The Rocketeer Meets The Spirit!

The Rocketeer and The Spirit - Pulp Friction will have to be put into the missed opportunity section. Mark Waid creates a nifty story featuring the still largely experimental technology of television to bring together the sunny flying hero from California and the shadowy hard-bitten hero from Central City. The Spirit was the creation of Will Eisner arguably the finest comic book creator of all time, while the Rocketeer was the creation of Dave Stevens, one of the finest comic artists of his or any generation. 
Their milieus could not be more different. 

What brings them together is a murder, the murder of an alderman from Central City whose body turns up on the beaches of California in an impossible timeframe. Betty found the body and so becomes embroiled in this tale of corporate greed and government corruption. Cliff Secord is trying his best to keep her safe despite the fact she often seems more concerned with her career and with the Spirit's muscles. She meets the latter when he, Commissioner Dolan and his daughter Ellen fly to California to identify the body. The crime boss, a powerful businessman named Trask is in partnership with the Spirit's old nemesis the Octopus. Together they want to get control of the new technology of television with its potential for reaching the masses. It seems this technology has other uses as well which proves of interest to foreign powers. 

Paul Smith is the artist of the first installment and it's outstanding, offering up a nigh believable story which commands the reader's attention. Smith has always had an attractive style which is well suited to drawing dames such as Betty. Unfortunately for whatever reason Smith only draws the first issue and is replaced by Loston Wallace on the second. Wallace is an old internet colleague and once did some work for an early Yahoo group I managed for a time. I like his work immensely, but it seems a bit less dynamic here than I'd have hoped. The third and fourth issues are drawn by Jay Bone, a dandy artist, but one with a style much different than what had come before. There is nothing wrong with any single episode on its own, but the clash of styles does not do the storytelling any favors. It's a pity Smith couldn't have done all four issues. 

Below are the covers. The first and second issues are by the late Darwyn Cooke. Jay Bone does a bang- up job on the final two. 

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Nexus Omnibus Volume Four!

With the fourth omnibus volume from Dark Horse, Nexus enters a mature phase of the series. Mike Baron has been the writer since day one, and Steve Rude has been the regular artist requiring only a few fill-ins here and there. But that will change as Rude's art is seen less and less. In the back of the book the Judah the Hammer series is written by Roger Salick with a range of artists stepping to draw these much lighter misadventures. The talent on this light-hearted romp of a back-up includes the likes of Angel Medina, Jim Balent, Mike Harris, Mike Docherty among others. 

The first few stories we encounter in this volume show Nexus encountering different kinds of murderers and using a variety of methods to fulfill his obligation to kill them for the Merk. One entertaining story had Nexus using a series of disguises to trick four killers into offing one another. He seemed almost as if killing was becoming boring to him, and he needed to find novel ways to pursue his mission. The main thrust of this collection though is the journey Nexus makes with allies Judah the Hammer and surprisingly the Badger back to the Bowl-Shaped universe inside the black hole. He does this to acquire power and or expertise to stop a black hole from forming right next to Earth due to careless technology. This odyssey takes up six issues and leads into the fiftieth issue of the series, a remarkable accomplishment for a comic from the 80's independent era. The trio battle a most powerful villain named Sklar. 

Another major plot in these issues is the saga of Kreed, the four-armed Quatro master warrior who in a fit of madness killed thousands of Martians. Nexus is a close friend of Kreed's and protected him from prosecution at the time along with his Quatro ally Sinclair. But Kreed increasingly feels the need to atone for his behavior despite not being in his right mind. He gives himself over to the Mars authorities with tragic results. Nexus has a difficult time accepting this and even tries futilely to revive his friend. His despair causes him to resign as Nexus, and he leaves Ylum. 

This plugs directly into a a third simmering plotline about the three Loomis sisters. These young women (one is still a little girl actually) seek vengeance against Nexus for killing their father, a decent man but the man responsible for countless deaths as part of his work with the very device that nearly destroys much of the solar system with a black hole. These girls relentlessly seek a way to fulfill their plans and when Nexus resigns, they are picked up as the "Next Nexus". Steve Rude will draw this four issue limited series which will run concurrently with the regular ongoing Nexus book. The results of this will be played out in the next volume. 

