Eclipso: The Darkness Within #2 (October, 1992)

One of the more popular posts in this blog's history was an April Fool's joke in 2009 regarding the announcement of a Bloodwynd mini-series by Bart Sears. I crudely cobbled together some art from the short-lived Ominous Press, and yet somehow, not only did the post get some traction, but I've even seen the featured art turn up elsewhere. Could have saved myself some time and just used some of Sears' Bloodynd art from the Eclipso event, but I guess it was worth it for the attention.

There certainly isn't much for Bloodwynd to do in the actual story, besides mill about in the background with a host of other non-essential heroes. His eyes peer over the throne on the cover. You can see him looking over Nightwing's shoulder in one of the splash pages where the remaining heroes confront the eclipsed ones before they're teleported by their master/possessor to the moon. He's standing around while the dust literally settles, mostly on Bloodwynd's cape. There's a nice overhead shot of his standing with the heroes as they reconvene to plan strategy. It was nice to see Sears draw members of the Suicide Squad Bronze Tiger and Nightshade, as well as my boy Blue Devil in the same splash. With Ben Turner, you can play the world's worst variation of Where's Waldo with "spot the Black guy." Looking over the Will Payton Starman's shoulder. Wearing a spacesuit in a craft with Booster Gold and the Element Man, the latter treated to Bloodwynd's first line of dialogue. "Each of us must follow his own concience on the matter, Metamorpho... wherever that may lead!" That ship is later grounded by an eclipsed Mon-El, reinforcing Metamorpho's stated desire to outright kill Eclipso.

Quoth Jamiroquai, "Everybody's Going to the Moon" (what, you don't own the Titan A.E. soundtrack? Your loss.) The heroic force walks into Eclipso's lunar palace like chumps, where he's powerful enough to immediately eclipse everybody when they get ticked at the eclipsed Starman for using his shapeshifting powers to conceal his condition until now. Once again, Bloodwynd's blue-tinged possessed head is seen over Nightwing's shoulder. I'll have to incorporate that pairing into my slashfic on Reddit*. Along similar lines, Eclipso got all Brian Yuzna with the meat sacks under his sway, until Superman and all the light-based/sun-tech characters break down the door. Eventually, they zap all the heroes until they're liberated, and Bloodwynd is seen standing in front(!!!) of Metamorpho (I ship it!) Bronze Tiger continues to stand behind a lower class of character who have to be way further in the foreground, because he's pretty tall. Pantha's head makes a cameo appearance, along with the rest of her still-attached body, which is my preference for Pantha. She's not a Highlander.

Starman made the ultimate sacrifice of having his trademark passed to the next legacy while seeming to be dead before inevitably being resurrected. I didn't see Bloodwynd standing behind anyone else, probably because they focus on injured people on cots and tables. Bloodwynd isn't one of those, so I'll take it as a win. Brought to you by Keith Giffen, Robert Loren Fleming, Bart Sears, and a bunch of inkers.

*Please don't tell me that Reddit is not a preferred avenue for slash fiction. I don't know or want to know to what degree my joke is reflected in reality.

The Adventures of Superman Annual #4 (1992)

In one of his annuals, Superman became possessed by Eclipso, known as being "eclipsed". During the night, Eclipso could force the Man of Steel to do whatever he pleased (like putting Captain Marvel in the hospital,) but had to hide him from sunlight, or else Eclipso would lose his hold. Booster Gold, Fire, and Ice acted as Justice League America during this period, with Bloodwynd's whereabouts unexplained. The necromancer simply reappeared mid-story among the rest of League America at their headquarters as they gathered with Baby Wildebeest to determine the current location of the compromised Man of Steel... living inside an active volcano?

Aquaman, Metamorpho, Black Canary, Justice League Europe, Hawkman, Nightwing and L.E.G.I.O.N. all convened onto Kīlauea to plan their confrontation with the Man of Tomorrow. They were soon joined by Guy Gardner, who in his first solo Reborn mini-series tricked Lobo into helping his acquire Sinestro's Qwardian power ring to replace the Oan one he'd surrendered to Hal Jordan. Lobo's L.E.G.I.O.N. boss Vril Dox kept him from exacting his revenge until the more pressing matter at hand was addressed.

Dox & Hawkman chose Bloodwynd, Guy, Fire, Lobo, Strata, Booster, Metamorpho, and Phase as being best suited to withstand the volcano to reach Superman. "...The mystical nature of my powers serves to repel the molten lava from my body!" Boy, Martian Manhunter sure would benefit from a power like that! Reaching the Kryptonian, sans conscience and reserve, Lobo is swiftly felled by super-speed, full strength punches. Gardner fares a bit better, but is still bounced right out of the volcano. Bloodwynd and company try to rush Superman, but he repells them, in part by using Strata's crystaline body to repel powers like Fire's back at her teammmates like Bloodwynd. Not sure why plain fore would have an impact when freakin' lava didn't, though.

Bloodwynd exclaimed, "The sun is sinking beyond the horizon!" I hope he pronounces "horizon" like Ludacris. Anyway, without solar energy, the heroes would be unable to exorcise Eclipso from Superman's body. The heroes, led by a revived Lobo, continued to contain Superman in the dusky night after they're all blown out of the volcano by an eruption. All those lesser powered heroes focused on evacuating villagers, while Bloodwynd was felled by a freezing blast from a black diamond. "Allow me to show you the darkness of the human heart, 'hero'."

Superman had dismembered The Element Man and was poised to slay Ice when Guy Gardner returned to the scene. He had been ordered by Dox to collect actual solar matter, and though he protested at great length and volume, the ex-Green Lantern finally came through. It still took a while to drive Eclipso out, including a fall back into the volano, but ultimately Big Blue emerged restored. While most of the heroes next traveled to the moon to spy on Eclipso's lunar castle and get rooked by an eclipsed Starman masking his possession, Superman stayed behind to do science stuff, as you do. Well not you. Nobody would want Superman to hang back in that situation, but they had to pad out another annual and set up his disappearing before the grand finale in Eclipso: The Darkness Within #2. "In Blackest Night" was by Robert Loren Fleming & Bob McLeod.

I started covering Bloodwynd appearances in 2008, the second year of the blog, and about 16 years after his debut. It's been nearly that long since I started the posts, and I more or less abandoned them the following year. Part of it was a misguided plan to cover a bunch of the Eclipso annuals simultaneously and link between the posts. Part of it was also trying to cover the main Justice League America series at the same time on my Atom blog. Also, "The Death of Superman" was coming up, and I've never owned or read the whole thing (although I think I now have the cheapie trade collection on my bookcase.) I didn't even read all of the Superman annuals from the Eclipso event. I just found a partially completed draft of the first paragraph of this post sitting in a queue since 2012 and added this coda with the intent to fill in the middle. I think maybe I got tired of linking out to all the referenced characters. Mike Kooiman's old Cosmic Teams site apparently 404'd last year, but at least he wrote The Quality Companion for TwoMorrows in the meantime. Nobody ever asked me to write The Martian Manhunter Companion. I've clearly wasted my life.

