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BACKUP SERIES ISSUE! GREEN LANTERN • GREEN ARROW & BLACK CANARY WHATEVER HAPPENED TO…? METAMORPHO • GOODWIN & SIMONSON’S MANHUNTER PASKO & GIFFEN’S DR. FATE & more!

THE RETRO COMICS EXPERIENCE!

Edited by MICHAEL EURY, BACK ISSUE magazine celebrates comic books of the 1970s, 1980s, and today through recurring (and rotating) departments like “Pro2Pro” (dialogue between professionals), “BackStage Pass” (behind-the-scenes of comicsbased media), “Greatest Stories Never Told” (spotlighting unrealized comics series or stories), and more!

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(NOW WITH 16 COLOR PAGES!) “AllInterview Issue”! Part 2 of an exclusive STEVE ENGLEHART interview (continued from ALTER EGO #103)! “Pro2Pro” interviews between SIMONSON & LARSEN, MOENCH & WEIN, and comics letterers KLEIN & CHIANG. Plus JOHN OSTRANDER, MICHAEL USLAN, and longtime DC color artist ADRIENNE ROY! Cover by Englehart collaborator MARSHALL ROGERS!

Bronze Age Mystery Comics! Interviews with BERNIE WRIGHTSON, SERGIO ARAGONÉS, GERRY TALAOC, DC mystery writer LORE SHOBERG, MARK EVANIER and DAN SPIEGLE discuss Scooby-Doo, Charlton chiller anthologies, Black Orchid, Madame Xanadu art and commentary by TONY DeZUNIGA, MIKE KALUTA, VAL MAYERIK, DAVID MICHELINIE, MATT WAGNER, and a rare cover painting by WRIGHTSON!

“Gods!” Takes an in-depth look at WALTER SIMONSON’s Thor, the Thunder God in the Bronze Age, “Pro2Pro” interview with TOM DeFALCO and RON FRENZ, Hercules: Prince of Power, Moondragon, Three Ways to End the New Gods Saga, exclusive interview with fantasy writer MICHAEL MOORCOCK, art and commentary by GERRY CONWAY, JACK KIRBY, BOB LAYTON, and more, with a swingin’ Thor cover by SIMONSON!

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BACK ISSUE #56

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“Liberated Ladies” eyeing female characters that broke barriers in the Bronze Age: Big Barda, Valkyrie, Ms. Marvel, Phoenix, Savage She-Hulk, and the sword-wielding Starfire. Plus a “Pro2Pro” interview with JILL THOMPSON, GAIL SIMONE, and BARBARA KESEL, art and commentary by JOHN BYRNE, GEORGE PEREZ, JACK KIRBY, MIKE VOSBURG, and more, with a new cover by BRUCE TIMM!

“Licensed Comics”! Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Man from Atlantis, DC’s Edgar Rice Burroughs backups (John Carter, Pellucidar, Carson of Venus), Marvel’s Warlord of Mars, and an interview with CAROL SERLING, wife of ROD SERLING. With art and commentary from ANDERSON, BYRNE, CLAREMONT, DORMAN, DUURSEMA, KALUTA, MILLER, OSTRANDER, and more. Cover by BRIAN KOSCHACK.

“Avengers Assemble!” Writer ROGER STERN’S acclaimed 1980s Avengers run, West Coast Avengers, early Avengers toys, and histories of Hawkeye, Mockingbird, and Wonder Man, with art and commentary from JOHN and SAL BUSCEMA, JOHN BYRNE, BRETT BREEDING, TOM DeFALCO, STEVE ENGLEHART, BOB HALL, AL MILGROM, TOM MORGAN, TOM PALMER, JOE SINNOTT, and more. PÉREZ cover!

JENETTE KAHN interviewed by ROBERT GREENBERGER, DC’s Dollar Comics and unrealized kids’ line (featuring an aborted Sugar and Spike revival), the Wonder Woman Foundation, and the early days of the Vertigo imprint. Exploring the talents of ROSS ANDRU, KAREN BERGER, STEVE BISSETTE, JIM ENGEL, GARTH ENNIS, NEIL GAIMAN, SHELLY MAYER, ALAN MOORE, GRANT MORRISON, and more!

“JLA in the Bronze Age”! The “Satellite Years” of the ‘70s and early ‘80s, with BUCKLER, ENGLEHART, PÉREZ, and WEIN, salute to DICK DILLIN, the Justice League “Detroit” team, with CONWAY, PATTON, McDONNELL, plus CONWAY and GEOFF JOHNS go “Pro2Pro” on writing the JLA, unofficial JLA/Avengers crossovers, and Marvel’s JLA, the Squadron Supreme. Cover by McDONNELL and BILL WRAY!

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BACK ISSUE #59

BACK ISSUE #60

BACK ISSUE #61

BACK ISSUE #62

BACK ISSUE #63

“Toon Comics!” History of Space Ghost in comics, Comico’s Jonny Quest and Star Blazers, Marvel’s Hanna-Barbera line and Dennis the Menace, behind the scenes at Marvel Productions, Ltd., and a look at the unpublished Plastic Man comic strip. Art/comments by EVANIER, FOGLIO, HEMPEL and WHEATLEY, MARRS, RUDE, TOTH, WILDEY, and more. All-new painted Space Ghost cover by STEVE RUDE!

“Halloween Heroes and Villains”! JEPH LOEB and TIM SALE’s chiller Batman: The Long Halloween, the Scarecrow (both the DC and Marvel versions), Solomon Grundy, Man-Wolf, Lord Pumpkin, Rutland, Vermont’s Halloween parades, and… the Korvac Saga’s Dead Avengers! With commentary from and/or art by CONWAY, GIL KANE, LOPRESTI, MOENCH, PÉREZ, DAVE WENZEL, and more. Cover by TIM SALE!

“Tabloids and Treasuries,” spotlighting every all-new tabloid from the 1970s. Superman vs. the Amazing Spider-Man, The Bible, Captain America’s Bicentennial Battles, The Wizard of Oz, even the PAUL DINI/ALEX ROSS World’s Greatest Super-Heroes editions! Commentary and art by ADAMS, GARCIA-LOPEZ, GRELL, KIRBY, KUBERT, MAYER, ROMITA SR., TOTH, and more. Wraparound cover by ALEX ROSS!

“Superman in the Bronze Age”! JULIUS SCHWARTZ, CURT SWAN, Superman Family, World of Krypton miniseries, and ALAN MOORE’s “Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?”, art & comments by ADAMS, ANDERSON, CARDY, CHAYKIN, PAUL KUPPERBERG, OKSNER, O’NEIL, PASKO, ROZAKIS, SAVIUK, and more. Cover by GARCÍA-LÓPEZ and SCOTT WILLIAMS! Edited by MICHAEL EURY.

“British Invasion” issue! History of Marvel UK, Beatles in comics, DC’s ‘80s British talent pool, V for Vendetta, Excalibur, Marshal Law, Doctor Who, “Pro2Pro” interview with PETER MILLIGAN & BRENDAN McCARTHY, plus BERGER, BOLLAND, DAVIS, GIBBONS, STAN LEE, LLOYD, MOORE, DEZ SKINN, and others. Fold-out triptych cover by RON WILSON and DAVE HUNT of Marvel UK’s rare 1970s “Quadra-Poster”!

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Volume 1, Number 64 May 2013 Celebrating the Best Comics of the '70s, '80s, '90s, and Beyond!

Comics’ Bronze Age and Beyond!

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Michael Eury PUBLISHER John Morrow DESIGNER Rich Fowlks COVER ARTISTS Mike Grell and Josef Rubinstein COVER COLORIST Glenn Whitmore COVER DESIGNER Michael Kronenberg BACK SEAT DRIVER: Editorial by Michael Eury . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2

PROOFREADER Rob Smentek Robert Greenberger Karl Heitmueller Heritage Comics Auctions James Kingman Paul Levitz Alan Light Elliot S! Maggin Donna Olmstead Dennis O’Neil John Ostrander Mike Royer Bob Rozakis Dan Spiegle Bryan Stroud Roy Thomas Mike Tiefenbacher Tom Tresser John Trumbull John Wells

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FLASHBACK: The Ballad of Ollie and Dinah . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10 Green Arrow and Black Canary’s Bronze Age romance and adventures INTERVIEW: John Calnan discusses Metamorpho in Action Comics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .22 The Fab Freak of 1001-and-1 Changes returns! With loads of Calnan art BEYOND CAPES: A Rose by Any Other Name … Would be Thorn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .28 In the back pages of Lois Lane—of all places!—sprang the inventive Rose and the Thorn FLASHBACK: Seven Soldiers of Victory: Lost in Time Again . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .33 This Bronze Age backup serial was written during the Golden Age BEYOND CAPES: The Master Crime-File of Jason Bard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .39 The star of this obscure Detective Comics backup has appeared more times than you’d expect FLASHBACK: Hunting the Hunters: Manhunter and the Most Dangerous Game . . . . . . .44 Archie Goodwin and Walter Simonson’s lauded backup and its legacy FLASHBACK: Whatever Happened To…? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .51 Dusting off oldies in the back pages of DC Comics Presents PRINCE STREET NEWS: Whatever Happened To More DC Universe Residents? . . . . . . . .62 Karl Heitmueller does the limbo through DC’s oldie goldies PRO2PRO: A Matter of (Dr.) Fate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .64 Martin Pasko and Keith Giffen discuss their magical Flash backup series BEYOND CAPES: Nemesis: Balancing the Scales . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .69 The rough-and-tumble crime-crusher from The Brave and the Bold BACK TALK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .75 Catching up on letters for issues #58 and 59 BACK ISSUE™ is published 8 times a year by TwoMorrows Publishing, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614. Michael Eury, Editor-in-Chief. John Morrow, Publisher. Editorial Office: BACK ISSUE, c/o Michael Eury, Editor-in-Chief, 118 Edgewood Avenue NE, Concord, NC 28025. Email: euryman@gmail.com. Six-issue subscriptions: $60 Standard US, $85 Canada, $107 Surface International. Please send subscription orders and funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial office. Cover art by Mike Grell and Josef Rubinstein. Green Lantern, Green Arrow, Black Canary, and related characters TM & © DC Comics. All Rights Reserved. All characters are © their respective companies. All material © their creators unless otherwise noted. All editorial matter © 2013 Michael Eury and TwoMorrows Publishing. BACK ISSUE is a TM of TwoMorrows Publishing. ISSN 1932-6904. Printed in China. FIRST PRINTING. Backups Issue

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All comics TM & © DC Comics.

