Vampire, Weak End: ACTION COMICS #577, JUSTICE LEAGUE INTERNATIONAL #25 (JLI 32)

[tcampbell1000]

Warning for mass grave scenes, likely suicide, and overall “humanity sucks” vibes. After establishing themselves as “the funny League,” Giffen, DeMatteis, and Templeton would spend about six issues going dark, and that run starts right here. But before that…

In Action Comics #577, 1986, Keith Giffen broke out one of his AP English vocab words and created Caitiff, the first and now-last vampire. The word “caitiff” means “wretched, contemptible person” or occasionally “villain,” and it shares roots with “captive.” But the word wasn’t generally associated with vampires, AFAIK, until the launch of Vampire: the Masquerade in 1991. It’s possible that VtM got the idea from this. Dialogue by Robert Loren Fleming.

Right from the start, Caitiff lived down to his etymology.



Caitiff has some of the usual vampire powers, including camera-invisibility, which makes his panic here extra ironic. He can also turn into mist. Doing so, he confronts Clark Kent Evening News, which escalates into fighting Tonight’s Top Story Superman.



Caitiff’s attempt to feed on Superman as mist creates a sort of mind-meld that leaves both of them reeling:




Superman does a super-speed search of the sewers (“Smelly, but effective”) and finds Caitiff. In fact--what an overachiever--he finds Caitiff’s whole species. Or what’s left of it.




This comparison stirs Superman's formidable compassion/ Caitiff has made him do what no other Super-enemy has ever made him do...imagine a scenario where he, too, might have become a killer.



That was the last audiences would see of Caitiff for several years, until Justice League International #25. The green monster on the Kevin Maguire cover makes me think the first draft of this story didn’t feature Caitiff, until Giffen realized that he could finish what the Action story left unfinished.



Mike McKone does art on most of the scenes here while Ty Templeton handles the last page. Giffen is on plot and breakdowns, J.M. DeMatteis on script.

Beetle and Booster accept a lucrative contract to recapture Caitiff, whom Jacobs Research Labs had found in an old sewage plant and taken for study.



They stumble onto Caitiff’s burial grounds, and deduce something for themselves that Superman had to be told:



But they don’t get much more time before Caitiff attacks, trying to scare them off, or failing that, to kill them off. Mike McKone’s version of Caitiff is more swole than Giffen’s, and DeMatteis’ dialogue for him doesn’t have the goofier bits that Fleming’s did.



“Why do you hunt?” asks Caitiff. “Why do you hound? Why do you punish and hurt?”



Up to this point, despite moments of raw fear, B&B have been feeling that they were doing well by doing good. That they were going to be heroes and get a fat paycheck for it. But their righteous anger starts to evaporate as Caitiff screams he won’t be taken alive.



Caitiff tells them essentially what he told Superman. “We do no wrong! We eat to survive!”



Caitiff runs. The heroes follow. They now want only to help Caitiff without harming others, though Booster admits he’s not sure how. But he’s a smart guy when he has to be, and Beetle’s an inventor. Maybe they would’ve figured something out. We’ll never know.



I’ve skipped around because I wanted to show the decompressed aftermath: the way Beetle and Booster kind of sit in their feelings about what they’ve witnessed. They’d stop doing repo jobs after this.





Ha! I don’t even MIND the Monty Python reference! It’s just nice to see Beetle find his smile again. What’s next?

Saturday: Beetle murders Max. But he smiles while he does it!

Comments

[iamrman]

I wasn’t even aware the character existed before the JLI story. Neat.

[blueprintstyles]

I got to find the time to reread this run

[metadronos]

Aw, poor Caitiff. ;__;


I'm reminded of the vampire story in Moore's Swamp Thing run (part of the "American Gothic" mega-arc). "Why must we be destroyed?" the vampires think as the newly-running, oxygenated water (courtesy of Swamp Thing) kills them. "We asked for so very little... Only a home that we could call our own... Some livestock to provide our food... And a safe place to raise our children."

In the concluding "American Gothic" issue, Swamp Thing himself reveals his misgivings about what he did: "I have helped... one community [humans] destroy another... Because it was different... And because it posed a threat... And afterwards... I thought... did history's vilest butchers... do any worse?"

Did that vampire story, and Alec's later musings on the tragedy, influence this JLI issue about Caitiff? Who knows. But it's good material for comparison.

[superfangirl1]

"Action Comics #577, published in 1987, is notable as the first issue where the classic Earth-One Superman exists on the new post-Crisis on Infinite Earths New Earth, bridging the continuity gap before the full effects hit, and features a story with Superman battling the villainous Mekanique trying to control time, with art by Curt Swan & Mike DeCarlo, and John Byrne scripting over Marv Wolfman's original plot, offering a transitional, often overlooked, but significant moment in Superman's history before his major reboot. Reviews highlight its unique place in continuity and solid, if standard, Bronze Age Superman action. "

"Post-Crisis Transition: Its primary significance is being the first Action Comics to feature the pre-Crisis Superman on the post-Crisis continuity, a temporary state before The Man of Steel #1 fully integrated him into the new reality, notes"

I didn't know earth one Superman was given an last story after infinity crisis. Before superman history was officially rebooted by John Byrne.

[tcampbell1000]

Is this an AI-generated summary? If so, it's best not to put too much stock in those. It seems like it's mixing up a few details from https://dc.fandom.com/wiki/Action_Comics_Vol_1_577, but the description of the plot and the creative credits are way off. As shown above, Superman spends that issue fighting Caitiff, not Mekanique, and the contributors are Giffen and Fleming, not Wolfman, Byrne, and Swan. There's no other story where Superman fights Mekanique, either.

It is true that Silver Age Superman's adventures carried on after the Crisis and before his own titles' reboot. A few acknowledged the death of Supergirl, but other than that, it was hard to tell any difference.

[superfangirl1]

Ah. That you for the correction and awesome information. :)