Reading Comics 243 “Comics Garage: First Box!”

 Having apparently ended my Forbidden Geek experiment only earlier this year (it feels like longer, although partly because it took so long to get that last box), I guess I was in the mood to try another service (or Amazon thought so, and I agreed). Like Geek, Comic Garage ships out assortments of random comics monthly. There are a variety of options. I opted, naturally, for DC titles, and ten comics per box. This is what I got in my first box:

Batgirl: Futures End #1

I’m pretty definitively determining that I just don’t care for Gail Simone. Most of the time I try to read her I hate the results. Somehow she even managed to screw up what so many other Futures End one-shots managed to accomplish, which was to give clever glimpses, well, into the future. The only worthwhile thing she does is gather the Batgirls together (and add a new one): Babs, Stephanie Brown, Cassandra Cain. But the other inexplicable thing Simone can be counted on is to screw up Bane, who was part of her Secret Six. She somehow takes Bane seriously for a change, but her idea of giving Barbara Gordon character development is to make her hulk out as part of a con job against him. I honestly have never seen Simone’s logic appear remotely logical. There’s a very real phenomenon called comic book logic, which I associate mostly with Marvel comics (and movies). Simone should probably just head over there. And stay there. She would be a killer writer for Squirrel Girl. That’s, ah, a whole other inexplicable thing...

Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #121

As part of the “No Man’s Land” arc (loosely adapted as part of The Dark Knight Rises), Larry Hama (the G.I. Joe guy) tells a wimpy Mr. Freeze tale that’s about as generic as possible. I have nothing against Hama, but it at least seems like he was wildly out of his element. I have no idea how long he stuck around Batman at this time. Hopefully not very long.

Freedom Fighters #10

The newest (from last year) comic in the box is one I’d wanted to check out anyway. It’s written by Robert Venditti, another writer I’ve tended to struggle with. The only problem here is that this is toward the climax of the story (it was a twelve-issue series), so it’s all action. Most stories you really ought to be able to jump in and have a good chance to understand the tone of it, but unless it’s a movie it’s going to be hard to appreciate if it’s anywhere near the climax.

Green Lantern #53

The classic Ron Marz/Darryl Banks comics (receiving a lot of nostalgia recently, a quarter century in), at this point still featuring the nascent adventures of Kyle Rayner. This was prime comics for me at the time. If any era had been in a position to replicate the Silver Age generational shift, it would’ve been this one, which at least for a decade ended up being exactly the case. Wally was a new Flash, Kyle was a new Green Lantern, there was even a new Green Arrow, and of course there was the poster boy, Jack Knight. 

Reading this particular issue again was interesting. Kyle battles Mongul, the big brute Alan Moore created with the Black Mercy gimmick who later turned into Cyborg Superman’s key collaborator but somehow ended up taking an extreme backseat. He instead became a punching bag, here for Kyle and then again later for Wally. 

Superman sort of co-stars (Banks does not nail Mulletman), giving Kyle a mainstream link for the first time. But the big development is Major Force taking on the assignment that will lead to the most infamous moment in the Marz/Banks run (Women in Fridges, which coincidentally also gave Gail Simone her career; two wrongs don’t make a right). 

The thing is, this is the first time I actually found Kyle’s ill-fated girlfriend Alex almost necessary to sacrifice. Marz set her up as a way to establish Kyle as requiring a steep learning curve, but she actually sort of inadvertently made it steeper than it really needed to be. In hindsight it would perhaps have been better to have her be the classic archetype of girl who falls for boy after seeing in action as a superhero. Instead their relationship predates the costume, and she spends all her appearances questioning his pedigree. And in hindsight it’s pretty annoying. I guess it’s the difference between experiencing it as an adult rather than a teenager. That and knowing her ultimate fate. Ultimately Kyle’s journey becomes completely his own, and meeting Superman means more than what Major Force ends up doing. The intention to have him (and readers) shocked into character development becomes superfluous, especially because it happens so quickly. If the intention was to try and replicate Uncle Ben, then it backfired. Once she dies Alex becomes almost completely invisible to Kyle’s existence.

(Though if Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale ever returned to DC and did the kind of comics they did at Marvel, it would be really easy to guess what they’d do with Kyle, if they chose him as a subject.)

Martian Manhunter #11

In contrast to Freedom Fighters, this late-issue climax was easier to read, in part because I had already read and enjoyed this Mr. Biscuits, Williams/Barrows comic (though, alas, Barrows isn’t on art this particular issue). In recent years DC has been leaning heavily into J’onn’s alien nature (though, I guess, since the Ostrander/Mandrake series, so for some twenty years), and I think this was about as extreme, and awesome, as it’s likely to get. Really wish someone could manage to do it while also integrating him back into the rest of the DC landscape, though. Sort of like Aquaman, who only seems to look relevant if he’s worrrying about underwater politics. 

Nightwing #45

The classic Chuck Dixon era! This issue is part of a Birds of Prey crossover, “The Hunt for Oracle,” which is to say, the villains finally figuring out Oracle exists and maybe they should make that stop. The weirdest thing about recent comics is that Babs is Batgirl again. Naturally it was Gail Simone who wrote the initial stories, although it wasn’t until Burnside (and apparently de-aging her) that it was at all relevant. And as stupid as it was to cripple her in the first place, it was probably even dumber to un-cripple her, after years of developing an entirely new career, and apparently not even bothering to have her pass it on. In an era where if anything Oracle would have been even more relevant...

(Incidentally, I finally figured out where MCU Spider-Man came up with the “man in the chair” trope. I was rewatching Batman Returns and...it’s Alfred, of course.)

Robin: Son of Batman #1

Patrick Gleason started out this series as writer/artist. I think he did a brilliant job. It’s a direct continuation of his and Tomasi’s Batman and Robin, and is therefore a must-read for anyone bold enough to admit that those were the best Batman comics of the New 52. Fans still seem convinced Damian is a snot-nosed brat. I can only assume far too few have read this material.

StormWatch #21

Speaking of the New 52, I cannot fathom this series reaching anywhere near this many issues. And based on this issue, I wouldn’t have bothered reading anywhere near this many...

Action Comics #764

The Loeb/Kelly/Casey era! This was the bold break from the ‘90s triangle era, bold new writing and art styles that ultimately ended up remembered best by Loeb’s subsequent Superman/Batman. The Kelly in question is Joe Kelly. This issue is brilliant, a creative approach to the controversial decision the team had made to put relationship troubles into the married life of Lois & Clark. Superman spends much of the issue talking things over with Ma & Pa Kent, doing an extremely good deed for an old lady...and getting no closer to solving his real problem, alas. Plus Lex Luthor is up to something, but as far as this issue is concerned, I have no idea what. This is always a great era to revisit. They took huge risks, but not necessarily in bold dramatic arcs (at least, not all the time; this is also the era of “Emperor Joker,” after all).

Teen Titans #35

By the time the Doom Patrol shows up, I have to wonder why Geoff Johns never went and outright pursued a comic with them. He randomly brought them up in his Justice League, too, but didn’t go very far there, either. Maybe some day! This issue otherwise reads a lot like the Titans TV show (which I love).

I’ve read other comics since I last checked in here, but at the moment I figure it’s okay to leave them unobserved here. Will be back with more comics from Walmart...!

Watching the Walmart Giants 11 “May 2020...Probably?”

I’ve been to Walmart sparingly recently, so I haven’t really been able to keep close tabs on the giants, especially since, at least at my local store they stupidly have the aisle with them along a self checkout with a conveyer belt, so...it’s harder than ever to peruse, especially with social distancing. So I assume these giants came out last month? But I got them this weekend. It doesn’t matter. The giants backlog only expands. They started stuffing them in the Marvel box, and to have room for more Marvel there’s...a second Marvel box now. And the giants I picked up were still sort of shoved up against the side of the displays, until I came along and fixed it. Anyway...

Batman Giant #5

• New story from Mark Russell & Ryan Benjamin, featuring Killer Moth, a villain that dates back to 1951 and was actually created by Batman (co)creator Bill Finger. That’s a lot of history and...very little to show for it. Except in Russell’s hands he kind of finally gets his due. In this version, he’s presented as “seasoned when Batman was just getting started out,” which is great. And now he’s looking to retire. It’s another bold step for Russell into mainlining his instincts, seeing how he can fit himself into traditional superhero comic narratives.
• New story from Russell & Christopher Mooneyham featuring “an” origin of the Joker, this one using the now-familiar trope of his prior existence as a failed standup comic.
• Reprint of Batman #5, continuing “Court of Owls,” which I’m increasingly convinced landed so well because Capullo’s art subconsciously triggered memories of Frank Miller, and Snyder’s instant dive into crisis did the same.
• Reprint of Detective Comics #857, finishing out “Batwoman: Elegy.” Ruby Rose recently exited the TV show, which apparently is going to create a new Batwoman to replace Kate Kane. I don’t watch the show, but I see no real problem with that solution. Even leaves the door open should Rose ever choose to return, which might be the point.
• Reprint of Nightwing #7, continuing the Raptor arc. Apparently the dude’s secret origin is that he’s basically Snape. Cool cool.

Swamp Thing Giant #5

New material from Russell, Phil Hester, reprints. 

Part of the publishing changes DC has been making, besides the controversial split from the single comics distributor of the past quarter century, was taking giants original material and adding it to the digital-first lineup. The giants themselves, at a reduced capacity, should continue shipping to Walmart. Should anyone be interested, I will continue checking in as long as they’re available. I offloaded a ton of them to a coworker’s kids just before Easter, stuff I maybe should never have bought in the first place, considering how much, or little, I cared to read the material, which is a large part of why I have been getting fewer of them recently. They take up a lot of space! And I don’t purchase the new comics boxes I need fast enough for just the traditional comics that pile up, never mind these things! So it was win-win.

Sunday Marvel Sunday - “MONDAY Marvel MONDAY!”

Sunday Marvel Sunday...on a Monday??? I know what my legions of readers are thinking: the world has officially gone well and truly mad...

