Lost Legends: DC Challenge!

When I talked about DC's Emerald City Comic Con announcements, I mentioned the original DC Challenge mini-series and that I would get around to talking about it. Well, now's that time. Let's head back to 1985, a simpler time, when there were still infinite Earths, when heroes were heroes, and when it was decided by DC brass to try one of the strangest experiments in comic book history.

Now, remember, this is back in the day when letters pages in comic were not the exception, but pretty much the rule, and through the letter pages of this comic, readers got an explanation of how this particular project came about. Long story short, as the first letters page essay is longer than my average column, A group of comic writers got together at San Diego Comic Con in 1983 and decided to propose doing what they called a round robin, or what some  might know as a game of exquisite corpse, where writers each write one chapter of a story and leave it to the next writer to pick up the story without being told what the previous writer's intention was to wrap up the story. There were specific rules against consultation between creative teams, about not using the, "It's just a dream!" gambit to get out of a sticky situation, and a few more logistical points, but generally, this was no holds barred comics like we rarely get anymore, twelve issues of pure crazy joyful comics.

I've been trying to decide how to write about this series since I realized I wanted to write about it. It's not easy, because it goes in all sorts of crazy directions. While each writer had to wrap up some of the plot points left by the previous writer or writers, some were left to dangle for issues at a time, to the point that I can't imagine reading this in anything but the concentrated burst I did; after all, if the writers were ignoring something for six months, how could readers be expected to remember them? Also, some of the best parts of the series are discovering the random, "Wow, that's a character that I never expected to see in here."

The basic premise, at the start of the series anyway, is that there are djinn-like creatures possessing people and interacting with heroes, while Floyd Perkins, a copy boy at the Daily Planet, is encountering hidden floors on the planet building and dead celebrities seemingly back from beyond. Pretty soon, aliens are involved, as are time travelers seeking mysterious stone tablets, battles between different alien species on the planet Rann, an alternate reality where Hitler won World War II, and Cthulhu like tentacle creatures from beyond. It's everything and the kitchen sink too storytelling.

As for the characters used, well it starts out simple enough with the DC Comics holy trinity of Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman, as well as their supporting casts, and sci-fi hero Adam
Strange. But issue two starts the spiral of the obscure, by bringing in not just well known western hero Jonah Hex, but Congorilla and B'wana Beast, as well as then little used villain, Mongul, who had only appeared in a handful of DC Comics Presents issues, as well as the legendary Superman Annual #11, "For the Man Who Has Everything." One of the rules the writers were given was they had to work with characters they didn't write on a monthly basis, so by series end, not only had most of the Justice League appeared, as well as many big name DC heroes, characters from other DC Earths of the time like Captain Marvel and Blue Beetle, but lesser known characters like Rip Hunter, Viking Prince, Detective Chimp, Captain Comet, Space Cabby, Enemy Ace, and Doiby Dickles, sometimes sidekick to Plastic Man all had featured roles. Basically, if you're a long time fan of DC Comics, you will find your favorite obscure character on the 60s, 70s, and early 80s somewhere in here.

And as for the creators who worked on this book? Well here's a rundown of each issue (along with the titles that each issue had, which were given to the new creative team by the previous one) and who the creative team was. These are guys who are now legends, some of the greatest writers and artists of the 70s and 80s, and they all worked together on this one project.

Issue #1, "Outbreak": Written by Mark Evanier; Illustrated by Gene Colan & Bob Smith

Issue #2, "Blinded By the Light": Written by Len Wein; Co-Plotted and Pencilled by Chuck Patton; Inked by Mike DeCarlo

Issue #3, "Viking Vengeance": Written by Doug Moench; Illustrated by Carmine Infantino & Bob Smith

Issue #4, "Atomic Nights": Written by Paul Levitz; Illustrated by Gil Kane & Klaus Janson

Issue #5, "Thunderbolts and Lightning": Written by Mike W Barr; Illustrated by Dave Gibbons & Mark Farmer

Issue #6, "A Matter of Anti Matter": Co-Written by Elliot S. Maggin & Dan Jurgens; Illustrated by Dan Jurgens & Larry Mahlstedt

Issue #7, "Don't Bogart That Grape... Hand Me the Gas Pump!": Wriiten by Paul Kupperberg; Illustrated by Joe Staton & Steve Mitchell

Issue #8, "If This Is Love, Why Do My Teeth Hurt?"" Written by Gerry Conway; Illustrated by Rick Hoberg, Dick Girodano, & Arnie Starr

Issue #9, "All This And World War, Too!": Written by Roy Thomas; Illustrated by Don Heck

Issue #10, "Jules Verne Was Right!": Written by Dan Mishkin; Illustrated by Curt Swan & Terry Austin

Issue #11: "How Can You Be In Two Places At Once When You're Not Anywhere At All?": Plot by Marv Wolfman, Dialogue by Cary Bates; Illustrated by Keith Giffen & Dave Hunt

Issue #12: "Fathers Against Suns"

Issue twelve had half a dozen chapters, each from a different creative team, and many of the artists were not involved in the earlier issues, including Tom Mandrake, Denys Cowan, Jan Duursema, and others. All twelve issues were colored by Carl Gafford and lettered by John Costanza.

And while I don't want to talk more about plot than I already have, since it would give away the fun and also take a ton of time to describe all the strange intricacies of the plot, here are a few favorite moments:

- Issue #2's cliffhanger has a time displaced Jonah Hex knock out the gangsters who have abducted him, led by a seemingly resurrected Peter Lorre, only to realize he doesn't know how to drive the car they're in as it screams down the road towards a group of nuns and school children.

- Issue #7 gives us Albert Einstein, who on his deathbed master the Unified Theory and now is the master of time and space, living in the nexus of all reality like a kindly Time Lord.

- Issue #8 is suddenly narrated by the Joker out of nowhere, because why the heck not?

-Issue #11's reveal of the big bad who's been behind the whole series. This is a character that few artists capture as well as Keith Giffen does, and the big splash page is amazing. Actually, that issue's art is possibly my favorite, as Giffen also draws an excellent Batman and Spectre.

While there's a lot of experimentation with form and character in comics outside DC and Marvel right now, the big two like to play it fairly safe. They don't try a lot of new things. DC Challenge might not have been transgressive or world shaking, but it was something that hadn't been done in comics before, and ended up being a project that was wildly fun, and in the still dark era of mainstream comics, I can only hope the new Kamandi Challenge series can recapture some of the glorious insanity of the original.

As with all Lost Legends posts, DC Challenge is currently uncollected, but I found it at a convention as a set not too long ago for a very affordable price.. However, as we near the release of the Kamandi Challenge title, I wouldn't be surprised if a collection was released. I do hope they include all the creator notes from the letters pages in that collection as well, as they added a lot of interesting back story to this unusual project.

Lost Legends: Classic Star Wars- The Early Adventures

Welcome to Force Fridays here on The Matt Signal! For the next few weeks, we'll be featuring Star Wars related columns leading up to the release of The Force Awakens! It's an exciting time to be a Star Wars fan, and I'm hoping to spread some more excitement.

A long time ago (1979 to be exact) in a galaxy not at all that far away, there was very little Star Wars content out there. Just the original movie, a movie adaptation, the first Star Wars original novel, Splinter of the Mind's Eye, and very earliest of the Marvel comics. It seems strange now that, if you were a fast reader and dedicated, that you could get through all the Star Wars content in existence in a weekend, but it was possible,

The late 70s was still a time where comic strips were a vast media power, with numerous genres filling pages of daily and Sunday papers, and so having a strip was a big deal. And in 1979, Star Wars graduated to the big leagues with its own daily strip. Full of wild stories and fascinating new characters, as well as work form some big names in the strip and comic book world, the strips were lost for years, until ion the early 90s, Dark Horse started reprinting them, cutting up the panels to lay out on a comic book page, and coloring them all. They were released in a few different series, but the one we'll be talking about today were called The Early Adventures, which were released as a nine issue mini-series, and feature the work of comics legend Russ Manning.

