I’ve always had a soft spot for Steve Ditko’s art. Even thirty-ish years ago, when I was starting to recognize creators in Silver Age books—hunting down older comics to read—Ditko was already a reclusive, right-wing crank. No doubt complaining about wokeness since 1985. History’s just proven his being quiet about it was the only difference between him and many other comic creators.
Except, of course, the talent. Ditko’s art has an energy about it, even here in a Legion of Super-Heroes fill-in. Bob Wiacek inks, doing what he can in the medium and long shots, but there’s this bewildering mix of static and kinetic in the Karate Kid fight scenes. The figures seem stiff, but they move fluidly. And then there’s something weird about the close-ups; not sure if it’s too much Wiacek or not enough.
The outer space stuff is fantastic. Full stop. Steve Ditko’s 2001.
The story—by J.M. DeMatteis—is ambitious but not successful. DeMatteis introduces a wild villain—named Doctor Mayavale—who kidnaps some of the Legionnaires, saying they’ve got a history together from previous lifetimes. The issue plays out like a spec script for a “Star Trek” episode—hey, maybe a “Star Trek: Phase Two” episode—only with the three Legionnaires kind of having something to do with the story. Only not really, just for action scenes.
It’s an incredibly padded story, starting with a reference to current events in the series, then a bookend with Lightning Lad and Saturn Girl (I think; I’ve been reading these for months, and I’m still not sure on most of the names—though Cosmic Boy’s the one dressed like a male stripper). Speaking of Cosmic Boy, he then narrates the flashback–so much padding. Then the mind-boggling cosmic space-time odyssey fit into an “each hero in separate trouble” comic book template.
There’s some really iffy Native American cultural appropriation, which DeMatteis ratchets up throughout the story, and the resolution’s very pat—even for a Legion fill-in—but the issue’s got some charm. It’s silly to see some guy talk about the secrets of the universe when Steve Ditko’s drawing him as a General Custer wannabe. It’s like they knew the absurdism would actually help, so they amped it up.
The wrap-up bookend kills the momentum, but it’s a much better read than it ought to be.
Given Jim Starlin once took his name off a Legion story because it wasn’t published as a Super Spectacular, I started wondering if regular writer Gerry Conway just did the plot for this issue—letting J.M. DeMatteis handle the script—because there’s a Radio Shack advertisement posing as a Superman comic accompanying. With pencils by none other than Jim Starlin.
It’s Aliens. Giffen and DeMatteis are doing “Serious Scooby-Doo Meets Aliens.” And it’s pretty good.
I wouldn’t call Scooby: Apocalypse so much good as successful. It’s Keith Giffen and J.M. DeMatteis doing a “grown-up” version of Scooby Doo, which isn’t something I would’ve thought there’d be an audience for but now I’m not so sure. All of Giffen and DeMatteis’s instincts when it comes to the characters are spot on. They’re “grown-up” and modernized but still annoying in the same ways.
I remember when Kraven’s Last Hunt came out. I was eight or nine. Marvel advertised it something fantastic. I was a regular Spider-Man reader, but mostly from collections and it wasn’t like there were a lot of collections in the late eighties. Almost thirty years later and I still can’t think of a better Spider-Man story, not an eighties or later one.
This issue has Moonshadow and Ira getting forced into military service. It’s an intergalactic war, which gives Muth a lot of great stuff to draw. Moonshadow is conceptually low-tech and almost junky in how it shows extraterrestrial civilization, but Muth does find occasion for some really beautiful details. Space travel through individual bubbles, for example, is breathtaking.
Things get a little too slow this issue, with Moon stuck in an asylum and Ira, his combination sidekick and antagonist, has to break him out. Why? Because Ira needs Moon to work odd jobs to support them. In the meantime, Moon has some encounters with his fellow inmates and there’s a lovely sequence when he plays the flute for them.
Moonshadow continues with DeMatteis going high sci-fi–Moon, his mother and his sidekick, Ira, investigating a desolate spacecraft–while also going absurdist humor. DeMatteis works emotion into both and one of the most startling things about the comic is how dark DeMatteis will take it. The humor and the fantasy never distract; in fact, DeMatteis uses them to amplify the importance of the emotional goings on.
For Moonshadow, writer J.M. DeMatteis doesn’t shy away from showing off the comic’s sci-fi influences. There’s a little Douglas Adams, a little Kurt Vonnegut. But DeMatteis doesn’t rely on those nods to move the story along, they’re just around to make the reader feel comfortable.
Being insincere and not funny are two things Justice League 3000 can’t handle. It’s a dumb idea–in the future, the Wonder Twins clone the Justice League so they can save the galaxy. Only there are problems. For example, Superman is a lot like the Giffen/DeMatteis Guy Gardner, only with some Ultimate Captain America thrown in. He and Batman threaten to kill each other every few panels. Then Batman quips about kryptonite.