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Post by codystarbuck on Sept 9, 2021 16:00:55 GMT -5
Shazam! #23 Now, how could Mary Marvel and Captain Marvel Jr be in danger, tied to a rocket? And why gagged, since they are in their super-powered forms? Well, the answer is in marketing and the story inside. Creative Team: Otto Binder-writer, CC Beck-art; The Marvel Family #56 Synopsis: Billy & Mary Batson and Freddy Freeman are at Station WHIZ (Let go with the radio flow!), at the station's radio listening post, when a distress call comes over it. The voice says follow a direction finder to locate the place. Billy activates a radio direction finder and it points straight down, towards the center of the Earth. The gang say their magic words and transform into the Marvel Family...  The fly out and then burrow into the ground and eventually enter a hollow, subterranean area, inside the Earth's crust. There, a tyrant is brutalizing his people. They once lived in the upper world and that knowledge is being suppressed to keep the people subjugated. A lone person uses hidden radio equipment to send the SOS. The Marvels arrive in time to prtect the young man from being shot and they then smack around the tyrant and his lackey, Olio. The tyrant escapes in a rocket. meanwhile,t he Marvel's discover that nearly a billion people live in the Hollow Earth and they would overcrowd the surface. They have to come up with a solution. Our story is interrupted while Captain Marvel has a snack break....  The solution that the Marvel's hit upon is to build a new world for the underground civilization. meanwhile, the tyrant attacks the surface world, with a helium bomb, which will cause everyone to speak in a squeaky voice.  In actuality, the helium bomb strikes an undersea volcano and creates a massive eruption. While this happens, the Marvels are in space, where they find a dead world and set about terraforming it into a new Earth. They bring the dwarf planet to near earth orbit, to use it as a model, when they spot the ocean disaster and set about stopping it. The collect icebergs and freeze the lava pouring out and then return to the terraforming project. Mary begins by shaping continents. The tyrant sees what the marvels are doing and scoops Mary up in a black bubble field.  Junior is carving out the oceans, lakes, rivers and canals, when he is scooped up in his own bubble. The pair bounce around, then collide their bubbles, which burst them and free the pair. They find Captain Marvel, who has been building a giant space ark, to transport the under-dwellers. They warn him of the tyrant, then go down the caverns to meet the new democratically elected leaders of the populace. They set up a ceremony to christen the ark and the Marvels appear in human form, with Mary swinging the champagne. The tyrant and Olio grab the kids and knock them out, before they can say their magic words. They gag them and bind the to a helium bomb, with which they intend to use to destroy New Earth....  So, I guess the images of kids tied to a rocket wasn't quite what they wanted on the cover, even though Mary and Junior could snap ropes with a twitch. The kids are somehow still breathing, in the upper atmosphere and aren't being burnt alive by friction, though it does burn through their gags before it affects their skin, and Billy is able to change, followed by the rest. they stop the bomb, return and gather the populace and launch the ark. The tyrant comes along in his rocket and envelopes a meteor in a black bubble and sends it towards the ark. the Marvels have been swatting away dangerous meteors; but, they don't see this one coming. However, Captain Marvel isn't a complete moron (only a partial one) and he notices an area of black space, with no stars, but not a black hole. he flies at it and smashes the meteor and bubble, than flies off and captures the tyrant. The ark lands safely and Captain Marvel turns over the tyrant and Olio for the people to deliver justice.  Thoughts: This has always been one of my favorite issues of the DC series. A friend had the comic and I read it in 1976, without realizing it was a reprint of a 25 year-old story. It's a very imaginative piece, mixing influences of Otto Binder's contemporaries. There is a bit of Ray Palmer's publications if Richard Sharpe Haver's "Shaver Mysteries," purporting a hollow Earth, with beings who are insane, which claimed to be reality, though were sold as science fiction. Added to that is Phillip Wylie's When Worlds Collide, where a Rogue Planet endangers the Earth and a giant ark is created and launched, to carry a selected group of survivors to rebuild on a new world. The terraforming that Binder adds gives it a unique hook and it is an early example of such ideas, though one science cannot perform. We ignore pesky issues, like an atmosphere and water. Binder also ignores the issue of the kids being able to survive being dropped from the upper atmosphere, without oxygen, while tied to a bomb, descending at high speeds. We see the friction creating flames along the bomb; but, they burn off Billy's gag before any of his clothing or bare skin. The bound Marvels on the cover would survive, no problem; but, the bound kids, in the interior, would be dead soon after the bomb was dropped from the rocket, just from the shock of the speed they are travelling, let alone air friction, heat and flames, lack of oxygen and other elements. However, the story is imaginative enough to suspend disbelief. Also, the visuals are great, with the black bubble traps, the super feats to terraform the planetoid, the ark, the underground world and just the storytelling. Some portions of the puzzle get dispensed rather quickly, like the ocean volcano that the tyrant sets off. The Marvels handle that emergency in 4 panels, one of which was exposition. When DC collected the series in the Showcase Presents volume, they did not include the reprint stories, for the 100 pg issues, the back-ups or the full reprint issues. That is part of how they packed 35 issues, 7 of which were 100 pages, each, into one volume. They skipped a lot of material. The DC-originated stories were never able to match these classic Binder stories for their epic scope and imagination. Oh, they could do a decent short tale and maybe a little mystery; but, never something like this, which I think was down to a combination of underestimating their audience and that same arrogant attitude that caused DC to fall behind Marvel, believing everything they did was superior to everyone else. Fawcett pretty much handed DC their collective backsides, in the 40s and 50s, to the point that Captain Marvel was outselling Superman, which was a major motivating factor in their lawsuit, vs some of the other imitators out there. here, we see why, as the Fawcett stories are just great and much of the newer material was just "okay," at best, with the odd really good one. If the tv show hadn't been a hit, I doubt we would be talking about this issue, as the only reason it continued was because they had a hit tv series and the reprints didn't cost them much money, compared to new stories; so, they were more profitable. Next issue is the last of the reprint issues, as change was happening at DC. Jenette Kahn came in and one of the things she mandated was an end to reprint stories, for the sake of just filling content. if there was a good reason for reprinting a story, then fine; but no more collections of reprints just to have cheap material to publish. That will force this series to return to original material and a revamp to the series. However, next issue is another Binder/Beck piece, with a Bill Woolfolk/Bud Thompson Junior story.
