Power-draining aliens, the crumbling of a super-team, and the book that changed Batman forever
Adventures of Superman 442, Batman 421, Infinity Inc 52, Justice League Annual 2, Martian Manhunter 3, Secret Origins 28, Batman: The Killing Joke
We’re moving into the Annual season for DC in 1988. While Marvel kept their annuals as mostly a summer thing, DC tended to let them fall a bit earlier. We will see a bunch of them popping out over the next couple of months of coverage, starting with an oddly named one that no longer matches the title of the book to which it's connected. This also involves a lot more comics to cover, which means we’re stretching this month’s coverage out to a fifth week in seven days, where we will see two more annuals for this month drop as well.
Adventures of Superman #442 by John Byrne, Jerry Ordway, and Andy Kubert
I noted last time around that Jerry Ordway strangely drew the cover to Superman. Now in the second part of the storyline, John Byrne draws the cover for Adventures of Superman. Perhaps this is a way to note the ongoing continuity between the two books as stories will continue from one to another.
After losing almost all his powers in the previous issue, Superman is very nearly killed in his battle with Dreadnaught. He manages to escape, but powerless. He switches back into civilian attire and tracks down Professor Hamilton with a plan.
Meanwhile, the threat of Dreadnaught draws other heroes into the fight. Aquaman is first up, followed by Martian Manhunter. They both lose their abilities one by one as Psi-Phon draws them off and apparently feeds them to Dreadnaught. Elongated Man arrives next (making his first appearance in a year and a half) with Captain Marvel rounding out the slate of guest stars. Everyone is in danger of losing their powers, but Psiphon seems to be buckling under the strain of all those abilities.
Clark Kent arrives to save the day. Decked out in Professor Hamilton’s force field belt, he can fight Dreadnaught without Psi-Phon stealing his abilities. The battle proves to much for Psi-Phon and he calls an end to the fight under the strain of controlling all these powers. He reveals that he doesn’t truly take away anyone’s abilities, just plant a psychic block on them as he feeds copies of those abilities to Dreadnaught. He reveals that Clark’s fast thinking has showed Earth to be more of a threat than suspected. With that realization, it’s clear their planned invasion will not continue. Psi-Phon and Dreadnaught collapse into dust. We learn they were never truly living identities but pre-programmed advanced scouts for some other alien race.
It’s a bit of a shame that no one thought it wise to tie this story into the upcoming Invasion! event, as links could have easily been drawn between the duo of Psi-Phon and Dreadnaught and any of the various races intent on attacking Earth in the crossover. Alas, this was not to be. The villains somehow even make a return, although it will take over two years before their next storyline. While this is a fun story, it mostly seems to be designed to keep the Man of Steel busy as the B plot continues to grow.
That B plot is Supergirl, who we see makes her way to Smallville in this issue. She’s talking about a plan with Lex and runs into Lana Lang there, but what will come of that remains to be seen in future stories.
Batman #421 by Jim Starlin, Dick Giordano, and Joe Rubinstein
This issue pulls Batman back into a case that he hasn’t revisited in over half a year of comics, the serial murderer from Jim Starlin’s very first issue, #414. We open the book with the reveal that Bruce’s burgeoning love interest Kate Babcock was only the fourth victim in a series of nearly a dozen murders. With few leads, Batman redoubles his efforts to find the killer, especially since a body seems to be missing in the killer’s pattern.
He gets a break when he saves a local homeless man. The man tells Batman he has a new wife and when Batman asks to meet her, we learn it’s the missing victim. After calling in the police to retrieve the body and send the man to a mental health facility, Batman gets a description of the vehicle used to dispose of the body. He uses this to track the vehicle to the police impound lot. He finds a single common figure between the two vehicles involved in the two crimes: an officer named Victor Giambattista.
Victor catches that Batman is on his tail and calls the people that he’s been letting use the impounded cars over the last few months. Unfortunately for Victor, he is murdered and his house is set on fire to cover the tracks. Unfortunately for his killers, he manages to scrawl a clue in his own blood: “cousin” in Italian.
He uses that information to track down Victor’s cousin Vito Procaccini and his partner Karl Branneck. The two men find Batman in their house and Batman is forced to back off, but is well aware he has found the killers, even if he still needs to find evidence. The killers in turn have a plan of their own to end Batman once and for all.
