Back Issue #146

MEN WITHOUT FEAR S

ber eptem

2023

6

No.14

95

Daredevil TM & © Marvel. All Rights Reserved.

$ 10.

TIM SALE (1956–2022) (1956–2022)

Tribute Art Gallery

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82658 00496

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Bronze Age Daredevil • Challengers of the Unknown • Sinestro villain history • Who Is Hal Jordan? • plus JEPH LOEB remembers TIM SALE in an exclusive interview

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Volume 1, Number 146 September 2023 EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Michael Eury

Comics’ Bronze Age and Beyond!

PUBLISHER John Morrow DESIGNER Rich Fowlks COVER ARTIST Gene Colan (Originally produced for the 1978 Mighty Marvel Pin-up Book.

Art scan courtesy of Heritage Comic Auctions.)

COVER COLORIST Glenn Whitmore COVER DESIGNER Michael Kronenberg PROOFREADER David Baldy SPECIAL THANKS Jeff Bailey Luigi Novi Jarrod Buttery Tom Powers Ed Catto Jerry Riddle Chris Claremont Bob Rozakis Gerry Conway John Siuntres Rocky Davis Bryan D. Stroud J. M. DeMatteis Roy Thomas Chuck Dixon J. C. Vaughn Steve Englehart Marv Wolfman Steven Grant Jack C. Harris Heritage Comics Auctions Tony Isabella James Heath Lantz Jeph Loeb Ed Lute Brian Martin Marvel Comics Prof. Larry Maslon

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FLASHBACK: Daredevil in the 1970s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 The Man without Fear swings through the Bronze Age. Plus: The Torpedo!

ROUGH STUFF: Gene Colan Daredevil Pencil Art Gallery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 BRING ON THE BAD GUYS: Mr. Fear. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Who’s behind the mask of this scare-inducing Marvel menace?

FLASHBACK: Superheroes with Disabilities. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Physical limitations don’t hold back these inspirational comic characters BEYOND CAPES: Challengers of the Unknown in the Bronze Age. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 DC’s fantastic four fight to remain relevant in a changing comic market INTERVIEW: Jeph Loeb and Life with Tim Sale. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 The superstar writer recalls his Challengers and Daredevil: Yellow collaborations ART GALLERY: Tim Sale. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 FLASHBACK: Who Is Hal Jordan? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66 Is Green Lantern’s alter ego really a man without fear?

BRING ON THE BAD GUYS: Sinestro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 A history of the rogue Green Lantern who made a cottage industry of fear BACK TALK: Reader Reactions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78 BACK ISSUE™ issue 146, September 2023 (ISSN 1932-6904) is published monthly (except Jan., March, May, and Nov.) by TwoMorrows Publishing, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614, USA. Phone: (919) 449-0344.

Periodicals postage paid at Raleigh, NC. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Back Issue, c/o TwoMorrows, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614.

Michael Eury, Editor-in-Chief. John Morrow, Publisher. Editorial Office: BACK ISSUE, c/o Michael Eury, Editorin-Chief, 112 Fairmount Way, New Bern, NC 28562. Email: euryman@gmail.com. Eight-issue subscriptions: $97 Economy US, $147 International, $39 Digital. Please send subscription orders and funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial office. Cover artwork by Gene Colan. Daredevil TM & © Marvel. All Rights Reserved.

All editorial matter © 2023 TwoMorrows and Michael Eury. Printed in China. FIRST PRINTING

Men Without Fear Issue • BACK ISSUE • 1

On his always-informative website, Marvel Executive Editor Tom Brevoort informs us that—in the 1960s, riding high on the success of Fantastic Four and Amazing Spider-Man—Marvel’s publisher Martin Goodman instructed writer/editor Stan Lee to create “a knock-off of FF and a knock-off of Spider-Man” for Marvel to publish. These projects became X-Men and Daredevil, respectively—with Avengers #1 (Sept.

1963) rushed into production to fill the gap when Daredevil fell behind.

TM

DAREDEVIL IN THE ’60s

by J a r r o d

TM & © Marvel.

Artist Bill Everett and Lee create athlete and academic Matthew (Matt) Murdock in Daredevil #1 (Apr. 1964).

As a high school student, Matt saves the life of a blind man by pushing him out of the way of an out-of-control truck. The truck crashes and something radioactive strikes Matt in the face. Matt is blinded but finds that his other senses have been enhanced to peak capacity—plus he has developed a built-in “radar sense.”

Matt graduates from high school, then as valedictorian from law school.

He opens a law firm with his best buddy Franklin “Foggy” Nelson, and they hire Karen Page as their secretary. But when Matt’s boxer father is murdered by crooked fight arranger, the Fixer, Matt uses his enhanced senses and athletic abilities to step outside of the law as the costumed crimefighter, Daredevil!

Stan wrote the first 50 issues of Daredevil— introducing adversaries such as the Owl, the Purple Man, Mr Fear, Stilt-Man, the Ani-Men, Gladiator, Exterminator, Jester, and more. 1960s’ soap-opera themes also ran high: Matt loved Karen but dared not tell her because he was blind; Karen loved Matt and wished he felt the same (which he did); Foggy loved Karen but knew Karen loved Matt, and thus Foggy both resented Matt and resented himself for resenting his best friend. One could be forgiven for thinking that one was reading Our Love Story.

Interestingly, one experiment highlighted Matt’s desperate attempt to protect his secret identity by pretending to be his own heretofore-unmentioned identical twin brother, Mike. Y’see, Foggy and Karen believe that they have found proof that Matt is Daredevil. On the spot, Matt tells them that his brother Mike is really Daredevil! And so, in issue #25 (Feb. 1967), Matt wears sunglasses, musses up his hair, dons some garish clothes, and speaks like a hipster stereotype—all to convince his friends that his previously unmentioned identical twin brother is actually Daredevil.

It was a temporary experiment. A battle with the Exterminator in Daredevil #41 (June 1968) leads to a laboratory explosion. The Exterminator is thrown into an extra-dimensional void and scraps are found of Daredevil’s costume, in a story titled: “The Death of Mike Murdock!” (Fortunately, as Matt explains in the following issue, Mike had been secretly training a replacement Daredevil.)

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Buttery

Bit by bit, developments occurred. Foggy ran for District Attorney (and won). He started dating (and later married) Debbie Harris. Matt and Karen grew closer…

However, heightened abilities or not, Stan couldn’t write everything forever, and so turned over Daredevil’s scripting duties to Roy Thomas with issue #51 (Apr. 1969). Thomas has Daredevil meet the Black Panther for the first time in issue #52, followed by a retelling and expansion of Daredevil’s origin in issue #53, specifically placing Matt’s teenage accident as having occurred in 1950.

Thomas gives Karen Page a backstory in Daredevil #56 (Sept. 1969). Karen is the daughter of disgraced scientist, Dr. Paxton Page—who perfected the cobalt bomb, and then refused to divulge the results of his research to Congress. Karen travels to her family home in Vermont. When Daredevil follows, they are confronted by a skeletal horseman calling himself Death’s-Head, who claims to have killed Karen’s father! However, Daredevil determines that Death’s-Head is Karen’s father—driven insane by years of exposure to cobalt radiation. There is a fight, Karen is endangered, and Death’s-Head sacrifices himself to save his daughter. At her father’s funeral, Matt reveals his identity to Karen.

Matt and Karen become engaged in Daredevil #58 (Nov. 1969)—an issue that introduces the motorcycling menace Stunt-Master—but Karen immediately starts fretting over the danger that Matt exposes himself to as Daredevil. This continues into the following issue as DD faces hired killer, the Torpedo.

DAREDEVIL IN THE ’70s

Matt loses more points as he forgets Karen’s birthday while fighting Jester, Cobra, and Mr. Hyde in Daredevil #61 (Feb. 1970). Finally, in issue #63, Karen quits her job as secretary and announces that she has a plane to catch. Matt wants to stop her, and Karen wants Matt to stop her, but Matt is delayed battling the Gladiator—and Karen boards her flight to Los Angeles. Roy Thomas explains: “I felt Karen had been underdeveloped… not much more than having a crush on Matt Murdock... so I decided to do more with her. That escalated once I had Matt reveal his identity to her, something I’m sure I cleared with Stan first.” to return to New York with Matt.

Matt flies to L.A. and creepily Daredevil helps a young boxer breaks into the apartment of Karen’s in issue #68 and re-teams with the friend Sally Weston. He discovers Black Panther in issue #69. Thomas’ that Karen is working as an actress final storyline, in Daredevil #70–71 on the gothic-horror soap opera (Nov.–Dec. 1970), introduces Buck Strange Secrets. There is an on-set Ralston, an influential actor who aims killing, and Daredevil is forced to to Make America Great Again by using solve the murder-mystery while his fame and wealth to legitimize his battling the super-strong Brother alter ego—the Tribune—to dispense Brimstone. Thomas was cheekily roy thomas justice to all the radical, subversive, asked if he was a fan of the gothicpinko, commie pawns whom he © Luigi Novi / Wikimedia Commons. horror soap opera, Dark Shadows. believed were ruining the country.

“Yes, that was the inspiration for Brother Brimstone and that whole sequence. When I was working at Rereading those issues, it’s sobering to see how home, the office (except for Stan, of course) had little the propaganda machine has changed. Thomas orders not to call me between 4:00 and 4:30, I think opines, “Nope, things haven’t changed… including that the left has proved equally adroit at seeking to it was… the half-hour that Dark Shadows was on.”

Karen has found her calling. After years as a love- dispense justice to all the radical-right, subversive, sick secretary, she had now found an engaging and fascist, white supremacist pawns.”

Gerry Conway succeeded Thomas as scripter rewarding career. In Daredevil #67 (Aug. 1970) she is offered a TV pilot with Stunt-Master and declines with Daredevil #72 (Jan. 1971). Conway kindly

The Original Torpedo The Man without Fear met a killer for hire named Torpedo—no relation to the hero spotlighted elsewhere in this feature—in Daredevil #59 (Dec. 1969).

Cover by Gene Colan and Syd Shores.

TM & © Marvel.

Men Without Fear Issue • BACK ISSUE • 3

Right-Winger and Web-Slinger (left) Torn from today’s headlines, but published in the Bronze Age, the far-right demagogue the Tribune makes trouble in Daredevil #71 (Dec. 1970).

Cover by Marie Severin and Syd Shores. (right) Spidey and Subby appear in issue #77 (June 1971). Cover

by Sal Buscema.

TM & © Marvel.

spoke at length with BACK ISSUE: “Daredevil was the potentially funny words. I had always felt… or first actual superhero title that I wrote. And writing maybe the names that stuck with me, or rang true that first issue was instructive on so many levels. You to me… sort of had that ending ‘K’-sound, so that get the opportunity to achieve your ambitions and they sounded tough, brutal. ‘Attack!’ That kind of then you’re faced with the realities of what your skill thing. And I guess, as a fairly inexperienced young writer, who’s just making it up as he goes along… limitations may be! [laughs] And how to actually when it came to naming a villain… rather break out of some habits that were formed than doing some research and trying writing shorter pieces. Because this was to come up with something that a full-length story and most of my represented an authentic, maybe work had been seven- to ten-page ethnic-sounding, name, I just sort of stories in supernatural magazines. went with something that I thought But I’d always wanted to write a would sound powerful.” superhero… I always wanted to Immediately after, Conway wrote write the Marvel heroes… and a crossover with Iron Man #35–36 Daredevil had been one of my (Mar.–Apr. 1971). “What was happenfavorites as a kid growing up… so it ing was that I was making a move from was a terrific opportunity.”

DC to Marvel, and part of the way Conway also started writing that the deal came together was Ka-Zar in Astonishing Tales #3 gerry conway that Roy offered me what amounted (Dec. 1970). That issue featured to three titles a month to write,” the introduction of Ka-Zar’s buddy Tongah, and antagonist Garokk. In BACK ISSUE #145 Conway recalls. “Which was a substantial offer, even (July 2023), Conway explained how he had an ear though the rates in those days were pretty pitiful, for ‘Tah’ and ‘Kuh’-sounding names. Taking the it was still a very comfortable potential living. And best of both worlds, in his Daredevil debut, Conway again, I was kind of thrown into the deep end of the introduced Tagak, Lord of the Leopards! “For some pool here because, as I say, Daredevil was my first reason I was fixated on those sounds! I don’t know superhero book—and suddenly I’m writing three why. There’s a saying in comedy that ‘K’ is always of them: Daredevil, Iron Man, and Sub-Mariner. I a funny letter. Words that have a ‘kuh’ sound are guess out of a combination of ambition and creative

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impulse to want to do something cool—and desper- temporarily blinding the entire population—in issue ation for trying to figure a way to make this all work #74 (Mar. 1971). Matt accompanies Foggy on a for me in something that I wasn’t all that limber with fact-finding mission to Delvadia in issues #75–76. yet—the idea of doing a crossover, and trying to find “That was my fake, fascist, South American country,” laughs Conway. DD is forced to fight the a way to tie these different books together, was (Zorro-inspired) Delvadian revolutionary, my effort to try and get a handle on it all.

El Condor. Delvadia would later spawn And, at the same time, try to do someanother revolutionary: the Tarantula thing that I felt was in keeping with [as you read last issue, in our “Spiderthe general Marvel approach of the Rogues” edition—ed.]. shared universe. It’s one way to save Karen returns to New York in on plotting! [laughs] Y’know, I’m Daredevil #77 (June 1971), but Matt going from writing seven- to tenis busy with a Sub-Mariner crossover page stories to coming up with 60 (guest-starring Spider-Man). Foggy pages of material a month. In later is also threatened by mobsters. In the years, that would’ve been child’s play, following issue, we find that Foggy but at that time I barely knew what is being blackmailed (by Mr. Kline).

I was doing, but I was figuring it out We also meet George Alec, and and I learned a lot working with the gene colan his wife Dia (nods to sci-fi novelist different artists, who each brought © Luigi Novi / Wikimedia Commons.

George Alec Effinger and his wife their own talents.”

Diane), who are nearly kidnapped by Bull Taurus

GENTLEMAN GENE

Cat Scratch Fever Daredevil meets Tagak, the Leopard Lord, in DD #72 (Jan. 1971). Written

by Gerry Conway, penciled by Gene Colan, inked by Syd Shores. Original art scan courtesy of Heritage Auctions (www.ha.com).

TM & © Marvel.

Conway stayed on the book for nearly two-and-ahalf years. In that time, every issue (bar one) was drawn by Gene Colan. “I worked with Gene on both Daredevil and Sub-Mariner, and Don Heck and George Tuska on Iron Man, but each of them has their own storytelling styles,” recalls Conway. “I had to learn how to plot for them, to their strengths, and also to learn what my weaknesses were. It was kind of an interesting year! [laughs] “Gene was not a plotter, unlike, say, Jack Kirby or Steve Ditko—or even, to a degree, Don Heck—and especially not like Ross Andru. In non-comics terms, Gene was a marvellous scene-director, a marvelous performer—his characters’ performances were always dead-on—a terrific set designer, and a wonderful photographer. But he was not a particularly good ‘big picture’ guy. And that was the lesson I learned on my very first story, because I wrote this plot for Daredevil—I think the plot ran two pages, single-spaced, which is what Roy told me would be a sufficient plot—and Gene spent the first 16 pages of a 20-page story on the first half of the first page.

And then, he tried to compress everything into the last four pages. So you’ll see at the end of the book the last few pages have many more panels!”

Conway continues, “What I learned is not that I should simplify my plots, but that I should give Gene a better sense of how much each sequence should take in terms of space—because, as I say, he was a terrific scene director, character performer, photographer, cinematographer—he could set mood, he could perform the characters, he could direct a brilliant sequence—he just didn’t understand pacing [laughs]. So, what I learned is that I had to help him with the pacing, and he would give me more than I could possibly ask for in terms of characterization and story. We didn’t collaborate directly in terms of passing ideas back and forth, but I would talk to him about what kind of things he liked to draw. I quickly realized that he loved cars—he loved drawing sequences with cars—so I’d throw in the occasional car chase. Or something that would involve Daredevil landing on top of a car, and stuff like that.”

Daredevil battles the Smasher when a gang of thugs dopes the New York City water supply— Men Without Fear Issue • BACK ISSUE • 5

Daredevil Collectibles While the Man without Fear was rarely merchandised in the 1970s, this blacklight poster from Third Eye, first of several DD 7-Eleven Slurpee cups, and Marvel Value Stamp are among the few Daredevil collectibles of the day.

Daredevil TM & © Marvel.

and his gang—but are saved by Daredevil. Having failed to collect “specimens,” Bull Taurus is forced to receive an injection from an unnamed professor, at the orders of Mr. Kline. Bull is subsequently mutated into the Minotaur-like Man-Bull!

“There are always silly Marvel characters, and silly DC characters—sometimes they’re intentionally silly, sometimes they’re silly because of the failures of the creators,” chuckles Conway. “Man-Bull was… there was a sort of trend that Roy sort of set up. For some reason, he liked the reversal of names. For example, instead of Spider-Man, there’s Man-Spider [in What If?].

Roy, of course, co-created Man-Thing, and that led to other ‘Man-dash’ characters like Man Wolf (and Man-Bat over at DC). What that led to is that I had a series of animal-based villains that I had been doing in Spider-Man. And then in Daredevil… I honestly don’t know where I came up with the notion of a character called Man-Bull, but it was obviously a reference to the Cretan mythology of the Minotaur.

There was already a villain called the Minotaur— so I wasn’t going to do that—this one was a horrible science experiment gone wrong [laughs]. So we had fun with that. Gene did his usual terrific job of taking something and making it as broad as possible. And he was certainly a physically intimidating villain, even if the horns looked a little silly, but I was delighted to see him appear on the She-Hulk TV show and for them to make fun of it the way that they did. I thought that was hilarious! So funny!”

Daredevil #79 (Aug. 1971) was plotted by Conway, but scripted by Gary Friedrich. Man-Bull chases Daredevil through the theater district, almost bumping into Stan and Joan Lee. DD trips Man-Bull with his billy-club cable. The villain is knocked unconscious as he smashes into a wall, before reverting to Bull Taurus. Mr. Kline subsequently enlists the Owl in issue #80. A television crew films the fight between Daredevil and the Owl, aboard the Owl’s helicopter, and Karen watches horrified as the copter crashes into the Hudson River.

THE BLACK WIDOW

Fortunately, Karen was not the only person following the fight. Coincidentally, Madame Natasha—the Black Widow—is nearby. She dives into the Hudson and rescues our unconscious hero, in issue #81 (Nov. 1971). However, Karen believes that—this time—Matt is really, really dead, and she turns to her agent: “I need you, Phil… I need you.

I… need…you…” We also discover that the mysterious Mr. Kline is an android, previously known as MK-9, but now dubbed “Assassin” by his more-mysterious master.

Over the next few months, Karen gets cozier with Phil, Matt gets cozier with Natasha, and Mr. Kline also appears in issues of Iron Man and Sub-Mariner. Finally, in Daredevil #84 (Feb. 1972), the android assassin Mr. Kline is revealed to be from the future, sent back in time by his super-computer master, Baal, to correct perceived mistakes to history. Daredevil and the Black Widow (has a nice ring to it…) save the day and DD tells Natasha, “You must know I’m really Matt Murdock.”

Phil proposes to Karen in issue #85 (Mar. 1972), but then she discovers that Matt is still alive! Karen and Matt rekindle their engagement in issue #86, but as Daredevil battles the Ox, Karen realizes that they have both moved on. As Karen leaves, Natasha returns, and Karen thinks, “He’s yours now, Natasha.” (Three years later, Karen becomes a regular supporting character in Ghost Rider.)

Roy Thomas had split Karen and Matt—sending Karen to Los Angeles—but was a break-up in his long-term plan?

“No, definitely not,” answers Thomas, “although, of course, they could have gotten back together again.” (And they did, decades later.)

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The introduction of Natasha to the book was definitely in Conway’s plan: “I had written a couple of the Black Widow stories in Amazing Adventures and fell in love with the character. I actually really, really liked Roy’s interpretation of her, because he was doing a kind of Modesty Blaise take on her, and I thought that would be useful. I don’t remember if Roy suggested it, or I suggested it, but her initial appearance was more of a story beat in the Daredevil comic. Then when I saw how well they worked together—or maybe when Roy saw it—we said, ‘Hey, let’s put her in regularly!’ Daredevil wasn’t selling as well as it should have, or as well as some of the other books, so bringing in another superhero—to make it Daredevil and Black Widow—I think had a marketing twist to it, but there was a big creative aspect to it, too.

“Gene, of course, loved drawing beautiful women—so that was one very strong indicator to bring Black Widow into the book—in addition to the fact that I thought she would make a great ally of Daredevil’s and give the book some balance in the romantic department. Because the way that Karen Page had been played for the previous decade was this endless cycle of raising hopes and having them crushed, and delusions and misapprehensions… there wasn’t that much going on. And I didn’t have the inventiveness to realize that what I needed to do was address Karen by giving her more strength as a character, to make her an equal to Matt Murdock as a player in the series—but I knew that something had to change.

“Stan was a very good writer in a lot of ways, but he never was able to inhabit a female perspective,” Conway states. “The fact alone that he put emphasis on female characters—introducing them as members of superpowered groups—is to his credit. But his stuff was always the True Romance, lonely hearts, longing-for-what-she-does-not-have to complete-her-as-a-woman. It was so basic, it was useless as a template for characters. I mean, that’s one reason why I wrote Gwen Stacy out of Amazing Spider-Man because I literally could not see any future for her as a character. And that again is a limitation on my part because look what’s happened to her in the hands of other writers who’ve taken it in a different direction.

Be that as it may, given the times and the situations, you look at Stan’s deficiencies and you try to address them to the extent that you can.

“The Karen Page of the Daredevil TV series would’ve been a terrific character to write. She was every bit as interesting as the other characters on that show—because she had her own agenda, she had her own set of skills, and she had her own position in the group that did not need them.

I mean, she needed them in a crisis, but she didn’t need them to complete her. And, to my mind, that’s what Black Widow brought to the Daredevil comic. She clearly did not need Matt Murdock.

She was completely fine on her own. She was more of an equal partner.”

FLOWERS IN THEIR HAIR

Daredevil #87 (May 1972) opens with Matt and Natasha moving into a house that Natasha has bought in San Francisco. Just as our heroes (and the series) start a totally new life, they have to face the very first supervillain that Daredevil ever fought: Electro.

The West Coast was definitely another of Conway’s ideas: “What ended up happening was I had visited California for about a month in… I guess it was 1971 or ’72… and I was staying in Los Angeles. A friend of Denny O’Neil was living in Haight Ashbury, and I thought it would be neat to visit San Francisco. I asked if I could stay at the guy’s house, and he said sure—and I loved the city!

I’d seen it in movies but to actually be there with the view was pretty spectacular, and I took tons of photos. When I came back I had this idea, ‘What if we moved Daredevil to San Francisco?’ Where he would be basically the only superhero in town and we could focus stories around that. It would get him out of some of the lamer aspects of his civilian

Hey, Boris, It’s Natasha!

Recently seen in her own feature in Amazing Adventures, the Black Widow webbed herself to the pages of Daredevil as the hero’s partner in issue #81 (Nov. 1971). Original cover art by Gil Kane and Frank Giacoia.

Courtesy of Heritage.

TM & © Marvel.

Men Without Fear Issue • BACK ISSUE • 7

TM & © Marvel.

life in New York and present kind of a fresh start to the book. And I knew from working with Gene— obviously—that he loved cars, and San Francisco—at that time—was probably most famous in pop culture from the movie Bullitt. This seemed like a match made in heaven between artist and material, and the stories would follow from that. So I pitched it to Roy and he was fine with it, and I gave Gene all my photos [laughs], and he picked up some of his own from his own research, and we had a blast!”

Electro is followed by Killgrave, the Purple Man (issues #88 [left] and 89), and Mr. Fear (issues #90– 91). [Editor’s note: See the “Bring on the Bad Guys” villain history of Mr. Fear in the pages following this article.] Matt briefly returns to New York, when he is asked to defend Bruce Banner in Incredible Hulk #152–153 (June-July 1972). Returning to San Francisco, Matt is offered a job at the law firm of Broderick, Sloan, and Cranston.

With issue #92 (Oct, 1972), the comic is rebranded Daredevil and the Black Widow (although

its official title, as revealed in the indicia, remains Daredevil). Was that a big deal at the time? “Yeah, it was a big deal,” reminisces Gerry Conway. “In a way, it’s sort of an admission of failure—which you never want to admit [laughs]. I mean, Daredevil had always been its own book and the idea that now we had what amounted to a dual-character book, felt in some ways—to me—like a bit of a letdown. But, on the other hand, it was such a good dual-character partnership. It’s like Captain America and the Falcon, or Batman and Robin. Although, in Batman and Robin, Robin wasn’t really treated as an equal, but Black Widow was definitely treated as co-equal in that title. I’m very pleased that she became such an important fixture in the MCU. She was a terrific character.”

Conway introduced the Blue Talon (issue #92) as a reporter postulates that Daredevil and Matt Murdock are the same person! Matt asks the Black Panther to pretend to be Daredevil in battling the Blue Talon, thus preserving his secret identity. Matt and Natasha next face the Indestructible Man (issues #93–94). Man-Bull makes his way to San

Exit, Stage Left (left) Matt and Natasha head to the West Coast in Daredevil #87 (May 1972), where DD is shocked to rediscover Spider-Man’s enemy Electro. Cover by John Buscema and Giacoia. (right) DD was first zapped by Electro in issue #2 (June 1964) of his series.

Cover by Jack Kirby and Vince Colletta.

TM & © Marvel.

8 • BACK ISSUE • Men Without Fear Issue

Francisco in issue #95 and as Daredevil is hospitalized, Black Widow repels the brute with her Widow’s Sting.

Issues #97–98 (Mar.–Apr. 1973)—introducing the Dark Messiah—were scripted by Steve Gerber, over Conway’s plot.

At that point, Conway was also writing Amazing Spider-Man, Fantastic Four, and Thor. “I started out, as I said, writing three books per month and I think—eventually—I was writing between four and five titles a month,” Conway calculates. “That’s a lot of work to do well. ‘Something’s got to give’ is the easiest way to describe it. Also, I would have to say too that my ability to be really creative on a book—with the exception of maybe Justice League and Firestorm—usually ranged about three years.

I think I would spend the first six to eight months finding my way into what type of stories I was best suited to tell on that title that I was working on. And then another year and a half of my better work, and then starting to run out of steam in my last six months. That’s kind of why I sort of averaged about three years on different titles over the decades.”

Ever the champion of feminism, Hawkeye turns up in Daredevil #99 (May 1973) and demands Natasha back—in Gerber’s first full issue. Both possessing exemplary EQ scores, Daredevil and Hawkeye calmly discuss the situation. Nope, actually, they bicker and fight for 17 pages before the Avengers turn up.

Black Panther asks that Matt repay his favor, and Daredevil and the Black Widow assist in battling Magneto in Avengers #111 (May 1973). In the aftermath, both DD and BW are offered Avengers membership. Matt declines, but Natasha accepts (contemplating, as she does, that it will give her time to think through their relationship).

Buddy Book With Daredevil #92 (Oct. 1972), Black Widow’s logo would also appear on the cover, alongside DD’s. Cover

by Gene Colan and Tom Palmer, with John Romita, Sr. alterations. (bottom) DD battled two different heavyhitting foes in issues #93 and 96.

TM & © Marvel.

CENTENNIAL ISSUE

Matt returns to San Francisco alone in Daredevil #100 (June 1973).

DD foils a robbery at Rolling Stone magazine and is subsequently interviewed by editor Jann Wenner. Matt answers what questions he can while recalling his origins. However, the interview is punctuated by psychedelic illusions and the story ends with the introduction of Angar the Screamer. (This is also Colan’s final regular issue.) Natasha returns in the following month and we learn that Angar is under the control of a shadowy figure…

Daredevil #102 (Aug. 1973) features Stilt-Man and is written by guest-scribe Chris Claremont, in one of his earliest works. As Peter Parker arrives for an interview in issue #103, the cyborg Ramrod attacks—under the direction of two shadowy figures… The same shadowy figure next hires Kraven the Hunter to defeat Daredevil— kill him if necessary—in issue #104. And then things get cosmic…

Kraven throws Daredevil off a coastal cliff in the opening pages of issue #105 (Nov. 1973), but before DD hits the water he is teleported to Titan, one of the moons of Saturn, by the woman known as Moondragon—who previously called herself Madame MacEvil—and who was one of the shadowy figures in issue #103.

The other shadowy figure—and the person responsible for Dark Messiah, Angar, Ramrod, and Kraven—is Kerwin Broderick, senior partner at Matt’s new law firm!

Moondragon is an Earthwoman named Heather Douglas.

[Editor’s note: For a history of Moondragon, see BACK ISSUE #53.]

As a child, her parents were killed by Thanos. Heather was taken to the technological world of Titan by its ruler, Mentor (the father of Thanos) and raised on Titan—until Thanos sought to overthrow his father (in Captain Marvel #27, July 1973). Moondragon is convinced that Thanos has taken control of San Francisco, and she has been using Titanian technology to help Kerwin Broderick to create superpowered individuals. However, Broderick has been using her to amass his own power and influence. His latest creation is the being called Terrex: “At my whim, living things grow or die!”

Her usefulness ended, Broderick zaps Moondragon. Hanging on by a thread, she uses her telepathic powers to restore Matt’s sight so that he can operate Titanian medical technology to save her life. They teleport back to Earth, to stop Broderick and his Men Without Fear Issue • BACK ISSUE • 9

lackeys, but Matt’s sight throws off his other senses— he cannot operate as Daredevil—and so he asks Moondragon to reverse the process. Even so, it takes the assistance of guest-star Captain Marvel (and Angar) to defeat Broderick’s bunch in issue #107 (Jan. 1974). This issue’s letters page announces that the book is being demoted to bimonthly. Clearly, changes were to be made.

Daredevil #108 (Mar. 1974) had Black Widow absent from the masthead. The story is placed a couple of months after the previous issue. Moondragon is staying at Natasha’s house and things are tense.

As Daredevil and Natasha foil a mugging, Natasha repeatedly beats a man who bashed an elderly lady—until Matt slaps Natasha. They return home and argue, STEVE GERBER but as Matt hears a news report about Alan Light.

Foggy being in critical condition after being shot, he prepares to return to New York. Natasha refuses to accompany him.

Moondragon gives Matt a lift to New York in her spaceship. During the trip, she reveals that—through her telepathy—she is aware that Matt is strongly attracted to her, and she him, but it can never be. She returns to space as Matt rushes to his friend’s hospital room. There, he meets Foggy’s parents and sister, Candace, as well as Debbie. Foggy mumbles “Black Spectre” before passing out.

