12. Thing/Doc Savage, "Black Sun Lives!", Marvel Two-In-One #21 (Marvel, 1976)



Let's start this party with a...um...with a... Well, actually I'm not sure what this is, but let's start with it anyway.

Marvel Two-In-One was always the poor cousin of Marvel Team-Up. Maybe the the Thing's strategy for dealing with things (i.e. punching them) didn't lend itself to as much variety in stories as Spidey's. But this little oddball entry embedded itself in my mind.

I have no doubt that this particular team-up was editorially decreed. At the time, Marvel was publishing a Doc Savage book, and this was undoubtedly an attempt to drum up some interest in the title. (Doc also crossed over with Spidey in an issue of Giant-Size Spider-Man.)

However, writer Bill Mantlo and artist Ron Wilson did something interesting and unexpected with the concept. First of all, Mantlo latched on to an interesting coincidence between Doc Savage and the Fantastic Four: both of them are crime-fighters with publicly known identities who dwell on the upper floors of prominent New York skyscrapers. Using this as inspiration, Mantlo spins a story in two parts. In 1936, a woman visits Doc and his aides at the Empire State Building, worried about her husband: a prominent scientist who has become obsessed with completing a new invention, which she regards as dangerous. In 1976, the woman's daughter visits Ben and Johnny and at the Baxter Building. She is concerned about her twin brother, who has become obsessed with completing their father's device; the one he disappeared while working on.

From her on, the two tales play out in parallel. And here comes what I regard as the second clever touch. Each page is illustrated in two columns: one depicting Ben and Johnny's adventure, and the other the exploits of Doc, Monk and Renny. See below for what I mean:



Eventually, the story lines converge when the machine is activated in both time periods. Father and son are merged into a supervillain called Black Sun, and Doc and his aides are dragged through time to the present day where they help Ben and Johnny defeat the bad guy.

As a side note, Black Sun would later return to the Marvel universe, even though Marvel can no longer refer to Doc's part in his origin.

Is this a great story? Honestly, no. Doc is not a good fit with with superheroics, and parts of this feel really contrived. But this is an experiment in storytelling above and beyond what I expected to find in a mid 1970s team-up book. So as a curiosity, and one co-starring Doc who is a favourite character of mine, I give it a spot on the list.

#12 Spider-Man and Nova

From L'étonnant Spider-man #69/70, 1977 (Éditions Héritage)
(reprinting and translating Amazing Spider-man 170 and 171).



This is a purely personal choice for me. I read that comic as a kid in a hospital room, where I spent the better part of a week. It's almost a meta experience, since I was "the kid who read Spider-Man" before the kid who read Spider-man was a thing!

Éditions Héritage translated several Marvel comics, in the same format, but in black and white and with a few back-up stories usually taken from one of Marvel's mystery or western titles. They were the comics of a whole generation of Québecois! Eventually the switched to a double-sized format, in which two issues were presented at once (and on a bi-monthly schedule). The cover doesn't feature Nova, because only one cover could be used for each issue naturally. Here's the original:



One week in bed and only three books... Talk about comics being read until their staples beg to be put down!

Also, Nova was a character I really liked. My exposure to him had been very limited: two issues of the eponymous French mag Nova, plus the tantalizing covers I would sometimes see on those forbidden spinner racks full of American comics.

I thought the design of Nova was amazingly cool, especially because the star-shaped faceplate he wears on that bucket of a helmet is not an eight-pointed star: the lower-part is T-shaped. (Modern artists screwed that up a few years ago. How could they miss such an important aspect???) I drew and re-drew Nova to try and get that hemet right... How to draw that star with its horizontal crosspiece without making the eyes look droopy?

The art by Andru was O.K. I was not a big Ross Andru at the time, but one aspect of his art that I really grew to appreciate is that he knew how to draw characters the way they were supposed to look. His Peter Parker and his Mary Jane looked exactly like themselves instead of "random brown hair dude #1" and "random comic-book girl #3".

I can't say I remember much of the story. I sort of doubt that it withstood the test of time. But back in those days, that was  a team-up ordered from on high!

On the first day of Christmas, Darwyn gave to me Batman/The Spirit #1 (DC; 2006)

by Darwyn Cooke with Jeph Loeb, J. Bone and Dave Stewart

This book won the 2007 Eisner for best single issue as well as other accolades, and all of them were deserved. Darwyn presents a Batman/Spirit story that is the perfect marriage of the visual storytelling techniques of Dick Sprang and Will Eisner and is more fun than a barrel of rolling monks.

One of my favorite scenes is the introduction of the Spirit, running on the rooftops filled with giant Sprang-like prop lettering and then when the criminals detonate the sign he is running across causing the Spirit and all the letters to go for a tumble and they spell out the Spirit in Eisneresque fashion as he falls...

you can see Darwyn's original art for it here...



