Quarter Bin #43 "Brother's Blitz, Part 1"

Disclaimer: Comics featured in this column do not necessarily come from a quarter bin.  The ones in the "Brother's Blitz" series, however, in all likelihood were got for a good price.  The following are the contents of several boxes given to me as presents more than a decade ago, which I did not read until recently.

The A-Team #1 (Marvel)
From March 1984:
Better to watch the Joe Carnahan film than bother with this comic book, fool!

The Adventures of Superman #450 (DC)
From January 1989,
The Adventures of Superman #452
From March 1989:
From Jerry Ordway (#450) and Dan Jurgens (#452), two creators who defined Superman in the '90s had their start following the famous John Byrne Man of Steel reboot.  These were the comics that fans at the time of Superman's death in 1992 were familiar with, an exile from Earth that would lead to Mongul (well, you'll see).

Aquaman #2 of 4 (DC)
From March 1986:
In this attempt at making Aquaman relevant, he sports a blue version of the red costume Aqualad would sport years later as Tempest.  The writer is legend Neal Pozner.

Avengelyne #1 (Maximum Press)
From May 1995,
Avengelyne #2
From June 1995:
Some genuine '90s artifacts here, complete with a gimmick cover and a bad girl and one of Rob Liefeld's attempts to have his own comics publisher.  That's pretty much it.

Batman Chronicles: The Gauntlet (DC)
From 1997:
I remember this being one of the few comics I was excited to find in those boxes when I originally got them, because 1) it was something I would have gotten by my own druthers, and 2) it's a Robin story.  More importantly, it's a Year One Dick Grayson story, his initiation as the Boy Wonder.  It's one of those prestige format one-shots, which is another thing that was big in the '90s, something I wish DC was still doing.

Cable #39 (Marvel)
From January 1997,
Cable #44 (Marvel)
From June 1997:
I think one of the reasons that Cable is close to a nonentity these days is that he was so closely associated with the '90s X-Men.  If you were to look at the art for these issues, you'd know exactly what I'm talking about.  I don't know what the X-Men editors were thinking, but at least we got Age of Apocalypse, which lives again today.  That's worth remembering.  The actual X-Men books from the time, including Cable's adventures, aren't so much.

Conspiracy #2 (Marvel)
From February 1998:
If you use the "Conspiracy" tag you'll see what resulted from my second read of this issue.  You may remember that I loved this comic so much that I tracked down the first issue.  In some ways, I shouldn't have bothered.  This one's the money shot.  From Dan Abnett, who usually writes with Andy Lanning, comes a a fable about the interconnectedness of classic Marvel origin stories, something the Avengers film franchise has embraced in earnest, making this something of a lost treasure and ancestor text to one of the highest grossing movies in history.  I still wholeheartedly endorse this one.  Dig up the dirt for yourself.

Crimson Dawn - Pyslocke & Archangel #3 (Marvel)
From October 1997:
Uh-oh!  Another "classic" '90s X-Men story!

The Crow: Wild Justice #1 of 3 (Kitchen Sink)
From October 1996,
The Crow: Wild Justice #3 of 3 (Kitchen Sink)
From December 1996:
In pop culture, The Crow is better known from the Brandon Lee film than from the comics, but that's where the character came from.  It's a little surprising that although everyone and their mother attempted to exploit The Crow after the notoriety of the film (Lee infamously died on the set) through various screen spinoffs of increasingly dubious quality, the comics were mostly left in the dust.  This was one of the efforts, and is probably more interesting than all the movies and TV shows put together, reads like an exceptional indy comic from today, and even features art from Charlie Adlard, artist of The Walking Dead.  That makes two things about this entry that bears remembering.

Damned #1 (Homage)
From June 1997,
Damned #2
From July 1997:
Pretty generic for a '90s comic, indy or otherwise.  That's all you need to know.

