Young All-Stars #6



Dan the Dyna-Mite gets the cover and it appears to have been chili night, for the All-Stars!

Creative Team: Roy & Dann Thomas-writers, Brian Murray (1-4), Howard Simpson (5-24) & Michael Bair (24-26)-pencils, Malcolm Jones III & Bob Downs-inks, Jean Simek-letters, and an empty space is the colorist.

On the letters page (carried on the inside of the cover, front & back) Roy says they will have rotating pencils, between Brian, Howard and Michael, with a 4th involved. They will work on specific storylines, then trade off. This is not dissimilar to how Sandman was penciled.

I do have to say, given the fact that the title of this book sounds like a movie from the 1930s or 40s, Roy missed a chance to title this issue "Young All-Stars of 1942!" Should have consulted me, Roy.

Synopsis: Neptune Perkins has followed Sandy out onto Cahuenga Blvd, looking for the others and Sandy says he say Arn & Fox leave and Dan & Fury follow, but has no idea where they went (plus he throws verbal jabs at Perky). They soon find out, as Dan, Betty and Ronnie (yes, Betty and Veronica, it only just hit me as she was only called Ronnie in the previous issue and she's a redhead) come roaring in and recap the fight with Axis Amerika.



Dan thinks they should find Tarantula and Firebrand, but Perky says they have been dragged off by politicians and they don't have time to hunt them down. Ronnie is keen to drive them wherever they need to go, but Betty has had enough, until she is goaded enough into coming along. Perky says to take them to the Santa Anita racetrack.

Ronnie drives them and the guys break into the compound and find Miya and eventually (after much arguing) convince her to help, though only after she hears about Kamikaze. She knew him when the Japanese scientists gave her her powers.



Her mother brings her costume (though you'd think a 1940s mother would disapprove of how much skin it shows off) and Tsunami rejoins the rest. Ronnie takes them to the airport and they leave in the All-Star plane, with Sandy at the controls. it seems Sandman has been teaching him to fly a plane. They head for Santa Catalina, which is now a military training ground and off limits to civilians (since Pearl Harbor). Perky directs Sandy to head for the highest point of the island, as an airstrip had been cleared there, before the war. It has been blocked by obstacles, to prevent its use by the enemy and they spot an inky black cloud over it, which Dan points out is just like Santa Monica, when Axis Amerika attacked. sure enough, before you can say Wagner, here comes Gudra and Kamikaze...



Kamikaze hits the starboard wing, then Tsunami leaps onto him and drags him down to the water (overloading his rockets, while Perky dives onto Sea Wolf, who is riding behind Gudra. The rest of the troop watch from below, as we see Flying Fox, Arn and Helena all restrained. Fox is tied to the propellers of a large bomber (not a B-17 and it doesn't really look like any actual aircraft), while Helena, in her normal form, is chained to the ground (which would make Marston proud) and Arn is encased in concrete (though they stopped short of encasing his entire body and suffocating him).



They haven't learned why Fury reverted to Helena, when she fell unconscious, but Ubby says their dead bodies will be put in the plane, which will be crashed into a Long Beach aircraft factory, as a big middle finger to the US. Right back atcha, pal!

Perky evades Wolfie underwater, but he can't breathe underwater, so time is running out. He leads Wolfie into the wreck of an old galleon and right into a mast, which knocks him out and he transforms into a human, who is carried back to the surface by Perky. Tsunami hits Kamikaze with her namesake, which knocks him loopy, but not out of the game. He gets away.

Ubby taunts Arn, saying he knows he is the son of Hugo Danner and that they are "brothers," whatever that means. Fledermaus taunts Helena and spits in her eye, like the creepy little Nazi he is, much to papa Horned Owl's joy.



They are interrupted by a roar and Sandy crashes the All-Star plane into the Nuremburg, while he and Dan bail out. The plane ignites the hydrogen in the Nuremburg and it is toast, though Howard Simpson has, apparently, never seen the footage of the Hindenburg to see what happens to a dirigible when its lifting gases are ignited). Dan just happens to notice that he had put Tex's ring on his other hand and suddenly has the inspiration to bang them together; and, wouldn't you know it? He explodes!



The explosion flattens everybody and weakens the concrete holding Arn, just enough, for him to break loose and attack Ubermensch. Ubbie is bigger, but Arn is faster. Still, Ubby leaps away and Arn has to fogo chasing him to stop Usil (the archer, not Paul Atreides) from firing an arrow through Sandy's head. Fledermaus snares Dan in his Batrope and puts the boot in, until Gudra tells him to go help his pop. She then is about to stick Dan with her spear when Helena transforms again and breaks free of her chains and then further transforms into Tisiphone, the Blood Avenger and taunts her with the Greek civilization vs the Germanic, while swatting her across the sky, to land, unconscious, on her winged horse, who hi-yos away. Tisiphone isn't done yet and seems to be up for killing whoever is handy, including Arn.



I'm not gonna go for the obvious joke here; she's too damn scary!

Fledermaus ambushes Sanday and tries to barbecue his face on some burning wreckage, when Tsunami douses everything with a wave, allowing Sandy to KO him with a kick. Everyone tries to stop Tisiphone; but, it takes Arn, with a sleeper choke and some soothing words to put her down and cause her to revert to Helena.



Things quiet down, as they realize what's inside of Helena (Flying Fox explains things, since he seems to have the inside scoop on magical gateways and possessions). Sandy apologizes to Tsunami, after she saved him from being bacon and she hugs him. This is interrupted by Horned Owl (too hard to type Grosshorn Eule, so I'm going with English), who swears vengeance, since his kid was killed by the debris that crushed him, in the fight. He isn't a threat, so they focus on Helena waking up, with no memory of what happened.

