Series Saturday: THE ATOMIC KNIGHTS

This is a blog series about … well, series. I love stories that continue across volumes, in whatever form: linked short stories, novels, novellas, television, movies, comics.

Cover art by Murphy Anderson

The Atomic Knights, published by DC Comics, (hardcover collected edition: 2010)

Writers: John Broome

Art: Murphy Anderson

Editor: Julius Schwartz

 

I could write a whole post (and perhaps someday I will) on how I have DC’s 100-Page Spectaculars of the 1970s (and to a lesser extent, their digest-sized reprints in the 80s) to thank for my love of most of the company’s non-super-hero content, and in particular DC’s science fiction, adventure team, and historical characters of the early Silver Age (not to mention my love of their Golden Age superheroes). On the science fiction side of things, those oversized issues were rife with reprints of the exploits of (among others) Tommy Tomorrow, Adam Strange, the Star Rovers, Space Cabby, and the Atomic Knights.

Written by John Broome, with art by Murphy Anderson, and under the editorship of Julie Schwartz, the Knights debuted in Strange Adventures #117 (June 1960) and ran intermittently in the title under #160 (January 1964), a mere 15 adventures in three-and-a-half years. But what adventures they were – and what an effect they had on pre-teen and early-teen me when they were reprinted a decade or so later. I no longer own most of the various issues those reprints appeared in, nor do I know if every single Atomic Knights story was reprinted at the time. But in 2010, DC published a hardcover collection of all 15 original stories. I recently re-read it, hence this post.

For those who may not be familiar with the Atomic Knights, here’s the set-up: it is 1986 and World War III, the Great Atomic War, is over after a scant 20 days. Amnesiac soldier Gardner Grayle finds his way to a ruined city whose citizens are desperate for food and medicine, both of which are being hoarded by a warlord calling himself the Black Baron. Grayle teams up with some of the locals (Douglas Herald, a teacher; Marene, Douglas’s sister; redheaded twin brothers Hollis and Wayne Hobard; and a scientist named Bryndon) to take down the Baron wearing ancient armor that is impervious to the Baron’s radioactive weapons. Hence, the group name. The Baron is, unsurprisingly, defeated and run off in the first episode, whereafter the Knights alternate between protecting their small city of Durvale from a variety of menaces and traveling out to explore what’s left of the United States of America.

As was typical of comics of the period, the characterizations are rather flat, with each team member designed to fill a particular role. Gardner is the square-jawed, death-defying, motivational-speech-giving, “do what’s right no matter how dangerous” leader. Douglas is the practical-minded, thoughtful second-in-command and provider of much exposition. Marene is the requisite damsel-in-distress love interest. Wayne and Hollis are the loyal, do-as-told, muscle of the group. Bryndon is the scientist, the gadget man, and the not-so-subtle reminder that science without conscience is usually not a good thing. There are moments where some of these molds are broken (Wayne and Hollis get to build gliders for the team to use, something that usually would be Bryndon’s role; Marene finally gets to go undercover and save the day in the series’ final installment, “Here Come the Wild Ones,” although Broome still can’t resist having the story end with her thinking that as happy as she is that her mission was a success, she’d be happier if she and Gardner could finally get married and start a family.) but for the most part, each character plays his/her assigned role.

The stories started out very episodic, rarely mentioning what had come before other than the team’s origin. In the early adventures, the team visits other small enclaves of surviving humans as well as the remains of New York City and Los Angeles (in later stories, they also get to New Orleans, Detroit, and Washington DC), each time facing radiation-created monsters or greedy humans who need to be defeated. With the introduction of a revived Atlantean civilization as a threat, the stories develop stronger internal continuity, and it becomes clearer that the stories are progressing in something close to real time. While the stories were published between 1960 and 1964, the characters progress from 1986 to 1992, with some amazing advances in recovery from an atomic war (or “the hydrogen war,” as it’s called in some stories). The Atlantean threat is a 3-parter which also introduces the giant dalmatians (the first giant irradiated creatures that do not pose a threat) that will serve as the Knights’ steeds for the rest of the run.

Actual aliens visit the radiation-devastated Earth in “Menace of the Metal-Looters,” one of the series’ weaker entries, but they are the only extra-terrestrial threat the Knights face – the exception that proves the series’ rule: we humans are our own worst enemies, whether through misused technology, hubris and greed, or both. Okay, that’s not 100% true. “When The Earth Blacked Out” reveals that World War III / the Nuclear War / The Hydrogen War started not because of any one nation, but because of an energy pulse sent out by an underground civilization of mole people! (It was the 1960s, and lost underground civilizations were all the rage in SF and comics.) Douglas’ declaration that “we humans still cannot escape responsibility” (because we created the bombs in the first place) feels a little tacked on, almost insincere. I get what Broome was going for, but I think it would have been better for the series overall if the actual start of the war had just been left unexplored.

Throughout the run, Murphy Anderson’s art is consistently excellent. His characters have distinct facial features and body language, his action sequences are dynamic, and even the silliest monsters (I say again: mole people!) are threatening. There’s a reason he’s one of the most highly regarded and revered artists of the late Golden and Silver Age.

