Sorcerer's Skull

My mission: to read DC Comics' output from January 1980 (cover date) to the end of Crisis. This week, I'm looking at the comics that were on stands in the week of March 7, 1985. 

Best of DC #61: I haven't reviewed these digests since the earliest days of this blog series, but since I have mentioned this issue many times and how great I thought it was in my childhood (and I still do), I thought I should note it. If you only wanted to read one anthology of late pre-Crisis DC material to judge what it had to offer, this would be the one. We've got "Anatomy Lesson" from Swamp Thing, "Who is Donna Troy?" from New Teen Titans, "Guess What's Coming to Dinner?"from Legion of Super-Heroes, and "Final Duties" from Green Lantern, then lesser, but still notable stories: "Babe's Story" from Atari Force, "Killers Also Smile" from Sgt. Rock, "Viva Nebiros" from Blue Devil, and "If Superman Didn't Exist..." from Action Comics.

Crisis on Infinite Earths #3: I bought this issue off the stands as well. We get introduced to Alexander Luthor, last survivor of Earth-Three and an adolescent now composed of both matter and antimatter. He's in the care of the Monitor. Harbinger, meanwhile, is preparing for her betrayal.
Flash is somehow in the future (his series will get around to this, I'm sure!) and to escape a wall of antimatter, begins vibrating his molecules back in time--which again leads to us seeing him giving a desperate warning to Batman and the Outsiders and the Teen Titans in the 20th Century, as they try to save people from the antimatter wave in New York. Also in the present, though out in space, Brainiac becomes concerned about events and decides to seek out Lex Luthor.
In Markovia in 1944, the Monitor's chosen, Blue Beetle, Dr. Polaris, and Geo-Force, wind up fighting alongside a who's who of DC's war comics characters: Sgt. Rock and Easy, Stuart's Raiders, and the Losers. Those last wind up losing their lives to shadow demons.
Cyborg, Green Lantern, Psimon and Firebrand arrive in Texas in 1879. They meet up with several Western heroes including, Nighthawk, Scalphunter, Bat Lash, Johnny Thunder and Jonah Hex. The two disparate groups join forces and fight the shadow demons. Either what happens isn't clear or I missed something, but somehow Nighthawk winds up in a separate place from the group and is taken by the antimatter wave riding towards a town.
Other heroes fall: Psycho Kid is taken by the wave in the 30th Century. In Earth-AD, Solovar succumbs to his injuries suffered last issue. We're only 3 issues in and things are looking bad for the heroes!

Atari Force #18: Baron and Bareto/Villagran open with Tempest escaping from detention on New Earth, but he spends much of the issue lost in weirder corners of the multiverse until Dart is able to guide him to Scanner One. Scanner One has to get back home because supplies are running low, but the navigational path is a treacherous one. Dart, based on her vision, volunteers Blackjak for the task, and ultimately, Martin relents. Blackjak's new eye makes it an all but impossible task, but the Tazlings restore his mechanical one in time for him to get them to safety.
In the Hukka backup by Manak and Rogers/Delbeato, Young Christopher Champion takes Hukka with shopping with him to buy some action figures, but Hukka stays behind and the store closes. He gets chased by the security patrol dog. Christopher, realizing his pet is missing, uses his phasing powers to rescue the critter.

DC Comics Presents #82: Bates's story here is pretty good but elevated by Janson's art. Alanna is having recurrent nightmares and when she begins to mumble in Kryptonian, Adam Strange calls in Superman. It turns out Alanna is possessed by a Kryptonian demoness called Zazura, who is out to destroy Rann. When they figure out her presence on Rann is due to it passing through the area of space where Krypton was when it was destroyed 30 years ago, they are able to use a crystal harvested from Krypton's dust to weaken and destroy her. Superman also gets a chance to commune with other spirits of his lost homeworld, those of its people.

Fury of Firestorm #3: This issue isn't Kayanan's or Kupperberg's best interior art, though the cover is nice. Perhaps it was rushed? Storywise, Conway picks up where last issue left off, with Firestorm having been left for dead, Stein silent, apparently unconscious, and the Killer Frost/Plastique team headed for Niagara Falls. Firestorm pursues them, and luckily, he's helped in this second round by Firehawk. He takes down Plastique while Firehawk deals with Killer Frost. Later, Ronnie visits Stein in the hospital as he recovers from a concussion. Though he will miss him when the Professor moves to Pittsburgh, he now feels better able to go on without him--but when Doreen mentions college to him, Ronnie begins thinking that they can both go to school in Pittsburgh!

Jonni Thunder #3: Turns out Red Nails isn't just an exotic entertainer and club owner, she's also very much in the know regarding the statue and apparently able to put together an electrical super-weapon to threaten the city, cribbed from Tesla's notes! Jonni and Harrison Trump have to make common cause to escape Red and her Glamazons (that's what they're called!), then thwart her super-weapon. In between all that, 'Slim' Chance makes yet another attempt to steal the Thunderbolt statue.

Justice League of America #238: In the beginning of the issue, Conway and Hoberg/Patton address the continuity problems created by Superman, Wonder Woman, and Flash being away for "weeks" while the old JLA was disbanded and a new one formed, all while having ongoing adventures in their own titles--and Flash even being on trial. The solution: "Crisis did it," which may make this the first appearance of that explanation that will get used quite a bit in years to come. The issue ends with the 3 going back in time via Flash's treadmill to not "create a paradox."
That out of the way, we get down to Vixen having her final confrontation with her uncle. He kidnaps Mother Windom to provoke her, and Aquaman seems to use his telepathy to briefly stop her from going after him, but Martian Manhunter intervenes and reproves him for his coercive tactics. Maksai dies as a result of his actions, and Vixen's father is avenged.

Shadow War of Hawkman #2: The editorial notes in place of a letter column in this issue make clear that Isabella is engaged in sort of Thomas-like retcon and streamlining of the Hawk mythos, which I suppose makes this the first in an almost continuous history of such from the mid-80s on. In the main story, the Shadow War continues with the murder of a mutant who is just practicing with his flight powers. In Midway City, Katar Hol prepares to go after the attackers. He tracks them to their cave hideout and meets their leader Fell Andar. He first has the upper hand, but they manage to capture him when he is shocked by his discovery that they are Thanagarians.

Tales of the Teen Titans #54: Buckler does interior pencils here, though Barreto proves the cover. The trial of the Flash uh, Terminator continues, and it isn't going well, because in the New York state of the DCU if they don't have an admitted super-criminal super-soldier with links to a terrorist organization beyond a reasonable doubt on a murder wrap, they've just gotta let him go! So decides Judge Adrian (Vigilante) Chase. Anyway, Slade is helped in escaping justice by the mysterious impersonator who creates doubt that he is in fact the Terminator. This turns out to be Gar Logan using Mento's helmet to project an image. He wants Slade free to he can seek his own justice. Meanwhile, Azrael pines for Lilith and Lilith wonders about his past. This stuff might build tension if it all hadn't been explored in the past couple of issues of the sister title.

Vigilante #18: After painting Linnaker as a relentless killer last issue, Moore and Biakie move to at least humanize him a bit by revealing his thoughts in a letter he wrote to his daughter from prison. As he searches for a way to get out of town with a terrified Jodie, Fever and Vigilante keep up their uneasy partnership to try to track the two down. In the end, Vigilante and Linnaker engage in a brutal fight, but Jodie grabs a gun and shoots Vigilante, not her father. Fever runs over Linnaker with a car, however, and keeps on doing it until he's definitely dead. Jodie in horror starts to shoot her, but Vigilante takes the gun. In the aftermath, Vigilante is trouble by all of this, and by what he read in Linnaker's unsent letter, including attacks on the hyprocrisy of society and the nature of judgement. 

