BONUS BOOK - Flash Force 2000 (1984)

BONUS BOOK - Flash Force 2000 (November, 1984)
"Driving Force"
Writer - Robert Loren Fleming
Pencils - Denys Cowan
Inks - Sal Trapani
Colors - Joe Orlando
Letters - Gaspar
Editor - Andy Helfer

Happy New Year, Everybody!

For my American readers... are ya tired of seein' H&R Block commercials yet?  Lord knows I am.  I hope you all had wonderful Holiday Season, full'a family, friends, and food.  But now, as the song says, it's time for us all to "muddle through" (somehow).

That said, today we're looking at a Matchbox car tie-in called Flash Force 2000 (if only it were called Flash Force 2020, am I right?).  It took me a minute to recall what this one was all about... for a second, I actually thought it was a Barry Allen Flash-related thing.  It ain't though!  It's something else altogether... for better or worse.

I'm reading this in an issue of Tales of the Teen Titans (since I already had that longbox open anyway), and was reminded that this was an issue of that series I'd wanted to cover on the blog for quite some time.  It's a story that features a team called the RECOMbatants, who are analogous to the DNAgents from Eclipse Comics... which led to an unofficial crossover between the two books.  The DNAgents title would follow suit by introducing their own version of the New Teen Titans, called... of all things, "Project: Youngblood"!  (DNAgents #14 - July, 1984)

Pretty wild, right?  Well, the only reason I didn't go through with covering the the unofficial crossover, was... this Insert Preview!  I felt as though it would "muddy the waters" so to speak, and being a completionist, I'd have felt weird leaving it out.  Welp, after today's post, that won't be a problem anymore.  Hopefully, before long, I'll cover the New Teen Titans/DNAgents crossover event here!

This Insert Preview appeared in the following issues (all cover-dated November, 1984)

• Batman and the Outsiders #15
• Blue Devil #6
• Superman #401
• Tales of the Legion of Super-Heroes #317
• Tales of the Teen Titans #48
• World's Finest Comics #309

Worth noting, I did try and search YouTube for any Flash Force 2000 commercials... and came up empty!  I did, however, learn that there's a toy line called "Flush Force"... which, along with society's apparent obsession with a Poop-shaped Emoji, really makes me question just about everything about the direction we're headed!

Oh well, those are problems for another day... let's see what this story is all about!

--

We open with a quick-n-dirty look at what will be going on, presumably in the year 2000.  Remember... the future was such a long time ago.  Turns out there was a disaster... that both changed and reshaped the world, which is something the narrator will not allow us to forget.  Civilization has been whittled down to one major hub city... called Technopolis.  From it spurs a road, the Transway, which connects it to other, smaller communities.  And so, they built cars so they can travel.  There are good guys, and there are bad guys... naturally.  The bad guys are the "Mutant Scavengers" called the Dark Seekers.  As we join the story, the Seekers are raising a bit of hell on a trio of travelers.  After beating up/killing the humans, they look to salvaging their autos.  They do so under the orders of the EEEVIL Terminus-3!

We shift scenes back to Technopolis, where this event is being played out on the monitor of a genius inventor named Dr. Malcolm Ryder.  He laments the loss of the convoy, and blames himself for not showing them how to properly operate these new post-disaster cars.  He presents his "latest development" to his son, Flash and... I'm going to assume, Flash's girlfriend Shari.  It's a V.M.C.: a Vehicular Memory Chip, which is to say, something that can be implanted... either in a human, or a vehicle... it's not quite clear.

Now, this entire scene... well, the audio of it anyway... is being played out in Terminus-3's base.  Wait, I thought he was just salvaging scrap with the Mutants?  Oh well, whatever the case... ol' Termy is tickled almost as pink as his base by the news.