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Post by codystarbuck on Sept 15, 2021 16:02:22 GMT -5
Shazam! #24 Creative Team: Main story-Otto Binder-writer, CC Beck-artist; Captain Marvel Adventures #148 CM Jr story-Bill Woolfolk-writer, Bud Thompson-artist; Captain Marvel Jr #118 Synopsis: A ray turns a man to dust, before Billy Batson's eye. The ray comes toward him and he changes into Captain Marvel, who shrugs off the ray...  CM believes Sivana is behind it and flies into the sky to intercept him, but finds no one there. Billy keeps an ear out at the station radio listening post and hears an SOS for a city being attacked by a ray. This one turns people into ants. This time, he catches up to Sivana, who immediately surrenders, which has CM stunned. Sivana quickly shoves a device in CM's mouth and it broadcasts the magic word and CM is transformed and Sivana brains Billy Batson. He seals him in a transparent coffin, with suspended animation gases, to orbit the Earth forever, as Sivana takes over...  It turns out that another group was behind the dust ray and they come for Sivana, as he is a threat to their plans of world conquest.  Sivana escapes in his rocket, retrieves Billy from orbit, releases him, gets him to switch and embraces Captain Marvel, as a friend....  CM smashes the pursuing ship, then goes after the Azpak city, high in the Andes. He orders them to stop their aggression and tries to get to the king, but has to run a gauntlet of soldiers, then the king jumps down an escape hole. The city is suspended between mountains, by cables, so CM grabs one and damages it, causing the city to droop. This coerces the king into giving up and recalling his forces and abdicating, leading to democracy, in the span of about 10 minutes. Sivana uses the distraction to try to attack the UN and finds Captain Marvel waiting for him. he is arrested and dumped in jail, to a round of "Curses!" CM visits him with a newspaper, which names Sivana as a hero of the world, which drives him ape-doo-doo. A boy, named John, is wounded by armored soldiers, in Sherwood forest. he finds the hut of a hermit, who heals him. The boy worked for the Earl of Nottingham, who has laid a trap for Robin Hood and the boy went to warn Riob, when he was wounded. The hermit is a sorcerer, who gives the kid a magic ball of time (looks like a snowglobe, to me) and he sends an SOS to the future, which is received by Freddy freeman, who is brought to the past....  He says his magic word and changes into Captain Marvel Jr, but the ambush has already occurred. Jr disguises himself to enter an archery tournament, to best the Earl. He splits his arrow and is arrested, because only one of the Merry men could do that. he is brought to the gallows where Robin is about to be hung.  Jr reveals himself and opens up a can of Red and Blue Cheese whoop-ass....  Turns out, the Earl stole farmers' money to fund a group of brigands to murder King Richard, who is in Plymouth. Junior tells the Merry men to link hands, then he drags them into the air and to Plymouth, where only the Lionheart has withstood the attack of the brigands and fights alone (of course he did). He breaks his sword and is vulnerable, when the gang swoop in and kick butt. The King is saved, to go bugger off to France and ignore England, since he barely spent any time there. Before he leaves, he appoints the sorcerer to his court (wrong story guys; this isn't King Arthur) and frees the boy, John, who is henceforth known as John Freeman and we learn that he is Freddy's ancestor. The letters page has one from an anti-UN person, praising the old King Kull story. Takes all kinds to make a readership. Thoughts: Lead story is a bit of fun, though not exactly one of the classics. Nice twist to see Sivana targeted by another villain, as a threat to his plans. Being branded a hero is worse punishment than prison laundry detail. The Junior story is entertaining fluff, but man does it look great! Really nice illustration that captures the feel of Howard Pyle and the other Robin Hood story illustrators. Old Rob had his own comic, from Quality Comics, which DC then picked up. Typical of the legends, it makes Richard the Lionheart out to be some kind of hero, when he probably murdered his father, slaughtered innocents in the Holy Land, and spent more time securing his holdings in France than in ruling England. John was there and dealt with things, but he is the villain of the story, though Ivanhoe takes Richard to task, a little (more in a few modern adaptations than in Scott). One of the most underrated Robin Hood movies, for my money, is Robin and Marian, with Sean Connery and Audrey Hepburn. Richard Harris is a rather nasty Richard, who has lost a lot of respect from Robin Hood, as his petty side has become more and more abundant. he also treats the loyal hero like a flunky. Robin defies his king when he wants to storm a castle with no treasure and is jailed, but released after Richard is fatally wounded and dying and pardons him. He goes home and meets up with the Sheriff, who also fought in the Crusades, and there is a mutual respect, but he has a job to do and has to deal with John's idiot representatives. Marian is a nun and the abbess of a holding that has been confiscated by John, who Robin saves, despite not being asked. They rekindle things, but they are much changed and see the past for the fantasy it was, which Robin desperately clings to. A revolt grows, centered around Robin and he looks for a last glorious battle with the Sheriff and Marian refuses to watch. Way more truthful to history and human behavior. Hepburn hadn't acted in a while and is fantastic and Connery rises to the occasion. Robert Shaw makes for an excellent cynical, yet honorable Sheriff. This is the last of the reprints. Jenette Kahn took over as the boss and one of her first mandates was an end to reprints for the sake of content. If there was a good reason to reprint a story, they would; but not just for the sake of filling newsstands. So, it is back to the drawing board for The Big Red Cheese, as they decide to take a page from the hit tv show. However, first, they are going to debut his partner on Saturday morning tv, Isis. Then, we take up the crossover between the heroes of Earth S and those of Earth 1 and 2, as Captain Marvel meets the JLA and JSA and brings along a few friends. Oh, and just for fun, recognize anyone in this t-shirt ad, from Youth for '76, a Bicentennial Youth program? 
