The DC Lucky Bag - August 1976.

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

***

It is time for me to spin my Steve-Does-Destiny Wheel of Fortune marked "August 1976" and see what random DC comics appear on it when I do so.

As is worthy of the only war comic I have ever liked, Weird War Tales is still going strong.

And, this month, it goes strong with such knuckle-whitening nightmares as Bloodbath of the Toy Soldiers, Justice for All Includes Children 5, The Day after Doomsday and The Warrior.

Maybe it's just me but I'm convinced that every other issue of Weird War Tales featured a story called The Warrior.

The Secret Society of Super-Villains hits its second issue and, from that Dick Giordano cover, it seems that Captain Comet hits the Green Lantern!

As for the book's juicy innards, that selfsame Captain returns to Earth where he mistakes Hal Jordan for a villain and launches into a punch-up with him.

Clearly impressed by such smarts, Gorilla Grodd and Hi-Jack invite him to join the Society.

And it's a society that's about to become a little more transparent, as this is the month in which we also discover the identity of the gang's mysterious funder!

I may or may not detect an Ernie Chan cover tribute to Neal Adams' frontage for Detective Comics #413. The similarity is vague enough to be pure coincidence or to be seen as merely subtle, depending on how you look at it.

Regardless, we've reached the series' penultimate issue, in which the Joker commits a robbery while dressed as the Scarecrow.

Needless to say, the real Scarecrow isn't having that sort of thing and decides to hunt down the clown prince of crime, in search of vengeance.

I could never resist an issue of House of Mystery and in this, no doubt, irresistible offering, we encounter tales with such nightmare-inducing titles as Kronos -- Zagros -- Eborak!, Justice for All Includes Children 6 and Your Epitaph Is Only a Birthday Card.

According to the GCD, Qwardian youths turn Arthur Sommar into Skragg the super sniper.

I've no idea what any of that means but I can only conclude that it's bad news for the Freedom Fighters - and for everyone else.

The site also informs me that this issue's inks are credited to Juan Canale who seems to be Vince Colletta but no one seems to know why he's so pseudonymously credited.

It would appear it's not just the Green Lantern who has to worry about a team of super-villains. So does the Flash when a bunch of them learn the Top has died.

However, before he went, he forced them to go in search of six pieces of a bomb that will destroy Central City if they don't stop it.

And there's more because, in our second adventure, the Ravagers of Olys devolve Green Lantern into an ape.

The unmitigated bounders.

The DC Lucky Bag - July 1976.

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

***

For well over a century, people have been arguing about which is best? AC or DC?

Well, DC, of course.

After all, it gave us the random selection of comics below!

And you don't get more random than this, as the company gives us its take on the Three Musketeers and Robin Hood.

I'd assumed this was going to be an all-reprint mag but it seems it's not.

At least not when it comes to the Three Musketeers. For, herewithin, Denny O'Neil and Jorge Moliterni give us that legendary quartet in a drama titled A Monster Met on the Road to Calais.

When it comes to everyone's favourite outlaw, Bob Haney and Joe Kubert give us The Battle of the Kites! in which Robin hunts a dangerous boar - only to discover it's a trap set by Prince John!

And, then, Bob Haney and Ross Andru tell us of how a lone knight, returning from the Crusades, became the legendary Robin Hood.

Those two Sherwoodian adventures are,  as you might suspect, recycled from the 1950s.

Despite me only ever having encountered one issue of it in the wild, the Metal Men's comic still seems to be going strong.

And this month sees the mechanical marvels visit Venice to retrieve the blackmail money that Doc decided to hide when he was feeling unstable.

However, because he still suffers from amnesia, the man doesn't recall that he left someone called Chemo in charge of guarding it!

But can it be? Can our favourite heroes be about to beat up a bunch of dumb animals?

There's only one way to find out.

And that's to read this comic.

And, when we do, we learn it's a book in which a number of League members have gone missing, including Superman!

Fortunately, Supergirl shows up to help out.

Why, it's the only issue of Swamp Thing I ever owned.

Thrill, as Ruth Monroe and Edward Holland attempt to find a cure for the Swamp Thing.

Gasp, as they actually succeed!

And get tense, as the villainous Sabre tries to bump off our hero before he can enjoy his regained humanity.

Who wouldn't want a DC Limited Collectors' Edition in their lives?

We all would.

