Star Trekking: Star Trek - The Original Series - Season One - Part Three

 

Welcome back to Star Trekking, my regular blog berth for my Star Trek fandom.  

This week I am concluding my look back at season 1 of the original Star Trek. I'm not posting about every episode but just certain shows that have resonated with me over time.

This week, I'm starting with "This Side of Paradise" which first aired on NBC March 2, 1967.   The Enterprise has arrived at Omicron Ceti Three where human life can't possible exist.

I'll let Capt Kirk and Mr. Spock explain.

KIRK: Mister Spock, there were one hundred and fifty men, women, and children in that colony. What are the chances of survivors?

SPOCK: Absolutely none, Captain. Berthold rays are such a recent discovery. We do not yet have full knowledge of their nature. It is known, however, that living animal tissue disintegrates under exposure. Sandoval's group could not have survived after three years.

KIRK: Are you saying that those people built a future in a place knowing they might not survive?

SPOCK: I am saying they knew there was a risk.

KIRK: And what about us? Can we afford to send people to the planet's surface?

SPOCK: The breakdown of tissue does not develop immediately. We can risk a limited exposure.

Everybody got that? I do so love a Star Trek plot exposition.

Kirk leads a party down to the colony which looks like a standard issue farm so that saves money on building an alien planet set.

Expecting the colonists to be dead, the party is surprised to be greeted by Elias Sandoval, the leader of the colony mission.

MCCOY: On pure speculation, just an educated guess, I'd say that man is alive.

Boy, Bones didn't go to medical school for nothing, did he?

So the colonists are alive and well.

Including Leila.

Who is Leila?

She's an attractive blonde woman who knew Spock way back when. Let's listen in to Elias and Leila have a chat about that.

ELIAS: You've known the Vulcanian?

LEILA: On Earth, six years ago.

ELIAS: Did you love him?

LEILA: If I did, it was important only to myself.

ELIAS: How did he feel?

LEILA: Mister Spock's feelings were never expressed to me. It is said he has none to give.

ELIAS: Would you like him to stay with us now, to be as one of us?

LEILA: There is no choice, Elias. He will stay.

Uh oh! The colonists are up to shit.

Meanwhile the Enterprise crew realizes there are no animals, no cows, chickens, pigs or even dogs.

And what are these weird alien plants that...

PFFT! 

Shoot out spores in your face and...

And...

Life is kinda groovy, ain't it? 

An opinion shared by none other than Spock when Leila gets him alone for some unrequited canoodling when...

PFFT!! 

The canoodling is very much requited.  

We've seen Spock's much vaunted logic and self control take a beating earlier in the season in "The Naked Time" but here, it's all gone.  

Spock is smiling?

Yes. Spock is smiling.

So. Much. Smiling.

Please make it stop!

So the alien plant spores protect humans from Berthold rays but leaves humans as blissed out hippies.  

Dang hippies! 

Slowly the Enterprise crew on the planet and on the ship in orbit are overcome by the spores. The ship is abandoned except for one last man. 

Of course Capt. Kirk is the final hold out from the alien spores but one of the plants on the Enterprise bridge....

PFFT!!!

It's all groovy, man! 

But Kirk's dedication to his duty, to his ship is too strong. As he gets ready to beam down...

KIRK: No. No! I can't leave! (he's very relieved) Emotions. Violent emotions. Needs. Anger. Captain's log, supplemental. I think I've discovered the answer, but to carry out my plan entails considerable risk. Mister Spock is much stronger than the ordinary human being. Aroused, his great physical strength could kill. But it's a risk I'll have to take.

So Kirk cons Spock into leaving Leila for a minute and beam back to the ship where Kirk starts insulting Spock, striking him.

And Spock loses his shit and starts beating the crap out of Kirk.

Until...

Spock shakes off the influence of the spores.  

Together, Kirk and Spock technobabble a subsonic signal designed to irritate the crap out of people. 

Tempers flare and slugfests ensue but eventually all the people on Omicron Ceti Three are shaken out of their zombie stupor.

But not without a price.

Leila beams up to the Enterprise where Spock awaits.

LEILA: You're no longer with us, are you? I felt something was wrong.

SPOCK: It was necessary.

LEILA: Come back to the planet with me. You can belong again. Come back with me, please.

SPOCK: I can't.