That being said, I’m still waiting for libraries to reopen to bring Sunday Marvel Sunday back as regularly scheduled, but since I recently bought some additional three-pack Marvel comics at Walmart and the alphabet still works in only one direction, I’m skipping the line a bit, and here’s some comics thoughts:

Uncanny Avengers #23

From 2014

Rick Remender dropped Captain America into an alternate dimension for a little while. Apparently he did exactly the same thing to the Avengers. This issue deals with the aftermath. Apparently big traumatic things happened to some members of the team. This is the textbook example of things that can only ever be completely ignored by later writers. That is all.

Avengers #27

From 2019

Jason Aaron probably should never have been used by Marvel to produce traditional superhero comics. That is not his wheelhouse. His wheelhouse is gritty crime comics. But, as it is, Marvel did, and there was a long Thor run, and then, because he is still one of their biggest name writers, he moved on to the Avengers. And somehow this issue is highlighted...by Thor. Brood Thor. Brooding over being worthy of Mjolnr. Kids, don’t grow up someday to run a comic book company where things like this happen. In completely unrelated news, probably later this year you will read a future edition of Sunday Marvel Sunday in which I enjoy a Thor comic. And I don’t mean this to sound personal, but it will not have been written by Jason Aaron. But, all things considered, Brood Thor brooding over Mjolnr is...still a pretty awesome image. So there’s that.

Captain Marvel #6

From 2019

In which Jason Aaron’s Ragnorak, I mean “War of the Realms” is happening, and someone at Marvel is writing superhero dialogue that sounds “relatable” and “believable” and totally absolutely convincing. In unrelated news, someone at Marvel got very, very carried away with the Bendis phenomenon. And the MCU. Probably mostly the MCU. Which wouldn’t exist without Bendis. But, not everyone can pull it off. And every single character should not be talking like this all the time.

Road to Empyre

From 2020

Back in ye innocent days before the pandemic when everything was still on schedule, the latest Marvel event was going to riff on classic Marvel storytelling concerning the Kree and Skrulls, as some fans naively think is going to be the next Thanos arc in the MCU. Which maybe even the MCU thinks this? But it’s not. It’s not going to continue indefinitely. It’s not. This I guarantee you. Anyway, this issue is a recap of relevant events. It starts out with that horrible Meet the Skrulls comic that was not at all as good as the Tom King comic it desperately wanted to be. And then circles around to beloved Young Avenger Hulkling, who is either a villain now. Or not. Probably not? But possibly? But, probably not. But, temporarily. Also? Young Avenger Iron Lad already...had this arc? He’s Young Kang. Why can’t they just bring back the Young Avengers. The actual team. The original team. Anyway...

Marvel Comics #1001

From 2019

The first one was great. This one isn’t. The only page worth anything is Kaare Andrews’, which reminds me all over again how great he is. That is all.

Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur #47

From 2019

A poster child of everything that’s wrong with Marvel’s recent efforts to be “cool” and “relevant,” in its final issue. Devil Dinosaur is one of those Marvel monsters that just kind of exists, like Fin Fang Foom. A few years ago someone thought to team him up with a hyper-intelligent little girl. Because. Reasons. The girl is hyper-intelligent in the way writers who don’t understand how intelligence works think intelligence works. She is capable of...anything. This issue revolves around how she is in fact smarter than Reed Richards. If she were a legitimate prodigy, people would have noticed. Part of the gimmick is that she and Devil Dinosaur “don’t have anyone else, but at least they have each other!” It’s “beautifully empowering.” I don’t care that she’s a black girl, it’s sloppy writing regardless of her skin color. At the end of the issue she and Devil Dinosaur are traipsing about New York. This is a Marvel comic, where the Hulk can’t so much as raise a green eyebrow without everyone freaking out. The issue has Moon Girl messing around with a Doombot. The issue has Moon Girl wondering if she should maybe be a superhero? This is published by Marvel, the House of Ideas, one of which is...Spider-Man. Moon Girl in a Marvel comic literally makes no sense at all, and I have the feeling no one pointed this out, at all, because she’s “empowering.” It would be more empowering not to empower stupid writing, and stupid characters. That is all.

Pandemic Comics #12 “April 28, 2020”

So let’s end “Pandemic Comics” where it began, with a shipment from Midtown Comics.

One of the big geek stories to come out of the pandemic was DC’s decision to break from the distribution model the medium has used for the past quarter century and essentially ship its own comics rather than use a middle man. It was hugely controversial, but it happened and I figured there was no way I wasn’t going to be a part of this, so of course I ordered some of the results from Midtown, one of the unofficial replacement distributors. I guess Midtown was so eager for participation in the experiment they decided to chip in a free comic with these orders. Cool beans! The insane thing is that fans seem to have forgotten one of the principle features of this medium is the necessary evil of the collectors market. There have been people arguing that comics never had to take a break because they could have just gone digital, and...that’s the kind of myopic self-interest you can see anywhere, really, but still funny to see argued. The comics DC shipped for the week of April 28, 2020 are likely going to be big money in the collectors market. That’s not necessarily why I got some, since I’ve never participated in the medium this way (the shop in town I frequent most irritates me because it seems to think, and perhaps even function, as a collectors market first and foremost), but it seemed like an interesting prospect on the belief that no one was viewing it that way. I only ended up getting two comics from the releases, padding out the order with a few other purchases, but in the short-term they were rewarding (reading) experiences, so on that score I already feel vindicated, since I probably would never have read them otherwise. Anyway, read on:

Batman #89
One of the selections, a third printing of Punchline’s cameo debut. This is the first time I’ve read James Tynion IV’s Batman. Anyone who’s familiar with my recent comic book tastes knows I’m a Tom King guy. I didn’t decide to skip out on further Batman because of Tynion, but because it was always going to be difficult, in my eyes, to replace King. A lot of fans were clamoring for this, wanting to end the difficult reading experience that was King’s run. If I had reservations for Tynion, it was that he appeared to be as opposite of King as DC could possibly get. I had read a little of his Detective Comics, so I knew what some fans were wild about (he had basically taken the Batman Eternal approach, the Batman family approach), but again, I didn’t see how that could possibly satisfy me after everything King had done. Plus, I always saw Tynion as a Scott Snyder minion, Scott Snyder Lite.

Well, I was wrong. I actually really enjoyed the issue. Tynion alters his approach. It’s no King, but it’s not Snyder either. At this stage I would say maybe somewhere in between? He tosses villains new and familiar at Batman. Where Snyder never really seemed to see Batman in the iconic sense, the mythical “can rise to any challenge” Batman, Tynion sees his Batman, as he approaches the challenge of the Designer, as a challenge. And again, where Snyder constantly saw Batman as not up to the challenge, Tynion looks like he’s approaching Designer as a Moriarty, a worthy opponent. King frustrated fans, I think, most in that he heavily favored misdirection, where every expectation either felt inevitable or followed a logic King either waited to explain for later or felt like a disappointment after massive buildup. In short, you were invested or you weren’t. And this Tynion approach is fresh all over. And I look forward to reading more.

Bloodshot Reborn #2
This was the freebie, something I’d read previously, but didn’t mind revisiting, from Jeff Lemire, Bloodshot having previously purged himself of the nanites that had given him his powers, but realizing it wasn’t as good an idea as it had seemed. This was, at least for me, the best time to be a Bloodshot fan, and why I will be interested in watching the Bloodshot movie regardless of how it did in theaters earlier this year (when theaters were actually open, earlier this year). Valiant may not know how to keep the ball rolling indefinitely (its modular approach worked well short-term, but it resulted in short-term memories all around; there’s no reason why Valiant shouldn’t be flooding the market with the evergreen material it’s already produced, but with no momentum there’s no memory and therefore no way to keep the memories going), but that’s no excuse. I’m a Bloodshot guy.

The Multiversity: Pax Americana
I was trying to order the whole collection (and ended up doing so elsewhere) but had to “settle” for Morrison’s critique of Watchmen, via the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund variant cover (thus contributing to it during the pandemic, which felt right). There’s a big deal among fans concerning the “rivalry” between Morrison and Moore, with Moore partisans convinced Morrison is a pathetic wannabe, even to this day, compared to Moore. This is the first time I’ve revisited Pax Americana since its original publication. Morrison & Quitely obviously have a lot of fun commenting on Watchmen’s legacy, but I remain convinced that Morrison’s perspective is correct, that Moore was ultimately myopic in his conclusions, but Moore’s conclusions affirm where his career ultimately headed, and Morrison’s where his have led. And this might be the least controversial conclusion to be found.

Robin: 80th Anniversary 100-Page Super Spectacular 
Now I’ve read the Action Comics, the Detective Comics, the Flash, the Wonder Woman, and even the Marvel Comics anniversary specials, and finally this one. And Robin’s, I think, is the most rewarding. The special is completely in my wheelhouse, celebrating, most of all, the Robin era as I experienced it. Even though Marc Wolfman writes the first story, the art is from Tom Grummett, who embodies the iconic ‘90s moment when Robin finally starred in his own ongoing series. Chuck Dixon & Scott McDaniel reunite! The Grayson team reunited! Even Adam Beecher & Freddie Williams reunite! The whole thing is, well, spectacular. The only thing missing is new Patrick Gleason material (they were able to include a vintage Batman and Robin cover); Frank Miller and Carrie Kelley similarly only appear via a pinup, but I guess that’s okay. Gleason recently left DC after about a decade. It’s not surprising he didn’t return for this. Still remains the definitive Damian artist. The special was published after I’d made my previous Midtown purchases, but just before the lockdowns began, so I hadn’t had a chance to read it before. But there was no chance I wouldn’t include it in another order. Very glad I did so!

The Sandman Universe: The Dreaming #20
As it turns out, an entirely faithful account of the inner workings of the Dreaming from Neil Gaiman’s Sandman. Not the expansive storytelling model that was Neil Gaiman’s Sandman as a whole (but so little else is, much less Gaiman’s other material itself), but rewarding all the same, and apparently the final issue of this particular run. This was the other 4/28 release, original material, that I purchased. I was hesitant because the writer was Simon Spurrier, who in my only other experience with him to date (X-Club, from like ten years ago) came off as an insufferable hack. Here he came off much better! So I’m glad I gave myself the chance.

