Stalker - The Man With The Stolen Soul!

Any comic book featuring the artistry of both Steve Ditko and Wally Wood instantly gets my attention. Barbarians were all the rage, and DC wanted a share, so they tapped writer Paul Levitz to come up with a concept and they hired two great veteran artists to bring it to life. Levitz has said that he was attempting to bring some Moorcock to the party and was inspired by The Eternal Champion when he crafted Stalker. The book they created was the short-lived Stalker. 

In the memorable ad, Stalker gets pride of place in the center of the composition. It suggested he might be something special, and he was, despite lasting only four issues.  

As the story opens n the first issue, we encounter an unnamed youth born into grinding poverty who is kicked out of the only home he has and as far as we can figure never knew either of his parents. Cast into a larger society he subsists by his wits and eventually seeks to become a knight under the service of a cruel queen. She however only wants a slave and eventually fed up with his lot, he seeks out a demon and agrees to serve him, but it's at the cost of his soul, which is snatched immediately. The book then becomes a record of his efforts to recover what he has lost. In the second issue he battles many demons and men to find a pathway into hell. 

There he finds an island surrounded by flaming waters and saves a damsel. But she turns out to be something more dangerous than the demons he's fought off, to protect her. His quest is one filled with mysteries inside mysteries. 

The last issue of the four finds our nameless hero, called only Stalker finding his way at last into hell to confront his maker. It's a furious battle and Dgrth sets him three desperate challenges which he passes. Then Stalker sets about to lead a dead army against the demon lord when they make a deal. Stalker will be returned to Earth to attempt to stop all of Dgrth's agents there, whereupon the demon god will cease to exist. Dgrth is confident the Stalker cannot win and the story ends. 

But that was not all for Stalker. 

The Justice Society Returns from 1999 is one of my absolute favorite JSofA yarns ever. Written by a cadre of DC talent from the time led by David Goyer this story was one of those fifth week events which often popped up at the time. It served simultaneously as a tasty modern take on a vintage All-Star adventure and also a kickoff of sorts for the new JSA comic which burst onto the scene that same year hard on the heels of DC's JLA successes.

The story begins from the perspective of Hourman, a hero who has been lambasted by many writers over the decades, but who gets some adult treatment in this story. The Justice Society has been drawn into a conflict with The Stalker,who has become a mystical threat drawn down to Earth by a cult of Nazi sympathizers who are trying to give magical succor to Hitler's cause, but who instead bring a being they can neither control nor defeat. The JSofA battle Stalker who is revealed to be a version of the vintage Paul Levitz, Steve Ditko and Wally Wood creation for DC's lamented fantasy surge from the mid 70's. This much more powerful being has decided to end war he must end life itself and has moved across dimensions bringing the sweet peace of oblivion to world after world. Now it's Earth's turn.

  

The Society is not able to defeat him, but they do damage Stalker and to buy time he empowers the cult members who he'd previously killed and sends them across the globe to wreak havoc. The JSofA divides itself into teams and takes off to handle this new multi-prong threat.

Green Lantern and Johnny Thunder and his Thunderbolt confront a deadly frosty menace to save the talks at Yalta. Johnny proves his mettle and the heroism of regular soldiers in a large and frightening war is highlighted. The late Eduardo Barreto produces some outstanding and dynamic artwork for Ron Marz's script.

Next The Atom and Starman must go to Los Alamos where they find a deadly nuclear threat which takes the power of Starman to contain and the unyielding courage of the Atom to defeat. The Atom is the focus as we learn more about this hero who is sadly often regarded with mild disdain by his colleagues. The Atom impresses greatly in this story by Robinson and Goyer. Peter Snejbjerg produces some very handsome artwork.

In Dresden Mr. Terrific is showcased as he and The Flash work overtime to save the citizens of the doomed German city from the deadly firebombing which makes it famous to this day. Terrific is shown to be a man who is almost perfect in every way and remarkable even in the ways in which his perfection falls short. This is touching story by Mark Waid and the Aaron Lopresti artwork is muscular and dynamic.

