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Post by Cei-U! on Jul 23, 2015 6:55:53 GMT -5
Steel, The Indestructible Man #4
August-September 1978 (May 22, 1978) $.35
Cover Art: Don Heck (Penciller), Al Milgrom (Inker), signed
“Greed-Games of the Gadgeteer!” 10 pages
Al Milgrom (Editor), Gerry Conway (Writer), Don Heck (Penciller), Joe Giella (Inker), Clem Robins (Letterer), Bob LeRose (Colorist)
FC: Steel, the Indestructible Man
SC: Prof. Gilbert Giles, Gloria Giles, Kathy Kulhammer, Edward Runyon
Villain: The Gadgeteer
Synopsis
Despite feeling responsible for Dr. Giles' heart attack, Hank Heywood continues his lonely crusade as Steel. Caught on base in full costume by the MPs, he is forced to fight them to avoid arrest for trespassing. Returning to Manhattan, Steel tries to persuade Edward Runyon to reverse his newspaper's isolationist stance. Prodded by Kathy Kulhammer, Runyon suggests a compromise: he'll soften his criticism of Roosevelt and the military if the Indestructible Man will bring in the Gadgeteer. Steel reluctantly agrees, unaware the scheming publisher has no intention of honoring his side of the bargain. The villain in question is busy robbing an armored car when Steel finds him. They skirmish briefly until Gadgeeer beats a hasty retreat. NYPD officers, mistaking the hero for the “guy in a weird costume” they were called in to capture, surround Steel with weapons drawn. “One move,” they warn him, “and you're a dead man!”
“Manhunt!” (7 pages)
Al Milgrom (Editor), Gerry Conway (Writer), Juan Ortiz (Penciller), Bruce Patterson (Inker), Clem Robins (Letterer), Bob LeRose (Colorist)
FC: Steel, the Indestructible Man
SC: Gloria Giles
Villain: The Gadgeteer (dies in this story)
Synopsis
Eluding arrest, Steel follows the Gadgeteer at a distance but the costumed thief gives him the slip. Prompted by the villain's reference to “those idiots in E-Corps,” Pfc. Heywood digs through military personnel records. The solution lies in the file on Colonel Roger Romane, a former R&D man for the Army Corps of Engineers dishonorably discharged for insubordination when his designs for “multi-purpose tools for … combat engineers” were rejected. The Indestructible Man tracks his quarry to Romane's last known address but the Gadgeteer, preferring suicide to surrender, detonates a hand grenade. Steel uses his own body to shield the apartment building's other inhabitants from the explosion, sustaining.serious injuries in the process.
The Good Guys
Steel adds a grappling hook and rope line that can be fired from his tranquilizer rifle to his arsenal in this issue. The mystery of where he carries this equipment on his person continues.
[/b]
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Post by Cei-U! on Jul 25, 2015 8:46:04 GMT -5
Superman #327
September 1978 (June 5, 1978) $.50
Rich Buckler (Penciller), Frank Giacoia (Inker), main image, signed; Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez (Penciller), Dick Giordano (Inker), Mr. & Mrs. Superman figures
“Two Can Die As Cheaply As One” 8 pages
Julius Schwartz (Editor), Cary Bates (Writer), Kurt Schaffenberger (Penciller), Joe Giella (Inker), Jean Simek (Letterer), Gene D'Angelo (Colorist)
FC: Lois Lane Kent, Superman, teamed as Mr. & Mrs. Superman
Villains: Colonel Future, The C-F Gang
Synopsis
Newlyweds Clark and Lois Kent move into their new apartment. A winch hauling a heavy sofa up to their third floor digs snaps but the new groom secretly uses his superpowers to avoid harm. Unknown to the happy couple, the moving crew are actually members of the C-F Gang. Their leader, Colonel Future, is still determined to shut Kent up before his hard-hitting investigative reporting exposes his operations. Leaving Lois to supervise the rest of the move, Clark heads off to work. He starts his car. A second later, it explodes. His would-be assassins are flabbergasted when, a moment later, Kent walks out the apartment building's entrance without a scratch.
Clark had, of course, escaped from the car at super-speed, changed his clothes and gone back outside, convincing the bad guys their bomb went off prematurely. Called back upstairs by Lois, he walks into a trap. With both the falling couch and car bomb failing, the gang has no choice but to simply shoot the Kents.