SPECIAL THANKS Jack Abramowitz Marc Andreyko Roger Ash Jason Bard Mike W. Barr Cary Bates Alex Boney Kelly Borkert Rich Buckler Cary Burkett Mike Burkey John Calnan Dewey Cassell Howard Chaykin DC Comics Mark Evanier Ramona Fradon Grand Comic-Book Database Mike Grell

FLASHBACK: The Emerald Backups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3 Green Lantern’s demotion to a Flash backup and gradual return to his own title

COMIC COLLECTORS—HERE’S YOUR ULTIMATE GUIDE! Regular BACK ISSUE readers know that our focus is on the stories appearing in comics published beginning in 1970 forward. But for those of you clamoring for the definitive how-to of collecting comics, you’re in luck! Gemstone Publishing has recently released The Overstreet Guide to Collecting Comics. Brought to you by writer J. C. Vaughn, with a slew of additional contributors including Weldon Adams, Arnold T. Blumberg, Chuck Dixon, Steve Geppi, Ted Hake, Will Murray, Ross Ritchie, and Price Guide guru Robert M. Overstreet, this 336-page full-color softcover peels the mylar off of all aspects of collecting comics: grading (including an incredibly helpful “Shrinking Scale,” photos of a single comic—The Atom #25—in deteriorating conditions, pinpointing how its defects affect its grade), preservation and storage, pedigrees, production, and collecting by character, genre, company, creator, etc. Plus it’s smartly designed and easy to read. Here we’ve shown its Spider-Man cover by Joe Jusko, and its Direct Market Exclusive DC cover. What a bargain, for $19.95! Visit www.gemstonepub.com for details.

GOODBYE, CBG! By the time this edition of BI reaches you, Comics Buyer’s Guide will be no more. Some of my fondest memories of comics reading and collecting harkens back to the 1970s and 1980s, when founder Alan Light’s tabloid newspaper The Buyer’s Guide to Comics Fandom (launched in 1971) would be mercilessly crammed into my mailbox. And each issue was crammed with content, from columns to news to ads (where I built much of my collection, and later sold off much of it). Don and Maggie Thompson, Murray Bishoff, Robert Ingersoll, Peter David, and Mark Evanier are just some of columnists who graced TBG—later CBG—over the years. It will be remembered and lionized elsewhere, I’m sure (I hear Roy Thomas is working on a tribute in Alter Ego), but I couldn’t let this editorial pass without expressing my regrets over its cancellation and my thanks to its contributors. 2 • BACK ISSUE • Backups Issue

Michael Eury

For me, one of the joys of reading Bronze Age DC Comics was the backup series— those quick-in, quick-out short stories you’d find on the heels of the latest Superman tale in Action Comics or Batman team-up in The Brave and the Bold. Back then, backups provided a home to characters that weren’t considered A-listers, from former headliners like Metamorpho the Element Man, to familiar faces who had yet to graduate to stardom like Green Arrow, to non-traditional newbies like Nemesis. (Backup series also have a warm spot in my heart since the “Peter Porker, the Spectacular Spider-Ham” backup I wrote for 1987’s Marvel Tales #205 was one of my first comics credits.) This issue we explore some fondly remembered backup series of the 1970s and 1980s. Bob Greenberger’s lead feature, featuring one of our cover stars, Green Lantern, might surprise many of you who weren’t reading comics back then (or at least weren’t reading The Flash), but it’s true—after being in the (pun alert!) limelight in his own series for well over a decade, the Emerald Crusader took a back seat to the Fastest Man Alive. While each of our articles this issue is engaging, I’m enamored with John Wells’ behind-the-scenes retrospective of a fanboy favorite from the ’80s, DC Comics Presents’ “Whatever Happened To…?” This feature hosed off many of DC’s moldy oldies for a last look, but ultimately created continuity problems with new material being produced at the time. Particularly interesting is John’s disclosures of Mike Tiffenbacher’s proposed-butrejected WHT? spotlights for a variety of mothballed DC characters including a personal favorite, Captain Action. Before you take ye ed to task for overlooking popular backups like the Human Target, I kindly refer you to our back issues (www.twomorrows.com), as many backup features have been explored in previous issues. But our mix in the pages to follow should please our DC readers, and for you Marvel Zombies who feel left out—remember, Marvel dominated last issue, and will do so next issue as well.

Robert Greenberger

The 1970s was not a kind decade to DC Comics’ superheroes. Experiencing a period of transition on many levels, the company’s administrative needs and struggle with a changing distribution landscape, coupled with its focus on other genres, left its stalwart heroes and heroines somewhat adrift. The decade began with a bang of energy as Superman editor Mort Weisinger retired and Julie Schwartz was asked to reinvigorate the Man of Steel, just as he was freshening the Dark Knight after the Batmania fad quickly dissipated. Comics from both DC and Marvel Comics began to deal with real-world issues, and suddenly “relevance” was the catchphrase on everyone’s lips. Leading the way was Schwartz’s Green Lantern. Rescued from sales oblivion thanks to the creative team of Denny O’Neil and Neal Adams, the book evolved from a space opera into a morality play. O’Neil and Adams brought Green Arrow into the series to provide a liberal counterpoint to GL’s more conservative outlook and took the green-clad duo across America in search of truth. Newspapers and magazines noticed and wrote about it, especially when the series became the first to deal with drug addiction while still carrying the Comics Code (credit goes to Stan Lee for defying the Code earlier with Amazing Spider-Man). Schwartz delighted in letting his team explore realitybased themes, and the early-1970s’ run of Green Lantern/ Green Arrow, from #76–89, remains one of the most creative stretches from any editorial office. The problem remained that sales rose, then stagnated, while the creative team struggled to meet the publication deadline. Issue #88 (Feb.–Mar. 1972) was a reprint to buy time, and then came one final issue. With the writing on the wall, Schwartz knew the title was going to be canceled but liked GL, having been the man to resurrect and revamp the name back in 1959. He decided, better Green Lantern be reduced to a backup feature than gone entirely from sight. No stranger to backups, which were a DC mainstay during the 1940s–1950s, Schwartz found a home for the ringwielding hero in the pages of The Flash.

BACK IN A FLASH Four months after the final issue of Green Lantern saw print, GL, GA, O’Neil, and Adams took up residence in Flash beginning with #217 (Aug.–Sept. 1972). Previous backups in that title had featured the Elongated Man, Kid Flash, and even the Flash from EarthTwo, so readers were not necessarily shocked to find the Sultan of Speed sharing space.

Relevance Relegated to the Rear Denny O’Neil and Neal Adams’ award-winning Green Lantern/Green Arrow feature was demoted into the back pages of The Flash beginning with issue #217 (Aug.–Sept. 1972). GL/GA image, from the 1976 Super DC Calendar, is by Adams and Dick Giordano. TM & © DC Comics.

Backups Issue

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Hard-Traveling Heroes Behold! Courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions (www.ha.com), an original art page from the first GL/GA backup, which appeared in The Flash #217 (Aug.–Sept. 1972). Words by Denny O’Neil, art by Neal Adams and Dick Giordano. TM & © DC Comics.

According to O’Neil, “We knew that the book was By issue #220 (Feb.–Mar. 1973), though, Adams, headed for cancellation, but Julie wanted to continue it, Green Arrow, and Black Canary were gone. Hal Jordan at least a little. Hence, the three-parter” starring GL and was down to his last $200, done searching for America, GA that ran in Flash #217–219. still reduced in status and power as a member The story O’Neil wrote was his angry of the Green Lantern Corps, and adrift. response to Green Arrow’s callous killing Driving through a desert, Jordan thought, of a criminal in The Brave and the Bold “It’s good to be alone—all that #100, in a story written by Bob Haney, hassle with Green Arrow … him who didn’t pay much attention to accusing me of being an establishment the characterization used by host cop-out … me saying he’s a hotseries’ writers. headed kid … then, to cap it, Black Nearly four decades later, the Canary nearly being killed by a maniac writer tells BACK ISSUE, “I didn’t rip driver … more than I could take!” the plot from the headlines, maybe as So began GL’s transition from a acknowledgement that our good relevant hero to just another supertimes were all gone. I think this was hero having adventures, which was the first completely character-driven also reflected in so many of the DC denny o’neil piece I ever did. Back then, plot was hero titles of the time. still king.” This particular story, with O’Neil doesn’t recall why Adams Oliver Queen killing a man and running away to an left or what prompted him to jettison Green Arrow. ashram to regain his moral center, wound up resonating There was “no grand plan, ever,” he admits. “We pretty for years to come, and played a major role in the much made it up as we went along. If some element archer’s continuity in the 1990s and 2000s. vanished … maybe we just forgot about it.” Interestingly, despite Hal Jordan and a wheelchairbound Carol Ferris rekindling their romance at the conclusion of GL #84, she was never referenced or seen during Green Lantern’s tenure as a backup hero. Similarly, none of his familiar rogues were used as antagonists. According to O’Neil’s hazy memories, there was no reason to avoid them; it just never happened. (In Superman #261, on sale the same month as Flash #220, readers saw Carol seated in an airplane when she hallucinates a battle with Green Lantern and Superman. That prompted a flare-up of her Star Sapphire persona, who fought the Man of Steel and ultimately disappeared. The story closes with Carol walking off the airplane. Although never stated as such, the magic of Star Sapphire presumably canceled out the earlier spell that prevented Carol from walking.)

