--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Cover: Jim Aparo and Tatjana Wood
Writer: Bob Haney and Mike W. Barr
Artist: Jim Aparo
I picked this one up mostly so I could see how they got Batman and Kamandi together. Anyway, Extortion Inc is running wild and has a new enforcer so Batman tries luring them into a trap. Turns out an amnesiac Kamandi is their new enforcer!
Batman and Kamandi duke it out a couple times and Batman figures out how to free Kamandi from Extortion Inc's influence. They fly to Australia to the place Kamandi arrived in our era and Kamandi is able to travel back.
Yeah, it was pretty hokey but I still dug it. Now I have to track down their previous meeting in The Brave and the Bold #120. Maybe I'll just bite the bullet and get those sweet as hardcover Brave in the Bold omnibuses.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Cover: Jim Aparo and Tatjana Wood
Writer: Dennis O'Neil
Artist: Jim Aparo
I picked this one up because I couldn't imagine Batman teaming up with his greatest foe. That's right, Ra's Al Ghul is Batman's greatest foe. Deal with it.
Professor Hatter has created a formula that can turn anything it touches into crystal and the League of Assassins wants it bad. Batman and Ra's Al Ghul team up to take them down.
After Ra's collapses, Batman and Talia take him to Switzerland to give him a dip in the Lazarus Pit to rejuvenate him. Batman and Ra's head to Hong Kong. They thwart the league but Hatter takes his own life using the last of the formula. Hatter and everyone on the ship except Batman are crystalized. Ra's shows up in a boat and rescues Batman, saving the world by dumping enough silicon solution into the ocean around the boat to keep the halt the crystallization.
The formula reminds me of Ice-Nine from Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut. Batman and Ra's Al Ghul's relationship is the star of the show. Ra's calling him "Detective" brings back fond memories of his appearances on Batman: The Animated Series in the 1990s. I think Batman and Ra's contrast one another nicely. If Batman had no moral compass, he could easily become Ra's Al Ghul.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Justice League of America #250
Cover: Luke McDonnell
Writer: Gerry Conway
Artists: Luke McDonnell and Bill Wray
I've been coveting this issue for decades, since I saw it in an ad along with Green Lantern #200. Those mid-'80s anniversary issues sure were sweet.
Superman, Batman, Green Lantern, Green Arrow, and Black Canary are summoned to Justice League headquarters by their old signal devices.
Gypsy is pulled into a dark dimension where she encounters horribly aged versions of the Detroit era Justice League. She's saved by the former Leaguers in the real world, surrounded by the prone, aged forms of the rest of the JLA. Gypsy fills them in on an alien called Junior that seems to be behind the witherings.
Meanwhile, Zatanna is looking for the woman who used to sublet her apartment and runs afoul of a cult, lead by the mysterious Adam. Green Lantern and Green Arrow go to Justice League headquarters and GL is struck down with the same withering thanks to a man in green trunks, presumably Junior.
Batman discovers Junior's origin and figures out how to take him down. The team takes Junior out and uses his energy to rejuvenate the rest of the League. Batman joins the Detroit League with secret motives.
On the last page, the next big threat is revealed - Despero!
If DC wanted people to get behind the Detroit league, making them look like chumps and having the old League save them wasn't the way to do it. It was a fun story, though. I had a subscription to JLA back in the day and it started two issues after this one so I already had an inkling about Adam and Despero.
Gypsy is pulled into a dark dimension where she encounters horribly aged versions of the Detroit era Justice League. She's saved by the former Leaguers in the real world, surrounded by the prone, aged forms of the rest of the JLA. Gypsy fills them in on an alien called Junior that seems to be behind the witherings.
Meanwhile, Zatanna is looking for the woman who used to sublet her apartment and runs afoul of a cult, lead by the mysterious Adam. Green Lantern and Green Arrow go to Justice League headquarters and GL is struck down with the same withering thanks to a man in green trunks, presumably Junior.
Batman discovers Junior's origin and figures out how to take him down. The team takes Junior out and uses his energy to rejuvenate the rest of the League. Batman joins the Detroit League with secret motives.
On the last page, the next big threat is revealed - Despero!
If DC wanted people to get behind the Detroit league, making them look like chumps and having the old League save them wasn't the way to do it. It was a fun story, though. I had a subscription to JLA back in the day and it started two issues after this one so I already had an inkling about Adam and Despero.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Green Lantern #200
Cover: Walt Simonson
Writer: Steve Englehart
Artists: Joe Staton and Bruce D. Patterson
There was a short time period where Green Lantern was my favorite super hero. I had dozens of back issues I nabbed from the flea market and his Super Powers action figure. When I saw the ad for this anniversary issue, I just had to have it. Then I forgot about it for three decades.
In the aftermath of Crisis, there are only 22 Guardians of the Universe left and they're ready to hand things over after five billion years of service. The Green Lantern Corp is out capturing criminals and tying up loose ends.
Hector Hammond launches a plot to take out Hal Jordan. Hal thwarts him, of course. The 2800 Green Lanterns assemble and the Guardians and Zamorons reunite after billions of years apart.
The Guadians and the Zamorons leave together to rebuild their race, leaving the Green Lanterns in charge of the Power Battery on Oa with only Old Timer, the former Guardian to guide them.
It sure seemed like Steve Englehart was setting up a lot of future storylines here. The book became The Green Lantern Corps with the next issue. I don't know how long it took for DC to hit the reset button but Englehart sure got the rug yanked out from under him a lot in the 1980s. Just look at his Fantastic Four run from a couple years after this.
In the aftermath of Crisis, there are only 22 Guardians of the Universe left and they're ready to hand things over after five billion years of service. The Green Lantern Corp is out capturing criminals and tying up loose ends.
Hector Hammond launches a plot to take out Hal Jordan. Hal thwarts him, of course. The 2800 Green Lanterns assemble and the Guardians and Zamorons reunite after billions of years apart.
The Guadians and the Zamorons leave together to rebuild their race, leaving the Green Lanterns in charge of the Power Battery on Oa with only Old Timer, the former Guardian to guide them.
It sure seemed like Steve Englehart was setting up a lot of future storylines here. The book became The Green Lantern Corps with the next issue. I don't know how long it took for DC to hit the reset button but Englehart sure got the rug yanked out from under him a lot in the 1980s. Just look at his Fantastic Four run from a couple years after this.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
No comments:
Post a Comment