The last Batgirl story, the hottest new bounty hunter in the game, and a self-loathing villainous t-rex
Batgirl Special 1, Forever People 6, Manhunter 1, Superman 19, Wonder Woman 18, Young All-Stars 14
We continue our coverage of March 1988 with two number ones. One is in the form of the first spinoff of Millennium, a Mark Shaw series where he reclaims the Manhunter name. The second is the first book we cover below, a comic that was likely supposed to lead to more Barbara Gordon adventures but came out just days ahead of a book that would change Barbara Gordon for the next two and a half decades.
Batgirl Special #1 by Barbara Randall (Kesel), Barry Kitson, and Bruce Patterson
I talked about Batgirl’s previous appearance in Secret Origins as a glimpse at what might have been for the character. This is the second half of Barbara Randall’s writing of her comics namesake, Barbara Gordon. It will also be the last writing job with that name we will cover. Outside some work on Who’s Who in the Legion of Super-Heroes, her next credit would be as Barbara Kesel after marrying inker Karl Kesel. They divorced several years later, but she would continue to write as Barbara Randall Kesel from then on.
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Much of the story revolves around Bab’s thoughts on whether a future as Batgirl even makes sense for her. Even with her doubts, she’s drawn back out in costume when there’s a murder at her library. She thinks this is the work of her old foe Cormorant, a Kraven-esque huntsman who managed to shoot her in the back during their last (and only) meeting.
She tracks him down, but sees no sign of criminal activity. At the same time, another assassin is on the loose in the city. Slash is a woman using blades to kill abusive men which Batgirl takes as immediately wrong. (It’s a strange choice in the mid-eighties, when vigilantism was arguably at its coolest in mass media. Still she is a Bat-character and that makes killing wrong, even in a world where Punisher is outselling Batman as was definitely the case in 1988.)
Her friend Marcy tries to convince her that Slash is the greater threat. She uses her computer know-how to track down and go after the vigilante, but doesn’t stop Slash from killing a man that beat his wife. She takes a knife in the shoulder for her trouble. Marcy thinks Babs should give up immediately, but still she refuses.
She leaves to confront Cormorant, realizing he’s likely Slash’s next target. That’s exactly what happens, but Slash and Batgirl are forced to team up when they learn they’ve brought knives and batarangs to a gunfight. Ultimately, Slash is able to end Cormorant with a healthy assist by his own wife who has clearly been abused by him. She takes a bullet though and Batgirl is able to subdue her.
In the aftermath, Barbara decides that Batgirl isn’t her future anymore. She will still do what she can for Gotham, but she will do it from behind her computer where she can gather data for other heroes to use. She doesn’t get rid of her costume though with both her and Marcy discussing that maybe someone else will find a use for it soon.
It’s interesting to see Randall set up a new path for Barbara even before the events of next week’s Batman: The Killing Joke. While it will be years before she uses her new position in the Batman books, she will debut a new name and identity in only a few short months over in Suicide Squad. While John Ostrander is credited as Oracle’s creator, I think a healthy bonus should be given to Randall for her work here.
This book also marks the DC debut of British artist Barry Kitson. It’s a quiet start to a career that will ultimately stretch out for decades of quality art and storytelling with a bevy of co-creators. He’ll bounce around DC for a bit over the next few months before finally getting a big break right after Invasion!
Forever People #6 by J.M. DeMatteis, Paris Cullins, and Karl Kesel
This one gets a bit wild and establishes a weird timeline between the original Forever People series and this one.
The team arrive at the home of Donald Bergman and help dispel the control of the Dark over him as well. We learn that Donald is none other than young Donnie Bergman, a youth they met in their original series now fully grown. This seems to imply that time has passed year-by-year since their early seventies adventures, which doesn’t quite fit into the current DC timeline.
After their reunion with Donnie, Maya transports everyone to a hilltop where she explains the true purpose of the Forever People. The war between Apokolips and New Genesis is just a fragment of a larger war, one between Order and Chaos. Doctor Fate has fought that battle alone on Earth, but the Forever People’s entire quest is to fight the agents of Chaos, agents like the Dark. That is why they were plucked from different times and places in the past of Earth and brought to New Genesis to be raised. Their affinity for Earth culture is natural, as they are elevated humans rather that true New Gods.
