Young All-Stars #15



Creative Team: Roy & Dann Thomas-writers, Ron Harris-pencils, Malcolm Jones III-inks, Jean Simek-letters, Gene D'Angelo-colors, Mark Waid-Associate flunkie

Synopsis: We start with a race between the ladies, in the Perisphere gym, which Fury easily wins, but it's against their individual times, not each other. The guys sneak in to watch and Dan cheers them on and whistles, while Fox is puzzled. Tigress shows off for Arn and isn't watching as she steers towards a dumbbell in the floor (careless weightlifters!) and takes a header towards the wall, but is intercepted by Fury. Tigress gets all catty (go figure) and Liberty belle tells them to hit the showers and tells the boys to get the hell out of her gym. This is then followed by a gratuitous locker room scene...



...where Helena is asking Miya about dating advice and Paula basically says Arn would be more interested if she "put out." That leads to more snark and a dousing by Miya, to cool the two women off. After drying off, Helena goes and talks to "Uncle" Johnny, about male expectations on a date, and Johnny pretty much wets himself and has to be saved by Libby...



Everyone is studying for their finals, in the library and Helena concocts a study date, while Wesley Dodd and Sandy turn up with tickets to a jitterbug contest and Paula rounds up everyone to go have fun, leaving Arn and Helena to be chaperoned by Gernsback, while they "study." Helena plays the tease and Deathbolt turns up...



He neutralizes Gernsback, then runs into Arn and Helena and stuns Arn, but gets his clock cleaned by Helena....



He gets wrapped up in something non-conductive (I assume; they basically mummify him and Gernsback hauls him away) and then do a bit of dancing to the radio, as well as toss each other into furniture (well, Fury tosses Arn) and things are about to turn into an After-school Special, when the phone rings, interrupting unplanned pregnancies-in-the-making. It's Dr Charles McNider (funny, I've never heard of a Celt named Nider, especially one who had a son), telling Arn he has a "mild" case of VD.



Arn is suddenly feeling less amorous (Thankfully) and goes off to mope. It's time for finals and Dr Mid-Nite delivers them, while everyone is in costume, for whatever reason. Arn walks out, in frustration and Doc says let him be. Fox finds him sitting on the roof of the Perisphere and they talk. Arn is worried about what Helena will think if he tells her about his VD. Fox gives advice and philosophy and basically tells him to finish his finals, then deal with the Helena problem. He goes back and finishes the test. Later, in Colorado, Arn receives his diploma and a surprise, as the rest of the gang are there to see it, and Dyna-Mite accidentally clashes his rings, while clapping, setting off an explosion. they all cheer and Arn apologizes to Helena, without telling her he has The Clap.

Hopefully, he's been treated by Dr McNider, by this point. Roy never says.

Thoughts: Well, Deathbolt was pretty much a bait and switch, as he appears and is taken in the span of 4 pages, while we are subject to a morality tale about teen sex and the potential consequences. I don't mind a social message, but this is pretty clunky. It makes the ABC After-School Specials seem subtle. Fury would have probably been played by Melissa Sue Anderson.

Arn's VD is kind of set up, in that he has been shown to be quite the ladies man and there is enough suggestion of sex that you can believe he might contract something. More likely that he'd cause a pregnancy as the fact that he has contracted VD also suggest he isn't using contraceptives (though not a guarantee of preventing an STI). It is certainly a change from the last comic I saw with a VD message, which was the Lady Cop issue, of First Issue Special, where the dialogue was so vague you had to already have an awareness of sex and STIs to get the gist of what was being implied. That was a Code book, this is not.

Nothing really bad about the issue; but, it kind of sums up my frustration with this series. We haven't really had much epic combat or really engaging character development. It's pretty heavy on dialogue and kind of cliched, in terms of character. It has fits and starts and never seems to gel, the way the original series did, or stuff like New Teen Titans. I also don't find the characters that compelling, as Arn and Fury are really the only ones being developed and the rest are playing stereotypes. Tigress gets the worst of it, since she is destined to become a supervillain, she must be portrayed as "easy" and "catty", instead of being a more complex person. James Robinson handled the character far better in The Golden Age.

Deathbolt and Ultra-Humanite felt wasted, especially since they were part of one of the top 5 storylines in All-Star Squadron. They were a big threat there; here they were a minor nuisance, while dealing with rookies. That's lazy writing.

Anyway, Neptune Perkins gets the spotlight, next, as we enter a 4-part storyline, which explains his background. His real background, beyond what was shown in All-Star and here.

ps.  Why does it seem that we see the girls in their frillies a heck of a lot more than the guys in their scivvies?  Also, Paula's top seems to show waaaaay more cleavage than your average 1940s fashion.