Conjurors #1-3 (April-June, 1999)

There's a popular assumption that conservatives are bad at comedy, because you can't punch down from a position of authority without working against most of the populace's interests. I don't entirely buy into that, as evidenced by both sides having traction for laying claim to George Carlin, still one of the greatest and most prescient comedians to ever live. Comedy thrives in finding lines and then crossing them, and lines divide two ways. Most of my favorite funny people of the '80s landed on the wrong side of my personal line, but they're as much a product of their time as anything, and changing times change the context of the humor. If you don't adapt, and social norms have definitely trended leftward since peak neoliberalism, you get left behind and easily treated as though you never were funny to begin with. Carlin's dancing back and fourth across that line is where his immortality lies. Based on comedy routines alone, Bill Cosby wouldn't have been cancelled today, but Pryor and Murphy would have.

I think a similar if much less well reasoned or researched argument could be made that conservatives can't do high fantasy. You can point out plenty of regressive politics in the genre, which is why I'll put most of my weight on the "high" part of the claim. A lot of fantasy is just historical fiction married to a romanticized vision of feudal existence, when the men were men and the women were chattel. Bill Willingham capped his career and popularized unto cottage industry taking fairy tales and forcing them into a hard reality modern world. Chuck Dixon & Eduardo Barreto's Elseworlds mini-series Conjurors mini-series tracks similarly. It posits a world reliant and fidelitous to magic in the same way ours is to technology. It gets muddy from there, because I suppose medicine overlaps with mysticism, so they seem to have all the same stuff we have. Actually, they have all the same buildings and clothing and everything else we associate with mid-to-late 20th century life, emphasized by increasing globe-trotting toward the end, and flashes of cosmic consequences at various points in the world. One of the defining principles of conservatism is a belief that we pretty much got everything right, so the status quo should be defended. Conjurors is more like Harry Potter, wherein a micro-community practices magic in secret, except here it's the broad public default. A boy might get busted reading Popular Science during school hours, but he's still dressed like Beaver Cleaver in a classroom lined with individual desks and a marm at the helm. But with wands, see? At the end of the book, all the magic users deprived of their sorcery have ready access to airplanes and helicopters to meet at Machu Picchu. Despite the shift from our world to a magical one taking place in pre-history, it is still recognizably our world, only mildly stunted in its stigmatized technology by a few decades at most.

I remember the mini-series arriving with a bit of a stink on it. It debuted outside the top 100, outsold by the $5.95 Doctor Midnite prestige format mini-series that would have typically been used for an Elseworlds. This was a $2.95 double-length floppy, and there's no break point in any of the issues to indicate that it was ever a six issue mini-series, not that it wouldn't have also been a telling format change. DC Comics simply did not produce books like Conjurors the way it actually came out. Also, Chuck Dixon was still a draw, but with mainstream audiences, mostly on books involving well armed, non-powered urban vigilantes, not the Vertigo crowd. Dixon is a justifiably well regarded scripter, but this isn't his wheelhouse, and it shows.

The book co-stars Zatanna, except it's Jennifer Morgan from The Warlord instead. A stage magician who is part of the 10% of the population naturally gifted with real magic, who spends much of her free time playing detective within the mystical community. There's a guy who vaguely resembles the Jared Stevens Fate with his rad long hair and eye tattoo... but he's a stage magician called Brother Power. It feels like people never gave or revoked approval for the familiar character types, maybe because Paul Dini had dibs on Zee, and Fate was getting aced to launch JSA? And wouldn't stage magicians be like paying to watch mathematicians or engineers at a blackboard? Could 10% of the population even support the magic needs of the other 90%, and does that mean the kid was in a classroom of only the 10% adepts? That's the initial pleasure but overall frustration of this mini-series. You spend the first issue trying to figure out which established IP have been shoehorned into a generic, often inappropriate role in a world where you're constantly second-guessing the premise. But then in the second part, Dixon gives up and just goes back to his comfort zone with the Challengers of the Unknown running around in a bi-plane on an rugged adventure. That schoolboy ends up offering a big information dump, and then just lingers on the periphery to react to stuff until the whimper of a finale. Why even?

I bring all this up because I only bought Conjurors second-hand as a discounted set to eventually cover it here for its novel inclusion of Bloodwynd, who appears in costume on a square inch in the background of the first cover. In the actual story, he's a bald black guy in a business suit who captures a spirit in a bottle. Eventually, the spirit escapes, and sends Bloodwynd out a skyscraper window to fall head first to his death. He was basically JLI-era Dr. Mist, but I guess Bloodwynd had more *snicker* commercial cache? Or more simply, THIS IS THE REMIX, so the entirely gettable Mist uses somebody else's moniker. And then is disposed of off-panel, because the status quo dictates that the best kind of inclusion is tokenism.

RBA #1 Veraldarvíg (March 2019)

When I first saw Pulp Fiction in 1994, a good fifteen years before I ever left the country, I fell in love with the "Royale With Cheese" discussion. I mean, the whole movie, but also, I still put mayonnaise on my waffle fries (but not french fries. I'm not a total heathen.) Now that I get to travel abroad with some regularity, I like to enjoy "the little differences" between countries. And being a lifelong comics geek, I always try to find some venue for a foreign four-color fix. Too often, I just muddle through imported copies of the same western comic book editions that I can find anywhere, or newsstand magazines that collect several modern comics, sometimes translated to local tongue. I find that more than a bit boring, because the older editions are much quirkier pieces of pop art, and I also like to find vintage material from the land I'm visiting. Ideally, I'll locate some hole in the wall on a back street that's the impure, adulterated experience. Like this multi-fandom spot in a quasi-strip mall in Reykjavík that looked more like a duplex, guided by a crude sandwich board sign from the sidewalk.

From visiting a local flea market and some book stores, it was pretty clear that Iceland wasn't historically big on super-heroes. There's a lot of Disney comics, adventure heroes like Tarzan, and of course the European staples Tintin and Asterix. This shop was no exception, plus a lot of fantasy, viking stuff, and some very quaint softcore behind a curtain that barely showed more than ankles and mid-drifts. Most of the stock were on wooden bookshelves, and as per usual, most of the western heroes were imports. I think I scored a hardcover annual a piece for my best friends-- I belive one was a British Hulk and the other a French Iron Man, or vice versa. I found a few oddball floppies stored in some sort of plastic clothing hampers for myself.

We eventually made our way to Nexus, the biggest comic/fan chain on the island. This particular location was in the basement of a multi-story mall, exactly where I would want it to be. You had to take a staircase that was flanked on one side by life-size statues of the Gal Gadot Wonder Woman, Spider-Man, and Deadpool. The view from the entry is deceptive, because the store snakes around to the left with expansive areas for more comics, gaming, and LARPing gear. They also had lit columns with stock images of Wonder Woman, Batman, Sailor Moon, Hellboy, MCU heroes, Darth Vader, and more. It was no Forbidden Planet, but London has nearly 9 million people to Reykjavík's 325K, so proportionately much grander, if taken on a per capita basis.