The 2010 hardcover collection does not include the Atomic Knights’ later appearances in DC Comics’ Kamandi and Hercules Unbound, wherein it was revealed that all three series shared the same future world, nor their appearance in DC Comics Presents. The Kamandi and Hercules Unbound appearances are included in a black-and-white paperback collection called Showcase Presents the Great Disaster Starring the Atomic Knights (whew!), which I recently ordered a copy of. I look forward to revisiting those stories. I do own a copy of the DC Comics Presents issue where Superman “teams up” with the Atomic Knights. I’ve always been conflicted about it. On the one hand, it relegates the original Strange Adventures stories to being the dreams of a soldier (Gardner Grayle) in suspended animation, in an unnecessary attempt to explain why the series’ 1986 and the real world 1986 look different – which I think does a disservice to Broome and Anderson. On the other hand, it did pave the way for a “modern times” Gardner Grayle to join The Outsiders (one of my then-favorite titles and teams) as The Atomic Knight, which I really liked.

Overall, my reread of the hardcover collection cemented why the sometimes-silly post-apocalyptic Atomic Knights series was, and remains, one of my favorite non-superhero DC runs.

 

 

If you enjoyed this post, check out some of my previous DC comics-related Series Saturday posts:

Silverblade, First Issue Special, Nathaniel Dusk, Young Heroes in Love

SERIES SATURDAY: Stargirl TV series

This is a series about … well, series. I do so love stories that continue across volumes, in whatever form: linked short stories, novels, novellas, television, movies. I’ve already got a list of series I’ve recently read, re-read, watched, or re-watched that I plan to blog about. I might even, down the line, open myself up to letting other people suggest titles I should read/watch and then comment on.

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I think that Stargirl has become my favorite of the current live-action super-hero television offerings. (This being said, as I’ve also noted on social media, in light of not having seen any of Doom Patrol, Titans, Swamp Thing or Umbrella Academy, and having fallen way behind on Black Lightning, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., and Gotham.) So I’m here to talk about why in more depth than my Facebook post.  IN CASE IT NEEDS TO BE SAID – FROM THIS POINT ON, EXPECT SPOILERS! BOW OUT NOW IF YOU HAVEN’T WATCHED THE ENTIRE SEASON AND CARE ABOUT BEING SURPRISED!

I only became familiar with the Courtney Whitmore Stargirl character after her solo comics series had ended and she’d become a full member of the Justice Society of America. In fact, I still haven’t read her solo series, although I’ve picked up the trade paperback collections and mean to get around to them real soon. So my impressions of the show are based on what I know of the character from her appearances in various JSA runs, and on the show itself.

I’m a firm believer in not expecting live-action versions of comic books to hew too closely to the material on which they’re based. It’s less disappointing when they make wholesale changes if you just go in expecting there to be egregious differences. But Stargirl … Stargirl seems intent on capturing the feel, if not the word-for-word storyline, of the comics. I don’t know how closely anything in season one maps onto the original Stargirl comics (other than Courtney’s step-dad being former sidekick Stripesy and building a giant robot) but they certainly seem to be embracing the legacy aspect of JSA comics going back to the 70s (when Robin, Power Girl, and a time-tossed Star-Spangled Kid joined the team). Okay, so this is not the Beth Chapel, Rick Tyler, Henry King Junior or Yolanda Montez I met back in the late 80s (most obviously, the show’s versions aren’t adults) … but they capture the spirit of each of those characters really well: Henry fighting his father’s evil influence, Rick trying to live up to his father’s legacy but still be his own man, Yolanda trying to decide if she even wants to do this superhero thing at all. Beth is the only one I feel doesn’t have much of the original comics version in her portrayal, but this version of the character is endearing and works as the brainier side of a very brawn-heavy team. I also wasn’t sure how I’d feel about the pilot episode’s biggest departure from the comics: killing off most of the JSA. I have to say I think they gave it all the poignancy it deserved, given that show is not about those characters, but rather the legacy they leave behind.

The show is also embracing the giddiness of super-hero fight scenes that many of the current CW shows eschew for more “realistic” (grittier, darker-filmed) fight choreography. It’s not unusual, in a Stargirl fight scene, to see a character get kicked in the chest and fly across the room. It’s also not unusual to actually be able to see who is hitting who and how hard, and what happens to them after they get hit. With the exception of the opening battle of the pilot, in which the Injustice Society kills most of the JSA, even the night-time and subterranean scenes are well-lit enough to see whose doing what. (Arrow’s fight choreography was mostly spectacular – but how often could you actually see the details of what was going on?) I loved pretty much every fight scene from the pilot on, but the fights in the finale had me cheering for just how well-done they were.

The costumes are also really faithful to the comics, and look almost nothing like what you’d find on any of the other Berlanti-led super-hero shows to date. Gone are the realistic heavy leather outfits of Arrow, Flash, etc.; in are cloaks and cowls and form-fitting spandex and outfits that shouldn’t work in real life but do anyway because COMIC BOOKS. It gives the show a more traditional comic-book look, which I think is part of what frees them to be a little over-the-top in the fight choreography. The only outfits I didn’t really like were those in the snapshot of Pat’s former team, the Seven Soldiers of Victory. They looked a little too much like Halloween costumes. Especially Shining Knight’s, which looked like something you’d pick up at a Ren Faire (but maybe I’m being picky on that because he’s one of my favorite super-heroes?).

The details in the costumes are matched by little set details throughout the season. I particularly loved the movies playing at the theater in Blue Valley: the Unknown Soldier, The Haunted Tank, GI Robot (get the feeling that the people of Blue Valley love their war movies?), and Prez. And I’m sure I missed some other easter eggs, because I can’t imagine Geoff Johns and James Robinson not throwing in more and more obscure stuff as production went along.

