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Tangents abound and Mike and Eric are completely unapologetic. It’s a good thing we always give you these time stamps for what we discuss. And it’s all about DC Comics anyway so we’re cool, right?

Final Crisis: Resist – 00:01:19 to 00:21:20
Superman 681 – 00:21:20 to 00:35:07

We then get into a nearly 20 minute conversation where we speculate about the future of Action Comics (this was recorded before the recent official news about Action Comics) as well as the future of the Batman family of comics. We also talk about some of the things we would like to do if we were a part of DC editorial before we bring it back to another review of:

Adventure Comics Special: The Guardian – 00:52:35 to 01:02:50

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Mike and Eric start the show with some brief comments about an “Ask the Answer Man” column in Flash # 261 from 1978, which sidetracks into another brief conversation about Grant Morrison’s Seven Soldiers of Victory.

Our main reviews this episode are:
Trinity 21 – 00:05:13 to 00:16:17
Trinity 22 – 00:16:17 to 00:27:23
Trinity 23 – 00:27:23 to 00:38:39
Trinity 24 – 00:38:39 to 00:48:50

Before we end the episode we address some recent negative comments on the iTunes store about the format of the show.

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This episode it’s a spoiler filled Final Crisis catch up as hosts Eric Martin and Mike Myers cover the following:

Final Crisis: Rogue’s Revenge #3 – 00:01:04 to 00:18:50
Final Crisis: Revelations #3 – 00:18:50 to 00:33:11
Final Crisis: Legion of 3 Worlds #2 – 00:33:11 to 00:48:54
Final Crisis: Submit – 00:48:54 to 00:54:30
Final Crisis #4 – 00:54:30 to 01:13:45

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A review from Mike.

Superman and the Spectre
Written by: Lein Wein
Art by: Jim Starlin and Romeo Tanghal
Letterer: John Costanza
Colorist: Jerry Serpe
Editor: Julius Schwartz

Summary: This is continued from the previous issue in which Supergirl punctured WarWorld at super speed and was lost. In this issue Superman decides to try and pick up her trail and speeds faster than anyone has ever traveled. This is why the Spectre appears and stops the man of steel. The Spectre states: “You were traveling far faster than you ever had before my friend, shattering barrier after barrier until only one remained… That golden veil beyond which no living man may trespass.” Spectre showed his power and pretty much swatted Superman like he was a fly for several panels. Eventually Spectre retrieved Supergirl himself and returned her to Superman.

Review: Solid issue but not as good as the last issue. B-

Whatever Happened to Dr. Mid-Nite?
Written by: Bob Rozakis
Art by: Alex Saviuk

Dr. Mid-Nite’s goggles are on the fritz and he has to contact Dr. Gordon Ogilvy to repair them. While on the phone a character that looks a lot like Matt Murdock (named Tim) kills Dr. Gordon Ogilvy for his technology. Dr. Mid-Nite has to solve the mystery and defeat Tim.

Review: An interesting story by slightly above average C+

Another Booster Gold review from our forum friend Tom Mix.

“Cold Redemption”
March 1986
Writer/Penciller: Dan Jurgens
Inker: Mike DeCarlo
Letterer: Agustin Mas
Colorist: Tom Ziuko
Editor: Janice Race

Booster is still on the ground. Reporters and onlookers start to speculate that maybe Booster Gold isn’t the hero he claimed to be, that maybe he should give up now. A Dr. Klyburn helps him into STAR labs.

Dr Jenet Klyburn first appeared in Superman #304, by Gerry Conway and Curt Swan.

We get a brief glimpse of Booster’s agent, who is furious with Booster for losing a fight in front of TV cameras. In Centennial Park, the mysterious woman who kicked Booster’s ass lands with the STAR gizmo. We see that to a couple of kids on a bench, she looks like a kindly old lady. She uses a secret entrance in the base of a statue to enter an underground lair. Her name is revealed as Mindancer, and she is currently part of The 1000.

