Sorcerer's Skull

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.

Last week, consideration of the new HârnMaster: Roleplaying in the World of Kèthîra and a blog post I came across in defense of heavy rules sets got me pondering what constitutes complexity and/or crunch in a rpg. Though the terms are often used interchangeably, I feel like it might be worthwhile to differentiate them. 

Complexity I think speaks to the level of detail. Games tend toward greater complexity when they have one or more of the following:

• Multiple rule subsystems/exceptions to standard mechanics
• Multiple rolls required to resolve tasks/events
• Larger numbers of character qualities, particularly when they each have their own mechanics
• Figured/derived characteristics needed in play
• Tracking of multiple characteristics/variables
• Required consultation of charts

So what's crunch? I had initially thought of it essentially as math related: quantization, calculation, use of formulas, etc. Discussion with Ian of Benign Brown Beast made me reconsider. He viewed crunch as "character builds, optimal play, and interaction with the rules on their own terms (as opposed to thru the fiction)."

"Optimal play" and "interaction with rules on their own terms" are about approaches to systems, not the systems themselves, so I think those are separate phenomena. Perhaps they are a signal for the existence of crunch, though? Melding Ian's thoughts and my initial ones, I now think crunch relates to number of mechanical decision points within a system. This would show up on the player-facing side as character creation and tactical options, resulting in the potential for optimal builds in games like 3e D&D or Lancer. It also shows up in games intended to "realistically" (or at least consistently) model a wide range of genres or setting elements, like Hero System or GURPS.

In this way of viewing things, crunch can (and does) lead to complexity, but there are also factors that would lead to lengthier procedures but not necessarily options or decision points.

 My "Hidden Religions of D&D" posts got me thinking about a new way to view alignment in D&D, and that is not as personal ethics or even (necessarily) cosmic forces, but rather as placeholders for religions within a campaign setting. Old D&D gives us some detail on the generic "Church of Law" so it would be interesting to expand that idea to other alignments--however many one wants to use. 

A Lawful Neutral church would be one that holds to the supremacy of cosmic order. They would focus on the duties of individuals and society to uphold and harmonize with that cosmic order. Here are Lawful Neutral faiths that would represent these ideas in different ways.

Universal Harmony

This faith believes there is an Eternal Order that has both always existed on some idealized plane, but through the process of Law that encompasses both the working of the cosmos and the virtuous behavior of the beings with that cosmos, must be made manifest. The obligations of the humanity in this work are laid out in the religion's holy text, the Formicarium.

The common person is urged to be content with their roll in life and work to make society as whole more orderly and harmonious. The contemplation of greater mysteries is left to ascetics who sometimes provide guidance on important issues to the communities they serve. Those involved in the legal system and the formulation of laws are likewise members of the clergy as law flows from and is a facet of perfect cosmic Order.

The Formicarium mandates that the ruler of a state should be a dispassionate vessel for law. Their job is to insure those under them proceed with honest and transparency, and punishment for transgressing the law is swift and impartial.

Upon death, adherents look forward to an ultimate oneness with the universal process, so that they neither suffer nor desire.

Zurthonism

Zurthon is viewed as the first principal, the transcendent god of time, space, and fate. Zurthon is sometimes called a "machine god"--a being without passion or compassion, and above concepts of good and evil. The faithful seek to divine the path Zurthon has predetermined for them from the beginning of the universe by the study of the Heavens. Zurthonist astrologer-priests plot a child's horoscope from birth. The faithful do not seek to avoid or change ill-fate but rather use this for knowledge to allow them to prepare for the future, the better to display their submission to Zurthon's divine plan. 

There are heretical sects of Zurthonism that view predetermination as an excuse for licentiousness or abandon (and thus become a cult of Chaotic Neutral), but orthodox belief promotes a stoicism in all things.

I'm reading DC Comics' output from January 1980 (cover date) to Crisis! This week, I'm reviewing the comics released on the week of January 12, 1984. 

Amethyst: Princess of Gemworld #12: Mishkin/Cohn and Colon reach the conclusion of this first Amethyst saga. Our heroes are hard pressed against the increased power of Dark Opal, but the villain's treachery and madness cause his former allies Sardonyx and finally Carnelian to turn against him, which seals his fate. Despite her budding romance with Prince Topaz and the rulership offered her, Amethyst feels the need to return to Earth and her life as Amy Winston. She is reunited with her family and resumes life as a normal teen. For now. In Gemworld, Opal's scowling broach lays in debris--and we see it's expression change.
While I didn't give the series any attention in my youth, I found it enjoyable now, and it might have been even more enjoyable if I hadn't read it as one among a stack of 80s comics a month. While Mishkin's and Cohn's story is good, Colon's art is probably what really makes it work.

Tales of the Teen Titans #41: Sorry, Wolfman and Perez, but I find this one a bit silly. We pick up where last issue left off with the Titans (except for the brainwashed Dick) in a deathtrap as Brother Blood gloats. Raven tries psychically to free them, but Blood defeats her. Thanks to Terra, the Titans escape, but then there's another trap, where again they may die, but no, they defeat the monster. At every turn, we have Brother Blood either gloating or thinking that he is sooo powerful that he could kill them any time, but he just doesn't want to.... Then they are captured again and wake up in another (guess!) deathtrap (like the cover) with Dick again supposed to push the button to kill them. They escape, of course, and Brother Blood appears to have died, but there's the hint he's really still doing some Xanatos Gambit. The initial and final deathtraps are even very similar in appearance. Ending and beginning with pretty much the same set piece makes the issue feel like the padded installment of a modern streaming TV series.
In the letter column, Wolfman explains the title's name change--though he states the new title (which he says won't begin until the next issue) is just The Teen Titans. I can only assume they thought better of it and added "Tales of" but didn't think the change was big enough to redo the column. The name "New Teen Titans" will now go to a Baxter paper (though Wolfman doesn't use that term) direct market series.

Arak Son of Thunder #31: The Thomases and Randall.Maygar get up to some old-fashion comic book Sword & Sorcery big monster fighting. Arak and Satyricus are in the Lebanon Mountains and come upon an abandoned village that would remind the reader of Jurassic Park if that were around a decade away. The villagers are hiding in a cave an about to sacrifice a traveling alchemist's daughters to the saurian beast. Arak vows to fight it instead. Ultimately, the alchemist is eaten but turned to gold by his formula mixing with the "dragon's" saliva, but Arak manages to kill the beast. However, he is thrown off it's back and appears to have died in the fall.

Batman #370:  Moench and Newton/Alcala continue the relatively tight plotting between the bat-titles as we open with a solo Robin patrol as Batman is still out of town. He runs afoul of goons working for Dr. Fang and hurries back home to report. Meanwhile, Bullock is pursuing his undercover operation and meets with the eccentric crime lord who is an ex-boxer who dresses like a pro-wrestler with a vampire horror host gimmick. He's sort of Kingpin by way of Zacherley Anyway, he agrees to work with Bullock, but doesn't fully trust him and has him followed. He's aware that Bullock has revealed his plans to rob the Wayne Foundation and plans a trap. Batman and Robin attack Fang's base first and manage to round up the gang, forcing Fang to flee.

Flash #332: Continued from last issue, Flash's super-speed manages to keep his lawyer from dying in a bomb blast, at least immediately. He's at the very least severely injured and will need time to recover. The celebrity lawyer Redik somehow gets word of this quickly as he's immediately working through various means to get the gig as the Flash's attorney. Flash, unaware of these maneuvers meets with Cecile Horton, Peter's law partner. Flash hears Fiona got released from the hospital and gets frustrated with a flyer offering a reward for information on the missing Barry Allen, but then the Rainbow Raider kicks off a crime spree, so he has to deal with that. Ultimately though, it's Green Lantern who happened by the see how his friend was holding up with the whole murder charge thing who takes down the villain.
Bates' story is already beginning to show signs of dragging things out, and it's nowhere near done. This sort of longterm story is probably tough for comics to pull off successfully even today, but in the late Bronze Age where scene decompression isn't employed, you can't just stretch it out with dialogue. It lends a very soap opera effect with scenes always ending on cliffhangers. Infantino's increasingly abstract art (under McLaughlin's inks) probably isn't the best for this sort of story, either. It's ambitious, though, and deserves credit for that.

