Showcase Presents Ambush Bug

For another special look...

Wait! Don't start without me!!

Oh. Hello Ambush Bug.

Hey isn't this a Marvel focused site? What am I doing here?

From time to time I take a look at some of DC's output. It makes for an interesting contrast. And after doing a couple of team-up volumes it was time for something a bit different.

You mean there isn't a team-up title focused on Wonder Woman. But hey, I got her for my cover.

Yes, quite an achievement. Anyway shall we press on?

Sure. I want to know what you think about my adventures.

Well here goes. So today I'm going to have a look at Showcase Presents Ambush Bug.

Showcase Presents Ambush Bug? What, no volume number?

No. I guess someone saw that question coming. The back cover even declares "...his one and - we promise - only Showcase Presents volume."

"Only"? "Only"? "ONLY'"! Where's Mackiewicz? I want words!

Who's Mackiewicz?

Don't you ever read the credits page on these things?

Oh yeah. Sean Mackiewicz, the "Editor-collected edition".

That's an odd title. "Editor-collected"?!

I guess he's not the typesetter. But he's not here to explain so shall we get on with this?

Oh very well.

Okay first off the contents list.

Do we have to?

Yes - if I'm going to talk about it, it helps to know what's in it.

Okay, just get on with it.

I'm trying. But we've wandered a long way from the cover so as a reminder here it is again, and this time it's bigger.

Look how I turned those heroes green. That didn't happen on the original cover. The printers mucked it up.

It's strange to be talking about colour correction on a black and white reprint. But shall we just get on with it?

Go ahead, I'm not stopping you. 

Really? No on second thoughts let's not have that argument and so here goes... It's the Ambush Bug stories from DC Comics Presents #52, #59 & #81, Supergirl #16, Action Comics #560, #563 & #565, Ambush Bug #1 to #4, Ambush Bug Stocking Stuffer, Son of Ambush Bug #1 to #6, Secret Origins #48 and Ambush Bug Nothing Special.

All those limited series and specials. Those were great days.

And those team-ups. I first encountered you when some of the DC Comics Presents issues were reprinted in the UK Superman title back in the early 1990s.

Wait a minute! I had British reprints?! Nobody told me! Where are my royalties? Who published this series?

From memory at the time of the first one they were still called London Editions Magazines but they soon changed the name to Fleetway Editions after a merger. They were an imprint of EgmontUK. I don't know if you were entitled to overseas royalties.

So who do I have to talk to?

Erm... I'm not sure, but it might be a problem at DC's end rather than LEM's. Have a chat with their overseas reprint department. Otherwise former LEM editor Martin Gray is online. But don't tell any of them I sent you.

So what do I say if they ask how I found out about these?

Isn't Google a wonderful thing? Anyway let's get on with the credits.

Do we have to?

Yes. The creative talent deserves to be acknowledged. Anyway the main creative force on this volume is your creator Keith Giffen who plots and pencils nearly everything, with Robert Loren Fleming doing the scripting.

You mean Robert transcribes my words.

Erm... let's not have this argument now. There's some other folk to acknowledge as well. Except where mentioned, it's Keith and/or Robert on everything. Your first appearance in DC Comics Presents is written by Paul Kupperberg and your second is scripted by Paul Levitz. The Supergirl issue is written by Paul and drawn by Carmine Infantino. There's a brief sequence during Son of Ambush Bug drawn by Steve Bissette whilst Keith replaces the pencil you broke.

Do you have to remind me?

Moving onwards. Finally some extra pencilling on Ambush Bug Nothing Special is by Chris Sprouse and Bill Wray.

I know you don't normally do this but can we give Bob a shout out?

Sure why not? Nearly everything is inked by Bob Oksner.

Bob, what a guy. And sadly no longer with us.

It's amazing how often the Keith-Robert-Bob team appears given how many years these stories were produced over.

I got lucky and largely left to my own creator. I guess Keith was able to call the whole team together whenever he wanted.

It's nice when that happens and can allow for consistent presentation. Which brings me onto the first thing I noticed.

Oh heck, I know where this is going.

Yes your first appearance. You're a bit different from what you've since become.

Hey lots of characters have an inauspicious beginning. You wouldn't judge them solely on their first outings now would you?

Did they begin their careers as murderers?

Some did.

Who?

Erm...

It's no good looking around. There isn't a copy of Who's Who in the vicinity. Or a Marvel Handbook. There's a reason I chose this venue for this.

I was beginning to wonder.

Don't keep changing the subject. You started off as a clear villain, if a somewhat bonkers and frustrating one. Yet somehow your villainous side got forgotten and you instead became a generic pest.

It happens to some of the best of us - look at the Joker's early years. Or Catwoman's redemption. I just took it one step further.

Yeah your second appearance is different. A reprint of it was when I first saw you, nearly twenty-five years ago now. And I just have to ask: The Legion of Substitute Heroes. Why? Why? WHY?

The Legion of Super-Heroes were unavailable that day. And I've never worked out which day it was. You know what DC team-up comics are like when it comes to continuity.

Yes but the Legion of Substitute Heroes?! Was Superman trying to help you?

Come again?

I mean tying you to a lamppost or just telling you to stay put would have been a safer bet than entrusting you to the Legion of Substitute Heroes.

Aww come on. They're not the worst group ever. What about their Auxiliary? You know, the heroes who weren't quite ready for membership in the Substitute Heroes yet!

Not... ready... for... membership... in... the... Substitute... Heroes...

You have got to stop lifting dialogue and reusing it without properly quoting it.

You started it.

No I didn't.

Oh yes you did.

Oh no I didn't.

Oh yes you did.

Oh no I didn't.

Oh yes you did.

Oh no I didn't.

What is this, pantomime?

What is this pantomime?

You don't know?

Not really.

Erm... erm... erm... Shall we just go with "it's one of those British things that we just can't find a way to clearly explain to Americans"? Like cricket. And it's appropriate for this time of year.

And they say I'm the mad one.

Anyway, back to the stories and here's the cover again. Now we have this slapstick adventure and I guess that's what moved you into full wacky mode. And it's had slightly more reprints than your first appearance so clearly that image stuck.

Hey I'm not complaining.

And then the silliness increases when you encountered Supergirl - who you thought was Superman?!

How was I to know there was more than one sole survivor of Krypton? That doesn't make much sense.

Thank you John Byrne.

Please don't swear.

But despite not being able to tell the Supercousins apart you were able to deduce their identities.

One of them thinks a pair of glasses is a disguise. The other thinks a wig is. The only question is which is the more absurd disguise.

Or maybe you had inside information? We never actually see the point at which you gained awareness of your fictional status. Instead it just pops up as side comments in some short pieces in Action Comics which otherwise start satirising everything from Superman's origin to Spider-Man's two new costumes in 1984.

Hey it wasn't all satire. I got enhanced powers and the ability to teleport anywhere without relying on my little bugs.

Whoever had that idea must have quickly regretted it.

I've used it for good. Heck I even used it to take on Batmite.

Oh that was actually you in the cartoon and not some non-canonical alternate depiction?

Who do you think you're talking to? A DC Comics character?

...

Haven't you got anything further to say?

Oh yes, quite a bit. You didn't dive straight into satire though - your final DC Comics Presents appearance was a classic chaotic Superman story even if you and Kobra did know where you where.

Kobra? Who was Kobra?

The evil mastermind in the story.

I though that was Lex Luthor.

Not every bald evil genius in a Superman story is Lex Luthor.

You live and learn.

And then you got your own limited series after just a few years.

Woohoo! It's great isn't it?

It's... bizarre. It's not a coherent tale but rather a collection of random ramblings about comics and other bits and pieces, with a lot of the humour coming from highlighting the silliness of Silver Age DC comics.

I wanted to do something more substantial but first Cheeks got killed off then business was slow then Jonni DC came to try and sort out the continuity then...

Enough already! It's really turning into a satirical commentary on the comics industry rather than the adventures of one of its wackier characters.

Hey don't blame me! I wanted an all-star extravaganza but all the stars said no. And then Keith and Robert (I can't call him "Bob", that's too confusing here) decided to try something different.

How did they get the idea past Julius Schwartz?

Julie went to his grave wondering the same thing.

I guess editors don't always set direction.

No, indeed.

But here's the problem I have. Just what's the point of wasting limited space with such digs at old material? Surely it would have been better to focus on critiquing the modern direction of the industry?

You have to start somewhere and build up. Who was going to go into battle about Ace the Bathound or the Flash's true origin?

Indeed. But it's still not the most substantial is it? Anyway, next we have Ambush Bug Stocking Stuffer.

Don't open it before Christmas Day!

Erm it is Christmas Day.

Oh yeah.

Although what a zombie story has to do with Christmas is beyond me.

I like breaking conventions. And how else was I to get Cheeks back?

And also trying to refight the Vietnam War and take on Hukka. I had to look him up. Just what was Atari Force?

I couldn't understand either and I was there.

And that cliffhanger. Did you go to the actual Arkham Asylum class reunion?

What do you think I am, mad?

Well the Joker thought so.

There's a reason Batman always beats him.

Indeed. So instead you just did a puppet show. Now this next limited series came out in 1986. Is it pre Crisis or post Crisis?

Crisis? What Crisis?

You mean you transcend even different incarnations of the DC Multiverse?

I'm Ambush Bug. Need I say I any more?

Well I'm hoping so otherwise I'll have to fill the rest of this post by myself.

Okay I'll help.

You may regret that.

