Legion of Super-Heroes (1980) #269

The cover promises the Fatal Five’s return; while they do return, there’s also a mystery villain who starts the issue. He flies off towards Earth in his mystery ship; a ship crash lands on Earth, and the Fatal Five emerge from the ship, attacking Mon-El and Shadow Lass (who ditch Princess Projectra to get busy until superhero duties interfere).

I think the explanation is simply there are two spaceships. Still, it’s unclear if writer Gerry Conway wanted it to be confusing—because then it makes the Fatal Five seem like they might be holograms or something (the mystery villain uses mind projections on someone), and it makes the stakes feel a little tepid. Even for Legion. There’s going to be some battling, and there’s going to be a cliffhanger, but, really, we’re nowhere near Conway getting around to telling the story, so why get excited?

The rest of the issue is about Colossal Boy’s mom running for president of Earth and there being an assassination attempt. The scene where Colossal Boy finds out his mom is running takes Conway three pages. He’s got to get flustered when people ask him why he’s exclaiming. The cover also promised eight more pages, but no one puts them to any good use. Arguably, the double-page spread ought to be good–the Legion hanging out in some plaza on Earth and seeing the presidential announcements–but Jim Janes and Frank Chiaramonte’s art is often bad.

Not always. But often. And when it’s not bad, it’s barely middling.

The worst thing in the comic is how Conway writes Timber Wolf, the Legion’s emo dipshit, but all the character writing is pretty bad.

I hope next issue’s at least a little better. I don’t expect it to improve, but I hope.

Legion of Super-Heroes (1980) #266

Lsh266 Half of this issue reads like writer Gerry Conway’s excited to be on the book. The other half reads like he’s miserable, detailing the petty bickering of superhero teen bros as they try to upstage one another. But when Conway’s writing about married colonists Bouncing Boy and Duo Damsel? He’s having a ball.

The marrieds are on an ice planet. Bouncing Boy feels like he doesn’t have any challenges to face outside Legion life, while Duo Damsel’s just trying to keep him happy. The two of them have such a nice Silver Age vibe; it feels like a reunion sitcom but good.

Then they uncover an ancient golden… lamp, and a genie appears, speaking Arabic and talking about Saladin. Conway’s got a weird amount of detail in the story, with Colossal Boy somehow making Islamophobia a thing in the thirtieth century. Colossal Boy says Bouncing Boy and Duo Damsel are making the whole thing up, but the released genie is hurtling through space at enormous size and speed. It destroys space stuff along the way (Bouncing Boy and Duo Damsel are in conveniently timed hot pursuit).

The stuff with Colossal Boy and Element Lad is lifeless and draining, but the genie—Kantuu, is a potent, if problematic, villain—and the marrieds are just fantastic together. Conway enjoying himself on Legion is rare, but it pays off when it happens.

Artists Jim Janes and Frank Chiaramonte have the occasional wanting panel, but their combined style matches Conway’s Silver Age but talky vibe. The art can’t make the bickering bro Legionnaires any more interesting, though. They’re too blandly written. At least when Conway’s got a big cast, the numerous characters can cover flat characterizations, but when it’s just two of them… the cracks show fast.

But, still, so much better than I was expecting. When Conway has to think about the future besides Legion business, he’s actually got some ideas.

Giant-Size Chillers (1974) #1

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I don’t think I lost anything not reading the resurrectrion of Lilith in order. I missed out on some of the gimmick: Lilith is cursed with vampirism, not a natural vampire. She and her dad, Dracula, go to a rugby game because Lilith likes watching sports and she reminds him of her origin story. She was product of a political marriage when he was human, so when his father died, he cast her and her mom out. Mom paid a Romani to look after baby Lilith and killed herself; fast forward until Drac’s a vampire, he just killed a bunch of Romanis for turning him into a vampire, so the one who’s caring for now adolescent Lilith curses her as revenge.

The curse involves Lilith being a daywalking vampire, but also possessing the body of human girls whose fathers don’t want them. So, basically, her caretaker made sure the curse reminds Lilith she’s got a shitty dad all the time.