As Wonder Woman and Hawkgirl travel to the South Pacific to defeat an acolyte who can harness the power of the ocean they are helped by Hop Harrigan who it turns out is related to Hawkgirl. The battle is desperate and deadly, but that doesn't stop Hop from appreciating the feminine nature of the amazing Amazon. Robinson and Goyer again write the story and the artwork by Benefiel and Propst is dynamic but lacks the finesse of some of the other chapters.

Hourman and Dr. Midnite head to Scotland and find a deadly germ warfare research facility as they attempt to stop a villain who wants to harness that deadly power and turn it on the world. They have to come to a deeper understanding of one another as they battle the enemy and even Midnite's ally Hootie manages to become crucial in the battle. This is a neat story by Tom Peyer and the Stephen Sadowski and Michael Bair artwork is very lush and effective.

Sandman and Sandy find allies in Star-Spangled Kid and Stripsey as they battle an acolyte who has grown to King Kong proportions and threatens the heart of a great American city. The relatively low-powered heroes are really pressed to find a way to battle a threat which turns the locals into raving lunatics, but by dint of courage they find a way. Geoff Johns writes a rich story which is drawn with magnificent gusto by Chris Weston, the art on this issue the tour de force of the whole event.

Hawkman and Wildcat go to North Africa and find allies Manhunter and the Tigress available to help as they battle an acolyte who has tricked the Nazis into drilling into the Earth which unknown to them will result in destroying the whole continent. The heroes have to settle their differences and learn to trust before they can stop the menace. Chuck Dixon writes an action-filled story which veteran Russ Heath brings to life in his classic sparse style.

Then the heroes reassemble to confront the Stalker one more time and identify the threat in Antarctica. The Justice Society is aided by the heroes who have joined the fray in the individual adventures and the whole team heads to the South to save the world. In the end it is one man's courage which proves pivotal though all the heroes of course end a hand.

In this story we get a nice glimpse of what is to come and this vintage story, steeped with its modern sensibilities points forward to a new team of heroes who will become a modern version of the Justice Society of America.

This is rousing story, well told and neatly developed across its disparate chapters. Stalker will return to the DC Universe in other ways and other shapes, but that's for another post. 

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Shade The Changing Man!

It is not difficult to argue that Shade the Changing Man was Steve Ditko's last significant creation for mainstream comics. It's a been decades since I read these stories and frankly reading them all together and not once a month has altered my opinion. For one thing the stories are incredibly dense, both in plot and numbers of characters. The fact that unusual names are common only makes keeping the rosters of good and bad guys distinct and further hurting that effort is the fact that at least half the cast is keeping a criminal secret and the rest are duplicitous about something at the very least. These are agents of a bizarre other-dimensional government which seems to lots of laws but seems to have difficulty dispensing justice. No doubt that was intentional. 

In Shade the Changing Man I see one of the most complex universes Dikto ever took time to concoct. Usually his heroes operate in a version of the very real world in  cookie cutter cities called Hub, River, or some such name meant to evoke a film noir setting. But here we have the Earth as just one setting with Shade's home being the Meta-Zone and between the two a weird wild dangerous territory called the Zero-Zone. There are characters brimming in all of these locations, so many at first that I frequently got lost in the crowd of offbeat names.  

I was reminded of nothing so much as the lush beautiful "Fourth World" fashioned by Jack Kirby for his New Gods adventures. In those tales Earth is just one battleground among several, though a critical one. Here it seems to be much the same. 

Also Ditko creates some of his most visually arresting villains. As wacky as Shade is himself with his visually interesting but sometimes difficult to fathom powers we get the likes of an angry warrior "Zokag" who reminded me of Kalibak with his ferocious ways, their weird color-shifting "Form" who seemed to scare everybody, and the stark white "Cloak" who reminded me a lot of the Ghost from those Charlton Captain Atom comics. 

There's a family drama imbedded in the saga too with Shade's love interest imagining he's hurt her family and betrayed the Meta-Zone.The villain "Sude" who looks like a version of Pac-Man at times makes the most of these misunderstandings. Shade is in fact thought a villain through almost all of the run we have in hand. 

I got the sense that after his battle with the ultra villain "Khaos" that his standing might well be improving and it did in some quarters. Still and all he was pursued by the authorities as a traitor with a death sentence on his head. 

