For me, it was like eating a giant bowl of popcorn. I just could not stop eating and HAD to read the next issue. Bronze Age DC will always be "home", but Silver Age DC is now my favorite era in all of comics.

Wait 'till issue.. 4 is it?  Or maybe it's 5.  Anyway, all will become clear.

I like the Kirby Challengers quite a bit, but that's mostly 'causuh the constant inventive variety of the monster and villain designs, and a general affection for the "living on borrowed time" premise - although I grant that the creators never seemed to do much with it.  

I'm curious about the post-Kirby material, too.  Except for one issue of Doom Patrol crossover and an issue or two of Super-Team Family, I'm woefully under-read.  If you keep reading, tell me if this is any good.  

Xotar the weapons master of the future!   Sounds great, and he has an awesome robot.  The devils in the details, though.. he really scavenged all the stuff, and he only has 4 weapons.  He's sure one will get him out of his predicament in the year 11960, but he can only know which if he goes back in time to fight the Justice League!  But not all at once, he's chosen specific league members to try each weapon out on... because a guy named the weaponsmaster wouldn't possibly think to use them in some sort of combo.

Besides, that's MUCH easier than just going back a couple thousand years, and you know, escaping.

Batman shows up this time, but not only is he useless (he's completely stumped by Xotar's riddle, while Flash(the first weapon's fight),Manhunter and Aquaman (the 2nd), and Wonder Woman and Green Lantern (the 3rd) have no trouble.  Instead, he leave to find Superman...who swoops in at the end to save the rest of the League from the 4th weapon.  Apparently, he was in another time too, so he didn't hear the signal.  He makes the robot go back to the future never to return (because, you know, Superman is Superman).  The End!

Of course, as it turns out, he does come back (a couple times!) so maybe Superman isn't perfect after all!

Snapper is there too, he's bait.  I suspect that'll happen alot.  Oh, and everything the bad guy had was yellow, of course.

Funny how the Silver Age works... the 'superweapons' from 10,000 years in the future were really pretty sad... one was a shrink ray, which only worked for a minute until you kept it focused on the person long enough for them to be sub-atomic.. on was a 'de-volver'... it broke easily, so no idea if that worked or not.  #3 (by far the best) puts you in a bubble and sends you into deep space...sadly, it can be defeated with a bit of mud in the barrel.  The last one was an 'illusion maker', which worked the same what that sort of thing always works.  I mean, you'd think a guy named the weaponsmaster could, maybe, blow something up?

Too passe I guess.
I did like the riddles, though, they were clearly meant to toss in some fun facts, which I approve of... a bit more subtlety would have been nice though.

Overall, Super-Campy, but fun, and it has a cool robot AND dinosaurs!

Story: 7/10
History: 8/10 (Superman shows up!)

I can only imagine how much hatred this story would have caused among today's fandom. I'd log into the message board and it would be 32 pages of complaining about how "Supergod" upstaged everyone else at the end. 28 of those pages would be from three Wonder Woman fans.

Where did Wonder Woman get the supplies for her notebook journal at the end of the issue? One would think she just took it from The Pentagon like any other employee, but the paper lasts 10,000 years. If she coated it with some sort of Amazonian archival spray, why did some of the words smear? I demand answers to my pointless questions!

Captain Carrot's take on this issues cover (note the ears)...



My ratings

Historical importance: B-
Art: C
Story: C+
Cover: C (Aquaman's hammer is not nearly as effective as Thor's)

I'm really looking forward to the next issue.

You got that right!  That's pretty consistent with what little Silver Age superman I've read, though.  The silliness was from Martian Manhunter... he used his 'martian breath' to suck trace elements out of the air and make glass... really?

One more Justice League story before I do some solo books...





Brave and the Bold #30
'The Case of the Stolen Superpowers'

Well, I guess if a formula works, don't mess with it.  We start out with clips of the Leaguers doing their thing, but losing their powers for a moment (Not Batman or Superman, naturally.. it's later explained that Batman doesn't have any powers, and Superman is Superman, thus can't lose his powers without Kryptonite).  I wonder at this point if anyone thought to have those pages in Flash, GL, Wonder Woman, etc, with a footnote?  Sure would have made me get B&B if I didn't already.  Anyway, They get together to discuss, and find out crimes were committed with their powers while they were gone.

That paragon of logic and mystery, Snapper Carr, figures out the crimes are targeting things that live the longest, amd we get a little lesson on what insects and animals live the longest.  Snappper hands out cards to the leagues and they go and try to stop other long lived things from getting kidnapped (Batman and SUperman both get an assignment, but neither is shown 'on camera').   

Next is the now usual medley of leaguers losing singly, as the robot Amazo is beats them all using the others powers.

Once the Leaguers are captured (except Batman and Superman, who doesn't appear again), Professor Ivo monologues, and drinks his immortality serum.  Apparently, that was Amazo's goal, and now that he'll live for '500 years at least' he can permanently steal the leagues powers and get them into Amazo to rule the world.  He fails, of course, and everyone is happy.

This one has SO MANY silly things in it.  First off, Amazo somehow gets a duplicate Green Lantern Ring and Magic Lasso, both of which work.  Later, he charges his ring on Hal's battery, which he stole (off camera).. how'd it get charged in the first place, then?  Also, he can only use his duplicate magic lasso when he has Wonder Woman's powers (I guess of rodeo roping?)

Even worse, though is the yellow thing.  First Amazo uses... something to suck enough gold molecules out of the sea to make himself a golden suit.   Yeah.  Then, Hal WASHES IT OFF.  

Later, Flash escapes Amazo's green barrier by plucking a cuckoo of yellow feathers, and making wings to wear.  I guess only Amazo has to be yellow head to toe... but yet the yellow in Flashes costume doesn't count.  The then glides to over the water, because, you know, he can't run across it or anything.

But wait, there's more!  When Prof. Ivo thinks he's mind wiped the league and won, it turns out Hal was able to suck in the Chlorine that was part of the knockout gas (yes, plain old Hal, not super breath J'onn).. he then let it out slowly so the yellow-ness would protect his brain.

Yup.  Oh, and his power ring was able to suck all the powers out of Amazo, and give them back to their rightful owners, which would have been really helpful to do BEFORE all this happened.

Pretty silly overall, but lots of nice head shots (good facial expressions, I thought) especially)

Plot: C-
Historical Signifigance B+ (1st Amazo, Dr. Ivo)