The acting on the show is top-notch. Brec Bassinger pulls off the neat trick of letting Courtney be pretty unlikeable at the start (she may be justified in being upset about the move to Blue Valley, but we don’t have to like the way she treats Pat or Mike) and even partway through the season (her grandstanding in the training session with “her” JSA) and still getting us to feel for her. Her best episode was the one in which she finds out her father isn’t who she thought he was and all of her insecurities and heartbreak tumble out. The actors playing the rest of the JSA are excellent as well; while some of what they’re given to play is standard “high school angst,” they don’t overplay it like a lot of high school-set shows do. Of the adult characters, I think Neil Jackson steals the show as Jordan Mahkent/Icicle – his character certainly shows the most depth and nuance (especially as compared to the very one-note “sadistic lunkhead” portrayals of Sportsmaster and Tigress), with Christopher James Baker’s Henry King/Brainwave a close second. And I have to give props to Nelson Lee, who spends the whole season acting under a hood through which we’re barely able to see even his eyes and yet sells every scene perfectly. Amy Smart is terrific as Courtney’s mother, and although I’m not a huge Luke Wilson fan I think he gets Pat Dugan’s mix of sincerity and insecurity just right.

I think the tightness of the season – 13 episodes – helped the actors as well. There was no room for one-off episodes exploring side-quests or a “day in the life at Blue Valley High.” Every scene needed to further the narrative or enhance character, and for the most part they did. Even the scenes of Mike Dugan’s school science fair were necessary – we had to care about the kid if we were going to worry about his safety in the finale. The only scenes I felt didn’t contribute to the overall arc were the scenes in the two-part finale focused on Isaac Bowin (The Fiddler’s son); if they’re not a set-up for the character having a bigger role in season two, then they really were extraneous.

The final episode was one of the most satisfying season finales I’ve seen in a long time, super-hero show or otherwise. The writing staff wrapped up all the major plots for the season while still giving us plenty of hooks into season two. And most of the finale was action, action, action. Which made the quieter Christmas scenes at the end more powerful.

But let’s talk about season two before we go.

With DC Universe and the decision to move most of the original live-action and animated content to HBO Max, there’s a lot of trepidation therefore that Stargirl moving to the CW instead will cause it to fall victim to the things that people dislike about the Arrowverse shows: increased romantic soap—opera elements and too many “filler” episodes, and a move to filming in Vancouver instead of Georgia. I’m hoping that Greg Berlanti will stick to the formula that made season one of Stargirl successful: 13 episodes (15, at most) and a focus on one major problem for the heroes to overcome (and that filming will remain in Georgia as Black Lightning has).

The concern I have is that the season finale set up a ton of possible main storylines for season two. We got set-ups for The Shade (one of my favorite DC characters ever), Eclipso, the search for the Seven Soldiers, the return of Sylvester Pemberton, the whereabouts/survival of the remaining ISA members who aren’t clearly dead, and perhaps even some who were … and left somewhat unspoken was what will happen when the ISA’s kids find out their parents are dead or incarcerated (we didn’t see Artemis Crock or Cameron Mahkent in any meaningful capacity in the season finale, but we did see Isaac Bowin take a tuba to a bully’s head) and who is responsible for those deaths/incarcerations. That’s a lot to juggle in a short 13-15 episode season. I’m afraid that the writers are going to try to go bigger in season two, which will not necessarily be better, and I’m hoping that this prolonged pandemic-induced hiatus will give Johns and company time to decide what story they want to tell in season two and what can wait until a probably season three or longer.

But even with that concern firmly in place, I’m excited and hopeful for a second season of Stargirl. It’s nice to see a brightly-lit, hopeful, less-angst-driven superhero show on television right now.

SERIES SATURDAY: Young Heroes In Love

This is a series about … well, series. I do so love stories that continue across volumes, in whatever form: linked short stories, novels, novellas, television, movies. I’ve already got a list of series I’ve recently read, re-read, watched, or re-watched that I plan to blog about. I might even, down the line, open myself up to letting other people suggest titles I should read/watch and then comment on.

Young Heroes in Love banner image.jpg

To say that Young Heroes in Love was one of DC Comics’ more eclectic offerings of the late 1990s would not be an understatement. It ran 18 issues, from 1996 to 1998, and I remember enjoy its quirky take on a group of early-20s heroes just trying to make their mark in the greater super-hero world while also navigating their own hormones. I liked it enough that it’s one of those short-lived near-forgotten series that has had a permanent home in my comics collection, surviving multiple downsizings and moves.

And yet, I can’t recall having reread it since it was first published. So I was overdue but a little nervous to actually do it. Any time I consider revisiting something I haven’t read or watched in a decade or more, there’s always that question: will it hold up to my memory?

Happy to say that Young Heroes in Love pretty much does. It’s not perfect, but it’s still good – and when it’s really good, it’s really really good.

Writer Dan Raspler and artist Dev Madan co-created the team and concept, and you can tell from the first issue that they’re just having total fun with the idea of, as Wikipedia puts it, a super-hero garage band. These folks know they want to be super-heroes, and that the best way to make a name for themselves is to work together – but they’re really not very good at that last part yet. Given time, maybe they would be – but Raspler never got to explore that far since the series only ran 17 issues (plus a weird DC 1 Million crossover issue).  When the team encounters more famous heroes, like Superman (during his “electric powers” phase) in issue #3, they fall all over themselves fan-boy and –girling while also trying to impress. They even offer the Man of Steel (Electric? Whatever) membership! Most of the run is one endearing attempt after another to “make it big.” They go up against several giant monsters as well as a serial kidnapper and a villain team with a “rat” theme (Raspler’s hysterical take on the long history of villain teams built around a common theme, most famously represented by Marvel Comics’ Serpent Society). They have their biggest case fighting Batman’s enemy The Scarecrow, but they don’t make a big splash in the news. They do make a big impression on fans in Japan and end up the subject of a manga magazine – mirroring the success lots of young bands have overseas long before they become popular here at home.

