Back Issue #28 Preview by TwoMorrows Publishing

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“ H E R O E S B E H AV AVI N G B A D LY ” I S S U E !

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Volume 1, Number 28 June 2008

The Retro Comics Experience!

Celebrating the Best Comics of the '70s, '80s, and Today! EDITOR Michael Eury PUBLISHER John Morrow

BACK SEAT DRIVER: Editorial by Michael Eury . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2

DESIGNER Rich J. Fowlks

FLASHBACK: The Thing vs. the Hulk: Why Can’t They Get Along? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3 Is the Marvel Universe big enough for these battling behemoths? INTERVIEW: Ron Wilson: Solid As a Rock! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7 The beloved Bronze Age penciler talks Marvel-Two-in-One and the Thing

COVER ARTIST Darwyn Cooke

INTERVIEW: Herb Trimpe: The Incredible Herb . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13 A chat with the all-time favorite Silver and Bronze Age Incredible Hulk artist

CIRCULATION DIRECTOR Bob Brodsky, Cookiesoup Periodical Distribution, LLC PROOFREADERS John Morrow and Eric Nolen-Weathington SPECIAL THANKS Arthur Adams Roger Ash Michael Aushenker Mike W. Barr Cary Bates Al Bigley Michael Browning John Byrne KC Carlson Gene Colan Ernie Colón J. M DeMatteis Terry Dodson Daren Domina Michael Finn Bill Flanagan Shane Foley Will Gabri-el Dick Giordano Grand Comic-Book Database Steven Grant Justin Gray Paul Green Glenn Greenberg Bob Greenberger Heritage Comics Auctions Carmine Infantino Klaus Janson Jeff Jaworski Phil Jimenez Dan Johnson Joe Jusko Jim Kingman Bob Larkin

Bob Layton Larry Lieber David Lloyd Michael Lovitz David Mandel Kelvin Mao Yoram Matzkin Laura McCullough Elizabeth Merifield David Michelinie Mike Mikulovsky Ian Millsted Doug Moench Stephen Moore Jimmy Palmiotti Steven Regina Bob Rozakis Peter Sanderson Alex Segura Ari Shapiro Jim Shooter Walter Simonson Dez Skinn Ted Skinner Shannon Slayton Anthony Snyder Andrew Stitt Bill Thomson Herb Trimpe Gerry Turnbull Jim Warden Ron Wilson Marv Wolfman Amy Wolfram The Yancy Street Gang

FLASHBACK: Black and White—But Green All Over: The Hulk! Magazine . . . . . . . . . . . .20 Walt Simonson, Doug Moench, Jim Shooter, and others on the Hulk’s magazine rampage GREATEST STORIES NEVER TOLD—IN THE USA: The UK Hulk Comic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .29 The Green Goliath and friends in comic adventures rarely seen by Yanks INTERVIEW: David Lloyd on Night Raven . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .35 The popular artist recalls the UK Hulk’s breakout character FLASHBACK: The Rise and Demise of Kid Miracleman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .36 A ground- (and bone-) breaking 1980s classic revisited FLASHBACK: The Trials, Tribulations, and Triumphs of Mark Shaw, Manhunter . . . . . . .44 This Kirby creation changed his threads and his stripes BONUS PINUP: The BACK ISSUE Era’s Other Manhunter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .47 A never-before-published Batman/Manhunter pinup by Walter Simonson OFF MY CHEST: He is Iron Man . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .48 A look back at Tony Stark’s struggle with alcoholism, with a Bob Layton pinup INTERVIEW: John Byrne: Crossing the Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .51 The superstar writer/artist discusses the moral codes of his Marvel and DC heroes FLASHBACK: The Many Lives of Terra, the Titans’ Greatest Betrayer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .57 “The Judas Contract” and beyond, with Wolfman, Jimenez, Palmiotti, and more FLASHBACK: Dead Man Running: The Trial of the Flash . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .63 Cary Bates, Carmine Infantino, and other creators on Barry Allen’s final days GREATEST STORIES NEVER TOLD: The Secret History of All-American Comics, Inc. . . . .73 Beginning Book Two (continued from Alter Ego) of Bob Rozakis’ fantasy comics history BONUS PINUP: The Thing vs. the Hulk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .81 Arthur Adams’ recreation of the famous Marvel Feature #11 cover BACK TALK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .82 Reader feedback on “Spies and Tough Guys” issue #26

COVER DESIGNER Michael Kronenberg

BACK ISSUE™ is published bimonthly by TwoMorrows Publishing, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614. Michael Eury, Editor. John Morrow, Publisher. Editorial Office: BACK ISSUE, c/o Michael Eury, Editor, 118 Edgewood Avenue NE, Concord, NC 28025. Email: euryman@msn.com. Six-issue subscriptions: $40 Standard US, $54 First Class US, $66 Canada, $90 Surface International, $108 Airmail International. Please send subscription orders and funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial office. Cover art by Darwyn Cooke. Iron Man TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc. The Flash TM & © DC Comics. All Rights Reserved. All characters are © their respective companies. All material © their creators unless otherwise noted. All editorial matter © 2008 Michael Eury and TwoMorrows Publishing. BACK ISSUE is a TM of TwoMorrows Publishing. ISSN 1932-6904. Printed in Canada. FIRST PRINTING. H e r o e s

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Michael Aushenker

IF I CAN’T REASON WITH YA, I’M GONNA HAFTA WALLOP YA! IN OTHER WORDS, IT’S CLOBBERIN’ TIME!

HULK DOES NOT LIKE THIS “CLOBBERIN’ TIME,” THING! HULK THINKS IT IS DUMB! HULK THINKS THING IS DUMB, TOO!

Break It Up, Ya Big Lugs! John Romita, Sr.’s original cover art to Marvel Feature #11 (Sept. 1973), from the Yoram Matzkin collection. Thing’s and Hulk’s dialogue, in the balloons, comes from that landmark “team-up.” © 2008 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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“Who’s stronger? Thing or Hulk?” Back in ’76, when we comics-collectin’ Canarsie kids would sit on a Brooklyn stoop and sift through our big scores from the Nosher’s magazine racks, this age-old question was our perennial hot-button debate … and I knew the answer! I mean, come on, it’s a no-brainer! Doesn’t take a Bruce Banner to figure out that the angrier the Hulk got, the stronger. Hulk was so cool, he even had his own primetime series every Friday night on CBS. (Sorry, Thing … love, 40 … match point … advantage: Hulk!) But in the Marvel Universe of the 1970s, such conflicts weren’t so clear-cut. Witness Fantastic Four #166–167 (Jan.–Feb. 1976). Sometimes, the erstwhile Banner— that gamma-saturated, obdurate ox—kicked the tar out of Benjamin J. Grimm. Yet, inevitably, they’d team up against the common enemy, depriving us of a true showdown to the finish. A decade earlier, during comics’ Silver Age, Fantastic Four originated the Big Green/Big Orange mash-up. Marvel’s founding fathers, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, launched this guest-star gimmick as early as 1964, when Hulk surfaced in FF #25–26. Lee/Kirby missed the Bronze Age by a whisker with their Dec. 1969 sequel story in The Incredible Hulk. Gift-wrapped in a Kirby-lossal cover, #122 delivered on its promise of a ledge-crumbling, building-battering battle royal. Not one to let a good idea collect dust, Lee returned to the “Battle of the Behemoths!” in 1971, this time with artists John Buscema and Joe Sinnott, for some Central Park combat. Fantastic Four #112 opens with Hulk and Thing walloping each other with a tree. As a throng builds, Thing attempts to stop Hulk by uprooting and lobbing a statue of “General Forbush,” which Hulk reduces to dust. Turns out that when Reed Richards called on Banner for his scientific assistance, the shock of seeing Thing again reignited the embers of Banner’s irradiated rage. The Four enter the fray and, many destroyed trees later, Hulk and Thing take their fracas to the streets. This comic ends with a victory in Hulk’s corner via a green-fisted TKO that renders Thing unconscious and reduces Hulk back to Banner. (Hulk: 1, Thing: 0) A de facto Marvel Two-in-One Annual, Marvel Feature #11 (Sept. 1973) (“Cry, Monster!”) sported a bonecrushing unsigned cover (Gil Kane?). [Editor’s note: Nope. It’s Jazzy John Romita, Sr.!] Len Wein wrote it, a young Jim Starlin drew it, and Sinnott embellished it. This issue was so hot, it was quickly reprinted in 1975’s Marvel Treasury #5 (themed “The Hulk on the Rampage”). Basically Trading Places Marvel Comics-style, space alien Kurrgo makes a gentlemen’s agreement with the B e h a v i n g

