All-Star Comics (1978) #73

Paul Levitz (script)

Joe Staton (pencils)

Joe Giella (inks)

Adrienne Roy (colors)

Todd Klein (letters)

Joe Orlando (editor)

Fourteen issues into the book and–as nearly as they’ve ever come–writer Paul Levitz, penciller Joe Staton, and editor Joe Orlando have figured out All-Star. Some of it’s very intentional: Levitz keeps Wildcat unconscious for the entire issue, so he can’t be an asshole, and neither Flash nor Green Lantern says anything shitty to Huntress. They’ve learned since they said shitty things to Power Girl back when the book started (and had a different writer). And even Staton’s contributions have some intentionality. Inker Joe Giella (will he return, one hopes, but does not know) gives Staton’s pencils the best inks they’ve had on this book. It’s hands down the best art on a Staton issue.

But the action breakdowns, which keep the heroes very busy, those successes are all on Staton (and however Levitz scripts). So, good work all around.

The issue opens with Huntress II (aka Helena Wayne, aka the Huntress in this comic) in a standoff with Huntress I, who really hates superheroes and really hates her name being taken, so it’s a bonus Thorn’s hired her to take out Huntress II. All-Star has had multi-issue arcs before, Levitz has done them before, but these two issues are going to be a very taunt two-parter. The team is hanging around the hospital waiting for Huntress to get back with an ice-ray gun to cure Wildcat, and Green Lantern turns on the ring-powered closed circuit, and they see Huntress II in great peril.

So Green Lantern goes to save her. Huntress II is in a different city. The other heroes are the Flash and Power Girl, who use their super speed to try to find where Thorn is hiding. It seems very much like there’s a misalignment of powers and responsibilities on this mission. Until it turns out Thorn isn’t just robbing a few banks, she’s going to hit her old nemesis Flash where it hurts. It’s genuinely tense stuff, just done in this cartoonish manner. It feels less like All-Star than a Saturday morning cartoon adaptation of All-Star, and it just happens to be good. And entertaining. And surprisingly well executed, visually. Staton works on how the story unfolds between panels, often with Giella’s inks making some reasonably nice art.

And Levitz has also hit a stride. He’s far more confident in his narration, focusing on the blow-by-blow in the action scenes and not paying as much attention to the interpersonal communication. All-Star’s got a messy team with a lot of cohesion; Flash and Green Lantern haven’t even really worked on their friendship until the last few issues, to the detriment of their JSA service, too. Power Girl’s got very little going on when she’s not arguing with a misogynist (Wildcat’s unconscious state reaps many rewards). Huntress II gets a showcase. So, skipping over how awkward or unpleasant a working situation everyone must be having—especially with Wildcat on the brink and everyone pretending it wouldn’t improve the book—it works. It’s a superhero team comic, it’s fine.

Levitz has worked really hard to get this comic to this point, and it’s great Staton’s there to offer solid support.

I sure hope this issue isn’t the unannounced penultimate issue of All-Star Comics.

Teen Titans (1966) #50

Bob Rozakis (script)

Don Heck (pencils)

Joe Giella (inks)

Jerry Serpe (colors)

Milt Snapinn (letters)

E. Nelson Bridwell (associate editor)

Julius Schwartz (editor)

Writer Bob Rozakis—and I mean this statement as a compliment—has a wonderfully juvenile vibe for Teen Titans. Their dialogue is very groovy, maybe a little too groovy for 1977 (though they are down with disco, thank goodness), and Rozakis seems to be targeting a younger audience than the cast. The Titans are all either post-high school at this point, going to college, or working jobs; Rozakis positions them aspirationally. For example, Kid Flash’s concerns about his parents being able to afford a better college for him aren’t character development fodder for Wally West, rather some didactic storytelling to let the pre-college readers know sometimes you don’t get to go to a fancy college with Robin and Harlequin.

