Detective Comics 445

Detective Comics 445

Mar 1975

Break-In at the Big House

by Len Wein, Jim Aparo, Julius Schwartz

Commissioner Gordon asks Bruce Wayne to help him convince Batman to turn himself in. Bruce instead gets dressed up as Batman and breaks in to Gotham City's prison. He wants to have a talk with Ra’s Al Ghul. The mastermind criminal confounds Batman by shooting himself in the chest. The guards assume that Batman shot Ra's. The guards try to apprehend Batman but the Dark Knight Detective escapes through a tunnel created by the Spook. 

Fantastic Four 229

Fantastic Four 229

Apr 1981

The Thing from the Black Hole

by Doug Moench, Bill Sienkiewicz, Joe Sinnott, Jin Novak, George Roussos, Jim Salicrup 

Ben helps Alicia rearrange the sculptures in her art studio. Reed and Sue take Franklin to the zoo. Johnny and Lorrie Melton, his newest girlfriend, check out the latest vehicles at the auto show. Everything in the lives of the Fantastic Four comes to a screeching halt when the Ebon Seeker arrives in New York City. They do their best to stop him but nothing seems to work. He seems impervious to their attempts to interfere with his efforts to wreck havoc in the Big Apple. This installment of FF ends with the team meeting Firefrost, the Ebon Seeker’s lover. 

Grimjack (1984) 12

Grimjack (1984) 12

Jul 1985

Charnel House

by John Ostrander, Timothy Truman, Lina Lessman, Mike Gold

Manwyyes and Elvanna return. They need John Gaunt’s help tracking down a runaway named Huoror. The search for the runaway takes them to some of the darker, seedier neighborhoods in Cynosure. Elvanna and Grimjack almost get killed, first by a mob of aliens and then by some giant slugs known as psyphyaliens. They find Huoror but he is dead by the time they get to him.

Manwyyes saves Elvanna’s life but she is so shocked by the act of violence he commits that it shakes her faith in the man she once thought was a god. 

Detective Comics 444

Detective Comics 444

Jan 1975

Bat-Murderer!

by Len Wein, Jim Aparo, Julius Schwartz

Commissioner Gordon recounts to one of his men of how he sent Batman on a mission that resulted in the Dark Knight murdering Talia Al-Ghul. Commissioner Gordon tried to have Batman arrested but Batman insisted he was innocent. Batman fled into the night, determined to find the evidence that would clear his name. 

Thoughts

This is the first chapter of a five-part story. This installment is just 12 pages long. I am reading it in Tales of the Batman: Len Wein via Hoopla. The individual issues would probably cost me at least $15 to $25 a piece in fine condition.

Fantastic Four 228

Fantastic Four 228

Mar 1981

Ego-Spawn

by Doug Moench, Bill Sienkiewicz, Joe Sinnott, Jim Novak, George Roussos, Jim Salicrup

Reed, Sue, and Ben take Franklin to see Dr. Abe Jankovitz, professor of neurological studies at Seaboard University in Massachusetts. They hope Jankovitz can help them learn more about Franklin’s superpowers which have seemed erratic up to this point.

Johnny goes on a date with Lorrie, a mechanic he met at the race track. Their date gets interrupted first by Franco, a tough guy who doesn’t like the way Johnny showboats for Lorrie, and then by Franklin’s superpowers, while Dr. Jankovitz is running some tests. 

Grimjack (1984) 11

Grimjack (1984) 11

Jun 1985

Long Gone Dead

by John Ostrander, Timothy Truman, Larry Elmore, John Workman, Cathy Workman, Rick Taylor, Mike Gold, John Snyder III

John and Spook get away from Rio and his men only to find another group of men on their tails, the Law Killers: Lash, Grunt, and Preacher. Spook lays her cards on the table and tells Grimjack a little bit about her past and how she came to be what she is and Grimjack reciprocates.

Spook tricks Rio and his men into attacking the Law Killers. Grimjack blows up the weapons shipment. Gaunt and spook escape back to Cynosure. He collects his reward. She gets arrested but promptly escapes.

Sgt. Rock (1977) 406

Sgt. Rock 406

Nov 1985

Angels with Black Wings, Book Two

by Robert Kanigher, Adrian Gonzalez, Adam Kubert, Andy Kubert, Joe Kubert, Tatjana Wood

Captain Dennis tells Sgt Rock more about the history of the 332nd Fighter Group, including some of his own exploits. The conversation is eventually broken up by Lieutenant Nichols who insists on enforcing the rules that (during World War 2) forbid Black and White servicemen from mingling.

Captain Dennis survived the war and years later, while taking part in a march led by Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., crossed paths with a police captain named Nichols. 

Dracula Lives 3

Dracula Lives 3

1973

Lord of Death… Lord of Hell!

by Marv Wolfman, John Buscema, Syd Shores

12 pages

Dracula is captured by other vampires and taken to Nimrod, King of the Vampires. Nimrod demands that Dracula accept him as his ruler but Dracula refuses. Nimrod gives Dracula some time to think about what he is saying.

