Short Lived Comics Series #32 - Super Heroes (Dell Comics)

Dell Comics is not particularly well-known for their superhero comics - in fact, I was not even aware until recent years that Dell actually published any comics with superheroes in them.  Sure, I had heard of Brain Boy (of which I have all but one issue), but I never really considered him a superhero; I saw him more as just a science fiction type tale.  To me, Dell was famous for a lot of licensed material, such as Walt Disney World comics and old Western comics.  In fact, I have some of their books, such as Gil Thorp, Ellery Queen, Friday Foster, Johnny Jason Teen Reporter, Mary Perkins On Stage, and The New People.  But it was not until I stumbled upon a couple of issues of this title that I found a whole susbset of titles from Dell that offered superhero fans some new characters and stories.  I was pleasantly surprised and definitely curious enough to pick them up and give them a try!

 

Super Heroes, as it was so generically titled, was a four-issue series published in 1967 featuring a team known as the "Fab 4."  One might think this is a cheap rip-off of Marvel's the Fantastic Four (the name is even very similar), which first hit the stands back in 1961; however, other than the name similarity and the fact both teams has four members (with only one female), the two books are very different.  While Marvel's "World's Greatest Comic Magazine," as it promoted itself, featured a family dynamic, the Fab 4 is actually made up of four teenagers who, through unexpected circumstances, wind up with the ability to transfer their consciousnesses into four amazing robots with superhuman abilities:  Dan Boyd can become "El," with light-based powers; Polly Wheeler can become "Polymer Polly," with speed and heat resistant powers; Tom Dennis can become "Hy," with sonic powers; and Reb Ogelvie can become "Crispy," with cryogenic powers.  Although not very original, each character's costume has the first letter of their name on the chest (with the except of "El," who has a huge "L" on his chest, I'm guessing because his name is actually pronounced simply as "L").

 

Each issue features three chapters, with some connecting and some simply stand-alone tales.  The first issue,  cover dated January 1967, opens with a 12-page origin story (yeah, let's see any of today's comics tell an origin story in that few pages!), followed by a second chapter that finds our new heroes battling a nuclear powered robot, and a final chapter that brings the Fab 4 versus the rampaging robot story to a chilly conclusion (yes, that's a pun - read the story to find out why!).  The story and plot are pretty simple and straightforward, but I do think the author managed to capture some of the nuances of what it would be like for teenagers to suddenly find themselves able to control super-powered robots.  The only problem is, like Negative Man in DC's Doom Patrol title, when they transfer their essence, their actual bodies basically become comatose; so, they must be sure their bodies are in a secure location before they transfer over to the Fab 4.

 

The second issue was released three months later, with a cover date of April 1967.  This issue features three different tales, as our Fab 4 face off against various villains.  In the first chapter, the kids go up against "The Clowns," a group of dastardly circus men who use their clown disguises take advantage of attendees and steal their valuables - with their ultimate goal of cleaning out the city!  Of course, the Fab 4 manage to round them up and take them down.  The second chapter is the story of "Nutt's Revenge," as an engineer is determined not to see his creations displayed at the Great Fair (a/k/a the World's Fair in our world) destroyed by others - so he decides to take them out himself, until the four kids get in his way, and they have to use their fabulous alter egos to save their bodies!  The final chapter find El enslaved by a criminal who learned electronics in prison - and he uses El to go after the police that put him away.  It's up to the remaining Fab 4 to save their friend and bring him to his senses.

 

Which brings us to the third issue, in which our fabulous foursome must face the threat of the Coalman, an underground creature that gets hotter and more deadly the more the kids throw at him.  The four heroes then face the hypnotizing spells of the Mad Magician, who uses hypnosis to steal from his guests, leaving them with the impression they enjoyed the show and not caring about their lost valuables!  The four have to put their heads together to stop the madman from hypnotizing the entire city and robbing it blind.  In the last chapter, the gang goes up against Nepto of the Reef, an underwater villain off the coast of Florida (yay!  my state!) who, like Aquaman, is able to get the help of marine life to aid him in his tasks - only Nepto's tasks are criminal, and the Fab 4 go underwater to put an end to his crime spree.

 

The fourth and final issue of this series, cover dated June 1967, foretells its own demise, with a cover blurb that proclaims: "The End of The Fab 4!"  Like the first issue, it features three chapters that are interconnected, but these final tales alter the lives of our heroes in an unexpected way.  While the first chapter provides a simple mission of stopping missiles that were somehow controlled to drop on the city, it is the second chapter that changes everything - when the four teens throw their consciousnesses into the heroic robots, only to have an explosion merge them, so that the teens no longer need the robots!  Instead, they find themselves now possessing the powers of the robots, giving them the chance to fight crime in their own physical forms - something they do in the third and final chapter as they face off against Mr. Mod, a hippie musician with the power to influence things around him.  It was he who directed the bombs to be dropped on the city, and it was he who caused the explosion that changed the Fab 4's lives forever.  And it takes some quick thinking and cooperation on their part to bring Mr. Mod to justice at last.

