGAN’S RUN. I see he got into the habit of that here. I’d never know this was his work—it feels too amateurish. Perhaps he was working to some kind of blueprint laid down by Conway? Meanwhile, Pablo Marcos continues on the art, much of his figure-work needlessly awkward, but the inks have taken an ugly down-turn. It seems the more comics I see from the 70’s, the more instances I see of some book starting out with X-artist on it, but soon replaced by Vince Colletta. You’d think going from Marcos-scratchy lines to Colletta-scratchy lines would be a natural, but all I can see here is a SEVERE drop in quality. It made me really appreciate the work Vinnie (and whatever number of assistants he had working for him) did over Jack Kirby’s pencils in the early 70’s. On just about any other book Colletta touched, all I can see is “typical Colletta”. I mean, the splash pages aren’t bad, but the rest of the book is so “average”, you just about want to scream.
Ernie Chan, who turned out to be one very prolific cover artist for DC around this time, does another decent piece dragged down by too much “junk” crammed into the top of the logo area. There’s what appears to be a very odd error on Kalibak’s legs, as either shadow rendering lines (seen on his right arm) or a darker color shade are notably missing. Before long, Ernie Chua would change his name to Ernie Chan and become one of the longest-running “finishers” on Marvel’s CONAN. (12-3-2012)
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The SSoSV call Wizard & Sinestro out for sitting on the sidelines during the recent battle, waiting to see who would win. As more in-fighting breaks out, Wizard zaps Hi-Jack into another dimension, before Sinetro grabs Wizard and the pair escape. Manhunter tells the rest of the group they’re better off without them. Meanwhile, Star Saphire leads Green Lantern into a confrontation with Mantis, during which the latter becomes so arrogant he makes the mistake of offending his lord and master, Darkseid. Perhaps most strange, when Sinestro & Wizard return to the Citadel, they find talent promoter Funky Flashman waiting for them, with an offer to improve their public image. WTF?????
Star Saphire finally rendezvous with the rest of the SSoSV, but has failed to notice she’s lost Green Lantern—but picked up Kalibak! A huge battle erupts between Kalibak & Gorilla Grodd, tearing across half of San Francisco, until Grodd winds up beating Kalibak more through trickery than sheer strength. While this is going on, Mantis begs to stay in Darkseid’s favor, but panics when he sees—of all things—The Black Racer (the embodiment of death) heading his way!
Another chaotic mess. Halfway thru the issue, Ernie Chan took over from Pablo Marcos, with Vince Colletta (apparently) inking all of it. David Kraft continues as writer, and Gerry Conway as editor, so it’s difficult to be sure who came up with what ideas in this issue. Funky Flashman, who had been such a vividly-crafted character in MISTER MIRACLE #6, seems more “generic” this time out, his dialogue terribly-over-written, and physically, he seems to bear more of a resemblance to Dave Kraft’s later DEFENDERS comedy character, “Dollar Bill”, than the obvious Stan Lee parody he was originally designed as. In general, I hate the habit of many 70’s comics writers of introducing sub-plots for a page or two in one issue, then leaving us hanging until next time... and probably the time after that. (Marv Wolfman would do this in TOMB OF DRACULA, usually for 6 issues in a row, when introducing new sub-plots.) It’s an over-reliance on “soap-opera” story structure which is just, to me, sloppy story-telling. (12-6-2012)
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A relatively simple restoration, the biggest challenge was eliminating the glare at the bottom edge (yes, another of those endless comics sold in a SEALED plastic box).
Although this came out in between SSoSV #6 & 7, according to "He Who Wanders" (at LEGION WORLD), this CAPTAIN COMET spotlight issue apparently takes place in between #4 & 5, which is why I'm posting it here. Which makes sense, as CC seems to be missing from an issue or two.