Starlin puts together a pretty solid procedural detective story here. Perhaps it says something about how rarely the “Dark Knight Detective” actually acts as a detective that it seems a bit odd.
Perhaps even more odd is the sudden appearance by DC’s executive editor Dick Giordano as this issue’s artist. Jim Aparo is away likely working on the stories that will appear in Wrath of the Spectre #4 which were written during his earlier Adventure Comics run, only for the feature to be canceled before he drew them. But he will be gone for an amazingly long period especially in 1988, with five issues of other artists. Giordano is only here for this issue with the sequel next month bringing M.D. Bright aboard. That means the three parts of this saga will have three different artists, not the wisest choice for continuity. Hopefully, Bright can bring things to a satisfying conclusion in a few weeks.
Infinity Inc #52 by Roy and Dann Thomas, Michael Bair, and Bob Downs
While I think the Thomases are trying their best to bring this book to a satisfying conclusion, it seems clear to me that even they don’t really care all that much for the book. In fact, the only person involved with this issue that seems to want to shine is the artist for the final issues of the book: Michael Bair. Bair puts his all into the book, certainly giving it more shine than the workmanlike Vince Argondezzi ever did. (Argondezzi never found work at the Big Two again after this book, instead moving on to Now Comics to work on their Racer X series before leaving comics. He passed away in 2018 at just 58.)
The story breaks down into three sections.
First up is Jade and Brainwave. They debate whether or not Bones actually committed the crime as they look for Grundy. This allows them to be lured into a trap. Artemis shoots Jade through the hand with a wooden arrow, effectively cutting off her powers. This allows Artemis to beat her down. Brainwave stops her, but he’s attacked by Icicle and frozen solid. The villains leave them both for dead.
Stripesly gets attacked at Infinitor headquarters. He’s a normal man, so the Dummy, Harlequin, and Hazard mostly play with him. His son Mikey shows up and Dummy pulls a gun to shoot them both before we move on to the final part of the tale.
Mister Bones makes his way to find the Helix, but he’s doing so on foot. This allows the remaining Infinity Inc members (Nuklon, Obsidian, and Wildcat) to get there first. They find the Helix members to be practically vegetables, only to be confronted by their caretaker, Doctor Lamour. We quickly learn that Lamour is actually Doctor Love, the mad scientiest responsible for their creation (as well as Wildcat’s.) He trains the mind-controlled Helix on the team, intent on killing them.
Bones arrives just in time to save the Infinitors, as his pleas to his old team breaks Love’s hold on their minds. They turn all their powers on Love, klling him in the process. In the aftermath, Helix leaves although Penny Dreadful makes it clear they don’t want Mister Bones with them any longer.
As his saving them made it clear, Mister Bones isn’t the real killer. He fingers the woman that he thinks is the culprit: Jade. Satisfied that they have to go and find the real killer, they team agrees to let Bones go too, apparently after the Helix.
And so marks the final appearance of the Helix, believe it or not. While Mister Bones isn’t actually done, his compatriots will never have any major appearances after this. Two members would resurface over two decades after this issue just to die, but the characters are never seen again. The back matter of Infinity Inc’s next and final issue promised the characters would spinoff into their own series, but such a book never happened. It wouldn’t be the only project by Thomas to disappear in this period, but unlike his Shazam ongoing, I doubt anyone was clamoring for the team in their own book. It still feels like a shame that they would never be seen again.
As for Infinity Inc, the next issue would bring their book to its finale, though they have one last story before that to tell in the second and final annual. (Unsurprisingly, that story takes place before the events of this book’s previous issue, meaning all the team is still alive for their final crossover.
Justice League Annual #2 by Keith Giffen, J.M. DeMatteis, Bill Willingham, and Joe Rubinstein
Something very odd was going on in the production of this issue. Its indicia marks it as Justice League Annual #2 despite coming out months after the change to Justice League International. The cover features a redesigned logo entirely with the “International” even smaller than usual which we can assume is because the figure of the Joker on the cover is so large. Some kind of snafu clearly hit during the production of this one, especially since it has to be set somewhere in the middle of the events of the recent Manga Khan storyline based on the members in place. That’s a lot of headaches around the issue, but the actually lead story itself works quite well as a standalone annual.