But from the opening scene of the Commissioners Dolan and Gordon meeting in a hunting lodge reminiscing about the first time the Spirit and Batman met to the final scene of the criminals being taken away this is one giant fun adventure. When the criminal underworld learns of a law enforcement convention in Hawaii, The Octopus orchestrates a plan for the rogues of both Gotham and Central City (Spirit's Central City not the Flash's) t have their own convention there and to get Dolan and Gordon there so they can take out all of the cops at once. P'Gell lures Gordon there as she romances him and Poison Ivy gains control over Dolan with a kiss bringing them to Hawaii where the remaining rogues await, soon to be followed there by Batman and the Spirit, and of course the Joker has his own ideas of what should happen and the hilarity, hijinks and high adventure ensues. I think I enjoy this comic more each time I read it, and there are so many little interesting visual jokes and asides filling the backgrounds of some of the panels (one of my favorites is the Penguin in touristy Hawaiian garb sipping a drink out a pineapple that is just so absurd it is hilarious) that I find something new to amuse or entertain me every time I read it. And besides, who can't love a comic that features Batman and the Spirit in an exploding room filled with giant tikis...



-M

Coming in at Number 12 is a long distance dedication, from Babs Gordon to Black Canary.

Batgirl Year One, #6, 2002.



Batgirl Year One was from Scott Beatty and Chuck Dixon, ith art from Marcos Martin & Alvaro Lopez. As the title suggests, it follows Barbara Gordon through her first year, from her debut as Batgirl, to earning the right to keep her identity. In the first issue, we see young Babs, as she tries for a career in law enforcement, just like Dad; but, runs into one wall after another. If it isn't her age, it's her height. She's fed up. She reads accouts of the Batman and thinks she could do this. She even sneaks into the JSA HQ to leave a letter for Black Canary, looking for a mentor. She ends up meeting Wildcat, instead. That all elads to her debut, when she attends a police masquerade charity ball, interrupted by Killer Moth. That sets her after the bumbling criminal and leads her into conflict with Batman. Robin ends up being a friend and benefactor, though he operates under instructions from batman, who wants to see Batgirl stay alive, then realize it is no life for her.

Issue 6 brings her into Black Canary's circle. A mobster is after Jim Gordon and sends hoods to snatch him. He is visiting Larry Lance, private detective and father of Dinah Laurel Lance, aka Black Canary (Jr, really, as mom was the GA Black Canary). Gordon is nearly fried and is saved by young cop, Jason Bard, a close friend of Babs. Bard ends up with a damaged leg and a disability pension, and off the force. Black Canary turns up to investigate and runs into Batgirl. Together they go after the hoods and fight Killer Moth and Firefly, in a greenhouse, which leads to a wild motor chase.





Batgirl's motorcycle (a loaner from Batman, via Robin) is destroyed and she and Black Canary end up prisoners, though not for long. In the next issue, Black Canary exits and Robin takes up the partnership, continuing until finally, Batman accepts Babs as one of the fellowship.

Black Canary is a figure that Barbara idolizes and is a link to the mystery women of the past. For Babs, she represents the history that mirrors the Rosie the Riveters, the Wacs, WAVES and WAAFs, the WASP pilots who ferried planes and tested aircraft and received no recognition. She is a buttkicker and an equal to Batman. Canary thinks Batgirl is sanctioned by Batman and works with her as an equal, though she quickly sees she is green and immediately takes the lead and guides her, correcting mistakes, offering advice, and showing through example.

The series creates a nice relationship that will one day lead to the Birds of Prey, with Barbara as Oracle, in the wake of her wounding. Barbara Gordon was treated as an afterthought to a Joker story and it angered writer/editor Kim Yale to no end. She, along with husband John Ostrander, set out to change that. They turned Barbara into Oracle, an information conduit and emote observer for the superhero community. but, that wasn't enough. Chuck Dixon took up the gauntlet tossed down by Yale and Ostrander and had Oracle recruit her old mentor as an agent, leading to the Birds of Prey. Here, Dixon shows us why Barbara Gordon was always such a cool character and it was short sighted writers and editors at DC who had sidelined her, before offering her as a sacrifice to a Joker story, that wasn't supposed to be in continuity. It all fits together nicely and it is great to see Batgirl running with another heroine.

Those of us who grew up in the Bronze Age had an affection for Batgirl and Supergirl, beyond their mentors and family. They were great characters who were often mishandled. but, when someone got them right, they were fantastic. The 80s grim and gritty took them away from us. Alan Brennert reminded us of their heroism and Kim Yale and John Ostrander showed that spinal injuries do not mean an end to heroics. Chuck Dixon continued in their lead and gave us back the cool Batgirl, even if it was in the past. It would push things until Babs was back for good, inspiring young girls and even some old men.

One of the great joys of the 12 Days is discovering gems that you were not aware of.

12. Thor and Silver Surfer
Silver Surfer #4  (Marvel, cover-dated Feb. 1969)

I have to admit that back when I was a comic book-reading kid, I wasn't particularly interested in either Thor or the Silver Surfer-- so why, one cold winter day after school, did I pick up Silver Surfer #4? Two words: Buscema, baby! (John Buscema, with perfect inks by Sal). I was familiar with Big John's exemplary work thanks to the Avengers and an issue of Captain America (#115), but this? This was clearly something else. A superior draftsman at the peak of his artistry, with  each page, nay , each panel-- a masterpiece.





Best 25 cents I ever spent!