DC NEAR-MISS: Ms. Mystic #1 (1982)

DC NEAR-MISS: Ms. Mystic #1 (October, 1982)
"Ms. Mystic"
Creator & Writer - Neal Adams
Assists - Mike Nasser (hey, I'm just copying what the credits say!)
Letters - John Costanza
Colors - Cory Adams
Zips - Joel Adams
From Pacific Comics
Cover Price: $1.00

Here's a bit of a strange one... and one that's kind of controversial in the telling.  I usually preface these DC Near-Miss pieces with a disclaimer about how I'm "probably not blowing any minds" with whatever revelation I'm about to share... but, this one... the deeper I got into it, kinda blew mine!  Ms. Mystic's ownership and creation history is... a bit muddy (though, I'm sure those involved don't see it as such).  I'm no expert on law, and don't claim to be... not even on the internet, which I suppose might make me a something of a unicorn these days.

I'm just wanting to walk you through some of the more interesting bits of Ms. Mystic's tumultuous beginnings, how she was supposed to be a DC Comics character... why that never actually came to pass, and then I'll leave some links to where you can read a whole lot more regarding the issue of who owns what, and why.

Let's start with a look at Mike Nasser/Netzer's blog.  There is a page there titled, "We All Know what You've Done, Neal" which is directed at Neal Adams... and walks us through some of the more seminal moments in the creation of our Mystic Ms.!  I've included the first six bullet points below.

From Michael Netzer's Blog

As we can see, Ms. Mystic was originally slated to be a DC Comic... interestingly, if we look at Item #2 - We learn that it was supposed to be DC's first-ever "Creator-Owned Book".  Keep that in the back of your mind... seems there were at least two other concepts which also purported to be slated as DC's first creator-owned book... Mike Grell's Starslayer, and Larry Hama's Bucky O'Hare.  We will be getting to those pretty soon, don't worry.

Item #3 tells us that Neal Adams included Ms. Mystic on the cover of the immensely popular Superman vs. Muhammed Ali treasury.  No way... right?  Hmm... let's head up and grab that big-fat TASCHEN Bronze-Age of DC Comics book and look into this a bit deeper.  Here's the cover-code:

Well, I'll be damned!  Ms. Mystic is right there, Number 24!  She's got an (H) after her name, which... in going by the Code, tells us that she's... a DC Character!  Let's double-check that on the ol' cover itself!

Well, well, well... there she is, in all her glory!  Her hair is a bit blonder than it'll be in the issue we're going to discuss, but... that's her, alright!

Let's jump all the way to Point #6... the cancellation in 1978.  Plenty of wannabe comics historians (like myself) know what happened to DC Comics in 1978, right?  There was... that opposite-of-explosion thing that went down.  The DC Implosion wound up costing DC Ms. Mystic (along with Starslayer, and Bucky to boot!).  Here's a blurb from page 102 of Comic Book Implosion: An Oral History of DC Comics Circa 1978 (TwoMorrows) to further explain:

From Comic Book Implosion: An Oral History of DC Comics Circa 1978 (TwoMorrows) 

As for that "November, 1977 Publishorial", Ms. Kahn might've written it in November of '77, but it wouldn't appear until DC Comics cover-dated February, 1978.  I only know that because I'm such a devoted idiot that I ran upstairs to the stacks to try and track it down!  Here it is in all it's glory (as found in Action Comics #480 (Feb, 78)):

Tracking this down was a half-hour well spent...

A little more evidence that Ms. Mystic was originally a DC (or DC-adjacent) character was the inclusion of a little Easter Egg on the first page of her comic (which Mr. Netzer drew back in 1977).  You'd never notice it, if you weren't already looking for it... as a matter of fact, even after finding out that it was there, I still had trouble seeing it.  It felt like I was looking at one'a them "Magic Eye" Puzzles!  Here, I'll show ya!  This is the bottom-right hand corner of the opening Splash Page from Ms. Mystic #1:

Clear as mud, right?  Well, allegedly, if you toss this image into a Photoshop-like program and up the brightness to el-effen it'll make it a bit easier to see.  So, let's give that a try!

D'ya see it?  Maybe?  And no, I'm not talking about that little ink smear next to her leg... that's just some "misprinting", which naturally means I'll be putting my copy up on eBay as a "rare misprint" and make hundreds of dollars by the end of the day.  Lemme get in there with my ink-pen, and see if I can't make this a bit easier.

