Justice League of America #178 (1980)

Justice League of America #178 (May, 1980)

"The Chess-Master of Mars"

Writer - Gerry Conway

Penciller - Dick Dillon

Inker - Frank McLaughlin

Letterer - Ben Oda

Colorist - Gene D'Angelo

Editor - Len Wein

In the afterglow of the big two-hundredth post I decided to go "random" and just started rooting through my bins until I saw a wacky cover.  Here we've got Despero and Martian Manhunter engaging in a gentlemanly game of chess... yup, that'll do it!

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We open in the JLA satellite as Superman, Black Canary, Green Arrow, Zatanna and Batman await the arrive of Aquaman and the Atom.  We get brought up to speed when we learn that they'd all recently been attacked by sentient chess pieces.

The crew reflects on the attacks, and Zatanna mentions that it feels as though they are just players in an intergalactic game of chess... perceptive girl, that Zee.  Green Arrow thinks it's all a bunch o' hooey, and claims that he's got more important... more real things to deal with back home in Star City.  Ollie sure is playing up his guilt here... luckily his diatribe is cut short by the arrival of a giant chess bishop with glowing eyes!

The next several pages chronicle the battle of the League and the Bishop.  Each member is able to get their shots in.  After Superman and Batman are kayoed, Zatanna proves herself to be the most useful member of the team by magicking up some shields... long enough for Black Canary to sonic scream the bugger to pieces.

Once the dust settles, it comes time to haul it to the lab for examination.  The Atom takes one look at it and gets the heebie-jeebies... saying this would give even a physicist the cold sweats, and he oughta know, because he is one!  Yeah, thanks Ray... we didn't ask to see your resume... I think we'll take your word for it buddy.

Green Arrow, having not rattled anybody's chains for a good few minutes, sets his sights on Zatanna.  He claims she just stood back while the team fought the Bishop and accuses her of freezing up... Um, Ollie... you did see her apply magic shields to her teammates so they could take the thing down, right?  C'mon dude...

What's worse is Zatanna doesn't remind Ollie that without her the team may not have won this one, and says that she had "sensed a presence" and she knew the chess piece meant "no harm"... which only ticks Arrow off even more!  While we're here... if it meant no harm, why bother with the magic shields, lady?  Somethin' ain't meshing here.  Anyhoo, we get a close-up shot on the JLA member database, which has been broken... more on that later.

We shift scenes to the big surprise reveal... that is, if it wasn't spoiled on the cover.  Despero and J'onn J'onzz are having themselves a game of high-stakes chess.  Manhunter is bound to his chair, so it's clear he is not here of his own free will.  The stakes are as follows... if Despero wins, J'onn dies... and his new home planet "Mars II" gets wiped out as well.  Now, J'onn's using the "normal" chess pieces, while Despero is using the JLA members as pieces... meaning, if J'onn wants to win... he's gotta kill his pals.

J'onn threatens his captor, resulting in getting a fiery surprise... which settles him down.  Despero goes all "your move", and J'onn chooses to move his knight.  Despero is pleased by the choice, and uses his third-eye to beam the bugger into the satellite... where it sits... all by its lonesome.  Cuz the League is AWOL.

Now, I'm not anything resembling a chess grandmaster (is that a title?  I dunno...) I think I look like someone who would play and like chess... but I ain't!  Either way, J'onn claims that since Despero can't "field" his "players" he must forfeit.  Is that a thing?  So, if I ever play chess, I should just steal my opponents pieces?  Why hasn't anybody ever thought of that?  Despero starts freaking out, and goes to grab his back-up pieces, which include Green Lantern, Flash, Wonder Woman, Hawkman and Hawkgirl.

Not so fast, fish face... the League is in the building!  But how?  Well, apparently by busting up the JLA database what J'onn was doing was sending his pals a message... because, get this... it cleared the entire roster except for J'onzz himself... pretty precise work for smashing a computer box with eye-beams and a scepter!

We enter the "endgame", and the League takes on the rest of the over-sized chessmen.  We get some nice action, which concludes when the Atom shrinks down to microscopic size and is thrown inside a chess piece where he can play a billiards game with the particles that it consists of.  This causes an explosion, which Despero watches all too helplessly.

