As I’m sure all of you know, the meeting between one speedster and another caused the birth of the multiverse. But it didn’t stop there. While the JLA were meeting annually with the JSA to tackle villains and other monstrous entities, heroes on either Earths teamed up together and, in some cases, they were the same hero, albeit with a few differences between the two. In the last review that covered the team-ups, we witnessed numerous meetings between Barry Allen’s Flash and Jay Garrick’s Flash, but along with that, we got a story featuring the two Green Lanterns. While (like before) we will see the two speedsters meet again, here we see both Hal Jordan and Alan Scott meet twice more, but we also get to see the two Atoms, those being Ray Palmer on Earth-1 and Al Pratt on Earth-2 meet for the first time on their own, resulting in the multiverse to expand further… but now that we are past the simple and dull introduction, let’s get on with the stories and what I think, after some bits of information that is.
For the second and last interlude post covering instances where heroes crossover to other Earths and sometimes meet the alternate versions of themselves, I will be reviewing multiple stories from the same title together, making it easier and quicker to review. The stories are:
The Big Superhero Hunt --- The Brave and the Bold 62
Prince Peril’s Power Play/Our Mastermind the Car --- Green Lantern (vol 2) 45, 52
The Thinker’s Earth-Shaking Robberies/Duel Between the Dual Atoms --- The Atom 29, 36
The See-Nothing Spells of Abra Kadabra/Doomward Flight of the Flashes --- The Flash 170, 173
Menace of the Mystic Mastermind --- The Spectre 3
Like always at the time, the Brave and the Bold issue was published bi-monthly in October/November 1965. Green Lantern (vol 2) issues 45 and 52 were released in June 1966 and April 1967 respectively and issues 29 and 36 of The Atom were published bi-monthly in February/March 1967 and April/May 1968 respectively. Lastly, the Flash issues 170 and 173 were published in May and September respectively, both in 1967 and the seventh third issue of The Spectre was published bi-monthly in March/April
1968. With the exception of one, Gardner Fox and John Broome plotted and wrote all of these stories with various artists, most notably Carmine Infantino, Gil Kane and Neal Adams. I have read these stories in the Crisis on Multiple Earths: The Team-Ups
Volume Two trade paperback.
The Big Superhero Hunt --- Written by Gardner Fox with art by Murphy Anderson
THE PLOT
At the Sportsman’s Show in Federal City, a wax mannequin is destroyed, and the villain known as the Sportsmaster reveals himself to be inside it. He defeats police and guards hired by Larry Lance while his wife, Dinah, is speaking to the showrunner elsewhere in the area. However, Dinah arrives at the same time that the Sportsmaster is escaping with a trophy and because of that, she becomes Black Canary to hunt him down. Meanwhile, Ted Knight becomes Starman and finds hero Wildcat locked in a cage unconscious. But, a hoard of birds attack the cosmic hero and they are being controlled by a villain named Huntress, who escapes the scene. Once Starman defeats the birds, he finds Huntress and Sportsmaster, with Black Canary being not too far behind. The heroes fight the villains, with the Sportsmaster and Huntress defeating them and escaping in a boat, where we discover that the two villains are teaming up and are lovers. After the heroes awaken, they both go to Wildcat’s cage, but they find that he is gone. However, after extensive searching, the heroes find the trapped Wildcat in a warehouse along with trapped animals. When Starman and Black Canary release Wildcat, the animals are also released. A huge fight breaks out, but the animals are stopped thanks to Starman’s cosmic rod, which creates fire to frighten the animals. Meanwhile, Sportsmaster and Huntress are playing golf to win a tournament, one which has no other competitors apart from the two of them. After Wildcat is taken home, Starman and Black Canary find the two villains playing golf and they beat the two villains and retrieve the stolen trophy, which is taken back to the Sportsman’s Show.
