On a hot summer day, nothing would quench my thirst more than a cold bottle of Coke from my local convenience store where I would reach into the freezer for that classic glass – yes, actual glass – Coke bottle. I would meander over to the comic book spinner-rack and look onto the covers of a brave new world as each comic book sat there beckoning to me. Once purchased I couldn’t wait to return home or to school, remove the bottle cap from the Coke bottle, and delve into the comic book that I had just purchased. At about 9 yrs old, my decision on what to purchase was based on how cool the cover of the comic book was – the colours, the hero or villain featured and the sexy lady by (typically) his side. I’d do this with regularity and became a Superman fan over several months based on the covers alone! That last run of the “pre-Crisis of Infinite Earths” Superman series from 400 to 423 in the mid-1980s boasted some of the best covers in comics as well as several done-in-one stories. Many of these single read issues would actually feature two stories not just one done-in-one issue.
I come from a generation that first encountered the comic book at the neighbourhood convenience store. Participating in Comic Nexus’ “April Firsts” feature the concept is simple: I get to go back down memory lane and reminisce about important firsts for me in my comic book reading – my first purchase, my first obsession with a superhero – Superman… and Lois Lane, wink, wink… – that was a gateway to a larger comic book world. I get to look back on how my tastes have evolved and grown to appreciate the art of the comic book form and more importantly the storyline. From my haphazard comic book selection criteria at 9 yrs old to my discriminating tastes as an adult, it will always be those hot summer days – flicking off the metal bottle cap by wedging it against the window sill at my elementary school of that a cold glass Coke bottle, the condensation on the bottle causing my hands to get damp and the comic book soaking up the moisture – that always takes me back to the anticipation and excitement of reading the newest and latest happening of my superhero that week.
First Things Firsts
However, while those summer moments were the most memorable, they were not exactly when my first exposure to comic books occurred. Prior to discovering comic books at convenience stores, and much later at comic book stores, I would be given comic books by friends growing up or by strangers (more on that in a moment).
My first memories of owning a comic book go back to the late 1970s. DC Comics Presents #8 (1979) had a pretty cool and inviting cover.
I did a retro review several years ago of this book that can be found here. In it I explain why I loved this book and why its a memorable first team-up book for me:
The issue also features one of the most haunting moments of my youth – Superman accidentally ripping Swamp Thing’s arm off and, later, watching it grow back slowly! Cool and eerie at the same time!
The next most haunting image? Sixty Solomon Grundy’s crawling from the sewers and upturning gratings across the streets of Metropolis! I mean – sixty super strong monsters vs. one Superman. That was a very cool image from a boy born in the Bronze Age of Comics!
My next memorable comic book is my first super-team book in Batman and the Outsiders #2 (1983).
I also reviewed this book and the debut issue a while back. Issue #2 has a deep meaning for me as it is one of my earliest encounters with the work of Jim Aparo who remains the definitive Batman artist to this day. It also is memorable to me because without the generosity of a stranger I would not have had such a wonderful memory. As noted in my review:
Overall, these two issues really exemplify what a team book should be. The team has a clear purpose. They are proactive and unafraid to do the right thing regardless of borders with calculated consequences. They are not the Justice League of America, they are a team willing to get dirty for a just cause — a refreshing twist on the traditional hero and team books of the time.
Writer Mike Barr seems to understand Batman’s psyche for the most part, and a weaves an interesting yarn in the first two issues of the Outsiders franchise. His crisp dialogue works well within a plot that had to not only tell an entertaining story, but also establish and bring a diverse group of heroes together. He made an illogical group of heroes seem like a logical choice for a team. These issues were really well done.
While Curt Swan to me is the definitive Superman artist, Jim Aparo is the definitive Batman artist. Like Swan, Aparo was respected by those within the comics industry, but, at the time, was not fully appreciated for his contribution to the medium by fans. Visually, he contributed much to how Batman is drawn today from movements, to mannerisms, to body type, you name it. He is one of the few pencillers who can ink his own work without butchering it. Aparo’s inks really help his pencils bring the action and characters to life.
Jim Aparo’s cover to issue 2 — with Batman, Metamorpho, and Black Lightning shackled to a wall, and Geo-Force, Halo, and Katana breaking down an adjacent wall, and rushing to stop Baron Bedlam from killing the shackled heroes — is one of my all-time favorite comic book covers.
I still remember where I was when I first saw this particular comic book. I was in the hospital, and I had just gotten my tonsils out. I was in some discomfort and a similar-aged boy in the next room came over to me and offered me two comic books out of the goodness of his heart — a selfless act that we probably don’t see enough today, and one that I still carry with me and remember with much fondness. The two comic books were Batman and the Outsiders #2 and one of the issues of Marvels’ Crystar mini-series at the time, I don’t remember which specific issue it was. Although I thanked him at the time, I also want to do so again…. the memory is still sharp, crisp and vivid.
A “paying” Superman fan is born
Now, getting back to my summer boyhood memories of Superman, one of my fave and earliest actual comic purchases remains Superman #405 (1984) reviewed by me here.
What drew me in was the cover and the coolness of the title of the story “Mystery of the Super-Batman”. As noted in my review:
This classic pre-Crisis issue of Superman begins ordinarily enough. Two thieves, in broad daylight, are in mid-robbery of a museum, clutching their prize – a golden flute. As they are running to their get-away car, they almost trip over a panhandler on the museum steps. The crooks speed off, but their get-away car’s hood is crushed by the force of a… batarang? The captions for this action are quite the page-turners too…. “Criminals in Gotham City soon learn to fear the dread Batman…but this isn’t Gotham City! Actually, it’s Metropolis… home of the amazing Superman.”