Dev Madan’s art in the early issues sets a matching serio-comic tone, slightly cartoonish but not over-exaggerated. It took a little getting accustomed to (in my memory, the art was a bit more realistic). The characters all have distinct looks that stay consistent throughout the issues Madan illustrates (although the same can’t be said for the issues drawn by other artists), and he’s really good at giving the characters a variety of body types. Frostbite’s angular build contrasts Off-Ramp’s scruffy dad-bod (a term that I don’t think had been invented yet in 1996, but which totally fits the character). Bonfire is petite, Monstergirl is more full-figured. The diversity in body types of most of the team becomes extra apparent whenever Hard Drive (the telepathic/telekinetic leader) shares panels with Thunderhead (the team tank): both are broad-shouldered, muscular blonds (although Hard Drive’s blond hair is close-cut and Thunderhead’s is a typical shaggy rocker-do). I have to think making the Brain and the Brawn look so much alike was a conscious decision on Raspler and Madan’s part.

Okay, technically, Hard Drive isn’t the brains of the outfit – the diminutive Junior is the smartest guy in the room (at least until the team meets a particular pre-teen genius), but he’s often overlooked by his own team because he doesn’t have any other power other than being small – which does enable him to solve a case all by himself at one point, proving his worth to the cops if not to his own team. And Junior isn’t the only tiny member of the team: Zip Girl joins a few issues in, and she’s not only small, she can change sizes (to lead a normal life out of costume) and she can fly. Junior doesn’t mind, because he’s in unrequited love with her.

Which brings us around to the title of the book. They’re not just The Young Heroes – they’re Young Heroes in LOVE. The soap opera aspect of the book is nearly pitch-perfect, from budding crushes and unrequited love to one-night stands (and a subplot where Hard Drive tries to brainwash Bonfire into being in love with Thunderhead because it’s better for the team dynamic than her total sexual attraction to her power-opposite, Frostbite, and in which its very clear Hard Drive is in the wrong. Yes, he gets his come-uppance eventually). It being the late 90s, it’s not surprising that the majority of the relationships (the good and the toxic) are heterosexual. But not quite all of them. I’d forgotten just how (as comics writer Steve Orlando recently put it) “ahead of its time” this book was in, near the very end, giving us a relationship between a comfortably bisexual character (Frostbite) and a newly-out-of-the closet character (Off-Ramp). And it’s clear this was not a “the book’s being cancelled and no-one is likely to use these characters again, so what the hell” last minute decision. In early issues, we see Frostbite’s glances and flirting with Off-Ramp. Off-Ramp himself spends the early issues not showing attraction to anyone else on the team, mooning over a string of unsuccessful relationships with women. But the character blurbs at the start of the issues often included phrases like “who knows what Off-Ramp loves” – clear hints that sooner or later, Off-Ramp would have a romantic connection with someone. (And no – Off-Ramp’s coming out is not instigated by any kind of mind-control on Hard Drive’s part.)

If there’s one thing that might be deemed problematic about the book, it would be that the main cast is very, very, very white. Monstergirl, aka Rita Lopez, is an alien shapeshifter who hatched from an egg and imprinted on the Latino parents who raised her as their own (shades of Superman’s origin!). She’s the only Person of Color in the main cast (Yes, Frostbite is also not white: but he’s a blue-skinned ancient snow elf from northern Canada, so I’m not sure he counts). And there are only a couple of non-white supporting characters (including Junior’s childhood best friend who is now a cop). This is not something I consciously noticed in 1996-98, and I’m not sure it made a conscious impression on most readers at the time. There was no mention of it on the letters page at least. Which is surprising, given this was only a couple of years after the debut of Milestone Comics, an independent imprint published/distributed by DC. I’d like to think that if Raspler and Madan were pitching the book today, the cast would have been a bit more diverse.

I’d also like to think that if there had been more time, some of the fascinating background world-building would have been explored. Monstergirl’s alien uncle shows up eventually to reveal her true nature, but we never really get to learn anything about Frostbite’s people (for instance, are they connected at all to Justice League member Icemaiden’s community?), nor about the intriguing society of Travelers that Off-Ramp is apparently a member of. In fact, for most of the run everyone on the team seems to forget that Frostbite isn’t just another Young American Hero. Just like they seem to forget Monstergirl’s erratic behavior or Bonfire’s deep knowledge of the super-hero world except when mentioning it is needed to drive a plot point.

Soap opera romance, deep ruminations on the nature of celebrity and teamwork, tweaks on classic comic book conventions, young characters who are earnest and endearing but not perfect and whose bad decisions come back to haunt them, interesting world-building that never gets fully developed, and character traits that somehow get completely forgotten from issue to issue: holy shit – Young Heroes in Love was a CW Arrowverse show before there was an Arrowverse!

I doubt that Young Heroes in Love is on DC’s priority list for collection in trade paperback or hardcover (although, considering the recent collections of First Issue Special and Wanted, I could be wrong about that). But the individual issues seem to be available for only a few bucks each through places like Midtown Comics.

