|
|
Post by MDG on Jun 22, 2015 11:32:31 GMT -5
Challengers is basically one of Kirby's kid gangs all growed up. It's adventure 24/7 without an ounce of adult emotions. Cei-U! Not that that's a bad thing! No, not a bad thing, but you could argue that the Newsboy Legion, Boy Commandos, and Boy's Ranch (at least the samples I've seen) had more adult emotions than the Challs. My guess is DC at the time wasn't interested in anything beyond colorful, action-packed stories (maybe with a smattering of scientific problem-solving in Julie's books). |
|
|
|
Post by wildfire2099 on Jun 22, 2015 12:04:48 GMT -5
I haven't read any of the 'boy gang' books, but so far for Challengers I have to really try to tell the 4 of them apart (especially in the b&w showcase format)... that was really what was bugging me. I'm trying to just let that go, and focus on the cool art... that should help  |
|
|
|
Post by wildfire2099 on Jun 22, 2015 15:49:21 GMT -5
I'm not giving up on the Challengers (especially after the pep talk), but I brought a smaller HC on my trip, so... World's Finest!  Superman #76 'Mightiest Team in the World' Clark Kent and Bruce Wayne both take vacation on the same boat, and get stuck sharing a cabin due to overbooking. When a crook sets a shoreside fire to steal some diamonds, both change into their super hero identities, and a stay bit of light from a porthole reveals them to each other! The spend the rest of the cruise trying to catch the thief and confuse Lois as to who's who. It's pretty hilarious when they decide to have Batman show interest in Lois to keep her busy, but she overhears and hams it up.. then goes out with Robin (his only appearance in the story) when they get home. This issue also features (I suspect) the first Fastball special, as Superman tosses Batman at the bad guys getaway copter, so he can tow the sabotaged cruise ship into port. -------------------- Batman - Double for Superman World's Finest # 71 Batman and Robin are foiled trying to stop some thieves, and Clark Kent is caught by Lois turning into Superman! He saves the dynamic duo (and the Batplane) but his secret is out. Luckily, Batman has a plan, as they switch places, and he uses a variety of tricks to hang out with Lois as Superman (including letting her catch him changing), which Clark dresses as Batman to catch the crooks. Unfortunately, what the crooks were stealing was Kryptonite, so Clark passes out in their hideout. Batman (dressed as Superman) manages to bluff the crooks and save Clark, they switch back, and take care of business. Meanwhile, Lois sees Clark dressed as Batman, and assumes he did it for a story (Not sure why Clark can't BE Batman in her eyes), so now she's totally confused and annoyed about the secret identity thing.. .I sense a theme.  World's Finest #72 'Fort Crime' A gang of crooks has managed to build heavy weapons and are knocking off Armored cars from Gotham to Metropolis. Clark gets kidnapped, and needs Batman and Robin's help to save the day without Lois figuring it out... alot like the last story, with a bit less costume changing. Overall, all three stories are pretty fun with great Curt Swan art. I think the whole ongoing story of the two greatest superheroes in the world teaming up mostly to confusticate poor Lois Lane will get old fast, though... hopefully that's not ALL they do every issue . |
|
|
|
Post by Hoosier X on Jun 23, 2015 0:01:54 GMT -5
I think the whole ongoing story of the two greatest superheroes in the world teaming up mostly to confusticate poor Lois Lane will get old fast, though... hopefully that's not ALL they do every issue . Well, there's also the plots where Superman or Batman gets jealous because the other hero takes on a new partner ...
They sometimes go back in time and meet people like Robin Hood ...
Sometimes they team up to confusticate Batwoman or Vicki Vale ...
also - Joker/Lex Luthor team-ups!
But if you're really opposed to frequent anti-Lois Lane campaigns, I suspect you're going to be disappointed.
|
|
|
|
Post by wildfire2099 on Jun 23, 2015 6:22:59 GMT -5
I'm not opposed exactly, it just hard to read back to back. You know what it seems like? They're trying to write a romance comic with superheroes. It totally makes sense for the time period.