How so?

To be absolutely blunt, neither of your limited series really excites me. They're both rather incoherent, veering off all over the place and making a lot of the same jokes that get repetitive after a while.

Well they weren't intended to be read all at the same time.

True but the logical conclusion to that line of argument is that they should never have been collected together in this edition at all. And where would you get your royalties?

I don't get any. Should I?

Maybe a trip to the DC reprint office to sort this all out? But they'll be closed today so anyway these two limited series plus the Stocking Stuffer were all released in a period of just eighteen months so the jokes would have been only slightly less repetitive at the time.

Don't you like them at all?

Oh there are some good individual moments - Argh!yle! is especially funny as is the decision to correct his omission from Who's Who? But the vague general narratives of dealing with the Interferer, dying, coming back to life, going on trial, trying to get your super-villain licence back and the return (again) of Cheeks all keep getting lost under a whole string of not too funny moments that are either saying the same old things again and again (and again...) or making obscure cultural references that are both dated and geographically locked.

Well it was published in another country. And unlike Marvel it didn't even pretend to be global with some foreign prices printed on the cover.

Not true - DC did two cover variants in this era, presumably newstand and direct market versions. The one not used in this volume has Canadian and British prices on it. And more recently the back cover of the Showcase Presents edition has a Canadian price on it.

But no English one?

British. The adjective is "British"!

Is that a touchy subject?

Yes. We don't call the US "Texas" do we? Or Canada "Ontario"? So why do Americans consistently fail to call my country by its name? The scene setting captions in your adventures are just as bad.

Is it even worth arguing with you about this one?

Quite simply no.

Okay then...

Let's move onwards. But wait - how did you get away with Mitsu Bishi?

I never could understand. The lawyer mumbled something about intellectual property, parody, different spheres and then I screamed "ENOUGH!!!" and paid her there and then. She was charging by the minute. By the minute! BY THE MINUTE!!

Disgraceful isn't it? But surely DC were covering your expenses?

I have a feeling I'm going to have to go to an awful lot of offices once this is over.

They'll all be closed today. And tomorrow. And the next day.

Will they ever open?

Do you have a substitute Bank Holiday for Boxing Day?

Boxing Day? What's that?

The day after Christmas Day. It's full of traditions up to and including chaos in the sales.

We do that on Black Friday. Do you know it?

The day after Thanksgiving?

Yeah that's it.

Yeah we have it too. Despite not having Thanksgiving.

That's ridiculous!

I know. But the retail industry often makes silly decisions.

It's the same in the States.

How did this all begin?

There are many different stories. It's a multiple choice origin.

Like yours.

I'm one of the few characters to have agreed to do Secret Origins who actually realised what the title means.

It's handy. And somehow you managed to duck out of the National Bureau of Origins's attempts to extract it.

It helped that Keith had been a bit busy at the time. Have you ever read Invasion?

Only the Justice League International tie-ins. Fleetway Editions felt that running the main story would take far too long when Superman and the Justice League was bimonthly. It would also have meant there wasn't room to reprint one of your earlier adventures in the final issue before a relaunch.

Couldn't you have gone to your local comic shop?

We only briefly had one in Epsom and it was around that time it got hit in an arson attack.

An arson attack on a comic shop? Are you kidding me?

No, but as this was in 1992 it's hard to find details on the internet - the local paper doesn't have all its old stories online. But it was called Trojan Comics so keep an eye out with Google from time to time.

Okay I'll have to take your word for it. Did it ever return?

I'm not too sure - there was another a year later but it was above another shop and I can't remember its name or if it was the same people. And it seemed to be out of date compared to other comic shops - looking back I suspect that by the time I found the shop it had fallen in debt to the distributor who had retaliated with delayed shipments. It folded after a few months.

Gee that's too bad. How did you keep up with comics?

I was lucky enough to have a rail season ticket that allowed me access to the whole of London and so could access other shops there. But anyway we have one final issue in this volume - Ambush Bug Nothing Special.

It's horrible the way the legal information fuses the title into that.

I believe you wanted it to be an annual?

Yes - but it would have to have been part of the "Eclipso" crossover that ran in them all.

Amazing that DC kept trying with that format years after Marvel abandoned it. And you even tried to have a crossover issue as well.

Only to get Brownouto, Eclipso's third cousin twice removed. I ask you, is that any way to treat the star?

But your real enemy was elsewhere. And I don't mean Argh!yle!

No it was always Julie. A man who would defy even death to hold his position forever.

Sounds like Kim Il-sung.

Come again?

North Korea's head of state is the Eternal President of the Republic, Kim Il-sung, the grandfather of the current day to day leader Kim Jong-un.

So the head of state is a dead guy?!

Yeah - he's sort of President for After-Life.

Now I get it. Yeah Julie was always the ultimate problem but I did my best.

I particularly liked the sequence where you had ridiculous muscles, physically impossible poses and no coherent dialogue whatsoever. Now I wonder what that could have been parodying?

I wonder!

But overall it was a bit of the same old, even if a single special meant all the effort had to be focused on just the one issue. I guess my problem is that if I want rambling incoherent narratives I'll look to old Image comics.

Well I did the best I could. But I guess your tastes weren't for it.

Maybe. But you did still have some nice moments. For instance at the very end of the book we get a special feature - a "Where's Irwin?" doublepage in the style of Where's Wally?

You mean Where's Waldo? What's all this Wally stuff?

That's his original name in his original market.

Who's bright idea was that?

Wally? His creator's? Waldo? His North American publishers.

Why can't they leave things the way they are?

I know. But it happens on both sides of the Atlantic and the consumers rarely get a say. You were lucky - in different circumstances you could have been renamed!

Me?! But Ambush Bug is an amazing name! I'm named after an insect. Why would anyone want to rename me?

Because the ambush bug insects (called Phymatidae or Phymatinae by those who understand classification naming and can explain what those different spellings mean) aren't native over here so a lot of the joke is lost on a British audience.

A pity but hey it hasn't stopped my fan club growing.

No - and I see I'm an honorary member thanks to this book.

We wanted to offer more than any other book delivers.

And it works. Let's see that cover just one more time - and it's even bigger than ever. It's interesting to see your evolution from villain to extraordinary pest to commentator. I guess I was just expecting much more of your pest era as that's all I saw of you all those years ago.

The curse of limited foreign reprints.

Yeah. Still it wasn't the end even if Batmite did declare you "a pretty obscure hero even for this show" when you turned up on Batman: The Brave and the Bold.

What would he know in his own dimension?! I may not have saved the show but I helped save the people of Gotham from being turned to bananas, got Batman to reassert his core identity, made a Scrappy disappear, organised a great party, talked to Ted McGinley and had the most appropriate voice artist ever to fight jumping the shark - Henry Winkler.

How many of the show's target audience even got that joke?

Who cares? The episode was for the fanboys!

And your greatest moment.

Thank you.

I notice your speech style is different across appearances.

It's multiple choice, like so much else about me.

Ambush Bug - A character for all circumstances. And a great sport for coming to contribute to this even when I wasn't always the biggest fan.

It's good to get multiple perspectives.

Indeed. Thank you for this.

Thank you.

Essential Avengers volume 9 - creator labels

Another volume with lots of creators so here's a post for some of the labels.

Essential Avengers volume 8 - creator labels

Another volume with lots of creators so here's a post for some of the labels.

Essential Captain America volume 7 - creator labels

Yet again there is a volume with lots of creators so here's a separate post for some of them.

Essential Hulk volume 7 - creator labels

Yes this is a volume with a lot of creators. So here are their labels.

Essential Defenders volume 3 - creator labels

Yet again we have a volume with a lot of creators, so here's a separate post to carry the labels for some of them.

Essential Ghost Rider volume 3 - creator labels

Once more there's a volume with a lot of creators, so here's a separate post to carry the labels for them.

Essential Ghost Rider volume 2

Essential Ghost Rider volume 2 contains issues #21 to #50 of the series. Bonus material includes Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe entries for Ghost Rider, Doctor Druid, Doctor Strange and the Night Rider. The writing sees a succession of runs of steadily increasing lengths from Gerry Conway, Jim Shooter, Roger McKenzie and Michael Fleisher, with Don Glut contributing one script. Most of the art is by Don Perlin, with an early run by Don Heck and issues by Gil Kane, Tom Sutton, Steve Leialoha and Carmine Infantino.

The same year that this volume was released also saw the launch of the first Ghost Rider movie, in my opinion the best one (not that there's a great deal of competition for that distinction). Although some of the details of both the origin and the Ghost Rider mythology were altered, it remained faithful to the basic concepts and gave some memorable moments, including a teaming of Johnny Blaze and Carter Slade, the original Ghost Rider. So too does this volume. Indeed there's much here that informs the basic backdrop of the film.

The early issues wrap up Johnny's career as a Hollywood stuntman and then he goes out on his own, riding across the West like some latter-day wandering cowboy, moving from situation to situation without ever setting down roots or growing a new supporting cast. Most of the existing characters are left in Hollywood to carry on as before. Also fading from his life with the end of their series are the Champions, though they've generally only made cameos here. Although he can still make all manner of stunt jumps when he needs to, the stunt performances are largely ignored to the point that people wonder what's happened to him. At about the same time that in the real world Evel Knievel was appearing in his final stunt show (although he didn't actually jump in it), Johnny is challenged by Flagg Fargo for his title of stunt champion of the United States and narrowly loses. It's a steady but strong shift in the character, reinforcing his tragic loneliness.