LEILA: I love you. I said that six years ago, and I can't seem to stop repeating myself. On Earth, you couldn't give anything of yourself. You couldn't even put your arms around me. We couldn't have anything together there. We couldn't have anything together anyplace else. We're happy here. (crying) I can't lose you now, Mister Spock. I can't.

SPOCK: I have a responsibility to this ship, to that man on the Bridge. I am what I am, Leila, and if there are self-made purgatories, then we all have to live in them. Mine can be no worse than someone else's.

LEILA: I have lost you, haven't I? And not only you, I've lost all of it. The spores. I've lost them, too.

KIRK: The Captain discovered that strong emotions and needs destroy the spore influence.

LEILA: And this is for my good? Do you mind if I say I still love you? You never told me if you had another name, Mister Spock.

SPOCK: (wiping away her tears) You couldn't pronounce it.

OK, you Kirk/Spock shippers caught that?

"I have a responsibility to this ship, to that man on the Bridge."

Go on and write your gay fan fiction. 

One last thing to say.

MCCOY: Well, that's the second time man's been thrown out of paradise.

KIRK: No, no, Bones. This time we walked out on our own. Maybe we weren't meant for paradise. Maybe we were meant to fight our way through. Struggle, claw our way up, scratch for every inch of the way. Maybe we can't stroll to the music of the lute. We must march to the sound of drums.

This does seem to be a recurring theme in Star Trek. Positing a future of advance technology in a world of progressive values and peace, it's important to remember even with all of that,  human acheivement is something to be worked for, strived for.

Covering "This Side of Paradise" took me longer than I expected and I have three more episodes to cover. 

"The Devil in the Dark" brings the Enterprise to Janus Six where a mining operation has ground to a halt. Why?

Because of all the murder.

An alien critter is attacking the miners,buring them to a crisp.

So let's see if we got this.

• Problem: Humans miners - killed!
• Cause: Alien critter - kills! 
• Solution: Alien critter needs to be killed.

Well, that seems simple.

But Kirk has questions.   

• Why is the alien critter killing miners now?
• What's with all these metallic spheres all over the place?

Kirk susses out what's going on and with a mind meld from Spock, he gets the deets.

• The alien critter is a Horta. a silicon based life form.
• The Horta is a mother.  
• The metallic sphere are her eggs.
• The miners had breached into new caverns where the eggs were stored and began destroying them.
• As the Horta is the last of her kind, that is a major problem.
• Also the Horta is mortally injured. 

Kirk summons McCoy who is very crumpy.

MCCOY: You can't be serious. That thing is virtually made out of stone!

KIRK: Help it. Treat it.

MCCOY: I'm a doctor, not a bricklayer.

KIRK: You're a healer. There's a patient. That's an order.

Gotta love a classic "I'm a doctor, not a ______!"  

And dang if good ol' Bones don't go and done did a medical miracle on our alien critter.  

MCCOY: By golly, Jim, I'm beginning to think I can cure a rainy day. Well, I had the ship beam down a hundred pounds of that thermoconcrete. You know, the kind we use to build emergency shelters out of. It's mostly silicone. So I just trowelled it into the wound, and it'll act like a bandage until it heals. Take a look. It's as good as new.

Boy, Bones didn't go to medical school for nothing, did he?

Sometimes people will make fun of the alien critter for looking like a crawling carpet. 

Those people should be ashamed of themselves.

You hear a lot of trolls who dare call themselves Star Trek fans bitching and whining that modern Trek series are "too woke" or some bullshit like that. And why can't Trek go back to the way it was in the old days?

"Devil in the Dark" decidedly puts to the lie that idea. Consider the situation that greets Kirk when he arrives. Humans killed! Alien is killer! Kill alien! 

But Kirk takes time to think about what he sees and actually sees the point of view of our erstwhile antagonist, much as he did with the Gorn in "Arena".  

Fuck you, trolls! Star Trek has always been "woke" even when Kirk was in the Captain's chair.

Kirk's prediliction for empathy and mercy are seriously challenged in the aptly named "Errand of Mercy".   

Let's get some plot exposition from Kirk and Spock.

KIRK: Negotiations with the Klingon Empire are on the verge of breaking down. Starfleet Command anticipates a surprise attack. We are to proceed to Organia and take whatever steps are necessary to prevent the Klingons from using it as a base.

SPOCK: Strategically sound. Organia is the only Class M planet in the disputed area, ideally located for use by either side.