It's not long before the Mars II PD arrives to arrest our fin-headed menace.  As he's fish-marched away, Zatanna breaks rule #1 of the magician's code by explaining how she dun the trick.  Green Arrow, still salty, walks off in a huff claiming he'd be of better use in Star City... and it appears as though he's planning to walk there... from Mars II.

--

Ehhh...

Okay, it was kind of fun... like most of the satellite era League books, but ya know... not all that great.  I was with it until about the midway point where somehow Zatanna just knew that J'onn was trying to send a message.  Now, I ain't no magician... but I can't help but think I missed something here.  It just seems way too convenient... I swear I think I'd have rathered a Twilight Zone type of explanation here than the one we got.

I still have a problem accepting this pre-Crisis fish-faced Despero.  My first exposure to the fella was during the second half of the Giffen/DeMatteis Justice League run... and there, well his fin went front to back rather than left to right... and he was a massive beast who could destroy an entire town in an evening.  This version just looks geeky as all get out.

Again, coming in post-Crisis I often take for granted that the Martian Manhunter wasn't much of a mainstay in the team during this era.  It always feels so strange to see any iteration of the League without a Martian on its roster.  As if the cover wasn't strange enough... seeing the blurb advertising the "guest-starring" J'onn J'onzz certainly caught my interest.

Overall... as you can probably tell if you've read this far, I don't have a whole lot to say about this one.  It's silly, and a bit convenient, perhaps a tad too fighty... but I suppose you could do worse.

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Letters Page:

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Now there's a degree we'd all love!

Nope... too easy...

Watchmen #1 (1986)

Watchmen #1 (September, 1986)

"At Midnight, All the Agents..."

Writer - Alan Moore

Illustrator/Letterer - Dave Gibbons

Colorist - John Higgins

Editor - Len Wein

Cover Price: $1.50

First off... welcome to my two-hundredth daily post here at the blog.  I wanna thank everybody who has followed, or just checked my stuff out from time to time.  It really means a lot to me... it's helped me actually begin enjoying and loving this hobby again.  After several (too many) years of just buying and reading comics out of habit... or fear that the sky would fall if I stopped, I've finally been able to locate that missing passion through blathering on here, and meeting a lot of really cool people.

I've never really considered myself a "commentator" of any sort, and I don't quite feel comfortable writing for an audience.  The way I look at it, I don't have a whole lot to contribute that hasn't said before and better (anybody I've "freelanced" for over the past several months can attest to my writer-confidence issues)... but, the endeavor/exercise has helped me out a whole bunch over the past several months.  Again, if you've popped in from time to time, I sincerely thank you.

Now... with all that said... I shall ruminate and ruin a book of legendary status... Watchmen #1.  This being a "milestone" post (if a post penned by me can be called that), I wanted it to be special.  I highly doubt I'll ever hit another "hundred consecutive" post, so why not go big today?  I toyed with discussing this issue for the big 2-0-0 since I hit post 150 or so... and I've been nervous ever since!

Let's see how this goes!

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We open on the iconic scene of a blood-stained smiley face button drifting toward a sewer grate amid a red torrent.  The "camera" goes skyward to a broken window several stories above ground where an investigator comments on how far a fall it must have been.

We soon learn we are inside the apartment of a man called Edward Blake.  He had a prominent scar on his right cheek, and did diplomatic work for the government.  The pair of investigators posit that it may have been anything from a simple burglary gone wrong to an orchestrated hit.

The pair leave, and make the first mention of a Keene Act that passed into law which banned all superheroes that weren't in cahoots with the government.  They agree that this murder should be kept on the down-low, lest any masked vigilantes get wind of it... especially a certain loony called Rorschach.

Speak o' the devil and he shall appear.  A masked fellow retrieves the bloodstained smiley from the gutter and proceeds to climb the building from which it fell.  Inside, he does a little bit of detective work and locates a false wall inside one of the closets... which reveals the costume of the one they called The Comedian.

