#captain comet

This may have been the best month in fictitious Superman actor Gregory Reed’s entire career, as he was a featured character in not one but two full comics, ones that I bought and read back-to-back. I’d imagine that the fact that the Superman movie was starting up production was the source of this sudden interest in this character–he’d soon enough slide back into obscurity. (And sorry to spoil one of the plot elements of this issue of SECRET SOCIETY OF SUPER VILLAINS up front.)

The issue opens with an even more significant appearance, as the shadowy mystery man who broke Copperhead out of prison and invaded the Sinister Citadel last issue turns out to be Superman baddie Lex Luthor. He’s in need of cronies for a job he has planned, and so he’s decided to hijack the Secret Society for his own purposes. Luthor gets both good moments and bad in this story, but the ease with which he humiliates the Society’s would-be leader the Wizard is definitely in the plus column–Lex was a formidable badass, make no mistake.

Seems that Lex is pissed that a Superman movie is being made, one which the Man of Steel himself is providing the special effect for because he doesn’t have anything better to do with his time. So Luthor wants to use the Society’s resources to recruit Felix Faust and the Matter Master to help him destroy the Kryptonian Kid with magic–and he begrudgingly allows the laid-low Wizard to join in the assault as well. The movie’s currently shooting in Sapporo, Japan, so that’s where we find actor Gregory Reed gearing up, unaware that all hell is about to break loose.

Meanwhile, after an uneventful shift on JLA monitor duty, Hawkman takes Captain Comet back to his home in Midway City for a rare Thanagarian meal. The growing friendship between Hawkman and Captain Comet was one of the appealing features of this run. While Katar busies himself in the kitchen, Comet and Shayera see breaking news about the Superman filming being threatened by a rockslide, notice the Wizard in the crowd, and race to the rescue (leaving Katar completely unaware.)

On site, the three magicians are confused by why Superman hasn’t soared into action to save the production, having come in after Gregory Reed donned his lifelike Superman mask. To try to get the Man of Steel into the action, they summon up a huge two-headed dragon. But it’s Captain Comet and Hawkgirl who instead fly into battle with the creature, entangling its two heads so that fiery and icy breath cancel each other out. Back at the ranch, Lex isn’t at all pleased.

Lex has also had about enough of Funky Flashman’s faux-Stan Lee banter, and is about to put the garrulous huckster through a wall when Funky resorts to his ultimate desperation play: doffing his toupee and false facial hair and appealing to Luthor one baldie to another. Back in Japan, the Wizard’s having performance anxiety as his powers malfunction, producing unspectacular results. The trio attempts to kill Superman by creating a volcano under Reed’s feet, but can’t quite manage it–and again, It’s Comet and Hawkgirl that take care of the situation.

At this point, the three magicians decide to attack directly–but Felix Faust’s spell to remove Superman’s powers backfires when he directs it against the powerless Gregory Reed, and the actor and Hawkgirl clean up on the three startled sorcerers, much to the chagrin of the watching Lex Luthor. Faust and the Matter Master are taken into custody, but a few pages later, the Wizard informs Funky that he himself eluded capture and is returning to the Sinister Citadel–where Funky has a new business idea brewing!

And what of Lex Luthor? He storms out of the Sinister Citadel, vowing revenge, after Copperhead turns on him and sides with Funky Flashman. Not the greatest move on the surface of it, Copperhead ol’ sock. But it all turns out all right as Funky calls the cops on Lex, and they’re waiting for him when he leaves the building–and Funky assures the others that they won’t believe anything Lex tells them about a team of super villains operating from that address–that would just be nutty! It’s a sad day for Lex Luthor, he doesn’t even attempt to make a fight of it when the police show up for him

The last bit in the issue contained the latest “Stan’s Soapbox”-style column from new DC publisher Jenette Kahn, this one among other things outlining the timeline under which a comic book was produced by DC back around 1977 as explanation for why she couldn’t discuss all of the mail they’d so far received for her Dollar Comic experiment–because when she was writing the page, no mail was yet possible. The page also included the first of a series of profiles on key DC staffers. These little profiles featured invaluable information, often about industry figures such as Sol Harrison, shown here, who weren’t often interviewed about their own place within the history of comics. 

