Adventure Comics # 417, March, 1972

A great art lineup this isn! Oksner (and the hot pants outfit), Morrow and Frank Frazetta! Howard Purcell and Sheldon Moldoff bring it down a notch, though. 

Hey, thus looks familiar! Longtime followers will recall that we presented this Frazetta classic in sequence in its entirety last year!

Having reinvented Zatanna, the great illustrative art of Gray Morrow now reinvents Vigilante, an Earth two character who had previously shown up in an Earth one version with no explanation in an issue of JLA.

The first letter here is from Johnny Achziger, who, around that time or a couple years later, also published a fanzine I ordered. Another is from Matt Graham, a prolific letter hack at DC around this time and whom I personally had a minor disagreement with in a letter I had published in an issue of Lois Lane that same year!

A third string character at best, it almost seems like The Enchantress was reprinted here because, like Animal Man before her, her intermittent adventures had appeared in what passed for DC's mystery titles in the mid-sixties and now that Joe Orlando was editing Adventure as well as the newer, creepier mystery titles, he probably scoured his own archives for cheap filler.

Adventure Comics # 416, March, 1972

Once again, the title's momentum was hurt by an interruption, in this case for yet another "giant" issue but those were, in 1972, not just giants anymore but 100 page Super-Spectaculars! Our girl's hot pants look appears on both the inside and outside front covers but beyond that it's classic Jim Mooney Supergirl, a two-part tale up front and another single parter in back. 

In between Supergirl stories, there's a long Golden Age Wonder Woman story, Black Canary's debut in a Johnny Thunder tale, The Star-Spangled Kid's sister, Merry and the Phantom Lady, making her first appearance in a DC comic.

Adventure Comics # 415, February, 1972

Yikes! An interestingly sexist cover but you don't get a good shot of this issue's costume, the dorkiest one yet, seen as drawn by Mortimer with Oksner. On his own, Oksner returns the hot pants outfit in the second story.

Adventure Comics # 414, January, 1972

Award-winning humor artist Bob Oksner takes back the sole art chores on the Supergirl series, leading to a cuter than ever Linda Danvers. Supergirl's hot pants outfit apparently proved to be the favorite as it resurfaces yet again in this issue.

One interesting aspect of this issue is the number of times Oksner draws butt shots of our heroine! Perhaps the thought of appealing to girls had been replaced by attempts to get boys to buy a  comic book starring a girl?

Another butt shot from the second story!

Part two of Gray Morrow's Zatanna story. She would prove to be a fan favorite by him and he would do many commission pieces of her over the years.

The second appearance of Animal man, reprinted here long before Grant Morrison made the character ultra-hip, had some really good art by Gil Kane, pencilling and inking I believe.

 

Adventure Comics # 413, December, 1971

This is the beginning of another pretty good period for ADVENTURE. The robot inside bears little resemblance to Oksner's cover but the interior art by Saaf and Oksner is very stylized and very fun, offering not just a nifty costume but a surprising glimpse of Linda in her undies! The new writer is John Albano, best remembered for JONAH HEX. Despite the downbeat ending, it's a kind of fun story so here 'tis in its entirety. 

Hawkman reprints from the Silver Age and Robotman reprints from the Golden Age are now supplementing the book, giving it a true anthology feel again. 

The real treat, though, is Zatanna in her own story for the first time ever, written by Len Wein and with impressive art from the great Gray Morrow. Should you wish to see all of this first part of the Zatanna tale, head on over to our sister blog, SHADES OF GRAY!