Back Issue #102

INTERVIEW WITH DEADPOOL’S FIRST WRITER, FABIAN NICIEZA

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“All-Jerks Issue!” Guy Gardner, Namor in the Bronze Age, J. Jonah Jameson, Flash Thompson, DC’s Biggest Blowhards, the Heckler, Obnoxio the Clown, and Archie’s “pal” Reggie Mantle! Featuring the work of (non-jerks) RICH BUCKLER, KURT BUSIEK, JOHN BYRNE, STEVE ENGLEHART, KEITH GIFFEN, ALAN KUPPERBERG, and many more. Cover-featuring KEVIN MAGUIRE’s iconic Batman/Guy Gardner “One Punch”!

“Bronze Age Halloween!” The Swamp Thing revival of 1982, Swamp Thing in Hollywood, Phantom Stranger team-ups, KUPPERBERG & MIGNOLA’s Phantom Stranger miniseries, DC’s The Witching Hour, the Living Mummy, and an index of Marvel’s 1970s’ horror anthologies! Featuring the work of RICH BUCKLER, ANDY MANGELS, VAL MAYERIK, MARTIN PASKO, MICHAEL USLAN, TOM YEATES, and many more. Cover by YEATES.

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“All-Captains Issue!” Bronze Age histories of Shazam! (Captain Marvel) and Captain Mar-Vell, Captain Carrot, Captain Storm and the Losers, Captain Universe, and Captain Victory and the Galactic Rangers. Featuring C. C. BECK, PAT BRODERICK, JACK KIRBY, ELLIOT S. MAGGIN, BILL MANTLO, DON NEWTON, BOB OKSNER, SCOTT SHAW!, JIM STARLIN, ROY THOMAS, and more.

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Volume 1, Number 102 February 2018 EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Michael Eury PUBLISHER John Morrow

Comics’ Bronze Age and Beyond!

DESIGNER Rich Fowlks COVER ARTIST Rob Liefeld COVER COLORIST Glenn Whitmore COVER DESIGNER Michael Kronenberg PROOFREADER Rob Smentek SPECIAL THANKS Terry Beatty Bob McLeod Jarrod Buttery David Michelinie Marc Buxton Fabian Nicieza Joe Casey Luigi Novi Ian Churchill Scott Nybakken Shaun Clancy Chuck Patton Max Allan Collins Philip Schweier Brian Cronin David Scroggy Grand Comics Ken Siu-Chong Database Tod Smith Tom DeFalco Anthony Snyder Christos Gage Allen Stewart Mike Grell Steven Thompson Gene Ha Fred Van Lente Heritage Comics Marv Wolfman Auctions Doug Zawisza Sean Howe Mike Zeck Brian Ko Paul Kupperberg James Heath Lantz Batton Lash Rob Liefeld Christian Lichtner Matteo Lolli Brian Martin Marvel Comics

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FLASHBACK: Deathstroke the Terminator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 A bullet-riddled bio of the New Teen Titans breakout star BRING ON THE BAD GUYS: Taskmaster . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Is he really the best at everything he does?

FLASHBACK: The Vigilante . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Who were those masked men in this New Teen Titans spinoff?

FLASHBACK: Wild Dog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 Max Allan Collins and Terry Beatty unmask DC’s ’80s vigilante ROUGH STUFF . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 Grim-and-gritty graphite from Grell, Wrightson, Zeck, and Liefeld FLASHBACK: Cable Guide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 The history of Marvel’s time-traveling mutant INTERVIEW: Fabian Nicieza: The Evolution of Deadpool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 The first writer to give voice to the Merc with a Mouth WHAT THE--?!: Archie Meets the Punisher . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 Fear and punishment in Riverdale, courtesy of Batton Lash BACKSTAGE PASS: The Hall of Heroes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72 A BI bonus! Visit “the world’s only superhero museum” BACK IN PRINT: The Bronze Age Teen Titans Omnibus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 A review of this mega-sized DC collected edition BACK TALK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77 Reader reactions BACK ISSUE™ is published 8 times a year by TwoMorrows Publishing, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614. Michael Eury, Editor-in-Chief. John Morrow, Publisher. Editorial Office: BACK ISSUE, c/o Michael Eury, Editor-in-Chief, 118 Edgewood Avenue NE, Concord, NC 28025. Email: euryman@gmail. com. Eight-issue subscriptions: $73 Standard US, $116 International, $31 Digital. Please send subscription orders and funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial office. Cover art by Rob Liefeld. Cable and Deadpool TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved. All characters are © their respective companies.

All material © their creators unless otherwise noted. All editorial matter © 2018 Michael Eury and TwoMorrows Publishing. Printed in China. FIRST PRINTING.

Mercs and Anti-heroes Issue • BACK ISSUE • 1

Originally crafted as a foil for the Teen Titans, Slade Wilson, a.k.a. Deathstroke the Terminator, has transcended that initial role, expanding to take on the entire DC Universe, even claiming his own solo title—four times—in the process.

IN THE BEGINNING

A worldwide recognizable brand in his own regard, Deathstroke the Terminator had a less grandiose stage to cross first. In his mercenary identity of the Terminator, Slade Wilson made his debut with his back to the readers on the opening splash page of the Marv Wolfman-written, George Pérez-drawn New Teen Titans #2 (Dec. 1980).

His origins wouldn’t be revealed until threeand-a-half years after his debut, in Tales of the Teen Titans #44 (July 1984), but the man introduced to readers as Deathstroke the Terminator’s story stretched back to the Suez Crisis in 1956, where he met his aide, confidant, and friend, William Randolph Wintergreen. Their friendship forged in the fires of war, the two men would meet again in the Vietnam War. In Deathstroke #16 (May 2017) of the Rebirth-era series, Wintergreen defines their relationship thusly: “Slade is not my boss. He’s my friend… Imagine how george pérez dangerous he’d be without friends.”

In between the Suez Crisis and © Luigi Novi / Wikimedia.

Vietnam, Slade Wilson became the human weapon known as Deathstroke the Terminator.

Stronger and more agile than any normal man and capable of utilizing 90% of his brain capacity, this amplified Wilson’s ability to plot and plan. Following his military service, Wilson became a for-hire big-game hunter and eventually a mercenary, learning mastery of a vast arsenal of weaponry and fighting styles in the process.

In New Teen Titans #2, Deathstroke is listening to an offer from the H.I.V.E. (Hierarchy of International Vengeance and Eliminations). Deftly, writer Marv Wolfman builds Wilson’s reputation through the conversation as this new character decides to walk out of the contract the H.I.V.E. is offering, making his first appearance more powerful than any text, Who’s Who, or recap ever could. After all, H.I.V.E. wouldn’t meet the Terminator’s demands of payment, in full, before taking on the contract.

That contract was to destroy the Teen Titans.

The directors of H.I.V.E. did not take “no” for an answer from Deathstroke, so they found the next best thing to the Terminator: his son, unbeknownst to anyone save, perhaps, Wolfman and Pérez. Grant Wilson made his debut as an apparently innocent bystander in The New Teen Titans #1 (Nov. 1980). Harboring Starfire in his apartment after “She fell out’a the sky!,” Grant has to explain the gold-skinned alien’s presence to his estranged girlfriend. In and of itself, that plot would fill many modern-day comics, but Gordanians and two

Stroke of Luck Who knew, when Deathstroke first appeared as a villain in The New Teen Titans #2 (Dec. 1980), that this “Terminator” would later become a solo star? Cover by George Pérez.

TM & © DC Comics.

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TM

by D o u g

Zawisza

Taken for Granted Grant Wilson has a beef with the TTs on page 19 of New Teen Titans #1.

TM & © DC Comics.

Deadpool TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

separate waves of Titans bust through the apartment with almost comedic timing, save for the destruction they leave behind. As a result, Grant Wilson decides to blame the Titans for finalizing his breakup with Carol.

As a result, New Teen Titans #2 contains a supervillain origin, a family reunion, a Teen Titans pool party, and a grisly death, all in the span of 25 pages.

In a 1987 discussion with Andy Mangels for Comics Interview #50 (1987), Pérez said, “The Terminator, my favorite of the Titans’ villains, because I really liked the idea of the strong, massive-yet-debonair older man. The fact that he’s definitely a man in his [50s], but he’s strong as an ox, very handsome, very polished—you can understand, again, a sexual appeal.

I’m very big on the sexual appeal of characters— particularly males. Since all the men are big and muscular, to show a bit of sexuality in them, that’s a tough thing to do. The fact that the Titans have developed… I’ve gotten mail from women who think that Terminator is sexy as all hell. And that’s great. That’s the feeling I wanted.”

Three characters—Deathstroke, Ravager, and William Randolph Wintergreen—made their appearance in New Teen Titans #2. While Deathstroke is the only one who would go on to establish a comic-book series (repeatedly!), the other two characters are as inseparable from Deathstroke’s journey as Alfred Pennyworth and Jason Todd would be for Batman… …except Grant Wilson accounts for the aforementioned grisly death. Fueled by his rage against the Titans, he is all too willing and shortsighted when H.I.V.E. comes calling. They seemingly know about his childhood fixation with Deathstroke the Terminator and prey upon that, offering to boost his abilities so he would be able to utilize 100% of his brain, while Deathstroke can only claim mastery of 90% of his own gray matter. Donning a suit of armor not unlike the infamous attire Deathstroke wears and assuming the name Ravager, Grant takes on the contract and sets out to slay the Titans.

The experimental process burns out Grant, physically draining him every time he uses his powers. In the course of New Teen Titans #2, before his literal burnout, however, Grant is able to leverage his newfound abilities to nearsinglehandedly shellac the Titans, until Starfire nails him with one of her starbolts. The bolt is not enough to kill Ravager, but it is enough to stop him in his tracks long enough for his body to catch up to him.

The Terminator was quick to blame the Titans for Ravager’s demise, doing so as he scoops up the deceased form of putting Robin in charge, dusting off some the would-be assassin. He blurts out, other teenaged heroes, creating a new “And he died… because of you!” set of friends, and crafting foes that could The issue ends with Slade Wilson threaten DC heroes (and sometimes and Wintergreen observing Carol Sladky villains), regardless of their age.

“The first issue sold enormously high, at her one-time boyfriend’s gravesite.

Slade declares he has assumed the as first issues always do,” Wolfman said, contract of the Ravager, after all, “Like indicating sales would slump a bit thereafter. father, like son!” Through this “You didn’t get sales figures for six to exchange and the subsequent eavesnine months,” which, when paired with marv wolfman dropping of the H.I.V.E., readers are a monthly book, means feedback and performance wouldn’t even be known left to do the math that Ravager is Noel Wolfman. for nearly half a year after the comic hit Deathstroke the Terminator’s son.

According to Wolfman, from the onset, “Ravager was the newsstand. “They were ordering issue #3 without going to die. He was the catalyst for bringing in seeing issue #1.” Once images met eyeballs, the title would Deathstroke.” In picking up the contract his son failed to eventually go on a stellar ascent, becoming one of DC’s fulfill, Slade Wilson—Deathstroke—would become the best and most consistent performers in the early 1980s.

As sales feedback was missing, the creators didn’t have most recognizable foe to ever face the teen team.

It would be a few months before Slade Wilson’s return. a deep read on Deathstroke’s reception. Once they cleared According to Wolfman’s own recollection at the 2017 FanX the six-month hurdle, however, it was only natural that Slade Con in Salt Lake City, Utah (and captured in the March 22, Wilson would return, as the creative team was given a bit 2017 episode of Word Balloon), “Every single new [DC] book more latitude—and seized even more—to move forward died by issue #6. Because of that, we [Wolfman and Pérez] and tell stories that made the Titans a beloved franchise. would do what we always wanted to do,” which included

you’re really gonna open with this Mercs an d Aguy n t ,i -fellas? h e r o e sWhat’s Issue • BACK ISSUE • 3 his name? heatstroke?

SMELLS LIKE TEEN TITANS

Wolfman and Pérez found comfort in growing the team as people and friends, rather than just battle-ready costumed fighters. New Teen Titans #8 (June 1981) remains one of the favorites for both creators. In the 1998-dated Foreword for The New Teen Titans Archives, vol. 1 (1999), Pérez recalled, “It was in issue #8 that I think Marv and I really nailed the specialness of the characters and the series.

‘A Day in the Lives…’ was the story that galvanized the personalities for me, the point at which I felt they were dictating how I would draw them and how Marv would dialog them. That’s when they truly came alive.”

The personalities made the Titans more a family than a team of costumed crimefighters. That’s something Wolfman and Pérez would maintain throughout their run, but not limit to only the good guys. New Teen Titans #9 (July 1981) brought Deathstroke back, albeit mostly as a cliffhanger tease for New Teen Titans #10 (Aug. 1981). In the final image of New Teen Titans #9, Deathstroke is portrayed on the rooftop of Dayton Industries’ Long Island Laboratory, literally holding the plot device for the next issue in his hands.

New Teen Titans #10 contains the story titled “Promethium Unbound,” which opened with Deathstroke spending time studying his outstanding contract from the H.I.V.E.—the Titans. Wilson takes the fight to the Titans, singling out Starfire and taking her for a four-page battle that uses every tool in Pérez’s artistic arsenal— dazzling detail, explosive energy, rumbling rubble, and more—as Starfire holds her own, or rather, is surprised that Terminator holds his own.

After absconding with Project: Promethium in New Teen Titans #9, Deathstroke (still mostly referred to as “Terminator”) is ready as H.I.V.E. comes calling again.

Now, not only do they want an update on the Titans, but they also want the Promethium bomb, which Slade Wilson has constructed from the Project: Promethium plans he stole. The resulting scuffle pits the Titans against the H.I.V.E. and more. Deathstroke makes a break for freedom in the ensuing chaos. Changeling is the only one free to stop him, so Wolfman and Pérez give us a fight for the ages in 12 vertical panels on two pages. Changeling lives, but only barely, as Deathstroke escapes to fight another day.

In a 2004 essay that has been repurposed for various Teen Titans collections, Wolfman called Deathstroke “easily my favorite Titans bad guy, because deep down he wasn’t all that bad. Well, he was for a while, but he got better.

Deathstroke had more shades of gray than any other villain I had ever previously created, so it’s not all that surprising that this issue—which really sets up the Terminator/Changeling feud—is resolved four years later in one of my very favorite stories entitled, appropriately enough, ‘Shades of Gray.’ ” The “for a while” that Wolfman referred to is, undoubtedly, “The Judas Contract” storyline that would rock the Titans, define Deathstroke as a master planner, and imprint comic fans for generations to come.

Pérez didn’t get into the Deathstroke’s uniform design, but in an interview with Mangels for Sketch #10 (2001), Pérez did say that “one of the things I have to get a little past, even to this day, is designing costumes that only I would like to draw. I find that the costumes I like to draw have a lot of little extra doo-dads, slightly asymmetrical, and are so detailed that most other artists, the second they get a chance to handle the character regularly, will simplify the costume.” That might help to explain Deathstroke’s relative exclusivity to the world of the Titans, and the gap of nearly two years between tussles with the Teen Titans.

Before his next New Teen Titans appearance came Marvel and DC Present the Uncanny X-Men and the New Teen Titans #1 (Aug. 1982), written by Chris Claremont and drawn by Walter Simonson, with inks by Terry Austin. (You can catch up on that issue in BACK ISSUE #66, Aug. 2013.) Deathstroke had some interesting moments interacting with Marvel’s mighty mutants, particularly one character that seemingly has a lot in common with Wilson, including being “the best there is at what he does.”

One of the characters most infamously associated with Deathstroke is the Titan named Terra, who hit the ground running in New Teen Titans #26 (Dec. 1982). She only appears on three pages, but is clearly distraught, claiming, “I have my assignment. I have to destroy this statue.” Changeling stops her from

Turning Points (top) Deathstroke barrels his way into New Teen Titans #34 (Aug. 1983). (bottom) A lot took place in Tales of the Teen Titans #44 (July 1984): Deathstroke’s origin, Dick Grayson becoming Nightwing, and the first appearance of Jericho. Covers by Pérez.

TM & © DC Comics.

4 • BACK ISSUE • Mercs and Anti-heroes Issue

destroying the Statue of Liberty before she disappears.

Readers familiar with Titans lore from this time know this won’t be the last we see of Terra, and they also know exactly how she’s connected to Deathstroke.

Terra returns in New Teen Titans #28 (Feb. 1983), claiming that the deeds she is doing are because her parents are being held hostage. The Titans convince her to let them help her, but not before she takes Changeling out (he returns the favor) and throws punches and tantrums all over Titans Tower. Insisting that she doesn’t want to be a Titan, the earth-throwing young lady has a change of heart—and costume—in New Teen Titans #30 (Apr. 1983), where she officially becomes the first new member of the New Teen Titans, even as Speedy joins his old crew for a mission.

The Terminator explosively returns in New Teen Titans #34 (Aug. 1983), blasting the cover to shreds.

The issue opened with Wilson strutting around his New York City apartment in his skivvies, reminiscing about the good ol’ days to Wintergreen. Through this conversation, we learn a bit more about the mercenary’s history and his track record—specifically, the Titans’ contract is his only unfulfilled hit. Deathstroke leverages another hit (a Wall Street stockbroker with a $10,000 price tag on his head) to serve as ransom in negotiating the Titans out into the open.

Terra sees this as the moment to prove herself as a Titan, and charges into battle. In her fight with Deathstroke, through the magic of thought balloons, we learn that Deathstroke is “hardly ordinary. My brain capacity has been increased to 90%—I’ve got full control over my body.” He also reminds the readers of his fast reflexes and heightened senses, as he hears the rest of the Titans before the join the battle. The struggle ends with Deathstroke apparently choosing to blow himself up instead of facing capture, declaring, “Nobody captures the Terminator. Nobody!”

THE JUDAS CONTRACT

Terra went on to earn the Titans’ faith and trust over the next few issues, through Thunder and Lightning’s return, the Fearsome Five-driven crossover with Batman and the Outsiders #5 (Dec. 1983).

New Teen Titans #39 (Feb. 1984), titled “Crossroads,” brings about some major changes of the Titans, with Wally West setting aside the Kid Flash identity and Dick Grayson declaring, “Robin’s going back to being Batman’s partner, and I’m giving up being Robin.” The issue also reminds readers that Terra isn’t as pure as she seems, despite winning over her teammates—and readers.

Monitoring Terra’s interaction with the Titans through super-creepy spy contact lenses in Terra’s eyes, sipping on a drink, Deathstroke proclaims to Wintergreen, “I tell you, old friend—she’s the best little sociopath I’ve ever known.”

In TwoMorrows’ Modern Masters: George Pérez, the co-creator of Deathstroke told Eric Nolen-Weathington, “With Terra, Marv came up with the idea that he wanted to bring in a new character—similar to how Kitty Pryde was brought into the X-Men—but he knew from the very start that this girl was going to be a traitor and that we were going to be killing this character off—killing

Disorder in the Court (left) Eduardo Barreto’s cover to Tales of the Teen Titans #54 (June 1985), which featured (right) this trial scene featuring Slade Wilson. Story by Wolfman and Pérez, art by Rich Buckler, Mike DeCarlo, and Dick Giordano.

TM & © DC Comics.

Mercs and Anti-heroes Issue • BACK ISSUE • 5

Who Dat? From Who’s Who #23 (Jan. 1987), the Pérez-drawn montage for Deathstroke, billed as “Terminator” in this issue. Depicted in the background are Slade Wilson, Grant and Adeline Wilson, Wintergreen, Jericho, and the Titans.

TM & © DC Comics.

6 • BACK ISSUE • Mercs and Anti-heroes Issue

her definitely and, as far as we were concerned, finally.

We were plotting it always with that in mind, knowing the dramatic irony of every single thing that she said and did. We supplied all the clues logically, because we knew where we were going.

“Certain things we took chances on because we didn’t have to worry about the ramifications beyond that storyline. One of the primary things was that we had Deathstroke the Terminator have an affair with a minor— this is a statutory rape—and the fact that she is so sociopathic.

Since we knew we were planning to kill her and have her meet her deserved end, we didn’t worry about what kind of moral lesson it was. She was going to be punished.

Anyone who thought after seeing how truly bad she was that we would find a way of redeeming her was being a little naïve. We wanted her to be as much a viper in the garden as we could.” That affair opens New Teen Titans #39, hitting readers as powerfully as though Tara Markov herself were blowing the second-hand smoke from her cigarette right into our eyes.

With a zig where there maybe should have been a zag, New Teen Titans became Tales of the Teen Titans in the middle of a Brother Blood two-parter. Tales of the Teen Titans #41 (Apr. 1984) set the stage for the most critical tale ever of the Teen Titans.

Tales of the Teen Titans #42 (May 1984) launches “The Judas Contract,” with another apparently mundane issue featuring a day in the life, but Wolfman and Pérez pepper the issue with television-screen-like panels that are freeze-frames of the Titans. Taken through “The Eyes of Tara Markov,” these images help Deathstroke complete his files on the Titans, enabling him to finally set his master plan into motion. The issue ends, ironically, with Deathstroke himself being monitored, by a lady who makes the declaration: “Slade, it’s been a long time.

But not long enough for you.”

That lady turns out to Adeline Kane Wilson, and in Tales of the Teen Titans #43 (June 1984) we get a little bit about her background, and also meet her son, Joseph.

In the issue, Adeline is trying to help Dick Grayson (still without a costumed identity) come to grips with the fact that the Teen Titans have been betrayed by one of their own—Terra!

Also in Tales of the Teen Titans #43, readers learn that Deathstroke is unnerved to realize that his influence does not necessarily control Terra’s actions. On edge, he gives up chasing Dick Grayson, who had fought the Terminator long enough to escape and frustrate the mercenary, leading to Grayson’s encounter with Adeline.

According to Wolfman, “Now he finds himself caught in a downward spiral; the Titans are not his enemy, but he still has to keep up the attacks, even though he doesn’t want to. Because he had never failed to fulfill a contract before he took on the Titans, Slade desperately finds himself disappearing into a deeper and deeper hole and doesn’t quite know how to stop. Slade always said his word was his bond. Now that promise is slowly destroying him.”

The rest of the Titans fall, one by one, leading to the final page. Deathstroke approaches the H.I.V.E.’s Rocky Mountains headquarters, declaring, “The Teen Titans are yours!”

Tales of the Teen Titans #44 delivers the penultimate chapter of Deathstroke’s master plan in a story titled “There Shall Come a Titan.” After revealing her former marriage to Deathstroke in the previous issue, Adeline spills the beans on everything from her own origin to the end of her marriage to Slade Wilson. The issue, noteworthy for the background information it provides on Deathstroke and his supporting cast, also includes the first appearance of Dick Grayson as Nightwing, and Slade Wilson’s younger

son, Joey Wilson, as Jericho. Jericho, mute from a childhood encounter with an adversary of Deathstroke’s, signs his intent to Nightwing, and also shows Nightwing his ability—to possess others through eye contact. The duo head off find Grayson’s allies, and Adeline is left behind, smiling. Tales of the Teen Titans #44 provides the origin of Deathstroke, elaborating on his previously mentioned military service.

“The Judas Contract” wraps in Tales of the Teen Titans Annual #3 (1984). With his contract to deliver the Teen Titans fulfilled, Deathstroke begins to plot his next move—Southeast Asia, or maybe Africa. To shake things up, Terra brings Nightwing and Jericho to the H.I.V.E., much to Deathstroke’s surprise. Jericho possesses his father, and begins to trash the place, freeing the Titans and devastating the H.I.V.E. Terra’s hairtrigger temper kicks in and she lashes out, attacking Deathstroke, losing control, and, in Deathstroke’s words, “Going crazy!”

With this story, as they did with New Teen Titans Annual #2, Wolfman and Pérez add to the Titans tapestry. In the aforementioned Modern Masters, Pérez shared his thoughts about ending with an Annual: “DC’s Annuals were primarily collections. This was the first time that DC was doing Annuals of original stories, which was something that Marv took from working at Marvel. When Marvel did their Annuals they were new stories—sometimes they used reprints as a backup filler. But Marv was of the belief that—and I totally agreed with him— that these Annuals should be something special. They should give you something new for your buck, particularly with comics becoming more expensive.

“The one thing he did that was unnerving—but also smart, considering if you liked the Titans you had to buy the Annuals—was making them the climax of a story built up in the regular series,” Pérez said. “That in itself was a pretty gutsy move, saying, ‘Now you have to pay more money to have to see the end of this story.’ But it did well. Titans was on an almost unstoppable roll. The momentum was great and we were allowed to do things that were, in the spirit of the times, risky.

Titans was so successful, DC was willing to try almost anything as long as it had the Titans banner on it. And then other books obviously followed suit. I think Titans did a lot to bring some of the innovations of Marvel to DC. “Marv was bringing in ideas that he’d already seen be successful and saying, ‘Hey, it can work for us, too.’ ” With “The Judas Contract” complete, and apprehended by the Titans, Deathstroke would spend some time off-panel, waiting for the next opportunity to present itself.

BAXTER (UNIM)PRESSED

New Teen Titans became Tales of the Teen Titans. DC was experimenting with the direct-sales market, printing on Baxter paper and pricing a bit higher. The target sales outlets for a new Teen Titans comic provided latitude to be a bit more risky, but not risqué. Well, in some cases, it was a bit more risqué as well, given that the new, Baxter-paper New Teen Titans #1 (Aug. 1984) had a scene of Dick Grayson and Starfire in bed, wearing only their birthday suits.

The Titans brand was on fire, making this the perfect time to launch a second title, even if it meant a general do-si-do of titles, with the older series getting a new logo. New Teen Titans #1 was written by Marv Wolfman, and drawn by George Pérez and gave readers a chance to catch up on the Titans in their post-“The Judas Contract” status quo. As Wolfman noted in the introduction for “The Terror of Trigon” collected edition (2003), “To make a reader care about your stories, you have to make them care about the characters.

And to do that, you have to create characters who have depth and not surface excuses for glib banter.”

For a little while, DC published two Teen Titans titles, side-by-side, although only the direct market would be able to see them as such. With Tales of the Teen Titans #59 (Nov. 1985), the title would begin reprinting other Titans comics. The first reprint contained the bonus story from DC Comics Presents, where the New Teen Titans originally appeared in a preview story, as well as a ten-page tale from Best of DC Blue Ribbon Digest #18 (1981).

Starting with Tales of the Teen Titans #60 (Dec. 1985), the format would switch to reprints of the Baxter-paper New Teen Titans series, giving all markets access to what was, at the time, exclusive to direct markets. Before that switch, however, Deathstroke the Terminator had one more go-round slated for the Titans.

Tales of the Teen Titans #54 (June 1985) put Slade Wilson in the courtroom, charged with the kidnapping of Samuel Abrams, the Wall Street broker held for ransom in New Teen Titans #34. While the broker is not present in the issue, it is inferred that maybe there are now two hits that Deathstroke has not completed. Or, at least there were. Wanting revenge for

Breaking Out Deathstroke takes center stage in The New Titans #70 (Oct. 1990). Art by Steve Erwin and Willie Blyberg.

TM & © DC Comics.

Mercs and Anti-heroes Issue • BACK ISSUE • 7

Solo Star (left) The first “Take No Prisoners” issue of Deathstroke, the Terminator (herewith Deathstroke the Terminator, to spare our proofreader the headache of policing that pesky comma). (right) Issue #3.

Covers by Mike Zeck.

TM & © DC Comics.

the emotional wringer he was put through because of Deathstroke’s manipulation of Terra, Changeling lashes out in the courtroom, nearly forcing the trial to be thrown out with the threat of a contempt charge leveled at Gar Logan. The green Titan agrees to leave the premises, but at the end of the issue, we learn he borrowed Mento’s helmet to alter the appearance of things around Deathstroke and, perhaps, trigger the mercenary’s release on the technicality that no one can confirm the Terminator in question is Deathstroke.

Written by Wolfman and drawn by Ron Randall, Tales of the Teen Titans #55 (July 1985) was set to bring some closure to the aftermath of “The Judas Contract,” as Wilson begins his incarceration at Newgate Penitentiary, a minimum-security prison in upstate New York.

Sentenced for possession of an illegal handgun, Wilson is remarkably nonchalant, able to manipulate the system from within. Still stinging from the loss Deathstroke caused, Changeling storms through the issue, pushing all of his loved ones away, with vengeance on his mind.

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Bethany Snow interviews Wilson from prison for WUBS while Gar Logan watches from home. Enraged by the apparent collusion between Wilson and Snow, Logan decides to take matters into his own hands/paws/wings and sets off for Newgate. In the aftermath of the fight, as Wilson is sent packing, he reveals to Wintergreen, “I played to her [Terra’s] sickness, used her as much as she used me. I tell you, sometimes she scared even me.

She was insane… completely uncontrollable.”

The issue leads to a definitive confrontation between Wilson and Gar, as Wilson sets aside his armor and weapons to give Changeling a free shot at ending it all.

Presented the opportunity to even the score, to take Wilson’s life as recompense for Terra, he can’t do it.

Crumbling to the ground, Changeling can only seek answers, not vengeance. And, in the spirit of growing the character, Wolfman allows Slade Wilson to provide that exposition: “You called me a villain,” Slade says to Changeling. “Never thought of myself as that. I’m a mercenary. A soldier for hire.”

“You kill people.”

“I’m a soldier. I don’t steal or kill for personal gain.

I have a strict code of ethics.” Wilson goes on to explain Terra’s history, how they met, and what she had already accomplished to earn her reputation. In one issue, Wolfman summarizes Deathstroke’s experience with the Titans and sets up a wide-open future. Randall’s art translates the emotions into expressions, and gives the readers plenty to digest.

After that, Slade Wilson would disappear for quite some time. In a recent email exchange, Wolfman revealed to me that he had plans for Deathstroke beyond Tales of the Teen Titans #55: “I intended to do his non-Titans adventures once he and Changeling dealt with Terra’s betrayal and death.

He was too good a character, with so many possible stories, to just send him off to the used merc store.” Deathstroke would definitely be back, but it would be a while.

Step Aside, Slade The “source” title, New Teen Titans, underwent a name change of its own with New Titans #50 (Dec. 1988), dropping (below) Pat Trayce, the new Vigilante, commandeers the cover of “Teen” to appeal to a wider audience. That issue reunited Deathstroke the Terminator #10 (May 1992). Detail from the cover Wolfman and Pérez, and kicked off the “Who is Wonder Girl?” storyline. Deathstroke appeared in New Titans #62

by Zeck. (inset) Vig is back in issue #23 (Apr. 1993).

(Jan. 1990) and joined forces with the Titans to take on a plague of were-beasts. Wolfman continued as writer, TM & © DC Comics. now joined by Tom Grummett on art. “The Titans Plague” continues on through The New Titans #65 (Apr. 1990), an issue that brings Nightwing inching back towards the Titans, as new Robin Tim Drake comes calling.

Deathstroke’s next absence wouldn’t even be a year, as Marv Wolfman and Titans’ editor Jonathan Peterson give the one-eyed merc an assignment in The New Titans #70 (Oct. 1990): Win a solo series.

GOING SOLO

Titled “Clay Pigeons,” written by Marv Wolfman, drawn by Steve Erwin (not to be confused with the late Steve Irwin, the Crocodile Hunter), and inked

by Will Blyberg, The New Titans #70 shows readers what Slade Wilson can do in the field when he’s not fighting teenagers. Using his hand as a lie detector (feeling an informant’s pulse in his carotid artery), leaping from bridges onto moving trains, swimming in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Salvador, and showcasing a full cadre of weapons, Deathstroke gives readers a no-nonsense story that is set in the middle of political unrest, where the highest bidder may have just lured Deathstroke into their own arsenal.

While there is some obvious market influence due to the success of the Punisher for Marvel, editor Jonathan Peterson explained his push to give Deathstroke some solo adventures to Bill Walko in the Titans Companion (2005) from TwoMorrows. Peterson recalled, “The first thing I said to Marv was, ‘I’m working on a book called Checkmate with a guy I really like [named] Steve Erwin. I think we should take a shot at spinning off Deathstroke into his own book, with Steve penciling.’

Marv thought that was an interesting idea, so we decided to do a ‘pilot’ issue much like on TV, [where] you sometimes see a pilot episode done in an established TV show.”

Peterson put the bug in Wolfman’s ear, but he had to sell it to Dick Giordano, then-vice president–editorial for DC Comics. Giordano agreed to let Peterson try his pilot out, and the results were welcome. “So we did New Titans #70 and just got a great response,” Peterson related to Walko.