With our Land of Azurth campaign nearing its conclusion, I've been thinking about what might come after. Or more truthfully, I've thought of several things that could come after in the last few months as I've felt the end was nigh.

Currently, I've been considering a variation on an idea I've had before: a high adventure occasionally dungeoneering fantasy world inspired by Japanese Standard (Western) Fantasy. Magitech will plan a big role in the setting, and there will be a loose approach to anachronism (even looser than standard D&D settings). This sort of setting will also support the expansive "ancestries" available these days in 5e and high action combat.

The incursion of "demons" (more like the broader D&Dism of fiends than the specifically chaotic evil variety) in service of a Demon King that will reside in the dark side of the physical world rather than a separate plane. I think the world will be shape like an inverted bowl with the demon world being within the concave surface. The "rim" will be the Terminator, a region that never sees more of the sun than twilight and holds numerous lonely fortifications to watch for demonic incursion.

To the extent that it will be variant from standard D&D, I don't worry much about my players accepting it. They've been playing in Azurth for over a decade so that shouldn't be a problem! I do want it to be distinct from Azurth though to provide a somewhat different experience.

In the Latter Ages of Earth, it is known that the scientist mages of more lucent eras spoke of an invisible, co-existing realm. Scholars know this as the Plane of Shadow. It is long been rumored that there are artifacts allowing minds or shadows to be translated into this shadow realm. These legendary artifacts are known as black mirrors. 

The Plane of Shadow is no ethereal realm, but a place of matter as solid as any, but it remains aloof and invisible. It only interaction is with gravity, so that there might well be whole ecologies of this shadow matter upon the Earth unknown to the mundane world. 

If the black mirrors truly exist, it implies that there is or once was, a civilization or entity on the other side capable of constructing some sort of form for a mind passing through. If such a Shadow or intelligence civilization exists, they could well have some means of sending agents into the world of mundane matter as well.

I'm reading DC Comics' output from January 1980 (cover date) to Crisis! This week, I read the comics on sale on February 28, 1985.

World's Finest Comics #313: Cavalieri and Woch/Alcala aren't done with the Network yet. A member, Cathode, has assembled a stylishly dressed gang of henchmen all her own and has been causing blackouts in Gotham to extort the cash-strapped city. They also delve into kidnapping, picking up an acquaintance of Bruce Wayne's and holding her for ransom. Batman rescues her, while Superman becomes a living battery to restart the power plant. The two plots converge, and Cathode attempts to steal the electrical energy from Superman, but it doesn't end well for her.

Action Comics #567: The cover by Broderick/Ordway gives is the modern version of those deceptive teaser covers of the late Silver/early Bronze Ages. In the main story, Rozakis and Schaffenberger/Hunt bring back Yellow Peri for a "humorous" story that again feels like an inventory piece existing outside of current continuity.  Lois and Clark pose as a couple looking to buy a vacation home in the Poconos to expose a scam artist who happens to be Yellow Peri's ne'er-do-well husband, Alvin. He pressures her to use her magic to help him, and it of course backfires making Clark reveal his identity and propose to Lois, and Alvin reveal his true nature. Superman manages to put things right, causing everyone to lose their memories. He hides Yellow Peri's spellbook, but the implication is she will find it and return. She doesn't in the pre-Crisis universe (outside of Who's Who), and she won't appear at all until a bit part in 52.
In the second story by Wolff and Saviuk/Jensen, a blind man who has developed a means for tracking Superman becomes the target for a hood who wants to use his data to expose Superman's secret identity. Superman and the inventor thwart the criminal, and Superman introduces him to the League of Superman Watchers, which the story treats like it's a bit of Superman lore, but the internet suggests this issue is its first and only appearance.

Arion Lord of Atlantis #31: Kupperberg and Duursema bring us part 2 of "The Magic Odyssey." After Arion discovers that the crystals used to contact his father's spirit have been turned to dust somehow, he and Chian take Wyynde to Hoshan, where Chian was raised and trained, to find help from her old teacher Yoshiro in getting Arion's magic back and healing Wyynde. 
But Chian's former lover Tomokata is in league with some shadowy evil and plots against Arion in an effort to get Chian back. After Tomokata tampers with Arion's gemstone, the mage appears to have regained his power, but it's all part of an evil plan.

All-Star Squadron #44: Thomas and Jones/Marcos began revealing more on the origin of Liberty Belle. She and Johnny Quick head to Philadelphia to meet Belle’s friend Tom Revere. They ambushed by Baron Blitzkrieg and his new henchman Zyklon, a speedster rivalling Johnny. Blitzkrieg kills Revere and Zyklon defeats Johnny, then they escape with the actual Liberty Bell. Liberty Belle (the superheroine) mourning Revere's death and feeling responsible, vows to give up her super-hero identity.

Detective Comics #550: Moench and Broderick/Smith deliver a sort of story that is really more about the criminal than Batman himself. It reminds me a bit of a similar sort of story Moench did in his run on Moon Knight. Joey Redwine has just killed a nun in a robbery, and as Batman chases him, he recalls the events of his abusive childhood and troubled life that led to this point. Spurning Batman's attempts to bring him in unharmed, he falls from a rooftop straight into Hell to be tormented alongside his father.
Moore and Janson concluded their Green Arrow/Black Canary story. The criminal with the bow and arrow puts a shot into Black Canary sending her to the hospital. Confusing his lucky cheap shot for skill, he sees this as confirmation that the superhero game is all kayfabe and the heroes aren't that tough. When Green Arrow answers his challenge to a one-one-one contest, he finds out how wrong he is. After taking the chump in, Ollie visited Black Canary in the hospital.

Spanner's Galaxy #6: Cuti and Mandrake conclude the series. Spanner and Gadj are rescued from their tiny prison world and taken to Kabor, only to have Spanner sentenced to wear a metallic Narconium Mask that doesn't interfere with his life other than keeping him from castling. Together with a sympathetic investigator he solves the mystery of what Baka was after all this time: There's a scientist that needed the jewel from the shek Spanner was given to power a device that could be used as a super-weapon. Baka shows up, kills the scientist and duels Spanner. Spanner wins, of course, but Baka escapes, and the law wants him to chase Baka now. This whole series seems like a misfire. None of the "done in one" issues particularly built to the ending in any way.

Sun Devils #11: The Sun Devils confront Anomie, and she reveals how collaborating with the sauroids was the only way to escape the camps her conquered people were put into. The other Sun Devils seem quick to forgive, but Rik is angry, being more personally betrayed. Draken has heard Anomie's confession over an open comm and comes to kill Rik at last, but Rik is waiting--though alone for some reason. He and Draken have an epic and brutal fight that lasts most of the issue, but final Rik is victorious. Meanwhile, a Centaurian has chosen to go against his leadership and warn Earth of impending attack.

Tales of the Legion #323: Levitz/Newell and Jurgens/Kesel sort of conclude their Trekian story.  Dawnstar and Brainy are reunited, but before they can get to the bottom of the mystery of this planet, they and their allies are captured. All but Jhodan are sentenced to death while the latter seems to recount his previous heterodox beliefs, though. In the end, he makes an appeal that saves them, but the Legionnaires must leave the planet. Meanwhile, Dev-Em gets made in his undercover mission and captured by the Dark Circle.
The lack of any significant revelation in the ending of this story cements it as a lackluster installment, particularly when coupled with Dawnstar's lovestruck pacificity in regard to Jhodan that makes her seem almost mind controlled in some way. Perhaps we'll get back to this world, eventually. We are told a science mission is dispatched, and Brainiac 5 wants to be involved, but I don't know why they couldn't have just resolved it here.