MY THOUGHTS
Even though this story is only a meeting between numerous Earth-2 heroes, and it isn’t essentially a multiverse crossover, this story isn’t actually that bad. For starters, the main plot works well for villains such as this (who I’ll get onto in a minute) and not only that, but as there is a third hero here, it very makes things feel different and this story feels like a breath of fresh air, particularly after the previous story featuring Black Canary and Starman, which I thought was nothing special and not a great story. While I do have my problems with this story, the best thing about the story to me is the weirdness and silliness of the Sportsmaster, a villain who I cannot take seriously and there is nothing that you can take seriously about him. Villains like these died years ago in comics with the advent of the Bronze Age in the late 1960s, but as I haven’t read a whole lot of Silver Age titles and comics, this villain of the Sportsmaster comes across as funny, but stupid and while I wouldn’t want him as a recurring villain, I think he works well here, despite his questionable plan. Apart from that, it is great to see the inclusion of Wildcat and while I find it strange that he goes to another cage midway through the story, it does result in an interesting scene with the heroes fighting against some animals, something that wasn’t so common in these stories.
Okay, like I mentioned before, the Sportsmaster’s plot is pretty dumb and there are loads of things that doesn’t make sense with it. For starters, I don’t understand why he takes part in the competition and the reason for this isn’t because there isn’t anyone to play against, but earlier in the story, we see him steal a trophy and due to that, why doesn’t he just steal the competition prize. Not only that, but his team up with the villain, Huntress (who really doesn’t have much going for her) proves to be rather pointless and it doesn’t add much of anything to the plot to me. Lastly, while I approve of Wildcat being in the story, it doesn’t make sense to me why he just goes home midway through the story. The villains kidnapped him and put him in a cage near deadly animals. Surely, as a hero that fights for justice and fairness, Wildcat would want to help in locking up the Sportsmaster and Huntress, but I guess not.
The art here by Murphy Anderson certainly looks interesting and there are some great examples of skillful storytelling here. While I do find some of the finishes and texture either a bit rough or messy at times, I think the art looks really good. The lighting is excellent, and people are drawn realistically while also being visually attractive in terms of action and fighting, something that every comic book artist should have as a skill.
Story: 8.5/10
Art: 9/10
Prince Peril’s Power Play/Our Mastermind the Car --- Written by John Broome with art by Gil Kane and Sid Greene
THE PLOT
On the planet Myrg, Princess Ramia is forced to marry Prince Peril, but instead, she leaves the planet in a spaceship to go elsewhere. Meanwhile on Earth-2, Doiby Dickles is driving with Alan Scott, but when he gets out of his car, Doiby finds Princess Ramia, who has landed on Earth-2. Although Doiby is clearly in love with the princess, she senses from him that Alan Scott would be the perfect husband for her, but suddenly, another ship lands and Prince Peril arrives to take the Princess home, but she refuses. After Doiby fails to take out Peril, Alan Scott senses his friend is in danger and he becomes Green Lantern to fight Peril. While the fight is going on, Doiby and Princess Ramia escape in the car, which the princess has used her magic on to make it fly and using a device, Doiby fires a green light into the sky, which alerts the Green Lantern on Earth-1, Hal Jordan. He arrives on Earth-2 to find that Peril has defeated Alan Scott and he has captured Doiby and the princess. The Earth-1 hero fights Peril, which ends in Hal being knocked out. Peril takes the princess and Doiby to Myrg, where he treats the ally of Alan Scott as a slave, but luckily, the Green Lanterns awaken from their defeat, get to Myrg and beat Peril. In the end, Princess Ramia reveals that she is in fact in love with Doiby and he leaves Earth-1 to become the Prince of Myrg.
After reading a letter from the Earth-1 hero, Pieface (or Thomas as it is better to call him), ally of Green Lantern speaks about a tale from the past, which starts with Hal meeting with Alan. The two speak about how it is the first anniversary of Doiby’s wedding to Princess Ramia and because of that, they agree that Doiby’s car, Goitrude, should be given back to him. However, unknown to the two heroes, Doiby’s car is being driven around by criminals, who during a robbery, find that the car can actually speak and it tells them that it is in charge of their gang and it will tell them where to commit their crimes. Once the Green Lanterns find that the car has been stolen, they hunt down the criminals using it, but the heroes are defeated. While this is going on, Doiby is sent a message from Alan to go to Earth-1 as he needs help. When the heroes meet Doiby and tell him about the stolen car, the heroes (and Doiby) find the car and the criminals, but shockingly, they witness the car talking and after some time, the car explodes and Sinestro reveals himself to be the villain all along. After
stealing Doiby’s teleportation device, Sinestro and his gang of criminals escape while the Guardians of Oa sense danger when Sinestro speaks with them and threatens them. This causes the Guardians to summon all of the Green Lanterns to search for Sinestro. Once Doiby manages to get to Earth-2 thanks to an aircraft he got from Myrg, he meets the two Green Lanterns at the giant green power battery that charges all of the Green Lantern’s rings, where Sinestro has multiplied himself numerous times to destroy the battery. Luckily, the heroes manage to take out the real Sinestro and he is defeated. In the end, Thomas concludes his story by saying that Doiby has been given a toy version of his car to take back home to Myrg and after he leaves, the two Green Lanterns say their farewells yet again.
