This release (described as a "mini-series) from 2018 comprises four individual hour-long episodes. I think I listened to one of them, but was too concerned with where (or even if) they fit into continuity to really enjoy it. Maggie and Quentin were not lovers in Big finish's "main range" Dark Shadows series, so maybe this takes place in the future...? Or in an alternate dimension...? In any case, I recently finished watching the "Parallel Time" storyline on television in which Maggie and Quention were lovers, so I'm much more receptive to this notion now. It used to be that I dumped all Dark Shadows-related material into the catch-all main thread, but now that I've broken "Séances and Sources" out into a thread of its own, all bets are off. I plan to continue this discussion at the rate of one episode per week for the next three weeks.
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THE GIRL BENEATH THE WATER:
"As Maggie Collins welcomes her children home to Collinwood to celebrate her husband Quentin’s 65th birthday, she is blissfully unaware of the cruel magic at work underpinning the heartwarming scene. In a battle for reality, Maggie and Quentin must come together to protect their children against an ancient magical force that knows no mercy. But in doing so, they risk losing everything they love. For who can be trusted when you can’t trust yourself?"
This story obviously takes place in a future, but is it the future? Quentin and Maggie are now the master and mistress of Collinwood, and they have two adult children: Ronan (recent callege graduate and spendthrift), and his older sister Emily (mid-twenties, mother of three girls, the responsible one of the two). Also living at Collinwood are Brewer (the butler), and Bailey (the maid). There are obvious (to the listener) gaps in their memories, and reality seems to subtley shift around them.
There is a painting on the wall which neither of them can remember how they got it or how long its been there. It is of a serene waterscape, but Emily points out a girl (drowned?) just below the surface that Maggie had never noticed before. As the story progresses, the painting seems to change... dark clouds on the horizon, increasingly roiling water, that type of thing. Also, Brewer and Bailey seem to know more about what's happening than they are letting on.
I really can't say any more about it without giving too much away, but I'm really curious about what will happen in the next story.
THE SAND THAT SPEAKS HIS NAME:
A mistake from Quentin’s past casts a dark shadow over his and Maggie’s weekend getaway in New York City. A Golem is loose, threatening innocents and only Quentin knows how to stop it. But first, he must learn how and why the creature has come back to life, a task which takes Maggie and Quentin on a quest through the hidden supernatural network of the Big Apple. Will Maggie’s foray into the perilous life Quentin used to live drive an irreparable wedge in their relationship? Will the rampaging Golem give them the chance to find out?
This story follows on from "The Girl Beneath the Water" and takes place when Quentin and Maggie are engaged to be married. How can that be when the previous story took place long after they were married and had kids? Don't worry too much about that. "The Sand That Speaks His Name" takes the interesting tack of being dually narrated by both Quentin and Maggie. Circumstances lead them to the catacombs far, far below the Waldorf Astoria in New York city, where they meet The Librarian, who starts them on a quest into Quentin's past. Someone has impersonated Quentin Collins and taken something from a safety deposit box of his that will loose a Golem upon the city. Years ago, in 1927, Quentin's partner Mathias Woods' soul was trapped within the Golem, and now Mathias' grandson Tommy Lee is out to free it. Stuff happens and [SPOILER] Mathias ends up trapped in his grandson's body. [END SPOILER] Then they learn that the portrait which keeps Quentin young has also been looted. The person who stole it mystically speaks through Mathias/Tommy Lee, then releases him. After that, Quentin and Mathias begin to tell Maggie the story that will lead into "The Hollow Winds That Beckon."
THE HOLLOW WINDS THAT BECKON:
A sunny day of fishing is interrupted by dark clouds as Quentin and Maggie find themselves swept up in events beyond their understanding. They’ll do their best to escape a mysterious island, even if their failure means joining those who have failed before them - the ghosts on the waves.
