Adventure Comics # 498, April, 1983

Almost there! Gil Kane front cover and the back one is by my FB friend, the underrated Howard Bender. As we drift toward the end, the new stuff has gone away save for an uncredited Bouncing Boy poster in this isn. Another nice selection of reprints, though, highlighted by Neal Adams' surreal and psychedelic SPECTRE and Bob Oksner's cuter than cute Mary Marvel!

Adventure Comics # 497, March, 1983

Another Gil Kane cover. Dan Adkins inks on Toth give him a more naturally stylized look on the all-new Challengers tale and Black Adam is introduced in the Marvel Family reprint. Another great, atypical for the time SPECTRE story and some of Aparo's all-time best work on AQUAMAN. Add to this the first OFFICIAL LSH tele and what's not to like?

Adventure Comics # 496, February, 1983

Gil Kane takes over the cover duties. Nick Cuti, who was editing some of the other digests I believe, is now co-editor. More of Toth's new Challengers.

An odd choice perhaps as this was less than a decade old but Cockrum's take on Cap Jr was one of the best parts of the SHAZAM revival so who cares?

There was always some question as to which world the sixties SPECTRE stories was set on, Earth 1 or Earth 2? The same issue came up later with Wildcat who regularly guested in BRAVE AND THE BOLD with Batman. Here we have both of them, superbly drawn in one of the best remembered of the Neal Adams issues.

Adventure Comics # 495, January, 1983

The attraction this time is comics art legend Alex Toth doing the art on the Challs. Unfortunately, not his best work and not their best strip. It was, however, one of his last mainstream comics stories if I recall correctly. 

We also get the first Neal Adams SPECTRE strip. Neal was new to DC and these strips, along with his BRAVE AND BOLD takes on Batman, were what established his rep.

Adventure Comics # 494, December, 1982

If you liked last issue, here's more of the same.