Dog Star Omnibus: Wonder Woman

DON HECK

THE DC YEARS

Let's spend some time with Don Heck for one last go-round, wrapping up his years at DC.

JLA

Don joined Gerry Conway at JLA in 1981 and stayed until 1983. Here's another near-miss for Heck in my early comics-reading life. I had a handful of Conway-penned JLA issues from this era but they were all from just prior to Don joining the team. Until I started reading JLI later in the decade, this handful (mainly this one) of issues (as well as the Super Friends cartoon) formed 100% of my formative Justice League knowledge.

Of course we're not here to discuss plot content so much - although we will, and coming up momentarily - but just to admire Don's pencil-work. As he did on Avengers with the Scarlet Witch, on Tales To Astonish with the Wasp, and on X-Men with Marvel Girl, his Hot-Babe-Showcase for his time on JLA was Zatanna.

"Ridiculous, she called it!" - Barry's diary, later. (JLA 187.)

Never liked Zatanna much. Magic characters in comics tend to have way too vague limits on their powers; they expand or retract to suit the needs of whatever story they're in. Plus, Zatanna's whole schtick was she just spoke her spells backwards ("emal yllatot!") followed by a caption from the editor reminding readers that her spells worked by speaking backwards, and that got old after once, and painful ever thereafter. But! Don loved drawing her like a Playmate, so there it is.

Some panels from the Old West / Westworld two-parter, JLA 198-199.

I know nothing about Aquaman or Hawkman. One of these days. I keep circling the earliest Hawkman stories, actually, so maybe sooner than later. Hawman and Hawkgirl seem pretty cool.

(JLA 188, 203. 208, and 214, above and below.)

COSMIC

(aka "BLAAAOW!")

JLA 202 and 213.

Heck never excelled at the cosmic stuff. His renderings are perfectly functional but not iconic for my money.

The JLA/JSA crossovers were really bloated affairs by this point (JLA 207).

ROYAL FLUSH GANG

Let's have a closer look at some panels and concepts from the Royal Flush Gang's return in JLA 203 - 205. This concept is kind of crazy to begin with but gets crazier the more you turn over these details in your mind. Witness the escalation.

"As low card..."

But, you just said... Meh. I fold.

The plot thickens!

Absolutely nothing to suspect here.

World's greatest detective indeed!

Just thought that was wacky enough to warrant a little looksee. Moving on.

ROSE and THORN

I really know nothing about this concept. There are some pre-Crisis things that are still totally new to me. For example, I picked up a Strange Adventures in the bargain bin the other week and discovered there was a DC Character called the Enchantress, "the switcheroo-witcheroo." That - and Rose and Thorn - totally needs to make a comeback, especially in this Age of All-Girl Reboots.

This was a feature in Superman's Girlfriend Lois Lane. (Something tells me that won't ever get a reboot.) The concept can probably be gleamed from this selection of panels from SGLL 123 - 130, but the blonde girl (Rose) and the brunette (Thorn) share the same body but don't suspect the other one exists. I kind of just put these panels all together, so there's linear continuity between a few here and there but not all of them. Apologies as always if this approach is just confusing; I'm just trying to showcase art, here, not necessarily plot.

Ah, I'm beginning to see why Heck was put on this one,

Too late, Thorn. The future is all these things in one.

Again, seeing why they put Heck on this one.

I love how they faithfully always switch clothes before the amnesia starts.

WONDER WOMAN

Heck had the bad luck of getting on a title either after or before a more well-known run. This holds true on almost every book he had a memorable run, but perhaps most particularly Wonder Woman. While arguably his best DC work, this was all pre-Crisis, which means it was completely wiped from the record, both in fans minds (once George Perez started his run) and continuity-wise.

So fell Lord Perth.

Heck wasn't the inside-artist on that cover above, but that was one of the first covers he did for DC after jumping over from Marvel. It was also the return of Wonder Woman's classic costume after the "New Wonder Woman" hi-jinks of the late 60s/ early 70s.

His run (and all these screencaps) ran from WW v1 307 to 329. More or less. (Full list here.)

I can only assume he was chosen for the title because of his facility for drawing beautiful women. But his good work on the title is certainly not limited to that.

As with all the above, these screencaps are not presented in a linear fashion.

(Ed MacMahon voice: Heeeey-ohhhhh!)

MYTH... MARRIAGE...

MUSTACHE.

And in that order.

And not just Greek myth!

Marriage. (Honeymoon cut short by continuity-wipe. Tough luck, lovebirds.)

And finally:

WAGNER/ GOTTERDAMMERUNG

It certainly seems Gerry Conway was channeling the last of Wagner's Ring Cycle operas in this series wrap-up. And why not? If you're writing about gods and valykries and Amazons and the end of all existence, it only makes sense.