Pre-Crisis Primer: Monster Mash

Swamp Thing 38-42

“The Curse”

Before the monsters, there is THE LOVE.

John Constantine, bastard extraordinaire, has come dangling answers to Swamp thing's new found existence and 'the truth behind his super-duper origins!' Too bad to get these truths our pal Swamp Thing has to play gopher for the British magician and carry out a couple of sordid tasks before answers will come. Vampires, werewolves and zombies, oh my.

Saving himself from death by abandoning his body (plants regrow!) Swamp Thing inadvertently discovered a plane of existence connecting all plant life called 'The Green.' Just at this moment British bastard magician John Constantine arrives offering answers. Almost like he knew that a certain moss-person would be easy to manipulate and be useful for mundane tasks; sort of like an unpaid intern. Constantine has a litany of things he needs done all under the cryptic guise of stopping an impending doom. That's just not fair, superheroes can't ignore shit like that. It's like dangling a hot dog in front of a dog. They're going to bite.

Feeding on the pale fatty.

What is this impending doom? Is it bullshit? No, not bullshit, but as I said, definitely cryptic. All Swamp Thing knows at this point is what Constantine tells him and all that Constantine is divulging is that an ancient evil, something older than Heaven and Hell, has been hibernating on the shores of creation since before there was a creation. In advance of this doom, pockets of evil have awakend, specifically in America. Constantine is the gun, taking aim at these rising horrors and Swamp Thing will be the bullet he fires.

The interesting aspect of this story is that the pockets of horror Swamp Thing is sent to combat are basic horror tropes and situations that are given different twists so that the familiar, while known, is neither boring nor stale.

Swamp Thing fights a baby. And loses.

Vampires suck (ho ho ha ha) most of the times and usually they're restricted to crappy romantic stories or atmospheric (and sometimes still crappy) Gothic stories. That's not how Swamp Thing rolls here though because these vampires are the Aquaman of vampires. They reside in a large man-made lake in the middle of America that just happens to have been the result of a dam bursting and the tiny village in the valley submerged. Underwater vampire city (I love comics). Even the romance angle of vampire stories gets a twisted update in the large female vampire who's bloated with eggs so much that she bursts in the town center, spilling her unborn children. The eggs hatch and the spawn, vampires more evolved to deal with life underwater (fish-pires?), go on a cannibalistic streak until only one remains: the strongest, the most evil. It all leads to Swamp Thing versus giant fish-vampire baby. Not content to rely on fisticuffs in such a dire situation, Swamp Thing flexes his new plant-powers and creates a body from a hill just outside the valley and manages to spill the entire lake down the mountain. Running water kills vampires and so endeth the threat! Chumps.

Badass.

The second classic horror creature to be remade for the 80s. (how rad) are werewolves. Instead of just angry men who get hairy on a full moon, werewolves are a metaphor for gender warfare. Constantine sends Swamp Thing to a small town where prehistoric human tribes in the area would send women suffering from the dinosaur-version hysteria. Basically they buried crazy women alive in a cave. The unknown part being that the hate and resentment these women rightfully had for the men who imprisoned them seeped into the earth and festered until an asshole and his wife moved into a house built on the land. Ancient evils don't like abusive husbands much like me. So there, something I have in common with an ancient evil (woooooo). The woman who's unlucky enough to both live in this house and be beaten by her husband becomes a vessel for this angry cave-girl rage and is transformed into a hulking, hair behemoth. In the end, after a struggle with the Swamp Thing, the woman, overcome with grief with what she's become, takes her own life before being forced to kill her piece-of-crap husband. She's a better person than me.

Domestic violence.

Finally, Constantine fires his Swampy bullet towards his hometown of Louisiana and a horde of zombies that haunt an old plantation and constantly play out the tragedy that occurred there: a slave revolt turned ugly, some people were lynched, others flayed alive, and even more still burnt to death. Ghastly business all around. The creatures are more ghostly than zombie, but they do have a decayed look and do rise from graves, so, zombie. Or zhobie. That's not a bad one either. Regardless of what they end up called, Swamp Thing is able to put an end to this horror-loop by setting himself on fire and running into what's left of the old plantation to burn the damn place now. He's really getting into this whole 'seemingly unkillable' thing. I respect that.

Block party!

Regardless of Swamp Thing's journey through new versions of the old Universal monster movies, Constantine stresses that Ancient Ultimate Evil is still coming and answers to what Swamp Thing is won't be forthcoming yet, not while there's still business to do. Ah, if Constantine is a dick, I know everything is alright with the world.

Pre-Crisis Primer: Gar is the LAW!