Which is good news because the latest one gives us the chance to fill our head with Batman when the cowled crusader gets involved in such reprinted action as Castle With Wall-to-Wall Danger!, Trade Marks of Crime!, The Deep-Sea Diver Mystery! and Paint a Picture of Peril!

But we also encounter brand new short features, such as Batman's New Home and A Key to the Batman's New Home.

Clearly, whatever Batman can do, DC's finest villains can replicate.

And so it is that we encounter The Secret Life of the Catwoman, The Master of Mirrors! and The Ghost of Jor-El! Not to mention Wonder Woman and the Cheetah!

When it comes to new material, we stumble upon  Wanted, a two-page feature containing character profiles of 18 different super-criminals.

And there's a short history of the battles between Dr Light and various members of the Justice League.

The DC Lucky Bag - June 1976.

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

***

Plans are of no use to a man like me. Like all men of destiny, I rely on random happenstance to guide me.

Therefore, let's see what appears when I spin the Steve Does Comic Wheel of Fate and see upon which DC comics that bear this month's cover date its untutored arrow settles.

Many times, as a child, did I see Jonah Hex comics on the spinner racks.

And many times did I see house ads for his book.

And, yet, strangely, in all that time, never once did I actually get round to buying an issue of his comic.

I suspect the lure of the Phantom Stranger, Spectre and Weird War Tales, sitting there, beside him, on those racks, always diverted my attention away from the gun-slinger.

Regardless, I do know that, in this thrilling epic, our hero's forced to contend with a rival bounty hunter who keeps stealing his captives, in order to claim the reward money for himself.

But forget all that. Whatever else happens, this is the big event of the month, when a brand new mag descends upon our favourite retailers.

And does so by creating a team consisting of DC's greatest villains - and Captain Boomerang.

Surely, no hero nor group of heroes, could hope to stand against such a gargantuan gaggle of gallivantingly galevolent galoots.

And it all happens when one of Manhunter's clones brings them all together under the auspices of a mysterious but wealthy benefactor.

But who could that benefactor be?

Could it be Lex Luthor?

Or Darkseid?

Because, let's face it, who else is it going to be?

But enough of such concerns. Karate Kid hits his second, thrilling issue. And, no doubt, hits a few wrongdoers, as well.

In fact, he probably hits Major Disaster who launches some sort of attack on the United Nations!

I don't know who he is but I'm not sure I'm impressed by any villain who wants to be known as Major Disaster.

Then again, maybe he's the mystery man behind the Secret Society of Super-Villains?

Jack Kirby may be long-gone but the last boy on Earth just keeps on lasting, thanks to the efforts of Gerry Conway and Chic Stone.

Which is a matter of curiosity to me, as I don't think I've ever seen anything pencilled by Stone. I know him purely as an inker.

As for what occurs within, it seems the trouble-finding teen seeks out someone called Mogul who may be to blame for recent attacks on him.

I've never read this one - and that cover does have a real Silver Age throwback feel to it - but I can sensationally reveal that the League is making some kind of effort to stop a bunch of natural disasters that turn out not to be so natural.

In fact, so not-natural are they that they're part of a plan to destroy the team!

It's the meeting that had to happen, as the Joker and Superman's arch-nemesis co-star in a tale called Luthor-- You're Driving Me Sane!

Not that I know what happens in it, beyond that it features a bunch of people called the Mountebank Malefactors.

From that name, I shall assume they are bad guys.

And that they are well-heeled.

The DC Lucky Bag - May 1976.

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

***

To be honest, not a lot leaps out at me from DC's comics bearing the cover date of May 1976.

However, the ones below seem more noteworthy than some.

Can it be? Can Hawkman now have the ability to fling his lower arms at everyone?

It surely can when a malfunction in the League's new teleport merges him, the Flash and an alien called the Dharlu into one being!

As for the popularity of this mag, the GCD informs me that this month's sales statement puts the average number of copies sold during the preceding 12 months at 166,000, and that the number reported for the issue nearest the filing date is 173,117.

And it seems Hawkman's not the only one losing body parts, because, now, Superman's joined in.

I know few details of what's occurring inside but it seems the man of steel must face several of his greatest foes, thanks to Xviar's master plan, in The Double-or-Nothing Life of Superman!

Not that I know who Xviar is.

I can report the average circulation for this comic is 644,000, with the most recent recorded issue coming in at 578,311.

Can it be curtains for the world's fastest human?

It seems so because the Mirror Master's used his mesmerising looking glasses to make the hero think he's a crook.