MYSTERIES IN SPACE For the four years Green Lantern appeared in the pages of Flash, he did have escapades, beginning on Earth with alien menaces, and then slowly shifting the focus once more to the breadth of Space Sector 2814. Early on, Green Lantern asked dispensation from the Guardians of the Universe to be given his full power back to deal with a threat, but they never seemed to have reduced his ring’s power after the mission was concluded. Indeed, the Guardians were seen calling on Green Lantern to deal with interstellar affairs. After all the earthbound, reality-driven stories, this was a significant change of pace for the character and his readers. According to O’Neil, “There was no reason not to have space fare, and maybe we were trying for some visual and plot variety. I had a soft spot for oldfashioned spacers.” No sooner did Neal Adams leave than an alien came gunning for Hal Jordan in “A Duel for a Death-List,” the first of a two-parter that set the tone for what was to pretty much follow through Flash #246 in 1977. Staying behind with O’Neil, though, was Adams’ inker, Dick Giordano, who took over the penciling chores, making a nice visual continuity for the character and letting the artist stretch a bit. It was here that the Guardians ended their champion’s “two-year” leave of absence from the GL/GA arc, ending their differences with Jordan. The alien represented a new species, and the mystery of why he wanted Jordan (and other Lanterns) dead

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wound up settled in space, on Titan. We learned that the “special ore” used to fashion power rings and power batteries could be found on Titan, and furthermore, the ore’s potential could be tapped through will power. The aliens were of a race exiled eons ago to Titan by the Guardians, and were forced to mine the mineral for them. They sought the specially made rings to tap their power to give them the ability to teleport through the vastness of space and seek revenge on the Oans. While Schwartz and O’Neil never connected the series to the rest of the DCU, as a reader, I immediately saw the connection between this and Titan becoming the homeworld to the 30th Century’s Imra Ardeen, also known to Legion of Super-Heroes readers as the telepathic Saturn Girl. (And to be fair, older readers probably tried to reconcile this with Kral, who hailed from a populated Titan according to the Superboy story in 1954’s Adventure Comics #205.) Ever since, I always wanted to read a story showing how man settled on Saturn’s moon and mentally evolved thanks to the natural elements. I even looked for such connections when Greg Potter and Gene Colan’s Jemm, Son of Saturn series debuted, but remain disappointed to this day.

“GREEN LANTERN” BACKUPS IN THE FLASH The first three stories are a three-part Green Lantern/Green Arrow adventure. Green Lantern solo stories begin in issue #220. • • • • • • • • • • •

The Flash #217 (Aug.–Sept. 1972) The Flash #218 (Oct.–Nov. 1972) The Flash #219 (Dec. 1972–Jan. 1973) The Flash #220 (Feb.–Mar. 1973) The Flash #221 (Apr.–May 1973) The Flash #223 (Sept.–Oct. 1973) The Flash #224 (Nov.–Dec. 1973) The Flash #226 (Mar.–Apr. 1974) The Flash #227 (May–June 1974) The Flash #228 (July–Aug. 1974) The Flash #230 (Nov.–Dec. 1974)

• • • • • • • • • • •

The Flash #231 (Jan.–Feb. 1975) The Flash #233 (May 1975) The Flash #234 (June 1975) The Flash #237 (Nov. 1975) The Flash #238 (Dec. 1975) The Flash #240 (Mar. 1976) The Flash #241 (May 1976) The Flash #242 (June 1976) The Flash #243 (Aug. 1976) The Flash #245 (Nov. 1976) The Flash #246 (Jan. 1977)

The Incredible Two-Headed Flash

THE OTHER “WORLD’S FINEST” DUO After five installments, the backup feature took a breather in The Flash #222 (July–Aug. 1973) as Green Lantern co-starred with the titular star, his longtime ally. Between 1962 and 1969, editor Schwartz had overseen seven crossovers between the newly revived Flash and Green Lantern, with an eye toward igniting a World’s Finest–like pairing. With Green Arrow no longer supplanting the Flash as GL’s closest pal, the annual team-ups could now resume. In #222, Schwartz, with writer Cary Bates and penciler Irv Novick aboard, tried again. In “The Heart That Attacked the World,” Sinestro partnered with the Weather Wizard to off their hated foes. Somehow the Weather Wizard created a cloud cover that prevented the Guardians from observing their dire deed, but the Oans never had to worry—the heroes prevailed. This was the first appearance of the Emerald Crusader’s Korugarian foe since Green Lantern #82, just before the change in the title’s status quo, and it certainly made for an odd pairing for the rogue. The next GL backup story, “Doomsday … Minus Ten Minutes” in Flash #223, was a nice one-off from O’Neil and Giordano, in which an alien couldn’t make itself Neal Adams was back as penciler understood and GL perceived it to be for the next backup (#226), a visually a menace. But all the alien really imaginative story as Hal eats bad wanted, as we learned on the last mushrooms while camping out and page, was an energy recharge so it has power-ring-fueled hallucinations. could once more take to the stars and continue its travels. Following in #224 GL SALUTES THE was a silly, old-fashioned caper (“Yellow BICENTENNIAL— is a Dirty Little Color!”), the kind that ONE YEAR EARLY was typical a decade earlier, as GL The following GL backup brought was accused of robbery but the truth dick giordano in Dick Dillin to pencil, with inker lay in a bag with a yellow interior. Giordano sticking around to sharpen Flash #225 (Jan.–Feb. 1974) the artwork. Dillin was a former reteamed the heroes, this time with the Reverse-Flash Blackhawk artist pressed into superhero service when as the foe, and introduced the one-time-seen Green that title was canceled in 1968. He was an accomplished Lantern of 2473. As usual, this vision of the 25th Century storyteller, known for handling huge casts, including didn’t resemble previously established ones, nor was it his lengthy tenure on Justice League of America. Paired ever revisited. Giordano inked Novick for this advenwith the right inker, like Giordano, Dillin was as good ture, so the feature had a nice, slick look to it (with as it got, month after month. Novick one of the more underrated artists of this era). Backups Issue

Okay, this outlandish cover for Flash #220 (Feb.–Mar. 1973) would’ve been stretching it even during the wildest moments of the Silver Age. Still, it’s nicely rendered by Dick Giordano, and the blurb gives a BIG nod to the GL backup. TM & © DC Comics.

TM & © DC Comics.

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It began back in the summer of ’69. As chronicled in DC’s Justice League of America #74 and 75 (Aug. and Sept. 1969), millionaire Oliver (Green Arrow) Queen had lost almost all of his vast fortune and Dinah (Black Canary) Drake Lance was tragically widowed. His simplistic views of the world changed, as did his apparel and look, and he became a hot-tempered, wisecracking, obstinate, leftist activist. She changed parallel universes, from Earth-Two to EarthOne, to cope with the death of her husband, Larry Lance, but lost none of her compassion. They found comfort in each other despite their differences, and a relationship formed, a loving one, yet tumultuous. Hmm … were the Emerald Archer and the Blonde Bombshell a kind of “John and Yoko” of the DC superhero community during the Bronze Age of comics? ponders this writer. Elliot S! Maggin, Mike Grell, and Mike W. Barr will weigh in shortly on this matter, and other GA/BC-related topics. The “ballad” of Oliver and Dinah is a lengthy song, detailing a strong, often fragile romance that managed to endure over 40 years. While their history together goes beyond the scope of this issue’s backup feature theme, said theme allows us to focus substantially on the first decade and a half of their relationship. Even that is a force to be reckoned with, so as we would single out destinations on a map for travel purposes, we will hone in on three “locations,” Action Comics, World’s Finest Comics, and Detective Comics, and begin our own journey through the first stanzas of the romance and superheroic exploits of Oliver and Dinah in the pages of Action.

GREEN ARROW AND BLACK CANARY IN ACTION COMICS December 1972–January 1976 Green Arrow’s first backup series in the Bronze Age began in Action Comics #421 (Feb. 1973), and continued in issues 424, 426, 428, 431, 434, 436, 440–441, 444–446, 450–452, and 456–458, for a total of 18 episodes, rotating with two other features, the Human Target and the Atom. Elliot S! Maggin wrote all the stories, with artist Mike Grell receiving a co-scripting credit for #444’s installment. Maggin also adjusted Grell’s original plot featuring the reincarnation of King David, a.k.a. Davy Tenzer, in Action #450–452. Artists included Sal Amendola, Dick Giordano, and Dick Dillin. Grell came on board as illustrator for the remainder of the series beginning with #440. Julius Schwartz edited all episodes. GA also appeared in full-length Superman tales in Action #437 (July 1974), 443 (Jan. 1975), and 455 (Jan. 1976). He could also be found in Justice League of America, The Brave and the Bold #106 (Mar.–Apr. 1973), Wonder Woman #217 (Apr.–May 1975), World’s Finest Comics #231 (July 1975), and The Joker #4 (Nov.–Dec. 1975).

For Better or For Worse— —is the subtitle of the Green Arrow/ Black Canary trade paperback featuring DC’s other dynamic duo, as well as this cover art by Alex Ross. TM & © DC Comics.

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Jim Kingman

First Shot A montage of action (how appropriate!) highlights this splash page to Green Arrow’s first Action backup, from issue #421 (Feb. 1973). Story by Elliot S! Maggin, art by Sal Amendola and Dick Giordano. TM & © DC Comics.