Although Clark has any number of ways to save them without revealing his true identity, he decides to do nothing. Lois had boasted earlier that she could think of better cover stories than those he had foisted on her, so her husband playfully opts to put her to the test. To his astonishment, she tears open his shirt, revealing his Superman costume beneath. Though he easily disarms and captures the crooks, he is dismayed by Lois' panicky exposure of his secret. When Lois uses the built-in intercom system to tell Clark to come up from the lobby, the light goes on. Impressed by her quick thinking, the Metropolis Marvel plays along, convincing the C-F Gang that Superman substituted for Clark to force them to tip their hand. Lois was right: she is good at creating cover stories.
Behind the Scenes
This is the first episode of the “Mr. & Mrs. Superman” series.
Continuity
This story occurs shortly after the events of Action Comics #484.
The Good Guys
The Kents' address is not given in this issue. They live on the third floor of an apartment building with the street number 6035 (although it might be 60?35 with the ? representing the numeral obscured by the pointer of a word balloon in the single panel depicting the entrance).
Fashion Watch
Superman wears the six-sided chest emblem first seen in the “Superman” story in Action #484. He will wear it in all subsequent episodes of the “Mr. & Mrs. Superman” series.
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Post by Cei-U! on Jul 26, 2015 7:45:53 GMT -5
Black Lightning #11
September-October 1978 (June 19, 1978) $.50
Rich Buckler (Story), Vince Colletta (Inker, signed
“The Rise and Fall of The Ray” 8 pages
Jack C. Harris (Editor), Roger McKenzie (Writer), John Fuller (Penciller), Bob Wiacek (Inker), Shelly Leferman (Letterer), Mario Sen (Colorist)
FC: The Ray
Synopsis
Frustrated and dispirited by his defeat at the hands of Killer Moth and Quakemaster, Happy Terril tosses his costume in the trash and vows to build a new life for himself. But when a raging fire at a Gotham chemical factory threatens the lives of nearby apartment dwellers, instinct takes over. As the Ray, he aids in rescue work despite the local law's awareness of his outlaw status. Exercising his powers to their maximum, Ray draws all the fire's heat into himself. The strain causes him to black out and he drops unconscious into Gotham Bay.
Behind the Scenes
This is the first and only published episode of the Ray's 1970s solo series. It, along with its host title Black Lightning, would be victims of the infamous “DC Implosion,” a massive cutback in the number of titles published by the company.
Continuity
The Ray's battle with Killer Moth and Quakemaster occured in the unpublished “Secret Society of Super-Villains” story originally scheduled for issue #16-17 of that title and printed (with unfinished art) in the limited distribution title Cancelled Comics Cavalcade #2 (Fall 1978).
The second episode of the series, originally scheduled for Black Lightning #12, appears in Cancelled Comics Cavalcade #1 (Summer 1978). When the Ray next appears alongside his fellow Freedom Fighters in DC Comics Presents #62, no reference is made to the events depicted here.
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Post by Cei-U! on Jul 27, 2015 8:10:24 GMT -5
All-Star Comics #74
September-October 1978 (June 26, 1978) $.50
Cover Art: Joe Staton (Penciller), Dick Giordano (Inker), signed
“World On the Edge of Ending” 25 pages
Joe Orlando (Editor), Paul Levitz (Writer), Joe Staton (Penciller), Joe Giella (Inker), Ben Oda (Letterer), Adrienne Roy (Colorist)
FC: The Atom, Doctor Fate, Doctor Mid-Nite, The Flash, Green Lantern, Hawkman, Hourman, The Huntress, Power Girl, Robin, The Sandman, Starman, The Star-Spangled Kid, Superman, Wonder Woman, teamed as the Justice Society of America
Villain: The Master Summoner
Synopsis
Doctor Fate and Hawkman come face to face with the Master Summoner, a giant blue humanoid in Egyptian garb, who warns them that “the hour of cosmic balancing has come… …and unless you act wisely and well, when that hour ends… …so ends the Earth!”
Power Girl and the Huntress, lunching together in their civilian identities, are summoned back to Justice Society headquarters. The newly returned Fate and Hawkman pass on the Summoner's warning. For the few hours “the stars are in conjunction,” events will occur “that may mean the end of life on Earth” if the JSA does not intervene. The good news is that if they succeed in “hold[ing] Earth together through the critical time, the danger will be past-- --and Earth saved for millennia to come!”