We shift scenes to a pair of old friends sharing a late night drink.  We soon come to find that both these men once went by the name Nite-Owl.  The younger Owl, Dan, decides to call it a night and heads home... where he finds Rorschach chowing down on a mouthwatering can of cold beans.  He breaks the news that the Comedian is dead, as he starts snacking on sugar cubes.

Dan suggests they go down to the garage to continue their discussion.  Downstairs, he still maintains his old Nite-Owl lab... though at this point it is covered by a bit of dust.  They reminisce about days passed, when they were a team.  Dan seems to remember those days fondly, to which Rorschach reminds him that he had "quit".

Next stop, Happy Harry's Bar.  A scuzzy joint, covered in graffiti.  In the foreground is a newspaper strewn on the sidewalk... with an actual headline that means something in this world!  Inside, Rorschach is looking for info on the killer of Comedy.  He comes across a jerk-ass, who comments on the way 'schach smells.  Bad move, buddy... I see a pair of broken fingers in your future.  The bar is a dead-end, so our man heads out.

Next stop, the penthouse offices of Adrian Veidt, the man once known as the hero Ozymandias.  There are several action figures in his likeness atop his desk.  Veidt apparently gave up heroing a full two-years before the Keene Act was passed.  He suggests that perhaps the Russians killed the Comedian due to his work with the government... even going so far as to refer to him as a nazi.  Rorschach takes that a bit personally, as I guess he doesn't see himself as altogether different from ol' Blake.  He gives Veidt the warning that there may just be a "mask-killer" on the loose, and heads out.

Next stop, the Rockefeller Military Research Center... the home of a couple more former heroes.  Rorschach easily slips passed the guards and prepares to visit with Dr. Manhattan and the former-Silk Spectre, Laurie Jupiter Juspeczyk.  

He breaks the news of the Comedian's death, and is met with perhaps an unexpected reaction.  Manhattan isn't affected at all... he sees life and death as abstracts in his quantifiable world.  Laurie is rather pleased, apparently Blake beat and raped her mother (the first Silk Spectre, and the Comedian's teammate on the Minutemen team).

We learn here that that elder Nite-Owl from earlier (Hollis Mason) had written a tell-all book about his time in the Minutemen that had some less than savory information in it in regard to the Comedian.  The book was called Under the Hood, and six-pages of it are included in this issue.  At Laurie's request, Manhattan tells 'schach it's time to go.  Despite his protests, our man rapidly finds himself standing outside.  A nice exhibition of a tiny part of his powers here.

With Rorschach out of the way, Laurie thinks about getting in touch with Dan Dreiberg for dinner.  Doctor Manhattan is completely cool with it... even though the indication you get here is that their relationship is at least somewhat romantic.  He is unmoved and unbothered by her request.  And so, she sets a date for later that night at an Italian restaurant.

That night, Dan and Laurie meet up.  Here we learn that she stays at the research facility only to keep Jon (Dr. Manhattan) relaxed and happy... there's another indication of just how powerful and dangerous he might be.  The issue comes to a close with the pair reminiscing about Captain Carnage, a pervert who would bother them pretending to be a supervillain so they'd beat him up... that is, until he tried it with Rorschach!  In the final panel... one of them (it's not clear which) finally addresses the fact that the Comedian has died.

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I'm about to give you the least controversial lines you'll read all day:  Watchmen is a great book.  This first issue is a great piece of comic book work.

With that out of the way... let's discuss why I feel that way.  Keeping in mind we'll only be ruminating over this issue... trying to keep it "in a vacuum" if that is at all possible.  Well, we'll give it the old college try anyway... 

Let's start with the "package".  This is a 26 page comics story with six pages of text as a capper.  This is an ad-free book.  If you were to (for some insane reason) remove the cover... the inside front and back covers feature a large "W" and part of an "A"... I'm fairly certain we can deduce what's being spelled, but it's that level of detail I want to address.  I came into the hobby a few years too late to experience this "live"... and I was always kind of under the impression that this was something of a "sleeper hit"... like a book that kinda came out of nowhere and knocked everybody's socks off.  After spending some time with the single-issues has made me realize otherwise.  The back cover features the top hand of an analog clock... the time is just about 11:49.

