Guest-starring...Jimi Hendrix, apparently.The Story: "The Private War of Johnny Dune!" by Mike Friedrich, Dick Dillin, and Joe Giella. On the JLA Satellite, Black Canary explains that as Flash, Green Lantern, and Hawkman teleported in, they were suddenly whisked away without a trace!
We then cut to the story of Johnny Dune, a Vietnam vet who has just returned home, but found it frustrating to readjust into civilian life. He finds solace in music, but that quickly turns to anger when he learns that his bid to become mayor--to help people--is being trashed in the proverbial smoke-filled room.
Green Arrow and the Atom, attending the concert(in costume yet), find themselves the focus of all that anger, and the concert crowd turns into a mob and attacks them. While the JLA gets a distress signal from Green Lantern, they also get one from Arrow and Atom. Aquaman takes charge(!) and splits them up into two teams.
Batman and Black Canary arrive the concert, only to have Green Arrow and the Atom attack them, under the mysterious influence of Johnny Dune. He then ties them all up and leads a victory march through the streets.
The heroes find a way to fight off Dune's influence, and the mob grows even more unruly, so much so that even Dune realizes its gotten out of hand(he's just realizing that now?). He orders the mob to attack him, to quell their anger, and they d,o, nearly killing him.
The JLAers take him to the hospital, where he recovers. Turns out Johnny Dune was a bona-fide mutant, who had the ability to control people through his words. He realizes the error of his ways, and resolves to work harder for change, but realizing isn't going to happen overnight.
Roll Call: Superman, Batman, Aquaman, Flash, Green Lantern, Green Arrow, Atom, Hawkman, Black Canary
Notable Moments: This issue ends with picking up the other story thread, as we follow Superman chasing after Green Lantern's distress signal.
This issue also features two Golden Age tales, a Dr.Mid-Nite one from All-American Comics #25, and a Dr.Fate one from More Fun Comics #67.
The letters page features missives from a Bob Rozakis and a Mark Gruenwald!
Who inked that Neal Adams cover, was it Murphy Anderson? Blink and you'll miss The Atom.
ReplyDeleteOne thing I *really* liked about Friedrich's run was the way he kept interlocking stories. His run is basically one long story, which I thought was awesome. Nobody else ever did continuity from issue to issue like he did.
I had been thinking of this issue while I was reading The All New Atom #16, with guest writer Roger Stern. It seemed like a small homage, but of course that's ridiculous.
ReplyDeleteEither way, silly stuff.
That's a pretty unique single-cutaway acoustic ((acoustic/electric?)) Johnny Dune has got.
ReplyDeleteNote that GA's head is back down underneath Black Canary's, but still ahead of Atom's. It was always under both until #94, when it popped all the way up to third. Nice work, Ol.