Manning is a big and important name in comics, but isn't as big as a Stan Lee or Jack Kirby, so for those of you who are more casual fans, a little background. A master penciller, Manning is best known for his work on Tarzan, both for publisher Gold Key and for the Tarzan comic strip, as well as European original graphic novel about Tarzan. He was also the artist credited as creator of Magnus, Robot Fighter, a hero in the future who fights rogue robots (sort of like a bladerunner but he needs only his fists) for Gold Key, a character who, while not in constant publication, has seen numerous revivals over the years from such companies as Valiant, Dark Horse, and most recently Dynamite. Manning is important enough that an award has been named after him, the Russ Manning Most Promising Newcomer Award, given out at the Eisner Award ceremonies at San Diego Comic Con, whose recipients feature so many top talents it would be take far too much space here, but a couple with links to Star Wars include Star Wars: Republic, Legacy, and Dawn of the Jedi artist Jan Duursema and Edvin Biukovic, who pencilled the adaptation of Timothy Zahn's The Last Command and some of the early X-Wing: Rogue Squadron mini-series.

The nine issues of early adventures start with a three issue arc, and then continue with six single issue stories. The thing that impressed me about these stories is how well they hold up to modern Star Wars stories. There are some canonical glitches (the mining world of Kessel shown to be a lush paradise, for instance), but those are found all over early Expanded Universe (EU) stories. What's exciting is how Manning captures the spirit of Star Wars, the mix of action and humor, while introducing many concepts that feel very Star Wars. There are also some completely insane concepts, like the Empire encoding secret data in a virus that shows up in the infected person's eyes, but that's still less nuts than anything in the Lando Calrissian novels, which include the Silly Rabbit Constellation and Lando meeting an alien who looks suspiciously like Big Bird (both not terrible things, just completely insane), so I'll take it.

The opening three-parter really shows off what Manning is doing with the Star Wars universe (I'm going to continue to address Manning as sole creator on these stories, even though it has been revealed over the years that many were ghost written by either Archie Goodwin or Steve Gerber. I don't know who wrote what, and the comics are credited solely to Manning, so I'm sticking with that). Luke, Leia, C-3PO, and R2-D2 have been sent to Vorzyd-5, the Gambler's World, to contact a high ranking official who is sympathetic to the Rebellion. Sent to stop them is Blackhole, one of Darth Vader's operatives, who appears only as a shadowy figure with patterns of starts shifting on his body, and his black armored stormtroopers. On the planet, Luke and Leia make their way through a series of encounters with Blackhole and his men, while the droids are chased by a teen gang who for some reason really want a droid. The two stories intersect at the end in a pretty brutal confrontation between the stormtroopers and the gang.

Manning really gets the look of Star Wars right throughout the story. Vorzyd-5 feels like a planet you would have seen on the big screen of the Prequels, when technology could keep up with the mind of an artist. It's full of billboards, big lights, and all kinds of crazy creatures. And the shifting stars on Blackhole are a very cool visual that I would love see someone try to capture in Star Wars: Rebels, say casting him as one of Vader's Inquisitors. Storywise, we see that Luke is still new to using the Force and the galaxy at large, as he draws a little too much attention in one of the casinos by his "luck" which is a subconsious manifestation of the Force. There's a well drawn and exceptionally silly sequence where Threepio and Artoo stop at a a weapons store to get upgrades to protect themselves if they ever run into that gang again, and basically in an almost Pink Panther sequence, wind up doing exactly that through a series of mishaps with the weapons they're testing; it's a bit over the top for Star Wars, but is well choreographed and pretty funny,

Missing from this first story are two of Star Wars most famous characters: Han Solo and Chewbacca. These very early EU stories often omitted Han and Chewis since Harrison Ford's contract did not include sequels, and it was in doubt if he would be appearing in any future Star Wars films. This story replaces them with two local rebels, Paxin and Falud, who are a dark haired human and his big shaggy sidekick, although the sidekick more resembles a large bipedal badger than a big apeman. Fortunately, Han and Chewie would start appearing after this story, and with goof effect.

The highlight of the series for me is issue five, "Princess Leia, Imperial Servant." After narrowly escaping an Imperial attack on her ship, where a Rebel pilot sacrificed himself to save her, showing Lei'a import to the Rebellion, she crash lands on a world that is controlled by the Empire, and has slave mines pulling the highly explosive megonite from the ground to be used as a weapon. To make matters worse, when she hides among the workers, she is picked to be the servant of the woman who runs the mines, the wife of Grand Moff Tarkin, the man who commanded the Death Star, who has a deep hatred for Rebels and who believes they are out to get her. Lady Tarkin is holding an Imperial Diplomatic Conclave, gathering high ranking Imperials from around the galaxy, including Darth Vader himself. Leia must use her wits, and the help of two disreputable miners trying to escape with some megonite themselves, to contact the Rebellion and escape before Lady Tarkin or Vader discover her.

This story is important as it is one of the first Leia solo stories, if not the very first. Leia isn't a damsel in distress anywhere in the story. Sure, she has to contact Han Solo to get her off Lady Tarkin's world, but that's classic spy thriller stuff, waiting for the exfil, something spies both male and female have to go through. And sue, the serving girl outfit is a bit slinky, but it's way more covered than the Slave Leia outfit. Even when being menaced by the two crooked miners, Leia doesn't quaver, says one has no brains, and gets them to help her get to the communications device. Leia is also completely combat competent, blowing up one guard with some megonite to hide her contacting of the Rebellion, and wielding a blaster better than any other character as she escapes. Also, I love the design for Lady Tarkin, with the black and white Cruella DeVille hair and these wide eyes that absolutely scream paranoia.

The final issue of the series features an early appearance by Boba Fett, and is actually one of my favorite Fett stories. It doesn't have the years of baggage that often way Fett down, and instead sees Fett and Luke teaming up, Luke having crashed on an ice planet fleeing Imperials and Fett on a bounty run for Darth Vader. There are wild natives, an Imperial spy on the run, and the entire classic Star Wars cast on a big adventure together. It again spotlights Manning's art, mixing his great handle on high tech backgrounds and more natural backgrounds, as we see both the ice world and the high tech the natives have claimed as their own.

The other four stories are also enjoyable, including a story of a weather machine controlled by the Empire, a lizard man kidnapping children to lure out the Rebels, the first of innumerable stories about Luke returning to Tatooine, and a diplomatic mission to convince weapons makers to stop selling to the Empire. These weren't the only Star Wars strips drawn by Manning, but often finding these old strips and the original art and proofs is not easy, and so they were the only ones Dark Horse published from the Manning era.

For those of you newer to the blog, this column is a Lost Legends, which means the comics I'm talking about are currently out of print in singles and trades (digital is harder to tell, and so I'm talking print exclusively). The nine issues aren't hard to track down, and can usually be found in dollar bins at conventions and stores. There are also twenty issues of Classic Star Wars from the Archie Goodwin and Al Williamson era strips, and a mini-series that was the strips that adapted one of the best early Star Wars novels, Han Solo at Star's End. I'm hoping Marvel gets around to reprinting these sometime in the future, or better if Lucasfilm publishing contacts one of the publishers who of high end strip reprints, and gets the complete series represented in the original form. If you're a Star Wars fan who's curious to see what the early days of Star Wars publishing were like, I can think of few better examples then these Russ Manning strips.