Going back in time sounds pretty fun, as long as they don't decide Batman and Superman are every important historical figure ever.
|
|
|
|
Post by wildfire2099 on Jun 23, 2015 15:23:11 GMT -5
Happily, Hoosier was incorrect... barely a female to be seen in the next three stories! World's Finest #73 'Batman and Superman, Swamis Inc' Great cover:  Clark and Lois are in Metropolis covering the fair (slow news day in Metropolis, I guess) when they decide to check out the fortune teller. The man inside dismisses Lois, who goes off on her own, and tells Clark he knows his secret! Clark is flabbergasted, but it turns out that it's really Bruce Wayne, trying to smoke out a gangster who is missing his lucky Arabian sword. Superman helps Bruce in making his fortune teller predictions come true, and Batman tweaks his pal a bit, but making them harder and harder to fufill. The plan works, but Robin is caught following, so Batman has to storm in for a (Failed) rescue, and has to give them the sword. Luckily, it suddenly has a mind of it's own, and subdues the crooks. It was Superman, of course using 'invisible super-speed' Gotta love the silver age! No mention of what the heck Lois was doing in the 2 or 3 days Superman was fufilling wishes  . Worlds Finest #74: 'Contest of Heroes' A Shapeshifting alien is terrorizing Gotham luckily Lois and Clark are once again in Gotham covering something for the Daily Planet. After lots of twin-shapeshifter hijinks, Batman figures out the alien is just a kid, and it's playing with them. Superman goesto space and gets him a model world to mess with, and off he goes to play superhero as Super-Batman. Not much of a story, but some great art!  Worlds Finest #75 'Superman and Robin' Clark, on assignment with the Planet's Gotham affiliate (guess Metropolis is permanently boring!) finds Batman in quite a fix. He fell out a window and broke his leg chasing the Purple Mask gang, who are running amok. He teams with Robin to bring them down. Batman sits home in the Batcave, worrying Robin will like Superman better.. then he starts getting weird, and asks for new trophies for the Cave. Superman and Robin comply, and take down a bunch of thugs, though are still no close to the ring leaders. Batman then suddenly tells them exactly where to go, using the clues from his 'souvenirs'. Superman and Robin wrap things up.. then Superman tells Batman he didn't actually break his leg, he just inhaled some poison, and needed to take it easy for a couple days. Assuming he wouldn't (even if he died), Superman and Robin concocted the broken leg thing to get him to rest. Day saved! Robin then, naturally tells his mentor he's the best. We get a Robin fastball special, and some great Batcave scenes... it's funny how it seems more like Bruce Wayne' s basement than a super secret crime fighting HQ in these.. kinda nice. I really enjoy the non-that-dark-knight Detective, where he actually detects stuff instead of just freaking the bad guys out into submission.  |
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Jun 23, 2015 17:43:37 GMT -5
Worlds Finest #74: 'Contest of Heroes'
Has some of the best artwork around and I giggle of this story of Super Batman here.
Worlds Finest #75 'Superman and Robin'
One of my favorite stories and I enjoyed it because of the Batcave Scenes in this issue.
