History of the DC Universe (1987)

The first thing that you have to remember here is that Mars does not matter in the grand scheme of DC Comics continuity. Krypton does. Gotham City does. To a much lesser extent, Themyscira does. Casting a net more broadly, as has been mentioned in a couple of my podcasts, Atlantis matters to both Marvel and DC Comics. But Mars? I don't think rates all that highly anywhere, outside of Topps Comics. The 20th Century made a lot of dismissive mention of the Red Planet, and like the moon, the popular consciousness read it as a generic location of dubious value to fantastical comic book stories.


And so, the first half of the Post-Crisis on Infinite Earths revisionist history of DC published in 1986 is mighty concerned about Oa, prehistoric Earth, World War II... all those other places I mentioned. Without a comprehensive reread though, no mention of the planet Mars, or any of its denizens. Moving into the second half, they still devote a lot of pages to WWII, and a little bit of the post-war years. The one true Earth was still a cooling mass, however, so from there we leap to Task Force X and the conception of Aquaman. That famed rocket from a doomed planet had been launched in the first volume, and finally landed in a corn field near Smallville. A nigh-adolescent Bruce Wayne saw his parents gunned down, which gets a bit hinky with the relative ages of the DC Trinity. Phantom Stranger, Captain Comet, and the creation of Princess Diana arrive next. Well, one figure does fall between Comet and clay baby Wonder Woman...

Warrior J'onn J'onzz, exiled into the parched Martian desert, was teleported accidentally to planet Earth by the famous Professor Erdel. This Manhunter from Mars knew the time of heroes had not yet come, and so remained in hiding, disguising himself as a police detective until, at last, he could allow the world to know of his existence.

There's a lot to consider there. Firstly, that was two sentences. I choose to offer long, sometimes tortured sentences as part of my personal expression, so you might call me hypocritical for pointing that out-- but dang! Next, the fact that in a rare instance of DC offering mixed caps in a canon story, only the Js are capitalized. Okay, I might be "considering" too pedantically. How about how the late Silver/early Bronze status quo begun with"...And So My World Ends!" seems to still be in place, with that "warrior" bit in particular pushed back against by the 1988 retcon? We're also in a vague pre-heroic age, with the best marker being the conception of Raven on the next page. The creative team on this book had come up with that character to be a member of the New Teen Titans, and the book's artist was presumably working out how his Wonder Woman would also debut in her late teens/early 20s in her new history. Therefore, at the time of publication, it would be fair to assume Detective John Jones was around in the late 1960s. Couldn't be much further back than that, if we want to keep Superman and Batman around 28-30 years old. While a handful of stories alluded to a further period setting, it would be another eight years before parity with his initial date of publication was established in Zero Hour: Crisis in Time #0.

In another short-lived stand for this continuity, the entire World's Finest trio launches the modern heroic age, placing Robin ahead of the latest version of Flash, Green Lantern, the Atom, the Hawks, Aquaman, Captain Atom, Green Arrow, and Blue Beetle. We see Starfire as a child, Cave Carson, the Challengers of the Unknown, Adam Strange, the Sea Devils, and Dolphin. Curious chronology ahead of their key super-team revival...

This was now the Silver Age of heroes, and some of the greatest who ever lived banded together to fight evil on Earth and throughout the stars. Inspired by the wartime exploits of the famed All-Stars and the Justice Society, these young heroes took the name the Justice League of America.

Because John Byrne's Man of Steel had already rolled out, we knew that Superman would be excluded. Pictured as the core line-up were J'onn J'onzz, Aquaman, Barry Allen, Batman, and Hal Jordan. A scale Ray Palmer Atom was placed just outside the framing of this team inside the old badge logo of the JLA, with the floating heads of Oliver Queen and Katar Hol on either side. Not a bad guess, but this line-up was never properly executed in the comics. The Caped Crusader was eventually excluded, at least as a founder, though he inevitably engaged with the JLA early and often in this retcon. DC eventually settled on a quintet in 1988, capped by Black Canary.

Jemm, Son of Saturn got a mention as a contemporary of Firestorm, Firehawk, and the Warlord Travis Morgan, oddly predating the retroactive continuity armored Gardner Grayle Atomic Knight, as well as Baron Winters of Night Force. These were mostly continuity charity cases, only getting a nod here by proximity to publication date. Jemm was originally a Son of Mars, who played heavily in the fields of post-apocalyptic Bronze Age New Mars stories, and his Saturnians were eventually retconned into literal Martian clones by Ostrander/Mandrake. It's nice for us, since none of the solo Manhunter from Mars adventures rated a mention, nor his predecessor, Roh Kar. Instead, as ever, and another gift of the zeitgeist, the Alien Atlas is solely represented in this period through his affiliation with the mid-80s Justice League (generally appended with "Detroit" to define the line-up of Batman, Elongated Man, Zatanna, Steel, Gypsy, Vibe, Vixen, and Aquaman.