We cut to New York, where Fiorella LaGuardia introduces the All-Star Squadron and its newest members, to a crowd at a baseball game (not sure if it is the Yankees or the Giants; don't think it's the Dodgers). In the last panel, we see that they are being watched by Tigress, a future member of the Injustice Society (as Huntress, her original name, which gets retconned a bit and Roy came up with Tigress).

Thoughts: So, Roy wraps up his debut storyline and it's a pretty good wrap-up to a pretty good debut. Not quite as impactful as the All-Star Squadron debut; but, not bad. Once again, we do see a problem with the sheer number of people involved in production, as there is a jarring shift in the art, from Brian Murray to Howard Simpson. Murray was the more experienced, working in animation, while Simpson was a rookie. Michael Bair handles the tail end, at the ballpark, which looks slicker than some of Simpson's pages. Simpson shows promise; but, he struggles with anatomy and faces, at certain angles and his pages are a bit crowded (might be a problem with Roy's scripts, though I don't know if Roy was working plot (aka Marvel Method)or script method. Some of the layouts are kind of crowded with panels. Murray's show a bit more creativity, at the start, which makes it a bit more visually interesting. Simpson's are more traditional, though not the boring 9-panel grid that Shooter so loved. He has some good angles, in the action, so he shows promise. he just needs to get some more drawing time to refine his work (and probably some guidance, like Todd McFarlane got from Dick Giordano).

Simpson has his mechanics wrong when Arn tries to choke out Tisiphone.  To execute a proper sleeper choke, the forearm needs to be under the chin and across the throat, while the other hand presses downward on the head, placing more pressure on the throat from behind, as well as in front, cutting off the airway.  Looks to me like Howard has only seen the pro wrestling version of things. where the free hand would be across the opponents forehead, rather than at the back of the head, so that the wrestler isn't actually choking his opponent.  Given that this is a comic book, that's probably a good thing (imitative acts and all that).

The cat is out of the bag, amongst her friends, in regards to Fury being controlled by Tisiphone and the Furies (sounds like a Heavy Metal band); so, the team is likely to be wary of her losing control. Flying Fox provides an outline of things, though there is no way he could now any of what he says with certainty, which is a weakness of some of Roy's work on these things. Just because Fox's powers are magical, in nature does not mean he has an immediate insight into how the Furies work, given they are from another realm (unless Fox's magic is tied to the same realm). It just doesn't feel like earned knowledge.

The team has come together (Arn remarks that they are now Helena's family); so, we should see them as a more cohesive unit, going forward (apart from the usual in-fighting you would expect from an ex-Marvelite, like Roy).

The big reveal, in all of this, is that Arn Munro is actually the son of Hugo Danner (and grandson of scientist Abednego Danner). That explains his abilities (explanation in the Historical Notes); but, the question is what is Ubermensch's connection? He says they are like brothers, which suggests Hugo had some part in Ubermensch's birth, either biologically or metaphorically. That mystery will probably be at the heart of Arn's story, as the series progresses.

Axis Amerika is a bit of a mixed bag, in my book. Obviously, Roy made them stand-ins for the Justice League: Ubermensch is superman, Gudra is Wonder Woman, Horned Owl and Fledermaus are Batman & Robin, Sea Wolf is Aquaman, Usil is Green Arrow, Kamikaze is probably less direct, since he is mostly there to contrast Tsunami. Horned Owl and Fledermaus are pretty one-dimensional (evil nazi Batman and Robin) and Fledermaus is now dead. Usil is even more one-note and stereotyped. Seems like he is just there to be the token Italian (guess there were no Hungarians or Romanians in Axis Amerika, or right wing Dutch, French, Norwegian or Ukrainian). Ubermensch is tied to Arn; so there is that mystery. Gudra is tied to Teutonic Gods, which gives her a certain dimension. Sea Wolf's werewolf status has possibilities, though the name is a bit dumb. i assume Roy was trying to invoke the U-Boat wolfpacks; but, wolves aren't aquatic creatures. Besides, who would want to work with a guy who always smells like a wet dog? Even Nazis.

So, storywise, the series has some stuff going for it, apart from continuing All-Star Squadron. Even though part of the impetus , for Roy, is to replace Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and Aquaman in the Golden Age, he is more focused on creating new characters, with hints of the old, then grafting the old onto some new mannequin. I wish he had been more focused on the same in Infinity, Inc, as he seemed to go off on tangents to link to Golden Age stories far too often.

The letters page on the inside back cover ends with a banner that says "Millennium is Coming." I liken it to a warning, that, in hindisght, should have said, ?Millennium is Coming. Run!"

Historical Notes: Unless anyone has any great desire for me to continue the monthly recaps of the Post-war era, I will dispense with them and stick to historical specifics within the issue.

First up, "Iron" Monroe. It is revealed in the letters page that Roy's inspiration for the name came from two sources. the first was a story in Astounding magazine, "The Mightiest Machine," by Joseph W Campbell (editor of the magazine and a writer in his own right), which featured a character named Aarn Munro (with two As). Roy had been reading a book about the history of Astounding and came across a reference to the story, though he had not read it. He liked the sound of the name. he then came across a mention of a minor 1940s comic character, Iron Munro, who was a Flash Gordon type adventurer, in the future (as a letter writer brings up), though Roy doesn't know much about him and Jerry Bails' Collector's Guide: the First Heroic Age has no mention of him. He asks readers for more info, in a rare turn of events.

