The Living Assault Weapons!

I very much remember anticipating this "return" of the Action-Heroes under the hand of Dick Giordano and Bob Layton. This project apparently was stalled a few times before it finally came out from DC at the very beginning of the current century. Like most of the product of that time, it was hooked into the JLA, a major seller for DC and the source of countless spin-offs and one-shots. L.A.W. was seen by many as just one more of those.

But for Charlton fans it was special. It featured the return of the "original" Action-Heroes. Sarge Steel, Captain Atom, Blue Beetle, The Question, Nightshade and a new Peacemaker all play roles in the story, but the story itself was sculpted around the return of Rip Jagger, The Judomaster. This is a Judomaster story, though I will confess that focus does get muddled a bit as the story unfolds.

A powerful enemy named The Avatar (take that James Cameron) unleashes demons on the Earth and locks up the JLA in a dimensional trap. He seems unstoppable, but then Sarge Steel is put in charge of a group of heroes including Blue Beetle and the Question to battle the threat. He finds himself working out of a sprawling new project which gives birth to a new Peacemaker, a doctor. This force seeks out the Avatar's threat despite the lurking of traitors inside the project. Meanwhile Captain Atom has become a power source for the Avatar and will remain like that through much of story being reborn in a new costume before it's all over. Blue Beetle reveals a hidden guilt and the Question must come to terms with his lack of power in this battle against great evil. Nightshade is the most changed and seems literally to be battling for her very soul in the story. Sarge Steel is seduced and given the chance to be made whole again, but must stand strong. All the heroes seem to have an internal struggle alongside the external threat.

That threat is posed by Avatar who it is revealed relatively early is actually Tiger, formerly the partner of Judomaster who in a fit of teenage pique rejects the tutelage of his master and begins his fall into villainy. Judomaster meanwhile has obtained nirvana in Nanda Parabat but must give that up to rejoin the world and confront his corrupted partner. His struggle is the heart of the story.

This is a very uneven story though I'll have to confess despite my affection for it. It seems it was done in at least two stages looking at the artwork. The story itself is an a bit of a mishmash, offering many interesting angles and solving most of them, but not always convincingly.

I want to adore the L.A.W., but alas I only like it. I do recommend that you seek it out if you can find it. It's never been collected alas. It should be, everything else is available for heaven's sakes.

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Judomaster - The Isle Of Dragons!

Judomaster #98 is dated December 1967. The single credit is the name "McLaughlin" hidden along a rockface on the splash page which features Judomaster holding a flying reptile at bay with a spear while Suzi turns in fear. It's another angle on the cover image by Frank McLaughlin who did this and all the Judomaster covers as far as I can tell. 

"The Isle of Dragons" begins with Rip Jagger being called into the office of General Hawkins where he learns that the Japanese are using some remote and possibly uncharted islands as potential bases. On one island named Tabuki which the natives call "The Isle of Dragons". An airplane photo shows a skeptical Rip that indeed there do seem to be giant reptiles on the island. Judomaster, Tiger, Bushiri, Suzikawa, and other warriors go by submarine to the island and attempt to get on land. They are almost immediately waylaid by natives who tell that the Japanese are indeed contstructing a base and they are making use of the ancient dragons too. The natives guide the group to an ancient city and then leave. Judomaster's team is then assaulted by a giant flying reptile and all seek shelter in a cave when a second dinosaur resembling a Tyrannosaurus Rex appears. But it turns out that in the mad dash for safety that Tiger and Suzi are missing. Judomaster goes out to find them. 

He goes to the city and finds a costumed figure calling himself the "Japanese Sandman" who tells one of his comrades about using his powers to put creatures to sleep to capture both Suzi and Tiger. About that time a giant lizard appears, and Sandman uses his hypnotic power along with tranquiler bullets the Japanese troops fire to subdue and develop a control of the beast. He then makes ready to ready to make Suzi and Tiger the creatures next meal when it awakes. Having seen enough Judomaster attacks, frees his associates and taking guns they head back to the cave. But the encounter the Tyrannosaur again but use their rifles to put it down. Then they gather Bushiri's men and the whole group attack the Japanese troops in the city. Judomaster tracks down the Sandman and avoiding his hypnotic powers eventually defeats the villain. When the Sandman is put out of the way, the monsters which have been in his thrall are released and they demolish the city and the Japanese troops are stunned that their tranquilizers no longer are effective. Using dynamite they brought Judomaster and Tiger blow up the whole shebang and escape. The last scene shows them rafting to the submarine and Tiger reveals that he had substituted regular ammunition for the special tranquilizers the Japanese used thus making the monsters uncontrollable. That scamp. 

