Steven Howell Wilson's Blog, page 23

Legion of Super-Heroes Re-Read – “The Lad Who Wrecked the Legion” (Adventure Comics #328, January, 1965)

The first thing about this story that should have jumped out at a regular reader of the Legion’s adventures in 1965 was that the art had drastically changed from previous stories. Not like a Jack Kirby-to-Neal Adams change, or an Early Bill Sienkiewicz-to-Late Bill Sienkiewicz change, but a pretty big change nonetheless. John Forte’s Legion boys had long, angular faces and mature features. You assumed there were probably college kids. A couple of them (Mon-El) even looked like they might have...

Legion of Super-Heroes Re-Read – “The Lone Wolf Legionnaire” (Adventure Comics #327, December, 1964)

Our story begins with a shadowy figure being incarcerated on a remote prison world. He confesses that he joined the Legion of Super-Heroes under false pretenses, which is against the law. Who is this guy? This question is never answered! We never see him again. He exists solely to impress upon us that there’s a law forbidding joining the Legion under false pretenses—which seems a bit excessive, if you ask me. Being drummed out and publicly ridiculed would seem to be enough. And the law plays...

Legion of Super-Heroes Re-Read – “The Revolt of the Girl Legionnaires” (Adventure Comics #326, November, 1964)

FemiNazis… from… Spaaaaaaaace! (You think I’m kidding?)

“Too bad the girls weren’t on the level about those romances, but who knows what the future may bring?” Element Lad’s sentiment in the last panel brings out the most significant aspect of this Legion adventure: Jerry Siegel’s stories had heart, for all the grief I give him. In this one, readers are titillated, really for the first time, with what would later become a key feature of the Legion stories—who’s in love with whom, who’s sneaki...

Karen Armstrong and the Charter for Compassion

I love rationality. Seriously, for me, it’s like a nice, warm shower on a bitter, cold day; or a snow cone at the beach when it’s a hundred degrees outside. Rationality cuts through the oppressive wrongness and makes me believe that everything just might be okay. When things go wrong, rationality helps us process why they went wrong and how we can fix them. Sometimes it takes it some time to jumpstart—a few minutes, a couple of days—while we take out the emotional garbage and moan about how u...

The Colonel’s Plan – The Blue Bathroom – Part 2

September 15, 2017 (Continued)

Dear Daddy –

Let’s talk about the shower…

I hired Mike the plumber (and his son Gary, and his grandson Cody) on the recommendation of a friend. I knew that finishing the plumbing for three bathrooms and the kitchen was going to be too much for me. It turned out to be the biggest expense associated with the house so far, but it was worth it.

So the first thing Mike the plumber told me about the shower cubicle was that it had to go. It was designed for the plumbin...

Legion of Super-Heroes Re-Read: Revenge of the Knave from Krypton (Adventure Comics #320, May, 1964)

Dev-Em is back! Who? What’s a Dev-Em?

Superboy readers in 1964 would have remembered “The Knave from Krypton” from about three years earlier, when he taunted Superboy in Adventure Comics #287 and #288. He’s the juvenile delinquent who lived next door to Jor-El and Lara on Krypton, and who, when his attempts to steal Jor-El’s rocket plans were foiled by baby Kal-El, placed himself and his parents in suspended animation in a lead-coated bomb shelter. They all survived the destruction of Krypton...

Legion of Super-Heroes Re-Read – “The Legion’s Suicide Squad!” (Adventure Comics #319, April, 1964)

Here’s a story which you need to be able to put aside logic in order to enjoy. And there are things to enjoy in this story, as long as you don’t mind your favorite character being marginalized in order to make the Substitute Legionnaires look good. ‘Cause, believe me, with the possible exception of Colossal Boy, no regular member of the Legion comes out of this story looking good.

A bellicose planet called Throon begins using force rays from a deadly citadel (The Citadel of Doom!) on the plan...

Flash Fiction: Narcissus and the Echo Chamber

This is a mood piece. I was in a mood when I wrote it. But the critic raved, so I was motivated to share…

Once upon a time, in Ancient Greece (because things like this don’t happen today—we’re far too modern) there was a beautiful boy named Narcissus.

Beautiful doesn’t do him justice. Narcissus was drop-dead gorgeous. I mean, he positively glowed like gold. If gold were radioactive. Which it’s not. But it doesn’t sound right to say that he “reflected like gold,” now does it? Besides, it would...

Legion of Super-Heroes Re-Read – “Elastic Lad Jimmy and His Legion Romances!” (Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen #76, April, 1964)

Jerry Siegel Returns to tell the tale of Jimmy Olsen—Stud of the 30th Century. Okay, it doesn’t say that, but still…

As a tremendous snowstorm barrages Metropolis, Jimmy prepares for a date with Lucy Lane. He’s spent pretty much his entire paycheck on a gourmet meal, and purchased a dressing gown that he’s sure will impress her. Ah, remember the days when a young man entertained a girl in his apartment, dressed in a bathrobe, and it wasn’t creepy and inappropriate? No, neither do I.

Now, let...

Night Off

I’m taking the night off. I actually have a review prepared, but I like to have one ahead, and I’ve had no time to prepare tomorrow’s. My beloved Jeep Wrangler has had a bad few days. Its heat went out, which I thought I had figured out. Then its rear window abruptly shattered in the cold. And just minutes after I had scheduled an appointment to have that replaced, I walked out to find it had leaked a quart or so of oil all over the parking lot.

Not a good day. They say don’t sweat the small...