It Came from the 1990s: Justice Society of America part two

Welcome back. In my last post I took a look at the Justice Society of America miniseries published by DC Comics in 1991. That limited series was unexpectedly successful, and it led DC to bring the JSA back into current continuity, and to give them an ongoing title.

The Justice Society had previously been exiled to Limbo where they were destined to spend all of eternity fighting to prevent Ragnarök. The four-issue miniseries Armageddon: Inferno written by John Ostrander published in 1992 concluded with the demonic servants of the villainous Abraxis taking the JSA’s place in Limbo, enabling the heroes to at last return to Earth.

The ongoing Justice Society of America series launched in August 1992. Len Strazewski, who had written the miniseries, and Mike Parobeck, one of the pencilers on it, both returned to chronicle the JSA’s modern-day adventures, along with editor Brian Augustyn. They were joined by inker Mike Machlan, letterer Bob Pinaha and colorist Glenn Whitmore.

The JSA were very much the odd men out of mainstream superhero comic books in the early 1990s. Even though their time in Limbo had partially restored their youth & vitality, they were still much older than nearly all of DC’s other characters. The JSA had been the greatest heroes of the 1940s but now, nearly half a century later, they found themselves wondering what role, if any, they had to play in protecting the world from crime & tyranny.

In the first issue the JSA’s triumphant public return is violently interrupted by a giant monster sent by one of their old enemies. They are unable to stop the rampaging behemoth, and it falls to Superman to defeat the creature. To add insult to injury, Superman finds himself thinking how underwhelming his foe is:

“What a sorry excuse for a monster! Compared to some of the dangers I’ve faced, this is kid stuff!”

Obviously Superman doesn’t voice those thoughts to the JSA, heroes who he himself regards as an inspiration for his own battles against evil. Nevertheless, the dispirited JSA cannot help feeling like a fifth wheel.

As the series progresses, Strazewski depicts the various members of the team struggling to adapt to their new circumstances. He does a good job showing the different ways each of the crime fighters react, from Green Lantern and Flash enthusiastic belief that there is still a role for the team to play, to Wildcat’s skepticism and the Atom’s depression, with Hawkman & Hawkgirl deciding to quit the superhero biz entirely to return to their first love, archeology.

Unlike most comic book heroes at DC who were set in a “sliding timeline” where everything always happened within the past 10 or 15 years, the JSA have always had their origins rooted in the 1940s. As such they’ve been some of the few characters to have aged in real time. When they were revived in All-Star Comics in the second half of the 1970s writers Gerry Conway and Paul Levitz were first to lean into the idea of the Justice Society as an intergenerational team. Strazewski  continues that theme in this series.

We see Wally West, the young modern day Flash, seeking advice & guidance from Jay Garrick, the original Flash. Jesse Quick, the daughter of 1940s crime fighters Johnny Quick and Liberty Belle, joins the JSA, with the team serving as her mentors. Johnny Thunderbolt adopts a teenage ward Kiku who discovers she has a rapport with Johnny’s mystic Thunderbolt genie.

I have to admit, back in 1992 I found the circumstances of the Justice Society somewhat difficult to identify with. I was only 16 years old, in high school, and the JSA were pretty much the same age as my grandparents. Three decades later in 2023, well, I’m now middle aged, I’ve got more than a few gray hairs, my joints are starting to ache, and I’ve got advertisements for AARP showing up on my Facebook timeline! So, yeah, I definitely find these guys somewhat more relatable!

The first five issues of Justice Society of America involve the team uncovering the machinations of their long-time adversary the Ultra-Humanite, a body-hopping mad scientist who now controls his own multinational corporation which he uses as a cover to conduct his experiments in genetic engineering. It’s a good, solid setup for the series.

The next two storylines do feel a bit rushed, though. In #6 and #7 the JSA go to Bahdnesia, the tropical island home of the mystic Thunderbolt, to investigate the disappearance of the native population. Then, in #8 to #10, the alien sorcerer Kulak, another old foe of the team, utilizes television broadcasts to hypnotize the entire world and turn it against the team.

I definitely think both of those stories could have used an extra issue. Unfortunately the series was canceled with issue #10. I’m guessing there was probably enough advance notice that enabled Strazewski to truncate the storylines he already had planned. Well, even if they both do end somewhat abruptly, at least they were told in some form or another.

There’s also what appears to be an odd continuity mistake in issue #10, a flashback to the team’s last encounter with Kulak featuring Doctor Mid-Nite, Black Canary, Flash and Green Lantern, with a footnote refers readers to All-Star Comics #2, published in 1940. I was wondering how that could be possible, since the JSA’s first appearance was in All-Star #3, and they didn’t actually work together on a case until issue #4. I looked on the DC Database and according to that “The Curse of Kulak” in All-Star #2 was a solo story featuring the Spectre. And the team fought against Kulak in All-Star Squadron #28, which took place in 1942.

I fielded the question on the Justice Society of America group on FB, and the general consensus was that this was supposed to be a previously-unrevealed JSA adventure, probably set in the late 1940s, and that someone incorrectly added a footnote to All-Star #2.

When I did my write-up of the Justice Society of America miniseries I didn’t comment on Mike Parobeck’s penciling, because I knew I’d be discussing it extensively here.

Parobeck had this really fun, colorful, cartoony style. After the 1991 miniseries he and Strazewski worked together on DC’s Impact Comics imprint, on a revamp of the Archie Comics superhero the Fly. I really enjoyed their work together on The Fly. Unfortunately the Impact line only lasted about a year and a half. I was disappointed at the cancellation of those titles. Parobeck also penciled an enjoyable Elongated Man miniseries in early 1992.

I’m glad that Strazewski and Parobeck had the opportunity to work together again so soon on the ongoing Justice Society of America series. Much like The Fly, I wish that had lasted longer.

Parobeck’s style was regrettably looked upon as “simplistic” or “silly” by too many readers in the early 1990s, as the hyper-detailed work of the Image Comics founders and those they inspired was ascendent in mainstream superheroes. That was a huge shame, because Parobeck’s work was just such a joy to behold. He had some dynamic storytelling abilities, and his covers were exciting and well-designed. It was definitely a pleasure to re-examine his work during my re-read of this series.

Parobeck did finally gain some much-overdue recognition when he became the regular penciler of The Batman Adventures with issue #7 in April 1993. That series was set in the continuity of the hit Batman: The Animated Series. It was specifically targeted to an all-ages audience, and readers were expecting an “animated” style, so Parobeck’s work was very warmly received.

Tragically, Parobeck passed away in July 1996 at the much, much too young age of 30. It’s been subsequently observed that he was ahead of his time, his work presaging the highly-popular “cartoony” styles of artists such as Mike Wieringo and Humberto Ramos.

There is one scene in Justice Society of America, though, where I was sort of left squirming. In issue #10 Kulak is molesting a hypnotized Hawkgirl with his tongue. That just feels so wrong when rendered in Parobeck’s cartoony style, and I really wish Strazewski hadn’t included it in his plot.

Like, ewww, dude! Geeze, what do you think this is, a Chris Claremont comic book or something? 🙂

AHEM! Moving along…

The main inker on Justice Society of America is Mike Machlan, another creator who had a prior connection to the Justice Society. Machlan had previously worked on several issues of All-Star Squadron, and he had co-created the spin-off series Infinity Inc. with Roy Thomas & Jerry Ordway which featured the sons & daughters of the JSA in the present day.

Machlan does a really good job inking Parobeck. I feel they made an excellent match. Machlan is another good, solid, underrated artist. Regrettably there seem to be all too many of those working in the comic book industry, never receiving the recognition they probably should have earned for their work. It’s certainly a shame.

I do want to briefly comment about the sudden cancellation of Justice League of America. There’s been some debate over the years as to the reasons. Officially, the reason cited by assistant editor Ruben Diaz in the lettercol of #7 was that, after the first issue did very well, sales then fell “substantially” on subsequent issues.

However, it’s been alleged that the series was actually selling well, and that other factors were at work. In a 1998 interview Strazewski had this to say about the cancellation:

“It was a capricious decision made personally by Mike Carlin because he didn’t like Mike’s artwork or my writing and believed that senior citizen super-heroes was not what DC should be publishing. He made his opinion clear to me several times after the cancellation. As a result, I think it would be nigh onto impossible that I will work at DC again.”

To the best of my knowledge Mike Carlin has never publicly commented on Strazewski’s allegations. Neither had Brian Augustyn, the actual editor of the series, who regrettably passed away last year.

Speaking only from my perspective as a reader, in general I’ve found Carlin to be a highly qualified editor. He was in charge of the Superman family of books when they had basically become a weekly series produced by four separate creative teams, something that must have been a logistical nightmare to maintain the schedule for, but one that he kept running smoothly for several years. Carlin also edited The Power of Shazam, which as I’ve blogged about in the past is one of my all-time favorite comic book series.

It does seem, though, that the cancellation gave someone at DC the idea that the JSA were passé. A year later in the 1994 crossover Zero Hour several members of the team were brutally, senselessly killed off, something myself and other readers found very disappointing.

But just as I feel Mike Parobeck’s artwork was ahead of its time, so to do I think the revival of the Justice Society was, as well. In 1999 writers James Robinson & David S. Goyer launched an ongoing JSA series, once which really developed the intergenerational aspect of the team. Strazewski & Parobeck’s creation Jesse Quick would become a prominent member of this incarnation of the team. JSA was very successful, and since then, the occasional absence due to DC’s periodic cosmic reboots aside, the original team of superheroes have never gone away.

So, while Justice Society of America may not have been a success in the early 1990s, it did set the stage for the team’s latter triumphs.

Unfortunately, DC has never reprinted the Strazewski & Parobeck series. I recommend searching out the back issues. They’re pretty affordable and easy to find.

It Came from the 1990s: Justice Society of America part one

The Justice Society of America was the very first team of comic book superheroes, making their debut in All-Star Comics #3, published in November 1940 by All-American Publications, one of the two companies that later merged to form DC Comics.

For its first two issues All-Star Comics had been, like nearly every other title published by the nascent American comic book industry, an anthology series, in this case featuring several of All-American’s superheroes. It was with issue #3 that writer Gardner Fox and editor Sheldon Mayer devised the idea of having All-American’s costumed crime fighters joining to form a team. In that first story the Justice Society of America only appeared in a framing sequence drawn by artist E. E. Hibbard as the members recounted various solo exploits. But with the very next issue the members of the JSA were shown working together on a single case.

Justice Society of America #8 cover penciled & inked by Tom Lyle

The JSA featured in All-Star Comics thru to issue #57, released in December 1950, a ten year long run. At that point the superhero genre was very much in decline, and with the next issue the series was re-titled All Star Western.

A decade later, during the superhero revival of the Silver Age, the JSA returned, with Gardner Fox and editor Julius Schwartz revealing that they dwelled on “Earth Two” in a parallel reality, with the popular revamped heroes of the Justice League of America situated on “Earth One.” Between 1963 and 1985 the JSA and JLA met up in annual team-ups. The JSA eventually starred in a revival of All-Star Comics, and then appeared in the World War II era series All-Star Squadron along with the various other DC heroes from the early 1940s.

I was born in 1976, and I didn’t begin following comic books regularly until the late 1980s. By that time Crisis on Infinite Earths had resulted in the elimination of all of DC’s alternate realities. This ended up playing havoc with a number of characters’ histories, including the JSA, creating all sorts of continuity problems.

By the time I was reading DC Comics the JSA were in limbo, both figuratively and literally, having completely vanished from DC’s books. The in-story explanation for this had been depicted in 1986 in the Last Days of the Justice Society special written by Roy & Dann Thomas and drawn by Dave Ross & Mike Gustovich. To prevent Ragnarök from destroying the whole of reality, the JSA had been spirited off to a mystical dimension where they would have to fight against a cosmic evil for all eternity.