Here was Gerber’s multi-title crossover (and apparent attempt to increase sales). Black Spectre is a criminal organization dedicated to anarchy and the overthrow of the government. Its leader is Mandrill, who was created by Carole Seuling and Ross Andru in Shanna the She-Devil #4 (June 1973). Gerber scripted that issue, as well as Shanna #5 (Aug. 1973), where he introduced Mandrill’s partner, Nekra.

SHANNA THE SHE-DEVIL

On the Cover of ‘The Rolling Stone’ (top) Rich Buckler and Frank Giacoia had the honor of illustrating the cover of DD’s centennial edition, #100 (June 1973). (bottom) Inside, it’s Rolling Stone editor Jann Wenner!

TM & © Marvel.

10 • BACK ISSUE • Men Without Fear Issue

Mandrill is a mutant who excretes pheromones allowing him to control women. Also a mutant, Nekra’s strength and invulnerability increase with her violent emotions.

Together, they formed Black Spectre, using an army of armored, mind-controlled women. In Daredevil #109 (May 1974), Nekra defeats Black Widow in San Francisco, while Shanna arrives in New York.

Daredevil teams with the Thing in Marvel Two-in-One #3 (May 1974), on the trail of Black Spectre, where they find that Black Widow has been entranced to their cause!

The Silver Samurai debuts in Daredevil #111 (July 1974) and kidnaps Shanna because she is the only woman capable of resisting Mandrill’s control.

Black Spectre storms the White House in Daredevil #112 (Aug. 1974), and Mandrill makes his way to the Oval Office. (The Avengers and FF dare not intervene because Mandrill has threatened to detonate an atomic bomb.) However, Daredevil is able to snap Natasha out of Mandrill’s control. They free Shanna, and the three heroes reclaim the White House.

Nekra is captured, but Mandrill escapes. The saga must have generated interest because Daredevil returns to monthly publication.

A change of pace occurs in Daredevil #113 (Sept.

1974). As Matt stays in New York, Shanna leaves, and Natasha returns to San Francisco. Candace Nelson (who has been flirting with Matt for the past few issues) is kidnapped by the Gladiator. Candace is studying at the School of Journalism and she discovered the “Sallis

Secrets of Haunted Hero DD’s Rolling Stone interview in issue #100 triggers a flashback sequence expected of a centennial edition.

Story by Steve Gerber, art by Gene Colan and John Tartaglione.

Original art courtesy of Heritage.

TM & © Marvel.

Men Without Fear Issue • BACK ISSUE • 11

Shanna and Manny (left) The She-Devil herself—no, not the sword-wielding Red Sonja—Shanna guest-stars in Daredevil #111 (July 1974). Cover by Ron Wilson and Giacoia. (right) Just when you thought this Gerber-penned book couldn’t get any weirder—enter Man-Thing! DD #114 (Oct. 1974) cover by Gil Kane and Dan Adkins.

TM & © Marvel.

papers.” Marvel fans will know that Ted Sallis is a scientist who—while trying to recreate Captain America’s super-soldier serum—was transformed into the Man-Thing. Matt follows the Sallis trail to Florida where he finds Gladiator in the employ of Death-Stalker.

Quickly to become one of DD’s most implacable foes, Death-Stalker is as ethereal as the wind but can kill with a single touch. But one cannot visit Marvel’s Everglades without encountering the Man-Thing, and the muck-monster incapacitates Gladiator while Death-Stalker departs with the captive Candace, in issue #114. Daredevil rescues Candace in the following issue and Death-Stalker is seemingly killed…

Matt visits Natasha in San Francisco in Daredevil #116 (Dec. 1974), but is captured by the Owl. Natasha and Shanna team up to rescue DD in issue #117, plotted by Gerber, but scripted by Chris Claremont.

The letters page announces that Gerber is moving on to other projects. Gerry Conway returns for the standalone issue #118, as Daredevil opposes the Circus of Crime, and its newest member—Blackwing.

One of Gerber’s other projects was Giant-Size Defenders #3 (Jan. 1975). Therein, the Defenders and Daredevil are used as pawns in a game for the Earth between the Grandmaster and the robotic Prime Mover. When Grandmaster wins, Daredevil

12 • BACK ISSUE • Men Without Fear Issue

challenges him to an “all-or-nothing” coin toss. DD uses his enhanced senses to predict the outcome, win the toss, and save the Earth.

Tony Isabella scripts Daredevil #119–123 (Mar.– July 1975), co-plotting with artist Bob Brown. After one issue featuring the Crusher, Natasha returns to New York in Daredevil #120. She confesses to Matt that she fears becoming little more than his sidekick. He attempts to cheer her up with a little horseplay and a New Year’s Eve party—where they are attacked by Hydra agents. Isabella provides a history of Hydra over the next two letters pages [and BI provided a Hydra history not long ago, in issue #141—ed.]. In the following issues, Matt and Natasha bicker and reconcile repeatedly—while assisting Nick Fury and S.H.I.E.L.D. against Hydra’s new leader, Silvermane (who is revealed to be Blackwing’s father). Interviewed on the ManWithoutFear website, Isabella stated: “I loved the Nick Fury stuff

by Stan and Jack and always wanted to see Hydra restored to glory. I brought the Black Widow back into Daredevil to write an ending to their relationship.

I was going to make Foggy Nelson’s sister the new love interest in the book, but it would have been a slow, torturous, and (hopefully) amusing development.

I think romance is a wonderful thing when handled in an interesting and realistic manner.” continued on page 16

DD Drop-ins The Man without Fear—or his sightless alter ego, attorney Matt Murdock—was a popular guest-star in many Bronze Age Marvel issues, including: (top) Incredible Hulk #153 (July 1972), Avengers #111 (May 1973), and Marvel Two-in-One #3 (May 1974); (center) Giant-Size Defenders #3 (Jan. 1975), Iron Man #89 (Aug. 1976), and Ghost Rider #20 (Oct. 1976); and (bottom) Marvel Team-Up #73 (Sept. 1978), and Spectacular Spider-Man #27 (Feb. 1979).

TM & © Marvel.

Men Without Fear Issue • BACK ISSUE • 13

THE TORPEDO FOUR TOUCHDOWNS IN A SINGLE GAME

TM & © Marvel.

Daredevil #126 (Oct. 1975) introduces us to blondhaired Brock Jones—hero of the ’72 Super Bowl and hotshot quarterback—lamenting his position as vice-president of an insurance company. “Once I was someone special. Now I’m just… well, just someone.”

Daredevil also meets Torpedo—a gray-haired man in a flying suit “with powers just as dangerous—just as explosive—as a real torpedo’s.” (To his credit, DD mentions that he’s already battled a different dude with that name, in issue #59.)

This new Torpedo wears a suit fitted with jet engines on each wrist and ankle, allowing him to fly at phenomenal speeds and punch things with turbo power—which he demonstrates by blasting through a bank vault and breaking open a safe deposit box. Daredevil investigates, homing in on the jet noise and jumping onto the speeding Torpedo. The two crash into a Midtown insurance

14 • BACK ISSUE • Men Without Fear Issue

building. Torpedo tells Daredevil, “I have avoided harming anyone as I completed my task, for I have no wish to play the role of master criminal. But you seek to prevent me from reaching my goal, and for that, you must be stopped!”

Many floors above, Brock Jones hears the battle and decides to investigate. It’s clear that Torpedo has no wish to hurt Daredevil—he’s simply on a mission—but DD is interfering. Torpedo prepares a power-punch— just as the elevator door opens revealing an innocent bystander: Brock Jones. Torpedo turns but is too late to stop his lunge. He misses Brock by inches, punches the wall instead, and brings half the building down on himself. As Brock pulls away the rubble, a fatally injured Torpedo whispers in Brock’s ear and begs him to complete the mission. Torpedo dies and Brock tells us, “He said he was trying to stop those people… before it was too late.

Now it’s my turn. With the information he gave me, I can stop ’em. And maybe become the hero I’ve always wanted to be.

All I have to do is put on his costume…”

The police arrive, Daredevil recovers, and they find Torpedo (now blond) standing over a (gray-haired) dead man!

Of course, the blind Daredevil cannot see hair color and quickly jumps to the wrong conclusion.

Writer Marv Wolfman was asked about his inspiration for Torpedo: “King of the Rocket Men was a movie serial back in the 1940s. The lead character, Commando Cody, went on to more movies/TV. I really liked Cody and yes, he inspired Torpedo, but only in the fact that Torpedo wore the rocket pack as did Cody. Other than that, we went off in different directions. Also, I may be wrong, but I think Cody also inspired Dave Stevens’ Rocketeer.”

Brock flies off at the start of Daredevil #127 (Nov. 1975) and decides that he will become a hero by finishing what the previous Torpedo began. He flies to a Westchester mansion, but Daredevil follows. Brock

© Republic Pictures. Courtesy of Heritage.

by Jarrod Buttery

tries to explain to DD that the first Torpedo (Michael Stivak) was a Yugoslavian scientist who was coerced by his American-based family into designing a special suit—a suit created for the super-soldier of the future—a suit that would make Iron Man’s armor look like a thirdgrade Tinkertoy set!

Stivak built the suit, but when he realized the intentions that his family had, he kept the suit and used it destroy its plans (at the bank and the mansion).

Daredevil refuses to listen to Brock and the fight travels for blocks.

Daredevil and Torpedo smash into a suburban house, continuing their fight, utterly oblivious to the destruction and chaos they are causing to an innocent family—until the mother screams “Enough!” The “heroes” stop and are horrified by what they’ve done. The mother asks: “I’ve heard about you, Daredevil. I’d heard you were some sort of hero who helped people. Hell! What kind of hero are you? What kind of hero?”

Daredevil is stunned.

Torpedo claims that he’s had it, and hands the papers to DD before flying off. Asked about his time on Daredevil, Wolfman states, “Despite feeling I never ROM Spaceknight © Hasbro. Torpedo and Spider-Man TM & © Marvel. fully figured out how to write DD to make him unique, I did like a lot of the experimental ideas I came up with including, in one issue, having DD battle Torpedo only to accidentally destroy an innocent bystander’s home and realizing the damage such superhero battles could cause. This sort of self-examination would become the norm a decade or two after I did these stories. I think it took Frank Miller writing and drawing Daredevil before we got a real idea how to write him.”

After hearing gunshots in the street, Brock dons the Torpedo suit again in Daredevil #134 (June

1976). After a typical initial misunderstanding, DD and Torpedo team up to flush out the Chameleon.

Wolfman gives Torpedo a solo outing in Marvel Premiere #39–40 (Dec. 1977–Feb. 1978). Brock discovers that the original Torpedo’s crooked relative is Senator Eugene Stivak, who is really working for the criminal organization: The Corporation.

Having learned this himself, Michael Stivak designed the inferior flying suits of the Rocketeers and kept the Torpedo suit for himself.

Brock becomes a Defender for a Day (as does Tagak, Lord of the Leopards) in Defenders #62 (Aug. 1978), but next significantly appears in ROM: Spaceknight #21 (Aug. 1981). It seems the Corporation was working with the alien Dire Wraiths to develop the battlesuit—capable of defeating ROM and his fellow Spaceknights.

Torpedo becomes a regular supporting character in ROM, fighting against the alien invaders until he is killed by the Wraiths in issue #50 (Jan. 1984).

Through relatives, the suit makes its way to Michiko Musashi, who calls herself Turbo, in New Warriors #28 (Oct. 1992).

Although Brock is gone, Wolfman’s legacy continues.

“I really liked Torpedo,” Wolfman admits to BACK ISSUE. “Unfortunately, he never seemed to get a following.

Sometimes they work and sometimes they don’t. And you can’t predict how the fans feel about new characters.”

Men Without Fear Issue • BACK ISSUE • 15

continued from page 12

SOLO AGAIN

In perhaps the shortest scripting assignment in Daredevil’s history, Len Wein writes the first half of Daredevil #124 (Aug. 1975)—just long enough to break up Matt and Natasha for good. She leaves the book, citing that she wants to be her own woman and not just a sidekick. Marv Wolfman finishes the issue and takes over as regular scripter. Wolfman confirms to BACK ISSUE: “Len became swamped with other work and handed it over to me.” Asked if he recalled why Natasha was written out of the book, Wolfman admits, “No memory.”

(She quickly appears in Champions #1, Oct. 1975, suggesting that her presence was required in that team book.) Daredevil #124 also commences inker Klaus Janson’s long association with the book.

Wein and Wolfman debut the criminal Copperhead as well as district attorney candidate Blake Tower. In Daredevil #125 (Sept. 1975), we see the first of a series of contrived commercials designed to discredit current D.A. Foggy Nelson. Issue #126 introduces new opponent Torpedo (see sidebar) and new love-interest Heather Glenn.

Immediately, Heather is portrayed as fun and flirty—calling Matt “handsome” and “cute” as she pecks his cheek. Wolfman was asked if this was a deliberate characterization to distinguish Heather from previous romantic interests. “No real memory, but that sounds right,” he says.

Daredevil #128 (Dec. 1975) features the return of Death-Stalker plus (the marv wolfman unnamed) “Most startling character Scott Edelman. in the annals of Marveldom!” The so-called Sky-Walker was a Wolfman subplot that was never resolved. Also interviewed on the ManWithoutFear website, Wolfman recalled: “The Sky-Walker was going to lead into DD’s first real sci-fi story. I felt DD needed something more than I was giving him. I was never very happy with my DD—I never found the thing that made him mine the way Frank Miller did a year or two later. So I was trying to find things to do that interested me and therefore, I hoped, the readers. Ultimately, I couldn’t find anything that made DD unique to me and asked off the title.”

Man-Bull returns in issue #129 (Jan. 1976). The following month, Matt opens “The Storefront,” where the poor can come for free legal advice—funded

by Heather’s father—Maxwell Glenn, CEO of Glenn Industries. Bedeviled by the ongoing fake commercials,

Mind-Blowing, Mind-Bending Marv (top) Let’s not forget that it was Marvelous Marv Wolfman who created DD’s deadly adversary, Bullseye, in issue #131 (Mar. 1976). Cover by Buckler and Giacoia. (bottom left) In one of comics’ wildest crossovers, controversial real-world psychic Uri Geller guest-stars in Daredevil #133 (May 1976). Cover by Kane and Giacoia. (bottom right) A prescient use of “fake news” in the framing of our hero! DD #135 (July 1976) cover by Kane and Giacoia.

TM & © Marvel.

16 • BACK ISSUE • Men Without Fear Issue

Foggy loses his bid for re-election for district attorney (as Blake Tower wins), but Matt has already arranged Foggy a partnership in the Storefront.

Daredevil #131 (Mar. 1976) introduces both the assassin Bullseye and reporter Jake Conover. Bullseye wants to build a reputation—killing rich people unless they pay him—using his unique ability to turn anything into a deadly weapon. He aims to defeat Daredevil in front of a circus audience (prevented from leaving by armed lackeys) so as to establish his credentials—and he almost succeeds! The letters page in issue #132 credits Jazzy John Romita for designing both Bullseye and Torpedo.

On the ManWithoutFear website, Wolfman emphasized: “I created Bullseye. I brought the concept to John and asked him to design the costume based on my ideas.” Speaking with BI, Wolfman explains: “John Romita was on staff at Marvel and often designed costumes, etc. As for Bullseye, my thought was to create a character who could get around Daredevil’s radar senses. Bullseye could launch attacks from long distances and could cause damage before DD’s radar clicked in. Whereas Torpedo never took off, Bullseye was a favorite almost from day one. And yes, I like it when I create characters that others continue on. It says I did a good job and added something to the world of comics.”

Generating some controversy at the time, Daredevil #133 (May 1976) guest-starred Uri Geller, as DD required help against the menace of Mind-Wave and his thought-controlled, armored Think Tank that was looting the city. Geller is a real-life stage magician, employing impressive sleight-of-hand techniques, but is portrayed in his one-and-only Marvel comic appearance as possessing real mental powers. Wolfman explains to BI, “This was a deal that Marvel made with Uri Geller. As editorin-chief, I wrote it because I was pretty sure other writers would refuse to do it and because there was a deal in place so it had to be done. I did think Geller was a pretty decent magician, but, of course, I didn’t think he had real magical powers.”

A text piece in place of the regular letters column went into more detail. Wolfman met Geller and found him to be an avid Marvel fan (hence wanting to appear in a Marvel comic) and a very likeable guy.

And you know people are paying attention when an issue elicits letters from the likes of James Randi and Mark Evanier!

Torpedo returns in issue #134 (June 1976) as the fake commercials escalate—claiming that the entire Vietnam War was a hoax, and showing “footage” of Daredevil shooting police officers. By now, the readers know that the Jester is behind it all, leading to a three-part showdown in Daredevil #135–137.

Stunningly, issue #135 opens with several pages straight from the Daily Bugle newspaper, detailing many of these startling “revelations.” “I’m very proud of the Jester storyline,” Wolfman tells BI. “It definitely had what we now call ‘deep state’/fake news concepts, and computer tampering of film footage decades before that became a reality. I wish I could remember exactly how I came up with that, but mostly it was a logical extrapolation based on what computers might be able to do years before they actually could. I also really liked the several newspaper pages in it when, again, as far as I know, nobody else had done anything like that.”

Daredevil travels to Los Angeles in issue #138 (Oct. 1976) to investigate a report that actress Karen Page is missing! In a crossover with Ghost Rider #20 (Oct. 1976), the two heroes find that DeathStalker is impersonating Death’s-Head to try and obtain Karen’s father’s research into time displacement. Also in issue #138, Foggy discovers that Debbie has been kidnapped!

It’s a busy time for Matt. He also helps Iron Man against the Blood Brothers in Iron Man #89 (Aug. 1976), provides legal advice to Valkyrie in Defenders #40 (Oct. 1976), and the Wraith in Marvel Team-Up #51 (Nov. 1976), and will defend Ben Grimm in Marvel Two-in-One #37 (Mar. 1978). In Daredevil Annual #4 (Oct. 1976), he teams with Black Panther and Sub-Mariner.

Daredevil #139 (Nov. 1976) is a street-level story as Daredevil hunts for a missing woman and a sick boy. Issue #140 sees the return of Gladiator and the Beetle. Bullseye returns in issue #141 (machinegunning the Storefront), followed by the Cobra and Mr. Hyde in issues #142–143. These last two issues were some of artist Bob Brown’s final work, as he died

Batman’s Loss Was DD’s Gain Daredevil #131’s splash page, penciled by former Batman and Challengers of the Unknown artist Bob Brown, with inks

by Klaus Janson.

Original art scan courtesy of Heritage.

TM & © Marvel.

Men Without Fear Issue • BACK ISSUE • 17

Paging Karen Page! (top) DD’s up to his neck in problems on the Colan/Palmer cover to Daredevil #138 (Oct. 1976). (bottom) And look who guest-penciled issue #138: thenrising star John Byrne! Original art courtesy of Heritage.

TM & © Marvel.

in January 1977. Of Brown, Wolfman tells BI: “I was a fan of his back in his Challengers days. He was a really good artist and a really nice person. I very much liked working with him.”

Jim Shooter takes over as scripter with Daredevil #144 (Apr. 1977), bringing back Man-Bull and the Owl (who seemingly falls to his death…). We see Bullseye out of costume for the very first time in issue #146 as he challenges DD to a televised duel. Concussed, and without his radar sense, Daredevil still manages to defeat Bullseye and demands to know who hired him to shoot-up the Storefront.

Bullseye mumbles the name “Glenn.”

Daredevil confronts Heather’s father in the following issue.

Maxwell Glenn admits his crimes, including kidnapping Debbie. As Daredevil rescues Debbie, we learn that Maxwell Glenn is being controlled by the Purple Man! Glenn even believes his own guilt—and no one can say otherwise—due to Killgrave’s persuasion powers. Heather is devastated, Foggy has no sympathy for the man who kidnapped his fiancée, and no time for Matt who is protesting Glenn’s innocence. (And the title goes bimonthly again.) Daredevil spends the next several issues searching for Killgrave—encountering Death-Stalker and the Smasher—then meeting the mercenary Paladin (in issue #150), who has a contract to find Killgraven himself.

Daredevil goes to Heather’s apartment, but she is not there.

He removes his mask. The phone rings and he answers it.

The warden at Ryker’s Island Correctional Facility tells Matt that Maxwell Glenn has committed suicide… just as Heather walks into her apartment…

CRISIS

New scripter Roger McKenzie opens Daredevil #151 (Mar. 1978) with Heather walking in on an unmasked Matt in Daredevil’s costume. On top of his identity being discovered, Matt must then tell his girlfriend that her father has killed himself.

Heather does not take it well.

Matt returns home and trashes his own apartment. He vows to give up being Daredevil, until a hijacked bus runs down a little boy, reminding Matt of his own childhood accident which changed his life. Matt dons his costume and stops the hijackers. He visits the boy in hospital— who will be okay. Matt is renewed.

On the ManWithoutFear website, Shooter explained, “I had trouble keeping up with the schedule, and eventually editor in chief Archie Goodwin took Daredevil away from me and gave it to Roger McKenzie, who, I believe had done some horror stuff, maybe for Warren, previously.”

McKenzie was interviewed by Comic Culture in 2017. Asked about his beginnings, he stated, “I wrote some short stories for DC, in Weird War Tales and in some of the mystery books they were doing back then. And I could walk up the street, and over to Madison Avenue, and talk to the guys at Marvel. I pestered poor Archie Goodwin—I pestered him to death—and he finally gave me a story to get me out of his hair. It was a five-page Havok story, and as far as I know it was never published. Archie gave me a call not long afterwards and wanted to know if I wanted to write Ghost Rider and Daredevil. Jim Shooter, who had been writing them, had been promoted which took all his time. So Archie launched my Marvel career.”

Foggy informs Matt that Heather has gone missing—she doesn’t even attend her father’s funeral in issue #152 (May 1978). In an interlude, Death-Stalker materializes inside Stark 18 • BACK ISSUE • Men Without Fear Issue

Facing the Music (top) Heather Glenn reacts poorly to discovering Matt Murdock’s secret in Daredevil #151 (Mar. 1978). Cover by Dave Cockrum and Terry Austin. (bottom) Writer Roger McKenzie introduces grizzled newsman Ben Urich in issue #151. Art by Colan and Tony DeZuniga.

TM & © Marvel.

Laboratories, kills a scientist with a touch, and steals some electronic components—vowing to make Daredevil pay for what he has done to him. Meanwhile, desperately searching for Killgrave, Daredevil encounters Paladin again— who zaps Daredevil before mentioning that he knows where Killgrave is but can’t let DD interfere. Recovering, Matt returns home—to his ringing phone. It is Heather. She begs him for his help, saying she’ll be waiting at her place…

Daredevil #153 (July 1978) is bookended as a newspaper article written by Daily Bugle journalist and photographer Ben Urich, in his first appearance. As DD arrives at Heather’s apartment, he is ambushed by Cobra and Mr. Hyde. In an allaction issue, Daredevil is overpowered. Urich manages to snap a photo as the villains escape into the sewers with DD’s unconscious body.

In the following issue, Daredevil regains consciousness in the yard of Ryker’s Island prison. Killgrave holds everyone in his thrall— including Cobra, Hyde, Jester, and Gladiator, as well as Heather, who holds a gun to her own head. Matt has to fight four of his fiercest foes, and things look bleak until the arrival of Paladin (who knew where to find Killgrave and is surprised that Daredevil got there first).

Paladin seals off his suit, insulating himself from Killgrave’s control. [Editor’s note: You can read more about Paladin in our “Not-Ready-forPrimetime Marvel Heroes” ish, BI #139.] Together, Daredevil and Paladin defeat Killgrave’s allies and free Heather. The Purple Man seemingly falls to his death…

Daredevil almost falls to his death, as dizziness overtakes him, in the opening pages of issue #155 (Nov. 1978). Death-Stalker observes (but doesn’t act), promising that soon Daredevil will pay for his years of torment. Matt struggles to the Storefront, where he and Foggy interview candidates for administrative help—eventually hiring Becky Blake (her first appearance). Matt overhears that the Black Widow has rejoined the Avengers and immediately departs for Avengers Mansion. However, as another migraine disorients him, he breaks into the mansion and attacks the Avengers!

It is revealed that DD has a severe concussion, as he collapses in the following issue. The Avengers rush him to hospital where he hallucinates—Daredevil fighting Daredevil, and then death itself. As the issue ends, Death-Stalker materializes from the shadows, reaching for our unconscious hero…

Men Without Fear Issue • BACK ISSUE • 19

A New Day for DD Artist Frank Miller joined the creative team of Daredevil #158 (May 1979), and in short order would take over and revitalize the series and its star. Cover art by Miller and Joe Rubinstein.

TM & © Marvel.

Interlude: Prior to this, DD joins Spidey in Marvel Team-Up #73 (Sept. 1978) as they face the unsurprisingly not-dead Owl. Soon after, when Spidey is (temporarily) blinded by the Masked Marauder, Daredevil swings by to help out— in Spectacular Spider-Man #26–28 (Jan.–Mar. 1979). Notably, issues #27–28 are penciled by Frank Miller—his first experience drawing Daredevil—in something of a tryout…

Roger McKenzie was also writing Captain America at the time, and had Daredevil guest-star in issues #234–236 (June–Aug. 1979)— freeing Cap from a brainwashing from Doctor Faustus, and the hate group National Force.

Back to DD’s own mag: Daredevil #157 (Mar. 1979) opens with Death-Stalker reaching for our hospitalized hero—only to be interrupted by the Avengers.

Death-Stalker fades away. A recovered Matt smooches Natasha.

The next day, Matt smooches Heather. The day after, Natasha and Heather both show up at the Storefront. Things go from bad to worse when the Ani-Men burst in…

This assignment was supposed to end at Daredevil #157, but it’s churlish to stop at a cliffhanger. Daredevil #158 (May 1979) is the first issue penciled by Frank Miller.

As Natasha incapacitates Bird-Man, Matt is abducted by Cat-Man and Ape-Man. They deliver him to a cemetery, where they wait for Death-Stalker. The villain arrives and explains that he was once the Exterminator, from issue #41. Thrown into an extra-dimensional void, he soon discovered that he could fade in and out of our dimension at will. He stole a cybernetic death-grip from Advanced Idea Mechanics (A.I.M.), allowing him to kill with a touch—which he does, murdering Cat-Man and Ape-Man. But Death-Stalker wants Daredevil, and so he allows Matt to change for the final battle. Our hero realizes that Death-Stalker must fully enter our dimension—become solid—to use his death-grip. “If he can touch me, I can touch him,” realizes Daredevil. But Matt understands that all it will take is one mistake… one touch… and it will all be over… and he can’t keep this up all night.

Daredevil smashes the streetlights. He can sense DeathStalker’s heartbeat and crackling gloves, but Death-Stalker is now fighting blind. Daredevil pushes the advantage, beating Death-Stalker every time he turns solid. Enraged, DeathStalker lunges at Daredevil, activating his death-grip and turning solid—while halfway through a tombstone. A grave mistake indeed…

Daredevil may have started as a Spider-Man knock-off, but as he moved beyond the ’60s, his relationships and his themes matured. As the ’70s progressed, he concentrated less on traditional supervillains and more on street-level concerns. The ’80s arrived, and the best was yet to come…

The author would like to express his sincere gratitude to Gerry Conway, Roy Thomas, and Marv Wolfman for their invaluable help.

JARROD BUTTERY lives in Western Australia and has penned over two-dozen articles for BACK ISSUE. A decade of Daredevil has been a joy to revisit.

20 • BACK ISSUE • Men Without Fear Issue

TM & © Marvel.

A GRAVE MISTAKE

“Gentleman” Gene Colan’s pencil artwork bristled with raw energy and fluid movements that sometimes became blunted once inked. Pulpy newsprint and inconsistent color separations also did the illustrator’s work no favors during his Silver and Bronze Age output. So enjoy this mini-gallery of pencil art by the late Mr. Colan, spotlighting this issue’s cover star, Marvel’s Man without Fear!

All art scans in this column are courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions (www.ha.com). Daredevil and related characters TM & © Marvel.

Colan’s use of foreshortening in this 1997 pencil study creates the illusions of depth and motion, making the viewer feel as if DD is really hustling toward him. Better step aside, Clyde!

Eury

SPECIALTY ILLUSTRATION

captions by M i c h a e l

HERE COMES DAREDEVIL!

PENCIL ART GALLERY

Men Without Fear Issue • BACK ISSUE • 21

DAREDEVIL #23

COVER RECREATION

In 2000, Colan revisited one of his Silver Age efforts in this pencil recreation of the cover for Daredevil #23 (Dec. 1966), shown in the inset. The Gladiator’s blades almost seem like they’re about to buzz off the page.

22 • BACK ISSUE • Men Without Fear Issue

ALTERNATE COVER

DAREDEVIL #67

Colan’s cover pencils for Daredevil #67 (Aug. 1970), working from a Marie Severin layout, were rejected, and Severin herself (inked by Bill Everett) did the published cover (see inset). Do you think Marvel made the right decision with this change?

Men Without Fear Issue • BACK ISSUE • 23

You feel a pounding in your chest as your heart races, sweat rolls down your brow, your breathing is labored, and finally, your head starts spinning. You are in the grip of fear.

Daredevil doesn’t experience these feelings. Or does he? Although known throughout the Marvel Universe as the Man without Fear, Daredevil has experienced these feelings and more when he faced off against Mr. Fear!

Come along on a fear-fraught journey with BACK ISSUE as we look at the various evildoers who have taken on the fright-filled mantle of Mr. Fear!

ZOLTAN DRAGO

With a hero that’s known as the Man without Fear, it was a no-brainer to come up with a villain that inspired fear. That’s what writer Stan Lee and artist Wally Wood did when they introduced Mr. Fear as one of ol’ Hornhead’s earliest adversaries in Daredevil #6 (Feb. 1965). In fact, this was so early in Daredevil’s crimefighting career that he still wore his original yellow togs! He donned his iconic red outfit in the next issue.

Zoltan Drago was the first person to take on the guise of Mr. Fear. Drago used a gas pellet fired from a gun to implant fear into his victims. He accidentally stumbled across the formula for the gas when, as the owner of a wax museum, he attempted to make a formula that would bring his wax statues to life so that he could use them to rob banks. When he realized that his gas instilled fear in people, he created the Mr. Fear persona.

In this issue, Drago didn’t work alone, though, allying himself with two Spider-Man foes: Ox and the Eel. They didn’t come along of their own free will; Drago used his gas to terrorize them into joining him on his criminal campaign. He christened this association “The Fellowship of Fear.”

