The Joker book made a nice companion to the Batman one and it was great to see "The Laughing Fish" and"Sign of the Joker," from the Englehart Rogers run, just as the Batman volume had the Deadshot story (with the redesigned costume).

Mindy Newell's Catwoman mini was great and did a lot to wash some of the bad taste from my mouth, from the Year One portrayal. This gave her a more rounded personality and introduced her sister, The Sister and also had her evolve a costume from something put together out of dominatrix gear to what she ended up with, in Year One. It also had her train with Ted Grant, in physical combat and to learn how to use the whip, as a weapon. It starts out with Selina beaten up by her pimp, Stan and ending up in the hospital. A cop passes her Ted's name and phone number and he teaches her to defend herself, then she brings the whip to him to teach her. Stan introduces the first costume, for a client into BDSM. You see Selina, in the beginning, under the thumb of the pimp, afraid to leave him, afraid to stand up to him. Training with Ted and then the influence of Bruce Wayne's activities and debut as Batman are seen from her POV and they inspire further changes, as she becomes more empowered. meanwhile, her sister, the nun, works in the area around the same neighborhood, and searches for her sister, eventually meeting her, but Stan uses this to get back at Selina, before the final showdown. It is a much better portrayal of Selina and details both the abuse and exploitation of prostitutes, and then Selina finding her strength and taking control of her life, as a natural progression. Really nice work, that was flushed down the toilet when they launched the Catwoman series as cheap T&A. Thankfully, Darwyn Cooke and some others steered her back on course.

Newell was a damn fine writer; but, comics being a boys club........... She trained as a nurse and continued working as one, while writing comics (she was the first woman to write Wonder Woman; at least, with a credit) and ended up leaving comics behind to continue nursing. She and Gray Morrow also collaborated on a nice Lois Lane mini-series, dealing with missing children. The Wonder Woman gig came with tons of editorial interference, which didn't help things.

Birch keeps things consistent with David Mazzucchelli's art, in Year One, while maintaining his own style. Very tough, noirish atmosphere.

I loved the Huntress, since her debut; but, this revamp, necessitated by Crisis, really didn't have the same feel, despite Joe Staton on art. It wasn't a bad series; but, the character just didn't have the same attraction when she was no longer the daughter of Batman and Catwoman. Yet another reason why Crisis messed up a lot of great stories.

Blackhawk's ongoing was more a spin-off of the Howard Chaykin mini-series than the Action Comics Weekly feature. It more closely matched the cyincal tone of the mini and brought back Natalie Reed, as the female Blackhawk. Grell kind of riffed on Caniff, but this was more of using Blackhawk to explore the CIA, under Allen Dulles, in the late 40s and 50s. Grell was doing more of a Steve Canyon meets Terry & the Pirates, but this has a harder edge, though it does bring in Grell's daughter of Pat Ryan and the Dragon Lady, while looking at things like the CIA's operations in Italy, to sway the post-War elections away from the Communist Party, the Chinese civil war, Korea, and Operation Paperclip, the operation which brought Nazi scientists to the US, to work on such things as the space program and experiments in pharmacology, like LSD and the MK Ultra tests.

New Gods starts out okay, but Starlin had poisoned the well with the death of Forager/Bug, one of the more intriguing characters. Evanier helps recover things a bit, by giving us an earlier figure from the past, who makes Darkseid look like a choirboy. Paris Cullins does some nice art; but, it wouldn't last.

Justice Inc isn't a spin-off of the Shadow. It is a second attempt to adapt the Avenger pulp stories, published by Street & Smith, under the same house name as Doc Savage (Kenneth Roberson), but not written by Lester Dent. The Avenger is Richard benson. He and his family board an airplane, flying to Canada. During the flight, Benson is asleep (I think, I haven't read the first novel, justice Inc, in 30+ years) and wakes up to find his wife and daughter gone and no one has any memory of them. the shock of the event turns his hair white and alters his facial muscles, so that he can mold his face into other features, disguising himself. he uses his vast wealth to battle crime, as The Avenger, with a group of assistants, including an African-American couple, who are graduates of the Tuskeegee Institute and often go undecover as servants. Despite attitudes of the period, they are always depicted as brave and intelligent people, with the servant cover being a logical extension of the limited opportunities of minorities, in that era.