Daydreamers #3 (Marvel)
From October 1997:
Features work from J.M. DeMatteis and Todd Dezago, but also starring such luminaries as Franklin Richards (the Fantastic son only recently developed past embarrassing by Jonathan Hickman) and Howard the Duck.  Akin to Impulse (Mark Waid's brilliant spinoff from The Flash featuring young Bart Allen, who would one day officially adopt Kid Flash as his moniker) in its final, uninspired days.

DV8 #11 (Image)
September 1997:
Remember when Gen13 was huge?  Well, there was a time when they were.  This was a spinoff, a darker version.

Elfquest: Blood of Ten Chiefs #2 (Warp Graphics)
From September 1993:
Elfquest was kind of a huge fantasy franchise.  It's not anymore.

The Flash #17 (DC)
From October 1988:
Before Mark Waid, Wally West languished for years.  This is nothing against William Messner-Loebs or Greg LaRocque, but anything before Waid's debut some forty issues later can be skipped.

G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero #17 (Marvel)
From November 1983,
G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero #33
From March 1984,
G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero #44
From February 1985,
G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero #60
From June 1986,
G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero #64
From October 1986,
G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero #66
From December 1986,
G.I. Joe Yearbook #2
From March 1986,
G.I Joe: Special Missions #1
From October 1986:
So!  A whole bunch of G.I. Joe comics!  The most notable issue from this bunch is #33, which features young Billy's attempted assassination of his father, Cobra Commander, a pivotal moment in franchise lore.  Writer Larry Hama got to continue this series with IDW, but including these issues I've never really read a good G.I. Joe comic other than Action Force (which was a Canadian reprint series I guess I got all the good issues from), DDP's America's Elite, and IDW's Cobra.  Especially the last one.  Special Missions #1 was a special treat to find, though.  For years I only knew it from some G.I. Joe trading cards, so it was nice to finally see in person.  Reading, not so special.

Generation X #1 (Marvel)
From November 1994,
Generation X #3
From January 1995,
Generation X #4
From February 1995,
Generation X #6
From August 1995,
Generation X #30
From September 1997:
The forgotten X-Men legacy of the '90s is actually Generation X, a new class of mutants led by Jubilee (no doubt still riding the fame of the classic cartoon in which she was a prominent character) takes the lead.  The whole basis of my interest in Scott Lobdell's major inclusion in the New 52 was because of reading these issues.  It's truly good stuff, and his recent work on Red Hood and the Outlaws has been comparable.  I don't get why Marvel has since buried this stuff.  The last issue is actually written by James Robinson!

Genesis #3 (DC)
From October 1997:
One of DC's patented annual crossover events from the '90s, from John Byrne and heavily featuring Jack Kirby's Fourth World (the New Gods), which Byrne was handling on a monthly basis at the time (highly recommended for fans).  Some might consider it a poor substitute for its '80s predecessor, Legends, but I've always had a soft spot for it.  When done properly, the Fourth World has few equals.

Green Arrow #4 of 4 (DC)
From August 1983:
There was a time when Green Arrow didn't have a monthly series.  This was one of the steps that helped change that.  Otherwise not terribly notable.

Green Lantern #194 (DC)
From November 1985,
Green Lantern #195
From December 1985:
Current fans may be forgiven to believe that John Stewart, Guy Gardner, and Hal Jordan somehow always juggled representing Earth in the Green Lantern Corps.  These issues can help alleviate the confusion.  Jordan is on a break from the Corps, Stewart is the ringbearer, Crisis on Infinite Earths is happening, and Gardner is finagling his way back into the fold.  There's a bumpy ride from this point, too!  Green Lantern becomes Green Lantern Corps, is cancelled; Green Lantern is relaunched, Jordan returns; Gardner discovers his yellow ring, becomes Warrior; Stewart joins the Darkstars; Jordan goes crazy; Kyle Rayner becomes the last Green Lantern; Jordan redeems himself, comes back; Corps is reignited; all four humans become regular, simultaneous members!