The behind-the-scenes changes really kick in here. Gerry Conway was listed as editor on SSoSV #1-4. After that, Paul Levitz was listed as editor on DC SPECIAL #27, Denny O'Neil as editor on SSoSV #5, and Jack C. Harris took over for a nice haul beginning with SSoSV #6. When I was a teenager, I had no idea what an "editor" did on comics, and so had no idea that often they are THE driving force behind everything that goes on, including assmbling the creative team, and often steering the writers in whatever directions to take a series in the long haul. So when you go thru 4 editors in 4 issues, you can expect CHAOS, not to mention a complete overhaul of creative teams, and in this case, a total change in the overall direction of the book in general.
Bob Rosakis (a constant presence at DC in the 70's) was the writer for DC SPECIAL #27 as well as SSoSV #5-7. One could say he was filling in for Gerry Conway, as when Conway returned to DC from his brief return to Marvel, he took back SSoSV and did the title from #8-14, and also did DC SPECIAL SERIES #6 (the SSoSV SPECIAL), and, SUPER-TEAM FAMILY #13-14, which features plot-lines that spilled over into it from SSoSV.
When I think about it, Conway leaving a book, then coming back some months later, is something that one almost never saw happen at Marvel (except when it happened with Jack Kirby in the early & mid-60's, on books he created himself, and was then asked back to make "modifications" to, such as Ant-Man / Wasp / Giant-Man, and Hulk). Frankly, when Conway kicked so many people off so many books during his brief return-stint to Marvel in 1977, it annoyed me no end, and saddened me that NONE of the writers displaced (Steve Englehart, Steve Gerber, Tony Isabella, Marv Wolfman) ever managed to return to the books they were kicked off of (with the exception of Steve Englehart on AVENGERS, but that took an awful lot of years to happen, not a matter of a few months).
As often happens with a change in editors, the switch from Conway to (eventually) Harris saw the departure of penciller Pablo Marcos, who was replaced by Rich Buckler, who did DC SPECIAL #27 and SSoSV #5-9. Inks were supplied on the various issues by Joe Rubinstein, Vince Colletta, Bob Layton & (my favorite) Bob McLeod.
Many of the covers of DC SPECIAL focused on themes rather than characters: Super-Gorillas, Earth-Shaking Stories, War of the Giants, War Against the Monsters, Earth Shattering Disasters. This may explain why "Dinosaurs At Large!" was more prominent than "Captain Comet".
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Mantis grovels at Darkseid’s feet for his life as The Black Racer approaches. Just then, the SSoSV, led by Manhunter, arrive, and Darkseid—incredibly—orders The Black Racer away. (Since when does he have any connection with, or power over, the being who is the embodiment of death?) After the group of villains gives Mantis a pounding, and Manhunter decides to tackle Darkseid himself (physically—this is unheard of!!!), Darkseid decides to open a Boom Tube to return to Apokalips. But Manhunter zooms in after him, announcing that his creators made him a human bomb. An instant later, a huge explosion erupts from the Boom Tube, apparently taking both Manhunter and Darkseid with it.
And so, it looks like 7 pages in, the first main storyline of this series reached an abrupt (if absurd) conclusion. We then have 2 pages of Funky Flashman (who has ditched the sunglasses now) incessantly rambling on and on and on about nothing I can make any sense out of, until Sinestro literally pushing his face away and flies off, departing the group, and Earth. (“On that note, we take out leave of the frankly fantabulous Funky for now... to return next issue!” As I said, this sort of bad habit of using brief interludes to advance sub-plots got very, very annoying in the 70’s.)
Captain Comet digs himself out of some rubble, then proceeds to dig Green Lantern out as well. GL takes CC to the satellite HQ of the Justice League of America, where Superman announces their computer database has verified that CC was a hero decades past. GL suggests they “chaperone” CC for awhile, to help bring him up to speed on the status of heroes and villains on Earth. A little while later, GL and Hawkman see Sinestro attacking San Francisco on their monitor, and Hawkman decides to dive into action, since GL was scheduled for “monitor duty”. Apparently pissed off at the entire SSoSV, Sinestro has decided to cause San Francisco to suffer a massive earthquake, JUST to ensure ther destruction of the Sinister Citadel! (Isn’t that a bit of overkill?)
