Superman: Phantom Zone

Reprints Superman:Phantom Zone #1-4
Written by Steve Gerber.
Penciled by Gene Colan.
Inked by Tony DeZuniga.

Summary:  
Daily Planet employee Charlie Kweskill has been haunted by nightmares which are inducing insomnia.

 

He has a recurring dream about the planet Krypton. Charlie witnesses several Kryptonians commit horrendous crimes. The perpatrators are punished with banishment to the Phantom Zone.

When he passes out at work, his boss, Planet publisher Perry White, tells him to go home and get some rest.

In reality, Charlie is really Quex-Ul of Krypton. He was wrongly imprisoned in the Phantom Zone himself. Years ago, Superman freed him and used Gold Kryptonite to wipe away his memory and create his new identity as Charlie Kweskill.  

We learn that Charlie's dreams are caused by telepathic manipulation by prisoners of the Phantom Zone. They are led by General Zod. The Kryptonian criminals force Charlie to steal equipment from STAR Labs which he uses to build a Phantom Zone projector that will allow Kryptonian criminals to escape to Earth. 

Back at the Planet, reporter Clark Kent learns that Charlie never returned to work and has disappeared. He decides to investigate this as Superman, starting at Charlie's apartment. Superman arrives just as Charlie is releasing the inmates from the Phantom Zone.
When the villains escape, Superman and Charlie Kweskill are sent to the Phantom Zone! 

When the villains escape, Superman and Charlie Kweskill are sent to the Phantom Zone! 
That means that several criminals with powers similar to Superman's are free to wreck havoc upon Earth.

Zod flies away, accompanied by Kru-El, Faora, Va-Kox and Jax-Ur. Their first stop is the Justice League's satellite headquarters. The Kryptonians send the satellite deep into the Milky Way. The Phantom Zoners also attack communication satellites owned by the United States and Soviet Union. This causes the World's great powers to launch nuclear missiles at one another.

With Superman missing, his cousin Supergirl leaps into action.  
She teams with Wonder Woman and they prevent the missiles from inflicting damage, thus avoiding World War III.

Several other Kryptonian escapees separate from Zod's crew and explore Earth on their own:

Jer-Em, a fanatical religious prophet preaches that armageddon is coming. His activities attract the attention of Batman.

Az-Rel is a pyrotic whose thoughts can set matter aflame. He's accompanied by Nadira, a telekinetic whose thoughts disrupt the bioelectrical impulses of the brain. They wander around Metropolis, inflicting pain on people.  

Nam-Ek is a madman who experimented on rondors (native Kryptonian animals) which resulted in him being half-man, half-rondor. Wonder Woman encounters Nam-Ek and tries to be kind to him. He is so surprised by this gesture that he doesn't believe her and attacks the Amazon Princess!

Supergirl travels to Gotham City, hoping Batman can help her find Superman, but the Dark Knight has no idea where Superman is. She then departs for her cousin's Fortress Of Solitude, not knowing it's been taken over by the Phantom Zone villains. Upon arrival, Supergirl is overpowered by Zod and the others. They leave the scene, trashing the Fortress, presuming Supergirl is dead.

Green Lantern is also defeated by Zod's gang. The criminals use GL's lantern to charge a gigantic cannon that will send Earth to the Phantom Zone!

Back in the Phantom Zone, Superman and Charlie are trying to find an escape route. In order to do so, they must go further in to the Zone. As their journey progresses, they encounter many bizarre and frightening characters. When it looks like they've found a way out of the Zone, Kal-El and Charlie learn they will have to go through the monstrous Aethyr, the Oversoul in order to escape!

Can Superman and Charlie escape from the Phantom Zone and save Earth from destruction?

Review:
The late, great Steve Gerber was synonymous with "offbeat" Bronze Age stories. Superman: Phantom Zone shows that Gerber could make even the Man Of Steel offbeat.
  
Story:
This limited series was published shortly after the release of the movie Superman II, so the Phantom Zone was sort of "hot" at the time. Gerber gives us a Phantom Zone that's a supernatural, phantasmagorical nightmare world.

Superman: Phantom Zone also does a good job demonstrating exactly how dangerous a pack of criminals with the powers of Superman would be.