Journey into Mystery #514 (Marvel)
From November 1997:
The series that launched Thor staged a comeback in the '90s (why not?), returned to its anthology roots.  This issue features Shang-Chi, Marvel's Bruce Lee.

Justice Society: America vs. the Justice Society #4 of 4 (DC)
From April 1985:
I don't know for certain (though I could easily look it up), but this is likely the last appearance of the venerated team before the '90s, featuring Roy Thomas explaining how the team came to an end (at the time), including the famed House Un-Americans Committee showdown.

Legends #1 of 6 (DC)
From November 1986,
Legends #2
From December 1986:
Ah!  Well remember Genesis from a few comics ago?  This is what I was referring to, and as it happens also the inspiration for the arc from Smallville's final season concerning Darkseid and various cronies attempting to discredit superheroes.  The all-star collaborators for this event included John Ostrander, Len Wein, John Byrne (surprise!), and Karl Kesel.

Legion of Super-Heroes #11 (DC)
From June 1985,
Legion of Super-Heroes #25
From August 1986,
Legionnaires #29
From September 1995:
The Legion has been a staple at DC for decades, partly because of its ties to Superboy (the version that was simply a young Superman), and also because along with New Teen Titans, it was a verifiable bestseller in the '80s.  Much of what fans know about the Legion today, however, was established in the '90s, when it supported two ongoing series, as it does today.  (Don't worry, I've got more Legion coming up!)

Machine Man #3 of 4 (Marvel)
From December 1984:
The character was pretty interesting in Earth X.  Not so much here.  Written by Tom DeFalco.

Ms Mystic #1 (Continuity)
From October 1987:
From legend Neal Adams, so pretty interesting.

The New Mutants #63 (Marvel)
From May 1988:
Generation X this is not.  Still, from Chris Claremont (who owned the X-Men franchise for years) and Louis Simonson (who owned Superman: The Man of Steel for years).

ROM #24 (Marvel)
From November 1981,
ROM #37
From December 1982:
Marvel has tried a long time to make its space-faring stories interesting.  This was one of those efforts.  Note I did not say "success."

Sensei #4 (First)
From December 1989:
Not much to look at here.  Move along.

Shi: Senryaku #1 of 3 (Crusade)
From August 1995:
Assuming you're still reading, you now get a huge reward!  The anti-bad girl created by William Tucci was only big during the...same time the bad girls were popular.  She's the star of this comic, naturally, but the true significance of this issue is that it inspired much of what I did with the manuscript for Yoshimi, my fourth completed manuscript.  Tucci includes the classic 36 Stratagems of war, which I subsequently incorporated into Yoshimi, much as he does here.  Yes, I stole from Bill Tucci.  I hoping he'll be flattered.  Yoshimi is not the only reason I would easily consider this one of the best comics I've ever read.  Score another point for the Brother's Blitz!

Shi #3 (Crusade)
From October 1997:
I've got nothing much to say about this one, however.

Silver Surfer #18 (Marvel)
From December 1988:
See my comments on ROM above.  Features art from Ron Lim!

Sovereign Seven #30 (DC)
From January 1998:
After a hot debut, interest in this series quickly cooled, though I was an avid fan all the way through.  Chris Claremont's great original creation, survivors of alien worlds band together and eventually add Power Girl to their ranks (in the interest of attempting to reclaim a mainstream audience, because otherwise it doesn't make too much sense).  Features art from Ron Lim!

Spectacular Spider-man #-1 (Marvel)
From July 1997:
Usually gimmick issues were a DC thing in the '90s, but this was a rare opportunity for Marvel to get in on the action, "Flashback" stories (hence the negative number count).  This one's written by J.M. DeMatteis (there he is again!) and features a young Peter Parker's struggles with "Flash" Thompson.  The reader gets to see the human side of a classic comics bully!

Star Trek #16 (DC)
From July 1985,
Star Trek #36
From March 1987:
That's an Andorian on the cover of #16!