Mindancer’s first appearance is Booster Gold #1. Created by Dan Jurgens.

This is the first appearance of the 1000. They are a newer version of The 100, created by Cerry Conway and first appearing in Lois Lane #105. In Superman #665, we learn that even before The 100, there was The 10.

Booster stops in at his agent’s office where they have a big argument, then Booster goes home. Skeets tries to give Booster some information on Blackguard and Mindancer by checking his historical records. Hmmm… bit of a clue there? Booster says he feels out of place here and he can’t even go home. More clues???

We get a curious interlude where a mysterious blonde woman quizzes some guy called Ciccarelli about The 1000, and then it’s the next day, and Booster is shooting a cereal commercial at the local prison (?). He gets harrangued over the “Booster Gold Trounced” headlines by his creative director Rose Forrest.

Rose Forrest – AKA Thorn – first appeared in Superman’s Girl Friend, Lois Lane #105. Created by Robert Kanigher and Ross Andru.

Skip Andrews turns up, in case we’d forgotten about the exciting ‘Blaze Comics’ subplot, when the alarm goes off indicating a prison break. A chance for Booster to spring into action. It turns out its Blackguard being busted out by Mindancer. Skeets advises Booster he’s going to need his force field for this one!

We cut back to the shadowy guy with the nice lodgings. It turns out Boosters fingerprints show up nowhere. Likewise his face. “It is almost as though he never existed!”

Another strange interlude to show the chaos at the agent’s office, then its back to the big fight. Booster and Blackguard go toe to toe, while Skeets distracts Mindancer as he is unaffected by her powers. Blackguard is K.O.’ed, but Mindancer takes control of one of the prison guards and is tricking him into turning his machine gun on the crowd of onlookers. Blackguard is moving again, and claiming he is going to deal with “a computerized egg”, and just as Booster stops the prison guard from shooting there is an explosion. What has happened to Skeets? Find out next issue.
The letters page is an article by Dan Jurgens himself.

I do like how clues about Booster’s origin are scattered about the book, together with the mysteries of the shadowy guy and the blonde woman. It reals feels like we are building to something.

Another review from Mike. This time of Action Comics No. 342 from October 1966.

Superman story titled: The Super-Human Bomb!
Written by: Jim Shooter
Inks and Pencils by: Wayne Boring
Colors by: ?

In deep space Braniac is thinking about his hate for Superman and how he will go about defeating him in the future. All of a sudden Brainiac’s ship is attacked by Grax. Grax is wanting to still Brainiac’s shield technology. Grax defeats Brainiac and heads towards Earth to defeat Superman. He launches missiles at Superman. On missile attaches an bomb to Superman. This bomb is powerful enough to destroy all of Earth. If Superman removes it, the bomb will blow up. Superman rushes to Space so he can blow the bomb up away from Earth. Grax thought of this and put a shield around Earth so Superman could not leave. The time on the bomb is about to go off and Superman tries to figure out how to get the bomb off of him. Superman tries to bargain with Grax and state that if he turns to bomb off Superman will let him destroy him. Grax does not go for the offer. Luckly Brainic is pissed and sends a message to Superman on how to defeat Grax. He gets a huge magnet and brings Grax to Earth so he can parish along with everyone else. Grax turns off the shield and Superman boards and takes his ship into deep space where the bomb blows up. Grax uses his technogly to turn into a ghost and gets away. Brainiac and Superman shake hands but know very soon they will be enemies again.

Rating: B+ I am very curious to see if Grax ever showed up again because his intellegence was higher than Brainiacs.

Supergirl story titled: The Day Supergirl Became an Amazon!
Written by: Otto Binder
Inks and Pencils by: Jim Mooney
Colors by: ?

