JSA: Ragnarok by Paul Kupperberg

JSA: Ragnarok
by Paul Kupperberg

Ragnarok is a prose novel originally intended for publication in early 2006, supposed to be the first part of a JSA trilogy from iBooks. However, the owner of iBooks died in a car crash and his company limped on for a bit before going into bankruptcy. The manuscript was due to go to the printers when everything came to a halt. Fourteen years later, the author, Paul Kupperberg (writer of many DC comics, but most relevant to this project, a couple issues of All-Star Squadron) was able to finally get the book released through indie publisher Crazy 8 Press. I bought the book when it was released, and decided that I would read it as part of my JSA marathon around the time it would have been released. Early 2006 would put it after JSA, during the run of JSA Classified, and before volume 3 of Justice Society of America, so I read it following JSA Classified.

Published: 2020
Acquired: December 2020
Read: February 2023

It is actually set during JSA, a bit before the events of Infinite Crisis (more on that later, though), and it features the JSA line-up of that time: Green Lantern, the Flash, Mr. Terrific, Power Girl, Jakeem Thunder, Sand, Wildcat, Stargirl, and so on. The book chronicles an encounter between the Justice Society and the Injustice Society, here led by the Wizard. The Injustice Society is trying to hunt down the Spear of Destiny and release a Norse god; the Spear of Destiny is of course the artifact Hitler used to keep American superheroes out of Nazi-occupied Europe according to All-Star Squadron, and there's an extended flashback in the middle of the book chronicling what happened to the Spear after the end of the war. It also ties into Last Days of the Justice Society of America, as part of the Wizard's plan is to send the JSA back into Ragnarok.

Kupperberg is primarily, I believe, a comics writer, and overall a solid one, the kind of comics writer who is not distinctive enough to be a favorite, but who typically turns in work that, well, works. I do have fond memories of his Starfleet Corps of Engineers novella Sargasso Sector, which would have been written around this same time, but I didn't find the book very gripping.

Superheroes in prose is a very tricky thing, and I've found that few have managed it well (basically just Elliot S. Maggin and Marv Wolfman, to be honest). Overall, basically, the book is fine. Many of the characters have little moments of development, but they are pretty generic and don't really feel like they arise out of the plot and themes of the novel, nor does it feel like much is ever at stake for them. The story is a bit slow considering how long it is, and the action doesn't jump off the page. This isn't to say it's terrible or anything; I found it a diverting way to spend a couple days. But it did feel to me like the promise of a JSA novel is a bit more than what we got here: these are characters with more depth and history than your average DC superhero, and I would have liked to have seen that explored in a more novelistic way, while what we have here feels more like a comic on the page, not really playing to the strengths of the medium.

I did enjoy, though perhaps it was a bit too long, a flashback to the JSA after V-E Day, drawing a lot on retcons established in All-Star Squadron and other post-Crisis stories. (For example, the Hippolyta Wonder Woman turns up, and her affair with Ted Grant is mentioned.) That period stuff is always a win for me. There's another flashback that didn't work for me, though, which is to the events of Last Days. Near the end of the novel, the Wizard tries to send the JSA back into Ragnarok, so we get a flashback showing us the original events of that story. Specifically, the flashback tries to emphasize why Alan Scott would really really not want to go into this. But a flashback only a couple chapters before the climax of your novel really disrupts the pacing, and the groundwork it lays would have been better laid earlier, in more detail. A good idea, but needed more to support it.

The book as a book is clearly small press, and could have used some better typesetting and proofreading: some em-dashes are left as two hyphens, for example, and sometimes the book shifts into the present tense for a single paragraph.

I do, of course, have some continuity issues. The book has to take place after JSA #50, because Power Girl knows that her Atlantean backstory is false, which is something she learns in that issue. It has to take place before JSA #59, because that's the issue where Captain Marvel leaves the team. However, from issue #50 to #64, Sand isn't present in the JSA because he's been turned into actual sand—so there's no actual time where the line-up present in this book all exists.

Kupperberg also does some retconning for the post-Crisis history of the JSA. The events of Last Days took place after the Crisis on the Infinite Earths; the story begins with the JSA at the funeral for the Earth-Two Huntress and Dick Grayson, who both died in the Crisis. But of course they couldn't exist at all post-Crisis, and so when Kupperberg retells those events, he makes it the funeral of the original Mr. Terrific, who died in the 1979 JLA/JSA team-up. At the funeral, Green Lantern thinks about how the JSA is stepping down and Infinity, Inc. is kind of supplanting it, so Kupperberg has moved the death of Mr. Terrific (Year Nine on my timeline) later or the founding of Infinity, Inc. earlier (Year Ten on my timeline). It's reinforced when in that flashback, Alan Scott thinks about his daughter Jade, but he didn't know she was his daughter until Infinity, Inc. Annual #1 (Year Eleven on my timeline). (And, weirdly, he doesn't think about his son Todd at all. I get why Todd isn't mentioned in the present-day stuff, as he's evil from the time of JSA #1 to #52, but why doesn't Alan think of him fondly in the flashbacks?) Most of this isn't an issue, but I just found it interesting.

