DC Comics Presents #78

I think this easily overlooked issue could even be considered an essential for the reason that the end pages lead to possibly THE most famous and most important crossover event in DC history. Actually, Crisis has already started unraveling when we get to this, sort of. Other than that, I was impressed by the cast of heroes, but not necessarily the villains. Sure, the plot is,.. I don't even know if I disliked it. It was ok, had some crazy sci-fi and space travel, and a habitable but also LIVING planet,.. The science in these old comics are always flawed, even to the point of mentally damaging the sane at times. For example, we know now, for sure, that even if sentient life exists on other planets, for which there is apparently a huge chance, (http://theweek.com/article/index/212385/the-milky-ways-500-million-potentially-habitable-planets) it's not going to be found on our neighbouring, Solar system planets. Probably not. But most of the aliens in DC, be it J'onn J'onnz or Legionnaires, are found fairly close.

The villains aren't too intimidating either. I mean sure, they're technically amped up into doing this ridiculously evil thing, and they have a plan to rule the world. Even with a living planet among them, this "Triad" are all not that big a deal. But it throws the heroes into space, and make them travel through time, to a place with a red sun, that prevents Superman from using his powers. And in their time of need, they run into what the comics introduce as someone famous and respected, space captain Chris Colombus.

He actually impresses me quite a bit, as the Space Cabbie compares him to Kirk from Star Trek, everybody's favourite Dr. Who, whose older versions I've watched and didn't like much and a "Tommy Tomorrow", who i assume is of equal popularity and feats. So here's a Star Trek reference, and later, Animal Man makes a couple of Star Wars references,

making me wonder what happens here. So does this mean a) that Superheroes, Kirk and Jedi all exist together? or b) that George Lucas and Shatner/Picard existed in the same universe as these Superheroes? Or c) are they cracking jokes about pop culture references, that exist not in their world but only our world, by which they shatter the fourth wall, and then, cause other mayhem within the superhero genre? Surely, they've heard about these guys, but as Animal Man explains, at least Star Wars is just a movie. And Star Wars, compared to Trek, is more of a fantasy involving no science/realism at all. I guess back in the day, in the superhero realm, as much superheroes there existed, all companies combined, mutants, metas Spider Men and Supermen and all, the vast majority of society were normal like us and superheroes were the fancy celebrity-equivalents who only dealt with these aliens on their own private time. But then Kirk is still a thing? (I'm only familiar with Next Generation but doesn't exist yet, since this was printed in the 80s, (or DOES it, because these guys have traveled into the future?)) Time travel is weirder than Space of course, because of all those paradoxes.

Colombus also reminds me of other characters, probably because of his little green sidekick, and also for being the good Samaritan who helps out e good guys in their time of need. They remind me of the Starjammers who helped out the X-Men in space, even though they were technically pirates and not respected and decorated adventurers. Idk what thoughts went into the Starjammers, but I could guess that Capt. Hook and the Crocodile was part of it, as well as generic space travel pirate team stock characters, involving the one woman and an extra weird, bestial creature may have been all that was to do with the idea. However, post 2000s, we have a connection between Star Trek and the 'Jammers through Patrick Stewart's roles. and then there's the space captain from Futurama. Again, similarities are there from the sidekick to Leela's name resembling Lyla's, unless these were already common to Kirk, who I don't know about, but was obviously the inspiration to Zapp.

And I actually wanted to mention Cabby too, as he very much reminded me of Zeke the Beak, the space cabby from Rankin' Bass' Silverhawks. We know Thundercats obviously paid homage to Krypton/Superman, and included a whole team of heroes, arguably mirroring the JLA or the like. When the Silverhawks dominated space, could it have maybe adapted the space cabby concept? or was it just necessity of travel, in space?

The team of heroes themselves are... an interesting set. There's Superman spearheading the cast, but also a couple of fairly known guys, like Animal Man and Congorilla, who both appeared in Cry for Justice. Now, everyone gets their kick from some phenomena they like, be it heroes of strength, like Hercules and some superheroes, or Conan and other sword and sorcery types with their big muscled men and their sexily unclad women, or sci-fi and space travel, or kung fu masters and ninjas, which do have a huge effect on me. After the kung fu types, and the morally righteous, my biggest kick comes from the hero of the wild. Tarzan, even Robin Hood, who were not necessarily always good, (in fact not even recognizing some of the laws of man,) but still holding some honour and nobility to themselves that makes them good guys. We all love animals, so why not heroes who serve animals? Or IS an animal? Ironically, both Congo Bill and Animal Man were hunters before they got their powers. This is the oldest of Animal Man's adventures I'm reading, so even if I knew what he was capable of, when he absorbs powers from an alien creature, that still excites me.

But the best part of all, is when the people of the future confirms the their faith and respect in Superman. The legacy of Superman, both in his physical performance and judgment, is something that gives people hope, that makes every kid believe in something, even adults, and paints humanity in a better light. I'd rather have a world in which a brighter, friendlier Kal El exists, vs an evil version of that very same man does. And, coming from a man that has been praised over Kirk and Dr Who? And not only a human but aliens too, this adds to the United Planets' and the Legion's faith in heroes. Really puts US, as Earthlings on some fictional, universal/inter-galactical map. And that's cool. To have our hero now, confirmed to stay true and leave a legacy in the future, now that's reassuring.