Justice Society of America #1 written by Len Strazewski, penciled & inked by Rick Burchett, lettered by Janice Chiang and colored by Tom Ziuko

Long story short (too late!) my first exposure to the JSA was in 1991 when DC Comics published an eight issue Justice Society of America limited series, bringing the team back into print for the first time in five years. In the present day the team was still trapped in the realm of the Norse gods, but in this miniseries set in 1950 several members of the JSA were pitted against one of their deadliest foes, the immortal conqueror Vandal Savage.

“Vengeance from the Stars” was written by Len Strazewski, penciled by Rick Burchett, Grant Miehm, Mike Parobeck & Tom Artis, inked by Burchett, Miehm & Frank McLaughlin, lettered by Janice Chiang, colored by Tom Ziuko & Robbie Busch, and edited by Brian Augustyn & Mike Gold, with cover artwork drawn by Tom Lyle. Gold wrote a text piece for the first issue that explained the history of the JSA, an invaluable source of info for a young reader such as myself in those pre-Wikipedia times.

Interestingly, this miniseries came about because DC’s plans to publish Impact Comics, a reboot of the Archie Comics superheroes, met with delays. Justice Society of America was done to give work to Strazewski and several of the artists who had committed to working on the Impact books and who now found themselves in a holding pattern. Considering its origins, this miniseries turned out to be a remarkably good read.

The heroes featured in “Vengeance from the Stars” are the original Golden Age versions of the Flash, Black Canary, Green Lantern, Hawkman and Starman. In addition to Vandal Savage, the team faces the lumbering undead swamp monster Solomon Grundy, Savage’s gangster henchmen, and an awesomely powerful trio of living constellations.

Justice Society of America #2 written by Len Strazewski, penciled & inked by Grant Miehm, lettered by Janice Chiang and colored by Tom Ziuko

I have to confess, back in 1991 I found the structure of this miniseries somewhat odd and off-putting. The first four issues are solo adventures of the Flash, Black Canary, Green Lantern and Hawkman. Issues five and six had team-ups of the Flash & Hawkman and Black Canary & Green Lantern respectively. The final two issues at last had all four heroes at last working together, with Starman, who had been Savage’s prisoner for the previous six issues, joining the fray.

Having subsequently read a number of JSA stories from the 1940s via reprints, looking at this miniseries in 2023 I now understand that Strazewski, Augustyn & Gold were emulating the structure of the All-Star Comics stories. In those original JSA tales the team would, after learning of a particular adversary or mystery in the first few pages, split off and have solo chapters, each drawn by a different artist, before teaming up at the end of the issue for a final battle with the bad guys.

The only thing missing here is the prologue which shows the team together before they all split off for their individual missions. In the lettercol in issue #3 Gold explains the reasoning:

“I always wondered why the superheroes would get together first and then just happen to encounter a menace worth of their combined might. Because this is a miniseries, Len could introduce the heroes one at a time as each encountered the menace.”

While I certainly understand Gold’s reasoning, I do wonder if he miscalculated. Several of the readers’ letters published wondered when the JSA would be working together as a team, and expressed a certain disappointment that the early issues were solo adventures. I myself only bought the first four issues when they were published, and I did not get the second half of the miniseries until a year or so later as back issues, and part of the reason for this was that I really wanted to see the JSA members working as a team.

It makes me wonder if having a first issue which had the team together for a few pages, as was done back in the 1940s, would have ameliorated the concerns of myself and other readers. Perhaps it would have, as Gold argued, been a bit contrived. But at the same time it would have given the audience a taste of the entire team before everyone went off on their side quests, sating our appetite for team action until everyone got back together for the climactic battle.

Justice Society of America #4 written by Len Strazewski, penciled by Tom Artis, inked by Frank McLaughlin, lettered by Janice Chiang and colored by Tom Ziuko

What’s called “writing for the trade” was really not much of a thing back in 1991, but this miniseries now feels like a very early example of it. I think it works better as a “graphic novel” than as individual comic books released across a span of eight months. When read in a single sitting it actually does feel like an extra-large issue of All-Star Comics, and it also made the wait for team action much more tolerable.

That criticism aside, Strazewski did write an enjoyable story. Looking at it for the first time in three decades, I found it to be a really fun, exciting tale. I’m glad that Augustyn & Gold put this project together.

I also had a much greater appreciation for the work of the various artists this time around. I was only 15 years old when the miniseries was released. Back then I really did not pay all that much attention to such things as layouts & storytelling, to mood, atmosphere & pacing. Now, however, it really strikes me at what a superb job Burchett, Miehm, Parobeck and Artis all did on this miniseries.

One of the stand-out aspects of the miniseries was the Black Canary solo chapter in the second issue. Miehm did absolutely fantastic work showing Canary’s athleticism in her battle with Savage’s goon squad and the brutish Solomon Grundy. As I commented in a previous blog post, I feel Miehm was one of the more underrated comic book artists of the 1990s, and my re-read of this miniseries gave me even more of an appreciation for his work.

I was also struck by the two issues that Tom Artis penciled. I bought & read all of the Impact Comics titles in the early 1990s, and I remember that I was somewhat underwhelmed by Artis’ work on The Web. I now wonder if that had to do with Bill Wray’s inking. On Justice Society of America Artis’ pencils are inked by the incredible Frank McLaughlin, and the collaboration between the two looks amazing. McLaughlin’s slick line really enhances Artis’ penciling, which resulted in me paying much more attention to the storytelling he utilized on his two issues.

Justice Society of America #1 written by Len Strazewski, penciled by Mike Parobeck, inked by Rick Burchett, lettered by Janice Chiang and colored by Tom Ziuko

Speaking of inking, it’s interesting to contrast Miehm’s inks over his own pencils on issue #2 to Burchett inking him on #7 and #8. It’s another good example of just how much of an impact an inker can have on the look of the finished artwork.

Also, I did feel Tom Ziuko’s coloring on the first six issues was more effective than Robbie Busch’s work on the final two.

Janice Chiang has always been one of my favorite letterers, and so I was happy to discover she had worked on this miniseries. It’s another one of those things I didn’t pay enough attention to back in the early 1990s. This time, though, Chiang’s lettering immediately leaped out at me.

An interesting fact is that, even though the JSA had been around for half a century at this point, they’d never actually had a comic book featuring their name. Yes, there’d been a four issue miniseries America vs. the Justice Society in 1985, and the Last Days of the Justice Society special a year later. But this miniseries was the first comic book to actually be titled Justice Society of America. Strange but true.

Justice Society of America #7 written by Len Strazewski, penciled Grant Miehm, inked by Rick Burchett, lettered by Janice Chiang and colored by Robbie Busch

On a more serious note, looking at this miniseries in 2023, it’s depressing to realize how many of the creators involved in it are no longer with us, some of them having died fairly young. Mike Parobeck, Tom Artis, Tom Lyle, Frank McLaughlin and Bryan Augustin have all sadly passed away in the intervening years. I hope that the other creators who worked on this project will still be around for many more years to come.

This miniseries was finally reprinted in a hardcover edition titled The Demise of Justice in 2021. I do question the wisdom of DC releasing it as a hardcover, because a less expensive trade paperback would undoubtedly have sold much better. Still, it’s nice that this is back in print in some form or another.

Next time I’ll be taking a look at the excellent but short-lived Justice Society of America ongoing series which came out in 1992.

It Came from the 1990s: The Invaders miniseries

At the end of my last blog post I promised to look at a much more successful project to come out of editor Mike Rockwitz’s office at Marvel Comics in the early 1990s. The Invaders was a  miniseries which revived the World War II era superhero team for new adventures.

Roy Thomas loves the Golden Age of comic books. Thomas was born in 1940, so he grew up reading the early adventures of the Justice Society of America from DC Comics and the various superheroes from Marvel precursor Timely Comics.

The unusual things about Timely is that, even though their heroes frequently appeared together on dynamic covers, they never actually met in the stories within, other than the occasional fight or team-up between the original android Human Torch and the hybrid anti-hero Namor the Sub-Mariner. The only exception to this was the two appearances of the All-Winners Squad in All-Winners Comics #19 and #21, which were published in late 1946 and written, respectively, by Golden Age pioneers Bill Finger and Otto Binder. Namor and the Torch were joined by Captain America, Bucky, Toro, Miss America and the Whizzer in the All-Winners Squad.

After Thomas came to work at Marvel in the mid-1960s he began to utilize the Timely characters of the 1940s in his own stories. By 1975 he hoped to revive the All-Winners Squad in a series that would be set in the early 1940s and see the team operating during World War II. Then-publisher Stan Lee disliked the All-Winners Squad name and Thomas, who himself had never been too enthusiastic about it, came up with the alternate title The Invaders, as the heroes would be invading Hitler’s Fortress Europe to liberate it.

The team made their debut in Giant-Size Invaders #1, cover-dated June 1975, in a story written & edited by Thomas and penciled by Frank Robbins. Set in late December 1941, the story saw Captain America, Namor, the Human Torch and teen sidekicks Bucky and Toro fight against the super-powered Nazi agent Master Man. At the story’s end the five heroes resolved to work together to fight against the Axis menace.

The Invaders quickly became an ongoing series, running for 41 issues between August 1975 and September 1979, with an Annual being released in the Summer of 1977. Thomas edited the entire series and wrote nearly all the issues, with Don Glut coming in to pen the last few.

Thomas left Marvel for DC Comics in 1981 and created All-Star Squadron, an even more successful superhero series set during World War II. Thomas returned to Marvel in late 1986 and within a few years he was once again writing books set during the Golden Age. His editor on the majority of these, including The Invaders miniseries, was Rockwitz.

As Thomas recounted to Jim Amish in Alter Ego # 136 from TwoMorrows Publishing, he and Rockwitz had a good working relationship.

“Generally speaking, we got along quite well. He kept coming back to me for projects. And he wouldn’t demand to know every plot twist in a story in advance, which I’d have found boring and off-putting.”

The Invaders four issue miniseries was published in early 1993. In addition to Thomas and Rockwitz, the creative team was penciler Dave Hoover, inker Brian Garvey, letterer Pat Brosseau and colorist Paul Becton, with Ian Akin stepping in as co-inker for the third issue. The cover logo was designed by Todd Klein.

The first issue of the miniseries opens on the evening of June 22, 1942, picking up shortly after the conclusion of the ongoing series. Cap, Namor and the Torch discover a Nazi u-boat in the waters of New York Harbor. To their surprise, the craft is smuggling in a quintet of super-powered Nazi agents. The Invaders are even more startled when they realize that each of the five members of the Battle Axis is actually American.

Caught off-guard, the trio of heroes are defeated and barely make their escape. They retreat to the headquarters of the home front team the Liberty Legion in Times Square, where they are reunited with the dimension-shifting Thin Man. The Invaders relate their encounter with the Battle Axis to the Thin Man. Hearing their description of the Nazis, The Thin Man, who has been keeping track of American superheroes in order to enlist them for the war effort, is shocked to realize that all five of the Battle Axis were themselves, until now, costumed crime fighters.

Elsewhere, the romantically involved Miss America and the Whizzer are walking along the East River in their civilian identities when they stumble across the Battle Axis coming ashore. The Whizzer is captured but Miss America just barely escapes. Fleeing to Liberty Legion HQ, she tells the Invaders what has happened, as well as what she overheard said by Dr. Death, the ruthless leader of the Battle Axis: the Naxi agents are heading to Los Angeles as part of “the Fuhrer’s supreme plan –to knock America out of the war!” The Invaders quickly head west in pursuit of their dangerous foes.

