Comic Book Review: Best of DC #8: Year’s Best Comics Stories

Comic Book Review: Best of DC #8: Year’s Best Comics Stories edited by Julius Schwartz

If you were going to have a digest comic called “Best of DC” it only made sense to present a collection of what the creators considered best stories for a given year, in this case, 1979. As the text feature explains, the contest was a little rigged. In order to fit in a “top ten” compilation, the editors had to disqualify any story over the then-standard twelve-page “lead story” format, so no double-length or multiple-part stories. This resulted in a certain…imbalance.

The front cover by Ross Andru and Dick Giordano is a decent snapshot of the sorts of comics DC was putting out at the time, while the back cover shows off the faces of many of the creators who worked for DC at the time.

“The Miracle Man of Easy Co.” written by Cary Bates, pencils by Joe Staton, and inks by Jack Abel, teams up Superman with Sergeant Rock. Superman is in Paris to accept an award when he suddenly realizes it’s a ludicrously powerful sticky bomb. He’s able to fly it away from the crowd, but the explosion sends him 35 years back in time to 1944 and gives Superman a whopping case of amnesia.

While he’s trying to figure out who he is and why he’s wearing a circus costume, nearby two survivors of a fake “Baker Company” shed their American uniforms. These Nazis had tried to lure Easy Company into a trap, but their “flawless Minnesota accents” had failed to pass muster. (They probably pronounced “Edina” wrong, it’s a dead giveaway.)

The amnesiac Superman dons one of the discarded uniforms and is found by the joes of Easy. They’re suspicious of this stranger with no dogtags and no name, but Sergeant Rock decides the safest thing to do is allow the man to tag along until they can reach a command post to hand him off to. The men promptly nickname the stranger “Tag-Along.”

Tag-Along is pretty useless in direct combat, as he is unable to bring himself to kill. However, he discovers he has superstrength and eventually recovers his memory of being Superman. There’s no record of Earth-One Superman fighting in World War Two, so he can’t openly aid the soldiers, but he feels an obligation to return their kindness, so tricks the Nazis into thinking he and Sergeant Rock are experimental super-soldiers ala Captain America. He then fakes the death of Tag-Along so that no one will be looking for him, and returns to the present.

“Never Say Die!” written by Len Wein with art by Jose Luis Garcia Lopez stars Deadman. Boston Brand was a circus aerialist with a gimmick act where he’d dress in a costume and full-face mask and perform dangerous stunts as “Deadman.” He was killed in the middle of his act by a sniper. Due to circumstances, he was unable to pass on, and the goddess Rama Kushna gave him the ability to possess living bodies to track down his killer. Even after this was accomplished, Boston, who’d been a selfish jackass in life, semi-willingly stayed on the Earthly plane to work out his karma.

In this story, Deadman is chilling in the park when an old man dying of cancer attempts suicide. Boston possesses a pigeon to prevent this, but his curiosity is piqued, and the ghost starts following Abraham Gold around. We learn that Abraham lives with his drug dealer son Jacob and innocent granddaughter Sarah. He quarrels with Jacob, and the son storms out, Deadman following him.

While looking at freighters from the shore, Jacob muses over the mess he’s made of his life, where his only option to put food on the table is crime. He reaches an epiphany, and decides to quit drug dealing. Deadman tags along to make sure Jacob doesn’t get cold feet.

Mob boss Mr. Caprice isn’t going to make it that easy, of course, and things get complicated when Abraham shows up with a gun. Deadman does his best to help out, but he makes a tactical error, and tragedy ensues.

“Minister of the Lord” written by Michael Fleischer, art by Luis Dominguez, stars Jonah Hex. Jonah Hex was a former Confederate soldier who still wore pieces of his old uniform while working as a bounty hunter in the post-Civil War Wild West. He had horrific facial scarring (which he’d gotten before the war) and was a generally grumpy cuss. More of an anti-hero type, he was inspired by the spaghetti Westerns of the Seventies more than the classic Westerns most of DC’s “cowboy heroes” followed.