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Post by rayray on Sept 16, 2021 8:19:01 GMT -5
Fun reviews! And is that iddy-biddy wee li'l Todd Bridges?
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Post by codystarbuck on Sept 16, 2021 11:37:10 GMT -5
Fun reviews! And is that iddy-biddy wee li'l Todd Bridges? That is Todd Bridges!. About this time he had appeared in a first season episode of Barney Miller, but Different Strokes was still down the road, a little ways. |
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Post by codystarbuck on Sept 22, 2021 17:49:48 GMT -5
Shazam! #25 or is it Isis #1? Well, no, actually, it isn't....  ...but, you can make the argument that it is Isis #0. Creative Team: Denny O'Neil-writer, Dick Giordano-artist, Julie Schwartz-editor Captain Marvel story-E Nelson Bridwell-writer, Kurt Schaffenberger-art, Joe Orlando-editor. So, a little backstory: Isis debuted as a companion show to Shazam!, in the Fall Season of 1976-77, on Saturday, September 6, 1975. At this point, the second season of the show, and the third and final season of Shazam! are about to appear. Isis was created by Filmation, in response to the success of the live action Shazam! series. Filmation wanted a similar character that they would own and also one that would appeal to girls as well as boys, as Shazam! skewed more to young males. Thus was born Isis. The character is school teacher Andrea Thomas, who is on an archeological dig, in Egypt, and uncovers an amulet, which imbues her with the power of the Egyptian goddess Isis, transforming her into a living embodiment of the goddess. So, we have a similar mythological hook and a similar transformation. The school teacher element was to have her around youth and help fulfill the educational mandate of 1970s children's programming, on Network TV. Her abilities stemmed from the amulet and pretty much mirrored Captain Marvel's, though she showed some telepathic and other magical abilities, in some episodes. There was usually a moral lesson in each episode's plot, which would be reiterated, at the end, by Isis (and Captain Marvel, on the Shazam! show). Isis and Captain Marvel teamed up for several episodes on both shows. The heroine was played by Joanna Cameron, who had done a few movies and tv roles, but had a far greater catalog of commercials. Filmation wanted a young, athletic, attractive female for the lead and she was perfect. The actress largely left acting behind, after the show ended, in part due to typecasting and the image of Saturday morning being somewhere below soap operas (and she did some work there). She did appear in an episode of the Spider-Man tv series, with Nicholas Hammond, memorably appearing in a bikini, in the episode, after her character has been kidnapped by the villain and forced to change into the costume, because "it couldn't hide weapons:" and, NOT, because Cameron had a terrific figure and was drop-dead gorgeous and might get a lot of people to watch this. DC picked up the rights to do a comic, based on the ISIS tv show (they also did one based on the Super Friends and Welcome Back Kotter, at this time). The comic ran 8 issues and was kept apart from the world of DC Comics. Jack C Harris & Mike Vosburg did the bulk of the short-lived series, though Denny O'Neil wrote the first issue and Steve Skeates scripted the second and did at least one back-up story, while Ric Estrada did art in the first issue and Mike Nasser and Jose Delbo did stories in the series. Some issues had two stories and some only one. Synopsis: School teachers Andrea Thomas and Rick Mason watch as a wrecking ball tears down the old school building, to make way for more modern facilities (while children cheer the destruction, no doubt). However, they spot a student in danger. It's Cindy Lee, resident trouble magnet. She is inside and the building is about to collapse around her. Andrea recites the chant, "O Mighty Isis!" and is transformed into the heroine, Isis. She rushes inside and calms Cindy, than delivers an incantation the causes the ground to swallow up the crumbling bricks and rubble, pulling it away from the girl. She then magics a crossbeam off Cindy's leg and gets a compliment from the newly arrived Captain Marvel...  He asks the obvious question of Cindy, "What the hell did you think you were doing, young lady?" or words to that effect. She says she was following some suspicious characters, who were poking around the old building site, when they cut through the rubble and she got caught in it. TBRC accepts that (Wisdom of Solomon is on vacation, if you ask me) and then asks Isis who she is and we get the intro to the tv series (more or less), though with additional material that explains how she learned the incantation and her connection to the amulet...  Captain Marvel is done with his cameo, in his own title and flies off. Isis leaves and Cindy hits on her teacher, asking him to the movies, which is rather shocking, in a Code-approved title, based on a Saturday morning tv show. Rick points out the impropriety, but demonstrates his irresponsibility by tossing the keys to his car to someone who chased "shady characters," into a demolition site and had to be rescued by a superhero. Cindy mopes and then spots her shady characters, who return to the site and start digging and come up with a bag of gold coins they had stolen and stashed in the old building. They take off after finding the loot and she follows, in Rick's car. She follows them around the same winding roads where Sammy Baugh chased Nazis (excuse me..."foreign agents") on horseback and in cars... (One of the "foreign agents" is Commissioner Gordon!)  