Okay, so I was wrong that "The Sand That Speaks His Name" leads directly into "The Hollow Winds That Beckon." No matter. The highlight of this one is unrevealed details of Maggie's early life, as Quentin restores a boat that used to belong to Maggie's father and they take it out on the waves. Incidentally, I keep forgetting to mention it, but Maggie somehow "runs" Windcliff Sanitarium, as administrator, I assume, but she refers to the inmates as "my patients." In the Dark Shadows main range, she owns and runs the hotel where she used to work in the coffee shop. Also in the main range, she is Joe Haskell's widow. She is here, as well, which becomes an important plot point later on in the story.
An unexpected storm blows in while she and Quentin are out on the waves, and they end up on an island neither of them can identify. There they meet a castaway named Jacquélope who says she has been there for seven years, but has actually been there for much longer. She welcomes them to the the damned island. "An 'Island of the Damned,'" Maggie parrots, but Jacquélope corrects her: "No, a 'damned island,' as in 'I wish I was off this damned island.'" Jacquélope later tells them that she is a muse, but she actually turns out to be a siren, and that both Joe Haskel as well as Sam Evans have visited the "damned island" in the past. Jacquélope has the ability to assume Maggie and Quentin's form as well as their memories, and the young lovers learn quite a bit about each other in the process.
THE PAPER TO THE FLAME:
When a group of Windcliff patients start chanting a centuries-old song, Maggie and Quentin investigate - and find themselves drawn to an abandoned town with haunted streets and a fire burning deep below. There they must face an enemy far stronger, and far more unhinged, than they could ever have imagined – one with a grudge that stretches into both their pasts, and will have a profound effect on both their futures...
This episode makes clear that Maggie used to own the inn and coffee shop. Also, Jackie Tate (a teenager in the main range) now works at Windcliff. Certain patients begin acting strangely, first chanting a song (the same one Maggie herself was humming that very morning), then by all pointing in the same direction. The song is about a girl named Sally, and Sally was her mother's name. The only thing the patients have in common is that they were all somehow scarred, physically or mentally, by fire. (Maggie's mother died of cancer, but it is revealed she was once caught in a fire and suffered from smoke inhalation which eventually led to her cancer.) Then Maggie gets reports from other sanitariums that certain patients are chanting the same song and are all pointing in the same direction. Using compasses, it is determined which directions the patients in the respective facilities are pointing, and thos line form a triangle around the town of Barrow, Massachusetts. Barrow used to be a mining town, but the mine caught fire and the coal burning beneath it drove the people away. (There was an Alan Moore Swamp Thing story based on this premise.)
Maggie and Quentin go to the town and uncover clues which seem to implicate both her father (a painter) as well as Charles Delaware Tate, who painted Quentin's portrait, now missing and presumed stolen. In the TV show, Julia Hoffman and Professor stokes discovered that a landscape had been painted over Quentin's portrait, but what they didn't notice was that there were tiny little figures in it. the model for one was Maggie's mother, and the model for the other was Lucien Cray, the one who has stolen Quentin's portrait. The story does a good job of tying all three previous stories from this set into the central plot. Recommended for Quentin/Maggie fans.
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OVER-THE-SHOULDER STINK-EYE LOOK
GREEN LANTERN CORPS
I'm holding out for The Green Lantern Corps to be reprinted someday...
Well, that took only six years to happen!
DCF: Green Lantern - "Setting Up Shop" was released on October 7 of this year, reprinting #201-219. I don't know why they didn't just go ahead and throw GLC #220-224 into the mix, but that begins the Millenium tie-ins, and perhaps they're holding those back for a "Millenium" volume of DCF. Or maybe they'll lump them in with the Action Comics Weekly feature...? In any case, Steve Englehart once said that the GLC is "one of the most fun, most interesting groups I've ever written, and all of them grow and interact with all the others, all the way through." Someone once objected that they all have the same power, to which Englehart replied, "Dude, it is not about the power."
The Crisis on Infinite Earths affected some titles more than others, and although technically all of the issues in this collection are post-Crisis (the officially-designated tie-in issues were #194-195 & 198), for all intents and purposes I tend to think of this run as the end of the pre-Crisis era, the true post-Crisis era beginning in 1990 with the "new number one."