 

And with that final battle, Super Heroes and its tales of the Fab 4 came to an end.  After only four issues and eight battles of good versus evil, the adventures of these powerhouse teens came to a conclusion.  As far as I have been able to find, these four heroes have remained in comic book limbo (with the exception of a short story in InDELLible Comics first issue of Popular Comics, published in July 2017).  I actually found the concept for these heroes somewhat different, and they certainly would have been the perfect fit for comics published back in the 1960s and 1970s; however, I wonder if the fact they were published by Dell, who did not seem to have the same popularity as DC or Marvel Comics, hurt their chances of succeeding.  InDELLible Comics, headed up by David Noe and Jim Ludwig, seems to be bringing some attention back to all of these old Dell Comics characters, so who knows?  Perhaps someone will get inspired and get the rights to bring these characters into the 21st century!

 

There is some dispute about who wrote these four issues of Super Heroes for Dell.  While some websites credit Don Arneson as the writer, the Grand Comics Database indicates that "[i]n an e-mail to Jim Ludwig August 2013, DJ Arneson states that he did not write this series."  Thus, the writer remains a mystery.  The art, however, has been credited to Bill Ely on pencils (according to Martin O'Hearn's blog) for the first two issues and Bill Molno on pencils (according to Martin O'Hearn's blog) for the last two issues, with Sal Trapani on inks on all four books.  The covers for all four issues are credited to Sal Trapani on inks, as well as possibly the pencils.  The art is not overly impressive, with many panels simply featuring the characters against single-colored backgrounds, I did enjoy it for the simple fact that it was not overpowering.  The pages provided backgrounds where necessary, but it focused more on the story and less on flashy splash pages as today's comics do, which definitely was a plus in my book!  Simple stories of good guys vs. bad guys without all of the needless personal crises and forced continuity - just plain old fun!

 

One thing I did notice about the Fab 4's costumes - the letters on each of their chests could have spelled the word H-E-L-P (because the "c" on Crispy's chest could easily be mistaken for an "e"), and I wonder if that was intentional, since these kids / heroes were determined to help keep the world safe?  Just a thought...

 

Now the hunt begins for some of Dell's other super hero titles, such as Nukla, Frankenstein, Dracula, Wereewolf, and any others I can discover in my hunt! 

 

RATING:  8 circus-battling, undersea-fighting, robot-defeating, mad-magician stopping adventures out of 10 for giving comic fans a creative new crew of heroes (it's just unfortunate they did not last!). 

World's Greatest Super-Heroes - a DC Comics 100-Page Super-Spectacular

I have wanted this comic book for such a long time.  I remember seeing images of it and people talking about it for years, but I've never been able to find a copy (at least, not at a reasonable price that I was willing to pay!). Thankfully, at a recent comic book convention, a dealer had a not-quite perfect copy (but still fully in tact with no tears or rips and no pages missing) for a very reasonable price - so I bought it!  The reason I wanted it is because it truly does feature the world's greatest super-heroes:  The Justice Society of America!  That's right - while many consider the Justice League the world's greatest super-heroes, ever since I met the JSA way back in 1980 in that classic JLA/JSA/New Gods cross-over, I have been in love with them.  The idea of an alternate earth where the super-heroes did grow older, where they had children, where some of them died fascinated me to no end - particularly when I was introduced to my favorite all-time comic book character, the Huntress (the grown daughter of the Earth-2 Batman and Catwoman!).  Thus, ever since that time, I have hunted down and read pretty much every possible appearance of the JSA that I could find - and this is one of the comics that I have never been able to get my hands on - until now!

 

DC 100-Page Super-Spectacular featuring World's Greatest Super-Heroes! (for only 50 cents back in 1971!) is a reprint issue, giving readers of the early 1970s an opportunity to read (or re-read, as the case may be) stories starring the Justice Society and some of its members from the 1940s, '50s, and '60s.  The book opens with the two-parter "Crisis on Earth-One!" and "Crisis on Earth-Two!" from Justice League of America issues 21 and 22 (Aug. and Sept. 1963, respectively).  The stories that follow are those of individual members of the JSA - The Spectre, Johnny Quick, the Vigilante (not the Marv Woflman/George Perez version), Wildcat, and Hawkman with Hawkgirl.  And, yes, I realize the Vigilante was never truly a member of the JSA; however, he was later included in the All-Star Squadron in the 1980s, so it could be said he was later retconned into the group of Earth-Two heroes!