The action moves beyond our hero Rac Shade when he slips into a "color coma" which is just what you'd expect. He periodically changes color as he lies unconscious following his defeat of Khaos. 

The transition is being made in the book and you get the feeling that Shade's days as a marked man are going to end as he undertakes a mission back to the Earth-Zone for elements of the Meta-Zone leadership. He's not been publicly exonerated but his girl friend knows he's an innocent man and so do many others who now stand beside and support him. This shift happens just as the title abruptly ends. 

One final issue of Shade the Changing Man was produced by Ditko and in this one he is waylaid on his way to the Earth-Zone and battles a deadly villain in the Zero-Zone. All the way through in these Zero-Zone skirmishes I got the feeling of deja vu as the fights reminded me of Doctor Strange's forays into the Dark Dimension to take on Dormmamu in the pages of Strange Tales. Of course this is a science fiction seeting but the visuals are much in the same vein. 

Some call Shade the Changing Man Ditko's last great mainstream comic work and I'd tend to agree with them. I was much impressed on this reading at the potential for the characters and the new setting. I know much work was done with Shade and his Meta-Verse when it was inducted into the arcane Vertigo universe. I haven't read any of those stories and cannot comment, but for sure they got their inspiration from the deft artwork and mind of Steve Ditko. 

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Ditko At Atlas-Seaboard!

THE DESTRUCTOR is the book that gets my vote for the best that Atlas-Seaboard had to offer. With true comics giants like Archie Goodwin on scripts, Steve Ditko on pencils, and Wally Wood on inks, this book is an instant classic. The familiar story has a few interesting twists, as a young boy gone bad works smalltime for the local gangs, and ignores the wisdom of his scientist father. The gang lord imagines the kid to be some kind of threat and orders him hit, but the father sacrifices himself to save the boy. Dying, the father gives the boy a potion that heals the boy's wounds and gives him superpowers of all sorts. The boy of course then realizes the errors of his ways and promptly promises revenge on the gangs. He finds a costume and the game is afoot. The book is full of great Ditko action, and it features some lovely Wood finishes. A master-hitman named "Slaymaster" shows up, but the "Destructor" (always found that name a bit of a mouthful) wins out. By story's end the gang lord is killed by his own boys, and the Destructor is set up to continue his one-man war against organized crime. It's a good tight superhero story. A highlight of the Atlas-Seaboard run, there has been a lot suggested about this book being a response to Spider-Man and the parallels are pretty obvious, the most telling thing though is the presence of Spidey creator Ditko. This saga seems like vintage Ditko to me, and typical of his other work for Charlton and DC as well as Marvel. Good Ditko is good no matter where you find it. (Special note: This is the only mainline superhero title of the first wave edited by Larry Lieber, who edited all of the genre books.)

One of the often-overlooked comic book masterpieces of the mid 70's is The Destructor by the all-star team of Archie Goodwin, Steve Ditko, and Wally Wood. All three heavyweights combined their awesome comics might to bring to life a tough-as-nails revision of the superhero, a variation of Spider-Man and The Creeper, but with a serious mad on for organized crime. A small-time criminal becomes imbued with superpowers and sets out to revenge himself on the mobsters who killed his scientist father.

The splash page above is a stunner and one of the reasons many of us who bought it back thought that Atlas-Seaboard might actually be around for the long haul. We were woefully wrong, but we did get two gigantic issues by three of comics' all-time great talents. Read the exciting debut origin issue here.

The Destructor returns in the second issue with Goodwin, Ditko, and Wood still doing top-of-the-line work as our hero battles a hired killer called Deathgrip. Read the complete story here.

THE DESTRUCTOR #2 continues under the multiple hands of Goodwin, Ditko, and Wood, but there seems to have been more haste in the artwork. The story gets Jay Hunter, The Destructor out West where he is manipulated into a battle with Deathgrip, a hitman for the Combine, a criminal organization that wants control of the rackets. Jay runs across a possible love interest and gets himself insinuated in a mod organization so he can destroy it from within. Good intrigue. The second page of that awesome story featured a stunning image of the Destructor in full Diktoesque form with Woodian finishes punching out some assorted thugs. Prime stuff! That pose evokes Spidey for sure, but admittedly there is a somewhat generic look to The Destructor. But not so much as to make completely forgettable.