This post is fortieth in an ever-expanding series about the Justice Society and Earth-Two. The next installment covers Catwoman: Her Sister's Keeper. Previous installments are listed below:

Legion of Super-Heroes: Before the Darkness, Volume One by Gerry Conway, Paul Kupperberg, E. Nelson Bridwell, J. M. DeMatteis, Jim Janes, Steve Ditko, Jim Sherman, Frank Chiaramonte, Dave Hunt, et al.

Legion of Super-Heroes: Before the Darkness, Volume One

Collection published: 2020
Contents originally published: 1979-81
Acquired: February 2021
Read: March 2023

Writers: Gerry Conway, Paul Kupperberg, E. Nelson Bridwell, J. M. DeMatteis

Artists: Jim Janes, Steve Ditko, Jim Sherman, Joe Staton, Ric Estrada, Frank Chiaramonte, Dave Hunt, John Calnan, Bob Wiacek

Before the Darkness is DC's most recent reprint series for Legion of Super-Heroes, the one that finally totally seals the gap before The Great Darkness Saga, thus giving us a complete collection of the Legion from 1958 to 1984! I feel like this era is often spoken of in pretty disparaging terms, the consensus being that when Levitz and Giffen took over, they saved the book. Even in this very volume, the introduction comes across as an apology for what you are about to read, explaining that Gerry Conway—who writes most of the stories collected here—did not really like the Legion. Conway's run actually began with issues collected in the previous collection, Superboy and the Legion, Volume Two, and I didn't like much of what I read there.

So... I was pleasantly surprised by this run! I don't think Conway is among the great Legion writers, but this volume shows him to be among the solid ones. He provides more character focus than I remember from some previous Legion volumes, particularly on lesser-used, often-forgotten characters like Timber Wolf and Light Lass. Timber Wolf had largely faded into the background since he joined the Legion, but Conway gives him lots to do; Light Lass I don't remember doing anything at all ever, but here she's a versatile, integral member of the team. He shows off the powers of some other Legionnaires to good effect; Princess Projectra, always one of my favorites, got a couple excellent moments across these stories. We get a nice return to what Bouncing Boy and Duo Damsel are up to, for example. Maybe Conway didn't love the Legion, but he clearly threw himself into its history and characters with a gusto that he probably could have got away with not having.

A bit of futurism where Gerry Conway totally whiffed it: the continued relevance of circuses. They didn't make it into the twenty-first century, much less the thirtieth.
from Legion of Super-Heroes vol. 2 #260 (script by Gerry Conway, art by Joe Staton & John Calnan)

Conway is also, I think, more of a science fiction fan than most comics writers: you can tell he was probably reading actual prose sf, not just reading other comics and watching bad films. He uses stuff like tachyons and explores how the President of Earth might be elected. Genuinely interesting worldbuilding, which is something that usually happens in Legion by accident... if at all. I particularly liked the climax of one story: the Legion, in space suits, grabs onto a spaceship when it enters hyperspace. Without a hull between hyperspace and them, their perceptions of its strange dimensions threaten to drive them mad, but Brainiac 5 has the bright idea that Projectra should cast an illusion of reality, so they all perceive themselves in a beautiful meadow. This includes the villain, who's there with them... and he, not understanding the illusion, runs away from them, thus letting go of the ship and losing himself in the depths of hyperspace.

Jim Sherman can balance the human and the cosmic alike.
from Legion of Super-Heroes vol. 2 #262 (script by Gerry Conway, art by Jim Sherman)

A lot of them are goofy, of course. Not sure what was up with the one about the guy who attacked the Legion with fake pirates! But every story by Conway has at least one solid moment of characterization, one clever twist. I particularly liked the saga of the "Dark Man."

How can you know enough about the Legion to know who Shadow Lass is, what planet she's from, and what powers people have there, but not know that all the Legionnaires can fly?
from Legion of Super-Heroes vol. 2 #267 (script by Paul Kupperberg, art by Steve Ditko & Dave Hunt)

Conway also writes out Tyroc but tries to smooth out his history in the process. When originally introduced, it seemed as though Tyroc came from an island where all humans of African descent were segregated to—and ignored. This story establishes something very different, that it's a Brigadoonesque place that only appears every two centuries, and that it was settled by escaped slaves from the 1800s. I guess this is better? Unfortunately, it writes Tyroc out, so he never gets a chance to make much of an impact as a character. 

In the future, no one will wear pants.
from Legion of Super-Heroes vol. 2 #265 (plot by Gerry Conway, script by J. M. DeMatteis, art by Jim Janes & Dave Hunt)

Outside of Conway's stuff, there's a pretty bad fill-in by J. M. DeMatteis, which spends more time on overcomplicated exposition of the villain's backstory than the actual story, and three issues of Secrets of the Legion of Super-Heroes. This miniseries, written by Paul Kupperberg from a plot by E. Nelson Bridwell, with art by Jim Janes and Frank Chiaramonte, was I believe the first official attempt to put this history of the Legion into some kind of detailed order. With the way I dance around Legion history out of sequence, it's hard for me to know for certain, but I think this story is the source of many retcons we now take for granted.