 

Anyway, that opening story with the first historic cross-over of the JLA and JSA is always a treasure to read.  "Crisis on Earth-One!" re-introduced the Justice Society of America to young readers of the 1960s who may have never heard of that team (since its last appearance was back in 1951 with the cancellation of All-Star Comics).  By this time, the Flash of Earth-One had already discovered the existence of Earth-Two and its super-hero counterparts, but the two teams had yet to meet.  But when the villains of both Earths find a way to switch places in order to commit crimes, the JLA and JSA find themselves at a disadvantage - not only do they not know these other Earth's villains, but the ne'er-do-wells have set a trap to ensure the JLA and JSA cannot defeat them!  The two-part story continued into "Crisis on Earth-Two!" and allowed the Green Lanterns of both Earths to free the kidnapped Flashes and ultimately defeat the Crime Champions of two worlds.  The words of the Earth-Two Hawkman at the end of the story are oh-so-prophetic:  "We're going to keep in touch! There's no telling when we may be called upon to join forces again!"  And join forces again they did, every year in an annual team-up that saw them eventually meet up with a number of other teams, including the Seven Soldiers of Victory, the Freedom Fighters, the Legion of Super-Heroes, the Shazam family, the stars of the Old West, the New Gods, and even the All-Star Squadron!  Gardner Fox likely had no idea what an iconic story he had written, one that still resonates with fans more than 60 years later!

The Spectre's story, from More Fun Comics issue 55 (May 1940), is the oldest reprinted story in this comic.  With art by Bernard Baily, the story finds the ghost of vengeance battling another spirit who walks the Earth, only this one is spreading evil.  It seems he may have met his match, but a last minute trick enables the Spectre to turn the tables on his nemesis and imprison him for all eternity in solitude - a fate the villain had planned for the Spectre!  The author of the story is not identified, but an online search reveals the writer as Jerry Siegel, one of the creators of Superman!

The next tale features Johnny Quick and His Magic Formula in "Stand-In for 100 Convicts." from Adventure Comics issue 190 (July 1953).  I really enjoyed this story, as (a) I like the character of Johnny Quick, and (b) it was a creative story.  A prison warden agrees to release 100 criminals from prison on the belief they will not return to a life of crime - but when $100,000 worth of diamonds disappears, it seems the criminals have gone back to their old ways.  Johnny is on the case, but he discovers that only one of the criminals has gone bad - the others are searching for the bad seed, hoping that by bringing him back in, they can prove they have changed.  Johnny agrees to help and must distract the warden and the police in order to give the criminals a chance to find the one who stole the diamonds! Using his speed, Johnny tries to pretend to be all 100 of the released criminals, a pretty nifty trick!  Even though it is only six-pages in length, the story is full of action and dialogue (and, in today's comics, this would probably be spaced out into a six-ISSUE story, rather than just six pages).  The artist is identified as Ralph Mayo, but online sources indicate Hy Mankin was the artist, and Don C. Cameron was the writer.

Next up is the Vigilante and his little sidekick Stuff in a story titled "The Galleon in the Desert!" (from Action Comics issue 146 (July 1950).  I'm not going to lie here, I did not read this story.  The Vigilante is not a character that interests me, and while the art of the nine-page tale was actually pretty good, I just didn't have the desire to read it.  It was written by Joseph Samachson and drawn by Dan Barry.

The Wildcat story, however, I did read and I thoroughly enjoyed it.  "Crime Wore a Costume!" is actually an unpublished Golden Age story that never saw print before this comic, which made it a special treat.  The artist is identified as Jon Chester Kozlak, and I discovered online the writer was Bob Kanigher.  The story finds Ted Grant and his boxing contender, Mike Bailey, putting in a holiday appearance at a local department store when a group of Santa-wearing criminals try to escape with all the contents of the jewelry department! Ted quickly changes into Wildcat to fight the criminal Santas, and Bailey steps in to help, unmasking Wildcat's nemesis, the villainous Huntress (not the Batman and Catwoman's daughter from the late '70s, but the tiger-striped one from the Golden Age who Roy Thomas eventually renamed "Tigress" in his Young All-Stars series).  She sets up a number of traps for Wildcat, including a very nearly beheading; but, Wildcat manages to outwit the feline thief and flip her right into the hands of the waiting police.  

This issue wraps up with a tale of Hawkman and Hawkgirl from The Brave and the Bold issue 36 (June/July 1961) titled "Strange Spells of the Sorcerer."  Story by Gardner Fox and art by Joe Kubert, the Hawks find themselves battling a noted magical authoriy, Konrad Kaslak, and unknowingly the sly woman, Mavis Trent.  It must be noted that this Hawkman and Hawkgirl are the Katar and Shayera Hol of Thanagar - the Hawks of Earth-One!  It's a silver-age tale that was published just 10 years prior to this reprint and is only one of the two stories that originally appeared in that issue of The Brave and the Bold.  The story is a bit darker in tone and color than its Golden Age predecessors, and it is also longer than any of the previous tales (other than the JLA/JSA two-parter).  It's interesting that with all the other stories in this issue focusing on Earth-Two characters, they would end the issue with the Earth-One Hawks.

