A dissociative alien, a time-traveling swamp monster, and so much more!
Adventures of Superman 450, New Titans 52, Power of the Atom 8, Starman 6, Swamp Thing 82
We close out the month of November 1988 with a big revelation in a Superman anniversary issue, even as the aftereffects of the invasion continue to roll across the DC Universe. Let’s dive right into the action!
Adventures of Superman #450 by Jerry Ordway and Dennis Janke
This issue starts with a reveal that I thought was shocking and awe-inspiring when I first read it. The ripped Gangbuster costume that ended this month’s Superman reveals the familiar S logo beneath the armor. Having now read all the issues leading to it, it was a rather obvious reveal after months of alternating Superman and Gangbuster appearances.
Superman wakes up as soon as the S is revealed. He literally rips off the outer costume and is shocked to realize that he’s been acting under a different personality when he goes to sleep. He connects this to the guilt that he’s carried over the execution of the three Kryptonian criminals in the pocket dimension. He worries that while Gangbuster hasn’t killed yet, it might be a matter of time before he crosses that line as his alter ego.
Meanwhile, Jose Delgado (the former Gangbuster) and Lois fight over the deal that he’s made with Luthor for the new use of his legs. Jose storms out to his final visit with the doctor, only for Luthor to take control of his body and declare that Jose will now be his new bodyguard.
Superman visits Emil Hamilton and Kitty Faulkner to get an apparatus with which he can breathe in outer space. From there, he meets with his parents, Lana Lang, and the freshly-renamed Matrix, the former Supergirl. He reveals his actions in the pocket dimension to them. His father tries to comfort him, talking about the unfortunate necessities of war. But worried about his mind, Superman plans to go into outer space until he can find a way to recover from his condition. He says his farewells and flies off, even as a looming black and white orb descends upon the Earth behind him, a different view of the danger coming in Invasion #3.
For someone as new at writing comics as Ordway, he shows immense talent at writing both Superman and his supporting cast. I’m consistently impressed with his work on the title, as I missed much of the ensuing run until “Panic in the Sky” a few years after this. The rare Super-titles I picked up as a young man rarely had Ordway credits, so I’m looking forward to reading the rest of his run as part of DC: A New Dawn.
New Titans #52 by Marv Wolfman, George Perez, and Bob McLeod
While I thought the Titans staying out of Millennium felt incredibly forced, I will tip my hat with respect to Wolfman and Perez for devoting the first couple of pages of this month’s issue to the crossover. On Earth, Danny Chase learns of the invasion and tries to summon any reserve members. He cannot find any of them, with Jason Todd’s status confusing Danny.
The rest of the issue continues the Titans’ quest in space. Nightwing’s team has to battle the titan seed Athyns and his minions, leading to Jericho possessing Athyns to control him. Sparta’s armada attacks, and the Titans barely escape with Athyns in the sphere as the entire planet is destroyed.
Donna Troy and her team arrive at New Chronus with Xanthi. Returning to the world unlocks both of their memories of their times there as they meet the rapidly aging Titans of Myth.
When Nightwing’s team arrives in the New Chronus system, Sparta’s forces attack, but they cannot put up a defense as Athyns has taken control of their craft and is using it against them. The sphere seems to be destroyed as the issue comes to a close.
I see a lot of George Perez’s writing interests in this issue, with themes not dissimilar to his work on Wonder Woman mixed with some of the ideas he would bring to Marvel with Silver Surfer. This arc does feel like it’s stretching a bit far here, but we will see how well they can wrap things together in the next chapters.
Power of the Atom #8 by Roger Stern, Graham Nolan, and K.S. Wilson
We kick things off in the aftermath of the big fight in Invasion #2 with Atom helping to mop up the surviving enemy forces. But even as he does so, he knows he needs to find Chronos and settle things with the villain.
Chronos encounters a Thanagarian straggler as he looks for alien technology to scrounge. He uses his time abilities to artificially age the Thanagarian and leave him as a message for the Atom, who initially thinks the Thanagarian is his friend Hawkman. (All of which will be the cause of a continuity mess in just a few short years.)
Atom travels back to the United States and traces Chronos’ base back to a luxury mansion. He sneaks inside, but finds that it is a trap set up by the villain, who is out at sea away from the action. A dozen soldiers appear, having been placed out of sync with time until his arrival.
The Atom shows off impressive martial prowess, something Chronos didn’t expect but makes sense after the years the Atom spent as a barbarian hero in the Amazon. His final ploy is to blow up the building with Atom in it. His men can slip out of sync with time again to escape, but one finds the apparatus in his chest piece was broken in the fight. The Atom grabs him and shrinks down to active the device.
Chronos arrives to survey the damage only for the Atom to surprise him. Chronos tries to age the Atom, but the hero’s special suit protects him. With his last ditch effort a failure, Chronos tries to escape through his time technology, but as he does so the sky turns black. He appears to age rapidly, perhaps even dying, before vanishing again to end the issue.