...and she went on to be the best member that wasn't Saturn Girl.
from Secrets of the Legion of Super-Heroes #2 (plot by E. Nelson Bridwell, script by Paul Kupperberg, art by Jim Janes & Frank Chiaramonte)

The plot is thin: R. J. Brande is dying and his assistant Marla Latham sneaks into Legion H.Q. to steal files on the Legionnaires because he thinks one might secretly be related to him and thus be able to provide a blood transfusion. Like, why not just ask? But it's an excuse to watch some history tapes and for the Legion to reexplain their own backstories, and I appreciated that more than the mediocre attempt at drama. It's also the story that reveals Brande is secretly a Durlan and the father of Chameleon Boy.

Not really clear to me why the villain changed Dreamy into this outfit to murder her, to be honest.
from Legion of Super-Heroes vol. 2 #268 (script by J. M. DeMatteis, art by Steve Ditko & Bob Wiacek)

The art in this volume is generally quite solid, too. One story by Jim Sherman, which is always nice, but most of it is by the new-to-me Jim Janes, who I would say is above-average for the era is terms of doing character work with the art. I see he continues on into the next volume, but apparently has not done much other comics work, alas. I feel like he could have blossomed into quite a talent given time. Steve Ditko does one issue, and unlike most Legion artists, he gives the Legionnaires spacesuits, not just bubble helmets. But the spacesuits are colored to look like their costumes, which means any Legionnaire with bare arms or legs (which is most of the women and many of the men) has a spacesuit that is mostly flesh-colored. (I guess this could be the colorist's fault. On the other hand, the colorist was clearly told during some issues to make the outfits more modest, as parts of characters like Shadow Lass and Princess Projectra that are usually colored like skin are made to be part of their outfits.)

I read a Legion of Super-Heroes collection every six months. Next up in sequence: Before the Darkness, Volume Two

Review: Secret Origins of the Golden Age by Roy Thomas, et al.

In the wake of Crisis on Infinite Earths, DC began publishing an ongoing series of origin stories, clarifying and adjusting the histories in the wake of the new universal history. Especially in the early days of the series, it alternated between Golden Age heroes and newer heroes; our man Roy Thomas of course edited and wrote most of the Golden Age ones. All of the JSA ones were collected in Last Days of the Justice Society, and I enjoyed reading those ones interspersed with Infinity, Inc., so I decided that when I read The Young All-Stars, I'd intersperse all the non-JSA stories.* (I did also read the non-Golden Age story in each issue, if I hadn't read it already.)

I would say there's sort of three genres here. One seems to basically re-present an old story, but with a new artist and slightly spruced up dialogue. The Superman one is a good example of this: you know all of this because you've read other Superman stories. How can anyone compete with Action Comics #1, even if you do get Wayne Boring and Jerry Ordway to illustrate it? For most of the others, even when you haven't read the original story, you can tell that you're reading a not very tweaked version of something that isn't very interesting: being a slightly better version of a dumb Golden Age story is still a dumb Golden Age story. Doll Man, the Whip, Doctor Occult, Black Condor, and the Grim Ghost were all hard to slog through even though they were just 20 pages long.

The second genre is the continuity solution: the story that fixes a problem, and sews some old stories together. Sometimes this is interesting if it's done deftly. The Batman story, for example, does this. Thomas weaves together some backstory elements from a few early Golden Age Batman stories to make a coherent story about a young Bruce Wayne figuring out if he can love and be Batman. Plus, then, he gets Marshall Rogers and Terry Austin to do the art, a team that has nothing to do with the Golden Age Batman, but who were responsible for one of the best Batman runs ever. The Manhunter story does a good job weaving DC's many Manhunters (four, I think) plus an alien space robot cult, into a coherent history in a way that nicely sets up the Millennium storyline and fleshes out the world of All-Star Squadron/Infinity, Inc./Young All-Stars. The origin of the "Golden Age" Fury is designed to solve a problem created by the changes to Wonder Woman's continuity, but works nicely on its own as a story that ties into both Infinity, Inc. and Young All-Stars.

On the other hand, it can feel like you're reading a bunch of exposition solving a problem you didn't particularly care about. I think probably there's potential in Miss America, for example, but her tale here is one part origin, one part explanation of how come she's alive when she died in All-Star Squadron, and one part explanation of how she fills Wonder Woman's place in the JSA. Like, this isn't going to get me interested in reading more about her-- and even if it did, I couldn't, since she just puts in small appearances in Young All-Stars. Of course this is Roy Thomas's specialty, but it's not just him; the Power Girl story by Paul Kupperberg is just a really long and convoluted explanation of how she could think she was Superman's cousin, but actually be an Atlantean princess, since in the post-Crisis universe, Superman was supposed to be the only surviving Kryptonian.

(And like many retcons done for the sake of retcons, rather than the sake of story, they didn't stick. I am pretty sure that basically no post-1989 JSA stories actually used Miss America as a Wonder Woman analogue, and as far as I know, no post-Crisis Superman stories really acknowledged that supposedly Superman thought he had a Kryptonian cousin for several years.)