Star Wars: A New Hope - The Special Edition #2 of 4 (Dark Horse)
From February 1997:
For the record, includes events from the destruction of Alderaan to the death of Ben Kenobi!  So yes, this is an adaptation of the first film, from the special edition released that year.  Some fans believe George Lucas tinkering with his own movies is blasphemous.  I find that reaction to be humorous.

Star Wars - X-Wing Rogue Squadron: Requiem for a Rogue #2 of 4 (Dark Horse)
From April 1997:
Rogue Squadron notably included Wedge Antilles.

Suicide Squad #17 (DC)
From September 1988:
When DC puts a team of villains together, there's no hiding the fact that they're villains.  Your move, Marvel.

Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes #241 (DC)
From July 1978,
Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes #242
From August 1978:
By the way, there's more Legion to come!

Superman #32 (DC)
From June 1989:
Ah!  So remember when I said Mongul was coming up?  Yeah, well I did.  Superman's quest in space leads him to the big yellow world conqueror.  The writer this time is Roger Stern, another classic '90s Superman creator.  Mongul is best known for the classic Alan Moore story "For the Man Who Has Everything," plus aligning with Cyborg Superman and breaking Hal Jordan's arm (and the whole destruction-of-Coast-City that affected Jordan just a tad more).

Superman #129 (DC)
From November 1997:
Another time capsule from the '90s, this issue features Electric Superman.  I liked these stories.  I also liked Scorn, who came from this era's version of Kandor, the bottle city from Krypton.  He was one of those monster characters that populated a lot of '90s comics, and dawned a Superman outfit at one point.  A real sweat and charming fellow.  I'd love for him not to be forgotten.  From Dan Jurgens, by the way.

Tales of the Legion of Super-Heroes #346 (DC)
From April 1987,
Tales of the Legion of Super-Heroes #347
From May 1987:
More Legion!  Not all of these were written by Paul Levitz, but Levitz has easily written more Legion stories than anyone else.  He's doing it again in the New 52!

Turok, Dinosaur Hunter #1 (Valiant)
From July 1993:
Turok is one of those characters (along with Solar, Man of the Atom) who gets relaunched every few years from different publishers.  I think he got a video game in the '90s.

Tzu the Reaper #1 (Murim)
From September 1997:
Features work from Jae Lee.  But not the right Jae Lee.

V #5 (DC)
From June 1985,
V #6
From July 1985:
If you're still wondering why they rebooted V as a TV series a few years back, it's because it was popular back in the day.  It got its own comic.  Written by legend Cary Bates.

Vampirella/Dracula: The Centennial (Harris)
From October 1997,
Vengeance of Vampirella #4
From July 1994,
Vengeance of Vampirella #16'
From July 1995:
The poster girl of the '90s bad girls.  Basically wears red dental floss for a costume.  Centennial features work from Warren Ellis, Alan Moore, Gary Frank, and James Robinson, among others.  Vengeance is written by Tom Sniegoski, who's one of the few collaborators Jeff Smith has worked with in his Bone franchise.

Wheel of Worlds #0 (Tekno)
From July 1995:
Neil Gaiman subsequently distanced himself from the project, but this debut/preview has him written all over it, and the results are completely fascinating.  What was meant to become a whole Neil Gaiman franchise for the upstart publisher (which also worked on books with Leonard Nimoy, Gene Roddenberry's estate, and others), instead sort of washed out after a while, which as I've suggested is hugely unfortunate.  If you can get your hands on this issue, you'll see what I mean.  The third big find of the Blitz!

Who's Who #9 (DC)
From January 1986:
Featuring characters from Icicle to Jonni Thunder, as well as five heroes named Johnny, the Joker, the original I Vampire, Jade, and others.  DC doesn't really do this sort of thing anymore, though the New 52 could probably use one by next year.

X-Factor #36 (Marvel)
From January 1989,
X-Factor #137
From September 1997:
Peter David has basically been writing X-Factor since 2004.  So incredibly, neither of this issues were from him.  The first one's from Louis Simonson, though!