PRIDE 2020 INTERVIEWS: Steve Orlando

Todays’ Pride Month interview is with comics writer Steve Orlando:

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Hi, Steve! I hope you’re staying safe and healthy during the current pandemic lockdowns. What are you doing to stay creatively motivated in these unusual times?

Paying rent! Honestly, when you're freelance, you often have to put your head down and just lean into the work. Yes, the background stress is higher than ever, the highest in my lifetime. But this is the job, and with some companies on pause, we push our connections, hustle as much as possible, and get as creative as possible. I've probably hustled more original ideas during this pandemic lockdown than ever before. If anything, there's going to be a lot of new content coming your way! And less sleep for me! But more shelf space, more stories I get to tell. So it's an easy price to pay.

 

Since June is Pride Month, I have to ask: how has being bisexual influenced or informed your writing?

For me it's all about perspective. Being bisexual, being Jewish, I know what it's like to have something inside yourself that others can't necessarily see, to be able to pass, if you like, but at the cost of your integrity and your truth on a daily basis. So I think that inner secret connects me to the concept of a secret identity, something that plays so strongly into superhero comics. And in my originals, the leads still tend to be outsiders, people with a secret.

It also reminds me constantly, being bisexual, how important representation is in comics. It's important we tell stories with a world that looks like the one outside our window. Honest, bold, often primal, but true...and that means diverse. It means aggressive. It means stories that have no choice to be told, because they're the stories I wish I had when I was growing up. They're the holes in my life, in the role models I didn't have, that stories could've filled.

 

I have to tell you that I read your Midnighter and Midnighter and Apollo series knowing absolutely nothing about the characters beforehand, and absolutely fell in love with them. Thank you for that. Both books were short-lived, as was Sina Grace’s Iceman series at Marvel. Why do you think books from the Big Two headlining gay characters don’t seem to last as on-goings? It feels like there’s absolutely an audience for it.

I can only speak to my experience, but unfortunately as with anything in publishing, this question comes down to sales. And while there is a big audience for LGBT storytelling, it is not always as reachable as we might think. It generally lives outside the sales outlets that exist, so books don't reach those that want them until they're released in trade paperback for the book market. However, in the current industry, with overall numbers and margins what they are, a book lives or dies on its periodical sales. MIDNIGHTER AND APOLLO launched to cancellation numbers, which is the unfortunate reality. It's TPB of course did better, but the industry as a whole isn't robust enough right now for that to matter, only periodical sales do.

So, do we need to change? Yes. Of course. And the good news is that for better or worse, this year’s lockdown is going to force us to. So watch this space for innovation, and better work getting these books to those who want them, in a way that speaks to the people that publish them.

 

I’m always interested in hearing about people’s creative process. How do you approach developing a pitch for a new series? And how do you then script each issue?

When it comes to actually building a pitch, it's all about the lead you hang your lore on. Raw ideas can come from everywhere – that comes from consuming creative calories on a lot of fronts. Almost every pro I know keeps an idea board for this reason. But once you need to take that idea from a sketch to a pitch, it's all about deciding who inhabits the world you've created. The best idea is nothing without a relatable lead – that's why more people like THE LORD OF THE RINGS than THE SILMARILLION. One focuses more on an emotional journey within a fascinating world, the other focuses on the lore first. Once you know your characters, and their core, what they want and where they're going, you can throw any adversity at them and know how they'll react. That begets the story.

 

In the past few years, you’ve had critically-acclaimed turns on Wonder Woman (another gay icon) and Martian Manhunter. Are there any characters from the Big Two that you’re just dying to take a crack at?

There's a ton! I would love to take on Doctor Fate, I'd love to work with Ladytron, I'd love to work with Alan Scott or Wesley Dodds, or Ted Grant! But I also have just jumped across the street to Marvel, where I have such a long list. The big ones, Captain America, probably my favorite Marvel Character. But also people like Living Lightning, like the Blazing Skull, the Destroyer. The Mutant Force is also something I've always loved, oddly enough. I also love, love, love the Green Goblin and Black Bolt. And, of course...Scarlet Witch, Doctor Doom, and Jim Hammond, the android that killed Hitler.

 

What are you working on now and what do you have coming out soon?

“Soon” is a relative term these days, is it not? That said! You're going to see some shorts and specials still outstanding from DC COMICS this summer. WONDER WOMAN ANNUAL #4 brings what we had planned for my Wonder Woman run together in a beautiful way, and there are some other unannounced works, shorts, coming before the end of the year.

OCTOBER, for National Comic Out Month, is KILL A MAN, an LGBT Mixed Martial Arts graphic novel from me, Phil Kennedy Johnson, and Alec Morgan, out from AfterShock Comics. And this is the one! For people who read VIRGIL from Image or MIDNIGHTER from DC, this is the next big, hard hitting gay story I'm telling. And it is the proudest thing I've ever done.

After that? You're going to see me all over. Works from TKO Studios, more from AfterShock, more from places I can't even hint yet! And NONE of it superhero, all of it fresh...until I return to superheroes in my own original way before the end of 2020. Stay tuned!

 

And finally, the usual: where can people find you and your work online?

I am pretty active on Twitter at @thesteveorlando and on Instagram @the.steve.orlando – head over and follow! As for my work, my comics are all available through online comic book stores like Third Eye Comics, which ships nationwide. And my digital DC FIRSTS are available direct from the DC Comics website. And there's more to come!