Lala, Nimrod’s woman, comes to Dracula and offers herself to him but he loses interest when he sees that she too is a vampire. Dracula and Nimrod fight the next night. Dracula prevails. Nimrod and Lala are destroyed. Dracula becomes the new king of the vampires. 

Grimjack (1984) 10

Grimjack (1984) 10

May 1985

Hard-Timers

by John Ostrander, Timothy Truman, John Workman, Janice Cohen, Mike Gold

John Gaunt travels back in time to Gravesend, TX sometime after the American Civil War. He’s there to prevent the transfer of some modern weapons to a time period in which they did not belong. The person delivering the weapons, Spook, a beautiful, dark-haired woman, is supposedly just what her name implies, a ghost.

Grimjack makes contact with Spook in the hopes that he can dissuade her from delivering more illicit weapons to Rio, the buyer. The local long arm of the law, which has already decided that it doesn’t like Grimjack, steps in and arrests them Gaunt and Spook. They get separated but later reunite on the train carrying the stock of weapons. They are headed out of town but men whom Rio hired are hot on their trail. 

Sgt. Rock (1977) 405

Sgt. Rock (1977) 405

Oct 1985

Angels with Black Wings

by Robert Kanigher, Adrian Gonzalez, Adam Kubert, Tatjana Wood, Joe Kubert

Sgt. Rock and the men of Easy Company meet up with the 99th Squadron, part of the 332nd Fighter Group in Ramatelli, Italy. Easy Company provides security for the airfield. Captain Dennis, one of the pilots of the 99th Squadron, tells Sgt. Rock about the squadron’s men, where they trained, and the action they’ve seen in the Second World War. 

The story ends on a cliffhanger as Captain Dennis is telling Rock about a fight with a German pilot in a ME-109.

Dracula Lives 2

Dracula Lives 2

1973

That Dracula May Live Again!

by Marv Wolfman, Neal Adams, Archie Goodwin

13 pages

Dracula, aka Vlad the Impaler, leads his troops in battle against the invading forces of the Turkish Empire in 1459. Lord Torac captures Dracula after the ruler of Transylvania has been badly wounded. Torac takes him to a gypsy woman with healing powers, or so he has been told. 

Dracula is transformed into a vampire by Lianda, the gypsy woman, who is (of course) also a vampire. Torac takes Dracula, while he is still recovering, back to Transylvania. Dracula repays Torac by killing the Turkish lord and his men after he learns of how they raped Maria, his wife. He leaves his infant son with gypsies and buries the body of Maria before taking an oath of vengeance on the human race. 

Grimjack (1984) 9

Grimjack (1984) 9

Apr 1985

My Sins Remembered

by John Ostrander, Timothy Truman, John Workman, Cathy Workman, Janice Cohen, Mike Gold

Doctor Leslie Geraci, psychotherapist at the University of Cynosure, and Doctor Ullrich Prec hire John Gaunt to enter the Psyche Column and rescue a clone of Macrophysist Althea Muller. Grimjack brings in a security team, BlacJacMac and his men, to guard the perimeter while he is within the Psyche Column. 

Gaunt finds Althea Muller but she is in no shape to be immediately separated from the Psyche Column. He helps her deal with childhood memories of her parents that she had never fully processed. The experience unleashes some things within himself that he must deal with before he can exit the Psyche Column.

The story ends with the reveal that Dancer, Katar, and Mac Cabre are watching what Grimjack has been up to and plotting how they can get him to do their dirty work.

New Teen Titans (1984) 12

New Teen Titans (1984) 12

Sep 1985

Sins of the Past

by Marv Wolfman, Stan Woch, Romeo Tanghal, Albert de Guzman, Adrienne Roy

The ghost of a young girl haunts Dick Grayson’s apartment. Cyborg sees the same ghost while unsuccessfully trying to stop a gangland murder. Nightwing, Cyborg, and the rest of the Teen Titans work together to figure out what is up with the ghost haunting Dick’s apartment.

Azrael meets Mother Mayhem (Brother Blood's lieutenant) on a deserted beach. She tells him that he is a messenger sent by God. He takes her at her word.

The Teen Titans sleuth around and discover that there was a murder committed in Dick’s apartment 50 years earlier. Some more sleuthing leads them to people who know different parts of the story. They put all the pieces together and reunite the ghost of the girl with the ghost of her parents. 

Dracula Lives 1

Dracula Lives 1

May 1973

To Walk Again in Daylight!

by Steve Gerber, Rich Buckler, Pablo Marcos, Joe Rosen

10 pages

Dracula finds Du Monte, in Vienna in the late 1800s, who claims to have found a cure for the vampire lord’s deadly affliction. Du Monte tricks Dracula into doing some of his dirty work for him. Once Dracula realizes he’s been tricked he turns on Du Mont and turns him into that which he fears most, a vampire.