“Within days of the issue hitting the stands, we had retailers calling us saying it had sold out, which previous issues hadn’t.

“No one thought a Deathstroke issue would do that great, and this was before the whole Image Comics explosion.” With a successful solo adventure in the can, Deathstroke was on the precipice of receiving new opportunities that would include elevating him from adversary to a gray area, especially since his hunting skills would be needed for the next big Titans adventure.

TITANS HUNT

Peterson had more plans for the Titans’ franchise, which included launching an anniversary celebration that would shake up the roster, add depth to the Titans’ history, revisit old teammates, and even give Slade Wilson a bigger spotlight. “I wanted it to start with an event, and that became ‘Titans Hunt,’ ” Peterson said. “I wanted to start to whittle them all down because there just seemed to be so many Titans and honorary Titans. People like Golden Eagle. I’d flip through the characters and say to Marv, ‘Who is this?

He hasn’t appeared in, like, 30 issues.’ So I said to Marv, ‘We’ll do the ‘Titans Hunt’ stunt. It will last about a year. It’s gotta be like the old movie serials—something needs to happen every issue.’ ” Mercs and Anti-heroes Issue • BACK ISSUE • 9

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Zeckstroke the Illustrator (opposite page) Behold the magic artistry of Michael Zeck, as witnessed in this original art (courtesy of Heritage) to the cover of Deathstroke the Terminator #18—not #17, as labeled.

TM & © DC Comics.

Through the course of double-sized anniversary issue The New Titans #71 (Nov. 1990), as the team within is getting ready to celebrate an anniversary, the Titans were picked off. The Wildebeest Society was behind it all.

By the end of the issue, Deathstroke and Gar Logan once more come full circle, except this time, Steve Dayton (Gar Logan’s foster father and sometimes Mento) brokered the adventure, offering to pay Deathstroke to find the Titans. Wilson emphasizes the personal nature of the attack by telling Dayton, “Deathstroke, the Terminator is definitely in!”

The hunt lasted a year in The New Titans, all the way through The New Titans #84 (Mar. 1992). The Titans and their allies would be shaken to the ground, rebuilt, shaken down again, and reassembled. Before it was all over, Jericho would die at his father’s hand. In the Titans Companion, Peterson continued, “Jericho we decided was sort of expendable. So if Jericho was to die, I think Marv was the one that decided to make it symmetrical. Let’s have Deathstroke be the one to do it; then we have the whole pathos of Deathstroke killing his own son. I mean, it was just too perfect.” As it turns out, Jericho was just a vessel for the souls of Azarath, which were now infected with the evil of Trigon, necessitating finality.

Peterson wouldn’t see “Titans Hunt” all the way through. Before he left DC, though, he would see Deathstroke into his own series.

TEEN TITANS FRANCHISE

The same month that Jericho’s involvement in “Titans Hunt” was revealed in The New Titans #78 (Aug. 1991), Deathstroke the Terminator #1 (Aug. 1991) hit the stands.

Peterson explained his push for a Deathstroke series in the Titans Companion: “New Titans #70 came out and was a hit, and to Dick’s [Giordano] credit, we actually greenlit Deathstroke behind the scenes before the book even shipped.

“In fact, I recall going into Dick’s office with only the first 12 pages and saying, ‘This is what it is. This is what it’ll look like. Please let me do this,’ and Dick, who trusted my judgment, said, ‘Okay. Looks good to me. Go for it.’

So since I was so high on Deathstroke and [was] pushing him, and was looking to give him his own book, I then turned to Marv and said, ‘You’re going to be writing this new monthly about the guy. Clearly he’s popular, so let’s use him to a core degree in the Titans revamp story as well. In short, let’s cram him down the readers throats to really get the character out there again.’

“Marv loved the character and loved the idea and approach. In fact, at the time, he was feeling reborn as he often described it. I think [it was] because we were all pushing him so much. Whenever Marv would want to go back to his ‘Titans roots,’ so to speak, and get more… I don’t know… let’s say ‘touchy-feely’ with them [laughs]. ... I would say, ‘No! More kickass action!

Blow something up!,’ and Marv was really getting into it. You could see it. He was suddenly more jazzed about doing the book than he had been in a long time.

I think he felt liberated by the approach. I think he

genuinely liked the idea that we were now breaking from all the years of the way he had been doing it. [We] were now taking the pseudo-Marvel approach, which was to just make each issue fast-paced and action-packed and, ideally, just more fun to read.”

Deathstroke would return to the pages of Titans comics as needed, sometimes as an ally, sometimes as an adversary. With his own series, however, Wilson (and Wintergreen) were not beholden to stay in any one place, nor did they have to wait for their number to be called as Titans’ guest-star of the month.

Deathstroke the Terminator #1 refreshed readers on the origins of Deathstroke, his divorced wife Adeline, his friend, Wintergreen, and the tragic fate that claimed his first son, Grant Wilson, the Ravager. The issue, written

by Wolfman with art by Erwin, doesn’t reveal much about Deathstroke’s other son, Joey, a.k.a. Jericho, as “Titans Hunt” was still running. Before the first issue closes, however, the Ravager appears to have returned.

Terminator vs. Trinity Slade encountered (top) Batman, in Deathstroke the Terminator #6–9, (bottom left) Wonder Woman, in the Amazon Princess’ 1992 Special, and (bottom) the Man of Steel, in Superman #68.

TM & © DC Comics.

Mercs and Anti-heroes Issue • BACK ISSUE • 11

Slade and Squirrel (bottom) A dynamite original art page from Deathstroke the Terminator #21 (Apr. 1993), showcasing the art of the Steve Erwin/Will Blyberg team. Wilson is assisted here by Jasper “Squirrel” Evans, a weapons expert and supporting-cast member during this time. Courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions (www.ha.com). (top tier) A trio of Deathstroke covers by Zeck.

TM & © DC Comics.

The mystery of the Ravager continued through the first four issues of Deathstroke the Terminator, as Wolfman and Erwin continued to define the world that created Deathstroke. The Ravager was revealed to be a rival of Wilson’s from his days at Camp Washington. Bill Walsh was on the same track as Wilson, but Wilson won the accolades, and in Walsh’s perception would rub Walsh’s face in it every opportunity he had.

It took nearly 12 years before Deathstroke stepped out of the Titans stable and took on characters in titles other than his own or the Titans. Aside from some minor, panel-filler appearances in Crisis on Infinite Earths #9 (Dec. 1985), Deathstroke’s first non-Titans appearance was a two-part Cheetah story in Wonder Woman #61 (Jan. 1992), the Wonder Woman Special (Mar. 1992), and Wonder Woman #63 (June 1992).

Wilson goes to Gotham City in Deathstroke the Terminator #6 (Jan. 1992). The four-part story titled “City of Assassins” continues through Deathstroke the Terminator #9 (Apr. 1992), where former Gotham detective Pat Trayce (introduced in #6) makes her debut as the latest character to take the moniker of the Vigilante. [Editor’s note: DC’s Golden Age Vigilante, the crimefighting “Prairie Troubadour,” first appeared in 1941.

In the ’80s, DC recycled the name, as explored in this issue’s Vigilante article.] Wearing Vigilante Adrian Chase’s old uniform, Trayce becomes a major supporting character in Deathstroke’s adventures going forward, even claiming the cover of Deathstroke the Terminator #10 (May 1992).

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Deathstroke found bit spots in the “Panic in the Sky” storyline in the early-1992 Superman titles.

Of greater significance, Deathstroke faced off with the Man of Steel in Superman #68 (June 1992), parallel in release date (but not necessarily story time) to the Wonder Woman appearances. Although he dodges a shot fired by the Metropolis Special Crimes Unit, Deathstroke picks up a significant amount of guilt when he realizes the civilian caught in the crossfire (and hit by the shot) is Lucy Lane—the daughter of Slade Wilson’s wartime pal, Sam Lane.

Written and drawn by Dan Jurgens, Superman #68 makes Deathstroke out to be a master planner that can hoodwink the World’s Greatest Superhero. There are a few moments were Jurgens stretches Deathstroke’s ability to avoid the Man of Steel more than a little bit, but he does so to elevate Deathstroke. He also draws upon the mercenary’s code of ethics. Deathstroke leverages that same code to follow-through with Lucy Lane before turning himself in to the M.S.C.U. From there the story returns to the pages of Deathstroke the Terminator in #13 (Aug. 1992), where Wilson makes a break for freedom (using the “Are you sure I’m the right guy?” ploy he used in Tales of the Teen Titans #54).

This leads to a fight with a ragtag bunch of throwaway characters and even a fight with a few members of the Justice League of the time—Green Lantern, Aquaman, and the Flash.

Slade Wilson wasn’t quick to leave the pages of The New Titans once he had his own solo series.

Deathstroke the Terminator #14 (Sept. 1992) through Deathstroke the Terminator #16 (Nov 1992) tied in with the “Total Chaos” event that introduced the Team Titans title.

Deathstroke the Terminator #15 (Oct. 1992) gave more backstory for Slade, including an affair with a character named Sweet Lili, which led to the introduction of Rose Wilson, who would eventually assume the Ravager identity.

Deathstroke appears to die in Deathstroke the Terminator #16, and in Deathstroke the Terminator #17 (Dec. 1992), he’s brought back from death’s grip to serve longtime Titans villain Cheshire, who nukes the nation of Qurac in Deathstroke the Terminator #19 (Feb. 1993).

In attempting to stop Cheshire, Deathstroke would become more of an antihero, but his methods would still remain decisive and violent, even if he had a hip new uniform.

Around this time, Showcase ’93 #6–11 gave Wilson a chance to shine alongside some of the deadlier denizens of the DC Universe, including Deadshot, Katana, and Peacemaker as they fought against Kobra.

Deathstroke the Terminator #22 (May 1993) kicked off a biweekly publishing schedule for the series that would last for six Steven Grant-written issues before Marv Wolfman’s returned to the writer’s chair for Deathstroke the Terminator #27 (Aug. 1993). The “World Tour” storyline kicked off in England, France, Hong Kong, China, India, Paris, Dallas, and, finally, Egypt in Deathstroke the Terminator #34 (March 1994). The story was driven by Slade’s search for his ex-wife, Adeline, who would herself be transformed before the end of the tour. Along the way, Vigilante (Pat Trayce) shows up, rejoining Deathstroke’s adventures.

In an interview with Comics in the 80s (Nov. 2016), inaugural Deathstroke the Terminator artist Steve Erwin said, “What I liked best about working on those books [Deathstroke and Checkmate before that] was that we went everywhere. Globally. We weren’t stuck in any one location, like Gotham City or Metropolis. If I were to write and draw either title, that would remain the same. As far as a direction for story purposes, I don’t know that I would write Deathstroke the Terminator any differently than Marv Wolfman did (just not as well). He wrote great stories and gave me a free hand with the action. As far as I’m concerned, he had the hard part of putting Slade into interesting situations to build the stories around.”

Following the “World Tour,” Deathstroke the Terminator would have a series of smaller adventures, the most notable of which is Deathstroke the Terminator #39 (Apr. 1994), where Deathstroke and Green Arrow first cross paths. It is also a bit of a catchall, with Vigilante (Trayce) in tow and Baron Winters (of Night Force fame) showing up.

Deadly Drop-In Birds of Prey writer Chuck Dixon brought Deathstroke into that title for several issues beginning with #43 (July 2002). Original art page from that issue by Dave Ross and Andrew Pepoy. (inset) Phil Noto’s Deathstroke cover for Birds of Prey #45.

TM & © DC Comics.

Mercs and Anti-heroes Issue • BACK ISSUE • 13

Deathstroke vs. the JLA In the often-brutal miniseries Identity Crisis, Deathstroke takes a shaft to the eye socket in issue #3 (Oct. 2004)… and scraps with the entire Justice League. By Brad Meltzer, Rags Morales, and Michael Bair.

TM & © DC Comics.

HUNTED

Deathstroke was one of the titles to take advantage of the potential for a new status quo coming out of Zero Hour. Deathstroke the Hunted #0 (Oct. 1994)–45 (Mar. 1995) put Slade Wilson on the run once more.

Written by Marv Wolfman and drawn by Sergio Cariello, this run introduced the Crimelord (Deathstroke the Terminator #0) and a new Ravager in Deathstroke the Hunted #41 (Nov. 1994). Additionally, Deathstroke fought Bronze Tiger and Deadshot (also #41), Guy Gardner in Deathstroke the Hunted #42 (Dec. 1994), and Hawkman in #43 (Jan. 1995). This story brought about the demise of Sweet Lili, which would have long-lasting ramifications for Slade’s relationship with Rose.

HUNTED NO MORE

Deathstroke’s series was retitled once again with Deathstroke #46 (Apr. 1995), where Slade Wilson was incarcerated by Checkmate. This gives Sarge Steel leverage to employ Deathstroke (at a considerably discounted rate) in Deathstroke #47 (May 1995).

Deathstroke #48 (June 1995) brought the series into “The Crimelord-Syndicate War” crossover with The New Titans #122 (June 1995) and Darkstars #32 (July 1995), as well as Deathstroke #49 (July 1995). Deathstroke #50 (Aug. 1995) pits Wilson against Steve Dayton, and also reveals the latest Ravager to be Wade DeFarge, who would be revealed as Slade’s half-brother in Deathstroke Annual #4 (1995).

Deathstroke takes another run at Hawkman in Deathstroke #51 (Sept. 1995), albeit in a future version that is actually a vision from Rose Wilson’s perspective. So it’s only natural that the present-day Deathstroke and Hawkman face off in Deathstroke #52 (Oct. 1995).

Deathstroke fights a plague in a pair of Tom Joynerguest-written issues with Deathstroke #53 and 54 (Nov. and Dec. 1995), before waking up rejuvenated and with a new uniform in Deathstroke #55 (Jan. 1996).

This issue also brings some other changes with Marv Wolfman once more writing the adventures of Slade Wilson. Rose quits the Titans and disappears for a bit, Pat Trayce returns as Vigilante, but also takes over Adeline Kane Wilson’s Searchers, Inc., such as it is after Adeline’s actions in Deathstroke Annual #4.

As this series is winding down, Deathstroke #58 (Apr. 1996) brings in the Joker before the finale of Deathstroke #60, which would be this series’ last, as Slade Wilson attempts to put his life behind him and start over.

BACK TO BAD

The next time Deathstroke appears, he’s back on the mercenary path, in JLA/Titans (Dec. 1998–Feb. 1999), and then fights alongside the Titans against Tartarus and the H.I.V.E. in the resultant Titans (1999–2003) series. By the third volume of Teen Titans (2003), written by Geoff Johns, Slade Wilson is cemented as a villain. He wreaks havoc upon the legacy teen team on his way to Identity Crisis. It is in Identity Crisis #3 (Sept. 2004) where Deathstroke, under the employ of Dr. Light, takes on the Justice League—Green Arrow, Kyle Rayner Green Lantern, Hawkman, Zatanna, Elongated Man, Wally West Flash, Ray Palmer Atom, and Black Canary.

Deathstroke makes surprisingly fast work of the League. Identity Crisis writer Brad Meltzer explained, in the 2005 hardcover collected edition of the series, “What scares me isn’t a man who can toss a building at me. It’s a man who’s been plotting how to slit my throat for the past month. Deathstroke’s been thinking about it for years.”

An exchange of weaponry with Oliver Queen in Identity Crisis #3 (Green Arrow physically jams an arrow into Deathstroke’s right eye socket) leads to a series of adversarial appearances in the third volume of Green Arrow, issues #60–65 (May–Oct. 2006).

Along with Grundy, Kobra, and Prometheus, Deathstroke headlines the “Faces of Evil” event in 2009, leading to Final Crisis. His bad streak continues in the second volume of Titans, where he gathers a team of villains, including Cheshire, Cinder, Osiris, and the Tattooed Man. The series starts with a bang, spinning out of DC’s Brightest Day event with Titans #24 (Aug. 2010) and rolls on to the end of the DCU in Titans #38 (Oct. 2011).

In the New 52 and after, Deathstroke has commanded three separate solo series, as well as a main role in Team 7. The first of the series launched with Deathstroke #1 (Nov. 2011), from writer Kyle Higgins and artist Joe Bennett. Eventually, Rob Liefeld would take creative control in the middle of the series’ run, which wrapped with Deathstroke #20 (July 2013).

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Tony S. Daniel is writer and artist of Deathstroke #1 (Dec. 2014), but departs before this volume winds down with Deathstroke #20 (Sept. 2016) and a battle between Ra’s al Ghul and Deathstroke, written by James Bonny and drawn by Paolo Pantalena.

Amidst Rebirth, Deathstroke found his way to yet another series. This, his fourth volume, launched in Deathstroke: Rebirth #1 (Oct. 2016), penned by Christopher Priest. In a 2016 interview with CBR.com, Priest told Albert Ching, “Marie Javins, the group editor, called and said ‘Deathstroke’ to me, and it stopped me in the tracks for a minute. It took me a minute to remember who he was. [laughs] And then I asked: ‘He’s that guy from Teen Titans, the guy with the sword, right?’ ‘Yeah, that’s him.’ ‘Okay, all right. Is he Black?’ She said no. I said, ‘Okay, keep talking.’ Frankly, the idea intrigued me to write a villain.

I really hadn’t written a villain as the major protagonist of a series before. I thought this could be an interesting challenge for me. I gave it some thought, and I called her back: ‘If I can write it this way— in a character-driven, introspective way, and get inside the character and examine him kind of the way we did Black Panther— that would be a really interesting challenge. If it’s just going to be him running around killing people, that’s a little less appealing.”

As of this writing, that volume continues. Slade Wilson has just wrapped up a three-title (Deathstroke, Titans, and Teen Titans) crossover event titled “The Lazarus Contract.”

Deathstroke’s comic-book profile has been sharp for over a decade now, which has helped bolster a blossoming multimedia career.

MAKING THE LEAP

As it turns out, Deathstroke had a lot of potential beyond terrorizing the local youth. He even had more potential beyond his own comic-book series. Identity Crisis elevated Deathstroke’s stock and visibility, which translated to appearances in cartoons, television, animated features, and, soon, feature films.

Voiced by Ron Perlman and portrayed as Slade, the character first appeared in the third episode of the Cartoon Network’s Teen Titans, titled “Divide and Conquer,” which aired August 2, 2003. Slade would be one of two adversaries (the other being Gizmo) to appear in at least one episode every season.

His influence is felt most in the second season, including a riff on “The Judas Contract” after starting out with Slade convincing Robin to be his apprentice.

Slade Wilson’s parallel-universe counterpart appears in Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths (2010), voiced by Bruce Davison. He wears an eye patch on his left eye in this world, where he is the President of the United States.

On the live-action front, after a dalliance on Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, Slade Wilson first appeared in a recognizable form thanks to actor Michael Hogan in the tenth season of Smallville. The episode, titled “Patriot,” aired November 19, 2010. Wilson vexed Clark Kent, Oliver Queen, and Arthur Curry, eventually fighting and killing Carter Hall before being banished to the Phantom Zone.

Three Firsts (top left) Deathstroke vol. 2 #1 (Nov. 2011).

Cover by Simon Bisley. (top right) The New 52’s Deathstroke #1 (Dec. 2014). Cover by Tony S. Daniel and Sandu Florea. (bottom) Rebirth’s Deathstroke #1 (Oct. 2016). Cover by Carlo Pagulayan and Jason Paz. TM & © DC Comics.

Mercs and Anti-heroes Issue • BACK ISSUE • 15

IDENTITY CRISIS Nearly exclusively referred to as “The Terminator” throughout his first appearance and most of his appearances in New Teen Titans, Deathstroke would continue to carry the job title portion of his identity well into the future, even past the debut of Arnold Schwarzenegger in the 1984 James Cameron film, The Terminator. Slade’s first series even bore the title: Deathstroke the Terminator. In other endeavors targeted toward a younger audience, neither “Deathstroke” nor “The Terminator” is used. In the 2003–2006 Teen Titans cartoon created by Glen Murakami and more recent Teen Titans Go!, he is simply referred to as “Slade.”

Multimedia Star Call him Slade or Deathstroke, our (anti-)hero as seen in (top to bottom) the CN’s Teen Titans, the Arkham City Lockdown video game, the DC Lego Universe, and on the CW’s Arrow.

Deathstroke TM & © DC Comics.

Perhaps his most recognizable role to date came when he made his debut in Batman: Arkham City Lockdown, released in December 2011, and voiced by Larry Grimm. Spanning the gap between Batman: Arkham City (2011) and Batman: Arkham Origins (2013), the game makes Deathstroke an anchor in Batman’s world and a Batman villain in the minds of gamers everywhere. He appears in both Arkham Origins and 2015’s Arkham Knight, where Mark Rolston voices him.

Wilson can do cute as well, appearing in the Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes (June 2012) video game, as well as the Lego DC Comics Super Heroes: Justice League: Gotham City Breakout (2016), Lego DC Comics Super Heroes: Justice League: Attack of the Legion of Doom (2015), and Lego DC Comics Super Heroes: Justice League vs. Bizarro League (2015) direct-to-video releases. In all things Lego, John DiMaggio voices Deathstroke.

Slade Wilson joined the cast of the Young Justice cartoon during its second season. In “True Colors,” which aired in October 2012, the 12th episode of Season Two, Deathstroke, voiced by Wentworth Miller, was sent after the Young Justice team, specifically Blue Beetle, in an attempt to claim Beetle’s scarab.

Deathstroke appeared in six more episodes.

Deathstroke is a mainstay of the Arrow live-action series, ever present even when not appearing onscreen.

Stranded on the same island as Oliver Queen, Wilson trains the eventual Emerald Archer. Here he is portrayed by Manu Bennett, and first appeared in “Betrayal,” the 13th episode of the first season, which aired February 2013.

Deathstroke appears in Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox (2013), a direct-to-video feature, voiced again

by Ron Perlman. In between feature appearances, Deathstroke also appeared on the cartoon Beware the Batman. Voiced by Robin Atkins Downes, this Deathstroke first appeared in the episode titled “Monsters,” which aired September 7, 2014. Deathstroke would eventually grow to be a major threat to Batman in the latter half of this show’s only season. In Beware the Batman, it was established that Alfred Pennyworth was a mentor to Slade Wilson.

Deathstroke returned to the direct-to-video scene in Son of Batman (2014) as a main antagonist, voiced

by Thomas Gibson, and Teen Titans: The Judas Contract (2017), voiced by Miguel Ferrer, all the while gearing up for his appearance in the upcoming The Batman feature film, where Joe Manganiello will portray him.

In an interview with Comingsoon.net, Manganiello had this to say of his next role: “This is my character, an exciting one, and has the capacity I think, to be a great villain. And what all the great ones can do is polarize an audience. When I was a kid I always rooted for the villain. As a kid I think I would have rooted for him and I think fans will.”

If nothing else, Deathstroke has consistently been a character readers love to hate and hate to love.

He brings those shades of gray Wolfman spoke of to his every appearance, making every story an “anything is possible” adventure.

Special thanks: Titans Tower.com, DCinthe80s.com, Bill Walko, Marv Wolfman, Greg Araujo, Reggie Francia, CBR.com, Albert Ching, and Comingsoon.net.

DOUG ZAWISZA still has both eyes, and he would like to thank his wife for that. Also, he writes for Comicosity.com. This is his second piece for BACK ISSUE, and he also wrote the Hawkman Companion for TwoMorrows. You can follow Doug on Twitter @DZawisza.

16 • BACK ISSUE • Mercs and Anti-heroes Issue

“When I first started working for Marvel after writing exclusively for DC for five years,” states writer David Michelinie, “two questions about the Marvel Universe stood out immediately: (1) Where did villains who almost always failed in their robbery attempts get the money to finance their super-science gadgets and weapons?, and (2) Where the Hell did all those second-string bad guys and faceless goons learn how to be second-string bad guys and faceless goons?”

“A MYSTERY THAT STRETCHES TO THE VERY FOUNDATIONS OF THE MARVEL UNIVERSE!”

by J a r r o d

Buttery

As recounted in BACK ISSUE #72 (May 2014), writer David Michelinie left DC for Marvel in 1978. He became the scripter on Iron Man (soon introducing criminal financier Justin Hammer) and The Avengers. Avengers #194 (Apr. 1980) featured an asylum patient turning up at Avengers Mansion and begging the team for help. Acting alone, the Wasp decided to investigate. Her husband, Yellowjacket, and the new Ant-Man, Scott Lang, followed.

In Avengers #195, the tiny trio discover that the Solomon Institute for the Criminally Insane is actually a training center for second-string bad guys and faceless goons. The final page introduced the mastermind of the operation: the Taskmaster.

Avengers #196 explained that the Taskmaster possessed “photographic reflexes.” He could perform any nonsuperpowered action simply by watching it. He couldn’t fly, or cling to walls, but he could throw a shield exactly like Captain America, shoot as precisely as Hawkeye, and fight as effectively as any master combatant. He saw no money in becoming a crimefighter, and saw risk in becoming a criminal, so he decided to use his abilities to train others—for a substantial fee.

The Avengers arrived. However, because Taskmaster was so familiar with the fighting styles of many heroes (and villains), he could anticipate and counter their attacks. He briefly held off the Avengers until he encountered Jocasta. Having never seen her before, he didn’t know how to fight her, and so decided that discretion was the better part of valor.

Rarely has there been such a perfect confluence of name, costume, abilities, and motivation. BACK ISSUE asked Micheline about his creation. Did he build a villain around a name, or vice-versa? “In this case the cart came before the horse (if I’m getting my Olde Sayings correct).

The idea for someone to train lackeys and wannabes was the first consideration, and I then came up with the name ‘Taskmaster’ to fit the character I was developing.”

Did Michelinie contribute to Taskmaster’s look or did it come from penciler George Pérez? “Love what George did!” Michelinie beams. “I’m sure I must have mentioned

He’s Looking for a Few Bad Men The Taskmaster’s first cover appearance, Avengers #196 (June 1980). Cover signed by its penciler, George Pérez; inked by Joe Rubenstein.

From the collection of Jarrod Buttery, who kindly provided all art scans for this article.

TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

Mercs and Anti-heroes Issue • BACK ISSUE • 17

some suggested weapons, like Cap’s shield, Daredevil’s billy club, Black Knight’s sword, etc. But the costume and look was pure Pérez magic.” Amusingly, at the 2013 Supanova Pop Culture Convention, Pérez admitted that he re-used Taskmaster’s color scheme six months later for Deathstroke.

In flashbacks, Pérez’s art deliberately obscures the young Taskmaster’s true face, making him seem even more of a mystery.

“Wanna hear something strange,” asks Michelinie? “Years after my last Taskmaster story, after others had been writing the character, someone asked me—in reference to a recently published story— what I thought about how Taskmaster looked without the mask.

Honest to God, my reaction was, ‘That was a mask?!’ I don’t know why, but I always assumed that was the guy’s face! The uncredited cover for Marvel Team-Up #103 (Mar. 1981) [attributed to Jerry Bingham and Joe Rubinstein] shows teeth and lips, like a face, and when Todd McFarlane drew the character in Amazing Spider-Man #308 (Nov. 1988) he showed a closeup of the face with mouth and teeth open. So I guess I wasn’t alone in my assumption.”

One thing that Michelinie had control over was Taskmaster’s dialect. Taskmaster clearly states in his origin that he grew up in the Bronx. The narrative then specifically contrasts the villain’s casual braggadocio with his deadliness. “Most characters I create solidify as I write and develop them. I don’t know if I determined Taskmaster’s dialect from my first ripples of an idea. I would imagine that his speech pattern dropped into place when I started writing his dialogue. Having characters all sound alike is an easy trap to fall into, and it’s much more david michelinie interesting—both for reading and for writing—to give a character an individual sound. That could come from an accent or some other quirk, like… having them take… odd pauses… from time… to time. (My apologies to Mr. Shatner.)”

Motivation was another of Michelinie’s brainwaves: “I always thought one of the most important aspects of Taskmaster’s character was that he was a pragmatist. He wasn’t a born villain, didn’t want to rush out and fight super-types or rob banks. He just wanted to take advantage of his natural abilities to make a lot of money—without putting himself at risk when that could be avoided. So for a fee he taught other people to fight super-types instead. Of course, he always ended up fighting anyway because—let’s face it—that’s what readers want to see. But being a superpowered type who didn’t seek to fight other super-types made him unique, at least at the time.”

Scott Lang premiered as the new Ant-Man only a year prior.

Was Michelinie looking for opportunities to increase Scott’s exposure?

“Scott was already around when I came up with Taskmaster, and the reason for having Lang and Taskmaster in the same story actually had nothing to do with TM. Since there was a new Ant-Man around, I just thought it would be cool to have both Ant-Man and Yellowjacket in the same story. (My dormant fanboy sometimes awakens.)

Then, of course, adding the Wasp to the brew made the whole concept irresistible. And figuring out a logical way to get those three characters together just seemed to fit right in with the Taskmaster modus operandi I was working up.”

Tasky Faces Front David Michelinie wondered, Is that his face, or a mask? (top) Taskmaster versus two future movie headliners in Marvel Team-Up #103 (Mar. 1981). (bottom) Todd McFarlane’s gruesome rendition of the villain, from Amazing Spider-Man #308 (early Nov. 1988).

TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

A WHOLE SWARM OF VILLAINS ROLLED INTO ONE

Nevertheless, Taskmaster and Lang became intertwined. Taskmaster’s next appearance was in Marvel Team-Up #103, featuring Spider-Man and Ant-Man. “That story was an inventory job,” reveals Michelinie.

“For me, it was an opportunity to write a new story about characters that I created but who didn’t have their own series. Unfortunately, I was only able to write five Taskmaster stories and a small number more than that for Ant-Man before I left Marvel. That’s just one of the downsides to creating new characters that you don’t own— you never get to develop them as much as you’d like before other people get to take over and move them in directions that might not be what you had in mind.”

Taskmaster resurfaced in Avengers #223 (Sept. 1982), featuring the iconic cover of Ant-Man riding one of Deadpool TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

18 • BACK ISSUE • Mercs and Anti-heroes Issue

that’s a mask? I just thought barry bonds went crazy with an ugly stick.

Hawkeye’s arrows. “That was another inventory job,” NO TASK HE CAN’T MASTER Michelinie says. “I wasn’t approached to write Avengers Taskmaster #1 (Apr. 2002) was the first issue of a four-part again, so this was just another chance to write two of my miniseries produced by Marvel and UDON Studios. ‘children.’ I just wish I’d had more such opportunities.” Erik Ko, Chief of Operations at UDON, explains: “UDON The scoundrel continued to evade capture until Thing #26 first worked with Marvel back in 2000, and was hired (Aug. 1985). Two years later, Mark Gruenwald brilliantly to handle the X-Men Revolution comics. Brian Smith used the still-in-custody Taskmaster to train Cap’s and Ralph Macchio were our editors for that project. replacement, John Walker, in shield-slinging It took some time to get that book out of the in Captain America #334 (Oct. 1987). gate because it was tied to a TV show, so we Critically injured by the Punisher in were discussing what other projects we Daredevil #293 (June 1991), Taskmaster could do, and they asked us to pitch a revamp story for Taskmaster.” appears in a hospital bed as an old, bald guy (à la the Vulture). Such a depiction With a new look, new tricks, and a new is never repeated. A few years later, voice, Taskmaster tells an acquaintance Taskmaster is portrayed in all his that he’s still running his school, but “I’m youthful glory in Siren #3 (Dec. 1995). doing more solo, work-for-hire jobs now.

Seeking to upgrade his already It’s more lucrative—and a lot more interesting impressive talents, Taskmaster bankrolls than teaching idiot students in months what an experimental procedure allowing I learned in seconds.” Also, “I discovered I attracted a wider range of clients him to mimic superpowers in Hawkeye: erik ko Earth’s Mightiest Marksman #1 (Oct. 1998). when I didn’t sound or act like a Bronx After two decades, and hundreds of thug—even if I am one.”

Photo credit: 5of7. comics, writer Tom DeFalco admits he With a streamlined costume, and a has little memory of one particular issue: “I believe Tom holographic image projector, Taskmaster accepts an Brevoort was my editor and he’s the one who asked me industrial espionage job from Tony Stark’s rival, Sunset to write it. I assume I got the assignment because of my Bain. Writer Ken Siu-Chong remembers, “Brian [Smith] tenure on Solo Avengers when I wrote the Hawkeye said that we could really put whatever spin we wanted feature for a number of issues. I also assume I came up on the character, so I decided to try to translate his more with the story idea of Taskmaster attempting to boost over-the-top character and pitched him as a more bad-ass, his abilities. Sorry that I can’t be more definite.” tech-wielding merc butting heads with the mob.”