Green Lantern, Hawkman and Power Girl travel to the Amur River to stop a skirmish between Russian and Chinese troops amassed along their mutual border. The heroes end the fighting. One injured soldier, healed by the Lantern's power ring, begins manifesting superpowers after the trio's departure ― powers that look suspiciously like a certain form of emerald energy.
Terrorists attack an International Women's Conference in Montreal. Dr. Fate, the Flash and the Huntress round up the bad guys with relative ease. The terrorists were after the “universal translation field,” an experimental technology designed to “make instant understanding of foreign languages possible.” After the JSAers leave, the conference chairwoman activates the device. The field has an opposite effect than intended, making it impossible for the attendees to understand each other, even those who formerly spoke the same language.
The Master Summoner, drawing the JSA to his dimension, reveals that he wants the Earth to die. He makes a show of trying to kill our heroes but they break free from his mystic trap and return home, unaware that their own powers are the means by which the Summoner will achieve his nefarious goal.
Disasters and menaces break out all over the world, far more than even the entire membership can handle. That doesn’t stop them from trying. Fate, realizing that their own powers are triggering the catastrophes, activates the emergency signal.. Though it goes against their every instinct, the JSA sit motionless in their brownstone. This desperate ploy works: an infuriated Master Summoner appears in their midst to warn that, though his plans have been temporarily frustrated, the stars will come into conjunction again millennia from now “and then there shall be a reckoning.”
Behind the Scenes
This is the final issue of All-Star Comics. The “Justice Society of America” series moves to Adventure Comics beginning with issue #461.
The headshot of the Atom on page 24 is from a pin-up by Murphy Anderson that originally appeared in Justice League of America #76 (November-December 1969).
Cosmology
Quebec, the predominantly francophone Canadian province, is an independent nation on Earth-Two.
Continuity
It is not clear how long after the conclusion of the previous issue this story takes place. Power Girl states that a month has elapsed since she established her Karen Starr identity in Showcase #99, which probably occurred prior to the Thorn storyline in All-Star #72-73. The fact that Doctor Fate and Hawkman's encounter with the Master Summoner picks up right where it left off last issue would seem to argue against such a timeline but time may pass at a different rate in the Summoner's home dimension.
Hawkman states that “a few months” have elapsed since Shiera Hall's encounter with Zanadu back in All-Star Comics #60.
No explanation is offered to explain how the Atom and Doctor Mid-Nite escaped from the trap in which they found themselves at the conclusion of Secret Society of Super-Villains #15.
Meeting Minutes
A caption in this story refers to “the tragedies which have kept Batman, the Spectre and Wildcat from their midst.” Wildcat is recovering from his brain surgery and Batman retired his costumed identity following his wife's death but what tragedy Spectre has endured is unexplained.
No explanation is offered for Mister Terrific's failure to answer the JSA's emergency signal.
Hawkman indicates that he is no longer “permanent chairman” of the JSA in this issue. The circumstances surrounding his change in status are not revealed.
Fashion Watch
Hawkman is depicted throughout this issue without his new costume's armbands. He is wearing them on the cover.
The bodyshirt of Hourman's costume is colored both black and red in different panels of this issue. He also wears boots with alternating black and yellow stripes running their full length.
Points to Ponder
Had it not been for the appearance of the Earth-Two Jim Corrigan in the “Justice Society of America” story in All-Star Comics #70, one might conclude that the tragedy that keeps the Spectre from answering the JSA emergency signal in this story is the death of his human host following The Spectre #8 and the Ghostly Guardian's subsequent relocation to Earth-One. It is possible, as noted in the first Points to Ponder note for All-Star #70, that the Earth-Two Corrigan has been resurrected and has chosen not to notify his former teammates since he is no longer playing host to the Spectre. No corroborating evidence exists within the source material, however, to support such a theory.
One of the figures standing with the JSA in this issue's final panel cannot be identified. Most of the figure is obscured by Superman. What can be seen of him strongly resembles Mister Terrific but is colored as if he were Hourman.