Lost Legends: The Maze Agency

Mysteries are hard to write. Well at least whodunnits are; stories that play fair, that allow the reader to follow along with the detective and figure out the perpetrator are a challenge, especially since a second reading can easily espose all the holes. And good mysteries in comics are even harder to find. But in the late 80s and early 90s, there was one series that made its mark by being a legitimate mystery series: Mike W. Barr's The Maze Agency.

I've written about Barr before, specifically his run on Detective Comics. If all you've read by him is that, you can tell he loves detectives, not just because he writes a solid detective Batman, but from the wonderful issue #572, which teams many of DC Comics' greatest detectives with the granddaddy of them all, Sherlock Holmes. Barr is a vastly under-rated writer, and the height of his work for me is Maze Agency. A series that would be an anomaly today, every issue is a done in one murder mystery, a play fair story that you play along with the leads, P.I. Jennifer Mays and her boyfriend, true crime writer Gabriel Webb.

The charm of the series is really captured in the relationship between Jen and Gabe. Jen is a tough, savvy, former CIA agent who has opened up her own detective agency after leaving the Company, the titular Maze Agency. Gabe is an always-right-at-the-edge-of-being-broke writer who refuses to work for Jen, because he believes you shouldn't mix business and personal matters, and thus won't take any money for his consulting. He lives in a dingy apartment with Ralph, his cat, and continues writing true crime stories that his publisher insists on him making more lurid despite him wanting to write higher quality stories. Gabe is also a deductive savant, someone whose mind works in that Sherlock Holmes way that just slides clues into place as he investigates

That's the status quo of the characters we meet them at the beginning of the series. Their relationship deepens greatly over the course of the initial Maze Agency run, to the point that they are living together and engaged before the series unceremonious ending. There is a distinct lack of will they/won't they Moonlighting-type shenanigans, which allows Barr to really explore the depth of the characters and their feelings for each other. They have a wonderful dynamic, mixing in the banter of Nick and Nora Charles; they banter and toss non-malicious barbs, but there are more serious moments that really give depth to characters who could easily be cardboard cutouts used to forward the mysteries that Barr is writing.

Barr does a good job of fleshing out Jen and Gabe as characters who had lives before they met. We get bits about Jen's past with the CIA that have little bearing on cases and an ill-fated love affair with a married man. We find out the Gabe was a divinity student before turning to writing and that he has a very difficult relationship with his parents. These are great details because, while they might lay the ground for future stories, or allow our intrepid detectives to have some esoteric bit of knowledge, it more feels like it makes them realer, fuller characters.

Barr builds a cast of minor characters around his leads that are as well realized as Jen and Gabe. Roberta Bliss is the homicide lieutenant that works regularly with the Maze Agency. She is a hard as nails, classic cop, constantly popping bubble gum, who likes Jen and Gabe, despite the fact that they tend to make a simple case into something far more complex; if you know your classic detective radio and pulp fiction, the cop who gruffly works with the P.I. is a classic trope, but Bliss gets a lot of backstory than you get about her radio forebears like Inspector Farraday of Boston Blackie, Lieutenant Riley of Let George Do It, Lieutenant Levinson of Richard Diamond, or Lieutenant Kling of Box Thirteen ( I know I didn't have to list all those radio cops, but it's rare I get to talk about classic detective radio, so indulge me). Bliss works with Sergeant Simons, a Harvey Bullock-esque slob cop, another classic detective trope. There are a few more minor recurring characters who work with or for Jen, like her secretary Sandy, her old mentor turned employee Max Harmon, or her friend Lacey, who each have an issue where they are central to the mystery and thus we get to learn more about them.

As for recurring nemeses, well since each issue is a done in one murder mystery that ends with the bad guy being carted off by Bliss or a similar agent of the law, it is hard to have someone keep coming back. However, Ashley Swift, head of the Swift Detective Agency, where Jen worked in between her time with the CIA and opening her own agency, might be Jen's chief rival. She is sort of Jen's opposite number: richer, more successful, but not quite as talented in deduction as Jen. This doesn't stop her from driving Jen crazy by flaunting her success in her face or flirting with Gabe. If there was an actual arch-nemesis, it would be Dr. Antony Rune, a self-help guru who claimed supernatural talents that were simply training and trickery. Rune was introduced in issue nine, where his wife was killed and Gabe, Jen, and Ellery Queen (guest starring in celebration of the legendary pulp detective's diamond anniversary) are on his case. Despite not escaping then, he proves to be a formidable foe, eventually escaping prison. The series ended before Rune could make good his attempts on Jen, but it felt like he was being developed to be the Moriarty to Jen and Gabe's Holmes and... well other Holmes.

When it comes to plot, Maze Agency fits nicely into classic detective short fiction tropes. Jen is called in as a P.I. to investigate a case/ Gabe is looking into a crime for a story/ Jen and Gabe are out on a date and some crime happens. They investigate it, and find the killer through some deduction. It's not a unique formula, but it wasn't when Conan Doyle did it with Sherlock Holmes, Rex Stout did it with Nero Wolfe, or Dannay and Lee did it with Ellery Queen. It's a classic, and when you have people who investigate crime, you can avoid some of what I call Jessica Fletcher syndrome, where the detective stumbles randomly onto dead bodies (although that does happen a couple times). All the Maze stories are great, and I can't really talk about details without giving away whodunnit, but if you like what you're hearing about, here are some issues I would check out:

Issue 4: "The Return of Jack the Ripper?"- murder stalks Ripperologists, people who research Jack the Ripper, including Gabe

Issue 9: "The English Channeler Mystery"- where we first meet Dr. Rune.

Issue 13: "The Adventure of the Bleeding Venus" - where we learn about Justice Girl, Jen's favorite superhero

Issue 15: "Too Much Bliss" -we learn more about Lieutenant Bliss as she is suspected of killing her ex-husband

Issue 19: The "Adventure of the Mystery League"- Jen, Gabe, and Ashley Swift are each hired by different members of the detective's society, the Mystery League, to find out who killed a member, with the prize being membership into the illustrious society. This is probably my favorite issue of the series.

Annual 1 features a story that is an homage to Will Eisner's classic detective hero The Spirit

Special 1 features a few stories, one of which is "The Mile High Corpse" a reprint of a Maze Agency short that was written to sell the series, the only story drawn by co-creator Alan Davis, who Barr worked with on Batman and the Outsiders.

Alan Davis might have been the original artist intended to draw Maze Agency, but other commitments kept him from drawing the series. If you look at the artists who did, though, you will see early work from names that went on to become superstars in the industry. The first artist, who did quite a few issues, was Adam Hughes, who added his trademark sultry lines to Jen. Darick Robertson, best known for Transmetropolitan with Warren Ellis, worked on a couple issues. And the covers are even more impressive. Not only are there plenty by Hughes, but creators like Mike Ploog, Brian Bolland, Norm Breyfogle, and Tom Mandrake all contributed over the course of the series.

The publication history of Maze Agency is as convoluted as one of the cases in the comic. Initially published by Comico, the series ended there with issue 7 when the company folded. Innovation picked up the series, and published issues 8-23, not renumbering, as well as the annual and the special. Although there was a next issue mentioned at the end of 23, no such issue appeared. A few years later in the late 90s, Caliber published a three issue mini-series (which are the only issues I'm still trying to track down. Any help would be appreciated). In 2005, IDW announced they would reprint the original issues as well as publish new ones. A three issue mini-series was released, as was a trade of the original issues 1-6, but that seemed to be the end of IDW's time with the series.

As with all Lost Legends pieces, The Maze Agency is currently out of print in both singles and trades. However, with a little industrious digging at cons and shops, it isn't hard to put together a complete run (except those Caliber issues). And it's worth the time, believe me. If you're a fan of classic detective stories, or more recent TV shows like Castle, Maze Agency is a series that you'll find engaging, amusing, and a brainteaser that is hard to beat.