Altered States (left) Taskmaster tried an alternative color scheme in Deadpool #2 (Feb. 1997). (right) Here’s how he looked in UDON Studio’s four-issue Taskmaster miniseries of 2002.

TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

Mercs and Anti-heroes Issue • BACK ISSUE • 19

Ko adds, “The idea of the series was to put this old, skull-faced character in a modern setting and make him cool. He is a merc for hire, so to us, having him going around in bright white and orange colors with a clunky cape and sword and shield made no sense. He should be more like a stealthy ninja-type, which is what inspired our outfit design. The shield is an iconic part of his gear, though, so we gave him a tactile holo shield that could appear or disappear as needed.”

The use of Iron Man antagonist Sunset Bain was a welcome change to the oft-used Kingpin. “Funny you should say that,” laughs Siu-Chong, “because in the original pitch, we did have Kingpin being the underworld boss that Taskmaster was feuding with. But he was a little overexposed and tied up with other storylines at the time. I think it was Ralph [Macchio] who suggested Sunset Bain as a substitute, and it all ended up better because of it. It was interesting having the extra spin of having a female main baddie in our series.”

The story demonstrates not only Taskmaster’s formidable fighting abilities but his casino skills, culinary expertise, and voice mimicry. We also discover that Taskmaster can be quite the gentleman as he meets and quickly charms the vivacious Sandi. His concern for her as she becomes accidentally caught up in the crosshairs of his profession demonstrates that he is not just a heartless thug, and contributes towards his motivation for what follows. However, before his final showdown with Sunset Bain’s forces, Taskmaster pulls another trick with his photographic reflexes…. “That is from the great mind of our writer, Ken Siu-Chong!” beams Ko. “It really just came naturally, thinking about some new stabs we could take on Taskmaster’s powers, and how far we could push his limits,” recalls Siu-Chong. “I wondered, if he watched something that was obviously superhuman, like someone moving in fast-forward, how would his body respond? I realized the image of Taskmaster just chilling on his couch watching kung-fu movies in fast-forward to ‘train’ was a little humorous, but just couldn’t resist!”

Never a one-hit wonder, Taskmaster immediately continued with his new look elsewhere. “After our miniseries, we were lucky enough to be able to integrate Taskmaster and Sandi into our Deadpool and Agent X runs, so we could keep working with these characters for a bit longer,” shares Ko. “I am very grateful and have to thank our good friend Gail Simone for accepting my suggestion to put Taskmaster and Sandi into her stories. Taskmaster was actually our very first big Marvel job, and was a very special series for us to work on!”

Returning to his original costume, Taskmaster features prominently in the Marvel events Civil War, Dark Reign, and Siege. It’s during this time that the government again enlists his training skills, in Avengers: The Initiative #8 (Feb. 2008). Christos Gage, who was co-writing the series with Dan Slott, explains: “Taskmaster being the drill instructor at the Initiative was Dan Slott’s idea, shortly before I came aboard, and I don’t know what sparked it… but it wouldn’t surprise me if the Gruenwald story had some influence. But I was super-happy because I have always loved Taskmaster, from his very first appearance. When Dark Reign came along, it seemed like a natural for Norman Osborn to put Taskmaster in charge of the whole Initiative program.”

WHAT HE DOESN’T KNOW WILL KILL HIM

We are told in Age of Heroes #3 (Sept. 2010), “One hundred costumed criminals were arrested at the Siege of Asgard,” but not Taskmaster.

Subsequently believing that he’s turned State’s evidence, the Org—the top-secret “villain underground”—places a billion-dollar bounty on Taskmaster’s head. This leads directly into Taskmaster’s second miniseries.

Taskmaster #1 (Nov. 2010), written by Fred Van Lente, finds our protagonist in a diner, searching his memories.

He tells a waitress named Mercedes that he can’t remember anything about his life. His implicit memories— abstract knowledge—that he absorbs via his photographic reflexes overwrite his explicit memories—specific experiences. He knows how to do things but not how he learned them. However, the diner is the first stop in ken siu-chong a memory map that he has constructed for himself.

Van Lente describes the project’s genesis: “I was out with my editor Lauren Sankovitch at a bar and she pitched me the idea of doing a Taskmaster miniseries. My first impulse was ‘Whatever,’ it didn’t really appeal to me. But as I was laying my head down on the pillow to go to sleep that same night the idea just entered into my brain fully formed that it would be interesting if Taskmaster’s own personal memories would be ‘overwritten’ like a computer running out of storage space by all the different skills he absorbed. So it wasn’t so much, ‘Let’s tell his origin,’ it was, ‘This guy has a super-memory; what if his own past is a mystery he has to explore?’ ” With no disguises—holographic or otherwise—Taskmaster’s true face is revealed by artist Jefté Palo. “I always liked the very Ditko moment in Spider-Man when he defeats Electro for the first time and pulls off his mask and is like, ‘I have no idea who this is,’ ” laughs Van Lente.

“There are so rarely dramatic connections in life. So I told Jefté, ‘Just make him look like some guy.’ We didn’t have a lot of back and forth.

I did it all through Lauren and Jefté’s agent, which is pretty common for overseas artists. I wasn’t aware of the earlier Daredevil comic.”

With Mercedes mistakenly implicated in the bounty, the next stop in Taskmaster’s “Memory Palace” is Michoacán, West Mexico. He meets the skull-masked drug-lord Don of the Dead and remembers his first assignment retraining the Don’s men. “From that time, Taskmaster too decided to wear

Masters, Tony Masters A holo-disguised Taskmaster hands out a “T. Master” business card in Taskmaster #1 (Apr. 2002). In later years, Marvel adopted Tony Masters as the character’s real name, surprising UDON Studio’s Ken Siu-Chong, who tells BI, “Honestly, it was a bit of a joke—like, what would be the most obvious alias he could come up with…?”

TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

20 • BACK ISSUE • Mercs and Anti-heroes Issue

and I’m a romantic at heart. Even though he is a sympathetic mess, Taskmaster is at heart still a villain. So he doesn’t get the happy ending, sadly.”

The series is a standout. In addition to the astounding revelations, it’s one of the most hilarious comics since Nextwave.

“Thanks! Yeah, it was one of the best, if not the best thing at Marvel I did, and definitely the thing that most people come up to me and say it was one of their favorites of all time.”

GIFTED AND TALENTED

a skull mask,” explains Van Lente. “I had read an interesting Avengers Academy #1 (June 2010) introduces several New Yorker article on the Mexican cartels and their use of new characters, including Finesse. She describes herself ‘Corpse Messaging’ (the title of that issue) and their use as a polymath: “I can duplicate any action by seeing it of original songs and stuff and it made sense for once. I have a natural aptitude for everything.”

Taskmaster to have worked for them at some And she thinks Taskmaster may be her point. ‘Don of the Dead’ is a funny gag I had biological father. come up with years before on a completely Finesse tracks him down in issue #9 unrelated series. It was fairly convenient (Apr. 2011). Taskmaster picks a fight. He to merge all these ideas together.” says that he’d heard of her and considered Taskmaster and Mercedes head to that she could be his daughter—but his next stop—in the Bolivian Andes— he just doesn’t remember: “Nobody where we discover that Mercedes is knows this, an’ it’s pretty stupid of me working for Nick Fury! She has been to tell ya, but it might be somethin’ working undercover at “the Hub” as you gotta deal with down the line…

Taskmaster’s handler—who has forgotten somethin’ that’s my fault.” He tells that he’s actually a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent her about his memory problem— named Tony Masters! He’s also he can remember combat moves, fred van lente survival techniques, but not people forgotten that Mercedes is his wife…. and places. “I wanted ta fight you The duo finds a German castle and remnants of a laboratory. Years ago, in trying to ’cause… I thought if I remembered your moves, I develop a super-soldier serum, a Nazi scientist had might remember you.” developed a primer to unlock the mind’s potential to Writer Christos Gage volunteers, “As I recall, it was absorb knowledge instantaneously. Taskmaster— always part of our thinking that it would be a possibility Tony—finally remembers his previous visit and injects that Taskmaster could be Finesse’s biological father.

But we also purposely left it ambiguous. It felt juicier himself with the serum.

Van Lente was asked about these enormous revelations: that way in terms of the character drama you could “I remember Tom Brevoort, Lauren’s boss, really enjoying get out of it.” the series and complimenting me on it. Tom has been It seems a rare month when Taskmaster doesn’t Marvel’s main continuity cop for years, so if he didn’t appear in a Marvel comic. He’s a fan-favorite, a creators’ object, that’s pretty much your seal of approval right choice, and the best there is at everything he does! there. I think the important thing is that I wasn’t throwing out anything that came before, I was just grafting stuff The author would like to express his sincere gratitude to Tom DeFalco, Christos Gage, Erik Ko, Christian Lichtner, David Michelinie, Ken onto pre-existing history.”

But the bounty was still in effect! Tony and Mercedes Siu-Chong, and Fred Van Lente for their generous help. had to face the Minions’ International Liberation Front (yes, MILF). In absorbing and countering the abilities JARROD BUTTERY lives in Western Australia, which recently got the Internet. He watched a single comics tutorial by Michael of the MILF leader, Red Shirt (yes, really), Taskmaster Eury on YouTube, and used his photographic reflexes to begin overwrites his recent revelations—including the memory writing articles for BACK ISSUE. of his wife. Van Lente admits, “I’m drawn to tragic stories,

“Just make him look like some guy” (left) Taskmaster vol.

2 #1 (Nov. 2010) launched the character’s second miniseries. Cover art

by Alex Garner. (right) Artist Jefté Palo’s depiction of the Taskmaster, unmasked, from the mini. (inset) Finesse fusses with Taskmaster, who might very well be her father! Cover to Avengers Academy #9 (Apr. 2011) by Mike McKone.

TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

Mercs and Anti-heroes Issue • BACK ISSUE • 21

Final Shot From the collection of Jarrod Buttery, a 2017 commissioned illo of Taskmaster by Jim Calafiore.

Taskmaster TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc. Art © Jim Calafiore.

22 • BACK ISSUE • Mercs and Anti-heroes Issue

TM

by B

rian Martin

“Maybe I no longer care about the law? Maybe I just care about what’s right.” With those words, spoken in The New Teen Titans #26 (Dec. 1982), district attorney Adrian Chase set out what was to come, not only for himself, but maybe for every character who would take on the mantle of the Vigilante.

Introduced not long before in issue #23, Adrian Chase was a civil servant who had just about had enough of criminals skirting the law and using legal gray areas to their advantage. Over the next year or so he made frequent appearances in the title, and his frustrations grew.

When druglord Anthony Scarapelli walks free after being apprehended red-handed by the D.A. and the Titans, Chase reaches his breaking point. Enlisting Robin’s aid, the duo stage a barely legal raid on Scarapelli’s home and bring the villain in on a minor charge. But the crime kingpin would not take this affront lying down.

In issue #34 of Titans, Scarapelli gains his revenge by blowing up Chase’s apartment, killing Chase’s wife and children and leaving the D.A. in critical condition.

The story continues into New Teen Titans Annual #2, where the Titans do their best to hound Scarapelli as they attempt to find incriminating evidence. As the battle escalates between the Titans and the mobster’s forces, the young heroes receive help from a figure that remains in the shadows, a figure whose methodology involves killing his enemies with a rifle. As the story reaches its climax, the figure is shown to be a new character, the Vigilante. He confronts Scarapelli and reveals his identity—Adrian Chase. Killing the mobster in a gunfight that leaves Robin unconscious, Chase vanishes.

It took a while after his introduction for the transition to take place, but co-creator Marv Wolfman tells BACK ISSUE, “Adrian was created to become the Vigilante down the road. I already had Vigilante in mind, but wanted to set the character up.”

BEGINNING WITH BAXTER

The Vigilante series debuted with a first issue cover-dated November 1983. Marv Wolfman began as writer and Keith Pollard was given penciling duties. Vigilante was tied with Thriller (a series that was examined in BI #98 just last year) as DC’s second regular series to be printed on “Baxter” paper, the high-quality white paper that was a top-end product at the time. Both appeared with the same cover date after Omega Men had claimed the honor of the first regular series in the format when it debuted, cover-dated April 1983.

When a character is given his or her own series, it necessitates the introduction of a supporting cast, if for no other reason than to give the lead someone to talk to.

In the case of Vigilante, the cast consists of a research assistant named Theresa Gomez and computer whiz J. J. Davis. Near-future issues would reveal that both of them had recently been through harrowing experiences that had culminated in travesties of justice, and they were now joining Adrian in his proclaimed mission

Taking Aim Adrian Chase’s debut as the Vigilante, New Teen Titans Annual #2 (1983). Cover by George Pérez.

TM & © DC Comics.

Mercs and Anti-heroes Issue • BACK ISSUE • 23

Vengeance is Mine Robin encounters the Vigilante on this gripping page from New Teen Titans Annual #2. By Marv Wolfman, George Pérez, and Pablo Marcos. Original art courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions (www.ha.com).

TM & © DC Comics.

to right wrongs by going after criminals freed due to various legal technicalities.

Adrian’s first solo mission appears to go against this credo when Theresa asks him to help a friend whose husband has been murdered while protecting his family.

Things change when Adrian is informed that a man named Quilt is behind the killing. Quilt is a prominent businessman with a long history of skirting the law whom Adrian had many times run afoul of in his days as D.A. The case leads Vigilante into conflict with Quilt’s enforcer, Brand, a man who literally likes to burn his victims with a branding iron. Suffice to say we are given glimpses into the way the Vigilante will operate and the number of bodies he will leave behind before this first case is complete.

QUICK-CHANGE ARTIST

With only the second issue, Adrian and company undergo a major change in modus operandi. A man is released from prison after the courts overturn the verdict in his case. The man had been found guilty of raping a nun in a case tried by D.A. Adrian Chase two years before.

24 • BACK ISSUE • Mercs and Anti-heroes Issue

Vigilante tracks him down and almost beats him to death before J. J. intervenes, revealing that evidence has been found that exonerates the man. As Chase stares back at the carnage he has just wrought, he experiences a major crisis of faith.

Chase turns his back on his Vigilante persona faster than he adopted it and is convinced to join his father’s law firm, defending the guilty with the same loopholes he had so recently fought against. However, a short time doing this quickly reminds him why he was doing what he was as Vigilante. Convinced that a change in methods, not a change in goals, is what’s needed, he quickly “gets the band back together” and resurrects the Vigilante.

If it seems that the second issue was awfully soon to be altering your lead character’s raison d’être, Wolfman comments that this was actually meant to be the norm for the star attraction: “Adrian was a character who was constantly having to make decisions about what he was and would constantly change.”

The change is made apparent in the very next issue.

Cyborg guest-stars in issue #3 (Feb. 1984) as the bodyguard for one William Stryker. Stryker is being transferred to prison to spend a one-year sentence. The problem is, he is known to be guilty of crimes deserving of a much stiffer penalty, but technicalities have greatly reduced his time. Complicating matters is the fact that Stryker is responsible for the beating and rape of J. J.’s fiancée, making this a much more personal vendetta for Vigilante.

In the end, after sidestepping Cyborg, Vigilante corners Stryker but finds himself unable to kill him.

Luckily the ordeal has unhinged the villain’s mind slightly and he begins spouting information that should lead to a much stiffer penalty. Both Adrian and J. J. come to the realization that killing him was not the answer, thereby reinforcing the Vigilante’s new stance. Further to that, a couple of issues later we discover Adrian was having his gun modified to be able to fire sleep darts as well as bullets.

Issue #4 (Mar. 1984) is an artistic fill-in by penciler Don Newton that showcases a Hollywood trial and scandal. Vigilante becomes involved when a masked assassin begins killing witnesses in the trial. Significantly for the series we are introduced to the Controller, a man whose body is about 90% machine, and who will have a major effect on our cast very shortly.

The series’ fifth issue features the debut of a character who would play a major role as the series progressed.

Marcia King is an old assistant of Adrian’s from his D.A. days who has herself just been promoted to assistant D.A. Adrian attends the party thrown to celebrate this, and the two subsequently begin a romance.

Also debuting are a pair of villains who would become recurring foes of the Vigilante. Sporting the names Cannon and Sabre, one specializes in guns, the other, knives (I’ll leave it to you to figure out which was which). In this tale they are taking out rival gang heads and come up with the idea of taking over the gangs themselves.

Vigilante tracks down the pair but loses the battle and ends up lying stabbed and shot at his foe’s mercy.

Police show up not long afterwards to find all three men unconscious. Though never actually stated in the comics, we are given clues that lead to the conclusion that the pair were taken out by the Electocutioner, another character who hated released lawbreakers; he was introduced in Batman #331 (Jan. 1981).

This shocking villain would be a thorn in Adrian’s side for a little while to come.

As all three are being prepared to be taken to the hospital, J. J. manages to steal the ambulance Adrian has been loaded into and spirits his boss away.

POINTS FOR ORIGINALITY

J. J. and Theresa run through a number of hoops to get Adrian hospital treatment and keep him from police custody, while some remarkable healing abilities of Adrian’s mean they are soon back in their trailer headquarters. Adrian’s recovery from his wounds finally prompts him to reveal his origin to the duo.

Vigilante’s backstory is told in issues #6 and 7, but when the sixth issue came out, a situation that would concern the book for some time to come first reared its head. Keith Pollard left the book and for these two issues Chuck Patton become costumed adventurers in was on hand as guest penciler, a position comics, he was a superior physical specimen and fighter to anyone you he would take up a number of times keith pollard as the series progressed. might meet in everyday life. The extra Patton himself recalls, “Marv really factor he has going for him is an ability spoiled me for working with others because he was so to recover from wounds quicker than the average. incredibly encouraging and collaborative with me over It seems not long after the death of his family, a the plotting of Vig’s origin. Vigilante was exactly the kind representative of a shadowy group visited Adrian and of book I wanted to work on after JLA, and Marv gave convinced him to accompany her. After a long drive and me that chance.” hours walking through the desert, Adrian is taken to One of the things Patton really found joy in was the an underground training area whose entrance literally chance to work on a book with Baxter paper. “There was appears out of nowhere. There he meets the rest of the something about that Baxter paper that just made you group who tell him they are as tired as he is of seeing want to draw for it,” the artist explains. “And by the the laws protect the guilty. For months he is subjected way, we didn’t refer to it as Baxter paper so much, to intense training as well as having his body chemistry but dubbed it ‘Camelot paper’ in honor of Camelot 3000, altered. This alteration means that Adrian will now be able to survive and recover from gunshot wounds and which was the first book to use it.

“I worked out to the edges of the page, since Pollard stabbings much easier and quicker than a normal human set that bar in the first Vigilante issues and we all followed being. Still, if he was to “get his fool head cut off,” his lead. It not only opened up a whole new freedom he’d be as dead as anyone else, but this healing factor to how you drew the panels, but it gave the work a more was a definite asset given his chosen lifestyle.

Adrian passes one last test and is ready to head out cinematic look in the storytelling.”

The origin story explains Adrian’s “healing abilities,” into the world to begin his mission. It is at this time that since to this point in the series he is portrayed as his trainers reveal their true nature. They are in fact only basically a normal man. As per most “normal” men who the ghosts of people who died and had their killers go

Outside of the Law (right) A DC subscription ad for The Vigilante. (left) Cover to issue #1 (Nov. 1983). Art by Keith Pollard.

TM & © DC Comics.

Mercs and Anti-heroes Issue • BACK ISSUE • 25

Vigilante, Year One (top left) Our anti-hero in a formidable pose from issue #1. (top right) Also from that issue, readers meet Theresa and J. J. By Wolfman/Pollard/Dick Giordano. (botom left) Vic Stone squares off against Adrian Chase in Vigilante #3 (Feb. 1984). Original Keith Pollard art courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions (www.ha.com). (bottom right) Ross Andru/Mike DeCarlo’s stark cover art for Vigilante #7 (June 1984).

Courtesy of Heritage.

TM & © DC Comics.

26 • BACK ISSUE • Mercs and Anti-heroes Issue

unpunished. “Marv always said the essential key to what THE ARTISTIC MERRY-GO-ROUND made Vigilante more than DC’s version of the Punisher After all the upheaval in that storyline, the next few issues was where the Punisher was basically just avenging feature self-contained stories. Part of the reason might the death of his family over and over, Vigilante have been that the book could not find a regular was created to act for all victims of violent artist, as Andru left at the end of issue #11 (Oct. 1984). Wolfman did know who was crime,” reveals Chuck Patton. “Marv wanted going to draw each of the issues, however, Vig’s teachers to be essentially the ghosts and tailored his stories accordingly. of victims slain in hideous atrocities, The 12th and 13th issues were drawn and I thought, wouldn’t it be interesting

by Gil Kane and feature a casebook issue if they weren’t just victims, but the spirits and a locked-room murder, respectively. of other dead vigilantes passing down The 14th showcases moody art by Trevor their skills. Marv liked that and we went Von Eeden and confronts Vigilante with a with it. So when you see the teachers, know that you’re looking at our versions pair of brothers possessing a suit that lets of Modesty Blaise, Don Diego, them disappear into the shadows.

Hiawatha, Shaka Zula, and MuLan!” Finally, issue #15 has Paris Cullins’ chuck patton more playful pencils and presents a In the end, the entire cave fades away and Adrian is left alone in the desert clown gone wrong, plus another to begin his new life. clash with the Electrocutioner.

There is one dangling thread left at the end of this Unknown to readers at the time, this issue would be sequence. We are shown that the spirits are training the last completely authored by co-creator Wolfman. others the same way they are training Adrian. Unfortunately, Even though the issues’ stories are self-contained, when questioned by BI, Wolfman had no recollection of subplots in the series are carried on. As Adrian gets closer and closer to being accepted as a judge, in issue how he would have followed up on this thread.

Issue #7 (June 1984) also introduces Alan Welles, a judge #14 he admits to himself that the day he becomes a acquaintance of Marcia and Adrian. He will have a profound judge is the day he must stop being the Vigilante. effect on the entire series as he first broaches the subject of Immediately following Wolman’s last solo outing, submitting Adrian’s name to be the fill-in for a retiring judge. Paul Kupperberg and Alex Saviuk supplied issue #16 (Apr. 1985), pitting Vigilante against a gang of thieves ADRIAN, ADRIAN, DOES WHATEVER A… who prey on subway riders. Keep that Kupperberg fellow The changes come fast and furious beginning with issue #8. in mind—he’ll be back shortly.

First out of the gate is new penciler Ross Andru. Most fans at the time probably knew him from his long run on the Amazing Spider-Man, and it was hoped he would stick around a while and provide some artistic stability.

The villainous Controller makes his return in the storyline that begins here as the guiding hand behind a series of electronics thefts, crimes that will have grave repercussions for one of the cast members.

The tale also formally introduces the Electrocutioner as a recurring nemesis as he pursues the same agenda as Vigilante, with a slightly more bloodthirsty bent. The two have a couple of clashes as Adrian’s investigations intersect with the villain’s current targets.

Meanwhile, J. J. follows up on those electronics thefts via some computer hacking, and this leads him to the location of a warehouse connected to one of the suspects.

A tired Adrian gives in to pressure from J. J. and allows him to scope out the building on the condition that he do no more than that. Of course, J. J. disobeys, unaware that the Controller knows of his electronic incursion and has set a trap—a trap J. J. springs and is shot dead!

This was pretty rough treatment for a character who was only around for nine issues, but Marv Wolfman did state earlier that Adrian was a character constantly in flux, and that sensibility permeated the series as a whole.

According to Wolfman, J. J. was killed because “you always had the sidekicks survive in comics. I wanted to show that when you go down the road Vig was going, nobody is safe.”

Furthermore, Adrian once again becomes more willing to take lives in his quest for J. J.’s killer, and this alienates Theresa to the point that she leaves Adrian’s service. A cast in flux, indeed.

Vigilante tracks down the Controller and, after Adrian survives a gauntlet of traps, the two have their final showdown. In the end, in keeping with his new credo, Adrian is not able to kill the villain, but the Controller dies soon afterwards from the injuries he has incurred.

As the plot comes to its conclusion, Adrian finally makes his decision. He consents to having his name put forward to become a judge.

ross andru © DC Comics.

Welcoming Ross Andru The new Vigilante artist’s arrival was touted in this DC house ad (left) and in the pages of the promo comic DC Sampler #2 (below).

TM & © DC Comics.

Mercs and Anti-heroes Issue • BACK ISSUE • 27

Shocking Reappearance (left) The Electrocutioner, who heated up things for Vig in issue #8, was originally seen in (right) Batman #331, from late 1980.

Covers by Andru/ Tanghal and Aparo, respectively.

TM & © DC Comics.

PLEASE, SIR, CAN I HAVE SOME MOORE?

stop a war between two teenage gangs in Chinatown. This leads British comics creators Alan Moore and Jim Baikie produced the to a battle with a young man with a chip on his shoulder and a following pair of Vigilante issues. Moore was in the midst of his initial large amount of skill in the martial arts. Just to end his career the success in American comics, while this was Baikie’s first artistic foray same way most of it transpired, there is a trail of bodies left behind into the continent’s comic-book world. by the conflict.

The two produced a Vigilante story that adhered to the template That could have been it for the Vigilante. As the issue ends, set for the character, but also had its own twists. Plot-wise, it focused Adrian writes finis to his masked career by dumping his costume in the on a recently paroled abusive father tracking down his daughter garbage. The flies don’t even get a chance at it, though, as he has and Vigilante’s efforts to protect her. barely vanished up the stairs before a pair of hands retrieve it.

Moore put his own spin on Adrian Chase, though, as throughout the tale Vigilante is assisted by a woman JUDGE, JURY, AND EXECUTIONER who has a much better grasp of street-level life than A couple of major shifts take place with the 20th our intrepid hero—to the point where at certain times, issue (Aug. 1985), story-wise and creator-wise. Paul Adrian is played as a bit of a buffoon/comic relief.

Kupperberg again scripts over a Marv Wolfman plot, The tale ends badly for a lot of those involved, but as of the next issue he would take over as sole while also making a pointed statement with regard to writer of the series until the bitter end. Kupperberg abusive parents. Jodie Linnaker, the young girl in the story, reveals, “I didn’t know I’d be taking over when I wrote still loves her father and stands by him even though we #16. That was just a one-off fill-in job. I think it was have been made fully aware that he is in no way, shape, around the time I dialogued #19 and 20 over Marv’s or form a good parent or even a good human being. plots that Marv, who was still editing the title, asked me to take it over permanently. As for that first As mentioned, the story does focus on streetpaul kupperberg Annual, I don’t remember exactly where that came level crime and violence, but Moore was later to in the writing schedule, but I believe I was already mention in the book Alan Moore Storyteller by Gary © Luigi Novi / Wikimedia Commons. on the book by the time I wrote that.”

Spencer Millidge that in retrospect, “If you’re going Tod Smith arrives as penciler in issue #20 and finally gives the title to talk about child abuse, then probably a comic called ‘Vigilante’ is the artistic stability it was desperately seeking. Smith would illustrate not the best forum for discussing such a sensitive issue.”

Following this was Vigilante Annual #1 (1985). Paul Kupperberg is 22 of the remaining 31 issues. “Vigilante was only the second series again on hand, accompanied by penciler Denys Cowan, to tell the I had ever drawn,” recalls Smith, “The Omega Men being the first, story of a man in jail for a murder he did not commit. Adrian becomes and it was definitely a case of learning on the job. The two strips were involved since the man is an old friend of Marcia’s. The fact that it was quite different from each other, so both afforded opportunities to try a gangland slaying means the leader of the faction the victim belonged out different techniques.”

As for the characters within the comic, we are not privy to who it to wants the killer dead, saddling Adrian with a deadline for finding evidence to free the innocent man. was that pulled the costume from the trash, but we find out very Both Kupperberg and Cowan stick around for issue #19, as Kupperberg quickly that we are dealing with someone with a completely different scripts over a Marv Wolman plot. The changes continue to come fast mindset. The new Vigilante is not concerned with criminals freed on and furious as the cover proclaims that this issue “Adrian Chase quits.” technicalities. He wants to wipe out crime. Period. Muggers are not safe from this new Vig, to the point that in his first appearance we And they don’t mean smoking!

Our tale begins with Adrian being accepted as a judge. Before he see Adrian’s replacement gunning them down in the streets. Nor does goes behind the bench and gives up his alter ego, he attempts to he allow anyone to get in his way.

28 • BACK ISSUE • Mercs and Anti-heroes Issue

This leads to a confrontation with Nightwing.

The Titan encounters Vigilante not long after Vig shoots a police officer that is trying to bring him in. Their battle ends with Vigilante escaping, but Nightwing is aware of Adrian’s masquerade from their first meeting, and so he confronts him.

Refusing to believe that he has given up the mask, Nightwing begins a fight with Chase. At this point, Chase himself is not sure that he isn’t responsible, thinking he might be committing these acts while in some kind of fugue, but he feels he must remain free until he finds answers. Nightwing disagrees with that idea as well and their fight takes them out into the neighborhood. As luck would have it, the new Vigilante guns someone down as Nightwing and Adrian tussle, and the news is broadcast over a television the duo see. Both are now convinced it is not Adrian behind the mask anymore, and Nightwing leaves, content to give Chase a short period of time to track the madman he has inspired.

The specter of the new Vigilante quickly puts quite a bit of strain on Adrian. Feeling that it is his responsibility to stop his replacement, he begins a slide into obsession.

This obsession soon affects his relationship with Marcia as well. The crisis quickly culminates with Adrian disclosing his past to her, masked escapades included. These revelations have such an effect on Marcia that she ends their relationship and begins to see a psychologist. Adrian’s attempts to win her back and the fluctuations in Marcia’s attitude would be a subplot that would continue for a number of issues to come.

Issue #23 (Nov. 1985) ramps up the tension, leading toward the end of the Vigilante killer storyline as well as introducing a number of new characters that would have major impacts on the series almost immediately.

Dave Winston is Judge Chase’s new bailiff, taking over for an ill colleague. Helpful and pleasant from the start, Winston’s role would become prominent very quickly.

Next we have Lieutenant Harry Stein, a no-nonsense police detective tasked with putting a stop to the murderous Vigilante’s spree. Again, Stein will be very important very soon, and was in fact beginning a career that would keep him in view in the DCU for quite some time to come.

Finally, we have Mr. Trinidad Santiago, a druglord who passes into Adrian’s court and out just as quickly because of an improperly executed search warrant. Santiago promptly goes into hiding, with the race to track him down forming the subplot of the next few issues.

Those few issues feature a tale of a mother’s revenge and one of police brutality, but the search for Santiago is always bubbling under both stories. Adrian, the Vigilante, and the reappearing Electrocutioner are all on a collision course as they track the druglord.

That collision finally takes place as issue #26 ends. The three meet in the woods outside the remote home Santiago is hiding in, having all put together clues regarding his location. Adrian is battling Vigilante when Electrocutioner, having just killed Santiago, comes upon the duo.

It all comes together in issue #27 (Mar. 1986), with the three carrying on a running battle as they try to escape one another as well as the local police who have been attracted by all the gunplay. Adding to the mix are Lt. Stein, following up on a sighting of Vigilante, and even Dave Winston, who has been tailing Adrian as his behavior has become more erratic.

In the end, Adrian ends up shooting the Electrocutioner, and in a welcome move, when unmasked, he is no one special, and no one we have seen before. When asked

by BI where that notion came from, Kupperberg states, “I don’t remember whose idea that was. I know I always liked Steve Ditko’s original idea for the unmasking of the

Green Goblin, where he turned out to be just some unknown guy instead of Norman Osborn.”

The same, however, cannot be said for the murderous Vigilante. The title character confronts Adrian just after the death of Electrocutioner and the two are in a standoff, holding guns on one another. It quickly becomes clear that Vigilante knows who Adrian is and has no interest in shooting him. The two verbally spar and both become more agitated until Adrian fires the second before he is sure Vigilante will.

Unmasking him, we find this brutal killer is… Alan Welles! “Alan Welles came to me as being set up to be the psycho-Vigilante,” according to Paul Kupperberg.

“Beyond that I had a free hand to develop the character and situation as I went along. Of course, we always knew it wasn’t going to end well for Welles.” Adrian is shocked, but the reader should not be quite as surprised. Since his introduction, in conversations with Adrian, Welles espoused a philosophy similar, though never usually as extreme,

British Imports Fan-favorite writer Alan Moore and artist Jim Baikie teamed to produce Vigilante #17–18.