KIRK: Organia's description, Mister Spock.

SPOCK: Inhabited by humanoids. A very peaceful, friendly people living on a primitive level. Little of intrinsic value. Approximately Class D minus on Richter's scale of cultures.

Once more, did everybody get that? Gotta love Star Trek plot exposition!

So Kirk and Spock beam down to Organia and...

Let me take a minute to rant about something. Because William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy are in the opening credits, then Kirk and Spock need to damn well be seen doing stuff. 

Even if it makes NO sense for both the Captain and his second in command to leave the ship during a time of heightened tensions with a powerful and threatening enemy. 

And this shit happened all the time in original Star Trek.

End of rant! 

So Kirk and Spock beam down to Organia and find a populace that is peaceful, calm, docile and seemingly not bothered that the Klingons are on the way to do bad stuff.

And damn it! The Klingons arrive, barking orders, snarling, being assholes and what not.

And the Organians don't care.

Kirk and Spock are like, what the hell, guys? 

Our heroes attempt some guerrilla war tactics against the invading Klingons.  Their commander Kor orders whole bunches of Organians to be rounded up and killed.

In space, the Enterprise is facing a Klingon vessel ready for battle. 

Well, enough is enough!  

On the planet and in space, all the weapons of the Enterprise crew and the Klingons become too hot to touch.

Kor thinks this is some form of trickery as he, Kirk and Spock confront the Organians. But....

AYELBORNE: It is no trick, Commander. We have simply put an end to your war. All your military forces, wherever they are, are now completely paralysed.

CLAYMARE: We find interference in other people's affairs most disgusting, but you gentlemen have given us no choice.

KIRK: You should be the first to be on our side. Two hundred hostages killed.

AYELBORNE: No one has been killed, Captain.

CLAYMARE: No one has died here in uncounted thousands of years.

KOR: You are liars. You are meddling in things that are none of your business.

KIRK: Even if you have some power that we don't understand, you have no right to dictate to our Federation...

KOR: Or our Empire!

KIRK: How to handle their interstellar relations! We have the right...

AYELBORNE: To wage war, Captain? To kill millions of innocent people? To destroy life on a planetary scale? Is that what you're defending?

KIRK: Well, no one wants war. But there are proper channels. People have a right to handle their own affairs. Eventually, we will have...

AYELBORNE: Oh, eventually you will have peace, but only after millions of people have died.

Then the Organians began to glow, their physical forms morphing into pure light.

SPOCK: Fascinating. Pure energy. Pure thought. Totally incorporeal. Not life as we know it at all.

KOR: But is all of this possible?

SPOCK: We have seen it with our own eyes. I should say the Organians are as far above us on the evolutionary scale as we are above the amoeba.

KIRK: Well, Commander, I guess that takes care of the war. Obviously, the Organians aren't going to let us fight.

KOR: A shame, Captain. It would have been glorious.

Props to John Colicos who did such an outstanding job as Kor. Colicos would reprise the role for an episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.  

Back on the Enterprise, Kirk confides in Spock.

KIRK: I'm embarrassed. I was furious with the Organians for stopping a war I didn't want. We think of ourselves as the most powerful beings in the universe. It's unsettling to discover that we're wrong.

Whatever some people have made of Kirk being a cocky swaggering adventurer, it's important to remember these moments where Kirk understands the limits of humankind's abilities, even in an age of technological advancement.  

Wrapping up this overlong post is perhaps Star Trek's most famous, most well regarded episode, "The City On the Edge of Forever".  There really isn't much I can add about this classic episode written by sci-fi legend Harlan Ellison that hasn't been written about hundreds of times before.

I think even people with only a cursory knowledge of Star Trek know about this episode.   

Kirk and Spock go back in time to Depression era New York to stop McCoy from mucking about with history, causing a technologically advanced space faring planet Earth to no longer exist in the 23rd century.  

Some really big stakes going on and it hinges on the life of one person, a woman who must die in order to protect the future.

Damn it! Kirk has fallen in love with her!  

Often Kirk gets mocked for his perceived propensity for getting busy with the space babe of the week. And yeah, it does happen a lot.  But the development of the relationship between Jim Kirk and Edith Keeler has a genuine, heartfelt progression that feels more real than Kirk's other dalliances. Time is taken to show Jim and Edith growing incrementally closer to each other.  

When Kirk has to stop McCoy from saving her, we know the price Kirk pays. We can feel it. 

I'm not going into a lot of detail here in this post but "The City On the Edge of Forever" does earn and deserve the plaudits it has received over the years. 

KIRK: Let's get the hell out of here.

OK, that finishes my once-over of the first season of Star Trek

Thanks again to Chrissie's Transcripts Site  for the script exerpts.

Coming up on future installments of Star Trekking:

It's all go-go boots and mini-skirts for a Star Trek fashion show.

A brief return to looking back at Star Trek: The Next Generation.

And July marks the return of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds for season 4.

Live long and prosper, y'all.  

Movie Time: Lucy

What are the limits of the human mind?

What are the boundaries of what our minds are capable of?

What if... there were NO limits, NO boundaries?

Such are the heady inquiries we will address today.

It's... Movie Time! 

From Luc Besson, the French director of The Fifth Element and Valerian & The City Of a Thousand Planets, today's film is called Lucy,  a 2014 science fiction film starring Scarlett...

I always have trouble spelling her last name.

Let me get some help from her husband, Colin Jost.  

OK, thanks for sorting that out.

So Lucy stars Scarlett Johansson as the title character, a rather unremarkable young American college student in China who find herself having a REALLY bad day that leads to a most incredibly remarkable experience.   

While studying in Taipei, Lucy has hooked up with a new boyfriend named Richard. 

Richard is kinda sketchy and is up to sketchy shit. 

Richard handcuffs a briefcase to Lucy and forces her to go into a nearby hotel.  Don't worry, he assures her, it's a simple gig.

1. Go the front desk and ask for Mr. Jang.

2. Mr. Jang will unlock the cuffs to take possession of the case.

3. Mr. Jang will give her money for the delivery.

Well, that seems simple, right?

Except...

The men Mr. Jang send down are not pleased. Who is this woman? Everyone's chattering away at her in Korean and Lucy's getting really nervous.

Through the front window of the hotel lobby, she witnesses Richard getting shot in the head. Lucy has moved from "getting really nervous" to "totally freaking out".  

Being forced into a elevator by the Koreans is not helping Lucy's mental or emotional state.  

Confronted by Mr. Jang who is pissed off the case was not delivered by Richard but by this woman, Lucy learns the case is filled with 4 packets of a drug called CPH4.  The Koreans expect they're going to make a shit ton of money once this hits Europe.

Hey, what is CPH4?  In it's natural form, CPH4 is a hormone 

produced in tiny quantities by pregnant women during their sixth week of pregnancy to provide fetuses with the energy to develop. 

Along with 3 guys, Lucy is coerced into becoming a drug mule. The packets are sewn into their lower intestines.  

Each of the hapless mules are given plane tickets and instructions what to do when they arrive at their various locations.  Where they will be paid. (Or more likely killed.) 

While awaiting transport to the airport, one of Jang's henchmen decides he doesn't like Lucy's attitude or face or whatever it is about women that ticks off stupid men and he starts beating her. Which includes kicking her in the stomach.   

Which causes the bag of CPH4 in her intestine to rupture. 

A large amount of uncut, unprocessed CPH4 hits her bloodstream.  After twisting and writhing in pain, Lucy suddenly becomes calm, placid. 

Lucy feels... different.  

Her mind is opening up to...  possibilities? 

Lucy gets busy, using her new telekinetic and telepathic powers to do all sort of stuff.

• Lucy kills and escapes from her captors.
• She forces surgeons at a nearby hospital to remove what's left of the CPH4 bag from her abdomen. (She can understand Mandarin Chinese now. And Korean. And French. And... you get the idea.)  
• She returns to the hotel to confront Mr. Jang to read his mind where the other 3 drug mules are going. 
• Lucy then reads ALL of the internet and discovers there's a scientist, Samuel Norman, who may have a clue about what's happening to her.
• From China, she controls Norman's phone and TV set in Paris to introduce herself and he's weirded out.  His crazy theories about expanding brain capacity might be true?
• Reaching across the miles, she contacts Paris police captain Pierre Del Rio with info on how to intercept the drug mules.
• Lucy telekinetically scrambles her short wavy blonde hair to a long straight black 'do.  The shit she did at the hospital made the news and she's wanted by the police.