V #4: Smith takes over for Infantino on pencils. No slight necessarily on any of the creators, but this is the title I find to be the biggest slog every month. Mainly, that's because it's written has if you are familiar with the characters and situations of a TV show I haven't watched in 30 years and didn't watch that closely at the time. So here we get the (I believe) former criminals turned resistance fighters Ham and Chris confronting Nathan Bates, a wealthy human collaborator, who he reveals that he's being forced to cooperate because they have his son Kyle and Elizabeth "the Star-Child," which means something to them. Meanwhile, Mike's crew gets involved with a charismatic proponent of negotiating with the Visitors (based heavily on Carl Sagan) who may be secretly plotting a more violent solution.

Wonder Woman #325: Mishkin and Heck conclude their odd, alien invasion story. Once our heroes convince the Soviet soldiers of the alien threat, the Atomic Knight and a Russian soldier search for a bomb in the Kremlin inadvertent left by the Gremlins that could destroy the Earth's atmosphere. Meanwhile, Wonder Woman, Steve Trevor, Glitch and a group of kids that got on board the alien ship work to overcome the Ytirflirks and destroy the bomb's trigger mechanism on the spacecraft.
While all this is going on, seeds of dissent are being sown on Paradise Island.

Our Land of Azurth 5e game continued last night with the party first dealing with an odd bird creature in the strange subterranean prison where they went seeking the Shadow of the Wizard of Azurth. He told them where they might find a page from the Book of Doors that would lead to the Wizard's sanctum. The Shadow told them, that is. The bird just belched a black cloud at Erekose that left him wounded and confused then ran off. The party chose not to give chase.

They asked the guards where they might find the bridge the Shadows told them about. The Mole guards were surprised to see them still alive, but they told them how to find the bridge, though they warned them (so far as they knew) it was a bridge to oblivion. On the way, they met another chatty ghost trapped in a jar (this one they didn't let out) who seemed to confirm the bridge led nowhere.

They moved ahead, and soon they were crossing a ghostly but sturdy enough bridge into a magical darkness that was almost tangible. It always seemed to hang before then like the surface of a draining liquid. Eventually the bridge became a stone tunnel, and the tunnel gradually became vertical rather than horizontal. But then there was a light at the end. They stopped at a couple of places to reconsider their life choices, but in the end moved on.

They climbed toward the light and emerged through a well made from paper (collapsing it as they did) into a paper town. The buildings began to collapse, folding up around them, as did the various flat, cut-out people they saw. 

They were approached by a cut out of a redheaded girl in a crown. She said she was Princess Seven, ruler of Paper Town, and she had been expecting them, "the heroes." She related the story about how the girl whose shadow she was had been given the Paper Town by a wandering minstrel on her birthday long ago. The minstrel had told her that someday heroes would come seeking a page from the book, and she must give them the town if the world was to be saved.

By now, the town had folded, shrank, and lost its color until it was a blank page. The Princess picked it up in her flat hand and gave it to Waylon. The party asked what would happen to her. She said she would go now to be reunited with the princess whose shadow she was, who had grown into a queen and died a long time ago. With than, the color faded from her, and she drifted to the ground, a paper cutout in the shape of the shadow of a seven-year-old girl.

The party broke the magic gems they had been given to return to the headquarters of the princesses. They found only one gnome guarding the equipment. He was surprised to see them as it had been weeks since they went on their mission. They were presumed to have failed, and the princesses and the amassed armies began the assault on the Sapphire City.

Realizing there was no time to lose, the party affixed the book page to a wall, then passed through the door into the outer sanctum of the Wizard in the Sapphire Castle. Crossing the circular room to the grand doors on the other side down a cerulean carpet, they were attacked by a mass of shadows from several other doors. Surrounded, the party fought through the minions surprisingly quickly (the shadows only rolled one to-hit roll in the double digits!), then listened at the door. Nothing.

Opening it, they found the Wizard on the other side, but he was not as they expected. He was desiccated and insensate upon his throne, energy draining from his body into the black, darkly glowing miniature sun that hung menacingly above his head. 

Before they could do anything, a thick column of smoke-like shadow emerged from the orb, forming into an immense snake-like form with a human face. It spoke in a like the grind of heavy stone: "I am the worm that gnaws at the corpse of time. A cancer in the heart of existence. I have come to bring an ending to this world!"

Tsutomu NiheiThe following suggestions for dungeon adventure rpgs may not be entirely novel, but they certainly aren't common in published rpg dungeons, and I feel like they have potential.

Master of the Dungeon

Rpg dungeons sometimes have bosses, but mostly they seem to sit and wait for dungeoneers to get to them. In other media, they sometimes take a more active role taunting the protagonists or bedeviling them in various ways before the ultimate conflict. While this might become tedious, I feel like when used judiciously, it could be an interesting change of pace.

Time Trial

Despite the emphasis on resource management in some dungeon games, I don't think I've seen a dungeon that opened and close on a certain schedule. This is the case in all the "bauble"-based vaults in Reynolds Revenger series and forecasting the opens and how long they will last is an important job for looters. The anime adaptation of I Left My A-Rank Party... also has some dungeons for which time is a factor, as I recall.

A dungeon with strict time limits, in addition to adding pressure to move quickly, would also force characters to have some strategy about what they explore and loot. Do you try for the big-ticket items immediately or focus on quick exits with lower value items?

A Team Sport

While adventuring guilds aren't ubiquitous in settings, they're an established element. What I don't think I have seen in a rpg setting, though, is competing guilds or organizations (larger than individual parties). Inspiration could be found in the chariot racing factions (demes) of Byzantium or Roman collegia. 

I'm reading DC Comics' output from January 1980 (cover date) to Crisis! This week, I'm looking at comics that were published on February 21, 1985.

Infinity, Inc. #14: Member last month when I said we were promised we would see more form young Todd McFarlane soon? Well, here it is as he becomes the regular penciler on the book with DeZuniga inking. McFarlane's layouts are interesting with a lot of sort of illumination flourish around the panels, but also a lot of white space to no good effect. Soon after the crew returns from the tropical island getaway, Infinity, Inc. is asked to provide security at a concert, where an alien being called Chroma appears and sings an enrapturing song of birth, life, and death. Only Obsidian, shrouded in his shadows, is unaffected, and he's able to cause Chroma to leave somehow. Unfortunately, Chroma's song was recorded and may spread.

Batman and the Outsiders #21: This was an issue I bought as a kid. Barr is joined by 3 different artists for 3 Outsider solo stories. One has a good gimmick and the other two are decent. The best one will turn up in the Best of DC anthology and is a Katana story with art by Jerome Moore. Katana thwarts a gang trying to snatch an artifact (a vase or urn) being delivered to a museum. The gimmick here is that there is no dialogue, but the action is commented on loosely by the radio commentary on a football game.
The Geo-Force story has art by Trevor Von Eeden and has the hero taking on a mechanical shark at an aquarium park. The final story, with art by Randall, sees Black Lightning squaring off with Ghetto-Blaster a villain who has positioned himself as vigilante, knocking down the tenets of slum lords to the approval of the community, but he's really only doing it as a cover for a search for stashed loot from a heist.

Blue Devil #11: It's time for the Blue Devil movie's Hollywood premiere, but despite the superhero celebrity Cassidy has been catapulted into, Werner still isn't happy. What's worse, Blue Devil's trident seems to have a mind of its own, and Shockwave returns for revenge. He and his henchmen attack the theater at the screening. Meanwhile, Jason Blood has sensed a mystic evil rising and turns into Etrigan to track it down. Blue Devil finally defeats Shockwave with the aid of the trident, but after he does so he starts behaving strangely and announces that he is ready to "destroy the world of mortal men."

