They were a good match on Grimjack, too.
So I find myself in the position of gathering up and doing some research for a future post, and leaving myself with little time to write an actual post for today. As such, let me go ahead and look at some of your recent comments now, and I’ll return to your questions and having content soon!
Thom H asks
“I never read the Ostrander/Mandrake Martian Manhunter series. Is it good? From what I saw of it, it seemed kind of heavy and depressing. I don’t need my MM to love Oreos, but he can get kind of melancholy for my tastes.”
One of the reasons I want to reread Martian Manhunter is that it’s been a while since I’ve read it, and as such I don’t remember a whole lot of specifics about the run. I do recall enjoying it (I mean, it’s Ostrander and Mandrake, it’s gonna be good), but yes, as per Chris V’s noting of the tragic circumstances behind the scenes. It can be, as you say Thom, melancholy, but this superhero book embedded with emotional gravitas is well worth checking out, I think.
It’s not all like that…Ostrander has his silly side, and we get an issue about J’onn’s addiction to “Chocos” (the legally-distinct name of cream-filled cookies that are somewhat like Oreos).
The thing about J’onn J’onzz, the Martian Manhunter, is that he’s kind of a blank slate. I mean, we know the basics…trapped Earth by accident, his family is gone, has a weakness to fire, disguised himself as a human detective. Outside of his appearances in Justice League of America, maybe, Ostrander likely wrote the longest and most in-depth examination of the character, fleshing out his personality, his backstory, his rogues gallery, and so on.
Yes, it can be a downer at times, but based on what memories I have, I still think it’s worth a read. And I’m looking forward to tackling that when I’m done with Spectre.
Plus, J’emm, Son of Saturn, pops up in it. That’s gotta sell you on it!
Oliver says
“Mandrake’s style was a bad fit for the post-Crisis Shazam reboot but looked much better on Batman and the Spectre.”
Back in 2010, I did a post about a short sequence from the Shazam! A New Beginning mini-series by Roy Thomas and Mandrake. Some comments to that post agree with you, Oliver, that Mandrake’s style was a poor match for Captain Marvel.
Now…okay, I’m not trying to be contrary, I do agree with this sentiment, but in an odd way Mandrake’s art did fit this very specific version of the character. This was a darker, 1980s-post-Dark-Knight-gritty reinterpretation, requiring dark, gritty, moody art. The problem was that the entire series was entirely misguided, changing the tone of Captain Marvel too far. If DC has to squeeze the Shazam franchise into their larger shared universe, there are ways to do it, and it has been done (most successfully, I think, by Jerry Ordway’s Power of Shazam! series).
Mandrake’s work reminds me in a way of Gene Colan’s, suited for dark and moody tales while still adaptable to appropriate superhero books. As Oliver notes above, Batman and Spectre are solid fits for Mandrake, and for the stories Ostrander was telling, a good fit with Martian Manhunter as well. I’d like to see him do more Swamp Thing, which he’s done a handful of times in the past.
In fact, I’d love to see both Ostrander and Mandrake on a Swamp Thing series, doing what they did on Spectre and Martian Manhunter: a darker, edgier book that’s still on the outskirts of the regular DC Universe. Pulling together all the disparate strands of the character into some kind of cohesive, recognizable whole.
Anyway, thanks for putting up with this “fill-in” ppst, and for all your great comments. I appreciate all the feedback!
To me the definitive non-Golden Age The Spectre stories are the Michael Fleischer/Jim Aparo Spectre stories in Adventure Comics from the ’70s–although I also enjoyed the Doug Moench and Gene Colan The Spectre comic from the ’80s. I guess I should check out the Ostrander/Mandrake run.
I also liked the J M DeMatteis/Mark Badger Martian Manhunter mini-series–whatever became of Mark Badger anyway? He was a very interesting artist.
I think of Mandrake’s art as being a little bit more in the style of Jerry
Grandinetti than the style of Gene Colan.
J’emm, Son of Saturn is one comic from the ’80s that I have no interest in revisiting…
Completely agreed on that Shazam mini, which I tried desperately to love and failed. Mandrake was just following the charge handed him by Roy and Dann Thomas, so desperately trying to prove they could fit in with the new 1987 DC just starting to hit on all cylinders and failing on almost every level–but his actual work was exactly what they asked for: dark, moody, unironically kind of grim Captain Marvel.
Definitely provides perspective on what Roy thought of the new breed.
My first (and for many years, favorite) iteration of the Spectre was the four-issue Neal Adams run in ’68. That linework and page composition just blew me away. When I reread it in my mid-thirties–WOOF–that was some rough scripting. Definitely did not hold up to my early childhood memories. The Fleischer/Aparo run was phenomenal. I still have no idea how they got a few of those issues past the code. The Ostrander/Mandrake run was (and still is) my favorite though.
The Colan/Mandrake comparison is spot-on Mike!
I remember Alan Moore criticising the Shazam! reboot — maybe Moore saw its unnecessary grimness as an early indication that the wrong lessons from ‘Watchmen’ were being learned.
Another thumbs-up for Fleischer and Aparo’s (in)famous — and, unbelievably, Code-approved — ‘Spectre’ run. Kudos too for Frank Thorne, who pencilled one of the issues although his style is hard to discern beneath Aparo’s inks.
Fleischer never could quite hit that (sadistic) sweet spot again though… ‘Haywire’ was a mess, even allowing for its abrupt cancellation.
Thanks for the answer, Mike!
I guess one way to differentiate MM from Superman is to make him the *sad* alien who now lives on Earth. Honestly, if he were just that and shapeshifting and vulnerability to fire, then he might be more interesting than having all of Superman’s powers, too.
I never thought it made much sense for MM to have heat vision, for instance. I wonder what changes they’ll make to him in Absolute Martian Manhunter.
Also, it just occurred to me that Alan Moore’s story “For the Man Who Has Everything” basically places Superman in the Manhunter’s origin story. Interesting.
@Thom H: Martian Manhunter issue 0 is basically Superman talking to J’Onn, J’Onn recounting his history, and the two concluding they’re not too similar.
The “Martian vision” power was, at some point post-Crisis, described as being not made with/ related to fire. I forget if that meant a force blast like Cyclops’s or microwave heat. it makes slightly more sense when the fear of fire was tied to the Burning, the plague that wiped out most of the life on the planet. It was more psychological than physical, so heat vision of some form would have developed prior to the traumatic event.
Interesting. I’ll have to check that issue out. Thanks!
I guess what I’m looking for is a distinction along the lines of Superman = superhero, MM = sci-fi alien. I liked Darwyn Cooke’s interpretation of him in New Frontier. Something less assimilated and a little weirder. Powers like telepathy and shapeshifting can be kind of creepy, but eye blasts are such a straightforward superhero ability.
“Mandrake’s work reminds me in a way of Gene Colan’s, suited for dark and moody tales while still adaptable to appropriate superhero books.”
Agreed!!!
“J’emm, Son of Saturn”
That’s one I’ve NEVER read a single issue of, which is surprising for a DC 80’s comic.
“I still have no idea how they got a few of those issues past the code.”
I think, BARELY. And that might be partially it was such a short run.
“I wonder what changes they’ll make to him in Absolute Martian Manhunter.”
Make him ten feet tall!