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Master of Planet X over … well, to simplify, that age-old question. Kurrgo picks Thing, while his leader chooses Hulk. Both short-fused brutes, plucked and planted in the middle of the desert by the aliens, are given an ultimatum: Grimm must engage in this cosmic boxing match with Hulk, or else a planet-razing Ultrex Bomb will destroy Earth. Priceless pearl of wisdom from Mr. Purple Pants: “Huh? You beat up Hulk for Hulk’s own good? Hulk may be slow! It may be hard for Hulk to think, but not even Hulk believes that!” Evidently, Starlin enjoyed this storyline enough to revisit the Hulk Smash!/Thing Clobber! premise two more times a decade later—in a story he wrote/drew for Marvel Fanfare #21 (1985) (“The Clash, Part 2,” inked by Al Milgrom, which featured Dr. Strange); and as a writer in Marvel Graphic Novel #29 (1987) (“The Big Change,” with Bernie Wrightson art). Touted on the cover as “The Wildest Thing vs. Hulk Battle Of All!,” Giant-Size Super-Stars #1 (May 1974) has the distinction of being the title that became Giant-Size Fantastic Four. Speaking of “titles,” this cover is a knock-out—literally—depicting Thing, on his way to winning the ultimate heavyweight title, getting the upper hand on the Hulk inside a boxing ring, as Johnny Storm and the Inhumans’ Medusa cheer from the

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sidelines. Super-Stars features dynamic writer Gerry Conway, who devised a wacky plot in which, during a visit to the Baxter Building, Banner uses one of Reed’s devices to try and cure both himself and Thing. Unfortunately, instead of remedying the pair, a mindswap occurs between Thing and Hulk instead. A Sinnott-glazed Rich Buckler, in his most Kirby-esque style, has a blast flattening Manhattan with his pencils as the towering titans take their uncivil war all the way to Madison Square Garden for the match of the century. Cripes! As if this ain’t enough, an Amazonian hottie named Thundra takes a shine to lovable Benjy (or is he the Hulk? This match is too confusing to scorecard!). Back to 1976. Part one of Fantastic Four #166–167, comically titled “If It’s Tuesday, This Must Be the Hulk!,” features 17 pages of mayhem underneath a sock ’em-rock ’em

Michael Aushenker

Doing His Steranko Thing Ron Wilson’s reimagining of Jim Steranko’s cover art to The Incredible Hulk King-Size Special #1 (1968, seen above), with bashful Benjy Grimm handling the heavy lifting for the Green Goliath. Art courtesy of Jeff Jaworski. © 2008 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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Marvel Two-in-One is a book etched in Bronze. From January 1974 through June 1983, Marvel Two-in-One (MTIO), with its breezy mix of action-comedy, became the series with that quintessential House of Ideas house look. It was comics’ comfort food. If there’s one series that screams “’70s Marvel,” this is it… MTIO’s M.O. was simple: team up the most popular member of the Fantastic Four—Ben “It’s Clobberin’ Time!” Grimm, a.k.a. the Thing— with another superhero from the Marvel Universe. It was fun to see the self-deprecating, wise-cracking, orange-rock creature paired every month with the likes of Spider-Man, Captain America, Sub-Mariner … and more random duets with the Golem, Deathlok the Demolisher, Moondragon, and Jocasta. Sheer novelty. Who could forget the issue in which the Thing battles the Hulk, destroying a Hollywood backlot in the process (#46, Dec. 1978: “Battle in Burbank”)? Or the storyline guest-starring the original, bald-cap Spider-Woman in which Alicia Masters turned into a spider-creature while on vacation with Ben in London (#30–32, Aug.–Oct. 1977)? If these stories don’t ring a bell, you’re either too young or you were too preoccupied with the “Distinguished Competition,” because we’re talkin’ classic Marvel here! Ron Wilson famously drew more issues of MTIO (and that includes the last two of seven Annuals published in 1976–1982) than any other artist. His “Two-in-One: A Thing Odyssey” was a wildly successful ride that began with MTIO #12 (Nov. 1975; “The Stalker in the Sands,” not to be confused with MTIO #2, Mar. 1974, “The Stalker From the Stars”), co-starring the Invincible Iron Man. Thanks to Wilson’s bold, no-nonsense, bread-and-butter storytelling, many of us enjoy some fond memories. I’m thinking of the two-parter that kicks off with the Thing defended in court by Matt Murdock (#37, Mar. 1978) and climaxes with his team-up with Daredevil (#38, Apr. 1978); the pathos ’n’ bathos-laden #80 (Oct. 1981), showcasing a self-pitying Grimm as the Ghost Rider goes on a tear through midtown Manhattan; and #82 (Dec. 1981), guest-starring the superhero formerly known as Black Goliath, which promised the Thing turning “uglier!” on its cover. Only in MTIO could you find Benjamin J. Grimm joined up with the Sandman (#86; Apr. 1982) one month and Machine Man (#93; Nov. 1982) in another. The rocky, contemporary Thing even fought the original, mushy Thing when the campy series hit issue five-0 (Apr. 1979). On October 7, 2007, BACK ISSUE talked Two-in-One with Wilson. Here’s what the perennial fan favorite had to say about conjuring up the rock-solid drawings for Marvel’s ever-lovin’, blue-eyed Thing. – Michael Aushenker MICHAEL AUSHENKER: Set the stage for us: What were your circumstances when you joined Marvel and began on MTIO? RON WILSON: I was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. I grew up in the Canarsie Projects. After the High School of Art and Design, I got hired by [Marvel art director] John Romita [Sr.] when I was in my first year in college. But [before that,] the first professional I took my samples to was Dick Giordano. He was at DC. Dick said, “Keep trying,” so he encouraged me. But Marvel was in my heart… I went into Marvel and met with [artist] Frank Giacoia. At the time I had a problem drawing women. The jaws were too boxy. Frank showed them to Stan Lee. I never saw Stan…! Frank looked at my work and said to me, “You’re about six months off.” That was like telling me that I had a job— that gave me the enthusiasm and focus. Six months later exactly, I sent samples in. I waited two weeks, still no response. College let out for the summer. I phoned John Romita. He said, “Hey, kid! I liked the drawings.