Wood’s costume design for Mr. Fear was outstanding: a modified skull mask with a colorful purple and pink costume that doesn’t sound like it should work, but it does. It even pops off the page and stands as an excellent design that others would emulate [see sidebar].

Daredevil was able to use his wits to defeat Mr. Fear by pushing the reverse button on a fan so that the fear gas would blow harmlessly away from him. While both Ox and the Eel would continue to have a presence in the Marvel Universe, Drago, as well the Fellowship, was done for. However, this wasn’t the last the Daredevil would hear of Mr. Fear.

Be Afraid Gil Kane’s terrifying, vertigo-triggering cover art to Daredevil #91 (Sept. 1972) clued in readers that Mr. Fear was no pushover.

TM & © Marvel.

24 • BACK ISSUE • Men Without Fear Issue

by E d

Lute

Photo © DC Comics.

Wally wood

SAMUEL SAXON

Mr. Fear returned to terrorize the Man without Fear in Daredevil #54 (July 1969). In the issue, written by Roy Thomas with pencils by Gene Colan and inks by George Klein, the villain challenged Daredevil to a showdown so that he could show New York City what a coward their hero was.

This time, Mr. Fear had an upgraded arsenal as he arrived on scene using a flying platform. Daredevil and Mr. Fear battled evenly for a time until Mr. Fear used his gas to incapacitate the hero. DD, who had been hanging onto the platform, fell off due to the fear-induced paralysis.

The next issue picked up with DD despondent because Mr. Fear’s pronouncement from the previous issue came true as people saw Daredevil as a coward. The hero also saw himself in the same light.

Never one to give in easily, the Man without Fear searched for ways to defeat the villain. During his search, he found that the original Mr. Fear, Zoltan Drago, was afraid of heights, so he deduced that Drago couldn’t be the person behind the Mr. Fear mask. Further research found that Drago had been killed in prison.

Armed with this new knowledge, Daredevil faced off against Mr. Fear again and exposed him as Samuel “Starr” Saxon. Shortly after being unmasked, the villain fell to his death.

The Fellowship of Fear! (top left) Zoltan Drago, a.k.a. Mr. Fear, and his hulking henchmen mix it up with ol’ Hornhead in Daredevil #6 (Feb. 1965), illustrated by the wonderful Wallace Wood. (top right) Wood’s preliminary sketches for Mr. Fear and other characters in the issue. Courtesy of Ed Lute.

TM & © Marvel.

Men Without Fear Issue • BACK ISSUE • 25

If, after reading the main article, you see some similarities between DC Comics’ longtime Bat-villain Scarecrow (Jonathan Crane) and Mr. Fear, you wouldn’t be wrong.

Both characters use a gas to spread fear. But that’s where the similarities end, as these two characters have many differences that set them apart. It is these differences that saw one become popular and a comic-book mainstay and the other mostly fade off into obscurity. Get ready for a frightening face-off!

Dr. Jonathan Crane is a master manipulator who not only uses his fear-inducing gases on his victims, but also his vast knowledge of anxiety disorders to keep his victims unhinged. He was a professor of psychology at Gotham University, but also experimented on the inmates at Arkham Asylum to perfect his gas. As noted in the main article, the original Mr. Fear, Zoltan Drago, accidentally stumbled across his formula and isn’t at the same intellectual level as Crane. Crane takes his fear-inducing depravity to extremes, while the people who took on the Mr. Fear garb were content to just use the fear gas.

Mr. Fear relied on his fear gas exclusively, while Crane used his fear gas as a tool in his quest to terrorize Batman and the citizens of Gotham City. None of the people who took on the guise of Mr. Fear have the deep knowledge of phobias that Crane does, so none of them were able to manipulate his victims as effectively as Crane did outside of the gas.

The Scarecrow took his fearinducing depravity to the next level, making him a more deadly villain, but why is he a more popular one?

As explained in the Scarecrow villain history in BACK ISSUE #60, the denizens of Gotham City first felt the fear-filled panic of Dr. Jonathan Crane in World’s Finest Comics #3 (Sept. 1941). Batman’s co-creators Bob Kane and Bill Finger were inspired by Ichabod Crane from Washington Irving’s The Legend of Sleepy Hollow in their interpretation of Batman’s Scarecrow. However, Crane only made two appearances during the Golden Age and was rarely seen in the Silver Age. He also didn’t appear in comic books during much of the Bronze Age. Mr. Fear didn’t fare much better, only making a handful of appearances during the Silver and Bronze Ages.

“I can’t recall that I was specifically thinking of the Scarecrow when I brought Mr. Fear into Daredevil,” reveals writer Gerry Conway. “I don’t think Scarecrow was that visible a character in Batman at the time. Scarecrow had been around for many years. For most of the ’70s, he wasn’t really being used. Denny O’Neil, who was the

primary [Batman] writer, was mainly focusing on his own villains, his own mythology. Ra’s al Ghul was the primary driver of the stories. Denny tried to bring the Batman comics down to Earth and really emphasized the detective qualities of Batman. Frank Robbins [the other major writer for the series] had his own noir-ish thing that he was doing. Denny really didn’t use many of the old Batman villains, and Frank was focusing on Man-Bat.” While infrequently seen in comics, the Scarecrow was introduced to many (including this author) as a member of the Legion of Doom on HannaBarbara’s Saturday morning cartoon Challenge of the Super Friends. [Editor’s note: See our sister magazine, RetroFan #26–29, for an in-depth, four-part behind-the-scenes history of Super Friends through its various incarnations.] The show originally aired from September 9, 1978 through December 23, 1978, but repeats were prevalent bringing the Scarecrow (as well as the other members of the villainous gathering) into the homes of many fans that might never had read a comic book. The Scarecrow was given a bigger stage to show off his fear-inducing skills than Mr. Fear. The Scarecrow’s star began to rise not only in animated form but also in comic books, including some of the biggest Bat-family events such as the 1996 maxiseries Batman: The Long Halloween [see BI #60], the 1999 “No Man’s Land” crossover, and in live action on both the big (Batman Begins) and small (Titans) screens.

Mr. Fear is a good villain that can even upend the Man without Fear on occasion, but he was never as driven as the Scarecrow to create new ways to implant terror. Scarecrow’s comic-book appearances TM & © DC Comics. became more prevalent in the later Bronze Age and beyond, while Mr. Fear’s dwindled. Writers such as Conway gave him some depth by having him know Daredevil’s secret identity. However, he remained a one-note villain that was never given the media exposure that the Scarecrow did and continues to receive to this day.

The Scarecrow wins this fear-filled face-off due to his depravity in formulating new ways to bring terror to his victims and for bringing dread into other media making him more than just a comic-book villain.

26 • BACK ISSUE • Men Without Fear Issue

TM & © DC Comics.

FEAR-FILLED FACE-OFF: DC’s SCARECROW vs. MARVEL’s MR. FEAR

This wasn’t the first time that Daredevil had faced Saxon, however. The evildoer was introduced in issue #49 (Dec. 1968). Saxon was hired by incarcerated gangster Biggie Benson to murder Daredevil for stopping Biggie from killing an NYPD officer in issue #47 (Oct. 1968). Saxon had a knack for advanced-mechanics-designed robots— which he referred to as plastoids—to find and kill Daredevil. Matt Murdock’s love interest Karen Page got caught up in the incident and was captured by the evil mastermind. Daredevil, thanks to an assist from the Black Panther, was able to save Karen Page from Saxon and the plastoids in issue #52 (May 1969). Saxon was soon sent off to prison, where he met Drago.

So just how did Saxon get the costume and equipment from Drago? He killed him to get it, of course. He is a villain, after all.

You can’t keep a good (or even mediocre) baddie down in the Marvel Universe. Mr. Fear wouldn’t be the last name that Saxon would go by. He took the alter ego of the Machinesmith in Marvel-Two-in-One #47 (Oct. 1978).

LARRY CRANSTON

The Mr. Fear identity made a return appearance in the Bronze Age in Daredevil #91 (Sept. 1972), written by Gerry Conway, with pencils by Colan.

However, Daredevil and the Black Widow (now based in San Francisco) first felt the inexplicable pangs of fear the previous issue.

This time, the person under the mask was Larry Cranston, who was there when Saxon killed Drago.

Before he died, Drago told Cranston where one of his Mr. Fear costumes and equipment were hidden.

In comics, many characters die and return on a regular basis. So why didn’t either of the previous versions of Mr. Fear return instead of a new character to take over the mantle? Gerry Conway reveals to BACK ISSUE, “The consensus was if characters died, the odds of bringing them back were actually fairly slim. If a villain died you would bring him back, but with another character taking over the mantle so the individual was dead but the costume, powers, whatever might continue with another individual persona. The idea of basically reincarnating characters really is much more of a

Here Comes Scaredevil!

(With apologies to Not Brand Echh.) Mr. Fear brands our hero a coward on the cover to (left) Daredevil #55 (July–Aug. 1969).

Cover by Gene Colan, with Syd Shores inks. (right) A terrifying peek inside the issue.

TM & © Marvel.

Men Without Fear Issue • BACK ISSUE • 27

ONE-HIT WONDERS: MARVEL’S PHANTASM

From Marvel Premiere #43. TM & © Marvel.

Mr. Fear did more than just inspire villainy into the dark hearts of those who assumed his identity, he also inspired the fashion choices of another evildoer in the Marvel Universe. The Phantasm made his one and only appearance in Marvel Premiere #43 (Aug. 1978), by writer Don McGregor and artist Tom Sutton.

The issue featured the “super-soldier-of-fortune” Paladin facing off against the Phantasm, but it is the villain and his costume that concerns us. If you’re interested in Paladin, check out BI #139, but if you want to learn more about the Phantasm, read on.

The Phantasm was Dennis Sutton (no relation to artist Tom), a former plutonium waste plant employee who was dying of cancer due to radiation exposure on the job. The owners of the plant told Sutton that they were sorry for what had happened, but there was nothing they could do for him. In addition to his diagnosis, Sutton’s girlfriend Marsha Conners left him because he was abusive towards her. Sutton was a bitter person, but finding out that he was dying and the loss of Marsha caused him to go over the edge. He took on the guise of the Phantasm to get revenge: He planned to kill Marsha for leaving him and get back at the rich businessmen who owned the plutonium waste plant by destroying the Edison Electrical Plant that they also owned. He wanted to hit them where it would hurt them the most, in their wallets. Paladin became involved when Marsha hired him to protect her from Sutton, who threatened to kill her. In the end, Phantasm could only render Marsha unconscious and not kill her. Paladin was able to stop Phantasm from destroying the electrical plant. Paladin walked away, leaving the villain to ponder his own end.

Readers who picked up this issue may have initially thought that Mr. Fear had gone for a new look but soon discovered that this was a totally new character. Let’s let the Phantasm tell of how he obtained a costume that was similar in appearance to Mr. Fear: “I bought the costume— which the man at the shop told me was modeled on that of a villain called Mr. Fear! The image suited me, suited what I would become.”

He found his villainous attire at a costume shop! Much like the more popular Spider-Man adversary the Hobgoblin would do years later with a redesigned Green Goblin costume, the Phantasm recolored the Mr. Fear ensemble to suit his tastes.

Don McGregor imbued Sutton with a reason for his actions that made him a little more than just a one-note character. Tom Sutton’s storytelling skills are on full display in this issue, as the one-off story moves along at a brisk pace while never feeling overwhelming.

“No, I’m not familiar with this story, but I think it’s fun,” admits Gerry Conway, who wrote the Larry Cranston version of Mr. Fear. “I love the idea of a supervillain finding his costume hanging around in a costume shop. That’s great [laughs]. He’s a knock-off version of Mr. Fear.”

With a borrowed costume and a less-than-stellar backstory, it’s no wonder that the Phantasm was a one-hit wonder (if you could even call him that) in the Marvel Universe.

28 • BACK ISSUE • Men Without Fear Issue

’90s development at Marvel in particular.

“At least until the ’80s, the thought was that if you died in a Marvel book, you stayed dead,” contends Conway. “That was the deal. I think that was kind of the deal in general in comics until [1992’s] ‘The Death of Superman,’ which was a cynical ploy because they knew they were going to bring him back. So therefore, killing him off was purely a cynical story ploy.

Prior to that, when characters died, they stayed dead.”

Although DD had encountered Mr. Fear before this time, there was a personal connection between Matt Murdock and the person under the frightful mask. Cranston was one of Murdock’s law partners in San Francisco and someone who secretly hated Matt for the success he had in law school. He ascertained that Murdock was DD when both showed up on the West Coast at the same time.

Most villains didn’t know the secret identities of the heroes they fought, so this was rare at the time.

According to Conway, “It was just another way of upping the ante in the story. Plus, the Mr. Fear character himself is kind of limited in his powers, so giving him that knowledge gives him an advantage.

I think it makes him a bigger threat.”

Conway continues, “I think it’s just adding an element of threat that becomes existential. They’ve always kind of played around with the fact that Daredevil’s secret identity was uniquely vulnerable.

Remember the whole Mike Murdock storyline?

When evidence pointed towards Matt being Daredevil, he created another persona in order to throw people off because as an attorney he’s a public figure, he’s very good at his job and wellknown. Matt’s identity is much more at risk than, say, Peter Parker is to being exposed as Spider-Man. There’s probably a way that Peter Parker could adapt to that if his identity was exposed. Matt Murdock can’t do that as an attorney. His career would be over. He would never be able to take another case, so it’s an existential threat. Matt Murdock needs to keep his identity a secret and one of the reasons is that nobody knows he’s blind. That’s an advantage.”

After being unmasked, Cranston fell to his death. Unfortunately, Cranston’s reveal that he knew Matt’s secret wasn’t taken further. This was a missed opportunity for crafting what could have become one of Daredevil’s more iconic villains. One of the best characters to come out of the Copper Age was Spider-Man’s adversary Venom, and while his design and backstory make him an outstanding villain, one thing that made him scary was that he knew that Spider-Man is Peter Parker. This took his villainy to another level where he could not only attack Spider-Man, but Peter as well [and as a classic Spider-foe, the Green Goblin, had also done previously—ed.]. The same could have been done with Cranston because not only did he know his identity, but they are polar opposites because one was the Man without Fear and one dealt it out.

Was there any thought given to bringing Cranston back as Mr. Fear? “No,” Conway states emphatically.

“There’s value to that because it makes you as the writer think through the consequences of the story.

We now live in a consequences-free mythology with the superhero comics because no one takes anything that happens as permanent or serious. So, Peter Parker dies, and Doc Ock takes over his body and everyone knows that at some point Peter’s going to come back. There’s no consequence. It’s an

Quivering Crusaders The Wall-Crawler and Avenging Archer turn chicken when Mr. Fear creeps into Marvel Team-Up #92 (Apr. 1980). Cover art by Al Milgrom and Joe Rubinstein. Original art scan courtesy of Heritage Auctions (www.ha.com).

TM & © Marvel.

interesting story, and I personally loved the Superior Spider-Man series, but from the beginning you know that it had no serious long-term consequence. That I think is a loss for comic stories.”

Both the Saxon and the Cranston versions of Mr. Fear were penciled by the untouchable DD artistic master, Gene Colan. For most artists, this work on Daredevil would be a crowning achievement, but for Colan this was only the warmup for what was to come.

While this was the end of Cranston’s time as Mr. Fear, this wouldn’t be the last time readers saw the fearful face of fear. The next time, though, he didn’t face off against Daredevil but two other Marvel superhero stalwarts instead.

ALAN FAGAN

In Marvel Team-Up (MTU) #92 (Apr. 1980), Mr. Fear returned… but, as with the previous incarnations of the character, there was someone new under the mask—Alan Fagan. This time, though, there was a familial connection because Fagan was Cranston’s nephew. MTU was a Spider-Man team-up book, so the Webhead faced Mr. Fear along with Clint Barton (Hawkeye). The issue was written by Steven Grant, with artwork by Carmine Infantino and Pablo Marcos.

After Cranston’s death, Fagan inherited his uncle’s house and belongings, including the Mr. Fear suit and equipment. However, he wasn’t interested in robbing banks like Drago or revenge against a competitor like Cranston. He wanted to terrorize New York City with a nuclear bomb. The MTU issue had the two heroes team up (of course, what else would they do in a book with that title?) to defeat Mr. Fear and save the city.

Fagan returned in Web of Spider-Man #63 (Apr. 1990), written by Conway with pencils by Alex Saviuk. Why did Mr. Fear return to confront Spidey again after so many years? Conway states, “I couldn’t use any villains that might be used in the main [Amazing] Spider-Man book, so I brought him back.”

Fagan, still enraged that he was defeated by Spider-Man and Hawkeye, captured Betty Brant because he found that she had a connection with the Wall-Crawler. He wanted revenge on the heroes for defeating him. Spidey was able to rescue Betty and save the day.

One good outcome came from the issue as Betty realized that she didn’t have to depend on the men in her life. Since she was strong enough to stand up to Mr. Fear, she was strong enough to face life on her own.

Mr. Fear isn’t known as one of Daredevil’s more iconic villains, even though being the Man with-

out Fear puts him at direct opposition to a person who spreads fear. Why didn’t their adversarial relationship flourish and Mr. Fear become one of his top antagonists? A possibility is that by putting a different person in the Mr. Fear costume every time he faced Daredevil hurt the tension between them because it didn’t build up an ongoing rivalry like DD had with Bullseye and the Kingpin. Another possibility is that Conway surmised that Mr. Fear has a limited power-set even against DD and needed an edge to be seen as a more interesting opponent.

For whatever reason, Mr. Fear never became a true threat to the hero and has remained one of his lesser-known adversaries… at least until the next person takes on the persona of Mr. Fear!

Special thanks to Gerry Conway for his time and recollections for this article. A thank-you also goes out to Roy Thomas, who responded to an interview request but was unfortunately unable to help with this article.

Educator ED LUTE braved rereading these tales of Mr. Fear to bring BI readers this article. Now he must sleep with the light on, but it was worth it!

Men Without Fear Issue • BACK ISSUE • 29

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“Go forward.”

“I never think about losing.”

– Christopher Reeve – Lou Ferrigno

“I’m looking for hope.”

– Professor Charles Francis Xavier, X-Men movie (2000)

by J a

mes Heath Lantz

Perhaps these quotes, more than any others, best describe the everyday lives of persons with disabilities in the face of all their challenges with activities the supposedly able bodied take for granted. Walking to a comic shop, seeing a page, hearing someone discuss the latest issue of Superman, or even talking about how a movie series such as X-Men may vary from the source material can be a daunting task for those who need assistance to move, look, listen, or speak.

However, characters such as X-mentor Professor Xavier, the Doom Patrol’s Niles Caulder, Teen Titan Joseph Wilson, Daredevil Matt Murdock, and Batgirlturned-Oracle Barbara Gordon are among the comicbook heroes that broke through their own physical barriers to inspire readers dealing with the trials and tribulations that they also endure in their lives in an age that wasn’t as inclusive as it is today.

BACK ISSUE #146 takes a look at the battles these superheroes went through in the Bronze Age, be those battles superhuman or the most mundane.

REPRESENTATION IN THE BRONZE AGE

One of the many things that attracts people of all ages, races, creeds, and sexual orientations to comic books and other forms of media is character identification. Outside of comics in 1981, Bill Bixby and Lou Ferrigno brilliantly portrayed both Dr. David Banner and the Hulk’s struggles with paralysis in the powerful Season Four episode of The Incredible Hulk titled “The Harder They Fall,” showing children and adults who dealt with the same issues that they were not alone. Ferrigno himself had battled hearing loss for most of his life before his recent cochlear implant surgery. Superman actor Christopher Reeve made us believe he could still fly in the real world after the horseback-riding accident created trials in his life to rival those of the Man of Steel. Comic-book superheroes have also shown readers that they are just like them in many ways in spite of having superhuman abilities, and that they, like Reeve, go forward to face whatever confronts them.

One thing all the characters named above have in common is that, unlike Maya Lopez/Echo from

First and Fearless Golden Age hero Dr. Mid-Nite fought crime despite his blindness and blazed a trail for other superheroes with disabilities to follow.

Undated portrait by Matt Wagner. Original art scan courtesy of Heritage Comic Auctions (www.ha.com).

TM & © DC Comics.

Men Without Fear Issue • BACK ISSUE • 31

Super Friends Movie Superman Christopher Reeve advocated for people with spinal-cord injuries after a horseback-riding accident left him paralyzed. Television Hulk Lou Ferrigno overcame a profound hearing loss to become a successful bodybuilder and actor.

Images courtesy of Heritage.

Superman TM & © DC Comics/Warner Bros.

Incredible Hulk TM & © Marvel/Universal Television.

the Marvel Knights Daredevil series, and Slingers member the Hornet, they were not born with their disabilities. Some incident or injury caused their physical challenges, and thus, they had to adapt in ways that may be different from those who had started their lives not knowing what it’s like to walk, speak, see or hear. Young Matt Murdock, for example, not only struggled with blindness, he had to also cope with his remaining senses’ amplification assaulting him with a cacophony of sounds, tastes, and sensations that he had never felt with such intensity.

Charles Xavier was a gifted athlete and dancer before his battle with the villain Lucifer caused his spinal injury. Niles Caulder was a brilliant inventor even before an explosion cost him the ability to walk. Young Joseph Wilson was an accomplished singer and musician before the Jackal cut his throat, rendering him mute. Barbara Gordon was a librarian that moonlighted as Batgirl until she was paralyzed by a bullet fired by the Joker.

There was a period of adjustment for these superheroes. The same can be said for anyone who loses sight, hearing, or the ability to speak or move due to illness or injury. The characters mentioned above, and even Reeve and Ferrigno themselves, demonstrated to fans with disabilities that they fought the same battles as those who looked up to them. This helped readers believe that if such things could happen to heroes in the comic-book pages and/or actors who played them, they weren’t as alone as they maybe first thought.

Chris Claremont’s quote for BACK ISSUE speaks perfectly of how he handles Charles Xavier and other superheroes with disabilities:

Daredevil’s Heightened Senses (top) From Stan Lee and Bill Everett’s Daredevil #1, Matt Murdock discovers his other senses have been enhanced since losing his sight. (bottom) Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale show the neo-hero’s amplified hearing in Daredevil: Yellow #5. (inset) Occasionally Matt’s blindness would inspire a story, such as What If? #8 (Apr. 1978). Cover by Gil Kane and Klaus Janson.

TM & © Marvel.

32 • BACK ISSUE • Men Without Fear Issue

Follow the Leader Released one month apart, both DC’s Doom Patrol #117 (Feb. 1968; cover

by Bob Brown) and Marvel’s X-Men #42 (Mar. 1968; cover by John Buscema) depict their wheelchairbound directors “The Chief” and Professor X in peril.

Neither figure allowed his disability to limit him.

Doom Patrol TM & © DC Comics.

X-Men TM & © Marvel.

“People that may have some form of physical limitation, including Professor Xavier, are absolutely capable of fully living out their lives. Read the stories. They show how I handle characters in all their aspects.”

J. M. DeMatteis adds, “The era when these characters debuted wasn’t anywhere near as inclusive as today. I can imagine how inspiring it was for a reader with disabilities to see someone like Professor X or Barbara Gordon portrayed in a heroic fashion, as someone to be looked up to and admired. They are truly inspirational and aspirational figures.”

Perhaps the most famous superheroes among the community of persons with disabilities are Professor Charles Xavier, Doom Patrol’s Chief Doctor Niles Caulder, and Daredevil himself, Matt Murdock. They were not the first to battle their own physical trials while combating supervillains in comics. DC’s original Doctor Mid-Nite is considered to have that distinction, having debuted in the April 1941 cover-dated All-American Comics #25.

Yet, it can be argued that Caulder, Murdock, and Xavier, while created in the Silver Age of Comics, had some of their best adventures in the BACK ISSUE era.

Case in point: Matt Murdock is put through the ringer in Frank Miller’s famous run on Daredevil. In addition to losing his radar senses and the death of his beloved Elektra in Miller’s initial run, Murdock is professionally, financially, physically, and mentally tortured by Wilson Fisk in “Born Again” from Daredevil #226–233 (Jan.–Aug. 1986) [see last issue’s Kingpin villain history for an in-depth look at “Born Again”—ed.]. This truly tests the blind Man Without Fear. Yet, Murdock’s recounting of the events during his guest appearance in Amazing Spider-Man #277 contains a phrase that describes those events and Matt’s life in general: “He’s done everything in his power to crush me. He’s failed!”

Caulder and Xavier are very similar in numerous ways, and not just that both are wheelchair users. Both have brought together outcast heroes to help the outside world accept them as whole, making them activists for their cause—though neither may consider themselves in such a way. They use their minds to form plans that would aid their respective teams, and they

often must make tough choices for the greater good. Xavier, for example, in the classic “Dark Phoenix Saga,” must ponder what to do when Jean Grey becomes empowered with the Phoenix Force, an entity responsible for the deaths of countless beings throughout the galaxy. Should he allow Jean, one of his prized pupils, to die? If the Phoenix no longer exists, thousands of innocent people from numerous worlds will live. By the same token, Caulder must choose to sacrifice himself and the Doom Patrol to save the village of Codsville, Maine, in 1968’s Doom Patrol #121, the final original issue of the series’ first volume.

Niles Caulder and Charles Xavier are also diverse in their characters. Caulder, in Grant Morrison’s run on the second Doom Patrol series, is cold, detached, and analytical. It’s later revealed in those comics that Caulder himself had caused the incidents that gave Doom Patrol members their superhuman powers. Caulder had believed that a person’s true greatness came from overcoming tragedies in one’s life. Xavier, on the other hand, has a much more nurturing personality. In addition to teaching students at his school and the X-Men, he feels each mutant under his care is like one of his children. This is particularly true of Scott Summers/ Cyclops, who barely knew his true father when he arrived at the Xavier School For Gifted Youngsters.

Caulder also differs from Xavier in that he does not have superhuman abilities. This does not make the Chief better than Professor X, nor is the mentor of Marvel’s merry mutants superior to the Doom Patrol’s leader. They merely have different means of accomplishing tasks and goals. Caulder uses his genius intellect and expertise in engineering and various sciences to create the Doom Patrol and the various gadgets and procedures that aid them. This isn’t to say Charles Xavier isn’t smart. One would have to be to teach young mutants to control their powers as well as ordinary educative subjects, but Xavier has his telepathic abilities at his disposal. This could be seen as an advantage to some, especially when he is considered the most powerful mutant mind in the X-Men comic books. However, the true point of both Caulder and Xavier is to show fans that use wheelchairs that they too can use their individual abilities to exceed their disabilities.

Men Without Fear Issue • BACK ISSUE • 33

THE TITAN AND THE ORACLE

Like the previously discussed heroes, Barbara Gordon and Joseph Wilson’s most memorable adventures were published in the BACK ISSUE era of comics. However, the incidents that caused their disabilities were chronicled later in that period.

Let’s begin with the young hero who is perhaps the most vocal of the New Teen Titans: Jericho.

“My view about him was he functioned just fine,” Marv Wolfman tells BACK ISSUE of Joseph Wilson/Jericho. “He couldn’t speak, but he could always make his views known. In his case, I don’t think his disability affected his abilities.”

Joseph William Wilson, a.k.a. Jericho, was created by Wolfman and the late, legendary artist George Pérez. While Wolfman made him the son of Slade “Deathstroke” Wilson, Pérez was the one who got the idea that Jericho should be mute and not use thought balloons. One would think that it would be difficult for one such as Joseph Wilson to express what’s on in his mind without the comic medium’s tools to do so. However, the team of Wolfman and Pérez made Wolfman’s earlier quote truer than one can imagine. Pérez’s visuals convey this brilliantly. Every panel shows every facial expression, gesture of sign language, stance, and movement Jericho makes, allowing him to project his “voice” in the Teen Titans without the need to utter a single word.

Jericho has the ability to possess any person with whom he makes eye contact. This does give Joseph a bit of an advantage over his fellow Titans. This power helps him learn of friends and foes alike. It especially aided Joseph in better understanding teammate Raven, proving that actions speak louder than words, and Jericho doesn’t need dialogue to open his heart to those he considers his true friends. It also helped him give Wildebeest a good old-fashioned knuckle sandwich to rescue Cyborg in New Titans #59 (Oct. 1989).

Another quality Joseph Wilson has, particularly in his relationship with Raven, is great empathy. In the aforementioned New Titans #59, he is always by his friends’ sides while they wait and plan on how they can help Cyborg. Joseph Wilson’s sensitive

and caring nature allows him to aid and listen to Raven and other Titans in ways very few characters with voices possibly could, making Jericho one of the most thoughtful and articulate characters in the Titans team, if not the entire DC Universe during the Wolfman/Pérez Titans stories.

March 29, 1988 saw the release of Alan Moore and Brian Bolland’s classic graphic novel Batman: The Killing Joke. It not only changed the way one saw the relationship between Batman and the Joker, it completely changed the life of Barbara Gordon.

Having been shot by the Clown Prince of Crime, the former Batgirl lost the use of her legs. Barbara, however, did not let that stop her from being an important part of the Batman Family and the female group of adventurers the Birds of Prey. Her skills as a librarian and computer expertise allowed her to aid other heroes under the codename Oracle. Many comics have dealt with the ramifications of The Killing Joke. Yet, the one that discussed them from Barbara’s point of view in the best way possible is Birds of Prey #8 (Aug. 1999).

Dick Grayson and Barbara Gordon are discussing the future of their relationship when the former asks what the latter misses the most since the Joker’s bullet paralyzed her. She replies that she misses swinging through the city, especially during the points when she went from the rooftops to the air. Dick encourages Barbara to join him on the trapeze, and she does so, her legs protected by bands. This permits Oracle to once again feel the freedom of being in the air. Dick leaves her to swing solo. While he isn’t too far away in case she needs a hand, this exercise allows Barbara to have more trust in herself and others. Dick catches Barbara in midair before they share a kiss, thereby giving Oracle a night she will never forget.

“The editors requested an issue like this where there wasn’t any fighting or violence,” writer Chuck Dixon tells BACK ISSUE of his Birds of Prey #8 story. “It was just Dick Grayson and Barbara Gordon on a date talking. Well, I don’t like those kinds of stories, so I did my own version. We got the same end result.

They do indeed go on a date, but it culminates with Dick Grayson encouraging Barbara to once again get on the trapeze with him. It’s kind of the real beginning of the romantic relationship between Dick Grayson and Barbara Gordon. It’s a favorite among fans that’s also a favorite of mine. I really enjoyed writing it, although it was a bit of a challenge.”