 

Steve Orlando writes and edits, including VIRGIL (IGN’s best Graphic Novel of 2015), Undertow and stories in the Eisner Award Nominated Outlaw Territory at Image Comics. As well, he launched 2015’s Midnighter and 2016’s Midnighter and Apollo, both nominated for GLAAD awards, and took part in Justice League of America, Batman and Robin Eternal and most recently Wonder Woman, Supergirl, Batman/The Shadow and Wonder Woman for DC Entertainment, as well as The Shadow/Batman for Dynamite Entertainment, NAMESAKE for BOOM! Studios, CRUDE for Skybound Entertainment, Dead Kings and Kill a Man for Aftershock Entertainment. Outside of comics, he has been featured in Hello Mr and National Geographic. His 2018 sold-out launch Martian Manhunter was one of Tor's Best Single Issues of 2018. In animation, he's worked with Man of Action Studios on season four of Ben 10, and in translation, has produced localizations for Arancia Studios Best-Selling UNNATURAL and MERCY at Image Comics.

Series Saturday: DC's FIRST ISSUE SPECIAL

This is a series about … well, series. I do so love stories that continue across volumes, in whatever form: linked short stories, novels, novellas, television, movies. I’ve already got a list of series I’ve recently read, re-read, watched, or re-watched that I plan to blog about. I might even, down the line, open myself up to letting other people suggest titles I should read/watch and then comment on.

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As much as the size of my comic book collection has fluctuated over the decades, there are certain series that I have just never been able to part with. It is nostalgia and sentimental value that drives these decisions rather than monetary – anyone who has seen my collection knows that I’m all about readability and favorite characters and not about getting the most value. I can’t imagine the day will come that will see me purchasing a “slabbed-and-graded” copy of any comic book. All of this is why there are what some would consider to be real “quirky gems” in my boxes.

And one of those quirky gems is the 1975-1976 DC series called First Issue Special. The idea, as explained by series editor Gerry Conway in the recently-released hardcover reprint volume, came from DC publisher Carmine Infantino: since new first issues sell better than anything else, why not a series that was all first issues, and anything that really caught readership attention would get spun off into an on-going title? I won’t reiterate the logistic issues Conway explains in his hardcover Introduction. I will say that the concept made for one of the most eclectic mixes of characters and creators one is likely to find under a single title.

The idea of “try-out” titles was nothing new by the mid-70s. DC’s Showcase title, defunct by this point but due to be revived in 1977 for a short run, was the book that launched the Silver Age with try-out revivals of The Flash, Green Lantern, and others. The Justice League and the Teen Titans got their try-out in the pages of The Brave & The Bold. Over at Marvel, try-out series included Marvel Premiere (which launched Iron Fist, Warlock, and a Doctor Strange revival, as well as an Alice Cooper issue), Marvel Spotlight ( which gave us Werewolf By Night, Ghost Rider, Son of Satan, and Spider-Woman), and Marvel Feature (which introduced The Defenders, and launched Red Sonja as well as the Thing’s team-up title, Marvel Two-in-One). What set First Issue Special apart was that no character or concept was given more than one issue to prove itself, because featuring a character in more than one issue would contradict the idea that every issue was a “first” issue.

The line-up of creators alone is impressive: three issues written and drawn by Jack Kirby, two written by Joe Simon, work by Marty Pasko, Walt Simonson, Steve Ditko, Mike Grell, Robert Kanigher, Bob Haney, Ramona Fradon and Conway himself. Not all of these folks were necessarily at the top of their games here, but that was probably as much from the rushed production schedule as anything. According to Conway’s introduction, it sounds like concepts were picked as much because they could be executed quickly as because they might be any good.

The characters were a mix of previously-established properties like Doctor Fate, the Creeper, the New Gods, Manhunter, and Metamorpho and new concepts. The newly-introduced concepts ran the gamut from solo super-heroes and teams (Codename: Assassin and The Outsiders) to boy gangs (The Green Team and The Dingbats of Danger Street) to fantasy (Atlas), pulp-adventure (The Warlord), gritty crime drama (Lady Cop) and science fiction (a new version of Starman).

Of the three Kirby issues, his revamp of classic Gold Age character The Manhunter probably holds up the best, a “passing of the mantle” type story that I think gets unjustly overshadowed by the Archie Goodwin-Walt Simonson Manhunter revamp that debuted in Detective Comics around this same time. The Goodwin/Simonson was more spy thriller than super-hero, while this Kirby issue features classic Kirby throwbacks to Golden Age over-the-top-ness (the villain in the first half of the story has a Hall of Talking Heads to taunt the hero!), and there’s really no reason both could not have been successful. The Kirby Manhunter, Mark Shaw, did eventually show up in issues of Justice League written by Steve Englehart. The Kirby issue that intrigued young me the most, though, was the very first First issue Special: Atlas. It always amazed me how Kirby managed to make even “high fantasy” concepts looks science-fictional, and that’s totally true here. Young me loved Greek mythology, and didn’t seem to mind (and still doesn’t) that this version of Atlas is nothing at all like his Titan namesake. Sadly, the character didn’t catch enough interest, although he’d be used later and to lesser effect in Superman stories written by James Robinson.