In this story, he’s traveling with a minister he happened to be going the same way with when they’re ambushed by outlaws. Reverend Julian is killed, and as part of a gambit, Jonah switches clothing with the corpse. He’s able to gun down a couple of the outlaws, but this triggers an avalanche, and Jonah is struck in the head by rocks.

When he awakens, he has a case of amnesia and assumes from his clothing and identification that he is Reverend Julian, who is to be the new chaplain at Fort Onondaga to serve the cavalrymen there. When he arrives, the fort is besieged by Apaches, and Julian manages to break the siege by a clever trick based on the natives’ culture.

I am not sure how much of Hex’s backstory had been revealed in the comics up to this point, but he’s able to draw upon the time he spent with the Apaches even if he doesn’t recall the circumstances, and knows enough about the Bible and the duties of a clergyman to be successful at the job of a chaplain for several weeks (even counseling soldiers on their own problems!) Unfortunately for them, the remaining outlaws come to the fort, recognize the mild-mannered preacher, and force him into a gunfight. Jonah recovers his memories, the outlaws die, and Reverend Julian is mourned.

“The Shadow of Jor-El!” written by Cary Bates, penciled by Joe Staton, inks by Frank Chiaramonte, stars Jonathan Kent, adoptive father of Superboy. The Superboy stories were set a rolling fifteen years or so before the present day, so this one would be meant to be happening in 1964. Superboy has been spending a lot of time lately reviewing his memories of his brilliant scientist birth father Jor-El. Including the parts where somehow the Science Council never quite grasped how Jor-El was always right, and ignored his predictions about the destruction of Krypton.

Pa Kent feels a bit inferior by comparison; he’s just a farmer turned general store owner, with a hobby of collecting earthworms and soil samples from around the Smallville area. As a result, he and Clark are going through a rough patch. (“My name is Kal-El!”) Jonathan notices that his worms are acting oddly, particularly the ones from a canyon up north, and there’s been some earth tremors lately.

Mr. Kent investigates the canyon, and discovers the cause of the tremors, realizing that it’s gearing up for an earthquake that will destroy Smallville. He deliberately puts himself in danger and calls out Superboy’s Kryptonian name to attract his son’s attention.

This works, and Superboy is able to stop the quakes at their source. Pa points out that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one–but he was counting on Clark being immature enough to make the mistake of prioritizing a loved one over everyone else. And because this allowed him to save more lives indirectly it was the right choice in this instance. Jonathan Kent might not be a brilliant man, but he succeeded where Jor-El had failed in saving his people, and also (with Martha) gave Superman the rock-solid moral guidance that allows him to use his powers for good.

“The Mouse of History” written by Don Thompson, art by Rubeny, originally appeared in The House of Mystery horror comic. Lowly research assistant Paul Jonas drops the cage of lab mouse Esmeralda, freeing her. In the search of the old house that had been turned into a laboratory, Paul finds an old book that turns out to be a biography of the house’s previous owner–written in advance, along with the book’s other owners.

It turns out that whatever fate is written in the book comes true. Paul first uses it to get Esmerelda to come back into her cage (he never enquires into what she was doing while gone.) He then uses the book to make himself rich (and punch his annoying boss in the face without getting arrested.) In gratitude, he takes Esmeralda along with him to his new life of ease and fame. Unfortunately, Esmeralda doesn’t return his sentiments and there’s a horrific twist ending.

An especially fun story based on wordplay.

“The Curse of Crime Alley” written by Denny O’Neil, art by Don Newton & Dan Adkins, is a Batman story. Ever since Thomas and Martha Wayne were murdered there, Park Row has gone downhill, becoming known as Crime Alley, home to the poor, desperate and criminals. Tonight is the anniversary of the Waynes’ death, the night Batman always returns to Crime Alley.

This time he’s joined by charity worker Dr. Leslie Thompkins, who helped young Bruce Wayne on that horrible night (and doesn’t, officially, know that he’s Batman, but keeps hinting.) She’s got a sense that something is especially wrong in Crime Alley.