G.I. Combat #264: No Mercenaries this issue. Instead, we have just one Haunted Tank yarn and a Kana story, plus some nonserial tales. The Haunted Tank story is a bit schmaltzier than most. The Stuart's Raiders are on their way to check out a place called the Grotto of the Saint where there's a German fuel stash, which they need badly. Along the way they (without Jeb's permission) pick up Rick's brother who has been blinded in combat and believes the Saint will heal him. After a fight with some German tanks, it appears the Saint does or at least his vision gets better and also the fuel the Germans were to use is replaced with water--which may have been the saint again or maybe the partisans.
The "AWOL Army" by Drake and Yandoc is a humorous tale of two soldiers fed up with spam who go AWOL to sneak into Paris and have a good meal, run into lots of trouble, but manage to make it out alive, just without a Parisian feast. "Boy in the Bomber" with Talaoc is Kanigher where he is comfortable: gritty heroism. A boy lies about his age to serve on a British bomber run, manning the guns as the crew is whittled down by the mission, refusing to parachute out even when only he and the captain are left. They both die, crashing into the cliffs as the wounded captain can't keep the altitude to get them home.
The Kana story by Kanigher and Cruz is supposed to tell his origin, but so far gives the bit we already know regarding his parents, then detours into time travel to the Japanese feudal era induced by ninja meditation. 

Omega Men #13: Slifer and Smith/DeCarlo deliver an issue more focused on character then events which is atypical for most of the run of this title to date. Much of this issue is devoted to Broot coming to terms with the fact that his wife and the miner Changralynians she ministers to are content with their life of toil for others and early death, preferring its predictability to the unknown. Broot and his wife say their goodbyes with acceptance of each other, if not understanding. Broot is left with at least a little hope for the future as one of the young Changralynians approaches him to say he will at least think on the Omega Man's words.
Meanwhile, Primus gets a new eye, but is still mourning the loss of Kalista, and Shlagen blunders by making an accidental transmission contact with the Gordanians. 

Star Trek #4: Barr calls this one "Errand of War" which echoes the ST:TOS episode "Errand of Mercy" and foreshadows where the plot is going. Both Starfleet and the Klingon Empire are pushing to war and we discover (though our heroes don't know it yet) that some sort of rock monster alien(s) are behind it (Excalibans if you know your ST lore). There's even a jingoistic Federation propaganda broadcast. Kirk and his crew, realizing something isn't right, disobey orders and head for Organia rather than the Romulan Neutral Zone where they have been sent. Why Kirk thinks going to Organia is so important isn't really well laid out in the story, but it appears he believes the Organians would be actively enforcing their treaty on the Empire and the Federation unless something had happened. 
As anti-Klingon sentiment among the crew builds (pertinent because they took on a Klingon defector last issue), Enterprise arrives at Organia to find it enclosed in some sort of black void--and Klingons ready to attack. Kirk manages to convince now-Admiral Kor (the Klingon Captain from "Errand of Mercy," who is now depicted as bumpy-headed) that something's going on and they join forces. Before they can do anything, an Excaliban appears and threatens them.

Superman #394: The thumbnail synopsis of this one on the DC Database conveys its basic weirdness: "Superman and Valdemar clean up some industrial polluters, political humorist Bucky Berns finds that he can predict future events in his column, and Superman endorses Berns for president." This one is by Maggin and Swan/Hunt. If you are wondering who the hell Valdemar is (as was I, even after reading the issue) he's a Viking who hides a giant hawk who lives in some hidden Viking valley. He previously appeared in some Maggin penned stories in the early 70s, but not since. Berns is presented oddly too (and I'm not talking about his super-powers), like we are supposed to know him. The Database helpful supplies that he's a stand-in for Washington Post humor columnist Art Buchwald. Why does Superman support him for President? It doesn't seem like he's completely sure, so perhaps a reveal is coming. Berns' powers are caused by a cabal of wealthy men who wish to destroy America by destroying Superman who they feel symbolizes what Americans see as right and good about their country. No motive is provided here, but it's a continued story. This plot seems an odd one to graft a somewhat didactic story about polluters and how to combat them through media and legislation that happens to feature a magic Viking. 
I have more to say about how Superman is written in this period, but for space reasons I did that over on the Flashback Universe.

Going back to the Greyhawk Folio has made me realize how it differs from modern setting material and perhaps why I bounced off of it when I first encountered. I believe it falls into a category of published setting I would call "ergodic settings." Ergodic settings are analogous to ergodic literature, that is that are settings whose form of presentation requires nontrivial effort on the part of the reader to make sense or understand the setting.

I'll concede that "understanding" in this context can be kind of fuzzy. Different perspective DMs likely have different expectations and desires of a setting. I'm sure there are a lot of people that loved Greyhawk from the moment they encountered the Folio or the Wilderlands of High Fantasy, to name another setting I find ergodic. But I don't think that changes the quality of ergodicity, it's more about how much work you're willing to do (or have already done) to meet the setting where it is.

So what do I mean by ergodic? Well, Greyhawk in its initial present is brief, which is often touted as a virtue, but in that brevity its ability to develop an easy sense of place is impaired. It also consistently refuses to take the modern route of focusing on "juicy" details or hooks. It's not that there aren't things going on in the Flanaess, but as far as we know from the Folio, they aren't really things for low-level treasure seekers. When seeds of adventure are there, they tend to be more Game of Thrones clash of armies and intrigues. There's also perhaps a focus on wargame realism over fantasy. A careful read with an eye toward history can suggest Gygax's models and sources, but he doesn't make it easy, like say, Robert E. Howard or the first introduction to the Known World in Isle of Dread (which just tells you the inspiration, so you don't even get to feel smart!)

Well, I don't know the primary export, but these places seem cool!

 Wilderlands is similarly fairly opaque in that department, but at least you can read hexes with a crashed spacecraft, mermaids or giants. And lots of them. The Folio is dressing your set with backdrops and a few props, but with scant actual prompts for adventure and very little enticing fantasy spectacle. This is just the facts; you do most of the fantasy.

But modern settings require work because they are often too completist and too wordy! Getting through all that cruft requires work! Sure, but it's a different sort of work. It's the work of separating wheat from chaff, perhaps, or just the work of reading homework, it isn't the conceptual work of "what does this mean and what do I do with it?" The Folio approach makes it harder to distill "the good bits" for your own thing, if that's what you're after.

This Strange Stars OSR has a good approach. Wonder who wrote this?

Now, this can be a virtue for the seasoned DM. It's easier to make it your own, perhaps, or even run it differently with the parameters that exist in different campaigns. And if all you need is the barest background to sink your dungeons into, it doesn't matter. But looking at the more recent DMs Guild Greyhawk presentations, there's more of an effort to put player-engaging material in, even as they hew fairly traditionalist.

Rel Astra is one of the major port cities of the Great Kingdom. It is an old city of the Aerdy, the original seat of the early Aerdian Church of Law and once a capital of an Aerdi kingdom until the crowning of the Overking. Once the Great Kingdom was declared in Rauxes, control of Rel Astra was given over to a ministerialis who served as constable and mayor in the Overking's name. The post continues, but it now belongs to a hereditary noble line whose interests have diverged from those of the Malachite Throne.

Like the lords of the Iron League region, the Constable's financial interests lie with the burghers and trade, and he resents the grasping and peremptory ways of the Overking. He is also wary of the covetousness of Medegia's Holy Censor.

While the more fierce-tongued members of the city's council urge swift action, the Constable chooses to slowly build his forces and bide his time.

The original Folio had an apparent editing mistake that listed Rel Astra as the capital of Medegia, so a thought it was worth making a nod to that in the history. Though the Folio never mentions it, the title of Overking suggests their were (at least once) subordinate kings. I figure there must have been multiple, petty Aerdian kingdoms that were united.