Conqueror of the Barren Earth #4: Cohn and Randall come to the conclusion of the series. Zhengla's army, with Jinal is primary strategist gets the business of moving against D'Roz, but only after a ritual with psychedelic Mulge mushrooms reveals Yisrah as one of the Old One's of that flying city and a spy. Through trickery and the Old Ones' overconfidence, they take the city, and as soon as they do Jinal betrays her lord and consort, shooting him in the back with the last shot of her blaster, paying him back for the humiliation and abuse she suffered initially. Her duplicity had been telegraphed, but only lightly, so it's a nice dramatic turn. The dying Zhengla remarks that the oracle had said only that he would conquer not that he would rule. He charges Jinal with taking up his dream of creating a new civilization on The Barren Earth. That's exactly what she intends do.
Now as ruler, she takes the Mugle mushrooms again and sees a vision of her forging the united Earth into a force to take into the stars and against the Qlov, but at that point Yisrah seems to speak with her and reveal a hidden truth: the Harashashan, Mulge, and Qlov are all human genetic variants created by the Old Ones to create groups that could survive on the changed earth. When the Old Ones showed the spacefaring humans what they had done, they rejected them, and when the Qlov achieved space travel on their own, a war broke out between the branches of humanity. Jinal realizes she must repair this rift.
Jinal goes looking for Renna and Skinner, only to find that a massive human starship has appeared in the skies over D'Roz. Her rescuers, if that is what they are now, have come at last. Unfortunately, this sort of "season finale" is the last we get of the Barren Earth. 

G.I. Combat #277: The Haunted Tank story by Kanigher/Glanzman turns on Stuart's wrestling with his decision to spare civilian casualties that leads the infantry to take heavy losses. As usual, he puts himself and his men in the thick of it, infiltrating and Italian town to get the element of surprise on the occupying Germans, earning him and his men commemoration in the town's church stain glass windows.
There are two World War II stories. One is about a PT boat captain and is by Kanigher and Catan. The other is about Bedouins turning on their supposed German allies and is by Kashdan/Infante. Finally, there's a "Bravos of Vietnam" story with the group captured and put in a Viet Cong P.O.W. camp, until they manage to make an escape. 

Green Lantern #187: Well, the Wein and Gibbons run didn't amount to much, though they did introduce some new elements (namely the Predator and Hal giving up the ring) later teams will have to deal with. This issue is a fill-in by Kupperberg and Willingham before the new, regular team starts. After Rich's funeral, Carol and Hal both note the distance in their relationship, but neither knows the cause. It isn't helped when Carol finds the Predator in her house. He again declares his love, and Hal shows up to fight him, but gets beaten up. Meanwhile, Bruce Gordon decides to leave Ferris Aircraft, and Stewart as Green Lantern flubs the rescue of a space shuttle (though it turns out all right, no thanks to him). Frustrated by his mistakes, he goes to the Oans to request training, and they assign Katma Tui to help out.
There's a backup Tales of the Green Lantern Corps by Baron with atypically cartoony art from Rogers. It's the story of a mom Green Lantern that uses a bubble blown with her kid's toy to escape a yellow energy bubble.

New Teen Titans #8: Wolfman and García-López/Tanghal open with Thia having pretty much conquered Olympus. She takes a break then to explain to Lilith how she met her father (the former head of Sun Publishing) then killed him once Lilith was conceived and took over the business. Lilith was spirited away by a nurse, and for a long time, Thia thought she was dead until her powers activated. 
Meanwhile, the Titans find out about Thia, then travel to Tartarus to enlist the aid of the Titan gods and team up with them to defeat some giants allied to Thia. They vow to help their teen namesakes against the renegade titaness.

Sgt. Rock #400: In the main story by Kanigher and Gonzales, Rock takes shelter in a cave from a fire started by a group of SS out to kill him. He thinks about the individual (named) members of Easy, how they each have beaten the odds and get on going at one time or another. He feels like he can't do any less. Of course, he makes it out alive and reunites with his unit.
The second story by Harris/Wagner has a GI taking inspiration from the Superman comic he's derided by his sergeant for reading. A humor strip by Eric Vincent winds out the issue.

Saga of Swamp Thing #36: It's interesting contrasting this title with Flash, both of which are decompressed in their storytelling relative to the other titles of the era, but in different ways. Bates/Infantino take a rather soap opera approach where important moments are delayed by intervening incidents and cliffhanger endings. Moore and Bissette move the story along in more of a modern streaming drama sort of way. It's mostly character stuff that delays plot points and the cliffhangers tend to come after something is revealed, not just before. Swamp Thing's is the style of serial storytelling that tends to work well in compilation.
Anyway, as Swamp Thing is dying from his exposure to Nukeface and calling out to Abby for help, we spend most of the issue with a former employee with some complicity with the dumping that led to Nukeface who has also improbably come to Louisiana. His pregnant wife is inadvertently exposed to Nukeface while the police search the toxic man. Meanwhile, Abby arrives to have Swamp Thing tell her he loves her and that this body is dying, but he's going to try to enter the Green and then make a new one.

Warlord #93: I reviewed this issue here.

Who's Who #3: This issue features Blue Beetle who has yet to actually appear in the DC Universe. We get a few Firestorm characters: Breathtaker, Bug, and Byte. There's Blue Devil and his foe, Bolt. Blackstarr is here from her story arc in the short-lived Supergirl series, but the internet informs me she's got a couple more appearances before the end of Crisis.

Paul Wolfe of Mystic Bull Games is starting up a Sword & Sorcery fiction magazine called Swords Against! The first issue is being crowdfunded now. It features stories by familiar names including Michael Stackpole and Dariel R. A. Quiogue, and interior art by Jason Sholtis (presumably among others).

If that alone isn't enough to convince to you, Jason and I have short comic that will appear in the issue now that that stretch goal has been surpassed. It's called Spells Against Civility. Here's the pitch:

Harken to this tale of two rival wizards, apprenticed together, now alike in Art, pettiness, and vainglory...

Marzomon, once the Golden, former hero whose reputation fell under shadow of cowardice and party abandonment. He now ekes out a living trading on his former glories and hawking dubious male enhancement magics.

Hokus the Black, who sold his soul and other vital constituencies piecemeal to various diabolic entities and must stay ahead of his creditors as he seeks to overcome his rival. 

If any of the above sounds cool to you--and particularly if all of it does--then head over to backerkit and give some support!

I'm reading DC Comics' output from January 1980 (cover date) through Crisis! This week, I read the comics released the week of February 14, 1985, just before my 12th birthday.

Omega Men #25: Klein and McManus/Smith are in place as the new creative team, and they start the story so in media res I had to check to make sure I hadn't missed an issue. Nimbus contends with an insane X'hal and her son Auron, while the Omega Men, now led by Kalista and Tigorr, and contending with spider-themed invaders to Vega who aren't identified in this issue, but I assume are the Spider Guild, who also appear in the back-up.
In "Tales of Vega" by Moore and O'Neil, the Spider Guilds invasion of a world is thwarted by the giant inhabitants moving too slowly to take notice of them.

Amethyst #5: Estrada is back on pencils this issue. We pick up where we left off with Amy and Emmy in the hands of a headless robot made. With the help of Taffy the dog, they managed to destroy the robot. They start investigating the device Carnelian has apparently been building, visiting an alternate Plantworld where Princess Amaryllis battles the Dark Maple. Carnelian finds them and tells them he got stuck here and has been looking for a way back to Gemworld. Carnelian and Amethyst take the path he discovered, but it's not without dangers.