In the story, Ubermensch opines, and Arn confirms, that Iron Munro is the son of Hugo Danner. If the name isn't familiar, then you have probably never read Philip Wylie's novel, Gladiator, which inspired the birth of Superman (among other influences). The novel was written in 1930 and tells the story of Abednego Danner, a professor who lives in Colorado. He is obsessed with eugenics and develops a serum which boosts potential in animals (he injects a tadpole, then a cat, whose kittens show amazing strength). He injects it into his wife, while she is pregnant, in hopes of boosting his unborn child's potential. Their son, Hugo is born, with incredible strength. His mother teaches him to hide it, lest there be witch-hunts and he doesn't fight back against bullies, only taking refuge, in secret, in the woods, unleashing his strength. He later becomes a football star and strongman, though he accidentally kills a player, in a football game. He Joins the Foreign Legion and fights in WW1, where h proves impervious to bullets. He returns to the US and gets a job at a bank, where he has to use his strength to free someone trapped in the vault, but his boss eyes him with suspicion, rather than gratitude. He later joins an expedition to Latin America, where he cries out for a purpose and is struck down by lightning.

The novel is quite intriguing and has a depth missing from the simpler Superman tales of Siegel and Shuster, though it feels like Wylie got stuck with the ending and settled for a literal Deus ex machina as God strikes Hugo down. Roy had partially adapted the tale in the pages of Marvel Preview magazine, in two parts, but was never able to finish it. Hugo was strong and bulletproff, able to leap great distances; but, not invulnerable. Much of his abilities and plight informed Superman, as did Wylie's When Worlds Collide, with a story of a rocketship ark to take survivors away from a doomed planet. Added to that was Edgar Rice Burroughs John Carter, who could leap great distances on Mars (Barsoom) and was physically stronger; and, Lester Dent's Doc Savage, the hero of the pulp novels. Savage was a physical and mental marvel, known as th Man of Bronze, who had a secret fortress of Solitude. Superman was called the Man of Steel and would, eventually, gain a Fortress of Solitude, in the Arctic (though, initially, it was closer to Metropolis, when first introduced).

So, Arn Munro is the son of the first "superman" and his abilities parallel his father's (and the initial Superman stories).

Santa Catalina Island is one of the Channel Islands, off to coast of southern California, with the island located in close proximity to Los Angeles (and is part of Los Angeles County). The island had been inhabited by natives, who mined some of the mineral wealth to trade on the mainland, especially a variety of soapstone. The Spanish conquest brought disease and the population is believed to have died out from disease. Some minor ranches had been built there and some herds of sheep were grazed there, but no major settlements, until the later 1800s. George Shatto, a real estate speculator, tried to build a resort community there, at Avalon Bay. By 1887, he had opened it to the public, complete with steamship ferry to the island. However, he soon defaulted on loans. Some of the Banning family, sons of entrepreneur Phinneas Banning, bought the land and continued development of Avalon and even expanded beyond to further develop the rest of the island. A fire in 1915 burned much of the building at Avalon and the War cut deeply into the tourist trade. The Bannings were forced to sell shares in the island to raise capital and the bulk of them were bought out, by 1919, by William Wrigley Jr (as in the gum). He put extensive capital into building up and promoting Catalina, as a tourist destination, eventually building the Catalina Casino (after initially building the Sugarloaf Casino), which became a landmark (and is seen in this issue)...



To promote tourism, Wrigley funded stunts and extravaganzas to draw tourist interests, including bringing his baseball team, the Chicago Cubs, to the island for spring training, beginning in 1921 (and continued to do so, until 1951, apart from the war years). Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, the resort was shut down and the island was taken over by the military for use as a training facility. The island's steamships were repurposed for troop transport and groups from the Army signal Corps, the US Maritime Service, the US Coast Guard and the OSS had training facilities and installations there (including a radar station). Thus, the presence of Axis Amerika should have raised alamrs on the island, though we are still in early days of its military use. We must assume that Axis Amerika landed there in secrecy. The area where Axis America is hiding had been two hilltops, which Wrigley had levelled and the canyon between filled in, to create a runway, for an airport development, in 1941. The airport would not be opened until 1946. You'd think that it would have been in use as an airstrip for the military, but Roy mentions obstacles being put there, to prevent landings by an enemy. That suggests (and Roy seemed to research these things pretty well, in general) that the airstrip was not functional, at this point.

Fledermaus mentions that the Nuremburg is filled with hydrogen, because the US wouldn't sell Germany helium, from Texas. Well, certainly in 1942, when we were at war; but, Roy is referring to 1937. Airships were inflated in one of two manners: either with heated air, as in hot-air balloons) or via lifting gases, such as hydrogen or helium. Hydrogen is far more plentiful than helium and was the most common gas for airships and was used by both sides in WW1, for their dirigible airships, as well as barrage balloons and observations balloons. In 1922, the US Navy commissioned its first dirigible, the USS Shenandoah, the first airship to be solely lifted via helium. At the time of construction, its envelope contained most of the world's known helium. When the second dirigible, the USS Los Angeles was first commissioned, it's helium came, in part, from the Shenandoah. Helium is non-flammable, which gave it an advantage over hydrogen airships, especially in a military environment. the trade-off is that hydrogen has greater lifting capacity and less is required. Thus, helium airships required greater levels of the gas to lift the same mass as a hydrogen gas cell. The US Nay would build two further dirigibles, the USS Akron and the USS Macon. the Shenandoah was destroyed in an accident, while carrying out a cross-country tour of the US, when it encountered high updrafts, related to storms, in Ohio. The ship broke apart and the control car crashed and killed the crew inside. others were is sections of the airship and survived riding the pieces to the ground, including seven men in the bow, when CDR Charles Rosendahl was able to pilot it like a free balloon, to safety. The USS Akron went down in a storm, at sea, with only 3 survivors, because it had no life rafts or flotation vests, to save weight. The USS Macon went down, at sea, due to structural damage, but most survived, since it carried lifesaving equipment, after the Akron disaster. The Los Angeles survived, but was decommissioned and later scrapped for the aluminum in its structure. The Los Angeles could carry 3 aircraft, after it was modified with a hangar and the Akron and Macon had been built with an internal hanger to carry 5 Sparrowhak fighter planes (biplanes), which could be lowered on a trapeze structure to launch and would then hook onto it to land.