From there, we get into the weeds of para-Crisis on Infinite Earths material, with a heavy emphasis on developments during and spinning out of Legends, including the line-up of the first six months or so of the Justice League relaunch (soon-to-be-International.) So that's Dr. Light II, Captains Atom and Marvel, Mr. Miracle, Guy Gardner, Black Canary, Blue Beetle, and Dr. Fate. They're followed by the Suicide Squad and, ugh, Post-Crisis Wonder Woman. It makes my skin itch when people rave about the female leg of the DC Trinity arriving after freakin' EVERYBODY, just so Perez could treat his Simonson Thor retread as though it were a brand new shiny thing. And then from there is a toboggan ride through the potential futures, most especially the Legion of Super-Heroes 30th Century, that will be ripped to pieces to wipe the butt of every reboot from here through the next five decades and counting.

New History of the DC Universe #1 (August, 2025)

It's a bit funny. This post is running late in part because I also ran late last week, and I didn't want to "step" on the full duration of an art post. But mostly, because I thought that I was going to quickly cover the old History of the DCU, and it just kept going. I'm going to circle back to that next week, and give this more or less deserved short shrift. You see, there are only 28 story pages in this edition, and 48 in the original debut volume, yet that one only reached the earliest days of the United States' involvement in World War II. With 20 less pages, and covering nearly double the publishing history, New History makes it well into the nebulous "post war period" of at least the 1960s.

In a key divergence, the writer incorporates elements of the mini-series Doomsday Clock, which to my horror is from nearly eight years ago (though the maxi-series took two years to complete, so its latest reveals are closer to a half-decade-plus old.) Actually, the writer is surprisingly deferential to Geoff Johns' work in general, so maybe he still has sway as the former CCO, or it's just an acknowledgement of his impact at the company. Anyway, the reference is to a government think tank meant to replace the super-heroes lost after the forced retirement on the Justice Society in the early 1950s. Dr. Niles Caulder, Will Magnus, Professor Martin Stein, and Simon Stagg are named and credentialed, so unless one of their projects involved the study of Ian Karkull, these guys would be a minimum of about 30 years old at the time. They would soon reference baby Kal-El's rocket from Krypton, and human frailty suggests these guys would be 60+ today at most, so we're talking a setting of about the same time as 1994's Zero Hour: Crisis in Time that gave us the Martian Manhunter's 35 Years Ago time frame, then meaning 1959.

J'onn J'onzz's use as an historical benchmark is almost exactly the same in execution between the "1987" and 2025 editions of History, but with wildly different relative contexts. Timeline-wise, Martian Manhunter anchors the same gap between "heroic ages" from Justices Society to League that he once did sharing a page with Captain Comet. Except now, the presumably 1950s-set Comet forms a short-lived "Justice Alliance" with other characters published (but not previously canonically set) in that decade: Prince Ra-Man, Automan, Tiger-Man, and Congorilla. What used to be about a four year difference in age between Comet and Manhunter is probably now more like forty years. It makes me wonder where and if the Justice Experience has standing in this sliding timeline, since they were a late 60s/early '70s set team, but Cameron Chase is likely not meant to be in her sixties after seeing her father murdered by Dr. Trap as a child.

With all that having been said, at the end of the day, the image yet comes down to the Alien Atlas manifesting before Erdel, now formally mashing up pre-and-post-Crisis incarnations by name and title...

"In a small laboratory in Colorado, Dr. Mark Saul Erdel tested his teleportation ray for the first time. Inadvertently, he wrenched through space and time a Martian named J'Onn J'Onzz--

Note the mixed caps, which will come up again later/earlier. This book was by writer Mark Waid and artists Todd Nauck and Jerry Ordway. I'd initially assumed that one was inking the other to various degrees, but once I actually read the book, it was clear each was providing full art on their individual pages, with Nauck drawing the Manhunter one. Dave Wielgosz is credited with researching the project with Waid, and offers copious end notes to the issue. The 1998 volume of Martian Manhunter is referenced a few times, including some Tom Mandrake art. Specifically, Ma'aleca'andra's colonization of the solar system. There's also a weirdly worded reference to Kelly/Mahnke JLA about how White Martians "arise" around the time of the Crusades on Earth. The prior Ostrander reference was from Earth's pre-history, with White Martians already competing with greens in the expansion. Even if you excuse it as a reference to the phenomenon of "Burning Martians," one of those was killed by Vandal Savage in the caveman days, so it's still needlessly anachronous. Ma'alefa'ak's plague is unleashed between the times of the Earl of Strethmere and Captain Fear in the early 18th Century of Earth. J'Onn's teleportation is listed between the inital I-Spy activities of King Faraday, and Slam Bradley's arrival in Gotham City.

2014 Houston Comicpalooza Abba Sulkar, Shtarker, & Grosse Vulture Jam Sketch Detail by Isaiah Broussard

Sorry for the missed post last week. I kept figuring I'd do another minor character spotlight from the Vulture period, but I had a lot of running around to do, and I'm still low on gas. I'm also sorry for sitting on another piece of art for a decade, long enough that the specific show I got it at is a best guess. I wish at least one of these guys had dated their contribution.

I'm confident that Isaiah Broussard drew Perkins Preston near the start of the 2014-2016 JLI, Saturnians, & Other Friends Artist Jam, which means Comicpalooza, and Elongated Man at or near the end of the 2015-2017 Martian Manhunter Comrades Jam, most probably at Charlotte HeroesCon 2017. I didn't think that I started this jam at the same show as the earliest attempts, so now I'm wondering if it was the 2015 Space City Comic Con, or maybe that year's Comicpalooza? But I already laid claim to the date/show on other posts, so...