|
|
|
|
Post by wildfire2099 on Jul 4, 2015 0:20:22 GMT -5
 Challengers of the Unknown #4 'Wizard of Time' The Challengers find out people out of time are turning up... they trace them to a guy who has apparently built a time machine, and is using it to go back and sell future stuff to make money. They chase him back to ancient Egypt... then ancient Rome, but stay a step behind. Then it hits them, he's visiting people that can predict the future, to get their 'formulas' so he can go to the future, and they set off for his next logical target.. Nostradamus. Sadly, they're still behind, but luckily Tiko (the bad guy) helpfully left his notes behind, so they follow. Arriving in 3000 AD, they find Tiko's cube full of stuff to make him rich and powerful. The local authorities are on to him though, and they're arrested. the Robo-Judge of the future lets them go... but with out the stuff, and tells them to get out of the cube quickly what they get home. The cube self destructs, but the Challengers get their man.. the end. Story: C- Art: A- Not bad, but pretty darn predictable. We get a wide array of cool art stuff though, which makes it totally worth it. Challengers of the Unknown #5 'The Riddle of the Star-Stone' June calls the boys in to chase after a guy with the star stone.. a flat rock with 4 slots in it, that are supposed to give the holder powers (it's later clear the powers are designed to make progress) if a particular gem is inserted. The last one will give permanent superpowers. The Challengers are off.. but the temporary powers the holder gets (it seems they're keyed to the following occassion) annoyed and/or ignores it. They fail at every turn (again) but trick the guy into shattering the meteor, which doused the power. The end! Plot: D Art: B This one barely holds together, and it's pretty much a carbon copy of the month before with a different theme. The art isn't as varied and interesting as the last.. good for what it does, I suppose. |
|
|
|
Post by wildfire2099 on Jul 13, 2015 20:08:38 GMT -5
 Challengers of the Unknown #6 Two stories in this one: 'Captives of the Space Circus': An alien ringmaster uses a false distress call to capture the Challengers to use in Gladiatorial combat in his space circus. Amazing art in this one.... from the giant monster they fight first, to the 'bird men' and 'Round Men' that help them escape, to the alien captors.. totally epic. The plot leaves alot to be desired, but who cares? It's Kirby drawing space Gladiators! It was especially funny when the Challengers managed to crash the giant spaceship by tying their belts together and breaking a light bulb, er, I mean an Ion energy collector. Rating: B+  'Sorcerers of Forbidden Valley' June crash lands on an uncharted island and finds a magic lamp that turns her into a sorceress.. the boys follow, and, after being captured by June, break out when the stuff wears off. The End. Clearly filler for the awesomeness that was the first story.. strange it was on the cover, though. Very cool splash of a the 'forbidden city', but pedestrian otherwise. Rating: C- |
|
|
|
Post by wildfire2099 on Jul 13, 2015 21:13:06 GMT -5
 .. Challengers of the Unknown #7 Two stories again.. very similar to the last one. 'Beasts from Planet 9' This time the alien zoo ship crashes on Earth, and the Challengers have to do so animal retrieval. The guys in charge thank them, and take their animals back to Pluto. Strangely, there's a bunch of sports metaphors in this one.. it kinda stuck out since it hadn't happened for a while. Good art, but not nearly as good as the last one. Rating: B-  'Island of No Return' There sure are alot of uncharted islands in the Silver Age DCU! A traditional Bald-Headed evil genius steals a bunch of cool super science from a nice genius, and the Challengers and Jane go off to save the day. The Challengers get shrunk again, which is a cool visual, but Jane has to save them. Luckily for them, the last super science gadget the bad guy had to try was actually a failsafe that made the others fail, so they got bailed out. Better story, but nothing to write home about art-wise. Rating: C+ |
|
|
|
Post by wildfire2099 on Jul 18, 2015 7:07:05 GMT -5
 Flash #107 'Return of the Super-Gorilla' Because one Grodd appearance isn't enough! Grodd has escaped from Gorilla City, so Solovar uses some crazy Super-Gorilla device to call Flash without a phone and tell him to come investigate. Grodd has found and enslaved the Bird People that leave in the hollow center of the Earth (I know, right?), and is planning to devolve Gorilla City before siccing the Bird People on the humans. Flash finds him and attacks, but the 'mola' atmosphere hardens around him due to his speed. Luckily, he crashes into the de-evolutionizer before stopping. As Grodd fixes it, Flash is able to knock himself over and free himself, then, going at slower speed, easily defeats Grodd. The Bird People thank him and he goes home. Rating: B (Grodd AND Bird People from the center of the Earth!!), but Grodd loses awfully easily.. he was well entrenched, he should have been tougher! I think mola was the word of the day, but I'm still stumped after a google search. Really good art in this one, and it was nice not to have the same page or two where Barry is about to meet Iris for something, then get chastised for not being later that seems to be the frame of every issue. 