Connected in that Michelinie intended both Starfire and Claw to be incarnations of a Moorcock-like( or Moorcock inspired or Morrcock swiped) Eternal Champion figure, or is there some other connection too?

-M

This should be fun. The only issue of this I have is the one with Dr Fate.

It was released in conjunction with Rosario Dawson's role in the various Marvel Netflix series so they used the characters from those series on the cover to market the collection. It may have contained reprints beyond Night Nurse 1-4, I'm not sure. They added the series to Marvel Unlimited around the time they released this collection, so I read it there and didn't buy the collection.

-M

She was in the first season of Daredevil playing a character based on Night Nurse*. By that point all the Netflix series were in planning stages as far as casting and what characters would appear, so including the 4 Netflix leads was not surprising.


-M

*or at least based on Night Nurse as she was reinterpreted in the Doc Stange Oath series and used by Bendis in some of his books.

Issue 2, The Green Team



The first issue of 1st Issue Special (if you will forgive the redundancy), featured Jack Kirby and Atlas. The second features his old partner Joe Simon, with Jerry "Roy Lichtenstein swiped my art" Grandenetti ("Jet Pilot" was taken from Grandenetti's work on All-American Men of War #89). Joe and Jerry give us a team of wealthy kid adventurers, called the Green Team. It doesn't take much sleuthing to uncover the inspiration for this idea. Richie Rich was selling tons of comics for Harvey, at this time, appearing in multiple titles. If one rich boy adventurer is good, 4 is even better. Simon dusted off his old kid gang formula and plants the Richie Rich personna into it and gives us the Green Team.



The story starts out with our quartet meeting with different people, with proposals for adventures that require funding. Then, we are introduced, one by one to the team. We star with the African-American character, Abdul Smith, who is definitely not a millionaire. he is a shoeshine boy, in the first of several troubling elements about the character. We follow him down a city street, to a skyscraper, decked out with dollar signs. In the next troubling aspect, Abdul is told he can't ride in the main elevator and must use the service elevator. Abdul takes it to the upper levels, where he comes to a door marked as The Millionaires Club. After ringing, he is told by a snooty butler that it is for members only. Strike three in the racial tolerance test. however, the butler recognizes Abdul and lets him in, where he is sent to Mr Goodrich, to shine his shoes. Goodrich and the other members have an obvious affection for the boy and ask what he wants most in life. he wants to belong to a club and asks if he can join the Millionaires Club. The wealthy men find this amusing and suggest he come back in a couple of hours, to meet the Green Team.

Next, we meet the Commodore, a young lad with a shipping conglomerate. He buys a derelict town so that he can sail his toy yacht and fire miniature missiles at the empty buildings, destroying them. Next, we meet JP Houston, oil baron and youth. he parachutes from his private plane ( a B-52 bomber!!!) to remind the Commodore of their meeting, in New York. Finally, we meet Cecil Sunbeam, boy director, the genius of Hollywood. he's busy directing a modern take on Shakespeare and demonstrates the kind of action he wants in the fight scenes. He, too, heads off for the meeting. We see them converge, in their private 747s, B-52s and other jumbo jets, then their private helicopters, which land on the helipad of the Millionaires Club.

Of course, the boys' dialects all match their stereotype, with the Commodore calling people mates, Houston speaking in western dialect, and Cecil calling everyone sweetie, which, given his flamboyant costuming, can be taken in several ways, intended or not. They meet several crackpots, then Abdul; but, tell him he needs a million to get in the club. Abdul goes off to the bank and deposits the five dollars he took in that day, which, due to a bank error, ends up as $500, 000. He then is plying his trade atthe stock exchange, where he asks if he can be a member. he is told he can be a member of any company, by buying stock. he says he doesn't have much in the bank, as he shows his book to the two laughing, condescending brokers. They see the $5000, 000, make a quick call to the bank to confirm, and then get Abdul to put the money into an aerospace company. jokes on them, the stock skyrockets, Adbul gets his million, after the bank take back the mistake $499,995.00. he is now allowed to join the Green Team.

