Quarter Bin 77 "Avengers West Coast #56, The 'Nam, and other early '90s Marvel comics"

The following comics were not literally found in a quarter bin.  This is a back issues feature.

Avengers West Coast #56 (Marvel)
From March 1990.
This one, apparently, is home to a fairly controversial moment in comics history.  (Read about it here.)  The Scarlet Witch has gone off on one of her periodic turns to evil, and in the process does...something...to Wonder Man.  Writer/artist (and comic book legend and frequent love-him-or-hate-him contender) John Byrne leaves what exactly she does up to the imagination.  I knew something was odd about the scene from the start.  I mean, it's designed to be read into, something that probably wouldn't even happen today, because the increasing absence of any kind of Comics Code rating means literally anything goes.  Well, maybe not in a Marvel series. 

It's hard to know what to make of it.  Fan controversies in comics tend to dwell on what makes women in comics look weak, whether what happens to them or how they're presented physically.  Yet sometimes it really comes down to how they're written.  Is there is a male superhero at Marvel who has been written this poorly this consistently?  (Allan Heinberg's Young Avengers, and its sequel Avengers: The Children's Crusade, is a notable exception.)  Poor, poor Scarlet Witch.  I know I'm supposed to be focusing on what happens to Wonder Man (such an awkward name), but I just can't.  I don't put the blame on John Byrne at all.  Including House of M and a host of other events I don't know about (the character and her brother Quicksilver were introduced as villains, and for some reason as the offspring of Magneto, a fact that's as conveniently overlooked as it's featured, whatever works at the time), there's just no other character like Scarlet Witch in comics.

Avengers West Coast #78, 84 (Marvel)
From January, July 1992.
These later issues are written, or co-written, by Marvel stalwart Roy Thomas, and both feature Marvel's obsession at the time with the movies.  (Hopefully 2016 Marvel is most pleased.)  Wonder Man, having apparently emerged relatively unscathed from his ordeal (whatever it was), is making movies with bad guys.  (It totally makes sense.)  Well, anyway, also featured is Spider-Woman, the Julia Carpenter version, who in both issues is deep into melodrama concerning her private life, the ex-husband and child she has to balance.  These are characteristic elements of the era, including the popular New Titans over at DC, something both the Titans and the X-Men picked up and expanded on in the '80s from the '60s Marvel template.  The second issue features her whole origin and adventures recapped, and also Spider-Man, since he was insanely big at the time thanks to Todd McFarlane's then-recent work with the character.  It's hard to believe that the rest of this decade would become known as a creative wasteland for Spider-Man because of the hugely-prolonged Clone Saga.  But then, the Image exodus of all Marvel's top artists sent everyone scrambling to find new directions.  If not clones then what, right? 

Or something...It was also Spidey's 30th anniversary.  In fact, it was the thirtieth anniversary for most of the Marvel Age.  Strange to think, right?  When a reader said they were life-long fans, they literally could have read everything, fairly easily, and Marvel at that time was still heavily trading on continuing continuity, no matter how confusing it could get (see Scarlet Witch).  So I guess...it only figures.

The Incredible Hulk #395 (Marvel)
From July 1992.
I used to be a big Peter David fan.  This was during the '90s.  He was my favorite writer of Star Trek novels.  But that status didn't last past the '90s.  I mean, I started to wise up to just what kind of writer he was.  This is a guy who's the quintessential fan's writer.  He exists in fan logic.  To him, writing the Hulk as he does in this period makes perfect sense.  The Hulk as Vegas muscle.  It just doesn't make any sense.  I don't care to research how he made Hulk capable of stringing intelligent thoughts together.  Historically, that just isn't the case.  But since this was in the thick of the definitely-part-of-continuing-continuity era, it made sense somehow.  Except to someone who doesn't know how, it really doesn't.  Fan logic.  A story that only makes sense to fans is fan logic.  And this is the worst kind.  It could literally be about anyone.  Artist Dale Keown went on to create another Big Giant Comic Book Character, Pitt.  I mean, it only makes sense.  Because at this point, Peter David was writing Big Giant Comic Book Character, not the Hulk.  It's not cool, maybe, to be ragging on Peter David in 2016, because the dude has been dealing with health issues in recent years.  But the fact remains, while I wish the guy well, I also wish...he were a better writer.