My mission to read DC Comics' output from January 1980 (cover date) to Crisis enters its fifth year. This week, I'm looking at the comics that were at newsstands on the week of January 5, 1984. 

Atari Force #4: Conway and Andru/García-López continue pulling their team together (this is positively modern, decompressed storytelling), but this issue does deliver some backstory in terms of Martin Champion and why he's now on the outs with New Earth leadership, as well details of Chris Champion's and Dart's origins. Martin believes he has proof that the Dark Destroyer is still out there, but no one is ready to believe him. Meanwhile, Morphea gets Babe away from the pirates and Rident Oly captures his brother, Packrat.

Blackhawk #269: Blackhawk is dodging German soldiers and trying to get out of Germany alive after his failed assassination attempt against Hitler. He winds up seeking out the assistance of Helga the barmaid he met previously, but that brings attention from Germany High Command to her, and Frau Bulle comes to recruit her for the Leipzig Project. 
Meanwhile, the other Blackhawks are in the newly named La Resistance, France. Gaynor secretly executes a group of German prisoners. Chuck is on to him, but doesn't get a chance to confront him, as Killer Shark retakes the town and takes the Blackhawks prisoners.

DC Comics Presents #68: Conway is still promoting his creation Vixen, left out in the cold by the DC Implosion. He's supported this issue by Swan/Anderson. Vixen seeks out Superman's help after her nephew vanishes into a hot new arcade game "Galaxy Starfighter." It turns out Jimmy Olsen has been tracking other such disappears. Our heroes discover the kids are in the clutches of Admiral Cereberus, a renegade U.S. military man who previously oversaw a program of psychic research but decided to use his discoveries for himself. He siphons the psychic energy of special teens to give himself super-powers, but it's not enough to defeat Superman and Vixen. Some elements of this story (an arcade game as a test for some other purpose and "Starfighter" in the name) suggest The Last Starfighter (1984) as inspiration, but the film and comic book tie-in from Marvel are months away, so Conway would have needed some special access.

Fury of Firestorm #22: Broderick is back on art and Carla Conway gets a co-writing credit for this mostly flashback issue retelling Firestorm's origin. In the framing sequence, Firehawk wants to get to know Firestorm better so she pressures him to reveal his identity. After some disagreement between Ronnie and Stein, they do tell her about the accident that made them Firestorm. Somewhat surprisingly, I think, in the end Lorraine is trouble more by the fact that Ronnie is younger than her than that Firestorm is a composite being made of a two very different men. Firestorm points out that if you average Ronnie's and Stein's ages, then he's older than her. In the end, she decides it doesn't matter and continues their relationship. Ronnie's high school friends who happen to see the two super-beings frolicking above Manhattan and wonder where Ronnie might be.

Justice League of America #225: Cavalieri and Patton/Marcos tell a forgettable story about the demonic cult of Fiatlux who is trying to get their hands on the substance, Luciferase (the story never addresses whether this is the bioluminescent chemical of the same name, but I assume not) to unleash the demon Hellrazer. The JLA tries and fails to prevent this, so the resolution is continued until next issue.
There are a couple of things beyond the basic story that are interesting about this issue to me, though. One, none of the "Big Three" are present. In fact, none of the "Big Seven" are present (depending on who you think the 7th is) because Flash, Green Lantern, and Aquaman are out too. I don't think this is completely accidental given Batman officially left the team, and the group recently voted on whether to keep the Flash. There seems to be a move in this period to lower the profile in this book of the characters with their own solo titles. Interestingly (and perhaps related), a response in the letter column hints at changes coming to the book wherein new characters with be introduced (the letter writer had requested Vixen!) and there will be more of a focus on character relationships. The Detroit League (or the germ of the idea that became that) is clearly already in the planning stage.

The other interesting thing is how "in continuity" this is. We began with the Atom thinking back to his recent experiences in the Sword of Atom limited. Carter and Ollie are still arguing about the rightness of Flash's actions in regard to the Reverse Flash.

Vigilante #5: Chase declares to a cop who is trying to take him in and hates vigilantes that he "hates killing" and has only ever done so in self-defense. He's a lawyer, so he's probably got a good argument for the latter claim, but the first one is at least misleading based on what we've seen in earlier issues. There's been a lot of "that's the kinda guy he is this month" in this title, perhaps as Wolfman figures out just where he wants to go with this character, but it gives the impression that Chase is a bit unstable. I wouldn't go so far as to assume that is Wolfman's point, but it's possible.
Anyway, in this one the mob hitmen Saber (he uses guns) and Cannon (he uses blades and martial arts) have joined forces and are taking out mob leaders so they can run things. Vigilante, figuring out they live together, rashly attacks them and winds up shot and stabbed, and having to escape in an ambulance for his trouble. Saber and Cannon are clearly a gay couple, but this is never stated outright which is probably good because then any potential homophobia also stays subtle. The only hint of it is Vigilante commenting they are "cute" when he busts into their bedroom.

Wonder Woman #314: Mishkin and Heck pick up directly where last issue left off with Wonder Woman facing a transformed Major Griggs. Diana manages to defeat Griggs and free him from Circe's influence. She comes to realize that Circe is serving some master. She doesn't have to wait long to find out who that is, as a defeated Circe disappears into a black mirror and the Aztec god Tezcatlipoca reveals himself.
In the Cavalieri and Beachum/Martin Huntress backup, transitioning to a new storyline is the order of the day. Huntress seems to have to some degree restored her reputation after rescuing an infant from Earthworm. Nedra Borrower is fired after her boss becomes aware of her sexual relationship with corrupt politician, Terry Marsh. We're also teased with the introduction of a new villain: the Sea-Lion.

Our Land of Azurth 5e game continued last night, a much-delayed continuance as we started a holiday-themed adventure before the holidays. It's fitting, though, that we got to finish it on Twelfth Night.

Sent to aid a village suffering from child-disappearances far to the north, the party suffered accompaniment by rhyming, snowman narrator as they ascended a treacherous mountain to find a secret workshop where kobolds were using the children as slave labor.

Defeating the kobolds, the children pointed them to where the evil mastermind laired. After puzzling over a trap made with colored lights, they confronted the villain--the Krampus!

He was a formidable opponent, and the opening exchanges suggested it would be a hard-fought battle. Until Dagmar the Cleric strove forward to attempt to turn the fiend. 

And turn him she did, despite his magic resistance. That bought them time and the fighters took advantage of it. When Erekose delivered the final blow, the Krampus exploded with a "pop" and a shower of confetti and glitter.

The children were returned home and the party was honored with a feast: roast beast and all the trimmings.

This adventure was adapted from How The Lich Stole Christmas.

The Encyclopedia of Fantasy (1997) describes Howard's Hyborian Age and similar imagined worlds as "fantasylands" in contrast to the more serious, Tolkienian worldbuilding of "secondary worlds." This perhaps undercuts the quite serious world-building Howard did in places like his "Hyborian Age" essay but also obscures the fact that all world-builders (Tolkien included) borrow or are at least derive inspiration from history or other works of literature.

Still, it's hard to deny that the Hyborian Age tends to wear its undiluted influences or antecedents proudly. Perhaps not as totally as say D&D's Known World or some other rpg settings, but to a greater degree than Middle Earth or most other literary fantasy settings. I can't be too critical of these game settings as it allows people to get a handle on different lands or cultures quickly, but it does strain suspension of disbelief for some folks.

The Hyborian Age does those similar gaming settings one better, however. In what I think was possibly Howard's best world-building idea (at least so far as things to steal for gaming), the overall action and theme of regions come through, even when his cultural inspirations are less clear. Visiting different Hyborian lands may not just mean travel through history with Fantasy Vikings here and a Fantasy American Frontier there but travel through different subgenres or modes of pulp/adventure fiction.

In his Conan yarns he gives us Golden Age of Piracy adventure stories, tales of the Crusaders and the Outremer, Frontier stories in the vein of the Leatherstocking Tales, and a few stories recognizable as just fantasy in today's genre standards. He does this often by dispensing with a lot of the historical things that led to these settings and situations and just gets down to the action readers (and presumably players) are looking for.