Back to Technopolis... Flash's twin brother Damon finally wakes up, and joins his father, brother, and would-be girlfriend.  Ya see, it would appear both of Mal's kids wanna git with Shari.  This is a rather jumbled, and highly dramatic scene.  Damon asks Shari out... she turns him down.  Flash shoves Damon, who bops into Malcolm, causing him to drop the V.M.C.  Malcolm tells Damon to be more careful, which prompts an epic teen-age rant... ending with Damon insisting he never asked to be born, nobody will ever understand him, and that he's running away.  He actually leaves the safety of Technopolis and heads into the wastelands.  Good Lord, we're only on page four.

Damon makes it about five steps out of the city before being descended upon by Dark Seeker Mutants.  Rather than fight back, he just begs them not to hurt him.  Whatta guy!

As luck would have it, Terminus-3 just happened to be wandering by... and he calls off the Mutant attackers.  After lying to Damon about wanting to make peace with Dr. Ryder, he and Malcolm's dumber son become fast friends.  Thinking that facilitating peace talks will make him an instant hero, Damon even offers to help Termy enter Technopolis using his security clearance!

Back inside, Damon waits for Flash and Shari to head off on their date before presenting his father with, perhaps, his new research partner... Terminus-3!  This is obviously a trap... and Termy threatens to kill Damon, unless Dr. Ryder, get this, "programs his driveless cars... for EVIL!!!".  What's that thing where the best villains always think they're working for "good"?  Well, not here.

Dr. Ryder throws his hands in the air, and agrees to program the cars... for EVIL.  Terminus-3 insists he wastes no time... the EVIL transition will begin right now!

As the process begins, Terminus-3 is giddy as a schoolboy... literally jumping up and down chanting "Eeeeevil!  Eeeeevil!" as though he's friggin' Simon and Hecubus on Kids in the Hall.

See?  His celebratory "EVILing" is so loud, it manages to stir up ol' Flash Ryder, who's going to check out what all the hub-bub's about.

Down in the lab, Terminus-3 forces Damon into one of his EVIL "Rampager" cars... which, begins to operate on its own.  So, I guess those V.M.C.'s are for the cars then?  Anyhoo, the car takes it upon itself to... get this... kill Dr. Malcolm Ryder!  Like just atomize the poor sumbitch!  Like how the Sentinel does Wolverine during Days of Future Past!  Of course, Flash arrives on the scene just in time to see this go down... and, in the driver's seat of the killer car... his twin brother.  Uh-oh!  Further "uh-oh"... we're only on page friggin' eight.

Damon and the Rampagers take off, and Shari enters the scene.  Dr. Ryder shares a few final words with his favorite son about a "secret weapon" he'd prepared before perishing.  Flash heads into the next room where he's greeted by a trio of programmed non-EVIL cars... Maz(da), Scout, and 'Vette.  These cars tell Flash of yet another top-secret project the Doc had been working on, and sends the sobbing son through the third corridor in order to find it.

Shari heads up to the Technopolis gunnery and proceeds to fire into the swarm of Rampagers that are headed their way.  Meanwhile, the "Hot Rods" Maz, Scout, and 'Vette launch into some bumper-car action!  We get three or so pages of cars crashing into one another... with plenty of comments about their "explosive bumpers" which just so happen to be the main (and perhaps, only) "feature" of the Flash Force 2000 Matchbox toys.

The Hot Rods make quite a dent in Terminus-3's car-army (carmy?), until the Mutant baddies launch the (dun, dun, dunnnnn) Battle Van!  The Battle Van is, well, exactly what it sounds like... and it's tremendously huge.  Not sure why Termy and Co. don't just try and sell these things rather than doing... whatever the hell they're trying to do here.

Before the Battle Van can do any damage, we learn what Flash's final gift from his father was... Dr. Ryder's Tornado Chopper!  Terminus takes one look at the whirlybird before calling off the attack!  Seriously... that's all it takes!

Terminus flees from the van, and heads over to pluck his hostage Damon Ryder from his EVILmobile.  Damon isn't cool with any of this, but doesn't seem to have any choice in the matter.  In the air, Flash has a clean shot at the Big Bad... but chooses not to fire, as he cannot bring himself to harm his twin brother.