The Invaders miniseries was definitely enjoyable, so I’m not going to go into too much detail about the story. If you’re a fan of these characters I definitely recommend seeking out these issues for yourself, or picking up one of the collections in which it’s been reprinted.

In addition to the Invaders and Liberty Legion members, Thomas utilizes obscure superheroes Blazing Skull, Silver Scorpion and the original Vision, all of whom hadn’t appeared since the early 1940s. He also brought back a pair of characters he had co-created with Frank Robbins in The Invaders series, the Blue Bullet and the Golem.

Thomas had actually wanted to have the original Vision, who was an other-dimensional alien named Aarkus, join the Avengers way back in 1968. However editor Stan Lee instructed that Thomas have an android join the team, and so Thomas created a brand-new android Vision who was visually similar to the original. My pal Alan Stewart offered a comprehensive look at this in his retrospective on Avengers #58.

So, finally, a quarter century later, Thomas at long last had the opportunity to write the Golden Age Vision in this miniseries. Hoover’s cover to The Invaders #3 featuring the Vision is even a homage to the android Vision’s first cover appearance on Avengers #57 by John Buscema & George Klein, which in turn was inspired by the alien Vision’s introductory splash page from Marvel Mystery Comics #13 by Jack Kirby & Joe Simon in 1940.

Okay, I’ve heard of double vision, but triple?!?

The Battle Axis are also bona fide Golden Age superheroes. Thomas’ original idea was to have several obscure Timely heroes join the Nazi cause, but editor Mark Gruenwald balked at the idea. So Thomas dusted off a handful of even more obscure characters from the 1940s from other publishers who had fallen into the public domain and had them turn evil.

I thought Thomas actually made the heel-turns by the various Battle Axis members fairly plausible. In the late 1930s there were very strong isolationist feelings held by many Americans, as well as a fairly significant pro-Nazi movement in existence in the United States. Just because the country finally entered World War II in December 1941 did not mean that the people who held those beliefs would change them overnight. So it makes sense that you could have a handful of costumed vigilantes who for personal or ideological reasons would throw in with the Third Reich.

Thomas helpfully provides some detailed information on the various characters appearing in this miniseries in a trio of text pieces in the back of the first, third and fourth issues. Keep in mind that in 1993 the majority of readers would not have been alive when the original Golden Age comics came out, very little of that material had yet been reprinted by Marvel, neither had the original run of The Invaders been collected, and there was no Wikipedia. To put it in perspective, in the first piece Thomas notes that if you would like to read All-Winners Comics #19 and #2, both issues are available on microfiche!

I found Thomas’ text pieces invaluable, and I’m sure others did too. I appreciate that Thomas wrote them, and that Rockwitz encouraged him to write them rather than running ads in the spaces.

The artwork by Dave Hoover on The Invaders really was fantastic. I was a big fan of Hoover’s work. He’d recently drawn some nice fill-in issues of Excalibur, Nick Fury and Wolverine, as well as She-Hulk and Iron Fist serials for Marvel Comics Presents. So it was definitely a pleasure to see him penciling this miniseries.

Rockwitz clearly appreciated Hoover’s work, as a year later he gave him the regular assignment of penciling Captain America. I really liked Hoover’s depiction of Cap in The Invaders, and it was nice to then have him draw the character’s monthly series, on which he also did good work.

Brian Garvey & Ian Aiken had contributed some really rich, textured inks / finishes over Sal Buscema’s pencils on Rom Spaceknight a decade before this, so I was also a fan of their work. I feel they provided very nice embellishments on The Invaders, effectively complementing Hoover’s pencils. It’s a very attractive-looking miniseries.

Hoover sadly passed away on September 4, 2011 at the much too young age of 56. I addition to enjoying his work, I met him at comic conventions a couple of times, and he seemed like a good person, so I was definitely saddened by his death.

Rockwitz was very happy with how The Invaders came out. On the text page of issue #4 he describes it as “a dream come true for me.” As Thomas later related in Alter Ego #136:

“Mike said one of the proudest things of his editorship – and he didn’t sound like he was kidding – was being able to have me do another Invaders series. I don’t know why that should be the high point of anybody’s life [chuckles] but I certainly appreciated the thought.”

There were apparently tentative plans by both Thomas & Rockwitz for further Invaders stories. In issue #4 Rockwitz mentions the Invaders would be appearing “in an upcoming Captain America mini-series due out this year” but as far as I know that project never came to fruition.

Ultimately Thomas & Rockwitz would only ever be able to do one more Invaders-related story after this. Thomas wrote a fill-in story for Captain America #423 (January 1994) which revealed the never-before seen first encounter between Cap and Namor. Pencils were by M.C. Wyman and inks by Charles Barnett III, with letters by Diana Albers and colors by Ovi Hondru. It’s another enjoyable story with gorgeous artwork.

I’ve always felt Wyman had a style reminiscent of John Buscema. That was especially the case when he was inked by Barnett, whose inking really evokes a Bronze Age feel to it. I always enjoyed seeing Barnett’s inks over various pencilers during the early to mid 1990s. Wyman & Barnett only worked together a few times, unfortunately. They made a great art team.

Roy Thomas is a good, imaginative writer, one of the architects of the modern Marvel universe, who successfully wove together the interesting yet disparate strands of the company’s early history into a rich tapestry. I’m glad that Mike Rockwitz was able to afford him so many opportunities to write new stories in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The books they produced together were a lot of fun. Rereading them 30 years later, those comics are still enjoyable.

It Came from the 1990s: Starblast

In my previous post I took a look at the unusual Questprobe project Marvel Comics published in the mid 1980s. I indicated this would lead into an installment of “It Came from the 1990s.” That brings us to today’s post, where I will be looking at the Starblast crossover from Marvel that came out in late 1993.

Often I put together these “It Came from the 1990s” entries to spotlight comic books from that decade that I feel are overlooked or underrated. Unfortunately, this is NOT one of those series.

Starblast has regrettably been described as one of the worst comic book crossovers of all time. I was reminded of it by longtime Marvel editor Tom Brevoort on his own WordPress blog in which he took a look at Quasar #56, which he brands with the label of “Worst Cover Ever.” Brevoort’s piece reminded me of Starbast, which in turn got me thinking about Questprobe, as the later indirectly inspired the former. And here we are.

Starblast #1 cover by Claudio Castellini

It would not be accurate to say that no one ever sets out to make bad movies, or TV shows, or music, or artwork, or whatever. There are some people who recognize that crap sells, that there is an audience for absolute drek, and so they produce terrible products because they know it will make money.

Having acknowledged that, it is my general observation that the majority of creators who go to work in the comic book industry do so because they truly love the medium, they desire to work within it, and they wish to create genuinely good stories & art. The fact that they don’t always succeed is down to a number of factors, such as unforgiving deadlines, poor pay rates, difficult marketplace conditions, clashes with editorial, and the existence of management that is frequently unsympathetic to talent.

I really do believe that the creators behind Starblast set out to produce a good comic book; the fact that they did not succeed offers a sad snapshot of the comic book industry three decades ago.

Mark Gruenwald was the main creative force behind Starblast. As both a writer and editor Gruewald enjoyed utilizing the more obscure elements of Marvel continuity. He frequently drew on these elements in Quasar, the ongoing series that featured everyman Wendell Vaughn as the reluctant Protector of the Universe. It really felt that Gruenwald was personally invested in the character of Quasar, with Gru even giving Wendell some of the same personal background that he had.

Gruenwald spent two years building up to Starblast in the pages of Quasar. First he had Wendell temporarily acquire the incredibly-powerful cosmic force known as the Star Brand from Marvel’s ill-fated New Universe imprint. Wendell accidentally passed the Star Brand on to his girlfriend Kayla Ballentine. She was then abducted by the Chief Examiner from the Questprobe series, who wanted to duplicate the Star Brand’s power to use against the ravaging Black Fleet that was attacking his world. The Star Brand proves to be too powerful for the Examiner to replicate, and so he is forced to battle the Black Fleet with the powers of the other Earth superhumans he’s previously duplicated. Unfortunately this isn’t enough and he’s defeated, forcing the reluctant Kayla to use the Star Brand to obliterate the Black Fleet.

Quasar #37 written by Mark Gruenwald, penciled by Greg Capullo, inked by Harry Caldelario, lettered by Janice Chiang, and colored by Paul Becton, published by Marvel Comics in August 1992

That at last brings us to Starblast. The cyborg Skeletron and his crew of space pirates the Starblasters are the sole survivors of the Black Fleet. Having witnessed his entire armada destroyed by the Star Brand, Skeletron seeks to acquire its incredible power for himself. He dispatches the Starblasters to attack Earth, distracting the planet’s superheroes so he can abduct Kayla.

I feel there was a certain potential to Starblast. It’s an interesting premise. Gruenwald, despite his unfortunate tendency to write Quasar as a dry series of encyclopedia entries rather than an awe-inspiring exploration of the Marvel cosmos, was a good writer. The editor of Quasar and Starblast was Mike Rockwitz, out of whose office a number of enjoyable books were released in the early 1990s.

Regrettably the Starblast crossover just did not come together in the way Gruenwald must have imagined.

Starblast #1 written by Mark Gruenwald, penciled by Herb Trimpe, inked by Ralph Cabrera, lettered by Michael Higgins, colored by Paul Becton, published by Marvel Comics in January 1994

Starblast was a four-issue miniseries, with Quasar #54-56, Secret Defenders #11, Namor the Sub-Mariner #46-48, and Fantastic Four #385-386 all being labeled as parts of the crossover. Starblast and Quasar were both written by Gruenwald, and so the story runs directly between those two books. But the other parts of the crossover are at best peripheral, telling almost-unrelated stories. It seems like there was some problems getting everything coordinated between Gruenwald and the other writers.

The artwork on Starblast is also a major issue. Beneath a gorgeous cover by Claudio Castellini on issue #1 is interior art by penciler Herb Trimpe & inker Ralph Cabrera. Trimpe was a good, solid artist who had been working for Marvel since the late 1960s. However, by the early 1990s his style of art had unfortunately fallen out of favor, and the young, hot artists who worked on the X-Men and Spider-Man books before founding Image Comics were very much in demand. In an effort to make himself more bankable, Trimpe adopted a style inspired by the Image founders.

I am a fan of Trimpe, and I’m usually very charitable towards his work from the 1990s. He was in a tough position, trying to stay employed, doing the best he could. But his art on Starblast is difficult to look at.

Starblast #2 written by Mark Gruenwald, penciled by Herb Trimpe, inked by Ralph Cabrera, lettered by Michael Higgins, and colored by Paul Becton, published by Marvel Comics in February 1994

Trimpe does well enough on the first few pages of Starblast #1, with his weird work actually enhancing the unearthly menace of the alien Starblasters. But as the issue progresses and Gruenwald brings in Quasar and Earth’s other heroes, the wonky anatomy and bizarre layouts become really painful.

It’s sad that in the early 1990s an experienced, reliable artist like Trimpe had to churn this stuff out in an effort to extend his career. I’m just glad that when he finally started getting work in comic books again beginning in 2008 he was able to go back to his normal style.

Trimpe & Cabrera also drew the second issue of Starblast, and the artwork is just as poor. By the third issue they’re gone. Pencils are by Grant Miehm. The credit for inks is “Many Hands” which really tells me that there must have been some horrific deadlines and behind-the-scenes problems facing this series.