Tales of the Teen Titans 53-55

“Shades of Grey”

Bible or not, I wouldn't trust him.

He dealt the Titans their worst loss. He was responsible for the death of a member of the team: Terra. Now it's time for Slade Wilson aka Deathstroke the Terminator to pay the piper. Lady justice comes calling and if you think a slap on the wrist will suffice, well, Changeling has other punishments on his mind.

In the tradition of grand Titans story-telling (it really is the best straight-superhero comic series of the entirety of the Post-Crisis Primer; Swamp Thing being in a league of its own) the physical conflict is not the centerpiece of the story as much as the impact both Slade Wilson and Changeling have had on each others life as well as the similarity in their lives: Tara Markov. Both men loved her in their own ways, Slade on a physical level as part of his manipulation to use her to destroy the Titans from the inside-out and Gar loved who she was and really felt he had a real relationship with Tara. Because of this, Gar felt the most betrayed with the whole situation and had a harder time coping than the other Titans. While they tried to distract him and help him get over this, Gar is younger than the other Titans (he's probably 15 years old, not much older than Tara, where most of the other Titans are 18-19 years-old) and as such he never believed Tara betrayed the team of her own volition. He couldn't believe anyone could be cruel enough to pretend to like him, to pretend to be his friend; as such he blames Deathstroke unequivocally for the tragedy.

Hey, the judge is Vigilante! From DA to judge. Crossover goodness. Also, winged alien.

As Deathstroke's trial proceeds and the defense scores victory after victory on the prosecution most decidedly in proving that, since Deathstroke wears a full mask, and yes, we can prove it was him on the site when Tara went nuts and the Titans attacked him, that it's impossible to prove that Slade was the particular individual behind the mask any other time he attacked or fought the Titans and even when he threatened New York City. Which, for whatever it means for superhero law (pay attention Flash), how does one prove a masked man committed crime unless they're caught in the act?

As the trial goes more and more in Slade's favor, Gar, who's dedicated himself to attending every day, flips out and tries to provoke Slade to a fight. Not surprisingly this goes poorly and in fact Slade's reluctance to fight is one of the moments where the jury found it impossible to convict him for the crimes with which he was charged. It was enough to instill reasonable doubt. In the end: Deathstroke walks. Of course, young and naive he may be, Changeling is no fool; getting Deathstroke off the hook was all part of his plan because he doesn't want Slade going to prison, he wants him to die.

Gar doesn't care about the law.

First rule of classic super-heroing: no killing bad guys though. To the surprise of no one Gar does not kill Slade, but to the surprise of everyone it's not after some obligatory fisticuffs. In fact, Slade doesn't even move in their fight, he stands till as Gar lunges for him in the guise of a falcon, ready to tear his face off. Faced with the one thing he couldn't comprehend or expect, no resistance, not even the hint of self-defense from Slade, Gar of course dives into the ground, unable to kill in cold-blood. The two then retreat to a diner to talk of Tara, love and loss. Slade helps Gar onto the path to coming to terms with Tara's betrayal. No grand proclamations or oaths of revenge. Just two enemies talking, their fight over. A very satisfying climax to a long-brewing story and just one more feather in the cap of this fantastic series.

He just misjudged the jump.

What are the rest of the Titans up to in the meantime? Ex-member Lilith, a precognitive sensitive, has been staying with the team ever since Donna's wedding and she leads the team to someone who will impact their destiny in the future. Good for all sub-plots it turns out this being is a winged alien who's recently been rescued from the ice and is unconscious at a hidden research laboratory (aren't they all?). Unconscious at least until Lilith arrives on the scene; seems he's in love with her at first sight. Escaping his captors the alien escapes, promising to appear again. Mystery romance and intrigue! Future stories ahoy!

Just two guys rapping about the womens in their lives.

 

Pre-Crisis Primer: Say No to Superhero Fascists

Flash 341 – 346

'Trial of The Flash Part 5'

He's going for an insanity plea.

After months of litigation and an odd, kinky, S&M assassination attempt by Flash's greatest enemies, it's finally time for the titular trial to get underway. Courtroom drama ahoy!

We're well aware at this point that Flash is on trial for killing the Reverse Flash, but what's the charge? Originally charged with manslaughter, everyone giving the scarlet speedster the benefit of the doubt that he didn't mean to kill the villain, the charge is replaced at the start of the trial with second degree murder meaning that Flash, while not planning to murder someone that particular day, did make a thoughtful situation to kill a son-of-a-bitch. Which he then succeeded in doing. With his bare hands, the barbarian. The doubt is no longer in Flash's benefit.