Linda Danvers and her class mates get a college assignment to go to the South Pacific to gather specimens for the school Aquarium. The three girls are on a boat and there tiny ship gets rocked by a storm. Linda changes to Supergirl to save the boat but their ship is rocked off course towards an island of Amazons. The Amazon queen makes the three girl students into slaves. She gives them a potion to become stronger so they can be more efficient slaves. Linda uses this to her advantage to make it look like the potion made her much stronger than the other girls. She ends up driving the Amazon Queen crazy and she lets all three girls leave the island.

Rating B+

*Extra trivia: comics.org states that this issue had a letter from Mark Evanier (who would have been around 14 at the time this issue was published) in the Metropolis Mailbag letters page.

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This episode, hosts Mike Myers and Eric Martin go over the DC items in the November 2008 Previews catalog before jumping into the following reviews –

Trinity 19 from 00:44:40 to 00:53:23
Trinity 20 from 00:53:23 to 01:04:06
Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen Special 1-shot from 01:04:06 to 01:11:03
Superman: New Krypton Special 1-shot from 01:11:03 to 01:16:39

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Another review for you, this time from forum member “Tom Mix”. Thanks for the review Tom.

Booster Gold is easily one of my most favorite superheroes in the DCU (although I will admit that it wasn’t until 52 that I learned to really LOVE him). Anyway, inspired by Mike’s great Warlord and Action threads (and I hope he doesn’t mind the blatant copy-catting) I give you a thread dedicated to our own Micheal Jon Carter….

Booster Gold #1 February 1986

Created, plotted and written by Dan Jurgens
Inks by Mike DeCarlo, colored by Tom Ziuko
Lettered by Agustin Mas
Edited by Janice Race

We begin our story at the offices of Blaze Comics in Metropolis, where managing editor Skip Andrews is bemoaning falling sales figures and late books. He wonders how to give the company a boost, when his eyes catch the headline of the Daily Planet, about Metropolis’ latest hero – Booster Gold.

Cut to Metropolis gym, where Booster is working out while negotiating a big movie deal. He changes into full Booster Gold get up while demanding that the sequel to his movie should be called “Booster Gold: The Legend Lives On”. Everyone seems to love Booster, greets him – one guy gives him a stock tip. Booster replies that the company in question will be bankrupt in a year. He knows. How does he know? Hmmm…

This is Booster’s first appearance anywhere. Created by Dan Jurgens.

He stops for a health drink, and as he leaves, a shady character collects his glass. Booster gets into his limo, where Skeets is waiting, and chiding him for his lack of knowledge of local language and customs.

This is Skeet’s first appearance as well.

Booster is on the phone with his agent, trying to set up a meeting with the Justice League, who he is sure will want him, when the limo is run off the road by an armoured car. Booster and Skeets take off – literally – in pursuit. The armoured car crashes, and its occupants appear and start shooting at Booster. We see his costume seems to be totally bulletproof, and Skeets is able to knock bad guys out with a ray attack. They think they have taken down all the bad guys, when a much bigger bad guy appears and introduces himself as Blackguard. A big battle ensues.

This is also a first appearance, and so also a creation of the mighty Dan Jurgens. That’s Blackguard on the cover.

“Meanwhile, at one of the most exclusive office and residential buildings in Metropolis…” the shady guy from the gym is meeting with someone we see only in shadow. The glass from the gym is for fingerprints of Booster Gold. But back to the fight. Booster shows off his ‘mass dispersal’ power, and Jimmy Olsen shows up to cover the fight for tv.

Jimmy Olsen first appearance in Action Comics #6, created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster.

Booster lures Blackguard on to a power terminal (whatever that is!), where the high voltage fries Blackguard and he’s down for the count.

We cut to the offices of Booster Gold’s agent, who is busy finding new ways of making money with Booster, when a call comes in from Skip Andrews and Blaze Comics. Yes, don’t forget the exciting ‘comic sales are dwindling’ plot line… Anyway, Booster is flying to S.T.A.R. labs to return the gizmo Blackguard was stealing. We get a close up of his hand which reveals he is wearing a Legion ring. That’s odd! He returns the device to STAR labs in the full glare of the media, which upsets STAR a bit, when Booster is hit by some type of beam, which knocks out all the news cameras as well. When the coverage is restored, Booster is paralyzed on the ground, and a strangely clothed woman is making off with the STAR gizmo. What a cliff-hanger!