The GLC of Earth (Hal Jordan, John Stewart, Katma Tui, Arisia, Kilowog, Salakk and Ch'p) move into their new citadel outside L.A. They are attacked by the so-called "Sinister Seven" (Sonar, Throttle, Blindside, Doctor Polaris, Whiteout, Dropded and Polestar). Guy Gardner is on Maltus with Appa Ali Apsa. Later, four of the Seven are joined by Truk. Making highly complex constructs with his his is Killowog's specialty because his body is so "un-complex" and he is unable to use his big hands for delicate work. Hal Jordan resumes his job at Ferris Aircraft. Ferris is now run by the mtsterious "Mr. Smith," and Carl Ferris is out. Ferris believes his daughter Carol has been killed, but actually she is Star Saffire. Tom Kalmaku is now a contractor.
Arisia visits Katma Tui in the El Segundo condo she shares with John Stewart. Arisia is stricken by some mystery ailment, but swears Katma to secrecy. Ch'p tries to make friends with chipmunks and raccoons but soon realizes they are only animals. The villains attack, but this time their seventh member is Malignon. "Poestar," "Truk" and "Malignon" are soon revealed to be Ch'p's arch enemy, Doctor Ub'x of the planet H'lven, in disguise. Back in the day, I never was particularly fond of anthropomorphic animals such as Marvel's Rocket Raccoon and DC's Kritter (Helix) interracting with real-world characters. To be perfectly honest, I'm still not.
The GLC goes public. Arisia's "dizzy spells" continue. Guy Gardner bristles under Appa Ali Apsa's supervision on Maltus. The GLC (minus Hal) holds another press conference. Feeling unwell, Arisia departs early. On Maltus, Guy plans to abandon his post but is stopped by GLs K'russma and Apros, Appa Ali Apsa's honor guard. Blackhand fights the team, then traps Hal and Arisia, powerless, in an abandoned mine, where they have to fight off a mountain lion. Hal learns that Arisia's dizziness and headaches have been caused by her ring acting on her subconscious desire to be an adult. The rest of the team has a rematch with Blachand, defeats him, and rescues Hal and Arisia.
Guy Gardner returns to Earth claiming that he has been appointed leader of the team by Appa Ali Apsa. He's lying, of course, but when Appa, K'ryssma and Apros arrive to take him into custody, Hal Jordan pleads his case. Appa agrees, allowing Guy to remain on Earth, under the supervision of the GLC. Kari Limbo also appears.
Kilowog is appraoched by a Russian spy who convinces him to come to Russia. He likes it, and helps the Soviets perfect their experiments in forced evolution of human beings, resulting the the "Rocket Red" program. In the states, reporter Tawny Young pursues her vendetta against the GLC while President Ronald Regan outlaws all super-heroes in the United States. John Stewart and Katma Tui join Kilowog in Russia to keep an eye on him. Guy Gardner impulsively follows and attacks, very nearly sparing a nuclear exchange. Gorbachev captures John and Katma, orders them killed when their rings' charge is depleted, and ultimately turns on Kilowog, too. Regan rescinds his super-hero ban.
Joe Staton and his wife Hilarie took a trip to the USSR. Upon their return, they got together with the GLC creative team to tell them about it. Their stories painted Soviet Russia as being more poor than oppressive. Steve Englehart (who has examined Russian politics before, in Coyote), wondered what the alien Green Lanterns now living on Earth would think of the state of Communist Russia (their mandate being to protect and defend all of Earth, not just the United States). The Russian language used through out the story and on the cover of #208 is authentic, BTW. In case you're interested, the flag Kilowog is carrying reads, "Forward, Proletarian Super-Hero!" and the credits read "Hannigan and Staton." (Ed Hannigan is familiar enough with Russian to know that Staton spelled his name wrong.) The cover of #208 mingles various styles of Russian poster art.
208
On New Year's Eve, Guy Gardener uses his ring to create a potent intoxicant which he uses to ger the other GLs drunk. Each one reacts differently, with Salaak creating physical D.T.s they have to fight off. Noteably, Hal and Arisia have sex, and John proposes to Katma Tui. Guy is kicked out of the citadel and goes off to join the newly reformed Justice League.
