A review of the 1986/1987 LEGENDS mini-series

LEGENDS had begun as a follow up to Crisis on Infinite Earths. Seen mainly as a springboard for launching several new titles such as Giffen & DeMatties' run on Justice League and John Ostrander's Suicide Squad, it still stands on its own as an entertaining read.

The plot is relatively straightforward, but with enough happening in each issue to make it feel like a bigger story than the page count suggests. Darksied is scheming with Glorious Godfrey on Apokolips to destroy the so-called superhero 'legends' of earth. If he does so, it will make humanity stop believing in higher ideals and be much more susceptible to being brainwashed and taken over. The Phantom Stranger shows up and makes a bet with Darksied that humanity will never turn its back on its heroes and good will never truly be snuffed out. To carry out his plans, Darksied sends Godfrey to pose as a TV preacher, G. Gordon Godfrey, and use the media to spin the public into believing that the very existence of superheroes mocks the 'common man' and that the US Government should outlaw them.

Glorious Godfrey as outspoken pundit from LEGENDS #1 (1986).
Pencils by John Byrne, inks by Karl Kesel.

The public is surprisingly quick to agree with this and after a few incidents of anti-superhero mob attacks, Ronald Reagan is forced to temporarily order all heroes to cease activities for the time being.

I should point out that although it’s implied that Godfrey is somehow using New God technology to hypnotise people in to following him, it’s never outright stated as such, so what we’re left with is the fact that he was able to simply get the public to attack Batman and Robin up in a department store after they just saved them all from an armed robbery.

Fun fact: Five of the  eight characters in this panel were co-created by Gerry Conway.
Justice League Detroit (with Firestorm and Cosmic Boy) from LEGENDS #1 (1986).
Pencils by John Byrne, inks by Karl Kesel.

Darkseid also sends out his minion Brimstone, a plasma-based skyscraping entity who fights with the Detroit-era Justice League (in a bittersweet last adventure before the end of that team), and is eventually defeated by the newly-created Suicide Squad. We get to see them in action, fighting atop Mount Rushmore.

Suicide Squad vs Brimstone from LEGENDS #3 (1987).
Pencils by John Byrne, inks by Karl Kesel.

Ronald Reagan plays a background role, but it's a vital one; it’s his executive order to temporarily ban superheroes (in response to mass public unrest) that creates much of the drama of the series. Contemporary politicians in superhero comics is always a tricky issue -- since it instantly dates a comic book's longevity. It is rather interesting that he’s presented as an unknowing tool on behalf of Darkseid, the super-villain who Jack Kirby always equated with Richard Nixon.

The Then-President of the United States consults with Superman in LEGENDS #2 (1986)
Pencils by John Byrne, inks by Karl Kesel.

Many heroes are affected by the ban. Captain Marvel, having been tricked by a clone of Macro- Man planted to explode when struck by lightning, believes he murdered him and is afraid to use his magic word to change from Billy Batson again. Blue Beetle is shot by a cop after he stops a criminal, thinking maybe it’s time to give up crime-fighting.

Blue Beetle being shot at by cops. From LEGENDS #2 (1986)
Pencils by John Byrne, inks by Karl Kesel.

Guy Gardner saves an out of control plane from crashing by landing it on the freeway, and all he gets for his trouble is a bunch of angry passengers and inconvenienced motorists. Guy is atypically in control of himself in this mini, and seems like a competent, if not hot-blooded, Green Lantern. In comparison with Hal who he’s replacing, he seems like a much more exciting GL, making constructs of crazy monsters and using his power ring in clever ways like popping a small hole in an oil tank above a bad guy's head, as opposed to Hal "Giant Baseball Bat" Jordan.

Guy Gardner in all his glory! From LEGENDS #5 (1987)
Pencils by John Byrne, inks by Karl Kesel.

This characterization stands in contrast to the half-cocked hotshot that would be a main character in DeMatties and Giffens’s Justice League International.

Dr. Fate is watching all of these event unfold and decides that it’s time to act. He gathers Superman, Batman, Flash, Beast Boy, Guy, Black Canary, Blue Beetle and Captain Marvel for the upcoming battle.

Gang's all here! From LEGENDS #5 (1987)
Pencils by John Byrne, inks by Karl Kesel.

It all ends with a big showdown in Washington DC with the Dr. Fate assembled heroes versus Godfrey with his human-controlled Hunger Dogs and an army of parademons. Even Wonder Woman shows up, in her first Post-Crisis appearance in 'man's world'.

The dramatic debut of the NEW post-Crisis Wonder Woman in LEGENDS #6 (1987).
Pencils by John Byrne, inks by Karl Kesel.

After disposing of the mechanical hounds, Godfrey taunts the heroes that they won't dare hurt innocent, if deluded, bystanders. In the end though, it’s the innocent children who save the day by rushing to the unruly mob and telling them that the superheros are good guys after all. Godfrey strikes a child, releasing the people from his spell and turning the tide of the battle. It ends with the heroes standing around making a somewhat unrealistic speech about how although hero worship isn’t healthy, there will always be a need for people to believe in something greater than themselves. And if it wasn’t hammered enough in that this story is a religious allegory, the book ends with a quote from The Book of Ephesians.

The altruistic ending from LEGENDS #6 (1987)
Pencils by John Byrne, inks by Karl Kesel.

This theme -- demonstrating that the ability to influence the beliefs and values of the general public is a formidable power -- is a very common one though DC. It goes back to Jack Kirby and Darkseid’s quest for the Anti-Life Equation, all the way to the public turning on Superman in Kingdom Come (another book with heavy religious allegories), and is quite prominent in Grant Morrison's Final Crisis.

Glorious Godfrey preaching to the mob in LEGENDS #5 (1987)
Pencilled by John Byrne, inked by Karl Kesel

Iris Allen walking home is Final Crisis #4 (2008)
Art by J.G. Jones, Carlos Pacheco, and Jesus Merino.