Vague or passing homologies are all he seems to need to get going. He doesn't worry about establishing a Christendom or an Islamic World--or even really a Holy Land to get his Outremerish setting. He handwaves some former colonies (now independent) of Koth (which is vaguely Italic maybe, but hardly Imperial Roman and with a capital whose name is borrowed from the Hittites) on a borderland coveted by Turan, and he just describes the players, setting, and action in a way that the vibe of crusades and Crusader Kingdoms comes through, regardless of the background differences.

Likewise, "The Black Stranger" deals with pirates and a treasure, sure, but to drive home we are now in Treasure Island territory, he dresses Conan for the part:

The stranger was as tall as either of the freebooters, and more powerfully built than either, yet for all his size he moved with pantherish suppleness in his high, flaring-topped boots. His thighs were cased in close-fitting breeches of white silk, his wide-skirted sky-blue coat open to reveal an open-necked white silken shirt beneath, and the scarlet sash that girdled his waist. There were silver acorn-shaped buttons on the coat, and it was adorned with gilt-worked cuffs and pocket-flaps, and a satin collar. A lacquered hat completed a costume obsolete by nearly a hundred years. A heavy cutlass hung at the wearer's hip.

Does this undermine the essential Medieval character of the Hyborian Age? Probably! Does it weaken one's ability to think of it as a sustained and complete world? Could be! Does it make it clear "we're now on the Pirates of Caribbean ride, behave accordingly?" Yep!

I feel like this tool can be put to good use by GMs. Even ones that are more interested in setting consistency perhaps than Howard. Even small details can do a lot.

Happy New Year! I'm reading DC Comics' output from January 1980 (cover date) to Crisis! This week, I'm looking at the comics hitting the stands on December 29, 1983.

Action Comics #553: Kane sends the Forgotten Heroes charging out of the cover, at least. As Vandal Savage tries to deceive the people of Metropolis into thinking Superman as turned against them, the Man of Steel and Rip Hunter's team go back to the dawn of time to try and stop the villain from harnessing the powers of Creation. The Forgotten Heroes get some screentime investigating the alien pyramids, but really it mostly comes down to Superman, so it's effectively glorified cameos for them.

Camelot 3000 #10: Barr, Bolland, and Austin have Mordred, Morgan Le Fay, and their alien allies take out the buffoonish leaders of the Earth's world powers. Tensions are beginning to appear between Mordred and Morgan. Meanwhile, Arthur and his knights break into a spaceport and steal a spacecraft. Their destination is the 10th planet and Castle Le Fay.
I feel like this series has dragged on a bit two long, but it still looks really good.

Detective Comics #535: Nice Cullins/Giordano cover. Moench and Colon/Smith continue the story from the last couple of issues. After Deadshot's claim that Jacques Remarque hired him, Julia is convinced the man who has been a father to her is still alive, and Alfred's urging of caution cause friction between them. Batman learns from the Montreal Police that Deadshot was somehow connected to terrorist and a scheme involving stolen art from France, which would explain how Jacques Remarquebecame involved. In transport, Deadshot escapes but winds up leading our heroes to the terrorists' hideout. Julia brashly rushes in but is rescued by Alfred and Batman. The criminals as apprehended, and Julia accepts that her adoptive father is dead.
Meanwhile, in Gotham, the new crime lord, Dr. Fang, prepares for a meeting with Bullock.
In the Green Arrow backup, Oliver is taken down by the Detonator, who discovers that the archer doesn't have the black box (he stashed it). Ollie awakens in a hospital, surrounded by Rick and Ozone, who has picked the box up. Turns out, there is no pilot voice recording on it. Green Arrow calls in the suspects so he can play detective and reveal which one is the Detonator: Coopersmith, the pilot, who gave himself away by not calling for help. 

Arion Lord of Atlantis #17:  Kupperberg and Duursema send Arion and crew back to the land of the Khe-Wannantu so Arion can get the aid of the shaman Moonstalker to help rid him of Garn Daanuth. They arrive just in time to see Wyynde's wedding which causes Mara to get upset and run off. 
Not only can't the shaman help, but Garn's power is able to penetrate into the physical world causing madness in the village. Arion tries to use illusions to help but that only weakens him, and Garn is able to gain control and free himself from Arion's body.

All-Star Squadron #30: Thomas and Hoberg/Machlan re-introduce a number of characters that DC acquired from Quality comics. At the first meeting of the massively expanded roster of the All-Star Squadron at the Perisphere,  Uncle Sam appears to request help to rescue Earth-X, a parallel world in peril. He reveals that he took several heroes from Earth-2 to Earth-X already, but they all died, including former JSA member, Hourman.
Just as the Squadron prepares to vote on assisting Uncle Sam, Midnight busts in, having escaped from some Nazis. He passes out, and the All-Star’s discover he's carrying an injured Doll Man with him in a shoebox.

Nathaniel Dusk #2: Still not a fan of the decision not to ink this. It makes it look like there's some sort of book-long printing error. That aside, McGregor and Colan continue to deliver a satisfying detective story. Dusk manages to avoid falling to his death off the building and escapes the two goons trying to kill him. He goes to Joyce's apartment and finds the police are there. His friend, Lt. Abrahams tells him Joyce has been murdered.
After attending Joyce's funeral, Dusk begins to suspect the attempt was made on his life because he was dating Joyce, but he doesn't know enough about her to know why. Arthur Squire calls Dusk and offers to feel in some of the blanks, but when Dusk gets to his house, Squire has been murdered, and the goons are there. They chase him on to a train and appear to have him dead to rights as he's trying to climb onto the roof.

New Adventures of Superboy #51: With a Frank Miller cover depicting Superboy walking out of Smallville, this one gives "new direction" vibes, but actually it's a reprint collation of the "Superman: The In-Between Years" backups by written by Rozakis with various artists from Superman #359, 362, and 366. I didn't compare them to see if they are complete reprints or whether they might have been re-edited like a TV clip show, but they are definitely the same stories. I can't fault them too much for this though. Many of their current readers likely missed some or all of those stories from 1981. I would think it was even better if this was placing them where they should go in Superboy's life chronologically, but I'm pretty sure that isn't the case.

Jonah Hex #82: Fleisher and Ayers/DeZuniga handle the carriage laden with explosives cliffhanger at the end of last issue in the manner of movie serials. They back up and show us Hex and Turnbull escaping before it exploded. Papagayo realizes they got away, but he's having too much fun to bother going after them. Eventually, Turnbull and Hex make it to down and Turnbull, in recognition of the multiple times Hex saved his life, agrees to clear Jonah's name-- but after that, they will be enemies again.
The new couple of Hart and Mei Ling are in town, but Hart is shot, and Mei Ling is kidnapped by men with a grudge against Hex. Hart and Hex track the men down and rescue her, but when Jonah catches the two embracing, he punches Hart out and storms off.
Meanwhile, Emmy Lou has left town on a stagecoach gets to think back on how she came to be among the Crow and how she met Jonah. Then the stage is robbed, but the robbers choose to take Emmy Lou as well as the valuables. 


World's Finest Comics #301: This story by Mishkin/Cohn and Chen/Marcos takes place before the arc that concluded in last issue. The cover of this issue is misleading in that it suggests a giant Superman is menacing Batman and the villain, Siphon. In the actual issue, Siphon's attempt to...well, siphon Superman's power has left him a raging being of pure energy. Batman makes common cause with Siphon to restore Superman to normal and keep him from killing the villain, which he knows his friend will forever regret. Siphon still plans to siphon all of Superman's power for himself. In the end, Superman is restored to corporeal form, and it's his powers that defeat Siphon as the villain is overwhelmed by super-senses.

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 December 22, 1983.

