Dojo Classics - The Forgotten Lane To Apokolips!

When Jack Kirby arrived at DC after leaving his last post as top creative genius at Marvel, he quickly delivered an avalanche of new characters and titles. Those books became known as the "The Fourth World" as the unintended result of an ad which used the phrase to describe the four titles New Gods, Mister Miracle, Forever People and the existing comic Kirby had taken over Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen. Generally it took a while before Kirby's new ideas began to percolate through the broader DC Universe. But one place in which those ideas and characters did begin to appear almost immediately and with some regularity was in another of the Superman Family titles, Superman's Girl Friend Lois Lane.

Under the editorial guidance of E.Nelson Bridwell, Robert Kanigher assumed the writer's chair for the title and along with artist Werner Roth, most famous for his stint on Marvel's X-Men, and then-mainstay Jack Kirby inker Vince Colletta, Lois Lane became embroiled in several stories involving the wild denizens of the Fourth World.

The first of these tales was "The Dark Side of the Justice League!" which pitted the unsuspecting Lois against tiny clones of the JLofA produced at the Evil Factory, a foul genetics laboratory controlled by Darkseid agents Simyan and Mokkari introduced in the pages of Jimmy Olsen. Here are the first few pages of that ground-breaking adventure.

The next few issues of Lois Lane have little Fourth World influence, but issue #114 which focuses on Rose and The Thorn and their enemies The 100, does have the character Morgan Edge, the then new publisher of the Daily Planet who had been replaced by a clone and served Darkseid as a member of Inter-Gang.

In issue #115 though, the Fourth World influence is felt most strongly as Lois encounters new Kirby creation The Black Racer, who debuted in New Gods #3. This issue in fact was the Racer's second appearance overall. We get to see Willie Walker, the new Racer going about his new mission as messenger of death. Here are a few handsome sample pages.

The very next issue of Lois Lane has our heroine getting mixed up in some hijinks at Happy Land, the deadly amusement park created and managed by Darkseid henchman Desaad. Happy Land debuted in Forever People, but we get another solid look at its depravity in these pages. Darkseid himself even puts in an appearance. This is likely his first non-Kirby drawn appearance ever.

Issue #117 has little Fourth World influence, though again Morgan Edge remains as a character in the story.

It is in fact Morgan Edge's story which becomes the focus of issues #118 and #119 of Lois Lane, as we find out more about his replacement by a clone agent of Darkseid, and the real Morgan Edge escapes the Evil Factory and meets up with The Outsiders, a motley motorcycle gang introduced in Jimmy Olsen.

And that just about wraps up this offbeat unofficial fifth book in the Fourth World saga. Bridwell would soon be replaced as editor by Dorothy Woolfolk and Robert Kanigher  would go on to write other DC books. Lois Lane would return to adventures of a slightly more mundane type. But for a time though, Lois like her colleague Jimmy Olsen found herself embroiled in a crazy new universe, a brand new type of danger, a new and perilous world, a Fourth World.

I do want to point out that most of the covers during this run were by Dick Giordano, and are simply outstanding.

On a final note, it would be outstanding if DC would reprint these Lois stories in a trade so that Fourth World fans all over could readily enjoy them.

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The Sunday Honeys - Goddess Of Love!

It's Valentines Day and to celebrate the holiday I'm skipping the regularly scheduled Sunday Funnies feature and instead taking a look at one of the most fetching Atlas/Marvel era characters -- the Goddess of Love herself and reputedly the most beautiful girl in the world -- Venus. Venus had her own reasonably successful comic in the 50's when the comic book world was in a turmoil after the sundry public outcries for the medium to police itself or to just go away entirely. So comics were sanitized and to that end Marvel (called Atlas back then) published a girl's comic featuring the  Goddess of Love. 

Venus was launched at the same time as Marvel/Timely/Atlas titles Namora and Sun Girl. If you notice that all three star lovely dames then you hit the spot as apparently the scheme was to latch onto the growing girl market in comics. All three series lasted at least three issues then all were cancelled. Some of the leftover Venus tales appeared in other titles at the time. Then at some point it was decided to revive Venus with some tweaking of the concept and eventually the title last a cool nineteen issues. Now I'm not going to do an issue by issue reprise of this series for the simple reason I found such an analysis at this highly informative link. Written by Dr. Michael Vassallo, the acknowledged guru of Atlas Comics you'll find even more enlightening info on the character as well as a detailed breakdown of each of the first nine issues.  Vassallo identifies many of the artists on the title with the earliest issues having been drawn by George Klein who I fondly remember as an able inker over John Buscema on seminal issues of The Avengers and elsewhere. Artists like Ken Bald, Werner Roth and Bill Everett among others will contribute to the series eventually. 

These nine issues were gathered together and published by Marvel some years ago in their doughty Marvel Masterworks series. It's a handsome volume that I found somewhere for a discounted price as likely I'd never have brought it home otherwise. 

There has not been a second volume in the Masterworks series dedicated to Venus though it is crucial that it does happen. Most of the stories which evoked my admiration for the character, and all those by Bill Everett are in the later issues of the run.  Here are the covers. 