The prosecutor seems to have a personal grudge against the Flash, but we later see that this is far from the case: he shakes Flash's hand and admits the hero saved him and his family a few years prior. Far from being just another lawyer-cliche dick, the prosecutor makes a good point for not only pursuing the trial but also jumping the charge to the more sever choice being that superheroes are not society's appointed protectors but are instead self-appointed. 

Let Flash off the hook once, and it's murder-city.

In the beginning people were happy to overlook the sudden appearance gaudily-costumed people with powers who seem to follow and enforce the laws of society. Superheroes are not an agent of change but instead an agent of the status-quo. They prevent change in most instances; reactive and not proactive. Superman does a lot of cool things but he doesn't march on for change and mostly keeps out of international incidents that would break laws. The Flash killing Reverse Flash is supposedly the first time in the DCU that a superhero, at least in terms of this trial, is accused to have taken it upon himself to murder another individual, bad or not. Because the Reverse Flash was supposed to be innocent until proven guilty; that's a tenet of most international judicial systems. As a society, all we have to tell us Reverse Flash was guilty of anything is the Flash's interpretation of events. That's not good enough and it really shouldn't be. It's a strength of the story that the reader is able to understand why someone would want to prosecute a lovable red hero and also be able to agree with the character. If Flash is allowed to work completely outside the law rather than just on that odd border that vigilantes can occupy, then what's to stop this behavior becoming commonplace? That's a superhero tyranny and that's a big 'hell-no' for this intrepid crusading prosecutor. Unsung hero of 'The Trial of The Flash' right here. 

The perfect secret identity: ugly.

This trial is also, of course, not without its quirkiness. If it were to just be a normal trial, where would the drama be? No, Big Sir crashes the place again manipulated by the Flash's colorful bank-robbing bad guys into being a man-baby assassin. Not a friend worth having Flash, especially when his huge orange (?) mace ruins your damn face. In true comic-book fashion Flash takes the opportunity to run (across the Atlantic, go super-speed), mangled face and all, to the hidden African nation of Gorilla City. This is where Gorilla Grodd comes from: a whole city full of super-evolved, super-strong, telepathic, nude-as-hell gorillas. While cool in a science-fiction/pulp mash-up it's still slightly racist (go comics?). The gorilla-scientists do give Flash a new face out of the deal though. No more Barry Allen!

In the more soap-opera aspects of the trial, Fiona Webb, present at the trial as a form of therapy has a mental relapse when talk of the Flash's trial turns to Barry Allen (and still, Barry does nothing to help the woman he wanted to marry) and, I'll skip ahead a bit here, she's not seen again during the entirity of the story. Fiona's story ends with her being carted to the hospital after suffering a sever mental break from reality. I've mentioned numerous times how much of a dick the Flash is for not doing much to help Fiona so I won't bemoan the point here. On a lighter note, Flash's lawyer thinks he's a dick too, but she's still agreed to defend him. In dramatic fashion we find out she's harbored this anger towards the Flash because she believed him responsible for her father's death. She was wrong, it was a gangster by the name of Goldface (he who has gold skin, Green Lantern would love this guy). With this knowledge she can now feel safe being friends with the murder-happy speedster.

Goddamn Judas.

But, the most damning drama is of course the testimony of one retired superhero: Kid Flash! Even worse, his testimony amounts to Flash had many options in disarming The Reverse Flash that didn't have to satisfy his raging murder boner. Things aren't looking to good for The Flash at the close of this chapter.

But here's the good news! The Reverse Flash isn't dead! He shows up and begins kidnapping Flash's enemies for some nefarious reason. No, wait, that's horrible news. I'm pretty sure The Flash is screwed now.

Good thing/bad thing.

Rogues Gallery Round-up

DC Universe Badguys

Friendly bunch, just want to shake your hand.

I love Batman's villains. They're crazy, gaudy and full of pulp-inspired goodness. These are villains that have stood the test of time and already have some classic stories under their belt and I enjoy their sporadic reappearances. I've spoken before about the collected rogues of both Green Lantern and The Flash but what is a rogues gallery and the concept of heroes having a set rogues gallery in the first place? A rogues gallery is not exactly unique one to comic books but is a tent pole concept to comic book titles and heroes that continues to this day.

Batman's rogues are a mirror of the bat-clad hero in that they're more based in realty than most of the other super-villain variety. Large gorillas immediately pop in mind as some of the more unreal characters we see in comics. Some of the more enjoyable as well, no doubt. This unreality makes them no less loved, mind you as I've done my best to collect EVERY Post-Crisis appearance of Monsieur Mallah and The Brain. I will do my best to document their romance and the pitfalls they face. Spoiler: there's not a lot of issues that dedicate story time to these characters. I know, it makes me sad too. But just wait until we get to the giant gorillas in suits that make a quick comeback in the 90s; I'm so excited.

