All Star Squadron, by Roy Thomas, Jerry Ordway, et al.

 So, since early in the COVID quarantine, my buddies and I have been doing weekly video calls to talk some classic comics. We've read Geoff Johns's initial FLASH run, THE NEW TEEN TITANS by Wolfman & Perez, and the QUESTION by Denny O'Neil and Denys Cowan. Now, we're reading Roy Thomas's paean to DC's golden age, ALL STAR SQUADRON. This week, we're reading issues 14-20, plus JLA 207-209, and I wanted to share some panels from these comics that brought a smile to my face. 

From All Star Squadron #17, by Thomas, with art from Adrian Gonzalez & Rick Hoberg.

This issue was a trial to determine if Robotman was human or merely a mechanical facsimile that should be melted down for slag. The turning point comes when the courthouse begins to collapse and Robotman must break from his chains and use his super strength to save those within, most especially the lawyer who brought suit against him. Revealing his humanity, he is deemed human and free to go. But how can he speak to the judge at his bench when the building collapsed????

From All Star Squadron #15, by Thomas, art by: Gonzalez & Jerry Ordway

Per Degaton, the villain of this 5-part crossover with the JLA, is going to "conquer an earth!" Melodrama aside, I love the reactions of the henchmen in the background -- genuinely funny stuff. I wish there was more of this in these comics.

From All Star Squadron #16, by Thomas, Gonzalez & Hoberg. 

  

I gotta give points to Nuclear, the Magnetic Man (no, I'd never heard of him before either) using Robotman's arm as a weapon against the other All-Stars. Well played!

Another from All Star Squadron #15: 

Luckily, Superman and Dr. Fate have super voices and are able to utilize the very, very few oxygen molecules in space to speak with one another. 
I . . . don't know if that's how that would work. But, it's comics!

And, from JLA #209 by Gerry Conway & Don Heck, more fun with oxygen

    

If Per Degaton is without oxygen (read Zatanna's spell backward, to see what she did to him), then how is he still speaking?!!? 

Another from JLA 209

This should have been the opening page, rather than a couple of pages of backstory exposition. (I know, I know! It was a different time, when exposition was the way things were done in comics . . . except that Larry Hama was doing it with far more aplomb in G.I. Joe, the same year this was published, and Alan Moore was beginning his legendary run on Swamp Thing that same year as well. So, there were other ways of doing it.)

Again, from All Star Squadron #16

Wonder Woman claims she's never needed the help of other heroes. But, she worked with the JSA and All Stars in issues 1-3 of this series. AND THERE'S AN EDITOR'S NOTE TO THAT EFFECT. Why doesn't she remember?!!? And why does Roy Thomas, who wrote all these comics, make her not remember?!!? What the hell is going on?

Superman '86 -- Jerry Ordway's The Man

I've been on a nostalgia kick for quite a few months now, and it's been great.  Reading classic comics, watching old movies and television shows, stuff that I loved, and still love.  And, surprisingly, a lot of this holds up well, upwards of thirty years hence.

                                              

In 1986, DC had a big initiative--post-Crisis on Infinite Earths, through the use of the Legends miniseries--restarting many of their trademark comics, including the Flash, the Justice League, Wonder Woman, and Superman.  DC hired some well-known writers and artists to revamp many of these titles, along with some lesser-known creators, and, for me, it all worked amazingly well.  I did a purge of my collection years ago, and, for the most part, all of these titles stayed in the longboxes, a combination of nostalgia and the staying power of these books.

                                       

Of course, the flagship character for DC comics, and some might argue for comics in general, is Superman.  And the Man of Steel was not exempt from the revamp.  DC went all-in, hiring John Byrne--if not the most popular artist working at that time, he was at least in the top 3--away from Marvel Comics to herald their prime character.  Byrne took over Superman, rebooting with issue #1, and Action Comics, the title that started it all.  They were good, at the time, but the luster has dulled on Byrne's comics, for me.  I tried reading some of these, and just put them aside without completing a single story.

                                        

But the third title--Adventures of Superman--from writer, Marv Wolfman, and artist, Jerry Ordway, has been a fun title to revisit.  The stories are fun, and Wolfman's exposition goes down far more easily than Byrne's, but the biggest take away, for me, has been how much I appreciate Ordway's rendition of Superman (and, in general, Ordway's rendition of any comic book hero).  He, like my favorite Superman artist Jon Bogdanove, draws a muscular, bulky Superman, but one that feels anatomically correct, who does not overwhelm the panels too much (he needs to overwhelm a little, come on, he's Superman).  Also, Ordway never skimps on backgrounds, and despite having some high-panel pages, the storytelling remains clear and crisp, with none of it becoming muddled in the art.  It's a master class on comic storytelling.

                                    

Byrne has become a legend--making his name in the 80s alongside George Perez, Frank Miller, and Walter Simonson, as the four big names working in comics at the time--but, for me, Ordway will always be the man when it comes to rendering the "new" Man of Steel for DC Comics in the middle of that decade.

-chris