With just four Essential volumes and a total of eighty-eight issues (excluding crossovers, post series appearances and standby fill-ins only used later on but including the initial seven issues run in Marvel Spotlight), it's tempting to see Ghost Rider as a closed saga, with a definite beginning, middle and end. On the face of it this volume may be the longest section but also the least involved, with few of the big moments in his life. However at a more subtle level there's steady development throughout the volume as the relationship between the human Johnny and his demonic side evolves, first as Johnny discovers he can now transform at will and then as the demon increasingly takes over when in skeletal form. On more than one occasion the two are detached, whether because Johnny's spirit is briefly transferred to another human's body or because a magician separates the two or because Johnny has temporary amnesia and consequently is unaware of his demonic form, who in turn finds Johnny's mind is closed to it. More and more Johnny finds he cannot control his demonic side, who often resorts to ever more vicious methods, and wishes to escape it altogether but keeps finding he cannot.

Of course it's doubtful that any sense of a closed novel was considered at the time, with the continued turnover of writers and a drift into a formula as the wandering Johnny Blaze comes across trouble in one settlement after another. However the series is successful in taking the format and offering numerous twists and turns whilst also taking a big step away from conventional superheroics. This is a saga of a man searching for peace and trying to escape the torment he carries with him but all too often finding that he can't. Often he finds people and an environment where he might settle down and find real happiness, but time and again the curse of the Ghost Rider is there. Whether it's Johnny or his new found friends, especially the succession of women he meets, there is always a realisation that the demon is just too great a barrier to happiness and so he must continue his roaming.

Before that roaming begins, we have the last few issues of Johnny's days in Hollywood and a romantic triangle with Karen Page and Roxanne as he struggles to decide between them even though neither seems to actually want a serious committed relationship. Eventually Johnny realises that it's Roxanne who he wants but by then she has accepted the advances of special effects artist Roger Cross. Meanwhile Karen only wants to be friends. Karen's presence in the early issues may have inspired the use of the Gladiator, also from Daredevil, who is now after a device held by the old Human Torch foe the Eel. When the Eel is murdered, Ghost Rider is accused and Johnny has to clear his name, eventually resorting to using hellfire to arrange a simultaneous appearance to cover up his identity. The mastermind behind the Gladiator and new foe the Water Wizard is the Enforcer, whose identity is one of the weakest intentional mysteries of all time as, apart from a brief red herring suggesting he's movie producer Charles Delazny, it becomes all too easy to spot that he's actually Delazny's son. The remaining Hollywood issues are generally inconsequential with new foe Malice being just a guy in a funny suit with laser and vibration guns, and primarily seeking attention rather than offering a substantial origin. Then there's a fight with Doctor Druid over a misunderstanding about the Ghost Rider's nature. Add in anger and frustration about what he thinks is a serious relationship between Roxanne and Cross, and Johnny now hits the road. Roxanne does try to track him down but in the process she encounters the Orb who inflicts amnesia upon her. Johnny never finds out about this and she is last seen #28 as she accepts the claims of local cowboy Brahma Bill that they are sweethearts and goes off with him. Despite occurring in Roger McKenzie's first issue, Roxanne's situation is never touched upon again in this volume and now truly all the connections have been severed, leaving Johnny as just a man on the road with his demonic side, his clothes and, depending on the issue, a metal bike.

Out on the road Johnny encounters a handful of other heroes, starting with Hawkeye and the time-displaced Two-Gun Kid, followed by an encounter with Doctor Strange in which the magician's old foe Dormammu tries to use Ghost Rider to kill Strange. In the process Johnny finds his mind transferred to Strange's whilst Dormammu controls the Ghost Rider's body. Then at the end of the volume Johnny is thrown back in time and teams up with the Wild West hero the Night Rider against his traditional foe, the Tarantula (no relation to the Spider-Man foes by that name). Neither issue #50 nor the Handbook entry explicitly mention that the Night Rider is the first character to use the name "Ghost Rider", renamed in order to distinguish him from the more famous motorcyclist. (However this new name would prove to be a rather unfortunate choice for a man dressed all in white as it's also name used for members of the Ku Klux Klan.) But there are enough indications that Carter Slade and Johnny Blaze are sufficiently similar to justify the team-up in the double-sized issue.

The limited number of guest stars in this volume may have resulted in a very limited number of options for Handbook entries to fill up the page count, though there were still the alternative options of Hawkeye and the Two-Gun Kid (although the latter didn't have an entry in the original Handbook, from which the four entries are taken, and would have had to have been lifted from the Deluxe Edition where the pro forma is slightly different). But the result is that two of the entries contain major spoilers for later volumes. The Night Rider entry is focused not upon the Wild West hero seen here but on his great great nephew seen in a later issue. (It also doesn't seem to know what an "ancestor" is, using the term to describe the later one.) But the Ghost Rider entry is worse, introducing names such as "Zarathos" and "Mephisto" some time before they turn up in the series (the back cover of the volume also uses "Zarathos" earlier than it should), as well as detailing the backstory of the demonic side of Ghost Rider and giving away what will happen in the issues that reveal much of this information.

The series continues to add a variety of new foes, but few last. There's the Manticore, an agent of the Brand corporation, rivals to Roxxon for corporate plots. Or there's "the boy who lived forever", a long-lived boy called Nathan with advanced mental powers that has enabled him to develop technology but the body and outlook of a boy, flying around in a spaceship with his own robots. The foes closest to the Western tradition come at the end, first as a company is building a dam that will destroy land sacred to Native Americans whilst some of the workers plan to loot a town and flood it. In reaction a traditional Indian spirit called the Manitou is summoned and then Johnny is flung back in time to the 19th century where he proves his true nature.

And then there are the more horror based foes. There are a pair of vampires with many bats at their command. The Bounty Hunter is another agent of the Devil, the ghost of a vicious 19th century bounty hunter who has been tasked to bring in fifty souls in exchange for his freedom. Darker still is "Death", manifest in the form of another skeleton on a motorcycle albeit without the flames. This "Death Ryder" challenges Ghost Rider to a racing and stunt duel across the desert, ultimately for Johnny's life. At another level are the various thugs and bullies Johnny meets in his travels, whether biker gangs or construction worker bullies or mobsters. Or there's a cult of death worshippers, which turns out to be a money making scam. Then there's the "Nuclear Man", an armoured and embittered scientist who has turned against nuclear power after his son-in-law was killed by an accident and his grandson was born deformed.

But as the series moves ever further from superheroics and back into horror, it often seems the real threat is the Ghost Rider, slowly asserting its own control and becoming ever more fierce, torturing foes almost for pleasure. Issue #37 is a partial homage to the origin of Robin, featuring a family of circus performers who get killed by the local mobster after the owner reneges on a debt; the sole survivor is a son who wants vengeance. But rather than taking in the boy as a sidekick, Johnny instead scares him away from summoning the Devil and, as the Ghost Rider, pursues the mobster to his death. It's a harsh reminder that Johnny is no great hero but a man burdened with a real curse. The reaction of those around him, especially the various women he meets, is mixed, with some scared off by him. Others are prepared to stay with him but Johnny is not prepared to put them at risk. There's one time when it seems he has found peace when he loses his memory and winds up as a mechanic for a female racing driver, but incurs the wrath of her foreman. Neither the amnesiac Johnny nor the Ghost Rider is able to access the other and it seems as though Johnny is at peace. However the rival foreman attacks him, restoring his true memory and forgetting his alternative life altogether. Another chance at escape comes when the magician Azaziah splits Johnny and the Ghost Rider; however the two prove unable to survive without each other, finding their energy levels much drained, and so Johnny has to perform the spell to reunify them. Later, after losing his title in the competition with Flagg Fargo, he briefly turns to drink in the hope of "keeping the demon at bay" but it doesn't have the desired effect.

Overall this volume offers more than it seems at first. Most of it may lack a supporting cast or recurring foes, but it shows a good way to handle the wandering hero who brings help to those he meets on his travels whilst at the same time balancing his curse. And the whole relationship between Johnny and the demon is steadily built up over these adventures as he steadily loses control and finds the biggest monster around is within him. The backdrop works well, making for a good latter-day western. It's easy to see where the first movie found much of its inspiration. It's just a pity the Handbook entries and back cover give away spoilers.

Showcase Presents The Brave and the Bold Batman Team-Ups volume 1

For a special Christmas post I have decided to take a look at things over at the Distinguished Competition.

DC was initially sceptical about the Essential format but eventually in 2005 they decided to launch their own series of black & white sequential reprints on cheap paper under the title "Showcase Presents", recalling one of their classic series. The volumes are much the same as the Essentials albeit with a different cover design which seems to have influenced Marvel for its third cover format. Also Showcase Presents volumes have page numbers. But most significantly they're willing to jump about a bit more and collect material related to characters in a way few Essentials do (Essential Punisher volume 1 is a rare Marvel exception). DC have rapidly produced a very diverse set of volumes covering material from the Silver Age to the Modern Age.

Showcase Presents The Brave and the Bold Batman Team-Ups volume 1 pretty much does what it says on the tin. The Brave and the Bold had been first an anthology series and then a try-out book, which launched many characters and series including the Suicide Squad, the Justice League of America, the Silver Age Hawkman, the Teen Titans and Metamorpho. From issue #50 it became a team-up book, and then Batman gradually dominated until he was a permanent fixture from issue #74 onwards. This volume contains the Batman team-ups from issues #59, #64, #67-71 & #74-87. Everything is credited as written by Bob Haney apart from #87 by Mike Sekowsky. The art is by a mixture of Sekowsky, Neal Adams, Ross Andru, Win Mortimer and single issues by Ramona Fradon, Carmine Infantino, Johnny Craig, George Papp and Bob Brown. At least that's what the contents page says - this was an era when DC did not routinely credit its creators and so for many issues the credits have had to be constructed from incomplete records and guesswork.