Colonel Rumaan Hajarvti, leader of Bialya, is in New York when he’s visited by none other than the Joker. The Joker has a proposition for Hajarvti: he’ll help the colonel end the Justice League in exchange for the colonel finding him Batman’s secret identity.
This leads to the Joker making multiple attempts on team members as they go about the day, but they are all thwarted by circumstance or just the Joker’s sheer insanity. Fire and Ice’s modeling audition, Rocket Red and Martian Manhunter’s trip to a Russian restaurant, as well as a hare-brained repo scheme by Blue Beetle and Booster Gold all pass without the Joker claiming any victim other than the Bialyan agents that are helping him.
It all comes to a head at a barbecue thrown by Scott Free and Big Barda. Joker steals a tank that Beetle and Booster repossessed, one which used to belong to the criminal organization known as the 1000. They also show up as things get messy and violent. Barda is angry that this is ruining their “normal” life in the suburbs, and rips the tank’s top off by the cannon while Martian Manhunter takes care of the rest.
A fed-up Joker asks to be taken to Arkham. Batman drives to the destination but leaves as he sees the mess. It’s all played as a bit silly even with a murderous killer in their midst. It also decidedly marks the last time the Joker is played for humor in a very, very long time as it comes out just days ahead of the book we cover below: Batman: The Killing Joke.
I suspect this book might have been rushed through production for that reason as it was necessary to see it released before the long-in-production Killing Joke. That book coming first would make much of this issue in incredibly bad taste and Batman’s reaction at the end impossible.
Martian Manhunter #3 by J.M. DeMatteis and Mark Badger
I wished I liked this series. I really do. I know it establishes a back story for J’Onn J’Onzz worth exploring. It serves to make the Martian Manhunter a stronger character than he has been in years. But somewhere between the odd pacing and Badger’s art, I just cannot maintain interest in it.
The book opens with H’Ronmeer threatening the still-living Erdel’s life. Martian Manhunter springs into action to save his first human friend. He manages to chase the Martian god away but in the process resumes his true form for the first time.
Now very much alien in shape, he learns his true history: that he stepped through Erdel’s portal with his dead daughter in hand. That he was mad with grief after her demise. This opened his mind to Erdel and they formed a mental bond. In order to leave the past and the grieving behind, Erdel helped J’Onn take on his more human form. After that. he even faked his death to make it a possibility.
The book ends with J’Onn walking into the newly reconstructed transporter device, ready to return to Mars. He runs headlong into H’Ron,eer as soon as he arrives. It’s all made a bit messier by Badger’s style and I have to think without colors this would be practicably impossible to read.
Ultimately, this book is one more easily skipped than most of the titles in my coverage here.
Secret Origins #28 by Robert Greenberger, Rob Liefeld, and Bob Lewis / Roy Thomas and Gil Kane
This book notably takes place the night before the previous issue of Suicide Squad, but perhaps more importantly, marks the first major work of Rob Liefeld at either major publisher. Outside of a pair of covers, it was the first interiors he would do before moving on to a Bonus Book and Hawk and Dove.
Rob illustrates the secret origin of Nightshade alongside Robert Greenberger and inker Bob Lewis making this an entire “Rob” affair. Greenberger is perhaps a strange choice as the writer here instead of regular Suicide Squad scribe John Ostrander. His DC writing credits are slim, but he was serving as the book’s editor at the time. With Manhunter debuting, it’s always possible that Ostrander was just too busy and he picked up the slack.
The actual tale is framed as a conversation between Eve Eden and Father Richard Craemer, the chaplain of Belle Reve. She recounts her history, learning as a child that her mother was queen of an extradimensional realm. Having fled due to the arrival of an evil known as the Incubus, her mother was summoned back. She brought her children along only to learn that it was all a trap.
Her brother is dragged away by the Incubus’ minions while her mother dies. She activates her powers for the first time to escape back to Earth. From there, she starts to train herself for a potential return to her home realm. She masters her teleportation and shadow powers, but her first attempt at a return nearly leads to her death and costs her the ability to turn into shadow.
