It’s common knowledge that back in the early 1970s, some among the new generation of Bronze Age comics writers were using drugs. The Golden and Silver Age generations, as far as I know, stuck with tobacco and alcohol — but the addled stories I’m blogging about today make me wonder about that.
Justice League of America #84, “The Devil in Paradise” marks Robert Kanigher’s one JLA story (with Dick Dillin on art, including the cover) and it’s a very strange one. It reads like Kanigher didn’t have a whole story so he cobbled one together out of multiple short bits. It starts out with the JLA taking on the 100, a Metropolis gang in the “Rose and the Thorn” backup strip Kanigher was writing for Superman’s Girlfriend, Lois Lane. Suddenly they’re big enough to be selling brilliant scientists to the commie swine behind the Iron Curtain — good thing the JLA is around!
The 100 would start upping its game the following year but in 1970 they were still just regular organized crime, hardly a match for the World’s Greatest Superheroes. Not to worry, once they’re finished, Kanigher simply throws more stuff into the mix. First he pits the JLA against the invincible occult power of Australian aborigines! Who, in a racist note, we’re told live by ancient laws of “Hate! Fear! Murder! War!” Superman admitting the modern world isn’t perfect either doesn’t make up for that.
We get no explanation for how these dudes pull this, just the JLA speculating it’s black magic or maybe mass hypnosis. Nor do we learn why Dillin’s drawing Australian tribes as if they were African tribesmen. Or why Kanigher thought this was good material. Like I said, maybe it was the drugs?
Even aborigines with evil tooth necklaces can’t keep our heroes down for long so we move on to the issue’s real threat: a mad scientist remaking Justice League of America #40. In that story, a scientist’s attempt to impose goodness on humanity went sour and threatened to plunge the world into nightmare. Here, however, that’s exactly what Nobel Peace Prize’ winner Dr. Willard wants to make happen. His serum makes people groovy and peaceful for 100 hours, then it turns them kill-crazy. He and his wife will survive as a new Adam and Eve while the rest of humanity wipes itself out.
That’s not a bad scheme for a villain, but apparently Kanigher couldn’t stretch it to issue length and just started padding the script. Along with the A-plot — er, plots — we have Batman and Black Canary snogging passionately before deciding their love can never be, and Black Canary discovering her sonic powers include telepathic eavesdropping.
And Superman can somehow see that Willard is planning genocide. For a detailed look at how nuts this issue is, check out Alan Stewart’s review.
Now, shifting to Marvel, we have Captain America #130 and 131, by Stan Lee and Gene Colan (covers by Marie Severin). The credits describe 130 (“Up Against the Wall!”) as based on a “concept” by Gene Colan, without explanation. Perhaps it’s the concept of Steve Rogers watching a movie about Captain America, though we don’t learn that’s what’s happening for a few panels.
Once again, Stan Lee plays with the idea that Captain America’s out of date in an age of radicals and anti-war protesters. Which doesn’t stop Cap from intervening when there’s yet another college protest —
Cap’s intervention grabs the intention of the Hood, who figures he can turn Cap into a stooge for his agenda.
That surprised me. As I’ve mentioned before, comics of this era were carefully evenhanded tackling current issues: both sides have some good points, neither side is completely right, we can work it out, etc., etc. Having Cap come out in support of protesters could be seen as balancing out the extremists with the battering ram; it still reads more pro-protest than I’d expect. Was Stan Lee thinking this was an angle that could make Cap more relevant and more appealing to the audience?
Lee does not, of course, forget that relevant comics need seasoning with some action. Which the Hood provides when he realizes Cap isn’t down with the “stifle dissent” part of the program.
The first time we saw Batroc’s Brigade it included Living Laser and Swordsman. Now it’s … Porcupine and Whirlwind? They clearly weren’t picked because he had a particular need for their skills so did he just draw names out of a hat? In any case, Cap kicks their butts which leaves the Hood even grumpier and eager for payback. And who better to use as his instrument of revenge than — Bucky Barnes?
While Cap continues his current freewheeling approach to life, the Hood goes hunting for a man who’s young, athletic, and looks enough like Bucky for the gig.
The Baron finds a young man who’s all that, plus he’s an amnesiac, perfect for brainwashing. Though the Hood has to wonder, is it possible this amnesiac lookalike could really be … but who cares? What’s important is to lure Captain America within arm’s reach. Once that happens, the Hood unmasks.
The battle is joined, of course —
Despite Cap’s tough talk, Strucker wins and puts him in an old-school deathtrap.
Fortunately Bucky gets his shit together in time to save Cap and take down Strucker. The greatest fighting team in the world is once more a thing! Happy ending … right?
No; I’ll get to that in a second. The thing about this issue (aside from Dick Ayers inks, which I don’t think work at all for Gene Colan) is how out of place Strucker feels. Reading this, it would be easy for a newbie to assume Strucker hadn’t been seen since he was Nick Fury’s WW II nemesis, rather than the former leader of Hydra. There’s no acknowledgement this is his first appearance since Fury supposedly blew him and Hydra to kingdom come — not even the usual “It happened in Strange Tales #158, Marvel-ous ones!” footnotes. Plus Strucker was never as keen on Nazism as the Red Skull, being more concerned with personal power; having him proclaim his commitment to fascism feels out of character (his enthusiasm for killing Cap just to prove he’s the tougher fighter feels right, though).
Oh, as to that happy ending, in #133 it turns out Bucky is a Bucky robot built by Dr. Doom to serve Modok — not Doom’s usual sort of thing but Modok triple-dog-dared him to make a robot so good Cap wouldn’t spot the ringer. Then Modok planted the idea in Strucker’s mind to go looking for a Bucky duplicate … and once Cap’s off-guard and relaxed, Bucky turns on him. Modok’s on the brink of victory except Robo-Bucky, like so many of his kind, has too much of the real Bucky’s personality and dies rather than destroy his partner.
Strucker. Doom. Modok. That’s way more evil masterminds than this overly complicated story needed.