Lilith’s resurrection is never explained though. Thirty years ago—so during World War II, apparently—Quincy Harker killed Lilith, maybe as payback for Dracula killing Mrs. Quincy Harker, but they don’t sort out the order.

Or writer Marv Wolfman did and he overwrote it so much I couldn’t get through it. Wolfman starts the comic in second person, talking to Dracula about his return to London. It’s strange because Wolfman tries to be mysterious about it, but basically Drac’s just visiting with some lackey about getting a new mansion. It’s a lot of lead up for very little, so it’s nice when the Lilith story actually has some action. Even if—and again, reading Lilith’s first appearance out of order—she’s not quite the complex anti-hero of the Steve Gerber strips. She’s just feeding on folks left and right, including her human host’s father.

Also, had I read in order, I’d have known the human host’s pregnant. I just found that out with the human host’s current beau over in Dracula Lives; quelle surprise.

Gene Colan gives Lilith’s bat form long, flowing lady locks, which I feel like I’d have remembered in Lives. It’s a look, especially since inker Frank Chiaramonte really leans into the horror. The bats are icky monsters. Dracula is garrish. Gone are Tom Palmer’s noble inks; this Dracula is human, but demonic. So Lilith’s bat having some seventies hair is something. Maybe I love it, actually.

Doesn’t matter.

Lilith coming back is basically just to spin in her off. We get a scene where she tells Dracula it’s finally time for him to admit they’re both Draculas and she should rule the Undead with him. He says no, never, you’re no kid of mine, and leaves her to be upset about it. Despite the often overwrought narration, Wolfman does a good job with Dracula being a dick this issue. It’s a special too, so it’s a flex; you’re marketing the regular book as having an asshole lead.

Especially with the actual main plot, which involves that house Dracula wants. The mansion. There’s a girl living there and the house is haunting her. Her name’s Sheila Whittier and she’s mysterious and tormented, trapped in a British haunted house movie. When it crosses over with Dracula, she thinks he might save her, but then he doesn’t because he’s a dick.

It’s amazing.

Of course, he comes back because he needs the house and there’s a resolution, but still. He dumps this helpless woman right after accidentally saving her.

The art’s objectively not as good as on the main series, but for a special, there’s a certain charm to it being brusk. Similarly, while Wolfman’s exposition is a lot—in the British horror movie context it at least makes sense—the characterizations play through. It works out. Good special.

Then Wolfman spends a couple pages addressing continuity between Tomb of Dracula, Dracula Lives!, and Giant-Size Chillers Featuring The Curse of Dracula. Basically, they knew they were all over the place but they’re trying to do better and sort through it all. Wolfman promises a timeline, but I’m not sure Lives lasted long enough for them to do one.

A couple Atlas reprints (possibly colored for this reprinting) close out the Giant-Size.

First is a Stan Lee and John Romita (Senior) joint about an Austrian village’s vampire and public corruption problems. It’s middling.

Second is about a haunted house on a graveyard. Russ Heath does the art, no writer credit. The Heath art, including fifties horror good girl art, eventually sells the story but it’s a slog to get there.

The reprints do remind of how nice they were to have over in Lives.

Chillers is more than worth its 35¢ cover price.

Dracula Lives (1973) #11

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I had planned on opening bemoaning Dracula Lives only having two issues left just when the series has found itself again, but then I did some research and discovered it’s worse than the series just canceling. They’re not going to finish the Bram Stoker’s Dracula adaptation here; there’s no more Lilith (more on her adventures in a bit). I wish I hadn’t looked ahead. However, if I hadn’t, I wouldn’t have known where to go for the next (and temporarily final) Stoker adaptation entry.

There’s a reason reading monthly comics is a pain in the ass, even fifty years later.

Anyway.

This issue’s great, and I’m super duper sad there are only two more issues.

The magazine aspects of Lives are gone this issue; letters column, but no features—lots of ads. But the stories are all good. The art on the Lilith story’s a disaster, but if Lilith had been well-executed back in the day (writer Steve Gerber’s finding his legs fast), we’d remember it.

