Showcase #93

Showcase #93 (On Sale: July 28, 1970) has a Manhunter 2070 cover by Mike Sekowsky and Dick Giordano. I think this is the most effective of the three Manhunter 2070 covers, mainly due to the coloring.

"Never Trust a Red-Haired Greenie" is a 22-page Starker, Manhunter 2070 story written and penciled by Mike Sekowsky and inked by Frank Giacoia.  I really admired DC for letting Sekowsky try out all of these ideas he had running through his head for alternate types of books. Starker is not nearly as out of the norm as Jason's Quest was, but at the time, science-fiction was not selling at all, so that a book about a space bounty hunter was green lighted for even three tryouts is an achievement in itself.

On his way back to base, Starker get a communiqué from his robotic assistant Arky on a new case. Milton Wallen, former employee of Trans-Planet Mining Co. left the company, taking two million credits with him. A price is out for his return and for the return of the money. Arky discovers that Wallen was last seen on the planet Zodan, a planet full of green-skinned thieves. Arky warns that the red-haired greenies are the worst.

Starker goes to Zodan, and immediately is attacked by thieves trying to steal his luggage and his wallet, and is forced to secure his belongings at gunpoint. Starker searches Zodan, and finds out that Wallen fled to a neighboring planet Zoldar. Starker goes to Zoldar, unaware that two beautiful female Zodanian red-haired greenies have stowed away on his ship.

Starker finds Wallen on a saloon on Zoldan, where Wallen lost all of the money in a card game. Starker brings Wallen with him as he pursues the men that fleeced Wallen to a neighboring city. After being attacked twice, Starker retrieves the two million in credits. However, on the way back to the spaceport, Starker and Wallen are suckered by the two red-haired greenies.

The greenies leave Starker and Wallen for dead, after hitting them both with Starker’s blaster. Left for dead, the two are discovered by local Neanderthals.

And that is where Starker stayed as the series was not picked up by DC.  With the exception of a cameo in the pages of Showcase #100, Manhunter 2070 would not reappear till 2012, when Starker was one of six DC heroes featured in Walter Simonson's graphic novel, The Judas Coin.. As a cross between Star Trek and James Bond, Manhunter 2070 was not a bad idea and if proposed after the release of Star Wars it might have met a different fate..

This is the last issue of Showcase for seven years, which should have been a bigger deal at the time. Showcase was the book that began the Silver Age of Comics and its passing should have been mourned by more.

This book was edited by Mike Sekowsky.

Showcase #92

Showcase #92 (On Sale: June 11, 1970) has a Manhunter 2070 cover by Mike Sekowsky and Dick Giordano.

The book-length Manhunter 2070 story, "D.O.A." is written and penciled by Mike Sekowsky and inked by Frank Giacoia (a huge improvement over the initial Manhunter 2070 inker Vinnie Colletta). While entertaining two women in the resort city of Janus, Starker sees a wanted poster offering a reward of 100,000 credits for his death and posted by the Brotherhood of Space. He decides to leave immediately, as to not endanger his companions. As they head back to Starker's place he tells the story of why the Brotherhood hates him so much.

He recounts how as a teen he used to mine asteroids with his father and how one day his father finally struck it rich, finding an asteroid rich in Didanium, only to have a band of pirates show up and jump his claim, killing his father. They were going to kill Starker too, but Slops, the cook asked for them to spare Starker so that he could have a galley helper. Starker's life became one of brutal beating at the hands of the pirates as the years slowly went by. He watched them loot and kill and he watched them train during their off times and his hatred for them grew.

He learned the ship from top to bottom an set up his own training area in a remote storage room. He practices his fighting skill, learning from the pirates. In front of them he cowered, but in his storage room he became an expert with a knife, built a weight set and honed his body. Shortly after turning 18, Starker had had enough of Slops and attacked him. He threw his unconscious body at the pirates and declared, "This is your new waiter and dish washer and I'm the new cook. Anyone object?" Given how bad a cook Slops was, the pirates had no issues with the change in status.

He remained their cook for two years, before he made his move against them. He disables all of the life boats on board and then one by one, hunted down the five men who killed his father. He dawned a space suit and flooded the ship with

paralyzo-gas, knocking out all bet a few of the leaders, who he then hunted down one by one. Two days later he turned the pirates over to the authorities, along with the dead bodies of those who had killed his father.  As a result, he became the richest bounty hunter in the system and an enemy of the Brotherhood of Space.