Shown here is the title page from #17 (May 1985).

TM & © DC Comics.

Mercs and Anti-heroes Issue • BACK ISSUE • 29

New Creative Team Double-page spread from Vigilante #21 (Sept. 1985), gueststarring Nightwing; courtesy of Heritage.

This was Tod Smith’s second issue as penciler, and the first for Paul Kupperberg as Vigilante writer, having been eased into the project dialoguing Marv Wolfman’s plots.

TM & © DC Comics.

as Adrian’s. It turns out that his viewpoint was actually just a touch more over the top. As an amusing aside, a letter was published in issue #13 where a fan was convinced Welles was the Electrocutioner!

As the issue ends, we are left with a feeling of déjà vu as again, at the end of the career of someone wearing the Vigilante mask, we see there is someone watching from the shadows.

A KINDER, GENTLER VIGILANTE

Just as Adrian begins to believe the specter of the Vigilante is behind him, the world shows him that he cannot get away that easily. Unbeknownst to him, Harry Stein does not believe the story Adrian has concocted to explain the death of Alan Welles and, believing Adrian to be responsible, vows to dig deeper.

Adrian came up with a cover story, not wanting his friend’s name to be sullied after his death.

Further, and perhaps more troubling, yet another Vigilante has appeared on the scene. Thankfully for Adrian’s sanity, this Vigilante is much more concerned with justice than bloodshed, to the point of using tranquilizers when the situation warrants.

Unwilling to go down the same path of leaving the readers wondering who is behind the mask for multiple issues, at the end of #29 (May 1986), Kupperberg has the new Vigilante reveal his identity to Adrian Chase.

30 • BACK ISSUE • Mercs and Anti-heroes Issue

Wielding the hardware and wearing the visor now is bailiff Dave Winston, a move Paul Kupperberg states was intended from the moment Winston was introduced.

The two argue about Winston’s actions, but Adrian cannot sway him. Dave comes from a line of police officers and is as tired of the holes in the system as Adrian and Alan Welles were. The difference is, Dave just wants to fill in those holes, not shoot people full of a bunch more.

Dave’s first test spans issues #28–32 and has him trying to stop a number of assassinations that could end in a gang war. As he tries to track down those responsible, he finds that being a costumed hero might not be as easy as he first believed, and recognizes that compromises sometimes have to be made to achieve the optimal outcome. Thankfully, he never contemplates the option that it might be easier to just kill everyone.

Dave Winston did not have the training Adrian Chase did, nor the monomaniacal drive of Alan Welles, but Kupperberg believes he did have “military and police training, and was a guy who may have studied martial arts at the local dojo. But I was always conscious that I was writing ‘just a guy’ in a costume and tried to handle it as realistically as possible.”

The next three issues bring Vigilante into combat with a rapist and a divinely inspired mad bomber intent on destroying the “heathens” that patronize health clubs.

The emotional impact of the rapist story is ratcheted up

when Dave’s girlfriend, Anne Pasquale, herself a police officer introduced in issue #31, volunteers to act as bait for the sexual predator.

Vigilante #31 (July 1986) was penciled by Chuck Patton, who admits, “I really don’t remember who designed Anne Pasquale. I’m usually pretty good at remembering those details, but this one got me! I do remember enjoying that she had a dark, curly mane of hair that I saw a lot of NYC girls wear in the ’80s, and Anne was definitely a homegrown, tough New Yorker.”

All the while Dave Winston is combatting crime, Harry Stein is building his case against Adrian Chase. All these storylines and subplots would coalesce in Vigilante Annual #2.

Just a note on the artistic front: For issues #30–35, Tod Smith and Chuck Patton alternate as penciler, with Smith drawing the even numbered issues. To keep some continuity to the art, Smith remembers that “the editors were pretty good at providing [Photo]stats of the previous issue’s pencils for reference where necessary, so we all tried to keep things pretty consistent.”

Patton feels “it wasn’t difficult to follow the look of the series and keep it consistent. We already had two or three major lead artists setting the look before myself and Tod climbed aboard, and the book always looked great. I was such a fan of the book before becoming an artist on it, that I really wanted it to succeed and did everything I could to help it stand out.” As the writer of those issues, Kupperberg says, “I didn’t know from month to month who was going to pencil any given issue, so all I could do was write what I was going to write. Tod and Chuck were both pros, so I never had anything to worry about.”

With Ross Andru returning to pencil the second Vigilante Annual, the story ties up almost all of the plot threads that have been running throughout Dave Winston’s tenure. By the end of issue #34 (Oct. 1986), Stein has assembled enough evidence to indict Adrian for the murder of Alan Welles. Luckily for Adrian, his relationship with Marcia has been slightly repaired to the point where she acknowledges she still has feelings for him. She quits her job to defend him.

As for the character with his name in large letters on the cover, remember those assassinations Dave got involved in at the start of his Vigilante career? Well, it seems the instigator behind the whole thing is still out there and has employed our old friends Cannon and Sabre to take Vig out of the picture.

The two plots unfold as the issue progresses. After escaping an ambush by the two assassins, Vigilante tracks down the man responsible, but is interrupted by Canon and Sabre. He finally manages to trick the duo into taking each other down, though his true quarry escapes.

On the trial front, Harry Stein’s case hits its first major snag as his star witness, a bag lady who saw Adrian transporting Welles’ body, reveals that she remembers the incident so clearly because that was “the same night the Martians gave me a ride in their flyin’ saucer!”

Seeing some of his credibility crumble, at the next break in proceedings, Stein confronts Adrian and the two have a heart-to-heart talk wherein Adrian reveals everything.

Realizing that they have both been on the same side all along, Stein proceeds to sabotage his own case when called to the stand and Adrian is set free. In the wake of this, Adrian and Marcia reconcile and vow to start again.

WHEN IS A SECRET NOT A SECRET

At this juncture we really should mention the story that appeared in DC Comics Presents #92 (Apr. 1986). DCCP was a title that teamed Superman with other DC characters (DCCP was examined in depth in BI #66), and this issue teams him with the Vigilante in a story that has the two heroes stopping a plot to release nerve gas in New York City.

Of particular interest is that this story presented the fact that Dave Winston was the new man behind the mask as a known fact. Problem is, the issue came out the same month as Vigilante #28, a month before this rather important fact was disclosed in issue #29!

“I really don’t remember why that happened, unless something happened to delay Vigilante #28,” Kupperberg tells BACK ISSUE. “I do remember that when I pitched the Vigilante guest-spot for DCCP, Julie Schwartz wasn’t really thrilled with the idea. He was a little nervous about using someone as violent as Vigilante, but the plot satisfied him that Superman wouldn’t be involved in anything untoward, so he let me do the story. It was a little weird mixing the worlds of Vigilante and Superman in a [Comics] Code-approved book, but it was cool to see what Curt Swan did with Vigilante.” Penciler Swan and inker Dave Hunt were the art team for that comic.

Suspicions Harry Stein is on to Adrian Chase in this vital page of exposition from Vigilante #28 (Apr. 1986). Original Smith/Magyar art from the collection of Paul Kupperberg. (inset) The Kupperbergscripted DC Comics Presents #92 (Apr. 1986). Cover

by Eduardo Barreto.

TM & © DC Comics.

Mercs and Anti-heroes Issue • BACK ISSUE • 31

BACK IN THE SADDLE AGAIN

After the events of the Annual, Adrian and Marcia prepare to make a normal life for themselves. Issue #36 (Dec. 1986) begins with them boarding a plane for London. Unfortunately, fate again has other plans. A group of hijackers take over the plane before it can take off. Marcia does her absolute best to keep Adrian calm and convince him to let the authorities handle the situation. Luckily for everyone, the Peacemaker, making his post-Crisis DCU debut, is in the airport.

This Peacemaker is different than how the character was portrayed during his original appearances at Charlton Comics. First off, he talks to himself.

The spirits of all those he has killed are said to be inside his helmet, talking to him. He is also in the employ of a covert government anti-terrorist agency run by former Doom Patrol member and Paul Kupperberg favorite Valentina Vostok, a.k.a. Negative Woman.

Peacemaker soon manages to make his way onto the plane, and in his own efficient manner kills three of the four terrorists. As he kills the third, Vigilante, having heard of the hijacking on the news, arrives on the scene. Unsure of whose side Peacemaker is on, and confused by the fact that the man seems to be talking to himself, Dave confronts him and tries to restrain him. This turns out be a very bad idea. The brain-damaged Peacemaker shoots Vigilante multiple times in the chest!

Adrian tries to restrain Peacemaker, but the deranged operative fights him off and flees. Stunned by this sequence of events, Adrian begins to recite to himself a litany of all the people he feels would still be alive if he had only fully accepted the role that life seems to have thrust upon him.

Adrian takes the Vigilante mask from Winston’s body and, donning it, rededicates himself to the job. In the background, Marcia realizes what has happened, and her world crumbles around her again.

We mentioned that Dave Winston was meant to be the Vigilante from the moment he was introduced. Was he also fated to die in the costume? “I think the Alan Welles storyline put it in my mind that anyone who put on that suit was going to wind up dead,” confides Kupperberg. “At some point it’s going to have to come back to Adrian, so that’s sure one way to push aside the current Vigilante.”

Paul did resolve to give Winston a supporting cast, since “you want to give characters a backstory and make them interesting and sympathetic, especially one who’s going to be assuming the title role for a while before [being killed] off.”

Speaking of sympathy, just as issue #36 begins, things are looking quite rosy for Adrian and Marcia. But, of course, it was very short-lived. “It’s fun to give readers hope and then yank the carpet out from under them,” remarks Kupperberg.

The following two issues set the stage for much of what was to come in the rest of the series. As issue #37 begins, Adrian travels to Dave Winston’s apartment to retrieve a spare Vigilante outfit. Unfortunately, the police have the place staked out, and while making his escape, Adrian knocks one of them off a fire escape to his death.

Not long after, Negative Woman finds Adrian and recruits him to her cause.

Around the same time, Harry Stein is informed that due to his insubordination and bungling of the Chase case, he has lost his job. Stein is not unemployed for long, though, as Vostok recruits him as well, feeling they need someone to control Vigilante, and Adrian trusts Harry due to their recent history.

Meanwhile, the final terrorist from the attempted hijacking is still at large and Peacemaker has gone rogue to track him down. The terrorist is discovered holed up on a ship in New York Harbor and Vigilante, Stein, and Peacemaker all converge. Unfortunately, the press becomes aware of the situation as well.

Vigilante ends up killing the final terrorist, but, employing some truly warped logic, this totally infuriates Peacemaker as he believes the man wanted him to be the one who killed him. Peacemaker attacks Vigilante and succeeds in unmasking him… in front of a TV film crew! The battle ends in a draw, with Peacemaker fleeing, but Adrian’s life has been irrevocably changed. Over the next few issues he finds himself living in safe houses and disguising himself when he ventures outside.

Issue #41 (May 1987) has Adrian tracking down the man who had been killing rival gangsters during Dave Winston’s tenure, as the man has put a bounty on Vigilante’s head. Adrian ends up throwing him from a high-rise window to his

Live and Let Die Dave Winston as the Vigilante in these tightly paced fight scenes from (top) issue #31 (July 1986) and (bottom) issue #33 (Sept. 1986). Stories by Paul Kupperberg, art by Chuck Patton and Rick Magyar. Scans courtesy of Brian Martin.

TM & © DC Comics.

32 • BACK ISSUE • Mercs and Anti-heroes Issue

death. Chillingly, Adrian feels a certain amount of exhilaration in the act, feeling it is part of “a job well done.”

Though tales of street-level crime suited the Vigilante character quite well, the creative team felt a little differently.

“The ‘grim-and-gritty’ thing was coming into vogue at the time, even though it was not a natural fit for me,” Tod Smith tells BACK ISSUE. “My friend and fellow Kubert alumnus Tim [Grimjack] Truman was a natural at that style, so I tried channeling some of his storytelling ideas and drew as realistically as I could. I did find some of the subject matter and violence objectionable personally, but that was the nature of the book. Later, when I worked at Marvel, ironically one of the first titles I worked on was The Punisher, so people thought of me as a ‘gritty’ artist! But I would have been much happier with Captain America or Spider-Man.” As for Kupperberg, “I don’t understand the impulse to pick up a gun as a solution to anything, but I routinely write characters who not only have, but act on the impulse. My job is to understand why and make them believable. I’ve never been a 20-something Kryptonian woman or a Riverdale teenager with too many girlfriends either, but I’ve also written Supergirl and Archie.”

The two-issue story in #42–43 features the return of Peacemaker when he mistakes Harry Stein for an old terrorist foe. This reappearance primed Peacemaker for his own miniseries that Kupperberg and Smith would handle. (For a detailed look at that series, dig out your copy of BACK ISSUE #79.)

With issue #42, Tod Smith began a run as cover artist, and the cover of the 43rd issue was a special one for him. Tod reveals, “The montage with the big head shot of Vig and the taxi/car chase was inspired by a Joe Kubert Enemy Ace cover [Star Spangled War Stories #138, Apr.–May 1968]. Instead of an aerial dogfight we had a car chase. Joe was a former teacher of mine at the Joe Kubert School, and one of the greatest cover artists of all time. No one seemed to make the connection, but that’s how that one came about. Thanks, Joe!” Updating another character, while Adrian’s life twisted and turned, Marcia had ended up in an institution. After a number of scenes updating her condition, she has finally recovered and in issue #47 flies

off to California to begin life anew. According to Kupperberg, “I’d like to think that I deliberately gave Marcia that closure, but I believe at that point she had more or less served her usefulness to me in the storyline and I shuffled her off and moved on.”

THE DARK KNIGHT AND DARKER NIGHTS

The Vigilante series enters the home stretch with the introduction of a couple of new cast members in #45 (Sept. 1987). The first was Harvey Bullock, who joins Stein’s team. (You can read all about his defection from the Batman titles in BACK ISSUE #91.)

The other arrival was a new character, Black Thorn.

Adrian hears that this person is killing criminals with poison darts and sets off to find him. The tables are turned when Black Thorn finds him, and turns out to be a her—a woman who wants to get to know Adrian… well, let’s just say, very, very closely.

Visually, Tod Smith created Thorn, remembering, “I gave her those silly leg warmers that were all the rage at the time. I had also seen the spiky hair design on an actress somewhere and used that too.”

Proving to be a very mercurial character, after a night of passion with Adrian, Black Thorn and Vigilante meet the next day as she kills a criminal. The two disagree over methods and Thorn drugs Vig and leaves him on a rooftop. Unfortunately, a pair of cops finds him before he recovers. As you can imagine, a trip to prison is not pleasant for someone everyone now knows is the Vigilante. Thankfully, feeling guilty (and a few other things), Thorn subsequently breaks Adrian free.

Bowing to fan, and maybe financial, pressure, after his escape, Vigilante catches up with Stein and Bullock in Gotham City as they deal with a terrorist situation.

Of course, what would a trip to Gotham be without a guest appearance from the city’s most famous crimefighter. However, the road to this crossover was not a completely smooth one. According to Tod Smith, “A lot of readers were requesting a Vigilante/Batman meeting, which [Vigilante] editor Mike Gold was reluctant to do, feeling that Batman was overexposed as it was.

“But I too thought it would be a great idea (and good for sales), so I worked up an illustration and showed it

tod smith

Killer Covers Vigilante had no shortage of guest cover artists during its run, including (left) Bill Sienkiewicz (on #28), (middle) John Byrne (on #35), and (right) Mike Grell (on #36, guest-starring the Peacemaker).

TM & © DC Comics.

Mercs and Anti-heroes Issue • BACK ISSUE • 33

to Mike, which seemed to change his mind. That illustration became the cover for that issue.”

The issue, #47 (Nov. 1987), turned out to be Tod Smith’s swan song on the book. “It was at that time the Peacemaker miniseries came along, which seemed like fun,” comments Tod. “There had been so many artists on The Vigilante in such a short time, I never felt like I had put my own stamp on it—I was just another in a long line of pencilers.

I was probably looking for something else that I could call my own.”

Steve Erwin was on hand to pencil the final three issues of Vigilante.

Don’t feel bad for Steve about the short stint, though—he continued to work when most of the characters moved over to the Checkmate title that we’ll get to shortly.

The two penultimate issues of the series feature Adrian and Thorn’s relationship evolving while they track the “Homeless Avenger,” a man trying to make the streets safe for the homeless with some very final and brutal methods of his own. When they finally confront their quarry, Adrian begins to question many of Black Thorn’s tactics as well, to the point that the two engage in a knockdown, drag-out fight—a fight Adrian wins, but also loses in a sense.

Issue #50 (Feb. 1988) begins with a Ken Steacy cover depicting Adrian Chase pointing a gun at a mirror image of Vigilante. It is an apt harbinger of what is found inside.

Adrian begins to become more and more preoccupied with all the death in his life. When he loses control and attacks some kids harassing people in a movie theater, he begins to realize what he has allowed himself to become.

The final straw occurs when Vigilante chances upon a shout-out he believes to be between some thugs and the police, but is actually a police ambush. Attempting to escape, his instincts cause him to shoot

a police captain, and he realizes he is now exactly what he has always fought against.

Following that epiphany, and feeling there is only one solution, Adrian returns to his apartment, puts his gun to his head, and ends his own life. This is probably the first instance of a costumed hero committing suicide in such a calculated manner.

Warlock and Phoenix had killed themselves previously, but both of those were in the heat of battle.

The letters column of the issue states that the creators realized after Adrian killed the police officer in issue #37 that this was how the series had to end. As far back as issue #1, Adrian stated that he would rather die than fight a policeman as Vigilante. Fabulous long-term planning, right? “I’m pretty sure,” begins Paul Kupperberg, “that the final editorial in #50 was another of those instances of a long, long list of happy accidents that creators and editors later go on to claim were intentional. It happens all the time. You write a bit you think is cool or that makes for a great dramatic moment and then six months, a year or more later when you’re doing another bit, you remember that earlier bit, which ties into this one, and you knit them together. Then, many years later still, when you’re being interviewed for BACK ISSUE, you can claim you planned it that way all along.”

The supporting cast and the creative team would continue. Introduced in Action Comics #598 (Apr. 1988), Checkmate was the next iteration of the covert organization Negative

Kubert Homage (inset) This 1968 Enemy Ace cover

by Joe Kubert inspired Tod Smith’s cover for (left) Vigilante #43 (July 1987). (center) Courtesy of Brian Martin, Vigilante and Black Thorn in a remarkable commissioned illo by Tod. (inset) Black Thorn steals Smith’s cover for Vigilante #46 (Oct. 1987).

TM & © DC Comics.

i swear to all that is heinz, the ketchup lid was loose when I got here...

34 • BACK ISSUE • Mercs and Anti-heroes Issue

The End (right) Black Thorn makes a grisly discovery in the shocking resolution of the Adrian Chase saga. From Vigilante #50 (Feb. 1988), written by Paul Kupperberg, penciled by Steve Erwin, and inked by Jack Torrance.

TM & © DC Comics.

Woman had run, but since issue #47, due to changing political winds, now had Harry Stein in charge. According to Kupperberg, “The end of Vigilante and the launch of Checkmate were coordinated, and the idea from the start was to roll Black Thorn, Harry Stein, and the rest of the crew into the new title.” Checkmate would have a respectable 33-issue run of its own.

Thankfully, other than a few undead/afterlife appearances, Adrian Chase has remained deceased, although other Vigilantes have since appeared in his wake, as recently (as of this writing) as 2016.

This is fitting, as the creators of the series realized the extreme the character had progressed to, and had him take the only action he thought was logical at that point.

Whether we agree with his (or their) decision or not, it is certainly best to leave Chase undisturbed, the ’80s Vigilante’s final victim.

The author would like to thank Paul Kupperberg, Chuck Patton, Tod Smith, and Marv Wolfman for their invaluable assistance in creating this article.

BRIAN MARTIN remains ever vigilant in his quest to find quality comic books, be they new or old.

Deadpool TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

Mercs and Anti-heroes Issue • BACK ISSUE • 35

TM

by M

A DECADE OF VIOLENCE

arc Buxton

Do you smell it, my fellow comic-book historians? Can you smell the acrid, burning stench of cordite and spent shotgun shells? Can you smell the fresh viscera spilled from the bowels of the unjust and corrupt?

Well, in the late ’80s you could smell it all, because violent anti-heroes were everywhere.

From Marvel to DC and everywhere in between, comic companies were cashing in on these Death Wish- and Dirty Harry-inspired anti-heroes.

But not all of these dark vigilantes were trend-chasing psychopaths. On the contrary, some of these death-obsessed vigilantes of the decade of Ronald Reagan and “I Want my MTV” were well-thoughtout characters that require a second historical look to find the hidden gems max allan collins of the gore-filled battlefield that was the late ’80s. Enter: Wild Dog. DC Comics’ Wild Dog was indeed one of those antiheroes, but a look back at the character’s history proves the hockey-masked terror-smasher to be so much more.

WHO IS WILD DOG?: THE BEGINNING

When Wild Dog was first announced in DC house ads, fans were more than familiar with the creative team pegged to bring this latest crime buster to life. Fans of quality crime fiction were more than aware of writer Max Allan Collins. By 1987, Collins was the writer of a number of bestselling mystery novels, he had recently reintroduced Jason Todd (Robin II) in the pages of the post–Crisis Batman, and he was garnering critical love with his noir throwback comic series Ms. Tree. Along with Collins, this new Wild Dog series was to feature Ms. Tree artist Terry Beatty. Collins and Beatty were forging their legends with Ms. Tree, so anything the creative duo embarked upon would raise an eyebrow.

On the surface with Wild Dog, Collins and Beatty were presenting a Punisher clone. But when Wild Dog #1 (Sept. 1987) hit the stands, it was clear that this new vigilante was something very different. Before we delve into the blood-soaked world of Wild Dog, we must mention Mike Gold, a brilliant editor who was instrumental in getting Collins and Beatty aboard the project.

As for the book’s beginnings, Max Allan Collins tells BACK ISSUE, “Editor Mike Gold was, and is, a good friend of mine. I don’t recall whether he approached us or not.

I would certainly have been in a position to approach him. But it would not have been with Wild Dog, just an interest, a willingness to do something with DC. Terry and I were still doing Ms. Tree and the income was just okay.

I do know that I was adamant about doing a costumed hero, in the Batman or Zorro mode, and not a superhero.

My interest in that genre is minimal.”

Terry Beatty also recalls that Gold was the catalyst for the project that would become Wild Dog, and reveals that Wild Dog almost had an all-together different moniker. “Max and I were not making much money from our detective comic, Ms. Tree, and were looking to do something to supplement our income (well, more mine,

First Blood The Terry Beatty/Dick Giordano cover to Wild Dog #1 (Sept. 1987), the character’s premiere. Note how the logo obstructs Wild Dog’s eyes, heightening the mystery of his identity.

TM & © DC Comics.

36 • BACK ISSUE • Mercs and Anti-heroes Issue

Crime-Crushers (left) Prior to Wild Dog, Collins and Beatty’s gritty Ms. Tree was an indie favorite. (right) Who dat? Red Dog, one of Sgt. Slaughter’s Marauders from the G.I. Joe universe.

Ms. Tree TM & © Max Allan Collins and Terry Beatty.

Red Dog © Hasbro.

really). Our friend Mike Gold had landed at DC as an editor, and we the comic sold huge numbers in the Quad Cities area where the series’ pitched Wild Dog (originally called Machine) to him.” action was set. We did store signings there with lines wrapped ’round So with Wild Dog named and ready to go and Gold steering the the block. It was crazy.” ship, the two creators got to work. Collins forever had his toe in the So Wild Dog was a hit in the Quad Cities in Iowa and Illinois, the wonderful waters of the past while presenting modern genre tales, unlikely location where the book was set. Wild Dog, the character, and Wild Dog was no different. “I wasn’t paying any attention to looked like something that Larry Hama forgot to create for G.I. Joe. It was trends,” Collins says. “I didn’t read much of the competition—my clear that visually, Collins and Beatty wanted something modern and interest was, and is, in the classic comic strips and in ECs and other action-figure-like, looking but juxtaposed with the pulp and noir comic books of that era. The vigilante aspect had everything to do sensibilities of the proto-comics world. In fact, Wild Dog’s G.I. Joe roots with Zorro and nothing to do with The Punisher or even the go even deeper. “The character was [earlier] called Red Dog,” pulp novels of that genre, like The Executioner. As with Collins recollects. “After the football practice of rushing the line—I played football in high school—and that’s where Ms. Tree, Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer, the first modern vigilante hero, was an inspiration.” So while others Terry’s great ‘red dog’ logo came from.” Collins and were pulling their dark-vigilante fantasies from modern Beatty changed the name to Wild Dog because Red comic-book masters like Frank Miller and Alan Moore Dog was a name already being used by a member of G.I. Joe. Red Dog was a member of Sgt. Slaughter’s (and often crafting pale imitations of the same), Collins was pulling from Spillane and Dick Tracy Marauders and wore a—wait for it!—football jersey creator Chester Gould to create a comic book inspired into battle, so to avoid confusion, Collins and Beatty changed their new vigilante’s name to Wild Dog. by the past but rooted in the present.

As for Wild Dog’s design esthetic, Collins informs Terry Beatty agrees with Collins’ assessment of BACK ISSUE, “The elements were collaborative. The Wild Dog being an amalgam of then-modern-day comic vigilantes and pulp-inspired classical heroes. concept was a real-world costumed hero—what would “The comic vigilante thing had something to do with it, his costume to be like? Specifically, how would terry beatty he disguise himself and arm himself for battle?

Beatty recalls. “But we were also riffing off Chuck Norris movies and ‘men’s adventure’ paperback heroes.

What would his tools be? The idea of a football jersey With a little Lone Ranger thrown into the mix for good measure.” having a resemblance to a costumed hero’s shirt made a lot of sense.

Wild Dog may have been inspired by writers of realistic crime fiction, The hockey mask was both protective and a wink toward Friday the but the new vigilante was entrenched in the DC Universe. Yet this 13th… The elements were collaborative; the design, entirely Terry.” gun-happy killer was not fighting crime and terror in such iconic locales Beatty agrees: “The look of the costume was my doing—but the as Gotham City or Metropolis… no, Wild Dog operated somewhere concepts were a mix of Max and me. This really was a collaboration, much smaller. Both Collins and Beatty have roots in Iowa, and this and the co-creator description is accurate in this case.” As for Wild Dog’s unlikely piece of mid-America was chosen as the setting for Wild Dog. uncharacteristic, sports-inspired appearance, Beatty says that the jersey and As to why Wild Dog was set in such an unlikely place as the mid-American hockey-mask look “came out of Max’s notion that he’d be an ex-football Quad Cities, Max Allan Collins tells BACK ISSUE, “I believe we did it as player—and the shirt was a jersey with the team’s mascot on it. The entire a sort of stunt—because it was our home area and we figured it was costume was meant to be ‘off the rack’ —stuff anyone could have thrown both an unusual setting for a comic book of this kind and that it would together. We were trying for something that could be DC’s Punisher (in likely attract local media attention. It sure did! Lots of media, and we the sense that Daredevil was Marvel’s Batman)… and there was some did an outdoor signing at a comic-book shop that was swarming with fans. Chuck Norris movie with him driving a truck around and fighting terrorists Closest thing to Beatlemania I’m likely to experience.” Terry Beatty that played into it. The hockey mask comes from Jason in the Friday the remembers that surreal local success as well and adds, “I will note that 13th movies—but it’s white as a nod to the Lone Ranger’s white hat.”

Mercs and Anti-heroes Issue • BACK ISSUE • 37

Cover Shots The Beatty/Giordano covers to Wild Dog #2–4, and the Beatty cover to Wild Dog Special #1.

TM & © DC Comics.

No wonder Wild Dog still has a following so many years later. Not many characters can claim to be a chimera of the Lone Ranger, Batman, and Jason Voorhees.

Wild Dog was unique because it went small. It took place in Anytown, USA, and the drama was built by reflecting reality. A gun-toting nut-job didn’t stand out against the backdrop of Gotham City or Metropolis, but instead a backdrop of strip malls and fast-food burger joints. This setting inspired both creators, and Beatty really enjoyed the conceit of creating a vigilante that protected a typical American city. “I kind of liked him being on his own in the Midwest,” Beatty tells BACK ISSUE. “Part of the premise was that he wasn’t part of the Metropolis/Gotham superhero thing, but dealing with smaller stuff—convenience-store robberies and such—in a sort of home-grown, small-town way.

Team-ups and supervillains weren’t part of the plan.”

Wild Dog seemed even more disturbing when contrasted against his mundane surroundings—more so because when first meeting the cast of Wild Dog, readers did not know which of Collins and Beatty’s players was

38 • BACK ISSUE • Mercs and Anti-heroes Issue

underneath the hockey mask. That’s right, not only was Wild Dog entrenched in a small-town reality, he was also the subject of a vigilante whodunit.

Where did that idea of not revealing the protagonist’s ID come from? Collins reveals, “I think it was my idea, but it could have been something Terry and I came up with. We just thought it was a fun idea, something that might drive interest and sales. This was done once in the first Lone Ranger serial decades and decades ago.”

So there is another example of merging the classic with the contemporary. Wild Dog took place in a modern small rural town, but the roots of the character were entrenched in pulps and film serials of yesteryear. This gave Wild Dog a sense of genre classism one would not expect to find in a late-’80s mainstream vigilante title.

THE WILD DOG MINISERIES

Wild Dog #1 (Sept. 1987) opens with an introduction to the setting of the Quad Cities as journalist Susan King begins her report on a new Davenport community center.

Instead of beginning their tale with falling shell casings and broken bodies, Collins and Beatty welcome new readers with a slice-of-life bit of business that could be happening anywhere. Thus, Wild Dog differentiates itself from the vigilante pack. This is where the genius of the creators comes in. How many explosions take place in DC comics in a given year? Hundreds? But by rooting his tale in the workaday world, Collins grabs readers’ interest right away. Sadly, Collins presented a predictor of things to come in the real world. With King broadcasting live, hooded gunmen blow up the center and take a number of hostages. A terrorist attack on a community center might have seemed fantastical in 1987, but after witnessing such events play out in the 21st Century, Collins’ tale seems Nostradamus-like.

From there, readers are introduced to the four men who might be the title character. First, there is police lieutenant Andy Flint; second, there is African-American reporter Lou Godder (“Red Dog” spelled backwards); third, there is auto mechanic Jack Wheeler; and fourth, there is shadowy CIA operative Graham Gault. One of these men is Wild Dog, and the vigilante mystery begins in earnest.

Collins has a few recollections about what inspired this extended cast: “The most important supporting cast member was the female reporter, who was named after a local male newscaster... The others, I don’t remember.

I believe we tried for some diversity.”

The next three issues unravel the Wild Dog mystery as reporter King delves deeper into the pasts of the four suspected vigilantes. The fourth issue provides readers with answers as Graham Gault begins to hunt for the truth just as Wild Dog is hunting down the terrorists that continually attack the Quad Cities. Finally, with Godder’s help, Gault figures out that Wild Dog is none other than (SPOILER ALERT) mild-mannered auto mechanic Jack Wheeler.

The fourth issue of the series (Dec. 1987) depicts Wheeler’s tragic backstory. Wheeler was a high school football star that had to enlist in the Army to finish college after a knee injury cut short his gridiron career.

Wheeler saw his friends in his unit killed in Beirut, and suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, he returns home. Soon, Wheeler begins dating a woman that would become his true love, but sadly, it turns out that this woman is the daughter of a known Chicago mob boss.

She ends up being gunned down and dies in Wheeler’s arms, causing Wheeler to snap and adopt the Wild Dog identity. The miniseries ends with Wheeler asking Gault for help continuing his vigilante operations.

do you guys smell that? smells like a... wait for it... wet dog!!! ...anybody?

Deadpool TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

WEEKLY CARNAGE

But the tale of Wild Dog did not end with the miniseries.

Collins and Beatty soon brought Wild Dog into the pages of Action Comics Weekly. In Action #601 (May 24, 1988), DC began a grand experiment, each week publishing a double-sized issue of Action Comics filled with multiple features. [Editor’s note: Action Comics Weekly was chronicled in detail in BACK ISSUE #98.] Max Allan Collins and Terry Beatty’s Wild Dog was chosen to be one of those features.

From the first issue, it was clear that some writers would have a problem with the eight-page story structure of Action Comics Weekly, but Collins would not be one of those writers. He had worked on a number of comic strips including Dick Tracy, so these shorter chapters, with their tight deadlines, were right in the writer’s wheelhouse. “I was used to writing comic strips, a week of script at a time,” Collins recalls. “That was similar.