Arak Son of Thunder #44: This is another issue I bought off the spinner rack back in 1985. The Thomases and DeZuniga continue Arak's and friends' voyage to North America with Captain Re-Iz Hazz. They are sailing east to circumnavigate the globe (or go under the great turtle, as Arak explains it). They make a stop at the island of al-Hind, whether they are waylaid by a pirate with a grudge against their captain. He sales them to the island's corrupt priest as sacrifices for "Shiva." The priest transforms into a multi-armed monster in a ritual, but Arak manages to defeat him. 

Batman #383: Moench and Colan/Alcala present a somewhat humorous story of Bruce Wayne just needing to get some sleep after several busy days for both him and his alter ego. Unfortunately, responsibilities to his home, business, ward, and romantic life keep getting in the way. Finally, after an unplanned night out as Batman, he leans up against a gargoyle on the side of building to at least catch a nap, forgetting he had made dates with both Julia and Vicki the following night.

Flash #345: This issue erodes what little faith I had in the Flash's lawyer, Cecile Horton, and perhaps the entirety of the legal system in Central City. The prosecutor brings a surprise witness to the stand, Kid Flash, who testifies to a number of ways the Flash could have stopped Reverse Flash without killing him. Apparently, there isn't mandatory discovery in the DCU. Cecile handles that reasonably well but treats it like some devastating blow that I just don't see it as being. Then she does something real dumb. After spying on the Allens and discovering the Flash's secret ID, she plans to reveal it in open court--without telling the Flash what she's going to do. Somehow convincing the jury he had a strong motive to kill the Reverse Flash is going to get him found innocent? Anyway, she pulls off his mask in court but he doesn't look like Barry Allen! 

Jemm, Son of Saturn #9: Synn and Tull are both confident they duped the other in their recent deal, but we don't find out this issue which of either may be right. With knowledge of New Bhok, the White Saturnians make an attack. The Bhokian military has a super-weapon it has been eager to employ to wipe out the White Saturnians once and for all. Jemm, though, views himself as having responsibility to all Saturnians and destroyed the weapon. A renegade priest inflames a mob against and soon he is strung up for execution.  

Legion of Super-Heroes #10: The candidates for President of Earth have been drafted, and the Legion has assigned one of their members to guard them which proves a prudent move as Khundian agents try to assassinate them. In the process of defending a candidate, Invisible Kid reviews new powers--maybe teleportation? It turns out though, the Khunds have also target the current President Marte Allon, who locally has her son, Colossal Boy on hand to save the day. Meanwhile, Cosmic Boy announces a leave of absence to the Legion.

Star Trek #14: Barr and Sutton/Villagran pick up where they left off last issue, with Excelsior surrounded and about to be destroyed. Kirk and crew have another trick up their sleeve, though, and that involves the two Spocks in the cloaked Klingon bird of prey causing chaos while Excelsior gets her engines ready for a transwarp dash to safety. It works, then Kirk sends the Spocks and Konom as emissaries to the Klingon Emperor, offering them the means the check the Empire. Konom has to go through a painful interrogation to prove their information is legitimate, but in the end, it works.

Superman #406: This is a done-in-one by the Conways and Novick/Hunt, and like last month's Action Comics with Captain Strong, it sort of has the feel of an inventory story. The Daily Planet crew (including Lois) is featured prominently, and no mention is made of Galaxy Broadcasting or Lana. Mr. Mxyzptlk is up to hijinks and causes a crisis with a biomechanical worm designed to aid digging that the imp enlarges into a monster. With Metropolis threatened from underground, Mxy whammies Superman so that he passes his powers to others via touch. Once they figure out what's going on, Lois, Jimmy, and Perry, have to team-up with Superman to defeat the creature, but only after Mxy gets afraid the weakened Superman will be killed and calls the others in to help.

This weekend, I set up a sort of escape room/LARP for my 8 year-old. She took on the role of a warrior princess sent to retrieve a golden treasure (a plastic version of the idol at the beginning of Raiders of the Lost Ark) from a many-armed monster (my old Clash of the Titans kraken toy, rescued and restored when my parents moved a couple of years ago).

With sword and shield, and a bag with a couple of coins (a KS reward from Outgunned Adventure) she set out to go to the wizard's tower (the upstairs of our home) where she had been told that a wizard had imprisoned a unicorn (a statue of the Last Unicorn from movie located on a bookshelf in her bedroom).

The quest involved the occasional puzzle (a tic-tac-toe cypher, a coordinate grid puzzle, riddle answering, and some light math) combined with random encounters. These were strategically placed pairs of cups, one of which had a monster (a cardboard mini) under it and the other either a coin or a friendly encounter that provided clues. For example, a gnome Meeple revealed that the Lime Gnome (a green garden gnome statue that for some reason sits in our dining room) runs an apothecary shop that will sell you a potion that gives a power up.

Monster fights were handled with simple dice rolls of a d6. Scoring a hit required beating the monster's roll by a certain amount, and monsters had a certain number of "hit points." My daughter had her own "life points" in the form of three hearts on sheets of paper clipped together.

As it turned out, my daughter was very luck. She only fought one monster before the boss and out rolled the monster every single time.

She enjoyed it and immediately asked for another one, but I said that would have to wait for another day.

Our 5e Land of Azurth game continued last Sunday with the party (after a rest and healing) undertaking the capture of the other shadow/temporal duplicate of the nefarious Wizard of Azurth they had run across, the mysterious Shadow Man in the Half-ruined Tower.

The group objects to the possibility of running into their earlier selves, but Princess Viola and her Gnomes already had that figured out. The slide show they present says they are sending the PCs back to 5 days after they left the area.

When they arrive in the past, there is still one Gloom Elf in the tower, but he's in no mood for fighting. He says the Shadow retreated into the large, whirlpool of shadow that now takes up most of the tower, but there was a blockage in it somewhere and he doesn't seem to have gotten where he was going. 

With little else to go on, the party jumps in after him. They find themselves (surprisingly) in a prison dungeon, partially flooded, and partially caved in, run by Mole Folk. The mole folk are remarkably lackadaisical about their situation, noting that time runs differently here, but they are reasonably friendly. The dungeon itself is something of a maze with unnatural darkness, so even the mold guards used unspooling twine to help from getting lost. The prisoners are in oubliettes with sort of steampunk contraption doors, set to open when their sentence is up. 

Using their hand-held device given to them previously by the Princesses, the party discovers the Shadow is in one of these cells. Waylon is able to pick the locking mechanism, causing the chronometer to run faster, making it open.

The Shadow is inside, and though the part is expecting him to fight them, he is willing to go, even knowing what they are up to. Having had different experiences from the Wizard, he has had a change of heart. He says if they can find "the bridge" located elsewhere in the dungeon, they can get to a place to acquire a page from the Book of Doors that will take them directly to the Wizard's sanctum.

The party sends the Shadow back to the Princesses with a gem. The Shadow suggests the way to find the bridge is to ask the guards. They intend to do just that, but no sooner than they are out of the cell and debating a course of action than a random encounter roll leads to a very ugly bird-beast coming upon them.

My mission: to read DC Comics' output from January 1980 (cover date) to the end of Crisis. This week, I'm looking at the comics that were on stands in the week of February 7, 1985. 
This first week marks a milestone, with my brother and I owning 5 of these 7 issues, and three of them we definitely bought off the stands. The others were maybe acquired a year or two later from dollar bins.

Deadman #1: The stunning Neal Adams cover got my brother or me to pick up this one, despite no knowledge of the character. The issue reprints the earliest Deadman stories from Strange Adventures #205, 206, and House of Mystery #178. I wonder if the timing of this reprint series was meant to raise the profile of the new limited series that would be coming along in '86?