Most appealing to me was a small selection of trade paperback made specifically for Nexus stores featuring western comics translated into Icelandic. I texted Fryhole to see if he wanted Þór Bok 1, a trade collecting Thor: Son of Asgard, but he preferred a local Viking hardcover edition, Vargöld fyrsta bók.

For myself, I got a real treat, the first collection of the 1997 reboot of Réttlætisbandalag Ameríku, or as translated from Icelandic, "American Justice Alliance." We of course know it better as the start of Grant Morrison and Howard Porter's run on JLA from 1997. It collects the trades we know as "New World Order" and "American Dreams," as well as most of JLA Secret Files & Origins #1, under the title "Veraldarvíg," or "World Slaying." Period covers are reprinted for each chapter, and it appears Iceland was getting their monthlies more or less at the same time as us. Secret Files entries for the JLA members are used as interstitials to help with pagination.

After the first arc, there's the bio page for Superman Blue, followed by his short story "trial" for reentry into the JLA, so more or less in chronological order ahead of the membership drive in #5. Marian Manhunter's secret file by Don Hillsman III is ahead of the Neron/Asmodel two-parter. We continue on through #9, then the Starro lead story from Secret Files, and then the 3-issue Paradise Lost mini-series starring Zauriel by Mark Millar and Ariel Olivetti is also reprinted. My copy had a folded insert tucked into the back cover with the Multiversity map and advertising blurbs for other DC collections, which came standard for the edition based on copyright information in the trade's indicia. The package cost me 3,999 Krona or so, which would currently be about $28, though I think I paid more. Everything is pricier on an island. Anyway, a swell collection and souvenir. I wish there was an English language edition on glossy stock I liked as much as this one.

1985 Martian Manhunter Fan Art by Carl W. Taylor

I opted out of posting last Monday because 1) the holiday, 2) all my fellow wypipo hijacking Martin Luther King Jr. for their own ends, often while promoting other wypipo stuff, and 3) because the podcast I was editing was trying to kill me. A week later, and I'm not letting the edit get too nuts this time, so I can actually get something done on the blog. Anyway, I'm always thrown when I see evidence of Martian Manhunter having a fanbase before his return from limbo in 1984 for the Justice League and Super Powers. Obviously somebody was reading his Silver Age strip and the odd reprints, but he made so few appearances after 1969 that common assumption would be he'd missed a generation of readers (that included Brad Meltzer *spits in general direction.*) I have no way of knowing how old the artist was in 1985, when he sent this piece in for publication to the letter column of Amazing Heroes #81. Maybe the Kirby stylings were vintage, rather than reflecting The King's work in the Super Powers tie-in mini-series that reflected the Manhunter from Mars' inclusion within the toy line?

2022 McFarlane Toys DC Classic DC Multiverse Martian Manhunter (Gold Label) Action Figure Trading Card

I should be returning to regular blogging in 2023. This is partly due to my finally deciding against deleting my Twitter account, and therefore the primary (sole) social media outlet for promotion of the posts. My ambivalence on the matter following a months-long account suspension directly impacted on my motivation to produce work here. Secondly, my guilt at holding the circulation of Martian art commissions hostage, in some cases entering its ninth year of embargo, is being assuaged as I finally begin addressing jams long left incomplete by COVID lockdowns and my admitted diminished interest. I invested many thousands of dollars and countless man-hours into the intellectual property of an increasingly soulless corporation, but I can't resolve this decades long association without finally getting these artists' efforts out into the world. I'll start slow with these scans from a trading card included with an (I think?) Target-exclusive variant of the more broadly sold New 52 action figure released last year. I like the articulation and the hybrid Riley Rossmo/Joshua Middleton face, very much reflecting the most recent maxi-series. More importantly, Jose Fixit gave me a very impressive McFarlane Starro to place on his chest, giving the 7th Manhunter action figure on that particular shelf something unique to do. Technically the 8th, since my B'rett Custom Action Figure used a duplicate New Frontier J'onn as its base. I do wish they had (re-)produced art for the trading card rather than offer photographs of the figure I would have had to buy to get the card, and which may have yielded better scans. If you'd like a better look at the figure, try its website.

1989ish Adam Hughes JLI Sketch Page

Took a month or so off. Sorry folks, but I had a lot going on, and something had to give. Anyway, while researching a project, I stumbled upon this page of sketches by Adam Hughes with a curious number of J'Onn J'Onzz drawings. I have to assume that this was early in his Justice League International run, and that he was working out his rendition of the Manhunter from Mars. If you're interested, the page can be yours for the low, low price of $7K. Not the k. Hey, maybe you just bought Twitter. I don't know your price range, and thanks to investment bros, a lot of original art has this kind of psychotic asking prices these days. Besides fine-tuning his take on the Alien Atlas' brow and costume, and looks like this may be the place where he more or less redesigned Fire as a hair metal video vixen. Pretty neat! More Here!

2019 The Osprey color commission by Adrian Nelson

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Twenty-two years ago, I had the opportunity to attend San Diego Comic Con, which spoiled me for not only conventions, but for life as a comic shop retailer. I had such a blast on my meager personal funds and through the generosity of others that I realized that I didn't want to commit to continued impoverishment. It took a couple years to come out of a depressive state, make that realization, and fully act upon it. I still struggled in the aughts, and certainly had my lows, but I never truly regretted that decision. It was the right call.

In 2010, while visiting a comic shop during a work break on a job where I was making something like twice what I had at the comic shop, I saw a flier for a local convention called Comicpalooza. I wasn't exactly flush, and we only managed to make it to one day of the show, but I picked up several of my first ever art commissions that day. I was so excited by the prospect, and thoroughly hooked. The following year, I giddily pounced on the second full scale Comicpalooza (the very first show in 2009 was a piddly thing outside a mall movie theater, so I don't count it.) I had carefully vetted all the artists announced for the show, and shopped for new art accordingly. Adrian Nelson was not among those who had been advertised, merely sitting at the table of one who was, but I liked his samples and took a shot. The result was my first Bloodwynd piece.

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The following year worked out much the same, with my stumbling upon Nelson as he sat with the Austin collective CCP Comics at the ill-fated Space City Con. This show yielded Malefic, and I felt bad by messing him over by showing up a day early to pick up his intended color sample of Ma'alefa'ak. Sorry, Adrian.

I think Nelson dropped out of shows for a couple years to work on some commercial art projects and try to develop his own comic for publication. When he turned up at Amazing Houston Comic Con in 2015, I made sure to include him in a friends of Martian Manhunter jam featuring Glenn Gammeron. That turned out swell, and when I needed someone to pull together the J'Onzz Family Portrait Artist Jam, he came through for me again on the Martian deity H'ronmeer. The next year, I was singularly focused on gathering pieces for the Aliens 30th Anniversary reunion at Comicpalooza. I had intentionally avoided artists from whom I'd previously acquired commissions for this project, but with the deadline looming, a reached out to Nelson on Twitter as someone I knew I could rely on to deliver a home run Private Ricco Frost. We met up at a McDonald's parking lot, and chatted for a bit. He wasn't doing shows that year either, as I recall working on something of a vanity project for a well-heeled foreign patron. Not sure if anything substantial ever came of that, but I sincerely wished him the best.