Paul Smith is increasingly used as Steve Rude's replacement, and Smith's smooth slick artwork is a nifty match for the series, allowing little cause for concern for the reader in that regard. But that will change. Things are indeed about to change in significant ways in the series. More on that tomorrow. 

Here are the issues in this volume. 

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The Incompleat Howard - Volume Four!

Howard the Duck - The Complete Collection Volume Four is the focus of this last lingering look at Marvel's most famous fowl. This is a wide-ranging collection of stories from Howard's career as he wraps up his black and white magazine phase and moves into that unenviable position of occasional guest-star. He also jacks out two more issues of his color series though all of the work is pretty much by divergent hands in both the arenas of writing and artwork. 

 

Howard the Duck #8 features one of Howard's most famous adventures, that of "Ducknight Detective". But first there's a story titled "The Grey Panther" by the regular team of Bill Mantlo, Gene Colan and Dave Simons. This yarn finds Howard and Beverly working in an unusual old folks establishment which we learn has nefarious schemes to rob the young of their vitality for the sake of the old, and all of this overseen by a mad doctor who dubs himself "The Grey Panther". Of course Howard and Beverly defeat this plan and escape. After that harrowing escape they visit a sunny Florida beach whee they meet an industrialist named "Spruce Payne" who hires to them help promote his products in the attire of two bogus superheroes -- Duckman and Duck Girl. This photo op gig though gets real when the men hired to play bogus villains Jokester, Puffin, and Quizling turn out to be baddies for real and are working for another villain named The Maller. When Payne goes missing it falls to Duckman and Duck Girl to save the day, which of course they do in a manner of speaking. This story by Mantlo is illustrated by Marshall Rogers who had won great acclaim for his work on a certain "Darknight Detective". This issue wraps up with anothe installment of "Street Peeple". 

In the ninth and final issue of the Howard the Duck black and white series we find our friend Howard and his best girl Beverly in New Orleans, and of course in the comic book world that means voodoo. 

Howard and Beverly become embroiled in a scheme by the third  Black Talon to bring a powerful "Duck Diety" back into this realm. He actually succeeds but thanks to Howard the duck god is less than impressed with Talon's ways and ends up punishing his own worshipper for acts of cannibalism. This story and the next one are by the regular Mantlo, Colan and Simons team. The second Howard story is a really signifcant one and has our devoted couple confronting aspects of themselves in motel mirrors and Beverly comes to the conclusion that she and Howard need to go their separate ways, at least for a time. In a game-changing move the story quietly comes to an end with Howard perhaps realizing at long last how precious their relationship was. Bill Mantlo now left Howard as the regular writer and is replaced on the third story by Steve Skeates who had been writing some offbeat episodes of Howard for Crazy magazine. The story seems to be a send up of The Big Sleep with Howard functioning as a mopey and bickery Philip Marlowe of sorts. He confronts a strange family, which the most strange is a two-headed bloke who turns out to be something else entirely. An article by Steven Grant closes out the issue and reprises Howard's history and implies that he will be returning to the color comic world. 

While all of that is going on Howard does indeed show up again in a color comic, specifically Marvel Team-Up #96 where he is still operating as a taxi driver and ends up in New York City helping Spider-Man defeat yet another deranged goober who celebrates the status quo. In fact he takes that name and wages a war on all fads. Quickly this war becomes a fad in itself and Howard and Spidey have their hands full. This story was written by Paul Kupperberg and drawn by same. 

Howard's next stop is in Bizarre Adventures #34, a color issue of the black and white magazine which features Christmas stories. In this Howard adventure by Steven Grant and Paul Smith the holiday classic It's a Wonderful Life gets turned on its head when an angel in search of his wings tries to show a forlorn and suicidal Howard how his presence has made life better for those he has met. But it seems Howard's friends would've prospered quite nicely without him, in fact probably better. So forlorn the angel himself seeks the balm of the final embrace. 