I'm not an expert on Silver Age DC Comics stories. But I think this is the first time we got to see visual depictions of some of the crimes committed by Zod and the other prisoners of the Phantom Zone. Through Charlie's "nightmares," we see that Zod and the others are very dangerous mass murderers.  

The portrayal of General Zod in Superman: Phantom Zone is very different from the character played by Terrence Stamp. But he's a great villain who is willing to destroy Earth just to cause grief for Superman.  

But it's not all doom, gloom, and horror. Gerber gives us a funny scene where the Phantom Zone criminals visit a Metropolis punk rock club. 

Gerber also gives us a classic "everyman" character in Charlie Kweskill. Charlie is a typical working stiff who suddenly has the fate of the world in his hands. He also serves as a surrogate for the reader. 

I also appreciated the way Gerber let us, the readers, experience the world through the eyes of Nadira and Az-Rel.

Though Superman and Charlie are the main characters, Gerber also does a good job writing the other superheroes. Wonder Woman and Supergirl prevent a world war when they intercept the missiles, and Batman has some interesting scenes with Jer-Em. 

Speaking of Batman, there's a scene where Supergirl tells Batman that his "best friend" Superman has disappeared. It made me a bit sad, since the Man Of Steel and the Caped Crusader are no longer best friends in the post-Crisis DC Universe.  

No Gerber story would be complete without quirky, unusual characters. They don't get much more "Gerber-esque" than the Priestesses of the Crimson Sun, who have heads that do interesting things, as you'll in the images below:

If there's anything to criticize in the story, it's that the ending is somewhat abrupt. There's also no follow-up about the U.S. and Soviets launching missiles at each other. It would've been nice to get a caption or a sentence of dialogue that mentioned how the nations dealt with this "misunderstanding."

Art:
Gene Colan is probably NOT an artist most comic fans associate with Superman, but he provides excellent pencils in this tpb. He penciled this about two years after the conclusion of his seven-year run on Tomb Of Dracula, so it's not surprising that he brings a touch of the horror genre to this tale. Colan gives us lots of great, shadowy, noirish images. Gerber previously teamed with Colan on Howard The Duck, it's interesting to see them collaborate on something completely different from Howard's adventures.

Colan is embellished by Tony De Zuniga, who also penciled and inked horror comics and magazines. They team up to create some great moody art that works great in the context of the Phantom Zone. Colan and De Zuniga make the Phantom Zone look like a truly spooky and frightening place. 

Here's a nice scan from Superman: Phantom Zone that shows off the fine work of Colan and De Zuniga:

 Great stuff!

How Does It Look:
Here's a scan from my copy of Superman:Phantom Zone #4, published back in 1982:

And this is how the same pages look in the tpb:

Extras:
This book contains Gerber's follow-up to this story, published after the Bronze Age. 

Superman: Phantom Zone features a Superman story unlike any other.  Fans of Steve Gerber and Colan should definitely seek out this tpb. 

Guardians Of The Galaxy: Tomorrow's Avengers Vol. 1

Reprints Marvel Super-Heroes #18, Marvel Two-In-One #4-5, Giant-Size Defenders #5, Defenders #26-29, Marvel Presents #3-12
Written by Arnold Drake, Steve Gerber, Roger Stern, Gerry Conway, Roger Slifer, Len Wein, Chris Claremont, Scott Edelman and Stan Lee.
Penciled by Gene Colan, Sal Buscema, Don Heck, Al Milgrom and John Buscema.
Inked by Mike Esposito, Frank Giacoia, Vince Colletta, Pablo Marcos, Al Milgrom, Howard Chaykin, Terry Austin, Bob Wiacek, Dave Hunt, John Tartaglione and Joe Sinnott.

Ben Grimm (better known as the Thing of the Fantastic Four) is hanging out at the Baxter Building.  Captain America and his girlfriend Sharon Carter (an agent of SHIELD) are visiting. Suddenly, a woman materializes in the next room. She calls herself Tarin and claims to be from Earth in the year 3014! She is shocked to see Cap and the Thing alive.

Tarin takes Cap, Sharon & the Thing into the future.

In her timeline, the alien race known as the Brotherhood of the Badoon conquered Earth. They killed most Earthlings and enslaved the survivors. Ben, Captain America, and Sharon are moved by her story and decide to time-travel into the future to fight the Badoon.

