Rank and File: The Year's Best Comic Stories, 1973!

Redartz:  Hi gang; ready for another survey of the best that comics have to offer? For today's installment, we go back to 1973, a very impressive comics year indeed. One I missed out on originally, as I was still reading exclusively Archies until 1974. But once I got the collecting bug, I picked up many of these and other gems from '73. 

As always, we make our selections based on books on sale between January and December 1973, cover dated Apr.73  to Mar.74. And now, in no specific order, here are my picks for the year's best:


 



The Shadow 1- "The Doom Puzzle" by Denny O'Neil and Micheal Kaluta. O'Neil and Kaluta revive the classic pulp character with this striking debut issue.

Marvel Premiere 14- "Sise-Neg Genesis" by Steve Englehart, Frank Brunner and Dick Giordano. The climax to an epic Dr. Strange story, to creation and back. And who knew that it would only get better, soon, in Doc's own title?










 



Savage Tales 2-  "Red Nails" by Roy Thomas and Barry Windsor- Smith. The first half of perhaps the greatest Conan tale of all; a masterpiece. Windsor-Smith's art is a museum piece.










 


Avengers 117- "Holocaust" by Steve Englehart, Bob Brown and Mike Esposito. Marvel's first big crossover event, and it was a doozy. The first battle between Captain America and Sub-Mariner since the Golden Age, and that's only part of the book.












 



Plop! 1-  Various content by Sergio Aragones, Steve Skeates, George Evans, Sheldon Mayer, Bernie Wrightson, Frank Robbins and Alfredo Alcala. This wonderfully twisted humor book gets off to a great start with a fine lineup of top creators. Wonder if this book is collected anywhere...









 


Amazing Spider-man 122- "The Goblin's Last Stand" by Gerry Conway, Gil Kane and John Romita Sr.  So much has been written about this monumental issue, nothing I can say is very novel. But it turned the comics world upside down, and still packs a staggering punch all these years later. Plus, one of Mary Jane Watson's most powerful scenes ever.













Batman 251- "The Joker's Five-Way Revenge" by Denny O'Neil and Neil Adams. An instant classic; one of the best Joker stories in the long history of the Dark Knight. 










 


Defenders 10- "Breakthrough" by Steve Englehart, Sal Buscema and Frank Bolle. Okay, I know it's part of the Avengers/Defenders war already represented above. But hey, it's a different title, it's Hulk vs. Thor, it's a gargantuan tale, and it's my choice anyway...










 


Fantastic Four 141- "The End of the Fantastic Four" by Gerry Conway, John Buscema and Joe Sinnott. Man, it was a tough year in Gerry Conway's titles. Nevertheless, this story has enough action and drama for a year's worth of books. Annhilus is always cool, and that ending left me stunned the first time I read it.











 


Swamp Thing 7- "Night of the Bat" by Len Wein and Bernie Wrightson. Many issues of this run could have been chosen for this list, but this one is a favorite. Batman by Wrightson is certainly a perk, great story and beautifully moody art. But why did they have to kill the dog? 













Whew, as always, it's a tough call. There was a ton of great material that year; so you probably have some other suggestions to consider. Fair enough, let's hear from you!

Rank And File: DC Comics' Numerous Titles!

Martinex1:  A few weeks ago, we inspected the Marvel catalog and tried to rank its various titles by listing and indicating our favorites.   It was a difficult task to say the least,  Not only were there many books to choose from, but the criteria was tricky    It basically came down to what titles we followed, collected, and liked.   Today we are going to dissect DC Comics.   I am going to rank my favorite books and then you can follow in the comments ranking the various titles' quality and your admiration for the DC catalog.

As I said previously, use whatever criteria you deem important in your assessment:  your passion, the number of issues you hold, lasting story power, overall art and creativity, cultural impact, etc.  All of those assessment attributes are fair game for this non-scientific study.  And be sure to tell us why you positioned the books the way you did.

I found that ranking DC was somewhat easier than the challenge with Marvel.  I think that is because I just followed less DC books.  But where I might offend some readers here, I really did not follow the "big" titles.  I wasn't really expecting to have the outcome that I did but this exercise definitely helped me see that I am more of a fringe DC fan.