On Barbara Gordon as Oracle, and her life as a wheelchair user, Dixon states, “Creating physical challenges for someone who is a paraplegic was interesting without being demeaning or insulting. Jordan Gorfinkel, who was the first editor and the creator of Birds of Prey, put me in contact with someone who was a wheelchair user. We also heard over the years from a number of people who were in a wheelchair or partially paralyzed. The first advice we got was, don’t use one of those wheelchairs with the handles on the back. You don’t want to make it seem as though Barbara’s being pushed around by anybody, and that was good advice. That led to us asking how adept can Barbara get in a wheelchair. Of course, we see athletes playing basketball and different sports. The things they’re able to do in a wheelchair are quite amazing. That was a big thing for us.”

Mute Titan A rather brusque Dick Grayson, nee Robin and about to become Nightwing, is initially suspicious of Jericho’s quietness and piercing stare. From Tales of the Teen Titans #44 (July 1984), by Marv Wolfman, George Pérez, and Dick Giordano.

TM & © DC Comics.

34 • BACK ISSUE • Men Without Fear Issue

From Batgirl to Oracle (bottom) Original Steve Lightle art to the cover of Suicide Squad #48 (Dec. 1990), retelling the horrific crippling of Barbara Gordon from Moore and Bolland’s Batman: The Killing Joke. While Barbara rose to prominence in her wheelchair as the DC Universe’s information broker Oracle, (top) in Birds of Prey #8 (Aug. 1999), writer Chuck Dixon gave the onetime Batgirl another chance to take to the air, courtesy of Nightwing. Cover by Greg Land and Brian Stelfreeze.

TM & © DC Comics.

Dixon continues, “I wanted Barbara to never be a victim, never be a hostage. And be perfectly capable of taking care of herself. She’s an underdog character. She’s a woman who’s disabled. She seems primed to be a victim. I always wanted the bad guys to underestimate her for that and show that she could kick butt just like anybody else. We had her train with a bow staff in the comics. That would increase her reach and work for her capabilities.”

Dixon shares with BI “a funny aside” about how the comics influenced a Hollywood interpretation of Barbara Gordon. “I got to meet Dina Meyer, who played Oracle in the Birds of Prey TV series. She said she read the comics and practiced until she got really good in a wheelchair.

She even took martial-arts lessons using a staff, and the instructor showed her how to fight from a sitting position and how to use the chair to her advantage. She said she worked all these things out on her own. When she got to the set the first day, they had an electrically driven chair.

She tried to explain to the producers that that isn’t the character. Barbara wouldn’t use a chair like that. I thought that was interesting that she took the comic book more seriously than the show runners.”

The surface has barely been scratched on the characters of Oracle, Jericho, Daredevil, Niles Caulder, Professor X, and the other superheroes with disabilities seen in the numerous comic-book pages published. They’ve allowed every person in the world who has read their stories to feel their strength and courage and identify aspects of themselves. They show fans that they don’t need superpowers to live a super life.

Read all of their adventures in your favorite four-color tomes, and if you’d like to learn more about the heroes discussed, keep your eyes peeled for future issues of BACK ISSUE. You’ll be glad you did.

chuck dixon © Comic-Con International.

Dedicated to my beautiful and wife-without-fear Laura, whose love helps me overcome every obstacle; Jadis, Pupino, Odino, and our four-legged feline and canine Professor Xaviers, who teach the most valuable lessons in life; my nephew Kento, who makes the world accessible with laughter; and Chris Claremont, J. M. DeMatteis, Marv Wolfman, Chuck Dixon, and all comics creators past, present, and future who made the characters examined above such inspiring heroes for all of us. May Oracle always guide your paths.

JAMES HEATH LANTZ is a freelance writer whose stories, essays, and reviews can be found online and in print at Sequart.org, Superman Homepage, his blog and such publications as his self-published Trilogy of Tales and PS Artbooks’ Roy Thomas Presents Sheena vol. 3. James currently lives in Italy with his wife Laura and their family of cats, dogs, and humans from Italy, Japan, and the United States.

Men Without Fear Issue • BACK ISSUE • 35

BRITMANIA

by MARK VOGER

Remember when long-haired British rock ’n’ rollers made teenage girls swoon — and their parents go crazy?

BRITMANIA plunges into the period when suddenly, America went wild for All Things British. This profusely illustrated full-color hardback, subtitled “The British Invasion of the Sixties in Pop Culture,” explores the movies (A HARD DAY’S NIGHT, HAVING A WILD WEEKEND), TV (THE ED SULLIVAN SHOW, MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR), collectibles (TOYS, GAMES, TRADING CARDS, LUNCH BOXES), comics (real-life Brits in the DC and MARVEL UNIVERSES) and, of course, the music! Written and designed by MARK VOGER (MONSTER MASH, GROOVY, HOLLY JOLLY), BRITMANIA features interviews with members of THE BEATLES, THE ROLLING STONES, THE WHO, THE KINKS, HERMAN’S HERMITS, THE YARDBIRDS, THE ANIMALS, THE HOLLIES & more. It’s a gas, gas, gas!

(192-page COLOR HARDCOVER) $43.95 • (Digital Edition) $15.99 • ISBN: 978-1-60549-115-8 • NOW SHIPPING!

GROOVY also by MARK VOGER

From Woodstock, “The Banana Splits,” and “Sgt. Pepper” to “H.R. Pufnstuf,” Altamont, and “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.” Revisit the era’s rock festivals, movies, art, comics and cartoons in this color-saturated pop-culture history!

(192-page COLOR HARDCOVER) $39.95 • (Digital Edition) $13.99 • ISBN: 978-1-60549-080-9

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JON B. COOKE’s all-new history of the notorious all-in-one comics company, from the 1940s to the ’70s, with GIORDANO, DITKO, STATON, BYRNE and more!

MICHAEL EURY examines team-up comic books of the Silver and Bronze Ages of Comics in a lushly illustrated selection of informative essays, special features, and trivia-loaded issue-by-issue indexes!

Examines US War comics from EC, DC COMICS, WARREN PUBLISHING, CHARLTON, and more! Featuring KURTZMAN, SEVERIN, DAVIS, WOOD, KUBERT, GLANZMAN, KIRBY, and others!

History of over 300 TV shows and 2000+ comic book adaptations, from well-known series (STAR TREK, PARTRIDGE FAMILY, THE MUNSTERS) to lesser-known shows.

GLEN CADIGAN’s bio of the artist who redesigned the Legion of Super-Heroes and introduced X-Men characters Storm, Nightcrawler, Colossus, and Logan!

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by E

d Catto

You would have thought they had the perfect recipe for success: Amazing adventures! Unlimited expense accounts! The King of Comics—as creator!

Yet despite all that, somehow DC Comics’ Challengers of the Unknown (also COTU or Challengers) fell short. Instead of triumphantly strutting off stage when their time had come, they tepidly returned onstage, and then returned again and again, always just missing the mark. How did Challengers of the Unknown ever get into this predicament?

Professor Larry Maslon, of New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, suggests there’s a magic to be found in hero teams. “Fans and readers love adventure teams,” says Professor Maslon. “When they’re done right, it’s the ultimate narrative expression of the whole being greater than the sum of its parts.

“But they have to be the right parts. Alexandre Dumas understood this when he created the Three Musketeers in 1844. You had the nominal leader, Athos, surly and troubled; then the pompous braggart, Porthos; then the amorous aesthete Aramis.

What they needed was the addition of a younger, less jaded, and courageous companion to make the team jell; hence, D’Artagnan. The four of them together (four being the magic number, I suppose) were narrative magic—their individual idiosyncrasies complemented each other beautifully—and their adventures are still beloved today, after a thousand different venues and versions.

“Such effective action/adventure teams found their way into the comics of the 1940s, some more superheroic, such as the Justice Society of America; some less so, like the Blackhawks. (The Blackhawks always struck me as effortfully idiosyncratic—I don’t know how Hendrickson even squeezed into his uniform—and early on, the Justice Society members fought their JACK KIRBY adventures separately.). By the time Jack Kirby created the Challengers of the Unknown in 1957, the comic-buying public was ready for a new team that combined the complementary team members of the pulp world but packed into the colorful leotards of the emerging superheroes of the Silver Age.” [Editor’s note: The Challs were created in late 1956 and premiered in Showcase #6, cover-dated Jan.–Feb. 1957.]

According to Maslon, “It’s surprising to me, though, that Kirby (I’ll leave it to you to parse out

‘A Plague of Darkness,’ Indeed!

As the Bronze Age began, Challengers of the Unknown fumbled to find its audience, looking more like a mystery than an adventure comic. Cover to issue #72 (Feb.–Mar. 1970)

by Neal Adams.

TM & © DC Comics.

Men Without Fear Issue • BACK ISSUE • 37

When FFs Collide Kirby’s two quartets were blended by DC and Marvel into the Amalgam Universe’s Challengers of the Fantastic. Cover to issue #1 (June 1997)

by Tom Grummett and Al Vey. TM & © DC Comics/Marvel.

who, if anyone, helped collaborate on creating the Challengers), who could come up with teams as varied as the Boy Commandos and as bizarre as the Forever People, didn’t appear to take on the Dumas/Dent Rule Number One: complementary is the key. Although Ace, Red, Rocky, and Prof were impressively adept at what they did separately, I wouldn’t call the Challengers groundbreaking in the team-building arena (in fact, nearly all of their names are one-syllable first names, then twosyllable last names). Even at this late date, I would have trouble picking them individually out of a police lineup. (Occasionally, I understand, the colorists at DC would even screw up which one was blond, redheaded, and so on… certainly don’t ask me.) The editors at DC would eventually add, um, a girl to the mix, and she had even less to do than Pat Savage (although she was adept at computers, a distinct improvement from providing permanents to society ladies).”

38 • BACK ISSUE • Men Without Fear Issue

THE CHALLENGE OF THE FANTASTIC

Despite their Kirby-esque pedigree, the Challengers never seemed to catch on to the extent of that other quartet, Marvel’s Fantastic Four. By the mid-’60s, as the FF were soaring to new heights every issue (here’s the Inhumans, here’s the Black Panther, here’s the Negative Zone, here’s Agatha Harkness), the Challengers had evolved into a directionless club of buddies, jumping from adventure to adventure.

The whole world knows about Fantastic Four’s pal T’Challa and Wakanda, but can even the most hardcore Challengers fans name the bad guys of the Legion of the Weird? [Editor’s note: We forgive you if you can’t. The Legion of the Weird consisted of Count Karnak, the Mysterious One, Mistress Wycker, the Witch of Salem, Madoga, the Last of the Indian Witch Doctors, Hordred the Druid, Kaftu, and the Son of the Silent Sphinx.]

J. C. Vaughn, author and President of Publishing at Gemstone Publishing, has always wanted to like the Challengers more than he does. “Challengers has all the elements of that I should love,” muses Vaughn to BACK ISSUE, “but as a Marvel fan who has seen it revised many times over the years, I wonder why it doesn’t work for me? It might work better as a TV show. You could just boil it down to the basics and go from there.”

John Siuntres of the Word Balloon Podcast understands the importance of the Challengers.

“The original Challengers of the Unknown comic book bridged the science fiction and superhero genres of the very early Silver Age,” Siuntres shares with BI. “It was the forerunner of The Fantastic Four—that should always be acknowledged.”

“Much has been made of the Fantastic Four’s debt to the Challengers, which is indisputable,” opines Professor Maslon. “But the addition of Stan Lee to the creative team upped the ante by emphatically embracing that Rule Number One (Lee is even quoted as giving props to Doc Savage and the Fabulous Five as inspiring the makeup of the team members of the Fantastic Four). With the Fantastic Four, the complementary skills of the adventure team were finally woven together with the complementary (one might even say “competing”) personalities of the adventure team. When the inevitable Amalgam crossover of the Challengers of the Fantastic occurred in 1997, it honored the introduction of Kirby’s 1957 team along with the innovation of Lee’s evolution of the concept in 1961.”

If only DC Comics editor Murray Boltinoff and the “new” scripter Denny O’Neil (starting with Challengers of the Unknown #68) had better been able to embrace Professor Maslon’s reminders.

Unlike O’Neil’s reboot efforts on Batman or Green Lantern/Green Arrow, here the last few issues of Challengers of the Unknown seem to be flailing about, furiously throwing everything at the wall to see what sticks.

What were the challenges of the Challengers as they fought to remain relevant in a world that seemed to change too fast for them?

You’re a Rich Girl Challs hanger-on Corrina Stark, from the conclusion of COTU #72. Written

by Denny O’Neil, with art by Dick Dillin and Frank Giacoia. Scan courtesy of Ed Catto.

TM & © DC Comics.

THE ‘FIRST’ FINAL DAYS OF THE CHALLENGERS

The first Challs issue of the Bronze Age, Challengers of the After four tryout appearances in Showcase (issues #6 and 7, and Unknown #72 (Jan.–Feb. 1970), kicked off things in style with #11 and 12), a regular, bimonthly series for the adventure team a stunning Neal Adams cover. Evocative of Adams’ beautiful began with Challengers of the Unknown #1 (Feb.–Mar. 1958). The Tomahawk covers published during this time, an array of flashlights illuminates the characters with a warm yellow glow. And a series continued until issue #77 (Dec. 1970–Jan. 1971).

Future comics pro Tony Isabella had several fan letters menacing black cat has just scratched Corinna Stark… and it may printed in Challengers during the last few years of the be fatal! Beginning with issue #66, the comic’s logo had been reoriented to emphasize “Unknown” more than “Challengers of” original series’ run.

Tony remembers his history with the title and why he liked [probably an attempt to cash in on the newfound popularity of them. “I started reading the series shortly after Jack Kirby mystery comics—ed.].

Denny O’Neil continues to pull out the stops, although it’s left,” Isabella recalls. “In retrospect, the Challengers were like a grown-up version of the several kid gangs he did with Joe less effective than his Batman and Green Lantern/Green Arrow Simon. I dig the individuality of Ace, Rocky, Red, and Prof. stories. Perhaps if his frequent partner and Challengers cover artist, Neal Adams, had collaborated it would have been different.

I was really taken by the rugged art of Bob Brown. And Instead, Dick Dillin and Frank Giacoia illustrate this issue. what kid of my generation wouldn’t love the weird The letters column does trumpet the coming of artist aliens, monsters, and villains?”

George Tuska the very next issue, although his Isabella understands how the series tried to participation would unknowingly be brief. adapt to keep up with the times. “The series The premise of the story is almost prescient, didn’t really start changing until DC Comics as it deals with a virus that can be easily spread. recognized Marvel Comics had become a force.

And Walking Dead–style, it essentially turns people Brown got a little wilder in his layouts. The into zombies. Ace realizes that everyone will be writers threw in more ‘teen slang’ that many of affected “unless we can quarantine those already them didn’t understand. Soap-opera elements affected and locate the source.” like the ‘death’ of Red and the introduction of Despite the scientific basis of it all, Corinna his kid brother began to impact some stories. drags the conversation back to the occult.

There was a notable crossover team-up with “For years, while I was imprisoned in my the Doom Patrol, a team that was very much in george tuska father’s castle, I studied the occult. I learned that the Marvel sensibility.” © Marvel. black magic does exist, but there are terrible Marvel-style romance was also a part of the new recipe baked into the Challengers series. Corrina Stark was a forces beyond that men know, and those who dare tamper with mysterious woman who was recently introduced into the series them suffer terrible consequences.”

Luckily, Corinna can quickly put together an antidote. when her father shot Challs member Prof.

It was unclear if Challengers fans accepted Corinna’s addition “It’s quite simple, once I have the ingredients.” Geez, get that to the team or not. A few excerpts from issue #78’s “Let’s Chat woman a job at the CDC! The team dynamic has shifted here. If one were to compare the with the Challs” letters column reveal varied reactions: “I’m madly in love with Corinna,” wrote reader Jim Williams. Challs to the Fantastic Four, Corinna has assumed both the roles “Frankly, I’d love to come to New York to meet her, but the of Sue (Invisible Girl/Woman) Storm’s position as love interest subsequent jolt of actually seeing her would turn me into a (Rocky moons over her, while she seems to prefer Ace) as well as vegetable.” On the other hand, reader Mike Jeffries snapped, Reed Richards’ role of finding/inventing story solutions. In fact, “Take that girl out!” D. A. Evans had a surprising suggestion: she’s so much like Reed that she pushes the Professor offstage for “Why don’t you add another girl, besides Corinna? Rocky’s sure this adventure.

Nick Cardy serves up a wonderfully spooky, monochromatic to tumble for a cute, dark-haired, dark-eyed lass.”

The series really started swerving all over the road. Challengers cover for COTU #73. The Beautiful Corinna Stark is leading a took an occult turn, especially as Corinna’s newfound psychic séance, and the Challengers, despite their tough-guy status, seem abilities. Spooky covers and creepy story elements became generally spooked! The logo has been modified: a “new” burst alerts readers that the team’s direction has changed again. the norm.

Men Without Fear Issue • BACK ISSUE • 39

THE BATMAN/CHALLENGERS TEAM-UP THAT NEVER WAS It is remarkable that Batman never teamed up with the Challengers during the long-running The Brave and the Bold series, where the Caped Crusader was paired each issue with another DC hero to solve a mystery or prevent a crime.

“I had another idea that I was gonna do,” Jack C. Harris reveals to BACK ISSUE. “If you remember, there was a feature in Showcase that Denny O’Neil wrote called “The Nightmaster.” The Nightmaster was a rock star. I wanted to include Red’s brother Tino, who was a musician, and [Teen Titan] Speedy all in the same rock band.”

Harris envisioned a three-part Brave and Bold story. “At first, Batman was going to team up with the Challengers, which he never did in the series.” Harris’ plan for the second part was to team Batman not with his semi-regular partner Green Arrow but with GA’s sidekick, Speedy, concluding with the third part teaming Batman with Nightmaster.

George Tuska is on board in for the interior art. O’Neil’s story leverages not only séances but space travel, as the antagonist is a moondweller called Machu.

But the real action is with Marvel-style team dynamics and bickering. And at the center is Corinna Stark. It turns out Red Ryan still isn’t convinced she needs to be on board, proclaiming, “Look—we accepted her as a substitute for the Prof! Now that he’s back, she’s just plain extra baggage!”

The Challengers’ uniforms, debuting just a few issues before, have been modified. Gone are the quasi-rock-star fur collars. Now they are simple purple leotards with yellow piping running down the sides.

The story ends with the foreboding summary: “Two men and a girl… brave and good… doers of magnificent deeds and seekers of the awesome, the terrible… these are truly the Challengers of the Unknown.”

Astoundingly, the distribution statement included in this issue shows that, on average, 140,000 copies

Second Chance for a Deadman Neal Adams’ Deadman found an unexpected home in Challengers of the Unknown #74 (June–July 1970). (below) The issue’s Adams cover. (left) Original art to its splash page, showing a bizarre hybrid of Adams Deadman and George Tuska Challs artwork. Signed by Tuska. Courtesy of Heritage Comic Auctions (www.ha.com).

TM & © DC Comics.

40 • BACK ISSUE • Men Without Fear Issue

Seems Like Old Times What few regular Challs readers there were in 1970 might have been surprised by the book’s abrupt transition to a reprint title, starting with issue #75. Hybrid cover art by George Tuska and Jack Kirby.

TM & © DC Comics.

of COTU were sold each issue!

The next issue, Challengers of the Unknown #74 (June–July 1970), would be the team’s swan song. Oh, sure, it would be the first of many swan songs, but it would be an ending, nonetheless.

O’Neil and Tuska’s “To Call a Deadman” calls in Corinna Stark and the Challengers to investigate a case of a respected doctor-turnedthief who claims that his daughter’s very soul is at stake. Both Deadman and P.I. Jonny Double appear in this issue. Neal Adams’ interior pencils on the Deadman segment of the book send a signal that this one may have been more cobbled together than Challengers fans would have realized. [Editor’s note: As indexer Nick Caputo informed the Grand Comics Database (www.comics. org), it was reported in The Comic Reader #75–77 that Deadman was intended to become COTU’s backup feature, a plan that was abandoned when the Challengers book changed its format (about which you’ll soon read).]

Ironically, issue #74’s letters page’s very last letter, from future pro Carl Gafford, reads: “Congratulations on the 12th anniversary of the Challs in their own mag come February 1970. It’s been a great 12 years!” Editor Murray Boltinoff’s cryptic and probably insincere response was: “Thank you, Carl, and let’s hope we have 12 more adventurous years. We trust you… and you… and you… and you are with us all the way! – Ed.” Carl Gafford would have the last laugh. He would later be both the colorist and the assistant editor in one of the subsequent Challengers revivals.

EVERYTHING OLD IS NEW AGAIN

And just when things were getting interesting, Challengers of the Unknown obliterated the momentum, dropping a reprint into the schedule.

Perhaps the seeds were sown the year before. In 1969’s Challengers #66, future comics professional and TV writer Mark Evanier suggested a working reprint plan for the editors. This idea was printed in the “Challengers Chit-Chit” section of the letters column, where the best parts of various letters would be excerpted.

Evanier wrote: “If plans ever materialize to print an Annual, here are my top 10... ‘The Sorcerers of Forbidden Valley,’ ‘Creatures from the Forbidden World,’ ‘Return of the Multi-Man,’ ‘The Challengers Die at Dawn,’ ‘War Between the Challenger Teams,’ ‘The Sinister Sponge-Man,’ ‘Twilight of the Challengers,’ ‘Smash the Sponge-Man, or Die,’ ‘Taps for Red,’ and ‘License to Kill.’ Any law in the office about adding new members to the Challengers?”

Boltinoff’s reply: “(No law, Mark, but what could a newcomer do that our boys can’t already handle? At any rate, who can predict the future? – Ed.)” As Evanier was, and is, one of the world’s biggest Jack Kirby enthusiasts, his passion for the Challengers clearly came for the early Kirby stories. And the editor, either Murray Boltinoff or an assistant, seems to want to have it both ways when it comes to shaking up the Challengers’ membership. The current members are perfect for the tasks, and stories, at hand… but maybe there is an opportunity for a new member in the future?

After the Deadman-Challengers crossover, it must have been jarring, as a fan in 1970, to see issue #75 (Aug.–Sept.

1970) on the newsstands. This cover depicts Ace Morgan, the team’s leader, pulling back a curtain to introduce a reprinted Challengers adventure, “Ultivac Is Loose.” The repurposed portion of the cover plays fast and loose with the color of the

team’s outfits. Perhaps this was a way to avoid the differences in the evolution of the team.

The story for this issue was originally printed in 1957’s Showcase #7, the Challengers’ second adventure. Jack Kirby illustrated it, although the identity of the inker is debated. The story, presented in a four-chapter format, was written by Dave Wood and Kirby.

Were fans thrilled or disappointed when they realized the next issue was also a reprint? Joe Kubert provided a stunning cover for Challengers of the Unknown #77, with the original team, spotlighting two stories from early issues of the original series: “The Traitorous Challenger” and “The Secret of the Sorcerer’s Mirror.” (One might argue that Kubert is the artist most capable of signaling each team member’s personality through his depiction of the main characters.)

During this time, DC management was focused on trumpeting the creators involved. Publisher Carmine Infantino had just lured Jack Kirby back to DC from Marvel, a seismic coup at the time.

Kirby is credited as artist on each reprint’s splash page, and each tale ends with a “Kirby is Coming!” blurb. Curiously, Wally Wood is incorrectly listed as inker for each story; these stories were published just before Wood came on board the series.

This issue doesn’t provide much guidance to fans that would have been anxious to learn when new Challengers adventures would resume. There’s a bit of bait-and-switch, as well as a scolding, as the readers are spoken to in the letters column: “EDITOR’S NOTE: New readers and old fans should welcome the two stories in this issue. They represent the qualities that made the CHALLENGERS the exciting and intriguing mag it is— suspense, characterization, mysterioso coupled with staggering Men Without Fear Issue • BACK ISSUE • 41

high adventure. Since we enjoyed a degree of success in offering samples of their escapades in two previous issues—we are offering these twin tempestuous tales.

“Having firmly established themselves in the comics firmament with their experimental appearances in SHOWCASE, our Challs were lofted into a magazine of their own. Two of the most thrilling yarns subsequently ran in CHALLENGERS OF THE UNKNOWN No. 2, June–July 1959, and in No. 3, Aug.–Sept. 1958. The former was titled ‘The Traitorous Challenger,’ the latter, ‘The Secret of the Sorcerer’s Mirror.’ Jack Kirby conceived the pencils and Wally Wood handled the inking.

“The clan of Kirby aficionados, as well as others to whom Jack Kirby has become a household word, should rejoice in the news that he’s back at the drawing board—and DC has him.”

Challengers of the Unknown #77 reprints “Menace of the Ancient Vials” from Showcase #12, without an interior framing sequence. It also does not feature a new cover, instead presenting a newly recolored version of Jack Kirby’s Showcase #12 cover.

This iconic cover would be featured again in 2006 on the trade paperback Showcase Presents: Challengers of the Unknown vol. 1.

The letters column in this issue straddles the line between celebrating the classic adventures and allowing fans to comment on the recent adventures.

Reader Jim Vecchio started off the letters column conversation. A fan hungry for classic reprints (which were not readily available in the late ’60s– early ’70s), Vecchio was also impatient to continue with the “current” (at this point abandoned, actually) storyline. He wrote: “Fortunately for earthly progress, times, tastes and ultimately society change. Unfortunately for our Challs, all the ensuing changes were not necessarily good ones. However, in Bob Brown’s later days, and with the advent of that master scriptwriter Denny O’Neil, they once more hit the top.

“But goldarn it, even though I’ve been praising you for the presentation of this powerful piece of fantas-mological prose <i.e., the reprint>, I must refrain you from doing so in the future. Why this unprecedented change of character? Maybe because Denny O’Neil has spoiled me.”

The editorial response sidesteps any authentic discussion of Vecchio’s requests.

And that’s where the Challengers of the Unknown series ingloriously ends, for the time being. (If this article were a documentary, this section would demand a moment of silence and a fade to black.)

Capitalizing on Kirby (top) Challengers #77 (Dec. 1970–Jan. 1971) re-presented Jack Kirby’s cover to Showcase #12 (Jan.–Feb. 1958) in its reprinting of its early Challs tale. (bottom) As Kirby leapt from Marvel to DC, Super DC Giant #S-25 (July–Aug. 1971) reprinted more of the King’s classic Challs tales, including this first page which introduced the cast and concept.

TM & © DC Comics.

42 • BACK ISSUE • Men Without Fear Issue

The First Revival Challengers of the Unknown was one of a handful of cancelled DC books given a new lease on life in a short-lived reprint initiative of 1972–1973. The cover of COTU #78 (Feb. 1973), the first of three reprint issues, reused Kirby’s cover art from issue #7 (Apr.–May 1959), albeit with recolored costumes for the Challs.

TM & © DC Comics.

(SUPER) GIANTS AMONG MEN

Challengers reprints continued, after a fashion, in 1971’s Super DC Giant #S-25. [Editor’s note: As discussed in BACK ISSUE #81, Super DC Giant was a short-lived reprint series from the early 1970s, each issue spotlighting a different theme ranging from thematic groupings of reprints branded as “Top Guns of the West” to reprint collections from DC series such as The Brave and the Bold and Aquaman. A Super DC Giant was even devoted to The Adventures of Jerry Lewis! And in BI #148, we’ll revisit the odd, one-issue Super DC Giant revival of 1976.]

This 64-page giant sported a new Kirby cover (inked by Vince Colletta), although even the most fervent fans might agree it was not the King’s best work.

Super DC Giant #S-25 reprints three Challengers adventures: “The Man Who Stole the Future” from Challengers of the Unknown #8, “Captives of the Space Circus” from Challengers #6, and “The Wizard of Time” from Challengers #4. The issue includes two other curious additions as fillers. First is a one-page pinup, illustrated by Bob Brown, of the Challengers in their yellow and red jumpsuits; those uniforms had been discarded (rightfully so!) years before and do not appear anywhere else in this issue’s reprints. There’s also a one-page prose story titled “Strategy for Survival,” which was not originally a Challengers story; two characters’ names in the story were changed to Challs regulars Ace and Prof.

Although Wally Wood inked the three Challengers stories, the credits on each splash page read, “Written & Drawn by Jack Kirby.” This issue seems to be a love letter to Kirby, capitalizing on his recent jump from Marvel to DC. There’s a prose autobiography of Kirby called the “House That Jack Built,” to which Jack added a kind and sweet postscript: “Of all my creations, I am proudest of these four: Susan 23, Neal 21, Barbara 17 and the kid from left field, Lisa 9.” Super DC Giant #S-25 also includes house ads for “Kirby’s Fourth World Blockbusters” and Kirby’s In the Days of the Mob magazine.

A TRIO OF REPRINTS

BACK ISSUE #81 covered in depth DC’s wave of reprints that began in late 1972 [which included gone-but-not-forgotten DC series including The Doom Patrol, The Metal Men, and The Inferior 5—ed.]. Challengers of the Unknown jumped on that trend for a three-issue revival as a reprint title, picking up the series’ numbering with issue #78. The trade dress was consistent with those other DC issues and the series reverted back to an earlier Challengers of the Unknown logo. However, perhaps in a misguided attempt to modernize the series, the Challengers’ original purple uniforms were recolored red and yellow.

Challengers of the Unknown #78 (Feb. 1973) reprinted “Isle of No Return” from issue #7 and “The Sorceress of Forbidden Valley” from issue #6. Its cover reprinted Kirby’s Challengers #7 cover, albeit with the Challs’ costumes recolored to their later red-and-yellow versions.

Issue #79 (Mar.–Apr. 1973) reprinted “The Monster Maker” from Challengers #2 and “The Human Pets” from issue #1. Issue #80 (June–July 1973) reprinted the four-chapter saga “The Day the Earth Blew Up” from Showcase #11. Two impactful new covers by two spectacular artists graced the issues: Joe Kubert on COTU #79 and Nick Cardy on #80.

Reprint editor E. Nelson Bridwell contributed two editorial pages to these issues. In issue #78, his “Return of the Challengers” piece teases the possibility of new adventures: “And now—whither the Challs? That depends on you! For the immediate future, we contemplate only reprinting early tales of the Challengers. But if the revival goes over big, it’s entirely possible that we’ll return to new tales.” The editorial page for issue #79 was called “Pen-Challs,” a play on the phrase “pen pals,” and is both a plea for letters and an opportunity to educate fans about Jack Kirby.

Those original Challengers were wonderful, but were reprints the Challs’ destiny? Would there ever be new adventures for Ace, Rocky, Red, and Prof? Or would the Challengers be a nostalgia act for the rest of their days?