I also can't recall if Broussard was the first or second contributor to this one, but given the other subject, probably second. Anyway, I dug what he did with Abba Sulkar and his minions, and having the lot of them helped a lot with the ultimate scale of the piece. Sulkar is a normal-sized dude, while Shtarker & Grosse were Martian Manhunter-sized. When you start putting characters in front or behind them, it shows just how titanic most of these menaces were. Looking forward to you folks seeing the final two(?) characters, but I'll probably start offering segments from another jam in the lead up to the blog's 18th anniversary in September, when I do the full reveal of many/most of these long-mothballed pieces. And with any luck, by October I can get to the last of my Broussard commissions, although that one's not even comics related.

Isaiah Broussard

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Apollo Magnus

Apollo Magnus is a wealthy shipping magnate who was associated with international playboy Marco Xavier. During a formal party at Magnus' palatial Mediterranean estate, Xavier was able to deduce from Magnus that he would be using his personal yacht to secretly transport a large gold shipment, which had been targeted by the criminal organization Vulture. While Xavier had been paid to provide them with this information, what Vulture did not know was that Xavier had secretly been replaced by the heroic Manhunter from Mars, who proceeded to thwart a heist attempt by Senor Mendez & Section T2.

First Appearance: House of Mystery #160 (July, 1966)

The Vile Menagerie: SULKAR

Alter Ego: Abba Sulkar
Occupation: Spy
Group Affiliation: Vulture
Base of Operations: Taurus Mountains, Turkey
First Appearance: House of Mystery #161 (September, 1966)
Height: Approx. 5'8"
Eyes: Light
Hair: Brown

History:
Abba Sulkar was the leader of a Vulture base in Turkey. Among his operatives were the towering brutes Shtarker and Grosse, as well as the lovely double agent Marie Fouchere. Sulkar was tasked with kidnapping a pair of scientists to drain their brains for evil purposes. Without clear motivation, Sulkar had Fouchere use her past romantic history with international playboy Marco Xavier to lure him to Sulkar for the same treatment. Successful, Sulkar explained his actions to Vulture's leader, and despite being ordered by Mr. V to set the tape of Xavier's stolen memories aside for his personal viewing, Sulkar wanted any secrets Xavier held for himself. Discovering Xavier was secretly Vulture's great enemy, the super-heroic Manhunter from Mars, Sulkar set about killing the mindless "Marco Xavier" while he was vulnerable in human form. However, Marie Fouchere double-crossed Sulkar to free the Manhunter, and Sulkar was killed in the resulting confrontation.

Weapons:
Aside from his advanced hidden mountain base, Sulkar utilized a pair of novel weapons. He possessed a large computerized device that could project a ray capable of extracting all memories from a victim. Aside from basic motor skills and autonomic nervous function, the victims did not appear to possess any meaningful thought processes or capabilities. The stolen memories would then be recorded onto some form of magnetic tape before being processed for permanent record storage and retrieval. The memories could then be restored to the victim, if so desired. Next, stolen memories could be reviewed on a monitor screen to exploit the subject's knowledge. The Disintegrator Weapon was Sulkar's other key asset, capable of nigh-instantaneously rendering a human being into a small pile of ash. The weapon came in the form of a handheld pistol, bulky but still operable with one hand. While the weapon was utterly ineffective against the Manhunter from Mars, it made short work of Sulkar, when he accidentally fired upon his own person.

Quote: "Sorry Mr. V-- but this is my show-- and I shall play it my way!"

Created by Jack Miller and Joe Certa

2014 Houston Comicpalooza "The Martian Double-Cross!" Robot Vulture Jam Sketch Detail by Chad Townsend

Back to the theme of my being a terrible patron who sits on art pieces for eleven years at a time, I believe that this is my only work from Chad Townsend, so watch me forget that I have another before posting it in 2032. Also as per recent practice, I gave the subject a profile page last week under the title The Vile Menagerie: MANHUNTER'S DOOM. I used the actual story title and dubbed it a robot here, because the tale was exceptionally vague about this thing. Mr. V claims that this creation would be "Manhunter's Doom" at one point, which has a bit more vim than "suitable opponent," but it's a painful reach for a name. The story also never states explicitly that this is an automaton, which might explain how it ended up with a featureless duckbill head shape and runs on fire? Anyway, I'm glad that Townsend made it friendly with that salutation, and worked the fire core into the art. You'll note that he was squeezed into a corner and benhind a larger jam element, so he did a great job working within limited space. This turned out pretty great actually, so hopefully I did get something else that I'll tumble uponm later.

Chad Townsend

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The Vile Menagerie: MANHUNTER'S DOOM

Occupation: "Suitable Opponent"
Group Affiliation: Vulture
Base of Operations: Europe
First Appearance: House of Mystery #170 (October, 1967)
Height: Approx. 15 ft.

History:
After Mr. V had compiled an extensive photographic dossier of Vulture's run-ins with the Manhunter from Mars using hidden cameras, he paid international playboy Marco Xavier to analyze the material to determine Manhunter's weakness. Concluding that Faceless would inevitably come to the same conclusion, the Manhunter, in his Marco Xavier guise, revealed his Martian vulnerability to fire. Within a month, Mr. V tasked his scientists to construct a warrior that would end the threat of the Martian Marvel to his criminal organization. It was then deployed to the estate of Baron du Marchal, a friend of the Manhunter's, whom Xavier had confirmed would host the Martian that week. After a brief struggle, the Alien Atlas disabled the opponent by dumping it into a pool. Despite never managing to seize the Manhunter or use its flame, Mr. V. dismissed his construct and assumed Xavier's conclusion as to the vulnerability was in error.