Upon arrival, they're attacked by Zoms, humans who are programmed by the Badoon to be killing machines. The heroes have the upper hand at first. But the Badoon release the Monster of the Badoon, which proves too much for Cap, Ben and Sharon. Tarin escapes and seeks help.

The Monster of the Badoon knocks out Ben & Cap.
They are taken prisoner by the Badoon.

The Badoon decide that the heroes will be executed at once, but they have other ideas. The Thing attacks the Monster and frees Captain America and Sharon. They escape and run through 31st century New York. The Badoon catch up with them, but help arrives in the form of the Guardians of the Galaxy!

Tarin contacts the Guardians Of The Galaxy.

The Guardians consist of:

Major Vance Astro, an astronaut from the 20th century who spent 1000 years in suspended animation.  He shoots psychokinetic mind beams and serves as the Guardians' leader!

Charlie-27, a Jupiter-born Earthman. Massive. Superstrong. Bred to survive in Jupiter's gravity!

Yondu, an archer from planet Centauri IV, the last of his race.

Martinex from Pluto, who turns light waves into heat or cold blasts.

The combined power of the Guardians and the 20th century heroes is enough to take over New York City. The Badoon still run the world, but New York becomes a beacon of freedom and will hopefully inspire the rest of the world to overthrow their conquerors.

The Guardians, Captain America & The Thing take out some Badoon soldiers.

Back in the present day, a Badoon-created device has somehow appeared in New York Harbor. It gives off radiation that turns an electric eel into Eelar, half-man, half-eel. He attacks the city with electric beams. The Defenders—made up of Doctor Strange, Hulk, Valkyrie and Nighthawk—intervene and battle Eelar.

Doctor Strange & Valkyrie defend New York from Eelar.

Thankfully for the Defenders, the Guardians of the Galaxy have time-traveled back to the 20th century in search of the Badoon device. The Guardians team up with the Defenders to end the threat of Eelar.

Shortly after that battle, the Guardians' space ship, The Captain America, has been discovered by a news crew. This attracts the attention of the military, who are going to shoot the Guardians, when they're saved by none other than Vance Astro. But it's the adolescent version of Vance, before he became an astronaut. This prompts his 31st century counterpart to tell the story of how Earth came to be conquered by the Badoon, and how he ended up in the year 3014. But Vance Astro never tells his younger self that they're one and the same. 

After hearing about the future fate of Earth, Doctor Strange tells the Guardians that the Defenders will join them in the future to battle the Badoon!  

But the Badoon have other ideas!  When they try to teleport to Earth's surface, the Defenders and Guardians are hit with a beam that separates the heroes from one another and sends them to various planets.

Valkyrie and Vance Astro wind up on a world ruled by Badooon women. They seem even more savage than their male counterparts. The female Badoon injure Valkyrie in a fight, but she is healed by a mysterious stranger.

L:Valkyrie & Astro fight off the Sisterhood of Badoon

They learn that he is Starhawk, a being of great (and vaguely defined) power. Starhawk helps Valkyrie and Astro make peace with the Badoon women and depart their world.

At the same time, Hulk and Yondu have been sent to a planet where life-and-death gladiatorial duels are treated like game shows.

Youndu & Hulk are "contestants" on Super-Death Sweepstakes.

Doctor Strange uses his mystic powers to set the stage for the overthrow of the Badoon, with a minimal loss of life.

Sometime later, the Guardians decide that with the Badoon defeated, they can better serve Earth by exploring the universe. They set out in The Captain America to study new planets.

Vance Astro enters Starhawk's quarters and is surprised to find a woman in the room. We learn that Starhawk is made up of two beings, siblings named Stakar and Aleta. They hail from the planet Arcturus. 

The Guardians encounter a ship carrying a lone passenger who joins the team. Her name is Nikki, she comes from a colony on Mercury. Every other member of the colony was killed by the Badoon. Nikki has the power to survive in extreme heat and shoots heat blasts from her hands.

The Convent of Living Fire use Nikki for a ritual sacrifice;
Charlie-27 intervenes.

The Guardians' interstellar journey will bring them into conflict with various space-based menaces, including:

The Topographic Man, a genocidal giant who is as big as a solar system!

Alien "gangsters" who live on a planet that resembles New York.