When the Hindenburg made its journey to the Us Naval Station, at Lakehurst, NJ, one of the passengers was Captain Ernst Lehman, an executive and senior pilot of the Zeppelin Company. He was sent as n observer and had hoped to carry out discussion with the US government to obtain helium, for future voyages. The Graf Zeppelin and the Hindenburg had elaborate precautions to prevent sparks from igniting the hydrogen. The vessel even had a smoking room, with an airlock, which allowed passengers to smoke, safely (from a combustion standpoint, not a biological one) inside. They had galleys with electric ovens, to cook the food, for the voyage. However, they knew of the dangers of hydrogen, from downed airships during WW1 and from the crash of the British passenger airship R101, which crashed over France, killing 46 of the 54 passengers and crew, on October 4, 1930. The US considered helium to be a strategic asset, because of its use by the US Navy airship program. The supplies of helium were actually a byproduct of natural gas drilling, in Texas and the US controlled most of the world's supply. As such, the government was loathe to sell it to other nations, including Germany, to which it had become increasingly antagonistic, as Hitler's political actions and demands escalated.

On May 6, 1937, after delays due to weather, the Hindeburg was maneuvering to making its landing (mooring, actually, with a mast, after which it would lower its internal gangways), an explosion occurred, due to an unknown cause. A fire soon engulfed the ship and it came crashing to the ground, its lifting gases consumed or released.



Out of a compliment of 97 passengers and crew, 36 were killed (less than the R101, numerically and proportionally). Ernst Lehman survived, with burns over much of his body, but he died soon after, in hospital. No definitive cause for the explosion was ever determined, though the official report listed static discharge as the the likely cause, igniting the hydrogen. Subsequent research tends to dispute this hypothesis and other theories have emegerd, including lightning strike and an engine failure, as well as combustion of the coated skin being the source of the intensity of the fire. However, each theory has faced as many criticisms of the explanation as answers to standing questions. The crash was seared into observers via the delayed-live radio broadcast of WLS Chicago report Herbert Morrison.



This British Pathe newsreels includes footage of the ship over New York (headed for Lakehurst) and the landing approach, though the narration is filled with technical inaccuracies and promotes the tragic drama of the crash, rather than the actual facts, making it sound like most perished, rather than approx 2/3 survived, leading to the cultural falsehood that most, if not all perished. The main difference is the crash was caught on film and with the radio broadcast, while the R101 crashed without large numbers of witnesses.

In the issue, Sandy deliberately crashes the All-Star plane into the Nurmeburg, igniting the hydrogen and destroying the airship. In all likelihood, an explosion might not have occurred from that, as much as the destruction of the gas cells and a collapse of the envelope (as well as structural damage). As it is, the Nuremburg is drawn with proportions that were more in keeping with a blimp, rather than a dirigible. As you can see in the video, the Hindenburg was quite long and tubular, with a length of over 800 ft (equal to nearly 2 1/4 football fields, laid end-to-end). The design actually reminds me of the ship of the supervillain, the Blimp, in an episode of Dynomutt....

Young All-Stars #7



You know, someone needs to do 3D animation of these "running at you" covers and show the various teams colliding with each other.

Creative Team: Roy & Dann Thomas-writers/pitcher & catcher, Howard Bender-pencils/left field, Malcolm Jones II-inks/center field, Bob Downs-ink assist/short stop, Jean Simek-letters/1st base, Juliana ferriter-colors/2nd base, Alan Waite-baseball advisor/batting coach

Roy needing a baseball advisor suggests why we haven't seen a lot of sports-themed comics from the Bronze Age onward. Outdoors? In the sun? It'll bleach my comics!

Synopsis: May 1942 (Finally!), in the Bronx, at someplace called Yankee Stadium, the All-Star Game is about to begin. The price of admission is a piece of scrap metal, as this All-Star Game is a scrap metal drive benefit, for the war effort. This is not the National League vs the American League, either; it's the Young All-Stars vs the adult All-Star Squadron!



The Young All-Stars are in the field, with Iron Munro pitching. Star-Spangled Kid and Atom are playing with the Young All-Stars, to even the numbers. It's the top of the 3rd inning, with the adults still at bat and leading, 5-2. Arn is busy citing Ernest Lawrence Thayler, when he should be concentrating on strike outs! (Roy gets the opening stanza of the poem a bit wrong). Robotman is at bat and he hits one to Right Field and it looks like he is gonna get a double or a triple. Tsunami is playing Right Field and is under it, but stationary. Fury doesn't think she has it and does a Kelly Lee and the pair collide and go down, without the ball...



Fury grabs the ball and hurls it to home plate, where Flying Fix, the catcher, gets if and Robotman is stopped at Third. Green Lantern is up, complete with Magic Ring Bat and Arn throws a screwball and Lantern hits air, but Fox drops the ball and Robotman tags up and heads for home. Fox disappears from view and Arn heads to cover home plate, but no one has the ball. Robotman is tagged out by the reapeparing and levitating Flying Fox, who turned himself and the ball invisible. The heroes exchange places and the Young All-Stars are at bat. Wildcat does a bit of trash talking and the game takes a pause to welcome the special guest, Geroge Herman Ruth, inventor of a candy bar, or something....



What's that?........"Babe" Ruth?....oh, he's some kind of baseball player? Hunh.....So the candy bar......