Infinity, Inc. #1: The Thomases with Ordway/Machlan sort of revive the "Super Squad" concept of the mid-70s, in the sense that they give us a younger generation of Earth-Two characters, most of them legacies. Here they are in their own book after the backdoor pilot in the All-Star Squadron. Nuklon, Fury, Northwind, and Silver Scarab, crash a Christmas Eve meeting of the Justice Society of America and petition to be allowed membership. Before the JSA can render their opinion, Jade and Obsidian show up. After a brief scuffle (this is a late Bronze Age supers comic, after all), the Society members have discovered they have familial connections to the youths (though in the case of Jade and Obsidian, Green Lantern does know how) and decided that the newcomers are too inexperienced as yet. The kids leave in a huff. Minutes later, another party-crasher barges in: Brain Wave.
For someone that has been enjoying All-Star Squadron this was no doubt a promising start. For those that weren't, well, maybe the new characters had some allure. I have to say I have frequently appreciated legacy characters such as these without necessarily wanted to read their adventures.

Batman and the Outsiders #8: As Christmas nears in Gotham and the Outsiders train, Batman investigates the abduction of an infant. It's a strange case, since the only physical evidence (a fingerprint) points to the infant himself! Infants all over the city begin rapidly aging to old age, and the Phantom Stranger shows up to make cryptic statements. Geo-Force brings an expectancy couple with car trouble to the hospital, and their newborn reveals himself to be Tannarak (last seen in the backup written by Barr in Saga of the Swamp Thing #5), who has been stealing energy from the other infants. The Outsiders show up to watch Phantom Stranger defeat him and restore the other infants to normal. The family Geo-Force brought in have a second, miracle child, so we get a happy Christmas ending.

Green Lantern #174: Wein and Gibbons continue the story from last issue with Hal falling to his death, encased in yellow plastic. He uses the air he exhales to push out against the plastic with his power, breaking it at the last second. He traces Javelin to a junkyard, but there's just one of his weapons there, so Hal believes he's been given the slip. He find out Jason Bloch is behind this, still out for revenge on the Ferris family. 
After been given an accidental pep talk by Clay Kendall, Hal again tries to find Javelin and the stolen engine. He realizes that the villain's secret lair was right in front of him: under the junkyard. He gets defeats Javelin's goon and confronts the man himself. Just as Hal is about to claim victory, He sees the yellow rocket, powered by Ferris' solar engine, shooting off toward Ferris Aircraft. It's tricky redirecting the rocket and rescuing the engine as it's been painted yellow, but Hal figures it out.
Meanwhile in the Pacific, a drops some toxic waste into the water, causing the Shark to return to his mutated form.

Legion of Super-Heroes #309: Levitz, Giffen, and Mahlstedt have the Legion confront the Prophet in force, setting political considerations aside, but he seems more than a match for all of them, until Invisible Kid seems to notice a tell for the source of his power: his eyes are absorbing solar energy. Shadow Lass blocks his eyes with her power, allowing them to defeat him--but that only seems to open the way for Omen.
There's again a backup by Levitz/Giffen and Broderick/DeCarlo. Karate Kid and Princess Projectra have their beachside honeymoon interrupted by an attack by the would-be usurper, Prince Pharoxx. 

Sgt. Rock #385: The Kanigher/Redondo main story is a solo take for Jackie Johnson, Easy Company's only (ahistorical) black member. Jackie winds up helping liberate a French village being terrorized by the Germans. Next up is a grim tale of the storming of a beach where a hero finds an early death.  The final story is a reprint from 1972 by Kanigher and Thorne about two West Point rivals who meet in real battle during the Civil War and the place and limits of "honor."

Supergirl #17: Some thugs kidnap Dr. Metzner for the manuscript of an unpublished biography he's written about Jackson Burroughs, an international businessman with a criminal reputation. Since Linda Danvers has the manuscript, she's also a target. Burroughs later explains that Metzner has discovered he is working with two rival criminal gangs, and he doesn't want them to know that, so he gives Metzner the choice: revise the biography to hide this detail or be killed and he'll revise it. Supergirl trails Metzner and the thugs and has to fight Matrix-Prime who is working with Burroughs. She rescues her boss, captures Burroughs, and also comes up with a higher tech way to hide her identity instead of a brunette wig.
There is at least on panel in this issue where the art is really bad. Supergirl's hand is strangely elongated. In general, I think the Oksner inks over Infantino is more pleasing that Infantino's work in Flash, but that panel managed to get by them both. On another art related note, Supergirl adds a headband to her costume at the end of this issue. This was supposedly done to match the then-upcoming film, but the film wound up not using the headband after all.

Superman Special #2: This story by Bates and Kane bills itself as an "imaginary tale." It presents an alternate timeline branching from Action Comics #530 and in conflict with the debut of the "new look" Brainiac in Action Comics #544. It does make me wonder how this story came to be. Was it written before #544, but not completed until later, so rendered "imaginary?" Were they competing proposals for Kane's time and editorial liked them both? It just seems less likely to me that they commissioned a special imaginary story in 1983. 
Anyway, Brainiac escapes the certainly doom of #530 and arrives at a planet that ignorantly worships a computer made by their ancestors and sets himself up as it's oracle. Like Luthor he can't just let a good thing be, so he sets about demonizing Superman then lures the Man of Steel to the planet to spring a trap. A telepath among the people senses something is off and comes to believe Superman's story, helping him escape execution. Brainiac is defeated and the world is liberated.

Swamp Thing #22: Moore and Bissette/Totleben spend this issue dealing with the fallout of last issue's bombshells. Swamp Thing, now knowing he is only a plant, has taken root in the swamp, ruminating on his life and quixotic search for a return to humanity, and is unresponsive to Abby and Matt. Woodrue performs experiments on him, hoping to connect to the Green through Swampy and eats one of his tubers. Eventually, he succeeds and is stripped of humanity and transformed into the Floronic Man.
This issue really cements that Moore is going someplace interesting with Swamp Thing. Even with last issues surprises, he could have returned to telling the same sort of horror stories the series was doing before. This is where makes it clear, I think, that his run is going to be special.

Thriller #5: Fleming's and von Eeden's approach storytelling continues to be confusing. We're introduced to Kane Creole who is (apparently) a famous Elvis-esque musician and also potentially a bank robber. He runs afoul of the Seven Seconds, and shoots Crackerjack with an anesthetic bullet, but for a moment Data thinks his friend is dead and pins Creole against a wall with his car. Marietta learns the truth about Angie and also uses the power of Malocchia's eyes to make Tony eat a lot of Italian food. Angie and Edward reconcile, and Angie fixes all of Dan's torn photographs.

Warlord #79: My brother and I bought this issue of the stands. I have always liked this Jurgens cover. I talked about the main story here. In the Barren Earth backup by Cohn and Randall, Jinal and her friends are transported to a slave market in a distant city. Their Harashashan allies show up ostensibly to purchase them, but actually just to set them free. They flee the city together with the cheated slavers on their tail.

New Talent Showcase #3: Sky Dogs is absent this issue and the Klein/Hampton Class of 2064 and theMargopoulos/Woch Forever Amber come to lackluster conclusions. I think 2064 is the better of the two, in that it pretty much ends in a way consistent with the story up until this point with our young heroes discovering the Free Earthers aren't really the bad guys, merely desperate to get a medical advancement that could help them. Chryse turns it over willing. And in the end, sidekick Tycho gets the girl instead of Pern.
Forever Amber detours into a "ripped from the headlines" condemnation of Agent Orange and government coverup and indifference after Amber finds her Dad and doesn't kill him after hearing his side of things.
The other two stories are oneshots. Sabatini and Day present a Medieval fantasy story of a king close to losing his throne thanks to a magical contract with another ruler because he doesn't have an heir, but in the midst of a siege, his queen gives birth to a son. Jacobs and Isherwood present the strange tale of Ticker Blood, a U.S. army soldier in prison in 1892 for supposedly going mad and massacring a town and his fellow soldiers. He's brought before a commanding officer who seems to believe his incredible story that it wasn't actually him that killed the town but monsters, and he had fled in terror, abandoning the others to their fates. He's given a chance to set things right and destroy the monsters who now have the semblance of the townsfolk, but when he thinks that is done, he wakes up back in his jail cell. We're left to wonder at the reality of what we have been told.