X-Man #30 (Marvel)
From September 1997:
Well, like I said, '90s X-Men.  This "X-Man" is an alternate version of Cable.  Figures.

Quarter Bin #40 "The Mosaic Action Conspiracy of Superman"

ACTION COMICS WEEKLY #s 613-14

From August 1988:

Until 52, COUNTDOWN TO FINAL CRISIS, and TRINITY, weekly comics seemed like an experiment that was never going to happen again.  The first time was when the mother of all comic books, ACTION COMICS, was converted to a weekly anthology title toward the end of the 1980s, for less than a year, the first time in forty years it didn’t star Superman exclusively.  Until recently, I had never read any of it, but had always been intrigued.  Seeing Nightwing on the cover of #613 was what convinced me to finally have a look, in an adventure captioned as “Nightwing flies again!”  The writer is Marv Wolfman, who famously steered the course of Dick Grayson’s evolution in NEW TEEN TITANS.  For modern readers, it may be a little difficult to imagine a time when Nightwing wasn’t established as a viable solo figure, but that didn’t really happen for another seven years, when the first NIGHTWING ongoing was launched.  The weird thing about this adventure is that it co-stars Roy Harper, and is basically a Roy Harper story, featuring Cheshire, but much of the narrative thrust is driven by Dick’s thoughts about moving on from the Batcave.  The other notable story in the issues features Hal Jordan as Green Lantern, written by Peter David, explaining how his power ring actually removed all his fear from him.  David has made most of his name writing licensed novels on other people’s ideas, and he treats this story pretty much the same way he writes those, putting his own ideas that don’t necessarily configure to the established material, so that it seems like it makes sense but doesn’t.  (I used to read his Star Trek books religiously, but gradually became disillusioned, ironically while reading the early Excalibur books.  It’s highly unlikely that people go around routinely tearing off the antennas of Andorians in fights, a fact that ENTERPRISE made clear several years later.)  Among the other features are two-page entries with Superman from Roger Stern and Curt Swan.  I would suggest that Swan’s Man of Steel in these pages looks about as classical as you can get.  I’d read that layout on a weekly basis, easily.  Issue #614 features great Green Lantern cover from Mike Mignola.  Makes me wish he still did DC work.

CONSPIRACY #1 (Marvel)

From February 1998:

I raved about this Dan Abnett ditty recently, a discovery I made from a stack of comics I got a decade ago but only recently sat down to read.  I should amend that previous statement to say that I raved about the second issue, and perhaps it would have been as well to leave it at that, because the first issue is disturbingly similar, except with a beginning that in hindsight isn’t really necessary, as Abnett treats the same conspiracy theory about the disturbing shared origins of the most famous Marvel superheroes in slightly different terms, which is disappointing.  Given that CONSPIRACY was only two issues long and was soundly forgotten by everyone, including any publisher who ever knew Abnett might have written something without Andy Lanning, it’s equally disappointing to know that the brilliance I caught the first time around really might have been a fluke, and that’s why Abnett’s been writing with a partner ever since.  Still, I would say this is worth a look, but if you only have time for one issue, go with the second.  It even helps make THE AVENGERS and that whole movie franchise make sense for comic book fans.

GREEN LANTERN #17 (DC)

From October 1991

GREEN LANTERN: MOSAIC was a short-lived ongoing series between published 1992-93, and the only issue I’ve ever read is the first one, and its surreal nature has never really left my imagination.  Starring John Stewart, it was about a community of disparate alien cultures brought together on Oa as an experiment, and thus is unlike any other Green Lantern story that I know of.  I discovered that it had its origins in a story arc from GREEN LANTERN, in which John and the reader are introduced to the concept (in modern comics this would have been done back-to-back, without any awkward gap between this and the launch of the series) and John basically gets to express his frustrations with being a Green Lantern.  (I would strongly suggest that a future Green Lantern movie consider using him before Guy Gardner or Kyle Rayner, even if he has to interact with Hal Jordan and make viewers think of Tony Stark and Jim Rhodes.)  There’s few characters with enough integrity to pull off a concept like Mosaic, and John was always the only Green Lantern for the job.  These stories need to be reprinted.