We’ll go in reverse order, starting with the Lilith story. It’s a long story, and Bob Brown’s pencils are terrible. They’ve got Frank Chiaramonte inking him, which is a choice, but then Pablo Marcos also has a credit, and even though I’m lukewarm on Marcos (or do I like him, it’s been so long since Lives had top-shelf artists), I was expecting the art to not be terrible.

But it’s terrible. Oddly, Brown’s pencils look like they were meant for digest size, not a magazine page, like seeing them smaller would improve things. Like the frequent lack of faces. Though the story’s all about there not being a face. Lilith’s human half runs afoul of some incel planning to do a mass shooting—no shit, in 1975–and Lilith takes over to stop him. Except there’s only so much she can do. It’s intense.

There’s some character development for Lilith and her human half. It’s good. The art’s an incredible problem, but the story’s good. I had wondered what was wrong with Gerber on the previous story, but he’s got it here.

The middle story is the Bram Stoker adaptation, and it’s a good argument Dick Giordano’s career should’ve been spent illustrating journals with accurate scenery. This portion of the adaptation is Mina and Lucy still at Lucy’s mom’s house, no suitors around, just Lucy sleepwalking around the English countryside. In Bram Stoker’s Dracula, it’s when werewolf Dracula assaults Lucy. Only there’s a whole thing about there being a stone chair and gravestone, and it’s the girls’ favorite spot, and it’s lovely. Gorgeous art from Giordano eighty-five percent of the time. It’s a delight.

It’s also where writer Roy Thomas (and, obviously, Giordano) get to do some adapting. Because they’re not doing werewolf Dracula, they’re doing (close to) Tomb of Dracula Dracula, and it adds some very interesting layers to the adaptation. Presumably. Dracula is just around this issue in the background.

I’m positive I read this adaptation (Marvel finished it in the aughts), but I don’t remember it being so impressive. Probably my bad (or it falls apart).

Then there’s a two-pager from Doug Moench and Win Mortimer, done sort of in a fifties horror style. Some European city’s problems with vampires over the years. It’s solid, with Moench finding a good tone for the exposition.

The first story is also Moench; he and artist Tony DeZuniga finish their “husbands vs. Dracula” story, which started in the last issue. Dracula has just thrown some widower into a pit—possibly the pit from Tomb, but also possibly not—and the guy quickly discovers it’s where Drac’s been keeping his latest vampire brides.

Including the hero’s wife.

What follows is horror action, with the hero coming up with a scheme to avenge himself while also saving the town or something. He also has a plan to save his wife’s eternal soul, which seems to be entirely in his head and the dialogue because Moench goes nowhere with that aspect (souls). The exposition’s a little overwritten, but who cares, the DeZuniga art is gorgeous. Great Gothic good girl art, fantastic horror trappings.

The finale’s a little bit of a miss, especially given the build-up, but it all works out. Especially since the comic goes uphill as it continues, with the Lilith finish graded on a different, Bob Brown-related scale, of course.

Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes (1977) #253

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With the not insignificant caveat of art by Joe Staton and Frank Chiaramonte, which never fails to disappoint–even for that duet–it’s a fairly good issue of Superboy and the Legion. Gerry Conway scripts, and it’s a full enough, compelling enough issue.

Even if it does start with the Legion being a bunch of little pricks.

They’ve gone to the President of the Federation or Earth or whatever and pleaded for funds to rebuild their clubhouse. When the President tells them Earth has just survived an invasion and needs to focus on rebuilding infrastructure for the common people, the Legion tells him off. Why would they risk their lives if it weren’t for perks?

Superboy tries to talk his teammates down—got to stay loyal to the state, no matter what, and all—but they’re pissed off. The Legion’s going to split up; some are going to ask RJ Brande for money, forgetting they were supposed to save him from a shit monster a few issues ago and never located him. Had they found him, of course, he would’ve told them he was bankrupt and couldn’t help them. It’s not much of a C plot, but it’s something.

