RAR #40: THE BALD EAGLE

Heroic WWII fighter-pilot Jack Gatling was called the "Bald Eagle" because (a) he'd become prematurely bald from being exposed to jet flames, and (b) he was part Apache, which made it logical somehow to compare him with an eagle. Not much was made of his Indian background in his WWII adventures, numbering about 13 episodes in all, but it was mentioned a little more frequently whenever Gatling made support-character appearances in Eclipse's SKY WOLF feature.

RAR: #39: ARGENT

As noted breifly in my recent review of GRENDEL, the masked supercriminal has only one superior opponent in his original arc: the wolf man ARGENT, who claims to be an Algonquin Indian given his inhuman form by a curse, and aged about 300 years. He survives his ultimate encounter with Grendel but is injured so that he remains a near-total recluse.

ONE HUNDRED BEST JUSTICE LEAGUE STORIES #2

I didn't like most of Denny O'Neil's dozen or so JUSTICE LEAGUE stories, but issue #71's story "And So My World Ends," shows him at his best, providing a (very temporary) farewell to J'onn J'onzz, the Martian Manhunter.

Years later, O'Neil's idea of an ongoing war between J'onn's people, the Green Martians, and their enemies the Whites has become a major source of story-ideas in the DC Universe and in many adaptations in other media. In 1989 J.M. de Matteis attempted to "deconstruct' the O'Neil story in a MARTIAN MANHUNTER mini-series, but within a few years this rewriting was subsumed and the idea of the tragic war became paramount.

MONSTER MASHUPS #41

"Graveyard Shift," a 1973 episode of William Castle's CIRCLE OF FEAR anthology, includes five film-monsters brought to life for no explicit reason. All five were once played by former actor Fred Colby, but now his monstrous creations want his pregnant wife to choose one of them to incarnate the baby in her womb.

Like most of the show's episodes, "Shift" suffers from flaccid writing and poor motivation. Oddly, Castle himself has a brief scene in the show, playing a producer who reflects back on his great monsters, whom he calls "Wolfman," "Mummy," "Claw," "Scarface," and "Doctor Death." However, in the IMDB credits, the second and fourth monsters are replaced by "the Apeman" and "the Hunchback," and those names seems closer to describing what was put on screen here.

The weakest aspect of the script is that the story seems set up to imagine Fred as having conjured the monster-phantoms from his own psyche, perhaps because he's now a lowly security guard instead of "an actor." But the script seems to bend over backward NOT to make that connection. Was someone on the show averse to showing Fred to have a dark side to his already nothing personality?

ONE HUNDRED BEST JUSTICE LEAGUE STORIES #1

I found this DC "greatest hits" on markdown for $3, so even though I knew I wouldn't agree with its choices, I bought it.

Robert Greenberger's text is pretty much what I expected: it's a list of touchstones for hardcore fans, discussing things like the different headquarters that the group used over time. My personal preference would've been for the "greatest moments" in terms of the stories that were best in terms of action, drama, mythical insight, or whatever.

So here's my first nominee; 1967's JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #51. This was the culmination of the months-long "Zatanna plotline," in which the daughter of the magician Zatara went looking for her lost father in various DC stories, all scripted by Gardner Fox. After Zatanna crossed paths with Hawkman, the Atom, Green Lantern, the Elongated Man and Batman (sort of), Zatanna united all of these heroes (again, sort of) to aid her in rescuing Zatara from a mystic land. Fox's scripts could sometimes be too dry, but there's a lot of good humor and human interest here.

SUPERHEROES ARE DAMN-NEAR EVERYWHERE #294

Tertiary RICHARD DENNING acted in TWICE TOLD TALES with--

Secondary BRETT HALSEY, who voiced a character in the 1992 X-MEN cartoon--

Primary CHRIS POTTER as GAMBIT.

________

Tertiary SANDY DENNIS acted in PARENTS with--

Primary RANDY QUAID, who also played DOC HOLLIDAY in PURGATORY

___________

Secondary REGINALD DENNY  acted in a 1961 pilot-film of THE PHANTOM with--

Primary ROGER CREED as THE PHANTOM.

SUPERHEROES ARE DAMN-NEAR EVERYWHERE #293

Secondary LYDIE DENIER acted in an episode of THE NEW ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD with--

Primary JOHN BRADLEY as ROBIN HOOD.

_________

Primary ALEXIS DENISOF played WESLEY WYNDHAM-PRYCE on ANGEL.

_________

Tertiary BRIAN DENNEHY voiced a rat in RATATOUILLE along with--

Primary BRAD GARRETT, who voiced  NOAH in PROJECT GEEKER.