Another reason I wish I was around to experience this live is... and I'm a bit surprised to be saying this... I think it actually reads better in single-issue format.  It affords the opportunity to reflect on the chapter you just completed before immediately diving into the next.  I feel in collected edition format, the chapter "endings" are kind of taken for granted.  I love the way this issue ends... reading this "in a vacuum" allowed me to "receive" it better.  At least that's how I feel, I'd never assume others would think the same way.

Onto the story... Here we have the start of a great murder mystery, and we are introduced to all of our main "players".  It's amusing that our point-of-view character is the most unstable... and yet, all throughout his tour/reunion, I can't help but root for him.  I've often wondered if it's just a case of me really liking a character's design... because, c'mon... Rorschach's design is absolutely wonderful.  He's has one of the more iconic looks in all of (superhero?) comics.

I always enjoy "where are they now" stories.  I feel they really help give insight, without coming across as forced.  It's natural for old friends or acquaintances to reminisce... this way of delivering information to the reader is utilized to perfection.  We get the feeling that Nite-Owl has regret... he still maintains his unused lab/garage... hell, he still has a standing weekly appointment with his heroing predecessor.  Ozymandias has "sold out" and gone corporate.  He looks as though he has no regrets, yet he has monetized his likeness... making his face somewhat synonymous with what passes for "superhero" in this world. 

Doctor Manhattan only sees things be how many particles they consist of.  He's cold, calculating... and quite dangerous.  Silk Spectre gives the impression that she just might be protesting too much here.  Refers to her heroic past in nothing but negative terms... yet, it seems as though it's all she can talk about.  It's understandable, I suppose... she's lived a unique and exciting life.

Then there's the Comedian.  We don't know a whole lot about him... other than the fact that he worked for the government, he once took a picture with Gerald Ford, he may have tried to rape the first Silk Spectre, and he's very much dead.  He didn't seem like a nice fella... which is always a good trait to have when you are the victim of a whodunnit murder.

The writing and art... Do I really need to--?  Okay... this is some incredibly crafted comics right here.  Alan Moore is at his best (or near best, depending on where you place this among his works), and Dave Gibbons has added an amazing amount of realism and grit to his work to differentiate it from things like his Green Lantern, which always came across as quite "clean".  I definitely don't want to leave out John Higgins' colors... this book is brought to a whole other level with its coloring.  It's all just wonderful.

There is so much done here... it's almost musical.  Images and words dancing together... marrying into something that is both comic book... and more than a comic book.  Scenes melt into one another almost seamlessly.  Visual symbolism and reference is employed in such a way that you could go crazy trying to notice it all... much less explain it all!  This is a dense endeavor... I could not imagine the amount of hours put into this by Moore and company.  There's a reason (many really) why I'm so trepidacious to comment on such a work!

So, recommended?  C'maaaaaan.... if you're looking for or at DC Comics review blogs, you already know the answer to that.  Definitely worth your time... easy to procure... it's a fixture on bookstore shelves in new and used condition.  If you haven't read this yet (yeah, both of you) definitely make a point to do so.  Do me a small favor though... try putting it down for a few minutes between chapters to let it all "sink in".  I feel I really deprived myself of something special the first time I plowed through this.

Before I go, I just really want to thank anybody who reads this.  Two-Hundred consecutive days was something I never thought I would do... Hell, I was shocked when I did a week straight!  I wanna thank everybody I've met, worked with/for, and chatted with while doing this.  You've all helped me rediscover my love of these four-color gems after too long'a time without it.

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Et-Cetera:

Inside front/back covers

Back Cover

Superman (vol.4) #4 (2016)

Superman (vol.4) #4 (October, 2016)

"Son of Superman, Part Four"

Story - Peter J. Tomasi

Story & Pencils - Patrick Gleason

Inker - Mick Gray

Colorist - John Kalisz

Letterer - Rob Leigh

Assistant Editor - Andrew Marino

Editor - Eddie Berganza

Cover Price: $2.99

Short preamble today... was stuck in the stacks most of the day trying to work out my Master's Degree whatsits.