The book was bimonthly and this volume covers the years from 1965 through to 1970, matching the rise and fall of Batmania thanks to the Batman TV series. In turn the three Showcase Presents volumes of the series so far saw print in the two years leading up to the launch of the cartoon Batman: The Brave and the Bold which drew its concept from here.

Who are the actual guest stars? Here's the list. Where relevant the characters are the Silver Age/Earth 1 versions (ignoring continuity issues that I'll discuss later).

59. Green Lantern
64. Eclipso
67. Flash
68. Metamorpho
69. Green Lantern
70. Hawkman
71. Green Arrow
74. Metal Men
75. Spectre
76. Plastic Man
77. Atom
78. Wonder Woman plus Batgirl
79. Deadman
80. Creeper
81. Flash
82. Aquaman
83. Teen Titans (consisting of Robin, Kid Flash, Wonder Girl and Speedy)
84. Sgt. Rock
85. Green Arrow
86. Deadman
87. Wonder Woman

We have a broadly equal mix between the big name heroes of the day and the less well known. The biggest name missing is Superman, but that's because he and Batman had their own ongoing "buddy book" World's Finest. Otherwise amongst the Justice League's biggest names the only obvious absentee is the Martian Manhunter.

Note that although the concept of multiple Earths with different heroes of different origins had been established by this time, none of the stories invokes it. Consequently the Spectre and Plastic Man seen here must be either the best known versions from other Earths visiting Earth 1 without mentioning it or else they're little-known Earth 1 identical counterparts of those versions. (Or there's a more convoluted explanation to be found in later issues and/or guides.) The limited attention to continuity is on display in almost the first panel when Bruce Wayne thinks about how he's alone because Dick is on a school trip (later on there's regular reference to his being off with the Teen Titans as a way to keep him out of the stories) and Alfred is on vacation. Except that this issue came out at a time when Alfred had been seemingly killed off (he was subsequently revived, thanks to his inclusion in the television series) and also now living in the mansion was Dick's Aunt Harriet (who is quite famous from the television series but her somewhat different comic incarnation is one of the most forgotten of all Batman supporting characters). In itself this is a tiny thing but it shows a lax approach to continuity that would deliver some otherwise difficult to realise tales, but which would also cause no end of headscratching amongst fans. (On some other features it could be worse - the inclusion of Wonder Girl in the Teen Titans resulted in multiple retcons that tried to tidy up the problems this caused.) It's harder to spot continuity errors amongst the guest heroes, though the Metal Men's appearance in issue #74 has the oddity that Bob Haney's script only namechecks the traditional six members, and even gives that number in on panel, yet Ross Andru draws seven, including the little remembered "Nameless". Issue #84 makes perhaps the biggest assault on continuity through flashbacks to Bruce Wayne's work during the Second World War, showing him using the Batman identity twenty-five years earlier. Even in 1969 this made Batman much older than he is normally portrayed as (and I'm hard pressed to think of any actor who's played Batman in at least his mid forties bar Adam West returning to the role many years later in Legends of the Superheroes) and it I believe it had already been established he began his career much later, and it proves unnecessary as Sgt. Rock is shown alive and well in the present day, still serving in the US army, so there was no real need for a flashback to a wartime team-up. Especially as Rock and his Easy Company are rather incidental to the plot.

Covering a period of five years the series shows Batman in a period when he went from the height of the Campy Crusader of the mid-1960s to the re-emergence of the more serious Dark Knight at the end of the decade, though overall there's less variation in the character than one might expect. He may be the solid, serious know-it-all hero who can explain even the most obscure of information (such as what a hellgrammite is) similar to Adam West's portrayal but he doesn't veer off into self-parody or excessive silliness, with the exception of issue #68 when he's temporarily mutated into the "Bat-Hulk". Later on there are hints of the return towards the Dark Knight portrayal but the steps aren't too great. The arrival of Neal Adams on issue #79 sees the look of the series take a decisively darker edgier turn. By this point the Batman television series had been cancelled and Batman was now up for redefinition, though his main changes for the 1970s wouldn't come until Adams joined Denny O'Neil on the main series. In addition this volume also shows snapshots of other heroes going through major changes in this period. The first team-up with Deadman comes as the ghost hunts for his killer; the second comes after his killer has been found and killed and now the ghost continues his existence without clear purpose. Wonder Woman's first appearance is with her traditional appearance, powers and role, but the second is from the "New Wonder Woman" era when she had become a non-powered trouser-suited martial artist adventurer. Meanwhile Green Arrow's second appearance brings with it a revised look, toughened up for the hard edge adventures he would go on to have with Green Lantern.

Throughout these issues it's surprising just how often Batman's secret identity (and sometimes the guest hero's as well) is discovered, and the steps taken to undo this. In the very first adventure the Time Commander uses his powers to discover it and subsequently tells Green Lantern, but the latter then uses his ring to purge the information from both their minds, referencing an agreement amongst the Justice League. However later on Batman and Hawkman are completely familiar with each other's identities, and work together to fool the Collector, millionaire Balthazar T. Balthazar, who has used a computer to discover Batman is Bruce Wayne and reinforced the evidence with x-rays. But in the process of disabusing him of the notion, the Collector stumbles across Hawkman's own identity as Carter Hall. After double layers of confusion the Collector is left believing Hawkman is in fact an alien called Krog from the planet Mynos, whilst Batman is an ex-criminal who changed his name. Although not explicitly covered here, it would seem that at some stage the Justice League have agreed to share their identities since midway through the volume it becomes standard for Batman and his co-star to know who each other is. However this doesn't apply with some of the more detached characters such as the Creeper or for that matter Wonder Woman in her depowered days. In general Batman is already familiar with most of the characters he encounters, bar the really hard to interact with such as Deadman. An orphan boy living at stately Wayne Manor stumbles across the Batcave and immediately deduces its meaning. Orm the Ocean Master appears to know it when he sees Bruce Wayne apparently die and is subsequently surprised to see Batman is still alive. Later both Bruce Wayne and Oliver Queen calmly tell mutual friend Edmond Cathcart their identities, rationalising that as a psychiatrist his professional oath will keep their secrets safe, and not anticipating the prospect that he might get captured, which he soon is. Fortunately they rescue him and the end of the issue sees him embark upon self-hypnosis to wipe the knowledge from his mind. I've no idea how reliable that is or just what the contemporary ethical opinion was.

The Justice League connection is the most common link that brings the guest stars into the story. Most adventures start off in Gotham City and on several occasions Batman calls in one of his fellow team members to provide specialised help. In general these are partnerships of equals with perhaps a little extra weight given to Batman as he's on his home turf, but there's no elevation of him to superstar status amongst the superhero community or grand clashes of egos. Rather the adventures take place on a more reasonable level.

The bulk of the foes seen in these adventures are unfamiliar to me. Most have been specifically created for these tales, and only a few would go on to appear elsewhere, though there are a handful who are drawn from the heroes' adventures. New foes include the likes of the Time Commander, Cosmo, the Queen Bee, the criminal organisation Cyclops, the Speed Boys, Balthazar T. Balthazar aka the Collector, ruthless businessman Tom Tallwolf, Dr. Daedalus, Shahn-Zi, the Molder and his Plastoids, the Cannoneer, Copperhead, the crimelord known as the King, the Hellgrammite, Carl Bork, oil thief Grantland Stark, Nazi war criminal Colonel Von Stauffen, businessman and crimelord  Miklos Minotaur and ruthless racing driver Willi Van Dort. There's also Lance Bruner, an orphan who Bruce Wayne's father agreed would be taken in at the manor in such circumstances but who turns out to have a criminal past. However when he sees Robin risk his life to save Batman, Lance has a change of heart and sacrifices his life to do the same. We're not shown how Bruce Wayne explained all this to the social worker. We get a few pre-existing foes such as Aquaman's enemy and brother, the Ocean Master, or Deadman's foes the Society of Assassins including their leader "Sensei". And we get a team of three of the best known of Batman's foes, the Riddler, the Penguin and the Joker.

In some places these tales do show their age. Issue #64 has an incredibly dated moment when Batman rescues a playgirl from risking her life needlessly and gives her a spanking for her actions. Despite this they become a brief item - yet another sign of a fast and loose approach to continuity, though this depiction of Batman is a far cry from the grim loner. Later on issue #78 sees Wonder Woman and Batgirl competing for Batman's affections and although it's only a ruse at first, the fact that such a contest could fool others says a lot about the way even two of DC's premiere female heroes are presented. And this only gets confirmed later in the story when they each briefly fall for Batman for real. However the portrayal of Native Americans in issue #71 is surprisingly more sophisticated than the norm, with little of the traditional broken English and a focus on a contest for the leadership of the tribe between two claimants who have both let the reservation and gone into white collar work. Elsewhere there are little nods to DC's main rivals - "Here's one I did before anybody, including a certain web-spinning Peter-come-lately!" declares Batman in issue #74 as he swings around a flagpole to hurl himself forward, taking a swipe at his rival in the process. It's a nice little aside that keeps the rivalry between companies playful.

