Rip Hunter... Time Master #17

Issue #17 of DC's Rip Hunter… Time Master promises a full-length thriller with "Track of the Wizard's Beast," and Bill Ely's cover delivers an immediate sense of dread — a hulking, red-faced creature dominates the foreground, swiping at a green-uniformed figure while two other team members are trapped together inside a transparent capsule, one of them delivering the urgent plea: "Only that beast can free us from these capsules… but all he wants to do is destroy us!" It's a tense, well-staged image that captures the impossible bind Rip Hunter and his companions face when the very thing that could save them is also out for their destruction. Writer Jack Miller and artist Bill Ely had a strong handle on this kind of high-stakes sci-fi adventure, and this December 1963 issue looks like a fine example of their collaboration at full throttle.