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Post by wildfire2099 on Jul 27, 2015 15:03:48 GMT -5
Man, being around for the DC implosion must have been terrible... so much stuff cancelled at once.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 27, 2015 15:20:17 GMT -5
Man, being around for the DC implosion must have been terrible... so much stuff cancelled at once. Kind of like being there for Flashpoint...or the current Secret Wars...or...the Wertham crackdown on publishers...or... -M |
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Post by DE Sinclair on Jul 27, 2015 15:30:44 GMT -5
Man, being around for the DC implosion must have been terrible... so much stuff cancelled at once. It was made worse than if it happened now because there was no internet and much less in the way of fan press (at least that I knew anything about). Most comic buyers just all of a sudden couldn't find the titles they were looking for with no explanation for months why. |
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Post by Deleted on Jul 27, 2015 15:35:31 GMT -5
Man, being around for the DC implosion must have been terrible... so much stuff cancelled at once. It was made worse than if it happened now because there was no internet and much less in the way of fan press (at least that I knew anything about). Most comic buyers just all of a sudden couldn't find the titles they were looking for with no explanation for months why. There have been several "mass extinction events" in comics over the years, what sort of makes the Implosion unique was that it was specific to one publisher (not industry wide like the demise of several publishers after the Wertham debacle or the cancellation of several hero titles in the late 40s from several publishers due to low sales) and a self-inflicted editorial decision (such as DC's decision to cancel their entire line as of Oct 2011 and start over with the new52 or Marvel's current Secret Wars cancellations/restart. That said, comics fans have undergone such startling cancellation binges on multiple occasions both before and after the advent of the internet. -M |
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Post by DE Sinclair on Jul 27, 2015 15:48:57 GMT -5
It was made worse than if it happened now because there was no internet and much less in the way of fan press (at least that I knew anything about). Most comic buyers just all of a sudden couldn't find the titles they were looking for with no explanation for months why. There have been several "mass extinction events" in comics over the years, what sort of makes the Implosion unique was that it was specific to one publisher (not industry wide like the demise of several publishers after the Wertham debacle or the cancellation of several hero titles in the late 40s from several publishers due to low sales) and a self-inflicted editorial decision (such as DC's decision to cancel their entire line as of Oct 2011 and start over with the new52 or Marvel's current Secret Wars cancellations/restart. That said, comics fans have undergone such startling cancellation binges on multiple occasions both before and after the advent of the internet. -M Also some of the ones you mention (new52, current Secret Wars) were planned, which the Implosion wasn't. We knew they were coming far in advance. With the Implosion, all of a sudden titles were gone, announced titles never showed up, and expanded sizes of comics were suddenly slashed. Even the "Wertham debacle" was a more gradual downturn than the sudden DC Implosion. |
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Post by Action Ace on Jul 27, 2015 18:28:10 GMT -5
Man, being around for the DC implosion must have been terrible... so much stuff cancelled at once. And this eight year old had no idea what was going on. My comic book buying peaked in 1977 and it was all downhill from there. Fortunately, Star Wars came along to relieve me of the rest of my money. |
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zilch
Full Member
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Post by zilch on Jul 28, 2015 1:50:55 GMT -5
1977 would have been when i was introduced to the comic book fan press... i recall reading about the "Implosion" and such in, i believe, Comic Reader and another larger magazine type book (not The Comics Journal). Maybe it was called Comic Informer or something like that...
... and the cancelled stuff would take YEARS to finally see print, in bits and pieces...
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Post by Cei-U! on Jul 28, 2015 7:23:09 GMT -5
Green Lantern #108
September 1978 (June 26, 1978) $.50
Cover Art: Mike Grell, signed
“The Champion of the Green Flame” 8 pages
Jack C. Harris (Editor), Cary Burkett (Writer), Mike Vosburg (Penciller), Bob Smith (Inker), Todd Klein (Lettering), Adrienne Roy (Colorist)
FC: Green Lantern
SC: The Flash (as Jay Garrick)
Reintro: Lord Chang
Reintro: The Tong of The Green Dragon (including Chin Loo)
Intro: Lo-Lanke (name revealed in Green Lantern #109)
Synopsis
On a nostalgic flight over Gotham City, Green Lantern witnesses a surge of emerald energy destroy a construction site, energy exactly like that generated by his power ring. Attempting to cage a trio of looters, the Lantern instead blasts them with near-lethal force. Fearing he has lost control of the ring, GL decides to let it run out of power lest it one day do irreparable damage. He changes into his civilian identity, unaware of the beautiful Chinese woman watching from the shadows.
The next day, Alan Scott tells Jay “The Flash” Garrick, in whose guest room he has been staying since moving to Keystone City, that his career as Green Lantern may be over. Jay chides Alan for giving up without proof that his power ring caused yesterday's incidents. Returning to the construction site, GL discovers a trail of green energy leading not to Keystone, as it would have if his ring were the source, but to the heart of Gotham's Chinatown. Bursting in on a meeting of the Tong of the Green Dragon, the Lantern scatters its members. When the tong's leader appears, a man whose face Green Lantern finds familiar, our hero is blasted into unconsciousness by his own emerald energy.