This feels like a rather anticlimatic battle against a character presented as the lead’s archenemy, but considering he’s already been drastically altered from recent appearances in Blue Beetle and Suicide Squad, I cannot say I’m surprised. It still feels like Roger Stern has no idea of what he wants to do with the character from issue to issue, leaving the Atom to feel more like a cipher than a fleshed-out character. His run on the book ends in just a few months, so we will see if he can start to build something for Ray and company before he moves on.
Starman #6 by Roger Stern, Tom Lyle, and Bob Smith
The second half of Will Payton’s involvement with the invasion starts with the hero still in Australia in the aftermath of the big battle. Starman flies into Sydney just in time to see the famous opera house start to collapse, threatening the lives of those trying to stabilize it. Starman tries to hold it up, but it starts to crumble around him. Green Lantern and Power Girl both show up to assist him, with Starman continuing to feel starstruck by other heroes.
They leave, and Starman has a brief conversation with the Atom as well. The shrinking hero discusses his feelings of inadequacy next to other heroes. Feeling a bit better about himself, Will decides that it is time to head back to the United States.
The Power Elite try to interrogate their Durlan spy, but don’t get much out of him. They decide to let him loose in nearby Salt Lake City. The Durlan would be drugged, and the team can work together to kill him as their first public action as a super-team. (Only a handful of the team members are aware of this plan, as some would not have agreed to it.)
Starman arrives back in the United States thanks to Blue Beetle, who gives him a lift in the Bug. (I’m a bit unsure why Will is presented as unable to fly that distance with his powers.) He arrives back home and meets his sister Jayne. He learns that his absence was easily hidden from their mother, who had been called into her factory to live onsite as production ramped up for the war effort. He watches the Power Elite attack and kill the Durlan on television. He explains to his sister how they kidnapped him before flying off to confront them.
Starman appears to make it to Salt Lake City in a matter of minutes, an impressive speed for a distance of over six hundred miles. (And which again calls into question why he couldn’t have flown back to the United States under his own power.) The Power Elite have left the scene, but he follows them and quickly locates their van.
He attacks them. Without being taken by surprise, he can use his abilities to counter theirs, quickly taking out a few of them before they have a chance to team up on him. But before the fight can be finished one way or another, the black light appears in the sky and ends the issue.
This is a solid issue that does a lot to establish a place in the DCU for Will Payton. It’s also a book I distinctly read and re-read as a child, fostering a love for Will Payton that would lead me to pick up his comics when and where I could find them. Little did I know what the important revelations he would receive in Invasion #3 and the next issue would change his life forever. But more on that in a few short weeks.
Swamp Thing #82 by Rick Veitch with Alfredo Alcala
We quickly learn that Swamp Thing has somehow become unstuck in time as this issue starts. He wakes up by possessing a body of a dead soldier in 1945 Germany. The man is discovered by Sgt. Rock and Easy Company. Alec plays along as he tries to find his bearings even when he cannot fully manifest in his normal form due to another swamp entity existing at the time.
At the same time, a Nazi colonel has gathered a set of occult artifacts with a plan to use them in a last ditch effort to save the Nazi regime. He brings them to a Nazi general who we learn is none other than the long-dead Swamp Thing villain Anton Arcane. Arcane hates Hitler and has no plans to carry out the plan, instead taking the artifacts for his personal use as he develops his first generation of Unmen.
Easy Company is sent to take down the meat-packing plant that serves as his base. Sgt. Rock and Alec (nicknamed Lazarus for his survival and miraculous recovery) go in on reconnaissance. Lazarus stays behind while Rock goes to summon the rest of the force, only to learn that they’ve been pulled back for an airstrike.
Alec leaves Lazarus’ body to die. He goes to confront Arcane, but the villain uses an artifact called the Claw of Aeklhund to destroy his body. He’s gored by his creation, a bull bred for occult purposes. He survives the fire-bombing as it carries him away, severely injured but quite able to survive. We also learn that everything here was a plan carried about the Unknown Soldier who was disguised as Easy Company’s medic. His presence here feels out of place, but might simply be a way to promote the character as his then-current maxi-series was on its third issue.
This issue was billed as “Brothers in Arms Part Two” which we learn was on purpose as the next issue box promises “Brothers in Arms Part One” as Swamp Thing’s journey back in time continues.
This book also features a short backup set in the present day. Floro arrives in the swamps to tell Abby that he was sent to recruit Swamp Thing to the heroic forces but found no sign of him on the planet. He believes Alec is truly dead, but Abby refuses to hear him and sends him away.
This wasn’t the best week of DC books. While Adventures of Superman and Starman both offer some solid superhero fare, the rest of the books just feel rather average. We will see if DC can recover from that in the coming weeks as Invasion! nears its conclusion.
What are your thoughts on the second phase of Invasion! and these five comics?