Lost Legends: The Flash by Mark Waid

"My name is Wally West, and I'm the Flash, the fastest man alive." That was the way that Mark Waid began nearly all of his issues of The Flash, a nearly one hundred issue run (0, 62-129, and 142-159, plus various annuals and specials) that redefined Wally West, the third hero to bear the name of the Flash, and my personal favorite. After seeing the impressive trailer to the upcoming Flash TV series, it got me to thinking about my Flash, and about this definitive run, and so I thought I'd settle in today and talk about it. I'm going to be doing a whirlwind tour of the run, hitting the high points along the way. There are plenty of one-off issues and great smaller stories in here too, but I want to spend as much time as I can talking about the things Waid was doing with character and theme, so excuse me if I miss your favorite issue. I probably loved it too.

Born to Run (#62-65)

Waid began his run on Flash by giving the reader a retelling of Wally's early days as Kid Flash, but told specifically through Wally's eyes. We see some interesting information about how Wally's powers worked when he first received them, information that explained in some ways why Wally's powers didn't work as well as Barry's. We also got a good glimpse in the present of Wally's life with his then girlfriend, Linda Park. The previous creators of the book had Wally as a sort of fun time superhero, coming in and out of fortunes, flirting with every pretty girl he came across. This was a nice counterpoint to Barry Allen, the previous Flash, who was (and still is, in the current series), the straightest of straight arrows; heck, his haircut is even square. While William Messner-Loebs, the previous writer, had Wally beginning to mature into a grown up, Waid is the writer most responsible for this, and he began it right out of the gate with this story. It's also fun to see a young Wally as the everyman sidekick. Dick Grayson was a boy acrobat, Bucky Barnes a boy soldier, and heck, even Aqualad was an Atlantean, But Wally was a fanboy, the biggest Flash fan out there, and so there's a special kinship for fan's to read about one of their own becoming a hero.

The Return of Barry Allen (#74-79)

This is possibly the definitive Wally West story, and if it's not that, it is at least the story where Wally absolutely came into his own as the Flash. Since he became the Flash, Wally has lived in the shadow of his mentor, the previous Flash, Barry Allen. And Wally has always wished that Barry would come back. And when he does, things aren't exactly what he hoped they would be. Barry isn't exactly how Wally remembers him; he's quicker to anger, more violent, and acts superior. And when he tells Wally that he is the only Flash, Wally is crushed. But as Barry grows increasingly unbalanced, Wally must step up and find the speed that he's never had to stop the man who claims to be Barry Allen. Wally finally comes to terms with the loss of Barry and with his place in the superhero world. The story also really cements the new supporting cast that Waid is building and will continue to build. Most of the regular supporting characters of the previous run have been phased out (Linda being the exception), and Waid begins to really establish the community of speedsters and their families as Wally's family and backbone. Jay and Joan Garrick, the original Flash and his wife, Johnny Quick, another golden age speedster, and Max Mercury, a somewhat minor speedster also from the golden age, recreated by Waid as the Zen master of Speed, all join Wally in his battle against Barry, and all join the rotating cast of speedsters that populate the rest of the run.

Reckless Youth (#92-94)

Now that Wally is his own hero, there's one more thing he needs: a sidekick. After all, Wally started out as Kid Flash, so shouldn't he be a great mentor? Unfortunately for Wally, the young speedster he has to mentor doesn't want to be mentored. He's Bart Allen, Barry's grandson from the future (it's a time travel thing), and a speedster who is running out of time, since his speed is accelerating his aging. Wally spends the beginning of this story chasing Bart down and helping him control his out of control powers. If the introduction of Impulse, as Bart would be come to known, isn't enough, this story also features the return of Iris West-Allen, Wally's aunt and Barry's wife, to the present, and the villainy of Abra Kadabra, one of the lesser Silver Age Flash rogues who Waid took and made the greatest thorn in Wally's side for his run. These issues also featured art by the late great Mike Wieringo, who made his first big splash in comics on Flash (he started with issue 80, and all these issues are great), and some very early work by X-Men mainstay Salvador Larroca. These were the first Flash stories I read, as they were part of the lead up to DC's Zero Hour event, and the title became a favorite of mine right from the moment I read my first issue.

Flashing Back (#0)

While I said at the beginning I wanted to stick to the tent pole stories of Waid's run, this one off issue is one of  my favorite comics of all time, and so I needed to stop and briefly discuss it. Waid and Wieringo tell a story of Wally West travelling back through time, revisiting important events of his own life. It's a beautiful issue, with some of  'Ringo's best art. Waid's story is one that still warms my heart, as Wally revisits some of his best memories, and gets to solve one of the great mysteries of his life, one Waid seeded at the beginning of his run: who was the mysterious family member who came to him as a young boy and told the lonely boy with the parents who wouldn't stop fighting that things would get better? That ending, as Wally talks to himself, is a truly touching scene, and that heart is one of the things that made this book one of the keystone comics is DC on the 90s.

Terminal Velocity (#95-100)

After returning from his trip to the past, Wally has to live with two realizations: one is a vision of the future he must avert. And one is that he is dying, changing into a being of pure speed energy. Now under a deadline, he must prepare a new Flash to take his place while protecting Keystone City, his home, and Linda from the forces of the terrorist serpent cult, Kobra. This story introduces Jesse Quick to the title, the daughter of Johnny Quick, who first appeared in the wonderful but short lived Justice Society of America series by Len Strazewski and Mike Parobeck, becoming an important member of the Flash family and the longest running female speedster (pun absolutely intended). We are also given the origin of Max Mercury and through him, the introduction of the concept of the Speed Force, the extra-dimensional energy field that powers all speedsters. Introducing this concept allowed for speedsters to have a more integrated history, and explaining how odd chemical accidents involving lightning kept happening. But most important to the story Waid was telling, this story cemented Wally and Linda's relationship, first showing how far he would go to save her, and then showing that their love is the anchor that would always bring Wally home. This is a story element that would prove important for the rest of Waid's run. Also, aside from more early work by Salvador Larocca, this story also features early work by Carlos Pacheco and Oscar Jimenez, so its a real murderer's row of artists.

Dead Heat (#108-111, Impulse #10-11)

While Wally had fought Professor Zoom, Barry's arch foe, and a few other minor evil speedsters, Wally hadn't fought a speedster on his level. And then Waid introduced Savitar. The leader of a speed force cult, Savitar had discovered ways to both grant and steal Speed Force energy to others, and had grown jealous of Wally's direct connection to the Force. Sending his speed powered ninjas after Wally's allies, he lured Wally into a confrontation so Savitar could gain access to all of Wally's speed powers and the Speed Force itself. It's an action packed story, and the concept of super speed ninjas is just too cool to pass up. There are castles; super speed battles, and all the things that you can only really pull off in your wildest imagination and on the comic book page. We also get a guest appearance from XS, Bart's cousin from the future and another speedster. Aside form being an all around cool story, this is also a crossover with the Impulse ongoing, so we get some early work from Humberto Ramos. It amazed me, looking back, how many A-list artists really rose to prominence within this run.

Race Against Time (#112-118)

After Wally disappeared at the end of his battle with Savitar, all his friends expected him to return. Instead, the man who appeared was John Fox, a Flash from the 27th Century (a character introduced in the Flash 50th Anniversary Special, a comic that was Mark Waid's first foray into Flash writing). Fox proves to the the Guy Gardner of the Flashes, arrogant and preening, and with a serious desire to take Wally's place. Fox finds himself in the middle of a scheme of Abra Kadabra, Dr. Polaris, and Chillblaine, and not exactly up to the task. Meanwhile, Wally has been bounced into the future by a near miss with the Speed Force in his battle with Savitar, and is making his way back to Linda, bouncing from era to era, knowing that his anchor only exists as long as Linda is sure he is coming home to her. Wally stops off at various relevant temporal points, including a meeting with John Fox in his native 27th century and with the Tornado Twins, Barry's twin son and daughter, living in the 30th Century. This story builds the Flash legacy far into the future, an element that will become hugely important in Waid's next big arc. It also firmly establishes that Wally isn't a Flash who can easily be replaced by any speedster-come-lately who might appear.