Work In Progress Sketch


In 2017, I reached out to him again for a project via Twitter, this time a banner for the Rolled Spine Podcasts blog. I don't recall if Mac had designed our logo yet after a couple of misses soliciting letterers, including one I still bear ill will toward when I see him credited. I had a complicated idea for the banner, and I think it may have overwhelmed Nelson, but he also had a lot going on in life. I don't know which con we met at in 2018, but I finally decided to get a piece of the super-obscure Martian Manhunter villain The Osprey. Like the Ricco Ross piece, this was a take-home, something I generally avoid. I knew Nelson would make it worthwhile though, and I really liked his initial sketch.

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Nelson disagreed though, and halted work partway through. He said "Sorry, man. I've been making sure I give each commission a bit more because I feel like I'm turning a corner in my style and the pressure of wanting to "wow" people is really in my head." He started again, and sent me the work in progress. "I want to change what I originally put down. I sat with it and then it stopped working for me. Also, I finished the second issue and that was another reason. I'll scan it once I have it at a stage I think you can really see what I'm doing."


I didn't hear from Nelson again that year, but I saw him for the last time in 2019 at Fandemic. That year, I had begun work on a series of piece related to George A. Romero's Dawn of the Dead, with the intent to have the pieces signed by the actors that portrayed the characters. There were also a variety of technical people available, so I thought I might do a jam piece of actors that were no longer with us and include them there. David Early had portrayed the talk show host Sidney Berman in 1977, and appeared in many other genre favorites before his death in 2013. Nelson offered him a memorial rendition. Later that year, Nelson reached out to me on Twitter with another work in progress...

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"I decided to do a new one again since I didn't like what came before. I've gotten a bit more comfortable with my traditional stuff now. it's almost done, I just wanted to update you and find out when you want to meet up to get it." Unfortunately, my car was totaled in a flood, so I wasn't meeting anyone for the immediate future. Once I had that sorted, he was without a car while his wife was helping her mom recover from surgery. Early the following year, we went on vacation to the U.K., and then I was busy attending my final convention of 2020 in February. That was the same month as Nelson's final tweet, related to a Paypal plea. "I've recently fell ill and could use help paying for some of the now weekly trips for treatment. Any amount will help. Thank you!" I think we all remember how things went that March, and I was pretty disconnected from everyone but my most immediate circle for quite some time. I never considered Nelson's absence, even though we occasionally liked and retweeted one another. I was doing research for a podcast today when I stumbled upon a tweet from Antarctic Press in 2021. "We published 1 issue of B.A.D.A.S.S. by writer/artist Adrian Nelson who died after the first issue went to print. He was an amazingly talented creator and a good friend to all who knew him. R.I.P." That was actually a reprint of his original small press edition, which I bought a copy of at Bedrock City. I don't remember if I ever told him that. Adrian Nelson was obviously one of my favorite and most frequently engaged local artists, and I always hoped that I'd get to be that wealthy patron having him draw a comic for me someday. Click To Enlarge

JLA: Scary Monsters (2003)

In the Dakota Badlands of 1877, U.S. Calvary soldier Abel Carmody rescued the granddaughter of an American Indian shaman who gave his life to contain a demoniac hoard. Carmody eventually married the girl, become a great industrialist, and constructed the fortress "Carmody’s Folly" in preparation for another terrifying assault.

In the present, the Martian Manhunter ripped the back door of a suburban Denver home off its hinges with his bare hands. “As his name implies, he’s not from around here. But on his adopted homeworld, as on his planet of birth, J’Onn J’Onzz is a policeman. He swore an oath to protect the innocent. Moments like this, there’s nothing he’d rather do.” As he entered a den surrounded by police, the Manhunter began to assume a form more suited to the setting. He stepped over a young man unconscious on the floor to scoop up a frightened schoolgirl into his arms. “Hi, Ellie. I’m Detective Jones. You’re safe now. Everything’s going to be okay.” At that moment, a SWAT team burst onto the scene.



“Jones! What the hell are you doing here?!”
“What does it look like, Gene?”
“Watch the mouth, pal. You got no badge anymore, you got no right to be here!”
“Just doing my duty as a citizen, Lieutenant.”
“We had the situation under control--!”
“No—you were ready to start a war. In that kind of a cross-fire, what chance do you think the girl would have had? You got the bad guys, Gene. You saved the girl. You get to take the public bows. How ‘bout we leave it at that?”

Meanwhile, Green Lantern Kyle Rayner, his girlfriend Jade, the Flash, and his wife Linda had taken to the Spirit Lake Resort for a vacation. Also at the resort were Kishana Lewis and three fellow forest service fire fighters, who were called out by resort manager William Hume to insure that there would be no sparks lit under the hot summer sun. Within hours, Lewis had made a fire, and left her men to burn in it. Smoke over the south ridge had alerted Flash and Green Lantern, where they found Lewis in shock and rambling. Clearing the flames, the heroes were attacked by the possessed bodies of the firemen, whose supernatural abilities allowed them to circumvent the Leaguers’ powers. The firemen spontaneously combusted just as the dual titans were ready to collapse. Additional Leaguers Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Plastic Man, and the Martian Manhunter were likely called to the western Badlands by Jade, who joined them in discovering Flash and Green Lantern unconscious.

“The Martian Manhunter can fly. He can bend steel in his bare hands and change the course of mighty rivers. In fact, he can pretty much do anything Superman can do. With two significant additions. He’s a shape-changer. And more important right now, he’s a telepath. Something attacked and critically injured two of his Justice League colleagues... J’Onn J’Onzz is going inside their minds... the forest around them bursts once more into flame. The Manhunter bares his teeth in a reflex of defiance... writhing in the heart of those flames is something far worse, so great and terrible that [GL & Flash’s] minds deny its existence, for their own survival.”

“That’s when we arrived.” Rayner and West were carried back to the lodge and put under observation, while Kishana Lewis was given her own room. There she was visited by John Jones. The narration read, "This is a challenge the Manhunter's faced many times before in his career as a detective. His Martian telepathy makes the human mind transparent. Knowledge comes easily to him. Proof is hard."

Introductions were in order. “Ms. Lewis? I'm John Jones. I’m a detective. I used to be with homicide. I’ve been asked to help... Is something wrong... you’re staring.”
“I’m sorry... it’s just your skin-- looks green.”