Pandemic Comics #11 “Some of the World’s Finest”

Here’s the last batch of Mile High mystery box comics:

The New Teen Titans #10
I think the ‘80s Titans has some shenanigans occurring with the title of their series, since this isn’t the beginning of the run; I suppose ordinary research would confirm, but the launch title seems to have become Tales of the Teen Titans...Anyway, Wolfman’s writing but the artist is Garcia Lopez (a great favorite among some partisans), rather than Perez (who in 1985 was no doubt deeply immersed in Crisis On Infinite Earths). This issue deals with a number of characters who sort of remained in that era, sort of pivoting around Jericho but not really being about him (Jericho was mute, so it figures, although he was used really well in the second season of Titans).

Titans #15
Not really featuring the team so much as a spotlight for Tempest (the erstwhile Aqualad), detailing his circumstances as they were circa Blackest Night.

Tomorrow Stories #2
An anthology series from Alan Moore’s America’s Best Comics. I get that there are a lot of Alan Moore partisans out there (he’s the guy who legitimized superheroes for the mainstream, after all), but I’m not really one of them, and it’s material like this that showcases what his base-level engagement in the medium is. The last tale features characters huddling in slums, braving the fallout of superhero nostalgia ruining everything. Most of what he says, thinks, and does is a product of Alan Moore’s nostalgia. He seems to honestly think only Alan Moore was capable of saying, thinking, or doing anything relevant, that he existed, in essence, in a post-superhero medium, and that it’s only misguided fans and/or creators who believe otherwise. Doctor Manhattan is the only superpowered hero in Watchmen mostly to represent ambivalence and futility in the modern world. Yay Alan Moore...

The Twilight Experiment #2
From Palmiotti & Gray.

Vigilante #2
This update of the character had a ton of potential, a superhero who talks with a psychiatrist, but Bruce Jones, at least in this issue, spends half the time taking it seriously and half as if he’s doing a parody. I was pretty invested in Jones as a creator. He took over Nightwing “One Year Later,” one of the few stories to feature interactions between Dick Grayson and Jason Todd, and before that he was writing Incredible Hulk in the vein of the TV series, something that caught on years later as Immortal Hulk, freeing the character from what Peter David had done for years, which was basically any and everything, the basic template creators at Image were riffing on in endless facsimiles. Anyway, this Vigilante, for context, is like the Daredevil who goes to confession. I like the idea of superheroes seeking outlets like that, it grounds them in ways that aren’t as forced as...the majority of Marvel’s hamfisted techniques. The psychiatrist is basically being held hostage by Vigilante, too, but you can see the potential in the scenario, how it could have led to a regular partnership. Even Batman never consulted psychiatrists, and he’s got the craziest villains in comics (except maybe Green Goblin).

Vixen: Return of the Lion #1
Seeing someone like G. Willow Wilson transition from something like Air to Ms. Marvel, I always wanted to understand how that was possible. This is another strong indication, as it turns out. Wilson’s Vixen was a member of the Meltzer-era Justice League, and at least as far as this issue is concerned, she treats her more famous teammates much as Kamala Khan does...anyone she meets in her early adventures: by geeking out. Vixen has an ethnic background, which she returns to, an African nation of some generic extraction, where the story quickly falls into the later New 52 trap of immediately introducing a villain who takes the hero by surprise (literally every first issue of a New 52 series ended this way). I really wish comic book writers (and blockbuster filmmakers) weren’t so consistently lazy about this: Hero gets defeated! Hero rallies!

World’s Finest #1-2
I was really hoping these were the only issues of the prestige format series, but of course there turned out to be three. Anyway, “World’s Finest” was the term, and title of the series, when Batman and Superman used to team up (now it’s...Superman/Batman, or the daring alternative...Batman/Superman), and this was a later tribute from comics masters Dave Gibbons and Steve Rude. For large swathes of the first issue, Gibbons allows Rude’s brilliant art do all the storytelling. Only a portion of it retells the origins, though Rude cleverly juxtaposes the bullet of the gun with the rocketing spaceship.

What’s better is that Gibbons seems to be the first and only writer to see how well Bruce Wayne could potentially clean up what ails Metropolis, and Clark Kent could do the same in Gotham. And that’s frankly astonishing, not only that someone figured that out but that no attempt has been made to even create surrogates. There’s no crusading journalist in Gotham (Vicki Vale doesn’t count, and certainly not Knox!). There’s no counterpoint to Lex Luthor. And these things really ought to exist!

This is a story set before they became the World’s Finest, and in these issues go well out of their way to avoid actively collaborating (i.e. fight together), and that’s another great feature. If I were DC this is another easy evergreen candidate. There are surprisingly few of the two together.

Young Justice: Sins of Youth - JLA Jr.
Read this recently from a back issue bargain bin, much as the kind all these mystery box comics likely came from. Thankfully I found a few really great reads in them.

Definitely worth the price of admission. Thanks again, Chuck & Mile High!

Pandemic Comics #10 “Ichabod Snip/Howard Fleck Expedition in 2020!”

Penultimate reporting on the Mile High mystery box comics:

Infinite Crisis Aftermath: The Spectre #2
The Crispus Allen version of the Spectre had as dramatic an introduction as possible, Allen’s arc beginning in the pages of Gotham Central where he existed alongside another character named Jim Corrigan (no, not the boy genius!), which led many readers to believe they knew exactly what would eventually happen. But then Corrigan murdered Allen, and Allen became the new host of the Spectre. In hindsight, this angle might’ve had longer legs had Allen accompanied his other colleague from Gotham Central, Renee Montoya, into the pages of 52. But then a lot of other things might’ve turned out differently. So maybe Crispus Allen was always destined for the reboot turnover scrap heap...Then again, so was Montoya. Spirit of Vengeance, where art thou???

Star Trek #1
From 1984, in the wake of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, following that exact continuity, the way the old Star Wars comics at Marvel used to try and guess what was relevant to do between films. Here it’s imagined that in a world without Spock, Kirk just kind of continues on without him. Oh, sure, he struggles with the idea, but...Anyway, like those Star Wars comics, these are tales somewhat instantly negated by the next movie, as Search for Spock would make clear...Mike Barr, the writer, points out in an essay that this is technically the first time Star Trek actually happened without Spock. And while later there would be a lot of Star Trek without Spock, it never seemed to work out the way everyone imagined it in those early years. The TV reboot in the ‘70s that was going to end up repurposed as The Motion Picture, which of course heavily featured Spock. Even his death didn’t prevent Spock from soldiering on! Which is to say, Barr indeed wrote history.

Stormwatch: Team Achilles #9
Couldn’t manage to read more than a few panels, alas.

Action Comics #662 
In hindsight it shouldn’t have been so surprising for the Superman writers concluding they literally had to kill the Man of Steel to prevent him from getting married too soon (in case you didn’t know, that was always their story for why Doomsday happened, because Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman was just getting started on TV, although ironically everyone loved it until they got married) (then the wedding was ruined anyway)...This is the big issue where Superman finally reveals his secret identity to Lois (who had just gotten engaged to Clark)...and most of the issue is spent dithering over the Silver Banshee. Although also historically interesting as it deals with the aftermath of Lex Luthor’s death, setting up his heir, no doubt quickly revealed to be his “son,” who ended up being revealed as his clone. (Lex died as a result of Kryptonite poisoning, of all the delicious ironies.)

Adventures of Superman #500
Polybagged, and will remain so, even if it’s never worth anything again. This was both the beginning of “Reign of the Supermen,” and the road to Superman’s return, as he spends the issue in the afterlife, talking with Pa Kent, who’s had a heart attack. (I know it’s as traditional in continuity as the reverse, but I prefer Pa, and Ma, alive versus dead. It’s the Lois & Clark fan in me. I love those three-way phone calls!)

Action Comics #849
(Between #662 and this, we’re talking 1991 and 2007, by the way!) I’m just gonna ignore the issue itself, a somewhat misguided effort to talk about matters of faith in relation to Superman. The back page features Peter J. Tomasi announcing that he’s leaving editing duties behind and commencing a full-time career as a writer. Here we are in 2020, and it was a very good decision, Pete!

Superman Confidential #1
Darwyn Cooke & Tim Sale begin “Kryptonite,” a Year One Superman tale that’s really easy to see in the  vein of Sale & Jeph Loeb’s collaborations, as of course it features Sale on art and Cooke very much writing the Loeb style. I’m frankly mystified that it’s not one of DC’s evergreens.

Swamp Thing #93
From 1990 and writer Doug Wheeler (in the letters column most of the readers are reacting to his recent acquisition of the job, and reflecting on his famous predecessors, like that chap Alan Moore). Anyway, this was a fun issue, and the source of the title to this post, the moops trying to expose the legendary “Swamp Man,” one of them wondering if the results won’t be famous in that fabled far-off future of 2020, which made it funny to read in 2020...Since, outside of the Charles Soule New 52 comics I’ve never really made a habit of reading Swamp Thing, it’s always nice to be reminded that things like Alec’s speaking pattern and even orange word bubbles have long been part of the mythos. And maybe I ought to read more of them.

Pandemic Comics #9 “Ronin, and Team Sports!”

More comics from the Mile High mystery boxes! (Shocked myself when I realized there are only two more batches to go through after this one! Time flies!)

Outsiders #46
“Pay As You Go,” an arc I somewhat remember, at least certainly the title, apparently dealing with the fallout, at least as of this issue, of Black Lightning being a part of President Luthor’s cabinet, now locked up at Iron Heights and requiring extraction. This incarnation of the team included his daughter, so yeah, there are a few passionate advocates for getting that done, although some of them, being superheroes, think it’s a bad idea. Pretty sure this was the end of this particular incarnation. The Outsiders in general have a somewhat nebulous history, periodically reverting back to Batman’s Personal Team, as it was in the ‘80s. Otherwise no one’s really managed to nail down what exactly makes them relevant. Seldom actually composed of “outsiders,” though leaning into that would be...relevant?