Maya rebuilds their Super-Cycle before they are attacked by Fyre, the final agent of the Dark. Maya moves to stop her, defeating her with relative ease. It’s through this we learn her true identity: that of Mother Box. Maya dies, but her energies suffuse the team. In the aftermath, the team is together and with new purpose, even as Beautiful Dreamer announces to them all that she is again pregnant.
This wraps up their tale rather succinctly, even if it does imply they will have some greater purpose in the ongoing mystical battle between Chaos and Order that DeMatteis likes to revisit again and again at DC. (He’s certainly not the only one heavily using the Lords of Chaos and Order, but he seems the greatest proponent for the concept.) One frustrating thing about the DC books of this era is how much effort is put into delineating that battle, but no real resolution ever plays out anywhere. I’d argue a final battle of the Kali Yuga would make a better crossover event than “War of the Gods” or “Apocalypse 2001.” Instead, this threat is all but forgotten and the Forever People have little to do with anything else related to Chaos and Order after this. They will be back to guest starring roles, starting with DeMatteis’ eventual Mister Miracle book in several months. They will do little else for years and years to come, even as Dreamer seems to stay perpetually pregnant for quite a long bit of continuity.
Manhunter #1 by John Ostrander, Kim Yale, Doug Rice, and Sam Kieth
Right now in DC continuity, we’re just a few weeks away from when I first really started to buy DC books as an intrepid ten-year-old just getting into comics. While this series wasn’t the first book I bought, it would be an early favorite that I tried to collect far more than most DC books. I suspect much of that is due to the art of Doug Rice.
Rice was a fan turned pro, an Air Force veteran who broke into mainstream work at First Comics in the early eighties. He worked on Mars first before co-creating Dynamo Joe with John Ostrander for the pages of First Adventures and a later spinoff series. Dynamo Joe was a giant mech book, a.k.a. pretty much what most Americans thought manga was in the mid-eighties. It was clear he had some early exposure to anime and manga, going on to draw Star Blazers at Comico before heading to DC for this title, which would ultimately prove to be his most recognizable mainstream work before moving on to animation. I adored his work as soon as I saw it and it quickly drew me into hunting down Manhunter although his run would end just months after I started looking for the book.
Like Doug Rice, Kim Yale also came out of the Chicago comic field. Unlike Rice, she also happened to be the wife of John Ostrander. She worked on a few Grimjack scripts with him before this, but this would be her first mainstream work. She brings a more nuanced voice than Ostrander on his own which can be seen here and in her future collaborations with her husband on Deadshot and future issues of Suicide Squad.
Even the book’s inker was making his first full-length DC Comic here. Sam Kieth likely is well known to most people as the creator of The Maxx, but at this point in his career, he had only penciled a few comics, mostly working as an inker over others. It wouldn’t be until the earliest issues of The Sandman that his penciling work would stand out, right before he moved to Marvel and rose to fame on Marvel Comics Presents.
But enough on the nearly-completely-new-to-DC creative team. Let’s look at what the issue actually gives us behind the glorious cover.
The book opens in the middle of a night on the job for the DC Universe’s resident bounty hunter. He’s been trailing a recent theft and found the culprit: none other than the recently released Penguin. Donning his armor and using his power staff to leap off the building’s roof, he moves into action and catches Penguin as he’s climbed into a bathtub.
We meet Mark Shaw’s police liaison, a Lt. Best. He’s not a big fan of bounty hunters but doesn’t argue that New York’s new Manhunter has an impeccable record.
Meanwhile, an African priest clearly designed to be a Desmond Tutu clone visits a sanctuary ran by an old mentor in order to give his confession. Unfortunately for him, his mentor has been replaced by a master of disguise named Dumas. Dumas shoots the priest dead and flees before he can be found, informing the South African racists who hired him that the job was complete.
Mark disguises himself as a chauffeur and sneaks inside a large mansion outside the city. Once inside, he removes his disguise to meet with his family: his mother Rose, his stepfather Eliot, and his half-siblings Eleanor and James. His family agreed that he would officially be on the outs with them in order to protect them from any retaliation related to his bounty hunting activities, but he sneaks in to visit them still. His mother and sister are excited to see him as it is Eleanor’s birthday. His stepfather seems ambivalent while his brother James throws a temper tantrum about Mark’s sheer presence. Mark gifts his younger sister a new car. He promises his mother that he will be safe on the job.