When Howard the Duck #32 finally showed up on the racks it had been seven years since a color Howard title had been published. What prompted it? The movie coming from Lucasfilm, the folks who brought you Star Wars. (More on that later.) In this story we meet Howard (still wearing pants) when he meets Ceci Ryder, a lovely female trucker. In a story by Steven Grant, Paul Smith and Vinnie (Is-there-a-character-I-have-not-yet-inked?) Colletta the duo head underground to find a culture dedicated to reaping financial benefit from America's beautiful resources. It's led by a were-gopher and the pair a just able to survive and perhaps slow down  the scheme. When it's over Howard's back in Cleveland. 

Howard the Duck #33 sports a handsome Brian Bolland cover which makes me think of Uncle Scrooge. Over six months after the last issue the shine on Howard the Duck is tarnished after the movie doesn't deliver on the sales expected. This story is most interesting though for one reason in that it's the work of Val Mayerik, Howard's other creator and the first time I know of in which he worked on the character with a writer of his own choosing, a friend of his named Christopher Stager. In the story Howard gets rich by winning a contest and Beverly returns but leaves again when his personality is even nastier than it was before when he was mostly broke. A Dr. Clive offers Howard a chance to make more money and get companionship with his scheme to create life in the form of a female talking duck. But it costs Howard all his money and when she turns out to be a big-mouth spendthrift he takes off hooking up with another Walt Disney lookalike to skip out of town. The story is framed with Howard being interviewed on tell-all television show. It's not the greatest story really, though I found Mayerik's artwork quite fine. 

Now skip forward four years to 1990 and Howard shows up again in the hands of Steve Gerber. This time it's as a guest-star in the pages of the offbeat Sensational She-Hulk series (issues #14-17) featuring artwork by Bryan Hitch and Jim Sanders III. She-Hulk looks fantastic, but Howard seems a little off model to me and his pants are gone again. It's wild misadventure with She-Hulk and the former Blonde Phantom along with Howard battling the schemes of Dr. Angst who hasn't been seen since the Howard the Duck Treasury many moons before. He's causing cosmic trouble by bringing to Earth an endless array of mini-universes all trapped in tiny box-like shapes. Howard and She-Hulk end up in one dubbed the Baloneyverse and it gets worse from there. Dr. Angst escaptes jail and seeks out his old partners Tillie the Hun, Sitting Bullseye, The Spanker and The Black Hole. All of them have had a 90's redesign and they battle a She-Hulk who has gone gray and savage before becoming merely gray. The action of this hair-raising yarn is told by a big bald guy dubbed "The Critic" from a sect of the cosmic Watchers. He also gets involved together the heroes with the help of the Golden Age anti-hero The Terror stop Angst's plans. This is mostly a She-Hulk story (as it should be) and Howard is present but not so much signficant. 

When next we meet the Duck he shows up in the back of the venerable reprint comic Marvel Tales co-starring with another animal hero, namely Spider-Ham. Written and drawn by Paul Kupperberg the story is only a few pages long and the characters meet but do little to stop a plot by Duckter Doom. Frankly it left me confused. 

When next we encounter Howard it's now 1996, nearly a quarter century since his unexpected appearance in Adventures in Fear #19. The story is drawn by James Fry and Chris Ivy in that hyperbolic style so commonplace in the 90's and Steve Gerber steps up to write what I assume is his final Howard the Duck yarn. 

A lot has happened since Gerber began writing Howard the Duck stories. At one point he left Marvel and embraced the Direct Sales market with projects like Destroyer Duck, a character and debut comic book created  as part of Gerber's lawsuit to gain some ownership in Howard. It's a convoluted story that and to read about it in detail I recommend checking out this link. 

Anyway in this story from Marvel we have an unofficial crossover with Howard and  Spider-Man and the Circus of Crime with Rich Larsen's Savage Dragon and Destroyer Duck. It's a ramshackle story featuring some of Gerber's more offbeat contributions to the MU such as the notorious Elf-With-A-Gun and the Turnip Lady. KISS even gets a quick cameo of sorts. Sadly it's mostly a stunt with shadowy figures in Spider-Man Team-Up #5 and Savage Dragon/Destroyer Duck #1 meeting but not officially. For more on this check out this link.  