The issue’s setting up for next time, with strong cliffhangers for each team of Titans, and it ought to finish a little less substantial, but Rozakis (and artists Don Heck and Joe Giella) deliver an impressively solid (for a setup narrative) outing. Again, against the grain, if Rozakis were writing for the characters, the issue’s a collection of purposeful vignettes more than a story with rising action. The cover promises the East Coast Titans (Robin, Wonder Girl, Kid Flash, Speedy, Harlequin) against the West Coast team. The West Coast team is mostly retired—but still young—heroes: Hawk (without Dove), the original Bat-Girl, Golden Eagle, and Changeling. Though maybe he’s still Beast Boy.

The issue delivers separate stories for each team and no obvious link between their adventures yet—hence why you’ll be back next time.

The East Coast team opens the issue, with everyone in their civvies, riding the train back from Kid Flash and Wonder Girl visiting Robin and Harlequin’s aforementioned fancy university. There’s a strange disaster, followed by a strange villain fight. The disaster is odd, the villain is bizarre, the fight and heroics are just excellent superhero work from Heck and Giella. Their backgrounds are sometimes too sparse, and they lack detail, but the action moves beautifully.

The West Coast team’s adventure involves a levitating aircraft carrier. It’s a big enough carrier to host original Bat-Girl Betty Kane’s tennis match, but not big enough to warrant any crew scenes during the match or levitation sequence outside them, being background for the heroes. Hawk is currently serving in the Navy on the carrier. He and Bat-Girl team up to save the sailors while Changeling and Golden Eagle both get involved aerially.

Rozakis does varying levels of setup on these characters, with Golden Eagle and Changeling getting more than the others (Hawk gets the least, even giving up some of his time to establish he doesn’t know jack about Batgirl canon). The East Coast team will—thanks to their second scene—get the better character stuff, but the superhero team-up action of the West Coast team is superior. The East Coast team basically does solo heroics, West Coast works together.

After the West Coast team meet a couple surprise guest stars, they cliffhanger, and the action returns to the Titans in their headquarters. Rozakis trades Kid Flash and Wonder Girl for Speedy, Guardian, and Bumblebee. Guardian and Bumblebee have their own subplot (including some knowing, toxic masculinity-based decisions), but it’s even more for Speedy. Robin tells him to stop being creepy about women, and Harlequin takes him to task for being a pest. It’s fantastic stuff, and where Rozakis distinguishes himself.

Then they have to go to an action scene, which turns out to be connected to their first action sequence, and—according to the ending tag, anyway—will involve them meeting up with the other team… next issue!

For a Bronze Age teen superhero team comic, it’s hard to imagine it can get any better; the issue’s an exemplar of the category.

Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes (1977) #244

Slsh244

There’s no messing around here: writer Paul Levitz is doing a future sci-fi superhero war comic, which is one heck of a flex. He’s even doing it with Joes Staton and Giella art. The art’s nowhere near as bad as I thought it’d be when I saw Staton’s name; the layouts are fine. At their best, Staton and Giella’s faces look like bland teenagers from an Archie comic. Well, except the girls. Sometimes they put effort into the girls’ faces. There’s some lousy art for sure, but Staton does work on it. There’s a whole lot of action in a variety of settings.

The previous issue ended with a cliffhanger promising this issue would reveal the mysteries of Earthwar, which it indeed does, but without much (if any) fanfare. Levitz is too busy with the story to slow down for the reveals.

The issue opens with the remaining Legionnaires headed to Earth, led by Wildfire (and Superboy). Why Superboy, who’s going to grow up into planet-juggling Silver Age Superman, can’t take out the invading alien army on his own….

Doesn’t matter.

The opening’s a little rocky, with Dawnstar having good ideas and Wildfire being, like, too surprised. And Superboy being dismissive about it. She’s not even being her usual elitist mercenary self. But they quickly listen to her and solve one part of the Earthwar mystery—identifying a mystery bad guy. They don’t clear all the other suspects, though, making things interesting even if the comic loses track of that outstanding thread.

