The Top 150 DC Covers of All Time: #140-131

Welcome back to the Top 150 DC Covers of All Time countdown. If you have any questions about what criteria was used to select the covers, you can read the ground rules here in the countdown Prologue. For a complete listing of selections, check out the Top 150 DC Covers Master List. And as always, I strongly recommend clicking on the covers to see larger, better and more detailed versions of these classic covers.

Now, let's see what Day Two has in store for us:


140) Our Army at War #15
October, 1953 -- Irv Novick

This gem from the early days of DC's Big Five war books features typical guns-blazing action with some very atypical -- and shockingly bold -- coloring and inking. The dramatic fire on board this bomber gives Novick a chance to really play with the lighting and he does it to great effect; the fact that you can see the gunner behind him still firing at attacking fighters just adds to the tension. You almost feel like you might crash the plane yourself if you set down the comic.









139) Batman Family #17
May, 1978 -- Michael Kaluta

"Stalk the night shrouded streets with The Batman Family... if you dare!" Well, DC, when you put it that way, I think I'll just hide under my bedcovers instead, thank you very much. Luckily, Kaluta was able to contain his own fear long enough to provide this (literally) all-star look at the members of said Batman Family. Even the somewhat blah barbell masthead for the $1 comic line doesn't detract too much from this well-designed effort.










138) Wonder Woman #179
December, 1968 -- Mike Sekowsky and Dick Giordano

In an attempt to jump start some of their more hidebound heroes to counteract marvel's surging sales, DC revamped several icons in the late 60's including Wonder Woman. The cover for the first new issue, #178, is a fairly boring affair, but the real revamp is seen in full effect on this great cover from Sekowsky and Giordano.
The great new era logo, which replaced one of the least interesting logos in DC history, really sends this effort over the top.










137) Justice League of America #62
May, 1968 -- Mike Sekowsky and Jack Abel

Speaking of Sekowsky, here's one of his best and most unusual covers. it's like the end of Seven, except you yourself are the severed head in the box. It's disturbing. And I love the expressions on the Justice Leaguer's faces. The whole thing is creepy and disorienting. How could you not buy this comic if you saw it on the stands?











136) Green Lantern #40
October, 1965 -- Gil Kane and Murphy Anderson

Kane returns with his second Green Lantern cover so far (but not his last), this time also featuring the golden age Green Lantern, Alan Scott. This is a key issue, not just for the meeting of the two Green Lanterns, but also because it reveals the origins of the Guardians of the Universe for the first time. That might be enough by itself to land the comic on our list, but luckily, it's graced by some typically smooth and fluid figure work by Kane, who drew some of the most limber and graceful heroes in comics history.









135) G. I. Combat #130
July, 1965 -- Russ Heath

Surprisingly enough, this well known cover from the Haunted Tank strip in G. I. Combat wasn't done by the usual suspect, Joe Kubert, but instead by longtime pro Russ Heath. The colorist here wisely decided to go with a monotone hue to make the giant, ghostly image of Attila the Hun seem almost translucent against the red background. A striking image made even more striking by its total incongruity (which, by the way, I addressed in an earlier edition of Ask the Vault if anyone is interested).









134) Teen Titans #23
October, 1969 -- Nick Cardy

Less than a year after Wonder Woman got the reboot treatment, Wonder Girl followed suit with this cover from Nick Cardy. Donna Troy's new design was as modern and forward as the design of the Teen Titans book in general at the time; while not as dramatic an overhaul as the new kung fu Wonder Woman, this hip and fresh take Wonder Girl made her significantly more relevant to teens of the day (and as a result, this new version was quite a bit more successful overall than Wonder Woman's revamp). I also like the nod to DC history of having Donna jumping through a poster of herself, which echoes the tradition of having new characters leap through a paper hoop like circus animals. Very nice.






133) Superman #307
January, 1977 -- Neal Adams

Don't look now, but here's the first of our slew of covers from Neal Adams. By the time Adams did this cover in 1977 he was no longer a regular cover artist for DC, but he clearly didn't miss a beat over the years. The design of this cover, with Supergirl so far in the foreground that most of her body is off the page, helps frame the shocking image of Kandor being smashed to hell and Superman's horrified reaction in the background. Excellent composition.