The letters page is used to give an interesting insight into the genesis of Booster Gold, the character and the book.

Here’s a review from Mike Myers.

“Superman and Supergirl in Warworld”
Written by: Len Wein
Art by: Jim Starlin and Romeo Tanghal
Letter: Ben Oda
Colorist: Jerry Serpe
Editor: Julius Schwartz

2nd Appearance of Mongul; continued from issues 26 where Superman teamed up with Martian Manhunter

Story takes place after Mongul obtains a key for Warworld. Superman and Supergirl follow him into space. Mongul uses Warworlds weapons against them and almost kills them. They come up with a plan to get Mongul to try and control too many of Warworlds resources, which knock him unconscious. Warworld goes on autopilot. Superman distracts Warworld while Supergirl builds up enough speed to reach light speed and punch a whole through the core. Warworld begins to repair itself but Superman then goes onto Warworld to destroy the computers and grab Mongul. Warworld is defeated but Monguls body is nowhere to be found. Supergirl is now missing and Superman must find her.

Grading: Overall a fun issue. Story was continued from a previous issue so there was a little bit of confusion for me. Grade B-

2nd Story “Whatever Happened to Johnny Thunder, Lawman”
Written by: Mike Tiefenbacher
Artist: Gil Kane
Letter: Jasper
Colorist: Anthony Tollin
Editor: Julius Schwartz

DC’s longest running and most durable western character. He appeared in All-American Western 100-126 and All-Star Western 57-119. Raised by a sheriff and a teacher. His mother wanted him to become a school teacher and his father wanted him to become a lawman. Jane Tane decided to do both. He kept a secret identity (would dye his hair) and would become Johnny Thunder. John Tane would remain a school teacher and his mother never knew he was going against her wishes. This also told the story of Madame .44 who was like a Robin Hood in she would stop thieves but take the money they stole for herself. Story opens up with Jeanne Walker (Madame .44) and John Tane (Johnny Thunder) trying to unveil each others secret identities. There is a bank robbery by Silk Black and shooting starts. They both change and defeat Silk Blank and uncover their identities. Johnny Thunder turns her in to his father to get her sentence removed. They marry and have children.

Grading: Great issue and I learned a lot about these characters in such a short amount of pages. Grade A-

“You are cordially invited to attend the first of my reviews of the Secret Society of Super-Villains…..Attend or Die!”

Following the example set by Mike and duplicated by Tom Mix, I too am getting in on the act and have decided to chronicle my experience with The Secret Society of Super-Villains. Starting with issue 1!

Story title: “Attend Or Die”

30 cent cover price
Editor/Writer: Gerry Conway
Artist: Pablo Marcos
Embellisher: Bob Smith
Cover Art: Ernie Chua, signed, dated 1975

Our cast of characters:

Captain Boomerang (Digger Harkness) – A classic Flash Rogue who first appeared in Flash #117.
Captain Cold (Leonard Snart) – Another Flash Rogue who first appeared in Showcase #8.
Copperhead – A snake-themed villain who first battled Batman and Wonder Woman during his first appearance in Brave and the Bold #78.
Gorilla Grodd – A Flash villain who first appeared in Flash #106.
Manhunter (Paul Kirk) – A clone of the original Golden Age Manhunter. This is the first appearance of this clone. A previous clone last appeared in Detective #443. Not much is known regarding his motives as of issue 1 of this series.
Mirror Master I (Sam Scudder) – Yet another Flash Rogue who first appeared in Flash #105. This is the original Mirror Master, not to be confused with the current incarnation of the character whose alter ego is Evan McCulloch
Shadow Thief (Carl Sands)- Hawkman villain who first appeared in Brave and the Bold #36.
Sinestro (Sinestro of Korugar) – The Green Lantern villain who first appeared in Green Lantern #7.
Star Sapphire II (Remoni-Notra of Pandina. Sometimes as Camille/Debbie Darnell as revealed in Justice League of America #174) – 1st appearance. Not to be confused with the original Star Sapphire (Carol Ferris, I: Green Lantern #16) or the Star Sapphire of Earth-2 (I:All-Flash #32).
The Wizard (William Zard of Earth-2) – Long time villain for of the Justice Society of America on Earth-2 who first appeared in All-Star Comics #34.