A lot of what makes LEGENDS interesting is how, in many ways, it’s the first true BIG super team-up in the wake of the new status quo. Although Guy Gardner had been seen previously, this really feels like Guy's FIRST big public debut as the Green Lantern of Earth, and I’m sure that was the intention of the writers as they introduced Guy to a whole new crop of readership.

LEGENDS is a scientific experiment that seeks to ask the question "What would the fearful and hateful humans that populate the Marvel Universe (and X-Men comics in particular) do if they where in the much more superhero-friendly DC Universe"? The answer they seem to come up with is that they would act like jerks for a while, but in the end they would revert back to their docile selves. Somewhat unfulfilling if you ask me. It should be remembered that Watchmen was coming out at the same time as this mini-series, and didn’t shy away from asking tough questions about the morality of hero worship with schmaltzy scenes with children.

This book also fulfills the promise of showcasing a 'shared universe' by incorporating the heroes from the infinite earths that where saved during Crisis On Infinite Earths. Most notably, Earth-Two's Dr. Fate, Earth-Charlton's Blue Beetle, and Earth-Fawcett's Captain Marvel/Shazam.

Captain Marvel/Shazam from LEGENDS #5 (1987)
Pencilled by John Byrne, inked by Karl Kesel

Dr Fate! From LEGENDS #4 (1987)
Pencils by John Byrne, inks by Karl Kesel.

John Byrne's pencils are in top form. It’s his version of Superman straight out of the Man of Steel mini-series, right down to the sharp eyes and confident smile. It’s interesting to see him draw Captain Marvel, he even captures C.C. Beck's "squinty eyes" on him. Byrne's art totally fits for a series like this, given the time when it came out. It’s clean but not lifeless, gritty and detailed but not overly cluttered. It’s hard to tell how much of the art that comes out is Byrne's pencils or Karl Kesel's inks. I’ve heard that, as more and more work would be assigned to Byrne, he would forgo drawing backgrounds and would only stick to characters. The inker would sometimes fill in the backgrounds and other details when needed. This is the case in some of the later issues of Marvel's Alpha Flight (for example 1984's Alpha Flight #13 features an eleven page dream sequence with no words and minimal backgrounds -- a sequence I DO like by the way).

Billy Batson to Captain Marvel in LEGENDS #3 (1987)
Pencils by John Byrne, inks by Karl Kesel.

Ultimately, I think it’s a good mini-series that deserves reading for being a bridge from Crisis On Infinite Earths to Justice League International, but I think it’s a bit simplistic in its morality. It’s just on the edge of being a mature readers book, but then it reverts back to the world of 'Peter Pan and Tinkerbell'.

The series is written by John Ostrander and Len Wein, with pencils by John Byrne and inks by Karl Kesel.



-Anthony Kuchar

Paul Kupperberg talks about the 1988 Checkmate! ongoing series

Paul Kupperberg was a busy man in the 1980s. He wrote most of the Arion, Lord of Atlantis ongoing series, the last 24 issues of Vigilante, the first 18 issues of Doom Patrol v2, the entire Supergirl v2 ongoing series, so many Superman-related stories that we can't list them all here, and a run of Green Lantern Corps back-up tales in Green Lantern v1. (Not to mention other projects he touched on.) Most importantly, Kupperberg wrote all 33 issues of 1988's Checkmate! ongoing series. Checkmate! was a little unconventional for a DC book - it was a mix of covert operations and espionage, it re-used characters from Vigilante and Doom Patrol v2, and didn't really interact with the rest of the DCU. It was a NEW FORMAT book and kind of crept below reader's radars because it was only available in comic book shops. I had never even heard of it until about a decade ago. Needless to say, it acquired a cult following and those who like it, like it a lot.

This is an aggregate of two different interviews with Paul Kupperberg. The first, by Aaron "Head" Moss, was recorded on 2016 in his Task Force X: Episode 19 podcast. The Task Force X podcast mainly concerns itself with John Ostrander's Suicide Squad and Kupperberg's Checkmate! comics. If you're into either of those, I'd recommend you check his podcast out.

On with the first interview:

[as per usual, I've mangled the continuity of this interview so it makes logical sense to the reader -editor]


Aaron "Head" Moss: After Vigilante ended, shortly thereafter, Checkmate! started up with a couple of the characters from the Vigilante book. Who's idea was it - who came up with the idea of Checkmate!?... Was it your idea to continue it? Or was it...?

Paul Kupperberg: The whole idea was that "we'll end Vigilante and come up with something to replace it on your schedule". I was kind of looking around and saw that DC didn't really have a central spy agency at the time. I'd been playing around with those kind of ideas - the whole espionage idea - in Vigilante. [We] just decided to take it to the next step and take all the people involved in the espionage end of what was going on in Vigilante and transfer them into Checkmate into an actual sanctioned group. It came under Amanda Waller's command - she was running Suicide Squad/Task Force X.

Moss: You had Black Thorn, Harry Stein, Harvey [Bullock], seems like everyone that was directly involved with the end of Vigilante came over to Checkmate!. Looking in different places I'm seeing that you're credited with it, I see that John Byrne is credited with help creating it because they first appeared in Action Comics #598 (1988).

Kupperberg: The genesis was: I wrote the proposal. John [Byrne] is a friend of mine. We asked him "would you mind if we exploited your name by having you [develop] a character", he said "no no, not at all, do I get lunch out of it?" So yeah, we bought him lunch, and at lunch we sat down and looked over the proposal. We just talked about the 'look' of the knight costumes. He did this sketch in a sketch book and that was it. Steve Erwin took that (and the proposal) and designed the headquarters and the characters and all that stuff. [You can read about Erwin's recollection of it here. -editor]

Moss: So the [Checkmate] knight costume... that was you? Or you and John [Byrne] that came up with the idea for the Knight costume?

Kupperberg: It was mostly John [Byrne]. Some of it is kind of self-evident: you're doing a knight costume, so you're going to need someone with some kind of helmet-thing going on. He's also a spy, so you're going to want to keep it dark. The gauntlet and the staff that expanded. So, y'know, kind of riffing off of the whole 'Knight' theme.