Levitz shoehorns in some solutions throughout. He’s already introduced the retired Legionnaires—the two married couples—coming to Earth to try to save the day, and they get a big, good sequence for themselves. I’m not sure I’ve ever actually read a comic with Bouncing Boy before (outside Who’s Who), but he kicks ass this issue, which is a hoot and is kind of Staton’s most distinct action.

But Levitz already hinted at their involvement; Karate Kid shows up from the past to help out and is almost immediately indispensable to the story, while characters who’d had some previous importance are on ice.

They’re not even imaginative enough to call narrative tricks, so maybe just contrivances, but they’re mere potholes in the greater story. It’s a thrilling read.

The ending’s got another big reveal… oh, wait a second, that unnamed, pretty albeit otherwise indistinguishable fighting lady is the science police officer from before? They go a little too fast bringing her in, but she should be there for the big reveal. But before the big reveal, there’s another seemingly big reveal. It’s an okay cliffhanger—maybe it’d mean more if I knew the context—but a breather would be nice after the intense issue.

Superman and Batman: World’s Funnest (2000)

Worlds funnest

Dave Gibbons does the most art on World’s Funnest. It’s not exactly the standard Dave Gibbons art, either, it’s Dave Gibbons doing Silver Age and it’s awesome. What writer Evan Dorkin taps into with World’s Funnest is the experience of being a Batman and Superman fan in the late eighties and early nineties; it’s practically a companion piece for those Greatest [insert DC character here] Stories Ever Told. The hardcover ones with beautiful reprints of the old stories, which weren’t cool in any modern sense, but you had to do the work to appreciate them because you want to be a good fan. You want to understand. And Dorkin’s trip through the DC multiverse is all about understanding, both the multiverse and the way it presents to the reader. Even though the first eighteen or so pages are all set in the Silver Age, Dorkin’s observations about the tropes make it all very modern. It never feels wrong to the characters, but it’s rather self-aware, from injured villains to Robin’s constant need for approval; Dorkin could’ve stopped World’s Funnest with a Silver Age riff and done something awesome, but then he keeps going.

I didn’t know what to expect from World’s Funnest. I missed it when it first came out, but I definitely wasn’t expecting to open it to discover an impressive list of creators. Unfortunately, it’s an alphabetical list of creators. So I sorted them out in order of their contributions.

First up after Gibbons is Mike Allred, who also comes first alphabetically, so he’s a terrible example. Oh, wait, I probably need to at least acknowledge the premise of the comic, which I wasn’t familiar with either. Mr. Mxyzptlk and Bat-Mite battle across the DC multiverse and its various time periods and dimensions within universes. Dorkin doesn’t get into the science, which is both awesome and surprising. I can’t believe they got away with some of this stuff.

Allred handles the Phantom Zone, but an Earth–2 Phantom Zone? Like pre-Crisis Earth–2 Phantom Zone. Or maybe just a Silver Age Phantom Zone. Again, Dorkin’s not interested in the locations for narrative purposes, just for homage. It’s a violent, pseudo-cynical homage, but it’s never mean-spirited. World’s Funnest is enamored with the comics it comments on. With the possible exception of some nineties references.

Then Sheldon Moldoff handles the actual Earth-Two visit, Stuart Immomen and Joe Giella on Earth-Three. Frank Cho’s got some lovely art for the Quality Comics universe. Jaime Hernandez does Captain Marvel’s universe, which is a hilarious visit for the battling imps. Dorkin never directly contrasts the different universes, but lining them up and inspecting each does reveal a lot of amusing details. Scott Shaw gets Captain Carrot, Stephen DeStefano does some fumetti, then Jim Woodring gets to do the trip to the Fifth Dimension.

Now, it’s hard to imagine not being familiar with Mr. Mxyzptlk and Bat-Mite as a DC Comics reader, but it gets more possible with each passing year and each rebranding and each reboot. Dorkin approaches the story with just the right mix of nostalgia and commentary; there isn’t time for introducing the various worlds though–which might actually make World’s Funnest a great primer for DC Comics history. There’s a familiarity curve to the comic book. A daunting one.