Friends. Lovers. Inspiration.

Damn my digression: this article's about collections psychopathic humans and robots, not just gorillas. Every comic book superhero needs to have a rogues gallery, meaning a collection of villains and ne'er do wells that only plague a certain hero and the city the hero calls home. Why would a villain like The Shark continue to plague Coast City or Green Lantern? There's no personal grudge there. Why does Captain Cold continue to rob banks in Central City when The Flash repeatedly trounces him? Again, there's no personal enmity between Cold and The Flash, in fact there's even a grudging respect. Why not move out of Central City though? Fight slower heroes? Go to Louisville, Kentucky; no heroes there. In fact, why does The Flash stick to one city. He runs so fast he faces the consequence of accidentally flying through time at regular intervals. Boy should be patrolling on a global level. Super-speed is pretty unstoppable really.

Rogues galleries are a pretty silly conceit most of the time and I find myself thinking: 'just go somewhere else Major Disaster, stop sticking around Coast City already. You're just going to get punched.' Although, moving won't even work half the time, Dr. Light moved to Gateway City and still happened to run across a retired Kid-Flash who trounced him with a trashcan. To my earlier point, the concept of not having a personal grudge is not applicable to all villains: Lex Luthor and The Joker do have personal grudges or obsessions with the hero, in this case Superman or Batman, respectively. For most villains, in Batman's case Scarecrow, Riddler, Penguin, et al, have no real problem with neither Gotham City nor Batman. Why stick around? And crazy isn't a viable excuse here. And maybe I'm selling my argument short by describing it in terms of geographical location, everything residing in one city, but more in the terms of why don't villains crossover between heroes more often? It does happen, but a rogues gallery is a hero owning a set group of villains.

Flash fights these guys over and over. But now they're spooky.

I've mentioned before, part of the reason a rogues gallery exists might be due to audience expectations: I enjoy seeing conflicts build up between a hero and a reoccurring villain. The stories then build off run another and ideally the characterization of both combatants deepens and the reader is treated to escalating conflicts and two enemy's constantly trying to outwit and out-play one another. That's the expectation at least, but really, that's not what happens.

Lex hates both Batman AND Superman.

Over time the hero and villain fight and every few years the villain reappears. After 50, 60, 70 years of story things (and really, it happens before that, but I'm concerned with Post-Crisis versions of these stories) stagnate. Stagnation is even the least of the issues for any continuing story, because after a while both hero and villain look utterly incompetent and the war between them, instead of being exciting is simply an endless war of attrition. The hero fails to keep the villain locked up and the villain fails to be able to pull off a crime successfully or even kill the hero. The continuing story and need for a rogues gallery than makes most stories redundant. As much as I love comics, shitty stories are not what I like. How many times can The Joker break out of prison and how many people can he murder before he's captured again? Continue cycle. Joker stories in particular, especially with more modern stories (see the current 'event' story 'Death of the Family' for an example) seem to only be able to frame his threatening nature in how many people he can kill at any one time. Joker becomes less of a character and more of a blunt weapon and Batman looks more and more ineffectual. He'll never stop The Joker because he holds life sacred. At what point does the sane answer become for Batman to just kill The Joker? Sometimes this might be brought up in-story, but it's just anti-climactic hand-wringing that the audience knows will bring about no lasting change.

The new Joker, same as the old except now he's torture-porny.

Because heroes have rogues galleries and these rogues galleries are perpetual in a continuing narrative. Story suffers for the characters merely existing. As much as I love comics, this 'keep the characters stagnant' attitude has always been my biggest criticism. A story without an ending is no story at all. This is part of the reason I've started this blog because with 'Crisis on Infinite Earths' event and the more modern 'Flashpoint' event, the Post-Crisis continuity finally has a beginning and end. Sort of. As close as I'll get with mainstream superhero comics at least.

Rogues galleries go against the idea of change or an ending to a story and conflict and instead set up a situation where one character is in conflict against another set group of characters ad nauseum.

Pre-Crisis Primer: Rogues' Round Robin

Batman 373-375

Detective Comics 540-542

“Between Two Nights”

What you don't know: Robin really broke Batman's back there.

After the highly suspenseful boxing-match-rigging drama at the heart of the Dr. Fang saga, Batman jumps right into kicking some proper super-villain ass by taking on a total of three prime members of the fabled Rogue's Gallery. Scarecrow, Penguin, and Mr. Freeze, step right up. Your five minutes of fame is about to begin.