The Legionnaires staying on Earth are going to go out clubbing. There are six of them, including Superboy. He and Colossal Boy are the odd men out; the other four are romantic couples. Conway does a strangely good job with the mopey superheroes. They seem immature and impertinent, which probably isn’t intentional, but it’s inevitable, given the content.

Of course, the Legionnaires don’t know it, but a group of intergalactic assassins is out to get them. The six who just happened to stay on Earth and go clubbing. Those six destroyed these assassins’ planet, and these six “cousins” got lethal Fantastic Four powers. They’ve been on their way to Earth the whole issue to take out their targets.

Their thorough, vengeful attacks are pretty good when they get there, considering the art. Some of Staton’s compositions are fine, though Chiaramonte doesn’t improve the detail.

Every time I think I’m ready to give up on the book, there’s a story capable of overcoming Staton and Chiaramonte, so I cannot. Not when the story keeps such horrors at bay.

Werewolf by Night (1972) #16

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Mike Friedrich writes, adding his name to the list of seventies Marvel writers who tried to make hash out of Werewolf by Night with limited success. The issue credits have some enthusiasm for pairing two Mikes (Friedrich and Ploog), but then Frank Chiaramonte’s the inker, so how much can they really do? The most Ploog the issue ever gets is probably Topaz; Chiaramonte leaves her alone the most. I think it’s Ploog’s last issue, which makes the watered-down werewolf even more disappointing.

And then the villain.

This issue's villain is a mutant; his mutation contorts his spine and gives him super-strong skin. He begins the issue hijacking a French airliner; Jack and Topaz are connecting through Paris, done with their Tomb of Dracula crossover and ready to get back to Los Angeles. Except then there’s a fourth full moon (which the comic doesn’t explain at all, unfortunately). So Jack changes, running amok in the airport, then getting into a pissing contest with the hijacked airliner.

Thanks to the hijacker attacking the werewolf when it boards the plane, the werewolf decides he’s the bad guy. Topaz tries to control Wolfman Jack, which the bad guy observes, so he kidnaps Topaz and, because it’s a Hunchback of Notre Dame thing, literally takes her to the cathedral as a hostage.

The werewolf goes to save her, surprising bit of emotion in the finish, and scene.

Friedrich doesn’t do well with the Jack narration. He does well with some other things, ranging from the historical detail—hence why the fourth full moon begged explanation—and his willingness to put the werewolf in everyday situations. It’s a plane hijacking guest starring Werewolf by Night. It works way better than it should.

The villain’s a little flat throughout, but Friedrich has an arc for him. The groundwork’s there.

I’d thought Ploog was done after the Dracula crossover (anything to save another Chiaramonte inking), and this issue appears to be it. Unfortunately, art-wise, it’s a wanting finish, even with the usual caveats.

Overall, the whole thing’s wanting; there are just some solid moves from Friedrich, even if they don’t end up working out.

Werewolf by Night (1972) #15

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I’d like to say there are a few pages where Frank Chiarmonte’s inks don’t mess up Mike Ploog’s pencils. I can’t because there’s probably only a page and a half, and not sequentially. Werewolf by Night versus Tomb of Dracula comes to its conclusion here, a better comic than the first installment, which had writer Marv Wolfman (who’s been writing both books) doing a Werewolf issue for a Dracula reader. This finish reads like a jumping-on point; the Tomb of Dracula readers need to be convinced to stay with Werewolf.

There is a bunch of Werewolf housekeeping, though. We get the secret origin of the Russoff family werewolf curse, which involves Dracula. It does not involve–breaking series continuity–a literal curse from Satan. No religiosity here, just a plain angry dude with a stake and a comely lass with a secret. It’s like an old horror comic, only perfunctorily done. Though at least a couple panels are some of the better art in the issue. Not enough of them, but the werewolf reveal is good.

Though, can’t forget… Wolfman has werewolves biting people to change them like vampires. I can’t imagine they’re going to keep that detail going for long. Though there is once again mention of Jack’s sister Lissa maybe getting the curse, which the comic’s been ignoring for a while.