Seconds into a fight, Sinestro smashes Hawkman’s gravity belt, showing up just how limited this guy’s range of super-powers really is (and making it look like he should have let Green Lantern go on this mission instead). As CC dives to Hawkman’s rescue, Sinestro decides to escape into space (like he probably should have done earlier). In the sort of stunt you’d probably never see outside of a DC comic, CC manages to stop the Citadel building from collapsing. He then takes Hawkman with him into space, using his unusual power to surround the two of them with an oxygen bubble. What Hawkman could do, in space, without his gravity belt, is beyond me, though. Sinestro attacks CC, and CC manages to beat Sinestro single-handed (while Hawkman just hovers there helplessly as a spectator). As the pair take Sinestro back to the JLA satellite as their prisoner, CC announces his intention to round up the remaining Secret Society members.
Well, this was one severely underwhelming transitional issue. Denny O’Neil fills in as editor for the departed Gerry Conway, while Bob Rosakis joins the line-up as the new regular writer. Along the way, O’Neil and Rosakis prove they have no clue how to write Darkseid, and their grasp of physics, characterization, character motivation, pacing and story structure are severely backward. Maybe having just spent a year-and-a-half re-reading Jack Kirby comics has spoiled me, but it seems the contrast between his writing and just about everyone else’s at DC points out just how lame most DC Comics writing really was back then. The fact that, to this day, many so-called ‘fans” continue to push the idea that Kirby was a “terrible” writer becomes all the more baffling then. I can only figure that people who feel that way are either used to reading CRAP and can’t deal with anything that ISN’T crap, or there’s a certain amount of jealousy or resentment involved, if only by proxy. Many fans look back on old comics they read when they were kids with an almost unhealthy amount of nostalgia, which makes many old books seems better, in their memories, than they actually were. Kirby’s stuff is SO GOOD, it makes everyone else’s look WORSE than it already was. And who wants their cherised memories ruined that way?
Along with the change-over in writing, this issue also marks the debut on the book of Rich Buckler. A lot of people tend to dismiss Buckler for the periods where he was tracing Kirby panels, but the truth is, he spent most of his time being a 3rd-rate Neal Adams. What nobody seems to point out is just how stiff and awkward so much of his figure-work tends to be (which may be why his bogus Kirby work stands out, as it tends to be better than his usual stuff). Quite often, intense, overpowering inks help to hide Buckler’s shortcomings as a layout man, but in this case, the inks are by Vince Colletta, and somehow, that just draws more attention to the problem.
The nicest way I can describe this issue is that it’s across-the-board “average” for mid-70’s DC. It’s not really terrible... but there’s nothing here to get worked up about either. (12-9-2012)
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It’s “theme” crime time again, as former SSoSV members (and Flash rogues gallery members) Captain Cold and Captain Boomerang have (between issues) broken Batman pirate-themed villain Captain Stingaree out of prison, to go on a crime spree in which they capture of kidnaps other “Captains”. Only in a DC book, right? First, they use Captain Boomerang’s rotating boomerang-shaped spaceship to invade “Space Lab” and hold its crew hostage, then they board and loot the “S.S. Sunset” (the world’s largest passenger liner), and finally, they interrupt a football game in order to kidnap the captain of one of the teams.
Captain Comet interrupts the 1st crime (but is forced to let the baddies go free when they threaten the life of one of the astronauts), nobody gets in the way the 2nd time, but Comet and Black Canary intrude the 3rd time, beating and capturing the 3 baddies, and managing to rescue the 2 earlier captives when Comet learns their location by reading Stingaree’s mind.