Glad to have completed The Life and Times of Tara Markov feature that took up the past nine days, and am looking forward to the future... a future that starts with tomorrow's Two-Hundredth daily post here at the humble blog.  Please WATCH out for it!

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Picking up where we left off, Superman and the Eradicator are locked in combat while Lois and Jon watch from the sidelines.  Jon just watched Krypto get inhaled by the baddie, and lemme tell ya... he ain't pleased!  Making matters worse, all the while the Eradicator is calling him an impure half-breed!  Talk about a low-blow, buddy.  He zips up his super-jacket, and joins his pop... poppin' the Eradicator in the mush.

Now missing his mouth-hole, the Eradicator begins spewing disembodied Kryptonian souls.  Superman is rightfully shocked... and I'm just a little bit confused.

We shift scenes to the Ace O'Clubs, home of our fav'rit bar-owner, Bibbo Bibbowski!  He's arm-wrestling a buddy of his who dares to joke about the recent death of (New-52) Superman... bad move, pal... Bibbo slams his arm to the bar.

To the winner go the spoils, and today those spoils consist of a moon rock (sans certificate of authenticity).  Bibbo takes it and is about to deposit it into his Superman shrine collection when it starts to float.

Now is when I go from confused to lost... the sky opens up, just swirling with Kryptonian souls... and the Kents Whites Smiths.  Superman and Superboy are deposited unconscious on the matted felt of Bibbo's billiards, and Sooperman's number one fan is dumbstruck.

Lois, who is also there... but not adversely affected like her Kryptonian kin deduces that the moon rock must have traces of Kryptonite in it.  She takes it and tosses it into a waiting hand amid the swirl of souls... but it's returned, I think... now Bibbo's got it, and at Lois' command he throws it away as far as he can.

While not quite conscious, Superman gets a visit from Jonathan Kent... no, the other one!  He builds his son up so that he can free the Kryptonian souls... and so he does.  He speaks to them, makes them feel whole... and all is well... until...

The Eradicator hits the scene, still threatening to purify the "half-breed".  He begins a reboot sequence, and counts down from ten.  Superman sees this as his only opportunity to ensure the safety of his family, and uses it to seemingly flee... much to the disappointment of his number one fan.

After the countdown hits zero, the Kryptonian spirits get involved to buy the Man of Steel some time.  They cause an explosion of sorts that plunges the Eradicator deep into the harbor.  With these few extra seconds, Superman loads his family into a submarine, and heads off...

... toward the moon.

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Still really enjoying this title... it's definitely on my short list for top Rebirth books.  That being said, I don't really dig this feeling like a "part four"... ya know?  I mean, it is a part four... says so right in the title!  This is just starting to feel a touch "paddy".  Not saying it's bad, please don't get me wrong... I really dug it.  I guess I'm just kvetching about the whole "writing for the trade" thing that DC said they wouldn't do anymore a couple years back.  I'm hoping this is just for the opener... so they can get a new "#1" trade paperback on shelves, then we can maybe tell some less formulaic stories.

Was thrilled to see Bibbo!  It's been too long, buddy!  I just wish he referred to  Sooperman as his "fav'rit" a time or two.  There's still time though, hopefully we'll hear it soon enough.  Him getting a chunk of Kryptonite-tainted moon rock may be a bit convenient, but whattayagonnado?  It's forgivable, and allows the creators to let us check in on an old friend.

I did feel a bit lost when the "exiles" began popping up.  I'm hoping that all gets cleared up for me with the next chapter, though I can't help but feel as though I'm missing something.  We saw the Eradicator inhale poor Krypto last issue... is he like a walking and talking Phantom Zone in and of himself?  Really not clear to me... which, might just be my being too dense to comprehend and/or follow.  I ain't too proud to say it may have just gone over my head!

Still diggin' this... though, I am looking forward to getting past this opening arc, where hopefully we'll get some solo Superman stories.  Most definitely worth a look.

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Pretty cool of the Joker to allow himself to be quoted for this!