"A Plague of Monsters" Justice League Vol 1 No 174 January 1980

• Black Lightining!
• Crazy villian scheme
• Letter's Page

6/10 Lightning Bolts

This issues is more or less a part 2 of the League's attempt to recruit the new super hero Black Lightning into the group and it continues the issue's big bad evil guy's would-be origin story. The story opens with Barnabas Boulton, aka The Regulator unleashing his evil plan and extracting his revenge against his former boss as Star Labs who had him recently committed. Barnabas can control rats with a helmet a la Ant-Man. Since rats alone suck as a real threat, and since just sticking it to your boss and wife for locking you in the asylum is not a great long term plan. The Regulator makes use of Star Labs mutation chamber and levels up a big ol' pile of rats. Then he launches into his plan which goes a long way to explaining why he was getting forced psychiatric help in the first place.

Gerry Conway presages the attitude of the modern online politics poster by half a generation

Meanwhile back at the Hall of Justice...

Green Arrow is pissed! Seems he is the one who nominated Black Lightning for the league, but Superman, Green Lantern, and Flash ham-handed the whole thing. Kind of no surprise there, those three are all have super square powers and no doubt acted like asses. Supes already acted like a jerk to Jon Stewart when they first met back in JLA 110, and you know a space cop and an actual cop probably came off poorly talking to the only black superhero they have met before. Ollie decides to pitch membership in person this time to correct the social blundering of his fellow heroes. 

This is maybe the biggest moment in the book to me. It's culturally poignant, and sadly despite being written in 1979 (Jan 1980 cover date) still relevant now. Ollie tells Supes off, by pointing out that intentions aren't enough to be an ally, action is what matters. Speaking of allies two Leaguers volunteer to keep an eye on Ollie lest he do anything rash (like talk to the black guy?). Elongated Man & Zatanna hop in the teleporter to Suicide Slums. It's too bad Conway doesn't give us a thought balloon for Green Arrow when he finds these two rookies have decided to come with on the mission uninvited. 

The trio arrives in Metropolis and doesn't have to wait long for the action. A distress call from Star Labs sounds like a good place to find the local hero at large. There is a really nice interlude with Black Lightning that give some nice insight into the character, and contains some good symbolism about being a black hero, but don't take my word for it check out Osvaldo Oyola's much more intellectual and better written blog on the subject.

Join the League and get shamed for taking vacay or sick days

Ollie and rookies are quickly overwhelmed by monsters at Star Labs which leads to a really weird interlude. For some reason Conway includes a bunch of Leaguers who won't be responding to the distress call for a number of reasons. It feels like he is shaming them a little bit or I don't even know what, humanizing them is probably his intention and also just making Dillin & McLaughlin draw more heroes. It breaks up the flow and just comes off as a non-sequitor, but comics.

the one time it's ok to be "that guy"

We do finally get some Black Lightining in action shots. Conway doesn't Sweet Christmas up the dialogue too much, but he does add some slang/jive to it. It could be argued that this is Jefferson Pierce using his unapologetically black voice. Powerful in costume he no longer fears being himself or conforming to the standards of the white majority. Notably Green Arrow also drops his "g" on "ing" words in this issue showing that in action and speech he is umm, down. I guess the kids still say that. Green Arrow only drops the lingo some of the time though, so it could be he is putting on a false mask too.

Briefly the League and BL are together, now with Bats and Wonder Woman adding some muscle to the crew. They get some info dumped on them about the Star Labs Genetic Research Project, which has recently caused other monstrosities to attack the city, big ups to Wonder Woman for pointing out the WTF??!!? this project has been a cluster in the past and is now the cause of this disaster, c'mon Star Labs do better. Anyway Black Lightning takes off on his own to confront Regulator, while the rest of the League do damage control.

Wonder Woman, notably is tasked with keeping the mutant rat hordes from spreading outside the slums. She uses her lasso to pull down a crumbling apartment building to block the creatures path across a bridge. This scene is strange for comic book reasons, the building is conveniently empty, close to the bridge, and the rat creatures apparently can't climb or something. Anyway she destroys a building and blocks a major access road. Hey, you gotta do stuff in emergencies there's no time for major forethought.

We catch Black Lightning as he catches Regulator in the most precarious and comic book villan of perches, atop a factory smokestack. There is a brief struggle before Black Lighting confronts the enemy with the old, your revolution is harming the people you hope to save speech. I'm not sure I understand the exact action next, but it appears Regulator squirms realizing he needs to correct his mistake, but instead falls down the smokestack, no one could have seen this coming.