Let's get started, here is my list of  DC favorites.   As with Marvel, I ranked these based on my Bronze Age attraction.  1) What books I had to have, 2) what runs are longest in my collection, and 3) what books are fondest in my memory.

So have fun critiquing my list, assessing your DC likes, and trying to convince others that books should move up (or down) the ranks.

Martinex1's Rank of DC Titles:

1)  Teen Titans:  Although this was not the first DC comic I purchased, the book was definitely an inspiration to try more DC titles.  I jumped into the title mid-stream with a "buy this book because of the cover" moment when George Perez' art jumped out at me.  I was enraptured by the story and had to have more, more and more.   I thought Marv Wolfman weaved a nicely complex tale and I liked all of the characters (even Robin who I previously thought was cheesy).  I have to say the feel of the book had twinges of Marvel's style with subplots, angst, and pathos.  But it was also all new to me with Titans Tower, evil villains, and my favorite characters Kid Flash and Raven.   I ate this stuff up.  I never read the original Teen Titans mag, but the "New" version made me more of a DC follower.
2) Firestorm:  I started to follow The Fury of Firestorm the Nuclear Man (whew - what a title!) right from the first issue.  And it was definitely a favorite of mine for a while.   Again, the story by Gerry Conway and art from Pat Broderick may have had more of a Marvel feel.   I liked the character's costume and appearance.   I liked the tension of Professor Stein and Ronnie Raymond's connection.  And I liked the day to day struggles of the teen hero.  I later collected the short-lived original series and enjoyed that as well.   For being a more "modern" creation, I thought DC developed some of the new villains rather well (particularly Killer Frost).
3) Justice Society of America: Appearing in All-Star Comics, the odd collection of old characters caught my attention somehow.  The issue depicted below is among the first ten comics I ever bought from a spinner rack.  The story inside was odd and I didn't really comprehend what was going on entirely.   Batman and Robin were older, the Flash was wearing a pot on his head, the Green Lantern wasn't the one I recognized, Dr. Midnight was cool, something was strange with the world, and the Huntress made her first  appearance on the last page.   I was hooked.  Over the years, I gravitated to the JSA.  If I saw them on a cover, I often picked up the book.  Outside of the Bronze Age, the JSA titled book that featured the old characters as well as the legacy youngsters was a good read.
4) Doom Patrol: I enjoy this team in almost all of its incarnations.  The original series really stretched the envelope for a late Silver Age title.  It often gets compared to the early X-Men because of character and thematic similarities, but I found the Doom Patrol to be stranger and more tragic.   The Robotman and Elasti-Girl characters caught my attention; and I think Elasti-Girl is one of the more interesting female characters of the era. I own a piece of Doom Patrol art from John Byrne's modern run.

5) Unexpected : One of DC's terror titles, I enjoyed this anthology series.  I have to admit that as a youngster a couple of the tales had me sleeping with the lights on.  But I still liked reading about the witches, muck monsters, creepy twists and twilight craziness.
6) Justice League of America: Obviously this series is the powerhouse title of DC. I have followed some of its incarnations (the humorous take by Giffen and DeMatteis) and its offshoots in Europe and International.   My collection has some spurts of JLA and much depends on who the artist was; George Perez again gained my attention.  But the title may have been slightly soured for me by the Super Friends cartoons.  And as you may have noted, the big three have not ranked on my list at all yet.   They were just not my super-team as I was Marvelized.   But looking at my collection, I have a pretty reasonable number of issues in my long boxes.
7) Flash: Whether Barry Allen or Wally West, I like reading about this guy. Marvel has Quicksilver, but he never made it as a top tier hero.   The Flash captured my imagination with his super-speed.  And his Rogue's Gallery is top notch with Captain Cold, Heatwave, Mirror Master, Gorilla Grodd, the Top, and all of the rest.   I've written about the Flash before.  Maybe he should be higher on my list.
8) Green Lantern: The Green Lantern's power can tend to be a bit deus ex machina in its use, but I have always been intrigued by the character because his true strength is in his imagination and force of will.   Creativity as a super-power can make a great comic theme, and there were some stories that I felt really captured that spirit. I am not a big fan of the Green Lantern and Green Arrow team stories, although the art is tremendous and I can appreciate their timeliness; I enjoy more the space opera stories centered on the chaos of galactic threats.