Crisis on Infinite Earths #2: This was my introduction to Crisis. I bought it off the stands at my local grocery store. The sense of impending...well, crisis begins to build as time is disrupted with a mammoth herd leaving Anthro's era and winding up in the Legion's 30th Century. In the modern day on Earth-One, Batman is going after the Joker when and image of a frantic and decaying Flash appears before him, begging for help and warning of disaster. The heroes and villains gathered by the Monitor are sent to Kamandi's Earth After Disaster and ancient Atlantis to defend tower-like devices erected by the Monitor for something, I guess, from shadow demons. Psycho-Pirate is the first villain to show his colors and turn on the heroes; he's defeated but them but whisked away to serve the same shadowy force that commands Harbinger.
Things are moving fast, and the narrative reasons for things are sometimes poorly explained, but on balance the script and visual storytelling work to tell a compelling story.

Atari Force #17: This was only issue I bought off the spinner rack after issue one. Barreto is back on pencils. Taz's Tazlings reveal their pretty much magical repair ability by fixing Backjak's missing eye and taking the bit of the Destroyer out of his brain. Then, the same thing gets done for Kragg after Morphea has a psychic battle with the Dark Destroyer, and Rident gets to witness the psychic projects. Dart manages to make contact with Chris again, confirming Atari and New Earth are still around. 

DC Comics Presents #81: Another story that's effectively a plug for the upcoming Giffen/Fleming Ambush Bug limited series, but I like the Bug and that series, so it's cool with me. Ambush Bug finds a hunk of red kryptonite and gives it to his "pal" Superman but knowing what it is. Its effects cause the two to switch bodies, and at a time when Kobra makes a move to steal Ambush Bug's teleportation tech.

Fury of Firestorm #35: In a moment I'm sure inspired by the iconic Amazing Spider-Man #33, Firestorm tap reserves of street to escape a mass of ice threatening to crush him. While the Stein/Ronnie team is dealing with Stein's decision to move to another city, potentially ending Firestorm, Plastique gains new explosion powers and Killer Frost lays a trap for our hero. In the end, Firestorm is at the mercy of the two villains united.

Justice League of America #238: This is another issue I owned, but I didn't remember much beyond the cover. Conway and Patton/Machlan give Conway's new team their first direct interaction with some of the members of the League's most famous incarnation.  The New League flies into the Soviet Union to rescue Superman, Wonder Woman, and the Flash who are being held captive by a crazy general and his keytar playing super-villain henchman, Maestro. The new kids win the day, in part due to the element of surprise, but they also get help from the Anton Allegro, long imprisoned by Gorki, who shoots Maestro in revenge. Gypsy reveals a previously unknown illusion power which seems to shatter Gorki's mind, at least temporarily. The heroes leave the USSR with a final panel oddly showing Martian Manhunter still on the ground as the League plane takes off, holding Allegro's body.

Tales of the Teen Titans #53: Lilith is attacked outside Titans Tower by someone who looks like the Terminator, but supposedly the real one is in jail, awaiting trial. Lilith isn't acting herself and goes back to STAR Labs where she uses newly revealed heat powers to free the amnesiac winged alien from ice. The Titans try to stop her, but holding off her teammates with her new powers, she lets the winged man escape. The Titans, thinking the alien is to blame for Lilith's new powers and weird behavior, give chase but lose him. Then the trial of Slade Wilson gets underway, with Adrian "Vigilante" Chase as judge. 
I wonder how these 2 asynchronous Titans books were received at the time? It's nice that Wolfman weaves two stories of Lilith with weird powers and Azrael into both books that are supposed to take place months apart, but reading last month's NTT would have spoiled any mystery regarding Lilith's new powers or Azrael's intentions.

Shadow War of Hawkman #1: Isabella and Howell/Alcala bring back Hawkman and Hawkgirl who haven't had any solo appearances since the strip in World's Finest ended in '82. A group of Thanagarians arrive in Midway City and recruit a cat burglar to steal the Hawks' anti-gravity belts. Katar thwarts the robbery at their home, though Mousy is killed and the Thanagarians escape, teleporting to the museum. With Shayera still at the museum, Hawkman frantically flies back, but when he arrives, he finds the police outside and a scorch mark on the wall in the shape of his wife!

Superman: The Secret Years #4: Rozakis and Swan/Schaffenberger bring this limited series to a close. While Superboy grieves over his failure to save his parents, his foster parents, or Billy Cramer, Lex Luthor threatens all life on Earth unless his old foe meets him for a one-on-one fight. Perry White discovers Billy's whistle and figures out that it might be a way to summon Superboy back. Superboy heeds the call, and after defeating Luthor, who has found a way to give himself super-strength, he's found new confidence. He changes his name to Superman. As Clark Kent he graduates from Metropolis U with his friends. Then, he applies for a reporting job with the Daily Planet under its new editor, Perry.
This isn't a bad series, but I feel like it's let down a bit by the very Bronze Age style its creators are working in. Rozakis' plot is interesting but isn't as impactful as it could be due to its focus on done-in-one superhero storytelling. The Swan/Schaffenberger art isn't in layout or style positioned to wring the emotion from the material the plot suggests.

Vigilante 17: Alan Moore and Jim Baikie come on board for a late 70s-early 80s style neo-noir thriller. It's more the sort of story Miller did over at Daredevil than the more 80's action stuff Wolfman has done here (or would be done with the Punisher in the next few years). Chase gets a frantic call from Joanne Linnaker telling him her ex-husband Carl (who Chase prosecuted for abusing their daughter) is out on "good behavior" and possibly heading their way. By the time Vigilante arrives at her apartment, Joanne has been brutally murdered and her daughter, Jodie, has fled. 
She's found on the streets by a friendly drug-dealer named Fever and her prostitute roommate Louise. While Fever tries to negotiate Jodie's return to Chase without having her illegal activities exposed, Carl kills Louise and takes Jodie. Fever vows revenge and Vigilante acquiesces to her helping him track down Carl.

This post originally appeared in May of 2016. It became relevant in last night's session of our Land of Azurth 5e game, so it seemed a good time to repeat it. 
Paper Town (it is said) in some sense occupies space in the Uncanny Valley in the west of the Country of Yanth, but the most reliable way to gain entry to the town is via a map. Potentially any map will do, but it must be one noting a nonexistent settlement, street or island. These fictitious entries serve as gates to Paper Town.

As is common with magical places, gaining entrance is not as simple as finding a suitable map. Luckily, the legend regarding Paper Town's creation delineates the necessary procedure. Paper Town, as the story says, was a gift given to Princess Hyacinthia of Azurth on the occasion of her birthday by a mysterious stranger. He informed the Princess that she could not visit Paper Town in person, being compose of something other than paper and possessed of general lack of flatness as she was, but her shadow could—with the proper attire. The stranger traced the outline of the Princess’s shadow on a large sheet of paper and cut around its edge. The cutout was taken to a place where the stranger’s map showed a hamlet to be but was not. The cutout vanished, like a piece of paper slid under an unseen door into an equally unseen room.

The fact Hyacinthia never regain her shadow nor have many who have repeated this ritual might give some pause, but that detail is not frequently repeated.

In Paper Town, the cutouts become paper doll doppelgängers of the person that served as their model. These visitors find unfolding streets of pop-up trees and citizenry and flat facades that elaborate to Escher-architectured structures when entered. The city seems endless, but the clever observer will note that it recycles itself to appear so. As the preceding portion grows, the receding part folds up behind. This can happen in any direction: Tall towers erect themselves when an evil sorcerer flies up to his sanctum. Dungeons unfold like inverted houses of cards when heroes go delving. The ostensible ruler of Paper Town, Princess Seven, paper doll of the long dead Queen Hyacinthia, makes the final decision on how "permanent" a new structure is in her city.