Take That, Blondie! Ron revisits his Sinnott-inked, Marvel-Two-in-One-like cover to Fantastic Four #165 (Dec. 1975, seen in the inset) in this “One Minute Later” continuation, inked by Chris Ivy, shown here in its line art and color forms. Courtesy of Michael Finn. © 2008 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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Hulk Smash … Logo! Herb Trimpe imagines the classic Steranko cover to Captain America #110 “One Minute Later” in this absolutely incredible commission. From the collection of Michael Finn. © 2008 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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[Editor’s note: Although Herb Trimpe has drawn the majority of Marvel’s characters (and then some), in the minds of many fans he’s known (and loved) for only one: the Hulk. And it’s easy to see why: His unbeatable run as the penciler of The Incredible Hulk consisted of almost every issue of the title from 1968 through 1975, and included the first appearances of several Marvel mainstays including Doc Samson and Wolverine. Trimpe’s Hulk was brutal but sympathetic, frightening but strangely likable—the perfect “hero behaving badly.” BACK ISSUE is honored to have Herb talk “Hulk” with us in this exclusive interview.] MIKE MIKULOVSKY: I loved your Subby vs. the Hulk issue, Incredible Hulk #118 (Aug. 1969)—one of my favorites, and one of the first comics I ever bought. HERB TRIMPE: Yeah, #118 was a fun issue. One of those when I was groping around for a style. I think Joe Maneely influenced the inking—maybe John Severin, also. MIKULOVSKY: The Hulk fought a lot of Marvel heroes, and one of your most famous issues was Wolverine’s first major appearance in the Hulk vs. Wolverine issue, Hulk #181 (Nov. 1974). I always wondered why Marvel never had you do Hulk vs. Thor or Hulk vs. Hercules— or, spinning off the Wolverine story, Hulk vs. the New X-Men or Hulk vs. Colossus stories. TRIMPE: Why certain team-ups never occurred is beyond me. Generally, it all had to do with who was thought to be the most interesting, or the best combinations that would sell books. Remember, X-Men was a second-rate title in the beginning. MIKULOVSKY: The character of Wendigo got his start in a Hulk issue you drew, #162 (Apr. 1973).

Beach Blanket Banner Sub-Mariner gets the upper hand on Ol’ Jadejaws—briefly—in this striking undersea battle page by Herb Trimpe from Incredible Hulk #118 (Aug. 1969). From a European reprint submitted by our pal Al Bigley. © 2008 Marvel Characters, Inc.

Captains America, Marvel, and Action You Know … But Captain Tootsie?? Tootsie Roll TM & © Tootsie Roll Industries.

Editor’s note: Roy Thomas, who created super-Shrink Dr. Leonard Samson for Herb Trimpe to draw in The Incredible Hulk #141 (July 1971), tells BACK ISSUE that Captain Tootsie “was definitely the basic inspiration for Doc Samson visually, with a little Captain Marvel thrown in … but after all, C. C. Beck designed both heroes.” Captain Tootsie was the heroic star of one-page Golden Age comics ads that sold Tootsie Roll candies. For those of you hungry for BI’s upcoming look at the Hostess superhero ads of the 1970s and 1980s, here’s a taste of what saw print before Superman and Spider-Man ever unwrapped a Twinkie… 1 4

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Imagine being a Star Trek fan and discovering that 22 animated episodes of the original series were produced. Or being a fan of The Honeymooners and learning that dozens of “lost” shows existed beyond the “classic 39” episodes. Such must be the case for modern-day fans of the Hulk who learn of the existence of the Rampaging Hulk magazine series from the 1970s. Running for 27 issues between late 1976 and early 1981, The Rampaging Hulk (retitled The Hulk! with issue #10) was initially part of the same black-andwhite magazine line that gave the world The Savage Sword of Conan, Dracula Lives!, Vampire Tales, Monsters Unleashed, Tales of the Zombie, Planet of the Apes, and Crazy. Later, it became a lavish full-color publication, with production values akin to Marvel’s fondly remembered experimental science-fiction/ fantasy magazine, Epic Illustrated. Like its title character, The Rampaging Hulk faced a number of struggles— and even a controversy or two—during its existence. What cannot be disputed is that it attracted some of the best creative talent of that era, at a time when the Hulk truly was “Marvel’s TV sensation!”

MOENCH MEETS THE MONSTER

“At some point, somebody at Marvel— it might have been Stan Lee—said, ‘Why can’t we do a magazine-sized version of one of the core Marvel characters?’” recalls writer Doug Moench, who scripted most of the Hulk’s magazine adventures. “My vague memory is that they picked the Hulk because the TV show was getting started and they thought it might become a hit and that might attract a slightly older readership that could afford the higher price of the magazine version.”

More Bestial! More Hounded! More Savage! Artist Ken Barr’s preliminary art for the cover of The Rampaging Hulk #8, and the published version in the inset. Unless otherwise noted, all art in this article is courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions (www.ha.com). © 2008 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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Glenn Greenberg

Moench was already writing for most of Marvel’s other black-and-white magazines of the time, and had a good working relationship with the editor of the line, John Warner. Though he had never written the Hulk before, Moench was handed the assignment of launching the character’s new series. It was a whole new beginning for the Hulk—but firmly rooted in the past. Issues #1 through 9 served as a “continuity implant.” They all take place during the Hulk’s early days, after The Incredible Hulk #6 in 1963—at which point the title was canceled—and before the Hulk started appearing regularly in Tales to Astonish, beginning with #60 in late 1964. “We didn’t want to screw up the continuity of the ongoing color book,” Moench recalls. “And it would be a nightmare trying to coordinate with the color book and know what its continuity was going to be, whether Banner would lose the power to turn into the Hulk for six months or whatever. The obvious solution was to set it in the past.” Moench couldn’t have been happier: “Those first six issues of The Incredible Hulk were some of my favorite early Marvel comics, and I loved being able to do stories of that Hulk.” Moench determined that a whole new sequence of stories could fit in nicely between the end of the Hulk’s first series and the start of the Tales to Astonish run. But there was a catch.

PAST MEETS PRESENT

As most longtime Hulk readers know, the character as seen in his first six issues was quite different from the late-’70s incarnation. The original Stan Lee/Jack Kirby Hulk was intelligent, cunning, somewhat sinister, and spoke in full sentences. He rarely—if ever—referred to himself in the third person. But the later Hulk was childlike and wild, and spouted eloquent lines such as, “Hulk is the strongest one there is!” and “You tried to hurt Hulk! Now Hulk will smash!” Moench could use the setting of the Lee/Kirby stories—but not the Lee/Kirby version of the character. “Editorial said we could do the stuff set in the past, but they wanted us to use the Hulk that everybody knew in the present,” Moench recalls. “So I tried to do a blend, I tried to fit it halfway in-between.” The end result was a Hulk that was neither the original version nor the later one, but nonetheless captured the core essence of the character quite well. General “Thunderbolt” Ross and his daughter Betty, introduced in the very first Hulk story and still part of the supporting cast in the 1970s, showed up in The Rampaging Hulk #1 (Jan. 1977) but then disappeared from the series. Conversely, the Hulk’s original sidekick, Rick Jones, who had been absent from the color comic for a number of years, was front and center in the black-and-white magazine. He joined the Hulk on an odyssey that brought them into contact with a beautiful alien female who formed the third point of a very unusual character triangle.

BEREESENTING … BEREET!

Moench realized early on that if he relied on General Ross and Betty as supporting characters, it would get too complicated and constrictive. Their destinies, of course, were already set in stone, as were the Hulk’s and Rick’s. Moench’s solution was to introduce a new character whose future was not already mapped out. That character was the fugitive techno-artist Bereet, who fled her home planet Krylors to warn Earth about a planned invasion by her people, the shape-changing and merciless Krylorians. According to Moench, the Krylorian storyline came about as a result of conversations between the writer and the magazine’s initial penciler, Walt Simonson. “I spoke to Walt, and he wanted to draw aliens and spaceships and that suggested doing the Krylorian stuff—I tried to keep Walt happy! He’s great, one of the better storytellers.” H e r o e s

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If It’s Thursday, It Must Be The Hulk The Romita-riffing cover to Hulk Comic #1 (Mar. 7, 1979) is not credited, “but may be Dave Gibbons,” according to writer Ian Millsted. Unless otherwise noted, all scans in this article are courtesy of Gerry Turnbull and Ian Millsted, with special thanks to Elizabeth Merifield.

