Danger Street Signs - Outsiders!

In anticipation of a review of Danger Street by Tom King, Jorge Fornes and assorted cover artists I am representing my thirteen reviews of DC's 1970's Showcase-style comic 1st Issue Special. The books by King and company make use of ALL of the sundry heroes and heroines who appeared in these pages. So, let's continue. 

Comic books have long been a haven for misfits and unusual people -- both in the content and the audience and the producers. Many a comic book reader of my generation latched onto the medium because it was colorful and exciting and filled up with characters who had trouble fitting into their landscapes as much as the readers might've done. Comics like The Uncanny X-Men and Doom Patrol made a theme out of the heroes being "freaks" compared to the regular society, despite their sometimes handsome appearances. Characters like The Thing were downright icons of the man dubbed "monster" by those who were more or less commonplace. 

In 1932 Tod Browning made a movie about such misfits called simply Freaks. This legendary movie was sensation because it used real people who were either afflicted or gifted (depending on your attitude) with physical anomalies that set them apart from the regular herd of mankind. This movie is actually discussed in the forward to 1st Issue Special #10 which sports an intriguing Ernie Chan cover which offers up figures which in no way match the characters within. Beneath that cover is a story by Joe Simon and Jerry Grandenetti which offers up some "Freaks" of their own, in this case calling themselves "The Outsiders". (The original title was "Super Freaks", but I guess DC was a bit scared of that one just as Universal had been frightened of Tod Browning's movie.)

Be warned though that this is merely a glimpse. We meet the team made up of "Doc Scary", "Hairy Larry", "Lizard Johnny", the "Amazin' Ronnie", "Mighty Mary" and "Billy". They are a super team of sorts under the leadership of Doc Scary and they costumes and drive around with laboratory attached to their car. We see them battle a mob to free a terrified kid named Billy who learn later was kept in a basement of a Tailor shop by his father wo is killed by two thugs. It results in a mob wanting to kill Billy. We also learn that Doc Scary was once sent into space and when his spaceship crashed his body was reconstructed by aliens who used themselves as models. We get a glimpse of the birth of Lizard Johnny who as a tadpole is saved by Doc when another researcher wants to chop him up. The Outsiders live in an underground complex beneath the hospital where Doc is a renowned surgeon, albeit one who works in disguise. Sadly we never learn more about the team as the story abruptly stops. 

Next time Gerry Conway makes organized crime shudder when he introduces Code Name: Assassin. 

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Danger Street Signs - The Green Team!

In anticipation of a review of Danger Street by Tom King, Jorge Fornes and assorted cover artists I am representing my thirteen reviews of DC's 1970's Showcase-style comic 1st Issue Special. The books by King and company make use of ALL of the sundry heroes and heroines who appeared in these pages. So, let's continue. 

The Green Team by Joe Simon and artist Jerry Grandenetti is a offbeat offering in the second issue of 1st Issue Special. In this issue we meet the four young fellows who are members of this elite outfit, which is comprised exclusively of millionaires with a yen for adventure. 

The story is told in a somewhat fragmented form as we first meet Commodore Murphy a young shipping magnate who is the leader, J.P. Houston an oil tycoon who adopts a cowboy affect, Cecil Sunbeam a hot Hollywood movie director and Abdul Smith, a black shoeshine boy who is able to convert a banking error in his favor in a brand new fortune. These four adopt a uniform and stuff their pockets with cool cash and set out to have fun in the world. Their mission in this issue is to see that "The Great American Pleasure Machine" is built despite the rumblings of a corrupt labor leader named David D. Merritt. The complex whisks one away and they utterly transfixed with entertainment for days and days and days. Other forms of entertainment, including comic book heroes, feel threatened. (Sounds like the internet to me.) 

It's difficult to know what Simon is saying in this story which has a finale that appears to contradict the set-up, but this is the only published issue. As always Grandenetti's artwork is stunning and fluid and dynamic. 

The tyros of course remind any veteran comic book fan of Richie Rich, another youth who grew up rich and who filled his eternal days with adventures. These are four teenage millionaires who wear trippy jumpsuits filled with cash and fly the globe looking for thrills which will apparently momentarily dissolve the ennui which dominates their existences. These jet-setting one-percenters are every boy's dream and their superpower is cold hard cash. 