Despite the apparent age of some of these stories, even more so than many contemporary Marvels, this is a petty good volume. Team-up titles are rarely the place to look for extensive character development but they offer a good chance to see two heroes working together on fairly equal terms and give an extensive tour of the many heroes of the DC universe. Batman may be reasonably restrained but he's nowhere near the grim brooding loner of later years and so it feels perfectly natural for him to be working with so many other heroes. This is the earliest team-up series featuring one regular character and a rotating second that I'm aware of, so here is the beginning of the path later followed by the likes of Marvel Team-Up, Marvel Two-in-One and DC Comics Presents, let alone the fun animated series Batman: The Brave and the Bold.

As for the Showcase Presents series in general, it's good to see the DC adopted the format and have run with it. Since Marvel began the Essentials nine years earlier it's unsurprising that by the time DC came along the basics had already been thrashed out such as using covers from the original comics, getting all the material in order, including annuals, and using a stirdy paper stock. The main areas where I think DC have done things sooner or better than Marvel is in using a cover design that leaves more space for the original artwork (although the yellow flash "Over 500 pages of comics" is annoying; fortunately that was later dropped) and in having individual page numbers which makes it easier to find a particular story; this is especially helpful when a volume is focused more on a character than on presenting a single series in sequential order. The Essentials have since adopted a similar cover design that shows more of the original artwork but not yet page numbers. We can only hope they one day do that as well.

Essential Super-Villain Team-Up volume 1 - creator labels

Once again we have a volume with a lot of creators, so here's a separate post to carry the labels for some of them.

Essential Howard the Duck volume 1

Essential Howard the Duck volume 1 contains issues #1-27 & Annual #1 from the character's original series, plus the character's first appearance in Adventure into Fear #19 as reprinted with a short introduction in Man-Thing #1, solo strips from Giant-Size Man-Thing #4-5 (yes they really did publish a comic with that name, so stop sniggering) and Marvel Treasury Edition #12, a rare issue with original material.

Everything in this volume is written by Steve Gerber. The duck's first appearance in Adventure into Fear is drawn by Val Mayerik, who returns for the annual and issues #22-23. Frank Brunner draws both the Giant-Size Man-Thing stories and then the first two issues of the regular series. Gene Colan draws most of the series with individual issues by John Buscema (#3), Carmine Infantino (#21) and "A Cast of Thousands" on issue #16. The Marvel Treasury Edition is drawn by Sal Buscema.

The cover to the volume reuses the Brian Bolland cover (though with new colours) from issue #33 which isn't included here and was published many years later. It may seem an odd choice to use a later image but it's possibly a consequence of a design change forced upon Howard as a result of legal noises from Disney after the stories in this volume were originally published and a legally binding agreement signed at the time. Most obviously Howard was now wearing trousers.

This volume was first published eleven years ago and to date there's been no sign of a second volume, thus making Howard the Duck technically the series with the longest gap between Essential volumes (bar Conan, but Marvel lost the rights after the first and only volume appeared). But what could go in a second volume? Back in the 1970s Howard's original series continued for another four issues with various other writers. Then it was replaced by a black & white magazine that lasted nine issues, with other stories in the magazine Crazy #63-77 and one further story in the magazine Bizarre Adventures #34. Around the same time Howard appeared in Marvel Team-Up #96 (reprinted in Essential Marvel Team-Up #4). And then there was a newspaper strip. The onset of the movie in 1985 saw a brief revival of the original title and numbering, with a further issue #32 put out, followed by issue #33 nine months later. (There was also a three issue adaptation of the movie but such adaptations are usually out of continuity and ignored by everything else.) Beyond that Howard appeared in a four part story in Sensational She Hulk, written by Steve Gerber, then in 1996/7 there were several appearances when Howard returned, including a story by Gerber in Spider-Man Team-Up, a one-shot Christmas special and other appearances in Ghost Rider, Generation X and the Daydreamers limited series. The Marvel Omnibus edition from 2008 does include issues #28-33 and Marvel Team-Up #96 as well.

In an interview in 2001 about a forthcoming new Howard the Duck limited series (which this volume was published to tie in with), Gerber stated "...I don't even intend to acknowledge any of the Howard stories published after the first 27 issues of the original comic book. As far as I'm concerned, they're not part of the Howard "canon." They're apocrypha." It's rare to find a character so strongly associated with a single creator or for subsequent creators' work on the character to be so heavily ignored by fans, and doubtless this is why there hasn't been sufficient demand for the further adventures of Howard to appear in the Essentials though it would be nice for newer generations to have the chance to see them for themselves without having to obtain the pricey Omnibus (which is now out of print and commanding very high prices on the back copy market).

Gerber's Howard the Duck has acquired a legendary status amongst those who read it at the time. But sometimes such legendary fiction can prove to be a disappointment when read by later generations. Often the ideas pioneered have been so heavily copied and refined that an original groundbreaking piece can seem flat by comparison. And satire is invariably of its own time and often requires not just knowledge of the world it draws upon but also actual experience. Without such experience the satire can date faster than just about anything else. I find some of the contemporary Saturday Night Lives a bit tough going because they're drawing upon a very different world and because these were the early days when they were still finding their feet. How did the duck fare in similar circumstances?

To be perfectly frank, not very well. I've found this volume takes much longer and harder to get through than just about any other Essential I've so far reviewed. I suspect the main problem is rooted in my lack of a cultural context for much of the satire. It's easy to spot targets such as Reverend Joon Moon Yuc and his cult as an unsubtle parody of Sun Myung Moon and his Unification Church, or the election campaign as a commentary on how US politics was conducted at the time. But with other subjects it's harder to recognise the target and so all that's left is the surface level comedy. This series has not aged well at all.

As for the stories themselves, throughout these pages Howard encounters many foes, most of who are of a decidedly surreal nature. Amongst them are Garkko the Man-Frog, a human who takes a potion and turns into a frog but the transformation goes all the way until he's just an animal who gets run over by a police car. Then there's Bessie the vampire cow, who has spent three hundred years pursuing the vampire who changed her in the first place. Pro-Rata a wizard who plans to become the Chief Accountant of the universe once he has obtained the final key for the Cosmic Calculator. Turnip-Man, the fusion of a frustrated writer with a sentient space turnip. Count Macho, a bullying show-off. Winky Man, the alter ego of a man with a sleeping disorder. In his daytime ego of Paul Same he becomes a friend and flatmate of Howard and Beverly. The Reverend John Moon Yuc, the charismatic leader of a religious cult known as "Yucchies". The Gingerbread Man, baked by a woman suspected of being a witch. Dr. Reich, the mysterious director of a psychiatric clinic, who looks like Adolph Hitler. Bzzk'Jho, the offspring of a demon and a madman. Howard's Presidential campaign brings other villains out of the woodwork, with the Treasury Edition special teaming Howard and the Defenders against the Band of the Bland, a group of unoriginal villains made up of Dr. Angst, Sitting Bullseye, Black Hole, Spanker and Tillie the Hun. Then the campaign is derailed by the schemes of Le Beaver, a fanatical Canadian nationalist. A trip to the Middle East country of "Bagmom" sees Howard and the others uncover a plot by Prince Hassim and Roxxon, Marvel's regular Dastardly Evil Corporation, to secure oil drilling rights from a reluctant Caliph. Then there's SOOFI - Save Our Offspring From Indecency - a morality crusade whose members are prepared to kill and commit suicide in the name of morality. One of their members is transformed by a microwave explosion into Sudd - a living bubble bath who sets out to clean up the neighbourhood. There are few villains from the wider Marvel universe but the last few issues see him encounter the Circus of Crime, here consisting of the classic line-up of the Ringmaster, the Clown, Cannonball, the Great Gambonnos and Princess Python.

Two foes of Howard's are better known than the others. Regularly popping up on the sidelines is the Kidney Lady, an old woman obsessed about preventing any possible damage to her kidneys. Midway through the run she tells how she fell for a book seller who went to go and fight in the war, leaving behind just a hotel bill and a book on the importance of kidneys. But issue #15 sees the debut of Howard's best known foe, Doctor Bong. A journalist specialising in distortion and smears, he has become a mad scientist operating out of a castle on a strange island, performing experiments that produce strange half-human, half-animal creatures. He also has a bizarre bell shaped helmet from which he can emit sonic frequencies to cause whatever effect is desired. He has been infatuated with Beverly since they were students and now he forces her to marry him to save Howard from death. By the standards of the title he's not the most bizarre thing around but he makes for a pretty rounded character

However this series is very much not a conventional adventuring hero series, even if it is set in the regular Marvel universe, and many issues focus on the problems Howard faces as he tries to go about life in a world he never made. Often he encounters twists on day to day problems, such as his quest for money in issue #5 as he successively works as an assistant to a clown on children's television until he attacks the star, then as a debt collector for an electrical appliance company, and finally tries his hand wrestling and actually beats champion "The Goat" only to be denied the promised money for any man who can last three rounds because he's not a man. Most bizarre of all is Howard's campaign for President. Whilst travelling from Cleveland to New York, Howard and Beverley take jobs at the All-Night Party convention. Soon Howard finds himself as the party nominee on a platform of straightforward, honest offensive talking. He rapidly attracts the assassins and smear merchants. With the slogan "Get Down, America!" and a managed campaign that tries to avoid saying anything, Howard could have swept to victory. But then on polling day the papers fall for a hoax and print an appallingly composited picture that purports to show Howard and Beverley in the bath together. These were the days before widespread early voting and the Clintons so Howard's chances evaporated. Nevertheless in the real world thousands of voters found a fictional fowl talker from another dimension a better prospect than Gerald Ford or Jimmy Carter (I can't imagine why...) and wrote-in votes for the Duck. Imagine if so many had done so and he'd actually won electoral votes... It's a good satire on politics and provides the series with its best remembered moment.