Powers & Weapons:
The robot's body was made from the same heat-resistant compound as rocket shields, containing a jet burner at its core capable of melting a steel wall. In its head rested a transistorized computer, preset to hold the Manhunter against its body and release the internal flames.

Created by Jack Miller & Joe Certa

JLA/JSA Secret Files & Origins #1 (January, 2003)

Unlike JLA/JSA: Virtue and Vice, I bought the related Secret Files book new. For starters, it was only $4.95, equivalent to $8.63 for a 64 page special. A better deal, I'd say. Also, I bought nearly all of the Secret Files books new, because I love DC's Who's Who-style comic format reference editions, as evidence by my having started a devoted podcast to them. But perhaps most importantly, because all of the character interaction stuff that I wanted from a JLA/JSA meet-up but was cut from Virtue and Vice ended up here. There's the explanation of who Captain Marvel and the Wizard Shazam even are, how they and the Rock of Eternity relate to The Seven Deadly Enemies of Man, and the story ends on a neat horror movie beat. There's Mr. Terrific checking out mementos in the Batcave, including a framed picture from the first JLA/JSA meet that includes J'Onn J'Onzz. Setting aside the painful Ace Ventura version of Plastic Man from this period, there's a cute grouping of two Flashes and an Hourman at a professional hockey match. There's The Atom going microscopic to study the mystical emerald flames that Green Lantern Alan Scott is made up of. How about Wonder Woman, Power Girl, and Stargirl rating the hotness of their teammates? Or Zatanna at the Tower of Fate? This was all the good stuff cleared out for empty spectacle. "The Day Before" was by Geoff Johns & David S. Goyer and Stephen Sadowski & Andrew Pepoy.

But that's not all! As per usual, there's a bunch of short stories and character profile pages by some notable talents. Most relevant here is the Department of Extranormal Operations feature, a regular part of Secret Files books, and also the organization J'Onn J'Onzz ran (as Hank Henshaw) on the CBS/CW Supergirl. TV show. In the comics, that was Director Bones' job. If you saw Thunderbolts*, it's hard not to think of its take on La Contessa Valentina Allegra de la Fontaine being a whitewashing of the DCEU's Amanda Waller. Technically, Bones is a cynical African-American along the lines of Ultimate Nick Fury, whom he predates, but it's easy to forget that part when all anyone can see is a talking (and smoking) skeleton. No confuse of who's who there. Anyway, the story involves the Director intentionally leaking controversial information on the D.E.O., and seeing how long it takes Earth's heroes to confront them regarding the misinformation. Just over an hour, as it happened, with the Martian Manhunter among those heroes. "Telephone" was by Dan Curtis Johnson, Kelly Yates, & Mick Gray.

JLA/JSA: Virtue and Vice (2003)

Outside the JLA Watchtower on the moon, Superman and Sentinel gaze upon the distant Earth from the frigid blackness of space-- placing the two Golden Age heroes on an equal standing for the only time ever. The Justice Society and their successors, the Justice League, have decided to reinstate an old tradition of the two teams fraternizing on a regular basis, breaking bread in fellowship. However, the twin figureheads of the respective teams maintain a watch, with the Manhunter from Mars breaking in telepathically to direct them toward unrest in Arusha, Tanzania. Detroit-era Leaguer Vixen was already on the scene, but she's backed up by two of the best to repel an assault on President Lex Luthor by Doctor Bedlam of the New Gods. The other combined heroes soon follow suit, with Martian Manhunter continuing to direct their activities.

At JSA Headquarters, J'Onn J'Onzz notes psychic interference that he experienced in East Africa. The heroes begin to get catty with one another. Hostilities erupt. The Martian Marvel begins to lose physical coherence from the constant psychic assault, and is more or less out of the story from there. Seven of the heroes' personalities are so severely warped that their compromise becomes obvious. On page 28, the reveal that they've become possessed by the The Seven Deadly Enemies of Man, archetypes of sin usually confined to the Rock of Eternity by the wizard Shazam. The general population of the globe is also acting irrationally. The tortured Sleuth from Outer Space warns that Luthor is a key factor in this, before being placed in a magical coma by Zatanna and other reinforcements. In an already crowded book, a lot of space is allotted to the second-stringers. Clearly going for a Morrisonian maximalist approach, there's so much going on with so many players in so many locations that it all becomes noisy bullet points instead of the intended spectacle.

Black Canary leads the confrontation of the President in the Oval Office. Along with everything else, the chess pieces carved in the likenesses of the heroes should have been a dead giveaway. Luthor is actually Despero, "Extraterrestrial dictator. One of the League's first adversaries." Mentally freezing the heroes in place, there's a truly tortured backstory involving a swift overview of Despero history, including his relatively recent final discorporation by the Earth Angel incarnation of Supergirl. His spirit ended up in whatever dimension the JSA villain Johnny Sorrow hails from, and their combined psychic power crossed dimensions to posses Dr. Bedlam on Apokolips. While Despero was being smuggled into Luthor, Sorrow was handling Shazam and freeing the Enemies. It goes on and on for pages, but at least in the end, Despero turns a U.S. flag into a cape to mirror that time he accidentally did the U.N. one similar. He did the thing! We love when they do the thing! I mean, I do here, but still. The least among them, Green Arrow, uses gas (not from chili) to free the heroes to escape, hunted by third eye blinded U.S. troops with orders to kill.