One attractive trait of Paper Town is that it conforms to a visitor's imagination in certain ways. Anything one wishes for may be found there, though anything of value is likely to require a quest or be obtained in a way that makes one not want it after all. In other words, Paper Town adheres to laws of story.

The archons or godlings that truly rule Paper Town enforce this reality zealously. These Great Tall Tailors, or Scissor Men as they are sometime called, will catch paper doll visitors who are ill-fitted for the story the Tall Tailors wish told and snip, snap, snip, reshape them into a more pleasing arrangement. The Tall Tailors are paper themselves (Or perhaps they are the shapes left when slender, lank-limbed manshapes are cut of paper?) save for their gleaming, scissor hands. Their shadows are also Tailors but their shadow-scissors cut the spirit exclusively while their metallic doubles cut the physical.

It is said that the Book of Doors, a book where every page is a portal to another place, originated in Paper Town, but how it came to be in the wider Land of Aurth is unknown.

Don Maitz
In the Latter Ages of Earth, people do not die completely, at least not quickly. As these things are understood by the Instrumentality an imprint, an after-image, of a person remains in the Ancients' datasphere. When a Mind is informed by that record, a simulacrum, at least in part, of the deceased is made. This is a shade, though not in the way the superstitious common folk imagine. 

At its base, necromancy is the magical art of summoning and controlling shades. It's practice is watched closely by local authorities and the Instrumentality (in those areas where it holds sway). Being able to interact with the shades of the recently deceased is undeniably useful, not the least in forensic necromancy. Where necromancers primarily run afoul of the Instrumentality and temporal authorities is when they use their arts to create undead.

The criminal necromancer creates undead for two primary reasons. The first is for manual labor. These workers don't require a shade in the semblance of any particular person, so necromancers can pluck from the either degraded or partial shades; rudimentary data on physical movements is their primary concern. With a corpse as a substrate and sufficient art applied to their animation, a necromancer can turn out laborers for difficult conditions or troops whose shock value may compensate for their lack of intelligence and skill at arms.

The second application is more lucrative but requires more skill and time. That is the provision of immortality, or as close as their arts may come to it. This requires the creation of a specially made shade, imaged with precision from the current mental vector of the aspiring immortal. In the fallen Latter Age, this generally means destructive mapping of the individual's brain and its functioning. The intellect is then housed in a suitable, durable platform and placed within their old body. The body will inevitably decay, but the necromancer's arts can delay that decay, preserving function perhaps for millennia.  The culmination of these techniques is the lich, though botched jobs, and cost- or material-saving techniques have created many other variations, which are more common.

Though I've mentioned it before, I haven't talked about DC's Warlord by Mike Grell Omnibus Vol. 1 since it came out, which is kind of a lapse given how many years I spent blogging about Warlord here. This volume collects the character's debut in 1st Issue Special #8, issues #1-50 of the series, and material from Amazing World of DC Comics #12. Hopefully we'll get the rest of Grell's run and his follow-up series in a second volume.

The first thing one notices about this omnibus is how much lighter it feels than most. Opening it, you can see why: it's on a different type of paper than most omnis. When it came out, there was a lot of discussion of it being "on newsprint" with some fans angry it wasn't on the glossy paper they were expecting, and others appreciating it being closer in appearance to the original issues. Well, it isn't on newsprint, but it is on a slightly off-white paper with a matte finish. I'm sure I've seen some trade paperbacks from DC on this sort of paper before.
Here's some images I snagged from reddit:

And here's a comparison with the interiors of an old issue. The omni is on the right:

The malefic Outsiders of the astral void beyond the Earth are myriad in the Latter Age, but few are as distinct from the hosts of horrors as the beings known popularly as Mind Flayers.  Though they are believed to be long extinct, they still feature promptly in folklore and popular entertainments, attesting to their hold over humankind's collective imagination.

Little is known for certain about these beings. In Denizens of the Beyond by Pseudo-Vespydron, the most widely known work to examine them in detail, Mind Flayers are said to have come from the sphere of Mars, but whether they are natives to that world or from some even more distant home, even Denizens rather credulous author does not say. 

Pseudo-Vespydron uncritically accepts the cephalopod-headed humanoid appearance of popular portrayals and the idea that they were obligate consumers of human brains. The later (and comparatively more sober) histories of Malgrunda note no reliable descriptions of their physical form exist and put forward the theory that their purpose in preying upon the Earth was to acquire not foodstuffs but slave minds, derived from the destructive mapping of the brains of still-living captives. Perhaps the only place where she might be criticized in straying from established fact is in the time she devotes to Hseng's baseless assertion that the cephalopod skull is actually the memory of an environmental helmet with attached manipulators.

 Contrary to the popular entertainments of the Latter Age, there is no cohesive group known as the druids. Rather, there are individuals and networks of individuals across several cultures that adhere to similar beliefs and practices. Though the Instrumentality labels druidism as heretical "Earth-worshippers," these practitioners generally no more worship the Earth Mother than the Instrumentality itself does.

Like the clerics of the Instrumentality, those that might be termed druids are aware to one degree or another that in more lucent ages the environment of the Earth and its citizens interaction with it were managed by a great Mind. This Mind is no more, at least not in any unified form (so the clerics believe), but the many of the component minds still haunt the world, and the particles of its sensory apparatus of that superintelligence still weave through the winds, fall with the rains, and course through the bloodstreams of animals. 

By means of secret lore and technology, the druids are able to converse and with the lesser minds that record and synthesize this sensory data. These processes are known as elementals. While the elementals occasionally form connections with more active systems on their own, the druid's involvement often bridges the two, giving the earth a voice to humankind that dwells upon it. Like the magi, druids are at times able to command the remnant nanotechnological systems, though how they achieve these powers is a closely guarded secret. Among their more impressive abilities, they can cause avatars to be instantiated from natural features for short periods of time or effect change in local weather patterns.

Unlike the Instrumentality, the druids do not believe that the Gaean mind is irrevocably destroyed. Instead, they view her as suffering from an illness, and illness from which they work to help her recover. They don't seek the re-ascendence of humankind, but rather the restoration of a balance they feel the Ancients achieved but then squandered.

I'm reading DC Comics' output from January 1980 (cover date) to Crisis! This week, I read the comics on sale on January 24, 1984.

Detective Comics #549: Moench and Broderick/Smith complete Harvey Bullock's journey from villain to buffoonish minor character to secondary protagonist. Moench reveals that Bullock's slovenly appearance and gruff demeanor are a bit of a put on. The inner Bullock is really a more introspect fan of classic Hollywood with a very tidy apartment. When a gang trashes that apartment and movie memorabilia in revenge, Bullock proves himself a capable fighter as well. 
The Green Arrow and Black Canary backup, "Night Olympics" is a rare superhero story by Moore with art by Janson. It's a humorous piece where Green Arrow's opponent has a breakdown thanks to the number of times he's been unlucky enough to get caught by superheroes (and the last was Metamorpho!) while Canary confronts a couple of thugs who think she's Wonder Woman and surrender immediately to avoid being beat-up by a woman. Things turn serious when they're attacked by a crook who's gotten a bow and arrow from a super-villain armor.

Action Comics #566: Boldman and Randall bring back Captain Strong (DC's take on Popeye), not seen since 1981, for his last appearance. Clark Kent and Lois Lane go on a cruise with Strong and his wife Olivia and run into trouble on an island inhabited by the sorcerous Old Woman of the Sea (a Sea Hag stand-in) and Strong's long-lost Pappy.
The second story by Newell and Bender/Oksner has a young girl trying to get into an Autograph Hounds club by getting Superman's autograph. The Man of Steel discovers the girl is an orphan raised by an older couple like himself and helps her out.

