Welcome to another edition of Comic Book Retro 50 where I look back at comics I bought 50 years ago.,
This month takes us back to July 1976.
In last month's look back to June 1976, Shazam#25 ended with a blurb to check out Justice League of America #135.
And here we are for the annual Justice League/Justice Society team up.
As if bringing together the heroes of 2 different Earths was not enough to keep track of. these annual get togethers would bring in a 3rd Earth.
Which brings us to Justice League of America #135 which kicks off "Crisis In Eternity" bringing together the combined might of hereos for Earth 1, Earth 2 and Earth S.
Earth S? Yes, "S" as in Shazam.
This is the world where Captain Marvel and other heroes formerly published by Fawcett Comics reside.
Anyone excited to see the classic heroes of DC finally interact with Captain Marvel and the rest of the Marvel family, well, not so fast.
Long time Captain Marvel foe King Kull has captured the Rock of Eternity and the gods and goddeses who live there. Billy, Mary and Freddy can yell their magic words all day long but there ain't no lightning bolts coming.
With the Marvel family out of commission, who can Mercury summon to aid him from Earth 2?
Well there's Ibis the Invincible.
And 5 other adventurers.
I hear giggling.
Yes, one of them is called Pinky, the Whiz Kid!
Hey, this comic book is a treasured part of my child hood and I would kindly ask you to stop laughing at it.
The book has a very dense plot from E. Nelson Bridwell. Bridwell was an ultimate fanboy made good with an encyclopedic knowledge of anything and everything about comic books. And a LOT of that knowledge gets shoved into this issue's 17 pages. Martin Pasko was brought in as scripter to I presume help it all make sense.
According to an interview Pasko gave, he did not like this assignment at all.
And there are 2 more issues to go.
Stalwart regular JLA artists Dick Dillin and Frank McLaughlin are tasked to handle this sprawling cast of heroes from 3 Earths and for more good measure, multiple villains recruited from multiple Earths to do King Kull's nefarious bidding.
As if I have NOT written enough about this (and I have barely scratched the surface of this book), if you want even MORE detailed information about JLA#135 check out Alan Stewart's post over on Attack of the 50 Year Old Comic Book.
Or Tom Breevort's look back at JLA#135.
Another follow up to Shazam#25 was Isis#1. Beginning as a companion TV series to the Saturday morning Shazam TV show, Andrea Thomas, aka Isis, was making her first foray into comic books.
Sporting a cover by Kurt Schaffenberger, the debut of Isis in her own comic book begins with "Scarab -- The Man Who Would Destroy" by Denny O'Neil, Ric Estrada and Wally Wood.
The team of O'Neil, Estrada & Wood was a one-off. Subsequent issues were written by Steve Skeates & Jack C. Harris with pencils by Mike Vosburg.
"Revenge of the Renegade" is written by O'Neil with art by Mike Grell. The cover was by Ernie Chan & Frank Giacoia which is weird as books drawn by Grell would usually sport a cover by Grell.
One more thing about that cover and you'll notice it on a few others: that fershlugginer banner is gone. That obstrusive bit of cover clutter is being phased out and will be completely gone by August 1976.
The story in Green Lantern#91 involves some kind of cockamanie plot by Sinestro to lure Green Arrow into a trap involving an archery contest (shades of Robin Hood), using the archer as bait for another trap for Green Lantern.
It's all a lot of silly nonsense and hardly O'Neil's best work.
Up next is Batman#280 and "The Only Crime In Town" by by David V. Reed, Ernie Chan & Frank Giacoia.
I've given Ernie a lot of grief for his cover art at DC but I gotta admit I like the dynamic staging for this particular piece.
Reed's story is a done in one crime caper with a bunch of standard issue crooks staging smaller crimes as a distraction from a really big million dollar haul.
It's more Batman in Detective Comics #464 as Gerry Conway, Ernie Chan and Frank McLaughlin deliver "The Doomsday Express", the conclusion of the Black Spider 2 parter.
And the ongoing schemes of the Calculator continue as he strikes again, this time against Black Canary in "A Hot Time In Star City Tonight" by Bob Rozakis, Mike Grell & Terry Austin.
More Mike Grell in Superboy#220. The small print indicia calls the book Superboy but it's the Legion of Super Heroes book now.
We're up first with "The Super Soldiers of the Slave-Maker" by Jim Shooter, Mike Grell & Bob Wiacek. Yep, the Legion of Super Heroes shoved into 12 pages.
The Legion has to save a world from being 'sploded by some alien lizard no-goodniks.
The back 5 pages are scripted by Cary Bates and puts the spotlight on Dream Girl. Yep, only 5 pages for the Legion to find a problem, investigate the problem and solve the problem.
Dream Girl has a prophetic vision of a political assassination but is short on any actual useful details or this story would be shorter than 5 pages.
Superman #304 features the "The Parasite's Prism of Peril" by Gerry Conway, Curt Swan & Bob Oksner.
In addition to the the Parasite, the Atomic Skull turns up as well.
The scene on the cover by Bob Oksner with Superman being clobbered by super powered kid actually does happen on the inside of the comic.
That was it for Superman in July 1976 as I did not buy Action Comics #464.
Speaking of comics I did not buy....
I was not a purveyor of DC's war comics but the cover of this one piqued my interest
I don't remember my grandfather mentioning there were dinosaurs in World War II.
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