While this is going on, Funky Flashman & The Wizard are watching the crime spree on the TV news, as Funky keeps rambling about how this sort of thing give super-villains “poor P.R.”. I just don’t GET what he hopes to accomplish with his idea of “selling” the Secret Society to the “buying public”.
In the meantime, Comet, dejected after the 1st fight with the baddies went bad, tries to help an old lady across a street, and is almost beaten to a pulp by the angry, paranoid woman who begins swinging her handbag at him and warning him to stay away. Watching the scene, an attractive brunette named “Debbie” introduces herself and invites him up to her apartment for “coffee and a bite of an apple”. I suppose this is supposed to pass for both humor and character development, but I don’t know. Later on, Green Arrow continues to be annoyed at the idea of “baby-sitting” an over-the-hill hero, and gets even more annoyed when his steady girlfriend, Black Canary, decides to accompany Captain Comet on a crime-fighting jaunt, leaving him behind. There are times when the “new”, loud-mouthed Oliver Queen was interesting, meaningful, or funny, but sometimes, he’s just an annoying parody of himself.
The last page reintroduces Copperhead, and reveals that the mysterious person who broke him out of jail a few issues back knows about the Secret Society, and announces to Funky & The Wizard that HE intends to take over! (Even a brief glimpse at the shape of the person’s silhouette should be enough to clue in any longtime DC reader as to their identity...)
Jack C. Harris takes over as regular editor this issue, but the only immediate change is former Wally Wood assistant and future superstar Bob Layton taking over the inks—which is a HUGE step up from Vince Colletta, no doubt about it. Apart from making Rich Buckler almost look like he knows what he’s doing, for the first time, Funky actually begins to resemble Marvel Comics editor & huckster Stan Lee. (Sadly, Vince Colletta inked the cover. Maybe it was done before the rest of the issue?)
This issue also announces the major shake-up of the editorial staff, and introduces new publisher Jeanette Kahn! This coincides with the debut of the new DC logo (a wide circle with stars in it surrounding a bold “DC” tilted at a 45 degree angle, resembling a sports team logo). A new era for DC was about to begin! (12-9-2012)
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I would never have imagined I'd reach a point where I actually restored 50 KAMANDI covers in a row!!!
When I used "levels", the lime green background faded out too much, so I had to go back to an earlier version and adjust the green areas separately. Next up was some "fill in" down the right edge, as I didn't want to have the main character's foot, or the white circle at the top, cut off. A few specks of black here and there needed clean-up, as did the bottom edge, where the color was fading out.
It seems editor Jack C. Harris had it as part of his agenda to connect the future world of KAMANDI with the future world of OMAC. I don't see why such a thing should be considered necessary, or even desirable. KAMANDI wasn't the only one of DC's alternate futures that this kind of thing was going on with, either. It was a misguided attempt to "unify" the DC Multiverse, and make it more like the "Marvel Universe". But as Frank Frazetta liked to tell other artists, "You should be a first-rate YOU, not a second-rate ME." Unfortunately, this obsession with making DC more like Marvel would continue into the 80's, culminating in the admittedly creative CHAOS that followed their year-long company-wide crossover mini-series, CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS. Ironically, in the shake-up and restructuring of the "New DC Universe", the future Earths of both OMAC and KAMANDI became out-of-continuity. Stories that had deep meaning to readers suddenly "no longer existed", the events in them, at least from the point-of-view of the New DCU, "never happened".
But that was still 9 years away...
Registered: Aug 2003
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Lex Luthor—“the most brilliant criminal scientist in the history of the world”—announces that HE’s taking over the Secret Society, so he can use it to defeat Superman. Doesn’t this guy have any new ambitions? The Wizard, upset about this, since Funky Flashman “promised” him HE could be leader, objects, and tries to pick a fight with Luthor. It goes badly. Finally, he decides to play along. Now, it seems Funky has a reputation for being able to “recruit” people, and Luthor wants him to get Felix Faust and Matter Master to join HIS new Secret Society, since Superman is vulnerable to magic. Lex tells The Wizard that if he’s willing to apologize, he can join in.