Wow, I didn’t know Batman could throw one of his boomerang’s with such force… I mean, to demolish the front of car? Wow. Oh, wait a second. This is a Superman title… what gives?….
I also must say that this issue opens with one of the coolest comic images of my youth – the second page displays the image of the Super-Batman – a hero garbed with Batman’s cape, cowl, and utility belt with Superman’s traditional emblem and costume. Fantastic – a fanboy’s dream, fondly remembered almost two decades later!
Those issues, particularly 400 to 423 of Superman in the mid-1980s had so many great issues. Most of the interiors for those issues were illustrated by legendary Superman artist Curt Swan. However, despite Swan’s interior grace, and the reliability of fill-in artists like Alex Saviuk on this Super-Batman story, the covers were what really drew me to the books. Here is a sampling of some of my favourite covers of this era:
Dave Gibbons made a Green Lantern fan out of me
Dave Gibbons was so far ahead of his time when he drew Green Lantern in the early 1980s. His work was head and shoulders above most artists producing comics at that time. His dynamic Hal Jordan and technical detail of planes and other machinery really contributed to a clean, elegant and “realistic” style that many artists today try to do, but so many can not achieve. While Gibbons first started as artist on Green Lantern with issue #172, I first encountered his work on issue #178 that saw the debut of the Demolition Team as well as the Predator.
While Gibbons was later succeeded by Joe Staton as artist on the book, and writer Len Wein was replaced by Steve Englehart, this era in Green Lantern lore really stands out. We have the debut of the Predator, we experience the villainy of Eclipso, Hal Jordan quits being a Green Lantern, he’s replaced by John Stewart who unmasks to the public, and on and on. Despite such compelling stories, and a subplot where Hal struggles to be a hero even without his ring, the run while compelling and did eventually see Hal return as Green Lantern, did serve as a funeral march to the eventual demise of the “singular” titled Green Lantern book as with issue #201 it was retitled and retooled to be a new Green Lantern Corps book.
Without Gibbons exceptional art on the cover and interior of issue #172, and the compelling narrative therein, I would never have picked up my first Green Lantern book. And, without that book, I may not have been compelled to seek out my local comic book store to get the preceding Green Lantern issues.
A Batman Annual that made me a Batfan
Batman Annual #9 (1985) was a really well written and well drawn book. The overall story arc is titled the Four Faces of Batman and written by Mike W. Barr.
The first story within the arc is pencilled by Jerry Ordway and reveals Batman’s “Child” face. In any eerie parallel to Bruce’s robbed childhood when his parents were killed, Bruce Wayne saves a young African American boy from a runaway car driven by a would-be liquor store robber that kills the boy’s parents. The boy is angry and consumed by catching the driver. He’s obsessed with the driver’s ski-mask and draws it over and over at every opportunity. To prevent the boy from going through the life young Bruce Wayne did, Batman sleuths and captures the remorseful driver. With the ski-mask handed to the boy as proof of the capture, Batman encourages the boy to go down the path his parents wanted for him – to be a violinist. It’s a very touching story.
The second story shows Batman’s “Avenger” face and is illustrated by Alex Nino. A bank robbery goes awry when an elder teller has a fatal stroke reacting to the threatening gun play by a gang masquerading as The Black Heart Liberation Army. That brings out the real Black Hearts who hunt down the criminal gang that co-opted their name and confront them in their explosive filled hideout. The Black Hearts hear a bang and open fire on the gang who return fire and clip the explosives…. and they all go boom. Where’s Batman? Well he was outside and popped a firecracker that the Black Hearts mistook for gunfire that started the fatal chain reaction.
The third story reveals Batman’s “Detective” face and is pencilled by Dan Jurgens. This is also my favourite of the four stories and is a classic whodunit with a tennis themed backdrop in a story titled “Death by Double Fault”. A wheel-chair bound Philip Vernon, a friend of Bruce’s youth a decade earlier, is recreating the night he believes someone pushed him down stairs, crippling him, and ending a promising tennis career. Everyone believed it was an accident, but Philip believes either his father Philip Sr., brother Larry O. or ex-girlfriend Jane, a local channel 40 sportscaster, did the deed. He sets a trap and invites Bruce as he was also there that unfortunate night a decade ago. Unfortunately, Philip’s trap leads to his own death, but in his dying moments, he uses a handheld tennis video game to provide a clue to police and Batman as to his killer. The clue? A 40-0 score that in tennis parlance is a “love” game. The number 40 seems to implicate all 3, but Batman delves further and realizes the “love” game refers to the murderer’s initials…. Larry O. Vernon, Philip’s brother.
The last story shows Batman’s fourth “Man” face and is illustrated by Paul Smith. Batman saves some students and their teacher from a burning school caused by an arsonist who he captures. The story is basically everyone recounting their take on the events: the teacher telling police that she saw Batman’s humanity in his efforts; the crippled boy bragging to a classmate that Batman was larger than life, super-human, and used his power of flight to save them; the arsonist tells his lawyer that Batman was timid yet lucky in capturing him; and finally Bruce himself who regales Alfred with the events of the night and is very self-critical that despite the outcome he believes he was careless because he actually was shot in the shoulder. A very cool, tried an true method of story-telling that worked really well here.
Complex, compelling stories with great artists on each that captured a different face of Batman and styles that conveyed different moods. Certainly an engaging first substanstive exposure to a Batman comic book for the young boy that I was. I remember rereading the first and third stories multiple times.
Up Next
My next column features my first encounters with many second tier lesser known DC characters and titles that defined my post-Crisis reading “firsts” in the mid to late 1980s. These include the Legends mini-series, the Suicide Squad, Hawk and Dove and a few others. See you next time.