Watching from the cheap seats (the really cheap seats, up in the scaffolding for the field lights) is Tigress, who swiped her costume from Linda Stirling, except that film was 2 years later and Stirling wears a leopard print; so, forget all of that. She has a striped bathing suit and matching cap; just leave it at that.

Arn gives the team a pep talk, as they need 3 runs to tie, 4 to win. Sandy is up first and hits a line drive to second and Green Lantern is distracted. Luckily, Amazing Man absorbs the elasticity of his Bazooka Bubble Gum (elastic? That stuff is hard as a rock!) and stretches up to make the catch. Tsunami is up next and she strikes out, swinging like a turnstyle! Flying Fox, who has never played baseball (bet he's played hockey though, eh?), is next and he hits it down past first, where Robotman dives for it; but, Fox is safe, at First, before Robotman can get there.

Atom is up next and Wildcat is cocky, but Lantern is still distracted and he leaves the game!



His team is stunned, and a man short! Hourman hops down from the stands to substitute. Wildcat pitches, but Atom isn't biting and walks on Ball Four. Fury is up next and wildcat thinks he has the game, as Fury had never seen baseball, let alone played. Wildcat throws and Fury hits it to Third and it takes a weird bounce and is missed by Manhunter and Tarantula. Hawkman gets it and throws to Stripesy, at home and the bases are loaded, with Arn up to bat. Arn has a chance to win the game, if he can hit a home run.

Wildcat checks the runners at 1st and 3rd, gets the sign from Stripesy and throws one across the plate. Swing and a miss for Arn. Wildcat goes into his windup again and sends a sizzler across the plate and the ump calls Strike 2. Arn starts to argue but the ump gives him a warning. Arn turns his attention back to Wildcat. The count is 0 and 2 and Arn chokes up on the bat. Here's the windup......a fastball dead center......



He hits a screamer that burns its way through the sky. Hawkman and Firebrand go after it as Arn rounds the bases, forcing Fury and Atom along, and then Flying Fox. They all cross home plate and the ump calls the game for the Young All-Stars, until Hawkman lodges a protest....



He caught what remained of the ball (a small bit of the core) and the arguments fly, with Wildcat and Arn badgering the ump, until Tsunami reminds them it is a benefit game, so who cares who wins? The rest of them grow up and concede a tie game and go off to celebrate, while the Young All-Stars, minus Sandy (who goes to visit Wesley Dodd in the hospital) stay to see the Yankees play.

In the bottom of the 4th, an announcement goes out, asking any All-Star Squadron members still in the park to come to the manager's office. the gang heads up there and an Army officer is deflated to see that none of the adults are there. he makes do and tells the youngsters that a "pocket U-boat" is attacking a British merchant vessel, off the coast and asks them for help. They pile into a Navy staff car and head off to save the ship. Meanwhile, some cops spot Tigress lurking around and challenge her, then get their butts kicked!



She runs off and hides, again, then the military guys wait for word from the Young All-Stars. They soon turn up, with a contribution for the scrap drive...



We are also warned that Millennium is going to disrupt next month's issue and we prepare ourselves for the worst!

Thoughts: Fun little issue that acts as a palate cleanser, after the opening epic. X-Men playing baseball had lead to a rash of superheroes at bat, so Roy indulges, mixing in a little "Casey at the Bat." He also throws in Babe Ruth and name drops his appearance in RKO's Pride of the Yankees, with Gary Cooper, as Lou Gehrig. One of the two kids seen entering the park, at the start (after showing their metal) is wearing a bowler hat and might be intended as Brooklyn, of the Boy Commandos, though if it is, I doubt he would cheer the Yankees.

We don't learn what tigress is up to, though I'm sure it will factor into the next issue. She talks about using jujitsu, but I don't recall a flying head scissor being part of the curriculum. I think she has been watching Mildred Burke (Women's world wrestling champion, in the 30s and 40s), instead of training in judo.



Historical Notes: "Casey at the Bat" was written by Ernest Lawrence Thayer and was published in 1888, in the San Francisco Daily Examiner. The poem was an instant hint and was made famous further by vaudeville performer DeWolf Hopper. The New York Sporting Times reprinted the poem, a month later, as "Kelly at the Bat, substituting the name Kelly for Casey, and switching the locale from Mudville to Boston. My favorite version is Disney's 1946 animated short, with Jerry Colonna narrating....



Disney followed up with a sequel, Casey Bats Again, in 1954....



Pride of the Yankees was released on July 14, 1942, with Gary Cooper as Lou Gehrig, Teresa wright as wife Eleanor, and Walter Brennan as Sam Blake. Babe Ruth, Bob Meusel, Mark Koenig and Bill Dickey, all teammates of Gehrig, played themselves. The movie recounts the career of Gehrig, up to his retirement, after his diagnosis with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), forever to be known as "Lou Gehrig's Disease." The film is noted for its honest and sincere portrayals and inspiring story, with Gehrig promising a sick boy to hit 2 homes runs in a single game, in the World series. The end of the film features the legendary scene of Gehrig's speech, upon his retirement....

Young All-Stars #8



Oh, Kirby help us; Millennium has crashed the scene!

Creative Team: Roy & Dann Thomas-writers, Brian Murray-layouts, Malcom Jones III-finishes, Jean Simek-letters, Gene D'Angelo-colors
There is a special thanks to Greg Weisman, of Captain Atom (co-writer) and Gargoyles (creator) fame. Weisman, if memory serves, had a pretty sweet proposal for Blackhawk that fell through and had a Black Canary mini fall through because of Longbow Hunters. Still, Gargoyles was a pretty good tradeoff.