She moves on and becomes a hero in Washington, D.C., frequently helping King Faraday on CBI missions. Later, her mission logs are altered (with her awareness) to replace Faraday with Captain Atom as detailed in his own series. We learn about her history with the team, all as a way to gather a team to return to her home, even as she still contemplates the three love interests in her life: Rick Flag, Nemesis, and Nathaniel Adam.
The story ends with dawn and Nightshade leaving to prepare for the events of the previously covered issue of Suicide Squad.
I know Roy Thomas was frequently using Secret Origins to frequently tell the origins of old-school heroes in the order of their first Golden Age appearances. This brought forth some truly unnecessary tales, such as the origin of Uncle Sam.
In reality, Midnight was the creation of Jack Cole, the man also behind Plastic Man. With Will Eisner overseas and in combat, Quality Comics decided to produce their own version of the character in case they should lose the rights of the Spirit should Eisner die. Midnight was the result.
For being such a footnote in history, his original run lasted an impressive eight years, far longer than a lot of revived Golden Age characters, but his origins behind the scenes meant he’s never been used much since. In fact, it would be another two years after this story that Midnight would appear as a backup in Ms. Tree Quarterly, written by Ed Gorman. Arguably that version of the character is almost certainly not this one. Even a more recent revival introduced a different version of the character, meaning this is literally the last appearance of Dave Clark in any meaningful continuity.
The story by Thomas and Kane pretty faithfully recounts his origin as a radio news host fed up with the inability of the police to serve justice in the world. He puts on the costume of a fictional radio character and inserts himself into crimefighting adventures. He exposes the criminal doings of a businessman here.
Midnight’s original adventures diverge rather quickly from The Spirit as he gains a sidekick in the form of a talking monkey named Gabby which is certainly far less racist than the awful caricature that is Ebony White. He later picked up a scientist named Doc Wackey to aid in his adventures as well. The two characters get a single one-page splash as a mention here, which feels like a truly strange choice as they distinctly move the character away from just a Spirit knockoff.
Whatever the case, the return of Midnight interested no one, which feels like a shame as the character might have potential with the correct writer. Alas we will probably never know as DC has licensed the Spirit at least twice rather than bringing him back.
Batman: The Killing Joke by Alan Moore and Brian Bolland
I’m not going to do a full rundown of one of the best-known Batman stories ever written. A pet project of Bolland with Moore writing at his request, it serves to give Joker his most recognizable origin (partially lifted for the 1989 Batman film) and features his turn to a notably darker tone. It also comes with a shot through the abdomen and spine of Barbara Gordon, one which will leave her in a wheelchair for the next twenty-three years of comics — making her time as Oracle longer than her time as Batgirl in those pre-New 52 days.
A lot has been made of whether this story was meant to be in continuity or not. By the time of its publication, DC very clearly saw it as a story set in their current continuity. (The Batmobile seen in the previous Justice League Annual is the same one in this story, for example.) The somewhat ambiguous ending has left that subject open. As presented, it seems like Batman snaps at the end and as we watch the rain fall, the laughter between Joker and him suddenly stop, as if he might have murdered his greatest foe. As a concern that they might ultimately kill one another is on Batman’s mind from the book’s beginning, it’s not a hard conclusion to reach. At the same time, Gordon had insisted Batman do things by the book, which seemed to be the editorial decision going forward after this issue’s publication. The discussion of that ambiguity has continued for years since, even with the editorial decision, perhaps being the greatest mark for the book.
And while Dark Knight Returns and Watchmen are often blamed far more for the “darkening” happening in comics in the late 80s and 90s, I still think Killing Joke is truly the worst culprit. With it so clearly put into continuity immediately, it practically forces a change of tone in the existence of Batman. Considering the next time the Joker resurfaces, his target will be Jason Todd, it’s clear that Starlin immediately took the lessons of Moore, right or wrong.
This was something of an odd jumble of titles but still feels like more good than bad. Next time around, we will wrap up another month of titles with more annual action!
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When I saw "The Killing Joke" was available to take out at my local library (yes, they have comics, and a lot of them), the entry for the year suggested it was published in the early 2000s. But obviously, that was a reprint; it wasn't until later I learned it was from '88. (Bolland and Moore probably benefitted from the royalties the reissue got, at any rate).