The series also overtly satirises a number of its contemporary comics such as Conan the Barbarian, Killraven and Master of Kung-Fu, though the more overt superheroes are sent-up though guest appearances instead. Spider-Man was used in the first issue in one of his earliest full-on guest appearances to launch a title, then later in the run we get a couple of issues with Daimon Hellstrom, the Son of Satan, in which his demonic side is inadvertently released to possess Howard. There are also overt parodies of other cultural phenomenons, most obviously a Star Wars parody in which Howard and a gang of heroes, including a guest appearance by the Man-Thing, have to save the universe using the power of the "Farce".

But not everyone Howard encounters is hostile to him. In the first issue he encounters by far his best known friend, Beverly Switzler. The two then stay together for the next eighteen issues until she agrees to marry Doctor Bong to save Howard. Beverly is a young woman trying to make her own way in life and brings a sense of positive optimism to contrast with Howard’s pessimism. It's astonishing how close their relationship is shown to be, even though comics in that era couldn't be totally explicit. But there's a naturalness to their relationship that makes it work in spite of the basic oddness of it. After all the basic theme of the series is that the difference between the serious and the silly is only a point of view. Along the way Howard and Beverly acquire two other recurring friends of note, Winda Wester, a young lady with a speech impediment who is initially demonically possessed, and Paul Same, a tenant in the same building as Beverly, who initially has a sleep problem caused by insecurities but he overcomes this and discovers his talent as an artist. There's also Beverly's uncle who has the same name, but goes by "Lee" who briefly employs Howard and then gives him the remainder of the time of his rented flat. Between the various recurring characters we get some good interactions that enhance the succession of situations Howard finds himself in.

Issue #16 is a curiosity. Having missed the regular deadline, Steve Gerber instead offer up a rambling essay that's a dialogue between Howard and his creator, discussing the problems writers face and various literary conventions and trappings. It's a reminder that there was a time when something had to be published and the alternative was a reprint as seen with some of the other volumes from the 1970s. Clearly the idea of creating in advance standby fill-in issues that would be ready to print in any emergency had not yet been implemented at Marvel, although even that approach would have created problems because issue #16 comes in the middle of the introduction of Doctor Bong. The essay is exactly what it says it is, namely the rushed ramblings of a writer in a hurry. There's a few interesting concepts in there such as the battle between a show girl, an ostrich and a lamp shade, but overall it's not too satisfying. As a one-off novelty it naturally excited a few and at least it wasn't a reprint or a delayed issue, but it feels terribly awkward and out of place. Still full kudos to Gerber and Marvel for confessing so publicly about the delays on the series.

Sadly this volume ends on an incomplete note. Howard has concluded his dealings with the Circus of Crime and is left in Cleveland with memories. Beverly is still married to Doctor Bong and seems to be liking it, at least until he husband announces his plans both for world conquest and to slay Howard. However we don't get to see how that would be resolved, because after issue #27 Steve Gerber left the title. He contributed to one further issue for contractual reasons but otherwise fell out with Marvel over the issue of the ownership of Howard. It would be many years before he would write for both the company and the character again. Other writers would handle the character in the meantime, but the Essentials have yet to show their take on things. And there also came Howard's biggest moment.

Now it's almost impossible to approach the subject of Howard the Duck without acknowledging the film. Somehow this has obtained a reputation as one of the worst movies of all time. Yes it fell into the trap that virtually all live Marvel adaptations pre-Blade did of just not understanding the source material (it's not just about a duck from another world landing in ours, it's a strong social satire) and yes the duck costume isn't the best, but it's a relatively straight forward tale of a stranger trying to get home, having to understand the world he's come to and face a threat that stands in his way. Perhaps the real problem was expectations - if you take the creator of Star Wars and have him present an adaptation of a cult comic book character then you're already building things up. And then who exactly was the film aimed at? Comic book movies still had a "for kids" reputation but this one has some quite racy moments, to the point that here in the UK there's two versions on DVD, an uncut 12 certificate and a cut PG version. So if it wasn't really aiming at the cult audience the comic attracted and not really suitable for kids and not a high action, far out science fiction piece then just who was the target audience? All that said the film has done better than reported - its total box office takings exceeded production costs and that's even before the home video and TV income. (When the DVD came out here some years ago, somebody even felt confident enough to take out adverts in Metro newspaper.) But the critics panned it, George Lucas disowned it and even in the comics it's been hard for Howard to avoid jokes about the film. But should Howard be dogged by the film? Captain America didn't spend two decades with his rather awful 1990 film brought up all the time and it's easy to forget that there was a TV movie that said it was based on Doctor Strange in the late 1970s. But then they've both done a lot of other things. By contrast Howard has had long periods of inertia. And there was the massive creators' rights case which invariably drew attention to the potential profitability of the property, so its seeming failure to do well stood out more.

His original series was more successful in its day and left a whole generation of fans who gave it legendary status. But sometimes series don't live up to the legends surrounding them and that's very much the case with this one. To a contemporary cult audience Howard the Duck may well have been a biting satire on life in the mid-70s but when viewed out of context and out of time it really doesn't stand up very well. All in all this is quite a disappointment.

Carmine Infantino (1925-2013)

Artist and editor Carmine Infantino passed away yesterday. He was 87.

Although best known for his work at DC Comics, including a stint as publisher during which time Superman vs. the Amazing Spider-Man was produced, he also drew many issues for Marvel and other companies. Amongst these were the first nineteen issues of the first Spider-Woman series, the second half of the original Nova series and individual issues of Ms. Marvel, What If? and Marvel Team-Up, all of which this blog has covered. All the relevant reviews can be found at the Carmine Infantino tag.

Essential Marvel Team-Up volume 4

Another volume of Essential Marvel Team-Up has now been released, slowly closing up one of the gaps in the overall Essential programme. Volume 4 contains issues #76-78 & #80-98, plus Annuals #2 & #3. As previously predicted, omitted is issue #79 which contains a team-up of Spider-Man and Red Sonja, a character Marvel no longer holds the rights for. (However the issue has had a few other reprints and I'll come to it in a special post.) As bonus material the volume also includes three original covers used when some of these issues were reprinted in Marvel Tales.

Writing-wise, the issues in this volume cover the end of Chris Claremont's run and the start of Steven Grant's, with fill-ins by Bill Kunkel, Alan Kupperberg and one plotted by Marv Wolfman & scripted by Roger McKenzie. The annuals are by Claremont and Roger Stern. The art is more mixed with the main artists being Sal Buscema, Mike Vosburg and Carmine Infantino, but there are many other contributors including Alan Kupperberg, Howard Chaykin, Jeff Aclin, Don Perlin, Bob McLeod, Gene Colan, Michael Nasser, Rich Buckler, Pat Broderick, Tom Sutton, Mike Zeck, Jimmy Janes and Will Meugniot. One annual is drawn by Kupperberg and Buscema, the other by Herb Trimpe. Because of all these credits I've created a separate post for the non-regular creator labels.

As per usual here's a full run down of the stars of each issue:

76. Spider-Man and Dr Strange
77. Spider-Man and Ms. Marvel
78. Spider-Man and Wonder Man
80. Spider-Man and Dr Strange and Clea
81. Spider-Man and Satana
82. Spider-Man and the Black Widow
83. Spider-Man and Nick Fury
84. Spider-Man and Shang-Chi, Master of Kung Fu
85. Spider-Man, Shang-Chi, the Black Widow and Nick Fury
86. Spider-Man and the Guardians of the Galaxy
87. Spider-Man and the Black Panther
88. Spider-Man and the Invisible Girl
89. Spider-Man and Nightcrawler
90. Spider-Man and the Beast
91. Spider-Man and Ghost Rider
92. Spider-Man and Hawkeye
93. Spider-Man and Werewolf
94. Spider-Man and the Shroud, Master of Darkness
95. Spider-Man and Mockingbird
96. Spider-Man and Howard the Duck
97. Hulk and Spider-Woman
98. Spider-Man and the Black Widow
Annual 2. Spider-Man and Hulk
Annual 3. Hulk and Power Man & Iron Fist

Well we finally get a team-up with the Invisible Girl, the only one of the main Fantastic Four left out before, and there's appearances by the Beast from the X-Men/Avengers (and later on other teams) and the Hulk, but otherwise this is very much a tour of the less well known part of the Marvel universe even if Spider-Woman and Howard the Duck had a high profile in their heyday.