Outsiders: Five of a Kind - Metamorpho and Aquaman
Didn’t notice when I was unpacking the boxes that this was written by G. Willow Wilson, who at this point in history was still known mostly for the graphic novel Cairo and Vertigo series Air, which only an obscure chap named Tony Laplume thought was brilliant. This one-shot leading to the next iteration of Outsiders allows Wilson, perhaps, to lean into her Muslim faith for the first time, although she needs a supporting character to do so, as neither Metamorpho nor this incarnation of Aquaman (who was quickly tossed to the scrap heap of history) can help out with that. I was reading these one-shots, and invested in that Aquaman, at the time, so there’s a chance this is a second read. But I experienced it as a first. This time more interested in Metamorpho, at any rate.

The Power Company #2
Kurt Busiek definitely wrote this more as a Marvel book than as a DC book, which might explain why it vanished so quickly (but as a rule, most modern new concepts go that way). Better appreciated, by me, for the Tom Grummett art. Grummett was a ‘90s Superman staple, but ended up being more closely associated with Superboy specifically, and in recent years has continued working with Superboy collaborator Karl Kesel, which I’m always happy to be reminded.

Robin #166
Sort of the awkward period where Tim Drake’s solo adventures had reached their zenith and no one wanted to admit it.

Ronin #1
Ah! One of the Frank Miller projects that used to be heavily touted! But eventually fell out of favor once Miller became best known for Daredevil, Dark Knight Returns, Sin City, 300, and fans hating him trying to do more with Dark Knight Returns! DC has long been very good at “evergreens,” keeping their celebrated and best work in print, probably something that sprang from ensuring Watchmen stayed in print. For the longest time Ronin was kept in print, too, and celebrated equally among Miller’s other achievements. I don’t know if it was the backlash alone to Miller’s later work that took it off the slate, or that it became harder to categorize, as it wasn’t part of the DC landscape nor connected to Vertigo nor a superhero tale in general, or DC just got caught up trying to redeem Miller’s reputation by fishing for a Dark Knight Returns sequel fans didn’t actively hate and legitimately forgot about Ronin, but forgot it was. And I never got around to reading it, nor getting any real idea of what it was.

Well, now I’ve read this first installment. As the title suggests, it’s heavily relevant to the Daredevil portions of Miller’s legacy, and the art style, since this began in 1983, looks more like his Daredevil than his later work (fans are always saying how his work degenerated over the years, but it was clearly always changing). And the story weaves between a past and a future, linked by a magic sword and two warriors locked in mortal combat (if this were a podcast I would be playing the theme song to a certain video game/movie right now). And it’s very interesting! And absolutely does not deserve to be forgotten. At some point I will read the rest of it. Miller’s a treasure through and through. The back cover includes praise from Klaus Jansen, Walt Simonson, and Will Eisner, all of whom champion Miller’s innovative instincts, an emerging master of the craft. That’s exactly how it began, folks. Eisner’s endorsement is probably the most significant, and out of everyone Miller probably came to see him in particular as his peer. And rightfully so. I later read a book of conversations between them. Priceless history and insight.

Seven Soldiers of Victory #1
The conclusion of Grant Morrison’s innovative modular team book, which in hindsight might even be considered a template of the MCU; both are composed of individual spotlights converging on limited team experiences. Morrison’s imagination can be overwhelming; it’s in full epic scale here, and I’m almost ashamed to admit I haven’t always been able to remember how great it is. I became a fan of Morrison only with JLA, and somehow found it easy to walk away from him as I did comics in general at the turn of the millennium. I knew all about the wild expectations for his New X-Men, which Marvel expected only to duplicate his JLA, but ended up being...more ambitious. The moment Morrison left Marvel gleefully deconstructed everything he’d accomplished. And I never felt overly compelled at the time to see what was happening. It wasn’t until Seven Soldiers happened that I became interested in Morrison again. A lot of fans were baffled by the whole thing. Morrison himself saw it as his take on Jack Kirby’s approach to the New Gods, multiple series presenting multiple viewpoints on the same general landscape. But Kirby’s New Gods famously got cut off before he could reach an ending, and creators (including Kirby himself at one point) have been chasing that ever since. In some respects Seven Soldiers was Morrison’s dry run at his own attempt, Final Crisis, safely obscured in the Mister Miracle material by the many other moving parts around it, but in hindsight it’s pretty obvious. But I don’t think Morrison has allowed himself to be this wild since, even with Multiversity, which is as much a shame as what happened to Kirby’s New Gods. But Morrison, at least, still has plenty of time and opportunity...

Shadowpact #2
Shadowpact #7
Funny how time can change things. I enjoyed reading this series at the time, but find now that it’s virtually impossible to get back into.

Watching the Walmart Giants 10 “April 2020, with Jim Lee!”

Apparently I hadn’t been to Walmart since the beginning of the month when I made the trek last weekend. I didn’t really expect new giants to have shipped, but they had! Including one that had received a fair amount of press, for these giants, because it features new Jim Lee art, which is:

Our Fighting Forces 100-Page Giant #1

• The first story is from Christopher Priest & Christopher Mooneyham, featuring the Unknown Soldier. I don’t read a lot of DC’s war comics, usually, but I at least knew about this character. As he’s prone to, Priest sells the hell out of the concept, making Unknown Soldier feel like a fresh and compelling concept. I’d read Priest’s Unknown Soldier monthly, easily!
• The second is from G.I. Joe legend Larry Hama with Mirko Colak, featuring military-era Kate Kane (Batwoman), a modern character who absolutely deserves all the attention she gets.
• The third is Jim Lee’s, with a script from Brad Meltzer based on a speech Barack Obama gave awarding Sal Giunta with the Medal of Honor. Lee spends most of it drawing Batman, but that’s because it’s clever enough to swerve the reader with a story of real heroism juxtaposed on a typical superhero adventure. Absolutely stunning.
• Then five reprints from the New 52’s Men of War, with the highlight coming in last from J.T. Krul & Scott Kolins, featuring a soldier post-war finding it difficult to get a job, eventually ending up in an interview where he’s upstaged by some former local football star...It’s incredible to think how poorly vets are treated, regardless of how you feel about the wars they’ve fought. They deserve a helluva lot more. Kolins, whose art can sometimes be a little weird, turns in some career-best material. This whole issue is outstanding.

Superman 100-Page Giant #3

• The first story is from Robert Venditti & Paul Pelletier, featuring Superman caught in the crossfire between Lex Luthor and Toyman, who’s trying to redeem his toy company after it’s been acquired by Luthor. Pelletier turns in sharp work, arguably the best I’ve ever seen from him, and he’s someone who’s been working in comics since the ‘90s!
• Reprint of Supergirl #56, featuring Bizarro.
• Reprint of Action Comics #868, part of Geoff Johns & Gary Frank’s excellent Brainiac arc.
• Reprint of Action Comics #0, the exceptional “Boy Who Stole Superman’s Cape,” which single-handedly makes a mockery of fans who dismissed Grant Morrison’s run in the New 52.

Titans 100-Page Giant #2

• New from Phil Hester & Scott Koblish, featuring a Titans team with Red Hood.
• New from Andrew Aydin & Juan Gedeon, featuring Beast Boy & Raven, and once again Red Hood, that’s about halfway to the storytelling style of Teen Titans Go!
• Reprint of Teen Titans #51, from 1977, featuring two teams of Titans, continuing where the last giant left off.
• Reprint of Starfire #2
• Reprint of Adventures of the Super Sons #2, which kind of emphasizes Tomasi really just wanted to have fun for a change.

Pandemic Comics #8 “Mark Waid and the Khunds Appear In These, But Not Together”

More comics from the Mile High mystery boxes...

The Justice Society Returns: National Comics #1
Here’s Mark Waid writing the Flash. No, not Wally West, Jay Garrick! But Waid actually gives more focus to the original Mister Terrific, whom he characterizes as...great at everything. I don’t know if it’s only in comics, but it’s really funny how in comics the idea of the renaissance man is such a cartoon, that not only are these people better at one thing than has ever been humanly achieved before, they’re better at a wide range of things. I don’t think comic book writers understand how this works. They really don’t understand how Olympic athletes perform, for instance. They seem to assume that because someone has reached the Olympics they’re absolutely flawless. Anyone who has ever watched the Olympics knows even the winners often show flaws, and a lot of reaching the gold medal is that the vast majority of the field has flubbed horribly. This is not to say that just anyone could beat them. It takes real talent, but real talent does not mean it comes without flaws...Anyway.

The Kingdom: Son of the Bat #1
Here’s Mark Waid again (he’ll come up again!), expanding on the version of this character that isn’t Damian Wayne. In this case, reconciling competing legacies pretty much by default goes in Damian’s favor. This one (will not dignify his terrible name) doesn’t even care to carry on the Batman legacy, and the story is basically about how ineffective he is at outthinking the end of the world. Which is of course something Batman does, uh, every other day (and twice on Sunday).

L.E.G.I.O.N. #32
I think this whole team concept was basically doing a present-day Legion of Super-Heroes. Stupid name all the same. If you’re going to have an acronym in the title, make sure...Okay, just don’t do a series with an acronym in the title. Basically, only S.H.I.E.L.D. gets a free pass with this (and really only because of the TV show, and the movies, has it ever actually gotten one).

L.E.G.I.O.N. #44
Anyway, I’m not spelling out any acronyms again. Ever! Pain in the ass, aside from everything else...Anyway, these issues feature some of the Khunds of which I speak in the title line of this blog entry. The Khunds are kind of like the Klingons at DC, a badass warrior species.

Legion of Super-Heroes #310 
Relationship drama. It’s hard to remember now, but the Legion was about as popular as the X-Men and the Teen Titans in the ‘80s. But they were building less real history, so there’s less to remember. Even “The Great Darkness Saga,” the team’s surprise Darkseid epic, seems to recede easily into the past. Er, future. Also: Khunds.