There's a third genre here, though, and it's one Roy Thomas is the master of: the historical period piece. Probably my two favorite of all these origins were the ones for the Crimson Avenger and Midnight. Both of these Thomas suffuses with period detail and flair, fleshing out largely forgotten characters by making their worlds feel more lived-in and real. The Crimson Avenger story was a neat tale taking place on the night of the Orson Welles War of the Worlds broadcast, fleshing out the Crimson's role as a newspaper editor in a time of war-- but before America had entered it. Gene Colan and Mike Gustovich's art is atmospheric; you can see why the strength of this origin ultimately lead to a Crimson Avenger miniseries (which I will read after finishing Young All-Stars). Similarly, the Midnight story embeds him in the world of old-time radio, though as far as I know nothing much came of the character after this story. Len Wein's Uncle Sam story was also pretty good, giving an explanation (albeit a weird one, even by comic book rules) to a character I had seen in a lot of things, but didn't actually know how he really worked.

There are about 400 pages of story here; it could make a nice two-volume collection were DC so motivated (but I doubt they ever will be). I am happy I read even the weaker ones, because the good ones made it worth it, and I appreciate the extra context I got for the appearances of these Golden Age characters in various Roy Thomas productions and (I assume) future stories. Though I doubt I'll ever read something that makes me glad I read the Doll Man one!

Secret Origins of the Golden Age originally appeared in issues #1, 3, 5-6, 8, 11-13, 17, 19, 21-22, 26-30, and 42 of Secret Origins vol. 2 (Apr. 1986–July 1989). The stories were written by Roy Thomas, Dann Thomas, Paul Kupperberg, Len Wein, Robert Loren Fleming, and Sheldon Mayer, and co-plotted by E. Nelson Bridwell, Ehrich Weiss, and Roy Thomas. They were pencilled by Wayne Boring, Jerry Bingham, Gene Colan, Marshall Rogers, Murphy Anderson, Mary Wilshire, Tom Grindberg, Mike Gustovich, Howard Simpson, Arvell Jones, Grant Miehm, Tom Artis, Gil Kane, Sheldon Mayer, Mike Harris, Stephen deStefano, and Michael Bair, and the inking was by Jerry Ordway, Steve Mitchell, Mike Gustovich, Terry Austin, Murphy Anderson, Mary Wilshire, Tony DeZuniga, Bob Lewis, Greg Theakston, Bob Downs, Howard Simpson, Damon Willis, Grant Miehm, P. Craig Russell, Fred Fredericks, Gil Kane, Sheldon Mayer, Mike Harris, Paul Fricke, and Michael Bair. Colors were provided by Gene D’Angelo, Carl Gafford, Marshall Rogers, Shelley Eiber, Julianna Ferriter, Tom Ziuko, Anthony Tollin, Liz Berube, and Helen Vesik, and the stories were lettered by David Cody Weiss, Carrie Spiegle, Albert De Guzman, Agustin Mas, Milt Snapinn, Jean Simek, Helen Vesik, Gaspar Saladino, Duncan Andrews, Sheldon Mayer, and Janice Chiang. The series was edited by Roy Thomas, Robert Greenberger, and Mark Waid.

* The full list: Superman (#1), Captain Marvel (#3), Crimson Avenger (#5), Batman (#6), Doll Man (#8), Power Girl (#11), Fury (#12), the Whip (#13), Doctor Occult (#17), Guardian (#19), Uncle Sam (#19), Black Condor (#21), Manhunter (#22), Manhunter (#22), Miss America (#26), Zatara (#27), Midnight (#28), Red Tornado (#29), Mr. America (#29), Plastic Man (#30), Grim Ghost (#42).

This post is fifteenth in a series about the Justice Society and Earth-Two. The next installment covers The Young All-Stars. Previous installments are listed below:

1. All Star Comics: Only Legends Live Forever (1976-79)
2. The Huntress: Origins (1977-82)
3. All-Star Squadron (1981-87)
4. Infinity, Inc.: The Generations Saga, Volume One (1983-84)
5. Infinity, Inc.: The Generations Saga, Volume Two (1984-85)
6. Showcase Presents... Power Girl (1978)
7. America vs. the Justice Society (1985)
8. Jonni Thunder, a.k.a. Thunderbolt (1985)
9. Crisis on Multiple Earths, Volume 7 (1983-85)
10. Infinity, Inc. #11-53 (1985-88) [reading order]
11. Last Days of the Justice Society of America (1986-88)
12. All-Star Comics 80-Page Giant (1999)
13. Steel, the Indestructible Man (1978)
14. Superman vs. Wonder Woman: An Untold Epic of World War Two (1977)
• Wonder Woman: Earth-Two (1977-78)
  

Review: Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes, Volume Two by Paul Levitz, Gerry Conway, Joe Staton, et al.

