Ditko Cover Classics - Captain Atom #86!

Captain Atom #86 is by writer Dave Kaler and artists Steve Ditko and Rocke Mastroserio. Captain Atom's most relentless enemy The Ghost returns with his teleportation powers to menace Atom and Nightshade once again. The Ghost is greedy and wants gold, but finds something stranger waiting for him in this issue. 

You can read it at this link. 

Once again Blue Beetle has an adventure by Gary Friedrich and Steve Ditko. More on Ted Kord later this summer. 

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Ditko Cover Classics - Captain Atom #85!

Captain Atom #85 is by writer Dave Kaler and artists Steve Ditko and Rocke Mastroserio. The new Captain Atom teams up with Nightshade to battle the super-villains Punch and Jewlee, who got their super weapons from a mysterious box they found on the seashore. Weirdly this box of nigh magical weapons is connected to the larger story. 

You can read it at this link. 

The Blue Beetle returns in a story by Gary Friedrich and Steve Ditko, but I'll have more to say about him in a few months, 

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Atomic Reactions - Action Hero!

Then came the "Action Heroes". When Dick Giordano took over the editorial reins of Charlton Comics in the late 60's from Pat Masulli, he wanted to make the comic line more exciting and in keeping with a then surge in comics interest as a result of the pop-culture hit Batman TV show. To that end he wanted to create more heroes, but not necessarily "super-heroes" but low-powered types who had to really struggle to defeat their enemies. Judomaster, Thunderbolt, and a soon to debut Peacemaker fit the bill snugly. But Captain Atom and the Blue Beetle were world-beaters - what to do.

Well Steve Ditko, fresh from his days as the drawer of all things spidery, took control. He completely revamped the Blue Beetle creating one of the most durable superhero designs of all time. As for Captain Atom, things were a little bit more convoluted.

Beginning with Captain Atom #83, the good Captain was de-powered by a complicated set of circumstances which caused him to max out his abilities to restrain the danger of an out-of-control nuclear core. At first he's without any powers, but slowly they return, but not in the same way or degree as before. Suddenly the hero who could fly to the end of the universe was limited. With the new powers came a new look as in the very next issue he doffs his gold costume and puts on for the first time my favorite Captain Atom look. Actually "putting on" is an ideal way of stating it as the costume is actually a few coats of a special metallic substance which protects the public from his radiation as well as serving as a handsome outfit. He eschews a mask as he'd previously been publicly un-masked, but no one seemed to connect the silver-haired Atom with the brown-haired Adam.

The new Atom battles a relative small-time thug Iron Arms before in the very next issue teaming again with Nightshade, who became something of a regular, to battle the criminal duo Punch and Jewelee, two small-time thieves who get their mitts on some other-dimensional weapons. After that the Ghost returns and we discover that he has connections with a mysterious cadre of green-haired gold-armored women from another dimension, the same from which the mysterious weapons appeared.

After that Captain Atom is on his own again as he battles the bluntly named Fiery-Icer, a criminal with basic motivations. This was the very first Captain Atom comic I ever read, the one that made me fall in love with the character. Then Cap goes on his strangest mission yet, aboard a time-warp ship built by the United States government he travels to the far reaches of outer space to answer a distress call from a mysterious planet assaulted by giant insects. He finds a world abandoned by its people and operating on automatic because they had become overcome by ennui when all the challenge in their lives was removed by conveniences.

Then Cap returns home in time to battle both the Ghost and a new foe called Thirteen, as these apparent criminals battle for control of a mysterious device Cap had unintentionally brought back to Earth with him. Thirteen has a fun cat familiar and uses seeming magic, but his secret is more complex still.

Then it ends...just like that. The "Action Hero" line folds, and soon both Dick Giordano and Steve Ditko are gone to DC.

But eventually another story drops, one plotted and drawn but not scripted when the axe fell. This story appeared many years later in the fanzine Charlton Bullseye in two parts, with a script by two fans and inks by an up-and-coming John Byrne. In the story Captain Atom and Nightshade fight their ultimate battle against the murderous Ghost and solve the mystery of the other-dimensional women who worship him. (More on this story next week.)

Soon after that DC acquires the rights to the Action Hero line, and Captain Atom joins Superman and Batman and Wonder Woman in a spanking new DC Universe. There's some success of course, but rarely does he achieve the sparkling heights he had at Charlton.

More Captain Atom tomorrow. 

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Ditko Cover Classics - Captain Atom #84!