It wasn’t particularly challenging for me.” Of Wild Dog’s participation in Action Comics Weekly, Beatty adds, “The miniseries did fairly well, enough so that we were given the choice of another mini or a slot in Action Comics Weekly. We chose ACW. In retrospect, another mini would probably have been the better choice.”

Collins’ skill at handling shorter plots made Wild Dog seem right at home in Action Comics Weekly. It’s ironic that Wild Dog, who was inspired by the pulp and comicstrip heroes of yesterday, was now being spooned out to the public in a throwback format, but that really worked for the character. Between Collins’ masterful pacing and

Beatty’s nostalgic, elegant simplicity, the weekly Wild Dog feature reads like a classic Sunday comic strip.

Unfortunately, Collins did not have his partner-in-crime Beatty during the entirety of the Wild Dog run in Action Comics Weekly. “The workload for Terry was heavy,” Collins remembers. “Another artist came in for one chapter, and it was terrible. I had a very darkly funny thing about a shooting at a McDonald’s that was completely blown [artistically]—Terry would have aced it. It was a newscaster standing in front of a grotesque McDonald’s–type playground, with its hamburgers with eyes and such, and saying that no one knew what had driven the shooter mad.

That was something I saw on TV, by the way—a McDonald’s got shot up and the newscaster made that stupid statement in front of Mayor McCheese…” The artist in question was Dick Rockwell, who actually served for 35 years as Milt Caniff’s uncredited art assistant on Steve Canyon. That’s one heck of a pedigree for Rockwell, but sadly, the artist’s stiff and cartoony style did not fit into the bleak and modern world of Wild Dog. Rockwell did finishes over Beatty’s breakdowns in Action Comics Weekly #619–621 (Sept. 27– Oct. 11, 1988), and the difference in art styles between Beatty and Rockwell was indeed jarring. Beatty remembers the scheduling issues and fill-ins: “Deadlines were an issue.

We had some scheduling complications… That didn’t work out very well and didn’t win us any points with readers.”

All total, Wild Dog appeared solo on three Action Comics Weekly covers and was included in group shots on two others.

Who Let the Dogs Loose? (left) Wild Dog’s entry from Who’s Who: Update ’87 #5 (Dec. 1987). (right) Courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions (www.ha.com), a production Photostat of the original cover art for Action Comics Weekly #615 (Aug. 30, 1988).

Art by Barry Crain and Rick Magyar.

TM & © DC Comics.

Mercs and Anti-heroes Issue • BACK ISSUE • 39

Caged! (inset) Action Comics Weekly #640. Cover

by Rick Burchett. (top) House ad for Wild Dog Special #1. (bottom) Our anti-hero’s trapped by the Catcher in this dynamite action page from Wild Dog Special #1. Story by Collins, art by Beatty. Courtesy of Anthony Snyder (www.anthonyscomicbookart.com).

TM & © DC Comics.

The first Action Comics Weekly Wild Dog tale sees Wheeler go up against a violent anti-pornography activist group. The first arc ran in Action Comics Weekly #601–609.

The next Wild Dog arc ran in Action Comics Weekly #615–622.

This tale focuses on the introduction of Wild Pup, a young sidekick wannabe that inserts himself into Jack Wheeler’s dangerous world.

The hunt for a female serial killer that preys on the Quad Cities’ singles scene serves as the backdrop of this drama. It is revealed that the serial killer was murdering men that may have given her a sexually transmitted disease that caused her child to be stillborn, a dark-and-gritty turn in a comic saga that wore its darkness and grittiness as a badge of honor. Wild Pup, complete in his mini Wild Dog costume, is injured by the killer at the end of the arc and forced by his idol to retire. (I guess there’s no room for a “Robin” in the bleak world of Wild Dog.) The final Wild Dog arc in Action Comics Weekly sees the hockeymasked anti-hero go up against Quad City crack dealers. In this story, Collins and Beatty explore issues of urban blight, racism, and corruption in the inner cities. It is a ripped-from-the-headlines sort of tale that deals with tough issues of marginalization and white privilege. This arc ran from Action Comics Weekly #636–641. In the farewell text page of Action Comics Weekly’s final issue, #642 (Mar. 14, 1989), editor Mile Gold informed readers that Wild Dog would return in a 48-page Special and that ,“Quite frankly, we’d probably be doing an ongoing Wild Dog monthly title, if not for the fact that Max Collins and Terry Beatty are tied up in an important DC project.” It turns out that project was Ms. Tree Quarterly, a passion project that would preclude any Wild Dog from Collins and Beatty past the one-shot.

A SPECIAL FAREWELL

The Wild Dog Special #1 (Nov. 1989) was to be the last appearance of Jack Wheeler and his gun-happy alter ego for quite some time. As for why the character’s run had come to an end, Collins recalls, “No specific memory of that, but I know we had loose ends from the Action series, and wanted to set things up for perhaps another miniseries or regular book.

I believe somewhere along there Mike Gold left DC, and with him went our support within that structure. Or it may have been when we got the chance to move Ms. Tree to DC.” In the Special, Wild Dog’s hunt for a mob-backed gang of bank robbers is complicated by the arrival of a brilliant finder named the Catcher. Yes, Wild Dog takes on the Catcher. And this new villain actually succeeds in catching Wild Dog. Unfortunately for the crooks, the mob fails to execute the vigilante as Wild Dog wins the day in his final Collins-written appearance. Gold penned a two-page text piece in the back of the Wild Dog Special that, oddly, barely mentioned Wild Dog at all. Instead, it was a heartfelt text piece singing the praises of Ms. Tree and her place in the history of the crime noir genre.

As for the legacy of Wild Dog, according to Collins, the exit of the character from DC’s regular schedule had nothing to do with anti-hero apathy from fans. “The character was at least mildly popular,” Collins says. “He was certainly nothing like others in his genre, at least as much as I know about them.

He was designed to be real-world. We used a real Midwestern city (actually, cities) as the backdrop. We weren’t imitating anybody. But I think we anticipated Kick-Ass. What is that concept, but Wild Dog nastier?

Beatty also dismisses the idea of Wild Dog’s eventual decline stemming from violent vigilante ennui. “I think we just lost momentum due to the eventual failure of the grand but foolish experiment that was Action Comics Weekly. We pitched a revival to [editor] Archie Goodwin at one point and were having very serious talks about it—but that eventually fizzled out and never came to be.”

40 • BACK ISSUE • Mercs and Anti-heroes Issue

EVERY DOG HAS HIS DAY

Wild Dog Keeps Barking

at this writing, Wild Dog is appearing in the DC Young Animal title Cave Carson Has a Cybernetic Eye, and the results are wonderfully bizarre.

Max Allan Collins is correct—Wild Dog is a solid concept, mainly because he and Terry Beatty made an earnest attempt to create a small-town hero that would tackle big-time societal issues. Looking back, it’s very clear Wild Dog is not just another vigilante, but a diamond in the rough that will be fighting crime and corruption for many years to come thanks to the solid foundation set by Collins and Beatty, two comic-book masters.

MARC BUXTON is a proud contributor to websites like Den of Geek US. He is an English teacher, and Marc’s loving wife thinks he owns way too many comic books. Marc has been reading comics since the dawn of time and is still deeply in love with every era of the great medium.

© Paramount Pictures.

Despite just a handful of comic-book appearances since the late 1980s—with one appearance in Lobo #62 (May 1999) seeing Wild Dog teaming up with a bunch of other esoteric superheroes to protect real-life DC editor Mike Carlin from Lobo!—in the modern era, Wild Dog is anything but forgotten. These days, plenty of comics explore the same themes of violence and weariness with corruption that Collins and Beatty did back in their day.

It seems Wild Dog was ahead of its time.

As of this writing, the once obscure hockeymasked vigilante is appearing on TV’s Arrow and winning over a whole new generation of fans. When it was first announced that Wild Dog would appear on the DC TV show, Terry Beatty was as shocked as anyone, revealing to BACK ISSUE that he was “thoroughly surprised, as I found out about it on the Internet. Never had any sort of formal message from DC/WB letting me know.

Par for the course.” On Arrow, Wild Dog is not Jack Wheeler but a former Navy sailor Rene Ramirez, a DIY crime-buster that has joined Oliver Queen’s crusade to protect Star City.

After Wild Dog appeared on Arrow, there was some controversy over DC Entertainment not compensating Collins or Beatty for the use of Wild Dog. Max Allan Collins says, “I know the character has been used a few times, though we’ve never been paid or credited, although our contract specifies that we would be.

We weren’t even approached about the character being on the Arrow show. DC has since apologized and said we will be paid… something. I haven’t watched the show. Too disgusted. I’d rather watch Quarry on Cinemax, based on my book series.” But despite all that, Collins would return to the character in the right situation. When asked if he has more Wild Dog tales ready to tell, Collins replies, “Sure. If Terry’s available, which is doubtful.”

As for Beatty, the artist had a bit more of a positive reaction to Wild Dog’s inclusion in DC’s multimedia empire. “I had not been following the [Arrow] show until Wild Dog showed up,” Beatty tells BACK ISSUE. “I like the actor who plays him, and have no problem with the change in secret identity and ethnicity. I love that they stayed nearly 100% true to my costume design.

When Wild Dog pops into frame alongside all those heroes wearing black and colors so dark they may as well be black, the primary colors of his jersey and the white hockey mask really make him dominate the scene visually. It’s a nice validation of my work.”

Indeed, no matter how one feels about modern-day DC media, it is clear that Wild Dog still has a place within the DC empire. As to why he believes Wild Dog has endured into the modern era in both comics and live action, Collins contends, “It’s a solid concept.

Again, look how Kick-Ass mined it. Also, DC is very good at utilizing their intellectual property. Not so good at checking the contract with creators, though. Now [Wild Dog is] in Cave Carson, I understand. Having other people write my characters is new to me—I’m not crazy about it. But with the Quarry series, for example, I get credit and money. That takes the sting out.” Indeed,

(inset) Rick Gonzalez plays Rene Ramirez, a.k.a. Wild Dog, on Season Five of the CW’s Arrow. (above) Guess who’s a player in DC’s Cave Carson Has a Cybernetic Eye? Cover art to issue #5, by Mike Avon Oeming.

Arrow © Berlanti Prod./DC/Warner Bros. Television. Wild Dog and Cave Carson TM & © DC Comics.

Mercs and Anti-heroes Issue • BACK ISSUE • 41

JON SABLE FREELANCE

by MIKE GRELL

captions by

Michael Eury

Children’s book author B. B. Flemm by day, mercenary Jon Sable by night… writer/artist Mike Grell’s Jon Sable Freelance was an indie hit starting with its 1983 premiere from First Comics. The series has returned to print in the years since.

Here’s Grell’s hard-hitting hero in an undated pencil illo from the archives of Heritage Auctions (www.ha.com).

Jon Sable Freelance TM & © Mike Grell.

42 • BACK ISSUE • Mercs and Anti-heroes Issue

THE PUNISHER

by BERNIE WRIGHTSON

While we lost the beloved Bernie Wrightson back in March of 2017, we’ll never lose our amazement over his artwork. Presented here are his ultra-detailed cover pencils (courtesy of Heritage) for issue #4 of the 1991 Prestige Format miniseries, The Punisher: P.O.V. As the published cover in the inset shows, considerable alterations were made to the final version, with Joe Jusko painting over Bernie’s art.

The Punisher TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

Mercs and Anti-heroes Issue • BACK ISSUE • 43

THE PUNISHER

by MIKE ZECK

Mike Zeck’s skills as a cover artist are on display in this issue’s Deathstroke article, but this page shows what a darn good storyteller he is. From the Steven Grant-written Punisher five-issue miniseries of 1985–1986, this sequence from issue #1 (Jan. 1986) depicts Jigsaw busting out of the pen, with fellow inmate Frank (Punisher) Castle in hot pursuit.

The Punisher TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

44 • BACK ISSUE • Mercs and Anti-heroes Issue

Spidey—in his post-Secret Wars black-suited days—isn’t too happy to see Frank Castle on the job. Zeck’s cover pencils to the cover of Amazing Spider-Man #285 (Feb. 1987), courtesy of Bob McLeod.

THE PUNISHER

by MIKE ZECK

TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

Mercs and Anti-heroes Issue • BACK ISSUE • 45

DEATHSTROKE THE TERMINATOR

by MIKE ZECK

One more Zeck illo: Mike’s preliminary cover for Deathstroke the Terminator #22 (early May 1993), depicting Slade Wilson’s tussle with an unwelcoming committee. Courtesy of Heritage.

TM & © DC Comics.

46 • BACK ISSUE • Mercs and Anti-heroes Issue

TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

CABLE & DEADPOOL

by ROB LIEFELD

Here’s the dazzlingly detailed cover pencil art for Cable & Deadpool #3 (July 2004), by the characters’ originator—and this issue’s cover artist—Rob Liefeld. Courtesy of Heritage.

we’ve already wasted 46 pages before we got to these handsome e rwith c s ait... nd Anti-heroes Issue • BACK ISSUE • 47 fellas?!? let’s get M on Deadpool TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

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He’s been a soldier, a mercenary, a father, a son, and, if you believe Deadpool in the post-credits scene of his first film, he could be played by Mel Gibson or Dolph Lundgren or Keira Knightley (hey, she’s got range) in Deadpool 2.

Yes, BACK ISSUE fans, we know Josh Brolin got the role, but don’t tell Wade Wilson.

Anyhow, to celebrate the coming of Cable to the big screen, we will be looking at the character’s rich history in the Bronze Age and beyond while a certain Merc with a Mouth holds a huge gun to this writer’s head. “Make sure you spell his name right, ya hack,” he says under his red mask. That’s C A B L… uh… click E. Phew!

SUMMERS TIME

by J a m e s

Heath Lantz

When the 10th Doctor described time as “wibbly wobbly” in Doctor Who, he may have had Cable in mind. Cable is one of the few characters with two first appearances. Hold on to your time machines— all shall be explained. Spoilers are up ahead. If you haven’t read the comics discussed, you’ll be placed on Mother Askani’s naughty list.

On October 8, 1985, the January 1986 cover-dated Uncanny X-Men #201, written by Chris Claremont and drawn by Rick Leonardi, was on spinner racks and shelves.

Not only did it have Storm and Cyclops fighting for leadership of the mutant heroes, it marked the debut of Nathan Christopher Charles Summers, newborn son of Scott Summers/Cyclops and Madelyne Pryor, who was later revealed to be a clone of Jean Grey.

We now time-jump to 1990. That year, Arnold Schwarzenegger suffered from Total Recall. The mystery of who killed Laura Palmer was on the minds of the citizens of Twin Peaks. Sinead O’Connor told music fans “Nothing Compares 2 U,” while the song’s composer, Prince, released Graffiti Bridge, the sequel to Purple Rain, and its soundtrack featuring future members of his band the New Power Generation. In the Marvel Universe, New Mutants #86 gave readers the cameo appearance of the enigmatic Cable, whose first full story would be published in the next issue.

Cable’s creation has stirred up some debates over credit to this very day. While Louise Simonson and Rob Liefeld are listed as co-creators, how much merits go to whom seems to cause controversy. Brian Cronin, writer of the Comic Book Resources regular column “Comic Book Legends Revealed,” doesn’t believe Simonson had anything to do with Cable’s conception, stating, “The genesis of the character came generally from editor Bob Harras determining that New Mutants needed to shake things up. What Harras wanted was a new leader for the group, someone a lot different than Professor X.” Thor writer and artist Walter Simonson, Louise’s husband, feels his wife deserves credit for her contribution to Cable’s genesis, even though he recounted similar events in his letter to Comic Buyer’s Guide, which later resurfaced on his official Facebook page. “Mostly, the creation of Cable began indirectly,” Simonson wrote. “Weezie was the writer of New Mutants, Mr. Liefeld was the penciler, Bob Harras was the editor. Bob had told Weezie that he wanted the New Mutants to have a new adult leader now that Professor X was no longer in the book.”

Cable Installation Marvel readers first met Cable (and Stryfe) in New Mutants #87 (Mar. 1990). Cover by Rob Liefeld and Todd McFarlane.

TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

Mercs and Anti-heroes Issue • BACK ISSUE • 49

The Other First Appearance (above) In Uncanny X-Men #201 (Jan. 1986), baby Nathan Summers shows he’s something special.

Art by Rick Leonardi and Whilce Portacio.

TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

Now, Bob Harras, according to Cronin’s “Comic Book Cable’s creation and name options in Comics Bulletin’s Legends Revealed” and Sean Howe in his book Marvel “Rob Liefeld: Any More Questions?,” as quoted from Comics: The Untold Story, had also gone to Rob Liefeld Cable’s Wikipedia page: “I was given a directive to create about the change to the New Mutants’ status quo. Liefeld a new leader for the New Mutants. There was no name, sent Harras numerous pages of character designs with no description besides a ‘man of action,’ the opposite of a note that read, “Bob—some future friends and/or Xavier. I created the look, the name, much of the history foes for the Muties! If ya don’t like ’em, trash ’em! ’s okay of the character. After I named him Cable, Bob suggested Quinn and Louise had Commander X.” with me—but if you’re interested—give me a call!”

One thing Walter Simonson pointed out in his CBG letter Sean Howe’s Marvel Comics: The Untold Story is that Bob Harras had wanted a robot from his run on Nick quoted the following from Liefeld: “Bob said, ‘Let’s call Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. to command the teenage him Quentin,’ I said, ‘Yuck!’ I had already put ‘Cable’ band of mutants. Louise Simonson didn’t think down as his name on the sketches. Then, in that or an adult head of the New Mutants was Louise’s plot, after being told his name was a good idea. She compromised on the latter Cable, he was called Commander X and thought a military leader who was a throughout. I said, ‘If this guy is called sharp contrast to the more cerebral Commander X, I want nothing to do Charles Xavier would work for her pitch with it.’ That seemed ridiculous to me.” of the character. The time-traveler According to Walter Simonson’s element was also introduced by both letter to CBG, Louise’s Commander X Simonson and Rob Liefeld. Liefeld’s was merely meant as a placeholder until were visuals possibly influenced by The a name was decided upon. Harras, as Sean Terminator. One can see similarities to Howe wrote, had given Liefeld what he Cable and Arnold Schwarzenegger’s had wanted and green-lit Cable.

Cable was not originally intended cyborg of celluloid in such images as louise simonson for New Mutants. He had been meant the covers of X-Force #9 (left) and 13.

Bob Harras, while discussing New for another X-Men spin-off, Alpha Flight, © Luigi Novi / Wikimedia Commons.

Mutants with Louise Simonson, had met as Rob Liefeld told interviewer Rich separately with Rob Liefeld about what he wanted to Johnston: “Cable was in fact first introduced as a character do with the comic. The Simonsons had seen some of in an Alpha Flight proposal that I gave to Danny Fingeroth Liefeld’s artwork in Louise’s office and approved these that was green-lit and moving forward until an Alpha sketches, and the character of Cable was to be added Flight relaunch was ultimately ruled out, a condition to the book. Walter told Comic Buyer’s Guide that while necessary for me to jump over from the X-office. they were perusing Liefeld’s drawings, Bob Harras also Cable walked in the doors with me when I arrived at wanted a nemesis for Cable who would eventually Marvel, he eventually turned up in New Mutants.” become Stryfe. (More on him in a few moments.)

Fabian Nicieza, who followed Louise Simonson as Perhaps one of the most iconic things about a character New Mutants’ writer, shares some anecdotes about when he or she is created is his or her moniker. During his Cable with BACK ISSUE: “Rob had a really fully realized initial conception, Cable went through a number of name vision for the character, and how he wanted to develop changes like David Bowie or Prince. Notes on the man him from the beginning, but so much of that was in his of mystery with the cybernetic eye stated that his name mind and not on paper, that when he left, we didn’t should be Cybrid or Cable. Harras had suggested Quentin. have defining guidelines to follow. That was totally Quinn was also another possibility. Liefeld himself said of his prerogative, no issues, but having ‘inherited’ the

50 • BACK ISSUE • Mercs and Anti-heroes Issue

responsibility, I would have loved to have been better able to use his KNOW YOUR ENEMY AND KNOW YOURSELF plans as the framework.

Sun Tzu said in The Art of War, “If you know the enemy and know “I get asked questions about those books all the time, and I am honest yourself...” Those words could apply to Cable, for his enemy was himself. that my memory isn’t ironclad regarding the details,” Nicieza Throughout the New Mutants comic books featuring Cable and Stryfe, both were men of mystery. It isn’t until New Mutants admits. “People tend to forget I was writing several other #100 (Apr. 1991), the first series’ final issue, that the books besides the X-titles and I also had a full-time job as an editor, so my attentions were understandably divided. revelation about Stryfe is shown on the last page. He looks I remember the ‘Cable is baby Nathan’ thing as something exactly like Cable. In fact, it was the original intention of that was grafted on to the character because Jim Lee Rob Liefeld and Fabian Nicieza that Stryfe be Cable. and Whilce Portacio suggested it and Bob liked it enough Liefeld and Nicieza initially wanted Stryfe to be Cable to convince Rob to go with it. I don’t even remember from another point in time, much like Ethan Hawke and if that’s accurate or not, but it’s how I recall that Sarah Snook’s characters in the indie sci-fi film Predestination. continuity tangle having been initiated.

Directions got changed in the X-Books, but Stryfe turned “I think Rob figured he could make it work or tweak out to be Cable, in a sense. Mother Askani had cloned it as needed as he went along. It wasn’t necessarily a him in case he could not be saved from the technobad idea from an X-continuity standpoint, but I always organic virus. This duplicate’s aging process was felt it was a bad idea from Cable’s standpoint. It bogged accelerated until he was the same age as Nathan. rob liefeld him down way too much and ultimately, it bogged While the Askani tribe was able to halt the spread down Scott and Jean, too. A year of the virus in Nathan, © Luigi Novi / Wikimedia Commons.

Apocalypse’s forces take the later I was not a very happy camper when I found out about clone. Apocalypse himself raises the ‘Scott and Jean Honeymoon’ the boy and calls him Stryfe. miniseries. It was actually well While Stryfe and Cable have underway before I even knew clashed on numerous occasions— about it, and that one really and one figure was often thought rubbed me raw. Not only did it to be the other, particularly take the idea of a wedding, a throughout later issues of positive thing, and weigh it New Mutants and early X-Force down with tremendous story comics—the conflict and confusion between them is extremely burdens—but it also allowed a writer who had no experience evident in the two-issue miniand no real vested interest in series Cable: Blood and Metal Cable to define way too much and the X-Men crossover event about his past.”

“The X-Cutioner’s Song.”

Yes, Cable is Scott Summers Blood and Metal gave readers and Madelyne Pryor’s son Nathan. a look into the pasts of both However, according to Brian Cable and Stryfe. Garrison Cronin in “Comic Book Legends Kane seeks revenge on Cable, Revealed” #387, Rob Liefeld believing him to be Stryfe. originally intended for Cable to Meanwhile, Stryfe is unmasked be an older version of the New in front of Nathan Summers, Mutant Cannonball. Cable’s leaving him with more questions reaction to Sam (Cannonball) than answers.

Guthrie’s apparent death in “I do recall the nightmare of X-Force #7 and his resurrection knowing a Cable limited series in #8 could lead some to believe was already in the publishing this. Liefeld himself said to program budget plans when Cronin, “A character like the Image artist exodus was Wolverine has had multiple false happening,” Fabian Nicieza says origins, mysteries. I felt the of Blood and Metal. “We didn’t same could be done with Cable.” know how long the guys would But how did Nathan Chrisstill be working on the titles, etc. topher Charles Summers become So when decisions were finally the Cable we see throughout his made, and we knew Rob Liefeld time in the various Marvel wouldn’t be involved in plotting comics?, you ask. Well, Mister or drawing the book, we had a Sinister intended to use Nathan very short turn-around to try Summers as a weapon against and figure out what the story Apocalypse. After the child was would be. [Artist] John Romita freed from Sinister’s laboratory, Jr.’s schedule was always going Apocalypse infected young to be tight, but Bob Harras Nathan with a techno-organic wanted a ‘heavy hitter’ on the project. There were aspects of virus. Cyclops sent the infant into Blood and Metal which, when I the future with a woman named Askani to save his life.

As stated by Fabian Nicieza before, X-Book editor Bob Harras and Work in Progress artists Whilce Portacio and Jim Lee felt that making Cable Nathan Summers Rob Liefeld’s original sketches for the character we now was a good idea for the character’s origin. The New Mutants/X-Force team of Liefeld and Nicieza had other plans for Cable that got sidelined. know as Cable. Scan courtesy of James Heath Lantz.

Liefeld didn’t like this, but he went along with Harras and the others.

Cable TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc. Art © 1989 Rob Liefeld.

What he and Nicieza had in mind could still work for their stories.

Mercs and Anti-heroes Issue • BACK ISSUE • 51

Cable’s First Reveal Courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions (www.ha.com), original art from New Mutants #87 showing Cable (in the story) for the first time. Art by Rob Liefeld and Bob Wiacek, story

by Louise Simonson.

TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

remove myself emotionally from the turmoil of the time, are very strong. JR’s art is great in that book.

“The monthly comic,” Nicieza continues, “was a very forced ‘We need to meet our budgetary quota so our new owners can pocket lots of money’ scenario. It was an uncomfortable project from the get-go, complicated by the delayed schedule of the Blood and Metal series and our decisions about when to bring Cable back to the monthly X-Force book after the ‘X-Cutioner’s Song’ storyline had taken him off the table. I wasn’t necessarily clamoring to do a solo title, since I really wanted to explore the dynamics between Cable and the X-Force members more in that title, but I knew it was going to be done with or without me, so I agreed to go along with it.”

“The X-Cutioner’s Song” was a 12-part 1992–1993 crossover in which Stryfe frames Cable for an assassination attempt on Professor Xavier. Stryfe is also holding Cyclops and Jean Grey prisoner. The sons of Cyclops have their final battle, but in the midst of defeat, Stryfe unleashes the Legacy virus, which infects much of the mutant and some of the human population. Is Legacy an allegory

52 • BACK ISSUE • Mercs and Anti-heroes Issue

for HIV, which gave the real world AIDS? That’s an interesting discussion for another time.

Stryfe, while speaking in riddles, gives clues to his and Cable’s parents. This leads Cable to believe that Stryfe is the true son of Scott Summers and Madelyne Pryor, while he is a clone. This was later proven a falsehood in the “Fathers and Sons” X-arc. Stryfe is actually the duplicate of Cable. In two enigmatic characters, we get two different sides of sides of the same coin—one representing the good, the other representing evil. One is trying to start an apocalypse, the other is trying to stop Apocalypse.

FAMILY REUNION

When looking at the family history of Scott and Nathan Summers, it’s no wonder they both have abandonment issues with their fathers. The same could also be said of Tyler Dayspring (Dayspring is a surname Cable often used in the future where/when he was raised), Cable’s son or nephew depending on which source you read. Some comics have suggested that Nathan is Tyler’s uncle, while others, such as the “Fathers and Sons” serial in Cable #6–8 (Dec. 1993–Feb. 1994), say that Tyler is Cable’s offspring. Fabian Nicieza confirms his intentions for Tyler with BI. “I developed that Tolliver/Tyler connection and wrote it as his son. I think that created a lot of angst for Cable. If other stories made it his nephew, whatever.

In my opinion that would just dilute Cable’s emotional attachment for no real positive effect.”

Considering Tyler Dayspring’s behavior toward Cable over the years, there are justifiable reasons for some bitterness toward paternal units in the Summers family.

Cyclops and his brother Havok were put in foster families after it was believed that their parents died in a plane crash. Cyclops is forced to send Nathan to a future timeline to save the infant’s life, and Cable must sacrifice Tyler, who was brainwashed by Stryfe. Scott Summers discovered his father Christopher leads the intergalactic Starjammers and learned that Cable and Stryfe are Nathan, while Tyler traveled through time to gain revenge on Cable under various names including Tolliver, the arms dealer who hired Deadpool to kill his dad. You might have guessed, dear reader, that family picnics are not much of an option for the males in the Summers clan.

Counseling for them usually involved shots fired and/or laser blasts at this point in their lives.

The summer of 1994 saw redemption of sorts for Scott Summers as he and Jean Grey got a chance to be the parents of Nathan Dayspring. During their honeymoon in X-Men #35 (Aug. 1994), Cyclops’ and Phoenix’s minds are mentally transported into the bodies of a couple from a dystopian future ruled by Apocalypse, and, as The Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix four-issue miniseries chronicles, they use the names Slym and Redd while raising young Cable. This nuclear family in a post-apocalyptic world had to take on Apocalypse and his protégé Stryfe all while trying to have a normal life.

Artist Gene Ha tells BACK ISSUE, “I did the Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix miniseries around 1994. Before the Internet was widespread, it was much easier to get the attention of editors. I did some well-regarded work for DC Comics and Malibu, and the X-Men group editor Bob Harras called me on the phone. Pretty simple! My first work for them was X-Men Annual #3, and that lead to the miniseries.

“The X-Men books dominated the sales charts back then, so I was going to work on the most popular superheroes and the people behind it. This is one of two times I got flown in to New York for a story conference.

Everything about working on that book was insanely glamorous for a recent art school graduate. Artists usually aren’t included. I’d never been there before. I got to meet the whole editorial team and Scott Lobdell, the writer.

I also slipped off to DC to visit my editors there. The biggest “Sales were good, and Scott Lobdell had more tales to thrill was getting to visit Archie Goodwin, who remains tell about Cable’s youth.” one of the great writers, mentors, and most decent Askani’Son takes places ten years after Apocalypse was human beings to work in comics. defeated and Cyclops and Phoenix returned to their time.

“The purpose of the [Cyclops and Phoenix] series was to Nathan Dayspring has come of age, fallen in love, and enallow Cyclops and Phoenix to raise Cable,” Ha continues. counters many who would eventually become important “Before that miniseries, Cyclops had handed off in his war against Stryfe and Apocalypse. his techno-virus infected son to far-future In a period when the X-books were going guardians who could treat the disease through some major storylines such as “The Phalanx Covenant” and “Age of and save his life. Subsequent stories revealed that the child had become the Apocalypse,” a new creative team became emotionally scarred Cable and his evil clone responsible for Cable’s monthly adventures.

Stryfe. The writers and editors realized Commando and Teen Wolf screenwriter it had become child abandonment!

Jeph Loeb was scribe for Nathan Dayspring’s The series allowed Scott and Jean to adventures, while Steven Skroce and redeem themselves as parents.”

Ian Churchill provided art. Skroce drew On his input in the creation of Cyclops Cable’s part in “Phalanx,” written by and Phoenix, Ha states, “I drew everything Larry Hama. Yet, it was when he I got in the script. Almost all of the plot and Loeb took the son of Cyclops on gene ha came from Scott Lobdell. I added setting “The Dark Ride” that gave readers details like the Third World refugee look another look at the Summers family © Luigi Novi / Wikimedia Commons. and a fight in the winter, because futuristic conflicts. Apocalypse’s Dark Riders noir rarely has weather other than rain. I also developed the are under new management, that of Tyler Dayspring, world’s technology, like self re-assembling buildings whose who uses Apocalypse’s fortress and machines to every component contains hover mobility. Anti-gravity become Genesis. He slaughters the entire population technology was common in the 20th-Century X-Men world, of the Egyptian village of Akkaba where En Sabah so it’d be commonplace a thousand years later.”

Nur was born, and try as Cable might, he cannot Ha reveals to BACK ISSUE the simple reasons for the save his son. Tyler refuses to relinquish the power Cyclops and Phoenix sequel miniseries, Askani’Son (1996). he has. Tyler Dayspring is lost to Genesis.

Mutant Taskmaster Cable faces front on Liefeld’s wraparound cover to X-Force #1 (Aug. 1991).

TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

whoa, cable, go easy on the thighmaster, bro!

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That’s Stryfe Beyond New Mutants #100’s shocking last-page revelation (left), the Cable/Stryfe relationship has also been the subject of trading cards (drawn by Art Thibert and Pat Broderick/Bruce Patterson) and action figures.

TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

SHADES OF GREY

Among some of Cable’s conflicts in the Marvel Comics are those in which he’s come face to face with Nate Grey, better known as X-Man. X-Man first appeared in “The Age of Apocalypse” X-book crossover in his own title that originally served as a four-month replacement for Cable after the events of “Legion Quest.” Yet, Nate Grey was among the “Age” characters that came into the regular Marvel Universe when the timeline was repaired. Being the “AoA’s” version of Cable, sans the techno-organic virus, made Nate Grey one of the most powerful telepaths and telekinetics in Marvel Comics. He’s crossed paths the likes of the X-Men, Spider-Man, and the Hulk, but it’s perhaps meeting his counterpart in the pages of both Cable and X-Man that are most noteworthy.

The two characters are like mirror images of each other. In fact, had Cable not been infected by the techno-organic virus, Cable would most likely be exactly like X-Man. The two Nates first meet in 1996’s Cable #29–31 and X-Man #13–14 when Cable wishes to solve the mystery of who Nate Grey is.

Ian Churchill discusses the first meeting of the two Nathans with BACK ISSUE: “Crossovers like ‘Cable versus X-Man’ are normally editorially driven. Jeph Loeb, the writer of both stories, was well integrated with editorial at that time, so I threw the question [of ‘Cable versus X-Man’] over to him. He replied, ‘We thought it would be fun, and it was!’ ” Nate Grey even got to meet a darker, evil version of himself when he and Cable were involved in the “Blood Brothers” serial in 1998’s X-Man #45–47 and Cable #63, where both characters shine as they must take on a third Nathan as Stryfe returns. This time, Stryfe’s in Latveria with Dr. Doom, supposedly killed in “Onslaught.” Cable’s ally Blaquesmith sends Nate Grey and Madelyne Pryor there to fight the Chaos Bringer, who has been in X-Man’s psychic visions.

“It wasn’t my idea,” former Cable writer Joe Casey informs BI of “Blood Brothers,” “and I can tell you I absolutely did not want to do it. But I was still very new to the business, and in this instance I tried to be a good

An Eye for Trouble (opposite page) Cable pinup by Liefeld from X-Force #8 (Mar. 1992). Original art courtesy of Heritage.

TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

soldier and did my bit. I think the less said about that, the better. [Cable artist Jose] Ladronn didn’t even draw it, so I guess in my mind it doesn’t really count. At this point, I don’t even remember what the story involved.”

Cable’s meetings with X-Man may prove that man may meet himself one day if he travels long enough. Yet, it’s Nathan Dayspring’s interactions with the rest of the Marvel Universe that really stand out for the Askani’Son.

CROSSED-OVER CABLE

Cable #20 (Feb. 1995), part of the “Age of Apocalypse” prologue “Legion Quest,” saw the title character help the X-Men stop David Haller/Legion’s plan to kill Magneto in the past. However, Legion actually killed his father, Charles Xavier, before he could found the X-Men. Thus, a new world of darkness and tyranny ruled by Apocalypse is born, and Magneto creates the X-Men to honor the sacrifice of his friend Xavier.

Writer Jeph Loeb worked with new artist Ian Churchill for the first time with Cable #20. Churchill remembers, “I’d finished the second Deadpool miniseries with Mark Waid and was looking for more work.

At that time I think Steve Skroce had been working on Cable with Jeph Loeb, who had just a few issues of Cable under his belt, and Marvel was just about to launch into the ‘Age of Apocalypse’ storyline across their X-titles. Steve was going to go forward on the new X-Man title, and so they needed someone to draw the last issue of Cable before it went into the ‘AoA’ story arc. I drew that final regular issue, which was called ‘An Hour of Last Things.’ It allowed Jeph to tie up loose ends and relationship issues that had been left dangling before the whole X-Universe imploded, but it also gave us the platform for Cable and Domino to have a big double-page romantic kiss that fans had been hankering for! In fact, I gave Jeph the original art [for that]. I haven’t been to his office recently, but he used to have the spread hung on his office wall.

“Apparently,” Churchill continues, “Jeph contacted Lisa Patrick, who was the editor on Cable at the time, and told her how much he

Mercs and Anti-heroes Issue • BACK ISSUE • 55

Solo Star (left) Cable: Blood and Metal #1 (Oct. 1992). Cover signed by penciler John Romita, Jr. Inks

by Dan Green. (right) The ongoing monthly begins: Cable #1 (May 1993).

Cover by Art Thibert.

Both written by Fabian Nicieza.

TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

liked the issue I’d drawn, then asked if she’d be able to get me to come themselves to defend the world from the crossover’s title character, on board as the regular penciler for the book. I leapt at the opportunity who was the dark side of Professor Xavier. Cable #34 and 35 saw Nathan and Cable became my first ongoing title at Marvel Comics. confronting the Hulk and Apocalypse.

“I wasn’t overly familiar with Cable when I was given the book,” Ian Churchill shares his experiences drawing Cable’s pages during Churchill admits. “I seem to remember Rob [Liefeld] telling me once that crossover: “It wasn’t easy. There was a particular issue of Cable that he very loosely based Cable’s original look on his father-in-law, [#33] where Onslaught was referenced, but no one knew what he which I thought was interesting. When Rob created Cable, he was looked like because he hadn’t been designed yet! I’d like to tell you kind of a cross between the Six Million Dollar Man and Doctor Who— this stuff was all planned ahead seamlessly, but a fair amount of it a bionic man who traveled through time. Rob had made him was made up as things went along. I remember having to draw visually unique in his look, but I think the actual character a character—I think it was Post—and had to leave the of Cable was being created as things went along. In my background empty where Onslaught’s symbolic or opinion, Scott Lobdell and Gene Ha were the ones that telepathic head was supposed to be and they eventually filled the space ‘in-house’ with some sort of generic assembled all the already-established threads of the energy head!” character into one cohesive whole in The Adventures There was also a bit of fun for Churchill in Cable of Cyclops and Phoenix miniseries, and that became the template for creators going forward. All characters #34 as the Askani’Son took on the Incredible Hulk. evolve as different creators leave their mark, and Cable “Jeph wrote the story in such a way that I got to draw different versions of the Hulk, from his gray ‘Joe Fix-It’ was no exception. I had a specific mandate from version to the green, rampaging persona, and I had a editorial that they were keen for me to visually make total blast even if Cable didn’t! The Hulk kicked Cable look much younger. I morphed Cable from Cable’s butt! Fun times!” his ‘old man with receding hairline’ look that he still had in issue #20 to his more youthful and streamlined If you think Cable got a chance to relax on a beach ian churchill ‘X’ look that he went forward with over the course with Domino after “Onslaught,” think again. The X-Men of my run.” serial “Operation Zero Tolerance” saw the mutant As with many comic books, deadlines often made creating them population, including Nathan Summers, up against Master Mold’s difficult, and Cable was no different. “For one reason or another but Nimrod Sentinel cyborg Bastion and the newly commissioned human/ nothing to do with Jeph or I,” Ian Churchill reveals, “the schedule machine hybrids called Prime Sentinels, after Onslaught’s attack. on Cable had become extremely tight. To get us back on track, Cable targets Bastion in his “Zero Tolerance” issues (#45–47), written by Jeph phoned up and told me he’d written a story that was set almost Starman scribe James Robinson and drawn by Witchblade artist Randy entirely in the dark, which he thought would help me crank the issue Green. Both men try to assassinate one another, with Cable implying out. Unfortunately, even when everything is shrouded in black ink, he knows the truth about Bastion. the underlying drawing still has to be done, so it didn’t save us as The aftermath of “Tolerance” came in the 1998 Cable & Machine much time as Jeph thought it would! I’m sure the inker, Scott Hanna, Man and Machine Man & Bastion Annuals. Cable mentally reprograms enjoyed himself slapping ink all over the place though…! In the end, Machine Man, who was under Bastion’s control. Machine Man and I think Tim Sale came in [for Cable #23] and did a fill-in, which filled Cable trap Bastion inside the Prime Sentinel “factory” Prospero the gap and got us back on track.”

Clinic and destroy it. What seems like the end for Bastion was just One company-wide event that used Cable was 1996’s “Onslaught,” the beginning of the next chapters in the lives of both Machine which saw Marvel’s heroes the Avengers and the Fantastic Four sacrifice Man and Cable.

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James Robinson continued writing after “Zero Tolerance,” including a Minus 1 issue from July 1997’s Flashback Month drawn by Jose Ladronn, which saw Cable on Muir Island meeting Moira MacTaggart for the first time. It was implied in New Mutants that the two met before Cable first appeared in #87. While he would return to Nathan Summers in 2017, Robinson’s finale in #50, published 20 years earlier, saw the Askani’Son’s comics just get started.

CASEY AT THE BAT

While Ladronn stayed on the Cable comic book, issue #51 (Feb. 1998) marked the debut of then-newcomer Joe Casey, who would later make a name for himself with X-Men: Children of the Atom and The Adventures of Superman. “I owe landing the Cable gig—not to mention the launch of my professional career in comics—to James Robinson,” Casey tells BACK ISSUE. “He recommended me for the job, he held the door open for me. I’ve said this many times before, but it’s a debt I can never repay.

I had a lot of good folks at the time giving me advice and assistance here and there, but James was the guy that actually got me a job. Once I got the gig, I never assumed I was going to be the long-term, regular writer of the book. But with Ladronn drawing it, it made me look really good right out of the gate. There was a certain segment of the readership that seemed to like what we were doing, so for a while, I felt like we were on nice, solid ground. Helluva way to start a career.

“To be honest,” Casey continues, “I’d never read a Cable solo comic before I was up for the gig. I’d read his initial appearances in New Mutants and X-Force, but I never felt any attachment to the character as a reader.

When the idea of me taking on the book first came up, James gave me all the reference that Marvel had sent him (in other words, the full run of the series up to that point).

Compared to other Marvel heroes, Cable had a fairly convoluted backstory (I should clarify… it was convoluted at the time. These days, it’s seems like pretty simple stuff).

So I wanted to try and strip away all the confusion and streamline the character, which is something that James had started to do in his run. But mainly, as a writer…

I liked the fact that Cable was an adult. An old man, even. It was obvious that this was a character with some real mileage (the white hair kinda tips you off). Ironically, some of the editorial pushback I experienced was when I would try to write the character as an adult (as opposed to an adolescent’s view of what an adult is, which happened more often than not, especially at Marvel back in the day). I’m still not sure how much I won those occasional battles, but I certainly fought ‘em. I also liked the idea of stripping away what, at that point, had become the visual clichés of the character, namely the shoulder pads and the guns. In retrospect, I realize that those were things that made the character totally unique when he first debuted. But these things go in cycles, and by 1997, it was time to try and evolve the character in some way that would keep him relevant and viable. I’m sure these days, those over-the-top elements would work just fine (especially now that we’re all currently cuddling in the warm embrace of ’90s nostalgia).”

Casey started in middle of Robinson’s “Hellfire Hunt” serial with Cable #51. “I was just so pumped to have the job,” he tells BI. “I was young and I had more energy than you could possibly imagine. More than even I can imagine, 20 years on. But this was my big break, and I jumped in with both feet. And I think James quickly saw that I had the pure, white-hot ambition to really take the gig seriously, so despite the original agreement being that he would stay on for awhile as a co-plotter, he graciously begged off after before we’d even finished

my first issue, hence the ‘special thanks’ credit I was proud to give him in #51. Another class move on his part that ended up being a big boost of confidence for me. I did follow through on quite a few of his initial ideas. Happily, in fact. The Black Panther guest-starring was James’ idea. The character’s relocation to Hell’s Kitchen was from his initial plan. The rest of it, I would chalk up to my own boundless enthusiasm to be doing what I’d dreamed of doing since I was a little kid. On a personal level, it did kinda do my head in a bit.

Adventures of Young Cable Following the Cyclops and Phoenix miniseries, artist Gene Ha (with inker Andrew Pepoy) illustrated the four-issue Askani’Son series, plotted by Scott Lobdell and scripted by Jeph Loeb. Shown here are issue #1’s cover and interior title sequence, the latter from a reprint edition.

TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

Mercs and Anti-heroes Issue • BACK ISSUE • 57

Take That, Big Guy! Courtesy of Heritage, a jaw-dropping original art page from Cable #34, autographed by penciler Ian Churchill.

TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

There was a big part of me that simply couldn’t believe that I’d achieved what seemed like this impossible goal of breaking into the industry as a writer. It was a First World problem, no doubt about it, and it took about a year for me to feel really comfortable as a paid, professional comic-book writer.”

Casey also reminisces about some highlights from his time on Cable: “A lot of it is a big fat blur,” he states.

“I do recall that early on I wrote an entire issue that ended up getting scrapped because I focused too much on a bunch of low-level supervillains hanging around and talking. It was a crime story, basically, and it took up most of the issue. A truncated version of that idea showed up in, I believe, issues #55 and 56. But that was one example where my enthusiasm just to be writing comics got away from me, and I was writing material that—in its original form—was not appropriate for the series I was writing for. I was doing my best Elmore Leonard impression… which was not what the readers invested in the monthly adventures of Cable were going

to get off on. At the time, I remember taking it in stride.

These days… well, I wouldn’t have made that kind of rookie mistake in the first place.

“I also remember that issue #56—drawn by a really cool artist, Ryan Benjamin—was my earliest homage to Frank Miller’s Daredevil. Specifically, issue #181, where Bullseye kills Elektra and Daredevil takes his revenge. The whole Blockade/Domino/Cable conflict was my version of that story.”

Casey also recalls some interesting anecdotes regarding story titles: “I’ve always had this thing about story titles. For the most part, they’re something that no one—certainly not editorial—ever pays attention to. So I tend to come up with story titles that are often in-jokes or references that only I would get. A lot of song lyrics and song titles will often show up in my story titles. Especially back then. I know that issue #53’s title, ‘Beautiful Friend,’ is obviously taken from the lyrics of the Doors’ song, ‘The End’ (since it was the end of the six-part ‘Hellfire Hunt’ story that James Robinson started and I finished). The original title of issue #55 was ‘Wiser Time,’ after a Black Crowes song from 1995. When I saw the final proofs of the issue, editorial had changed it to the plural, ‘Wiser Times,’ as though the singular of the word ‘Time’ was some sort of mistake on my part. Now that ticked me off.

Clearly, it still does, since I’m bringing it up 20 years later.”

“The Nemesis Contract” is among the most memorable story arcs in the Casey/Ladronn run of Cable.

Hulk Smash, Indeed!

Not even the logo’s sacred when Ol’ Greenskin barges in. Cover to Cable #34 (Aug. 1996) by Ian Churchill and Scott Hanna.

TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

58 • BACK ISSUE • Mercs and Anti-heroes Issue

“That storyline was where we really tried to plant our flag in the mountaintop, Casey says. “I remember Ladronn and I poured everything we had into those four issues. I knew I wanted to introduce a new opposite number for Cable, someone who was just as capable as he was (but without the mutant powers).

To make Jack Truman a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent allowed for more access into that corner of the Marvel Universe, a corner which I personally loved. It’s a great sandbox to play in. I wanted to put Cable through an experience that would have some lasting effect on him, both psychologically and physically. One of my favorite aspects of that story was the one that I’m sure had a lot of readers— and reviewers, I recall—scratching their heads: the techno-organic experimental soldiers that patterned themselves after the original Howling Commandos.

It was a weird thing to do, but I got a big kick out of introducing such a wacky, leftfield story element so late in the game. It kinda upped the ante for me and, once again, was a direct tip of the hat to Frank Miller. That whole storyline owed a lot to Elektra: Assassin, specifically.

“Looking back, I’m proud of that story, but I’m equally as proud of the ‘Sign of the End Times’ three-parter we did a few months later,” Casey continues. “That one was less of a series of homages—as ‘The Nemesis Contract’ certainly had been—and more of Ladronn and I doing a modern, forward-looking action comic, the kind of ‘widescreen’ story that was just becoming in vogue at the time. A Michael Bay movie on paper. If memory serves, our story fell almost directly between Grant Morrison’s JLA run and the Warren Ellis/Bryan Hitch Authority series. But it was definitely an attempt to do a story in that specific vein. I think we were pretty successful. Plus, I got to bring in the Avengers in a significant guest-starring role, which was a huge fanboy moment for me.”

Joe Casey also tells BACK ISSUE about his working with Ladronn on Cable and his reasons for leaving the Askani’Son’s comic: “I’ve often worked in defiance of authority. It’s not about ego, it’s just my nature. Some of the poor editors I’ve worked with—especially at the Big Two—have often been caught in the crossfire. So a lot of the editorial interaction I experienced when I was writing Cable was me trying to get stuff through despite the editorial climate that existed at that time. I had my own agenda… and that was to make a great comic with Ladronn. One that—in my newbie delusion—would transcend the dopey trappings of its often oddball place in the X-Universe of titles. I knew our collaboration was something special, so I tried to protect it as much as possible.

Fully indulging in the naiveté of youth, we both felt like we could really do something significant with the comic and the character, and we pretty much went wild infusing it with our personal artistic influences. We also influenced each other. Ladronn had no idea about Jim Steranko, and he introduced me to some European artists I wasn’t that familiar with. The ‘classic’ aspect of it was what we were into as readers. Neither Ladronn or I were particularly big X-Men fans. We much preferred playing in the general Marvel sandbox and bring those more ‘classic’ elements into the book whenever possible.

“What mainly stands out for me [about Cable] is the energy of it being my first gig as a professional comic-book writer. It’s extremely satisfying to look at any early work you did and actually feel more pride than embarrassment.

The issues I did with Ladronn still hold up for me. I still feel like I learned a metric ton from the experience, both in art and in business… lessons that I still keep in mind to this day. And the industry itself was certainly different then.

The vibe at Marvel was light years away from what it seems to have become these days. It was much less corporate in a lot of ways, so there was more opportunity to get in there and do cool stuff. I’m glad I was there when I was, because some cool stuff definitely happened.

“There’s nothing quite like your first time. It was my first monthly series, it was a tremendous opportunity to make my name in the industry. I was working with a visionary artist, so that certainly helped in that regard. It was like playing the slots and, for a year or two there, all the fruit lined up and the jackpot money came pouring out. We just went for it.

“It’s fairly well documented that I left the Cable series earlier than I’d planned to,” Casey concludes, “because Marvel editorial decided to remove Ladronn as artist. Since he was my partner-in-crime, my creative collaborator, and my

Writers in Transition (top) Cable scribe James Robinson’s last issue (for a while), #50. (bottom) Joe Casey signed on to Cable beginning with #51 (Feb. 1998). Art by Jose Ladronn and Juan Vlasco.

TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

Mercs and Anti-heroes Issue • BACK ISSUE • 59

A Collaboration Fit for a King The art of Jack “King” Kirby clearly inspired some of Jose Ladronn’s Cable work, including these covers that even feature Kirby Krackle!

Inks by Juan Vlasco.

TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

For Memo, Mister Bo, Precious, and the entire friend… I felt too much loyalty to him feline and canine chapter of the Cable, Deadpool, to ever consider continuing without him and Dolph Lundgren Fan Club (it’s very exclusive) (even though I was strongly advised who have all proven they are tougher than any to stay by one or two more seasoned mutant or Ivan Drago. And huge welcome to professionals). At the time, we were joe casey little kitten with a big heart, Odino, who has building up to this so-called ‘important’ helped the human and animal members of this story that was going to deal with some © Luigi Novi / Wikimedia Commons. family in ways he cannot imagine. Dedicated to random bit of lingering X-Continuity my beautiful and incredible wife Laura, who is always in the timenonsense involving Apocalypse and “The Twelve” (which, stream of my heart; our four-legged X-Force; my nephew Kento, 20 years later, I have no idea what that was or what my the true Chaos Bringer; and Louise Simonson, Rob Liefeld, Fabian plans were to resolve it). At the time, it sucked not to Nicieza, Scott Lobdell, Gene Ha, Jeph Loeb, Ian Churchill, Joe Casey, be able to see it through, but obviously I’m not that Jose Ladronn, and all the creators past, present, and future of Cable’s many adventures. May Mother Askani protect you always. broken up about it.”

While Joe Casey’s final issue of Cable was #70 (Aug. 1999), Nathan Summers continued being a part of the X-Men Universe with the “Apocalypse: The Twelve” crossover.

Cable’s series went on until issue #107 (Sept. 2002), which led into the 12-issue Soldier X comic, where Cable travels around the world searching for wars to fight.

He then came back in Cable & Deadpool, written by Fabian Nicieza, and eventually became a foster father to the first mutant baby born since 2006’s “Decimation” of most with the X-gene. Add to that the new Cable monthly written by James Robinson and drawn by Carlos Pacheco from Marvel’s ResurreXion line and appearances in the various X-Men cartoons and in the Deadpool 2 film (with Josh Brolin in the role), and fans and casual readers alike understand that Cable shows no sign of bodysliding away anytime soon.

60 • BACK ISSUE • Mercs and Anti-heroes Issue

JAMES HEATH LANTZ is a freelance writer who was heavily influenced by television, film, old time radio shows, and books— especially comic books—growing up in Ohio. He’s co-authored Roy Thomas Presents Captain Video with Roy Thomas. He also wrote the introductions for Pre-Code Classics: Weird Mysteries vols. 1 and 2 and Roy Thomas Presents Sheena– Queen of the Jungle vol. 3 (all published by PS Artbooks), selfpublished his Trilogy of Tales e-book (Smashwords.com), and reviews various media for Superman Homepage. James currently lives in Italy with his wife Laura and their family of cats, dogs, and humans from Italy, Japan, and the United States.

by M i c h a e l

Eury

On December 11, 1990, the world as we know it changed.

No, I’m not referring to the touchdown of the space shuttle Columbia (that was the 69th US manned space mission, which by this point was even beginning to bore NASA TM techies) or the divorce of Donald and Ivana Trump, both of which occurred on that fateful day.

December 11th was the release date for the latest issue of a white-hot Marvel comic—The New Mutants #98 (cover-dated Feb. 1991)—plotted and illustrated by a white-hot superstar artist—Rob Liefeld, who, beginning with this issue, was now partnered with super-scripter Fabian Nicieza. New Mutants #98 featured the book’s new star, Cable, being targeted by a fast-talking mercenary who would one day become the fourth-wall-breaking, franchise-flourishing, box-office-busting Deadpool.

By late 1990, New Mutants was barely recognizable to those readers who had signed on to the series started by Chris Claremont and Bob McLeod in 1982’s Marvel Graphic Novel #4. Gone was the original concept of young protégés of Professor Charles Xavier… in its place had evolved a task force headed up by a heavily armored time-traveler (see separate Cable article) and composed of a mix of “old” New Mutants, one-time X-Terminators (from the pages of X-Factor), and newly created characters. The talented Louise Simonson had scripted the title for several years, but once the prolific young Liefeld began driving its plots and visuals, New Mutants skyrocketed to the House of Ideas’ bestseller list. Liefeld’s feverish covers and interiors fabian nicieza (inked by Todd McFarlane, Scott Williams, Hilary Barta, Art Thibert, and others) © Luigi Novi / Wikimedia Commons. grabbed for the reader’s jugular and refused to let go, and Nicieza’s dialogue anchored that raw energy and made New Mutants’ larger-than-life characters believable.

New players like Domino, Feral, Shatterstar, and Warpath revitalized the book, but no character from the series captivated the attention of fans more than Deadpool.

It didn’t take Deadpool long to ascend to a much greater profile than his original guest-villain status, and while Liefeld vacated the House of Ideas in 1992 as one of the founders of Image Comics, Nicieza remained on board—for a while, at least—charting emerging star Deadpool’s course (and eventually returning to the character).

With Deadpool’s second movie, a new animated series, and 28th birthday occurring this year, ye ed (I love saying “ye ed”) called upon fan-favorite comics scribe Fabian Nicieza for this lively chat about the Merc with a Mouth’s early days.

– Michael Eury MICHAEL EURY: While you had previously scripted one of Louise Simonson’s plots (issue #91), New Mutants #98 began your run on the title. How were you hired to work on this series?

FABIAN NICIEZA: Rob Liefeld and editor Bob Harras had discussed various people they thought could do the assignment and ultimately either decided on me or ran out of better options, so they offered me the gig. I thought everything Rob was doing was really fun and full of energy, but I was already writing two monthly titles at that time (New Warriors and Alpha Flight) on top of

Meet Deadpool Cover to New Mutants #98 (Feb. 1991), by Rob Liefeld, which also debuted Rob’s Gideon and Domino characters.

TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

wooooo-hooooo!!!! now, this is what i’m talkin’ ’bout, baby! bring it on! M e r c s a n d A n t i - h e r o e s I s s u e • B A C K I S S U E • 6 1

“And you talk too much.”

Deadpool vs. Cable, from New Mutants #98. Plotted and illustrated by Rob Liefeld, scripted by Fabian Nicieza. Note Deadpool’s “hollow” word balloons.

TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

a full-time job at Marvel, so the greedy pig part of me was thinking this would be an easier paycheck than having to also plot the book. I was certainly right about the paycheck part, since it succeeded beyond even our confident expectations!

EURY: You defined Deadpool’s talkative personality.

Did you and Rob discuss Deadpool’s voice before you dialogued New Mutants #98?

NICIEZA: I remember we had a long phone conversation when I got the layouts or just as I got them. Rob’s plot notes were actually incorporated into the layout faxes, if memory serves. We just talked through the beats of the stories and his general thoughts on each of the new characters that Rob was introducing (Domino, Gideon, and Deadpool). He gave me very broad strokes on each of them, but told me to handle their dialogue as I thought would work best.

EURY: How did the character’s voice come to you?

NICIEZA: I remember three distinct things crossing my mind: 1) By the time Deadpool appears on camera—I think it’s around page 13 or so—I had already been scripting

lots of very serious, very testosterone-y characters and I wanted a change of pace just to entertain myself.

2) Rob had described him in our conversation as “Spider-Man meets Punisher,” in regard to the visual approach. A merc with guns and weapons, but he moved real fast and fought more like Spider-Man. So I took the Spider-Man part of that into account and decided to make him an annoying loudmouth.

3) The book was Cable’s book. The scene where Deadpool first appears had to be about Cable, not about Deadpool, because Deadpool was “just” a villain showing up for seven pages, and who knew for certain if he’d ever appear again?

So Cable endures Deadpool’s banter and personality, which are really counter to Cable’s.

After Cable defeated Deadpool, Rob drew Deadpool tied up, but then he wasn’t shown or mentioned in the plot again over the last couple pages. Was he delivered to the police? Did Cable kill him? Was there a jail at the mansion we didn’t know about?

In dialogue I decided to have Cable say he had “Fed-Exed” Deadpool back to his boss, Tolliver. I figured it was a unique thing to do to a defeated villain, sent a clear message from Cable to both Tolliver and Deadpool, and—most of all—turned it into a Cable bit by showing that Cable had a sense of humor (so Deadpool was rubbing off on him even from his first appearance!).

EURY: Was Deadpool’s voice based upon someone you knew, or a celebrity?

NICIEZA: Not really. I gave him “hollow” word balloons in my lettering placement—at that time the color border around the balloons, to connote there was something off about his voice, but at that time I hadn’t even thought what, I just wanted a differentiator. Later, X-Force letterer Chris Eliopoulos asked to change that because doubleborder balloons were a real pain in the ass to hand-letter.

From Sketch to Screen Rob Liefeld in 2016, with an autographed copy of Deadpool’s first appearance. © Luigi Novi / Wikimedia Commons.

62 • BACK ISSUE • Mercs and Anti-heroes Issue

i think you hear me knockin’, and i think i’m comin’ in...

Weapon X Marks the Spot (left) It didn’t take long for Deadpool to return to the pages (and covers) of X-Force. (below) Courtesy of Heritage (www.ha.com), original art from X-Force #2 (Sept. 1991), featuring a knock-down, drag-out between Kane and Deadpool.

TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

As for celebrities, the voice I had in my head was Dennis Leary doing the “cigarette smoking angry guy” ads for MTV at that time. Raspy voice, perpetually edgy, and energetic.

That’s the voice I had—and I don’t usually do that when scripting—but for those initial Deadpool appearances, thinking of Dennis Leary always got me into the character’s manic energy and mind set.

EURY: Describe how you and Rob worked together as plotter/ scripter/artist.

NICIEZA: Rob did all the work. Bones, muscle, organs, and skin.

My job was to make sure all those things connected and the body could walk.

Generally, on our year working together, the schedule was always really tight—especially since Rob was also developing and initiating the Image launch—so often I would get layouts or very loose thumbnails with plot notes on the side.

EURY: Deadpool’s real name of Wade Wilson is a wink to Deathstroke’s real name of “Slade” Wilson. What’s the story behind that in-joke?

NICIEZA: The simple story is during our phone conversation about the character, I remember Rob describing Deadpool as “Spider-Man meets Punisher,” and I said, “And with a little George thrown in there, too.” And Rob laughed, and that was it.

We both loved George Pérez. We both loved [The New] Teen Titans and George’s costume designs. The harness belts and pouches were specifically what I was joking about, since I always thought Deadpool’s costume was totally a play on Spider-Man. The “Wade Wilson” name was simply meant as an in-joke, and even our own subtle tweak—in our youthful, arrogant way— that Deadpool would be better than Taskmaster or Deathstroke (both characters, which George designed, with swords and pouches, one year apart).

I never even discussed the in-joke and I honestly don’t recall fans ever really discussing it until I mentioned it in an interview during the Cable & Deadpool launch, and the rising flotsamcovered wave of social media—being what it is—soon categorized that as claiming Deadpool was a “copy” or “parody” of Deathstroke, neither of which was the case, not then and not now.

I know this for three reasons: 1) I was there and I know we didn’t discuss copying or parodying anyone.

2) If Deadpool had been meant as a copy, I wouldn’t have given him the personality that I did, or Rob the background that he did, the scarring and cancer I later gave him, etc., since none of those aspects of Deadpool are anything like Deathstroke.

Mercs and Anti-heroes Issue • BACK ISSUE • 63

3) If it had been meant him to be a parody, wouldn’t Deadpool have been given a butler named Spearmint or a son who couldn’t see, hear, smell, or touch but would never shut up? That’s the extent of what my “parody skills” would have brought to the table back then! And since I expect most people reading don’t even get those references, it just shows how little they know about the very subjects they talk about.

I’m frankly tired of answering for the flawed game of Internet “telephone,” but I figure the more I speak to the truth, the better the chance the misconceptions and willful lies will end.

EURY: Well, I’m glad to give you a chance to set the record straight.

Next question: What do you recall about fan reaction to Deadpool’s first appearance?

NICIEZA: Well, since I would snag the letters to any book I was writing straight out of the mailroom, I read every letter on New Mutants #98 before anyone else. The book would usually get 50-ish letters, and #98 must have gotten three or four hundred. I read every one, and almost 75% of them said something to the effect of, “This guy is funny, bring him back.”

I would put the mail back in the chute in the mailroom or deliver it to the editor. A week later, Bob [Harras, X-editor] sees me in the hall and he says, “The mail on #98 is great. They think Deadpool is funny.

We should bring him back.”

So I was thinking, “These are not the droids you want,” but what I said was, “Yeah, I’m sure Rob will.”

And finally, another testament to how quickly we realized fans were into the character: he was chosen to get one of the five trading cards blown into X-Force #1. Why would we ever have done that so soon

after New Mutants #98 if we all hadn’t realized right off the bat that the character had connected with the audience?

EURY: So then, roughly a half-year after Deadpool’s first appearance, New Mutants was relaunched as X-Force—including that Deadpool trading card you just mentioned—and Deadpool was back, in issue #2 (Sept. 1991), this time tangling with Garrison Kane. Was this quick reappearance creator-driven or Marvel-mandated… or both?

NICIEZA: Creator-driven. Rob was always going to use him because he liked the character. [Deadpool] got a subplot story thread through the first year and was featured on the cover to X-Force #2. The irony is because of that story subplot running several issues, combined with Rob leaving to form Image, combined with our own ongoing scheduling needs, the character couldn’t get his first limited series until 1993. Bob and I had wanted to do it sooner, but we didn’t have the bandwidth.

EURY: Deadpool quickly became a recurring character in X-Force during the series’ first two years. How would you say the character evolved during those early appearances?

NICIEZA: I think I started to figure out his voice a bit more. It was all in service to Rob’s ongoing story and it was all in short “few page” bursts, so it was hard to define or refine it too much. Usually, you need a meaty chunk of story, a complete issue, or even a limited series to start figuring out the finer character traits.

I was sticking with “Bugs Bunny meets the Punisher” at first. As Rob was preparing to leave for Image and I knew I’d be taking over the book, and Bob wanted to plan a Deadpool mini, then I really started to think more about him.

EURY: You brought Deadpool into the pages of Nomad in issue #4 (Aug. 1992), Deadpool’s first appearance outside of New Mutants/X-Force.

