Martin Pasko

Justice League of America #136 (November, 1976)

Posted on by Alan Stewart

Welcome to our coverage of the middle chapter of 1976’s Justice League of America/Justice Society of America crossover event, guest-starring “Shazam’s Squadron of Justice” — i.e., the Fawcett Comics heroes that DC had licensed the rights to a few years previously.  Although if you missed last month’s post about JLA #135, you might want to go back and catch up on things there before digging into today’s entry — because, as we’ll soon discover, this comic’s very own writers opted fifty years ago not to offer even a brief recap of this frankly overstuffed storyline’s first installment — and this blog is opting to take its cues from them.  Hey, fair is fair.

Before getting into JLA #136’s interiors, however, we’ll take a moment to note that — not counting last issue’s floating headshot — this issue’s cover by Ernie Chan and Frank Giacoia features the first appearance of the Golden Age/Earth-Two Batman on a comic-book cover since — well, whatever your personal headcanon holds to be the last published issue of Batman, Detective, or World’s Finest featuring the OG Caped Crusader.  And now, on to our main event:  Read More

Metal Men #48 (Oct.-Nov., 1976)

Posted on by Alan Stewart

Cover to Metal Men #46 (Jun.-Jul., 1976). Art by Dick Giordano.

Cover to Metal Men #47 (Aug.-Sep.). Art by Walt Simonson.

Six months ago, we took a look at Metal Men #45 — which, back in January, 1976, was the first all-new issue of the title to have been published since 1969.  Featuring the long overdue reunion of the robot superheroes with their creator, Dr. Will Magnus, that comic had been written by Steve Gerber and illustrated by Walt Simonson.  But Gerber’s effort was a one-off; with the following bi-monthly issue, #46, editor Gerry Conway took over scripting duties as well.  This creative lineup remained in place only through #47, as by the time #48 finished making its way through production, Gerry Conway was no longer at DC Comics.  As we’ve discussed in several previous posts, Conway had been lured back to his former employer, Marvel Comics, to become editor-in-chief; production schedules being what they were, however, his name continued to appear in DC’s books even as his situation at Marvel evolved from being EIC to becoming the writer/editor of a smaller slate of titles.  Read More

Justice League of America #135 (October, 1976)

Posted on by Alan Stewart

Half a century ago, July, 1976 brought the return of one of my younger self’s favorite comic book traditions of those bygone days– the annual team-up event between the Justice League of America and their forerunners from the Golden Age of Comics, the Justice Society of America.  This particular iteration was the fourteenth such team-up to appear since DC Comics had kicked the whole thing off back in 1963, not to mention the eleventh for your humble blogger, who’d first come aboard in 1966.  And though you couldn’t tell it from Ernie Chan’s cover, Justice League of America #135 had an additional numerical distinction as well, as it presented the first chapter of what would eventually emerge as only the second JLA/JSA event up to that point to occupy three full issues, two having been the norm ever since JLA #21 and #22 had inaugurated the tradition way back when.  Read More

1st Issue Special #9 (December, 1975)

Posted on by Alan Stewart

My first encounter with Doctor Fate dates back to 1966, when I met him as a member of the Justice Society of America in Justice League of America #46 — the opening half of that year’s annual summer JLA-JSA meet-up event, which, as it happened, was the first such event I experienced as a young comics fan.  As I wrote in my post about that issue nine years ago, he very quickly became one of my very favorite JSAers, probably due as much to his look (that golden, whole-head-covering helmet was so cool) as to his power set (I developed a predilection for the supernaturally-based superfolks pretty early on, for whatever reason).  That opinion hadn’t changed by September, 1975, so when the sorcerer from Salem was granted a solo showcase in the ninth issue of 1st Issue Special (his first such since 1944!), it was pretty much a given that I would show up for the occasion.  Read More

Doctor Strange #4 (October, 1974)

Posted on by Alan Stewart

As we previously noted in our post about Doctor Strange #2 back in May, in June, 1974, Marvel Comics provided fans of the Master of the Mystic Arts’ normally bimonthly series with the release of an extra issue.  But Doctor Strange #3 didn’t feature the third chapter of the continuing story begun by scripter/co-plotter Steve Englehart and penciller/co-plotter Frank Brunner back in the premiere issue of their hero’s newly revived solo title; rather, behind a new cover by Brunner (and also wrapped within a new 1 1/2-page framing sequence by Englehart, Brunner, and inker Alan Weiss), the comic offered an edited presentation of an old story that had originally run in Strange Tales #126 (Nov., 1964) and #127 (Dec., 1964).  That tale by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko was indisputably a stone classic, and as a latecomer who’d only arrived at the Doc Strange party in 1969, my younger self was happy to have it; still, even I was impatient to see the continuation of the Sorcerer Supreme’s current quest to escape the Orb of Agamotto, and rescue his beloved Clea from the sinister but self-righteous Silver Dagger, by the time Doctor Strange #4 finally showed up in the spinner rack.  Read More

World’s Finest Comics #199 (December, 1970)

Posted on by Alan Stewart

Ah, here we are again, pondering the eternal question:  Who’s faster, Superman or the Flash?  Let’s see if I can recall where we’ve already been, and how we got where we are “now”, in October, 1970…

Oh, yeah, I remember.  Way back in the June of 1967, when your humble blogger had not yet reached the tender age of ten years, his DC superhero-besotted self thrilled to the first ever race between the Man of Steel and the Scarlet Speedster, as chronicled by the team of Jim Shooter, Curt Swan, and George Klein in Superman #199.  Thrilled, that is, up until the story’s last page, when the Flash was robbed — robbed, I say! — of his rightful victory, when the race ended in a tie.  (Why was I rooting for the Flash?  Essentially, because super-speed was his one and only thing, while Superman had a dozen other super-abilities he could be “best” at.)  Shooter’s story might have framed this as a necessary move by the heroes to thwart two gambling syndicates that were illegally betting on the race — but my younger self knew a rip-off when he saw one:  Read More

The Brave and the Bold #76 (Feb.-March, 1968)

Posted on by Alan Stewart

When I picked up this issue of Brave and the Bold fifty years ago (give or take a couple of weeks), Batman’s co-star in the book, Plastic Man, had been around for over twenty-six years — almost as long as the Caped Crusader himself.  But he’d only been a DC Comics hero for a little over one year — which is about as long as my ten-year-old self had been aware of him.  Read More