BAB Two-in-One: A Blast from the Past and Butt-Paste and Bumblebees

Karen: One of the few modern comics that I am actually excited about every month is Marvel's Atlas (formerly Agents of Atlas), which has the sort of goofy action I find missing from most books. To me, it doesn't get much better than robots, flying saucers, and talking gorillas!

Karen: But the Atlas team originally appeared in a very different way: they were part of an alternate reality, presented back in What If #9 (1978). Although Roy Thomas came up with the idea of a 50s super-team, he didn't write this issue. This highly unusual team of obscure characters was put together by a team that was most likely obscure to comics fans at least: writer Don Glut has been active in comic and sci fi fandom for decades, but this might have been his first comic writing assignment. Artist Alan Kupperberg was just getting his start, and inker Bill Black - well, I don't know if we ever heard from him again! But the three turn in an entertaining tale about a super-team set in the 1950s -a team that calls itself the Avengers!
Karen: That's right, and there's our connection to relevancy. The issue starts with Iron Man (from the 'regular' Marvel universe) gathering his Avenger compatriots Capt. America, Thor, the Vision, and the Beast, to look at his dimensional transporter, where they can view other realities. He then shows them the 1950s, in a reality like our own...but with a big difference!

Karen: In this reality, FBI Agent Jimmy Woo is after the Yellow Claw. He recruits pre-Marvel characters Marvel Boy, Venus, Gorilla Man, the Human Robot, and Roy Thomas' creation, the 3-D Man (whose 1970s adventures were set in the 1950s) to help him in his cause. We also get a couple of guest appearances, by Jann of the Jungle and Namora, Sub-Mariner's cousin. (Namora is a regular in the current Atlas series.)

Karen: Can you see now why Iron Man called together his fellow assemblers? Each sees a resemblance to one of the other era's heroes: Cap with 3-D Man, Iron Man with Marvel Boy (a stretch but both utilize advanced technology), Beast with Gorilla Man, the Vision with the Human Robot, and Thor with Venus. As they watch, the team christens themselves The Avengers! And their battle cry? "Go, Avengers, Go!"

Karen: Our reality's Avengers continue to watch as the group goes up against a team of baddies that the Yellow Claw has put together to kidnap President Eisenhower. We have a Communist baddie named Electro (no relation to the Spidey foe), the Cold Warrior, Skull Face, and a dapper looking gentleman called the Great Video (OK, that name was pretty terrible!). Both the President and Jimmy Woo are caught and the Happy Days Avengers have to go to the rescue! There's some cool fight scenes here, with our good guys taking on the forces of the Claw.

Karen: Of course, our heroes manage to save the President and Woo and deal the Claw a huge defeat. Unfortunately, when all the smoke clears, Eisenhower asks the team to disband! Amusingly, he cites the concern over comic books as a force of social ill as one reason to disband! Like good Americans, the Avengers assent, and the team is no more, leaving our mainstream Avengers team to ponder what might have been.

Karen: The really fun aspect of this all is that in the current Atlas book, the characters have now gone to another alternate reality, where the team never disbanded, and in fact found Captain America, as well as inducted Iron Man, Thor, and all the others! If you haven't read either this original story, or the new Atlas stories, I would highly recommend that you pick them up. They're exciting, quirky, and some of the best-written books currently on the stands.

Doug: Awhile ago I stopped at a nice shop in Chicago and scooped up some Bronze Age goodies. I spied a copy of Teen Titans #48 (June 1977), and although I've maligned writer Bob Rozakis in my three previous reviews from this era, I figured I'd fill in one of the gaps. I'm glad I didn't spend too much on this one...When we left off issue #47, Robin and Joker's Daughter had been captured by Two-Face, and JD had announced that she was not in fact the Joker's daughter, but Two-Face's! So they tell a little origin, and ol' Harvey alternates rational/crazed while trying to decide what to do. He remarks that he was the guy behind the Heat Miser/Snow Miser goings-on in the previous issue, and that he's going to blow up both New York and Gotham to help him decide if he should go straight (whaa-aattt?). Well, Harv's bound Duela and Robin back-to-back in wooden straight chairs. While the rant goes on, Robin manages to work his way free; however, Two-Face planned for that and put some super-butt-paste on the chair so Robin can't stand. In a move that would throw my back out, the Teen Wonder begins to whirl Duela around, smacking Two-Face in the chops a couple of times. But, then they lose their balance and...