Captain Atom #84 is by scripter Dave Kaler and artists Steve Ditko and Rocke Mastroserio. Ditko asserts even more control over the character by changing his look and lowering his power levels. This is doubtless in keeping with both Ditko's own philosophy about the nature of heroes as well as Dick Giordano's desire to keep his line-up of "Action Heroes" more man and super. The Blue Beetle returns with scripting by Gary Friedrich. 

You can read it at this link. 

Captain Atom gets a smashing new look, losing his golden Cold War togs and replacing them with a more colorful combo in red, white and blue. He loses his mask as well, figuring I guess that his stark transformation will be enough to throw anyone off his trail. 

More Captain Atom and Blue Beetle next time. 

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Ditko Cover Classics - Captain Atom #83!

Captain Atom #83 is by scripter Dave Kaler and artists Steve Ditko and Rocke Mastroserio. The credits showcase that Ditko plotted this tale. His revised version of Blue Beetle debuts in this issue with a script by Gary Friedrich. 

You can read it at this link. 

With the arrival of Blue Beetle, this comic really becomes a Ditko tour de force. More Captain Atom and Blue Beetle tomorrow. 

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Action-Heroes Day!

Dick Giordano was born on this date in 1932. Giordano began his career as an artist, working for Charlton Comics for many years. In the late 60's when superheroes were all the rage, he assumed the role of editor of the comics line. His goal was to create not "super-heroes" so much as what he called "Action-Heroes". These would be heroes, but people with skills and not so much power. Later Giordano was an editor at DC and was a partner with Neal Adams in the art firm Continuity Associates. 

Dick Giordano became editor of Charlton Comics after Pat Masulli. Giordano had made his mark with Sarge Steel, a hard-nosed detective turned super-spy. His artwork was always crisp and attractive. Shifting to the editor's desk, he surveyed the landscaped and decided that if Charlton were to make a move into the superhero market, they would need to find a way to make their heroes distinctive. Some heroes were already around and might need adjusting and new fresh heroes were needed. 

The line-up consisted of Frank McLaughlin's creation Rip Jagger, a WWII soldier who becomes a deadly master of martial arts Judomaster, who battles the Japanese forces in the Pacific Theater with his young partner Tiger. Peter Cannon - The Thunderbolt created by Pete Morisi, is a man trained by Tibetan monks and is possessed of fantastic skills and powers of the mind. Christopher Smith, the Peacemaker created by Pat Boyette and Joe Gill, is a diplomat who realizes that talk alone will fail to solve all problems and uses his technology to fight when necessary to preserve the peace. Giordano inherited Captain Atom, created by Joe Gill and Steve Ditko a decade before. Giordano had the good Captain's vast powers muchly diminished, and Steve Ditko was all too happy to do so. Added to the Captain Atom cast was Charlton's lone female super-heroine of the era, Nightshade. We learn more about her when Steve Skeates and Jim Aparo take over. 

The line-up was completed by the arrival of Steve Ditko's "All-New" Blue Beetle. Ted Kord becomes a Blue Beetle who is not reliant on a magical scarab but who turns to modern technology and fisticuffs to bring villains to heel. With the arrival of Blue Beetle the "Action-Hero" line was complete, just in time for it all to end. Sales were not what everyone hoped for and the super-hero craze which allowed for this flowering of talent and creations withered. The arrival of a new fresh look for Charlton, the big "C" which would in a few years be replaced by the famous Charlton Bullseye badge, marked both the height and the end of the "Action-Hero" line.

Dick Giordano went to DC and took many of his most talented artists with him. He found great success at DC, sticking with the company for decades. DC purchased the "Action-Heroes", mostly as a gift to Giordano, the editor who had made these fondly remembered heroes possible. As we all likely know, the "Action-Heroes" formed the basis for Alan Moore's and Dave Gibbon's The Watchmen, which originally began as a vehicle for the classic Charlton characters, before DC decided to save them for other things. Hence the "Action-Heroes" live on. 

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Charlton Meets The Multiverse!

I picked up Multiversity- Pax Americana for the very simple reason that I love the old Charlton Action-Heroes and this is as close as we're ever going to get to seeing new adventures featuring those awesome characters.

These characters, created largely under the aegis of editor Dick Giordano were a brief but brilliant attempt to mine the superhero market which blossomed briefly during the Silver Age. Captain Atom and Blue Beetle were dusted off and revamped with new heroes such as Peacemaker, Nightshade, The Question and Judomaster brought along to fill in the ranks.