A Checkmate Knight in action. Checkmate! v1 #1 (1988)

Moss: Out of all the Checkmate! stories was there a favorite storyline you had in that?  Was there anything that stands out that you look back and go "Damn, I did a good job on that".

Kupperberg: There was a bunch of back-ups I remember - Randy Duburk drew a few of them - those were pretty good. That was later on in the series.

Checkmate v1 #33 - Randy Duburk art

Especially at the beginning, I like the first few issues a lot. I was really pushing it and trying to be ambitious and tell these big stories. And I think I was very successful in accomplishing what I set out to do. Whether or not anybody liked it, that's a whole other story.

Moss: There was that cross-over with Suicide Squad: the Janus Directive. How closely did you and John Ostrander work on the title? Was it just a cross-over?

Kupperberg: It was pretty much a cross-over - as I recall the idea of that cross-over was mostly John [Ostrander]'s. I guess he worked on it with his editor. Johnathon Peterson was my editor. I think Bob Greenberger was editing Suicide Squad at the time.

As I recall I wasn't involved too deeply in the plotting of the overall story arc. I was responsible for the stories in Checkmate!. It was mostly a Suicide Squad story, it seemed to me. I think it started there and ended there as well.

Moss: It crossed over with Firestorm v2, which was written by John [Ostrander], Captain Atom v1 and a few other titles John [Ostrander] was writing.

It seemed mostly like a John Ostrander storyline. But I know that Checkmate! was involved because Suicide Squad and Checkmate, as I said, are different sides of the same coin. I wasn't sure how involved you were with the cross-over...if John [Ostrander] was like "This is what I want you to do" and you went [off] and did your own little thing with it.

Kupperberg: Yeah, that was pretty much it - to my recollection. Yeah.

Moss: So the series ended. Before it ended, did you tell the stories you wanted to tell? Were there other stories that you wanted to?

Kupperberg: Oh sure, there's always more stories to tell - except in the case of something like Vigilante where obviously we exhausted - you often hear "we're cancelling this title because we think we've ran out of stories to tell with this character". No.  If you have, then you've got a problem. Because there's always more stories to tell about any character. No, it was a matter of sales. What'd it last? 33 issues? Not too bad.

Moss: Were there any stories that you wanted to tell but DC editorial told you 'no'. Or were you pretty much given free reign on it?

Kupperberg: I go into these things knowing the parameters I'm working. I'm not going to try to shove a story down their throats when it's clearly inappropriate to the book. We were a regular non-labelled DCU title, so those were the stories I was going to tell. Vigilante, when we got the mature label, I went ahead and pushed the limits a little. I don't try to do rape stories in Superman. Not appropriate.

Moss:  Was there any characters you wanted to include in this Checkmate! comic that editorial told you 'no'. You said you knew you were getting into and you wrote to that title. So I wasn't sure if there were any characters you wanted to use as a guest appearance or anything that DC editorial said 'no we can't do that' or was there [anyone] you asked for and they said 'go for it'? 

Kupperberg: I don't think I used that many other DCU characters in the title. Again, I was trying to keep it reality-based. Even with the Janus Directive, nothing wrong with the stories or anything, but they're my least favorite of the whole run. Just because, again, I was trying to keep it 'in the reality', and once you bring in superheroes reality flies out the window. No matter how hard you try - I know everybody thinks "our heroes reflect the real world". But they DON'T. They CAN'T. You're not constrained by reality. A death doesn't have any emotional impact because you know they're coming back next month. If somebody's in a corner, you know they're going to pull the ultimate nullifier out of their ass and send Galactus packing. Stan [Lee] and Jack [Kirby], the greatest run of any comic book ever - the first 100 issues of Fantastic Four v1 - smack dab in the middle you have the Galactus epic. They're at the height of their power - the greatest team on the greatest run of a comic ever - and they're forced to pull the ultimate nullifier to send Galactus on his way. So it doesn't matter how good it gets, you're hemmed in by the lack of reality. You gotta go there. Once you bring superheroes in, as soon as someone can fly, you're screwed. Then anything goes.

Moss: If asked, would you be willing to come back to Checkmate!? Or do you have any more Checkmate! stories hidden in your mind somewhere?

Kupperberg: I would absolutely love to get my hands on the characters and on the concept again. No, I don't have any stories at the moment. My job is to come up with stories when I have assignments for these things. Stories are not the problem.

---

The Task Force X podcast also interviewed Kupperberg about his work on the Vigilante series and why the series ended. You can read the interview here.

Aaron "Head" Moss, a major G.I. Joe enthusiast, also co-hosts the G.I. Joe: A Real American Headcast and has been a guest on our 1991 G.I. Joe Impel trading card set review. He also hosts the Starman/Manhunter Adventure Hour which covers both the 'Will Payton' Starman ongoing series and the 'Mark Shaw' Manhunter ongoing series (circa late 1980s).

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In an April 2nd, 2014 interview on VOC Nation's Compton After Dark podcast show, host Dean Compton spoke with Paul Kupperberg:

Dean: In your Checkmate! v1 series for DC [comics] you dealt with a lot of issues that were making the headlines at the time: Americans providing weapons to rebel Quracians so they can provide a diversion while America does covert stuff (Iran-Contra affair), some Britains side with aliens to overthrow government (I think that was Irish, actually), America/Russia teams up just as the Berlin Wall is being destroyed. Curious if you're using this as a platform to covertly state your disapproval of current affairs, or if you're just trying to tell an engaging story?

Kupperberg: A little bit of both. A good story is number one. And if you can sneak a little message in there, what the hell, as long as it doesn't hurt the story. I was not a big fan of Ronald Reagan or his policies and still cringe when I hear him referred to as one of the greatest presidents of all time. There's that little thing called 'verisimilitude' - you read a story and even if you're not thinking "oh that's Iran-Contra" in the back of your mind you're going "that sounds familiar" and it kind of makes the story more interesting and more engaging - I hope.