Thus, the Flash commits several robberies before someone called Dexter Myles shows him he's wrong to believe in his own light-fingered nature.

In red-hot back-up action, the Green Lantern's chasing the Ravagers who attempt to destroy the sun of another world but Greenie soon foils them by using a spaceship's nuclear reactors to ramp up the fusion activity of that sun.

When it comes sales, circulation is reported at an average of 169,000 per issue, with the most recent recorded issue achieving a figure of 166,866.

I know little of this one, other than that the adventure it contains is called Tarzan and the Champion: Conclusion which, to the shock of perhaps no one, seems to have been adapted from Edgar Rice Burrough's Tarzan and the Champion.

Sadly, I have no sales data to report.

Possibly, sales data is difficult to collect in the jungle.

We all like a special.

And this is a special.

Gasp as giant super-powered insects invade the Earth and it starts to look like even Superman can't stop them!

That's followed by the Green Lantern who, in an attempt to dodge a marriage proposal, creates a menace which then goes on a rampage!

That's followed by something called The Big House of Monsters!

And all of these tales are reprinted from the 1960s.

Meanwhile, the mag finishes off with a drama called The Marvel Family Reaches Eternity, as reprinted from the distant days of 1946.

However, that's not all we encounter, because, within this book, is also contained a two-page article called What Were the Dinosaurs?

And our answer is provided by none other than E. Nelson Bridwell himself.

It's another one I know little of.

But I do know its 18-page thriller is called Welcome Back to Life... Steve Trevor! and is brought to us by Martin Pasko and José Delbo.

I can shed no light upon whether the shock does indeed kill Wonder Woman.

The DC Lucky Bag - April 1976.

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

***

It's here!

As seen on TV! mentioned on this site, mere weeks ago, the launch of a brand new feature in which I take a look at a random selection of DC comics which boasted this month as their cover date.

What magical treats await us from the company that Marvel could never quite kill?

You've thrilled to his adventures with the Legion of Super-Heroes. Now thrill to his adventures without them, as the man so good they named a totally unrelated movie franchise after him abandons the two elements that gave him a reason to exist - the Legion of Super-Heroes and the future - and trails Nemesis Kid to the 20th Century before deciding to stay there.

How long can it be before he's bumping into Shang-Chi, Iron Fist and the Sons of the Tiger?

Quite a long while, I suspect, but I could be wrong.

The magnificently unpredictable 1st Issue Special brings us the Return of the New Gods in which Orion fights Kalibak, and the New Gods are attacked by Parademons on New Genesis.

Meanwhile, Orion visits Earth, in search of Darkseid - but finds just Kalibak and Granny Goodness!

It's not the most memorable cover for a man who's had plenty of memorable covers.

And, in truth, I know little of this one's insides, beyond them being labelled The Solomon Plague and being the handiwork of both David Michelinie and Nestor Redondo.

This month, Marvel brought us the distinctly retro Liberty Legion and, clearly not to be outdone, DC offers us The Freedom Fighters who move from Earth-X to Earth-1, in order to fight crime.

It would appear the Silver Ghost turns Doll Man, Black Condor and Phantom Lady into statues - and Phantom Lady begins to turn into a real phantom!

And yet another new mag enters our lives.

This time, being one devoted to reprints.

Within it, two Xelthunians secretly replace Ma and Pa Kent, to carry out a secret mission, without knowing the duo are Superboy's foster parents.

Then, Wonder Woman takes someone called Bobby to a zoo where they discover one of the lions can speak, which takes our heroine and Steve Trevor to Cairo for an entanglement with spies.

Speaking of the ancient land of Kemet, when Hawkgirl's teleported out of a museum, Hawkman traces the radiation to the Egyptian lair of the Criminal Alliance of the World!

And, at the annual meeting of The Liar's Club, Jay Garrick relates the unlikely tale of the Flash and his battle with sand!

And what's this?

Another reprint mag makes its debut when DC Super-Stars brings us Monster Bait and Skis of Death! Both reprinted from the 1960s.

But that's not all.

We're also treated to a brand new feature. One known as Introducing the Teen Titans.

Drama smashes us in the eyeballs when we have to survive a thriller titled The Real Batman Dies Next!

As far as I can recall, someone's killed while dressed as Batman, leading our hero to try and find the killer.

I think tattoos may be involved.

As if that wasn't enough, we also encounter Man-Bat in Peal of the Devil-Bell!