Ian Millsted

Following the launch of the Incredible Hulk television series of the late ’70s, a black-and-white, magazinesized comic starring the Hulk was launched with the intention of cashing in on the immediate popularity of that series. The stories were written to be closer in mood and format to the televised version. I’m not referring to The Hulk! magazine, which evolved out of The Rampaging Hulk [see previous article]. Instead, this was a weekly magazine that you will only have seen if you lived in the UK or Ireland. British versions of Marvel comics had been produced since 1972. These were in the weekly format that was the domestic standard in Britain at the time and usually featured several different stories in shorter episodes. For example, the first-ever British Marvel comic was called Mighty World of Marvel and contained reprints of the initial halves of the premiere issues of Fantastic Four and Incredible Hulk, as well as the Spider-Man story from Amazing Fantasy #15. The magazines were editorially produced by the New York offices of Marvel and were initially very successful, but by the late ’70s were struggling. A new editor, Dez Skinn, was appointed, who would be London-based. “British Marvel had been on the skids, with only Star Wars Weekly holding it together,” Skinn remembers. “My phased ‘Marvel Revolution’ was a three- or four-part relaunch for the entire company, cosmetically rebranded as Marvel UK. The figures worked, so they left me to it.” One of the things Dez Skinn did was look at originating material that would appeal to a British audience with less of a tradition of superhero comics. The one previous attempt at creating original strips for Britain had been Captain Britain in 1976. [Editor’s note: This series will be examined in great detail in our next issue, BACK ISSUE #29.] Despite an initial creative team of Chris Claremont (born in Britain) and Herb Trimpe (living in Britain at the time), the title lasted only 39 weekly issues. Claremont was succeeded by Gary Friedrich and Trimpe by John Buscema and Ron Wilson. The comic was edited, along with the rest of the British line, by Larry Lieber in New York. (As an aside, there was a small Marvel office based in Britain to deal with letters and advertising, whose staff included Neil Tennant prior to his success as one half of the Pet Shop Boys.) Dez Skinn was aware that the British market and audience wanted more than American-style superheroes. “I was creating a lineup which wasn’t comprised of contemporary US gods—which our savvy kids would have little truck with!” Skinn says. “Even the reprint titles maxed the mix for the UK, with Godzilla, Master of Kung Fu, Dracula, Conan, and suchlike. I was in the job of creating variety comics,

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Growing Vocabulary

anthologies which didn’t just run the peculiarly US idea of superheroes.” Despite starring the Hulk, the new weekly title would fall squarely within the above policy. Skinn was aiming at the millions of viewers who knew the Hulk from television and had no idea who Betty Ross, Rick Jones, Doc Samson, and company were. The Hulk would be the star and be supported by other Marvel characters adapted for Britain. Specifically, the support strips were “Black Knight” in a fantasy setting, spy action with “Nick Fury”, and reprints of “Ant-Man.” Finally, there was an all-new series, “Night Raven.”

(above left) The growling goliath, by Steve Moore and Dave Gibbons, from Hulk Comic #1; and (above right) the slightly more articulate Hulk, by Steve Parkhouse and John Bolton, from issue #3.

THE HULK

The Hulk stories featured a greater rotation of creators than the other series. The first issue had a three-page story written by Steve Moore with art by Dave Gibbons. In line with the television show, the Hulk didn’t talk, save for the odd “Grrr.” There was no supporting cast, supervillain, or even Dr. Bruce Banner. Gibbons’ dramatic art was his only work in the comic. The second issue had another stand-alone three-page story, this time by writer Steve Parkhouse and artist Steve Dillon (hired at the age of 16!). This story did include Bruce Banner and even started with a two-panel origin recap; its brevity enabled it to apply equally to either the US comic Hulk or television Hulk. Dillon was clearly trying to draw a hybrid of the two versions which was probably a thankless task. The Hulk had one line of dialogue.

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The third-issue story was again by Parkhouse, but with art by John Bolton. The Hulk’s vocabulary increased again and the main threat this time was an alligator. A new creative team of writer Kelvin Gosnell and artist Paul Neary (who also did most of the covers) followed in issue four but the pattern of continuity-free stories with non-superpowered villains continued. From the fifth issue, the creative team settled down somewhat with Steve Parkhouse and Paul Neary as regulars. Issues #7 and 8 had no new Hulk story, but a reprint of a US story by Roger Stern and Sal Buscema which fitted in with the wandering-Banner approach. The reprints were resized and edited to fit the UK format. Steve Moore took over the writing from issue #15 and introduced the closest thing so far to a supervillain in Dr. Scarabeus. This story continued to issue #20 and borrowed freely from The Island of Dr. Moreau. After that, apart from a three-part story in issues #26–28, the magazine reverted to reprints of the US Hulk strip. The Hulk was the star of the magazine and brought the readers in, but the real inspiration was in the support strips.

THE BLACK KNIGHT

The second story in the first issue was the “Black Knight”, and this became the real epic within the magazine. The hero was the Dane Whitman version as featured in the US Avengers title, but with key differences. Steve Parkhouse wrote the strip throughout and the art was by John Stokes (with pencils/

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Ian Millsted

“I was asked to come up with a full visualization of Night Raven—or Night-Raven, as it once was, with a hyphen—which I did. I made him look like a kind of Indiana Jones before Indiana Jones. It was the outfit he wore eventually in the prequel which myself and Jamie [Delano] put together later—House of Cards. I conceived that look because it made him an action character—and I was aware we were doing this for Marvel, so I thought that was a perfectly appropriate approach to take. Unfortunately, this look was rejected by Dez and Steve Parkhouse because they wanted a cross between the Spirit and The Shadow, and Steve did some sketches which put a trench coat on him. They even gave me some copies Mike Kaluta’s Shadow to put me on the right track. I thought it was the wrong track considering it was for Marvel, but I had no power to object to any of it—I was just a couple of years in the business and had no clout. And I was a professional who had to follow a brief—that was my job. But I regretted not being able to create the character as an original, not a blend of other concepts. “I did get the freedom to get him out of the trench coat when he had to get involved in more actionful moments, but otherwise he had to have that trench coat. It was kind of clumsy, because as part of the early concept I’d given him a lightning quick-draw skill from his shoulder holsters. But, of course, that only worked when he’d dispensed with his trench coat. The treatment I gave the strip from that point was all calculated to evoke the look of the Spirit and The Shadow. Luckily, readers took to the character and the strip. “Later on, Dez had a visit from Jim Salicrup or another of those exec guys from Marvel who’d come over to overlook progress. He suggested “NightRaven” be more actionful and Marvel-like. I could have said, ‘I told you so,’ but I was still just a nobody artist trying to earn a crust. Anyway, from that point on I started using more foreshortening, different angles. Whatever Dez’s reasons were for taking me off it and giving it to John Bolton, they can’t have been anything to do with wanting it more Marvel-ish, because John’s stuff, though terrific, was conservative in treatment. And then the strip finished. “How did I feel about being taken off it? Bad. I was consigned to doing pencils and inks on Paul Neary’s layouts of the Hulk, which I hated and could only stomach by making it Lichtenstein-esque. I had absolutely no respect for that character or concept at all.”

ON NIGHT RAVEN AS A TRIAL RUN FOR V FOR VENDETTA

“Dez wanted a similar bunch of characters to those he’d commissioned from folks in Hulk Weekly for Warrior. He asked me for a masked vigilante character or similar, and suggested I do the whole thing. But I’d worked with Alan [Moore] by then, liked working with him, and suggested Alan write it instead of me. Then we brainstormed V into existence. But, you know, it could have been another period drama set in the ’30s if I hadn’t gotten sick and tired of doing reference work, getting cars right, clothes right, etc. Thank the Lord, eh?”