Batman's Rogues don't really follow the mold of many classic DC Universe bad guys; most have backgrounds that are based in magic or science fiction, usually of the mad scientist or alien despot variety, while Batman's rogues are taken right from pulp stories or old pulp crime movies. Batman villain NUMBER ONE, The Joker, is taken directly from a 1928 classic film: “The Man Who Laughs” where a man has his face altered into a permanent grin. Another classic Bat-rogue, one of my favorites, Two-Face, former Gotham DA with half his face horribly scarred by acid, would be right at home with Dick Tracy's rogues and all their unique and eye-popping disfigurement. Batman's small dalliance with the 'mad scientist' motif is Dr. Hugo Strange, who's more in common with the crime scientist from the German expressionist “Dr. Mabuse” films than any kind of death-machine building sci-fi Bond villain.

Hiding out while Batman has some java. Won't ever find him here.

The rogues featured in this story are a good mixture of the usual DC bad guy tropes: Penguin is a classic gangster who's most interested in taking over parts of the underworld and pulling off robberies. He comes with a tiny bit of super-science in the form of trick umbrellas that can act as gyro-copters, swords, machine guns, and flame throwers. Scarecrow is pure pulp movie goodness straight from a horror movie: a psychologist who studied fear at Gotham University, he experimented a little too harshly on students and was fired. In a fit of rationality he decided to dress as a ragged scarecrow, develop a toxin that will cause victims to hallucinate to the tune of their greatest fears, and have his revenge on all 'bullies.' Mr. Freeze is probably the most mad scientist in Batman's rogues gallery as a cryo-scientist experimenting on methods to cure his wife, currently in cryo-freeze induced suspended animation. His funding stripped, the corporation he worked for was directly responsible for an accident that left Freeze's body mutated: he can no longer survive out of sub-zero temperatures. Taking the sane response, Freeze built a suit and a gun and went on revenge.

Lesson here: Don't fire crazy people, they will definitely become Batman villains.

They'll never suspect The Penguin.

Batman goes through this rogues in more or less a rote fashion: Scarecrow is out to prove he's top dog by scaring the shit out of people, simply enough; Batman later tails Penguin all the way to Antarctica for some cross-continental action after the rotund gangster steals some defense plans form the Pentagon; and Freeze literally dreams he's frozen Gotham City solid for the hell of it and sets off to do just that. 'm sure I'm not spoiling anything but pointing out that Batman wins all of these conflicts with his fists. Sure, Robin helps out against the Scarecrow, but a dose of fear gas for Batman regarding Robin's recent run in with Crazy Quilt and possibly losing him to one of the many crazies they face on a nightly basis leads him to ground Robin for the time being. Shall a robin fly no more?!?!

The literal dream. Freeze's wet dream.

Here's where we get to the interesting part of these issues. The main plots are all merely placeholder: main action to have something to put on the covers for the monthly publication. The only real bit of inspiration is plunging Penguin headfirst into international intrigue, by still, by the end of the story everything is status quo and the villain is locked up again. Aside from my love for the colorful bad guys, there's little to recommend with the main plots. For the audience, as readers, and I suspect for the writer, the real story is what goes on between the main plot, the sub-plots.

As with most of the series up until now, the question of whether Batman is right to train and put Jason Todd in the line of fire as Robin is the main driving force for the character-based stories. As I mentioned, Batman grounds Robin, but that's not all: a teacher at Jason's school noticed the boy always falling asleep at class and sporting numerous bruises. A call to Protective Services later and it's revealed Bruce Wayne never even formally adopted the boy. These stories end on the cliffhanger of Jason Todd being taken away from Wayne Manor and remanded to a home for boys until a possible foster situation can be worked out. Even the state thinks Wayne is unfit, which is a theory this writer has held for awhile now. Robin is great and everything, but it's difficult with modern stories to justify his existence. I do appreciate how the writer is exploring this and taking the story the whole nine yards.

Batman does get to shine in these stories too. Looking badass.

Other simmering sub-plots include a sequel of sorts to Gordon's brushwith death. We learn that Harvey Bullock was assigned to Gotham PD as a replacement for Gordon by corrupt Mayor Hill only to betray the mayor and end up helping Gordon at the last minute. Hill, clearly not thinking straight, has gone to Dr. Fang, who languishes in prison, for aid. While I'm pretty sure this dork never took over the Gotham underworld, he still has the power to direct assassins from prison towards Hill's endeavour. His price: freedom from prison.