Why... izzat... izzat, one of my least favorite DC Comics characters of all-time... Deadman?!  Yeah, it is... how would we ever know that from that chicken-scratch I scrawled across my phone's screen on that above image?  Well, if we go back to Mr. Netzer's blog, he gives us a wayyyy more professional-looking "upscale":

From Michael Netzer Online

So yeah, there you have it.  Ms. Mystic... a victim of the DC Implosion, who wouldn't see publication until nearly a half-decade later... at a different publishing house altogether!

Now, before heading into the spoilery-synopsis of her first issue, I wanna leave a(nother) link to Michael Netzer Online, where you can read way more about the rights issues and what-not.

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Our story opens in the Arizona Desert... because, in comics-speak, more often than not, that's all there ever is in Arizona.  We check in on a unique-looking vehicle that barrels down the barren road.  Inside, we meet a half-dozen scientists, whose expertise appears to be in pollution.  They're out here looking for a remote factory that's been spewing it out by the cloud-ful.  To further hammer that point home, we can see that nearby animals and humans are falling ill.  Get used to this issue "hammering" things home... we're going to get a lot of that.

Finally, our Science Team arrives at the remote factory... and so, they exit their vehicle... and the leader, an older fellow named Dr. Raas, proceeds to... well, shout a whole lot into a megaphone.  The factory itself responds to this by... producing a gun, and shooting at the pesky annoyance.

Raas and the Gang hustle back to their rig, and throw out a shield made of a full inch of solid steel.  Thankfully this is enough to deflect the incoming fire.  One of the group, the athletic Dennis Swan, takes aim at the laser-gun with one a blaster of his own, and manages to take it out.

It looks like everything's gonna be hunky-dory... that is, until the factory releases a... uh, these weird unicycle spider things?  It's not lookin' good for our gaggle of geeks!

The team reconnoiters back behind their solid-steel-shield, and tries to plan their next move.  Doctor Raas claims that his "detectors" have deduced that these unicycle critters are being controlled by both psychic and mechanical means.  Hmm... "psychic detectors"?  That doesn't sound terribly scientific, does it?  Meanwhile... somewhere else, a woman floats in space.

At this point, the Scientists are pretty much outta tricks, and so they have to rely on... I dunno, their "energies".  I'm not sure if it's been established whether or not this crew has powers.  It really hasn't been explicitly stated either way.  Whatever the case, they gather around this cannon... concentrate their energy... and fire!

Now, in firing this energy cannon, our team somehow disrupts the entire multiverse or something... because in the three-seconds it takes for this blast to do... whatever the hell it is that it did, our floating woman is able to "cross over" into the real world!

This woman, who is... duh, Ms. Mystic, immediately faces off with the wheelie-spider thing, while the scientists look on in confusion.

Ms. Mystic gives the machine everything she's got... but it doesn't look like it's having any effect.  She eventually rushes the thing with her strange sword drawn... and, bada-bing, bada-boom... no' mo' juggerno.

When the dust settles, the Science Team heads over to our gal and tries to reconcile everything they'd just seen.  Actually, it's more like... they tell her how powerful she is, and ask if she can help them break into the factory.  It doesn't take much convincing for Ms. Mystic to come on board.  She sets to using lasers from her weird antenna things to break on through the wall.

She dramatically refers to herself as a "Vessel of Earth's Revenge", to which, nobody laughs.  I'm sorry, I'm thinkin' I'd have busted a gut if I ever heard someone say that.

Inside, Dr. Raas gets a load of what the baddies are workin' with... and deduces that this is among the 2% of manufacturing processes that he is unfamiliar with.  Ms. Mystic finally decides to ask them what their purpose here is... and what we learn is that they are the S.I.A., the Science Investigation Agency... a special task force put together as an act of Congress to fight pollution.

Suddenly, the crew finds themselves surrounded by some very angry-looking blue-collar workers!  What's more, they're armed... with, ya know, crowbars and stuff.  Ms. Mystic isn't sure what's going on, but is quick to reveal that this mob isn't acting of their own volition... they're being controlled by somebody, or something.

That "something" is... a gigantic golden box in the room... which Ms. Mystic destroys, returning the blue-collar workers to normal... or at least as "normal" as they were before the mind-boggling.  Boy, the business of making pollution (and only pollution) must be booming for the baddies to go to such lengths, no?

It's here where the Science Team decides... hey, maybe we oughta know a little bit about this strange woman we're rollin' with.  And so, she volunteers her entire origin story!  Ya see, she's a three-hundred year old witch... 