The visit also gives Mark a chance to retell his origin story, as his uncle Desmond Bradford brought him into the Manhunters organization without revealing the secret to their order. We learn of the revelation of the Manhunters’ true purpose and his apparent rebellion against them, only to partake in a secondary plot programmed into his mind where he worked with the Justice League as the Privateer while also attacking it as the Star Tsar. It concludes with the psychiatric help he received at Belle Reve and him glossing over the events of his adventure with the Suicide Squad.
He heads back out to Shea Stadium where Captain Cold is getting increasingly angry as the Mets beat the Cubs. Cold tries to recoup his losses by attacking a drug deal, but Manhunter interrupts and captures him. A reporter catches the entire incident.
The book ends with one Olivia Vancroft seeing the news report and telling her agent that she must have Manhunter’s mask. She demands he hires Dumas to find Manhunter and steal the mask to add to a bevy of other masks she has on display around her.
The creative team packs the twenty-two pages of the book with story. Rice’s manga art is turned darker by Kieth’s inks, but the obvious influence is still there. Kieth’s inks are probably not the right choice for Rice’s pencils, but it’s a far cry from the messiness of teams like Jackson Guice and Larry Mahlstedt on the first year of Flash. Thankfully, Kieth will only be around for a couple of issues before moving on to penciling Sandman.
This was a solid first issue setting up an interesting character. While I don’t think Manhunter ever quite reaches the importance I thought it should, like Suicide Squad it’s an amazing comic that not enough fans have read. Take a look for yourself and I expect you will find a lot to love with Mark Shaw and company.
Superman #19 by John Byrne with John Beatty
We enter the end run for John Byrne on Superman with this issue. Only three more are to come after it. With this month, it and Adventures of Superman take their first step into being interlinked books telling the same story, a tradition that will build into the “triangle” era through the nineties. Perhaps this crossover nature is why the cover this time around is by Jerry Ordway instead of Byrne.
Outside of two odd plot points as thirty-something Cat Grant hits on under twenty-one Jimmy Olsen and Clark Kent seems to show interest in Jimmy’s mother Sarah, the main focus of the book is on a strange spaceship that crashes into Metropolis harbor.
Even Superman cannot find any signs of life on the ship in the harbor, especially when he can suddenly not hold his breath under water. He barely gets to the surface before drowning.
Professor Killgrave escapes from prison in a giant robot suit he somehow built there. Superman fights him off but his other abilities start to fade as well. When Superman returns after beating Killgrave, he’s attacked by an alien figure that calls himself Dreadnaught who claims someone named Psi-Phon is responsible for Superman’s power loss. That’s how the issue ends with a promise of more in the upcoming issue of Adventures of Superman.
We do also get the continuation of the Supergirl subplot as the still-amnesiac woman leaves the Antarctic in search of Superman.
There’s nothing to actively dislike here, but nothing really blows me away either. It feels clear that Byrne’s interest in Superman is waning at this point. He only has three issues and an annual back-up left after this issue as the books move to independent creative teams producing an ongoing narrative in a writer’s room format.
Wonder Woman #18 by George Perez and Dick Giordano
Sometimes a story can be built with solid suspense as creators take their own spin on characters and concepts well-traveled over the years. Other times you can try to build suspense around the most obvious reveal possible of a returning villain.
Sadly, this issue is the latter.
Diana’s visit to Cephalonia caused her to faint last issue and she starts this issue in the hospital. She’s suspicious of the strange island and learns it’s owned by a notorious recluse named Cassandra Colchis. Julia and their guide convince her to give up on the search as Colchis meets with no one.
Unfortunately for our “mystery” villain’s plan, the rebels try to translate a scroll. They are found by the shapeshifting minions of the villain, but one lycanthrope dies. This is Demetrios, son of Diana’s guide Theophilus. Theo goes into a big rage and goes after the rebels. He kills the young man responsible for his son’s death and sets the house on fire around him. Vanessa had gone to the same house to make a phone call to her boyfriend back home. Diana barely reaches the house in time to save its owner (and the translator) Stavros and Vanessa.
The army of lycanthropes attack Wonder Woman. Thinking quickly, Diana uses the magic lasso to form a circle around Vanessa. The monsters cannot pass it or hurt Vanessa in any way. But they can hurt Diana. They capture her and drag Wonder Woman back to their master: Circe.