Oh, yeah, this follows on the heels of Millennium #2. The crossover event ran weekly, with a new issue in the crossover mini-series, then events within the books that were released the same week. The crossover finds the android Manhunters acting overtly, again, after having been previously defeated by Green Lantern and the Justice League. they are out to stop the next Guardians of the Universe from ascending, while the little blue guys go off to make sweet love, down by the fire, with the Zamarons (little blue guys like their ladies to be tall). The manhunters were still ticked that the Guardians sent them to their room, without supper, after they rebelled, and have had sleeper agents placed throughout the world (and time, somehow), who were improbably revealed to be close supporting characters. It was overly convoluted and rather a narrative dud, that debuted a bunch of new characters that fans didn't seem to care about, including a gay member of the New Guardians who was given the name Extrano, which is Spanish for "strange." Yeah, that's uplifting and supportive (though visually, he looked like Dr Strange, so it was also a bit of a rib on Marvel). It also didn't help that DC would never allow him to be openly called "gay," in the mini, though it was quite obvious that was the intent. The mini-series also messed with the histories of previous Manhunters, including the original, Paul Kirk and the 1970s Kirby one, Mark Shaw, who was part of the JLA Manhunters storyline and later became the hero, the Privateer, but was secretly also the villain, Star-Tsar, who is eventually unmasked by red Tornado. Got all of that? Well, now, Roy is about to throw in the Quality Comics Manhunter, Dan Richards, as both heroes are about to meet up, in 1942. So, without further ado, we turn now to an unnamed city, where two costumed figures are sneaking around....

Synopsis: ...and enter some kind of hidden locale...



Where the two report to the Grandmaster and run into each other.......



They show each other their union cards (seriously, read the first issue of Millennium, when the Manhunters have their gathering of sleeper agents and Secret origins #22, which has the origins of all of the Manhunters...it's like a labor rally!) and Grandmaster says they both have their dues paid up to date and both were teleported to Manhunter Local 60s Union Hall, to receive an assignment. they are to stop Green Lantern from aiding the Axis Powers!

Dunh-dunh-duh!

Meanwhile, above Times Square, Iron Munro jumps around while Flying Fox does half of his name (no, I don't mean dinging up collectible books). We learn that Fox's tribe is from an Arctic island, to somehow explain their lack of contact with the White Man (even though the Inuit had plenty of contact) and Arn avoids talking about his father, other than he only knows what his mother told him, which wasn't much. Fox convinces him to call his mother, as he sounds homesick and they rush off to the Perisphere to reach out, reach out and touch someone....



They race to the HQ and give the password to Gernsback (Sammy Reshevsky, the name of a US Chess champion, originally from Poland), then Dyna-Mite shows them the equipment. Arn makes his call and the rest give him some privacy, so that they can go down and interrupt Neptune Perkins and Tsunami, while they make out, inside a salt water tank. They banter, then Arn calls them back to the monitor room, where they have visitors...



They proceed to play a recorded newsflash of Green Lantern attacking guards at a POW camp, in Hawaii, freeing some Japanese prisoners...



Doiby Dickles confirms some of the story and the kids are recruited to help the two Manhunters, though we get a glimpse that reveals that Doiby has a robotic eye, just like Dan Richards' dog, Thor. Doiby just happens to have a slip of paper, with latitude and longitude coordinates, which reveal where Green Lantern was headed. The first set of coordinates is Hawaii and the gang split and head for the other two locations, as Doiby stays behind to fill in any returning All-Stars. After they are gone, he self-destructs and melts into a pool.

Dan Richards, Dan the Dyna-Mite, Tsunami and Flying Fox hop an Army cargo plane, flown by an aviation cadet, to Attu, in the Aleutian Islands. The pilot turns out to be one "Hop" Harrigan and as they arrive, we see a green spirit terrorizing the local populace, since the Aleuts were obviously backwards, simple people, even though they had long standing contact with whites and there were two white men, one a radio operator, living among them when the Japanese invaded, in June.



The kids try to stop him and Fox hits him with a log, seemingly knocking him unconscious. However the ring knocks them out. GL comes out of a daze, then falls right back into the spell.



Thoughts: Back in 1987, Millennium sounded like a cool idea. The JLA Manhunter story was pretty good and Mark Shaw had been left to languish in jail and the Green Lanterns were in a bit of a mess, post-Crisis. Steve Englehart, who wrote the excellent JLA 2-parter was at the helm and Joe Staton was drawing the mini. Sounds good; but, when I started reading it, I was massively underwhelmed. the sleeper agents turned out to be ridiculously improbable of throwaway minor characters. The New Gardians were a rather dull bunch, with whom they threw in Tom Kalmaku (aka the insultingly named Pieface) and Harbinger. Extrano was at least interesting, even with the bad name (which was okay, even though "Pieface" was unacceptable. Yes, okay to call a gay man "Strange.") and had some nice depth to him with most of the other characters lacked. It just kind of fell flat, like a spent whoopee cushion. For me, the highlight was Week 4, in the tie-in regular series, as a disparate group of people honed in on a swamp, mixing Batman, captain Atom, the Spectre and the Suicide Squad, with interlinking covers. The Secret Origins issue was pretty decent and tried to make sense of things, as best it could, though I didn't like tying Paul Kirk to the alien Manhunters.