... who, during the Salem Witch Trials was burnt at the stake... only, before she could burn, she was zapped into another place... where she's remained ever since.  Dr. Raas wipes a tear from her eye, welcomes her "home", and tells her next time, not to stay away so long.

The rest of the team... ehhh, they ain't so sure they buy this story.  I mean, just how far are we willing to suspend our disbelief, right?  Weird flying woman with laser antennae appearing outta nowhere is perfectly logical... but, that witch thing... tsk, I dunno!  Anyhoo, they continue down the factory hallways until they find a very brightly-lit room.  Ms. Mystic bee-lines it.

Inside, she is blasted by... uh, some goofball in a construction helmet?  Oh, wait... he's not just any goofball in a construction helmet... this, my friends, is The Foreman!  He tells them to beat it... and also is about 100% sure that he killed Ms. Mystic dead.

Naturally, she starts speaking the very next panel.  She asks Raas to distract the Foreman... while she petitions the Earth for assistance.  And so, while she chats up Gaia, Dr. Raas proceeds to... uh, show the Foreman his government ID?  This might be even worse than the megaphone!

Ms. Mystic finally rises, and takes on the Foreman... knocking him down, and also... knocking off his helmet.  We see here that the inside of his helmet had all sorts of circuitry in it... and he too was being controlled!  Mystic cannot believe that all of this pollution was created by some doofus in a helmet... and so, she faints!  That's where the story ends... annnnnd, the next issue ain't comin' for something like two years (cover-date February, 1984)!

But!  We've got a back-up!  "Rescue Rhapsody" from the "Tales of Zed" by Chris Miller.  In it, a Fairy takes a bath... before being nabbed by some strange beast.

She cries for help, which wakes up a sleeping piper... who, proceeds to, well, pipe.

The enchanted tune makes it so the only thing the beast can do... is dance!  And so, it releases the little half-bathed Fairy!

But, that's not all the music did!  It looks like it's caused the beast to sorta-kinda fall in love with the Piper!  And so, it grabs him!

Now, since the Piper is being forcibly danced with by the beast, he can no longer pipe... which, kinda ticks the beast off?  I think?  This is much harder to follow than it ought to be.  This chapter ends with the beast hurling the Piper away.  Not sure if this ever gets followed up on... and, I can't say I'm all that interested in finding out!

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So... that was Ms. Mystic!  What'd we all think?  When we look at the fight for her rights, it kinda feels like much ado about nothing, dunnit?  I mean, no disrespect to Netzer or Adams, but... I'm not at all convinced this character warrants all that much in the way of hub-bub.

Here's a bit from a Neal Adams interview regarding the character that appeared in Back Issue! #94 (February, 2017)... it's actually the interview that prompted Mike Netzer to deliver that 36-point itemized list I included (the first six points of) above:

Seems Neal's a little dismissive of Mr. Netzer's contributions... I can kinda see why he's a bit ticked off.  Though, I don't know either of these fellas... so, it's probably best to reserve judgment.

What we have here is... I dunno, it's going to be a lazy comparison, but it feels very much like Captain Planet.  Our main threat is... pollution just for the sake of it?  I never understood it when the baddies are cool with destroying the planet... because, it just seems counterproductive, don't you think?

The heavy-handedness of this story bordered on being silly... I mean, it's the sort of story that would make Hard-Travelin' Hero-era Ollie Queen roll his eyes.  Ms. Mystic's dramatic soliloquy as she melted her way into the factory was also wildly cringy... and kind of pulled me out of the story.

On the other hand, the characters... what little we "got" from them, were more or less likable enough.  Ms. Mystic herself has a really cool design, and is also the kind of character you could get behind.  Also, the art here was pretty fantastic!

Had DC not "imploded"... I could see Ms. Mystic being mentioned in the same breath as characters like Madame Xanadu and Amethyst.  Probably would've been part of a Justice League Dark line-up at some point... which, considering she hasn't been seen since 1994 (to my knowledge), might've been her best-possible timeline.


Is this worth checking out?  I think so.  I don't know a heckuva lot more about this property than what we discussed today... and, I suppose I wouldn't mind learning a bit more.


Oh... yeah, there was a back-up, wasn't there?  It was... fine.  I will say, even if the story left me wanting... I did love the art.

