Category: Comics Reviews

Comics Reviews: JLA 161, Superboy & the Legion 246, Warlord 16, Jonah Hex 19

JLA 161 coverJustice League of America #161 – “The Reverse Spells of Zatanna’s Magic” – Gerry Conway/Dick Dillin/Frank McLaughlin

This one starts with the JLA (all 13 of them) taking a vote on electing a new member—Zatanna. Green Arrow is taking it pretty seriously, but Zatanna shows up before they can count the votes and blasts the ballots to ashes. (Any readers paying attention will notice that Zatanna recites her spells normally, instead of backwards like she always has before. That is what’s known as a “clue”.) Zatanna tells them she doesn’t want to join their lousy club and the more they try to reason with her, the snottier she gets. Continue reading “Comics Reviews: JLA 161, Superboy & the Legion 246, Warlord 16, Jonah Hex 19”

Comics Reviews: Superman 330, Action 490, DC Comics Presents 4

Superman 330 coverSuperman #330 – “The Master Mesmerizer of Metropolis” – Martin Pasko/Curt Swan/Frank Chiaramonte

Have you ever wondered why nobody can tell that Clark Kent and Superman are the same person? After all, a pair of glasses is hardly a convincing disguise. We’ve all laughed about it at some point, and we’re not the first ones to do so. I can only imagine that this particular story was cooked up in response to all the people saying “Glasses? That wouldn’t fool anyone!” We start with a satellite falling from orbit and heading straight for the WGBS Building. Lois Lane, Lana Lang, and Jimmy Olsen urge Clark to change to Superman and stop the satellite from killing them all. Continue reading “Comics Reviews: Superman 330, Action 490, DC Comics Presents 4”

Comics Reviews: Batman 306, Detective 481, Brave and the Bold 145

Batman 306 coverBatman #306 – “Night of Siege” – Gerry Conway/John Calnan/David Hunt

This one starts with some shifty dudes unloading boxes from a boat in the middle of the night … definitely suspicious behaviour. Batman seems to agree, since he shows up and beats the hell out of them. The boxes are full of heroin and Batman realizes the boat is from a ship called the Golden Girl II. He goes to check it out, sneaking aboard the ship and cornering the owner, Hannibal Hardwicke. Apparently Hardwicke has been suspected of being behind the heroin traffic around Gotham for a couple of years, but he always managed to wriggle out of the grasp of the law. Continue reading “Comics Reviews: Batman 306, Detective 481, Brave and the Bold 145”

Comics Reviews: Flash 267, Wonder Woman 249, Green Lantern 110

Flash 267 coverFlash #267 – “Heat Wave’s Blaze of Glory” – Cary Bates/Irv Novick/Frank McLaughlin

This one starts with Heat Wave giving us a recap of last issue: Heat Wave went to a criminal shrink and found out he had a phobia about cold because of a childhood incident. He overcame the phobia by breaking into the home of an Arctic explorer who’d been cryogenically frozen, then luring Flash there and swapping him for the frozen explorer. So now Flash is trapped in a cryo-tube, not due to be woken up for decades—or longer. Heat Wave also unmasked Flash, but didn’t recognize him as Barry Allen (though he thought there was something familiar about him). Continue reading “Comics Reviews: Flash 267, Wonder Woman 249, Green Lantern 110”

Comics Reviews: JLA 160, Superboy & the Legion 245, Jonah Hex 18

JusticeLeagueofAmerica_160_cover (Copy)Justice League of America #160 – “Crisis From Tomorrow” – Gerry Conway/Dick Dillin/Frank McLaughlin

This one continues from last issue, which was pretty wild. Apparently the Lord of Time built a kick-ass computer that’s so powerful it can actually stop time; unfortunately, he didn’t realize what a monumentally stupid idea that was until after he built the computer. Now he wants to shut down (or destroy) the computer, but he’s afraid it’ll go all 2001 and kill him if he tries, so he’s worked out some convoluted plot to have the JLA and JSA do it for him. He’s calculated that if the JLA/JSA are defeated by five heroes from the past (Jonah Hex, Miss Liberty, Enemy Ace, Black Pirate, and Viking Prince) they’ll come back stronger and more determined and be able to smash his time-threatening computer. Continue reading “Comics Reviews: JLA 160, Superboy & the Legion 245, Jonah Hex 18”