 Lately I've been thinking about how well some classic adventures might adapted to real world settings. By real world, I mean historical fantasy--I'm not thinking of throwing out magic. Some monsters or at least, their abundance might be sacrificed, though. Harryhausen fil-esque beasts would be fine; tribes of orcs or goblins would likely be reskinned.

There are, of course, a number of dungeoncrawls which could take place pretty much anywhere with a little work. Here are a few that I recall with more distinct locations:

The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh: Given that we're told the setting of this one is meant to evoke a south-coast English town, the obvious placement for me (inspired by Captain Clegg) would be the set on the southeast coast of England in the area of Romney Marsh. Of course, that's not the only option. The Low Country would work, too. The significant presence of lizard men in the area might need to be reskinned as something else, but maybe having this have to do with Deep Ones off the coast would work?

Beyond the Crystal Cave: This one reminds me of The Tempest (though it's probably the similarity of the name Porpherio to Prospero and the island location that does that) so I would place it on Prospero's Island in the Mediterranean, which could be Pantelleria as some have suggested or a completely fictional Mediterranean isle.

Aerie of the Slave Lords: My initial thought on this one was the Barbary Pirates, but that name is usual reserve for pirates that are a bit later era than might be the sweet spot. Fortunately (in this context only!), slave trading in the Mediterranean was quite common in the Middle Ages. You don't have to go to an "evil" nation like a Pomarj, you just have to go to Venice.  Some Mediterranean port could be a stand-in for Highport, and a fictional mediterranean volcanic island in the Companian volcanic arc would be the sight of the slaver's secret base.

Anyway, you get the idea. 

There are a lot of very reasonable criticisms regarding the Gygaxian Great Wheel of Outer Planes, though I also like a lot about it. I've spent a fair number of posts on this blog trying to make it truly it some sort of coherent set of competing paradigms as Planescape promises but doesn't really deliver.
This post, I want to go in another direction entirely and see if the Outer Planes can be configured in such a way as to have a bit more Medieval flavor, a possible monotheistic bend, and potentially mostly be about the afterlife.
Take a look at the cosmology presented in the works of Dante:

Dante (like OD&D) imagines an order where what in latter day D&D terms we would call Lawful Good. So the Empyrean, the realm outside the cosmos where the Godhead or whatever supreme principle of goodness resides is the equivalent of the Seven Heavens of Mount Celestia in the Great Wheel.
"Beneath" that we enter the cosm and the spheres of the heavens. Here mystical cosmology mixes with physical cosmology and we have the Aristotlean celestial spheres of the classic planets. Dante makes of them "not-quite-good-enough heavens, and I would too, but with a twist. These would be the afterlives or mystic realms of "pagan" deities (using the term here to mean deities other than our Supreme Godhead mention above). Something similar to how the cosmology of the Sandman comics series works or Jurgen by James Branch Cabell, but more systematized as Gary would have wanted it. I would probably nix specific alignments in this sort of setup, focusing on interesting themes and correspondences.
Frank C. Papé
Above the planets is the sphere of the Primum Mobile or Prime Mover. This will be the mindless demiurge or ghost in the machine that makes the physical and near physical universe run. This is Mechanus of the Great Wheel. Arriving at the Earth, we find Elysium/Elysian Fields, the Terrestrial Paradise. It can be found by the living, but it's difficult. Beneath the Earth is the gloomy, gray realm of Hades. 
In the caverns beneath Hades we begin to slip into the realm of truly evil souls, places where monsters have been cast down. There realms are probably all tied to a Deadly Sin. No doubt there are several infernal realms before we get to Hell (represented the sin of Pride) proper, where the rebellious angels have built their resentful kingdom in exile.
Immediately beneath heal would be Tartarus, where the Godhead has locked up frightening beings. Rival gods? The mistakes of former creation? Who knows?
Beneath Tartarus is the Abyss. The deep waters mentioned in Genesis, though this may not literally be water but some fluid. Liquid Tiamat (from Babylonian myth, not the the Dungeon & Dragons cartoon). Malign chaos incarnate.
Robert Crumb

I'm reading DC Comics' output from January 1980 (cover date) to Crisis! This week, I'm reviewing the comics released on the week of December 15, 1983. 

New Teen Titans #40: Perez delivers a great cover, but on the inside, he and Wolfman are back with the Brother Blood stuff I don't really like. The Titans are guests on Bethany Snow's TV show in a segment regarding proposed arms shipments to Zandia. The Titans, led by Wonder Girl, are unable to convince the other guests or the audience of the true evil intentions of the guy named Brother Blood whose live via satellite in a blood red outfit with a horned and fanged mask. He's just too darn charismatic! Dick figures out that the congressmen appearing on the program in support of Blood are actually his followers. Later, disguised as newsman Joe Walsh, Dick accompanies Bethany Snow and the three politicians on a fact-finding tour to Zandia, only to have his true identity uncovered by Blood's cult. Getting an emergency signal from Dick, the other Titans crash Blood's temple in their T-sub but get knocked out by gas. They awaken to find themselves about to be lowered into his weird pool of blood--and Dick in Brother Blood's thrall.

Superman #393: Rozakis/Cavalieri and Novick/Giordano discover yet another creep kind of obsessed with Lana: the super-villain called the Master Jailer. We last saw him back was in Superman Family #221 back in '82. He has a pretty ingenious plot, marred by his nuttiness. He targets Superman with missiles that fuse Green Kryptonite to his costume, and his costume to his skin. Superman appears to have succumb to the poisoning in the Fortress of Solitude. Next, the Jailer goes after Clark Kent. He looks all over town but has a tough time tracking him down. When he finally confronts him, Clark is revealed to be Superman--wearing a Clark Kent mask. He defeats the Master Jailer and reveals who he used a Bizarro device to make Bizarro copies of the Jailer's missiles that then exploded and de-Kryptonited him.

Arak Son of Thunder #31: Colon is back on art, though much of this story is a reprint of the Thomas/Colon/DeZuniga preview of Arak in Warlord #48 (1981). Arak relates that incident to Satyricus in context of a story about about a girl named Amber who was a slave to the viking jarl, Ottar. He contests with Sigvald for her, with Ottar planning to give the girl to whoever brings him the biggest piece of amber. Although, Arak successfully retrieved a larger piece of amber, he returned too late. Ottar died while he was away and, in the Viking tradition, his slave girl was killed with him. Arak began to think of leaving the company of the vikings as a result, which he soon would. 

Batman #369:  Moench and Newton/Alcala return to Alfred and his daughter, Julia. They're in Montreal investigating Jacques' murder. They must be on to something, because someone keeps trying to kill them. After more than one close call, Alfred calls in Batman for help. It turns out the assassin is Deadshot, who is so eager for revenge on Batman, he starts making blunders regarding the job he's supposed to be doing. Julia is desperate to avenger her father and is getting reckless, too. A well-timed Batarang at Julia's gun, keeps Deadshot from killing her and her from killing Deadshot. Batman interrogates Deadshot and the assassin reveals to their surprise that it was Jacques Remarque who hired him!

Flash #331: Bates/Cavalieri and Infantino/McLaughlin conclude the story from last issue. Flash lets Grodd think he's finished him, so the ape lets his guard down and let's Angelo go. Flash springs into action and uses his speed to actually move Grodd in front of his own mental blast. Solovar and the Gorilla City crew show up to bring the Flash home and take Grodd into custody. Meanwhile, the police are looking for the missing Barry Allen and somebody plants a bomb in the office of the Flash's lawyer. Hearing the explosion over the phone, the Flash races to save him, but will he be in time?