Men Without Fear Issue • BACK ISSUE • 43

IT’S A FAMILY THING

The Legion of Borrowed Timers Original art page from Super-Team Family #7, promoting the Challs’ return in the next issue. Illustrated

by James Sherman, best known for his Legion of Super-Heroes work.

From the collection of Jeff Bailey.

TM & © DC Comics.

reprints featuring classic team-ups. (For more on Super-Team Family, Brave and Bold, and team-ups in general, readers are encouraged to seek out TwoMorrows’ 2022 book The Team-Up Companion

by BI’s editor Michael Eury.)

Super-Team Family ping-ponged between different editors, and throughout its run featured changes in its content. By 1976, Super-Team Family #8 (Dec. 1976–Jan. 1977) switched to offering new stories featuring the Challengers, backed up by reprints. Rich Buckler and Jack Abel’s cover for issue #8 drags the readers into an exciting confrontation as Challs—back in modified versions of their original purple jumpsuits and ready for action—battle a ravenous Tyrannosaurus rex!

“The Devil’s Paradise” is a 17-page Challengers adventure with exotic battles, lost warriors, dinosaurs, and the Bermuda Triangle (which was a quite a thing at the time), penciled by James Sherman, whose all-too brief comics career is best remembered for his work on The Legion of Super-Heroes. Jack Abel provides solid inks to support the young artist’s clever work.

Although the credits list Steve Skeates as scripter, there’s a bit more to the story.

Tony Isabella, by this time having graduated from the Challengers letters page to full-blown comics professional, was the story editor tony isabella for Super-Team Family #8, the Challs’ return. He reveals to BACK ISSUE readers some of the backstory behind the new adventures. “I was originally asked to write the Challengers for another editor,” recalls Isabella, “and for one of the rare times in my life, I froze.

I wrote the first four pages and froze. I was just too intimidated because it was one of my all-time favorite titles. So it was decided that I would edit the Challengers. That first story, mostly plotted by me, ended up being written by Steve Skeates.”

In the story, US President Gerald Ford, in conference with long-time Challengers’ ally June Robbins, is faced with a dire situation. “This Devil’s Triangle is totally beyond our experience Miss Robbins,” declares the president. “We need specialists in the unknown. We need the Challengers!”

While it may seem odd to today’s continuityminded fans, there’s no mention of the Challengers’ last few plotlines in this revival. Supporting characters like Corinna Stark are long gone. There’s a timeless quality to this story, as if it could have taken place at any point during the Challengers’ glory days.

Tony Isabella wrote only the first issue of this Challengers revival and reveals to BI the direction he had intended to take. “My plan was to involve the Challengers in stories that touched on strange real-life things like the Bermuda Triangle while including plenty of aliens, dinosaurs, monsters, and villains. My only regret is that I had them rescue Henry Kissinger in the first story. They should’ve left the war criminal back in the past where he wouldn’t have been able to hurt anyone else.”

Super-Team Family #8 wasn’t Isabella’s first attempt at a Challengers story, however.

Before he broke into the comics business, “I corresponded with [DC] editor Murray Boltinoff,

In 1974, the 100-page Super Spectacular The Superman Family was launched with issue #164 (continuing the numbering of the Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen series), consolidating Olsen and other recently cancelled Superman-related books into one ongoing comic series with a larger page count and a mix of new and old stories. The “Family” branding was a success, and The Batman Family (a new series) and The Tarzan Family (continuing the numbering of Korak, Son of Tarzan) were soon added to the line.

The final “Family” title, a new series from editor Gerry Conway called Super-Team Family (STF), was meant to be something different. Conway intended for STF to feature non-conventional teamups such as issue #2’s Wildcat and the Creeper, in the vein of The Brave and the Bold’s original, preBatman mission of pairing various DC characters; Conway also envisioned STF as a home for super-teams such as the Metal Men. After an all-reprint first issue, beginning with issue #2, STF was to feature a new lead story backed up by

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who was very helpful to this young guy who wanted to write comic books. I even wrote a Challengers script on spec. It featured the Phantom Stranger and involved some Cold War intrigue. Murray didn’t buy it. Thinking back, it really wasn’t the kind of adventure story that was right for the Challengers. I think it would have made a better Blackhawk story.”

DC had earlier teased the idea that the Challengers would be the lead feature in Super-Team Family.

Issue #8 prints an enthusiastic fan letter, and then uses it as a springboard to provide a background on the team. Interestingly enough, the article barely touches on any Challengers continuity after 1963!

“To Doomsday and Beyond!”—the title of the Challengers tale in Super-Team Family #9 (Feb.–Mar. 1977)—sounds like it may have been co-opted years later by Buzz Lightyear. In actuality, this is another Challengers thriller by the same creative team. The heroes must defuse a bomb that has been hidden inside a volcano. As if that’s not enough of a challenge, there’s a “Lost Civilization” to contend with as well.

In Super-Team Family #10, Skeates, Sherman, and Abel also provide the third new Challs story, “MultiMan Rules the World,” returning the old Challs rogue Multi-Man to the spotlight. This issue introduces one of the stranger elements of Challengers mythology: their incarceration of several foes on a remote island. The so-called “League of Challengers Haters” is immobilized, kept captive in order to protect the world. This island seems to be unstaffed and on “autopilot,” essentially their version of Guantanamo Bay detention camp. Back in 1965, Challengers of the Unknown #45 provided an overview of this prison.

The giant Volcano Man is strapped to a wall, his temperature regulated by a control belt. Kra, King of the Alien Robots, is water-sensitive and held in a stationary position by an oversized showerhead.

Multi-Man is kept in a conventional cell, but in this particular issue, he still found a way to create a giant robot duplicate of his soulmate, Multi-Woman. (And yes, it’s pretty weird and silly.) And as often times

happens in comics, the prisoners escape and the Challengers scurry to put the criminals back into their cells. (One wonders what would have happened if intrepid reporters from the Daily Planet or the Gotham Gazette had unearthed this dark secret.)

Fans of the Challengers were thrilled by STF #10’s next-issue tease, shoehorned into the last panel: “So far this arch fiend has foiled our heroes at every turn. How can they even hope to defeat him?

Join the Challengers as they conclude this epic battle in their own magazine! Don’t miss Challengers of the Unknown #81 on sale March 24th!”

A CHALLENGING RETURN

“They’re back—in their own magazine!” screams the promotional cover copy above a spiffy new logo. And they were in their old magazine, too. As was often the practice in the Silver and Bronze Ages, publishers would resurrect series picking up with the issue number where they had left off.

The cover of Challengers of the Unknown #81 (June–July 1977), penciled by newcomer Michael Nasser with inks by Neal Adams, shows the five Challs (including June) and longtime foe, Multi-Man. Nasser, who would later become Mike Netzer, was a graduate from Adams’ Continuity Studio and stylistically followed in his mentor’s footsteps.

The new COTU series was scripted by Gerry Conway and edited by longtime Challengers fan Jack C. Harris. “Challengers was one of my very first comics,” says Harris. “And there’s a funny story about that.”

Harris explains that a friend had loaned him a copy of an early Challengers comic, but he misunderstood the friend and thought the stories were all true! “So that was in my head for a couple of years,” laughs Harris, “that this was real, a really true story. I was very disappointed when I found out that I was not right about that.”

Family Affair The Challs are back! Covers to Super-Team Family #8 (Dec. 1976– Jan. 1977) to 10 (Apr.–May 1977), pencilled by Rich Buckler and inked

by Jack Abel.

TM & © DC Comics.

jack c. harris Facebook.

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That’s One Way to Handle Multi-Man… The newly revived Challengers of the Unknown’s “first” issue, #81 (June–July 1977), blew away fans (and Challs foe Multi-Man) with this dynamite cover by Michael Nasser and Neal Adams.

TM & © DC Comics.

How fitting that Harris would be the one editing the Challengers all those years later. But he did have one big problem with the relaunched heroes.

“They wanted them in these hot-pink uniforms,” groans Harris. “I, as an editor, loathed [those uniforms]. I absolutely hated them, but I was powerless to change them because that was the order that came up.” The Challs’ uniforms are colored their original purple with white highlights in the first revived issue, #81, but from COTU #82 forward are a bright magenta with white trim.

This revival, as did Super-Team Family, ignores the last few issues of the original Challengers series, including teammate Corrina Stark. Instead it picks up with “full speed ahead” superhero antics.

The Challs save June Robbins from Multi-Man, but are faced with another clear-and-present danger—Prof is dying!

Sidestepping the fact that Prof was dead and/or dying when the series was last active, the team rushes to Challengers Mountain to save him. There they are reintroduced to F. Gaylord Clayborne III, a shallow Challengers wannabe who had first appeared years before. Clayborne theorizes that Dr. Alec (Swamp Thing) Holland, might be the only one who can cure Prof. The Challs’ mission to save Prof evolves in a long storyline running several issues that leads the team to the rural town of Perdition, where they meet an angry local mob (just as they had near the end of the previous series). Along the way, the team confronts the villainous M’Nagala (from the pages of Swamp Thing) and a cult, and crosses paths with Swamp Thing and Deadman. The final three issues of this iteration reintroduce Rip Hunter, Time Master and his team to the Challengers and their friends, and takes them all into the far-flung future for an adventure.

“I liked the stories,” remembers Harris. “And they were always divided into four chapters. Each chapter has an opening title, and I’ve always thought that came from television. It was like a television show, right? They were four-act plays, where you have your introduction and you have your confrontation, and then you have more confrontations, and finally get your resolution.”

He also liked the art. Challengers of the Unknown #82’s cover,

by Michael Nasser and Joe Rubinstein, was editor Harris’ favorite. “That’s a helluva cover,” Jack beams to BACK ISSUE. Nasser also penciled the first two issues’ interior stories, inked by Bob Wiacek on #81 and Joe Rubinstein on #82.

After those two Adams-esque issues, penciler Keith Giffen and inker John Celardo took over as the new COTU art team with issue #83, finishing out the series’ run. Giffen’s art was striking. “[Keith] was really fun to work with because he knew all the characters,” Harris recalls, “but I always thought that he didn’t zoom in enough.”

This volume of Challengers of the Unknown ended with issue #87 (June–July 1978). Poor sales torpedoed the series.

“It always comes down to sales,” laments editor Harris.

Tony Isabella observes, “When Jack C. Harris became editor, he had the great idea of adding guest-stars like Deadman and Swamp Thing to the mix. I was amazed that didn’t work as well as it should have. It was a volatile time for DC Comics and the comics industry in general. More than a few excellent titles bit the dust.”

Rocky Mountain High The exciting art duo of Michael Nasser and Joe Rubinstein enlivened the early issues of the Challs’ 1977 revival. Original art from issue #81, from the collection of Jeff Bailey.

TM & © DC Comics.

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Home for Haunted Heroes (top) Despite editor-pleasing covers like #82’s (by Nasser and Rubinstein), COTU’s inclusion of homeless supernatural characters as well as Rip Hunter, Time Master weighted down the book and hastened its cancellation, with issue #87 (June–July 1978). (bottom) The final issue’s cover, by Alex Saviuk and Dick Giordano.

TM & © DC Comics.

What could have been done differently to make this Challengers iteration a success? “I never got to do this, but I wanted to go into their personal lives,” reveals Harris. “In the early issues, Ace would call them together to go on a mission, and they would all be doing other things,” Harris explains. “Red was leading an expedition of Everest, the Professor was under the sea, working for somebody else. You know, they all had different jobs,” explaining that they would be called together by some threat or adventure. “That’s what Lee and Kirby were doing with Fantastic Four—you got to know them as people.”

A Marvel-esque quality of Gerry Conway’s Challengers scripts pleases his editor, even to this day. “One of the things that writers did that I liked was that sort of friendly rivalry between Red and Rocky,” Harris says. “They were always arguing with each other. I wanted to get into that kind of stuff. They would do anything for each other, but they would bicker. It’s like the Torch and the Thing in their early issues—they’re always messing around with each other.”

Harris had another idea he never got around to: shorter backup stories focusing on the solo adventures of the Challengers members, as X-Men did in the late 1960s.”That’s what I wanted to do with the Challengers,” Harris says, “and then focus on each one. You know, Ace going home to his hometown, Chicago. He’d like to go as a normal person, but people would recognize him. Each of the Challengers has a sense of right and wrong, but also a certain sense of celebrity, too!”

Alas, these things were not meant to be. “Even though I tried my best,” sighs Harris, “I never got that to that level that Kirby had when he first started.”

CHALLENGING PROSE

Challengers of the Unknown was the fourth DC Comics property to be adapted into prose, in a 1977 sci-fi paperback novel written by Ron Goulart and published by Dell.

While many of DC’s rich pantheon of characters have, in more recent decades, been adapted to prose, during the Bronze Age of Comics very few DC properties had appeared in this format (although black-andwhite paperback reprints of comic stories were common in the 1960s and 1970s). The first novel to star a DC character featured the Man of Steel: The Adventures of Superman by George Lowther (1944). Next was the Caped Crusader, in Batman vs. 3 Villains of Doom and Batman vs. the Fearsome Four (1966), both authored by William Woolfolk under the pseudonym Winston Lyon; the latter adapted the screenplay of the 1966 Batman theatrical movie. The House of Mystery appeared in prose in 1973’s Tales of the House of Mystery volumes 1 and 2 by Jack Oleck. (Let’s not overlook the 1974 paperback novel Kung Fu Master: Richard Dragon #1: Dragon’s Fists,

by Jim Dennis—a pseudonym of collaborators Denny O’Neil and Jim Berry.

While it might seem as if it is the fourth DC property to appear in prose, in actuality the titular martial artist was instead translated to comics by O’Neil in DC’s Richard Dragon, Kung-Fu Fighter series, which debuted in 1975.)

Then came Goulart’s Challengers.

Challengers of the Unknown is a curious book, poised to take advantage of the resurgence of men’s adventure novels of the time. Challengers’ comicbook fans, not actively cultivated for years, were probably not the primary targeted intended audience for the novel. Its painted cover by Spanish artist “Enric” (Enrique Torres) showcases the Challs in the hot-pink outfits used in the 1977 DC revival, a monster, and the quintessential paperback cover blonde. The blonde in question is June Robbins, the effervescent “fifth Challenger,” who adds a sexy element to the story and to the cover, establishing Men Without Fear Issue • BACK ISSUE • 47

an “ordinary” person’s POV to the story amongst the seasoned professionals of the Challengers team.

Goulart, a prolific author with a deep understanding of and love for comics, takes a good stab at adapting the Challengers to this format. In this adventure, the Challengers are summoned to a distant country to face off against a Creature from the Black Lagoon–type character. Being the ’70s, there are extraterrestrials and a duplicitous government official involved.

The author reinforces the concept of heroes living on borrowed time, the notion that as they escaped from a plane crash that they “shouldn’t have” survived. In one exchange, Red Ryan comments his watch is still keeping

time and Ace Morgan, responds, “Borrowed time, Red. We’re living on borrowed time.” That iconic phrase was the mantra for the team’s adventures.

Goulart strives to give each character a flicker of personality, with limited success. Rocky’s catchphrase becomes “Kee-rist,” a poor exclamation that doesn’t age well.

While this might not have been the most compelling prose translation of comic characters, nor Goulart’s finest effort, it’s solid fun for a quick read.

DIGESTIBLE ADVENTURES

Didn’t They Just Get Rid of a Swamp Thing?

Another bog beast bothers our hot-pink heroes on this original cover art (courtesy of Heritage) for author Ron Goulart’s 1977 COTU paperback novel, published by Dell. Spanish artist Enrique Torres painted the piece, signing it “Enric.”

TM & © DC Comics.

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DC’s fifth-longest running series was Adventure Comics. Throughout the Bronze Age, efforts were made to keep the venerable title going once its former Silver Age stars Superboy, the Legion of SuperHeroes, and Supergirl took residence elsewhere.

In the 1970s and early 1980s, Adventure’s permutations included a “Weird Adventure” branding that starred the Spectre, a home for an Aquaman revival, a giant-sized anthology, and a showcase for the new “Dial H for Hero” feature. Then, with issue #491 (Sept. 1982), Adventure Comics was shrunk to digest size. Although each issue consisted primarily of reprints, new features were added including the Marvel Family (in the “Shazam!” series), beginning with the first digest (Adventure #491), and the Challengers of the Unknown, who joined the series with its third issue (Adventure #493).

Bob Rozakis, a longtime Challengers fan, was recruited as writer of the new Challengers feature. “The first time I really started buying them regularly was after they did the crossover with The Doom Patrol,” recalls Rozakis. [Editor’s note: DC’s two offbeat teams crossed over into each others’ series in Challengers of the Unknown #48 and Doom Patrol #102, both coverdated Mar. 1966.] “And then I was able to backtrack and get some older issues, and read them. I ran into back issues in the comic-book shows and comic shops. It turned out, actually, I had one of the Showcase issues of Challengers in my Showcase collection. I don’t remember where I got that. But I got all the other Showcases to fill in the gaps, so I ended up with one of those.”

The fan-turned-pro would soon get his chance to write these heroes. “They decided they were gonna run new stories in Adventure Comics, and I really don’t remember why they chose the Challengers,” notes Rozakis. “The editor (Dick Giordano or Carl Gafford) asked me if I was interested in writing it, and I said, ‘Okay,’ and we started out doing the strip. It was a retelling of the origin in the first few pages.

“When I was writing it, I thought, ‘Okay, there needs to be something new to add right here, something different. What can I add to it? What can I do that still makes it make sense? It should be grander in the scheme of things.”

And so Rozakis updated the premise of how the four Challengers first met, which originally had been for a radio show but was updated to a TV show.

“Now it was like a contemporary, reality-type show,” Rozakis explains. During this pre–Dark Knight time, creators didn’t totally revamp characters or “go dark” with the material. “It wasn’t like some of the revamps that have been okay with throwing out everything and starting over completely and forget everything you ever knew. In the old days, we were consistent, and tried to keep the characters consistent and fit them into the more up-to-date framework.”

In five issues, Adventure Comics #493–497 (Nov. 1982–Mar. 1982), Rozakis would partner with George Tuska (#493 and 494), and then Alex Toth (#495–497), to offer a retelling of the Challengers’ origin.

Tuska had been heralded as the new, ongoing artist in the final issues of the original COTU series, and here he finally got a chance to continue his run. But all the previous storylines and dangling plot threads were ignored.

Toth’s creative layouts in the last installments were brilliant, as usual, but cramped in the small-sized digest format. In fact, the reduced size of the Adventure Comics digest took some special planning. “Well, we knew that we weren’t going to get as much detail in the artwork as we could on a full-size page,” explains Rozakis. “The lettering was going to take up proportionally more space. You know they tried to keep the lettering at the same size it would be in a regular comic.”

The Challengers feature in Adventure Comics ended abruptly after these five issues.

Rozakis, however, had some story ideas beyond that initial arc. “I really didn’t get to go as far as I probably would have in terms of story,” observes Rozakis. “[The thinking was that] we’ll retell the origin, and then we’ll start this second story arc. To be honest, I don’t remember what direction we were planning. I’m sure I would have brought back June. And you know, you’ve got four guys. It’s like they should have girlfriends. You gotta bob rozakis get out more! Stop fighting crime and, you know, go have a drink with somebody. Go to the bar and meet some women. Get out, go have fun. [laughs]”

Big Return in a Little Package The digest-sized Adventure Comics provided the next home for the Challs, beginning with issue #493 (Nov. 1982).

Cover by Keith Giffen and Romeo Tanghal.

TM & © DC Comics.

GUEST-STARRING THE CHALLENGERS

After the cancellation of their long-running series, the Challengers of the Unknown made excellent guest-stars.

In 1977’s Justice League of America #144, the Challs made a flashback guest-appearance alongside other heroes such as Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, the Blackhawks, Vigilante, Plastic Man, Robotman, Congo Bill, and Congorilla, in a clever pre-origin JLA adventure.

The following year, the Challengers were stuffed into the very creative Showcase #100, which combined all the heroes who had appeared in the first hundred issues of the title, including Green Lantern, the Flash, Aquaman, Adam Strange, the Sea Devils, and so many more.

The Challengers got another chance to team up with Batman and Superman, without the JLA, in 1981’s World’s Finest Comics #267, where they learned “When Strike the Gravity Masters.” In that tale, there’s a reference made to the last time the heroes met—in JLA #144’s flashback sequence. In this World’s Finest adventure, the Challs are on the hunt for a scientist who has designed a gravity bomb. Also at stake: the lives of two captured Challengers: Red and Rocky.

The Adventures Continue The legendary Alex Toth, inked by Andy Mushynsky, illustrating Bob Rozakis’ Challs tale from Adventure #495 (Jan. 1983). Original art scan courtesy of Heritage.

TM & © DC Comics.

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Writer Steven Grant is no stranger to the Challengers. In 1996, he was recruited to develop a pitch for a Challengers of the Unknown TV series. A new, diverse set of characters was brought in to replace the original heroes. The show never happened, but a wonderful 18-issue Challengers of the Unknown DC comic was produced with the talented John Paul Leon penciling, Shawn Martinborough inking, and Matt Hollingsworth coloring Grant’s stories.

“Kurt Busiek recently hipped me to an interesting theory

by Will Murray: that Challengers of the Unknown was the most important comic of the early Silver Age,” opines Grant. “The logic goes like this: while the Flash (in Showcase) predates Challengers by a few months, the Flash went through several tryouts, indicating reader support wasn’t quite as immediately solid as later hagiographies make it out to be.

“On the other hand, the response to the Challengers resulted in a regular series almost immediately, which reached issue #6 before the Flash was gifted a regular series. Sales on the Kirby issues were very strong, to the point that DC almost immediately pumped out a host of copycat books: Rip Hunter, Time Master; Sea Devils; ‘Suicide Squad’ and ‘Cave Carson’; and it possibly influenced Metal Men. The ‘team’ concept proved solid enough it may possibly have influenced DC to try a superhero team book, ergo Justice League of America.

“The legend behind the origin of Fantastic Four was that Martin Goodman, during a golf game with DC’s Jack Liebowitz, heard Jack bragging about JLA’s sales figures and told Stan Lee he wanted a superhero team book like JLA. “One big problem with this story: Goodman and Liebowitz never golfed together.

“So how did Goodman learn the sales figures to get impressed by? It wasn’t common for companies to swap that information around, and certainly not Atlas [Marvel] and DC. “But what if this was the plan all along? One thing Challengers seems to have launched that it rarely gets credit for is the reader taste for ‘monster’ books in the late ’50s, both in the Journey into Mystery–type of titles that revived Atlas from the brink of oblivion and DC’s ‘mystery’ titles like Tales of the Unexpected. In fact, Jack Kirby more or less ended up back at Marvel when he was driven out of DC (despite the success of Challengers) due to a blowup with DC editor Jack Schiff over (I think it was) the Sky Masters syndicated strip.

“Goodman most likely never heard sales figures for JLA— but Jack, who was Goodman’s anchor on the monster books, would have known sales figures for Challengers—and it was completely within Jack’s wheelhouse to want to prove to DC what they lost out on by kicking him out. Is it possible (Will Murray believes it is) that FF was to some extent a knockoff of Challengers because that’s what it was always meant to be, and what Jack talked Martin Goodman into ordering?

“As Kurt pointed out, if this is accurate—and quite a few elements not only seem reasonable but fit known facts better than the ‘legend’—that would mean the two cornerstones of the forthcoming Marvel Age of Comics were concepts that had their origins in unused properties from Simon & Kirby’s packaging/publishing operation of the early ’50s, which they split between them when they broke up the company c. 1955, Challengers of the Unknown being one of the properties that went with Jack, and ‘Spiderman,’ which later became The Fly and was ‘borrowed’ by Jack as the first, ultimately discarded version of Marvel’s Spider-Man (this is pretty well documented now).

“At any rate, the visible success of Challengers—DC’s self-imitation of the concept, in addition to any sales figures— could easily have prompted Goodman to want such a book, which Jack could easily have decided to ‘enhance’ by spinning a JLA-type team into the mix. Stan has always said they wanted to cash in on the success of JLA, but JLA would’ve barely been out of the gate when they started work on FF. Given that Stan allegedly didn’t read other companies’ comic books—he had no idea who the Fly was, for instance—it’s not beyond reason that he simply confused Challengers with JLA, and Kurt proposes the possibility that, since Challengers’ sales were already slacking off by the time FF came out, while JLA’s were rising (removing Kirby from the Challengers book turned out to be a big tactical error for DC), Stan, in his legend-making, wanted to hitch FF’s publicity to the rising star, not the falling one. (I can’t say I buy into it, but I don’t entirely dismiss it either.)

“Leaving the Challs out of the mix or treating them as a sideshow rather than a prime driver is a mistake.”

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TM & © DC Comics.

THE MOST IMPORTANT COMIC OF THE SILVER AGE

The More, the Merrier (top) The Challs were among the proto-JLAers in writer Steve Englehart’s inventive pre-origin tale in Justice League of America #144 (July 1977).

Cover by Dick Dillin and Frank McLaughlin. (bottom left) A topsy-turvy crossover with Superman and Batman in World’s Finest Comics #267 (Feb.–Mar. 1981). Cover by Rich Buckler and Dick Giordano. (bottom right) As DC raced toward a continuity sweep in Crisis on Infinite Earths, the Challs scored a final Bronze Age appearance in this Superman team-up in DC Comics Presents #84 (Aug. 1985). Cover by Jack Kirby and Greg Theakston.

TM & © DC Comics.

KIRBY COMES FULL CIRCLE

In 1985, DC Comics Presents, the monthly Superman team-up title, teamed the Man of Steel with the Challengers of the Unknown in issue #84. It’s an issue that features the curious combination of two amazing artists—Jack Kirby and Alex Toth.

Writer Bob Rozakis reveals how this special issue came about: “Somewhere along the line, they decided that they weren’t going to run any more new material in Adventure Comics. What was selling the Adventure digest was the reprints of the Legion, and the superhero stories.

“And so, we had one chapter produced of what was going to be the second story arc, and Alex Toth had drawn it. It was about six or eight pages. It never got used, so the artwork existed. You’re not gonna throw away Alex Toth artwork! And so, I went to [Superman editor] Julie Schwartz and said, ‘Can we do a Superman and Challengers issue of DC Comics Presents and incorporate this into it?” The issue was greenlit and Rozakis was off to the races.

“I’m pretty sure I threw out whatever the original plot was going to be,” reveals Rozakis. “There was some little bits of it, but it was basically okay. Take that sequence and build it into a full-length story.

Alex wasn’t interested in drawing the rest of the story, or he had gotten mad at DC again, or something, so we ended up with Jack Kirby doing the rest of the story. It was like, ‘Boy, can you ask for a better pair of artists on a story than Alex Toth and Jack Kirby?’”

Of their collaboration, the writer reveals to BACK ISSUE, “I really didn’t have that much interaction with them [Kirby or Toth]. When Julie Schwartz was the editor, you’d know he’d take your script, and he’d then edit it and hand it to the artist, and then it would come back. There was not much direct interaction.”

DC Comics Presents #83 was significant for an additional reason. “I think that was also Kirby’s last official book for DC,” ponders Rozakis.

And so, the Bronze Age adventures of the Challengers of the Unknown came to a close. One might argue that the series had been living on borrowed time, like its stars, ever since the early 1970s.

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Bronze Age Cover Gallery A collection of Challengers of the Unknown cover appearances spanning 1970–1983.

TM & © DC Comics.

The Challengers would return many times after this, including an eight-issue 1991 revival by writer Jeph Loeb and artist Tim Sale [covered on the very next page!—ed.]. Each subsequent revival worked hard to craft a better story that captured fans’ imaginations and hearts.

But Jack Kirby’s involvement with the Superman/Challengers issue of DC Comics Presents was the perfect way to end the heroes’ Silver-to-Bronze Age saga, reuniting a creator and his creations for one last adventure.

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ED CATTO is a marketing and startup strategist, with a specialty in pop culture. As founder of Agendae, Ed is dedicated to helping brands and companies innovate and grow. As part of the faculty at Ithaca College’s School of Business, Ed teaches entrepreneurial courses and one unique class focusing on comic conventions and Geek Culture. Ed’s also an illustrator, having won the 2019 and 2021 Pulp Factory Awards, and a retropreneur, rejuvenating brands like Captain Action.

In October 2022, I had the pleasure of talking with comic-book and Hollywood superstar Jeph Loeb concerning two of his brilliant collaborations with Tim Sale: Challengers of the Unknown and Daredevil: Yellow. Both of these works, respectively published in 1991 and 2001, render distinct snapshots of the creative metamorphosis that had occurred between one of the greatest writer-artist duos in comic-book history.

At this point, I would like to mention that BACK ISSUE editor Michael Eury had originally assigned me this article with the remit of moderating a Pro2Pro conversation between Jeph and Tim regarding their work on Challengers of the Unknown, but then Tim sadly passed away on June 16, 2022. Fortunately, Jeph was kind enough to share what he told me are his “fond memories of life with Tim” for not just Challengers of the Unknown but also Daredevil: Yellow.

– Tom Powers

RENEWING THE CHALLENGERS OF THE UNKNOWN

TOM POWERS: Jeph, for your first foray into the comic-book world, an updated vision of Challengers of the Unknown at DC Comics, why did you wish to collaborate with Tim Sale on modernizing Jack Kirby’s beloved characters?

JEPH LOEB: As you pointed out, it was my first foray.

Unfortunately, as you’ll see as we continue, while I collected comics and loved reading them, I had no idea how to write one.

Barbara Randall [Kesel] was our first editor (of four—Barbara, Elliot S! Maggin, Brian Augustyn, and Katie Main)—for an eight-issue miniseries!

That has to be a record [laughs].

Barbara met me at San Diego Comic-Con (my first time as a pro!) in the summer of 1988 or 1989. I had written a 40-page outline for the series, and we walked around the then-basement of the Grant Hotel (not the giant convention jeph loeb center of today). We talked to every artist there.

In particular, I remember meeting these Young Turks, Rob Liefeld (who was on Hawk and Dove) and Jim Lee and While Portacio (who were on The Punisher). They laughed me out of the room. I was a first-time writer with the Challengers, which hadn’t been published since 1978!

Finally, on the last day of the con, Barbara came up to me very excited. She had in her hand a graphic novel based on a card game called Thieves’ World.

The artist was named Tim Sale. What I loved (and

The End of the Challs As We Know Them?

by T o m

Powers

Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale’s innovative 1991 Challengers of the Unknown eight-issue series inaugurated the collaboration of one of comics’ greatest creative duos. Page 15 from issue #1 (Mar. 1991).

TM & © DC Comics.

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told Tim when I met him) was he drew ugly people. [laughs] Tim didn’t take that very well. But what I meant was he drew people that were very distinctive! The faces were unique.