Lobo: Infanticide #4
Lobo battles his bastard kid! The artwork probably deliberately obscured the gruesome action. More importantly, I’m pretty sure this comic (cover-dated January 1993) is the first time I’ve seen ads heavily promoting the launch of the Vertigo line. I remember a TV spot from the general time period that promoted DC and Vertigo (took me years to have any clue what “Black Orchid” was about, and even now I’m not hugely sure; one of the big early Vertigo comics, but quickly got left behind).

Manhunter #33
This was the Starman of its era, but the acclaim didn’t stretch nearly as far, and it hasn’t received strong collection support. And this issue is perhaps too busy to let any if its material really land. But still impressive work.

Metamorpho #2
Honestly, I assumed some of the stuff I was reading in The Terrifics was created specifically for it, but apparently it’s all right there in these earlier Metamorpho adventures, so that was great to see. Rex Mason would be a much bigger deal, I think, if his superhero design weren’t so...weird. Also: Mark Waid wrote this, too!

The Next #1
At the time, DC seemed to have heavily invested in fantasy writer Tad Williams as a comics creator. Along with this he was also given Aquaman: Sword of Atlantis, and as it happened I read both and thoroughly enjoyed them. But Williams didn’t stick around long (unlike the epic lengths of his fantasy books), and I never did revisit his comics until now. What it read like this time was someone in the vein of Grant Morrison with far more interest in being weird, and no real grounding to support it. Which makes me glad the Tad Williams experiment didn’t pan out. And I only read one of his massive fantasy books, too. He’s someone else’s favorite writer, I guess.

Pandemic Comics #7 “Justice Leagues”

More comics from the Mile High mystery boxes! Apparently today is National Superhero Day? And apparently Marvel began it? Well, the comics I’ll be talking about, ah, were all published by DC. But the pandemic is teaching us the real superheroes probably have very different costumes than we previously imagined, and masks look very different, too.

Harley Quinn #1
Here’s the “newest comic in the mystery boxes,” from Rebirth, featuring the creative team from the previous series (Marvel’s Constant Reboot Engine sees this happen more frequently) offers a quick recap of relevant information, including Harley’s huge collection of sidekicks. And yet in the spotlight: Deadpool Red Tool.  This was a shiny Mile High variant cover, by the way.

Hawkgirl #54 
As far as I know, this is the only time Hawkgirl had her own book. Of course, it began as Hawkman (where it was written by Geoff Johns) and this issue features the return of Hawkman (probably?). But the good news is it’s from legends Walt Simonson and Howard Chaykin, which is a combination and a series that stood out for me back in 2006, but for some reason never actually read. So, another mystery box that finally addresses one of my comic book sins...

icandy #1
I think it’s the title. Yeah, the title. It’s a terrible title. The comic itself turns out to be pretty good (I mean, it’s written by Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning, the geek gods of that period), a concept that folds video games into a playable concept. I’m frankly shocked this hasn’t been done more, or more successfully. The last time I saw it was Heroes Reborn, which naturally was four seasons after the series was actually popular.

Ion #7 
A maxi-series starring Kyle Rayner post-Green Lantern: Rebirth (otherwise known as “Thanks, Torchbearer, you now get to join the Back-up Corps!), this is a fortuitous random issue, because it reunites Kyle with Radu, the coffee shop owner who was a signature element of Kyle’s early days as a Green Lantern. Ion was a concept they fobbed on Kyle as a consolation prize, before it was replaced by his becoming White Lantern, before he became, well, just another Green Lantern...At the time, I guess, I was still annoyed that “my Green Lantern” had been “kicked to the curb” (which happens to literally every Green Lantern not named Hal Jordan eventually), and so couldn’t properly appreciate Ion. Now it seems like correcting that amounts to another of my comic book sins...

Justice League America #61
The first appearance of Bloodwynd! And, ah, Dan Jurgens takes over the series! In hindsight, Weapons Master really doesn’t seem like that big a challenge. Prometheus was basically an upgraded version only a handful of years later, and even he quickly got turned into a chump. Lesson, villains? Don’t put all your eggs in a fancy gimmick giving you special weapons. Because the weapons can be, well, taken away...

Justice League Task Force #2
This particular Justice League series from the ‘90s will always be the most thankless. Literally its biggest claim to fame is an issue of “Knightfall: The Crusade,” with Crippled Bruce Wayne. This issue is kind of ironic in hindsight: Nightwing looks like a chump while desperately trying to prove he isn’t just a former Teen Titan and/or Batman’s sidekick. If Dan DiDio caught this issue, it might explain why he used to think Nightwing was superfluous...

JLA/WildC.A.T.s
This was a really nice surprise! From the Grant Morrison era, written by Morrison, and featuring Electric Superman (what a snapshot!), something I think I’ve read before, but I guess never really considered that significant. But it is a great little snapshot. But the name of Jim Lee’s big superhero team still sucks, at least as far as incorporating one of the most convoluted acronyms from a whole history of convoluted acronyms in comics...

JLA #79 
It’s always great to remember just how long and varied Doug Mahnke’s history at DC alone is (dude’s also the co-creator of The Mask!), and he’s as easy a talent to revisit for that reason alone as there’s ever been. His art, at least during his DC tenure, has been remarkably consistent, though endlessly adaptable...Hopefully will get a spotlight collection at some point.

Pandemic Comics #6 “Doc Savage to Green Arrow”

More comics from the Mile High mystery boxes...

Doc Savage #1
Here’s one of the Superman precursors (he even got a Fortress of Solitude first) in one of his later revivals (far as I know, still hasn’t had a movie). DC periodically trots him out (was last seen in the First Wave comics), but he seems particularly hard to translate for modern audiences. Technically, I guess, Alan Moore’s Tom Strong was a version of Doc Savage (though Tom Strong was also, technically, a version of Alan Moore’s Supreme, which was a version of Silver Age Superman...), so there’s that!

Doom Patrol #2
Here’s a concept DC trots out a little more frequently than Doc Savage, but never really seems to stick. The last time it did was Grant Morrison’s surreal take, although strangely later readers were only baffled that Young Animal’s revival thought it was a good act to reprise...This one’s from John Byrne, who’s magic to anything he touches. Which of course means the older he gets the less readers give a damn...

The Exinctuon Parade: War #1 (Avatar)
Here’s the Mile High variant cover comic thrown in as a bonus. Max Brooks, who wrote World War Z, is the son of Mel Brooks. Maybe you already knew that. Maybe I already knew that. But it’s a fact I was recently reminded of, and it’s still an interesting factoid. Anyway, this comic is ruined by Avatar’s typical hack artwork, alas, the kind someone hopes the coloring will obscure. But it never does.

Firestorm #27
Firestorm has always been a favorite of mine, but I never really read any Firestorm comics, much less enjoyed the hell out of them, until the brilliant post-Infinite Crisis run I hold up against the best of any superhero comics from that period. Would love some collection reprints.

The Flash #235 
I think I finally figured out why Mark Waid’s attempted reprise was so disappointing. He seemed to forget that Wally West was an excellent protagonist, that he had made Wally West a compelling protagonists. And while expanding the family eventually had...interesting ramifications, Waid seemed to be phoning it in. Gone was the spark that made everything so gloriously personal. In fact, Waid seemed to go out of his way to make these comics as impersonal as possible. I still don’t get it...

Fraction #4 
Part of the DC Focus imprint. That’s, uh, that’s all I’ve got to say about that.

Green Arrow #61
I think the letters column in this issue just about sums up everything that’s wrong today: “Every letter in the GREEN ARROW #55 letter column had to do with politics and answering another letter writer’s opinions...” wrote Charles D. Brown. You’d expect this in a Green Arrow comic (and this is another great argument for printing letters columns; the internet dies within days or maybe weeks of any given discussion). It becomes a problem when this is routine public discourse. This is relevant, compelling during, say, big historic eras like the American Revolution or the Civil War. Otherwise it’s a lot of counterproductive hot air...

Green Arrow #26
Here’s social crusader Oliver Queen confronting apparent President Luther stooge Jefferson Pierce, the once and future Black Lightning. They really need to collect major President Luther stories like this. It’s the major DC event of the first five years of the new millennium.

Pandemic Comics #5 “DC Comics...Presents!”

Here’s another batch from the Mile High mystery boxes:

Birds of Prey #96
Wow! Had no idea the series lasted so many issues. But, I was never a regular reader, even when the concept launched in the ‘90s. Of course, it finally became a movie (after being a TV series), earlier this year (if there’s been anything this year besides pandemic) (beginning to doubt that). Written by Gail Simone, writing just as if literally all her logic comes strait from comics, and art to match, impossibly uniform women, even Black Alice, a tormented teenager whose only distinguishing physical feature is her hairstyle. Otherwise the “impossibly perfect body” of her mean girls rival...is exactly the same one she has...

Black Condor #4
You know, the concept of Black Condor rejecting the idea of being a superhero might have been more convincing...if he didn’t dress exactly like a superhero...Otherwise, he’s a lost character I still wish were found.

The Comet #8
DC’s Impact Comics line, which this was a part of, circled back around some twenty years later as Red Circle, and then ended up at Archie Comics, where they began some sixty years earlier. The object lesson here perhaps is that DC and Marvel endured because they were able to persist against all adversity, and didn’t treat superheroes as a fad. There were and have been plenty of other publishers over the years doing superhero lines, but none of them have the longevity. Even Image somewhat rapidly abandoned superheroes, in the grand scheme. Spawn has pushed past three hundred issues, but mostly because it wants to continue, not out of anywhere near the demand there was in its heyday. Anyway, Mark Waid, here in 1992, the same year he took on writing chores in the pages of The Flash, supplies the dialogue.

Connor Hawke: Dragon’s Blood #4
After Oliver Queen died (ah, temporarily), his bastard son Connor Hawke took over as the Emerald Archer, and like Kyle Rayner as Green Lantern, it seemed to be a permanent role at the time. So Connor had his own comic for years, and yet because Green Arrow isn’t near the sales force Green Lantern is, which isn’t near the sales force Batman is, Connor has never even sniffed at another ongoing series. This one’s a mini-series, of course, resuming the sidekick continuity of the ‘90s and featuring Connor teaming up with Shado, a character who better survived the transition to the New 52 than he did...