Where the modernization came in, in this story, was in explaining the mystery behind his origin. previously, DC published 4 issues of Justice, Inc, in 1975, when they had The Shadow license. Jack Kirby drew issues 2-4, to fulfill his page quota, after his books were cancelled. Issues 1 and 2 adapted pulp stories, while 3 and 4 were new tales. Dc again picked up the rights from Conde Nast, who controlled the Shadow and Doc Savage. The original pulp series wasn't long lived, as there were only 24 Avenger pulps, plus 5 short stories, in Clues Detective. Warner Paperback Library picked up reprint rights, in the 70s and published the originals, plus 12 new novels, by Ron Goulart. I had the bulk of the series, after discovering them in a used book store, in Columbia, SC. I only read the first one, before putting them in storage, with other things, and eventually getting rid of them. It wasn't quite as exciting as The Shadow or Doc Savage, or the Spider, in the pulps and that is part of why it never succeeded in comics, either.

I think I would label that more "in the style of," or "the same approach as...".  To me, "spin-off" implies that it grew out of the previous work or was launched within that work, like the tv series Laverne & Shirley originating in Happy Days, or the Flashman  series picking up the story of Harry Flashman, from Tom Brown's Schooldays.

Yeah; but that would imply that The Avenger appears in a Shadow story, which is not the case.  More like, "From the team that brought you The Shadow, comes Justice, Inc!"

"Another Andrew Helfer/Kyle Baker production!"

DC Direct Currents #13 (Books shipping in February, 1989)



Hey, it's Justice League Europe! Despite being a huge Justice League International fan (then and now), I only ever read Justice League Europe casually. I was quite loyal to the core titles in those days (Uncanny X-Men, Amazing Spider-Man, etc.) and seldom collected the other books. From what I recall, the early issues of Justice League Europe were quite good.

Inside, DC are bringing back The Phantom, since they appear to bringing back literally everything. Luke McDonnell is on art. Not sure if he's a good fit for The Phantom, but it would be interesting to see. There's a Jim Starlin project called Gilgamesh II, which Starlin actually draws. Hero Hotline looks like a comedy book, and The Private Files of The Shadow collects the Denny O'Neil and Mike Kaluta stories with a brand new 15 page story by Kaluta. 

In this month's Secret Origins, there's a Grant Morrison Animal Man story I've never read. I always glossed over Secret Origins as a kid. I wonder how much good stuff I've missed out on. 

DC Currents is putting a shipping disclaimer on the books now.

This month's interview is with Kurt Schaffenberger, who is inking the Hero Hotline series. He has an interesting life story having immigrated to the US from Germany in 1927. By this time, he had worked in comics for 48 years. Nice to see him get some recognition even if it's just a free leaflet. 

The cover of the month is Starlin's Gilgamesh II. The back cover is Justice League of America #1 from 1960.

I quite Liked Justice League Europe, it was different enough from JLI, while still providing similar entertainment and Bart Sears, who had worked on the Hero Alliance graphic novel and single issue from Wonder Comix (which was part of the mix of companies that Scott Rosenburg was funding, which evolved into Malibu.) on the art. His art had faults, including the butchest looking Power Girl ever; but, I would take it over the Image crew any day.

I bought the Shadow HC...finally, able to get my hands on Kaluta's work, in one go.

The Phantom was really good. Joe Orlando handled the mini-series, which tested the waters, with Peter David writing. The regular series was written by Mark Verheiden, who had come over from Dark Horse, where he had written Aliens and The American. He was a greatly underrated writer, in comics, who did quite well in television and film. Luke McDonnell had the right kind of moody line that worked well, with The Phantom. It wasn't Don Newton or Jim Aparo, but it was vastly better than the brief Marvel attempt and I would rate it better than the Wolf comics stuff that followed, from Australia. They also depicted a more modern Africa, which made for a nice change from the stereotypical. Of course, they had to answer to King Features and it lasted just over a year. Mandrake turned up for the wedding of the Phantom and Diana Palmer, just as he did in the strips.

Not sure of DC had the license for Mandrake or not (didn't publish any comics, aside from the cameo, in the final Phantom issue). Flash Gordon was the same time and the three properties had just been part of the Defenders of the Earth cartoon and Marvel had a 4 issue tie-in, for that, in 1987. Kind of surprised that DC didn't try for Prince Valiant, given some of the talent they had working for them, at the time (Jan Dursema would have been perfect).

I bought Gilgamesh II, both for Starlin on art and because of the tie-in to the myth: but, it was a bit of a disappointment, at the time. I haven't read it since it was originally published, so I don't really recall why. Ought to look at it again.

Secret Origins had some real gems in there and it could rise above Roy Thomas continuity fixes. The Manhunter issue, during Millennium, was one of the few good things associated with that mess (aside from Suicide Squad and the crossover issues between it, Captain Atom, Spectre and Detective comics, all of which took place in the swamp setting that week). They did a cute little story that revealed that Rex The wonder Dog was related to Pooch, the dog that accompanied Gunner and Sarge (before they were part of The Losers). The Ape issue is good and the Doom Patrol one was very good and did a lot to reintroduce them to a modern audience.