Circe had been one of Wonder Woman’s most prominent villains in the last few years before Crisis, so it’s strange that Perez tried to play the end as some big reveal. I’m not sure I agree with a “big reveal” for such an obvious enemy, but that was the decision made here as this issue seemed to drag out.
This issue also featured the fourth “Bonus Book” from DC. Unlike the other issues reprinted on Infinite, this issue doesn’t include the extra pages dubbed “Legends of the Amazons.” It was apparently a historical tale set a couple thousand years ago. Its absence might be due to a creative team that remained unknowns even after its publication: writer Dan Littleford, artist Patrick Worley, and inkier Brian Thomas. Thomas had some experience as an inker at First (on the aforementioned Dynamo Joe over Doug Rice) but his career was very nearly over by this point in time. The other two creatives seem to have no credits outside this tale.
Young All-Stars #14 by Roy and Dann Thomas, Howard Simpson, and Malcolm Jones III
Things seem pretty bad for the team as the issue debuts with Iron Munro waking up after his defeat last issue, while the Blood Avenger and Ultra-Humanite in his t-rex body are still free in the city.
Elsewhere in the facility, young Per Degaton helps Deathbolt escape. In the process, a guard is killed and a fire breaks out among the research projects. Amazing Man, Robotman, and Arn race to stop the fire but are slowed by a powerful electromagnet made in the process. Maze turns into a magnet to free Robotman and stop the fire, but in the process he finds his abilities altered. No longer can he take on the powers of the elements. Instead, he seems to have magnetic powers a la a notable X-Men villain. In the mess, Miss America also reawakens from her coma.
With everything a mess, the team returns to All-Star headquarters where they are berated. Liberty Belle and Jonny Quick are especially mad, as Fury is Quick’s goddaughter, and they knew nothing of the danger she faced. The team tells the Young All-Stars to stay put while they find the villains. Before they go, Amazing Man reveals the change in powers to Arn. He notes their similarities to the vision Fury once had of the team fighting a giant version of their “ally” Mekanique.
Chuck Grayson contacts the team about a device to help free Fury’s mind, the team disobeys and go to retrieve it. They almost immediately find the Blood Avenger and Ultra-Humanite. The device fails to work on the Blood Avenger and Flying Fox has to save Iron Munro as he’s sent flying through the air. He carries Arn with him toward the ocean.
On the docks, Neptune Perkins and Tsunami have tracked down the Ultra-Humanite. The Blood Avenger and Ultra-Humanite face off and battle one another. Already annoyed with his body, Ultra-Humanite flees the dinosaur form. The brief battle gave Flying Fox enough time to cast a spell to summon the other two furies to confront Tisiphone. They pull their third sister off of the earthly plane, freeing Fury and causing her to revert back to Helena.
The team returns victorious, although the older All-Stars are furious that they left the base unguarded. At some point after they left, Mekanique found her way to the project where she meets with Per Degaton and gives him the remaining information to unlock his time travel research. She promises to help him conquer the world if he helps her to destroy the All-Star Squadron once and for all, a setup for the upcoming first (and only) Young All-Stars Annual.
While the Thomases often get into the weeds as they built this story, they stuck the landing in impressive fashion here. This provides a satisfying conclusion to the extended arc while setting up a big crossover in the annual before the series moves on to its regular numbered stories.
Unfortunately, it marks yet another artistic shift on the book as Howard Simpson wraps up his run here. He will have a handful of credits over the next couple of years before resurfacing as a regular contributor through the first few years of Valiant Comics, most notably on Harbinger. While this book will seem to flirt with Michael Bair becoming the new regular artist, the next issue introduces a “fill in” artist that will ultimately become the book’s most consistent artist, all while still not managing to last a year.
An intriguing Batgirl story, the debut of Mark Shaw’s adventures, and a rip-roaring finale to the latest adventure of the All-Star Squadron’s junior adventures made this a solid week. More impressively, the rest of the titles didn’t offer any stinkers in the bunch. Any week that has a lot of good solid comics and a few exceptional ones is decidedly above average even for a line with as many solid titles as the late 80s DC Comics.
Captain Cold probably dropped a bundle betting on the Cubs based on his reaction to the game.
And once again, I find potential story ideas to reuse for my own work in these classics..