Flash #247 – “The Mad Mad Earth of Abra-Kadabra” – (Cary Bates/Irv Novick/Frank McLaughlin)
We start out with Flash in a 64th century prison for “killing” Abra-Kadabra last issue. Of course, Abra’s not dead, he just used some weird techno-magic bullshit to teleport away just as Flash was attacking. Abra was aiming to send himself to Flash’s own time period, but instead of materializing on Earth-1, he ends up on Earth-2 and is confused to see the Jay Garrick Flash showing off for a crowd. In the 64th century, Flash tries repeatedly to escape from prison (even though he seemed kind of willing to go last issue), but can’t vibrate through the walls.
On Earth-2, Jay fights Abra and is quickly captured. Abra interrogates him, still thinking that Jay’s the same Flash he’s always known, just wearing some weird disguise. In the future, Flash escapes and after wasting some robots goes to look for Abra. Abra is still on Earth-2 and Jay
plays along with Abra’s case of mistaken identity and gets the villain to spill everything about how he tricked the Earth-1 Flash into “killing” him. The Flash from the future duplicates what happened and ends up on Earth-2 just in time to save Jay. Abra is confused and the two Flashes combine their powers to send him back to his own (Earth-1) future. They don’t seem worried about how the authorities will deal with him, and we later see him in prison so I guess everything worked out.
Noticeable Things:
- When Abra ends up on Earth-2, he says he should be in Central City, but ends up in Keystone City; so does that mean those cities occupy the same location on their respective Earths? But post-Crisis, both cities exist on the same Earth, so one of them must’ve been displaced.
- Abra obviously doesn’t know about the whole Earth-1/Earth-2 thing, which is strange since he’s supposed to be such a shit-hot scientist.
- Jay is paralyzed after being saved from Abra, so Barry gives him a super-speed “rubdown” … no mention if there was a Happy Ending or not.
- At the end of the issue, Barry is having dinner with Jay and Joan; didn’t he leave Iris rather abruptly back on Earth-1 at the bowling alley? Won’t she be wondering where the hell he is? It’s stuff like this that makes me wonder why she married him in the first place.
Wonder Woman #229 – “Tomorrow Belongs to Me” – (Martin Pasko/Jose Delbo/Vince Colletta)
This is the second part of the Red Panzer story from last issue. Panzer is about to kill WW when she busts loose. They fight and her bracelets are fused together, rendering her helpless, and she falls down into a Washington street. Steve Trevor shows up to help and releases her bracelets. WW goes to Paradise Island to see her mother, Hippolyta, who says her overconfidence was what made her lose to Panzer. Hippolyta uses the lariat to make Diana forget any knowledge of the future so she won’t be sure of the outcome. WW then goes back to
rescue Steve, who was captured by the bad guys … some things never change. WW is captured (again) and manacled. Red Panzer sends rockets to blast her, but she uses them to free her hands. The rockets are tuned to her bracelets, so she tosses the bracelets to escape the maze she was in. She goes nuts and pounds everyone until Steve puts one of the bracelets back on her. She tosses the other at Panzer’s machine and the last rocket blows it up and knocks Panzer out.
Noticeable Things:
- WW bondage cover … everybody drink!
- When WW is tied by her own lasso, she kicks Panzer in the face and gets loose; I’d always thought WW couldn’t escape from her golden lariat?
- Panzer has WW’s lariat, but when she falls off his plane, he says he “lost” it; the lariat isn’t shown anywhere near her when she lands in the street, but she has it on her waist when Steve puts her in the car. A bit of hand-waving, maybe?
- A bystander mentions Steve saving the Norden bomb-sight, which was the first episode of the WW TV show; he also says Steve is WW’s boyfriend, something the show never really came out and said.
- When Steve goes to Red Panzer’s base, he attacks the Nazis with … a club? He’s supposed to be a highly trained soldier, a CMH winner, but he uses a club? I get that they’re toning down the violence, but he really should have a gun.
- Apparently, when WW’s bracelets are removed, she goes all She-Hulk and wants to kill everyone she sees. I don’t remember that part of “Amazon lore” … it certainly wasn’t the case on the TV show (though it would’ve made an interesting addition).
- Even in her “must kill” frenzy, she stops to save Steve. I wonder if she takes the bracelets off when they bang?
- Hippolyta looks more like Carolyn Jones than Cloris Leachman, though her hair is different.
- This issue really synchs up with the TV show; a lot of the characters look the same (Etta especially, although she stuffs her face way
more here than she did on the show) and it’s obvious they’re trying to make the comic conform to the show. Probably a good idea, as anyone who watched the show’s first season could pick up this issue and follow along with no problems.
Jonah Hex #1 – “Vengeance for a Fallen Gladiator” – (Michael Fleisher/Jose-Luis Garcia Lopez)
This is the first issue of Jonah Hex’s solo comic, though he’d been appearing in Weird Western Tales for a few years. This one starts with Hex heading to a ranch on business. Unfortunately, he forgot to call ahead, so the guards beat the shit out of him before they’re informed that the owner, Frederic Royden, was the one who wanted to see Hex. Royden offers Hex $20,000 to find his son Tommy, who was kidnapped six months ago. Royden’s on his deathbed and wants to see his son one last time. The trail is pretty cold, but Hex follows his instincts and heads west. A couple weeks later, in Rock Creek, Arkansas, he runs across a couple of scumbags named LeClerc and Mange who run a Fight Club-style show featuring young boys. Hex stops LeClerc from whipping a kid and the kid later leads Hex to the undertakers where he finds the body of Tommy Royden. LeClerc and Mange surprise Hex and the kid, shooting them both.
The kid dies, but Hex was only grazed by the bullet, so they seal him in a coffin. He escapes (naturally) and tracks them down. He makes them fight each other on top of a mesa; Mange falls to his death and LeClerc ends up clinging to the edge, begging Hex to pull him up. He offers to cut Hex in for 75%, but Hex kicks him off the cliff.
Hex takes Tommy’s body home, but finds out the Mr. Royden died the week before. Hex rides off without getting paid, leaving Tommy’s mother to cry over the coffin.
Noticeable Things:
- Jose Luis Garcia Lopez’s art is great, as usual. His style really fits with the story.
- The first page says this story starts in Whalenburg, Tennessee in the spring of 1874; as far as I can tell, Whalenburg isn’t a real place (though I guess it could’ve been, back in the 19th century).
- Hex obviously has quite the rep by this point, since Mange recognizes him right away.
- Before Hex kicks LeClerc off the cliff, LeClerc admits that his boys get a bit roughed up, but says without him a lot of the kids would end up as criminals, being hunted down by Hex himself. It’s an interesting argument, though it’s bullshit in Tommy Royden’s case since he was kidnapped right out of his own front yard, and his family obviously cared about him.