MY THOUGHTS
Although I’m not a huge fan of Green Lantern, the Guardians and all of that jazz, these two stories here are good, particularly the first one, which I shall start with. While the main plot can be incredibly fairy-tale like, I actually really like the first story here. It has a great balance of comedy and action and it features a range of different characters to make the story feel bigger. I guess it is hard to actually explain why this story is great, but I guess it comes down to the fact that I found it incredibly enjoyable to read, mainly due to its fast-paced action and fun sense of storytelling. Doiby Dickles comes across as quite funny here as I tend to think of him as quite an annoying character, but here I find him quite amusing and he is definitely the centre of all of the comedy in this story. Apart from that, the villain, Prince Peril, is a silly villain, just from his name you can tell he is evil and while I find Princess Ramia a bit too generic and almost stereotypical in terms of her character, it does make for a surprising, but funny twist at the end involving Doiby. The second story featuring Sinestro isn’t as good, but it is entertaining, and it works well for the most part. Sinestro is certainly more intimidating and better than Peril and while I do have some problems with his plan, I think it was about time that the two Green Lanterns faced one of the biggest enemies of the Green Lantern Corps. The story itself focuses on Doiby again and how they want to return his car to him, which I think is a nice gesture, even though at first it wouldn’t come across as a plot that would work for twenty-odd pages, this is when the ploy expands and we find that the car can talk… yeah. It’s funny, I’ll just say that for now. Doiby appears in the story midway through it and we get some light relief as that is the sort of character he is, but to me, the best thing about these two stories is that the two Green Lanterns work well together. While their characters and bonds may not be strong as Barry’s and Jay’s when they are the Flash, the two Green Lanterns just seem to mesh together, and they feel like the perfect team up characters.
While I find the character of Princess Ramia bland and stereotypical as all she does is try to look for a husband, I find Prince Peril to be even duller and he lacks any character or aims. He is clearly evil, but we don’t get to see him do anything really evil to make him seem like a genuine threat against the Green Lanterns. This would have made the story may some threatening and darker moments in this incredibly light and comedic story. However, the second story has a load more problems to me, with the main one being Sinestro’s goal, which is to destroy the Green Lantern power battery. This is something he would do, sure, but why does he have to hide in Doiby’s car? This ends up blowing his cover so that the heroes know about his plan, meaning that Sinestro could have just gone to destroy the power source of the Green Lanterns without anyone knowing. Also, why is the story told from the perspective of Pieface, or Thomas rather? I get it is meant to be as if it is an old story, but why? Why does it have to be in the past? There isn’t anything that really redeems it or makes sense for the tale to be set in the past. Apart from that, at the end of the story, the Green Lanterns give Doiby a smaller version of his destroyed car, which comes across as a bit of a lazy gift and it is honestly a bit laughable.
The art by Kane and Greene is wonderful here. There is not only a great sense of storytelling, but each and every panel looks professional and action packed. Emotion is conveyed brilliantly here, particularly with faces of Doiby, which are done to look over the top and I think it looks wonderful. Overall, the two artists here certainly make these Green Lantern stories even more memorable because of the flawless artwork.