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(Not the) Letters Page:

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Interesting Ads:

Superman #257 (1972)

Superman #257 (October, 1972)
"Superman Battles the War-Horn!"
"The Greatest Green Lantern of All!"
Writers - Cary Bates & Elliot S! Maggin w/Neal Adams
Pencils - Curt Swan & Dick Dillin
Inks - Murphy Anderson & Dick Giordano
Editor - Julius Schwartz
Cover Price: $0.20

Being as though I am an avid "cheap-o bin" diver... I don't always come to the surface with pristine copies.  Such is the case today.  If you look at the cover (just over Superman's head), it looks like a vendor re-priced this issue at a nickel.

That might annoy some, however... I can't help but to find it kinda charming.  I love the idea that this issue has a little bit of "story" to it.  Plus, the way the price was rubbed out, it almost looks like Superman is wearing a cute little wizard hat... so, it's got that going for it too.

Anyhoo, today we're discussing a pretty important issue... and, get this, the important part comes in a back-up!  A The Fabulous World of Krypton back-up, no less... and those are usually the worst!

Let's get to it!

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Our story opens with Lois, Clark, Jimmy and Perry enjoying a day out at the Metropolis Pier.  It's been awhile since they'd all been together... as this is shortly after Morgan Edge swooped in and took over.  After a long-overdue lunch, the foursome are witness to a strange glowing humanoid form careening into the water.  Clark ushers the rest into a cab (using the city ordinance of only three passengers to a cab) to "legally" sneak off and "supe up".  He destroys a bit of the pier in the process, but it's not like we're keeping score or anything.

In the drink, Superman comes across a... well, rather generic looking DC alien.  The kind of alien that would drive me directly into the waiting arms of a Marvel comic.  Anyhoo, he has a strange apparatus on his back, which we soon learn is his "war-horn".  He uses it to whip up an underwater torrent which sends Superman off.

The water jets actually carry him thousands of miles over to the western coast of Africa!

As he makes his way back to the States, we shift scenes to a pair of children playing "monster" in the woods... and no, that's not a euphemism for anything (shame on you for thinking that is was).  Anyhoo, they run into... War-Horn, who scares them off.

Clark returns to the Galaxy Building, and Jimmy shows him some film of fish acting weird.  Also, the report of a pair of young fellas reporting having seen a hulking alien figure.  Well, I dunno about "hulking", he looked a bit more lanky to me.

Clark rushes off to "supe up" and next thing we know, he's in a forest that had recently burned to ashes.  He then gets a "mental chill" that tells him War-Horn is near.  Never knew Superman had a "spidey-sense", but whattayagonnado?  Either way, War-Horn is hanging out underground... just like the cover, only without the boys clutching Superman's legs.

War-Horn bursts from the ground, and uses his... uh, war-horn to surround Superman with earth... from which erupts a volcano.  This being Superman, such a thing isn't terribly effective.  He socks War-Horn in the mush, causing him to attempt to flee.

As Superman gives chase, he finds himself entangled in some vines.  After shaking them off, he comes across a camper... who claims that he is responsible for the forest fire.  Ya see, he struck a single match... and "whoosh" - the whole forest went up.  Superman decides to engage his Infra-Red vision, which reveals... precious little Nitrogen in the air.

He deduces that War-Horn's mission is stealing Earth's atmospheric Nitrogen... and, get this... it turns out, that's exactly what he's here to do!  War-Horn then surrounds Superman with a storm-cloud... claiming, if he were to break out of it... the resulting thunderclap would deafen everybody on Earth.  Also, the only way to stop War-Horn... is to kill him!

Rather than risk "stepping out", Superman just freezes the cloud with some Super-Breath.  He then creates a hail stone... and pelts the geek in the chin with it.  With War-Horn on the ropes, Superman reels back and readies himself to deliver a fatal blow!

Before the punch connects, however, the (actual) war horn activates and whisks War-Horn (the alien) back to wherever the hell he'd come from.  Ya see, that was exactly what Superman had hoped would happen... the device would do anything possible to protect its wearer.  Kinda risky... but, it did the job.  And honestly, worst case scenario if it didn't... we have one less generic murderous alien in the DC Universe.

On to the back-up... which, to me, is actually this issue's "main event".  This is one of those (very few) important ones... which really adds to the lore of both Superman... and the Green Lantern Corps.  We open with Tomar-Re preparing for his retirement.  Before he is deactivated, however, the Guardians of the Universe have assembled to finally tell him the story of a certain planet he had been responsible for overseeing.

That planet, of course, was Krypton.  The Guardians speak of a Kryptonian specimen who would make the finest Green Lantern... the offspring of a scientist named Jor-El and an astronaut named Lara.

