Arak, son of Thunder #28 - 33

Our Qutontauka brave escapes Constantinople alongside his satyr friend Satyricus (what a name for a satyr) and a priestess of Artemis, Dyanna, who can turn into a lion. We then get into Simon Frazer territory, as Arak inadvertently enters the forest in which the mythical Golden Bough grows; this and the adjoining grove are defended by the (male) high priest of Artemis, whose job appointment is for life -until he gets killed by someone who takes his place, that is. Said priest attacks Arak, who has to slay him in self-defense; our hero is then captured by a tribe of Amazons, all worshippers of Artemis, who make him the new high priest and cause him to lose his memory. Arak's hair eventually grows back; the mohawk look didn't last all that long in the end!

Months later, an evil magician means to gain immortality by capturing Satyricus and getting some satyr's blood on the Golden Bough; that little operation is supposed to make one eternal. (Considering that the magician was beheaded once in the past, I can understand his wish for a good life insurance).

The evil dude invades Artemis's sacred grove and his plans come close to fruition, but it is ultimately stopped by a combination of Arak's fortitude (our friend recovered his memory eventually) and Dyanna sacrificing the Golden Bough, which she breaks rather than see it used to nefarious ends. The decapitated wizard is redecapitated, and it's time for a fill-in issue so we can catch our breath.

Issue 31 is a reprint of the first Arak story, which saw print as a supplement in Warlord #48. it benefits from a framing sequence by original artist Ernie Colon, and as Ernie inks his own work here the framing sequence looks really, really good. For my money, Ernie should have pencilled and inked the whole series; many of the inkers he was given, especially DeZuniga ad Alcala, simply drowned his style with their overpowering rendering.

In the following issues, Arak fights a dragon (actually a dinosaur) whose presence in late 8th century Lebanon is not explained. He's also killed in the adventure, and ascends his father's otherworldly mountain, as it is confirmed that Arak is really the son of He-No, the Quontauka god of thunder. The two have a pleasant chat and we learn of Arak's origin. It all turns south when Arak insists, since his tribe was not wiped out but now lives in misery, that he must go back to the world of the living to succour them. (He-No isn't keen on the idea because his erstwhile worshippers no longer pray to him).

Just once I wish this kind of situation would end with Dad saying "fine, son, you do what you must". But just as happened so often with Odin and Thor, He-No gets cranky and says that if his son turns his back on him, he better not change his mind later because it'll be too late. He nevertheless brings Arak back to life on Earth, and an eagle feather falling from heaven suggests that He-No might not be totally done with his wayward offspring.

This was a pretty good tale, and artist Ron Randall really seems more and more comfortable. (He was still a rookie at the time). He's notably inked by Gerald Forton and Rick Magyar, but it is in a Valda back-up feature inked by Tom Yeates that the art really pops out; these two guys work extremely well together. I wish they had been the artists for the main series.

Going forward, the series would suffer somewhat from Arak inheriting unclear magical aptitudes. Until his death and resurrection, he had just been a capable fighter with a head on his shoulders. After it, he became a shaman (an ill-defined term). Unlike Elric, who is clearly a warrior and a wizard, or the Grey Mouser, who's a dilettante in matters magical, Arak's shamanic powers would seem to be an ad hoc kind of thing that didn't particularly enhance the story; furthermore, while he had until then been a pretty relatable dude (a stranger in a world he never made), he'd now be connected to otherworldly powers that we readers did not understand. I wish writer Roy Thomas had never introduced the shamanic aspect.

I loved the book but it steadily declined over time. I really don’t feel it was ever the same after Ernie Colon left.

I read the Superman: The Man of Steel vol. 4 TPB, reprinting Superman #7-8, Action Comics #590-591, Adventures of Superman #430-431, and Legion of Super-Heroes #37-38. Per the GCD, the TPB omits a few pages of the LOSH issues, presumably sub-plots irrelevant to the Superboy crossover that linked up with Superman and Action. Although I have those issues of LOSH, I didn't bother to check on which pages were omitted when re-reading now.

I've read at least half of the issues in this volume previously, including both Superman issue and both Legion issues. I thought I had read the issue of Action that was part of teh Legion crossover, but upon reading it here, it didn't seem very familiar. There are yet more Adventures of Superman comics I had never read.