Stories: 8.5/10
Art: 10/10
The Thinker’s Earth-Shaking Robberies/Duel Between the Dual Atoms --- Written by Gardner Fox with art by Gil Kane and Sid Greene
THE PLOT
One day, Cheryl Drake visits her friend, Jean Loring to speak about how her baby will be taken away from her as her husband has died recently and his parents want her baby for themselves. Later on, Jean speaks to her husband Ray about Cheryl at a museum, but everyone falls sick in the room and the Thinker arrives to rob the museum. Ray becomes the Atom to fight the Thinker, but the villain escapes through a portal to Earth-2. But, while the Thinker is driving away after his crime on Earth-1, the television reports that the villain has committed the same crime on Earth-2 as he did on Earth-1, making the Thinker angry. Somewhere else, a man named Artie is woken up by his wife, who finds that her husband has committed the crime on Earth-2 which is the same crime as on Earth-1, but he doesn’t remember committing the crime. Due to that, Artie contacts the Earth-2 Atom to speak about the crime he hasn’t committed, but during their conversation in person, Artie complete freezes as if he is in a trance. Artie then takes the stolen items he took from the museum and goes on his way to take them back to the police, but the Atom of Earth-2 tries to stop him. The Atom manages to get Artie out of his trance, and he forgets ever trying to take the stolen goods back to the police. The Earth-2 Atom then contacts his Earth-1 equivalent and as the two meet, the Thinkers appears. After a fight, the villain manages to trap the two Atoms in a cage together, but thankfully (due to Ray’s shrinking powers), the two heroes escape from their cell and locate the Thinker committing a robbery. The two Atoms defeat the Thinker together and they both say their farewells and head back to their respective Earths.
On Earth-2, Al Pratt is visited by some friends Bill and Betty, who tell Al that they have set up a date for him to meet a woman named Marion, who is pretty, intelligent and rich. However, when Al visits Marion, he finds that she looks much older than him. After Marion looks in the mirror and faints when she sees how old she looks, Al hears a strange noise under a door, causing him to become the Atom and go into the room, where he finds some criminals. He takes them out and finds that one of them has a strange red gadget. While Al hears about other women being affected and how they are all becoming old-looking, on Earth-1, Ray Palmer’s Atom is taking out some thieves, but during the fight, he loses his memory. Then he remembers that he has to go on a date with Jean Loring, who he thinks he hasn’t met before. The thieves also lost their memories as well, conveying that all of the men on Earth-1 lost part of their memory. On his way to the date, Ray meets Al, who has arrived on Earth-1. Ray, who has no knowledge that he is the Atom, meets Jean, who is engaged to Ray, but he doesn’t know that, resulting in a huge confusion. Then, Ray and Al disappear to go to Earth-2 and once Ray discovers how he can become the Atom, he begins a fight with
his Earth-2 counterpart. The long duel ends with Al taking Ray back to Earth-1 and defeating him. Ray then gets his memory back about his adventures as the Atom. Although the two begin to talk, they are interrupted by a man who owned a radio-telescope that was destroyed during the fight between the two Atoms. Al then works out that radiation was coming from the radio telescope that caused the problems on both Earth-1 and Earth-2 and after the two heroes dismantle the radio-telescope completely, everything returns to normal, with Ray and all of the men of Earth-1 getting their memories back and Betty and Marion along with all of the other women on Earth-2 turning back to their regular age.
MY THOUGHTS
These are rather strange stories really. Although I like the Atom of Earth-1 as a character, I have never been that interested in reading his titles, but the first story here is actually quite good. The Thinker is the villain here and due to that, we get a plot that can be a bit confusing, but ultimately enjoyable and full of moments that are shocks. We see Fox play around with the multiverse here and I love that aspect of the story here. It also gives an excuse as to why the two Atoms can meet, which also expands the multiverse. Apart from that, there isn’t much else to say about the story. It doesn’t have a whole lot of plot, which I think works in the tale’s favour as otherwise, it could become quite confusing, especially when covering the man on Earth-2 who has committed a crime that Earth-2 which is the exact same as a crime committed on Earth-1 by Thinker (reading that sentence back, that was confusing in itself. The second story is… well. It does feature a good fight scene between the two Atoms, which does go on for longer than perhaps it should and… well that’s it for the good things about the second story.