Whilst Spider-Man has invariably been Marvel's premier solo hero for most of the past fifty years, there's never been such a clear candidate for the number two slot in all ages. It's interesting to see which heroes get especial promotion in any particular period and the tail end of this volume sees one hero actually taking Spider-Man's place as the header feature. This was the age of the Incredible Hulk TV series, which even all these years later is still Marvel's only real success with live action television, and so it's not surprising to find the Hulk was being pushed more prominently. At the time it also helped to nibble away at the problem of Spider-Man being overused. However the same charge could be applied to the Hulk - in the same month issue #97 came out (cover date September 1980) he also had his own title at issue #251 plus his own annual #9 plus an appearance in Marvel Two-in-One annual #5 plus he was a cover feature in that month's Defenders #87 plus he had a reprint title Marvel Super-Heroes #91 plus the Fantastic Four reprint title Marvel's Greatest Comics #92 carried a Hulk/Thing clash plus he and Spider-Man shared Marvel Treasury Edition #27 containing reprints. The Marvel Team-Up annual came out two months later and things were a little better - "just" the Hulk's own title #253 plus Defenders #89 plus reprints in Marvel Super-Heroes #93. Now it's true Spider-Man already had a lot of titles, with Spidey Super Stories and reprints in Marvel Tales expanding his number of appearances on the newsstands, but that wasn't necessarily the best path to follow.

Curiously both the issues with the Hulk as first named hero actually feel more like part of the second heroes' series with far more emphasis on their set-ups and supporting casts than the Hulk's. The Spider-Woman issue falls during her bounty hunter era when Michael Fleisher was writing the regular title and sees her chasing criminal smugglers in the American south west with the Hulk intervening in battle with a mad scientist. It doesn't add a great deal to either character and it's a pity that Spider-Woman's sole appearance in Marvel Team-Up should be in an issue without Spider-Man as their encounters in her own title didn't really allow for a good old fashioned working together. Annual #3 is similarly dominated, this time by Power Man & Iron Fist as the Heroes for Hire are engaged to transport and guard a package which the Hulk is tricked into stealing. To add to the numbers we also get an appearance by Machine Man, who in his other identity of Aaron Stack is part of a team from the package manufacturer's insurance company. Fortunately the greater space in the annual allows space for all the elements to breathe. There's even a tiny cameo by Spider-Man who swings by Power Man and Iron Fist as they wrap up a previous assignment, but realises they've handled it on their own. The Hulk also co-stars with Spider-Man in Annual #2 where he's recruited by a Russian agent to prevent the creation of an anti-matter bomb that could wipe out the United States and trigger a destructive world war. All these appearances give the Hulk exposure but also expose just how limited his character can be. Bruce Banner is wandering across the United States, transforming into the "savage Hulk" when stressed, and reverting when calmed down by one means or another, but there's no great meat to the character. When he's portrayed as a rampaging dumb brute he's at his least interesting and the main interest in stories is either how Banner will take pre-emptive action against him or else how those around the Hulk react. If handled well then a succession of regular slots in Marvel Team-Up would work for a time in showing how other heroes work with and against the Hulk's rampaging brute form, but after a time it would have eventually tired and I'm amazed the Hulk's own title lasted as long as it did before other personas were brought to the fore.

As for the more regular star of the book, the Spider-Man stories can be broadly split between the two regular writers. The end of Claremont's run includes two multi-part epics that draw in lots of characters and put some of them through the wringer. Grant's run is primarily made up of single issue stories though he does connect the Werewolf & Shroud issues (#93-94) and then set the Mockingbird issue (#95) almost straight after them. Claremont's work shows some advances from his earlier issues, and in particular there are no further references to Gwen Stacey, which had always felt rather forced in his earlier issues after some five years of Spider-Man not constantly being reminded of her all the time. We also get another rare supporting case member who débuts within the pages of Marvel Team-Up, although she has often been forgotten since.

As noted when I previously wrote about issues #80 & #81, this run sees yet another woman in Peter's life in the form of Cissy Ironwood. Additionally there are strong hints during the four parter with the Black Widow that suggest that her temporary alter ego of "Nancy Rushman" could get something going with Spider-Man. Considering that this era of Spider-Man (corresponding to Amazing #187-209, i.e. mainly Marv Wolfman's run, and Spectacular #25-#47, i.e. mainly Bill Mantlo's first) is already awash with women, containing the final break-up with Mary Jane Watson, the brief affair with Betty Leeds, the introductions of Marcy Kane, the Black Cat, Debra Whitman and April Maye (although not all these made it very far), plus a rather close encounter with Dazzler all within the other two titles, then either Peter is more of a ladies' man than at any other point in his history or else we have the consequences of poor communication between writers. I suspect part of the problem may be down to Chris Claremont having structured his stories around Peter having a regular girlfriend - most of Cissy's appearances involve things actually happening on or after dates between her and Peter - and then finding there was none to fill the role. Annual #2 is focused on her father's background in building destructive weapons, but very little more is revealed about Cissy herself. The relationship between her and Peter is quite close, as shown most notably by his reaction when she's attacked by the werewolf Doctor Strange, but also very fast as seen from comments about how they've only recently started dating. Given her father's work in multiple field of physics, is her attraction to Peter due to his vague resemblance? Quite a few women are drawn to men who resemble their fathers. After her father's death in the annual, Cissy disappears and I'm struggling to remember if she was even mentioned again outside of the odd back-up feature in later annuals that name checked the various women in Peter's life. It's very hard to assess the relationship because we don't get to see the build-up to when they started dating - the only hints given are a comment Cissy makes about how her friend was wrong about Peter and another where she says Peter asked her out - or for that matter the detail of any split. Nor is it clear just where precisely these issues fit into the overall chronology of Peter's life, a particular problem given just how crowded this period is, so we have no idea if he was on a direct rebound from Mary Jane or Betty or if instead he had been single for a while or if he was in what we now call open relationships or what. It's also hard to assess just how understanding she is about Peter's constant disappearing or the other baggage in his life. What we're left with are just glimpses of a relationship rather than anything substantial.

As for the adventures themselves, we get two four-part epics although the first is split in two with two other issues placed between it. The story is focused on Doctor Strange's battles first with his old enemy Silver Dagger and Marie LeVeau, with help from both Spider-Man and Ms. Marvel, and then as a consequence Strange winds up transformed into a werewolf. The second half of the story sees Spider-Man working with Strange's romantic interest and disciple Clear and his servant Wong to try to restrain and cure him, when they receive further the crucial help from Satana, the Devil's Daughter. It's a particularly intense story but it really feels like Doctor Strange's story more than anything else, with Satana brought in for the concluding part to give closure (in as far as any Marvel character can obtain closure) by killing her off at the end. Curiously the second part (issue #77) provides the cover that's used for the whole volume but it's not terribly representative of the story as a whole. Still it's a striking image by John Romita Junior, one of his earliest pieces of Spider-Man work, and Ms. Marvel has risen to prominence once more in recent years so it's unsurprising to see it used here.

The other epic involves the Black Widow operating under the delusion she is a school teacher called "Nancy Rushman" and pursued through New York by agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Spider-Man gets involved to help her, as does subsequently Shang-Chi the Master of Kung-Fu and Nick Fury, as they uncover a plot by the Viper and the Silver Samurai to crash the S.H.I.E.L.D. helicarrier headquarters into Congress during a speech by the President (Jimmy Carter, going on about the oil crisis in rather pronounced form to remind us all how serious it is and how the country and world must make tough choices) and wipe out the entire US government. It's a good saga that combines action, espionage and a personal element, with strong hints that "Nancy Rushman" and Spider-Man could be an item. Sadly when the Widow is fully recovered she breaks the news to Spider-Man that whilst "Nancy" and he may have had something going, she is not her and it won't be happening. The two team up again at the end of the volume to tackle the Owl, but there's no hint of mention let alone regret about what almost was.

The only other multi-part tale involves the latter part of Spider-Man's visit to Los Angles as a follow-up to his visit there in the pages of Spider-Woman. Spider-Man first teams up with the Werewolf, who is much changed from their previous encounter, to fight the latter's old foe Tatterdemalion. Spider-Man's presence attracts the attention of the mystical Dansen Macabre who hypnotises him into capturing the Shroud. Unfortunately both parts of the story fall into the tap of treating Spider-Man almost as an interloper on private feuds and don't give us the greatest sense of involvement. Upon Spider-Man's return he runs into Mockingbird, the new identity for the character previously called the Huntress (in the time since her last appearance, DC had used the name for a rather more prominent character of their own) who is fighting corruption in S.H.I.E.L.D. Once again, the tale has Spider-Man almost needlessly intruding upon other people's affairs. It's also unusual to use Marvel Team-Up as the place to launch a new identity for a character.

The rest of the volume is taken up with a variety of individual team-ups, some of which work rather better than others. The encounter with Howard the Duck is very much in the spirit of Steve Gerber's run on the character, complete with a strange villain parodying a piece of modern American society and the duck commenting on the absurdities of it all. Here the villain is "Status Quo", a campaigner who speaks out against all the latest fads and stirs up crowds to act against them, attracting massive media attention, until Howard points out that Status Quo is "An opportunist -- media hyping your way into the national consciousness for your own selfish ends!" - or in other words an example of one of the latest fads! This forces Status Quo to stand down and rethink his approach. We also get to see Howard naked (no, not *that* sort of naked) - notoriously Howard was forced into trousers and a modified design due to complaints from Disney about intellectual property infringement with Donald Duck. Getting Howard's trousers off in one way or another can sometimes be a sign of a subtle gesture against Disney. Of course now that Disney owns Marvel can the duck finally drop his trousers and revert to his original look? It's often said that Howard generally only works when written by Gerber, his late creator, but this issue is a rare sign of another writer (Alan Kupperberg) getting pretty close.