That last panel is so dope I might blow it up and put it on a tee shirt

Normally this type of inadvertent death of the antagonist would have lead to much angst, but not here. Black Lightning gets all fired up and then is like whatever. No big deal for the guy who protects a neighborhood with a worse name than Crime Alley. This all part of his reality, we don't have the right to judge him here.

Anyway the mutant rats get rounded up, and packed into some big ole concrete containers so they can be un-mutated and returned to nature. Oh wait no that's not the plan at all. They are sealed in an hurled to "the outer reaches of the solar system." That, friends, is how you take care of vermin. Also Princess Diana does not play.

Both of these endings left me wondering about the fate of the baddies. In the case of Regulator, it seems pretty final. The flames leap up and its pretty likely he is dead (there is not a single other appearance of Barnabas Boulton or Regulator in any of the subsequent DC Universes). The rat though are on an elliptical orbit so while they will probably die up there they will def be coming back toward earth one day, and this being comics you can bet they will be ten times worse of a threat when the do. I don't know it seems like a poorly thought out plan again here.


At last the heroes get sometime to do what they came here for, recruit Black Lightning to the Justice League. Green Arrow finally gets to ask and again BL turns the league down. Ok, fine I guess, he has his "I'm a loner" reasons, sure. The good part here is there is no bargaining, shaming, or pleading by Ollie. Black Lightning says his peace and Green Arrow lets it go, very adult. It does lead to the most trill moment of the issue, which only would have been cooler if GA had just said "Bet."



Oh and that property damage that the League did fighting the crime bads, yeah that can wait because we're having moment here. Why is The Man always harshing everything out. Thank you Wonder Woman for letting him know. Unless maybe navy suit wants an elliptical trip to the outer reaches of the solar system.

Lastly we have a letter page!!!! Hooray!!! One of my fave things to do with old comics is to "Where are they now," letter writers. This issue does not disappoint. We get 7 letters in the double spread column this issue. Daniel S. Lee of San Jose draws a blank for me. It might be a dentist out there but I couldn't pin anything down specific on him. Brian Chafin of  Floyd Virginia also comes up blank. I did find a Brian Chafin who asks questions at public meetings of VA governemnt, and I'd bet that is probably him but can't be positive.

Ted P. Skimmer who it turns out is a fake, a big fat phony. Back in the day, they sometimes had staff make up letters to fill the space, ever wonder how some of them could be spot on with future story requests? Well, now you know. Ted Skimmer is a nom de guerre of Bob Rosakis.

Gordon Smith of Middlesex is also a blank on my search, but Sal Casente is no doubt Salvadore Casente, big time lawyer. He wrote his letter some time in his freshmen or sophmore year of high school and  it is about the courtroom and legality of superheroes. Casente goes on to graduate with honors from Harvard Law so he clearly knew what he was into for sometime.

Joseph Fabiszak is very likely now a CPA in the Baltimore ex-urbs. His question/comment about characters on the cover, but no being in that issue as a way to boost sales isn't entirely unrelated to his pedantic career.

Lastly we have Dave Elya of Cheboygan, Michigan. I didn't find Dave, but I did find someone who found Dave's hand drawn comics! Definitely worth checking this blog post out from ispeakcomics. Dave also was living the dream running a comic shop himself, God bless him, but a fire next door put him out of business. Sorry, Dave.

Overall the issue is just ok. It's better than average because of the Black Lightning appearance and the double letter page, but the art is inconsistent and the bad guy is pretty whack. I can't go higher then a 6 out of 10 and even that is a little generous.

Comic Shop Review: Vortex Comics, Milwaukee, WI

The entrance to the Vortex

There are a few different kinds of comic book stores. Some stores are about comics and games. Some are about comics and pop-culture. Some are just about new comics books and trades. Vortex Comics is just about comics, new and old.

Located in the west/southwest of Milwaukee's outskirts, Vortex occupies the bottom floor of an older and rather plain building. The building is beige, and on the day I visited with the expansive gray April skies, the train tracks near the street, and the flat land stretching out in front and behind me, the brightly colored posters and paintings in the windows added some much needed color and texture to the setting. 