The 'Nam #34, 72 (Marvel)
From September 1989, September 1992.
One of the few non-genre books I know of from Marvel is The 'Nam, a comic about the Vietnam War.  That's about all I knew about it for years.  I used to see it in Marvel's solicitations back in the day, but that's literally all I ever knew about it, that it...was a comic about the Vietnam War.  So when I saw the particular bargain collections these comics came from, I knew I had to find out, at last.  Turns out...they're not particularly good comics.  I mean, they're clearly meant for people with more direct experience with the war, and so I guess it was only appropriate, given that it was launched about a decade after U.S. troops withdrew.  Popular culture today pretty much has solidified the counterculture reaction to it as the mainstream opinion of it, but there persists outlets that attempt to give a more human face to the war.  That's basically what The 'Nam is, or what it set out to be.  I just don't think the talent was there to execute it.  Maybe it's a hasty assumption based on two issues, or maybe its general lack of reputation has already made that judgment, and I just confirmed it for myself.  The second issue features a letters column detailing appearances by Frank Castle, A.K.A. Punisher, who was huge at that time.  I mean, he almost single-handedly led the charge of the more violent action from that era, was the cool character to follow...and who couldn't last long enough to make two later big screen adaptions even semblances of hits.  Apparently the final two issues, printed only in a later collection, also feature him.  Maybe the writers could have saved themselves the trouble and used him to tell the whole story.  Or someone could do that in a series revival...

Nomad #2 (Marvel)
From December 1990.
One of the characters in this issue spends her time researching the history of Jack Monroe, the second Bucky (Captain America's sidekick).  It reads, today, like a template for what Ed Brubaker would do later, much more successfully, with the first Bucky, James Barnes.  That's the most that can be said about this issue.  It's kind of sad that Jack ended up being so easy to dispose of later.  Ironically, it's Brubaker, in his Bucky revival, who kills of the character.

Classic X-Men #45 (Marvel)
From March 1990.
A reprint of Uncanny X-Men #139, this issue features the long-awaited follow-up to Wolverine's first appearance from Incredible Hulk #181, which means his return to Canada ("Logan!") and the set-up for a rematch with the Wendigo (who definitely remained an iconic foe).  Poor Kitty Pryde is apparently saddled with the superhero name Sprite in the story, although the latter Shadowcat isn't really that much better.  For a bit of context, this takes place just a few issues after "The Dark Phoenix Saga," one of the most iconic X-Men stories ever, and a few issues before "Days of the Future Past," perhaps the most iconic X-Men story ever (disappointingly to modern readers, only a few issues long).  And to put it in further context, the Chris Claremont era began with Uncanny X-Men #94.  Uncanny X-Men #139 was originally published in 1980, five years after Giant-Size X-Men, where it kicked off.  I know Claremont better from Sovereign Seven, which fans soured on, much like a lot of his later work, but I liked quite a bit.  It's better than this particular X-Men issue.

Quarter Bin #49 "From An Actual Quarter Bin, Part 3"

Comics featured in this column are not always actually from a quarter bin.  However, this is a rare occasion where they were, courtesy of a grand opening/preview sale for the second location of Escape Velocity in Colorado Springs earlier this year.

Blackhawks #1 & 2 (DC)
From November and December 2011:
One of the titles I was most looking forward to in the fall 2011 DC relaunch was Blackhawks, not because I have a particular affinity for beachfront property the classic Blackhawk concept but that it was being written by Mike Costa, who has earned my eternal respect for his Cobra comics over at IDW.  Those are some of the best things I've ever read in this format, and I'm continually surprised that their genius still hasn't been embraced by even a cult audience at this point.  They continue to be published because IDW itself has realized what it has, like Red 5's devotion to Atomic Robo.  (Seriously, people, Atomic Robo is fantastic.)  Yet I opted out of reading Blackhawks at the time based on an accurate and yet unfair snap assessment that it didn't properly evoke my Cobra memories.  The series was based less on the aforesaid classic Blackhawk (like a superhero version of the formative Air Force) and more a DC version of G.I. Joe.  Costa's Cobra (recently relaunched as The Cobra Files, for the record) is basically the antithesis of anything you might think about G.I. Joe.  It's all about espionage and deep character study, far less about war games.  Based on the original glances I took through its pages, Blackhawks looked like it was typical G.I. Joe war games, as if someone at DC had looked at Costa's name and only cared to see that it was associated with G.I. Joe and not what he was doing in the sandbox.  And to a certain extent, that's really what happened.  The thing is, Costa still made the most of it.  His Blackhawks are the good guys (until recently he only had token Joes in his Cobra), but in these issues (which I opted to sample based on the Collected Editions recommendation) there's a similar (if not exactly the same) focus on character rather than fairly generic action that I had expected.  Now I'm sorry I skipped reading this one.  It was quickly cancelled, and Costa was not welcomed back by DC.  Now I may even have to track down the whole collection.