After Woodring, David Mazzucchelli does an amazing Jack Kirby trip to Apokolips. I didn’t think it was Mazzucchelli when I was reading it. I’m even more impressed now and I was rather impressed while reading it. Dorkin and Mazzucchelli match Kirby’s enthusiasm and outlandishness without letting it go absurd. Darkseid’s one of the best supporting players in the comic.

Jay Stephens does “Super Friends,” Glen Murakami and Bruce Timm do a storyboard for the animated series, then along comes Frank Miller to do a Dark Knight bit. It’s freaking amazing. And really good art from Frank too; I think the good art from Frank Miller in 2000 was what surprised me the most about it. Doug Mahnke and Norm Rapmund do the nineties flashback, which is the closest the comic gets towards being nasty about its reference points. Then Phil Jimenez does an awesome Crisis section, very Perez. Ty Templeton does a few pages of general universe transporting before the Alex Ross finale. It’s only a few pages, a few panels, but it’s awesome to see what a “Batman: The TV Show” Bat-Mite would’ve looked like (albeit in superior lighting to the show).

And it’s funny. All of it’s really funny and really smart about how it’s being funny. Dorkin doesn’t have one joke not connect, even the handful I might not have fully appreciated. It’s a lovely tribute to a lot of comics and a lot of comic creators. I’m embarrassed not to have read it until now.

Superman and Batman: World’s Funnest (November 2000)

Superman and Batman: World's Funnest Dave Gibbons does the most art on World’s Funnest. It’s not exactly the standard Dave Gibbons art, either, it’s Dave Gibbons doing Silver Age and it’s awesome. What writer Evan Dorkin taps into with World’s Funnest is the experience of being a Batman and Superman fan in the late eighties and early nineties; it’s practically a companion piece for those Greatest [insert DC character here] Stories Ever Told. The hardcover ones with beautiful reprints of the old stories, which weren’t cool in any modern sense, but you had to do the work to appreciate them because you want to be a good fan. You want to understand. And Dorkin’s trip through the DC multiverse is all about understanding, both the multiverse and the way it presents to the reader. Even though the first eighteen or so pages are all set in the Silver Age, Dorkin’s observations about the tropes make it all very modern. It never feels wrong to the characters, but it’s rather self-aware, from injured villains to Robin’s constant need for approval; Dorkin could’ve stopped World’s Funnest with a Silver Age riff and done something awesome, but then he keeps going.

Mxy and Bat-Mite battle for Infinite Earths; art by Dave Gibbons.

Mxy isn't sure what to make of the Marvel Family, art by Jaime Hernandez. — Mxy isn’t sure what to make of the Marvel Family, art by Jaime Hernandez.

Not even Darkseid can keep a straight face during WORLD'S FUNNEST; art by David Mazzucchelli! — Not even Darkseid can keep a straight face during WORLD’S FUNNEST; art by David Mazzucchelli!

It's Bat-Mite by Alex Ross. Really. — It’s Bat-Mite by Alex Ross. Really.

CREDITS

Last Imp Standing!; writer, Evan Dorkin; artists, Dave Gibbons, Mike Allred, Sheldon Moldoff, Frank Cho, Jaime Hernandez, Scott Shaw, Stephen DeStefano, Jim Woodring, David Mazzucchelli, Jay Stephens, Frank Miller, Phil Jimenez, Ty Templeton and Alex Ross; pencillers, Stuart Immomen, Glen Murakami and Doug Mahnke; inkers, Joe Giella, Bruce Timm and Norm Rapmund; colorist, Chris Chuckry and Mazzucchelli; letterer, Tom Orzechowski; editor, Joey Cavalieri; publisher, DC Comics.

Showcase 13 (March-April 1958)

What a bad issue for Flash.

