Spring Road Super Review: November 2018

The story begins with bankrupt socialite J.T. Horgan calling up one friend after another asking for a loan. As it just so happens, one of his acquaintances is our own Doc Wackey. Unfortunately (and unsurprisingly) Doc can only scrounge up about twelve cents. Needless to say, this is much less than the good Mr. Horgan needs.

Bet Doc's wishing he hadn't given away the patent on that atom reviser now

Amply demonstrating why he has come to his present financial state, Horgan concludes that since he's headed to the poor house, he should "throw one last bang up party...for my fairweather friends."

Golly. D'ya think the bald accountant's comments might be foreshadowing?

When Horgan sends out the RSVPs to his bankruptcy, one finds its way into the hands of Doc Wackey. (Of course, not attempt is made to explain why Horgan has apparently failed to invite his "old friend" to any of the numerous parties he previously threw at Crazy Meadows...I guess we're just supposed to accept that this is one of the things one does when facing financial insolvency. On the other hand, maybe Horgan simply knew his Bible and had taken to heart the Parable of the Dishonest Manager.)

Though excited to receive the invitation, Wackey is initially reticent about attending on account of his dearth of appropriate attire. Sniffer offers to let the Doc borrow an old dress suit, with the proviso that he and Hotfoot be allowed to tag along. (Again, nary a thought is given to explaining: (A) why it should be assumed that an invited party guest is free to extend his own invitations to whomever he will, and (B) why, if particular attire is required for Wackey, anyone would assume that Sniffer Snoop wouldn't be subject to the same wardrobe triage.)

Dave gets wind of these plans and decides to invite himself--or rather, he decides that Midnight "ought to be able to attend the party without an invitation.") Whoa. Somebody's ego is growing faster than Horgan's creditor list.

When Gabby, Doc, Sniffer, and Hotfoot arrive at Crazy Meadows, they're greeted by a bat-swinging doorman who looks for all the world like he's trying to take someone's head off! Of course Wackey and company don't take this lying down. Fortunately for the kid, before they can really get to pummeling, Horgan intervenes and explains that this was "one of the eccentric welcomes we extend to guests at Crazy Meadows." Satisfied with that explanation, Wackey lets Horgan lead him off to the "Prussic Acid bar" for a quick drink.

Apparently, this is was to be yet another "shock value" feature of the Crazy Meadows soiree. Things get all too real, however, when one Bill Thompson orders a straight...and then promptly clutches his stomach and collapses dead!

Due--I'm supposing--to concern that the high drama of this moment would be too heavy for kids, Midnight is suddenly reintroduced to the narrative by way of an insanely-stupid camouflage gag.

After an implausibly simple answer to Wackey's question, Midnight sniffs the interior of Thompson's flute and pronounces it formerly contained genuine Prussic Acid. As our hero begins interrogating Horgan, Sniffer Snoop--naturally--skips straight to the accusation phase.

Meanwhile another guest, John Henry retreats from the ghastly scene with his starlet companion into a nearby room made up to look like a medieval torture chamber. Apparently having learned nothing from the events of the last five minutes, Henry insists on placing himself on the rack for "a little stretching exercise," when--of course--he too dies horribly.

Sniffer reiterates his charge that Horgan has masterminded these murders with the evening's party as an elaborate ruse. For his part, Midnight is beginning to think Sniffer could be right this time.

Midnight begins to question Horgan himself about his involvement in the homicides, when a secret passageway silently opens and Sniffer is hauled into its recesses by a gloved hand.

Horgan's accountant, Fenley, fortuitously arrives back on the scene just in time to add his weight to the accusation against Horgan. This prompts his soon-to-be-erstwhile employer to turn the charge right back on his traitorous bean-counter, and middle-aged fisticuffs ensue.

Midnight steps in to break up the Clash-of-the-Middle-Aged-Body-Types. Meanwhile, Wackey notices Sniffer's gone missing.

