Story title: "With This Ring...!"
Writer: James Owsley (a.k.a. Christopher Priest)
Art: Tod Smith and Denis Rodier
what I paid for it, as I recall: Uh... 50 cents?
Starring: Hal Jordan and John Stewart
Cameos: Superman

Plot: John is arrested for a crime he didn't commit and is extradited to South Africa. In prison, he is brutally beaten. Hal helps free him. John decides to destroy Apartheid. Hal gets a warning from a strangely fascist-sounding Superman to stop John.

Appeal: An incredible throwback to the days of Bronze-Age Comic social relativism starring the man who rode around in a truck with Ollie confronting moral dilemmas and the man who would one day have an incredible 18 issues doing the same in Green Lantern: Mosaic. Travel back in time to the days before DC knew to fear the shadow of Ron Marz.

Rating: 5 (out of 5) power rings

Story title: "Who Killed Adam Strange?" and "Murderer's Proxy!"
Writer: Mike W Barr; Cary Burkett
Art: Carmine Infantino and Sal Trapani; Dan Spiegle
what I paid for it, as I recall: uh... 75 cents.
Starring: Batman, Adam Strange; Nemesis

Plot: Batman travels to Rann via the zeta-beam because Adam Strange has died. That's right, he died. Dead. Really. Dead. Does Batman avenge his murder? Does he need to? Find out.

Appeal: A great story. Also, back-up story stars Nemesis, one-time member of Suicide Squad who was recently killed by Devin Grayson in Catwoman. I think she was just following orders, but so what.

Rating: Overall, 4 (out of 5) zeta-beams

Story title: "A Meeting of Rogues"
Writer: William Messner-Loebs
Art: Jim Mooney and Larry Mahlstedt
what I paid for it, as I recall: a quarter
Starring: Wally West, the compleat Rogues' Gallery
Cameos: No, really, practically everyone in the Rogues' Gallery. And Chunk, too. Also, a fairly badly done 16-page story from Red Trinity or Blue Trinity or Blue Troika or whoever they were.

Plot: The Rogues' Gallery has a party for Captain Cold getting parole. Trickster invites Wally as a prank, but Wally actually shows up. This is my favorite Messner-Loebs issue of the Flash, and for once that's actually saying something.

Appeal: A big party with Wally, an old model flame of Wally's named Connie Noleski from West Texas, who's actually an interesting character... more interesting than Linda Park's been written in the last year... and also: Golden Glider, Capt. Cold, Capt. Boomerang, Trickster, T. O. Morrow (who has this apocalyptic vision of the future: must have been Kingdom Come), Weather Wizard, Heat Wave, Dr. Alchemy, Rainbow Raider, Gentleman Ghost. Actually well-written.

Rating: 5 (out of 5) boomerangs

Issue#: Any... I happen to have #25 sitting in front of me.
Story title: uh... "Unknown Soldier to Witch Boy, Klarion the." (?)
Writer: Barr, Levitz, Moench, Rozakis, Weisman.
Art: Cast of many dozens. Watch for Jaime Hernandez's rendition of Phantom Girl...
what I paid for it, as I recall: 50 cents, I think.
Starring: everyone... and in alphabetical order.
Cameos: Uh... everyone.

Plot: well, no... and yet, it'll take you as long to read one from cover to cover as 4 issues of Invisibles.

Appeal: It's just so cool and, often, pre-Crisis. In the one in front of me, I'm seeing the origins and details of Vandal Savage, Viking Prince, Vixen, White Witch, Wildcat... Even the Wayne Foundation building (circa March 87). Lots of more obscure stuff too. I'm working on a set... they aren't that hard to find.

Rating: 4.5 (out of 5) Tantu Totems

Issue#: All of them, the earlier the better. I'm lookin' at #4 right now.
Story title: "Silent Cathedrals"
Writer: John Rozum, Gerard Jones' holy representative of unjustly-canceled titles here on Earth.
Art: J. J. Birch.
what I paid for it, as I recall: You can get these anywhere... often for a quarter.
Starring: David Kim, a.k.a. (the? a?) Xombi.
Cameos: Catholic Girl and Nun of the Above. No, really. And they're so cool.

Plot: David Kim gets, only marginally willingly, deeper and deeper into the world of the weird and supernatural as everyone gets ready to fight off a big bad thing.

Appeal: It's really well-written and characterized. If only Grant Morrison were near this good anymore.

Rating: 4.5 (out of five) million lil nanobots

Story title: "Crisis From Tomorrow!"
Writer: Gerry Conway.
Art: Dick Dillin and Frank McLaughlin
what I paid for it, as I recall: a dollar.
Starring: Earth-1: Superman, Hawkman, Elongated Man, Flash. Earth-2: Wonder Woman, Huntress, Dr Mid-Nite, The Star-Spangled Kid.
Cameos: Jonah Hex, Enemy Ace, Viking Prince, Black Pirate, Miss Liberty.

Plot: The Lord of Time needs the JLA and JSA to stop his computer which has gone rogue. Of course, how can he help but mess with 'em along the way. In the end, Ralph saves the day.

Appeal: Are you kidding? We hold the appeal to be self-evident, that all wacky time-travel superfluous crossovers are created equally entertaining, as long as they don't involve ridiculous post-Crisis retcons. Welcome to JLA #160... welcome to 1978.

Rating: 4 (out of 5) cosmic treadmills