While Black Canary appeared as Dinah Lance in Action #421 and as needed in subsequent issues, she did not appear in costume until #428. She assumed a more prominent role in #440 (Oct. 1974), further upgrading her starring status per each three-issue mini“epic.” During this time she appeared in JLA, The Brave and the Bold #107 (June–July 1973), Action #443, Wonder Woman #216 (Feb.-Mar. 1975), Superman Family #171 (June–July 1975), and the Joker issue noted above. Although artist Neal Adams and writer Denny O’Neil effectively transformed Green Arrow visually (in The Brave and the Bold #85, Aug.–Sept. 1969, which was written by Bob Haney) and politically (Green Lantern/Green Arrow #76, Apr. 1970, beginning the classic O’Neil/Adams series than ran through #89, Apr.–May 1972), making the Emerald Archer relevant during the turbulent times of the late 1960s and early 1970s, relevancy didn’t sell, and GA’s liberal activism was tabled by the time he separated from Green Lantern in late 1972. Also, Oliver and Dinah had successfully recovered from severe mental and physical ordeals chronicled in a three-part Green Lantern/Green Arrow tale in the back of The Flash #217–219 (see previous article). “I liked Green Lantern as a charelliot S! maggin acter better,” recalls Elliot Maggin, “and Denny preferred Green Arrow, but it was Julie’s perception that GL was the principal character and Denny was the more experienced writer. If it had been either of our decisions it would have gone the other way around. Julie was also a little amused that I patterned the Arrow’s speech patterns after a parody of my own. I spoke fluent ’70s New York villainous path of Catwoman. This two-part Black Canary backup tale, written by O’Neil, is superbly wiseass in those days.” Socio-political causes gave way to the personal as illustrated by Alex Toth, and was reprinted in Black Oliver pursued a steady job and Dinah wrestled with Canary Archives vol. 1. Ollie decided to become a public-relations agent, her romantic feelings for Ollie (her romantic incident with Batman in Justice League of America #84, Nov. and selected as his first job gaining publicity for 1970, had been just that, an incident). As far as Dinah’s shop. He actually started getting pretty good employment was concerned for Dinah, she went with at the profession. An assassination attempt on Black what she knew, establishing a flower shop as she had Canary’s life and a miscast spell spoken by Zatanna that on Earth-Two. Notably, Dinah had already tested the caused the magician to temporarily believe she was job-hunting waters earlier in the year in Adventure Black Canary, complete with feelings for Green Arrow, Comics #418–419 (Apr.–May 1972), only to cross the drew the couple closer together. After Dinah was Backups Issue

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Even If You Weren’t a Superman Fan… …the Green Arrow/ Black Canary backup strip, with scripts by Elliot S! Maggin and art by Mike Grell, made Action Comics a must-buy in the Bronze Age! Two pages from Action #451 (Sept. 1975). TM & © DC Comics.

whom I most identified … with the possible exception of Luthor, but that’s another issue. So Green Arrow was different from the other characters for me in a sense that of all the characters I worked with, he’s the one I would most have liked to have for a friend. Dinah is a girl, at least in my own mind, after whom I pined in vain for years. When Neal drew her he even made a point of making her look like my friend.” The backup features GA and BC inhabited were completely separate from the world they shared with other DC superheroes in Justice League of America, The Brave and the Bold, and later in the revived Green Lantern/Green Arrow. Some fairly substantial events in the couple’s lives in those books were never mentioned, at most barely touched on, in their solo series. For example, concurrent to GA’s feature in Action Comics was his rather heated professional relationship with the more conservative Hawkman as depicted in Justice League of America. That feud, along with Hawkman and Hawkgirl’s sudden departure from Thanagar and their rather somber return to Earth a year later, was never mentioned during GA’s run in Action. Also, Ollie’s increase in wealth from B&B #106 was never mentioned. This separation of greater DC Universe continuity from the couple’s backup features would continue, for the most part, throughout the Bronze Age.

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GREEN ARROW AND BLACK CANARY IN TRANSITION 1976 With the conclusion of “The Flight of the Nutty Kid” in Action Comics #458 (Apr. 1976), Green Arrow and Black Canary’s backup series in Action came to a close. Meanwhile, it had been noted in the letters column of 1st Issue Special #11 (Feb. 1976) that GA and BC would be starring in an upcoming issue of that Showcase-inspired title. A more official and detailed announcement was reported in Amazing World of DC Comics #8 (Sept. 1975): GA and BC would be appearing in 1st Issue Special #14, scheduled for a February 1976 release. The story would be written by Maggin and illustrated by Grell. If strong sales emerged, the duo would graduate to their own title. Alas, 1st Issue Special was canceled with #13. It was suggested in the title’s final letters column that the scheduled GA/BC story would appear in its own magazine or a 50-cent giant. Super-Team Family would have been the logical choice for the giant, but that book temporarily went all-reprint with issue #4. Green Lantern/Green Arrow returned in May of 1976 with Black Canary set to make occasional appearances. The Green Arrow/Black Canary story was placed on a shelf in comics limbo, eventually seeing publication months later as the second story in Green Lantern/Green Arrow #100.

Green Arrow co-starred with Batman and the Atom in two consecutive issues of The Brave and the Bold, #129–130 (Sept.–Oct. 1976). Dinah and Ollie appeared in solo outings in Detective Comics #464 (Oct. 1976) and 466 (Dec. 1976) as part of the “Calculator” epic that culminated in ’Tec #468 (Mar.–Apr. 1977). While the couple was featured regularly in Justice League of America, it appeared their published exploits as a crimefighting duo were over. At the end of the year, though, an announcement was made that warmed the hearts of all GA and BC fans. Beginning in January 1977, Green Arrow and Black Canary would appear in solo tales after the lead Superman/Batman feature in the expanded World’s Finest Comics, which would become a Dollar Comic with #244. This new home would sustain them, particularly Green Arrow, for well over five years.

THE “OLIVER QUEEN FOR MAYOR” SAGA Before I go through GA and BC’s run in World’s Finest Comics, I want to discuss Maggin’s “Oliver Queen for Mayor” storyline that appeared in Green Lantern/Green Arrow #87 (Dec. 1971–Jan. 1972), World’s Finest Comics #210 (Mar. 1972), Green Lantern/Green Arrow #100 (Jan. 1978), and World’s Finest Comics #255 (Feb.–Mar. 1979), with a postscript in World’s Finest Comics #258 (Aug.–Sept. 1979). This was a story important enough to qualify as a lead feature, and that became the intention, but its second half endured a troubled publishing schedule, and all in all it took seven years to tell and never really came to the forefront it deserved. In GL/GA #87’s “What Can One Man Do?,” illustrated by Adams and Dick Giordano, outgoing Star City mayor Jack Major wanted Oliver to run for office as his successor, a decision that Ollie found difficult to make, but when a teenager was gunned down before his eyes during a

Vote for Ollie

riot in Star City’s South End slums, a distraught and drained Green Arrow realized what he must do, and told Dinah he had decided to run for mayor. In WFC #210’s “World of Faceless Slaves!,” illustrated by Dick Dillin and Joe Giella, Ollie’s decision to run for mayor hadn’t been made official. Green Arrow and Superman were transported to a magical realm where the power-mad Effron the sorcerer used GA as the challenger to battle a king in a series of arena duels where the winner would reign over all, with Effron running things behind the scenes. When Effron was eventually defeated, Ollie told Superman that he believed the encounter was a hoax perpetrated by the Man of Steel to convince the archer not to run for mayor. With Ollie dropping out of the race, the mayor storyline abruptly concluded… …only to be picked up by Maggin three years later as the plot for 1st Issue Special #14, only to have the almost completed story shelved, only to have it finally published in GL/GA #100, and only five years after the original story’s apparent conclusion. In “Beware the Blazing Infernos!,” illustrated by Grell and Vince Colletta, we caught up with Jack Major, who had run for mayor of Star City again and won, but now his physical health was failing him and he was confined to a wheelchair. Meanwhile, the city’s wealthiest businessmen had become more corrupt, and had utilized Backups Issue

(left) The Superman/ GA team-up in World’s Finest #210 (Mar. 1972) was part of the “Oliver Queen for Mayor” saga. Cover inks by Dick Giordano, over the pencils of Neal Adams, who also illustrated the Green Arrow sketch at right (courtesy of Heritage). TM & © DC Comics.

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“Great Guns!” “Blue Blazes!” “Holy Hannah!” Alliteration run amok? Nah. Just examples of the colorful dialogue for the equally colorful “Fab Freak of 1000-and-1 Changes,” Metamorpho, the Element Man! Metamorpho was first spotted in DC Comics’ house ads prior to his debut in the pages of The Brave and the Bold #57 (Dec. 1964–Jan. 1965). A copy of the cover, accompanied with some terrific text, promised great things to come: “Metamorpho is liquid—solid—gaseous … able to will the chemicals of his body into any shape or form!” “Metamorpho possesses all the power of the universe—from the tiniest electron to the mightiest sun!” “Metamorpho opens a new era in comics thrills— the bravest, the boldest, the most bizarre hero of all time!” And we only had to wait until the sale date of October 29, 1964 to check out this new hero—and what a hero he was, though becoming the Element Man certainly was never the goal of Rex Mason, soldier of fortune.

MEET THE ELEMENT MAN Rex was fiercely independent and had passion for only two things: adventure and Sapphire Stagg, daughter of wealthy industrialist and brilliant scientist Simon Stagg. This, of course, created the tension in the initial storylines. Simon Stagg holds an insatiable lust for power and has no qualms about using his seemingly limitless wealth to pursue it, along with any other leverage he can muster, and while Rex desires to be free of “Mr. Millions” and to spirit away his lady love to a life all their own, Simon will use any trick or treachery to keep both under his thumb. Still more tension exists via Java, Stagg’s revived and intellectually enhanced prehistoric manservant. Java has the physical makeup and great strength of the large simian–like caveman he resembles, but has been given intelligence to be able to interact with the world he’s been brought into. He has strong desires of his own, both to please his master and to win the love of Sapphire for himself, causing another antagonist for Rex Mason. The Element Man came about quite by accident in this debut story titled, appropriately enough, “The Origin of Metamorpho.” Rex is dispatched to an ancient pyramid to fetch the Orb of Ra, an artifact that contains legendary power and is therefore coveted by Simon Stagg. The payoff: a cool million dollars. The downside? Java is accompanying Rex on the trip—and we know where his interests and loyalties lie. Once inside the pyramid, the pair discovers the Orb of Ra and immediately a fracas breaks out as Java is determined to get credit for the find and to maroon Mason there. After a brief battle, Rex is

And You Thought the Addams Family was Freaky… Undated Ramona Fradon pencil sketch of the Metamorpho cast, courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions (www.ha.com). TM & © DC Comics.