Chain Lightning! (#145-150)

After a series of shorter stories and a year off (with stories written by Grant Morrison and Mark Millar filling in), Waid returned (with co-writer Brian Augustyn) with the wedding of Wally and Linda, just to have Linda disappear from time. Reality reordered itself, and Wally was single and no one knew Linda. Wally then met a new villain, Cobalt Blue, who had appeared once before on a one shot called Speed Force, and it was revealed he was Malcolm Thawne, ancestor to Eobard Thawne, the Reverse Flash, and long lost twin brother of Barry Allen. These stories led to "Chain Lightning!" a story where Wally and his allies traveled into the future to meet all the Allens and Flashes of the future to give them fragments of the blue gem that powered Blue to help them fight their own Coblat Blues, to help stop Thawne from fulfilling a prophecy that says he will kill Barry Allen a thousand years in the future. The story takes all the aspects that Waid had spent years building and paid them all off in one big story; the Allen/Thawne family feud, the Flash Legacy, the Speed Force. And at the end, Wally travels to the future and meets Barry again, who gives Wally the affirmation he never received in the present, and the two Flashes fight one final battle against Barry's dark twin. And in the end, without Linda to return to, Wally passes into the Speed Force to find peace...

The Dark Flash (#152-159)

... Only for a new flash to appear in Keystone. In a silver and dark red costume (which I always thought looked really cool), this Flash displayed powers Wally never had, and hid his identity from his family and friends. Eventually, it was revealed he was the Wally West of a different timeline, who had encountered our Wally when Linda had slipped from the prison outside time Abra Kadabra had placed her in and had wound up in his timeline, calling Wally from the Speed Force where he had been left after his final battle with Cobalt Blue. In the end, Wally and Linda return, and the two Wallys team up to finally defeat Kadabra. While "Chain Lightning!" tied up most of the big story and plot elements Waid had been building, this final story tied up most of the personal ones. Wally and Linda finally get their happy ending, and Abra Kadabra, who had been regularly plaguing Wally for nearly one hundred issues is finally defeated. Waid also used it to build up the mythos of Hypertime, his replacement for the multiverse, which DC quickly forgot, which was a shame, since it was a cool concept.

As I said, there are some other great stories in this run, including issue 91, where Wally gets stuck in an accelerated speed and the world freezes with some great 'Ringo art and Annual #8, telling the story of Wally's first days as the Flash. But the thing that makes this series stand out in comparison to so much of what DC is putting out today is that Waid embraced the idea of legacy. With James Robinson's Starman, which I wrote about before, I feel like this is a title that made the DC Universe feel like a place that was lived in, that had a long and noble history of heroism and one that would continue into the far distant future. Mark Waid clearly loved superheroes, and loved Wally West, and that showed through in this run.

While many of these stories were available in trade at one point, they are all now sadly out of print. You still might be able to track some down at a comic shop, and the back issues are readily available.

Lost Legends: The Uncollected and Out of Print Works of Peter David

Yesterday, Marvel made a big announcement: A new series starring Miguel O'Hara, the Spider-Man of the year 2099, was being launched, and it was being written by the character's creator, Peter David. I've written about Peter David before, in regards to his run on X-Factor and his adaptations of Stephen King's The Dark Tower. But that's barely scratching the surface of his work. Peter David is one of my favorite writers in comics (and other media), and so today I thought I'd touch on some of his work that you might not have read and isn't readily available. This work in either completely uncollected, or has lapsed out of print in trades. I'm not going to talk about the original Spider-Man 2099, though, since I intend to do a full piece on that when the series gets closer. And now, without further ado, the lost legends of Peter David.

Atlantis Chronicles

Peter David does great small, personal stories that are character-centric, but is equally at home writing on a grand canvas. The grandest canvas he might have ever written on was in DC Comics' Atlantis Chronicles, a seven issue mini-series that traced the history of the lost continent of Atlantis, from shortly before it's sinking to the birth of Aquaman. There are three distinct arcs within the series. The first is the story of King Orin, the king at the time of the sinking, and his brother, Shalako. From them, we get the history of the two great cities of Atlantis, Poseidonis and Tritonis, and a blood feud between the two brothers and their children and grandchildren. Feuds between, and blood spilled by, brothers becomes a central theme of Peter David's run on Aquaman and related titles, and the second arc furthers it by investigating Atlan, a great sorcerer of Atlantean history, and his brothers, Haumond and Kraken, and Atlantis's invasion of the world above the waves in ancient times. The final arc, the shortest, deals with Queen Atlanna and her marriage to King Trevis. Atlanna is the mother of Aquaman, and Peter David made a serious retcon, changing Aquaman's birth father from a human lighthouse keeper to Atlan, the immortal wizard he had introduced in the previous arc. The series gave plenty of background to Atlantis, creating a story in perfect scope with it's timeline, set over millennia. It also gave a reason why the Atlanteans had a problem with blonde hair, the reason historically given to why Aquaman was cast out of the city as an infant. Estaban Maroto's art is gorgeous, done in the European style, and while each era of Atlantis is distinct, each has a continuity of design that follows the evolution of the undersea civilization. The mini-series was written as a lead in to a new Aquaman ongoing that wound up doing to a different writer, but some years later, DC came back to David, who got to write the story that he had planned.

Aquaman

The run on Aquaman lasted over forty issues, and built a new vision of Atlantis for the modern DC Universe. The run is best known for it being the series where Aquaman lost his hand and got a harpoon and hook in its place. But there's a whole lot more to it than that. The series built on the history set forth in the Atlantis Chronicles, with characters like Atlan and Kordax the Cruel, and with lost cities, magicians, and alien invasions. David took a lot of the other underwater and Atlantean characters of the DC Universe and brought them into one world, including the World War II era heroes Tsunami and Neptune Perkins, the ancient sorcerer Arion and his granddaughter, Power Girl (at least at the time she was thought to be his granddaughter. Power Girl's background has changed even more times than Hawkman's), and the former Global Guardian, Dolphin. Dolphin became a major part of the cast, becoming the love interest for Aquaman, and then the object of a love triangle between Aquaman and his sidekick, Garth. It was during this run as well that Garth went from being Aqualad to Tempest. David developed Garth's character, giving him a new set of powers that made him more distinct from Aquaman, and helped bring him out of Aquaman's shadow. The series also continued to play on the theme of brother versus brother that Atlantis Chronicles began, with Aquaman at war with his brother, Orm, or Ocean Master, and the war between Aquaman's sons Koryak, the illegitimate son Aquaman discovered he had early in the series, and Arthur Jr., the possibly resurrected son of Aquaman and Mera, or possibly the son of Thanatos, a dark version of Aquaman. Unfortunately, these plot threads were left unresolved when David left the series unexpectedly, but the series did a great job of making Atlantis a viable part of the DC Universe and both Aquaman and Tempest more a part of that universe. Nearly all of the developments have been retconned out by the New 52, but that doesn't take away from the underwater adventures David crafted.

