Bob Brown (10) (1915–1977)

At last, the DC Showcase volumes have reached the point where Batman is getting good. I recently looked up the old Alley Awards on-line and the ‘Batman’ titles twice won the same award: strip most in need of improvement, even in 1962 when regular penciller Carmine Infantino scooped the best artist award. ‘Showcase Batman Volumes 1-4’ are interesting historical documents but reading them does not give great pleasure, though looking at the art gives some.

It does here, too. This fifth volume features a few issues pencilled by Neal Adams and a lot of covers by him. As Adams aficionados abound, I will do you the favour of listing which issues he drew so you can decide if the quantity warrants purchasing this book. It does. Adams pencilled: Detective Comics # 395 (16 pages); Batman # 219 (8 pages); Detective Comics # 397 (15 pages); Detective Comics # 400 (16 pages); Detective Comics # 402 (16 pages); Detective Comics # 404 (15 pages); Detective Comics # 407 (15 pages). The Man-Bat features in three of these. All of them are inked by Dick Giordano and look great. Adams also did most of the covers shown in this volume.

In paying proper respect to that maestro, I do not wish to belittle the art contributions of his colleagues. Irv Novick turned in very clean, elegant pencils with interesting layouts and dynamic figures. His work was also graced with Giordano’s inks, the quality of which are especially visible in these black and white reprints. While the pencils of Bob Brown, inked by Joe Giella and Frank Giacoia, are not quite as pleasing to the eye as those of his fellows he still did a competent, professional job.

The stories are mostly by Frank Robbins with a few by Dennis O’Neil and Mike Friedrich. Robbins does fairly decent detective yarns. DC Comics improved in the seventies but did not follow Stan Lee down the soap opera route. Variety being the spice of life, this was a good thing. Frank Robbins writer is the same Frank Robbins artist who did some work for Marvel later on ‘Captain America’. I’m not a big fan of his art but as a writer, he’s pretty good and apparently played a key part making the character more serious and restoring the creature of the night scenario. I was always under the impression that Dennis O’Neil led the way in that.

There are still some hangovers from the more childish age of DC Comics so Batman will wear a rubber mask, pretending to be someone else and get away with it, as do some of his opponents. Rubber masks look like rubber masks in real life. Ridiculously, he carries a bat-dummy of himself under his cape in ‘This Murder Has Been Pre-Recorded’ in Batman # 220 so that the misleading cover can show him being blown up in a phone booth. Again, this is not realistic.

Alas, DC still had a bit of a thing for misleading covers. Robin going off to university is milked for two: Detective Comics # 393 shows a tearful Boy Wonders saying, ‘The case is over, the team-up is finished! This is goodbye for Batman and Robin!’ Batman # 393 shows Batman storming off saying, ‘Take a last look Alfred then seal up the Batcave forever!’ In fact, these events ushered in a solo Batman fighting crime without bat-gadgets and led to the Dark Knight image he still has today. It was a conscious decision by the editors to strip the strip back to its roots. The television series was finished by this time and to keep that image would have been…well, batty.

Some of the stories by Dennis O’Neill are quite sophisticated. ‘Ghost Of The Killer Skies’ (Detective Comics # 404) is a biplane battle classic while ‘The Secret Of The Waiting Graves’ (Detective Comics # 395) and ‘Paint A Picture Of Peril’ (Detective Comics # 397) have dark romantic themes unusual for comics of the period. These three were drawn by Adams. The team of O’Neill and Adams was the talk of the town at the time and also revolutionised ‘Green Lantern’.

Probably the most notable thing about this collection is that it gets better and better as you read your way through it. These stories mark the turnaround from strip most in need of improvement to strip destined to be taken up by Hollywood and turned into a series of blockbuster movies, albeit some years later. Great stuff and soon to be released – July 2015 – is ‘DC Showcase Presents Batman Volume 6’ which will be even better if Ra’s al Ghul has anything to do with it and I think he does.

Eamonn Murphy
This review first appeared at https://www.sfcrowsnest.info/… (més)

Extremely contrived crossover that spanned the Avengers and Defenders titles in 1973. Dormammu, looking for a loophole by which he can invade Earth (he had promised Doctor Strange that he wouldn't), tricks the Defenders into retrieving for him parts of a magical artifact. Sensing duplicity, his erstwhile ally Loki tells the Avengers that the Defenders are a threat to the planet...and they believe him! (Loki, of course, is well-known as the god of lies and mischief; it was his trickery that brought the Avengers together in the first place, and Thor had just defeated him in battle before this story began.) Several ill-conceived battles ensue. The writing might be acceptable for very young readers but is otherwise embarrassing, and even Sal Buscema's art is not as good as it usually is. Two stars for a vague sense of nostalgia.… (més)

This is an enjoyable collection, but my main gripe is that some of the issues are not in chronological order, and easily could be.

The Monster of Frankenstein/Frankenstein Monster is an outstanding 70s Marvel horror series, starting with the origin of Frankenstein retold, then picking up 100 years later with the great, great grandson of Robert Walton in search of the Monster, leading to more misadventures of our misunderstood Monster.

While the Frankenstein Monster monthly was going on, there were also a series of black and white tales being told in the Monsters Unleashed magazine format series. These were more adult tales. Marvel used these issues to explain how the Monster arrived in the present day. Here, however, is where my problem lies.

It would have been simple for the compilers of this Essential collection to put the Monsters Unleashed story in the proper order along with the main title run. Instead, the Frankenstein Monster run is complete (with a brief interruption for Giant-Size Werewolf by Night, perfect place for the Monsters Unleashed story), followed by the full Monsters Unleashed run. It makes reading in proper story order difficult.

Another problem, there are several moments where different writers mix up the back story, screwing up certain elements like how the Monster damaged his throat (shown as damage from a vampire bite in the main title run, but explained as damage due to fire in Monsters Unleashed). Considering these books were being produced within months of each other, it's a glaring error that should have been noticed before the books went to print.

Overall, though, a fun read. Definitely worth picking up for comic fans and horror fans alike.… (més)