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Bryan Stroud

knocked unconscious and Java departs with the artifact. Mason, however, remains unimpressed, wanting only Rex awakens a short while later to discover he is on to be restored to his natural state and to marry Sapphire, an automated platform that his body weight has who is initially taken aback at his new appearance but activated and is being transported to the very heart proposes he use his new abilities for good until a cure of the pyramid, where a chamber holds a meteor is found. Simon, meanwhile, quietly stashes the Orb or that has begun to glow and give off great heat. Ra as an insurance policy and some leverage. Convinced his number is up, just prior to blacking Thus the basis for Metamorpho is established, out Rex ingests a chemical formula Stagg had given along with the conflicts of a man thrust into a position him, concealed in his ring, that he was instructed to he didn’t desire, and at least two people close to him take if death was imminent. who certainly do not have his best interests at heart. The meteor glows brighter and hotter, Metamorpho was conceived through a then cools and fades. Rex revives and group effort, according to his original artist, staggers out of the chamber, in awe Ramona Fradon: that he has somehow survived when “I believe George Kashdan thought he comes upon a full-length mirror in of the basic concept—a character who an upper passageway and sees for the could recombine the four elements to first time the weird transformation produce different effects—but Bob of his body. Haney fleshed him out and wrote the His hairless head is now white, original plot. I designed the characters and his body, devoid of clothing save after reading Bob’s script. The a handy pair of trunks, seems to be Metamorpho character took a lot of divided into four distinct quadrants thought. At first I gave him the usual with different textures and colors. Reeling from this revelation, but still ramona fradon acutely aware that he is trapped within the confines of the pyramid, he instinctively calls upon his new abilities and converts himself into a gas that can seep out between the stones and to freedom. Mason soon begins to comprehend that he has control of the elements within the human body and can convert part or all of this new form into them at will. Making his way back to the Stagg compound, he is determined to set things right, starting with a kayo to Java with a cobalt right cross. He is about to take on Simon himself when they discover his body is impervious to bullets, but not to the Orb of Ra, which has a weakening effect on the Element Man. A hasty truce is called and Simon Stagg promises to cure Rex of his condition. A series of experiments in Stagg’s lab, however, prove fruitless, though Stagg is greatly impressed with Rex’s invulnerability to electricity or acid. He further confirms through testing that “…your cells have been transmuted into pure forms of the elements found in the human body! Some are the basic building blocks—carbon, oxygen, calcium … some are just trace elements like fluorine and cobalt! Evidently you can will yourself to change completely into any one of these body elements…”

“The Kid and the Corruptors!” Guest-star Randall Stagg complicates “Uncle Rex” Mason’s life when he visits the Staggs in Action #417 (Oct. 1972). Original art by and courtesy of John Calnan. TM & © DC Comics.

“METAMORPHO” IN ACTION COMICS AND WORLD’S FINEST COMICS • • • • • • • • • •

Action Comics #413 (June 1972) Action Comics #414 (July 1972) Action Comics #415 (Aug. 1972) Action Comics #416 (Sept. 1972) Action Comics #417 (Oct. 1972) Action Comics #418 (Nov. 1972) World’s Finest Comics #218 (July–Aug. 1973) World’s Finest Comics #219 (Sept.–Oct. 1973) World’s Finest Comics #220 (Nov.–Dec. 1973) World’s Finest Comics #229 (Apr. 1975)

Backups Issue

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Sometimes you find the best of things in the least likely of places. An old baseball glove tucked away in the back of a hall closet. A ten-dollar bill wedged in the back of a couch. Or a run of smartly written and drawn superhero stories in the back of Superman’s Girl Friend, Lois Lane entitled “Rose and the Thorn.” The Rose and the Thorn backup series first appeared in Superman’s Girl Friend, Lois Lane #105 (Oct. 1970). The main character in the series is Rhosyn “Rose” Forrest, whose father was a police detective, killed by a criminal organization known as “the 100.” The trauma of her father’s death leads Forrest to develop a nocturnal personality, the Thorn, who discovers a costume and weapons in the building next door to her apartment and seeks revenge on the 100. The Thorn persona only manifests itself when Rose is asleep, although in later issues, the character becomes almost narcoleptic, enabling the Thorn to emerge whenever trouble arises. The Rose and Thorn personalities are largely unaware of each other, but both are aware of their loss, Rose mourning her father while the Thorn hunts for his killer. The organization called the 100 comprises one hundred criminals, nicknamed the “Centipede of Crime,” and the Thorn makes it her mission to defeat them all, one by one, in retaliation for her father’s murder. Over the subsequent issues, she makes considerable progress toward her goal, finally accomplishing it (with Superman’s help) in issue #122, but it is revealed the following issue that the 100 replaces members it has lost, not unlike Hydra, the villainous organization that battles Captain America and S.H.I.E.L.D. in the pages of Marvel Comics.

“ROSE AND THE THORN” BLOOMS The Rose and the Thorn was created by writer Robert Kanigher, who was also writing the Lois Lane stories, and was first illustrated by artists Ross Andru and Mike Esposito. The character was actually a reinvention of a Golden Age DC Comics character of the same name. It was not the first time Kanigher had breathed new life into an old DC character, having co-created the Silver Age Flash with editor Julie Schwartz and artist Carmine Infantino in Showcase #4 in 1956. Kanigher, Andru, and Esposito were also responsible for introducing the Silver Age version of Wonder Woman. As for Rose and the Thorn, the costume of the new Thorn, including mini-skirt, boots, and gloves, actually bore some resemblance to the original character’s, but most of her background story was changed. John Broome and Carmine Infantino created the original Rose and Thorn as a villain who debuted in 1947 in issue #89 of Flash Comics. Rose Canton, as the Golden Age character was known, also suffered from multiple personality disorder. When Canton was

These Chicks Don’t Click Thorn, in a cover appearance drawn by Dick Giordano, from Superman’s (weepy) Girl Friend, Lois Lane #114 (Sept. 1971). TM & © DC Comics.

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Dewey Cassell

“ROSE AND THE THORN” BACKUPS • • • • • • • • •

Lois Lane #105 (Oct. 1970) Lois Lane #106 (Nov. 1970) Lois Lane #107 (Jan. 1971) Lois Lane #108 (Feb. 1971) Lois Lane #109 (Apr. 1971) Lois Lane #110 (May 1971) Lois Lane #111 (July 1971) Lois Lane #112 (Aug. 1971) Lois Lane #113 (Sept.Oct. 1971) – 80-Page Giant featuring reprints of Lois Lane stories, along with a two-page excerpt from an unpublished Flash story featuring the Golden Age Rose and Thorn

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Lois Lane #114 (Sept. 1971) Lois Lane #115 (Oct. 1971) Lois Lane #116 (Nov. 1971) Lois Lane #117 (Dec, 1971) Lois Lane #118 (Jan. 1972) Lois Lane #119 (Feb. 1972) Lois Lane #120 (Mar. 1972) Lois Lane #121 (Apr. 1972) Lois Lane #122 (May 1972) Lois Lane #123 (June 1972) Lois Lane #124 (July 1972) Lois Lane #125 (Aug. 1972) Lois Lane #126 (Sept.1972) Lois Lane #127 (Oct. 1972) Lois Lane #128 (Dec, 1972) Lois Lane #129 (Feb. 1973) Lois Lane #130 (Apr. 1973)

Prickly Protagonist (left) Gray Morrow-drawn page from Lois Lane #111 (July 1971). (above) Cover blurb—drawn by Rose and the Thorn’s first artist, Ross Andru—from the feature’s first outing on LL #105.

studying biology on the island of Tashmi, she came into contact with the sap of a jungle root which caused her to transform into the Thorn, giving her the ability to control plants. Thorn became a nemesis of the Flash, although in her Rose persona she often sought help from his alter ego, Jay Garrick. The Amazons of Paradise Island, birthplace TM & © DC Comics. of Wonder Woman, treat Canton to rid her of the Thorn persona and Canton falls in love with Alan Scott, the Golden Age Green Lantern. Canton and Scott marry and have twin children, but the I don’t know. I found the passion and dedication he exhibited to be Thorn persona resurfaces, and rather than harm her family, Rose refreshing and stimulating.” Canton takes her own life. In taking over the character, Buckler did not receive Several different artists worked on the new Rose and much editorial direction. “Actually, I was given very the Thorn series, among them Gray Morrow, who gave little background, and no guidance to speak of,” he an ethereal feel to the story, and Dick Giordano, who says. “There were no actual model sheets back drew himself as a villain who turned the Thorn into a then. I only had the previous printed stories to go statue. Giordano was succeeded by a young artist by. What did happen early on was that I got to named Rich Buckler. Buckler describes how he got the meet with Bob Kanigher and we had many creative assignment: “As I recall, Dick Giordano mentioned sessions where we discussed the character in the character to me and asked if I would be depth. That helped a lot.” interested in working on it. Not long after that, Those creative sessions provided Buckler a Bob Kanigher just came up to me in the office and chance to get to know Kanigher better, which only introduced himself. ‘I understand we will be working deepened his admiration for the writer. As Buckler together,’ he said, but in a manner that made it recalls, “Bob was a very special breed of writer. If he seem like we already knew each other.” was afforded the opportunity he would not hesitate rich buckler Some artists would have been intimidated to discuss in intense verbal detail just about any working with seasoned vet Kanigher, but not particular story he wrote—almost like reliving it, as Buckler, who notes, “I was just a mere whelp and here I was working if it had actually all happened in real life. It was that way with Rose with a writer who I considered to be a master storyteller. Other artists and the Thorn. And when Bob and I had these discussions, he would I talked to said they found him difficult to work with. For me, it frequently go off on these wonderful tangents and discuss the works was just the opposite. Maybe it was his intensity that put them off, of other authors or specific movies that influenced him. All very Backups Issue