JR surveys his domain

Inside the store is equally modest, but everything Vortex eschews in flash it makes up for in comics. New books are lined up in shelves along the walls. They keep several of the last months books available for none subscribers. The comics are divided by publisher, Marvel, DC, & independents. The books were in a sort of alphabetical order, but I couldn't quite tell how that alphabet ran along the shelves. Sometimes it went left to right across several shelves, sometimes just a single shelf, and I swear in one location they were alphabetical vertically. I sorted it out, and I had no trouble asking the very approachable and helpful shop owner JR.

Mike, pushing the rock

Aside from the new books the center of the store is dominated by a series of shelves that house several hundred long boxes of back issues. The upper section of bagged and boarded issues vary in price. I plugged some holes in my collection and completed my Secret Wars (III?) collection. The bottom two tiers are filled with dollar books, lots and lots of dollar books. I filled some more collection wholes, and based on the number of issues they had in the run I started a Morrison Doom Patrol collection.

The day I visited, and probably most everyday, the shop owner JR was running the till. Very friendly, knowledgeable, and helpful. He even offered to dig for other books I was looking for but didn't see while I was there and mail them to me, even though they may only be dollar books. JR's shop assistant Mike handled the Sisyphean task of restocking the collection bins. Pulling from the back stock and working from A-Z replacing books and noting where acquisitions need to be made, and by the time he reaches the end of the alphabet it's time to restart the beginning again.

Honestly, the organization of the back issues was pretty phenomenal. I've seen smaller collections in much larger state of disarray. This as much as anything showed the amount of love for the store, and the product. Both JR and Mike bantered politely, and the shop talk didn't delve into anything off-color. JR gave me a full tour and even a quick carpentry tutorial on how to build long box shelves of my own.

If I lived in the area there is little doubt that this would be my comic shop of choice. The stores focus is clear and the care given to the product is evident in that focus. Tons of back issues, plenty of new issues on the shelves. This may not be the shop for the casual fan but if you like comics it is the place for you.

Comic Shop Review: Lost Worlds of Wonder, Milwaukee, WI

Once again on the road hitting up the local comic shops. Why? Because I really like comics, and even though comics, unlike food or even clothes, are basically the same everywhere in the U.S.A. no two comic shops are alike. There is not a McDonalds or Wall-Mart of comics, thankfully. Each store is unique in its own way. Some are good, some are not so good. Lost World of Wonders is definitely in the good side of things.

Lost Worlds occupies a very large space in a strip mall in the west/southwest side of Milwaukee. It is one of the largest stores I have visited. It also sits next to the intriguingly named American Science & Surplus. Not visiting that shop is a regret I must live with, but time was running short on this expedition and I barely got to see all of Lost Worlds before dashing back to work.

Stuffed animals, models, games, and more 

The large space of Lost World is filled with a variety of comic associated items. Manga, Anime, RPGs, and statuettes fill about half the floor space. It is good for the shop to be diverse. It brings in a variety of sub-culture enthusiasts and fans who can peek into the realms of their brethren and may even find things the like there. 

A manga/anime section is particularly nice to see. These books are not so common in many stores but Barnes & Noble carries many of them and I worry they will beat out our Mom & Pop shops on their sales. Certainly stores like this will be better able to speak about their books than the average staffer at a B&N.

Star Wars Corner

This store also featured a pretty large Star Wars collectible section. All manner of figures, vehicles, games, and playsets lined the walls and several shelves. Again I'm not a collector, but I appreciate the genre. Seeing toys in a comic store is good. It means kids will be in the store. Kids who will hopefully buy comics. 

You might think that with all this other stuff Lost Worlds wouldn't have much room for the comics. Well you would be wrong.

As I said the space is huge. While half of the showroom floor is not comics the other half is very much full of comics. 

The new issues area is extensive. The shelves are well stocked with the last few months of books, all in neat rows for display. I'm having trouble recalling, but I believe they were in full alphabetical order. This is my favorite organization method. I filling my pull list without wasting time hunting down titles is the best. Surrounding the new books are well stocked shelves of trades, and in the front of the store are the back issue bins. 

Bags and boards lining up the older books in neat order. The boxes are a bit tight so flipping through them isn't possible, but they are orderly so finding what you know you want is a simple enough. Complimenting the clerk on the size of the collection I learned that I was seeing a small portion of what was available. This was amazing and disappointing. Amazing because I could see about 90 long boxes in cabinets in the store, disappointing because I couldn't flip through the larger collection. Even still Alex, the clerk, could find just about anything I was looking for and I certainly tested him with an uncommon request for Spectre vol.3 #38. Less then five minutes after asking for the issue it was in my hand with a smile. Paying $2.00 for a book I was hoping to spend only a dollar on was worth it for the ease of access. Pressing for a more modern back issue came up empty, but Alex said who could find it with more time. 