DESTRUCTOR #3 gives us another installment in this ongoing Archie Goodwin - Steve Ditko epic saga. Gone this issue is Wally Wood, and the artwork seems to have been inked by Ditko. I don't know about that. The story continues with the Destructor still battling thugs from the Combine, but this time under the direction of Dr. Shroud. He sends the Huntress and her attentive sidekick Lobo to take on the Destructor, and they trap him in an elaborate casino/canyon (you've really got to see this one to understand that). Because the thugs fight among themselves, the Destructor lives to fight another day. One thing about our hero, he's certainly presented as a cool character who is willing to sacrifice others to achieve his goals. The anti-hero is popular with Atlas, but in many respects Jay Hunter is the purest example of the disaffected modern protagonist.

THE DESTRUCTOR #4 is a weird, weird comic book. This series began with Atlas-Seaboard's most accomplished creative team (Goodwin, Ditko, Wood), but by the time this vintage urban crime/action/superhero series gets to its fourth issue only Sturdy Steve Ditko remains from the original trio. He's joined by Gerry Conway on scripts and Al Milgrom on inks. We find The Destructor hiding from Combine thugs in a cave somewhere in the Southwest. He dispatches them, but one is destroyed by a mysterious beam. Jay Hunter, our hero, looks up to see some very unusual Ditko creations, The Outcasts. They are The Eye, Kronus, and Sister Siren and they happen to be mutant freaks with telepathic abilities and more, and they are specifically looking for Jay Hunter, because like them he's an Outcast. Or so they say. Just like that, our story turns and the plot threads of the last three issues are largely forgotten as the Destructor is taken to the Secret Citadel. It's a haven built in the 1950's by disaffected folks looking to escape the dangerous world outside. They unwisely worked with an unscrupulous businessman who insists they use nuclear power in their underground city, which leaks radiation, infects their sixty or so children and creates the Outcasts. After killing the businessman and his associates, the parents live out their lives and now thirty years later in 1975, the irradiated progeny are in charge. They want Jay Hunter (strangely called "Jay Raven" in one panel) to join them to protect the city from outsiders. There's a bit of dramatic irony when in a typically strange Ditko panel the Outcasts appear quite devilish when an unaware Jay Hunter agrees to join them. Suddenly there's also a new underground nuclear test that irradiates the city again and our hero the Destructor, blending with the chemicals already in his blood and viola he can suddenly unleash power blasts from his fists. With this new talent, The Destructor agrees to battle for the Outcasts and the story ends. What happens next we'll never know, because this is the last issue of the series.

The Destructor was in many ways, Atlas-Seaboard's most accomplished series, but sadly by its finale it has become a bizarre shadow of itself. The hero has been contorted beyond recognition, and the story's twists and turns are well outside the limits established in the rather intriguing beginnings. I'm not sure The Destructor was my favorite Atlas book, but its fall was easily the most disappointing.

TIGER-MAN is a character that debuted in the B&W books before finding colorful glory. The story of Dr. Hill begins in THRILLING ADVENTURE STORIES #1 and he's a researcher in Africa inspired by the instinct for survival that seems to thrive in animals and people of the region. A few scientific experiments and an injection later he is imbued with those instincts and lots of other powers. He's attacked by a tiger and later gets its hide to use as a totem. He does so months later in the big city when he takes on muggers and rapists. His sister is attacked and killed, and Tiger-Man takes to the streets to seek vengeance. He finds it, and then he promises to keep at it. The artwork is decent Ernie Colon but doesn't have the energy of his Grim Ghost work. The cover for this issue by Colon is one of the strangest in the whole Atlas line, and it seems to me to be a very quickly produced item. 

TIGER-MAN #2 is a real change of pace issue. Steve Ditko takes on the hero and gives him a really dynamic energy he was missing in the earlier chapters. Gerry Conway takes the writing helm, and Tiger-Man seems to become a more conflicted hero, more concerned with the lives of his enemies. 