The wrap-around cover to this reprint issue is a masterpiece drawn by comic legend Neal Adams and features a conglomerate of heroes from both Earth-One and Earth-Two (interestingly, the front cover features mostly Earth-One heroes, while the back cover focuses mostly on Earth-Two heroes).  While I didn't really need it, I do like the fact that DC included a handy guide on the inside back cover to all of the characters who appeared on the cover.  This likely helped the readers back in 1971 who did not recognize many of the Earth-Two characters. I find it interesting that when identifying the characters, those who have doppelgangers on both Earths are identified by their Earth (such as Superman of  Earth-One and Superman of Earth-Two), but characters who have no doppelgangers are simply identified by their name (such as Mr. Terrific and Wildcat).  Black Canary is the only character identified as being from both Earth-One and Earth-Two, since she originally came from Earth-Two, but crossed over and stayed on Earth-One in one of the annual JLA/JSA crossovers.  There is also interspersed among the stories "A Checklist of DC Super-Heroes" (appearing on pages 35, 51, 97, and 98), which not only lists a number of the characters used by DC at the time, but provided the characters' first appearances.  The list is in alphabetical order and includes many well-known characters as well as some obscure characters such as Air Wave (first appearance in Detective Comics #60, Feb. 1942), Bwana Beast (first appearance in Showcase #66, Jan/Feb 1967), the Ghost Patrol (first appearance in Flash Comics #29, May 1942), and a number of others.  For me, this guide was a lot more informative than the character guide on the inside back cover!

Overall, this was a great issue of reprints and one I am absolutely thrilled to now have in my collection!

RATING:  10 museum animals brought to life out of 10 for keeping the Justice Society of America and its members "alive" for readers of every generation to read, fall in love with, and enjoy!

Holiday Heroine - Book Six of the Heroine Complex

Well, six years ago I picked up the first book in this series, thinking it was just a one-off book - but I liked the premise and the cover, so I bought it, I read it, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.  Then a second book came out, and I was over the moon.  And then a third.  And a fourth.  And a fifth!  And now I have read the sixth book in the series, but am saddened over the fact that this is the final book in the "Heroine" series by Sarah Kuhn.  I have grown to love these characters - Bea Tanaka, her sister Evie Tanaka, and their "sister" (friend) Aveda Jupiter - as well as all of the assorted supporting characters, love interests, frenemies, and family members.  Kuhn truly did create a huge family over the course of these six books, and it's a shame to have to say goodbye (although, admittedly, there is one thing about the series I won't miss - more on that later....)

Holiday Heroine is the final journey of Bea Tanaka (and no, before you get worried, that is not referring to a death by any means!).  Bea was first introduced simply as Evie's younger sister, who Evie basically had to raise after their mother died and their father took off.  Bea was viewed as a bit of a trouble maker, and it was Evie's job to take care of her and see to it that Bea stayed out of trouble.  In Heroine's Journey, the third book in this series, Bea's powers were tested by a malevolent force, and she nearly turned completely to the "dark side," all with the idea that she was going to be reunited with her mother.  Now, here we are three books later, and Bea has grown up - and in this book, she is determined to prove to everyone - her sister, her co-workers, and her boyfriend (Sam) that she truly is grown up and can keep her powers under control.

But the real question is - can she?

Kuhn provides readers with a holiday-centric story as Bea is prepared to celebrate the Christmas holidays in the middle of summer with her family - Evie and Aveda are coming for a visit, along with Nate and .. uhm ... Sam - which could be kind of awkward, since Bea and Sam sort of broke up.  The only problem is, Bea doesn't remember the break up.  She also doesn't remember spending the afternoon at her office in Maui completing reports.  Nor does she remember cleaning up her tiny apartment in Hawaii and charging her phone.  Either Bea is having black-outs, or something crazy is going on.  When she comes across a picture of her and Pika with ice cream - something that wasn't going to happen until Friday - does it dawn on Bea what is really going on.  Bea Tanaka is time-traveling!

With all of the other crazy things that have happened in this series - demons, other dimensions, ghosts, vampires, and such - why should time travel be so out of the ordinary?  Bea is both excited and frightened at the prospect of traveling through time.  And just like all of the movies she has seen, she must avoid doing anything that could potentially alter the timeline.  This is what she tells herself to excuse the fact that she doesn't say anything to Team Evie/Aveda about the time-traveling.  Instead, she decides to show everyone just how grown up she is and figure it out herself.  If only she could figure out how to control when it happens and to what time she goes.  But things go crazy (as if they weren't crazy enough!) when she wakes up and discovers that Sam is no longer in the timeline - it's as if he never existed at all!  So, she does what any normal person does and goes back to try to correct that mistake.  But in so doing, she erases her sister from the timeline!

And if all of these things weren't bad enough, Nate's evil mom, Shasta, is back on the scene, working overtime to convince Bea that she must sacrifice Evie's soon-to-be-born baby in order to save all of humanity!

There are plenty of twists and turns, and lots and LOTS of angst (a lot of which would probably have been completely unnecessary had Bea simply told Evie, Aveda, Nate, Scott, and the rest of the team what was going on from the very beginning!) - but there are also plenty of fun scenes wit the time-traveling element.  We get to see more of Sam's family.  We get to see Nate and Evie as doting parents.  We get to see a wild beach battle against a gigantic sea monster.  We even get a talking chicken!  (Yeah, trust me, it's a bit weird at first, but you just go with it....)