One of the tong, Chin Loo, slowly creeps toward the fallen super-hero, intent on seizing his ring and claiming its power before his master notices.
Continuity
It is not clear where the story in Green Lantern #108-110 fits into Earth-Two continuity. It probably occurs between the “Justice Society of America” stories in All-Star Comics #71 and 72 but this cannot be confirmed.
The Bad Guys
Lord Chang was last seen in the flashback sequence of the “Green Lantern” story in All-American Comics #16 (July 1940).
The Green Dragon Tong was last seen in the “Batman and Robin” story in Detective Comics #39 (May 1940).
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Post by Cei-U! on Jul 29, 2015 6:55:41 GMT -5
Justice League of America #159
October 1978 (July 3, 1978) $.50
Cover Art: Rich Buckler (Penciller), Dick Giordano (Inker), signed
“Crisis from Yesterday!” 25 pages
Julius Schwartz (Editor), Gerry Conway (Writer); Dick Dillin (Penciller), Frank McLaughlin (Inker); Ben Oda (Letterer), Carl Gafford (Colorist)
FC: The Atom, Batman, Black Canary, The Elongated Man, The Flash, Green Arrow, Green Lantern, Hawkgirl, Hawkman, The Red Tornado, Superman, Wonder Woman, teamed as the Justice League of America
GS: Doctor Fate, Doctor Mid-Nite, The Flash, Green Lantern, The Huntress, The Star-Spangled Kid, Superman, Wonder Woman, teamed as the Justice Society of America
GS: The Black Pirate, Enemy Ace, Jonah Hex, Miss Liberty, The Viking Prince
Villain: The Lord of Time
Intro: The Eternity Brain
Synopsis
On Earth-One, the Justice Society and Justice League are indulging in lobster and small talk at Gotham City's swank Club 22 when, without warning, an explosion rips through the restaurant's walls.
In “a place outside the flow of time” stands the Palace of Eternity, home to the Lord of Time, the scientist from the 38th Century who is an arch-foe of the JLA. Within, the time-traveling criminal converses with his latest creation: the Eternity Brain, a sentient computer “composed of living tissue, capable of plucking anything, anyone, from past, present or future!” In less than ten hours the Brain, whose programming cannot be overridden once activated, will obey the villain's order to stop time. Unfortunately, as the Time Lord to his horror belatedly realizes, once time has stopped, it cannot be restarted. All of existence will be destroyed unless the five agents he has snatched from their proper eras and endowed with superhuman powers can defeat the League and Society before then.
Back in the Twentieth Century, the Lord of Time's pawns continue their attack, bringing the roof down on top of the startled super-heroes. As the dust settles over the rubble, the attackers stand revealed as the gunfighter Jonah Hex, Jon the Viking Prince, World War I flying ace Hans Von Hammer, the Revolutionary War-era mystery woman called Miss Liberty, and Elizabethan England's Black Pirate. The time-tossed quintet are confused, frightened and angered by their situation. Unable to explain the compulsion that led to their assault on the two teams, they flee into the night.
Slowly, eight battered individuals rise from the debris of Club 22: Doctor Mid-Nite, the Huntress, the Star-Spangled Kid and Wonder Woman from the Justice Society and Elongated Man, the Flash, Hawkman and Superman from the Justice League. The rest of the heroes are comatose and are taken to a nearby hospital. The furious survivors vow vengeance.
Superman tracks the chronal energies emitted by their assailants to the Valley Forge Memorial. Even without the element of surprise on their side, the Lord of Time's unwilling pawns are too much for the heroes. One by one, they crumple in defeat. Moments after their ignoble victory, Hex and the others are summoned to the Palace of Eternity and placed in stasis. Unable to comprehend its master's strategy, the Eternity Brain is ignorant of the Time Lord's true plan: to provoke the League and Society into attacking his citadel and somehow destroying the invincible computer before it can stop time and destroy creation.
Behind the Scenes
The figure of the Earth-Two Superman on page 1 is an art patch by someone other than Dick Dillin and Frank McLaughlin.
Cosmology
Although the story in this and the following issue is said to take place on July 15, 1978, that is the Earth-One date. If time passes slower on Earth-Two, as first asserted in Justice League of America #82, dates on the two planets probably do not coincide.