132) All-Star Comics #3
Winter 1940-41 -- Everett E. Hibbard

DC's version of the knights of the round table gather here for the first time to form the first superhero team in comics history. I like the nod to the concept of having them sit around an actual round table, and the classic All-Star Comics logo in front of the bright yellow background is great. The figures may just be sitting there, but they also seem like they're ready for business as they stare out at the reader. And I don't even mind the big text box roll call at the bottom either, though you have to feel bad for Johnny Thunder, as he made the list but not the team or the cover. And thus was fated to be a second banana forever. Poor sap.






131) Weird War Tales #8
November, 1972 -- Neal Adams

Another Neal Adams effort and one of many covers I decided to include before I realized they were actually drawn by Adams. What I like best about this Weird War cover is the design decision to drop the logo down from the top of the book so that the giant golem thing is peering out over the top of it. This really emphasizes his height and makes him a lot scarier than if they had redrawn the cover to allow the cover to stay at its usual place up at the top of the cover. Honestly, it makes the whole thing and turns this from just a cool image into a true top notch cover.









Tomorrow: #130-121! Romance! Horror! War! And more Neal Adams! Plus: the death of a hero! Be there!

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Tales From the Vault: AMAZING ADVENTURES #10

It's another gray, dreary Monday in late autumn. The leaves are dead on the ground, frost is on your window and its dark when you leave for work and dark when you return. There's only one thing that can perk you up on a day like this: reading a vintage comic. And since you may not be able to drag your collection with you down to the office, we've taken the time to help you out by reading the comics for you and reporting what we see in this, another edition of... Tales From the Vault!

Today's offering: Amazing Adventures #10, featuring Black Bolt and the Inhumans. So what are we waiting for/ Let's get right to it!


Details: January of 1972 brings us this timeless epic from Gerry Conway with art from Mike Sekowsky and Frank Giacoia. What a perfect creative team this is. For, you know, a 1963 issue of Justice League of America. Sorry, I should wait to actually read the issue before trashing it I guess.

Synopsis: Well, I’m not really sure why this comic is in my possession, but since it is I might as well do something with it. The issue begins right in the middle of the action, no doubt continued from last issue: Magneto has defeated the Inhumans and captured the royal family. Execute them, Magneto!!! But, I guess not. No, Magneto has other plans: he uses some sort of machine to turn one of his minions into a giant ape monster with a huge brain, and then the monster uses its newly developed psychic powers to mentally control Black Bolt.

Well, sure. Why the hell not.

With Black Bolt now enslaved, Magneto scoops him up and flies to... San Francisco. Must be a Big Brother and the Holding Company show they need to get to fast. While this is going on, the rest of the royal family (minus the only cool character in the entire group, Triton) remain behind and mope around in their cage, lamenting their total lack of personalities. Medusa, though, has a cunning plan. Or so she says.

We cut away from this engrossing scene to a subplot where a supporting character from previous issues, a human, gets sucked into space by something called the Trikon. This seems to be setting up a future storyline, but since this is the last issue... hmm (more on this later).

Meanwhile, Magneto has apparently decided to skip San Fran and has instead gone to an underground base in Washington state, where he and his minions (who, by the way, are all twisted little monster people -- mutates, apparently, that he altered with his weird machine) attack in order to get "a new source of cosmic energy". Black Bolt uses his shouts to knock out the defenses, then twists a dial and voila, Magneto has "the power of the UNIVERSE". And that’s the end of Marvel.

Or, no, wait. No it isn’t. Back with the others, Medusa has sprung her cunning plan, though what exactly it entailed I don't know, because by the time they go back to her, she's basically gotten the guard wrapped up in her hair. I guess she used her feminine wiles to distract the guard while her hair went to town. Sound like a crappy plan, but, okay. It works, of course, and they free themselves, then start fighting the guards. They defeat them just in time to see Magneto's plane returning, so they hide in ambush.

Magneto, though, sees them in waiting and he orders Black Bolt to strike. Bolt does so -- by punching Magneto in the head. Wait, what? Doesn't Magneto have a personal magnetic force field? In fact, isn't he wearing a metal helmet that would pretty much protect him from some guy just punching him? Yet for some reason the plane crashes and we get the explanation that Black Bolt was faking all along because he didn't want to risk the safety of his family, but since they are free, he can attack.