'The Amazing Race Against Time' I guy in a green superhero outfit appears, and can outrun the Flash, but doesn't know why. Flash electrucutes him, and he remembers he a robot alien that needs his help. They fix his spaceship at superspeed and save the day. Strangely, they call the robot a 'hominoid' instead of android. More strangely, that was the most memorable part of the story. Rating: D |
|
|
|
Post by wildfire2099 on Jul 21, 2015 23:20:52 GMT -5
 Flash #108 'The Speed of Doom' The Mohruvians seem obsessed with speed, and are taking any object that has been struck by lightning. They trap the Flash on a treadmill by zapping his feet with radiation and making him go too fast. He escapes by accelerating past light speed (comic books science FTW!) so the radiation loses it's hold... even though at 100,000 Miles per HOUR he said he couldn't go on much longer. We do learn about what the speed of light is, though, as well as what Fulgurite is... DC does love their educational footnotes! IT turns out the bads guys are just a gang of thieves harnessing the lightning energy in Fulgurites to be Flashes... Barry figures it out, stops them rather easily, and turns them over to the Mohru police. The End! Rating: C- History: F (another generic alien race never to be seen again) 'The Super-Gorilla's Secret Identity' Grodd escapes again, this time by smashing his 'Quatromobile' into the jail. He then uses his evolution accelerator on himself (not to be confused with the devolution dohickety last issue) to get a proper disguise. He turns into Drew Drowden, philthopist and job creator. Flash figures it out, and after a decent fight, he captures him and sends him back to Gorilla city. He also beats him out for Central City man of the year ...that doesn't seem like the sort of thing a superhero should care about, but apparently he does. Rating B- History: B (DC seems to have sensed talking gorillas=money.. the next issue blurb promises Grodd would be back soon). |
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Jul 26, 2015 19:01:03 GMT -5
.. Challengers of the Unknown #7 Two stories again.. very similar to the last one. 'Beasts from Planet 9' This time the alien zoo ship crashes on Earth, and the Challengers have to do so animal retrieval. The guys in charge thank them, and take their animals back to Pluto. Strangely, there's a bunch of sports metaphors in this one.. it kinda stuck out since it hadn't happened for a while. Good art, but not nearly as good as the last one. Rating: B- That's one of my favorite Challengers Stories and I would give it a B+ due to the art but that's my own judgement. I miss these stories - I really do. |
|
|
|
Post by wildfire2099 on Jul 26, 2015 21:48:20 GMT -5
I think the fact that it was so similar to the one before made me take points off... Perhaps if I hadn't just read #6, which I thought was a bit better on a similar theme.
|
|
|
|
Post by wildfire2099 on Jul 30, 2015 22:36:49 GMT -5
 Flash #109 'Return of the Mirror Master' Iris goes to the prison to take picture of the Mirror Master, who vanishes when they snap the shot. Apparently, he can use mirrors to shrink himself and could have escaped at any time, he was just waiting for a dramatic moment. He goes and robs a bank, but Flash stops him, grabbing the money bag despite being nearly blinded by MM 'turning up the intensity' of a mirror shining light about. That's OK, though, apparently the REAL heist is to come, which ends in Flash getting shrunk down. Luckily, he's still super fast, though, so after some Atom-like hijinks, Flash zaps himself with Radiation(tm) from a Polaroid machine and is back to normal. He finds Mirror Master and catches him. Of course, he's made Iris mad again by being late, and she refuses to see him, so he uses the Mirror Master's gear to make Iris see him everywhere, and agree to go out with him again. Naturally, he trips and knocks himself out, so he's late again, much to Iris' chagrin (cue laugh track). Grade: C- Too much silly silver age science to be a cohesive story, and what was there was very by the numbers. 'Secret of the Sunken Satellite' Another never before or since scene race (underwater this time) fighting yet another one.. Flash, investigating how an astronaut survived him pod landing in the ocean and being there for 10 days, finds the good fish alien guys, and helps show them the bad fish alien guys are not invisible, so they can fight for themselves. Grade: D, Same song, different verse. I can see why these came out only every two months.. they had to give kids time to forget the last one! |
|
.