With all due respect to King Kirby, all the Challs for years looked like Bruce Wayne with different colored hair. And when the colorist mixed up the hair, you had no idea who was talking to who!

So Tim was my perfect artist. Also, and to give you the short, honest answer, he was the first one (out of many, many talented folks) who said YES! [laughs] POWERS: Taking into account your background as a screenwriter at that time (e.g., Commando and Teen Wolf), how did those storytelling experiences influence your approach to scripting this series, and what would you define as your “learning curve” during this process?

LOEB: As I said, I didn’t have a process. We made it up as we went along.

I have no idea why Tim didn’t quit about a thousand times. There was no script. I would call him and talk to him about what I saw on the page from scribbles that I wrote on a yellow pad before the call. We’d do about three pages a call.

You have to remember there was no Internet back then, and we couldn’t even afford a fax machine, so Tim would draw the pages, go to Kinko’s, make a Xerox copy, and mail them to me. About four days later, I’d get them, we’d get on the phone, and I’d give him notes. I kid you not: Tim drew 64 pages of issue #1 (Mar. 1991), which is a 25-page story. I was so naive that I thought he could just erase things or paste over it (or make cuts like in a movie)—but he had to redraw the entire page due to my notes. It took forever!

POWERS: Speaking of Tim’s unique artistic style, how did it influence your storytelling for the book?

LOEB: If anything, it gave us the freedom to do crazy things like the Monopoly board or telling the end of the story in issue #1 in the fragments of the explosion of Challenger Mountain (Check: it’s there!).

We both loved Kirby, Steranko, Neal Adams—to name a few—and so we’d want to homage from them as much as we could. Like I said, Tim should’ve quit! [laughs] POWERS: Why did you reintroduce three of the original four Challengers— Kyle “Ace” Morgan, Matthew “Red” Ryan, and Leslie “Rocky” Davis—to a modern DC readership in 1991 via a more complex narrative lens that is precipitated by their court-enforced disbanding in issue #2 (Apr. 1991)?

Put another way, why did you and Tim make the admittedly riskier choice of presenting the aftereffects of the Challengers’ post-team experience with this miniseries?

LOEB: When we started the story, it was 1988 or 1989 (the book shipped in 1991). At the time, telling “relevant” stories were the rage. I was very impressed by Grant Morrison’s Animal Man because he took a lesser-known character and wasn’t constrained by any current continuity. He could just tell his story and make it as real as he wanted. Same thing with Frank Miller and, of course, Alan Moore.

So if anything, I was following a trend that dealt with superheroes having a midlife crisis, which I didn’t really understand—I was, like, 25 at the time.

What made it all worse was that by the time the book did come out in 1991, it was the beginning of the “Image” [artist] explosion, where Rob, Jim, Whilce, and Todd [McFarlane] were becoming rock stars at Marvel, and big, splashy artwork was the rage.

We were, as they say, a “critical” success. [laughs]

Covering the Challs The COTU maxiseries featured a who’s who of talent on its covers: Brian Bolland (#1), Michael Golden (#2), Kyle Baker (#3), Matt Wagner (#4), Marc Hempel (#5), Gil Kane (#6), Arthur Adams (#7), and last but certainly not least, interior artist Tim Sale (#8).

TM & © DC Comics.

54 • BACK ISSUE • Men Without Fear Issue

In the Mighty Marvel Manner (top) Dr. Strange’s Sanctum Sanctorum makes a cameo appearance in Challs #3 (May 1991). (bottom) Later in that issue, the return of Corinna Stark (any relation to Tony?) is a nod to the classic Mary Jane Watson reveal from Amazing Spider-Man #42.

TM & © DC Comics.

POWERS: In the latter half of issue #2, Superman surprisingly appears to defend the surviving Challengers in court. How did this early experience portraying the Man of Steel prepare you and Tim for your lyrical depiction of him in 1998’s Superman for All Seasons miniseries?

LOEB: Superman was my favorite DC character, and I wanted to have him guest-star on a couple of pages.

Like it was a dream come true—but it was a nightmare!

POWERS: A nightmare? How so?

LOEB: Okay, true story that very few people know.

When we began, we had to check with all the different “cabals” of DC editorial—and, at the time, Superman was particularly on lockdown. They had relaunched the character in [John Byrne’s The] Man of Steel, and now there was all-new continuity. But, to my memory, we had cleared it. I never would have used him otherwise!

Cut to: We had lost Barbara Randall as our editor, and the only person I knew who worked in comics was Elliot S! Maggin. Somehow, Elliot became our editor. At least a year had gone by when issue #2 was finished being penciled, and, one way or the other, DC editorial saw Superman on the pages of our little, nothing, not-yet-published book.

Shots fired! Elliot was told that we couldn’t and shouldn’t use Superman because, under the new continuity, Superman didn’t know the Challengers and wouldn’t ever come to their defense. I didn’t understand the seriousness of our “offense” and called the DC office and was told the same line of thought.

I made a joke: “Well, one day when you were at lunch, Superman did meet the Challs and went out for drinks, and I have the receipt.” Dead silence.

I was told I was not taking this very seriously, and, in fairness, I wasn’t!

So, we were seconds away from losing Superman altogether, when I pitched, “What if he was a robot that the Challs created to get out of jail?”

That satisfied the Powers That Be. I wrote a one-page scene, and Tim drew it, where, after the Challs were cleared of all charges (largely due to Superman’s appearance), they go into the men’s room, take “Superman” apart, and put him into their brieftim sale cases. Dumbest thing ever.

Luigi Novi / What we didn’t know was that Elliot, © Wikimedia Commons. having written at least ten years’ worth of pre-Byrne Superman, didn’t appreciate all his stories becoming non-canon. When he saw the robot page, he chose (or it was an honest mistake) to lose the page. It’s not in the issue!

Men Without Fear Issue • BACK ISSUE • 55

Hollywood Swinging From the archives of Heritage Auctions (www.ha.com), an original Sale art page from issue #3, featuring a cameo

by Reid Fleming, World’s Toughest Milkman (panel 6).

TM & © DC Comics.

In the aftermath, the issue comes out in 1992 or something, and it looked like we had pulled a fast one on DC editorial. I was banned from using Superman (by now I was on Batman with Tim), and it wasn’t until years later when after Superman died, that Superman-Honcho [group editor] Mike Carlin heroically tore down the wall and asked me to write Action Comics Annual #5 (1993)!

POWERS: What went into your and Tim’s creation of audience surrogate Harold Moffet, a journalist who’s admittedly a very flawed human being?

LOEB: I knew that we were working with characters who weren’t as well known as Superman or Batman and needed someone to help the reader get to know them and have an attitude about that. Moffet provided that avenue.

Another crazy-true story. Tim didn’t like drawing likenesses, but coming from film and TV, it was the easiest way to cast what I thought they should

look like. The most obvious was that “Rocky” was supposed to look like Stallone.

When we came up with Moffet, there was a young comedian on the rise who Tim and l loved and often quoted (again, this was before the Internet, so you saw him either live, or maybe you got a recording.). Tim drew about three issues with Moffet in that likeness, and this young comedian winds up on a TV show that goes on to become the biggest thing on Earth.

It was Jerry Seinfeld! And Tim had drawn him perfectly. But… now we couldn’t use him! So Tim went back and redrew all the heads, and we changed him to Stephen Lang, who played this obnoxious reporter in the film Manhunter that we both loved, years and years before Avatar.

POWERS: Going with this interesting point of homage occurring in this miniseries, issue #3 (May 1991) is filled with several audacious Marvel Easter eggs.

For instance, on page 4, Kyle Morgan rents a loft in Greenwich Village at a home that looks suspiciously like Dr. Strange’s Sanctum Santorum. On the next page, in panels 7–9, he is seen wearing a greencolored version of Strange’s original costume. (You also later include an obvious Wong appearance in issue #5 on page 17, panels 2–3). Then, on page 17, Corinna Stark reenters Les Davis’ life, telling him, “Face it, Tiger… You just hit the jackpot!” in a homage to Stan Lee and John Romita’s first “full face” debut for Mary Jane Watson in the final panel of the end page for Amazing Spider-Man #42 (Nov. 1966).

I guess what I am trying to ask with these examples is how did you and Tim come up with these playful homages, and, frankly, how did you get away with it during an era in which DC and Marvel relations were admittedly not that warm?

LOEB: [feigning ignorance] Why, sir! I have no idea what you’re talking about! We were already in enough trouble after the Superman debacle, so why would we ever tempt fate like you implied?! [laughs] POWERS: As an indie comics fan, I am also inclined to point out that you both sneak in a few fun Reid Fleming cameos in issue #3 via page 16, panel 6 (and in issue #5 on page 19, panel 5). Were you and Tim fans of David Boswell’s “World’s Toughest Milkman?”

LOEB: Did you read these issues with a microscope?! [laughs] Yes, we’re huge David Boswell fans (Still am!), and, at the time, I was working at Warner Bros. to get Milkman made into a movie. It never happened, but a little tribute to the greatest indie comic ever never hurt anybody!

Ouch! Fleming! (He just threw a milk bottle at me!) [Editor’s note: See BACK ISSUE #39 for our look at Reid Fleming, World’s Toughest Milkman.]

POWERS: On the note of Kyle heading down a magical path in this miniseries, he experiences the most stunning of transformations. What led you and Tim to reinterpreting him in this mystical, psychedelic manner (which, by the way, is so well encapsulated

by Tim’s two-page Steve Ditko homage in issue #5, on pages 13–14)?

LOEB: Um. Because Ditko is a genius? Remember, I didn’t think I was ever going to write another comic book in my life! This was a chance to say thank you to everyone we ever admired!

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POWERS: Next, in issue #4, pages 2–3, we see the Monopoly board you had mentioned earlier in a terrific two-page splash with Les administering a massage to his lover Corinna, who is lying upon a stack of bills.

What do these pages reveal about his life now and the direction in which you and Tim wished to go with his character?

LOEB: So many of their stories were about sins. Corinna was there to exploit Rocky when he was available, part of his midlife crisis as I interpreted it. I think Body Heat had come out at this point, so I had some idea of what bad women did to certain men.

POWERS: Later, in Challengers #6 (Aug. 1991), on page 19, Les attends a group rehab session and confesses that he is an alcoholic. Why was this an important character arc for him that you and Tim wished to share with your readers?

LOEB: Each of the characters had to go on a journey before they could come back together as heroes. For us, Rocky’s rehabilitation was central to his story.

POWERS: Continuing with the theme of you and Tim revamping the Challengers, Matthew Ryan is depicted in issue #5 as fighting in fictitious El Segundo, Central America, as a mercenary. Why did you wish to reframe him in a more Arnold Schwarzenegger-esque context?

LOEB: Again, part of the journey. Violence was his downfall. And it didn’t hurt that I had written Commando and to this day believe that once you touch the hand of violence, you can never wash the blood off.

POWERS: As for Walter Mark “Prof” Haley and his partner, June Robbins, in issue #1, they are apparently killed. Why did you choose to leave them out of the story until issue #7 (Sept. 1991)?

LOEB: We had a lot of characters, and it was important to service them all. I had wanted to tell a story where Prof and June would have a certain happily ever after— even if they were ghosts. We had a lot worked out if the series was picked up, but that never happened.

POWERS: On this note of untold Challengers tales, in the letters column for issue #8 (Oct. 1991), you inform the readers that you and Tim are working on a follow-up eight-issue miniseries. What, then, happened to this project? Since this series unfortunately never materialized, could you please elaborate upon any of your and Tim’s ideas for it for our BACK ISSUE readers?

LOEB: Those are stories for another time. I can tell you that we wanted to clear up that Multi-Man, who died in our series, was running around in Justice League Quarterly. By that time, Brian Augustyn was our editor, and that was his book. He found a way for us to do a 12-page story (eventually published in the Challengers of the Unknown Must Die! collection) where we find out that their Multi-Man was a robot! Ha! All things do pay off in the end!

POWERS: Looking back, how do you view this seminal collaboration with Tim? LOEB: Paraphrasing Casablanca, “It was the beginning of a beautiful friendship.” He will always be my partner in storytelling. The world is less special without him in it.

Not Your Father’s Challs (top) Jeph Loeb’s work on the Schwarzennegger shoot-’em-up Commando (inset) colored his interpretation of Challenger Red Ryan as a mercenary. From Challs #5. (bottom) A grizzled Rocky Davis attends an AA meeting. From Challs #6.

TM & © DC Comics.

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Yellow Fever Covers for Daredevil: Yellow #1–6. Cover art by Tim Sale.

TM & © Marvel.

RETURNING MATT MURDOCK TO HIS SILVER AGE ROOTS

POWERS: How did the Daredevil: Yellow project originate with Tim? In other words, Jeph, why was Daredevil an important character for the two of you to collaborate upon for your second work together for Marvel (after 1995’s Wolverine/ Gambit: Victims #1–4?

LOEB: This was all Joe Quesada. With a giant helping hand from Nanci Dakesian (now Quesada), who is the best editor Marvel ever had, and when she left, it was a giant loss for them. JQ really liked Tim’s stuff and thought I was an okay writer [laughs] and asked if we’d come over to Marvel Knights, which was his section of the company. It was an opportunity to get out of the X-Men office that was very hands-on at the time, and now here was Joe offering us essentially full creative freedom.

He had a limited group of characters to start, and Daredevil was getting a lot of heat off of his run with Kevin Smith.

Both Tim and I are what I’d like to call hopeful romantics, and telling a love story where action broke out seemed like a very Marvel way to approach the character.

Daredevil, largely due to the great work by Frank Miller, was now a very dark, broken character—much like Batman—and I think JQ wanted to see where we’d want to go.

But I’m not sure anyone understood that I liked DD when he was beloved by the city and was more of a circus acrobat than a doomed Catholic. In order to stand aside from what 58 • BACK ISSUE • Men Without Fear Issue

the current continuity was (always a demon in my writing), we chose to go back to the beginning—to when Matt wore the yellow costume. The only problem was that there were only six original issues before he changed (with no explanation) to the red suit we all know and love!

That was the beginning. But at its heart was that I was horrified when Karen Page was killed. What made it worse was that people were forgetting her as Matt found new love interests. I have a fondness for the characters that were there at the beginning and helped forge the hero, and Karen (as well as Foggy) was central to that growth.

So using her memory was our gateway.

POWERS: Why is Matt Murdock’s physical difference of blindness important to his characterization, and how did this aspect inform how you and Tim depicted him in Daredevil: Yellow?

LOEB: It’s central to his character. No [other hero] in the Marvel Universe was blind, and that made him unique. It also created a world that only Matt could see (to use a word) that the audience was brought in on. Wonderful storytelling technique that draws you in!

POWERS: On the subject of storytelling, why were you interested in expanding upon Daredevil’s original story and elements of the classic tales Stan Lee and his artistic collaborators told in 1964’s Daredevil #1–4—i.e., #1: DD’s origin story; #2: the Electro fight

and Fantastic Four appearance; #3: the Owl fight; #4: the Purple Man fight?

LOEB: As I was saying, we had to stay within the continuity as it existed. All of the stories that Tim and I worked on were “stories that were in between the pages you already know.” Expanded. Giving a new voice and more modern consequence. At least, that was the idea.

POWERS: In terms of the overall design for the book, the story looks as if it takes place in the mid-1960s, when Daredevil debuted. Why did you and Tim choose to tell the story in this fashion despite the fact that Marvel has adjusted its timeline on a sliding scale for its characters over the decades?

LOEB: I can’t get into all that. These are the stories that we remembered growing up. We had long conversations about cell phones and even decided to put a computer on Karen’s desk. There’s real time, and there’s comic-book time. I’ve always left it to the reader to decide what takes place when—but never at the expense of story or changing established history. Or try!

POWERS: Also, the framing sequence for issue #1 (Aug. 2001) and 6 (Jan. 2002) is illustrated

in black, white, and red to accentuate the presentday Daredevil. Why did you and Tim choose this darker color scheme?

LOEB: We wanted to establish that the current DD was one that was darker in tone and texture, and the past had been brighter and more hopeful. The color became a character in the story—particularly when we set out to call it Daredevil: Yellow.

POWERS: In Daredevil: Yellow #2 (Sept. 2001), Matt refers to learning how to be a fighter via his secret training and studying his father’s “every move in the ring” (page 5, panel 1). Arguably, this viewpoint differs from Miller’s revisionist origin story for Daredevil, in which Stick taught him how to fight. Why did you instead posit Jack Murdock as Matt’s de facto mentor?

LOEB: It depends on how you look at it. It was Frank (and I loved it!) who introduced Stick and changed the established origin. There’s nothing in DD: Yellow that says Stick didn’t arrive at some point—we just wanted to establish how important Matt’s father was to the story. It’s sort of continuity through omission.

As long as we don’t say it didn’t happen, then it could have. Again, that’s for the reader to figure out.

Love Stinks (left) Foggy Nelson introduces Matt Murdock to Karen Page in Daredevil: Yellow #2. (right) In issue #5, the love triangle loses one of its players.

TM & © Marvel.

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Familiar Faces (top) The Fantastic Four drop in (literally!) on the law offices of Nelson and Murdock, in Daredevil: Yellow #2. (bottom) Just like he did in Daredevil #4, DD crosses wires with Electro in Daredevil: Yellow #4.

TM & © Marvel.

POWERS: The following issue, #3 (Oct. 2001), offers an incredible double-page splash (on pages 2–3) depicting the Silver Age Fantastic Four hovering outside of the law offices of Nelson and Murdock in in their Fantasti-Car. What are your thoughts on how you and Tim re-presented Daredevil’s first meeting with Marvel’s First Family to an early 2000s readership?

LOEB: Loved it. Love those characters, and Tim’s Thing is a very hard character to capture, and he had so much fun with it. Afterwards, Marvel asked if we wanted to do an “FF Year One” kind of thing, but we’d picked our projects by then. The FF is a lot of work.

they were initially using to make fun of him. As a result, Matt demonstrates his resilience in deflecting any form of discrimination against the visually impaired. What was your and Tim’s thought process going into this scene?

LOEB: We took a risk. I’m not sure you could do that scene today because of the social implications—but it wasn’t in any way making fun of Helen Keller or of [Matt’s] blindness. It was in fact, the exact opposite— we wanted Matt to take the most heinous thing and turn it into a billy club to prove his point. That’s what Marvel does best—takes a real situation and turns it into a heroic one, even in a hyper-reality that has superheroes.

POWERS: This issue also provides a sequence where you and Tim depict Matt playing billiards with a group of thugs who initially write him off as a helpless blind man before he beats them in the game while subverting the very Helen Keller jokes

POWERS: In issue #4 (Nov. 2001) via the currentday Daredevil’s narration on page 3, you offer a reflection on the Copper Age predilection for depicting villains murdering heroes’ supporting casts: “Villains would talk a lot back then. They didn’t leave innocent women in a pool of blood… …I guess… I haven’t really thought about it…but the ones in costume never used to kill anybody…”

Could you please elaborate on your thinking behind his sobering mindset?

LOEB: Maybe a little editorializing on our part. It had become such a regular thing since “The Night Gwen Stacy Died” [Amazing Spider-Man #121 (June 1973)—ed.], and Tim and I wanted to look at the past with romantic glasses. Given the popularity of the book, it made sense at the time—and we’re grateful we found that audience. Don’t get me wrong—I’ve killed off all sorts of characters, and that’s a different kind of storytelling. But not something Tim and I were fond of.

POWERS: The issue likewise shows a scene in which Matt, Karen, and Foggy Nelson are hanging out at a bowling alley, where Karen hugs Matt for the first time, which ignites his romantic feelings for her. Why were everyday scenes such as this one important to your and Tim’s approach to depicting Daredevil?

LOEB: Tim not only draws well, he draws everything well. So these stories allowed us to have scenes when normal life snuck in on a superhero story.

Again, more of the Marvel way of storytelling than anything else. Great scene, artistically.

POWERS: Toward the end of the issue, Matt witnesses the execution of Slade (the man who murdered his father). In one particular, powerful panel that Tim draws (on page 18, panel 2), we see the scales of justice reflected in Matt’s glasses, but they seem to be out of balance. What, then, did you and Tim deem to be important to Matt’s/ Daredevil’s development in having him pay witness to Slade’s grisly end via electrocution?

LOEB: Again, murder wasn’t something either of us were very comfortable with, although it’s a staple in noir storytelling. It’s important that when it does happen, the hero sees the consequences of those actions—otherwise, you’re just running around like a vigilante, and you’ve lost the heart of the character.

POWERS: With issue #5 (Dec. 2001), you and Tim show Daredevil in an extreme battle with the Owl, utilizing a boxing metaphor for how an underdog

60 • BACK ISSUE • Men Without Fear Issue

‘I Believe You Missed Your Train’ Courtesy of Heritage, Tim Sale original art from pages 14–15 of Daredevil: Yellow #2.

TM & © Marvel.

opponent will take punishing blows from a stronger opponent to stay in the ring, in that, as you write on page 19, panel 4, “It all came down to where you were at that final bell.” Why is Daredevil’s application of this boxing maxim important to his identity as a lesser-powered hero?

LOEB: It was true to his origin. His father was both the angel and the devil on his shoulder. He never wanted Matt to be a fighter.

He wanted Matt to study and become a lawyer. But Matt couldn’t ever forget the legacy of his dad. That’s the heroic turmoil for the character and showing that in every aspect of his life—even in a fight—is important.

POWERS: The end page of this issue presents the resolution of the Matt/Karen/Foggy love triangle, with the heartbreaking scene of Foggy throwing away the roses which he planned on giving to Karen as part of his marriage proposal, once he realizes that she has feelings for Matt. What led you and Tim to crafting this poignant sequence?

LOEB: It was there—“in between the pages of the stories that you know”! We wanted a way to give both sympathy for Foggy— but not at the expense of the friendship. Great romances have a way of hurting someone—but hopefully love triumphs in the end.

The greatest honor was that Stan Lee told us it was his favorite scene—because it does what comic books do so well—to tell the emotion of the story through pictures. Tim was a master at that.

POWERS: From a more contemporary lens, how did you approach writing the Purple Man, a quite problematic character, via his disturbing interactions with Karen, in issue #6?

LOEB: It was a challenge. It would be even more so today—and became the subject of the entire first season of Jessica Jones on TV that I executive produced. I was fascinated that the Purple Man (and this was from the original story) wasn’t interested in robbing banks or taking over the world. He just wanted Karen Page and in the most disturbing way—by controlling her mind. As villains go, while in his creation in the 1960s he was something of a joke—

in present-day storytelling he’s about as bad as one can get because the metaphor is so undeniably terrible.

POWERS: On the subject of Karen, Miller had reintroduced her to Daredevil readers in as a struggling heroin addict in his “Born Again” storyline, which ran through issues #227–233 (Feb.– Aug. 1986). In contrast, how did your and Tim’s more innocent depiction of her early romance with Matt throughout the six issues factor in—and anticipate—this latter, darker characterization?

To me, it feels as if you and Tim were using these six issues to pose an unquestionable argument for why Karen is Matt’s true love.

LOEB: She was his true love. It’s why we told all the “color book” stories. It was important to recognize the importance of Karen Page, Gwen Stacy, Betty Ross, and, in his own way, Bucky Barnes. Those characters had been abandoned when we told the stories, and we wanted them to always be remembered. It’s a lofty ambition, but the fact that the books are still in print (and will soon be reprinted in the new deluxe format) are a testimony not only to the story, but also to the incredible work that Tim put into them.

POWERS: As a closing question, Jeph, what did you appreciate most about working on Daredevil: Yellow with Tim? LOEB: It was another step in our friendship and in many ways solidified our third partner, Richard Starkings, who lettered and designed all of our stories after Batman: The Long Halloween [which was the cover feature of BACK ISSUE #60—ed.]. Richard is as much a part of our success as either one of us. I’ve always referred to him as our good-luck charm!

TOM POWERS teaches English at Montgomery County Community College, which is located in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania. He is also the author of Gender and the Quest in British Science Fiction Television: An Analysis of Doctor Who, Blake’s 7, Red Dwarf and Torchwood (McFarland, 2016).

Men Without Fear Issue • BACK ISSUE • 61

Stark contrasts, quirky characters, and acute attention to detail were hallmarks of artist Tim Sale (1956–2022), known for Challengers of the Unknown, Daredevil: Yellow, and many other groundbreaking works. BACK ISSUE remembers the late artist through this glimpse at some of his astounding artistry. Art scans featured herein are courtesy of Heritage Auctions (www.ha.com).

This previously unpublished illustration was produced by Sale in 2009 as an intended cover for a collected edition of his Jeph Loeb’s examination of the Incredible Hulk’s roots, Hulk: Gray #1–6 (2003–2004).

TM & © Marvel.

62 • BACK ISSUE • Men Without Fear Issue

(top) Now, that’s an entrance! From Daredevil: Yellow #2 (Sept. 2001). (bottom) The Star-Spangled Sentinel has trouble adjusting to his revival by the Avengers. From another Loeb collaboration, Captain America: White #1 (Nov. 2015).

TM & © Marvel.

Men Without Fear Issue • BACK ISSUE • 63

Tim’s wizardry with the Dark Knight’s friends and felons made him one of the premiere Batman artists of the modern age. The artist’s subtle gradations in this original cover art for Detective Comics #780 (May 2003) were colored in orange tones once published.

TM & © DC Comics.

64 • BACK ISSUE • Men Without Fear Issue

Sale and Loeb’s six-issue Spider-Man: Blue limited series (2002–2003) offered the team’s rendition of the Wall-Crawler’s early years. Tim returned to the character for this 2021 specialty illo of Spidey doin’ what he does best! A colored version of this piece was used as a direct market variant cover for the July 2023 hardcover, Jeph Loeb & Tim Sale: Spider-Man Gallery Edition.

TM & © Marvel.

Men Without Fear Issue • BACK ISSUE • 65

g

by B r y a n

Abin Sur Wants You Test pilot Hal Jordan is summoned in the landmark “SOS Green Lantern!” origin story from Showcase #22 (Sept.–Oct. 1959).

TM & © DC Comics.

66 • BACK ISSUE • Men Without Fear Issue

Stroud

He was a test pilot. He was also a friend, a brother, and a nephew. He is inextricably linked to his heroic alter ego of Green Lantern and as such, was also a founding member of the Justice League of America.

But who is Hal Jordan?

Hal Jordan/Green Lantern was first introduced to the readers of National Periodical Publications, better known as DC Comics, in the pages of the venerable Showcase title, specifically issue #22 (Sept.–Oct. 1959). His fellow JLA member the Flash had been rolled out three years prior in the 4th issue of Showcase. With the success of that reintroduced-butrevamped character, DC’s powers-thatbe decided to try and capture lightning in a bottle a second time with another revived Golden Age character, redesigned and ready for what would one day be referred to as the Silver Age. The first story in the anthology book was titled “SOS Green Lantern!” Edited

by Julius “Julie” Schwartz, scripted

by John Broome, and illustrated by the art team of Gil Kane and Joe Giella with lettering by Gaspar Saladino, the six-page story offered the origin of Green Lantern.

‘ENTIRELY WITHOUT FEAR!’

In this important tale, the current GL for space sector 2814 is a crimson-skinned humanoid alien named Abin Sur, reportedly modeled after the actor Yul Brynner. Abin Sur and his spacecraft have crash-landed in the desert of the Southwestern United States. Abin Sur knows that he is dying, and also knows that it is his duty, with the help of his power ring, to locate a successor to take the ring and its battery of power.

The critical criteria are that this worthy being “…must be one without fear! Entirely without fear!”

With that dictate, a beam of emerald energy is dispatched. It crisscrosses the Earth to locate the next wielder of the power ring of Green Lantern: Hal Jordan, a test pilot for Ferris Aircraft. To Jordan’s amazement, he, ensconced in his flight trainer, is transported via the emerald beam to the crash site, where he meets Abin Sur. The Green Lantern explains to the Earthman who he is and what he needs from Hal. “It is our duty… when disaster strikes… to pass on the battery of power… to another who is fearless… and honest!”

Having passed those two all-important tests, Hal Jordan is then presented with the power ring and the power battery. After brief instructions on how both work and their weakness against the color yellow, Abin Sur draws his final breath, and a new hero is born.

Hal Jordan then begins an incredible journey as the newest wielder of the power ring of Green Lantern.

Unlike his predecessor, Hal dons a mask to conceal his identity, then begins to learn how to use these new powers. He also learns the treacherous waters of balancing a personal life with that of being a superhero and, perhaps taking a page from Clark Kent’s playbook, also learns of the pitfalls of a love triangle when he has affections for a woman who is only interested in his superhero persona. In Hal Jordan’s case, it is his boss, Carol Ferris. Jordan tries mightily to win her love, but she only has eyes for Green Lantern. It would become an ongoing subplot in the GL tales, particularly after he was given his own self-titled book, with Green Lantern #1 (July–Aug. 1960) quickly making its debut following two more consecutive appearances of the Emerald Gladiator in the pages of Showcase. Things would be further complicated by the random appearances of Carol Ferris’ alter ego, Star Sapphire, introduced in Green Lantern #16 (Oct. 1962), who could be described as an amnesiac assailant toward Green Lantern. [Editor’s note: See BI #123 for a Star Sapphire history.]

Over time, Jordan would be introduced to his overseers, the Guardians of the Universe from Oa, the planet where he would begin to learn the true scope of his duties as a Green Lantern in space sector 2814. A bit further down the road, he would become friendly with some of his fellow members of the Green Lantern Corps, which would become other important alliances and friendships, including the crimsonskinned Katma Tui from the planet Korugar and the bird-like Tomar Re, who hails from the planet Xudar.

In his autobiography Man of Two Worlds, published

by Harper Collins in 2002, Julie Schwartz recalled his involvement with the original Green Lantern—Alan Scott—and how the character was reintroduced to a new audience: “…eventually revamping him completely as a new character drawn by Gil Kane and modeled loosely on his neighbor at one time, the popular actor Paul Newman.

“On Green Lantern we moved his ring hand from the left to the right, changed his point of vulnerability, and eventually added an oversight committee of the cosmos called ‘The Guardians of the Universe.’

John [Broome, Green Lantern writer] and I didn’t have much of an idea about who the Guardians really were and we basically took their name from an old Captain Comet story that John had previously scripted [Strange Adventures #22, July 1952, ‘The Guardians of the Clockwork Universe’]. Putting our heads together for an alien switch, we decided that all of the Guardians should look alike. Gil Kane based their general appearance on the prime minister of Israel at that time, David Ben-Gurion.

“We also gave the new Green Lantern a second identity in the far future of 5700 A.D. We chose that date at random by just looking at the telephone in my office: at the time, DC’s number was Plaza 9-5700.”