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What would you do if you suddenly found yourself in possession of infinite power? If you were an ordinary guy, going about your ordinary life, working in a dead-end job you long ago ceased to care for, to bring home a lowly wage to help the upkeep of the small home you live in with the wife you long ago fell out of love with, would that acquisition of a power to set you above the gods change you? Would it change you for the better, or for the worse? Would you become a force for good, or evil? Benefit mankind, or destroy it? And what would it cost your humanity? In 1982, two men set about exploring this notion in a new comic strip. A young writer just starting to make waves would script, while a similarly neophyte artist would design and delineate the world they created together. The vehicle in which they chose to express their ideas was a revival of an all-but-forgotten British superhero. It would be the lead strip in a brand new magazine aimed squarely at readers who had grown up with—and perhaps outgrown—the weekly sci-fi comic 2000AD. And it spawned a legend. The magazine was Warrior. The young writer: Alan Moore. The artist: Garry Leach. And the name of the strip? “Marvelman.” To begin the story we have to take a brief look back in time. This will take us out of the normal time frame covered by BACK ISSUE, but is essential to aid our understanding of what comes later.

WITH ONE MAGIC WORD…

In 1940, comics publisher Fawcett launched the premier issue of Whiz Comics featuring its brand-new superhero creation, Captain Marvel. That first issue was actually marked #2, but this story is complicated enough without us getting into the reasons for that! Captain Marvel was the adult alter ego of young Billy Batson, who, upon shouting the magic

Bad Boy Kid Miracleman/Johnny Bates glowers evil. Art by Garry Leach. © the respective copyright holder.

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Allan Harvey

This article is a road map of Mark Shaw’s crimefighting career. Shaw’s journey is neither about finding himself, for he embarked with a strong passion for justice, nor establishing some kind of just-out-of-reach fashionable identity; honestly, every role he has assumed—public defender, superhero, villain, bounty hunter, government agent—he has worn well. Shaw’s journey has always been about the character’s sites and situation—places he has visited throughout his career that have helped make him a better person. Shaw has driven through extensive physical training, intense mental conditioning, deception, corruption, villainy, redemption, heroism, death, rebirth, manipulation, brainwashing, and personal triumph. At every mental or tangible obstacle he has encountered and endured over the past thirty years, he has emerged a stronger individual. Shaw’s journey is not over. There are many sites for him still to visit. But this is the road map so far. Introduced as a young public defender in DC’s First Issue Special #5 (Aug. 1975), written by Jack Kirby and illustrated by Kirby and D. Bruce Berry, Mark Shaw’s idealism had been frustrated and discouraged by the law’s inability to bring the shrewder, richer, and more powerful criminals to justice. A sympathetic uncle took Shaw to a secret room in his mansion and informed him of the Manhunter cult, whose determination and success in meting out its own brand of justice had existed for hundreds of years. Communicating with the Grandmaster through the Manhunters’ golden symbol—a lion medallion—Shaw accepted the invitation to travel to the Manhunters’ headquarters deep in the Himalayas and begin an intense training period that, once completed, would garner him the power baton, red costume, and blue mask of a full-fledged member of the Manhunter Shan. The Manhunter cult provided Shaw a means to channel his desire for justice, a spiritual base, a growing confidence, strong fighting skills, and a renewed sense of integrity. But the Manhunters also deceived him. The Grandmaster withheld from Shaw a dark secret and a hidden agenda. As chronicled by writer Steve Englehart and artists Dick Dillin and Frank McLaughlin, when the Manhunters made their move to discredit the Guardians of the Universe in Justice League of America (JLA) #140 (Mar. 1977), Shaw was led to believe he was only bringing a mass murderer, Green Lantern Hal Jordan, to justice. But GL had been framed by the Manhunters, and it was soon revealed that the Manhunters were androids, originally crafted by the Guardians as their first intergalactic police force. The Manhunters had rebelled, attacked their creators, were defeated, and then exiled to specific corners of the universe. When Shaw learned of the deception, he aided the Justice League of America in defeating the Manhunters, destroyed the Grandmaster, and turned his back on the ways of the Manhunters in JLA #141. But the Manhunters’ conditioning had corrupted Shaw. Shaw shed the Manhunter mask and garb and continued his crimefighting career as the Privateer in JLA #143 (June 1977). The taste of power and thrill of mastery over others had consumed him, however, and he became

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Meet Mark Shaw Jack Kirby and inker D. Bruce Berry introduced the new sect of the Manhunter in First Issue Special #5 (Aug. 1975). Original art courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions. TM & © DC Comics.

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The Privateer Shaw’s temporary guise, as seen this Dillin-esque Who’s Who #18 (Aug. 1986) entry by Stan Woch and Bob Smith. TM & © DC Comics.

determined to infiltrate and defeat the Justice League on his own terms; he also adopted the guise of the more villainous Star-Tsar. Eventually, and ironically, the android Red Tornado called him out, and Shaw was exposed, disgraced, and flown to jail by Superman in JLA #149 and 150 (Dec. 1977 and Jan. 1978). In 1987, Shaw returned as the Privateer in Suicide Squad #8. He didn’t appear any worse for incarceration, either, emerging rehabilitated and victorious after a fistfight with Squad member Rick Flagg. In the next issue, he joined the Squad in its mission to destroy the Manhunter Temple deep in the Louisiana bayou, a tie-in with DC’s company crossover of that year, Millennium. The Manhunters and their Grandmaster had returned from calculated dormancy and were now launching an assault on the Guardians just as the Manhunters’ creators were in the process of selecting their successors, the Chosen. The Squad was successful in destroying the temple, albeit with casualties, and Shaw’s sentence was commuted to time served. In Suicide Squad #10,

Manhunters Galore

Shaw told Flagg that he was going to once again become Manhunter, and make the name good as a masked bounty hunter hunting masked villains. It was writer John Ostrander who brought Mark Shaw back and redeemed him. Paired with fellow writer and wife Kim Yale, the duo provided Shaw his own ongoing series—Manhunter #1–24 (July 1988– Apr. 1990)—and his heyday. He defeated and killed a legendary assassin, Dumas. He learned the ways of Giri-Nijo—loyalty, compassion, moral obligation, and duty—from the Oyabun and Yakuza of Japan. He met Sandra Kingsley, and the two developed and shared an awkward but deepening romantic interest. Shaw, alongside the the Suicide Squad, discovered the secret of the missing Argent division in Suicide Squad Annual #1. He rescued the Flash from capture in Cuba during the alien Invasion! of 1988. He made new friends in Gary De Vries and David Challoner of the Southern Cross Salvage Company, who would help him upgrade his costume and weaponry. He apprehended several noted villains of the DC Universe, including the Penguin, Captain Cold, Cat-Man, and Mirage. He also developed a couple of hang-ups: flying outside of planes and dealing with dangers on various islands, which caused him to think hard from time to time, “I hate islands.” Much-needed levity had been added to the character’s arsenal. As was some much-needed triumph. Shaw had a key role in 1989’s “The Janus Directive,” a low-key, solid crossover that played out in Checkmate, Suicide Squad, Firestorm, Manhunter, and Captain Atom, wherein he helped prevent world domination by Kobra, capturing the villain single-handedly and turning him over to the Squad (relinquishing the bounty for the greater good). He also held his own on a case with Batman on the Dark Knight’s home turf. In the series’ climax, Shaw also defeated a second Dumas, and gained the title of one

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The army of Manhunters and their Grandmaster, from Who’s Who Update ’88 #2. Art by Howard Simpson and Arne Starr. TM & © DC Comics.

TM & © DC Comics.

