BRONZE AGE MINUTE: DC Special #28

DC; June-July 1977
Cover by Al Milgrom

Title: “And the Town Came Tumbling Down”
Synopsis: Batman battles the Quakemaster, a discredited real estate developer out to prove the building commissioner wrong.

Writer: Bob Rozakis
Penciler: John Calnan
Inker: Tex Blaisdell

Review: Little Me always wanted this comic but couldn’t find it. The cool logo. That striking cover. Batman teaming with the Legion. What Bronze Age youngster wouldn’t want this? Sadly, the lead feature – a Batman solo outing against the ridiculous Quakemaster – makes it pretty clear this one won’t be meeting expectations.

------------

Title: “A Creature of Death and Darkness”
Synopsis: Aquaman and the US Navy form a tenuous alliance to battle a creature born from crude oil and nuclear waste.

Writer: Gerry Conway
Penciler: Don Newton
Inker: Dan Adkins

Review: Don Newton draws some lovely individual images, but his panel to panel consistency is lacking and his layouts are occasionally awkward.

------------

Title: “The City That Stopped... Dead!”
Synopsis: The Legion battle a C-list villain who has disrupted future Metropolis’ fusion powersphere to catastrophic effect.

Writer: Paul Levitz
Penciler: Arvell Jones
Inker: Bob Layton

Review: This story is riddled with plot holes and the art is not a good fit for the Legion’s futuristic milieu.

Grade (for the entire issue): C+

Cool factor: This one could have been a contender.
Not-so-cool factor: There should be a rule that no character besides Superman can use a letter for a chest emblem.

Notable: Includes a title splash page illustrated by Jim Aparo. Also includes a two-page essay, “Great Disasters,” documenting the history of disasters in the DC Universe. First appearance of Quakemaster.

Character quotable: “Go get ’em, Eagle Charlie! Send that slimy mud-thumper straight to hell!” – Unnamed Navy pilot, dropping napalm on a nuclear-sludge-oil creature

Back to previous page