Groove's Faves: 5 Star Super-Hero Spectacular 1977

Greetings, Groove-ophiles! The Summer of 1977 started off with a bang for Teen Groove when an after school trip to the store landed him a copy of DC Special Series #1, aka 5 Star Super-Hero Spectacular #1-and-only! As soon as I laid eyes on that explosive Neal Adams cover, that dollar bill just leaped from my wallet and into my waiting hand (had to dig into my pocket for that nickel for tax, though!).

Peeling back the cover of this 80 page monolith, I saw the Jim Aparo-illoed contents page that detailed what would be going on with Batman, Flash, Green Lantern, Aquaman, and the Atom, then, BOOM! into high-speed action with the Flash meeting Ms. Flash (courtesy classic Groovy Age Flash team Cary Bates and Irv Novick), away we went (and you can read that Flash tale right here, baby).

Next came a Green Lantern solo sci-fi tale (at the time he was sharing his montly mag with Green Arrow) written by regular series writer Denny O'Neil, but the art was provided by one of my fave Boys from Derby, Joe Staton making his GL debut! (You can read that classic here!)

Before I could recover, Gerry Conway and Dick Dillin laid a pretty cool Aquaman short on me...

...then the Atom went back in time to help Alexander Graham Bell in a Paul Kupperberg tale illustrated by Steve Stiles and Bob McLeod!

That was four, but with the fifth DC was saving the best for last! Batman vs. Kobra in a full-length classic (originally intended for the never-published Kobra #8)  written by Martin Pasko with in-freakin'-credible art by Mike Nasser (aka Michael Netzer) and Joe Rubinstein. This story with it's globe-spanning, super-heroes-meets-James Bond kinda feel was worth the buck alone, baby. Check it out...

And just 'cause Ol' Groove loves ya, here's the editorial that lays the story behind the mag on us...

 Now that's how to start summer off right! More super-summertime memories to come all summer long, Groove-ophiles. Stay tuned!

Groove's Faves: "He Who Slaughters!" by O'Neil and Staton

Hey, hey, hey, Groove-ophiles! Did you know that one of my fave Boys from Derby, Joe Staton eventually became the regular artist of DC's Green Lantern mag in the late 70s? Well, he did! Joe loved GL, and his art on E-Man showed that he'd be a natural, so it was inevitable that Joe and GL would get together. But that's not what this post is about! (Had ya goin', huh?) Today I wanna look back at Joe's very first shot at drawing GL DC Special Series #1 (June 1977), aka Five Star Super-Hero Spectacular. A year later, Joe would be drawing the short-lived GL series in the Dollar Comic version of Adventure Comics, and soon after that he'd graduate to drawing Green Lantern itself. And it all started with..."He Who Slaughters!" (written by Denny O'Neil, natch!)

If You Blinked You Missed: Ms. Flash

Greetings, Groove-ophiles! Shades of Supergirl, Batgirl, Spider-Woman, She-Hulk, and Ms. Marvel! Can you believe DC actually had a female super-speedster called Ms. Flash? They did! So why haven't you ever heard of her? Why hasn't she popped up at all in the last 33 years? Has Ol' Groove lost his ever-lovin' mind? Sit back and learn, Grasshopper...

Back in June of 1977, y'see, DC unleashed the first of their DC Special Series with Five Star Superhero Spectacular, an 80 page Dollar Comic that definitely lived up to it's unwieldy title. It featured the Flash, Aquaman, the Batman, Green Lantern, and the Atom in fun, well-written, finely illustrated tales gathered together under a smashing Neal Adams cover. For each feature--especially for those who had their own titles--which was everyone except the Atom, now that I think of it-- editor Paul Levitz wanted to give them a different twist; something to make them special and not just a teaser for what fans would get in the heroes' regular mags. Sometimes he'd turn a writer or artist who'd never taken a shot at Aquaman or Green Lantern, f'rinstance. Sometimes he'd pit a hero against an established villain he'd never before faced a la the Batman/Kobra tale. And there was this time with the Flash in which Levitz hired the Flash's regular creative team of Cary Bates, Irv Novick, and Frank McLaughlin to do something quite different from their regular mag. To this end, Bates, Novick, and McLaughlin gave us "How to Prevent a Flash!", a story focusing on Barry (Flash) Allen's police scientist side as well as a really neat twist on a rarely-explored aspect of the Flash's powers.

When you finish reading this far-out fable, Groove-ophiles, you'll find that Ol' Groove is really tossin' ya a twist like none other--'cause if you blink, you're definitely gonna miss...Ms. Flash! Dig it!