Justice League Bwah Ha Ha ad

The Suicide Squad Era Ads

Re-reading “Suicide Squad” over the last week in its original comics form means I’ve been looking at a lot of ads.  Some even have me feeling nostalgic.

The late 80s were a super productive and creative time for DC Comics.  For me, DC’s fertile period for its superhero universe and surroundings started in 1987, mostly in the wake of the “Legends” crossover.  From it came three new series:

  • “The Flash”

Flash Ad in Suicide Squad #1

Started by Mike Baron with Jackson “Butch” Guice, Mark Waid would follow in their footsteps with a legendary run, only to be followed by Geoff Johns with another legendary run.  (And, in the middle somewhere, Mark Millar famously had Flash race Sonic the Hedgehog.)

  • The Keith Giffen/J.M. DeMatteis-era “Justice League”

Justice League Ad

Mwah-ha-ha!  And “One Punch!”  Plus, so so much more.

  • And, of course, John Ostrander, Luke McDonnell, and Karl Kesel’s “Suicide Squad”:

Suicide Squad ad DC Comics 1987

Those three books, alone, would have made “Legends” worth it.

But, even outside of “Legends,” DC kept launching new books in the months that followed.  For example:

AD_suicide_squad_5_DoomPatrol

“The Doom Patrol” started with Paul Kupperberg and Steve Lightle.  Erik Larsen spent a short time on the books after that, before Grant Morrison took over and the book got even weirder and more legendary.

I know there are lots of fans of this one, “Green Arrow: The Longbow Hunters”:

Green Arrow The Longbow Hunters ad

The yellow lettering on a green background wasn’t helping to sell the series, mind you…

DC wasn’t just starting series, though.  It continued some pretty long-running ones:

 

Batman and not the death of Robin

No, Robin didn’t die that night.  He lasted another 20 issues before the 1-800 vote caused Joker’s crowbar to take him out.

And talking about your missed opportunities:

Batman Annual 1987 with Alan Moore and Norm Breyfogle

They should have had Norm Breyfogle draw the Alan Moore story! Nice job getting Todd Klein to letter the ad, though. (He was on staff at the time, still, I imagine.)

Finally, another crack at “The Shadow”:

The Shadow can't read with Bill Sienkiewicz

“The Shadow” with Bill Sienkiewicz art?  Yes!  The bad news is, the credits and relevant info on the series are written in pink on a purple background on newsprint paper. That never stood a shot at being legible.

 

 


What do YOU think? (First time commenters' posts may be held for moderation.)

4 Comments

  1. I love all the titles on this list that I’ve had a chance to read. I have a trade of the Shadow issues with Sienkiewicz. I should probably make some time to read that.

  2. That was a great DC era, wasn’t it ? I’m still mourning the Shadow series, interrupted in the middle of the story, but at least it opened my mind to the genius that is Kyle Baker. It’s too bad Andy Helfer doesn’t get more recognition as a writer.
    I’m currently enjoying the first JLI omnibus and the second one is to follow. So delightful.

    1. I admit that I’m mostly a Marvel guy, but there’s something I just love about the late 80s at DC. The families of books they had set up there were great. Their letters columns and text pages made everything feel like one big family. And they published Suicide Squad and the Giffen/DeMatteis era Justice League at the same time, two of my favorite series ever — even if I didn’t read them until years later. Those JLI issues never fail to make me laugh. I’m due for a reread on those, too. (Hmm, “The JLI Agenda”? 😉

      1. Now you’re just teasing us, you’re a very bad boy…

        Even though I read equally DC and Marvel series as they were published in French during my teen years, I always preferred DC, because they weren’t trying to be more “realistic”, ever since the early fifties, DC books embraced fantasy with the most outlandish plots and situations every issue, heritage of the classic SF writers who birthed the Silver age. And in any case, Marvel characters pretending to be upset at each other temporarily in order to stage fake drama and inane fights that went nowhere was never my idea of realism anyway. DC’s stable of artists was unmatched as well, even without Kirby.
        All the series you showcase up here were good, Grell’s Green Arrow is long overdue for an omnibus, so is Baron’s Flash, Breyfogle’s batman is finally being collected in TPBs, and the second generation of the Doom Patrol, before Morrison ruined it, was not quite as enjoyable as the original Drake/Premiani run, but I still appreciated it at the time. It should appeal to you since it saw the early steps of Erik Larsen into the big leagues.
        For a full overview of DC’s late 80s here, you’re only missing Wolfman & Pérez’s Teen Titans and Levitz & Giffen’s Legion, my two favorites back then with Curt Swan’s Superman.
        If the french expression “madeleine de Proust” means anything to you, that’s what this post of yours made me feel. Thanks.
        PS. I’m all for a JLI agenda. Challenge accepted Bwa-ha-ha!