9) The Brave and the Bold:  Okay, get ready to throw your computer at me... I prefer Batman as a team player!  Yes, I know he is the ultimate loner, the dark knight detective, the brooding and grim fist of justice, but I need some balance.  Even Robin will do.  So for me, TBatB was a great book. The creators often used oddball guest stars and I ate it up.  It could be hit or miss, and was definitely at its peak in the Neal Adams era, but I like the team-up books in general and this was a good one.
10) Batman and the Outsiders: See above. Ha.  There was something about Batman leading a group of C-Listers that really grabbed me.   And Metamorpho is just one of my weird favorites.
11) Metal Men: I know that neither the team nor the book is generally considered top-notch fare, but this is a sentimental favorite of mine.   I have a nostalgic affinity to the Metal Men.  I don't even own that many tales, but the team just brings back early childhood reading memories when silly characters like these sparked the imagination.
12) Hawkworld (Hawkman):  Boy, did I get drawn into the 1989 series by Timothy Truman!  I always thought that the Hawkman look was pretty cool and better than other winged characters, but Truman wove an interesting tale about Thanagar and its flying police force.   I haven't read it for a long time and it may require a review at some point to see if it holds up, but it definitely put Hawkman on my radar.

13) Impulse:  I have mentioned this character and book before.   The art and style may not be for everybody, but I found that the balance of humor, character development, and emotion really made this a great book.  It commented well on the human condition, and at times could have me laugh out loud.   It is something I should reread and a book that I recommend.  It was not perfect and some issues were clunkers, but as a whole it was a nice reading experience.
14) Shade, the Changing Man:  This was one book by Steve Ditko that I actually searched for; it had weirdness written all over it.  Rac Shade, a fuguitive here from another dimension used his Miraco-vest to project distorted images of himself as he traversed dimensions and Earth, hunted by his ex-girlfriend and her parents.  Peter Milligan developed another Shade title in the 90s that was equally strange if not more so.
15) Sugar and Spike:  How can I not give credit to the kiddie antics of Sugar and Spike that entertained me so much as a youth?   And on the recommendation of Redartz I have been searching out some of their books.

So those are my top 15 DC titles!  That list can surely change as time passes, and I am sure that some of my omissions will cause some serious debate. I have to say that the big three (Batman, Wonder Woman, and Superman) just never were my go-to for comic reading.  As mentioned above, I liked Batman in certain situations.  I have a respect for Wonder Woman and she makes it into my honorable mentions because of the great work of George Perez and later work by John Byrne.   Superman, however, is one of my least appreciated and least read characters; I just never found him that interesting.  I have intermittent issues starring Supes, but I always though his powers, his character development, and his supporting cast were exaggerated and dated.

Honorable Mentions do include Wonder Woman, Freedom Fighters, Dr. Fate, Spectre, Phantom Stranger, Starman, Batman, Detective, Atom, Adam Strange, Plastic Man and Black Lightning.

Not Making the Cut:  Superman, Action Comics, Robin, Birds of Prey, Green Arrow, Team Titans (ugh), Nightwing, and Lobo.  

So that is it folks - there were some obvious choices and some books that I am sure you will disagree about. That is okay; I am curious to see what you put on your personal lists.  Make them as long or as short as you like  Make Superman number one if you choose!  I am sure you will bring up some titles that I have totally forgotten.   Have fun and I look forward to your comments.  Cheers!

Chew the Fat: Spotty Villains!

Martinex1: It has been said that the villain makes the hero.   Could Batman be Batman without the Joker?   Perhaps not.   The better the rogues gallery, the better the adventure.   The bigger the threat, the more challenging the conflict.   I think we can agree that is true to some degree.   Spider-Man has a plethora of crazy and iconic villains from Doc Ock to the Green Goblin.  On the DC side, Flash has a cool collection of baddies with Captain Cold, the Top, Weather Wizard, Heat Wave, Gorilla Grodd and the rest.


But today we are not going to talk about the "good" villains (the villains who you look forward to seeing).  No, today we are going to discuss villains that make you scratch your head - but you like them anyway.  In other words, with new villains created throughout the Silver and Bronze ages there were a lot of dogs.  But some of those "misses" stay near to your heart because of nostalgia or theoretical untapped potential. Who are the third stringers and the D-listed creeps that you have enjoyed over the years?  