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Editor’s note: While BACK ISSUE covered Iron Man’s ’80s adventures three issues ago in BI #25’s Bob Layton/David Michelinie “Pro2Pro” interview, no “Heroes Behaving Badly” issue would be complete without a look at Iron Man’s classic “Demon in a Bottle” storyline—and we’ve got the dynamite Darwyn Cooke cover to prove it! Frequent BI contributor Dan Johnson, who conducted that “Pro2Pro,” has been movie trailer-watching as of this writing in February 2008, and has some observations about “Demon’s” drunken Tony Stark and the star of the recently released Iron Man movie that he’d like to get off his chest…

The casting of Robert Downey, Jr. as Tony Stark in Iron Man left quite a few people scratching their heads. There is no denying that Downey has talent—just watch his performances in Chaplin and Wonder Boys. But he doesn’t quite look the part of a Hollywood action hero. Anyone who knows their comic books and their Hollywood gossip, however, knows that if there is an actor who can bring insight to the troubled character of Tony Stark, it is Downey. In the comics, Tony Stark has fallen off the wagon more than once. The first time Stark stumbled was in the now-legendary story arc “Demon in a Bottle” by Bob Layton and David Michelinie, which ran in Iron Man #120–128 (Mar. 1979–Nov. 1979). This tale of Stark coming to grips with his addictive nature was one of the first storylines the creative duo suggested to Marvel Comics when they took over the book. “Our first agenda was to push the character into a more realistic direction,” said Michelinie during an interview I conducted with him and Layton for BACK ISSUE #25. “[We were] looking at Tony Stark as a real guy and determining what would a real guy in his position do.” In “Demon in a Bottle,” Michelinie and Layton gave “real guy” Stark some real serious problems: a hostile takeover attempt of Stark’s business by S.H.I.E.L.D., plus romantic complications, making life unbearable and extremely stressful for Iron Man’s alter ego. “What would a real person do?” Michelinie asked. “A real person would look for some kind of safety valve. At the time, with Tony being a millionaire playboy in the 1980s before crack cocaine became such a popular item, drinking seemed to be the logical way to push him.”

Troubled Tin Man This Bob Layton commissioned illustration, produced for longtime Iron Man fan Daren Domina, is a montage from scenes from the classic “Demon in a Bottle” storyline. Courtesy of Bob Layton. © 2008 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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Dan Johnson

Peter Sanderson

From the late 1970s onward, John Byrne has been a major creative force in American superhero comics, writing and drawing nearly all the classic heroes from Marvel and DC Comics. He has been a vocal advocate of the tradition that superheroes should be paragons of moral behavior. Yet in some of his best-known work, Byrne has portrayed superheroes who cross a line of conventional morality, or who even temporarily turn outright evil, and then demonstrated the consequences for the characters. During their classic collaboration on X-Men, co-plotters John Byrne and Chris Claremont startled their readers by having two of their characters cross previously forbidden moral lines. It was Byrne and Claremont who first portrayed Wolverine as willing to kill in combat without hesitation. From that point on it was no longer inconceivable for a hero of a superhero book to kill. In their legendary 1980 “Dark Phoenix Saga” in X-Men #129–138, Byrne and Claremont not only transformed longtime series heroine Jean Grey into a supervillain but showed her wiping out the population of an entire planet. So frequently has the “Dark Phoenix Saga” been imitated that portraying the “dark side” of a heroic character has become a familiar cliche. Since his X-Men days, as a writer/artist, John Byrne has continued to explore what happens when superheroes cross a moral line. Notably, in the 1980s Byrne wrote and drew a Superman story arc in which the Man of Steel felt compelled to execute three Kryptonian criminals from the Phantom Zone because he had no sure means of imprisoning them. But how far can this questioning of superhero morality go? In his interviews and online comments, Byrne has vigorously criticized what he sees as the widespread trend to “deconstruct” superheroes into characters with deep moral flaws. What, then, makes a superhero different than an ordinary person—or even an “ordinary” hero? Fans of Westerns are accustomed to seeing the good guy gun down the outlaw. Sword-and-sorcery readers have no problem with Conan the Barbarian killing his enemies. Beyond the costumes and the extraordinary abilities, should a superhero have a superior moral code? To explore questions such as these, in February 2008 BACK ISSUE interviewed John Byrne via e-mail. – Peter Sanderson

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Beginnings: Wheelie and the Chopper Bunch #2 (1975, Charlton Comics)

Milestones: Too many to detail, but the short list: Rog 2000 / Iron Fist / Uncanny X-Men / Captain America / Fantastic Four / Alpha Flight / Man of Steel / Superman / Sensational She-Hulk / Namor the SubMariner / Avengers West Coast / Wolverine / John Byrne’s Next Men / Wonder Woman / Superman and Batman: Generations / The Doom Patrol / see his website for a complete checklist

Works in Progress: JLA: Classified (DC) / covers for Star Trek: Assignment Earth (IDW) / FX (IDW)

Cyberspace: www.byrnerobotics.com

John Byrne

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PETER SANDERSON: What kind of a moral code should a superhero have? Are there circumstances in which a superhero could and should kill? JOHN BYRNE: The same moral code as any normal human, only more so, would be how a superhero would operate. Like a good cop, s/he would use deadly force only if there were no other options— with the knowledge that for a superhero there are almost always other options! SANDERSON: Stan Lee and Jack Kirby did two Fantastic Four storylines in which Ben Grimm went “bad”—once under the control of the Wizard in Fantastic Four #41–43 (Aug.–Oct. 1965), and again under the influence of the Mad Thinker in FF #68–71 (Nov. 1967–Feb. 1968). Do these stories set a model for how to do a “hero goes bad” storyline, and why? BYRNE: They should set the model, but I am not sure they do. Much of modern storytelling—with heroes going bad (which is not such a far trip as it used to be!) and villains becoming “good” (because the heroes are so gray in their own morality)—seem to happen more out of editorial whim than internal story reasons. SANDERSON: In the Savage Land storyline in Uncanny X-Men #116 (Dec. 1978), Wolverine slew a guard off-panel. This seems to be a turning point in Marvel history, when a superhero intentionally killed an adversary. Was Wolverine wrong to kill the guard? Can Wolverine be a superhero and justifiably kill? BYRNE: It’s a mistake to think of Wolverine as a superhero. He is more closely akin to James Bond. A guided missile. The whole point to Wolverine is that he was first a killer. This has been muted over the decades since that story, with ninja nonsense and “berserker rages,” but back then the idea was that Wolverine was in the X-Men so he could be controlled. Xavier didn’t want a homicidal maniac mutant running around loose, even if it was under

When she was introduced, Tara Markov, better known as Terra, took the readers of The New Teen Titans by storm. Her short, blonde hair, buck-toothed smile, spunky attitude, and mighty earth-shaping powers made her a huge hit from the start. Make no mistake about it, Titans fans were obsessed with Terra. Creators Marv Wolfman and George Pérez intended for readers to like her—so they could eventually yank the rug out from under them. Terra was introduced in The New Teen Titans #26 (Dec. 1982) when Changeling (Gar Logan, a.k.a. Beast Boy) stopped her from destroying the Statue of Liberty. This brief, three-page interlude laid the groundwork for the most popular story in New Teen Titans history, “The Judas Contract,” which ran in New Teen Titans #39–40, Tales of the Teen Titans #41–44, and Tales of the Teen Titans Annual #3.

Roger Ash

TALE OF THE TEEN TRAITOR

In “Judas,” Changeling stops Terra from robbing a bank and captures her the next time they meet in New Teen Titans #28 (Feb. 1983). She reveals that she is Tara Markov. Her father is a king, and he and her stepmother were kidnapped by terrorists. She and her brother, Brion, searched for them but became separated. She was eventually captured by the terrorists and forced to commit crimes, or they’d kill her parents. The Titans go after the terrorists and learn that Tara’s parents have been dead for a while and that the terrorists have been using her. After this, Terra joins the Teen Titans, much to the delight of Changeling, as he’s become smitten with her. Raven and Cyborg, and even a skeptical Changeling, feel Terra isn’t telling the whole truth, and they are right. She is working with Titans villain Slade Wilson, the Terminator (later known as Deathstroke). He is using Terra to learn about the Titans so he can capture them and hand them over to the criminal organization, the H.I.V.E., thus fulfilling the contract he had accepted at the death of his son, Grant Wilson, a.k.a. the Ravager.