The hoods spot the tail and set up and ambush, then tie Cindy up and set her car at the edge of a cliff and release the parking brake.  Andrea, meanwhile, has been investigating Cindy's shady characters and learns that she was chasing after them again, just a few minutes before. She transforms to Isis and takes to the air ("O zephyr winds that blow on high, lift me now so I can fly!") She spots Cindy's car go off the cliff and magics some roots to catch it, then uses additional magic to have the gold coins attack the hoods...  "The Bicentennial Villain"-The wizard, Shazam, briefs Captain Marvel that someone is going to cause problems on the Bicentennial (this was released in June 29, so we were about a week from the actual birthday) and tells him to look for a laugh that will cause tears for millions...  Okay, there were some bad variety shows then, but nothing that caused tears to millions! I mean, Pink Lady and Jeff wasn't for another 4 years! Billy Batson and Whitey Murphy go to Central park to film a documentary about young people involved in the birth of the country such as Ben Franklin (published, under a pen name, at 16), Pocahontas (12-13 when she saved Capt John Smith) and Kit Carson (17 when he went West) and then a bear attacks "Kit Carson."  Billy transforms to Captain Marvel and kayos the ebar, after letting him damage his teeth by bighting the World's Mightiest Bicep. Next Pony Express rider William "Bill" Cody has an explosion go off near his horse and has to be rescued by TBRC. Billy then checks out a replica of the captured British ship that David Farragut commanded, at age 12, when he hears a familiar cackle, but still gets bonked on the head before he can switch and catch Dr Sivana. He gets bound and gagged and then Sivana slices a hole in the wooden hull to sink the ship. Billy catches his gag on the splintered wood and pulls it down to utter the magic word and Captain marvel flies the ship to land. Whitey catches up with CM and delivers a note from Sivana, bragging of a cross-country destruction spree, which will begin in Washington DC. Billy delivers his piece and Sterling Morris decides on a new assignment...  Thoughts: The Isis story is pretty typical of the episode plots of the tv show, minus the annoying filler with teenagers, when all we wanted was Joanna Cameron in her Egyptian mini-dress! The show was pretty good, for what it was and Cameron was a decent actress and the character mixed beauty with brains, making it a pretty good role model for young women, while doing cool hero stuff for the young boys and looking damn hot for the adolescents. Also, Andrea rocked her glasses, which put to shame that stupid adage about boys not making passes at girls who wear glasses. On top of that, Andrea was a character that boys could respect, because she was smart and capable and didn't need rescuing and Captain Marvel treated her as an equal. It's nice to see Dick Giordano art, which could be a bit rare, in this period, with his Continuity commitments. Sadly, he wasn't the regular series artist; but, Mike Vosburg was a darn good stand-in, as he drew beautiful women and was adept at the more supernatural stories that shaped her series. The Isis comic debuted two weeks later, on July 15. The Bicentennial tale highlights the contributions of young people to history, even if some of the people were better known when they were older. Ben Franklin was a prodigy, published at 16, who was famous by the time of the Revolution. Pocahontas was considered to be a woman, more or less, by the time she met Captain John Smith, as 13 was not an unusual age for marriage, especially given the average life expectancy of the age. Buffalo Bill Cody had been a Pony Express rider, before he was a buffalo hunter and promoter of his famous Wild West Show. So, again, this is Bicentennial-centric, for release at the height of the celebrations. However, there is more going on here. Shazam! had, effectively, been canceled and turned into reprints, until the Kahn regime put an end to reprints for the sake of filling pages. It wasn't taken off the stands because they had a hit tv show, on Saturday mornings and they weren't about to damage that. So, they went with the cheaper alternative of doing reprints (I suspect the only people they had to pay was Fawcett, since they were not DC stories and didn't have to pay their talent, and were paying Fawcett licensing money). The hit tv show is still on the air, so the comic has to continue, which means a return to new stories. However, the new stories just weren't catching an audience, even when they were pretty good (and there were more good ones than bad, in my opinion). So, what to do? Well, how about more closely mirroring the tv show than the Fawcett days? That's what DC set out to do and this issue sets things up. Sivana is going on a cross-country spree and Sterling Morris has an assignment for Billy. Next issue will reveal the assignment and the full retooling of the series (for 10 more issues). Also, Joe Oralndo takes over as editor and the book returns to bi-monthly status. Meanwhile, Earth S was finally getting its welcome to the DC Multiverse (Luthor & Mr Mind, notwithstanding), as the annual JLA/JSA Crossover heads to Earth S, for a "Crisis on Earth-S!" So, our next stop is JLA #135, as the JLA, JSA and the "Squadron of Justice" team up to face a collection of villains from 3 worlds.
