"Meet Jennifer Mays, New York's prettiest detective, and Gabriel Webb, amateur sleuth and true crime writer, in another fair-play whodunit -- challenging you to solve the mystery as it unfolds!": The Maze Agency #6–23

The first four or five issues of The Maze Agency have been collected two or three times, by my reckoning. However, the original series ran twenty-three issues plus an annual and a special, and aside from one story from the annual and one from the special, none of that material has ever been collected. But it is all available on the secondary market for pretty reasonable prices.

Interestingly, the series was cancelled by publisher Comico after June 1989's issue #7, but the series was picked up by Innovation Comics... even continuing the numbering with December 1989's issue #8! (Issue #8 credits Comico editor Michael Eury, so I'd guess the issue was originally prepared for them.) If you're trying to read it all in order, note that special #1 was published between issues #12 and 13, and annual #1 between issues #15 and 16. It is very clear that the comic struggled in the comics market of the 1980s and '90s; it had acclaim, but never a wide audience. (It probably doesn't help that once Adam Hughes gets snapped up to draw JLA, the series never really has a regular penciller again; Hughes draws #8, 9, and 12; the other fifteen issues of the regular series feature eleven different pencillers.)

If you've read the first five issues, how these ones unfold won't be a big surprise to you: every issue features a done-in-one murder mystery when Jen and Gabe solve the crime. Supposedly they are all "fair-play whodunits," meaning the reader can look at all the clues and solve the mystery too. I didn't really attempt to do this because, though I enjoy reading them, I am not "good" at murder mysteries. Only one time, with issue #11's "…Twas the Crime Before Christmas…" (pencils by Robb Phipps), did I even come close, thanks to a very obvious clue about color blindness. In some stories, the explanations can get pretty convoluted, but that's all part of the genre in my experience; you've just got to roll with it. (I found #9's "The English Channeler Mystery: A Problem In Deduction" particularly far-fetched; I must not have been the only one, because someone actually writes into the lettercol with a completely different solution, claiming it fits all the facts, though writer Mike Barr disagrees. I also thought the "clues" in the one about a group of authors being murdered, #16's "If Books Could Kill…", beggared belief, though all the book stuff was quite fun.)

But when it hits, it hits. These are almost never not pleasurable in the way that murder mysteries ought to be pleasurable: fun characters, including some engaging cops for our leads to interact with, enjoyable pulling together of threads and ideas. I particularly enjoyed the aforementioned Christmas story in #11; the one where Jen's police ally herself becomes a suspect, #15's "Too Much Bliss" (art by Mike Okamoto, Mike Witherby, and Rick Magyar); and the one about a homophobic serial killer, #21's "Valentine's Slay." Surely the best of all, though, was issue #14's "Before Midnight" (pencils by Robb Phipps), where a death-row inmate who Jen helped put away is murdered just before his execution. Really tense and clever and well put together.

And though, as I said, the series never regains a regular penciller, there's still some solid artwork across these issues. I particularly liked Mary Mitchell's pencils on issues #16 and 21. (Alas, it doesn't seem like she had much of a subsequent career; her last credited work on League of Comic Geeks is a ten-page story in Marvel Valentine Special #1 from 1997.) I was also pleased to see some early-career work from Rob Davis on #19, who went on to do some excellent art and writing for Doctor Who Magazine from 2007 to 2011. Rick Magyar does most of the inks from issue #8 to 14, which helps maintain consistency, and he's definitely good value.

I only have two real complaints about this run. The first is that it stretches credulity for me when people investigate murders professionally just happen to encounter a murder mystery. I get this is a feature of the genre, but it gets overused a bit: in #6, Jen and Gabe go on vacation and encounter a murder, then in #7, they go to visit Jen's parents and encounter a murder, and then in #8 there's a murder in Gabe's apartment building. Quite a run there! Similarly, issues #16, 17, and 19 all feature murders they just happen to bump into, rather than ones Jen is hired to solve. It's a device that needs to be used more sparingly.

The other is that I felt like in the earlier issues Barr was setting up some stuff about how the two of them met that never gets paid off. A lot of the early issues revolve around Gabe wanted more of a relationship while Jen is reluctant, and I really enjoyed seeming them slowly grow closer together. But it seemed like the early issues implied there was a bit of a story there, and we never get to hear it. Also there's a lot of focus on Jen's family... but what about Gabe's? (Maybe I just wanted a story set in Ohio.)