This was the first issue of DC SPECIAL to go all-new, and which signaled the end of reprint comics at DC for the time being. There’d still be a few stragglers, but from this point forward, virtually everything the company published in regular comic book form (and even in Treasury format) would be original material. I bought it at the 7-11 because I already liked Captain Comet from the pages of SECRET SOCIETY OF SUPER VILLAINS, so i was happy to see him headlining in another book. His strange co-star, Tommy Tomorrow, I didn’t have any feeling for one way or the other.

One of the big themes throughout the 1970s in comic book publishing was that everybody was looking for the next trend, the next big hit. After the boom of the Batman TV Show-era of the 1960s, super heroes were seen as a genre that was on its last legs and might soon fade away. As a result, there was a sustained rush to find something new that would interest young audiences just as much. Barbarian comics, weird/mystery comics, newish western comics, movie adaptations and continuations, literary adaptations–all sorts of things were tried. As it turned out, super heroes still had plenty of life in them. But all of that explains why this particular issue of DC SPECIAL is devoted to Dinosaurs. Maybe this would be the new hot-button trend that would move units.

For all that, this is still a super hero comic, and it opens with a strange meteoroid tearing across the cosmos both in 1977 near the Justice League satellite and simultaneously in 2056 in deep space, where Tommy Tomorrow is returning from an assignment. The meteoroid tears a gash in the fabric of time and space, drawing Tommy’s craft into the past and also getting the attention of Hawkman and Captain Comet, who are hanging out on the JLA satellite on monitor duty. The meteoroid further makes its way back to 100,000,000 BC, and the rift it’s created allows the dinosaurs living in that era to pass into the present day of 1977.

Back in the past, the radiations from the downed meteoroid mutate one of the native dinosaurs into the advanced humanoid Tyrano Rex, who proclaims the rock from space to be his god. Recognizing that their craft has been pulled into the past, Tommy Tomorrow and the Doctor he was escorting to treat a desperate plague situation in the Vega system head out to try to locate the meteoroid and work out a way to get home. They cross paths with Tyrano Rex, who orders his dinosaur brethren to attack them. All Tommy has is a handgun, and its charge will be depleted eventually, but it’s enough to fend off their attackers.

In the present, Hawkman leaves Captain Comet to hold down the fort while he ventures forth to rescue civilians imperiled by the dinosaurs. Comet uses the JLA monitors to check in on how other heroes are doing around the globe, and sees Chronos in front of a huge time portal. Thinking him a fellow hero, Comet streaks to his aid, figuring that the portal must be where the dinosaurs are coming from. He and Chronos fight side-by-side, and Comet’s mental telepathy tells him that Chronos is no hero, and that he’s actually responsible for this whole situation. Comet goes to try to close the portal, but Chronos intercedes–he’s after the meteoroid, too,and needs the portal to remain open until he can retrieve it for himself.

Back in the past, Tommy and the Doctor run the gantlet of savage dinosaurs, making their way back to their ship. They’ve seen the portal on their side, and realize that it’s the key to getting back to their own era. They direct their ship to fly towards the portal, and scoop up the meteoroid as they pass it, to power their journey back to the present. Unfortunately, they also get Tyrano Rex, who clings to his god-rock even as it is stolen.

So it’s a dual race, as Tommy and the Doctor try to hold off Tyrano Rex until their ship can get back to the future, while the time-corridor is closing because of Captain Comet’s efforts in 1977. The end result is that the ship, the meteoroid and Tyrano Rex all wind up coming through the portal in 1977. Tyrano shouts his claim over the rock, which tees Chronos off, and as the time-thief tries to get it away from the intelligent dinosaur-man, his shots go awry and wind up pulverizing the meteor.

Unfortunately, this causes Tyrano Rex to revert to his original dinosaur state, right in the middle of the city. Tommy uses his space-gun to distract the beast so that Comet can get the drop on him, and then summoning all his power, hurl him back through the closing portal. Meanwhile, his prize now lost, Chronos attempts to sneak away, but Tommy gets the drop on him, and holds him for Captain Comet (who he recognizes from the history books.) And then, in a short epilogue set back on the JLA satellite, Superman shows up, ready to take Tommy and his ship back to 2056 in plenty of time to avert that outbreak of plague. Hawkman and Captain Comet even get in a bit of good-natured ribbing.