Joe Giella’s inks on Infantino don’t have any perspective. Faces are flat, even with features implying depth. Then, on the second story, Frank Giacoia’s inks give everything a sketchy look. Neither story looks like each other, much less the standard Infantino.

Robert Kanigher writes the first story, with Barry headed around the world to solve crises while still needing to make a date with Iris. Iris is mean to Barry, he’s a doofus and all of his rescues involve beautiful women who complement Flash. The action seems more like Superman: The Movie.

The second story has Flash fighting Mr. Element. Writer John Broome is big on fantastic events, but Infantino gives them tiny panels. Iris is still mean to Barry here, even if he’s a little less of a doofus.

The issue doesn’t impress, not for art, certainly not for writing. It’s rather tiresome.

Detective Comics (1937) #517

Dc517

They’re really dragging out the Batman turns into a vampire thing. I think this issue is the fourth or fifth of the story. I guess it’s fine, since it’s Colan and DeZuniga again and I am curious how everything is going to tie together.

Conway and Levitz are finally bringing Vicki Vale into Batman’s story, with Dick Grayson (as an evil, mind controlled vampire) kidnapping her.

The approach to vampires is particular. There apparently aren’t–according to this issue–vampires in the DC universe, at least not enough the bad vampires here could be related to them. The vampires here have their own origin and their own vampire hunter. It’s a lot of backstory, but I guess Conway and Levitz wanted to give Colan something to draw to resemble his Tomb of Dracula content.

The Batgirl as snake lady backup mercifully ends. It’s supposed to be tragic, but it’s just silly instead.

Detective Comics 517 (August 1982)

Conway and Levitz are finally bringing Vicki Vale into Batman’s story, with Dick Grayson (as an evil, mind controlled vampire) kidnapping her.

The Batgirl as snake lady backup mercifully ends. It’s supposed to be tragic, but it’s just silly instead.

CREDITS

The Monster in the Mirror; writers, Gerry Conway and Paul Levitz; penciller, Gene Colan; inker, Tony DeZuniga; colorist, Adrienne Roy; letterer, Annette Kawecki. A Tale of Two Serpents!; writer, Cary Burkett; penciller, Jose Delbo; inker, Joe Giella; colorist, Tom Ziuko; letterer, Janice Chiang. Editor, Dick Giordano; publisher, DC Comics.

Detective Comics (1937) #516

Dc516

The Batman feature is problematic to say the least. Batman infiltrates a school for criminals as “Matches” Malone (gag) and is quickly found out. He then has to dispatch of the criminals as Batman. Conway and Kupperberg–not sure why Conway needed an assist here, there’s no heavy lifting in this issue–never explain how the criminals figured out it was Batman.

An additional problem is with the ruse itself. Why didn’t Batman just shut the school down himself? Why bother auditing the classes?

It’s silly but not terrible. The Newton art is good and there’s enough going on with Alfred and Gordon to keep the issue moving. Oddly, all of Conway’s B plots seem to involve everyone but Batman.

The Batgirl backup is actually pretty neat. She’s unconscious for the majority of the story, which is lame, but the end is great–she’s turning into a giant serpent lady.

Detective Comics (1937) #515

Dc515

Ugh. “Matches” Malone is so goofy. Why hasn’t anyone modernized him….

Otherwise, it’s a decent issue. The Chiaramonte inks are the best so far. It’s not the best Newton, but it’s good.

Conway gets a lot of story going–Bruce is in LA investigating a school for criminals, Dick is stalking his ex-girlfriend (who seems to be in a cult) and Alfred is trying to convince Vicki Vale Bruce isn’t Batman. Only Gordon is missing, which Bruce comments on at one point.

The exposition–the only place where Conway ever goes overboard–is in check; he’s able to bring enough humanity to the characters, it overpowers any plot silliness.

Too bad he’s got Bruce romancing Vicki though. It’d have been more interesting if it’d been Alfred, especially after this issue’s events.

The Batgirl backup is awful. Batgirl fights with Lady Viper for the entire story. Nicely, the lame writing distracts from the art.