G.I. Combat #263: Continuing the story from previous issues, the Mercenaries managed to best the Yeti creature and grab the cobra statue--which doesn't appear to be made of anything like the gold and jewels they were promised. Still, the women with them are going to take it back to the temple, so the Mercenaries follow along to keep them out of harm. Good plan, because they do get attacked. Back at the temple, the old man uses some liquid to reveal it's true, golden, jewel encrusted form. He gives the Mercenaries a ruby each. They leave, but then Gordon decides he wants to go back for the woman he's sweet on, but the temple and its inhabitants have disappeared.
The two Haunted Tank stories continue to get mileage out of Craig's son, Eddie, now being a member of the crew. This particularly comes to the fore in the second story which has a frame story of Eddie writing a letter to his mother (Craig's estranged wife) regarding recent events where a fuel shortage for both sides starts as problem but ultimately becomes an advantage for Stuart's Raiders as they're able to take out a group of immobile Panzers solo after that fill up courtesy of captured German vehicles. In the first, Gus' background as a minster is highlighted as he struggles with the commandments of his faith and his duty as a soldier. In the end, though, Kanigher doesn't really have anything profound to say about that, but it's good to see Gus get the spotlight.
The nonseries story is about a bomb disposal team dealing with a bomb made with a particularly tricky fuse. It no doubt carries an additional air of verisimilitude as the writer, Paul S. Newman, served as a tech with a bomb disposal unit.

Omega Men #12: Broot and Shlagen part company with the rest of the Omega Men on Rashashoon. Broot feels he has delayed too long finding his wife. They follow coordinates stolen from the Citadel to a near-lifeless planetoid. There they discover radiation-poisoned Changralynian youth toiling away. They have never met their captors or heard of the Citadel. They work in the name of their religion. At their temple, Broot is horrified to discover that the blind priestess is his wife, Kattayan-Bish.
Meanwhile, the other Omega Men led by Primus race back to Euphorix. They arrive only moments too late. Kalista has re-activated the energy shield and destroyed the controls so that it can't be lowered again.

Star Trek #1: Barr and Sutton/Villagran continue from where last each left off with another almost pitch perfect evocation of Trek. Kirk and Lt. Bryce are in spacesuits attempting to get into the Klingon station hidden in wormhole space while Saavik in a shuttlecraft attracts the Klingon's attention. Captain Koloth (presumably not the same as the one in TOS) is smart though and suspects the shuttle may be a ruse. He orders extra guards and also has guys watch his helmsman Konom, who was the one who secretly signaled the Federation. After some fights and quick thinking, Kirk, Bryce, Saavik and Konom escape via the transporter--but only after Kirk leaves a bomb whose detonation causes the base to return to normal space. Koloth chooses to blow his crew up rather than be captured.
Interestingly, there is foreshadowing of STIII here in some of McCoy's thought balloons. The Klingons are very much of the ST:TMP mold, not the version with less elaborate makeup we'll get in STIII and later. The only detail that seemed off to me is Bryce opening fire on disintegration setting on a group of Klingon guards. It seems like the Starfleet way might have been to stun them, but I can't think of a completely analogous scene in a TOS episode to compare. 

The See of Medegia is a territory ostensibly within the Great Kingdom of Aerdy that is under direct sovereign rule of the Holy Censor of the Aerdian Church of Law. Though the reach of the Censor's ecclesiastical authority has diminished with the decline of the Great Kingdom, he remains one of the most powerful and wealthy rulers in the eastern Flanaess.

The Church of Law has ever tied to the Aerdi, their kings, and kingdom. While the various Hierarchs of Law of the Flanaess were independent, they were in communion, and the Hierarch of Medegia was invested as Holy Censor, guardian over the doctrine of Law and moral guide to the Malachite Throne and the entire Kingdom.

Most Medegian church houses, including its great basilica, were originally dedicated to Pholtus, the Blinding Light, though Legalism being a transtheistic faith, this was not true of other churches in other lands. Today, the iconography of Pholtus persists, but the stern-faced deity is little favored by the current Holy Censor, his most senior clergy, or the other highfolk of the land. The Divine Law has varied manifestations and champions, so why should they not pray to Zilchus, whose doctrine of material prosperity for the faithful is more amiable to their wealth and privilege?

Despite the Holy Censor's roll as advisor to the Overking, neither the indolent Hierarch nor his flattering and generous orthodoxy are favored at court. Ivid is rumored to have become enamored of an antinomian heresy wherein, as a divinely favored monarch, he is above the precepts that bind others. The Censor is, of course, concerned, but not overmuch, so that his enjoyment of his position isn't soured.

This one isn't so much hidden, but hey, when you've got a series title, you gotta stick with it. Unlike with the Church of Law which has been obscured by tme, I think people have a good idea of what Druidism in D&D is: it's neutral and associated with Nature. In the Greyhawk setting and other places it's the "Old Faith" standing in perhaps for pre-Christian beliefs of Europe but without the Christianity.

I think there's another way to go, though, completely consistent with what the original works tell us about druids.

Druids first show up as monsters in the Greyhawk supplement. We are told they are "priests of a neutral-type religion." They can shape change and attractive barbarian followers.

They become a class in Eldritch Wizardry where they are described again as Neutral and "are more closely attuned to Nature, serving as its priests rather than serving some other deity." Mistletoe is holy to them, and they protect plants and animals.

Neutral may well just have been meant to imply unaligned here--not taking a side in the conflict between the civilizing force of law and the destructive forces of chaos: "I am not altogether on anybody’s side, because nobody is altogether on my side, if you understand me: nobody cares for the woods as I care for them," as Treebeard would have it. But maybe it's not just the woods the druid cares about?

Unlike Law and Chaos which seem to be transcendent and come from extraplanar forces, maybe Nature in this context is the cycles and balance of the material world? Given the description in Eldritch Wizardry, it seems likely to me that the religion of the druids is pantheistic with Nature (or the material plane) being an immanent divine force or deity. It could be animistic with everything in the natural world having a separate spirit, but it might also be monist, where divine Nature is the only true reality.

I think then that the druid's neutrality is a somewhat militant sort. The dualism of Law vs. Chaos is contrary to their understanding of the unity of all things; the strong, opposing polarities are nonsensical if existence is governed by cycles. Worse, these ideas from the Outer Planes would be alien intrusions on the harmony of the world.

My continuing mission: read DC Comics' output from January 1980 (cover date) to Crisis! This week, I'm looking at the comics that were at newsstands on the week of December 8, 1983. 

Amethyst: Princess of Gemworld #11: Mishkin/Cohn and Colon reach their penultimate issue with Amethyst leading the many of the houses of Gemworld in an assault of Dark Opal's castle with Prince Topaz recruiting his sister and Lady Sapphire to their cause and joining them. But Dark Opal now has all the gems and has the armor forge his breastplate, which he puts on before it cools in a bit of Victor von Doom-esque rashness. He gives Sardonyx to the Emissaries of Varn to avoid paying his debts, but Carnelian plots betrayal. The final confrontation between Opal and Amethyst looms!

DC Comics Presents #67: Wein and Swan/Anderson do a holday-themed issue, teaming Superman up with Santa Claus. I can't quite say that this sort of thing doesn't occur to today, but it is definitely relegated to holiday one shots of dubious continuity reference. In the waning Bronze Age, this sort of reminder that comics are children's media, or meant to appeal to the child in adults, was still allow in mainstream titles, if in small doses. The villain of this one is naturally the Toymaker, who is hypnotizing kids with gimmick toys on Christmas Eve. Santa Claus helps Superman out, then gets help delivering his toys. 
Atari Force #2: Dart has a potentially prophetic nightmare about Blackjack's death. They buy a ship to head back home, but they unknowingly get a vessel sabotaged by the Dark Destroyer's minions. It leaves them stranded in space in a dangerous situation with enemies approaching. Meanwhile, Packrat is caught by his brother and law enforcement only to escape again with his brother on his trail. Morphea rescues Babe from the unscrupulous smugglers. Chris continues to train with his powers and deal with his anger regarding the prejudice that cost him his relationship. Conway and García-López/Villagran are still getting the team together.

Blackhawk #268: Evanier and various artists (Spiegle, Howell/Giacoia, and Wildey) deliver another issue of solo "Detached Service Diary" tales. Blackhawk deals with a skeptical, know-it-all reporter who refuses to see the Nazi threat, even when getting shot at. Andre deals with a German general and a French collaborator stealing art and jewels by manipulating them to have a falling out with each other and German command. Finally in a holiday themed tale, Olaf, after crashing in a rural area, is helped by a Jewish family and gets the Hanukkah spirit.