In the face of the many hard-scrabble kid gangs Joe Simon concocted with his once-upon-a-time partner Jack Kirby, these millionaire mopes are hard to love. Lacking the brashness which attaches to upstarts like the Newsboy Legion's Gabby or the Boy Commandos' Brooklyn, this team is a gaggle of over-soaked haves who evoke no sympathy and precious little empathy. (In fact it was from some pressure from DC that both Simon and Kirby created new boy teams, Simon with this Green Team and Kirby with his Dingbats of Danger Street which will show up later in the 1st Issue Special run. More on this when I cover that team next week.) 

Two more issues of The Green Team were "published" only in the technical sense in Cancelled Comic Cavalacade #1. DC revived The Green Team some years back during the "New 52" era and though in fairness I've never read an issue, they appear even less likeable than their Bronze Age inspirations. It's not fair of course to hate the Green Teamers for their money, that would be just plain jealousy. But it's hard to root for these overdogs, and that's just the way it is. I have a general rule to never feel sorry for millionaires. They of course have many if not most of the problems the vast majority of mankind faces, but then they have at least a million dollars to help them cope with it, so there.

After two brand new projects from two of the comic book world's most celebrated creators the next issue of 1st Issue Special will revive a fan-favorite superhero -- Metamorpho the Element Man. More on that later. 

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The Phantom Stranger!

The Phantom Stranger has always fascinated me. He was a true enigma, a "hero" who existed in that strange nexus between DC's superhero books and its burgeoning horror comics line-up. Often teamed with others such as Dr. Thirteen in his own title and later Deadman in that same title, he also joined forces with Batman, Superman and the entire Justice League of America. But in all his appearances, the white-haired mystery man never revealed his truest nature. He just showed up where needed and stood up for the innocent who were confronted with supernatural menaces. The Phantom Stranger Omnibus offers up over three decades of adventures. 

The Phantom Stranger first debuted in the 1950's in stories written by John Broome and drawn for the most part by Carmine Infantino and Frank Giacoia. The Stranger here is a somberly dressed mysterious figure who suddenly appears to those needing help and giving them that help. 

The character was revived under the editorial control of Joe Orlando during DC's horror boom in the pages of Showcase. This is a vintage 50's tale with a frame by writer Mike Friedrich and artists Jerry Grandenetti and Bill Draut under a provocative Neal Adams cover. Kids being under threat was a thing on these early DC horror covers. 

The Phantom Stranger quickly gets his own title again, and again we have more unpublished 50's material with new stuff by the Friedrich and Draut team. Draut offers up a tasty cover. 

The next few issues keep up this format with more great Bill Draut art under some Neal Adams covers. Otto Binder writes the frame stories. 

The fourth issue shakes up the format as apparently DC has run through their cache of vintage Broome-Infantino stories and give us a completely new comic with fab interior art by Neal Adams. Robert Kanigher becomes the writer for a time. This issue also sees the addition of Dr. Thirteen to the story mix and he will stay around in the book in some way for much of its run. A new nemesis named Tala is introduced and she too will be a common enemy for Phantom Stranger to battle. The book gets downright crowded as four teenagers are also added to the cast. Their names are Spartacus, Attila, Wild Rose and Mister Square. The stories for a time are the teens find a menace, Phantom Stranger shows up to save them and Thirteen is on hand to debunk the whole affair. 

Mike Sekowsky joins Kanigher on the book for a few issues, while Adams stays to offer up fantastic covers. 

Bob Haney and the Ross Andru / Mike Esposito team hook up to give Phantom Stranger some higher profile when he teams up with Batman in the pages of The Brave and the Bold. 

The big breakthrough for the series is in issue seven when Jim Aparo becomes the regular artist on the series. He will help define the character for DC and give the mysterious figure a more heroic aspect. Adams will keep on making some amazing covers for the book. Gerry Conway will step in with Kanigher to write a few stories as well.  

The four teenagers are eventually faded out and Dr. Thirteen becomes a back-up feature in the book, allowing more room for The Phantom Stranger to build his own world fighting Tala and her agents as well as an alchemist named Tannarak. The great cover for issue fourteen is actually a reference to the Thirteen back-up story. 

It works out great for Phantom Stranger when he next guest-stars in The Brave and the Bold because Aparo is the regular artist on that series as well under a creamy Nick Cardy cover. 