Finally, the stories regarding Alfred's daughter, Julia, who's been staying at Wayne Manor, as well as Bruce's estranged lover, Vicki Vale collide in a less than satisfying form. In previous stories Vale was an equal with Wayne, she wanted to pursue a relationship as much as he did and when he (as we know because was Batman) starting giving her the cold shoulder, she ended things with him and went and put that energy into starting her own photo-journalist business. She end's up hiring Julia Pennyworth as an assistant and the two almost immediately become catty towards each other Bruce Wayne. Because they both love him. Of course. Although, on the good side, Vale is able to help Batman out by saving his ass against Mr. Freeze. She drops a stalactite on the villain. That's cool. Et's hope her strong characterization comes back.

As with most stories during this run of Batman, the main plots are weak and simple, but the simmering sub-plots give the character's stories a lot of meet and provide the real impetus to continue reading on a monthly basis. 

Too stupid to say much else.

On the flip-side of these stories, we do get some back-up action with Green Arrow. I don't want to spend too much time on these stories because they're horrible. Green Arrow in his civilian identity of Oliver Queen is a former millionaire, who, upon finding corruption in his own company sold off all his assets, gave away his fortune and went to live in an ashram for a time. Returned to society as Green Arrow, he works as a reporter for a local radio station. The radio station finds itself under siege twice, once by a villain with a flaming trident and again by a bad guy with a prankster identity. Not worth reading at all. I'm just interested in Green Arrow for the continuity. Really disappointing.

Pre-Crisis Primer: Fill-In Vigilante

Vigilante 17-18

“Father's Day”

I love how the handle is shiny, but not the blade. That shit is rusty.

Admittedly I'm only making this detour from our usual 'Pre-Crisis Primer' titles because Alan Moore wrote it, but we were introduced to both Adrian Chase, DA as well as his vigilante alter-ego, uh...Vigilante, in previous stories so it makes sense to do a bit of follow-up. It doesn't hurt that 'Father's Day' is an excellent story that introduces readers to some heavy conflict, well-written characters, and completely deflates the way Vigilante runs around thinking he's solving problems.

Alan Moore was not the 'regular' writer of Vigilante at the time this story saw print. Regular writer in the sense that the same writer is writing successive stories, similar to what Moore is doing with Swamp Thing, which was coming out alongside the Vigilante title. 'Father's Day' is what's referred to in comic-book parlance as a fill-in story. With how comics are produced today (today, for future reference being the early days of 2013), fill-in stories are a thing of the past. Now, how is this possible? Well, glad you asked dear reader. Up until recently (let's go with roughly the year 2003), comic books were run as just another periodical, which means the most important aspect of the book was shipping the damn thing. If a series' regular team, the writer and artist creating most of the issues on a monthly basis, fell behind in the schedule, that's when a fill-in was called to task. Fill-ins are usually one or two issues that primarily exist not to drive the main plots, or even sub-plots, of the series forward but only to keep characters and plot swimming in place until the regular team can get back on schedule and back in the business of telling their stories. Nothing terribly important happens in a fill-in issue; a reader can even skip a fill-in issue and not miss anything relevant to the main characters or story.

He's gotta make sure he gets dressed before rescuing the damsel.

As comics 'grew up' and grew out of the periodical business in the sense that the monthly issue became less important than the inevitable collected edition (meaning a trade paperback collecting, usually, four or more issues that comprise one whole story; for the pretentious: graphic novels), the fill-in disappeared. With the focus on 4-8 part stories, (how many stories we've seen thus far go for that many issues?) comics evolved in production to where most titles do not have a regular artist, but a rotating cycle of artists who work on one story with a regular writer. As I mentioned before, stories are longer and also less connected; meaning that main plots and sub-plots usually wrap up in a single story rather than being carried between several stories in a series as we see with Batman or the Teen Titans. Sort of a similar to a novel. Neither good nor bad, but I do prefer older-style monthly comics. Big surprise, I'm sure given the focus of this blog. I'm full of surprises.

'Father's Day' is both a relic given how monthly comics are produced today as well as a rarity in the realm of fill-in issues as it attempts to introduce some very powerful changes to the main character. I enjoyed this story so much I was wishing I had other issues in the series just to see if the developments here are followed up with at all. I doubt it, but damn if I'm not interested.

To sum up quickly: the story is about a man, Carl Linnaker, just released from prison, eager to reunite with his daughter and not going to let a little thing like his estranged wife get in his way or anyone else who crosses his path. The murders attract DA turned Vigilante Adrian Chase who takes on the task of both rescuing the kidnapped little girl as well as bring the murdering madman to justice. He's joined in this task by a woman, Fever, who's friend, Louise, was killed by Carl. Working together to navigate the New York neighborhoods, Fever and Vigilante finally track down Carl and his daughter. Carl is killed in the altercation and everyone lives happily ever after.

Vigilante: winner of the 'leap into a small pistol' medal.

Well, the ending may have been a bit too simplified.