This turns out to be a plot by crimelord Maxie Zeus (who has an off-and-on delusion that he’s the mortal incarnation of the god Zeus) to murder an entire tenement of people to get one stoolie. While Batman and Dr. Thompkins are trying to get the building evacuated, he runs into a domestic abuse case, and then a mugger. Enraged, Batman goes off on the mugger and nearly takes it too far before Dr. Thompkins reminds him of the need for mercy and compassion.

Batman realizes that he’s using brute force when he should be using his brain, and figures out how the murders are supposed to happen, saving the entire building. The stoolie decides to dedicate some time to assisting Dr. Thompkins as his way of atoning for his own sins, while Maxie Zeus gets a dire warning.

“Clark Kent’s Mynah Dilemma” written by Cary Bates, penciled by Kurt Schaffenberger, and inked by Dave Hunt, stars a certain mild-mannered reporter. At this point, Superman’s secret identity had an established residence and supporting cast from his apartment building at 344 Clinton Street, including mischievous twins April and May Marigold. Clark Kent returns home for a good night’s sleep as he hasn’t had the opportunity to snooze for two weeks straight, and even Superman gets mentally fatigued.

He’s dismayed to learn that his Marigold neighbors have gone off on vacation and left their talking mynah bird for him to pet-sit. Samantha is extremely loud and talkative, repeating phrases it’s heard from television and other conversations. Clark finally has to put himself into a trance to deafen himself so he can sleep.

When he wakes up the next morning, Clark is dismayed to learn that Samantha has somehow picked up the phrase “Clark Kent is Superman!” Did he talk in his sleep? His secret identity could be blown by this bird. Clark tries various shenanigans to break Samantha of saying the phrase, while also dealing with an assassination attempt by criminals upset about his reporting. And of course there’s a humorous final twist.

“Back Door to War!” written by Robert Kanigher, art by Sam Glanzman, stars the crew of the Haunted Tank. Jeb and his men are participating in the invasion of Sicily. The tank gets damaged, and some liberated locals volunteer to help fix it, but they hijack the tank to fulfill their own vendetta. Turns out there’s a local Romeo and Juliet situation going on. This distraction puts the Haunted Tank exactly where it needs to be to outflank the Germans who were planning an ambush. There’s about half an appearance by the Confederate battle flag the tank flies, and a couple panels of General Stuart, who doesn’t add anything to the plot. Happy ending for everyone but the Nazis.

“Papa Don” written by Greg Potter, art by Noly Panaligan, is set in 1930s Harlem. Nicky is an impoverished youth who enjoys the tales of “Papa Don” about Africa and Haiti and the ancient tribal “voodoo.” Doesn’t help fill an empty belly in winter, though. So Nicky is tempted by flashy, well-fed criminal Promo to take a job with him. This turns out to be in the protection racket. Nicky balks at murdering an old woman, so now Promo is going to kill him as an example, but it turns out there’s a reason Papa Don always wears dark glasses and it’s not because he’s blind. The former Nicky is now an old man in tune with nature, though we don’t get any information on how he got from there to here.

“Fall and Rise of the Star-Child!” written by Cary Bates (on a roll in 1979), pencils by Curt Swan, inks by Frank Chiaramonte, finishes the volume with another Superman story. This one guest-stars his cousin Supergirl. The pair are summoned by aliens to raise an infant bio-spawn destined to save the people of Dyrlia. Rovos rapidly grows to near adulthood, absorbing knowledge at superhuman speed. But this story hearkens back to the Silver Age Superman comics, as the central twist is a cruel hoax, designed to give Rovos the one thing his people actually need.

This is a good representative sample of DC’s output in the Bronze Age of Comics, though heavy on the Superman. The best story to my mind is “Never Say Die” but “The Mouse of History” is a strong second, “The Curse of Crime Alley” is also excellent. I don’t think much of “Fall and Rise” as the hoax feels cheap. The art is also good; DC had some fine artists at the time, particularly their Filipino imports.

The back cover makes this issue particularly collectible, and it would make a great gift for a fervent DC Comics fan if you can find it. The individual stories can be found in various other collections.