Sci-Fi Week! Making a Splash: Pat Broderick's Captain Marvel

It's SCI-FI WEEK here on the Diversions, Groove-ophiles! Prepare for take-off, set phasers to "stun", and may The Force be with you!

Ol' Groove cannot jive ya, man--I have always really, really dug Pat Broderick's art. It always seemed so hip--cozmik in the Jim Starlin school, yet carrying an underground comix vibe that made it stand way out from the crowd. His work on the last few years' worth of Captain Marvel, usually written by Doug Moench and inked by stellar ink-slingers like Bob Wiacek, Bruce Patterson, and Gene Day still dazzles my senses. Dig these sizzling splash pages from one of the best, and definitely most underrated, CM runs of all time--Marvel's Captain Marvel issues 55-62 (December 1977-February 1979), and Marvel Spotlight (volume 2) issues 1-3 (April-August 1979). Dy-no-mite!

Groove's Faves: Frank Miller Goes Cosmic!

Greetings, Groove-ophiles! Yeah, we all know how well Frank Miller does street-level grim-n-gritty (Daredevil, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns), but did'ja ever wonder how he'd handle a sci-fi superhero like, hmmm, let's say, Marvel's Captain Marvel? This filler, written by Mike W. Barr (who would go onto fame and acclaim with DC mags like Camelot 3000 and Batman and the Outsiders in the 1980s), drawn by a young Miller, and inked by Bruce (Bedeep!) Patterson would prove to be the good captain's last solo-tale before Jim Starlin's Death of Captain Marvel sent him to that great graphic novel in the sky. Man, you are gonna love this! From Marvel Spotlight Vol. 2, No. 8 (June 1980), here's "The Planet Where Time Stood Still!"

Secret Origins: Green Arrow and Black Canary

During the Groovy Age, Green Arrow and Black Canary were about as close to top bananas as second bananas could get. They were extremely popular members of the JLA, co-starred with Green Lantern in Green Lantern/Green Arrow (imagine that!), bounced around as back-up features for Superman in Action Comics and Batman in Detective Comics, and finally got regular gigs as co-features in World's Finest Comics when it went to the "80 all-new pages" Dollar Comic format (issues 244-284, January 1977-June 1982). During the height of their popularity, they both got the special Secret Origins treatment, GA in DC Super-Stars #17 (August 1977) and the Canary in DC Special Series #10 (Winter 1978), and those are the delights we're gonna dig on dis day, dude!

First up, here's Green Arrow's origin by his regular GL/GA creative team of Denny O'Neil, Mike Grell along with inker Bruce Patterson...

Next is the untold origin of Black Canary "The Canary is a Bird of Prey" as related by Gerry Conway (who at the time was the Canary's regular World's Finest scribe), Mike Vosburg, and Terry Austin...

Don't that just clutch ya? Of course, GA and BC's origins have been revised, rewritten, revoked, regurgitated, and repealed many times over since the Groovy Age, but... How can I say this without sounding like an old fogey? I can't, so I'll just say it! ...They've never been improved upon!