The special and the annual are also good stuff. Special #1 sees Jen and Gabe solve three murders in one day, each one drawn by a different artist. I particularly liked the one based around Jen's haircut, "Afternoon: Murder by a Hair," one of the only times Rick Magyar provides pencils. Annual #1 is mostly a Spirit tribute (art by Rick Magyar, Darick Robertson, & Wm. Messner-Loebs); I haven't read any Spirit, but the stylistic diversion is enjoyable. 

All that said... if you like well-constructed comics and fun characters, this is definitely a highlight of the medium and the genre. It's a shame no one has ever crowdfunded some kind of definitive omnibus collection, but they're worth tracking down for sure. 

This is the second in a series of posts about Mike W. Barr's The Maze Agency. The next covers volume 2 from Caliber. Previous installments are listed below:

1. The Maze Agency vol. 1 #1-5 (1988-90)

The Maze Agency, Volume 1 by Mike W. Barr, Adam Hughes, et al.

The Maze Agency was a comic book series that originally ran from 1988 to 1991, with brief revivals in 1997, 2005, and 2024. It was emphatically not a superhero series; it was about the owner of a private detective agency, Jennifer Mays, and her boyfriend, the freelance crime writer Gabriel Webb, as they solved crimes together. The series was the brainchild of Mike W. Barr, a comics writer known for his detective-focused take on Batman—and, if you're a Star Trek fan, his exemplary run on the movie-era comics. I first learned about it, I think, from an appreciation post on the late, lamented comics blog Comics Alliance, which was surely the high point of Internet comics journalism. (This might sound sarcastic, but it's absolutely not; my consumption of contemporary comics went way down when I no longer had CA to point me towards stuff aligned with my tastes.)

Since I just don't have enough comics series to work my way through around here, with this post I'm embarking on a journey through the history of The Maze Agency. Thankfully, though, there's a lot less of it than, say, Blackhawk! 

The Maze Agency, Volume 1

Collection published: 2005
Contents originally published: 1988-90
Acquired and read: March 2026

Writer/Creator: Mike W. Barr
Pencillers: Alan Davis, Adam Hughes
Inks: Alan Davis, Rick Magyar, Al Vey
Letterers: Todd Klein, Deborah Marks, Bob Pinaha
Colorist: Julia Lacquement

The only issues of The Maze Agency to ever have been reprinted are the first five; there was a black-and-white trade paperback of the first four in 1990 from Innovation,* but in 2005, IDW rereleased the first five (plus some other stuff, which I'll come to) in color, as a companion to their revival of the series. (No further trades were ever released, not even of IDW's own material, so it must not have been a big seller, even though some sleuthing leads me to think that ISBNs were assigned to future collections.)

This is one of those comic books that's kind of hard to review, in the sense that what The Maze Agency does isn't genius... but it is perfect, if you take my meaning. That is to say, this is a comic that has an objective and it fulfills that objective with precision and professionalism. Mike Barr is an underrated writer, in my opinion; he knows (knew? I don't think he's had any new comics work released since 2024's one-issue Maze Agency revival, but I could be wrong) exactly how to put a comic book together. These issues have to pack in a lot, because each one is a single story: they need to introduce a mystery and a cast of supporting characters to go along with it to serve as victim(s) and suspects and witnesses, and provide clues and red herrings, and they also need to give Jennifer and Gabe interesting things to do. That's a lot to pack into twenty pages, but Barr manages it every time with an economy of storytelling that really impressed me. It's just pleasurable to read on a panel-to-panel basis. There is nothing flashy here, but it's efficient in the way that only a solid comics pro of the 1980s could be, in my opinion.

Aw, poor Gabe.
from The Maze Agency vol. 1 #1 (art by Adam Hughes & Rick Magyar)

The steady, experienced hand of Barr as writer is aided by the then new, upcoming hand (that's a weird metaphor, isn't it?) of Adam Hughes as artist. Hughes would go on to become a superstar of the comics industry, but this was among his first comics work if not, I think, the first. Hughes's skill rests in his ability to both draw attractive people and communicate character with facial expressions; it's little wonder he was later poached from this series to illustrate Justice League America, a series equally suited to his talents. (Fun fact: Hughes drew the Maze Agency characters in a cameo in JLA #34, and when Barr found out, he got DC to let him write some dialogue for their appearance!)