And below is a glimpse of what a volume like this might look like if it existed. 

I'm a fan of Marvel's Atlas days with heroes like Venus and Marvel Boy and Black Knight, first discovering these charactes and stories tucked away inside Marvel's copious reprint comic such as Marvel Tales and Fantasy Masterpieces among others. 

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New Year's Eves!

I looked and it seems I promised that this month I'd give you all a glimpse of my favorite super dames in countdown form. So being a man of my word (mostly) I am here on this final day of the year to comply with my personal list of favorite daughters of Eve. Above is the vivacious Black Canary as rendered by the late great Alex Toth.

I always liked the Canary in her JLofA appearances when she stepped in to take Wonder Woman's spot. She held her own with the big hitters and wore fishnets to boot.

Mantis is next. The mysterious maiden was the concoction of Steve Englehart and Don Heck, but this drawing by Dave Cockrum is my favorite. She was a martial artist with a deep hidden past it seems almost no one could discover, but eventually they did and she became the "Celestial Madonna" of all things.

One of the remarkable things about Mantis is that she has other identities across the comics multiverse. She goes where Steve Englehart goes.

She is named Willow in the DCU when she appeared in an issue of JLA written by Englehart.

And she's named Lorelei in Eclipse's Scorpio Rose.

Karnilla the Norn Queen always captured my fancy and her long-standing attempts to win the admiration of Balder the Brave showed that even a woman of her substantial gifts could be smitten low by the power of love. Balder always seemed more than a minor dimwit to me for constantly rebuffing Karnilla's advances -- I'd have not been so strong.

Marvel Girl was one of my earliest crushes in comics and what's not to like with that flaming red  hair and that amazing mini-skirt. Her telekinetic powers were sometimes difficult to showcase on the page, but her beauty never was. 

Even a budding talent like Barry "Not-Yet-Windsor" Smith hit it out of the park in his debut comic. This full-page shot of Jean Grey is an all-time fave.

Over at DC the arrival of that delectable Supergirl from another Earth really shook things.

Linda Danvers had been quite retiring but Power Girl was far from that and her abilities were really more than any man could stand.

Vampirella won hearts from the minute she showed up at Warren to drain them.

This blood-sucking babe from the depths of space came to Earth and soon enough began to solve mysteries and battle demons all while wearing an impossibly scanty outfit and some knock em' dead high-heeled boots.

Phantom Lady was one of the original dynamite babes, thanks in no small measure to the talent of Matt Baker. She wasn't the mightiest of heroes but she looked the best at doing it.

She became Nightveil at Bill Black's AC Comics and a founding member of Femforce which includes super babes such as Ms. Victory, Tara, Dragonfly, Stardust, and many more. This comic always sat on the edge of being a little too risque for my tastes, but in the 90's it found the perfect balance and became a real must-read for me. Alas in more recent years the appeal is not something I cotton too all that thoroughly.

Batgirl  had her million dollar debut at just about the time I was discovering comics and I fell for the "Dominoed Daredoll" almost instantly.

She had the additional advantage of being real, as portrayed by the late and lovely Yvonne Craig. We miss you Yvonne.

Jezebel Jade caught my heart when she brandished her weapon in early episodes of Jonny Quest. She looks downright luscious when drawn by the late-great Dave Stevens.

But Stevens was only enhancing the beauty that creator Doug Wildey had invoked upon her fromthe very beginning. Demure, deadly and decidedly a dame for the ages.

The Black Widow has found much fame in recent years due to her outstanding stints in the Avengers movies as portrayed by Scarlet Johansen. She comes close to stealing everyone of those Marvel flicks she's in, if she doesn't actually do it. Beginning as classic femme fatale she adopted the fishnets to fight against and alongside Hawkeye and the Avengers early in her career.

And then she decided to change it up with this sleek design by John Romita. I'm not sure, but it's entirely possible I went through puberty between pages eight and nine of this particular issue of Spider-Man that gave a glimpse of the new Black Widow.

The Fourth World was not complete until without warning Big Barda made the scene in issue four of Mister Miracle. She was a no-nonsense broad who had battled with the best and worst of them. Tested she look great in her armor.

And she looks even greater out of it. This splash page by the late Jack "King" Kirby might well have made many a young lad simmer along with "girl watchers' in the panel.

When Barda decided to take a bath (thanks to Marvel Evanier who needed to write one more page for the comic) the world and moi fell absolutely in love with the future Mrs. Free. Sigh.

But it will likely come as no surprise to any regular reader of this here blog that my favorite dame of all is the vivacious Nova Kane (real name Katrinka Colchnzski), college student, exotic dancer and the paramour of the space-faring E-Man. The bold personality of Nova won hearts and minds from the first panel when E-Man needed a place to land in the pages of Nick Cuti's and Joe Staton's mighty comic.

She became his partner in all ways some few issues later when superpowers became hers. E-Man might be retired and Nova with him, but she will live forever in the depths of this fanboy's beating heart.

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