As it turns out, in Sapporo, Japan, actor Gregory Reed is currently filming the “SUPERMAN” movie—and Luthor sics his trio of sorcerers there to disrupt it, certain it will draw Superman’s attention. Instead, it draws the attention of Captain Comet and Hawkgirl. And in the ensuing chaos, somehow, it completely escapes the baddies that the guy playing Superman in the movie is NOT the genuine article! In the frustration, Funky tells Lex, “Calm yourself, my good man! You must learn to tolerate the trivialities of your compatriots!” Angered, Lex replies, “COMPATRIOTS?! What have I got in common with ANY of YOU?” Funky yanks off his toupee... “Why LEX—we both agree that BALD is beautiful!” “Good lord!”
Following the humiliating defeat (in which the real Superman never even showed up!), Lex gets angry at Funky, who reminds Lex that LEX picked the team of baddies. Lex departs, determined to get back at Funy another way—and decides to contact the police and let them know about the Secret Society and their HQ. But Funky beats him to the punch, and phones the cops, who ARREST Luthor as he exits the building!
For the first time since he appeared, we have an explanation for exactly what good Funky Flashman can do for the SSoSV. Despite his long-winded never-ending ramblings over the last several issues, until now, I didn’t have a clue. I’m just wondering if the writers did until now, either? There’s something really perverse (and hilarious) about a story involving the making of the SUPERMAN movie, which features both Lex Luthor and Funky Flashman... especially when you consider that in the real world, actor Gene Hackman appeared to be playing FUNKY in the film, not Luthor. Not only would this go for his personality, and wardrobe, but the notable scene in the film where Hackman YANKS off his toupee!!! I’ve heard that the producers of the SUPERMAN movie did not have a clue what they were doing, and this seems like further proof of it. It’s as though someone, somehow, used THIS comic for reference—and then got the 2 characters confused!!!
If nothing else, Bob Rosakis proves he’s got a sense of humor—never anything to dismiss lightly. Rich Buckler & Bob Layton continue to do decent work, and among other things, Funky continues to be a DEAD RINGER for Stan Lee. (12-11-2012)
This scan required a bit of "fill-in" in the upper-left and lower-right edges, and the graytones had to be lightened up on a separate layer. About an hour's work-- not bad.
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A group from New Genesis—Orion, Lightray, Forager, Metron, Lonar and a blue-skinned woman named Jezebelle—travel to Apokalips on the word of The Source, to seek out Darkseid. Following a brief battle with some Para-Demons, they discover he’s left the planet, and set up a base on Earth’s moon. There, they find a computer with a list of six people Darkseid suspects may have the Anti-Life Equation. Each one of them takes one of the people on the list and goes to contact them, to let them know their lives are in danger.
THE NEW GODS is considered Jack Kirby’s most “personal” project. Apart from telling a compelling story with well-drawn, sharply-defined characters, it also gave him a platform to make commentary on then-current affairs within a science-fiction allegorical framework. Perhaps it it should not be surprising, then, than in others’ hands, it had been almost universally handled badly. And, perhaps as a direct extension of that, Kirby’s own work on the concept has been derided by an inordinately large percentage of comic-book fans and critics. Having just recently re-read Kirby’s stories, however, what I see is that the original stories stand out as some of the most inspired comics of their time in their inspiration and execution, while at the same time, they just don’t “continue” well under others. Many fans are so in love with characters and their universes, and wish to seem them continue endlessly, no matter how bad they might be. In many, if not most fans’ eyes, they don’t even realize, indeed, have no conception of just how bad some of the books they’re reading really are.
The best thing I can say about NEW GODS #12 is that it’s a major step up from 1ST ISSUE SPECIAL #13. Believe me, that’s faint praise, and definitely a left-handed compliment.
