DC has a ton of characters that, put bluntly, couldn't carry their own title in a bucket. That's not to say they don't have fans or aren't worthwhile; just that they get cancelled more often then not. I often thought, maybe these second and third-bananas should if not team-up, all be in the same book, that they could support together. I wonder if maybe they weren't headed towards that notion here: from 1977, Challengers of the Unknown #83, "Seven Doorways to Destiny!" Written by Gerry Conway, pencils by Keith Giffen, inks by John Celardo.
In Perdition, NE; to try and save the life of Prof. Haley; the Challs face, and get beat down, by creepy cultists worshipping a fungus called "M'ynagala." Meanwhile, wannabe team member Clayburne does his research, and finds another expert that could help: Dr. Alec Holland, who had been believed dead but recently returned. He hadn't been dead, of course, he had been the Swamp Thing! I'm not an expert on him, but I think that happened towards the end of his '72-76 series: the last two covers look like they were trying to pivot from horror to super-heroing. Although Holland gets a moment to smooch his girl, he still goes with Clayburne to try and help.
The cultists keep Red and June as hostages, then send Ace and Rocky on their fetch-quest to complete a ritual and let M'ynagala into our world; which Rocky somewhat stupidly does, although he may not have expected it to work that well! Back at Perdition, Clayburne and Holland--suited up as Challengers--find Prof. Haley, infested with the fungus, but he thinks he knows a cure: sound. There's no cure for Holland, though: he had fought M'ynagala before, and knew he had to help, but that meant giving up time to work on his "bio-restorative" cure. Reverting back to the Swamp Thing, he runs away, not wanting to be remembered as a monster; but as Haley activates sirens to weaken M'ynagala, Swamp Thing is in position to finish it off.
Ace saves Rocky with a firebomb idea cribbed from Jaws, so all's well that ends well. Unless you're a Swamp Thing, again; perhaps forever. The next issue blurb promises another guest-star: Deadman! And I think both of them would remain for the rest of the series! Could've sworn I had that last issue somewhere...
2 comments:
Wait, Swamp Thing was briefly restored to human form? When did this happen?
It was near the end of his first run. Saga of the Swamp Thing briefly addressed it, and then Len Wein said it was officially out of continuity.
On the subject of second-tier DC characters teaming up, they did that a couple times. I think the Justice Society was originally set up like that.
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