Comics Reviews: Superman 329, Action 489, DC Presents 3

Superman 329 coverSuperman #329 – “I Have Met the Enemy—And It Is Me” – Martin Pasko/Curt Swan/Frank Chiaramonte

This one starts pretty much where last issue left off, with Superman wrapped up by a lamp-post. We get a recap of what led to this moment: years ago on Krypton, Superman’s father helped create some nanobots to aid people with disabilities, but the nanobots gained sentience and started taking over the people they were in contact with. The nanobots were frozen and shot into space (which seemed to be Krypton’s solution to everything) and ended up on Earth, where they thawed out and merged with a Superman robot. Continue reading “Comics Reviews: Superman 329, Action 489, DC Presents 3”

Comics Reviews: Batman 305, Detective 480, Brave and the Bold 144

Batman 305 coverBatman #305 – “Death Gamble of a Darknight Detective” – Gerry Conway/John Calnan/Dave Hunt

This one starts with Batman rushing to the site of an explosion. The scene of carnage is STAR Labs, where a paramilitary gang are stealing something, using the explosion and a bunch of smoke grenades as cover. Their leader (Thanatos, who wears a skull mask) seems to have been expecting Batman and tells his soldiers to attack. Batman does pretty well, using the smoke to his advantage, but gets knocked out by a concussion grenade. Thanatos and his gang get away and Commissioner Gordon revives Batman. Continue reading “Comics Reviews: Batman 305, Detective 480, Brave and the Bold 144”

Comics Reviews: Flash 266, Wonder Woman 248, Green Lantern 109

Flash 266 coverFlash #266 – “Heat Wave Plays It Cool” – Cary Bates/Irv Novick/Frank McLaughlin

This one starts with Heat Wave and three of his henchmen pulling a Trojan Horse; they want to rob an exhibit of Egyptian artifacts at Central City Museum, so they hide inside a pyramid replica that the curator is bringing in to give the exhibit some extra Egyptian flavour. When the exhibit opens, Iris is there to cover it for Picture News and Barry’s tagging along. Heat Wave and his boys emerge from the pyramid and disable the guards, but Barry changes to Flash and takes out the three henchmen by getting them in a slipstream and slamming them into the wall. Continue reading “Comics Reviews: Flash 266, Wonder Woman 248, Green Lantern 109”

Comics Reviews: JLA 159, Superboy & the Legion 244

JLA 159 coverJustice League of America #159 – “Crisis From Yesterday” – Gerry Conway/Dick Dillin/Frank McLaughlin

This one starts rather sedately, with the JLA and JSA having one of their annual meet-ups, this time in a fancy restaurant in Gotham (Earth-1 Gotham, in case you’re wondering). Batman ponders retirement and envies his Earth-2 counterpart having a daughter like Huntress; Ralph tells Sylvester (aka Star-Spangled Kid) not to be ashamed of his name; and Black Canary confides in the Earth-2 Wonder Woman that Green Arrow and Hawkman’s newfound bonhomie is getting on her nerves. But this is a JLA/JSA meeting, so of course we know something’s going to happen. Continue reading “Comics Reviews: JLA 159, Superboy & the Legion 244”

Comics Reviews: Superman 328, Action 488, Jonah Hex 17

Superman 32 coverSuperman #328 – “Attack of the Kryptonoid” – Martin Pasko/Curt Swan/Frank Chiaramonte

This one starts with Superman destroying the Laser Defense System satellite in orbit. You may remember the LDS was a top-secret orbital laser designed to protect Earth from space-bound threats. Superman found out about it accidentally (and was pretty mad that he hadn’t been told) and has now convinced the Pentagon that it’s unreliable. The one-armed general in charge of the project (General Derwent, who we saw vowing revenge against Superman an issue or two ago) watches on a monitor as Supes collects the pieces of the smashed satellite. Continue reading “Comics Reviews: Superman 328, Action 488, Jonah Hex 17”