We (finally) wrap up with Flash taking all of his late father's responsibilities in Technopolis... and a twenty-one gun salute in honor of Dr. Malcolm Ryder.

--

Holy Cow, you guys... is it still 2020, or did we miss it?  Damn this was endless.  Funny, out of this entire BONUS BOOK project, I bet this piece will wind up being the least read... but it took the longest time to do!

As a kid who, despite owning dozens of Matchbox/Hot Wheels cars, never cared one bit about 'em... I'll give the creative team a bit of credit in trying to assign a measure of personality and purpose to the Flash Force.  The backstory is a bit... I dunno... precious, but it works in a pinch.

I still don't have much of an investment in the cars... I mean, I couldn't even get into Transformers... because, what are the stakes there?  A robot is destroyed... you rebuild the damn robot.  Sure, it's a hiccup, but when the dust settles, the robot (or in this case, car) will be back, often better than before.  I suppose where this story... err, shines (?) is in the human bits.  Our twins are basically a post-apocalyptic Goofus and Gallant...

... which, I suppose is as good a trope as any.  I haven't ever come across any of the mini-comics that followed this Insert Preview (each toy came with an issue), so I don't know if they ever reconcile.  If I were to make a guess... I'd assume that they planned to reunite them, but the toy line got cancelled before they could.  Either that, or they were saving it for an animated series.  Who knows?  Not me.

Overall... this sure was something we read today.  The art was good... and, it seems as though Fleming tried his best to make something interesting of this.  Sadly it falls a bit short of that Hot Wheels series we looked at back in the long ago.  They can't all be winners!

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BONUS BOOK - Atari Force (1983)

BONUS BOOK - Atari Force, Code Name: Liberator (January, 1983)
"Liberator Mission: Freedom--or Death!"
Writer - Gerry Conway
Pencils - Ross Andru
Inks & Edits - Dick Giordano
Letters - John Costanza
Colors - Adrienne Roy

Hmm... we don't get much of a "cover" this time out... which is a tad bothersome... but, just in case it's not clear... today we're going to be closing out 2019 with the Insert Preview of Atari Force (Code Name: Liberator).

This was yet another preview to originate in the pages of New Teen Titans... however, since it was a licensed book (Atari being a registered whatchacallit of whoeverthehell), it actually shows up in two comics bearing the January, 1983 cover-date!

• DC Comics Presents #53
• New Teen Titans #27

There are gonna be a couple more Insert Previews that appear in more than one book that we'll be getting to over the next few days.  Believe it or not, we're already about halfway through 'em!  Perhaps even more than halfway through, since I just discovered I don't own 'em all!  We might need a Vartox-Week size miracle for me to track 'em down in time!  I guess time, and the next handfulla days, will tell!

Let's get to it!

--

Our story actually begins on the "cover" page (seen above)... where an Atari Force pilot named David is in the middle of a firefight with, uh... the bad guys.  He's on a comm-link sort of thing with a very blonde man named Martin who is trying to guide him through the process.  Unfortunately for big Dave, it looks like his story has already been written... and he is sploded into many many bits.  Ya know, at this point, I was sure this was going to be revealed as being a "VR Simulation".  Ya know, it's based off a video game, named after a video game system... stands to reason that this might just be more of that... but, No!  David's actually dead... dead-dead.  Martin laments the loss of his pal.

Ready for some table-setting exposition?  I sure hope so, cuz we're getting a big heaping dollop of it.  This story is occurring in the far-flung year of... 2005.  Wow, the future was such a long time ago!  We move into a conference room of sorts where we get the lay of the land.  The Atari Force is engaged in something called Mission: Liberator... and, as such are using a Star-Fighter called... the Liberator.  A handy screen shot shows us that this here Liberator really puts a lot of stock into... well, fuel, from the looks of it.