"You pretended you were what you weren't -- just as you pretended to destroy those government men" and just as this plot pretended to make sense. Black Bolt didn't pretend to destroy those government men at the mountain base -- he did. He smashed the whole place and trashed all the guards and allowed Magneto to get the power source. None of that was pretense. The fact that he did all this on purpose while “pretending” to be in Magneto’s thrall actually makes it worse than if he really had been in Magneto’s thrall. Seriously, rationalize much, bro?

Anyway, Magneto's apeman attacks, and Black Bolt zaps him with a word. Magento tries to run off with his power supply, but Karnak clocks him with a couple karate moves and knocks him out. Not once does Magneto even attempt to use any of his magnetic powers. In fact, in this entire issue, the only thing he's done with them is levitate his plane, and I'm not entirely sure he was doing that either, it might just have been a regular plane. So much for having the power of the Universe; he apparently didn’t even have the power of Magneto.

Um. Yeah, so Black Bolt is still fighting the ape monster for some reason, and again he says something and blows up the room. Karnak goes to town on Magento's machine, wrecking it, but Magneto still can escape by... running out the door. Again, no powers. But his energy source suddenly blows up for no apparent reason, obliterating the room.

And then... that's it. Magneto is mysteriously gone and the royal family gathers themselves up to head back to Inhumanland so Black Bolt can regain the throne from Maximus. And that story... is in Avengers #95. Oh yeah, that's why I bought these issues. I had blissfully forgotten.

THE END!


Extras: On the list of other details about this issue I had forgotten: just how absolutely terrible the story is. Holy cow. The rest of this issue is a reprint of the origin of the Inhumans. I'm not sure where it's from, but any material from Stan and Jack should be ashamed to appear in the same magazine as this crap. In fairness, though, I should say that this was pretty early in Conway's career -- he was only 19 when this was published -- and he went on to much better things. He's admitted in interviews that he often wasn't sure what he was doing on some of these early efforts, and it shows here; I'm literally not sure he knew what Magneto's powers were, based on the story. Of course, I guess it's possible Magneto really didn't have powers during this story, but it's not mentioned anywhere and I'm pretty sure he has powers when he appears next in Avengers #110. So... yeah.

That dangling plotline about the Trikon, by the way, was left dangling for almost 20 years before a mini-series and a Quasar story in 1991 finally revealed what happened. I'm guessing that Mark Gruenwald was about the only person on Earth who cared, based on how awful this issue was, but that’s what made Gru so awesome.

It's interesting to note how successful/unsuccessful this series was. Black Widow was dumped after #8, however that same month she began co-starring in Daredevil, getting her name in the logo and everything, where she lasted for... I dunno, like 25 issues. The Inhumans, meanwhile, got their own series which lasted all of two issues before they were put on ice for the duration.

Bullpen Bulletins, in fact, announces this issue that they are turning the book over to the Inhumans, which is a little odd considering the lettercolumn and the story itself both tell the reader that the series is canceled, continued in Avengers and being replaced next issue. Another interesting note in BB is that Iron Man has "returned to a bi-monthly schedule" and that "rumors of its cancellation were greatly exaggerated". I hadn't heard that Iron Man was in danger of being canceled at this time, but it doesn't surprise me; the storyline in those issues (#45 came out at the same time as this) are some of the crappiest things I've ever read, and I’m a guy who just read Amazing Adventures #10, so I know my crappy.

The BB also mentions that they had planned (and announced) a price increase from 15 cents to 25 cents, with the issues being double sized, but changed their minds due to unexpected changes in the financial situation. Yeah, they realized that DC was doing the same thing and that they could crush them by dropping the price to 20 cents. Hence there was only one month when all the Marvel books were double sized 25 cent issues -- the November, 1971 issue, which also featured the first frame cover design, all of which was in celebration of Marvel's 10th anniversary. And sure enough, Marvel's 20 cent books ran roughshod over DC's 25 cent comics in one of the biggest missteps in DC's long publishing history.


My grade: B+ for the Gil Kane frame cover with the cool Black Bolt logo, D- for being one of the worst Marvels of the era and the single lamest Magneto appearance ever. Sorry, Gerry!

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