Reading Room TIME WARP "Return to the Stars"

As various countries (including us, due to Don da Con) plan to weaponize Outer Space...

...take a look back to when we weren't trying to act like total idiots outside of our planet's atmosphere and threats to peace were only from our own species.

Using both established pros and talented newcomers, this oversized anthology (68 pages for $1 when the standard comic was 36 pages for 40¢) presented all-new material, almost all of which (including this story) has never been reprinted!
While Howard Chaykin certainly is an "established pro", writer Wyatt Gwyon, who might qualify as a newcomer, is a mystery.
With less than two dozen stories to his credit, Gwyon came onto the comics scene in 1977 scripting horror and sci-fi stories for various DC anthology titles until he disappeared in 1983.
There was no sign of him in comics...or anywhere else...until he popped-up again...with a one-page Wolverine story in Marvel's What If...? #34 (1992)!
Was "Wyatt Gwyon" a pseudonym?
Probably, since Wyatt Gwyon was the protagonist of William Gaddis' acclaimed 1950s novel The Recognitions.
He's a frustrated fine artist with a gift for imitating the styles of Old Masters.
Unscrupulous art dealers and critics use him to create phony "undiscovered Old Masters" they sell for huge prices!
Was Wyatt a novelist/poet/movie-TV scripter who decided to try his hand at comics?
Or was he a DC or Marvel staffer who wanted to make some extra cash?
We'll probably never know...
...or will we?
According to Martin O'Hern, comics creator detective, the Who's Who created by mega-fan Jerry Bails (aka the Father of Comic Book Fandom) identifies "Gwyon" as long-time DC scripter Martin Pasko...but with a "?" by his name, probably because it's never been fully-confirmed.

Note that Mike Kaluta, definitive artist for the comic version of The Shadow, provided pulp-style covers for the entire run.

While they had no relation to any of the stories in the book, they were spectacular!

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Mysteries in Space

The Best of DC Science Fiction Comics

Wednesday Worlds of Wonder BEYOND THE FARTHEST STAR "Test Pilot"

We Have Already Seen...

...note that, at this point, the story has diverged from the novel.

Howard Chaykin assumes this art duties for this issue, continuing the adaptation of Edgar Rice Burroughs' only "hard sci-fi" story (as compared to the "scientific romances" of John Carter and Carson of Venus) with this fast-paced, never-reprinted installment from DC's Tarzan: Lord of the Jungle #216 (1973).
The question is...who scripted it?
Various sources attribute either Marv Wolfman or Denny O'Neil, with no definitive answer available.

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Beyond the Farthest Star

by Edgar Rice Burroughs

Whatever Happened to MANHUNTER 2070 ?

You thought this was the end of Manhunter 2070?

For twenty years, you would've been correct, except for a cameo in the revived Showcase's 100th issue, during a multiverse and time-spanning tale featuring almost every character who headlined a strip in the comic* (and considered "out of continuity" even then by the authors and DC), Starker had disappeared from the Multiverse.

But in 1990, Howard Chaykin and Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez did Twilight, a mini-series combining and "updating" an assortment of DC Comics' 21st Century-based characters including (from left-to-right) Star Hawkins & Ilda, Tommy Tomorrow, Karel Sorenson (and the rest of the not-pictured Star Rovers), and Manhunter 2070, who apparently survived the ambush, along with the Space Cabbie, Knights of the Galaxy, Space Ranger, and even the Space Museum!

It was also revealed that private eye Star Hawkins was actually Axel Starker, brother to Manhunter 2070, whose full name was Jon Starker, contradicting the only-child storyline from the Showcase series.

(Note: Star Hawkins was co-created by artist Mike Sekowsky [who, as a writer/artist/editor created Manhunter 2070] and writer John Broome, so the two characters were "brothers" sharing a "father", as it were.)

Chaykin had already radically re-envisioned several other characters, including Blackhawk, and The Shadow, and while his controversial Shadow updating (continued by Andy Helfer, Bill Sienkiewicz, and Kyle Baker) wasn't considered "official", the changes he introduced into Blackhawk became part of post-Crisis on Infinite Earths canon.
As to where Twilight stands in terms of continuity...well, we're not sure.
The events in the story have never been referenced in any other DC titles, nor has it ever been reprinted.
Which may be just as well, since Jon Starker dies during the tale.
But, Manhunter 2070 still had one more life left...as you'll see Tuesday!

*One character didn't appear...James Bond, who appeared in an adaptation of Dr No in Showcase #43 (1962).
You can read the reason 007 popped up at DC HERE.

The World's Greatest Escape Artist(s) Meet...

...in a 1993 "Elseworlds" story set in early 1900s Gotham City.

The non-continuity tale re-imagines Batman (or "Bat-Man" as he's referred to) operating in a Victorian steampunk reality where science and the occult intermingle.

Besides Houdini, there are vampires aplenty, plus re-interpretations of several Batman characters including Alfred, Vicki Vale, and (surprise) The Joker.

The award-winning graphic novel is well worth reading, if you can find it.