It’s also of interest that both Jack Kirby and Joe Simon took First Issue Special as a chance to return to their heyday as creators of “boy gang” characters (see The Newsboy Legion, the Boy Commandoes, and Boys’ Ranch). Kirby introduced The Dingbats of Danger Street (which apparently had been given the go-ahead as an on-going but then was yanked from the schedule with only the first of three completed issues seeing print here) while Joe Simon wrote (with art by Jerry Grandenetti) The Green Team. Talk about taking concepts in complete opposite directions! Kirby’s Dingbats are street-level kids fighting costumed supervillains, while Simon’s group are all young millionaires whose biggest concern is a crowd trying to shut down a project they’ve backed (also, awkwardly, the token black kid only becomes a millionaire by accident while the others are born into – and their privilege shows. Even in the 70s, this was obvious to me and made the Green Team my least favorite issue of the run). The Dingbats eventually showed up in some Superman stories and the Green Team in work by Grant Morrison in the 2000s.

Other than Atlas, my two favorite “new concept” issues were The Warlord and Starman. The Warlord was Mike Grell’s take on the classic pulp-adventure “hollow Earth” concept, following in the footsteps of Edgar Rice Burroughs and Jules Verne but putting his own distinct spin on it. Warlord is the one First Issue Special character to successfully spin out into a long-running series, but moreso because it was planned that way from the beginning rather than from immediate reader response. Regardless, I loved everything about the character, the world of Skartaris, and the series that followed. Grell has also always been one of my favorite artists and he’s at the top of his game in this issue. The science-fictional Starman, about a lone alien rebel looking to protect Earth from invasion by his own warrior society, had lots of promise that never got the chance to shine. I’d like to think if the character had had a multi-issue tryout in Showcase a few years later he might have taken off (although then much of what James Robinson eventually did with the character in his own Starman revival decades later might have been vastly different).

At the time of publication, I can’t say that the Lady Cop, Codename: Assassin, or The Outsiders issues made any strong impressions on me. Rereading them now, the first two are pretty solid character introductions with potential. I can see the appeal to some of The Outsiders as an ersatz Doom Patrol, with the main characters even less “passing-for-human” that Robotman and Negative Man, but to me the story seems to be trying too hard.

Of the previously-established characters given berths in First Issue Special, the return to Metamorpho by Bob Haney and Ramona Fradon is probably the most fun, a ridiculous non-stop romp through Washington DC’s landmarks to stop a vengeful ghost. Some of Haney’s dialogue is over-the-top, especially for lovesick goon Java, but Fradon’s art is spot-on. The Creeper story attempts to establish a new norm for the hero. It’s a good enough story, making use of a little-remembered (at the time) Batman villain, but I think it loses something by not having original creator Steve Ditko write as well as draw the story. The “Return of the New Gods” (also the series’ final issue) is pretty much one long fight scene and feels a bit rushed story-wise (trying to do too much to establish that these are the classic Kirby characters but also different) and art-wise (Mike Vosburg’s pencils feel much more dynamic in the Starman story the preceding issue), almost like the creators were pushed to hit a deadline.

The stand-out among these previously-established characters is clearly the Marty Pasko-scripted, Water Simonson-drawn Doctor Fate issue: a great story that builds on Fate’s history and lays the groundwork for later Doctor Fate solo features. I really wish this one had gone to series.

First Issue Special may have varied in quality across its short run, but conceptually it was more hit than miss for this reader, and I’m glad I still own all of the original issues as well as the new hardcover reprint. Now if DC would just get on the ball and give us hardcover or trade paperback collections of the one on-going series that successfully spun out of First Issue Special, Mike Grell’s The Warlord, I’d be really happy.

SERIES SATURDAY: Silverblade

This is a series about … well, series. I do so love stories that continue across volumes, in whatever form: linked short stories, novels, novellas, television, movies. I’ve already got a list of series I’ve recently read, re-read, watched, or re-watched that I plan to blog about. I might even, down the line, open myself up to letting other people suggest titles I should read/watch and then comment on.

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Not long ago, I re-read (for the first time in many years) and wrote a Series Saturday post about the two Nathaniel Dusk mini-series written by Don McGregor, drawn by Gene Colan, and published by DC Comics. That, along with reading the first three volumes of Tomb of Dracula: The Complete Collection back in November, made me want to re-read more of the Gene Colan work I loved, starting with the Cary Bates-scripted, Colan-drawn maxi-series Silverblade.

Silverblade is the story of reclusive former movie star Jonathan Lord and his co-stars in the movie that shares the maxi-series’ title. At the height of his career, the “Lord of Sunset Boulevard” matched Errol Flynn and Tyrone Power as a screen star; in the waning years, Lord’s career parallels Boris Karloff, to an extent. In the then-present-day of 1987, Lord is long-since retired and is bitter and cranky. He spends most of his time watching his own old movies while being waited on by Bobby Milestone (who co-starred in “Silver Blade” as a young boy in need of rescue) and avoiding phone calls from several of his ex-wives (including Sandra Stanyon, the great love of his life, who also co-starred in “Silver Blade”). An ancient bird spirit, manifesting as a falcon, grants Lord the ability to transform into any of his former film roles (gaining whatever powers are inherent with each role), because the bird-spirit needs a human avatar to help battle the return of another ancient spirit called The Executioner. Returned to his prime (in his role as the hero of “Silver Blade”), Lord re-emerges into Hollywood society pretending to be his own son, Jonathan Lord Junior, going on auditions for a science-fictiony “Silver Blade” remake and falling in lust with a well-known reporter. All of which distracts him from the mission, to the falcon’s displeasure.