He encounters the Blue Leopard, a man empowered with the same talents as himself yet set on a revenge mission against Dr. Hill, the Tiger-Man. There are more than a few clues to suggest the Blue Leopard is a Black Panther clone, with several origin details in common with Marvel's kingly hero. Lots of good fight scenes in this one, and a grand Frank Thorne cover.

TIGER-MAN #3 gives us some very muscular and inviting Steve Ditko artwork with Al Milgrom inks. The script by Gerry Conway is rambling succession of coincidences, almost all involving mysterious suicides and attempted suicides. Dr. Hill / Tiger-Man investigates and discovers a mad psychiatrist named Dr. Hypnos who compels people to kill themselves. He pulls this trick on Tiger-Man, but ironically our hero is saved by some crooks who attempt to mug him and so save him from immolating himself. He takes a second stab at Hypnos, grabs his monocle, the source of his power, and compels Hypnos to throw himself off a roof. Tiger-Man's adventures have come to an end with this final issue.

MORLOCK 2001 AND THE MIDNIGHT MEN #3 (formerly known as simply Morlock 2001) is the saga that gets one of the sharpest twists in direction. Steve Ditko with some Berni Wrightson inks gives the book a new look, and the story involves a scientist horribly burned who leads a revolution against the same oppressive government that gave birth to Morlock. Morlock is taken underground where the newly dubbed "Midnight Man" seeks to enlist him in the war. 

The Thought Police attack and the battle rages. Morlock seems to fall, even to be dead as the story closes with the Midnight Man vowing to fight on. Issue #4 might have been retitled I suspect, but this series ends with this issue.

And that's Ditko at the short-lived Atlas-Seaboard operation. Seven glorious issues and he was one of the very few talents to last the whole way. It is notable that Ditko produced not a single cover for the outfit. 

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Ditko's Cannon!

Cannon was a Wally Wood project produced mostly for his military comic strips intended for soldiers in the early 70's. He used his whole studio of up-and-coming talents, but before all that, when it came to bringing Cannon to comic books, he turned to longtime pro and fellow renegade Steve Ditko. Below is a typical Ditko page produced for the above Cannon comic, similar to the work he'd done for Wood at Tower Comics a few years before. 

Cannon is in many ways Wally Wood's most mature creation. That might sound odd given the prurient nature of many of the panels laced both with brutality and with unmitigated misogyny. These rough and tumble adventure comic strips were originally produced beginning in 1971 for The Overseas Weekly, a newspaper for American soldiers stationed across the world. This is a mature audience indeed. I've always considered it the underground version of the THUNDER Agents.

Cannon is a "man's man", which mostly means he uses guns proficiently, is not afraid of a fight and does so, and treats women abominably in a morally ambiguous "cold war" of both personal and international proportions. That's not to say that some of the women he confronts aren't dangerous, but there's little doubt in Cannon's world that women are for screwing, whether you are screwing them or they are screwing you, both figuratively and literally.

The violence in Cannon is rugged, though hardly graphic by any modern definition. This is after all Wally Wood, and his lean craftsmanship shines through always in glorious black and white. The spare orderliness of Wood's designs gives the rugged world of Cannon a handsome veneer which makes it seem less grotesque than it actually is.

I first ran across the Cannon saga in four of Wally Wood's over-sized self-published comic magazines from the late 70's and early 80's. As the covers proclaim, these are for "Adults Only" and that's true enough. The sex and violence, which blends into a sado-masochistic mishmash at times is not for the kiddies. These are comics, but not those kinds of comics.

What they are though is highly recommended and nigh essential reading for any Wood fan. The color Cannon precursor stories produced independently by Wood with penciling help from Steve Ditko in Heroes Inc. Presents Cannon.  

There are two issues, the one at the top of this post from 1969 and a later volume from 1976 from the CPLGang. Both stories, one in splendid color and one in glorious black and white are included. Given the format designed for the Fantagraphics collection of Cannon to showcase the comic strip they reproduced somewhat smaller than the ideal, but it's good to have them. In the first story Cannon defeats an entire island full of Red Chinese soldiers and in the second he battles a small army of Neo-Nazis. 

Cannon is rough, Cannon is tough, but Cannon is worth it.

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