Karanada, the "opposite of spirit!" that threatens to consume all energy in its path!

Starhawk goes after a Karanada all by himself!

  

Drydock, a gigantic, sentient space station that attacks the Guardians with its defense mechanisms!

Review:
Guardians Of The Galaxy: Tomorrow's Avengers Vol. 1. is a real mixed bag. It gets off to a good start, with the Marvel Two-In-One two-parter. But the Guardians seem to work a bit better as guest stars than as headliners in their own adventures.

Story:
I'll cut to the chase and say that the stories contained here aren't great. But they're not exactly terrible either.

Vance Astro works nicely as a surrogate for the reader. He's a "regular guy", AND a man out of time, feeling like he's surrounded by a bunch of philosophers (especially Starhawk and Yondu). Charlie-27 serves as comic relief and is a fun character. But beyond them, the other characters have somewhat generic powers (ice, fire, archery, superstrength) and aren't very interesting. 

The Eelar story, from Giant-Size Defenders #5 is credited to six (six!) different writers and is sort of a mess. Eelar looks cool on the cover, but that's about it. 

Another problem is the Badoon. They aren't a very interesting adversary. They're sort of "skrulls without the ability to shapeshift". For the first half of the tpb, there are too many instances that feature "generic gang of Badoon attack" only to be easily beaten by the heroes. 

Things pick up for a little while when the Guardians get their own title. It feels a bit like Gerber was going for "Star Trek with a crew of superheroes." I don't think it's a coincidence that the Guardians' ship, The Captain America, resembles the Enterprise. 

Aleta & Stalkar transform into Starhawk for the first time;
They tell their origin story to the Guardians.

The story that featured the Karanada and Topographical Man was pretty good. And the introduction of Nikki brings some fun to the stories. But the rest of the stories just aren't very good. One of them is actually reprint of a Silver Surfer story from the Silver Age, because Gerber had trouble meeting deadlines. Roger Stern eventually takes over writing duties, with Mary Skrenes assisting on one issue.  This is some of Stern's earliest work at Marvel. He's one of my favorite writers, but Stern can't save the series.  

Art:
This tpb contains some very good art...and some that isn't so great.

The best art comes from Al Milgrom's pencils taken from the stories reprinted from Marvel Presents.  Milgrom is embellished by 5 different inkers, with Bob Wiacek inking five issues worth of pages. But the highpoint of the book is the portion penciled by Milgrom and inked by Terry Austin. It's one of the times the art matches the epic, cosmic nature that the stories are shooting for (but rarely hitting).

The Karanada attacks the Guardians' spaceship, nice work by Milgrom & Austin.

And here's some more great work from Milgrom, inked by Pablo Marcos. It includes a "text" page written by Gerber, which reminds me of something that Gerber did in Howard The Duck around the same time. 

Sal Buscema penciled the Marvel Two-In-One story and he did a great job. I thought this two-page spread depicting New York architecture of the 31st century was particularly nice.

 

Buscema also drew the Defenders issues reprinted here, but he's over-inked by Vince Colletta. The result is that we see more of Colletta's work than Buscema. It's frustrating because you get an occasional glimpse at how great the art could have looked. Don Heck penciled the Eelar story. He's inked by three different inkers and it doesn't look very good. Eelar looks more like he's half-horse than half-eel.  

The Guardians' ship, The Captain America, is attacked by the Reavers of Arcturus.

How Does It Look?:

Looks good to me, no obvious signs of recoloring. For the sake of comparison, here's a scan from a copy of Marvel Presents #3, found on Diversions Of The Groovy Kind:

And here's how it looks in the tpb:

Extras:
The Guardians first appeared during the Silver Age in Marvel Super-Heroes #18 and that's reprinted in this book. We get two columns about the Guardians written by Gerber and Stern, that were first published in Foom, Marvel's in-house fanzine. Plus, the tpb reprints several columns about the Guardians written by Steve Gerber that were published on the letters page of Marvel Presents.

Charlie-27 slugs it out with Brutag!

  
Guardians of The Galaxy: Tomorrow's Avengers Vol. 1 isn't very good, but it does serve as a solid introduction to the Guardians. Plus, Milgrom's art makes up for some of the lackluster stories.  Those factors save it from receiving a lower rating.

J.A. Morris' rating:

.5



2 and a half Sals.