The story winds its way from there over twelve issues, delving into the characters’ shared past (other major characters include Brian Vane, who played the villain in “Silver Blade,” and Vincent Vermillion, the young boy who was Bobby Milestone’s stunt double on the film and holds a grudge) and slowly unveiling what the battle between the Falcon and the Executioner is all about. There are plenty of interesting twists and turns, and very cool use of the types of characters an actor who started out as a Flynn and ended as a Karloff would have played: there’s the swashbuckling hero, the disgruntled private eye, the turns as Dracula and the Mummy. Two of the issues have end-text that list every movie Jonathan Lord made, and several are named after classic DC properties. I really would have loved to see Bates and Colan’s take on Jonathan Lord as The Viking Prince or Sarge of “Gunner and Sarge,” but I suspect that list was created well after the main story was plotted out, and fitting every character Lord ever played into the main story would have been a bit too much. But I have to admire Bates’ dedication to giving us Lord’s full filmography and a look at the actor’s one turn on Broadway.

For the first three-quarters of the story, what we get is something that I think falls firmly into the realm of “urban fantasy.” There’s magic at play, forces that normal humans can’t comprehend; there’s a plucky band of main characters who are in the know, willingly or not, and working to save the day; and the city of Hollywood and its history play a major role in the proceedings (I’m not sure it could have been told the same way if Jonathan Lord had retired to, say, Chicago, or if his successful career had been centered on Broadway instead of the movies). There’s never a mention of other super-heroes, and the few moments where the supernatural is revealed to the greater public are usually written off as some kind of mass hallucination, which make it a lot easier to think of this story as taking place in “the world outside our window” (to steal a phrase from the great Philip Jose Farmer). Up to issue nine, Silverblade is a straight-forward “guy must save the world” story.

The final third of the story is where things get really weird. Metaphysics is a subject I’ve never been able to fully grasp, and Bates lays it on think. As a late teenager when the issues originally came out, I have to admit I didn’t really get it; I think I understood more of what he was attempting while rereading at age 53, but I’m still not totally sure. There’s a major change to the characters’ world introduced in issue #9 that allows Bates to move the story from straight-up urban fantasy to a treatise on the nature of reality.  Is there more than one? How “true” is “the real world” versus its celluloid imitations? In the first eight issues, Lord deals with some of this as he transforms from character to character and explores where the line is drawn between private actor, public persona, and character (including being killed and brought back to life as Dracula). But thanks to the big shift in issue 9, every character has to consider the question of what is real and whether one is ever truly “whole,” either in inter-personal relationships with or within oneself. Ruminations on Reality and Wholeness lead into the twin ideas of Truth and Perception, questions about whether anyone can truly know everything about us, and whether our personal truth is one that others can recognize and accept. Which leads me to a slight digression: I had completely forgotten about the scenes featuring the newly-introduced characters of “Alfie York” and “Jeremy Lago,” forgotten about how clearly a May-December couple they are when we first see them and how later in the book as reality reasserts itself we find one of them at least uncomfortable with being forced to play that relationship. I’m torn between giving Bates kudos for even attempting to give us a gay couple in a mainstream comic in the mid-80s and being unhappy with the reveal that they’re not only not a couple but that one of them expresses their discomfort in a somewhat homophobic way (although I don’t think the lines were meant by Bates to be interpreted that way, they certainly can be) that might be more upsetting to the other character than he lets on (I think, without spoiling much, an argument could be made that that particular character is closeted throughout the book and only in the final third does he finally get a chance to live as himself).

(I also have to admit, the introduction of a spirit guide who takes corporeal form as a cartoonish leprechaun might have had something to do with me not taking part of the “big theme” seriously back in 1987.)

Colan’s art is, of course, brilliant through-out. His style lends itself to the more metaphysical aspects of this story as much as it does to the gothic storytelling of Tomb of Dracula or the noir of the Nathaniel Dusk books, showing just how versatile the man was without compromising what made him unique. He’s inked here by Steve Mitchell (except for the first issue, on which Klaus Janson did the inking, and which looks a bit like the issues of Daredevil that Janson inked over Frank Miller). Mitchell isn’t quite the perfect match for Colan that Tom Palmer was on Tomb of Dracula, but he’s still quite good. And occasionally we do get to see, as we did on Nathaniel Dusk, art shot straight from Colan’s pencils, in terms of movie posters and photos that appear as part of the end-matter.

Since Jonathan Lord and Sandra Stanyon have appeared in DC’s animated Young Justice series (at least according to Wikipedia; Young Justice is another cartoon I need to eventually watch), I assume the rights to Silverblade rest with the publisher and not with Bates and Colan (or Colan’s estate). I think Silverblade would lend itself excellently to a one-and-done 10- or 12-episode series on Netflix of Amazon Prime. (I have long pictured Derek Jacobi as the older Jonathan Lord; the “younger” Lord needs to be someone swashbucklingly handsome … while I’d love to cast Freddie Highmore because I think he’s that damned talented, he’s also still got a baby-face at almost 30, so I think the studios would have to use someone like Aaron Taylor-Johnson or Nicholas Hoult. I think Colin Firth would be perfect as Bobby Milestone… I might have to do a separate post with a “dream cast.”)

I also realize that DC seems to have a weird process for deciding which older books (meaning 40s-80s) get collected (and how they get collected: hardcover or softcover? Full color or black-and-white?), but since they collected Colan and Marv Wolfman’s Night Force run from around this period, one can dream that Colan’s other mid-80s work for the company (particulary Silverblade, Nathaniel Dusk, and J’Emm Son of Saturn) will also get the hardcover full-color treatment one of these days.)