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Somehow these make for exceptional stories, where a clever person can outwit the immense power of Satan, or that explores a character by tempting them with what they ache for most. Some of my favorite Twilight Zone stories are of these type as well, such as "Escape Clause", "Still Valley", and "Of Late I Think of Cliffordville", and more broad encounters with the devil, "The Howling Man", and "The Hunt".

One of my favorite Stephen King movies is Needful Things, where the Devil (played beautifully by Max Von Sydow) comes into a small New England town and opens a curiosity shop.



One comics story I just re-read is in SPECTRE 9, April 1969 (Wrightson's 2nd published story), that I already linked to read online in the Wrightson topic a few months ago.






Another I enjoyed is an odd Bicentennial story from BATMAN FAMILY 1, by Elliot Maggin and Mike Grell, where Satan brings back Benedict Arnold to try and destroy the United States and reverse his failure on the nation's 200th anniversary.
Robin and Batgirl happen to be in Washington DC and change the tide of events. Hey, it was good enough to include in the BATMAN IN THE 1970's trade paperback a few years ago.




"The Invader From Hell", 18 pages, from BATMAN FAMILY 1, Sept-Oct 1975
https://comiconlinefree.com/the-batman-family/issue-1/3


So feel free to list some of your favorite "deal with the devil" stories.




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LOIS LANE 103, August 1970.

Not one I've seen before. It looks like she's just tricked into marrying the devil, not that she sold her soul in exchange for something.
What's the plot behind that story?

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Another I love is SECRETS OF HAUNTED HOUSE 10, Feb 1978, with a story by Richard H. Morrissey (a fan press writer and 1970's DC letterhack, to my knowledge this is the only pro comics story he wrote) with art by a very-new-to-the-field Michael Golden. A beautifully illustrated and fun story, with a number of wild twists in it brief 8 pages.


Here's the full story online:

"Hell of a Place" 8 pages, By Richard Morrissey and Michael Golden
https://comiconlinefree.com/secrets-of-haunted-house/issue-10/full


It starts out with 2 aging men, one a former store owner who went bankrupt, and lost everything and became homeless. Hopeless, he only copes with the situation when he meets another homeless guy, and they become best friends. His optimistic friend makes his new life bearable for many years, but then he is grief-stricken when his friend dies. Enter Satan at his moment of gretest weakness, who offers him success.

Satan makes him enormously successful at business, and as part of the deal of Satan being completely subservient, Satan lets him visit his friend bound to hell for eternity. His friend tells him Hell is awful, and the businessman forces Satan to improve conditions in Hell for the souls trapped there. He forces Satan, under contract, to make improvements in Hell, to the point that it becomes a beautiful place, to the point that they turn it into a vacation resort, and regularly bring visitors from earth to vacation there! Hell becomes popular and desireable for many.

Satan resents all he is forced to comply with, and he can't wait to take this business guy's soul!


[spoilers]

Finally the day comes, and Satan is about to take the guy's soul. But there is an uprising in Hell by the demons, they like the way the business guy is running things, it's more pleasant for the demonss, and more souls are coming to hell than ever because the business guy made it so desireable! So business-guy gets to keep his soul, and keep running Hell. Satan gets voted out by the board!

[/spoilers]


Aside from Poe's "A Cask of Amontillado" adapted in MARVEL CLASSIC COMICS 28, this is my favorite of Golden's early stories.

If Morrissey only wrote one comics story, at least it was a good one. You could even say a damned good one. And a really nice Kaluta cover to top it off. Morrissey really lucked out on the artist selected to draw his story.



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My interest was piqued on the LOIS LANE 103 story, so I looked to find a review of it:


http://comicsalliance.com/love-hurts-the-greatest-romance-in-comics-history-is-lois-lane-and-satan/


 Quote:
I love Lois Lane so much. She's arguably the single greatest love interest in the history of comics, and like so many readers, I can't really get enough of her long-running love story with... uh, that guy. Jeez, it's on the tip of my tongue. What's his name. You know, he has the red cape, his name starts with an S, he's got powers far beyond those of mortal men? Oh! That's right: Satan.