...we get an interlude to Gabriel's Horn, where the rest of the Titans are gathered. Speedy is, as usual, acting like an (you know), until Robin calls and he actually ramps it up. Robin tells him to can it, and to split into two teams and get to NYC and Gotham. However, as the Titans head out, they are attacked by a gal calling herself the Bumblebee. And using a "honey gun". I ain't makin' this up. Seriously, it is an effort to turn these pages. But, I soldier on for you, our faithful readers...

So the Bumblebee stymies Kid Flash, Wonder Girl, Speedy and Mal with an array of bug-inspired powers. Pretty slick for some girl off the street to develop technology like that. She eventually puts the four of them down with a buzz that knocks them all out. No, really. We then cut away to NYC, where Robin has arrived to stop the bomb. He's trying to convince a couple of security guards of the danger when who shows up, but Wally and Mal. Whaaa-aat? We had just seen them snoozing! But they do stop the bomb.Then we head to Gotham, where Speedy and Donna meet up with Duela. As they head to the roof to stop the second bomb, it occurs to Duela that everything thus far has been in pairs, but opposite. So they race to the basement and discover a bomb bursting through the floor! Of course, they also disable it and save the day. The story ends with Two-Face in custody (but how? We never saw him apprehended. Last we saw he was noticing that the time for the bombs was approaching, and Robin still had butt-paste on), and Duela donning the new name and costume of the Harlequin.

As it turns out, the plot wasn't bad for a Two-Face story, but it's just so goofy! It's really hard to take, like when you just groan at a bad joke -- that's what it's like. And Jose Delbo's art was just a baby-step above what Don Heck might have turned in. Pretty stiff. You can take my word for it!

BAB Two-In-One: Don't be a Skater Hater and Superman, the Jerk

Doug: Hey, I'm back to check out Teen Titans #49, which is cover dated August 1977. The creators were Bob Rozakis on the words with Jose Delbo and Vince Colletta on the visuals.
An action-packed Buckler/Abel cover full of heroes and skateboarders draws us into a tale entitled, "Raid of the Rocket-Rollers!"

Doug: So you say, "Hmmm... sounds an awful lot like Marvel's Rocket Racer from the pages of Amazing Spider-Man!" You might be right, were you thinking that, as the Rocket Racer hit the newsstands only a month after this yarn. Coincidence? Well, it's been well-documented that the creators from comics' Big Two often had a beer together -- so who knows? All I know is that skateboards were a huge fad around that time, and I know I got one that summer!

Doug: If you've been following my coverage of the late-Bronze Age revival of Teen Titans, then you know I've been pretty hard on scribe Bob Rozakis. In fairness, I think most of us know that DC's editorial had an oft-heavy hand in story creation. So maybe what's been eating at me isn't all Bob's fault. And with this issue, I tried to approach it not only with that thought in mind, but also with a mind toward what we've all known to be true throughout most of DC's history: they were writing comics for 10-year olds. And, as I read this I tried really hard to put myself back in my bedroom as an 11-year old coming to this story for the first time. And guess what? I liked this story... for what it was.

Doug: I'll start off with a very cool, but impractical, splash page. I recall really loving this image; nevermind the fact that they're about to plunge to the ocean floor with fishbowls on their heads -- no oxygen, no pressure suits of any kind. 10-year olds, 10-year olds... OK, so no one knows what's wrong with Aqualad. Dude's not right, but apparently nothing is wrong with him. Aquaman goes all jerkface on Robin and Kid Flash, and that's about it. Back on land, Gabriel's Horn, the Titans new disco is opening to a large crowd. As I said last time, I'm thinking the term "disco" denotes records and a DJ, not a live band. Oh, wait -- 10-year olds, 10-year olds...

Doug: The evening is rudely disrupted by four guys on skateboards, calling themselves the Rocket-Rollers. They bust up the Titans and the building, then speed off to their hide-out. Turns out they're a bunch of high school/college-aged guys using technology designed by "Bryan the Brain". Seems Bryan's ticked because, due to his eggheadedness, he never got the chicks. So here's his revenge -- take out the cool kids, the Titans. After the initial butt-kicking the Titans regroup, welcome in Mal's lady friend who debuted the previous issue as the Bumblebee, and Mal himself tries out the gaudiest costume this side of Wonder Man's Christmas togs (c. Avengers #161). Another tussle with the Rollers ensues, and it's tilted more in the Titans' favor until two of the Rollers escape. And who should arrive to save the day but Aqualad -- who promptly collapses again.

