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Wednesday Comics: DC, April 1984 (week 3)

Sorcerer's Skull - Wed, 01/22/2025 - 12:00

My mission: read DC Comics' output from January 1980 (cover date) to Crisis! This week, I'm looking at the comics Santa might have stuffed in a stocking that were published January 19, 1984.

Green Lantern #175: Weirdly, part of this is a replay of the events of last week's Flash that Jordan participated in just from Jordan's perspective. Even the dialogue is the same. Beyond that, the Shark is on a mind-absorbing spree in Coast City. Clay Kendall's Psi-Chair experiments accidentally make contact with the creature, but the contact is fleeting, and the Shark moves in on STAR Labs instead. Green Lantern tries to intervene but in a fight the Shark gets the better of him and leaves him unconscious on the ground.
Meanwhile, Jason Bloch is stewing over the failure of Javelin to get the revenge for his family on Ferris Aircraft thanks to the action of Green Lantern. gets a visit from the mysterious Mr. Smith from Continental Petroleum (Con-Trol) who asks him to stop cease or at least delay his vendetta until Con-Trol his company can conclude their business. Bloch refuses, and when Smith is gone, reviews his file revealing he knows Green Lantern is Hal Jordan.

Legion of Super-Heroes #310: Levitz, Giffen, and Mahlstedt really up the action this issue. It's made all the more frenetic (and honestly, more than a bit hard to follow) thanks to Giffen's new, ragged art style. On Khundia, the Legion has a showdown with the Omen and the partially controlled Prophet, even as Ambassador Relnic, per the Khunds' demands, orders them off the planet. Ultimately, Omen reveals that the Khunds have constructed a "negaton bomb," a weapon spacetime-puncturing weapon. As Omen easily defeats the combined powers of the strongest Legionnaires, Dream Girl detonates the bomb, sucking Omen and Prophet out of the universe--and disgorging back into it the original Invisible Kid! Meanwhile, Brainiac 5 thinks he's discovered a way to cure Danielle Foccart.
The Prophet and Omen storyline sort of ends abruptly with us never really understanding their conflict or motives. In a way, that's an interesting approach: a cosmic menace that remains an enigma. I think to make that work the story needs to feel like it has a bit more of a payoff, though.

New Talent Showcase #4: Perhaps editorial felt like they have to have more at least superhero adjacent material to sell this title? We get a whole new batch of features and most of them are. Margopoulos and Steve Lightle/Gary Martin introduce Ekko, a hunky, pipe-smoking MD-PhD who developed an ultrasound-powered superhero suit. Just in time, too, because superhuman assassins in employ of the Crimeking are after his no-account older brother. This one reminds me a lot of 80s smaller press/indie stuff. It's clear Margopoulos' knowledge of medicine comes from TV, but I don't hold that against him.
"Who is Feral Man?" by Ringgenberg and Brigman/Magyar is similar but a bit more amateurish. I could have easily seen it being a late 70s/early 80s TV show as it has a Man from Atlantis or Manimal vibe. A Altered States-esque experiment unlocks the primal essence of our hero giving him animalistic heightened abilities. The shadowy government agency wants to make him a weapon, so he's got to escape and fight back.
"Bobcat" by Tiefenbacher and Woch/Kessel gets making me think it's going to turn horror, but nope it's a little hearted tail of a bullied kid with a perhaps unhealthy fixation on big cats who turns homemade costumed vigilante to scare his bully--and winds up befriending him. Similarly, "Full Circle" by Tillman and McManus/Alexander is about an older guy (the story says he's "near retirement" and some characters call him old, but he's only 51!) who feels like his life is effectively over, until a moment to be a hero fighting for an old homeless woman preyed on by street punks. He takes a beating but makes a friend.

Sgt. Rock #387: This feels like an unusually grim issue. The Kanigher/Redondo main story has Easy getting two new soldiers after a tough battle: one's gung-ho and the other is a conscientious objector. They wind up being able to work together--and dying in the same foxhole. The reprint from '73 by Kanigher and Estrada has George Washington taking the time to talk with a boy who tried to desert at Valley Forge. Washington convinces the boy to be brave--as he meets his end in front of a firing squad. Then, there's a one-page humor strip to round out the issue.

Supergirl #18: Supergirl takes her new headband out on the town for the first time and gets into conflict with a storm-causing alien named Kraken. He entered Earth-One's dimension years ago, tried to conquer Argo City but repulsed and almost killed. When he returned years later, he found Argo City depopulated but vowed get its last survivor in gain revenge. He boasts that is magical powers will easily defeat his target, Supergirl. Turns out his magic is really the product of super-science devices in his belt and bracelets. Supergirl melts those with heat vision, and Kraken is easily subdued. It's interesting just how different Infantino's art looks under Oksner's inks than McLaughlin's.

Warlord #80: I discussed the main story here. In the Barren Earth backup by Cohn and Randall, the slavers pursue Jinal and her friends. With the help of their the Harashashan, they set traps for the slavers, destroying their force and allowing Jinal to retrieve her weapons.

Categories: Comic Book Blogs, Tabletop Gaming Blogs

Brian Pulido to Host Live Demonstration of Coffin Launch Platform

First Comics News - Wed, 01/22/2025 - 01:20

Get Ready to PLAN YOUR CLAIM for Lady Death: Savage Reign #1! Mesa, Arizona – January 21, 2025 – Coffin Comics invites fans to witness the future of crowdfunding with…

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