As his adventures continued, Hal developed another important relationship at Ferris Aircraft with Thomas “Tom” Kalmaku, his mechanic with the unfortunate nickname of “Pieface.” Kalmaku would be entrusted with Hal’s secret identity and prove to be an important friend and ally in the future, more than once helping Hal out of a scrape thanks to his knowledge of his alter ego.

Here Come Misters Jordan (top) Abin Sur confirms Hal’s fearlessness, in Showcase #22. (bottom) The Bros.

Jordan—Jack, Jim, and Hal—as introduced to Green Lantern readers in issue #9 (Nov.–Dec. 1961).

TM & © DC Comics.

Men Without Fear Issue • BACK ISSUE • 67

HAL AIN’T HEAVY, HE’S MY BROTHER

Another unusual aspect of the life of Hal Jordan is that, breaking the mold of the superhero trope where the norm tends to be an orphan or a strange visitor from another planet, he is a brother who regularly interacts with his siblings, Jack and Jim Jordan. Hal happens to be the middle child between Jack and Jim, and to add an interesting twist to this subplot, little brother Jim’s wife, Sue, is convinced that her husband is secretly… Green Lantern! She spends a headache-producing amount of time trying to prove, it, too, despite Jim’s many protests.

From their introduction in Green Lantern #9 (Nov.–Dec. 1961), the Jordan brothers made an appearance nearly every year through issue #71 (Sept. 1969), adding a new facet to Hal’s life.

Things seem to be in a pretty regular groove for Hal until issue #49 (Dec. 1966), when he receives a letter from his good friend Barry (Flash) Allen. It’s a wedding invitation, and Barry and longtime girlfriend Iris West are at last tying the knot. The event inspires Hal to propose marriage to Carol Ferris, but he is in for a shock. Before he can even get the words out, he learns that she is engaged to another man. Finding himself in an emotional tailspin, by the end of the issue, Hal has made the momentous decision to leave his beloved Coast City and his job as a test pilot at Ferris Aircraft.

The blurb in the final panel describes this new reality: “And so Hal (Green Lantern) Jordan becomes a wanderer—a drifter.”

The next issue, Green Lantern #50 (Jan. 1967), reminds the readers of Hal’s status: “Drifting eastward from Coast City, suffering from something akin to shellshock after his sweetheart Carol Ferris unexpectedly agreed to marry another man, Hal (Green Lantern) Jordan has taken a job flying tourists on sightseeing trips over Idaho.” This new career, however, was just a short flirtation, as it is mentioned in the very next issue that “Since leaving Coast City and Carol Ferris behind him, Hal (Green Lantern) Jordan has wandered from city to city seeking he knows not what…” A couple of issues later, Tom Kalmaku receives a letter

from Hal telling him that he’s currently in the Pacific Northwest working as an insurance adjuster. Then, in another career change, issue #70 (July 1969) has Jordan becoming a traveling toy salesman for the Merlin Toy Company.

By issue #73 (Oct. 1969), Hal’s drifting has somehow drawn him back to Coast City and a visit with his erstwhile sweetheart when he learns that Carol Ferris didn’t go through with the marriage. Hal barely has time to absorb this stunning news when Carol’s Star Sapphire persona makes an appearance. It’s been a tough journey for our hero, but even bigger changes are about to take place.

NO EVIL SHALL ESCAPE HIS SIGHT

The Green Lantern title was shaken up in a major way with the landmark issue #76 (Apr. 1970), and the ensuing “relevance” storylines from a brand-new creative team. Editor Julie Schwartz remained in place on the series, and reflected on this pivotal moment in the title’s history in his autobiography: “It was during this period of time that we tried a daring experiment. The old guard of the early Silver Age was being replaced by the new guard that was coming of age in the 1960s. One of the new talents was a writer from the Midwest by the name of Denny O’Neil, who was working with a hot young artist by the name of Neal Adams.

“A segment of the professional comics community, as well as the readership, thought that comics should come of age much the same way American Society was in the social relevance of the 1960s,” Schwartz wrote. “Racial strife, the antiwar movement, and the drug crisis were all part of the American scene, as witnessed each evening on the nightly news… but did these issues belong in the comics? And the even bigger question, could comics become relevant?

“Denny and Neal were ch[a]mping at the bit, and we were about to find out.”

The revamped stories in the newly rebranded Green Lantern/ Green Arrow series tackled many social problems of the day and certainly got the attention Schwartz mentioned. In this latest iteration of Hal Jordan, he was portrayed primarily as the staid, establishment type of hero, respectful of and upholding law and order. Your basic square. Oliver Queen, meanwhile, was the hotheaded firebrand, challenging authority and the status quo at every turn. At the end of issue #76, an agreement was struck for the two heroes to travel on a journey of discovery in an old pickup truck with a representative from the Guardians of the Universe, disguised as an Earthman, to accompany them and serve as an interested observer. They traveled in their civilian identities and hit the road, continuing Jordan’s drifting ways.

Green Lantern/Green Arrow was reprinted in a deluxe format miniseries in 1983, and scripter Denny O’Neil provided an introduction that conveyed his memories and thoughts about the series: “What if we put a superhero in a real-life setting, dealing with a real-life problem?

Friends and Lovers (top) Tom Kalmaku was always in GL’s corner. This exchange between the friends, from Green Lantern #49 (Dec. 1966), involves the secret identity dilemma of another of Hal’s pals, Barry (Flash) Allen. By John Broome, Gil Kane, and Sid Greene. (bottom) Long-time love interest (and occasional super-foe) Carol Ferris bounded in and out of Hal’s tumultuous life, returning—and reconciling with our hero!—in GL #84 (June–July 1971).

By Denny O’Neil, Neal Adams, and Bernie Wrightson.

TM & © DC Comics.

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Help Wanted (top) Hal contemplates his uncertain employment in Green Lantern #51. (center) Jordan the sightseeing pilot, from GL #50. (bottom) Jordan the toy salesman, from GL #70.

TM & © DC Comics.

“Begin with the character. Green Lantern was, in effect, a cop.

An incorruptible cop, to be sure, with noble intentions, but still a cop, a crypto-fascist; he took orders, he committed violence at the behest of commanders whose authority he did not question.

If you showed him a law being broken, his instinct would be to strike at the lawbreaker without ever asking any whys. Wasn’t this the mentality that sent American troops into Korea and Viet Nam? Wasn’t this the cowboy authoritarianism responsible for the mess we were in? Not that Green Lantern was evil, he or any of the other heroes who championed Nineteenth Century Americanism at the expense of Twentieth Century justice—and at the expense of the environment and perhaps the survival of the planet. No, nor were their flesh-and-blood counterparts evil. They just never had cause to doubt their assumptions. All right, there was a place to begin. I’d give them doubts.”

Realizing that Green Lantern needed a foil, O’Neil picked Green Arrow, recasting the archer as “a lusty, hot-tempered anarchist to contrast with the cerebral, sedate model citizen who was Green Lantern,” O’Neil wrote. “They would form the halves of a dialogue on the issues we chose to dramatize.” In a 2007 interview, artist Neal Adams offered, “I would have to say that you have to give Denny total credit for the extremely socially conscious aspect of it.”

Social and political topics covered in Green Lantern/Green Arrow included corporate greed, drug abuse, Native-American interests, religious demagoguery, and overpopulation, to name a few. O’Neil was giving full rein to his worldview and having a grand time of things. The built-in conflicts between the two heroes gave the writer a regular point and counterpoint in the stories. While Hal seemed to be gaining a new perspective, his old habits of working with the system instead of taking it on directly, as his companion urged, lingered on.

The Green Lantern/Green Arrow series went on to gain national attention and awards and was a groundbreaking effort by all involved, but it was fated to only last for 13 issues, followed by a short-lived continuation as a backup series in the pages of Schwartz’s The Flash.

HAL HOPS AROUND

Following GL’s spinoff into a backup feature in the spring of 1972, the Emerald Crusader went on hiatus for a few years, save for his role in Justice League of America and the occasional guest-appearance, until efforts were made to test the waters for a Green Lantern revival. Two issues of DC Special, #17 (Summer 1975) and 20 (Feb.–Mar. 1976), both sporting covers by Mike Grell, contained a treasure trove of classic Green Lantern adventures from the John Broome/Gil Kane era. DC Special #17 ended with this editorial blurb: “You have just read 3 of the greatest adventures of Green Lantern. During the 1960’s, GL was one of the top heroes in comics, appearing in his own magazine from 1960 to 1972! This DC Special has been published to get the reactions of you, the readers, to an All-Green Lantern magazine! Do you like it? Want to see a GL mag with all new tales? Write and tell us what you think!”

Issue #20 had a similar teaser on its final page.

Soon, Green Lantern was back! Taking up where the so-called “Hard-Traveling Heroes” series left off, Green Lantern was revived with issue #90 (Aug.–Sept. 1976), still sporting the GL/GA logo.

Denny O’Neil was now in the editor’s chair, assisted by Jack C. Harris and Bob Rozakis, with Denny also scripting and Mike Grell

penciling. Julie Schwartz was back on editing beginning with issue #93 (Feb.–Mar. 1977), and continued until issue #104 (May 1978), when Jack C. Harris took over.

Harris has been a life-long GL fan, as far back as when his young self successfully negotiated purchase of the original Showcase appearances from his barber for a nickel apiece. Jack also divulged to this interviewer back in 2010 that it was he who calculated that there were 3,600 Green Lanterns in the GL Corps. Who better, then, to consult on the travails of Hal Jordan than Jack C. Harris?

Jack kindly offers his insights to BACK ISSUE, beginning with his original take on Hal’s fearless nature: “Hal Jordan was never afraid of anyone. I think the Shark would have been a good [villain] to instill fear in other people, and when he encountered [Green Lantern], Hal wasn’t afraid of him because he doesn’t know fear. I thought it was a great way to play that character off him.

“What I liked about [Green Lantern] was the fact that he is fearless, that he doesn’t have fear. I think it might actually be a handicap if he rides right off into doing something or helping somebody or putting his life at risk because he doesn’t know how to be afraid. I think it might actually be something that it detrimental to him. I always thought it would be interesting to do so, the fact that he doesn’t have fear and it is something missing from his makeup.

“And then the whole thing with his romance with Carol Ferris,” Harris continues. “What I like about that is that he had this love triangle in the early stories with himself as Green Lantern and her, which is very, very peculiar. But he played it cool with her, and I always thought the relationship was very interesting, and I actually thought Julie developed it well. Eventually, Carol figured out who GL was and it was kind of poignant along the way. I enjoyed how they handled it.”

Harris has a different take on GL’s personality, regarding him as more than the space-cop that Denny O’Neil scripted. “I always saw him as a really solid citizen, and yet when things didn’t go Men Without Fear Issue • BACK ISSUE • 69

right, he would sort of roll with the punches,” Jack observes. “Like some of the aspects of the character where he went from being a test pilot to a toy salesman. Okay, that’s quite a bit of a switch there. But it didn’t seem to bother him because he’s not afraid of anything. ‘Yeah, I can do that.’ Whenever I changed jobs, I always had a few weeks of being nervous about it, but him? Nah. I always thought that the test pilot was the best one to have. Still, you can do just about anything with him.

“Another important thing about Hal Jordan is that he has the power of his will,” says Harris, “and he can create anything. That was the one thing I wondered about, and Denny and I discussed this when he was writing it. That particular aspect of the power was hard to play with because, as Denny pointed out, he couldn’t just will a machine gun into being unless he knew how a machine gun worked. He would have to know all the intricate mechanics of a machine gun for him to will it into being from his power ring.

He could just hurl out naked force. That was no problem. But to create a mechanical device, he would have to know how that mechanical device was created. I thought that was a good observation and very true.”

In later continuity, Hal again became a drifter, suffering something of an identity crisis after all he’d seen and done. His occasional resentment bubbled to the surface at the tremendous demands placed upon him as he bore the responsibility for space sector 2814.

Jordan even went so far as to temporarily resign from his post, following what amounted to a solid year of exile in space imposed by the Guardians of the Universe. With issue #172 (Jan. 1984), Len Wein had taken over scripting duties with Dave Gibbons on art detail when Jordan approached the Guardians about granting his return to Earth. They agree, but it isn’t long until conflict arises yet again as Hal is dispatched to a distant world to keep it from exploding, much like Krypton. During his absence, Ferris Aircraft is leveled by evil-doers called the Demolition Team. Upon his return from the mission, in issue #180 (Sept. 1984), he learns of this and is overcome with guilt at not being present to intercede. Carol Ferris gives her love an ultimatum: the power ring or her. After agonizing between two lifedefining pathways and even consulting with colleagues from the Justice League of America, Hal Jordan has come to the momentous decision to leave behind his duties as a Green Lantern, and in issue #181 (Oct. 1984) he tenders his resignation.

Later still, he would be placed into even more interesting conflicts by taking on the mantle of a supervillain called Parallax in the “Emerald Twilight” three-issue story arc in Green Lantern vol.

3 #48–50 (Jan.–Mar. 1994). The destruction of his hometown of Coast City led to Jordan snapping and ultimately destroying the Green Lantern Corps and even the Guardians themselves, save Ganthet. In another fascinating twist, within the pages of Day of Judgment #5 (Nov. 1999), Hal Jordan takes over for Jim Corrigan as the Spectre, hoping to atone for his acts as Parallax.

Hal Jordan was resurrected, and recast in a more traditional light, in 2004’s six-issue Green Lantern: Rebirth miniseries, which revitalized the character and GL franchise.

The last word from Jack C. Harris summarizes one of his favorite characters as follows: “I still think of him as the only Green Lantern. I have great respect for some of the later ones like John Stewart and Kyle Rayner. Fine, good, but Hal Jordan will always be Green Lantern. Alan Scott came first, but Green Lantern is Hal Jordan. He was my Green Lantern. The one I first met. The first one I became a huge fan of and the one I always liked the best.”

Who, then, is Hal Jordan? Only the greatest Green Lantern of them all, who has kept an awful lot of balls in the air for his entire career between protecting an entire segment of the galaxy and serving alongside the greatest heroes of Earth while still trying his level best to be his own man with his own specific desires, You Should Never Cross Jordan relationships, and feelings. His indominable will and relentless sense of duty helped define his service as a Green Lantern. He is the original man without (top) Hal quits the GL Corps in Green Lantern fear, a complex and enduring character whose most #181 (Oct. 1984). Cover by Dave Gibbons. important traits, his fearlessness and iron will, continue, even in his most recent incarnation, where he has (bottom left) Hal becomes Parallax in Green become will itself in his semi-transparent emerald form. At his core, he continues with the same essence Lantern vol. 3 #50 (Mar. 1994). Cover by and sense of service to the Green Lantern Corps and Daryl Banks and Romeo Tanghal. (bottom the universe at large.

right) Guess who’s dying to become the new Spectre? Cover to Day of Judgment #5 (Nov. 1999) by Matt Smith and Steve Mitchell.

TM & © DC Comics.

BRYAN STROUD is a longtime fan of DC Comics, particularly the Silver and Bronze Ages, and has had the opportunity to interview many of the creators from that era, which can be found at www.NerdTeam30.com. He is a frequent contributor to BACK ISSUE magazine, and owns a comic-book spinner rack that reminds him of his boyhood.

70 • BACK ISSUE • Men Without Fear Issue

Hello, class. To begin today’s lesson, we are going to do a little thought experiment.

Imagine you’re in a contest, and your greatest tool or asset is such that your opponent’s is useless against it, and in fact, your tool draws power from his! Now, there may be psychological or physical differences between you, but for the sake of argument, let’s say they are not extreme. I think every one of us would agree that in all likelihood it would not take too many tries for you to win one of the contests.

At least that’s conventional wisdom. However, that does not apply when we examine the career of the renegade Green Lantern known as Sinestro.

Let’s see if we can find out why.

THAT OLD YELLOW MAGIC

by B r i a n

Martin

The crimson cad known as Sinestro first appeared in Green Lantern #7 (July–Aug. 1961), by John Broome, Gil Kane, and Joe Giella. The Guardians of the Universe summon GL and give him the lowdown on the first member of their Green Lantern Corps to turn rotten.

Seduced by power and pride, and not mentally strong enough to resist, Sinestro set himself up in his own fortress and soon took control of his home planet, Korugar! The Guardians notice this, recall Sinestro, and sentence him to the anti-matter universe of Qward, where everyone is evil. The Qwardians had clashed with Green Lantern previously and lost. Sinestro tells them it is because they are not evil enough. He describes himself here as evil, but as we shall see, his feelings in that regard will later change. GL defeats Sinestro and leaves him imprisoned in a force bubble, not taking him back to the Guardians since he has been exiled. This imprisonment will be a recurring theme as well.

The villain immediately returned in Green Lantern #9 (Nov.–Dec. 1961), this time with penciler Kane paired with inker Murphy Anderson. The story introduces the aspect of Sinestro everyone is familiar with: his yellow power ring. Does anyone in class not know that a Green Lantern’s power ring cannot affect yellow because of a “necessary impurity” in the Central Battery? Okay, good… let’s continue.

It is revealed right away that the yellow ring actually absorbs green ring energy! Sinestro drains Hal’s ring, sets off for a meeting of Green Lanterns, and then drains all of their rings. Interestingly, the most profound statement may be in the editor’s note that says Sinestro’s ring is all yellow as if full of only the evil impurities that cause a GL’s ring not to affect that hue. GL beats him by pouring all his power into Sinestro’s weapon and overloading the yellow ring so it explodes. Strangely, during the

I Am Furious Yellow Detail from the cover of Green Lantern #52 (Apr. 1967). Art by Gil Kane and Murphy Anderson.

TM & © DC Comics.

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TV CRIMES Those of us who grew up in the 1970s treasure the Super Friends TV show—but if you’re like me, especially when it became Challenge of the Super Friends and included more members of the JLA, along with a few specially created heroes, and their foes the Legion of Doom, who counted Sinestro among their membership.

Voiced by Vic Perrin, like all the characters, Sinestro was played straight and generally faithfully to the comic canon—so much so that in the episodes “Invasion of the Fearians” and “Doomsday,” he mentions as well as travels to the dimension of Qward. Sinestro also managed to return the next year in the new Super Friends permutation, The World’s Greatest SuperFriends, voiced this time

by Jeff Winkless.

For most of his career, Sinestro has been portrayed as… well, to put it mildly, a rather humorless individual. So we can only imagine how he felt when, in his first live-action appearance on TV, he was portrayed by comedian Charlie Callas. The two 1979 television specials (aired January 18th and 25th), collectively known as Legends of the SuperHeroes, feature a superheroic plot in the first episode, while the second is a roast of the superheroes. Both were played for laughs, and even had some songs! But the appearance of Sinestro does indicate his position in GL’s and the larger DC pantheon—and hey, at least they featured his yellow power ring, and he even got to use it!

It would take almost an article of its own to detail Sinestro’s non-comic post-1980 appearances, but those initial forays served to establish him in the public consciousness.

[Editor’s note: Writer Andy Mangels deep-dives into Super Friends lore in a four-part serialized history appearing in our sister mag, RetroFan, issues #26–29. And way back in BACK ISSUE #25, Andy wrote about the Legends of the SuperHeroes specials, best known for their return of Adam West and Burt Ward to the roles of Batman and Robin.] final clash, Sinestro and GL fire beams at each other, but it is a stalemate. This situation will appear again in future clashes. This time the Guardians encase Sinestro in a capsule and send him off into space, supposedly forever. Not big on rehabilitation, are they?

Of course, Sinestro quickly escapes the prison as well as the subsequent ones he is confined to.

Returning in issues #11 (Mar. 1962), 15 (Sept. 1962), and 18 (Jan. 1963), when defeated in the last of the three clashes Sinestro is shrunk down and carried around by GL in a cube!

The strange thing is, in their last battle Green Lantern wins because he dodges Sinestro’s bolt and hits him with one of his own. At various times Sinestro has used “invisible” yellow energy (which I hope some physics major can explain as it defies what I know about color), so why not keep a shield around yourself that your opponent cannot affect?

MY MOTHER, THE… VILLAIN?

Power (Ring) Mad A GL goes rogue, in Green Lantern #7 (July–Aug. 1961), Sinestro’s first appearance.

TM & © DC Comics.

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Maybe feeling the magenta malefactor was a little overexposed, the creators let Sinestro languish until Green Lantern #52 (Apr. 1967) when, during a team-up between the Earth-One and Earth-Two GLs, the Emerald Gladiators battle a… um, possessed car. (Sigh, you’ve gotta love the Silver Age.) Of course, it is Sinestro possessing the vehicle. Seems the car was stored in the same garage as the cube GL had him in, and comicbook energy transfers being what they are, soon the villain controlled the vehicle. Sinestro does free himself, draining energy again from Green Lantern rings.

At liberty once more, Sinestro steals the central power battery from the Guardians, moves it to EarthTwo, and begins to create an army of evil GLs. This presages his later characterization and role in the DCU, as we shall see. The Guardians take charge

Sinestro Through the Years (top left) GL #9 (Nov.–Dec. 1961). Cover by Gil Kane and Murphy Anderson. (top right) Issue #74 (Jan. 1970). Cover by Kane. (bottom) Issue #125 (Feb. 1980). Cover by Dick Giordano.

TM & © DC Comics.

of him after this defeat, feeling he has become a significant enough menace.

Mike Friedrich is manning the typewriter when Sinestro returns in #74 (Jan. 1970), where the villain teams up with Star Sapphire (whose history was told in BI #123 by some guy last-named Martin), but the tale offers nothing new except when he teleports away at story’s end, Hal wonders how he escaped from the Guardians or if he was ever there and not just a projection.

The legendary duo of Denny O’Neil and Neal Adams quickly reused Sinestro in issue #82 (Mar. 1971), but besides introducing his sister they do even less with him than the previous tale did. Lending her his ring so she appears to be a sorceress is basically his only contribution, and at story’s end they are taken away by the local police!

SINESTRO TEAM-UP

Losing his own title after issue #87, Green Lantern had to settle for a backup slot in his good buddy Flash’s magazine. He would then sometimes cross over to co-star in the lead feature as he did in The Flash #222 (July–Aug. 1973). The Guardians begin the tale stating that Sinestro has escaped to Earth, so maybe GL’s comment at the end of #74 was correct and the villain in an Earth jail was not real after all. The scarlet scoundrel teams up with Flash foe the Weather Wizard in a story

by Cary Bates, Irv Novick, Frank McLaughlin, and Dick Giordano. No details are given on Sinestro’s imprisonment when the tale ends.

It seems that Sinestro was bitten by the team-up bug in GL tales and others. Combine this with a seeming desire for other creators to use the character, and he was quite popular for a while. Check out sidebar #2 (on the next page) for a rundown of Sinestro’s antics outside his regular bailiwick.

SILVER TWISTS AND GREEN ARROWS

Denny O’Neil and artist Mike Grell, with an assist from Bob Smith in the latter issue, return Sinestro to the resurrected Green Lantern title in 1976 with issues #91– 92. Green Lantern stumbles across Sinestro in space, and at this point and later in the issue they battle with their rings to a stalemate. Again GL’s ring holds its own against the yellow ring. As the tale progresses, Hal crosses paths with Green Arrow, who assists in a heroic victory (GL and GA were sharing the book at the time) and Sinestro is again sent to an Earth jail.

Issue #92 shows GL may be slow on the uptake as Sinestro again escapes capture because he has a spare ring, a trick he had used to escape imprisonment in previous tales. This quickly leads to another clash in space and the appearance of the “Silver Twist,” basically an infinity symbol floating in space. The device functions as a dimensional portal and spirits the three off to a medieval-themed world where neither GL’s nor Sinestro’s power ring works due to a device constructed by the world’s ruler.

Men Without Fear Issue • BACK ISSUE • 73

Needing to destroy this device and, from the heroes’ point of view, free the downtrodden citizens, the off-world trio is forced to team up and use subterfuge. This leads to a characterization that is one of the first instances of Sinestro appearing as something other than completely villainous as he dresses up as a jester and comments, “This absolutely freezes my soul.”

Victorious, the protagonists destroy the conquerors’ army, with Sinestro being much more ruthless than Green Lantern. As they finish, the Silver Twist reappears and Sinestro vanishes away from the heroes.

TM & © Marvel.

ACROSS THE DC UNIVERSE

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NOT SO MELLOW YELLOW

TM & © Marvel.

Sinestro became quite a popular character as the 1970s moved along and became the 1980s.

Action Comics #443 (Jan. 1975) features our subject as just an extra villain in a plan by the Queen Bee, but does feature Superman melting Sinestro’s power ring with his heat vision!

The next month, in Action #444, the crimson cad employs two assassins to trick Superman into killing Green Lantern, but his ring does not even appear! Both tales were illustrated by Curt Swan and Tex Blaisdell, with Elliot S! Maggin scripting the former, and Cary Bates the latter.

When Secret Society of Super-Villains [see BI #35] debuted with issue #1 (May–June 1976), Sinestro was a charter member. Penciler Pablo Marcos and a few different inkers illustrated the initial issues of the title, with Gerry Conway, then David Anthony Kraft writing, but Sinestro did not really do very much.

Interestingly, though, in #3 (Sept.–Oct. 1976), when Manhunter says they are in a war for control of Earth with Darkseid, Sinestro and the Wizard agree they do not have much stake in it since they are not from this planet. The duo then proceed to sit on the sidelines during the issue’s battle and are called out by the others and leave, planning to head to Darkseid’s lair to offer their services to him!

Stopping off at Society HQ, the pair encounters the Jack Kirby– created Funky Flashman (a pastiche of Marvel’s Stan Lee). Funky’s spiel disgusts the yellow-ringed malefactor and he decides to leave Earth, but writer Bob Rozakis and artist Rich Buckler take over for issue #5 as Sinestro tries to destroy the building first. Hawkman and Captain Comet put a stop to him this time.

No prison seemed to hold Sinestro for long. After his appearance in GL #91–92 (see main article), Sinestro was back in the Secret Society in DC Special Series #6 (1977). With a plan that is almost as old as (insert favorite ancient comic cliché here), Gorilla Grodd assembles a group of villains to team up and kill their enemies one-by-one. Gerry Conway, Arvell Jones, and Bob McLeod crafted the tale that has the heroes rallying to win in the end.

Appearances in World’s Finest Comics #254 (Jan. 1979) by Bob Haney, George Tuska, and Vince Colletta; and The Brave and the Bold #173–174 (Apr.–May 1981) by Gerry Conway and Jim Aparo keep the character active.

Reinforcing his status as an A-lister, the red ruffian appears in Crisis on Infinite Earths and DC Challenge as well as a large number of DC events.

One final note: In DC’s Super Friends #46 (July 1881), Sinestro loses his ring and contemplates if he has chosen the correct path for his life. While not in continuity, the tale shows an otherwise never-seen side of his character.

Sporting an iconic Gil Kane cover, Green Lantern returns the Emerald Crusader to solo status with issue #123 (Dec. 1979). Inside, writer O’Neil teams with artists Joe Staton, Dick Giordano, and Frank McLaughlin over the next five issues to reintroduce many of the titular character’s best-known associates, including Sinestro as his number-one adversary.

Dovetailing with the storyline that officially introduces Guy Gardner as a Green Lantern, Hal Jordan has to rescue him from Sinestro and verbalizes something that has been apparent for a while: the red rogue does not like physical punishment. In any previous appearance, it has not taken much more than a good sock in the jaw to defeat him.

After saving Guy, Hal vows to track down Sinestro, who at one point states that he has transferred his hate of the remotely stationed Guardians to GL and the Earth. This certainly makes it easier to justify GL and Sinestro’s many run-ins.

The Qwardians play a large part in the story, making Sinestro a new ring, but making it clear it must be “harmonized with his psyche.” Thankfully, Hal is finally aware that Sinestro has more than one ring!

Again, though, at one point they use an “invisible yellow” field to deaden GL’s ring. The crucial point is that the Qwardians have decided to invade Oa. When Sinestro tells the Qwardians that he is ready to lead them, they inform him that now, and for all these years, he has only ever been a pawn to them.

This is too much for his ego, and he then assists the GL Corps in beating their army. Sinestro escapes at battle’s end, and there is so much damage that Hal’s obsession with tracking him down ends there.

ENGLEHART OF THE MATTER

Except for a few extracurricular exploits (see sidebar #2), it is not until Green Lantern #198 (Mar. 1986) that our evil subject returns to menace the Emerald Crusader. With the creative team of Steve Englehart, Joe Staton, and Bruce Patterson now charting GL’s adventures, the universe is in the midst of the Crisis on Infinite Earths when Sinestro shows up and pretends to side with John Stewart (Earth’s Green Lantern at the time) and GL Katma Tui. He says he wants to help prevent the destruction of the universe, but actually he only needs their help. They combine their yellow and green rings’ power to use their natural repulsion between hues to break a barrier that surrounds Oa. Englehart was aware of the relationship that had been established between the two colors, but tells BACK ISSUE, “When I wrote those stories there

was only the green energy, so I paid little attention to yellow energy except as a foil to the green.”

Sinestro’s plot doesn’t even get started before he is captured and imprisoned on Oa. Englehart was the author of the framing sequence in GL Annual #2 (1986). In the book, Sinestro tells stories to the “sentient galaxy/sector,” which has been reduced to a ball of “pure mind” and imprisoned in the cell beside him until it awakens enough to warp reality and free him.

This leads directly into issue #217 (Oct. 1987) of the main series, which has been retitled The Green Lantern Corps since #206. The aforementioned being, known as Sector 3600, has teamed up with Sinestro, giving GL’s enemy almost unlimited power—power he uses to commit genocide, killing the entire race of the Green Lantern Kilowog.

As mentioned, and as we will see later, Sinestro has not always been portrayed as purely evil, but this act defined the side Englehart was on regarding the villain’s character. “I go with purely evil,” Englehart says. “In the beginning, he told himself there were 3,600 GLs, from all corners of the universe, so the fact that he didn’t feel he quite fit was actually a good thing. But over time he had to admit he was solely interested in power, and then a power to counter everyone else’s power. Power to wipe out the people who despised him was his be-all and end-all.”

Eventually defeated, Sinestro is put on trial by the GL Corps in issue #222. He doesn’t accept their judgment, feeling he is above them, but Englehart remarks, “Lots of people who choose evil think they’re more enlightened than people trying to do good.”

The Green Lanterns soon conclude what we readers have: while many supervillains seem to quickly escape confinement, Sinestro does it with ease. “When I got a job, I always went back and reread the whole run, looking for things to continue from,” Englehart tells BI. “And I saw Sinestro evolving as well as escaping, writer by writer. Sinestro will not stop. The only way to end his threat is to stop him.”