Flashpoint: The Canterbury Cricket (DC)
From August 2011:
This is something I bought at the time and was forced to part with (along with many, many other treasured memories) when I sold my comic book collection last fall.  The whole reason I remain obsessed with the Canterbury Cricket is that it was the odd original creation during the Flashpoint event, and that seemed like something worth commemorating.  As his name suggests, the Cricket is British, part of the resistance movement during the Amazon/Atlantis conflict that was one of the many things happening in the background of Barry Allen's existential crisis.  He is also, as the name suggests, a giant cricket, although he used to be human.  One of the things fans of Marvel characters always say is that they're so relatably human, even the ones who don't look so human anymore like Ben Grimm a.k.a. Thing from the Fantastic Four.  And over at DC it's always been reliable that the characters who used to be human but aren't as much anymore get much better exploration, like Man-Bat, Blue Devil or even Jason Blood (the flipside of Etrigan the Demon).  Canterbury Cricket, as depicted by erstwhile editor Mike Carlin, is all about that, and what's interesting is that he views the transformation as a good thing, because he didn't like who he used to be.  It's a lot like Spider-Man but without the Great Guilt Trip.  I'd love for this character to appear again.

Flashpoint: Abin Sur - The Green Lantern #3 (DC)
From October 2011:
With the release of the woebegone Green Lantern movie in 2011, there was a good amount of bonus releases featuring characters from the franchise that year.  One of the things I loved about Flashpoint was that it found ample space to share this love, including several spin-off mini-series including this one featuring Hal Jordan's predecessor.  Abin Sur is one of the great characters in fiction who is technically dead the moment he becomes relevant.  He also had a comeback in Brightest Day, which ended at the end of the old continuity, otherwise he might have been the ultimate recipient of the fabled white ring of spectrum power.  He had another shot here.  Maybe I'm mixing up the stories now, but he ends the issue with a white ring here, too.  Throughout much of it he's also battling his doomed persona thanks to Sinestro.  In the lore Abin and Sinestro were actually pals.  Sinestro was in love with Abin's sister.  Like Canterbury Cricket I think there's ongoing potential in exploring Abin Sur's story.  It seems somehow wrong that with Green Lantern we not only get thousands of potential characters to follow but also a rich history that has barely been scratched.  You could go worse than to spend a little more time with Abin Sur.

Flashpoint: The Outsider #3 (DC)
From October 2011:
Technically the lead character in this one is in the title, another of the rogue genius manipulators who populate a lot of comics.  But this issue also features the Flashpoint version of Martian Manhunter.  Martian Manhunter is always fascinating.  His origins are unique and his relationship to humans is equally unique.  He's the real outsider here.  But what's perhaps more fascinating about the issue, written by James Robinson, is that it strongly evokes 52, the sensational experiment that proved weekly comics were possible in the modern era.  It weaves Black Adam into the story, more as a reference than a character, but that's enough.  I didn't get a chance to read most of the Flashpoint spin-offs (something I hope to rectify at some point), and this was in fact my first experience with this one.  It was a good issue to catch.

Flashpoint #5 (DC)
From October 2011:
I read the complete Flashpoint mini-series itself in 2011, and it was a highlight of my year, a year I was trying to quit comics.  It was a very good very bad thing to happen.  It was brilliant.  Geoff Johns had brought Barry Allen back in The Flash: Rebirth, and then spent about a year in the subsequent ongoing series before launching this event based entirely around him.  It was a little disappointing for some fans to think he'd be walking away after it (Geoff spent half a decade writing the Wally West version of The Flash), but he'd already accomplished the unthinkable.  Barry Allen's previous highlight was dying in Crisis On Infinite Earths.  He was made into the central character when Marv Wolfman wrote a prose adaptation of his own story.  It was Mark Waid who pushed the franchise into a more central position, but it was Flashpoint that made it possible for everything to pivot around the Scarlet Speedster.  Geoff envisioned the ultimate conflict between Barry and his nemesis Eobard Thawne, Professor Zoom.  Thawne tricked Barry into changing history and affecting an entire alternate reality.  Another of the side stories in the world of Flashpoint was that Thomas Wayne never died and it was him who became Batman.  This final issue makes this particular element so much more poignant when Barry has managed to correct the timeline, but with a message from Thomas to his son Bruce.  An animated movie based on Flashpoint is due to be released in July, and there has been some criticism (possibly only among Flash fans) that the Batman element has been retained as a key element.  It really should be.