This is why I really stopped enjoying the crossover events (Invasion wasn't bad, though I thought the resolution wasn't nearly as good as the opening and War of the Gods had Perez). Millennium just threw a giant monkey wrench into the entire line and stories just ground to a halt, while they played out the underwhelming epic. For Suicide Squad, at least, they were able to work their missions around the periphery, while rehabilitating Mark Shaw, so he could return, as the sole Manhunter, in a new series, from John Ostrander, Kim Yale and Doug Rice. it started really well, then Ostrander stopped creating action-packed stories and spent more time on Mark's relationship with his family and Doug grew bored and left the series. Those first 4 issues, though, were one of the best action-adventure storylines out there, with some really unique ideas, that didn't really play out across the series. Manhunter was supposed to be a supervillain bounty hunter and the criminals he captured would be filtered into Suicide Squad missions. That never really played out.

This story is typical of things, as the Manhunters dupe heroes into doing their bidding, because everyone suddenly becomes stupid. we aren't even sure why Green Lantern is under Manhunter control, since he isn't tied to the Green Lantern Corps or the Guardians, except via the Starheart, which was the source of his ring's power. Like I said, convoluted and messy.

The sequence on Attu just makes me nuts. This comic was written in 1987. It didn't take a huge amount of research to know that the Aleuts were not some simple-minded group, as in a Hollywood film, any more than the Pacific Islanders encountered in the Solomons, Marianas or Marshall Islands were, in the South pacific. They had had contact with the white man and traded, for generations. No, their societies weren't greatly integrated; but, it wasn't what we see, in 1942. At the time of the Japanese invasion, in June 7, 1942, there were only 45 inhabitants, including a white radio operator and a white school teacher, his wife. the populace lived in houses, not igloos or wigwams. It looks like Brian Murray drew igloos and Roy let it slide. Meanwhile, we are led to continue to believe that Flying Fox's people had no outside contact, until the Nazis turned up; no whaling ships, no seal hunters, no fishermen or explorers. No one turned up in inhabitable land, until 1942. Right.......

Anyhoo, I really find this a distraction and it doesn't do much for the Dan Richards Manhunter, though Roy used him more in Infinity, Inc, in the present, and this acted as back story for that. Next issue will feature Paul Kirk, who was the better Manhunter, anyway (not that the Quality one was bad, though he changed his costume quite a lot, in the early stories). Paul Kirk got to be rendered by Simon & Kirby!

Historical Notes: Nothing significant. I've covered the Japanese invasion of Attu and Kiska before, as well as their ejection, by US forces, the next year. Attu was actually abandoned by the garrison force, after a while, after all of the inhabitants who survived (Charles Jones, the radio operator, was killed, while his wife survived) were removed to Japan, as prisoners, with 16 of the 42 survivors dying in prison camps, in Hokkaido (Mrs Jones was held in Yokohama, along with Australian prisoners, from Rabaul and New Guinea). the Japanese garrison was withdrawn and added to strengthen Kiska, in September 1942, until late October, when 500 were restationed there. By March, 1943, there were 2900. The invasion of Attu by the US military was a mess, with vehicles unable to operate, shortage of landing craft, supplies and winter gear. the Japanese did not contest the landings, but fought hard from their positions, before launching banzai charges. they died nearly to a man, before the island was completely retaken.

Attu had been trading with whites since the 1700s, when Russian traders came from Kamchatka. Aleut houses were actually dug in the ground, then covered with a roof of driftwood, thatched grass and covered with earth, to insulate them, with mats placed on the floors. Several families would live together in the 50ft by 20 ft homes. What we see in the issue are eskimo igloos and a population much larger than existed in 1945. The scene looks rather like the wildling village we see evacuated in game of Thrones, via the sea, when the Night King and his undead army come.

Young All-Stars #9



Millennium still intruding.

Baron Blitkrieg having a fish fry!

Creative Team: Roy & Dann Thomas-writers, Brian Murray-pencils, Malcolm Jones III-inks, Jean Simek-letters, Gene D'Angelo-colors

Synopsis: May 1942, somewhere west of Jamaica. I guess that means the Caymans (which is north-west), unless Roy means the Yucatan. Not many islands west of Jamaica, anyway). A young woman goes swimming in an isolated cove and runs into a blond guy, with a scar across his right eye. She is startled, but he calms and charms her. her name is Maria and she proposes they talk outside the water, but he isn't wearing shorts. She turns her back while he gets dressed and turns around to find....



Baron Blitzkrieg and his All-Nazi Band! Zwerg looking a lot like Toht, from Raiders of the Lost Ark, there. The U-Boat sailors look a lot more like the Wehrmacht than the Kriegsmarine.

Zwerg wants to shoot her, when Green Lantern turns up. He distracts the Nazis so the girl can run. the ring protects him as he kicks Heine. Then, Herr Baron fights back. The ring blocks his Nazi vision, but, GL has to concentrate so much will to do it, he is open for a sucker punch, which breaks his concentration. he still whacks the Nazi, before he hurls a Kar 98k rifle at him, with the wooden stock getting past the ring and knocking GL out.



Baron B orders him and Maria to be taken to their camp, as he wants to know why GL was looking for a girl, named Maria, without singing and dancing. He first Nazi-slaps Maria, for good effect.

Meanwhile, Perky, Fury, and Iron Munro are winging their way to the Caribbean, to find out what GL wanted there and Perky hears rustling in the cargo area. Fury goes to check and discovers Tigress, stowing away. She tries to hold them off with her crossbows, but Arn slugs her and then gets a chastisement from Fury. Tigress tells them to cool their jets. She reveals that she is Paula brooks and she became Tigress to get close to her crush, Paul Kirk, aka Manhunter...



She wants to join the Squadron, as drool over Manhunter. Arn argues, but the point is moot, as they have arrived at their destination. They land at an airstrip and wonder that there aren't British soldiers around. They are met by father Hanely, from Harlem, who runs an orphanage on the island. he is looking for Maria, who is missing from the orphanage. Maria not being a white girl, the All-Stars claim too much already on their plate, until Father Hanely mentions U-Boat activity in the area. suddenly, they have time. Manhunter decides they are going to check out the coves where U-Boat crews come in for rest and refit. The Baron's crew row a wooden boat to the U-Boat, with Maria hogtied and GL trussed up to a tree hunk. But, then, dolphins attack and dump them into the ocean.