When he notices that Hotfoot is sniffing and scratching against a seemingly-brick wall, Midnight asks Horgan if it contains a trick panel. Upon turning around to find out why the portly host isn't answering, Midnight discover that Horgan and Fenley have vanished as well!

Eventually, Midnight locates a release and the hidden panel opens to a passageway. Midnight and company proceed through its darkened corridors until:

This issue's implausibly convenient ending occurs when Hotfoot--distressed at the sight of his master bound hand and foot--charges forward knocking the hooded figure off-balance and enabling Midnight to charge and overpower him.

Convinced that he's narrowed down the killer to either Fenley or Horgan, both Midnight and the reader are a bit surprised to discover:

Wow. Talk about your "Scooby-Doo endings."

All-Star Squadron: Amazing Man

As with Midnight, the first time I saw DC's Will Everett version of Amazing Man was in the pages of Who's Who: The Definitive Directory of the DC Universe Update '88 #1 (AUG 1988) Again, like Midnight, the character's look, background, and powers instantly appealed to me.

His Costume

First, I liked the visuals of the green and yellow outfit. Though not unprecedented, this wasn't a color combination that you saw all that frequently even in the late 80s. (I'm sure it also helped that this color scheme of the school I attended at the time.)

His Race and Backstory

Second, I liked his ethnicity and back-story. Though one didn't necessarily hear a lot of calls for more minority heroes in the late 80s, in retrospect I think one of the reasons Amazing Man struck my fancy was precisely his race. (I also suspect this because when I think back to my earliest memories of seeing superheroes in things like Challenge of the Superfriends, my favorite on the team included Apache Chief, Samurai, and Black Vulcan. I remember being bummed when they didn't return for the "Galactic Guardians iteration of the SF.)

Jesse Owens at the 1936 Olympics

Even more important than his skin color, though, was Will Everett's backstory. Roy Thomas and Jerry Ordway did a great job crafting a 1940s hero who was modeled--it seems to me pretty blatantly--on an actual heroic black American of the time period, Jesse Owens. Will Everett had been a stand-out athlete in the 1936 Olympic games who returned to the U.S. after winning multiple awards, only to face job discrimination based on his race. Will finally found work as a janitor for scientist Terry Curtis. As fate would have it, this fateful decision contributed directly to the next thing I loved about Amazing Man: his powers!

Though the Jesse Owens comparison was evident from the moment I read Amazing Man's backstory, only later did I learn that AM benefitted from yet other fictional and non-fictional inspirations. Comic Vine relates:

For inspiration, [Creator Roy] Thomas drew upon a real 1940’s hero: Centaur Comics hero Amazing-Man. In homage, Thomas named his Amazing-Man Will Everett, after the Centaur Comics’ Amazing-Man’s creator Bill Everett.

His Power Set

Third, I was attracted to the power set--more specifically, I was attracted to both versions of his power set. Amazing Man's initial superpowers were essentially the same as those of Marvel's Absorbing Man. In Everett's case, however, rather than arising from a mystical source, they were the product of scientific experimentation by the Ultra-Humanite.

Having successfully imparted the absorbancy powers to Everett, the Ultra-Humanite blackmailed Will and Dr. Curtis into doing his bidding by holding the latter's baby daughter, Terri, hostage. Of course, Terri was eventually freed, allowing her father and Will to defy the Ultra-Humanite and aid the All-Star Squadron in defeating him.

Curiously, the only powers Comic Vine seems to recognize for Amazing Man were his initial absorption ones. However, Who's Who in the DC Universe Update '88 explicitly says that some months after initially helping the All-Star Squadron defeat the Ultra-Humanite:

...exposure to a super-powerful electromagnet permanently altered Everett, replacing his matter-mimicking ability with magnetic powers...[specifically] the power to repel magnetic objects with his right hand and attract them with his left hand.