The first story is certainly fun, I’ll give it that, but like I said before, it can be seen as quite confusing and while it isn’t too hard to work out what is going on, my main problem with the story is actually the start with Jean Loring speaking to a friend about her baby being taken away from her. I guess this works well in terms of the character of Jean, but it is quickly forgotten about when the Thinker arrives. The topic of discussion there is way too heavy and dark to just be thrown under the carpet to me. I understand that Fox wants to focus on Jean briefly while also getting quickly to the Thinker plot, but it comes across as so casual and dark that it’s kind of stays on your mind for the rest of the tale. However, the second story is really the worst of the two. I mean, it just plain sucks. The story itself does begin in the right direction of exploring more aspects of the Multiverse, but the direction it goes in involving men losing their memories and women getting older on the different Earths is just such a bad idea for a story. The whole story is mainly just a fight between the two Atoms and while there is some great art to accompany it, it just goes on for too long. Also, why does the Earth-2 Atom decide to take Ray to his Earth and then during the fight just moments later decides to take them back to Earth-1. That is just pointless and then the cause of the situation. Oh, the f*cking reason for this whole thing happening is because of some radiation happening at a radio tower? It could have at least been a super villain or some cosmic entity, but no, it is just some scientist who wasn’t aware that his technology has actually causing problems. The Atoms don’t even say sorry to the scientist, they just take the rest of it apart while he goes away for some reason.
Uh, at least the art by Kane and Greene is excellent here. There are some great panels here, especially in the second story funnily enough and it just shows how versatile the two artists are, particularly when they are also working on Green Lantern (vol 2) at the title.
Stories: 5.5/10
Art: 10/10
The See-Nothing Spells of Abra Kadabra/Doomward Flight of the Flashes --- Written by Gardner Fox and John Broome with art by Carmine Infantino and Sid Greene
THE PLOT
On Earth-1, Barry Allen and Iris visit a theatre play, where they meet John Cardine, the star of the play. However, when Barry shakes Cardine’s hand, Barry hears a message in his head seemingly from Cardine telling him that he knows he is the
Flash. Later on, Barry becomes the Flash and takes out some robbers at a shop and when he defeats them and proceeds to go to the police station to hand them over, a man comes up to him and gives him a strange device. When the Flash goes to the police station with the criminals, he forgets why he arrested them and they go free. Afterwards, the Flash walks through Central City and witnesses loads of crimes happening, but he walks past them all of them as if he didn’t notice them. Meanwhile, it is revealed that Abra Kadabra is behind this and he is watching the Flash ignore all of the crimes. The villain is also working with an escape-proof robot, who he met when he escaped from prison which appears to be an irritant for Abra Kadabra. He also laughs to himself about how he disguised himself as John Cardine. Meanwhile, the Flash gets home and becomes Barry Allen, but he is greeted by angry and worried Earth-2 heroes such as the Flash, Doctor Fate and Doctor Mid-Nite, who try to convince Barry that he has been ignoring crimes. However, after Doctor Fate tries to remove the spell put on the Earth-1 Flash by Abra Kadabra and notices that the Flash cannot literally see crime, all the heroes head out to take out some criminals to help Barry. The criminals are taken out, but Abra Kadabra is on the scene and he attacks Barry, who still cannot see crime. However, by using his speedster powers incredibly quickly, the Flash of Earth-1 tricks Abra Kadabra to make him loosen his concentration on the spell, meaning that the Flash can see crime again and due to that, he takes out the villain and when he goes home and meets Iris, he thinks about how he is going to tell her that he is the Flash.
One day, Jay Garrick and his wife Joan travel to Earth-1 to meet Barry and Iris, but they find that Barry and his nephew Wally have gone to the cinema. However, Wally comes home and tells everyone that Barry had to go on a police case. While Iris and Joan are busy talking, Jay speaks to Wally about how he is the Flash of Earth-2 and how knows that Wally is Kid Flash. Wally then speaks about how he and Barry found and fought some criminals, but during the fight, a beam of sorts hit Barry and he disappeared. Sometime later, Wally and Jay go to the scene where Barry disappeared, but when they become Kid Flash and Flash respectively and begin to run around and search for Barry, Wally is also hit by the strange beam and he vanishes to the lair of a villain known as the Golden Man, who explains to the unconscious Wally and Barry that they will be sent on a manhunt around the strange planet where the Golden Man lives. However, during the manhunt which proves to be difficult for the heroes, Barry falls into some quicksand and seemingly dies. The Golden Man then retrieves Kid Flash and for fun, the villain also captures Jay Garrick, but by using his vibratory powers, the Earth-2 hero manages to break free from the Golden Man’s prison, but the hero is defeated. Jay and Kid Flash are then put into another cell by the villain. Luckily, Barry reveals himself as alive and he frees his sidekick and Earth-2 equal. The three speedsters then fight the Golden Man, which ends with the villain regressing back to his true and ancient beast like form and he is sent to roam his home planet on his own in the hunt. In the end, the heroes go back to Earth-1 and after some time, Jay and Joan go back to Earth-2 and say their goodbyes to Barry, Iris and Wally.