Comic hardcover, 463 pages
Published 2018 (contents: 1978-80)
Acquired July 2018
Read July 2020

Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes, Volume Two

Writers: Paul Levitz, Paul Kupperberg, Len Wein, Gerry Conway, Steve Apollo 

Pencillers: James Sherman, Arvell Jones, Joe Staton, Steve Apollo, Dick Dillin, Steve Ditko
Inkers: Bob McLeod, Danny Bulanadi, Jack Abel, Joe Giella, Murphy Anderson, Dick Giordano, Dave Hunt, Joe Staton, Frank Chiaramonte, Vince Colletta, Dan Adkins
Colorists: Cory Adams, Gene D'Angelo, Glynis Wein, Adrienne Roy, Jerry Serpe
Letterers: Ben Oda, Shelly Leferman, Jean Simek, Todd Klein, Mike Stevens, Milt Snapinn

DC inches ever closer to plugging the gap between the last Legion of Super-Heroes Archive and The Great Darkness Saga with this, the second and final volume of Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes. (The just-annonced Before the Darkness series will continue from where this collection leaves off.) I'm glad this collection exists, but it's not the Legion's best material.

I don't know much behind-the-scenes information for this era, but the book gives every indication of being jerked around. First we have the five-part Earthwar saga scripted by Paul Levitz, where Earth is invaded by Khunds working for Mordru (to be honest, I don't remember who Mordru is). This is okay: it does nicely subvert your expectations at points, and the events are big... but they never feel big. When Levitz came back to the book for The Great Darkness Saga, he would do much better and more epic work than he did here, and it would feel meaningful to the characters in a way this sorely does not.

James Sherman, why couldn't you have stuck around for more than two issues?
from Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes #241 (script by Paul Levitz, art by James Sherman & Bob McLeod)

Then we get a couple issues written or co-written by Len Wein that read like inventory stories to me, with small references to the recent big events shoehorned in. I did kind of like the idea of "Savage Sanctuary!", where the Fatal Five kind of go legit, though the actual story got a bit stupid. The rule forbidding married couples to be in the Legion is rescinded, and thus Saturn Girl and Lightning Lad rejoin, and Lightning Lad is elected to leadership in short order, replacing Wildfire.

Poor Emerald Empress.
from Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes #247 (script by Len Wein, art by Joe Staton & Jack Abel)

Then we have a couple stories by Gerry Conway that more directly deal with the aftermath of Earthwar-- suddenly Earth is a wreck in need of repair. These are okay, nothing special. (Brainiac is extra jerk-like, which I assume is to set up the next story, though.)

That's uh, quite an outfit. (How does Reep having the hots for humanoid women fit with Invasion!'s revelation that the actual form of Durlans is a weird squid monster?)
from Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes #249 (script by Paul Kupperberg, art by Joe Staton)

Then we have a couple stories by Steve Apollo (better known as Jim Starlin) that were clearly orignally written to slot in around the time of Earthwar, with some last-minute dialogue tweaks: lip service is given to the fact that Lightning Lad is leader, but he and Saturn Girl aren't in the story even though it supposedly features all active Legionnaires (even Tyroc turns up!); Wildfire is clearly in charge. In this story, Brainiac is revealed to be a murderer, having gone insane, and Matter-Eater Lad goes insane, too. Not a lot of it makes sense. I didn't really buy any of this, and why do we need another giant attack on Earth when we just had one?

Tall panel!
from Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes #250 (plot & layouts by Steve Apollo, script by Paul Levitz, art by Dave Hunt)

Then Gerry Conway takes over permanently, dealing with the fallout of Apollo's story... but his stories are repetitive (three different ones are about people coming to take revenge on the Legion for slights, real or imagined) and contrived (the one where Superboy makes people think Legionnaires are dead by activating a latent chemical in their bloodstreams is particularly bad). Brainiac is healed in an entirely unconvincing way, and the Legion undertakes bizarre lengths to do it. The only thing I liked was the subplot about how R. J. Brande went bankrupt... but then realized he was a hoarder and gave away all his money.

If my dreams were like this, I wouldn't want to leave them, either.
from Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes #252 (script by Gerry Conway, art by Joe Staton & Dave Hunt)

(There's also a couple issues of DC Comics Presents by Levitz included, where Superman gets told by the Legion that he has to let Pete Ross's son be kidnapped by aliens to preserve future history. I found this kind of gross.)

Shouldn't Saturn Girl know that Pete Ross knows Superboy's secret identity, because Pete was a Legionnaire himself?
from DC Comics Presents #13 (script by Paul Levitz, art by Dick Dillin & Dick Giordano)

Finally, the last issue writes out Superboy from the comic that used to bear his name (Superboy vol. 1 became Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes became Legion of Super-Heroes vol. 2). I liked how this was done, actually: Superboy finds out how his parents will die. The problem is that when he travels back to the 1950s, he loses his knowledge of future history only to regain it up returning to the 2970s. This means that every time he travels to the future from now on, he will be newly hit with the knowldge of how his parents die. Ouch! He promises to keep up his visits, but the Legion (okay, this part I like less) plant a telepathic block to stop him from doing so, so he flies off to the past for the last time.