She’s a Dirty Girl Terra’s first full-on, full-tilt appearance, The New Teen Titans vol. 1 #28 (Feb. 1983). Cover art by George Pérez. Original cover art from the collection of David Mandel, with special thanks to Kelvin Mao. TM & © DC Comics.

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After fighting beside the Teen Titans against such villains as the Brotherhood of Evil, Brother Blood, and the Fearsome Five, Terra betrays her teammates. During a massive battle between the Teen Titans, the Terminator, and the H.I.V.E., Terra is killed in Tales of the Teen Titans Annual #3 (1984).

LAYING THE GROUNDWORK FOR TERRA

From the beginning, Tara Markov, created by writer Marv Wolfman and artist George Pérez, was meant to be a spy. According to Wolfman, the basics of the Terra story were developed in a very short time: “George and I met at a local diner, as we often did, and I pitched him the initial idea for the story and character. Together, we then came up with the rest of the storyline and characterizations. Before we left the diner that day, we had worked out most of the important parts of Terra’s evolution. “We talked over the initial ideas, talked about playing her so that readers would naturally assume she’d become the good girl, but all along we knew who she was and what she’d do. Our biggest challenge

was not falling in love with the character so we could do the story as we intended. It’s so easy to decide at the last minute to ‘save’ a character, but we knew up front that would be completely wrong.” If Terra’s brother’s name sounds familiar, it’s because Brion Markov is better known as Geo-Force from Batman and the Outsiders. That they ended up being brother and sister was a happy accident. “I brought in Terra to DC a few hours before Mike W. Barr brought in Geo-Force for the Outsiders,” says Wolfman. “That’s because I worked on staff and was in the office by 9:30, whereas he came in later that day. When we realized we had characters with similar powers, we decided to make them brother and sister in order not to have one of them rejected.” In spite of her caustic personality and the suspicious signs, fans fell in love with Terra. “I have no idea why fans took to Terra, outside of the fact that we knew from day one that they’d believe she’d reform,” states Wolfman. “Also, George drew her as quirky and fun, not beautiful and sexy, which also made it work. She looked like a girl we’d want to make part of the book. Of course, we knew we were playing on reader expectations, and that we intended on turning those expectations on their head, but I never knew why, in retrospect, readers still loved her and why they ignored every bad thing she did—even after the truth was revealed.” In an interview with Andy Mangels in Comics Interview #50 (1987), George Pérez also commented on fooling the readers: “I deliberately used all the things to make her as likable and cute as possible, so people would never believe we were going to kill a sixteen-year-old. And she was a sixteen-year-old sociopath. She was one of our cleverest gimmicks.” When it was revealed that Terra was working with Slade, according to Wolfman, the readers “couldn’t believe it. They assumed she was working undercover and that the truth would be revealed next issue. Even when we had her smoking and in that nightgown, they still thought we were going to reform her. When they realized we weren’t, they cursed us.”

THE DEATH OF TERRA

Reader reaction to Terra’s betrayal was nothing compared to their reaction to her death. “Some people hated us, one even sent a death threat, but most people really came to love the story,” says Wolfman. “They loved going back over the story to see that we never lied to them. Terra was set up from day one as a villain and stayed that way. Nobody could believe what we did and they always assumed, even beyond the end, that since she was buried and that since earth was her source of power, that she’d come back, reformed, but that was never the case. Tara Markov was dead and buried forever.” Terra’s death also affected her brother Brion. The Titans told him that she died in battle, but kept from him the fact that she betrayed them. Batman felt Geo-Force needed to know the truth and told him in Batman and the Outsiders Annual #1 (1984). “That was

The (Psychopathic) Girl Next Door A charming 2005 portrait of Terra by George Pérez. Contributed by its owner, Steven Regina. TM & © DC Comics.

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The early 1980s were a much simpler time. Prior to 1983, superheroes didn’t kill supervillains. It just didn’t happen. In the four-color world of comics, villains were the only ones who killed. Superman never used lethal force, Batman simply outsmarted everyone, and Wonder Woman never took a life, although she was a warrior before coming to man’s world. During the Silver Age, Captain America, despite having been a soldier, was never shown killing a foe— and taking the life of his arch-nemesis was something Flash fans thought they’d never see. But in The Flash #323 (July 1983), all that would change. In that very issue, Prof. Zoom, the ReverseFlash, led Barry (Flash) Allen on a chase that ended the next issue with the race suddenly coming to an unexpected end. To be exact, it would be Prof. Zoom’s end. And nothing would ever be the same in the Flash’s world again. Poor Barry Allen—who had suffered the loss of his wife Iris’ life at the hands of the Reverse-Flash back in issue #275, and was about to see his new fiancée, Fiona Webb, slain on their wedding day in the same way—was the man responsible for Zoom’s death. He wasn’t going to just let Zoom kill Fiona, so he turned on the speed, caught up with the evil Prof., and grabbed him around the neck in a simple chokehold. But the end results shocked the world.

THE FASTEST MANSLAUGHTER ALIVE

Flash writer Cary Bates says he came up with the idea to have Flash kill Prof. Zoom. Editor Ernie Colón signed off on the suggestion and, from that point, everything started rolling downhill fast for the Flash. “As I recall, Ernie was all for it,” Bates writes in a recent interview done via e-mail. “As someone who came to Flash without much experience editing superhero titles, he wasn’t encumbered by a lot of the baggage other editors might have brought to a DC icon and he encouraged me to break as many of the usual rules as we could get away with. I never got any flak from the higher-ups; whether this was because they were staying away or because Ernie ran interference, I don’t know. “By this point, Ernie and I were totally committed to Flash being forced to take a human life. And the fact that Zoom was trying to repeat history by killing Barry’s current significant other just like he killed Iris was the icing on the cake, in a homicidal maniac kind of way.”

Cuffed Crusader The Scarlet Speedster, arrested for manslaughter! Detail from the Carmine Infantino and Gary Martin cover to The Flash #326 (Oct. 1983). Unless otherwise noted, all art in this article is courtesy of Michael Browning. TM & © DC Comics.

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Bates says the Flash/Zoom feud went back two decades and had to come to a shocking conclusion. “Go back to the first few John Broome Zoom stories,” Bates says. “I still maintain there was an undercurrent there that sowed the seeds for an ongoing Flash vs. R-Flash conflict that would one day inevitably lead to a battle to the death. I recall being motivated by certain aspects of Broome’s characterization of Zoom that hinted he had some sort of obsession with Iris.” Zoom had tried to win Iris Allen’s love several times and, after realizing he could never have her, he vibrated his hand into her brain, killing her instantly. The death of his beloved wife nearly drove Barry Allen mad. Fans, too: Iris was a strong female character and a fan favorite. Now, in a shocking turn of events, she had been killed by Prof. Zoom.