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Post by mikelmidnight on Sept 24, 2021 11:35:21 GMT -5
Shazam! #25Meanwhile, Earth S was finally getting its welcome to the DC Multiverse (Luthor & Mr Mind, notwithstanding), as the annual JLA/JSA Crossover heads to Earth S, for a "Crisis on Earth-S!" So, our next stop is JLA #135, as the JLA, JSA and the "Squadron of Justice" team up to face a collection of villains from 3 worlds.
As a young teen I was hugely invested in the DC multiverse (I didn't collect JLA, but I'd buy all the JLA/JSA crossovers); as such, I was very happy that to have a new character on Earth-S, rather than the default of everyone new appearing on Earth-1 (this was a ways away from Infinity Inc).
I realised DC didn't own her and she'd not be appearing as an Earth-S character in ensuing stories, but at least this made it official.
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Post by codystarbuck on Sept 24, 2021 22:23:36 GMT -5
Shazam! #25Meanwhile, Earth S was finally getting its welcome to the DC Multiverse (Luthor & Mr Mind, notwithstanding), as the annual JLA/JSA Crossover heads to Earth S, for a "Crisis on Earth-S!" So, our next stop is JLA #135, as the JLA, JSA and the "Squadron of Justice" team up to face a collection of villains from 3 worlds.
As a young teen I was hugely invested in the DC multiverse (I didn't collect JLA, but I'd buy all the JLA/JSA crossovers); as such, I was very happy that to have a new character on Earth-S, rather than the default of everyone new appearing on Earth-1 (this was a ways away from Infinity Inc).
I realised DC didn't own her and she'd not be appearing as an Earth-S character in ensuing stories, but at least this made it official.
Well, it could have been Earth-F (for Filmation, which could be cool, because you could throw in anything Filmation adapted or created) and that was the Earth-F Captain Marvel. |
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Post by codystarbuck on Sept 26, 2021 22:24:52 GMT -5
Justice League of America #135 It's time for the annual JLA/JSA/SOJ crossover! Wait......who the heck are the SOJ? Let's find out! Creative Team: E Nelson Bridwell-plot & continuity, Marty Pasko-script (says "words", but I think it was more than just dialogue & so does GCD), Dick Dillin-pencils, Frank McLaughlin-inks, Ben Oda-letters (per GCD), Julie Schwartz-editor Synopsis: Lets meet our players, before we start the game...  Interesting; both Flashes and Lanterns, but the Earth-2 Batman & Robin, as well as Wonder Woman. Johnny Thunder didn't make many of these, and Hawkgirl is listed as special guest because she wasn't a full-fledged member, yet. Also, pretty rare that they would use the Earth-2 Batman, as he was supposed to be retired, when Robin started making appearances as an adult. On the Earth-S side: Bulletman and Bulletgirl, Ibis, Mr Scarlet & Pinky (and the Brain) and Spy Smasher (Though shouldn't he be Crime Smasher, at this point?) A spaceship launches from Earth and disappears when it reaches light speed (well, it would wouldn't it?) Inside is King Kull and he launches an attack on the Rock of Eternity, with his Torpor-Beam, which slows the molecules of the gods and demi-gods who dwell there...  Mercury escapes, while Kull lands and rants about Homo Sapiens displacing his people as rulers of the land and how he intends to restore his power. The wizard Shazam links minds with Mercury to provide a plan. He vibrates across dimensional planes and recruits Green Arrow, leaving Black canary to finish dealing with some crooks, by herself. He transports him to be with the rest of the JLA (well, Supes, Flash, Lantern and the Hawks). Then, on Earth-2, Batman and Robin are returning from an awards ceremony, which explains why E-2 Bats is in his union suit, when he gave it up. They get visited by Mercury, who whisks them and the Batmobile away, after first uniting them with Wonder Woman, Flash, Lantern and Johnny Thunder. The Batmobile even has a previously unseen back seat!  On the Rock of Eternity, Kull monologs that he is out destroy humanity on all 3 parallel worlds. Then we cut to Earth-S, where Ibis and Taia are moving into new digs, when Mercury takes Ibis away and leaves Taia to do all of the work. Typical men! Ibis and Bullets Man & Girl, Mr Scarlet and Pinky (and the Brain) and Spy Smasher are dragged along and told that the gods who imbue Captain Marvel with his powers are helpless, so no Marvel Family. They arrive somewhere, where the JLA members bring GA up to speed, about using the old Crime Champions HQ as a base of operations from which to fight Kull. Introductions are made and a splash page identifies the Fawcett heroes for a new generation. They then split into teams and head to respective Earths to battle Kulls plans. Johnny Thunder is left behind to carry out a special assignment. Superman, Wonder Woman and Spy Smasher arrive on Earth-2, near the location of the recently te-risen Atlantis, where WW's old foe, Queen Clea, is about to attack, along with Penguin, Blockbuster and Ibac. They agree to help her reconquer Atlantis (which is ruled by Amazonian women and the men are little squirts), in exchange for a share of the spoils. Blockbuster has a Girdle of Venus around his waist (that's a belt for prisoners of the Amazons, not a foundation garment), to keep him from running amok. Superman spots Blockbuster and they head into attack mode, but Blockbuster plants a right to Superman's face, which stuns him. He hurts his hand and Superman hits him with a dropkick, which takes BB out, but Clea sneaks up behind him and slaps on a girdle (belt, remember....she's not