Did you approach the character any differently for this appearance?

NICIEZA: Not that I can recall. I think I just enjoyed writing him, thought it might help Nomad’s sales a bit, and also thought that by having him appear outside of an X-book it “confirmed” his existence in the greater Marvel Universe. Back then, there was a pretty big chasm between the X-books and the Marvel Universe, and since I was writing regular titles in both “worlds” I always tried to bridge the two.

EURY: You wrote Deadpool’s first miniseries (Deadpool: The Circle Chase, Aug.–Nov. 1993), illustrated by Joe Madureira and Mark Farmer, which came out almost three years after Deadpool’s first appearance…

NICIEZA: We wanted to do it sooner, but between Rob’s storyline needing to come to conclusion, questions as to whether Rob would remain on X-Force in some capacity after starting Image, then my schedule and giving Joe Mad enough lead time, we couldn’t get it done until then.

EURY: In the miniseries, Deadpool, a hired killer, actually saves a life.

How did you make the decision to blur the line demarcating good and evil and make this hired assassin more of an anti-hero?

NICIEZA: The limited series was our first chance to really ask and begin to answer lots of questions about Deadpool. What was his life like?

Why was he the way he was? How did he get his powers? Why the hollow voice? Why didn’t we see him without his mask on?

The scarred skin became the hook to combine Bugs Bunny with Frankenstein, which really helped the character find the foundation he would need to develop further.

My mother-in-law had fought cancer at the time, and that led me towards the desperation Wade would have needed to have in order to risk so much. To survive the cancer he was willing to risk becoming a monster. What saved his life made him a pariah. Those are good, old-fashioned classic Marvel hooks.

We were able to introduce that into the first limited series in a more timid way than I would have preferred, but we had an editor at the time who liked to avoid advancing storylines too quickly because he was always worried that the readers would lose interest.

Breaking Out Deadpool’s first appearance outside of X-continuity, Nomad #4 (Aug. 1992). By Fabian Nicieza, Pat Olliffe, and Mark McKenna.

TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

64 • BACK ISSUE • Mercs and Anti-heroes Issue

First Solo Comic The Joe Madureira/ Mark Farmer cover for Deadpool (Circle Chase) #1 (Aug. 1993), written by Nicieza.

TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

DEADPOOL CUTS LOOSE

TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

Because he was popular with fans and because he was clearly not “just” a bad guy or “just” a good guy, I had to use the limited series to show his positive attributes and not just the negative ones. He could be an ass, but we had to show he was a tortured ass.

When a character is inherently funny, audiences will forgive a lot of their transgressions, so “redeeming” Deadpool wasn’t a difficult job at all. I never saw him as an “anti-hero”—I just never saw him as a “villain.” He was a misunderstood monster—in many ways one of his own creation—but from the limited series on, and certainly through Joe Kelly and Ed McGuinness’ work on the book, the audience could empathize with him, sympathize with him, and forgive him because no matter how many mistakes the character makes, there’s a resilience to him that is admirable.

EURY: Glenn Herdling was the first creator other than you to write a Deadpool appearance, in a Black Knight/Blood Wraith/Deadpool story in Avengers #366 (see sidebar). Were you consulted about this appearance?

NICIEZA: Since we were all in the offices together, I’m sure Glenn mentioned it to me or talked to me about it, but I don’t remember providing any input or worrying about the appearance. This was the Marvel Universe. Characters are used throughout and if you worry too much about individual appearances one way or the other, it could drive you crazy.

EURY: The second Deadpool limited series (in 1994) was written by Mark Waid. Why didn’t you continue with the character?

NICIEZA: What a delightful question. The answer is simple: because editorial completely rejected my entire series synopsis out of hand, claiming it was “too depressing”—which I maintain it was exactly what it needed to be, and that was “just depressing enough.”

The series would have been a present/past story where Deadpool’s cancer would have recurred and he went out after the mad scientists from Weapon X who experimented on him to begin with. During the course of those encounters we would have flashed back to how he became Deadpool. The original story had lots of elements similar to what Joe did years later in the Annual and the story approach that was used in the movie.

Not getting to do that miniseries remains one of my biggest frustrations in a 30-year career and was one of the final nails in the coffin for my stay in the X-office. I was fired off X-Force around that time and then a few months later, I resigned as writer of The X-Men. I felt Deadpool’s origin was my story to tell and I should have been able to tell it. Yes, it was a depressing story, but Deadpool is “Bugs Bunny meets Frankenstein.” Neither work as well without the other to serve as balance. There would have been plenty of humor in the second limited series, if you happen to like your humor dark.

The Merc with a Mouth’s first appearance in a comic not scripted by Fabian Nicieza occurred in The Avengers #366 (Dec. 1993), in a Black Knight/Blood Wraith/Deadpool 22-page story written by Glenn Herdling, penciled by Mike Gustovich, and inked by Ariane Lenshaek.

Glenn Herdling, at the time a Marvel staff editor and freelance writer, was surprised to learn that his tale was the first Deadpool story penned by someone other than Nicieza. “Wow! I didn’t even know it was the first non-Fabe story!” Glenn beams. “You can say I’m really enjoying the reprint checks I’ve been getting for it.”

Herdling continues, “It was my idea. I didn’t know much about the character at the time, but I was intrigued with what Fabian was doing with him. I knew he wielded a sword (at the time) and thought it would be fun to have a three-way duel with Deadpool, Blood Wraith, and Black Knight. (Did I just use ‘three-way’ and ‘DP’ in the same sentence?) Anyways, I always like tying stories into current continuity, so I asked Fabe (who was writing Nomad for me) what was going on.

He said something about Tolliver’s will, and when I pressed him about why it was so important, he changed the subject. I’m pretty sure he had no idea why it was important either.”

oooh, deadpool, you rockin’ that spandex. i dig. call me.M e r c s a n d A n t i - h e r o e s I s s u e • B A C K I S S U E • 6 5

Our Cover Stars, Side-by-Side First issue cover for the Nicieza-written Cable & Deadpool (May 2004), which was illustrated by Mark Brooks under this Rob Liefeld cover.

TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

EURY: Sorry to reopen an old wound there, but thanks for your candor in answering that question.

Deadpool started breaking the fourth wall while in the hands of other creators.

What do you think about this aspect of the character?

Is this something you wish you had thought of?

NICIEZA: I think it is a very Bugs Bunny thing to do and I’m sure had I ever written a monthly Deadpool title, I would have done it at some point. I think it’s great if used in moderation, and I admit to not moderating it well enough myself in Cable & Deadpool. It is a very easy trope to fall back on.

When I was writing Cable & Deadpool, we had to start doing typeset “Recap Pages” on page one, which I thought were a stultifying and boring way to open up a comic book, so I asked if I could use clip art of Deadpool talking to the reader in word balloons to provide the recap. That turned into original art usually being drawn for that page and an opportunity to have a lot of fun. It also required introducing a reader to the on going story by having Deadpool break the fourth wall and talk about the prior issues directly with the reader!

At the same time, I was also doing the letters page answers in Deadpool’s voice, so the book was being bookended by having Deadpool talk directly with the readers.

EURY: When you returned to writing Deadpool in 2004 for your long run on the Cable & Deadpool title, things had changed quite a bit since those New Mutants/X-Force days. Did you have any difficulties resuming the Deadpool saga?

NICIEZA: I purposely had not read any previous Deadpool work for almost ten years at that point, except for having read the second limited series. I scripted panel one of page one of issue #1 of Cable & Deadpool without knowing what Joe Kelly or Christopher Priest or Jimmy Palmiotti or Frank Tieri or Gail Simone or anyone else had done with the character. After all that time away, I wanted it to be my version of the character first—let it be pure and then see if it jibed with what had been done.

D E A D P O OL

After doing full scripts the first few issues of Cable & Deadpool, I then started to read most of Joe and Ed’s initial run on the monthly book.

Of course, I hated it because it was really good, but I loved it because I thought that Joe’s Deadpool voice, personality, and actions were completely compatible with my own.

EURY: Many writers and artists have handled Deadpool since you and Rob Liefeld introduced him in late 1990. Other than Joe Kelly and Ed McGuinness, do you have any particular favorite Deadpool creative teams and/or story arcs?

NICIEZA: I honestly haven’t read that much and certainly very little since Cable & Deadpool ended in 2008.

For me, it’s a no-win.

I love it, so I’m jealous?

I hate it, so I’m angry?

Why bother either way?

I save my sanity by merely avoiding it.

That being said, to catch up on status quo, I did read a bunch of the original series run, and more recently, before doing the Deadpool & Cable digital comic, I read some of the newer stuff, especially by Gerry Dugan and Brian Posehn.

I liked a bunch of it a whole lot and didn’t like a little of it, and that’s on par with how I feel about most superhero comics nowadays.

EURY: What level of involvement have you had with the two Deadpool movies?

NICIEZA: I think Rob had a lot of engagement on the first movie because of his relationship with [Deadpool director] Tim Miller, but I didn’t have any. I was not contacted during the making of the first movie. No invitation to the set, so the first time I saw the movie was sitting in the New York City premiere with everyone involved with the movie sitting all around me!

Luckily, it was great and I loved it, because if it had sucked I would have had to sneak out during the credits!

Since then I have had some back-and-forth conversations with some parties involved in the development of the script as they were planning the second movie, but I have no idea how or if that input will find its way into the script.

I’d love to be invited to the set for the second movie, but I tend not to hold my breath on those kinds of things on account of not wanting to die due to lack of oxygen.

A bigger-than-Deadpool’s-motormouth thank-you to Fabian Nicieza. Special thanks also go out to Rob Liefeld, Glenn Herdling, Vien Chanthaheuang, James Heath Lantz, and acriticalhit!.com.

66 • BACK ISSUE • Mercs and Anti-heroes Issue

ain’t i a stinker?

by S t e v e n

Thompson

A mysterious man dressed all in black with a stylized skull motif on his chest arrives in Riverdale in a van loaded down with automatic weapons and surveillance equipment, and he’s bent on making a killing. Sounds like it could easily be a scene from the dark, Twin Peaks–like Riverdale TV series that premiered on the CW in 2017, doesn’t it? Only this happened in 1994 when Archie met the Punisher, and the collective jaw of comics fandom dropped! One incredulous syndicated newspaper article asked, “What’s next? Richie Rich meets the Hulk?”

Intercompany crossovers became all the rage in the 1990s, with Marvel characters regularly meeting DC heroes for a few years, and Batman even getting to play with Spawn and Judge Dredd! But… Archie?

Here, some two decades and more later, it wouldn’t have seemed that unusual. In recent years, we’ve seen Archie Andrews and his proverbial pals ’n’ gals meet up with KISS, the Ramones, and the characters from Glee. We’ve seen them zombified in Afterlife with Archie and many of them eviscerated quite explicitly in gory encounters with Sharknado and Predator. But back in 1994, the closest Archie had ever had to a crossover of any kind was a 1965 one-shot starring comedian and kids-show host Soupy Sales.

Co-produced by Archie’s Victor Gorelick and Marvel’s Tom DeFalco, the bizarre Punisher/Archie crossover was one of the earliest indications of the company’s modern willingness to think outside the box.

Frank Castle (or Francis Castiglione, per a later retcon) is the Punisher. Inspired by Don Pendleton’s Executioner novels, he is a violent, mentally questionable, gun-obsessed good/bad guy on a one-man crusade against the mob. He had debuted as a Spider-Man villain but eventually was given a violent backstory of loss and redemption that made the ex-Marine character one of Marvel’s most popular anti-heroes as the medium of comics went through its grim-and-gritty phase.

From the beginning, in Amazing Spider-Man #129 (Feb. 1974), it’s his cool outfit—black with that great white skull on its chest, offset with white boots and gloves—that grabs you. We didn’t realize it at the time, but this was also a case of the real world intruding just a little too much on our fantasy world of comics. Recently, Spidey had fought dinosaurs, robots, sorcerers, a guy in a monkey suit, and a werewolf. The Punisher, though, when it came right down to it, was a man with a gun. A gun that shoots bullets, not rays or plasma. One single hit, and Spidey could be dead. The cover proclaimed about the Punisher: “He’s different! He’s deadly!” It was typical hype, but I don’t think they realized just how accurate it would prove to be. [Editor’s note: See BACK ISSUE #4 for a Punisher history.]

On the inside of that issue, though, the Punisher uses a concussion rifle and a weapon that wraps up our hero in titanium alloy wire. He tells Spidey that he is “an expert at many things.” It never occurs to him that the guy who’s paying him to kill Spider-Man, the Jackal—a loon in a much crazier outfit than his—might be a tad wacko. He does say to Peter, “Sometimes I wonder if that evil’s rubbed off on me.” He doesn’t seem to care, mind you, but he does say it! In fact, he says a number of contradictory things and seems more than a little off-balance. At the end of the issue, he walks off proclaiming, “I’m just a warrior… fighting a lonely war.”

When Worlds Collide The Archie version of the Archie Meets the Punisher 1994 one-shot, featuring cover art by Stan Goldberg and Henry Scarpelli.

Archie and related characters © Archie Comic Publications, Inc. Punisher © Marvel Characters, Inc.

Mercs and Anti-heroes Issue • BACK ISSUE • 67

In a later meeting, Spidey asks, “What about you, Punisher? Don’t you have any ideals?”

“I did—once,” is his reply as he once again walks off into the night.

Another prominent character in the Archie/Punisher story is the Punisher’s driver, Microchip. Created in 1987 during writer Mike Baron’s run on The Punisher, Microchip’s real name is David Linus Lieberman, and he was the world’s greatest computer hacker.

After his nephew got killed for hacking the Kingpin’s computers, Linus teamed up with

Crazy Crossover (top) An incredulous press scratched its head over the announcement of the release of Archie Meets the Punisher.

Scan courtesy of Steven Thompson. (bottom) The Marvel version of the one-shot, here titled The Punisher Meets Archie, with its John Buscema/Tom Palmer and Stan Goldberg cover.

Punisher © Marvel Characters, Inc. Archie © Archie Comic Publications, Inc.

68 • BACK ISSUE • Mercs and Anti-heroes Issue

Frank, acting as everything from his agent to his therapist to his weapons supplier. Perhaps a more nuanced character than most, Micro—as he was called—got a surprising amount of background detail and plot arcs before turning against his old friend and becoming an enemy. After that, he was killed, then—in the Marvel way—resurrected!

Micro also appeared in movies, TV shows, cartoons, and video games. So, yeah, he’s not just Frank’s driver.

Archie, of course, was what he had always been— a typical teenage boy. The typical teenage boy! That was the whole point. One thing about Archie Comics that has always set its characters off from the superheroes of Marvel and DC is that the company has never been a slave to rigid continuity. The very nature of Archie’s teenage world requires that fashions and expressions and cars and technology have had to be consistently updated without (until recently, anyway) ever having any real overall reboot. If that hadn’t been done, young Mr. Andrews and all his gang would have been quickly left behind in the 1940s or nearing retirement age even by 1994!

No, the only continuity that was ever required for the Archie characters to work was for each individual “actor” to continue to play to type.

Archie was our hapless everyteen, forever infatuated with Veronica, the uptight rich girl with a heart of gold, and yet pursued with unabashed desire by the relatively tomboyish, traditional girl next door, Betty. Both girls were also quite close to Archie’s dark-haired, frenemy rival, Reggie. Of the major cast, the unique one was the laconic Jughead Jones. Far from just fulfilling the traditional sidekick role, Jug was developed to have a number of unusual personality traits such as a near-pathological dislike of females and the ability to eat pretty much anything.

How in the world could these two concepts fit together?

Technically, there are two different books, one published by Marvel and one by Archie. The latter’s Archie Meets the Punisher has an Archie-style gag cover featuring the Punisher at a Riverdale High sock hop, while Marvel’s The Punisher Meets Archie has a cardboard gimmick cover with a die-cut hole. The insides, though, are exactly the same book that was originally known only as “Project A” and kept under wraps until not long before its actual publication when a press function was thrown at New York City’s Empire Diner.

The story itself could be said to skirt the question of taste, particularly today, in the wake of so much school violence in recent decades, but, at the time, the fans ate up the tale of the Punisher in Riverdale while on the trail of a redheaded crazy mobster who looked just enough like a certain young Mr. Andrews to lead to a classic case of mistaken identity.

Don Daley was the editor of the one-shot. He was a logical choice for the role because he had served as editor on many of Marvel’s more testosteronefueled titles including G.I. Joe, King Conan, Semper Fi, and a number of Punisher series and specials. From the late ’80s through the mid-’90s, when the Punisher was one of Marvel’s most popular characters, Don Daley was Marvel’s go-to guy.

Marvel’s premier artist at that time, John Buscema, known for his macho takes on Conan, Thor, and the Avengers, was brought in to handle the more realistically drawn segments while the rest of the story was illustrated by longtime Archie artist—and former Marvel artist and colorist—Stan Goldberg in his regular cartoony style.

When I interviewed Stan in 2010, he told me that he was particularly happy batton lash with that setup as John Buscema had always been one of his favorite comics artists. To give the whole thing a gloss of © Exhibit A Press. unity, Buscema’s veteran inker from the 1960s and ’70s, Tom Palmer, was brought in to work his magic on the overall book.

At the end of the day, though, the story of Archie Meets the Punisher is really all about Batton Lash.

The ever-stylish Mister Lash has always been just under the radar, a cult favorite for writing and drawing his own Supernatural Law and later writing Bongo’s Radioactive Man. Trained at New York’s School of Visual Arts, where his teachers included Harvey Kurtzman and Will Eisner, he has long been a student of comics history, with a talent for mimicking various comic-book styles to perfection.

Not originally a fan of the Punisher, Batton opted in to try to make the ultimate improbable concept viable. Although he’s told the story a number of times in various venues, Batton cheerfully recounts his involvement in the Punisher/Archie crossover yet again for BACK ISSUE. “Victor Gorelick, then editorial director of Archie Comics, moonlighted lettering for me (Wolff & Byrd, Counselors of the Macabre, when it was a strip appearing in The National Law Journal),” Lash says. “I guess Victor was impressed by what he was lettering/reading and was urging me to write for Archie. But for one reason or another, I kept putting it off.

My fault, really—but I couldn’t find a hook! Besides, I was busy with other assignments but kept the Archie gig in the back of my head.”

One day, Batton was having lunch with Vic and David Scroggy, then late of Pacific Comics and about to begin a long and continuing association with Dark Horse Comics [from which he retired in July 2017—ed.].

As David recalls, “The setting was a bar called Croce’s Top Hat in the Gaslamp Quarter of downtown San Diego. The idea was 100% Bat’s. I think it came out spontaneously, but only he could confirm if the concept was pre-planned by him or a lightning bolt of inspiration. But to the rest of us, it seemed of the ‘lightning bolt’ variety. I think the general reaction Crossover Promo was one of those ‘It’s crazy, but it just… might… work’ moments. I would also like to say that both (above) Batton Lash and… friends in a trio Batton and the Archie team were very generous in of 1994 convention photos taken during acknowledging that I was a witness to the inception of the crossover, inviting me to attend the press the Archie/Punisher crossover promotion. announcement in New York, making sure I had Courtesy of Shaun Clancy, who acquired the the promo buttons, etc. It was a wonderful ‘fly on the wall’ moment that I treasure.” pics from Mr. Lash himself. (center) A Stan As Victor Gorelick himself put it in his Goldberg commission of our crossover stars, introduction to the actual comic, “And so, in a dimly lit San Diego restaurant, from the collection of Shaun Clancy. amidst messy sparerib bones and dirty napkins, Project A was born.”

Archie © Archie Comic Publications, Inc. Punisher © Marvel Characters, Inc. Mercs and Anti-heroes Issue • BACK ISSUE • 69

Marvel Giveaway Photocopies of a Marvel letter, a title sheet with a Batton Lash illustration, and hand-written plot-related notes from Lash, provided by the contest winner to Shaun Clancy, who shared them with us.

Thanks, Shaun!

Letter © Marvel.

Punisher © Marvel Characters, Inc. Archie © Archie Comic Publications, Inc.

Batton recalls that same event: “It was one those casual lunches—mostly shop-talk and plenty of gossip!

Crossovers were pretty big in 1993, so we were pitching ideas, as it were. I remember bringing up an Archie/Jimmy Olsen crossover (why this didn’t happen, I don’t know!). For various reasons, an Archie/SpiderMan was also shot down. But Victor said he was talking to Marvel’s editor-in-chief Tom DeFalco and jokingly pitched an Archie/Punisher crossover. I piped in with a study in contrast—keep the characters true to themselves. You could see Victor’s wheels turning! ‘Write it up,’ he said. Of course, with my savvy business sense, I didn’t take him seriously! Around a month later, Victor called me and asked where his proposal for Archie/Punisher was. I guess he was serious!”

In his 2015 interview in Comic Book Creator, Batton modestly credited Victor, Tom DeFalco, and the late Marvel editor Mark Gruenwald for the final go-ahead.

Victor had taken the initial concept to Tom at Marvel.

“I thought it was a joke,” DeFalco wrote in the original comic. “It consisted of a quick note from Victor, a synopsis, and two cover sketches.”

Batton adds, “I found out much later that Tom had shown the pitch to Mark Gruenwald and said to Mark, ‘If you like this, look over it. If you don’t like it, we’ll forget about it.’ And Mark liked it!”

As widely familiar with various other aspects of pop culture as he is with comics minutiae, Batton looked to the movies for inspiration as to what overall style to use. “I modeled Archie/Punisher, believe it or not, on Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein. Bud and Lou have their usual antics, but the Frankenstein Monster, the Wolf Man, and especially Dracula are really scary.

From one extreme to another!”

And that’s pretty much the way this story goes.

Initially, we find ourselves in the Punisher’s dark, urbanstreet world for three pages as two men with guns fire real, potentially lethal bullets at one another before the one being pursued manages to get to Union Station where he buys a one-way ticket to Riverdale to escape his pursuer.

With a quick turn of the page, the reader is in the more comfortable world of Archie Andrews, resplendent in his 70 • BACK ISSUE • Mercs and Anti-heroes Issue

classic blue sweater vest with its school letter and his checkered orange pants that match his hair. We quickly find out that the outfit is, in fact, a rental for a ’50s-themed sock hop. Two serious Punisher pages are next, followed by another pair of lighter Archie pages, only now something new has been introduced. The villain the Punisher had been pursuing has arrived in Riverdale using the name Melvin Jay. His resemblance to Archie is being noted by all as everything begins to get just a little darker in town. And Frank Castle and Microchip are closing in.

The rest of the 44-page story includes Archie and Jughead being kidnapped, Veronica being manhandled, and the Punisher working undercover at the sock hop. There’s tense drama and flat-out goofiness as the two art styles of the book come to collide, often in the very same panel!

For example, at one point near the end we see the bristly Buscema Castle smooching the smitten Goldberg Miss Grundy on her forehead as Jughead bonds with Micro in the background over hamburgers.

Batton says everyone who was privy to the secret of Project A pretty much left him alone to do what he felt was right for the story. Gorelick voiced the lone complaint. “He said there was no way I was going to have the Punisher shoot a thug right at the sock hop,” Lash recalls.

“We had the Punisher slug him instead. I groused about that, but, in the years since, I came to realize Victor’s decision was the correct one.”

Batton had “written” the early drafts of the script in tiny thumbnail sketches and, by his own account, had much more plot than was needed. Something had to go, and it was obvious to him that it had to be all the in-jokes he had added. “I like an insider’s gag as much as the next comics fan, but not at the sake of the story,” he once wrote.

That said, there remain more than a few in-jokes and references as it is. For instance, the list of towns to which the antagonist could have chosen to escape includes, among others, Happy Harbor (where DC’s Justice League was originally based), Ivy Town (home to the Atom), and Gotham City, where the Punisher ended up that same summer in a crossover with Batman. All of the various thugs who show up throughout are named after Archie clones published by other companies through the years—Willie, Andy, Ernie, Algie, Binky, Buzzy, and Scooter.

Performing at the sock hop is singer Dino Manelli, one of Marvel’s original Howling Commandos! Dino even dedicates a song to his fallen comrade, Junior Juniper, who died in an early Sgt. Fury story and— surprisingly for a Marvel character—has thus far stayed dead.

Other Archie Universe characters also appear or are at least referenced.

Josie and the Pussycats also play the hop, where Sabrina the Teenage Witch is seen making a fun comment about Dr. Strange. Even That Wilkin Boy is referenced by Principal Weatherbee. Meanwhile, fashion icon Katy Keene compares notes with Marvel’s Millie the Model, while longtime teen queens Patsy and Hedy are also around. There’s even an obscure reference to police officer Burland who, back in the Golden Age, was secretly MLJ’s Black Hood.

Stylistic Merger Notice how each character is drawn in his respective normal style.

Archie © Archie Comic Publications, Inc. Punisher © Marvel Characters, Inc.

Speaking of MLJ, the publisher that changed its name to Archie Comics back in the 1940s, the best in-joke of all is the bad guy’s fake name—Mel Jay. In fact, his other aliases are said to include “Montana Bob,” as in Archie co-creator Bob Montana.

Batton Lash says, “My only regret is that in addition to Montana Bob, I didn’t use Conway Gerri (a play on the Punisher’s creator, Gerry Conway). It must’ve got lost in the shuffle.”

One rather odd insider reference has Betty Cooper worried about where the red-headed object of her affections might be and thinking to herself, “Archie…

Archie Andrews, where are you?”

Archie… Archie Andrews, Where Are You? happened to be the title of one of the regular Archie books at the time. Says Lash, “I was specifically asked to add that in, via Victor through John Goldwater.

Publishers work in mysterious ways, and if that was the only tampering with the script, I was happy to do so.”

After the one-shot, the Punisher would continue along his not-somerry way as comics descended even further into their grim-andgritty phase. He got several shots at big-screen stardom, but in the end he was just a man with some big guns, and there had already been hundreds of movies about guys like that.

Archie, too, moved on, changing with the times but basically remaining the same.

As the old regime died out and was replaced by the new (albeit with Victor Gorelick still the company’s perennial point man), more and more risks were taken and Archie finally ended up in a successful— if barely recognizable—TV series after many pilots over the years.

As for Batton Lash, I asked him how Archie Meets the Punisher affected his career. “It didn’t put me in the Frank Miller status, but it did put me on the map—a little corner of the map, but on the map nonetheless!

Today, I’m known as the guy who does Supernatural Law (and my new strip, The First Gentleman of the Apocalypse).”

He adds, “By the way, John Goldwater, who I never met, just loved the story! I must’ve done something right!”

STEVEN THOMPSON is Booksteve of Booksteve’s Library (booksteveslibrary.blogspot.com) and a dozen other blogs. He has written for Fantagraphics, TwoMorrows, Yoe Books, Bear Manor Media, and Time Capsule Productions.

Mercs and Anti-heroes Issue • BACK ISSUE • 71

by P h i l i p

“Created from the Cosmic Legends of the Universe” The Hall of Justicestyled Hall of Heroes Museum in Elkhart, Indiana, and its owner/curator/ champion, Allen Stewart. All photos in this article are courtesy of Philip Schweier.

I grew up in northern Indiana, and it seems on those rare occasions when I go back, I find something new has established itself, and I wonder, “Why wasn’t this here when I lived here?” Last summer I took the opportunity to visit the Hall of Heroes Museum—“the world’s only superhero museum,” according to its website—in Elkhart, just east of South Bend.

With degrees in history and education, founder Allen Stewart saw the need to preserve the history of comic-book culture. While there is a dedicated Superman Museum in Metropolis, Illinois, and Geppi’s Pop Culture Museum in Baltimore, Maryland, according to Allen, the Hall of Heroes Museum has the largest superhero memorabilia collection in the world, valued at approximately $3.5 million. The collection includes every superhero comic book dating back to 1956, numbering more than 65,000 comic books.

Among the major historical comic books on display is a restored Captain America Comics #1 (1941) and a CGC-graded copy of Sensation Comics #1 (1942), featuring the first appearance of Wonder Woman.

72 • BACK ISSUE • Mercs and Anti-heroes Issue

Schweier

“I got started in comic books as a kid in the mid–late ’70s,” Allen says. “I was probably seven, eight years old.

The Batman series [with Adam West] was rerunning then, so I saw those a lot, [and] the Super Friends cartoon.

Those were probably my biggest influences, and my dad kind of got me into comics.”

Allen is a fan of both DC and Marvel. “I really read everything without focusing on any one particular character,” he says. “I’d go to the local drugstore and pick out three or four comic books. You know, it was never the same books all the time. It wasn’t like I always bought Spider-Man or always bought Batman. I was kind of grabbing anything and everything.”

Despite an interest in World War II, Allen mostly passed on the war comics, as well as the horror titles such as House of Mystery. “Occasionally, the Tarzan series, I grabbed some of those, but mainly the superhero titles are what I stuck with.”

Allen stopped collecting for a couple of years while serving as a fitness instructor in the Army. Around 1992, he resumed. “I just went full-on gangbusters, buying

Mega-Collection (this page and following) Samples of the museum’s collections of original art, comic books, toys and collectibles, and superhero cinema props and costumes. everything I’d missed, and earlier stuff, filling gaps in my collection.”

In the early 1990s Allen launched Hall of Heroes Publishing, but small-press publishing is a fickle business.

“DC and Marvel kept stealing all my guys and I got tired of replacing them,” he reveals. “It was a bit of a revolving door. It was more fame than fortune with the publishing company. I was known in the industry and had a couple of offers from DC and Marvel (for editorial positions), but my wife didn’t want to relocate to New York City, so I had to turn them down.”

During this time, Allen auditioned for the role of Robin in 1995’s Batman Forever. “I was actually one of the five finalists before getting beat out by Chris O’Donnell,” he says. “Christian Bale was one of the final five as well. But it worked out well for him, because had he won the role, he never would have been cast as Batman later.”

Meager earnings from small-press publishing and a growing family was not a healthy combination, so Allen pursued a career in real estate. The increase in income enabled him to add to his ever-expanding collection of memorabilia.

In 1995, Allen Stewart’s collection was verified as the world’s largest. “I was on the FX Collectibles show,” he says. “Every episode featured the largest collection of something, so they did an episode on my collection, the largest superhero collection. Since then it’s continued to grow.”

The museum collection includes not only comics, but also toys, collectibles, and items from various films.

People wanted to see the collection, so Allen decided, “Let me build something.” Initially, he had modest expectations, believing it would be a cool, local museum for people to come visit. For the first six or seven years, he supported it out of his own pocket, contributing about $20,000–30,000 annually.

Mercs and Anti-heroes Issue • BACK ISSUE • 73

In 2009, the museum achieved a 501(c)(3) non-profit status. This enabled Richard Rawlings of Fast ’n Loud to donate the ’65 Shelby Cobra, valued at $75,000, that Tony Stark destroys while testing his flight systems in the first Iron Man movie. Allen could never have paid that amount for the car, but as a donation, it worked out very well for all concerned.

Other Marvel movie items in the Hall of Heroes collection include one of the six original shields Chris Evans used in Captain America: The First Avenger. It is autographed on the back by the entire cast of The Winter Soldier and Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Also on display is one of the motorcycles from the 2007 Ghost Rider movie starring Nicolas Cage.

Another major acquisition is Adam West’s personal Batman costume that West wore at public appearances throughout the 1970s and ’80s. William Katt’s original suit that he wore on the Greatest American Hero TV show is also on display, as well as a Green Lantern power ring from the 2011 movie.

In 2012, Stan Lee and Adrianne Curry came in to film two episodes of Super Fans, another in a growing number of national TV programs to feature the museum.

Since then, attendance has skyrocketed, and the past few years the museum has been self-supporting, continuing to get bigger, and bigger, and bigger… …So big, in fact, the museum has outgrown its current facility. Allen estimates his visitors at about 10,000 annually.

“We believe with a more commercial setting and proper promotion and advertising, we can easily do ten times that.”

He is actively cultivating donors and sponsors to move into about 10,000 square feet—approximately three times its current size—that would be leased for about five years.

The plan is to raise $5–10 million to fund the construction of another 15,000–20,000 square foot Hall of Justice replica.

It would feature a full-scale replica of the 1966 Batcave, with Batman episodes playing on the Bat-computer’s screen.

“We’re going to do a big World War II section with an old-style TV,” Allen Stewart says. “If you’ve ever been to the National History Museum in Washington, D.C., they have an old-style TV that plays World War II Disney cartoons. We want to do something similar, and play the old Max Fleischer Superman cartoons.