The one thing I could have done without in this book (and this has been actually building in the last couple of books) is the whole "white people are stereotyping and discriminating against people of color, and therefore white people are bad" sentiments scattered throughout the story.  Yes, I'm not oblivious to the fact that there are still people out there who discriminate, and yes, I do understand that racism can have an impact on people in different ways.  But when I'm reading fictional stories for enjoyment, I don't need those kind of things shoved down my throat when they add nothing crucial to the story.  The first three books in this series barely touched on those issues - they focused on the characters, their coming to terms with their powers and their family around them, and their battles against the demons coming through from the other dimension.  I thought that was the focus of this series.  But starting with Haunted Heroine, moreso in Hollywood Heroine, and now much more in Holiday Heroine, it's almost as if Kuhn feels it necessary to push this sentiment into the story, despite it lacking any substantive purpose for the story.

But I was able to look beyond that to the story as a whole, which I enjoyed overall.  Evie, Aveda, and now Bea have all managed to find their balance (and their husbands/boyfriends), and I can see them having their happily ever afters.  I'll miss these characters, but it's satisfying to know that their family has finally been firmly established, and whatever happens in their futures, they will face them as more than a team - but as a family!

RATING:  8 canoes toppling to the ground out of 10 for bringing the story of this terrific trio of super-powered ladies to a satisfying and happy conclusion!

Star-Spangled Squadron - an Ascendant Graphic Novel

Back in the 1980s, DC Comics published a comic titled All-Star Squadron, which featured the heroes of World War II on the then-Earth 2 world that was filled with the Golden Age superheroes.  It was, by far, my favorite all-time comic (until Infinity, Inc. came along a few years later), and although it was cancelled not long after Crisis on Infinite Earths and never seen again, the series has always held a special place in my heart.  A few months back, while flipping through Previews to see what new comics were coming out, I came across a one-shot graphic novel titled Star-Spangled Squadron.  The colorful cover featured a team of six heroes jumping off the page, the White House in the background, and proffered the tagline: "America Needed Heroes - They Answered the Call."  Between the title and the premise, I had to check it out.

Written by Alexander Macris and David Campiti, with art by Mel Joy San Juan, Star-Spangled Squadron is the start of a new superhero universe for Ascendant comics, a relatively new independent company founded in 2020.  In this new comic universe, superheroes are only just starting to appear, mostly as a result of a secret government program designed back in 2012 to create superhumans for America.  Only, the government could not control their subjects, and soon enough, both heroes and villains start to appear on the scene, and the world will never be the same!

While the blurb on the inside back cover indicates this graphic novel "tells the origin story of this first generation of superheroes and supervillains," that's not exactly accurate.  In the first of the two stories, we do get the origin of the villain known as Manticore, and we see him go up against the seemingly indestructible American Eagle (former firefighter Bill Goddard), we don't find out how American Eagle came to be the hero that he is or how he has the powers he does.  The second story features a rather interesting hero named Stiletto - a dark-haired bombshell in a skimpy leather outfit who apparently has heightened senses and the agility of a cat, yet bystanders want to know the same thing as readers - "How does she fight in those crazy heels?"  Again, no explanation as to how or why she has these abilities, but we do get the pleasure of reading her introduction into the Star-Spangled Squadron - a group of super-powered humans working for the Coast Guard to help protect America from the new threat of super-powered villains.

Dr. Quantum is the force manipulator ... Stronghold is the invincible strongman ... Warp is the teleporter ... and Aurora is literally a power battery for a star.  Together, with American Eagle and Stiletto, this is the world's first superhero team.  And, I have to admit, I love the self-awareness of the books.  The line about Stiletto's heels - coupled with Aurora's recognition of the stereotypes of the team ("American Eagle is, like, Mister Heartland Hearthrob; Warp is all bad boy from the Hood; Stronghold's repping the Hispanic working class; Dr. Quantum is the cute Asian WAIFU, [Aurora is] fan service for the frat boys; so you [Stiletto] must be, like, for the Goth crowd?").

But the Coast Guard are not the only ones with a team of super-powers.  In a facility harboring alien technology, a group of supervillains are set to steal the technology for themselves, and it's up to the Star-Spangled Squadron to stop them.  Thus, readers are given a spectacular super-battle of super-powers beings that tears apart the facility - and while the Squadron may win against the villains, they are unable to stop the alien ship beneath the facility from exploding, sending a beam of energy to the far reaches of space ... where someone is watching ...

Marcis, Campiti, and San Juan did a pretty good job of setting things up for a whole new universe of heroes, villains, battles, and great stories to come.  There's plenty of mystery about these characters - these two stories give readers a taste of each character and their personalities and powers, while leaving their past and origins yet to be told ... we get the foreshadowing of things to come with the villains disappearing from the battle and the unseen entity watching Earth from beyond ... and we get the questioning of whether the Squadron's superiors are truly on the up-and-up with the team and the goals for them.  Plenty of fodder here for future stories with some very likable characters of whom I would definitely like to see more.