Synopsis:

The story opens with Mirror Master and Captain Cold escaping the police after the robbery of a jewelry store. And once they’ve escaped to their hideout they receive a mysterious invitation. Before we can find out what it is we cut to Gorilla Grodd escaping his captors on Gorilla City. After that Copperhead escaped from prison thanks to a new costume with improved capabilities which was smuggled in by one of his goons. The goon, waiting outside, has another invitation for Copperhead saying the suit, money and the message came from the “Secret Society.” Copperhead, and indeed the others, is being invited to the bi-monthly meeting of the Secret Society at the Sinister Citadel in San Francisco. (Say that 5 times fast!)

We cut to Sinestro in space, who has also gotten a mysterious invitation this time by sub-space message from across the galaxy. Sinestro arrives at what appears to be a normal office building but in reality is the Sinister Citadel! Sinestro disguises himself as a human complete with a stylish earring. And for some reason his yellow power ring has a Green Lantern symbol on it. Is this how it always appeared back in those days?

Inside the building Sinestro happens upon a lovely French woman named Camille who guides him to the elevators. As he is rising up the elevator, Camille is still in the lobby and transforms into Star Sapphire!

Sinestro walks into a meeting room where we see Copperhead, Captain Cold, Captain Boomerang, Mirror Master, Grodd, The Wizard and Shadow Thief are already waiting. After which Star Sapphire flies into the room where we get some dialogue from Sinestro explaining this is not the Star Sapphire he knows. Sinestro sheds his human disguise and reveals himself to be Sinestro just before the Justice League comes crashing into the room! Batman, Superman, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman! But things are not what they seem as the heroes are not behaving normally nor are they talking. This League is quickly revealed to be robots as their host arrives in the form of Manhunter who says these robots were a test and an example as to why a Secret Society is needed.

Manhunter explains that they must all prove themselves to their financier, who is remaining nameless at this time. He sends Grodd and Copperhead on a mission to steal a sphere of plutonium at a remote lighthouse, which is done quite easily by the two villains despite their bickering. But as they are escaping Copperhead is shot and he drops the plutonium in the ocean and Grodd escapes without his partner.

Back at the headquarters, Manhunter is assuring the team that Copperhead being captured will not betray them. They have ways to ensure silence. And Captain Cold asks about the identity of their benefactor as the issue ends.

Next Issue: Is he friend — or foe? Hero — or villain? Not even the Secret Society can be certain — and they’re the ones responsible for — THE RETURN of CAPTAIN COMET! (On sale the fourth week in April)

My thoughts:

All in all, a fun comic full of bronze age silliness and a cast of some of my favorite villains. I know a little about what the future holds for this series but the mystery surrounding Manhunter’s motives and the identity of the unknown benefactor has me intrigued as to how it will all be pulled off. This is a fine first issue to what promises to be a fun series. The art was decent and the story and dialogue is what one would expect from a comic of the mid-70s. Fast paced and fun is the order of the day. I give this issue a solid B.

Ads and other items of interest:

Inside front cover had this humorous Twinkies ad:

No letters page or Direct Currents or anything like that this issue. There was a “Sinister Citadel” page which featured a special report on Manhunter and Grodd from the files of the Secret Society.

Also, this humorous ad/public service announcement was in the back pages: