It's time again for my bi-monthly look back at comic books I picked up off the spinner rack 50 years ago.
What did Li'l Dave-El spend his quarters on in November 1975? Let's find out!
First up is Justice League of America #127 by Gerry Conway, Dick Dillin & Frank McLaughlin.
Yes, the image on the cover can be found inside.
Up next is Man-Bat#2 by Martin Pasko, Pablo Marcos & Ricardo Villamonte which pits Kirk Langstrom against Batman villain the Ten Eyed Man.
Reardon was caught in an explosion that blinded his eyes but a scientist adds optic nerves to his finger tips.
For... reasons?
With eyes in your finger tips, what else is a guy to do but to turn to crime?
If you're wondering how having optic nerves in your ten fingertips is supposed to help, well....
Not much, I think.
Man-Bat beat him with a potted plant.
Kirk throws a potted plant at Reardon who instintively catches it in his hands and OH NO! I'M BLIND!
And Man-Bat whallops him one in the noggin.
And that was that for Man-Bat the comic but Kirk would get another solo outing in the back pages of Detective Comics and eventually in Batman Family.
Last a bit longer but coming to end nonetheless was Phantom Stranger which came to an end with issue #41.
I was late to the Phantom Stranger party, picking up issue #40, liking what I saw and ready for the next issue.
For more about the Phantom Stranger and issue #41, click here for comics blogger Alan Stewart's write up.
Batman #272 by David V Reed, Jose Luis Garcia Lopez and Ernie Chan kicked off a multi issue storyline known as "The Underworld Olympics '76"
Basically bad guys from around the world have come to Gotham City to stage a competition to see who is the best at crime.
I think if you're doing crime, you're doing it for the money, not for bragging rights which could be used as evidence against you in a court of law.
I ponied up two quarters for DC Special#20, another collection of classic Green Lantern 1960's adventures by John Broome & Gil Kane under a sleek new Mike Grell cover.
We come to Superman#296 and the beginning of an extraordinary storyline, at least it is for bronze age DC Comics.
Clark will spend all of issue #297 not being Superman and learning to live life only as Clark Kent.
Clark Kent not having to pretend to mild-mannered is not to be trifled with.
That look on Lois' face in the last panel? Clark is gonna get some, oh yeah! (Within the limits of the Comics Code Authority.)
Issue #298, Superman takes over and lives life without Clark Kent. Both experiments conclude that try as he might, Clark Kent/Superman needs both sides of his life.
Speaking of long running storylines, Wonder Woman #222 brings to an end the 12 Labors of Wonder Woman.
Two years earlier, dealing with a memory loss, Wonder Woman refused to rejoin the Justice League without testing herself. Various Leaguers took turns watching Wonder Woman to prove to her she still had what it takes. This was HER idea, not theirs.
The is the first issue by penciller Jose Delbo who will go on to a long run as Wonder Woman's artist.
Super Team Family#3 with a rare DC appearance by artist Frank Brunner on the cover.
Hawkman's wife Shiera Hall shows up all mysterious like at the Allen household waiting for Barry to come home while Iris fumes about who this bitch is and what's Barry doing with her.
The Superman/Batman story is a classic drawn by Neal Adams.
Green Arrow and Aquaman do not team up but swap locales with the Sea King pursuing a criminal on land in Star City while the Emerald Archer shoots arrows underwater (really?) in pursuit of his bad guy.
We get more Flash in issue #239 of his own comic
By Cary Bates, Irv Novick and Frank McLaughin. It's a full length adventure with the Green Lantern back up taking a break.
We meet Paul Gambi, tailor to the super villains.
Paul has a brother who does his tailoring for good guys when he helps Jefferson Pierce suit up as Black Lightning.
The movie sensation of the summer Jaws invades this cover by Mike Grell for Action Comics#456.
Here's a page of the Superman lead story by Cary Bates, Curt Swan and Tex Blaisdell.
The Green Arrow/Black Canary is a slim 5 pager, part 1 of a 3 part serial. The conclusion of that story will mark the exit from Action Comics of non-Superman related super hero back ups.
Next up is Detective Comics #456.
Batman vs. a femme fatale out of a Humphrey Bogart movie is a mystery by Elliot S! Maggin & Ernie Chan.
And Bob Rozakis & Kurt Shaffenberger serves up the Elongated Man back up. Part 1 of a 2 parter that would conclude the next issue.
One more thing: the next month (December) would be the last month DC's regular comics could be purchased for a quarter.
The new year of 1976 will see an increase by a whole whopping nickel. The bastards!
We'll see how this impacted what purchased off the ol' spinner rack in January's 50 year look back post.
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