Star-Spangled Squadron is a star-spangled hit in my book, so hopefully these creators have already got more stories in the works!

RATING:  8 crashing ferris wheels out of 10 for introducing a new group of heroes that have some originality and leave you wanting for more!

DCeased: War of the Undead Gods - a DC Comics mini-series

When DC Comics published its first DCeased mini-series a few years ago, it felt like nothing more than an opportunity to cash in on the popularity of The Walking Dead and the whole zombie craze.  That's not to say the first mini-series was bad.  I rather enjoyed the chance to see what would happen if some of the most powerful heroes in the world were affected by a zombie virus and turned on those they swore to protect.  How would the world react?  Well, apparently the series did well enough that DC published some spin-offs and sequels, including DCeased: A Good Day to Die, DCeased: Unkillables, DCeased: Hope at World's End, and DCeased: Dead Planet.  Some were good, some were just okay, and some were clearly nothing more than an attempt to cash in on the original series' success.  This year, DC published what appears to be the final story in the DCeased series - and if a series such as this has to end, this is definitely the conclusion it deserves!

DCeased: War of the Undead Gods is the final battle of the surviving heroes, not just of Earth, but of the entire universe, against an anti-life agent intent on destroying everything.  The story opens with a flashback to the end of Krypton.  Zor-El and his wife are sending their teen daughter to a planet where she will have amazing powers and where she will not be alone.  She will be among gods.  New gods.  But when she arrives on New Genesis, she is quickly overcome by a horde of gods who have succumbed to the anti-life equation.

Flash-foward to the present. The survivors of a devastated Earth have migrated to what they now call "Earth 2."  Lois Lane is the President.  Jon Kent and some of the most powerful heroes are prepared to go rescue Superman, where he lies dormant in the heart of the Sun.  With the antidote (developed in previous stories), they hope to return Kal-El to his former self ... to inspire hope to those who remain.  And as they bring home Earth's Greatest Superhero, they also face the unexpected arrival of Brainiac.  But this is not the Brainiac they once know.  He is defeated.  He is near death.  And he comes bearing a warning.  The gods are on their way.  Gods who have been turned.  Gods whose only goal is to spread the anti-life equation and destroy all who get in their way.  

And so begins the biggest climactic battle since the original Crisis on Infinite Earths back in 1985.  The New Gods and the villainous gods of Apokolips have all been turned.  And that includes Darkseid.  And when he destroys a yellow lantern, the ring chooses the one who might spread the greatest fear - and who else but Darkseid could spread fear on that level, especially now?!  And when he gets a hold of Warworld, his power to devastate only grows exponentially.  Even with the combined might of Superman, Superboy, Wonder Woman, and the entire Green Lantern Corps, there is not enough power to stop what is to come.  

Writer Tom Taylor provides readers with a story of impossible odds, yet one filled with hope and inspiration, as he gives readers a brand new DC trinity - Superman (Jon Kent), Batman (Damian Wayne), and Wonder Woman (Cassie Sandsmark).  And every time the tide seems to turn - Mr. Mxyzpltk shows up!  Spectre shows up!  Even the main man, Lobo, shows up! - somehow the evil wave of anti-life manages to overcome and turn even the most powerful of them all.  Retreat seems impossible.  Winning looks bleak.  But Taylor shows the true strength of some of the least powerful characters in the DC Universe and provides some jaw-dropping twists near that end that result in some unexpected surprises, a very sad sacrifice, and a final battle that even Ares and the Black Racer cannot avoid!  Worlds live!  Worlds Die!  And the universe will never be the same!  (Sure, that tagline was used back in '85 for Crisis, but it certainly applies to this final battle with the DCeased as well!)

Artists Trevor Hairsine and Andy Lanning knock it out of the part with this one.  Yes, the story is dark and bloody, so there are plenty of shadows and plenty of reds and grays ... but there is also the bright blues and greens, the colorful costumes of the heroes, and the light shades of humanity to remind the reader that all is not hopeless.  The battle scenes are epic, and unlike many of today's comics, we don't get a fancy splash page every few pages or so.  Each issue packs plenty of story, and I'm definitely glad I waited until I had all eight issues to read it, as I don't imagine I would have liked waiting 30 days between each issue to find out what happens next!  Some major characters die in rather gruesome ways (this is a zombie story, after all, so no one is truly safe), and Hairsine and Lanning fill those moments with emotion that can felt off the page.  

While I definitely one to complain about how dark and gritty comics of today have become, I will be the first to admit that this DCeased saga has really caught me off-guard.  I never anticipated liking it as much as I have, and for such a dark story, it has often reminded readers that even in the darkest of times, we should always look for hope!  I'd say Taylor, Hairsince, and Lanning have a huge success with this eight-issue tale, and I give them props for ending this saga in what feels like the perfect conclusion.

RATING:  9 bottled cities of Brainiac out of 10 for giving a superhero take on the zombie craze a conclusion that is definitely one to be remembered!