going around cross-dressing people) and takes him out of the game. She slaps BB around to snap him out of it and Wonder Woman turns up. BB goes to attack and WW uses her lasso to keep him away and Superman helps, while fighting the power of the girdle. He decks BB, but succumbs to the power of the belt and goes to attack WW, until she commands him to stop, which works because it was designed to force prisoners to respond to the Amazon warders. She decks Clea and then Superman is able to slip off his girdle and then they round up the two villains and wonder what that had to do with Kull's plans. Kull is watching from the Rock of Eternity and cackles that Penguin and Ibac are constructing something that will answer that. We cut to their location and see them building a giant espresso coffee grinder (like at Starbucks and other coffee shops) and then Spy Smasher lands his gyrosub so that he and Green Arrow can attack....  Ibac laughs off Spy Smasher's best punch. GA and Pengie battle trick arrows against trick umbrellas, until GA uses a fan arrow to blow back gas from Pengie's umbrella, take him out. Ibac goes to throw his best punch at Smasher and he sidesteps and uses judo to hurl him into the machine and wreck it. He then uses a trick Captain Marvel taught him and tells Ibac that he is defeated, to back down. Ibac roars, "I back down from no one.." then realizes he just said his magic word (I back=Ibac) and turns into Stanly Printwhistle, meek streetcleaner. Kull watches and cackles that they missed the cloud that the machine released, which we did see when the heroes arrived. GA did see it and reminds the others. Superman spots the cloud over an island, 50 miles away and the island suddenly sinks...  Superman theorizes the cloud somehow increased the molecular density and the island just sank, ignoring the fact that an island doesn't float in water, it is anchored to the sea floor by geological formations. GA recalls his physics class (glad somebody at DC took one) and says that can't happen and Superman says things work differently here and flies into the sky before whole continents go under the sea. He freezes the cloud until it condenses into an ice formation, then knocks it into a comet flying past, in space. Then, a massive earthquake (I guess that would be an Earth-2quake) occurs and Atlantis sinks again and GA and SS fly off in the Gyrosub, while WW takes the IP and SM uses his own power, while Kull cackles again. And that's it, for now. Thoughts: This started out as a really nice idea, with Kull attacking the Rock of Eternity, to neutralize the gods that power the Marvel Family, then launch an attack on three Earths; but, then it gets really disjointed. It feels like maybe this was planned to originally crossover with the Shazam! title or something, as it seems like parts are missing. They reference the Crime Champions HQ, which that was a mix of Earth-1 and 2 villains who fought the JLA & JSA, in their first crossover. The Fawcett bunch are just thrown at us with no set-up and a one page explanation of who they are. If you saw the Whiz Comics Famous First Edition, you would know Ibis and Spy Smasher, but Mr Scarlet & Pinky and Bulletman & Bulletgirl appeared in Nickel Comics & Master Comics (and their own book) and Mr Scarlet & Pinky were in Wow Comics, where they got dumped from the lead slot, first by Commando Yank, then by Mary Marvel (icky girls, horning in on the fun!). There just seems to be a lot of information missing, like where the other villains came from. We get no exposition or scenes of Kull recruiting them. They are just thrown out there. In fact, a lot of stuff is "just thrown out there." That's why I feel like there were supposed to be other chapters to this story, but they got nixed. Either that or Julie Schwartz really dropped the ball on the editing side, letting such a swiss-cheesed story out on the stands. It was obvious he didn't give two-s@#$s about Shazam!, as he didn't seem to do much to pull in an audience and that Bridwell was the one with the enthusiasm for the series (and did most of the heavy lifting, to make it work). I wonder if Bridwell really had time to collaborate with Pasko on the story, as it kind of reads like he dashed off a plot and left Pasko to fill in the details, but he didn't have enough pages to elaborate. The art is the usual Dillin & McLaughlin, which I always liked and they usually upped their game a bit for the crossovers; but not so much here. The Fawcett gang are a bit lightly sketched, especially Ibac. Maybe he didn't have good reference materials. So far, I'm not overly impressed with this. The previous JLA/JSA crossover had been the infamous one where Cary Bates is loopy and plays villain with the goons from Earth 1 & 2, while Elliot Maggin turns up to aid the heroes. Robin also still had his weird Batman hybrid costume, with a Robin chest symbol, yellow cape and a domino mask, but Batman's tights, trunks, gloves and boots. Thankfully, he is in Neal Adams' updated adult Robin suit here, which he was also wearing in the recently revived All-Star Comics. It was pretty unusual to have direct counterparts in the same story. They usually swapped. Johnny Thunder wasn't used much because he was too goofy for modern audiences. I guess we will see what his special mission is. For the uninitiated, a little about the Squadron of Justice. As I said, Ibis and Spy Smasher debuted in Whiz Comics #2, alongside Captain Marvel. Ibis was Prince Amentep, of Ancient Egypt, who was given the magical Ibistick by the god Thoth (as opposed to the God Toth, who created Space Ghost and did some sweet comics!). His throne was