Lucy is also wanted by a very angry and vengeful  Mr. Jang who with an army of Korean mobsters is determined to make Lucy pay for... whatever it is she's doing.   

Lucy gets to Paris and pairs up with Pierre Del Rio to secure the CPH4 packets, just ahead of the Koreans.  There's a lot of violence and car chases.  

Lucy drives Pierre's car very fast the wrong way down one way streets. And she's never driven a car before.  But she's like unto a god or something so it's all good.  

She meets up with Norman and his colleagues in a university lab where she tells them everything, about who she is, what she is capable of now and where those capabilities are heading as her brain capacity expands. 

Her control of minds and matter will extend to time itself.  

Hey, let's take a look at the trailer for Lucy.

Trying to recount the plot is kind of beside the point.  Director Luc Besson has created a visually trippy excursion into expanding consciousness. Kinetic actions sequences intertwined with moments of intense horror and even more intense scenes of Lucy's increasing awareness.  Besson's examination of Lucy's expanding brain capacity calls to mind the mind bending scenes in Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Oddessy.  

There's some criticism of Besson's story relying on the concept that humans only use 10% of our brain and who knows what abilities might unfold if we used more of it. A lot of scientists regard this concept as a myth.  

The science at the core of Luc Besson's story might be discredited but the philisophical truth of Lucy's experience is worth exploring. What happens when we look beyond our limits, when we reconsider our perceptions of the world around us and of time itself.

Maybe pop a gummie or two when you watch Lucy. 

A few words about Scarlett Johansson who is appropriately freaked out at the movie's start as Lucy finds herself in the clutches of the egnimatic and brutal Mr. Jang.  There is some bad shit going down and Lucy's fear and despair feel very real. 

But when the CPH4 takes hold, Scarlett morphs Lucy into someone who immediately understands she has changed and calmly and methodically uses her new found powers to head towards what's next.  Whatever that may be.

In a sort of "Flowers For Algernon" sort of way, Lucy is smart enough to know who she is now, what she can do and also smart enough to know it has to end.  

Or never end? 

Lucy's last words to Pierre Del Rio: "I am everywhere."

Her last words to Samuel Norman:   "Life was given to us a billion years ago. Now you know what to do with it."

__________________________________

Well, what I'm going to do with it is write another blog post.

We're back tomorrow with Star Trekking as I wrap up my look back at the first season of Star Trek.   

Your Friday Video Link: OMG! Look At the CATS!

In addition to watching the canal in Duluth MN or the train station in LaPlata MO, Andrea and I have found another live stream to soak up what's left of our aging brain cells, Furball Farms in Faribault MN.  

Your Friday Video Link for this week starts with a 24 hour live stream of a whole bunch of cats.  

Furball Farm Cat Sanctuary is a sanctuary for feral cats. They do not accept owner surrenders but focus on cats who have no humans to provide care.  

The live stream shows cats playing, exploring, eating and sleeping in a safe environment. Feral cats are inherently distrustful of humans and may not make good pets until they learn to trust humans.   

After Andrea and I have checked to see if there are any ships in the canal entering or leaving Lake Superior or if the Southwest Chief has stopped in LaPlata, we'll go check on our cats.

On the subject of trains and cats, the next video link is of a model train that traverses a garden in Germany.  Follow the Gartenbahn as it navigates the garden past small houses and a very large cat.

Next up is a production of Romeo And Juliet... and a cat! 

The last cat my mom had before she went into assisted living was a dark grey and white cat named Oreo.

I thought a better name for the cat was Bonkers.

Because, well, he was.  Very... bonkers. 

So I annoited him with the full name of Oreo J.Bonkers.

Speaking cats being bonkers, our last video link for today is a compilation of cats being weird, funny, crazy, strange... you know, bonkers.   

I hope you enjoyed all the cats.

I'm back tomorrow with I presume a Movie Time post.  

I better get to writing that.  

Until next time, remember to be good to one another.  

"Guys! We gotta get started on
tomorrow's blog post!" 

Comic Book Retro 50: June 1976

 Welcome to another edition of Comic Book Retro 50, the monthly blog post that answers the question all of America wants to know: What comic books did Dave-El buy in June 1976?

More loose change in my pocket meant a wider mix of comics.

Still solely a loyal DC guy.  It's gonna take a couple of years before I loop in some Marvels into my comic book buying habit.