Sarge Steel turns up one more time in a story with no credits but clearly drawn by Dick Giordano and scripting attributed at GCD to Steve Skeates. The tale titled "Key West Caper" is File 115. It begins with Sarge coming out of the ocean in full scuba gear onto a deserted beach at night. He thinks back to finding his office ransacked and a note saying that Bessie his secretary had been kidnapped and taken to a location off the Florida Keys. He then gets transportation and gets to the Keys as quickly as he can and arrived at that spot. He is attacked by a guard but subdues him and then recognizes the machine gun the thug used. There is another shot and Sarge kills the sniper but others get the drop on him and take him to a house where Bessie is unconscious on a table. The villains turn out to be Eric Rinn and Roja a man and woman team of baddies who had battled Sarge a few times in his own book and had run an operation named POW. They gloat that they at last have Sarge in this power when Bessie awakes and a fight breaks out. Rinn tries to shoot Sarge who shoots him first making his shot go astray and kill Roja. Bessie grabs up a machine gun and after quick tutelage from Sarge levels the other thugs. Sarge then cradles the overwrought woman in his arms as the story closes. 

"The Power of the Bow" is the text piece in this issue and talks about the impact of the bow and arrow as a weapon in Europe, China and the Americas. This is the last issue in the Charlton Judomaster run.

  But in Captain Atom #89 dated December 1967, Tiger shows up in the Nightshade back-up feature by Steve Skeates and Jim Aparo and in this story set in the modern day he is grown up and had trained Eve Eden the Nightshade some years before when she was a girl of fourteen.

 

This issue of Judomater was reprinted in the late 70's under the Modern imprint. The Judomaster series showed a remarkable amount of skill and talent on the part of Frank McLaughlin who went on to become one of the great inkers at both Marvel and DC. Dick Giordano who headed up the Sarge Steel back-up feature of course went over to DC and became a major player in comics for many decades to come. Judomaster disappeared.

Even when DC picked up the Charlton Action-Heroes including Judomaster he was barely used. Captain Atom and Blue Beetle got ongoing series as well as stints in the Justice League. The Question had an ongoing of his own for many years. The Peacemaker got a limited series. Even Thunderbolt had a run, though his rights have reverted to the Morisi estate today. Though DC mucked with the heroes they at least used them. That is all of them save Judomaster. He did make cameos here and there and other Judomasters have shown up over the decades, including one who is in the JSA today. 

Rip Jagger and Tiger were the core of the L.A.W. (Living Assault Weapons) limited series by Bob Layton and Dick Giordano along with other Charlton heroes. (More on this tomorrow.) But likely because of his WWII setting Judomaster never got the push the others did. A stunted version and unrecognizable version of Judomaster did recently appear on the Peacemaker television series. Boy was that weird. 

It's too bad. Rip Jagger is a dandy character. Judomaster battled against the Japanese but alongside other Asians so that the racism that clouded many WWII efforts was undermined. He wore the colors of the Japanese for goshsakes, an image that has always been a bit confusing. But in the end Rip Jagger, the Judomaster was truly an action-hero, a man fighting in what we naively dub the last "good war". 

No more to come. It's been a blast doing this detailed read for two of my all-time favorite series. Tomorrow something completely different.  

To read the complete comic book go to this link. 

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Ditko Cover Classics - Captain Atom #89!

Captain Atom #89 is by scripter Dave Kaler and artists Steve Ditko and Frank McLaughlin. The Captain Atom series comes to an abrupt halt with this final issue in the 60's run. Captain Atom must confront his old enemy The Ghost as well as a new magic foe called Thirteen who is aided by his talking cat Faustus. 

You can read it at this link. 

The Nightshade feature closes out as well as we see our heroine battle old foe Jewelee in a story by Kaler and artist Jim Aparo. 

But it's not over, not quite. More Captain Atom this weekend. 

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Ditko Cover Classics - Captain Atom #88!

Captain Atom #88 is by writer Dave Kaler and artists Steve Ditko and Frank McLaughlin. In a truly strange tale with a message, Captain Atom travels to a distant planet in answer to an S.O.S. from long ago. He finds a deadly menace in the form of giant insects. 

You can read it at this link. 

In a story by Kaler and artist Jim Aparo, Nightshade confronts the menace of The Image, who travels through mirrors. There's a distinct Alice in Wonderland aspect to this ongoing tale of Eve Eden. 

More Captain Atom tomorrow. 

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Ditko Cover Classics - Captain Atom #87!

Captain Atom #87 is by writer Dave Kaler and artists Steve Ditko and Rocke Mastroserio. Captain Atom comes up against a dangerous foe in the oddly named Fiery-Icer, though there's little doubt what he does. The villain and his henchmen trap Atom a few times in this story. 

You can read it at this link. 

Nightshade, the Darling of Darkness gets her own back-up feature at long last in a story by Dave Kaler and Jim Aparo. We learn something of her origin as well as a new deadly enemy. 

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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 #82!

Captain Atom #82 is by artists Steve Ditko and Rocke Mastroserio. This issue marks the debut of both Captain Atom's second super-villain The Ghost and his first ally in fighting crime the deadly Nightshade. Ditko fan Dave Kaler takes over the scripting officially, though Kaler has stated he added little to Ditko's work. 

You can read it at this link. 

The fandom grows as Dick Giordano is working hard to make the most of the Action Hero line-up. More Captain Atom tomorrow. 

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