Quarter bins even!

Time was certainly an issue for me as well because I barely had a chance to delve into my favorite part of any comic shop, the dollar bins. Lost World has some nice looking dollar bins. Well stocked, many in bags and with boards the cheap comics section here is not the ugly monster child hidden in the root cellar. These are comics who just don't garner as much care as the first appearance of Sabertooth, but still deserve to be read and enjoyed. The best part of the dollar bins here is they also had fifty cent and quarter bins. It took a lot of effort not to dig into those twenty five cent books to start my daughters collection, but I only have so much room in my suitcase and I know I would over due it. At twenty five cents I could afford to over do it!

As a whole I was very pleased with Lost World of Wonders. The shop is clean very well lit and nicely apportioned between the pop genres. Comics took the majority of the space, but there a multitude of wonders here for the finding, not just a single wonder on a one trick planet. The comics are plentiful and in good order. There are plenty of back issues to peruse and apparently many many more that can be accessed by the staff for you. This is my chief complaint. I enjoy digging, and not having free rein of the entire collection is disappointing. 

The staff was friendly and helpful. It is worth noting the owner, Ari, is a woman. Since I started really paying attention to the stores I visit I have only found one other female owned store. I'm not saying they are unique  but they are atypical, and I think worth noting. The shop is now over twenty years old, opening in 93, I believe. I only saw on other interaction with a customer while I was there but it was very good. Books were recommended based on the customers interests, and placed in their hands. Seeing dollar bins is always a big plus and seeing quarter bins is bonkers great. Also there is a shop cat, which is fun too. 

Comic Shop Review: Velocity Comics Richmond, VA

Travelling to Richmond for work I had the privilege to stop in at Velocity Comics on W Broad St in Richmond. Close to VCU campus this well stocked shop was a pleasure to visit. 

A clean, well lighted place.

Clean and  well lit the Velocity Comics is an easy store to shop in. The new comics are well ordered and there are a good number of recent back issues still on the wall if you are missing a title here and there. The ordering is a little confusing. There is the usual Marvel, DC, & "Independents" division of books, but the idie publishers are also divided, or at least Image is, but Dark Horse and some others aren't. Finding books from those sections took a little extra time, but that is just more time for me to look at usually missed indy books so that is ok with me.

New comics also have their own place on the back wall, but that was a little oddly stocked too. Some new books like say, Secret Wars main title had all of the current issues out there, but others like, Batman had only the most recent while the previous months were in order with the other DC recent back issues.  I'm used to comic shops having their own ordering system, and lord knows publishers relaunching multiple #1's of similarly titled books have not made things easier, but a comics neophyte or causal shopper may be confused by this.

One thing not confusing at Velocity is the number of trades available, and not the standard fare of Marvel & DC reprints, but legit original content graphic novels. I'm not a big OGN buyer, but I have my likes, Charles Burns stuff, Matt Kindt's books usually catch my attention, and the recent Hip Hop Family Tree books have made it to my shelves.

Velocity had this stuff and more, lots more. Good books, ones that this capes and tights comic fan is sometimes embarrassed that he doesn't know more about. I was struck by the variety of books on display and just scanning them lots of titles caught my eye. If my wallet was bigger I would have lugged many more books home that day.

 Also if I hadn't gotten into conversation with the affable store owner, Patrick, I would have browsed around even more. Despite being in the middle of Tuesday's new comic sorting, Patrick and his partner took the time to help me find things, and entertained my sometimes odd questions about the shop and business. Good customer service is very much appreciated. As a matter of fact I got not only good customer service, I got a couple of really good favors.

First, I have been looking for a first print of Secret Wars 2 for a while, but I don't want to pay more than $10. Patrick told me he had a copy, if I came back the next day he'd have it. Later that night while checking my purchases against my pull list I found I had doubled up on a couple of titles. The next day when I went back by Velocity, not only did Patrick have a first print of Secret Wars #2 which he sold to me at cover, despite being a variant, he also let me swap out my three doubles for the correct issues!!! All that for a non-regular customer.

Velocity is a great store. Clean, well lit, & very well run. The focus is on comics, and the variety is very good. Not a huge back issue stock, but there were dollar bins, which is always good. The new books are well treated and the shelves are well stocked. You can tell Patrick not only likes comics, but likes running a comic book store. I'll be back again next time I'm in Richmond.