Supergirl

When Peter David started writing Supergirl, it was during the period when DC Comics wanted Superman to be the last son of Krypton, so there were supposed to be no other Kryptonians in the DC Universe. So the Supergirl he was given was a telekinetic shapeshifter plasma being called Matrix. At the beginning of the series, Matrix is bonded with a human girl, Linda Danvers, and the series explores their bonding. But more than that, it becomes one of the earlier times where Peter David explores the theme of faith and religion, one that will become central to a work I'll be discussing shortly. The series moves from what might be a traditional superhero book into a mix of the supernatural and horror, with Supergirl becoming and Earth Born Angel, one of three who work the will of the almighty on Earth. Not only is Linda tested, but we see her mother, Sylvia, who is an ordinary woman with strong faith, dealing with the calamities that come from a superhero in a small town. One of the regular supporting characters/antagonists of the book is Buzz, a demon who tells a story in an early issue that does something DC Comics of the era rarely did, which is tie Vertigo into DC by referencing the events of the Sandman story, "Season of Mists." As the series progressed, the mythology David built around heaven and angels in the DCU takes on an interesting life, and he builds a whole new supernatural corner of the Universe that has really not been explored, including Wally, a young boy who may or may not have been an aspect of God. Over the course of the eighty issues, readers are treated to watching the Supergirl aspect of the character grow more human, and Linda grow up. The final arc of the series, titled "Many Happy Returns," is particularly well regarded, as it saw the return of a pre-Crisis Supergirl. The end is a sad one, one I don't want to spoil any of, but it's a tragedy of Shakespearean proportions. Linda really didn't appear much after that, but the themes were furthered in another Peter David series.

Fallen Angel

Initially published by DC Comics, where it ran for twenty issues, Fallen Angel was a series that Peter David eventually took to IDW Publishing, where it ran for thirty-three issues and two mini-series. While initially seemingly a follow up to Supergirl, with the main character being that series title heroine after the ending of the series, it quickly became something very different. Lee, or Liandra, lives in the city of Bete Noire, which is the center of causality in the world; what happens in the city changes the world outside it. The Fallen Angel, as Lee is called, serves as a court of last appeal for those lost souls who have nowhere else to turn. The book exists in a world of perpetual moral grey; even Lee, our heroine, is not entirely a heroic character. The characters around her are even more grey, many of them downright evil, but are always painted with a human brush; they all have their good points as well as their bad, although some, like the Magistrate of Bete Noire Dr. Juris, have far fewer good ones than others. The first arc of the IDW run, "To Serve in Heaven," is one of my favorite Peter David stories, revealing Liandra's origin, which has a fascinating theological bent, one that would I'm sure offend anyone of a fundamentalist mentality, but taken as a literary device makes the senseless universe make a lot of sense, even if it's very dark sense. And for you Whedon fans out there, the -first mini-series published after the series proper ended, The Return, features an appearance by Illyria, elder god from Angel. The availability on these trades might be a bit better than the other books on this list, but is spotty enough I felt like I should include it, since I view it as one of the definitive works of Peter David.

The Incredible Hulk #397-467 & -1

When it comes to comics, Peter David is probably most famous for his extended run on The Incredible Hulk, a run that lasted for over one hundred issues, and is arguably the greatest run on that character. Certainly, none of the modern runs by the likes of Greg Pak and Jason Aaron would have been possible without the groundwork David laid. And while Marvel has collected the first half of the run in the Hulk Visionaries: Peter David trades, the second half remains uncollected, and this is some of the best work on the entire series. While those first trades include art by Image founder Todd MacFarlane and legendary Hulk artist Dale Keown, the rest of the run includes early work from Gary Frank, work from Liam Sharpe and Angel Medina, and the run was rounded out by Adam Kubert. While some of the issue sin the middle are clearly marred by the editorial interference that was rampant in Marvel comics at the time, there's still so much in those seventy plus issues, it's hard to plug it all in here. Peter David's writing is never decompressed, but with the narrative continuing for over ten years, he finds ways to cram more into each issue. Hulk and Betty's relationship develops, as does that of Hulk's best friend, Rick Jones, and his girlfriend/wife, Marlo. We see the conclusion of the saga of the Pantheon, the group of international trouble shooters with ties to Greek Myth that Hulk works with. We get an interesting inversion of the classic Hulk/Banner relationship. The Hulk spends time without Banner in him, and it's done in a way that's different than when it's been tried before. Hulk briefly becomes a Horseman of Apocalypse. Thunderbolt Ross returns. And that's just a handful of stories. Peter David does a ton with a character that any writers would write off as a character that just smashes things, and that vision is what has allowed other writers to do different and interesting things with Hulk since then. There are many issues of note within this part of the run, but I want to draw attention to a few. Issue 418 is the issue which cover I selected above, the wedding of Rick and Marlo, an issue that is both hilarious and heartfelt, and ends with a trademark Peter David pun. Issue 420, "Lest Darkness Come," deals with the very real issue of AIDS in a way that very few superhero comics could. "Grave Matters," part of a month where all Marvel comics were numbered -1, tells the story of the death of Bruce Banner's abusive father, Brian, and is narrated by a weird circus Stan Lee; it is probably the best of those -1 issues, and adds depth to the relationship that in many ways defined Bruce's life. And the final issue, 467, "The Lone and Level Sands," is narrated by a Rick Jones of the future who recalls what happened to Hulk for the decades after the events of the previous issue. It's a send off to a run that still stands as one of the greatest of the 90s, and shows David had plenty of further ideas for the Hulk without leaving the readers fuming about dangling plot threads. The final pages are some of the most emotionally draining and beautiful that I have ever seen in any comic.


There are a lot of other works by Peter David, including runs on Star Trek, the Young Justice comic that loosely inspired the animated series, his teen-spy series for Dark Horse Spyboy, and so many more. And that's not even touching his novels. I have a couple projects in the works involving Peter David, one that will dig more deeply into the Hulk, but that's for another day. For today, why don't you go out and pick up a book by everybody's favorite Writer of Stuff.

Lost Legends: The Uncollected John Ostrander

This week's issue of Aquaman sees the return of John Ostrander to DC Comics. I've talked about Ostrander before, mostly in reference to his brilliant runs on many Star Wars titles, but he's a writer with a tremendous body of work. He's one of the great comic book writers, and one of my all time favorites. But sadly, the majority of his seminal works are not readily available in printed form (they may be digitally, but digital ain't my bag). I am planning some serious dissection of a lot of these works, in a John Ostrander week here on the Matt Signal, but since I didn't get through the reread on this week's recommended reading, I thought I'd do a dry run on the Ostrander pieces, giving a sneak preview of some of the titles I'll be talking about in much more depth there. This is by no means a full rundown of all of Ostrander's catalog, as I'll be mostly discussing his 80s and 90s DC works, with his creator owned opus thrown into the mix as well. So, without further ado...

Suicide Squad

Pretty much everyone who reads comics knows the concept behind Suicide Squad, but in case you don't, it's this: Supervillains go on covert missions for the government to earn time off their sentences, but there's a good chance they won't make it back. It's a great concept, and it's been rebooted twice since (three times if you count Warren Ellis's run on Marvel's Thunderbolts), but it's never worked as well as it did under John Ostrander. Why do you ask? Well, for one the plots were smart, intricate, and had a feeling of authenticity; some took place in real world locales that were politically troubled, something Ostrander has jokingly said he stopped doing when real political trouble flared up in those places when the issues were released. The series not only dealt with supervillains fighting terrorists or worse supervillains, but is one of the first comics to really delve into the darker side of the governement, the political backbiting and blackmail; this is a post-Watergate America, where government uses its power not necessarily to help the people. But what really made this series was the characters. Ostrander took a bunch of B-,C-, and D-list characters, and made them into major players. Before this series, Deadshot was just a marksman who shot at Batman; after this he was a layered, complex, haunted character. Captain Boomerang became a nasty, vindictive, petty little man with all sorts of issues, instead of just another Flash Rogue. Ostrander, with his wife and writing partner Kim Yale, also introduced Barbara Gordon as Oracle, dealing with the fallout from The Killing Joke and building Barbara up in a way that lasted over twenty years (on a side not, if you like this, you should check out Ostrander & Yale's story from Batman Chronicles #5, "Oracle- Year One: Born of Hope" a wonderful story that directly bridges the gap between Killing Joke and Suicide Squad). And of course, Ostrander also introduced the inimitable Amanda Waller, a character still used regularly to this day, and who is unique in comics: no super powers, no secret spy training, just a tough woman who knows her duty, does what she must, and who can stand toe-to-toe with Batman and tell him off. The Wall is one of Ostrander's great creations, and one of my favorite characters in comics. Without this series, I feel like a lot of villain-centric comics we've seen since, including Secret Six, Thunderbolts, and Geoff Johns's run on Flash, would have been very different, or not existed at all, and we owe a debt of gratitude to the Squad for that alone.