US President Ronald Reagan 1982

Dean: I recommend it [Checkmate!] to everybody... you can ask [co-host] Ryan. I'm pretty annoying about recommending that and Suicide Squad as contemporary pieces that really told a great story of [what] was really disillusionment of whatever existed as a social contract between the American government and the American people, not just as far as welfare programs, but also as far as surveillance programs - of course that's a different story. We can talk about COINTELPRO and etc going far back but...

There was definitely a feeling, during the Reagan era, that any promises that had been made as far as social liberties and social security were out the window now, and you were going to work harder and do what authoritarians said for less and like it... and if you didn't like it we were going to treat you like we treated the Air Traffic Controllers.

Kupperberg: And look where it's led us, to the wonderful [things] we have today. [laughs]

[Dean's question was directly related to an article DC in the 80s wrote several years ago examining the Checkmate! ongoing series. I want to personally thank Dean for pronouncing my last name correctly (sounds like 'Frank-cooer' when said in English).]

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You can listen to the full podcast here. This is a fantastic episode to listen to if you are a fan of Charlton Comics and/or the Charlton Arrow. Dean had gathered an All-Star ensemble of guests (Paul Kupperberg, Mort Todd, Roger McKenzie, and Fester Faceplant) who delve through everything from the history of Charlton comics, their favorite memories about Charlton comics, the Charlton Action Heroes, a few hilarious anecdotes and the creation of the Charlton Arrow. The energy on this podcast is electric and I strongly recommend a listen.

Dean Compton (and Emily Scott) also manage The Unspoken Decade - a comic book blog that examines the 1990s in comics. It's one of my favorite sites to visit and looks back at all of my old favorites. Look for more collaboration between Dean Compton and DC in the 80s in the future.

-Justin

DC in the 80s interviewed by Ed Catto for Mike Gold's ComicMix

We are elated to announce that ComicMix - a comic book & pop culture website overseen by Mike Gold (yes, THAT Mike Gold) - has taken interest in our humble little 80s-centric webzine and decided to interview myself and executive editor Mark Belkin regarding the origins of this site and our favorite material from DC comics (circa 1980s).

ComicMix is kind of a BIG DEAL to us since it's regular roster of columnists include notable 80s greats such as John Ostrander, Dennis O'Neil, Mindy Newell and Mike Gold himself. Robert Greenberger has also been known to pitch in a review article or three.

Ed Catto, who is also the co-founder of the Bonfire Agency, conducted the interview. Not only is Ed a marketing strategist, he's no slouch when it comes to illustrating, either. Ed graciously allowed us to share two of his recent pieces:

  

Our interview is up at: http://www.comicmix.com/2016/10/17/ed-catto-talking-about-and-with-dc-in-the-80s/



Here's a few other Ed Catto articles/interviews (written for ComicMix) that you may enjoy:

• Ed Catto: That Other British Invasion
• Ed Catto: World’s Finest Anticipation... and Trepidation
• Ed Catto: Paul Kupperberg Looks Up Into the Sky!
• Ed Catto: Paul Gulacy – More than just the Master of Kung Fu
• Ed Catto: Murphy Anderson – A Legend and a Gentleman

All You Need is Love - A review of Suicide Squad v1 #8 (1987) by Jason Brown

It’s been awhile, but we are back with more Suicide Squad review. (Real life can be such a pesky distraction from the fiction we love.) In this entry we will take a gander at issue #8.

Before we even get off the tarmac, we are treated to another fantastic cover with the SS logo in black atop a red background with Deadshot, Enchantress, Captain Boomerang, Rick Flagg, and the Bronze Tiger profiled in yellow above a distraught Simon La Grieve working at his desk. "Personal Files!" is the promise of this issue, and I’m excited. If you’ve read any of my previous reviews you know I’m a big fan of character-driven fiction, and feel the anti-heroes of our beloved squad make for some very interesting characters. Most often full of conflict to begin with, these boys and girls are continually thrown under the bus by Waller and her associates in the U.S. government, mostly due to their previous poor life choices and general criminal behavior. The result is an entertainment casserole that leaves you craving seconds and thirds until you find it’s 2 AM in the morning and you have to force yourself to put it down and go to sleep so you will have a shot at facing all the real life bunk the next morning with at least some semblance of adult competence and responsible concern. (Just once I’d like to tell a client straight up that I’m too tired to work today because I was just up too late reading comic books.)

This issue takes a deeper look into the personal lives of some of the key members of the squad, but starts with the Wall herself. Interesting how La Grieve counseled her to use her anger to progress with her career rather than face it and deal with it. If Waller is the squad’s mother, then I guess that makes La Grieve the father, sowing the seed of his advice in the fertile womb of Waller’s anger. Y’know during the verbal intercourse of their counseling session. (I’ll stop.) We then get to see that anger manifest in the form of a punch in the face for Dexter Tolliver, the smug ass-clown from the NSC who screwed everyone over on the Russia mission. That was fun to see. Interestingly, a reference is made to Oliver North is made here that made me feel compelled to google Oliver North so I could remember what that scandal was all about back in the late 80’s. (Of course I wasn’t remembering anything at all because I didn’t know any more about Oliver North in the 80s than I do now. Wikipedia started explaining it to me, something about selling weapons to the wrong country or something, but then I zoned out and closed the window.)

Next there’s some love triangle stuff between Flagg, Karin, and Mark Shaw, the Privateer whose outfit looks like one of those generic costumes you buy at the big Halloween outlets - Swashbuckler $29.99 – and just he just put it on over his V-neck and slacks. Instead of Privateer, he could have just went with Generic Hero and it would have been about par. An exhausted Flagg and Shaw duke it out 'til Flag can barely move, which gives us some good action for a couple of pages anyway. Then Waller replaces Flagg with Bronze Tiger as leader.

the Privateer

Speaking of Bronze Tiger, he and June Moon have a pretty cool meeting with someone called Madame Xanadu and get some nifty trinkets to help keep the increasing threat of the Enchantress at bay. Something about a mystic feedback loop. I think I learned about that back in Grade 4 science class, but I’m a little fuzzy on it. That stuff would have come in handy with one of my previous girlfriends. Wow... excuse me, I’m just taking a moment to let it sink in... I think I dated the actual Enchantress. I didn’t even know she was one of those "fourth wall" characters. Or maybe that would be fifth wall? Anybody? Ah, it’s just as well. The mystic feedback loop would have traumatized the cats.

