A Full Eclipso!

I finished up reading DC's Eclipso Showcase volume this week. It reprints in glorious B&W stories from House of Secrets #61-80. I'll have to say right away that I was a bit surpised by this collection. It wasn't as awesome as I'd always thought it might be.

That said, I did like the artwork for the most part throughout the volume, including the Jack Sparling stuff on the later Eclipso stories. Sparling is a hit-or-miss artist and seeing it in B&W probably helps here. The artistic highlight is of course the Alex Toth stories, which are typically elegant and taughtly drawn. Lee Elias does a great job kicking off the series and the two Prince Ra-Man stories by Bernard Bailey were neatly done.

Now about the writing. I'm usually a fan of Bob Haney, the writer of all the stories here. His plots are wacky, but usually pay off. Here the wackiness is in evidence but the very nature of the Eclipso-Gordon duality works against the dramatic tension of the stories. There are too many details to work out when Eclipso emerges. First we have to have some elaborate reason for Bruce Gordon to come under the effects of an eclipse, something a bright guy like he's supposed to be should be able to avoid pretty easily. That he keeps falling under the spell of some eclipse effect makes him seem rather dim after a time, pun intended. Next in the early stages Eclipso takes over Gordon's body so they have to waste a panel explaining how he gets his costume. Later Eclipso actually splits off from Gordon and just has it on so that detail is dealt with. It's illogical but it helps the stories move briskly.

And that is the strength of the stories. As convoluted as they get, the changing nature of the Eclipso and how he emerges and expresses his powers alters throughout the series. That gives the story a nice variety in the face of a rather stagnant general plot structure. Once they split Gordon and Eclipso the stories get rather more interesting dramatically. The original concept made for one or two good stories but seemed cramped for a full ongoing series.

Also much is made of Eclipso's gangland involvement and his crimeboss persona, but we don't really see him out and away form Gordon enough to justify this. Clearly this must happen between stories, because there's no way he could become such a connected criminal in the few moments we get to see him plying his evil trade. He's got hidden bases and labs everywhere and I don't know how he does it.

One thing I did like was the ongoing relationship between Gordon and Mona Bennett and her dad Professor Bennett. This reminded me of a mildly more mature triad than existed in the Hulk with Bruce Banner, Rick Jones and Betty Ross. Gordon and Mona have a romance and she is actually helpful and understanding of his plight, though I'd argue both she and her dad are tolerant of some pretty hairbrained schemes that Bruce develops to eiliminate or modify Eclipso.

I liked this collection after it is all said and done. It wasn't as stellar as I'd expected given the talent involved, but it was sturdy and typical for DC at the time done with a real professional polish.

Rip Off