Eventually, the heroes trick the Gluttony-possessed Captain Marvel to call down his lighting, with Billy Batson exorcised of the Sin. That same lighting flows back to Shazam, reviving him so that he can recapture the other Deadly Enemies. The JLA, JSA, and reserves combine their might. Despero makes a great showing by surviving a quantum leaping Captain Atom, having the Rock of Eternity almost land on him, and then got a faceful of an unmasked Johnny Sorrow. He also slammed Superman and Captain Marvel's heads together at one point. A grateful Luthor was imposed upon to replace the destroyed old stone JSA headquarters with a shiny new one.

"Virtue and Vice" was by David S. Goyer & Geoff Johns and Carlos Pacheco & Jesus Merino. Technically, this book came out in 2002, after my retailing days, and once the bloom was well off the JLA rose-- about halfway through the Kelly/Mahnke run. The premiere hardcover cost $24.95, which in adjusted dollars would be $44.35, and was the equivalent of over 11 standard contemporaneous comics. If you want to split hairs, it was 96 pages of original content, roughly 4 & a third comics, while that same month's Green Arrow: The Archer's Quest reprinted six comics for five bucks less. All I know is that it felt egregious, and then it took nearly a year to come out on softcover for $17.95 ($31.20 in 2025.) My memory of this time period is really hazy, so I may have been between brick & mortars getting some pitiful barely-covers-sales-tax discount, stopping by once or twice a month, barely keeping a toe in the industry. I may have swallowed hard and bought the softcover new, but probably got it as a backlist later, and thoroughly resented it. I kept buying JLA and related projects until Infinite Crisis, but I only occasionally read it, and the strip-mining of that brand put me off. It took until Fanholes did a podcast on it for this year's inaugural #JSApril social media event that I finally sat down to read the thing nearly a quarter century late. In fact, I figured I might just harvest some extra eyes and do this post last week, but I thought it would be uncool to bite F@nholes' action, and also I'd be a Debbie Downer about it, besides.

The late Carlos Pacheco was a fantastic artist whose detailed work did not lend itself to long runs, and I mostly admired from afar since those runs were typically on books I didn't follow. For instance, he did four issues of The Flash that one year I tried hard to get into Mark Waid's run, and that's the longest streak I ever had buying Pacheco comics. I'd say his strongest influence was Alan Davis, but he had flashy Image qualities, including some particular anatomical quirks, that made him feel more modern. The Spanish scene vibes were also there, not that I could articulate exactly what that means practically. So, I enjoyed his stuff, and think he was particularly great on Fantastic Four... just not to the degree that he could get me to buy a book just for his art. I like looking at this book, and it makes me wish he'd had a proper run on JLA, but it doesn't overcome what a shallow and convoluted mess this story was. Likewise, this is one of the best renditions of Despero ever, his chief representation online for years afterward-- but probably not in my top five, personally. Kind of rubbery, not that menacing, and I'd swear Ordway inked him on one panel. I think Johns has love for him, and I preferred his second pass (with blessedly more Martian Manhunter) in one of the last JLA arcs. Besides J'Onn's lackluster use here, the Alien Atlas is maybe the character Pacheco has the worst handle on here. He won't commit to the beetle-brow, so his head is just lumpy like a potato. He's got a resting Grinch face, and the classic costume isn't rendered very flattering. Alan Davis has a much better take, including tweaking the suit to his style. I do really like Pacheco's Atom & Hawkman, but Wonder Woman's breast and thing are out of control. Goyer/Johns also give us one of the more obnoxious Plastic Man takes of the dire Ace Ventura period of his characterization, which is painful.

2022 Pop Culture Power Show Mongul Commission by Angel Medina

I've been a fan of Angel Medina since his run on Dreadstar with Peter David in the late '80s, and I first got to have a long chat with him at San Diego ComiCon in 2000 (which led to a misadventure at the 1970s Black Panther panel, but that's another story.) There was a long gap before again making his acquaintence, but he was a regular at a small show out of Stafford, Texas; that died and was reborn as "Pop Culture Con." I've seen him a couple times at those, one just last month, plus Fan Expo Chicago in 2023. Most times, I try to pick up something from him, because I'm still enthused about his art. I've mostly gotten away from Martian Manhunter related commissions, but Medina has a long history of working with Jim Starlin and his cosmic creations, particularly Adam Warlock & Thanos (via The Infinity Watch.) I've devoted a disproprtionate amount of space to Mongul the Merciless on this blog for a rather modest connection to Martian Manhunter, but he's one of my favorite DC villains. I only have one other piece of Mongul art, so I could justify another, especially from such an obviously appropriate creator!