Deadshot

When Comic Book Resources did their list of the greatest John Ostrander stories ever, this mini-series was number one, and it was my vote for number one as well, so I think it's richly deserved. While it ties into Suicide Squad, it's so good I wanted to give it a little room of its own so I could really discuss it some. This mini-series gives the details of Deadshot's past. Not his origin story, necessarily, not the story of how he became a supervillain, but the why of it. After you've read the series, you can't help feeling a bit sorry for Deadshot. This is a guy whose family are nightmarish, parents who use their children as chess pieces in a war against each other, and who have no qualms about it. The series begins with the kidnapping of Deadshot's son, and leads down into a well of darkness so deep that it's hard to believe there's any light again. I am shocked that this series wasn't published with a suggested for mature readers on it. It is a very mature story, never flinching at the darkest sides of human nature and going places that most writers would never take their characters. It is never graphic though, which makes it all the more chilling. As a warning, if you are not someone who likes a story that is bleak, and that ends without a happy note, or who is uncomfortable with children in real peril, this is not the series for you. If you can get past those things though, it's worth reading to see Ostrander craft Deadshot into a character who has real dimension and depth, who might be a villain, but has humanity underneath all his snark, cigarette smoke, and violence.

Firestorm

When Ostrander took over Firestorm, the title was a fun book about two unlikely people, a college professor and a student, who merged together to form a superhero. It was as if Spider-Man and Professor X had to become one guy to use their powers. Ostrander took the book and went somewhere very different with it. His first two issues alone, tying into the Legends crossover event he was co-writing, feature Ronnie Raymond forcing the Firestorm merge on Professor Stein, and Stein reacting in a way that is a thinly veiled (and eventually not even veiled) analogy to rape, a subject rarely dealt with in mainstream comics at the time, and never dealt with anywhere near this tastefully. When Stein found out he was dying of cancer, his final wish became to force the USA and USSR to disarm their nuclear weapons, a story that is very much of its time, but works well in a world where tin pot dictators and religious zealots now control nuclear weapons. With Stein removed from the equation, Raymond found a new partner, a Soviet, and Ostrander spent time letting readers get to know him, playing a card about how we are all really people, no matter our government. And the last couple years of the series dealt with Firestorm discovering he was Earth's fire elemental, and a lot of stories involving environmentalism. While it sounds like a lot of topical tales, they were all told using superhero tropes, with lots of cool villains and combat, and the series never got preachy. Ronnie grows up, trying to really find his way in an adult world he has a hard time understanding. Ostrander did a great job of gradually altering the Firestorm formula, making something different than the traditional superhero title it was, without losing readers by respecting the past and having his own strong vision for what the book could be.

Detective Comics #622-624

This isn't a long form, sprawling epic like most of the other things on this list, but I had to toss in on here. First, a shout out to Brandon, a friend of mine and regular reader here, who mentioned this story as one of his favorite Batman stories when I did my list of favorites, and it reminded me just how great it is. In the duel narrative, Batman hunts a serial killer murdering people in his name in the "real" Gotham, while an unauthorized comic is being released in Gotham telling the origins of Batman, only this Batman is a demonically powered killer. Half of each issue is the comic within a comic, with different art. It's a great detective story, with some gorgeous art from Mike McKone on the real world pages, and Flint Henry on the macabre comic within a comic pages.If you're a Batman fan and have never read out this story, it's a self-contained, three issue arc with a lot going for it.

The Spectre

I don't know if it was Ostrander who decided the Spectre was more than just a vengeful ghost, but instead was the embodiment of the wrath of God bonded to a mortal, but if it wasn't him, he sure took the idea and ran with it. The Spectre becomes a series about justice, vengeance, and redemption. While there is plenty of magic and monsters, heroes and villains, the main struggle of the series is one internal to the Spectre, of Jim Corrigan, the hard boiled 40s cop who serves as the Spectre's host, in conflict with both himself and the Spectre itself. Reverend Richard Craemer, a supporting character who served as a chaplain and confidant to some of the Squad, came with Ostrander to this title, serving as a sounding board, and at times a conscience, for Corrigan. The Spectre quests to save a woman he has scene prophesied to die, to find the heart of America, to determine exactly what kind of man Corrigan himself was, and eventually to find God himself. The series watches Corrigan eventually find his grace, his own forgiveness for a life lead in anger, and when Ostrander left the book, Corrigan left the plain of the living, a major change to a classic character that DC stuck to until the New 52; it's a testament to Ostrander's strength as a writer and the strength of this run that DC left this change in. Two particular issues of note: Issue #54 featured the first appearance of the current Mister Terrific, Michael Holt, who still exists in the current DC regime. Issue #51 is a great issue featuring Batman and the Joker, where the Joker briefly has possession of the Spectre's power. The series is drawn nearly entirely by Tom Mandrake, one of Ostrander's constant collaborators (along with Jan Dursema, Flint Henry, and Tim Truman), who by the end of this list will have worked on more than half of the titles.

Martian Manhunter

While he had a couple of mini-series, J'onn J'onzz never had an ongoing series until the late 90s when Ostrander and Mandrake, fresh off The Spectre, took the Manhunter from Mars and ran with him. By far the most traditionally superheroic of the series I'm talking about today, it's still a fascinating character study. Martian Manhunter had spent much of his existence as the rock the Justice League rested on, but very little time had been spent revealing what he did when he wasn't with the League. So, Ostrander took the fact that J'onn was a shapeshifter, and decided that Martian Manhunter had different identities all over the world. He would switch race, gender, and species to live among humans and learn more about humanity. A good amount of time was spent investigating J'onn's past. Not only was his life on Mars more fleshed out, along with the introduction of his evil brother, Malefick, and conflicts with Darkseid and his minions while a Manhunter on Mars, but his time on Earth was expanded. Since J'onn was brought to Earth in the 50s, why couldn't he have met Clark Kent in Smallville, had an adventure with the Spectre earlier in his career, or was a part of the 70s superhero team, the Justice Experience, under another identity? That last one brought the DEO, and their most famous agent, Cameron Chase, into the mix, as Chase's father was another member of the Justice Experience, and had some resolution for Chase, whose series had been tragically cut short, when J'onn had to face down Doctor Trap, the villain who killed her father. All-in-all, it was an excellent superhero series, with great character beats, and had an issue where Martian Manhunter went nuts from Oreo (or Chocko, I assume due to rights issues) withdrawal and smacked around Booster Gold and Blue Beetle. It was pretty awesome.