Instead of being another example of the superhero going up against an evil being and triumphing much to the adulation of the masses, readers are treated to a more even-handed approach to typical conflict.

The city eats Vigilante alive. He's so naive.

The focus of the story are the two newly-introduced side characters, Fever and Louise. Roomates and best friends, Fever makes money by growing and selling marijuana from her apartment while Louise works as a prostitute. Normally portrayed as victims or villains in comic books, both characters are the most sympathetic and even-handed in the story. Louise shows the most kindness to Carl's daughter, where Carl or Vigilante react to her as something to own, the Macguffin to the story; Louise actually treats her like a human being going through a traumatic experience. After Louise is killed, Fever is the only character to react to murder on an emotional level. What's collateral damage to Vigilante is a life that meant something to Fever.

 Vigilante is hesitant to work with these characters in the beginning of the story, after all, they're criminals right? In Vigilante's world, on is either innocent or criminal. His worldview leaves no option for another classification. He also finds it hard to navigate the neighborhood that makes up the setting of this story, seemingly lacking any kind of street smarts. People he tries to question regarding Carl's location think he's a lunatic for wearing a hood and costume in broad daylight and at one point his bike is stolen. Fever does most of the sleuthing and navigation.

When Carl and his daughter are finally located, Vigilante picks a fight almost immediately, the conflict ending with Carl dead. Unexpectedly, Carl's daughter is furious and upset that her father is dead. There is no adoration in Whoville for our friendly neighborhood vigilante. 

When murder doesn't solve all your problems....

Not every conflict can, or should, be solved with fists and not every solution requires a fancy costume. The story ends with every character I a worse place than when they started and Vigilante alone in his apartment. Do things change after this? Does Adrian Chase become more tolerant of people. Less likely to flat-out murder someone for what they have done?

I'm not sure, like I mentioned before I do not have another issue in the series, but from what I understand is that, regardless of what this fill-in tried to accomplish, or the growth introduced to the character, none of it stuck. If I'm wrong, feel free to correct me, I would love to have some more information. Regardless of any larger impact, like most of Swamp Thing, I whole-heartedly recommend these stories as they constitute an amazing short story.

Pre-Crisis Primer: Love Your Mother

Tales of the Teen Titans 51-52

“Jericho's Story”

Even Jericho's poster is shocked.

When the mother hen of the Teen Titans, Donna Troy, is away on honeymoon, the other members of the Titans are sure to get in to trouble. Trouble or not, the main cast of the Titans are more side-characters to this story, the focus being on Jericho and his mother.

The Titans have suffered dire defeat but also had many reasons to celebrate during the past year. Regardless of the recent celebration, those aforementioned wounds are too deep to be easily healed. Jericho, the new team member introduced during the final battle with Deathstroke who is also the villain's son, was accepted fairly easily into the team in a moment of desperation and with only the word of the newly-christened Nightwing to act as a recommendation. Considering the ultimate betrayal of Terra, a member also taken in by the team without the Titans knowing the full story, Changeling doesn't quite trust Jericho, suspecting he's a plant from Deathstroke to further destroy the team.

Crazy-Eye versus the Menagerie. Tickets?

The plot for the story gets a bit convoluted so here's an attempt to succinctly sum up what happens. Considering she was the wife of Deathstroke for a long time, Jericho's mother, Addie Wilson was also a highly-trained military professional. In fact, she trained Deathstroke in spy work when he was in the military. Notwithstanding, she's not only military contacts in black-ops, but also enemies. More importantly, as a spy, she has enemies that she betrayed. Big breath: the Mid-East nation of Qatar, upon seeing that Jericho is a member of the Titans who recently broke up an arms shipment deal in the United States, come to the conclusion that Addie Wilson, who used to work for the Qatar government, and was selling their defense secrets to the American government; on the flip-side the American government, also recognizing Jericho from the Titans, arrange a meeting with Nightwing to discuss bringing Jericho in for questioning because they suspect he works with his mother collecting defense details from governments. Whew.

Jericho's momma takes 0 shit, gives 0 fucks. Still loses though.

All those words comprise the source of some righteous inter-team conflict. While Qatar has dispatched Cheshire, the poison-obsessed assassin previously seen working for The Monitor to capture Addie and bring her back to Qatar, Nightwing makes the mistake of asking Changeling to make sure Jericho stays put until Nightwing can return. Gar predictably flips his lid, automatically assuming the new teammate is a traitor and the two, in true superhero fashion, fight it out and manage to break some furniture before Jericho hightails it to rescue his mother from Cheshire. Spoiler: Jericho punches Cheshire square in the face and rescues his mother. My sarcasm is probably misplaced there in that for a bit, I figured they would kill Jericho's mother; it is the hero's quest after all, see Batman and Robin. Jericho: bucking the trend that heroes need to be orphans.