The other stories are much of a muchness, but continue to show how Spider-Man can so easily work with most heroes, whether he's familiar with them such as the Invisible Girl, or has to be persuaded by their Avengers credentials, such as the Guardians of the Galaxy. Being single parters with only seventeen pages apiece there isn't too much room for grand developments, but they offer some good encounters with no real stinkers. The encounter with the Beast offers some fun dialogue between the two, as well as a strong scientific story that is convincing as drawing them both in. There's the odd weaker tale such as the encounter with Wonder Man, but Marvel Team-Up has always been a series that could easily shrug off the odd weak issue and move on.

As the fourth volume in the title's history we see the series well and truly established and not really experimenting that much beyond giving the Hulk a couple of turns in the title slot. Otherwise the book had settled down into a familiar pattern but still offers plenty of diversity from the wide range of heroes who team up with Spider-Man. There may be a few times when Spidey seems a little incidental to the series or else put in a role that any hero could have performed, but as always it's made up by the chance to see him in situations that are different from the norm in his own series, with an increased emphasis on science fiction and magic. This volume is very much quintessential Marvel Team-Up and will be enjoyed by those who enjoy the basic concept of the series and dismissed by those who don't. The issues come from a period in Spider-Man's history when there were a lot of bold developments in his other two titles, so when read next to those issues it's actually an advantage to be able to switch gear and relax with these tales.

Omitted material: What If? Classic volume 3

It's time for a further look at some of the Spider-Man related issues from the original What If? series.

#15: "What If Nova had been Four Other People?", written by Marv Wolfman and drawn by John Buscema, Walt Simonson, Carmine Infantino, Ross Andru and George Pérez, reprinted in What If? Classic volume 3

This was the same basic idea as issue #7, only this time with Marvel's then-newest star rather than it's biggest and also using different artists for each segment. However Peter Parker was the only one of the four people who was familiar to readers.

The origin of Nova is relatively easy to adapt to the What If? set-up - a dying alien transmits his power and costume by energy beam and it accidentally hits a human, giving them the Nova powers. Each story sees it hit someone else. In the first it hits Helen Taylor, an angry widow who has vowed to find the mugger who killed her husband. She launches a violent war on crime to find the mugger, killing many criminals in the process including the Kingpin. Eventually the Fantastic Four intervene and capture her, then are forced to exile her to the Negative Zone. Meanwhile a car is pulled out of the river where it has been for months, and inside is the drowned mugger. The second story is set in a world that has hitherto lacked heroes and so when the beam hits a homeless black man he doesn't immediately realise to use them. One snowy night he is given shelter at an orphanage but then a Skrull invasion force arrives and detects his power. To save the children and Earth he becomes Nova and lets himself get captured so the children can be saved. On board the Skrull flagship he attacks and destroys the ship's equipment, causing it to go nova and saving the Earth. In the final story the beam has hit a criminal who uses the centurion's spaceship as a base from which he assembles Dr Doom, the Red Skull and the Sphinx and the four steadily eliminate all of Earth's humans. However rivalries amongst the villains result in them turning on each other until the Sphinx is the only one left standing. He desires death and sets out to search every human's mind to find one with the knowledge he needs, not realising that the criminal Nova he atomised was the one.

But it's the third story that generates the strongest interest. We get an altered version of the start of Spider-Man's origin as here the spider absorbed far more radiation and so instead of gaining powers Peter succumbs to radiation poisoning. He recovers, though not before Aunt May succumbs to stereotype and has a fatal heart attack at the first sign of bad news. Peter is now unable to walk and descends into bitterness, believing himself to be cursed. He sends Betty away (in this reality she seems to have already been his girlfriend) and throws himself into science, hoping to find a cure. One night he's alone in the school lab when the beam hits him. Discovering he can walk and more, he flies off to tell Uncle Ben, only to arrive as a burglar breaks into the house. In the living room Peter Nova flies in and a bullet bounces off his skin, killing the burglar. Despite both Uncle Ben and a police officer telling him it was accidental self-defence, Peter vows never to use his powers again and walks off embittered.

With most of the alternative Novas entirely new characters it's interesting to see different takes on some traditional comic moments and show how the power could bring out the best and worst in people. Peter Parker's story may have an all too cliched approach to Aunt May's heart but otherwise shows how a complete run of bad luck and no realisation of responsibility could have made him a very different person.

#17: "What If Ghost Rider, Spider-Woman, and Captain Marvel Had Remained Villains?", written by Steven Grant and drawn by Carmine Infantino, reprinted in What If? Classic volume 3

Once again we get multiple takes on a single idea, told in separate chapters. The first chapter sees an alternate take on Ghost Rider whereby his adoptive father Crash Simpson survives both cancer and a record breaking motorcycle stunt, resulting in the Devil taking Johnny Blaze's soul without interruption. He accidentally causes Crash's death and then later Roxanne Simpson tracks him down, only to die in the confrontation. Finally Daimon Hellstrom the Son of Satan confronts Ghost Rider and exorcises him. The Spider-Woman chapter is an alternate take on her debut in Marvel Spotlight #32 where on this occasion she doesn't discover Hydra's treachery and instead kills Nick Fury. The rest of the story which is largely the story of her fleeing to Hydra's base then getting captured in a S.H.I.E.L.D. raid then escaping at her trial. He primary motivation is to find out the truth of her past and the epilogue sees her as a wanderer, searching the world with S.H.I.E.L.D. in pursuit. Frankly there's not much meat to this and it doesn't give us much insight into Spider-Woman or any other characters. The Captain Marvel story is pretty much all set-up as it presents an alternate take on Marvel's earliest adventures with his rival Yon-Rogg exposed and eventually dying, with Captain Marvel remaining as a loyal Kree commander. This one doesn't show us very much at all. This is a general problem with telling multiple stories in a single issue, especially when the unifying concept is so abstract forcing each tale to spend more time telling the story (whereas the earlier ones with someone else getting Spider-Man or Nova's powers each share an introduction). The Ghost Rider chapter is the strongest by default with the other two tales not really offering that much of an alternate take on the characters. A pity that once again Spider-Woman is lumbered with such poor material.

#19: "What If Spider-Man had Never Become a Crime Fighter?", written by Peter Gillis and drawn by Pat Broderick, reprinted in What If? Classic volume 3

Or "What If Spider-Man has stopped the Burglar who killed his uncle?" This is probably the most obvious Spider-Man What If?, with its closest contender coming in issue #24 (reprinted in the next volume). Here Spider-Man heeds the call for help and catches the burglar - but not out of altruistic responsibility. No he's spotted the potential for some good publicity. As a result his public standing soars and Peter becomes ever more swollen headed. He reveals his identity to Aunt May and Uncle Ben, but this leads to an argument about his pursuit of entertainment over science and he deserts them. He guest hosts the Johnny Carson show (now what would be the equivalent of that role in the UK?), stars in a blockbuster movie and then becomes a film producer, signing up many other heroes with the offer of favourable publicity. Meanwhile J. Jonah Jameson's world starts crashing around him. His son dies when his space capsule crashes, and Jonah becomes ever more embittered about the attention celebrity "heroes" get compared to what he sees as "real heroes" - policemen, firemen, astronauts and the like. This leads to him taking on Spider-Man by getting Ned Leeds to work out his identity. In retaliation Spider-Man shows up in Jonah's office with several gun toting men, but turns the tables by pretending to be a stunt to give Jonah an award for journalism. When the Daily Bugle attacks Spider-Man for signing the vigilante Daredevil, Spidey retaliates by discovering and exposing the Bugle's crime reporter Frederic Foswell as the crimelord the Big Man. Here the resultant negative publicity results in Jonah being asked by his board to take a step back from running the paper and he instead resigns. Having lost everything he succumbs to temptation when the jailed Foswell asks him to be his outside man to run the mobs in exchange for using the organisation for revenge on Spider-Man. An initial attempt to have Kraven the Hunter scratch Peter with poison claws fails due to the intervention of Daredevil. Then Peter and Daredevil meet with their writers - only to discover it's a trap and the writers are really several super-villains in disguise. Daredevil dies in battle and Peter realises he must use his powers for real, overpowering the remain foes. He pulls off the ringleader's hood to discover an insane Jonah, ranting about how his life has been destroyed and how Spider-Man is a villain. A remorseful Peter realises how his failure to use his powers for good has caused all this.

Pretty much everyone is in character and this is a particularly good character study of Jonah that really digs into just why he harbours such hatred of Spider-Man and other superheroes. It's a far cry from the caricature he sometimes descends to. As for Spider-Man himself, we have a good continuation of the swell-headed teenager from Amazing Fantasy #15 but also an insight into his imagination. It's quite possible he may have performed some good, particularly by signing the X-Men to give mutants good publicity, just as many real world actors and producers have helped good causes. But his arrogance and selfishness brings destruction in its wake - and he's not always the worst to suffer for it.

The other tales in the third volume are:

• #14: "What If Sgt. Fury Had Fought World War Two In Outer Space?"
• #18: "What If Dr. Strange Were a Disciple of Dormammu?"
• #20: "What If the Avengers Fought the Kree-Skrull War Without Rick Jones?"

Issue #14 was one of the more outrageous concepts yet seen, but as the cover acknowledged it was riding a wave at the time launched by Star Wars.

You will have noticed that two issues are missing. These are:

• #13: "What If Conan the Barbarian Walked the Earth Today?"
• #16: "What If Shang-Chi Master of Kung Fu Fought on the Side of Fu Manchu?"

Marvel no longer holds the rights to either Conan or Fu Manchu and so can't reprint their appearances. Shang-Chi is a Marvel originated character but with a setting a supporting cast drawn from the Fu Manchu stories it's only possible to reprint some of his appearances.