Something that always amazed me was how Russ Heath's inks actually managed to make Mike Golden's art look.... "NORMAL".

JIMMY OLSEN #152 / Sep’72 – “THE DOUBLE-EDGED SWORD”

In a run-down suburban area, a squad of police surround an abandoned building, intent on capturing a “Cop-Killer” who’s holed up in it. But they’re having a tough time of it, as a hail of gunfire from the building injures Officer Corrigan (a friend of Jimmy Olsen’s, and no relation to Jim Corrigan, alias The Spectre) and destroying several police cars. It’s a gripping scene right out of a tense crime drama, and almost out-of-place in a book like this—until Clark Kent switches to his Superman identity and crashes in, discovering it’s a number of automated machines that have been holding off the cops! Discovering a hidden tunnel under the house, similar to the one under Terry Dean’s Discoteque, Supes suspects Darkseid’s involvement. Rival reporter Percy Bratten decides to scoop Jimmy, and annoys Morgan Edge by calling him directly, instead of the copy editor. But Edge thinks, “Still, he DID tell me how much Superman now knows about MY organization!”

Before Jimmy can call in his story, he’s interrupted by Yango—head of the biker-gang The Outsiders—who, to Jimmy’s shock, has Morgan Edge with him. “An UNLIKELIER pair I’ve never seen.” The two explain to Jimmy that this is the REAL Morgan Edge, who was kidnapped, cloned at The Evil Factory, and held prisoner by his evil duplicate, who somehow could not bring himself to murder his own original. Unlike Superman earlier, Jimmy DOES believe the story, and the three of them set out to do something about it. “Engines roar, and the air screams about the three, as they take off, taut, anxious, ready to face the challenge that lies ahead, though it may claim their lives...” Oooh!

One of Edge’s stoolies spots the trio, informs Edge, who then calls “Killer”, leader of Inter-Gang’s own “Cycle-Freaks”. As Killer says it, “Scragging dudes is how we GET IT OFF!” “The hogs roar down the pavement in hot pursuit of our heroes... the Inter-Gang Cycle-Freaks are tense... a terrible sense of satisfaction sweeping over them as they move in for the kill!” Yango recognizes them, and says, “They’re all crack shots!” “Bullets scream, rockets roar, in a deafening and horrible din... as three determined men weave their cycles from side to side to avoid the lead projectiles of certain death...”

As the trio and their would-be murderers reach the G.B.S. TV studio, they interrupt a live talk-show where a guest, Professor Savin, is explaining why he thinks the invention of the DOOR-LATCH was “a great set-back for society.” “...because it fragmented society... allowed people to pretend to be one thing in public, then be something entirely different behind locked doors.” This is either a satire on the stupidity and banality of most talk shows, or a heavy-handed commentary on the current story itself... or both.

Trying to avoid getting shot, Jimmy & Yango run into a sound-proof recording studio, at which point Killer puts on a sound-effects LP and cranks the sound up to the max. (You know, I swear I saw something just like this on an episode of GET SMART.)

Percy, seeing Edge, goes to Edge’s office, and promptly tells him about this “other man” who looks like him. Edge calls up “Tombstone Greer”, a known bank robber, and orders him to kill the “other” Edge, and leave no trace of what the man looks like. Greer says he’ll use a “neutron gun”, which will leave “nothing but a pile of CHARRED ASHES.” Obviously, this is more of Darkseid’s technology. As Edge puts it, “Funny... that the ultra-science of the planet APOKALIPS should wind up in the hands of a dumb hood. But there are times when one must combine brilliance and stupidity to get the job done.”

Flying overhead in one of the most awkward flying poses I’ve ever seen in any superhero comic, Supes hears trouble coming from the GBS building, and rescues Jimmy & Yango. Meanwhile, Darkseid appears in Edge’s office, confronts him with the fact that he KNOWS the real Edge is alive, and uses his Omega Effect to teleport the fake Edge to where the real Edge is. The two fight, brutally, until “Killer” arrives—and fries the “wrong” one to ashes! “How’s dat fer a good job... boss!? Yer the boss, ain’tcha?”

Superman arrives, and the neutron gun proves almost too much for him! Jimmy tries to intervene, and is almost killed for it, until Superman grabs Killer’s wrist—the result being, Killer is fried to ashes instead of Jimmy. Never thought I’d see Superman pull a move like that!

And so, Superman apologizes to Edge for not believing him earlier, after suggesting it’s best if the public not find out about “the mysterious forces that are still at large and behind all this.” Considering his other identity as a reporter, this seems somewhat ironic.

Steve Skeates does a pretty decent job with the “script” on this, presumably the plot was mostly the work of E. Nelson Bridwell. One has to wonder if the whole “Morgan Edge as villain” plot wasn’t altered so drastically (so that the baddie WASN’T the real Edge) because it might have been seen as too close a reflection of DC having been recently bought out by a Corporation, which at some point had genuine MOB ties? (I looked that up at Wikipedia last year—it makes for very interesting reading.)

While Werner Roth’s LOIS LANE art is pretty while bordering on bland, the art here by Mike Sekowsky & Bob Oskner is like looking at an entirely different world. It’s rough, it’s crude, it’s downright BRUTAL in spots... in effect, it’s virtually the complete antithesis of what “DC” art looked like for most of the 50’s & 60’s. I find it rather ironic (and perhaps a bit frustrating) that, when Jack Kirby took over JIMMY OLSEN, the editor decided to have the faces of Clark & Jimmy redrawn to keep them more in line with the “model”, but here, Sekowsky & Oksner were allowed to have their far more radical look for the characters published INTACT! My introduction to Sekowsky was JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA, where his pencils were inked by Bernard Sachs (for the interiors) and Murphy Anderson (for the covers). Both were overpowering, in different ways, and neither looked anything even remotely like what I’m seeing here!

The cover art has sparked some controversy, as far as who actually did it. It looks, at first glance, like Gil Kane either pencilled it, or at least, did the design. But Kane was so busy at Marvel during this period, that seems unlikely. According to the notes at the GCD, it’s been suggested that it was either Kane, Sekowsky & Oksner, or Oksner solo but with a possible Joe Orlando design. We may never know for sure.
(3-17-2012)

I liked the look of Angry Charlie. "Monster Pet" stories never turn out well, or at least they shouldn't. Like those people who want to bring home a spider monkey from their jungle vacation. Don't do it! I wonder what a good habitat for Angry Charlie would be, though. Nowhere on Earth. Take him to some other planet? But he might mess with the ecosystem there, lacking a natural predator and perhaps even fissioning into a million Charlies. That might make a good story. What would Swamp Thing do with him?

Yep. Every other attempt afterwards (at least 'til the mid-90s when I essentially dropped out of mainstream books), the Fourth World characters were "just more superheroes." I'm sure Kirby didn't see them as just "long underwear characters," to quote somebody.

mikelmidnight put it very nicely.




That's good, right?

I still haven't read that JLA/JSA/New Gods story and since I've never liked Gerry Conway's writing much my expectations for it are pretty low. But I am definitely looking forward to seeing George Perez's artwork for the New Gods, especially as it was done during the earlier period of his career, still my favourite. Too bad they kept using the re-designed costume for Orion, though.

I would like to have seen all my favourite artists do the New Gods (and Eternals!) at some point, but that was never going to happen.

I think I saw that movie. It didn't turn out well for man or beast.