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Thorns Bad and … Not As Bad (left) The Golden Age Thorn, as seen on the cover of Flash Comics #89 (Nov. 1974). Cover by Joe Kubert. (right) The first of two Batman team-ups, from The Brave and the Bold #188 (July 1982). Cover by Jim Aparo. TM & © DC Comics.

if Rose and the Thorn was his earliest Superman-related work, to which Buckler replied, “Yes, this was my first ‘superhero’ work for DC. It just happened to be something that appeared in a Superman-related title. I was lucky, too. It was a sort of feminist character and [later] Jenette Kahn was really into this Robert Kanigher creation, plus it seems I was one of Jenette’s favorites for a while and she really loved my treatment of the character. I was quickly promoted to other assignments featuring Superman.” Buckler was succeeded on the series by artist Don Heck, who had been drawing the Batgirl backup stories in Detective Comics. The Rose and the Thorn character lay largely dormant after issue #130 of Superman’s Girl Friend, Lois Lane, the killer of Rose Forrest’s father dead, but the storyline otherwise unresolved. She later made guest appearances in titles like The Brave and the Bold (1988), Action Comics (1991), The Adventures of Superman (1995), Showcase (1995), and Green Arrow (1996); her backup spawned a resurgence of interest in her Golden Age namesake, who appeared in All-Star Comics (1978). The character was revived, with a modified backstory, in 2004 for an

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exciting and violent six-issue miniseries, Rose and Thorn, written by Gail Simone and illustrated by Adriana Melo and Dan Green, with covers by Adam Hughes. The success of the miniseries led to guest appearances in Birds of Prey. At this writing, Rose and the Thorn is appearing in the National Comics title that is part of DC Comics’ New 52. As for why the Rose and the Thorn character has worked so well, Buckler comments, “Let’s see—themes from Freud and Jung, explorations of the real and unreal, dream imagery, and archetypes, intelligent and emotion-charged stories, a powerful female main character with a great costume. Sounds like a winner to me.” Bates adds his own insight into the repeated success of the character: “A heroine with a multiple personality is great fodder for a series that never fails to be fascinating for both writers and readers. A testament to this character’s longevity is also the number of different writers who have been associated with her over the years, including myself, Bob Kanigher, Nelson Bridwell, and more recently Chuck Dixon and Gail Simone, each of whom has put their own stamp on Rose and Thorn. And it’s certainly never hurt that Rose and Thorn has always been a classic killer title.” One can only hope that Rose and the Thorn will continue to turn up again in the least likely of places. Sincere thanks to Rich Buckler and Cary Bates for their recollections of Rose and the Thorn. DEWEY CASSELL is a frequent contributor to BACK ISSUE and author of the book Marie Severin: The Mirthful Mistress of Comics, available from TwoMorrows Publishing. He is currently working on a book about Herb Trimpe.

One of the most unusual features in the annals of comic-book history was published in the back pages of Adventure Comics in 1975–1976. The Seven Soldiers of Victory appeared in a serialized epic, adapted from a found Golden Age script and drawn for the first time by a variety of Bronze Age artists. (It ran for six issues but, because of Adventure’s bimonthly publishing schedule, that was actually a full year’s worth of the series.) The Seven Soldiers of Victory, also known as the Law’s Legionnaires, first appeared in 1941, in the pages of Leading Comics #1. The team consisted more of mystery men than of bona fide superheroes, as most of the members possessed nothing even approaching superpowers. Members included the Crimson Avenger (DC’s first masked crimefighter), Green Arrow (an archer), the Vigilante (a cowboy), and the Star-Spangled Kid (um … an acrobat?). Only the Shining Knight, a winged-horse-riding, time-displaced warrior from King Arthur’s Court, had an element of fantasy to him. Also unusual was that sidekicks were part of the team

Jack Abramowitz

in the form of Green Arrow’s ward Speedy and the StarSpangled Kid’s adult mechanic, Stripesy. The Crimson Avenger’s “Oriental” sidekick Wing, however, while a constant presence in the team’s adventures, was not considered an actual member. The Seven Soldiers appeared in Leading Comics for 14 issues, after which they were edged out by such humor series as “King Oscar’s Court.” (The cover of Leading Comics #15 informs us that “They walk! They talk! They’re just like humans but they’re all animals— and they’re a riot!” The hilarity of King Oscar’s Court, however, must remain a topic for another day.) An unused Seven Soldiers script went into a drawer, while the Law’s Legionnaires themselves entered comic-book limbo, where they would remain for nearly three decades. It was not until 1972 that the Seven Soldiers would return, in a three-part saga that began in the pages of Justice League of America #100. For three issues, the combined members of the Justice League and Justice Society traveled throughout the ages retrieving the Backups Issue

Magnificent Seven (left to right) Green Arrow, Speedy, Crimson Avenger, Shining Knight, Vigilante, Star-Spangled Kid, and Stripesy are quite chummy here as rendered by Mort Meskin. TM & © DC Comics.

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CBA’s Jon B. Cooke is back this month! Make ready for COMIC BOOK CREATOR, the new voice of the comics medium! TwoMorrows is proud to debut our newest magazine, COMIC BOOK CREATOR, devoted to the work and careers of the men and women who draw, write, edit, and publish comics, focusing always on the artists and not the artifacts, the creators and not the characters. Behind an ALEX ROSS cover painting, our frantic FIRST ISSUE features an investigation of the oft despicable treatment JACK KIRBY endured from the very business he helped establish. From being cheated out of royalties in the ‘40s and bullied in the ‘80s by the publisher he made great, to his estate’s current fight for equitable recognition against an entertainment monolith where his characters have generated billions of dollars, we present Kirby’s cautionary tale in the eternal struggle for creator’s rights. Plus, CBC #1 interviews artist ALEX ROSS and writer KURT BUSIEK, spotlights the last years of writer/artist FRANK ROBBINS, remembers comics historian LES DANIELS, talks to TODD McFARLANE about his new show-all book, showcases a joint talk between NEAL ADAMS and DENNIS O’NEIL on their unforgettable collaborations, as well as throws a whole kit’n’caboodle of other creator-centric items atcha! Join us for the start of a new era as TwoMorrows welcomes back former Comic Book Artist editor JON B. COOKE, who helms the all-new, all-color COMIC BOOK CREATOR! (And don’t miss the double-size Summer Special #2, paying tribute to JOE KUBERT, this July!

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“Detective Comics is returning to the idea that it is a comic book about detectives,” a report in Etcetera & the Comic Reader #80 (Dec. 1971) declared. “Even the Batman stories will be based on the idea that he is the world’s greatest detective.” In support of editor Julius Schwartz’s directional shift, a new logo was created for the title and Batgirl—who’d had prominent co-billing on every cover for the past few years—was given her walking papers. Her replacement as the Detective backup feature was no stranger. Introduced in a 1969 Batgirl two-parter (Detective #392–393), Jason Bard had been a pipesmoking criminology student, an aspiring detective, and, in retrospect, something of a trailblazer. He was a Vietnam vet in an era when anger over the war was at its peak. The knee injury that sent him home forced Jason to use a cane, something he became adept at using as a weapon once he made the acquaintance of Barbara Gordon.

John Wells

For Your Eyes Only

As the boyfriend of Batgirl’s alter ego, Jason rarely had the opportunity to upstage the feature’s star. Issue #424 (June 1972) was one of those exceptions, with the young detective positioned to prevent Babs’ assassination at the hands of political enemies. In “Batgirl’s Last Case,” despite the mob’s best efforts, dark horse Barbara Gordon won a Congressional seat and flew off to Washington. “As Gotham City loses an ace crime-fighter in Batgirl,” the closing caption declared, “it gains one in Jason Bard.” The motivation for dropping Batgirl is unclear, but Schwartz must certainly have viewed the character— created at the request of the 1960s Batman TV series’ show-runners—as a conspicuous reminder of the campy atmosphere he’d been trying to overcome since 1969. Replacing her with a straight detective also played to the strengths of writer Frank Robbins. Although he’d built an impressive résumé of superhero features like Batman, Batgirl, and Superboy since Backups Issue

Originally Barbara (Batgirl) Gordon’s love interest, Jason Bard graduated to his own backup series during the Bronze Age. TM & © DC Comics.

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When the tagline for your story is “He stalks the world’s most dangerous game,” then that story had better be good. Not just good—pulse-pounding, suspenseful, and dynamic good. This catchphrase is, after all, a call-out to a widely known and oft-cited work of American literature. In 1924, Collier’s Weekly published a short story by Richard Connell called “The Most Dangerous Game,” in which a big-game hunter named Sanger Rainsford falls from his boat into the Caribbean Sea, swims to a remote island shore, and finds himself the target of a manhunt orchestrated by a wealthy Cossack named General Zaroff. The story has been adapted to film over a dozen times and referenced by countless pop-culture outlets. Even if audiences don’t know the exact source of the story, they tend to recognize the general premise. Nearly 50 years later, Archie Goodwin was trying to come up with a backup feature for Detective Comics. He had recently taken over editorial duties on the long-running book, whose sales were lagging, and he wanted to find something that would fit the focus of Detective Comics while providing a tonal divergence from the book’s star character: “What I wanted was something that would fit (however loosely) within the ‘detective’ format of the book, but contrast vividly in terms of mood, character, and artistic style with the lead stories, something that would nail the eye of the casual browser and maybe eventually develop a following of its own, bringing the book a few readers beyond the dyed-in-the-wool Batman fans” (Foreword, Manhunter: The Special Edition, p. 5). Goodwin found his inspiration in the cowboy stories of his youth, his fascination with obscure comic-book heroes, the surge of martial-arts interest in the 1970s, and, of course, Connell’s short story. His Manhunter story was born of a unique mix of elements blended at just the right time, and it became a cult classic through an inspired collaborative synergy of writing and art. Walter Simonson’s distinct visual stylings breathed life into Goodwin’s complex narrative, and a story that unfolded as a backup feature quickly eclipsed the main feature of DC’s longest continually running book.