Now we cut to my fave, Deadshot. The Marlboro Man himself. Marnie Herrs has fallen pretty hard for him and is not professional enough to step down as his therapist. And can you blame her? I mean this is a real man we’re talking about here. This is the guy who faced off against the invulnerable Evil Lion-O inan abandoned elevator shaft and sent him to see the angels with all the anxiety of changing a taillight.* I mean this guy is unstable... dangerous... powerful... sexy. All the things she was subconsciously looking for in those guys who asked her out back in college, but could never find. All the things she knows are bad for her, but draw her like a beetle to a back door light in a way she just can’t explain... and she's a licensed psychologist! Shame! His demeaning accusations just egging her on to break through their shared dysfunction and sexual tension, pulled like a cheap condom over a ten pin bowling ball: violence! A slap to the face, a passionate kiss, and a walk out the door later, and they're no better off then when they began; two blind fish in a pothole on a rainy Sunday. (What follows "off camera" has a ring to it like a children’s book title: Deadeye Floyd and his Visit to the Cathouse.)

What next? Ahhh... this issue is like a sampler plate; like a really good one. I always want to call this guy Boomerang, but of course that’s a Marvel comics character. Here’s an interesting question. I want to assume Marvel got to the name 'Boomerang' first, and DC had to add Captain cause they got sloppy seconds, but I know the evolution of comic book characters can be stranger than the fiction itself. If you know which character was created first (without looking it up!) please add to the comments below. I’m making a marked decision not to not look it up, even though now I really want to, and wait to see if any comments come in. Then we can all discover the answer together, like kids coming down the stairs on Christmas morning. Either way, here we are getting neither Boomerang nor Captain Boomerang, but Mirror Master, apparently. I think it’s a cool idea that Digger is using his old mate's getup and toys to scratch his crime itch, but it erodes the believability a little. I mean being a "super-person", to me, is about being special; unique in some way. Is it really as easy as changing skins on a phone? Digger is a master with those boomerangs of his, but wouldn't it take a truckload of time and training to even be competent with the Mirror Master stuff? I mean, I know this isn’t Breaking Bad, but it’s not the Super Friends, either. I guess I’ll file this away with Chronos and his device.** (I once watched an episode of Super Friends where all of the heroes had to go to Krypton before it exploded and they all used their "various methods of time travel" to get there. I don’t even think they mentioned anything about it being several galaxies away. I think even as a young child I was like, "Hold up – how exactly did Batman and Robin get here again?") Also, Digger would look way cooler if he shaved his head, amirite? Whenever I see guys with this "hairstyle" I cringe... if that’s you, sorry! (But yeah, definitely shave it.)

In closing, it’s morning at the La Grieve household, and Simon is met by his wife Ruth, who offers to fix him breakfast. Despite all of his anxieties and fears that keep him up at night, Simon is comforted that he doesn’t have to face them alone. And honestly, this scene really gets to me, especially the final illustration of La Grieve and his wife walking arm in arm to the kitchen. It’s just really touching. This comic book has heart. A lot of people might judge "Suicide Squad" as too dark, or negative for a comic book, but in the end the message here is a great one: hold onto the people you love and love ‘em.

* see issue#1 of the Suicide Review, If You Want Blood... – helpful J
** see issue #2, What the Hell? – the ever vigilant Mr. Brown



I am a just-starting-out fiction writer and musician living in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. If you would like to contact me with work or collaboration opportunities, or just to make arrangements to send me cash, please email me. Cheers!  (Share the love! lol)

-Jason Brown  

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All content in this article entry written by Jason Brown. If you want to attribute any of this work, please credit Jason Brown.

The Hawkworld ongoing series: continuity issues (Hawkworld Annual #1)

[Warning: this article explores continuity issues in the 1990 Hawkworld ongoing series published by DC comics. Needless to say, there will be spoilers. If you're cool with that, keep reading. -J]

As mentioned in our previous article, the re-telling of Hawkman and Hawkwoman's first arrival on earth (as told in the Hawkworld v1 ongoing series) completely wipes out the previously established history of the Silver Age Hawkman & Hawkwoman. According to Hawkworld, everything you see above did NOT happen. Every Silver Age story from the Julius Schwartz-era (1961) up until 1990, involving Hawkman, did NOT occur. Katar Hol and Shayera Thal have NEVER stepped foot on earth prior to 1990. They NEVER joined the Justice League of America in the 60s. Even their post-Crisis material (ex: The Shadow War of Hawkman, Hawkman v2) NEVER happened. Understandably, this left long-time Silver Age Hawkman fans irate as about thirty years of Hawkman continuity went down the drain.

Curiously, Tim Truman's 1989 Hawkworld prestige format mini-series, which preceded the Hawkworld ongoing series, did NOT hit the reset button on Katar Hol and Shayera Thol's continuity. Truman's mini-series is self-contained to Katar Hol's life on Thanagar and doesn't effect his adventures on earth. There isn't really much of a time-stamp on anything written in the mini - there are no mention of any other DCU events - and the story could've taken place at any time in DC history.

So where did the decision to reboot the Silver Age Hawkman and Hawkwoman come from?

In a 1999 interview with Michael Hutchison of Fanzing magazine, John Ostrander [writer for Hawkworld v1] answers this very question:

Michael Hutchison: "When the decision was made to introduce Hawkman into the modern era (Tim Truman revealed in a previous interview that you weren't the one responsible for that decision, but he felt strongly against it) instead of "back-dating" the changes from Tim Truman's "Hawkworld" mini-series, did you have any idea how many significant continuity gaps a minor league character like Hawkman was going to open up? Given that you then spent a lot of time trying to retroactively plug those gaps, if you had to do it over again, would you do anything differently?"