John and Katma get married on Superbowl Sunday (in order to minimize the publicity), yet "Dan Mather" of CBS news nevertheless interrupts the halftime show with the news. The newlyweds go to the planet they created (see #193) for their honeymoon, and the other Lanerns go their separate ways: Hal and Arisia to Hawaii, Ch'p and Salaak to Africa, Kilowog to Nicaragua. On Zamaron, StarSapphire and Hector Hammond plot their revenge.
On a beach on the island of Kauai, while Hal Jordan sleeps, Star Sapphire takes over the mind of Arisia. That morning, Arisia tricks Hal into charging his ring using a fake lantern, then lures him into space under false pretenses. Four hours away from Earth, the charge in his ring wears off and his body explodes (due to lack of pressure in the vacuum of space I guess...). Star Sapphire strips naked in front of the paralyzed Hector Hammond just to prove the power she has over him. She then makes Arisia her slave, forcing her to do all sorts od humiliating things. But Hal Jordan is not quite so dead as we had been led to believe. He actually knew Arisia was under the villains control and used his ring to fake his own death.
Unfortunately, he soon falls under the trall of Hector Hammond. Hammond and Star Sapphire agree to trade slaves, but Arisia manages to free herself from the villains' control and turns the tables on them. Meanwhile, John and Katma continue to enjoy their honeymoon, Kilowog inserts himself between the Socialists and the Communists in Nicaragua, Ch'p years to return to his home planet, abd Salaak finds himself whisked to the 58th century.
The DCF also reprints Tales of the GLC Annual #2-3 as well as Secret Origins #7 (Guy Gardner).
The success of this book led to Joe Staton's and my being given DC's yearly special event series, which I titled MILLENNIUM. It naturally had a strong GLC vibe.
214-215: Joe took a break to work on MILLENNIUM, and fill-in Ian Gibson draws really cute girls, so...
217-219: New GLs, including a dead one, Driq - and the titles were "Inside Summer Skies," "Inside Some Other Skies," and "Inside Somatic Psyches."
223: Some artists - and you'll see this elsewhere in these galleries - return to a series they were identified with and are bored to be there. Gil Kane, a wonderful man and wonderful pro, was not one of these.
By the end, GREEN LANTERN CORPS was such a massive hit that DC chose it to become the lead feature in the weekly title they'd been trying to launch for years, and they cancelled this book to funnel all the interest there. Joe and I were expected to continue in the new format, but the change from multi-part galactic epics to 7-page snippets was impossible, and we walked away
1001 USES:
LIGHT CONSTRUCTS:
191. Dart-like projectiles
192. Screwdriver
193. Giant nutcracker
194. Brush
195. Transportation sphere/globe
196. Acorn
197. Giant water bucket
198. Chainsaw
199. Shield/wall/barrier
200. Giant six-piece lanern "puzzle" in the sky
201. Broom
202. Clamp
203. Pie
204. Mousetrap
205. Bed
206. Clam
207. Chicken
208. Eggs & basket
209. Milk pitcher
210. Egg beater
211. Omlet
212. Mattress/cushion
213. Baseball bats
214. 10,000,000 million ton weight
215. Jungle gym/monkey bars
216. Hammer/mallet
217. Hand
218. Chair
219. Ball
220. Tennis racket
221. Cestus
222. Blacjack
223. Cork/stopper
224. Tin cans tied together with string
225. Earplugs
OTHER USES:
211. Medical diagnostic table (Kilowog)
212. Worldwide skywriting, language translation
213. Force unconsciousness
214. Track charged rings
215. Lift Angel Stadium into the air
214. Create fire
215. Block suveillance of launched nuclear missiles to avert retaliation
216. Create powerful intoxicant
217. "Read" another power ring
INVINCIBLE:
Human vision is logarithmic — we perceive brightness on a logarithmic scale, not a linear one. This means small increases in light output can feel large, and large increases can feel smaller. For example, going from 500 lumens to 1000 lumens feels like a big jump, but going from 1000 to 1600 lumens feels smaller. This is why the jump from 50W to 100W feels dramatic, but the jump from 100W to 150W feels less so.