Short Lived Comic Series #23 - Syphons (Now Comics)

The mid-1980s saw a number of comic book publishers suddenly burst onto the scene, from small self-publishers to not-so-small independent publishers.  The new direct market was inundated with all kinds of comics from these publishers - from super heroes to noir crime to romance to science fiction to horror tales and so much more.  A comic fan could find just about anything they wanted during that heyday, so long as you had a comic store somewhere near you to find them.  While DC, Marvel, Archie, and the big mainstream publishers still sold their comics on the racks at convenience stores, these other indy publishers were marketing directly to comic book fans through comic stores and subscriptions only.   A small company, probably long forgotten by many now (no pun intended) was Now Comics.  Now was probably best known for some of its media adaptations - Fright Night, The Twilight Zone, Speed Racer, Married ... With Children, Terminator, The Green Hornet, The Real Ghostbusters, and others.  Now also published some rather unique titles, such as Eb'nn, Ralph Snart Adventures, and a short-lived series called Syphons.

 

Syphons was the only series from Now Comics that I picked up back in 1986 when it first came out.  The colorful painted covers of bright superheroes was an easy sell to a DC comic fan like me.  I was all about the superheroes (even though I had also become a fan of Ms. Tree and Somerset Holmes, two non-superhero indy titles out around that time), and so I picked it up.  And loved it.  All seven issues of it.  I waited around for issue 8 for the longest time, unaware that the series had been cancelled with the seventh issue (back then, there was no internet, and the only comic news I got was information from the employees at "The Great Escape," my local comic store in Louisville, Kentucky).

 

Flash forward some thirty-plus years (having long ago sold off most of my comic collection as I got older, went to college, and thought I had "outgrown" comics), and being back into comics again, I've had fun finding some of those older series that I grew up on.  At a comic convention not so long ago, I came across all seven issues of Syphons in the $1.00 bin, and having fond memories of the title, I picked up the whole set.  Re-reading the series was a lot of fun, and quite honestly, there was a LOT from this series that I did not remember.  I had vague memories of their origin (getting their powers from an alien craft), and I remember towards the end they were using their powers for a delivery service (a rather unique idea, at the time, for superheroes).  But I had forgotten how their benefactor, Mr. Cross, was not a very nice man and had ulterior motives for pretty much everything he did - and he had no problems using people as cannon fodder.  

For those who are curious, the Syphons are four orphaned teens who ran away from the orphanage to strike out on their own - only to encounter an alien craft that endowed them with energy powers.  Mr. Cross and his men happened to show up on the scene, and offered to help the four teens - Mark a/k/a Knighfire; Tim a/k/a Brigade; Lisa a/k/a Raze; and Trisha a/k/a Stardancer, the team leader.  Their origin is told in just three pages (unlike today's comics, where it would take 6 to 12 issues to tell an origin), and the first issue alone sets up the major story of the coming alien invasion that the Syphons will have to fight.  But there are plenty of subplots, including Mr. Cross's true plans; two local police detectives who think the deaths in the area are more than just coincidence; and the inter-personal relationships among the four teen Syphons.  

The series was created, written, and drawn by Allen Curtis, a name that, quite frankly, I am unfamiliar with.  Looking him up online, I don't see that he did much outside of the Syphons series for Now Comics (he may have written something in First Comics' Grim Jack, as well as perhaps story in Innovation Comics' The Maze Agency Annual, but I can't find any verification of that).  And that's a shame, as I really enjoyed Curtis' storytelling - particularly in the first five issues.  He developed his four main characters very well, giving each of them unique personalities and looks.  He does a great job at building his story, providing plenty of subplots and hints of things to come, while moving his main story along.  To a certain extent, he is good at "soap opera" story telling - one major story with several smaller stories building in the background.  Perhaps that is what I enjoyed about his work.

 

His art is a bit stiff in the first couple of issues, but as the series progresses, his art becomes more refined and definitely better in terms of people and backgrounds.  Sadly, though, the colorist, who provides such crisp, bright colors in those first issues, begins to darken the colors and blend them more towards the end of the series, giving the book less of a crisp feel and more of a dark, moody feel (and perhaps that was what Curtis wanted).  As for me, I did not like it all.  The final two issues, with the Syphons leaving Mr. Cross and trying to strike out on their own, while interesting in premise, was not executed well.  There were several plot threads set up - but since the series ended with issue seven, we do not get to see how they play out.  (There are two follow-up series to this, neither of which I have - so perhaps one or both of those tie up the loose ends of this series.)

I will say that the beautifully painted cover of issue one is very striking and definitely a great selling point - issues two, four, and six also have some nicely rendered covers as well.  Something about those odd-numbered issues, though (three, five, and seven), comes across as very bland and rushed in appearance.  Which may have played a part in declining sales that resulted in its cancellation, because let's face it - regardless of whether we are supposed to or not, everyone judges a book by its cover, especially when it comes to comic books.  If the cover is not that interesting, or looks poorly drawn, then who is going to pick it up?