John Ostrander: "The decision was purely Mike Gold's. I argued against it at the time but Mike was adamant; he wanted the Hawkman series to start up right after the end of the Tim Truman miniseries. All of Tim's stories could've happened before Hawkman arrived on Earth and the series could've picked up with him already ON Earth. My choice was doing it Mike's way or not doing the book. I felt another writer wouldn't have worked as well or closely with what Tim had done so I decided to do the book. I did disagree and still disagree with the premise and the junking of continuity. That said, I'll stand by the stories. There was some first-rate stuff there. If I had it to do over again, I'd fight again to keep from wrecking continuity needlessly. Would I still write the series? I'd think a lot harder this time about it. I took some hits for it over a decision that wasn't mine."

Earlier in the same interview, Ostrander also states:

"My first obligation to the reader is a good story and sometimes that means breaking with past continuity. I don't HATE continuity; actually, I've been very good with it overall. Better than many other writers have been or are willing to be. I try to keep faith with past continuity without letting it tie my hands. Slavish devotion to continuity is like cultivating kudzu; it's going to strangle everything else you do. With SPECTRE, which continuity do I keep with? The Fleischer/Aparo one? The Moench/Whoever one? Keep in mind that they all got canceled. What I tried to do was use ELEMENTS of each while making a cohesive whole. With Firestorm, I kept to continuity but developed the storyline. With Hawkman -- well, that was an editorial decision that was out of my hands and a given before I came on the book. I later tried to reconcile the continuity as best I could. So I'm respectful of it and past fans but I don't worship it and I won't be hung by it and I think that's playing fair. I was a fan before I was a writer and I go way back so I appreciate the old fan and their concerns but sacrificing new readers to satisfy continuity is, I feel, a big mistake. So I choose a middle path as best I can."

Evan Henry, of Black Ship Books also asked Ostrander a similar question and John replied with:

"An editorial decision was made that the monthly would start up right after the Prestige series; it would be the first time that Katar and Shayera were on Earth, despite whatever continuity was there. I tried to explain that all away later; I think it worked, but it wasn’t perfect. I think you can overdo an origin. If you rewrite it too often, the origin just gets muddy and so does the character. Leave the origin alone and just tell good stories."

So there we have it. Apparently it was editor Mike Gold's decision. I've never heard Gold's side of the story and, if he's aware of our scrappy DC webzine and cares to comment, I'd love to hear it.

Hawkworld readers were very resolute in reminding the creative team about their dissatisfaction with the Silver Age Hawkman/Hawkwoman continuity reboot. Most letters went something along the lines of "I like what you did with the character (giving him layers and all), BUT did you have to throw the continuity away?". One reader even went so far as to point out all of the post-Crisis Hawkman appearances that had been affected. His list included INVASION!, several issues of Justice League International, Animal Man #6, Hawk & Dove v3 #1,  Power of the Atom #4, and a few other appearances in other books (including the newly rebooted Superman v2). Meanwhile, Mike Gold assured readers that Hawkworld Annual #1 (1990) would solve many continuity issues.

The continuity discrepancies were weighing heavily on the creative team - early issues in the run were being shipped late [ex: issue #6 shipped a month late] and editorial cited one of the reasons as 'spotting a major continuity problem' just before printing.

The Hawkworld Annual #1 gave us a lot of things: a Hawkman/Flash team-up, a second appearance of a villain who first debuted in the 1986 Super Powers mini-series, a time-traveling story featuring a few members of the Justice Society of America, the introduction of a new villain (Thrash - successor to the Fiddler), two BIG retcons, and... most importantly... an explanation as to why the Golden Age Hawkman (Carter Hall, an earth man) had the same emblem/logo/symbol/headgear as the Thanagarians (an extra-terrestrial race) who's existence he would not have been unaware of.

First up, retcon #1:

Okay, so Hawkman WAS part of the original Justice League of America - only it wasn't Katar Hol, it was Carter Hall (Golden Age Hawkman). That kinda works - the Pre-Crisis Katar Hol and the Golden Age Carter Hall basically had the same costume anyways. This covers all Silver Age Hawkman appearances up until Carter Hall gets sent to limbo with the rest of the JSA [excluding any pesky story with both the Silver Age and Golden Age Hawkman teaming up or battling each other].



Retcon #2:

This retcon reveals Golden Age Hawkman support character, Perry Carter, to actually be Paran Katar - Katar Hol's father. It's explained that a) Perry Carter/Paran Katar was actually a Thanagarian spy sent to spy on earth, who b) secretly assisted the Golden Age Hawkman (Carter Hall) in creating the Nth metal that allowed him to fly, and c) inspired Carter Hall to use the Hawkman emblem (and winged helmet) that would later become incorporated into the standard Thanagarian wingmen regalia. I'm not too well versed in my Golden Age Hawkman lore, so this (unsurprisingly) doesn't bother me. It provides a believable explanation to the Golden Age Hawkman's (unknowing) ties to the Thanagarians, without actually being a Thanagarian himself. I don't really know who Perry Carter was and retconning him into someone else doesn't offend me. I think he only appeared in a few issues, anyways. This only applies to *me* - for all I know, Golden Age Hawkman fans were throwing a fit over this retcon. Either way, well done Hawkworld creative team. ;)

