It was time for another issue of SECRET SOCIETY OF SUPER-VILLAINS to drop, and as the title was a favorite of mine, I was of course there to receive it. This issue represents the movement into the final phase of the book’s existence, although I could not have known that at the time. That cover lettering is a bit naff, with both balloons clearly having been drawn with an oval template, and looking a shade amateurish.
Artwork on SSoSV had been passed into the hands of Mike Vosburg, a longtime fan turned pro. To be honest, I wasn’t all that enamored of Vosburg’s work. His faces had a bit of a distorted Gene Colan quality to them, and his figures would sometimes get strange. (Te Wizard’s thigh on this splash page is a mile long, for example.) His work wasn’t bad per se, but it wasn’t really to my tastes. However, I was in the tank enough for SSoSV that this didn’t represent a problem. I never considered dropping the book because of it.
So at the end of the last issue, the Wizard, now empowered by the mystic artifacts the Society had stolen over the last few issues, had ousted Funky Flashman for good and taken control of the Society. Not that it was much of a Society at this point, having only two members, the Floronic Man and Star Sapphire. The Wizard proposes to do something about that. Meanwhile, former Society member Copperhead gets clobbered by Captain Comet as he attempts to rob a Loan Company. Comet is still dedicated to hunting down the Society, but he finds that Gorilla Grodd has shielded Copperhead’s mind (and likely those of the other Society members) from his telepathy, so he cannot locate them.
Days later, the Floronic Man breaks into the Wayne Foundation building, where a certain someone is being cared for in a makeshift hospital. Robin happens to be on site, so he rushes to the rescue–but he’s no match for two super-villains, as the figure in the sickbed rises, revealing himself to be Blockbuster, Batman’s old enemy. The Floronic Man has recruited him for the Secret Society. Recovering, Robin calls in to update Batman at the JLA satellite–and Batman, in turn, communicates the information to Captain Comet.
Back at the Secret Citadel, tempers are growing frayed as the Society awaits the arrival of the Wizard’s last recruit–who turns out to be Professor Zoom, the Reverse Flash. With Zoom’s arrival, the Wizard lays out his plan: he’s originally from Earth-2, the home of the Justice Society, where there are fewer active super heroes. He proposes that the Society journey with him back to Earth-2, where they’ll have a much easier time looting and plundering. STAR Labs is working on a device that the Wizard can transform into a dimensional gateway so that they can make the journey to that parallel world.
Having been warned by Batman that the Society is on the move and that Blockbuster is now among them, Captain Comet flies to the top of the Golden Gate Bridge and attempts to use his telepathy to locate Blockbuster’s mind among all of the others in San Francisco (reasoning that, without Grodd, Blockbuster’s mind won’t be shielded.) With great effort, he succeeds–but Blockbuster and the Society are in the midst of breaking into a STAR Labs facility at that very moment. Comet soars to the attack. But Blockbuster fells him with a single blow.
As Zoom and the Wizard set up the STAR Labs dimensional gateway for their trip to Earth-2, Star Sapphire is having second thoughts. She reminds the Wizard that she’s an ally at will, and under no coercion to go along with a reckless and dangerous plan, one that could kill them all. The Wizard promptly zaps Star Sapphire in the back, saying that she’s a part of his plan and that she’s coming along regardless of her feelings. Te villains all rush into the portal–and a staggering Captain Comet, entering the room a second too late to stop them, courageously plunges into the dimensional vortex after them. To Be Continued!
The Tom Brevoort Experience 