Poor Clark.
from Legion of Super-Heroes vol. 2 #259 (script by Gerry Conway, art by Joe Staton & Dick Dillin)

Conway is often not a great writer (I found his run on All Star Comics around this same time pretty bleh), and Legion feels typical of his lesser output. Lots of bombast, not a lot of sense. Which you can kind of get away with in other comics, but Legion is trying to have an ongoing story with ongoing consequences, and those just don't play to Conway's strengths. There are some good artists on the book (e.g., Joe Staton, Jim Starlin), but it's no one's best work. James Sherman, who I really like, does the first couple issues but that's it. His characterful work could have kept this all a bit more grounded, I reckon.

I read a Legion of Super-Heroes collection every six months. Next up in sequence: Five Years Later Omnibus, Volume 1

Review: Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes, Volume One by Paul Levitz, Mike Grell, James Sherman, et al.

Every six months, I read a volume of The Legion of Super-Heroes. This time around, it's...

Comic hardcover, 304 pages
Published 2017 (contents: 1977-78)
Acquired June 2017
Read August 2019

Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes, Volume One

Plotters: Jack C. Harris, Gerry Conway, Paul Levitz, Paul Kupperberg, and Jim Starlin
Writers: Jack C. Harris, Gerry Conway, Paul Levitz, and Paul Kupperberg

Pencillers/Layout Artists: Juan Ortiz, Ric Estrada, Mike Grell, George Tuska, James Sherman, Mike Nasser, Walt Simonson, Jim Starlin, and Howard Chaykin
Inkers/Finishers: Bob Smith, Jack Abel, Vince Colletta, Bob McLeod, Joe Rubinstein, Rick Bryant, and Bob Wiacek
Colorists: Liz Berube, Jerry Serpe, Anthony Tollin, Mike Nasser, Adrienne Roy, and Cory Adams
Letterers: Ben Oda, Milt Snapinn, Gaspar Saladino, and Shelly Leferman

The Legion of Super-Heroes Archives series stalled out at volume 13 in 2012, collecting up through Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes #233. The Great Darkness Saga: The Deluxe Edition picks up with issue #284, leaving a fifty-some-issue gap. Thankfully, in 2017 DC published this volume to begin to plug the gap, collecting #234-40, plus assorted other appearances from the late 1970s.

Very ominous! Yet they all do get on pretty well.
from Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes #236 (script by Paul Levitz & Paul Kupperberg, art by James Sherman & Bob McLeod)

Thankfully also, it's good. The Legion Archives were wildly inconsistent. Superboy and the Legion is still somewhat inconsistent, especially since the book has no regular team, but Paul Levitz's developing writing style are beginning to make this the Legion I like best, one with character and history. Levitz is good at bringing out the characters' diverse personalities, aided by James Sherman, whose art is more interested in using different "character angles" and uses close-ups on faces to good effect. Nothing here is as serialized or as dramatic as what Levitz would later do in Great Darkness Saga, but I found it a consistently enjoyable volume, with a lot of neat standalone, character-driven adventures.

That's one big ship. It feels a bit Star Wars-y to me, and judging by its cover date, the issue would have been drawn right around the time it came out.
from Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes #236 (script by Paul Levitz, art by Mike Nasser and Joe Rubinstein & Rick Bryant)

Highlights included Mon-El singlehandledly saving a science platform from a Khund assault; I particularly liked how Mike Nasser drew the space stuff in the more gritty style of DC's Time Warp, instead of the usual Legion style of cheesy early sf. I liked the exploration of Wildfire as team leader. Vhe story where Ultra Boy is a murder suspect was a little contrived, but gave some great moments as Ultra Boy and Chameleon Boy face off against each other. It was nice to discover a little more about Dawnstar.

I like that Cham is somehow both optimistically chipper (as per above) and deeply suspicious. I guess it makes sense as a personality for a friendly shapeshifter.
from Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes #239 (plot by Jim Starlin & Paul Levitz, dialogue by Paul Levitz, art by Jim Starlin & Josef Rubinstein)

That's not to say it's not without its doofy low points. The Composite Legionnaire story was dumb, and the story about how Saturn Girl and Lightning Lad got married packed too much into its length: the idea of how the Time Trapper changed time seemed like it could have had more exploration.

You can overdramatically explain timeline changes to me any day, Princess Projectra.
from All-New Collectors' Edition #C-55 (script by Paul Levitz, art by Mike Grell & Vince Colletta)

I thought it was interesting that Levitz explained how the series could have been running so long but everyone is still a "Lad" or "Lass": the 30th century has life extension knowledge, so people in their twenties are still kids. But Superboy's mind is always wiped of that information, so that he won't be tempted to take it back to the 20th century and save the Kents! (Back in the 1970s, the Kents died before Clark became Superman.) I'm not sure it really needed attention called to it, but the idea that the future represents a temptation to Superboy is an interesting one.

I didn't know Dawnstar was in Legion Academy. I also didn't know she was such a jerk!
from Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes #240 (plot by Paul Levitz, script by Paul Kupperberg, art by James Sherman & Bob McLeod)

Next Week: Back to Star Trek-- on Deep Space 9, it's time to Raise the Dawn!

