Weekly Dose Of Weird!

Weird War Tales #61 -- Man, I tell ya, Skeletor's really hanging in there. That or the Red Skull spilled bleach on his head.

I. (Introduction) -- Death welcomes us to the final frontier, where he is the only one who can truly "win" the struggle of war.

II. "Mind War" -- Commander Aaron Haley and his first mate June defend Earth against the Troahians by using a "ment-scan" device to create ships and soldiers from Haley's own mind. Dogged by his wily Troahian foe, Haley takes the fight deep into enemy territory, tricks his opponent and blasts him to pieces. But the battle will never truly be over, for Commander Haley is trapped in his own mind, reliving the same hallucination thousands of times over, held in a Troahian mental facility years after the fall of Earth.

III. "The Mercenary" -- Meet Dave. Dave is a workaday mercenary in the year 3002, leading his crew below the gilded Upperworld to the remains of Lowerworld. Dave and his crew hunt down the vermin who refused to be Subtracted from the population with the Finalsleep, and so the mercenaries have to go on S&D (Search and Destroy, natch) duty. Dave's crewmate Ben wants to cut out for lunch, but chow is the last thing on Dave's mind, cornered and ambushed by an army of Lowerworld dwellers, his anti-radiation mask gone and cut off from his crew... going to be late getting home tonight, Dave is.

Overall Weird Rating: 4 (out of 5)

Ah yes, the infamous "you only brought 6 dollars to the Con" issue of Weird War. As a themed issue (a trend promised to continue in the letters page by editor Paul Levitz, now the publisher of DC Comics), this is very enjoyable. The science-fiction stories are a change of pace from the ghosts and skeletons which traditionally star in this series. The introduction has a great rendition of Death in a space suit by Howard Chaykin, who also handles the art on "Mind War." Very worthy issue if you can find it.