Shadows & Light #1 [1998]

SHADOWS & LIGHT was a short-lived anthology title from Marvel featuring black and white stories. Ditko contributes story and art for a 12-page Iron Man story, "A Man's Reach...!", to this issue, with scripting by Len Wein. This may be the last new work he had published by Marvel (though I half-suspect it might be a holdover from many short stories of this kind he did back around 1990 instead of newly commissioned for this book. But Ditko didn't usually get to ink those, and some of the shading here looks like what Ditko would do for a story meant for black and white publication, so perhaps not).

Whatever the origins of the story, it's a pretty typical old-school Iron Man short, with Happy and Pepper being attacked and Pepper taken hostage by villains who steal an experimental device that Stark Industries is working on. Iron Man goes to the rescue, endangering a business deal as Tony Stark, and falls victim to the experimental device (as well as a hired thug named Longarm with arms stolen from Doctor Octopus. I wonder if Ditko put that in or Wein just added it because of the similarity in designs?). Fortunately Pepper is able to help out with a well timed kick taking out the device and then later her ear identifying the criminal mastermind.

A bit old-fashioned for the time, but not a bad little story. Ditko's art kind of varies in it. Most of it is pretty decent, a few places are really nicely done, with interesting inking techniques, but in other places it looks a bit sloppy.

This issue also features short biographies for the creators before each story, although managing to do so for Ditko without using the "created" word when mentioning Spider-Man and Doctor Strange.

Time Warp #3 [1980]

The recent posts on Ditko's LSH stories brought quite a bit of traffic and comments, including some from the creator of Doctor Mayavale. It also brought a question about other DeMatteis/Ditko stories, and I think a piece in DC's short lived sci-fi anthology is the only one.

"The Dimensions Of Greed" is a 7-page story about two criminals on the recently colonized Mars who rob a casino, killing two guards, and go to hide in the Martian ruins. They find a hidden chamber that leads them to a device which transports them to a surreal dimension about halfway between a Doctor Strange drawing and Shade's Area of Madness, where they meet the original Martians, lumpy green four-eyed (all in a row) creatures who had left the planet years ago. The crooks try to deceive the Martians in order to steal their gems, but when they escape find they went back in time and replaced the guards they had killed during their original heist, setting an endless time-loop in progress.

Nice little story, very much in the style of old Charlton or Atlas stories Ditko worked on, and a much better look at Ditko's skills around 1980 than his LSH work, especially since he handles the inks as well. Those weird Ditko renderings of alien dimensions are always nice to see.

Ditko has another story in this issue, the 3-page "On The Day Of His Return" by the writing team of Dan Mishkin and Gary Cohn, who would later go on to create AMETHYST and BLUE DEVIL. This one has a spaceship captain hit an uncharted spacewarp, where he finds an out-of-place cabin on a snow-covered world. The bearded fat man in red's identity is immediately obvious to the reader, but the captain takes another page to figure it out as he hitches a ride home on a reindeer drawn sleigh. Very goofy, and the little text at the end about rediscovering faith and magic is kind of amusing in how it probably runs completely opposite to Ditko's objectivism. We do get one of those great Ditko double-takes when the captain realizes he's talking to an elf.

The Legion of Super-Heroes #268 [1980]

Since I'm a glutton for punishment sometimes, and since it only cost me 39 cents, I picked up another of the Ditko drawn LSH stories, the one with the worst reputation.

"Life after Life after Life" is a 25-page story written by J.M. DeMatteis and inked by Bob Wiacek, and it features a team of Legionnaires going up against Doctor Mayavale.

I will say this for Mayavale, he sure does have a lot of hands, which gives ample opportunity for Ditko to do some of that crazy hand-jive. That ends the entertaining part of the character. Other than that, he's a cosmic inventor who has decided, since his past lives were all good and noble, that he has to be evil in order to balance the cosmic scales. Sure, that makes sense, but how about the fact that three of the LSH members were acquaintances who had betrayed him in past lives, so he sets up robotic recreations of those betrayals (all in Earth's past) to reverse them. Search the interweb if you need a more detailed explanation.

All I can say is that I'm glad at age 10 I picked up the issue after this, or I might never have read an LSH story again. It's hard to believe from this that DeMatteis would turn out to be (a) a good writer (I highly recommend BROOKLYN DREAMS and MOONSHADOW and (b) able to explore themes of reincarnation and karmic balance in a thoughtful way. At this point his prose is just way too florid (which it often is in his later books, but he makes it work, unlike "a voice that resounds with stentorian sanity, and yet quivers in maundering madness") and the plot is just all over the place. Wiacek is also a much better inker than you'd guess from this.

Except for the hands, this is all sorts of bad. I'd say the hands are worth about the 39 cents I paid, if you paid the full 50 cent cover price you might want your money back.

Superman #400 [1984]

A comment to one of the recent Legion posts mentioned that Ditko drawing Superboy in a few of those stories (a flashback in one, a more major role in another) was among the few times that he really got to draw one of the major players in the DC Universe. For the most part his work at DC was confined to characters he created (Creeper, Hawk&Dove, Stalker, Shade, Starman), non-series short sci-fi/fantasy stories and more obscure DC characters (Etrigan, Man-Bat (with a Batman cameo), the Legion, Black Lightning, the Spectre (heavily inked)). He did draw one short Green Lantern chapter of a larger story, but apparently Wonder Woman doesn't even appear on the pages of a Wonder Woman story he drew.