The Guardians had received word of Krypton's pending doom... however, were helpless to stop it from happening.  All they could do is send a member of their Corps, Tomar-Re out Krypton way to delay the inevitable long enough for the Kryptonians to realize the danger and colonize on another planet.  Why they couldn't just tell the Kryptonians themselves... I dunno.

In fact, our friend Tomar-Re doesn't know either!  Though, he deduces that if the Guardians got involved and facilitated the Kryptonians safe passage, it would do irreparable damage to their culture/way of life... or something.  Anyhoo, Tomar-Re is tasked with gathering the element known as Stellarium... which, will somehow delay Krypton going boom.  There are apparently nine "Krypton Years" left.

On Krypton, just as the Guardians had predicted... a certain scientist realized the extreme danger the planet was facing.  He prepared for a planet-wide evacuation via a Space-Ark.  Unfortunately, Brainiac stole it (along with the City of Kandor).  Around this time, Lara gave birth to the "Star Child" we all know as Superman.

At this point, the rest of the science council decided that Jor-El was just a kook, and they weren't going to waste their time chasing the doom he foresaw.  One of the jerks is even yawning in Jor's direction.

Back with Tomar-Re... as he exhausts a sector's supply of Stellarium, he is so absorbed in his work that he doesn't even realize that a nearby star (called Ariel) was just about to go nova!

This would render Tomar-Re temporarily blind.  He'd use his radar-guide to attempt to remain on task, however, with the state he was in... it wasn't exactly a direct flight back Krypton way.

Then, just as his sight returns... the first thing he sees is, the destruction of the planet Krypton!

The Guardians continue their tale... Tomar-Re was left in a state of shock which took several days to recover from... during which time, the Guardians themselves were responsible for guiding Kal-El's spacecraft to Earth.  Geez, the gall of these guys, taking the credit for everything.

We wrap up with Tomar-Re of Xudar being retired with honors.

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Well, that first story was kind of a stinker, wasn't it?  Just Superman versus a generic alien.  I've said it before, and I'm saying it now... it's stories like this that kinda slid DC Comics into "second place" for me growing up.  Very little stakes... just some alien with an apparatus who makes a one-off appearance, never to be seen again.

Why would I read this instead of a Marvel book... where the heroes were fighting villains we actually had an investment in?  Well, that's neither here nor there, I guess.  Over at Marvel these days, I can't recognize the heroes, let alone the villains.

The Nitrogen thievery feels like something out of the Silver-Age (especially the page of Superman looking at the "spectrum").  Though, I mean, this was only 1972... not so far removed from the silly sci-fi Silver-Age.  Superman risking actually murdering War-Horn was about the only sorta interesting part of this one.  Overall, a skippable affair... really not much more to say about it.

Now, although the opener was skippable... the issue overall most certainly isn't... because, mark this date down, because a back-up finally delivered!

I have always loved the idea of Tomar-Re being (tangentially) involved with the last days of Krypton.  I feel it's a little thing that adds so much to both the lore of Superman and the Green Lantern Corps.

It also answers a few questions.  If the Green Lantern Corps has representation in every sector in the known universe, it would stand to reason that Krypton would be in one of those sectors.  It would also stand to reason that the Green Lantern Corps would somehow be involved with their plight, even in just a "clean up" effort.

What I don't quite understand is why the Guardians couldn't just offer their assistance to the people of Krypton.  We get kind of a weak answer in that it would somehow hurt Kryptonian culture... but, that feels like a complete cop-out.  In fairness though, we are working within the constraints of a story that happened.  It's not like we can have a story where the Corps actually intervenes and either A) Saves the Kryptonians or B) Fails the Kryptonians.

So, within the story constraints, I feel like they did the best they could.  A temporarily blinded Tomar-Re is unable to deliver the time-buying Stellarium... and so, Krypton goes boom.  When we think about it though, Tomar-Re very likely did buy Krypton just enough time for Kal-El to be born, and blasted in the approximate direction of Earth... so, we actually have him to thank for Superman's arrival on Earth.

Not sure I'm buying the Guardians taking full credit for "guiding" Kal-El's ship to Earth... but, whattaya gonna do?  They always seemed like self-important jerks... and this is just another log for the fire.

Overall... this is one I'd suggest tracking down.  The opener was just kinda "there" (though, it's got Curt Swan on art, which is nice).  The backup is really what you're grabbing this one for though.  Not only is it an excellent story, but it's also got some fantastic Dick Dillin art.  The back-up has been reprinted a number of times, most recently in Superman: The Many Worlds of Krypton.  This issue is also available digitally.

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Letters Page:

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