The team is presented with the idea of buidling a pleasure machine, which can deliver all the world's pleasures to people, as they pass through it. they latch onto this and start construction. However, the project is interrupted by a crowd of protesters, who say it will kill all other forms of entertainment. We see caricatures of famous actors, circus performers, and even comic book characters, led by David D Meritt, the famous Broadway promoter and publicity stunt artist. They try to negotiate a settlement with Meritt, who wants the whole thing torn down. the team refuses and vows to fight, then gets into their action gear: matching green jumpsuits, with $250,00.00 cash, in special pockets and a combination lock belt buckle, a set of keys to any vault, and a stock ticker wristwatch. They set off to fly to the pleasure dome sight, only to find their helicopter swiped by Meritt's men. They throw money out to get them to land and chase it, then swipe the helo back and head to the site. They find Meritt trapped inside for a week, which drives him insane , causing the machines to break down. The story ends with Meritt in a straightjacket and the kids deciding to use the site to sail the Commodore's yacht and fire missiles at things.

This thing is goofier than a pet raccoon, as pro wrestling announcer Jim Ross would say. It is designed as a comedy and it has some funny moments, though mostly the jokes are pretty lame, even for 1975. Kirby was labelled as out-of-touch by fans; but, he was way ahead of them and they just had to catch up. Simon was legitimately out of touch. His idea of humor was very much based in the comics of the 1940s and he manages amusing, at best. Grandenetti's art is fantastic, perfectly light and playful; but, he just doesn't get the kind of wild adventures, that were a staple of Richie Rich, from Simon. There is a gem of an idea here; but, it never gets polished. Humor was still a seller then, with Dc producing books like The Three Mouseketeers, Stanley & his Monster, and Angel & the Ape. Harvey and Archie still sold like gangbusters. The problem is, the imagination and charm of the Richie Rich stories are not captured here. What's worse, Abdul is littered with stereotypes and some, in retrospect, patronizing behavior and near-racist scenes. Simon is a product of his time and he presents Abdul as a hardworking and likable kid; but, he is also the poor one who gets lucky. The others are millionaires by virtue of inheritance and skill, while Abdul gets his money through a set of mishaps. It would have been more effective to have him actually have earned the money through hard work and shrewd investment, ala Uncle Scrooge McDuck. I give Simon the benefit of the doubt, as I think he meant for Abdul to be someone for readers to identify with, the outsider who had to work for things, who people seem to naturally like and respect. Nothing wrong with that; but, the execution is questionable.

There is a bit of satire here, as we see many people try to exploit the young tycoons; but, usually find the tables turned on them. david D Meritt (great name) is based on notorious Broadway producer David Merrick, who would go on to attempt to put together stage musicals, based on Spider-Man and Captain America, as well as the never realized Stan Freberg Presents the United States of America, resulting in a cast album for a musical that didn't exist. Mark Evanier has written of this project, and shared other tales of Merrick.

The story is rather lame; but, it has enough amusing and kitschy elements to actually be kind of fun, which isn't a bad thing. Taken on that basis, alone, it's well worth reading. It also features an actual ending, which is more than you can say for some of these stories.

The Green Team would reappear, with the Dingbats of Danger Street, during Karl Kesel's run on Superman. They help settle a dispute between the Dingbats and the Newsboy Legion. Imagine of Kesel could have done a whole mini-series or series with these Simon & Kirby characters? That would e truly awesome!

More stories had been planned, as was detailed in Cancelled Comic Cavalcade. In the first story, they face giant lobsters and the Russian Navy; in the second, they fight a villain called the Paperhanger, a dead ringer for Adolf Hitler. No more was seen, until they popped up in Animal Man #25, then Adventures of Superman #549 (the Kesel story). They then turned up in the New 52. I guess modern DC needed to resecure the copyrights and trademarks.

I bought the Green Team issue when it came out. At that point in my life, I really disliked Jerry Grandenetti's art, and I agree that Joe Simon was completely out of touch with 1970s comics fans. So I considered this issue the second-worst one in the First Issue Special run, second to another Simon/Grandenetti issue that you'll be discussing soon.