I mean, if memory serves, there may have been somebody else in the equation, but if you're judging by the whirlwind romance of fire and brimstone that took place in Superman's Girl Friend Lois Lane #103, I think you'll find that their relationship was nothing compared to the time she was betrothed to the author of all lies. I mean, Lois and the Devil almost got married! All Superman did was try to marry her corpse!


This... this is probably something I should explain.


The story in question is called "The Devil's Bride," and comes courtesy of Robert Kanigher, Curt Swan and Mike Esposito, and as you may have already guessed from the fact that there's a cloven-hooved Lois Lane marrying Satan on the cover, it is completely bananas --- in ways that go far beyond what you might think.

For starters, we open with Superman on a mountain, allowing himself to be struck by lightning in some bizarre form of super-self-flagellation while crying, which, while unusual for 1970, would form a pretty solid blueprint for how Superman would spend most of the 2000s.

As for why Superman is threatening to fill a sea with his super-tears, well, you'd be upset too if you'd accidentally killed Lois Lane with a magic lightning bolt. Yes, this issue opens with Lois Lane dead.

The actual death (or "death," since I'm sure you'll be shocked to learn that it turns out to not quite be all it's cracked up to be) happened at the end of the previous issue, but those of us who were just tuning in because of the satanic wedding don't need to worry, as there are plenty of flashbacks. What matters right now, though, is that Superman is going out of his mind with grief, and Lois is laying dead on some weird torch-lit altar out in the middle of a field with a couple of tigers.

Please note that this isn't even close to being the weirdest [part] of this story, and also that this is exactly what I want my own funeral to look like.

After deciding that he's had enough of the lightning, Superman shows up and decides that, in what might actually be the weirdest part of this story, he should do for Lois in death what he never did in life, and get married to her corpse. And this is not a metaphor: He's going to just straight up put a ring on her dead body and say vows at it while his other girlfriend stands there with two tigers being awkward as all hell.

Superman, you are a weird, weird dude.

Now, if you're like me, you may be expecting this story to take what I would consider to be the obvious route, all things considered, and have Lucifer himself show up to take Lois on account of her many Silver Age Sins and drag her to Hell to be his bride --- or at least "Hades," because the gymnastics this book does to get around using the word "Hell" could've won gold medals for days. But that is not what happens. That's not even close.

Instead, we're treated to a flashback to how all this went down, which involved Lois being romanced by a mystic named Rajah Satdev, and then discovering that he had magic powers, hooves and bright red horns. Also his name is like "Satan Devil," but I assume she already knew that.

Okay, two things real quick, both of which are related to Lois being a complete asshole here: 1) If someone says that they are drinking something for their health and that no one else should drink it, do not grab it and take a swig, even if you live in a world where someone chilling on a patio with a wine glass full of water from the Fountain of Youth actually is a pretty good possibility. There is a much better possibility that it is, like, prescription medicine or something, and you will probably get very sick and/or die. 2) Do not just reach over and take off someone's turban because you think they might have devil horns! What the hell is wrong with you, Silver Age Lois Lane?!

Satdev is also the source of the magic lightning that strikes Superman, although when it ricochets off and strikes Lois, he blames himself. But all is not lost! After Superman leaves his weird corpse wedding, Satdev shows up and revives Lois with a strange incantation!

And this is where things really get weird. After walking unharmed through the flames, Lois passes out, only to wake up in a hospital --- a SPACE hospital, on PLANET INFERNO!

Yes, Satdev isn't actually a Satan, he's just an alien from a planet of people who look like Satans. So much so, in fact, that when they attempted to visit Earth in ancient times, they were mistaken for devils and pretty much got people to thinking there were horned, cloven-hooved demons running around trying to damn their souls for all eternity:

It probably did not help that their scientists opted for red capes and no shirts, but I'm not really familiar enough with interstellar travel to determine whether this is actually a bad idea. I mean, it seems like a bad idea just from a practical standpoint, but who am I to question Infernian science? I mean, they're so advanced that they've been able to manufacture a device called the Multiple Electronic Mass Manipulator that's the size of a ring and can basically do anything, so if they want to run around ancient Egypt with no shirts on, who am I to say that this is a bad idea?