I'd always like magnetic-power characters (e.g., Magneto, Cosmic Boy, etc.) but Amazing Man had a nice (and I thought aesthetically symmetrical) restriction in that he could attract ferrous objects with one hand and repel them with the other. This gave him just enough power to be really impressive, without being so powerful that writers had a hard time coming up with real challenges for him.

Thanks to good folks in the JSA, All Stars and Earth 2 Facebook group, I now know that this power shift took place in Young All-Stars #14 (JUL 1988). I'm still curious, however, just why it was executed. Were there some sort of copyright or trademark dispute (a la the great Captain Marvel vs. Superman battle)? Did DC think Amazing Man needed to be "spiced up"?

RIP Stan Lee

The news broke today that Stan Lee, godfather of superhero comics, has finally entered eternity at the age of 95. My prayer is for comfort and peace to his loved ones...and a hearty "thanks" for all the goodness and joy that was brought into my own life through the work Stan dedicated his life to.

Origin of the Red Skull's Dust of Death

Thanks to the runaway success that's the Marvel Cinematic Universe, you'd have to be living under a rock to not know recognize both Captain America (so ably portrayed by Chris Evans) and the Star-Spangled Avenger's eternal nemesis, the Red Skull. Fans who only know Cap and the Skull through the MCU, however, are missing out on a lot of rich lore. For example, they may never even have heard of the Red Skull's signature weapon (at least as of the late 1980s): the Dust of Death!

I vividly remember how these panels affected me when I first read them in Captain America #350 (February 1989)

According to its entry in the Marvel Database, the dust would kill:

...by making contact with [its] victim's skin, causing the skin on the...head to tighten, shrivel, and take on a red discoloration...causing all the hair on the victim's head to fall out...[and leaving the corpse with the appearance of having] a "red skull"/"masque of the red death" for a head. The Red Skull would many times dispense "the dust of death" from a large cigarette holder...[but] could also fire [the dust] from a special handgun. (Dust of Death. Marvel Database)

Conventional wisdom is that the Dust of Death first appeared in Captain America #184 (APR 1975). (see here and here), but there's also a contention by Marvel Comics Chronology commenter Mark Drummond that the Skull, "used the Dust in the Golden Age; [Writer, Steve] Englehart just revived it."

Given the prominence of the Dust of Death--at least by the time of my comicdom (i.e., 80s-early 90s), you'd think it would be pretty easy to source Drummond's claim. However, I've not been able to find any specific references to these supposed Golden Age appearances.

However, during some other reading in Golden Age comics I ran across a story entitled, "The Meeting that Death Attended" from Fox Feature Syndicate's The Big 3 #7 (JAN 1942). In it writer Jay Foster treats us to the conflict between the patriotic V-Man and the nefarious (and hilariously named) Baron Von Und Zu Schutz. Check out these panels featuring the Baron's weapon of choice:

It may not be red, but doesn't that pilot's face look kinda skull-y?

And in the first direct clash between V-Man and Baron Von Und Zu Schutz

And, finally, after his initial defeat and return for the closing act, the Baron is hoisted on his own petard.

Since the Red Skull's first appearance was in Captain America Comics #7 (OCT 1941), it is possible that he made use of the Dust of Death first and Jay Foster copied the idea here in The Big 3 #7 (JAN 1942).

However, in the synopses that I can find online of comics: (1) featuring the Red Skull and (2) published prior to January 1942, to wit:

I'm not seeing any evidence that the Dust of Death was part of the story-line. Consequently, unless someone can point me to some counter-evidence, I think I have stumbled across the first instance of this concept.

NOTE: I realize one could argue that all the Dust of Death stuff is ultimately derivative of the concept of Joker Venom. If you buy that argument--and, frankly, I don't--then Joker's weapon has precedence since it appeared first in Batman #1 (APR 1940)

Homage to the Greatest Cold-War Cap Opponent: The Red Guardian!

Red Guardian (Josef Petkus) as depicted in Captain America #353 (MAY 1989)

This post is dedicated to one of my favorite iconic Cold War characters: Marvel's Red Guardian! One needn't trace the history of the Red Guardian very far before being struck by how many "Red Guardians" there have been--at least seven, by my count!