Review: Sun Devils by Dan Jurgens, Gerry Conway, Steve Mitchell, et al.

 

DC was really pumping out its Star Wars-inspired space-opera limited series in the 1980s. Spanner's Galaxy's six parts were entirely published during the twelve parts of Sun Devils, an epic series that sadly remains uncollected. Sun Devils begins with daredevil pilot Rik Sunn, inhabitant of a human colony, who's about to begin his career as a diplomat. Rik believes a diplomatic solution to the expansionist Sauroids of the Triad Confederacy can be found, but is quickly proven wrong when his family and their entire planet are obliterated by the Sauroids. Rik travels to Earth to enlist and fight the Sauroids, but the Earth government is as complacent as he was.

Misadventures eventually take him to Centauri, where he becomes the leader of a crack team of fighter pilots / commandos called the Sun Devils, consisting of Anomie Zitar, a sexy gene-edited human escaped slave; Scyla, a sexy Belter smuggler; Shikon, a Sauroid slave who fights to free his caste; One, Two, and Three, cloned mechanics; and Myste, a sexy scientist turned into a noncorporeal being. The Sun Devils wear matching uniforms and work directly for the Prime Speaker of Centauri, trying to stop the Sauroids, especially when it becomes clear the Sauroids are developing a superweapon capable of exploding suns.

Sun Devils was originally developed by Gerry Conway and Roy Thomas, who brought aboard a young Dan Jurgens as artist. Thomas didn't have time to contribute, so the series was written by Conway, but as time went on, Jurgens's role increased; eventually he was doing the dialogue for Conway's plots, and by the end of it all he was writing and illustrating. Jurgens went on to a highly successful career, and this was his first big break-- some of his earliest comics art, and his earliest published writing.

It's easy to see why. Jurgens is easy to dismiss as workmanlike at times if you're ungenerous, but here he's clearly already a master craftsman. His layouts are dynamic, the action is clear, and the characters expressive. Big and small moments alike land perfectly. The art is aided by the fact that this is one of the 1980s' so-called "Baxter books," printed on high-quality paper that really make the colors pop, particularly the black inks. (To be honest, I think this is my favorite kind of comic coloring. Superior to the Silver Age stuff in quality and clarity, but not taken over by the more subdued "realism" computer coloring enabled in the 1990s.)

The twelve issues are divided up into four stories-- The Gathering (#1-3), The Rescue (#4-6), To Steal a Sun (#7-9), and The Last Battle (#10-12)-- each having its own beginning and end, but with a larger story running through it all. It's a nice structure, like maybe watching a four-part tv miniseries. In The Gathering, the team comes together; in The Rescue, they go to the Sauroid homeworld to rescue an imprisoned scientist; in To Steal a Sun, they try to build a superweapon; and in The Last Battle, they try to stop a Sauroid superweapon. There are some surprisingly complex and adult moments, but also it's a fun, action-driven series about a colorful group of characters.

Occasionally the plotting is a bit wonky (there's a bad guy introduced in the final three parts who doesn't really go anywhere, or there's one issue where the opening four pages are spent showing Scyla in a barfight-- a thing we've seen already!), and I found the last issue unsatisfying (the characters have an unrealistic level of trust in a bad guy, because they bizarrely overestimate the leverage they hold over him), but I enjoyed the story on the whole, and it's a shame there wasn't a sequel. I think the ending is setting one up, though I suppose it might be an "...and the adventure continues..."-type ending.

Dan Jurgens did continue the story, kind of, in a 1994 issue of Superman (vol. 2 #86). Even though Sun Devils clearly takes place in the future, a lost-in-space Superman runs into a spaceship piloted by an aged Rik and the daughter of Scyla, chasing down a surprise-not-dead Sauroid ruler. (There's a throwaway line where Scyla's daughter says she doesn't know what century they're in anymore.) I found it a dissatisfying conclusion, a bit too downbeat, and not really an organic outgrowth of where we left the characters in Sun Devils #12.

Sun Devils was originally published in twelve issues (July 1984–June 1985). The series was created by Gerry Conway, Roy Thomas, and Dan Jurgens; plotted by Gerry Conway (#1-9) and Dan Jurgens (#10-12); dialogued by Gerry Conway (#1-6), Paul Kupperberg (#7), and Dan Jurgens (#8-12); pencilled by Dan Jurgens; inked by Rick Magyar (#1), Romeo Tanghal (#2-4), and Steve Mitchell (#5-12); lettered by John Costanza (#1-6, 8, 12) and David Cody Weiss (#7, 9-11); colored by Tom Ziuko; and edited by Gerry Conway.

Through DC's Time Warp: Doomsday Tales and Other Things

Working through DC's science fiction comics of the 1970s as I've been doing, I'm starting to come away with an impression of a publisher desperately trying to cash in on a wider cultural science fiction craze with no idea how. Over the past few months I've read IronWolf (lasted three issues), DC Super-Stars of Space (four issues), Star Hunters (eight issues), and Starfire (eight issues). Now I'm on to Time Warp, an anthology title... that lasted a whole five. DC sure kept trying to make these space comics work though, and in particular, editor Joe Orlando and associate editor Jack C. Harris did: they were behind Star Hunters, Starfire, and Time Warp.