Fury of Firestorm #20: Killer Frost discovers that the accident that changed her is also killing her, and that doesn't improve her disposition. Firestorm is trying to find her but can't. The police are being unhelpful thanks to one of the detective's understandable distaste for vigilantism. He's trying to close the Goldenrod case. Ultimately, though, Frost's rampage makes her location apparent. Firestorm rushes to confront her but, in the battle, takes an ice spike through the shoulder. Too weakened to fight, Stein suggests they just let Frost attempt to drain them. She does and is apparently melted away, trying to cope with Firestorm's nuclear heat. Firestorm stumbles to Lorraine's house and passes out.

Justice League of America #224: Busiek and Patton/Giordano pits the League against Paragon, a vigilante out to eliminate the inferior 90% of the population and has the power to duplicate the powers or abilities of any anyone. What he can't do is stand up to the coordinated attacks of the Leaguers combined, particularly with those with unduplicatable powers (Red Tornado and Green Lantern leading the way). An interesting thing about this issue is the opening with Ollie, Clark, and Hal getting together like three buds for a meal in Star City. The dialogue suggests that Star City is located somewhere besides the East or West Coasts, perhaps meaning Busiek conceives it as on the Great Lakes?

Vigilante #4: Newton is on pencils this issue. Chase and his team are riveted to news regarding a murder of the leading man, Clark Reynolds, one half of a classic Hollywood couple by wife and co-star, Grace Moore. Chase gets to attend the trial and Moore's testimony generates a lot of sympathy, but then someone assassinates a witness for the prosecution. Vigilante gets involved dealing with a series of identically dressed, masked assassins. Again, Vigilante makes reference to his quick, but intensive training that turned him from a normal guy to nearly superhuman. In the end, it turns out Grace Moore is not as wholesome as her screen image. She was cheating on her husband, and when he found out, she killed him lest he ruin her reputation. She hired the cybernetic shut-in called the Controller to assassinate witnesses against her with his robots. Wolfman again leans into the Reagan era elements of this sort of character highlighted with some moralizing about the lack good role models and cultural decay. I'm trying to give him the benefit of the doubt that the fact Moore got caught with another woman is just an incidental detail and not meant to be further indication of her depravity.

Wonder Woman #313: Mishkin and Heck have Diana Prince assigned to track down the missing Major Griggs which leads to a confrontation with Circe and her mysterious ally that manages to bind Wonder Woman's wrists--and of course Circe's man-beasts including Griggs. Meanwhile on Paradise Island, Sofia goes up against the Amazon hierarchy investigating why Hippolyta is hiding things from Diana.
In the Cavalieri and Burgard/Martin Huntress story, Huntress manages to escape the angry mob and capture Terry Marsh who she interrogates with some fists to the face until he spills it regarding Earthworm. She surprises the villain and a goon in his lair, and even Earthworm's rat minions don't slow her down. However, Earthworm avoids capture by somehow passing through narrow bars.

 And the M is for "Medieval." I've read some dark and/or weird fantasy set in the Middle Ages of late, and I figured I'd put them together in a list with some complimentary works for those that might be interested.

12th Century:

Mitchell Lüthi. Pilgrim: A Medieval Horror. A German Knight and his companions agree to smuggle a Holy relic out of Jerusalem for the Pope but wind up transported somewhere else by a gigantic sandstorm and confronting cosmic horror.

Clark Ashton Smith. “The Maker of Gargoyles" (In 1138, gargoyles come to life and terrorize the city of Vyones), “The Holiness of Azédarac” (a priest travels through time from 1175; in the future he discovers a sorcerer as managed to get declared a saint). 

13th Century:

Clark Ashton Smith. "The Colossus of Ylourgne." In 1281, a necromancer and his disciples take revenge on Vyones with an undead giant. 

14th Century:

Christopher Buehlman. Between Two Fires. In 1348, as the Black Death ravages France, a disgraced knight and a young girl may be the ones who can keep Lucifer and his legions from bringing about Hell on Earth.

Jesse Bullington. The Sad Tale of the Brothers Grossbart. In 1364, A pair of German brothers from a long line of graverobbers embark on quest to make their fortune looting the crypts of Egypt. They encounter monsters, magic, and madmen along the way.

Clark Ashton Smith. “The Beast of Averoigne.”  In the summer of 1369, a comet heralds the arrival of a strange beast to ravage the lands around the Abbey of Périgon.

15th Century:

Jesse Bullington. The Folly of the World. In the aftermath of the St. Elizabeth's Flood, three conspire to take a treasure from a town beneath the water. 

by Anna Meyer
The Iron League was a separatist alliance formed in 447 CY for mutual defense against the Great Kingdom. While the members made much rhetorically of the demoniac apostasy and madness of the Naelax, the League's greatest concern was economic. None of the trading cities wished to allow the profligate Aerdy nobility to root like pigs in their accumulated wealth.

The association's core members had histories stretching back to ancient, Suloise, maritime city-states. While the Aerdi gained suzerainty over the region, the regional lords were content to allow a great deal of local self-rule (so long as they benefited from the ongoing trade), and in time became intertwined with the Suloise population through marriage and alliance with the local oligarchic families. Intra-region conflict between local nobles, powerful families and guilds was a more pressing concern until the Herzog's heavy-handed treatment prompted the member states to set aside their differences. At least for a time.

Although the League was founded primarily for military purposes, it did possess a confederal civil government. The ruling council, composed of representatives of the individual states, was fairly limited in its power outside of military matters, but was given the ability to control custom duties and adjudicate disputes between regions.

This is a follow-up to this post. I drew inspiration for the Iron League from the Lombard League and communes of North Italian and their relationship with the Hohenstaufen Holy Roman Emperors. Given their Suloise history and their climate (Hot summer Mediterranean, according to Anna Meyer's climate map), I felt like their Suloise history might well amount to something like the Phoenician city-states. Visually, the continental states would look something like Sicily, Southern Italy, or parts of the Iberian Peninsula, except the Lordship of the Isles which is more humid and more like Florida.

Here are some suggestions for comics related gifts for this holiday season:

Mighty Marvel Calendar Book: All the classic Marvel calendar images from '75-'81 are collected in this hardcover. It features art by Buscema, Miller, Simonson, Perez, Kirby, and more. Who doesn't want to see the Hulk as George Washington at Valley Forge?

Hobtown Mysteries vol 2: The Cursed Hermit: I've been charmed by this quirky series of stories probably most succinctly described as "Twin Peaks meets Nancy Drew/Hardy Boys." Creators Bertin and Forbes present a small, coastal Canadian village with a lot of weird stuff going on under the surface. The Teen Detective Club—a registered after-school program makes it their business to get to the bottom every one of their town's bizarre occurrences unraveling the secret history of their town as they go. You'll want to read volume one first.

World's Finest: Teen Titans vol 1: Spinning out of the Waid's World's Finest we get a tale of the original Teen Titans, that homages the Silver Age while by completely modern. Waid's approach to this these link series brings a lot of warmth and a bit of humor in addition to the superhero action.

Frieren: Beyond Journey's End vol 1: I've talked about how good this fantasy manga about what happens after the party completes the epic quest is before (back when #11 came out). Alas, there's no bundle of all 11 (currently) volumes, but this is where you want to jump in.

Duke vol 1: I was skeptical of the Energon Universe re-imaging of Hasbro's toy properties when I first heard about it, but the Duke limited series won me over. Not every limited series has been as good I don't think, but this one and Cobra Commander are well worth your time if you have any interest in the 80s iteration of G.I. Joe.

DC Comics Style Guide: Early this year Standards Manual announced they would be reprinting the fabled DC Style Guide from 1982 with that gorgeous José Luis García-López artwork that set the standard for the look of the DCU for a generation. It ain't cheap, but you can pre-order this hardcover here.