SUPERMAN: THE MAN OF STEEL #121 (DC)

From February 2002

SUPERMAN: THE MAN OF STEEL #133 (DC)

From February 2003:

These are two early Superman stories from Geoff Johns, who at the time was better known for THE FLASH, AVENGERS, and JSA.  His later run on ACTION COMICS produced some of the most iconic Superman stories of the modern era, but at this point he was trying to draw out the man in the Man of Steel, like everyone else at the time convinced that Superman needed to be justified to modern readers.  The writer who famously reinvigorated the Flash’s Rogues Gallery turned to the Royal Flush Gang in the first of these issues, from the perspective of a low-rung member who manages to make Superman feel bad, in a way wounding him.  That’s as much as the Royal Flush Gang will do to him, because otherwise they’re a perennially goofy concept and unworthy of a Superman comic.  This is probably one of their finest appearances.  In the second issue, the “Lost Hearts” story arc sees the Man of Steel hiding out incognito in Hell’s Heart, reconnecting with Lana and more human conflict.  There’s also Traci 13, who would later become a recurring character in the first Jaime Reyes BLUE BEETLE ongoing.  This arc was her first appearance.

It's All A Vast Marvel Conspiracy...

Now, a few weeks ago I came out with one of those rare reviews that was actually critical of The Avengers.  I'm about to do something that will sound like a retraction.  It isn't, because my reservations remain, but now I've locked on a reason to think a little more positively about it.

It came about, it all started actually, at the start of the millennium.  (Origin story!)  I was entering college and had been forced for financial liquidity to quit reading comics (not the first and maybe not the last time), and my brother took pity on me, and on several occasions bought boxes of comics for me, which being the appreciative guy I am I didn't actually read for a very long time.  My original reasoning was that these were comics I had not personally selected and so could not possibly interest me.

Well, long story short I was an idiot.  Many years later I proved myself wrong (because of course I did not get rid of them), and the latest example of just how wrong I was came in my second reading of Conspiracy #2, from Marvel Comics.

Conspiracy looks like a book Marvel put out in the continuing giddiness over the success of Marvels, the Kurt Busiek/Alex Ross milestone that set the company's comics history in perspective (and was probably the reason Gwen Stacy's death remains relevant today).  I have never actually read Marvels, but Conspiracy is something I can really get behind.

Written by Dan Abnett (who usually works with Andy Lanning on sci-fi adventures that can appear to be fairly generic) and featuring painted art, Conspiracy is exactly what its title suggests.  I love conspiracy stories about as I scoff at actual conspiracy theories, mostly because they're more coherent, and Conspiracy attempts to weave a version of Marvel history that pretty much ties everything together.

It is surprisingly relevant to The Avengers.  That was something I admired about the film at the time that I allowed to be overshadowed by the weaknesses portrayed as strengths by everyone else dazzled by spectacle.  The movie's greatest strength is how it actually ties everything together, brilliantly, in less superficial ways than, "Hey!  Nick Fury!"  The comics, which featured all these characters either created or revived in a matter of years, were more or less done that way, with the Marvel age defined by a sense of continuity that was more shadowboxing than reality (much as these films have been), have never really approached this level of coherence, no matter how many crossover events are done.

Conspiracy is an early example for how exactly this sort of thing could be pulled off, and could only be viewed out of continuity because fans prefer to keep one version alive rather than anything else, at least as far as Marvel goes (DC is a different story, obviously).  At least until The Avengers.  I know that the Ultimates were a pointed inspiration for these films, but Conspiracy is the true father of this revolution that has now vaulted to the top of box office history.

The truth strength of the film is the mythology, as the mythology had its best showing in a forgotten masterwork.  And I wouldn't have made that connection except for a fluke of a fluke of a fluke.

But that's just how these things sometimes work.