MY THOUGHTS
Now, we return back to where the multiverse began, with the two Flashes. The first story featuring Abra Kadabra certainly feels unique as the Flash acts like an idiot and doesn’t realise that crime is going on all around him. The story also feels different as we not only get to see the Flash of Earth-2 return, but we also see other JSA heroes turn up like Doctor Fate and Doctor Mid-Nite and while I don’t think they add as much to the plot as I think they should, it is good to see them appear out of the yearly JLA/JSA crossovers. I think that Doctor Fate is the best character here for first story, mainly due to his powers with his mystical ball and how he is the only one at first who can actually really fight Abra Kadabra. Speaking of which, the villain here is pretty silly, but his plot works out here and I think that it feels very different from other villains that the red speedster has fought. I suppose the great thing about this story isn’t the plot, but in fact the amount of characters that are here and this can sort of apply to the second story. Both Flashes and Kid Flash appear in this story, which feels unique again, but it also supply’s some excellent scenes between the Earth-2 Flash and Kid Flash, who have never really met before. Aspects such as this give new perspectives to this story and I think that is a good thing. Okay, the villain of the story may not be that great, but it does show the heroes in incredibly tight and hard situations, making the intensity of the story bigger so that the events in the story feel impactful. Apart from that, I like to see the characters in their day to day lives and I think that it is great that all of the characters meet each other as it adds the human elements to heroes which I think are so important.
My main problem with the first story is that it seems rather pointless why Abra Kadabra would disguise himself as an actor and then send a subliminal message to the Flash. This is because afterwards, the Flash continues what he does best and arrests criminals. It is only when the man in the street comes up to him and gives him a strange device that makes the hero not notice criminals, so that first part to me just come across as a bit pointless. Also, surely the police would investigate the villains that the Flash arrested and sent to the police station and forgotten what for. I mean, even the police officer is confused why the Flash, a hero in the JLA would arrest a group of suspicious looking people for no reason. Like I mentioned before, I found that the inclusion of Doctor Fate and Doctor Mid-Nite wasn’t used in such a major way that I think it should have been, but the one who really feels pointless in terms of this story is Doctor Mid-Nite, who barely speaks any lines in the story. Moving onto the second story, the main crime here is the villain, the Golden Man. Not only is his character dull and uninteresting, but his whole plot and plan comes across as entirely non-sensical. Why does he put the Flashes onto a deserted and trap-filled planet and why does the Golden Man become some weird rough fur coated creature that walks the strange planet forcefully? The story never explains any of that and to me, it makes the threat of the story and the villain himself seem utterly pointless. I think that the villain, his plot and goals are the only thing wrong here really and it is such a shame as the villain is what the story is centred around and I find him boring, dull and just plain bad.
Like before, I think the art by Infantino, and Greene is pretty good. It works well for the Flash particularly as the art is dynamic and action packed. While I like this and the great sense of storytelling here, there are some panels which are, well, questionable. I mean, just look at this from The Flash (vol 1) 173...
Stories: 7.5/10
Art: 8.5/10
Menace of the Mystic Mastermind --- Written by Mike Friedrich with art by Neal Adams
THE PLOT
Two entities attack each other in space, resulting in a combined version of both of their attack auras to fall into the atmosphere of Earth-2, where its hits a criminal named Jack. Meanwhile, Wildcat is fighting some criminals, but he struggles due to old age. Although he beats them, he goes home and feels sorry for himself and he shocks himself by smoking a cigarette. He then goes out as Wildcat again to stop some robbers, one of whom is Jack, who takes out Wildcat with one punch due to some strange strength he now has. Jack and his gang go to commit their next crime at a boxing stadium, which Ted Grant (other life of Wildcat) is visiting. He becomes Wildcat to take out the robbers, but he is defeated when he is mysteriously paralysed by Jack, who then heads into the boxing ring and demands everybody to watch him fight Wildcat, who is easily defeated by Jack. Luckily, the Spectre arrives and revives Wildcat, who then goes for a break after his defeat. While this is going on, Jack is not happy with his gang and how they barely give him any money, so he decides to paralyse them and commit crimes on his own. The Spectre disappears from Ted and finds the once-paralysed criminals, who he takes out with ease to find out where Jack went. Meanwhile, Jack has made himself into a super villain with his mystical powers to destroy the city, but the Spectre intervenes and defeats Jack.