THE MANHUNTER LEGACY Goodwin and Simonson’s series may be the most well-known comic-book story to feature a character with the Manhunter name, but it wasn’t the first. Manhunter is a legacy character—one that spans numerous generations and iterations. Manhunter makes up one of DC’s most complicated legacies— and for a company whose ranks include Flash, Green Lantern, and Hawkman, that’s saying something. One of the main reasons why the Manhunter legacy is so hard to parse is that, while the character name stretches back to the same Golden Age that spawned Green Lantern and Flash, it’s never enjoyed as high a profile as DC’s more iconic characters.

Masked Manhunters The main players in Archie Goodwin’s Manhunter saga, as rendered by Walter Simonson for Manhunter: The Special Edition (1999). TM & © DC Comics.

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Alex Boney

Manhunter first began as a feature in Quality Comics’ The story of Paul Kirk didn’t end as World War II Police Comics (#8, Mar. 1942). Dan Richards was a rookie drew to a close, though. In 1973, Archie Goodwin cop who wasn’t particularly good at his job. He was resurrected the character (literally) and gave him a vast much better at tracking down killers as a superhero than reworking before serializing his story in the back of preventing crime as a policeman. With the exception Detective Comics. According to Goodwin’s tale, Kirk of his chest emblem (a shoeprint in a circle), his costume retired from crimefighting after the end of WWII and was relatively generic. But he did have a pet dog named resumed his life as a big-game hunter. While on safari Thor that helped him fight crime, and he lasted for quite in Africa, Kirk fired a rifle shot that startled a bull a long time by Golden Age standards. Richards appeared elephant out of the brush. The elephant trampled and regularly in Police Comics until the series ended in 1950. killed him—at least (as they say) mostly. A syndicate Just a month after Dan Richards debuted called tthe Council reached Kirk at the in Police Comics, another character named moment of death and placed him in frozen Manhunter—written by Joe Simon and stasis for decades, until science and illustrated by Jack Kirby—appeared in technology had advanced to the point DC Comics’ Adventure Comics #73. where they could revive him. While This Manhunter was a big-game Kirk lay in cryogenic sleep, the Council hunter named Rick who turned his made enhancements to his body attention to hunting criminals after a that gave him a healing factor along friend was murdered by a costumed with advanced strength and agility. criminal. Shortly before this friend (a The Council, a secret society of “the police inspector) died, he shared an world’s top minds,” explained that its observation with Rick that set the mission was to free humanity from its tone for the character’s entire history: “Listen, Rick! You’re a nice boy and archie goodwin the world’s best hunter! But you’re batting in a minor league! Yeah! I know! Lions and tigers are tough … but there is game more dangerous, cunning and treacherous than all the beasts you’ve hunted … and that’s man!” Rick’s name was changed to Paul Kirk in the next issue (Adventure Comics #74), and he was given a lightblue mask to go with his red-and-blue spandex outfit to complete an almost android-looking costume. Though DC’s Manhunter feature was helmed by an A-list creative team, it didn’t last nearly as long as Quality’s Manhunter. Simon and Kirby left the strip by the end of 1942, and the feature stopped appearing in Adventure in summer 1944. His last story (in Adventure #92) features Manhunter traveling to Maine to defeat a group of Nazi invaders and saboteurs.

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First and Last (left) DC’s first Manhunter, a Simon and Kirby creation, first cornered crooks in Adventure Comics #73 (Apr. 1942). Cover by Kirby. (right) The last adventure of Goodwin and Simonson’s Manhunter, a Batman team-up in Detective Comics #443 (Oct.–Nov. 1974). TM & © DC Comics.

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(Wo)Manhunter (right) Jae Lee’s eye-gougingly groovy cover art to Kate Spencer’s first issue, Manhunter #1 (Oct. 2004), signed by Jimmy Palmiotti. (left) Original cover art—featuring another Manhunter/ Batman team-up!— from Manhunter #28 (Apr. 2007), by Kevin Nowlan, cover artist for the next edition of BACK ISSUE. Courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions. TM & © DC Comics.

Andreyko solved the problem by having Mark Shaw fall so deeply into a web of multiple personalities that he begins hunting down anyone with the Manhunter name. This approach stayed true to the history of the characters (especially Shaw) while consolidating the complicated Manhunter legacy. “I fixed up the idea of a serial killer who was killing off all the people who had been named Manhunter,” Andreyko says. “Part of that came from the Kirk DePaul character in Power Company, who was a clone of Archie and Walt’s Manhunter. I’ve always thought that Archie and Walt’s Manhunter was just amazing. It had a great beginning, middle, and end. Now that Archie’s no longer with us, it was sort of sacrosanct. I didn’t want to touch that. So I really wanted to eliminate Kirk DePaul, because I felt that such an existence diminished Archie and Walt’s character. I’m not saying that Kurt [Busiek] did anything bad there, but it bothered me conceptually because I felt that what Archie and Walt did was deeply personal. Paul Kirk was so deeply associated with them that, unless they were involved in it, it didn’t feel right.” The decision to create the first female Manhunter was initiated by DC Comics executive Dan DiDio, who recruited Andreyko to write the series. But Kate’s character was compelling for reasons that went well beyond her gender: “I wanted purposely to make a character who was a character who happened to be a

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woman, but who had all the flaws and the problems of male characters,” Andreyko says. “No one really ever says, ‘Oh, poor Wolverine. He’s angry and he smokes and drinks, and he’s sad. That’s really interesting for a man.’ Kate Spencer’s name comes from Katherine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy. She comes from that world. She’s troubled and not particularly likable, but that’s part of the point. Over the course of the series, we see her grow and change. Being a superhero brings a lot of pain and suffering with it. That life is not an easy life, and I wanted to acknowledge that with the history of the Manhunters. But I also wanted to show that change was possible.” “Change” is the key word in Manhunter’s long and winding history. A character who has experienced as many identities and as much turmoil as Manhunter has in the last 70 years is bound to be difficult to pin down—especially when he (or she) has spent most of that time as a backup and B-list character. But the Manhunter legacy is one that reaches deep into the dark corners of every era in DC’s long history. And the bright colors of Goodwin and Simonson’s relatively short story cast one of the company’s longest shadows. Special thanks go to Roger Ash, John Ostrander, and Marc Andreyko. Thanks for talking with me, guys. ALEX BONEY, a frequent BACK ISSUE contributor, lives in Kansas City with Conor and Kristy. He works as an editor at Hallmark and teaches classes on American literature and comics at the University of Central Missouri. His primary interest lies in the superhero stories of the Golden Age, but he has a soft spot for the Question, Power Girl, and Martian Manhunter.

John Wells

The library of characters in the DC Comics pantheon is vast. renewed name recognition to characters with whom In the early 1940s alone, when most titles carried six or present-day readers would otherwise have been more features per issue, a kid with a handful of dimes could unfamiliar. The savviest DC writers and editors even used follow the adventures of 40–50 DC characters. Throughout the reprints in support of old characters that they wished the 1950s and 1960s, dozens more heroes joined to revive. A reprint of the Creeper’s 1968 origin in the fold only to fall away as genres fell out Detective Comics #443 in 1974, for instance, of favor or readership tastes changes. was a precursor to the character’s brandThey were gone, but not forgotten. new guest-appearance with Batman five Certainly not by many members issues later. And 1950s Roy Raymond of DC management, who saw that reprints in Detective #444 and 445 reservoir of bought-and-paid-for promoted a modern tale in Superman stories as something that they #285 that revealed whatever hapcould economically republish instead pened to the famed TV detective. of new material. In that way, Guest-shots, more often than not, dormant characters like Congorilla and were the best that most dormant DC Robotman and Johnny Quick stayed characters could hope for. No matter before the public eye, reprints of how fond fans and pros were of many their 1950s adventures inserted into Golden and Silver Age characters, they julius schwartz the back of comics like World’s Finest. were no longer viewed as headliners. In the 1970s, the reprint push accelIn June of 1980, when DC added eight erated with old stories included as supplements to new story pages to each of its standard-format titles, the extra ones in a 1971–1972 initiative and as part of its 100-Page space was often filled with backup features starring Super-Spectacular format that peaked in 1974. relatively recent creations like Firestorm, the Huntress, The hidden benefit of all those reprints—hidden at and OMAC. (Adam Strange, created in 1959 and allotted least to the eyes of corporate—was that they gave a spot in Green Lantern, was a rare exception.) Backups Issue

Back in Action Actually, back in DC Comics Presents. Samples of the first two “Whatever Happened To…?” installments, starring (left) Hourman, from DCCP #25, and (right) Sargon the Sorcerer, from #26. A BIG thank-you to John Wells for providing most of the art scans used in this article. TM & © DC Comics.