Writer Bob Rozakis also contributed an amusing text page outlining how the story and project came about. There was also an uncredited history of Tommy Tomorrow text feature that looks to me like it could have been done either by editor Paul Levitz or, again, Rozakis. Apparently, this issue didn’t sell particularly well, as there were no further dinosaur-themed specials, nor for that matter solo stories featuring either Captain Comet or Tommy Tomorrow, not for a good while.

I think this was probably my least-favorite issue of SECRET SOCIETY OF SUPER-VILLAINS. Gone was the overarching threat of Darkseid and his minions from Apocalypse, gone were many of the villains that I cared about and was interested in. Instead, what we got was for all intents and purposes an issue of CAPTAIN COMET. And I liked Captain Comet just fine, but this one was underwhelming. Maybe it was the inclusion of third-stringer Captain Stingaree, I don’t know.

The story opens with the launch of a space-boomerang ship. At the helm are Captain Boomerang, Captain Cold, and Captain Stingaree–no idea how the first two hooked up with the last, no clue is given. But they’re on their way to take over a thinly-disguised version of Skylab way up in orbit, for reasons that are somewhat vague. But super-villains, you know, what are you gonna do? Chilling on the Justice League satellite with Hawkman, Captain Comet hears about the invasion of the nearby Space-Lab and flies to the rescue. Hawkman, of course, remains behind on “monitor duty”, that card that was often played in JLA adventures when you wanted to leave a potential guest-star on the bench.

Comet tackles the three villainous Captains, but is unable to prevent their escape, taking the commander of the Space-Lab with them. Returning to Earth, a dejected Captain Comet tries to reintegrate into civilian life in his Adam Blake identity, only to be taken for a mugger and clobbered by and old lady, and then picked up by what appears to be a streetwalker named Debbie. Debbie will be a strange character in the coming months, sometimes changing her name to Camille and clearly having a connection with Star Sapphire. But the switches in writers and the demise of the series prevented any of this from truly being explained.

The next day, the trio of Captains perform some piracy on the high seas, attacking the S.S. Sunset and making off with her Captain as their captive. These events are recounted on the evening news, where they’re viewed by a number of interested parties. First are the Wizard and Funky Flashman, who have been a running plotline these past few issues. The moment is really nothing more than reminding readers of who they are, as they play no further role in the proceedings. But at this point, Funky is both looking and sounding a bit more legitimately like Stan Lee. 

The other spectators are Green Arrow and Black Canary, who are being visited by Captain Comet in Star City. When he last encountered the Captain Trio, his telepathy picked up an impression of Star City and so he figures it’s the criminals’ next target. Green Arrow is his typical abrasive self and refuses to help, but Black Canary goes all-in with Captain Comet. Good thing, too, as the three villains next attack Star Stadium, where they’re after the captain of the Star City team.

Captain Comet and Black Canary make the scene, and it becomes a free-for-all, one that also involves the players. Stingaree once again tries to use the captive football captain as a shield, but Comet isn’t having any of it and knocks him flat. But as they mop up, Comet’s telepathy picks up an impression of the other two captives of the villains, strapped to a giant metronome that lowers the temperature surrounding it with each passing tick. The two men are in dire jeopardy.

In order to save them, Comet uses his mental powers to slow down all of the machine-works in the area, giving Black Canary enough time to locate them. Which makes you wonder, if he can do such a profound thing, why doesn’t he use that ability in battle more often? But no matter. In the wrap-up, the heroes comment on the fact that the villains’ plan makes absolutely no sense, a moment of very strange self-awareness on the part of either scripter Bob Rozakis or the book’s new editor Jack C. Harris. And the issue closes out back with the Wizard and Funky watching the wrap-up, only to be interrupted by the return of Copperhead and his shadowy benefactor–who declares that he’s taking over the Secret Society! Who could he be? We’d need to wait for the next issue to find out.