My first exposure to Kiry’s Fourth World was the late-70’s revival, and the main reason I checked it out was because my favorite comics writer at the time, Steve Englehart, had been driven away from Marvel, and decided to spend a year at DC, before quitting comics entirely to become a novelist. Thus I found myself buying Englehart’s JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA, DETECTIVE COMICS, and MISTER MIRACLE. Except for JLA, I actually missed the first 2 issues of the other books, and wound up buying them soon after as back issues. I liked what Englehart did with all 3 series. I suppose it was natural curiosity to check out the “other” Fourth World book, NEW GODS. As with the others, I walked in in the middle and got the first 2 issues as back-issues soon after. I’m not sure I ever re-read these in sequence before, but I’m starting to now. What I do remember was, while MISTER MIRACLE was inspired and entertaining under both Englehart and then Steve Gerber, NEW GODS seemed “flat” somehow. Whatever “magic” there was supposed to have been in the original series, I couldn’t see it in the revival. Decades later, I’ve come to realize this is actually par for the course with MOST books, and a state of affairs most comics fans (and editors) willfully blind themselves to.
The editor on this project was Paul Levitz, who at the time, was still a relative newcomer to DC, having come up from working in fanzines with the likes of Bob Layton & John Byrne. Levitz wrote a rather “generic” introductory editorial in which he tries to give readers “enough” info without giving them “too much”. None of it really inspired or grabbed me. I’m afraid that was reflected in the rest of the book.
Writer Gerry Conway at this point seemed to be known mostly for having become a professional at a very young age, and having written tons of comics, most of which were not very inspired, the bulk of which tended to be overly-serious, somber, lacking in any sort of humor, and with a tendency to kill off villains (most of whom wound up being brought back in later stories by other writers anyway). Shortly before this, he had a stint as both editor and writer of KAMANDI (mostly writing new dialogue over Jack Kirby’s—the blind arrogance of doing such a thing boggles the mind at this point). Conway briefly returned to Marvel, where he served as Editor-in-Chief for an astonishingly short time, during which he somehow managed to kick several of their best writers off long, very impressive runs of books, just so Conway could make extra money on the side writing the books instead. Across the board, his issues were flat, generic, and uninspired, which made it even more of a travesty for how he got on those books in the first place. And now here he was, taking on Jack Kirby’s most “personal” project, which, according to Levitz, he’d been a strong advocate in reviving.
Conway’s narration and dialogue, as always, is flat, generic, uninspired and overly-serious. But let’s get into specifics. Why would Orion suddenly become part of a “fighting team”, when he’s always been the extreme example of a “lone wolf”? Conway spends 2 pages giving us a brief background on the history of New Genesis and Apokalips, but between the words and the illustrations, nothing even hints at the grandeur or the horror that came before. What on Earth is Lonar and his stallion doing as part of this “team”? We learn virtually nothing about him here. And who is “Jezebelle”, who makes her first appearance here? She’s given NO introduction whatsoever, no background info, the brief scenes she’s in she exhibits no apparent personality, etc. And people have the nerve, the utter stupidity, to complain about Jack Kirby’s writing???
The sequence where Orion approaches the air force base to contact Brigadier General Maxwell Torch (one of those believed to possibly hold the Anti-Life Equation) reminds me of nothing less than a rehash of multiple scenes from the Stan Lee-John Buscema SILVER SURFER book. The “hero” is spotted by the military, who goes into attack mode, several planes are blown out of the sky, and nobody even tries to communicate or explain what’s going on—at least, until after-the-fact. I know at this point the SURFER comic was considered a “big deal” despite its abject failure in the sales department. Perhaps it shouldn’t surprise me that someone who spent so much time honing his skills at Marvel should pay such obvious tribute to a book that may have seemed like Marvel’s equivalent of Kirby’s NEW GODS—big, serious, violent, pretentious, “important”, and a sales failure. After all, wouldn’t it seem to some misguided types that the best way to do a “Kirby” book would be to strip away Kirby and turn it into a “Stan Lee” book instead?