Doug: The story concludes with Mal switching away from the Hornblower costume (thank the fashion police for that) and back into the Guardian costume he'd worn in issue #44. I forgot to mention that Duela Dent had changed her name from Joker's Daughter to the Harlequin -- it's a lot less clumsy of a moniker. And overall, this was a much better story than the previous two efforts I've reviewed. As I said at the top, while this wasn't great literature, it was tolerable and even a little nostalgic. Much better, Bob!

Karen: Today is a rarity: a double dose of DC! My selection for this round is DC Comics Presents #27, from November 1980. This title was Superman's team-up book, where he routinely encountered other DC heroes. I have to admit, I've never been a Superman fan. He always seemed too powerful, too perfect. When I picked this particular issue up as a teenager lo these many years ago, it was for two reasons: one, the Martian Manhunter was the guest star, and two, the awesome cover by one of my favorite artists, Jim Starlin.

Karen: Unfortunately, the interior art doesn't match up to the cover. Although Starlin did the pencils, the inking is attributed to "Quickdraw", whom the Grand Comic Book Database states was Dick Giordano, Frank McLaughlin, "and associates". Although one can still identify the work as Starlin's, based on the overall style and layout, the inks come across as heavy-handed and without subtlety.

Karen: The writer for this story is Len Wein, although I can't help but think that Starlin may have contributed here too, particularly with the creation of the villain, Mongul, who looks a lot like the love child of Darkseid and Thanos! This is Mongul's first appearance in the DCU. He contacts Superman and blackmails him into retrieving a crystal key for him, by threatening the lives of Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen, and Steve Lombard. Steve Lombard? I never knew he was that significant to the Man of Steel. Then again, I never read much Superman!

Karen: Superman heads off to the fifth planet in the Cygnus star system to recover the key. There he encounters J'onn J'onzz, the Martian Manhunter, who warns him that the key will give Mongul control over Warworld, a planet-sized war machine (hmm, where has that concept been used before?).

Karen: Now here's the interesting part: Superman blows J'onn off! "I'm Superman, remember? So why don't you step aside and just let me handle this? Believe me, I know what I'm doing!" Great Caesar's ghost, what a jerk!
Karen: The usual super-hero fight ensues, but it's no contest - despite all his great powers, the Manhunter is no match for the Kryptonian Kreep! J'onn even resorts to using kryptonite-tipped missiles (!) but Superman uses his super-breath to deflect them before they can reach him. After pounding J'onn into the ground -literally - our Super-Egotist obtains the key and is then met by Mongul, in a gigantic spaceship. Mongul has pulled a Brainiac-like stunt, reducing Supeman's friends to bite-size and placing them into a glass cube. Superman has second thoughts about turning the key over to the hulking Mongul and just as it appears that Mongul will shrink the cube and crush those inside, his control unit suddenly shatters. The captives are freed, but Mongul blasts the supposedly invulnerable Superman and grabs the key. At this point, J'onn J'onzz reveals that it was he who smashed the controls, while invisible. He tries to stop the villain but to no avail. Superman is just about to grab Mongul when he abruptly teleports away, ship and all.

Karen: J'onn gives Superman a well-deserved tongue lashing. "I warned you that you were dealing with forces beyond your comprehension -but you were just too overconfident -too egotistical -to listen!" A stunned Superman mutters, "I -I thought I could deal with it! After all, I'm Superman...aren't I?"


Karen: I'd never seen Superman presented in such a manner before. I wish I had some idea of how the character was handled in the 70s and 80s -was he always shown as so supremely (over)confident? It seemed to me like whenever I read him -this would be mostly in Justice League, as I didn't read his main title - he did seem quite assured, but then usually, he was always in the right when he made a decision. This more flawed portrayal was just the sort of thing an old Marvel fan like myself could get into. Sadly, I never got the next issue to see how Supes would make up for his arrogance. Might have to pick that up one of these days.