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).