The bad guys are revealed as being aliens called the Malaglow.  Wow, try saying that three times fast.  Looks like the baddies have taken over many planets and enslaved many'a people... and it's up to the Atari Force to end their reign of terror.

Martin reveals that their next mission volunteer will be drawn from a lottery of sorts... and a fishbowl full'a poker chips begins to levitate.  From the bowl, Marty picks a chip... and we learn that the Liberator will be piloted by Bob Marcus, who just so happens to be the brother of dead-David!  He is more than a little bit jazzed to get the opportunity to get his pound of flesh outta the green guys!

And so, next thing we know Bob's about to take off.  He decides to leave before getting all of his instructions... realizing full-well that this might just be a suicide mission!  Looks like he's not exactly planning to walk away from this one...

From here, we jump to Malaglow territory, and the Liberator releases a trio of remote drones to ward off the "welcoming committee".  Whattayaknow, Bob's able to take 'em down with ease!

Next stop, a Malaglow Slave Planet... which just so happens to be launching missiles!  Hmm, that's somewhat familiar... it's almost like their Defense is Missiles!  Bob maneuvers around the onslaught and knocks the artillery out of the sky.

In freeing the slaves... well, I guess they're free... the Malaglow realizes the Ataris aren't screwing around... and so, they launch a massive saucer-craft.  For all the pomp and circumstance of its introduction, Bob takes it out in like two panels.

Back on Earth, Martin and Company have received a delayed transmission from the Liberator... so, they have a pretty good idea that Bob is still alive... or at least, he was... somewhat recently.  The message is optimistic that the worst is behind them... which, we in the biz call "famous last words".  Not sure why we needed a full page to recap the last half-dozen, but... whattayagonnado?

Back to Bob, who's still blowin' stuff up in space.  He approaches the Malaglow Master Base... however, any time he fires at it, the planet appears to change rotation.  Not sure how helpful a defensive tactic this is... but, it's really got ol' Bob thrown for a loop.

We get two more pages of Bob trying to figure out this riddle... it doesn't matter where he blasts the planet... the darn thing just keeps a'spinnin'.  Ultimately, our man realizes that... hey, I've got more than one laser on this rig... and so, he fires at two different locations on the planet.

This does the trick, halts the frog-faced Malaglow's celebration... and frees the slaves?  I mean, there's a prrrretty big explosion here, not sure how any of the slaves survived it!

We wrap up with Bob Marcus reporting his successful mission into the Atari Force... and preparing to leave a newly-liberated planet.  Our "next issue" blurb doesn't promote the ongoing Atari Force series... but the trio of mini-comics that came packed with assorted Atari 2600 games.

--

Just like I said during our recent Captain Carrot discussion, I feel, as a self-proclaimed fake-ass comics historian that I ought to have more of an affinity for Atari Force.  I mean, I love comics and I love video games... so, it stands to reason that I'd love this, right?

Well, truth be told, I've tried covering Atari Force here at the blog before... and have never been able to get through the first issue!  I didn't think it was bad or anything, I just couldn't connect to it.  One of my (very) few rules about "content creation" (that I wish other content creators would also adhere to) is that the person creating said content must be passionate about what they're talking about... at least a little bit.  I wasn't, so I didn't.

I almost got excited enough to "press through" about a year and a half ago, when I had been given access to the back-room of a local comic shop.  While back there, I found a bunch of stuff that the casual comic shop patron wouldn't care less about... old fanzine stuff, catalogs, retailer-exclusive magazines from the 80's and 90's... and, as luck would have it... one of the Atari Force mini-comics that had been packed in with a 2600 game!  I snagged it (for a buck) and figured it might be a neat thing to include on the blog.

Then, I tried reading it... and, man... again, I just couldn't get into it.  Rather than do the book and its fandom a disservice, I decided just to file it away.  Asamattafact, I filed it away so well... I couldn't even tell ya what room in my house it's currently in!  Oh well.  I guess I won't be including a picture of it here today!