It's striking to me how much more memorable and interesting the characters Byrne has come up with so far are relative to Wolfman. I appreciate that Wolfman is attempting a more grounded, adult take. Sometimes it lands well, like with the story about Cat Grant's custody fight. But some of it is really forgettable. For instance, Byrne creates Rampage, who is interesting based on the visual alone before you get to the backstory. In contrast, Wolfman bring back the Fearsome Five, introducing two totally forgettable new members who I'm not sure have shown anywhere again. I know killing off Psimon created a memorable moment for Crisis and it was probably an easy villain to pick since it was his own character. But it really impoverished the Fearsome Five. He was the intimidating presence. Adventures #431 gives us a new villain named Doctor Stratos. We're promise he'll be back, but I'm not sure he ever does or that I'd care to see him again.

But while Byrne has great concepts, there are iffy elements of the plotting. For instance, in the Metal Men appearance in Action Comics #590, it starts as a cautionary tale of a businessman who is trying to re-process chemical waste in the water into useful products. Lois Lane, covering the story, denounces him for it. I can see someone criticizing the safety of methods someone uses, but Lois's beef is with the very concept itself before we get into methods. As a general concept, the pro-environment position would seem to be the opposite: we want synthetics that have been dumped into the ecosystem to be retrieved and repurposed. In the story, that leads to the resurrection of Chemo, so we get a nice Metal Men story. I haven't read much Metal Men (mostly from the Bronze Age revival), but they seem pretty cool to me. Doc Magnus seems pretty mean towards the Metal Men, and we're promised a follow-up at some point. It looks like there's another appearance in Action a few issues down the line.

One interesting twist is the in-story reference to Chemo's destruction at the hands of Negative Woman in the pages of Crisis. This is followed up with Superman referencing meeting Superboy during the Crisis in the LOSH crossover. It feels like a change or developing orientation of how Superman's new post-Crisis history works. It moving away from the idea of Superman as a newer hero, who hasn't even been a prior member of the Justice League. As time progresses, it seems more of Superman's past history remains intact although retrofitting to some new realities.

The crossover running through Superman, Legion, and Action Comics is an attempt to explain how the Legion could've been inspired by Superboy when the post-Crisis Superman no longer has the career as Superboy that Earth-1 Superman had. I'm not sure the new explanation makes sense. If I understand it, there seems to be a paradox. After Crisis, the Legion continues to be inspired by a Superboy who didn't exist, so the Time Trapper creates the missing Superboy in a pocket universe for the Legion to visit. Byrne uses the story to emphasize how post-Crisis is depowered by having Superboy actually be more powerful. I think there was some miscommunication between Paul Levitz and John Byrne. Levitz has Pete Ross warn a quartet of Legionnaires about screams from the Kent house, stating he thinks other Legionnaires and Superboy was attacking. But in the pages of Superman, Pete tells the Legionnaires that Superboy is the attacker. I think Levitz must've wanted the Legionnaires to trust Superboy and stumble into a trap, but Byrne didn't know that at first. We get the death of Pocket Superboy in LOSH #38, which made it the most expensive back issue of the Baxter series. It's a split-the-baby solution. The Legion keeps their inspiration. But Superboy isn't a part of the main Earth's past and won't be around to continue to bedevil attempts to simplify the post-Crisis Superman mythos (at least for now).

It’s such a great period for the Avengers. Especially #16 to #24. I love the dynamics of Cap, Wanda, Pietro and Hawkeye. They are seriously underpowered and they have to rely on skill, determination and luck to survive. And also Wanda’s hex power. That helps a lot too. I’d like to see a series, 6 to 12 issues, set in the period before Hank and Jan come back. Maybe play up the Black Widow’s role. And there should be a storyline examining Wanda’s hex power a little more closely. I think about Wanda's mutant powers a lot. She was actually pretty powerful before she learned any magic at all.

That said, #25 is just about the worst Dr. Doom story ever. And there’s all sorts of looney stuff after Hank and Jan return. I like most of it, and I agree with you about Don Heck. But I always feel kind of disappointed. Cap’s Kooky Quartet was such a great idea that never really lived up to the potential of #18 to #24.