Miehm is another good, solid, underrated artist. I had been a fan of his art since a few years earlier when he penciled Justice Society of America and Legend of the Shield for DC Comics. He then worked on Ravage 2099 at Marvel, doing very nice work, as well as penciling a couple of fill-in issues of Quasar. Miehm’s previous fill-in work on Quasar, and on the third issue of Starblast, really convinces me that he should have been the artist for the entire miniseries. He draws all of the characters in his chapter really well and his storytelling is solid.

Starblast #3 written by Mark Gruenwald, penciled by Grant Miehm, inked by “Many Hands,” lettered by Michael Higgins and colored by Paul Becton, published by Marvel Comics in March 1994

Regrettably Miehm only drew the third issue. Starblast #4 has three pencilers, Brian Kong, Rich Buckler Jr & Nate Palant, and two inkers, Don Hudson & Ernie Chan, and so is a bit of a stylistic mess. Probably the strongest part is the first third of the issue which Kong penciled. I like his work, but I imagine that this must have been another deadline nightmare. Hudson and Chan are both good inkers, but they have such very different styles. All of this gives the impression that Rockwitz must have been forced to grab whoever was available just so he could get the issue finished.

All three issues of Quasar that are part of Starblast are penciled by John Heebink, with inks by Dan & David Day and Aaron McClellan. Their work isn’t flashy, but it gets the job done, and it’s consistent in quality.

The artwork was not the only problem with Starblast. Gruenwald’s story is overly ambitious, unfocused, and crowded. There are too many characters fighting for the spotlight. The second issue of Starblast literally wastes the entire chapter with Quasar, the Squadron Supreme & various random heroes fighting Gladiator & the Shi’ar Imperial Guard.

Quasar #54 written by Mark Gruenwald, penciled by John Heebink, inked by Dan & David Day, lettered by Janice Chiang and colored by Paul Becton, published by Marvel Comics in January 1994

Well, there is one interesting footnote to this: Gruenwald did finally have Marvel’s two main Superman expies, Hyperion and Gladiator, meet in Quasar #54. He obviously relished the idea of presenting such a metatextual battle.

The Starblasters are visually interesting, but again there’s just too many of them, and most of them are barely developed, with the majority just getting lost in the crowd. It’s odd that Gruenwald would dig up a bunch of obscure alien bad guys and then do almost nothing with them.

For example, one of the Starblasters is Threkker, and he’s either supposed to be the space vampire “The Captive” that Jack Kirby introduced in Captain America Annual #3 or another survivor of his nearly-extinct species the Epsiloni. (Threkker is the guy with the biiiig teeth.) Kirby wrote the character as this horrifying cosmic menace, but here he’s basically just some big generic thug working for Skeletron.

Starblast #4 really rushes along, ending very abruptly. So abruptly, in fact, that Quasar #57 is actually an unofficial epilogue that wraps up a lot of the Starblast plotlines. It does seem like Gruenwald was treating the Starblast miniseries as four extra issues of Quasar, rather than as a self-contained event, and as a result it’s something of a narrative jumble.

I feel it’s also worth pointing out that Starblast was simultaneously published at the exact same time as two other Marvel crossovers, “Siege of Darkness” in the Ghost Rider family of “supernatural superhero” books, and “Blood & Thunder” in the “cosmic” books written by Jim Starlin & Ron Marz. Almost comedically, there are scenes in both Quasar #54 and Secret Defenders #11 where Adam Warlock and Doctor Strange explain with some annoyance that they can’t help out against the Starblasters because they’re too busy with the events in “Blood & Thunder” and “Siege of Darkness” respectively. That demonstrates just how cluttered and glutted the Marvel line had become by the end of 1993. Something had to give… and it would very soon after.

Starblast #43 written by Mark Gruenwald, penciled by Brian Kong, inked by Ernie Chan & Don Hudson, lettered by Michael Higgins and colored by Paul Becton, published by Marvel Comics in April 1994

One of the reasons why I am so forgiving of Starblast is that, with the benefit of hindsight, I recognize it was produced at a time when the Marvel line had expanded to a completely unmanageable degree, and that it was released immediately before the start of the catastrophic market crash of the mid-1990s. Within a few months various titles would be canceled, including Quasar. Numerous creators and staff at Marvel would lose their jobs. In other words, it was a really dark time for the industry. People like Gruenwald and Rockwitz were just doing their best to get the books out on time and with as much of a level of professionalism as they could in an extremely difficult climate.

I’ve said before that while I love the medium of comic books, I often find the realities of the industry incredibly depressing. It can be a very difficult field to work in. And then, of course, someone like me comes along with his blog and says “Hey, remember that crazy stuff you worked on thirty years ago?”

In the near future I’m planning to look at another project that Mike Rockwitz edited, one that was much more successful. Stay tuned.

It Came from the 1990s / Star Trek reviews: Untold Voyages

Here’s a twofer for you, an installment of It Came from the 1990s and a Star Trek review.

In my last blog post I looked at Star Trek: The Motion Picture, which was originally released back in December 1979. So today I’m going to discuss a comic book series which serves as a sort of follow-up to that movie. Star Trek: Untold Voyages was a five-issue miniseries published by Marvel Comics in 1998. Untold Voyages was written by Glenn Greenberg, penciled by Mike Collins, inked by Keith Williams, colored by Matt Webb, lettered by Chris Eliopoulos and edited by Tim Tuohy.

Marvel had previously held the license to publish Star Trek comic books immediately following the release of The Motion Picture. Their Star Trek comic book ran for 18 issues between 1980 and 1982 and was unfortunately not especially well-received. (Apparently Marvel could only use elements that appeared in The Motion Picture, and anything from the actual television series was off-limits.) The license was soon acquired by DC Comics, who between 1984 and 1996 published a number of highly regarded Star Trek comics.

Marvel ended up picking up the license for a second time in 1996. Although they once again ended up holding it for only three years, during this brief period they released several Star Trek books of a high quality. A major aspect of this appears to have been that the terms of the license were much more flexible than they had been in the early 1980s, providing the writers with greater creative freedom.

Untold Voyages is set in the gap between The Motion Picture and Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, during a new five year mission for Captain James T. Kirk and crew of the Starship Enterprise. Each issue is set during one of the five years of that mission. As the series progresses we gradually see the transition of the Star Trek universe from the tone of the first movie to that of the second. As critic Darren Mooney observes on the m0vie blog, Greenberg’s stories serve to bridge Gene Roddenberry and Nicholas Meyer’s very different visions of the Star Trek universe.

Greenberg is a longtime Star Trek fan, and if anyone was suited to write a Star Trek series set in the aftermath of the first movie it was him. As he recently stated on Facebook concerning The Motion Picture:

“This was not my first exposure to Star Trek, but it IS what sparked my great interest in the series.”

I asked Greenberg how the Untold Voyages comic book series came about, and he explained its origins:

“Was hanging out in the office of my fellow Marvel editor, Tim Tuohy, who was editing some of the Star Trek titles. I mentioned that he should consider doing something in the post-TMP era, and we jokingly called it The Grey Pajamas Saga. But ideas started pouring out of both of us, in terms of what could be done with such a project, and before I knew it, Tim was telling me to go home and write up a pitch for him. Which I did.”

Reading Untold Voyages, Greenberg’s fondness for both this particular period, and for Star Trek as a whole, is readily apparent. I really feel that he successfully captures both Roddenberry’s optimistic, utopian awe that permeated the original television series and The Motion Picture and the more grounded, skeptical view of the future that Nicholas Meyer introduced to it with The Wrath of Khan. Greenberg successfully balances these two approaches in much the same way that later episodes of The Next Generation and much of the run of Deep Space Nine also did, resulting in some intelligent, thought-provoking stories.

I don’t want to get into too many specifics about Untold Voyages because I’d rather encourage Star Trek fans to seek it out for themselves. The issues can be found on eBay at affordable prices. The miniseries was also reprinted in Volume 120 of the massive Star Trek Graphic Novel Collection published by Eaglemoss Collections several years ago.

I will say that probably my favorite issue was the second one. The title “Worlds Collide” has two very distinct meanings in Greenberg’s story. In the “A plot” an alien planet is threatened with destruction as an asteroid hurtles towards it, leading Kirk and Dr. McCoy into a very heated argument over the Federation’s Prime Directive, and whether they should or should not interfere and attempt to save the world’s inhabitants.

In the “B plot” Spock is serving as a mentor to the young, troubled Saavik. Greenberg utilizes the half-Romulan backstory for Saavik that was filmed for The Wrath of Khan but ultimately never used but which was later explored in several prose novels and the DC Comics series. He effectively parallels Spock and Saavik, each of them only half-Vulcan, each in their turn struggling to find their place, and their identity, in the rigidly logical Vulcan society.

Another stand-out issue is the fourth one. “Silent Cries” sees Lieutenant Commander Hikaru Sulu briefly assume command of the Enterprise. Greenberg wrote this story to show the event that helped place Sulu on the path to eventually becoming captain of the Excelsior several years later.

I’ve often lamented that, due to the realities of television writing & production during the 1960s, outside of Kirk, Spock and McCoy the Enterprise crew were undeveloped. Therefore, it’s good to get a story like this that spotlights one of those other characters. That’s always been a strength of the tie-in media of comic books and novels, it’s enabled writers to flesh out Sulu, Scotty, Uhura, Chekov and the rest of the ship’s crew.

“Silent Cries” also has one of those great moral quandaries that Star Trek is so wonderful at addressing. I’ve always appreciated the series for how it can challenge our assumptions and ask us to reconsider our views.

The artwork on Untold Voyages is very well done. Mike Collins & Keith Williams do a superb job rendering the characters, the technology, and the different alien worlds. I’ve observed before that drawing likenesses in licensed comic books can be incredibly tricky. If the artist is too faithful to the actors there is a danger of the characters not seeming real, instead looking like they were traced from a photograph. It can be more important to capture the personality & body language of the characters than the actual appearances of the actors who portray them. Collins & Williams do an admirable job rendering the rest of the Enterprise crew.

Collins also has a long association with Doctor Who Magazine as one of the artists on its ongoing comic book feature, so he clearly has a great affinity for drawing actors’ likenesses as well as sci-fi elements. I’ve always liked Collins’ work, and I think he’s somewhat underrated, especially compared to a number of his contemporaries who also made their debuts in the British comic book industry during the mid-1980s.

Collins’ layouts & storytelling on Untold Voyages are very strong & dramatic. Williams is a superb inker, and he does a great job on the finishes here.

Going back to “Worlds Collide” I appreciated that Greenberg & Collins created a totally non-humanoid alien species. It’s long been a running joke that in Star Trek most aliens look like human beings with bumpy foreheads or funny ears. Obviously the primary reason for that is the constraints of time, money & technology in creating truly alien lifeforms on live television. But none of that applies to comic books, where the only limitations are the talent & imagination of the artist.

Oh, yes, I cannot discuss Untold Voyages without mentioning Matt Webb’s vibrant colors. The mid to late 1990s was often a crapshoot when it came to comic book coloring as creators struggled to adapt to the brand-new computer coloring technology that was being utilized. There was a lot of gaudy coloring during this period. But Webb did superb work on this miniseries. The coloring is striking without being overwhelming. I love what he does with the warp speed effect.

As I’ve said before, one of the reasons why I like doing these It Came from the 1990s blog posts is that they allow me to spotlight some of the great comic books that came out during a decade that often gets a bad reputation. There are a great many underrated gems from the 1990s, and Star Trek: Untold Voyages is one of them. If you’re a Trekkie it’s definitely worth seeking these out.

It Came from the 1990s: The Power of Shazam part two

I’m continuing my retrospective of the fantastic comic book series The Power of Shazam published by DC Comics from 1995 to 1999. You can find the first part here.