Angel Medina Gallery

• 2023 Fan Expo Chicago JLA JAM Black Canary segment by Angel Medina
• Hellcat, Captain America, & Thanos

Amazing Heroes #156 (January 1st, 1989)

Amazing Heroes remains my all-time favorite industry magazine, despite (okay, partially because) being printed in comic book dimensions (while costing 3-4x as much as its subject averaged) and my only having bought a few editions while it was still being actively published. In fact, I've been actively working on an (economical) set for a while now, and my gaps continue to narrow. I have a lot of contempt toward Wizard specifically, because I saw the negative impact it had on the industry in real time, including its lowering of the overall discourse with hype and crass humor. But also, because I had a basis for comparison to much better magazines, including Comics Scene (even pricier for less content and way too much animation/media coverage, though still more value than the Wizard ilk.) A lot of it was just down to timing, since first generation comics fans were still active and vital at midlife, while the Boomer and Gen-X writing staff had collectively experienced all that North American comics had to offer up to that point. It was still possible to collectively know "everything" about what was available to their audience. Further, it spun out of The Comics Journal so that they could go full fart-sniffer about capital-A "art" releases. So you had a bunch of over-educated liberals getting out from under being brow-beaten by the Gary Groth crowd, but still took mainstream comics seriously enough for literary analysis, and the perspective of having read more ambitious and underground work. There's a reason why so many of its contributors went on to luminous careers of actually creating their own comics.

For instance, Don Rosa was essentially their version of Bob "The Answer Man" Rozakis with his column "Info Center," before succeeding Carl Barks as the Eisner-award winning chronicler of DuckTales. Because he knew his stuff and communicated it well, instead of taking cheap shots like drunk Tony Stark jokes at every opportunity to fill space between price guides. And again, that multi-generational knowledge base would allow for a segment explaining that the original "Manhunter from Mars" was Roh Kar, not J'onn J'onzz. This was a time before ready, widespread reprints, and there were no databases to access this type of obscure information. The oldest Overstreet I have is the 21st edition covering 1991-1992. There's a line under Batman #78 noting "Roh Kar, The Man Hunter from Mars story-the 1st lawman of Mars comes to Earth (green skinned.)" So if you could find that line in a 548-page book of tiny print, regarding a book that hadn't carried the J'onn J'onzz strip, you'd have the barest idea that there was a so-called "Golden Age Martian Manhunter." You could also score a mint copy for $300, which is less than a CGC 1.8 on eBay as I type this. They're asking $1,645 for a 6.0. The best time to invest really was thirty years ago.

Anyway, I learned about Roh Kar from U.S. Navy Commander Adam Benson on the DC Message Boards a quarter century or so ago, because I didn't have this particular issue of Amazing Heroes to educate me. But having read the actual story many times over at this point, what I'm most interested in was how they got that Silver Age Manhunter image in there. Presumably they photocopied a comic that they had a copy of (clearly not Batman #78,) since J'onn is clearly covered in Ben Day dots,) so I figure they then went around that figure with liquid paper to white out the background. This sort of thing got so much easier once the Showcase Presents came out. Anyway, it's nice that a relatively minor character like the Sleuth from Outer Space got any kind of attention in a forum like this, likely because at least one staffer was probably reading the original Batman stories that the Martian Marvel was backing-up.

Aquaman #1-2 (February-March, 2003)

I continue going through the pile of comics that I got solely for blogging purposes-- left unbagged and otherwise unfiled for decades, now finally getting written up and written off. I figured the first issue of a new series with a small Martian Manhunter cameo would be a good opportunity to get in and out, quick and easy. I knew that I had long ago covered JLA: Our Worlds At War, where Aquaman went missing and was assumed dead, so I at first thought this issue would pick up from there. Actually reading the issue, I was quickly reminded that no, Aquaman had actually come back in a lengthy JLA arc, and I dreaded having to start reading and covering that instead. Then I reminded myself-- no, this is the debut of a new series, and it damned well should get me up-to-speed and draw me in on its own.

Well... no. I mean, I got the basics. Atlantis had been drawn into something called "The Obsidian Age" with some bad juju. Aquaman had to re-sink Atlantis to save it in some unclear capacity, as well as the JLA. The Atlanteans had then decided that their former king had ruined everything and betrayed his people for his true friends, and therefore must die. DC's Atlanteans (or actually Poseidoneans, as Aquaman actually presides over a domed city-stated, not the full continent) have always been a murderous and superstitious lot, prone to attempting to kill little babies and young children over their having the wrong colored hair or eyes. Their turning to regicide is on-brand, including the involvement of Vulko, who is basically Aquaman's Alfred if Alfred substituted being openly catty with constant outright backstabbing. Aquaman being in any way associated with this lot makes him look worse.

Guided by Mera, Aquman's crazy ex-babymama (before her Geoff Johns glow-up,) the Atlanteans busted Aquaman's Justice League signal and harpoon hand. Through sorcery, they were able to all ocean life against Aquaman, rendering his telepathy useless. Certainly not against the *snort* barnacles that bound him to a surface rock until he died by desiccation. Around this turn of events, Aquman was seeing flashes of his past that would be obtuse to anyone not well versed in at minimum a half-dozen Peter David written comics from a decade earlier (across a volume, a mini-series, and an annual, no less.) There's no in-depth captions or editor's notes elaborating on any of this, just an aggressive indifference to any potential new readers no arriving directly from JLA. Most of the rest of the issue is Aquaman breaking loose of the barnacles, continuing to be driven away from the sea by the Atlanteans, and most unintentionally funny, being swarmed by crabs. At least, I think it was unintentionally, rather than a piss take. Don't get me wrong, if this were happening to Capt. Storm or some other normal human protagonist, it could be harrowing. In a super-hero comic, it turns Aquaman into a clownfish.

