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| Cover art by Ernie Chan |
Tuesday, April 26, 2016
Decent Comics: "When Fall the Mighty" by Conway, Levitz, Giffen, and Wood
Dig it, Groove-ophiles! With All-Star Comics #62 (June 1976), things are moving pretty rapidly toward returning the venerable Justice Society of America to prominence as the greatest super-team of all time. How was this going to happen? Well, baiting us with the possible death Dr. Fate and then bringing back the (original) Golden Age Superman was certainly a giant step in the right direction in Young Groove's eyes! This ish was also the last for writer/editor Gerry Conway (who was headed back to Marvel for a short-and-disastrous gig as the House of Ideas' EiC), with Paul Levitz scripting his first ish. Next ish, Levitz would become full writer (no longer working off of a Conway plot) and Joe Orlando would take over as editor. But let's back up to "When Fall the Mighty," shall we? An action-packed, densely plotted story with plenty of surprises aided and abetted by incredible art by a young Keith Giffen, who was doing some very cool experimentation with layouts and storytelling, and the master, Wally Wood who pulled it all together with a style that gave the whole thing a Golden Age style, but with a modern sheen. Can you dig it?
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Giffen and Wood made a great "shusterful" rendition of golden age Supes. It's just me, or the cover's Superman tremendously looks as inked by Vinnie Colletta (unlike the rest of the cover)?
ReplyDeleteI think if you look real close at Superman he still has the hallmarks of Ernie Chan art.
DeleteRumor has it that Wally Wood stuck around longer on the book because Keith Giffen decided to draw the Golden Age Superman in homage to Joe Shuster. That to Wally Wood was the best version. Woody kept that same look until he left the book at issue 65. . You can also see that briefly in his Mad Superman artwork and brief cameo of Superman in Captain Action 1.
ReplyDeleteI love this comic!
ReplyDeleteZanadu is one of the few super-villains who never showed up again after his initial appearance, (I think) and I wonder why, because he was interesting.
Maybe it was that funky disco suit of his!
M.P.
You can always tell early Keith Giffen because he always had several panels with a slanted head in them as in page 2, panels 1 and 5 and page 7, panel 3. Love his Clark Kent to Superman transformation in silhouette on page 10.
ReplyDeleteThanks for doing this. I love the JSA they are my favorites (along with the LSH). The only complaint I have for this incarnation is I hate the personality they stuck wildcat with. I've seen him more like a rational person in other venues. They seem more like Archie's mighty crusaders, confu8sing being a jerk with characterization.
ReplyDeleteNever mind, it's the JSA, It's Wally Wood and I'm happy to see these again, thank you.