First up this month is Karate Kid#4 with Mike Grell's inks redeeming the otherwise atrocious pencils of DC's go to cover artist Ernie Chan.

Ernie Chan was not a bad artist, per se. It's just DC kept shoehorning him into super hero comic book covers where his style was ill suited. 

Click here for my previous post on the Karate Kid series.

What "The Rage of Yesterdays Lost" was about, I cannot recall in the slightest.  

I will say Google's AI Overview is a complete lie:  "Karate Kid #4: The Rage of Yesterday's Lost" is a classic DC comic book published in October 1976. Written by Steve Skeates with art by Mike Grell".   

This issue was by the regular creative team of Barry Jameson, Ric Estrada and Joe Staton and was published in June 1976.  

How the hell did AI even begin to think Steve Skeates wrote this book?

Freedom Fighters #4 was my first issue I bought of this series.

"The Left Hand of Oblivion" was by Martin Pasko, Ramona Fradon & Vince Colletta.  Wonder Woman is tasked with bringing in the Freedom Fighters who are perceived as enemies due to the machinations of the sinister Silver Ghost.

In a development straight out of a Marvel comic, heroes battle heroes over a misunderstanding. 

A rampaging man-monster called King Samson runs amuck and causes problems for everyone.  

Wonder Woman is... dead? To be continued in issue #5.  

Click here for my previous post about Freedom Fighters.  

I picked up Secret Society of Super-Villains #3.

I had started reading comics after Jack Kirby's Fourth World titles (New Gods, Mister Miracle, etc) had ended so "War for Earthdeath" was my first exposure to Darkseid.

David Anthony Kraft, Pablo Marcos & Vince Colletta brings us this installment of how assembled super villians have been brought together to further the schemes of the God of Apolokips.

But those villains don't like being fucked around by Darkseid.

Some of the villains were not villians. For example, there's Manhunter who takes center stage in the above image.  Turns out he's the clone of Paul Kirk who starred in the series created by Archie Goodwin and Walt Simonson for Detective Comics back in 1973.  

There was a lot going on in this comic that appealed to young Dave-El at the time.  Sadly, shifting creative teams would undermine whatever potential I saw in this series

Flash#244  by Cary Bates, Irv Novick & Frank McLaughlin gives us a full length denouement of the death of The Top storyline.  

"The Last Day of June Is the Last Day of Central City" finds the Flash's rogues gallery in the unusual position of fighting against the Scarlet Speedster for a good cause.

Read the splash page below and let them explain it.  

The Top is dead but not not forgotten as the Flash and his enemies have a common goal to stop his last nefarious scheme.

Believe it or not, The Top will stay dead.  But his death will resonate in future issues of the Flash and the creation of a new super threat.   

Batman#279 brings us writer David V. Reed's first foray in pitting Batman against one of his costumed foes and the return of Robin. 

For Reed's time on Batman, he had focused on one and done crime mysteries pitting the Caped Crusader against non-costumed threats without the erstwhile Teen Wonder.  

Drawn by Ernie Chan & Tex Blaisdell, it's "Riddler On a Rampage".

In an era where Denny O'Neil and Frank Robbins had given us a darker, edgier Batman, Reed's tale in this issue would've felt at home in an episode of the 1960's Batman TV show.   

Over in Dectective Comics#463, Gerry Conway, Ernie Chan & Frank McLaughlin pit Batman against a new super villain, the Black Spider.

SPOILER: the Black Spider... is black! 

The Black Spider was not a lasting addition to the Caped Crusader's rogues gallery.  I think only Conway ever made use of him after this two parter.  

Of perhaps slightly more significant note is the back up featuring the Atom by Bob Rozakis, Mike Grell & Terry Austin.  

This slim 6 pager introduces the Calculator.  His schtick was that once a super hero caught him, he could never be defeated by that super hero again. 

In subsequent issues, Calculator would take on Black Canary, Elongated Man, Green Arrow and Hawkman before coming after the big man himself, Batman.    

Mike Grell kicks off the storyline but it will be finished by a newcomer who will have a signficant impact on Batman, Marshall Rogers.  

Batman Family#7 leads off with a brand new Batgirl/Robin team up by Elliot S! Maggin, Curt Swan & Vince Colletta againt the villainous duo from Earth 2, the Sportsmaster and the Huntress.