I'm going to have to hunt down the other two series (the first is 4-issues and the second is 3-issues, I believe) and see how they hold up compared to this first run.

RATING:  7 overnight express delivery packages out of 10 for trying to bring a different kind of superhero team into the comics' world - perhaps it was just ahead of its time...

Secret Identity - a novel about comic books and murder

Secret Identity is for the comic book community as Escaping Dreamland is for the children's series book community.  Escaping Dreamland mixed the real and fictional worlds with the story of an author who was researching some fictional children's series books, and along the way, there were tons of references to real series, authors, and publishers (such as Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys, Tom Swift, Edward Stratemeyer, the Stratemeyer Syndicate, and so on).  It started off a little slow, but the deeper you read into it, the more engrossed you get, and every reference to real series books and authors just brings more and more smiles to your face.  Well, this is exactly what I found while reading Alex Segura's latest novel, Secret Identity.  It starts off a bit slow, but the further I get into the story, the more invested in the main character I got and the more I enjoyed all of the numerous comic book references!

Secret Identity is the story of Carmen Valdez.  It is the mid-1970s, and Carmen works for a fictional comic book company known as Triumph Comics.  Carmen grew up reading comics, thanks to her father, and her love for comics inspired her to be a comic book writer.  If she can only get that one big break.  While working as a secretary/assistant for the owner of Triumph Comics, Carmen thinks she is about to get that big break.  One of the company's writers is desperate for a new idea, and Carmen shares some scripts that she has been working on with him.  The two collaborate, but Carmen's world comes crashing down around her when she finds the writer dead in his apartment and she discovers that he turned in all of their scripts with only his name associated with them!  Not only is her one chance to enter the field gone, but someone she thought of as a friend betrayed her in the worst way and is now dead, to boot!

While the story has a dark undertone of murder, lies, cover-ups, blackmail, and betrayal, it also has a lighthearted feel to it that any true comic fan will enjoy.  With plenty of references to comics from that era, as well as creators who are now well-known and established, but who were just starting out and relatively unknown back in the mid-70s, there is no doubt that Segura had a lot of fun with this open playground.  Marvel and DC, Paul Levitz and Jim Starlin, Bob Kane and Stan Lee, Metamorpho and Tigra, Defenders and House of Mystery, Trina Robbins and Ramona Fradon, and so many more pop up here and there throughout the story and Carmen tries to make sense of everything that is going on around her.  Because if you think it's only comic books that are monopolizing Carmen's time, you'd be wrong!  There's also the family background of an alcoholic mother and a father who wants nothing to do with a daughter who is "that way."  Plus, when Carmen is confronted by an ex that she thought was in her past, old memories are dredged to the surface, and she has to wonder whether this is truly another chance to make it right, or if she is simply being played again.

And what happens when another comic writer is attacked and nearly killed?  And it looks like Carmen's ex was at not only one, but both crime scenes? Could her ex truly be so vicious as to eliminate anyone that even appears to be interested in Carmen?  Or is the killer someone much closer, someone that has an ax to grind, going back to the days before Triumph Comics and the previous company that the current owner bought out?  This book definitely has a LOT going on, but rest assured - Segura handles it nicely, and everything flows, with no disjointed or unconnected plotlines, nothing left open, and everything definitely makes sense by the end.  Segura even throws in a number of pop culture references from the '70s, such as new bands who are just hitting the scene (such as the Talking Heads, the Ramones, Patti Smith, etc.).  The more you read, the more you really feel like you are in the '70s right along with Carmen and her co-workers, her boss, and her roommate.

Oh, and did I mention that throughout the books, there are "pages" of art from The Legendary Lynx comic book that the main character created and wrote?  The black and white art is by Sandy Jarrell, with whom I am not familiar.  However, in keeping with the book itself, the tag line below the pages of comic book art provides credits to Harvey Stern (writer) and Doug Detmer (artist), the characters with whom Carmen associated with the creation of the book in the story.  It gives a semblance of reality to the story, as if this is more than just a work of fiction, but the biography of a woman comic writer in the 1970s who was doing everything she could to break into the field and establish herself in a male-dominated field.  And, like Escaping Dreamland, the end of the book comes full circle, leading the reader right back to the beginning of the tale...

This book is a lot of things.  It is a murder mystery with an amateur sleuth trying to solve the crime.  It is a story of friendship and betrayal.  It is a romance filled with broken hearts and lies.  But above all else, it is a story of Carmen Valdez - a woman who is determined to make her dream come true, despite all the obstacles placed in front of her, and who will not give up at any cost.  It is inspiring, it is enjoyable, it is heart-wrenching, and it is a slice of real life put in fiction form.  Kudos to Segura for weaving such an amazing work of art into a thoroughly enjoyable read.  If you're a comic fan, you'll love it.  If you are a murder mystery fan, you'll love it.  If you simply like to read - you'll love it!

Now, the only question I have is - when are we going to see The Legendary Lynx leap out of this book and into a real comic of her own?!?!

RATING:  10 pack of Parliaments out of 10 for a magnificent tale of comic books and murder!