Grimjack

If there is one magnum opus in Ostrander's work, something that you could hand to anyone to give them a great sample of what he can do as a writer, Grimjack would be it. Grimjack was created by John Ostrander and Tim Truman in the late 80s as a back-up in Starslayer before spinning off into his own title. The title character is John Gaunt, called Grimjack or the Grinner, an aging mercenary living in the city of Cynosure. Cynosure is the nexus of all realities, where different blocks phase in and out of reality; you can be on a block that is high tech, wander into a neighborhood that is all magic, and never find your way back to the science block. Gaunt owns Munden's Bar, a pub where people come to him to hire him to solve their problems, problems that usually wind up with him killing someone. Ostrander built a vibrant supporting cast around Gaunt, including his old running buddy Blackjackmac and Mac's paramour Goddess (who is actually a goddess), his old partner in the Transdemensional Police, Roscoe Schumacher, Gordon Munden the bartender, Bob the watchlizard, and various villains, including The Dancer, a former arena combatant turned revolutionary, and Major Lash, and immortal with a series hatred for Gaunt. The world and the characters are Ostrander's to play with, and he uses that freedom to tell stories you couldn't do with most superheroes. Gaunt is a pure anti-hero, often doing the right thing for the wrong reason, or the wrong thing for all the right reasons, and you can see shades of Grimjack in many of Ostrander's other leads, characters like Jim Corrigan, Quinlan Vos, and Cade Skywalker. What is especially cool, is about two-thirds of the way through the series, it is revealed that Gaunt has been cursed, that he will never know peace until Cynosure is destroyed, and that he will be reincarnated over and over until then. The last third of the series takes place long after John Gaunt is dead, and focuses on Jim Twilley, the new incarnation of Grimjack. Ostrander builds a whole new cast and ends the series, with the promise of an original graphic novel called Grimjack in Hell and then further incarnations. These projects didn't occur, but Ostrander and Truman returned to tell a couple tales of Gaunt before the series began. The art throughout the series is also outstanding, starting with Truman, followed by Tom Mandrake, and then Flint Henry, with some fill ins along the way. IDW, who published the two new Grimjack stories, Killer Instinct and The Manx Cat, also reprinted much of the early Grimjack, but stopped before the Twilley arc, and never finished it.

Since this is a Lost Legends piece, all of this work is uncollected or out of print in its whole form. While there was one volume each of Suicide Squad and The Spectre, and the first 54 issues of Grimjack were collected, none of it is currently in print. I have over time, been able to collect all these runs in the totality in single issue at conventions and comic shops, and they were all well worth it. This is also by no means the entirety of Ostrander's work. From DC there's also Hawkworld, JLA: Incarnations, the late 80s-early 90s Manhunter, and The Kents (a great Western focusing on the ancestors of Superman's adopted family). From Marvel there's Heroes for Hire, three mini-series starring the time displaced X-Man Bishop one in the present, and two set in the future he came from, two Westerns featuring Marvel's stable of Western heroes, Blaze of Glory and Apache Skies, and a run on Punisher (of which I am still trying to find issue 10). And that's just what I'm coming up with off the top of my head. Ostrander is one of the great writers currently working in comics, and going out and checking out some of his classic work as you wait for the next arc of Dawn of the Jedi or Agent of the Empire is really worth your time.

Lost Legends: The Joker: Devil's Advocate

Welcome to a new feature here on The Matt Signal. Lost Legends is similar to my weekly recommended readings, but for one fact: these are stories that are uncollected or out of print. I really try to select accessible books for recommended reading, things that you, my loyal reader, should be able to go to your local comic shop or bookstore and easily find, but that leaves a lot of things that I don't recommend because they just aren't easy to come by. And as I've been buying, and reading, a lot of back issues lately, I wanted somewhere to talk about them.

This first Lost Legends focuses on what is one of my favorite original graphic novels of all time, by one of my favorite Batman creative teams of all time. Chuck Dixon and Graham Nolan had a long run on Detective Comics, and are best known for creating such legendary villains as Gearhead (oh, right and some guy called Bane, but who's heard of him). But they also did a couple of really solid Joker stories, and the original graphic novel, The Joker: Devil's Advocate, is the best of those stories.

The high concept for Devil's Advocate is beautifully simple: The Joker is sent to death row for a crime he didn't commit, and Batman has to find the real culprit to save Joker. As you might imagine, certain of Batman's allies, specifically the Gordons, don't really take too kindly to this idea. The moral question of whether it's right or wrong to let the Joker finally pay for the all the horror he has wreaked on people, even if he's not being punished for his own actual mayhem is part of the book, but it never gets bogged down in that. The moral question seems easy for Batman to answer: The Joker dying for a crime he didn't commit isn't justice. But it's not so easy for others, and there's a nice moment where Bruce and Tim Drake, the Robin of the time, have a discussion about this. Chuck Dixon has a long history with Tim as well as Bruce, having written all three Robin mini-series and the first hundred issues of Tim's ongoing series, and he comfortably navigates both characters and their relationship.

Rereading this story, it reminded me how much the Joker has changed in recent years. I think The Dark Knight and Grant Morrison's take on the character has created as seismic a shift as Denny O'Neil & Neil Adams's "The Joker's Five Way Revenge" did from Cesar Romero. The Joker as we see him now, very clearly in the "Death of the Family" storyline currently running through the Batman titles, is a force of chaos and anarchy. Crime doesn't matter to him as much; it seems "Death of the Family" is more about vendetta than crime, and he didn't really commit any monetary crime in Morrison's run. In The Dark Knight he chooses to burn large stacks of money. Crime is a vehicle, rather than an end in its own right.

The Joker in Devil's Advocate is caught while committing an actual crime. Now, in all fairness he's not the Penguin, who wants material wealth above all else, but he's also not out there committing massacres for nothing other than the joy of killing. The Joker here is a showman, who is committing crimes as an artist, really impressed with his own ingenuity. The Joker's also pretty funny, making a few jokes that can draw a chuckle. Modern Joker is more monstrous, a Punch figure rather than a comedian.

One of the main character traits of Joker looked at in this story is his ego. The Joker starts out enraged that a series of commemorative postage stamps featuring the great comedians didn't include him. When it's pointed out that he can't get commemorative stamp since he's not dead, the Joker more or less writes that off trivia. Once he's taken down by Batman, he is put on trial for murder one when it turns out someone has coated the back of some of the stamps with Joker Venom and spread them around the city.  The Joker is tried and convicted, and while initially furious, he finds that the fame and publicity of a trial is something he enjoys. He arranges for his execution to be moved up so that the story stays fresh, all the while taunting Batman, who occasionally comes to try to get information out of him.

The Joker is sent to Blackgate Prison, Gotham's maximum security prison for the non-insane offender, and that goes pretty much as well as you might imagine. The Joker isn't exactly a model prisoner, shoving the harmonica of one of his fellow prisoners down his throat, and beating Tommy Mangles, a Gotham mobster who recurred throughout the Bat books at the time, to death with his shoes. My favorite page, though, is a reaction of the priest who has been asked to listen to Joker's confession. Yeah, not the best idea for anyone involved.

Even with all the Joker hi jinks and Batman brooding, Dixon winds up working a solid mystery into the story. The question of who is the actual postage stamp killer plays out pretty much as play fair, since upon rereading you can see the clues laid out. Is it an old member of the Joker's crew, who's working a blackmail scheme on the city, threatening more deaths by stamp, or is he just monopolizing on the chaos? Will the families of the postage stamp killer's victims get the justice they want?

While Joker: Devil's Advocate might not have the same fame as stories like The Killing Joke, "Joker's Five Way Revenge," and "The Laughing Fish," I think it presents a great view into the way the Joker was portrayed during a certain period. It's an enjoyable story, and one that I've gone back and reread over the years and still enjoy. And I don't want to give it away, but the final pages, a final conversation between Batman and Joker after Joker has been sent back to Arkham, puts a nice bow on the story. While this might not be the Joker you're reading about now, it's definitely a Joker worth checking out.