Evidently, all the negative Hawkworld fan mail regarding Hawkman's new messed-up continuity concerned Mike Gold so much that he felt compelled to include a two-pager in the letter pages of Hawkworld Annual #1 addressing these issues. "CONTINUITY: A Slightly Tongue-in-Cheek Secret Origin Story" has Mike Gold explaining the history of comic book continuity and retcons, devices writers use to fix comic book continuity [for anyone interested, he cites 'continuity implants', 'ignoring selected stuff', 'blowing up and starting over', 'the sleight-of-hand', 'completely ignoring continuity' and 'picking-and-choosing'] and points out that Marvel comics has done this frequently in the past, too. He explains that the Hawkworld 'continuity fix' was a combination of continuity implants and sleight-of-hand techniques. He acknowledges that loyal readers of the Silver Age Hawkman might feel "honked off" [his words, not mine] about the changes, but re-asserts that sometimes 'neat stuff' gets lost when you retcon continuity on a legacy character like Hawkman. Gold then casually mentions how Byrne's Superman reboot is great stuff, but really messed up Legion of Super-Heroes continuity. This is the closest thing to an apology that we'll ever get from Mike Gold. It still doesn't explain why DC editorial chose to go this route instead of setting Katar Hol's story in the past, but Gold makes a very compelling case for the challenges involved in retconning Hawkworld and credits Ostrander as a master at resolving continuity conflicts. Gold closes off by stating that it was important that they addressed 1) who 'that guy' in the Silver Age Justice League of America with the wings was, 2) his relationship to the other guy with the wings in the Justice Society of America and 3) how the rest of the DC Universe would react to their newest hero with wings being a Thanagarian (this is in direct reference to the recent INVASION! event in which Thanagarians were one of the extraterrestrial races to invade earth).

So, for anyone keeping score, 1990's Hawkworld Annual #1 has revealed that:

• The Golden Age Hawkman (JSA) and the Silver Age Hawkman (JLA), up until The Last Days of the Justice Society [1986], have always been the same 'guy with wings'. Let's just try to forget about the Earth-Two stuff, okay?
• The reason why the Golden Age Hawkman and Thanagarian soldiers had the same helmet and hawk emblem is because a Thanagarian spy, Paran Katar, was secretly influencing Carter Hall on how to become the Golden Age Hawkman and took that knowledge back with him to found the military force on Thanagar.

Well, this answers everything... up to a point.

Who was that 'other guy with wings' who appeared in 1985's The Shadow War of Hawkman mini-series, the 1986 Hawkman ongoing series and all of those Justice League International issues (and other random guest appearances) up until Hawkworld #1? Glad you asked, all answers will be revealed in our next installment.


Addendum:

As I was google-searching for Hawkworld Annual #1 cover images to use for this article, I discovered that Luke from the Being Carter Hall blog wrote an interesting personal opinion/review on this very same Annual. Thankfully (for me), Luke's review doesn't contradict anything I wrote, and if nothing else, collaborates this article. Being Carter Hall is a great site and I highly recommend it - Luke definitely knows his Hawkman lore.

The new Suicide Squad film is fast approaching and, well, I'm not even up-to-speed on the histories of all of the characters on the roster. This article is just as much for myself as it is for you, so hopefully you'll enjoy...

Know your Suicide Squad: The Enchantress

The Enchantress, created by Bob Haney and Howard Purcell, first debuted in 1966's Strange Adventures v1 #187. At this time in DC's publishing history, Strange Tales was a sci-fi/adventure anthology book that usually consisted of 3 or 4 features per issue. Like every other anthology, the features tended to last about 9 pages and were typically self-contained stories that a reader could pick up, read in one sitting and never think about again. Coincidentally, the stories tended to be one-shot tales featuring an 'everyman' character in an extraordinary circumstance (ex: Space Invasion) and how they dealt with it. The series tended to keep it's stories on "the fringe" and away from the mainstream DCU - so no stories featuring Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern or the Flash in here. Interestingly, recurring heroic characters (ex: Animal Man, the Immortal Man) were being introduced to the series around the same time as Enchantress was introduced.

Coined as the 'Switcheroo-Witcheroo', the early Enchantress stories played up the 'sweetly innocent person gets extraordinary powers and leads a double life' trope. In fact, she begins her super-hero career actively trying to help her fellow man. Enchantress had the power to fly, phase through walls, enlarge things, heat things up and, on a whim, change identities from mild-mannered June Moone to the powerful Enchantress. Actually, it's not clear what her powers were - I think she just had whatever power she needed to fit the story at the time. She was a character in an anthology feature during the Silver Age of DC comics, so I don't think too much thought was put into her powers and limitations.

Origin: powers by Dzamor

It's not until her third story (Strange Adventures v1 #200, 1967) that we start to see the cracks in her armor: apparently June Moone is jealous of her alter-ego, The Enchantress, since she seems to be getting the affection of Alan [June's love interest]. This is an interesting plot idea to expand on, but would have to be explored at a later time since the Enchantress wouldn't appear in another DC publication until almost 12 years later. Why was the Enchantress' super-hero career cut short? One would assume that like most anthology titles of that era, the only thing that really mattered were sales. Reader response was gauged by fan mail, and if a feature wasn't getting much fan mail and the sales numbers were low when that particular character appeared in an issue, well... that character didn't appear as frequently anymore. [Or, in the case of the Enchantress, nearly a dozen years later.]

...and that concludes the pre-80s portion on the history of the Enchantress, now onto our favorite subject matter - the Enchantress during the 80s:

Written by Jack C Harris and edited by Julius Schwartz, the Enchantress re-appears in Superman Family #204 - 205 (1980) to battle Supergirl. A quick back-and-forth dialogue between the two indicates that Supergirl has previously known of the Enchantress and her mystical powers, and Supergirl goes on to question the Enchantress about her "turnabout" from fighting against evil. After a quick origin recap (that remains more or less the same as the original), it's revealed that the battle was necessary in order for the Enchantress to obtain power for the 'greater good'. This was all misguided of course, and Supergirl thwarts her. The Enchantress swears revenge on Supergirl and a new Supergirl villain is born. But wait! There's more...

The Enchantress is the red head in the green gown on the cover of DCP #77, apparently someone messed up the coloring. She is corrected on the cover of DCP #78

DC Comics Presents issues #77 and #78 have the Enchantress and a few other revived Silver Age DC villains (aka: The Forgotten Villains) battling Superman and the Forgotten Heroes. Written by Marv Wolfman and edited by Julius Schwartz, the Enchantress is a lot nastier now and shows no reservations about reducing a fool to a protoplasmic state should they provoke her. (Animal Man also expresses surprise that the Enchantress is now a villain.) Along with the new attitude comes a new look: no longer a brunette wearing a green witch/sorceress costume, she's going for something more 'elegant':

A few readers wrote in to DC Comics Presents to express their joy that the Enchantress was back in comics, but disappointment that she was now a villain.