Near death, in Ireland of all places, Aquaman tosses his useless spearhand into a body of water, and it's caught by... The Lady of the Lake?!? Because King Arthur, see, like we haven't been down this road before. Never so incompetently, though, as I don't think they actually refer to Aquaman as "Arthur" until going full Arthurian. So the Lady of the Lake not only heals all of Aquman's wounds with the water of The Secret Sea (I guess,) but she also gives him a bracelet that allows Aquaman to form a... water hand? They make a point of saying he can make it solid enough to grab things and such, plus he eventually has visions in the palm of it, but nobody's impressed with a water hand, dude.

As for the cameo, the Manhunter from Mars caught a bit of Aquman in the "JLA neural net" during the Sea King's semi-failed telepathic call for help. J'Onn J'Onzz was flying around the general area, while also having a psychic exposition dump with Wonder Woman, Batman, and Superman... on page 20, way after the reader I either figured it out and stopped caring. And again, it's too vague to qualify as useful-- mostly just restating what we already knew instead of expanding upon it. Mostly, it just absolves the JLA's absence by stating that he wanted to deal with his (murderous) people on his own. By the time the Alien Atlas locates his teammate, Arthur is relating the Arthurian developments like we hadn't already read that part. This continued into the second issue, where J'Onn got some clothes and credit cards for Arthur, while they sniped at each other over who was the most stand-offish or least likely to stay with the Justice League. Aquaman then goes on alone on some meandering adventure involving captaining some old man's boat through a storm, using his water hand for magic CPR, fighting those Atlantean stormtroopers a little, and weathering a police investigation. Or something. I checked out four pages in, when the cameo stopped, but after another dumb dream sequence that alluded to stuff I didn't care about.

"Castaway" and "To Die by the Light of the Sea" were by Rick Veitch, Yvel Guichet, and Mark Propst. The writer seemed inclined toward Silver Age cheese, but lacked the chops of Silver Age revivalists like Morrison and Waid. The art was fine, but I had to actively remind myself that it wasn't by the same art team as did the JLA arc. The year that this lasted yielded few waves, but the book would pick steam in the second year under another Mahnke-indebted creative team and the premise of "Sub Diego."

Orion #13 (June, 2001)

Jack Kirby's greatest non-Marvel contribution to pop culture was providing the influence that formed the spine of George Lucas' Star Wars. DC Comics certainly knew that, because when Jedis became all the rage, they did their level best to foist the Fourth World Saga onto a largely disinterested public. As a member of Generation X, I'm well aware of The Force's pervasive presence, and my entry into The Source was Kenner's Super Powers Collection of action figures, whose Kirby-infused lore also absorbed the final seasons of the Super Friends Saturday Morning cartoon that I watched. It's main accomplishment was to set up Darkseid as one of DC's biggest super-villains, and if I didn't know him before, he's been inescapable ever since. I had figures of Darkseid and a Parademon, while my half-brother had Steppenwolf, DeSaad, and maybe Kalibak. I can't recall if either of us bothered with Orion or Mr. Miracle.

Even when I was generally disinterested in DC, John Byrne on Legends couldn't be missed, and Darkseid was there. He popped up in lots of stuff, so that even when I was only occasionally buying DC, the Lord of Apokolips found his way into my collection. By the mid '90s, I was hot and heavy with DC, so I felt obligated to at least try some Fourth World material, and that's exactly how it felt to read that stuff. Finally, I picked up an early proto-Essential/Showcase Presents black & white collection of New Gods, and finally found a way into Kirby's lore. I "got" Orion, at least, but I wasn't convinced that anyone else did. In most of his appearances, he was a hothead jerk with neither the charisma nor menace of, say, Namor the Sub-Mariner. Even favored creators like Jim Starlin came up short.

Of all the attempts to continue the Fourth World without Kirby, I figure mine and the consensus opinion of who came the closest was Walt Simonson's Orion. He'd arguably bettered Kirby on The Mighty Thor, though he admittedly had the whole of Norse mythology to fall back on, and was at the peak of his powers in the '80s. Like John Byrne, some of that luster had faded in the '90s, though Byrne still tapped Simonson to provide the covers to his year-plus attempt at reviving Jack Kirby's Fourth World. When Byrne moved on, Simonson was tapped for the next bid, and I was intrigued enough to give it a try for half a year. The story was about the will-enslaving Anti-Life Equation taking over people's minds in the American heartland. This built to what was presented as a climactic battle between father and son, with Darkseid seeming to perish under the blast of his own Omega Effect beams. Simonson was successful at drawing the characters with a divine Kirby bigness, and create a visual language for the New Gods' cosmic power through ornate and arcane displays. But it also embraced the decompressed storytelling trend that persists to this day, and I simply ran out of interest.