usurped by the Black Pharaoh, with a demonic army, sent by Set. His love, Princes Taia of Thebes, refuses to marry Black Pharaoh and he wounds her with a poisoned arrow and Ibis saves her and places her in suspended animation, to heal. He then puts himself in a similar spell, then reawakens in the 20th Century and goes looking for Taia and is eventually reunited. He goes around in tuxedo and turban, mixing a bit of Mandrake and Chandu. DC's own Sargon the Sorcerer had a similar look. Bulletman is Jim Barr, son of a policeman, who was killed in the line of duty. Jim was rejected by the police academy, but works in ballistics.He develops a chemical solution that gives him great strength and brain power and develops a Gravity Regulator Helmet, which allows him to fly and deflect bullets. The helmet is shaped like the projectile of a bullet. His girlfriend was Susan Kent, the daughter of a police sergeant, who also drinks the potion and Barr makes her a helmet of her own, becoming Bulletgirl. The pair was probably the second most popular feature at Fawcett, behind the Marvel Family (collectively) and was a rare case of romantic partner heroes (along with Hawkman and Hawkgirl). Mr Scarlet was district attorney Brian Butler, who fights crime, under a mask, as Mr Scarlet, aided by his adopted son, Pinky the Whiz Kid. Mr Scarlet carried a pistol and uses ropes to swing around, plus some other gadgets, as needed. He was one of many Batman knock-offs who didn't set the world on fire and went from a starring spot to playing supporting feature for the bulk of his career. There is a theory that he was planned to appear in the third Republic Pictures serial, based on Fawcett properties, but the idea was dropped when he was no longer starring in a title. His script was then re-used later, for another hero: Captain America. In the Republic serial, Captain America is crusading DA Grant Gardner, who carries a pistol. While it is known that the Captain America script had not been created with the hero in mind and that he was a last-minute deal, with Timely Comics, it has never been proven that the script was meant for Mr Scarlet. Republic did do something similar, as it had prepared a script for a potential Superman serial, but Columbia got the hero and they turned their script into The Mysterious Doctor Satan, with the hero, The Copperhead. Pinky later took over the role of Mr Scarlet, in Power of Shazam. Narf! Spy Smasher is Alan Armstrong, who battles Nazis and other saboteurs and spies, using his fantastic gyrosub. The vehicle seen here is based on the version seen in the Republic Pictures movie serial, one of the greatest adventure serials of all time (along with The Adv of Captain Marvel), which was actually a flying wing, used by the villains, crossed with a Northrop XP-56 Black Bullet experimental aircraft....  The one in his comics looked like this....  It got refined, a bit, over time, but still had the bulbous shape, until the Republic serial came out and then Fawcett started drawing it more akin to the film. Ironically, the villains use the craft, in the serial. A fight aboard the aircraft would inspire the flying wing fight, in Raiders of the Lost Ark (also some of the submarine stuff). Fawcett never had a super team, though some of these people teamed up, once. In the pages of Master Comics #41, the Crime Crusaders Club made it's debut, in a Minute Man story. They weren't a formal super-team, but, rather, a group of colleagues hanging out together. The group consisted of Minute Man, Bulletman & Bulletgirl, and Captain Marvel Jr. They aid Minute Man in his war bond drive. The only real super-teams of the Golden Age were the JSA and the Seven Soldiers of Victory. Timely didn't get a group until The All-Winner's Squad, in 1946. The Freedom Fighters didn't exist until the 1970s, as the Quality heroes were banded together, by Len Wein. Quality had the Blackhawks, but no superhero team. For Fawcett, there was only the Marvel Family. similarly, the MLJ/Archie heroes didn't team up until the Mighty Crusaders debuted, in 1965, during Archie's Might Comics imprint. So, this Squadron of Justice makes its only appearance in these pages. Part of that was due to the DC-Fawcett relationship, as they were licensing the characters and, at one stage, only had the rights to use Captain Marvel and none of the rest. Minute Man turns up for one of the last issues of this series, while Bulletman and Bulletgirl make future appearances, including a team-up between BG and Mary Marvel. Spy Smasher twiddles his thumbs until Power of Shazam and Kingdom Come, when a new version of several of these guys appears, in the future (Mr Scarlet and Spy Smasher, at least). Next issue has more villains, including the only appearance (I think) of the Earth-2 Joker, in one of these things. Let's hope the story is a bit tighter than this installment.
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Post by mikelmidnight on Sept 27, 2021 11:44:28 GMT -5
The "Crime Smasher" thing bugged me, too; on the other hand, not only was he better known as Spy Smasher, but as Crime Smasher he was noncostumed.
I enjoyed seeing the Fawcett heroes brought back to action, although it's always been a curiosity to me that outside of the Marvels … who are so high-quality … the Fawcett stable is incredibly bland. The Bulletman family is okay, but less visually interesting than Hawkman et al. Maybe they could have done something with Diamond Jack, but he was also noncostumed and very shortlived (and probably forgotten about).
Phantom Eagle was a great strip, although the character wouldn't fit in well with this sort of story.