Today I’m looking at the second year of the title. The regular creative team is the same as before: writer & cover artist Jerry Ordway, penciler Peter Krause, inker Mike Manley, letterer John Costanza, colorist Glenn Whitmore, assistant editor Chris Duffy, and editor Mike Carlin.

Actually, this is where I first came in.

Yes, it’s true, I did not read the graphic novel when it originally came out in 1994, or the first 13 issues of the ongoing series. But I kept hearing such positive things about the series, so when issue #14 came out with guest pencils by the legendary Gil Kane, I decided to give it a try.

Freddy Freeman, aka Captain Marvel Junior, was a popular guy and a jock before he was crippled by Captain Nazi and then received powers from Billy Batson and Mary Bromfield, the two Captains Marvel. So when Freddy starts showing some interest in Mary in issue #13, Billy becomes extremely overprotective. Billy and Freddy end up coming to blows, and Freddy leaves Fawcett City.

Issue #14 picks up on Freddy, who has arrived in New York City. He encounters Chain Lightning, another teen metahuman, although she suffers from some form of multiple personality disorder, which makes her very dangerous & unpredictable.

Ordway did a great job writing a story that was simultaneously a stand-alone tale, and which also brought new readers such as myself up to speed on what had happened before. That sort of skill has unfortunately become rare in mainstream superhero comics. I found #14 a really engaging issue with great artwork by Kane, so I came back a month later for #15, and I was hooked. I subsequently sought out the graphic novel and the previous issues.

Thinking about it, I was probably also intrigued by the clever “cereal box” house ad that DC ran featuring Ordway’s cover painting for the upcoming issue #16 to promote the Mister Mind storyline. Now that is how you promote a comic book!

Mister Mind was the “big bad” behind the lengthy “Monster Society of Evil” serial that Fawcett Comics published back in the 1940s. Eventually revealed to be a tiny, cartoony-looking worm, Mister Mind’s cute appearance belied the fact that he was a cold-blooded killer. Nevertheless, I really don’t think the character would have worked in that form in the 1990s. Ordway reimagines Mister Mind as the vanguard of a race of millions of telepathic worms from Venus which possess a shared consciousness.

Just like his Golden Age namesake, this modern “Mister Mind” and his race plot to take over the world. The worms have a plan that manages to be simultaneously brilliant and ridiculous, specifically taking over the mind of Billy’s miserly uncle Ebenezer to build a giant casino in Fawcett City, and then have Captain Marvel’s arch-enemy Doctor Sivana teleport the worms from Venus to Earth where they can take over the people who come from across the country to visit the casino. In a tip of the hat to the original Captain Marvel stories, the casino’s mascot is the original cartoony version of Mister Mind.

The worms all speak in an alien language which could be translated via a decoder card that readers got for free by sending a self-addressed stamped envelope to DC Comics. Yes, I sent away for one, and yes, I still have it. Maybe it’s no Captain Midnight Decoder Ring, but it’s still pretty cool.

Mike Carlin informed me on Facebook that John Costanza is the one who lettered the Mister Mind Alphabet.

Also in these issues, much to Bill Batson’s chagrin, the Wizard Shazam decides to leave the Rock of Eternity to once more live among humanity… which means posing as Billy’s grandfather and moving in with him.

The Power of Shazam #17 features one last flashback sequence penciled by Silver Age legend Curt Swan, who had previously contributed to issues #8 and #11. This segment reveals exactly how Doctor Sivana and Mister Mind came to be working together. Issue #17 was released in June 1996, the month Swan passed away, making it among the last art he drew. It demonstrates he was doing solid work right up to the end.

I’m glad that Ordway included this sequence, because it helps fill in the gap between the graphic novel and the first issue of the ongoing series. Billy Batson and Sivana barely interact in the graphic novel, but when the monthly series begins four years have passed and Sivana is now Captain Marvel’s arch enemy, as well as one of the few people who know he’s actually Billy. So this segment gives some info on how they became such bitter adversaries, and how Sivana went from being a shady tycoon to a mad scientist on the run from the law.

Another highlight of this four issue story arc is Captain Marvel donning a Wallace Wood-inspired spacesuit for the journey to Venus… where he discovers that Sivana has obviously been raiding Tony Stark’s wardrobe!

Krause & Manley do their usual superb work on issues #15-17, with Manley stepping up to contribute both pencils & inks for the wrap-up in issue #18.

Around this time a couple of other books related to The Power of Shazam came out. The first of these was Showcase ’96 #7 (August 1996), a team-up between Mary Bromfield / Captain Marvel and the vigilante Gangbuster, who Ordway created with writer Marv Wolfman in Adventures of Superman a decade earlier. This enabled Ordway to continue the storyline of Gangbuster being on the run from the law that had been set up in the Superman books and continued through a previous issue of the Showcase anthology. It also allows Mary to again step into the spotlight and demonstrate she is just as much a hero as her brother.

Looking at this story again in 2022, it was a pleasant surprise to see journalist Cat Grant also appeared in it. I miss how Cat was written back in the 1990s as an intelligent, caring person. I really didn’t like how she was depicted when she was brought back in 2008 with a completely different, and very ugly, personality.

Art on the Captain Marvel / Gangbuster story was by penciler John Statema & inker Mike DeCarlo, with letters by Ken Bruzenak and colors by Dave Grafe. Will Rosado & Klaus Janson drew the dynamic cover which shows Mary and Gangbuster facing off against the superhuman pyromaniac the Arson Fiend.

Also released was The Power of Shazam Annual #1 which… hey, wait a minute! I’ve never read this one before! What gives?

Seriously, all these years later I can’t remember why I didn’t get the annual when it came out. It’s possible I never saw it. Or maybe, since it was around the time that I was deciding to start reading the series, I skipped it to focus on the regular issues.

Of course, it’s equally possible that I simply didn’t get it because of the whole “Legends of the Dead Earth” theme of stories set in the far, far distant future that ran through all of DC Comics’ annuals in the Summer of 1996. At the time 17 year old was me was unfortunately hung up on continuity, on whether or not stories were “real” and “actually happened,” and it seemed to me that Legends of the Dead Earth was Elseworlds in all but name, and therefore “didn’t count.” Which was pretty damn silly of me, because years later I read several of those annuals and found them to be entertaining mash-ups of superheroes, pulp sci-fi & fantasy. What can I say? I was a foolish teenager back in 1996.

And, ironically, The Power of Shazam Annual #1 actually “did count” as it introduced teenager CeCe Beck (named after the first Captain Marvel artist C.C. Beck) who transformed into Thunder, an incarnation of Captain Marvel over six thousand years in the future, and who went on to make several more appearances. She even hung out with the Legion of Super-Heroes for a while. Shows what I know!

Since I was doing this reread of the entire series, I finally tracked down this annual and, wow, it’s really good! Writer & cover painter Ordway does a superb job of really subverting a familiar formula. The “plucky rebels fighting an oppressive evil empire” trope gets upended as we see that the resistance has committed some morally questionable acts, with one of their leaders being responsible for the deaths of Beck’s parents. There are people living in the regular society who are perfectly happy with their existence, so simply overthrowing the existing order is only going to make a bad situation worse. Inspector Javert, despite being named after the antagonist from Les Miserables, turns out to be a reasonable authority figure. Beck realizes that both sides need to find a way to co-exist.

Regular inker Mike Manley here turns in some really nice animated-style pencils, neatly balancing the fun and dystopian elements of Ordway’s story. Manley is effectively inked by John Nyberg. John Costanza and Glenn Whitmore once again turn in quality letters and colors.

So, yes, this one was definitely a very unexpected gem!

Returning to the ongoing monthly series, we now get to The Power of Shazam #19. I only have one issue from this series autographed, and it’s this one.

Following up on the Captain Marvel Junior story from a few months earlier, issue #19 sees Freddy Freeman visiting S.T.A.R. Labs to check up on Chain Lighting, and to receive treatment for his own injuries from Dr. Caitlin Rousso.

Caitlin accidentally lets slip that Captain Nazi is being held at S.T.A.R. Labs until he can be transported back to Europe to stand trial for war crimes. Freddy, seeking vengeance, busts out Nazi and takes him to an abandoned industrial area, only to realize that, as much as he wants, he cannot bring himself to kill his enemy in cold blood. Unfortunately Nazi takes the opportunity to escape, and now it’s up to Freddy, working alongside middle aged superhero & World War II veteran Minute Man to recapture the superpowered fascist.

Gil Kane, who penciled issue #14, returns for this story. Regrettably this time Kane was only able to complete the first half of the issue. Joe Staton, another great artist, as well as a personal favorite of me, stepped in to pencil the second half. Around this time Staton was also helping Kane complete the pencils for the graphic novel The Life Story of the Flash, which was published in 1997.

I got this one autographed by Kane the one time I was fortunate enough to meet him, and subsequently had Ordway and Staton add their signatures. Hopefully one of these days I will also get the opportunity to also have this issue signed by Manley.

The first year and a half of The Power of Shazam was pretty much self-contained. Ordway understandably wanted to take the time to introduce Billy Batson, Mary Bromfield, Freddy Freeman and the rest of the cast, to tell his own stories. Fortunately DC allowed him the opportunity to do just that. Yes, Captain Marvel popped over to the Underworld Unleashed event in-between issues, but it was done in such a way that if you didn’t read that crossover you really wouldn’t have missed anything.

Starting with issue #20, though, Ordway starts linking The Power of Shazam with the rest of DC Universe. A tie-in with The Final Night crossover brings in guest star Superman, a character Ordway is, of course, very familiar with. But even here Ordway uses the crisis of the Sun Eater as the impetus to have Captain Marvel Junior return to Fawcett City and bury the hatchet with the rest of the Marvel Family, and to engage in some nice character development.

Issue #21 features a wacky guest appearance by Plastic Man. The artwork by Krause & Manley is really well-suited to the oddball humor of Pas and his sidekick Woozy Winks. There were some genuinely laugh-out-loud moments in this one.

Then in issue #22 Batman stops by Fawcett City to investigate organized crime. Billy’s already got gym class and homework and a school bully on his plate, but when the Dark Knight tells you he expects you to meet up with him, well, what can you do?

Issue #23 sees Ordway introduce another post-Crisis revamp of an old Captain Marvel enemy, the radioactive robot Mister Atom. The story also once again showcases how the series has become an ensemble piece. Billy and Mary are pretty much equal co-stars, and both of them are referred to as Captain Marvel. “Mary Marvel” is only a nickname that Billy calls Mary; everyone else refers to her as “Captain Marvel Lady” or “the Lady Marvel” or variations thereof. Even the opening narration refers to Mary as Captain Marvel.

Speaking of the opening, the double page spread on this issue by Krause & Manley is gorgeous.

I do have to admit, on first reading issue #23 did feel like somewhat of a throwaway story… but about 15 months down the line it turned out to be very significant to the series. Ordway did a good job of setting up plotlines & character arcs on this series that would pay off later.

Oh, yeah, among the various mindless missives printed in this issue’s lettercol is some inane drivel by a Ben Herman of Harrison, New York. I think I heard that guy later moved to Queens, NYC and started writing long, rambling blog posts 😼

The second year of The Power of Shazam came to a close with issue #24. It has a gorgeous pulp-style painted cover from Ordway. Krause & Manley do a fine job illustrating the flashback adventure within.

The now-retired costumed hero Spy Smasher is recounting to Billy & Mary an incident from back during the Cold War when he worked with their late father, archaeologist Clarence Charles Batson, to retrieve an ancient artifact known as the Scorpion from East Germany. Once the property of the Wizard, the Scorpion has the potential to be an incredibly powerful weapon, so naturally both the Communists and a group of Nazi war criminals also want to get their grubby mitts on it.