Manhunter was stunned, thinking to himself, “Incredible. Impossible. My replication of the human form is perfect, yet somehow she sees through it! I can deny it, but this might prove the way to get her to trust me.” J’Onzz revealed his alter ego to Lewis, who was unafraid of his form. “I mean, you’re a hero—one of the Justice League. Why should it matter what you look like?” Given permission to peer into Lewis’ mind, J’Onzz found her astral self to be a being of flame. “A very rare woman indeed-- by the twin moons!” Lewis' fiery astral form created a wall of fire to protect the lodge from demonic entry, then urged the Martian Detective to evacuate, before it was too late. The flames were too intense for J'Onn, forcing his mind to leave the astral plane, only to find Kishana was consciously aware of none of this.

Back in the valley, Superman and Batman found that the forest had special regenerative properties that allowed it to redevelop at an astronomical rate. “I think I can tell you why this forest burns so easily. The wood is super-saturated with a kind of resin. Once it ignites, the fire would burn as intensely as white phosphorus. And the shape of the valley, like a bowl, makes this a natural blast furnace… From the looks of the subsoil and organic residue, about one hundred-plus years ago the valley was burned down to its bedrock. Evidence suggests another fire, equally devastating, better than a thousand years previously. And yet another, even further in the past. But this is old-growth timber… the kind of trees you’d expect to find in an eco-neighborhood that’s been untouched for centuries. No way should this have grown in just a hundred years. Or even two. “ Then, as Superman himself felt the cold and a blizzard set in, the Man of Steel tossed the Dark Knight to safety just before a creature attacked. The magical monstrosity assaulted with a wealth of speed outdistanced only by its mass. “These punches hurt! The creature’s claws are drawing blood! So much for being invulnerable!” Superman managed to defeat the one abomination, but he felt the presence of a legion. Batman noted, “His uniform’s badly torn. There’s blood all over. I’ve never seen him take this kind of punishment before.”

Wonder Woman fared worse than Superman against the sinister entities. Diana was infected with a disorder that caused her to slowly turn into a demonic version of herself, then frozen inside a lake. It required most of the League's powers combined to release the Amazing Amazon from her trap, as everyone returned to the resort built around Carmody’s Folly to regroup.

During this quiet before the storm, Linda Park expressed discomfort around J’Onzz to her husband, Wally West...
“I know he’s your friend...”
“Tell me about it. Sometimes he spooks me, too.”
“It’s the telepathy. Intellectually, I know he doesn’t pry, but every time J’Onn is around... I feel like I’m naked. Transparent clear down to the soul.”
“But think about him. All those years living among us... and no matter how much he blends, he’s still an alien.”

J’Onzz made a second attempt at learning about the demons through Kishana Lewis’ mind, and was pleasantly surprised she still had no problem with his appearance. J'Onzz found her to be “Intuitive and brave. I like that.” Kishana responded, “Don’t be fooled, it’s mostly an act.” J’Onzz insisted, “I’m not. And it isn’t.” The Manhunter found a “memory” of the aftermath of the 1877 incident imprinted on Kishana’s genome, as she heard “Medicine drums, on the wind. A song of power.” Martian Manhunter also determined that though Lewis’ physiognomy was mainly African, her heritage was still definitely mixed. "Does the name Abel Carmody mean anything to you?"

The Alien Atlas and Kishana Lewis were attacked by a tentacle monster, but it was the progressively worse Wonder Woman's claws that tore open Manhunter’s face, as she swung wildly in the pair's defense. Kishana was concerned. “C’mon Manhunter, let’s get you—“
“My fate doesn’t matter! It is you they want!” Armed with an M-16, Lewis held her own, and vowed, “Those monsters slaughtered my team... Whatever you want of me, you got.”

Manhunter grimly warned, “Have a care Kishana. Before this struggle ends, we may well hold you to that pledge. And it will likely cost you more dearly than you can possibly imagine.”

“Superman is not invulnerable to our adversaries. That suggests their nature derives from magic. However, they appear to be extremely vulnerable to heat, making fire our most effective weapon.” The Manhunter from Mars surmised this as he helped his fellows fended off the creatures’ latest assault. “Perhaps I can use my intangibility to get past these outer limbs... to the main body of the creatures!” Or perhaps not, as unearthly talons “...gaffed him like a fish... J’Onn’s in no condition to fight,” at least in the Dark Knight’s estimation. A shotgun-wielding Kishana Lewis fought to protect them both, earning the heroes’ respect, while remaining in their eyes a liability. Though Kishana's skilled use of firearms and evasive maneuvers made her seem at least as effective as the super-heroes, she tearfully fell back to look after the wounded J’Onn, as both were led back to safety by Plastic Man. On their way out, Superman couldn't help noticing what had drawn Kishana into the fray to begin with. "Interesting that J'Onn used his telepathy to reach out to Kishana."

With study, the Dark Knight Detective concluded of the Scary Monsters, “Their native environment must be absolute zero… They come from a dimension of primal cold. But each time they appear here, they’re stronger, smarter, more resilient.” Given a respite, Superman learned from the Carmody library that knowledge of the texts would not be enough to use the occult against the creatures. “Shamanic lore requires a spiritual aptitude, much like the metagene that conveys super powers, in those who seek enlightenment. You not only have to be born to the role, you also have to earn it by undertaking a series of ordeals.” On other matters, given Superman’s assertion about the creature’s natural habitat, Batman surmised, “On their side of the ‘door’ they’re static. Here, they evolve.”

Manhunter himself was evolving, as his shape-shifting abilities merely amplified the speed at which his septic wounds allowed their poison to turn him into a monster. J’Onzz envisioned the volcano we know as the Olympus Mons. “According to legend, it was created during a great and terrible battle for the soul, not only of the Martian race, but of our very world. Against a malevolence too awful to even name. The closest word we applied to them was-- Winter.” J’Onn drew Kishana into his mind, within which the monsters attacked the pair telepathically. “My heart is racing. It sounds like… drums… The pattern… it sounds African… It sounds Indian… Just like me… My blood-- feels like it’s setting me on fire!!” Kishana began to radiate heat, vaporizing the ice in their thoughts and cauterizing the Manhunter’s wounds clean. “The patterns of his life… are as clear to me as a trail of fire. The poison in him creates patches of darkness and cold. All I have to do is reignite the flames of creation… and I can make him whole.” J’Onzz felt reborn, and apparently aroused, as he kissed Kishana passionately...

"J'Onn, I--!"
"Hush. I'm a telepath, remember..? I know."

J'Onn J'Onzz and Kishana Lewis shared a bed, and a dream, beginning with the events that led to the death of Lewis’ fellows, Gerry, Rudy, and Simeon. With a tear rolling down her cheek, Kishana said, "They deserved so much better."
"Sometimes, Kishana, we choose the battle. Sometimes the battle chooses us. Fate is not fair."
"Part of me wishes I'd died with them."
"As I wish I had on Mars, with my own wife and family. But I was chosen for another purpose. And so, it seems, were you."

Kishana gasped at the sight of a white buffalo, until she was distracted by a white bird overhead, which landed on the shoulder of the newly revealed White Buffalo Woman. "She brought the awareness of life to the people of the plains. In a way, without her, we wouldn’t even be human. And that bird on her shoulder, that can only be--! With a clap that sent Kishana and J'Onn reeling, Thunderbird created sonic force waves with its wings. These visions, including the return of her possessed friends, were intended to help Lewis come to terms with her mission as the descendant of Abel Carmody and the shaman's granddaughter.