We've seen a lot of this fluidity of Earh 2 villains getting all muckity on Earth 1. The Wizard from Earth 2 in the Secret Society, Solomon Grundy toddling over from Earth 2 to cause trouble for Superman a few months back.  

The two reprints that round out Batman Family#7 are from the not so well remembered 1950's with cartoonish art and outlandish menaces like "The Amazing Dr. Double X" from Detective Comics #261.

Gerry Conway is once more trying to add his own super villain creations to the DC Universe with Thunder & Lightning in Superman#303. He even brings back another weather based villain he had created for Action Comics, the (I kid you not!) Whirlycane! 

After a couple of issues away, Curt Swan is back as penciller.

Conway has some fun with the Clark/Lois dynamic.

After being sidelined for two issues by Jose Luis Garcia Lopez, I think Curt Swan upped his game for his return to Superman with some renewed dynamism.  

WHABOOM! indeed!

Action Comics#463 finally frees us from the interminable Karb-Brak storyline Cary Bates was inflicting on us.

Because it was the Bicentennial, of course Superman is present at the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

Superboy#219 brings us a full length adventure of the Legion Of Super Heroes,  "The Plunder Ploy of the Fatal Five" by Jim Shooter and Mike Grell, now joined by inker Bob Wiacek. 

As if the Legion wasn't big enough, this story brings in non-Legion member Duplicate Boy.

Duplicate Boy could duplicate the super powers of other super powered beings.  

The Fatal Five are on a bit of a crime wave for unknown and presumably nefarious purposes.

Except that's not a weapon, it's a baby rattle.

Validus for all his power and size is fundementally a child.

Granted a child who once killed Legionaire Invisible Kid.

The culmination of the story reveals the Fatal Five's intent.

The Fatal Five just wanted a nice place to live and chill out.

It's more super team action with Justice League of America #134.

I gotta say I admire what Ernie Chan is going for with this cover design. I just wish it was drawn better.  

Gerry Conway pairs up with artists Dick Dillin and Frank McLaughlin to pit the JLA against the alien threat of Despero.

Love that we got some great use of Supergirl in this storyline. 

This would be Gerry Conway's last turn as JLA writer until issue #151.  What I didn't know at the time was that Conway had already ventured back to Marvel to take over writing Avengers and serve as Editor In Chief.  For one month. 

In addition to departing the Justice League, Gerry Conway was taking his leave of the Justice Society as well. 

Which brings us to All-Star Comics #62

We're dealing with the fallout of Doctor Fate's near death from last issue.  

Look at the Kirby like gear and energy crackle from Keith Giffen and Wally Wood.  Young Dave-El was really digging the art on this book.

Oh dear sweet Great Krypton!  After 50 years, I still get a thrill from this well crafted sequence with Clark Kent and Superman.

The menace to all of humankind on Earth 2: This guy! 

ZANADU! 

Not to be confused with XANADU! 

Paul Levitz scripts over Gerry Conway's plot and will become synomynous with the Justice Society going forward.  

Looking forward about 10 years, Levitz and Giffen would re-team for an extraordinary run on Legion of Super Heroes and the epic "Great Darkness Saga".   

For a more extensive review of All Star Comics#62, click here for Alan Stewart's blog post.   

The last book for today's post is Shazam#25 which is a significant issue.  

The issue leads off with the first comic book appearance of Isis

Isis was a TV companion series to the live action Shazam TV show on Saturday morning TV.  Denny O'Neil and Dick Giordano present her comic book debut.  

From here, Isis would get her own comic book series.  

Shazam#25 is also the first issue with new material in over a year.   Issues #21-#24 were published quarterly and with all reprints.   

Poor sales likely would have led to the book's cancelation but the success of the TV show prompted DC to keep some version of the comc going.  

The back up is an all new Captain Marvel story, "The Bicentennial Villain" by E. Nelson Bridwell and Kurt Schaffenberger that sets the stage for a new series of Shazam tales by bringing the comic in line with the TV show.  

Like the TV show, Billy Batson will set on a journey across America with his Uncle Dudley in the Mentor role.  

Oh yeah, that blurb at the end of the last page?

More on that when we get to Justice League of America #135.

And we'll do that with our next Comic Book Retro 50 when our journey through time brings a young Dave-El to the comic book racks of July 1976. 

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Thanks to The Tom Breevort Experience, the Grand Comic Book Database and Mike's Amazing World of Comics.