So, with all'a my nonsense out of the way... what'd I think of this story?  Well, it wasn't bad... but, again, I didn't feel any stakes or investment in the characters.  I will say that I was about 95% sure that Bob Marcus was going to bite it in the end... so, his survival was a bit of a surprise.  Art was solid... dialogue was decent... really, just another inoffensive insert!  If you're a fan of the Atari Force concept, well, this is where it all began!

With that, I wanna wish everyone a Safe and Happy New Year's Eve!  Be careful out there... and I'll see ya next year (don'tcha just hate when people say that?)!

BONUS BOOK - Night Force (1982)

BONUS BOOK - Night Force (July, 1982)
"The Night Force"
Writer - Marv Wolfman
Pencils - Gene Colan
Inks - Bob Smith
Letters - John Costanza
Colors - Michele Wolfman
Editor - Ross Andru

Another day, another Insert Prevue from the pages of New Teen Titans... I think, counting Masters of the Universe, this makes three... with more to come!  One thing's different here though, in that not only does this appear in an issue of New Teen Titans... it's also written by the very same fella who gave us New Teen Titans!

For today we're taking a look at Marv Wolfman reuniting with his Tomb of Dracula partner Gene Colan to create a sorta-kinda horror title in Night Force!

Now, it's been ages since I've read any actual Night Force comics... and my most recent exposure to the concept was, err, not the best.  It was the 2018-2019 Raven: Daughter of Darkness maxi-series that attempted to reimagine the Night Force as a team of teen-age mystics and whatnot... and it was even worse than it sounds.  With a teen-age cast came Marv Wolfman's need to... err, engage in "teenspeak"... Baron Winters even makes a "swipe left" reference.  It was cringy as hell.  Even Winters' Cat Merlin utters out some unironic and sassy "Grrrrrrll"s.  I reviewed every issue of the thing for the folks over at Weird Science DC Comics if you're interested in going along for that ride.

I covered the first issue of Night Force here at the blog nearly four years ago... and I'm pretty sure I didn't even realize at the time that a "Prevue" proceeded it.  To me, that's a good thing.  I don't think people who buy a #1 issue should be punished because they didn't do their due-diligence in buying some other title altogether to be introduced to the concept.  As we will soon find out, this Insert Preview does add to the lore, but it is by no means required to understand the events of the first issue.

Let's get to it...

--

We open "somewhen" where Baron Winters is taking in a jousting tournament hosted by a Lord Bedford in his honor.  Apparently, Winters was vital in saving the Lord's people.  He also bought some at-the-time worthless London real estate... knowing full-well that it would appreciate in some six hundred years.  After the event, Winters walks through a door... and winds up back at his palatial mansion, where his jolly mood is interrupted by the ringing of a phone.  On the other end, a man named Jack Gold... with whom the Baron has an interview the following day.  Worth noting, Winters already knew it would be Gold on the line.

Now, just who is this Jack Gold?  Well, we soon learn he is a tabloid news reporter who somehow talked his way into getting a look at some Top Secret Pentagon files on "Psychic Phenomena".  Jack's... well, kind of a jerk to the Major showing him around... and isn't all that keen on being given access to only a single file.

As luck would have it, the Major gets called away.  Despite not liking or trusting Jack... he, get this, leaves him alone in the file room!  Unsurprisingly, Jack takes this opportunity to dig a bit deeper in the drawers... and happens across a file labeled PROJECT SATAN, written by a Georgetown Professor named Donovan Caine.

Major Whatshisface pops back in, and catches Gold in the act.  He has his assistant escort the reporter out... and also tells her to make sure he never returns.  She makes a phone call... to a shadowy individual.

She then catches up with Jack to apologize for the Major's brusqueness and offer to take him out for a cup of coffee so they can talk.  He takes her up on the offer, but doesn't care to stick around all that long.  After the cuppa, Jack heads into the garage to procure his rental car... only to find that a security guard appeared to be paying special attention to it.  Writing it off as paranoia, Jack hops in and takes off.