After several very close calls, including a fight with the armored Baron Blitzkrieg, CC and Spy Smasher at last escape from behind the Iron Curtain with the Scorpion. Spy Smasher wraps up his tale… just in time for Billy & Mary’s father to arrive and tell them it’s time to come home, because their mother is making dinner.

Holy moley! What in the name of Shazam is going on? Aren’t Clarence & Marilyn Batson dead? How can any of this be happening? What a cliffhanger!

I’ll be looking at what happens next in an upcoming post when I cover the third year of The Power of Shazam. I hope you’ll come back for it!

It Came from the 1990s: The Power of Shazam

Last month I started doing a re-read of The Power of Shazam comic book series that was published by DC Comics for four years between 1995 and 1999. One of the reasons why I like to do this “It Came from the 1990s” feature here on this blog is because the decade as a whole tends to get a bad rap among comic book fans. There were some great comic books published during the 1990s, and The Power of Shazam, which was written by Jerry Ordway for its entire run, is among the very best.

The Power of Shazam features Billy Batson, the original Golden Age version of Captain Marvel originally published by Fawcett Comics from 1939 to 1953 before DC Comics ultimately litigated them out of existence, with the character subsequently being acquired by DC itself two decades later. Ordway’s run is often regarded as the best incarnation of the character since the original Golden Age version.

The Power of Shazam actually started out as a standalone graphic novel written, drawn & painted by Jerry Ordway, with lettering by John Costanza, that DC published in early 1994. Coming off the Superman family of titles, on which he regularly worked in the late 1980s and early 90s, Ordway set out to tell the definitive post-Crisis on Infinite Earths origin of Billy Batson / Captain Marvel.

The graphic novel initially opens in the Egyptian desert several years in the past. Husband and wife archaeologists Charles Clarence Batson & Marilyn Batson are excavating a previously-undiscovered tomb. With them is Theo Adam, an agent of the expedition’s financier Thaddeus Sivana. In a hidden chamber the trio discovers a sarcophagus with a beautiful scarab necklace. The thuggish Adam becomes strangely fixated on the scarab. He brutally murders C.C. and Marilyn, but not before Marilyn hides the scarab inside her daughter Mary’s stuffed Tawky Tawny doll. Adam kidnaps Mary and flees back to America.

Some months later the Batsons’ other child, ten year old Billy, is living on the streets of Fawcett City, his inheritance having been stolen by his miserly Uncle Ebenezer. A ghostly figure beckons to Billy one rainy night, leading him into a subway tunnel which is connected to the other-dimensional Rock of Eternity, the home of the ancient Wizard Shazam. The Wizard bids Billy to say his name. Calling out “Shazam!” Billy is transformed into the super-powered adult form of Captain Marvel.

The understandably confused & angry Billy takes some time to adjust to this new body and its amazing powers, but he soon finds himself on a collision course with Theo Adam, who is revealed to be reincarnation of Black Adam, the Wizard’s original champion from ancient times who was corrupted by his awesome powers. Finally locating the mystic scarab, Theo transforms into Black Adam for the first time in the modern age.

Billy defeats Adam and resists the temptation to exact vengeance against the man who murdered his parents. The Wizard robs Adam of his powers & ability to speak. The figure who led Billy to the Rock of Eternity is none other than the ghost of Billy’s father, who drops enough clues to cause Billy to realize his sister Mary is still alive somewhere.

Ordway did a superb job updating the concept of Captain Marvel for the 1990s while still retaining much of the charm & whimsy of the original stories. Ordway’s painted artwork on the graphic novel was stunning.

The graphic novel was a huge success and DC greenlit an ongoing monthly series which made its debut in early 1995. Leaping forward four years to the “present day” the series features the now 14 year old Billy still attempting to juggle the life of a teen with the powers of Captain Marvel. Complicating matters, Billy continues to hide the fact that his uncle threw him out on the streets, because he doesn’t want to end up in foster care or an orphanage.

In addition to writing The Power of Shazam series, Ordway created gorgeous painted covers for each issue. The new art team was Peter Krause on pencils / layouts and Mike Manley on inks / finishes. John Costanza returns as letterer, with coloring by Glen Whitmore. Rounding things out were assistant editor Chris Duffy and editor Mike Carlin.

The first 12 issues of the monthly title formed a complete story arc. Billy at last discovers his long-missing sister Mary, who has been adopted by her mother’s cousin Nora and her husband Nick Bromfield. Mary is prompted by the magically animated Tawky Tawny stuffed animal to call out the magic work “Shazam” also gaining the Wizard’s powers.

Billy and Mary are reunited and befriend fellow teen Freddy Freeman. When Freddy is crippled by the superpowered fascist Captain Nazi, the Batson siblings share the powers given to them by the Wizard with their friend, enabling him to become Captain Marvel Jr. With the intro of first Mary as a second Captain Marvel, and then Freddy Freeman as Captain Marvel Jr, The Power of Shazam quickly became an ensemble title.

Just as he did with Bill Batson, Ordway does fantastic work with the character of Mary Bromfield. In certain respects Mary actually makes a better Captain Marvel than Billy, with the Wizard telling her:

“You have shown an intuitive grasp of my powers, Mary… in many ways, using them better than your brother had, when he first received them.”

It actually makes sense that Mary has that ability, as she was adopted by the Bromfields and given a loving, stable upbringing, whereas poor Billy was thrown out by his greedy uncle, forcing the young boy to survive by his wits on the streets of Fawcett City. I like that Ordway shows the siblings having very different approaches to crimefighting. Ordway also did a superb job rendering Mary on the book’s painted covers.

I definitely want to acknowledge the work of Peter Krause. I’d classify Krause as one of those good, solid artists who can turn in clear, dynamic pages on a deadline. I think if Krause had been around 20 years earlier he probably would have been one of the top artists of the Bronze Age. Regrettably by the mid 1990s his sort of art style had mostly fallen out of fashion. Fortunately this series was the perfect venue for Krause’s work.

Krause perfectly balanced the action & drama with the comedy & whimsy. He was equally adept at drawing dynamic action sequences as he was at bringing to life the humorous characters & moments in Ordway’s stories such as all of the really fun Tawky Tawny scenes. Manley’s finishes superbly complemented Krause’s pencils. They made a top-notch art team.

Silver and Bronze Age legend Curt Swan penciled a flashback sequence in The Power of Shazam #8 featuring Bulletman, Minute Man and Spy Smasher mixing it up with the diabolical Captain Nazi and his goosestepping lackeys during World War II. Swan’s lovely traditional style is a good fit for this segment, and Mike Manley’s inking complements his work really well.

Ordway himself pencils a pair of flashbacks in issue #10 and #12, which reveal the origin of the Wizard Shazam and his role in the history of Fawcett City and the Batson Family. We discover the Wizard had an origin very much like Billy, when as a young boy his family was murdered by bandits thousands of years ago in the Middle East. Entreating to the gods for the power to fight against injustice, the future Shazam became a champion in the region, protecting the innocent, allowing civilization to flourish.

Unfortunately, much as would one day happen to his successor Black Adam, the Wizard became overconfident, and his arrogance led to him being seduced by a beautiful demonic temptress. The inhuman seductress then gives birth to twins, the diabolical siblings Blaze and Satanus, who had previously been introduced in the Superman books during Ordway’s time on them.

Much of the events in the first year of The Power of Shazam revolves around Blaze’s efforts to undo the good works of her father the Wizard Shazam, and her brother Satanus’ own machinations to prevent his sister from becoming the ruling monarch of Hell.

The graphic novel and first 12 issues of The Power of Shazam were collected together by DC Comics in 2020 in the hardcover In the Beginning. There are tentative plans for a second collection, which I really hope will materialize, because it would be great if eventually the entire series got reprinted.

In any case, I’ll be looking at the second year of The Power of Shazam in a future blog post. Maybe I’ll do one post for each year of the series? I guess I’ll see how it goes. Anyway, I’m really enjoying this reread, and I hope those of you who follow this blog will enjoy my retrospectives of this great series.

It Came From the 1990s: Capwolf

This summer is the 30th anniversary of one of the more, um, unusual superhero comic book stories ever told. In the summer of 1992 a seven part bi-weekly serial entitled “Man and Wolf” ran in the pages of Captain America published by Marvel Comics. However this story is much more often referred to by another name: “Capwolf.” Yes, this is the time when Captain America was turned into a werewolf.

“Man and Wolf” ran in Captain America #402 to #408, cover-dated July 1992 to October 1992. The creative team was writer Mark Gruenwald, penciler Rik Levins, inkers Danny Bulanadi, Don Hudson, Ray Kryssing & Steve Alexandrov, letterer Joe Rosen, and colorists Gina Going & George Roussos. Ralf Macchio was the editor for most of the story, with Mike Rockwitz stepping in to begin his editorial tenure with the “Man and Wolf” epilogue in #408.

Let’s set the stage: Mark Gruenwald had been writing the Captain America series since issue #307 in 1985. From my own perspective as a reader, after several years of really good, interesting storylines by Gruenwald, for the last year or so the book had really been floundering. This dip in quality seemed to occur right when Rik Levins came onboard as a penciler. I’ve written before about how disappointing I initially found Levins’ work. So, between the drop in quality in Gruenwald’s writing and my definite lack of enthusiasm in Levins’ art, my interest in the series was really flagging.

And then came “Man and Wolf.” Okay, this is going to perhaps sound weird, but I felt, even though this was a ridiculous storyline, it was actually the beginning of an uptick in quality for the series.

I’m curious what the genesis was of “Man and Wolf.” I half-suspect that it was conceived as an excuse to bring in Wolverine, Wolfsbane and Cable as guest stars. In the early 1990s the X-Men group of comic books was absolutely red-hot, insanely popular, among Marvel’s bestselling titles. In contrast, the character of Captain America was unfortunately regarded as uncool, even lame. I mean, I liked Cap a lot, but I knew I was the very much the exception among teen readers at the time. So I wonder if Gruenwald or Macchio or someone else decided to have several mutants appear to bump up sales.

As Captain America #402 opens, Steve Rogers has decided to take a leave of absence from the Avengers to search for his two missing friends: his pilot John Jameson and his girlfriend Diamondback. Cap hears about a series of “werewolf killings” in northern Massachusetts and recalls that former astronaut John Jameson was once turned into the Man-Wolf by the mystical “Moongem” he discovered on the Moon. Cap heads to Boston to enlist the aid of the mystic Doctor Druid, who himself is planning to investigate the werewolf murders. (And, wow, it’s got to be sort of a bummer for Druid that he’s “the world’s second most celebrated authority on the occult” who everyone consults with only if Doctor Strange is unavailable!)

Cap and Doctor Druid head north to the small town of Starkesboro, where they are attacked by a literal army of werewolves. It soon transpires that these werewolves are the citizens of Starkesboro, transformed by Cap’s old foe Nightshade, the “Queen of the Werewolves” whose dual fields of expertise are biochemistry and mind control. Nightshade, in turn, is working for another of Cap’s enemies, the so-called Druid, now going by the name of Dredmund (no doubt to avoid confusion with Doctor Druid). Nightshade and Dredmund are in possession of the Moongem, whose supernatural emanations are drawing other wolfen beings to Starkesboro, among them Wolverine and Wolfsbane.

Cap and Doctor Druid are both captured. Cap is transformed into a werewolf by Nightshade. Attempting to escape, “Capwolf” gets into a brutal fight with Wolverine, who has been hypnotized by Dredmund. Realizing that Nightshade is the only one who can turn him back to normal, Capwolf returns to town. Nightshade uses her pheromones to entice Capwolf into “the Pit” where all of the “disobedient” werewolves are imprisoned. The mutant lycanthrope Wolfbane from X-Factor is one of the prisoners, and she teaches Capwolf how to speak and to think more clearly in his werewolf form.

