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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DC's Greatest Detective Stories Ever Told?

DC's Greatest Detective Stories Ever Told is a collection which sadly does not live up to its name. But what we do have is a healthy sampling of stories from across the many decades giving a glimpse of what comics were like at various times. It's an eclectic collection with some pretty good stories, but not as many great ones as it should have. I do love that Mike Kaluta cover though. 

First up is a Slam Bradley story from the second issue of Detective Comics. Produced by the Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster team, this is a rousing adventure with a nifty blend of two-fisted action and humor. Slam's partner Shorty is the source of the humor of course. I enjoyed this little tale immensely. 

The Sandman story "The Van Leew Emeralds" by Gardner Fox and artist Creig Flessel might me my favorite in this collection. This story from Adventure Comics #51 has got solid art and the Sandman slips in and out of his mask more than a few times. This is an excellent 1940 Golden Age yarn. 

Behind this Batman and Robin Detective Comics cover is an Elongated Man story titled "The Purple Pony". This is well drawn as usual by Carmine Infantino, but the 1964 story by Gardner Fox is not to my mind the best example of what Ralph and Sue Dibny have to offer the reader. It's fine, but nothing special. 

Perhaps my greatest disappointment was the expansive Lois Lane story which occupies nearly one hundred pages of the collection. The upside is the typically fine Gray Morrow artwork, but the story by Mindy Newell strives for realism at the cost of excitement. The prospective reader is warned that at no time does a scene like that picture on the cover of the second issue occur. This is grim tale about child abuse, kidnapping, and runaways. I admire the desire to focus attention on a problem, but it could've been done with a bit more verve. 

From the fiftieth anniversary issue of Detective Comics we get a darn good yarn. Mike Barr's story is divided into chapters with each drawn by specially selected artists. We begin with a Slam Bradley tale drawn by Alan Davis in which we learn that Shorty has been killed and Slam is drawn into a case when his prospective client is whisked away violently. A certain dynamic duo help. Then in a chapter drawn by Terry Beatty and Dick Giordano Slam seeks his lost client by trying to find a missing woman. This takes us to London where in a Carmine Infantino drawn tale Elongated Man seeks a long-lost document. That document proves to be a forgotten Sherlock Holmes story which we get to enjoy thanks to artist E. R. Cruz. Alan Davis returns to wrap things up as the collected heroes team up. It's a fun romp. 

From the pages of 1987's The Question #8 we get a grim story by Denny O'Neil and artists Denis Cowan and Rick Magyar which pits the faceless hero against a deadly and devious killer of criminals. 

The secret origin of Detective Chimp is brought to us by artist Mark Badger and writer Andy Helfer. It's a truly strange few pages from Secret Origins #40 which feature aliens from beyond the stars who find their way into a small and humble chimp. 

The collection wraps up with a back-up story from 1989's Batman #441 in which Tim Drake introduces himself to Dick Grayson and Alfred Pennyworth. Despite featuring some decent art by Jim Aparo we only get a few pages of this Marv Wolfman story. I'm not quite sure what was the intent here and it's the weakest part of the collection. 

I want to like this collection more than I do. Some of the choices seem odd. And the lack of creator credits in the table of contents is frustrating. I had to use the Grand Comics Database to fill in some gaps for this review. This collection does not live up to its grandiose title. But that is a great cover. 

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S. Ditko!

It's Steve Ditko's birthday today but sadly like so many of my artistic heroes he's moved on to that unknown territory. But his artwork is still burned into our memories and seared into our imaginations. Here are some prime examples of Ditko heroes from many years and many publishers. Enjoy!

See  you in a few days.

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Pax Americana!

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 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.

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.

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Charlton Cavalcade!

I've seen this proposed cover art by Dave Gibbons several times over the years, but it looks downright fantastic all colored up like that. It really makes me ache for what might have been alas.

Here's a link with a gaggle of sample pages for this defunct project.


Above is a fantastic Judomaster page by Frank McLaughlin.

By the way who is that red and blue joker next to Peacemaker? He looks familiar.

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Black Period Of The Action Heroes!

When Charlton began to collapse, they tried several things to take advantage of their characters. The reasons have varied from telling to telling, but supposedly the Action Heroes created under the editorial watch of Dick Giordano were purchased by DC for Dick to use and possibly integrate into the DCU, which with the advent of the original Crisis did happen more or less.

But before that, for one year or so Bill Black of AC Comics, an up and coming Indy publisher got hold of the rights and some material originally intended for the news stand version of Charlton Bullseye. He published as much of this as he could before getting a cease and desist order from DC, again the stories vary on this point.

But the result was a few Blue Beetle stories in Americomics and the one-shot book titled Americomics Special. It featured the Sentinels of Justice, a teaming for the very first time anywhere of Charlton stalwarts Captain Atom, Blue Beetle, Nightshade, and the Question.

Here's what Bill Black had to say about the deal in an interview a few years ago.

"It lasted more than one issue. It lasted one year. I knew Charlton Associate Editor, Bill Pearson. Previously, I co-published an ish of Witzend with him thru Paragon. He had started a title called Charlton Bullseye in which newcomers drew Charlton features or their own characters. It was CDC's Showcase. I had worked on a couple of them. The sales had dropped to the point of cancellation so Charlton axed Bullseye. Pearson had promised his artists that he'd get them published so he was shopping them around. I told him I was interested. He said, "Nah, they should be published in color." I said I was starting a color comic book company, AC Comics. He said okay. So I signed the contracts with Charlton legal department and I had the rights to the Charlton characters for one year, 1983. This worked out very well for me because I gained an art staff for AC Comics from this talent pool. AC published Blue Beetle, Captain Atom, Nightshade, The Question, and Atomic Mouse.

"There were many stories that were never published because the artists, not used to keeping any kind of deadlines, never finished the stories! So there was never a part two to the Beetle, Question, Atom, Nightshade team up. There was an unfinished, book length Captain Atom story by Dan Reed. Dan had restored the character to his original costume... the one with the mask. Dan is a very emotional artist. He was really distressed and pissed that Charlton had cancelled Bullseye. It was Dan, for the most part, that convinced Pearson and editor George Wilman, to create Bullseye in the first place. So in his Captain Atom story, it ended with the total destruction of the planet Earth! Yeah, he'd show 'em! Ax Bullseye, will, ya? I suggested that Charlton may not like the fact that mankind gets wiped out. Change the ending. But Dan never completed the book before the year's contract was up so it, and many other stories, never saw print."

Here's a look at how the cover of that memorable AC comics book developed. It's clear that what was published was an amended version of the original intent based on these images.




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