Finally, as Jim Corrigan, the Spectre visits Wildcat, who has now opened a gym to train and teach children, making the Spectre happy that Wildcat has found a sense of purpose.
MY THOUGHTS
Although this story was published in The Spectre (vol 1) 3, this is more of a Wildcat story to me, but that isn’t a problem really. Wildcat and his character of Ted Grant is certainly the highlight of this story to me. We get to see a great character study here. Ted is obviously getting old and after years of being a boxer and a superhero, we get to see aspects of his character harden and become tougher. He becomes tired quickly. He isn’t as strong as he once. He begins to smoke without even thinking about it and all of these aspects display a great sense of character development. While I’m not a huge fan of some of his plots, this is like Friedrich Frank Miller-ing Wildcat and I think it works perfectly here. Apart from that, the main plot itself is pretty interesting as we get to see a cocky criminal think and display himself higher than he was before due to his powers, which is definitely a natural reaction, particularly from a criminal. While the Spectre may not be as vengeful or evil as I like him to be (for instance, in the Adventure Comics stories by Michael Fleisher and Jim Aparo), we do see some aspects of that here and I think that works well. I think that the ending itself is also perfect, again, especially for Wildcat, who now has a gym for children. This is not only great as we get to see him find a sense of purpose in life, but it also is good as we see more of the human elements of the Spectre show themselves, which I think is fantastic aspect for the vengeful spirit.
My main criticism for this story has to be the start of the story, where these two strange mystical and cosmic entities fire some strange auras at each other, resulting in the story kicking off. This comes across as so forgotten and casual to me as if we are basically told to just accept what happened at the start. What was in the combined aura of the two cosmic entities? Who were they? Where were they from? What happened to Jack and his powers at the end of the story? Well, we don’t find any f*cking answers here, that’s for sure. Plus, is this small, but I think a brief appearance of the Spectre earlier in the story is probably needed, you know, just to make his presence known a bit earlier on.
In terms of the art, well, here we find Neal Adams doing some of his earliest comic book art for DC… and it is, for the most part, great. His sense of storytelling is definitely the most fantastic thing here, with each and every panel look amazing in terms of the angles that they are shown from. However, my main problem with the art is the fact that it is inked by Neal Adams himself, which makes the finishes look messy in some areas or just plain incomplete in one particular instance. I think this
story would have looked beautiful if Dick Giordano was inking Adams here, but instead, the art looks, well, just a tiny bit worse than I think it could have been.
Story: 9/10
Art: 9/10
VERDICT
Overall, these team-up tales between Earth-2 heroes or heroes from the two Earths are good and fun stories. While the Starman, Black Canary and Wildcat story is pretty good, both of the Green Lantern stories are excellent. The first Atom and Flash stories are both great, but the second stories leave a lot to be desired, particularly the second Atom story. Lastly, the Spectre story is brilliant, and I think it works perfectly for Wildcat and his character. While this is it for the early team-ups, don’t be fooled. There were hundreds more stories up until 1986 that featured heroes all over the multiverse meeting each other, such a DC Comics Presents 87 (featuring the Earth-1 Superman meeting the Earth-Prime Superboy) and The Brave and the Bold 182 (featuring the Earth-1 Batman meeting the Earth-2 Robin), these stories here are the very start of the multiverse and these stories show and prove that it was expanding… expanding… expanding… and expanding until it ceased to exist…
Stories: 8.5/10
Art: 9/10
Highlighted Character: Wildcat (Ted Grant)
Next Review: Crisis on Multiple Earths Tales Part Six (Justice League of America (vol 1) 207-209, 219-220, 231-232, 244, All Star Squadron 14-15, Infinity Inc (vol 1) 19). Written by Gerry Conway, Roy Thomas, Kurt Busiek and Dann Thomas with art by Don Heck, Adrian Gonzales, Jerry Ordway, Sal Trapani, Chuck Patton, Romeo Tanghal, Pablo Marcos, Alan Kupperberg, Rich Buckler, Todd McFarlane, Steve Montano, Joe Staton and Mike Machlan (that’s a f*ck ton of people). Expected to be published by 22/12/2019.
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