Giving one of his characteristic inspirational speeches, albeit with a lot more growling than usual, Capwolf organizes the other werewolves in the Pit and they stage an escape. Capwolf makes his way to the town church, arriving just in time to see Dredmund slit Doctor Druid’s throat. Druid’s lifeblood empowers the Moongem, enabling Dredmund to transform into the Starwolf.

Capwolf takes the fight directly to Dredmund, but he is helpless against the cosmic-powered Starwolf. The other wolves from the Pit, led by Jack Russell, Werewolf by Night, arrive and attack Dredmund’s forces.

And then Cable shows up. The gun-toting cyborg leader of X-Force has been tracking his teammate Feral, who has also been lured to Starkesboro by the Moongem. As is typical for the character from this period, Cable immediately opens fire with one of his ridiculously large automatic weapons, deadpanning “Who’s afraid of the big bad wolf?” Hoping to prevent a massacre, Capwolf leaps at Cable and the two tangle, only to be imprisoned in a giant carpet by Starwolf, leading Cable to ask “Whose mutant power is it to control carpets?”

A mysterious white-furred werewolf from the Pit rescues Doctor Druid, taking him back to Nightshade’s laboratory. The white wolf captures Nightshade and injects her with her own werewolf serum so that she will be forced to create an antidote. Druid manages to heal himself enough that he is able to break Dredmund’s control of Wolverine. Logan heads to the church, where he frees Capwolf and Cable, and the three of them join forces to defeat Starwolf.

In the epilogue Nightshade finally turns everyone back to normal. The white wolf is revealed to be none other than the missing John Jameson. Cap himself is injected with the antidote just in time to be attacked by an evil doppelganger from the then-ongoing Infinity War crossover event. Dispatching his dark duplicate, Cap summons the authorities.

John explains that as much as he liked being Cap’s pilot he needs to find his own path. Cap reluctantly accepts his resignation, letting John know there will always be a place for him with the Avengers. Fortunately Cap quickly gains a new pilot: ace daredevil Zack Moonhunter, who had been hypnotized by Dredmund to be his “werewolf wrangler.” His mind now free, Moonhunter eagerly accepts Cap’s job offer.

Some time later, back in New York City at Avengers Mansion, the Falcon stops by for a team briefing. Brought up to speed by Cap about his recent activities, the Falcon agrees to join his old friend to search for the still-missing Diamondback, who readers know has been kidnapped by the brutal Crossbones and delivered into the clutches of Cap’s arch-enemy the Red Skull. To be continued!

Whew! That was quite a ride. A lot of people thought “Man and Wolf” was ridiculous, but I enjoyed it. It was a lot of fun. Re-reading it again this week, I still liked it.

I’ve heard it suggested that “Man and Wolf” could have been a much more effective story if it had been drawn by an artist such as Mike Mignola or Kelley Jones who really specialized in the horror genre. I definitely think there’s validity to this. But I do think Rik Levins did some decent work on these issues. His penciling & storytelling began to show some definite improvement over his artwork from the previous year.

(Update: I feel that the point when Levins really began to step up his game was right before this, in issue #401, which Mark D. White just covered on his excellent, insightful blog The Virtues of Captain America.)

The main inker on “Man and Wolf” was Filipino artist Danny Bulanadi. Although his inking is nowhere near as overwhelming as many of his countrymen, it is still fairly heavy. Bulanadi had already been the regular inker on Captain America when Levins came onboard. Initially I did not think the two of them made a good art team. But on “Man and Wolf” the rich, textured style of Bulanadi’s finishes really enhanced Levins’ pencils, giving the story a certain atmosphere that very much suited the supernatural elements & settings of the story.

It’s interesting to contrast the pages by Bulanadi to those done by the other inkers, which are much more of a traditional Bronze Age superhero style, and therefore not nearly as effective for this particular story. An example of this can be seen up above on the page from issue #405 featuring Capwolf fighting Wolverine, which was inked by Steve Alexandrov.

I’m not sure what it was. Perhaps Levins was hitting his stride. Or perhaps incoming editor Mike Rockwitz prodded Gruenwald to up his game. Whatever the case, the next year or so on Captain America after “Man and Wolf” concluded is one that I found really enjoyable.

I do wonder if Gruenwald might have stuck around on Captain America a bit too long, since I feel he did once again sort of run out of energy a couple of years later. But there is definitely something to be said for writing more than 100 consecutive issues of a series. Likewise, I believe Levins still hold the record for penciling the most issues of Captain America ever, having drawn the book for 36 consecutive issues, from #387 to #422.

All these years later, “Capwolf” is still remembered by readers. I think a lot of the derision has given way to bemused nostalgia. In 2015, when the Falcon had assumed the role of Captain America, he briefly turned into a new Capwolf. Several alternate reality versions of Steve Rogers as Capwolf have appeared, including in the video game LEGO Marvel Super Heroes 2 in 2017. And last year a Funko Pop of Capwolf was released.

So, three decades after Captain America first howled at the Moon, it looks like Capwolf is here to stay. Now if we could just get a team-up of Capwolf and Captain Americat, that would really be something!

It Came From The 1990s: I-BOTS from Tekno Comix

Welcome to another edition of Super-Blog Team-Up! This time myself and my fellow bloggers are going to be taking a look at the works of legendary comic book creator George Perez. As you are probably aware, Perez has unfortunately been suffering from medical issues over the last several years, and was recently diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Perez’s many, many fans have been reaching out with tributes, to let him know while he is still with us just how much we appreciate him and his amazing work.

I-BOTS #1 cover pencils & inks by George Perez, colors by John Higgins and logo by Todd Klein

Last month I did spotlight some of Perez’s great art from his historic Wonder Woman run. This time, I wanted to take a look at a much less-known series Perez worked on: I-BOTS, published by Tekno Comix, aka Big Entertainment.

I’ve commented before that the early to mid 1990s was a bit like the Wild West of comic books, with numerous new publishers popping up to try to ride the wave of comic book popularity (which was unfortunately at least in part inflated by speculators). Tekno Comix / Big Entertainment was one of these publishers, and they were in existence from 1995 to 1997. During their short existence they published some interesting series helmed by an impressive line-up of writers & artists.

I-Bots #1 written by Steven Grant, pencils by George Perez, inks by Josef Rubinstein & Mike Witherby, letters by Richard Starkings and colors by Demetrius Bassoukos

Tekno’s shtick was that they got a number of big-name creators to pitch some basic, bare-bones concepts which were then fleshed out by other writers & editors into ongoing series. Among the names that Tekno went to for ideas were Gene Roddenberry, Leonard Nimoy, Mickey Spillane and Neil Gaiman. I don’t know if the exact level of involvement of these creators in the monthly titles has ever been documented, but in most cases I expect that it was minimal.

That certainly has to be the case with science fiction grandmaster Isaac Asimov, who was credited with creating I-BOTS. Asimov passed away in 1992, three years before Tekno began publishing. Legend has it that the totality of Asimov’s contributions was scribbling “Robots as superheroes” on a cocktail napkin, or something to that effect.

The actual credits on I-BOTS read “Based on concepts created by Isaac Asimov and developed by Howard Chaykin” and I certainly believe that Chaykin, a brilliant creative force himself, did all of the heavy lifting in devising I-BOTS. The stories were plotted & scripted by Chaykin’s friend Steven Grant, another talented creator with a penchant for thinking outside the box. I-BOTS was edited by horror novelist James Chambers.

So what did I-BOTS have going for it? Well, in addition to Chaykin and Grant (nothing to sneeze at, to be sure) it has the incomparable George Perez. I-BOTS ran for 16 issues over two volumes, and the first six issues featured artwork by Perez.

I-BOTS #3 written by Steven Grant, layouts by George Perez, finished pencils by Jose Delbo, inks by Josef Rubinstein & Tom Christopher, letters by Richard Starkings and colors by Demetrius Bassoukos

Chambers was kind enough to share with me his thoughts about working with Perez on this series:

“Working with George was a bit surreal. I’d grown up reading so many comics he drew, it was an amazing opportunity to actually work with him. He was incredibly nice to work with and brought boundless inspiration to the project. I believe the first piece he delivered was the cover to issue one of I-BOTS, and the entire editorial department gathered to see it. It was full of George’s energy, a super-hero team in dynamic poses surrounded by an army of shattered robots, classic Perez debris.”

Most of the Tekno series could be classified as pulp sci-fi, dark fantasy or noir. I-BOTS was the one book that was closest to a traditional superhero series, although even then it had one foot firmly in science fiction. Set in what appears to be the not-too-distant future (Grant wisely avoids telling us the exact year) I-BOTS features a quintet of artificial humans with extraordinary abilities: Psy-4, Stonewall, Killaine, Radiant and Itazura. They are “robots” along the lines of the replicants from Blade Runner, the Cylons from the reboot of Battlestar Galactica, and the original fictional robots from the 1920 stage play R.U.R. by Karel Čapek. In other words, the I-BOTS are organic beings who are manufactured rather than born.

I-BOTS #5 written by Steven Grant, layouts by George Perez, finished pencils by Brian Kong, inks by Josef Rubinstein, letters by Richard Starkings and colors by Prismacolor

The “I” in I-BOTS stands for “Independent” as they are sentient beings with free will. However, echoing the “Three Laws of Robotics” that Asimov introduced in his fiction, the I-BOTS are also designed by their creator Zac Robillard to serve & protect humans, and to never harm them. This is one part of the impetus for them becoming costumed crimefighters. The other part is that the I-BOTS are on the run from the multinational technology conglomerate WorldTech and its ruthless CEO Annabelle Brennan. By establishing themselves as heroes, the I-BOTS attempt to find protection in the public eye.

Perez reportedly was not enthusiastic about I-BOTS, which is why he left after the first six issues (this is according to Wikipedia, not quite an unimpeachable source, so take it with a grain of salt). Nevertheless, Perez has always been a consummate professional, and his work on those half dozen comic books is of a very high caliber.

I-BOTS #6 written by Steven Grant, layouts by George Perez, finished pencils by Art Nichols, inks by Josef Rubinstein, letters by Richard Starkings and colors by Prismacolor

Perez penciled & inked all six covers, imbuing them with his characteristic hyper-detail & dynamic energy. He provided full pencils on the interiors for the first two issues, complemented by inking from Josef Rubinstein & Mike Witherby. Issue three had the first half penciled by Perez, with the second half penciled by Jose Delbo over Perez’s layouts. I found that to be an interesting collaboration, as Perez was the creative figure who defined Wonder Woman after Crisis On Infinite Earths, and Delbo had previously been the artist on the Wonder Woman series from 1976 to 1981.

Perez again penciled the first half of issue #4, with another comic book legend, the great Gil Kane, coming on to pencil a solo adventure of Radiant in the back half. Perez penciled most of issue #5, although several pages had Brian Kong providing finished pencils over Perez’s layouts. At the time Kong had only been a professional artist for two years, but he nevertheless did a very solid job here, matching the quality of Perez’s work. Kong also penciled a pin-up for issue #6, and he would later contribute a pair of really nice covers for I-BOTS after Perez’s departure.

Issue #6, Perez’s swan song, saw him only contributing layouts, although the finished pencils by Art Nichols and inking by Rubinstein were quite effective, and the whole artistic package worked well to close out the I-BOTS first story arc.