Don Newton came up from the fanzines, where he did a ton of work, much of it focused on Fawcett’s CAPTAIN MARVEL. Then he spent some time at Charlton, where he did THE PHANTOM. Like Jim Aparo, when I look back, I sometimes wish Charlton paid better so Newton could have made a better living doing THE PHANTOM instead of BATMAN. At any rate, one of Newton’s 1st assignments when he finally, after many years, managed to break into DC, was NEW GODS. The artwork is beautiful. No one can deny that. Newton has a very “naturalistic” look to his work, with feeling, sensitivity, mood, shadows, and a certain knack for technology. But what I’m seeing here is in places an almost total disconnect between the illustrations and the story that is trying to be told. I suppose the problem is that instead of ONE man doing both, and there being an automatic, instinctive, intrinsic connection between the two, you have one man doing the writing, and another, living on the other side of the country, doing the art. And as I said, the writing is nothing to brag about in the first place.
Added to that is that, somehow, Newton’s depictions of Apokalips and the DNA Project seem totally removed from anything Kirby designed. WHY re-design so much from scratch? The brief vision of Apokalips, looking back at it now, reminds me more of the work of French artist Phillipe Druillet than anything in ALL the Kirby Fourth World books combined. I don’t get it. Didn’t Newton have any research material? Or did someone (Levitz? Conway?) suggest he come up with his own architecture?
Of the various inkers who worked with Newton over the years, my personal favorite has always been Dan Adkins. Over at Marvel, Adkins proved he was one of the best inkers who ever worked for the company. His work as inker on MASTER OF KUNG FU was my favorite of that book’s entire run. That track record continued without a break at DC. Imagine my delight, decades later, to read an interview with Newton in which he revealed that HIS favorite inkers for his own work were Dan Adkins and Alfredo Alcala—the same two as mine. What utterly BAFFLES me, as I re-read this book, was when Paul Levitz, in his editorial, describes Adkins as “one of the few inkers who can create the detailed realism and psuedo-Kirby machinery THE NEW GODS demands”. EXCUSE ME????? Wouldn’t—shouldn’t—that be the penciller’s job? Is it possible those backgrounds I complained about were all Adkins’ work, and not Newton’s, at all?
In a mirror of NEW GODS #1, this first new issue opens with the main characters travelling around, having conflict, coming into contact with those believed holding the Anti-Life Equation, and then, on the last page, we see Darkseid, who is looking forward to the conflict. He mentions the “The Pact” which has been broken—yet surely that happened before NEW GODS #1, not recently?
One problem with comics from this specific time period is, as the page count got lower and lower (here down to a mere 17 pages of story!) it seemed as though you were getting more ad pages than you were story, and often, the ad pages had a way of grabbing your eyes more than the story pages. That’s sad.
The cover is by Al Milgrom, who, oddly enough, was a mainstay as inker on MASTER OF KUNG FU in its earliest period. He also did a lot of pencilling for Marvel, notably CAPTAIN MAR-VELL and GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY. Here, in a total departure from anything he’d ever done before, he creates a tribute to the look of Kirby-Royer. Which almost makes sense—except it’s absolutely NOTHING like the interior art of Newton-Adkins.
I’d like to sum up by mentioning again the “disconnect” between writer and artist. I do love the art of Newton & Adkins. I just don’t think the storytelling here is that good. But I feel it’s the writer than mostly at fault. After all, while DC may have been leaning more toward (AHEM) “Marvel Method” by this point, they always had a strong sernse of editorial control, and part of that was deliberately keeping a separation between writers and artists, lest they “get above themselves”. I think there’s only one way this book could really have worked with Newton & Adkins on the art. That would have been if JACK KIRBY had been writing it. After all, that’s the kind of arrangement he wanted in the first place! (12-16-2012)
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