While observing Earth from space, Satdev fell in love with Lois Lane, because of course he did. This happens so much that there's actually a comment on it in the letter column where someone wants to know why everyone is always falling in love with Lois Lane, where the response is literally just the editors telling children that it's a comic book and there are writers making these things up, which is especially weird considering that in the same letter column, they justify her ability to swim in high heels by saying that she trained with Aquaman.
Anyway, Satdev decided it would be a good idea to pretend to be a Rajah and seduce her with satan powers, and since she ended up with devil horns and cloven hooves and would therefore be shunned on Earth, Lois has decided that she might as well settle down on Inferno and get hitched to this horned weirdo.

Until, that is, she looks at the wedding ring that Superman gave her while he thought she was dead.

And with that, Grant Morrison gets a pretty awesome line for All Star Superman, Lois's horns and hooves melt away back into their usual form, and she returns to Earth secure in the knowledge that she is beloved by her one true lover, Superman.

Oh and then two months later she gets married to a guy in prison who's about to be executed. The heart, it is a fickle thing!




The review might just be better than the story, but I'll have to pick it up.

If this were a Kirby story, I could envision it with the cover blurb: "KIRBY SAYS DON'T ASK, JUST BUY IT!"




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Another great story is in DAREDEVIL 278-282, by Ann Nocenti, John Romita Jr and Al Williamson. A story where Daredevil is sent to Hell and tempted/tormented by Mephisto. Daredevil and other characters including the Inhumans and Silver Surfer are tormented with their personal vulnerabilities and overcome the temptation to give in to the things they fear and hunger for most. Along with some wild and wonderful surrealist imagery of Hell. Or perhaps not Hell itself, but each one's own personally tailored hell.

An intelligent and provocative story, from the tail end of a long run by Nocenti and Romita Jr.
Nocenti and Romita's run began just a few issues after Frank Miller's DAREDEVIL "Born Again" storyline, and it's easy to be eclipsed by such an iconic run by Miller. But the Nocenti/Romita Jr. run was an outstanding one as well. And this five-part story definitely finished the run on a high note.

DAREDEVIL 278-282, March-August 1990
https://comiconlinefree.com/daredevil-1964/issue-278/full



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From HOUSE OF MYSTERY 178, Jan-Feb 1969, here's a 7-page story
"The Game", by Neal Adams.
https://comiconlinefree.com/house-of-mystery-1951/issue-178/full

Some of the dialogue is a bit amateurish, but the art is among Adams' best, and I love the concept of the story.

The Adams covers on the first 25 or so issues of HOUSE OF MYSTERY really made the series. As they also did the same for a huge ratio of the DC titles from 1968-1972.




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http://babblingsaboutdccomics.blogspot.com/2016/09/brave-and-bold-108-batman-and-sgt-rock.html

Batman sells his soul to the devil, who may also be Hitler, and has to team up with Sergeant Rock to make things right.

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I took the liberty of digging up a link to the complete story, for anyone not familiar with it:

BRAVE AND THE BOLD 108, "The Night Batman Sold His Soul", 23 pages, Aug-Sept 1973.
https://comiconlinefree.com/the-brave-and-the-bold-1955/issue-108/full


While the story could be argued to have skillfully left elements at story's end unresolved to conclude with an air of intriguing enduring mystery, for me it felt a bit incomplete.

The two BRAVE AND THE BOLD stories I liked best from that period were:
Issue 104:
https://comiconlinefree.com/the-brave-and-the-bold-1955/issue-109/full
A BATMAN/Deadman team-up, the first after a Jack Kirby Deadman re-boot in FOREVER PEOPLE 9 and 10.
And after Kirby's abortive effort, the next appearance of Deadman here in B & B 104 takes a turn back to a more Neal Adams-patterned Deadman. And Aparo became the dominant artist on Deadman for nearly 20 years.)

And issue 109:
https://comiconlinefree.com/the-brave-and-the-bold-1955/issue-109/full
A Batman/The Demon team-up. The opposite of the Deadman story above, this one was very consistent with Kirby's work on THE DEMON series. As with Aparo's work on Mister Miracle and Kamandi in later issues, Aparo with this story demonstrated himself the best artist, pretty much the only artist for a long time, to produce non-Kirby stories that were consistent with the Kirby canon.

Neither of which are "deal with the devil" stories, but still good issues.