And stop him, they do! After a vote, the GLs decide the appropriate penalty is death.

And for one of the first times in comics, they carry out the sentence!

This leads to the eventual end That ending was in the title’s of the Green Lantern Corps, for it next—and final—issue, The Green is revealed in the next issue that Lantern Corps #224 (May 1988), billions of years ago, the women of written by Joey Cavelieri and illustratOa had formed a relationship with ed by Gil Kane and Mark Farmer. It the men of Korugar. The Guardians seems that to prevent the Korugarianwere jealous, but thinking themselves konnected katastrophe, the Guardhigher beings, ordered the central ians placed Sinestro’s sentience battery to reduce itself to nothing in the central battery. This is not steve englehart if any of their agents ever harmed really an acceptable situation a Korugarian.

Alan Light. to any Green Lantern in good The Lanterns’ fate is left up in standing, so Hal Jordan ventures into the battery the air as Englehart departs the series with issue #223. He reveals, “GL had doubled in sales early on to combat Sinestro’s avatar and save what he can. and was so popular somebody thought it should Triumphant, Hal manages to preserve a tiny portion be the lead in the weekly mag they wanted to do. of the battery energy so that the GL character lives [Editor’s note: That’s Action Comics Weekly, explored on, but the crimson cad’s essence is almost all in these pages in BI #98.] But Joe and I were doing dissipated, and it appears he dies.

That is where Sinestro’s saga ends in the BI Age multi-issue galactic epics, and doing anything similar in eight-page segments would have been impossible. of the ’70s and ’80s. We would be remiss, however, We declined the offer to continue, and when I’m if we didn’t discuss the changes that came over him as the years progressed. done, I’m done. I had no input in the ending.”

Never-Ending Battle It didn’t take long for Sinestro to pop into the pages of GL’s newly revived title. Original Ernie Chua/Frank Giacoia cover art to Green Lantern #91 (Oct.– Nov. 1976), courtesy of Heritage Auctions (www.ha.com).

TM & © DC Comics.

Men Without Fear Issue • BACK ISSUE • 75

Rotten to the Corps Sinestro hogs the cover spotlight on (top left) The Green Lantern Corps #217 (Oct. 1987) and 222 (Mar. 1988). Cover art for both by Joe Staton and Bruce Patterson. (bottom) The execution of the GL-turned-bad, from issue #222.

TM & © DC Comics.

MEET THE NEW BOSS

It was with the Green Lantern: Emerald Dawn II miniseries in 1991 that the serious revision of Sinestro’s history and character began. Crafted

by Keith Giffen, along with Gerard Jones, Mark Bright, and Romeo Tanghal, the series continues the chronicle of the early years of Hal Jordan begun in the first Emerald Dawn mini. In prison for DUI, Hal is in need of order in his life if he is to become a successful Green Lantern. To do this, the Guardians enlist Sinestro, still a GL at the time, whose sector is a model of order. To the extreme.

As a mark of how differently the creators perceived Sinestro, at one point Sinestro states, “Order, Jordan. Harmony. That is the mission of the Guardians… and the Corps.” The new characterization for Sinestro is as a “control enthusiast,” but also one who sees that as his benefactors’ view as well. A few issues later, the Guardians even admit to themselves that their methods may have aided in his corruption. Unfortunately for Sinestro, while he is away training Hal, a revolution begins on Korugar.

This leads to the discovery of the amount of control he exerted, and, in issue #6, to the same situation as in Sinestro’s very first appearance as he is tried, found guilty of abuse of power, and sent to Qward.

This take certainly gives even more reason for Sinestro’s hatred of Hal Jordan.

Green Lantern received his own series again in 1991, but massive changes were mandated by the 48th issue. Hal Jordan went a little nuts after his hometown was destroyed, and by issue #50 (Mar. 1994), creators Rob Marz, Darryl Banks, and Romeo Tanghal had him destroying the Corps on Oa. The Guardians released Sinestro from the battery to stop him. Sinestro tells Hal what he really thinks of him, and eventually it comes down to a physical battle, not Sinestro’s best discipline.

Hal breaks his neck. The end. Or not. This is comics.

By the way, does anyone not know that Hal went through numerous changes after this storyline and was eventually killed? Well, you do now.

PAST LIVES

While he was, um, dead, Sinestro made a few appearances in various flashbacks. The next significant information about the character was revealed in Secret Origins of Super-Villains 80-page Giant (Dec. 1999), where we finally discover how the red rebel gained his power ring. Creators Ron Marz, Scott Kolins, and Jon Holdredge let us know that he came by his ring accidentally when a dying GL crashed in front of him and bequeathed him the ring.

Unbeknownst to anyone, after defeating the Lantern’s attacker, Sinestro could have saved GL by giving him back the ring but chose not to.

BACK INTO HELL

Writer J. M. DeMatteis teamed with artists Norm Breyfogle and Dennis Janke to produce The Spectre #21–23 (Nov. 2002–Jan. 2003). Hal Jordan was the Ghostly Guardian’s host body at this point, and had a recurring villain named Monsieur Stigmonus who decides resurrecting Sinestro (from Hell, where he has been sentenced) should be his next scheme.

It takes a while for the criminal Korugarian to regain all of his faculties, with the crucial element being the return of his yellow power ring. DeMatteis tells BI, “I’ve always felt there was a kind of symbiotic 76 • BACK ISSUE • Men Without Fear Issue

relationship between the ring and its bearer; so regaining the ring would be the final piece of the puzzle. Essentially it was the final piece of himself.”

Sinestro says he came to believe that the Guardians were false and he could impose his own order. According to DeMatteis, “Somewhere along the line, he went off the rails and began thinking his vision was the right vision not just for himself, but for the universe.” Brought back not as a living being but as an embodied spirit, Sinestro says now he has transcended what he was, and is the embodiment of Cosmic Spite, but even the story’s author had doubts about that. “I don’t think Sinestro believed that,” admits DeMatteis. “That belief was born of his mental deterioration, magnified by the experience of dying, suffering in Hell, and coming back.” To reinforce that, he spends a lot of the story saying to Hal, “You’re the man who murdered me!”

When Sinestro is finally defeated, Hal offers to redeem him, but the villain chooses to return to Hell. “If I’m remembering correctly,” says J. M., “I wanted to take a step toward redeeming Sinestro, but my editor felt that it would be a better twist if we didn’t! My instinct, in story and in life, always leans toward redemption, and perhaps the editor thought I’d done it one too many times.”

With that development, Sinestro disappeared from the DC Universe until Hal Jordan himself was redeemed.

MUST BE A HAL OF A MAN

The six-issue Green Lantern: Rebirth series of 2004 brought Hal Jordan back to life and returned him to the role of Green Lantern. Obviously, Sinestro had to be resurrected as well. This series, created by Geoff Johns, Ethan Van Sciver, and Prentis Rollins, cast the famous “necessary impurity” of the Central Battery as an actual entity named Parallax. When Sinestro was imprisoned in the battery, he woke it up. That’s what caused years and years of problems for Hal Jordan and the emergence of the entity is the catalyst for the series. Rebirth #4 (Mar. 2005) states that it was merely constructs that Hal broke the neck of and Stigmonus animated. Seems it was all part of making Hal hated on his planet, since that is what Sinestro felt Hal did to him. Returned to corporeality, Sinestro attacks. As they battle, Hal says what Sinestro cannot control, he destroys, further enforcing the new characterization. After a prolonged battle, the yellow ring is shattered and Sinestro escapes back to Qward.

Since that time, Sinestro has been an integral part of the DCU, even to the point of having his own Corps and series. Just goes to show how much a reboot can do for your career.

Though we touched on how some creators handled it, we haven’t really answered our central question of why Sinestro’s yellow could not conquer Hal’s green, but let’s let Steve Englehart provide that: “The reason is not that one is inferior to the other, it’s that he never developed enough will power to pull it off.

In going predictably for the evil option, he never wrestled with dilemmas like real GLs.” The author would like to thank Steve Englehart and J. M. DeMatteis for their generous contributions to the preparation of this article.

BRIAN MARTIN lives in Oakville, Ontario, Canada, and tends to prefer green beans over yellow. He hopes that means he is more heroic than evil, but has not yet received a power ring to test this out.

Fear Mongering (top) Hal and Sinestro go at it in Green Lantern vol. 3 #50 (Mar. 1994). (bottom left) Old foes cross paths again in The Spectre vol. 4 #22 (Dec. 2002). (bottom right) A colorful creed, from Green Lantern: Rebirth #4 (Mar. 2005).

TM & © DC Comics.

Men Without Fear Issue • BACK ISSUE • 77

Send your comments to: Email: euryman@gmail.com (subject: BACK ISSUE) Postal mail: Michael Eury, Editor-in-Chief • BACK ISSUE 112 Fairmount Way • New Bern, NC 28562

Find BACK ISSUE on

PREVIOUSLY IN BACK ISSUE…

Looking for more Daredevil in our pages? Then thumb through your BACK ISSUE collection to these previously published editions, which featured our earlier coverage of the Man Without Fear’s multifaceted Bronze Age adventures: #21 (Frank Miller run) #45 (Daredevil/Black Widow partnership) #110 (Ann Nocenti/Mark Waid Pro2Pro) #145 (Kingpin villain history)

DAREDEVIL BY ‘NEAL ADAMS’

When I was a kid, I found a then-new (but coverless) comic with what appears to be ballpoint-pen ink-overs by Neal Adams on two pages. I’ve shown this to a few friends, but they don’t know what to make of it, probably in part because of where it was found: a barber shop in Kahului, Hawaii (island of Maui), in the late ’70s.

(The comic is Daredevil #149, Nov. 1977.)

Of course, Adams wouldn’t have had to really be in Hawaii for the comic to show up there, or it could be someone’s gag, anyway.

I see you have a Daredevil issue coming, so I thought of this.

– Jerry Riddle Jerry, while it’s within the realm of possibility that Neal Adams was is Hawaii in the late ’70s and sketched onto a dogeared community comic while waiting his turn for a haircut, you’re probably right that it’s a gag, or instead, a fan’s homage. (When I was a kid, I doodled—in blue ballpoint!— then-hip mutton-chop sideburns onto Superman and Clark Kent in my Swanderson-drawn Superman comics.) Nonetheless, we’ve included a scan of the second of those two pages at left for our readers to see, just for fun. Thanks for sharing!

LEARNING TO DIG DINOSAURS

Low expectations going in this time [BACK ISSUE #140, the Dinosaur issue—ed.]. I’m not captivated by dinosaurs. Lost interest, in the late ’60s, after collecting little plastic figures in 78 • BACK ISSUE • Men Without Fear Issue

packages of Fritos. Yet, to my pleasant surprise, I still managed to find numerous areas of interest here.

Liked the William Stout interview. I didn’t know dinosaur bones in museums were castings. Makes sense. I’m sure they’re too rare to risk. Also, that an arctic plunge into the water isn’t survivable.

Good to know… not that I was planning on it. Also enjoyed Stout’s art examples here, particularly his two King Kong covers.

In the Mark Schultz interview, liked his notation of the Fantastic Giants #24 book. Yes, the Konga #1 reprint was extraordinary. To me, with the possible exception of his Warren work, that was the most ornate I’d ever seen Steve Ditko’s art. Also loved the Turok, Son of Stone painted cover next to it, with the closeup of the hungry T-rex at dinnertime.

If the prehistoric theme wasn’t captivating to me, much of the art was.

The Art Adams cover to Terror of Godzilla was beautifully composed and drawn. I’d never seen it.

The Gil Kane exhibits from Jurassic Park were also of interest.

While looking closer, I had a great laugh. George Pérez mimicking Gil’s “GK” [signature] with a similar “GP.” Cracked me up!

So, pretty decent for an issue I wasn’t eagerly anticipating.

– Joe Frank Your friendly neighborhood Euryman strives to make our non-mainstream themes, like Dinosaurs, of interest to our superhero-loving audience. Of course, with extraordinary artists like Bill Stout and Mark Schultz gracing #140, plus its artwork by artists primarily known for their superhero work (like Pèrez and Kane, as you mentioned), there was a lot for mainstream readers to love about #140.

LONG-TIME READER, FIRST-TIME WRITER

Although I have been reading BACK ISSUE since the beginning, I do believe that this is the first time that I have written to you.

I wanted to tell you that I enjoy the magazine very much, as I do your sister publication Alter Ego. I did not initially buy all the issues since my primary interest was Golden and Silver Age. So, I would originally pick and choose issues depending on the subjects covered. The 1970s in particular was a real renaissance in comics, I believe, despite the terrible printing standards of the day. I returned to buying comics in mid-1971, after a three year “permanent” divorce from comics, because of the work by people like Adams, Gil Kane, Swan/Anderson, Wrightson, Colan, and so many others as well as writers like O’Neil, Skeates, Thomas, and more.

When I started a pull list from a comic shop, I started to pick up every issue from a store in lower Manhattan near where I worked; alas, the shop went out of business after a few years.

I started to get my issues from Midtown Comics in NYC, but during the pandemic I wasn’t always able to get over to the shop on my weekly visits to the city, and my local comic shop does not carry any TwoMorrows publications, which I am sad to say. I was able to get most of the issues during that period, though a couple only digitally. I still prefer to read hard copies of my books and magazines!

When I was working, it was impossible to keep up with BACK ISSUE and Alter Ego, so I have a box or two of issues going back several years unread. Retired from my day job, I have been trying to catch up, while remaining current. So, here are some short comments about the issues that I have been reading over the last several months: #104—post-Kirby Fourth World—interesting recap. I followed some of the series in the beginning, and there was some good work, but mostly I’ve given up reading any of them since the

characters seem so distant from Kirby’s vision. The series really needed to have an ending; the endless battles with Darkseid become boring after a while and undercut the original run.

Currently, Orion rules over Apokolips and his characterization in Superman seemed at odds with the character’s past. #107—Great Archie issue. Although I read Archie in the early ’60s and then in more recent years when my son became an Archie fan, the period in-between was mostly unknown to me. It’s a shame that the company can’t seem to find much of a market for its books today, even though the characters remain popular in other media. #109—the influence of the first Superman movie was profound. Though I prefer the Silver Age version of Krypton, there is no denying the lasting impact of the movie. George Reeves was, of course, my Superman growing up, but Chris Reeve made a great Superman and looked like a Curt Swan drawing come to life. I enjoyed the recaps of how the movie has impacted not only the comics, but also other media versions. #139—Not-Ready-for-Primetime Marvel Heroes: I’ve been reading comics continuously since the ’70s, but admit that my memory of most books from the ’80s on are vague at most, so it was interesting to revisit with some of these characters like Nighthawk that I was familiar with and see how they fared over the years. Currently, it seems that Nighthawk has had a pigment change! I never read the early Doc Samson stories, or some of the other characters, so the articles about them were enlightening.

Wonder Woman TM & © DC Comics.

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#140—which brings me (almost?) up to date! I never read Xenozoic, but I always liked the way the art looked. Most of the other stuff here also got away from me over the years. So, this issue was one that I knew virtually nothing about the features covered, with the main exception of Sauron, who had debuted during my comic-book hiatus, but the Thomas/Adams X-Men were one of the first series that I picked up when I returned to comics. Your article jogged my memory about the later X-Men and early Marvel Fanfare appearances.

In summary, what I like best about the magazine are the articles that give new insight and background into the creators’ intentions and their influences. The issue-by-issue summaries are generally less interesting to me, unless there were critical turning points in the storylines. It’s always fascinating to see alternative versions of covers and other art. Keep up the good work, and I plan on keeping up with BI. – Paul Zuckerman Thanks for reaching out, Paul, and for your supportive comments!

Next issue: Great Hera, it’s the 20th Anniversary of BACK ISSUE, featuring a tribute to the late, great GEORGE PÉREZ! Wonder Woman: The George Pérez Years, Pérez’s 20 Greatest Hits of the Bronze Age, Pérez’s fanzine days, a Pérez remembrance by MARV WOLFMAN, a Wonder Woman interview with MINDY NEWELL, and more! With a stunning Wonder Woman cover by Pérez!

Don’t ask—just BI it! See you in thirty!

Your friendly neighborhood Euryman, Michael Eury, editor-in-chief

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THE BEST OF SIMON & KIRBY’S

MAINLINE COMICS

by JOE SIMON & JACK KIRBY Introduction by JOHN MORROW

In 1954, industry legends JOE SIMON and JACK KIRBY founded MAINLINE PUBLICATIONS to publish their own comics during that turbulent era in comics history. The four titles—BULLSEYE, FOXHOLE, POLICE TRAP, and IN LOVE—looked to build off their reputation as hit makers in the Western, War, Crime, and Romance genres, but the 1950s backlash against comics killed any chance at success, and Mainline closed its doors just two years later. For the first time, TwoMorrows Publishing is compiling the best of Simon & Kirby’s Mainline comics work, including all of the stories with S&K art, as well as key tales with contributions

by MORT MESKIN and others. After the company’s dissolution, their partnership ended with Simon leaving comics for advertising, and Kirby taking unused Mainline concepts to both DC and Marvel. This collection bridges the gap between Simon & Kirby’s peak with their 1950s romance comics, and the lows that led to Kirby’s resurgence with CHALLENGERS OF THE UNKNOWN and the early MARVEL UNIVERSE. With loving art restoration by CHRIS FAMA, and an historical overview by JOHN MORROW to put it all into perspective, the BEST OF SIMON & KIRBY’S MAINLINE COMICS presents some of the final, and finest, work Joe and Jack ever produced. NOW SHIPPING! (256-page COLOR HARDCOVER) $49.95 • (Digital Edition) $15.99 • ISBN: 978-1-60549-118-9

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DESTROYER DUCK GRAPHITE EDITION

by JACK KIRBY & STEVE GERBER Introduction by MARK EVANIER

In the 1980s, writer STEVE GERBER was embroiled in a lawsuit against MARVEL COMICS over ownership of his creation HOWARD THE DUCK. To raise funds for legal fees, Gerber asked JACK KIRBY to contribute to a benefit comic titled DESTROYER DUCK. Without hesitation, Kirby (who was in his own dispute with Marvel at the time) donated his services for the first issue, and the duo took aim at their former employer in an outrageous five-issue run. With biting satire and guns blazing, Duke “Destroyer” Duck battled the thinly veiled Godcorp (whose infamous credo was “Grab it all! Own it all! Drain it all!”), its evil leader Ned Packer and the (literally) spineless Booster Cogburn, Medea (a parody of Daredevil’s Elektra), and more! Now, all five Gerber/Kirby issues are collected—but relettered and reproduced from JACK’S UNBRIDLED, UNINKED PENCIL ART! Also included are select examples of ALFREDO ALCALA’s unique inking style over Kirby on the original issues, Gerber’s script pages, an historical Introduction by MARK EVANIER (co-editor of the original 1980s issues), and an Afterword by BUZZ DIXON (who continued the series after Gerber)! Discover all the hidden jabs you missed when DESTROYER DUCK was first published, and experience page after page of Kirby’s raw pencil art! NOW SHIPPING! (128-page COLOR HARDCOVER) $31.95 • (Digital Edition) $13.99 ISBN: 978-1-60549-117-2

ALTER EGO COLLECTORS’ ITEM CLASSICS

By overwhelming demand, editor ROY THOMAS has compiled all the material on the founders of the Marvel Bullpen from three SOLD-OUT ALTER EGO ISSUES—plus OVER 30 NEW PAGES OF CONTENT! There’s the STEVE DITKO ISSUE (#160 with a rare ’60s Ditko interview by RICHARD HOWELL, biographical notes by NICK CAPUTO, and Ditko tributes)! The STAN LEE ISSUE (#161 with ROY THOMAS on his 50+ year relationship with Stan, art by KIRBY, DITKO, MANEELY, EVERETT, SEVERIN, ROMITA, plus tributes from pros and fans)! And the JACK KIRBY ISSUE (#170 with WILL MURRAY on Kirby’s contributions to Iron Man’s creation, Jack’s Captain Marvel/Mr. Scarlet Fawcett work, Kirby in 1960s fanzines, plus STAN LEE and ROY THOMAS on Jack)! Whether you missed these issues, or can’t live without the extensive NEW MATERIAL on DITKO, LEE, and KIRBY, it’s sure to be an AMAZING, ASTONISHING, FANTASTIC tribute to the main men who made Marvel! NOW SHIPPING! (256-page COLOR SOFTCOVER) $35.95 • (Digital Edition) $15.99 • ISBN: 978-1-60549-116-5

CLIFFHANGER!

CINEMATIC SUPERHEROES OF THE SERIALS: 1941–1952 by CHRISTOPHER IRVING

Hold on tight as historian CHRISTOPHER IRVING explores the origins of the first on-screen superheroes and the comic creators and film-makers who brought them to life. CLIFFHANGER! touches on the early days of the film serial, to its explosion as a juvenile medium of the 1930s and ‘40s. See how the creation of characters like SUPERMAN, CAPTAIN AMERICA, SPY SMASHER, and CAPTAIN MARVEL dovetailed with the early film adaptations. Along the way, you’ll meet the stuntmen, directors (SPENCER BENNETT, WILLIAM WITNEY, producer SAM KATZMAN), comic book creators (SIEGEL & SHUSTER, SIMON & KIRBY, BOB KANE, C.C. BECK, FRANK FRAZETTA, WILL EISNER), and actors (BUSTER CRABBE, GEORGE REEVES, LORNA GRAY, KANE RICHMOND, KIRK ALYN, DAVE O’BRIEN) who brought them to the silver screen—and how that resonates with today’s cinematic superhero universe. NOW SHIPPING! (160-page COLOR HARDCOVER) $39.95 • (Digital Edition) $15.99 • ISBN: 978-1-60549-119-6

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THE

PACIFIC COMICS COMPANION

by STEPHAN FRIEDT & JON B. COOKE

Author STEPHAN FRIEDT shares the story of the meteoric rise of the Schanes brothers’ California-based imprint PACIFIC COMICS, which published such legends as JACK KIRBY, SERGIO ARAGONÉS, STEVE DITKO, NEAL ADAMS, MIKE GRELL, BERNIE WRIGHTSON, and DAVE STEVENS. From its groundbreaking 1981 arrival in the fledgling direct sales market, to a catastrophic, precipitous fall after only four years, THE PACIFIC COMICS COMPANION reveals the inside saga, as told to Friedt by BILL AND STEVE SCHANES, DAVID SCROGGY, and many of the creators themselves. It also focuses on the titles and the amazing array of characters they introduced to an unsuspecting world, including THE ROCKETEER, CAPTAIN VICTORY, MS. MYSTIC, GROO THE WANDERER, STARSLAYER, and many more. Written with the editorial assist of Eisner Award-winning historian JON B. COOKE, this retrospective is the most comprehensive study of an essential publisher in the development of the creator’s rights movement. Main cover illustration by DAVE STEVENS. SHIPS NOVEMBER 2023!

WORKING WITH DITKO

by JACK C. HARRIS

WORKING WITH DITKO takes a unique and nostalgic journey through comics’ Bronze Age, as editor and writer JACK C. HARRIS recalls his numerous collaborations with legendary comics master STEVE DITKO! It features never-before-seen preliminary sketches and pencil art from Harris’ tenure working with Ditko on THE CREEPER, SHADE THE CHANGING MAN, THE ODD MAN, THE DEMON, WONDER WOMAN, LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES, THE FLY, and even Ditko’s unused redesign for BATMAN! Plus, it documents their work on numerous independent properties, and offers glimpses of original characters from Ditko’s drawing board that have never been viewed by even his most avid fans! This illustrated volume is a once-in-a-lifetime chance to experience the creative comic book process by one of the industry’s most revered creators, as seen through the eyes of one of his most frequent collaborators! SHIPS OCTOBER 2023!

Star Glider TM & © Jack C. Harris.

Shade TM & © DC Comics.

(160-page COLOR SOFTCOVER) $29.95 (Digital Edition) $15.99 ISBN: 978-1-60549-121-9

(128-page COLOR SOFTCOVER) $24.95 • (Digital Edition) $13.99 • ISBN: 978-1-60549-122-6

THE CHILLINGLY WEIRD ART OF

MATT FOX

by ROGER HILL

MATT FOX (1906–1988) first gained notoriety for his jarring cover paintings on the pulp magazine WEIRD TALES from 1943 to 1951. His almost primitive artistry encompassed ghouls, demons, and grotesqueries of all types, evoking a disquieting horror vibe that no one since has ever matched. Fox suffered with chronic pain throughout his life, and that anguish permeated his classic 1950s cover illustrations and his lone story for CHILLING TALES, putting them at the top of all pre-code horror comic enthusiasts’ want lists. He brought his evocative storytelling skills (and an almost BASIL WOLVERTON-esque ink line over other artists) to ATLAS/MARVEL horror comics of the 1950s and ’60s, but since Fox never gave an interview, this unique creator remained largely unheralded—until now! Comic art historian ROGER HILL finally tells Fox’s life story, through an informative biographical essay, augmented with an insightful introduction by FROM THE TOMB editor PETER NORMANTON. This FULL-COLOR HARDCOVER also showcases all of the artist’s WEIRD TALES covers and interior illustrations, and a special Atlas Comics gallery with examples of his inking over GIL KANE, LARRY LIEBER, and others. Plus, there’s a wealth of other delightfully disturbing images by this grand master of horror—many previously unpublished and reproduced from his original paintings and art—sure to make an indelible imprint on a new legion of fans. SHIPS SEPTEMBER 2023!

(128-page COLOR HARDCOVER) $29.95 • (Digital Edition) $15.99 • ISBN: 978-1-60549-120-2

New from TwoMorrows!

RETROFAN #28

ALTER EGO #183

ALTER EGO #184

ALTER EGO #185

BRICKJOURNAL #82

Golden/Silver/Bronze Age artist IRV NOVICK (Shield, Steel Sterling, Batman, The Flash, and DC war stories) is immortalized by JOHN COATES and DEWEY CASSELL. Interviews with Irv and family members, tributes by DENNY O’NEIL, MARK EVANIER, and PAUL LEVITZ, Irv’s involvement with painter ROY LICHTENSTEIN (who used Novick’s work in his paintings), Mr. Monster, FCA, and more!

Known as one of the finest inkers in comics history, the late TOM PALMER was also an accomplished penciler and painter, as you’ll see in an-depth interview with Palmer by ALEX GRAND and JIM THOMPSON. Learn his approach to, and thoughts on, working with NEAL ADAMS, GENE COLAN, JOHN BUSCEMA, and others who helped define the Marvel Universe. Plus Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt, FCA, and more!

Presenting MARK CARLSON-GHOST’s stupendous study of the 1940s NOVELTY COMICS GROUP—with heroes like Blue Bolt, Target and the Targeteers, White Streak, Spacehawk, etc., produced by such Golden Age super-stars as JOE SIMON & JACK KIRBY, CARL BURGOS, BILL EVERETT, BASIL WOLVERTON, et al. Plus MICHAEL T. GILBERT in Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt, FCA, and more!

Celebrating Disney’s 100th anniversary in LEGO! Disney Castles with MARTIN HARRIS and DISNEYBRICK, magical builds

by JOHN RUDY and editor JOE MENO, instructions to build characters, plus: Nerding Out with BRICKNERD, AFOLs by GREG HYLAND, step-by-step “You Can Build It” instructions by CHRISTOPHER DECK, and Minifigure Customization with JARED K. BURKS!

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $10.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99 • Now shipping!

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $10.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99 • Now shipping!

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $10.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99 • Ships Oct. 2023

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $10.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99 • Ships Dec. 2023

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $10.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99 • Ships Oct. 2023

All characters TM & © their respective owners.

The BRITISH INVASION of the Sixties, interview with Bond Girl TRINA PARKS, The Mighty Hercules, Horror Hostess MOONA LISA, World’s Greatest Super Friends, TV Guide Fall Previews, the Frito Bandito, a Popeye Super Collector, and more fun, fab features! Featuring columns by ANDY MANGELS, WILL MURRAY, SCOTT SAAVEDRA, SCOTT SHAW, and MARK VOGER! Edited by MICHAEL EURY.

BACK ISSUE #148

COMIC BOOK CREATOR #31 COMIC BOOK CREATOR #32 KIRBY COLLECTOR #88

DC SUPER-STARS OF SPACE! Adam Strange in the Bronze Age (with RICHARD BRUNING & ANDY KUBERT), From Beyond the Unknown, the Fabulous World of Krypton, Vartox, a Mongul history, the Omega Men, and more! Featuring CARY BATES, DAVE GIBBONS, DAN JURGENS, CURT SWAN, PETER J. TOMASI, MARV WOLFMAN, and more! Cover by CARMINE INFANTINO & MURPHY ANDERSON!

Career-spanning interview with Bane’s co-creator GRAHAM NOLAN! Plus, STAN LEE’s Carnegie Hall debacle of 1972, the Golden Age Quality Comics’ work of FRANK BORTH (Phantom Lady, Spider Widow), and GREG BIGA talks with ex-DC Comics co-publisher DAN DIDIO on his current career as writer/creator on the FRANK MILLER PRESENTS comics line, as well as that new comics line’s publisher!

WILLIAM STOUT is interviewed about his illustration and comics work, as well as his association with DINOSAURS publisher BYRON PREISS, the visionary packager/ publisher who is also celebrated in this double-header issue. Included is the only comprehensive interview ever conducted with PREISS, plus a huge biographical essay.

Also MIKE DEODATO on his early years and FRANK BORTH on Treasure Chest!

THE COLLECTORS! Fans’ quest for and purchase of Jack’s original art and comics, MARV WOLFMAN shares his (and LEN WEIN’s) interactions with Jack as fans and pros, unseen Kirby memorabilia, an extensive Kirby pencil art gallery, MARK EVANIER moderating the 2023 Kirby Tribute Panel from Comic-Con International, plus a deluxe wrap-around Kirby cover with foldout back cover flap, inked by MIKE ROYER!

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $10.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99 • Ships Oct. 2023

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $10.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99 • Ships Nov. 2023

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $10.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99 • Now shipping!

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $10.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99 • Ships Fall 2023

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $10.95 (Digital Edition) $4.99 • Ships Fall 2023

2023 RATES

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BACK ISSUE #147

Great Hera, it’s the 20TH ANNIVERSARY OF BACK ISSUE, featuring a tribute to the late, great GEORGE PÉREZ! Wonder Woman: The George Pérez Years, Pérez’s 20 Greatest Hits of the Bronze Age, Pérez’s fanzine days, a Pérez remembrance by MARV WOLFMAN, a Wonder Woman interview with MINDY NEWELL, and more!

With a stunning Wonder Woman cover

by Pérez!