Dracula’s got his own subplot about getting Jack’s dad’s diary; apparently, there are even more powerful spells in it than in the Darkhold, which I don’t think this issue even mentions. Maybe once. But Drac’s after the “Book of Second Sins” or something, which is a weird subtitle for the dad’s diary.

Frank Drake and Rachel Van Helsing also guest star; they’ve got their rental helicopter and are after Dracula. Ploog and Chiarmonte’s Frank Drake looks like Jack Russell with different hair. Rachel Van Helsing’s scar becomes her defining feature here, though maybe they wanted to keep her straight from the other blonde lady, Topaz.

Topaz’s Jack’s accessory this issue. I hope that situation improves.

Ploog and Chiarmonte do get to do a “Dracula attacks girl on countryside” panel, which Tomb of Dracula did fairly regularly for its first half dozen issues (ish). It’s a fun nod to the trope. Then there’s the cartoonish Dracula bat, which I feel Ploog would’ve done wonders with, inking himself.

The ending’s contrived, but so’s the entire issue; it fits. It’s fine. It’s not great, but it’s much better than the first installment. When Wolfman’s writing’s good, it’s good. When it’s not, it’s just mediocre, never worse.

Werewolf by Night (1972) #14

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Marv Wolfman writes the h-e-double hockey sticks out of this issue. Unfortunately, it’s got a lousy ending as Wolfman gets stuck resolving Jack’s subplot with his step-father, Phillip, in a resolution seemingly intended to conclude the aged arc as quickly as possible. But there are some real highlights, including Jack’s moody romance narration for him and Topaz—who steal a passionate kiss before he heads to a showdown—but the best is the car chase.

Out of nowhere, Wolfman and penciller Mike Ploog do this impromptu California mountain highway car chase. It’s awesome. Since it’s mostly in long shot, Frank Chiaramonte’s inks don’t do it too much disservice either. It’s a shame Chiaramonte seems to know to give expression to the werewolf and the bad guy, Taboo, but everyone else is relatively bland. It’s not the worst Ploog inking; it’s just not… well, it’s not good Ploog inking. It’s just not blithering incompetent.

There’s a lot of plot to the issue, too, something most Werewolf writers have avoided. Wolfman resolves the cliffhanger with a fight scene, gets Jack and Topaz back to his place for some smooching, stern words from sister Lissa, and discovers step-dad Phillip’s been brain-transferred to Taboo’s monster.

So Jack’s got to go back and defeat the monster, which should cure the step-dad. But, little does Jack know, the escape was all part of Taboo’s master plan, leading to some surprises in the second half. Maybe not the most consequential surprises, but Wolfman’s generating new, contained subplots, which is nice to see. Because he writes the heck out of it. Just superb work from Wolfman.

I mean, the wrap-up’s a disappointment on a couple levels, and there are some very repetitive series elements—at one point, I was expecting Jack to get turned to stone again, just like in his second adventure—but it’s still an outstanding issue of Werewolf. The big subplot conclusion—going back to the first issue—is just too slight, too easy.

Because they’ve got to get Jack and Topaz on a plane to catch a train so they can guest star in next month’s Tomb of Dracula, which should be interesting.

I feel like there’s some other unresolved plot thread I’m forgetting but maybe not.

Werewolf by Night (1972) #13

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Has Frank Chiaramonte gotten better at inking Mike Ploog, or am I just so happy to see Ploog pencils, I’ll take whatever I get, inking-wise. The inks cut into some of the pencil’s roundness, making people more angular—Phillip Russell in particular. But the werewolf’s still nice and Ploog-y, plus there are plenty of great page layouts. Ploog’s flexing on the composition.

The story involves Jack again getting captured and held prisoner by someone out to get his werewolf magic (or something related). His captor, once again, has a comely female accomplice who gets sympathetic to Jack, putting herself in danger. And then there’s a monster guy to fight.