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Post by codystarbuck on Sept 27, 2021 21:38:10 GMT -5
The "Crime Smasher" thing bugged me, too; on the other hand, not only was he better known as Spy Smasher, but as Crime Smasher he was noncostumed. I enjoyed seeing the Fawcett heroes brought back to action, although it's always been a curiosity to me that outside of the Marvels … who are so high-quality … the Fawcett stable is incredibly bland. The Bulletman family is okay, but less visually interesting than Hawkman et al. Maybe they could have done something with Diamond Jack, but he was also noncostumed and very shortlived (and probably forgotten about). Phantom Eagle was a great strip, although the character wouldn't fit in well with this sort of story. Well, you weren't going to get much of a hero team out of Lance O'Casey and Golden Arrow! I always liked Bulletman and Bulletgirl and their comics had some good artists. they could have jazzed up the costumes, a bit. Spy Smasher worked best as a Golden Age hero. Having him be time-displaced might have worked better. Obviously, we are going to build towards the Marvels turning up or why bother doing this? What I don't get is that if this was meant to debut the other Fawcett characters, as with the Earth-X crossover and the Freedom Fighters, why they didn't go ahead and use them more in stories, either as back-ups for Shazam!, a new team book with the Squadron of Justice, or just guest stars. As I said, only Minute Man (who got left out of this) and Bulletman (I believe) and Bulletgirl (definitely, as I had the story where she teams up with Mary Marvel, originally) got a return visit. For that matter, DC seemed reluctant to use some of the villains from Fawcett. Mr Atom didn't turn up for a long while and they didn't seem to want to touch Captain Nazi (probably because they were aiming the book younger), until later. Really, it seemed like Bridwell was the only one wanting to do something with these characters, until Don Newton came to DC (already a massive fan of the Marvels) and hooked up with Bridwell to do some great stories. Had the series been as good as the bridwell & Newton stuff, from the start, we probably would have been talking about Shazam! a heck of a lot more, all the way through Crisis. I'm jonesin' to get there, but good things come to those who wait. |
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Post by mikelmidnight on Sept 29, 2021 11:50:56 GMT -5
Also, I am remembering, that apparently DC didn't actually own the non-Marvel characters at this point - Bridwell only thought they did! So after this one-shot appearance they got returned to limbo until evidently that changed.
There was Commando Yank, but he was wartime-specific and less well-known than Spy Smasher. Devil's Dagger had less visual flair than Mr Scarlet. I guess they could have made Golden Arrow more of a Green Arrow type.
I do remember a flashback panel in PoS in which they clearly depicted a character who was a sort of amalgamation of Commando Yank and Captain Midnight!
But yeah the line was oddly unbalanced … the near-omnipotent Marvels, some tuxedoed magicians … and then a lot of nonpowered characters, with only the Bulletman Family in the middle. No speedsters, no 'strike a pose and zap' characters other than Diamond Jack. Even their one-shot attempt at a team, the Crime Crusaders Club, didn't have a very interesting variety. That's probably why not much was done with them.
All the more reason it's a shame they didn't own Isis outright!
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Post by codystarbuck on Sept 29, 2021 12:07:28 GMT -5
Also, I am remembering, that apparently DC didn't actually own the non-Marvel characters at this point - Bridwell only thought they did! So after this one-shot appearance they got returned to limbo until evidently that changed. There was Commando Yank, but he was wartime-specific and less well-known than Spy Smasher. Devil's Dagger had less visual flair than Mr Scarlet. I guess they could have made Golden Arrow more of a Green Arrow type. I do remember a flashback panel in PoS in which they clearly depicted a character who was a sort of amalgamation of Commando Yank and Captain Midnight! But yeah the line was oddly unbalanced … the near-omnipotent Marvels, some tuxedoed magicians … and then a lot of nonpowered characters, with only the Bulletman Family in the middle. No speedsters, no 'strike a pose and zap' characters other than Diamond Jack. Even their one-shot attempt at a team, the Crime Crusaders Club, didn't have a very interesting variety. That's probably why not much was done with them. All the more reason it's a shame they didn't own Isis outright! At this point, DC didn't own anything; they were only licensing the characters from Fawcett. I'm hazy as to when they actually bought Captain Marvel, but it was after this series. Minute Man would have been perfect for a speedster, with that name. Imagine a panel of a guy running, with that red, white and blue streak? That would have been a terrific visual, especially during the war. |
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Post by MDG on Sept 29, 2021 12:55:09 GMT -5
Also, I am remembering, that apparently DC didn't actually own the non-Marvel characters at this point - Bridwell only thought they did! So after this one-shot appearance they got returned to limbo until evidently that changed. ... At this point, DC didn't own anything; they were only licensing the characters from Fawcett. I'm hazy as to when they actually bought Captain Marvel, but it was after this series. ... I was just listening to a podcast where this was brought up and why the Fawcett characters aren't in Who's Who. |
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Post by mikelmidnight on Oct 1, 2021 11:15:51 GMT -5
At this point, DC didn't own anything; they were only licensing the characters from Fawcett. I'm hazy as to when they actually bought Captain Marvel, but it was after this series. Minute Man would have been perfect for a speedster, with that name. Imagine a panel of a guy running, with that red, white and blue streak? That would have been a terrific visual, especially during the war.
It's possible I misremembered, but it was definitely a legal thing. Possibly they had failed to license the non-Marvels, then, and Bridwell had simply assumed they had.
Atom Blake, Boy Wizard, was another superpowered but noncostumed character who something could have been done with.
Radar was a guy with mental powers whose only costume was a white trench coat (um, over his suit, of course). He'd be really interesting with a power-up.
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Post by codystarbuck on Oct 1, 2021 11:26:47 GMT -5
At this point, DC didn't own anything; they were only licensing the characters from Fawcett. I'm hazy as to when they actually bought Captain Marvel, but it was after this series. Minute Man would have been perfect for a speedster, with that name. Imagine a panel of a guy running, with that red, white and blue streak? That would have been a terrific visual, especially during the war.
It's possible I misremembered, but it was definitely a legal thing. Possibly they had failed to license the non-Marvels, then, and Bridwell had simply assumed they had.
Atom Blake, Boy Wizard, was another superpowered but noncostumed character who something could have been done with.
Radar was a guy with mental powers whose only costume was a white trench coat (um, over his suit, of course). He'd be really interesting with a power-up.
Until he got sent to Korea and spent all of his time keeping Col Blake out of trouble. |
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