Although the Black Pirate is a Golden Age character whose solo series ran alongside those of several JSAers in Action Comics, All-American Comics and Sensation Comics, he is presented as an Earth-One native in this story.
Continuity
It is not clear where the events of Justice League of America #159-60 fit into Earth-Two continuity. They probably occur between the “Justice Society of America” stories in All-Star Comics #71 and 72 (see the first Continuity note for All-Star #74 for further details) but this cannot be confirmed.
The Good Guys
The Black Pirate was last seen in his solo series in All-American Comics #102 (October 1948).
The Earth-Two Wonder Woman notes that the controls of her Earth-One counterpart's invisible robot plane differ from hers.
Fashion Watch
The Earth-Two Wonder Woman is depicted with curly hair and her Earth-One doppelgänger with straight hair throughout this story.
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Post by Cei-U! on Jul 30, 2015 7:29:19 GMT -5
The Batman Family #20
October-November 1978 (July 10, 1978) $1.00
Cover Art: Jim Starlin, signed
“Trial By Fire” 12 pages
Allen Milgrom (Editor), Paul Levitz (Writer), Joe Staton (Penciller), Bob Layton (Inker), Todd Klein (Letterer), Adrienne Roy (Colorist)
FC: The Huntress
SC: Arthur Cranston
Villain: Franklin Gresham (dies in this story)
Synopsis
Regaining consciousness, the Huntress finds herself a bound prisoner inside a burning warehouse. Escape comes easily to Batman's daughter, a relationship that could become public knowledge if Councilman Gresham removed her mask while she was knocked out. She decides to stay out of the public eye in both identities until she can uncover the truth.
A week later, satisfied Huntress is dead, Gresham escorts a group of federal investigators and reporters on a tour of his district. The unscrupulous politician, hoping a federal grant for urban renewal will put him in the governor's mansion, falls through a rotted floorboard… and right into the waiting arms of the Huntress. As they struggle, the firebomb Gresham planted in the building accidentally detonates. The councilman is killed in the conflagration, taking the secret of Huntress' identity with him. Ironically, his death results in the very federal funding for South Gotham that he sought.
Behind the Scenes
This is the final issue of The Batman Family[/b]. The ‘Huntress’ series moves to Wonder Woman beginning with issue #271.
Cosmology
A newswoman mentions Police Chief O'Hara in this issue. This is the first mention of that character, created for the 1960s Batman TV series, in Earth-Two continuity. In the same report, the mayor of Gotham City is identified as someone named Winston. Neither character's full name is revealed.
The Good Guys
The Huntress' crossbow is made of vanadium steel.
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Post by Cei-U! on Jul 31, 2015 7:07:23 GMT -5
Green Lantern #109
October 1978 (July 24, 1978) $.50
Cover Art: Mike Grell, signed
“The Green Dragon of… Death” 8 pages
Jack C. Harris (Editor), Cary Burkett (Writer), Juan Ortiz (Penciller), Vince Colletta (Inker), Clem Robbins (Letterer), Adrienne Roy (Colorist)
FC: Green Lantern
SC: Lo-Lanke
Villains: Lord Chang, The Tong of the Green Dragon (Chin Loo dies in this story)
[b[Synopsis[/b]
Chin Loo, unaware that Green Lantern's power ring “cannot be worn by someone whose purpose is consciously evil,” surreptitiously slips it onto his own finger and is promptly consumed by emerald flames. His gruesome death creates enough of a distraction for GL to reclaim the ring and escape.
The next morning, the Lantern returns to Chinatown in civilian guise. Lo-Lanke, the girl who witnessed the hero changing identities last issue, provides the answers he seeks. The leader of the Tong of the Green Dragon is Lord Chang, the wicked wizard of ancient China who first formed the green lantern of power from a meteor. Though he lost the lantern during an attack by superstitious villagers, Chang survived the assault. Retaining a small chip of the meteor, which he calls the “Power Stone,” the villainous magician used its energies to keep himself alive through the centuries. Unable to otherwise harness the fragment's power until recently, Chang now seeks to reclaim the lantern and ring for his own evil purposes. Though Lo-Lanke opposes his plans, she is prevented from acting against him by an unspecified debt of honor.
Before Alan can digest this news, he is felled by a blast of emerald energy. Riddled with doubt, his confidence shaken, Green Lantern engages his foe in battle but falls to Lord Chang's superior will power. When he regains consciousness a few moments later, the hero finds himself stripped of his ring, bound in heavy chains and about to be thrown to his death in a flaming pit.
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