Time Warp is different from some of these other efforts: instead of an ongoing science-fiction adventure, it was an anthology book. Each double-length issue included eight tales by an array of writers and artists. The book's cover line "Doomsday Tales and Other Things" gives you some idea of the focus; there were a lot of apocalyptic and postapocalyptic stories, especially in the first couple issues.

A tragedy I've grown used to in reading these Bronze Age sci-fi comics is the oblivious letter page in the final issue: the final letter page that doesn't know it's the final letter page. Jack C. Harris natters on about the next issue in #5, but there was no next issue, as Time Warp lasted only five issues (except for a one-issue 2013 revival). Reading it, it's not hard to see why. The lettercols speak of wanting to tap into the Star Trek/Star Wars-era zeitgeist... but in execution, these stories hearken back DC's horror comics of the early 1970s like House of Mystery and House of Secrets, which Orlando himself edited if I recall correctly.

It's basically sub-Twilight Zone stuff: lots of "twist" endings, and lots of stories where people are converted into horrific monsters. You've read much better science fiction, and in prose and on tv by 1979, the genre had evolved beyond this. Time Warp feels like it comes out of the pulps of the 1950s more than anything else, and hardly any of the stories here still stick with you.

What does work is the art-- much like in those early-decade horror comics. Give Steve Ditko a race of one-eyed alien monsters, and he will draw the hell out of them. Give Dick Giordano an underground society of sexy women, and he will draw the hell out of them. Give basically anyone spaceships and space monsters, and they will draw the hell out of them. There's some real inventive, impressive work here, starting with Michael Wm. Kaluta's sort-of-techno-fetish covers, and running all the way through the interiors. So probably a misguided experiment (I just kept wishing for real science fiction stories, not horror stories with sf trappings), but one that yielded some entertainment regardless.

Time Warp vol. 1 was originally published in five issues (Oct./Nov. 1979–June/July 1980). The stories were written by Denny O'Neil, Michael Fleisher, George Kashdan, Mike W. Barr, Jack C. Harris, Bob Rozakis, Paul Levitz, Wyatt Gwyon, J. M. DeMatteis, Bill Kelly, Arnold Drake, Dan Mishkin, Gary Cohn, Bob Haney, Scott Edelman, David Allikas, Paul Kupperberg, Sheldon Mayer, Mimai Kin, and Elliot S. Maggin. They were pencilled by Rich Buckler, Steve Ditko, Dick Giordano, Tom Sutton, Jerry Grandenetti, Don Newton, Jim Aparo, Howard Chaykin, Gil Kane, Joe Orlando, Romeo Tanghal, Ed Barreto, Madz Castrillo, Fred Carillo, Mike Nasser, Joel Magpayo, Ernesto Patricio, Dick Ayres, Edgar Bercasio, Vic Catan, Charles Nicholas, Trevor Von Eeden, and Jerry Bingham, and they were inked by Dick Giordano, Steve Ditko, Tom Sutton, Jerry Grandenetti, Dan Adkins, Jim Aparo, Howard Chaykin, Gil Kane, Joe Orlando, John Celardo, Dave Simons, Madz Castrillo, Steve Mitchell, Fred Carillo, Mike Nasser, Joel Magpayo, Ernesto Patricio, Jimmy Janes, Edgar Bercasio, Vic Catan, Armondo Gil, Carl Potts, and John Celardo. Colors were provided by Gene D'Angelo, Adrienne Roy, Jerry Serpe, Tatjana Wood, and Bob Le Rose, and the issues were lettered by Ben Oda, Milton Snapinn, Todd Klein, Shelly Leferman, Esphidy Mahilum, and Albert De Guzman. The series was edited by Joe Orlando; his managing editor was Jack C. Harris.

Archival Review: Star Trek: Corps of Engineers: Grand Designs by Dave Galanter, Allyn Gibson, Kevin Killiany, Paul Kupperberg, David Mack, and Dayton Ward & Kevin Dilmore

Trade paperback, 640 pages
Published 2007 (content: 2004)
Acquired August 2007
Read November 2007

Star Trek: Corps of Engineers: Grand Designs

by Dave Galanter, Allyn Gibson, Kevin Killiany, Paul Kupperberg, David Mack, and Dayton Ward & Kevin Dilmore

This collection only holds six S.C.E. stories (probably because Kevin Killiany writes so much), but that's all right-- includes three of my favorites.  Ring Around the Sky by Allyn Gibson is a beautiful look into new character Mor glasch Tev, Orphans by Kevin Killiany is a distinctively-written tale featuring Klingon engineers (who have disappointingly not yet returned), and Sargasso Sector by Paul Kupperberg is just plain fun.  And this time around, I enjoyed the other three stories more so than I remember previously, making this quite possibly the best stretch of S.C.E. stories in the series's existence-- the events of Wildfire certainly paid off in spades from a storytelling perspective, as its ramifications inform almost all of the tales in this volume.