DC Comics Presents: The Atom #1
After legendary editor Julius Schwartz passed away in 2004, DC put out these one-shots in tribute to him, asking modern comic book creators to take cracks at covers Schwartz had dreamed up in the Silver Age to spur on the creative juices of his writers. The wonderful thing about this particular one has less to do with the Schwartz tribute (an obituary by Alan Moore appears in the back of these issues, with a copyright notice indicating Moore’s ownership) and more the historic art pairing between two ‘90s Superman legends: Dan Jurgens and Jon Bogdanove. Jurgens of course is the writer/artist of Superman #75, while Bogdanove was the longtime artist of Superman: The Man of Steel. Seeing Jurgens inked by Bogdanove is truly surreal. At times it’s distinctly Jurgens, and at others distinctly Bogdanove. One of the greatest comic book discoveries I’ve made, folks.

DC Comics Presents: Superman #1
With this issue the standout is the lead story, as it’s written by Stan Lee, at that time a few years removed from Just Imagine Stan Lee Creating...various DC heroes, and a relative few years away from regularly creating new comics at publishers other than Marvel, and of course thousands of cameos in Marvel movies.

DC Nation #0
Fun to read this again, and by “this” I mean “Your Big Day” from Tom King and Clay Mann, the Joker-waits-for-the-wedding-invitation story that’s among the many best things King has ever written...

Pandemic Comics #4 “Twice the Two-Face!”

Here’s the next batch of conics from the Mile High mystery boxes: the Batman edition!

Detective Comics #580
Did you know there was actually a second Two-Face? Literally the most appropriate development in comics history, right? (Not as fun: an issue, or two [ahhh!] of puns on the number two.) And even funnier: Paul Sloane was the second imposter. His origin is kind of like the criminal version of Wally West’s. An actor, Sloane is portraying Harvey Dent in a production that goes horribly wrong at exactly the worst, or best, possible moment when some mook throws acid in Sloane’s face...Eventually of course Sloane goes on a crime spree, just like Dent before him, having copied all of Two-Face’s quirks...Sloane doubles Dent in every regard, including a wife waiting for him to recover and return to a normal life, and the possibility of plastic surgery being able to do just the trick, which of course works twice...(I would absolutely keep the second Two-Face in continuity. Too perfect.)

Detective Comics #581
Naturally I got these in separate boxes, but it’s the complete story. Are you wondering if a story published in 1987 has anything to say about Jason Todd’s time as Robin? Of course it does! Jason’s dad was murdered by Two-Face, so he spends most of it recklessly trying to exact payback, and Batman keeps stopping him. It’s basically exactly Batman Forever (with, Jason rather than Dick Grayson). But Jason seems pretty redeemable, and the whole story seems like an early attempt to reconcile the character to how he had been modified post-Crisis (originally he was quite indistinguishable from Dick), before, y’know, giving readers the option of, oh, killing him off a few years later. What’s really bizarre is how these comics look like they came from the ‘70s rather than ‘80s. It’s proof that Batman’s continuity (other than Jason) remained mostly untouched after the Crisis reboot, just as it would for the New 52 (one of the many pointless fan complaints about the New 52, as far as Morrison’s Batman and Geoff Johns’ Green Lantern were concerned). Funny enough, the letters columns in these issues are full of praise for Mike Barr (who wrote them) and his “Year Two,” which some said was “better” than Miller’s “Year One,” calling Barr’s work “a lot more fun to read.” And...history doesn’t really care about that, now does it?

Batman #433
Batman #433
Yes, two copies, one from each box. I didn’t really mind. It’s the only time anything doubled up, and given the Two-Face story, seemed more than appropriate to have happen with a Batman comic.  This is a silent issue, the first chapter in “The Many Deaths of Batman,” and it’s a solid success. Anyway, speaking of Jason Todd, this was published in 1989, and his death was still fresh in the minds of readers. One fan in the letter column writes simply, “I am very, very sad that you made Robin die. I have been crying for a whole day. Why did you make him die?...You don’t kill heroes, you save them! Please change your comic book!” (Letter writer was 8 at the time.)

Batman: Gotham Nights #4 
A Batman comic from the point of view of ordinary citizens who seem on the edge of very bad decisions, eventually converging in a moment where Batman essentially saves them in an intervention he didn’t even know he was making. Anyway, the great irony here is a 1992 letter column being saved by an early version of an internet message board (I included “internet” as “message board” itself is now as archaic as regular letters columns). So there’s that! By the end of DC’s use of letters columns at the turn of the century, it had in fact switched from traditional letters to electronic ones, with physical addresses replaced by email addresses. And today, the internet basically complains about every comic made. Yay progress!

Batman #498
This is the issue in which Bruce Wayne formally taps Jean Paul Valley to replace him as Batman, or as he would become known by fans: Azbats. “Knightfall” concludes two issues later with Azbats using his fancy clawed gloves to defeat Bane.

Batman #505 
Azbats is in the midst of deciding which of his predecessor’s methods are still useful (the letters columns are savvy enough to conclude that the whole point of Azbats is to prove that those methods are as relevant as ever, as is the man who employed them). He uses detective work to track down Abattoir, who becomes famous later by inadvertently dying at the hands (claws?) of Azbats.

Batman: Shadow of the Bat #26
I never really read Shadow of the Bat unless it was relevant to a crossover, which, like and since I followed the same policy with Legends of the Dark Knight, was probably my loss. This is a good issue, focusing on this era’s version of Clayface (which I had only read about previously, and Lady Clayface, and, apparently, Baby Clayface...! Tangled up in it somewhere is Abattoir, and a neat citizens-reaction to the events of the above issue.

Batman: Odyssey #2
One of the out-of-continuity mini-series Neal Adams has done in recent years (this one’s from a decade ago, and I believe marked his comeback). I had a chance to meet him at one of the area cons, but foolishly passed it up. But he’s as likely to be at another one, which if people are able to do mass events by the fall would make for an even more memorable occasion. This issue’s great. Adams has a casual, conversational familiarity with Batman that breezes through the issue, and his art, with modern coloring, has never looked better. I’ve seen some fans complaining that his sensibilities don’t belong in today’s comics, which is absurd. If you have a master of the medium still capable of delivering at this level, you cherish him. Period.

Pandemic Comics #3 “Worlds Collide”

As stated previously, I bought two mystery boxes from the pandemic miracle that is Mile High Comics. Here’s the first reading results:

52 #32
Ralph Dibney reaches China! Significant for two things: Nanda Parbat, which will have greater significance for the Montoya/Question arc, and the Great Ten, a Chinese team of “super functionaries” that would later star in a...nine issue series I still think is criminally underrated.

52 #42
Ralph Dibney finally confronts Felix Faust! I like how getting two issues of this series (still my favorite comic of all-time, finally supplanting “The Return of Barry Allen”) ended up featuring Ralph’s arc in both, the way it ends (better) than how it began (still my least favorite part of the series).

World War III #4
I spent too much time undervaluing this 52 spinoff, but a reread in collection form finally began to turn that around. Martian Manhunter is firmly in the spotlight this issue, and it doesn’t hurt, him being one of my favorite undervalued characters in comics.

Adventure Comics #4/507
Superboy-Prime! The infamous indestructible lead antagonist of Infinite Crisis in his own Blackest Night tie-in!

DC/Marvel: All Access #3
Robin & Jubilee are star-crossed lovers! Still arguably the most amusing thing to come out of the three DC/Marvel crossover comics from the ‘90s (the third was Unlimited Access, though I guess it turned out to be otherwise, but lots of observers are arguing for another round to rally comics post-pandemic).

Amethyst: Princess of Gemworld #1
The character had a false-start revival during the New 52, but is staging another comeback as part of Wonder Comics. This was the ongoing series follow-up to her original mini-series, and annual. Honestly, I think if they named it anything but “Gemworld” the whole thing would work so much better. Maybe just give it an additional name?

Anima #0
At a previous point revisiting this series, I thought it was a lost gem (heh), and even tracked down a novel by one of the co-writers, but I found the results unreadable. Call it confirmation bias now, but I couldn’t get into this issue at all, this time.

Animal Man #42
Still weird to think it took so long to formally launch the Vertigo imprint, even though its formative titles were running for years already, including this one, famously begun by Grant Morrison. This issue: still branded “DC.” Also: follows the somewhat inexplicable trend, in my admitted small sampling, of not...really featuring...Animal Man? in his own series...

Aquaman: Sword of Atlantis #49
The last issue before the Tad Williams run I read at the time. People seem to forget what a mess DC had made of Aquaman (not in terms of quality but...just letting the dude exist) before Flashpoint. When he was formally revived during Brightest Day, it was probably one of the signal internal events that suggested, at least for DC itself, the need for the New 52 reboot. As far as Aquaman is concerned, the New 52 was indeed a smashing success. A decade after several rounds of agonized storytelling to untangle the lines, as it were, he’s standing as strong in comics, and movie! lore as he ever has.

Assassins #1
From the original Amalgam releases, combining Daredevil with Deathstroke (as Dare) and Catwoman with Elektra (as Catsai), pitting them against the Big Question (please tell me you can extrapolate that one), with glorious art from Scott McDaniel. By the way, Dare & Catsai are both women, and this was technically Amalgam’s response to the ‘90s “bad girls” craze (which would be completely inexplicable to modern observers) (even though it continues to this day, on a far smaller scale).

Astro City: Local Heroes #2
Being the most famous superhero, Superman has been copied a lot. Within Astro City lore alone, Kurt Busiek apparently couldn’t get enough with Samaritan alone. This issue features Atomicus, a blatant pastiche of the Silver Age Superman (ah, much like Alan Moore’s version of Supreme), which riffs on Lois Lane’s obsessive quest to prove Clark Kent is Superman’s secret identity, but with a more tragic ending. Aside from the fact that “Atomicus” is a terrible name, and his origin mirrors Captain Atom/Doctor Manhattan (which raises the question if Busiek thought Moore was riffing on Superman, too, or merely made the connection himself, as does the later Doomsday Clock), a good lost gem in Astro City lore.