Jericho gets a running start on that punch.

'Jericho's Story' is a crowded one, no doubt there. In the beginning especially the plot is out of control but it's in the second part that the audience gets a little meat in the form of information about Jericho. Up until this point all we know about Jericho is that he's Addie's son, Deathstroke's son, and can possess the body of another being by looking into their eyes. Here we learn that he loves art, so much so that he lets the man who tortured his mother escape just to save a priceless piece of art threatened by a live hand grenade. Being mute, art is Jericho's language, it's how he is able to communicate with others and this has given him a different affinity for it than those of us who can vocalize. Jericho, while willing to employ a few kicks and punches on his quest to save his mother is wholly unwilling to take a life. Now, while this is true for most of the DC heroes at this point, it's interesting with Jericho because both his parents are highly trained military operatives who have trained Jericho not just to fight, but to kill. This is a bit different than Nightwing, who Batman trained extensively in martial arts but with no killing attacks. Jericho has the knowledge and shows time and again that he's simply unwilling to use those tactics. Jericho's preferred method of attack is to possess an assailant and just take them out of the fight that way. A pacifist artist superhero? Sure, I'll take that.

He does drop Cheshire with a hay maker though. No one messes with Jericho's momma.

Pre-Crisis Primer: Enter John Constantine

Swamp Thing 37

“Growth Patterns”

Swamp Thing goes hippie in The Green.

C'mon, you didn't really think Swamp Thing was dead, did you? Of course not, you're a canny reader and have experienced enough stories to know that as far as fiction is concerned, death is merely one more hurdle to be overcome. In comic books, its basically a revolving door.

The Thing's gamble regarding leaving his current body, which had been completely wrecked by a radioactive hobo (with comics it's fun to make plot points sound sillier than they are by over-simplifying), and trying to plant (ho ho) himself somewhere else pays of in dividends. He also meets a new friend along the way. 

Constantine and the dapper company he keeps.

The aforementioned dividends first pay out in a new means of transportation and the realization that Swamp Thing is not a being confined to a body but a conscious who can interact with something called 'The Green' which is a sort of other plane of existence accessible by plant life. Not quite a hive mind, but more like a meditative space where communication is not verbal, nor even limited to language, but along the lines of instant understanding. All in all, kind of a cool thing and definitely a new aspect of Swamp Thing's life that will be explored and fleshed out in following stories. The transportation is more like teleportation: Swamp Thing can abandon a body at any one point on the planet, travel through he green to the new destination and grow a completely new body from the local vegetation.

While Swamp Thing struggles with growing a new body in this issue, it's pretty much the crux of the story and plot, with subsequent uses of this new power he will be able to regenerate himself almost instantaneously. 

Not a dream, not a hoax, it's baby Swamp Thing!

While Swamp Thing is regrowing himself under the care of always helpful Abby Arcane (she sprays his tiny, plantling self with pesticides), the real importance with this story is the introduction of John Constantine. Constantine is more popularly known as the star of the comic book 'Hellblazer' and less spectacularly as the basis for Keanu Reeves' character in the dismal film 'Constantine'

Constantine is a favorite character and I'll inform readers right now: I am going to be covering the entirety of the Hellblazer series through the Post-Crisis. While the title eventually severed all connection to the mainstream superhero DC Universe, it did start there. Plus a little bit of dark crime and adventure will be a nice break from the constant colorful super heroics. Regardless of any of that information, who is John Constantine? At this point, it's sufficient to say that the man is a magician and a self-described 'nasty piece of work.' His magic is of the subtle variety: knowing things, knowing what things should not be, knowing how to stop said things and, most importantly, knowing how to get other people to do his dirty work for him. Eventually the guilt of Constantine's sacrifices will catch up to him, but right now it's not his goddamn problem.

Not a friend you want to have around.

It's Swamp Thing's goddamn problem because our boy Constantine has promised him answers to what he really is (we know he's not a man, not a tulip) and what The Green is all about. In order to gain these answers, Swamp Thing is going to have to go on a little trip across America battling various pockets of supernatural activity. Said supernatural activity all a precursor to the coming of some ancient evil. Basically the plot of Ghostbusters. But it's cool. Time for a road trip.

Going road-trippin'

As all this is going underway we do catch a glimpse of an avatar of this evil, a twisted men with one arm bent behind him, the hand sewn into his spine and his head completely turned around. An evil who takes great joy in pushing one of Constantine friends out a window. So it begins.

If only he could scratch that itch....