The collection wraps up with a bevy of black and white short stories by Steve Skeates and Pat Broderick done for Crazy Magazine back in the 70's. Frankly they aren't very good and not really in the tone of Howard as far as I can tell. Broderick's art is fine though. Also we get a cover gallery featuring Marvel's adaptation of the ill-fated movie among other things such as Howard's appearance in Marvel Age. 

And that as they say is that. I'm closing my series of posts with a bit of art by Frank Brunner done for  Gerber's Savage Dragon/Destroyer Duck one-shot which gives the world Leonard the Duck and echoes the delightful cover he made for Howard the Duck #1 so long before. My closing thoughts are really questions. Why is the Howard the Duck movie regarded as being so terrible? I think the answer is that it didn't make a beaucoup of money as anticipated so it must have been bad. It's often ranked as among the worst movies ever made and that's just rubbish. It didn't do well in the marketplace and it has deficiencies but it's not that bad. Also why is Howard the Duck when he appears in later Marvel productions only identified as created by Steve Gerber when Val Mayerik even by Gerber's own admission technically created him. Sure they both deserve credit and since it's just a matter of credit and not profits why doesn't it happen. I'm unclear. All in all Howard the Duck was a wonderful comic with great artwork that caught a moment in the zeitgeist which elevated it. Being part of the Marvel Universe means never having say you're really dead, so I expect Howard will always return. So get down with that!

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All-Star Comics - The Golden Age!

The Golden Age is one of the best Justice Society of America stories never told. By that I mean of course that the story falls into that weird no-man's land dubbed "Elseworlds", a brand used by DC writers to tell stories which fell outside the confines of the newly concocted continuity which grew out of the Crisis on Infinite Earths. One upon a time these types of stories were called "Imaginary Stories", but as Alan Moore said what ones aren't. Actually the writer James Robinson has said that this story was not originally intended to be in such an alternate universe, but rather in continuity, but the desire on the writer's part to keep its finale secret created nervousness in the upper echelons and they labeled it an "Elseworld" event. Fact is, some aspects of the tale have been used in other comics by Robinson and others.

The story is drawn by one of the great unsung talents Paul Smith. Smith has generated great compelling and handsome drawings for this story which tell the story immaculately throughout.

The story begins with the dissolution of the Justice Society after World War II as America finds its footing following an all-consuming commitment to a great struggle. Leaping into the headlines is Tex Thompson, a former mystery man named Mr.America who disappeared for many years behind enemy lines as the Americommando and is wooing a beauty named Joan Dale (Miss America). Working with Thompson is Robotman, a hero who is losing his morality.  We also meet Libby Lawrence (Liberty Belle) who is separated from her husband Johnny Chambers (Johnny Quick) who himself is struggling to find success in the post-war world. Also we meet Libby's new love Jonathan Law (Tarantula).

We meet Mr.America's former partner "Fatman" who is cast to the curb by his former partner and who finds and helps a man named Paul Kirk (Manhunter) who is suffering amnesia and running for his life with gunsels on his tail. We also encounter an Hourman who is struggling to overcome his addiction to Miraclo, Green Lantern who is fighting against the whisper wars of anti-communism, Hawkman who is falling deeper into the world of his Prince Kufu identity, Starman is fighting back madness, and the Atom who is seeking a new way to serve his country. Most desperate of all is Daniel Dunbar (Dan the Dyna-Mite) who finds a patron in Thompson and becomes the subject of a dangerous plan to create a new superhero for a new age.

In the next issue we see the creation of a new hero - Dynaman who harbors many secrets. Manhunter's dreams haunt him still as his memories remain blunted. Many of the heroes we've met become uneasy about the new leadership in America, especially that of Thompson and despite his growing influence wonder what might need to be done.

Manhunter's dreams become reality as we learn what he discovered behind enemy lines. The heroes are confronted with a terrible reality which will call upon them to call upon reserves they might have still have.

It's a who's who of Golden Age heroism as the mystery men of the time appear in Washington to register with the government but are confronted with a terrifying new reality which calls upon them all to go to war once again. Many sacrifices are made to stem the tide of a threat which lurks at the heart of the democracy. Not all the heroes survive.

I've intentionally said little about the details of this story simply because it's so good that reading it is highly recommended.

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