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I dug up the complete story G-man posted earlier in the topic:

LOIS LANE 103, 15 pages, August 1970
by Robert Kanigher, Curt Swan and Mike Esposito
https://comiconlinefree.com/supermans-girl-friend-lois-lane/issue-103/full

If I were Kanigher, I would have titled the story: "I Married A Devil From Outer Space".

Or maybe: "The Devil Made Me Do It, Superman!"



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 Originally Posted By: Wonder Boy



I took the liberty of digging up a link to the complete story, for anyone not familiar with it:

BRAVE AND THE BOLD 108, "The Night Batman Sold His Soul", 23 pages, Aug-Sept 1973.
http://12comic.com/issue.jsp?id=1902270517217ohf&cu=92


While the story could be argued to have skillfully left elements at story's end unresolved to conclude with an air of intriguing enduring mystery, for me it felt a bit incomplete.

The two BRAVE AND THE BOLD stories I liked best from that period were:
Issue 104, a BATMAN/Deadman team-up, the first after a Jack Kirby Deadman re-boot in FOREVER PEOPLE 9 and 10.
And after Kirby's abortive effort, the next appearance of Deadman here in B & B 104 takes a turn back to a more Neal Adams-patterned Deadman. And Aparo became the dominant artist on Deadman for nearly 20 years.)

And issue 109, a Batman/The Demon team-up. The opposite of the Deadman story above, this one was very consistent with Kirby's work on THE DEMON series. As with Aparo's work on Mister Miracle and Kamandi in later issues, Aparo with this story demonstrated himself the best artist, pretty much the only artist for a long time, to produce non-Kirby stories that were consistent with the Kirby canon.

Neither of which are "deal with the devil" stories, but still good issues.






Nine-year-old me found that story suitably creepy. And the art was great. Aparo was on top of his game back then.

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I just went back and reread issue 109. Like you said, great art. There were a lot of characters, not just Kirbys, whom I think Aparo did the best versions of in that era, including Metal Men, Atom and Flash (arguably Green Arrow as well, but he was basically copying Adams on that front).

Interestingly enough, looking at those scans I see the very next issue, with wildcat, was my first issue as a regular reader of B and B. I still remember picking that one up at the drugstore spinner rack, catchup and taking it home. it’s definitely one of my top all-time Batman issues for that reason.

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Yeah, there's quite a few I can recall exactly where and when I purchased them off the spinner rack. In my area, the spinner rack went the way of the brontosaurus around 1980-1981. At that point forward, we were all purchasing them in comic book specialty stores after that.

BRAVE AND THE BOLD 104 was my first regular issue I purchased off the stands. Issue 110 that you mentioned, along with issue 111 featuring Batman, Wildcat and the Joker, and issue 119 with Man-bat, and 120 with Kamandi, all rank among my favorites. I think BRAVE AND THE BOLD was a great series for Aparo, becaause while staying on one series, he got to draw every character in the DC stable.
I have a special affection for Wildcat, who is essentially a variation of Batman, a wealthy guy with no superpowers who uses his resources to fight crime. And Aparo drew him quite well.

I love Aparo's work on AQUAMAN, PHANTOM STRANGER, and then BRAVE AND THE BOLD, and a few scattered stories for HOUSE OF MYSTERY. In the 1970's era, Aparo was definitely one of DC's best artists, and part of the definitive Adams, Novick, Giordano team that drew Batman in that era. Aparo also did a few scattered issues of the BATMAN and DETECTIVE issues in that period.

The only other artist I consider "definitive Batman" is Marshall Rogers' run.

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 Originally Posted By: Wonder Boy


Yeah, there's quite a few I can recall exactly where and when I purchased them off the spinner rack. In my area, the spinner rack went the way of the brontosaurus around 1980-1981. At that point forward, we were all purchasing them in comic book specialty stores after that.

BRAVE AND THE BOLD 104 was my first regular issue I purchased off the stands. Issue 110 that you mentioned, along with issue 111 featuring Batman, Wildcat and the Joker, and issue 119 with Man-bat, and 120 with Kamandi, all rank among my favorites. I think BRAVE AND THE BOLD was a great series for Aparo, becaause while staying on one series, he got to draw every character in the DC stable.
I have a special affection for Wildcat, who is essentially a variation of Batman, a wealthy guy with no superpowers who uses his resources to fight crime. And Aparo drew him quite well.