BEWITCHED - SEASON 5: How many times was Darrin fired? - Actors Talk About Acting - Psychological Stratagy in Contract Bridge - Larry a-hole - Specific exchange of dialogue - last Darrin, S5, E27
ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN - SEASON 2: - still b&w, Noel
CoIE / Flashpoint / Doomsday Clock / Generations / Zero Hour Compar...
Mary Marvel put it best (in Action Comics #1097): "We deal with timey-wimey paradoxes constantly. Little reboots of reality. I pity anyone in my era writing a history book."
DiDio: in 2019: "One of the things we're working on in the DCU is we're building an ultimate timeline. We're building this so we have a better idea where our stories connect. That's where we made our mistake during the New 52--we didn't understand which stories matter, which ones didn't. Once we understand how these characters connect, then we'll be in a place to give you the true history of the DCU."
Dan DiDio was forced out of DC shortly after that, but some of his plans were carried through, and we're now living in the era of The New History of the DC Universe.
There is a school of thought, one to which I do not subscribe, that the "mistake" DC made in 1985 was to reboot only some of the DCU and not all of it. But I maintain, except for Wonder Woman (and despite what I may have said above), that they didn't reboot any of it... not really... at least not at first. What they did was to revise Superman and Batman's origins
Swamp Thing #87: Merlin: "First, let me explauin that time is a complicated thing. In fact, what many think to be time travel is merely the exploration of alternate worlds. But at some point during your era, a sort of convegence of the worlds seems to have occurred. And all the endless possibilities were boiled down into a single reality, which is much easier to set up a direct channel to."
FLARE #33: This one’s got spaceships, giant robots, an exploding atomic bomb, and the “Black Canary” standing in a dinosaur’s mouth swinging a shark by the tail at a gorilla in a space suit. C’mon! How could you not buy it?
Golden Age Captain America Stories
STAR WARS:
VOLUME 5 - "Fool's Bounty"
"The Search [for Han Solo] Begins" (finally!), with slaver wars on Mandalore and Princess Leia caught in the middle. That's not Boba Fett on the cover of v5 (or of #68), BTW; it's Fenn Shysa, one of only three Mandalorians who survived the Clone Wars. (Don't expect this continuity to conform to later movies and TV shows.) New regular writer Mary Jo Duffy arrives in #70 (along with guest artist Kerry Gammill) with four pages of the most obvious expository dialogue I have ever read.New regular penciler Ron Frenz joins her in #71. the closest I ever came to reading a Star Wars comic book back in the '90s was X-Men #174, in which Kitty Pryde recommended issue #73 Peter Rasputin: "I've gotta show this story to Peter, he'll love it--!" (Both comics were edited by Louise Jones.)
STAR TREK III:
CHAPTER 10
ACTION COMICS #218 - "The Man Who Saved Kal-el's Life!"
Criminal Paul Pratt robs the Undetrground Museum of International Treasures in Metropolis, then teleports to Hollywood when he commits a petty crime five minutes later to esablish an alibi. Later he commits another crime in L.A. and does the same thing in reverse. He couldn't have committed the crime in California if he was in Metropolis, but why didn't the Metropolis police arrst him from robbing the museum earlier in the day?
Professor Amos Dunn contacts Superman via the Daily Planet. He claims that, years ago, Jor-El contacted him with instuctions how to build "an apparatus to accomplish the instantaneous transmission of matter." He builds the device, and Jor-El transports him to Krypton. While there he saves baby Kal-El's life and monitors his dreams (he dreams of Al Capone), but that's incidental to the story. Returning to Earth, Professor Dunn sets about building multiple transporters to save the entire population of Krypton, but "the explosive process was greatly accelerated" so Jor-El could save only his son via rocket.
Pratt steals the teleportaion device from Dunn and improves upon it, allowing him to essentially be in two places at once. Superman arranges a hoax to convince Pratt and his accomplice that they have teleported to a post-apocalyptic future (actually a movie set), and Professor Dunn promises to destroy the "matter-radio" so that it doesn't again fall into criminal hands.
SUPERMAN #149 - "The Death of Superman"
You'll find this in the omnibus,