(there is some unpublished stuff, too. A New Gods back-up story, a Green Lantern image I saw once I think intended for a colouring book, a great Plastic Man image that might have been intended for WHO'S WHO)

But the best was this pin-up from SUPERMAN #400. An odd but brilliant issue celebrating the milestone by having a lot of artists not usually associated with Superman drawing stories of his legend through the future, interspersed with various pin-ups. Ditko's page may be the highlight of the issue for me (and there's some great stuff in here, including Will Eisner, Jack Davis, Jerry Robinson, Al Williamson, Jack Kirby and more). Ditko seamlessly integrates the type of images that he used in his own work like Mr. A and Avenging World, iconographic conflicts between savagery and civilization, oppression and freedom, and combines them with a great image of Superman standing as a barrier defending free people from the forces of evil. It works perfectly, both as as Superman image and a Ditko image. Makes you wonder what he would have done with the character if allowed to cut loose for a full story (his take on Batman would be interesting too. I'm sorry that when DC was doing their "Batman Black and White" mini-series then back-ups that they didn't get Ditko to do one).

--Link-- LSH blog on Ditko's Legion

My recent posts on some of Ditko's circa 1980 fill-in work on LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES has inspired some comments on that era from The Legion Omnicom, a blog devoted to all things LSH. Suffice to say that the view that Ditko hit an unfortunate nadir in LSH history is far from a minority opinion.

The Legion of Super-Heroes #281 [1981]

The last of the seven LSH stories Ditko drew is, fortunately, the best by far of those I've read. That's hardly a compliment, given the others (and I'm in no hurry to track down the two I don't have, one of which has a reputation as one of the worst LSH stories ever).

"Madness Is The Molecule Master" is the name of this 27-page adventure, with some pretty good Bruce Patterson inks. Solid work with some good depth and keeping Ditko's general look. This story sees part of the team going back to Superboy's time to figure out some complicated plot involving Superboy showing up with Ultra-Boy's memories and taking the identity of Reflecto and then everyone being stranded back in Smallville by the Time Trapper. It's all very involved. The important thing is that you get some nice scenes of Ditko drawing Superboy, which is pretty fun. Clark Kent's nosy neighbour is good for a few laughs. The Legion walking around Smallville, with the girls in the very revealing concoctions that passed for their costumes at the time is good.

It's unfortunate that this is Ditko's last LSH story, as this is the issue where his frequent collaborator Paul Levitz returned to the book (scripting this issue over a plot by Roy Thomas, taking over full writing a few issues later), and it improved a lot over what it had been during the previous Ditko fill-ins. He's actually pretty good with a large, colourful cast, and seeing his versions of aliens and space-ships and futuristic cities is always a treat.

The Legion of Super-Heroes #276 [1981]

Last time Ditko drew the book it was pirates, this time it's kings and castles and wizards. What kind of science fiction book is this, anyway?

Frank Chiaramonte inks Ditko on "Lord Romdur's Castle", 25-page adventure of the LSH, where a small group of them go to a planet still at the development level of middle ages Earth to find some lost surveyors. This is the kind of mission you send the greatest super-team of their era on? Anyway, suffice to say that like most LSH books of this era it makes very little sense if you're not familiar with the characters. If you are, then it makes no sense at all. Oh, and "Romdur" is an anagram for "Mordru", one of the team's main villains, though you wouldn't know that from how quickly he's defeated here.

We do get Ditko drawing some nice horses, and a few nice fantasy scenes, and Chameleon Boy doing that bug-eyed alien is good for a laugh. But overall, seriously, if you don't already have Ditko's LSH stories I can't recommend seeking them out.

The Legion of Super-Heroes #274 [1981]

Ditko returns to the LSH only two months after his previous issue with "The Exaggerated Death Of Ultra-Boy" another 25-page yarn of the 30th century's greatest super-team with Frank Chiaramonte on the inks again. This time we get space pirates!

LSH member Ultra-Boy is presumed dead at the hands of Pulsar Stargrave, even though there's no body, so you'd think they'd know better. The LSH mourn for him, including his girlfriend Phantom Girl, not knowing he's alive, floating in space, where he's rescued by space pirates, but lacking his memory. His powers attract the attention of the leader of the pirates, a sexy captain in a fairly ridiculous outfit even by 1981 LSH standards. Ultra-Boy helps the pirates out when the LSH try to stop them, but his faint recognition of Phantom Girl prevents him from doing anything too drastic.

Yeah, space pirates. It's sometimes amazing this book lasted through this period to get to the good stuff on the other side. Despite the story, there's actually some fun artwork by Ditko in this one, what with the goofy aliens and fight scenes. The opening scenes of Ultra-Boy floating through a variety of Ditko space backgrounds is pretty good, too, and Chiarmonte's inks are pretty effective in that part.