Adventure Comics # 466, December, 1979

And so the Dollar comics era of ADVENTURE comes to a fairly quick end, limping to its conclusion with some pretty good stories. Highlights include Michael Netzer (as Mike Nasser) on FLASH featuring The Weather Wizard, last seen in these pages fighting Aquaman a year or so earlier.

Stunning art from Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez on DEADMAN!

AMERICA AT WAR, although a bit under-promoted and under the radar, was one of the better DC collections  up to that time, packaged by Michael Uslan who went on to produce the BATMAN motion pictures and write Archie's wedding stories for that company in the 21st Century.

Since the JSA was coming to an end, they were given an ending story, even though they were already scheduled to appear in their annual JLA crossover as seen in the above ad.

Underoos! Also note that year's Overstreet Price Guide cover, impressively done by an ailing Wally Wood but impersonated here by Kubies.

And poor Aquaman, once again cut adrift. But don't worry. He'll be back yet again.

Adventure Comics # 465, October, 1979

A busy but nicely designed cover with some nice Aparo art. And a cool STAR TREK ad on the flip side of it. We were al SO excited about this picture but wold have to wait until ST 2 for what we really wanted. I got Persis Khambatta's autograph, though.

Really nice art for Deadman.

A nice, long JSA story with lots more heroes than last time.

Here's a bit of a summary of the convoluted continuity of the regular FLASH comic. Makes the simple stories found here in ADVENTURE all the more appreciated.

Adventure Comics # 464, August, 1979

Another particularly good issue. Good stores all around with Deaman's being a big full-length Conway/Aparo one originally scheduled for SHOWCASE. Because of that, the JSA story is actually a Wildcat solo short. Heck continues his good work on FLASH while Don Newton takes over AQUAMAN to fine effect and Jose Delbo, one of the major WW artists of the era, takes over on WONDER WOMAN.

Adventure Comics # 463, June, 1979

A nice, busy wraparound cover starts off a good solid issue of enjoyable stories and art. The closest thing to anything special is the JSA tale wherein Doctor Fate intervenes to answer the nagging question of the late Batman's identity being revealed. Wonder Woman finally gets some new and better art. Note also the Statement of Ownership in which we see the number of printed copies of ADVENTURE has fallen drastically in the previous twelve months.

Adventure Comics # 462, April, 1979

Here we are with a major important story in the history of DC--the death of the original Batman--and it's shunted off into what TBG columnist Cat Yronwode describes in the letters page as a "slush pile" comic. Ah, well. New editor Ross Andru, known best for his art on WONDER WOMAN and SPIDER-MAN, introduces himself as the new editor and crows about bringing in Don Heck and Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez to replace Irv Novick and Jim Aparo. 

Seems like I read somewhere that this splash page would have been the cover if this story had, in fact, appeared as intended in ALL-STAR. It would have been a good one. Good story, good art, well handled all around.

Robin Snyder, known best as Ditko's publisher these days, pops up in Bob Rozakis' column.

Some of Don Heck's best art of this latter-day period appeared here, inked by Joe Giella and on the Aquaman story, inked by my future Facebook pal, Bob Smith, later an Archie staple.

In spite of his longtime association with WONDER WOMAN, Ross seems to have not messed with this strip at all even though, to my mind, it was the one that most needed messing with!

If anything, Garcia-Lpez was better than Aparo. A few years later it would be him to whom DC turned to illustrate Deadman's first proper mini-series.

 

Adventure Comics # 461, February, 1979

Once again the old order changeth with the Justice Society of America taking over a large portion of ADVENTURE following the unfortunate cancellation of ALL-STAR COMICS. Writer Paul Levitz and artists Joe Staton and Bob Layton had made it one of the best DC titles, following on the heels of Wally Wood's memorable stint on the series. But the DC implosion caused a lot of damage and, just as they were about to publish a major storyline, they were cut adrift. So that storyline had to go somewhere, in thos case displacing the never published Don Newton series, THE MAN CALLED NEVERWHERE. Oddly, the letters page announces that this will be Levitz's last issue as editor, being replaced by artist Ross Andru.