Only... he doesn't get very far.  The ol' hooptie is rattling like mad and spewing exhaust like it's going out of style.  He pulls into a gas station and asks the Attendant to take a look at it while he makes a phone call to his ex-wife.  Well, the Attendant shifts the gears a few times, and... boom.

Back at Wintersgate, the Baron is talking to his sassy cat about his latest recruits... not only is Jack vital to his plans, but that very same Donovan Caine also factors in!  Speaking of Professor Don, he's currently guiding a class through a... Satanic Baptism?  Okey doke.  His students strip off their clothes and join hands while he babbles about somethin' or 'nother.  Before long, the entire place is bathed in flame.

The students are, well more than a bit freaked out, and nearly trample one another to get out.  Caine manages to calm them all down by suggesting that this was all a good sign... a sign that they're "narrowing in on their target", whatever that means.  During a subsequent five-minute break, one of the students heads into the hallway to make a phone call... to, perhaps that same shadowy individual.

We jump back to the Baron as he's informing sassy cat about the final (at this point) recruit... a young woman named Vanessa Van Helsing.  A woman tortured by visions and whatnot, currently being held at in one of Potomac Psychiatric Hospital's finest padded rooms.

Van Helsing starts throwing a fit, prompting some orderlies to bust in and try to calm her down  She's thrashing all about as a Dr. Rabin enters the scene, resigned to the fact that there's only ever been one treatment for this behavior... and it involves a visit to Wintersgate.

And so, that's exactly where they go.  Rabin and Winters exchange some unkind words, with the former insisting that the latter only provides a "placebo cure"... which, c'mon, any old port in a storm, right?  If it works, it works.  Before we know it, Winters has Vanessa back to "normal" so she can be taken back to the Hospital.  He promises that he will be able to help her in a more permanent way once she turns 21.

We wrap up with the Baron retiring for the evening, realizing that tomorrow is going to be quite a busy day indeed.

--

I'm not sure what it was, but I came into this completely prepared to crap all over it.  If I were to guess, it's probably residual disappointment stemming from that Raven: Daughter of Darkness garbage-fire.  I was half expecting the Baron to bust out with a "Talk to the Hand" or "Cash me outside" or something here.  He (and his cat) was just so damn sassy in that cringy maxi-series!

What we get here, however, is... really good stuff!  I'm not even a fella who considers himself a fan of horror comics, and I found myself highly entertained and intrigued by this short offering.  On that subject, has anyone reading this ever read a horror comic that actually scared them?  I know I haven't... but, I'd love to if anyone has any recommendations!

Baron Winters comes across here as quite the enigma.  We can't tell at first blush whether or not we ought to be rooting for him.  In fact, if not for the cover-copy (which reads: "To Save Mankind...") we might assume we're actually reading about a super-villain!  I like just how much of the Night Force "lore" is included right off the bat.  Things like Wintersgate Mansion being something of a dimensional hub is established in the very first page.  Not only is that highly interesting, it also subverts our expectations going forward.  I mean, the "cover" and opening scene take place in Medieval England... then suddenly, in passing through an ordinary door, we're in current day!  It really illustrates the amount of possibilities that can be explored in this series... and it's a lot of fun.

We're not-quite introduced to the anti-Winters (if that's in fact who the shadowy fella getting the phone calls winds up being, I can't for the life of me remember who that is... it might just be the Baron himself playing both sides!).  I dig the level of urgency that threat brought to the story... and the confirmation that there is actually something sinister going on that needs to be uncovered and dealt with.

Really, I just don't have enough good things to say about this one.  From story, to characters, to... good lord, the art... this was a really well put together piece... and to think, we got it for free between the pages of another awesome story appearing in New Teen Titans #21 (July, 1982).  It was a good time to be a fan of DC Comics.

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