With minor adjustments, it’s the same story Werewolf by Night has been doing since the second or third issue. The bad guy—Taboo, an Indian mystic—is even after the Darkhold, which one of the first villains was after, though it got ingloriously destroyed ten issues ago. His pretty lady sidekick is Topaz. She’s the one with the real power; Taboo wants her to use her powers to soul-suck Wolfman Jack and put it into Taboo’s sickly son. Taboo was going to heal his son with the Darkhold twenty years ago, but Jack’s real father stole the book from him.

Or stole it back from him. Jack’s father’s history is very muddled.

Further complicating matters is Jack’s step-father, Phillip Russell, also being one of Taboo’s prisoners. Turns out Taboo hired the Committee to harass Russell on his behalf, all so Taboo could get the Darkhold. Werewolf by Night’s plotting appears to be determined by dice roll and bingo card.

Marv Wolfman’s scripting again. Instead of trying to unravel all the outstanding subplots and make sense of them, he’s bundling them together—the mysterious Committee being reduced to a proxy for Taboo, the Darkhold coming back. Jack has a little character development (he wants to be a stunt man). He’s also semi-racist to his Black neighbor again. While the neighbor’s a dick, to be sure, there’s some major subtext. Not to mention Jack’s just a bro.

No sign of his little sister, Lissa, who ought to be werewolfing out any time. The issue picks up at least a month after the previous, without addressing any outstanding plot points (i.e., also absent Buck now knowing Jack’s a werewolf).

I hope once the book loses Ploog for good, the writing somehow ups the ante to compensate because, otherwise, Werewolf’s going to be a Seventies slog.

Werewolf by Night (1972) #3

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Oh, no, is Werewolf by Night going to run off the rails this early? I’m hoping it’s just Gerry Conway burning out on the writing, though the Frank Chiaramonte inks ruin the Mike Ploog pencils too. Actually, the final art’s so de-Plooged, I wonder if he even finished the pencils. There’s occasionally effective art, mostly with the pacing, but it’s never good.

And the final fight sequence is terrible.

The issue opens some months after the previous one, if anyone’s keeping track of continuity, with Jack now living with Buck. It initially seems like Conway’s closing outstanding B-plots quickly; last issue they took the Darkhold to a priest, this issue opens with the priest finishing the translation.

Little does the priest know it’s going to unleash literal Hell.

Priest calls Jack, Jack drives out to see him, forgetting—as usual—it’s the full moon tonight and he changes while driving, crashing the car. By this very early point, things are clearly wrong with both writing and art. The human faces aren’t Ploog-y enough, then the werewolf is… bad. But the writing on the car crash is similarly bad, only without Conway having the excuse Chiaramonte might be inking it wrong.

Things go downhill from there, with Wolfman Jack heading out to the priest’s mission to discover an evil spirit has possessed him. This evil spirit was once a priest himself, and wrote the Darkhold in the Middle Ages. It’s a really, really bad, reductive history for the Darkhold—which gets passed around as a scroll until Jack’s dad gets it in the fifties or whatever, and then binds it. It’s too bad Jack’s dad had that binding hobby, because the Darkhold makes him a werewolf.

Meaning the Russell family werewolf curse is one generation old and is actually demonic possession. Satan himself wants Jack Russell or something.

It’s bad but maybe not spectacularly bad. It’s predictably bad seventies comics. Up until the bull-helmeted Roman spirit soldier from Hell shows up to fight the werewolf.

Alongside that silliness, Jack’s sister, Lissa, has an actually scary arc where she’s trying to get to the priest’s place only the evil spirit has filled the valley with flesh-eating fog. All the human figures are bad, most of the werewolf stuff is bad, but disintegration to skeleton scenes are all good. Too bad they’re not important to the story.

The comic ends on a cliffhanger where they forget how many nights Jack has wolfed out this month. It’s very obviously one, but they say it’s two. Not sure if that gaffe’s Conway or editor Roy Thomas’s fault, but they both have been doing bad work all issue so it’s no surprise.

I knew Werewolf’s art was going to get intolerable eventually (Don Perlin for the win), but I had no idea I’d have to sit through badly inked Ploog. And vapid, pseudo-Christian Satanic panic.

Big sigh.