Or maybe, Poor Jen!
from The Maze Agency vol. 1 #3 (art by Adam Hughes & Rick Magyar)

Like I said, this volume collects five regular issues of the series. In these five, Jen and Gabe deal with murders in the contexts of an art gallery heist, the discovery of lost sitcom episodes, a facility for testing experimental cars, a group of Jack the Ripper enthusiasts, and an Alcor-like cryonics facility. I found them all enjoyable, solid, well-constructed mysteries. Like any mystery series, though, it's not just about the murders, but also the detectives. The other pleasure of the series is the developing relationship between the leads, as well as their interaction with the supporting cast. We're not told exactly how Jen and Gabe met or got involved with each other, but their relationship is clearly quite recently established when the series begins, and Gabe is eager while Jen is hesitant. They're fun characters, and using Adam Hughes as artist is key to the series's success here: just as a solid mystery tv show is elevated by the chemistry of its cast, so is this comic elevated by Hughes's ability to depict character through his art.

Awwwww...
from The Maze Agency vol. 1 #4 (art by Adam Hughes & Rick Magyar)

When trying to figure out what issues of this series I needed to buy in addition to the TPB, I was stymied by finding contradictory information about this collected edition. Some references said it contained the first five issues plus Maze Agency Annual #1, others said it contained the first five issues plus Maze Agency Special #1. I had to wait for my copy to arrive to solve this mystery. So which was it? Well, it was both and neither. The IDW trade paperback contains one story from annual #1 and one story from special #1... but both of those issues contained other stories as well, so if you want the complete Maze Agency, you'll have to buy both of those issues even if you already own this collection.

In a text piece in the full Maze Agency Special, Mike Barr says it was Alan Davis who gave Jen her little forelock, and he was initially opposed to it but came to like it in the end.
from The Maze Agency Special #1 (art by Alan Davis)

The story from 1990's special #1 is "The Mile-High Corpse!" (here listed as being from Maze Agency #0, which isn't quite accurate). This story was written by Barr with illustrations by comics legend Alan Davis, and though it wasn't printed until much later, it was completed first—Barr used it to try to convince potential publishers to try to get on board with publishing the series. It's just six pages long, so the mystery can't be very complicated, but it gives you a very brief understanding of the premise, and of course it's always a pleasure to see some Alan Davis art.

This actually goes on to be a significant recurring gag in the comic.
from The Maze Agency Annual #1 (art by Adam T. Hughes & Rick Magyar)

The story from annual #1 is even shorter, just three pages. "Murder in Mint Condition" is about Jen and Gabe very quickly solving a mystery at a comics convention... because the first two pages were given away for free at a comics convention in 1988. You could submit your solution; the last page, with the actual solution, was later printed in the Comics Buyer's Guide. The complete story was eventually reprinted in both the annual for 1990 and the original trade paperback. Not really a satisfying mystery but a nice curio.

This is the first in a series of posts about Mike W. Barr's The Maze Agency. The next covers issues #6-23 of volume 1.

* According to Mike Barr's text page in The Maze Agency vol. 2 #1, Caliber also put out a trade of the first four issues in 1997, but I can't find any evidence this actually happened: it's not on the GCD, it's not listed for sale anywhere, or ever having been for sale.

Review: Infinity, Inc.: The Generations Saga, Volume One by Roy Thomas, Jerry Ordway, Mike Machlan, et al.

Comic hardcover, 192 pages
Published 2011 (contents: 1983-84)
Acquired July 2011
Read June 2020

Infinity, Inc.: The Generations Saga, Volume One

​

Written by Roy Thomas, Dann Thomas, Gardner Fox

Art by Jerry Ordway, Mike Machlan, Rick Magyar, Bill Collins, Joe Kubert, Al Dellinges
Colored by Gene D'Angelo, Anthony Tollin, Adrienne Roy
Lettered by David Cody Weiss, John Costanza

The success of All-Star Squadron spurred a second Earth-Two ongoing comic, Infinity, Inc., which debuted in 1984. It's funny, in the letter columns for both All-Star and Infinity, Inc., Roy Thomas is always talking about how he'd like to do an ongoing featuring the Justice Society itself... but he never actually does! And he was the editor! I don't know if this is because he kept coming up with better ideas, or if because his superiors at DC wouldn't let him. This series is a better idea, though, if you ask me: instead of focusing on the JSA, it focuses on their descendants. The team here is made up of Nuklon (son of the Atom's goddaughter), the Silver Scarab (Hawkman's son), the Huntress (Batman's daughter), Power Girl (Superman's cousin), Brainwave Jr. (son of JSA foe the Brain Wave), Jade and Obsidian (children of the Green Lantern), Northwind (mentee of Hawkman), and the Star-Spangled Kid (not actually someone's descendant). You have a group of people trying to live up to their pasts: a favorite theme of mine in superhero comics.