Here are a few of my favorites from the past, that almost nobody would include in top tier lists.  I am curious what you have to say about other "enemies" that we should be more welcoming towards.

My first example is the Spot.  He appeared first in Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man issue #99.  While I am not always a fan of Al Milgrom's art or writing, I really enjoyed his work here.  The Spot is a scientist who was trying to find a path to Cloak's (of Cloak and Dagger fame) dark dimension.  Things went a bit haywire and  Dr. Jonathan Ohnn emerged with some of the funkiest powers I've ever seen.  The myriad of dark spots on his body are actually holes in and out of another dimension.  The character has a great sense of humor and was a good rival for Spidey.  The first time they met, Spider-Man couldn't control his laughter after hearing the villain's name, but he quickly got his comeuppance as the Spot showed him a thing or two in defense of the Kingpin.  A fun story, a fun character, and there should be a lot more of him in the books.

My second example harkens back to the Silver Age.   Daredevil was modeled somewhat after Batman in terms of his nighttime crime-fighting and athletic skillset.   So who was Daredevil's Joker in the early days?  It was none other than the Jester.  Jonathan Powers was a washed up actor who took on a criminal assassin's role in Daredevil #42.   While not ultra powerful, he was a good foil for the serious Daredevil and really gave him a run for his money.  Much of my liking of the Jester is nostalgic.   Some of the first comics I received were part of the first Jester arc and I particularly liked when he teamed with Cobra and Mr. Hyde in Daredevil #61. The Gene Colan art helped as he portrayed the villain as cagy, wiry, and quirky.   He made a few appearances in "modern" times, but never really caught fire.  There should be room for a deadly swashbuckler loaded with dangerous yo-yos, puns, and yuks. (And that cover with the Statue of Liberty photo is top notch).

Another character I like is Blackout.   He originated as a villain for Nova and has a strange dark dimension origin that is slightly similar to the Spot's (go figure).   He was a lab assistant caught in an accident falling into the void and emerging with light absorbing powers along with the dark force.  He goes a bit mad and is very paranoid.  I really began to admire the strangeness of the character when he was manipulated and controlled by Moonstone in the Avengers' "Under Siege" arc.   In Roger Stern's story, he was essentially used and abused by Zemo and the Masters of Evil and had a truly tragic end at their hands.  Despite the whacky mask and the limited early characterization, I found myself wanting more of Blackout.

On the DC side of things, as a kid I stumbled across an issue of Detective Comics at a school White Elephant sale.  On the cover it looked like Batman was fighting a purple and orange Spider-Man.   In fact the character was the ruthless killer Black Spider who hunts down druglords.   He sees himself as serving a brutal justice to the evildoers who got him addicted and sent his life into turmoil.  Gerry Conway and Ernie Chan created the character.   I think his costume is very sharp looking.  It is interesting that Conway brought a Punisher-type character with a spider motif to DC.  I like how Black Spider's motivations are not that much different than Bruce Wayne's, but Eric Needham (Black Spider) does not share Batman's reluctance to kill.

Those are my picks for underappreciated villains.  Who are your favorites; what is their potential; and why don't others see it like you do?   Villains who never really made the mainstream cut, but remain personal favorites is the theme of today's post.  Cheers!

The Brave Or The Bold: Invaders, Freedom Fighters, or the Various Crusaders?

Martinex1: Here we are with a new edition of  The Brave Or The Bold  where we  conduct a face-off between like entities and get your opinions and preferences.   When I started developing today's post, I thought it was going to be a simple compare and contrast of two retconned WWII super-hero teams - the Invaders and the Freedom Fighters.  And indeed it is that but it is also something more as I will go off on a few tangents this time around.   So please stick with me here folks as my comments start to meander.   Let's get started.

In 1969, Roy Thomas created the Invaders, a team from the war years in Volume 1 / Issue 71 of The Avengers.  During a convoluted game of chance and wits between Kang the Conqueror and the Grandmaster, Yellowjacket, Vision, and the Black Panther were transported back to occupied Paris where they fought the reimagined Timely era heroes.  Captain America (with his triangular shield), the original Human Torch, and Namor the Sub-Mariner were banded together as an allied fighting force for the first time in the Marvel years. (Just for fun I share below not only the original Avengers cover, but also the cover from the UK reprint, and a scene from the battle penciled by Sal Buscema, as well as the scene reimagined from the Invaders' view with Frank Springer art from Invaders Annual #1).