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SHANNON E. RILEY: I would argue that your Dr. Fate backup overshadowed the lead feature in terms of quality, drama, and excitement. Tell me how the assignment for the backups in The Flash came about. Did you pitch it as a collaborative effort or were you paired up by DC editorial? KEITH GIFFEN: [We were] paired by DC editorial. I know I remember this right because I was still on probation up at DC because of my less-than-stellar entry into the comics biz a few years earlier. I was working the DC “horror” books and making deadlines, so—and here I’m guessing—Mike Barr, Flash editor at the time, figured he’d give me a shot. Trust me, at that time I was, career-wise, in no condition to pitch anything up at DC. MARTIN PASKO: I can’t confirm or refute how Keith came to the project; I remember Mike Barr offering me the backup series and mentioning that Keith would be penciling it almost in the same breath. I jumped at the chance to do it because I wanted to work with Keith again—he’d penciled an issue of Kobra I wrote a few years earlier, and he and I had gotten to know each other a bit when he’d drop by the apartment I shared with Paul Levitz while he and Paul were working on All-Star with Wally Wood. I’d seen how Keith interpreted the character I’d come to think of as one of my “babies” and knew he was an excellent choice. As for picking me to write it, I think DC thought of that as a no-brainer. A while after Walt Simonson and I redeveloped the character in ’75, DC wanted me to do an ongoing monthly, but that didn’t happen. So I was somemartin pasko what surprised when, two or three years later, Mike called me. I knew the shorter backups would be much easier to write at night and on weekends, after my animation day job, than a full book would’ve been, so I was up for it. I never knew whether Mike approached Walt or not, but I never asked. I thought Keith was a great choice and, when I saw the first pencils and saw how much Keith had evolved since the Kobra job, I realized that my highest hopes had been exceeded. Then Larry Mahlstedt’s terrific inks plussed the whole package. I really loved the art on those backups. RILEY: Martin, your 1st Issue Special (FIS) #9 (Dec. 1975) story really elevated Dr. Fate to “premier status” in the DCU and laid the groundwork for all future appearances of the character. The concept that the spirit of Nabu possesses Kent Nelson when he wears the helmet has been embraced by every creator ever since. (To give you an idea of the reach, it was recently seen in the Young Justice

Having a Ball The Mystic Mage as rendered by Keith Giffen in 1987 for the History of the DC Universe Portfolio. Original art scan courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions (www.ha.com). TM & © DC Comics.

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Shannon E. Riley

animated series episode “Misplaced,” in which Giovanni Zatara is overtaken by the Helm of Nabu.) Do you recall how the “possession” idea came about? PASKO: Yes. I was fascinated by the married-superhero angle and had never written Hawkman, so Dr. Fate gave me my first opportunity to explore how being a costumed crimefighter— or, in this case, sorcerer—could affect So that’s the first scene that came marital obligations. And I thought keith giffen into my mind before my initial plotting that Kent and Inza Nelson’s marriage conference with Walt and the [FIS] was much more interesting, and had far greater dramatic possibilities, precisely because, editor, Gerry Conway: She’s in this prison, half out of her unlike Katar and Shayera Hol [Hawkman and Hawkgirl], mind with cabin fever, and cut off from any communicaKent and Inza Nelson weren’t partners in Spandex. tion with her husband for days while she’s worrying that I thought I could do a lot with what I found so sexist and he’s gonna get killed—it’s not as if he’d’ve been texting creepy about the Golden Age stories I consulted: Kent her from his iPhone, even if there’d been such a thing and Inza lived in this tower without windows or doors, back then. So he shimmers through the wall and then and Kent would go off on missions and leave her there passes out before she can find out what happened, for days at a time with no way to leave, because his and it makes her crazy. Then I thought, how do we magic was the only way in or out—she was, in effect, take that a step further so that all through the story she his prisoner. The poor woman was doomed to this continues to be an outsider, even as she participates in quasi-reclusive existence simply because she’d had the the story? The answer was to tweak the concept a bit. (Here, I’ll digress to say that before Gerry brought misfortune to fall in love with an archaeologist who became a superhero. I figured this woman would be Walt in, he’d already gotten permission from the under enormous emotional strain. I wanted to echo a publisher to rework the property a bit. The whole theme you find in a lot of police procedurals, in which a motivation for doing the 1st Issue Special in the first cop’s spouse (if they’re a civilian) almost becomes jealous place was to deliberately retcon the property. Gerry of the force and the demands the job places on the thought it was kind of lackluster as it was being treated husband or wife. The special bond between peace in the JLA books—too much reverence for the Golden officers is a kind of relationship the spouse can’t share, Age mediocrity—and Gerry and I wanted to turn it and the spouses feel alienated and excluded from the into something that had the potential to go in at least central events of their loved ones’ lives. This adds a as many exotic directions as Dr. Strange had.) So I thought, what if even when he comes to, Kent burden to a relationship already constantly strained by the civilian spouse’s fear that every time their partner can’t tell her what happened to him because he can’t remember? That would make Inza feel even more cut goes on duty, he or she might not come back alive. Backups Issue

Round of Applause (left) The corny Carmine Infantino/Bob Smith cover of Flash #306 (Feb. 1982), premiering the backup starring (right) Dr. Fate, seen here in an undated Giffen sketch from the Heritage archives. TM & © DC Comics.

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SFX Galore (left) Giffen liberally used the ’80s technology of color holds (which printed art in a solid color, without a black holding line). Page 7 of “Crimson Treatment,” the last Dr. Fate backup, in Flash #313. (right) Giffen and Gary Martin’s cover to Immortal Doctor Fate #3 (Mar. 1985). TM & © DC Comics.

RILEY: Keith, you went on to co-plot Justice League with J. M. DeMatteis, and the series featured Dr. Fate as a prominent cast member. Did you reference Martin’s work on the character? GIFFEN: Not really. No offense to Marty, but DeMatteis and I had our own take on the character. Besides, we would never have gotten the Kent/Inza relationship as pitch-perfect as Marty. PASKO: No offense taken. And thanks, Keith. By the way, even though the Nelson-less Fate didn’t intrigue me, I have to say that I’m a great admirer of Marc DeMatteis’ work, and, given what he was aiming for, I thought his Dr. Fate was really quite well done. RILEY: Last question, guys. Dr. Fate has had varying levels of success at DC, from holding membership in the Justice Society and Justice League to being able to support a monthly title at various points. What do you think has kept the character from being relegated to the dustbin of history? GIFFEN: You say that as if it’s a bad thing. That question’s not ours to answer. That question belongs to whoever picks up the character and runs with him. I’d like to

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think that what Marty and I did with Fate will live on in the fans’ memories … but I know better. Besides, tomorrow’s always so much more interesting than yesterday. Older takes on characters hitting the dustbin? Maybe that’s the way it’s supposed to be. PASKO: For me, that’s not really the question. The real question is, why did it take so long, after the Golden Age DC heroes were revived in the ’60s as the Earth-Two heroes, for DC to recognize what potential Fate had, if only the mythology and backstory could be revised a bit? Probably because the treatment of it was plagued by silly missteps, such as Murphy Anderson drawing dotted-line facial expressions on the mask to denote Fate’s emotions in that Hourman/Dr. Fate Showcase issue in the ’60s. But lots of fans since All-Star and that 1st Issue Special in the mid-’70s have commented on how the costume, with the helmet and the medallion and the billowing cloak, can be very cool-looking in the right artist’s hands. And, of course, a faceless, or fully masked, hero has always had a certain mystique that readers find irresistible, as a certain “arachnoid” character has proved for 50 years. The fact that so many Creatives over the past three decades—not just in comics, but on TV as well, in the WBA [Warner Bros. Animation] stuff and Smallville—have found the character so appealing and have kept it alive in their work attests to its enduring potential. So the real question is, why would Dr. Fate be “relegated to the dustbin of history”? SHANNON E. RILEY has been reading and collecting comics since 1978, when his dad bought him his first book, Detective Comics #475. Find him on Facebook at facebook.com/shannoneriley.

“The scales of justice … held in perfect balance, they symbolize a fair and impartial judgment between men. But unbalanced, truth and equality are mocked! One man risks his life to regain that balance! A man called … Nemesis!” From the very beginning, Nemesis was a somewhat mysterious character. A 1980 double-page ad for DC Comics’ new eight-page backup features showcased such familiar characters as Adam Strange, Firestorm, and the Huntress, but one character stood out by being UN-familiar: a silhouetted figure standing behind the scales of justice. The caption only read “Nemesis: A New Hero Appearing in The Brave and the Bold.”

ENTER: NEMESIS! by

J o h n Tr u m b u l l

The man commissioned to create this new hero was writer Cary Burkett. “[Batman editor] Paul Levitz had a tremendous amount of input into the creation of Nemesis,” Burkett recalls. “He tapped me to create a backup series for Brave and Bold. Paul always liked the idea of comics with more than one story in them, and a lot of his books had backup series. cary burkett “His instructions were for me to create a character who was a ‘noncostumed’ hero, one who would fit well into a Batman-themed book … with some general similarities, but strong differences,” Burkett continues. “He would be non-powered, but highly skilled in a variety of ways. As I recall, I think Paul threw out the idea in one brainstorming session that he might be a hitman who had reformed and was fighting crime with inside knowledge. Paul also came up with the name, eventually, though we batted around a few other ideas.” Burkett’s background in theater added an important element to the character: “The idea of a master of disguise had strong appeal to me. But I didn’t like the idea that he was a hitman in his past and driven by guilt to atone for his crimes. I wanted him to have a more positive motivation, a certain idealism that was foundational to his nature.” Regarding the selection of the illustrator of the “Nemesis” strip, Burkett says, “Paul had Dan Spiegle in mind as the artist before the character was created, I think. I figured that costume-wise, Nemesis would operate in basic black, but Paul added the touch that he would have a patch of the scales of justice on his costume. It was the right touch, I think—the symbol was important to the character. The first time I saw the character was on the first page of the first story, the art already penciled and already inked for the whole story.” Although Burkett initially pictured the character as looking “closer to [Joe] Kubert’s

The Scales of Justice The splash page to the first outing of Burkett and Spiegle’s “Nemesis” backup. From The Brave and the Bold #166 (Sept. 1980). TM & © DC Comics.

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Back Issue #64