William Hume, the resort manager and longtime possessed pawn, opened the doors of the fortress to allow his masters entry. Diana, still struggling with her condition, was the first on defensive. Superman, Batman, and the Martian Manhunter were called next, just after J'Onn had presented the World's Finest pair with his lover's true nature. "I am not of this world, Kishana. I play at being human, but I am not. By nature and by choice, I have stood apart from your passions. I have observed the emotion you call love... but rarely experienced its passion! It is hard for me to leave you. Yet to save you, I must." Lewis replied, “Come back quick, J’Onn. Come back safe. I’ll be waiting.”

While the Kryptonian and the Martian flew off, the Batman tried to drag Kishana down to the catacombs. "I'm staying! ...I saved J'Onn, doesn't that count for something? The monsters believe I'm important, even if you don't! Can you really afford to throw away any potential asset?" Batman appreciated the American Indian lore regarding the demons and a fabled guardian, though going too deep into metaphysics bothered him. Kishana agreed to the Caped Crusader's tutelage in accessing her abilities. "Twice now, with J'Onn on the astral plane, I transformed into an avatar of pure flame. He said it was like looking at the spark of creation that brought the universe to life. If there were beings who existed before that moment... maybe they want revenge for being evicted."

Just after Jade arrived to support the Amazing Amazon on defense, Wonder Woman’s adulteration was completed, and she downed the emerald heroine. Seeking a final resolution, Superman and the Martian Manhunter decided to attempt to activate a dormant volcano under Black Spirit Lake with their heat vision. "This will trigger an eruption on a scale that hasn't been seen since this world was born. The ecological consequences will be devastating, Superman." It would be Green Lantern's job to contain their scope. "If he fails, my friend, our actions will leave this world as barren as its moon." Much ado about nothing, as the Scary Monsters immediately froze the site and relaunched hostilities against the heroes.

With the other heroes attentions elsewhere, Batman was convinced that Lewis’ powers needed a means of ignition, and departed the fortress with Kishana and Plastic Man in tow. While Lewis wore Plastic Man as a suit for protection in her trek to the lake, Batman stayed behind to stall the now entirely possessed Wonder Woman. In the forest, Kishana and P.M. came across a white elk, “…in a valley where as far back as anyone can recall... no animal, not even an insect, has ever been seen… The white buffalo is a spirit totem. It imparts wisdom. The great elk is a warrior totem. It imparts the strength to use the wisdom. We’ll make way better time with a ride!” The elk was slain by a spear tossed by Diana, who had overcome the Batman.

As the extraterrestrial duo fought off flying demons, Manhunter analyzed the situation. "Batman is down, Superman. And Wonder Woman has been turned! She's one of them now!" Plastic Man and Kishana are on their own. We have to help." Superman acknowledged that regardless of the cost to her and the probable loss of the Leaguers’ lives, the salvation of Earth was in Kishana Lewis' hands, much to J’Onn’s chagrin. “You don’t understand. I-- care for her! More than you know. More than I ever imagined possible! I know you’re right-- but in my heart the price is too high!”

Kishana’s powers began to surface in conflict with "Dark Diana," and as she grew nearer to a tower in the middle of Black Spirit Lake. Once the reanimated elk preoccupied Plastic Man, Lewis recognized, “It’s all on me now! It’s up to me to succeed where the Justice League failed! The world is so screwed! NO! I won’t accept that! Those heroes had faith in me!” Lewis was then lynched by Plastic Man’s twisted form, as Diana noted that while Kishana’s touch was anathema to her, Plas’ fallen form allowed Wonder Woman to end Lewis' threat.

Kishana was given a breather by the kamikaze flight of the Manhunter from Mars, in a form similar to the prophetic Thunderbird, but was then gutted by Diana. “Why, J’Onn, what a surprise! Whatever could have possessed you?! To take an action so passionate, so utterly uncharacteristically human! And so ultimately futile!! Has Cupid’s arrow found your alien heart?”

“She is the hope of the world, Diana! ...Your kind are in my memory as well. From a battle so fierce it laid waste to the souls of my entire race. You are one of the reasons we cannot abide fire. Not because of what it may do to us—but because of the monsters we used it to destroy! After all, why would a species who live in mortal fear of fire... breed its generation into our very genome?”

With that J’Onn J’Onzz fired his laser vision into Kishana’s eyes, and she was converted into an energy being. The explosion that followed eradicated all trace of the demons from the valley, as well as washing over J'Onzz himself. "My life for Earth? A nothing sacrifice."

Fallen heroes were restored to grace, though the inferno eradicated all plant life in the area. Kishana Lewis resuscitated J’Onzz with a kiss, while appearing to briefly become a Martian herself. “”This is but an illusion, painted by a merging or your power with my telepathy. It’s not meant to last.” Truer words... as energy shot between the lovers, painfully tearing them apart. Batman explained, “Apparently, you’ve become an avatar of fire, channeling the molten heart of not only the earth, but the sun as well. You may still look human, but the change is total and irrevocable. Given the Manhunter’s inherent Martian vulnerability to flame, even the most casual physical contact will be painful. Anything prolonged is guaranteed fatal.” Kishana couldn't believe the unfairness of it all.

Green Lantern was almost converted to a demon just before the cleansing, and while he didn’t see his attacker was William Hume, he knew a human was in league with the scary monsters. Kishana concluded, “If the demons have an agent loose among us, and there are other gates--! Then this isn’t over. We’ve won a battle… but the war has only just begun. Fine. If this is the job I was born to do, I’m game. But that doesn’t let you off the hook, Mister! We’re not done.”

Lewis and J'Onzz stared into one another's eyes... “Kishana--!” “Hush! I’m a romantic. I believe in true love. In the end, against all odds, it will triumph.” “In the face of such passion, who am I to argue? I speak for the League. You have done well this day, Kishana. Your grandfather and grandmother would be proud. And should the need arise for us to fight once more by your side, it will be our privilege.”

By Chris Claremont, Joshua Hood and Sean Parsons.