BB flies, but the dolphins push GL away from the Nazis and relieve them of weapons. We then see Perky guiding them, with powers he inherited from Aquaman, retroactively, thanks to Crisis (metaphorically speaking). While the sailors stand around on shore, sucking sausages and saurkraut, Manhunter attacks, with help from Tigress. The Nazis on the sub start shooting the dolphins and Fury and Arn turn up and start smashing Nazis. Father Hanely watches from the beach. BB swoops in for an attack and Arn hurls the deck gun at him. he melts it with his Nazi-vision. Fury gets to him first and gets knocked out, then Arn gets a fist to the mouth and then a flurry of blows. Arn recovers and delivers his own shot...



GL shows up and blocks the Nazi-vision, which them explodes the sub. They get to shore and Perky reveals he can communicate with aquatic mammals, but not fish. Maria apologizes to Father Hanely, for running off and they ask GL how he knew she was there and in trouble and he says, "Iuhnno!" They secure the sailors and take off, and Father Hanely gives Arn a briefcase with Prof Hardin's possessions, which he will understand about, in the future.

In New York, GL calls a hearing to face charges for what happened and starts to hand over his ring, when the ring takes over...



The ring reveals the end result of Millennium (bored DC readers) and then wipes everyone's mind, which makes you wonder why it bothered to tell them anything, then everyone comes out of it and dismisses the case. Tigress is put up for probationary membership and then Arn looks in the briefcase and finds the journal of Hugo Danner, his father.

Thoughts: This makes about as much sense as nailing your hand to a table. It gets the job done but there is no good reason for it. Neither Paul Kirk nor Dan Richards learn they were pawns of the Manhunters (Richards knew, eventually and reveled in it, until it caused problems in the future). Green Lantern doesn't know what he was doing and it is all a waste of two issues. No idea what Baron Blitzkrieg was doing there other than to be a convenient enemy, tooling around with a U-Boat crew and no specific mission. That makes no sense. Maybe in a future issue.

The art is decent; so, there is that, but the story is all over the place and the kids still need an adult All-Star to handle things. Not exactly the way to sell a new book.

Historical Notes: Roy references U-Boat activity in the Caribbean, which is factual. A German maritime offensive was launched in February, 1942, aiming to disrupt the flow of oil form the Venezuelan oil filds, as well as Dutch-held Curacao. They attacked shipping throughout the region, including the sinking of two Mexican tankers, prompting Mexico to declare war on Germany. They acted with near impunity in the early months of 1942; but, by late summer, convoys had been better organized, with more escorts and air cover and the Germans redesignated their attacks on the North Atlantic sector. By 1943, technology and resources had converged to make U-Boat hunting that much easier, with more escort forces, especially anti-submarine vessels, such as Destroyer Escorts (DE), equipped with sonar and depth charges, but faster and more maneuverable than destroyers, as well as long range bombers with ASW radars and armed with depth charges. B-24s gave the range and the development of Leigh Lights allowed them to immediately illuminate a surface contact from their radar, and drop depth charges before the U-Boat crew could crash dive, resulting in higher numbers of successful attacks on German submarines. The completion of the Operation Torch landings put more ships at the disposal of convoys and merchant aircraft carriers (MAC) allowed the convoys to have fighter air support for their entire journey. Additional support came in the form of blimps, which could remain on station and conduct depth charge attacks on identified submarines. German losses rapidly mounted and U-Boats were largely neutralized before the Operation overlord landings, in 1944. With the liberation of France, the German sub pens at La Rochelle, Bordeaux, and Lorient were completely out of the picture.

Whoops, wait a minute; we got a problem here! If Hugo impregnated Anna before he left home, Arn would be in his 30s, as Hugo was born in 1894 and would have turned 18 in 1912. He fought in WW1 after leaving home and college. So, there is more to this story, then, especially if Hugo died in 1922, in the Yucatan. Arn isn't supposed to be older than about 18. Guess we have to wait for next issue!

ps The Bates home, for comparison...

Young All-Stars #13



Creative Team: Roy & Dann Thomas-writers, Howard Simpson-pencils, Malcolm Jones III-inks, Jean Simek-letters, Gene D'Angelo-colors, Mark Waid-associate editor

Synopsis: At Project M, deep below the Statue of Liberty, Ultra-Humanite has inhabited the body of a T-Rex (Taken from Dinosaur Island) and is attacking the All-Stars. The group counter-atatcks, while Arn guards the machine providing Helena with electrotherapy. Dyna-Mite lets off a blast that topples Humanite...



Robotman is hurled into Arn and the machine, and it is destroyed. Tisiphone is awakened and attacks the dinosaur. Ultra runs off and Tisiphone isn't returning Helena, so it is on. Tisiphone leaves the building and Arn chases her down, while Per Degaton does a lot of fast talking to hide his part in getting Deathbolt inside the project. Tisiphone corners Arn and they fight, but the Blood Avenger leaves him laying....



Thoughts: I'm not overly enthused with this issue. I described the high points, though fights cover a few pages and the rest of the time we have characters standing around talking and it doesn't amount to a great issue. I'll admit I'm swiftly losing my interest in this title and it wasn't that great, to begin with. The art isn't enough to elevate the weak characters and Roy isn't doing a lot to make this series that interesting. I'm not tapping out; but, if things don't start picking up, I might just start reviewing several issues at once to get it over with. Ultra is back for more, next issue; so, hopefully business will pick up.