The All New Atom #9 
Featuring Ryan Choi and writing by Gail Simone, which is more tolerable, for me, than average.

The Atom Special #1
Featuring Ray Palmer, and writing by Jeff Lemire, which is, for me, typically excellent.

The Authority #10
The team has literally taken over the US. And not being seen immediately as an evil coup d’etat. Yeah, not gonna buy that.

Pandemic Comics #2 “Mile High Comics”

The absolute legend to come out of the pandemic so far, for me, is Mile High Comics’ Chuck Rozanski. Chuck has been working nonstop, virtually alone, fulfilling mystery box orders for more than a month. He even worked Easter, saying since it was even quieter that day it made things easier. The mystery boxes are a variety of 5lb comics selections (Marvel, unsurprisingly, seems to be the most popular, with fancy swag to show for it, including free add-on collections, but I’m not a Marvel guy, so I can resist that sort of thing). I figured it was only right to order some of these, the DC assortments, and got them in yesterday. I’ll spend some of this quarantine time, in the coming days, reading them, and then blogging about them here.

I ended up getting eighty-odd comics. Here’s some of them:

• two issues of 52 (something I planned on rereading during this time anyway)
• DC/Marvel: All Access #3 (the follow-up to DC Versus Marvel)
• Assassins #1 (from the Amalgam Comics spin-off of DC Versus Marvel)
• two copies of Batman #433 (which is perfectly fine, I ordered two mystery boxes; a silent issue)
• DC Nation #0 (with the excellent Tom King/Clay Mann “Joker’s invitation to the wedding” story)
• The Extinction Parade:War #1 (which is the one title not published by DC; included because it features a Mile High variant cover)
• Harley Quinn #1 (from Rebirth; the newest comic in either set)
• Justice League America #61 (first issue of the Dan Jurgens run, which ought to also be the first appearance of Bloodwynd)
• JLA/WildC.A.T.s (not sure I’ve read this Grant Morrison-era JLA graphic novel yet, but either way another hugely welcome discovery in the selections)
• The Justice Society Returns! National Comics #1 (I don’t care if Mark Waid has seemingly turned his back on the Flash forever, he’ll always be the Flash guy to me; here he writes Jay Garrick)
• The Kingdom: Son of the Bat #1 (and the guy who wrote the masterpiece Kingdom Come, though Nightstar was infinitely better than the convoluted name he gave to the offspring of Bruce Wayne and Talia Head)
• Lobo: Infanticide #4 (Lobo was huge in the ‘90s! for a split second! and somehow has never had a significant resurgence. or a real attempt at one. bastiches!)
• The Next #1 (I was a big fan of this mini-series; will be interesting to revisit)
• Ronin #1 (this was the biggest get of the selections, something I’ve never read, a Frank Miller comic that used to be included in DC’s evergreens without fail)
• Seven Soldiers of Victory #1 (a significant Grant Morrison touchstone for me)
• Action Comics #662 (“At long last...the secret revealed!”)
• Adventures of Superman #500 (in the original polybag, of course...not gonna open this one)
• Superman Confidential #1 (the start of the classic Darwyn Cooke/Tim Sale Kryptonite arc)
• Vixen: Return of the Lion #1 (I always meant to read this G. Willow Wilson mini-series, back when I was one of her biggest fans thanks to Air)
• and many more!

Pandemic Comics #1 “A Fortuitous Midtown Order”

By sheer coincidence, just as the lockdowns were beginning, I had placed another order with Midtown Comics. A decade back I dug myself into a steep financial hole recklessly ordering comics every week through their website. Longtime readers of my blog (through its many names and locations) know I spent years putting together an annual listing of the fifty best comics I’d read. The Midtown addiction allowed me to expand it to a hundred one year. So it was a long time before I ordered from them again. The first time back it was to help complete my Stuart Immonen Superman collection (which was finally completed last year when I rectified one last oversight). Then last year I began an irregular comeback. This most recent order was deliberately patterned after the old days, when I’d comb the weekly release lists and see what looked interesting. In recent years my comics reading has been drastically limited. The only sequential reads I’ve done have been limited series. I gave up trying to catch Tom King’s Batman in every individual issue (though I’ve collected all the trades), even.

Well, anyway, these are, at the moment, not only some of the last new comics I personally have read, but that got to be released at all...

The Argus #1 (Action Lab)

I found the art to be kind of shoddy, but the familiar concept of time travel being filtered through a single person pulled from various points of his life is still a good one. Could absolutely be salvaged. Kirkman’s Walking Dead, after all, had a different tone and even different art at the beginning.

Billionaire Island #1 (Ahoy Comics)

The latest from Mark Russell is another biting satire skewering privilege. The end of the issue teases the badass who will help find some justice for victims who’ve been locked up. To be clear, involuntarily. Not because, y’know, of a pandemic.

Birthright #42 (Image)

Randomly checked in with the Josh Williamson epic fantasy. Would probably get more out of it with having read more than, oh, the first issue in an Image dollar reprint.

Daredevil #19 (Marvel) 

Checking back in with the excellent Chip Zdarsky run.

Doctor Tomorrow #1 (Valiant)

Valiant may have finally gotten a big screen adaptation (horribly timed though it turned out to be), but in the comics its boon period has officially ended. Would really love for another creative resurgence.

Far Sector #4 (DC’s Young Animal)

Another fine issue in this Green Lantern maxi-series. 

The Flash #123 (DC)

A facsimile edition of the famous “Flash of Two Worlds” issue, one of the truly legendary moments in superhero comics. It’s interesting to have finally read it. Just the recaps of Jay Garrick and Barry Allen’s origin stories, as they were told then, was interesting. 

Flash Forward #6 (DC)

The final issue of the mini-series saw Wally West take on a new destiny. Just had to read it.

The Flash #750 (DC)

One of several big anniversary comics DC was able to get in before all this happened (I was a little too soon for the Robin 80th anniversary celebration). Geoff Johns probably had the highlight. Real shame that Mark Waid seems to have totally rejected his DC past(s) at this point. Should have been a part of this.

Folklords #1 (Boom!)

This was a fourth printing or so (otherwise the series was up to its fourth issue, I think), another fine argument that Boom! may actually be the most consistently excellent alternative publisher of the past decade, still working with Matt Kindt, launching another excellent concept. It may have a lower profile than Image, Dark Horse, or IDW, but it’s consistently reinvented itself over the years and, hey, still boasts Grant Morrison’s Klaus on its release calendar, and is probably the only publisher that would do so.

King of Nowhere #1 (Boom!)

Here they are again. This one looks like it could’ve been published by Image, Dark Horse, or Vertigo, and that’s not something you can say for just any publisher. Was worth a look.

The Last God #5 (DC Black Label)

The shuttering of the Vertigo imprint didn’t mean its aesthetic was dead. This is clearly DC’s biggest bid for old school Vertigo in years. But ended up not being my cup of tea. High fantasy, as it turns out.

Omni #5 (H1)

Pretty annoyed that Devin K. Grayson, who launched the series, was still listed as a creator when, as of this issue, she’s not really an active member of the creative team anymore. Kind of felt like a bait-and-switch.

Plunge #1 (DC/Hill House)

The end of the Vertigo imprint came at the same time as an incredible flowering of new DC imprints, from the Sandman family to the Bendis line, and now Hill House, from Joe Hill (Stephen Kong’s kid). But what brought me here was the Stuart Immonen art. Immonen has once again elevated his game. After he went over to Marvel I thought he was allowing himself to lose what made him distinctive, but it led to, well, this. I love his Superman, always will, as it was, but of course, now I’d love to see him return, with this more detailed approach.

Skulldigger + Skeleton Boy #3 (Dark Horse)

The best thing Dark Horse has done post-Mind MGMT has been Jeff Lemire’s Black Hammer universe. At some point I want to read all of it. This latest installment is basically its Dark Knight Returns.

Stealth #1 (Image)

By far the best surprise in scanning through the releases was discovering Mike Costa had a new series. Costa is an all-time favorite thanks to his G.I. Joe/Cobra comics. In recent years he’s had a small resurgence at Marvel, so it’s nice to see him getting another crack, even if once again it’s someone else’s concept, in this instance Robert Kirkman’s. But, as Costa explains in a postscript, he’s more than capable of internalizing the idea. And he executes it perfectly.

Strange Adventures #1 (DC Black Label)

The latest from Tom King, starring Adam Strange, in Mister Miracle mode with Mitch Gerads and “Doc” Shaner. Love love love that Mister Terrific pops up at the end of the issue. Might be the breakthrough Michael Holt’s been waiting twenty years for...

Wolverine Through the Years (Marvel)

This was a freebie promo for the new ongoing series (which I decided to skip). There’s a code in it that I unscrambled: “Who is the Pale Girl?” Hopefully someone interesting!

Wonder Woman #750 (DC)

Could’ve read this for free at the library, but the pandemic shut those things down before I could get around to it. Ironically still open when I ordered this. Historically speaking, the first time Wonder Woman topped the sales chart. Also the soft launch for DC’s G5.

Watching the Walmart Giants 9 “March 2020”

Suddenly we might be in a much better position to sell Walmart comics to reluctant readers.

The options are narrowing. The funny thing is, so few readers have snatched up the Walmart giants up to this point, you have an excellent chance not only to find the most recent releases, but a generous selection of older ones. That means you can still find the Superman giants with the classic Tom Ming story you ignored, the Batman giants with the Brian Michael Bendis saga, and tons of other gems, like the two Crisis On Infinite Earths giants, or the various Mark Russell shorts.  Walmart’s an essential business. It ain’t going anywhere. Those comics aren’t going anywhere. Unless savvy readers finally show up.