2000 Warner Bros. Studio Store Exclusive JLA Mug

Photo by Pekita Trotamundos

This embossed coffee mug was bought for me as a present from the late, great WB Store. It has stored loose change and/or pens ever since. For the record, only the figures are raised, not the JLA logo, but this is some of the most pronounced embossing I've ever felt. Very lumpy, at various degrees, that could almost be measured to a centimeter at the most extreme points. Photo by Pekita Trotamundos

Art appears to be by Eduardo Barreto, who was pretty much the Martian Manhunter artist of the '90s when it came to any type of merchandising. Pictured left-to-right, top-to-bottom: Martian Manhunter, Green Lantern Kyle Rayner, Wonder Woman, the Flash (presumably Wally West,) Batman, Superman and Golden Mullet Aquaman. Photo by Pekita Trotamundos

Model and Toy Collector #24 (Spring 1993)

Click For More I hate models. I used to have a customer who would spend hours telling me about his process in crafting model kits, and I would spend those hours fighting back the tears and anger at time I'd never get back. I also hate "B. Clarke," who painted a JLofA cover for this issue involving the team playing their '60s Hasbro Flash board game. Those all featured J'onn J'onzz, but Clarke bypassed authenticity and screwed Manhunter alone by turning him into the Atom. Of course, that helped lead Damian Maffei of the late The Atom: Tiny Titan blog to cover this magazine back on January 6, 2008. Inside was a shoddy photo of a custom model of "Jonah Jones" by David E. Dennis built from an Aurora Superman kit. This was based on concept art by Jerry Somethingorother, or the fake concept art drawn around the model. I don't really care all that much. Visit the link to see this travesty in rather large scans, including other custom models for the Atom, Green Lantern and Aquaman. Click For More

2013 Zook Comicpalooza Commission by Amanda Lafrenais

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Amanda Lafrenais is the creator of the free webcomic Love Me Nice, which I'll happily link to, and a contributor to the subscription-only adult erotic anthology Slipshine, which you'll have to get to on your own (keeping it PG, y'all.) Love Me Nice is about the behind-the-scenes antics of actors from a TV show in a universe where cartoons characters and average folk interact, and looks like fun.

One of the themes of the strip is that the 'toons and the more humanoid/anime characters are the same species, but the former was treated as lesser beings until recent times. Zook is a character that artists sometimes struggle with, treating him as purely an animal or an alien, when his other-dimensional nature is more like a cartoon made flesh in a straightforward super-hero strip. Lafrenais is uniquely suited to interpret Zook's conflicted nature, juxtaposing the animated aesthetic with a more realistic infantile body, both cute and slightly unnerving. It's like an unintentional inversion of Mark Ryden; a completely innocent and sweet drawing of a creature the mind perceives as ever so slightly "wrong" because of too much lifelike reality mingled into its DNA.



Zook is a polarizing character among Martian Manhunter fans, with his pidgin English/baby talk and his representing a period where the strip shifted toward odd monster of the month fare ever more divorced from the pseudo-reality of the original sci-fi crime strip. I personally found Zook a bright spot during a creatively dire period, and I find it interesting how Lafrenais' interpretation confronts "the haters" with the inherent, blameless naiveté of the creature. How can you be disdainful of something so defenseless and pure, the manifestation of editor Jack Schiff's attempt to allow a comic strip to remain wholly owned by the children that once read it? Instead, the already increasingly sophomoric and demanding man-children that would consume the comic medium were soon given Marco Xavier, Vulture, and a grimness ahead of its time.

I thoroughly enjoy Amanda Lafrenais' piece, both for the craft demonstrated in the caricature/anatomy/coloring and for the recontextualization of the character it inspires. Lafrenais is also one of the friendliest and most enthusiastic artists I have ever met, speaking openly and giddily with fans as friends. A passing mention of her work's resemblance to Ross Cambell launches an anecdote about the mutual admiration society they ended up forming. She laughs unreservedly, and seems fully immersed in the joy that can come from this medium, too often drowned out by age and cynicism. Both her art and her persona are a reminder of why so many of us are devoted to comics, and I recommend visiting her at a convention if you get the opportunity as a four color homeopathic alternative to SSRIs.

Amanda Lafrenais' web site is a nice place to visit, but please remember that many links there are VERY NOT SAFE FOR WORK!

The Comic Reader

The Comic Reader Number 159 (August, 1978)

OUR COVERS: Manhunter From Mars by Al Milgrom, back again and probably slated to appear in DETECTIVE, and two new additions to ADVENTURE, Power Girl and The Huntress by Rick Taylor. ©1978 DC Comics Inc.

DC NEWS What happened on June 22, 1978 may possibly be the most significant events of the year. This is undoubtedly the most complicated story we've ever had to report, and the ramifications from it will be felt for the foreseeable future if not beyond. It started ten years ago when Warner Brothers took over Kinney National Service, which owned DC Comics.

The corporate heads of Warner Communications had stayed pretty much out of the picture as far as creative decisions go, the significant actions being the instatements of Carmine Infantino and Jenette Kahn as publishers and the budget and price increase okays over the years. Recently, however, the people upstairs began to take long looks at the downward trend sales have taken since they inherited their branch of the comics industry and a decision was made to attempt to halt the plummet by some drastic means. The first of these we mentioned last issue, which involves massive overhaul of the distribution process. Basically, this involves getting a much greater percentage of the copies that are printed displayed on the nation's newsstands, working more closely with local distributors and wholesalers. We will only be able to see the results of this step since few of us are wholesalers. The second step they have taken will hit much more closely to home and we will all feel its impact.

DC has eliminated their shortlived 50¢, 40 page line, after only three months' trial. Obviously, the reason has nothing to do with sales. The people at Warner feel that the new system of distribution should be given a chance with DCs looking like the rest of the industry's books, since there will be some risk of alienating wholesalers without the more expensive books. So, beginning in September (books cover dated December), all DCs that are not dollar books will be 32 pages with 17 pages of story again, but now for 40¢. And that's not all.

All non-dollar-sized bi-monthly books have either been cancelled or upgraded to monthly status. Hereafter, only monthly titles will be published in the regular size.

The article went on to list the cancellation points of seventeen then-ongoing comics, in what would later be dubbed the "DC Implosion." For example, "FIRESTORM with #5... STEEL with #5," and so on. An additional five issues of other titles previously announced were not to be published, as well as two reprint books. "...THE DESERTER, the dollar-sized STRANGE ADVENTURES, SWAMP THING and THE VIXEN have been indefinitely postponed... DC published an office-only comic book entitled CANCELLED COMICS CAVALCADE which features 35 completed comic books we'll never see." A variety of supporting features were left looking for a home, "though the new characters that have yet to be introduced (NEVERWHERE, the VIXEN back-up to feature Matt Treadway, etc.) may not. Some of the writers have inquired about buying back their characters, and DC is not entirely adverse to the idea."

DC's Mike Gold feels that the delay of the SUPERMAN film had nothing whatsoever to do with the decision. His opinion is that the decision came as a result of fifteen years of declining comic sales, possibly spurred on by the low winter sales (figures seriously out of wack because of the blizzard), and the new size would not have been saved even if a phenomenal sales push had been garnered from the film.

THE COMIC READER was published monthly by and © Street Enterprises. It was begun as a fanzine in 1971 by Paul Kupperberg and Paul Levitz, both later of DC Comics. It ended in 1983, a couple years after dutifully reporting on the debut of the magazine that would succeed it, Fantagraphics' Amazing Heroes.