In All Star Comics and Showcase in the 1970s, the Brain Wave would use his illusion powers to make himself look like a younger man. Infinity, Inc. reveals that that younger man was patterned after his son... who here is using his illusion powers to make himself look like his father!
from Infinity, Inc. vol. 1 #1 (plot by Roy Thomas & Dann Thomas, script by Roy Thomas, art by Jerry Ordway & Mike Machlan)

The Generations Saga, Volume One collects the first four issues of the series, alongside the three issues of All-Star Squadron (#25-26 and Annual #1) that introduced the team. The book's biggest flaw is not really its fault per se: in typical DC fashion, their efforts to collect an old series stalled out almost right away, and there never was another collection of Infinity, Inc., so you don't get a complete story. I can see why, though: $40 retail for seven issues of a pretty obscure team?

I always think Obsidian's shadow face looks more goofy than frightening, but I still like it.
from All-Star Squadron #25 (script by Roy Thomas, art by Jerry Ordway & Mike Machlan)

And, to be honest, it doesn't read great on its own. The issues here are reprinted in publication order, but I followed Roy Thomas's advice in the introduction and read them in story order, which I liked, as it caused me to read the All-Star Squadron issues from the Infinitors' perspective, not the All-Stars' as I had the first time. Infinity, Inc. #1-2 introduces the team and ends with them being sent back in time to 1942, leading into their appearances in All-Star; then Infinity, Inc. #3-4 follow them back in the present day. #1-2 are kind of silly: the future members of Infinity, Inc. bust into a JSA meeting and demand to be admitted as members. Everyone fights instead of actually conversing for some reason, and then once a vote is held, they are sent packing, all depressed and wondering how they will be superheroes. It's not clear to me why they can't be superheroes without being in the JSA. If you want to save people, just get out there and do it! The necessity of action scenes also results in a weird sequence where they go to eat at a fast-food restaurant in full costume and get in a fight for no real reason.

This is done six separate times, which gets a bit repetitive.
from All-Star Squadron #26 (script by Roy Thomas, art by Jerry Ordway & Mike Machlan)

I'm glad the All-Star issues are here, but without the lead-in issues (they capped off a storyline that began in #18), they're not as effective, and a lot of the stuff about time travel and balancing limbo and mental energy is sheer malarkey, even by comic book standards.

Not the waking up by Power Girl and Huntress the Star-Spangled Kid had hoped for.
from Infinity, Inc. vol. 1 #3 (plot by Roy Thomas & Dann Thomas, script by Roy Thomas, art by Jerry Ordway and Mike Machlan, Rick Magyar, & Bill Collins)

The actual storyline of The Generations Saga hasn't even really begun by the time the collection ends. In #3, the Infinitors fight Solomon Grundy; meanwhile in a totally separate plot, Superman has gone evil. This being a Roy Thomas comic, people are always having long conversations where they explain how their backstories fit into established continuity. This goes so far as #4 reprinting a 1946 Hawkman story in its entirety to fill in Northwind's history, which was pretty unnecessary. But at the same time, the characters somehow never have time to communicate essential information, always getting cut off by fight scenes so that the plot doesn't move too quickly from information being communicated effectively. The Generations Saga does really pick up in issues #5-10, which makes it a shame DC cut it half for some reason.

The answer is mind wipes. Always mind wipes. If the All-Star Squadron wasn't always getting mind-wiped of time travel and/or timeline adventures, Roy Thomas's retroactive continuity would be in a constant state of collapse.
from Infinity, Inc. vol. 1 #3 (plot by Roy Thomas & Dann Thomas, script by Roy Thomas, art by Jerry Ordway and Mike Machlan, Rick Magyar, & Bill Collins)

What does really work is the artwork of Jerry Ordway. His work on All-Star Squadron was always strong, but Infinity, Inc. is a whole 'nother level. Great use of close-ups, great character work in the faces, interesting layouts that really work to tell the story. The characters comes to life, especially (I thought) Jade and Obsidian, the two ordinary teens who suddenly discovered that they might be descendants of the Green Lantern. Mike Machlan's inks and the work of the various colorists also really shines, vibrant and lively.