It should probably be noted that, of the 80s issues we've just reviewed, the only published Enchantress stories during this era appeared in Julius Schwartz-edited titles. Why that means something: Superman and Supergirl during the Schwartz-era were pretty much God-like (in the aforementioned Supergirl/Enchantress story, Supergirl effortlessly kicks the moon out of alignment) and it was getting more and more difficult to find ways to endanger them for the sake of the story. Unless they were up against a magical-based villain. Superman and Supergirl's only weakness was magic. The Enchantress may have been converted to a villain moreso for convenience (versus having to create an original mystical villain from scratch). Did DC have any other potential plans for the Enchantress? Why, yes. Yes they did...

In an interview with Jack C. Harris, the DC Women Kicking Ass tumblr blog asked Harris about a pitch he and Trevor Von Eeden made to DC editorial about an all female team back sometime in the late 70s/early 80s. The team was to be called "The Power Squad" and would feature Supergirl, Batgirl, Vixen and the Enchantress. When asked why he'd chosen the Enchantress for the team, Harris replied with "Enchantress was a minor heroine whom I had used as a villain in a few of my Supergirl stories. I liked the mix. I liked the science-based powers of Supergirl and Batgirl, balanced with the supernatural origins of Enchantress and Vixen". You can read the full article here.


In her Who's Who entry (The Definitive Directory of the DC Universe #7, 1985), it's stated that June Moone and the Enchantress swap places when either says "The Enchantress" (similar to Captain Marvel/Billy Batson's "Shazam!"). The entry explains her change in appearance in the DC Presents issues as "the ability to change her own appearance (which she used to great advantage as leader of the Fogotten Villains)." It's also hinted that the Enchantress may have turned on the world after her encounter with Supergirl due to "some undiagnosed mental illness".

I'm going to glaze over her appearance in Crisis on Infinite Earths #12 (1986) - I had to look very hard for her, and it ended up just being a side-profile head-shot. If it makes you feel any better, she's back to being a brunette dressed as a witch again.


Now we've moved onto 1987's Legends - the mini-series best known for introducing us to Task Force X/Suicide Squad. Legends #3 gives us a full glimpse of the Enchantress (looking more fashionable than ever, I might add). At some point during team introductions Rick Flag nonchalantly mentions that the Enchantress joined the squad for *other* reasons (indicating that she's not a criminal who's trying to attain a reduced prison sentence). It is also stated in the Legends mini-series it that the Enchantress has 'complete mastery over all things inorganic',  and the reader is introduced to the idea that she's a little nuts and can 'snap' at any minute.

This leads us directly to the ongoing Suicide Squad v1 series (1987) written by John Ostrander. Why was the Enchantress chosen to be part of the team? Well, I don't know for certain, but I do know that editor Robert Greenberger (who previously worked on Who's Who and The DC Challenge) was combing through the DCU for lesser-known character to use in the book, Ostrander gave his opinions on Greenberger's picks, and the Suicide Squad cast was fleshed out from there. I'm not giving you the play-by-play of what happens in these Suicide Squad issues (since Jason Brown already does such a great job of it), but I will say that - as far as character development goes - Ostrander really gives the Enchantress a lot of attention during the first sixteen issues of this series. [A major sub-plot in the beginning of this book is the idea that the Enchantress is so crazy, powerful and uncontrollable that she might compromise the missions - ensuing some pretty disastrous contingency plans on the squad's behalf and adding more drama/tension to the already volatile Suicide Squad.]

A few changes that Ostrander brings to the character: the idea that the Enchantress and June Moone are actually two separate personalities, both personas are aware of and hate the other one [it is revealed that June joins the Squad in hopes of finding a way to 'keep her evil self in check'], that June is co-dependent of her Enchantress persona, and that the Enchantress gets crazier/harder to control every time June summons her.

About half-way through Ostrander's treatment of the character, she makes an appearance in The Spectre v2 #11 (1988). June Moone is summoned to meet with the rest of the DC mystical heavy-hitters, and at some point her Enchantress persona goes berserk and all of the other DC heroes need to rally together to stop her. I'm not sure what the point of her inclusion in this Millennium tie-in was - just to demonstrate how powerful she was? did DC have bigger plans for the Enchantress as a DC mystical character? At the time, both The Spectre v2 and Suicide Squad v1 were being edited by Robert Greenberger and sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.

Ostrander's concluded his "The-Enchantress-is-a-psychotic-time-bomb" sub-plot with a new insight into the character's origin. It was revealed in Suicide Squad v1 #15 (1988) that the Enchantress was meant to be a force for good in some grand battle plan in the 'Nightshade Dimension'- a merging of 'The Succubus' and a human host - but the overpowering evil nature of 'The Succubus' corrupted the human host (which goes to explain the Enchantress' turning to evil). There's also some relation with Nightshade and her brother (he's the 'The Incubus', btw), and the story arc ends with June Moone losing the Enchantress persona/powers and Nightshade somehow getting the Enchantress' powers as a result of all this. This all creates a major link between the Enchantress, Dhazmor, Nightshade and the 'Nightshade Dimension'. Nightshade was getting a revamped origin around this point in the DCU, so this all tied together nicely. If you've read this far into the article, I'm going to SPOIL the resolution of all this: June Moone, feeling the 'separation anxiety' of no longer having her Enchantress persona, tries to (unsuccessfully) shoot and kill Nightshade in the hope of getting her powers back.[Mouse over text to view]




It would be nearly another decade until the Enchantress would re-appear again - this time in 1999's Superman: The Man of Tomorrow #13. 1999 is a bit out of our domain of expertise [we'll go as far as 1993, maybe], so on that note we're going to leave you with a few links to a few other articles that may capture your attention:

• Who is El Diablo and why is he in the NEW Suicide Squad film?
• DC Women Kicking Ass
• DC Weird Science Blog
• Task Force X podcast
• Jason Brown reviews the Suicide Squad