I haven't abandoned this; but, I haven't exactly been motivated to finish things. I have been skimming ahead, and have decide I will review the storylines, as a whole, rather than individual issues, as it is getting to be a slog. Roy is filling these things with exposition and meta-fiction; but the actual plot of the main story is shorter than the backstory. It's not a good thing when Hugo Danner, Arthur Gordon Pym and Victor Frankenstein are more interesting than your main superhero characters; but, I think that speaks greatly to Roy's original motivation to do this set of characters, which is to create a continuity fix. It's obvious Roy cares more about these other stories than his own characters, so why should the reader care?

So, next time, we will cover the rest of the Dzyan Inheritance (which includes Victor Frankenstein and the Thule Society and other Nazi wackiness) before moving on. Then, we will cover the return of Axis Amerika and more with Hugo Danner and lost worlds. It's become clear how the Lofficier's have factored into things.

Sadly, the art is not going to improve drastically. Roy was never able to draw a really inspired artist and who can blame them, with all of the exposition they were stuck with? I think Roy would have been better served to explore his ideas in a pulp-inspired series, rather than trying to shoehorn them into a superhero series that existed to fix a gap in continuity that only Roy and a select few cared about.

Alright, this is it. I've delayed and delayed; but, I'm putting this series to rest. I can't take the mediocrity of the Young All-Stars anymore. This will be a summary of the final storylines and a critique of what the series did well and why it failed.

Issues 17-19, "The Dzyan Inheritance"



Neptune Perkins was conceived by the son of Arthur Gordon Pym and a survivor of the Titanic, under the radiation of a Vril battery. he was born a mutant, with webbed hands and feet and the need for salt water, to live. His parents were murdered and Kalla reveals the kilelrs were agents of the black order, the Nazis who have seized control of the artificial island, Leviathan. Neptune follows Kalla to Leviathan, then is betrayed by her. She wants his blood to revitalize Arthur Gordon pym and has conspired with the Black order to do it. She is murdered by Oberst Streicher, as the Black order intend to use the power of the Vril to conquer the world.

The rest of the Young All-Stars, with Wildcat, follow in an Aircuda (an experimental fighter design that never went into service). Perkins is tortured to force Pym to reveal the secrets of the Vril. Dr Thule then recounts the history of the Black Order (aka the Thule Society), which rose into the highest ranks of the Nazi Party. Thule tries to absorb the Vril, then the Dzyan turn up to fight the Black order, then the Young All-Stars arrive. then, the still alive Kalla, who was dumped into the ocean, bumps into an island where Frankenstein's Monster hangs out (calling himself Victor Frankenstein II).

Thule controls the Dzyan, via the Vril and they capture the Young All-Stars. Kalla is healed by Frankenstein and returns to disrupt Thule's control of the Dzyan. They fight and the Black Order are defeated and the Dzyan return to the stars. Arthur Gordon Pym dies aiding the Dzyan.



Issue 20 relates what happened to Helena Kosmatos, when she fell into the crevice and more about Tsiphone. It also reveals the history of Flying Fox's people and links him to Arak, Son of Thunder.



#21-25, "Atom and Evil"
The Nazis and the Japanese work together to disrupt the Manhattan Project, with attempts to kidnap Leo Szilard and Albert Einstein. We see Baron Blitzkrieg unit with Sumo, the Samurai. They meet a group of Allied heroes (Squire, Phantasmo, Fireball, and Kuei). Baron Blitzkrieg and Sumo unite Axis Amerika and dispatch them to capture the scientists of the Manhattan Project. There is a long battle with Axis Amerika and Tirgress appears to die; but, gets better. Ubermensch reveals that Hugo Danner is his father, too. Arn nearly kills him; but is stapped by Gudra, who pleads for his life because she loves him. Fury is aided by Tsiphone.



26 deals with the aftermath of the battles, as people heal and face wartime prejudices. 27 features various Golden Age mystery-men in battle and Fury having to stay behind, as Dr Fate and Spectre go into Europe, via a special spell, to try to break the power of the Spear of Destiny.



The last 4 issues deal with the still living Hugo Danner, who is in the Lost World, in South America. Arn goes down there to investigate, along with the granddaughter of Professor Challenger, Georgia. They find the Lost World and Hugo. He lives with a group of natives that he has injected with his father's serum, in utero. His native brood turn on them and go off to conquer the world, their right, as the strongest. Hugo sides with them and the combined might of the All-Star squadron stops them and Hugo commits suicide.