Sovereign Seven #1 (DC)
From July 1995:
I read the complete Sovereign Seven as it was originally released in the '90s (fun fact! Power Girl eventually became a replacement member of the team).  It was a big sensation at the start, mostly because Chris Claremont was the writer.  Claremont made his name making the X-Men into legitimate icons in the '80s (the upcoming Days of the Future Past movie is based on one of Claremont's best stories, as was the Jean Grey/Phoenix arc from the second and third films).  He was a genius at team dynamics and mythology.  That's what Sovereign Seven was all about.  Each of the members from this team were exiled royalty from alien worlds.  The result was more fantasy than superheroics.  I suspect this may have been one of the reasons fans became disillusioned.  Maybe another was that it was difficult to tell how this creator-owned series related to the rest of the DC landscape.  Ham-fisted attempts at better integration (hence Power Girl) were made later, but by then it was too late.  Please note to creators of new characters in a shared universe: it's never a good thing to be isolated, and it's never enough to have cameo appearances in your own book.  You need to appear elsewhere.  You need to be accepted into the family in the family.  It might seem scary to lend your shiny new character to someone else so soon, but that's where the real strength of the concept shines.  Claremont further annoyed fans by ending the series by apparently suggesting his characters were fictional in their own world, too.  I think there's still room for a serious revival, and Claremont need not necessarily be involved.  Although it would be far less likely to happen without him.

Vertigo Preview (DC)
From 1992:
This was the most sensational discovery for me, the vintage preview book for the launch of DC's Vertigo imprint.  The flavor of what was to come had already begun in Neil Gaiman's Sandman and other projects, but this was the dawn of a whole new era.  There's an introduction from recently departed iconic Vertigo editor Karen Berger to kick off the festivities.  Then previews of all the books of the official freshmen class.  First off is Gaiman's own Death: The High Cost of Living, spinning off from Sandman.  Death is the ultimate Goth Chick, even better than the real thing.  Peter Milligan, long associated with Vertigo and another of the writers of the '80s British Invasion, is represented with Enigma.  The reliable J.M. DeMatteis is present with Mercy.  Anne Nocenti, one of the longest-tenured women in comics, has Kid Eternity.  Grant Morrison, of course, must be here too, and it's with Sebastian O, though he'd win much greater Vertigo acclaim with The Invisibles, in some ways his magnum opus.  Black Orchid is featured with Dick Foreman and Jill Thompson.  Animal Man, which Morrison had helped shape into the Vertigo groove, is here with Jamie Delano.  Doom Patrol, also shaped by Morrison into the proper configuration, is here with Rachel Pollack (Pollack and Delano and Milligan were all reliable Vertigo staples in the early days).  John Constantine, Hellblazer, is written by Garth Ennis with art from frequent collaborator Steve Dillon.  Ennis would stake his Vertigo fame with Preacher years later.  Milligan also has Shade the Changing Man.  Nancy Collins has Swamp Thing (in its '80s Alan Moore incarnation perhaps the prototypical of all prototypical Vertigo, besides '70s horror comics like House of Mystery).  Of course the coup de grace for this whole preview is an exclusive (i.e. original) Sandman tale from Gaiman, which is pretty much exactly Gaiman giving his pressing and introduction to the whole venture.  Pretty awesome.

X-Men 2099 #1 (Marvel)
From October 1993:
In the brief period where my brothers were the ones in the family who read comics (they were both older than me), they read Star Wars and X-Men and Batman comics.  They caught the 1992 bestselling X-Men relaunch.  I got to read a lot of "Knightfall" because they did.  One of them got the complete collection of the original zero issues from Zero Hour.  And then they stopped and scoffed at the whole thing, much like they did their appreciation of Hootie and the Blowfish.  I remained fans of both comics and Hootie.  A lousy psychiatrist would say I did that because I spend my life trying to catch up to my brothers.  I prefer to believe it's because I still appreciate these things.  Sometimes when someone believes they've outgrown something, they just never go back.  That's just how it is.  The discovery I most appreciate from my brothers is X-Men 2099.  The whole 2099 line was a brief experiment to revamp the Marvel landscape with new incarnations set in the future.  People still talk about Spider-Man 2099 (well, sometimes), but to my mind the money remains with X-Men 2099.  My perennial problem with X-Men comics in general is the same I have with all Marvel comics: they only pay lip service to the conflicts at the heart of their concepts.  X-Men 2099 is everything a mutant fan ought to love.  None of the faces are familiar but they're all engaged in the same tragic struggle you love from all the ones you do know.  Like the rogue members who began populating the comics you remember (Wolverine, Storm...Rogue), these guys were all outsiders even to each other.  Someday, much like my Flashpoint ambition, I hope to read the complete X-Men 2099.