With the twentieth issue Aparo takes over the cover art chores from Adams, and the series had even progressed to the point where the enigmatic Stranger could even have a romantic interest as well in the form of the gorgeous Cassandra Cross, though it would be a few issues before that became a regular thing. 

The Phantom Stranger becomes a member (of sorts) of The Justice League of America in a great story by Len Wein, Dick Dillin, Dick Giordano and cover artist Nick Cardy which put the characters as well as creators in the thick of things in Rutland, Vermont. This was my first introduction to the character, and I loved him from the get-go. Wein was the regular writer of The Stranger's own book by this time as well. 

The Dr. Thirteen back-up stories were phased out and The Spawn of Frankenstein took over in the back pages of the book with great stories stuff by Marv Wolfman and Mike Kaluta. 

The Spawn of Frankenstein met The Phantom Stranger in a wild full-issue yarn that brought both series to turning points. This was my very first Phantom Stranger issue. Dr. Thirteen returns in this story as well and his wife plays a key role. 

The Phantom Stranger series gets a jolt when writer Arnold Drake joins artist Gerry Talaoc as the regular team under Nick Cardy covers. The Spawn of Frankenstein is taken over by different talents as well. 

I like the Drake-Talaoc material fine, but it lacks the verve of the stuff that Aparo was producing. Aparo for his part does become the regular cover artist on the series. The Black Orchid becomes the new back-up feature. 

Bill Draut returns for a single issue on the interior artwork. I really like his clean lines. 

Mike Grell joins Drake on a story which co-stars Deadman, a character DC was desperately trying to find a place for. 

Drake and Talaoc wrap up their run with this mummy story. The series is still quite good but has seen its best days behind it. 

Paul Levitz writes and Fred Carrillo takes on the art as Phantom Stranger battles a new villain named Dr. Seine, a chap who hates the Stranger from a previous encounter. 

Deadman becomes a regular co-star in the series as it reaches its end with issue forty-one. We leave the Phantom Stranger having found some love in Cassandra Cross and the Deadman abandoned as usual with the story's end. 

The two mystical stars hook-up again in an issue of DC Super-Stars battling gargoyles and demons in Rutland Vermont. Terry Thirteen is on hand yet again as well as the creators of this wandering mess of a story which captures more than a smidgeon of its plot from the great TV movie Gargoyles. 

The Phantom Stranger joins Dr. Thirteen and Abel to celebrate the one hundred fiftieth issue of House of Secrets. 

The Stranger then becomes relegated to the back pages of the DCU showing up as a partner in The Brave and the Bold and DC Presents with Batman and Superman respectively. It's good to see Aparo draw him again and I've always liked how Dick Dillin represented the hero as well. 

Though completely unheralded on the covers, The Phantom Stranger becomes the regular back-up feature in the revived The Saga of the Swamp Thing comic book. Bruce Jones writes the first story but Mike Barr becomes the regular writer. Dan Spiegle offers up some lovely artwork for the series as well. Tony DeZuniga and Fred Carrillo will also draw installments of the run. Joey Cavalieri and Nicola Cuti write some for the character as well. 

Eventually the Stranger joins Swamp Thing in the series and gets his only cover appearance in the first of a two-part tale by Dan Mishkin and artists Bo and Scott Hampton. 

The Stranger next is drawn by Jim Aparo again in the pages of Batman and The Outsiders in a Christmas story. 

He joins Superman and the Joker of all people in a story by Paul Kupperberg and artist Alex Saviuk in the pages of DC Comics Presents. 

The final new comic reprinted in this massive twelve hundred and more volume is the issue of Secret Origins featuring the Phantom Stranger. And in a brilliant move to maintain the enigmatic nature of the mysterious hero, he is given four different possible origin stories talents such as Alan Moore, Joe Orlando, Dan Mishkin, Ernie Colon, Paul Levitz, Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez, Mike Barr and Jim Aparo. 

I want to caution everyone who might have actually read down this far that only the Phantom Stranger stories are reprinted in the omnibus edition in all its glorious color. To read the Dr. Thirteen and Spawn of Frankenstein stories, I needed to fish out my two copies of Showcase Presents. The Black Orchid back-ups are not reprinted in those, and I've ever read them. 

The Phantom Stranger is one of my favorite DC characters. His absolute mystery is fascinating and I'm very happy that DC never sought to undermine that core enigma. If they have in the decades since, I've remained blissfully unaware. 

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