This is followed by a one-page "Wonders of Space" text feature and a full-page ad for the next issue of Manhunter 2070.

Edited by Mike Sekowsky.

Showcase #91

Showcase #91 (On Sale: April 28, 1970) features a Manhunter 2070 cover by Mike Sekowsky and Dick Giordano.

We begin with "Planet of Death," written and penciled by Mike Sekowsky, inks by Vince Colletta. Sekowsky sets up his world in a few pages: In the year 2070, mankind has conquered space and colonized the solar system; However, with interplanetary and interstellar commerce comes space pirates that prey on freighters and mining operations of all the races of the galaxy; With the rise in piracy, the United Federation of Planets calls on a new breed of freelance bounty hunter. Our hero is one such man: Starker, Manhunter 2070; A suave man, Starker surrounds himself with beautiful women, and his robot assistant Arky, in his satellite orbiting Jupiter. Physically, Starker reminds me of James Colburn in the "Flint" movies.

After a night at the casino, Starker and his women return home to find that three killers (a human, a Jovian, and an Andromedin) have escaped from the maximum security prison on Deimos. Starker is told by Arky that they most likely are hiding on the pirate stronghold of Pheidos. Starker soon lands on Pheidos, the Planet of Death, where he is immediately attacked by, just about everything, drawing the attention of the three escapees nearby. The three think the planet's creatures will take care of Starker, but he manages to escape on his jet-rider.

They manage to shoot down his rider and go after him on flying sleds. Out in the open they have to fight Starker and the many inhabitants of the planet that wish to eat them all. The deadly fauna kills two of the men and Starker is able to capture the third before narrowly escaping himself.

That is followed by the two-pager, "Space Duel," also by Mike Sekowsky and Vince Colletta. Starker is captured by the Hunters, a group who put on games of sport with slaves captured all over the galaxy. They quickly learn that they should have picked on someone other than Starker. Like most of Mike Sekowsky's Showcase work, Starker: Manhunter 2070 has never been reprinted.

Edited by Mike Sekowsky.

Showcase #90

Showcase #90 (On Sale: March 10, 1970) has a Jason's Quest cover by Mike Sekowsky and Dick Giordano.

This issue begins with Jason's Quest in "The Circle of Death" written and penciled by Mike Sekowsky and inked by Jack Abel. Continuing from last issue, Tuborg has put the word out on the streets of Paris to find Jason and his sister and they do. Jason has bought a new guitar and is picking up a little extra cash playing in a club in town when in walks Jason's sister. Jason is shocked that she knows his name and then finds out that she was GG, the girl from the ferry, as she looks so different without her wig and makeup on.

As Jason tries to tell her he is her brother, the guy GG came to the club with attacks Jason for making a move on his girl at about the same time that Tuborg's men move in for the kill. Jason grabs GG and they head out the back and into the streets. Eventually they meet artist Andy and with his help get away from Tuborg's men. Just as Jason is about to tell GG they ware brother and sister more of Tuborg's men show up and they head off once again, once again meeting Andy who takes them to his second studio where a group of "friends" are making signs for a big protest tomorrow.

The next morning Jason and GG join the protest and Jason decides the safest place for them to be is in jail, so he smacks a French cop with a protest sign and he and GG are arrested. But Andy and his friends hijack the police van they are being carried in and "rescue" Jason and GG. Though they get away from the police, Tuborg's men are still on their trail.

Eventually Jason and GG make it to a warehouse and a room full of mannequins. Putting GG's clothes on one of the mannequins and strapping it to the back of his bike, Jason lures Tuborg's men away from GG and tells her to meet him tomorrow at noon under the Eiffel Tower. But GG has other ideas, "If I ever see that crazy man again--I'll take off in the opposite direction as fast as I can go! What a kook! And those friends of his--they're worse than he is! goodbye -- and good riddance!"

I really liked Jason's Quest and was sorry that this was the last issue. My good friend Tony Isabella also liked the strip as there is a long letter from on on the letter page.

Next is a on-page ad from Manhunter 2070 in the next issue of Showcase and that is followed by "Incident on Krobar 3" a two-page Manhunter 2070 story by Mike Sekowsky and Dick Giordano.

Edited by Mike Sekowsky.