Posted By Dan Greenfield on Jul 17, 2024 | 4 comments

Scott and Dan hit up the comics racks from 35 years ago…

This week for RETRO HOT PICKS, Scott Tipton and I are selecting comics that came out the week of July 17, 1989.

Last time for RETRO HOT PICKS, it was the week of July 10, 1981. Click here to check it out.

(Keep in mind that comics came out on multiple days, so these are technically the comics that went on sale between July 14 and July 20.)

So, let’s set the scene: Rising 21-year-old actress Rebecca Schaeffer on July 18 was shot and killed by a deranged fan who had obtained her West Hollywood address. Her murder put a national spotlight on stalking, when it became public that her killer, Robert John Bardo, 19, had been pursuing her on and off for three years.

Bardo had written numerous letters to Schaeffer, one of which she answered. In 1987, he traveled from Arizona to Los Angeles, hoping to meet the actress on the set of the CBS sitcom My Sister Sam, starring Pam Dawber. He failed and tried again a month later, armed with a knife. Turned away by security a second time, he returned to Tucson and fixated on other stars, including Madonna.

After the show’s cancellation, Schaeffer appeared in the film Scenes From the Class Struggle in Beverly Hills, which came out in June and included a scene of her in bed with actor Ray Sharkey. Bardo became enraged by the scene, and, with the help of a private detective agency, got Schaeffer’s home address. He went to Los Angeles a third time, confirmed the address and rang the doorbell. When she answered, Bardo showed her a letter and autograph that she had sent him. She told him not to come to her home again, so he left, had breakfast and returned an hour later. When she answered the door again, he pulled out a handgun that his brother helped him get, and shot her point blank in the chest.

Bardo

The national outcry that followed ultimately led to California becoming the first state to enact anti-stalking laws and made average Americans far more aware of a horrendous phenomenon that was as old as the dawn of time but didn’t have a label to go with it.

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The first public flight

On July 17, under the first Bush administration, the Northrop B-2 Spirit — also known as the Stealth Bomber — made its first public flight, from Palmdale, California, to Edwards Air Force Base. It was first used in combat in 1999, during the Kosovo War.

Lethal Weapon 2 was the top flick at the box office but it didn’t change the fact that this was the Summer of Batman. The record-shattering Tim Burton/Michael Keaton flick had unleashed a wave of Batmania not seen since 1966 — and in many important ways surpassed it. The Batman logo was ubiquitous. I was living in Boston and I played a game in my head where I’d wonder if I could go a day without seeing that emblem somewhere (comics stores didn’t count, natch), whether on a shirt, a hat, a button, a backpack, and so on. The streak ran for so many months, I eventually forgot to keep checking.

This was heady stuff for a guy who kept his Batman obsession generally under wraps for fear of ridicule. This was still a time when 20-somethings had to keep this kind of thing on the down low. In one respect, I resented that Batman was no longer “mine,” but that was far outweighed by the broad cultural acceptance of my favorite fictional character of all time.

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, the lackluster Ghostbusters II and the unfairly maligned Star Trek V: The Final Frontier — there, I said it — were also at the cineplexes. Meanwhile, on July 14, Timothy Dalton made his second and last 007 appearance in Licence to Kill. Dalton, while game, is nobody’s favorite James Bond except those for whom he was their first. Just how it is.

It was the depths of rerun season; Cheers and Roseanne were the top shows.

The Billboard charts were filled with songs I didn’t listen to; late ’80s pop just wasn’t my jam. If you were into it, something called Toy Soldiers by someone named Martika was the No. 1 song. Madonna’s Express Yourself, which everybody heard whether they wanted to or not, was No. 2. At No. 3 was Simply Red’s cover of the soul classic If You Don’t Know Me By Now, which was made famous 17 years earlier by Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes, with Teddy Pendergrass singing lead. The Simply Red version is credible, I’d say. At No. 4? Batdance — off Prince’s No. 1 Batman soundtrack album.

The runner-up album was Fine Young Cannibals’ The Raw & the Cooked, with hits She Drives Me Crazy and Good Thing, and lead vocals by Roland Gift, who would have been cast as Harry Osborn if anyone were making a Spider-Man movie in 1989.

Me? I was desperately waiting for the Rolling Stones’ “comeback” album Steel Wheels, which was set to be released in August. For the previous few years, it looked like the band was going to split up and I thought for sure I’d missed my chance to see them live.

I was, uh, wrong.

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Dan Greenfield, editor, 13th Dimension

Batman #438, DC. Following the success of Batman: Year One (especially) and Batman: Year Two, and in the wake of the blowback from A Death in the Family, DC went about the work of rebuilding the Robin concept’s importance to the Batman mythos and set the table for the rise of Tim Drake. Year 3 is effectively the original, post-Crisis Robin: Year One, complete with a cameo by Tim as a young child (in Issue #436). The storyline, by Marv Wolfman and Pat Broderick, leads directly into A Lonely Place of Dying.

Scott adds: This Year 3 series had some wonderful George Perez covers.

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The Huntress #6, DC. I tried. I tried to buy the idea of a post-Crisis Huntress who wasn’t Bruce Wayne and Selina Kyle’s daughter on a parallel Earth. I just couldn’t do it. The character lost what was central to her appeal. I think she’s Helena Wayne again, but I’ve lost track.

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Justice League America #30, DC. Deep in the throes of what’s still colloquially called Justice League International. Looking back, it’s kinda remarkable that the satire lasted as long as it did. (I was a huge fan, especially early on.)

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Manhunter #17, DC. In 1989, this is what you did to boost sales on a lower-tier title: put a huge picture of Batman on the cover and use the term “Dark Knight.” (Actually, they still do that.) I was a sucker for such stunts because I had long been collecting any Batman appearance. But it’s exactly that sort of thing that helped lead to my burnout a few years later.

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Star Blazers #3, Comico. We’re in the final stretch of our complete Gatchaman watch, here at 13th Dimension’s subterranean HQ. Up next? Space Battleship Yamato.

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Scott Tipton, columnist, 13th Dimension

The Flash #30, DC. A great issue from writer William Messner-Loebs, with a unique and harrowing premise, as Wally realizes a sniper has opened fire in a darkened movie theater.

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Captain America #362, Marvel. I really liked this period in Gru’s run, when Cap was dating super-villainess Diamondback. It was a fun dynamic.

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Incredible Hulk #361, Marvel. I could really use a Joe Fixit return these days.

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MORE

— RETRO HOT PICKS! On Sale The Week of July 10 — in 1981! Click here.

— RETRO HOT PICKS! On Sale The Week of  July 3 — in 1973! Click here.

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Primary comics sources: Mike’s Amazing World of Comics, the Grand Comics Database.