This post is the fourth in a series about the Justice Society and Earth-Two. The next installment covers Infinity, Inc.: The Generations Saga, Volume Two. 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)
   

The End of Hawkworld: John Ostrander's Run on Hawkman vol. 3

When I reviewed the Hawkworld ongoing, I noted that the lack of commentary on what succeeded it* was conspicuous: "I don't have much of a sense what Hawkman vol. 3 is like. You can find a lot of write-ups on the Internet about the Hawkworld ongoing, but Hawkman vol. 3 is usually only mentioned for the bare fact of its existence." I didn't find this article until later, but it's basically all I could find. Just skimming the covers and issue descriptions, though, made me think that reading Hawkman vol. 3 in its entirety wasn't going to be for me; it was clear that the series moved away from the science fiction elements that attracted me to the original Hawkworld in the first place.

So I ended up limiting myself to the issues of Hawkman vol. 3 written by Hawkworld writer John Ostrander (#1-6, Annual #1) or that sounded otherwise interesting, which wereits "Year One" story (Annual #2) and a Shayera Thal focal issue cover-branded with the title Hawkwoman (#19).

Ostrander's run picks up a few months on from the end of Hawkworld: Hawkwoman (Shayera Thal) is presumed dead, Hawkman (Katar Hol) is missing following a battle, and there's a new Hawkman out there, willing to cross a line the old Hawkman wouldn't. The first issue builds up a lot of mystery as to who this new Hawkman is; the second reveals it's Katar Hol again, so I don't know what the point of that was.

He's essentially a completely different character, though. In issue #6, it's revealed that in the months between Hawkworld #32 and Hawkman #1, Katar discovered his secret past: when his father Paran Katar visited Earth in the Justice Society era, he fell in love with a Native American woman and fathered a child with her; he took them both back to Thanagar with him, though eventually the woman got tired of space life and was returned to Earth. This retcon stretches plausibility even further than the myriad ones during Hawkworld vol. 2 already did. The original introduction of the Paran-Katar-on-Earth retcon made it clear the JSA Hawkman and Hawkgirl didn't know Paran was from space; this version shows they did.

It's clear the point of this is to reduce Hawkman's science fiction elements and increase his tie to Earth. Like all retcons, I judge it on the standard of: is the new thing, if not more interesting, at least equal in interest to the thing it's replacing? Here, the answer is a clear no. The Thanagar introduced by Tim Truman in Hawkworld vol. 1 was a fertile ground for telling interesting stories, and John Ostrander took it some interesting places in vol. 2. Now, Hawkman is yet another angry 1990s superhero.

The main upshot seems to be to give Hawkman "Native American powers"; he can commune with animals (of course he can). Also, now, when he flies into a place, it makes a noise that sounds like the wind. Only this is comics, so this gimmick can only be communicated by having people go, "What's that? It sounds like a tremendous wind only the leaves on the trees aren't moving!" I made up that dialogue, but it's not far off the real thing.

In short, it's mediocre, and I'm sure the post-John Ostrander issues, even if they aren't actually bad, will be devoid of what drew me to the character in the first place, and reading Hawkman Annual #2 validated this, as it's a bunch of mumbo-jumbo about Hawk spirits and reincarnation. The writing out of Shayera is a real shame, too, as she was essentially co-lead in Hawkworld vol. 2, but the trajectory here makes it clear that Hawkman vol. 3 will be focused on just Hawkman. I did enjoy her starring role in issue #19; she's as awesome as ever even if the story isn't that good. More angry vigilantes.

Man, the mid-1990s were a dark time in comics.

* Hawkman is a little tricky to follow through publishing chronology thanks to the changing names of his series. It goes: Hawkman vol. 1 (1964-68), The Atom and Hawkman (1968-69), The Shadow War of Hawkman (1985), Hawkman vol. 2 (1986-87), Hawkworld vol. 1 (1989), Hawkworld vol. 2 (1990-93), Hawkman vol. 3 (1993-96), Legend of the Hawkman (2000), Hawkman vol. 4 (2002-06), Hawkgirl (2006-07), The Savage Hawkman (2011-13), Death of Hawkman (2016-17), Hawkman vol. 5 (2018-present).

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.