I love Aparo's work on AQUAMAN, PHANTOM STRANGER, and then BRAVE AND THE BOLD, and a few scattered stories for HOUSE OF MYSTERY. In the 1970's era, Aparo was definitely one of DC's best artists, and part of the definitive Adams, Novick, Giordano team that drew Batman in that era. Aparo also did a few scattered issues of the BATMAN and DETECTIVE issues in that period.

The only other artist I consider "definitive Batman" is Marshall Rogers' run.



You list is pretty much the same as mine as far as "definitive Batman artists" of the 70s: Adams, Aparo, Novick, Giordano and Rogers. I would add Simonson to the list if he had done a few more stories where he inked his own work.

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Little as Simonson did on the Batman titles, DETECTIVE 443 and 450 alone, his name is etched in stone on Mount Olympus as far as I'm concerned.

Plus a few other Batman stories and covers we've discussed.

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 Originally Posted By: Wonder Boy



Little as Simonson did on the Batman titles, DETECTIVE 443 and 450 alone, his name is etched in stone on Mount Olympus as far as I'm concerned.

Plus a few other Batman stories and covers we've discussed.


He was at a comic book convention in my area year or two ago. I took in my hardcover of Archie Goodwin Batman stories and had him sign it. Obviously most of the art and there wasn’t by him but Manhunter was, and it’s hard to beat that.

I mentioned to him that he was one of my favorite Batman artists and he was pleasantly taken aback, citing how few stories he did. I responded by saying that what he did was super memorable.

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I enjoyed this Ditko offering, from STRANGE TALES 83, April 1961.

"Masquerade Party", 5 pages
https://comiconlinefree.com/strange-tales-1951/issue-83/full


A girl's encounter with the devil scares her straight!



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From TALES OF THE UNEXPECTED 219, Feb 1982:
"Dust Devil" 5 pages, by Gary Cohn and Keith Giffen
https://comiconlinefree.com/tales-of-the-unexpected-1956/issue-219/31

It's the only story I can recall where Giffen did both pencils and inks. A Great Depression-era town ponders a deal with the devil to get themselves out of economic ruin.

Giffen left DC abruptly in 1978, and Levitz was kind of pissed about Giffen leaving without notice on ALL-STAR COMICS 60-63.
https://comiconlinefree.com/all-star-comics-1940/issue-60

After several years, he came back to DC in late 1981, and had to prove himself reliable before he was given a regular series, initially just given shorter backup stories in late 1981-early 1982 in this story and GHOSTS 104, 106 and 111:
https://comiconlinefree.com/ghosts/issue-104/26
https://comiconlinefree.com/ghosts/issue-106
https://comiconlinefree.com/ghosts/issue-111/14

and HOUSE OF MYSTERY 284 and 301:
https://readcomiconline.to/Comic/House-of-Mystery-1951/Issue-284?id=70834#14
https://readcomiconline.to/Comic/House-of-Mystery-1951/Issue-301?id=70858#11

and in UNEXPECTED 219 and 222.
https://comiconlinefree.com/tales-of-the-unexpected-1956/issue-219/31
https://comiconlinefree.com/tales-of-the-unexpected-1956/issue-222/25

These shorter one-shots offer a glimpse of Giffen's work on a wide range of stories and genres, with a wide range of inkers, and DC apparently settled on Mahlstedt as the best choice for inking Giffen.

Right after, Giffen was given series work on LEGION 285-306:
https://comiconlinefree.com/legion-of-super-heroes-1980/issue-285/full
And actually, the first two LEGION issues Giffen did were backups too, before DC gave him the lead feature with issue 287.

And on a Dr Fate backup series in FLASH 306-313

Both of which I think present Giffen's very best work.



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I was looking through a Timely/Marvel issue and found this one from ADVENTURES INTO WEIRD WORLDS 10, Sept 1952.
"The Pit of Horror" 5 pages, art by Bill Everett.
https://readcomiconline.to/Comic/Adventures-into-Weird-Worlds/Issue-10?id=115019#27

Where Satan is displeased with the way Hell is being run, and brings in an efficiency expert to whip his minions back into line.


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