Allen has also made proposals to the City of Elkhart and its visitors’ bureau to help cover the cost of signage along the I-80 toll road that runs between Ohio and Chicago. “With the right cooperation, we can bring in 100,000 tourists a year to Elkhart, to spend money at hotels, restaurants, everything else.”

But Allen Stewart has not adopted a vague “if you build it, they will come” strategy. In March 2017, the Hall of Heroes hosted its first comic-book convention. According to local newspaper reports, 10,000 people attended the two-day event, more than three times what organizers expected. Media guests included Dean Cain of Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman; Reb Brown, who starred as Captain America in two TV films in the 1970s; and Frank Conniff and Trace Beaulieu of Mystery Science Theater 3000.

Also in attendance was Golden Age comic artist Allen Bellman. At 93 years old, he and Stan Lee are the last two living comic-book pros to work on Captain America during World War II. In 2015, Allen Stewart contributed the historical research to award congressional medals to Bellman and Lee. “It was a huge honor for me to be selected for that project,” he tells BACK ISSUE. Allen has a growing reputation as a historian in the comic-book industry. He regularly attends conventions in the Great Lakes area, promoting the museum not only as a great place to visit, but also as a source of comic-book history. “We do a ‘Comics and World War II’ panel,” he says proudly. “That’s my favorite.”

74 • BACK ISSUE • Mercs and Anti-heroes Issue

As part of the museum’s mission to educate, Allen is involved in Comics in the Classroom. He has helped promote Words & Pictures, a national organization that published a textbook aimed at grades 5–7 featuring educational comic-book stories—one on math, one on science, etc. Lesson plans are available online for the teachers.

“We have also done our own program,” Allen says, “bringing field trips to the museum, tailored to the class. If it’s an art class, I focus on the art. If it’s a history class, I focus on the historical aspects. If it’s English or literature, I’ll focus more on the writing and the narrative.”

As a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit, the Hall of Heroes is a worthy effort anyone with a love for comic-book culture can support.

The museum actively seeks support from fans, professionals, and everyone in between. Non-fans are encouraged to participate in the many charitable events the museum supports.

In 2015, Allen helped put together a superhero 5K run that raised about $30,000 on behalf of CAPS (Child Abuse Preventative Services).

The same event in 2016 resulted in approximately 1,200 entries and raised more than $50,000.

Another fundraiser has been a supervillain-themed haunted house at the museum. “It’s really cool, we switch everything to black lights, and spook it up for Halloween, and we have about a dozen cosplayers who come out as supervillains, and a couple of superheroes as captives,” Allen explains. “For years, we’d dress my son up as Robin and tie

him to the Bat-pole. Now that he’s taller than me, he dresses up as Spider-Man, and does that very well.”

Naturally, Allen has sought support from publishers and professionals.

“At first we were asking for artwork and things like that,” he says.

“Now, we’re taking a different approach. We’re going to folks and saying, ‘Hey, we want you involved. You tell us how you want to be involved with the museum.’ We want them to be cheerleaders for us.” He also intends to add comic-book professionals to his board of directors.

On June 3, 2017, as the Hall of Heroes celebrated its tenth anniversary, Allen Stewart announced on Facebook the new location for the museum at Elkhart’s Northpointe Plaza near the I-80 toll road. The building is three times the original museum’s size, and one level for better ADA compliance. “We will be able to bring 100,000 people a year off the toll road and add $3–5 million to our local economy,” said Allen in a Facebook post.

For more information, visit www.hallofheroesmuseum.com, or call 574-522-1187.

PHILIP SCHWEIER is a graphic designer and freelance writer living in Savannah, Georgia. He is also a frequent contributor to www.comicbookbin.com.

Mercs and Anti-heroes Issue • BACK ISSUE • 75

by M i c h a e l

Eury

THE BRONZE AGE TEEN TITANS OMNIBUS DC Comics, 2017 792 full-color pages $125.00 US/$163.00 CAN

For those who view comic books through the lens of history, DC Comics’ The Bronze Age Teen Titans Omnibus could easily be subtitled “Growing Pains,” as the stories it collects bridge the campy, original TT era and the rebooted New Teen Titans of 1980.

Picking up where The Silver Age Teen Titans Omnibus leaves off, this collected edition begins with Teen Titans #25 (Jan.–Feb. 1970), when TT editor Dick Giordano hired Robert Kanigher to replace original TT scribe Bob Haney as writer. Kanigher, like a no-nonsense new landlord eager to bring order to a rowdy party palace, shoves the Titans out of their comfort zone of clubhouse hullabaloos and kooky nicknames and hurtles them deep into the “relevance” movement that permeated many DC stories of the day. With this issue, the Titans (and kinda-sorta members the Hawk and the Dove) are accidental parties to a political assassination and earn a tongue-lashing about responsibility from the gueststarring Justice League of America.

This begins a curious phase for the Titans, where they forsake their powers and their costumes (for commercial considerations, they remain in costume on most of the covers) and embark upon a series of reality-based adventures (although they manage to rocket to the Moon and fight the Ocean Master along the way!), under the tutelage of their new mentor, the mega-rich do-gooder Mr. Jupiter.

In these stories, the Titans pick up two new—and non-traditional— members, a mysterious young woman named Lilith and a streetwise teen named Mal (the first black Titan).

This permutation of Teen Titans was short-lived, and once editor Murray Boltinoff took over the book with issue #32 (Mar.–Apr. 1974), things turned gothic. At that time Titans was fumbling for an identity in an evolving marketplace, and Boltinoff and writer Bob Haney, who had returned to the title, mirrored DC’s hottest new trend—horror (softened to “mystery” in the company vernacular of the day)—by steering the TTs through supernaturally themed stories with titles that might’ve been used for House of Secrets or The Witching Hour shockers, including “The

Demon of Dog Island” (TT #34) and “The Tomb Be Their Destiny” (TT #36). Some of these issues feature Lilith in backup stories which reveal more about the enigmatic telepath, and issue #36’s Aqualad backup, “The Girl of the Shadows,” by the Steve Skeates/Jim Aparo team, was actually intended for Aquaman #57 but used here after the Sea King’s series was deep-sixed with its 56th issue. During this Titans run, the caveman Gnarrk becomes an irregular presence in the book (hey, a primitive—Java—worked as a supporting-cast member of his Silver Age hit, Metamorpho, The Element Man… so why not here?, Haney must have thought). Teen Titans’ spooky period failed to capture readers, and the book died in late 1972 with issue #43. (To the credit of editors Giordano and Boltinoff, as Titans underwent its tonal shifts, the presence of artist Nick Cardy anchored the book visually. In these tales, Cardy went from being Titans’ sole illustrator to its inker, adding his idiosyncratic yet stabilizing style over the pencils of George Tuska and Art Saaf.)

The Omnibus continues with the third and final stage of the team’s Bronze Age evolution, their post-camp superhero phase, beginning with the revival of the series with TT #44 (Nov. 1976).

Under the creative direction of writer Bob Rozakis, Teen Titans becomes an action-packed superhero-vs.-supervillain title: Dr. Light zaps the TTs, Mal goes through an identity crisis (adopting the guise of Guardian, then Hornblower), the Joker’s Daughter (who later becomes Harlequin) and Bumblebee are introduced, and an auxiliary group—Titans West—makes the scene. Rozakis even discloses “the neverbefore-revealed origin” of the group in the series’ final issue, #53 (Feb. 1978). While his stories are sometimes burdened by lackluster art, Rozakis infuses Teen Titans with welcomed energy.

Rounding out The Bronze Age Teen Titans Omnibus are three Batman/Teen Titans team-ups from The Brave and the Bold, an offbeat Superman/Teen Titans team-up from World’s Finest Comics, and three Batman Family stories featuring the saga of the Joker’s Daughter, all running in chronological order with the Teen Titans issues.

Despite my aforementioned “Growing Pains” subtitle, there’s nothing painful about the stories reprinted in this mega-sized volume (although they are, as BI readers would expect, reflective of their time). These evolving chapters of TM & © DC Comics. the Titans story are a fascinating journey which allows the one-time kid sidekicks of the JLA begin to mature and develop personalities of their own, years before Marv Wolfman and George Pérez did this to such well-deserved critical and commercial merit.

Bob Rozakis pens the edition’s Foreword, a first-person narrative exploring the development of the TT revival of 1976, where he divulges some unrealized plans… the same kind of behind-the-scenes material BACK ISSUE readers have grown to love. With its gorgeous interior color reproduction and delightful Karl Kerschl cover, The Bronze Age Teen Titans Omnibus is highly recommended for TT fans and DC devotees.

Special thanks to Scott Nybakken.

76 • BACK ISSUE • Mercs and Anti-heroes Issue

WAUGH’S THAT?

Re the Penguin villain history in BACK ISSUE #97: “Eccentric chap, isn’t he? I’ll sketch him in my notebook.” Bwa-ha-ha-ha! Sorry.

I’m probably the 20th person to crack wise about the Bob Kane quote, but that is the funniest thing I’ve seen or heard all week.

Especially when paired with his contradictory story from his memoir and Joe Giella’s ghosting foe Kane’s TV appearances. (That last one was very interesting. Maybe someone will cover that in more detail someday. Though it fits in with Alter Ego’s coverage better than BI’s.)

– Douglass Abramson

Send your comments to: Email: euryman@gmail.com (subject: BACK ISSUE) Postal mail: Michael Eury, Editor-in-Chief • BACK ISSUE 118 Edgewood Ave. NE * Concord, NC 28025

Find BACK ISSUE on

Douglass, I wrote extensively about Bob Kane’s ghost artists in The Batcave Companion, the 2009 TwoMorrows Batman comics history I co-authored with Michael Kronenberg.

THE UNDERRATED HAWKWORLD

NO FANFARE FOR FANFARE?

BACK ISSUE #96, our Marvel Fanfare issue, got some enthusiastic pre-release chatter online but garnered a grand total of 0 messages/ letters to ye ed! Sales were solid and convention word of mouth was positive, but still, it’s odd that no one took time to write about the issue…

DISCOVERING NIGHTWING

I completely missed out on Nightwing back in the day. But in the ’90s, the Bat-books didn’t interest me much (rare exceptions being some of the Elseworlds, and the Moench/Jones Bat-vampire books), so I didn’t give this book any notice, even though I’ve always liked Dick Grayson, and I enjoyed his transition from Robin to Nightwing back in the Titans.

But after reading John Trumbull’s interview with Chuck Dixon and Scott McDaniel in the latest BI [#97], I was intrigued enough to pick up a copy of the first Nightwing trade. A week or so later, I’m on the fifth volume, with more to come.

So, yes, I’m late to the party, but Dixon and McDaniel produced one of the best superhero comics I’ve read in a long time, and I’m thrilled to be discovering it now. So thanks, BACK ISSUE! – Gene Popa You’re welcome, Gene! Always happy to introduce our readers to material they missed the first time around.

First, I just want thank you for the wonderful printing of my letter in issue #95. I was very flattered that you added a sketch from Michael Kaluta. I was extremely flattered to have my letter printed next to a sketch by him. I also would like to point out that I noticed that you printed my letter with the sketch as the exact layout as a pulp magazine page. I want you to know that I appreciate the thought that went into that layout and was very humbled. I bought another copy and hope to see Mr. Kaluta at a convention and get an autograph so I can frame the page.

I also would like to comment on the Nightwing article. I loved the interview and would just like to point out why I think the material still works today. The prime feature of a graphic novel is to merge pictures into a story while creating character, and this book does so flawlessly, the point being made that the art defined the character as much as the script. The sense of movement centered the story and the character.

That is when a graphic novel becomes an art form, and this book does that. It was amazing to see the concept of movement being advanced on the page, which was displayed in the past by Carmine Infantino’s Flash, Steve Ditko’s Amazing Spider-Man, and Gene Colan’s Daredevil.

I saw all these artists in this work and was just bedazzled, and then I read it and was just taken into Blüdhaven. A classic work.

I also thoroughly enjoyed the Hawkman article. I have always been on and off with Hawkman due to the contradictions in the character.

I did jump on board with Hawkworld, as Tim Truman resonated with me as a first-rate storyteller at that time and still does to this day.

To this day I feel he and John Ostrander are underrated talents in the field. Tim’s and John’s radical take on Hawkworld still works today,

betcha thought you were done with me. right, bird-boy?

Deadpool TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc. Nightwing TM & © DC Comics.

Mercs and Anti-heroes Issue • BACK ISSUE • 77

as I have recently re-read it and find that the archetypical concepts in the story will continue to work as we go into the future. The social issues that were captured so subtlety in the series was, to me, what made it an underground classic, as the fight was not just the physical fight but the abstract concepts in society. Very hard to capture and be part of the substance of the story. Perfect storytelling by three masters of the form. (I cannot forget Graham Nolan.)

I also would like to point out one of my favorite scenes in the entire series, which is what Mr. Ostrander pointed when Katar read the Declaration of Independence. That scene is just as important today, if not more so, than it was when it first appeared. Another example why these gentlemen are masters of the field and, I feel, understated talents. I have met Tim and John several times and they are truly class acts in all aspects of life.

So, thanks for letting me have my say, Michael! Be well.

– Bill Broomall Bill, our graphic designer, Rich Fowlks, did do a great job with that layout, didn’t he? I think this is the first time anyone’s ever told me they wanted to frame a lettercol page. I hope you get that Kaluta autograph!

By now you’ve probably heard this from everyone from Johnny DC to the Vienna Boys Choir, but just in case, I’d like to point out that if you take another look at the Mike Nasser/Terry Austin page from Adventure Comics #451 that you featured on page 9 of issue # 97’s article on Hawkman, you may notice that Michael designed the page layout so that, taken as a whole, it becomes a shot of Hawkman in profile.

I’m guessing that it’s more obvious in the black-and-white original art that you showcased rather than in the printed comic book…

Also, I feel honor-bound to mention something concerning the Marshall Rogers/Terry Austin Hawkman splash page from Detective Comics #467 that you used on page 7 of the same article: much of that page was inked by Neal Adams (as was some of the other pages from that job). I left those pages on my desk at Continuity Associates one night when I departed for home and came in the next morning to discover that Neal had gotten bored overnight and inked a face here, an arm there, a torso somewhere else. My dilemma naturally was that I, a rank newbie, couldn’t approach the stylistic heights of Neal’s inking so as to blend our approaches together for a consistent overall look. As a result, Marshall’s first penciled job is a weird amalgam of polished control (Neal) and clumsy fumbling (mine).

I got better (as did Marshall). As far as I can determine, Neal was always a titan of talent and remains so to this very day (Thursday)…

– Terry Austin Terry, old chum, thank you for sharing those stories—particularly since the Vienna Boys Choir fell down on the job in pointing out that Hawkman profile shot!

On this page is another chance to see it…

WANTED: BI’s EARLY ISSUES

First of all, I must congratulate for your incredible publication. I’m a fan of BACK ISSUE and have 70 issues of nearly 100…

I hope to complete all the issues. To me, the issues are memories, treasures, and an opportunity to know and be in touch with the creators that gave me so many incredible moments to this day, and to discover incredible graphics and stories.

It nearly impossible to get the first 20 issues and the giant-size Legion issue [#61], but I will try and try to get them and complete the entire BACK ISSUE run.

BACK ISSUE is the best publication ever!

– Pablo Daniel Doce Mexico Captain America and Dr. Octopus TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved. BACK ISSUE TM & © TwoMorrows.

TM & © DC Comics. Courtesy of Heritage.

HAWKMAN TRIVIA

Pablo, we’re flattered by your praise… thank you!

And yes, those early issues of BI are tough to find in print (in fact, issue #8 just sold out on the very day I write this). Of course, they’re available in digital form at www.twomorrows.com, but I wish you luck in your quest in finding hard copies.

Next issue: ALL-STAR EDITORS Issue! A Pro2Pro roundtable of past and present editors reveal… “How I Beat the Dreaded Deadline Doom”! Plus: in-depth retrospectives of ARCHIE GOODWIN and MARK GRUENWALD, a vintage interview with fan-turned-pro E. NELSON BRIDWELL, an interview with DIANA SCHUTZ, ALLAN ASHERMAN revisits DC’s ’70s editorial department, Marvel Assistant Editors’ Month, and a history of the most famous editor in comic books, Perry White!

Featuring TOM BREVOORT, ELIOT R. BROWN, MIKE CARLIN, HOWARD CHAYKIN, TOM DeFALCO, DANNY FINGEROTH, THE GOODWIN FAMILY, FRED HEMBECK, DAN JURGENS, HOWARD MACKIE, ELLIOT MAGGIN, DON McGREGOR, AL MILGROM, DENNY O’NEIL, CARL POTTS, CATHERINE SCHULLER, JIM SHOOTER, WALTER SIMONSON, ROGER STERN, MARV WOLFMAN, and many more, under an unpublished alternate cover of 1981’s Captain America #259 by MIKE ZECK! Don’t ask—just BI it! See you in sixty!

Your friendly neighborhood Euryman, Michael Eury, editor-in-chief

78 • BACK ISSUE • Mercs and Anti-heroes Issue

Celebrate CelebrateKIRBY’s KIRBY’s100th 100thbirthday birthdaywith with

KIRBY100 KIRBY100

TWOMORROWS TWOMORROWS andand thethe JACK JACK KIRBY KIRBY COLLECTOR COLLECTOR magazine magazine celebrate celebrate JACK JACK KIRBY’S KIRBY’S 100th 100th BIRTHDAY BIRTHDAY in style in style with with thethe release release of KIRBY100, of KIRBY100, a full-color a full-color visual visual holiday holiday forfor thethe King King of comics! of comics!

It features It features an an all-star all-star line-up line-up of 100 of 100 COMICS COMICS PROS PROS who who critique critique keykey images images from from Kirby’s Kirby’s 50-year 50-year career, career, admiring admiring his his page page layouts, layouts, dramatics, dramatics, andand storytelling storytelling skills, skills, andand lovingly lovingly reminiscing reminiscing about about their their favorite favorite charcharFeatured Featured areare BRUCE BRUCE TIMM, TIMM, ALEX ALEX ROSS, ROSS, WALTER WALTER SIMONSON, SIMONSON, acters acters andand stories. stories.

JOHN JOHN BYRNE, BYRNE, JOEJOE SINNOTT, SINNOTT, STEVE STEVE RUDE, RUDE, ADAM ADAM HUGHES, HUGHES, WENDY WENDY PINI, PINI, JOHN JOHN ROMITA ROMITA SR.,SR., DAVE DAVE GIBBONS, GIBBONS, P. CRAIG P. CRAIG RUSSELL, RUSSELL, andand dozens dozens more more of the of the toptop names names in comics. in comics.

Their Their essays essays serve serve to honor to honor Jack’s Jack’s place place in comics in comics history, history, andand prove prove (as(as if there’s if there’s anyany doubt) doubt) thatthat KIRBY KIRBY IS KING! IS KING! ThisThis double-length double-length book book is edited is edited by by JOHN JOHN MORROW MORROW andand JON JON B. B. inked inked by by MIKE MIKE ROYER. ROYER. cover cover COOKE, COOKE, with with a Kirby a Kirby (The (The Limited Limited Hardcover Hardcover includes includes 16 16 bonus bonus color color pages pages of of Kirby’s Kirby’s 1960s 1960s Deities Deities concept concept drawings) drawings)

(224-page (224-page FULL-COLOR FULL-COLOR TRADE TRADE PAPERBACK) PAPERBACK) $34.95 $34.95 ISBN: ISBN: 978-1-60549-078-6 978-1-60549-078-6 • (Digital • (Digital Edition) Edition) $12.95 $12.95 (The (The LIMITED LIMITED EDITION EDITION HARDCOVER HARDCOVER is SOLD is SOLD OUT!) OUT!)

NOW NOWSHIPPING! SHIPPING!

HERO-A-GO-GO! HERO-A-GO-GO! All characters TM & © their respective owners.

Welcome Welcome to the to the CAMP CAMP AGE, AGE, when when spiesspies likedliked theirtheir warswars coldcold andand theirtheir women women warm, warm, good good guysguys beatbeat badbad guysguys withwith a a punpun andand a punch, a punch, andand Batman Batman shook shook a mean a mean cape. cape.

HERO-A-GO-GO HERO-A-GO-GO celebrates celebrates the the camp camp craze craze of the of the Swinging Swinging Sixties, Sixties, about about everyone—the everyone—the teens teens of Riverdale, of Riverdale, an ant an ant andand a squirrel, a squirrel, eveneven the the President President of the of the United United States—was States—was a a when when justjust super-hero super-hero or aorsecret a secret agent. agent.

BACK BACK ISSUE ISSUE magazine magazine andand former former DC DC Comics Comics editor editor MICHAEL MICHAEL EURY EURY takes takes youyou through through thatthat coolest coolest cultural cultural phenomenon phenomenon withwith thisthis all-new all-new collection collection of nostalgic of nostalgic essays, essays, histories, histories, andand theme theme songsong lyrics lyrics of classic of classic 1960s 1960s NICE, NICE, ATOM ATOM ANT, ANT, SCOOTER, SCOOTER, ACG’s ACG’s NEMESIS, NEMESIS, DELL’S DELL’S characters characters like like CAPTAIN CAPTAIN ACTION, ACTION, HERBIE HERBIE THETHE FATFAT FURY, FURY, CAPTAIN CAPTAIN SUPER-FRANKENSTEIN SUPER-FRANKENSTEIN andand DRACULA, DRACULA, the the “Split!”

“Split!”

CAPTAIN CAPTAIN MARVEL, MARVEL, andand others! others!

Featuring Featuring interviews interviews withwith BILLBILL MUMY MUMY (Lost (Lost in Space), in Space), BOBBOB HOLIDAY HOLIDAY (It’s(It’s a Bird a Bird … It’s … aIt’sPlane a Plane … It’s … Superman), It’s Superman), RALPH RALPH BAKSHI BAKSHI (The(The Mighty Mighty Heroes, Heroes, SpiderSpiderMan), Man), DEAN DEAN TORRENCE TORRENCE (Jan(Jan andand Dean Dean Meet Meet Batman), Batman), RAMONA RAMONA FRADON FRADON (Metamorpho), (Metamorpho), DICK DICK DeBARTOLO DeBARTOLO (Captain (Captain Society Society Comic Comic Book), Book), VINCE VINCE GARGIULO GARGIULO (Palisades (Palisades ParkPark historian), historian), JOEJOE SINNOTT SINNOTT (The(The Klutz), Klutz), TONY TONY TALLARICO TALLARICO (The(The Great Great Beatles Beatles comic comic book), book), JOSE JOSE DELBO DELBO (The(The Monkees Monkees comic comic book), book), andand many many more! more!

(272-page (272-page FULL-COLOR FULL-COLOR TRADE TRADE PAPERBACK) PAPERBACK) $36.95 $36.95 • (Digital • (Digital Edition) Edition) $12.95 $12.95 ISBN: ISBN: 978-1-60549-073-1 978-1-60549-073-1 • NOW • NOW SHIPPING! SHIPPING!

All characters TM & © their respective owners.

New New book book byby MICHAEL MICHAEL EURY, EURY, editor editor ofof

ItItCrept CreptFrom FromThe TheTomb Tomb JustJust when when youyou thought thought it was it was safesafe to walk to walk thethe streets streets again, again, FROM FROM THETHE TOMB TOMB (the(the UK’s UK’s preeminent preeminent magazine magazine on on thethe history history of horror of horror comics) comics) digsdigs up up more more tomes tomes of terror of terror from from thethe century century past. past.

IT CREPT IT CREPT FROM FROM THETHE TOMB TOMB (the(the second second “Best “Best of”of” collection) collection) uncovers uncovers atomic atomic comics comics lostlost to the to the Cold Cold War, War, rarely rarely seen seen (and (and censored) censored) British British horror horror comics, comics, thethe early early art art of RICHARD of RICHARD CORBEN, CORBEN, GOOD GOOD GIRLS GIRLS of aofbygone a bygone age,age, TOM TOM SUTTON, SUTTON, DON DON HECK, HECK, LOU LOU MORALES, MORALES, AL AL EADEH, EADEH, BRUCE BRUCE JONES’ JONES’ Alien Alien Worlds, Worlds, HP HP LOVECRAFT LOVECRAFT in HEAVY in HEAVY METAL, METAL, andand a myriad a myriad of terrors of terrors from from beyond beyond thethe stars stars andand thethe shadows shadows of our of our ownown world! world!

It features It features comics comics theythey tried tried to ban, to ban, from from ATLAS, ATLAS, CHARLTON, CHARLTON, COMIC COMIC MEDIA, MEDIA, DC,DC, EC,EC, HARVEY, HARVEY, HOUSE HOUSE OFOF HAMMER, HAMMER, KITCHEN KITCHEN SINK, SINK, LAST LAST GASP, GASP, PACIFIC, PACIFIC, SKYWALD, SKYWALD, WARREN, WARREN, andand more more from from thethe darkest darkest of the of the horror horror genre’s genre’s finest finest creators! creators!

(192-page (192-page Trade Trade Paperback) Paperback) $29.95 $29.95 • ISBN: • ISBN: 978-1-60549-081-6 978-1-60549-081-6 • DIGITAL • DIGITAL EDITION: EDITION: $10.95 $10.95

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All characters TM & © their respective owners.

From WOODSTOCK to “THE BANANA SPLITS,” from “SGT. PEPPER” to “H.R. PUFNSTUF,” from ALTAMONT to “THE PARTRIDGE FAMILY,” GROOVY is a far-out trip to the era of lava lamps and love beads. This profusely illustrated HARDCOVER BOOK, in PSYCHEDELIC COLOR, features interviews with icons of grooviness such as PETER MAX, BRIAN WILSON, PETER FONDA, MELANIE, DAVID CASSIDY, members of the JEFFERSON AIRPLANE, CREAM, THE DOORS, THE COWSILLS and VANILLA FUDGE; and cast members of groovy TV shows like “THE MONKEES,” “LAUGH-IN” and “THE BRADY BUNCH.” GROOVY revisits the era’s ROCK FESTIVALS, MOVIES, ART—even COMICS and CARTOONS, from the 1968 ‘mod’ WONDER WOMAN to R. CRUMB. A color-saturated pop-culture history written and designed by MARK VOGER (author of the acclaimed book MONSTER MASH), GROOVY is one trip that doesn’t require dangerous chemicals!

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BACK ISSUE #103

ALTER EGO #150

ALTER EGO #151

ALTER EGO #152

ALTER EGO #153

STAN LEE’s 95th birthday! Rare 1980s LEE interview by WILL MURRAY—GER APELDOORN on Stan’s non-Marvel writing in the 1950s—STAN LEE/ROY THOMAS e-mails of the 21st century—and more special features than you could shake Irving Forbush at! Also FCA (Fawcett Collectors of America), BILL SCHELLY, and MICHAEL T. GILBERT! Colorful Marvel multi-hero cover

by Big JOHN BUSCEMA!

Golden Age artist FRANK THOMAS (The Owl! The Eye! Dr. Hypno!) celebrated by Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt’s MICHAEL T. GILBERT! Plus the scintillating (and often offbeat) Golden & Silver Age super-heroes of Western Publishing’s DELL & GOLD KEY comics! Art by MANNING, DITKO, KANE, MARSH, GILL, SPIEGLE, SPRINGER, NORRIS, SANTOS, THORNE, et al.! Plus FCA, BILL SCHELLY, and more!

Unsung artist/writer LARRY IVIE conceived (and named!) the JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA, helped develop T.H.U.N.D.E.R. AGENTS, brought EC art greats to the world of Edgar Rice Burroughs, and more!

SANDY PLUNKETT chronicles his career, with art by FRAZETTA, CRANDALL, WOOD, KRENKEL, DOOLIN, and others!

Plus FCA, MICHAEL T. GILBERT, BILL SCHELLY, and more!

Remembering Fabulous FLO STEINBERG, Stan Lee’s gal Friday during the Marvel Age of Comics—with anecdotes and essays by pros and friends who knew and loved her! Rare Marvel art, Flo’s successor ROBIN GREEN interviewed by RICHARD ARNDT about her time at Marvel, and Robin’s 1971 article on Marvel for ROLLING STONE magazine! Plus FCA, MICHAEL T. GILBERT, BILL SCHELLY, and more!

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BACK ISSUE #104

BACK ISSUE #105

BRICKJOURNAL #49

DRAW #34

ALL-STAR EDITORS ISSUE! Past and present editors reveal “How I Beat the Dreaded Deadline Doom”! Plus: ARCHIE GOODWIN and MARK GRUENWALD retrospectives, E. NELSON BRIDWELL interview, DIANA SCHUTZ interview, ALLAN ASHERMAN revisits DC’s ’70s editorial department, Marvel Assistant Editors’ Month, and a history of PERRY WHITE! With an unpublished 1981 Captain America cover by MIKE ZECK!

FOURTH WORLD AFTER KIRBY! Return(s) of the New Gods, Why Can’t Mister Miracle Escape Cancellation?, the Forever People, MIKE MIGNOLA’s unrealized New Gods animated movie, Fourth World in Hollywood, and an all-star lineup, including the work of JOHN BYRNE, PARIS CULLINS, J. M. DeMATTEIS, MARK EVANIER, MICHAEL GOLDEN, RICK HOBERG, WALTER SIMONSON, and more. STEVE RUDE cover!

DEADLY HANDS ISSUE! Histories of Iron Fist, Master of Kung Fu, Yang, the Bronze Tiger, Hands of the Dragon, NEAL ADAMS’ Armor, Marvel’s Deadly Hands of Kung Fu mag, & Hong Kong Phooey! Plus Muhammad Ali in toons and toys. Featuring JOHN BYRNE, CHRIS CLAREMONT, STEVE ENGLEHART, PAUL GULACY, LARRY HAMA, DOUG MOENCH, DENNY O’NEIL, JIM STARLIN, & others. Classic EARL NOREM cover!

40th ANNIVERSARY OF LEGO TECHNIC! GEOFF GRAY explores Technic history, JOE MENO interviews former LEGO Set Designer SØREN HOLM about the classic Technic Space Shuttle, MICHAEL BROWN shows off his Technic-scale AH-64, and more! Plus: Minifigure customizing from JARED K. BURKS’, step-by-step “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, BrickNerd’s DIY Fan Art, & more!

GREG HILDEBRANDT (of the Hildebrandt Brothers) reveals his working methods, BRAD WALKER (Aquaman, Guardians of the Galaxy, Birds of Prey, Legends of the Dark Knight) gives a how-to interview and demo, regular columnist JERRY ORDWAY, JAMAR NICHOLAS reviews the latest art supplies, and BRET BLEVINS and Draw! editor MIKE MANLEY’s Comic Art Bootcamp! Mature Readers Only.

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COMIC BOOK CREATOR #16

COMIC BOOK CREATOR #17

KIRBY COLLECTOR #72

KIRBY COLLECTOR #73

A look at 75 years of Archie Comics’ characters and titles, from Archie and his pals ‘n gals to the mighty MLJ heroes of yesteryear and today’s “Dark Circle”! Also: Careerspanning interviews with The Fox’s DEAN HASPIEL and Kevin Keller’s cartoonist DAN PARENT, who both jam on our exclusive cover depicting a face-off between humor and heroes. Plus our usual features, including the hilarious FRED HEMBECK!

The legacy and influence of WALLACE WOOD, with a comprehensive essay about Woody’s career, extended interview with Wood assistant RALPH REESE (artist for Marvel’s horror comics, National Lampoon, and underground), a long chat with cover artist HILARY BARTA (Marvel inker, Plastic Man and America’s Best artist with ALAN MOORE), plus our usual columns, features, and the humor of HEMBECK!

FIGHT CLUB! Jack’s most powerful fights and in-your-face action: Real-life WAR EXPERIENCES, Marvel’s KID COWBOYS, the Madbomb saga and all those negative 1970s Marvel fan letters, interview with SCOTT McCLOUD on his Kirby-inspired punchfest DESTROY!!, rare Kirby interview, 2017 WonderCon Kirby Panel, MARK EVANIER, unpublished pencil art galleries, and more! Cover inked by DEAN HASPIEL!

ONE-SHOTS! Kirby’s best (and worst) short spurts on his wildest concepts: ANIMATION IDEAS, DINGBATS, JUSTICE INC., MANHUNTER, ATLAS, PRISONER, and more! Plus MARK EVANIER and our other regular panelists, rare Kirby interview, panels from the 2017 Kirby Centennial celebration, pencil art galleries, and some one-shot surprises! BIG BARDA #1 cover finishes by MIKE ROYER!

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