Thoughts: Roy tried to keep the All-Star Squadron going, by appealing to the crowd that read New Teen Titans and X-Men, while also filling in continuity gaps created by Crisis on Infinite earths. Problem was, most of the audience wasn't hung up on the continuity problems, as they hadn't read and loved All-Star Comics. they were too young and the back issues went for a pretty penny. More of us cared about the modern earth 2 characters who were lost, like Huntress, or whose histories got messed up and got shuffled around between "new origins." The world still had Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman; so, why should we care about Arn Munro, Fury and Flying Fox? Roy never gave us enough a reason to do so. of that threesome, Arn Munro was probably the only necessity, though you could argue that Fury was needed, to give birth to the later Fury, of Infinity, Inc. Fury started off with an interesting hook, but it kind of fell apart after the first year and she became little more than a love interest. Arn had some compelling material; but, more in his parentage, via Hugo Danner. That was an inspired idea; but, beyond that parenthood, Arn was kind of a dull character whose defining trait was being smooth with the ladies, which earned him a dose of the clap.

The characters just never really gelled and didn't really grow. Dyna-Mite went from morose, bigoted sidekick, to cheery, explosive sidekick. Tigress had potential, but nothing was done with her, apart from crafting a weak love triangle with her, Arn and Fury.

Flying Fox was a concept, rather than a character and linking him to Arak did add anything, especially since it came so late in the life of the series. He was the only "adult" character of the bunch, but he was also the least developed and too much of his story was stereotype. Neptune Perkins never rises above being a second-rate Hydro-man, which puts him way behind Aquaman or Namor. A Grade D water hero. the Dzyan Inheritance was supposed to give him depth; but, it jets meant endless exposition and the YA looking like chumps for seemingly endless issues. In the end, Arthur Gordon Pym was more interesting than his grandson, Neptune Perkins.

Roy actually had a good idea in using past pulp literature to establish the foundation of the 1940s mystery men, since the pulp heroes inspired the comic book heroes. The problem was that the pulp characters were more interesting than the mystery men Roy created or adapted. I'd have much rather read an epic series about Arthur Gordon Pym, Frankenstein's Monster, Hugo Danner and Professor Challenger than Iron Munro, Fury, Dynamite, Flying Fox, Neptune Perkins, Tsumani, and Tigress. Thankfully, down the road, Alan Moore demonstrated how cool a metafiction comic could be, in the right hands. Roy dabbled some more in that, as did the Lofficiers, to better effect, in various Elseworlds projects.

That was the other thing; too many characters. Only Iron Munro, Tsunami and Fury have much agency and you are left to wonder why we need the rest. As it stood, their background was more interesting than they were.

Where the series really fails is in the art. Apart from Michael Bair, the series really lacked a great artist. Too much of it looked rather amateurish, especially compared to what was being done in other books, at DC; not to mention, in the indie world. It became clear that no artist of name value wanted to work on the series and Roy never really tapped into another Jerry Ordway. It really never rose above the level of the Charlton Bullseye; but, this wasn't a fanzine.

Roy really struggled with the post-Crisis world, as it greatly affected his beloved stories and he couldn't let it go. He had political problems at DC and he eventually left, when he'd had enough. cCan't say I blame him; but, by the same token, I wasn't sorry to see him go. The longer Roy's tenure lasted, the less I cared about his material. The spark just wasn't there, like it was in the beginning. By contrast, when Roy left and began producing Captain Thunder and Blue Bolt, for Hero Comics, I thought the series was fantastic. Roy was better able to mix the comics of the past with a modern take and made a much more compelling group of characters. It was everything Young All-Stars was not.

Back in the 1980s, I didn't think enough of Young All-Stars to pick it up and time hasn't improved that opinion. I gave it a go, to continue the All-Star Squadron look; but, it just didn't match up to even the worst issues of All-Star Squadron. Maybe that was the problem, as the latter issues of All-Star Squadron hadn't been much to write home about, especially Roy's obsession in retelling the JSA in Space story, for an audience who didn't care. It seemed like Roy just started writing for himself. Once in a while he was inspired, like the baseball issue, which was at least fun, or the Monster Project, which had more potential than most of what we got. Roy did it better in Invaders and, to a lesser extent, All-Star Squadron; but, he needed guidance from outside, but set himself up so that was impossible. I side with Jim Shooter that a writer really shouldn't be their own editor, as they can't be objective about their work and I think Roy's DC work demonstrates that more than his post-EIC work at Marvel did. I think if Roy had been given license to recreate the Golden Age history of DC, from the ground up, he would have been more inspired to do something great, though whether he would be able to let the minutiae go is another question. In the end, I felt that James Robinson had a better handle on revisting the past, with a new take that both honored what had been done, but adapted it to a more modern sensibility (Golden Ager, JSA, Starman). I think he was better able to see the flaws in the old comics than Roy and also find the cooler ideas that could be expanded. Well, except Madame Fatal, since he still treated that as a homophobic joke.

So, here endeth The Young All-Stars and Roy Thomas' trip through Golden Age DC, for a few months of 1942. Do you realize, by the end of this, we had only done from December 6, 1941, to June, 1942? 7 months in 8 years!