After I left, Orion was forced to take up his father's mantle as leader of a wasteland autocracy, and was manipulated down a dark path. He killed DeSaad, gained control of the Anti-Life Equation, and used it to conquer several worlds. As heel turns went, it was pretty benevolent, actually. Less so was Simonson's clear intent to keep his story New Gods-centric despite middling sales and the imposition of gimmicks. There were hot guest artists like Rob Liefeld and Jim Lee doing back-ups, and a particularly grating and incompetent two month tie-in with the Jokers Last Laugh crossover stunt. By 2001, JLA wasn't the juggernaut that it once was, but their prominence on the right cover was still enough to get my dollars.

Simonson had drawn a couple issues of John Byrne's run, and Byrne returned the favor on the two additional issues that I bought for the Justice League guest spot. I bought #14 assuming that things would pick up from their barely-there cameo in #13, but I was too generous and/or gullible. Orion had used the Anti-Life Equation on Captain (Shazam!) Marvel, who was sort of his herald to the JLA Watchtower base. The Big Red Cheese talked the League into listening to Orion's global broadcast of the Equation, the League's will ceased to be their own, but they still flew around performing good deeds, as usual. Orion just took the fighting aspect out of the... equation... for a hot minute. In his sole line, Martian Manhunter stated his intent to build a dam in China. Like he wouldn't have been up for that any other day?

Predictably, Darkseid turned up alive and the mastermind behind much of this, but also plotted Orion's demise to halt his threat. Orion lost the Anti-Life Equation, but otherwise got better. The book really meandered after that, seemingly marking time until cancellation. Two new villainesses introduced and mostly contained in this volume continued to plague Orion, helping to gouge his eyes out, but he got better across a narratively listless but illustratively compelling five-parter. A final oversized issue set all the pieces back to default. As you can probably tell, I'm glad I kept that money in my wallet.

"The Ordering of Earth!" was by Walter Simonson, John Byrne, and Terry Austin. It was nice to see the classic X-Men art team reunited, and the embellishment was a welcome change from Byrne's solo efforts, but say it with me-- Austin wasn't what he once was by that point.

Superman: The Man of Steel #92 (September, 1999)

In a "Fearful Symmetry" situation, this cross-title arc was dubbed "Secret Origins" by its writer, but marketing wanted to take advantage of a guaranteed sell logo, so all the covers call the arc "The One-Man JLA!" The absence of Superman is first noted by Martian Manhunter in Superman #147. The JLA were addressing a jail break at Stryker's Island Penitentiary in Metropolis, and an editors note causes confusion. Apparently, many of the villains were not up-to-date, tipping the hand that this was a month of inventory stories to cover the triangle-number, comics-by-committee crew of the Superman titles for a month. But also, most of the issue was already a fantasy about baby Kal-El having landed on Oa instead of Earth, and growing to become a Green Lantern Corpsman. The continuity nit-picking wasn't helpful. Manhunter telepathically detects Superman's mind somewhere in the depths of space, and calls for a team to seek him out. Steel and Green Lantern promptly volunteered, with Kyle Rayner pressing The Flash into service as well. Wonder Woman also wanted to come, but was denied by J'Onn J'Onzz, not wanting to leave Earth too short-handed of defenders. Aquaman was also left behind, but I felt a lot worse about Diana, because the artist rendered her in a gorgeous Frank Frazetta style.

The next couple of issues are pretty much a waste of time. Adventures of Superman #570 imagines Kal-El as a Rannian styled after Adam Strange. In Action Comics #757, Kal-El is a Thangarian that has displaced Katar Hol, and that's actually a more interesting spin than the overall "real" story. Across these two issues, the JLA search party travel through space and get attacked by a giant squid, multiple times. I final reveal is that they've been captured by the same aliens messing with Superman's memories, and are making the JLA replay the same corny adventure on repeat.

Finally, the Sleuth from Outer Space figures out the ruse, and mentally reaches out to "K'All L'Ell," who now thinks he's a Martian. The Manhunter eventually recovers Superman's psychic identity, and Kal-El suggests merging their minds to break free of the conditioning. This Supermanhunter frees the JLAers and the proper Man of Tomorrow, restoring Kal-El's psyche to his body. It turns out that their captor was himself from the conquered people of X'VyV'X. Rendered xenophobic by the invasion that propelled him into space, the X'VyV'X refugee tried to use a Kryptonian device to brainwash a champion to take back to X'VyV'X. Superman agrees to one more mind wipe to "become" a X'VyV'X Superman to repel the invaders without compromising their location or security. However, this selfless inspired X'VyV'X to trust again, and send the JLA to again recover Superman, who was grateful to have friends like these.

The arc was by Tom Peyer, Tom Grindberg, and various inkers, plus covers by Walt Simonson. It was fine-- I generally enjoy Peyer scripts more, but this was a space-filler with Silver Age influences. Some back issues that I can now release into the wild.

2014 Houston Comicpalooza Crime Goliath Monster-Man Vulture Jam Sketch Detail by Johnny J. Segura III

I'd hoped to do a story post of some kind tonight, but I'm still juggling super-involved projects at work and in podcasting, so we'll fall back on another belated art post. I don't feel quite as bad about this one, because Johnny's one of my favorite and most frequested artists to commission, and I have gotten stuff from him since this decade-plus-old detail. Except now that I think about it, I don't think any of that material has been posted by me either, so hopefully he snapped a pic and put it in Snapchat or something. Is Snapchat still a thing? Was it in 2014, even? Speaking of oldies, here's a Monster-Man from a 1967 story that I brought up last week.

Johnny Segura 3rd

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