Batman Giant #4

• The lead new story is another Mark Russell, riffing on the prisoner transport concept you might have seen in movies like The Dark Knight or S.W.A.T., with Harley Quinn thrown into the mix (why not?). Still interesting to see Russell play with more conventional narrative structures, rather than the social/political/economic satires he usually does.
• A new Nightwing tale featuring what’s probably the late artist Tom Lyle’s last work. Lyle worked on all three original Tim Drake/Robin mini-series, with a host of other accomplishments as well. He died last fall following complications from an aneurism. 
• A reprint of Batman #4, with Batman recounting a childhood investigation into the Court of Owls that convinced him it didn’t exist, and then his present investigation, which proves it does. Apparently as far as Scott Snyder is concerned, Batman was always a fairly lousy detective, which is really, really strange.
• A reprint of Detective Comics #856, continuing Batwoman’s original solo adventures.
• A reprint of Nightwing #4, in which Tim Seeley seemingly concludes Nightwing’s partnership with Raptor (Mr. “Better Than Batman”) as he contends with the international Parliament of Owls.

Sunday Marvel Sunday - Postponed

Obviously I'm posting this on a Monday, which for a feature titled "Sunday Marvel Sunday" already means something has gone horribly wrong.  Which is called COVID-19.  Which has now robbed millions of the unlikelihood of reading "Sunday Marvel Sunday."  For the time-being.  See you later!

Sunday Marvel Sunday "Marvel Super Hero Adventures #1"

Marvel Super Hero Adventures #1

I think we can agree that there are areas where Marvel definitely outperforms DC.  Being the most consistently most popular superhero comics publisher.  Being the most consistently most popular superhero movie studio (at least in the past decade).  But DC wins some, too.  It does animation better, on TV and video releases.  Um, that's probably it.  Because Marvel has never come even close to that.  The only Marvel cartoons I've ever been interested in were Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends and X-Men, and they were decades ago, and...that's pretty much true of everyone.

So in order to do a comic like this, Marvel has to...Anyway, it may work for young readers, but not for older ones.  There is one thing from the comic I really enjoyed, and that was Ty Templeton's Daily Bugle Funnies, parodies of actual comic strips with Marvel characters: the Spider-Man Peanuts, the Thor Hagar the Horrible, the Peter Parker Dilbert, the Ant-Man Little Orphan Annie (which was the oddest creative choice, not because of Ant-Man but because of...Little Orphan Annie???).  Templeton has done these before, and will in all likelihood do them again, and the irony of it is that I know him from...comics versions of DC animation. 

Anyway, this example isn't from this comic, but here it is anyway:


(reproduced "large," which will hopefully satisfy Bill Watterson)

Sunday Marvel Sunday "Marvel Comics Presents #1 (2019)"

 

Marvel Comics Presents #1

Hurm.  Blogger's not letting me customize image placement like normal.  And Google was no help in finding the blue-border variant cover I had.  Well.

I think I bought my first copy of this at a mall about a year ago.  I got this one in one of the Walmart three-packs, of course.  I didn't necessarily mind buying, or reading, it again, as it contains a nifty Namor story.

This is significant in that Marvel, inexplicably, hardly ever actually does Namor stories.  It's bizarre, since Namor is a great character, and he's also one of Marvel's oldest.  As a DC guy, this is one of the most obvious differences between the companies.  Even if DC used Namor like the Justice Society or the Spectre or Phantom Stranger, he'd still, at this point, have a far bigger and greater legacy behind him.  And yet, at Marvel, he receives minimal attention, year after year, decade after decade.

Marvel will probably tell you that it's because, from its perspective, he's kind of...a villain.  He's kind of Marvel's Black Adam.  But he doesn't even, or was never given, a heroic counterpart.  This is equally ridiculous.  But even without one, he could very easily have been drafted into, I don't know, X-Men comics.  Which of course never happened.  At DC, meanwhile, of course there's Aquaman, and you'd maybe think that over the years someone at Marvel might glance over and see what a huge legacy even the guy routinely lampooned for "talking to fish" has, and say, "Maybe we can do something?"

But.  No.

Even when there's great examples, like this (in this instance, contributed by Greg Pak, who was also the guy to finally break Hulk free from a storied but useless legacy, by the way), in which Namor is confronted by WWII, and the US government's big secret, the atomic bomb.  Pak has Namor turning his back on the surface world because of it.  It's a pitch-perfect story, and even makes Namor's traditional outlook perfectly rational. 

And yet...Look, this is one of those things I'd do my damnest to correct, given half a chance.  I just don't understand wasting such potential.

Sunday Marvel Sunday "Infinity Wars: Iron Hammer #1"

Infinity Wars: Iron Hammer #1

Marvel didn't completely ignore the MCU (besides the many Guardians of the Galaxy comics that conspicuously populated after the movie's smash success).  There was also Infinity Wars.

Technically, revisiting the Infinity Gauntlet saga has been continuing for years, thanks in large part to Jim Starlin, although just as technically, fans have never been all that interested in Starlin's follow-ups.  Infinity Wars, which happened to coincide with the MCU finally, finally getting back to Thanos, collecting all those Infinity Stones, is exactly what you might expect: another story about the Infinity Stones, who has them, what they're doing with them.

Turns out, turning Marvel into its own Amalgam Comics.  Amalgam was the result of the landmark DC Versus Marvel (or, Marvel Versus DC) that happened in the '90s, in which, temporarily, in a series of one-shots (and then a second series of one-shots), DC and Marvel superheroes were mashed together.  I guess it's not surprising that the whole thing came and went and has left no real impact (aside from quibbles about who should've fought who, and who should've won, which I will not get into here), since it would require both companies to continue to agree on republishing the results, and that's not likely to happen.  Marvel, in collected edition, lives in a virtually perpetual present while DC loves revisiting its past.  (Of course, half of what made Marvel such a fan favorite phenomenon was that reboots never happened.  Then of course they started happening.  All.  The.  Time.  So that, even if technically everything still happened, it really no longer matters.  The only property with a semblance of real continuity at this point is the X-Men.)

Anyway, so as you might guess, this "Infinity Warp" mashes Iron Man with Thor.

The results are decent.  The writer is Al Ewing, who is definitely one of Marvel's best assets at the moment, so that certainly helps.  And it helps that he doesn't go too on-the-nose, which is what Thor comics tend to do, leaning far too heavily on the archaic language Thor tends to use for...reasons, and not having any real clue what to do with the mythology (but then, even Neil Gaiman didn't know what to do with Norse mythology when he literally wrote Norse Mythology, a striking contrast to how he used it in The Sandman).

Sunday Marvel Sunday "Tony Stark: Iron Man #12"

Tony Stark: Iron Man #12

Wow, that was a lot more difficult than it should have been.

I'm talking about finding an image of the cover on Google, which turns out to be a Walmart-exclusive variant (I found one with the title logo in blue, but apparently only Walmart had it in, y'know, Iron Man colors).

It should be noted that all these Sunday Marvel Sunday comics were originally obtained via Walmart three-packs.

Anyway.

Marvel continues to know what the hell to do with Iron Man.  Perversely, the company seems committed to screwing with the character in every way possible.  This has been going on in ridiculous fashion since the '90s, when Tony Stark was, inexplicably, a teenager for a while.  This was okay, in the '90s, if it was Ray Palmer, because even in the '90s Ray Palmer (the teenage thing was thanks to Zero Hour, in case you were wondering, and was featured in Dan Jurgens' Teen Titans) was not really a significant character (he had his heyday in the '70s, I think, in a partnership with Hawkman).  This is not to say The Atom is not a great character.  But very few writers seem interested in him.  I mean, even Ant-Man, with one of the worst publication histories of any major character, now has his own movies.  Ray Palmer in the Arrowverse is basically Iron Man, with shrinking powers.  Played by Superman.

Okay.  I kind of got sidetracked.  Anyway, this rant about how ridiculous Iron Man comics have been of course ties in with the fact that Iron Man has literally been the most significant superhero of the past decade, because of, y'know, the MCU.  And Marvel figured it was okay to exploit this opportunity.  To continue making terrible Iron Man comics.

Iron Man's dad, in the comics, isn't even Howard Stark, by the way.  Multiple writers affirmed that some convoluted adoption nonsense was the new status quo.  And Tony died.  And came back.  And died.  And as of this comic?  Is kind of dead.  And alive.  At the same time. 

Somehow the idea that Tony's a tech genius has gotten widely out of control.  In comics, being a tech genius is futurism, not smartphones.  Tony operates on such an advanced level (and yet, as with his armor, still doesn't...technically share it with everyday peons. despite running a massive business. somehow) he beggars all imagination. 

Part of this is superhero comics as they now exist, almost totally divorced from the real world.  This issue, by the way, is a tie-in with War of the Realms, just another cosmic story in adventures that no longer have anything to do with problems any of us is likely to ever experience outside of, well, a comic book, or another MCU flick.  It's particularly egregious when Marvel does it because this is supposed to be the company that's painfully reflective of everyday struggles.  And yeah, by token references to Tony's alcoholic past, it is.  Pretty much.  His new body has the same history as his old body (just don't even ask). 

Never mind that Marvel is once again replacing Tony as Iron Man, by the way.  Forget that DC may have just fired Dan DiDio because it had second thoughts about a Marvel-like attempt to line-wide replace the icons, again. 

Forget that this was a golden opportunity, with Tony's death in the movies, to remind any interested fans, that Tony's adventures continue well past Robert Downey, Jr. in the comics.  Maybe.  Probably.  Sometimes.  Unless they can help it.

Anyway, it doesn't matter who's writing Iron Man.  Bendis did it for a while, and he actually was kind of more interested in Doctor Doom.  Or Mary Jane.  Or Riri Williams.  This issue it's Gail Simone, the writer most likely to not really conceive of anything outside of comic book logic.  Unless it offends her.  And gives her a career. 

Anyway, I'm noticing that Thought Bubble Comics really only has a readership of one these days (thanks, Pat!), so it really doesn't matter what I say.  Some of these are going to be rants, and some are actually going to have nice things to say about Marvel.  But most of them will be rants.  Coming at you weekly!