The Comic Reader #183 (September, 1980)

It should be evident to anyone who has read my blogs or listened to my podcasts that I'm a big comic reader. However, I'm not big on The Comic Reader, one of if not the longest lived fanzines of the medium (unlike the much earlier Alter Ego, which became a prozine and then a proper magazine.) The publication was always slight on editorial content, likely due to a lack of access to the big companies and their talent, as well as its dependence on their good graces for the book's main service to the community, solicitation art & copy. For instance, the specific issue being covered today ran 60 pages and change, 13 of which were paid advertisements, 18 were newspaper strip reprints, 3 well drawn but unfunny animal strips, and 1 a photo comic featuring the guys who did those strips that actually is kind of funny. Pretty near everything else looks like an early Previews catalog.

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That said, the magazine pioneered the use of original full color professional cover art, and has shown much love to J'onn J'onzz in that regard, including issues 159, #197, #219 and this number right here, described inside as "The original JLA as portrayed by new DC inker Dennis Jensen, and Supergirl and Batgirl by TCR cover artist Bob Staszak." This was actually around the time the Manhunter from Mars saw a sharp uptick in usage, including appearances in Justice League of America and DC Comics Presents, with black and white cover art from the second part of Mongul arc (featuring Supergirl) displayed inside. Detective Comics #500 is also discussed, including "Paul Levitz and Joe Kubert do a HAWKMAN story which investigates the 'Strange Death of Dr. Erdel,' the man who brought J'onn J'onzz to Earth." There's also the brief mention that "Polygram Films has announced that BATMAN is on their release schedule for 1982. Michael Uslan and Ben Melnicker are the producers named."

Over at Marvel, their graphic novel line was meant to begin with an X-Men story by Claremont, Byrne & Austin, while Frank Miller was set to both draw AND write an issue of DAREDEVIL "featuring a new villain called Electra." Their spelling. Did that Daredevil back-up strip "The Ninja" by Hama and Simonson ever happen? Or the Howard the Duck radio show?

Wooo-- there's a fan letter that references an episode of Tomorrow with Tom Snyder that featured a co-interview of Stan Lee and Carmine Infantino! Wait-- I just did a bit of research, and apparently only audio of the episode still exists, and includes Julie Schwartz! Why has no one leaked this to YouTube?

1981 The Comic Reader #197 Back Cover by Fred Hembeck

Click To Enormify Hey, remember when comic conventions only had one guest? There's a show in here with just Walt Simonson and the dude who played Twiki, and I should have asked Howard Chaykin how his gig in Indiana went when I talked to him this weekend (all three have done Houston shows in the past year.) Say, the top 100 comics are listed her! Okay, forget what I said earlier-- these later issues of the magazine are actually neat. I bought a few issues for a few bucks at Amazing Houston, and if anything Alien Atlas appears, I'll pass it along...

Detective Comics #273 (November, 1959)

"Gasps of astonishment go up," as city citizens gazed upon an unearthly missile overhead. "The strange craft lands in a nearby park," from which a jaundiced extraterrestrial exited. A crowd gathered nearby, taking cover behind a statue. "Is he friendly-- or dangerous? Approach him carefully!" Caution proved the better part of valor, as the yellow-skinned Martian drew a ray gun that vaporized the statue with one shot. "Out of my way, Earth people!" As the humans evacuated the scene, B'rett thought to himself, "Ha, ha... Look at them flee! With my Martian powers, I'll become the most powerful man on Earth!"

"Immediately, the alien newcomer begins his reign of crime..." Recognizing Earth people stored their money in banks, B'rett used "one of my Martian talents" to pass immaterially through a vault wall to help himself. Confronted by armed guards, he chided, "Guns? You think you can stop me with your puny guns? Come to think of it, who needs money? I can take anything I want from you helpless Earthlings!"

Minutes later, Captain Harding summoned ace Detective John Jones to his office. "Jones... Hundreds of calls are pouring in about an alien on Earth!" Jones promised to look into it, while wondering "what the chief would say if he knew that I'm an alien... Still, I doubt there's actually another outer-spaceman on Earth!" However, Detective Jones soon found himself in a crowd watching B'rett plow through heavy traffic with his super-breath. "Great Suns-- It's true!" The super-sleuth noticed B'rett was warning people not to follow him, rather than simply turning invisible, "as any Martian can do." Only through his Martian Eyesight could Jones follow the evil alien's sudden burst of speed, leading to an abandoned warehouse. Jones followed B'rett into the warehouse before undergoing his "startling change" into J'onn J'onzz, the Manhunter from Mars. B'rett exclaimed "Thundering Meteors-- another Martian! How did you get here?" J'onzz played it tough, demanding "Suppose you first tell me who you are-- and how you got here?"

"My name is B'rett! I-- er-- had to leave Mars in a hurry... so I hid myself in an experimental missile that overshot its mark-- and accidentally landed on Earth!" The Martian Manhunter wasn't buying it. "A criminal, eh? Well-- I'm returning you to your missile!" B'rett was no more interested in J'onn's line, and drew his Martian ray gun. "I may be invulnerable to Earth weapons-- but that gadget can finish me for good!" The Alien Atlas turned himself invisible as the Martian Criminal used up his gun's battery firing blind. B'rett had "plenty more" batteries at the missile. "Meanwhile, I've got another weapon I can use against you!" The Martian Marvel was shocked at the sight of "A pellet of Formula Z6-- the chemical given to Martian criminals to rob them of their super-powers while invisible! No wonder you never vanish!" J'onn J'onzz collapsed from exposure to the gas, though he remained obscured. "Exactly... and from now on, you will never be able to use your Martian powers while invisible, either!"

B'rett had escaped to his missile by the time J'onzz regained consciousness and resumed the chase. As B'rett exited the craft with his re-charged ray gun, he was met by three police officers in over their heads. "I can't use my powers to save them, unless I become visible-- and give away my presence on Earth! ...I have no choice..." The police were rattled by the sudden appearance of two Martians, but the Sleuth from Outer Space assured, "...have no fear of me! I am on Earth to fight crime!" B'rett dismissed, "BAH! ...Take one more step, Manhunter, and I'll start blasting!" J'onzz knew "he means it," and used his Martian Distance Vision to detect a man burning leaves miles away. The Manhunter filled his Martian lungs, then let loose a mighty blast that drew in the burning leaves and encircled B'rett. "Fire-- the one Martian weakness! I-- I'm losing all my strength! Oh-h-h!" J'onzz announced, "Now's your chance, officers... Grab him! I don't dare come any closer to that fire!"

"Helpless, the evil Martian is placed back in his missile-- and soon after, at a nearby rocket launching base," he was shot into orbit around Mars at the Manhunter's request, "So the Martians will then be able to send up a ship and bring it down." Just after liftoff, the familiar voice of Captain Harding greeted the once-Secret Visitor from Mars. As he shook J'onzz's hand, Harding considered, "Imagine... a Martian Manhunter, here on Earth! Would I love to have you on the force!" Though he was intent on continuing to keep his Earth identity secret from even the chief, J'onzz promised "I will always be available for emergencies." Later at headquarters, Harding continued to brag to "Jones-- until today, you were the top detective in town... but from now on, you'll have to take second place to the Manhunter from Mars!"

“The Unmasking of J'onn J'onzz” by Jack Miller and Joe Certa.