My Silver Age reread is now moving into 1972, and Len Wein has already established himself as a writer. There’s his (IMHO) definitive Phantom Stranger (with Jim Aparo on the art, including this cover). The one-shot House of Secrets story that he and co-creator Bernie Wrightson would reboot into the Swamp Thing series. The summer of 1972 will see the launch of Wein’s Justice League of America, the first good run since Gardner Fox left. He’d do much more good work after that, as my fellow Atomic blogger John Trumbull detailed after Wein’s death.
Today, though, we’re looking at two less memorable stories from late 1971. One of them isn’t Wein’s work, but as you’ll see it’s still Wein-related.
Wein was one of the young fans-turned-pro who burst into comics in the late 1960s. According to this interview, when he and Marv Wolfman tried introducing a black hero into Teen Titans, they became personas non grata at DC for a while. They jumped over to Marvel instead, which is where Len Wein penned “This Badge Bedeviled” in Astonishing Tales #8 (cover by Marie Severin)
As Alan Stewart discusses on his blog, in 1971 Marvel increased their comics’ page count and price; DC followed suit, though using reprints for the added pages, then Marvel reversed course (see Alan’s post for speculation about the why of it all). The rapid shifts may be why a couple of months later, several Marvel books including Incredible Hulk, Iron Man and Fantastic Four had backup features: the stories planned for expanded 48-page books had to be carried over into the following month and only took up half the second book.
Astonishing Tales, however, already divided each issue between Dr. Doom and Ka-Zar; rather than expand either of the stories in #8, Len Wein and George Tuska provided us with a third tale.
Officer Link and his partner soon take down the guys ripping off Futura Tech, but Damian makes a startling discovery: his brother Joshua is leading the crew.
Joshua, however, is using this bit of exposition to distract his brother and it works. The other hoods get the drop on Damian, but oops!
Why yes, in the MU this kind of accident in the workplace can lead to unusual side effects. Though in this case all it appears to do is kill Damian. After Joshua’s buddies drag him free and put a bullet in Damian’s partner, they figure there’s nobody left who can tie them to the robbery.
Again, oops.
Damian somehow senses his no-good, rat-fink brother is in trouble and rushes to help. It looks like he won’t be able to do much but then—
Damian discovers he is, as they say, more powerful, more invincible than ever before.
Feuding brothers on opposite sides of the law is, of course, a classic set-up. And this obviously has seeds that Wein could have developed in the future, such as the unnamed boss who likes Damian so much. At the same time, it seems a curiously old-fashioned premise for the early Bronze Age, something that would fit better a decade earlier when the Challengers of the Unknown and the Sea Devils could sustain series. It wouldn’t have surprised me if we never saw the Link brothers again.
Instead, Mike Friedrich and Dan Adkins (who did the cover above) soft-rebooted this by having the jailed Joshua master the Link link and use Damian’s body to pull crimes as Gemini. Taking on Ka-Zar only confirms my feelings about the premise, though. Having double the strength of a normal man would be incredibly effective against, say, me, but against Ka-Zar? Someone who’s gone toe to toe with Kraven and Spider-Man? I think not (unfortunately a glitch in the Marvel app kept me from reading the issue to see if I’m right).
I doubt that’s what Wein had in mind for the Links. Maybe he didn’t have anything in mind other than filling a few pages. However the idea of a mental bond between two brothers must have stuck with him, given that a couple of years later it became part of another Wein creation, Brother Voodoo
The two-part origin story (Wein and Gene Colan; cover by John Romita) has Jericho Drumm, MD, return to his homeland of Haiti to treat his dying brother, the legendary houngan Brother Voodoo. Too bad Daniel Drumm’s illness isn’t mortal but a sorcerous attack by the incarnation of the serpent loa Damballah (a benevolent figure in real voodoo). After Daniel dies, Jericho goes and studies with the Ancient One — er Papa Jambo. Jericho masters the voodoo disciplines but Papa Jambo decides he needs more of an edge. What if instead of one brother … he were two?
Like Damian, Jericho now has the physical abilities of two, plus his brother’s spirit can possess others when useful. Like many of us writers, Wein knew how to recycle an old idea.
The second story I’m looking at, “The Human Target,” (Nick Cardy on art, don’t know the writer) goes back to 1957’s Gangbusters #61 with its Ruben Moreira cover. I encountered it as a reprint in 1971’s Detective Comics #419 (cover by Neal Adams) which I read just recently.
A reporter discovers Det. Perry specializes in thwarting murder attempts by disguising himself as the victim. When the killer makes his move, Perry relies on his skills to save himself and capture the villain.
Which is exactly the MO of Christopher Chance, the Human Target, who debuted a year later in Action Comics #419 (script by Wein, art by Carmine Infantino and Dick Giordano).
Chance became the Human Target because as a kid he saw his pop murdered by a mobster. In that instant, Chance swore he would never let anyone else suffer that kind of fear if he could prevent it. Here’s Perry talking about his motivation.
The Gangbusters story was a one-off: Perry falls in love and loses his nerve now that he has someone to live for. He completes his last case as a human target, then marries and settles into normal police work. So why not take the same concept and use it with a new character? It might have been Wein who thought of it, or Julius Schwartz who edited both Detective Comics and Action. Either way, as I wrote back in 2023, it was a successful decision.
