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Sunday, 25 October 2026

The DC Lucky Bag - October 1976.

Thanks to Charlie Horse 47 and Killdumpster for their sponsorship of this post, via the magic of Patreon. 
***

DC comics are back.

But do they have much front?

Shazam! #25, Isis

Thanks to the power of television, a brand new heroine makes her debut and the world of comics will never be the same again!

Exactly what happens in this month's main strip is sketchy within my mind but I do know it's all delivered by Denny O'Neil and Dick Giordano and titled Isis... As in Crisis!

Happily, the tale also includes her origin!

That's followed by a Captain Marvel tale in which Billy Batson and his friend Whitey are filming a documentary about young adults throughout history. Except their production's soon sabotaged by Dr Sivana!

House of Mystery #246

It's a long time since I visited the House of Mystery in this feature and I know little of this issue's contents but I do know its main story's a chiller called 
Death-Vault of the Eskimo Kings, while the second feature's known to all mankind as Tomb It May Concern.

Detective Comics #464

I'm starting to think it's my month for investigating DC's long-established-but-neglected-by-me books because now I find myself looking at Detective Comics and discover that 
Bats must track down a villain called the Black Spider before that evildoer kills again.

Then that's followed by the Black Canary adventure A Hot Time in Star City Tonight which I believe sees the blonde bombshell up against the deadly menace of the Calculator.

From that name, I'm going to assume he's the company's equivalent of the Mad Thinker.

Batman #280

And it's more Batman for us when the cowled crusader investigates The Only Crime in Town!

In it, our hero investigates an actual crime-free hour in Gotham City.

Yes, only Batman would investigate a lack of crimes.

It all leads him to uncover a scheme by a mobster and two coin dealers to steal a valuable numismatic collection.

Action Comics #464

And if we can have a return to the Lucky Bag for Batman, we can also have a return for Superman.

Kicking off, our protagonist battles the Purple Pile-Driver but he also observes two boys having experiences similar to the origins of Batman and the Flash.

When Supes summons those two heroes to the scene, the boys insist it is they who are the real Batman and Flash!

Meanwhile, this month's Private Life of Clark Kent sees the reporter lumbered with the job of showing a visitor around Metropolis.

However, while doing that, he has to keep distracting the man so he can slip away and deal with whatever emergencies are befalling the world.

Freedom Fighters #4

The sharp-eyed and elephant-memoried reader will recall that I covered this issue last month.

And that's because I failed to read the cover date properly.

So, here it is again.

And I still know little of the action within but I do know that, thanks to Martin Pasko and Ramona Fradon, Wonder Woman helps the Freedom Fighters clear their name.

The Joker #9, final issue

I somehow also managed to include this one in September's post.

As before, the Joker's book reaches the end of its road, with its final issue seeing the clown prince of crime confront the feline femme of felony.

And it all happens because each of them has foolishly decided to kidnap the same movie star.

10 comments:

  1. I have to say that I only found Ray and Condor interesting if drawn by a Lou Fine. Maybe Gene the Dean could have done them justice.

    DC really kind of mucked up Condor in his early 90s run.

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  2. Fantastic news about Brazil's election - I thought the appalling Bolsonaro Jnr would win but he LOST!!!

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  3. Paul - You forgot this:

    https://www.comics.org/issue/900804/cover/4/

    Phillip

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  4. Thanks Colin but I never had that issue of UK Savage tales Colin hence not included in my blog.

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  5. Gents - since this seems to be a slow period of Steve does Comics, is there something about Liverpool‘s Mayor that is inspiring comedians?

    The wife and I were watching Saturday Night Live from London on Saturday evening when they had a skit involving your Prime Minister and the mayor of Liverpool.

    But the punch lines for the Liverpool mayor wete that you know nothing about him at all… Like absolutely nothing…

    Is this true? Is he really that much an enigma? It hardly seems possible since Liverpool is such an important city for the UK.

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  6. Charlie, I myself know nothing about the mayor of Liverpool. I would assume, from what you've said, that the joke is that Andy Burnham was mayor of Greater Manchester and used that status to become one of the most high-profile politicians in Britain, while his nearby counterpart has totally failed to gain any kind of national profile.

    The joke is probably playing on the massive rivalry between the two cities, their inhabitants and politicians.

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    1. Thanks Steve! You’ve earned a No Prize! It makes sense!

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  7. Shazam! #25 was by far the best issue of the series I read back then, mainly because the first story was all about Isis - nicely drawn by Dick Giordano - and barely featured Captain Marvel himself.

    I never got the point of Shazam! Why revive a character after thirty years or so, only to do stories that mimicked his heyday? It didn't work for me at all, and I expect most kids found it dated. Even if DC thought there were enough older readers who recalled the original Fawcett era character, surely it would have made more sense to reinvent him for a different time?

    The obvious comparison is with the revival of the British knock-off, Marvelman - originally created purely because L. Miller & Sons no longer had access to reprints once Fawcett settled with DC - brought back a mere 4 years (!) after Shazam! was cancelled.
    Marvelman developed a new lease of life because the creators working on the revival - mainly Ala... uh, the Original Writer - came up with a fresh and (then) modern approach to superhero stories. Pretty much no-one was interested in those old reprint books Marvel put out when they first owned the character. And I don't see him bringing much to the Avengers now...

    I mean, I really liked the Justice League two parter with the JSA, set on Earth X when it came out. But why give the Freedom Fighters their own series if they're just another bunch of costumed geeks on Earth-1? There were enough of those already!

    At least you didn't include this month's Justice League #135 in the post, Steve, otherwise I'd probably be complaining about that too: 'Crisis in Eternity' the 14th JLA/JSA crossover, in which the heroes of two Earths meet those of a third, Earth-S, the home of the Fawcett characters. You know, Bulletman, Bulletgirl, Ibis the Invincible, Spy Smasher, Mr Scarlet & Pinky, and er, well the Big Red Cheese of course.
    Still, it was a three parter, so there's a couple more opportunities to slag it off in the next couple of months (spoiler: it's definitely no JLA/JSA/Seven Soldiers of Victory-type classic).

    -sean

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    1. I Thought Captain Marvel‘s revival by DC was more initiative of trying to preserve the copyrights?

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  8. I suspect you are right, Anonymous.

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