The cover to Flash #323 hinted that something bad was going to happen: Maybe readers were blinded by the racing speed of the two foes. Maybe they just never thought the Flash was capable of taking a life. They never saw the ending coming. “You had Flash kill Professor Zoom! The Flash is no longer a hero; heroes don’t kill,” wrote reader Jeff Peckham in a letter published in Flash #328. Reader Scott Bierworth commented in the same issue, “Well, Flash is a murderer now. It was an accident, wasn’t it?” Flash wasn’t charged with murder, but he was jailed for manslaughter. Bates says he never received any opposition to Flash killing Reverse-Flash from the head honchos at DC. “Back in those days, the fate of any Flash villain was the sole call of the Flash editor, just as Green Lantern’s villains were the sole domain of the GL editor, et cetera,” Bates says. “Unlike Superman and Batman, who were both appearing extensively in other media, DC’s secondtier characters rarely faced the same kind of front-office scrutiny as the big guys, which precluded anyone from killing higher-profile villains like Penguin or Brainiac, for example.” Bates was working with one of the original co-creators of the Silver Age Flash, Carmine Infantino, who did some of his best work on the Death of Reverse-Flash/ Trial of the Flash storyline. Colón says he and Bates had to get Infantino motivated to draw the Flash because, at that time, Infantino regarded the work as just another job. Infantino says that it was true that he wasn’t very happy working on a monthly book again, but he still got a little involved in the plotting of the storyline. While Infantino admits that his recollections of the storyline are few, he recalls objecting to the Flash killing Reverse-Flash. “There should never have been any killing,” Infantino says. “With that, comics took a step where they shouldn’t have gone, I think. I remember they threw Flash in jail for awhile. I think they ruined the [Flash] character. I was strictly the artist, but I did complain to Julie [Schwartz, original Flash editor] and said, ‘I don’t think this is a very good idea.’ It was just another job at that point and I didn’t want to do it. Joe Orlando stepped in and said he wanted me to do it. It got tiresome toward the end. They were dragging it out too long. I didn’t like the idea of him killing the Reverse-Flash or the trial for him killing the guy. I didn’t think it was a comic book anymore. I don’t know what the hell they were trying to do. I’d like to think there was some other way for Flash to stop Reverse-Flash without killing him. By the end, I was really tired of it and didn’t want to do it anymore.” Editor Ernie Colón fondly remembers being The Flash’s editor for “one year, two weeks, and three days.”

Before Zoom’s Doom... Little did monitor duty-ing JLAers Firestorm and Wonder Woman know that the Fastest Man Alive was racing toward chaos on this opening splash to Flash #323. From the Michael Browning collection. TM & © DC Comics.

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The Secret History of All-American Comics, Inc. The Story of M. C. Gaines’ Publishing Empire

Bob Rozakis

Book Two – Chapter One: The Old Order Changeth

Without Max Charles Gaines, it is unlikely that comicbook history would be what it is. From the earliest magazines collecting reprints of newspaper comic strips to the dawn of the Golden Age, and throughout the heyday of comic-book popularity in the 1940s, Charlie Gaines (as he was generally called by those who knew him) was a driving force. At the beginning of 1945, Gaines split officially with National/DC and began issuing the adventures of Wonder Woman, the Flash, and Green Lantern, as well as Funny Stuff, Mutt & Jeff, and his favorite project, Picture Stories from the Bible, under the All-American Publications banner, with an “AA” symbol replacing the previous “DC” sigil on covers. According to a notice in the Dec. 1944 issue of Independent News, the trade publication of Independent News, the distribution company basically owned by the same folks who owned National/DC, Jack Liebowitz was officially Gaines’ co-publisher on the new AA line. [For details, see The All-Star Companion, Vol. 3.] The AA venture was short-lived, however—lasting only about eight months—and sometime in 1945 Gaines sold his company entirely to his DC partners Liebowitz and Harry Donenfeld, and soon launched EC (Educational Comics, a.k.a. Entertaining Comics) to publish Picture Stories and other, new titles. But what if things hadn’t turned out quite that way? Bob Rozakis, longtime writer and production director for DC Comics, has imagined a distinct version of what Alter Ego’s editor Roy Thomas likes to call “Earth-22”—combining the notions of Julius Schwartz/Gardner Fox and Catch-22 author Joseph Heller—a parallel world on which events took a different, yet quite possible, even logical turn. After all, in The Mad World of William M. Gaines (Lyle Stuart, 1972), the official biography of M. C. Gaines’ son, who became famous (and infamous) as the publisher of EC’s Tales from the Crypt, MAD, et al., author Frank Jacobs writes: “[A]ll was not roses within the new partnership, especially after Donenfeld, in one of his typically impulsive gestures, gave his half of the All-American group to his accountant, Jack Liebowitz. Suddenly, Max found himself partnered with Liebowitz, and they didn’t get along. Bill remembers that every afternoon his father would take a taxi to the uptown offices, where he, Liebowitz, and Donenfeld would scream at each other for two hours. Something had to give and that something was Max’s patience. In early 1945, he hurled out his ultimatum: ‘You buy me out or I’ll buy you out.’ They bought him out.” But what if he had bought Donenfeld and Liebowitz out, instead? In this opening installment of Book Two of a new series which is being divided between the pages of BACK ISSUE and its TwoMorrows big-sister mag Alter Ego, the author explores an alternate reality and reveals—

The Adventures of Green Lantern When He Was a Boy Young Alan Scott’s adventures became a part of the Green Lantern legend in the late 1940s, thanks to editor Mort Weisinger, and Kid Lantern’s solo tales appeared well into the 1970s. Art on this 1960s cover by Curt Swan and longtime AA inker Shane Foley. (Logos and characters in this fantasy history are © or based upon characters © DC Comics.) H e r o e s

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Ted and Bob (left) Ted Skimmer and Bob Rozakis, circa 1973. Neither can remember what they were dressed up for, “but it was probably a company luncheon of some sort,” says Bob. I first met Ted P. Skimmer when I started working at AA in 1973. At the time, Ted’s duties straddled the production and editorial areas … he worked in the film library and the stat room, but he also was the backup proofreader and unofficial researcher. In the latter role, he had custody of the AA library, bound volumes of all the books the company had published, going all the way back to the very first DC books in the ’30s. Ted’s tenure at AA began in 1944. Seventeen years old at the time, too young for the draft, he’d been hired as a fill-in assistant for “just a couple of weeks.” Thirty years later, he would joke, “I keep wondering when the weekend is coming.” Over the years, Ted taught himself the skills that would earn him freelance money: coloring and lettering. “The coloring came first. Some artwork got lost and they had to slot in a replacement story, but there were no color guides for it. They were going to print it in black-andwhite, but I grabbed a set of silver prints and some dyes and in about an hour and a half had a set of color guides. It was only a six-page story and, frankly, looking back at it now, it was some pretty ugly coloring. But at least there was something.” After that, Ted got a story from time to time. “Mostly it was last-minute, emergency jobs. They had me doing them on staff time, so they didn’t have to pay me extra.” The lettering came later. “Lettering looks a lot easier, but it’s really a pain in the ass. First you’ve got to rule in all the lines, then you letter in the words, draw the balloons, and erase all the pencil lines. There’s a more immediate turnaround needed, though, so if you can bat out a few pages overnight, it keeps an inker or two busy the next day.” Ted Skimmer worked on staff at AA until 1997. He continues to do an occasional coloring job, but his hands are too unsteady to allow him to do lettering any more. “I could never figure out that computerized stuff, anyway,” he says. To his delight, he was asked to recolor that first six-pager he’d done. “They were reprinting it in one of the Archive books and one of the kids thought it would be appropriate. I didn’t want to change it too much since those books are supposed to be faithful reproductions of the originals, but I did tone down some of the garish solid colors.” Ted had a front-row seat to more than fifty years of the company’s history and was happy to share it with me … and you. – Bob Rozakis

A SCHIFF IN POWER

Looking back at the history of AA, a lot has been said about 1970, when Mort Weisinger retired, because it was the first major shift in the editorial department in more than fifteen years. But that was just the beginning of changes. By the end of the ’60s, Charlie had handed over virtually all the day-to-day control of the company to Bill and the younger Gaines was determined to put his own stamp on what was coming out. But the departure of Weisinger and the splitting up of the Green Lantern books was just the first step in Bill’s overhaul of the company. 7 4

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