This particular post is concerned only with the Josef Petkus version and--even more specifically--with the first time I ran across RG in Captain America #353. As a kid of the 80s I grew up on moves like Rocky IV and the high drama of Olympic showdowns between East and West.

"What a great concept!," I remember thinking. "I can't wait to find some more comic books featuring this guy's rivalry with Captain America!" Alas, my dreams were to be dashed. In less than two years, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics would officially dissolve...and with it any real raison d'etre for the Red Guardian. At least I had that one shining moment of comic greatness. I invite you to join me in that reminiscence now.

Captain America #353
This issue began in dramatic fashion--with three dying Soviet Super Soldiers. They had arrived at Avengers' Island in the previous issue requesting political asylum; but were subsequently attacked by an "unknown force."

The force was only "unknown" to folks like me who had missed Captain America #352, where it was revealed that the Super Soldiers had been targeted by a second team of Russian operatives known as the Supreme Soviet. For reasons that are never explained, the Supreme Soviets had disguised themselves as Avengers for the duration of the assault.

Meanwhile, Captain America was en route to the Soviet Union for a goodwill tour. While his public purpose was to explore the possibility of expanding Avengers peacekeeping operations into the Communist bloc, secretly he suspected the attack on the Super Soldiers might have been a Kremlin-sanctioned operation, and he wanted to gather intelligence on this possibility.

This covert intention evidenced some less-than-meticulous attention to narrative logic. Everyone in Russia knew Cap was in the country, and the Soviets seem to be keeping pretty tight tabs on him. It's difficult to imagine how even he could've imagined getting the kind of privacy necessary to actually dig up Kremlin dirt.

Of course, this wasn't a critical piece of the narrative, and so they suffered the fate of all throw away lines. Cap would never have to face the espionage challenge because his attention would quickly be focused upon a beast of pure black energy that would randomly appear and start rampaging down the Moscow boulevards.

Side note: I really like the way Cap is depicted as leaping into the panel from somewhere outside. Nice touch.

Despite Cap's best efforts the beast disappears as quickly as it appeared and nothing much is resolved. I'm guessing that the narrative purpose of this first encounter was to let the first avenger to prove his sincerity about wanting to "serve the Soviet people in times of emergency."

The Red Guardian later shows up (in the opening panel of this post) at Cap's hotel room. The Soviet superhuman has been assigned to be Captain America's handler for the duration of the trip. The two icons aren't together very long, however, before the beast shows up again and we get to see both shield slingers go into action.

Notice how R.G. is a little accusatory in his tone (e.g., "the behemoth you claim ravaged our streets)?

This was my favorite panel of the whole comic! Again, Cap comes off as a humble dude who's just interested in stopping the threat. The Guardian comes off as petty and self-centered.

Despite how battle savvy R.G. looks in the above panel, by the end of this particular fight he was absorbed into the beast. Later when the rest of the Supreme Soviet attack the beast, they suffer the same fate as R.G.

Ultimately, writer Mark Gruenwald accessed his inner Golden-Age self to wrap this one up. It's revealed that the beast was really some sort of mysterious psychic amalgamation of the comatose Soviet Super Soldiers. Though their intent was to punish the Supreme Soviets' treachery by stealing their life forces, an impassioned plea by Captain America reaches the Super Soldiers' better angels, and they refrain from killing their attackers.

This sort of cheesy self-reflection was pretty standard in the Gruenwald Cap...Man, I loved that stuff! I still do. It may have been pollyanna, but it appealed to idealism. I wish there was more writing like this now.

Returning to my titular claim, I recognize that "greatest Cold-War opponent" is quite a claim. Nevertheless, I personally think it fits. I can't think of anyone else who it could be legitimately put forward as Cap's Soviet rival....but maybe I just don't know enough about comics.

What say you veteran Marvelites? Is there someone (or someones) that I'm leaving out?