In 1975, Thomas spearheaded an ongoing book starring the old-time trio and thus the Invaders title was born.  They fleshed out a gap in Marvel history and added another team book to the growing roster of Marvel comics. 


The following year, in April 1976, DC rolled out their own WWII heroes using the old Quality Comics' heroes in the Freedom Fighters ongoing.  The team consisted of Uncle Sam, the Ray, Phantom Lady, Human Bomb, Doll Man, and Black Condor.  The series was initially plotted by Gerry Conway, scripted by Martin Pasko, and pencilled by Ric Estrada.   The team had earlier appeared in Justice League of America issues 107 and 108 in 1973.

So in many ways Marvel and DC were following similar paths.  They resurrected heroes from defunct (or evolved publishers) Timely and Quality.  They modernized the heroes a bit in terms of scripting and action, and set them in adventures back during the battles of the early 1940s. 

Later in their series, additional characters would join such as Union Jack and Spitfire into the Invaders and Firebrand  into the Freedom Fighters.  Take a look at some of the art and covers from the two series.

Martinex1:  I followed the Invaders much more closely, but I did think the covers and art for Freedom Fighters was pretty effective, although I never quite liked Uncle Sam's fighting togs and hat.

Martinex1: It is pretty easy to see some of the parallels with these teams.  They even had similar tag lines in "The Greatest Superheroes of  World War II" for Marvel and "The Gallant Warriors from World War II" for DC.

Martinex1: Just as the series started to get some steam going, there was a wild unofficial crossover experiment conducted by the creators.  In the early months of 1977, both headlining teams battled enemies named the Crusaders.  These "villains" were analogs of the opposing company's heroes. 

So the Freedom Fighters fought Americommando (Captain America), Barracuda (Sub-Mariner), Fireball (Human Torch), Rusty (Bucky) and Sparky (Toro).  And the Invaders fought Spirit of '76 (Uncle Sam), Captain Wings (Black Condor), Ghost Girl (Phantom Lady), Dyna-Mite (Doll Man), Tommy Lightning (Ray), and Thunder Fist (Human Bomb).  All of this was conducted under the watchful creativity of Roy Thomas and Frank Robbins for Marvel, and Bob Rozakis and Dick Ayers at DC.

Martinex1: The DC villains had a convoluted origin as they were comic book heroes come to life (talk about meta, meta, meta - even their hidden identities reflected comic creators with the names Marvin, Roy, Arch, and Lennie).   They were the pawns of the archenemy Silver Ghost.  The Marvel villains were dupes of a Nazi spy who gave them their powers.  Invaders #15 was one of the first comics I ever purchased (bought in a three-pack poly bag) and still brings joy when I re-read it despite the quirky Frank Robbins art.   I liked those Crusaders and wanted them to stay together in the end but alas they disbanded never to be seen again.

Martinex1:  But there is another level of complexity in regards to Crusader teams as Archie Comics (later the Mighty Comics Group) has their own team in The Mighty Crusaders. The Archie team debuted prior to all of the above in September of 1965.  The initial series was written by Jerry Siegel with art by Paul Reinman and Frank Giacoia.   And even though the hero team fought in contemporary times, they were led by a flag costumed hero with the moniker of The Shield.   Other members included the Fly, Jaguar, Black Hood, and the Comet amongst many others.   The team had a few different incarnations including a version under the Red Circle Comics label (an arm of Archie Comics in the '80s) and another under DC's imprint Impact Comics.

Martinex1:  So we've covered a wide and varied amount of territory today from Invaders to Freedom Fighters to the Crusaders.  And please don't even get me started on the below characters!

So what do you think?  Which ongoing title did you like the best?  Did you like the time and setting of WWII comics and adventures?  Did you find a fascination in the various Crusader teams?  What did you think about the "unapproved" crossover?  And what about the Mighty Crusaders - did anybody follow that series?

There is so much to talk about, so join in gang and have your say about the brave or the bold on BITBA today!