I-BOTS #6 pin-up pencils by Brian Kong and inks by Aaron McClellan

Kong generously shared his thoughts about working with George Perez on I-BOTS:

“Let me start off first by saying that George Perez was my favorite comic book artist growing up and I was heavily influenced by his Teen Titans work, it’s what made me want to become a comic book artist. By the time Tekno comics had launched ( 95-96? ) I had roughly a year of professional comic book work under my belt. I remember talking to editor Jim Chambers at conventions and showing pencilled samples of my work to him. He had mentioned they were interested in my work, but a few months had gone by and nothing transpired,until… I remember sitting in my dentist office waiting for my appointment, I heard laughter, then out walks George Perez. Having been a huge fan of his work growing up, I shouted out “You’re George Perez!” (Total fanboy moment). He seemed surprised at first, but I quickly introduced myself & we chatted for a few minutes and he was on his way.

“A few days later I got a call from Jim Chambers who said they wanted me to finish penciling I-BOTS over George Perez’s breakdowns for 10 pages and that George highly recommended me. I believe I was 21 years old at the time so getting to work with my childhood idol was a definite highlight. I remember getting the pages and being impressed with how much details were still in the breakdowns. For those that don’t know “breakdowns” are usually very rough indications of figures ( more for placement and layout). Just staring at George’s work, I had learned a lot. I must admit I was a little nervous at first but I had a job to do and I did not want to disappoint. I remember trying to do my best George Perez impersonation and putting tons of detail into the penciled pages. I was also inked by another comic legend Joe Rubenstein. The fact that George had recommended me, a still relative “newbie” in the industry to finish up his work was a huge honor for me and I will be forever grateful. Thank you George, for all your years of hard work and inspiration.”

I-BOTS #4 written by Steven Grant, penciled by George Perez, inked by Josef Rubinstein, lettered by Richard Starkings and colored by Prismacolor

I feel the above splash page from issue #4 featuring Killaine hurtling though the Pacific Ocean really demonstrates the level of craft Perez brought to I-BOTS. Perez’s penciling, Rubinstein’s inking and the coloring by Prismacolor all worked together to create a really beautiful, dynamic image here.

In any case, even on the segments where Perez provided “only” layouts, the finished art still looks very much like his work, because he has a distinctive style of storytelling, of laying out pages. Perez has always excelled at rendering scenes with multiple characters and at depicting complex action sequences. His layouts on I-BOTS definitely contain those qualities.

I haven’t gone into too many specifics about I-BOTS because I feel it is a series that is worth seeking out. I believe copies of most of the issues can be found for sale relatively inexpensively on eBay and from online retailers.  I definitely recommend getting them. Steven Grant wrote some solid stories. The artwork was of a high caliber, with Perez followed by the great, underrated Pat Broderick.

I will probably do a follow-up piece in the near future looking at the post-Perez issues of I-BOTS. Stay tuned.

Please check out the other Super Blog Team-Up entries for further spotlights on the amazing work of George Perez:

*51 – JLA/Avengers: It Had to be George

Between the Pages – George Perez’s Uncanny X-Men

Comics Comics Comics – Justice League of America 200 and discovering George Perez

The Daily Rios – A George Perez Celebration #2

Dave’s Comics Blog – George Perez’s Titanic Firsts

RAdulich in Broadcasting Network – Comic Stripped: Logan’s Run

Source Material – The Brave and the Bold #1-6

The Superhero Satellite – Perez

The Telltale Mind – Hulk: Future Imperfect

It Came From the 1990s: Masada of Youngblood

Masada is one of the dozens of characters created by Rob Liefeld who populated the various comic books put out by his Extreme Studios imprint of Image Comics in the 1990s. If you did not follow Youngblood and the other Extreme titles regularly, you can be forgiven for not knowing offhand who Masada was. However, the character always stood out for me because she was Jewish.

Masada’s first published appearance was a pin-up drawn by penciler Chap Yaep and inker Norm Rapmund in Supreme #4 (July 1993). Her first actual in-story appearance came just a few months later in Team Youngblood #1 (Sept 1993) which was plotted by Liefeld, penciled by Yaep, inked by Rapmund, scripted by Eric Stephenson, lettered by Kurt Hathaway and colored by Bryan Talman. The terrorist Geiger and his cyborg army invade the space station Liberty II, giving them control over the Earth’s satellite network. Israeli crimefighter Masada is recruited to join the government-run super-team Youngblood to help them liberate the orbiting facility.

In his text piece for Team Youngblood #1 Liefeld explained how the latest addition to Youngblood came about:

“Masada was a character that had been collecting dust in my files for years until she was pulled out for new assignment alongside the Away Team. For the record, Masada means ‘fortress’ and is the name of the historic site in Israel where the Israelites found refuge from the Roman empire before electing to commit suicide rather than die at the hands of the Romans, an event which plays a large part in Masada’s origin.”

Historians are divided over whether or not the Siege of Masada in 74 AD, and the mass suicide of the 960 Jewish Zealots who fought the Roman army at Masada, actually occurred. Nevertheless, the story of a band of freedom fighters who chose death over slavery is often revered by modern Israelis as “a symbol of Jewish heroism.”

Deborah Konigsberg’s power is to grow to giant size. The source of her fantastic abilities is elaborated upon in Team Youngblood #2 (Oct 1993):

“Masada — Israeli super-woman empowered by the souls of her countrymen who died in the battle from which she took her name!”

Masada and her new Youngblood teammates eventually succeed in defeating Geiger’s forces. Returning to Earth and a heroes’ welcome, issue #4 (Dec 1993) is a “day in the life” issue following the various team members in the aftermath of the battle. Masada is moving into her new apartment in the Washington DC area when we first learn that her powers are as much a curse as they are a blessing. Overwhelmed by countless disembodied voices calling her name, Masada reflects on her difficult charge:

“Oy gevalt! All those voices… all that pain. I can never forget the burden I carry… the souls of all those who gave their lives in the name of Judaism…

“…but sometimes I wish… just for the slightest moment… I wish I could be alone.”

I found Yaep & Rapmund to be an effective art team, and this sequence demonstrates the more subtle side of their work. Their art, as well as the coloring by Byron Talman & Karen Jaikowski, in that bottom panel really brings across Deborah’s anguish.

All things considered, I think Liefeld & Stephenson did a fairly decent job developing Masada within the crowded confines of the Team Youngblood series. One of the subplots they set up was the friendship that developed between Deborah and the Away Team’s other female member, the water-manipulating Riptide, real name Leanna Creel. It was an interesting idea to pair up the reserved, conservative Masada with the wild, outgoing Riptide.

Riptide is fired from Youngblood after she poses for a nude pictorial in Pussycat Magazine. Despite disagreeing with Riptide’s decision, Masada nevertheless remains her close friend. Later on, when Riptide is framed for murder, Masada is one of the people to stand by her, ultimately helping her friend to clear her name.

As with many of the characters that Liefeld created for his Extreme titles, Masada unfortunately often ends up getting lost in the crowd. However, she did finally get the spotlight in Youngblood Strikefile #6 (Aug 1994). That series was conceived to spotlight the solo adventures of the numerous members of Youngblood, and it often featured writers & artists of a high caliber. That was certainly the case with “From the Same Cloth” which was written by Tom & Mary Bierbaum, penciled by Chris Sprouse, inked by John Beatty, lettered by Kurt Hathaway and colored by Linda Medley.

Deborah is approached by Mossad, Israel’s national intelligence agency. She is informed that her old colleague Rimon Sibechai has set out to assassinate the African American militant Hassim, who in his fiery sermons denounces Jews as the enemy of the black community. Sibechai believes Hassan is dangerous, telling Deborah “We will not be led meekly to the slaughter by racist demagogues. And if you’re still a Jew, you won’t try to stop me.”  Masada finds herself reluctantly having to stop her old friend, for as much as she dislikes Hassan and what he stands for, she cannot allow a cold-blooded murder to take place.  Masada’s dilemma is made all the more torturous by the voices of the spirits who empower her, as they are violently split between letting Hassan die and saving him.

Tom & Mary Bierbaum’s story was undoubtedly inspired by the rhetoric of controversial Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, who has frequently made anti-Semitic comments throughout the years. Farrakhan and his anti-Jewish sentiments were very much in the spotlight in the early to mid 1990s.

The artwork on “From the Same Cloth” is definitely well-rendered by the team of Chris Sprouse & John Beatty. Sprouse had previously worked on Legion of Super-Heroes with the Bierbaums, and a few years later would do stunning work on Alan Moore’s Tom Strong series. Beatty previously provided effective inking for Mike Zeck and Kelley Jones.

I thought Youngblood Strikefile was a good idea, as it presented some good, interesting stories such as this one. It’s unfortunate that it only ran for 11 issues.

“Slow Emotion Replay” in Team Youngblood #16 (Dec 1994) is written by Eric Stephenson, penciled by John Stinsman, inked by Jaime Mendoza, lettered by Kurt Hathaway and colored by Laura Rhoade.  The story is told from the perspective of Youngblood Away Team field leader Sentinel, aka Marcus Langston, after he is “kicked upstairs” to an administrative position. Sentinel reflects on the recent events that led to his unwanted promotion, as well as on his colleagues & teammates, among them Masada, who he regards in a very positive light.

Masada also plasd a role in the bizarre gender-bending crossover “Babewatch” that ran through the Extreme titles in late 1995. Masada joins up with Riptide, Vogue and Glory to fight against the members of Youngblood who had been transformed into women by the evil sorceress Diabolique.

One other occasion when Masada had some time in the spotlight was in the Youngblood Super Special (Winter 1997) published by Maximum Press. “Good Enough” was written by Eric Stephenson, penciled by Chris Sprouse, inked by Al Gordon & Danny Miki, lettered by Kurt Hathaway & Steve Dutro and colored by Laura Penton & Christian Lichtmer.

Borrowing from one of Star Trek’s favorite tropes, “Good Enough” sees a group of godlike alien beings putting humanity on trial by testing the members of Youngblood’s worthiness to possess their powers & abilities. In Masada’s case she is subjected to a vision of the souls of Judaism accusing her of squandering her power to “play superhero” rather than defending her religion. Masada overcomes her doubts, arguing that she is indeed worthy of the gifts the spirits have endowed her with:

“You gave me this power to further the cause of good over evil! How can I restrict my deeds to simply upholding the Jewish faith?”

One highlight of the Super Special was seeing Masada penciled again by Chris Sprouse. He definitely did a good rendition of the character. Sprouse also penciled Masada’s profile pic in Youngblood Battlezone #2 (July 1994) making him, along with Yaep, the definitive artist of the character.

Since the late 1990s Youngblood has only been published sporadically. As a result the majority of the characters, Masada among them, have been limited to a handful of cameos & crowd scenes over the past two decades. Still, despite Masada’s absence from the spotlight, I look back fondly on the character’s appearances.

So why exactly did Masada become significant to me as a reader? Back in the early 1990s there were relatively few Jewish characters in mainstream comic books. Offhand I think the only noteworthy ones were Shadowcat, Doc Samson, Sabra and Vance Astrovik. At that point in time Magneto had been retconned to be a gypsy (a change not explicitly undone until 2009), Moon Knight’s Jewish heritage was something that no one talked about, The Thing / Ben Grimm,  Green Lantern Hal Jordan and Harley Quinn had all yet to be revealed to be Jewish, Wiccan and the Kate Kane version of Batwoman were both over a decade away from being introduced, and I hadn’t yet discovered American Flagg! by Howard Chaykin.

I have said it before, and I will say it again: representation matters. It was important for me as a teenage Jewish reader to see characters who had similar backgrounds to me, to whom I could identify. Masada helped fulfill that crucial role.

And that is why I will always argue in favor of representation, because I know full well how much it meant to me as a young fan when there where characters with whom I could identify.

It’s the Jewish holiday of Chanukah this week, so I felt this was a good time to look back on Masada, and to explain her personal significance.