America vs. the Justice Society #4: The committee hearing draws to a close, and I really can't see what they would have gotten out of hearing the JSA related their adventures, but a few character witness testify for them. One person who does get something out of the history lesson is Dick Grayson. He realizes the stories and the diaries seem to circle around the disappearance of Professor Zee. He goes to his residence and finds Per Degaton there, waiting for the return of the time machine so he can again make a bid for conquest. This was apparently what Batman's false account was meant to point at: the periodic return of the time machine and Per Degaton. Why Batman didn't just tell somebody is put down to the mental effects of his cancer and his distance from the JSA. Anyway, the whole team and the committee show up to rescue Grayson and capture Degaton.

Arion Lord of Atlantis #30: Duursema returns for this arc. Atlantis is beset by unnatural storms that Arion traces to mysterious ancient tower than looks like a nuclear plant cooling tower on the edge of the city. Arion and Chian go inside through an underground passageway and are attacked by a group of beast-men, who of whom is a transformed Wyynde. The scientist who created them then sends drones after our heroes. Arion's magic causes the drones to explode, and the feedback destroys the computers guiding them, killing the scientist. Now they must find a way to restore Wyynde. 

All-Star Squadron #44: Thomas/Kupperberg and Jones/Marcos have Hourman and Firebrand and Phantom Lady and Tarantula go on a double date to a costume party thrown by Firebrand's father, a steel magnet. Nazi supervillains Night and Fog crash the party because prior to Pearl Harbor Ed Reilly was helping the Germans against the Russians and the British (who, as an Irishman, he hated). The two threaten him to get him back on their side. When he refuses, they throw him out a window. Our heroes battle the villains, ultimately forcing them to flee, but Ed Reilly is killed.

Jonah Hex #90: Morrow comes aboard on art duties as it seems like Fleisher may be moving the disparate strands of his story to some sort of conclusion. Silver Ames, a woman out to prove herself the fastest gunfighter in misguided grief over her father's death, shoots Hart in the back after he refuses to duel her. Mei Ling identifies the body at the mortuary. 
Ames sets out to find Hex, who has left Mrs. Crowley's boarding house to find Emmylou. He has a run of bad luck, though, getting caught in a rockslide that kills his horse. Then he's attacked by a cougar. Meanwhile, Emmylou, in grief over believing she killed Hex, finally gets up the courage to make a break from the gang of robbers. She slashes Brett with a knife and escapes the house.
Hex visits the doc in Red Dog before he's accosted by Ames who admits to Hart's murder and demands Hex fight her. Hex tells her she'd lose and gives her some constructive criticism on her technique. When she draws on him, he shoots her in the chest twice and walks away, leaving her body in the street.

Spanner's Galaxy #5: Spanner and Gadj castle into a factory town on an alien world beset by a serial killer. Spanner is sort of drafted into the position of sheriff but also gets reunited with his family. Spanner and his sister (whose on the force, herself) discover the identity of the killer, and that he's being using robots to do the job. Baka and the intergalactic cops arrive, and we are finally given a reason why they are after Spanner: he's a carrier for a contagious illness. Seems odd that they couldn't have said this previously, but anyway, he turns himself in and is put on solitary quarantine on an asteroid.

Sun Devils #10: Jurgens takes over as writer and artist with this issue. After their defeat and betrayal last issue, the Sun Devils are disgraced, grounded, and soon to be disbanded. With the Sauroid fleet heading toward Centauri, Rik goes rogue and lies to the team to get them to go on a daring infiltration mission to recapture the Starcrusher weapon. He also gets a new look too, with stubble and a sleeveless vest with no shirt. Anyway, they manage to get onto the Sauroid cruiser but head the wrong direction and stumble upon Anomie.

Tales of the Legion #322: Dawnstar seems to be falling for the priest Jhodan and him for her even as the high priestess Awian orders them both brought in for apostasy. Jhodan's novitiate, jealous of the relationship, leaves vowing to bring her form superior down. Meanwhile, Brainy is taken by the apparently mentally ill guy he's fallen in with to a village where he is (surprisingly) accepted. Digging around, he finds the hint of a mystery and some ancient Earth recording tapes. 
The Newell/Levitz story here feels very Star Trek, but I'm not sure that's what the Legion needs. 

V #3: Bates and Infantino/DeZuniga complete the story of Sparkle Springs. Captain Devon and his troops arrive and manage to capture some of the resistance fighters. When the kid, Billy Lee, takes a shot at the Visitors to help the captives escape, he's killed by the soldiers. Donovan tries to get the townsfolk to rise up at Billy's funeral, but they don't seem to listen. Later though, after the resistance sabotages the aliens' extraction of the spring water with explosives, the townspeople finally join the fight and help drive the Visitors out.

World's Finest Comics #312: Cavalieri and Woch/Alcala reveal an unscrupulous company using substandard steel in a newly constructed bridge in Gotham. Superman works to stop its collapse while Batman saves a whistleblower from an assassin. Interesting, the Monitor shows up still testing the two heroes for weaknesses to sell. Apparently Cavalieri didn't know this issue would hit after Crisis #1 changed our view of the Monitor.

Our Land of Azurth 5e game continued last night as the party confronted the Wizard of Azurth and Morzengersturm over the fate of Roderick Drue, a young occultist, at the Columbia Exposition in 1893 Chicago.

The Wizard recognizes the party calls forth shadows in the form of Expo attendees to attack them. And there are a lot of them! Luckily these are minions (as per the minion rules in Flee, Mortals!), so the party is able to mow them done, but it takes a while and gives them a moment of fright as there are a lot of them. Erekose, Waylon, and the activated Figurine of Wondrous Power Bear takes down five at the entrance of the tent. Shade goes after those coming through the side of the tent with her bow. Zabra witchbolts a couple of them.

Zabra's familiar, a cat, is dutifully carrying the transport gem to the target, Roderick Drue. When it breaks the gem with a bite, a cloud of colorful smoke engulfs both cat and occultist and transports them to the Land of Azurth. 

Waylon gets frightened by the shadows, so moves inside for an attack on Mortzengersturm. The party has a history with the Mad Manticore as they killed him in--well, their past, his future. Zabra delivers a psychic bolt that incapacitates the Manticore wizard before he can act.

His ally and his minions gone, the Wizard teleports away.

The party uses their other jewels to return to Azurth themselves. After some healing they are ready to plan their next mission: black to the Shadow Tower.

In the Latter Age of Earth, magi are those few born with the Mark, a quirk or atavism of their genetic code, that allows full activation of the nanotechnologic interface within their brains, allowing them to become users of the system enveloping the planet. With this linkage made and mastered, a magus may command and the world responds. They can open the vast subterranean vaults of the Ancients, contain and control willful spirits, and send clouds of doom upon their enemies. 

The magi of the several collegia seek out newly emerged mages to teach them to use their gifts. Those wild talents who are not initiated into a collegium are known as sorcerers. 

The place of the magi varies across the cultures of the world. Where the Instrumentality is at its strongest their practice is generally, they are restricted, regulated, and monitored. Occasionally they are outright banned, but their abilities are simply too valuable to governments and even to the clergy, for this to be a common practice.

Nevertheless, the life of a magus is often precarious. Superstitious common folk can easily turn against them, and Instrumentality zealots often eager to find a reason to punish or imprison them. Beyond that, the very forces they wield and the knowledge they seek can easily prove dangerous to them as much as anyone.