These characters of course these days are mostly remembered as the inspirations for Alan Moore's iconic Watchmen series and many dismiss them beyond that point. Alas, in this story Grant Morrison, a storyteller with stones, tries to revisit these heroes but clearly through the goggles of the Watchmen variations.

We are invited into a complex story, told by Morrison and artist Frank Quitely, which travels back and forth through time and space with all sorts of visual hijinks, all serving to create some larger mystery and make some larger point. The heroes are not as developed as individuals but merely used as elements of the one-shot story which explores the nature of heroes and justice and how the society can best make use of them.

We get good looks at Captain Atom, a man removed from his fellows by the dint of awesome power and who seems lost inside himself and the universe he sees differently from everyone else. The lovely Nightshade is a very young government agent who seeks to find the right way, but seems out of her depth most of the time. Peacemaker is a man on a mission which makes little sense for most of the story. The Question as always seeks answers regardless, while the Blue Beetle is a loyal government man.

We get glimpses of Sarge Steel and while Rip Jagger the Judomaster doesn't make the cut, his sidekick Tiger is around for a few pages as a member of a superhero unit which has a lot of vintage fun picking out a sobriquet.

The story even has a reference to Charlton's first superhero, the Golden Age Yellowjacket.

(Frank Quitely)

This is a complicated yarn, a mystery which has an answer, but which demands mighty attention from the reader and frankly more than one pass through the material. 

At five bucks for a copy, I guess I should thank Morrison and Quitely for giving me a comic which demands to be read more than once, since the density makes the entertainment value rise.

This is a book any Charlton Action-Hero fan should read, if only to see some vintage imagery and old rather obscure Charlton references hanging around in various panels. It has been collected up a few times. 

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Heroic Fashions!

Here's a real treat. It appears to be one of Steve Ditko's actual pages on which he sketches out his design for the updated Blue Beetle for Charlton Comics. This design by Ditko is almost universally hailed as one of the great superhero costumes, and remained virtually unchanged when the character was appropriated and moved into the DC Universe many years later. 

(The previous classic Blue Beetle look.)

In fact it wasn't until some years ago with the seeming demise of Ted Kord that the Ditko Beetle look was revamped again. This is a sturdy and reliable and downright handsome look which perhaps got its start on this very sheet.

The Beetle designs are very similar of course to this artwork which served as a cover for a fanzine. The designs here are for Captain Atom and it shows off his then-new blue, red, and silver costume, a replacement for the gold one Ditko himself created over a decade before. While this look for the good Captain is a fave of mine, it was not so well received by the fans in general and Captain Atom has undergone several changes since being blended into the larger DCU.

But to my fanboy eye, these are two of the great superhero costumes, two great looks, two great Ditko designs.

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Lest We Forget!

It's Inauguration Day in these United States. I thought it a salient time to re-post this Dojo classic from some years ago. 

For the record, I won't be watching any of the proceedings. Instead, I'll be reading Art Spieglman's MetaMaus which describes how he came to write Maus his epic comic tale about the Holoaust. (It was a Christmas present, one I asked for.)

Adolph Hitler! The name still resonates in the culture, a single man who has become the very symbol of unblinking hatred. Adolph Hitler became for the World War II generation an icon against which every atom was put to the wheel against his brutal aggression. The way in which his name is still evoked with such relative ease makes me wonder sometime if people don't miss the nostalgic glow of presumed simpler times when enemies were easy to identify and against which they were eager to rally their will.

(Special Note: To read Daredevil Battles Hitler at the Internet Archive use this Link.) 

Of course, those years were far more complicated, but having a shared mission is something that can give a fragmented society its identity and mission for good or ill. But we forget that was the very thing Hitler was so very good at too; it's a dangerous game to play. We must be careful as a general population not to fall into those nationalistic traps ourselves, nor should we imagine for a moment our modern sophistication makes us immune. We sure haven't proved we are any smarter than the folks who fell under Hitler's evil spell. 

Here are fifty comic book covers from across the decades which showcase the terrible and sometimes terrifying image of the Hitler and in some instances his Axis allies Mussolini and Hirohito. Some of the images challenge our modern morality, but alas they are at least understandable if not justifiable given the tenor of the times. 

Hitler and the Holocaust he instigated and inspired must never be forgotten, nor should we allow history to be revised to make that horror other than what it was -- mankind at its most savage. We are still that animal after all, and we must always strive to rise above those twisted passions which can consume us if we do not follow our better angels. 

More Nazi nonsense tomorrow.

A Revised Classic Dojo Post. 

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