He Is The Greatest

Your humble Fortress Keeper cannot let Black History Month slide by without rambling about the GREATEST COMIC BOOK OF THE 1970s - Superman
Vs. Muhammad Ali.

We’re completely serious. This book is packed with so much Bronze Age goodness that DC had to stuff it into an over-sized periodical!

Superman and Ali - two genuine American icons - face off against one another in outer space with the fate of the world in their hands, and it’s drawn by Neal frickin’ Adams in his prime!!

Who could ask for more, really?

Our admiration for Ali extends back to a childhood spent watching the heavyweight champ dominate sports - and American culture - like few figures before or since that time.

Heck, the Keeper knew people who referred to Ali as “Cassius Clay” because they were still offended - years after the fact - by his conversion to Islam and refusal to be drafted to Vietnam.

Can you imagine Lebron James igniting a socio-political controversy? We think not.

So when DC announced that Ali would team-up with one of our favorite super-heroes, the young Keeper camped out by his neighborhood newsstand as early as possible.

We were truly surprised then - and now - by the book’s sheer awesomeness. Under Julius Schwartz, the Bronze-Age Superman finally developed a complex - and likable - personality that gave equal focus to Kal-El the godlike savior and Clark Kent, the mild-mannered reporter who provided refuge for the hero.

Unfortunately, he rarely faced villains worthy of his stature. Lex Luthor, especially as written by Elliot S! Maggin, was a multifaceted and somewhat tragic villain who could have achieved true greatness if he hadn’t envied Superman.

However, the rest of Superman’s rogues gallery wasn’t all that interesting. (Brainiac finally received a much-needed boost from Marv Wolfman in the ’80s; before that it seemed the Man of Steel faced off against Terra-Man every other month.)

The Ali book, adapted from a Denny O’Neil story by Adams, put Superman in a cosmic setting that took full advantage of the Star Wars mania that recently gripped America.

Finally, the Man of Steel was given a chance to truly cut loose!

Not convinced? Then read on …

Da Atom Bomb

Meme courtesy of the ISB.

Doctor Horror

The Golden Age Comics site is a treasure trove of bizarre and wonderful funnybooks from the medium’s infancy.

From the nearly naked adventures of Samson and David to the apocalyptic - and undeniably racist - villainy of The Claw, those early comics possess a raw, “anything-goes” vibe that easily transcends the decades.

Like Elvis Presley’s Sun Sessions or Luis Bunuel’s Un chien andalou, the best efforts overcome limitations in technique with wide-screen imagination and undeniable passion.

One of the strangest, and most memorable, stories the Keeper discovered ran as a back-up strip in Captain Battle #2 - a book that starred a Captain America rip-off who wore an eyepatch (and therefore looked very, very cool).

The story, simply entitled “Doctor Horror,” detailed a monstrous being’s attempt to destroy all good on Earth - an almost-operatic effort that is ultimately opposed by the elements of nature themselves.

Perhaps influenced by the “Night On Bald Mountain” sequence from Disney’s Fantasia, the story simply has to be seen to be believed.

With story and art by comic-book veteran and paperback novelist Don Rico, here is Doctor Horror …

(click to enlarge)

Ready For His Close-Up

Slam Bradley is such a scamp!

Say It Ain’t So, Steve

If we’ve heard it once, we’ve heard it 100 times.

Joe Quesada has credited Joss Whedon with riding in on a “white horse” and nailing down the conclusion to Civil War - a denouement that many believed left much to be desired.*

Now, Whedon himself has emerged to tell a different tale …

Hi and briefly: I walked into the infamous Marvel meeting, where they pitched me Civil War. Cool enuf, sez I. Then they pitched the end they were currently going with, wherein the woman whose son is killed breaks up the fight between Cap and Iron Man, much like Joanne Dru in “Red River.”

Not cool enuf, sez I. If the whole thing rests on Cap and Tony’s conflict, and they’re gonna fight, I sez sez I, somebody’s gotta win. I just pitched that Cap got past Tony’s armor and started beating the poo out of him - thus becoming exactly what Tony had called them all: a superpowered guy taking it out on a powerless human. Cap realizes this and lay down his arms. (But he wins. Eat that, Stark.) That is literally the tale.

I said looking around at the destruction of Manhattan didn’t have much resonance - these guys destroy Manhattan all the time! It was the personal act of putting his fist into the face of his powerless one-time friend that would Make Cap feel like a bully, a monster, a Nazi and kiddies I didn’t say much else. (Except that a fight between titans broken up by the “voice of reason” before it ends is a lame fight indeed.)

I didn’t know Civil War was gonna envelop the whole universe for a year. I didn’t know the entire face of Marvel was changing, and though I heard pitches of what’s to come, I don’t know what stuck.

I think I’ve been given too much credit for all this. Which is sweet, but I wanted to save you all endless speculation. Which I have done, and now back to work.

That doesn’t really sound like the ending Marvel published.

The Keeper could see Cap recoiling at the near murder of a once close friend, but instead we got the whole “Tony’s right because the 9-11 heroes say so” routine that isn’t much different from the original proposal.

So what is Quesada talking about? Guess the EIC just likes to remind people that he knows Joss Whedon.

Keeper’s Note: The always insightful X-Axis published an excellent critique of the mini-series. Check it out.